> Brand Neo World
>  by Zennistrad
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Mirror, Mirror
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It felt weirdly nostalgic, visiting Canterlot Castle again.

The last time Sunset Shimmer had taken the time to visit her old home, it had been under decidedly more tense circumstances. She wouldn’t have even thought to visit had the Memory Stone Incident not forced her hand… or hoof, as it were. But despite Sunset’s apprehensions, Princess Celestia welcomed her back with open wings. It felt like a miracle, as if she had never left her mentor’s side at all.

And now that things had finally begun to calm down a bit, Sunset had made sure to keep in touch with Celestia, using her magical journal to write to her as well as Twilight. Naturally, when Celestia invited her to stay at Canterlot Castle, she almost jumped at the opportunity.

“So then I say to her, ‘you want how much for a paint brush!?’”

Princess Celestia smiled warmly as she sat across from Sunset at the table on the castle balcony, gently sipping from a teacup she held in her magical grip. “Oh my. I never thought art supplies would be so expensive.”

“I know, right?” Sunset continued. “She tried to pass it off as a ‘magical artifact’ or some such nonsense. Just because magic exists in the human world now, every scam artist and their mother thinks they can pass off their crap as some expensive luxury.”

“I suppose it makes sense. Humans always did have a fascination with magic, even if it was only a faerie tale to them,” said Princess Celestia. “Or so Star Swirl had told me.”

“Star Swirl?” said Sunset. “Oh yeah, he’s the one who invented the Crystal Mirror, isn’t he? I guess it makes sense he’d have visited the human world at least once.”

“Indeed,” said Celestia. “If I’m honest, I’ve always been a little jealous of his inter-planar travels. He’s visited multiple other worlds, you know.”

Sunset could feel her ears standing straight up, as if they were snapping to attention. “Wait, you mean like... parallel realities? Like a world where you and Princess Luna are evil, or something like that?”

“Oh, no, nothing like that! You’ve been reading too many comics lately, haven’t you?”

“Wha— no! They’re graphic novels, I swear!”

Celestia said nothing, but the sound of her teasing laughter was more enough to speak for her.

Sunset rolled her eyes and groaned. “Ugh, whatever. Point is, there’s other worlds besides the human world, right? What are they like?”

Celestia took another sip of her tea. “Believe me, I’d like to know just as much as you. Sadly, Star Swirl never spoke much of his travels. Though I imagine these other worlds would be quite unlike what you or I are used to.”

“Never even told you anything, huh?” said Sunset. “Didn’t even try to explain what he was up to?”

“ Well, he was my mentor,” said Celestia. “ And if there’s one thing I know about mentors, it’s that they can be rather less than straightforward.” 

Sunset raised an eyebrow. “ I wasn’t aware that was part of the job description.” ...But that certainly does explain a lot.

“Oh, you have no idea,” said Celestia with a laugh. “But that’s a story for another time. Why don’t you tell me more about what you’ve been up to in the human world? Any new friends you’ve made?”

Sunset happily answered, but not before noticing that there was a particular gleam in the Princess’s eye.

----

Much to Sunset’s disappointment, her remaining time with Princess Celestia did not last very long. The day-to-day demands of ruling Equestria had kept her as busy as ever, despite Princess Luna taking on half the responsibilities since her return. Perhaps it was because Equestria had gone through numerous major historical events in recent years, or perhaps having twice as many rulers made things twice as complicated to manage.

Either way, it meant that Celestia had far less time to speak with her than Sunset had hoped. While the Princess was busy, she made do with reading through various books within the Royal Library.

She’d almost forgotten just how expansive the library was, and how fascinating the study of magic was. The human world did have some magic now, thanks to Equestrian mana leaking through the portal, but it was a far more wild and chaotic form of magic than that which existed in her home world . Here, magic could be understood, could be studied.

And study it Sunset had, for the early years of her life were dedicated to intense magical scholarship, hoping to unlock the very secrets of the cosmos itself. She was gifted, she knew that much. And with that gift, she was certain she would accomplish great things. She could do anything, be  anything. Or so she thought.

A twinge of regret struck the center of Sunset’s chest. She didn’t like thinking too hard about her old attitude, but there was no denying that it had fundamentally shaped the path of her life forever. And in a way, if she hadn’t been so intoxicated by the promise of power, she would have never met Twilight Sparkle, or any of the other wonderful friends she had now.

It was a bittersweet thought, knowing that she had to be a horrible megalomaniac before she could become who she is now. But it was proof that a person like her could turn herself around, could become someone better. And that was worth something, at least

And as she read through the library’s myriad tomes, Sunset started to see things in them that she hadn’t seen before. Spells that she had previously dismissed for being ‘useless,’ she could now see uses for. They might not have been able to help her impose her will on the world, but they could bring joy to the hearts of others, and bring people together. It was like her eyes had been opened to an entirely new side of magic, one which she had never even considered had existed.

A spell that can make any food taste like cotton candy? Oh, Pinkie would love this.

She was so engrossed by her study, that she failed to notice how much time had passed.

“Sunset? Are you there?”

The voice of Princess Celestia crossed her ears, and Sunset removed her nose from the book it was buried in. Sure enough, Celestia was standing in the doorway, eyes gazing down upon her.

“Hm. Oh, hey Princess. Something you need?”

“It’s almost dusk, Sunset. I’m going to be lowering the sun soon. Shouldn’t you be heading back to the human world as well? You wouldn’t want to miss school.”

“It’s Spring Break. I don’t have…” Sunset let out a yawn, interrupting herself before she could finish. “…I guess I should probably head back, though. Gonna join Twilight on a cruise later this week. Human Twilight. You know what I mean.”

“Oh, my. Sounds exciting!”

“Honestly? I hope it isn’t,” said Sunset. She stood up, carefully levitating her book back onto its place the shelf. “Every time I try to do something fun lately, it turns into some magical disaster I have to fix. I just wanna relax, you know what I mean?”

“Of course, That’s perfectly reasonable,” said Celestia. “It’s only natural to want a break from all the stress every now and then.”

“Glad you understand,” said Sunset. She approached the Princess, and looked her in the eye. “So, um… I guess I should be heading off then.”

Without another word, Sunset leaned in, and pulled Celestia into a hug. The soft warmth of the Princess’s wings against her body made her shudder slightly. And when Sunset left the embrace, she could still feel that warmth lingering across her body, filling her with a sensation that she had so desperately lacked for so long.

“So I guess this is goodbye for now, huh?”

“Of course,” said Celestia. “But don’t be a stranger, you hear?”

With one final wave goodbye, Sunset parted ways with Princess Celestia. She made her way down the corridor, towards the chamber where the Crystal Mirror was kept.

Ordinarily, the artifact was only supposed to connect to the human world once every thirty moons. But thanks to Princess Twilight’s own research, the artifact had been heavily modified. By connecting it to the magic journal Sunset kept to communicate across worlds, the Mirror was able to remain active at all times.

It wasn’t until she had entered the Crystal Mirror chamber that Sunset began to realize something was amiss.

The last time Sunset had crossed worlds, the Crystal Mirror had been moved to Princess Twilight’s castle in Ponyville. She had been told, ahead of her visit to Equestria, that it had been moved back to Canterlot Castle for the sake of her convenience.

But the mirror… she now noticed that it looked markedly different from what she remembered of it. She hadn’t paid much mind to it, on her way to Equestria. Nobody really cared about shape of door frame, or the dimensions of a window. An aperture was simply a means to an end, a simple connection between point A and point B.

Now that the excitement and nostalgia of getting to visit her old home again had worn off, it was much easier to notice the discrepancies. The machinery that was hooked to the mirror looked the same, but it was no longer showing any signs of activity. No idle humming, no hisses of steam or crackle of magical static, no sign that the added modifications had any function beyond aesthetics.

More importantly, the frame of the mirror was a different color entirely. Instead of a purple horseshoe-shaped rim, it was instead a vibrant pink frame shaped vaguely like… butterfly wings?

An epiphany struck Sunset, followed immediately by a deep pang of dread.

“This… this isn’t the Crystal Mirror,” Sunset said to herself. “But it was connected to the Wondercolt statue. I… I came through here, on my way to Equestria. How?”

As her heartbeat thumped heavily in her chest, Sunset stepped forward, gazing at the strange new mirror she had somehow never noticed.

“What… is this?” said Sunset. “Did Princess Celestia have another mirror all along? And… how did she get it to connect to the human world?”

As if to answer, the mirror’s glass began to glow. It was a subtle pink shine at first, but it grew rapidly more intense, growing brighter and brighter as the portal stirred with magical power.

“W-wait! Hold on, I’m not ready! Wait—”

Sunset’s words were cut short, as her entire body was consumed in a sudden flash of light.
> Faithful Student
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Upon regaining consciousness, the first thing that Sunset Shimmer felt was the cool sensation of grass against her skin. Her head was still spinning from… something. The last thing she remembered seeing was the strange new mirror, and then a flash of light, and then… something else.

It didn’t take long for Sunset to decide on the first order of business. Namely, trying to figure out what in Tartarus had just happened. Slowly, she stood to her hooves.

The first and most obvious thing that stood out to her that they were hooves, not feet, and that she had four of them. That was already a red flag. She was supposed to have returned to the human world by now, and returned to human form. But for reasons that she couldn’t even guess, she was somehow still a pony.

The second thing that stood out to Sunset was that there was something around draped around her neck, that wasn’t there before. She looked down, and saw herself adorned with a very familiar accessory.

“Huh? My Geode of Empathy?” she said. She carefully ran her hoof across the orange gemstone, feeling its touch against her frog. “But isn’t it supposed to disappear when I’m in pony form? Like it gets absorbed into me, or something.”

…Now there’s a weird thought.

No time to dwell on that. The next order of business was to try to figure out just where she was.

She was standing in what looked to be some kind of massive garden. All around her were lush green plants and shrubberies, with cobblestone paths leading in different directions. Above, the clear night sky twinkled with a glittering web of stars, and a large waxing moon gently illuminated the earth below.

A twinge of unease struck at the back of Sunset’s mind. The night sky was not anything new to her, but something about this sky seemed… off. She didn’t know what it was, at first. But the more she looked at it, the more she realized something was very, very wrong.

Those stars… I don’t recognize them at all. They don’t look like any constellations in the human world or Equestria.

Sunset’s mind ran through an entire list of possibilities, and none of them were very good.

“Okay. Okay, don’t panic. Sure, I have no idea where I am, and I might be in another world entirely, if I can just write to Princess Twilight and explain the situation—”

Sunset reached across her shoulder to grab her saddlebags… only to be suddenly and painfully reminded that she wasn’t wearing any.

A harsh yelp escaped her throat. “The journal! I left the journal in the human world!”

As Sunset’s breathing began to quicken, she started to pace around in a circle, her hooves wearing a rut into the dirt beneath her. “Okay, okay, okay. Don’t panic. Don’t panic. Don’t panic,” she hurriedly repeated to herself. “It’s no big deal. It’s no big deal. You’ve got this, Sunset. You’ve survived in a strange new land before, you can do it again.”

The first thing to do, she concluded, was to find her bearings. It was difficult to say where she was. In the distance, she could vaguely make out the spires of a city, but under the darkness of the night it was difficult to discern anything more than that. For now, she settled on wandering the garden, hoping to find anything that could give her a clue of where she was.

Eventually, she found her way to what looked like a large, open-air marble rotunda. Large leafy vines crawled up the archways of the structure, and the center space was quite large, no doubt intended for public gatherings.

Curiously, Sunset stepped inside, and what she saw in the center of the rotunda threw her for a loop.

It was… a granite statue. But what it was a statue of, Sunset had no idea. A female figure with long hair, wearing a dress with a pragmatic, old-fashioned design that emphasized durability and ease of movement. She was roughly human in body shape, if only around four feet tall, but the ruff of fur around her neck and the shape of her ears made her distinctly squirrel-like in appearance. Sunset’s thoughts immediately turned to the beastfolk who lived in the lands south of Equestria, but something about this statue told her that she wasn’t a beastfolk. At least, not the kind that Sunset knew.

What caught her attention more, however, was the statue’s pose. Her face was twisted into a furious scowl, with her teeth fully bared. Just from her expression, she could almost hear the statue snarling in fury. Her body, meanwhile, was positioned as though it were lunging forward — her arm outstretched as though she were desperately reaching out to seize something from someone.

Sunset stepped forward, her entire body tense, yet all the same overcome with curiosity.

“What is… why would someone carve a statue like this?” she said. “And… why here?”

An idea popped into Sunset’s head. A horrible idea, one that she didn’t even want to consider. But she knew it was a possibility.

She reached out, and gently placed her front hoof on the statue.

“Unless…”

The stone around her neck suddenly flared to life, nearly blinding her with its brilliant light. Sunset’s vision went blank, and she felt the familiar sensation of seeing from eyes that weren’t her own.

----

The young Xandra’s tears fell silently as she cradled the Whoot in her arms. She had found it lying on a stray cloud on the outskirts of Faerieland, its breathing ragged and shallow, suffering from some unknown affliction. 

She hurriedly carried it to the Healing Springs, in the hopes that the Marina’s magic might be enough to nurse it back to health. But by the time she had arrived, it was already too late. The little petpet’s heart had already stopped.

But she wasn’t ready to give up. There was one faerie still who might be able to help, one with magic that might be powerful enough to reverse even death.

And so she carried the Whoot deep into the Faerie City palace, past the guards, and into the private quarters. She pushed open the door to Fyora’s bedchambers. There, the Faerie Queen was sitting on her reading chair, her pink wings scintillating under the sunlight that poured through the window. Her eyes lifted away from her book, lighting up as Xandra approached.

“Oh?” she said. “Xandra, what’s this you have here?”

“He’s dead,” Xandra choked, barely managing to hold back a sob. “Can you bring him back?”

A deep frown crossed Fyora’s face. No words came from her lips.

“Please,” Xandra begged. “He was suffering when I found him. He shouldn’t have to die like this. Can you bring him back to life?”

Fyora hesitated to answer, and when she did her voice was grave and muted. “I’m sorry, but what you’re asking of me is impossible.”

“But… but why?” said Xandra. “You’re the strongest faerie there is. Why can’t you bring him back?”

Fyora stood up from her seat, and placed a gentle hand on Xandra’s shoulder. “I know that it’s sad to see another life end. I’ve seen many people I cared for die in my lifetime. But you must understand, it’s not our place to interfere with the natural balance of the world.”

“Natural… balance?”

“Life and death are both parts of the same thing,” Fyora explained. “Without death, life as you know it couldn’t exist.”

“But… but you don’t die,” said Xandra with a sniffle. “Faeries don’t die.”

“That’s not true, I’m afraid. We may not age, but we aren’t immune to death. We still suffer sickness and injury, the same as anyone else,” said Fyora. “And besides, we Faeries have always been outsiders to this world.”

“So?”

“So it means we have a unique responsibility,” said Fyora. “With our power, everything we do has a profound impact on this world. And the strongest magic, even with good intentions, can have disastrous consequences. If we used our magic to bring back the dead, soon everyone would be asking us to return their loved ones. And if we were to bring back everyone that ever died, it would devastate the ecosystem, and life as you know it would be impossible.”

“So… you’re not gonna help him,” Xandra muttered. “That’s what you’re saying.”

“I’m sorry, my student. I wish I could. But part of wielding power is knowing when it’s best not to use it. I hope you understand.”

----

Sunset let out a gasp as she was suddenly snapped back to reality. Even more so than usual, this glimpse into another person’s memories left her dazed and disoriented.

And when Sunset finally came back to her senses, she was immediately struck dizzy again, this time by an epiphany. There was only one thing that her vision could mean.

She looked the statue straight in the eyes. Xandra. Her name was Xandra. Horror clawed its way deep into Sunset’s chest, as her mind raced towards the unavoidable conclusion.

“You… you’re alive.”

Once again, sunset’s Geode began to glow. But this time, instead of pulling Sunset into a memory, something entirely unexpected happened.

As if it was responding to the Geode’s light, a spiderweb of cracks began to appear on Xandra’s statue. A symphony crackling and popping noises echoed through the rotunda, as the cracks worked their way up, from the bottom of her feet to the top of her head.

Then, a sudden crash of shattering stone. Sunset winced as little flecks of granite were sent spraying out in all directions. She instinctively covered her eyes with a foreleg, and threw up a shield spell for good measure, protecting herself from the worst of the shrapnel.

When the noise subsided, Sunset dismissed her shield and peered out from behind her leg. There, collapsed onto her hands and knees on a pile of gravel, was Xandra. Her speckled green fur was matted and covered in granite dust, and her breathing was heavy and strained, but she otherwise appeared unharmed.

After a brief coughing fit, Xandra blinked rapidly. She moved her hand towards her face, and tentatively flexed her fingers.

“I’m… free?”
> Kindred Spirits
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Once Xandra stood up to dust herself off, it didn’t take long for her to notice who had freed her. Her eyes locked with Sunset’s, her mouth hung open as she remained frozen in place, as though she had been petrified all over again. Sunset, for that matter, could do nothing but return the expression.

Silence hung over the night air, and Sunset’s body felt so stiff that it felt like it might snap in two. Her mind searched desperately for any way to ease the tension. Unable to find any, she settled on simply introducing herself.

“Um… hey. I’m Sunset Shimmer. Nice to meet you?”

Xandra’s eyes looked over Sunset’s body, scanning her up and down. There was a curious gleam in them, though it was well-hidden beneath the bewilderment that was etched across her face.

“You’re, uh… Xandra, right?” Sunset continued. “I think I heard your name in one of your memories.”

Xandra’s eyebrows shot up. “You saw into my memories?”

Sunset winced, briefly. “Shoot, that came out badly. Um… I kind of accidentally looked into one of your memories with my Geode.” To demonstrate, she briefly ran a hoof over the gemstone adorning her neck. “I’m really sorry, I didn’t realize you were more than just a statue at the time.”

For some reason, Xandra seemed to relax just a bit, but confusion that lingered on her face grew even thicker.

“So you didn’t even know who I was, before you looked into my mind? What memory did you see?”

“Um… something about you asking a faerie of some kind to bring back some owl you found from the dead. I think she was maybe royalty? She seemed important, at least.”

Xandra’s mouth briefly opened, then closed again. “That… that was years ago. I was only a child back then,” she said. “But more importantly, you’re telling me don’t even know who Queen Fyora is. Just what sort of rock have you been living under your whole life?”

“Uh… W-well, you see…”

“And why did you free me, if you didn’t even know anything about me? Do you have any idea what you’re getting yourself into?”

“Hey, it was an accident! It was the Geode, not me!”

Xandra’s eyebrows shot up once again, and Sunset mentally kicked herself once she realized how she sounded.

“Um. N-not that I don’t think you deserve to be free!”

Xandra gave Sunset an odd glare, but the look quickly faded. “You know what, I’m not going to look a bizarrely deformed gift Uni in the mouth. Let’s just get out of here before the guards notice I’m not a garden decoration anymore.”

That specific turn of phrase gave Sunset pause. Whatever species Xandra was, she knew what a unicorn was… though Sunset had never heard of any unicorn being referred to as a ‘Uni.’ And she’d never heard anything about herself being...

“Hey! Who's deformed?” Sunset objected. “And what guards?”

The corners of Xandra’s lips pulled downwards. Her eyes dulled, the light within them smothered by a deep cloud of malaise.

“I was turned to stone for disobeying the Faerie Queen,” she said softly. “That’s all you need to know. Come on, let’s move.”

Sunset didn’t have the time to listen to her immediate suspicions, as Xandra quickly motioned for her to follow. The two took a winding path through the garden, carefully weaving through the plants and the decorations.

The two came to a fountain, and Xandra held up a hand.

“Shh!”

“Wha—”

“Behind me. Don’t make a sound.”

Sunset didn’t have the opportunity to question what was going on, as Xandra motioned for her to hide behind the fountain. The two crouched down, and following Xandra’s lead, Sunset peered around the corner.

Sure enough, on the other side of the fountain was a guard, and it was the weirdest guard Sunset had ever seen. She was an anthropomorphic cat of some kind, with baby blue fur and dressed in knightly armor, but more notable were the second set of ears on her head, attached on long stalks that jutted out of her forehead and through her helmet. Not to mention the bright pink butterfly wings on her back, which seemed to glow under the moonlight.

The sound of armored footsteps against cobblestone grew closer, and the two quietly circled around the fountain to avoid the guard’s notice, making sure that they were out of her direct line of sight. Eventually, the guard turned in another direction and walked away from the fountain.

“Alright, looks like we’re safe,” said Xandra.

“Okay, I have several questions.”

“Worry about it later. We’re almost in the clear.”

Once again Sunset’s objections were quietly hushed, as Xandra silently led her through the garden. Thankfully, no other guards showed up, as it seemed their patrols were extremely sparse — either that, or Xandra knew exactly how to avoid them.

The path took them past an opening in the garden wall, leading to a winding dirt road that led up a large hill.

The two made their ascent, and once they were a comfortable distance away from the garden, Xandra stopped. She turned to look down at the garden, now visible at the foot of the hill, and a soft breath escaped her throat. She seemed to shudder slightly as she exhaled.

“You okay there?” said Sunset.

It took a moment for Xandra to answer. Her eyes were dull, clouded by something Sunset didn’t quite recognize — but it was something that felt eerily familiar.

“I’m fine. Just…” Her words died off, and Xandra stared off into the distance, at nothing in particular. Her eyes remained fixed on the horizon, unmoving.

“Xandra?”

Xandra blinked rapidly. “Hmm? Right, sorry. I lost my train of thought.” She glanced at Sunset then back at the horizon. “Anyway, I suppose this is where we part ways. Goodbye, Sunset Shimmer.”

Before Sunset could get a word in edgewise, Xandra turned away, and began to walk further into the distance.

“Huh? Wait a second, hold on!” Sunset’s hooves pattered softly against the dirt road as she chased after Xandra. “You can’t just leave!”

“And why not?” said Xandra, not even slowing her footsteps. “I have my own problems to worry about.”

“Sure you do. But that doesn’t mean I can’t help, does it?”

Xandra stopped in her tracks, and closed her eyes. A sigh escaped her lips. “Sunset, I don’t think you understand. I’m a wanted criminal. If you come with me, I can’t guarantee your safety.”

“That’s not a problem,” said Sunset. “I can handle a bit of danger, you know.”

“No! You’re not listening! I’m telling you to stay away from me! It’s for your own good!”

The sudden shout caught Sunset immediately off-guard, sending a jolt down the length of her spine. For a split second, she could see something burning fiercely beneath Xandra’s eyes, hotter than the sun itself. Then, just as quickly as it ignited, it flickered out and vanished.

The two simply stood, regarding each other silence. The familiar deep gray cloud over Xandra’s eyes returned in full force, and this time Sunset realized exactly what it was.

She’d seen it in the human Twilight, after the events of the Friendship Games.

And for the longest time she’d seen it in herself, whenever she looked into the mirror.

“Look, Xandra,” she said. “I don’t know what it is that got you in trouble, but it couldn’t have been anything so bad that it deserved being a statue for all eternity.”

Xandra’s eyes narrowed. “You don’t know that.”

“Are you an immortal, nigh-omnipotent spirit of disharmony?”

Xandra stared blankly. “What?”

“I’ll take that as a no,” Sunset said with a grin. “And did you try to envelop a whole kingdom in permanent state of strife and chaos?”

“…Also no.”

“Then I don’t think being turned to stone is on the menu for you,” said Sunset.

There was another pause, as Xandra continued to stare blankly. “I can’t help but feel I’m missing some context here.”

“Don’t worry about,” said Sunset. “The point is, I can see that whatever happened to you left you more than a bit shaken. And I know that when you fall, sometimes all you need is a friend to help you get back up.”

“You can’t be serious,” Xandra groaned. “You don’t even know me.”

“Well, then that’s the perfect opportunity to get to know each other, isn’t it?” Sunset said. “Plus, uh… Well, I dunno how else to say it, but I kinda actually need your help, too.”

Xandra’s forehead wrinkled slightly as she frowned. “Of course. Figures you wanted something out of me. What is it now?”

“Well, um…” Might as well rip this bandage off. “Okay, this is gonna probably sound really crazy, but I’m like… seventy percent sure that I came here from another dimension.”

Once again, Xandra was at a loss for words. Sunset could only smile awkwardly as she felt a bewildered gaze pressing down on her.

“Look, just humor me for a second, okay?” said Sunset. “What’s the name of this planet? Or plane, or world, or whatever you call it? Please, it’s important.”

Xandra continued to stare. Sunset held her breath, keenly aware of every second that passed between them.

“...Neopia,” Xandra finally answered.

“Horseapples. I was right,” Sunset exhaled. She reached back and scratched he back of her neck, brushing her mane to the side. “So, uh… yeah, looks like I’m on another world now. Which means I definitely need your help. You wouldn’t happen to know of any magic mirrors, would you?”

What happened next was something Sunset was not  expecting. Xandra’s entire body suddenly froze, going stiff as though she had been turned to stone all over again. Her eyes went wide, enough that Sunset would have been able to see them from a dozen feet away, even under the cover of night.

“W-what!?”

“Um… you know, the kind that serve as a gateway between dimensions? Like a portal of some kind? It might be something other than a mirror on this end.”

Suddenly, Xandra’s entirely body relaxed. She let out a sharp breath. “...Oh. No, I can’t say I’ve heard of anything like that.”

Sunset’s ears twitched idly atop her head. What was that about?  But her curiosity was pushed to the side, as she had a far more pressing concern to worry about.

“Great,” Sunset muttered, “so I’m back to square one then. Trapped in a strange world that I know nothing about, with no way home. Story of my life.”

A softness overtook Xandra’s features, one that Sunset hadn’t seen before. She wore it naturally, though the way it clashed with her normally dour visage made it clear that she hadn’t worn it often.

“Hold on, I wouldn’t give up just yet. I might still be able to help.”

“Really?”

“If it weren’t for you, I’d be spending the rest of my days as a hunk of rock,” said Xandra. “It’s the least I could do.”

“Great!” said Sunset. “So, uh… where do we start?”

“I used to be a scholar of magic,” said Xandra. “If we can make it to my old house, there’s a library there with all kinds of information on magical artifacts.”

“And we’ll find something about a magic portal there?”

Xandra shrugged. “It’s worth a shot. The night’s still young, so we’ll be able to make it most of the way there. We’ll set up camp once we get to the edge of the Haunted Woods. It’s best to avoid going through it in the nighttime.”

Sunset blinked. “Hold on, your house is somewhere called the Haunted Woods?” 

“It’s a nice place to live,” said Xandra. “People don’t bother you there. Mostly.”

“...Right, right. Of course. Lead the way.”

Xandra gave Sunset one last look, before turning to walk down the road, motioning for Sunset to follow. The two proceeded silently, side-by-side, as they ventured further into the night.
> Worlds Apart
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The two continued their trek through the wilderness, across an expanse of grassy hills that extended far to the southwest, past the horizon. Xandra led the way, being far more familiar with the path, and as Sunset followed her mind was left swirling with questions.

“So, um…”

Xandra glanced back, though she didn’t stop walking. She seemed intent on getting away from the garden as quickly as possible. “What is it?”

“I was just thinking,” said Sunset, “is there anything you can tell me about Neopia? I don’t plan on staying here for long if I can help it, but it’d be helpful to know a thing or two.”

“I’ll answer your questions as soon as we’re at the edge of the Woods,” Xandra replied. She kept walking, the long strides in her step not once slowing down. “Right now we need to get as far away from Faerieland as possible.”

“Faerieland, huh? That’s where we were? And you said you’re a wanted criminal there?”

The question prompted Xandra to stop in her tracks. It was the first time since they’d departed for the Haunted Woods that she’d slowed down at all, the urgency in her movements giving way to a visibly pained look.

Sunset looked up, seeing the subtle yet familiar flash of sadness in Xandra’s eyes. “It’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it, I was just—”

“Good. Then I won’t. Come on.”

Before Sunset could speak an answer, Xandra’s pace quickened once again, leaving Sunset chasing after her at just short of a full trot.

It was difficult to say how long the two spent moving under the cover of starlight, but they had covered an impressive range of ground, as the hills quickly gave way to a grassy plains. When the moon proved insufficient to light their way, Xandra held a palm upward and summoned a brightly-glowing mote in the cup of her hand, illuminating their path with a simple Light spell.

Eventually, their journey brought them right before a thick forest edge. Though to call the forest ‘thick’ was an understatement – the branches of the crooked trees wove together into a nearly impenetrable boundary, with only a scant few pathways into the uncommonly dense underbrush. The interior of the forest was completely dark, enough so that Xandra’s meager cantrip couldn’t even slightly pierce the blanket of shadow obscuring the forest’s interior.

Despite the darkness beyond the forest’s edge, or perhaps because of it, Sunset’s mind could barely make out a few branches grasping at the breeze, as though the trees themselves were anticipating a chance to reach out and seize her.

“Alright,” said Xandra. “We’re here. It’s not safe to go any further for now, so let’s make camp.”

Sunset took in a deep breath, becoming acutely aware of just how much she’d exerted herself during the trip. If she were a less athletic pony, she might have had some difficulty keeping up with Xandra in the first place – and even still, the ache in her lungs was still far more pronounced than she would have expected.

Ugh… what I wouldn’t give to have human stamina right now.

As Sunset allowed herself some much-needed rest, Xandra approached the edge of the woods, carefully reaching out towards the low-hanging tree branches at the edge. The branches broke off easily, and soon she began gathering them together, arranging them into a small pile of tinder.

Sunset observed Xandra curiously. She was familiar with the process of building a campfire, but she couldn’t ignore the obvious question at the forefront of her mind. “Um… are you sure it’s a good idea to just… tear off those branches like that?”

“It’s just firewood,” said Xandra. “What, are you afraid I’ll offend the trees?”

“Hey, you said these are the Haunted Woods!” Sunset replied. “It’s very possible!”

Xandra stopped for a moment to glare. “Sunset, I’ve lived here half my life. I know what I’m doing.”

“Right. Right. Sorry, just… had to be sure.”

Eventually, the two managed to set up something of a rudimentary campground. It was far less than Sunset would have liked, without any sleeping bags to speak of, but the fire provided a source of much-needed warmth in the middle of the cold night.

As the two huddled around the fire, Xandra began to incant a spell under her breath. Just as Sunset was about to ask what she was doing, a thin and colorful hardback book materialized in her hands.

“Here,” said Xandra, passing the book over to Sunset. “You wanted to know about Neopia, right? Start with this.”

Under the light of the campfire, Sunset was able to make out the title – written in bold, sans-serif letters, it read All About the Neopets. Below the title was a colorful, cartoon illustration of a number of different creatures.

“Hold on,” said Sunset, “isn’t this a children’s book?”

“Correct,” said Xandra. “And I’d wager that you know less about Neopia than most children.”

Sunset tried to object, but any complaints she had were extinguished before she could speak them. “That’s… okay, yeah, that’s fair.”

So with a sigh, Sunset laid the book to rest on the ground, carefully flipped through the pages with her magic, reading through the text under the light of the campfire. As she did, Xandra stared at Sunset’s horn, observing the gentle glow of its magic aura with a curious gleam in her eye.

The book was about what Sunset expected from something meant for toddlers, with bright illustrations and simple sentences that were clearly meant to be read out loud by a parent. On each of its pages was a short description, as well as an illustration, of one of the various sapient species native to Neopia.

Yet as embarrassing as it was, she had to admit it was a much better way of learning about the dominant species than the last time she was stuck in an unfamiliar world. And there were so many of them, too — Acaras, Aishas, Blumaroos, Bruces… all of them named under a single umbrella term of ‘Neopet.’

Although, come to think of it…

“Hey, Xandra.”

Xandra blinked. “Huh? Yes?”

“Why is it that the native species of Neopia are called ‘Neopets?’ Doesn’t ‘pet’ imply that you’re someone else’s property?”

Xandra’s legs shifted restlessly as she sat on the ground. The question had visibly made her uncomfortable.

“It’s, um… a linguistic relic,” she said. “Two thousand years ago, an evil tyrant tried to enslave our kind. He referred to us as his ‘new pets.’ The name’s sort of stuck ever since.”

Sunset stared silently, her mouth hanging slightly open. “Oh. That’s… wow. That’s… really surprisingly dark.”

Xandra could only shrug. “What were you expecting? I doubt your world is all sunshine and rainbows either.”

“Worlds. Plural,” Sunset corrected. “…It’s a long story.”

“I’m sorry, what?”

“I’ll get to it in a bit. Just let me finish.”

It felt like a chore, especially with how patronizing it felt to be reading a book meant for two-year-olds, but eventually Sunset’s curiosity managed to overtake her own sense of embarrassment.

At least, until…

“GAH!”

Xandra curiously raised an eyebrow. “Something wrong?”

Sunset lifted up the book in demonstration, shoving its full-page spread illustration into Xandra’s face. “Yeah! What is this!?”



Xandra stared blankly at the page for a moment. “I’m not sure what you’re getting at here. Unis are a very common—”

“This is the species you thought I was?”

“Yes,” Xandra deadpanned. “Oh, come on, don’t give me that look. You do look like a Uni, minus the wings. How was I supposed to know you were an alien from another dimension?”

“Well, first of all…”

Sunset, you’ve literally ridden a horse in the human world. This can’t be weirder than *that.*

Sunset Shimmer harshly scolded her brain for such an asinine thought. Yet at the same time…

“O-okay, fine. Maybe you couldn’t have known that, but still!”

“Still what?”

Uh… Shoot, is it bad to be weirded out by their long snouts? They’re so close to ponies otherwise, it’s uncanny… gah.

Sunset wisely chose to keep that thought to herself. “Well, um… this description, for one,” she said. “Seriously, ‘vain little Neopians?’ That’s, um… really uncomfortably close to an offensive stereotype about my kind. We fought actual wars over that stuff.”

For a moment, a spark of curiosity appeared beneath Xandra’s eye, an inquisitive gleam that was otherwise clouded by the melancholy that hovered over her face. 

“Really now? That’s interesting. I take it your world isn’t any stranger to interspecies strife either, then?”

“Well, um… not quite interspecies, but yes,” said Sunset. She pulled the book back, and examined its back cover, noting that it looked very well-worn. “So this is definitely racist, then.”

“Probably. It is a very old book,” said Xandra with a shrug. “I don’t have any other children’s books memorized. Just keep in mind that it’s from a less enlightened time.”

“…Right. Of course. I’ll just… I’ll finish it, I guess.”

Sunset flipped through the rest of the book, though the discomfort had never quite managed to leave the back of her mind.

“Wait,” she said, staring at one of the pages under the campfire, “your species is called ‘Xweetok?’ With an ‘X?’”

“Yes. Why?”

“No reason, just, um… would it be insensitive to say that I find the name kind of strange?”

“You’re an extradimensional alien,” Xandra replied. “I’d be surprised if you didn’t find most of Neopia strange.”

“I guess,” said Sunset. It is kind of odd that we speak the same language, now that you mention it…

And so, with a shrug, Sunset flipped over the last page of the book. Almost as soon as she closed the book’s back cover, it vanished into thin air in a puff of purple smoke.

“Whoa! What!? What happened!? Where did it go!?”

“You’ve never read a magic book before?” said Xandra.

“Not the kind that vanishes when you finish them!” Sunset countered. “Why would it even do that? Doesn’t that defeat the whole point of a book?”

“Not at all,” said Xandra. “Magic books are the products of special conjuration spells. Making them permanent would require far more power than most magicians have access to.”

“Oh,” said Sunset. “I… guess that makes sense. I thought you summoned the book from somewhere else, not conjured it out of thin air. I don’t understand why you’d do that, though. What if I want to read it again?”

“You won’t need to,” Xandra explained. “Conjured books leave a permanent imprint on your memory. Unless other magic forces you to forget it, you’ll remember the contents of the book perfectly for the rest of your life.”

Sunset blinked. “Really? That’s… hold on a second.”

She turned her thoughts inward, and sure enough, Sunset could recall the children’s book Xandra had given her perfectly. She had a flawless photographic memory of every single page she had read, down to every last minute detail of the illustrations on each page. The memories were far more vivid, far more than any she would have obtained naturally.

“…Huh. Alright, then. That’s actually kinda cool,” Sunset admitted. “But what if I want to lend it to someone else? What if I want to reference it in a paper or something?”

“That’s what non-magic books are for.”

Sunset let out a sigh of relief. “Oh, good, you still have those,” she said. Dear Celestia, I can’t imagine the fit Twilight would throw if she had to see this.

The crackling of the fire pattered against the silence of the night. Sunset stared intently at Xandra, shifting her weight against the grass beneath her.

“So, uh… I take it you want to hear about me, right?” 

“If you don’t mind,” said Xandra. “I was hoping to learn more about you, before we retire for the night. I’m curious about your kind, and your world.”

“Yeah, I figured. I originally came from a kingdom called Equestria, in the world of…” Sunset paused, letting her thoughts roll around in her head momentarily. “…okay, I guess it’s not technically the pony world, since there are a lot of other species too. And the world doesn’t really have a name of its own, so mostly we just call it ‘Equestria,’ after the kingdom.”

“Sounds rather provincialist,” Xandra remarked. “You never bothered naming your own world?”

“No, not really. There have been a few proposed names from scholars, but so far none of them have seen widespread use. I guess nopony leaves Equestria’s borders for the most part, so we just sorta say that.”

Xandra held a finger to her chin. There was a scholarly gleam in her eye, the very same kind that Twilight had whenever she was deep in research on a new topic. “Nopony?”

“Huh?” said Sunset. “Oh, shoot, sorry about that. I guess I slipped into my native dialect for a second. I still do that sometimes.”

“No need to apologize,” Xandra replied. “It’s kind of interesting, actually. The Cybunny Dialect does something similar. Anyway, you were saying about your world?”

“Um… right. Anyway, Equestria is populated mostly by ponies like me,” Sunset continued. “There’s three types of ponies, and we’re all technically the same species, but historically we’ve been considered mostly separate groups. Mine are called ‘unicorns,’ which means ‘one horn,’ since…” She circled her hoof over her own horn in demonstration. “…you know.”

“Uni-corn, huh?” The scholarly spark in Xandra’s eye intensified. She was fully engrossed in everything that Sunset had been explaining, and through the light of the fire Sunset could see a growing thirst for information. “That’s actually fascinating. Not only are you similar to a native Neopian species, your kind have a similar name too. I wonder, is it a coincidence, or is there some kind of linguistic connection?”

“Yeah, I was just thinking about how weird it is that we speak the same language. Hopefully it means are worlds aren’t entirely disconnected. I’d hate to be trapped here for the rest of my life…”

Sunset chose to put that thought out of her mind, for now. She wasn’t ready to consider that possibility just yet.

“…Anyway, unicorns like me are born with the ability to cast spells naturally. Our horns act as conduits which can channel magic from our own internal reserves. Most of us only know the basic telekinesis spell and a couple other cantrips, but it’s also fairly common to for us dedicate our entire lives to magical study.”

“And I take it that would also include you,” said Xandra. “The fact that you carry a potent artifact around your neck seems to suggest that you know a thing or two about magic.”

“Yeah, you could say that,” said Sunset. “If you can believe it, I was actually the personal student of Equestria’s ruler, Princess Celestia.”

For some reason, this provoked an immediate reaction from Xandra, her eyes going wide with surprise. “You’re what?”

“Oh no, I don’t study under her anymore. I left her a while ago. It’s… kind of a long story.” A suffocating sensation began to well up within Sunset’s chest. Even after they’d reconciled, thinking about what happened between her and Celestia brought unpleasant memories to the forefront of her mind. “I, um… I don’t really want to talk about it.”

Actually, hold on. In that memory I saw, didn’t Queen Fyora refer to you as her…?

“No, it’s fine,” said Xandra, after a moment’s hesitation. There was a hint of recognition in her features, a thin line of understanding that ran across her brow. “I didn’t mean to pry. What were you saying about the other kinds of ponies?”

“…Right. Anyway, another type of pony are the pegasi. They have wings on their backs, and also a sort of passive magic that lets them walk on clouds and manipulate the weather.”

“Weather control, huh?” said Xandra. “That’s a powerful ability in its own right. Usually only air faeries have that kind of magic here.”

“Well, I dunno about powerful, but… I’d be lying if I didn’t say I wanted pegasus wings of my own sometimes.” 

Technically true, but let’s not elaborate on that right now.

“And what about earth ponies?” Xandra asked. “And what about sort of magic do they have?”

“Um…” Sunset felt an uncomfortable tension building within her chest. “Well, uh… that’s kinda hard to answer. Most scholars believe that earth ponies have magic, but no one really understands it. Only that whatever it is, it’s… subtle. Ordinary ponies don’t even really consider it magic at all.”

Suddenly, and much to Sunset’s surprise, a change began to make its way across Xandra’s features. First surprise, then a deep frown that brought a heavy wrinkle to her brow. Her eyes showed not a curiosity or melancholy, but something else. An emotion that Sunset couldn’t quite place, but whatever it was, it was powerful.

Xandra steepled her fingers, idly fidgeting with her thumbs. “…Explain.”

“Uh… well, the only thing we know for sure is that plants grow way better under the care of an earth pony than anyone else,” said Sunset. “Most attribute that to some special connection to the land, and while that’s likely, it’s also kind of impossible to prove. It could be that they just have more direct agricultural experience.”

“So they might not have magic at all,” said Xandra, bluntly. “Sounds like they get short end of the stick.”

“What!? No! They literally grow everyone’s food! They make up like eighty percent of Equestria’s population!”

“That doesn’t prove anything,” Xandra countered. “Historically, farmers in Neopia have often been exploited by the ruling classes. And it’s more often than not that we’re ruled by a politically powerful minority.”

“Uh… Okay, fair point, but—”

“But you can cast spells,” Xandra continued. By now, her voice had taken on a startlingly fierce edge. The hesitation that had hung from every word she spoke was gone now, replaced with an unshakable confidence. “And even if we grant that other ponies have some passive magic, it sounds like your kind have an inherent monopoly on the study of spellcraft.”

“Well… okay, technically that’s true, but that’s not really a fair way of looking at it,” said Sunset. “Everyone’s good at different things, right?”

Slowly, the determination in Xandra’s eyes began to die out. The despondency that loomed over her at all times returned, and a heavy sigh escaped her lips.

“You know what, forget it. It doesn’t even matter what I think anyway.”

“Um… alright, then.” There was a tangible apprehension in the air, and Sunset could feel it pressing down against her lungs. “Xandra, are you good? Is everything okay with you?”

“Don’t worry about it. It’s not important,” Xandra said curtly.

Sunset wasn’t sure if she believed it. The fire crackled softly, as both of them stared curiously at each other.

Eventually, it was Xandra who spoke up again.

“So…”

“You want to know how I got here, right?”

“That would be helpful, yes.”

“I thought so,” said Sunset. She reached up and brush a strand of her mane out of her face, idly twirling with the bright red hair. “This is kind of where my story gets a little bit weird. You know how earlier, I said worlds, plural?”

Xandra’s eyes softly reflected the warm light of the campfire. “Go on…”

“Equestria is my native world, but I don’t really live there anymore. I’m actually a dimensional traveler, in a way,” Sunset explained. “There’s a magic mirror in Equestria which serves as a portal to another world called Earth, which is where I live right now. Though most of the time, I just call it the human world, ‘cause… well, that’s where humans are.”

“So that’s why you mentioned a magic mirror earlier,” said Xandra. “But before we go any further, I’d like to get the obvious question out of the way. What exactly is a human?”

“Um… well. That’d be kind of hard to explain without seeing one, but…” Suddenly, Sunset remembered the scene she had seen in Xandra’s childhood memory, and the image of the Faerie Queen burned into her mind. “Actually, hold on. You might already mostly know what humans look like. You know faeries, right?”

Xandra’s eyes narrowed, and a frown crossed her lips. “Of course I do. Why?”

“Humans look basically like that, but they don’t have wings or magic,” said Sunset. “…except when they do have magic. Or when they do have wings.”

“…Huh?”

“It’s, um… a very rare phenomenon. It’s… it’s complicated,” said Sunset. “The human world doesn’t actually have any native magic, but it seems to be directly parallel to my homeworld in a lot of ways. Under rare circumstances, it’s possible for humans to channel Equestrian magic. That’s how I got this geode crystal necklace.” She gestured to the crystal around her neck, which appeared nearly as bright as the campfire that was burning before her.

Xandra’s eyes went wide. “W-wait a second! You’re not saying this other world lacks any magic of its own, are you? Magic is one of the five fundamental forces of the universe! That shouldn’t be possible!”

“I thought so too,” Sunset said with a shrug. “But it is technically a different universe, with different rules. I’ve tried to limit my travel between the two worlds, since we don’t yet fully understand how their connection works. But from what I can tell so far, introducing magic into a non-magic world can cause really weird things to happen.”

Xandra couldn’t help but wince. “…I can imagine. But then how did you get here?”

“Um… that’s the part I’m not entirely sure on,” said Sunset. “I was visiting Princess Celestia in her castle in Equestria. But when I went to the magic mirror to return to Earth, I found that it had… changed.”

“Changed?”

“Yeah, it looked totally different,” said Sunset. “Normally it’s framed by a big purple horseshoe, but this time it looked like a pair of pink butterfly wings with a mirror in it. When I tried to take a closer look, I got sucked in, and um… I guess that’s the end of it. Next thing I knew, I was in that garden with your statue in it.”

Xandra frowned deeply. She placed a hand to her chin, and her brow creased deeply. “Pink wings… That… sounds like one of Queen Fyora’s personal artifacts. But then, how…?”

“You think she might know something?”

“She might,” said Xandra. “But I’d prefer to stay as far away from her as physically possible right now.”

“…Right. Wanted criminal. Almost forgot about that.”

Sunset let out a deep yawn. The campfire had already started to wane, and she could feel her eyelids suddenly getting heavy.

“It’s getting late. We should sleep for now,” said Xandra through a yawn of her own. Slowly, she began to lie down, curling up with her own tail.

“You sure you’re okay with just lying on the grass like that?” said Sunset. “I mean, I can, since I’m a quadrupedal steppe species, but—”

“I’ll be fine. It’s not the most uncomfortable position I’ve been in. Good night, Sunset.”

“If you say so. Good night, Xandra.”

----

Brynn was violently interrupted from her sleep by a knock at her door. Not an ordinary knock, as one would expect, but a frenzied banging against the wood punctuated with shouts.

Her peaceful snoring abruptly turned into a series of violent hacking coughs as she was thrust back into the world of consciousness. A sense of relief washed over her when the coughing finally stopped — the last thing she needed was to have to clean up an orange hairball in her own room.

With a heavy yawn, she dragged herself to her feet, and answered the door. Behind it was a young faerie Aisha, dressed in the standard uniform of the Faerieland Guard. His wings were twitching wildly at his back, and his eyes were wide open, which was a highly uncommon sight for his species.

“Captain Brynneth! Oh, thank Fyora you’re awake!”

Brynn gave the panicked Aisha a heavy glare, through sleep-encrusted eyes. “This had better be good, Papillon.”

“It’s not! It’s terrible! It’s—” Papillon blinked, his apparent distress entirely forgotten in an instant. He looked Brynn over, from her head to her feet. “…You sleep in Snowbunny jammies?”

“Corporal, get to the point!”

Papillon’s entire body went stiff as a board. “Y-yes sir! I-I mean, ma’am! I… I was doing a night patrol of the garden as usual, when… when…”

Brynn’s eyes narrowed. With how early her duties demanded she awake, she didn’t appreciate the luxury of sleep being taken from her. “When what?”

“It’s… it’s Xandra! She’s gone!”
> Power and Responsibility
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It had taken several cups of coffee and approximately two metric boatloads of stress, but Captain Brynn was eventually able to bring herself to something resembling alertness. And while she was well aware that her duties required being ready to respond at a moment’s notice, she couldn’t help but curse fate for choosing now of all times to demand her attention.

At her command, and with the aid of a magical alarm system, she was able to assemble the Faerieland Guard. The Guard were an unusual organization, staffed entirely by Neopets who took full-time residence in Faerieland, with no actual faeries to speak of in their ranks. Fyora forbade other faeries from engaging in violent conflict unless absolutely necessary, so Faerieland’s first line of defense fell to them.

It was a heavy responsibility. And since Faerieland held the highest status of all the realms in Neopia, it was a responsibility far greater than Brynn’s previous duties in Brightvale. So far, thankfully, it had not demanded too much.

But if Xandra had broken free of her prison, that was about to change.

She and all the Guards gathered before the Faerieland Gardens, where Queen Fyora had moved Xandra’s statue. Why Fyora would keep someone so dangerous so close to Faerieland, Brynn couldn’t tell — perhaps the Queen had simply let sentimentality override her common sense. 

They stood before the rotunda where the statue had been present, lined up in a single-file row. In front of the line stood Corporal Papillon, who shook nervously as he held a standard-issue spear by his side.

Brynn marched back and forth in front of her assembled guardspets, the rings of her chainmail armor softly jingling against the early morning silence. And by early, she meant early. The sun hadn’t even begun to rise yet, and it would likely another hour before it did.

As she looked her subordinates over, it didn’t take long for Brynn to notice that someone was missing.

She stopped in front of Papillon, and looked him in the eye. The young Aisha shook nervously in his boots. He was far too young and inexperienced to be involved in a situation this potentially dire. Brynn had only promoted him to corporal because she owed his father a favor.

“Papillon.”

“Y-yes Captain?”

“Where is Hanso?”

“Ah. W-well, you see, Captain,” said Papillon, “I believe Her Majesty sent him on a mission to Shenkuu. I-I don’t know the details, but he won’t be back until some time tomorrow.”

Brynn could suddenly feel her heartbeat throbbing in her head. She pressed a pair of fingers to her temples, trying vainly to massage her headache through her helmet.

“Of course. Of freaking course when this happens, he’d be on the other side of Neopia. Any other bad news, while we’re at it?”

“N-no Captain. Nothing else to report.”

Brynn breathed in, letting the air clear the tense fog that had begun to build in her lungs. “Alright. Alright, fine. We can still make this work.” She looked around, meeting each of her subordinates in the eye. “You lot stay here and keep watch. I’m going to go in and search for clues.”

A dozen replies of ‘yes Captain’ later, and Brynn entered the rotunda. Sure enough, Xandra’s statue had completely vanished.

There were one of two possible things that this meant. Either someone had been brazen enough to steal the body of the most dangerous criminal in Faerieland’s history… or she had escaped. And the latter seemed far, far, more likely, given the circumstances.

Her first instinct was to search for any footprints. Xandra would have been cautious enough to both figuratively and literally cover her tracks, but it couldn’t hurt to try.

Unfortunately, the ground was far too solid for there to be any footprints left in the dirt.

However, it didn’t take long for Brynn to find something else interesting.

It was a single hair; a bright crimson strand, sharply contrasting against the shades of green and white one would find on Xandra’s body.

Brynn’s mind could only draw one conclusion from this. Wherever she was now, Xandra had an accomplice.

A fierce resolve burned behind Brynn’s eyes. She exited the rotunda, holding the strand of hair close. As she approached her subordinates, Papillon looked her in the eye.

“Did you find anything, Captain?”

“I have,” she said. “Send word to Queen Fyora of our situation, and inform the court mages. I want them to begin preparing a tracking spell immediately.”

----

Sunset had been woken up by Xandra the next morning… and by ‘the next morning,’ she meant early the next morning. The sun was only just beginning to peer over the horizon, painting the edge of the sky in strikingly familiar purple hues.

With their lack of rations, the two were forced to forage for their morning meal — Sunset was thankfully able to graze in her pony form, as gross as it was to think about, while Xandra was able to gather a few nuts and berries from the shrubs on the edge of the forest.

Probably should have gone with the nuts and berries, actually. Yuck.

Too late to dwell on that now, as they needed to move quickly… or so Xandra had insisted. They pushed passed the edge of the forest, and made their way into the Haunted Woods.

With a name like that, Sunset wasn’t sure what else she was expecting from the place. The Woods had immediately demonstrated themselves to be dark and inhospitable, enough that the rising sun could only barely illuminate their surroundings. 

A thick fog hung in the air as Xandra led the two through the underbrush, whose branches almost seemed to be actively reaching out and attempting to grab them. Thankfully, this appeared to be only a trick of Sunset’s fearful imagination…

…or at least, that’s what she tried to tell herself.

Maybe it was best that she tried to keep her mind off of that, for now.

“So,” said Sunset, as she pushed past a low-hanging branch, “you, uh, said you were a scholar of magic, right?”

“Yeah,” said Xandra. “Why?”

“Just curious. What sort of magic did you focus on? Most mages in Equestria have one or two specialty fields.”

“Illusion and transmutation,” said Xandra. “And you?”

“Enchantment and evocation,” Sunset answered. “I’ve always been partial to fire, specifically. More recently I’ve also dabbled in light-element magic.”

“Huh. Interesting combination,” said Xandra. “You don’t usually see mind-affecting magic paired with brute force destruction spells.”

“Fire spells and emotion spells are shockingly similar to cast, actually,” said Sunset. “They both use a similar mental focus state, and the psychic calculations mainly differ in whether they use literal or metaphorical eidos values.”

Xandra rubbed her chin as she pushed past another tree branch. “Right, that makes some amount of sense. But I’m surprised that your world has such similar magical theories as Neopia. Everything you just said could have been said by a magical scholar of this world.”

“It is strange, yeah,” said Sunset. “Though it makes it a lot easier to adjust, I’ll say. Try to talk about magic like that in the human world, and most people think you’re some crackpot scam artist.”

Xandra continued to give Sunset her full attention. By this point, she was only barely paying mind to the road that the two of them were walking. “And you said fire magic, right? I assume that’s an elemental energy in your world’s theories. What are the elements in your understanding?”

“Well, that depends on who you ask, and what you mean by element,” said Sunset. Presumably, Xandra wasn’t talking about the Elements of Harmony, which were something else entirely. “But the most broadly accepted theory was developed by the great Blue Mage Warlic in 323 B.E. There are eight elements in traditional spellcraft: fire, water, wind, ice, earth, energy, light, and darkness. There’s also void and harm, but those are sorta special cases.”

“Fascinating,” said Xandra. “In Neopian spellcraft, there are only six elements. Ice magic is usually classified under water, and lightning is usually considered either light or fire magic. I’d be interested in seeing how the differences in our theories would work out in practice.”

As the two continued through the trees, they discussed the differences between their worlds, and Sunset found herself momentarily forgetting her troubles as she learned more about the world she now found herself in. Shockingly, they’d encountered no difficulty navigating — for a place called the ‘Haunted Woods,’ there were surprisingly few signs of ghosts or the like. 

…Though Xandra still insisted that they be cautious, as there were evidently still some manner of evil spirits native to the forest.

“You know, this place kind of reminds me of the Everfree Forest back home,” said Sunset.

“How so?” said Xandra.

“Dark and spooky. Also probably evil, thanks to a thousand-year-old curse.” Sunset paused momentarily, as a new thought crossed her mind. “Actually, that sort of brings me to a related note. Does nature take care of itself here in Neopia?”

Xandra shot Sunset a quizzical glance, as the two of them stepped over a large root that Sunset could have sworn was moving moments ago.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean stuff like, uh… the clouds moving, the seasons changing, the weather happening. Without anyone making it happen,” Sunset elaborated. “Is that how that works here?”

Xandra suddenly froze, so shocked by what Sunset had said that she momentarily stopped in her tracks. “Hold on! Are you saying your world doesn’t have weather!?”

“No, it does. But only if someone makes it happen,” said Sunset. “I mentioned before that pegasi in my world can control the weather, right?”

“…Go on.”

“Well, they do that because they kind of have to. Pegasi create the clouds, wind, and rain for basically all of Equestria,” Sunset explained. “Earth ponies and unicorns also have their own aspects of nature to take care of. Changing the seasons, looking after the wildlife, and so on. Other creatures do similar things in their own lands, too. The Everfree Forest’s what we call a ‘Wild Area,’ which is where things like weather just… happen.”

“But that’s crazy!” Xandra interjected. “If there are no natural phenomena, then how could your world have possibly survived long enough to bear life!?”

“One of the great equestrological mysteries of our time,” said Sunset. “The working hypothesis is that our world used to have nature, but then some great cataclysm happened that threw it out of whack. That would explain why there are places where nature takes care of itself, but for the most part they’re pretty rare.”

Xandra stopped for a moment to ponder Sunset’s words. Any astonishment she had shown earlier quickly faded away, replaced by a quiet curiosity.

“…Huh. Okay, that actually makes sense,” said Xandra. She continued walking forward again, and Sunset unconsciously found herself following after her. The two once again were back on the trail, moving steadily forward as they shared their thoughts. 

“You know, it’s honestly interesting that you mentioned a great cataclysm,” Xandra said, continuing her previous thought, “because something very similar actually happened on Neopia.”

“Really?”

“In a sense. Until roughly two thousand years ago, this planet was mostly a barren wasteland. The Kayannin civilization is much older than that, but they completely vanished long before then. So whatever caused them to disappear likely ended up destroying most of the surface, too.”

“Oh,” said Sunset. “I… would not have guessed that. And only two thousand years ago? That’s a very short time, geologically speaking. Hard to believe the world could recover from total desolation so quickly.”

“Neopia’s atmosphere has a lot of intensely chaotic magic,” said Xandra. She pushed past a thick branch that seemed to be reaching towards the trail, waiting for a chance to grab the nearest traveler. “So a lot about it can transform almost overnight.”

Sunset hesitated for a moment, as she let the implications roll around in her mind a bit.

“So the whole world can just… change? Without warning?” she said. “Not gonna lie, that’s actually terrifying.”

“I suppose. But it’s the only reason any of exist,” said Xandra. “The first Neopets were spawned from the same random magic that healed Neopia.”

Sunset arched an eyebrow. “What? You mean like spontaneous generation?”

“Yes.”

“...Your world is weird.”

“As opposed to your world, where someone has to make the weather happen,” Xandra remarked.

A short puff of air escaped from Sunset’s nostrils. “Yeah, yeah, it’s weird to you, I know. I’ve heard it all before.”

“Actually. On that note,” said Xandra. “You said that earth ponies and unicorns also take care of nature in other ways, right? Can you elaborate?”

“I could literally write an entire book on Equestrian nature stewardship,” said Sunset. “Seriously, there’s way too much for me to cover in just one conversation. But the basic jist is that almost anything you can imagine happening in a natural ecosystem, someone has to make it happen in my world. Pegasi specifically are responsible for weather, and earth ponies tend to gravitate toward plant and wildlife care… though there are notable exceptions. And one pink-and-yellow exception in particular.”

“And unicorns?”

“That’s… a bit more difficult to answer,” said Sunset, hesitantly. “Most unicorns tend towards artisan work or scholarship that’s unconnected to nature. It used to be that the most powerful unicorn wizards raised the sun and moon, but you had to be among the greatest mages in existence to even be considered for that. But then the Royal Sisters took the throne, and started raising the sun and moon themselves and um… we’ve just sorta been doing our own thing for the past eleven hundred years.”

Once again, Xandra froze in place. This time, she was so evidently astonished that all of the fur on her body seemed to stand on end.

“W-wait! Wait a second! W-what in Alephan’s name do you mean not in the past eleven hundred years? Are you saying your ‘Princess’ has lived for centuries!?”

Sunset could feel a deep discomfort building within her chest. Already, she could sense that she had made a mistake.

“Uh… well, yeah. Both Princess Celestia and her sister Luna are alicorns, which is a sort of… basically a super-pony, with both pegasus wings and a unicorn horn. Also tall. They’re tall.”

“And you say they raise the sun and moon!?”

Sunset breathed in through nostrils, and exhaled through her mouth.

“…Okay, look. I get your reaction. I really do. But it’s honestly not as impressive as it sounds. My home planet is geocentric, so the sun is only about as large as—”

“But that’s still insane!! If your sun and moon are even a fraction of the mass of Kreludor, it would take a truly unfathomable amount of magical power to even begin to move them! And if these ‘Princesses’ have ruled for literal centuries, then they sound more like go—”

“Don’t.”

It was a single word, spoken quietly, yet curtly and forcefully, to the point where Xandra was instantly snapped out of her flabbergasted ranting.

“…Don’t what?”

“The ‘g’ word,” said Sunset. “Don’t even go there. Really bad idea.”

Xandra’s eyes narrowed, and she met Sunset with a piercing glare, one that showed a ferocity that boiled beneath the surface.

“And why not? Your ‘Princess’ is clearly something above and beyond any other being in your world.”

“Not really,” said Sunset. “Apart from being probably immortal, alicorns actually aren’t capable of anything that other ponies can’t do. Like I said, it used to be that the sun and moon were raised by a council of unicorn archwizards.”

“Probably immortal?”

“Well, there’s only been fou— five in Equestria’s history,” said Sunset. “And none of them have died yet. Not exactly a big sample size to work with.”

“But they’re pretty clearly way more powerful than mortal ponies,” said Xandra. “Right now, you just admitted it. Your ‘alicorns’ can do things that would otherwise take an entire team of the most powerful mages in history. That certainly sounds godlike to me.”

“Look, think of it what you will,” said Sunset. “But historically? Calling Princess Celestia a goddess, especially to her face, is the fastest way to get on her bad side. Why do you think she doesn’t even call herself a queen? She’s gone out of her way to dispel any notion of her supposed divinity. I’m not kidding, it’s literally illegal to start a religion worshiping her. One of the very first laws she passed, in fact.”

“I don’t understand, though,” said Xandra. “How could she be immortal and have that much power, and not think of herself as a higher being?”

“I… didn’t really understand that either, when I was younger,” said Sunset. It was difficult to admit, and the shame of having so greatly envied that immortality and power crept into the edge of her voice. “But think of it like this. Imagine living for over a millenium, while everyone else around you only lives to about a hundred, if they’re lucky. Imagine that none of the friendships you build ever last. Imagine that everyone you ever try to care about ages and dies right in front of you, while you remain young forever.

“Now take that, and imagine that on top of that, people stop seeing you a person and start seeing you as a force of nature. They don’t think about what you want, or what you believe, or what you love or hate or care about. They only think about the abstract idea that you represent to them. That’s what godhood is. Does that really sound like something you’d want to be?”

Xandra went quiet. Her features softened suddenly, as a sullen understanding made its way across her face.

“…Oh,” she said. “I… honestly hadn’t considered that. When you put it that way, being Princess Celestia sounds… lonely.”

“I don’t think she’d ever admit she feels that way,” said Sunset. “But it’s not hard to see, once you’ve gotten to know her. It’s always seemed to me that she wishes she could relate more to ordinary ponies. Heck, I wouldn’t be surprised if she doesn’t even want to be Princess anymore. But aside from her sister, there’s just no one else who can even do the job nowadays.”

Although, with the way she’s been delegating duties to Twilight recently…

Xandra’s lips remained pressed into a thin frown. Her eyes grew distant, the fire within them flickering away into mere embers.

“It’s… still difficult to believe someone with power like that wouldn’t end up abusing it.”

“Well… depending on who you ask, some would say she has,” Sunset responded. “But from personal experience? There’s literally nothing that Princess Celestia fears more than becoming a tyrant. She’s done so much to limit her own authority, and in all her life I don’t think she’s ever actually used the full extent of her magic.”

“…So you’re saying she could be doing more to help people.”

Sunset winced. There was a painful familiarity in Xandra’s voice, a bitterness she had not heard since… 

…since a time she didn’t particularly like to think about.

“I mean… maybe? But I don’t know if that’s really a good idea.” Sunset brushed a strand of red hair to her side, running a hoof through her mane. “See, one thing I can tell you about having exceptional magical power is that it’s kind of… I can’t really call it anything other than addicting. When you’re powerful, and you know you’re powerful, and you start to feel like you can do anything… there’s really no limit to the sort of horrible things you can justify to yourself.”

Xandra’s mouth slowly began to hang open. She stared at Sunset, looking as though she had been physically struck.

“So that’s probably why Princess Celestia doesn’t use her magic to help people more,” Sunset continued. “Because when your power is that far beyond everyone else, and you start seeing magic as the brute force solution, it’s… it’s all too easy to develop a skewed perspective. ‘The way things should be’ starts to look more and more like ‘what I want,’ and then… before you know it, you’re falling into an abyss you never even noticed until it was too late. And the thing is, Princess Celestia has seen this happen. It… happened to Princess Luna, until a friend of mine managed to rescue her from the darkness.”

And it happened to me too, was the silent, unstated conclusion.

Sunset let out another deep breath. It felt like a great weight had been lifted off of her chest… only for it to immediately return, as soon as she saw the look on Xandra’s face.

“Huh? Xandra, are you… crying?”

“No,” Xandra lied, poorly. “Just… just something in my eye.”

For what felt like forever, the two exchanged no more words, and avoided meeting each other’s eyes. Sunset tried to think of something to say, anything to break the tension and melancholy that lingered like a smog, but nothing came to mind. The two could only remain there, in a shared, contemplative silence.

It was Xandra who eventually broke the silence, causing the fog to lift. As if the Haunted Woods themselves had responded to the metaphor, the literal fog began to lift as well, and Sunset could see the surroundings with more clarity than ever.

“…What was she like?”

“Hm?” said Sunset.

“Princess Celestia,” Xandra elaborated. “You must have known her pretty well, as her personal student. What was she like?”

Sunset’s eyes trailed away. Memories flashed through her mind, of a simpler time, a time before she betrayed the only family she’d ever known.

She wouldn’t give up her current friends for anything, but… there was no denying that it took a lot of pain, and a lot of mistakes, to get where she was now.

“She was… nice,” said Sunset. “Even though I was just a filly, she never talked down to me. Always treated me with respect, and kindness. Even if she did have a serious prankster streak sometimes.”

Xandra blinked. “She… pranked you?”

“Oh yeah, you don’t know the half of it,” Sunset smirked. “She seemed to have this idea that learning was more effective if you didn’t see it coming. So while there was still a lot of books involved, she’d throw me a curveball every so often. Sometimes she’d set me up to an impossible task, only for my failure to contain some hidden, more important lesson. Sometimes she’d just put me in some weird situation, already knowing exactly how I’d react to it, and exactly what the outcome would be. Never anything dangerous, but… well, it certainly kept me on my toes.”

“You don’t have toes,” said Xandra. “And that sounds really manipulative.”

“What? No! Nothing like that! I mean, sure, it did get frustrating to deal with sometimes. And I did sorta get fed up with her eventually, but—”

Sunset abruptly cut herself off. She definitely didn’t mean to admit that out loud. Xandra gave her a thin smile, a curious, knowing gleam in her eye as she did.

“Oh, is that so?”

“Let’s… let’s talk about something else,” Sunset replied. Her eyes darted around, searching for anything that might possibly take her mind off of the subject.

Thankfully, with both the literal and metaphorical fog cleared away, finding a point of interest didn’t take her long.

“Hey, what’s that up ahead?”

Sunset pointed a hoof forward, and in the distance, past the underbrush she could see the outline of a large house. It was in quite the state of disrepair, with the windows boarded up, the paint on the outer walls peeling away, and the entire structure covered in creeping vines.

It certainly looked like it had been abandoned for a while, but Sunset couldn’t rule out that possibility that houses in the Haunted Woods just naturally looked like that.

“Huh,” said Xandra. “We’re here already. I guess I got so caught up in the conversation that I lost track.”

“This is your old house, then?” said Sunset. “Looks pretty fancy… in a ‘haunted house carnival attraction’ kind of way.”

“No, that’d be in the Haunted Fairground.”

“Wait, the what now?”

“I can tell you about it later. Come on, let’s not waste any more time.”

Before Sunset could offer any counterpoint, Xandra rapidly pushed her way through the underbrush, leaving Sunset to follow closely behind.

----

Brynn diligently kept her eyes on the golden compass as she led her group of Guards, following the path marked by the needle. Thanks to the court mages’ swift efforts, the compass now possessed a particular enchantment: rather than pointing north, its needle would always point to the owner of the red hair Brynn had found.

Granted, Brynn was also fully aware she was taking a gamble. She was betting that the red hair belonged to Xandra’s accomplice, but she had no idea if they were still together, or had gone their separate ways.

But it’s the only lead I have, and by Brand’s blade, I am GOING to follow it.

And so she kept her eyes on the compass, and kept walking. Kept walking, and walking, and walking, until…

…until Papillon’s voice called out to her.

“Captain! Look! Up ahead!”

Brynn was snapped out of her inner focus, and immediately turned her head to look up. She was so preoccupied in following the compass, so singularly focused on her one goal, that she failed to take notice of her surroundings.

And sure enough, up ahead was a thick boundary of trees, demarcating the tranquil meadows from one of Neopia’s darkest, most dangerous lands.

Brynn held a finger to her chin as she stared into the forest’s edge. 

“So, you’ve decided to go back to your home in the Haunted Woods, have you…?”

“Wait, you really think so?” said Papillon. “Why there? Isn’t that the first place we’d look?”

“Obviously. Otherwise we wouldn’t be looking there first, would we?” Said Brynn. “Still, you’re right… this seems just a bit too easy.”

She gave a look back at her Guards. All of them seemed tense, about as anxious as she would have expected. Even those in the Faerieland Guard who had seen real danger had never once encountered a villain as dangerous and infamous as Xandra.

Still, as bad as Brynn felt for bringing them into such a mess, it had to be done. Justice would be served, under her watch. There was no doubt in her mind about that.

“Weapons at the ready, men. The forest is dense, and there are plenty of opportunities for an ambush. Be prepared.”