“….I’ve got some bad news about those new girls…” the princess told the group, her expression deadly serious. Sunset’s ears perked up as the group began walking towards the bakery, hanging back on the edges of the group as she fiddled with her phone.

-Hey, Sparky…I know I laughed, but…I could really use that reminder text right about now.- she sent, listening to the princess explain what she had discovered.

“Those girls reminded me a lot of an old legend, about a trio of hippocampi songstresses called ‘the Sirens.’”

Rainbow Dash interrupted loudly, snickering. “…A hippo-what now?”

Applejack slugged her shoulder irritably. “Even Ah know that one, Dash. Horse-Fish things. Some folk call’em Kelpies. Basically mer-ponies.” When everyone looked at the farmer in surprise, she shrugged. “Mah cousin an’ his ma own a horse ranch. Mac’n’me go out some summers ta help ‘em stu—” Green eyes went wide and she cleared her throat, changing her words. “Anywho, his ma loves ta tell stories about magical beasties an’ monsters…especially horse-monsters.”

Princess Twilight exhaled, then picked up her lecture again. “Yes. Half pony, half sea creature. According to the story, they were incredibly powerful and beautiful, with voices that could affect the feelings of others, but they used them to stir up and feed on negative emotions, particularly strife and suffering. They would feed on those emotions, using them to increase their magic and power—the more they fed, the stronger they would get, allowing them to generate even more negative emotions in a perpetually larger and larger cycle.”

“Oooo! Oooo!” Pinkie bounced near the princess. “We have monsters like that! Sort of! Except they were three beautiful fish ladies who sang to sailors and lured the ships onto rocks! But they’re just stories and now they are real? Oooooo…I wonder what other stories are real? Werewolves! Vampires! Fairies! Leprechauns—those have to be real! I have to redesign my leprechaun traps now…”

The phone vibrated in her hand, and she stole a look at it. -Of course, Sunny!- was quickly followed by a picture of a bulleted list in her girlfriend’s handwriting. -Already had it prepared, just in case!- The fact that she’d made a list out of moral support made Sunset fight the urge to laugh, and she focused back on the conversation ahead of her.

“It got to the point where something had to be done, and the great wizard, Starswirl the Bearded, led a group to combat them. The group did their best, but couldn’t win, so Starswirl used his magic to banish them to another world. He was under the impression that the other world would render their magic harmless. I’m worried that the world he picked was this one.”

Sunset’s fingers danced over the keys. -Nerd.-

-Your nerd, Sunset.-

-Definitely mine. Thanks, Sparky. That’s what I needed.-

Then she looked up at the group, tucking her phone into her pocket again. “I don’t really remember that story…” she mused. “Which book was it in?”

Princess Twilight looked somewhat startled for a moment to hear someone ask about the text itself, then beamed with a smile that made Sunset’s heart stutter awkwardly. “Oh! It’s in one of the older Starswirl biographies—it’s not a popular publication because it has a pretty negative stance on his personality, but I like to be thorough in my research.”

She found herself falling into a familiar groove of conversation—she’d spent hours talking books with another Twilight, after all. “Ah…I remember that one. Wasn’t that interested in it, because it mostly rehashed the same stories as other books on him, and it didn’t contain as many of his theorems as I was looking for. That was back when I was still studying advanced teleportation—I really didn’t like the idea of ending up halfway through the wall.” A shudder went through her. “On my list of ‘preferred deaths,' that one was firmly at the bottom.”

The other girls stared at her. “What? Imagine suddenly having twelve inches of solid stone sharing a space with all your major internal organs, turning them into jello. Teleportation is no joke. Why do you think I sleep through advanced calculus?” That netted a variety of expressions from disgust to horror to something akin to creeped out awe. Then she looked back at the princess, who was watching her intently. “It's interesting though—Starswirl dumping the Sirens in another world. He’s the same pony who created the mirror that connects to CHS, and Celestia mentioned that there were others he made, to other worlds….she refused to tell me more at the time. Makes me wonder about those other mirrors and where they lead.”

Princess Twilight frowned. “I…don’t know. I’ll ask her about them the next time I talk to her. If there are other potential portals to this world, we should probably keep track of where they are, when they open, and what goes through them.”

“That…would be nice. I’m not sure I like this world being some kind of dumping ground for Equestrian garbage, even if it was the Great and Powerful Starswirl who was using it like a trash can. This world and those in it shouldn’t be subjected to being treated like repository for Equestria’s unsolvable problems. That’s what we have Tartarus for.”

More frowning, while the rest of the group watched the conversation like it was a tennis match, the alicorn’s tone testy and sour, possibly because the sarcastic mocking of Starswirl—Sunset had detected the familiar sound of girlish glee when the princess had spoken of the ancient wizard. “…Tartarus is a prison, Sunset,” she corrected tersely.

“I’m well aware, and that's where ponykind sends the worst of the worst that cannot be reformed, destroyed, or safely exiled without having to constantly look over our shoulders. We dump them there and use Cerberus to keep them in.” She shrugged. “My point stands. This world isn’t the place for all of Equestria’s mistakes.” There was no need to let them know she considered herself one of those mistakes.

The princess opened her mouth to say something, but closed it a moment later, thinking. Sunset took the opportunity to address something else that had occurred to her, one hand rubbing the back of her neck. “…also, is it just me, or do the Sirens sound extremely similar to Windigos?”

Purple eyes lit up. “You’re right! I didn’t notice that! And they aren’t the only examples of mentally manipulative emotiphages in Equestria, now that I think about it. Windigos, Sirens, Changelings…I wonder if there are more.” Despite the concerning topic of conversation, she was practically vibrating with excitement as they approached the bakery. “I’m going to have to do a research paper when I get home!”

Sunset shook her head fondly. In certain ways, a Twilight Sparkle was a Twilight Sparkle, it seemed, pony princess or glasses wearing nerd. Rainbow Dash, on the other hand, voiced a much different opinion. “A research paper? When you don’t have to do one for a class? Ugh. Booooring.” She pushed open the door, and headed for the counter. “When you’re done being nerds, let me know. I’m getting a snack.”

Blue-green eyes narrowed at the casual dismissal of the intellectual conversation—she knew Dash wasn’t particularly fond of scholarly subjects, but she had thought that even she would understand the importance of figuring out more of what they were fighting against before they confronted the Sirens.

—What do you expect, horn-head? Your friends are still children—adolescents, yes, but still children, unlike you or the princess. The fact that they’re willing to fight at all is impressive, but you know you can’t hold them to the same standards as a fully grown adult of any species.—

The group broke apart, with some of them heading to sit down and the others going to get drinks or snacks, and as they did, she realized that the voice had a point. Her friends, as amazing as they were, were still teenagers at heart, and as a result, they weren’t feeling the same worry and stress over the situation that she did. It wasn’t really her place to draw attention to it, no matter how frustrating it might be, but she also figured that she could keep that in mind for the future to avoid getting mad at them unnecessarily.

Sunset wound up perched on the arm of a couch near Rarity and the princess, and she took a moment to get her bearings. Trying to keep the two Twilights separate was proving more difficult than she’d anticipated, but at the same time, little differences kept jumping out at her. Her Twilight was several inches shorter than her Equestrian doppelganger, and the princess didn’t seem to need glasses. The redhead was also becoming increasingly aware of a difference in their voices, in tone, pitch, and even delivery of their words. Despite having dealt with the constant presence of a Celestia in her life in both worlds, this blend of almost identical mixed with vastly different was stressing her out in ways she had never experienced.

There were also disconcerting differences in body language that were starting to make Sunset’s head spin. Was this how she sometimes looked to the others, pony gestures and posturing as a bipedal hairless monkey? Her brain was actually starting to hurt trying to translate the mashed up subconscious, non-verbal cues being given off, trying to parse which gestures were meant the Equestrian way, and which ones were meant in the human fashion. Being caught between two worlds sucked, she realized, rubbing her forehead as Rarity set her coffee down on the table and spoke to their visitor.

“Oh, I do hate that you had to return at a time of crisis! There’s so much catching up to do!”

Applejack, sitting backwards on a chair, half watching Rarity’s antics, got in on the conversation with a smirk. “Fer starters,” she drawled teasingly, “a certain blue-haired guitar player was just askin’ about ya.”

Princess Twilight went wide eyed, attention drawn from the chocolate milkshake Pinkie had brought her as she leaned forward excitedly, finger twirling a bit of her hair. “Flash Sentry was asking about me?” she practically demanded, and Sunset’s heart twinged. “Sunny!” she heard in her mind, in almost the same tone, with the exact same hand gesture, “I’m so glad to see you!” It was a voice she heard right before one of her girlfriend’s tight hugs, a voice that made her find the lips it came from so she could kiss them. The former unicorn exhaled slowly through her nose to suppress the longing that welled up in her.

Then the princess coughed, ducking her head in embarrassment as the other girls grinned knowingly at her, even Sunset unable to stop the bemused smirk that crossed her face at the way she blushed and cleared her throat, trying to regain some sense of dignity, “Isn’t that nice.” She busied herself with her milkshake to avoid letting her mouth run away with her.

Rarity changed the subject smoothly, sipping her drink. “Perhaps you would give us just the slightest bit of gossip from your world?” she asked hopefully, her eyes flicking to Sunset before she turned her attention back to their visiting royal. Gratitude filled Sunset. She wanted to know more about what was happening back in Equestria, but talking to Princess Twilight was proving to be something else entirely. The smirk became a real smile, and she adjusted her sitting position to listen intently.

It wasn’t Twilight who answered, but the Equestrian Spike—it was disconcerting to have the dog that normally treated her with disdain being pleasant. The talking she didn’t notice as much as that. “She’s got an official title now,” he proclaimed from Fluttershy’s lap. There was pride and affection in his voice as he raised a milk-bone in imitation fanfare. “The Princess of Friendship!”

Sunset kept her mask on, hating herself for the sharp stab of envy and hurt that dug into her. “Wow,” she said, somehow managing to keep her voice even. “That’s really impressive.” She gripped her jacket sleeve with her other hand, eyes darting away. “Guess you really were Princess Celestia’s prize pupil,” she forced herself to admit, the statement tearing her heart in to tiny pieces and lighting those pieces on fire. The exiled unicorn refused to let the mask falter, refused to let them see how much agony those words had caused in her. She had done this to herself, made the choices that led to this moment, and she couldn’t go back and change them. She had to move forward…to move on…to work through the pain and let go of that which could never be.

“You’re special to me, Sunset.”

“I’m proud of you.”

“You’re my best friend…”

“You’re Twilight’s friend, Sunset. We want you to feel at home here…”

“Hey, kiddo. Keeping my sister out of trouble?”

“You’re coming to family movie night next weekend, right?”

Over and over she replayed the words that meant the most to her, from Twilight, from Velvet, from Night Light and Shining Armor, even from Cadence. She’d earned those words, those relationships, on her own. They weren’t connected to the princess, to her lost home, to the mother she wanted but could never have, to a destiny never fully achieved. They were hers and hers alone, and if the price to pay to have them was everything that came before, with all the pain tearing at her right now? Then so be it. She used the words like a bandage on her soul, protecting the worst of her inner hurts. She was still trying to find her way, but she wasn’t alone.

“She’s even got her own castle!” the dog…dragon…pet…assistant…thing...added with a grin, his eyes flicking to her deliberately. It seemed he was still sore about being snatched and used as bait for his owner? Friend? Sunset realized she wasn’t actually sure what the relationship there was. Either way, he was getting a few digs in where he could, and she couldn’t blame him.

Rarity grabbed onto the princess’ collar, her voice cracking and the cultured accent faltering. “A castle?! You have your own castle?!” Applejack rolled her eyes, and offered a throat clearing sound to snap Rarity out of whatever dramatic fit had been brewing. The designer calmed, releasing the other girl and looking around as she cleared her throat. “Ooh..uh, lovely.”

The dark-haired figure looked a little uncomfortable, and quickly turned the conversation around. “What’s new here? I mean, besides your school becoming the target for dangerous magical creatures from Equestria?”

The girls all exchanged nervous expressions, then flitted their attention to Sunset, as if asking her permission. She smiled wryly, and gave a subtle ‘Go ahead’ motion with one hand. Maybe the princess would have answers for that bit of magic too. Or perhaps give her a better jumping point than what she’d already figured out.

Rainbow Dash turned her phone around. “Yeah, so…that isn’t the only thing that’s happened since you left.” On the screen, a clip played that showed Dash going through her transformation while playing a riff on her guitar. The princess grew increasingly wide eyed, hand going to her mouth in shocked disbelief. “Pretty sweet, huh?” Rainbow asked her. “It happens to all of us when we play.”

The alicorn-turned human frowned, and Sunset could practically see the wheels turning in her head. “Hmm…My Crown was returned to Equestria, but some of its magic must’ve remained here at Canterlot High.”

Well, at least she and the pony princess were on the same page there.
“Now that we’re all back together, we can use that magic on the Sirens!”

—Easy, princess Sparkle-butt. Let’s not get cocky and ahead of ourselves.— Apparently Stupid Little Voice had its own two bits to add.

The tone became even more excited. “Just like we were able to use it on Sunset Shimmer when she turned into that horrifyingly awful winged monster!”

And the award for ‘Running Gags That Were Wearing Themselves Thin’ went to the she-demon jokes. Apparently everyone else had noticed her increasingly grumpy attitude about the matter, because all noise among the other five girls halted as they went awkwardly still and silent, eyes slowly turning in her direction. The princess noticed, and the realization of what she had said seemed to dawn on her. “Uh…no offense…” she offered weakly.

Sunset curled forward, arms crossed over her chest with her elbows on her knees. A frustrated sigh puffed past her lips, trying not to let on just how much hearing those words from that voice twisted her up inside. “…none taken.” She forced a sardonic chuckle out, rolling her eyes. “I’m used to it.”

Rainbow tried to bring the conversation back around. “They’ll never know what hit ‘em!” She began executing a showy series of kicks and punches into the air that made Sunset groan inwardly. With the way Rainbow was telegraphing her every move, the former unicorn could have had her on the ground, winded, in about three and a half seconds. Where ever she had learned those moves, it wasn’t actually meant for fighting.

This was even more obvious when her flying fist was caught casually by Applejack, her own grasping hand never even moving, despite the force of the fist slapping into her palm. The farmer slowly lowered Dash’s arm away from her face. “We got nuthin’ ta worry ‘bout now that Twilight’s back.”

Fluttershy spoke in her normal soft tones. “Oh, I’m pretty sure I could find something to worry about…but it won’t be the Sirens!” she ended cheerfully, smiling at the group.

Princess Twilight’s expression grew firm. “…The sooner we do this, the better.” Her gaze roved over the group. “Any idea where the Dazzlings might be?”

Pinkie bolted upright, waving her hand vigorously. When everyone turned their attention to her, she quickly sucked down the rest of her milkshake. “There’s a big party tonight for all the bands who signed up to be in the showcase! That would include the Dazzlings.”

Sunset shook her head. Trust Pinkie Pie to know about a party.

The visiting princess smirked. “Looks like we’ve got a party to crash…”

A noise like air escaping from a pool toy issued from Pinkie, her grin ready to split her face.

Posted a little early because I'm feeling crappy, and I might crash early tonight.

Right, so. Authorial commentary for the chapter.

I try to stick fairly close to most of the show canon as much as possible--I'm a big believer in working within established lore rather than against it--but FiM's lore....kinda jumped the shark badly in a few places for me, and the later stuff they did with Starswirl (and the "pillars") is one of those areas.

The idea of Starswirl as this Merlin-esque figure was interesting, but to me, the Pillars, and their "they created the tree of harmony, the elements, and were like the precursor harmony virtues" schtick? It felt....honestly, it didn't add to the story in my opinion. If anything, it detracted from the main characters and their heroics, and felt...kinda unnecessary and redundant.

So I'm kinda scrapping that. I have a different origin in mind for the tree, and while the characters of the pillars existed, in this universe, they were simply previous wielders of the Elements, one set in a long succession of ponies for many millennia that were called to use the Elements of Harmony against evil.

...I may have also adjusted the timeline, because literally everything in the show happened exactly 1000 years ago. 1000 years ago was apparently a very busy year. I might eventually post a timeline write up, but consider pony history more akin to the way real world recorded history happened spread out over like 10000-15000 years, with a lot of the same failings of real history, like bias, loss of information overtime, etc.

I'm entertained by the idea that half the reason Sunset breezes through a lot of human high school with little effort is because she went through extremely intensive study to master things like teleportation and transmutation and other types of high end magic. (We see pony Twilight has a background in science, math, and chemistry in a few episodes.)

I also find it very interesting that there are some very subtle but noticeable differences between the two Twilights in the human world, including a slight difference in their hair (If i remember correctly, the human Twilight's magenta/pink streak is perceptably wider than her pony counterpart's.) And I figure, if anyone is gonna notice, its gonna be the girl who spends her weekends kissing a Twilight in her bedroom.

As a side note, one of the hardest things to keep track of in this story is Sunset's "ages." She has three, for the intents and purposes of this tale: How old her human form is, how many years she's actually lived through, and how old she would have been had she stayed in Equestria.

Equestria really does seem to have a bunch of emotiphages, doesnt it?

Meanwhile, the emotional roller coaster continues! Huzzah!

Alright, I've rambled enough.