Twilight shifted her front hooves as Spike helped secure the saddlebags to her back. “Are you sure we got everything, Spike? Maybe we should check the list again—I don’t want to forget anything!”

Her dragon placed his talons gently on her withers. “Twilight, relax. We checked your list four times. You have everything on it. I even remembered the bag from Princess Celestia.”

The touch became a hug as she hooked her foreleg around him, nuzzling her muzzle into his warm, smooth scales. “Thanks, Spike. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

He snorted good-naturedly, hugging her back. “You’d drive yourself crazy, that's what,” he teased cheekily. “Tell Sunset I said hello? And make sure she gives you those biscuits I like? I really want to try making a ruby and sapphire layered dessert with those crumbled up as the crust on the bottom.” The young drake licked his chops.

She released him with one last affectionate nuzzle. “I will. You will keep the journal on you for when I need the portal opened back up? And—”

“And remember to check Owlowiscious’ water dish, clean the kitchen, and check the castle book return for the library. I remember.” He gave her a shove towards the portal. “You left me a list, Twilight. I can handle it. Now go, before you’re late.”

The young alicorn’s eyes widened. “Late! Oh no! I need to go!” She levitated the journal into its housing and activated the device, prancing nervously as she waited for the portal to stabilize. She barely managed to let it open all the way before she cantered forward into the dimensional aperture.

Traveling through to the human world was not exactly pleasant. Twilight felt her whole body stretched and pulled and turned inside out in ways she couldn't quite manage to describe. It didn't hurt, but it made her bones and teeth feel like they itched, and the entire time all of her external senses were rendered nonfunctional. If she was ever asked, she knew she would voice strong opinions about her preference for unicorn teleportation magic—at least there she didn’t feel like she’d been sucked up through a drinking straw.

She braced herself to impact hard stone as the portal flung her out and her senses tried to reboot, only to be caught by an arm that steadied her. “That portal really needs to be recalibrated,” she heard Sunset comment as the white noise in her ears cleared. “I think the time dilation wasn’t properly accounted for, which would explain why it tosses you out hard on this end and doesn’t on the Equestria side of things. You okay?”

Twilight straightened, rubbing her eyes to get them to focus. “It’s really not a great way to travel, but I’m hesitant to try and alter Starswirl’s spellwork without having some kind of reference guide.” Vision clearing, she straightened up into the bipedal posture her human form preferred, and turned a smile on Sunset. “I’m good now. Thanks for breaking my fall.”

The other pony waved her hand in a human gesture that Twilight took to indicate that Sunset was not worried about it. “Take it from me, kissing concrete with your face is extremely unpleasant.” She gave a wan smile in return.

Concern made Twilight frown. “Are you alright, Sunset? You look...unwell. Have you recovered from expending your magic properly? I know you said these bodies don't require magical energy as a fundamental part of their biology, but we don't know how thorough our transfigurations are. It’s entirely possible that you could be suffering from acute magical exhaustion, which can become life threatening and—”

“Twilight. Stop.”

Almost before her mind could register what was happening, Twilight’s mouth snapped shut mid-sentence, the runaway train of her thoughts derailing abruptly in a rather spectacular fashion. It left the alicorn blinking at Sunset Shimmer, bewildered and taken slightly aback at the way the commanding tone had overridden her actions.

Sunset took a deep breath, exhaling slowly. “I’m fine. I’ve taken it easy for several weeks, and my reserves have recovered at a fairly normal rate—though not as fast as they would in Equestria. I’m not at risk for a sudden collapse. I’ve just had...a bit of a long day, and I’m still getting used to people here...being nice to me.” She shifted from foot to foot, betraying her agitation, but plowed onward. “People weren’t...very forgiving after the Formal, Twilight, other than the girls. What you saw during the Battle of the Bands? That had been going on for me since you put me in the ground, that and worse. It’s only been since we beat the Sirens that they’ve been...nice. I’m still...adjusting.”

Twilight’s concern shifted focus. “But everypo—everyone here is so nice! Why wouldn’t they give you a chance when you showed you wanted to change?” The few, sparse legends about humans had suggested a penchant for cruelty was possible, but she hadn’t seen much of that that wasn’t influenced by magic from Equestria.

Snorting, Sunset shook her head, fiery mane bouncing with the movement. “I hate to break it to you, Twilight, but humans are a lot more wary and a lot slower to trust than ponies,” she explained. “Especially to someone who caused them as much pain as I did.” She cracked a slight, crooked grin. “That seems to have changed though, like I said. Everyone has been super nice and friendly today, and...it’s just a lot more attention than I’m used to. It’s been a little overwhelming.”

Understanding bloomed—it sounded like Sunset was dealing with a reaction much similar to the one she was still dealing with when she went out anywhere other than Ponyville. “Oh! …That I understand—it’s extremely disconcerting to have everyone suddenly focused and staring at you, like they expect you to suddenly fix everything or perform miraculous feats if they just…watch long enough…” Her shoulders hunched up, and she shifted awkwardly on her hind legs, wishing she still had a tail to flick, because the memory alone was enough to make her skin feel like it was crawling. The worry ebbed though, and she gave Sunset a somewhat forced smile to hide just how unsettled the attention still made her. “It…gets easier…I think. Sort of,” she attempted to reassure the other pony, cringing internally at the way she was babbling.

Sunset reached over, patting her on the forelimb. Arm. “Breathe, remember? Good for humans and ponies, Twilight.”

The statement made her laugh and feel more at ease. “I’m glad to hear you’re making more friends—you can never have too many of those, and...” she paused, trying to compose what she wanted to say correctly, looking Sunset over and seeing beyond the surface stress that was on her face. “...it’s hard to judge with a human body, but...you seem...different, in a good way.” She bit her lip. “It reminds me of the changes in myself when I first moved to Ponyville. I was healthier. Happier than I could remember being.”

Sunset smiled, truly smiled, for the first time since Twilight had known her, and Twilight found herself momentarily frozen, unable to even breathe. Something in the way that Sunset stood before her, tall and proud, but with her head tilted just so, her wild mane caught in the slight breeze so that the untamed fiery curls seemed to move of their own volition...it was as if the smile on her face was more than just an upward turn of her lips. A memory was called up from the depths of Twilight Sparkle’s experiences, one of many like it. It had been during one of her lessons with the Princess, the first time she had mastered teleportation without needing to be rescued from the roof or the top of the hedge in the palace gardens. Princess Celestia had smiled at her then, just like this, and as irrational and cliché as it may have sounded, it had felt like the sun reappearing from behind cloud cover, an orb of blazing brilliance that dazzled the senses with light and warmth. It was a smile that conveyed so much emotion that it became like that sunlight, traveling from the source to affect anything, anypony it touched, even if only for a brief time. What did it say then about Sunset Shimmer, that she could do that too?

And when the moment ended, she couldn’t help herself, her own grin filled with joy, as she threw her arms around Sunset Shimmer in a hug, any doubts and worries she had harbored about the reformed unicorn’s well being in the human world melting away without even the need to hear Sunset’s words as she laughed and hugged Twilight back.

“I am different, Twilight. For the first time in a long time...I...I like who I am, and I feel happy. I have friends and magic, and it wasn’t just given to me. I earned them, on my terms.” The unicorn-turned-human released her, stepping back into her own space. “Now if I could just get people here to stop assuming just because human belief says something is magic that it is, that would be great.”

Twilight tilted her head in confusion. “What do you mean? I thought this world didn’t have native magic?”

“As far as I’ve investigated, it doesn’t, not really. I’ve...occasionally sensed...well, at best it might be nascent magic, or even energies leaked through from Equestria over time. Most of the time...I’m not sure I’m sensing anything at all, or if it’s me just wanting magic that badly. Because, believe me, when I was first trapped here? I looked. I looked into any potential source of magic to replace what I was missing—I know you know what I mean too, that sudden loss of your horn that feels like you’ve had part of your soul amputated.” Sunset blew air out her nostrils, even as she rubbed her arms with her hands as warding off a chill.

The young alicorn did know—she could recall the horror that had settled over her on her first trip here when the door didn’t open at her mental command, when Spike had pointed out so casually that her horn was missing in this body. It had been enough that some part of her gibbered and begged for her to abandon her quest and flee back through that gateway to her home. “...so you looked,” she commented, deliberately avoiding either of them dwelling on that sensation. “...and you didn’t find anything?”

Another derisive snort, this time accompanied by an eye roll and a voice that dripped sarcasm. “Nothing worth a mentioning. Lots of myths and stories of monsters and magic, usually tied to human religions, but nothing with real magic. I honestly think most of what humans ‘know’ about magic probably came from humans who made brief accidental trips to Equestria.”

Frowning, Twilight nodded her head. “And what does that have to do with the students assuming things are magic?”

Sunset grew exasperated, throwing her hands up in a human gesture that seemed to accent her emotions. “Because they keep giving me garbage, Twilight! Human garbage! It wouldn’t be so bad if it was books—if nothing else they could be used as reference material or even a place to find ideas for experiments. But most of it is pointless, worthless junk!” She thrust a hand into her jacket pocket, and pulled out a clear bag. “Like this! Do you know what these are!?”

Purple eyes narrowed as she studied the contents: a mixture of smooth and rough stones. Nothing phenomenal or even particularly eye catching except what she thought might’ve been a few pieces of amethyst. She had only delved into geology at an amateur level, focusing most of her efforts in the field on gems and crystals that were useful in magic. “It looks to me like a geologic sample, possibly from near an old riverbed, given what seems like some stones shaped by water erosion as well as a large presence of what appears to be varieties of quartz.”

“It’s rocks, Twilight. Rocks! This ‘geologic sample?’ This is an example of what humans consider spell quality crystals and gemstones.” Sunset’s expression twisted with disgust, and for once, Twilight Sparkle couldn’t blame her.

“That!?” she asked, horrified at the mere thought. “Sunset, there’s no way you could use any of those for magic. Even from here, I can see they’re riddled with flaws and inclusions. Trying to charge any of them with even so much as a light spell would cause them to overload—if you were lucky, it would just explode in your face!”

Sunset curled her upper lip into a proper sneer, even if it looked out of place on a human. “I know,” she agreed, blowing air out her nostrils, one back foot stamping the ground, expressing just how frustrating and annoying she found the situation. “I was never much of an artificer, but even I know that much. But I can’t be mean, because they don’t know any better and they are trying to help. It’s just…frustrating, because it’s all garbage!” She stuffed the bag of stones back in her pocket with a heavy sigh.

Then a call came from the direction of the school. “Sunset Shimmer! I wanted to talk to you before you left!” A girl trotted up, holding something under one arm, blinking at the alicorn standing near Sunset before breaking into a smile. “Hi, Twilight! Great to see you again!” Then she was focusing on Sunset again, holding out a very tattered, worn book to her shyly. “…Look, I don’t know if it’ll help or not, but this was my grandma’s and it’s supposed to be related to magic and spells and stuff. I thought you might like it to help with the Rainbooms and your studies…”

The redhead plastered on a fairly convincing smile, taking the book. “Thanks,” she responded, even managing to keep her voice light. “I’ll look through it.” She kept up the act until the girl was gone from sight and sound, before the mask dropped and she stared at the book she held as if it had personally wronged her.

Twilight shifted awkwardly. “…at least this one’s a book?” she offered, trying to soothe the temper she could practically feel rising in her fellow Equestrian.

Blue-green eyes shut so Sunset could take several slow, deep breaths. “Yes,” she acknowledged. “Which might be useful except for two very key things.” She turned the book to show Twilight the cover, which was covered in flowers, hearts, some very badly drawn renditions of a flask stoppered with a cork, and what might have been some kind of magical rune. There was a title, but Twilight had only barely started to learn the human writing system, so she couldn’t quite understand what it meant. The princess turned the questioning gaze back to Sunset, who continued. “One, the title. ‘Amor Magicae Iuvenes Veneficas’ which basically means ‘Love Spells for the Teenage Witch’…albeit translated very poorly into a defunct, dead language used almost exclusively by humans for scientific terms and sounding smarter than they are.”

“Love Spells for the…what?” Twilight responded weakly. Clearly her ears had stopped working, because more than half of that had made no sense.

“...Teenage Witch. In human terms, either a really tacky magic wielding crone who likes to transfigure people into toads or members of a small, fringe belief system that seems to prance around in the woods, pretending they can do magic by speaking to imaginary monsters and elemental beings.” She grimaced. “Don’t get me started on human religion, please. It’s…It’s a very complicated mess, and I’m not qualified to explain it because I barely understand it. Especially because as far as I’ve seen, most of their gods seem to be either incorporeal or imaginary as a way to explain phenomena instead of studying it.”

Shaking her head, the alicorn forced herself away from dwelling on the concept of not studying. “…and the second thing?”

Sunset laughed humorlessly. “I’ve already gotten four other copies of this book today. Even if there was something useful in here, I've already got more copies than Ill ever need.”

“Oh. Must be a popular book....though...why love spells?” Twilight canted her head to the side. “It’s such a random and unreliable field—yes, there are spells that can create fixation or even attraction, but love is a magic of its own and even Princess Cadence cannot create love where there is none. No pony can, not real love, at least. Why would humans even try?”

The wild mane bounced around her shoulders as Sunset shook her head. “Trust me, Twilight, the less you know about that, the better you’ll sleep at night.” She jerked her thumb towards the school. “Now c’mon. The girls are already up in our new lab. Rarity wanted to ‘spruce it up.’” She made a gesture with both hands, hooking her first two fingers downward in a slashing motion. “We should get up there before she decides to start sewing curtains for the windows.”

Following behind Sunset, having to jog slightly to keep up with the other pony’s brisk and easy two legged stride, she observed the students left in the halls as they greeted both her and Sunset fairly enthusiastically. Her once-enemy waved back, smiling pleasantly, and Twilight could see the confidence that had exuded from every pore during their first encounter was back--though with her more amiable attitude, it was a pleasant sort of confidence rather than the sneering arrogance and superiority. It was a self assurance that had been absent the month before, buried under shame and guilt and fear.

Purple eyes took it all in, glued to Sunset’s back as they climbed the stairs, listening with half an ear as she considered a thought that intruded on her mind. She had wondered on several occasions, particularly in the weeks after she’d first followed Sunset into the human world after her Element, why Princess Celestia would ever have taken somepony like Sunset Shimmer as a personal student. Nothing about Sunset had seemed like the kind of pony that the Princess would want to see grow in power and influence, not with how toxic the nobility could already be in Canterlot. Sunset’s brand of manipulation and arrogance would have undermined the carefully balanced system and created a serious problem. So why take her on?

It bothered her enough that she’d gone looking for information on Sunset...only to find almost nothing at all. Her name cropped up in official records at CSGU, and, but in several cases where her file had mentioned her setting records at the school, the official records never made mention of it, and her name was missing from any of the plaques or trophies where said records should have been commemorated. It was a discrepancy she’d reported to the administration, but they hadn’t gotten back to her. Beyond the school, there was even less. It certainly answered why Twilight had never heard of her predecessor prior to the stolen crown, and she almost asked the Princess about the matter....

But something about Princess Celestia’s reaction when she’d mentioned Sunset’s name had stopped her. The solar princess’ eyes had been filled with an emotion that Twilight couldn’t quantify, but it almost felt like she was standing in the middle of something private between the older alicorn and the former protégé. Out of sheer discomfort at the sensation, she had grown anxious and lost her nerve to ask the questions she had spent hours forming, choosing instead to relay some of the friendly news that had come through the journal.

Now, seeing the individual before her, all those nasty, negative behaviors now transformed into strengths instead of expressions of selfish hubris, Twilight Sparkle wondered...

Was this Sunset Shimmer, with a charisma that shone like the sun and a fiery intensity to every act, every word...was this the filly that Celestia had once met and singled out as special out of an entire generation of hopefuls? Was this Sunset Shimmer as Celestia had seen her? This young mare who wore an alien form with easy grace and passed amongst her peers with the same gentle compassion and warmth, who took the time to stop and listen to the students who ran up to her with useless and magically inert objects with the same smile and words of gratitude as Twilight had seen so often on the face of the white alicorn who had been her teacher…Was this Sunset Shimmer as the Princess of the Sun had known her?

And if it was...then what had happened to her to transform her into the cruel, bitter mare that Twilight had seen first?

Not gonna lie, this was one of my favorite interludes to write. Partially because of the ability to look at Sunset from the perspective of a fellow equine, but also because of the one part of the entire conversation that was basically the reason this interlude exists at all.

What part was that?

"It's garbage, Twilight. Human. Garbage."

It spawned from me explaining to my friend over lunch one day about how one of the big differences in Equestria and Earth is that the presence of magic, particularly in the water and earth, causes a very rapid crystalization of particularly pure minerals, allowing the natives to basically grow them like some people grow carrots. Gems in Equestria grow large, fast, and numerous enough that several species eat the damned things and Rarity basically uses them as clothing accessories.

So basically, the conversation spawned a 'what would sunset say when she sees what humans consider magical stones...' which led to me doing an awful Sunset impersonation at a steakhouse, and him breaking down into laughter. And thus, this chapter was born.

Also...look! more hints about Sunset's past and one of the biggest plot holes of all. If she was important and powerful enough to have learned under Celestia personally, (which is treated as rare and special and a big deal), why had Twilight NEVER heard of her? If she was an amazing student at CSGU, why was she never mentioned in anything from the school? We all know Twilight didn't socialize, but you can't tell me she didnt read everything on CSGU to decide she wanted to go there.

We're also starting to see that transformation of Sunset from the Rainbow Rocks character into the young woman presented in the later EqG stuff. *grins*

Random Author Side Note: Hilariously, while working on Arc 2, I ended up mapping out birthdays for several of the characters...mostly to pin down ages for Sunset and Twilight, and on a bit of a whim, I used zodiac sun signs for it. I wonder if anyone can guess what Sunset's ended up being.