My Empire of Dirt
by PrincessColumbia
First published
Sunset Shimmer has been defeated at the Fall Formal, but something has gone drastically wrong and Principal Celestia must play magic detective to keep
One week after the Fall Formal, Principal Celestia is surprised to learn that a near-catatonic Sunset Shimmer has been calling out for her in the girl's sleep. Sunset has been unresponsive even to professional medical authorities, so what could have prompted her to call out in her sleep for an educator who had only occasionally interacted with her?
(Description intentionally kept short to avoid spoilers for future chapters)
Chapter 1 - I Hurt Myself Today
Principal Celestia suppressed a sigh of fatigue as she blinked her eyes to stay awake. The darkness of the rural countryside kept trying to draw her into sleep, which would be a very bad thing to happen behind the wheel. It had been an eventful week of dealing with contractors, the school board, the school district board, the finance and budget committee, several law enforcement agencies on the local, state, and federal levels, and jumping through even more hoops to keep her students’ lives as protected from bureaucratic machinations as possible, not to mention the “X-files” type government agency (that she now knew wasn’t just a conspiracy theory concocted by Lyra) that started sniffing around the Monday after the Fall Formal. Goddess, it’s only been seven days since…? she wondered to herself. Seven days since the wildest events that she could possibly imagine happening, events that answered dozens of questions about the last couple years and raised hundreds more.
Oddly, it helped that Sunset Shimmer hadn’t been at the school for the last week. Of course, the reason she wasn’t at school wasn’t good at all.
That morning…
Celestia set her coffee to the side as her door opened fully, the portly matriarch of the Apple family making use of the ‘open door’ policy Celestia maintained with her staff. The friendly greeting she was about to offer died on her lips when she saw the serious, downcast expression on the older woman’s face as she closed the door behind her.
“Hello, Mrs. Smith. Is there a problem in the cafeteria?” After the last week, a simple food supply issue would be a relief.
Granny Smith remained quiet until she could shuffle over to a chair and settle herself into it. She breathed deep through her nose before speaking, “No, I’m ‘fraid not.” she began. “It’s about that Shimmer girl.”
That surprised Celestia. According to Sunset’s file, she was absent today and for good reason. The principal had filed the notice herself, as Sunset’s file had only been removed from her desk on Tuesday in an effort to keep her student’s name from being connected to the events (that were apparently so significant they could be seen from space, Sunset’s file now had the satellite photo to prove it) when the agents of S.M.I.L.E. had shown up. “I don’t understand, I thought she was still in the hospital…?”
Granny shook her head, “They only hold someone for 72 hours, and if they aint gettin’ the patient to talk and they’re otherwise well behaved, they gotta discharge on account they can’t do a diagnosis.”
The statement left Celestia mildly winded. “What?! But when her friends took her in…”
“Yeah, but ‘parently the word of a ‘buncha teenagers’ don’t count fer much.” That Mrs. Smith was actually affronted by this Celestia wasn’t terribly surprised. The woman had raised Applejack to be honest, after all, and someone was calling that honesty into question. “I had t’go pick the girl up. ‘Parently since there was no actual I.D. t’proove she’s underaged and no parents coming in, they were gonna send her to ‘pretective survisis’ ‘till I came in.” Celestia repressed a smile at Granny’s intentional accented slurring of the agency’s name. The principal had been an emotional support to the family after Applejack’s parents had died and had been witness to the attempts of the agency to remove the woman’s grandchildren from the home. There was truly no love lost between CPS and the owner of Sweet Apple Acres.
“So where is she now?”
“At the farm.” Granny sagged a bit again, being brought out of her indignance with the reminder of why she came into the office. “She...barely moves when she’s awake. She has nightmares somethin’ fierce.” She opened her mouth as if to continue, then closed it.
Celestia decided to chase that particular conversational rabbit. “So why come to me? Wouldn’t a psychiatrist or a therapist be better for her right now?”
Granny shrugged, “Maybe, maybe not. She aint said anything, and every time she looks like she wants to talk she gets a look like the combine drove over her favorite puppy and shuts right down again. Aint even written anythin’ down, neither. Nah,” she shrugged and looked Celestia in the eyes, “Thing is, she does talk in her sleep. Most of it’s babble, you know the like, but one thing comes out clear as a sunrise on a harvest mornin’...” she looked right into the eyes of the principal, “She keeps cryin’ out yer name.”
That was probably the biggest surprise to have hit Celestia since one of her students turned into a demon and five others sprouted animal ears and tails. She almost didn’t breath for a moment, “...what?” she finally gasped out.
“Firs’ time I heard the girl shoutin’ out in her sleep I ran in, an’ she was shiverin’ and cryin, beggin fer somethin, not quite sure what, but then she said, ‘Please, Celestia, help me,’ and then let out the saddest cry you ever done heard.” The matriarch closed her eyes and swallowed thickly, “Most nights have been pretty much a repeat of that. Two, three times a night she starts cryin’ out in her sleep and at least once yer name comes up.”
The principal was flummoxed, “But...why? I’ve certainly had my share of interacting with Sunset Shimmer...she has been one of our...problematic students, after all. But why would she be calling to me in a dream?”
Granny Smith shrugged, “I ‘spect you’ll have to ask the Shimmer girl that directly t’know for sure, provided you can get her to talk while she’s awake. I did talk to Applejack ‘n Rainbow Dash, seein’ how they’re taking the most time with Sunset tryin’ to be friends like that visiting princess girl said to.” She shook her head wryly, “Now there’s a sentence I never thought I’d be utterin’...Anyway, they said that the reason Princess Twilight was able t’make friends so fast with all the students was ‘cuz where she and Sunset Shimmer are from there’s dopel-whatchahoozums, y’know, duplicates of everyone?” Celestia nodded her comprehension and Granny Smith continued, “From what they understand, the two girls are from a place where Twilight already knew everyone there, so used that knowledge to bring everyone together here. My thinkin’ is that Sunset Shimmer was pretty close to that other version of you an’ has been calling out for her now that...well.” The elder woman’s eyes slid in the direction of the front door of the school, as though she could see through the walls to the crater left behind after Sunset’s defeat.
There were a few beats of silence, the occasional noise of a busy school in early morning activity making its way into the room through the closed door and open window. With a sigh (she’d been doing far too much of that since the Fall Formal) she said, “I suspect you didn’t come in just to give me an update.”
Granny’s lips quirked up at the corner, “Yep. I’d be much obliged if you could make your way out to the farm to see what you can do for the girl. Also, I’ve been writin’ notes to excuse Applejack a couple o’ days this week, and Mac’s taken a day off so he can help, but right now Sunset needs...monitorin’ in case she decides to...well, you know.” She shifted uncomfortably. “Now, you know me, Miss Celestia…”
Celestia felt a knot in her stomach forming even before Granny had gotten to the part that referred to the reason Sunset had landed in the hospital. “...she needs a place to stay and someone to watch her?”
Granny sighed again. There was a lot of that going around, “Yeah. You know I wouldn’t ask if I had…”
Celestia leaned forward and reached across the desk. With the furniture in between them, there was no way she could actually clasp the older woman’s hand reassuringly, but she could at least make the gesture and know her friend and coworker would understand. “Granny, you do as much as any three other people and you’re raising your grandkids to do just as well...maybe better if Mac and Applejack are any indication.” She smiled warmly at the other woman, “I’ll see what I can do. Do you need me to come over at a specific time…?”
A relieved smile caused Granny’s face to crinkle as the laugh lines worn in by time framed her eyes, “Nah, just come out when you can. I’ll let AJ and Mac know to expect you. Applebloom’s been...well, you know the CMC.” the amused snort reflected the mood of the entire school’s staff at the trio’s antics. “Anyway, I know yer busy…”
Just then Celestia’s phone intercom buzzed and Luna’s voice came through, “Sister, Agents Gingerbread and Harvest are back.”
Granny Smith nodded knowingly at the phone. Celestia snorted and keyed the button to reply, “Thank you, Luna. I’ll be there shortly.”
Mrs. Smith continued once the intercom light clicked off, “Like I said. You just come on over when you get the chance.”
They exchanged a farewell as Celestia grabbed the folio that she was starting to call “the X-file,” slipped the most recent report from Prof. Whooves in that showed no appreciable radiation above the background levels, and glancing at her computer chose not to print out the report she’d been reading about a theoretical new fundamental force. It was early, early stages of purely theoretical research and mathematical work, but from what Celestia could understand from the (incredibly dense) technical jargon, it did fit the phenomenon that they observed the previous Friday night. Just as she hit the key combination to lock her computer, her eyes flitted to the byline for the article. Huh…’T. Sparkle.’ I wonder…? Shrugging the thought away, she locked her desk as well, grabbed her keys, and headed off to deal with the paranormal investigators who seemed intent on digging into information that would put her students' lives under threat, and she considered it her job to keep that from happening.
Present...
If only Princess Twilight had bothered to establish formal diplomatic ties...or even just keep the gate or portal or whatever it is open...Celestia allowed herself a small bit of grumbling as she pulled onto the small private road framed by the sign “Sweet Apple Acres.” The headaches kept piling on as more time passed. The agents had continued trying to pry, attempting to pick apart the staff’s agreed-upon story that the front facade of the school was damaged by a freak accident of a particularly intelligent student messing with materials that she didn’t fully understand and it went out of control. True as far as it went, but it left out huge pieces that the agents were starting to suspect were being kept from them.
Poor Cheerilee was practically shaking in frustrated anger after the pair had interrupted class attempting to pull a few students for questioning. Cheerilee wouldn’t be brought up on charges of assaulting government employees as the pair had overstepped the bounds of what the law allowed, but the teacher had to take the rest of the day off and Celestia had to step in as substitute since it was too late in the day on a Friday to find one through the usual channels. Of course, her regular workload could only be delegated so far, and she still had to stay after school for several hours to complete paperwork and make requisite calls to parents.
As Celestia pulled in, her headlights’ beam passed over the white and purple VW ‘bug’ that Rarity drove. She smiled, satisfaction that her five...most visible students were doing so much to take care of what had been the school’s biggest bully. With Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash in the group, she couldn’t call them her “best” students by traditional academic measures, but if “character” were taken into account, the five would blow away pretty much any other school’s entire student body combined. She was heartbroken when the five’s friendship broke during their freshman year. Their recent reconciliation and subsequent teamwork literally saving the students and faculty just proved that the five were natural born leaders.
She parked, not bothering to lock the car given how deep she was into private property. The front door to the house opened as she approached, young Apple Bloom practically bouncing out of the way to let the educator in. “Granny told us you were comin’ over. She had ta’ take a nap after dinner. I’ll go get’r up.” Before Celestia could tell her not to bother the older woman, Apple Bloom was off like a shot to the stairs leading to the bedrooms, nearly bowling over Applejack as they passed on the stairs.
“Apple Bloom!” snapped the older sister, “How many times do we have to tell you to WALK in the house?” she nearly shouted up the stairs.
A somewhat distant, “Sorry sis!” floated down, but they could still hear the running pace of the youngest Apple as she ran through the upstairs hall.
Rolling her eyes, Applejack finished descending the stairs and approached the educator. “Evenin’ Principal. Sorry y’couln’t come out under better circumstances.”
Celestia smiled at her student, “It’s alright, Applejack. I’m just glad that you and your friends stepped up to help as you have been. I couldn’t be more proud to be your principal.”
Applejack’s shoulders squared in pride even as the girl blushed and scratched the back of her neck in embarrassment. “Aww, shucks, ma’am. Twern’t nuthin’ any right-thinkin’ person wouldn’t do.”
Celestia chose not to respond, as she knew from dealing with the girl’s grandmother for years that no matter how much praise one heaped on an Apple, they just wouldn’t allow themselves to be spoken “too highly” of. She simply nodded and turned to the stairs again when Granny Smith appeared at the top.
The older woman refrained from climbing down the whole way, only going down far enough to catch Celestia’s attention and waved her over.
Once Celestia had joined Granny Smith on the stairs, the older woman climbed back up and began leading the principal down the hall. She spoke quietly as the moved, “I have her in our guest bedroom, it’s across th’hall from mine and right next to Jackie’s, so there’s always some’un to respond if necessary. She’s aint been eatin’ and with her sleep being so bad, well, she’s pretty tuckered most of the time.” Arriving at the door to the mentioned bedroom, Granny Smith opened it.
Rarity was the bright spot in the room. The teenager started at the sudden opening of the door, then relaxed when she saw Mrs. Smith, only to start up again when she saw Principal Celestia. The lights were kept low, only the bedside lamp next to the chair Rarity had been sitting in was on. The room itself had clearly not been used regularly, for all efforts had clearly been made to keep it livable. Dust clung to some surfaces, while curtains that hadn’t been moved since spring cleaning hung like they were reluctant to break the habit of stillness.
Celestia was so used to her most unusual student’s room filling presence that she had the fleeting thought that they were playing a trick on her. It was only a second look at the figure under the covers on the bed that she realized she really was looking at Sunset Shimmer. While she didn’t look emaciated or sickly, (there hadn’t been nearly enough time since she last saw the girl for either condition to be true) it was like the girl’s presence had just...collapsed in on itself. Celestia couldn’t help but think of a documentary she had seen about dying stars that didn’t have enough fuel to go nova. They just burned out, their matter pulling in until they were just faintly glowing orbs in the sky, barely visible, destined to extinguish long before their brethren. What Celestia could see of her face was drained of most of its color, leaving the normally bright orange skin looking more like pale rust. Her body was curled in on itself under the covers, and the principal was struck by how small Sunset really was.
“Oh, Sunset…” she whispered to herself, then turned to Rarity, “Has she said anything?”
The fashionista bit back an unlady like huff. “No. Every so often when I do something to help her, she seems like she’s about to, but then stops and looks like she’s about to cry. Honestly, I’ve just taken to assuming she’s trying to thank me and simply saying, ‘you’re welcome,’ in reply. She at least smiles at me when I do...though I can see that she’s frustrated about something.”
Celestia watched Sunset as Rarity spoke. The bedridden girl was breathing, but otherwise not moving. “Is she asleep?”
Rarity paused and watched Sunset for a moment before answering. “No, I don’t believe so. She has a...slightly slower breathing pattern when she sleeps. It was hard for me to tell at first, but after watching her for a few hours I was able to pick up the differences.”
Celestia unconsciously gave a slight shake of her head, then stopped herself when she realized what she was doing. “Thank you, Rarity. Would you mind giving us the room?”
“Of course, Principal.” Rarity collected her purse and left, smiling and nodding at Granny Smith as she went.
Granny stepped fully into the room now that it had enough room for her. “S’too bad it took this to bring that girl out to the farm, I think she and Applejack’r good fer each other.”
Rather than replying, Celestia moved around the bed. As she entered Sunset’s field of view, the girl’s eyes snapped to her, but otherwise she didn’t move. The girl watched her as she approached, tracking every movement even as the principal sat down next to her on the bed. “Sunset, can you move on your own?” Celestia watched as Sunset’s head started twitching, accompanied by her shoulder’s tensing, then she closed her eyes and simply sagged into the mattress, seemingly more defeated than before. “...I’ll take that as a yes.” At that the girl’s eyes snapped open and locked onto the older woman. The educator’s years of reading body language was all she had to rely on in that moment, as Sunset’s fixed gaze spoke volumes that her voice wasn’t. Despair, defeat...and a tiny, faint glimmer of desperate hope.
With so little feedback from her student, she was unsure what to do, so she relied on her instincts. She slowly reached out her hand in invitation, “I want to help you. Will you come home with me?”
Sunset’s muscles did the twitching and tensing action again, and instead of replying directly, she reached out, her arm trembling as she did so, until she was able to drop her hand into Celestia’s. The effort seemed to have exhausted the girl for some reason, as she practically sagged into the mattress again. This time her face showed...contentment? No, Celestia corrected herself, Victory. Exhausted victory, like she had to fight an army just to hold my hand.
Just then, Sunset started crying. Not loudly, there was no noise, and at first Celestia had mistaken the sobbing for the odd muscle twitching she had observed earlier. A moment later, the tears started flowing from the teen’s eyes. Celestia pulled the girl up into a hug, and Sunset continued to silently cry.
Author's Notes:
I'm not expecting this to be very long or epochal. It's mostly just a germ of an idea that happened to latch on to the emotions and trauma related to my own recent stint experiencing homelessness. It doesn't have a tragic ending, but does deal with issues of suicidal acts and acts of self-harm, not to mention depression and recovering from trauma. The end of this chapter is less than ideal, but it was either capping it here or turning this into an 8k-word chapter.
Chapter 2 - There's Beauty in the Breakdown
Celestia had learned very quickly that she should not leave Sunset’s line of sight. Whenever she even so much as rounded the corner ahead of her student Sunset would scramble to catch up and then grasp Celestia’s wrist. The teen also seemed to need as near-constant physical contact as possible, even if she was just clutching Celestia’s arm as she drove back to her house. A quick inquiry about hunger (with the odd, seizure-like response) led them briefly to a drive-through window to pick up some food on the way to Celestia’s home.
They ate in silence, the single buzz from Celestia’s phone (turning out to be a weather notification) being the only interruption. Sunset grimaced slightly when she saw the burger, but picked it up and ate it anyway. Not wanting to interrupt the girl’s eating with another question that would only prompt another of those odd muscle spasms, Celestia mentally filed the moment away for later investigation.
When it came time for Sunset to get ready for bed, things seemed to be going smoothly until it was time for the girl to use the bathroom. She stepped into the restroom with her bundle of loaned pajamas, then seemed to come to a realization. She whipped around and grabbed Celestia’s wrist, fear etched on her face.
“What? What is it?” asked Celestia; she immediately cringed as Sunset started having one of those odd seizures that happened whenever she was asked something. “Alright, so you can’t answer my questions,” she said, placing a hand on the girl’s shoulder to comfort her. “Please don’t try if it’s going to cause more distress.” She started wracking her brain for a way to have communication when one person wouldn’t...and Celestia was starting to suspect that it was because Sunset couldn’t. “Okay...Sunset, I’m going to assume you can’t communicate for some reason.”
The girl gasped, dropping the small bundle Celestia had given her and grabbing Celestia’s other wrist with her bandage wrapped hand. Aquamarine eyes sunk into a sallow face darted back and forth, looking into each of the older woman’s eyes in turn. Ripples of muscle movements across Sunset’s jaw being the tell-tale giveaway that Sunset was struggling against saying anything, desperately trying to fight off another seizure.
Celestia’s heart leapt to her throat for a moment. She was very close to understanding what was going on, but she was missing some pieces of the larger puzzle. For the moment, she chose to focus on the immediate problem. “So if I were in your position, what would I be needing most right now?” She glanced down at the bundle, “You have a change of clothes and a towel and a toothbrush, so that’s not the concern. You obviously know how to use the facilities,” she glanced around the bathroom, looking for inspiration as Sunset started to fidget with her hips and mince around on her feet, “And it’s not like you aren’t aware of the need.” She looked into Sunset’s eyes again, “You’d need privacy…” the pressure from the other girl’s fingers on her wrists suddenly increased, and Celestia watched Sunset’s pupils dilate as her jaw clenched harder.
Celestia’s mind started scrambling. Sunset is clearly physically and mentally capable of doing this task on her own, or Granny Smith or one of the girls who’ve been taking care of her would have said something. If it’s a magical reason, it would have come up by now as well...I think. Celestia was still wrapping her head around having to factor in “magic” as a Thing That Is, but reality made it clear to the entire student body the week prior that it had to be considered, That leaves an emotional reason. Emotionally Sunset is very...frail...oh! Celestia started cataloging the visible and reported symptoms she was seeing, Possible change in appetite, obvious fatigue, nightmares, extreme withdrawal and disconnectedness, clearly displaying signs of hopelessness until...something...I said or did...muscle tension...suicide attempt...she’s suffering accute depression, probably compounded by trauma… Once again, Celestia found herself wishing that Princess Twilight had left the portal to her home open, because Sunset needed psychiatric (and possibly magical) help more than anything else right now, and Celestia had no way of getting the girl either of these things. On the heels of that wish she also realized that she was all Sunset had right now.
Depression, what happens with depression? Dark thoughts, thoughts of suicide, negative thought loops...Sunset is afraid of being alone with her own thoughts!
“Sunset…” she really hoped she was guessing right on this, “Would you…? No, sorry, I almost asked a question. I will be here, right here,” she pointed at the floor outside the bathroom door, “And I will...sing a song.” Please tell me Luna is too far asleep to hear me singing to a student while she uses the bathroom, she’ll never let me live it down! “And if you’re not done by the time I finish the song, I’ll sing another one. I won’t move from this spot until you’re done. Okay? Okay!” She covered the slip of asking a question with the abrupt, now out of style self-interruption that drove her up the wall when her students used to do it back when she was a student teacher.
Gently but steadily, she pulled her wrists out of Sunset’s hands and stepped back to the spot she had indicated. For a moment, it was as though her mind drew a blank as she mentally scrambled once again, this time for a song she knew well enough to sing. A snippet of lyrics floated up from her unconscious, and before she could censor herself she started singing the words, “Can you hear the drums, Fernando…”
Sunset’s eyes started tearing up and her lips quivered in a watery smile. As Celestia closed the door, she finally knelt down to retrieve the fallen bundle. As Celestia reached the first chorus, she could hear the usual sounds associated with the bathroom’s primary function and smiled slightly at the absurdity of the situation.
Celestia’s head jerked vertical to the sound of a throat being cleared. It was an action she immediately regretted as her neck muscles transmitted sensations of cramped agony to her brain. Hissing, she started rubbing her neck with her hand as she scanned her surroundings.
Right, I must have fallen asleep in the chair… She was in a seat she had brought in from the dining room to sit next to Sunset Shimmer as she tried to fall asleep in the guest bedroom. Sunset must have been successful, as the girl’s eyes were closed, her lips slightly parted, and her breathing was regular and slow. The giveaway that she was actually asleep was the tiny trickle of drool that was making a tiny wet spot on the pillow. Celestia stifled a giggle, then nearly started from her chair when another clearing of a throat brought her attention to the guest bedroom door.
Framed there was her sister, one arm crossed over her torso beneath her breasts, the other holding a coffee mug. She was still in her pajamas, as usual for Saturday mornings, and her hair only slightly managed by pulling back with a hair tie at the nape of her neck. She pointedly leaned against the door frame, cocked an eyebrow, and noisily sipped her coffee.
Mentally grousing about sisters who managed to snark without saying a word, Celestia wordlessly adjusted the blankets covering Sunset and headed to the kitchen to explain the situation to Luna.
”So when does CPS come to get her?” asked Luna.
Celestia’s brow wrinkled in thought, she didn’t otherwise react to the question.
“Sister…” began Luna warningly.
“I just think it would be a huge mistake for Sunset.”
Luna put her mug on the granite countertop between them and leaned on her elbows, tucking her hands against her sides to warm them against the cool air of the fall morning. “She is a child, one who is without a support network, is by all reports homeless, and in desperate need of professional help. How would calling in CPS be a mistake?”
“She’s a literal alien, Luna. Maybe she didn’t come from space, but she might as well have. She has no identification, she’s a completely foreign...organism, for lack of a better word, one who’s been changed to better blend in with the native life. Even without her actions at the Fall Formal, she would be sought after by some government agency, like this S.M.I.L.E. organization,” they both rolled their eyes at the odd acronym, it was unconscious by this point, “And with those activities? I’d be surprised if she weren’t disappeared under the Patriot Act as an enemy combatant.”
Luna shifted her arms to put her palms against the counter and leaned over it toward her sister. “Not to play Grogar’s Advocate, but would that be such a bad thing? As you pointed out, she’s an alien, a foreign agent apparently under exile for crimes against her own country, and actually did attack people here. That’s discounting the campaign of bullying and domination we’ve both suspected her of for the last few semesters.”
Memories of the panicked, desperate eyes that sought help without being able to speak the words overpowered any attempt at a logical rebuttal to her sister’s argument. “She...can’t. Something happened, Lu. Something that’s locked her as a prisoner in her own mind, and quite possibly something magical.” She turned her own haunted gaze to he sister.
Luna’s expression softened, “...what do you mean? I knew she had tried to kill herself, but I don’t think that’s what you’re talking about.”
A brief explanation of what happened (and Celestia’s theories) later, and Luna had to sit on the barstool at the counter instead of leaning against it. “I see what you mean. Any alphabet agency that got their hands on her would take her inability to communicate as unwillingness and use measures more and more extreme...and if she happened to be any sort of V.I.P. from...over there, we might inadvertently be starting an interdimensional war. Yes, you’re right, CPS would be a bad idea.”
Celestia chuckled, “That’s not really why I was saying that…”
Luna waived absently, “Of course not, but it needed to be considered.” She buried her face in her hands, “Why didn’t that weird princess girl just leave the door to her kingdom open? And who sends a princess on a rescue mission?” She finished her grumble with by rubbing her face and flopping her hands down on the counter on either side of her coffee mug.
Celestia snorted, “I imagine we’ll be repeating that refrain quite a bit before this is all over…” Her train of thought was interrupted by a distressed sound from the guest bedroom. Before she even consciously thought to do it, she was rushing down the hall to check on Sunset.
Luna’s eyebrow arched as she watched Celestia’s empty coffee mug spin around in a cartoonish fashion.
The night of the Fall Formal…
“Get me the bucket of bricks you id…” Luna watched as Sunset Shimmer’s face contorted before she fell silent, the angry scowl the girl usually wore replaced by a flicker of rage before settling into depressed resignation. “Please give me the bucket of bricks.” she repeated to her cohorts. Snails hauling a bucket in the most awkward way possible and nearly tripping himself doing it.
Having dealt with Sunset Shimmer quite a bit, Luna was noticing the girl seemed less vocal than usual when dealing with her cronies. She was definitely worse-for-wear, tears in her clothing and visibly shaking limbs. Luna could tell she was still moving through sheer pig-headedness. Shaking her head, the vice-principal turned to the parking lot, where she was pleased to see a pair of headlights pulling into a spot. “Snips, Snails,” she called, “You’re done. Come get your cell phones and go home.”
Snips glanced over to the parking lot, then scrambled over to Luna, Snails in his wake. “Tools,” she said simply with a glower, and the boys quickly scurried back to where they’d dropped the shovel and pail in their haste and walked them back over to the designated spot by the small pile of waste bricks the three troublemakers had been building. They then slunk back to the vice principal. She returned their devices, and they ran off to the waiting car. She realized in that moment that she hadn’t collected Sunset’s phone, but then the girl hadn’t once even moved to take it out, let alone get distracted by it. It was a bit late to do so now.
Luna turned to the remaining delinquent under her supervision. It’d been nearly two hours since the dance ended, the last of the cleanup crew having fled after they finished and Sunset being the only student left on the premises. This meant that Luna had to stay as long as Sunset had to wait for her ride. She suppressed a grumble as she watched the girl filling another pail with brick debris.
She felt a buzz from her pants pocket. She pulled it out and saw the message her sister sent from the office where she went to pull up Sunset’s file.
Phone # on file for S. Shimmer’s parents not working. Mother listed as “Sunny Skies.” Found “father’s” name listed on a Pirate Name Generator site.
Eyebrow lifting was inadequate for the surprise Luna was feeling. They had started suspecting a few hours ago that Shimmer’s files were incomplete or incorrect when they started making disciplinary calls. How did Sunset know about Celestia’s sorority name?
Another buzz and a follow-up message came up:
Emergency contact: Nightmare Moon
At this Luna had to restrain herself from gasping out loud as here eyes bugged out. How had Sunset known about my stage name?! I haven’t even picked up my guitar in years...over a decade!
Composing her features and putting her phone back in her pocket, she looked up to see the delinquent of the hour pouring out another bucketful of bricks into the debris pile. Luna heaved a cleansing breath and barked out, “That’s good enough Shimmer. Are you expecting a ride?”
Sunset’s shoulders slumped, the bucket hanging limply from the tips of her fingers. After a moment, she shook her head in the negative without turning to face the educator.
Unsure if it was fatigue or rebellion, she decided to shrug it off. “You’re done for the night,” she said to the girl, “Come see me on Monday to receive whatever discipline we’ll have for you.”
“Th-tha-a-a-a...th-th-th…” Sunset stuttered what sounded like the start of a ‘thank,’ but suddenly shuddered and fell silent. Again without turning, she nodded her head. She gently put the bucket down next to the debris pile and started trudging off into the dark between street lights.
Before she could disappear from view, Celestia quietly stepped next to her, eyes also on Sunset as the girl walked away.
“We’re following her?” Luna inquired.
“Of course.” was the quick reply as they stepped around the damage and debris.
It took the better part of an hour and walking through increasingly seedier parts of town before they finally arrived at Sunset Shimmer’s “home.” The girl wound her way into the warehouse district, not taking anything remotely resembling a direct route. The sisters had to scramble, both to catch up with the girl and to avoid being seen as whatever path Shimmer took was obviously designed to either lose or reveal anyone who may be tailing her. It seemed to be a habitual action on Sunset’s part, though. She was so very clearly wrapped up in her own thoughts that she didn’t notice the two principals even when she passed within five feet of them after one of her double-backs through an alley.
Eventually, Sunset made her way to an apparently abandoned warehouse. The windows were mostly boarded over, and there was signage on the front declaring the city was “in the process” of seizing the property from FlimFlamCo. As the dates printed on the signs were from nearly eight years prior, it seemed most likely that the place had been caught in bureaucratic limbo, which meant that someone with no listed parents who apparently came from another world entirely would be able to stay there indefinitely.
During the trip there, Luna was growing more and more concerned over her sister’s reactions to the situation. Celestia had worn her heart on her sleeve when they were younger, and while she’d learned to keep herself composed and restrained to the general public, Luna knew all the signs to see her sister’s moods and feelings. The further on their unplanned trek they went, the more heartbroken Celestia got. By the time Sunset was struggling to open a loading dock door, the elder sister had the swollen eyes of someone fighting tears. The sounds of a rolling door protesting moving at all broke the silence of the night as Sunset finally got it open, then again once the girl entered and fought the recalcitrant door to close it.
The two sisters used the opportunity to rush across the street and try peering through the windows. Using her height, Celestia found an uncovered strip of glass over the top of one of the boards that most people wouldn’t be able to look through without a stepstool, while Luna found an old knothole that she was able to look through. They saw Sunset using her phone as a flashlight to navigate around, Luna catching the shadow of a motorcycle off to one side as well as the shapes of abandoned tool benches and machinery. They saw the girl trudge up a set of stairs leading to what looked like what had been a manager’s office while the warehouse had been operational and the door closed behind her. After a couple of minutes, the light of the cellphone-flashlight stopped moving, then went out.
Luna pulled her own phone out of her pocket and checked the time. It was nearly three in the morning. She put a hand on her sister’s back in an attempt to comfort her. “Come, sister. There’s nothing more we can do tonight.”
Present…
Luna stood in the doorway as she watched her sister gently caress Sunset’s forehead. The girl was apparently still asleep, whatever was causing her to be unable to speak during her waking hours not stilling her tongue in slumber. She was murmuring and tossing gently, mostly unintelligible nonsense, but the occasional clear word popped out. Her sister’s name was said at least once, but she also heard some phrases that had something resembling proper word structure but Luna could only guess at their meaning, like ‘thaumaturgical’ and ‘emotomancy.’
Through it all, Celestia was holding the girl’s hand, careful to avoid the injuries that had happened sometime between when they left the warehouse the week prior and when Miss Pie led her friends to find Sunset when she was attempting to take her own life. When the tossing and turning settled down and the sleep talking settled to a murmur, then stopped, Celestia continued to gently stroke the teen’s forehead, humming a gentle tune...is that ‘Dancing Queen?’ thought Luna incredulously.
Sister, Luna thought to herself, You’d better be careful. You care so much, Sunset Shimmer could so easily break your heart into a million pieces...
Author's Notes:
For those of you eagle-eyed people who caught the plot point that I won't identify here, no, you didn't miss anything and I didn't forget anything.
Chapter 3 - When the Dawn Comes, Tonight Will be a Memory Too
Celestia felt the ache of the abdominal wound already, even though the knife wouldn’t enter her belly for another 2 minutes. “Luna, please, let’s talk about this!”
“No, sister! All you ever DO is ‘talk,’ more like lecture! Ever since mom and dad died, you only LECTURE me! You never listen, you never…” Luna’s voice choked off in a pained sob, “I just needed someone to be there, but you were too busy with your FRIENDS...no, your subjects! You were so busy being a Queen Bee that you couldn’t be bothered to see your own sister needed you!” Luna’s face was pure black, and her pupils were slitted like the ‘cat’s eyes’ contacts she wouldn't start wearing until she took up the guitar with her death metal band in about three year’s time. The scars, which on Luna’s skin would be a pale blue that would eventually fade so much that they would barely be noticeable by the time they started teaching years later were now a bright, ash-white against the pitch black of Nightmare Moon’s skin.
Celestia took a hesitant step forward, hoping against hope to change the course of events she knew would happen. Didn’t she know how this would happen? She couldn’t know the future, but somehow she knew that her stomach shouldn’t already be bleeding through her t-shirt, that the knife in her sister’s hand should be covered in blood and tissue.
The horrible thing was once one of those decorative daggers anyone could buy in a mall kiosk that catered to fantasy and anime fans, but Luna had painstakingly sharpened every edge and point until the monstrous blade was perfectly capable of cutting into flesh like a scalpel. The series of even lines that scored her little sister’s arm from wrist to elbow were testament to that.
“Luna, please, just stop! You’re hurting yourself, I can’t…”
“OF COURSE IT’S ABOUT YOU!” roared Luna, her canine teeth long and pointed and white enough to be visible from stage while she was performing in five years. Celestia didn’t know why Luna was in her stage makeup half a decade before she first declared herself Nightmare Moon to a throng of adoring “Lunatics,” but that wasn’t the point right now. “You, you, you! It’s NEVER about me! I don’t get to have a breakdown when our parents died, only precious, responsible OLDER SISTER Celestia gets to weep nobley over their caskets! Only Queen Bee Celestia gets the hoard of sympathetic...sycophants that I used to call “friends” before they all TURNED THEIR BACKS ON ME AND RAN OFF TO YOU!”
This was spinning out of control way too quickly. Celestia knew her sister would accidentally stab her in a minute, maybe less. She had to get the knife away from her before she robbed Celestia of the ability to bear children cut herself again. Celestia couldn’t live through the next twenty years of life reliving the crippling realization over and over again every time her friends and sister had their periods, reminding her that she didn’t have a functional womb. Luna could wind up going too far and actually slit her wrists, killing herself either accidentally or on purpose.
Without any further hesitation, she lept for the knife wrapping her wrists around her younger sister’s. She was expecting her greater height to give her the advantage, but she misjudged her sister’s anger-fueled state and found herself truly struggling. She managed to get the knife away from Luna, her sister collapsi...but she misjudged her sister’s anger-fueled state and found herself truly struggling. Luna dropped the knife, howling at her sist...but she misjudged her sister’s anger-fueled state and found herself truly struggling. She pushed the younger woman down and pinned her with her body, managing to knock the phone off the wal...but she misjudged her sister’s anger-fueled state and found herself truly struggling. No matter how many times she lived through this, it always ended the same. Her sister’s angry thrashing coupled with an inexperienced, weak grip resulted in the knife wielding arm suddenly slamming down, a gouge being torn in her breast in line with the sudden presence of a metal spike in her gut. The sudden motion caused them to fall, jamming the knife further in, jostling it so the barbed blade turned part of her abdomen into hamburger.
The shock crystalised the moment in Celestia’s mind, looking down at the black blade, her sister screaming her name as she called an ambulance. The one thought that kept running through her mind as she slowly lost consciousness was that she had to clean the blood up if they were going to have guests coming over in an ambulance.
Celestia awoke, her mind still locked in that moment, wondering if she was in the process of dying and her life for the last two decades had been just the hallucination of a fading brain. She blinked her eyes, realizing she was in a pitch dark room, and her fear started to build. She had liked that dream where she became a principal of a school and lived long enough to have met a magical princess from another world...no, wait, the dream was the night of The Incident, wasn’t it?
She needed proof. She needed some confirmation that she wasn’t dying on the floor of the kitchen that had belonged to her parents, something to confirm that she was an independent adult that had a life and a job and a purpose outside of dying in a stupid accident at her sister’s hand.
She started to shift, her body breaking from her sleep paralysis and letting her mind control it. She realized there was something pinning her down. Her eyes now finally cleared of the blurriness of waking, she looked down and saw a head resting on her shoulder, a cascade of red and yellow hair crowning a (finally!) peacefully sleeping young woman.
Her memories started to straighten themselves out from there. She had prepared a dinner for Sunset, this time an enthusiastically consumed fettuccine alfredo (admittedly, she splurged a bit and had a ride-share driver deliver a small load of groceries so she could have all the ingredients to make it), before the pair made their way to the guest bedroom and Sunset climbed into bed. The girl spent an appreciable amount of time tossing and turning as Celestia sat by the bed, book in her hand as she tried to stay awake to keep the girl company. Eventually she just climbed into the bed herself, and Sunset tentatively snuggled next to the older woman. Celestia opened her book again and resumed reading, and it wasn’t too long before Sunset was reading too, every so often holding Celestia’s hand away from the page before she could turn it so Sunset could finish reading. The pauses to let Sunset finish grew longer and longer as time past, until a light, sighing snore met Celestia’s ears. Celestia did her best to keep the side buried under Sunset still as she used her other arm to put the book on the bedside table and turn off the light, falling to sleep shortly after.
It was no wonder she revisited The Incident in her dreams. Especially when Luna had been in juvenile hall, the first few years after the accidental stabbing she kept having night terrors of that event. Her sister’s spiral into depression followed by the self-destructive behavior that Celestia was convinced would lead to Luna committing suicide was very reminiscent of another teen girl who’d done things that had hurt people around her.
20 years ago…
“But I’m not pressing charges!” snapped Celestia at the man across the desk from her.
“I’m afraid, Miss Faust, that it doesn’t matter if you’re pressing charges or not, she committed assault on you and needs to be held accountable for her actions.” the man in the odd, mismatched suit held a smirk that could curdle milk, and his odd yellow eyes held malicious intent, but his position and authority meant that he could pretty much do as he chose within his particular sphere of influence. And since that sphere happened to be District Attorney of Canterlot City, he was able to pursue taking a minor to court to try her as an adult for attempted murder.
Celestia took a deep breath, trying to keep her blood pressure down so she didn’t rupture any stitches. “If anyone is responsible for the accident, it’s me. I’m the one who jumped at her, I’m the one who…” the painful emotions were still too raw, she couldn’t finish her sentence.
“Yes, and she’s the one who purchased the knife, she’s the one who sharpened it for use on a person, and we have records from her school that she has expressed anger directly at you, wishing for your death and then planning her own suicide.”
This wasn’t news to Celestia. The documents had been revealed at the preliminary hearings and the judge had disallowed them as evidence seized outside of the proper bounds of patient privacy law. The cat was out of the bag, however, and Celestia had learned just how badly she had been ignoring her younger sister and how badly Luna had needed her to be there. Eyes burning from tears that had been simply wrung out of her by now, Celestia did her best to keep her voice at civil volumes, “I’m sure that she was upset and, perhaps, I could have been more attentive to her…”
“My dear Celestia...may I call you Celestia?” he didn’t let her answer, “If you had been ‘more attentive,’” really, the air quotes with his fingers was just pretentious, “Given her state of mind we’d have found a pair of bodies instead of one seriously injured young lady and her sister holding a knife and covered in blood.”
Celestia realized she was getting nowhere. This...creature wasn’t interested in actual justice, let alone mercy, so it didn’t matter what she said to him. “Very well Mr. Chord...”
“Oh, please, ‘Mr. Cord’ is my father. Call me Dis.”
Celestia withheld the comment on the name ‘Dis’ being a literal layer of Hell, “...I won’t waste any more of your time. Thank you for seeing me.”
The visitor’s room of the juvenile hall was surprisingly well appointed and actually granted a modicum of privacy. Celestia’s visions of a horrible cement room with bad lighting and worse guards was belied the first time she came by the day she got out of the hospital. “I couldn’t get him to drop the charges.”
Luna didn’t look good in the prison orange jumpsuit she had been supplied when transferred to juvie from the county jail. But then, she just looked crummy in general. Luna hadn’t looked Celestia in the eye since they first saw each other the first time the older sister visited. “Sister…” she began, “I know you think you’re helping...but it’s just as well that you weren’t able to convince the D.A. to let me off. I…” she sighed, still looking at the table’s surface, “I’m clearly not well and have needed help for some time, I just didn’t know how to ask for it.”
Celestia reached across the table, not too quickly, though. She’d learned that lesson the first time she lunged at her sister to try and hug her, she’d been tackled by an overzealous guard for her efforts. “Luna, this whole thing, it’s my own fault. If I’d just paid more attention to you…”
For the first time since the night of the stabbing, Luna looked her sister in the eye, “NO!” she snapped. “This...this is my fault. I blamed you for...for everything. My friends leaving me because I was being a loner, for my depression, for...the accident.” Their parent’s deaths were still fresh enough that neither could reference the traffic incident that had turned lethal. “I...I’ve been talking with the shrink here in juvie.” Luna finally smiled, just a little, “She got me some pills...it’s like I don’t have to be sad anymore. I don’t...I don’t feel helpless. It’s probably the first time I’ve ever realized...maybe I get to be in control of me.”
At Celestia’s bewildered look, Luna finally reached across the table and clasped Celestia’s hand. “I was blaming all the things that were happening to me on a 19-year old girl. That’s not fair to you, I’m just so, so sorry I hurt you before I was able to get the help I needed.”
As though she hadn’t shed enough tears in the last few weeks, Celestia bent nearly double to clasp Luna’s hand to her forehead, tears streaming from her eyes anew. They sat there that way for a few minutes before Celestia was able to collect herself.
When she sat up and wiped at her eyes, she said, “I don’t know what I’ll do without you. We’ve already lost mom and dad…”
Luna’s sad smile actually grew at this. “You’ll survive, and you’ll thrive. I know you, ‘Tia. You’re going to land on your feet, you’re going to look fabulous doing it, and people will think you were born on the pedestal they’ll put you on. No,” Luna waved Celestia’s objections away before her older sister could give them voice, “I’m not upset, I’m just telling it like it is. Nearly...nearly killing someone can give you...perspective.”
The older girl sighed, “I...guess? But it’ll still be so long without you.”
Luna dropped her eyes to look at their clasped hands. “It’s okay, my G.A.L. is telling me that the judge is planning on reducing my sentence from what that idiot D.A. recommended. Only a little under three years.” she smiled up at her sister, and for the first time Celestia realized she didn’t see the emotional pain her sister had been carrying for so long that she didn’t think Luna had ever been without it before. “Just 1,000 days to freedom. It’s not so bad, all things considered.”
Present day…
Sunset had roused enough to use the bathroom on her own and then join Celestia in the kitchen, where there was a couple of stools pulled up to the island in the center. Normally, Celestia and Luna would have breakfast together there, but the vice-principal had left early to get an early start on the increased workload that was plaguing the two sisters since the situation had come to a climax two Fridays prior. While Sunset ate the quickly prepared omelet Celestia had thrown together for the girl, Celestia set up her laptop on the island next to her notebook and logged on to the VPN that connected her to the school’s network.
Celestia noticed that Sunset would glance over at the laptop, then back down at her empty plate. After pondering for a moment, she said, “I just noticed you don’t have your phone, and to the best of my recollection nobody has mentioned you having one since the girls found you last Sunday.” Sunset looked up at the educator like a kicked puppy, then slid off the stool, picked up the plate, and went to start rinsing it off in the sink.
After a bit more pondering, Celestia smiled in the smile of the Secret Santa. “Sunset?” the girl paused in her cleaning and turned just enough to be able to see Celestia, “I’m going to head to the mall to pick up a couple of things. Do you…no sorry, I almost asked a question. If you would like to come, please meet me at the door. Otherwise you will be in charge here and can feel free to read or nap or even eat more. Heaven’s knows you need it.” She smiled at the girl, hoping to get a reaction. Sunset merely sighed then returned to washing her single dish.
Celestia re-entered the home nearly three hours after she left. It had taken significantly longer than she expected, given that she was only picking up one item, but she hoped it would be worth it. “Sunset,” she called to the house at large, “I’m back. Please come to the kitchen.” While she normally wouldn’t want to sound...rude, she couldn’t think of a way to phrase her request without asking a question, and she’d rather not trigger one of Sunset’s odd seizures from rooms away on accident.
As the principal was settling in, putting her purse and shopping bag next to her temporary home-office setup, she heard the sounds of teenage feet padding down the hall from the guest bedroom. The girl was still in her borrowed pajamas, a pair of socks, and holding a book. A glance at the spine showed it was one of her sister’s, an early entry in The Jewelbox Files. Celestia’s mouth quirked into a small grin, wondering how a magic user from an alternate world might react to the fictional adventures of a wizard-cum-detective in modern Chicacolt. Well, she thought to herself, That’s a good incentive to get her through this and being able to communicate. Sure, it was a small goal, but sometimes one needed small goals because the bigger ones could seem impossible.
“Have a seat,” she said as she sat down as well. Sunset’s face pinched slightly, clearly trying to ponder the purpose of this sudden meeting. “I confess I had a hidden purpose for going to the mall,” so saying, she gingerly pulled the focus of her shopping expedition out of the bag to reveal a cell phone retail box. It wasn’t the latest version, perhaps a generation or two behind, but it wasn’t an old, cheap model either. She gently placed the box in front of Sunset, who was simply staring at it like she expected it to bite her.
This was not the reaction she expected.
Gingerly, she reached back into the bag and pulled out another item. This was a simple case, or at least appeared to be at first. She flipped it over so the back could be seen. “I got this at the kiosk outside the phone store. I noticed that you used to have this symbol on your clothes, so I figured you might want your phone to have it, too.” The yin/yang sunburst symbol that Celestia was referring to was easy enough to find (she did ‘lurk’ on her student’s social networking sites, after all, she knew exactly where to find a good picture of the back of Sunset’s jacket) for the employee to be able to feed into their sticker printer, which was then applied to the back of the blank case and then flash laminated with a heat gun while Celestia watched.
As Sunset hesitantly reached out for the case, she gently gripped it with both hands for a moment, then set it on the counter next to the still closed box. With the deliberation of a Neighponese tea ceremony, the girl opened the box and pulled out the small slab of black glass and metal trim. She carefully applied the case and turned the phone on, setting it down as the familiar logo of the phone’s OS appeared. For a moment, they watched it boot.
Before it finished, Celestia decided to break the silence. “I thought, well..I thought you needed to have some independence. I don’t know if you can actually use the keyboard for much, since I noticed you haven’t tried to write anything or type, but you can at least browse the web and maybe play some games. And who knows, maybe...maybe you’ll be able to write to me to keep in touch if you need to, when you can. I…” she hesitated to mention this, but it needed to be said, so she steeled herself and plunged ahead, “I know you don’t have anyone as a support network, but maybe I can be your emergency contact? Just in case?”
The phone finished booting up, showing the “swipe to unlock” screen. Sunset let the screen sleep, then slipped out of her chair. To Celestia’s great surprise, the girl wrapped her arms around the educator and started shivering. The principal overcame her surprise and returned the hug quickly, only for Sunset to pull away. At first Celestia thought this was to end the hug, but then Sunset put her hands on Celestia’s shoulders and, for the first time since Celestia picked her up on Friday, uttered a sound. “Th...ththth...th…”
Celestia shook her head, “No, Sunset, please. You don’t have to say anything! We don’t know what’s wrong or if you could hurt yourself trying to…”
Sunset’s hands turned to fists as she started shaking, “...th..tha...t’t’t’t…” Sweat started to bead on her forehead as she fought some internal battle, now gripping the neckline of Celestia’s shirt as she struggled, “Than...thank…” Celestia now put her hands supportively on Sunset’s shoulders, practically holding the girl up as she clashed with whatever was restraining her ability to speak. She took some breaths, as though steadying herself for the second half of a marathon run. “...y...yu…” Tears started leaking from her eyes, and Celestia found herself crying along with her student as a final syllable finally escaped, her voice starting to squeeze off suddenly, “...youuu…” She ended with a rasp, then finally collapsed against Celestia, who embraced her and kept her from falling to the floor.
Abruptly Sunset shuddered and stood. When Celestia could see her face, she could see that Sunset was terrified, but whatever the problem was came from inside her. Suddenly, her eyes blazed with light. To Celestia’s credit, she didn’t do more than flinch, but watched as the white light blazed for a moment, and for just an instant, the principal was worried she’d have a giant she-demon in her kitchen, but then she realized there was some sort of pattern in the light. A wheel...or a gear? She thought as the light streamed from Sunset’s eyes.
Just as suddenly as it started, the light show stopped, and Sunset slumped down. Celestia caught her and eased her back onto her own stool. Making sure the girl wasn’t going to collapse all the way to the floor, Celestia was just sitting back down herself when Sunset surged back to full alert, this time lunging across Celestia to grab one of the notepads out of the binder that the principal had sitting next to her computer. Yanking it over to her, scattering some pens and pencils in the process, Sunset scrambled for a writing tool. Before Celestia could even recover enough to stand up to move out of Sunset’s way, the girl was already scrambling to write on the notepad. As Celestia watched, she realized that the sudden surge of energy wasn’t over, it was just focused on writing, and it was frantic in a script that Celestia barely recognized but was only just able to read. Apple...jack? Yes, that’s Applejack! Rarity, Rainbow Dash...there’s Thunderlane, Pinkie Pie, Apple Bloom? Micro Chips...she’s just...oh!
Realization struck Celestia and without interrupting Sunset she turned back to her computer. A quick unlock and she brought up the student records on her computer. A quick command to the database and Celestia leapt up to run to the living room, where Luna had the printer set up that they used for the frequent times they had to work from home. Fifteen minutes later, she hurried back to the kitchen island and pushed the stack of paper under Sunset’s hands.
The girl paused in her writing and looked at the printout, which was just a list of the names of all the students at CHS. She rapidly read down the list, turned the page, then repeated the scan until she’d reached the end of the stack. She nodded, then set the stack aside. She started writing again after skipping a few lines. Celestia read the writing, Let’s see, that’s me...Luna...Ms. Harshwinney? Prof. Whooves...she’s doing the staff now! Once again, Celestia turned back to her computer to print another list.
A much shorter list being given silent approval followed by a much smaller handful of names being hand-written (including the Cakes that owned Sugar Cube Corner and a few others that were neither students nor faculty of CHS), and Sunset finally collapsed against the counter...for a few breaths. Then she reached for the first page of the printout of students and started to tear the paper. At first Celestia couldn’t imagine why she would be tearing apart the printout, then she realized that Sunset was tearing it into strips, one strip per name.
“Hang on,” she said, “I’ll grab some scissors.”
Luna strode down the hallway of Canterlot High, Applejack trailing behind her. “Thank you again, Applejack. With the fallout from the Fall Formal, the rest of the staff are rather busy, and I know your whole family already knows what’s going on and can be trusted to keep things quiet.”
Applejack tipped her hat to the vice-principal. “A’course.” she said simply as they approached on locker in particular.
Luna sighed in disappointed anger and Applejack whistled under her breath. “Well,” began the student, “I reckon people are a...mite upset at Sunset.” Covering the locker from top to bottom was graffiti. Some were just in marker, some in pen, at least one person managed to get a can of red and yellow spray paint into the school, and Luna was pretty sure she recognized the acrylics that the art classrooms used. Several overlapped, some were just simple single word statements like, “bitch,” others were more derogatory to Sunset directly. Luna’s stomach turned when she spotted a symbol that had been used by a genocidal madman three quarters of a century earlier and had been adopted by some radical extremists in the intervening decades. It was a symbol that had denoted racial supremacy, and seeing it painted on Sunset’s locker just confirmed what the school staff had already heard rumors of.
“I’ll have school maintenance...remove the door or something.” growled Luna. She lifted the combination lock and used the administrator key to disengage the latch the lock was holding closed. Opening the locker, they were met with a small avalanche of notes that had been shoved through the locker’s ventilation slots, the pair picked up one each and read, mostly in morbid curiosity.
‘I hope you die and go back to the hell you crawled out of.’ Not terrifically creative… thought Luna.
“‘You finally showed your true colors, bitch,’” recited Applejack. “Wow, they had t’stretch for that one.” she said sarcastically, “Are these people attending the same classes I am? ‘Cause Ms. Cheerilee’d read me the riot act for writin’ somethin’ so...predictable.” She crumpled the paper up and tossed it on the pile of the others.
Luna sighed, “As much as I’d like to just sweep this up and be done with it, someone does need to document it all for legal reasons. Now who am I going to get to go through them all?”
“I could...no, wait, I got chores on the farm later, and we had to put a few off last week ‘cause...well…” they both flinched a little, “Maybe Rarity could...no, wait, she’s got work tonight. Maybe she can get out of it, but I don’t wanna speak for her. RD...well, you’d never get her t’sit still long enough. Even worse with Pinkie. Maybe Fluttershy?”
“What about me?” came a quiet voice from behind them. They both turned with a yelp and saw Fluttershy standing there holding a hall pass. “Oh, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to startle you, I just heard my name. And that the others couldn’t help...and that some really mean people were saying some really bad things that need to be documented…” she timidly trailed off.
Luna resisted the urge to shake her head in irritation, “Actually, Fluttershy, your friend Applejack was just trying to volunteer to assist, but this really should be a staff matter. I just can’t think of anyone we can spare to get it done.”
“Oh, well I could help, that is, if you want me to. I already did the homework for all my classes I have in the morning, and afternoons are just home ec, P.E., and art, and none of those teachers ever give us homework. And the shelter doesn’t need me until this weekend, so I was just going to be at home with my...brother.” Neither of them missed the pause, and Applejack shuddered. Luna had also encountered the younger sibling, and did not enjoy the experience. The number of complaints from other teachers (and one of those teachers transferring out of the school because of it) about Fluttershy’s brother were legendary in the district, let alone the school.
“Shee-oot, Flutters,” began Applejack, “Why didn’t you say somethin’ earlier? You know we’ll gladly make room for you on the farm.”
Fluttershy smiled, “Oh, thank you, Applejack, but I wouldn’t want to be a bother. Besides, Rainbow already offered. I was going to go there after dinner.”
Luna nodded firmly, “Well, it looks like we have a plan, however accidental it may be. Fluttershy, you finish your current task and come back to help us with these notes. Make sure you bring back a bag. After school you’ll stay with me and I’ll make sure you get something to eat while we get these documented, then I’ll drop you off at Rainbow Dash’s house on my way home.” With a nod, Fluttershy hurried back to her classroom. Luna and Applejack turned back to the locker, “And you and I will finish up the task we came for. If you would please gather Sunset’s belongings from the bottom, I’ll clear the shelf and hooks.” With a nod, Applejack knelt down and started sweeping away some hate notes from Sunset’s books and binders. Luna started by grabbing the books on top, but had to pause when she realized that one was much larger than any textbook Luna had ever seen. She pulled it down and temporarily re-shelved the other books she was already holding to investigate.
The cover was soft and smooth, and in the center of the cover was what Luna recognized as the symbol that Sunset liked to wear on her person and often added almost as a signet when she turned in essays. Luna opened the book to a random page, only to find it blank. She flipped around in the book and realized that only the first two dozen or so pages had anything on them, and it was handwritten. Ah, a journal, Luna realized, closing it and then resuming gathering Sunset’s belongings.
Several hours later, Luna was finally able to let the door to her home close behind her and put her purse and the bag with Sunset's locker contents down on the coffee table. She looked up to the kitchen to see if her sister had any dinner ready, only to see a paper wasteland.
That was, perhaps, a bit hyperbolic. There was a decent papery mess, as well as...is that string? Celestia’s computer sat on the counter of the island, untouched, with torn and cut paper strewn around it. Luna noticed the paper shreds were forming a trail that went down the hall, and a brief investigation showed the trail led into the guest bedroom. She pushed the door open, light spilling out into the hallway, to see Celestia sitting on the floor amidst small scattered piles of paper shreds, lengths of cut string, at least two empty spools of the stuff and four different colors of partial string balls. In Celestia’s lap was Sunset Shimmer’s head, the girl fast asleep and clutching a cell phone to her chest like a security blanket. Sunset was practically curled around the phone, breathing deeply in her sleep as Celestia stroked the girl’s forehead and hair.
The furniture had been moved away from the one wall that didn’t have a door, window, or closet on it. Yearbook pictures that had been blown up and printed out on letter-sized printer paper of the five students who had assisted Princess Twilight at the Fall Formal were in the middle, arranged around an otherwise blank page that just had the word “magic?” written on it in Sunset’s flowing script. Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy were the five who’s pictures graced the wall, with their names and some personality attributes listed beneath them. Applejack being paired with Honesty I get, but why is and while odd I understand Pinkie being listed with Laughter...OK, I’m seeing the pattern now. Each of the five were listed with their respective most dominant personality trait. What that meant Luna didn’t yet know. Connected with string was the names of other students, teachers, and the handwritten names of people in the community. Applejack being connected to her family made sense, as did Rarity being connected to Sweetie Bell, but Rarity had hundreds of connections (probably the reason two spools of thread had been used up) and Rainbow Dash had a similar number, but the color of the string was different for apparently different connections. Luna thought at first that red thread indicated family, as that was how Applejack was connected to her kin and Rarity with Sweetie Bell, but Rainbow Dash was connected with Scootaloo with a similar red thread, and Luna knew they weren’t related by blood.
“You’ve been busy.” said Luna quietly.
Celestia smiled wanly, a slightly shell-shocked look underlying her exhausted expression, “...something...something to do with magic happened. I have no doubt about it now, her inability to communicate is related to what happened at the Fall Formal.” She looked down at Sunset with an expression that Luna might have mistaken for...no, don’t be silly Luna, it’s just a teacher being proud of their student.
“She couldn’t stop,” continued Celestia. “Once it started she needed to write the names, needed to make the connections. She still can’t explain what they all mean, but we’re up there…” she nodded her head in the direction of the slips of paper and string. Sure enough, there was a pair of slips labeled with her and her sister’s names, connected with string to dozens of others and a red string between them. There was also some blue carpenter’s tape wrapped around it, though what that meant she didn’t have a clue. “...so whatever this is about, it’s more than just the students.”
Luna pondered the compilation of string and paper for a moment, then shook her head. “Well, we’re not going to solve this tonight. Have you eaten?”
Celestia waved to the corner of the room with her free hand. “I ordered some Chinese. I think Sunset may be a vegetarian. She wasn’t happy with having a hamburger the other night, but she eagerly ate the fettuccini alfredo yesterday and the vegetables from tonight, but avoided the meats entirely.”
Luna pondered this for a moment. “Hmm...if she’s truly an alien, then she may not have known that humans can’t be purely herbivorous without some additional supplements. That would explain some of her behaviors, as well as why she got noticeably worse over time.”
Celestia’s eyebrows rose as she made the same connection, “Of course, that would make quite a bit of sense, and I’ll bet Princess Twilight wouldn’t know about this either. I wonder if the magic they used did something to re-balance the amino acids...but that wouldn't explain why she can’t talk.”
“Again, sister, we’re not going to resolve this tonight.” she knelt down and started to get her arms around Sunset’s knees, “Get her arms, let’s get her into bed.”Celestia let Luna take the lead in getting first Sunset, then herself into bed. As she drifted off she had the sudden thought that Sunset might wake up before her and panic, but slipped off to sleep before she could force herself back awake to return to Sunset’s room.
Author's Notes:
Six thousand words.
You're welcome.
11/12/2019 - Minor edit: Added strikethrough that had gotten stripped out in the reformatting for FiMFiction.net from Google Docs, corrected the reference to Fluttershy's brother's age
Chapter 4 - All We Do Crumbles to the Ground
Author's Notes:
8k words.
I dun told you.
EDIT: 11/29/2019 07:28 am
Actually nearly 9,000 words.Made some changes suggested in the comments for word usage, also did another read through for grammar and punctuation and fixed a missing strike-through that got through the import tool I use.
Pinkie Pie was a giant pink golden retriever. This was the only conclusion Celestia could possibly come to as she looked at the five girls on her front porch. The only thing that Celestia found truly odd about the pink girl after having her for a student for two years now was the lack of a pink collar as she stood next to Rainbow Dash and yipped and panted like a dog. With the recognition that the girl had to be a canine in human form, it made complete sense that she should find Sunset Shimmer in situations where she could not possibly be expected to. One simply had to ignore the fact that a human girl couldn’t possibly be a dog in disguise.
No, wait, magic is a real thing, maybe Pinkie could actually be a dog. Or maybe it’s just Pinkie being Pinkie.
While Rainbow Dash sighed and scratched Pinkie behind the ears to get her to stop yipping, Rarity explained their presence on their principal’s doorstep. “So you see, while we do understand that you’re probably the best person to be taking care of Sunset during this...challenging time, we all realized that as ‘convenient’ as it would be to let someone else handle the matter, none of us felt right not following through on a request for an absent friend, especially when that friend tasked us with the wellbeing of another person.”
Celestia couldn’t help but smile in pride at the five.
“Besides,” interjected Rainbow Dash, “Nobody’s seen you at school in days, people are starting to talk.”
Applejack flicked Rainbow’s ear, prompting an offended ‘Ow!’ before speaking up herself. “Bein’ honest with you, Principal, it seems Sunset’s...fall, fer lack of a better word, has made a...whatcha-callum…”
“A power vacuum,” prompted Rarity.
“That’s the jasper. While the rest of the students are pretty open and friendly, seems there’s some...elements that’re hoping to pick up where Sunset left off. Me’n Rainbow found and interrupted a couple’a altercations. Rarity’s been hearin’ ‘bout some people tryin’ t’pick up Sunset’s information network, and Pinkie’s been noticin’ some people hornin’ in on her party last week, tryin’ t’keep out some people on account that they aint in the right group.” Applejack shook her head ruefully.
Pinkie put her hands on her hips, “I didn’t say that, I just said that those cheerleaders clearly didn’t know how one of my parties worked because they kept telling people coming in that they needed an invite. I don’t do ‘invites,’ because then how will I be able to make all those friends that I’ve never met before and so wouldn’t get an invite because I didn’t know their name to invite them? So I told those girls that they didn’t need to man the door like they were doing and they could just enjoy the party, but I think one of them musta had something bad for lunch because she got a sour look on her face and left, so I guess she needed to use the bathroom or something, and it was kinda a bummer because a bunch of her friends went with her to make sure she was okay, and I mean I know girls often go to the bathroom in groups because we like to chat and keep each other company but that was way too many people for a bathroom run, but then maybe they were going to get something from the pharma…” the remainder of Pinkie’s sentence was muffled by Rainbow Dash’s hands.
Rarity continued, “The point is, once we realized that you probably hadn’t sent Sunset to a foster care or something similar, we figured that she was still with you after you’d picked her up from Sweet Apple Acres. Pinkie said she knew how to find your home, and a short car caravan later, here we are.”
Celestia stifled a sigh as she pondered her options. It was true that she hadn’t been back to the school since taking in Sunset, but she didn’t regret that decision on the grounds that the girl needed someone to take care of her. But then, a good leader knows when to delegate, and who to delegate to. She smiled at the group, “I’ll have to check with Sunset to make sure she feels up to visitors, but I don’t see the problem with you checking on her. Come on in,” she stepped back to give them access to the foyer, “Just stay by the door until I can ask her.”
The girls gratefully shuffled in. They had to have come straight from school to get here when they did, nonetheless, the sun was starting to set and the chill fall air was brisk enough to make the coats they were wearing a requirement. After shutting the door, Celestia left the girls huddled together (Rainbow and Pinkie already pulling off their jackets without waiting for Sunset’s final say) and padded into the living room to find Sunset had fallen asleep sitting curled up at the end of the couch. Celestia noticed that the girls hushed when they saw Sunset.
Sunset still clutched her new phone in one hand, her head tilted forward in what had to be a horrible angle for the girl’s neck. Celestia giggled to herself, noticing that Sunset had managed to hook the case of her phone on the bandages around her right hand, which was probably all that was keeping the phone from tumbling to the floor. She carefully lifted the phone out of the girl’s grip and gently shook her shoulder. “Sunset, sweetie, you have some visitors.”
With a mild snort, the girl shook herself awake. She blinked owlishly and almost frantically looked around until she saw Celestia, then saw the older woman holding out her phone. The girl took it with a smile, unlocking it out of clear habit. Celestia nodded in the direction of the front door, “The girls are here to see you. Do you think you’re up to visiting with them?”
For a moment, Sunset was panicked, but then she saw who Celestia was referring to and sagged back into the couch. Sunset tapped on the phone’s screen, a mechanical voice saying, “Yes.”
Celestia turned to the girls, “Come on in, thanks for your patience.”
Rarity squawked in protest as Pinkie and Rainbow dropped their jackets on the foyer floor, Pinkie bouncing as she was wont to do, somehow the others not in her way as she gave herself a tour of the living room around Sunset while Rainbow pretty much vaulted over the railing separating the small foyer space from the living room, darting over to plant herself next to Sunset on the couch.
Rainbow had been hesitant about the idea of approaching the Principal and VP when they weren’t at school, but the others had made a whole bunch of good points that she couldn’t come up with any reason it was a bad idea against, so she went along about as enthusiastically as one of the school’s resident pranksters could be when meeting with an educator and authority figure in any setting.
The athlete wasn’t quite sure what she’d been expecting in terms of the house where Principal Celestia and her sister lived, but a (by all appearances) completely normal house wasn’t it. Maybe it was just her preconceptions from when she first entered the school system and teachers seemed like demi-gods and principals seemed like Faust Herself ruling from atop The Canterhorn. Somehow she’d expected some sort of grand palace. It was a bit jarring to encounter a comfortable home (and the television was a nice model with, like, all the game systems hooked up to it).
Dash scrambled in to sit right next to Sunset before anyone else could on purpose. She knew her friends, even with a gulf of time of a couple years before Princess Twilight showed up. Pinkie would be likely to get well inside Sunset’s personal bubble, Rarity would also get a little too up-close and personal under the impression that physical proximity would naturally lead to emotional intimacy. Applejack would sit across the room as near to face to face as she could manage, but doing nothing about the other two making Sunset uncomfortable until it’d been pushed too far, and Fluttershy would be likely to park herself on the other end of the room completely and say nothing as to “not make anyone upset.”
Dash loved her friends, but sometimes they seemed like they were completely clueless with how to deal with people who didn’t deal well with other people. Growing up with Fluttershy as a best friend helped the otherwise extremely extroverted Rainbow Dash learn how to recognize when someone was pegging all the “Oh, Faust, too many people get me out of here!” meters. Right now, Sunset Shimmer was showing all the signs that she was fighting her fight or flight instincts and that she had just been woken up probably wasn’t helping. Thus her parking herself in the spot next to the apparently alien girl; not so close she was touching, but close enough that even the antics of Pinkie “I have no idea what ‘personal space’ means” Pie couldn’t wedge herself in.
As the other girls made themselves comfortable and Principal Celestia sat on a stool in the connected kitchen where she could watch the interaction, Rainbow leaned slightly nearer to Sunset and nudged her conspiratorially, “So, you’re an alien?” she asked with a grin.
This seemed to be just what the other girl needed because she smirked and tapped on her phone again and the slightly mechanical voice came from it, “Yes.”
Putting the confusion of why the girl was responding with the phone to the back of her mind (she’d ask Applejack or Fluttershy about it, she could have sworn they said something earlier that week about it, but she wasn’t paying the closest attention and couldn’t remember exactly) she let her smirk break into a grin, “That’s pretty cool.”
“Oooh, what’s that?!” piped in the high-pitched voice of Pinkie Pie. Before anyone could react, the girl who more resembled an over-caffeinated ball of pink frizz snatched Sunset’s phone from her hands. Sunset looked positively panicked now, and Rainbow was about to launch herself at Pinkie to retrieve the phone.
The girls were spared the inevitable hijinks when Principal Celestia’s voice cut in, “Return that immediately, Ms. Pie.” Anyone who has ever experienced the sun breaking through the clouds in the depths of winter would understand the cold chills that were caused by the simple command spoken with dispassionate authority. Pinkie got the look of a very small animal that’s been targeted by a bird of prey as she slowly, exaggeratedly held the phone in a pinching grip with both hands, touching as little of it as possible, as she stretched her arms out and deposited the device in Sunset’s waiting hands, the entire time maintaining a rictus grin as she kept her eyes locked with the principal’s.
Only once Sunset was once again holding her phone did Celestia explain, “For whatever reason, Sunset has lost her ability to speak or write. I believe it’s related in some way to the magic used at the Fall Formal. The phone has software on it that is normally used for helping low-functioning autistic kids to communicate. Without that phone, Sunset cannot even give a yes or no answer to a question without having some sort of seizure.”
The mood was already pretty depressed, but that declaration killed it completely. “Sorry Sunset,” muttered Pinkie Pie.
Rainbow watched as Sunset tapped one of the three large buttons on her phone’s screen, which brought up another panel of buttons, and she tapped the big green one at the top. “Thanks,” came the robotic voice.
Pinkie giggles, back to her usually perky self. “You sound like Amazon now,” she gushed, referring to the smart-assistant that was being sold by the online retailer Silk Road, “Hey Sunset, tell me a joke!”
Sunset gave the pink girl a flat look and tapped another button on her phone, “No,” came the voice.
That got a laugh from the girls and Celestia leaned back with a sip of her coffee, the initial tension dispelled.
The Sunday after the Fall Formal...
“Are we really wasting our time following Pinkie Pie around because her ears tingle?!” growled Rainbow Dash.
Rarity looked up from her phone where she was busy texting, “I do understand, Rainbow, but we’ve hit a bit of a dead-end. It seems that nobody has ever been to Sunset’s place, and my contacts that have access to Sunset’s file in the school database are coming up with the Chinese restaurant.”
The restaurant in question could still be smelled. It was pretty run-of-the-mill Chinese food, featuring the “fast food” versions (in other words, heavily regionalized and almost unrecognizable by anyone from China) that the teenagers were familiar with, and since it was a fast food place the scent of cooking grease could be smelled for blocks around it. Nearly as soon as they got to the location looking for Sunset, Pinkie declared that her “Pinkie Sense” was going off and they needed to head in a seemingly random direction.
Applejack gave a nod, “That an’ Pinkie’s...twitches are pretty accurate. I seen it happen enough where she twitches or wiggles or somethin’ and then what she says will happen happens.” The farmer put her hand on Rainbow’s shoulder, “I understand your lookin’ side-eyed at this, but just entertain us for a bit, ‘kay?”
As the sound of a train horn blaring briefly echoed through the warehouse district, Rainbow Dash sighed and nodded, kicking an empty beer can off in the direction Pinkie was leading them. Rarity was apparently tracking the motion of the can, as she gasped, “Girls...correct me if I’m wrong,” she began, pointing just shy of where the can skidded to a stop at a small red splotch on the ground, “But is that…?”
Applejack and Fluttershy dashed over to the spot, AJ poking her finger into the liquid and then taking a sniff of the fingertip. Fluttershy eyed the red substance and both nodded, “Ayup,” confirmed Applejack, “It’s blood, and it’s fresh.”
Dash scanned the area and spotted more, apparently in a trail. “Look! It goes that way!” she pointed down a gap between two warehouses.
“No, wait,” Rarity interrupted as another train horn blast, this one nearer, reverberated through the urban canyons around them, “The trail stops, or maybe starts only a little ways in. It continues off in that direction.” She pointed off to another gap between buildings opposite the one they were near, this one wide enough to drive a small truck through.
Pinkie did a shivering wiggle dance and clasped her nose. “That’s it! Follow that trail!” The girl then darted off in the direction of the trail of blood.
“Pinkie, wait!” snapped Dash as she and the other girls chased after.
Some part of Dash’s awareness realized that the longer, much closer blast of the train horn had something to do with their situation, but what she couldn’t be sure. She was (naturally) the first to catch up with Pinkie Pie and grabbed the other girl by the arm to stop her. The rest of their group either ran (as with Applejack and, surprisingly, Fluttershy) or staggered to catch up (as Rarity had, bending at the waist to catch her breath). Another blast from the train horn drew their attention across the field of broken down fencing and empty storage yards to see a train track and an old railroad crossing that was clearly not working. On that crossing stood Sunset Shimmer, staring down the tracks. The girls turned to see that the train was bearing down on the girl and now repeatedly blasting its horn.
Sunset wasn’t moving.
Rainbow and Applejack immediately took off running. “First one to the tracks gets Sunset off, the other makes sure the girls call 911.” breathed Applejack.
Rainbow surged ahead, “You know it’s gonna be me that gets there first!”
Rainbow gauged the distance from herself to Sunset, then from Sunset to the train. Less than a soccer field, more than a football field, she thought, ...a little over 100 yards. The train is about a quarter of that distance from Sunset, it’s moving half as fast as me when I’m sprinting...I can do this. I’ve got 20 seconds.
She heard Applejack stumble, then slow down as she turned to snap directives at the others. The corner of her mind that paid attention to details noted that she was ordering Fluttershy to hold on to Pinkie Pie and then having Rarity call 911.
15 seconds and she had to hurdle a downed fence. When standing it had been 9 feet tall, but it’d been pushed over by time and lack of maintenance until it was listing at an approximate 30-degree angle off the ground. She used it to launch herself forward, planting a foot on the crossbar that supported the barbed wiring without tangling her feet in it, then letting the elasticity of the metal launch her back up like a gymnastics springboard.
10 seconds and she had another obstacle, a cement barrier. This one she did a diving leap, curling into a roll that she leapt out of at a dead sprint to make up for losing time on the roll.
At five seconds, she heard the broken crossing signal finally engage, but by this point, the train was only a couple of yards away. That was okay, as the barriers would have made it harder to do what she needed to next.
Rainbow Dash leaped at Sunset, slamming into the other girl and knocking her off the tracks. The train was so close that the very tip of her tennis shoe was clipped as the train barreled through the spot where Sunset had been standing, causing Rainbow’s body to spin slightly as she tumbled to the ground holding Sunset protectively. Once the dust had settled as the train blew past, Rainbow pushed herself up and checked on the other girl.
Something was horribly wrong with Sunset’s right arm. It was clearly the cause of the trail of blood, as there were lacerations from her palm nearly up to her elbow. Dash’s first thought, that Sunset had tried to slit her wrists, was belied by several more similar wounds, but much smaller, that peppered the girl’s hand and wrists. One looked like Sunset may have lost a finger if whatever had caused the wound had been even a quarter-inch deeper. Sunset also didn’t have any shoes on, and no socks. She must have soles of iron because there was surprisingly no cuts in spite of walking across streets, fields, and alleyways that were littered with sheared metal, broken glass, and sharp rocks.
What really scared Rainbow, though, was the other girl’s eyes. They looked dead. They weren’t focussed on anything, and other than the occasional twitching and the dilation of the iris, Sunset’s eyes may as well have been a pair of glass spheres. If she wasn’t breathing, Dash would have assumed Sunset was dead from the eyes alone.
“C’mon, Shimmer, you need a hospital.” Dash tried to shake the girl. When there was no response, she shook harder, “Sunset, you need to get up. Even with AJ, I don’t think we can carry you to an emergency room.”
There was a blink then a groan, so weak that Rainbow almost didn’t hear it over the sound of the train. Other than that, Sunset didn’t respond.
Dash looked up and saw the other four girls standing on the other side of the train. It was like looking at one of those old film movies that you could still find tucked away in the storerooms at CHS run in slow motion. She watched as Rarity spoke on the phone, whatever she was saying lost to the clacking and roaring of the train. Pinkie and Fluttershy looked shocked and surprised, hugging each other for support. Applejack just got the same look she always did when given a difficult task that she’d do no matter what.
“Hang on Sunset,” said Rainbow, “I don’t know what’s wrong, but we’re here for you. We never leave a friend hanging.”
Present…
“What do you think, Dashie?” said Pinkie.
“Huh, whu…?” Rainbow brought her attention back to the present. “About what?”
Applejack snickered, “A little lost in yer own thoughts there, sugarcube?”
Dash rolled her eyes, “Yeah, so? I got bored hearing your countryisms.”
Pinkie waggled her hand, “Eh, I give it about a six on the Applewood Sick Burns index.”
“We were…” interjected Rarity forcefully, “Asking what you thought Sunset’s world is like. Pinkie decided to make a game of it while you were pondering...whatever you were pondering.” The last bit was said with an apologetic smile.
“Oh, huh...okay.” Rainbow glanced over at their resident alien and found the girl giggling quietly, her shoulders shaking and her eyes lit up with mirth. Well, as long as she’s good for it, let’s see what I can come up with. Rainbow pondered for a minute, then snapped her fingers, “I know, you come from a race of space squids! They’re actually distantly related to humans, but it’s been so many generations that even the computer records have gotten lost. You’re at war with a race of cyborgs and you came here to escape their evil mind probes!”
By the time Rainbow had finished, Sunset was doubled over in laughter, rapidly tapping the, “No” button on her phone.
Dash ignored Rarity complaining that she’d mostly lifted the idea from an anime (which was true, so she wasn’t going to fight the other girl on the point) in favor of letting Sunset have a good belly laugh. She may not have been a doctor with fancy titles or a head-shrink, but she could take some blows to her pride if it meant she’d help Sunset to never be that dead inside again.
Monday came with the inevitability of a sunrise. And with the sunrise, also came to Canterlot High a Sunset. Principal Celestia had told the girls that she was going to be bringing Sunset Shimmer for at least the first part of the day and then see how well the girl could keep up. The five had volunteered to take Sunset in so the principal could hold a staff meeting to explain Sunset’s presently...reduced capacity.
They had dropped Sunset off at her homeroom (which she shared with Fluttershy) and broke off to get to their own (Though apparently Applejack was on duty to help in the cafeteria kitchens instead of homeroom, something that Rainbow hadn’t been aware of until that morning).
Things had been going fairly well until until Rainbow got a text from Fluttershy that she didn’t know what class Sunset had for second period and as far as she knew none of them shared that class with Sunset. Rainbow dashed (heh) off a quick text to the group to confirm Fluttershy’s fears, then began racing down hallways as fast as she dared and not get called out on by a teacher.
The bell rang, and just as Rainbow made the conscious decision to take whatever time it took to find Sunset and damn the consequences, she hit the bottom of the stairwell and turned the corner in the eastern wing of the school and heard what she was hoping she wouldn’t. Down one of the lesser used hallways came a repeated and mechanical, “No.”
Dash darted around the corner to find Lightning Dust and her latest band of cronies, The Washouts, gathered around Sunset Shimmer at the join of a t-junction of hallways, cornering her against some lockers. Sunset had clearly been knocked to the ground, her backpack had spilled open and her two textbooks for the morning were being kicked against the wall by Short Fuse. Sunset had her injured arm tucked up against her torso in instinctive protection and her right hand was holding her phone, her thumb repeatedly tapping the “No” button on the display. Rolling Thunder kicked at Sunset’s legs, forcing the former bully to tuck in tighter and in an even less defensible position. Rainbow was far enough away that she couldn’t quite make out what Lightning Dust was saying, but the tone was clearly jeering and taunting.
Then Lightning snatched Sunset’s phone out of her hand, and Rainbow saw red.
Before Lightning could even get the phone turned around to look at the screen, Rainbow had rocketed down the hallway and slammed her knee against Lightning’s forearm, the force of the kneeing kick slamming the other girl’s arm against the locker, denting the locker and pinning the arm. A muffled cracking sound could be heard as Lightning’s fingers dropped the phone, and Rainbow snatched it out of the air. Rainbow had the fleeting thought that she was surprised that LIghtning hadn’t turned at her approach, but the thought was crowded out with being self-impressed on how quickly she was able to snatch the phone out of the air.
Dash was grateful for the martial arts lessons her father insisted she take (and then subsequently embarrass the stuffing out of her at every exhibition match) as she let her muscle memory launch her off the wall in a spinning punch that slammed into Rolling Thunder’s stomach. Dash was wondering if the girl’s reputation for being a hotheaded streetfighter, and a damn quick one at that, was warranted given how slowly the girl was moving. Hell, the girl almost wasn’t reacting to Rainbow’s arrival at all. She tossed the phone up and slammed her now free hand into a second solar plexus jab as she reached up and caught the phone with the hand that had just been used for an attack, a niggling worry that maybe she was missing something started to tickle her thoughts as she once again noted how the phone had, really, barely moved once it left her hand. Not wanting to give Rolling the chance to retaliate before she could deal with Short Fuse, Rainbow hooked a foot behind Rolling’s knee and yanked with the intent of forcing the other girl to fall. Her balance must have been pretty spectacular, because she remained vertical, though there were signs that she was starting to lean, so Dash slipped around the still reeling Lightning and drove a knee into Short Fuse’s rib cage, slamming the smaller girl against the lockers hard enough to cause the entire bank of them to thunder from the impact. The part of her brain that worked on quippy one-liners noted that she should have used this move on the other girl, as a joke about the lockers making the sound of ‘rolling thunder’ as she was kicked into them would have been hilarious. Another part of her brain, one that was starting to sound alarms, noted that the sound of the lockers crashing like they were shouldn’t sound like low rolling thunder, no matter how hard they were slammed against. As the girl dropped, Rainbow slipped the phone down into Sunset’s bandaged hand, being as careful as possible to not just throw it at her friend in case the injured arm might cause her to bobble the catch. Pushing away from the wall with her foot, Rainbow launched herself at Lightning Dust and grabbed the other girl by the collar. She was pulling back a fist when she became aware of what seemed like a very low voice saying her name as slowly as possible.
She paused to look around, then suddenly the world snapped into focus. Rolling Thunder finally let out an agonized wheeze from her stomach being impacted and collapsed to the floor, her leg whipped out in front of her. Short Fuse finally hit the floor after her forced faceplant with the lockers. Lightning Dust screeched in agony and clasped her right arm with her left, bursting into tears and the initial signs of shock started rocking her body. Under the sounds of the girl whose shirt was in Rainbow’s balled up fist came the odd voice, which suddenly sped up and went from a deep base to the more familiar alto of Vice-principal Luna, “...aaaaaaiiiinbow Dash, stop!”
Rainbow blinked and realized that the VP was just down the hall of the t-junction. She looked around and realized that Short Fuse was unconscious and barely breathing, Rolling Thunder was not breathing and her eyes were rolling in her head as she gagged and convulsively tried to take in air, and Lightning Dust’s arm was clearly broken and the girl was shaking from trauma. Dash lowered the other girl as gently as she could and glanced down the hallway she had just come down, realizing it was half the length of the soccer pitch and she’d covered the distance in less than a second, black scorch marks where her shoes had created friction burns in the two places her feet had actually made contact with the floor.
Sunset Shimmer’s eyes were wide with an expression of panic, her uninjured hand clasped over her mouth and her bandaged hand limply holding the phone that had been the catalyst for Rainbow’s reaction. Luna was just standing in the middle of the hallway, jaw hanging slack as she stared at her student.
“...what just happened?” asked Rainbow.
Rainbow Dash felt sick to her stomach. She could see the flashing lights of the three ambulances that had to be called in for the injuries she’d accidentally caused. She watched as they started pulling away in a caravan, fortunately none of them had to turn on the sirens as the injuries were determined to be severe but not critical. She almost didn’t hear anything Vice-principal Luna was saying.
“...and due to the...magical nature and you being as surprised as anyone else to what happened, I’m willing to overlook the rather nasty injuries you caused your fellow students.” Dash blinked owlishly, returning her focus to the disciplinarian. Would she really just be getting off scot free? That didn’t seem right. “Let’s instead talk about why you thought that fighting in school was going to be a good idea.”
Rainbow’s thoughts swam, trying to gather themselves. “...so...I’m not in trouble? Or am I? I...I nearly killed Thunder…” her stomach started threatening to launch it’s contents again, Rainbow started shivering. “I...I should be under arrest, not getting off without a punishment.”
She heard a gentle sigh from the older woman across the desk, “Miss Dash, while you are in trouble, it would be...unjust of me to prescribe a punishment for the more extreme results of your actions. It would be akin to strapping chainsaws to a baby and then punishing the child for the damage the chainsaws caused when the infant started behaving as infants do.” Rainbow turned her gaze up to the educator who was holding up a placating hand, “This is not to say you are an infant or acting childish, but whatever magic is at work on you is powerful, and as you completely accidentally demonstrated earlier, is incredibly easy to cause damage unintentionally. I will be assigning you detention for fighting in school, but I will not be punishing you for things you have no control over nor could you have possibly anticipated them.”
Knowing that she was being granted a small mercy was a relief, but even so, she felt she had to provide a justification for her actions. “I just couldn’t let them pick on Sunset. She can’t even talk, fer crying out…” some of the emotions that had been held back by shock started leaking through, “She’s so helpless right now, and I don’t care what someone did before, you don’t do that to someone who can’t defend themselves.” She sniffed, wiping at her nose with the back of her arm, “She’s...hurt...and if I’d been any slower than I had…I had to go faster…” tears started trailing down her face, her thoughts not about the earlier altercation in the hallway but back at the train tracks, and she huddled in on herself. She sensed more than saw the vice-principal round the desk and sit down next to her, rubbing her back with gentle motions as she wept.
Celestia set the pen down on the freshly signed document and rubbed her eyes, attempting to bleed some tension out before an actual headache set in. Catching up on a week’s worth of work, even when her sister had done a lot of it and delegated what she could, was daunting no matter what the cause. Trying to find new and creative ways to bullshit the bureaucracy to keep the word “magic” out of the paperwork was especially tiring. She pressed a button on her phone, activating the intercom feature between her and her secretary. “Raven, would you mind terribly bringing me a tea, and maybe see if you can get an ibuprofen from Nurse Redheart, please?”
Celestia chose to ignore the slight mirth in Raven’s voice as she replied, “Of course, your majesty.” Well, OK, an eye roll, but otherwise ignored. The staff had taken the news that their principal’s other-universe counterpart was royalty with plenty of good-natured humor. Except for Cranky, but then he treated pretty much everyone in exactly the same curmudgeonly way.
A handful of minutes and a couple hundred milligrams of anti-inflammatory later, Celestia decided to take a moment for a quiet contemplation break as she sipped her tea. As she sat leaned back, her gaze drifted idly over her desk, then around the office, finally alighting on the large purse she’d taken to carrying lately so she could put all the things that needed to go to and from home with her on a daily basis, especially with a special needs teenager now in the house. Sticking out of the bag was the journal that Luna had retrieved from Sunset’s locker. She hadn’t brought it up to Sunset, because, of course, there was no way for the girl to say anything about it, and possibly not even any way to write in it, so Celestia was keeping it handy.
A niggling voice told her to read it. She had shied away from doing so as that would be quite the invasion of privacy, but she’d been growing more and more open to the idea in the last few days, as since the incident involving magic and the creation of the...conspiracy board? Relationship network? She still wasn’t sure what to call it, but since Sunset had created it, she hadn’t been able to speak or write again. Reading the girl’s journal seemed more and more like the best way to try and get a few more pieces of the puzzle.
She took a calming breath and turned back to her desk and eyeballed the stack of work she still had in her “to do” pile, then set the teacup down and pulled Sunset’s journal out of her purse.
It was a gorgeous piece of art on its own. Clearly hand-stitched, or whatever Sunset’s people used in lieu of hands. Its size was a bit odd, but apparently the other universe used the Golden Mean as well for their books, as it was proportional to any other book she might pick up from a book store. The front cover had the glyph or mark that Celestia was growing to understand was special to Sunset, but the spine was unmarked, as was the back. Mentally steeling herself, she opened the cover...and once again had her perception of reality shaken.
In her own handwriting was a dedication written on the inside front cover, “To my beloved faithful student. If you ever have need of my counsel, I am but a quill-stroke away. Yours, Princess Celestia.”
So, apparently it was a “thing” for Celestia to take in Sunset Shimmer in some capacity or another. She was mildly curious to find out if there were other universes out there where other versions of herself found themselves with other versions of Sunset, and if those versions of Sunset were from other universes...she stopped her train of thought, as it struck her as one of those, “turtles all the way down” kinds of philosophical navel-gazing.
She tried to mentally brace herself, but then realized the futility of it and flipped open to the first page with writing.
“Dear Princess Celestia,” it began, “I don’t know how ‘Professor’ Arcane manages to hold on to his tenure, he knows nothing about forming a proper spell matrix…”
Well, thought the principal, At least I know this is, indeed, Sunset’s journal. She’s never shied away from calling out what she saw as incompetence in educators. A small smile quirked up her lips for a bit as she read. The following entry, though, was a bit of a surprise, as it was a reply from the princess herself. Celestia had thought this would simply be a sort of “mental dumping ground” for Sunset’s thoughts, but she now realized the two had used this book to communicate. Could they not simply have chat? Did the princess’ duties keep her from being able to do one-on-one time with her student so they just traded the journal? Celestia’s questions were answered over the next few entries as Sunset had stayed home as Celestia went abroad and the text began implying the conversation was happening in near real-time, rather like a chat room online, or more accurately one of the instant messenger platforms. The journal must be magical… she allowed herself to be overcome with a sense of wonder, realizing she was one of the few, if not the only person on the planet that held an honest to goodness magical artifact in her hands.
Shaking off the feeling, at least enough to focus on her chosen task, she went back to reading. This time she was feeling much better about doing so, as this was a two-way communicator and not a private journal. There was some entries that were a bit more personal than Sunset may have wanted to be transmitted to third parties, but overall it was a fairly straightforward correspondence between two people.
The story of the two was as sad as it was inevitable. Celestia could see the frustration written in ink from both the princess and her student as Sunset’s ability and knowledge began outpacing what her teacher could provide. Demands for access to learning and education were stymied by equally insistent pleas for the student to, in so many words, “get a life.” Celestia saw Sunset beginning to chafe at what she perceived as intentional blockades of her studies, while Princess Celestia was practically begging her pupil to go out and make some friends or, at the very least, get along better with her collaborators. Principal Celestia was noticing that the further she read, the more time seemed to pass between ‘sessions’ of entries in the book, either her doppelganger would declare she would be giving Sunset “her space,” or Sunset would write an angry entry in a fit of pique that apparently stung some aspect of the princess’ pride and the journal would be silent, until another entry where they would tentatively dance around the real issue before getting into another written argument.
It finally culminated in an argument that clearly had more going on that was written. References to spoken words, miscommunications through other people (some names of which she recognized from her own life, including Counselor Neighsay, president of the school district’s board of directors, and even Raven, who was her opposite version’s seneschal), and repeated references to a “destiny” and some sort of mirror, then finally some angry words written in splotchy quill writing.
The final entry was completely different. Apparently written sometime after that final, vitriolic exchange, it was the princess communicating to her student, “My dearest Sunset; I am so sorry. I allowed my fears and emotions to get the better of our discussions regarding what was, for you, a very important topic that needed answers, not my continued stonewalling. You guessed correctly that it had to do with Nightmare Moon, but you don’t know the whole story. I would like need to tell you the part the reference and history books leave out. There is much you don’t know, and in my hubris, I believed it wasn’t your right to know. I know you cannot return any sooner than two years from this letter, but I would like to know that you are still there and whether you are well.” There was a block of writing that was completely obscured. Whatever had been written there by the princess had also been heavily redacted, most likely by the princess herself given what was written next. “I am sorry, I allowed my emotions to overcome me once again. I would sincerely appreciate the opportunity to mend some fences between us. Please write back as soon as you’re willing.”
The next three entries in the journal were heartbreaking;
“Sunset, are you there?”
“Sunset, please answer me”
“Sunset?”
Celestia leaned back in her chair and pondered the new information she had now. The other Celestia had mentioned something called “The Elements of Harmony,” which seemed to correspond in some respects with the displays she had seen when Princess Twilight was on this side of the portal. It did help her to understand the center of the relationship web (or whatever they were going to call it) that Sunset had put together, and may have some bearing on what happened with her five students that had been most directly affected by the magic, but she wasn’t sure why some magic called specifically Harmony would lock up Sunset’s ability to communicate. They couldn’t even seek advice from either of the other princesses because Sunset couldn’t write back to them…
Celestia’s heart stopped for a moment, ...I don’t have the communication block that Sunset has...I could write to the princess!
Should she, though? Was it right for her to use Sunset’s journal, her means of communicating, apparently privately, with her old mentor?
Her train of thought was interrupted when her sister came in without knocking. The younger woman didn’t quite flop down into one of the guest chairs on the other side of the desk, but it was clear she was drained enough that she wanted to. She let out a sigh of exhausted frustration, “Miss Dash will be serving detention for a week, but I’d recommend we get her to the school counselor and find some way to get her to a therapist. She’s not taking this well.”
Celestia blinked owlishly at this sudden intrusion, “...taking what well?”
Luna looked a bit askance at her sister, “The incident in the hallway with Sunset? The injuries?” Celestia’s face must have betrayed her confusion, “What have you been doing all day, Celly?”
The principal indicated her desk, “Beyond the obvious, I’ve been reading through Sunset’s journal. It’s...actually a magical artifact.”
This made Luna sit up abruptly. “Given what happened with Rainbow Dash earlier, are you sure you should be handling it if that’s the case?”
“It’s been sitting in Sunset’s locker for the better part of two years, I doubt it’ll cause anything to happen now; but tell me about the incident with Miss Dash…?
Luna spent the next few minutes relaying what she knew of the situation to her sister, “...I’ll have to come up with some way of explaining this to the girl’s parents. ‘Your child was magically punished for bullying a classmate in such a way we had to call in some EMTs, but please don’t look too closely at this or talk to the government spooks that are nosing around’ doesn’t look good on a note.”
Celestia snorted in amusement. “Quite, though I do agree with you on what we should do about Rainbow Dash, or at least recommend. I believe a carefully worded note to a trusted therapist might be necessary, not to mention a briefing of some sort on the nature of magic...and won't that be an interesting conversation.”
“Listen to us,” Luna sighed, “Giving briefings, dodging agents...when did we turn into a branch of the government?”
“Technically? When we went into teaching at a public school.” Celestia giggled at her sister’s unamused glower, “But yes, I think it was when we had a refuge from an alternate dimension show up in our school.”
“Universe,” corrected Luna, “She’s from another universe, not dimension. My point is that we’re not really equipped to deal with this. Cherrilee is only in class and teaching right now because the S.M.I.L.E. agents overstepped first. Had it gone any other way, she’d be in Twin Rivers Bay or some other facility we’ve never heard of.”
Celestia said nothing, just resting her elbows on the desk and her chin on her folded hands. The two sat in silence for a bit before Luna stood.
“I have to go sit detention soon. I know you’ve still got paperwork, but you and Sunset do still need to eat. Please make sure you get home in time for dinner.” She waited to leave until Celestia silently nodded.
The principal remained deep in thought for a few more minutes after Luna left. Sunset’s...crippled due to magic, Rainbow Dash is harming others because she’s accessing magic somehow, government agents circling like sharks...
Celestia reached for a pen, pulled the book closer, and started writing.
Dear Princess Celestia...
Luna’s mood was sour as she approached the classroom that held the student she really didn’t want to have in detention. She understood exactly what Rainbow Dash had intended, and truly wished she could encourage such behavior. If more people intervened for others when they saw bullying, the problem would be much less severe and Luna’s workload as school disciplinarian would be much reduced. Rules were rules, however, and as Dash had been the one to escalate from assault to battery, she had to be punished, intent be damned.
As she drew nearer to the open door, she realized she heard Rainbow Dash’s voice. “...eriously, Sunset, just go! I’m the one who got detention for fighting in school, not you. Did you get detention for blowing off the front of the school? N…” she was interrupted by a mechanical, “No.” from Sunset’s phone. “No, that’s right, you didn’t. So you don’t belong here, now shoo!”
“No.” came the robotic reply.
An exaggerated groan floated through the open door, “C’mon, Sunset. I don’t know what you think you’re doing, and only being able to speak in yes’s and no’s is driving me crazy!”
“Maybe.” The synthetic voice was underscored by quiet snickering.
“Ha-ha, very funny,” growled Rainbow Dash, then came a sigh. “Well, fine, look. When Vice-Principal Luna gets here, I’ll let her get you to go home. I guess you can stay until then. You’re all right, and...and I kinda wish I’d gotten to know you better before...well, I mean...look, I’m not good at this mushy stuff, but I guess if you wanted we could be friends. You know, if you want.”
Silence reigned for a moment, then, “Yes.”
There was a rustling, “You’re all right, Shimmer.” More rustling and a thump. “Ow! And you hit hard, too! I’m gonna have to teach you how to do friendly shoulder punches.”
Luna smiled and looked at her watch. Well, she thought, I think they’ll keep each other company nicely, and as long as Miss Dash doesn’t leave the room, I think I can consider her detention for the day served. Decision made, she quietly walked away to leave the two new friends to their own devices.
An hour later, Celestia and Luna approached the detention classroom, Celestia was strangely reserved, but Luna brushed it aside as the stress of the day. She once again heard the vibrant tones of the school’s star athlete, “So they bite into the ‘cookies,’” the emphasis on the word ‘cookies’ indicated that this was yet another retelling of one of Rainbow Dash’s infamous pranks, “And they nearly all spit them out! Well, everyone but Pinkie, but you know how she is with the weird foods.”
Sunset’s laughter could be heard from the hallway, and they were both grateful for whatever was locking up Sunset’s speech wasn’t also keeping her from making any sounds at all. “Well,” began Celestia as they entered the room, “I understand today has been busy.”
Rainbow jumped to attention, having been leaning against the teacher’s desk as she spoke, “Oh, uh, Principal Celestia, VP Luna...I, uh...I was just…”
Luna smiled, “Relax, Miss Dash. I knew Sunset was here with you. By the by,” she said, ignoring the raised eyebrow from Sunset at the anachronistic phrase, “I’ve been in contact with the hospital. Lightning Dust was the worst injury and she was discharged an hour ago. The other two were mostly shock-related trauma and are expected to recover fully within a few days. Miss Dust’s broken bones will have to take their usual time healing, but then she has a history of such with her sports activities anyway, so as gauche as it is to say...she’s used to it.”
Rainbow Dash relaxed visibly. “Wow...just...thanks, Vee-Pee.”
Celestia chose to chime in, “That said, Miss Dash, while I agree that getting into fights in school is never acceptable...I think I can agree with your reasons in this case.” She winked conspiratorially at Sunset.
Luna elbowed her older sister. “I do expect to see you back here tomorrow, Miss Dash. And Sunset,” the girl turned to face Luna, “Well meaning though it may be in joining Rainbow Dash today, I am afraid she is in detention, not you. Solidarity aside, the form must be followed. You’re going home with Celestia tomorrow.”
Sunset let out a resigned sigh and tapped the, “Yes.” button on her phone.
Luna smiled at her, then turned to Rainbow, “You’re done with detention today, you may go home now.”
As soon as the final syllable left Luna’s mouth, Sunset sat up ramrod straight and grasped the desk she was sitting at, here eyes suddenly unseeing and then they started glowing.
Rainbow had leapt into a sloppy defensive stance and Luna almost tripped over backward at the sight. Celestia was startled, but recognized it. “This is what happened last week!” she gasped as the other two recoiled. The light almost projected against the opposite wall, and the others could almost see a very blurry gear shape that was gently spinning. One of the five spokes glowed a bright blue, in contrast with the golden-white light of the rest, then the glow stopped and Sunset was left gasping in her seat. Abruptly, she stood and power-walked almost robotically out the door to the classroom.
Celestia only briefly looked at Luna, who just said, “Go!” in permission for the older sister. Celestia took off after Sunset, and moments later the duo could hear a squeal of tires in the parking lot, presumably Celestia trying to drive Sunset.
Rainbow Dash was shocked, but not as badly as earlier that day. “What was that about?” she gasped.
Luna shook her head, “I’m not entirely sure, but I suspect that’s related to whatever magic is keeping her from being able to speak. If I guess right, they’re headed home, where a...project is that Sunset put together the first time that happened.” She shrugged her shoulders, “Come, at least I can drive you home.”
Celestia tucked Sunset into bed and plugged in the girl’s phone, putting it on the bed near her for when she woke up. She stood and studied the relationship web for a moment, admiring the blue string that now connected probably three-fifths of the wall. From what she had read in Sunset’s journal, somehow whatever happened today was connected to what she assumed was Rainbow Dash’s element, Loyalty.
Shaking her head, she decided to go to bed herself. Her thoughts were growing fuzzy, and she still had to go back to school tomorrow, probably to deal with three new sets of parental inquiries tomorrow as well as everything else.
A brief shower later, she climbed between her bedsheets and double-checked her alarm on her phone. Grumbling slightly at the realization that she’d only be getting about five hours of sleep at this point, she put her phone face down on her end table and nestled in.
Just as she was about to slip off to sleep, she heard a buzzing and a throbbing light filled the room. Damnit, she thought, I could have sworn I put that thing face down! Grumbling under her breath, she pushed herself off her pillow and looked at her phone...which was still, silent, and face down on the end table.
Confused, she looked around the room to see the light coming from her large purse. She stood and walked over to the hook she hung it on next to her door, pulling it open to see the journal, vibrating gently and glowing with magic.
Slowly, almost not believing it was actually happening, she opened the journal to the bookmark she had put in it after finishing her entry earlier that day, she looked down at the page below her signature line. Just before the glow of the book’s magic faded in response to her opening the book to view the message, she read the words, Dear Principal Celestia...
Chapter 5 - Pleasures Remain...So Does the Pain
Author's Notes:
For those who haven't yet read it, now's the time to read Music Box Blues, which is a canonical side-story to My Empire of Dirt that takes place at approximately the same time as this chapter.
Chapter 5 - Pleasures Remain...So Does the Pain
Dear Princess Celestia,
I’m afraid I must apologize right off the bat; I am not Sunset Shimmer. Whatever rules of the multiverse have conspired to make it so, Sunset finds herself in the care of a Celestia again. Princess Twilight Sparkle can probably explain better than I, but apparently, you and I share many things beyond a name, but to provide some evidence, if it can be called such, I offer the following: I gather from the previous entries in this journal that something happened to your sister Luna, and as of the final entry you left over three years ago by our calendar, you still hadn’t had her returned to you. While I don’t know the specifics, I know something of that pain and understand your unwillingness to speak of it to your student. I, too, lost my Luna for a while. Due to some problems when we were young where she perceived that our friends were abandoning her in favor of me during the period after our parents died in an accident, she was incarcerated for 1,000 days. While she has come to terms with what happened and uses medication to control the depression that led to the incident, I still feel that the ultimate responsibility for the incident is mine. If whatever occurred between you and Luna was at all similar to what happened with us, then I hope that you can use the relationship as a bit of hope that things will get better.
As for the reason I, and not Sunset, am writing to you...we have a bit of a problem. During the events of the Fall Formal (which I’m sure Princess Twilight briefed you on) some magic was used that at first seemed to simply instill a sense of humility in Sunset and strip her of some power, as well as undo a...would the word “transformation” be accurate? In the days following, though, the magic somehow crippled Sunset’s ability to communicate. She cannot talk except in her sleep, and what she does say when she’s sleeping indicates she’s having night-terrors. For whatever reason, save for when a certain trigger happens (which we’ve only managed to activate twice, so we’re not quite sure what the trigger even is), she is unable to write anything, even on the computer or cell phone. Any attempts to do so cause a seizure in Sunset. We’ve adapted a cell phone with software that’s normally used for low-functioning children with communication problems, but the responses are by nature limited, so while Sunset may have the knowledge of what’s happened to her, she’s unable to relay it in such a way as to help us make sense of what’s going on.
As a former caretaker of Sunset, you should also know that she tried to commit sui kill hers take her own life. She also has some severe injuries to her right arm that happened during a time of about 12 hours where we can’t account for Sunset’s activities or location and she’s unable to tell us what happened.
In short, Sunset is suffering from intense trauma, very likely has PTSD and situationally induced depression, and magically enforced communication impairment.
While I’m hesitant to involve anyone else in our problems, there are other things that are happening around Sunset and the use of magic at the Fall Formal you should know about.
I don’t know if Princess Twilight has explained this, but here ‘magic’ is considered to be either parlor tricks that are done by sleight-of-hand, or a fantasy or mythical force that exists only as a narrative trope in fiction. Consequently, we’ve been under growing pressure from the parents of our students and various government agencies to explain the events and provide reassurances, and the ‘convenient gas line explosion’ line is growing increasingly more challenging to keep going. The staff and student body of the school are helping as best they can, but ultimately we won’t be able to keep this going much longer, and I fear that in attempting to protect the students, some teachers may find themselves on the wrong side of law enforcement.
Additionally, the use of magic seems to be spreading in an uncontrolled way. One of our students, one of those befriended by Princess Twilight during her time here, accidentally used magic in such a way that it injured three other students to the point of needing emergency medical care. Please let Princess Twilight know, if you relay this to her, that Rainbow Dash is fine and the injured students are expected to recover fully.
We need help. Whether you can (please) reopen the portal so we can have an expert in magic take a look at her or even just advise on how to handle the situation, whatever you can provide would be greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Principal Celestia Faust
To: Sunday Sprinkles, Director, FBI
From: Red Tape, Legal Counsel, Canterlot City High School District
Subject: Unauthorized and unlawful activity of FBI agents on school district property
Director Sprinkles,
Please see the attached federal court order to halt all activities of your agents on the property of the Canterlot City High School District. The actions the agents who have already been banned from Canterlot High are now also under restraining order regarding all Canterlot City High School District personnel and students. Any violation of this order will be met with the fairly severe reprisals listed in the document for convenient reference.
-R.T. Legal Counsel
Dear Principal Celestia,
I am sincerely grateful that you have reached out to me, and I have a team being put together to work on the problem of gaining access to your world again. While I normally wouldn’t interfere with the workings of my teacher Starswirl the Bearded so many years since his death, I believe the situation with Sunset Shimmer alone merits interfering with the normal flow of interdimensional magic, let alone the issues with magic use and the interference of your government.
I have suspended my usual court tomorrow morning so that we may converse more readily, and additionally, I’ll have Twilight Sparkle with me to aid in the communication challenges that may exist. (Would Twilight have encountered this “cell phone” that you wrote about to be able to explain it? I am most interested, as it may help some of my little ponies that are similarly born with communication difficulties.)
In the meantime, any further information on the symptoms of magical suppression you’re seeing in Sunset Shimmer would be appreciated. Any little thing you notice could be the clue that unlocks this mystery.
In regards to my sister, soon after that final entry I made to Sunset, Twilight and her friends assisted in freeing Luna from the clutches of the Nightmare. Luna has since embraced the Nightmare Night holiday and has become beloved of the children of the nation. It’s a great amusement and consternation that she has taken to “pranking” during the month leading up to Nightmare Night.
Would you be able to tell me more about the medication your Luna takes? There are times where I catch my Luna in a...melancholy mood. Though she does try to reassure me that she is fine, I remain concerned and watchful. If the medication is effective at treating depression, I might suggest it to my sister.
Yours Sincerely,
Princess Celestia
Dear Ms. Blaze, Ms. Dusk, and Ms. Dazzle (and their parents/guardians):
Canterlot High School is pleased that you are interested in applying to transfer to our school to continue your education. We regret to inform you that at this time we’re unable to accept your application to transfer. This is not due to any issue with your paperwork or credentials (which we would be more than happy to accept under normal circumstances) but due to events beyond our control. Please advise your parents/guardians that we will be reopening enrollments for transfers for the Spring semester and will be happy to provide testing for any of our core subjects to prove independent study progress and, upon request, will be providing references for Canterlot High School District approved tutors to keep you up to speed with the coursework your future classmates will be doing. Of course, we will understand if this delay will not suit your situation and would be happy to provide references and vouchers to other schools that are able to take new students at this time, such as our sister private school Crystal Preparatory Academy.
Please contact our office at any time during school hours to pursue any of these options, and thank you for giving us the opportunity to prepare you for your future successes.
Sincerely,
Vice-principal Luna
Dear Princess Celestia,
Thank you for replying, I hadn’t realized how much I’d been dreading facing the current crisis unassisted until your reply made me feel as though the world had been lifted from my shoulders!
To clarify my earlier statements about magic - We don’t have any, or at least we didn’t before the Fall Formal. While there may have been tiny pockets (it can clearly exist here, so I wouldn’t rule out the existence of small amounts, especially as the inspiration for some of our myths and legends), it’s always been considered a non-existent thing, so there’s been no serious study or enough of a framework for me to be able to identify anything specific to ‘suppression’ magic. I’m afraid you’ll have to give me a bit of an education on that.
As far as taking the time, while I do appreciate the gesture of canceling a court hearing, I’m afraid I’m still catching up on my own duties as principal. I had taken a week off work to address Sunset’s immediate needs, so I will be quite busy. I will do my best to reply as soon as possible whenever you message and will leave the journal with my secretary Raven in case something comes up that requires my immediate attention.
Of additional note, while Princess Twilight will undoubtedly have encountered numerous cell phones during her time here, it’s unlikely that she’ll have gotten more than a cursory understanding of how they work. I’ve had to make myself proficient in their use owing to the proliferation of their use amongst my students, I’m afraid I’d prefer to refer you to some reference texts once you have access to this side of the portal, presuming your efforts to reopen it bear fruit. The best “simple” explanation that I can offer is that a modern cell phone is a handheld computer that connects to the Internet using radios.
As far as the medication goes, it’s marketed under the name Tantabus. I’d have to be able to spend some time doing research to find out the actual chemical properties of the active ingredients to tell you more, though. Maybe you have Tantabus on your side?
Sincerely,
Principal Celestia
Dear Princess Celestia,
Sorry! I’m still not used to addressing you by just your name and not your title, I’ll continue to work on it.
Anyway, thank you so much for the update and I will be heading to Canterlot just as soon as I wrap up the latest craziness that came out of, believe it or not, one of Spike’s comic books. I’m especially concerned about the friend that Principal Celestia mentioned that was using magic. Any idea on who it was, specifically? It might also help to know the exact circumstances of the use, since as you know, fledgling magic among foals always happens due to an emotional prompt of some sort. It might be an early indicator of further incidents at the high school if magic is growing in that universe.
Your faithful student friend,
Twilight Sparkle
Dear Principal Celestia,
I am heartened and relieved that even just my correspondence is helping in lightening your load. As you know from my final entries in the journal before your’s, I have had her constantly on my mind since she ran away exiled herself left.
As far as the issue of the Day Court, I certainly don’t mind canceling it, and even your occasional response will be plenty of excuse for me to take a day or two from seeing Equestria’s nobles trying to ply the throne for more of my little ponies’ tax money is a welcome relief, even if (like your duties as Principal) they cannot be delayed forever.
I’m noticing quite a few parallels in our worlds and quite a few ways in which they differ. We both have a Raven Inkwell that serves as a liaison and advisor, of sorts, that ensure our days run efficiently.
Speaking of which, perhaps we should use this as an ideal opportunity to allow my government to open relations with yours. My dear Twilight Sparkle informs me that it is only a matter of hours now until we are able to open the portal. She has volunteered to go through again to begin the process of opening up an embassy, which she advises should prove quite easy now that she has come up with a way to keep the portal open permanently. Apparently, there was a bit of an epiphany when she was visited by her Ponyville friends and Pinkie Pie gave her the ideas on how to make the portal open permanently. Once the Royal Society of Mages and the staff of the School for Gifted Unicorns finishes working with Twilight to make her design for modifying the mirror something more than (and I’m quoting Professor Bright Eyes on this), “an eye-melting horror of a prototype that, while functional, has so few safeguards that it is nearly a universe destroying bomb waiting to happen,” we’ll open up the portal outside of its pre-designed cycle for the first time since its creation.
I do hope to see Sunset with my own eyes again soon and look forward to meeting my counterpart, as well as that of my sister.
Sincerely,
Princess Celestia
Transcript, recorded for use by the Royal Archivist.
(Transcriber’s note: Original source is a “video recording,” much like one of the recent “talky” films that have become popular from the west coast film industry out of Applewood. The display that was used to show the video was given to the Canterlot Embassy required quite a bit of tutoring to learn to use, but this transcriptionist is now convinced that this kind of recording could revolutionize the gathering and dissemination of information. I am copying the Academy of Sciences on this so that they may encourage similar developments in Equestria)
Recording begins, visible are three entities known as ‘humans.’ These three appear to be younger adolescents of the species, especially compared to the taller and clearly more developed humans that can be seen later in the video. The transcriptionist notes that they all three appear to be female, also based on comparisons to examples later in the video.
Human adolescent with yellow coloration and red mane is identified in the video as Applebloom, human adolescent with pearl-white coloration and two-tone violet and pink mane is identified as Sweetie Belle, and human adolescent with orange coloration and purple mane is identified as Scootaloo.
(Transcriptionist’s note: Effort has been made to properly convey accented speech throughout transcript)
Applebloom: This is it, y’all, we’re gonna be the only people to get to record first contact with another species!
Sweetie Belle: Technically, it was our sisters that made first contact with Twilight, remember?
Scoootaloo: Girls, quiet! They’re doing something!
View shifts to reveal the three are hiding in a bush of some variety, a pair of hands on either side pulling the foliage to the side to allow for a view of a statue surrounded by more humans. While there is a large number of uniforms of some form of guard capacity (represented by two types; one set of uniform is blue with some form of padded armor covering the torso with clear signs of sheathed weapons of some variety, the other a suit-like uniform worn by soldiers, recognizable as being stationed in a similar array as the blue-uniformed guards), those of note are a very tall example of humanity, apparently female, with a mane extremely similar to Princess Celestia. This individual would later be identified as Principal Celestia. Also with her is a human female that is identified similarly as Vice-principal Luna. Standing with them is a small group of six human females conversing quietly enough the video recording device was unable to capture the sound of their conversation.
Scootaloo: [leans into the visual frame of the recording device] D’ya think the portal will open like on that show Heaven’s Door? You know… [Scootaloo makes a horizontal motion that resembles a splash with her arms and the claws that humans have instead of hooves] …’kawoosh’?
Applebloom: We’ll we aint gonna know if’n ya don’t get outa the frame, Scoots!
Scootaloo: Right, sorry!
View resolves back into focus on the statue. A book vibrates and begins glowing in Principal Celestia’s hands.
Principal Celestia: [lifts the book and reads] They’re about to activate the portal.
The assembled beings move away from the statue. The video capture device is not able to record magic auras so none appear on the screen, though the light does seem to reflect more brightly from the base of the statue. A dog comes through, leading another human. The dog and human are the forms the portal granted to the dragon Spike and Princess Twilight Sparkle respectively. A babble of conversation starts up as five of the six younger humans rush over to the princess and engage in a round of hugging and greeting. The yellow human with a pink mane, later identified as Fluttershy, and the white human with purple mane, later identified as Rarity, pay some extra attention to Spike. They are joined swiftly by a squad of Equestrian Guardsponies, recognizable by their armor which has adapted to their new forms like their bodies have been adapted. The lieutenant of the squad can be seen moving to meet with the human guards and is quickly directed to the apparent leader of the guards. The group hushes as another figure steps through, this one physically a mirror image of Principal Celestia, but wearing different clothing entirely. The princess’ usual regalia is still on her body, but adapted by the portal to this human form, and she is now wearing a dress. At her appearance, the guards from both sides seem to come to even greater attention.
The sixth younger human abruptly moves to hide behind Principal Celstia, though it’s obvious that Princess Celestia has seen this younger human. The young woman has orange skin and red and yellow hair, later identified as Sunset Shimmer. The two Celestia’s approach each other, Sunset clutching at Principal Celestia’s coat as they move.
Sweetiebelle: [quietly] This is it, when the authorities on two worlds meet for the first time. If Princess Celestia is anything like Principal Celestia, this will be a fairly reserved meeting, most likely with some sort of speech intended to be heard by the people around them about two worlds uniting in harmony…
Scootaloo: ...and sunshine and skittles and bla-bla-bla! Do you think they have blasters hidden somewhere like Twilight had at the Fall Formal?
Sweetiebelle: Scootaloo, shush! They’re exchanging some words, or at least the Principal is speaking. The Princess seems to be focussing on Sunset, who has yet to step out from behind the principal. Principal Celestia is reaching out to shake hands with the Princess. Princess Celestia is looking at the outstretched hand, she appears to be looking back and forth between Sunset and the principal. The princess is moving and OH MY GOSH!!!
The view shakes considerably, suddenly what appears to be Scootaloo’s hand reaches out and grabs the frame, then the picture is once again focused on the statue.
Scootaloo: AND THE PRINCESS OPENS ‘NEGOTIATIONS’ WITH A HAYMAKER TO THE FACE! What will the principal do? Any student who’s gotten into a fight in the halls of Canterlot High will know that Celestia is not to be taken lightly, AND SHE COMES RIGHT BACK OFF THE MAT WITH AN UPPERCUT! The princess is staggered, but clearly she’s made of some pretty stern stuff, as she turns around and uses a modified reverse kick! Probably comes from that equine anatomy that she usually has.
Applebloom: That’s gotta hurt, Scoots!
Scootaloo: Indeed it must, ‘cause Principal Celestia is staggered. She’s handing off the book she was carrying to Sunset and charging right back into the fight!
Applebloom: Ah hear that they’re all ponies or horses on th’other side of the portal, Scootaloo. Ya think that’ll tip things in Cel...er, Principal Celestia’s favor?
Scootaloo: [pulling the recording device back so she can be seen while keeping the fighting between Princess Celestia and her counterpart in the frame] Well Applebloom, it really does depend on how a bunch of ponies could become the apex of their food chain. Humans are apex perceive predators.
Sweetiebelle: [from out of the frame] That’s ‘pursuit predators.’
Scootaloo: Yeah, that. We’re also highly adaptable, which means that we can use forms like that absolutely gorgeous Drive the Tiger Away form Principal Celestia is demonstrating to keep Princess Celestia from landing some pretty nasty looking punches.
Sweetiebelle: Uh, girls...
Applebloom: [Leans into the frame to take the opposite position to Scootaloo while keeping the statue visible] While those punches look downright strange on a human, I’cn easily see how they would be rather nasty pummeling moves coming offa horse. In fact, the speed is makin’ it a challenge fer the principal to keep up...but then it looks like being unfamiliar with bein’ in a human body is makin’ the princess unsure o’ herself. She’s fallin’ back on her heels an’ it looks like we’re finally seeing some people tryin’ to break up the fight.
Sweetiebelle: Girls...
Scootaloo: Oh, that’s a shame, but even so the two Celestia’s are trying to keep going. It looks like Rainbow, Rarity and Fluttershy are pulling away Principal Celestia while Princess Twilight, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie are-WHOAH! I have never seen Applejack get thrown like that, normally it’s Applejack doing the throwing!
Sweetiebell: I think we need to go...
Applebloom: But look at that Scoots, she’s right back up! That’s mah sister fer ya, stubborn as a mule and strong as an ox, and it looks like the Principal’s bin corralled, it’s just the Princess...and now that Applejack’s got’er in a rasslin’ lock, it’s over folks!
Scootaloo: That was some really impressive brawling from the Equestrian princess, given she’s only had that body for a few minutes…
Sweetiebell: GIRLS!
The frame blurs and three human guards in suits and two Equestrian guards are seen hurrying toward the recording device. The image blurs and Sweetiebelle’s concerned face is seen in the display.
Sweetiebelle: Gotta save gotta save gotta-
A hand covers the visible frame and the recording ends.
THERE’S TWO OF THEM!?
Dear Princess Celestia,
I must apologize, our dear Raven seems to have suffered a bit of a mental break when it was revealed that she may one day face not one, but two Pinkie Pies. As she is the one that, by necessity, is often responsible for cleaning up after Miss Pie’s well-meant disasters that she calls parties, the idea that two such individuals should exist, even separated by a whole universe, was perhaps a bit much for her to handle. Celestia is still doing her best to calm Raven down. Poor thing won’t stop muttering about ‘pink eldritch horrors from another world.’
That said, please don’t let your Pinkie Pie on this side of the portal.
Ever.
Sincerely,
Vice-principal Luna
SoccerKicksUrA$$: OMG, CAN YOU B-LEEV IT!?
ApplesRLife: Dash, Capslock is not cruise control for cool! And neither is misspelling everything!
FashionistaDiva: Ordinarily, darling, I’d completely agree with you on this. However, while I would never stoop to soiling my text messaging with such crass errors of written language...WE’RE AMBASSADORS TO ANOTHER WORLD! APPOINTED TO A PRINCESS! ALL THE YES!
PinkPartyPlanner: I no rite?! Party at my place! (Maud said ma and pa said it was okay as long as Limestone got enough sleep for her finals)
BunnyMom: This is Twilight Sparkle, using the sex to speech software on Fluttershy’s phone while I learn how to use it.
FashionistaDiva: Oh, good heavens!
BunnyMom: No, that’s not right, phone correct ‘sex’ to ‘test’.
SoccerKicksUrA$$: 😆😆😆😆😆😆😆
BunnyMom: No, phone, you’re doing it wrong. Fluttershy, why are you turning so red? How do I get your phone to correct my letter?
BunnyMom: What do you mean it’s sending this out whenever I finish a sentence?
BunnyMom: Well, yes, I can understand that you don’t normally use this method of sexting, but it just seems so convenience!
ApplesRLife: Oh, dear, this is gonna get bad. Fluttershy, just do the texting for Twilight for a bit, please!
PinkPartyPlanner: No, no! I wanna see where this goes.
BunnyMom: Phone, you’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you? I swear it’s like when Spike started his teenage years all over again!
BunnyMom: Yes, Fluttershy, the same Spike that’s a dog while he’s on this side of the portal.
FashionistaDiva: Twilight, please, just give Fluttershy her phone back. I promise we’ll help you with texting later, just, for the love of all that is good and fashionable, please stop!
Dear Majesties Principal Celestia and Vice-principal Luna,
We are very grateful for the regular updates, and as the portal comes online for long enough for us to be able to properly visit, we desire to know and understand the condition of Sunset Shimmer better. Please ensure that she is given full and proper medical treatment and diagnosis as best as your world can provide in these circumstances. We do understand your resources may be very limited due to the lack of magical diagnostic techniques, but we do request that a society as primitive as yours not be allowed to use any invasive means for discovery. Trepanning, as advanced as a magicless society may have taken the practice to treat those maladies that a more refined culture might~-
Dear Principal Celestia,
This is Raven Inkwell. I do apologize, but Celestia’s nephew Prince Blueblood (please don’t ask the relation, it is too long and complex and goes back to the Discordian Era where records are...fragmented at best) took it upon himself to follow-up on a conversation between Princesses Celestia, Luna, and Twilight Sparkle. They were concerned with the health of the former ward of Celestia, and Blueblood is...infamous for his ham-handedly idiotic attempts at what he calls “diplomacy.” Please disregard anything he says.
That said, the Princesses are rather keen to get any medical information you could provide. With the understanding that actual information exchange won’t be able to be done in earnest until the portal is considered to be fully functional and declared “safe” by the Royal Society of Mages, whatever details you can give would be welcome.
Sincerely,
Raven Inkwell, Seneschal
Of note is the scars on the back of the patient. Not appearing to match the other injuries the patient suffered, they are simultaneously clearly new scars as the tissue around them does not have the characteristic puckering and stretch marks associated with scars of this size of the apparent age they would be if the scar tissue itself were an indication of how far the patient has healed. The scars themselves could easily be mistaken for being years old, if not over a decade. For those without readers that can render the attached photographs, the physical description does not match that of any sort of traditional “lashing” that one would associate with abuse victims with scars on their back, nor does this appear accidental.
The scars themselves appear to be something like a half-moon, but with a widening to include a ‘bulb’ near the top and the bottom ‘tail’ of the moon bending back to point toward the tailbone. ‘A comma with the tail twisted the wrong way,’ would be another apt description. A third scar is easy to miss if one is not looking for it, a nearly perfect oval with a slight point in the upper edge of the top, positioned nearly perfectly over the patient’s tailbone.
The limited questioning that could be done with the patient indicates that the patient had no knowledge of the presence of the scars, and the limited records retrieved upon court order from the patient’s school indicate that even as recently as an accident during P.E. where the student was involved in an accident on the soccer field, the scars were not present. This once again is evidence of an anomaly, as the scars themselves appear to be quite old.
While the reader may question my repeated reiteration of the age of the scars, short of taking tissue samples, I’m quite sure that the healing was artificially accelerated.
Addendum: After conferring with the newly discovered colleagues on the other side of the portal that has appeared on the subject’s school campus, a new branch of health science and medicine that hasn’t been seen on this world before does have a history of being able to accelerate the healing of large-scale traumatic wounds that result from incidents that are described in the documentation as “thaumic biological transference and transformation events.” Updated and corrected records since the actual incidents that happened at the school during one of their social events were declassified certainly bear all the hallmarks and fingerprints of the textbook “thaumic biological transformation event” the literature describes, and the recently verified video evidence that had previously been rejected as faked or special effects confirm the patient catastrophically grew trans-species mutations (bat-like wings and a tail) and just as catastrophically lost them just minutes later. This doctor is now satisfied that the scar tissue is a result of that incident.
Dearest friend Twilight,
I have indeed been able to read the reports delivered by the scientist and scribes of the court. And while I do find the notion of our dear Tia engaged in a round of hoofticuffs with her own counterpart tremendously funny, I do understand you do not share the sisterly bond with her and so may not enjoy the idea on the same level I do.
Never-the-less, I do share your concern. As soon as I had partaken of the reports and had the chance ere both my sister and I were together, I asked her of the incident. As I rather expected, Celestia was unwilling to fully explain her actions. She did let slip that she felt that she had rather been cheated by her own doppelganger of the opportunity to gain a relationship anew with the errant Sunset Shimmer, t’which did plant the germ of an idea that would only fully bear fruit many hours later whilst I was patrolling the dream realm during my regular duties.
There was a philosopher back in my day before my banishment, his name escapes both me and the hasty inquiries of the librarians of Royal Archives, but he provided the following quote which I wouldn’t fully understand the import of until my own fall from grace and subsequent redemption, “True Tartarus is meeting the pony you could have been.” ‘pon seeing my dear sister, apparently unmarred by the centuries and still just as powerful as ever...neigh, e’en more, as it took all the collected power I had gathered to merely seal her in the sun using mine own magic as the key...to see what I might have been had I not fallen from mine own path.
T’was most bitter pain, indeed! One thousand years wielded with grace and confidence in ways that I knew would take me e’en another thousand to begin to master! The ache in my heart still burns, knowing that there, but for mine own foolishness, go I. E’en today, the pain is strong and I needs must constantly be on guard that my habits toward self-isolation and solitude do not allow me to be alone with my thoughts, lest they spiral down dark paths and I become confronted once again with the darkness that spawned the Nightmare.
I know not what Tia saw in her doppelganger that caused her to lash out thusly, but if the burn and ache that she felt were but the merest candle to my own (and I have no doubt that, seeing whatever she saw wearing her own face, e’en one altered by the portal, t’would be a thousand-fold stronger) and she had not expected it, I am not one whit surprised she responded as she did.
I know this is poor solace, and I do apologize. As ones who love my sister, thee and thine and me and mine can merely be there for my sister.
Sincerely and with love,
Princess Luna
XoXo_AppleBloom_oXoX: Tell me you got it!
RainbowDashIsMySempai: Yeah, Sweetie Belle! That was some of the most epic improv I’ve ever done!
Sweetie_Bell: Well, those guards from Equestria may know a lot about magic, but they know nothing about cloud saves.
Chapter 6 - I Couldn’t Get Away
The kitchen was a riot of activity, which was odd because all three full-time occupants of the house were sitting at the kitchen breakfast nook watching said activity with tired (if confused) expressions.
As three plates clattered noisily in front of them, Principal Celestia blinked muzzily at the piece of table-ware and asked the room, “Sunset, did you invite your friend over for breakfast?”
A mechanical, “No,” was issued as a reply.
As a trio of drinks was placed before them, one for each place setting, Celestia asked her sister, “Did you let Pinkie in this morning?”
Luna didn’t look away from the truly magnificently sized Bucking Star branded cup of coffee, wiggling her fingers as she unconsciously treated it like a particularly slippery small animal that she was hunting, “Do you think I’d wake myself up to let a student in without telling you to get up for me the night before?” She dove her hands at the cup, snatching it up and bringing it to her face, inhaling deeply through her nose before slurping greedily at the blackish-brown liquid.
Sunset cracking open a can of Kick Flank, an energy drink that Celestia had once tried but decided the horrid taste wasn’t worth the caffeine crash eight hours later, provided odd accompaniment to the sight of honest to goodness waffles slapping down on their plates. Not frozen and reheated, but freshly made from the waffle iron that was sitting on the counter next to a bowl of freshly made batter. Shortly after, a can of whipped topping made an appearance, followed by a butter dish and syrup. The sizzling of eggs could be heard, and the ‘ding’ of a timer preceded the oven opening to reveal a cast iron skillet with a steak in it. The steak was shuttled to Luna’s plate, followed by two sunny-side-up eggs.
All this happened before Celestia could rally the mental capacity for the next question, “...do we even own a waffle iron?”
“Mnope,” mumbled Luna around a bite of steak. Sunset was digging into a vegetarian omelet that came out so perfectly Celestia would have sworn it was a prop if she hadn’t watched it being made.
Celestia turned her attention to the girl who had taken over her kitchen, raising a finger to give her words emphasis, “Pinkie, don’t you think that you should head home in order to get ready for school? Your own breakfast should be more important than...” she was interrupted by a predatory growl to her right, and she turned to see Luna gripping her steak in her teeth, glaring at Celestia with a knife in one hand and a fork in the other, and on the other side of Luna, their student was doing a passable imitation of Celestia’s own Stern Glare. Celestia slumped down in her stool, tucking her finger, then her hand away, “...never mind.”
“Don’t worry about that, silly Celly!” chirped the bouncing pink girl, “I had my breakfast hours ago. Exactly two hours ago as soon as…” a clock on the wall chimed, “...that happens. And besides, I keep snacks stashed all over, just in case of snack emergencies!” So saying, the girl reached into the cupboard where they kept their canned goods and pulled out a cupcake. A fresh cupcake from the looks of it, or at least as much of a look as they could manage before Pinkie shoved the whole thing in her mouth and then grinned at them.
“I...see…” Even with students turning into demons and speedsters, with magical journals that could communicate with alternate versions of herself, and even the casual way the princess kept dropping the words, “...my little ponies,” reminding her that Sunset’s people were anthropomorphic equines, didn’t cause her mind to segfault quite like Pinkie was managing.
It was more a sense of self-preservation that prompted the principal to simply tuck into her surprisingly delicious eggs benedict and enjoy the orange juice that the logical part of her brain was screaming at her that they didn’t have in the fridge when she went to bed last night.
Life at Canterlot High was changing, and fast.
Even if the State Department hadn’t been eager to release details of a new, friendly nation that’s as close as a quick jump through a doorway away, the Canterlot Movie Crew’s first major Haytube hit to reach the billions of views in less than 24 hours would have spilled the beans on Equestria being in contact with the federal government. Thus it was no real surprise to see the new guards standing on either side of the Wondercolt statue, though it was too soon for anyone to be used to people walking out of a statue base. Every time a diplomate, soldier, scientist, or mage moved through on whatever business, a whole crew of scientists with enough tech to make even the most hardened sci-fi geek apoplectic with techno-happiness was there to scan, collate, discuss, hypothesize, and debate the nature of the portal.
Princess Twilight Sparkle, of course, was incredibly well received by the student body. Once she had (quite nearly physically) ejected the Secret Service detail that the State Department had assigned to her, she took to mixing and mingling with the students she’d grown to love, including a rather amusing, if awkward, reunion with Flash Sentry.
Since the portal opening and the CMC’s video happened shortly before winter break ended for the school, it had given the Princess the chance to closely examine both Sunset Shimmer and Rainbow Dash. Thus it was that she was practically sitting in Flash Sentry’s lap as she presented her report to Sunset Shimmer and their friends. “Rainbow Dash was pretty straight forward. Other than the completely understandable late appearance in her life, she’s experiencing the usual spurts of magical growth that any Equestrian filly or colt goes through when they’re still in diapers.” She allowed a moment for Applejack and Rarity to tease the athlete before continuing, “Of course, the exposure to the Elements during the Fall Formal had to have been the trigger. I’m willing to bet that none of you have ever been in a magical matrix, like suffuses Equestria and beyond.” She paused for a bite, giving the others a little bit of time to process. The veggie-burgers on this side of the portal weren’t quite the same as the hayburgers she was used to, but they were just as good with lots of ketchup and mustard. Thank goodness Flash thought to recommend them and...explained...what I’d been eating the last time I was here! she thought to herself, I see Sunset’s eating the same thing; speaking of which… she swallowed the bite in her mouth and continued, “As for Sunset, that one’s...harder. Without delving into some highly illegal and extremely dangerous mind magic, it’ll be practically impossible to find out exactly what is happening. What I have been able to determine is that she’s got a five-part magical lattice around her core that’s practically built like a puzzle box and combination lock designed by Discord himself.”
The two Equestrians at the table shivered and took another bite. Sunset had never met the “reformed” Chaos Spirit, and Twilight just was not interested in any more exposure to Discord than she had to have. Sure, he and Fluttershy had an understanding, but it was one that clearly had not extended to anypony else.
Applejack crunched a bite out of the apple she pulled out of her lunch box and leaned forward, “So how does that make it so she can’t talk?”
Rarity elbowed AJ and reached around the other girl’s waist to show she wasn’t too upset, “Don’t talk with your mouth full, darling.” Turning to the visiting princess, she said, “She does have a point, how is it that any sort of magic lock on a…’core,’ I believe you called it, make it so Sunset can’t communicate? We’ve even tried setting pens in her hand and paper in front of her, and her hand just...drops the pen.” she nodded her head at the girl in question, who was staring at her veggie burger as though it held the secrets of the universe and she didn’t like what she was seeing as she chewed, “It’s quite clear her hands operate fine, as does her voice if her...nightmares are any indication.” She reached her other arm, the one not occupied by Applejack, around their newest friend to comfort Sunset. Fluttershy, who had sat down on the other side of their afflicted friend, also did her best to hug the magically mute girl.
Twilight smiled sympathetically at her fellow Equestrian. At first, the princess hadn’t been sure how to act around the girl who’d stolen her crown, but it had become quickly apparent that the Sunset she was now dealing with was about as far from the angry, bitter pony that had invaded the Crystal Castle a few months prior as was possible to get. She reached out a hand and gently gripped the other Equestrian girl’s wrist for a moment, “We...don’t know for sure. I suspect it has to do with how a pony’s magical core integrates with the rest of their system.” She waved Rainbow Dash over, who (while a little confused) quickly rounded the table. Twilight set her food down and stood next to Rainbow, “Dash has typical Pegasi mana channels, which isn’t surprising as her counterpart in Equestria is a pegasus.” Twilight gently turned Dash around so they could see her back, “Rainbow’s core is here,” she pointed at a spot just between Dash’s shoulder blades, “And her mana channels are spreading out through her body like blood vessels,” as if to indicate the individual lines, Twilight drew with her fingers out from their starting point, causing Dash to squirm, “But since this is mana the channels can sometimes be completely ethereal. Dash has, in fact, some mana channels that extend out where her wings are when she’s...ah, ‘ponied up,’ I guess you guys are calling it.” So saying, she pulled a tablet computer out of the backpack she’d been carrying and started poking at it with her fingers. “...danged thing, why can’t we just use scrolls…?” she growled in frustration. The other girls giggled as Flash patiently took the tablet from Twilight and unlocked the screen for her. She smiled brightly at him and waved Rainbow away with a quick, ‘thanks,’ “So we took some scans of Rainbow,” she turned the tablet to show the table as the girl in question sat back down, “And you can see the mana channels that exist even when Rainbow doesn’t physically have wings.”
The video played without sound (not that it could have been heard over the sounds of the cafeteria anyway) and they were presented with an over-saturated version of Rainbow Dash, they could see her mouth move as she spoke to someone off-camera, then she began moving in various ways, clearly under instruction. “The Academy of Mages brought over an EMRI machine...”
“Emry? Who’s that?” interjected Pinkie Pie.
“Ether/Mana Resonance Imaging,” replied Twilight automatically, “It uses a crystalline array to simulate the horn matrices of a unicorn to cast a single spell used for scanning magical signatures. Since special talents can vary wildly within the medical field, even among unicorns, about forty years ago we developed this machine for being able to make magic channels visible even without the ability to cast the diagnostic spell.” As they watched, the Rainbow Dash on the screen raised her arms and flexed her biceps in a classic “muscle-girl” pose. She was wearing a very basic and almost not there sports top and shorts for the video. As Rainbow flexed, a ghostly web of vibrantly glowing lines spread from her back, looking very much like the framework to a pair of wings. “Rainbow shows all the classic signs of a pegasus foal’s ability to manipulate their wings using this method. They’re there, and she has instinctive control, but it will probably be a few years before she has the same fine motor-coordination that a full-grown pegasus does in Equestria...that is, of course, if she can get the actual wings to appear on a regular basis and not just when we’re using the Elements.”
Twilight stopped the video and looked up at her friends in the human world. Rainbow was slightly embarrassed by being compared to a foal but seemed to be more concerned about trying to get her wings to sprout as she kept scrunching her face in concentration then looking over her shoulders. Sunset had put down her burger and appeared thoughtful, but then growled in frustration and picked up her food again and bit into it angrily. Probably has some ideas on what’s happening but can’t say anything...oh, I’m so sorry Sunset! Twilight thought before continuing, “We tried scanning Sunset but...well…” she sighed in frustration, “Whatever the Elements did to Sunset’s core...blew out the sensor’s crystals.” Rarity gasped and Applejack leaned in. All the girls paused in what they were doing, even Pinkie seemed to focus a bit more than usual and Dash stopped trying to make her wings pop out.
She was about to continue when a voice interrupted, “I understand I can find one of the princesses from...Equestria? Really?!” The group looked up to see a man in his early twenties, blue hair peeking out from behind an open binder whose information he was obviously perusing and clearly capturing his entire attention. “A land of magical talking horses and they name it Equestria? Anyway, I’m here to take over the security operations of the new embassy and I need to debrief whoever’s in charge of getting it set up on the Equestrian side.” The binder fell enough to reveal an icy-white skinned face that, were it not so clearly that of a soldier, wouldn’t look out of place on a magazine model. Just then, Twilight turned in her seat to see who interrupted their group. Both the man and Twilight gasped in shock.
“Shiny?!” gasped the princess.
“Twily?!” gasped the agent at the same time.
“What are you doing here?!” they gasped in unison.
Eyebrows pinching together in concern, he scanned her face, “...and where are your glasses?” further examination of the scene meant that Flash Sentry and his remarkable closeness to the princess was noticed as well, “...and who are you and what are your intentions toward my sister?” he growled at the teenager.
A brief pause preceded Rainbow and Pinkie exploding in laughter, Sunset giggling under her breath at the confusion, and Applejack slapping her palm to her face, clearly trying to contain her own amusement.
“What!?” squawked Twilight, “Oh, I get it...no, I’m not your Twilight. You must be this world’s Shining Armor,” as she spoke she less than gracefully disentangled herself from the table and, by extension, Flash. “Wow, this is a coincidence. I’m just going to…” she was saved from falling on her face as she tried to lever her legs out from the benches by both the men, Flash catching her right side as Shining caught her left, “Oh, thanks! But no, so this will take some explaining. Just come with me to the portable building they have set up for the Equestrian consulate and we’ll try to clear this up…”
The group just chuckled as a confused but protective Shining Armor followed the princess. Seeing Flash’s somewhat wistful look as the pair walked away, Sunset patted Flash’s wrist comfortingly.
He turned to her, slight surprise showing on his face, until he caught the sympathetic look on hers, “Oh, yeah, thanks.” he sighed, “That’s going to be a thing with dating a princess, isn’t it?”
Sunset mutely nodded as Rarity inched over to lean into the conversation, “Wait, you two are dating? As in, officially?”
It was now Flash’s turn to start stumbling, this time over his own words. “Ah, well...I mean, we haven’t said anything, but…”
He was interrupted by Sunset’s giggle and her phone spouting a mechanical, “Yes”
Rarity nodded as though Sunset had something more than a single syllable, “Indeed, darling! It’s quite clear that you two are quite attracted to each other. It might behoove you...oh, is that an offensive word for you, dear?” she glanced at Sunset.
The phone’s “No” was accompanied by an amused eye roll.
“Indeed,” Rarity turned back to Flash, “As I was saying, it would behoove you to find out just what must be done to, ah…’court’ her. One wouldn’t want to ‘get off on the wrong hoof,’ if you will.”
Sunset snorted in amusement around a bite of burger and fries.
“Yeah, but how?” moaned Flash, his shoulders slumping. “The guards she brought with her this time are...not helpful.” The group smiled and nodded ruefully at that, all seven of them had tried varying tactics for engaging with friendly overtures, but the Equestrian Royal Guard were displaying their nearly Buckingham Palace Guard levels of stoic devotion to duty and simply didn’t respond.
The group started debating possible means to get Flash in touch with someone from the other side of the portal to inquire about Equestrian dating protocols. As the conversation about her homeland swirled around her, Sunset slowed her eating, eventually putting down her food entirely and simply staring down at her tray.
Quietly, but no less surprising for being completely unanticipated, Sunset felt a hand on her elbow. Blinking to clear the tears from her eyes, she turned to see Fluttershy simply...smiling. It was clearly of an almost motherly concern and not mirth or malice. “Please,” said the shy girl, “I know it’s hard. You have all these things you want to say and do and it’s all locked inside you and it hurts knowing you’re the only one who may ever know. But please, Sunset, don’t let yourself sink that far again.” Fluttershy didn’t even have to say what she was referring to, they both understood, “You deserve to...to live. Don’t let the darkness convince you otherwise.”
Instead of reducing the tears in her eyes, the liquid pooling at the corners grew heavier and a tear streaked down Sunset’s cheek. Nodding at Fluttershy, she picked up her veggieburger and took a bite. Fluttershy’s hand moved from Sunset’s elbow to her back, gently stroking. The remainder of the meal passed in silence as their friends remained oblivious to the quiet, tender interaction.
Principal Celestia had experienced many struggles that morning, the first back from winter break. That first day back always felt a little depressing to the educator, a feeling she knew was a holdover from her childhood when it always seemed a little unfair to come back from the holidays only to find a mountain of homework waiting for her from her teachers.
Of course, being one of the teachers showed that students only had a fraction of the paperwork that the educators had to suffer through, only more firmly cementing the seeming karmic injustice of the start of the new term.
In addition to all the paperwork that came from running a school was also the addition of the paperwork that came from being Sunset Shimmer’s adoptive mother. Educational records that needed to be collated, immunizations that needed updating, and citizenship records to provide.
And that was one of the few bright points of her morning, as the Equestrian princesses had kindly delivered the paperwork for Sunset’s dual-citizenship, which also mercifully meant that they finally had a billing…“address” and a source of money for paying for said bills. Not to mention 26 years of medical records.
Which added another stack of paperwork, some of it crafted that very morning by none other than Princess Twilight herself, using some rather impressive- (and honestly a little fake-) sounding language to explain just why it was a 26-year old post-graduate student needed to be registered as a 17-year old girl depending on which side of the portal she happened to be on. Apparently, there was some data collected during the senior princesses’ trips through the portal that somehow provided a proof that both the mind and body experienced a rapid age alteration that needed to be accounted for insofar as record-keeping went, as well as some theories that were still pending enough data for proof that time flowed slightly asynchronously between universes.
While it all went right over Celestia’s head, she couldn’t shake the feeling that Princess Luna (who had been there during the entire time Twilight had been dictating the reports/laws to create a governing quorum for the legalities) was secretly amused by the entire thing.
Please...please...PLEASE tell me the princesses aren’t conspiring to make sure my somewhat rushed ‘adoption’ of Sunset happens in spite of my foolishness as some sort of inter-dimensional prank! She couldn’t imagine that any government official of their stature and rank would for all intents and purposes play a massive joke on another national government for the sake of arranging a family for an orphaned girl...but then, how was she to know how millennia-old demi-goddesses thought?
Well, I suppose about the same as when I convinced another vampire lord I was immune to sunlight...NO, stop that! While not disruptive, she had been experiencing some carryover from the other versions of herself that she had...participated in (for lack of a better term) during her bizarre Hearth’s Warming Eve. Random thoughts about student use of virtual reality devices that her world wouldn’t have the tech for at least 20 more years, emotions that ran deep regarding people that she only had a passing acquaintance with but her Vampire Lord self had centuries of animus or goodwill for, and a barrage of ingrained habits that she had never had before the holiday kept surfacing at inconvenient times. It wasn’t until her alarm went off in the midst of a rather intense yoga-like martial arts kata that she realized that she had woken up nearly two hours earlier than usual and had started a workout routine that Queen Celestia had been practicing since her days as a squire. Sure, in the two weeks since Hearth’s Warming she’d gotten into the best shape of her life, but it was disconcerting nonetheless.
And then, of course, there was the sword.
It didn’t matter if she kept it in her closet, her car, or even in the belt she got from Desert Mirage, partway through the day the sword would materialize itself within easy reach of what she supposed her sword hand would be.
Thus it was Principal Celestia was found by Counselman Neighsay holding a broadsword on school grounds.
Had he not already entered in a fury, he might have been talked down on that issue. She wasn’t brandishing at her students, she wasn’t holding it in any manner that might be threatening, it simply was in her hands when he burst through her door.
“...and when I am able to convene a meeting of the district board I will have you removed from this office, by force if necessary!” His voice wasn’t quite at screaming levels.
A subtle pressure had been building behind her eyes all morning, and this had pushed it into a full-bore headache, “Counselman, I assure you, the sword is merely an artifact of the oddness that’s happening around the existence of the gate on school grounds. I already have an appointment with some of Equestria’s mages to see if there’s a way of...taming it’s magic…”
Celestia had the barest fraction of an instant to realize she said the wrong thing when Neighsay’s assistant grew a panicked, pinched look on her face and started frantically shaking her head ‘no’ behind his back before the councilman’s face turned red. This time he did shout, “Do not feed me that poppycock that you’ve somehow managed to get the press to publish! I’ll hear none of this ‘magic’ nonsense! You were unable to explain how the front of the school collapsed before you concocted this insane balderdash, and this campaign that you’ve somehow managed to make into a federal issue has destroyed all professional credibility you once had!” He had built up a full head of steam at this point, “I will begin an official inquiry into the Fall Formal incident, we will find evidence of neglect and student endangerment, and I will ensure you never work as even so much as a janitor for any school system ever again!”
There was a pause as Neighsay drew a breath and collected himself, “Now,” he began in his normal tone of voice, which was nearly as thunderous in the silence following his shouting, “If you do not remove every individual from this school who is not either a student, staff, or teacher, I will call the sheriff’s office and have the lot of them arrested. That includes the illegal alien you’ve been sheltering, by your own admission, for nearly three years now!”
Were it possible for the sun to grow cold, the glare Celestia now leveled at Neighsay would have frozen the solar system. “Counselman…” she began.
A clearing throat from her office door interrupted her. Standing in the door was Luna...Princess Luna. The tiara and gown were the give-a-way that this was the Equestrian version of her sister, even had the Vice Principal not been standing directly behind her. Both were glaring at Neighsay, the princess with cold calculation and her sister with a simmering fury. “Are we interrupting?” said the princess with an arctic calm.
“Not at all,” said Celestia. “Your timing is very nearly,” she turned and glared at the councilman, “...magical.”
The two Lunas entered, the princess gliding in regally, belying the fact that she had been an equine probably not even a few hours earlier. The vice-principal didn’t even try to emulate her counterpart, marching around the desk to stand behind Celestia, eyes never leaving Neighsay. As they entered, two Raven’s entered, one wearing the skirt-suit her secretary had worn into work, the other wearing a simple dress that was similar enough to her counterpart’s suit that broadcast her role as similar to the secretary to anyone who saw her. Both moved to stand next to their respective employer.
“I do apologize,” said Raven (the secretary), “But it is nearly time for the meeting between you and the DHS agents who want to set up their Immigration office on school grounds. I do so know how much you dislike being less than punctual.”
Her mirror opposite spoke next, practically as though they’d planned it, “Indeed, Princess Luna may not be as well known for her timeliness as Princess Twilight Sparkle, but royalty should never keep well-meaning members of any government waiting.”
Neighsay was clearly stymied. With direct evidence of Celestia’s version of events staring him in the face, it took him a few moments to collect himself. When he did, he cleared his throat, “Yes, well. As impressive as it is that you managed to find some body doubles…”
“Counselman,” interrupted Celestia. Just a word, but delivered with so much force that he immediately stopped speaking, “It’s clear that you are going to need some convincing. Your assistant,” she pointed to the woman that the counselor brought with him, “Is she someone you trust?”
He scowled, “Of course. She is professional, unlike some.”
Celestia chose to ignore the attempted dig, “And has she been with you all morning, no chance that I might be able to arrange anything with her, professional or not?”
Now a look of confusion graced his expression, “What are you getting at, Cel…”
“Yes or no?” snapped the principal.
“Yes,” he snapped back, “Of course.”
“Good,” she replied. She picked up the sword by the blade, mindful of the edge, and presented the grip to Neighsay’s assistant. “Take this with you and stand outside my office window.”
Waiting just long enough to receive a nod of confirmation from the councilman, the woman carefully took the sword and held it out in front of her, leaving the office with it.
“Now, Counselman Neighsay, I’d like to remind you of a few things you either forgot or overlooked in your haste to, I’m sure, do what you thought was the right thing for the students in our charge.” She leaned forward, taking advantage of her height to lean across her desk intimidatingly, “First off, my daughter has been a homeless orphan for the last three years and is currently disabled. You are going to have her arrested over my dead body. Second, her adoption by me is airtight, the paperwork and approvals coming directly from DHS and the Equestrian governments. This makes her a legal citizen of our country, regardless of how she arrived.”
“Third, you seem to be under the impression that somehow a single councilman of the school board that requires a committee to make any decision is capable of taking unilateral action against a visiting ambassador and their staff and protective detail. You will find that the Equestrian government, let alone our own, would be less than cooperative with your attempts to arrest them. They are quite real, very experienced, and more than capable.”
Behind Celestia, those that were facing the window could see Neighsay’s assistant walk out onto the grass in the courtyard, shading her eyes with one hand while holding the sword with the other. One of those watching included Raven the secretary, surreptitiously watching on Celestia’s behalf. Upon seeing the woman enter the field of view and hearing the obvious opening from her boss, she prompted under her breath, “Ready…”
“Finally,” snapped Celestia at Neighsay, “Magic is as real as any other natural force in the multiverse…” she held out her hand slightly above shoulder height, her hand in an open grasping shape. Abruptly, light began swirling in a cylinder with her hand at the top. Those who were positioned to see through the window could also see the same swirling cylinder envelop Celestia’s sword. To the assistant’s shock, the sword disappeared from her hands and reappeared just before Celestia closed her grip and slammed the sword tip first into the desk, coincidentally spearing some paperwork from Nieghsay’s own office that Celestia had been working on. “I experienced it, first hand, and am one of the only beings on this planet that owns magical artifacts.” Pausing to breathe in, she leaned further forward, highlighting just how very tall Celestia was that even arched across the desk she had to look down to look Neighsay in the eye, “Don’t call me a liar, councilman, especially when it comes to the welfare of my students. Now unless you have actual business to attend to, I have to take some time out of my already full schedule to make some introductions.”
To Neighsay’s credit, he didn’t gawk, or gawp, or even stammer. He calmly, rationally took in the very evidence that contradicted his earlier world-view and simply...adapted. “Very well, Principal Celestia. Clearly, I was operating on limited information and the actual situation is quite a bit different than I had previously supposed. I shall take my leave and discuss this with the district board of education post-haste.” He adjusted his tie, turned slightly to nod at Luna, who returned his nod, “Vice-principal,” then the other direction to the other Luna, “Your...majesty, is it?”
Princess Luna nodded, never changing her cryptic smile, “Indeed, though Princess Twilight would be ‘highness,’ should you choose to include her in any of your reports or letters.”
“Quite,” returned Neighsay, before turning and leaving the office, not quite stiffly.
Celestia stayed relatively still, only moving to brace herself against the table with both hands instead of just the one she’d been using before. After a bit, she asked Raven without turning her head, “Are they gone?”
Both women named Raven were watching out the window as Neighsay gathered his assistant and headed toward the parking lot. “They are now.” said Celestia’s secretary.
The principal collapsed back into her office chair, “Oh, thank heavens! If that hadn’t gone right that could have cost me my job!”
Luna snickered and rested her hand on her sister’s shoulder, “I always did enjoy watching you take others down a peg when they pushed you too far. It’s just too bad it takes so much pushing to get you to that point.”
Princess Luna snorted, “Quite, mine own sister has the same inclination. Though, admittedly, I haven’t seen her behave quite that aggressively since before my banishment. T’was quite the treat!”
Celestia sighed and stared at the sword stuck in her desk for a moment before summoning it into her hand again. “Raven, I’m sorry to put another thing on your plate, but could you see to it the desk is repaired? I have some government officials to...meet.” The sour expression on her face didn’t fade as she glanced at the sword still in her hand, shrugged, stood, and started walking out the door, clearly done caring if anyone saw her carrying it or not.
Fluttershy was skipping class. She couldn’t not skip, though, when there was someone who needed some kindness, and she knew Sunset needed it more than anyone else.
The ‘ninja’ outfit would require some explanation.
Sure, it wasn’t actually a ninja outfit, or rather it was about as stealthy an outfit as that one protagonist of the Maelstrom manga she read when she was 12. (And she would never admit to anyone that she had read it and thought it was cool...what kind of ninja wears orange?)
Fluttershy was a weeb. She acknowledged that. She wasn’t really proud of it, but she didn’t find it embarrassing. Well, no more embarrassing than she felt about just about anything she ever did. One doesn’t become known as the shyest person in school if one were the type to not be easily embarrassed. Or at least that’s how she explained it to herself, because she really had nobody else to explain it to. Even Dash, before the time that Sunset drove the group of them apart, hadn’t been able to really understand Fluttershy’s difficulty in dealing with the way people perceived her.
A week ago Fluttershy had gone to Rarity to ask for help. She wanted an outfit that would make it so she could sneak around, something somewhat stealthy that would make it easier to blend even more into the background when she needed to. They shy girl’s own knowledge of fashion let her know and understand exactly the right buttons to push to get Rarity to focus more on the clothes than the reason Fluttershy wanted to have them.
And of course Rarity would get carried away. That was just the way Rarity was, and Fluttershy loved her friend and wouldn’t say anything negative about, nor would she modify, the outfit her friend made her.
Even if the cyan bunny ears and belt kinda defeated the purpose.
But it seemed that the outfit was working in spite of the ears, as she was able to lurk in the halls with nobody being the wiser. None of the teachers, the janitor, or the hall monitors stopped and asked her what she was doing. The students, if any noticed her, simply ignored her hanging around the door to the classroom that she didn’t belong in.
The bell rang. The only reason Fluttershy didn’t jump in fright was she had been expecting it to ring soon. Within moments, students began filing out of the room, joining their other schoolmates as the halls filled very quickly. The usual very loud chatter and babble of high-school conversation was normally just too much for her, but this time she had A Mission. She waited and watched as the flow of students passed her by without seeming to notice her. Sure enough, her target wasn’t in the flow of bodies, so she poked her head in the classroom. Among the empty desks sat Sunset, glaring at her backpack. The only thing on her desk was the phone she’d been using to provide the few computer-generated answers she had access to that let her have any interaction with anyone outside her own head.
Fluttershy knew how that felt, and even thought she had an idea why Sunset was glaring at her backpack. Why open your bag and take anything out of it, she thought, If you know you won’t be able to use anything in the bag? The thought was haunting in its familiarity, and it was that familiarity that was what prompted Fluttershy to her current course of action.
She gingerly inched her way into the room, knowing she only had about a minute or two before the halfway mark for the between class passing period arrived, and gently put her hand on Sunset’s shoulder. The girl was slightly startled, but as this was about the fourth time this had happened today, she was clearly getting used to it. She nodded at Fluttershy and picked up her backpack with a sigh. Fluttershy tailed the other girl quietly, being sure to not let herself fall too far behind Sunset until they got to the next class. Sunset’s next class, rather. The girl entered the room and Fluttershy stood just to the side of the door, careful to not be in anyone’s way as the last students rushed or ambled into the rooms as matched their individual personalities. Within moments, the hall was quiet again.
Two weeks after the Fall Formal…
Fluttershy’s hand was steady even as her lip was not as she carefully put the flattened paper, formerly folded tightly into a bundle small enough to fit through a locker, on one of the many stacks on the conference table in front of her.
You evil whore! I hope you choke on your own vomit and die!
She picked up her pen and added a line to the list she’d spent the last hour compiling, Anonymously written slur implying Sunset is a prostitute and includes death wishes. Handwriting is unfamiliar.
She smoothed out the next paper, this one barely folded, almost more of a crumple. It read simply, Alien bitch! Sighing as another tear rolled down her cheek, she placed it on the largest pile on the table.
Anonymously written xenophobic slur, was written on the next line.
Fluttershy could understand the anger, the repressed fear and bottled pain that was producing these notes. It crossed her mind that there was a way such emotion could be directed to another person in such a way as to attempt to cause them pain. She’d done it herself, after all.
Glad you finaly showd yor trew colors, bich!
Shaking her head in disappointment even as a shuddering sigh escaped her throat, she wrote, Anonymously written, poorly spelled note. Possibly written by someone who needs a typing assistant like a word processor to make correct spelling and grammar in their writing. She put the note in with a stack of others that were similar, absently swiping away a tear.
She picked up the next one and read it...only to gasp in shock and leap up. She stumbled back a pace and tripped over the chair, but she barely noticed as she scrambled back to the wall and curled up in the corner, mewling gasps squeezing past the lump in her throat as she stared at the conference table in horror.
A few minutes later, Vice-principal Luna found Fluttershy still in that same position, hands over her mouth as she tried and failed to stifle her wrenching sobs. “Fluttershy…?” gasped the educator as she rushed fully into the room, letting the door close behind her. Luna’s swift glance at the table told the story of what had happened, “Oh, Fluttershy...you didn’t have to...when I said to document the notes, I just meant to count them and file...oh, dear…” she said as she gathered the girl up in her arms, gently lifting her to her feet and carefully guiding her to her abandoned seat. Making sure the girl was properly seated, she looked back at the workspace on the table and saw the note that Fluttershy had dropped. She picked it up and read,
I nearly killed myself because of your bullying. I’m glad I didn’t, because I got to see you fall. I got to see justice served. I won, bitch!
There was no signature, but there were a handful of students the note could have been written by. Her heart broke just a little more to realize that the student body had been through several forms of hell and would likely have to get this sort of thing out of their system before they could move on to forgiving Sunset. She looked to Fluttershy, who was looking up at her with wide, tear-brimmed eyes, gasping heaves as she held her arms tight to her chest, one hand holding the other wrist, twisting and rubbing as Luna caught a glimpse of…
“Oh...Fluttershy…” she sat down in the next chair and gathered the other girl into her arms as best she could, the quiet sobbing morphing into heart rending bawling. Luna didn’t have to mention that what she just learned explained the mysterious two week absence the previous year that marred an otherwise pristine attendance record. The doctor’s note that Luna had been forced to file only explained that the absence was medically justified, but unlike every other note Luna had filed for medical reasons, no details had been provided by the doctor.
Luna no longer begrudged the doctor the lack of detail.
Present...
A glimpse of a frightened face was all Fluttershy saw of Sunset after her last class as the girl bolted away. The rest of the students had already left the building in the usual post-class haste that all schools are seized with after the final bell for the day. Sunset had taken so long to leave class, in fact, that even the teacher had left her in the room. Fluttershy had been just moments away from going into the classroom to check on her friend when the door burst open and Sunset caught sight of her before running off in the direction of the principal’s office.
Fluttershy stood confused, then looked into the classroom to see Sunset’s backpack still on her desk...next to her phone. Oh no! she thought. Quickly, she darted into the classroom, retrieved the items, then ran after Sunset, hoping she was right about where the other girl was going.
Moments later, she pushed open the door to Principal Celestia’s office to find it dark, the lights off and the shades closed. It appeared at first glance to be empty, but then Fluttershy saw the desk chair turning very slowly, as though it had been disturbed just enough. She stood quietly in the door, filtering out the sounds of the last couple of office workers and ignoring the little hints of movement that came through the small spaces in the blinds. On a hunch, she let the door close itself, and within a breath of the latch clicking she heard a barely stifled sob.
Smiling sadly, she padded around the desk to see Sunset’s shoes just barely visible under Principal Celestia’s desk. Making sure she telegraphed her presence audibly, she set down Sunset’s backpack and closed the remaining few feet to kneel down where the principal’s chair normally sat.
“Sunset,” she began into the dark space under the desk, “I know you’re hurting right now, I know what you’re going through.” She was briefly interrupted by an indignant sniff, but she continued in the same calm, comforting voice, “I may not have been silenced by a magic spell, but I was kept quiet by something even worse.” She paused for a moment, trying to collect her own thoughts, and gently stretched her hand out. She knew that Sunset wouldn’t take the hand, not yet, anyway. “I...was too afraid. I was afraid people wouldn’t take me seriously, that they’d say I was making it all up and that I shouldn’t make waves. Or worse, that they’d make me confront my...bully. My abuser. She looked up from her own hand to peer into the darkness. Her eyes had adjusted well enough that she could just see the shimmering pools of tears that were Sunset’s eyes reflecting her image. “Yes, Sunset, that was you.”
A hissing moan came from under the desk, Fluttershy could see the other girl wiping away the tears in her eyes, “It had been a year, and I kept quiet. Rainbow didn’t need anyone, Rarity didn’t need my help or anyone else’s, and the words you said, the way you destroyed the things I tried to do...it was just a reflection of what I told myself, really. That’s why it hurt so much. That’s why I couldn’t be mad at you because it was like you were the only person in the school that didn’t try to treat me like I’d break at any second. I knew you were just telling the truth about me. Or...at least that’s what I told myself to make myself feel better about not getting any help.” She could tell her words were starting to cut through Sunset’s emotional miasma, as her breathing was evening out.
“But when you think so poorly of yourself when you tell yourself that the things the bullies say are true and don’t stand up to that darkness inside you...it lets the darkness grow.” gingerly, as though afraid to see what she knew was going to be there, she reached forward with the hand that wasn’t already outstretched to grasp the sleeve of her hoodie. “And that darkness...can lead you…” she was blinking back her own tears by this point, “...it can lead you to do some horrible things.”
Slowly, she tugged the sleeve up her arm, revealing the inside of her wrist. In the darkness of the unlit room, it was hard to see what Fluttershy was trying to show, and she could see Sunset was starting to lean out of the shadow to get a closer look. She slowly turned her wrist ever so slightly so the light could highlight the line, about three inches long, that was permanently marked in a lighter shade of yellow than the rest of Fluttershy’s skin, from the start of the wrist to about a quarter the way up her forearm. The mark was slightly jagged at first, but became firm and straight, as though the hand that created the mark was unsure at first but then became more firm in their stroke. Without a word, she switched hands, showing a matching line, though not quite as long, on the other wrist.
Sunset gasped and recoiled back into the shadow with a muffled thump of her jacketed back on the footwell blocking panel. Fluttershy raised her eyes, now also filling with tears, to gaze into Sunset’s horrified stare. “I know why you ran from me today, I know what’s happening in your head even though you can’t speak it. I know that you think you deserve what’s happening to you, that you wish your suicide attempt had succeeded, how you wish that we had been just a few minutes, or even seconds later than we were so you wouldn’t still be here. I know it’s not because you’re afraid of facing the people you hurt, but…” Fluttershy had to pause for a moment to swallow back a lump that was forming in her throat, “...but you’re wondering how someone like you, someone that had caused so much pain and suffering to the people around her, especially the people who had rescued her from her own folly, could ever possibly make up for what you did to hurt them.” She felt a drop of water on her exposed wrists and looked down to see a tear trickle down the line of her scar. That’s funny, she thought, I didn’t even realize I was crying… “And the truth is you can’t. You can never earn someone’s forgiveness. The karmic balance is too heavy against you, there is nothing you can ever do to earn forgiveness…”
She looked back up to Sunset’s distressed eyes. The pupils were dilating, and Fluttershy knew the soul-tearing anguish that was roiling inside Sunset’s soul because she had experienced it herself. For her, it had been her mother, her wonderful, sweet, kind mother who found her in the bathtub, blood flowing from her wrists. Her mother, who had stopped the bleeding, called emergency services and stayed with her through the entire hospital stay. Her mother, who had been there when she had woken up when she never expected or wanted to again, had held her and loved her and told her that she was so special and that there was no better daughter in the world. Her mother that very sternly told her in no uncertain terms that what she had done was not very smart and that there were better ways to handle her issues. Her mother, who forgave Fluttershy of all the pain and hurt and mess that she’d caused with her attempt. “When I say I know what you’re going through Sunset…” she held her hands out, inviting the other girl out from the shadows, “...it’s because I know.”
There was a quiet moment where neither moved. Fluttershy didn’t need to even wonder if Sunset was going to take her hands, because she knew that Sunset now knew that Fluttershy understood exactly what was going on in her heart. First one hand came out of the darkness to gently grasp Fluttershy’s. Then, shaking, the other emerged from the shadows, the mottling of the skin on Sunset’s hand and wrist standing in a stark reminder that there was still an injury that nobody could account for and the girl couldn’t explain. As both hands clasped Fluttershy’s, first tentatively and then with the firmness of a drowning man grasping a lifeline, Fluttershy gently guided Sunset out from under the desk. Sunset practically collapsed into Fluttershy’s lap, who simply wrapped her arms around her one-time bully.
Holding the other girl gently but firmly, she began speaking, “Sunset, you can’t earn forgiveness...but I can give it to you freely.” Sunset tensed, as though trying to escape a trap, but Fluttershy held fast, “I can give it to you not because I have to, but because I want to. I can give it because it’s mine to give if I choose. And I know you don’t think you deserve it,” the girl was shuddering with sobs by this point, “But you do, Sunset. You deserve it because I say you deserve it.” Fluttershy could hear the door opening and closing as she spoke, but didn’t divert her focus from the girl in her arms, “Sunset Shimmer,” she didn’t notice her form starting to glow with yellow light, nor the wings appearing behind her. She didn’t think anything of feeling like she was hugging Sunset with another pair of arms, nor did she even register that her new limbs were covered with soft feathers that wrapped Sunset nearly shoulder-to-knee, “I forgive you.”
A wailing sob tore itself from Sunset’s throat. Hands grasped needily at Fluttershy’s shirt and unclasped just as quickly as the girl tried to push away, then grasped even more firmly to her former victim. Sunset tried to curl up into a ball but the wings, stronger than Fluttershy would have expected, kept her friend from curling into a ball and shutting out any consolation being given.
Almost distantly, she recognized Principal Celestia kneeling down next to them and wrapping her arms around the pair of them.
After a quarter-hour of Sunset’s inner turmoil finally spilling out and Fluttershy and Celestia gently pouring love back in its place, Sunset slipped off to sleep.
Author's Notes:
Putting yourself into a headspace that you were in while you were recovering from being suicidal is...hard.