Chapter 2: Flash Sentry

There was one Human boy who almost could have been a young Equestrian stallion. He was handsome, intelligent, kind and remarkably civilized in his dealings with other Humans, both male and female. He was able to express his attraction toward girls without descending into the demanding aggression which Sunset found so repulsive.

She had dated Flash Sentry once, just for the status, and had wound up having a fascinating conversation with him about the asethetics of music and poetry, the similarities and differences between poems and song lyrics, the very philosophy of music and life. It had been so fascinating that she broke the rules she had laid down for herself, did something she never would have done with any other Human boy.

She agreed to a second date. And then a third. Soon, they were going steady.

He respected Sunset, cared about her, treated her not only as a potential mate, but more importantly as a friend. He did not attempt to overcome her sexual reticence, though he was attentive enough that she knew he was interested, and against her own normal prejudices she gradually permitted him some intimacies she never thought she would desire from any ape-thing, had never permitted any being of either species.

To her shock, she realized that she was starting to fall in love with him. Sometimes, when she was with him, she forgot her larger purposes, her long-term plans. There was only him, and the wonderful sensations they shared. Sometimes, when she closed her eyes, she could imagine that he was kissing her with an extended muzzle equipped with a long dextrous tongue, rather than a flattened ape-face with absurdly short tongue; caressing her with aura or feathered wing-tips or prehensile mane and tail, rather than ape-hands: that he was, in short, a fellow Pony.

When she was apart from him, she remembered who and what she really was, a being from a civilization more advanced than his own, one which had a greater understanding of the Cosmos, a more enlightened moral philosophy. She was Pony, and he was a barbarian, even if an exceptionally sweet and considerate and intelligent and loving and entirely dear barbarian. Moreover, she was a scholar-mage, a gentlemare, a Light. She had her pride.

Sometimes, she tried to avoid him. Always, he would contact her -- never angrily, never rudely -- always simply reminding her that he was her friend, that he was there for her if something was wrong.

She would have been prepared to angrily reject him if he had been resentful, been demanding -- as most Human males would have been in that situation. But he was never like that. He was kind, and his kindness to her disarmed her, let her forget their differences of species, that he was Human and she Pony. With him, she didn't have to struggle -- and she was getting so tired of the constant battle that was life in the Human world.

She knew what was happening. She was going native. She had been physically Human for so long that she was forgetting what she was in truth. Her Human body was now almost fully adult; her Human instincts were telling her to find a man -- to mate and produce Human offspring. She must resist these urges -- if she loved a Human from this world, she knew she would be trapped here forever, and by chains stronger than mere magic.

Besides, he was a distraction. She knew there was magic in this world -- she could sometimes sense it, even without her horn. But it was terribly weak, and difficult for her to manipulate without her horn. She had to figure out how to work it, or the only way she might return to Equestria would be as a helpless supplicant, throwing herself on Celestia's mercy, begging for forgiveness.

That she would never do. She knew that Celestia had given up on her as a student, that Celestia would never help her Ascend to become an Alicorn. By now, her favor would have doubtless fallen on somepony else: no doubt somepony sweeter, more pliable. Somepony to whom she would be expected to submit, perhaps already an Alicorn Princess.

Sunset Shimmer would bow to no jumped-up rival. She had her pride. She would come back with power, plundered with her superior Pony magic from these mage-blind barbarians! This, she vowed.

But to accomplish this, she needed magic. Not merely the knowledge of magic, but the power itself. Without the power, all her knowledge was ultimately useless.

And Flash Sentry had, inadvertently, given her the clue.

One of the many things she liked about him was that he was a musician. He not only played the guitar -- both acoustic and electric -- he also wrote some of his own songs. He had the soul of a poet -- even his fellow barbarians noticed and respected him for this -- and he expressed it through his music.

Sunset Shimmer was herself a musician. Back in Equestria, she had played stringed instruments; her favorite had been the guitar. Her experience, of course, had been with acoustic guitars -- electric guitars had then been experimental devices, recently developed because legends of the Age of Wonders had hinted to modern designers that such instruments should be possible.

Of course, she had strummed her guitar, a model specifically-designed for Unicorns, with her aura. Literal "fingerwork" was impossible for a species entirely lacking such appendages: the Pegasus equivalent was designed to be worked by flight feathers and fields, the Earth Pony version by body-field held mane hair. She had to relearn a lot, practice diligently, to regain her former levels of skill.

This was no insuperable obstacle to her. Sunset Shimmer was used to hard work, and very determined to succeed at her self-imposed task.. Even before she began seeing Flash Sentry, she knew she wanted to once again have her music. Jamming with the other rockers, she could for a time forget her exile, pretend she was back in Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, surrounded by truly civilized beings. Making music, she for a brief time approached her old forgotten state of contentment, almost happiness.

Then, she discovered that it might be the path to much more.