“Sunset, darling.” In the reflection of the window, Rarity leaned over the top of the coach bus seat and pouted. “I know you’ve been quite enamored with San Fran—God only knows how long you spent gushing about the enormity of the city back in the hotel room—but, I’m starting to wonder if this behavior of yours is, erm... healthy.”

Sunset didn’t respond. Instead, the teenager continued to stare out of the window with intent. Sure, she wouldn’t be near the tunnel again for at least a half hour or so—and considering the traffic, probably more. And sure—admittedly, she may have had been neglecting her friends all day, instead choosing to glue her nose onto the window since she’d gotten onto the bus home. But she had to admit that the view was worth it, and as the bus passed over Treasure Island, Sunset had to resist letting her jaw drop again as she took in the dwindling San Francisco skyline.

I always forget just how resourceful humans can be, Sunset thought. Carving out a city like Canterlot was one thing, but the size of just this one city alone makes it look like child’s play. And this isn’t even the largest in the state, let alone the country! Of course, I do have to give Canterlot props for being on the side of a mountain though. A single house is one thing, but they haven't managed entire cities. Yet.

Another poke on the shoulder. Sunset tore her gaze away from the glittering ocean vista. Rarity loomed behind her, her pout lessening now that Sunset wasn’t married to the view. Across from Sunset, Rainbow and Applejack were playing an intense game of cards. And though she couldn’t see them, Sunset knew that Trixie sat in front of her, and judging by her groaning, Pinkie was annoying the heck out of her, with Fluttershy sitting behind Sunset with Rarity.

“Oh, finally you’ve come up for air.” Rarity smirked. “And here I was wondering if you were wishing to become one with the bay.”

Sunset rolled her eyes. “I’m a former unicorn, Rarity. Not a seapony. Maybe if I were, I’d have gained Aquaman-like powers instead of keeping some of my magic.” She wasn’t worried about anybody overhearing her. The engines and the chatter coming from the other passengers were more than enough to keep their conversation private.

“Well, whatever the case, you’ve had your nose on that window like Twilight does with books.”

Behind Rarity, a voice shouted just enough to be heard by the pair. “I do not spend all my time in books!”

“Maybe not anymore, darling, but I specifically remember one time we all went to see Guardians of the Galaxy and after we left you couldn’t remember a single plot point.” The voice let out an “Eep!” as Rarity turned back to Sunset with a giggle. “Heehee, now that I’ve sassed Twilight into place, would you mind telling me what’s bothering you, Sunset? You’re not still on that whole... Roman thing are you?”

Before Sunset could reply, Rainbow Dash piped up over her shoulder. “Yeah, I gotta agree with Rarity here. This is weird, even for you Sunset.”

“I did not say it was weird, Rainbow Dash! Merely... not normal?”

Sunset could feel Rainbow’s eyes rolling. “Whatever Rari—oh come on! Seriously! A full house!”

In front of Rainbow, Applejack had a manure-eating grin on her face, cards strewn over her lap. “Suck it, Dash! Better luck next time, sugarcube.”

Sunset ignored Rainbow’s muttering and glanced out the window. The suburban paradise of Oakland started blurring by beyond the edges of the highway. “I’m not letting this go. I know what I saw.” Sunset turned and stared into Rarity’s eyes. “There were Romans on the highway! I’m sure of it.”

Fluttershy popped up next to Rarity. “Oh, is that the reason you were so interested in the museum?”

“Yeah, maybe you were just hallucinating Romans cuz of your museum binge,” Rainbow Dash said. “Although, I can see the appeal. What’s not to love about dudes with swords and ancient gods raining down lightning on suckers!”

“An’ where was this enthusiasm when Dr. Hooves was handin’ out those worksheets, huh?”

“Oh hush AJ.”

“I’m with Rainbow on this one!” Pinkie chirped, popping up from her seat. “What’s not to love about some hunky god like Zeus—ooh, ooh!—Or maybe Poseidon! Mmnnnf~” She wiggled her eyebrows.

“As long as it isn’t Hades. I’m sure all of the white in my wardrobe would absolutely clash with the dreary atmosphere of the underworld. Actually... if he let me redecorate...” Rarity said.

“Can we please not talk about banging ancient gods? I think I’m going to be sick,” Sunset groaned. It hit just a little too close to home for the former unicorn. She had to actively fend back unclean images of a certain immortal alicorn, lest she be scarred for life.

Sunset suddenly felt weight next to her. “Ooooh, I hope Dr. Hooves didn’t see me. He didn’t see me get up, did he?” Twilight asked.

Rainbow glanced over her seat. “Nah, he’s still reading that book of his. Honestly, you’re fiiiiine Twi.”

“We were just discussing the trip. What part was your favorite, huh Twilight?” Pinkie asked, leaning over her seat.

“Well...” Twilight rubbed her chin in thought. “Probably that part of the tour when we were learning about the gods and goddesses—”

“Ha, that’s kinda ironic coming from you, isn’t it?” Rainbow interrupted. “I mean, considering what happened at the Friendship Gaaak—” Applejack elbowed Rainbow Dash. Hard.

“Ow! What the heck, AJ?”

Rolling her eyes, the blonde said, “What Ah think she means, Twi, is that it’s a mite bit weird that you’d find all powerful magical gods fascinating after the whole ‘incident’.”

To this, Twilight just blushed. “W-well, it’s just different, you know? It’s not like they’re real anyways. And besides, I’ve always had an interest in Greek and Roman mythos. My favorite part of the trip had to be when we learned about both the Grecian and Roman forms of the gods and the differences in mythology. Did you know that...”

Sunset rolled her eyes and smiled as her nerdy friend listed off the various Roman counterparts of the classic Greek gods. She turned her eyes back outside of the window, watching as the suburbs gradually passed on by.

She hadn’t forgotten what she had seen, though. It had been just three days ago on the first day of their end of year field trip. This year the trip on rotation for Sunset’s class was a three day trip out to San Francisco. While most of the students groaned when they were told most of the trip would be spent in museums instead of the city streets, Sunset felt the exact opposite. It felt good to get out of Canterlot and learn a little bit more about the world she now inhabited. The old bookworm in her gobbled up the main event of their trip with unparalleled fervor: a tour of the Greek and Roman exhibit at the Palace of Honor.

Learning about the old gods and goddesses reminded her of days spent with Princess Celestia in the Royal Archives, where the Princess would tell Sunset all about the history of the Alicorns. Sometimes she’d even give Sunset an assignment like “do a report on so and so and hand it in by the end of the week,” and Sunset would have to scramble her brain to remember any scraps of knowledge from one of the Princess’ stories about them, as well as take out some of the numerous books on the Alicorns. A pang of sadness hit Sunset, as she knew that those days were long over.

Pushing those thoughts away, she thought about what she saw days earlier. On the first day of the trip, while they were coming in from Canterlot, she saw them; Romans! Two of them right on the highway! Well, not on the highway exactly, as they were on the median dividing the series of tunnels, but it was close enough. When she had asked whether any of the others had seen the she was met by blank stares and blinks by her classmates. But she was sure she saw them, absolutely sure of it.

“Hey, Sunset? You still with us?” Rainbow Dash snapped her fingers. “Hellloooo, Sunset?”

Sunset clutched her chest. “Gah! Yes, I’m still alive over here, Rainbow.”

Rainbow leaned back into her own seat. “Heheh, spooked ya didn’t I?”

Rarity spoke before Sunset could respond. “You merely launched her out of her own thoughts, dear.”

“Yeah.” Sunset nodded.

“Still thinking about those Romans?” Fluttershy asked.

Sunset grunted. “Yes, I am. Seriously, I know I saw them standing right there. How in the heck can cars just zoom past them, like they don’t even see them?”

“Ah think Sunset’s finally lost her marbles,” Applejack whispered to Rainbow.

“You’re telling me.” Rainbow cleared her throat. “Listen, they were probably just some guys told to dress up in costume for a day. Probably for a commercial or a Youtube video or something. Heck, maybe they’re just some crazy cosplayers. I’d put my money on all of those before I believed real Romans any day.”

Before Sunset could reply, she was violently launched from her thoughts—and her seat—by the bus screeching to a halt. Picking herself back up, Sunset wondered why they had stopped so suddenly. Students shrieked.

“Pinkie! Get off of me!”” Twilight moaned.

“Sooooorry!”

“Does anybody know why we stopped?” Sunset asked. She noted that they were parked inside of a tunnel, not too far from the end of it. A bright, white wall of sunlight capped off the tunnel. The... Caldecott, was it? She wasn’t all that far from where she saw the Romans.

Before she could think on that any further, Dr. Hooves spoke up above the noise. “Alright! Alright! Quiet down now! Blimey!” He waited for a moment until the students had calmed down a bit. “Is anybody hurt?” When nobody nodded, he continued, “Phew. Good. Now, I want everybody to remain calm while I check out what happened. Looks like traffic's backed up.”

Sunset looked out the windows, and indeed he was right. All the cars in front of them had ground to a halt as well.

Dr. Hooves adjusted his longcoat—why the heck he was wearing it on a sweltering summer day, nobody knew—and exited the bus.

“Whaddya think’s happenin’ out there?” Applejack asked, rubbing the spot where her face had smashed against the seat.

Rarity pulled herself over her seat again. “Hopefully whatever it is will clear up soon. I’d rather not spend all day out on the freeway on a sweaty, icky bus.”

“Y-you don’t think it’s another kind of magical emergency, do you?” Fluttershy suggested.

“Nah, We’re miles away from Canterlot. My guess is that somebody had an accident. Hmph, figures.” Rainbow Dash crossed her arm.

“Aw jeez. Ah hope everybody’s all right out—”

Loud bangs echoed through the tunnel. Everybody went silent. Dr. Hooves thundered back into the bus.

“EVERYBODY OFF—”

Before he could finish that sentence, a car came barreling down the tunnel. Unlike most cars however, this one was bouncing around like it was a massive Hot-Wheels. It hurtled straight past Sunset’s coach bus and into another car. The resulting explosion sounded like a cannon going off thanks to the tunnel.

Students screamed. Fluttershy fainted. Everyone on the bus pushed and shoved their way out into the tunnel. Applejack grabbed Fluttershy and made for the exit, Sunset right behind her .The students barely made it to the edge of the tunnel before another car slammed into their bus, knocking it over, pushing itself and plenty of other cars twenty feet back.

Sunset used the chaos to cast a quick and easy life-detection spell. Thank God. Everybody made it out.

“What is going on out there?” Rainbow Dash yelled over the screams. The drivers in front of them that didn’t get rolled over were getting out of their own vehicles and starting to panic as well. Dr. Hooves could barely be heard over the clamor. Twilight had her eyes locked on the mangled bus.

Rarity kneeled down with Applejack next to Fluttershy. “Oh dear! I hope those people are okay—”

“Rarity, did that explosion freaking look okay!” Rainbow snarled.

Sunset stepped forward and put a hand on Rainbow’s shoulder in an effort to sooth her hot-headed friend. “Rainbow! Calm down! Yelling at your friends won’t make the situation any better! What we have to do right now is call the ambulances, stat!

“I can’t get a signal!” Pinkie responded, shaking her phone.

Sunset growled. “Alright, you guys stay here—”

“An’ just where in tarnation do you think you’re going!”

‘Somebody has to call nine-one-one and the tunnel’s not going to let that happen!”

“But—” Twilight started to say, but Sunset cut her off.

“Whatever’s going on, I’ll be fine. I have some of my magic, alright?”

Without waiting for a response, Sunset turned and ran past students, past Dr. Hooves who shouted her name, over the ruined cars and down the tunnel. She didn’t stop until she vaulted over a car right out into the sunlight. As she exited the mouth of the tunnel, Sunset skidded to a grinding halt.

“ROMANS! TO ARMS!”

In the middle of the freeway stood about forty miniature Roman legionnaires. Their shields were raised and their golden tipped spears glinted in the sunlight over their mixed armor-and-purple t-shirt combos. Sunset felt a faint magical energy coming from the group, specifically their spears. In front of them... Sunset gulped as she watched a shaggy brown minotaur plow through cars like a hot knife sliced through butter. And yet, the legionnaires stood strong.

Somebody next to Sunset screamed, knocking her out of her daze. “Truck! Truck! Get out of the way!” He ran back down the tunnel screaming at the top of his lungs.

Truck? Sunset thought the man had to be as blind as a bat. Turning back to the soldiers, Sunset watched in horror as the minotaur came closer and closer. It was just feet away from them, and yet they remained unfazed—then, something whizzed over from the left and into the creature, nailing it in the arm. Golden blood burst forth. It toppled and skidded to a stop—right in front of the line of bloodthirsty soldiers. All of them released a shout before pouncing onto the creature. Sunset looked over her shoulder, and on the median she saw two soldiers reloading a real ballista.

Ooooookay... so, I guess they’re not cosplayers then. Despite the battle going on, Sunset noted that nobody was taking the time to place any calls for the paramedics. Remembering her goal, she quickly pulled out her phone and desperately started to dial for emergency services, only to be met with a flat tone. “Oh—mmnnfrg—ponyfeathers!” She was out of the tunnel! The phone should have had been working!

A loud, inhuman roar erupted from underneath the Roman doggiepile. The soldiers were flung off onto the cracked asphalt, dazed. Sunset froze.
The minotaur was looking directly at her with murderous fury in its eyes. And then it charged, ignoring the soldiers on the ground who were pounding into it just a second ago, and instead choosing to go after the unarmed teenage girl.

Sunset managed to back up two steps before bumping into a car. Directly to her left stood more abandoned cars. To her right, solid concrete. Sunset licked her lips and gulped. Her feet started moving before her brain could tell her how stupid she was.

Evidently, the bull had not accounted for somebody to charge straight at it, judging by the look on its face. Sunset slid underneath the creature, thankful for all of the times she’d been lazy enough to watch baseball instead of looking for the remote. All became thunder and shag for a moment, and then she was behind it. Dusting herself off, she watched as the raging bull struggled to slow down, only to veer off center and crash into the side of the tunnel entrance. Cracks began to slither their way through the concrete.

“Hey!” Sunset turned around to find a very ticked off, very lanky, and very Roman boy yelling at her. “Get out of here before you get hurt!” She had might have taken him seriously if it wasn’t for the giant red plumage sticking out of his helmet making him look like a very angry peacock.

“Is—Is she a demigod?” one soldier asked. He didn’t look older than fifteen. In fact, Sunset noticed that none of the soldiers looked very old—maybe seventeen at the most.

“Silentium! Of course she’s not! That’s impossible! She’s too old to be one!”

Was that latin? Why would— “What are you talking about?” she asked. “What do you mean I’m too old?”

The general, or at least she assumed he was a general of some sort, growled. “Lady, are you deaf? Run away!”

“Nuh-uh, you Roman candlestick. I want to know what’s going on right now.” Sunset felt the tunnel groan behind her.

The soldier's face paled. “You c-can see through the Mist?”

“Mist? What?” Sunset’s eyes narrowed. “Are you and your buddies behind this, because I really don’t appreciate some idiots playing magical mishap in a bunch of costumes—”

“Sunset!”

Sunset whipped around. “Huh! Twilight?”

Twilight ran down the tunnel. Tiny chunks of concrete started to drop from the ceiling.

“TWILIGHT! TURN BACK RIGHT NOW!”

“Whoa—” Twilight stumbled into a car at the edge of the tunnel. The earth groaned. The tunnel buckled.

Twilight let out a piercing scream.

“NO!” Sunset Shimmer summoned forth every last bit of magical energy she could find—her own small reservoir, and the even more abundant magical energy coming off of the Roman’s weapons. She felt an invisible gust of wind swirling around her. Cyan energy danced across her fingertips. Sunset flung Twilight far back into the tunnel, then enveloped the falling debris with her magic. She wasn’t sure if the soldiers were screaming or her. Her mind threatened to burst; she felt like she was burning up. With one last push, Sunset knocked the recovering minotaur under the floating concrete. Then she let go.

The last thing Sunset Shimmer remembered before blacking out was a sideways view of the Caldecott Tunnel collapsing with one minotaur underneath, exploding into a shimmering golden cloud, and the howl of wolves.

Author's Note

Just something I wanted to get out there. Percy Jackson books are ripe for crossing over with ponies, and yet I don't think I've seen what I would consider a good one.

I may upload a blog expanding and explaining ideas I had for this eventually. Until then, thanks for giving it a read.