A Sunset of Flames and Swords

Chapters

Chapter 0
Chapter 1
Chapter 2

Chapter 0

"It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link of the chain of destiny can be handled at a time."
-Winston Churchill

To say that the final mid-term test was the toughest, most rigorous test in the Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns would be a very precise description. It was meant to separate the talented and the adepts from the slackers and bush-leaguers. Sunset Shimmer was fully aware of this, moreover, she also knew that she would be on the spotlight more than anyone else in the school, for she was princess Celestia’s pupil, an honor that has been granted to only a handful of ponies over one thousand years, so everybody was expecting a lot from her; especially the examiners for this test--they wanted nothing short of excellence. But this didn’t faze her in the slightest, for she had proved herself to princess Celestia over the years with hard work and prodigious results. In fact she liked and appreciated the burden, since she saw it as a challenge to her skills and dedication.

The trot to the building that contained the classroom for the test was full peace and day-to-day activity. Once she entered the corridors she noticed that other students were already starting to talk or turn their heads towards her exactly as she passed them. That was a good thing in Sunset Shimmers mind--she liked it d she knew why they were staring and/or and what they were talking about. For it meant that it would be all the more natural when she finally passed the exam and proved how better she was to any of them. And she wasn’t a strange to this feeling, it had been like this ever since she was a filly discovering her cutie mark in talent for magic in the Merciful Skies orphanage in Canterlot. Receiving great praise from caretakers and fellow orphans alike gaining the attention of talent scouts from various magic academies and then Celestia's.

When she entered the classroom, the first thing she saw was mare with a blackened face, the poor thing almost scorched her face while attempting her own tryout spell and a stallion holding a very aggressive plant… which was supposed to be a banzai tree.

“Now, Sunset Shimmer… for your final test, you shall need to wow us.”

“Give us the best you’ve got.” Added the only male examiner, probably the sternest of the three. The oldest mare proceeded to talk as she was marking Sunset Shimmers name in the attendances list.

“We’re looking forward to seeing if you can top your dancing cat of light piece from last semester. That was a dazzler!” She said that last sentence with a hint of what Sunset Shimmer thought to be condescendence, it could certainly anger her. But she knew better than to antagonize an examiner for it, precisely at this place and at this moment. Not that she was afraid or had a legitimate respect for those teachers, but she was Celestia’s student and she had a public image to maintain.

“As princess Celestia’s own pupil, we expect big, big things today!” exclaimed the examiner who appeared to be the youngest of them all.

“So I was right about my previous feeling and the idea these examiners have about me. Naturally.” She thought.

“Well, you’ll certainly see that.” Sunset said with the heaviest tone of confidence.

She proceeded to harness magic and focusing on a flowery pot, even at such small scale it was visible how much raw, yet controlled power was being put into it. It was like using a sledgehammer to drive a nail without leaving a single scratch on the rest of the wood.

“Oh! Looks like she’s going to do a growth spell… classic! But is it enough?”

“Let’s hope it turns out better than Juniper Berry’s attempt.” commented the older mare. Growth and incubating spells were already pretty difficult enough, since it was pretty much about both inspiring new life and time acceleration all at the same time. This time she couldn’t really blame them for having doubts, still, she felt sort of insulted.

Meanwhile, the aforementioned Juniper Berry’s bonsai tree was getting wilder and wilder on him until he let out a scream for help.

“Gah! Get off me!” Screamed the student holding the ferocious bonsai tree.

At that exact moment Sunset Shimmer threw her final magic charge to the flowery pot making the seed inside it grow a thousand fold. Extremely long vines with colorful flowers all around them extended from the inside of the classroom through the windows digging its way all through the inside and covering building from inside out. It was a beautiful sigh, if only a little bit damaging to the school’s property. A little bit inconvenient. The vines all had healthy color, big proportions and many beautiful and colorful flowers.

“I see somepony just passed her mid-term!” said princess Celestia who was strolling around the campus, as she did every semester during the last days of the third month of it. She was feeling certainly proud, but most of all, she felt genuinely happy for her student. Meanwhile, at the epicenter of the massive vine growth, everyone--examiners and applicants--were praising Sunset Shimmer for such a demonstration of skill, precision and magical might.

“Bravo! Wonderful!” cheered Juniper Berry. Curiously enough, since he was one who failed at his attempt on the same spell, perhaps it had something to do with the fact that, right after the success of her spell, Sunset threw another at his ferocious banzai tree rendering inert for good measure.

“Thank you, thank you! It was nothing!” Sunset Shimmer was so dedicated her studies, even to a degree that even a spell of that level only had a mild difficulty for her. Still she appreciated the attention and compliments.

Later that day...

She was seated at a one of the numerous tables set through the campus, reading one of her many books on magic when a group of five classmates approached her still impressed by her work and the score they were sure she got.

“Sunset Shimmer! That vine you made was amazing!” Exclaimed one of them, the one who seemed to have the most initiative.

“Really exquisite!” other mare added with a rather refined tone of voice.

“Would you like to come have lunch with us?” Finally said a mare with a cyan colored coat. Sunset Shimmer have been already offered something like this in the past and her response reaction was always the same--rejection. Invitations from popularity-seeking mares, requests for dates by aspiring coltfriends, she just didn’t have time for any of those. Why couldn’t these ponies understand an objective so straight-forward as hers? Was that so much to ask? And thus, Sunset Shimmer proceeded to dismiss them in the only way she knew how:

“Hmpf. I have better things to do than socialize. I’m going to re-read ‘advanced elemental magical practices’ and then study for my summoning spells exam. What are you studying for? Nothing, that’s what.” Sunset said as she abandoned the place to continue with her studies somewhere else--somewhere less crowded.

The disdain in Sunset Shimmers words was so palpable that they almost felt that it could knock them backwards.

“…Well, she wasn’t very nice.” Lamented another mare with a notoriously nice, red and purple mane. She was likely the shyest and yet, seemingly, the most interested in having Sunset Shimmer lunch with them, her disappointment being as subtle as the sun.

“She’s full of herself, that’s what!” Declared with indignation one last mare from the group.

“Her loss, I’m awesome.” Affirmed the first one who approached Sunset Shimmer a moment ago. They were all clearly disgusted by her overly arrogant and superior attitude, but what frustrated them the most is that they knew she could legitimately back all that haughtiness up. Sunset Shimmer arrived to the castle faster than she thought, the carriage and walkthrough, everything seemed quicker to her that day. She was intercepted by princess Celestia when she was about to reach the corridors where her bedroom was located. Sunset Shimmer thought she was going to receive a big commendation from her great mentor--the pony whom she expected it the most, the one she felt nothing but admiration and respect--instead she received a wakeup call.

“Sunset Shimmer, I have heard that you are not getting along with the other students--we talked about the fact that personal relationships…” said Celestia with a tone of concern. Not a praise, not a congratulation, not even a compliment but instead a petty wakeup call--and it was over such an insignificant matter. This saddened her but most of all, it exasperated Sunset Shimmer more than she would ever admit.

“Personal relationships? Who needs anypony? The most important thing in life is be the best.” She retorted with as much determination as she could muster and not even allowing princess Celestia to finish her sentence. She wanted to end the talk right there but she knew better than to not expect insistence from her teacher.

“We have talked about friendship and its importance before, and we have discussed that you need to start opening yourself up to new friends. And remember that talk we had about humility?”

“Of course. I remember how boring it was.” Princess Celestia easily took notice of the brash attitude Sunset was starting to show. So she led her to a place where she thought she could get her to reflect in both senses of the word, she decided that maybe this was the precise time to teach her some principles of her own wisdom. They reached a big room through a narrow hall--it looked old--yet well conserved.

“This is my personal room of reminiscences, here is where I keep all objects that hold some sentimental value to me, some of them are worth a fortune and some other wouldn’t amount for a penny, but this,” she guided Sunset to a really big mirror “is what I wanted you to see. This mirror was brought from the now disappeared Crystal Empire--it shows you what you want to see as much as it shows what you do not want to see--it reveals the content of your heart. Go ahead, look into the mirror and tell me what you see.”

Sunset never actually cared all that much for her appearance, only when it was absolutely necessary so she wasn’t very used to check herself in a mirror, but she complied if anything else, only to show Celestia that was nothing wrong with her choices and that she didn’t need to change.

“I see a beautiful pony that has nothing but prowess and potential” she said while looking at her own reflection with a cocky smile--she liked what she saw. Now she realized that she couldn't really blame all those colts who asked her out over the years.

“Care to try again with our talk about humility taken into account?” Asked Celestia, this time with an almost funny expression of surprise and perplexity at Sunsets sheer presumptuousness. Sunset took another look, this time trying to see further in the details of her own face, since perhaps what Celestia wanted was a longer more complex answer. But when she looked, instead of discovering her own defects, she saw everything else she still lacked. The reflection started to subtly change at Sunset's own desires and ambitions-- everything she still sought to achieve but for different reasons she was still unable to reach. What she finally saw was an ideal version of herself--a perfect version of herself, one that emanated only one thing: Power.

“Power…” she said almost whispering the word out of amazement “I see somepony who isn't successful enough. Somepony who could be great… superior…” The reflection finally changed to something that Sunset Shimmer never imagined--an authority status… As a princess. “Rule Equestria…?” She said being both bewildered and fascinated at what she saw until Celestia interrupted her stupor.

“Sunset, what are you--” Celestia began to ask put off by Sunset’s vague words.

“What--?” Said suddenly turning her gaze to Celestia. ”It's nothing. I said I--” The image already faded into nothingness when Sunset turned to the mirror again and before she could say something else, Celestia interrupted her again.

“Maybe we should better move on…” Sunset Shimmer was about to follow Celestia’s suggestion, when through the corner of her eye noticed something else in the mirror--it was a… thing--a creature like Sunset have never seen before yet it shared so many of her own features including her flaming colored mane, and even the look that Sunset was able to catch was uncannily similar to her own, except hers was completely and absolutely uninhibited, limitless… And powerful.

“Wait, what was that? I thought I saw…” Sunset still wasn’t sure if what she was seeing was real so she moved closer to the mirror but then, the vision disappeared as soon as it made contact with her reflection.

“Oh, it was probably a trick of the light. Our lesson is over for today. For tomorrow, I want you to ponder on the discussion we just had.” Said Celestia dismissing Sunset's claim using as much logic as she could, not wanting to show her own concern as to whether what Sunset saw was an illusion or not. Sunset remained skeptical about Celestia’s explanation but ultimately decided to listen to what her mentor suggested and move on… For today.

Sunset Shimmer spent the rest of the night pondering in her bedroom, yes, but not about Celestia’s attempt on a lesson on humility. No, she was thinking about the images she saw on the mirror--were they even real? Were they only an illusion? If it was real, what exactly meant? And that creature who sort of looked like her, what was she? (Or at least she thought it was a she) Her appearance was… Bizarre to say the least. Yet her other me--as Sunset decided to call her--looked so much better, whatever she had, Sunset wanted it too. But she needed more answers perhaps she could ask princess Celestia some of these questions, after all, she has known this mirror for quite a long time. But for now, all she needed was a good night of sleep.

The next day, in the Castle library. Sunset Shimmer and Celestia were conducting a study in magic synergy comparing different researches on the same subject. Sunset had been beating around the bush for more time than necessary, until she formulated the exact questions she was going to ask the right time was now. Celestia was arranging the last two revised books back into its shelf when Sunset Shimmer finally revealed her confusion.

“Princess Celestia, about that mirror I've been wanting ask about what was made visible to me you said that it showed what was inside my heart, but, could it be that it also showed the future?” Sunset asked with supplicant face, this time she wanted to trust her mentor’s wisdom and experience. Celestia finished her current task and sighing proceeded to answer:

“The mirror, aside from showing you the truths in your heart, does not show you the future as much as it shows you possibilities within the reach of your present.” She finished her explanation and Sunset Shimmer did her very best to hide the shock and surprise in her face.

“Oh, so that… that’s It.” she turned her gaze away from Celestia and to her book again and Celestia asked a question this time.

“Why do you ask? What did you see in the mirror?” Sunset knew she couldn’t tell exactly what she saw, Celestia might get fearful and paranoid. So she thought of a vague yet satisfactory answer, she mustered as much sincerity in her face as she could and replied:

“It’s just that… Now I know I can truly start my path to better myself.” she was just half-lying about that after all. Celestia genuinely smiled at this--joyful at knowing that her lesson truly transpired into her student, Sunset smiled back with a contented face. But then she remembered the other thing--the creature that was nothing like Sunset Shimmer yet was so much alike and seemed to be staring at her from the other side of the mirror. That was it! The other side! She wanted to know about that as well, but she had to be very subtle about this so she mustered courage and asked again:

“Princess Celestia, there’s another thing” Celestia turned to her again

”Yes? What is it, Sunset?” Sunset took almost ten seconds to formulate the right question-- one that only showed legitimate curiosity

“There are… many fairy tales and… Crazy theories about mirrors being windows to another world, and they are exactly that--crazy folk tales, but, could it be that there is actually something to the other side of this particular magic mirror?

Celestia adopted a deadpan face but her eyes got suddenly burdened and she finally replied

“You will know in due time, for now-- “one of the castle couriers entered the library

“Princess Celestia, I hate to interrupt, but your presence is needed at the court.”

“I will be there in a moment. Sunset, forgive me. Finish your assignment and I will check it tomorrow morning, I have matters to attend.” Celestia followed the courier exiting the library and leaving Sunset Shimmer with her ideas. She was about to finish. She only had one more book to search and revise for a different approach in the subject. She was about to keep looking when a headache got to her. It wasn’t anything unbearable, yet, it was enough to make her rub her temples closing her eyes. When she did that, and only for a few seconds, in the darkness of her eyelids she saw her--it was her Other Me. Sunset Shimmer opened her eyes and the headache was pretty much gone now. And found herself staring to the other side of the library. She noticed the numerous shelves across the library, there were so many shelves dedicated to subjects and studies she never touched in her assignments. There were so many and her natural bookworm curiosity took the best of her. After all, she had so little work left to do and still plenty of time, so she wandered into the deeper parts of the library.

She saw so many books about so many sciences--from ordinary medicine to statistic and other algebraic subjects. And then there were the books from beyond the deeper corridors of the library--books on alchemy, lost magical practices, spiritism and other unproven sciences. She finally reached the furthest section of the library where there plenty of very old books in stacked on even older shelves--they were outdated of course. Although upon inspection she noticed that, judging by the titles, they were all about fictional literature. At first she didn’t understand, newer editions of many of these same book were already available fourteen shelves ago, so why they were being kept? Then she realized that perhaps all these books had some emotional value to Celestia just like her Reminiscence Room.

Inspecting them more closely she found a notebook of a very old and with a vintage design, its pages glued to its back instead of being united by a spiraled wire--it was smaller compared to the rest. This one was peculiar because it didn’t have any title or description on its cover whatsoever. When she opened it she saw some very strange handwritings. But that section of the library wasn’t very well illuminated, so she took the book with her to the other extreme where it was the table with her notes and the book she finished studying.

When she inspected the writing again at the light of the sun she noticed that, while the handwriting was kind of faulty, she still didn’t recognize the characters she wasn’t a linguistics expert but she had seen many texts in different languages which had drastically different writing system to equestrian such as Qilin lettering from the west, sylvanian from the deer domains in the woods of the east to the more civilized wolf kingdoms far north east and none of those looked like these writings. Well, some characters from the book kind of looked like sylvanian lettering but they were still far from it. She kept leafing through its pages until she felt the same ethereal pains as before, only this time she only closes one of her eyes and rubbed the center of her forehead. And then it was gone as soon as it came.

She decided to not give more importance for the moment, this wasn’t the first time she experienced headaches without knowing the reason. She started leafing the pages and about three quarters of the book later she saw something that made her heart skip a beat--it was a drawing of the mirror Celestia kept in her Reminiscence Room. The drawing depicted not only that but some unknown magic circles and one was under the mirror, the page also contained what appeared to be side notes on how--presumably--use the circles, she lamented that, once again, she would need to look for Celestia’s help but she would have to be even more careful this time.

The next day…

Sunset Shimmer was being instructed by Celestia about theory on the different manifestations of the magical arts around the world but Sunset wasn’t quite as active taking notes as other times and she seemed to have her thoughts somewhere else, Celestia took notice of this and calmly interrupted her lecture.

“Does something bother you?” Sunset didn’t want to look too nervous since she needed to ask this carefully, if Celestia discovered exactly what Sunset truly wanted know, she could consider that book too dangerous and Sunset would never see it ever again, so she choose the right words started:

“I’m sorry, princess. But I’m still worried about yesterday, when I finished my assignment I wandered deep inside the library and I found the oldest shelf with all those antique books and among them I found this,” she moved to take the book out of her saddlebags and levitated it in front of Celestia, even opening it on the first pages to show her the writings and express her consternation although without getting to that one drawing. ”It’s so old. But the lettering here, what is it? Where does it come from?” Celestia’s face adopted a slightly nostalgic expression and said:

“Ahh, it seems that you found it.” and then she grabbed it from Sunsets own telekinetic grasp and she immediately moved to Celestia’s side. ”This notebook here, was left by an old friend of mine a very long time ago.” She said as she quickly leafed through its pages making Sunsets heart beat at--what she thought--was the speed of sound “it was the day when we last saw each other that I found this,” she slightly shook the notebook “the very same day.” And then she finished leafing and gave it back to Sunset.

She was extremely relieved although she still felt the drips of sweat in her forehead, however she was now getting utterly confused as to why Celestia seemed to not notice--or not care--about the strange drawings of the mirror. Yet, she managed to hide her confusion and anxiety from Celestia and keeping her composure, she asked:

“You said it was a friend of yours? Who was she?” Sunset wasn’t even interested on that. Yet; she worked on diverting the subject, regardless of whether Celestia would do it herself or not.

“He,” Celestia corrected “was a quite complicated individual, not very mannered and even insolently rude at times. But we came to understand, respect and even learn from each other. He sometimes was hostile around me for being an immortal--he used to say that the people should be outlive its rulers and not the other way around. And guess this was his diary.” she finished. Sunset was starting to feel safe again and the anxiety was fading away. In her relief she decided to ask:

“Can I keep it?” Sunset said in an expectant tone. Her feel of apprehension was slowly coming back.

“Well, yes. I guess. Although I don’t think you will have much use of it, I still don’t understand its language… Even though he seemed to speak equestrian as if it was his mother language. But yes, you can keep it.

“Thank you very much, princess!” Sunset said in a slightly fake cheerful tone--she was still feeling confused at Celestia’s apparent obliviousness. Even so, she mustered sureness and asked another question, as if testing Celestia’s insight--or lack of it. “Oh, I have another question, what about the mirror itself?” Celestia looked at her with sternness and bluntly said:

“No. I told you I would show everything about it… but it will be in due time. Now, can we continue on our lesson?” Sunset Shimmer was frustrated at this but she quickly adopted a cheerful demeanor, only if just to maintain any image of innocence she could have conveyed.

“Yes, absolutely, princess!” Sunset said with a face full of glee, although she still felt confused at Celestia’s omission of the notebook’s critical contents.

Sunset Shimmer spent that night pondering and analyzing the notebook and all its strange writings, she knew that was very little chance of deciphering the whole thing without a linguistics mayor, however, she found so fascinating and mysterious specially the drawing and its references to all those, particularly the one under the mirror, she didn’t have a clue yet; she just couldn’t take her eyes away from it. She sighed and thought:

“I wonder what all of these are for... And they seem pretty darn complicated. Specially this larger one… this stallion had expert knowledge of the magic arts, he truly must have been one interesting pony. Oh how I wish we could have met! We would have shared so many ideas.” She sighed “I bet we would have so much in common. I wish Celestia had told me how old he was. It would be so interesting if I find out that he was my age.” She thought with giddiness.

Her curiosity and eagerness gave her some problems to let her head relax, but after a while she was able to conciliate sleep. After closing her eyes and feeling time flowing rapidly in the darkness of her rest. At some point she found herself gazing at the opposite side of the bed she remembered laying asleep.

“Great. It’s one of those nights again…” She whispered as she dragged her sheets to cover her head. Sunset heard a small sound, she uncovered her head to expect that sound again in order to identify the source--it was so subtle, that she felt that it was her imagination, she was about to resume her relaxation process when she heard something that was eerily similar to a unintelligible and creepily close and murmur. This time her beat skipped a beat and laid there, without moving a single muscle, expecting to no hear it again just to confirm that it was indeed her imagination playing a prank on her. But then she heard it again slightly clearer this time--she only managed to make out that the murmur started with an S sound. Then, for the third and final time she heard the same murmur that now was a clear voice saying Sunset Shimmer.

Outright terrified she leaped to the opposite side of her bed, tangled in sheets, and once she got her head out, she looked around trying to spot the source of the voice--it was not a long search, for the speaker was right in front of her bead. In the darkness, Sunset could only see a silhouette with some kind of bipedal figure.

“Ok, whoever you are, you’re messing with the wrong mare!” She said with all the courage she could muster, even though that, without knowing the nature of the potential threat, and despite her magic skills, she was at disadvantage here.

And before she could use her horn to illuminate the illuminate and reveal the intruder, the latter whom sprinted out of Sunset’s bedroom revealing her opened door.

“Hey! Where you think you’re going!” She didn’t wait nor she called the guards just yet, she figured it would be more effective if she could at least pinpoint the intruder’s escape route. She galloped following the sounds of steps through the halls until she followed the intruder to a recently familiar place--Celestia’s Reminiscence Room, with the door open, Sunset didn’t waste any time and found the intruder, illuminating the area she saw something that made her give a gasp of shock. It was her Other Me this time clearer than ever before--she was clad in a simple yet somewhat colorful outfit.

“…Who are you…?” Sunset asked almost mechanically. Then, her Other Me looked at her with a strange mixture of challenging yet inviting, right after that, she disappeared through the mirror walking backwards and without breaking her peculiar expression.

“Wait! I need to know--!” she ran after her doppelganger and when she touched the surface of the mirror, she was back again in her bed, staring at the ceiling.

Sunset felt her heart beating very agitatedly, shifting to a seated position she turned on the lamp on her nightstand and grabbed the notebook that contained all those weird writings, leafing through the pages again, as she had done so many times in the past two days. She reached the page that contained the drawings with all those other weird-looking magic circles. That vivid dream, the recurrence of her Other Me in her thoughts, and the fact all seemed to connect to her finding on this particular and old notebook, the realization was quickly landing on her but she didn’t accept it, she didn’t want to trust this signs, she wanted something tangible, solid, something real--she wanted to trust Celestia’s wisdom.

“…Now I really, really need to know about the mirror.” she said with determination, although that night, Sunset was only able to sleep three hours or so before she had to get ready and attend her classes.

For several days Sunset attended school, and did her assignments. However when she had her sessions with Celestia, there was always that nagging feeling of obsession over the mirror, she already knew the--most likely--answer, but she couldn’t bring herself accept it. She wanted to know the truth from her mentor, yet Celestia would only dismiss Sunset’s questions with “you will know it at the right time” and she just didn’t want to hear it, not anymore. That created a big apprehension feeling whenever she had a lesson with Celestia. Bottom line: Sunset didn’t want to be near Celestia as long as she couldn’t get a satisfactory answer from her. That apprehension became a distraction, one that reflected on Sunset’s performance, yet every time Celestia asked her if something was wrong, she simply avoided talking about it by saying “I’m sorry, I’ll just work harder. I promise”.

One day Sunset Shimmer received a message from one the castle couriers--an invitation for a lunch in the castle yard. Of course she already suspected Celestia would use it as an opportunity for another of her lessons--the ones about petty matters. She always did. Why was she so stern and serious about those with such little importance, anyway? Sunset expressed her commitment to attend and the courier went on his busy way.

“But maybe this won’t be such a waste of time. Maybe Celestia has finally come to her senses after all this time...” Sunset thought as she trotted towards to appointed place. This time, she was decided to get a direct answer. One way or another.

After her period of classes Sunset was feeling somewhat expectant and optimist, perhaps this will be the day, perhaps today she would finally know the truth about… Well, everything since Celestia showed her that magic mirror. As any other day of summer the climate was very heated and consequences of this could already be seen in the horizon, black clouds that already overwhelmed white clouds were coming on its way to Canterlot, slowly yet surely. Sunset Shimmer took notice of this and realized that maybe her meal with Celestia would be somewhat rushed. She found the sheet, the basket and other preparations already there so she figured that she would need to wait--princess Celestia could be very unpunctual at times. She sat and started contemplating the view around her--the sky, the mountains;

"These gardens… It would be so easy to find peace… I wish I could reach my potential here.” she sighed and kept mulling over other conflictive thoughts reaching the same conclusion she had had during all that week until Celestia arrived.

They both shared a small talk and other about slightly more meaningful things over the course of the lunch until the rain clouds had already blocked the sun and the wind started changing to more aggressive blows, Sunset realized that she didn’t have much time so she abruptly attempted to change the topic to a more urgent one for her.

“And you know what else is fascinating? Mirrors… about that one in…” Celestia untimely interrupted her

“Sunset Shimmer. We have been over this, we will get to the mirror and many other lessons in due time… when you are ready.” Sunset Shimmer could feel the frustration and disappointment hitting her chest very hard which quickly turned into utter anger at Celestia’s sheer distrust and unnecessary secrecy. On that moment, in her mind, she vowed that she would not live a single day more than necessary in Celestia’s suffocating shadow. Then as she rain finally came down, Celestia made her way to the castle.

“I am ready.” Sunset simply said between her teeth

She looked for solace in the only place she knew--the castle library but she just couldn’t find a book that would give her peace on that moment, perhaps what she needed was to unload her anger on something but then remembered one of the few Celestia’s lesson that truly left an impact on her: You can always express your anger, but do not ever act on it. Was it better to calm down? Probably, but she still needed something to distract her. She decided to look for one of the few triviality and fiction books she liked--she looked for it all through its usual shelf and just couldn’t find it, it must have been loaned.

“Well, that’s odd. I was sure that novel was obscure enough.” she thought and then remembered the shelf of very old books at the other side of the library--it was full of similar books maybe there was another older copy of her book there. Once at the shelf she started to get desperate for not finding the copy she thought it would be here and before she could get frustrated again one of the books that she had already checked fell off because it wasn’t well accommodated and as she approached to pick it up she noticed something odd--a very linear crack on the floor. She used her horn to light the area and discovered that not only it was a linear crack but it also extended as a big rectangle under her, she then laid down and put one of hear near one the lines that formed rectangle and felt a small flow of air. There was definitely something under these lines.

“Oh me, oh my. What do I have here?” she gleefully said. Upon a more rigorous inspection she found that this rectangle was in reality a slab “Do you have secrets too? Can you tell them to me? Or has Celstia forced silence on you as well?”

Sunset attempted to lift the slab and the first thing she noticed was that it was strangely heavy even with all her training in telekinesis, as she levitated it she saw a chain underneath it which held the slab bound to a lock. She rejoiced when she saw that--indeed--there was a room underneath but the slab was getting too heavy so she laid it down and used several books to held it in place, now with that out the way, Sunset focused on the chain using a concentrated blast of magic she started to melt one of the links which was also proving to be oddly resistant despite Sunsets mastery of the technique, but ultimately gave up as well.

Once she entirely lifted the slab and using her horn as a lantern she trotted down a set of stairs and the first thing she saw was a sheet over a big, symmetrical object, Sunset approached to lift the sheet to discover that there were lots and lots of really old and dusty books underneath.

“Books…? Is that it?” she said disappointed” but wait, somepony went to some considerable amounts of trouble to keep these books hidden, I wonder what…” She grabbed one of the books from the pile and dusted to get a clearer view of the title.--Secrets of the Everfree? What…?” She discarded the book aside thinking that there couldn’t be anything interesting in it, but then grabbed and dusted another book and this had a title that simply caught her off guard “The truth is the only thing we have” she disconcertingly read the title, she opened the book and found that the vast majority of its pages had a thirty percent of corrosion by moth larvae however she could still read most of it--the book spoke of pre-unification era, but Sunset still couldn’t figure why it was stashed all the way here she then started checking all the books lifting them and re-accommodating them and she found that all of them had either cryptic or subtle titles she could have thought that they were all about more useless literature but she kept in her mind that they had a reason to be hidden away from everypony else so she kept digging until she found one that caught all of her attention--it was written in the pre-unification pegasi language and read ”Inter saecula…for its etymology translates--and if I still can remember my lessons of pegasopolean--Between worlds” Sunset felt her heart skip a beat out of the expectancy for what that could mean and quickly opened the book and it was very corroded as well but she managed to read it.

It was there--theories and treatises on the subject, nothing proven yet--again Sunset could have discarded it as frivolous science-fiction but she knew better since she still had to figure out the reason why all this books were there, she kept the book in her telekinetic grasp and kept digging through the book and finally she found one that more explanatory title-- Sorcery: its purest forms she leafed through it and saw theories and depictions of rituals, summoning techniques, lethal uses of magic and even references and mentions of necromancy as well all other magic practices forbidden by the first post-unification council of mages.

And then she saw it--one of the arcane circles from her unintelligible book, it was clear now, the reason why these book were hidden, they were all abjured knowledge.

“Dang… but if they’re so dangerous then why Celestia didn’t just had them burned?--oh but of course… Methodical to even the smallest detail, eh, Celestia?” Sunset still had a lot of books to revise so she figured that information about the mirror would be there in some book, she sighed and said with in a jaded tone:

“Why can’t you just trust me, Celestia? What are you so afraid of?” she quickly trotted out of that makeshift basement and headed to Celestia’s reminiscence room and saw a few guards patrolling the hallway. “Yet, I will have my answers. But first, I’ll have to do something about those guards.”

An so, for several more hours se kept studying the books in that hidden basement finding many more with quite interesting contents and other with really specific subjects that not even Sunset would need to think about.

“Nothing on the mirror yet...” she leafing through the pages of another book yet paying attention to the titles and subtitles of its studied subjects. “…But some of these spells might come in handy.” eventually, by rearranging the entirety of the books she found one with a title she never thought she would see among all the other cryptic ones--Canterlot enigmas volume II she now was baffled why a book with such an ordinary title would be all the way down here. Sunset started to read and found many writings on historical events but they were longer than the times she read about them in history class they included many details that were overlooked in the official records and Sunset understood why it was there.

”So dangerous indeed.” She thought with sarcasm but this essay on history was proving to be pretty darn interesting so she kept reading until she found something that made her skip a beat out of sheer surprise--it was a picture and of the mirror in Celestia’s Reminiscence room.

”there we go.” She cheered. "The book described the mirror’s influence in historical events of Equestria. The mirror reveals any individual’s deepest wishes or hidden necessities, even some ugly truths. But on very rare circumstances it can encourage--or force (if necessary)--the individual in question to realize his/her true calling in life. By severely (although disturbing for many) setting said individual on the first steps towards said goal. This can be manifested in distracting thoughts,” Sunset gulped heavily as she read the next words. “Nightly visions and even selective hallucinations.” She stood there, pondering about the implications of this finding. At first, she felt terrified, but then she felt utterly intrigued as to what was the mirror wanted from her. She took her notebook with the unknown language and opened it in the pages that contained the mirror drawings and the arcane circles “did he tamper with the mirror? Did he stared into the mirror…?”

She then remembered what princess Celestia said about she not knowing exactly where did he--her mysterious friend come from and if the mirror has been in the castle longer than that, then, did she lie? No, of the things Sunset Shimmer admired from Celestia was her utmost honesty, so she put the two books back to back and finally concluded Celestia’s friend was, indeed, from another world. Most likely he wasn’t even a pony since Celestia never referred to him as such. And, that he had to tamper with the mirror so he could… turn it into an actual gateway (as the many myths suggested) to his homeworld, she then passed to the last page where she saw an hominid stick figure and remembered again what she saw on the mirror--what called out to her, she concluded that Celestia friend’s world--it’s where she wanted to go--where she needed to go.

Sunset Shimmer spent several days reading the books all the books she could find down there about tampering with magic objects and that other book about hypothetical dimensional travels--everything that could be useful. She even found about the arcane circles and its functions: they served scissors to open rips in the fabric of reality, these rips can be found anywhere with a strong enough magic aura.

“This… Individual took huge a gamble, how could he know that the mirror had the necessary magic potency to fuel his portal?” She looked to her notebook and smiled smugly, but then her expression changed again. “I hope the mirror has as many juice now as it did back then. So she kept doing both labor for several more days--studying those secrets books and carrying out all of Celestia’s assignments. Sunset was a quick learner and memorized all the necessary spells and techniques. She devised a plan to pass the guards and use the mirror the time necessary without being disturbed using all that knowledge hidden away, the rest of the time she keep doing visits to the hidden basement only to keep her memory fresh and remind herself of her resolution, at this point, all she needed was just the perfect opportunity.

It was during of one her (now) habitual trips to the secret basement that she found herself reading the book that started it all for her--The truth is the only thing we have there she discovered a rather interesting fact--the princesses Celestia and her banished sister moved the sun and moon respectively but not because they have the raw magic strength, but rather simply because they could. It was an inborn ability of them--a birthright so to speak given to them by the higher divinity however that was never the reason why they ruled Equestria. So she imagined that, in theory, if she accumulated enough skills and magic power she could stand by Celestia as another ruler, maybe even relieve from her duties? And she wasn’t even finished with half of these books, oh the possibilities, and to think that they were almost lost forever… To Celestia.

“And all this time my faithful mentor hid this all the other knowledge here to rot away and be ultimately forgotten by the hand of time, is she so paranoid? Is she so selfish? Such arrogance…“ however, Sunsets anger was interrupted when she heard hoof steps down the stairs, she kept the book in her telekinetic grasp and turned around to face none other than Celestia herself accompanied by two guards.

“What is kept here, it is not really for you to know.

“How dare you dare you keep this knowledge from me! You know that I’m ready for this, that I can be great!”

“You could be great. I thought I saw compassion and sincerity in you, but it was nothing but ambition. You are being selfish, you need to step back and reflect…” Celestia said with a stern and serious tone. And Sunset just felt her anger boiling more and more.

“I’m selfish? The books here - they reveal the tools for my future, the keys to my destiny! I could rule here. It’s selfish of you to keep me from my rightful place.” Sunset recklessly threw the book at her and it simply bounced off an invisible force field, the guards standing by Celestia--without explicit orders--simply limited themselves to glare at Sunset.

“I deserve to embrace my potential, reveal to me the secrets of the mirror, and then you will see why I deserve being a princess.

“No. you are not ready for gazing at the truth of the mirror and being a princess must be earned… I have been trying to teach you everything you need to know, but you have turned from it.” Celestia looked at Sunset Shimmer with a mixture of disappointment and disapproval.

“Every time you say you deserve to get something without the effort just proves me that you are not ready.” Among Sunsets anger a small smile formed in her face, out of the sheer ridiculousness of hearing Celestia saying that.

“Heh. Effort? Is that what you did to start moving the sun?” That hit a nerve and Celestia’s face transformed to one that could barely contain her contempt

“No… Sunset Shimmer. I am removing you from the position of my pupil. If we cannot get past this, your studies end here. You are welcome to stay in Canterlot, but you are no longer welcome in the castle.” Sunset felt a sharp pang in her heart, she quite didn’t expect that. Because it meant that a secret was more important to Celestia than her, her valued, faithful student. Her heart started to tear into small pieces and she wanted to cry, to break down in tears then and there but she wouldn’t give Celestia that benefit and understood that, in effect, she would never reach her true potential under Celestia’s shadow. So she mustered all the dignity and emotional toughness she could and without spilling a single tear said

“Well get past this because you aren’t seeing how great I deserve to be. Is that really all you have to say to me?”

“No. the guards will escort you out.” Everypony trotted out of that basement and to the library’s exit.

“This is the biggest mistake you’ll make in your entire life, princess.” Sunset said devoid of the smallest hint of real concern. Celestia stopped in her tracks and realizing that, indeed, this wasn’t the first time she had to take such a harsh and drastic choice.

“One of many.” it was all she managed to say.

The guards were guiding Sunset to her room using the longer route in the castle, after a prolonged silence, she let out a half-hearted sigh and said:

“Well, I guess this is as good of a chance as any.”

“A chance to what, young mare?” Asked one of the guards with their usual stoic tone.

“You know, to get out of this place…”

“Yes. Of course.”

“Once we reach your room, you will have fifteen minutes to pack your belongings, then you will have another fifteen minutes to leave the castle for good.” said the other guard.

”Oh, trust me, that’s more than I need.” Sunset said as much carefree tone as she could. It was truth, she would need a little less than that to gather everything she prepared during all these days to put her plans in motion.

Later that same day, on her chambers, Celestia was not taking very well their abrupt separation, mourning over the fact such nasty things were said and she dismissed Sunset without not even the simplest of farewells.

“Is my destiny cursed… or do I curse others’ destinies…?” She sighed “Should I Sunset a second chance? No. I must stand firm by my decision, but… Maybe I can offer her returning under my wing under a strict condition--?” her thoughts were interrupted by a very hard knock on the door and one of his guards shouting from the other side.

“Princess Celestia! Princess Celestia!” he kept knocking and Celestia rushed over to open the door.

“Calm yourself, soldier, what seems to be the problem?” The guard took Celestia’s advice and took a few seconds to calm down and arrange the things scrambling in his mind.

“It’s Sunset Shimmer, you have to come with me quickly.” as he finished saying this he turned and started to trot quickly down the hall as Celestia followed through. On the way the guard finally spoke about the whole reason why she was needed.

“Sunset Shimmer, she locked herself in your reminiscence room.” after hearing this and what it could only mean, she wasted no time trotting or even galloping so she teleported to the exact location only to find several downed guards on the hallway and around outside the numerous rooms and the base of the which was door firmly closed. There was still some traces of a pinkish mist around through the hallway.

“she took us by surprise… she used… some kind of mist and I felt as if getting drunk to the point of passing out in mere seconds.” Said one of the first guards to start recovering from the effects of the strange mist Sunset used on them.

Celestia teleported back to her room for her key to the room and use it but to no avail, she then ordered the first guard in recovering to bring more guards and a portable battering ram. They spent three whole minutes trying to take down the door but it was no use, it was then--due to the gravity of the situation--decided to try and blow it up with her magic, she charged an above average powerful magic blast that it would have been more than enough to shatter a thick wooden door and when she fired… the blast dissolved on the door like a ripple.

“A siege-proof enhancing spell…!” Celestia could still take down the door, but it was going to take more time and she was getting desperate, for she might need to save Sunset’s life. inside the room, Sunset finished painting the arcane circles under the mirror and around it after she heard the first blast of Celestia’s magic she realized she didn’t have much time left now that she knew the hardness of the spell and how to break it, she quickened to activate the circles pronouncing the proper words for the spell and she heard heavy poundings on the door by Celestia’s blasts that were making it start to give up.

“Come on, come on. Sunset.” demanded to magical forces working and now she only had to light the circles with the newly harnessed energy. Now that they were active she only needed to establish a connection with the book of Celestia’s friend, she placed it in the central circle and their glow changed, the color in the mirror changed too triggered by a line of runes connected from the circle around the mirror to the circle where the book was. Projecting the image of a glow under a deep yet crystalline lake, she rejoiced in the fact that it worked after all. The door started to drop pieces of itself and Sunset realized that the moment to step through was now.

She picked her saddlebag with all her supplies and looking at the notebook where the pages containing all the notes and circles were now gone. She could have stood there, confused and intrigued as to why they weren’t in the pages anymore--or if they were even there in the first place, but the pounding on the door kept on and on and she hastily remembered the purpose of all this. In a matter of a minute or less and right after she crossed the mirror, she figured she should perhaps take one last look at this world and everything she once called home, but what was the point?--there was nothing else left for her. And so, she finally stepped through.

Twenty-nine seconds after Sunset went through the mirror, Celestia and her guards finally broke down the door and exactly eight seconds later the mirror and the circles finally deactivated leaving only deformed scorch marks on all the spots where they used to be.

“Oh, Sunset Shimmer… No… I came too late.” Celestia looked all the intricate work Sunset did all around the mirror and let out a heavy and depressed sight. Memories started coming back to Celestia and she felt a nasty sense of deja’vu once again she failed and at some point history repeated itself. Only this time, the other pony decided to leave by herself. Meanwhile the guards were looking in confusion at the strange circles drawn around the mirror and one of them asked.

“Do we chase after her?

“No, it is impossible now, Sunset Shimmer was a unique prodigy, and I do not think somepony will ever replicate what she just did here.” Celestia said just narrowly hiding her anguish.

“Would you kindly move the mirror to a safer place?” The guard nodded and after Celestia gave the precise new location of the mirror he with the aid of one of his fellow guards moved the mirror to the throne room, near to the door.

“Why hang it in an even more prominent place? Shouldn’t you hide the mirror, princess?” Asked one of the guards.

“No. I want it here… to remind me. Also, maybe she will come back… someday.” After leaving the throne room towards her chambers Celestia could never shake the feeling that all of this was--once again--her fault, she kept torturing herself about the turn of events that took place this day, how everything came to this, what she did wrong exactly and in general, that she should have done more for Sunset… for Luna.

“I guess that, after all, I am always the cause… Celestia was doing her best to fight back tears but it proved too much and she couldn’t help it anymore. “I was a fool then and I was fool now to think this would not happen again… not again…” Celestia said this as she spilled tears all the way back to her bedroom. “Not… again…” she said in between sobs.

Chapter 1

The inside of the portal was like being submerged in water with only one bright spot at the end, which seemed to be the source for the illumination of the entire tunnel despite its distant appearance. Sunset kept trotting towards the light, and at some point she found herself swimming. (or at least that was the analogy she used) when she finally reached the source of the light she extended her hoof--which for some reason was invisible to her, in fact; her whole body became invisible--she found that the spot of light felt like a membrane. And so, she kept extending her hoof until she could tear it and see the other side. But as she felt it ripping through the membrane, the light became brighter and brighter until it finally gave in as Sunset felt being blinded by the (now) highly intense light, and she fell through.

At the other side, in a forest, during an early and chilly morning--electricity started to fill the air on a clearing and it became intense enough to form sparks and tendrils in the center until they were numerous enough to converge and meld forming a shining sphere of light. And after a few seconds, the sphere threw up a slowly floating mass of light that started to form a bipedal figure and right before the figure lost its shine, it fell to the ground.

Sunset fell flat on her chest. The first thing she noticed was how cold the ground, being laid on a flat, rocky surface. She looked around taking sight of the forest around her, the morning sunlight hadn't reached that part of the forest yet so everything seemed to have a dull gray tone to it. She tried to get on her hooves but she couldn't feel them on her hind legs, in fact, her hind legs felt drastically different. The same was with her front legs, she looked down only to realize that she didn't even have hooves anymore. Instead she had completely different limbs, she looked back and saw that that was the case with her legs as well--hands and feet if she remembered correctly what she read about the apes from the jungles in Zebrabwe, who enjoyed playing pranks on the zebras when foraging in the jungle.

After a fit of panicked surprise at acquiring whole different body and an even bigger shock at discovering that her horn was now gone, Sunset realized she couldn't get up as she would normally do. She kept inspecting her new body and concluded that she needed to stand on her rear legs--as ponies sometimes did--only this time, it would have to be mostly permanent.

Sunset made her first attempt and found that it was even easier to stand that way with her new body. Now, she only needed to know how to walk. She made her first try and... She fell forward almost hitting her face on the rocky ground. As such, she spent the next twenty-five minutes practicing through trial and error on how to walk efficiently.

When she finally learned to stand walk normally, she picked up her saddlebags, although now she would have to put them on her shoulders rather than her back. She looked in one of them and picked a compass that she remembered to bring along, then she started to walk to what the compass indicated north. All throughout the way Sunset felt the harshness of the terrain on her feet and the coldness of the weather on her whole body, and the morning sun didn't help that much. She shuddered and grunted before saying:

“My Celestia, how can beings with this body be so poorly adapted to such an environment?”

after many, many stings and bumps on stones she was careful at every few steps not to step on anything hurtful “could it be a matter of getting used?” she stopped paying attention for a moment and stepped on a mildly pointy and broad stone “Ack! Something tells me I'm gonna have many troubles not hating this body.” She leaned against a tree to check her compass again and found that it slightly turned left from north, so she figured that she would need to make a small change of direction. Sunset began walking towards the indicated path; and after several more minutes she heard another set of footsteps behind and, startled by this she turned to see what was it. And what she saw caused the beginning of a barrage of cold sweat on her forehead.

It was a wolf, lonely, it seemed. Its fur was of a deeply dark tone of gray, having only its face of a lighter gray color. But none of those things made a difference. It wasn't growling but Sunset noticed its stance, it was cautious, yet hostile and was beginning to slowly advance towards her. During her days un Canterlot, she read about the Wolves tribes to the northeast and how they prided themselves in their honorable ways, resistance to the roughness of nature and their connection with it, in that regard they were much like the indigenous groups of zebras. This one, however, this one lacked any trace or sense of intelligence. This one, was far more akin to what she read about the Timberwolves.

As it kept advancing, Sunset couldn't help but think about her misfortune.
“Why me? Why now?” she thought.

She spent all this time travelling without incidents and it was now that she got to face a life-threatening situation? Normally, anyone would rationalize this situation and get to a logical scientific conclusion--like a consequence of the circumstances. But, no. Not for Sunset Shimmer, for her, this couldn't be a coincidence. For her, such calamity could only be brought upon her by someone like Celestia.

This was a completely different world, but, was it really that farfetched? After all, not even she got to see the full extent of Celestia's power. For all she knew, Celestia sent this wolf after her. Was this the fate for all those who turned their back on her? As she growing up Sunset Shimmer never considered the idea of somepony crossing, scorning of--in her case--turning her back on Celestia’s teachings. For her, Celestia simply was that perfect of a pony, now however? She started wondering why she never heard of anypony doing what she just did, were they erased from history? Or did Celestia have them erased? Sunset didn't want to find out and her instincts finally kicked in, turning her back and sprinting away.

As it turns out, this body already had its own muscular memory to be kick started during critical situation such as this one. She ran as fast as she could ignoring the pain on her feet and only careful to avoid the trees in the way, she ran disregarding all sense of direction or time until she dared to look back, and when didn’t see the wolf behind her, she stopped to breath. However, after just a few seconds, she heard crackling of fallen leaves and saw that the wolf simply delayed a little bit on catching up to her. And now, it was actually growling at her and walking preparation for a lunge. Sunset realized with horror that this new body of hers wasn’t nearly as fast as that of a pony. Her desperation grew with every second, she couldn’t keep running forever. But, what else could she do? She didn’t like being without options and she hated feeling so powerless, if she only had her horn she would teach this wolf a lesson in manners.

But alas, she was running out of time and despite what her better judgment dictated, the rest of her mind and body decided that she should take her chances running away again, and so she did. This time the wolf was being more determined and Sunset could hear it terrifyingly close. In her panic, and considering how extremely unlikely it was for someone to be listening, she screamed:

“SOMEBODY HELP ME!!!” had she not be so utterly terrified, she would have noticed that she was running directly into a cliff, but the realization hit her far too late. And thus, she fell. Hurting her face on the first contact with the descent acquiring a nasty bruise right between her right eyebrow and her nasal bridge.

She rolled down fast and powerless to stop herself, every time she tried she only managed to rake her hand and add a small bump on her trip down and not even slowing down. When she finally stopped she was facedown three meters away from the actual end of the descent, but the terrain was flat enough to finally stop her fall. Almost every inch of her body was covered in numerous bruises and cuts, the pain was intense and the first tears started to come out of her eyes, she then heard what she could only hope it was her salvation.

Hoff steps and voices, at first she couldn’t understand them due to the distance, but once they were close enough she heard words in perfect equestrian such as: heard and stay she heard one set of hooves approaching and, judging by the sound, they didn’t belong to ponies; perhaps, Saddle Arabian horses, or whatever they were called here. She crawled until she was on absolutely flat terrain so she could call out to them and have a chance to be heard:

“Heeeelp!” Sunset managed to yell despite the constant pain. However when one the voices was close enough for her to see, what she saw equal parts relieved her and confused her. It was a horse to be sure. However, much like with the wolf, this horse--as well the rest of them lacked any sign of understandable intelligence and it was mounted by a being of a body much like hers. Except that, judging by the proportions--and the fact that he had a small beard--it was likely a male. He was covered in reinforced leather and metal, when he was two meters away from Sunset and with a shocked expression he whispered:

“Oh my gods!” He dismounted his horse and kneeled beside Sunset “Girl, can you stand up?”

“I-I’m not sure. It hurts too much.” The rider seemed to ponder for a moment and standing up, he took off his cape to cover Sunset’s back as he helped her to her feet. Once she was sure she could stand, other riders with similar attires came along.

“Sir, what was--” one of the riders, which Sunset assumed to be soldiers of some type hesitated when he saw her current state.

“Just what happened to you, girl?” he asked her as his superior was using one of his arms to offer her something firm in case she couldn't use one of her legs as support.

“I fell from there.” Sunset pointed at the cliff that was the top of the hill. The soldier looked at the spot which was at least one-hundred and thirty-one feet high, and with a concerned expression he turned to see Sunset in the eyes.

“Did you break any bone? That looks like one scary fall.” The adrenaline and shock were starting wear off and Sunset started to feel an alarming pain in her right forearm as well a specially searing burn right down her right shoulder and the other was on her thigh above the rear part of her knee--she had two serious gashes that would need stiches.

“Gah!” she winced holding her right forearm as the pain let her know about the rest of her injuries, including the bruise down her forehead “y-yes, I think I broke this” she hesitantly pointed at her forearm. He looked at her, observing a few cuts she had focusing on the bruise she had and realizing she might have a head injury, he made up his mind.

“Well, you’re one damn lucky girl, that’s for sure. The gods must love you!” he looked at the uphill ascent once again realizing the full scale “oh yes, they do” We will take you with us and have our medic look at your injuries.” he said as he helped Sunset climb up the mount on the rear side sitting sideways, and once he was up there with the reins, told his subordinates:

“All right, soldiers. We are resuming our planned route.

“Aye, sir!” the rest of the men said in unison. Sunset didn’t know how handle herself while being on a mount, but she deduced it would be better to cling to the rider controlling it. Now; by looking back to the entourage (which she learned it was a small company) she could see that it was formed by at least one-hundred other riders with her and her rescuer at the head of the formation, and only now she noticed that they had sheathed weapons such as swords and spears. The whole ride was little too rough for Sunset with her not being accustomed to traveling mounted on another animal and her current state of pain but the feeling of at last being safe and on the way to a chunk of civilization overwhelmed all those nuisances for her.

Sunset didn’t have a way to measure time--a pocket watch she had and the rest of her belongings got lost during the fall, but she calculated and made an educated deducing that; since the moment she was picked up and the moment they finally reached their destination had been about two and a half hours. The place itself seemed to be--considering that she was with soldiers--some sort of military base, though, it didn't look at all like the ones she had seen (if the military base at Canterlot was to be considered the standard for all military bases).

The tents looked strictly functional and the cemented buildings were blunt and--honestly speaking--uninspired. Perhaps because it was a military facility and, in this world, such places didn’t have to look stylized. On the way, sunset saw many more members of the species she just met, and by the conversations she overheard, all of them used simple names with hidden meaning--much like the Gryphons or Zebras. And the males were referred as men, and the females as women. They stopped and Sunset’s rescuer--who she also learned was called captain Ignace--said:

“Paul, come here” the rider right behind them trotted on his horse to stand next to his captain. Captain Ignace, on his part, started dismounting as he started address his subordinate again “Take her to the infirmary. Get the surgeon to see to her injuries, when you do that, see me at the commander’s tent.”

He helped Sunset to get off the horse, he saluted placing his fist on his chest, at the level where their heart was likely located and took off with her on foot. Other servitors came to help the rest of the company with their horses. Paul took her to the infirmary building entering along with her, inside there Sunset could see who the medic--a woman in her forties. She was washing some instruments using a piece of cloth with a substance Sunset couldn’t recognize.

“Surgeon Maria” Paul said breaking the concentration on her work. He gently pushed Sunset so she could enter to the room first “captain Ignace has ordered for the treatment of this girl’s injuries.” she turned to look at the new arrivals taking notice of Sunset and her deplorable appearance.

“Oh my gods! Just what happened to you!?”

“I’ll leave her in your care, surgeon.” Paul said leaving before they could say anything else.

“All right, come this way, dear.” she said as she pointed her to a nearby bed meant to quick examinations. She spoke in a reassuring tone, Sunset carefully walked to the bed, she was still in pain and didn’t want to make any unnecessary moves and sitting down the surgeon asked again:

“So, really. What happened to you? And, by any chance, can you tell me your name?”
Sunset hesitated for a moment about telling her real name, but she decided that--despite the different structures--the worst that could happen would be receiving an odd look, however, she was still cautious and opted for telling only her first name.

“Sunset,” turned her head to look the surgeon right in her eyes “just Sunset.” She finished. As the surgeon was taking a piece of cotton in a pair of pincers, soaking it in the same substance she was using to wash the instruments.

"My, that’s one original name, but then again, I have only been to two kingdoms. So perhaps is more common than I think. And how exactly did you ended up like this, dear? It’s like you were attacked by a group of demonic cats, tell me. Was it demonic cats? That would be strangely specific, though.” Sunset snickered at that. Normally, she would have been annoyed to hear such a sudden joke, but after everything that happened to her, she could kindly take some humor. She didn’t think this doctor was of the funny type, though. The few doctors she met on her life were very no-nonsense type and she found it amusing to have a funny one now.

“I fell from a cliff. But it was a downhill fall, so, I guess that saved my life…?” the medic looked at her with an almost incredulous expression, but she asked another question to complement any rationalization she was already making

“That sounds terrible. Also, just what was doing an adorable girl like you doing alone in the woods anyway? Not to mention… your nudeness…” she wanted to hide the awkwardness from her voice but she failed. Sunset figured that, since there was no way she could tell her the truth, she should resort then to the art of lying--an art she perfected while living under the methodical and scrutinizing watch of Celestia, in her experience, she learned that the best way to start a series of lies was beginning with a half-truth:

“I… woke up in the forest already… nude.” she stretched to word for herself that for Maria so to keep in mind that, in this world, it was the absolute norm to wear clothes at pretty much any time “I can’t remember anything else before that. Except for my name.” she finalized not forgetting to keep eye contact and blinking only once at most. As Sunset said this, she was looking her with an uncomfortable expression, like she didn’t want to accept the reality of Sunset’s situation.

“Dear gods! I can’t believe it. And I really mean it, just what or who would have a way to leave a girl in your state all by herself in the forest??? It doesn’t make any sense and it’s just… Revolting.” Sunset remained silent slightly downing her look so to convey--falsely--that the answer was as lost to her as it was for the surgeon.

She asked her for her left arm and started to clean the cuts on that arm, when she was done with that, she proceeded to tend the cuts cleaning them as well as applying a very herb-smelly salve on her bruises. And finally applying stiches to her two deeper cuts (which she had to endure despite the effect of a pain-reducing medicine, it just wasn’t enough for her. However took it with all the dignity she could) It wasn’t helped by the slight awkwardness when Maria put Sunset’s arm in a sling. She couldn’t help but notice the funny look on Maria’s face, although she later figured that maybe it had something to do with the fact that, unlike Maria and the rest of the hominids she met, she didn’t have any garments on her other than captain’s Ignace cape.

“I’m sorry this couldn’t be faster and less painful” Sunset turned to look at her with a perplexed expression, which the doctor didn’t notice “one our healer-priests was deployed with a hired group and the other was transferred to a different post, they usually tend to wounded soldiers on the battlefield, but I’m sure they would have made an exception with you” She still couldn’t understand, what did she mean she couldn’t do it any other way? This exactly as she expected a treatment with any normal doctor back in Equestria.

“Ms. Maria, how does a healer-priest do better than you?” Sunset finally asked

“Well, for one, they are adepts of the magic healing and can treat deep wounds and injuries in a matter of seconds. Me on the other hand, I’m just here to give first aid to the staff in the base and prescribe medicines.”

“Magic!? Did she just say magic?” Sunset thought in alarm. Ever since arriving on this world and losing her horn to this new body, she simply assumed that there was no such thing as magic arts, at least not in a form she could harness. However, she had renewed hope now. Still, she reserved her excitement for herself.

“Then what does a surgeon do?” she asked with a legitimate sense of curiosity. She was familiarized with the term back in Equestria, but she knew that it was too big of a chance it wouldn’t mean the same thing on this world.

“You see, manual surgeries are pretty much a dying practice, and they have been ever since the advent of health magic around a century ago. Nowadays healer-priests in the temples of the twelve gods use their magic to treat wounds and diseases for those who can pay it or they are sent to some military unit, such is the case here with us. Fortunately, us, surgeons--when we’re not in the role of assistants for those same healer-priests--can tend to those less favored for a much lower price.” she said the last two words with in a very jaded tone.

“Well, I think you did an excellent job… Even if it still hurts so much, but thanks to you, only the stitched cuts on my shoulder and under my behind hurt.” she winced when a small shift in her shoulder reminded Sunset of her broken forearm.

“Oh, that reminds me. Wait here, I’ll bring you some clothes.” Sunset spent her waiting time glancing around the room, pondering about everything that had happened to her up until now. In hindsight she never knew what to expect from this side of the mirror.

This journey had already started pretty freaking awful already--her inability to use her magic turned this world against her and made every from now on far more dangerous than anticipated. At least she still had her intellect, which was the only other thing she prided herself in, but, she figured she would need to push the limits of it if she wanted to find her way around this world… at least until she could learn how magic was harnessed here. And she would find the way. She decided to start thinking on her current situation as an algebraic problem she needed to solve, and there was never a single equation that she couldn’t figure out. She had such prowess and merely in her mind, at least that was what she believed.

Surgeon Maria finally came back with clothes folded up on her hands.

“These are the closest to your size, I hope they fit you well.” she said while handing them over and started to place the sling on Sunset’s arm (which was just a mildly long piece of, yet soft and thick fabric). Once she was finished, Sunset stared the clothes in her good with an intellectual interest. However she remembered not to think into it too much, at least not in front of the hominids--as she decided to call them until she could find out the actual name of their species.

“Thank you, I’m sure they will do fine.” Sunset said in a tone of doubt that betrayed her neutral-looking face.

“You can change in my bedroom.” she pointed to a door in the far corner in the back of the room.

“Yes, I’ll get to it.” and as she started to walk to the door, Maria said:

“Are you sure you don’t need help with that?” She turned her gaze at the sling in Sunset’s arm. She, on her part, looked at the clothes in her good hand, the she looked to the sling in her arm and finally looked over Maria. She was about to take a yes to her offer, however, she remembered her own resolution to use her sheer intellect to solve each and every one of the problems she could find from now on. So, with determined face she said:

“I appreciate the concern,” she most certainly did not “but I think I can manage it on my own.”

“Um, all right. If you change your mind I’ll be here cleaning my instruments…” she was still worried about her chances with the clothes and her sling arm “And, err. Good luck.” Sunset was, perhaps, starting to get worried herself, considering the fact that she only had one usable limb, and she wasn’t all that good with her newfound hands. But she remembered once more her resolve and moved those thoughts to the back of her mind.

She closed the door behind her and dropped the cape that had been covering her this whole time, she placed the clothes on the bed and saw they were a very simplistic gray dress with long sleeves accompanied by a belt and a pair of leather flat shoes. She then turned to towards a mirror on the left of the door, on the right and near the extreme of the room was dressing table. This was the first time she got to get a full view of her new body and; unsurprisingly, she didn’t like what she saw--her mane (although, she was sure that it wouldn’t be called that for these hominids) was still a mess from her little trip down that cliff and looking at the rest of her body, she saw the all the cuts she could barely feel now and bruises that already had a purple tone to them. And then, she finally glanced at one the most notorious features of her body with a grimace of discomfort.

“My Celestia, I’m like a cow...” concluding that she was done inspecting her body she returned to the clothes on the bed, she already knew how they should be worn--remembering all the females she had seen including looking at Maria, yet, she knew this would prove to be a formidable challenge. And so she got started.

More than thirty minutes later Maria was had finished cleaning her instruments ten minutes ago, she was on a different task now--making inventory of her medical supplies. During all this time she heard several grunts and sounds of complaint from Sunset, but she was firm on not offering her help again unless she asked her directly. However she was getting impatient and worried at the same time, so, right before she could go and knock on the door, Sunset came out with the dress, belt and sling on the arm, she had a worn out face and a clearly humid forehead. Maria was actually really impressed--everything seemed relatively in order considering the big handicap that Sunset had, still, she couldn’t resist pointing out the one thing that looked even worse than before:

“My gods, Sunset. I sincerely didn’t think you could make it, yet here you are proving wrong. Really, really impressive. Your hair looks like a nest made bird village’s idiot, though.” Sunset gave her a painfully exasperated look, after such tiresome and difficult task, she found out that Maria’s jokes could be rather nerve-racking.

Later that day. Commander’s tent.

Paul entered saluting everyone inside, there was a generalized air of impatience. This was; mainly, due to the fact that captain Ignace’s superior, major Fahid was expecting his report on the minimal time of only one week on deployment. Captain Ignace knew that he wouldn’t be making the major lose his time, he, himself felt a trace of shame for abandoning his assigned mission. However, he also knew that, after hearing what he had to say, even a man as inflexible as major Fahid would understand his reasons.

“Captain Ignace of the 12th company reporting in, sir.” He would rather not have such formalities of protocol, since he had so much to explain. The major looked at him with a stare of urgency, the other officials in the tent simply limited themselves to whisper one another.

“Proceed.” Said major Fahid. Captain Ignace took one last look at the officers around him and his second in command, first sergeant Paul and finally spoke:

“One week ago, in the assignation to a small town twenty-eight miles southwest from here; we were there to seek and purge any sign of demonic sorcery, a black cult, is hardly a problem for trained soldiers, but we needed more men to cover more ground on the town. However what we found instead were six attacks by demon spawn over one week in which I lost a total of twenty men and only during the seventh day we found only one black invoker. And; as you may know, there is no way he could have invoked that many demons in such a short period of time… At least not by himself.”

“Then why did you not stay longer for a more exhaustive search?” Major Fahid interrupted him with a grimace of disbelief

“I was about to get to that, sir. On the eighth day… Holy Knights of the Iron Lion order arrived at the town,” major Fahid lowered his gaze in realization and the other officials whispered to themselves curse words while other whispered those next to them comments of concern “170 of them. They told us that they were aware of the situation and that they appreciated our efforts, but they would take responsibility from there and that they would even take care of the burials for our fallen comrades, without much option, we departed the town.”

The Major placed his right hand on his forehead in thought. He didn’t have his armor at that moment but he still had a pair of reinforced leather wristbands and, since they were slightly loose enough so when he did that movement, Ignace took glance of something on the skin under his right wristband, he couldn’t see more. It could have been a spot, or birthmark or perhaps even an actual tattoo. However he refrained from pointing that out right at that moment since it would have been the single, most irrelevant thing he could bring up and a contradiction of his resolution to not make the major lose his time. For almost two major Fahid didn’t even move, so, when he finally uncovered his forehead said:

“Nothing of that is a good sign. If those zealous bastards feel the need to intervene, that means the town reached a state of emergency… At least I can trust those knights can handle any more attacks,” he leaned against his chair and asked “is that all?” Ignace shifted forward without losing any air of discipline in doing so.

“Sir, you do realize this is way above the average, correct?” major Fahid leaned forward; fingers of both hands together in thought, after another moment he insisted:

“Well, it’s not like we can tell the king about this isolated case of one town. And even if we do, by the time our hawk reaches him, the Holy Knights would already take care of the situation.” Captain Ignace placed his hands on his commander’s table meeting his gaze directly, this prompted even more whispers of outrage.

“Sir, with all due respect, when was the last time you learned about enough black invokers to cause six attacks of demon spawns in one town over such a small span of time…? Or a smaller group of such power?” This time, even the face of his first sergeant adopted a somber tone.

“I think I see your concern, captain. The Shadow Legion has always been a concern, like a tumor--plotting and scheming in the dead islands. But they haven’t made a move in over two hundred years. Is like I said, we can’t alert the Royal Army over this single incident. We already have enough threats in our lands, the Royal Army has its hands full.” Reluctantly, Ignace had to admit that his major had a good point--the army of the king had to stay on the lookout for barbarian raids on the north, the peace with the Orcs and the vampiric race, Marhi’em was extremely fragile and in no way they could count on the Elves for any assistance.

“What about hiring mage warriors?” Suddenly suggested Sergeant Paul, Ignace looked at him with a negative expression

“Bah! Those coin-grabbers wouldn’t get up from bed for less than fifty gold dragons and only if it serves to further cement each one of their reputations” Major Fahid spat, he was right again, mage warriors followed trails of treasures and challenging monsters, not only they wouldn’t be interested in serving the kingdom for only a symbolic quantity--they would never do a job with such a big variable of testing for their skills. Bottom line: they weren’t an option here.

“It’s the same problem with mercenaries. They want a stable payment and they never do anything that is not previously established in their contracts. The only reason we hired one group of them is because they were going to assist us as soon they were done with their last job. And then, maybe they can give us back the healer-priest we loaned them” Ignace added. Major Fahid leaned back against his chair once again thinking that the issue was being dropped right then.

“Well, regardless of other warrior groups, the only certain thing is that we must focus on defending our lands full filling assignments where needed. Is that’s really all?” Ignace kept rummaging his thoughts for one more convincing, but he couldn’t come up with anything else. He would have to resign himself to accept the incidents at that town as slightly more aggressive action of another black cult, but that thought was bound to eat away at his mind.

“Yes, sir. I’ll try and keep a clearer and more objective judgment from now on.” He reluctantly forced himself to say.

“All right then, you’re all dismissed now.”

“So, do you really it?” Paul asked Ignace as they were exiting the commander’s tent.

“Believe what, now?” Ignace replied feeling slightly confused by the unexpected question.

“I mean, do you seriously believe, within your heart, that we might have the threat of the Shadow Legion once again on our lands?” Ignace pondered for a minute as they walked to armory to stash their armors, he was still exactly as troubled now as he was when he exited that town.

“Yes, as a matter of fact I do. I’m telling you, those were many attacks, too many and we only found one black invoker.”

“And it’s not like we can ask the Holy Knights about it either, those guys simply tolerate us at best. And I think the only reason why they offered to bury our friends and prepare funerals was only so we could leave all the faster.”

“Ha. You go that right, my friend. Oh how right you are.” After several minutes of walking in silence, they reached the armory and while they were taking off their armors of leather armors, Paul decided to ask one final question on the matter:

“So, what will you do about it?”

“Huh?” came the caught-off-guard answer from Ignace, but the realization came to him again and remembered what his first sergeant was talking about “Oh, of course. Well… there’s not much I can do from my position of captain, I guess that, before something far, far worse happens in another town… Or greater city, or if the threat comes right here at our doorstep, all I can do is prepare a big, big I told you so to rub on the major’s face.” Paul chuckled at that and kept stashing each piece of his armor as he was taking them off.

Base’s infirmary.

“You’re very good at this. I, uh… Appreciate that you help me with my hair” Sunset said as Maria was brushing her hair after helping her wash it.

“It was no problem, love. Really, you have one of the loveliest hairs I’ve ever seen and I would hate to see it ruined.” That brought genuine joy to her chest. Even though she now was stuck with a dislikeable body, she was happy to know that she at least kept one pretty feature from her previous body. And Sunset felt the slightest of blushes coming to her cheeks, still, she remained expectant for a comment about her unusual hair color. She still hadn’t seen that many hominids up until now, but she was fairly sure that there weren’t many of them with a bright colored hair like hers. However, the comment the comment never came and she felt a little bit puzzled by this. Even still, she allowed herself to enjoy this hair brushing, which--for some reason--felt oddly nice considering she just met this woman today.

“…So, I was thinking that, maybe I should take some fresh air and go out for walk.” She said while sounding a little too pleasant for her own taste “As much as the stitches behind my left thigh still hurt, it would be worse to just sit here doing absolutely nothing.” Maria, who was just finishing folding her clean clothes was staring at Sunset with an amused, yet pensive face.

“That’s quite all right, love. My watch just ended about an hour, I’ll be going to the nearby town on the north to get a drink or two… And then it will begin again at midnight.” she said in a deadpan tone that didn’t match her bemused face “Anyway, you can use that time to find your way around the base!” With her quick changes in mood, Sunset was starting to have problems on whether take this medic--or surgeon, as she needed to remember--seriously or not.

“Awesome!” Sunset said, to which Maria retorted:

“Don’t exaggerate.” Maria said with a bemused face.

“Oh, all right. Thanks anyway!” Sunset made a mental note to use less word of her slang from Equestria.

“By the way, Sunset. You must be hungry, there isn’t food here right now, but once I come back I will something for dinner, is that good?”

“Sure, that sounds fine. Well, I’ll be going now, thank you!” She paused her steps for a moment, she didn’t actually meant to say thank you right at that moment. In Equestria, she reserved her best manners until she was around important ponies. Here however? She didn’t feel the need, yet she just did it. Sunset decided to forget about it for the moment, she was far more interested in going outside. Right before she could exit the infirmary house, Maria told her to just stay out of the restricted areas, to which Sunset simply nodded and made a sound of acknowledgement.

By this hour of the day, many members of the staff and soldiers had already left the camp and head to the close town at the north to eat a fancy meal, buy nice things, and take some drinks; maybe even a pleasurable companion until the evening. Still, there was enough people to keep its busy appearance. Sunset was limping ever so slightly and this, summed to her sling arm must have looked a little bit pitiful.

Not that she cared, she was too interested staring at the tents and buildings in the base, and she even noticed just now that they had walls--not very impressive by themselves, but she was amused at not having notice them before--she kept taking notice of the various signs and on each building, written in a language she still couldn’t understand. But this made for an interesting discovery--they had the same lettering as in that diary. That served as a confirmation that this, was in fact, the world she meant to live in. Due to this, she made a new mental note to learn the language spoken by this hominids as soon as possible. She found the blacksmiths shop and peeking through the windows she saw a table with a few tools as well various blades for swords and spears along with armor pieces.

She then came across a pair of men playing a board game with sixteen pieces made of stone each, similarly to chess back home. And, if this game was anything like chess, she was going to enjoy playing it. She could certainly appreciate a duel of intellects, like the ones she used to have with Celestia” With those memories crossing her mind, she turned to leave faster than she thought.

She headed to the east of the camp, where there was a relatively big gathering of men. There was a wood fence in the form of a box about the half the size of the average men in that camp. Inside it, there was another fence, this one made with four sets of rope held by four wooden posts each. And, in the middle of that, there were two men with their bare torsos using their clenched hands to hit each other standing on a floor covered by one or more layers of a thick fabric. Sunset heard all the cheers accompanied by insults to one of the rivals; despite the violence of the spectacle, each the participants seemed to carry a strategy of their own with discipline. Still, the match didn’t last long and of the men emerged victorious, a portion of the crowd cheered even louder than before and as the winner was exiting the arena a group of men approached to congratulate him personally. Sunset wasn’t exactly thrilled by any of this.

“So pissing contests aren’t just common among stallions…”

As she kept roaming around the camp she started to feel that there weren’t more interesting places to visit without counting the restricted areas she kept in mind not to enter, and the afternoon wasn’t even mid-way through. At this rate, she was going to get just as bored as she feared. She thought about her saddlebags and the belongings she lost. She remembered bringing with her Rubix cube of numbers as well a board of another numbers puzzle, oh the combinations and permutations she could create. She remembered spending hours creating her own challenges by scrambling all those numbers then setting them in order again.

“How I miss all of that, I miss my saddlebags… Are they truly lost?” She went to the south of the camp and saw the gate guarded by one guard in a booth. Making up an excuse to wander off in the woods wasn’t a problem, but she remembered just how bad it went for her adventuring alone without her magic.

“I wish I still had my horn.” Sunset thought with yearning. She rubbed her forehead on the place where her horn used to be and then she intently looked at her hand--she remembered all the men and women she had seen up until then. The way how all of them used their hands to fulfill just about any task imaginable, and how they could tools for even more complex purposes--how the camp’s blacksmith used a hammer to forge blades, the way Maria swiftly stitched her gashed, even the men that fought in that rudimentary ring. She realized the evolutive basis and purpose of such a set of limbs, when she did this she formed a connection to this civilization and the few achievements she had seen counting as well those that she had yet to behold. Doing this she came back to the pony civilization and the influence of unicorns, influence made key by their horns…

That train of thought led her to a new realization--one that took her to form a crazy theory. And she was bent on testing. She went back to the infirmary and headed to the kitchen, she placed a spoon on a table. Sunset closed her eyes for a moment then she focused on the same things that she did when she used to have a horn, she felt a warm sensation in her hand and what she saw brought a genuine smile to her face.

“Hmmm. The color is the same although the aura is a little different… somewhat akin to a flame” But this is definitely my magic” she directed her hand to the spoon and made it float, satisfied with the result, she attempted to do something advanced, like giving it the consistence of rubber. But even though she mustered right amount of concentration and intensity of magic, nothing happened, except for making the spoon shake and spin while floating.

“So, only my telekinesis now, huh?” This managed to diminish her joy, however it also brought a determination in her, now she at least had an effective way of defending against any more insolent beasts she could find in the forest. Now that she had a real chance of survive and even beat that forest she could start with the easiest step. She took a wicker basket and with hastily headed towards the base exit, when she reached the guard’s booth she greeted him and said:

“I need to go to the forest, surgeon Maria asked me to gather several medicinal plants herbs
--her stash is running low.” The guard kept looking at her with skepticism

“Look, she said I would need go deep into the forest. But she said it was safe,” after the lie, she played a gamble with under a guess about something that a civilized settlement would already have “since you all managed to clear this forest from dangerous animals.” The guard simply nodded confirming the success of Sunset’s tactic, she then shifted forward, closer the limits of the guard’s booth and finalized:

“Besides, we already gave a pray to the gods for my safety.” The guard leaned forward on his window and simply said:

“At the first sign of trouble, just turn on your feet and run. Is that clear?”

“Like water for tea, sir!” she playfully made an attempt at salute conveying a sense of cuteness. The guard, on his part simply formed a small smile. After this, and when Sunset was sure that she was out of sigh, she threw the basket to the side.

“Dear Celestia, I feel unclean.” Sunset said after shuddering.

Silverdove town. Two miles north the 12th company’s base.

Garth’s Pub was the chosen drinking place for all type travelers, from simple tourist and merchants to mage warriors and bounty hunters. It was also the preferred drinking place of several members of the 12th company, including its captain. Ignace was drinking on his favorite table--the one further from the entrance yet at a safe distance from the corner, this was so he could efficiently keep an eye on any member of his company, since they weren’t known for their good behavior when drunk. And being so close to mage warriors--which weren’t known for appreciating royal soldiers--seemed the safe thing to do. Finishing his current mug, he asked for another refill, and when he was about to grab it, someone else beat him to it.

“I’ll take this one, thank you very much.” Came the voice of certain a woman.

“Surgeon Maria, how nice to have you on my table” he said as she was just taking a seat next to him

“Save the formalities for our working hours at the base, you sound like an idiot.” Maria sardonically retorted.

“An you sound even dumber when you forget that I say it just annoy you to no end.” He called the one the bar maids and asked for another mug.

“Of course, of course. And I just might punch you just to remind you you’re not immune to broken noses.” Maria declared almost letting a chuckle scape her lips.

“So, it’s always bad news when you sit and drink with me. So what is it?”

“Oh, it’s bad. I assure you,” she took a deep sip from her mug and continued. “I came here looking for a nice hunk. But, since there not one to be found in this pub tonight. And since you’re the relatively most handsome man around here, I decided that I just might as well try and hit on you. Like I said, these are bad news.” Ignace looked at her with a painfully bemused face and simply replied:

“…Seriously?” There were so many reasons why her joke--or the lack of one--was so wrong, it was as if she had told him that she now had the ability to materialize dragons out of thin air. Maria looked at him with an annoyed grimace while saying:

“You dense dunderhead.”

“So tell me why you are really here already, gods damn it.”

“It’s about the girl you brought to the base this morning”

“What about her?” The bar maid finally came back with a new mug of beer, which he didn’t lose time in taking a sip immediately after taking it from the maid’s tray.

“In order to tell you that… Um, I know it’s dumb to reply with another question, but, just level with me. What were you planning to do with her after making sure her injuries were treated?” Ignace looked down, pondering for several seconds until he turned to see Maria again.

“I honestly didn’t give it too much thought until you reminded me about it just now. I saw some troubling things during my last deployment and they have worried like you wouldn’t believe. But, as to your question, I guess I’ll just ask her the location of the town where she came from and then take her there.” He took another sip from his mug.

“Yeah, I don’t that’s going to be possible--She wouldn’t be able to tell”

“…Why not?” He asked looking at her with a face of mild disbelief

“Because…” It was Maria’s turn to take a sip “She doesn’t seem to remember anything before waking up in the forest, aside from her name.”

“How is that even possible” Ignace said as he turned his face away from Maria with a grimace of discomfort.

“Well, there are only a few explanations, but…” she leaned forward trying to emphasize her firm stance on what she was about to say “Look I’ve seen people who had been tainted by sorcerers… Or by simple human malice, there is something in their eyes that completely changes even if the rest of their body is unscathed. But with her, there’s nothing of that, not a single trace, not one bit. This should normally be a good thing--and it really is--but it just makes her origin an even bigger enigma.”

“Well…” He turned to face her again “What do you… What do you suggest we I should do?” he hesitantly asked.

“All right. For starters, we can’t leave her in some orphanage here--or that of any other town--she’s young, but not that young. They would have her for two years and then she would be back on her own. She’s an extraordinarily smart girl, that’s something I was able to see in her eyes as well. And she already shows signs of being a girl that values any ability to stay independent above everything else, but… I just don’t think we should quit on her… at least not yet.” She almost forgot to say that last part.

Ignace looked at her with skepticism for a few seconds, then his face changed to something almost resembling a grin. But, before he could say anything, they heard a particularly loud laughter coming from one the tables near the center of the pub. It was a young brunette woman, and, judging by her attire, she was most likely a mercenary or a bounty hunter. She was apparently having a very amusing conversation with a moderately bulky man of very short hair and a much longer beard who also appeared to be adventurer of some kind.

They both turned away from the momentary distraction and Ignace addressed Maria again:

“I’m sorry, what were you saying?”

“Right, of course. What I was trying to say is that, maybe she should stay with me, you know. I can teach her a few things about the job, just enough so she can work as my assistant, don’t you think?”

“Well, you are right about what you are surely thinking now--as far as our base is concerned, it does depend on me to make the call,” after saying this a full-fledged grin formed on his face “you are a good woman, and a reliable one at that… Of course I trust with this, you have now my full authorization to handle the issue.”

“Thank you, Ignace.” She said that in a tone that carried a little too much gratitude, but, he decided not to say nothing of it. He still had far more important matters in his head and he was just trying to relax and took a deep sip from his mug emptying it, he was about to call another bar maid when they heard more laughter from the table near the center. This time, it was a frivolous giggle and the same patrons from the same table were quickly leaving their seats with the man holding the woman’s hand.

“Whoa! Take it easy, mighty warrior! You should know that preambles just make it more enjoyable!” The man seemed understand just the opposite of what she had just told him, and so he lifted the woman and carried her in his shoulder.

“Oh no! I’m being taken as a prize! What will I ever do?” She said in the most playful and coquette tone she could muster as the man was taking her upstairs.

“Girls these days… They just take the challenge out of it.” Maria said as she watched the pair going upstairs to the rooms and have an afternoon of fleshly paradise.

“Yes, absolutely” He said absentmindedly as he watched them go to one of doors out of sight right before calling a bar maid for a new mug.

Meanwhile, at the woods.

Sunset Shimmer remembered being asleep most of the trip to the base on horse, so, under other circumstances, it would difficult to trace a road back to the place where she was found. Luckily there was grass-free road all the way from the base that seemed to extend indefinitely; there one or two detours that could perhaps confuse her. But, she calculated that, since this forest was a fairly plain terrain, there wouldn’t be many hills, and even then she only needed to look for the one that ended--or started, in Sunset’s case--with a cliff.

She was following the same straight route when she started to hear a sound in the distance, at first, she thought it was some animal. But, when she stopped to listen more carefully, she realized that it was actually a voice. Driven by her natural morbid curiosity, she started to rapidly walk towards the source, and since she was making a detour into the dense sections of the forest, she made sure to leave a mark on each tree with a knife she took from Maria’s kitchen.

The more she approached to the source the more she could discern different tones of fear, rage and indignation in the screams, at some point, she could see at the distance a group of three figures, two of which were standing up with the third one leaned against a tree on the ground. She hastily ran towards them, but when she was finally close enough, she could see that they were two relatively young men one which had a long knife.

Identifying a possible danger, she flanked them to get a better view of them and the other one in the ground. Using a set of a small tree and a bush for cover, she peeked over and saw that they were menacing the third hominid--a female--in the ground, who was young girl--clearly younger than these men-- of long and jet black hair, she was wearing similar clothes to hers except for a notorious silver medallion hanging from her neck.

“I told you already! I don’t have anything of value with me! I am a sacred servant of the twelve gods and I don’t possess jewels or coins!” Sunset ducked behind the bush limiting herself to hear, what that girl just said sounded reasonable enough and without valuable things to strip from her, they would leave her alone and then she could continue with her own mission.

“Oh, Is that so? Then what about this pretty medallion?” The man with the shorter hair yanked a silver medallion the size and weight of four coins.

“NO!” The girl desperately took it away from him but he snatched her hand and, in return, he gave her a nasty shove that made caused her to hit her head against the tree, something that they either didn’t notice or didn’t care.

“Well, if you don’t have any coins we can take, then I guess we can at least do something fun for everyone--you included.” Said one of them. Sunset peeked over again, puzzled by such a bizarre change of purpose for these troublemakers.

“Aw, horseshit, Jorl! Tell me you’re at least gonna let me go first!” Said the man with brandishing the knife.

“No way, mate. You’re just a wuss, they always scape from you”

“Don’t you dare! If you desecrate me, you will face the wrath of Kal'Theon, judicator whether on this life or the other!”

“Wait, what...!? Desecrate her!?” Sunset ducked once again just to try and process what she just heard and what those two were planning to do to her. It didn’t take long for her, she wasn’t that naïve. Those two troublemakers were about to inflict upon that girl something she had only seen in overly gruesome horror novels she used read back in Equestria. For someone to live some so heinous…

“Gods, deliver me!!” She heard the girl scream with helplessness.

“Celestia was paranoid, retrograde, self-righteous and obnoxiously arrogant. But she was right about some things and as long as I have the power to do something about it, I can’t let this happen, she taught me as much.” Sunset thought remembering that wielding magic carried its own weight of responsibility, she stoop and walking away from his hiding spot, she started to address the men about to abuse the girl. “Hey you!” They turned to see her “Yes, you, dunderheads! Just what do you think you’re doing?” With her sling arm and slightly limping steps, she wasn’t doing a very good job on the intimidation department.

“And just who the flaming pit are you?” demanded the man with the knife

“I am the one who’s going to give you a beating if you don’t leave that girl alone.” Indeed to her previous suspicion about her own appearance, the troublemakers couldn’t take her threat seriously, so they laughed for a moment.

“Oh, and what are you gonna do about it? Scream even louder than her and hope to actually bring help?” She let go of the girl who was already whimpering “maybe I should take you as well and Eddard can have his way with that prude bitch.”

He started advancing towards Sunset and with her good hand, she summoned her magic grip freezing him place… for about four seconds, everyone, including Sunset fell silent. They did it because the sudden display of magic power and she, because she couldn’t believe her grip lasted so short. It didn’t take much for Jorl to overcome his initial shock and then resumed his menacing advance towards Sunset. She didn’t have time to figure out what went wrong and so she used her magic dig up a nearby rock the size her two fists together and it to the side of his face rendering him unconscious while also--most likely--injuring his jaw and breaking more than one tooth.

Eddard seemed to start panicking and, due to fear getting close to her, he threw his knife at Sunset, she quickly grabbed it midair--out of sheer instinct rather than skill—and after two seconds of staring at it, she flung it to the side. If Eddard wasn’t panicking before, he was now.

“You damn witch!” and he turned to start running away, however Sunset grabbed his body in her just enough to alter his route and send him to a tree and hit his head hard enough to remain unconscious.

Sunset approached the girl, who was looking at her in shock and relief

“Oh, thank you, thank you so very much. I begged the gods and they provided!”

“Err, it was nothing, really. I just couldn’t stand by and do nothing.”

“Oh, but you don’t understand! It was no coincidence that you were nearby to help me…” She clasped her hands together like in a prayer “When I asked the gods for help, you appeared and saved me. You were meant to find me--this was their plan!!”

“Um… I’m fairly sure it was a coincidence, I’m not even a member of your church or whatever. Anyway, that’s just something I can’t help but do, so if you aren’t lost or anything, I… Uh… need to get on my way.” Sunset turned on her feet to go back to the main road and resume her business, but she was intercepted by the girl.

“I know it can be difficult to understand, since it seems you are a non-believer. But listen to me for a moment--when a servant of the twelve gods is saved by a stranger that stranger becomes their agent, and as such they are representative of their protection towards their devotees. And being this the case, I can increase my devotion to them by loyally serving such agents. Please let me serve you as the envoys of the gods that you!” Saying that Sunset was perplexed by the suddenness and strangeness of the situation would have been and understatement, even still she remained calm.

“Look, I don’t like meddling in someone else’s religious affairs, so, if you don’t mind, I really need to go back on my way”

“Hey, wait! I can’t do enough to repay you saving my life, but, let me start with your broken arm.”

“Just what are you--” she fell silent as the girl advanced towards her and, as she waved her hands around Sunset’s arms and a transparent green light appeared in her eyes as well in her hands. Around 9 seconds passed and Sunset started to feel a nice and fresh sensation in her arm, enough for her to try and move her sling arm, which didn’t hurt in the slightest.

“What--how did you that!?” Sunset asked utterly impressed

“This was a healing magic art, it should have taken less time, but I’m still mid-way through my studies and--“

“Wait, did you say studies?” Sunset asked, now more interested than impressed.

“Why yes, yes I have been studying in the cloister with the sisters of the Flame Chalice order.” Sunset started thinking about the implications of this--if she was studying, that meant books and books meant information, which was what she needed the most right now, concluding that this girl could become an very reliable source of information on this world. Besides, now that she thought of it, if she wanted to acquire a position of authority, she would first need followers. And this girl seemed to be as good start as any. So she finally made up her mind.

“Interesting. And what’s your name anyway?

“Helena. Helena Heartford.” She moved to make a small reverence “In service of the twelve gods.”

“Well, Helena. I thought about everything you said earlier and I changed my mind, I needed healing for my arm and now it feels better than ever thanks to you. So, I will of course take a yes to your offer. You can come with me.”

“Oh, praise the gods!” Helena cheerfully exclaimed “But, um, I still don’t know your name”

“It’s just Sunset, I’ll tell you more about it later, now come. I had a very important issue to solve in this forest.”

“Oh, of course, Miss Sunset! And I promise you won’t regret becoming a conduit for the gods’ protection.”

“Oh, I already know I won’t.” She affirmed with great smile of satisfaction

Chapter 2

The walkthrough back to Sunset’s previous road was particularly calm considering what just happened a few minutes ago. The forest was filled with the sound of countless birds and the wind could be easily heard moving the thinner trees, the sun was starting to get closer and closer to its dusk. Sunset And Helena walked silently for most of the road, she didn’t want to force any unnecessary conversation, but she also was waiting for Sunset to tell her what she promised (or at least what she thought was a promise, it was never implied as such). After a few more minutes of walking it was Sunset who began a conversation

“So, what were you doing here alone in the woods anyway?” a healer-priest asked without even facing Helena or decreasing her pace.

“I was on my way to doing my internship.” Helena said with in a pleasantly polite tone although it also had a slight air of nervousness. Sunset was familiarized with the term, however it confused her considering something she said after saving her life.

“Internship? Didn’t you say you were halfway through your studies?”
Helena stood silent for a few seconds like trying to simplify the answer, but ultimately failing.

“It’s complicated…” She went silent again “I did say that and it’s technically true, however, I’ve been advancing in my studies rather quickly, unusually quick as my abbess would say. She even said that I was… Special...” She went silent again, remembering the whole matter “She decided that my talents would be set back with an ordinary study rhythm and that it would be more beneficial if I started studying directly under a graduated healer-priest.”

“That’s actually impressive, I admit.” Sunset said with honesty albeit with a small hint of reluctance. She then finally turned to face her although without pausing her walk “You haven’t entirely answered my question, though.” Helena’s face then adopted a disconcerted expression.

“What I asked was--what were you doing travelling alone here in the woods?”
“I had to travel that way, I couldn’t afford a ride on carriage let alone an escort.” Helena said in a tone which Sunset thought to be way too calm for the situation she just lived.

“All right. How is that possible? Isn’t that the single most dangerous way travelling through these woods? With all the beasts and… cutthroats” Sunset said in a tone of disbelief and a trace of displeasure at Helena’s foolhardiness. She could justify herself simply because she was new to

this world and currently, because she now had part of her magic skills back, unlike Helena who was just an ordinary girl. That made a huge difference, Helena, on his part, simply limited herself to form a half-smile.

“We trust the twelve gods to protect us at every moment.” This made Sunset stop dead in her tracks. She then turned to face Helena and said:
“What…? I mean--wh-why!? How--how…!? Y-you could have--” Sunset covered her mouth remembering the horror those two criminals were about to inflict upon Helena.

“Well, I asked the gods for help, and help came.” Helena continued walking past Sunset, who was left there speechless for almost a minute. She remembered reading about an ancient cult to the princesses which was outlawed centuries ago. As well the arcane and esoteric religions of other races around the world, she would never understand why someone would believe in some distant higher power when there was some sort of explanation for just about everything that happened in the world.

“Hey, wait up!” She said as she hastily resumed her walk through in order to get ahead of Helena.

Sunset once again regained the lead their little expedition, there was so much she wanted to scold Helena as well so many questions but she was utterly reluctant to do so, lest she wanted to be left either more confused or outraged. However after a while she did find a question that would at least be about something that could shed some more light on this… peculiar girl.

“Uh, earlier, when I asked how could you be about to start your internship, you said it was ‘complicated’. You sounded reluctant, why?” Sunset turned to face her without pausing her steps. And she remained like that for a period of time which Sunset was about to break by asking again and questioning her ability to hear well when Helena finally spoke:
“I… I was just afraid you would disbelieve me. And that’s just for you and any other outside my convent. For my sisters back there, might be even more difficult,” Helena turned her head upward “I can’t say that they were envious, because that would be a fertile ground for sin. And they weren’t blatantly cruel towards me, but they always seemed to be in a state of constant reluctance whenever they had to work with me on the daily chores or in our different study sessions. People either disbelieve me or treat me different the moment I tell them I am a… Gifted girl.” She finished turning her gaze downward and Sunset was able to notice a trace of dismalness in the way she said the word ‘gifted’. She was never one to take interest in somepony else’s problems, but this girl seemed to feel, well, for the lack of better word--embarrassed of her higher intellectual ability. This was something that baffled Sunset Shimmer, (being a prodigy herself) however, a small realization hit her and nevertheless formulated a question that she may have otherwise found utterly irrelevant just one day ago.

“So, uh. You don’t have any friends?”

“Me? No, not really. As I said, people tend to look at me differently when they learn about me. If anything…” Helena’s changed to more joyful one “Only my-err--our abbess showed me unconditional support. You know? I never realized until now, but part of the reason she sent me away from the convent might have been to spare both my convent sisters and me--I really don’t it would have been healthy for us if I had stayed longer. Besides, I think it’s genuinely exciting, to learn from a legitimate healer-priest, I just don’t what to expect!” Helena exclaimed with giddiness.

Sunset turned to face her. There was a time when she was very much like this girl--so full of promises, so avid, so innocent it brought an amused smile to her lips.

“Yeah...” Sunset started to remember the time when she was first taken to Celestia’s presence in order to show her potential and enter her school for gifted unicorns. How nervous she was and how she almost makes look bad the talent scout who took her in the first place “I know the feeling.”

After a few more minutes they reached the uphill that Sunset was looking, or at least that what she hoped according to her calculations. After an extensive inspection (as far as her sigh allowed to see) she finally saw the cliff she fell off and at a quarter of road up there she also spotted what she could only guess it was her saddlebags.

“All right. This is the place.” She was about to walk up the hill when she remembered that Helena was there too and then recalled what she said earlier. Sunset looked her in the eyes for a few moments until Helena finally spoke:

“Uh, ma’am? Is there something you need?”

“Yes,” she politely grabbed Helena by the shoulder and moved her to a spot where her saddlebags would be visible all the way up there “can you see that thing almost at the top of the ravine? I need you go up there and retrieve it for me”

“Yes, ma’am.” Helena said bowing lightly “Just help me hold this, ma’am.” She handed her satchel to Sunset and then started ascending the ravine. After she was far enough up, Sunset placed Helena’s satchel in the ground as she kept watching her walk at first but soon the strain of the uphill ascend was falling on Helena and she slowed down earlier than what Sunset anticipated.

Helena finally reached a point where the ravine became too declivitous and she had to crawl, and yet, she was still far from the precious item. Sunset kept watching intently, keeping track of Helena. At more than one occasion one of her feet slipped although fortunately, she was still able to maintain her equilibrium with the rest of her limbs. Sunset was getting worried. Yes, she was worried for Helena, but, more than anything she was much more concerned about the practicality principles of this situation--she wasn’t exactly prepared to face that particular contingency, with all problems that would come out of that incident, the prospect seemed a little scary. Although if the worst came to happen, she would think of something--as she always did, she reminded herself.

She started to feel a little alleviated when she saw Helena taking her saddlebags and starting to descend backwards, then when it was safer, walking down.

“I-it’s done, ma’am. Here is y-your requested item.” Helena stuttered slightly handing the saddlebags over to Sunset. Obviously, Sunset wasn’t the only one getting worried. Helena had an unusual pale color to her face as well slightly trembling legs, beads of sweat were rolling down her forehead, both out of exhaustion and nervousness.

“Yes. You handled yourself very well up there. Quite impressive, actually.” She walked some steps towards their initial road and proceeded to inspect the contents of the saddlebags without even lifting Helena’s satchel.
“Thank you, ma’am.” Helena declared solemnly as he picked up and dusted her bag.

“Oh my Celestia! Everything is still here!” Sunset gleefully thought as she searched through one of saddlebags. Inside one of them she packed several apples and a large-sized bag of her favourite snack--crackers of oat and wheat, she made a mental note to eat them as soon as she could be alone.

In the other saddlebag she found her sliding tile puzzle with numbers made of wood and her math rubik cube, a couple of novels she hadn't finished yet and the diary--the one that started this whole journey, leafing through it again she remembered that she needed to learn and write the predominant language of this land and made another mental note to ask Helena to teach her.

“What is this, ma’am?” Helena asked picking up the sliding tile puzzle.

“Uh, that? It’s… I think you’re supposed to arrange the num--the symbols,” Sunset remembered that Helena nor anyone else would recognize those numbers “yes, in some challenging order. Well, that's just my guess, you know?” She approached Helena and before retrieving her puzzles she glanced at the bottom of the first saddlebag she opened it while Helena was busy trying to familiarize with the sliding tile puzzle and noticed a couple of things she overlooked at first--one was a small sack of bits, she forgot about them since she didn’t have an opportunity where she needed to use some form of currency. However, if these hominids had any appreciation of precious metals, then they would come quite useful.

As for the other object, it was something that left her a little sour sweet sensation. It was a pocket watch, golden and had Celestia's cutiemark embossment on its cover--product of being a hoof down from a simpler time. Sunset didn't dedicate time to duel on past memories, it was all behind her. She of course was more discrete with these findings and of course, Helena was none the wiser.

“All right, We should get going now.” Sunset declared glancing at the sun which was starting its twilight as she placed the saddlebags in her shoulder and taking the tiles puzzle away from Helena. Although right before starting to walk she rummaged in the bag with her food and taking an apple she offered it to Helena which she joyfully accepted.

“Oh, just one question, Helena.”

“Yes, ma’am?”

“If you’re going to come with me, what will happen with your studies?” Sunset asked out of sheer curiosity rather than concern.

“Well, I guess I’ll just send a letter to my abbess explaining my new situation, she would understand. Then I'll just keep studying from books, although there is only so much I can learn without practicing… I’ll find another way of doing my internship. Ultimately, I will never stop my studies. If that's what you mean.” She explained with confidence.

They walked with the dusk serving as a passive watcher, the chirping of the birds had practically subsided to a stop save for a few and scarce birds and the insects were starting to replace them. Sunset stared at the horizon with the setting sun even with all the trees blocking a decent view of it for most of the road. She felt a newfound interest on it, back in Equestria she almost never bothered to appreciate all those dusks. After witnessing so many of them and getting to know so familiarly the pony responsible for them, she just took them for granted and grew bored of them. Here, however, she had a curious fascination simply because of the sheer novelty of experiencing it in entirely different world.

This, however, brought a question in Sunset Shimmer’s mind that both intrigued her and gave her a small bitter sensation(she felt that her old life would keep prowling back)--it was a question that made her feel glad that Helena seemed to be versed on these matters.

“Helena? Who's in charge of rising and lowering the sun, anyway?” The question appeared to surprise her but after a moment, with a comprehensive face and in a very confident tone she replied:

“The sun rises to its dawn and lowers to its twilight thanks to Starion, keeper of the Primordial Flame.”

“And he moves the moon as well?” Sunset asked reluctant to draw a parallel to her old world and former mentor.

“Oh, no. The domain over the moon corresponds to Kaelyra, his wife-sister.”

“His what!? A-are you serious!? What do you mean his wife… sister!? H-how--!?” She couldn't even begin to grasp the extent of her own shock at this uncanny relationship.

Now it was Helena’s turn to look amused and before Sunset could keep stuttering she intervened:

“Gods are not bound by mortal humans’ mental and bodily limitations, that’s why they are gods.” Helena concluded. Sunset, for her part pondered about this for a few moments realizing that perhaps, it made sense. After all, that wouldn't affect their ability to fill their roles, right?

“And where does this 'Divine Couple’ live anyway?” Helena felt a little confused by this question, yet, she figured that Sunset simply was curious about her religion. Although that question was currently, somewhat complicated. Nonetheless she did her best to answer it.

“Actually…” She was finding problems “Starion and Kailyra both ride and live in the sun and moon respectively, but… yes…” she was definitely feeling uncomfortable, she quickly changed her mood, though. “They live separated although they don’t need to live as close as human couple do, the distance between the sun and the moon is as close as they need to express their perfect love.” She finished with a confident smile.

Sunset had a expression of understanding, although she figured that at least two of these 'gods’ were real. She could also easily tell that there was something Helena didn't want to talk about but she decided not to press the issue. For now.

When the sun finally came down and right before all visibility was gone, Helena pulled out of her satchel a bottle with a black and thick substance along with line of cloth which she used to round several times on a long stick she found nearby. After that, she pulled a pair of flint rocks which she then grinded to lit the substance she applied to the cloth creating a torch. Sunset was ready to try and use her magic to illuminate the road, but if Helena wanted to keep doing things for her she wasn't going to stop her.

Sunset took the torch so to keep leading the way. It wasn't easy to keep track of the road but thanks to Sunset's prodigious memory and a hasty pace, all throughout the way she couldn't help noticing that Helena kept checking a piece of paper she had in the only pocket of her outfits after a acceptable amount of time they were able to make it back to the base safely.

“Who goes there?” Shouted the guard in the booth at the entrance when he saw the glimmer of Sunset and Helena's torch.

“Just a moment!” Sunset shouted back with all the pleasantness she could muster. She hurried to meet the guard so he could recognize her. Right when she started walking she heard Helena giving a small sound of realization and she followed behind to catch up with Sunset. “Hiii, mr. Guard. It's me, remember? I think I never gave you my name,” she adopted her cutest sheepish smile she could dignify to express “silly me.”

“I see you took your time,” he stared at the hand she was using to hold the torch as well as her other other hand which she used to hold the saddlebags she was carrying in her shoulder “I guess you had luck with those herbs, seeing how you found something else to carry there.”

“Herbs--? ah--yes, that’s right, I found quite a few for surgeon Maria!” She cheerfully said.

“Although, wouldn’t they get all cramped up in those bags? What happened with your basket?” The guard asked and before Sunset could stutter any excuse the guard started to form a skeptical stare, right at that moment Helena stepped into view distracting the guard from his questioning before it started. “And who is this?”

“Her? She’s--”

“I am Helena Heartford. Nun and healer-priest intern from the order of The Flaming Chalice for the twelve gods.” She timely interrupted Sunset as she pulled a scroll from her satchel which she handed over to the guard “I’m here to do my internship under Sebastian Belluscio, first healer-priest of the 12th company in the king’s army.” She finished methodically.

“It's all right…” he said as he was finishing reading the scroll in the light of the oil lamp of his booth. “Yes, you may pass.”

They entered the base without further incidents although she suspected that the guard would trust her less next time. But it didn't matter much, she figured that she had no more hidden reasons to venture into the forest. But even if she did, she was confident she could keep making up believable excuses.

"So, where is the healer-priest's chapel?" Helena asked as she was following her who seemed pretty confident of their route.

"Ah, I'm not sure myself, both healer-priests are gone for the time being--one was assigned to another base and the other hasn't come back. I think it would be locked until he comes back."

"Then where are we going now, ma'am?" Sunset, who was still holding the torch even though there were several torches on poles elevated seven foot high and where sparse through the alleys and roads in the base, turned to looked at her with a reassuring neutrality.

"We're going to the infirmary, I believe I will get to stay there, at least I know it's unlocked. Surgeon Maria should be back soon if she isn't already there."

Helena nodded in understanding and kept walking behind her. Once they reached the infirmary, true to Sunset's claims they didn't have problems opening the were welcomed by a thick darkness only limited to the spaces that were too far from their torch light.

"I guess we'll have to look first for lamps and candles." Even with a torch they had a few problems looking through the house for said objects. The infirmary wasn't that big but Sunset wasn't entirely familiarized with its layout and one by one they lit every oil lamp and candles they found until the place was adequately illuminated.

"Ma'am, I didn't ask this before because I thought that, at the time, it was irrelevant--I guess I still didn't have my thoughts quite composed, you know, after my crisis..." She turned her head to the side looking almost absent minded "But what exactly means that pair of saddlebags?" Sunset, who was sitting at the kitchen table simply sighed and closing her eyes she deduced that there wasn't any harm in telling her the same story she told Maria.

"My gods... That's... I don't I have words, it just..." Helena was scratching her head and looking down in deep thought "Begs so many questions and..." She turned to look at her in the eyes "I'm sorry ma'am I don't mean to disbelieve you, but... We must thank the gods you're safe now, right? I'm sure they have a great purpose even beyond me." She joyfully affirmed

"Yes," Sunset formed an amused smile as she looked slightly to the left "I guess they do."

Soon after that they heard the main door opening followed by a voice which Sunset was familiar with:

“Hello? I’m home!” Maria called out. Sunset simply waited for Maria to take notice of all the lit lamps and reach the kitchen, which was in right between the infirmary room and the bedroom, so she knew it wouldn't take her long.

“Good evening, Surgeon.” Sunset smelled a dim scent in the air around Maria who arrived at the kitchen seemingly not noticing Helena “did you have a nice evening? It looks like you did have it nice.”

“My evening was… Yeah, nice--not of your business, though.” Maria declared while rubbing her forehead. “And just who are you?” She asked eyeing Helena.

“My name is Helena. I'm here to study under healer-priest Belluscio, although he's gone for the moment or so I’ve been informed.” She finished and then looked at Sunset with a confidant look, although Sunset didn't take it as such.

“You're here for an internship? You look…” Maria hesitantly for a second trying to choose a word that wouldn't sound rude but failed to find such word “Young. No offense, though.”

“Ah, don't worry, I get that a lot.” Helena said after smirking warmly.

“Hey… Maria, didn't you say you would be bringing something for dinner?” Sunset asked out loud, probably to lure her into showing her tendency for uncalled jokes.

“Dinner? Ah… yes, you're right I--I…” she was rubbing her forehead again “I completely forgot. Look, tomorrow at first hour we will have breakfast with the kitchen women.”

“Uh, what?” Sunset didn't like this turn of events.

“You’ll like it, the food Is excellent there.” She started heading to the bedroom.

“Hey, and what will you do now?”

“Oh? Well, sleep of course.” Maria affirmed with a trace of sarcasm.

“Sleep? But it's barely--” she caught herself right there, lest she say something either too confusing or too suspicious for these humans who weren’t aware of her previous time measuring and format. “... Sleeping hours…!”

“It's the perfect time to sleep. We will be awake tomorrow early.” Maria declared. And before continuing she looked towards Helena “you, the healer-priest’s chapel will be locked until he comes back. So… I guess it will best if you sleep in my bed, actually you both should sleep in my bedroom. There's enough space for you two, I will sleep in the bed of the infirmary area.” Sunset liked this even less.

“So, if you don't have any more friends to invite over, I'll just head to sleep.” Right there was the snide remark that Sunset was looking for earlier.

Sunset Shimmer didn’t how actually tired she was until she was able to once more lay on a bed. She decided to sleep with her new clothes whereas Helena changed to a mildly large nightgown. Sunset, however opted to lay without any sheets--the clothes already felt alien enough, she couldn’t have slept with a full sheet over her. She drifted away in a dreamless sleep, she didn’t know why, but it had been one the better sleeps she had had in quite some time

The next morning Sunset was woken up rather early.

“Hello, Sunset. Wake up.” Maria said holding a candle in the dark. “We have to get up early if we want to have breakfast in the kitchen with the rest of the volunteers there.”

Sunset groggily took a seated position noticing that Helena was already finishing getting dressed for the day.

“Oh, ma’am. Good morning, I tried to wake you up myself but you would just keep sleeping. I hope you had a nice and pleasant dream?”

“Yes…” Sunset squinted her eyes trying to adapt to the new source of light in the room “I think I did.” She then looked at Maria “Just give me a minute to get my mane done.”

Maria on her part wasted no time in expressing her confusion at Sunset’s words.

“What is a minute? And did you say mane?”

“I mean--hair, my hair. I need just a moment to get it done, then I will be ready.”

“You know? I would advise to get it dressed in a ponytail, but it just so pretty. That would ruin a portion of its beauty.” Maria head to the door and sighed before finally exiting the room leaving the candle in the dressing table.

Sunset felt a small blush coming to her cheeks. With a body like that, she had to appreciate every compliment she could get. she then turned to Helena who was pretty much ready to head out by now and decided to take a little advantage of their agreement.

“Hey, uh, Helena?”

“Yes, ma’am?”

“Help me with my hair. Now.”

“Ah, absolutely yes! Right away, ma’am.” Helena clapped her hands in excitement at the opportunity of doing something for her Pri’im.

The morning was still dark and moist, there were at least one lit torch on the frontage of every building in the base and one tall post with a torch at every corner. so the place looked no differently than when she returned last night. Except for the sky which had pretty much lost all of its stars, so Sunset deduced it was somewhere before 6:30 am.

There seemed to be a considerable degree of activity at that hour of the morning. though, it was no surprise for her considering this was a military camp. more and more soldiers were seen running and walking the closer they approached the building that was supposed to serve as that world’s equivalent of a cafeteria. The building itself was fairly big in extension terms and it had a couple of torches at every entrance and, as she suspected all along, they entered by the back door.

it was the kitchen Maria talked about. it was rather big with a long table for at least twenty people. There were already some volunteers sitting at the table while others were still working with pans, cooking pots and slicing ingredients on wooden boards.

“Good morning, Maria!” Greeted one of the ladies, one of the older ones. “Such a miracle having you here again!” she then turned to Helena and Sunset

“Hello there, you two. I’m Nila. Overseer and head chef of the volunteer women in this kitchen. It’s very nice to meet you.”

“I am Sunset…” She insecurely said, expecting she wouldn’t ask for a last name. After that, Helena did the same introducing herself rather enthusiastic.

“Well, why don’t you three take a seat? we’re done serving the troops for the morning so now we can have breakfast, go seat anywhere you like.

“Hellooo!” one of the volunteers called out to Sunset and Helena as they were searching for a spot “over here! Sit here!” she and the other two girls made room for them. Helena went ahead first and then turned to face her

“Let’s go, ma’am. Or we might lose any sitting spots on the table.” Then she continued ahead. Sunset followed behind somewhat reluctantly

Helena actually took a seat besides one of the new girls, leaving Sunset between her new acquaintances. Other girls and older women greeted her along the way. When she reached the spots that were being left for them she was faced with series of gentle words, hand shakings both from the girls next to the one who first called them and the others right in front of her, the feeling of suddenly being accepted into a group with such warmness felt absolutely alien to Sunset, it felt… nice. And she, who was by her own choice a loner found this feeling so strange and unexpected that in fact, she thought it was an illness.

“My name is Aleia. What’s yours” She gladly greeted Sunset shaking her hand.

“Sunset…” Against her better judgement she decided to try her luck and say her last name, at the very least she could use the excuse of she being amnesiac about all her past. “Sunset Shimmer.” She silently stood looking her at the eyes expecting her to discern the truth in her words through the eyes.

“ohhh… That name is sooo romantic! I bet six months worth of payment your parents must be poets or some type of artists.” Aleia declared enthusiastic.

“My parents…?” Sunset looked down. That was something she never stopped to consider “I… I wouldn’t know.”

“Oh… You mean… oh my gods. Forgive me, I had no idea that you are…” she was interrupted by Sunset looking at her again.

“Don’t worry, honestly speaking, I don’t remember a single thing about them, heh…” Truth was she never gave any thought as to who were her real parents. She was raised since she was a little baby by the orphanage caretakers and as far as she was concerned growing up, they were her family. Then there was Celestia… Sunset shook her head trying to brush away those thoughts that only caused her frustration--She was still furious at Celestia and hated the idea of remembering her all of a sudden.

“It’s just that… I guess I don’t like talking about parents.”

“Oh, is all right. your name does sound like it was directly lifted from some poem though. However I’ve only know like two poems and that’s just because there was a bard in town declaiming a poem in two different occasions. anyway, then what would you like to talk about?” Sunset quickly looked at her right where Helena was seated expecting to get a quick suggestion and found her having an important looking chit chat with another girl. Without her help she had to improvise.

“Hey, is that your real hair color?” Aleia asked saving Sunset the trouble of coming up with a new topic “it's so… bright!” she then lifted a lock of her hair fascinatedly staring at it. “Oh my gods, and it’s so beautiful. Do you have a secret for your hair?” she half-jokingly and half curious asked. Sunset gently removed her hand away, she liked the compliments, but didn’t like others getting touchy-feely with her.

“Ah, thank you. Believe or not, this is my natural hair.”

Any further conversation was interrupted by the arrival of the food which consisted of baskets of small breads, small jars of honey and pots of fresh milk which were accompanied by wooden cups all of which were brought by other kitchen volunteer. None of these seemed very tempting to Sunset, she didn’t consider herself a picky pony but the sheer remoteness from her favorite foods was starting to plant a seed of homesickness in her. Lastly, apples arrived in plates of wood and it was then that the last volunteers took seats and started chatting between them.

Head chef Nila called for silence then ordered everyone there hold each other’s hands in order to spell a short prayer for the meal. The whole spiritual concept was still something implausible, but as she decided, she kept her ideas for herself, although she wondered if she could make something useful out it.

Once it was over, she everyone started grabbing food. she eyed a basket of bread and took one for her plate more by doing as everyone else rather than hunger. She remained staring at the bread on her plate for almost two minutes until she lifted her gaze and looked to her right and Helena was already eating and talking with the girl next to her then she looked at her plate again.

“I know, it isn’t very good. Breakfasts here rarely are.” Aleia said. She then gestured to her own plate “But hey, at least lunch and dinners are a bit better. Although we rarely get to eat any meat, that’s reserved for the soldiers.”

“Did you say meat…?” Sunset never stopped to think about, it never crossed her mind. She never considered that among all the many differences that she found in this species, the consumption of meat would be one. This, under any other circumstances wouldn’t be a problem. If she was still a pony, she had already shared the table with other races that fancied meat for their meals such as gryphons dignitaries back in Equestria when Celestia would have her eating with her during such diners in order to teach her both etiquette and diplomacy managing. And while she could tolerate being near meat-eaters it was a vastly different thing to involuntarily belong to one such species. She wondered if she even had a choice on the matter, what would be the consequences of rejecting eating the flesh of a once living animal. At the very least, she hoped she could make up some excuse if she ever got offered some.

“Oh yes, sometimes we--including the troops--have roasted chicken, quail, and even beef and rabbit. I heard that's the healthiest one of them all.”

All that talk was starting to make Sunset sick. However, instead of losing her appetite like most normal ponies would do, she grabbed an apple from the plate in front of her then started eating the bread she already had in her plate. Although not because she suddenly was charmer by these simple flavours, but because it could be so much worse. meat-eaters or omnivores, right now it didn’t make a difference for her.

And so, Sunset Shimmer spent the rest of the meal learning more about Aleia, she learned that Aleia was actually born in a village very far to the north, closer to the lands that borders with that of the Elves and that she joined the company four years ago and has been travelling with them and the rest of the voluntaries ever since. Sunset also picked new details about this world such as the fact that many cities up north have training sanctuaries for half-elf archers, she made a mental note to ask more about that later.

By the end of the breakfast Sunset had a feeling of mild satisfaction in her result of having made something useful of this hour and not wasting her time. she grabbed an apple she only had time to bite once before she and Helena were approached by Maria.

“Girls, it’s time. We have work to do… Well, I have work, but you will definitely help. And you, Helena. I know you aren’t done in your studies, but, can I count on you and your abilities?”

“I will do my very best, as the gods expect from and as my abbess taught me.” She said with a determination that reminded Sunset more of a guardspony than a doctor.

When they entered the infirmary building Sunset asked if she could check on a couple of things in the mirror, Maria gave her no more than ten minutes and after reminding Helena about the reading lessons she quickly entered Maria’s bedroom to indulge in certain pleasure she considered well deserved. She went directly for her saddlebags and pulled the bag of oat & wheat snacks she gleefully rediscovered the previous day.

“Apples are still good even here, but I wouldn’t trade them for this.” She chuckled as she opened the bag, she figured she could eat a third now and the rest on the next two days. But when she gave the first bite to the snack on her hand she a deep and depressing disappointment hit her heart--the taste she fondly remembered so delightful now felt overly thick and, in a word: Tasteless. With an rising fury and sorrow she remembered that this new body also included brand new taste buds--ones that weren’t accustomed to the diet she used to have. Now more than ever she wished she could summon fire with her magic so she could burn away the bag and all the snacks, although, for the moment, she limited to slam the bag on the bag she pulled it from. Sunset thought she could figure out later as to how to get rid of them.

She exited the bedroom with an already ruined mood so she decided she could at least take distraction on the work ahead of her.

“Ma’am, do you feel alright?” Helena asked her noticing the change in her eyes

“Y-yes… I mean… Yes… Does Maria has something for us?” she replied barely making eye contact with Helena.

“Oh, um. She said she will let us know as soon as she needs extra hands on the first aid table. And about the reading & writing lessons, we can start anytime now.”

“Ah, right… let’s take a seat then.” Sunset suggested with a slight improvement in her demeanor.

And so, Helena proceeded to teach Sunset starting from the most basic structures to which she proved to be still a fast learner. Maria called them during minor procedures only as a way for them to learn something new and to make the processes quicker. Such was Sunset's new daily routine where she would start most days having breakfast only with Helena and Maria while others they would have it in the kitchen with the rest of the volunteers this particularl part made Sunset uncomfortable, if nothing else, simply because she didn't want to start feeling good among them--she had more pressing objectives than socializing. After that, lunch and dinner would always be with Maria. And during the evenings Sunset and Helena decided to complement their lessons with arithmetic sessions to which Sunset proved to have an even greater ease at learning. She was quite pleased with everything she was learning and Helena seemed to enjoy teaching her, it was likely that she had not only talent for magic healing arts but also teaching techniques. Nine days passed with this routine until the tenth day, all the military staff seemed to be even busier than usual.

Sunset was on her way to deliver some medicines to the guard posted at the entrance, taking sigh of all the soldiers hurriedly walking all around the buildings and tents and out of them, when all of the sudden she almost crashed with all too familiar face--captain Ignace who passed by easily ignoring her as he was followed by his retinue. He didn’t seem very happy either. She humphed immediately before resuming her pace and turning sideways so to not run into the captain again and continued her path. Once she arrived to the guard post and having handed him his medicines, she decided to try and ask what had the soldiers so stirred up.

“Ah, what’s exactly happening? Why is every soldier so agitated?” she turned and looked behind her almost as though expecting all the ruckus to have stopped only to render her question moot.

“I’m sorry, lass. But you're not authorized to know.” Sunset seemed to mull over this, such prospect seemed to be concerning. But she figured that, by the time she could go back to Maria, she might be able to explain her further.

Meanwhile, at the meeting chambers of the barracks.

“What do you mean you lost him!!??” Captain Ignace yelled infuriated as though someone had spent all of his savings in pointless stuff.

“Well, my good captain, I mean that things got rougher than we expected and we soon had our hands full, which in turn got the priest to take more and more risks for us until he got himself killed… We have one of his arms, that was the only part of him that we could pick up.” Asa, a warrior mage, specifically, a Blade Warlock and leader of the mercenary band hired by Ignace’s higher ups to cover more terrain in the extermination of demon incursions. He looked at captain Ignace for a couple of seconds then he looked left and right before continuing “if you would like to bury him, that is.”

To say that Ignace had a face where indignation and disbelief were conflicting would have been an understatement, however, he remained still although with a menacing demeanor.

“You think this is some joke?” He took another deep breath “Do you know what this means for the rest of this company?” He asked without actually expecting a reply from him.

“Alright, I admit it was something unfortunate, but his sacrifice gave us the opening we needed to strike the fatal blow to the demon and the containment seals were carefully placed so the town of Belsrika will be free of demons for at least a year. All in all, I'll say it was a job well done.”

“We won't be able to deploy another contingent of suppression lest we want to senselessly sacrifice our men, demon wounds can only be treated by a Healer-priest!” Ignace yelled a little more high than what he intended.

“You need to start relaxing, all you need to do send a request to the Ecclesiastical Authority and they'll send you a Healer-priest in no time.”

Ignace was about to come with another retort when one of the officers next to him raised his hand.

“Sir, if I may, we were notified by one of the kitchen maid that a Healer-priest trainee arrived the camp yesterday evening.” The officer finished but then he felt a twinge of regret.

“Well, there you have it! You just got a brand new Healer-priest for your problems! That's quite a luck if you ask me.”

“An inexperienced Healer-priest is a liability in the battlefield we can't rely on that and we remain with the same problem.” Ignace facepalmed then he rubbed his face.

“Oh well.” He shrugged “I guess this is truly terrible but it's not like his safety was part of the contract and his death was one of the few setbacks that happened under our watch. And like I said, the job was completed according to the contract and now I'd like to have the rest of the payment for my team, thank you very much.” Asa finished crossing his arms.

Ignace rubbed his face then signaled one of the servants present to bring a chest to the table, which contained around two hundred big gold coins.

“There,” Ignace pointed to the opened chest “two hundred gold lions.” He huffed and laid back on his chair in an attitude not unlike bitter defeat.

“Thank you very much, it was such a pleasure making business with you, I hope you’ll hire our services again. Now, if you excuse me, I have to deal with my group’s finances.” And with that, Asa exited the tent to meet with his teammates who were waiting outside.

“No commotion inside, no fatal casualties. So I assume he took our little accident well enough.” said Eloen, a half-elf woman, who was the first one waiting outside. a few feet away were Dirog, an ogre who proudly sported both of twin spiked maces on hand at almost every time, and right next to him was Scythebleed, or at least that was the name they decided to give the silent masked man fully covered in rags and leather plates.

“Eh. he took it as well as he could have. these things happen. they’re inconvenient to no end, I can’t even imagine. but we did our job exactly as detailed in the contract. I think he’s frustrated more than anything else.” Asa commented as he reunited with the other two members of his team, closely followed by Eloen. “I think I saw a decent place to eat, drink and distribute the cut. come on.” Asa motioned the rest of his team to follow him to the base’s lunge hall.

Nobody could have predicted it. nobody could have suspected it. Not from one such as major Fahid, no one indeed. But it mattered not to him what the rest of his peers could think of him, after this day it wouldn’t matter. Nothing else would matter, except the bidding of his true lord.

He entered his tent undisturbed as everybody in the base went on their daily businesses, he walked directly towards a small, wooden locker, hidden in a safe and discreet corner, away from curious observers. It had a cap like a gate and was locked with a padlock bearing a menacing symbol at best from a common inspection, while for others more versed in the arcane history, it was a dreaded marking. Once he opened, he revealed the real and treasured content--a small, yet elaborate altar to a god whose name was strictly forbidden in some cities by the both of the dominant religions.

He quickly discarded his left vambrace to reveal another cursed marking, after a quick prayer in an unholy language he proceeded to take a knife from his personal crate and cut his arm right between his wrist and his elbow then he rubbed and spilled the blood on the marking in his left wrist

“O Yaruk’Nar, master of the Shadow Legion, lord of the eldritchrealm, in the name of Berold, your one avatar, and by my blood I request an audience…” Fahid clasped his fingers together in prayer as he waited for the voice of his dark god “...Yes, your servant is listening…” he kept listening to words from beyond although whether they belonged to Yaruk’Nar or one from his inner circle, no one could tell for sure “...So it is now… Yes, lord. It will be done… yes, at once.” he rose on his feet and looked through an even more secret stash, buried right under his small closet. He dug up a foul-looking and arcane artifact--a dagger which he was granted months ago after being chosen during a secret ritual among other cultists, an honor who gained the despise and even hatred from his fellow worshippers.

“For the glory of the Yaruk’Nar and the Shadow Legion, I serve…” and thus he proceeded to cut both of his wrists then, with the last of his strength, he stabbed his own heart, before falling to the ground bleeding blood adulterated with ancient and unspeakable powers, a power that started spilling all around his body forming an summoning circle as his body started to decay and mix with the fluid that was emanating from his self-inflicted wounds. Soon, his body became a liquid that stood at the center of the circe and then a continuous flow of foul spirits starting to come out of the eldritch puddle and then, a hand with claws, scales and charred marks --the first of many.

At the far side of the base, in one of the front towers, Sunset was just ending her delivery of medicines for the guard stationed there when she started to hear many exclamations of shock in the distance, she didn’t give too much thought until she started seeing people running past her in terror and now prayers to the gods and screams from the women could be heard in the proximity. She wasn’t nowhere near to understand what was happening when she started seeing people pouncing on other fleeing people, at least they looked like people, until they opened their mouths… they had sharp teeth, like piranhas, they chewed on their victims on vital spots--namely the neck--and before leaving them to bleed they injected four tendrils that also came from their mouths. Sunset started to breath heavily and finally assessed the situation when she heard the voice of the guard that received the medicines.

“Quick, girl! now, before it's too late!!” the fullness of the situation and far from heeding the call to safety from this guard, she felt her heart skip a beat as she started to think about Helena and Maria. and she made a run for it. “Wait, no!” the guard shouted, much as he wanted to stop her for her own safety had much bigger issues now with the base being potentially compromised, so he quickly shut the door of his tower.

Her breathing was quick like a hare and her heartbeat even faster as she ran to the lounge hall, avoiding other running people, guards, corpses or more of those abominations, but as she drew closer, the more crowded the roads became, soon she started using her telekinesis to move those things away from hear path, making sure they would fall away from people. She finally reached the lounge hall and quickly looked for the kitchen entrance, since there’s where Helena decided to help clean dishes after the lunch she decided not to attend. When she found it, she became terribly fearful when she noticed that the door was unlocked, slowly opening it, despite the chaos of the surroundings, she heard a sound like someone gulping down a drink, mixed with a soft and irregular whimper. she quickly--and not without revulsion mixed with pity--found that the source of the gulping was Niila, the lady in charge of the volunteers injecting tendrils from her mouth on an agonizing Aleia, the girl who tried to be nice to her early this morning, and who was the source of the whimpering.

Niila, or what replaced her slowly turned to look at the new arrival with eyes without pupils, grayish skin and a hiss like no creature she had heard before, she started walking up to her and with each step Sunset spent more time looking at her, or rather, it. the more she looked at it, the more her dread was replaced with disgust, which, soon turned to hatred. Not unlike the one of seeing a cockroach or any other nasty insect, a disgust that compelled one to squash said insect. Sunset snarled at it and quickly looking around the kitchen she found a meat tenderizer, which she took in her magic grip and with speed and strongness she drove the tenderizer right on its head digging part of the kitchen item and spilling a sickening gore all around as the abomination once known as Niila fell heavily to the ground. Aleia stopped her whimpering, for she now was the one rising as an inhuman thing, and Sunset didn’t waste time in disposing of it as well.

As she exited the kitchen and looked around, she figured that the only other place where Helena--and Maria--could be is the infirmary, so she made her way towards it. At least she now had an effective way to clear her path permanently.

meanwhile, at the other side of the base, the last place to be reached by the growing chaos. Asa and his team are still counting their profits.

“...And that makes it 400 gold Dragons.” he placed the last coin on the last of six towers of coins “hmmm… Well, whose turn is it to have the extra part?” He asked looking around his comrades, of course, he was referring to the cut that would normally go for Scythebleed. But since he never showed any necessity for money--or any kind of necessity for that matter--they decided to roll turns on who will get the extra cut.

“Dirog had it last time…” Eleone begins “so that means I’m the last on the line. So it’s my turn, Asa.” she rose her hand slightly.

“ah, right. so that makes one hundred for me, one hundred for Dirog and two--” they heard screams and sounds huge commotion outside “what was that?” he exited the base’s second lunge with the rest of his team quickly following behind him to see for themselves the source of the worrisome ruckus. “What in the names… of the gods is happening…??” he said as he saw with shock and confusion as now not only monsters in the shape of walking corpses were flooding the streets but also winged demons with three eyes and three horns were descending to join in the slaughter of fleeing people.

“what is--...” He shook his head and decided to save all of his questions for later, now was the time to think quickly and act eve faster. “Dirog, Scythebleed, Eleone. Spread out towards the base’s entrance, then look for each other and meet me at the training camp. Kill as many creatures as you can, prioritize those who have live civilians in their clutches. get moving!” He commanded as each of his team took a separate route towards the same destination.

Eldritch evil was injected deep inside the land of the living like the venom of in the fangs of a snake. But destiny decreted that the antidote would be close to all of them.