Coffee hadn’t helped. Not even the incredible concentrated (and ridiculously expensive) variants of the caffeine laden ambrosia could keep her awake forever. Nothing could, Celestia knew that beyond any doubt, but she just wasn’t ready to sleep yet. Not with what awaited her every time she closed her eyes. The administrator shuffled her way into the school on her sister’s heels, barely acknowledging the subdued and concerned greeting from their secretary before she headed into her office and shut the door firmly behind her. It was only Wednesday, and the week was shaping up to be almost as bad as the one before, even without mind controlling monster-girls.

Celestia set her bag down next to her desk, practically falling into her chair. Her eyes sought out her inbox, frowning at the small stack of letters sitting there waiting to be opened. More resignations, she suspected, if the trend from so far in the week continued.

“I hate to be the bearer of bad news, ma’am, but these were dropped off for you this morning.” Raven extended a stack of plain white envelopes all bearing her name. “Sands, Starflower, Pots, Dew, Grease, plus Wrench, Hauler, and two of the new gentlemen from maintenance all left me these with their…’regrets.’” The firm and orderly woman frowned, expressing how she felt about the supposed regrets. “Quite unprofessional, if you ask me, and I can’t imagine it will look good on employment records for most of them.”

Brows furrowed, Celestia took the stack and pulled out the first one, scanning the contents. It was a letter of resignation from Elbow Grease, the pleasant, middle aged man who had been the school’s auto-shop teacher, citing ‘personal reasons’ for vacating his position, effective immediately. The next was a nearly identical letter from Terracotta Pots, the art teacher, and after that followed a much less subtle one from White Sands, a geography teacher from the junior high section of the school, who outright cited ‘hazardous working environs’ as his reason for leaving. The rest of the letters were in a similar vein, excuses for a plethora of teachers and staff forcibly terminating their employment at her school.

The principal raised exhausted eyes towards her secretary and old friend. “Raven,” she asked quietly, “…I assume you’ve already gotten substitutes for most of these, so I’m not even going to ask that. What…what’s the attitude of the faculty overall? I can’t protect the students here if enough people leave to warrant an investigation by the school board.”

Raven shook her head. “I think it’s too early to tell, Celestia, but it might be a good idea to organize a staff meeting to figure out how to handle this whole thing. This isn’t like the dance, where it was six or eight of us, and between Doodle and Harshwhinny, everything was kept under wraps because who would believe a story about a demon girl and a magic crown? This was the whole school, janitors, teachers, lunch ladies, both high and junior high students, everyone. We all saw it. We were all there….and some people aren’t going to handle the trauma of it as well as others.”

“…And they’re going to be looking at me for the answers.” Sighing and running a hand through pastel colored hair, Celestia closed her eyes. “…I…need to weigh my options before I call a meeting. Take my calls, and could you get me some more coffee? I think I’m going to need it.” Barely waiting for Raven’s response, she entered her office and shut the door.

In the end, she couldn’t blame the members of staff who resigned for it—the previous week had been a nightmare unlike any other for the staff of the combined schools she oversaw. Where the monsters wearing the shape of teenage girls had only nudged the students into an emotional frenzy, they’d actually had to outright take control of the adults, trapping her, her sister, and the rest of her staff inside their own minds, able to see and hear and smell and think, but unable to take charge of their bodies’ actions, or the words that fell from their mouths…and then, to add to the horror, they’d spent the week’s nights tormenting and torturing their captives emotionally and psychologically, as if it were some great game.

Some of the things they’d done would leave scars on their victims that might never heal, and they had been very good at dredging up things better left buried. They’d also gone out of their way to pit the adults against each other, to stir up natural strife during the moments of reprieve from the magic puppeteering their bodies. Celestia was absolutely certain that some of the teachers would never forgive her for the choices she had been forced to make.

“What?” Celestia stared at Adagio in disbelief.

“You heard me perfectly clear. You get the chance to pick who we use as our meal tonight, from all these lovely members of your staff.” She waved a hand lazily at the people all sitting obediently in rows on the floor like a set up of children’s toys, her serpentine eyes glinting with malice.

The blood drained from her face, and the principal threw her arms wide. “Then I choose me. Leave them alone.”

“Mmm…Sorry,” Aria deadpanned, leaning casually against a nearby wall. “It doesn’t work that way. You have to pick someone else—and don’t waste your time with the geezer in the tacky toupee or the woman whose face can cut glass. They’re already dead inside and I want a real meal.”

Tacky…oh. Doodle. As she looked across the faces of her staff, she could see the cantankerous history teacher with his normal scowl breaking through the blank expression of their tormentors’ control. The other had to be Harshwhinny; in all the years she’d worked with that woman, she’d never seen her crack even a tiny smile. She shook her head and glared at the Sirens in defiance. “I refuse. You can have me, or no one. I won’t do that to my staff, any more than I would do it to one of my students.”

“Ooo! The students! That’s a better idea, Dagi! We could go to one of their houses and feed on them instead!” Sonata clapped her hands happily, before her own expression twisted into one that would haunt more than a few people’s nightmares for weeks to come. “…imagine what we could do with a whole family at our disposal!”

“…That is an idea,” the lead Siren hissed with interest.

Rubbing her face, Celestia took a sip of her coffee. She knew Coach Will understood—he’d clapped on the shoulder so hard on Monday it had almost knocked her off her feet, and acknowledged her actions with respect instead of anger—but she couldn’t say the same for Turner, Cheerilee, or any of the other teachers she’d been made to single out over the week to keep the children relatively unharmed. It had been a terrible position to be in, having to choose between the men and women who worked diligently for her to educate young minds and the very young people that were entrusted into their care on a daily basis.

Now she had to figure out how to address those subordinates about the whole matter in the staff meeting after school that very day, and she had no earthly clue what she was supposed to say. Raven had been right; the fall dance disaster with Sunset had been one thing, with only a bare handful of adults present as chaperones and even fewer who’d been conscious to witness the magic that had happened. If she hadn’t been looking out the front doors when Sunset’s transformation had occurred, she herself might not have believed real magic was involved. This had spared no one in either school, and with her position as senior administrator over the combined campus, she had to not only field questions, but have a game plan for the staff going forward. There was a strong possibility that this was not the last they would see of strange events and magical mayhem. She needed more information. She needed advice. She needed more coffee. She needed—

“Tia?” Her door opened to admit Luna.

“Luna,” she responded, trying to put her mask back on, to cover how worn she was, with only moderate success.

Her sister gave her a long look. “You know, you’re usually the one that has to remind me that caffeine is no substitute for sleep. Are you certain you don’t want to talk about it? I’m willing to listen.”

A scowl crossed Celestia’s face. “I’ll be fine, Luna,” she replied tightly. “I don’t want to go retreading old ground. I’ve already been there a dozen times and more, and its something I don’t feel like dragging out to show you.” The older sibling took another swallow from her mug, this time to avoid her sister’s gaze. “What did you need from me? I’m still trying to sort paperwork and today’s resignation letters.”

Luna arched a brow at her, before accepting the topic diversion to look through the letters. “…three more?”

“All maintenance staff this time, thankfully. If we lose any more teachers, the school board is going to be crawling all over us wanting to know what is going on.” Celestia’s stomach gave a nasty lurch in time with a stab of pain shooting through her temples, and she swallowed against the rising gorge in her throat. Several deep breaths through her nose managed to bring the nausea down enough that she felt she could keep the contents of her stomach from ending up all over her desk.

Contents? What contents—you’ve not even tried eating since yesterday. Even that stew that Luna produced from goodness knows where didn’t stay down long enough for any of it to actually get in your system, she railed at herself, before she realized what she was doing. Great…and now I’m talking to myself. You’re losing it Celestia. Get a grip!

She pinched the bridge of her nose, forcing her eyes up to meet Luna’s, half certain that she’d find condemnation and anger in her sister’s unwavering gaze. “I’m sorry, Lulu…I’m at my wits end—I can’t even figure out what I’m going to say at the meeting today. How do I even start? There’s nothing in any handbook that teaches us how to handle magical monsters invading the school, otherworldly visitors, or portals to another realm.”

Dark eyes regarded her. “…Have you spoken to Sunset Shimmer yet?”

Pain, guilt, and shame flooded her, and Celestia shook her head sharply. “I have not. I can’t face her, Luna, not yet. Not after how badly we hurt her—those psychopaths targeted her on purpose and used us to do it! And…and it’s because of me. It’s my fault they did that…”

“What is it about Sunset Shimmer that makes her special to you?” Adagio purred, circling Celestia like a shark, sharp teeth bared in the mockery of a smile.

“She’s one of my students, the same as any other. I value all the young people in my school.” Celestia kept her mask firmly in place, not wanting to give anything away.

The frizzy haired female stepped uncomfortably close, well inside the woman’s personal space bubble. “You’re lying,” she countered casually, so close that she could feel the heat of her breath on her cheek. Sharp nailed fingers gripped her chin hard enough to draw blood. “…I can feel your emotions, ape. Your anger…your pain…your suffering is so much more deliciously exquisite when she is in the room…It’s the flavor of some personal attachment, flavored by tragedy… Why is that, I wonder?”

Celestia spat in her face, making Adagio backhand her with a sneer. “You’re as delusional as you are obnoxious,” the principal bit out, spitting blood from her mouth. Meanwhile, Luna let out a hissing snarl and series of guttural words from deep in her throat, trapped in a chair while Aria stood nearby. The pigtail wearing monster rolled her eyes at Luna.

“Klingon? Really? All the languages you stupid monkeys already have, and you choose to invent nonsense ones to spew obscenities in…Pathetic. This is why your species is barely even useful as food.”

Adagio spared them a glance, then narrowed her eyes again at Celestia, those cold orbs glittering.”Oh yessss,” she murmured, a sibilant note to her words. “Fight me, pleassse…It makes the taste of your frustration and anger so much sweeter…so much anger…over one useless reject from Equestria… What? Are you one of those humans who entertains your filthy primate passions with your species’ juveniles?”

Revulsion twisted in her guts, and the rage coiling in her breast blew past white hot into something so cold it burned. She lunged as far forward as the magic holding her body still would let her, wanting nothing more than to strike this horrible monster in the guise of a teenager with every ounce of strength she had. Her voice came out as icy and chilling as Adagio’s had. “If you can even think something so disgusting, then you know nothing of me! Nothing!”

Adagio took a half step back out of her range, but came back just as quickly. “…Oooh…I seem to have hit a nerve…Your school’s pet pony means that much to you…it’s why you were so quick to try and defend her, even after all she did…” She gripped Celestia’s face again, slit pupiled eyes boring into her. “…but it’s more than the way I’ve seen you monkeys protect your fucktoys…no…there’s something else…something old and painful in you. I can feel it…” Her body shuddered from something that seemed akin to ecstasy, eyes darkening as they focused on her more intently. “Tell me…”

“Go to Hell,” Celestia told her.

The play had melted away into pure ugliness, and the monster before her twisted the proverbial knife sadistically. “…Tell me…or I’ll have one of the boys out there teach your sister just how I like my meals to taste…It’s been so long since I’ve eaten hate flavored by violation. It would be a feast!”

Horrified, she glanced towards her sister. Luna threw herself against the magic binding her, hands flexed into claws as she jerked and twisted, as if she were having some kind of seizure in the chair. More obscenities flew from her lips, in every language she could say them in, directed at their torturers, telling them where they could take that idea and stick it.

Aria’s lips curled into a dark smile, the first expression of its kind to cross her features the entire week. “We could use that Garble character,” she pointed out. “We spent so much time winding him up, and these two kicked him out before he could take all that hate out on Shimmer. That way, all the time we put into him wouldn’t go to waste. Besides, I bet he’d like revenge on the woman who expelled him.” She dragged a sharp fingernail down Luna’s cheek, whispering, “You should hear some of the creative ideas on how he really wants to put female monkeys in their ‘proper place.’”

The sisters locked eyes for a moment, and though she tried to hide it, Celestia could see real fear in Luna. She knew then what she had to do. She couldn’t let them hurt her younger sister like that. Her shoulders tensed and she turned her gaze back towards Adagio. “Fine. It’s because—”

Magic crackled in the air, and the air froze in her lungs as control was wrenched away by the creature before her. The sadistic smile grew, and she leaned closer, whispering for Celestia alone, “I win.” And then Celestia found herself answering the question against her own will, spilling her past before the two monsters in the room and her wide-eyed, shocked sister.

Luna placed a hand on her shoulder. “It wasn’t your fault, Tia. If it hadn’t been Sunset Shimmer, it would have been someone else. You cannot keep blaming yourself for that. She doesn’t, and she’s worried about you. She came by the office already, asking about you, her and her friends. Miss Pie delivered a basket of cupcakes for the whole staff, and I saved you one for lunch, if you want it.”

She shook off the gentle touch. “You can have it. I’m not hungry, Luna.”

Her sister crossed her arms over her chest. “You’re full of shit, Celestia. You won’t eat, you aren’t sleeping, and you’re hiding in your office as much as possible to avoid facing anyone. You need to get your shit together and stop trying to crucify yourself for something we had no control over. This magic? The monsters and otherworldly invading the campus? That’s bigger than you, or me, or any one of us, and its not exactly something we’ve been trained to handle…but punishing yourself isn’t going to solve the problem any more than it will actually make you feel better.”

Her control snapped, and she found herself half out of her chair, yelling at her sister. “And what am I supposed to do, Luna!? Just go out there and apologize for how those monsters tortured all the people around me for fun? Apologize for how I failed to do my job and protect the students and my staff? Perhaps do a fundraiser to offer as reparations for pain and suffering? How about when it happens again, when the next batch of monsters shows up at our doors? I can’t just keep relying on a group of teenage girls to save this school every time something goes wrong!” She drew in a shaky breath. “So tell me, Luna, what am I supposed to do?”

Shaking her head, Luna stepped away from her and turned to leave. She looked over her shoulder, deadly serious. “Talk. To. Sunset.” The door shut behind her with a ringing note of finality.

Celestia sank back into her chair with trembling legs. She wasn’t ready to face Sunset, not yet, not after all that happened. The last thing that Sunset had needed was even more reminders of the mother-figure she had run away from, and she was certain that, with all that had been said and done the previous week, she had more than resembled her royal counterpart.

Turning her chair so she could stare out the window, she found her gaze drawn to the marble statue that had stood for decades as the centerpiece and guardian of the school’s front lawn—long before she’d even been born. How something so pretty and innocuous could hold such a secret as a portal to another world, she could barely understand. Nothing about its polished, pale surface seemed unnatural or magical in any way, and the horse rearing in challenge at anyone approaching the campus seemed just like any equine that might be found on a farm…if a tad more regal than a plow-horse. Nothing about it called attention to the true nature of the stone.

Yet…it was there. She’d witnessed it herself, watched Sunset Shimmer transfigured into a horrific, demonic creature, seen the shining rainbow twice, witnessed Twilight Sparkle step with her dog through solid stone as if it were water. She’d had to deal with the aftermath of the formal, the crater, the front entrance…she’d been subjected to it the past week, only to come back into control in time to watch a winged unicorn made of stardust blast monsters with light at the behest of seven teenage girls, one of them their otherworldly refugee.

She could see her own faint reflection superimposed on the window glass while she looked out at the statue, and tried to imagine what her equine counterpart looked like. Her mind’s eye added a spiraled horn and pony ears like she’d seen on Sunset and her friends…and as an afterthought, one of those tacky Halloween crowns—Princesses wore crowns in that other world, or so it had been implied. For the moment, she could almost imagine she was talking to the otherworld version of herself.

“…We have a lot more in common than I want to admit, Princess, not the least of which is that we both failed them, in our own ways. What would they say to us, I wonder?” Tears welled in her eyes, spilling quietly down her cheeks in response to the familiar ache in her heart, while her fingers stroked over the charm bracelet she wore on one wrist. “…But it seems that I am doubly damned,” she wept in the silent loneliness of her office, “because I have failed your little sun as well, Princess.”

“But you didn’t.” Sunset Shimmer’s voice rang through her office, clear and firm.

The principal jumped in her seat, whipping back around to find Sunset standing in her doorway. Despite her amber skin being a somewhat washed out shade compared to its normal vibrancy that contrasted with the bruise-like darkness under her eyes, the teenager stepped forward with a confidence and grace in her steps that the older woman had never seen from her, even when she was the cocky, arrogant girl who sat at the top of the school’s social hierarchy, and certainly something she hadn’t been exhibiting in recent months after the fall dance. “Miss Luna sent for me, and Miss Raven let me in,” she offered with a faint smile, before her face became serious again. “You didn’t fail me, Principal Celestia. I knew it wasn’t you the whole time. I could see it, see you fighting them with everything you had, every step of the way, every moment they had control.”

Shutting the door gently behind her, Sunset moved across the room to join Celestia by the window, blue-green eyes a thousand miles away as she focused on the Wondercolt statue, staring as if she could see into both the world of her birth and her past. “…and she didn’t fail me either. I failed her, in ways impossible to count.”

Watching her, Celestia was struck by how much older than her years the girl appeared, and she found herself at a loss for how to respond. In that moment, she didn’t feel like a principal talking to one of her adolescent charges. It caused her emotions to churn wildly, especially the guilt eating away at her, the sight of a child so world-weary and battered that she seemed older than a woman pushing forty.

Silence stretched between them for several long minutes, before Sunset asked a question, her focus still on the statue. “How did you know that was her name for me?”

Celestia was going to answer her with the simple truth, that Luna had mentioned it, but the words dried up before they reached her throat. Instead, she found something far more personal falling from her lips, an admission that only one Celestia would know about another. “If she truly is my counterpart as you have explained…and if she was blessed with a child to guide and love…then there is nothing else she would have called you.”

Sunset did turn at that, a sharp movement accompanied by wide eyes filled with emotions too numerous to even begin to identify. The rest of her was perfectly still, from her booted feet on the cheap carpet to the amber skinned hand resting flat against the window pane and the other hanging in an awkward fist at her side. Those eyes stared at Celestia, but it was as if Sunset was not truly seeing her—something else reflected there, hidden behind the tears that refused to fall. For an instant, the older woman thought she saw the faintest outline of a horn and equine ears pricked forward towards her, and it struck her for the first time, the truth of the girl before her: she wasn’t a girl at all, or a human, but something otherworldly that humans had ascribed to wild magic and supernatural forces for centuries, caught between two worlds and two lives.

The moment felt as though it lasted an eternity and ended far too soon, as Sunset brought her hand up to dash the tears from her eyes before they could overflow. Her voice was thick with emotion when she spoke, but the hint of a smile quirked at her lips. “…Everything I have, everything I am, everything I grew up knowing…It all came from her. She taught me to walk, to talk, to read, to use my magic… Even my name comes from her—I have no idea what name, if any, my parents gave me when I was born. Sunset Shimmer was the name she gave me, and hers is the face in my earliest memory, lit by the rising sun.”

“She made me who I am, and trust me, a Sun Goddess casts a surprisingly long shadow. I know that better than anyone…” Sunset shook her head. “There was a time where I knew Princess Celestia better than just about anypony else alive in Equestria, could read her in a way most ponies could only dream of. That last night…when we fought…I hurt her. I know I did. I said the most awful, most hateful thing possible to her, all because I wanted to hurt her like I felt she was hurting me.” Taking a deep breath, she forged ahead. “I told her that I wished she’d never found me.”

Celestia brought a hand to her mouth, the words carrying a weight she wasn’t sure Sunset could understand. Before she could respond, the teen continued speaking. “…It hurt her. I know it did, even though I’d already turned my back on her.” She stepped closer to Celestia carefully. “I know what it looks like when she is hurting…and it's why I know you’re hurting now, Principal Celestia. Please…will you let me help you?”

Author's Note

Okay...So.

Yes, the Sirens were sadistic, evil monsters. I've mentioned that I was playing them a lot darker than the movie presented, and this is where you see that a bit. They did a lot of damage to the adults while they were riling up the kids.

I've been excited to get to this interlude for a long time--since I wrote it...back in February? Even though its the human Celestia and not the Princess, I like the ability to use the human version to really showcase how much Princess Celestia's nature has actually rubbed off on Sunset Shimmer...that in a lot of ways, Sunset is her mother's daughter, even if it was never official.

This is also a chapter that I listened to music while I wrote it, which is responsible for the title being what it is. I have a "writing playlist" I use, and its mostly an eclectic mix of rock and alternative and such...and as I was starting on the part between Sunset and Celestia, the song "Helios" by Cruxshadows came on...and I was just like "hmmm. Hello song that reminds me of Sunset."

And really, "Unconquered Sun" for the title of an Interlude about both Sunset and a Celestia? Cmon...It doesnt get much more Sun themed than Sunbutt, Sunbutt jr, and Monkey Sunbutt.

There might also be a few Last Unicorn references squirreled away in here. Somewhere.