Sunset and The Shadow

The for the next 3 days Sunset fell into a routine. She would have breakfast with Scathach. She would then practice her magic and doing things with her new body. Scathach would take her through martial arts basics for an hour then they would have lunch.

After lunch Sunset would walk to the library and read books there. Mostly focusing on learning about technology that didn’t exist in Equestria and the Earth’s history and societies. She would return to Scathach’s house for dinner.

She would again be watched unknowingly by crows from the moment she left Scathach’s house until she returned for dinner.

The fourth day she went through her routine again and went to the library. While Sunset was reading a book about motorbikes she was approached by a woman. She had pale skin, black lips and black eyes with no whites. She wore a large cloak made of black feathers with a hood which she removed from her head as she approached Sunset.

Sunset noticed her approach, put the book down and stood, facing the woman. She did not appear to be human due in no small part to her eyes; Sunset had never seen a human with eyes like those.

“Hello, Sunset Shimmer.” The woman stopped a few meters away from Sunset. “I am here to investigate a large amount of energy released nearby. I noticed that you did not exist in this world prior to this event. I am the Morrigan, and I want you to tell me about that event.”

“Why should I tell you?” Sunset asked sceptically.

“Because I can help you. You are new to this world; you do not know how it works. You have been learning about this world here in the library almost since you arrived. You should know by now that the humani register who everyone are. You are not registered so you cannot successfully live with the humani.

“Tell me about this energy and how you got here and I can help you. I could find you a shadowrealm to live or make it so you can live with the humani.”

“So you know about the shadowrealms,” Sunset asked. The Morrigan nodded. “Do you know about magic and the elders?”

“I’m Next Generation.”

“Very well. The magical energy surge you felt would have been caused by my arrival in this shadowrealm. I come from a place called Equestria. I came here through a portal in a mirror which changed my species into this.

"I had been learning and using magic since I was a child. I want to return however that is not currently an option. The portal only opens every thirty moons.

“So I would like to stay in this city and take you up on your offer.”

“I will need information on you to be able to have you registered.” The Morrigan pulled out a piece of paper from her cloak. “Name: Sunset Shimmer correct?” Sunset nodded. “Age?”

“Nineteen years old.”

“Date of birth?”

“13th of Summer.”

“13th of June then. Parents names.”

“None. I am an orphan. I don’t know who my parents were.”

“Address.”

“I’m staying with the person who found me, at the moment.”

“We should get you an apartment then. And we should say you were born in this city. This should be done in a few days. We should meet again next week at a similar time, outside the library and get you an apartment.”

The Morrigan turned to leave then turned back. “Please don’t tell Scathach that you met me. We don’t get along.”

***

The week passed with Sunset once again following her routine. She had breakfast with Scathach. Practiced using her magic and her new body; including how to do things like write; in the morning. Then for the hour before lunch she learnt martial arts from Scathach. They had lunch together; they never ate any meat, even though Sunset had learnt that humans usually eat meat.

After lunch Sunset walked to the library and spent the rest of the afternoon learning things about the world. During this week she especially looked for information about The Morrigan, Scathach and Prometheus to find if she could trust them. She even learnt how to use the computers in the library to use the internet to learn about them.

She found that the Morrigan was worshiped as a goddess of death and destruction. She was often seen at battlefields and she along with her sisters: Macha and Badb; was often called the Crow Goddess.

She found that the Morrigan and her sisters were often seen in Ireland and sometimes in Scotland. She also found that Scathach and her sister Aoife had been seen in Scotland and Ireland but left and were not seen in either place again.

Prometheus was seen as a godlike being who stole fire from the gods and gave it to humanity. While Scathach was usually seen as a great warrior who often trained humans who became famous exceptionally skilled warriors.

Sunset knew that these tales like that of Princess Luna/Nightmare Moon would be based on truth but are likely extremely exaggerated and changed by the passage of time.

From this it seems likely that Prometheus helped the humans against the elders; probably the dark elders; and Scathach and The Morrigan helped humans in battle, likely by training them or by using their abilities to help in the battle. And the two were likely helping opposite sides so they have a grudge with each other.

The Morrigan likely was worshiped as a goddess of death and destruction because she was often seen at battlefields not because she caused immense amounts of death and destruction.

On the day that Sunset was to meet The Morrigan again she went through her routine like normal until she arrived at the library where she waited outside for The Morrigan to arrive.

She was only waiting for a few minutes when The Morrigan arrived. She was once again wearing her black feather cloak but she was using its hood to hide her face.

They walked towards each other and The Morrigan said, “I have several apartment options for you to choose. I own the buildings so you don’t need to pay. The closest one is this way.”

The Morrigan started walking down away from the library. They walked for about one kilometre with little conversation and stopped in front of a skyscraper. “Here we are,” The Morrigan said smirking at Sunset’s stunned expression.

“You own this?” Sunset asked shocked.

“Yes. Come on.” The Morrigan walked inside. After a moment Sunset followed. The Morrigan pulled two cards out from under her cloak and showed them to the security guard. Then walked to the elevator and Sunset followed.

Once Sunset had entered The Morrigan pressed the button for the second top floor. She gave Sunset one of the two cards she had shown the guard. It showed a photo of herself and her name along with saying that she occupied the luxury suite on the second top floor.

“What’s this?” she asked.

“It’s your identification card to say that you occupy the luxury suite up here and to tell security to let you in.”

The elevator stopped and they exited it. There was a small hallway with a locked door at the end. The only other door was next to the elevator and led to the stairs. They walked towards the door; Sunset following the Morrigan. They stopped outside the door. The Morrigan pulled a key from under her cloak and opened the door with it.

They then entered the apartment. Immediately inside the door was another corridor, this one had a few doors along the sides. The Morrigan led Sunset in the first door on the right which contained a large room with several couches in it facing a large television. The Morrigan walked in and sat down on a couch next to a coffee table with several papers on it. She gestured to another couch next to the coffee table. “Come, sit down.”

Sunset sat down on the offered couch and glanced at the papers.

The Morrigan gave Sunset a few papers. “These papers include your birth certificate and proof of education.” The Morrigan continued to explain the papers to Sunset for quite some time. They then moved on to talking about the apartment.

The Morrigan told Sunset that she was staying in the penthouse in the floor above. She also explained how it was the closest accommodation she could offer to Scathach’s home. She told Sunset about the parking lot for if Sunset got a vehicle and showed her around the apartment.

The apartment included the living room with television and couches with a large window along one wall. A kitchen with oven, microwave, stove, fridge, freezer and many other cooking implements. Two smaller – but still larger than Scathach’s – bedrooms and a large one.

The large bedroom contained a very large bed; Sunset thought it was about the size of Princess Celestia’s bed or even larger; a large walk in wardrobe, an armoire, a desk on one side and a large window showing the skyline.

There was a large empty room which she could use to practice her magic and martial arts moves that Scathach teaches her. A dining room with a large square table and an amazing view of the bay from the window.

There were also several bathrooms including an giant one coming off the main bedroom and a laundry to wash her clothes; which she needed to get more of. There was also a phone in the main bedroom, the dining room and the lounge room.

The Morrigan also gave Sunset a mobile phone telling her it was so that they could contact each other whenever they needed to. The Morrigan’s phone number was stored in a contact named ‘Morrigan’.

Sunset thanked her and accepted but told her that she would need to return to Scathach’s home to tell her, have dinner and thank her for her hospitality.

Sunset returned to Scathach’s home at a similar time to usual. They were having dinner when Sunset said, “I have found my own apartment. So you can have your bed back. I can move out today. I also got a mobile phone for here’s the number.” She gave Scathach a piece of paper which she had written her phone number on.

“How did you get the money to do so?”

“I sold some gold coins and gems that I brought from Equestria.” Sunset lied. I should probably do that soon. She thought

“Ok.”

“I would like to continue with my martial arts training though. Would it be alright if I come over around the time we’ve done it so far and we continue to do it?”

“That would be fine.”

“Thanks.”

After dinner Sunset returned to her apartment taking all of her things – mostly just necessities like a toothbrush – that she had received from Scathach with her. Shortly after she had put her things away, she heard a knock on the door.

She opened the door and The Morrigan was standing there. She had several bags with her. “I thought that you might need some of these things and we could talk.”

Sunset let her in and helped her with the bags. They took the bags into the main bedroom and placed them on the bed. Many of the bags contained clothes; a black leather jacket, several pairs of jeans, a pair of black leather pants, several T-shirts mostly of cyan, red or black colouring, a pair of black leather laced boots, a pair of black sneakers, several bras and panties again mostly black, and several pairs of socks again mostly black.

The other bags included some food, of several different types, a teal towel, shampoo, conditioner, a toothbrush, toothpaste, a hairbrush and a charger for her phone.

Sunset put the items away while talking to The Morrigan about many different things. They talked about jobs and what sort Sunset should get but couldn’t decide. They talked about vehicles, cars and motorcycles in particular and licences for driving them. The Morrigan didn’t know how to drive them but she did know about how to get a licence for them.

Once Sunset had put away all of the items they moved into the lounge room and sat on the couches and talked. They talked more about themselves. Sunset talked about Equestria and why she went through the mirror. Telling The Morrigan about Celestia and how she used to be a unicorn.

The Morrigan on the other hand talked about her life in the past and her abilities. Neither told the other everything.

The Morrigan showed Sunset her wings and told her how she could fly with them. Sunset was not very surprised about that as she had read about The Morrigan and that she could fly but was not sure if it was true.

Eventually Sunset brought up her gold coins and gems and selling them. The Morrigan told her that she could find some people to sell to for the best price in a few days. And that she would take her to sell them to those people then.

They had already spent several hours talking and The Morrigan soon left and Sunset went to sleep.