Sunset and The Shadow

The day when The Morrigan would take Sunset to sell her gold and gems came quickly. Sunset spent the morning doing what she had done since she moved into her new apartment: She had breakfast, practiced her magic and using her new body for a few hours. She then walked to Scathach’s dojo where she spent an hour learning martial arts and had lunch.

Afterwards, instead of heading to the library to learn more about the world she met The Morrigan in the entrance of their apartment building. They then entered a black car driven by a homunculus – an artificial human like creature – that The Morrigan had created. It drove them for several kilometres and turned off the road onto a narrow rutted drive.

The driveway led to what at first glance appeared to be a small cottage but as they approached was revealed to be an enormous house built into the hill behind it. Sunset could see and feel warding spells and what she believed to be inhuman guards. The field of grass ended abruptly and the rest of the approach was over perfectly level terrain.

The homunculus parked the car in front of the house and Sunset and The Morrigan got out. Sunset saw an enormous cat of some kind walk out the open door as they approached and it lay on the ground to the side of the door.

The started walking towards the door when The Morrigan said, “Quetzalcoatl; the elder we are here to see will likely pay large amounts of money for the golden coins and may buy the gems as well.”

As they approached the door, a man came out of it. He was short and slender with copper coloured skin. He had a hawk-like nose and a full white beard. His eyes were solid black with no whites showing, like The Morrigan’s. He was simply dressed and smiled revealing his sharpened teeth.

“Good afternoon, Quetzalcoatl. It is a pleasure to meet you.” Sunset said bowing slightly.

Quetzalcoatl’s eyes widened and he glanced at The Morrigan briefly. She smirked at him. He replied, “The pleasure is mine. Come in and we can do business.” He turned around and Sunset saw that he had a feathered serpent-like tail.

Both Sunset and The Morrigan followed him. They stopped in a gloomy room, Sunset found it a little difficult to see so she quickly cast a spell to improve her night vision. Neither Quetzalcoatl nor The Morrigan seemed to be affected by the darkness. The room was filled with what appeared to be historical artefacts.

Quetzalcoatl sat on a curved stone stool with carved grinning faces on it. Sunset sat on a wooden throne facing Quetzalcoatl. The Morrigan stood to the side. Sunset and Quetzalcoatl were facing each other impassively.

After several moments of silence Sunset retrieved a bit from her bag. She showed it to Quetzalcoatl. On one side of the coin was a star shape and on the other was what appeared to be a unicorn’s head with a large wavy mane and a crown.

Quetzalcoatl studied the coin for several minutes, focusing mostly on the side with the unicorn like head. During which time his face displayed several different emotions; including interest and surprise for the most part although he did display several other emotions.

Eventually he spoke; his voice unnaturally level, “Where did you get this?”

“From where I came from: Equestria.” Sunset replied.

“That sounds like the kind of name Celestia would come up with.”

“How do you know about Celestia?” Sunset asked shocked.

“I was friends with her sister for a time. How is Luna doing these days.”

“Not well. She was trapped on the moon for a thousand years after trying to create eternal night. She was still trapped there when I left. Time seems to be different between the worlds or I travelled through time coming here by accident. So I don’t know how she is doing now.”

“Why would she do that? No matter. There were several other elders that went missing before the fall of Danu Talis like them.” He paused for a moment thinking. “What about Discord? He disappeared at the same time as them.”

“He caused chaos and harmed people so Princess Luna and Princess Celestia turned him to stone.”

“How? He was one of the Great Elders. One of the most powerful too.”

“They used the Elements of Harmony. A set of powerful magical items which they used to defeat many threats to Equestria; including Luna when she turned into Nightmare Moon.”

“I thought that they were destroyed. Anyway back to business. How many of these coins do you have?”

“Fifty of them and many gems as well.”

“I will buy the coins for five million American Dollars. Is that acceptable?”

Sunset glanced at The Morrigan who seemed to be shocked but trying to hide it.

“I accept.” Sunset answered.

“Do you have a bank account?” Quetzalcoatl asked.

The Morrigan quickly answered, “I opened one for her. Here.” She gave Quetzalcoatl a piece of paper with the details he needed to give the money into her bank account. She then gave Sunset a credit card. “Do you know what this is and how to use it?” Sunset nodded. “Here’s the pin.” She gave Sunset a piece of paper with a four-digit number written on it.

Sunset gave Quetzalcoatl the pouch of bits and Sunset and The Morrigan left the building. They got in the car and the driver drove them back to their apartment building.

After several minutes of driving, The Morrigan asked, “Where did you learn to do that?”

“What do you mean?” Sunset replied.

“How to deal with people like Quetzalcoatl.”

“I helped Princess Celestia with diplomats occasionally. You learn these skills quite quickly when dealing with gryphons and dragons.”

“You seem like you would do well in this world. When you’re older you might be able to find an elder who would offer you immortality.”

***

Several months had passed since Sunset had met Quetzalcoatl and it was now late May. She had continued learning martial arts from Scathach and had started to learn sword fighting. She now payed Scathach for her training. She had received a motorcycle licence and bought herself a high quality motorcycle with the money she had received from Quetzalcoatl. She had also bought herself two short swords.

Her motorcycle was coloured black and red; her helmet was black. Her swords were straight and double-edged.

She had become quite proficient in riding her motorcycle and according to Scathach she was adequate with her swords.

She had spent several evenings a week with The Morrigan teaching each other about magic that the other doesn’t know how to do. They also spent this time talking and getting to know one another.

Sunset taught The Morrigan how to use telekinesis and helped her improve her efficiency with several other aspects of magic. She tried to teach her how to teleport but The Morrigan was not able to learn more than the theory.

The Morrigan taught Sunset how to harden her aura around her body making it function as armour. Sunset could do so, however she was not very good at it.

Sunset had also been writing messages to Princess Celestia in her journal several times each week but she was yet to receive a response.

At night on the 29th of May when she was going to bed she heard something buzzing; as if it was vibrating. She checked her phone which did not have any new messages. She got up off her bed and looked around the room for what it could be.

She took a few seconds to realise that it was her journal; which she left in her bag when she wasn’t writing in it, so that she always had it with her. She opened the journal to the new message.

The message wasn’t written in Celestia’s curving script. It read, I am Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship. Who is this?

Sunset’s heart sunk. Celestia gave her journal away. There was a new princess. She didn’t know if Celestia was okay. Or even alive.

She calmed herself down and wrote back. My name is Sunset Shimmer. Do you know Princess Celestia? Is she all right?

She waited for the response barely keeping herself from panicking. It came shortly afterwards.

Princess Celestia was my teacher. She was fine a few hours ago when I saw her last. Why are you asking?

Princess Celestia was my teacher too. She basically raised me. What year is it there?

What do you mean what year is it? It’s been three years since the return of Princess Luna.

“I’ve been gone for twenty-three years.” Sunset yelled, panicking.

Are you still there? The journal read.

Sunset calmed down and replied: Yes. I asked that because I have been in another dimension for a few months and apparently time runs at different speeds. Or there is another cause for me to be gone for twenty-three years; assuming Princess Luna returned when I the prophecy said she would. Sunset wrote.

She continued, Would you please show Princess Celestia my previous messages to her.

Of course.

Thank you.

Sunset stayed up waiting for Celestia to write her back. After two hours of waiting she received another message. It was written in Celestia’s flowing script and read: Sunset, are you there?

Yes. Sunset replied.

I read a few of your most recent messages. I will read the rest later. Where are you?

In a place called the Earth shadowrealm. Apparently you have been here before.

How did you get there?

I went through the mirror when you kicked me out. I was taken in by Scathach and helped by her, her uncle Prometheus and The Morrigan. I met Quetzalcoatl he was the one who remembered you.

I’m so sorry. I should never have kicked you out. Why haven’t you returned yet though? It’s been so long since you left.

I received a message from you saying it had been two years, after I was here for only four days. I have not been here long enough for the portal to open yet. I also learnt that the people from here don’t know about Equestria or how to get there so I can’t get help from them. The portal didn’t seem to send me to the world that Starswirl wrote about so I don’t even know if I can go back or if the portal malfunctioned sending me here.

How are you doing?

I am doing fine. I have two people I believe are friends of mine. I sold my bits to Quetzalcoatl to get money for this world and I am now rich. Most people in this world don’t even believe magic exists and the ones that do seem to have learnt how to do it very differently from what we learn in Equestria.

Sunset continued: The portal changed me into something that appears to be the same as the majority species in this world: the humans. How are you doing? Is it good to have your sister back?

I am doing quite well. Yes, it is good to have Luna back. I have to go talk with diplomats and nobles now. Stay safe and keep in touch. I will see if I can find a way back to Earth so you can come home.

Goodnight, Celestia. Sunset wrote and closed the journal. She took a deep breath and went to bed.