Life among humans, magical or otherwise, could be frustrating. They needed clothes, and more regular cleaning than ponies, and the weather was wild and unpredictable, and their society had evolved to reflect this. The rules and expectations tasted more of suspicion rather than precaution.

The society, the metaphorical house of humans, compared to Equestrians’, looked to Sunset like a mansion built out of junk, with the door knocker missing, the windows boarded up, and what looked like traps every few steps.

Sunset sat in a busted folding chair next to the trunk of her DeSoto in the afternoon, the sounds of the freeway constant in the distance, rummaging through her shoulder bag, and sighed.

A couple of money notes and a few coins of wizarding currency. Sunset was very nearly out of funds, and selling her possessions was off the table, few and magical that they were.

She did have her new automobile, but that wasn’t something she suspected she was actually legally allowed to own, since she wasn’t a citizen of the nation she was in, nor considered old enough to own a vehicle like that.

Muggles also relied on established supply chains more rigidly than ponies did, which made sense. Food, for example, was produced, and inspected by authorities, in bulk, and a lot of muggle technology could look good on the outside and only be revealed to be non-functional when plugged into an electrical outlet.

In Equestria, it wouldn’t exactly be wonderful to be roaming the countryside as a pauper, but even as a foal you could knock on the door of some farm or something and just say that you’ve decided to take to the road longer than your means allowed, and that you were willing to work for some meals, a cushion to sleep on, and some supplies for the road, and you’d probably get all that along with help to orient yourself and the offer to collect the local authorities if you needed their assistance.

But that wasn’t how it worked on Earth. The farms were all worked on by a small number of individuals and their machines. Besides, judging from what she had picked up about food production, harvest only happened once a year and it wasn’t due for months.

She got up again, standing among the trees next to her fuchsia-colored car which had no business getting up on a wooded hill and being hidden in the vegetation like it was, and strolled down the streets of… wherever she was.

The door to the pub jingled, and the only occupants, a single old man in the far corner and one middle-aged man behind the bar, looked at Sunset as she casually strolled up and sat down on a barstool, having decided to take the same approach at getting advice as she had two years ago in London; Ask a stranger behind a counter.

“Well, good evenin’, little girl,” he said, in a friendly yet stand-offish way.

“Good evening, uh… average sized gentleman,” Sunset replied.

The man behind the counter raised his eyebrows, before scoffing, amused. “Hah. I guess I deserve that. So, what are you doing in here by yourself? Waiting for your parents? Want a fizzy drink?”

“Yes, but I don’t have a lot of money. Now, what would you do if you were an alien wizard who needs some pocket money, but you can’t conjure it up, and you don’t want to steal anything, but you can still do magic, like repairing stuff?”

The bartender’s eyebrows raised up again, and he gave Sunset a long look.

“I’m serious,” Sunset gently urged.

The bartender shook his head slightly, and decided to play along. “Uh…” he said, scratching his balding head and putting on a thinking face. “I would, uh… go to a landfill, find some broken things there, repair them, and then sell them at a pawn shop.”

Sunset snapped her fingers and pointed triumphantly at the bartender. “That’s it! Excellent. I’ll have that drink now. To go.”

The bartender gave the blonde and redhead girl in front of him a confused look as he undid the bottle cap of an orange flavored fizzy drink and handed it to her.

“Thanks!” she said, and left some money on the counter, before walking briskly out of the pub.

The bartender looked down and saw that it was twice the price of the drink. “Wait!” he called after her, but she was already gone.

He shared a look with his regular in the corner, who had followed the exchange, and they both shrugged.

—

Sunset chuckled to herself as she took the last sip of the orange soda, realizing that she was grateful for the long days, and thus sunsets, of summer in this place, as she looked out the window on the driver's side of the car.

Far, far below her, was a city, and muggle cities had, just like the man had mentioned, landfills.

She spotted it, and concentrated, making double sure that the magic that made the car the same color as the sky around her was still in effect, before descending.

Like before, she set the car down on a small, forested hill, which, if muggles saw it, would perplex them as to how a car, especially one that heavy, could have gotten there.

The sun was low in the sky, slowly shifting the sky around it to be orange and red, as she walked out of the treeline and onto the garbage disposal site.

“Alrighty,” she said, and cracked her knuckles, accompanied by nothing but the sound of rooks and seagulls in the distance, as they searched for morsels of thrown away food among the trash.

Ironically, it was in muggle society where Sunset had the most opportunity to flex her magical abilities.

She aimed her hands at an old armchair, and it floated up into the air, whereupon the upholstery started unweaving itself rapidly until it was two separate entities; a frame and a mess of fabric.

The frame fell to the ground, and Sunset aimed her finger at the fabric, conjuring a ball of boiling hot water floating in the air, which she shoved the fabric into and cleaned it thoroughly.

The water was dropped onto the ground, and the fabric started reforming itself into a rough protective suit.

Pretty soon, it was a full body covering that slid over Sunset’s body, clothes and all, the head part forming into a balaclava that left only the eyes uncovered.

Sunset put her hands on her hips and stood with her legs wide, pleased at her creation.

“If you’re gonna be a garbage picker, be one in style,” she said, muffled by the rough suit.

The muggles had packed up and gone home. The workers were gone and Sunset had the place all to herself.

It would’ve been a strange sight for anyone who would’ve lingered though. A figure in a rough, brown cotton and polyester overall and balaclava digging roughly through the piles of discarded junk, tossing it behind her.

“Aha! Paydirt!” she shouted in triumph, and pulled out a machine with a cracked screen and built-in VCR. “I’m keeping this for myself.”

Once the sun had gone down, Sunset was pushing a magically repaired shopping cart along the ground back towards her car, filled with knicknacks, including but not limited to a suitcase, a three piece suit, a liquor cabinet in the form of a globe, a kitchen blender, a collapsable bed, a table saw, a shortwave semi-duplex radio, a broken mahogany table, over twenty ties, a stepladder, two barbeque grills, a Super Nintendo, and a cello.

After that followed a period of rigorous magical repairing and cleaning, and the scene after that would not have grown any less confusing for any muggles who happened upon her, but no one did.

Sunset was soaking in a bathtub she had found and cleaned out, sitting in the warm water and chewing on a piece of stale treacle tart as she watched her new television, which was propped up on a rough stand out made out of scrap wood and hooked up to the car’s generator which was being driven on its own by magic (she had fried the kitchen blender three times trying to get the electricity right).

There had been a cassette jammed in the player, which only came out after some insistent magical repairing and which Sunset suspected was the reason the machine had been thrown away in the first place. On the tape was a movie she was currently watching, and that movie began with a man teaching his son the most valuable lesson he could.

“... Because no one, no one in this world can you trust. Not men, not women, not beasts.”

The man held up his sword in front of his young son, and continued with reverence.

“... This you can trust.”

Sunset wondered what Celestia would say to that, but she couldn’t help but find the message appealing. That would be a kind of freedom, and the less you had to rely on others, the more free you would be, and freedom was a truly wonderful thing.

Sure, it could be scary, being completely free and thus alone, Sunset thought, but who was brave enough to be free if not Sunset Shimmer? She didn’t even need a home. One day by herself, and she had managed to scrounge together a decent residence. On wheels no less.

Now it also had a rough curtain made out of the fabric she had found, and the trunk was filled with an assortment of wares in good condition.

She was probably only going to get a fraction of the true value of the things she planned on selling, but at least this way she didn’t have to steal… again that is.

Sunset waved her fingers and reheated the water. She relaxed into it, and her eyes started to droop, when the events on the screen caught her attention again.

“Oh hey, been there, done that. Well, I guess Harry has.”

The heroes were in the middle of slaying an enormous snake, and unlike Harry, the one with the sword had arms that looked like stockings filled with cantaloupes.

Sunset pretend-swung a sword, splashing the water.

“Yeah, get ‘em!”

—

Ginny Weasley sighed to herself as she pulled up carrots from the gardening patch of the backyard of The Burrow.

She didn’t know if the other girls in her class had to help out with things like this at home as well. Maybe they did. Well, some people certainly didn’t. The rich kids in Slytherin definitely didn’t; they had house elves to do that for them.

But whether or not the others in Ginny’s class helped out with chores like this at home, she was certain they at least didn’t feel as poor as she did.

Ginny suddenly looked up, feeling a tingling sense in the back of her mind, almost like a presence.

Her breathing sped up, and she looked around, before realizing it was useless. A presence in her mind wouldn’t reveal itself in the real world. She knew that from experience.

But this presence felt different. It would’ve been hard for Ginny to explain it, but it didn’t feel friendly, and that was a good thing.

Tom Riddle had been friendly for a long time. He listened, he was patient, he was supportive, and when it felt like he was with Ginny when she wasn’t writing in his book, at first it had felt good, like a friend who would always be there.

It was only much later when she realized that what she had invited was very bad indeed, and then it was too late.

This presence though, didn't approach Ginny with a false smile and offered help while hiding a dagger behind it’s back. It was more like… years ago when she was little and had a bad dream. She had jumped out of her bed and ran down the stairs to the living room, and then all became well in the world when Charlie had looked up from a book on dragons with a kind face and asked, “What is it, Ginny?”

“Ginny, you’re not going to get the carrots to pull up themselves until you’ve graduated,” Molly, who was standing next to Ron and pulling up potatoes, reminded her daughter, when she noticed that Ginny was looking out into the distance with an expression she couldn’t quite identify.

“... Sunset is coming,” Ginny said, not seeming to realize she had spoken.

Molly looked at her daughter. “It… does that, yes.”

That seemed to snap Ginny out of almost like a trance, and she gasped. “What?” she said, before shaking her head, and looked a little embarrassed when she realized what she had just done. “No, not… the sunset, I meant… Sunset.”

Ron looked at his mother. Before last year he would’ve been happy for the chance for some playful ribbing of his sister, but after learning that she had been possessed by The Dark Lord himself, he was being careful not to do so when she was being mentally strange.

“Uhm… What makes you say… that?” he said, before following Ginny’s gaze to the edge of the forest, where from around the bend of the sunlight treeline came a large, fuchsia-colored muggle car, gently rumbling down the dirt path.

She shared another quick look with his mother, before turning back to the car and noticed now that the car was coming closer that, indeed, in the driver’s seat sat none other than Sunset Shimmer.

The three of them looked at the car and its driver in puzzlement, when they heard the familiar sound of someone magically travelling to their fireplace.

Seconds later, Arthur Weasley stepped out of the door, smiling at being home with his family again. “I’m home!” he said, before he noticed the car.

Molly had looked back and forth between the car and her husband’s face, gleaming with anticipation, and groaned.

—

The Burrow was the second wizarding residence that Sunset had been invited to, and she was pretty sure she preferred it to Malfoy Manor. It was kinda cramped and was a constant battlefield between the forces of five teenagers’ messiness and their mother’s constant cleaning up, but Sunset felt that she would always be more at home in a tower than a mansion.

A tower and mansion combined might be something to look into.

“Sit down, sit down,” Molly encouraged them all. “The others should be home soon.”

Sunset took a seat, and Ginny immediately sat down next to her.

Ginny had run up to Sunset and hugged after she stepped out of her car, which had taken Sunset by surprise.

Giving it a second of thought, it made more sense. Sunset had to admit that she had technically been instrumental in saving Ginny’s life just a few days ago.

This also explained the warmth with which her parents, and Ron, had greeted her. Mr and Mrs Weasley had immediately invited her in and asked her to sit down as they barraged her with praise and questions.

Fred and George had been sent out to get groceries, the ones that weren't grown in their home that is, and Percy had gone out to visit his girlfriend or something.

“Ron and Ginny, and Fred and George for that matter, have told us about you,” Mr Weasley said, sitting down on the other side of Sunset. He was the opposite of his wife. Tall and lean like Ron, and with a jovial disposition, while Molly was corpulent, and shorter in both stature and tolerance of her sons’ antics. “Already a very accomplished witch, they say.”

Sunset gave an uncertain glance around the table, making both Ron and Ginny blush and look away. Yes, Sunset knew that she was a magical prodigy, teachers from two separate worlds had made that clear enough, but she was never very certain how to respond to that being said out loud, and that had only gotten worse since leaving Equestria.

“Uh, I guess. I try not to compete with others,” she said, and addressed Molly, who was standing by the stove, preparing the dinner. “Seriously, I don’t want to intrude.”

“Nonsense,” Molly said. “You’re a guest. A guest who went into a basilisk’s lair to save my daughter. You’re getting as much dinner as you like. Besides, I don’t want to imply anything, but it doesn’t look like you have anything else to eat.”

Sunset had to admit that she was relieved. It’s true, she was out of food.

She wasn’t in danger of course. If she was, she would’ve resorted to more drastic measures, somewhat reluctantly, but now she didn’t.

“And you’re welcome to stay as long as you like. You can stay in Ginny’s room. That’s okay, isn’t it, Ginny?”

“Uh, sure,” Ginny said, looking a little preoccupied with her thoughts.

At this point, the doors opened, and Fred and George stepped in. “We’re back!”

“And we ran into a pair of goblins,” Fred said.

“They were in a spot of bother, having to hide from muggles who were looking for them,” George said.

“So we gave them spare cloaks that they could enchant.”

“Turns out that’s some obscure code of honour among goblins that means they owe us.

Fred held up a burlap sack. “And so they gave us a bag of vegetables.”

Ron looked at them, confused. “Really?”

“No, idiot. We bought them,” George said, giving Ron a disappointed look, and handed the sack over to Molly. “Here, mum.”

“Thank you, boys. We have a guest.”

They turned to see Sunset sitting by the table, blending in among the redheads.

“Hey, Sunset!” they both said, enthusiastically.

“When did you get here?”

“About ten minutes ago.”

“Are you staying?” George asked as they sat down at the table.

“Well uh…” Sunset said, looking around at all the faces looking at her warmly.

Sunset tried to be modest, at least when it came to certain subjects, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that these people were actually happy to see her.

Sunset shook her head. She had technically assisted in saving Ginny’s life. That could explain it.

“I… guess, for a while, if that’s okay.”

“Of course it is,” Mr. Weasley said, enthusiastically. “Now, I’m sorry, but I really have to ask something that’s been on my mind for some time now.”

Sunset braced herself. Deflecting probing questions could be hard as a guest among these people.

“Can you tell me about your auto mobile?”

“Oh,” Sunset said, internally sighing in relief. “Sure. I actually wanted to talk to you about that.”

Mr Weasley’s eyes lit up, and everyone else looked a little wary. “Really?”

“Yes. So uh… a flying car left Surrey last summer,” Sunset said, before being cut off by Fred.

“How do you know that?”

“I… have magic powers?” Sunset offered.

The twins rolled their eyes and Ron sniggered at them.

“Anyway, a car crashes into the grounds at Hogwarts, I saw a glimpse of it through the window one night… oh, and I also know it was yours because of the howler last year.”

Ron’s ears went red.

“So with some deductive thinking, I figured that you know how to enchant cars,” Sunset told Mr Weasley.

Arthur Weasley absolutely beamed with pride, before coughing into a fist. “Ahem! Well, I’ve dabbled some, yes. Part of the job, you see.”

“Cool. So uh… I have a car. Can you teach me how to enchant it?”

“Of course! Flight, camouflage, safety-arrangement and… uhm…” Mr Weasley said, before noticing that his wife was glaring at him with her hands on her hips.

“Arthur Weasley, you know full well that that would be illegal,” she said.

“But… not if it’s for the purpose of mere study,” Mr Weasley tried.

“Which you know full well is a flimsy loophole, since you’re behind it!”

Sunset thought she detected a hint of pride in Arthur’s face before his wounded puppy act continued.

“It… was essential for work.”

“Oh yeah, that would make sense,” Sunset noted. “You can’t be a bodyguard if you don’t know how bad guys attack people.”

“So long as we’re just studying,” Mr Weasley placatingly offered. “It’s perfectly within the law.”

Mrs Weasley didn’t look very convinced, but was cut off by George.

“You may want to finish this conversation soon. Percy will be here any moment, and you don’t want Mr Bureaucracy to hear this.”

Right then, there was a tap on the window, and everyone turned to see a screech owl looking expectantly at them.

“That’s Hermes,” Ginny noted.

Fred got up and let the owl in, taking the note from his leg and unfolding it.

“Percy is staying over at Penelope’s tonight.”

“Wonderful!” Mr Weasley said, and turned back to Sunset. “So if there are no objections, We can take a look at enchanting the aumotobile after dinner!”

“What’s Percy doing over at Penelope’s?” Ginny asked.

George shrugged. “Discussing plans for broomstick storage regulations or something.”

Everyone around the table laughed, and even Molly couldn’t hold back a little snigger before putting on a serious face.

“Dinner is served,” she said, and floated the food over to the table.

—

Sunset had to admit that life at The Burrow made a fine first impression on her. Mrs Weasley’s cooking was earth pony levels of excellent, and probing questions about what had happened in the Chamber of Secrets was easily intercepted by just appealing to the twins’ sense of humor or Mrs Weasley’s interest in muggle contraptions, not to mention their home was technically a tower.

After dinner she and Mr Weasley looked at her new car. He required some gentle but constant nudging to focus on placing enchantments and not just gush about the arcane workings of non-magic technology.

After a few hours, Sunset lay in a folding bed in Ginny’s room while a pajama-clad Ginny was crawling into hers.

Sunset had brought out Celestia’s book and was skimming through previous entries, a little sad at the lack of messages today from Celestia.

Celestia didn’t have to write every day of course, and Sunset prided herself on her rationality and so it wasn’t logical to feel abandoned after just a few days of silence.

Then again, Celestia hadn’t talked to Sunset yesterday, which was Sunset’s birthday.

“Sunset, you’re… sad.”

The strange, almost confused way in which Ginny said that made Sunset look over at Ginny, who was lying on her back, staring up into the ceiling, seemingly lost in thought.

“Uh… I guess,” Sunset conceded. “How did you know?”

“I…” Ginny started. “... I don’t know. You’re… disappointed too, and… not because Dad.”

Sunset’s mouth was open as she wondered what brought this on.

It could’ve been a parlor trick; hot or cold reading, but that just didn’t feel like something Ginny would do, at least not here, now, and in this tone.

“Now you’re… worried.”

Sunset’s mouth silently and slowly moved as possibilities of what this meant raced through her head.

“... And confused.”

Ginny turned to Sunset, face full of questions but otherwise calm. “Why do I know this?”

Suddenly, it hit her. There was only one thing that Sunset had done differently with Ginny than anyone else.

She had been outright weirded out when she had read about it, but if the books didn’t lie, then humans, or at least witches and wizards, did experience some effect when they drank unicorn blood; and Ginny had drunk Sunset’s.

Sunset put her hand to her forehead as she tried grasping what she had done.

<> she muttered to herself.

Sunset was suddenly fast awake, slipped out of her temporary bed, and walked up to Ginny, who kept lying in her bed, looking at Sunset with wide eyes as the older girl reached out and gently placed her hands on Ginny’s temples.

“Ginny, can you stay still for me, and try to remain calm?”

Ginny nodded, still staring at Sunset.

Her expression of surprise and confusion became one of alarm from what she saw next.

Sunset’s hair started glowing with a soft light, illuminating the room slightly, and when Sunset opened her eyes, they were completely white from light spilling out of them, and even Sunset’s hands started glowing.

“Shh… don’t worry,” Sunset softly whispered. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

Sunset realized that was a strange thing to say, considering she didn’t yet know whether she had already hurt the girl, but Sunset needed her to be calm, or at least calm enough.

Sunset’s hair was buffeted as if by a magical breeze, and stayed like that for several moments, spilling out light in the room while silently observing Ginny, who stayed completely still.

Finally, the effect ended. The light vanished, Sunset’s eyes returned to their normal, striking teal, and she let out a sigh of relief, stepping back and sitting down on the bed again.

Ginny just stared at Sunset, her eyes still wide, almost as if in shock.

“You’re alright, I’m pretty sure,” Sunset said.

“But… what happened?” Ginny said, who felt herself being calmed by Sunset’s relief, which seemed to settle inside her. “Why can I… feel you, or whatever is happening?”

Sunset lied down in bed again and slipped in under the covers. “It… has to do with the whole thing in the Chamber of Secrets,” Sunset said, and in any other situations, she would’ve congratulated herself with how good she was becoming at technically telling the truth. “I… I saved your life, and… well, it created a bit of a bond between us. It… can happen sometimes.”

They were both silent for a moment, before Sunset chuckled, looking up into the ceiling with a careful little smile on her face. “Wow, I never really thought about it before now. Saving someone. Heh… how about that?”

“But… what did you just do?” Ginny asked, amazed and confused about her own calmness. “What was that light? How can you do those things? What… what are you?”

Sunset turned her head to give Ginny a reassuring smile. “It’s not something I show a lot of people. Don’t worry, I was just checking that you were alright. I got some answers too. As for what I am… Well, I might not be entirely human.”

“... Oh.”

“Which I try not to tell people, though I think some already suspect it. I hope you can keep a secret.”

After a moment of silence, Ginny nodded.

“Okay, goodnight,” Sunset said, and turned back to the ceiling.

“Goodnight,” Ginny said, who found it easy to fall asleep from the soothing feeling of Sunset’s wave of relief.

—

The next morning, before going down for breakfast, Sunset took a moment to scribble down notes about last night’s discoveries.

<<... Single drop resulted in single-direction sympathetic emotional bond,>> she muttered to herself as the pen raced across the pages.

<<... Reason for single-direction unknown, possibly a result of low dosage. Will keep observing to see how long effect remains. Note to self: If seemingly permanent, look into some way to counter effect. Speculation: If witch, wizard, or any other creature susceptible to effect imbibes large amounts of blood and terminates the target in the process, very strong emotions that results from imminent death, plus high dosage, could result in strong negative emotions; fear, pain, hatred, etc, being “stuck” inside the perpetrator’s mind, eventually resulting in madness, which could be explanation to unicorn blood being considered “cursed”. (Do other tribes’ blood have same effect?)>>

Suddenly, the familiar chime from Celestia writing to her had Sunset snap her book shut and immediately reach for the one containing her and Celestia’s correspondence.

I’m so sorry for not writing on your birthday, Sunset. It’s been quite the busy week.

Have you found a better living arrangement than last year?

Sunset immediately wrote that it was okay, and felt reasonably sure that she meant it, before continuing

And yes, I’ve found something pretty good. I’m with the Weasley family I’ve told you about. They seem to like me.

Hmm… why would that be? I wonder if it has something to do with saving one of them.

Maybe. We might never know. The father, Arthur, is going to help me enchant an automobile I’ve gotten my hands on. It’s a self-driving carriage. Anyway, why has the week been so bad?

Oh, it hasn’t been bad at all.

Suddenly several of the words were smudged by something dripping on the page.

Oh look! That was a tear of joy, for instance. I have been crying a lot, out of happiness I’m not sure I will ever be able to put into words.

Sunset’s eyes widened, leaning back slightly from the book. Even just reading her words from another plane of existence, she had never seen Celestia like this.

Wow, that sounds great, and now I’m also really curious and a little bit suspicious.

My sister has returned.

Sunset stared at the page, wondering if Celestia had slipped with her quill in some way, before setting her pen back against the page, the words not being able to convey the wide-eyed surprise.

You have a sister?

I do indeed. She is the alicorn of the moon and stars. She was lost when a dark madness took hold of her. For a thousand she was in exile, and when she returned, Twilight and her new friends managed to purge her of this madness.

Her name is Luna.

Sunset opened her mouth, then immediately closed it when she realized what Celestia was talking about.

Nightmare Moon is your sister!?

Oh? You know the tale? I did not expect that.

Not well enough it seems. I didn’t know she was your sister, and I didn’t think she was coming back for several hundred years.

Ah. I could have told you that if you asked.

I was planning on helping you defeat her.

I feel a little inadequate now.

Saving the life of the youngest of your hosts, Sunset.

Oh, right. I keep forgetting.

Suddenly, Mrs Weasley could be heard calling from downstairs.

“Breakfast, everyone!”

And now they’re calling for breakfast. Have to go.

Hold on. Let me think for a moment: Congratulations on getting your sister back, tell Twilight good job from me, and sorry I missed the Summer Sun Celebration. Tell me about it later. Bye for now.

After breakfast, Sunset and Arthur Weasley were standing next to the DeSoto, while Mr Weasley was presenting his enchantments to Sunset.

“It’s a little temperamental, but I think you shouldn’t have any problems if you treat it right. So that’s all the standard safety features, just like on the Knight Bus. You can be absolutely oblivious as a driver, and still not put anyone at risk.”

“The Knight Bus has an oblivious driver?” Sunset asked.

Mr Weasley opened his mouth, and closed it again to give it some thought. “Well… I shouldn’t say anything, especially about a fellow ministry employee, but… yes. No interest in how the machine works in the slightest. I don’t think a troll could do much worse.”

“So you can replicate the enchantments on the Ministry’s official vehicles?” Sunset said, impressed.

Mr Weasley laughed. “Replicate them? I’m the one who enchants them.”

“Oh,” Sunset said, impressed. “Well, I certainly can’t complain then.”

Arthur walked over to the rear door and opened it, and Sunset was further impressed. It looked normal from the outside, but inside it was a small apartment’s worth of space. The sofa was now large enough to house several people lying down on it, the ceiling was tall enough to stand upright in, and it had a bathroom and kitchenette.

“There’s a similar expansion in the luggage compartment,” he said.

Sunset raised her eyebrows. She hadn’t really measured the magical abilities of wizardkind in detail, but she had gathered that the core faculty of Hogwarts were of high ability, and Arthur Weasley, the kind, unassuming, and slightly silly man working at a dead end job that few people took seriously, was at least their equal.

“Wow… I… don’t know what to say,” Sunset said. “I didn’t expect this much.”

“Oh don’t mention it,” Mr Weasley said.

“But it’s… quite a lot.”

“Yeah but… I’m serious, please don’t mention it,” Mr Weasley said, looking a little uncomfortable. “Don’t tell anyone who enchanted this. We have a lot of confiscated magical material at the department that you need to make these enchantments, and… well, a lot of it is from cases past the statute of limitations. It’s not legal to use, but it’s not illegal either. The boys at the department would prefer it if no important person in the Ministry knew. It could lead to legal precedents being set.”

“Aaah,” Sunset said, and scratched her nose conspiratorially at Mr Weasley. “Well I never saw who put these enchantments on this car.”

Mr Weasley pointed at her while smiling. “That’s it. Car belonging to… Sunset Shimmer, you say? Well I’ve done some experiments in my time, but… I never saw any papers of ownership for any car, so I couldn’t tell.”

Sunset nodded to herself while observing her newest, rolling, flying home, looking very pleased.

“Well, I should get going. Thanks for everything.”

Mr Weasley turned to her, looking a little sad. “You’re not staying?”

“No, I don’t want to impose.”

“Oh but it’s no problem,” Mr Weasley insisted.

“I know,” Sunset said, kindly. “But don’t worry about me. Thank you so much for your help. This is going to make things much easier.”

“Well… if you insist,” Mr Weasley said, a little reluctantly.

“Not that I didn’t like it here. Maybe I can visit again sometime?” Sunset said, trying to placate the kindly head of the Weasley family.

Mr Weasley smiled. “I’m sure everyone would love that. Maybe you can meet Bill and Charlie as well.”

“Looking forward to it,” Sunset said, as she got into her car, and turned the key. “I’ll see you later then,” she said, through the open window.

“Goodbye for now, Sunset Shimmer.”

In the rearview mirror Sunset saw Ron and Ginny walk out and ask their father something as she rolled away from the house, while Mr Weasley just waved with a smile on his face.

A quick drive through the village and Sunset was on a country road heading north.

The magical car rumbled across the country road in the bright sunlight, and Sunset leaned back. She had to admit that both the muggles and Arthur Weasley had outdone themselves. The automobile was something else, and the muggles’ skill at operating them was as well, considering that within minutes the enchantments had prevented her from slamming into a tree on the side of the road, as well as dodging another car.

But there was nothing to be concerned with now. All she had to do was lean back and listen to the song on the radio, something about hard-nosing highways.

After a while, she turned off the music though, and dug around in her bag until she found the map she had scribbled from what she remembered about the Malfoys’ other holdings, as well as her trophy from a few days ago.

The Dark Lord had come back, trying to return to life through a magical book.

That was alarming, but Sunset considered this piece of information with a hungry determination. If, just like in Equestria, Dark Lords came back, then just like in Equestria, magical ponies might be able to become alicorns.

The Dark Lord’s real name was Tom Riddle, he had a thing for snakes, and a bunch of rich and pureblooded witches and wizards had followed him.

Finding out more from only that might have seemed like a difficult task. Then again, Sunset thought as she thundered down the road, rolling the basilisk fang between her fingers and with a confident smirk on her face, she was Sunset Shimmer.

Author's Note

Yeah, this took a while. I've been very busy since the last chapter, so the time between publishing the chapters does not represent the amount of time and energy I've put into this. At first I was planning on having the summer be fewer chapters, but figured that this could be a nice point to break things off.

Thanks to Snuffy and Blue Horizon for their pre-reading.