Author's Note

Spell on display: shadowporting, also called shadowsteping for shorter trips
First developed by the thestrals to enter and exit their cavernous homes then further refined to bypass anti-teleportation magics, shadowproting is done by entering the shadow dimension through a shadow then exiting a through another shadow at your desired location.

Restrictions and requirements

• A shadow magic affinity
• A dark enough shadow at entrance point and exit point: level of darkness varies based on the skill of the caster
• Knowledge of where you are exiting. You can not shadowport to a location without being able to point to it on a map, having seen it, or being able to it.
• Knowledge of distance between entrance point and exit point

Advantages over similar spells
Shadowporting is safer than conventional teleportation. There is no risk of getting stuck in a wall, and as long as you are not fully out of the shadow, you can pull yourself back into the shadow without having to cast shadow meld.

Risks
The shadow dimension is a poorly understood place, and it is suspected that it is inhospitable to Equoesian life.

SHWO ch48 Return to Equestria part1

Canterlot Hospital
Date: Feb 16th, time: 2:00 pm

*Sunset’s perspective*

If you had asked Sunset where she thought she would be in five years, five years ago, regularly donating blood to herself in case she got injured while her sister was up stairs, getting chemo, would not be her answer, and yet, that’s exactly where she was now. They didn’t have medicine like this in Equestria when Sunset left. They might have developed it since then, but that’s highly unlikely. Ponies are extremely durable, thanks to their magical auras. It’s extremely rare for a pony to be injured. Combine that with the strenuous relation ponies have with blood, and this technology is unlikely to ever be developed.

Ponies view blood as disgusting, and most would like to forget it’s coursing through their bodies, relatively easy for them to do. Even soldiers get squeamish around blood. Sunset has a nickname that basically translates to “vampire” because she would lick the blood from her cuts and blades to freak out her opponents. It’s one of the reasons why thestrals and ponies were less than friendly with each other. Thestrals view blood as liquid life and sacred. They consider it as the source of our power. Thestral warriors would drink the blood of their comrades to strengthen each other and their bonds. Thestrals that drank each other’s blood were said to become one. A troop of thestrals was even called a blood band.

The human’s view on blood was something else Sunset liked about them. Like the thestrals, they view blood as liquid life and sacred, but unlike thestrals, humans don’t see it in a near orgiastic way. Humans also associate blood with great power, but instead of it being the source, it’s the vessel. Sunset suspects that the association comes from adrenaline, and how it’s released into the body.

Adrenaline has been a subject of interest for Sunset as there are absolutely no records of ponies expressing the effects of adrenaline. Sunset has been in many life or death situations but never experienced anything like the effects of adrenaline, no bouts of incredible strength, no sudden surge of magical output, nothing. Her first experience with adrenaline was when she ran away from that lady her first night on Earth. There are ponies who are thrill seekers, but that’s just endorphins and dopamine or the pony equivalents.

“Sunset?”

Sunset looked up from the tube sticking out of her arm to see a familiar tanned farm girl standing at the door of the blood donation room. “Jacklyn?”, Sunset said coldly.

“Ya know, you’re the only person other than my granny that still calls me “Jacklyn”.”

“Why? It’s your name.”

“Ya remember that nickname Pinkie gave me a while back?”

“Yeah”

“Well, it stuck, and now, everyone calls me Applejack… everyone.”

“Do you have a problem with that name?”

“Eh, it’s grown on me. - So, uh, what are you doing here?” Jacklyn was sounding nervous now. The stupid question suggested that she was trying to keep the conversation going.

“What does it look like I’m doing?” Sunset was now annoyed. The conversation had reached its natural end point. Sunset wished Jacklyn would just go back to whatever she was doing beforehand.

“Yeah, Ah guess that was a dumb question. So, uh, how have you been?” Jacklyn was now scuffing her foot on the floor.

“Why are you trying to continue this conversation? You have no obligation to be here. So, why haven’t you left yet?”

“Wha- sorry. I’m jus-. My little sister is getting some tests done, and I’m trying to kill time.” Now Jacklyn was avoiding eye contact with Sunset.

“You have a little sister? Is she okay?” Any annoyance Sunset had been feeling was now gone, her “big sister” instincts taking full control.

Jacklyn pricked up at that question and looked Sunset in the eye again. “Oh, she’s fine. We’re just checking for some things we have a family history of.”

Sunset’s systems settled down after hearing that. It will never cease to amaze Sunset how humans can feel the same instinctual drive to protect members of their family group with those outside of it. Ponies will help to protect others, but it’s not driven by the same instincts that tell them to protect their family group.

Sunset’s bag was now full, and the nurse began disconnecting her. “Do you love your sister?”

“Of course, I do. I’d do anything for her.” Jacklyn almost seemed insulted by the question.

Now disconnected, Sunset got up from the chair and began getting her jacket back on. “Anything? Even break the law? Even kill?”

Jacklyn paused and went wide-eyed at that question. It took her a moment before she answered. Sunset did not fault her for that. She did just ask her if she’d be willing to kill after all. When she did finally answer, her entire body changed from laid-back to dead serious. “If it was her life or someone else’s, I’d choose to save her.”

“That makes you a good sister.” Sunset was all packed up now and began to walk out of the room.

As Sunset passed Jacklyn, Jacklyn spun around to face Sunset with the same deadly serious face. “Why did you ask me that? Rainbow told us about your little sister.”

Sunset turned her head to face Jacklyn with what she hoped was a disarming smile. “I’m not planning on killing anyone, if that’s what you’re asking.” Sunset turned her head back around and walked off before Jacklyn could ask another question.

Katon family home
Date: Feb 28th, time: 6:30 pm

*Sunset’s perspective*

Cloak, check; food, check; water, check; face mask, check; swords, check; letter, check; gun, check; explosive components, check; bullets, check; ruler, check. Tonight was the night. Sunset was going to return to Equestria to find something to cure Emi. Sunset even has an idea of what item she would grab. She has everything she could possibly need, and whatever else she might need, she can cover with her magic. She just hoped that the cloak was the right size. That left only one thing remaining. Sunset needs to tell her parents everything. That’s not going to be easy. The explanation part was going to be complicated, but getting them to let her go would be harder. From their perspective, Sunset would be leaving for an alien planet that she was a wanted criminal on and could be captured and trapped there for at least two and a half years if she does not make it back within the next couple days. Better leave out the “wanted criminal” part until I get back.

With the sun having set, Sunset decided now was the time. Everyone was in the living room, and the portal should be open by now.

“Hey everyone, I have something I need to tell all of you.”

“What is it, Sunset, n’ what’s with da backpack?”, Brigid asked.

“It’s actually something I need to show you, at the high school.”

“What could you need to show us at the high school at this hour?”, Anzhong asked.

“That’s hard to explain, but it will make some sense once I show you.”

“Ya gonna tell us about y’r past?”, Emi asked.

“Yes”

“Well den, dat is a reason ta take a ride ta da high school.”, Brigid said.

With that, Anzhong got Ki’s harness on, and everyone hopped into the car. The whole ride to the school, Emi was basically playing twenty questions to figure out what Sunset was going to show them. Although, if the trip had gone on for much longer, Emi would’ve quickly exceeded twenty questions. Brigid parked the car a little ways away from the school in order to not look suspicious. Sunset led them over to the Wonder Cult statue and to the side that faced the school. The others looked or listened to Sunset, curiosity peaked.

“So, what are ya gonna- whoa.” Brigid was cut off by Sunset placing her hand on the base and the portal rippling. Sunset pushed her hand through, turning it into a hoof.

“Whoa, cool.” Emi jammed both her arms into the portal. They became small, grey hooves.

“What is dis?”, Brigid asked.

Sunset pulled her arm out of the portal and pulled Emi out as well. Sunset kept a hold of Emi while she turned to face her mother. The last thing Sunset wanted was for Emi to go crashing through the portal. “It’s a portal to another world. When I first came through the portal, I thought it was just a portal to another planet, but after encountering people that exist on this side and the other side of the portal, I believe that it’s a portal to an alternate dimension.”

“Wait, let me get dis straight. Dis is an extra dimensional portal, n’ ya’ve gone through it before.”

“Yes and close. I’m from the planet on the other side of this portal. I’m an alien. That’s why I was living in the woods and didn’t have any papers of any kind.”

Shocked faces spread across the faces of Sunset’s family, except for Ki. He looked bored.

“This is totally awesome!”, Emi whispered-screamed. “But what’s with the transforming limbs?”

“The portal turns whoever goes through it into the same species as their counterpart. While your limb is in the in-between world, you can see what it will look like once you cross over.”

“Why are you only telling us this now?”, Anzhong asked.

“The portal only opens every two and a half years and will close after three days. Before now, I didn’t have any evidence that I could show you.”

“What do you look like on the other side?”, Emi asked excitedly.

Sunset gave Emi a wary smile. “This is where it’s going to get even weirder. I’m a unicorn. No, seriously, I am.”, Sunset said before Emi could say something snarky. “I don’t believe that I’m the first of my kind to come to Earth. Many creatures present in your mythology are real creatures where I come from, and magic is commonplace.”

Emi’s eyes widened and began to twinkle at that. Sunset could hear the gears turning in her head. The worlds will tremble if Emi ever gets a hold of Equestrian magic.

“Okay, me head’s startin’ ta hurt. Ah think it would be best if we go home. Ah still have a lot a’ questions, but Ah need time ta organize it all.”

“You guys can do that, but I’m going to be going through the portal.” Sunset could see the worried faces spread across each of them, and she knew exactly what they were thinking. “I’m not going back permanently. I’m going to go find a cure for Emi. I’ll be back before the portal closes.”

A wave of relief washed over everyone now that they knew Sunset wasn’t leaving forever.

“Is dat gonna be possible? Y’re only gonna have three days.”, Brigid asked.

“There are certain relics that have the power to heal creatures and cure illnesses. I plan on grabbing one of those.”

“And you’ve already made up your mind on this matter.”, Anzhong said, then took in a deep breath. “Be safe.”

“I will.” Sunset pointed to one of the stars in the sky. “I’ll be back before the moon passes over that star on the third night.” With that, Sunset let go of Emi and walked into the portal. The world vanished and was replaced by a rainbow of colors. Sunset could feel her body being compressed and contorted. Soon, she was flung from the portal and onto the ground. It was still not painless, but at least she wasn’t bleeding this time. Figuring someone heard her, Sunset quickly got up, taking a moment to readjust to her pony anatomy. Sunset took a second to listen for foo-hoofsteps and then focused her sixth sense to sense for anyone, but the only thing Sunset could sense was a growing headache. Luckily, she couldn’t hear anyone, and it’s not like hooves walking on tile are quiet.

Seeing as she was in no immediate danger, Sunset took this opportunity to check something out. She magicked out the ruler and placed it on the ground. The official Equestrian unit of measurement was a hooflong. It’s the length of an average adult unicorn’s hoof, and Sunset’s hoof was exactly one hooflong. Sunset placed her hoof down on the ruler, and it turns out that one Equestrian hooflong was exactly four human inches. That certainly made conversion easier. Sunset was four hooflongs at her shoulders and six and a half at her head. Holy crap! Sunset was only just over two feet tall, at her head. She wouldn’t even make it to Brigid’s knee.

Sunset placed the ruler back in her saddlebags and pulled out the cloak and face mask. The cloak and face mask ended up being way too big. So, Sunset took out her wakizashi and began cutting off the excess fabric from the cloak and just took the mask off. Once that was done, Sunset placed the excess fabric and mask in her bag and headed out of the anti-shadowporting field and then to the nearest shadow. First stop, the Royal Canterlot Library.

Out front of Canterlot High
Date: same day, time: 6:45 pm

*Brigid’s perspective*

Brigid, Anzhong, and Emi watched on as Sunset disappeared through the statue. Brigid immediately got a feeling in the pit of her stomach that something was going to happen to her, but she brushed it off as nerves. Emi walked up to the portal, and Brigid was ready to run up and grab her, but all she ended up doing was sticking her hands through.

“Hey Mommy, look at this.”

Brigid walked over to see that Emi’s arms had been transformed into grey, hoof-like appendages. Dat’s what dey meant by transformin’ limbs.

“Cool, isn't it?”

Brigid looked down at her own hand then pushed it through the portal. Her hand turned into a light creamish leg but with a clearly defined, brown hoof. Brigid pushed her other hand through, and it turned into the same thing. Brigid began rubbing her “hooves” together, and even though feeling through hooves was “different”, she could feel the-her fur and her hooves. “Wow”

“What’s going on?”, Anzhong asked.

Brigid pulled her arms out of the portal and moved over to Anzhong. “‘Ere, Ah’ll show ya.” Brigid grabbed Anzhong’s hand and led him over to the portal. Brigid guided Anzhong’s hand into the portal. His hand turned into a grey hoof, like Emi’s but bigger.

“Whoa, that’s weird.”

“It’s cool.”, Emi retorted.

“We should get going. Someone might see us, and it would be very difficult to explain this.”, Anzhong said.

“Aw, but this is fun.”, Emi complained.

“‘Ere we go.” Brigid scooped Emi up, and everyone made their way to the car as quickly as they could without being suspicious.

The Royal Canterlot Library
Date: same day, time: ?

*Sunset’s perspective*

The important relics were kept in the reliquary, near the center of Canterlot castle. That means getting the relic Sunset was thinking of would take some planning. However, what Sunset had once considered top of the line security was now more like a hungry Doberman, still scary but not unbeatable. The kinds of security humans will put up to keep other humans out is bonkers, and the fact people still manage to get past that, and even take that sort of thing as a challenge, is even more bonkers, but until that plan is formed, Sunset took to grabbing some cultural texts to make explaining everything to her parents a bit easier. As far as medical texts go, humans and ponies are far too biologically different for that to be a good idea. She would’ve like to bring some back to compare the different biologies, but she only has so much space in her bags. Instead, she read as many as she could.

The books Sunset has gathered were the first book in the “Complete History of Equestria” series, which chronicles every event that shaped Equestria into what it is today; a taxonomic book with lots of pictures; “Rise and Fall of the Equestria First Legion” by yours truly; and a few books for teaching foals how to read. Knowing Brigid, she’s going to want to learn the language. Given her limited space, this will have to be it. Sunset tried to find a book that mentioned any sort of human-like creatures in Equestria but came up blank. It would not surprise Sunset to learn that Celestia purposely suppressed information about humans. Humans make creatures like the mythical changeling look like angry house cats, still scary as hell but not a mountain lion.

That left the matter of a safe place to sleep. The obvious answer would be her old room in the castle, but that was likely reallocated by now. Staying in the library would most likely not work. Sunset would be sleeping during the day, and either the noise would wake her, or somepony would find her. The streets had the same problem. She had no bits, so a hotel room was out. Her old bedroom back home was also a no-go. If her family found out she was back, they would never let her leave again. With no other options available, Sunset decided that the best course of action would be to cross her now metaphorical fingers and toes and hope that her old room was not reallocated.

With a flick of her horn, Sunset had her stuff back on, and with another flick of her horn, the shadows surrounding her began to wrap around and envelop her. Sunset didn’t need to worry about being stopped by the castle’s anti-teleportation runic fields as shadowporting was specifically developed to bypass such things. Locations such as the princesses’ royal chambers, the throne room, and reliquary had extra protections to counter creatures shadowporting in, but those had too high of magic power requirements to be placed throughout the entire castle. If they did so, Canterlot would be a magic deadzone within a hundred years. Within mere moments, the shadows parted, and Sunset was in a dark corridor near her room.

Even though there’s a full moon out, ponies have such poor night vision that they need light spells to see three hooflongs in front of their muzzles. That made it infinitely easier to sneak around at night. Sunset quietly snuck to her room’s door, ready to meld with the shadows at a moment’s notice, but that moment ever came. This did not surprise Sunset. The royal guard was the laughing stock of the EUP. Out of all four branches of the military, the royal guard had the most lax training and the highest percentage of “decorative armor” soldiers. Celestia does have many good traits as a ruler, but she’s way too soft. Sunset would say that’s where most of Equestria’s problems came from. Luna was always the more militaristic and stern of the two. The only thing Celestia did right with the royal guard was enchant their armor with an illusion spell to make them look the same as each other.

Upon reaching her door, Sunset found a high level locking spell on the door. Where most locking spells were the magical equivalent of a bolt latch, this one was more of a heavy deadlock and chains, a clear indicator Sunset’s room has not been reallocated. Considering how much stuff that only she and Princess Celestia had clearance to access was in there, it didn’t surprise Sunset that Celestia decided to just lock it all up. With a simple shadowstep, Sunset was once again in her old room.

Sunset took a long sniff of the familiar air and then promptly started hacking and coughing from all the dush she disturbed. “Cough, cough, whew, I need to open up a window in here. Hack” Sunset’s room was mostly how she left it, except for some boxes and old papers arranged in such a way that would make a fire marshal have a conniption. Sunset’s half finished assignments were still scattered around, and her EUP armor was still on its stand. When she got it, it was the top of the line Mark 4 spell caster armor. It’s mostly the standard EUP silver. The purple stripes designated her as a spell caster, the gold stripe designated her as, in US military terms, a one star general, and the black and green stripe designated her as a hunter and tracker. Celestia personally chose her to lead the task force against the Equestria First Legion and promoted her to general to do so. However, that was all behind her now.

“Screech!”

Sunset turned her head to see a mass of red and orange feathers crash into her. “Oof, Philomena! Oh, how have you been, girl? Have you missed me?” Sunset affectionately nuzzled Philomena. Philomena pecked Sunset hard on the head. “Okay, fair. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to disappear like that, honest.” Philomena gave Sunset a judging look then nuzzled Sunset back. “Aw, that’s my girl. Hey, I need to go back to where I disappeared to, but this time, I plan on bringing you with me. How does that sound?” Philomena nodded her head in the affirmative. “Great, now, we need to give you a name humans can understand. Oh, humans are the creatures I’ve been living with. Let’s see, your name means “lover of strength”. I’m sure I can find a human name that means the same thing. Humans have very similar values to the dragons.”

Sunset continued her conversation with Philomena until the sun began to come up. With barely a thought, Sunset drew her curtains and brushed the dust off her bed. I love telekinesis.

Katon family home
Date: Mar 1st, time: 6:00 am

*Brigid’s perspective*

Emi was still in bed, and Anzhong was getting ready for the day, but Brigid was too busy pacing to do anything productive. She just couldn’t get this feeling of Sunset being in danger out of her system.

“Brigid, I know you’re worried, but wearing out the carpet is not going to help Sunset.”

“C’n’t ya feel it? Y’r da psychic one a’ us.”

“I can, and I’m worried too, but I also have trust in Sunset.”

“Ah have trust in Sunset too, but dere’s so many ‘hin’s dat c’n go wrong. She only has until tomorrah night ta get back, or she’ll be stuck dere f’r two n’ a half yea’s, n’ she left Equestria f’r a reason.”

“Brigid,” Anzhong placed a hand on Brigid’s shoulder to calm her down. “Sunset will be okay. You two share that fighting spirit, and she’s sneakier than I was at her age, and if she does need help, nothing will stop us from getting to her. Now, you need to call the school.”

“Sigh, y’re right. Y’re always right. Y’re worse dan me ex.”, Brigid joked.

“Hey, that’s my line.”

“Hff” Brigid shook her head, and Anzhong let go of her shoulder. Grabbing her phone, Brigid called up Principal Winters. “Hello Principal Winters, dis is Dr. Brigid Katon. Sunset is feelin’ unwell n’ dus will not be comin’ inta school taday.”

“That’s unfortunate. I hope she’ll be back on Monday.”, Principal Winters said.

“Ah hope so too.”, Brigid said in a more somber tone.

Canterlot castle
Date: 29/02/1118 Ee, time: 8th hour ASR

*Sunset’s perspective*

Sunset got up with a groan. Ponies, being prey animals, evolved to be able to get up and be fully awake at the slightest hint of danger. That means that they don’t have deep sleep and certainly don’t do the free trial of death thing that is human sleep, and Sunset’s brain was having to readjust to that. It sucked. I should have added coffee to my supplies. - Then again, human coffee would likely give my pony body a heart attack. The amount of poison human bodies can tolerate is nuts.

After eating her first breakfast ration, which consisted of half an MRE, Sunset stashed her stuff. It was unlikely, but if somepony came in, Sunset didn’t want clear evidence of her being here where somepony could easily find it. “Okay Philomena, I’m going to do some scouting. Don’t tell anyo-pony I’m here.”

Philomena gave Sunset an uninterested look and went back to preening her feathers.

With the world’s laziest phoenix taken care of, Sunset removed her swords from her bag and secured them to her barrel. An illusion spell later and Sunset was an average looking maid with a sparkling breeze cutie mark, and her swords were cleaning supplies. A quick shadowport later and Sunset was in a dark, isolated corridor right outside the anti-shadowporting field. Sunset walked around for a bit to ensure the castle still recognized her sigil. This deep in the castle, there’s a disorientation spell that only ponies that have taken a solar oath or have a royal sigil are immune to. Judging by the fact that Sunset wasn’t horribly lost by now, it was safe to say that the castle still recognized Sunset’s sigil. If Sunset had to redesign the system, she would make it so everypony had a unique identifier and could be tracked anywhere in the castle.

Sunset slowly made her way to the reliquary, pretending to clean all the way. The modern ninja handbook says “Nobody pays attention to the cleaning service” and “Cleaning service people were the ones to ask for information”. That’s doubly true for the poorly trained royal guard. It took a long time for Sunset to get to the reliquary with how many stops she had to make. It was an unassuming door that led to a hallway with several other unassuming doors. You’d think it was a janitor’s closet if you didn’t know better. Now, there should be a few guards in there. Sunset focused her sixth sense to see how many guards were there exactly, but once again, the only thing she could sense was another cranium splitting headache, or was it the same one from last night. What da bloody Tartarus is going on? After letting the headache subside, Sunset devised a new plan. Sunset searched her library of spells until she found the spell she was looking for, an ultra low power detection spell of her own creation inspired by seismic sense. Sunset placed her horn to the floor and let out several long, low powered magic pluses. Six guards in the reliquary, and - oh crap, someone’s coming. Sunset picked her head up and resumed “dusting” the tapestry.

“Excuse me ma’am, what are you doing here?”, the guard asked.

“Oh, hello sir. I’m cleaning. Got to make sure the castle is worthy of our gorgeous princess.”, Sunset said in her most innocent, sweetheart voice.

“This is a restricted section. I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

“But I have to make sure everything is clean. I have direct orders from the head of cleaning.”

“Really?” The guard pulled out a clipboard. “What’s your name?”

“Spiffy Whistles”

“Hm, I don’t have you on the schedule.”

“That’s odd. May I see?”, Sunset asked. The guard handed the clipboard over to Sunset. Sunset pretended to examine the list. The list was only for today, so it will be of no use to Sunset tomorrow. “This is very odd, but the castle’s disorientation spells haven’t affected me. That must mean I’m allowed to be here. Maybe it’s because I’m new. I only started yesterday.”

The guard thought for a moment before answering. “Maybe, but why would they assign somepony so new this far down into the castle?”

“I don’t know. I just go where they tell me to.”, Sunset said while giving a shrug then passed the clipboard back.

The guard took the clipboard back and gave a sigh. “I can understand that. I think it would be best if you left. I’ll talk to the head of cleaning and explain the situation.”

Sunset was surprised by the guard’s answer. Any other guard Sunset knew would’ve just trusted the explanation of “the castle lets me be here” and go on with business as usual. Sunset knew this because she used to do this for fun. This guard was actually doing a good job. “That sounds like a reasonable compromise and less work for me.”

“Hehe, yeah, you have a good night Ms. Whistle.”

“What is your name kind sir?”

“Shining Armor, ma’am.”

“Hm, good name.”, Sunset said while nodding to the guard and then turned to leave. Sunset could feel the guard watching her walk off. Well, this disguise is useless now. Sunset decided to walk around the less restricted sections of the castle for some fresh air. She also needed to check if Celestia had improved royal guard training or if this Shining Armor was just an outlier.

Walking through the halls brought back so many memories of Sunset foalhood. She and Philomena would run around, causing untold amounts of trouble for the nobles. Sunset was reveling in her memories when she felt a solid thunk against her chest. “Hey, watch where you’re- are you okay?” Sunset was angry until she saw the thunker was a young purple mare massaging her horn. She couldn’t have been older than twelve. She was just too stinkin cute to be mad at.

“Ow ow ow, yeah, I’m fine but ow.”

“Here” Sunset lit her horn and gathered up all the young mare’s books.

“Thanks”, the mare said as she lit her own horn and took her books back.

“What’s your name?”

“Twilight Sparkle”

“What are you doing here, Twilight?”

“I’m Princess Celestia’s personal student. I live here.”, Twilight said, aggravated.

“Princess Celestia’s personal student you say. Well, I guess I should let you get back to studying.”, Sunset said, trying to keep her own irritation out of her voice.

Twilight gave Sunset a strange look before running off. Of course she has a new personal student. She probably didn’t even wait a week before she started searching again. hug, who am I kidding? She’s doing this for her sister, and look at what I’m doing. Don’t need to be happy ‘bout it though. Now, guards. Need to check on guards.

Katon family home
Date: same day, time: 5:30 pm

*Brigid’s perspective*

Brigid and Anzhong were returning home from work. During the whole car ride, Anzhong was visibly tense. It didn’t take a PhD in human behavioral psychology to know that he was worried about Sunset. Sunset had taken her handgun. She forgot to turn off one of her lights, and they saw the wide open lockbox on her desk. The fact Sunset felt she needed her gun scared the crap out of all of them.

“What are we going to tell Minerva?”, Anzhong asked.

“Da truth. If she doesn’t believe me, Ah plan on takin’ ‘er ta da statue.”

Anzhong said nothing in response. He does love Minerva, but he’s less trusting in general. The two gathered their stuff and went inside the house. Once inside, Brigid was immediately approached by Minerva.

“Oh good, you’re back. Sunset isn’t home yet, and you said that would explain what was going on when you got back. So, what’s going on?” Minerva was looking at Brigid like it was her kid that was nowhere to be seen.

“Sunset is okay. She’s jus’ gone back ta ‘er home planet ta find a cure f’r cancer.”

“What?”, Minerva said while looking at Brigid like she just grew a second head.

“Ah’ll show ya what Ah mean.” Brigid motioned for Minerva to follow, and Brigid took Minerva to the school and statue.

“Okay, what do you want to show me?” Minerva’s tone was now a mix of curiosity, suspicion, and confusion.

Brigid looked around to see if anyone was watching them. Seeing no one, Brigid stuck her hand through the portal. Minerva watched on in shock as she watched Brigid move around her now hoof. “Dis is a portal ta another dimension. Sunset is from dis other dimension, n’ in ‘er dimension, magic is commonplace n’ dere are relics dat have healin’ powers. Sunset has gone back ta retrieve one a’ dose relics ta help Emi.”

“Okay, just, give me a moment to digest this.”

“Take y’r time. Ah had da same reaction.”

“Why did your hand turn into a hoof, and why did Sunset only go through now?”

“Da portal turns ya inta a species native ta da othe’ world, n’ da portal only portal only opens every two n’ half yea’s.”

“How long do we have before the portal closes?”

“Three days, n’ dat was last night.”

“So, if Sunset isn’t back by tomorrow night,-” Minerva couldn’t finish that sentence. All she could do was grip her head in worry.

“It gets worse. Sunset took ‘er gun with ‘er.”

“What the hell could Sunset need a gun for?”

Brigid only gave Minerva a knowing look. They both knew what a gun was for and why Sunset would bring one.