Recovery and Rebirth

CHS band room

Date: Oct 29th, time: 3:00 pm

*Sunset’s perspective*

Sunset walked through the doors of the band room to see the rest of the girls setting up. She joined them, pulling out her school rental, cyan, electric guitar.

“Hey, Sunset, I was thinking we could invite Twilight to Halloween. Do you think she’d enjoy it?”, Pinkie asked.

“We do have a very similar holiday called ‘Nightmare Night’. It’s basically Halloween but celebrated on the twenty-second, and by the end of the night, little fillies and colts have to give half their candy to the mad goddess, Nightmare Moon.”

“Something tells me that last bit was added so the kids don’t eat all that sugar.”, Rarity commented.

“Pony biology is actually pretty tolerant of sugar.”

“What do you mean?”, Fluttershy asked.

“It’s something I noticed over the years. Equestrian ponies are only about the size of Maine coons, but they eat way more sugar than humans and don’t suffer any health complications from doing so. On the other hand, the amount of salt, spicy foods, alcohol, and general poisonous crap humans ingest could make a pony very sick, even if they were human-sized.”

“That is weird. How would a species evolve to eat that much sugar?”

“There’s a common grass in Equestria that’s similar to sugarcane called ‘Oey’. It’s been a staple in our diets since long before we had written language. We basically evolved to eat that stuff like rice.”

“Ah, that makes sense.”

“So, inviting Twilight to Halloween?”, Pinkie asked.

“I’ll write her tonight.”

“Hey! Ya ready ta rock?!”, Rainbow shouted.

“Rainbow, not so loud.”, AJ chided. Rainbow replied by sticking her tongue out.

The rest of them grabbed their instruments and got in position to play.

“Ready”, they all said.

“Okay, one, two, three”

With no need to hide their magic, Sunset let the energy flow throughout her body, and without a major threat distracting her, she could really let herself feel it. The magic pulsed through her in rhythm with the beat of her heart… her heart’s circulating her magic… Her magic is in her bloodstream. Her cardiovascular system is doubling as her magavascular system for her human body. Efficient, and it can easily get magic to every part of the body. Humans would be excellent at biomancy, especially hemomancy. It’s starting to look like humans are built to perform every illegal and restricted magic.

When the song ended, Sunset turned to the other girls and observed them intently. If she had her horn, she could’ve done a scan, but her eyes and sixth sense would have to do.

“Um, Sunset?”, RD asked.

“I figured out how magic is moving through our bodies.” The rest of the girls looked at her with interest, so she continued. “Ponies have a dedicated circulatory system for magic, similar to the cardiovascular system. Humans don’t have that nor did I ever feel like something like that was developing, so I was wondering how we were circulating our magic. It turns out, it’s our cardiovascular system. Anywhere our blood can go, our magic is also there.”

“Magic needs a circulatory system?”, Fluttershy asked.

“It can also be equated to the nervous system. We all got a series of tubes sending electricity throughout our bodies.”

“Fair”

“Is this going to have any negative effects on our health?”, RD asked. “It’s not like our bodies are used to this.”

“You’ll find out when I do. But human bodies have adapted to crazier conditions than this. I think we’ll be fine.”

Katon family home

Date: Oct 31st, time: 6:15 pm

*Sunset’s perspective*

Brigid brought out the cake as the rest of them sang “Happy Birth Day”. “Happy birthday, Emi, n’ congratulations on discoverin’ yer symbol.”, Brigid said as she put the cake down.

“Wait, you discovered your symbol?”, Anura asked, shocked. “What is it?”

Emi smiled and pulled out her beanie from her pocket. She proudly held it out so Anura could see. That symbol means something, something big.

“Is it supposed to be shaped like that?”

“Yes, it is.”, Emi said like she was already sick of explaining it. “It’s a shuriken in the shape of the Star of Magic.”

“The what?”

“Sunset, tell her.”

“I’m only ignoring the lack of a ‘please’ because it’s your birthday. The Star of Magic is the symbol of magic, like how the heart shape is the symbol of love.”

“Oh, does that mean she’ll be good with magic?”

“Ninpo, specifically.”, Emi said proudly.

“We’ll see as she gets older.”

“Let’s get this going.”, Anzhong said. “Sunset has places to be.”

“Quick, before they start chanting.”, Jiraiya said jokingly.

Minerva and Brigid got out the ice creams and began cutting the cake. After they ate the cake and ice cream and opened presents, Sunset grabbed her headband and noise reducers, and Brigid walked her to the high school. Waiting around the statue were the other five girls. RD was dressed as an astronaut, Rarity was dressed as a knight and had a duffle bag over her shoulder, AJ was dressed as a bedsheet ghost, Pinkie was dressed as a cowgirl, and Fluttershy was dressed as a tiger.

“Hi! Sunset! Hi! Sunset’s mom!”, Rainbow called out. The rest of them turned to look and most got a collective ‘oh, crap’ look on their faces as they saw Brigid.

“Hi”, Sunset said with a shit-eating grin. Seeing people’s reactions to first seeing Brigid was good food for her mischievous bits. “I take it Twilight isn’t here yet.”

“Nope. But what are ya wearin’?”, AJ asked.

Sunset was wearing punk shoes, pants, and jacket but with a brown, fuzzy shirt and gloves and a teddy bear ears headband. “Punk teddy bear. At least I put effort into my costume. Are you seriously going as a bedsheet ghost?”

“Ah had ta come up with somethin’ quickly after ya said no ta ma original idea.”

The reminder of that uncanny valley abomination was rather unwelcomed, and she had to restrain herself from grimacing.

“Ah don’t think Ah met most a’ ya. Ah’m Sunset’s mom, Dr. Brigid Katon. Ya c’n call me Dr. Brigid since dere’s two Dr. Katons.”

“Yes, ma’am.”, Pinkie said cheerfully. She wasn’t the slightest bit intimidated by Brigid, or she hid it well.

“Sunset wasn’t kidding; you’re massive.”, Fluttershy said.

“So, ya’ve been talkin’ ‘bout me?”

“I ran into an Irish wolfhound at the shelter and told her the story about Grandpappy’s and how a dog that size was perfect for him. Now that I think about it, it’s a bit ironic that he had a dog that was bred to hunt wolves.”

Brigid gave her a knowing side grin. Before any of the confused, and still slightly scared, girls could ask for clarification, the portal rippled, and Twilight barreled out. Brigid walked over and scooped Twilight up into a standing position. The face Twilight made once she processed who was picking her up was that of a pony facing down a dragon. She’d likely undergone predator desensitization training, but humans are new beasts, and Brigid was a beast of her own.

“Easy dere, kiddo. Y’re okay.”

“Hey, Twilight, this is my human mom.”

Twilight took a couple steps back and looked Brigid up and down. “That’s your mother? I-I had no idea humans could get so big.”

“Heh, Ah’m ‘bout at da upper end a’ human height, but Ah ain’t even da tallest person alive. A’m far from da tallest human ta eve’ live.”

Sunset was tempted to tell Twilight that story but decided that she had already been freaked out enough for one night. “Did ya wear your costume?”

Twilight seemed to snap back to reality and looked down at herself. “Shoot, it didn’t pass over.”

“Okay, so changing clothes on one side won’t affect how you come out on the other, noted.”

“Luckily for you, darling, I prepared for this.”, Rarity said. “Let’s head inside so you can change.”

“Ya girls, have fun.”, Brigid said.

The seven of them waved to Brigid as they parted ways. While the outside was minimally decorated with only a few cobwebs in the bushes, the inside was completely spookified. Paper ghosts, skeletons, pumpkins, and bats were strung and hung up all over the hallways, and there were enough cobwebs to almost cover the walls. That was just the hallways. They haven’t seen the gym yet.

“Good evening, girls.”, Celestia said. The seven of them turned to face her. She was accompanied by Luna, and both of them were dressed as witches. “Twilight, I wasn’t expecting to see you, but it is a pleasure.”

“I’m excited to be here. We have a similar holiday where I’m from, so I’m hoping to examine the differences in how they’re celebrated.”

“The decorations look lovely.”, Rarity said.

“Thank you”, Luna said proudly.

“Halloween’s her favorite holiday.”, Celestia said with a smirk, earning a glare from her sister. “Go have fun but stay on the first floor. All the activities are on the first floor, so there’s no reason to go upstairs or down into the basement.”

“Got it.”, Sunset said.

Rarity led Twilight to the bathrooms while the rest of them headed to the gym. There were far more decorations in there, and they were more complex than just string and paper. Most of them were still mostly paper, but now, some of the bats, pumpkins, and skeletons were plastic and cardboard, and there were now also spiders, witch stuff, and stuff in jars. The music wasn’t deafening or too loud for two people to have a conversation, but the music plus multiple conversations happening at once prompted Sunset to put her noise reducers in. They found a good corner to wait for Twilight and Rarity in and hunkered down.

A few minutes later, Rarity and Twilight came in. Twilight was dressed as a princess, and Rarity was now missing her bag. “I’m sorry that took so long, darlings. We made a stop at my locker to drop off my bag.”, Rarity said.

“Hey, no problem.”, AJ said with a goofy smile.

Why hasn’t she asked her out yet? It’s obvious they’ve got the hots for each other.

“Now that we’re all here, who wants food?”, RD asked.

Various ‘yes’s came from the rest of them, and they headed over to the refreshment table. Along with the standard party snacks and punch, there were bowls of candy. In front of certain bowls of candy were signs that signified no nuts, gluten free, and stuff like that. One of which Twilight picked up. “What’s this about?”, she asked.

“Some humans suffer from food allergies where their immune system overreacts to certain foods, causing symptoms that can range anywhere from mild irritation to death.”, Sunset explained.

“Seriously?”

“Yeah, like, for example, I’m allergic to raw garlic. If I come into contact with it, I get a burning, tingling irritation and some slight swelling. Luckily, once it’s cooked, I’m fine. Otherwise, Ah’d have a hard time in this state.”

“Yikes”

They all went down the tables and picked out what they wanted. Sunset wasn’t too hungry, so she just grabbed some small snacks. Rainbow and Sunset got to the cooler at the same time, and Rainbow reached for an item Sunset recognized from the store but had never tried for herself. “What’s that?”

“Hm, um, it’s diet cola. What, haven’t you ever had soda before?”

“No”

“Wait, seriously? Okay, you’re trying this.” Rainbow shoved the can into Sunset’s hand and grabbed another one for herself.

They got up and headed back to their corner, all the while, Sunset was reading what was on the can. Carbonated water, caramel color, bla bla bla, what do they mean by “natural flavors”? Citric acid, does that mean it’s lemon flavored? Why wouldn’t they state that on the front? They both sat down to eat their snacks, and Rainbow popped her can open. She began to down it as Sunset looked on quizzically. It doesn’t smell like lemon.

Rainbow looked over and gave Sunset a slightly disappointed look. “Come on, try it.”

Sunset opened it and sniffed it, scrunching her nose up from the carbonation. She looked to Rainbow, who motioned for her to go on. Sunset took a sip and was initially taken aback but, as she took another sip, found it nice. It tasted caramelly, and the carbonation felt nice. “It’s good.”

“Ya bet it is.”, Rainbow started saying as AJ and Fluttershy came over and sat down. “There’s also normal cola, but I personally find it too sweet.”

“What are ya guys talkin’ about?”, AJ asked.

“This is the first time Sunset’s ever had soda.”

“Really?”, Fluttershy asked.

Sunset shrugged. “My mom doesn’t buy it, neither my sister nor I ever asked for it, and I never really hung out with anyone that would introduce me to it.”

“I take that to mean you don’t have soda in Equestria.”, Rainbow said.

“Correct”

“I’ll be back in a sec.” Rainbow left her food and drink with Fluttershy and disappeared into the crowd. She reappeared shortly and retook her seat and stuff. “Thank you”

“You just got Twilight hooked on soda, didn’t you?”, Fluttershy said.

“Hey, she came here to experience American culture. I’m just helping her with that.”

“Speaking of the princess, where was she?”, Sunset asked.

“Dancing with Flash and socializing.”

“He does realize he can’t exactly be with her?”, AJ said.

“Flash is a man that follows his heart, but he tends to forget to take his brain along. That was always my job. I’ll talk to him about it.”, Sunset said.

“Sounds like someone's got a type.”, Fluttershy said with a smirk.

“Brother likes his hooves.”, RD said with a matching smirk.

Sunset rolled her eyes and tried to ignore her horny cohorts. “I’m personally surprised that Twilight's the social, slash, partying type.”

“Yeah, she certainly doesn’t give off that vibe.”, AJ said.

“Hey, do you guys wanna check out the other stuff going on?”, Rainbow asked. The other three nodded, and they got up, refilled their plates, got new drinks, and headed out into the halls.

They began walking around and looking into the various rooms. There were several groups of students across the rooms, all either doing some sort of arts and crafts or playing board and card games, all Halloween themed. They decided on a group that was playing a board game and joined in. It was calm enough that Sunset felt comfortable with taking out her noise reducers. None of them were keeping track of time so couldn’t say how much later it was when Rarity walked.

“Hey, Rarity.”, AJ said with a smile.

“Hey, my social batteries are just about drained.”, Rarity said.

“Come join us then.”, Rainbow said.

“Here, you can have my seat.”, Sunset said as she got up from her seat next to AJ. AJ sat there in stunned horror as Sunset got up and moved to an empty seat.

Rarity smiled and happily took the seat. “Thank you”

They got back to the game for quite a while longer. What had to be close to an hour later, Pinkie showed up. “Hey, here you all are.”

“Hey, Pinkie.”, Rainbow said. “Where’s Twilight?”

“I thought she was with you.”

All of their eyes went wide as they realized the situation, and they bolted out into the hallway.

“Does anyone have her number?”, Pinkie asked.

“She doesn’t have a phone.”, Sunset said.

“What? So, the portal can give you modern clothes, but it can’t give you anything else a modern human would need?”, RD asked.

“Correct”

“Great”

“Okay, let’s split up inta pairs and search for her.”, AJ said.

“We aren’t in a dangerous situation. There’s no need to pair up.”, Sunset said.

“Yes, there is.” Before anyone could argue, AJ grabbed Sunset by the arm and dragged her away.

“Okay, okay, what?”

AJ checked to make sure they were out of earshot before speaking. “What did ya think you were doin’?”

“You’re gonna need ta be more specific.”, Sunset said as they walked down the hall.

“Switching seats, what did ya think you were doin’?”

“What do you think Ah was doing? You like Rarity, and I was trying to help you out with that.”

“Well don’t, okay.”

“Ah’m confused. Isn’t the whole point of being attracted to someone to get closer to them in order to mate?”

“What? No… Ah mean, yes… Ah mean, could ya not bring up matin’?”

“Is that not your goal?”

“No-not now” AJ took a deep breath to collect herself. “Okay, Ah like Rarity, but we only just repaired our friendship, n’ Ah don’t wanna rock the boat, at least until Ah know what’s keepin’ it afloat.”

“Ya don’t have to be worried. She likes ya too.”

“She does?”, AJ asked as she began to blush. “Are ya sure?”

“Ah’m sure.”, Sunset said as she pointed to her head.

“Ah-Ah still wanna wait n’ build a better foundation for myself.”

“Better not wait for too long. She might get tired of waitin’ and move on.”

AJ rubbed her arm as she dejectedly processed that bit of information. Before she could come to any consensus, her phone rang. She put it on speaker so the both of them could hear. “Hello?”

“Hey,” Rainbow said, “we found Twilight.” She didn’t sound as energetically upbeat as she usually does.

“Ah, good. Where was she?”

“In the pre-nineteen-hundreds section. Look, could you two get over here, quickly. She encountered… something.”

Oh, crap.

“We’ll be there soon.” AJ hung up the phone, and they hurried to the other side of the school.

Outside a classroom near the pre-nineteen-hundreds, stood Rainbow waving them done. Sunset and Applejack hurried over and into the room. Inside, Twilight’s sitting in a chair, looking totally freaked out with Fluttershy doing her best to comfort her. Fluttershy was giving off some sort of energy, and as they got closer, Sunset suddenly felt safe and calmer.

“Hey, you okay?”, Sunset asked in a surprisingly calm tone. Given how freaked out that call got her, she wasn’t expecting to be so calm and collected. Fluttershy?

“There’s a monster in the school! We need to get everyone out!”

“Hey, hey, breathe.”, Fluttershy said as she rubbed her back.

“What did the monster look like?”, Sunset asked.

Whatever Fluttershy was doing seemed to finally be taking effect, and Twilight actually did take a breath. “It was shaped like a human, but it was pitch black and stuff was sticking out of it.”

Black, humanoid monster with stuff sticking out of it? “What color was its eye?”

“What?”

“Its eye, what color was it?”

“Um, blue, I think.”

“Isn’t that tha principal’s ghost?”, AJ asked.

“What?”

“What’s this about a ghost?”, Rarity asked. Everyone turned to see Rarity and Pinkie coming in.

“Twilight had an encounter with a ghost.”, RD said.

“Again, what?”, Twilight said, angrier this time.

Everyone gathered in a loose circle and looked to Sunset. At least my warning worked. “Chm, well, to avoid a full history lesson, a hundred and fifty years ago, our town’s original school was burned down in a fire caused by the heating stove exploding. The school’s principal was killed in the explosion, and his body was subsequently burned in the fire. The part of the school you ended up in was built over where the old school once stood, and he, along with the spirits of the other people killed in the fire haunt that section.”

-

“Your school is infested with spirits? Why haven’t you gotten the place exorcized yet?!”, Twilight shouted in outrage, jumping out of her chair.

“Whoa, calm down, sugarcube. From all the stories ma granny’s told me, he and the others are harmless, scary but completely harmless.”

“Spirits are dangerous monsters! There’s nothing harmless about them! I can’t believe any version of Celestia would let such dangerous beings near children!”, Twilight shouted as she stomped towards AJ.

Sunset rushed in front of Twilight and grabbed her arms, startling the girl. “Twilight,” she said firmly, “these are human spirits. They are different from the spirits you’re familiar with. These are a natural phenomenon that can occur if someone suffers a traumatic death or has unfinished business.”

“Natural phenomenon, my flank. We need to get rid of those things and find the pony responsible for conjuring them. We need to tell the Order of the Exorcist.”

“No, we don’t. A hundred and fifty years, these things haven’t hurt a single person in all that time. We work on different rules here, and most of our spirits aren’t malevolent.”

“Yeah, trust me, we’d know if they meant us harm.”, RD said, and Sunset nodded in agreement.

Twilight looked at Sunset with crossed arms and angry skepticism. She clearly still wasn’t convinced, so Sunset decided on a new approach. “Come on, I’ll show you.” Sunset took Twilight by the elbow and dragged her out of the classroom followed by the other girls. She struggled and begged Sunset to let her go, but Sunset was stronger. “Be quiet. We don’t want to be caught.”

The pre-nineteen-hundreds section which had the lights off and decorations acting as barriers. It clearly said ‘keep out’ without a straight up ‘keep out’ sign that any teen would be tempted to spite.

“How’d you even end up in there?”, Pinkie asked.

“I got lost and thought you might be in there because it’s scary.”

They went in and began walking down the dark hallways.

“Hey, Mr. Principal Ghost, we want to introduce you to our friend. Please come out.”, Pinkie called out.

“Pinkie, quiet.”, Sunset growled.

They reached the part of the school Sunset saw that shadow kid all those years ago. She could see the exact spot through the door’s window. There was an energy in the air, and Sunset looked to see some sort of distortion. There was nothing different with the physical space, but the energy of the space changed, and it was in the shape of a human.

“Um, Mr. Principal?”, Sunset said in a whisper.

The principal became visible, fire scorched skin, metal and wood impaling him, near glowing singular blue eye, and all.

Twilight struggled even harder as the principal began walking towards them. “Sunset, what are you doing? He’s going to hurt us.”

Sunset said nothing. It got closer and stopped in front of Twilight and Sunset, and placed a hand on Twilight’s shoulder. Twilight froze in fear, and it pointed them back the way it came. What is it doing? Not sure what else to do, the girls let it guide them. Sunset had to pick Twilight up because she refused to move. The principal guided them back to where they were supposed to be. When they got out, the girls turned around to see it disappear. The girls went back to the classroom, and Sunset put Twilight back in the chair.

Twilight unfroze and looked freaked out and very confused. “I don’t understand. It should’ve attacked us. That’s what they do.”

“As I’ve said, Earth runs on different rules. Not all spirits are malevolent forces. Most are just souls that, for one reason or another, haven’t moved on.”

“Huff, next thing you’re going to tell me is that wendigos are happy, joyful things that spread sunshine and rainbows here.”

“Oh, no, they’re still very much evil winter spirits here, but they aren’t summoned by disharmony and don’t spread everlasting winter. The wendigo spirit is attracted by the cold and to people that commit cannibalism and possess them, creating the wendigo monster, which is an eternally starving and rotting monster that only craves human flesh.”

-

“What in Tartarus?”

Sunset shrugged. “Like Ah said, Earth runs on different rules. Try keeping an open mind.”

Twilight nodded nervously, probably thinking she had no other choice. “Okay”

“Good” Sunset pulled her phone out and realized that it was getting close to the time for everyone to be heading home. “Crap, it’s ten. When did it get so late?”

They headed back to the gym, which was far emptier and quieter than it was in the beginning of the night. Sunset and a couple other of the girls went to grab some more drinks as the rest of them did whatever. Once Sunset had her drink, she noticed Twilight and Flash talking with each other and walked over to them.

“Yeah, Sunset and I used to go ghost hunting there.”, Flash said.

“You… hunt ghosts?”, Twilight asked.

“Not ‘hunt’ as in to kill and eat it.”, Sunset cut in. “‘Hunt’ can also mean to track and find something, which is what we were doing.”

“Oh”

“Yeah, don’t go around telling people about that. We weren’t supposed to be doing it.”

“Do you do anything legally?”

“When it suits me.”, Sunset said nonchalantly, earning a glare from Twilight.

“Yeah, we were sorta the bad kids couple back in the day.”, Flash bragged.

Suuure

“Hey! Twilight! Come check this out!”, Pinkie called out.

“Go, I need to have a talk with Flash.”, Sunset said.

“Oh, okay.” Twilight passed through the thinned crowd, leaving Flash and Sunset relatively alone.

“You do realize you can’t be with her, right?”

“I mean, she can travel between the worlds. We can find a way.”

“Dude, she’s an alien princess. She can’t hop between the worlds for weekly dates. I’m not saying you can’t be with her, but I am saying you aren’t going to be able to have a proper relationship with her. Do what you want but be practical about it.”

Flash sighed but said nothing.

“I just don’t want to see you hurt.”

Flash nodded, and Sunset gave him a smile before she headed back to her friends.

“Hey, my mom is going to be here soon to pick me up.”, RD said.

“Yeah, I should be getting ready to go too.”, Rarity said.

“You should change back into your civvies before you go home.”, Sunset said to Twilight.

“That makes sense.”, the princess said. “But I should wait until no one might see me before going through.”

Hm, she’s more strategic than I thought.

“Ah’ll wait with ya. Granny’s gonna be helpin’ with the clean up for a bit after the dance.”, AJ said.

“Thank you”

The girls that had food and drink finished it off before they headed to Rarity’s locker. Rarity retrieved her bag, and they headed to the locker room. Twilight and Rarity went inside, the latter there to help the former change, whilst the rest of them waited outside. Sunset and the other four girls talked and joked as they waited. Sunset offered Fluttershy and Pinkie to walk them home, which they accepted, and texted Brigid to pick her up around ten thirty.

“Fluttershy, were you aware that you were giving off a calming aura earlier?”, Sunset asked.

“Yeah, I was. It makes working with stressed out animals a lot easier.”

“Dang, we have opposite powers.”

“Heh, yeah”

Twilight and Rarity soon came back out. They headed out to the front of the school, where kids were exiting to be picked up by their parents. They waited to the side as students trickled out of the school. Rarity seemed to lock onto one car in particular and got a grin on her face. “Hey, this might be my chance.”

“What chance?”, Pinkie asked.

“My parents refuse to believe anything I tell them about magic. They might believe me if we show them the portal.”

“No”, Sunset said immediately.

“Why not?”

“We can prove our magic to your parents other ways. Showing them the portal is too dangerous. The only reason my parents know the location is because I didn’t have another way.”

“We can play for them some time.”, Rainbow suggested. “Will that work?”

“We could try, but they were at the battle of the bands and still don’t believe me.”, Rarity said while crossing her arms.

“I’d imagine you guys transforming right in front of them might be a bit different.”, Twilight said.

“Okay, let’s try that. We’ll text later and set up a time.”, Rarity said as she got up. “See you some time.” She turned and hurried over to the car.

“All our parents should probably come. My dad has been wanting to meet with all of yours to discuss this whole magic business and what it means to have magical kids, especially stuff regarding our health.”, Sunset said. “Your guys’ wing bones are still in your backs, and if you break them, you can’t exactly go to any old doctor.”

“My mom’s a paramedic. She could patch us up.”, Rainbow said.

“That’s a good start. My mother also has a decent amount of medical knowledge from growing up over an hour’s car ride to the hospital, and my doctor grandfather has experience with abnormal individuals.”

AJ looked at Sunset confusedly. “What does that mean?”

“I do need to explain some stuff to you girls.”

Rainbow hopped up with a ‘bye’ as another car pulled up, leaving them at five. Eventually, the rest of the kids had left, and the coast was clear for Twilight. She stepped through the portal and warped back to Equestria right around the time Brigid showed up. The three girls waved goodbye to AJ as she re-entered the school, and Brigid walked them all back to their homes. They dropped Fluttershy and then Pinkie off and were then left to walk only with each other.

“Hey, Mom.”

“What?”

“We had an incident tonight where we lost Twilight and had to search for her. She’s going to be spending more time here, and for her safety, I think she needs a phone.”

“Hm, so, y’re suggestin’ we get ‘er one?”

“Somethin’ like that.”

“Okay, Ah c’n go ta da store ove’ da weekend. Maybe a Nokin, like yers.”

“Actually, I was thinking that we could give her my old phone and I could get a new one. A smartphone would be useful in my research.”

“Oh, really? Ah’m not sure.”

“Please, all my friends have one, and it really would make my research so much easier.”

Brigid looked Sunset over, and Sunset began to get a bit nervous. “Ya have made a great deal a’ progress over da last couple a’ months. Ah think dat should be rewarded.”

“Yes, sweet.”

Outside Sunset’s house

Date: Nov 1st, time: 2:30 pm

*Applejack’s perspective*

AJ stepped out of Big Mac’s truck and onto the sidewalk outside Sunset’s place, at least, she hoped it was. She recognized the house across the street as the “witch’s” house. The only reason she even remembered the place was because of Pinkie’s, admittedly catchy, song. She checked her phone again. After they all got home last night, they scheduled a time to perform for all their parents, and after that, Sunset texted them to come to her house at two thirty. The place looked nice, and the address was correct, but there was no clan crest or name anywhere to be seen. Rainbow and Rarity were dropped off in short order, and Fluttershy and Pinkie came walking up the street.

“Hey, ready to go in?”, Rainbow asked.

“Are ya sure this is the right place?”, AJ asked.

“Yeah, I’ve been here before. We will need to take off our shoes and spray ourselves down with some decon stuff.”

“Oh, okay.” AJ gave a thumbs up to Big Mac, and he drove off.

The five girls approached the house, and Rainbow knocked. The door was answered by a blue-haired man with all blue clothes. There was something… different about him, but it wasn’t the same kind of ‘different’ she felt from Sunset. Or maybe it was. They felt similar.

“Hello?”, the man asked. He had an accent, but AJ was complete garbage at identifying them. The best she could say was Asian.

“Hi, we’re here to see Sunset. She’s expecting us.”, Rainbow said.

“I see. Come in. Sunset’s in her room.” The way he spoke was cold and calculating. It was similar to how VP Luna spoke but with even less emotion. He stepped out of the way, and the girls went inside.

“Thank you”, Rainbow said.

They took off their shoes, and Rainbow gave them all the bottle to spray down with. Once that was all taken care of, Rainbow led them to a door on the other side of the living room with a sign that read “WARNING [something in Chinese] DO NOT DUMB HERE NO DUMB AREA” instead of up the stairs. AJ’s confusion was eased once the door was opened to reveal Sunset and a space that was clearly hers, making the sign make much more sense, but a new confusion took its place as “Sunset’s room” was the size of a small apartment.

Sunset looked over at them like a startled deer as she was messing with a presentation board. “You’re early.”

“It’s two thirty, like you texted.”, Rarity said as they walked in.

Sunset looked surprised and looked down at her phone. “Oh, I really lost track of time. Close the door behind you.”

“Your room is huge.”, Pinkie said, taking the words out of AJ’s mouth.

“Yeah, this used to be the garage, but the previous owner meant it to be a mother-in-law suite. Unfortunately, he disappeared before he could complete it, and it became my room.” Sunset began moving stuff around, making space for everyone to sit.

The five girls tried to find places for everyone to sit as Sunset finished up with her board, but the limited seating proved to be an issue. Sunset’s couch was only big enough for two people, and the only other chair was a beanbag. Pinkie took the beanbag, and Fluttershy sat on Rainbow’s lap, who was sitting on the couch. AJ let Rarity sit in the available spot on the couch and sat on the floor next to her on the floor.

“Okay” Sunset positioned the board so they could all see and grabbed a pointer. “Now-”, she started but was interrupted by her door opening. They all turned to see a couple of pint-sizes enter, dragging in another beanbag, followed by a dog. “Emi, Anura, what are you doing?”

“We want to learn about Earth magic too.”, the pint-size wearing green said.

“Sigh, fine. Find a place to sit.”

The kids dragged the beanbag over to where they were sitting and both plopped down on it with the dog. With a closer inspection, it was clear which one was Sunset’s sister as the other one clearly had hair, and AJ couldn’t see any hair under the beanie. Her beanie also had her symbol on it… a familiar symbol.

“Your symbol looks like the crown.”, AJ said.

“That’s because they’re both the Star of Magic.”, the kid wearing blue said.

“The Star of Magic is the symbol for magic itself in Equestria.”, Sunset quickly explained. “The heart shape but for magic.”

“Does this mean you're talented in magic?”, Rarity asked.

“Ninpo, to be specific. I want to be the greatest magic user ever, just like Sunset.”

“And I think she’ll very well be able to, and thus, this meeting. I may not be religious any more, but I still believe in signs. Emi getting that symbol is a sign, and I believe that sign is that Earth is getting her magic back.”

No way. The five Rainbooms looked on in shock.

“You might want to get your presentation started.”, Fluttershy said.

Sunset repositioned herself and began her speech. “One thousand years ago, magic was commonplace, but around that time, it started disappearing.” Sunset began pointing to various drawings serving as visual aids. “Now, you may be wondering how I know this. Well, I’ll get to that. Along with witches, magical creatures have been slowly losing their magic, and within the last hundred years, Earth’s magic has almost completely gone away with only small remnants within certain creatures. The reason I know this is because my great grandfather, who was alive when magic was plentiful, told my grandmother about it, and she told my father, and he told me.”

“Um, ain’t ya skippin’ a couple generations?”, AJ asked.

“Nope, my grandmother was in her six-hundreds when she died, and her father was about six-hundred when she was born.”

“H-how?”, Rarity asked.

“We’re kitsune.”, Emi said with a fox-smile.

“Kitsune? As in a nine-tailed fox?”, Rainbow asked.

“Nine is the max number of tails a kitsune can grow, but yes. My dad is half fox and half human.” Sunset pointed to a picture of a blue multi-tailed fox. “This was my grandmother. My mom is also a creature known as a faoladh, an Irish werewolf,” Sunset then pointed to a picture of a werewolf wearing robes and armor, “but neither of them have access to their powers due to the draining. That makes Emi a faoladh/kitsune mix with both of their magics. Also, the night of the Fall Formal, I managed to get enough magic to give Emi a magic infusion, the same thing that gave us our ponyoid forms.”

“So, that means Emi can transform, like us?”, Fluttershy asked.

“Theoretically, yes, and there’s more. In the process of giving her the magic, some of her magic infused into me, making me a faoladh with kitsune powers. All the weird stuff I’ve been doing lately is all thanks to that.”

“Holy crap! You’re a werewolf!”, RD shouted right into Fluttershy’s ear. “Sorry”

“Yes, but faoladhs have no connection to the lunar cycle, nor are we weak to silver, and we can’t turn people. If I could shift, I could do it whenever I pleased and would stay in control while doing so. Yes, my life is weird.”

“I’m friends with a werewolf.”

“What about the whole, “Earth’s getting her magic back” bit?”, AJ asked.

“Right, I think by bringing Equestrian magic to Earth, I’ve started the process of returning Earth’s native magic. I can feel my Earth magic growing and a shift in the ground. Something’s happening.”

“What does that mean for us?”

“I don’t know. I understand so little about what’s going on.”, Sunset said, frustrated.

“Whatever happens next, we’ll handle it together.”, Pinkie said, jumping out from behind Sunset.

“Thanks, Pinkie.”, Sunset said with a smile.

“So, along with us, there are witches and various magical creatures.”, Rarity recapped.

“My mom and I are witches.”, Anura said.

“This is… a lot.”, AJ said.

“I know. That’s why it took me so long to tell you all. Figuring out how to condense what I learned over two and a half years into one presentation was difficult.” She picked up several books and brought them over to the five of them. “These are books that detail how various monsters around the world have evolved and changed over time. The red tabs indicate creatures that are almost certainly not real, the yellow indicate creatures that might be real, the green are creatures that are almost certainly real, and blue are creatures originally from Equestria.”

Each of the girls picked up a book and began reading them. Most of the stickers were yellow or blue with red having the second lowest numbers and green having the lowest numbers.

“Really, werewolves exist but vampires don’t?”, Rainbow asked.

“You really think undead monsters that feed off the blood of the living could be real?”, Sunset asked. “I’m the closest thing to a vampire you’re ever likely to meet.”

“Um, explain.”

“Right, thestrals are a nocturnal subspecies of ponies with fangs and bat-like wings. Due to that and my fear tactics that involved licking my bloody blades, I earned the nickname “blood sucking fiend”, or “vampire” in English. Ponish doesn’t have an exact word for vampire.”

“You’re… you sound like some living Dusk saga fanfic. Wait, and you’re allergic to garlic! Heheh, this is rich.” RD began laughing, getting Pinkie to start laughing.

“I know!”, Sunset said while throwing her arms up into the air. “Oh, and don’t let this get out. There’s a kid that’s obsessed with vampires and has been determined to get me to admit that I’m one. Apparently, red hair is a sign of vampirism.”

“Oh yeah, I remember that. Forest something, I think her name was.”, Rarity said.

“This is startin’ to sound more and more like a secret society.”, AJ said.

“Is that going to be a problem?”, Sunset asked.

“Sigh, no, I just wish we didn’t live in a world where lies and secrets were an everyday part of life.”

“I understand. I’ve lived a life where secrets and subterfuge are normal, and I’m tired of it, but for our safety and the safety of our families, all of this needs to stay under wraps. My secret nearly got out once, and… let’s just say werewolf moms will do anything to protect their cubs.”

AJ let out an annoyed huff but nodded.

“How ‘bout this, we don’t lie to each other. No lies within the secret society.”

AJ nodded. “Ah’d like that.”

“Good, and on the topic of our little society, I would like to work with you all to see if we can improve upon our powers.”

“Ooh, ooh, are you going to train us to be super heroes?”, Pinkie asked.

“Um, sure, if that’s what you want to do with them. I was more thinking of gaining better control over them, specifically how to transform on command and not transform when we’re playing.”

“Yeah, that would be a good idea.”, RD said.

“Wanna start now?”

“We might as well.”, Fluttershy said.

Sunset led them all out into the backyard and to the tree in the center of it.

“That’s a perty tree.”, AJ said.

“Yeah, it is.”, Sunset said. She sat beneath it and patted the ground in front of her. Rainbow, Emi, and Anura sat down like her, and the rest of them took their cues. “Now, the first step to controlling your magic is learning how to sense it. Close your eyes and focus on your bodies. Focus on the energy that exists within you. You might have felt it before. You should be able to feel seven pools of energy, called wellsprings, within yourselves. Try to find those.”

They all did as instructed, and AJ tried to find this energy. Ah might’ve felt it before. Like, when we transform? Ugh, this is not my field a’ expertise. Being aware of her body is something that AJ’s used to. Not listening to one’s body when doing physical labor is a good way to destroy it. Is that what she means, the physical boost Ah get when Ah work? She did say it’s caused by the magic. Maybe… She tried focusing on how she felt when she worked, but that only made her antsy and want to get up and move around.

“Ugh, Pinkie, could ya stop twitching?”, RD asked.

“Sorry, I’m not good at sitting still like this.”

AJ got up and brushed herself off. “Yeah, Ah have ta agree with Pinkie. Ah’m havin’ trouble with this too.”

“That’s okay. There are many other ways to meditate. It’s all about getting into “the zone”, as some of you call it.”, Sunset explained.

“The zone,” Pinkie said, “when do I go into the zone?”

“Why are you saying it like that?”, Fluttershy asked.

“Because it’s more fun.”

“Of course”, Fluttershy deadpanned.

“Pinkieness aside, she’s correct.”, Sunset said.

“In that case, sittin’ around like this isn’t gettin’ me inta “the zone”. Ah need ta be doin’ somethin’.”

“Fair enough. This was just an introduction.”

“Can we do somethin’ else then?”

“Sure, what do you wanna do?”

The Rainbows went inside and spent the rest of the day watching TV, playing video, card, and board games, and other such stuff. Sunset’s twirp of a sister and little cousin would sometimes join them. Even though the sisters say Anura’s their cousin, she looked nothing like Emi, and she’s somehow not a kitsune or werewolf, so AJ didn’t know what’s going on there.

During one of their games, they heard a weird sound and looked for the source. It turned out to be Pinkie making the noise. She was doing that Indian monk meditation pose and making that “ommm” sound.

“Pinkie, what are you doing?”, Rarity asked.

“Trying to get into the zone.”

“Right now?”, Fluttershy asked.

“Pinkie, that’s… could you stop? That’s distracting and a specialized meditation technique not used for what we’re trying to do.”, Sunset said.

“Fine” Pinkie returned to a normal sitting position and brought her attention back to the game.

“She is the sole reason I’m not the weirdest humanoid on this planet.”

“I take that as a compliment.”, Pinkie said proudly.

“Own your freaky self, darling.”, Rarity said sorta dismissively.

At around six, the girls’ families started coming and picking them up. AJ climbed into Big Mac’s truck, and they headed home. Seven wellsprings and magic blood, what do Ah even do with that? Find the energy that exists inside us. That sounds like the kind a’ self empowerment stuff Ah did as a kid… hang on, that might be worth a try.

Sweet Apple Acres

Date: Nov 2nd, time: 2:00 pm

*Sunset’s perspective*

Brigid pulled up to the curb outside AJ’s place with Jiraiya not far behind them. They all got out with Brigid carrying Emi, Minerva holding Anura’s hand, and Sunset grabbing her guitar. AJ and her family were finishing setting up the garage, and the other girls and their families rolled up in short order. Everyone got out of their cars, and the adults that already knew each other greeted each other. The little kid, who Sunset has recently learned is Applejack’s little sister, ran out to greet Rarity’s little sister and Rainbow’s surrogate little sister, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo.

Brigid corralled them over to the group and introduced them. “Hi, we’re Sunset’s family.”

The other parents all looked at her and most got the faces that everyone who first meet her get. “I think we’ve met before.”, RD’s mom said.

“Probably during one of our hockey games.”, Sunset said.

“Jiraiya?”, a woman who came with Rarity said.

“Torta, I guess you get to meet my granddaughters early.”

“Dad,” Anzhong said, “mind introducing us.”

“Righ, right, kids, this is Torta, my girlfriend. Torta, these are three of my kids and grandkids, my son, Anzhong; his wife, Brigid; their girls, Sunset and Emi; Brigid’s sister, Minerva; and Minerva’s daughter, Anura. I became Minerva’s surrogate father during Anura’s difficult birth.”

“Girlfriend?”, Emi asked.

“Well, we’ve gone on a couple of dates.”

“Old people date?”

“Of course we do. We’re old, not dead.”

During that whole conversation, Rarity and Sunset were looking between each other and their respective grandparent. What does this mean for us?

“Oh, Mama, you really went through with it.”, Rarity’s mom said.

“Why don’t you continue this conversation at a later time. We would like to watch our daughter perform.”, Pinkie’s dad said.

“Dat sounds good. Dis is gonna be a special performance”, Brigid said.

They all went into the garage, and the Rainbows set up while everyone else sat in the chairs that had been set up. Once everyone was ready, the girls began playing. The magic pulsed through Sunset’s blood and into every part of her body. It was a warm, energizing feeling. It made her feel powerful, and the music seemed to help her express it fully. She returned her attention to the present as the song ended. Everyone, except for the CMC girls, looked interested or surprised. For most of them, you could see the gears turning in their heads, but for Rarity’s parents, they looked completely dumbfounded. Sunset placed her guitar down and walked over to her parents. They stood up as she approached, and Sunset took Anzhong’s hand and put it to her pony ears.

“They’re soft.”, he said as he rubbed her ears. “And stop growing. You’re getting too big.”, he joked.

“Never”, Sunset said with a playful growl.

“Yer hair’s waggin’ like a tail.”

“It is a tail.” Sunset noticed Rarity approaching her parents, and given their initial reactions, she felt she needed to be attentive to things so removed Anzhong’s hand.

“This is what I was trying to tell you about. I have magic. We have magic. We were attacked by magical creatures that wanted to feed off of everyone at the musical showcase that we had to fight off.”, Rarity said.

“I don’t… I don’t understand.”, Rarity’s dad said.

“How did this happen?”, Rarity’s mom asked.

“Oh, you know, Sunset lost control over her magic, and we had to gain magic of our own to save her, normal magical girl stuff.”, Rarity said nonchalantly, probably in an attempt to play down just how weird it all actually was.

“Your media seems to have somewhat prepared you for this.”, Jiraiya said.

“You didn’t look too surprised by this?”, Ms. Torta said.

“That’s because my late wife was a magical creature called a kitsune, a multi-tailed, shapeshifting fox spirit. That makes my biological children human/fox hybrids.”, Jiraiya began to explain. They’d previously discussed what they would say if this situation came up, so he knew what he could and couldn’t say. “Also, Minerva is a witch. She can’t fly or shoot energy beams, but she can brew potions.”

All the parents and the CMC heard what Jiraiya said and looked over to the Katons.

“Ya did the deed with a fox and made a baby and one that could also make a baby on top a’ that?”, Granny Smith said.

“Two, actually, and it wasn’t easy; that’s why his sister is so much older than him, but her being a magical shapeshifter would take most of the credit.”

“My sister and I are basically human, which made it easier for us.”, Anzhong explained.

Rarity’s parents still looked like their brains have overloaded as they sputtered and made confused sounds.

“Rainbow, get back down here.”, AJ demanded. Rainbow was flying around the garage and showing off to her parents.

“Oh, come on. I’m an expert flier.”

“You’ve had less than an hour of flight time. I’d hardly call you an expert.”, Fluttershy said.

Pinkie Pie jumped up and grabbed Rainbow, dragging her back down to Earth.

“What I don’t get is what’s with the ears.”, Fluttershy’s brother said, Zephyr something. What shocked Sunset was just how loud he was. He wasn’t shouting, but he was speaking a little too loudly to be considered socially appropriate, but with how the rest of his family speaks, he might as well be shouting.

“The form we take has to do with how we all got our powers.”, Sunset started explaining. “The magical artifact we got our powers from contained the magic of an alien species. As a result, whenever we use our powers, we take on features of that species. As to why only Rainbow and Fluttershy have wings, there are three different races of the species with differences in their magic, Rainbow and Fluttershy got the flying one, AJ and Pinkie got the physically strongest one, and Rarity and I got the one with the finest control over magic.”

“Whoa, that’s awesome.”, Zephyr said as he looked specifically at Rainbow. Sunset couldn’t see his face, but Rainbow moved so her dad was in between her and Zephyr.

Each of the families resumed talking to their respective Rainboom with the exceptions of the Katons and Ms. Torta. Jiraiya and Ms. Torta were talking with each other, and the rest of the Katons were observing the conversations. Their place as the most experienced with magic stuff would likely come into play. Sunset focused on Rarity’s conversation with her parents. They seemed to be having the hardest time out of all of them, even with Sweetie Belle helping to explain what she knew about the situation. Sunset’s seen enough movies and shows to know that they were the most likely to say something upsetting.

“Maybe there’s a doctor that we can talk to, someone that could get you back to normal.”, Rarity’s dad said. Shit, there it is.

Rarity’s ears flattened against her head, the motion startling her parents, and she took a step back.

“You can’t do that. It will kill her.”, Sunset said, getting everyone’s attention. “Our magic is a part of our bodies, a part of our blood, and that’s not a metaphor. Our bodies now require magic to continue functioning. There’s nothing we can do to undo what’s been done.”

Rarity’s parents still didn’t look to be taking it well. Rarity’s mom was looking between her daughter and Sunset, and her dad sat back in his chair, holding his head.

“This would be a good time to go over what this all means for you, as parents.” Jiraiya walked in front of the crowd and began talking about how things could and will change, both socially and medically.

Rarity’s parents were distracted with themselves, so she took the opportunity to slip away. The rest of the Rainbooms noticed it and followed her out of the garage and over to the side of the house. Rarity sat down in the grass with her knees pulled up to her chest and her ears still flat against her head. The rest of them sat down so they were in a circle, with AJ, of course, being right next to her.

“You okay?”, Pinkie asked.

“My parents rejected me.”, she said flatly but with a hint of sadness.

“They’re just scared.”, Sunset tried to reassure. “My mom found out she’s a werewolf only a couple months ago, and even with all the magic craziness she’d already experienced, it still scared her. Your parents just need time to process everything. Oh, and my mom wants to keep her lycanthropy on the downlow. She doesn’t want people thinking she’s a bloodthirsty monster.”

“Got it, and yeah, your parents are good people that love you.”, Rainbow said. “Besides, there’s no way your grandma would stand for them rejecting you, especially if she's going to marry into that family.” RD pointed at Sunset.

“Okay, what did Ah miss?”, AJ asked.

“My grandfather is dating her grandmother.”, Sunset explained.

“Oh, that’s goin’ ta be interestin’.”

“I know you’re right, but it still feels bad.”, Rarity said. AJ rubbed her shoulder to comfort her.

“Try her ears. That feels really good.”, Sunset suggested.

AJ gave Rarity a questioning look, and Rarity leaned her head towards her while letting her ears relax. AJ began rubbing her ears, and the look on Rarity’s face told her everything she needed to know.

“Y’know, we’ve been transformed for a long time.”, Fluttershy commented.

“Let’s see how long it lasts.”, Sunset said.

“Speaking of pony stuff, you’ve been purposely avoiding telling people that you’re an alien.”, RD pointed out.

“Yeah, things are already weird enough. I’m trying to not overload people. Plus, I don’t want to deal with the “Why did you come to Earth?” question or the dumb jokes that would come with it.”

“ET… go home.”, RD said, trying to mimic that smoker’s voice, and poked her finger into Sunset’s personal space.

“ET bite finger off if you don’t get it away from me.”, Sunset said with a snarl and glare.

Rainbow retracted her hand quickly and hid it behind her back then her eyes widened. “Whoa, your eyes are glowing red and slitted.”

“What?” Sunset blinked a few times. There was a warm sensation in her eyes, but it quickly went away.

“It stopped. Is that a you thing or an us thing?”

“Grrr”, Pinkie said, earning everyone’s attention.

“What are you doing, you screwball?”

“Sunny’s eyes glowed when you got her mad, so I’m trying to get myself mad.”

“Mad? Yes. Angry? No.”, Sunset quipped to RD.

“Look”, RD said as she pointed to Pinkie. They all whipped their heads around to see that her eyes were glowing pink but not slitted.

“So, glowing’s an us thing but slits are, Ah’m guessin’, a fox thing.”, AJ said.

Pinkie relaxed and blinked, returning her eyes to blue. “Glowy eyes, cooool.”

“Add that to the weird list.”, Rarity said.

“We’re also still transformed.”, Fluttershy pointed out.

“Maybe we have to manually turn it off.”, Pinkie said. “Maybe the off switch is next to the G-spot.”

“I’d think that’d be the on switch.”

“Oh, something I wanted to ask. What’s up between your brother and Rainbow?”, Sunset asked.

“Sigh, I’m not out to my family yet, so my brother doesn’t know Rainbow’s taken.”

“And let’s just say, I’m hoping she tells them soon.”, Rainbow added.

“Why don’t you just tell him to bugger off? You’re half Scottish. You lot are the best at angry rants.”

“That’s exactly why I don’t. I don’t want to make him cry again. It ain’t pretty.”

“What does ‘bugger’ mean?”, AJ asked.

Sunset and Rainbow both looked at each other for answers, making it clear neither of them knew what the lone word meant.

“It probably has something to do with sex. I mean, it’s British slang. It’s gotta be either sex related, shit related, lack of intelligence related, or devil related.”, Sunset said.

“Aren’t all swear words related to at least one of those?”, RD asked.

“No, there are Japanese swears that are ugliness related and ones that straight up tell you to die and hit your head on tofu, and I do mean full on swears, not just insults.”

“Oooh, dark.”

“Girls! Come back in ‘ere!”, Brigid called out.

They hopped up and went back over to the garage.

“Mom, what does ‘bugger’ mean?”, Sunset asked.

“Someone dat gives anal, a pain in da arse, as it were.”

“Oh, that makes sense.”

The seven of them re-entered the garage and rejoined their respective families. Sunset overheard the Forsts and the Hothoofs discussing medical care regarding their respective Rainboom’s wings with Jiraiya. Out of all of them, Rainbow and Fluttershy would have the biggest changes to their lives simply because of their wings. AJ and Pinkie were showing off their ears to their siblings and letting themselves be petted. Rarity approached her parents slowly. They still looked overwhelmed, but Sunset couldn’t sense any hatred coming from them. Rarity bent down so Sweetie Belle could touch her ears too.

“Rarity, are you okay?”, Rarity’s mom asked.

Rarity stood back up to answer them. “I’m fine, Mom. Actually, I’ve been feeling stronger lately.”

“You’re okay with what happened to you?”, her dad asked.

Rarity shrugged. “It’s weird, but like Sunset said, there’s nothing we can do about it now. Besides, I’m not alone in this.”

“Looks like ya got yerself a pack.”, Brigid whispered into Sunset’s ear.

Sunset’s tail wagged slightly. Hers was the only one to do so. The werewolf in her was probably the reason.

“I think you look adorable.”, Ms. Torta said. Rarity smiled. Affirmation was all she needed to hear.

“Give us some time. This is a lot.”, her father said.

“I understand.” Rarity tried to keep her expression neutral, but her ears betrayed her sadness. Ear movements were always the most challenging to learn control over, and that’s for ponies, who were born with those ears.

Rarity’s mom hugged her. Her love for her daughter was clear. “We’re trying.”

“I know.”

The two of them broke off the hug, and Rarity’s mom took a step back. “Let’s go home. Um…” Ms. Alba pointed at Rarity’s ears.

“Right” Rarity closed her eyes, and a couple seconds later, her ears and hair returned to normal. “Looks like we do have to manually turn it off now.”

“Sweet, that means I don’t have to worry about detransforming mid-flight. I can fly home after school.”, RD said as she flew around the room.

“Absolutely not.”, her mom said firmly. “Someone will spot you.”

“I was joking.”

Rainbow landed, and the girls all transformed back into their human forms and packed up. Everyone parted ways and climbed into the cars they came in and started heading to wherever.

“You guys sounded really good.”, Anura said.

“Thank you.”

“I hope Rarity’s parents come around. She seemed really upset.”, Minerva noted.

“Yeah, I’m not sure if she’s out to them yet, but Rarity’s gay, so being rejected by them is probably an already existing fear she has.”

“Oh, okay.”, Brigid said. In the mirror, Sunset could see Brigid had her gears turning. “Sunset, are ya still afraid a’ bein’ abandoned by us?”

“The fear’s still kinda there, but at least, not as strongly anymore. Having your magics in my blood does give me a sense of security. I know you guys see me as your daughter, regardless of our blood relation, but having some parts of you contribute to my whole is quieting down some nagging little voices in my head.”

“That’s good.”, Anzhong said as he reached his hand back. “Thank you for being honest with us.”

Sunset took his hand. ‘I love you’ wasn’t something said a lot in their house, but they still communicated it. If only her screwed up brain would just get the memo.

Black void

Date: ?, time: ?

*Sunset’s perspective*

“How did I get back here?” Sunset walked through the black void. She tried to think of all the ways this could’ve happened. She was starting to get freaked out. She looked down her hands to have something other than the void to look at. Her fingers looked blurry. She couldn’t make sense of them or tell how many of them there were.

“Some pack,” a voice that sounded like hers said, “they don’t care about you.” Sunset spun around to see her demon form floating above her. “They’re your leash. They’re afraid of you.”

Sunset glared up at her inner darkness. “You’ve got a lot of nerve talking to me like that.”

“Really?” The giant demon backhanded Sunset, sending her flying.

She skidded to a stop on the nonexistent floor and got back up. “Yes, you are just my weapon. The weapon obeys their master, not the other way around.”

The demon’s smile grew wider and more sharp teeth jutted out. “I am you. You really think your parents, either set, can love such a monster?” It began crawling towards her like some leviathan dragon. “The moment they don’t need us anymore, we’re out. We are a stain on their names. We can never be fixed.”

Sunset stared up into the demon’s completely black eyes. “Why do you hate me?”

The demon’s sadistic smile warped into pure rage. “I AM YOU!”, it shouted as it reared up to its full height, bursting into flames, and smashed its fists down onto Sunset.

Sunset’s room

Date: Nov 3rd, time: 7:00 am

*Sunset’s perspective*

Sunset woke up with a start. Her heart was racing. She looked around her room to ground herself. Just a dream. Just a dream. She’d woken up earlier than her alarm was set to go off, but her parents were likely already awake. She got out of bed and ready for the day then headed out to the living room.

“Y’re up early.”

Sunset went over to her mother, who was feeding the animals, and hugged her.

“Bad dream?”

“Yes”

“Wha’ about?”

“Ugh, the demon decided to torment me.”

Brigid picked Sunset up and let her cling to her as she finished with the animals. Anzhong was almost done cooking, so Brigid put Sunset down to go get Emi. Sunset sat down and waited for the food. Anzhong placed a cup of coffee in front of her and rubbed her shoulder comfortingly. Brigid soon came down with Emi, and the food was served. After they all ate, Brigid took Emi back up to her room, and Sunset went back to hers as Minerva and Anura walked in. She really had no reason to sit around at home, so she packed her bag and headed to school.

She got there before eight, so the doors were still locked and there weren’t any other students. She sat on the front steps and pulled out her new phone. She could call up her friends or experiment around with it. She still needed to start building the testing equipment.

“Sunset?”, Celestia said.

Sunset turned around to see her standing in the doorway. “Hey”

“Would you like to come inside?”

Why not? Sunset got up and went inside with Celestia. When she was closer, Sunset could sense unease within her, and she seemed less sunny than usual. “Is there something serious going on?”

“You are very perceptive. Have I ever told you that I have prophetic dreams?”

“Your counterpart has. What was this one about?”

“I believe you and your friends, including Twilight, are in danger, possibly because of your magic. You and your friends were being attacked by something, but I couldn’t see what, but it was laughing like a hyena, and I could see seven floating balls of electricity.”

“That’s… weird. Thank you for the heads up.”

“You don’t seem like you slept well either.”

“I haven’t fully regained control over my darkness, and I had a nightmare related to that.”

“Want some advice for that?”

“Sure”

“Your darkness is powerful. That means you must balance it out with an equally powerful light. Fill your life with love and learn to love yourself, all parts of yourself.”

“What, you want me to kiss my demon on the head and tell it everything will be alright?”

“That’s how I did it. Just like the rest of you, it needs to be accepted. It is an important part of you.”

Sunset nodded. “That makes a stupid amount of sense. I’m going to check out the lab space I got. I need to figure out how to get all the crap to build my equipment without breaking the bank.” Sunset headed down to the basement and looked for room 12. The room was easy to find. Inside, it looked like a classroom but without any desks or chairs. What made it different was the observation room. There were also some boxes in there. Those could probably go into the observation room, if they don’t have anything useful in them. She looked through the boxes and found some electronic components but mostly just junk. She put the useful stuff in one corner and shoved everything else into one side of the room.

Sunset’s phone dinged, so she pulled it out.

Hey where r u? We’re at the statue

“Girl still doesn’t know how to text.”

In room B12, or my lab, I should say.

Ok we’ll just head in then

Sunset stashed her phone and headed upstairs, making sure to lock the door behind her. She headed up to the school entrance and met up with the others.

“So, how’s the lab?”, Rarity asked.

“A classroom with some extra safety features and clutter, so a normal lab.”

“Um, shouldn’t labs not have clutter?”, AJ asked.

“It’s a scientist joke. By the way, if you have any broken electronic parts, I could use them.”

“We’ll ask our parents.”, Fluttershy said.

“Thank you”

The bell rang, and they all scattered in the directions of their classrooms. The glares and sneers had pretty much stopped, and now, kids were just ignoring her existence, a fact the ninja in her's perfectly okay with. Classes were uneventful. Lunch came around, and the Rainbooms all got to meet up again.

“Hey, AJ what do you want to do for your birthday?”, Pinkie asked.

“Your birthday’s coming up?”, Sunset asked.

“Yeah, the fifteenth, and Ah dunno.”

Pinkie rolled her eyes, and then something dinged in her head, somehow audibly. “Oh, speaking of birthdays, when’s your birthday, Sunset?”

“Oh, my birthday was on September first.”

Once what Sunset said had sunken in, the rest of the girls gave her apologetic looks.

“Ooh, I guess that wasn’t a great birthday.”

“None of us were exactly in celebratory moods at the time, but it’s fine. I’ll have another one next year.”

“No! Birthdays are important! Never assume you’ll live another year! We’re having a makeup birthday for you.”, Pinkie shouted firmly.

“You make a good point, but…”

“No buts! We are giving you a make-up birthday!”

“Okay, fine, just stop yelling. Sigh, I don’t want anything big. Maybe just pizza and ice cream.”

“That actually sounds pretty good. We can do that for me too.”, AJ said. “We can do it joint if ya want.”

“Uh, Ah wouldn’t want ta hijack your birthday.”

“Ah wouldn’t mind, so long as ya don’t mind tha happy birthday song not being sung. Ah hate that song.”

“Yeah, me too.” Is not singing it an option?

“Then we’re in agreement.”

“What about dietary restrictions?”, Pinkie asked. “That includes your family members.”

“Um, you know about my garlic thing, and my dad and grandpa are lactose intolerant.”

“Got it.”

“What about presents?”, Rarity asked.

“You guys freed me from myself on my birthday and gave me your friendship. I don’t need any more presents.”

“Sigh, at least let me give you a new jacket, darling. Yours is looking tight and… well loved.”

“Sigh, okay. I do need a new jacket.”

“And you, Applejack?”

“Um, Ah trust yer giftin’ skills.”

Rarity rolled her eyes. “Great, another stetson. You are impossible.”

“So, do we have all this birthday stuff taken care of?”, Sunset asked.

“Yeah, I got it down.”, Pinkie said.

“Good, Principal Celestia gave me a warning earlier about a prophetic dream she had. We might be in danger.”

“Well, that went from parties to peril real quick.”, RD commented.

“What kind of danger are we in?”, Fluttershy asked.

“She couldn’t tell me anything about the enemy, but I believe it would be pertinent for us to prepare to fight.”

“How exactly are we going to do that?”, RD asked.

“There’s no longer a time limit on our transformation. We now have the opportunity to train our powers. You would even be able to get some real flight hours in and actually become an experienced flier.”

“You once said your sister is some sort of expert flier, right?”

“Yeah, she’s the captain of the Wonderbolts, yes, the Equestrian counterparts of the Golden Angels stunt flying rivals.”

“And that would mean that you are at least somewhat familiar with their training, right?”

“You want me to teach you their tricks?”

“Yes”

“Sure, I used to help my sister train, being the brainiac I am.”

“Sweet”

“I could also use some help transporting some stuff from my house to the lab so I can start building the testing equipment. Would any of you be able to meet me in front of the statue at three thirty?”

“Sure thing, sugarcube.”, AJ said.

“Sorry, I have a dentist appointment.”, Fluttershy said.

“I’m free to help, darling.”, Rarity said.

“No prob.”, RD said.

“I’ll try to be there, but the PPC meetings have been running long lately.”, Pinkie said.

“Thank you”, Sunset said.

Lunch soon finished, and the girls went back to class. After three more hours of mundane lessons, classes let out, and Sunset went to go meet with Ms. Lance-Hart.

“Hello, Sunset.”

“Hi, Ms. Lance-Hart.” Sunset sat down and noticed that their usual chess wasn’t set up. Instead, snakes and ladders was out, but the snakes were replaced with slides and the virtues and vices and that sort of stuff were gone. There were also more ladders. “What’s this about?”

“I’m getting kinda sick of losing all the time, so I was hoping we could try something I might actually win.”

“Fair enough, but why does it look like this?”

“What do you mean?”

“The one we have at home has the ladders representing virtues like generosity, patience, and humility and the snakes, or slides in this case, representing vices like anger, murder, and theft. And it has fewer ladders.”

“Huh, I’ve never heard of something like that. This is just what they sell in stores. Why would yours have stuff like that on it?”

“It’s supposed to teach us the effects our actions have on our path to Nirvana and that following a path of good is harder than following a path of vices.”

“Is your family Buddhist?”

“My dad is, but he doesn’t full-heartedly believe in any of it. It more provides him with a sense of comfort and guidelines for living a good life.”

“Do you have any beliefs, beliefs from your home world or ones you adopted here?”

“Not really. Well, not so much religious beliefs. My mom has a Gaianistic code that can be summed up as respecting all life on this planet because they’ve managed to survive and respecting the plants and animals that we eat for serving their purpose in the food chain, and I’ve been following that.”

“That sounds interesting. Mind explaining it more?”

“Well, it isn’t complicated. We, as apex predators, hold a lot of power and so must show kindness and respect to the other inhabitants of Earth, don’t harm animals or plants just for the sake of hurting them, only kill for food or to protect ourselves or another, respect that which we kill for food. That sort of stuff. It’s a survival of the fittest type mentality, and anything that can survive here deserves respect.”

“I like that. Should we start playing?”

“Oh, yes.”

They began playing, and with it being a game of chance, Ms. Lance-Hart was faring better than in chess.

“So, how have things been?”

“Good, the girls and I showed our parents our magic over the weekend, and they mostly reacted well. Rarity’s parents had the most trouble accepting everything and didn’t have the best reaction. They even talked about finding someone that could cure her before I shut that down. They were a bit better after they got some time to process it, but they were still having trouble when they left.”

“That’s unfortunate. What about your parents? How are things with them?”

“Things are good. As you suggested, I’ve tried being more honest with them about my feelings, and it’s been going good. It’s a weird feeling. Even with my biological parents, I felt I needed to keep the truth about the gods to myself. I didn’t want to shatter their reality, like what happened to me. But with Anzhong and Brigid, I really can be honest with them. With everything they’ve done and been through, they can really understand me.”

“That’s good. Not a lot of kids can say that.”

The session continued for a bit longer with them discussing smaller things. Once their time was up, Sunset headed straight out to the statue and saw RD, AJ, and Rarity out there. “Pinkie not here yet?”

“She is now.”, RD said while pointing to the door.

Sunset turned around to see said girl rushing out.

“I’m here!”, Pinkie shouted as jumped down the stairs and bounced over to them.

“Good, let’s go.” Sunset led the girls to her house, but instead of going through the front, she took them in through the back.

“Sounds like ya need ta oil yer gate.”, AJ said.

“Nah, it acts as a line of security. Good luck sneaking in through the back with a screaming gate.” Sunset retrieved a wagon from the space between her room and the greenhouse and brought it up the ramp. “Don’t bother with your shoes. We won’t be here long.” She led them inside and to her boxes of electronic bits.

“Why do you have this?”, RD asked.

“I like to buy broken electronic devices and frankenstein them together into something working. I’ve even managed to make a pretty penny from selling repaired consoles and the like. Unfortunately, business has been slow for a while.”

“So, next time Dashy breaks one of our consoles, we can bring it to you?”, Pinkie asked.

“It was an accident, and I said I was sorry.”

“An expensive accident that left me and my sisters without video games until your parents were able to repay mine.”, Pinkie said with a glare.

“Yeah, I can fix your shit.”, Sunset said. “And you just reminded me, why haven’t I seen Marble around school? She seems pretty close to you in age?”

“Heh, she’s actually my twin, and she got bullied because of her skin, so our mom pulled her out of school and has been homeschooling her ever since.”

“Oh, that’s just fucking low. Tell your sister I think she's beautiful and unique.”

“I will.”

The five girls brought the boxes outside and placed the biggest ones in the wagon. Since she had the least lifting strength, Rainbow pulled the wagon while the rest of them carried the smaller boxes. They went around to the side entrance, where they could take the wagon inside. They had to abandon the wagon once they reached the basement stairs. AJ passed off her box to RD and took one of the larger boxes.

“That’s impressive.”, Sunset said to AJ once they were down the stairs.

“Thanks, Ah found that by takin’ more magic from my wellsprings n’ focusin’ it in the needed parts of my body, Ah can increase my strength.”

The rest of the girls turned to look at AJ in surprise. “You’re explaining that more… once we put these down.”, RD said.

They brought the boxes over to room 12, and Sunset unlocked the door and let them in. “Put them ove’ in that corner.”, she instructed. They did as instructed, but calling the resulting pile neat would be generous.

The girls circled around AJ and looked to her for their explanation.

“Okay,” AJ started, “my form a’ meditation is physical labor. When Ah work, Ah can feel my magic’s movement. In the past, when there was a task Ah had trouble doin’, Ah would imagine more energy goin’ ta my arms n’ legs, makin’ me stronger. Ah tried that yesterday and felt ma magic becomin’ that energy.”

“That is exactly how magic works.”, Sunset said with a smile. “Magic is mind over matter. The only limitation is the amount of power you have and your imagination. Well done, AJ. How strong can you make yourself?”

“Uh, Ah haven’t done any testing like that, but on top of tha strength increase just havin’ magic gave me, Ah’ve been able ta do so much more work.”

“Okay, I’ll add strength tests to the list. They should be easy. We already got what we need in the weight room.”

The five of them finished getting the boxes into the lab and placed them in the pile.

“Girls”, VP Luna said.

AJ and Rarity jumped in surprise, and they all turned around to face her. She was standing in the doorway, wearing her standard serious expression. “Hi”, they all said.

“I’m guessing that’s your wagon at the top of the stairs.”

“Yeah, we just finished unpacking. I’ll be taking it back home shortly.”, Sunset said.

Luna nodded and scanned the room. “What is all that?”

“Stuff to build my machines.”

“Okay… We can move that other stuff out of here.”

“That would be helpful.”

They all grabbed boxes from the junk pile, and Luna led them to another room. She unlocked the door and let them put the boxes inside. A couple more trips and the junk boxes were in the other room, and Luna relocked the door.

“Thank you”, Sunset said to all of them.

“My sister and I are very interested in the results of your research.”, Luna said.

“I’ll get them to you as soon as possible.”

Luna nodded and left.

“Thank you for your help. I can handle things from here.”

The girls said their goodbyes, and the rest of the girls headed back upstairs. Sunset locked the door to the lab then followed the girl up the stairs and grabbed her wagon. Sunset and Pinkie waited with AJ, RD, and Rarity as they waited for the bus with them all just shooting the breeze. The bus pulled up, the three got on, and Sunset and Pinkie began walking to their houses. Once Sunset got home, put the wagon back, and got in her room, she grabbed her journal and computer along with a lot of notebooks and hunkered down to design the equipment.

Several filled notebooks later, Sunset’s shoulder was lightly shook, and she jumped as she spun around in her chair only to see Brigid. “Mom, you startled me.”

“Ya must’ve been really absorbed in wha’eve' dis is. Wha’ is it?”

“Designs for my testing equipment.” Sunset picked up one of the books and handed it to Brigid. “I took what I remember from when I repaired these devices from Equestria and adapted them to work with the technology of this world and what magic I can do.”

Brigid opened up the book and began reading through it. “Dis looks very impressive. Ah don’t know wha’ any a dis means, but da fact ya can do dis is impressive.”, she said as she handed the book back. “Dinner’s gonna be ready soon. Get washed up.”

“Okay. Oh, AJ’s birthday is on the fifteenth, and she offered to share it with me as a sorta makeup birthday, considering how we spent my last birthday.”

“Okay, wha’ do ya want f’r yer makeup-birthday?”

“I don’t want any presents. I already feel weird about having my makeup-birthday on AJ’s actual birthday. The only reason I agreed is because of something Pinkie said.”

“N’ wha’ would dat be?”

“Never assume you’ll live another year.”

Katon family garage

Date: Nov 4th, time: 5:45 pm

*Sunset’s perspective*

“So, wha’ kind a tools will ya need?”, Brigid asked. She and Sunset stood in front of her work bench, which had several tool boxes and a board of tools.

Sunset opened up her journal and one of her notebooks. “Wire strippers, a soldering gun and wire, heat shrink tubing, a lighter, a drill with Phillips-head and flat-head attachments, and maybe some welding equipment.”

“Do ya even know how ta weld?”

“I was a skilled pyromancer in the military. I was “volunteered” by the higher ranking commanders to learn how to weld and help fix weapons.”

“Do ya know how ta weld as a human?”

“Well, it can’t be too different.”

“Ah’d feel bette’ if ya had an adult ta help ya.”

“I can ask the machine shop teacher ta help.”

“Please do.”

They continued collecting tools and parts but were interrupted by the journal glowing.

“Wha’s dat about?”

“It’s Princess Twilight. This journal is linked to one in her possession, and we can use these to essentially email each other.” Sunset flipped to the first empty page to see what Twilight wrote.

“Hey, I have some free time in a few days and was thinking of coming over to your world. I’ve also found evidence of humans in Equestria and want to discuss it with you.”

“Dat is weird but cool, n’ am Ah readin’ it right dat dere are humans in Equestria?”

“You are reading it correctly.” Sunset pulled a pen out of one of her notebooks and began writing a response. “I would be interested in the discussion, but I’m going hunting this weekend. I’ll call the other girls and check what they’re doing.” Sunset grabbed her phone and called the rest of the girls. She put it on speaker so she could still write.

“Hey, Sunset, what’s up?”, RD asked.

The rest of the girls answered in short order and gave their own versions of ‘hello’ as Twilight wrote her response.

“Hey, Twilight says she wants to come over this weekend, n’ Ah’m checkin’ plans.”, Sunset said. “By the way, you’re on speaker phone.”

“Oh, that’s not gonna work. I’m going hunting with my family.”, Pinkie said.

“Same”, AJ said.

“Same”, Rarity said.

“Yeah, I’m not going hunting, but I’ve already got plants.”, RD said.

“Same as Rainbow.”, Fluttershy said.

“Hm, what kind of plans do you two have?”, Pinkie asked in that tone.

“Oh, shut up. My plans ain’t even got anything ta do with Fluttershy.”

“Gasp, Rainbow, are you seriously going to do that to Fluttershy?”, Rarity asked in mock horror.

“Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!”

Man, I wish I could see how red Flutter’s face is right now.

The banter coming out of the phone came to a halt as Brigid let out a hearty chuckle. “Hahahah, ya kids Dese days grow up so fast.”

“Hi, Dr. Katon.”, Fluttershy squeaked out.

“Hello, girls.”

Sunset took this break to read Twilight’s reply.

“You hunt? What do you hunt?”

“Yes,” Sunset started writing, “my mom first took me hunting after my thirteenth birthday. We mainly hunt deer, a large, quadrupedal herbivore, but we also hunt squirrels, turkey, and fish, when we can. Also, the rest of the girls also have plans that weekend. Maybe we can do something next weekend.”

“Oh, okay. I’m not sure when I’ll next be free.”

“Okay, girls, I relayed what you said to Twilight.”, Sunset said into the phone. “And she said that she doesn’t know when the next time she’ll be free is.”

“Will she be able ta make it here for ma birthday?”, AJ asked.

“I’ll check.”, Sunset said, then switched back to the journal. “AJ’s birthaversary is in eleven days. Do you think you’ll be able to come?”

“I’ll certainly try. Interestingly, my Applejack’s birthaversary is a few days later.”

“That is interesting.”

“I should go. I need to do some schedule rearranging.”

Sunset returned the book to the page she previously had it on and turned her attention back to her phone. “Okay, Twilight’s gonna try to come, but she’s a princess with princess-y responsibilities.”

“Ah understand.”

“When we get a chance, we should discuss a few things related to her when she comes to Earth. We don’t want a repeat of Halloween.”

“Agreed”, Rarity said. “She’s also been wearing the same clothes for a total of three days… including underwear.” Rarity said that last part through what sounded like gritted teeth. “Unless the portal gives her clean clothes every time, she needs something like an Earth stash.”

“A phone, clothes, we should probably add some emergency cash to that list and hygiene products,” Pinkie said, “but where is she going to keep it all?”

“I live closest to the portal. I can hold onto her stuff.”, Fluttershy offered.

“I have a spare duffle bag she can use, and I swear it doesn’t smell like dirty gym socks.”, RD said. “I won it in a CFD raffle and just haven’t needed to use it.”

“Look, Ah got ta get goin’.”, AJ said.

“Yeah, me too. Bye.” Sunset hung up and turned her attention back to the tools.

“Ya know, Ah’m glad ya have friends again.”

“What do you mean “again”? Before them, it was Meg.”

“But neithe’ a’ ya eve’ went ta each othe’ birthday parties, n’ Ah neve’ got da impression dat ya two were friends.”

“Yeah, Ms. Hart… Lance-Hart said that me learning that the gods I worshiped were fake caused a lot of trust issues and my friendship with Fleur going boom made it difficult for me to form those kinds of attachments again. Mental illness is confusin’.”

“Yeah, outta all da thin’s dat c’n go wrong up dere, issues caused by trauma c’n be da most complex, especially repeated trauma.”

“Speaking of Meg, she’s been avoiding me like the plague, more than the other students, and Pinkie had to point it out to me that what I did hurt her more because of our… I’m not sure if I can call it a friendship, but I’m not sure what else ta call it. I’m not sure what ta do about it or apologies to her or what. Should I just leave her alone?”

“Ah don’t know. Nothin’ like dis eve’ happened ta me. Da best Ah could say is ask ‘er. Let ‘er know dat y’re sorry n’ ask ‘er wha’ she wants from ya.”

“I’ll try that.”

CHS

Date: Nov 5th, time: 3:00 pm

*Sunset’s perspective*

The bell rang, and kids rushed out of their classes. Sunset, in particular, had someone to meet before they left. She rushed past everyone, weaving through the crowd. Finding Meg was easy enough as she knew her scent well enough to easily track her, even through dozens of stinky teenagers. When she found her, Sunset stepped in front of her and waved. Meg jumped nearly a foot in the air but recomposed herself quickly and waved back.

“I want to talk about things.”, Sunset signed.

“Go somewhere less crowded.” Meg led Sunset to a space under one of the stairwells, and they hit in there.

“Sorry, I didn’t know how much I hurt you.”

“You hurt me a lot. You were my best friend.”

Best friend? Sunset froze as she processed that. She’d expected something like that but not “best friend”. “Sorry, you weren’t mine. My heart wasn’t where I could have friends like that. I value you, but I wouldn’t have call you a friend.”

Meg’s eyes widened in shock before sadness took over and she turned away from Sunset, closing her eyes.

“Oh, fuck me, and fuck this shit.” Sunset reached out and placed a hand on her leg, getting Meg to look at her again. “My heart is now where I can have friends. I want you as friend.”

Meg put her own hands around Sunset’s and pulled them up into a standing position. She took Sunset’s arm in a firm grasp and nodded before leaving.

Sunset watched her leave and didn’t move from her spot until she was out of sight. Once Meg was gone, Sunset headed to her locker and grabbed the tools she’d collected and headed down to the lab. She placed her tool bag down and began working on building her machines.

She’d once heard about soldiers linking together the motherboards of a couple hundred EBOX consoles to build a supercomputer, and that’s what she’s trying to replicate with Brigid's cool soldering gun that looks like a revolver. She doesn’t have anywhere near that many complete motherboards, but they should be enough for her purposes. If not, acquiring more shouldn’t be too much of a hassle.

The motherboards quickly proved to be the easy part as none of the casings were going to be big enough to house the completed computers. She would have to build a custom casing, but that will have to happen later. Her current solution was the shelves that lined the back wall. Once she knew how big of a container she would need, she’d find someone that could help. The machine shop teacher might be able to help her, but that's a chapter to write later.

Medical sensors would be optimal for this project, but getting some might be an issue. Sunset pulled out her phone to see if she could buy some and nearly choked on her own spit when she saw the price. “Sweet creator of storms, no wonder going to the doctor’s so expensive. Maybe I can build my own. I would just need blueprints or one to dissect. I’ll ask Grandpa.”

Sunset continued working for a while longer until the PA system announced that the school was locking up. She packed up the tool bag and headed home. The first thing she did when she got home was begin looking for medical sensor blueprints or something else that could work as sensors. Finding blueprints quickly proved challenging as there were nothing more than diagrams. Anything with any sort of details was probably protected under a copyright. “Okay, I’ll have ta ask Grandpa.”

“Sunset, dinne’!”, Brigid called through the door.

Sunset got up and washed up for dinner then headed out to the living room and sat down at the table. Emi and Anura joined Sunset at the table as the adults brought the food over. The adults took their seats and everyone started serving themselves.

“Girls,” Anzhong started, “tomorrow night, we’ll be hosting a dinner with the Albas.”

“Who are the Ablas?”, Emi asked.

“Rarity’s family.”, Sunset said.

“Oh”

“Yes,” Anzhong continued, “Grandpa is wanting for everyone to properly get to know each other.”

“This will be interesting.”, Sunset mumbled to herself. At about that time, she got a text.

Good news girls, Granny Smith just texted me with
gift suggestions for AJ. She also wanted me to ask
you all what kind of pizzas you want.

Thank goodness

Is she really that hard to shop for?

Yes

Ayuh

Yes

Oh, I could tell you stories.

Noted, whatcha got?