Recovery and Rebirth

Sweet Apple acres

Date: Nov 15th, time: 4:00 pm

*Sunset’s perspective*

The seven Rainbooms sat around in a circle, having changed into their PJs, with a selection of games in the middle, using their sleeping bags as seats. Winona, still in AJ’s arm, started to wake up and squirm. “Okay, I’ll put ya down.” AJ let her go, and she started going around, sniffing people.

“Okay, what about Cards Against Sanity?”, RD asked.

“I don’t really wanna have ta stop every round and explain everything to Twilight then have ta rebuild her sanity afterwards.”, Sunset said. “She needs to spend a bit more time being desensitized to our madness before playing that.”

“Okay, something else then.”

Winona worked her way to Twilight and began sniffing her. Twilight, though still looking uncomfortable, petted her head. “You’re actually kind of cute.”

“What, so the poodle was a terrifying monster, but the border collie is “kinda cute”? Okay.”, Sunset snarked.

“Didn’t you say it was a chihuahua?”, Fluttershy asked.

“I’m talking about my sister’s dog.”

“Oh right, she is a cutie.”

“Okay, I think I found a suitable game.”, RD said. She held up a packet of Eins cards. “Numbers and basic symbols are easy enough to understand.”

“Sunset has taught me your counting system, but I am still getting used to counting in base ten. It would be good for me to practice.”, Twilight said. “You might need to teach me your basic symbols though.

“Counting in base ten?”

“Yes, ponies use Mino-Griffin numerals, developed by the minotaurs and griffons, back when they were close allies. Both species have a total of eight digits, so they count in base eight as opposed to humans’ base ten. We adopted their numbers as they became our first trading partners and their numbers were much more efficient than what we were previously using.”

“The pony version of counting on our fingers is: left side of the hoof, right side, back of the hoof, and first joint.”, Sunset added and did the associate motions.

The rest of the girls all looked like they just had the biggest revelation, and Rainbow even looked down at her hands. “How have I spent ten years counting on my fingers and never noticed that?”, the Latina asked.

“Because you never had to think about it. Don’t worry, Twilight and I had similar realizations.”

“Well, this game deals with multiples of two, so you should be fine.” RD cleared the circle, pulled out the cards, and started dealing them out like a professional.

“Um, AJ, I think Winona needs to go outside.”, Fluttershy said.

AJ looked over and jumped up. “Shit, thanks.” She ran over to Winona, who was in the process of squatting, and scooped her up and got her outside. The rest of them waited for her as she helped Winona find the right place to potty, came back inside, checked the spot Winona squatted, sighed in relief, and sat back down. “Thanks, Fluttershy, ya saved me a cleanup.”

Fluttershy smiled. “No problem”

They got back to the game and explained the rules and symbols to Twilight. “So, I have a plus-” Twilight started talking but was cut off by the rest of the girls.

“No!”

“What?”, she asked.

“You’re not supposed to tell us what you have, silly.”, Pinkie said. “This goes for most card games. You’re supposed to keep your cards a secret.”

“Why? Don’t humans show their cards before a game?”

The native humans looked confused, and Sunset shook her head. “No, humans consider trying to read their opponents and anticipate their next move as part of the game, so they keep their cards a secret, and that’s why Rainbow passed them out face down. Ponies show and announce their cards in most cases. It’s seen as a fair and honest game that way, and most also can’t hold them up like this, so they need to be splayed out on the table. No, we don’t play poker or similar games. Equestrian card games are played more like chess, and the rules tend to be more complicated and rely more on chance to add intrigue in lieu of secrecy.”, she explained for everyone.

“That sounds interesting. Twilight, darling, maybe you can bring one of those games over next time you visit.”, Rarity suggested.

“I think I will, but I still find it odd that secrecy and deceit is a normal part of games to you.”

“I’m not sure what’s so odd about it. It’s just a card game.”

“Um, Sunset?”

“Equestrian culture considers lying in any form to be unsavory while it’s completely normal to lie here, at least in American culture. A common American greeting is to ask someone how they’re doing, but you aren’t expecting them to answer honestly. The usual response to that question would be “fine” or some variation thereof followed by asking the other person the same question then they answer “doing fine”, and they go about their business. People take pride in their ability to lie their a… butts off here and get away with… stuff.”, Sunset explained. “In many ways humans are the opposite of ponies. Both species still share many traits, especially on the large scale, but there are many smaller things that are inverted between the two. Where ponies are a naturally peaceful species that strives to be able to better defend themselves, humans are a naturally violent species that strives to be more peaceful, and that sorta stuff.”

Twilight looked at Sunset with wide eyes, and the rest looked intrigued. “Are you being serious?”, Twilight asked.

“Yes”

“That is both interesting and terrifying. I think there’s a lot I can learn from humans.”

“I agree. I certainly have.”

The seven of them finally got to their game, and Twilight was performing well and ended up winning the first game. “One!”, she called out.

“Um… Eh, close enough.”, AJ said.

Okay kid, you had your fun. The gloves are off.

“So, how’s school going?”, Twilight asked as they started another game. Oh right, I forgot I told her to ask that.

“Eh, I got a physics exam in a couple days.”, RD said unenthusiastically.

“I thought physics was your favorite subject.”, Sunset said.

“Applied physics is my favorite subject. I don’t even mind doing the calculations, but I would prefer to be able to move around as it helps my thought process, but tests require me to sit still, so I can’t get into the zone and just do it. It’s honestly a bit embarrassing how hard it is for me to do basic math.”

“My Rainbow would not like it if I called sports ‘applied physics’.”, Twilight said.

“Your Rainbow sounds lame.”

“Um… how does what I said make her sound lame? She’s fully capable of walking.”, Twilight said confusedly.

“What? Um, Sunset.”, RD said, equally confused.

“Ah can answer this one.”, AJ cut in. “‘Lame’ means that a horse can’t walk, but it’s also come ta mean ‘boring’ for, at least Ah’d imagine, obvious reasons.”

“Okay, yeah, a horse that can’t walk does sound pretty boring.”

“Noted, but my Rainbow still isn’t lame.”, Twilight defended.

“It’s a funny joke, and I won’t hear anything to the contrary.”

“She loves physics jokes, the dumber, the better.”, Fluttershy said.

“Hey, RD, A photon checks into a hotel, where a bellhop asks where its suitcase is. The photon replies, “I didn’t bring any luggage. I’m traveling light.””, Sunset said.

RD snorted and grinned.

“I don’t get it.”, Twilight said.

“It’s a pun, a joke that takes advantage of a phenomenon in the English language called polysemy or a homophone. In this case, ‘light’ can both mean ‘visible light’ or ‘lack of weight’. Most English jokes are puns.”

“Oh, I get it now. So, you like physics, Rainbow?”

“It’s something I just get.”, RD said with a shrug. “The numbers are a pain, but the actual physics and motions I get.”

“Interesting, I would like to learn more about America’s school system. Could you all tell me about your classes?”

“Well, our school is STEAM school, science, technology, engineering, art, and math, meaning it tries to foster creativity in all those disciplines.”, Fluttershy explained.

“So, you’re all in an academic school?”

“All US primary education is academic.”, Sunset said. “The US school system is divided up into primary schooling and secondary schooling. We start our education at six and finish our primary schooling at eighteen. After that, we can choose to start working, go into the military, go to trade school, college, or whatever, and you aren’t locked into one of those for the rest of your life. My aunt went into the military to pay for her college and went into computer science.”

“Wait, so the military will pay for your academic education if you join them?”

“Ayuh”

“Ah feel like we’re missin’ somethin’. Twilight seems way too confused about this.”, AJ commented.

“Equestria has a caste system. So, ponies are only allowed to go to schools, take on jobs, and marry within their caste. For example, you’d only be allowed to learn in agrarian schools, work agrarian jobs, and marry another member of the agrarian caste. The only way to bypass these restrictions is to blackmail the right ponies or join an organization that’s been given special permission to allow ponies from outside their associated caste to join them, like the Wonderbolts, or be a noble. The nobility can do whatever they want.”

AJ’s eyes widened in surprise, and then her face twisted into anger. “That’s fucking stupid. How has there not been a revolt yet?”

“The nobility uses religion to make everypony think that’s what the creator goddess wants.”

Twilight, to her credit, had the decency to look ashamed.

“Twi, you’re a princess. You gotta do somethin’ about this. It’s inhumane… inpomane?... Whatever the pony equivalent of inhumane is. They’re having their freedom of choice taken away. It’s wrong.”, RD pleaded.

“I now realize that it is wrong, but this has been going on for hundreds of years. Even I was so indoctrinated by it that Sunset needed to convince me that it’s wrong. It won’t be an easy fix, but I’ll talk to my Celestia about it.”

“Aagh!”, AJ roared and grabbed her hair in frustration, spooking Twilight.

“What caste are the rest of our counterparts in?”, Rarity asked with trepidation.

“Well, your counterpart is a part of the laborer caste and so are Fluttershy’s and Rainbow’s. And Pinkie and Applejack are a part of the agrarian caste.”, Twilight said then got an uncomfortable look on her face. “Those are… the two lowest castes.”

“And what caste were you in, Sunset?”

“The warrior caste, which is smack dab in the middle. The order goes, agrarian, laborer, warrior, scholar, and nobility.”

“So, all the important people are at the bottom.”, Rarity said with an evil grin.

“What? No, the nobility are at the top.”, Twilight said.

“They aren’t important.”, everyone else said.

“How long do you think they’ll last without food?”, Rarity continued. The rest of the Earthlings were catching on and matched her grin, and Twilight looked confused and slightly worried.

“Most of the nobility live on the side of a rocky mountain, where farming is all but impossible, and the only way to get food up there is via a single train track or aerial carriers, both of which are controlled by the laborer caste.”, Sunset said.

“Wait, what are you girls suggesting?”, Twilight asked.

“It’s called a strike.”, Pinkie said. “Everyone in an industry or company stops working until their demands are met.”

“That… would work, but would require a lot of convincing and de-indoctrinating. I’ll keep that option as a backup.”

“It can be done. Humanity did it.”

“It sounds like I need to read up some more on you. Would this sort of thing be on your internet?”

“Ooh, be careful with that.”, Sunset said. “You might find some things that are pretty disturbing.”

“How disturbing are we talking?”

“Satanic cultists killed and ate four Russian teenagers after stabbing them six-hundred and sixty-six times.”, Rarity said. “Eins”

“How do I keep losing?”, RD said under her breath.

“They stabbed them six-hundred and sixty-six times?”, Sunset said. “That sounds exhausting.”

“They stabbed ‘em six-hundred and sixty-six times and then killed ‘em? How does stabbin’ someone that much not kill them?”, AJ asked.

“Humans are surprisingly stab resistant.”, RD pointed out. “So long as a major artery isn’t cut or they aren’t stabbed through the heart, they can live for a while after being stabbed. My mom once told me a story of a guy she picked up on the way back to the firehouse that had a knife sticking out of the top of his head. He didn’t even realize he’d been stabbed. What they’d guessed happened was someone’s knife fell from a window ledge or something and landed in the dude’s head. He’d felt something hit his head and a mild pain, but the pressure from the knife was keeping the blood in, and the pain was so mild that he thought nothing of it. My mom drove up to him and called out the ambulance window “Hey! Sir! Do you realize you’ve got a knife sticking out of your head?!”, got him in the ambulance and to the hospital where they were able to pull the knife out, fix up his head, and just send him on his way. It was a small knife but still.”

“Do you think any of them lost count?”, Pinkie asked. “Like four-hundred-thirty-two, four-hundred-thirty-three, four-hundred-thirty-three… wait shit, Dimitri, I think I fucked up. Do I start over?”

“Instead of doing all that work, they could’ve just killed three Russian teenagers and stabbed them all six times.”, Sunset pointed out. The rest of the Earthlings all nodded their heads in agreement. “Twilight?” Sunset checked on said girl and noticed her eyes were wide and her face was pale. “Um, Twilight?”

“Are you guys seriously criticizing murderers for the unnecessary effort they put into it instead of, you know, murdering people?!”

“Well, we all already know murdering is wrong, so there’s no real need to discuss that.”, Fluttershy said.

“Wait, murdering is wrong?”, Sunset asked, earning chuckles from her fellow Earthlings.

“You’re all crazy.”, Twilight pointed out.

“That’s what I’m talking about. Earth is a mess, humanity is a mess, and we’re all just trying to not lose our minds.”

“Turning the traumatizing crap we deal with into jokes keeps us out of the loonie bin.”, Pinkie said. “We call it dark humor. If you don’t make a joke out of life, life will make a joke out of you.”

Twilight looked at Pinkie with the gears turning in her head. I wish I could read her mind. I wonder what she’s thinking about. “Oh, I think I get it now. By joking about it, you’re tricking your brain into not taking it seriously, turning it into just a joke.”

“I’m not sure if that’s exactly what’s going on, but you got the right idea.”

The girls eventually wrapped up their game as Granny Smith came down and started cooking dinner. “Hey, girls, any of ya got any allergies?!”, she asked.

“Fluttershy and Twilight don’t eat meat, n’ Sunset’s allergic ta raw garlic!”, AJ hollered back.

“Who in their right mind eats raw garlic?!”

“Not eat! I was washin’ da cuttin’ board afte’ mo dad crushed some garlic n’ Ah got a rash!”, Sunset said to Granny Smith then turned back to the girls. “Unfortunately, it doesn’t get me outta any cleanup duty. Mo parents jus’ make me wear gloves when da dish involved garlic.”

“Ya really are lazy, ain’t ya?”, AJ said.

“Mo laziness has resulted in some a’ mo best inventions.”

Big Mac and Bloom came down the stairs, and they and AJ got up to help Granny Smith with the cooking. The rest of them went to the table to wait. How all four of them were able to operate in their small kitchen was a mystery to Sunset, but they were doing it. Maybe it’s the amount of food they’re making. The only time Dad lets Mom help him in the kitchen was when they hosted those Thanksgiving and Christmas parties. I wonder if they’ll start those again once Emi’s better? The Apples finished the food and brought it over to the table, along with plates and utensils. Everyone started eating, and most were talking amongst each other, but Sunset was in her own head. A lot was going on, Celestia’s warning, Emi, getting the testing done, and now the girls’ magic heritage. One thing at a time. Get the testing done first then talk to the girls about training their magic, and it’s not like I can do anything about Emi until the doctors schedule the surgery. Shit, I still have ta tell Twilight about what Celestia said, but I don’t want to scare her. Aye, Ah feel like a general again. I hated having to deal with civilians. They freak out so easily.

“Yo, Earth ta Shimmer.”

“Wha’?”

“Whatcha thinkin’ about?”, AJ asked.

“Everything”

“Sounds exhausting.”

“It is.”

They finished eating, cleaned up, and the Rainbooms went back to their circle as the rest of the Apples went back upstairs. Rainbow looked through the games for another one they could play. The night continued on with games and movies. The whole time, Sunset tried to find a way to tell Twilight about the prophecy that wouldn’t send her running for the hills. As things currently looked, she needed to gauge Twilight’s freaked out levels before telling her.

Twilight didn’t seem too interested in the movie they were watching, and neither was Sunset. It was some romance chick flick Rarity chose. Sunset tapped Twilight on the shoulder and motioned for her to follow her, which she did without hesitation. She led her out onto the patio, the full moon providing ample light, at least for Sunset.

“Wow, humans have excellent night vision.”, Twilight said.

“Compared to ponies, yeah.”

“I’ve suspected this for a while, but I just want to confirm. Are humans cathemeral?”

“The majority of humans are, yeah, but some of us are more productive during the day while others are more productive during the night.”

“Got it… So, why did you bring me out here?”

“I wanted to check and make sure our scary human craziness hasn’t driven you completely insane.”

“Oh, well, I’ve realized that you’re all just products of your environment and trying your best to survive in it. You live in a terrifying world and have adapted to it.”

“You’re half right. We don’t just live in this world. We’re a part of it. We shape it as much as it shapes us.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“Well... we are like dragons. We don’t want to destroy everything, but we are capable of doing so. That kind of power should be respected, but so long as you are not our enemy, you have no need to fear it.”

“... I see.”

“There’s another thing. Has Princess Celestia ever told you about her prophetic dreams?”

“She’d mentioned them to me.”

“Principal Celestia has them too. A couple weeks ago, she told me of one she had where the seven of us were being threatened by an unknown enemy. Though, I have a theory as to the identity of the threat.”

“Who?”

“Not a ‘who’ but a ‘what’. Celestia described the enemy as laughing like a hyena, a creature native to Africa. There are certain creatures on this planet that have the ability to switch between a human form and an animal form, and a week ago, AJ and I encountered evidence of a bear-sized hyena in the Everfree. Normal hyena’s only get to about Kiba’s height.”

“And you’re saying the only way one could get that big is if it was one of those form shifting creatures?”

“A werehyena, yes, hyena’s are known for their laughing, but unlike with humans, a hyena’s laughter is a threat. I don’t know where it is now, but it could’ve taken human form to hide.”

“What should we do then?”

“I’m currently training the girls and trying to gain better control over our powers. As for you, you either need to be doing the same or be prepared to run, and considering your inexperience with your human body and limited ability to train with it, I’d suggest the latter.”

Twilight looked out into the Apples’ backyard with a serious, contemplative look then nodded. “I don’t like the idea of abandoning you, but you’re right. I’d be more of a hindrance to the rest of you in a fight.”

She took that well. “You don’t seem to be freaking out.”

“Oh, I am totally freaking out on the inside, but we’ve taken on worse. Somebody with some animal powers should be no match for us.”

“That’s part of what has me worried. This thing shouldn’t be a threat, but Celestia believed it to be. We have no idea what this thing can do or what it’s planning.”

Now, Twilight looked nervous and let out a nervous laugh. “Oh, great.”

Sunset tried to give her a reassuring smile, but she could feel her own nerves coming through it, and fangs were probably not reassuring to a pony. Maybe this will help. “At least we have a family of werewolves on our side.”

“Werewolves?”

“Yeah, people that are able to turn into wolves, not unlike the werehyena.”

“Okay, who?”

“Well, me and my mom. Long story short, I assimilated some of my sister’s magic when I used the magic the Element of Magic gave me to save her. So now, I have my Earth parents’ magics inside me. We don’t have full access to our powers, but we’re still a couple of badasses.”

Twilight blinked a couple of times as she processed the information. “So, you and your human mother can turn into wolves.”

“We, including my sister, should be able to, but the magic drain…”

“Oh, okay… this planet just keeps getting weirder and weirder.”

“Imagine how I feel. I’m gonna have ta explain this therianthropic mess I am to any potential mates. I’m a werewolf, werepony-alien, thestral, and kitsune. Try telling all that to anyone else and not sound crazy or like a twelve-year-old. My dad’s half fox but not a werefox. That’s different.”

“Got it, and you really are a mess.”

Sunset nodded as the door behind them opened. She turned around to see who it was when she was tackled off the porch and onto the ground.

“Ha, gotcha!”, RD said.

“Rainbow! What are you doing?!”, Twilight shrieked, but the two of them ignored her, being a bit busy with other things as RD pinned Sunset and Sunset grabbed her shirt like a gi.

Sunset growled, her wolfish instincts taking over. Something swirled and bobbled within her. It felt primal. She glared up at a smirking Rainbow. Sunset scrambled her legs out from under her and bucked RD off, using her momentum to get herself back onto her feet. She could feel that warm sensation in her eyes, letting her know they’re glowing, and also in her hands, which was new. She didn’t think much into the new sensation as she got into a crouched fighting stance as Rainbow righted herself. The moment RD stood up, Sunset jumped on her and pinned her to the ground by her biceps, squeezing them tight.

“Yaghowch”, Rainbow squeaked out as she squeezed her eyes shut.

What? Wait, is she hurt? Sunset reared back and looked Rainbow over. The smell of blood became evident, and Sunset looked around for the source.

“Girls! What are you doing!”, Twilight shouted.

“Heheheh, I still got you.”, RD laughed.

“Sunset! Your hands!”

Sunset looked down at her hands, and she had claws. They weren’t massive, reached about a centimeter past her finger tips, but they had blood on the tips.

“Holy shit, that’s so cool!”, RD shouted in amazement.

Sunset shook her head to clear out the shock and looked over Rainbow’s arms. Her sleeves had five small puncture marks on each arm, corresponding with five spots of blood on each arm. She had hurt Rainbow. She had hurt Rainbow with her own claws. Shit! Shit! Shit! Sunset got off Rainbow and helped her up.

“Hey! Is everyone okay?”, AJ called out.

“Yeah! Come take a look at Sunset’s claws!”, RD shouted back.

The rest of the girls came out, and Rainbow grabbed Sunset’s hand to show them as said werewolf and Twilight were completely stunned by the situation. The rest of the girls got a good look as Sunset’s brain finally rebooted. “Enough about my claws! You’re hurt.”

“Oh, right.” Rainbow pulled her sleeve up to check the wounds only to find that they’d already completely healed with the only evidence to them ever existing being streaks and spots of semi-dried blood. “Welp, that takes care of that.”, she said as she used her sleeves to wipe up the blood.

“Seriously, Rainbow?”, Rarity asked.

“What? My shirt’s already ripped, and it’s already got blood on it. I don’t think I own a single piece of clothing that’s never had blood on it.”

“You need larger pads.”

“I use the largest pad they sell, and my blood doesn’t overflow. I’ll just wake up with a thin stream of blood going down my pad and a small spot of blood in the back of my underwear, and no, I don’t like the feeling of tampons. I’ve just resigned myself to my fate and have gotten real good at removing blood stains.”

“Sigh, fair.”

Twilight was still stunned, and her face was paling… again. Sunset grabbed her shoulder to ground her. Twilight looked at Sunset and gave her a forced smile. “I’m guessing blood isn’t a taboo subject here.”

“Not amongst the female half of the species. Remember me mentioning menstrual cycles yesterday? That’s what they’re talking about.”

“Oh… I don’t think I’m ready to learn about that.”

Sunset nodded. As the rest of the girls talked, she looked down at her claws. She flexed her fingers in an attempt to get them to go back in but no luck. “Um, I’ve got a bit of a problem here.” The rest of the girls turned to Sunset, and she held up her hands to display the problem.

“Okay, how do werewolf characters on TV de-wolf?”, Pinkie asked.

“Well, they tend to wolf-out when they’re stressed, so maybe some self calming techniques would work.”, Fluttershy suggested.

I don’t feel stressed out, but my claws are out. Maybe I’m still freaked out from hurting Rainbow. Eh, it’s not like it can hurt. Given that she’d never performed the kuji with claws and didn’t want to risk jabbing herself, Sunset opted for a simpler breathing exercise. She closed her eyes and took slow, steady breaths as she opened and closed her hand. She could feel her claws against her palm when she closed her hand. She continued the exercise until she felt her claws retract. She looked down at her hands. Her claws were indeed back in. She could also feel that her eyes had stopped glowing. “I was not expecting that to work.”

“I guess you have some of your werewolf powers.”, Twilight said.

“It could also be my kitsune bits. A lot of the powers overlap.”

“Does this mean our magic’s growin’ stronger?”, AJ asked.

“Yes… yes, it does.”

AJ stared at Sunset with a serious, contemplative look. “Ah think we should head back inside. Ah’m surprised we haven’t already woken somebody up.”

The seven of them followed AJ back inside and sat back down on their sleeping bags.

“Rainbow, why did you attack Sunset?”, Twilight asked.

“Because I thought it’d be funny.”, RD answered nonchalantly.

“You thought it’d be funny to attack your friend?”, Twilight said in horror.

“It’s not like I was trying to hurt her. I just wanted to spar with her.” Rainbow looked at Sunset with a confused and ‘please answer this’ look.

“It’s a human thing. Training together is a bonding exercise for us. It’s a trait we share with pegasi and thestrals.”, Sunset explained to Twilight.

“‘Spar’ can also mean ‘close friend’.”, Pinkie added. Huh, interesting.

“Also, remember what I said about humans “gently bullying” our friends? That’s similar. A form of verbal sparring, if you will.”

“That’s completely crazy! Friends don’t treat each other like that!”, Twilight shouted, outraged.

“Hey, keep yer voice down.”, AJ said in a calming but firm tone.

“What’s so crazy about it?”, RD asked. “We get to sharpen our wits and skills with each other. We can’t really do that with anyone but our close friends.”

“Twilight, I asked you to keep an open mind. That doesn’t just apply to our magic. This is Earth, not Equestria, and we aren’t ponies. We don’t do things like ponies. We don’t think like ponies. I’ve spent the last few months learning about human friendships, and what we do isn’t crazy.”, Sunset explained.

Twilight looked around the circle then shook her head. “I’m going to sleep.”

Twilight climbed into her sleeping bag as the rest of the girls looked around, giving each other ‘WTF’ and angry looks. The mood was thoroughly spoiled with the rest of the girls all hurt and annoyed. AJ got up and turned off the lights and TV. The rest of the girls got the message and climbed into their bags.

Sunset tried to fall asleep but even keeping her eyes closed proved to be a challenge. Surprisingly, she wasn’t tired. She stared out the window to pass the time, mainly up at the full moon. It was a beautiful thing. The burdens of the day forgotten by the freedom of the night. At least, that’s what’s supposed to happen. Her stressaholic brain wouldn’t let that be. She thought over the last couple of days and what Twilight had been saying. It was all stuff she was used to hearing and was able to brush off, but it’d clearly hurt everyone else. Time got away from her, and next thing she knew, Rarity was tapping on her arm.

“Hey, come on.”, Rarity whispered. Sunset got up and, along with the rest of the girls, followed Rarity and AJ out into the trees.

“Since none of us can sleep, we need to talk.”, AJ quietly said as they leaned on trees and sat around in a loose circle.

“Yeah, what the fuck was up with Twilight?”, Rainbow whispered angrily. “Sunset, why the fuck did she say those things?”

“Sigh, that’s hard to explain.”

“Sounds like bigotry to me.”, Pinkie said, equally as angry as Rainbow. “Not that hard.”

Sunset covered her face as the other girls’ emotions added to her own, making it hard to brush them away.

“I’m not sure if I want to be friends with someone that straight up admonishes the way we show affection.”, Rarity said. “What kind of “princess of friendship” is she?”

“The princess of pony friendship, not any other species’ friendship.”, Sunset said coldly.

“Maybe she just needs some more time.”, Fluttershy suggested. She was hurt but not angry like the others. “She’s only spent less than a week on Earth, and we got her to give dogs a chance. Maybe, with some more time, she’ll learn to understand our ways of friendship.”

“Ah’m keen on givin’ her a chance, but there also needs to be a cut-off point where we say ‘no more’. Ah’m not lettin’ what happened ta Granny happen ta us.” A lot of complicated, coiled pain came off of AJ as she said that last part, and it got Sunset to look over at her. She was keeping something in, something that caused her a lot of anger and sadness.

“Are you okay?”, Sunset asked.

“Yeah, Ah’m fine. It’s not tha time fer that.”

“I don’t want to cut Twilight off.”, RD said sadly. “I want her to be the friend we knew during the formal.”

“She doesn’t seem to listen to me about human friendship matters, but maybe you guys can convince her.”, Sunset said.

“You want us to roughhouse in front of her?”, RD said with a devilish grin.

“Something like that. About your cut-off, AJ, let’s set it after tomorrow, when we have a better idea of Twilight’s thought process, and we’ve had a chance to cool down.”

“Alright”, AJ said. “Sigh, Ah still don’t feel ready ta go ta bed. Ah feel too full of energy.” The rest of the girls expressed similar sentiments. “So, what now?”

“Well, it’s a full moon.”, RD pointed out. She looked at Sunset with a grin that made the latter girl suspicious. “You feel any primal urge to howl at it, Sunset?” Her tone and grin made it clear she remembered what Sunset had said about faoladhs and was just making a stupid joke.

Sunset rolled her eyes, and so did a couple of the other girls. She was initially going to just ‘hardy-har-har’ her but then a much eviler idea came to her. “Well, yes, but not to howl at the moon.” Sunset closed her eyes, letting that primal energy swirl and bobble. A warm, powerful sensation surged through her body, and her claws popped out. She snapped open her glowing red eyes, and Rainbow’s eyes went wide as she quickly realized she fucked up.

“Keep the noise down. People are tryin’ ta sleep.”, AJ said.

“Got it.”, RD and Sunset said.

Sunset snarled at Rainbow, showing off her fangs. Rainbow, being one of the ones leaning up against a tree, was able to quickly bolt. Sunset jumped up and started chasing her through the yard. Rainbow let out quiet, little laughs as she ran. They were adorable, and hearing them made Sunset feel happy and laugh a bit herself while still trying to keep up the visage of a savage werewolf. The other girls were also quietly laughing at their antics.

Sunset eventually managed to catch up to Rainbow and grab her. She lifted her up, causing her to yelp in surprise, and hoisted her above her head like Tarzan and presented her to the other girls. She would’ve done the Tarzan yell if they weren’t worried about waking people.

“What are you doing?”, Twilight asked in alarm.

Sunset spun around, still holding Rainbow up. Twilight was on the porch, looking at them with wide eyes. Before her brain could come up with a proper response, Sunset’s mouth came up with it’s own response. “Your mom.” Ahh, crud.

Twilight gave Sunset a ‘what does that have to do with anything’ confused look as she lacked the cultural context.

“Pff-ha, heheheh, you had that one prepared, didn’t you?”, RD asked.

“No, I did not. I just so happened to have inherited my bio-mom’s mouth.” Sunset put RD down as the rest of the Rainbooms joined the two of them. “I’m sorry, Twilight, did we wake you?”

“Well, yes, but what’s going on? And why weren’t any of you stopping it?”, Twilight asked. “Sunset, that’s not how we treat our friends.”

“Yeesh, Twi, we were just playing.”, RD said. “Do you not have tag in Equestria?”

“I don’t know what that is.”

“It’s a game where one person chases the other players.”

“And do you normally do… whatever that was in this game?”

“That’s irrelevant. We were both having fun, and you aren’t our parents, so stop acting like it.”, RD said firmly, startling Twilight.

“I’m not trying to act like your parents.”, Twilight said as if she was hurt. Is she really playing that card or…? Sunset focused on Twilight, and she’s not acting. Really? Has no one ever told her off before?

“No, you’re just telling us how we express our love is wrong.”, Rarity said.

“But bullying people is wrong. That’s why everyone hated Sunset.”, Twilight said confusedly.

“My ‘gently bullying’ comment was a joke.”, Pinkie said. “There are topics that are okay to make jokes about and topics that are not okay to make jokes about. We only make jokes about and tease each other over the okay topics. That’s what separates what we do from actual bullying.”

Twilight just stood there, looking at them with gears turning in her head.

After a moment, AJ stepped forward. “Look, we aren’t tired yet, so we’re going to hang out over there. You can join us, if ya wish.” AJ corralled them back over to the trees, leaving Twilight to her thoughts.

The six of them retook their spots under the trees, but none of them said anything. None of them were in the mood to chat. Sunset repeated the breathing exercise to get her claws back in then laid down in the grass. It was cold and damp from yesterday’s snow. The air was still, and everything was quiet. The moon light lit everything, and it was strangely energizing. Is that why we’re having trouble sleeping? The silence was broken by the sound of grassy footsteps. Everyone looked up towards the house. Twilight walked over to them, still looking down and confused, and sat down in an empty spot. Sunset sat up, and everyone looked at Twilight, not saying anything.

“Is that really how you show your love, by making fun of each other and being physical?”, she asked.

“The goal of our jokes is to get the other person to laugh with us, not to laugh at them.”, Pinkie said. “Like I said, some topics are okay to joke about, others aren’t.”

“And yeah, some of us show our love through being physical with each other.”, RD added.

“How do ponies show their love?”, Fluttershy asked.

“By helping each other and giving gifts and hugging each other. What you guys do honestly sounds like you’re being mean to each other.”, Twilight said.

“We help each other, give gifts, and hug too, and the teasin’ and type of playin’ ya’ve seen us do can be a form a’ bullying if done by someone that’s not a close friend because it’s somethin’ done only by close friends. Distortin’ somethin’ so intimate is what makes bullying so hurtful.”, AJ explained.

Twilight’s eyes widened like she was having a ‘eureka’ moment. “That makes sense, but I still don’t understand why you’d see these things as a form of bonding. It’s just so bizarre, so…”

“Alien”, Rarity finished. “You’re on an alien planet, Twilight, and hanging out with a bunch of aliens.”

“I guess, since you’re alternate versions of my friends, I expected you to act the same as them. I’m sorry.”

“We still want to be your friends, Twilight, but what you’ve been saying has been really hurtful.”, Fluttershy said.

“I… I don’t fully understand. Why was what I said so hurtful?”

“All six of us can trace back our heritage to cultures that were heavily damaged by the ‘I’m right and everyone else is wrong’ mentality you displayed.”, Rarity started. “Our ancestors were enslaved, their homes and property were taken from them, and they were forbidden to practice their beliefs and forced to practice the colonizers beliefs. That’s why what you said was so hurtful.”

Twilight looked confused by Rarity’s words. To her, Faust and Cracken were very real and created the word and pony kind. The way other species’ gods were explained was that they were also created by Faust and Cracken and charged with creating and guiding those species. In her mind, there was only one pantheon for all of Equoes and forcing others to abandon their gods went against Faust’s plan. Looks like I’m needed. I just have to do it without shattering her reality.

“Humanity doesn’t have gods, so they made stories up to explain the world around them and why bad things happen to them. As humans migrated across Earth, those stories evolved, changed, or stopped being told and new stories took their place. These stories were told as fact, and people believed in them whole-heartedly. Those in power within those stories abused that fact and twisted the stories to give themselves and their kin even more power. This took many forms, but in the Abrahamic religions, just one of the forms it took was to increase their numbers and eliminate other threats to their power by telling their members that anyone that didn’t believe in their god would be sent to Hell and that they needed to convert everyone else to their religion, resulting in the ‘I’m right, everyone else is wrong’ mentality. That is what Rarity meant. People with that mentality did horrible things to our ancestors, the slaughter of my clan being only the tip of the iceberg. Does this make it clear why your words hurt us?” Sunset could feel her agitation rising and took a breather to calm herself.

Twilight’s eyes went wide again, and she covered her mouth in shock. “That’s horrible. It’s all so horrible. I can’t even imagine.” Twilight lowered her hands. “I need to think this all over. This is a lot.”

“Take all the time you need.”

“I’m going to head back to bed. I’m sorry.” Twilight got up and headed back to the house.

The rest of the girls watched her go back inside then looked at Sunset with looks she could best describe as ‘we know what you did but want more answers’. “What are you hiding from Twilight?”, RD asked.

“Hff, you’re good.”, Sunset said with a smirk before she shifted her face to a serious expression. “Equestria is a very religious society. Even a scientist like her fully believes in the gods she worships. Six years ago, I was also a believer, until I learned the truth. I was told that the gods I worshiped weren’t gods at all by a pony I thought was the mortal form of one of my gods. Everything I went through and done wasn’t a part of some greater plan. My world and sanity came crashing down around me, and I spiraled into the bully you all knew me as. I don’t want the same for Twilight. She needs to learn the truth some day, but I sure ain’t gonna be the one ta tell ‘er.”

“Ah can sympathize with that.”, AJ said as she laid down in the grass, putting her Stetson over her face. “Disillusionment sure ain’t a good feelin’.”

“What’s your story?”

“Ah used ta be Irish Catholic, but after ma parents died, Ah felt betrayed n’ angry. A god that would let that happen was not one Ah wanted ta worship, so Ah stopped, stopped goin’ ta church, stopped givin’ grace, all that. Ah came ta term with the fact that my parents’ death was just an unfortunate accident with no greater meaning behind it. Granny wasn’t too happy about it, especially when Bloom complained that she had ta go ta church while Ah didn’t, but accepted ma decision n’ jus’ got tha neighbors ta watch me n’ Bloom while she n’ Big Mac go ta church.”

“Yeah, I have a similar story.”, RD said. “My parents are agnostic but still identify as Roman Catholic and Jewish. When they had me, they agreed that they wouldn’t force me into either religion but would bring me to church and synagogue and let me choose which religion I wanted to follow, if either. Now, I knew I was gay pretty early, and the religious leaders would both give ‘gay bad’ sermons, which I didn’t like. So, I came out to my parents and told them I don’t want to keep going to either place for the aforementioned reason… and because it ate up my weekends.”

“So, are you atheist?”, Sunset asked.

“I’d say I’m agnostic, but I do lean more towards the atheist side of the spectrum.”

“My family believes that church is unnecessary for true believers and that organized religion is inherently corrupt and so don’t go, but I’m completely atheist.”, Pinkie said. “I’m living proof that God doesn’t exist.” Pinkie pulled a cupcake out from her hair to emphasize her point. “Anybody want one?”

The rest of the girls kind of just blinked at Pinkie with AJ and Sunset even sitting up to make sure they weren’t hallucinating. “No, thank you.”, Rarity said.

“Suit yourself.”, Pinkie said with a shrug before shoving the whole cupcake in her mouth and putting the liner back in her hair.

Rarity and Sunset, being the only other girls with curly hair, looked at each other with ‘you saw that too?’ faces. Seeing someone with straight hair do that would be strange enough, but seeing another curly haired girl do that just made them blue screen.

“What time is it?”, Fluttershy asked.

Rainbow pulled out her phone and checked the time. “One am”

“One? How am Ah still not tired?”, AJ asked, annoyed. “Ugh, Ah’m gonna be exhausted in tha mornin’.”

“I know I was joking about this earlier, but what if the full moon has something to do with it? I’ve heard that witchcraft is tied to the moon. Maybe it can be energizing us and keeping us awake.”

“Hecate was the goddess of magic, witchcraft, the night, moon, ghosts and necromancy in Greek mythology, so Rainbow might be onto something.”, Sunset said. “Speaking of Hecate, the Festival of Hecate is on the thirtieth. My aunt, being a witch, is a follower of hers, and we celebrate that day by volunteering at soup kitchens or shelters. I was wondering if you guys might want to join us.”

“That sounds like a nice holiday. I’d like to hear more about it.”, Rarity said.

“Well, Hecate was a goddess that didn’t follow the norm. She never married nor had children. She was a protector, especially of those that had been shunned by society. We honor her by helping others that have been neglected or abandoned.”

“I like it. I think I will join you.”

“Ya can count me in too.”, AJ said quickly. Sunset gave her a knowing look, which she ignored.

“Is it a requirement of being a witch?”, RD asked.

“No, it’s just a nice thing to do.”, Sunset answered.

“I’ll see if I’m free that day.”

The rest of the girls echoed similar sentiments as Rainbow. They continued talking and shooting off various hypotheses as to why they couldn’t sleep, but so far, Rainbow’s full moon explanation made the most sense. Their magic was the only thing different about them that could cause it. They ate and drank the same stuff as AJ’s family and Twilight, they haven’t done anything different recently, and all six of them were experiencing the same problem.

They joked around and played quietly until the sun started to rise. Sunset’s instinctual reaction was to hide in the tree’s shadow, earning some snickers from RD. “What, are you worried you’ll burn ta ash?”, she remarked.

Sunset hissed at Rainbow. “It’s instinct.”, she growled.

Rainbow merely grinned as they all headed inside. They tried to be as quiet as possible to avoid waking Twilight. Her being woken up earlier proved she wasn’t a heavy sleeper. The six of them moved to the dining table. Sunset, Rarity, and RD started communicating in sign language, the latter of which was getting reasonably good at. AJ grabbed a quiet board game, and they played until Twilight woke up.

Bleary-eyed, Twilight stumbled up and looked over to them. “What time did you get up?”

“We didn’t. We stayed up all night.”, AJ said.

“Seriously?” Twilight started to walk over to the table before stopping. “I need to go to the bathroom.” She headed straight for the bathroom, and the six of them waited for her return. When she came out of the bathroom, much more awake, she joined them at the table. “So, you all seriously stayed up all night?”

“Yeah, we’re theorizin’ that it has ta do with the full moon interactin’ with our magic. Apparently, Earth magic is intertwined with tha moon, accordin’ ta Sunset’s aunt.”

“But I wasn’t affected.”

“Well, your human body basically goes into stasis when you go back through the portal, so you haven’t magically matured as much as us.”, Sunset said.

“Huh, interesting.” Twilight looked uncomfortable for a moment before collecting herself. “Girls, I’m sorry I said your ways were wrong. I don’t want to be like the people that hurt your ancestors. I guess, since you’re counterparts of my Equestrian friends, I subconsciously expected you to be exactly the same as them, but I contemplated over it last night. As Rarity said, you’re aliens with alien minds that won’t think like Equoesians. I’m ready to really have an open mind regarding your world and people.”

“Thank you”, Rarity said.

“Back to our magic insomnia, I still don’t feel tired, even with the moon having set.”, RD said.

“At least we won’t have ta worry about trudgin’ through the mall as a bunch a’ half asleep zombies.”, Fluttershy commented.

“I wonder if my grandfather has any insight.”, Sunset muttered.

“Why would your grandfather have insight?”, Twilight asked.

“Because the dude fucked a magic fox spirit.”, RD said.

“Could you not say it like that?”, Sunset chided.

Rainbow stuck her tongue out, and Sunset was tempted to bite it off. “Suck my blood, vampire girl.”

“A play on ‘suck my dong’, I take it?”

“Ayuh”

“Um, what’s a vampire?”, Twilight asked.

“Do you know what my old nickname in the military was?”, Sunset asked.

“Yeah, it was General Shimmer, the blood eating fiend.”

“Well, humans have a word for that, vampire. Vampires are parasitic folklore monsters that are said to feed on human blood.”

“Folklore, so, they aren’t real?”

“Yeah, don’t worry, we aren’t at risk of getting our blood drained.”

Winona woke up and came over to them, and AJ took her outside. “Hey, could you start cleanin’ up? Granny is gonna start makin’ breakfast soon.”, she said as she headed out the back door.

“Oh, hey, I just thought of something. Reverse vampires, they survive by eating garlic and drinking holy water, the sun heals them, they become immortal if you stake them through the heart, and every human on the planet is trying to drink their blood.”, Pinkie said.

“Well… that’s something.”, Sunset said, somewhat perplexed.

“Bish, you just described Jesus.”, Rainbow said.

“Oh yeah”, Pinkie said.

“Who’s Jesus?”, Twilight asked.

“That’s complicated. We’ll tell you later.”, Sunset said.

They began cleaning up and relayed the ‘Jesus is a reverse vampire’ thing to AJ when she came back in. “Well, that explains why crosses hurt them.”, she commented. Granny Smith came down the stairs, followed by Big Mac, and headed to the kitchen. The girls started getting ready for the day, Sunset putting on her new jacket and shoes, and AJ did some chores while Granny Smith cooked. When they got done getting ready, Bloom was sitting at the table, and Granny Smith and Big Mac were placing the food on the table, so the girls all quickly took their seats, and everyone started eating.

“Sunset, I wanted to ask you about something you said yesterday.”, Twilight said.

“Shoot”

“You said that humans are a naturally violent species that strives for peace. What makes humans naturally violent?”

“Well, that’s a somewhat complicated question since we don’t fully understand our own psyche, but I’d say the best way to explain it would be our response to something we don’t understand. Humans are scared of things we don’t understand. There’s a chance that what we don’t understand can hurt us, and we want to avoid that. There are two responses people generally have. We either try to learn more about it or perceive it as a threat and try to destroy it.”

“That is very interesting.”

They finished breakfast and cleaned up, Granny Smith took Bloom and Winona across the street, and Pinkie’s mom pulled up to the curb and came inside. The two parentals touched base when Granny Smith came back then she and Big Mac left.

“Are thy ready to leave?”, Mrs. Pie asked.

“Yup”, Pinkie cheerfully said.

“Let us wait a bit to allow the church traffic to pass.”

They waited for about thirty minutes then got underway. Pinkie’s mom drove them to the mall, and they headed to a clothing shop. As expected, Rarity dragged Twilight through the store, holding anything she thinks looks good up to Twilight and either putting it back or laying the article over her arm. The rest of them were standing clear out of her way. Before long, she’d amassed a large, heavy looking pile, and she was holding it easily. It eventually got to the point they couldn’t see Rarity’s head behind it all.

“Could you hold on to this for me, darling? I’m gonna get you a fitting room.”, Rarity asked Twilight.

“Yeah, sure.”

Rarity handed off the clothes to Twilight, who did that thing where you underestimate something’s weight but quickly adjust before dropping the thing. Rarity went off to the fitting rooms, and Twilight looked back at the other five with a questioning look before following Rarity.

“That looks like it’s gonna take a while.”, Fluttershy said. The rest of them got the gist, and they all went off to do their own things while they waited.

Sunset had never been to the mall before, so she was looking around at everything. It was just like what she’d seen on TV with the shops and food stalls and things in the center to distract from the fact the whole place is the manifestation of the greed that will be the ultimate doom of humanity and it being huge. It was still early, so there weren’t that many people, perfectly fine for her. She ended up finding a sushi restaurant with a ‘server wanted’ sign in the window. She stepped inside, and the place smelled good, and the dining area was clean.

“Hello, would you like a table?”, the hostess asked.

“Um, no, I’m here to inquire about the job opening.”

“Okay, let me take you to the boss.” The hostess led Sunset to an office in the back where a woman sat behind a desk with a plaque reading ‘Boss’ on the front. “Mrs. Pond, this young lady is here about the server job.”

“Alright, let her in.”, Mrs. Pond said. Sunset walked past the hostess into the office, and the hostess left to presumably go back to her station. Mrs. Pond was a middle-aged Japanese/white lady with blue and silver hair, purple eyes, and a cook’s uniform on. “Please, sit. What’s your name?” There wasn’t a hint of an accent in her voice, but that didn’t tell Sunset much. Jiraiya no longer had an accent either.

Sunset sat down and tried to get a read on Mrs. Pond, but she seemed to be emotionally neutral, a bit odd but nothing she hadn’t seen before. “Sunset Shimmer”

“Hello, Ms. Shimmer, I’m Koi Pond. Do you have a resume with you?”

“Um, no.” Sunset put some nervousness into her voice, portraying herself as an unsure of herself little girl. Mrs. Pond will either take pity on her and try to help or underestimate her if she tries anything slimy.

“Is this your first time applying for a job?”

“Yeah”

“Alright” Mrs. Pond opened up a drawer and pulled out a piece of paper. “Go home and fill this out with your parents. If you’re under sixteen, you’ll need to have your school sign off saying that you can work.”

Sunset took the paper and examined it. “Okay” Sunset stood up, folded up the paper, and stuffed it in a pocket. “Thank you for your time.”, she said with a bow. She straightened up and took one last look at Mrs. Pond as she prepared to leave. She was surprised but wasn’t weirded out like those unfamiliar with Japanese customs tend to be when she bowed. Sunset left the office and resumed walking around.

Some time later, she’d received a text from Rarity.

Hey, we’re done. Where are you all?

Taking a stroll. I’m on my way back.

The rest of the girls gave similar answers, so Sunset didn’t bother and just started to head back. She stopped by a map to figure out where she was and hopefully find a better way back then just retracing her steps. She committed the mall’s layout to memory then headed back to the clothes shop. When she got back, the rest of the girls had returned, and Rarity and Twilight had a much smaller pile of clothes. “Is that what she wants?”

“Yes”, Rarity said proudly then started going on about the clothes like she was trying to sell them herself. It all sounded Greek to Sunset.

“Will we be able to afford it all?”, Sunset asked when she was done.

“Oh, my father gave me his card to use.”

Okay, I’ll just give my parents back the money then.

Rarity paid for and packed up the clothes, and they were on their way.

“Hey, Sunset.”, Twilight asked as they were leaving the store.

“Ayuh”

“Celestia asked me to report everything I learn about humans, and I’m heading straight to Canterlot to tell her everything I learned, but Luna is worried about the potential threat humans pose. How do I convince her that humans aren’t a threat to Equestria?”

“Ahh, you need the military general and human expert. Well, I can tell you a few neat facts about humans.”

“Thank you. I would also like to talk to Celesta about the caste system. Could you tell me more about how America’s system works?”

“Absolutely”

“And, before we leave, let’s get Twilight into better fitting clothes.”, Rarity said, tugging slightly on the oversized shoulder of Twi’s borrowed shirt.

Outside CHS

Date: 12th day of the 11th month of the 1120th year, time: 1:00 pm

*Twilight’s perspective*

“So, Fluttershy will hang onto my bag.”, Twilight said to make sure she remembers. She now wore her own, much better fitting winter clothes. They kept her warm as snowflakes fell around them.

“And do you remember where I live?”, Fluttershy asked.

“Down the street, corner house across from the middle school.”

“Good”

“Okay, I’ll see you next time, and I’ll try to make it soon.”

They all said their ‘goodbye’s, and Twilight stepped through the portal. The squishing of going from Earth to Equoes was a lot less pleasant than the stretching of Equoes to Earth, but at least she was no longer tossed like a ball when she came out. Going back and forth from quadrupedal and bipedal felt really weird, but she quickly readjusted. Twilight took the Learning English books Sunset gave her out of her bag and placed them on her shelves for later.

“Spike! You here?!”, she called out before internally kicking herself. That’s not how we speak here.

There was no answer from Spike. He was probably off with Rarity again. Twilight left a note for him and, wanting to get some practice with her wings in, took flight for Canterlot. It was a long flight for her, but she got to Canterlot Castle in the expected time and headed straight to the throne room. Celestia and Luna sat on their thrones inside, an intimidating sight to be sure, but ever since she met with their human counterparts, they were less intimidating in comparison. Something about their counterparts was just more intimidating but in a calm way. She couldn’t say what, but she knew it wasn’t that they were predators. That was a different feeling.

Celestia stood up with a smile on her face. “Hello, Twilight.”

“Hello, Celestia, I have a report on humanity, as you’ve requested.” Twilight walked closer to Celestia and Luna, and they came down from their thrones.

“Does hoomahns pose a threat to Equestria?”, Luna asked immediately.

“No, they do not, so long as we don’t show ourselves as a threat to them. Humans think we’re cute and, upon first contact, would likely want to become allies with us.” Let’s hope that works and I don’t have to mention the rest of the stuff Sunset said.

“Hm, sounds like a good species to open diplomatic relations with. Maybe we could set up embassies in each other’s lands.”, Celestia suggested.

“I, for one, am not convinced they don’t pose a threat. Who is to say our “cute” is enough to stop them from invading?”, Luna said.

“Earth’s and Equoes’ atmospheres are also very different. Earth has less than half the oxygen Equoes does, so humans would need specialized breathing equipment to survive here, and so would we on Earth. That would make invading us rather difficult, and that, unfortunately, also means we wouldn’t be able to set up embassies on each other’s planets.”, Twilight said.

“Oh”, both sisters said.

“I also wanted to talk to you about the caste system. The human country of [America] doesn’t have a caste system, and they are far more advanced than us.”

Both sisters looked confused. “If they don’t have a caste system, what do they have?”, Celestia asked.

“Sunset calls it a class system. Your position in it is determined by how much money one makes, and anyone is allowed to work any job they’re able to do, including joining the military and government.”

“What do you mean “government”, and how do they get soldiers without a warrior caste?”, Celestia asked.

“There are several ways, but most join to protect their country, for the benefits, family tradition, or because they were forced in because of a war. The country Sunset currently lives in also has a strong warrior culture. If the country’s ever invaded, everyone that can hold a weapon is expected to help defend it and their families. As far as the government goes, their government officials are elected by the people, including their leader which they call their president.”

“They elect their country’s leader?”, Luna asked in alarm. “What madness is this? What makes these people qualified to lead?”

“The fact that they are the same as the people they’re leading. The only three requirements to run for president are that the applicant must be a natural-born citizen of America, at least 35 years old, and have been a resident of the country for at least fourteen years. I didn’t have a chance to learn everything about their government, but everything that would be done by the noble caste is done by people that were elected. They don’t have gods to choose their leaders for them, so they themselves have to choose them.”

“They don’t have gods?”, Celestia asked.

“Yes, they really don’t. They made up stories about gods to explain the world around them before they could scientifically and to give themselves comfort.”

Celestia looked contemplative and was quiet.

“Sunset speculates that the ability for farmer’s kids to grow up and go into academics is why [America] is so much more advanced than us despite not having magic like ours. Those kids know what their parents need to have better crops and have a chance to improve the agriculture. Improving agriculture means that less of their citizens are needed to produce the same amount of food which means more of their citizens can go into other professions, increasing the chance of major breakthroughs.”

“Very interesting.”

“It’s fascinating. I think we can learn a lot from humans. We can follow their example and abolish the caste system as they did and, hopefully, reach the same technological level as them.”

“We can consider this and discuss it more once you learn more about their governing system. What else did you learn?”

“Oh, yes, human friendship is even different. It isn’t radically different, but they have different ways of expressing their love. It took me a while to even recognize it as love. It may not sound like friendship and completely alien to you, but aliens are exactly what we’re dealing with. I should also prefix this by saying that humans are an omnivorous predator race.” Celestia and Luna both looked surprised but said nothing, so Twilight continued. “For the most part, humans express their love the same as ponies, but the peak of human friendship that is only done by close family and the closest of friends can be best summed up as ‘only I’m allowed to make fun of them’. Humans enjoy making jokes and play fighting and will make jokes about and play fight with other humans, but only their close family and the closest of friends know what topics are okay to joke about and are allowed to do so and are the only ones they play fight with. If anyone else makes fun of or actually tries to fight someone, their close family and friends are the first to defend them.”

“Very interesting indeed.”, Celestia said in her ever wise voice.

Luna remained quiet, and the look on her face was slightly alarming. She seemed to be examining every bit of Twilight while thinking deeply. Twilight wanted to back away but stayed put as, according to the book Pride of Court Decorum, one should not show any sort of fear in any political setting. There was also an odd feeling of defiance that helped with that, and she puffed up her chest. Where is this coming from?

“Are you sure they don’t pose a threat?”, Luna asked.

Okay, guess it’s time for the rest. Here it goes. “If we play our cards right, they won’t be, and we’ll gain a powerful ally. However, if they become our enemy, we won’t survive. Humanity is a war-like people that is capable of destruction beyond what we can imagine, but it’s because of their capacity for destruction that they desire peace, which they are slowly succeeding at. Earth is currently experiencing the most peaceful time in their history, but their past has led them to create a weapon called an atomic bomb. Sunset didn’t go into any specifics, but she said that, the first and only time they were used in war, a small sun was temporarily created. The heat of the blast reached that of the sun, the force of the blast is powerful enough to destroy cities the size of Manehattan or Canterlot instantly, and the [radiation], the energy that causes sunburns, can leave the affected area uninhabitable for years. They have weapons to rival Celestia’s full power, and they have thousands of them.”

Both sisters leaned back on their haunches with shock evident on their faces. “Sister”, Luna said.

“I know. We can’t let the humans become our enemy under any circumstances. Twilight, how many humans know about us and the portal?”, Celestia asked.

“I’m not sure, but I doubt Sunset would let anyone know about it.”

“Hm, I believe you’re correct. She likely understands the situation better than any of us.” Celestia straightened out and looked serious and regal once again. “Twilight, learn everything you can about humans. I suspect it’s only a matter of time before the greater human populous learns about us, and we must become their allies.”

“Understood”

Celestia relaxed and smiled. “You’ve been doing a good job as a princess.”

“Thank you”, Twilight said with pride.

Outside CHS

Date: Nov 16th, time: 1:00 pm

*Sunset’s perspective*

The girls watched Twilight pass through the portal as the snow was coming down on them. Fluttershy had Twilight’s bag. It had everything except her wallet and phone in it. She kept the two items on her in case of emergency. They’d disappear and reappear with her clothes anyways. The girls split up and headed off in their various directions. Sunset headed straight home. She had something to show her parents. She would be running home if it wasn’t snowing.

When she got home, she found Brigid sleeping on the couch. She dropped her bag and snuck up to her. She popped her claws out and got her eyes glowing and pounced on her, landing on her chest and stomach.

Brigid woke up with a wheeze and looked at Sunset with an annoyed glare. “Sunset… wha’s up with yer eyes?”

Sunset merely smiled at her and held up her hands. “Look”

“Claws?”

“Yeah, I got them last night.”

Brigid took one of Sunset’s hands in her own and examined her claws. She put her hand over her mouth in that ‘oh dear’ way.

“What’s wrong? I thought you’d be happy.”

“A-Ah don’t know how ta feel.” Brigid let go of Sunset’s hand and pulled her into a hug.

Sunset wasn’t sure what to make of it. She thought her mother would be elated by the news. “Mom, do you not want me to have your powers?”

“No, it’s not dat. Ah’m still scared by ma powers n’ all dat’s goin’ on related ta it.”

“Your magic is a part of you as much as any other body part. Fearing it is only fearing yourself. Whether you want it or not, we can’t change it, so we have to accept it and learn to live with it or live in misery.”

“Hm, where’d ya hear dat?”

“Words of wisdom from my bio-dad.”

“Ah, dat makes sense.”

Brigid hadn’t let go of the hug, so Sunset decided to snuggle into it and get some overdue sleep. She was woken up by Brigid getting up, but she was being carried and so was waking up slowly.

“Anzhong, take a look at this.” Brigid took Sunset’s hand, and Anzhong felt her claws.

“Sunset?”

Sunset finally woke up and looked over to Anzhong. “I got them last night. I was roughhousing with Rainbow, and they popped out.”

“Oh boy, I’m glad you don’t get spooked easily. I’ll need to teach you palm strikes. Nobody got hurt?”

“That would be a good idea, and not badly, just some scrapes that quickly healed.”

Brigid put Sunset down, and she retracted her claws and went back to the couch to go back to sleep. She only managed to lie down when Emi and Anura came loudly bounding down the stairs. Agh, screw it. Sunset got up and went over to the kitchen while Anura laid out a bunch of papers on the dining table.

“Aunt Brigid! Look at what I drew!”

“Oh, wow, dose look amazin’.”

“Sunset, look.”

Sunset walked back around to the table and looked at her drawings. There were twenty-four of them in total. Twenty-three of them were of various wolves, one had wings and another was a robot, and the remaining one was a werewolf gladiator. They were unrefined, but they were excellent for a nine-year-old’s drawings. “You have some talent there. What are they?”

“They’re my super wolves.” Anura pointed to the gladiator werewolf. “That’s Alpha. He’s the leader.” She then pointed to a blue, muscular wolf. “That’s Beta. She has super strength. That’s Gamma. She’s inspired by Toxicon from the Power Ponies and has all his powers.” Gamma had dark green fur with bright green eyes and teeth and tube-like things of the same bright green coming out on her fur. Sunset had read the R-rated Power Ponies comic that Toxicon debuted in. His name is a bit misleading, and his powers are used very differently in the show given that he wields a radiation-like energy that can melt or vaporize people and things, and he does exactly that in the comic. “That’s Delta. She has wind power.” Delta was a pinkish-white and slim with feathers along her head and back. “That’s Epsilon. He has electricity powers.” Epsilon was also slim and had electric blue fur with yellow lightning bolts. “That’s Zeta. She’s a war-machine with technology powers.” Zeta was a definitely highly weaponized, blueish-silver machine wolf, kinda like Metal Garurumon but with more weapons. “This is Eta. He has super speed.” Eta looked similar to Epsilon but with lighter blue fur and black lightning patterns. “That’s Theta. He has intangibility.” Theta looked like a purple ghost with translucent legs. “This is Iota. She’s my favorite because she’s small and cute, and she can shrink to become micro sized.” Iota was fairly normal looking, looking like a chihuahua-sized, midnight blue wolf. “This is Kappa. He has water powers.” Kappa was one of the more frightening looking ones as he looked like a wolf-shaped kelpie, black, swampy fur and pure white eyes that stared into your soul, with a turtle shell on its back. Damn, that’s a good one. “This is Lambda. She has sun powers.” Lambda was the opposite of Kappa. She was angelic looking with white and gold fur. “That’s Mu. He can shoot particle beams from his mouth that can disintegrate stuff.” Mu’s fairly normal looking, looking like a red wolf, with the exception of a glowing throat. “That’s Nu. She has moon powers.” Nu looked similar to Lambda but with blue and black fur. “This is Xi. She has ritual magic and her tattoos glow purple when she uses her powers.” Xi was old looking with gray fur and looked like she had cataracts. Her fur had black markings that looked like spiritual tattoos and jewelry. “This is Omicron. She can teleport and fly.” Omicron was the one with wings and also looked spacy with star patterned, purple fur. “This is Pi. She has fire power.” Pi looked like your typical fire wolf but with green flames. “This is Rho. He has ice magic.” Similar to Pi, Rho looked like your typical ice wolf but with purple ice. “Here’s Sigma. She’s cool. She can mix any chemicals she wants in her stomach then spit them out.” Sigma kinda looked like a furry wolf version of Gutrot from Ben 10 but with the biohazard symbol on her shoulders.

“Ew, that’s gross.”, Emi said.

“It is, and I love it. Where was I? Oh, this is Tau. He has sound powers.” Tau was green with purple tech lines, had speakers for shoulders, and large, bat-like ears. “This is Upsilon. He has earth powers.” Upsilon looked like a wolf made out of rocks and mud. “This is Phi. She has shield powers. She can put up large barriers around an entire city.” Phi was covered head to toe in silver and gold armor with classic shield shaped shoulder guards, and what little fur she showed was black. “Chi here has healing powers. I modeled him after Grandpa.” Chi indeed looks like Jiraiya with gray, spiky fur, silver eyes, markings around his eyes that looked like Jiraiya’s gold rimmed glasses, and medical crosses on the shoulders. “Psi has psychic powers and can boost others’ abilities.” Psi looked similar to Xi but with purple fur. “Omega is the largest wolf. She’s a walking natural disaster.” The picture had a little stick figure to emphasize her size. She was over three times the size of the stick figure. Omega was black with green highlights and had a porcupine-like spiky mane, a massive, lizard-like tail that looked like it could crush a car, a bony, knife-like horn, and scaly, spiky, bony armor along her back and on her front legs.

“Wow, those are impressive, and you came up with them all on your own?”, Sunset asked.

“Ayuh”, Anura said proudly. Their attention was taken by the front door opening and Minerva coming in. “Mom! Look at what I made!” Anura dragged her mom over and explained her creations to her.

“These are wonderful. You could become an artist when you grow up.”, Minerva said.

“Ah hate ta break dis up, but we need ta set da table.”

“Alright”, Anura said. She and Minerva gathered up the drawings and moved them somewhere else.

She has such a powerful imagination. She could be such a powerful witch one day.

Ms. Lance-Hart’s office

Date: Nov 17th, time: 3:15 pm

*Sunset’s perspective*

“Have you blacked out since then?”, Ms. Lance-Hart asked.

“I did nearly black out after the whole demon thing when I realized how much I was bleeding.”

“What kept you from blacking out that time?”

“Through a combination of different meditation techniques, I managed to get it under control.”

“Good job. Are you still doing that?”

“Yes, I realized how little control I really have over my mind or how much control I lost over the last six years, I’m not sure which it is, and I’m now trying to gain control over it.”

“No one can ever fully control their minds. Can you control the digestion of your food? Can you control the fact you need food?”

“I could when I had magic. Through the use of magic items, I could stop myself from needing to eat and keep my digested food in my stomach through the use of a spell.”

“It seems you grew up being able to control much more than you can now. I’m guessing it felt nice, even comforting.”

Sunset stared at Ms. Lance-Hart as she decoded her meaning. “You’re saying that my attempt to control the student body was me trying to regain the control I lost coming here and compensate for the sense of powerlessness I felt when Emi got sick.”

“Well, I only meant the first part, but you’ve identified more of the contributing factors than I could.”

“So, what, you want me to give up control and accept that I’m powerless?”

“Have you ever watched Kung Fu Panda?”

“No, it seemed silly.”

“I would suggest you watch it. It and its sequel are excellent movies. But the reason I bring it up is because of a scene where two of the characters discuss control, whether it is an illusion or not, using a peach tree. You may be able to control where you plant the seed of the peach tree, but you cannot control what that seed grows into or when it blossoms or when it bears fruit.”

“I used to be able to control all that.”

“But you no longer can.”

“And you want me to accept the situation I’m in and adapt.”

“Bingo, maybe you can regain that control some day, but as it stands, we all just have to go with the flow, like the ocean.”

“You actually sound like my hydromancy teacher. She used to tell me how I was exerting too much control over the water and just had to let it flow. But I’m a pyromancer. If I ever lost control over my fire, I could cause some serious damage or hurt my allies.”

“Maybe you need to think more like a hydromancer.”

“I still suck at hydromancy, but I’ll try.”

The section eventually wrapped up, and Sunset had to be on her way, but if there was one thing that barely got any easier, it was trying to go against the flow of the hall crowd. The downside of people not avoiding you like the plague is that it’s a lot harder to get through the halls. Sunset shimmied along the wall to get to her destination. By the time she got to her door, the crowd around it had dissipated, making it much easier to get into the classroom.

“Hello, can I help you?”, Mr. Steel asked. He was in the back of the classroom, organizing the supplies.

“Yes, I need to build some casings for some machines I’m building. I have the blueprints for what I need.” Sunset pulled the plans out of her backpack and laid them out on one of the tables.

Mr. Steel came over and looked them over. “Is this for a school project?”

“Eh, sorta. Principal Celestia asked me to do some testing to figure this magic stuff out, so I need to build a couple a’ machines.”

“Did she now?”, he said in a poorly veiled condescending tone.

His tone set Sunset on edge, and she had to restrain herself from growling at him, but she couldn’t keep her eyes from glowing. “She did.”

Mr. Steel made that startled ‘wtf’ face. “Oh, okay. Um, bring me the materials, and I can help you put this together.”

“Thank you.” Sunset packed her stuff back up and headed out. Only after leaving was she able to calm down enough to return her eyes to normal. “Fucking adults.”

Katon family backyard

Date: same day, time: 5:45 pm

*Sunset’s perspective*

“See what I’m doing?”, Anzhong asked. He held his hand in a claw position.

“Yeah”

“This is the way practitioners of tiger style kung fu hold their hands. They strike using the heel of their palm. Watch.” Anzhong turned to the tree and struck it, keeping his hand there for a few seconds so Sunset could really look at it before pulling back. “You try now.”

Sunset mimicked Anzhong’s form then he checked it and gave her the ‘okay’, and she struck the tree as hard as she could. It felt quite a bit different than a normal punch. Maybe it’s just because she wasn’t used to it, but the resulting pain was more stinky than blunt. It also hurt more, but that was to be expected. “Ow”

“And that is why most styles prefer a punch to a palm strike.”

“Maybe Mom could get me some weighted gloves with palm heel protection.”

“Hm, you mean like your wrist guards?”

“Something like that but more flexible. Those things are uncomfortable.”

“You’ll have to ask her about that.”

“Yeah… Dad, how do I let go of control?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, Ms. Lance-Hart told me that the reason for the crap I did at school is because I have an unhealthy need for control and need to learn how to let go and go with the flow. How do I do that?”

“Hm, try to strike me.”

“Okay”

Using the palm strike style, Sunset struck at Anzhong’s left shoulder, which he dodged by twisting clockwise. She tried again with his right shoulder, and he twisted counter-clockwise. She went straight down the center and aimed for an uppercut. Anzhong dodged by rolling backwards and hopping back to his feet. Uuugh, screw this. Sunset lunged to grab him, but he rolled under her arm and tripped her on his way back up, sending Sunset face first into the snow and leaves.

She rolled onto her back, sat up, and looked up at her father. “Okay, what was that about?”

“Remember when I was teaching you to block? I told you to be unmoving, like the mountain. It is now time I teach you to flow like water, and a part of that is accepting how little we control and drawing power from that. Water can not control where it goes. It is subject to currents and waves. Yet, it is a mighty force of our world. I can not control you, so I must flow with you to dodge your strikes.”

“I see, but did you have to trip me up to make your point?”

“That… was an accident. But… I let my body flow with my movements, and it resulted in an effective take down. In my life, I have found that simply letting events happen instead of trying to control or prevent them will result in fortunate outcomes. I let the universe guide me, and I ended up sitting at your mother’s table many years ago.”

“Sigh, that’s not going to be an easy thing for me to implement.”

“Neither was it for me. Now, get up. We can train more after dinner.”

Sunset nodded, more to herself, and hopped to her feet. Flow as water, fucking water, why does it have to be water philosophy? She brushed herself off and followed Anzhong inside. He headed to the kitchen while Sunset grabbed her job application form from her room. Brigid soon came down the stairs with Emi. “Mom, can you help me with this?”

Sunset handed the form over, and Brigid looked it over. “Ahh, y’re lookin’ ta get a job. Okay, let’s sit down n’ look dis ove’.”

They went over to the table, Brigid placed Emi on her seat, and the two of them looked over the form. “Have ya gotten permission from yer teache’s?”

“Not yet. I figured that they’d be more likely ta say yes if I show up with an otherwise completed form.”

“Okay, wha’ job are gettin’?”

“Server at a sushi place, I figured that being fluent in Japanese might give me a leg up.”

“Alright, we… let me get a pen.” Brigid got up to grab a pen from the junk drawer and returned to the table. “We c’n add dat. Now, Ah think ya c’n fill this out yerself.” Brigid handed the pen to Sunset.

Sunset took the pen and looked over the form. Stuff like ‘name’ and ‘address’ were easy, but then came the rest of it. “I guess I can’t put down ‘military vet’ in job history.”

“Heh, no, jus’ put ‘N/A’ or ‘none’ down.”

“Okay, should I put ‘student’ down for education?”

“Yeah”

“I heard that, with the right wording, you can make something as simple as changing a lightbulb sound way more impressive.”, Emi said.

“Let’s keep dat in our back pocket fer late’ jobs.”

“What’s this about measurements?”, Sunset asked.

“It’s so dey c’n order yer uniform.”

“Make sure to wrap that up soon. Dinner’s almost ready.”, Anzhong announced.

“Okay”

Sunset finished filling out the form the best she could, putting ‘good sense of balance, good memory, and personable’ down for ‘capabilities’. She gathered everything up and hurried to wash up as Anzhong started serving the food. There’s no way I’ll be able to earn enough from this job to pay back Mom and Dad, but it’s a start.

CHS band room

Date: Nov 20th, time: 3:05 pm

*Sunset’s perspective*

“Is everyone excited for Thanksgiving? Because I’m super, super excited!”, Pinkie cheered as she hopped around the room.

“Ya bet. Good food, family, best holiday if ya ask me.”, AJ said.

“Oh boy, I’m going to have put on five pounds by the time New Year hits.”, Rarity said.

“And you’ll still look lovely.”, Fluttershy said.

“Of course I will.”

Sunset and Rainbow gave each other knowing looks as the rest of the girls yammered on about the holiday. “Your mom working that day?”, Sunset asked.

“Ayuh, your grandfather working that day?”

“Ayuh, dude never takes the holidays off. His papa brain won’t let him.”

“Aye”

“What are you two talking about?”, Pinkie asked, popping up between them.

“Medical worker kid stuff.”

“Like what?”

“Oh, y’know, oil burns, kitchens catching on fire, that kinda stuff.”, Sunset said.

“Oh, I guess this isn’t as great of a time for you two.”

“Oh, I forgot. Your grandfather works in the ER.”, Rarity said.

“Yup, I’ve maybe spent one Thanksgiving with him in my five years on this Earth, or maybe that was Christmas.” Sunset remembered the song she wrote and pulled out her phone to refresh herself on it.

“Yeah, my mom’s getting no sleep that night.”, RD added.

“Ah guess tha holiday season isn’t so great for you.”, AJ said.

“Oh, not just the holiday season, every holiday that involves cooking or fire or explosives in any way is not a great time for our families.”

“Yeah, I even wrote a “12 Days of Christmas” parody song about it, it’s so bad. It’s not a great song, but I find it funny. Wanna hear it?”, Sunset asked. The rest of the girls nodded, so Sunset stood up with her guitar and started playing. “Okay, here goes “9 Days of Burns”.

On New Year's Day, my true love came to me
With both eyebrows missing

On Chinese New Year, my true love came to me
With three fewer fingers, and
Both eyebrows missing

On Juneteenth, my true love came to me
With only one working eye
Three fewer fingers, and
Both eyebrows missing

On the Fourth of July, my true love came to me
With half his hair gone
Only one working eye
Three fewer fingers, and
Both eyebrows missing

On Guy Fawkes Day, my true love came to me
With an amputated foot
Half his hair gone
Only one working eye
Three fewer fingers, and
Both eyebrows missing

On Thanksgiving, my true love came to me
With a front covered in skin grafts
An amputated foot
Half his hair gone
Only one working eye
Three fewer fingers, and
Both eyebrows missing

On Christmas Eve, my true love came to me
With a hand wrapped in bandages
A front covered in skin grafts
An amputated foot
Half his hair gone
Only one working eye
Three fewer fingers, and
Both eyebrows missing

On Christmas Day, my true love came to me
With a face covered in ash
A hand wrapped in bandages
A front covered in skin grafts
An amputated foot
Half his hair gone
Only one working eye
Three fewer fingers, and
Both eyebrows missing

On New Year’s Eve, I went to see my true love in the ICU
With an oxygen tube down his throat
A face covered in ash
A hand wrapped in bandages
A front covered in skin grafts
An amputated foot
Half his hair gone
Only one working eye
Three fewer fingers, and
Both eyebrows missing”

Sunset looked around the room to see a range of disturbed faces on the girls, except for RD, who was laughing her butt off. “Oh man, that is wonderfully dark.”, RD wheezed out.

“Poor true love”, AJ said. “You need therapy,” AJ looked at the cackling RD, “both of you.”

“I know.”, Sunset said. “I’m the one that has to live in my head, and let me tell you, it ain’t a fun place.”

“Let’s get to playing something happier.”, Fluttershy said. “I wanna get the image of Mr. True Love out of my head.”

Sunset smirked to herself as the rest of the girls got into position. She’s too cute and maybe too innocent. I hope she keeps it.

CHS basement

Date: Nov 26th, time: 4:00 pm

*Sunset’s perspective*

“Okay, so that was a bust.”, Sunset said as she straightened out her hair. She had no idea what that rainbow crap she was blasted with was, but it makes an annoyingly good hair gel. Even with her attempts to fix her hair, she still looked like a mad scientist. “Let’s move onto the practical tests.”

“Okay, what will that entail?”, AJ asked.

“Testing our physical capabilities and testing for any specialized magical abilities we might’ve gained from our pony magic.”

“Specialized magical abilities?”, RD asked.

“Yeah, unicorns can cast spells, earth ponies have enhanced strength, a connection to the earth, and some psychic powers, and pegasi can fly and have the ability to manipulate the weather.”

“Whoa, okay. How are we going to do that, mainly the weather thing?”

“Well, we aren’t going to test that. I don’t think you can do that yet, but I do wanna see if you could walk on clouds, and we’ll test that using the pool.”

“Wait, we can walk on clouds and water?”, Fluttershy asked.

“Potentially, yes. Wanna go test it?”

The girls dropped their instruments and rushed past Sunset. Sunset grabbed a clipboard, and they all hurried down the halls to the pool room. Rainbow started pulling everything out of her pockets and took off her shoes, socks, and outerwear. “Is there anything special I need ta do?”

“I don’t think so. Are you sure you don’t wanna change into a swimsuit first?”

“Eh, it’s fine, and I don’t have one today.” Rainbow flew over the water and slowly lowered herself down. She extended her legs and landed on the water. She stopped flapping, and she stood on the water. “Holy crap”

Fluttershy gingerly stepped out onto the water and joined Rainbow when she didn’t sink. “Wow”

“I so want to do this in front of a bunch of Christians. I’ll wear white robes and scare the crap out of them.”

The rest of the girls laughed. Sunset was 90% sure she was just joking. Water walking, positive. She jotted that down. “Come on, we have more to test.”

Fluttershy and Rainbow hopped out of the pool, and RD gathered up her stuff. Sunset led them upstairs to the weights room. It’s normally locked when there wasn’t a teacher in their to keep stupid kids from doing stupid stuff with the weights, but a lock pick and a general lack of fucks to give got them in.

“I’m going to have you all test your limits on various machines then pony-down and do the same in your human form, sound good?”

The girls nodded. Sunset led them over to the lat pulldown machine, and they gathered up into a pseudo-line. The first in line was AJ, so at least the absolute maximum could be determined right away.

“Okay, how much do you know you can lift?”

“Ah dunno. Ah never used one a’ these machines before.”

“Okay, I guess we’re going backwards then.” Sunset set the machine to its max weight of 300 lbs.

AJ stepped up and, with little noticeable effort, managed to lift the whole thing.

“Okay, that’s good.” Sunset jotted it down as AJ put down the weight.

“Phew, how much was that?”

Rainbow came over and gawked at the weight. “Three hundred, damn.”

“Our magic’s really that powerful?”, AJ said in disbelief.

“You do have earth pony magic and were already the physically strongest of us before we got magic.”, Sunset said. “Next up.”

One by one, the girls tested their strength. None of them came close to AJ, but each of them showed impressive strength. Pinkie had the second highest scores at 250, then RD and Rarity at 230, and Fluttershy was the weakest at 200.

“Very good. Now, everyone pony-down and try to lift your weights.”

“Aren’t you going to try, darling?”

“No, we’re testing Equestrian magic. I have other magics that will affect my results, and I’m not even ponied-up.”

“Aw, come on.”, Pinkie complained. “You don’t have to record it. We wanna see werewolf magic at work.” The rest of the girls nodded and murmured in agreement.

“You really wanna see my werewolf magic?”

“Yeah, werewolves are cool.”, RD said. “Having a werewolf friend is almost as cool as having a wolf as a pet.”

“Wolves don’t make good pets.”, Fluttershy said.

“I know. Wolves are still awesome though.”

“Okay, I’ll do it.” Sunset got into position and wolfed up as much as she could. They wanted to see her werewolf magic; they were going to see it. She set the machine to its max weight and began lifting it. She had to strain a lot with much more grunting than AJ, but she was able to lift it. She dropped the weights and turned to her friends.

“Boy, am I glad you didn’t have that power in middle school.”, Pinkie said.

“I think it was better for everyone.” Sunset shifted back and stepped out of the way. “Okay now”

The girls all ponied-down and, in the same order, tried to lift their weights. They were all able to lift the same amount, but it took more effort to do. Their movements were also different, stiffer, but it wasn’t like they were abnormally stiff. Sunset looked back on her memories and realized their movements were more fluid when they were ponied-up. It wasn’t an unnatural fluidity or glaringly obvious, but comparing the same movements showed a difference.

“Very good, did you feel a difference between your two lifts?”

“Yeah, my body felt colder the second time.”, RD said. “Like how, when you first wake up in the morning, your body had dropped a couple of degrees overnight and your muscles are stiff. Or maybe like how, when you’re in the middle of a run, your body’s warm and your muscles are working. That’s how it felt when I was ponied-up.”

“That sounds about right.”, Rarity said. The rest of the girls gave similar sentiments.

“Okay, sounds interesting.” And similar to how I feel when wolfed out. “I think I’ve experienced something similar. My guess would be that our magic being pumped into our muscles warms them up, priming them for exertion.”

“That does make sense.”, RD commented.

“What’s the next test?”, Pinkie asked.

“Next, I want to test earth pony magic. Let’s head outside.” Everyone got their outerwear on, and Sunset led them outside and into the snowy forest. “Now, earth ponies are able to make plants grow with their magic. AJ…”

AJ found a little branch with a single fall leaf on it and put her hand next to it. She closed her eyes and concentrated.

“What’s supposed to be happening?”, Rarity asked.

Before Sunset could answer, the branch dropped the old leaf and sprouted two new green leaves. “That’s all that’s gonna happen.”, AJ said.

“That’s still very impressive.” Sunset noted it down.

“There’s no way I can do that.”, Pinkie said. “I’m not a tree girl.”

“That’s okay. Let’s head back inside.”

The girls hurried back to the door, RD getting there first, and she tried to open it. “Um, it’s locked.”

Sunset slipped past her and used her clipboard to shimmy it open. “Don’t tell the principals.”

Rainbow was clearly surprised but nodded.

Sunset let everyone inside, and they went back to the lab.

“So, how are we going to test our powers?”, Rarity asked.

“I’m not sure. I’ve tried casting spells before, but all I got was a headache. Let’s take a look at your spell books.”

Pinkie, AJ, RD, and Rarity pulled their books out of their bags and laid them out on a table Sunset brought over.

“Would you guys mind if I scan these?”

“That would actually be a good idea.”, Pinkie said. “These are family heirlooms, and I don’t want them to get damaged, and knowing us, they would get damaged.” AJ, RD, and Rarity nodded their agreement.

Sunset took the books into the control room, which had a scanner, for some reason, and began scanning each of the pages onto her computer. After a boring amount of time, she brought the books back out and returned them to their owners. “Sorry that took so long. I’ll email you all copies when I get home.”

“I wanna try making some potions. I found some that look cool.”, RD said.

“Did you bring the components?”

“No, I was hoping you might have some. Where am I supposed to get eye of newt?”

Oh, she’s gonna be so disappointed. “I have eye of newt at my house, along with just about everything else we might need, and if I don’t have it, my aunt will.”

The girls all got excited and would’ve been wagging their tails if they were wolves, except for Pinkie. She gave Sunset a knowing look.

“Yeah! Let’s go make potions!”, RD cheered.

The girls gathered up their stuff, and Sunset led them to her house. “Okay, what are the ingredients?”

Rainbow laid her book out on the counter and began reading off the ingredients, and Sunset gathered the ingredients. “What is all this?”, RD asked.

“The ingredients for your spell.”

“Mustard seed and holly leaves?”

“Otherwise known as eye of newt and wool of bat in ye olden times.”

“Wait… this is just cooking!” Rainbow flipped through her book. “Is being a witch just cooking?!”

“Brewing potions is ninety percent cooking.”

“Ma mom being a witch now makes a lot more sense.”, AJ said. “There wouldn’t happen ta be a potion fer bein’ in two places at once? Bloom has been complainin’ that Ah’m not spendin’ enough time with her anymore.”

“That’s pretty advanced spell casting. Haven’t you tried explaining that you’re training to protect her?”

“Did that work with your sister?”

“Ayuh, she asked me to train her as soon as her powers come in.”

“Sigh, Ah’ll try that. Ah do still wanna cook up a potion.” AJ pulled out her book and showed Sunset the page she flipped to. “Maybe this one.”

“Accelerated plant growth, easy-peasy, let’s get started.”

Twilight’s Castle, Portal room

Date: 23rd day of the 11th month of the 1120th year, time: 1st hour AMR

*Twilight’s perspective*

“Humans can survive deadly injuries and fight even with BROKEN BONES!”, Twilight read from one of the books on humans. “Humans are insane, but they aren’t that insane.”

“What’s this about broken bones?”, a tired Spike asked from the door.

“Oh, just a preposterous claim by the author… then again, this is the same species that drops miniature suns on each other. All check with Sunset.”

“Miniature suns?”

“It’s not important. Go ahead to bed.”

“Alright” Spike yawned and left the library.

Twilight went back to the books. “There’s no way they can’t feel pain, but why would this book say they can’t? Maybe humans were too alien for them to recognize their pain.” She looked at the journal sitting on a shelf near the portal and debated on whether or not to write Sunset. “If I got the time zones right, it’s the middle of the night over there. I’ll write my questions down and ask her tomorrow.” She summoned a notepad and pen from another room and began writing every question about humans she could think of. “Then again, Sunset is a thestral. That means she’s nocturnal. She might be awake, and if she’s not, it shouldn’t be an issue.”

Twilight levitated the journal over and open and began writing. “Sunset, when you can, I have some questions about humans. One of my books says that humans can survive deadly injuries and continue fighting with broken bones and can’t feel pain. Is this true?” She closed up the journal and set it aside with a yawn. “I should head to bed myself.”

Twilight set her books aside and left, taking the journal with her. The castle turned the lights off behind her as she walked and turned lights on as needed. She got to her room, placing the journal on her side table as she climbed into bed. Before long, she was asleep.

Twilight was awoken by the morning light and the light of the buzzing journal. She shook away the sleep and levitated the journal over and open. “The easiest question to answer would be the pain thing. Humans have a hormone that our bodies can release while under stress called [adrenaline]. It does many things, but the most pertinent of those is blocking out pain. So the answer is, sometimes. This pain blocking can also allow us to continue fighting if gravely injured, like having a broken bone. As for the surviving deadly wounds thing, that varies greatly, but I can safely say that we aren’t easy to kill.”, it read.

“Seriously?!”, Twilight shouted in mild panic. She pulled a pen out from her side table drawer and started writing. “Please tell me you’re messing with me.”

“Nope, humans can also heal from broken legs. I fractured my leg once, and Rainbow managed to break all four of her limbs over her middle school career.”

“And you still have them?!”, Twilight said out loud. She felt a bit queasy as she remembered what happens when a pony breaks their leg. Due to the tension they’re under, the bone gets ripped apart into hundreds of pieces and damages the surrounding tissue.

“Let me guess, queasy? You day walkers have such weak stomachs.”

“And you nightlings have something wrong with you.”, she wrote. I hope that’s right. This is how humans tease each other, right?

“Ha! We are children of the darkness. Your greatest fears are our strength. By the way, my surgery is scheduled for [December] 6th, which is eight days from today. I’ll be high off my flank on meds, but I’d like it if you were there.”

Oh, thank Mother of Destiny. “Of course I’ll come.”

“Thank you”

Twilight closed the book and brought it back to the library, placing it back in its place. “Now, I need to cancel some plans. They’ll understand.”

Canterville Soup Kitchen

Date: Nov 30th, time: 6:00 pm

*Pinkie’s perspective*

Pinkie hopped out of her father’s car and hurried over to her friends, who were unloading boxes from Rarity’s mom’s minivan. “What’s all that?”

“Oh, this is just some food.”, Rarity said.

“Some?”, Pinkie said with a raised eyebrow. The entire back of the van was filled with boxes.

“This holiday is about giving to the less fortunate.”

“They’re rich. What do you expect?”, RD said.

Pinkie joined them in taking the food inside with the help of RD’s and Pinkie’s dads and Rarity’s mom. Inside the kitchen, Sunset’s family was cooking. Once all the food was inside, they all joined in on the cooking. It was a bit difficult working with so many people in the kitchen, but everyone was assigned tasks, and they stuck to them. That made things go smoother. Pinkie ended up serving food, and she got a look at the people in the dining area, including all the kids. There were elderly looking people, middle aged people, vets in their camo, parents with their kids, and lone kids.

A boy around Pinkie’s age came up, and she shot him a smile. “Hi, we got some toasty mashed sweet potatoes ta warm ya up.”

“Thanks”, he said without emotion.

“Aw, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing” The boy took his food and left without another word.

“That’s Skylar, a trans woman.”, Sunset said, coming up behind Pinkie with more food. “She was kicked out after her parents caught her with her boyfriend.”

“Oh… that’s sad.”

“A lot of homeless teens have similar stories. America is better than Equestria at some things, but the way, what you call, “queer people” are treated is not one of them.” Sunset went back into the kitchen.

Pinkie watched her go then quickly put her happy face back on. If she could do anything for them, it was be a beacon of light and laughter. “Hi, I’m Pinkie. What’s your name?”, she cheerfully said to the next person in line.

The older man’s expression perked up from the default expression he had just a second ago. “Hello, Pinkie, I’m Jack.”

“Nice to meet you, Jack. We got some toasty mashed sweet potatoes. They’re sure ta warm ya up.”

“Heh, sure. You’re an excellent saleswoman.”, he said with a smile.

Pinkie chuckled and served him his food. She did similar with everyone else in line, earning smiles from most of them. Being able to bring smiles to their faces made her happy, but the fact that all she did was give them the basic dignity of asking for their names made her sad. At least she could bring them that little bit of happiness.

They worked late into the night to feed everyone, and when they were finally done, Pinkie was emotionally drained. All those people, forgotten and abandoned by the society that was supposed to support and protect them. It was disheartening to see. She sat on her car’s tailgate as the adults talked amongst themselves. She just wanted to go home and lie down for a while.

“You okay?”, Fluttershy asked.

“Emotionally tired. Our government doesn’t see those people as human.”

Fluttershy could only sigh and rub Pinkie’s shoulder. Sunset’s family was packing up to go, and since Fluttershy came with them, she had to go too.

The adults finished talking, and Dad walked over to where Pinkie was sitting. Pinkie stood up and hugged him. “Thank you”

“For what?”

“For never kicking me out.”

“God made and molded thy exactly as he saw fit. Who am I to abandon one of his creations?”

“You know I don’t believe in that.”

“I know thy does not believe, but I do.”

Twilight’s Castle, Portal room

Date: 1st day of the 12th month of the 1120th year, time: 1st hour ASR

*Twilight’s perspective*

“So, you’re going over there to support your friend in her recovery. Are you also going to help track down whoever cursed her sister?”, Rainbow asked.

“What? No, there’s no curse. Cancer, in their world, isn’t a curse. Sunset explained to me that it’s a malfunction of the body. We won’t be tracking anyone down.”, Twilight explained. She looked up at Rainbow, who was flying over the rest of her friends. They were there to see her off. Given that she had to cancel all their plans for today, they knew it was serious.

“Oh, I suppose that’s good.”

“Make sure to give them both our well wishes.”, Rarity said. The rest of the girls nodded their affirmation.

“We should be going.”, Spike said.

“Sorry, Spike, but dogs aren’t allowed in hospitals. It’s just going to be me.”

“Oh”, Spike said dejectedly.

“You can hang out with me again, Spiky Wicky.”, Rarity said.

“Okay” Spike practically had hearts in his eyes.

Twilight shook her head. It’s not going to happen, Spike. “Okay, I’m off then.”

“Bye”, they all said.

Twilight stepped through the portal and stepped out on the other side. She was wearing the same clothes she was when she left. A blessing given that there was now an inch of snow on the ground. The sky was clear, and the day was bright with the sun high. She looked back down at the ground to start walking only to be practically blinded. Why is the snow so bright? She squinted to try and see where she was going. It was difficult to see, but she could see well enough to get to Fluttershy’s.

She reached Fluttershy’s place and knocked loudly. Mrs. Shy answered. Right, they’re all still children. “Hello”

“You must be Twilight. Come in. Fluttershy’s in her room.”

“Thank you.” Twilight hurried inside so as to not let all the warm air out. She looked down the hall and realized she had a tiny problem. “Um, which one is Fluttershy’s?”

“Second door to your right.”

“Thank you.” Twilight walked over to the indicated door and knocked.

Fluttershy answered and smiled. “Hi”

“Hi” Twilight stepped inside. “So, when will we be heading to the hospital?”

“In a little bit. How was your walk? Not too cold, I hope.”

“No, but the sun reflecting off the snow was very bright. I guess humans are more photosensitive than ponies in general.”

“Interesting” Fluttershy walked over to her closet and pulled out a set of eye-armor. “Here, these will help.”

Twilight took the armor and examined it. “Huh, you wouldn’t be someone I’d expect to have this.” Though, some earth ponies, and Vinal, do wear these as fashion statements.

“Why not? I’m sure everyone has at least one pair of sunglasses. Snow blindness can be a real issue.”

“Sunglasses?”

“Yeah, what about it?”

“Oh, I just thought this was eye-armor.”

“Ha, no, they are shatter resistant, but they aren’t safety glasses.”

“Oh, okay.” Twilight folded them up and looked for a good place to put them where they wouldn’t get damaged.

“Try hanging them from your shirt.”

“What?” Twilight looked down at them again then realized what she meant. “Oh, okay.”

“Are you hungry? We’ll be spending a while at the hospital, and hospital food’s expensive.”

“No, I just had breakfast.”, Twilight said as she hung her sunglasses on her shirt.

“Okay”

They didn’t have to wait long to get going. Fluttershy’s mom came and got them, and they all piled into the car. They picked Pinkie up from her house then they went to the hospital.

When they arrived, AJ and Granny Smith were also arriving. “Hi, Mrs. Forst.”, AJ said.

“Hello, Applejack.”, Mrs. Shy said.

Forst?

“Hey, Twi. Hey, Fluttershy. Hey, Pinkie.”

“Hi”, Fluttershy said.

“Hey! AJ!”, Pinkie excitedly cheered.

They headed inside and over to some sort of guide.

“Where did Sunset say they’d be?”, Pinkie asked.

“Children’s ward”, Fluttershy answered.

“Okay, sixth floor.”, AJ said.

They headed over to a… well… Twilight had no idea how to even start describing it other than a metallic part of the wall. AJ pushed a button and one of the metal sections opened up to reveal a small room. Everyone else went inside, so Twilight followed. The wall closed behind them, and AJ pressed another button. Then it felt like the room was moving.

“Are we moving?”, Twilight asked.

“Do you not have elevators in Equestria?”, Fluttershy asked.

“I don’t think so. What do they do?”

“They provide transportation between floors of a building.”, AJ explained.

It was at that point the wall opened again, and they all stepped out. They were indeed in a different part of the hospital. Granny Smith led them to a waiting room. Rainbow and her mother and Rarity and her mother, along with Sunset’s family, were already there.

Pinkie bounded over to Sunset’s parents. “Hi, Dr. Brigid, is Sunset still in surgery?”

“Yes, she is. It shouldn’t be much longer.”, Dr. Brigid said.

“Okie dokie” Pinkie bounced back over to the girls, and they all sat around each other.

They sat in relative silence as they waited. Aside from Pinkie humming or doing the typical stuff a po…person with that much energy does when sitting for a long time and the occasional ‘how much longer?’ from many of them, they weren’t doing much talking. She couldn’t say anything for her friends, but Twilight was nervous. Sure, America’s an advanced alien civilization, but they don’t have magic. How would they deal with it if something goes wrong?

A medical worker came into the weighting room and went over to Sunset’s parents. The television and general noise made it hard to hear what they were saying, but the message became clear when Sunset’s family got up to follow the worker and motioned the girls to follow them. Granny Smith and the other girls’ mothers stayed in the waiting room given that ten visitors was already a lot. The worker led them to a room and let them in. Inside were Sunset and Emi laying on beds, a female medical worker attending to Emi, who was asleep, and a male, older one was with Sunset. The worker attending to Sunset was being weirdly affectionate with her, holding her hand and stroking her head. The older medical worker motioned them over, and Sunset’s family went in first.

“How are you doing?”, Dr. Brigid asked.

“Mmm, juice.”, Sunset mumbled.

“Dad, could you?”, Mr. Katon asked.

“Yeah, be right back.”, the older worker said. He exited the room and walked down the hall.

Dad? Oh, that explains the affection.

“How are you feeling?”, Minerva asked Sunset.

“Uuuuuu”

“Got it.”

Dr. Brigid, Mr. Katon, and Anura moved to check on Emi, and Minerva made room for the girls. The girls moved in around Sunset’s front and the foot of the bed. She was laying on her side, limiting the space they had. She also had her eyes closed.

“Hey, Sunset, we’re all here.”, Fluttershy said.

Sunset’s grandfather came back in with a box with an apple on it and put it on the tray attached to Sunset’s bed. “Your juice is right here.”

Why is it in a small box?

“Thank you” Sunset mumbled something unintelligible.

“What was that?”

Sunset didn’t answer.

“I think she might be asleep.”, Pinkie said.

“I’m not asleep…” Sunset opened her eyes and looked over to Pinkie. “Why is your hair bubble gum?”

“Send to Tartarus, she really is out of it.”, RD said.

“How long will she be like this?”, AJ asked.

“That depends.”, Sunset’s grandfather started. He looked around the room quickly then went to close the door. The worker attending to Emi was gone, so he’s likely trying to keep anyone that's not ‘in the know’ out of the know. “It already varies a lot amongst humans, and I’ve never treated a werewolf-pony-fox before. She could recover in a few minutes, or it could take a day. In short, I have no idea.”

“I’m leaning towards ‘a few minutes’.”, Sunset said in a much more coherent voice. “I’m still groggy and sore but more like the brownie just kicked in and I just got slammed by something pointy.” She sat up and grabbed her juice.

“The brownie just kicked in”, what does that mean?

“Do you need more pain medication?”

“No, it’s mild enough.” Sunset removed a straw from the back and stabbed it into the top of the box. “How’s Emi doing?”

“She’s doing just fine.”, Dr. Brigid said.

Sunset motioned for them to move, and they all understood. Everyone moved out of the way so she could see Emi. Sunset looked Emi over then stared at the central line in her arm that led up to the bag of her marrow. To someone looking in, it was a ghostly sight with a pale, little girl hooked up to medical equipment, but the smile on Sunset’s face told a different story. It was the end of a long fight, the end of a nightmare.

Such alien creatures that think and live so differently from us yet are still so similar, truly terrifying and truly marvelous. Ponies and humans could truly benefit from each other and maybe even bring a new era to both.