Now properly healed, Sunset went to get up from her kneeling position by the Site of Grace. A moment before she could do so Melina knelt down across from her, appearing from nowhere in a shower of glitter. Sunset raised her eyebrow at the woman, once again settling into her own seat.

“Hello, Melina.” Sunset nodded her head at her Finger Maiden. “What can I do you for?”

“I believe you forgot something, Sunset Shimmer.” Melina reached into her cloak and pulled out a simple piece of parchment, passing it over to Sunset. “This is a map of the west side of Limgrave, the part of the Lands Between ruled over by Godrick the Golden.”

That is totally not an ominous name for this area.

Sunset opened the map, scanning over its contents for a moment. “I see. Thank you.”

“Additionally, that seed you carry with you. Pass it to me.” Melina held out her hand as Sunset dug in her jacket pocket, pulling out a golden seed. She passed it to Melina with no small reluctance, as Sunset could still feel the potent healing magic within the seed.

Melina held the seed in one palm before closing her hand, golden magic suffusing her arm for almost a full minute. Once the glow faded, instead of a seed in her hand, she had a golden chalice filled with a red liquid. It radiated the same healing magic as the golden seed, but more...refined.

“This is what is known as a Flask of Crimson Tears.” Melina passed it back to Sunset. “Drink it when you are injured, and it will heal you. If you find more of those golden seeds or any Sacred Tears on your journey I can make you more or make them more potent, respectively.”

Sunset nodded and put the stoppered golden chalice on a part of her belt, allowing her to easily reach it if need be. “I shall. Thank you.” This ‘thanks’ was a more genuine one, instead of the professional one she learned from her mentor.

Melina nodded once before fading away into a mist of glittering sparks, back to wherever she went. Sunset finally got back to her feet, brushing the dirt and grass off of her pants as best she could.

“Alright, so. Those ruins had two roads going to it, one from that church and the other heading off into the distance.” Sunset muttered to herself, rubbing her chin in thought. “I guess I should head down this new road. After all, it looks like this whole place just loops back around that giant lake over there.”

Her next step now figured out, Sunset nodded to herself in agreement. Turning towards the new path, Sunset lifted the whistle ring that Melina gave her and let out a sharp whistle through it. With a yelp she found herself lifted up, her steed Torrent apparating below her from a cloud of sparkles. The steed looked almost like a large earth pony, albeit with a set of goat horns rising from his flat grey mane. She gave the gorse a gentle pat on the side of his neck and pointed out in the distance.

“Hey, we’re going to be going over there, gotcha?”

The gorse let out a small snort before cantering down the road, moving fast enough that they quickly gained ground but not too fast for Sunset’s ability to hang on. As they went down the dirt road the grassland became speckled with large evergreen trees, a few deer and goats running around in the foliage. On one side of the road, a hooffull of withered-looking older humans were walking, two of them holding long Torchpoles, the middle one holding a staff with a diamond in the top.

While Sunset and her steed were passing the three other travelers, both Torrent and Sunset heard a faint cry over on their left. Torrent’s left ear flicked and rotated over in that direction, while Sunset simply turned her head. It sounded like it came from one of the batches of trees to the side of the road.

“Oi, you there! Could you help me out?” Came a faint voice from the treeline, like a normally rather small voice was yelling from a great distance.

“...huh. Let’s go check that out, Torrent.” Sunset nudged the gorse a tad with the reins, having the steed head over to the treeline.

There didn’t seem to be anything visually strange in the trees, just a hooffull of evergreens, and a few forest animals. There was one small sapling that radiated magic that caught Sunset’s attention, not powerful enough to make anything but enough that it was obviously of magical origin. As Sunset turned away to look at the other side of the batch of trees she heard that same quiet voice behind her.

“Hey, you there! Stop pretending you can’t see me!” The voice let out a small whimper. “Why won’t anyone look at me? I’m not that ugly...”

Sunset hopped off of Torrent, who disappeared back into the same ethereal glitter he came from. With nothing but confidence in her stride, she went over to the small magical sapling...and kicked it. With a poof of smoke and a yelp, a strange simian creature fell over from where the sapling was. His skin was pale pink, and he wore a black and dark brown cloak with a black hat.

“Ow, what did you do that for?” The simian creature whined, holding his side.

“I was seeing if it was the tree that was talking,” Sunset answered, arms crossed and eyebrows raised. “How did you even end up as a sapling anyway?”

The simian got back to his feet with a wince and shook his head, a frown forming on his face. “Some clod turned me into one, not sure how, I don’t do magic. Thank you for breaking the spell. Name’s Boc! Boc the Seamster!”

“Alright Boc, that explains the ‘how’ but not the ‘why’.” Sunset got to one knee to better look Boc in the eye. “Why did that ‘clod’ turn you into a tree?”

Boc fidgeted with his hands and looked away in shame. “B-because I am a Demi-Human, Mistress. Most people don’t like us, on account of us being ‘born outside of Grace’ and all.”

Sunset frowned, unconsciously closing and opening her right hand in irritation. “I see.”

“Oh! Uh, I should give you something to express my thanks!” Boc desperately began reaching into his coat pockets, his face slowly getting more and more stressed. “Oh, what a shame.

When they threw me out of the cave, they took everything I owned...this is all I have to express my thanks.” Boc pulled out two handfuls of white mushrooms and held them up to Sunset. “I hope you can forgive me".

Sunset pushed the mushrooms back to Boc, her browed furrowed in confusion. “If it’s all you own, keep it then.”

Boc bowed his head low as he put the mushrooms back into his jacket. “Thank you, Mistress. Uh, I could sneak back into the cave, and bring back something of actual value.”

Sunset’s frown deepened in exasperation. “You don’t have to do that. I am not that weak that I need the last pennies of a serf.”

“I-I beg of you, Mistress, let me be useful to you.” Boc started shivering in fear despite the brave face he tried to put on. “J-just, ah, give me a moment. I-I'm frightened of them... So I have to gather myself. My knees start knockin'...just thinking bout that god-awful cave on the shore.”

Sunset had half a mind to just start walking away from the terrified demi-human, but one of Celestia’s lessons rose unbidden to her mind. ‘True loyalty is hard to come by, try to foster it in potential allies whenever you can’. So instead Sunset sighed and pinched her brow in irritation before once again facing the demi-human.

“If you insist then I won’t stop you. But if you get injured go to the church over there and you’ll eventually see me again. In that case, I’ll help you get your stuff back from that cave.” Boc opened his mouth to protest but was cut off by Sunset raising her hand. “That isn’t a request, that is an order. If you want to serve me then I need you in one piece, Boc. Now go.”

Boc nodded and scurried off into the distance, still shivering in fear but having regained some kind of backbone. Sunset shook her head and got back to her feet, chuckling at the speed of the diminutive figure. Looking up towards the sky, despite the lack of a true sun Sunset could see that it was slowly approaching nightfall. The approaching darkness made Sunset frown slightly, but she turned on her heel and continued forwards instead of dawdling about any longer.

In front of her the countryside split, a ravine cutting through the land towards the north. On her left the grassland fell away into a sheer set of cliffs, hanging over the massive lake that the ravine connected to. Across the ravine sat a solid stone bridge, guarded by three soldiers sitting by a small bonfire to keep warm. Far in the distance across the bridge were what looked like the tops of large trees, with an even larger one reaching high above the hills.

“Huh, would you look at that? Looks almost like a smaller version of that massive tree.” Sunset muttered to herself as she approached the bridge.

The three guards got to their feet as Sunset approached, pulling out their daggers in preparation for a fight. Unlike the soldiers Sunset fought in the ruins, the only armor they wore was a bit of chainmail draped over the shoulders of their dirty white tabards, leather gauntlets, and an iron wide-brim hat and mask. Additionally, instead of wearing the colors of their liege-lord, they wore dirty white tabards and pants that ended in badly maintained boots.

Sunset drew her blades, crossing them to activate the ornamental blade’s enchantment to cover them in what felt like holy magic. The first foot soldier died with a yelp, his head struck off his body with a swing of the gilded sword, the chainmail around his neck barely giving any resistance. The other two attacked at once, one slashing at Sunset’s neck while the other went to stab her stomach.

With a twirl of her blades, Sunset was able to parry the attacks, although the fact she was outnumbered did require her to take a few steps back. The footsoldiers kept the pressure up, swapping off attacking high and low to keep Sunset on the back foot. The former unicorn grit her teeth and decided to change tactics, stabbing forward instead of blocking one of the dagger swings.

Sunset’s left sword stabbed forwards, smashing through the left foot soldier’s eyepiece into his head and back out through his neck. The footsoldier collapsed forwards before he dusted, dragging Sunset’s sword out of her hand. The other foe used this opening to stab forward, his dagger planting itself in Sunset’s side. The former unicorn hissed in pain and slapped the side of the footsoldier’s helmet with her now free palm. She gathered some magical energy into her palm and released it into his head, blasting it apart in a burst of magical fire.

Sunset let out a small breath, pulling out the dagger from her side as the body of her last opponent turned to ash before her. Unfortunately, the dagger dissipated with the rest of his body, leaving Sunset without a true prize. She let out a small sigh of frustration and reached down to grab her discarded blade, scooping it up with little effort. Before she got the chance to sheathe her blades, she heard the sound of metal and leather and once again took a glance at the bridge.

In the middle of the bridge sat what at first glance looked like the silhouette of the armored knight Sunset met near the church. But as it stepped closer, Sunset saw that it was more like a dark twin to the golden knight. His steed looked like a normal black horse but was wrapped in a black cloak that obscured all of it but its hooves and a bit of its leg. The knight on the back of the horse was wearing an all-encompassing black armor with black feathers sprouting out of the back of his helmet. In his hand, the knight held a black glaive as large as Sunset was tall.

“Well, hopefully, he’s weaker than his friend was,” Sunset grumbled under her breath, once again expending a touch of magic to wreath her blades in holy light.

With a flurry of footfalls Sunset charged the knight, slashing to the side with both her swords. The knight pulled his steed to the other side, dodging much of the strike but not fast enough to completely avoid the blow. His horse whinnied in pain as the swords slashed into her flesh, making Sunset wince in sympathetic pain at the too-pony-like sound.

The knight used the opportunity to swing his glaive down, forcing Sunset to roll to the side to dodge the blow. The sheer force of the attack caused the bridge to crack slightly, sending a cloud of dust into the air.

I really don’t want that hitting me.

Sunset was forced to dodge back a little more as the knight’s steed tried to shoulder-check her. With a hiss of frustration, Sunset swung each sword in a wide arc, forcing the knight back lest his steed got hit by one of the blades. The extra space gave Sunset the time to adopt a more aggressive pose with her swords, her eyes narrowed at the knight.

“You have one chance to surrender, Tarnished.” The knight’s deep voice had a scratchy undertone to it like he hadn’t drunk water in years. “I recommend you take it.”

“Oh fuck off,” Sunset growled, baring her teeth.

With a battle cry on her lips, Sunset once again charged the knight, the light on her blades giving her an ominous aura in the nighttime air. As she charged, the raised his glaive into the air, his steed rearing up as well to give the blow even more power. Seizing the opportunity given to her, Sunset stepped underneath the steed and thrust her blades upwards into the steed’s belly. Despite the light shining off of the swords, the darkness under the steed’s cloak didn’t budge an inch, even as the swords plunged into its body.

With a shriek of pain, the steed dissipated into shadow and bits of magic, knocking the knight onto his back. The armored warrior let out a grunt of pain as he slammed into the ground, the wind getting knocked out of him from the impact. Once again seizing the moment, Sunset stabbed both swords down into the knight’s gut.

The knight let out an actual cry of pain, his blood a dark red stain on the bridge. Badly injured but not out, the knight stabbed upwards with his glaive, tagging Sunset’s shoulder as she ducked out of the way. Rolling to his feet, the knight slowly spun his glaive, using the extra reach to force Sunset to take a few steps back to avoid being hit.

“Maybe it's your turn to surrender, knight.” Sunset let out a biting chuckle, a shit-eating grin on her face.

“No.” the knight retorted, his voice laced with pain from his near-mortal wound.

The knight continued to spin his glaive, building momentum before charging forward at Sunset. Sunset once again adopted a defensive posture to dodge the strike, but this time the desperation of the knight prevailed. With the crunch of steel on bone, the knight’s upwards strike smashed into Sunset, the sheer force sending Sunset flying back in a cloud of dust and blood.

Sunset’s foot hit the edge of the bridge, making her hiss in panic and flail her arms for a moment. Unfortunately, her attempt to gain some balance failed horribly as the momentum of the strike won, toppling her over the edge of the bridge. Sunset couldn’t help but let out a scream of horror as she fell down several dozen feet to the river below.

As a last-minute defense, Sunset let go of one of her swords and summoned a golden shield around herself to protect herself from the impact. The shield - and her - slammed into the ground with a horrible crack, shattering the shield near-instantly. Thankfully it absorbed just enough of the impact to not shatter all of Sunset’s bones, but Sunset still couldn’t help but scream in pain as she all but bounced off the ground.

The last thing Sunset saw before she slipped into unconsciousness was a man approaching her broken body. The light of the rising sun reflected off of his iron headpiece, a piece that reminded her of a straw hat that Celestia got from a Neighponese ambassador. The rest of his garb was a simple brown tunic, with light iron armor on the shoulders, gauntlets, and greaves.

“Help...” Sunset choked out before she passed out.

Author's Note

Honestly, Boc the Seamster is one of my favorite NPCs in the whole game. Love him.

I did push off Sunset properly meeting the Dragon and the Pot since it felt like too many things going on in one chapter while I was reading it over.

Also fuck the Night's Calvary, fighting it on the bridge was a massive pain in the ass as I kept getting knocked off of the bridge.