Bellosh

“...Yer very close, actually,” Sugar Apple flashed a smile; “Hurricanters are kinda like th’ cousins of them windigos, except these fellas feed off panic an’ concern, and turn thet fuel into galeforce storms of their own! Just imagine yer out on a small boat in th’ middle of th’ ocean in th’ middle of a tropical storm, Earth Writer. If ya’ don’t have a clear head out thar, th’ hurricanters come after ya’ and make ev’rythin thet much worse.” The pegasus took another sip of coffee; “Thet’s why et’s important for us here weather ponies t’ work as fast as we can to find tropical depressions and dissipate them before they git any bigger. So ev’ryday, ah have to fly dozens or sometimes hundreds of miles t’ go cloud smashin’ an’ then fly all th’ way back hyar.....”

Aiya, this was quite the... peculiar situation Empress Yuè had found herself in. A fox spirit, a being that has lived through more than a dozen mortal lifetimes, hidden amongst the very Imperial Court! Of that there was no doubt, as Yanhua’s modest foxfire demonstration was still most convincing. As a royal qilin expected to treat with the likes of the Wise & Noble Long, the Empress knew that Yao-Guai needed to be treated with the uttermost discretion, and without betraying the slightest bit of weakness. Until it was prudent to believe otherwise, Empress Yuè had no choice but to assume that there more behind Yanhua’s unassuming words than she let on. After all, it seemed fairly uncharacteristic for a fox spirit to reach nearly 1,000 years of life and be content with the mundanity of cheffing. Not from all the tales and legends of trickery the Empress has ever heard. “If you have managed to keep your true identity concealed for so long, venerable Yao-Guai,” Empress Yuè got right to the point, her gaze focused and unwavering; “Then what do you hope to gain from revealing your true self now? A resplendent creature of nature like yourself deserves not to be constrained by the boundaries of civilization.” Which was pretty much a face-saving way of saying that Yao-Guai and Long Sun don’t tend to mix very well. And every creature knew that even by Long Sun standards, the denizens of the Imperial Palace were extremely hostile to the thought of Yao-Guai in disguise walking around, free to weave mischief and mayhem.....

...Oh Twilight Sparkle, you poor naive pony..... She still had much to learn about the art of seeing through Sunset Shimmer’s dismissive evasions. To think that it hadn’t crossed the princess’s mind that not every creature was going to have fond memories of her friend. Did Twilight forget how Sunset committed such grievous crimes in her past as backstabbing Princess Celestia, using stolen magic to transform into a winged demon, and having the personality of a one-dimensional mean girl stereotype? And yet even if Sunset’s logical side wanted to chide Twilight for her brain fart, the unicorn mare’s sentimental heart basked in the warmth and fuzziness the alicorn provided so freely. See, emotional affection like this was the reason Sunset could never begrudge Twi for long, no matter what silly secret she felt like keeping on a particular day. They always say that the eyes are the window to the soul... but the soul possesses language too, and its language is the Hug. If Twilight’s bone-crushing embrace was anything to go by, it was that Sunset Shimmer was a fool for ever doubting that the intimate trust she gave her companion was equally reciprocated. It didn’t matter that the alicorn’s reasons for comforting Sunset’s feelings were based on an erroneous insight; the simple fact that she cared profoundly was enough to make the amber unicorn crack a smile... .....And wince from the pain of constriction... and blush from the inherent awkwardness of being lifted into the air in a public setting. “Hey uhh Twi?” Sunset, blushing furiously, barely managed to choke out; “You DO realize other ponies can see us, right?” One rather famous earth pony from history did in fact manage to catch Twilight and Sunset red-hoofed. Upon being released from Twi’s relentless grip, Sunset needed a moment to catch her before answering the wise Mage Meadowbrook; “Oh, I’m Sunset Shimmer!” The unicorn reflexively dusted herself off, attempting to play it cool while recovering from Twilight Glomping Syndrome; “I just happen to be an old acquaintance of Princess Twilight’s.....”

.....Well well well well well!!! Was this Heart Stopper? She certainly looked like quite the... ummm, whatchamacallit..... a heart stopper. It was a rare event for Moony to get blown away by the smashing looks of a beautiful mare, but it HAS happened once or twice before in her life. Maybe thrice, if one counted the Kastroti noblemare sent to receive the Magic Guild! “Pssst, hey Pocket,” Moony discreetly whispered to her trusty coltfriend with the uttermost candidness; “I think I’ve got a lady crush on this gal!” The thing about Beauty however was that in certain respects, it was much more intimidating than a shadowy ole’ dark lord of Evil could ever hope to be. At least with the latter, you knew deep down in your heart that you had to fight him with all your courage because everything you held dear depended on it. But a ludicrously gorgeous mare like Heart Stopper? How was anypony supposed to summon the will to resist her comeliness? Nonetheless, it was up to Moony to make the first move for the rest of her fellow guildies. “Um-ummmmm.....HI THERE,” the unicorn nervously greeted with the suaveness of a dog excitedly yapping after a bath in muddy dirt; “My name is uhhhhh, Moony, a-a-and we’re honored you could receive us today, eh heh heh.” With any luck, Moony would find a way to recover her wits. Back in her lil’ filly days, she had been constantly starstruck by Princess Celestia like every other pony in existence, but Moony managed over the course of several years to accomplish what few could do: be able to engage in a normal conversation with Tia like she was simply just another mare in Canterlot. And it wasn’t like dealing with Miss Stopper would be more of a challenge... would it?

Princess Sunset looks awesome! In the event she actually becomes an alicorn in WoE RP, this'll become my image header of choice.

Name: Sunset Shimmer Gender: Female Species: Alicorn (don't mind the lack of wings in the reference pic; we all suspect Sunset will become a Princess one day) Appearance: https://derpibooru.org/1658823?q=sunset+shimmer%2C+vector%2C+pony&sf=wilson Cutie Mark: https://derpibooru.org/1372813?q=sunset+shimmer%2C+cutie+mark%2C+vector&sd=desc&sf=wilson Personality: Warm and caring, but with a hint of cockiness Digital will be fine by me!

"Wowee, yer certan you ain't wrestlin' nopony on tha weekends? You've got one iron-hard hug thar, Princess!" “Teehee, sorry Applejack,” Cadence apologized with a blush on her face; “Sometimes I forget that we alicorns are stronger than we look.” If anyone doubted that claim, they should go watch Princess Celestia arm wrestle. She won every time without ever breaking a sweat, even against Equestria’s mightiest stallions. The Princess of Love devoured every picture of Zap Apple in the photo album, along with every story the colt’s mother provided. Like AJ, Cadence kept a large photo album stuffed with snapshots of her own precious kid, although she lacked the foresight to bring that thing with her to the ball. No matter; the alicorn will remember to bring her Flurry heart album to the next social function she goes to! Taking a sip of her glass of illicit apple cider, the alicorn observed; “Huh, there doesn’t seem to be many photos of Zap with his other momma. I’d have thought YOU of all ponies would love showboating in front of an audience, Rainbow Dash.” She gave the Wonderbolt a knowing wink. "I remember that we got a letter from one of them, about a forbidden crush, mixed with a whole mess of unrequited affections. I wonder what became of all that..." Cadence understood what Shining Armor was talking about and nodded. “Oh yeaaah... I don’t think he sent a reply back..... but that reminds me, there was THIS newspaper article I meant to show you earlier today!” In the same manner that she magically materialized the travel pamphlets earlier, Cadence now produced for her husband a Canterlot Chronicle headline from the World News section: “LONG GUO’S IRON PONY GIVEN A HERO’S WELCOME”. The story came with a picture of an able-bodied longma stallion standing with pride by the side of Long Guo’s regal qilin empress. “Apparently,” the alicorn explained; “That longma guy who won this year’s Iron Pony was actually a rising star within the Imperial Watch. And as his reward, the Empress of Long Guo appointed that stallion her new Captain of the Palace Guard!” Cadence mischievously leaned in close to Shiny and teased in a low voice; “That means he’s becoming your new opposite number, my love, so I’d watch out if I were you, heh heh.” Cady playfully leaned in close to Shiny with the intent- "Fillies and gentlecolts. Once again thank you for your presence! For every one of you!" Ohhhhh, for pony’s sake! What was WITH IT with stallions and their need to be obnoxious showoffs??? Cadence glowered; Swift Squall’s stage-stealing antics made the mare recall one particular day back in her adolescent years, when a gentlecolt admirer of hers kept on asking the princess to listen to a song he wrote in her honor. Cadence had a foalsitting engagement she needed to get to so she didn’t have the time (or the interest, frankly) to listen. But the colt persisted in his insistence, right up until he snuck into the home Cady was foalsitting in, and continued to be a nuisance. Princess Cadence finally had to lay down the royal law and tell the trespassing colt to get out of her sight. The stalker did as he commanded... but not before leaving the filly (and the foal, let’s not forget) a long, profanity-ridden rant about how girls like Cady were shameless harlots who teased with the affections of guys who only wanted to show how NICE and ROMANTIC they were. Pffft, yeah right. All that jerks like him cared about were stroking their big egos and being the center of attention. .....In a certain respect, one could say the same held true for philanthropists. Not that Princess Cadence thought philanthropy in of itself was a bad thing, not at all, but she also remembered a certain maxim she had been taught in her princess lessons: “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.” Thus when somepony comes and offers you a stupendous pile of bits out of the proclaimed goodness of their hearts, you had to be mindful that the truth was anything but. And this truth: in nearly 9 cases out of 10, a rich pony donating vast sums of money is only doing so to buy influence and access for the future, or the juicy tax-writeoff... or even a better noble title than they had before! Or maybe there isn’t an ulterior motive for the generosity; perhaps the charitable rich pony merely has the need to have their munificence proclaimed by the press, to have auditoriums and streets bearing their name, to have crystal statues erected in their honor..... They only want to show how nice and generous they are. Witnessing Swift Squall hijack the romantic ball so he could play his cheesy, dated rock song only made Cadence feel less guilty about rejecting his money. Come to think of it, everything about her prior conversation with the Count started rubbing her the wrong way. Like, did Squall not think Cadence hired smart and able bureaucrats precisely so they could advise her on important policy matters? Or was it that Squall thought his opinion was SO OBVIOUSLY IMPORTANT AND PROFOUND compared to everypony else’s that he needed to solicit them at every opportunity, and bah humbug those who failed to recognize his genius and intellect? GRRRRRRR..... A glowering Cadence was getting herself worked-up over fuming about Swift Squall... and that wasn’t the reason she came to the Ball tonight. Attempting to calm herself down, the alicorn contented herself by merely showing her displeasure with a pout and a turning of her head in the opposite direction from the stage. Think happy thoughts Cady... think happy thoughts.....

Trixie’s entrance was cringe-inducing for all its unnecessary bombasticity... but meh, having a big ego was less of a crime in Sunset Shimmer’s book than being a manipulative blowhard. First things first: the artifacts. The glowing sphere was the first relic Trixie offered up, and Sunset commentated to Sunburst as she got off his desk; “I detected quite a bit of magic in that object when I inspected it earlier, so be careful when you look over it.” Indeed, the orb was the one object amongst the stage magician’s junk pile that gave off a pretty strong magical signature. Sunburst indicated he would save that one for last. In the meantime, Sunset graciously accepted Sunburst’s offering of tea; “That’d be nice, thank you.” While she walked over to telekinetically pour herself a mug, the scholarly stallion looked at another of Trixie’s trinkets. When Sunset returned with her tea, she sat down at one of the chairs in front of Sunburst’s desk and took a sip of her drink. Mmmm... nice flavor to it. “Trixie showed me a few about half an hour,” the amber unicorn explained as she set her mug on Sunburst's desk; “Basically, they alternated between working poorly... and working too well, if you get what I’m saying.....”

Sugar Apple had been to the Veiled Garden on several occasions back in the day; it had been Earthy’s favorite hangout, after all. He even convinced Sugar once or twice to let her travelogue photos be put on display during the pub’s amateur nights. That was all fine and dandy, but the blue-collar mare with the country accent and weather factory job had always felt uncomfortably out of place whenever she went to that establishment, although she lacked the heart then to tell Earthy that. Like the classic stereotypical depiction of Canterlot, Sugar found the so-called “Bohemian Club” to be filled mostly with snobs who looked down on everypony they deemed too pedestrian... although without vast sums of riches to back up their elitism, such clientele weren’t much more in the grand scheme of things other than impotent hipsters. “...Wif it makes ya’ feel any better hon,” the pegasus offered in sympathy, and the need to get the morbid vision of Earthy in a ditch out of her system; “Ah never did like thet snotty club, anyway.” And now it was Sugar Apple’s turn to play the role of sorrowful storyteller. “Ya’ can say thet again,” she wearily commented as she chugged down a large amount of hot coffee, somehow not scalding her throat in the process; “When ah first took this jerb down hyar, ah thought it’d be all be sunshine an’ loungin’ around on th’ beach at th’ end of ev’ry workday! Boy howdy was ah wrong; well, it was paradise for th’ first several months... before mah first Hurricanter Center rolled ‘round..... Funny thing about late summer near th’ Equator; thar’s no need t’ keep VaporDep online this time of year ‘cause Mother Nature will stir up a storm for ya. Dozens of them in fact, including hurricanes! When Hurricanter Season comes, it’s all hooves on deck ‘cause when hurricanes come, the hurricanters tend t’ follow.....”

Not the best-quality scan in the world, but better than nothing:

Sunburst’s door glowed with another unicorn’s magic as it opened wide open; stepping in first was Sunset Shimmer with a charismatic smirk. Unlike most of her former classmates back at the School of Magic, Vice-Headstallion Sunburst had been one of the few that Sunset actually remembered vaguely... for unflattering reasons, though. Celestia’s ex-student had been curious to know whether Sunburst managed to get through Magic School after all, but she didn’t feel it polite to ask. “Hello, Sunburst!” Professor Shimmer casually used Sunburst’s desk to prop up her chin with one forehoof, while the other flipped her tousled hair to smooth it back like a boss; “Sorry to bother you, but we ladies have some magical artifacts that we’d like you to look over if you don’t mind. Trixie has reason to believe they might have been artificed by Star Swirl the Bearded himself!” As she gestured Trixie to come on over with the chest, Sunset sniffed the air and caught the pleasant scent of allium flowers. “Hmmm, it smells nice in here, Sunburst. Are you using an air freshener, by any chance?”

“Oh?” A simple rise of the eye brow was all the visible reaction that Yanhua would get out of Empress Yuè. Rest assured however, even if she had been correct to anticipate something out of the ordinary, the royal qilin was not quite expecting this. ...Well, it wasn’t exactly out of the realm of possibility that a member of the Imperial Household would masquerade as a Long Sun. The Empress had seen the Serpent King himself shapeshift on one occasion. With the option of choosing between a simplistic incense burner on her desk that appeared to have been well-worn and an ornate gold one shaped like a lotus flower shining just as bright as the day it was made, Empress Yuè reached for the latter... but did nothing with it for now other than put it in front of her. There was no need to make use of it yet. Although her courtiers would have advised otherwise, the Empress decided out of curiosity to indulge Yanhua for the time being. “If you are not an equine,” she asked nonchalantly; “Then what are you?”

Never underestimate the power of ragging on her hometown’s giant rainbow billboard to make a glum Sunset Shimmer cheer up, if only by just a little. They weren’t deep guffaws, but the unicorn mare’s modest chuckles were quite real. However, what Twilight Sparkle would say next would rip the laughter right out of the amber unicorn’s soul. ..................... .....Sunset Shimmer had a lot of information to process. Hope Hollow — the hometown she happily abandoned all those years ago — ended up sinking even lower than the mare could have possibly imagined. No matter how much ill will Sunset previously wished upon that town and everypony who lived there, not even they deserved the ghastly fate that was Perpetual Gloom. Although the sorceress supposed she still counted herself lucky for getting the heck out of dodge, already the what-ifs were bombarding her… “-N-nah,” Sunset, who sounded as if gravel was caught in her throat, quickly cut off Twilight before she could finish her question; “...I-I-I’m sure nopony there would remember me, anyway. Still though...,” the amber unicorn mustered the courage to look Twilight in the eye, squeezing the other mare’s hoof as she did so; “Thank you for everything you and your friends did to help bring hope back to that place. It- it really means a lot.....” Quickly moving to cusp Twilight’s head, Sunset further expressed her sincere gratitude by giving the alicorn a quick, chaste peck to the forehead. It was all over in an instant; the amber unicorn swiftly disengaged from Twi and proceeded to head off towards where Mage Meadowbrook’s characteristic healer’s mask was displayed. Assured that her buddy momentarily couldn’t see her face, Sunset felt secure enough to let out a depressed sigh, mulling over the unspoken ramifications of all those in her hometown she once knew rediscovering true happiness for themselves.....

Yeahhhh... Sunset Shimmer wasn’t really too keen on the idea of Trixie keeping the deck of enchanted playing cards to screw around with, but she supposed even big ponies liked playing with their beloved toys. Internally shrugging to herself, Sunset answered the other unicorn’s question about Sunburst as best she could; “Well, school is over for the day, so I can’t imagine Sunburst will be THAT busy. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind a little interruption, especially if magic artifacts are involved.....”

Several hours had passed since today’s eventful morning court in the Imperial Palace concluded. After hosting the Peryton delegation in the palace gardens, Empress Yuè retired to her chambers to take care of various minor matters that needed to be attended to. Like going over tonight’s banquets with the Household Chef. As far as private studies went, the Private Imperial Study— although cozy and cramped by lofty palace standards — exuded the same sense of grandeur and opulence that was expected to be found anywhere in an imperial residence. A window off to the side let in light and provided the room’s occupants with a glimpse of the gardens beyond. And at the end of the room was a modest but exquisitely-crafted desk, behind which sat the Empress in her serene glory. Having sent for Yanhua several minutes ago, Empress Yuè was expecting her when the chef arrived. “Come Yanhua, have a seat.” The royal qilin gestured towards a cushioned stool... which of course was shorter than the chair the Empress herself sat it, ensuring the sovereign towered over those bidden to her study. Once Yanhua did as instructed, the attendant who brought the chef would close the door, leaving the two mares alone. “You had questions over what to prepare for our guests, tonight?” Despite the simple question, Empress Yuè still believed from earlier that Yanhua had ulterior reasons for seeking her out. Only time would tell if the royal mare’s suspicions are correct.....

Sugar Apple gasped when she heard that Earth Writer got fired from his job! How in tarnation could THAT happen??? Journalism had been Earthy’s bread-and-butter; his purpose for existing! And the stallion had been banned from journalism just like that? The story started to make more sense once... she entered the picture. Sugar Apple remembered now; Heart Stopper was that new mare Earth Writer couldn’t stop blabbering about in that very last letter he wrote. Sugar didn’t want to hurt Earthy’s feelings further, but yeah, she was able to recall feeling very put-off by her ex-coltfriend’s obnoxious gushing over the temptress that had apparently filled in the void left by Sugar without any hint of remorse. Like it or not, that letter discouraged the pegasus from bothering to ever write back. It didn’t help matters that it had been the period when Sugar Writer learned that a high-paying weather job in a tropical paradise wasn’t exactly the paradise she had first envisioned. All that being said however, it was plainly obvious that Earth Writer got the short end of the stick as far as that so-called “relationship” was concerned. It made Sugar Apple’s blood knowing that Earthy had been taken advantage of, deceived, and then left with a ruined career once his usefulness to that vile Heart Stopper ended! Sure, the stallion made a mistake, but did being tricked into cozying up with a Maretonian noblemare warrant permanent ostracization? Once Earth Writer ran out of words to say, an uncomfortable silence filled the booth for several seconds as Sugar Apple finished processing everything she heard. “So lemme get this straight,” the pegasus’s voice contained a hint of indignation; “We’re supposed t’ forgive ponies who tried bringin’ eternal night and chaos to th’ world, but then we don’t give somepony like ya’ th’ time of day evah again over far less? Thet ain’t right.....”

Trixie thought some of her Star Swirl memorabilia MIGHT be fake? ...No kidding...... If any of these artifacts were actually of Star Swirl’s making, Sunset Shimmer could only surmise that these must have come from the Bearded Sorcerer’s reject pile. Although Trixie’s claim of their power running low could have been playing a big role, Sunset just couldn’t imagine that such a wise wizard like Star Swirl was willing to stamp his cutie mark all over the most dangerous-to-use enchanted items she’s ever seen in action. Sadly, that was no exaggeration. ...Although Sunset kinda wished that alicorn-creating contraption hadn’t turned out to be a bust. Sigh, oh well..... “Hey now Trixie,” the amber unicorn finally interjected; “You forget that before teaching Defense Against Dark Hearts, I was once Princess Celestia’s apprentice much like Twilight had been! I uhhh... MAY have never completed my training officially, heh heh, but I still know far more about magic than your run-of-the-mill Magic School graduate.” Ah, the perks of having a superior ability to blaze through arcane curriculum than other students. Sure, it eventually ended up biting Sunset in the butt, but all that knowledge still served her well to this day. “First things first,” Miss Shimmer went to reinspect the case with the playing cards; “Did you ever have your collection authenticated by an actual expert? I mean, did they even HAVE playing cards a thousand years ago like ours today??? I’m sure if we brought your stuff to somebody like Sunburst, he could get you answers about how legit your stuff is.....”

There's quite a bit of creatures featured in the IDW comics and various spin-off materials that I decided not to include, whether for reasons of redundancy, dubious source material canonicity, a lack of decent visual references, or even for the petty reason of making sure a couple of the larger entries didn't suffer from wonky formatting. Aside from the Alpaca, I would have also liked having the Manta Hawk in there (it showed up in an illustrated picture book and in one comic issue afterward), but alas, it wasn't meant to be.

Them's Fightin' Herds, eh? That reminds me: I was THIS close to adding alpacas into the Lost Bestiary. I suppose there's always another project, though.....

Howdy; glad you found your way here! Concerning your question, I'd say the best section to organize a play-by-post ToE campaign/one-shot is over at Free for All. Alternatively we have a Canterlot.com Discord server which, although not currently geared for tabletop, could theoretically be modified to be able to accommodate that style of play. Either way, I'd actually be very interested to get some ToE action going around these parts, hehe. Anywho, glad to have been of service delivering those Student 6 stat blocks.

General Pummel was the first one biden to speak. “.....I think by now,” he stood up on all-fours; “We’ve all heard the same song and dance concerning our military’s prior inadequacies. While it is important to keep those in mind, it is also important to remember where our strengths lie..." While the General talked, he slowly but purposefully made his way over to the world map mounted on the side wall. Grabbing a pointing stick, he began marking various locations as he conducted his briefing. “Thanks in no small part to Princess Twilight Sparkle’s own efforts,” Pummel acknowledged his superior with a nod; “Equestria now enjoys the most favorable strategic position it has experienced in all of its history. The dragons; they were yesterday’s terrors, but have become today’s allies. What was once a deserted tundra to our north is once more the dominion of the resurrected Crystal Empire, with some help from one of our very own.” Shining Armor too received a nod. “And to their north, Yakyakistan stands firm as another reliable new ally. Over in the Badlands, the Hive of King Thorax is bringing stability to a land ravaged by barbarism. The Free City of Griffonstone pledges friendship with Equestria... as does the Realm of Mount Aris, with its own considerable military assets. In conjunction with the long-standing relationships Equestria maintains with Aquellia, Saddle Arabia, Neighpon, and Long Guo, our country doesn’t face the same number of external threats it did nearly a decade ago. ...Although Equestria’s ability to wield military force remains limited, by almost every other metric, I do not exaggerate when I state we ARE the most powerful nation in the history of civilization.” General Pummel gave time for his morale-boosting words to sink in, setting aside the pointing stick as he began to methodically pace around the conference table. “For more than a thousand years, Princess Celestia guided ponykind and led us to where we are today. Her wisdom is beyond all question... but YET there was one line that — for reasons known only to herself — she never dared cross. For all the power Celestia possessed to protect ponies from harm, she always refused calls to use her power, or that of her armies, to intervene beyond our borders to stop threats before they grew too dangerous. I don’t mean to disrespect the princess who earned the title of First Citizen a millennia ago, but it was a FACT that because Her Majesty maintained a purely defensive and reactionary posture throughout her entire reign, we had no choice but to sit and watch as Queen Chrysalis drained the love out of all the neighbors she could find. ...As the Armada of the Storm King was allowed to pillage and burn throughout the southern lands unchecked; conquering... destroying at will.” Completing a circuit around the table, Pummel once again stopped by the map and grabbed the pointing stick. “As we enter a new era, the most important lesson we must adopt is that what happens over there... matters over here.” The General forcefully tapped Canterlot’s location on the map for emphasis; “We must accept that every fight is OUR FIGHT, and that we don’t have the luxury of sitting one out. Learning to synergize the philosophy of Harmony with the doctrines of modern warfare will be the difference between the continued prospering of our people... and utter destruction.” General Pummel finally returned to where he had sat down, but continued to stand. “The time for isolationism is over,” the grim stallion firmly planted his forehooves on the table; “This is a time of heroes. A time of legends... .....History is written by the victors,” Pummel proudly declared as he sat down on his chair at last; “...Let’s get to work.....”

Sunset Shimmer reached out to firmly accept the hoof offered by Tempest Shadow. “If friendship was easy,” she said with a warm smile; “It wouldn’t be worth fighting for.” It was true that Tempest proved herself difficult to deal with many times throughout this day. Nevertheless, the broken-horned unicorn had many things to offer that nopony else could precisely due to her rough edges. And if Tempest Shadow of all ponies can find her place in Equestria one day, that would give Sunset hope that just perhaps... she could do the same. Not that she planned on leaving the Mirror World anytime soon, but with the specter of graduation looming... well, that’s a story for another time. Sorry, readers. Sunset meanwhile stepped back to address the entire group; “We should probably head back now before everycreature starts wondering where all the best Iron Pony athletes went. Oh, and Yanhua; on the way, you have to fill me in on what’s the deal with... you know, EVERYTHING about what you are.....” *EXIT SUNSET*

Wagon decluttering, huh? Well, as Twilight always liked to say, a highly organized home is a highly organized... something or whatever, blah blah blah. Sunset Shimmer personally leaned more towards the “organized chaos” side of things, although not to the point of living as a complete slob. Anywho, without requiring any further prompting, Sunset began looking through the boxes that Trixie had piled onto her stage. In due time, the amber unicorn stumbled onto Trixie’s box of stashed artifacts. Sunset Shimmer was indeed curious, but the manner in which they had been so casually left out in the open unsecured already did much to lower her expectations. After all, any relics of true power would likely have been locked up tight by their owner or much better hidden from straying eyes; preferably both. Taking a quick peek inside the Artifacts box, Sunset’s initial appraisal of the items stashed inside was... in line with what she expected. That one set of magic cards looked disturbing and kinda cool, but all in all, everything appeared to match the stereotype of the infamous untested magic trinket bought in a Canterlot back alley at midnight. Sunset lit up her horn, causing every item to glow with a subtle reddish-rose shine. Princess Celestia’s former apprentice was probing these artifacts further with magic, and the results largely confirmed her suspicions. Most of Trixie’s stash consisted of measly cantrip-grade items; while there were a few objects with greater power than the others, their magical signatures indicated nothing up to the level of mighty relics that Sunset has come across in her adventures such as the Time Twirler, or the Memory Stone. “So I see you’re a collector of curios,” Sunset commented as she finished her inspection; “Do you use any of these in your performances?”

An unexpected bump to the flank jolted Sunset Shimmer back to reality, only to see Twilight back... and apparently without a care in the world. Mind you, this was the same mare who only minutes ago was awkwardly stammering a confession over in a back room, and before that was led away under the premise that a topic of paramount importance needed to be discussed. Sunset paid barely any attention to what her friend had to say about the Cauldron of Mage Meadowbrook; what she really wanted to do was get to the bottom of this mystery! The amber unicorn waited for a pause in Twilight’s lecture, and then Sunset ambushed Twi with an innocent-enough question. “Sooo.....” she asked evasively; “What about this Hope Hollow business that Flash Magnus needed to tell you about?” Sunset reflexively looked away from the alicorn, hastily pouting a grumpy preemptive declaration of how OBVIOUSLY she was emotionally detached concerning that place; “N-not like I care about that dung heap, or anything.....”

As much as Sunset Shimmer wanted to roll her eyes as Trixie bragged about her heroics, it also provoked her to smirk. After all, Sunset had herself once been a pony who threw her weight around with her status and exceptional abilities. Plus, if Trixie really was that awful of a boaster, she wouldn’t be good friends with Headmare Glimmer, now would she? All things considered, Sunset was inclined to let Trixie enjoy her shining moment of past glory. “I saw a bunch of smoke from my classroom window and I thought something might have caught on fire,” Professor Shimmer answered; “But that isn’t the case, thankfully.” Sunset knew enough about Trixie to know she could be a prideful mare, but just in case, she asked politely; “As long as I’m still out here, you need help with anything else?”