Making another stop for food for Ray only made Sunset hungry again, so she made a stop for lunch before returning to the lighthouse with a full cart and full stomach.
She had forgotten how good carrot dogs were.
It took a half hour to get everything unloaded and half-sorted in the guest bedroom. The first thing she put down wasn't the terrarium, but the heating pad that would keep one section of it warm. With that done, she carefully levitated the empty terrarium up before setting it on top of the desk in front of the window, making sure it would get adequate sunlight throughout the day. Ray was content to curl up on the bed and watch her work.
With the tank adequately positioned, Sunset carefully cut the first bag of river pebbles open, lifted it up with her horn, and slowly poured it into the glass terrarium, using her magic to spread them out evenly over the entire surface area, going through a total of three bags before she had a satisfactory amount in the tank. The next step was the 'pond', a large circular container which she put in the front left corner and half-buried it in the pebbles, before filling it with clean water. Next, she began to arrange the logs and rocks, some solid to provide elevation, and some hollow to provide shelter and shade. When everything was said and done, she had a decent looking habitat for her 'dragon'.
Perhaps that's what Equestria called any winged lizard nowadays. Who knows how long it had been since they had seen somecreature like Spike, a dragon that walked and talked?
It wasn't like a small part of her was hoping that Ray would have been able to strike up a conversation after coming through the portal, but that had honestly been shoved to the back of her mind when the very first thing she saw was the state of Twilight's castle.
"Alright, I think that'll do it. Want to see how you like it?" Sunset asked, turning back to the bed where Ray was laying. She lifted a hoof up to the bed, and he climbed on. She carried him over to the terrarium and gently set him down on the tallest log, and he immediately began exploring.
Leaving him to his new home, Sunset went back over to her chest, and her gaze immediately listed to the right of it, where her guitar case had been set. Grabbing it with her magic, she took a seat on her bed and set it down on her lap before unlatching it, and opened it, revealing the sunburst v-body electric guitar within.
She had left the strap attached, and due to her obvious change in form, she had to take a moment to adjust the strap's length before putting it over her head, over her shoulder, and around her back. Cradling the neck in her left hoof, Sunset frowned for a moment, but just a moment. It wouldn't exactly be learning to play all over again, but unlearning finger positions and replacing them with hooves and magic would take time. She wouldn't be able to hit the ground galloping with her music.
But on the other hoof, it would be something to do. If she ever got overwhelmed by taking in this new Equestria, there would always be an opportunity to retreat back to a corner, plug in, sit back, and just play.
Well, that is once she found a music shop with a cheap enough amp, and she already owed Sunny nearly a hundred bits. After taking another moment to glide her hoof up and down the neck, before lifting the strap off, and returning the guitar to the case, closing the top and latching it. Setting that aside next to the desk on which the terrarium sat, Sunset got off of the bed and unlatched the chest.
Inside were mostly books; a couple scrapbooks, and four yearbooks, including the special one they had made just for her. She carefully levitated the four standard ones over to the empty bookshelf, before setting the special one with her gold-plated cutie mark onto the bed; she wanted to start looking at that in a bit. Next up was a recipe book from Applejack.
'Compare Apple family cooking to whatever they've got over there,' the farmer had told her. She'd have to look at each of these recipes very carefully, making sure there was nothing in there that called for rather carnivorous ingredients. Next up was a rather fat and packed flexing folder rubber-banded shut, containing all the sheet music for all of the Rainbooms' songs. Not just guitar either; every single part.
'In case you want to form another band when you get some free time, you know, take the Rainbooms interdimensional!' Rainbow had exclaimed. Making sure those were all organized would be another good time-killer, but for now set them on the bookshelf next to the yearbooks.
Next up was a small coffee table book containing countless sketches from Rarity, some black and white, and others fully colored.
'I admit I'm not prepared enough to have you depart with something for your equine form, but perhaps this will help my counterpart design something equally fabulous for you over there,' Rarity had told her proudly. She honestly wasn't sure how much use this would be now, but perhaps there was a good tailor around that could use these as a good template.
Next up was a polished oak and gold plaque; her award for reaching 500,000 subscribers on her livestream. She couldn't help but wonder if there was anything similar she could do here, and that Pipp would likely be the one to talk to about that.
Lastly, the last thing they had recovered from Twilight's castle, the first thing she had left behind upon casting her first teleportation spell in her escape; her graduation gown and cap. Thankfully it had not gotten too dirty, and Thunder and Zephyr had been kind enough to fold it up and keep it near their campsite when they had returned to their posts. The fabric had adjusted to her equine form, and the cap remained largely the same. She kept both folded and placed them on top of the dresser in front of the mirror.
Closing the lid of the now empty chest, she had only spent a few minutes flipping through the first pages of her yearbook before her phone began vibrating and chirping an alarm over on its wireless charger on the nightstand.
Her eyes widened when she realized it was the alarm she had set for 5:00 pm, to remind her to start to head downtown to meet Sunny at the museum.
"Where did the time go today?" She asked herself. Quickly making sure Ray had enough food in his dish, she threw on her saddle bags, put her yearbook inside, and headed out of her room, down the hall, and out the front door...
...Wondering if she was prepared for getting some more answers.
Hello... whats with those stockings?
11135990
Cold hooves.
Another reminder that it really was just yesterday for her.....
11136002
I FORGOT TO PUT THIS IN THE TRACKING AREA! I'M A LOSER, BABY!
Oh sweet Celestia that’s an adorable picture of Sunset. Though I’m highly confused by the socks. I suppose it’s to hold a similar style of her old vest
Aww, Sunny's remembering all her mementos...good chapter!
Probably not for a few decades is my best guess.
Chapters as short as these reminds me of Hiver's style
So it looks like Sunset is done shopping and basically just setting out of her room and even testing out her guitar looking her yearbook and everything like that but it looks like Sunny is ready for her to come to the museum I wonder how she's going to react guess we'll find out next time
Not much I can say beyond, once again, great job on the characterization, reflections and future chapter set-up in all the right places. Really appreciated Sunset wondering if they called any winged lizard these days a dragon (it would certainly make sense if they haven't seen an actual dragon in a couple of centuries at minimum) as well as getting that reminder of how good carrot dogs were and looking through her keepsakes (including the last few gifts from her old friends [and I'm pretty sure Zipp and Pipp would have no problem helping Sunset find a good tailor for Human Rarity's designs]). And now, Sunset is off to meet Sunny at the museum and find out a bit more.
VERY definitely going to be looking forward to more of this.
I wonder since time pass so much that dragons have grown smaller in size now. Like some animals today were actually bigger back thousands or millions years ago but grown smaller as of today because of the change climates.
Btw I have two geckos 🦎 and they are amazing boys
Very nice, cute little chapter. Glad Ray has his own terrarium now. Looking forward to seeing how Sunset will react during that personal museum tour with Sunny.
As always, here's an error I spotted:
There should be an apostrophe s for the word, "that," and I think you meant to type "somecreature" as it is, because of how in the MLP world they've literally said "some/no/every/anycreature" before.
11135992
Pfft. The best cute for that is to just confront whatever's making then cold and defy it into submission! Watch, I'll go outside into the snow right now and prove it!
You know with Pipp being a social media influencer Sunset maybe able to restart Shimmercode. She could play pony versions of games Ark or Subnautica.
Wait a minute. Just thought of something. Magic for zapped right? Then what happened to Tarturus?
11136493
Didn't think of that, but it IS a good idea for later on.
11136509
I'm pretty sure it's one of two things:
Either
1. the inmates all either died because of nobody being around to care for them and/or killing each other in fights when the magic locks lost their power.
or
2. They all escaped when the magic locks went undone but they lost most of the power that made them serious enough threats to need locking up anyway. Thus, they lived out the remainder of their lives free.
Either way, they're all long gone.
That's curious, no keepsakes from Pinkie or Fluttershy?
I'm loving this so far, can't wait to see what Sunset gets up to and how she learns to adjust to this brave new world, as well as what insights she can bring to Sunny's research on Equestria's past.
Pony hose, its cute
We already know Sunset is the only unicorn on the planet who knows unicorn spells and I bet Dollars to Donuts that the Secret Archives are still hidden in Canterlot... I mean Zephyr Heights. Likely Equstria imparted spell books into the Crystal Empire public Library, after all there were immigrants there.
Kibbles and Bits for the Author.
I had this silly idea for a prank - when Sunset gets to the museum, she finds an empty display labeled 'an ancient unicorn' and then she's told it's not just for her, it IS her.
And then Sunset chases those responsible with a rolled up newspaper 🗞️
For some reason the phrase "miracles of ancient wonder" is bumping around my brain whenever I read this story. Makes me think about what ancient wonders Sunset could lead the others to.