Sunset Shimmer spent a little time walking around the strange room of crystal and normal wall, as she once more picked up the novel experience of being on four legs again, though she stumbled here and there on occasion. And she was more than a little freaked out that her clothes seemed to have parted company with her and gotten lost somewhere between there and here. The cloak she had brought with her last time and left behind wasn’t something she wanted to mention again. The bad impression she left behind along with it wasn’t something she wanted Twilight to associate with her once more, anyway. Sunset was managing to keep the anxiety filled impulse to hide herself with her legs under tight control, but there weren’t any stallions in the room, either.
“Twilight?” she asked sotto voce, when the others were quietly busy comparing notes on her. She was watching Twilight as she tended an intricate machine enveloping the Magic Mirror.
So that’s how she got the thing to work outside the usual thirty-moon cycle, Sunset thought admiringly. She was powering it with Princess Celestia’s book. Clever.
“Yes?” Twilight asked cheerfully.
“Um…have you seen my clothes?” Sunset asked, unusually anxious. For some reason, she was worried about them. When she was here last time, stealing Twilight’s Magic Crown, it hadn’t bothered her that they were someplace else. Here, now, suddenly; though it didn’t make sense at all, she was extremely self-conscious about it.
“Nope. Something happens when you go through the Mirror. I don’t have anything like I wear there when I’m here, either. Just me,” she said, shutting down the machine powering the Mirror carefully. What was the big deal about clothes, anyway?
“Sorry, Twilight. I’m just having a little…anxiety about it. You sorta get used to the thing after years. Then when you don’t have them...”
“Oh. OH! I’m sorry, Sunset, I didn’t realize…” Twilight said, embarrassed herself now. How could you be a moral support for someone, er, somepony, when you miss something so obvious as that?
“Hey, neither did I. Just…is there something you can do? I’m not losing it yet, but there aren’t any boys in the room, either…” Sunset continued…
The timing couldn’t have been worse. The door opened, and Spike walked in.
“Twilight, are we going to lunch…?” he started to say, just as Sunset Shimmer screamed. So did Spike.
The rest of the Six looked up from their group discussion with a general “Huh?” their eyes wide.
Sunset snatched a tarp that Twilight covered the machine with off of one of the nearby tables by using her magic aura, a lovely turquoise, as she then wrapped it around herself quickly. She hadn’t even had to concentrate on it. Sunset did it purely on instinct.
“Twilight!! Get him out!” Sunset yelled, panicked.
“Okay! Everypony, Spike, calm down! I think…” Twilight started to say…
“TWILIGHT!!!” Sunset Shimmer shrieked again.
Twilight looked at Spike. “Sunset is having pony modesty problems, Spike. Could you give us a bit?” she smiled kindly.
“What? It’s not like I’m a dog or something. That was just weird,” Spike said, confused. Twilight’s aura reached out, faced him gently away from Sunset and toward the door. She held him steady there until she reached him.
“Spike…she got used to wearing clothes over the years. Standing here, wellll, um, naked, is giving her fits. And you’re the first…boy…she’s been around here. Plus, all of the stress she’s having by coming back to Equestria. Help me out here, my Number One Assistant. Could you knock first before coming in while she’s here? We’ll try to fix the other thing, and see if that helps. Please?” Twilight asked awkwardly.
Spike blushed.
“Sure, Twilight. I understand.” He walked to the door and left, shutting it behind him. Not once did he try to peek, either.
She turned to the rest of the Six. “I have to apologize, girls. Sunset is having….”
“Modesty issues, Twilight. Of course. Clothes for years, then here…” Rarity said matter-of-factly, looking at the shaking Sunset Shimmer. It would be the fashionista to figure it out. “You poor dear! I’m sorry we shocked you so! I’m certain we can address your discomfort easily. Only one thing…my shop is almost all the way across Ponyville. How can we get there?” she asked thoughtfully.
Twilight smiled. “Oh, I think I can handle that one. Gather together, everyone, er, everypony!”
She walked up to the group, smiled brighter, and then turned around.
“Off we go,” Twilight said simply.
With a flash, Twilight teleported the entire group straight to Rarity’s Carousel Boutique.
The flash lifted, and the whole group was in the store, even Rainbow Dash, who had been uncharacteristically quiet for some reason the entire time. Twilight was wondering if Dash had somehow been broken or something while Twilight was in the other world with Sunset. Then she spoke up.
“Hey Twi…do you want me to tell Spike where we are?” Rainbow asked, though she was looking critically at Sunset.
“Not a bad idea, RD. Come right back after, we still have…”
“Yeah, all right, I know. Girly pony and egghead stuff to do, yadda, yadda, yadda. Fine, I’ll be right back,” she said indifferently, racing out of the door.
“What’s with her?” Twilight asked nopony in particular. Rarity waved a hoof.
“It’s just Dashie being Dashie, Twilight. She’ll calm down soon enough, after a bit of exercise. In the meantime…Sunset, would you like to look around a bit, or do you have something particular in mind?” Rarity asked the tangerine-colored pony.
Sunset gave the store a quick glance, but wasn’t all that excited by the dresses on the mannequins…um…ponequins? No...dress forms; that were visible. Most had far too much frill and fluff for her more streamlined tastes.
“Um…do you have any jackets?” Shimmer asked.
“Oh, are you cold, my dear?” Rarity asked, suddenly concerned.
“Ah, no, I’m looking for…hey, wait a minute!” she said, her horn energizing once more. A small, flat object slid out from under the tarp she was wearing. “I knew this cell phone would come in handy…”
“Cell phone?” Rarity asked, confused.
“Yeah! It has a camera, too…and I saved a bunch of pictures. Let’s see,” she said, turning it on. With a tiny sigh that it worked, she then scrolled to the appropriate folders…
“There! Like this, Rarity,” Sunset said, floating the phone to her where she could see it.
“OH! I see now; something quite fashionable! Oh, my…you’re stunning as a human, my dear,” Rarity gushed.
“If you say so, I guess. Do you have clothes like that here? I think I’d be more comfortable dressed as usual. Like my leather jacket…” Sunset continued.
“What’s leather, my dear? I don’t think…”
Suddenly, Sunset Shimmer’s eyes grew wide, and she gently bit her lower lip.
Oh, no, she thought. Leather. Cows were sentient here. It’d be pure barbarism, killing, then cutting up a cow here for food like was done there. And to skin it, tan its hide, and make clothing from it? EEeeewwwww…!!
Sunset had never participated in eating meat, though the temptation was constantly present, and near overwhelming at times. Sunset had carefully learned to read nutrition labels, and avoided anything using meat protein in it. She had stayed a vegetarian, sticking to the usual fruits and vegetables, or vegetable analogs, like soyburgers. It did get in the way sometimes with the Alt Five, who loved their pepperoni and sausage pizzas, hamburgers, sub sandwiches, and hot dogs, which didn’t come from dogs, thank goodness, or were all that hot, really. Her more delicate anatomy there as a human had demanded certain concessions, such as peeling oranges and other fruits, as well as certain vegetables. Sometimes things she ate raw or unfinished as a pony were torment to her human body, and it took time to figure out what she had to do about it. Grains were the worst, until she learned of the milled and/or finished products. Then, those products themselves took weird turns. Oats; rolled oats, quick oats, microwaveable oats…
And timothy hay. She had always liked timothy hay and alfalfa, which wasn’t in any grocery store at all. She didn’t want to upset AJ by asking for a handful, because Applejack was far too smart to not figure out it wasn’t going to the animal shelter where Fluttershy worked. More than a few of her friends would have cringed at that.
Don’t get me started on timothy hay, she thought glumly. Maybe somepony here had some she could wheedle out of them later…
Her eyes darted about, looking for an out, as the others watched, perplexed. Suddenly, she saw one.
She quietly walked over to one of the broad windows. Beyond the dresses and the glass, over the houses and some small hills, there was a castle…not overtly large, like Canterlot was, but what looked like a huge crystal tree, the trunk and branches making up the walls and spires. It was imposing here in Ponyville, towering over the small shops and homes.
“What’s that?” she asked quietly, pointing with a hoof.
“Oh. My house. We were just there; it’s where I keep the Mirror, before I teleported us here,” Twilight Sparkle said, walking over.
“House?” Sunset said ironically, her eyes wide…“That’s not a house, Twilight,” she finished.
“It’s not a home, either,” Twilight Sparkle said quietly, turning away sadly.
There’s a story in there, Sunset thought, as she watched the quiet purple pony. But it seemed a painful one for Twilight.
A short time later, Rarity had put some things together, and Sunset was feeling a lot less exposed. Rarity didn’t have leather, but she did have a similar, acceptable substitute Shimmer intentionally misidentified as leather to be on the safe side. She hated to lie, but like hay, it would be worse all around if she told the truth about it. People generally weren’t bad or evil, really. They just weren’t ponies from Equestria, which had very different rules because sentience was so widespread.
Rarity also had a halter top almost exactly like the one she usually wore, and other odds and ends she then reassembled into garments Sunset was familiar with. The skirt was longer than normal, but it did cover the proper areas, so she was fine with it. Her wristbands were made up whole, as well as her cool boots she loved, now on her rear legs. Rarity had proven she was amazingly adept at clothes making here as well as there; incredibly ironic, in a society where everypony usually walked around in the nude, as it were. That made for a fascinating line of questions Sunset really wanted to ask the gleaming white mare. How in Equestria do you make bucks…oops; bits; with that as your business model?
During the process, Rainbow Dash came back. Twilight noted that her mood hadn’t improved very much, just as Rarity entered with a clothes rack she had put together in the back. She floated the cell phone back to Sunset Shimmer.
“Oh, and as for the rest of you…here,” she said, smiling.
Sunset Shimmer retracted the statement. Rarity, with almost no time to do it, had assembled similar and appropriate clothing very close to what Sunset’s friends usually wore, but fitted for the ponies around her.
A few minutes later, everypony was wearing the Equestrian analogues of the clothing her Canterlot High School Wondercolts friends usually wore.
That wasn’t adept… that was almost miraculous. She said so, too.
Rarity smiled. “Don’t be so dramatic, Sunset dear. Almost everything was already here, just not brought together at the time for each of us. I did add touches here and there, especially the appliqué Cutie Marks, which I already had, by the way, after a certain few revisions on other couture. Just a matter of stitching them on. And I LOVE mine, by the way. I wish I had thought of it. So chic, I could die!”
Twilight Sparkle glanced behind her. And gasped in surprise, eyes widening.
Rarity had worked a miracle, Twilight thought. The Six…or was it Seven, with Sunset Shimmer there? Seven…were wearing perfect pony analogs of what the girls wore in their human world.
Dash had a short-sleeved jacket over a tee shirt with her Cutie Mark on the front, the collar popped up, and a magenta and white short skirt over athletic shorts. High-topped athletic shoes adorned her rear legs, and blue, yellow, and red sweatbands were on her front legs, matching the rings on the socks under the semi-boot shoes.
Fluttershy had a white sleeveless blouse over a light green skirt with embroidered butterflies reminiscent of her Cutie Mark, and green boots with pink accents at the top. A Cutie Mark butterfly was clipped to her mane.
Rarity was in a very light blue half-sleeve blouse with a light purple belted skirt, her Cutie Mark embroidered on it. The boots were purple, with light purple accents at the top, surmounted in the front with a single gem from her Cutie Mark. A pair of gold bracelets, one for each foreleg, shined brightly.
And so it went with the others. Pinkie Pie’s big heart on her undershirt, another Cutie Mark skirt, and bows on her boots. Applejack’s simple, but strong country work ethic clothing; rolled up sleeves and all, with apples on the brown boots, and whose trim matched her hat exactly.
Then the Unicorn, (Equus Sapiens, subsp. Magicae Cornu Unum), expectantly held out an outfit in her aura on a hanger to Twilight.
Rarity regarded the young Alicorn enthusiastically. Twilight’s puffed sleeved blouse, with the dark pink bow, dark purple skirt and embroidered Cutie Mark, and her own tall boot shoes with white laces…and which matched with the others neatly, after a certain new Princess finished getting dressed.
Sunset looked at them. The looks…were perfect.
There was a secondary benefit, she thought suddenly. If her girls ever came to Equestria…they’d already have clothes ready for them here. The ponies would be comfortable without them, and the girls would then be easy to tell from the ponies. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t work the other way around. The ponies would show up over there already wearing clothes like these. And her girls certainly wouldn’t strip naked!
Then she had an idea. Her friends there could wear their Wondercolt Canterlot High School rally clothes, the blue and yellow ones, while the ponies wore whatever appeared when they arrived through the Mirror. Although the problem of what to say about five sets of twins still remained.
Even so, it still looked more and more like her friends over there would be better off coming here to Equestria first, rather than the other way around. The logistics were easier, as well as the ready acceptance. Like Twilight said; Equestria being Equestria, a place of Magic; and where the unusual frequently took a stroll straight down Main Street to say hello.
Sunset’s anxiety was shedding away in tiny increments as she looked over the lovely sea of colors draped on the ponies in front of her. Then she did something she usually did to relax when her nervousness gripped her…
She started to sing softly.
One of the remarkable things about the Magical world of Equestria was its atmosphere. Doctor Whooves was the first to try to quantify the unusual properties it had. Most everypony else just enjoyed it. The air itself somehow managed to buoy up (Equus Sapiens, subsp. Alis Pegasi), who developed the ability to fly with it. But there was another property it had.
Somehow, when one pony started to sing, everypony within earshot could also sing along with them. The words and tune just seemed to pop into everypony’s head. This time was no different.
But the effect was…
Sunset Shimmer had become a main figure in the Sonic Rainbooms after the fight with the Sirens, the name Rainbow Dash (human) gave their band. One of the fun things they frequently did was set up in the music room of the school or AJ’s garage and just noodle around with their songs. Now, the latent Equestrian Magic left behind when Twilight Sparkle returned home with her crown still affected them while singing. Like Applejack said, “…ears, tails, (and wings for the Pegasi), the whole shebang…” still continued to happen. Sunset was now affected, just like the others during the Sirens incident; she grew the ears and tail as well, though no unicorn horn appeared on the Unicorn types there.
In her nervousness, Sunset had started singing what she called, “Got the Music in Our Hearts”, the song that came into her head during the pitched battle with the Sirens. This one, and a couple others, were her own personal bulwark and strength when she was anxious or unsure nowadays. She had started singing it softly just to lift her spirits up a bit…
On Equestria…
As usual, the other ponies in the room picked up on it, started to join in…when Rarity cried out, startled…
The other ponies looked at each other…
The change had been almost instantaneous. ALL of the Six had taken on the “Rainbow Magic” appearance they had when they fought against Tirek…and were now floating six feet off the floor…!
Rainbow Dash zoomed around, humming the song just like the others…also in her Rainbow Magic appearance. She bellowed “SWEET!!” as she flipped vertically and screamed to a halt alongside Fluttershy, whose eyes were wide open in fright.
Twilight watched Sunset Shimmer, aglow in reds, tangerine, and sun yellow, frozen in place…hovering alongside her. Somehow, Sunset had some sort of “Rainbow Magic” in her as well; Tirek fight or no Tirek fight…and being from an inter-dimensional world away.
Twilight, the resident Alicorn, (Equus Sapiens, subsp. Ala Monoceros Regina), recovered the fastest, held the chorus smoothly as she calmly and slowly lowered them all to the floor while bringing her voice to a gradual dénouement. When they all touched down lightly, she came to a stop.
“Wow,” Princess Twilight said calmly. “That was…”
“AWESOME!” burst out of the cyan Pegasus, wings high in excitement as she trotted around in a small circle looking at herself. Then she looked around at the wide-eyed ponies around her.
“Aw, C’MON!! That. Was. Totally. AWESOME!!! I was wondering what would make that happen again! Some sort of dangerous magic-y maxed out fight or something? And now all we have to do is SING??” she yelled, almost as hyped up as Pinkie Pie was.
They stared back at her, except for the bouncing, giggling pink bubblegum, who was still admiring the streaked mane and brightly patterned and colored fetlocks she had in one of Rarity's dressing mirrors.
“Seriously??” Rainbow Dash said as she rose upward and hovered, folding her forelegs in front of her, staring at the others.
“Rainbow Dash, we’ve sung together before now, remember? Something new…something different…” Twilight started to say. Her eyes went straight to Sunset Shimmer.
“Synergy…” she said softly as the colors shimmered and abruptly faded from her and her friends.
“Cinna-whut?” asked Applejack, (Equus Sapiens, subsp. Terra Potens), now much calmer that she had solid floor underneath all four hooves.
“She did that?” Rainbow Dash asked, pointing a hoof at Sunset Shimmer. The grin grew wider. “Okay, now you’re cool. We can hang. Anypony that can make that happen is fine in my book.”
Sunset Shimmer clonked herself in the face lightly as she brought her right front hoof up to it. Tenderly, she rubbed the spot, as Dashie laughed.
Hooves, Sunset. Remember. Not hands. Hooves. Hooves can hurt, she thought, rubbing the new tender spot.