“Are you sure you want to do this?” Twilight Sparkle asked the flame-haired girl packing her backpack.
“Yeah. Listen, Twilight, thanks for coming here and helping me pack. You know, you really didn’t need to come here until I was ready.” Sunset Shimmer cautiously put a few more items in the backpack, though it was almost full already. She stared for a moment at the cell phone, then tossed it in, too. The camera would still work, at least.
Twilight smiled encouragingly. “Hey, what are friends for?” she said cheerfully.
Sunset smiled back furtively. “Helping nervous buddies keep it together.” She looked around. “I guess that’s everything,” she said, as she lifted the bag free of the bed, the bag dangling from her right hand by the straps.
“Speaking of, they’re all excited to meet you. Just don’t expect them to be exactly the same as your friends here,” Twilight said candidly.
“Really? I thought you said they’re just like…”
“In most ways, sure. I noticed that here they’re a little more competitive with each other, and they have a tendency to tease each other more. There, they’re a little more tight knit and closer. And, of course, the wings and horns...and the pony thing,” Twilight said smoothly.
“I hope I remember how…” Sunset said, eyes downcast.
“It’ll be fine. I’ll be right there with you,” Twilight reassured her. The encouraging smile brightened a bit further.
“Even when I need help with the bathroom door?” Sunset chuckled teasingly at Twilight.
“Even then. Especially then.” Twilight said firmly.
Sunset Shimmer looked at her. Twilight was staring at her in a very no-nonsense way. She had meant her comment as a little joke, trying to break up the palpable tension she felt over this, but suddenly, she had a very deep impression the Princess of Friendship meant every word, and more, should Sunset have need of it.
“You didn’t tell her, did you?’ she asked in a trepidation edged voice.
“Absolutely not. You asked me not to,” Twilight said.
Sunset tried to relax a bit, make herself a touch less tense. “I’m sorry, Twilight, I’m just not sure if I’m ready to talk with Celestia the moment I get there…”
“It’s okay. Forget about it. When you’re ready, I’ll be right there with you,” Twilight said calmly, as she put an arm gently around Sunset's shoulders. Sunset Shimmer managed to relax some after hearing that reassurance.
“Okay. Okay, let’s go, before I change my mind and hide under the bed. At least until next semester starts,” Sunset Shimmer said, as she shouldered the backpack and stuck her arms through the straps. The worry was still around her eyes, but the rest of her face settled into quiet determination to see this through.
Twilight grinned. “Let’s go,” she said, as they turned and walked to the door.
Sunset Shimmer closed and locked the door behind them, and then the two friends stepped off the stoop and onto the sidewalk toward Canterlot High School.
“How are things nowadays at school, Sunset?” asked Twilight, trying to distract her.
“Well, for one thing, I’m off the radar as far as the Fall Formal is concerned, which is a major miracle in itself. Though it took three Sirens to do that.” Sunset Shimmer said quietly. Twilight chuckled.
“So, everypony…excuse me, everyone feels better about you since you saved them?” Twilight asked.
“Knocked that raving she-demon right out of their head. Oh, a couple still think I might go completely crazy at any minute,” she said, as she windmilled her arms around in exaggeration, “…but most everyone else is happy about it. Especially since I don’t have to say, ‘no offense’ anymore, like I used to whenever it would come up. And my girls,” Sunset said proudly, smiling; referring to her friends, the alter-ego Main Five, “…have been talking to people, helping them to understand; as well as dealing with how weird things can get at Canterlot High. Even Principal Celestia and Vice-Principal Luna got involved. Not like most didn’t have front row seats to it. It’s like I’m in a real-life version of ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’.”
“What’s that?” asked Twilight Sparkle, confused.
“Oh, yeah, you never heard about that show. Next visit you’re here, I’ll get a few episodes off the internet or wherever. It’s freaky how much it resembles my school!” Sunset laughed.
“And the Dazzlings?” asked Twilight.
Sunset hung her head slightly at the mention. “That’s another subject, Twi,” she said quietly. “Sonata Dusk sorta adapted quickly, though she still says mean things on occasion. She hangs out with us, again, sorta. On the periphery. Fluttershy kind of adopted her, helps her, and has been working with her on getting her singing back. Kindness, you know?” she asked rhetorically. “That was a hard thing to wrap my mind around; the shyest one of us, taking on voice coaching? Without the pendants and the other two, it’s been rough for her. They can’t sing in clubs or events anymore to make any money. Thanks for sending some bits to help, by the way.”
“I have a rather large discretionary budget to manage, thanks to Canterlot. Nice exchange rate, too. Thanks for setting that up. Gold really is pretty valuable over here,” Twilight chuckled.
“Uh-huh. We’ve been getting some gigs after school and weekends as well, since the Dazzlings broke up. Everybody pitches in where they can. Sonata got a job at the Taco Hut, thinking how cool that would be. Making a few hundred of them every Tuesday took the cravings away really quick.”
Sunset Shimmer herself called that one. The Sirens used to eat a lot of fish back in Equestria. Now, Sonata would pale and excuse herself to the bathroom if anyone even mentioned fish tacos.
“Aria Blaze…went someplace strange. She mostly hangs with the Goths, wears a lot of black clothes and piercings, writes some really dark poetry, and thinks Poe is the be all and end all. I would think we had lost her totally, except for one indefatigable force of nature.”
Twilight suddenly turned her head to look directly at Sunset, her eyes wide in surprise. “Oh, no. Pinkie Pie??”
Sunset nodded with a grin. “Sometimes, I think all that black stuff is simple rebellion against our Party Girl. She anchors herself alongside Maud against the tempest,” she chuckled warmly. “She’s been coming out more recently, took the metal out of her nose, lips and cheeks, though she left the earrings and eyebrow ones in, hangs with us every once in awhile. She’s a pretty good songsmith, puts lyrics to almost everything. If we could just get her out of the gloom and doom mode all the time, she’d shine.”
“Not everyone wants to be a rainbow.” Twilight observed dryly, chuckling.
“Not everyone needs to live in the dark, either. It’ll take time and hard work, but Pinkie just loves a challenge,” Sunset said with a smile.
Twilight steeled herself. “And Adagio Dazzling?” she asked.
“Yeah.” Very sensitive subject. “Adagio rooms with me, Twi. That spare room in the back of my place? I cleaned it out, put a bed in there. She wasn’t home today; Applejack came and dragged her out to the farm. Said something about airing Adagio out, too much shut-in and dark; that she needed fresh air and exercise.”
Sunset sighed despondently. “Twi, I don’t know if I can pull this off. She’s…she’s so lost…I thought we’d have something in common…”
“You do…or did,” Twilight said calmly, just like Princess Celestia would when Twilight had the problem. She had a feeling back on Equestria that this subject would be a complicated one. It wasn’t that long ago when Sunset Shimmer was the one lost.
“Besides the ‘World Domination’ thing. I don’t…”
Twilight turned slightly again and looked at Sunset. If Twilight Sparkle could have at that very moment, somehow left her body and watched her and Sunset talking, it would have taken her breath away how familiar, how much it would remind her of walks she and Celestia used to take.
Once Upon A Time, In the Magical Land of Equestria…
She decided to go for broke. In for a bit, in for the whole saddlebag. She took a deep breath...and interrupted Sunset.
“My Faithful Student…” Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship, began quietly…
With a quiet gasp, Sunset’s eyes went wide at the familiar words, and her voice faltered. Her eyes began to swim.
Up until that point, Sunset Shimmer had managed to hold her failures at Canterlot at forelegs, or arms, length. She had chased the chimeras of Power and Ambition herself, and in doing so, completely lost her own way. Twilight had followed after her when Sunset took the Crown of Magic and escaped through the Magic Mirror back here to this world. Twilight soon discovered the human counterparts of the Mane Five here in this place, separated by actions Sunset Shimmer had taken in her climb to power. Twilight re-forged their friendship bonds: and while doing so, found new allies in the alternate Main Five. After Sunset was changed into a demon by that same exact negative energy she desired after she put on the Crown; Twi used the friendship of the Main Five and their Magic to bring Sunset back to herself.
Then Twi brought Sunset and the Main Five together. For her. In that moment and those that followed, a profound change was worked in Sunset. She couldn’t put a finger on exactly any one thing and say, “Yes, right here, this is where it started.”
It was more like she started to float on warm light. Slowly at first, like a creeping sunrise; a tiny bit here, an almost insignificant part there. Stares and grumbles from her other fellow students sometimes filtered a little of the brightness out. Then Fluttershy would smile, or Applejack or Rarity would put a hand on her shoulder, Pinkie would hand her a cupcake she had been carrying somewhere, or Dashie said something outrageous that made her crack up. And the light would come back, brighter and stronger than ever.
It unnerved her, that light. It confused her. She had lived in the dusk and night of emotion for so long; she didn’t quite know what to do with it.
Until Princess Twilight Sparkle turned to her during that battle with the Sirens, and said, “Sunset Shimmer! We need you!!!”
Sunset picked up the microphone as she tossed her jacket aside. She and Twilight started to sing; their hands touched, and an arc of powerful rainbow colored light swept out from them, washing the spell of the Sirens free of the crowd, tearing their power apart…
As Sunset Shimmer, a look of disbelief on her face, rose above her friends, as pony ears like she once had poked up through her hair, and a ponytail very much like her Equestrian one lengthened behind her. A ponytail from her head, which kinda freaked her out, until she realized from her head was a whole lot better, infinitely better, than where her pony tail was usually rooted…at least on this world.
Besides, the feeling she was experiencing was…amazing!
Light began to rise from Twilight and the others into the clouds above them, with all of them rising alongside her, floating upward as a flare of fire red from her joined with the others…
The huge blue-white Alicorn Spirit thing-y that shattered the Sirens was sort of anticlimactic to her after that.
Sunset had seen so much of herself in Adagio afterwards; the loss of confidence, trepidation, even fear. She was completely different from that evil, arrogant, haughty girl she confronted in the dimly lit school hallway that day. And she wanted to help Adagio, like Twilight had helped her. Helped her to a much better place now, just like she told Adagio back then in that hallway. The very same hallway she once confronted Twilight Sparkle in.
It wasn’t as easy as it first appeared, she discovered.
There were so many pitfalls. Adagio may have looked like a teenager, but there was a much older spirit behind the bright raspberry eyes. A spirit used to having its own way after singing a few notes along with her friends. A bar or two later, the Dazzlings could get anyone to do what they desired.
Now, the Dazzlings had to find consensus, compromise, shared interests, even harmony, and not the singing kind, either. Sonata was trying to get her voice back because she enjoyed the singing by itself. Adagio gave it up completely, because she felt betrayed by it.
Sunset frequently found Adagio alone in her small room, curled up on the bed, profoundly saddened by loss. A loss that definitely needed to be lost, but without anything yet to replace it. It hurt Sunset that she hadn’t found anything to help Adagio replace it with, when Twilight interrupted her again.
“My Faithful Student,” she reiterated, looking at her kindly, “...you are doing tremendous good just being there for her. Friendship doesn’t always happen in the blink of an eye. Sometimes it takes very hard work.”
Twilight turned and gazed back out to the front, her eyes looking at something far away, eerily similar to what The Benevolent Princess of the Light would do on occasion herself. It was disconcerting to the person that knew the both of them.
Twilight was reflecting Celestia; and Sunset Shimmer was even more upset that her pride had broken her personal connection with the Sun Princess. It could have helped so much…
She shook it off. Well, that was one reason why she was going. To see if the bond could be re-forged.
She took a deep breath, squared her shoulders. “And we are working at it, my Princess of Friendship. All of us. Though I wouldn’t mind some guidance on occasion from a good friend.”
Twilight smiled brightly. “That’s what friends are for!”
Twilight decided to change the subject. “Things otherwise doing well?” Twilight asked
“Not bad. The girls keep asking me when they can come and see Equestria firsthand, though,” Sunset replied. That was going to be a very interesting day, she thought. She had almost lost her mind when she first came through the Mirror. Beginning with going from being a quadruped to a biped immediately; then it got even stranger.
“My girls want to come here to visit, too. Maybe we can see it all together,” Twilight said in sunlit tones. She really could channel Celestia if she wanted to.
“Like I said…’Buffy the Vampire Slayer’. But with ponies.” Sunset Shimmer said, laughing.
“We’ll have to plan it during another school break like this summer, plus, be a little secretive about it. Having a sleepover with five sets of twins is sure to attract attention.” Twilight scrunched her face up, concentrating. “The chances of that occurring naturally without some sort of intervention…”
“…isn’t worth the time to figure it out, Twi.” Sunset Shimmer said quickly. Girl gets way too serious about her science and maths, she thought.
“Sunset…Equestria being Equestria, ponies might not be so shocked to see your friends around Ponyville. It might work better if your friends made the first trip, Magic being what it is here. Or there, sorry,” Twilight said thoughtfully.
“Probably. But whatever we end up deciding, we have time yet. I have to get this current visit out of the way first.”
They stood for a moment next to the pedestal of the statue outside of the school. Sunset looked around warily for a moment. “Are you okay?” Twilight asked anxiously. Sunset Shimmer looked even more worried, if that was even possible.
“I just want to avoid being seen doing something that’s going to lead to a few hundred new questions I don’t want to answer. Such as being seen walking through a statue plinth of solid stone.” Sunset hadn’t had to answer a lot of questions at first. The raving she-demon was a natural conversation stopper, though it didn’t quell the stares and whispers of disapproval. Those had stung a lot.
Now something of the opposite was true. As one of the heroines that saved everybody, she had a bit of minor celebrity going on now. Because of that, sometimes she had to answer the same questions over and over again. She wasn’t quite sure which problem was worse.
“Oh. Now that you mention it…” Twilight looked around as well, though not as furtively as Sunset had. “I don’t see anyone around. I think it’ll be fine.” Twilight touched the surface of the Wondercolt statue’s base. There was a flare and a ripple, like water, as her hand went through. Twilight smiled a secretive smile at the diaphanous image of her right forehoof wavering gently underneath the surface of the plinth. She then held out her other normal looking hand to Sunset.
Sunset took it, just as Twilight’s body passed through the plane of the support. A gentle tug, and Sunset followed…
And after a flaring tunnel of light, into a large room, as Twilight let go…dropping to all four hooves.
Sunset teetered for a moment on her…rear hooves, before tipping forward and unceremoniously planting her face against the floor with a small yelp of pain, front hooves splayed out in front of her.
“Darling! All you all right?” a white Unicorn with an intricately styled purple mane asked, alarmed, as she ran up to check on Sunset.
Was that…Rarity? Sunset thought, as she picked up her head and tenderly rubbed the sore spot on her cheek…with a hoof.
Sunset glanced into the Unicorn’s eyes for a moment…and saw the very same, well, soul she was familiar with looking back into hers. This one wasn’t wearing a half-sleeved blouse and a purple skirt, though.
And she had a horn.
Sunset glanced upward slightly…and saw she had one now as well…
Apparently the introspective meanderings of her woolgathering consciousness had an effect on at least one of the other ponies in the room as well…since she hadn't bothered to get up yet.
“Ah got ‘er. Now, jest hold on there, sugarcube.”
Sunset felt herself lifted by a pair of very strong forelegs, and planted straight on all four of hers, though her forelegs wobbled a bit before firming up to the new, or old, depending, sensations. While she planted her feet under her, literally, the strong pony untwisted the saddlebag that had somehow gotten misaligned on her body. “Y’all better now?” the voice asked frankly.
Applejack.
“Uh…Rarity…Applejack…yeah, I think I’ve got it. Thanks.” Sunset spent a minute or two trying to get her bearings…
“Oh, wow, Twilight! She’s really pretty! Especially without the scary she-demon thing! Do you like parties?” something like a huge piece of bubblegum said, as she hopped up and down nearby…on her hooves?
Pinkie Pie.
“No doubt about that one. Pinkie.” Sunset said dryly, watching the hopping pink pony with bemusement.
The bubblegum squeed. “Can we keep her?”
Twilight facehooved.
“Um…she really isn’t going to turn into a she-demon, is she?” said a soft, familiar voice somewhere behind Rarity. She knew that one, too.
Fluttershy.
Sunset Shimmer chuckled wryly. They were like those in her other world. “No, Flutts, I don’t do that anymore. Friends are so much better than unbridled power, anyway. Your…” she started to say, and then faltered.
How do I say this? she wondered to herself. Your other selves? Blech. Your alter-egoes? Blagh. Your twins? Ecchh.
Suddenly, she had it, as Inspiration kissed her square on the end of her muzzle. She smiled shyly.
“Your sisters taught me that.”
Twilight Sparkle positively beamed upon hearing that. So did the rest of the Six.