Chapter 7
The Advanced English class at Canterlot High was the perfect place to secretly write in a magical journal to pony friends in another world about the nightmare she’d had a few nights ago. At least, this was Sunset’s reasoning for why she’d even risked having the book out in public.
“Miss Shimmer?” Sunset gave a loud squawk and quickly slammed the book shut and drew it closer to her protectively.
“Y-yes Miss Quill?” she asked, grinning up at the older woman.
“Would you like to share your story with the class?” Quick Quill asked. “I’m sure that we would love to hear what you’ve written.”
“Uhhhh…” Sunset quickly glanced left and right, looking for a way out of this.
“C’mon, Sunset, we’re waiting,” one of the male students grinned at her.
Sunset sighed and then reopened her book, hoping that Twilight wouldn’t write to her while she was reading an old entry.
“It’s a letter written to a fictional person,” she hastily explained, and then began reading. “Dear Princess Celestia, I have read the books that you have suggested to me and would like to meet with you to discuss these. I’m particularly interested in knowing more about the beliefs regarding curses and demons. Not for anything bad, of course, I’m just curious- you know me, curious little Sunny! Write back to me as soon as you get a minute spare, please, with the details of when and where you can meet me. Your student, Sunset Shimmer.” Sunset cringed as she shut the book after her voice trailed off and kept her eyes firmly cast downward.
“Very good, Sunset,” Miss Quill commended. “You truly captured the spirit of this ‘Sunset Shimmer’. But as you know, I have been stressing the importance of not inserting yourself into a text.”
“I know,” Sunset sighed, “I’m sorry.”
“It was good for a random letter you just wrote now, though,” a girl in her class said, smiling as she ran her fingers through her long purple hair. “Have you thought of what Princess Celestia will write back yet?”
“Yeah,” said Sunset with a nod. Reading the letter hadn’t been a very good experience, but at least now she could lie about this. Make it better, how it should have been. “Celestia responded that she would meet Sunset to talk about these curses. They met in her castle the next day and, over tea and sandwiches, they discussed the nature of demons and curses.” The truth was that Celestia had responded to Sunset with a curt warning for her to stop looking into curses and demons at once. Instead of a meeting, the next day Sunset had asked around and found out where the forbidden texts were kept.
The book vibrated as the bell rang, much to Sunset’s relief. Because her day just couldn’t get worse, though, it was the fire bell due to some idiot named Trixie setting off fireworks in the gymnasium.
Outside, Rarity wailed about her ruined hair and make-up while Sunset carefully extricated her book from her jacket. It hadn’t gotten too badly wet, so she opened it to Twilight’s new message and read it in the huddle of her friends.
“Dear Sunset Shimmer,
Your dream sounds like it must have been awful. How much of it was real? I’m sorry, that wasn’t a very nice question to ask, but I do want to know. I suspect that Celestia will too. That dark pony shape could have been your mind’s way of dealing with your past demon transformation, but I’m willing to place my bits on it being Princess Luna keeping an eye on you. Do you want me to come through so we can talk about it? Or you can come through, but I wouldn’t feel very good having you here without letting Celestia know. My point is, would you like to talk to me in person about your dream? Maybe it’ll make you feel better, or you’ll at least be able to understand it better. I’ll write to you again after school (and please don’t write me messages in class again! Pinkie told me. It never ends well, trust me.).
Your friend,
Twilight Sparkle.”
“Pinkie,” Sunset sighed, rolling her eyes at her snitch of a friend.
“Sorry!” Pinkie chirped. “Twilight said to keep an eye on you, so I am!”
“That’s great, Pinkie,” said Rainbow Dash. “So, Sunset, are ya gonna go back to Equestria? Orrr we could have a sleepover with Twilight.”
“Sleepover!” Pinkie screamed. Other students turned to look at her, but then shook their heads and muttered about it just being Pinkie Pie.
“A private sleepover, Pinkie,” Sunset emphasised.
Rarity paused in her lamentations to giggle and wink at Sunset.
“Private past business,” said Sunset with a sigh. “We’re not gonna kiss or do anything like that, Rarity. Maybe hug.”
“Yeah, Rares,” said Applejack, bopping Rarity on the head with her hat, “git yer mind outta the gutter.”
Rarity scoffed, scandalised. “Oh, Applejack, my mind was far from the gutter. A lady does not take a roll in the hay on the first date, you know.”
“Who said I was a lady?” Sunset teased, and then laughed at Rarity and Applejack’s faces. Rarity had returned to her dewy-eyed happiness, and Applejack had turned the colour of one of her apples.
“E-excuse me.” The group turned and their eyes widened as they saw what appeared, for all intents and purposes, to be Twilight in black pants and a sweater-vest over a white blouse.
“Yes, how can we help you?” Rarity quickly asked, beaming at the newcomer.
“Sorry, I just couldn’t help overhearing my name,” the girl said, playing with the ends of her long purple hair. “But then I thought to myself, ‘don’t be silly, Twilight, they couldn’t possibly be talking about you! They’ve never met you before!’” The other Twilight laughed through a grin.
“Oh yeah, that’s our other friend called Twilight,” said Pinkie, pushing Rarity aside. “She’s called Twilight Princess, though. No relation.”
“I think I’ve seen you before, actually,” said Twilight to Pinkie. “I saw you one day when I was out walking my dog, Spike.”
“Yup!” Pinkie affirmed with a nod. “Have you got the little guy with you now?”
“Oh no, you aren’t allowed to take animals to school,” said Twilight while Fluttershy frantically tried to stuff wet and frightened animals back into her schoolbag.
“Hey, aren’t you in my English class?” asked Sunset. She’d thought that the purple-haired girl had looked and sounded like Twilight, but she also knew well how the heart could fool the mind into seeing their love everywhere.
“Yes, I am. That letter you wrote today was strange but also interesting. Fictional, too, obviously, things like demons and curses just don’t exist.” Sunset laughed a fake laugh at Twilight’s comment. She could still feel her magic, just not use it.
“Thanks,” she said, to get rid of the awkwardness. “So is this your first day?”
“Mm-hm,” Twilight nodded. “My first day and there’s a fire, but I guess at least I didn’t cause it.”
“Yeah, that idiot Trixie is to blame for that mess,” Rainbow snorted. “Who the heck even lets off fireworks inside? And how’d she get them into the school?”
The Stupid and Soaked Trixie was currently being berated by Vice-Principal Luna, and everyone in a five-mile radius around the school could hear it.
“Soon she’ll be the Grounded and Remorseful Trixie,” said Twilight with a giggle.
“Nah, more like Grounded and Broke,” Applejack decided. “If Vice-Principal Luna is gonna stick to her usual tactics, Trixie’ll have to come up with the money to replace and repair everything her stupid fireworks ruined.”
Sunset shuddered at the memory of that. She’d had to work her butt off to raise enough money to repair the school after the Fall Formal. “Better her than me,” she said.
“So, Twilight,” said Rarity, “what brings you here to CHS? And halfway through the school year, too.”
“Oh. I, uh, just decided to try living amongst the public school students,” she said with a too-wide, fake grin.
“This isn’t about all those rainbows and lasers around the battle of the bands, is it?” asked Sunset with a cringe. Twilight mirrored her expression and rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly.
“Maybe,” she said, twirling hair around her finger.
“Seems like some good came of it after all,” said Rainbow with a grin, and stepped in front of Twilight with her hand out. “Pleased to meet ya, Twilight.”
“You too,” said Twilight, and shook her hand. By Rainbow’s pleased expression, this doppelgänger had a good, firm handshake.
“So, what other classes are you taking?” Sunset asked. “And do you need any help getting to them? Usually Principal Celestia asks me to show the new students around, so I’m surprised that she didn’t want me to show you around.”
“Oh, you know, all of the Advanced classes and Science classes,” said Twilight. “I’m very interested in science and I’m a pretty good student in all of the academics-based classes. Thanks for your offer but like I told the principal, I came here a few days ago to figure out where everything is. I like to be prepared.”
“Huh. I bet you’ve already started all of the assignments too?” Rainbow asked, fighting a growing smirk. Sunset glared at her and Applejack nudged the athlete warningly.
“Of course!” said Twilight with a smile. “You can never be too prepared, after all. I don’t even mind that my marks will be scaled down for the grade average.”
“I admire your dedication,” said Sunset. “You remind me of a certain someone else.”
“Yeah, Princess Twi- I mean, Twilight Princess is a bit of an egghead too,” Rainbow nodded. This time, Applejack elbowed her sharply in the ribs. “Ow! What was that for?”
“Sorry about her, Twilight,” Applejack apologised. “Her mouth and brain don’t have a filter between them.”
“I can see that,” Twilight giggled. “But it’s okay, it’s not the first time I’ve been called that. My big brother calls me an egghead too, so it’s kind of a nickname for me.”
“That’s nice,” Fluttershy smiled. “It must be good to have a kind older brother to look after you.”
“Yeah, it is. Shiny's a great guy,” said Twilight. “Anyway, when do you think we’ll be able to go back in? I’m missing out on so much learning.”
“As soon as the fire department turns off the sprinklers and makes sure it’s safe to go back in,” said Applejack. “This isn’t the first time this has happened, so it should be pretty soon.”
Sure enough, the firefighters soon gave the all-clear and the students and staff all filed back inside while one firefighter lectured Trixie on proper firework use.
Sunset next got a chance to write to Twilight when she had a break between classes.
“Dear Princess Twilight,
You’ll never guess who enrolled at CHS today. Her name is Twilight and she looks and acts just like you, although she’s more scientifically-inclined. She almost reminds me of me when I was younger, all caught up in books and research. I had to read out a letter I’d sent to Celestia a long time ago in Advanced English today, all because I got caught writing in this journal. I know, it was a bad idea, but I had to tell you about my nightmare. Anyway, reading the letter reminded me of just how bad I feel now about looking into curses and betraying Celestia like that. My parents must be worried sick, too. I think I’ll come back to Equestria before I tell Sunset’s parents about what happened to their real daughter- I can’t exactly visit Equestria if I’m in prison! But I do have a lot of mid-term exams coming up, so I’ll wait until after them. I’ll write to you again soon.
Your student,
Sunset Shimmer.”
“Writing more letters?” Sunset jumped and then tried to hide the book when this world’s Twilight walked into the study room.
“Yeah,” Sunset nodded. “I was writing to my penpal. Remember in primary school when we had to write letters to people living in different countries?”
“I have heard about public schools doing that but I never did. My school had us research different countries instead. But you still write to them?” Twilight said as she took a seat across from Sunset.
“Of course. We’ve kept in touch and she’s a good friend of mine. She’s teaching me so much about her own country, and I’m teaching her about mine.” The lie came easily, probably because it was mostly truth anyway.
“I guess sending correspondence would be a more personal way of gaining information,” Twilight mused. “Seems like your school had the right idea. Where does she live?”
For a moment, Sunset was stumped. But then an ancient history lesson came back to her. “Greece,” she said.
“And what’s her name?” Twilight looked about as comfortable as a cat on a pillow, so Sunset resigned herself to lying from the seat of her pants.
“Twilight Princess. Yeah, I’ve told all my friends about her and they started writing to her too. Well, me and a few others write, Rainbow prefers email because at least a computer has spellcheck. Pinkie prefers email too because she can attach images easier that way and doesn’t have to pay the shipping cost of sending all that glitter and confetti.”
Twilight giggled. “And she’s coming here?”
“Um.” Sunset swore silently. “I think so, I’d like her to.”
“I’d like to meet her,” Twilight decided. “Although it might be a bit awkward when there’s two of us with the same first name. My mum has the same first name as me, so I know all about that.”
“I’ll let her know in my next letter,” Sunset decided. She’d also ask Twilight how to turn off the vibrate feature on the book. Surely there’d be a spell for that. Or maybe she could turn it into a real mobile phone. Magic in Equestria had surely progressed since she’d left, so anything could be possible.
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well, things just got fascinating, image Flash seeing HTwilght(Human born Twilight)! or PTwilight(Pony born Twilight) returning and seeing HTwilight
I love this story so far, and I think you do a really good job at diving into the mind of Sunset. I could only find one issue with this chapter.
She said he was her big brother.
Being in a love triangle with your alternative self seems about par for the course with Pony Fanfiction. I honestly look forward to seeing it.
Also Twilight says "big brother" so it is actually easy for Fluttershy to assume an older brother. (that, and unless Princess Twilight and Fluttershy have been talking quite a lot off screen about siblings she should have no knowledge of Shining Armor.)
And finally a person named "Twilight Princess" could reasonably expect "Princess Twilight" to be a nickname if you want/need an excuse for them to call her that. Hell if that was my name I would just get used to it seeing as how the people I know in particular would not pass up that opportunity.
5389257 Whoops, I read over this chapter twice and still missed that fact. I'll go fix it up
thanks for pointing it out. I'm not going for a love triangle, other Twi's there just to make things a bit harder and more awkward, although she'll play her part soon
Human twilight is supposed to be twilight sans friends and celestia, also human. (Shit humans aren't ponies was a plot point.)
Lesson zero 24/7.
For some twisted reason, when Fluttershy mentioned Puppy, my brain went, in its best Bender voice: "Hey, guess what you're accessory to."
Nice story so far.
Also, man you love torturing Trixie don't you?