Twilight Follows Sunset
"None of this makes any sense, Spike," Twilight said as she paced back and forth across her lab. "All those things they said...it sounded crazy...I wish I could've gotten a look at that photo they were all talking about..." She frowned. "Could it be they knew I was sitting there? Knew who I was? Know I'm trying to investigate Canterlot High School? No...no, that doesn't make any sense. Why would a bunch of high school girls know anything about...or even care..."
Twilight stopped her pacing to look over her notes again. "But then...how did they know my name? That one girl claimed she was reading a letter I'd sent her..." She shook her head. "But that's impossible...I don't know a single person who goes to Canterlot High, I've never sent any of them letters..."
She frowned. "They knew your name too, Spike. What was it they said? ...they said 'Spike is a dragon'...what does that even mean? Dragons aren't real..." She stroked her chin. "Maybe it's all some sort of code...could they be talking in code? Ponies...dragons...zebras...Equestria..." She shook her head. "Everything except 'dragon' fits with a code pattern...dragon is the odd one out...maybe 'dragon' is code for danger, a warning? No..." She shook her head. "They're just teenagers. They couldn't possibly have constructed such an elaborate code system and be using it so casually in a public place. That's ridiculous.
"But...why my name? What does it mean?" Twilight resumed her pacing. "She said 'visiting in two weeks'...wasn't that what she said? Visiting from where?" She leaned against the wall. "Twilight Sparkle...visiting in two weeks...is that girl setting up some elaborate plan to kidnap me? Brainwash me? But that's...that doesn't make any sense...who would even know who I am? I don't have anything to do with..." She let out a frustrated sigh. "You need to calm down, Twilight. Focus. You're missing something obvious here. You just need to think..."
She dragged her rolling lab stool over to her desk with a foot, then sat down on it, spinning around to face her laptop. She grabbed the pad with her notes and looked it over. "Hmm..."
The name 'Celestia' seemed familiar somehow. She typed it into the search bar on her browser. "Principal Celestia, Canterlot High School."
But those girls had said Princess Celestia.
She typed that in, and got an autocorrect to Principal. "Okay, but that's a start. Hmm."
She started typing in other names she'd heard during the girls' conversation. Photos, blogs, and social media accounts of a group of Canterlot High students came up for each search. Some of the photos matched the girls she'd been eavesdropping on at Sugar Cube Corner. She sent those photos to her printer.
Typing in combinations of those names yielded more interesting results. The name "Rainbooms" came up; she quickly learned the entire group of girls from the coffee shop were a band. More interestingly, they'd apparently recently defeated another band, the Dazzlings, at Canterlot High's Battle of the Bands.
And going by what several of the pages she found said, said 'defeat' wasn't just referring to the contest.
She checked dates and accounts for several blog posts and images, then compared them to her Big Board. She frowned, chewing absently on the eraser end of the pencil she kept tucked in her hair. "The harmonic wave distortion event...it happened the night of that band competition. How did I miss that?"
She scooted back over to her computer and typed in 'Equestria'. The search attempted to autocorrect to 'equestrian'; she bypassed that, frowning and tapping a finger against her cheek. The results still weren't very encouraging...
With a frown, she typed in her own name.
Her eyes narrowed.
"Canterlot High Fall Formal Princess..." Her brow furrowed. "Cafeteria flash mob to support newcomer Twilight Sparkle's bid for Fall Formal Princess..."
There was a video. She watched it.
Someone was jerking their phone all over the place, trying to follow a group of familiar girls—the girls from Sugar Cube Corner—as they pranced and danced all over the cafeteria, singing.
After the second chorus, they threw open the cafeteria doors.
Twilight's eyes nearly fell out of her head.
On the screen, also dancing and singing, was...
"That's...that's impossible!"
The hairstyle was different and she wasn't wearing glasses, but...
There was absolutely no mistake.
The girl in the video appeared to be Twilight Sparkle.
"But...that isn't me...who is she?"
The girl with her face was happy, smiling, cheerful...
Another search found more videos of the same girl, dancing at a school dance, wearing a sparkly dress.
Five minutes' work had the entire Canterlot High School student registry on her screen.
There was no record of a Twilight Sparkle having ever attended Canterlot High School.
"What's going ON here, Spike?!"
Spike barked once.
"I need more data..." Twilight frowned. She looked over the names of the girls in that band, the Rainbooms, then delved into the arduous task of thoroughly researching them.
"Rainbow Dash...age sixteen. Captain of the soccer team, basketball team, softball team...lead guitarist and vocalist of the Rainbooms...below-average grades. Habitual class clown.
"Rarity...age sixteen. Manages a boutique? Keyboards and backing vocals for the Rainbooms...above-average grades.
"Pinkie Pie...age fifteen. Fifteen? Drummer for the Rainbooms...head party planner for every party and dance at Canterlot High. Above-average grades.
"Applejack...age sixteen. Family owns...Sweet Apple Acres. Bassist for the Rainbooms. Average grades.
"Fluttershy...age sixteen. Volunteers at the animal shelter. Plays tamborine and sings backing vocals for the Rainbooms. Above average grades.
"Sunset Shimmer. Age sixteen. Accompanying guitar and vocals for the Rainbooms..." Twilight frowned. "This can't be right. Retroactive history of disciplinary..." She pushed her glasses up. "Has won every popularity contest at Canterlot High School from freshman year to present except the most recent Fall Formal..." She blinked at the information on the screen. "Destroyed the front entrance to the school?!" She glanced at her half-asleep dog. "Does that even make sense to you?"
Spike yawned.
Twilight shook her head. "Decent grades..." Something caught her attention. She typed away at her keyboard for a minute, then leaned in, squinting at a new tab on her browser. "Sunset Shimmer...died at age three in a car accident...both parents dead..."
She jerked bolt upright, eyes wide, glasses slipping from one side of her face. "Wait, WHAT?!" She cross-referenced this latest information with the school records and photographs of the girl identified as Sunset Shimmer.
Fingers flying over the keys, she set up an extrapolation of the grainy old photograph of the dead three-year-old girl's image. She watched the computer render the toddler at progressively older ages, stopping at sixteen.
A near perfect match.
"Either this Sunset Shimmer survived that car crash somehow, or..." She shook her head. "There's one way to find out."
A search of vital records turned up a death certificate for one Sunset Shimmer, aged three, dated thirteen years back.
"No...it wouldn't still be in the archives if she'd survived..." Twilight frowned. "Unless somehow word never got out...no, that's impossible." She pushed her glasses up again, staring at the photograph of a smiling Sunset Shimmer, playing a guitar and singing into a microphone. "Who are you?!"
* * * * *
"I'll be right behind you girls!" Sunset Shimmer said. "I just need to freshen up a bit."
"Okie-dokie-lokie! Don't take too long!"
Sunset packed everything away in her bag, then pulled out her makeup compact. She walked down the hall and headed for the girls' restroom. She stood before the lavatory, peering at herself in the mirror. "Just a little touch-up," she said.
The door to the restroom opened. A girl walked in; she stopped in front of the stalls without entering one. Sunset glanced up at the mirror to see a girl in dark, baggy clothes leaning against the stalls, arms crossed. A black ball cap shaded her eyes, and the collar of her dark windbreaker was popped to hide the rest of her face.
Sunset raised an eyebrow. "What are you supposed to be, some kind of secret agent?"
"Could be," the girl said. Her voice was familiar, but had an edge to it. "I'd like to ask you a question, Sunset Shimmer."
"Okay...?"
"Would you mind explaining how a girl who died when she was three years old is attending high school?"
Sunset froze. "What?"
"Outside of this school, you don't exist," the girl said firmly. "There was a little girl named Sunset Shimmer who died thirteen years ago, along with her parents. There are newspaper articles, there's a death certificate. Sunset Shimmer is dead. But here you are. Thirteen years later, a teenager in high school, playing guitar and singing in a band. Pretty impressive for a dead girl."
"L-look...I can explain, really..."
"Good, because I'd love to hear an explanation," the girl said. "While you're at it..."
She took off her cap, turned down the collar of her jacket, and shook her hair loose, pushing her thick-rimmed glasses up her nose.
Sunset's eyes widened.
"You can explain who that girl that looks like me and calls herself Twilight Sparkle is, where she came from, and where I can find her," Twilight Sparkle said.
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Ah, so you're going the whole "Humanverse Sunset Shimmer is dead" route. But considering everything human Twilight did to find out, I think it's safe to say that this fic's rating should be bumped up to Teen.
Twilight's going into Obsessive Mode! ...but I think she has some good reasons to be! XD
Anyway, awesome start!
Human Sunset dead? That's just low
5304609
You realize that in FiM, Twilight Sparkle broke into the Canterlot Archives to find a spell, and stalked Pinkie Pie for a whole day to try and find out how Pinkie Sense works, right? Nothing human Twilight did here is outside what could happen in the show.
Oh? This could be very fun.
I was listening to Weird Al's 'Foil' for this chapter.
(Coincidence? Probably.) You were supposed to say 'I think not.' (Why on God's earth would I do that?) 
T (FN)
Huh, Sunset's Paraincarnation is dead? Well,... That's certainly one way to ensure the selves shall never meet...
Anyway, much less wacky hijinks that, regardless of the tags warning me, I subconciously expected. This isn't bad, mind, I was just a lot more entrenched in my expectations than I thought.
Loved Local!Twilight in investigative mood!
*munches on popcorn*
5305029
Except that Twilight Sparkle was technically allowed in the Canterlot Archives, just not that particular wing of them (and probably not at night). Also, EQG is much more like our world and crazy shenanigans are more the rule than the exception in Equestria. It might not be outside of what could happen in the show, but it is definitely abnormal behavior, even obsessive behavior for a character in EQG.
5306787 Very true
This Twilight screams "Aiden Pierce " from Watch Dogs.
And I love it~
It fits so well for what I expect from the Human Twilight that its almost creepy.
Almost.
Now, to read the rest!
5307854 How did I not see that until you pointed it out? She was obviously hacking when researching their grades and stuff.
Human Sunset is dead eh? A bit disappointing, but Equestria doesn't have giant, dangerous cars driving around everywhere do they?
5306105 *Grabs a handful from HoneyHoneyHoney's bag*
5310307
*opens snack-bar*
Free Popcorn and Snickers for the first half-hour!
I like the double-meaning of this chapter title.
Hmm... both the first chapter and this chapter could have easily been one chapter. Longer chapters make for more interesting stories and allow the reader to become more enthralled by the story.
Just a suggestion :3 I just don't like having an entire scene stop so abruptly, only to continue on a separate chapter ^^;
Aaaaand you answered the question in the next chapter. Thanks for that! X3
5307854 That is an odd thing to say.
I love it.
Oh Slag
"The world is larger, far larger, than you imagine, Twilight Sparkle. Beyond the limits of your sceptical science and beyond the reach of your imagination, there are places and times that defy everything that you consider 'reality'. Now, before we go further, ask yourself: Do I really wish to have the foundations of my world shaken so? Would I be happier in ignorance than I would be knowing the true nature of creation? Think carefully on your answers for, once you pass through this particular looking glass... there is no going back."
5314980 Will she take the blue pill and just walk away while she still is able, or the red pill and follow this obsession until everything she knows: her science, theories, the honored works of all before her become nothing more than a lie?
This is a legitimately dangerous situation. There's a reason people that stick their noses where others don't want it sometimes 'disappear'.
Consider this possibility: that world's Twilight decides to follow all of this to its inevitable conclusion, and she publishes her findings. People start crossing over from that mirror portal. That has SO many ways it could go wrong. Twilight is clearly a scientist, she is not the sort to keep her mouth shut about important, revolutionary discoveries. I mean if anyone discovered gravity, do you think they'd shut up about it? Let alone discovering that magic's real and there's an alternate reality filled with colorful, magical ponies?
Sunset: (singing) I suddenly feel like someone's watching me! I get no privacy!
Despite Human Sunset dying young being my headcanon before reading this, my eyes are starting to mist at the mention of her death.
This should totally happen in the third EQG movie!
Man, you're heavily overusing ellipsis. It lessens the impact they're supposed to have.
Other than that, though, I'm enjoying this so far.
Dang, wasn't expecting the dead at three years old human Sunset.
Silly Twilight everyone has someone that looks like them some where I have even met my double he's like a 4 cousin or something the only thing different about him was he was like 340 pounds or something and I at the time only 220 and I'm rambling. (again
)
Ouch.
Also, I just realized that the pony Sunset Shimmer is probably an orphan herself, or at the very least estranged from her parents. She'd have asked Twilight to get in touch with them, otherwise, considering that she's been missing from Equestria for years.
anyone who didn't know the figure in the bathroom was Sci-Twi before the big reveal deserves a face-palm.
9020754
I was gonna correct you and say face-hoof, but EQG. I be the muppet man.
And that would fall under the well shit department
It's not code sci twi, what they were talking about is true. 😒
Or you could just stop spying on them and not let them know what you've been doing behind their backs.
Not surprised there that pinkie is the youngest
Well, at least we know the human sunset shimmer is sadly.... dead.
She's the pony counterpart of the deceased tolder sunset.
You'll be in for quite a surprise when you learn the truth sci twi, and trust me, it ain't pretty.
The girls are sure gonna be in for a surprise for what is about to come. 😬