One thing that Sunset Shimmer had always enjoyed doing was reading; from the thick and strange tomes full of arcane knowledge and mathematical equations, to the more mundane compilation of fictional stories. It had become a part of her like nothing else in the world and it continued when she arrived to the human side of the mirror. It had even increased considering how easy was to get a book either on paper or digital form and after her redemption Sunset had spent a lot of time looking through lists and stores just to satiate her hobby.
In a sense, reading helped the wayward teenager relax and at the same time exercise her mind so it was a win/win situation no matter how one looked at it. This time she tried to make it work -in the sense of relaxing a bit- sadly her situation was so far anything she had previously lived through that there was no way reading would even work on something like this.
Taking her eyes off form the book in her hands, Sunset Shimmer watched for the nth time the slow movement of the sun in the horizon and the lazy movement of clouds in the upper atmosphere. That she was capable of seeing the sun directly without suffering any damage was a clear indication that Sunset was not where she was supposed to be; mainly her home, but there was a lot of evidence of Sunset being far away from home. The clearest one was the fact that there was no ground, nothing beyond a blue expanse. There was nothing beyond the tree that she was currently sitting upon, as in sitting on top of the tree, not under it.
The trees Sunset knew of had tons of leaves, twigs and branches which made possible for one to sit on the thick branches and basically hide from the rest of the world; she even did that a multitude of times when she lived at Canterlot Castle, but never before had Sunset found a tree that was made of rectangular block of leaves with so much mass that one couldn’t travel through them. It was impossible to fall down because the leaves of the tree felt like a thick rug and she had to be sincere, they were very comfy. It had made the situation as bad as one could imagine, but it was worst, oh so much worst, because she wasn’t alone. Trapped in this empty void with only a tree as surface was none other than the humane version of Twilight Sparkle who right now was using Sunset’s back as support and was trying to sleep for a bit. The outcome of the fight they had not too long ago truly drained her energy and she was in need of a respite.
It hadn’t been too long since the climatic fight the two had after Twilight used all the magic she had stolen from different sources back at Canterlot High and the shock of beating the dark magic but finding themselves in an empty void was not something that helped either of them. Thankfully, a lifetime of being a magical unicorn in the magical land of Equestria truly shined in situations like this, making it possible for Sunset to calm Twilight before she did something, like fall from the tree that was the only surface they had.
With a deep sigh Sunset closed the strange book that had been found inside her jacket. Maybe she didn’t show it to Twilight but she was worried because not only where they trapped in an empty void, they had nothing which they could use, not even Twilight’s machine had arrived alongside them when they came out of the blinding light. Sunset didn’t want to blame the schoolgirl version of the princess, the situation was dire enough as it was for something like that; besides, the other girl was the only other company she had in this adventure and maybe, just maybe, this could be the biggest adventure in their lives.
The redhead turned around carefully from where she was sitting on top of the tree; the movement made the student from Crystal Prep open her eyes and readjust her glasses.
“Did I fall asleep?”
“Yeah, you needed it Twilight.”
“I’m so sorry, I wanted to see if I could find anything useful and I couldn’t do a thing.”
“Is okay, you were tired, believe me, I know how a magic cleanser can tire you out. What I wanted to tell you is that I found something really interesting while you were resting.” Sunset said showing the strange leather bound book in her hands making Twilight get really interested in the object. The redhead knew that no matter the dimension, books for Twilight were like a bone to a dog.
“What is that thing and where did you find it?”
“This is the thing that will help us get out of here; basically, it is a guide to survive in this empty world and many different things and how things work on this pocket dimension.”
“Wait, what? Could you please say that again?”
“We are in a pocket dimension… and yes, I know how weird that sounds, but trust me, this is not as weird as you may think considering all the magic we released after our confrontation,” at those words Twilight blushed as a shame filled look appeared on her face “Twilight, is okay, I don’t blame you, I blame Cinch for putting you in that predicament so is okay. Anyways, apparently most of this world works in a different form than our own so we have some work to do; ready for it Twilight?”
“If it will help us return home then it is alright, although, any idea who gave you that book?”
“No clue, it is just signed ‘The White Queen’ on it.”