It was every student’s dream to go to college. And while every city has its own college, there was one college that was known as the biggest, and best, college out there. Equestria University. And it is here where our story begins.
Pulling up to one of the dorm buildings on campus was a dark blue caravan with a black motorbike attached to the back. And driving that caravan was Miss Luna, Vice Principal of Canterlot High. But she wasn’t here to attend college, but to help one of her former students settle in to her new college life. Sunset Shimmer. Wearing her signature black leather jacket, she got out of the caravan with Miss Luna and grabbed some of her luggage to take inside.
Sunset looked at the building in front of her. Feeling a bit nervous, she said, “So this is what it’s like to go to college.”
Miss Luna looked at her and asked, “Nervous?”
“A bit.”
She let out a chuckle. “I was that way when I started college. But my sister was able to reassure me that it would be OK.”
“Well, you didn’t have to worry about magic like I did,” Sunset said as she looked at her magical red pendant.
“That’s true. Just remember how you use your magic. Not everyone on campus would know about it, and we want to do our best to keep it under the radar. Not everyone is ready to know about the magic that has been unleashed in our world, and how to seal it away.”
“As long as Princess Twilight Sparkle can monitor any magical activity that’s going on between both worlds, I think we should be fine. A break from having to save the world would be nice.”
Sunset Shimmer followed Miss Luna into the building named Clover Hall. Inside the lobby, they walked up to the front desk where the dorm’s female resident assistant was watching over the desk, checking in students and issuing their keys.
Sunset was the next person to walk up to the resident assistant. “Sunset Shimmer, checking in.”
The lady went back to the RA’s office and came back out with a key and a piece of paper. “Please look over this form and sign on the dotted line.” Sunset looked it over and signed the paper. “Thank you. You will be staying in Room 201. Your roommate has yet to check in, but the girls in Room 203 have already checked in. You’ll be sharing the bathroom with them.” She handed Sunset the key to the room. “Just take the stairs to the left and you should see it at the end of the stairs. The door to the back left leads to the boys dorm rooms, and the other door to back right leads to the laundry room and kitchen.”
Sunset asked, “You wouldn’t happen to know who my roommate is, wouldn’t you?”
She looked at the roommate list. “Twilight Sparkle.”
Sunset was surprised and looked at Luna.
“I was able to pull a few favors from the university president. He was a former principal at CHS.”
Sunset replied, “Thanks. I guess this will make things easier to settle in.”
Both of them went up the stairs and came up to the second floor. Sunset was able to see Room 201 from the distance. She placed the key into the doorknob and unlocked the door, opening it to see the room inside. One half of the room had a bed next to the wall to her right, with a small table at the end, and at the center of the room was a shelf desk and dresser. The other half of the room was like a mirror image of the room, but had a window on that side. To the left of the room was a door that lead to the bathroom. Next to it was the room’s open closet, followed by a sink and mirror.
Sunset decided to take the far end of the room and started to place her stuff on the bed. With Miss Luna’s help, and making a few trips, they started to unload all of Sunset’s belongs from the caravan and placed them in the room. As they started to unpack and get everything settled, they heard the door open, and saw a lady dressed in pink walk in carrying a suitcase.
Luna was able to recognize who it was that walked in. “Cadence.”
“Luna. I see that you’re helping Sunset settle in.”
“That’s what it looks like,” replied Luna.
Just behind her was a girl with a purple ponytail carrying a big box that was almost blocking her view in front of her. Sunset saw this and went to help.
“Let me help you with that, Twilight.”
“Thanks, Sunset.” Sunset was able to grab the box and place it next to the bed closest to her. “I was surprised to have you as my roommate.”
“Same here,” replied Sunset. “You can thank Miss Luna for that.”
“Well, she does need someone that she can trust while she’s here,” said Cadence.
“That’s not the only one.” The muffled sound that they heard came from Twilight’s backpack. She took it off and placed it on the bed, opening the zipper. What popped out next was a small purple dog. “About time you let me out.”
Sunset let out a small giggle. “It’s nice to see you too, Spike.”
Cadence explained. “I know that pets aren’t allowed on campus, unless it was a service dog, But I was able to pull a few favors myself. Besides, I’m not sure any of us can handle having a talking dog around the house.”
“I guess so, since you’re now the new Principal of Crystal Prep,” said Sunset. “By the way, congratulations on the promotion.”
“Thanks. But it’s not the only thing that’s new.”
Just then, a white man with short, blue hair walked in, carrying a small refrigerator. “Twilight, where do you want to put the fridge at?”
Twilight looked around for a moment before she could make a decision. “Just put it next to the closet, brother.” She looked to Sunset and said, “This is my BBBFF, Shining Armor.”
Sunset had a confused look on her face. “BBBFF?”
“Big brother best friend forever. That’s what I refer him as.”
Shining Armor placed the fridge on the ground, then turned and looked at the new girl. “You must be Sunset Shimmer. Twily’s told me a lot about you.”
“Well, thank you,” replied Sunset. “It’s nice to meet Twilight’s brother.”
“Not to mention my future husband.” Cadence held out her hand to show off her diamond ring.
Luna was surprised. “I can’t believe it. Congratulations. When’s the wedding?”
Cadence looked over to Shining Armor. “We haven’t set a date just yet. But I’ll let you know when we get it worked out. I already have a lot to work on, cleaning up Crystal Prep’s mess that Cinch left behind.”
“How bad was it?” Sunset asked Cadence.
“You really don’t want to know. Besides, you girls already have your hands full, after the Friendship Games and what happened at Camp Everfree from what I’ve been told.”
Sunset placed her arm around Twilight’s shoulders and said, “Don’t worry. I’m sure we can handle anything that comes our way.”
“Well, we still have some more unpacking, if you want to help us,” Shining Armor recommended.
“Sure thing.”
So all of them went to help unload all of Twilight’s belongings into their room before removing Sunset motorbike from Luna’s caravan to the parking area. As they we busy unpacking, there was a knock at the bathroom door. Realizing that it was their neighbors, Sunset went over to introduce herself to them. But when she opened the door, she was met by a familiar blonde haired farm girl.
“Well I’ll be. I never expected to have you as my neighbor so soon, Sunset.”
“Applejack! So you’re living next door to me?”
“Sure thing.” Applejack looked into the room to see the others. “Twilight. Miss Luna.”
“Well Twilight, Sunset. It looks like your first year in college will be much easier to get through,” said Luna.
“I wouldn’t go that far,” replied Applejack.
She looked back to her room, which the others looked along with her. A girl with glasses and light blue hair in pigtails started to stick her head out. It was a girl that they were familiar with.
“Sugarcoat?”
“Hello… Twilight.” Sugarcoat was a bit nervous in seeing Twilight again since the Friendship Games.
Sunset gave Applejack a confused look on her face. “How did you get her as your roommate?”
“I was wondering that myself. But I’m not sure this is the same Sugarcoat that we saw back then.”
“How come?” asked Sunset.
Twilight walked up to Sugarcoat. “Is everything OK? I heard that you made Valedictorian in your class at CPA.”
“I heard the same thing about you at CHS.” Sugarcoat rubbed the back of her head. “But things haven’t been the same since you left.”
Twilight looked at her. “What are you saying?”
Cadence decided to intervene. “How about we forget about what happen back then and just focus on college, right?”
“Yea. We still need to finish unpacking, right?” Luna added.
Sunset was curious about what they were trying to hide, but decided to let it go for now. All of them went back to finish unpacking all of their items. When they were done, Sunset, Twilight, and Spike said their goodbyes before Luna, Cadence, and Shining Armor left the campus grounds. Now it was just Sunset, Twilight, Spike, Applejack, and Sugarcoat in the same room.
Sugarcoat decided to ask Twilight, “So… you have magic that you can control, right?”
“That’s right. Midnight Sparkle is no more. And I have my friends to thank for that.”
“Well, Applejack said to you can… levitate items?”
“Weird, isn’t it. Let me show you.”
Twilight decided to use a big poster of elements to display her new magic to Sugarcoat. She raised her hands and created a magical aura around the poster and rolled it out and stuck it on the wall with some sticky tabs. While that was going on, Sunset and Applejack were at the other side of the room.
“Is it just me, or is Sugarcoat hiding something from us,” Sunset whispered to Applejack.
She whispered back. “I was thinking the same thing, but I didn’t want to pry into her life. Maybe you can use your magical powers and see what she could be hiding?”
“I really don’t want to abuse my magic unless it was necessary. Besides, Miss Luna said that most of the people on campus don’t know about our magic, so maybe we should just leave it be for now. Besides, we have to make sure that the RA doesn’t even know about Spike in our room.”
“I hear you there.”
Twilight just finished showing off her magic to Sugarcoat.
“And that’s how it works,” said Twilight. “I was scared that Midnight Sparkle was responsible for all this, but now we have new magic that can help others out.”
“But aren’t you afraid that someone will pressure you to use it for the wrong reasons? I mean, after what we did to you at the Friendship Games, I’m sure someone would see that you have it and-”
“That won’t happen,” Sunset interrupted and she and Applejack joined the others. “We plan to keep in unknown out in the world. Only those closest to us know about what we have, and we need to keep it that way.”
“Besides, we’re in college,” Applejack said. “No sense having to worry about any magic happening around us.”
“I’m not so sure about that,” Sunset said. “Twilight thinks there could be more magical stuff that was left in this world.”
Sugarcoat looked at Twilight and asked, “Is that so?”
“I think she was talking about Princess Twilight… from the other world. You know, where all those tears that Midnight Sparkle created? Sunset talks to her with a book that links this world to the other world.”
Applejack asked, “If that’s the case, how do we know when and where they could happen?”
“Glad you asked.” Twilight went into a box and pulled out a broken purple locket.
“Isn’t that the locket that took all the magic that turned you into Midnight Sparkle when we forced you to unleashed the magic which Sunset also used to do the same and turn herself into Daydream Shimmer so that she can stop you from destroying our world with all those tears in reality?” Sugarcoat said matter of fact.
“Now there’s the Sugarcoat that we remember,” Applejack replied.
“Well, it is,” Twilight replied. “I’m hoping that the chip still works once I put it back in this.” She pulled out a device that looked like some kind of meter. “It’s a P.K.E. meter. It’s short for Psychokinetic Energy. If it still works, we might be able to pick up any traces of Equestrian magic.”
Applejack asked, “And if it doesn’t work?”
“Well… to be honest, I really don’t know,” Twilight replied. “I haven’t worked on this stuff since it was damaged at the Friendship Games. So it’s been a long time since I’ve done this. Ever since what happened to me back then, I’ve been trying to avoid it all.”
“But after what happened at Camp Everfree, that’s all in the past,” Spike added.
“Thanks, Spike. Now I know I’m part of a team, and I’m going to do my part to help out.”
“And we’ll be here to help as well,” Sunset said. “But since we’re on campus grounds, maybe we should just focus on working on our majors here.”
Sugarcoat asked, “If you’re from another world, why did you stay here after high school?”
“I’m working on majoring in psychology,” Sunset replied. “I’m hoping that it can be helpful when I return to Equestria, if I decide to return.”
Before they could go on with their discussion, there was a faint sound of what was to be loud music coming from outside the room. Applejack went and opened the door, only for the music to be echoed all the way down the hallway.
“What in tarnation is that racket?” Applejack yelled.
“You think that could be Rainbow Dash playing that music?” Sunset asked.
“Either that or Lemon Zest. She and some of the Shadowbolts were coming here as well, from what I remember,” Sugarcoat explained.
“I have to agree with you there. Lemon Zest would play music like that,” Twilight added.
Sunset said, “Well, there’s only one way to find out.”
All of them made sure they grabbed their keys and left the room to find out who was playing the loud music.