Implying that someone "saw a ghost" was usually meant as an exaggeration. There was no such thing as ghosts, or so she thought at least until she started sharing a room with a living, breathing and, currently motionless magical girl. Since appearing in the room, Sunset Shimmer didn't say a word, not loud enough to heard, at least. She sat on her knees for what was about a minute already, shaking, sweating and breathing heavily, barely keeping herself from collapsing.
"Sunset, please, what's happening? Are you hurt? Did something happen?"
No answer. She remained like this for a while longer, barely registering anything that happened outside of her mind, when...
"EEEK!" She jumped back, hitting her head on the wall behind her. As one hand massaged the bump on the back of her head, the other touched her freezing cheek. "Coco! What the hell?"
The smaller girl didn't answer immediately, but sat right in front of her roommate, opened the can of soda and handed it to Sunset Shimmer. "Drink this," she offered, her voice more caring than authoritative, though there was some power in that sentence "calm down and start from the beginning. What's going on?"
Sunset Shimmer blinked, then snorted. By my own sword... Gently smiling, she accepted the drink, took a sip and started her story.
***
The doorbell to the Sugar-cube Corner rang violently, as five girls rushed inside, quickly finding their two friends already sitting at the table, both with their drinks already on the table.
"Oh my gosh, Sunset," Rarity was the first one to approach their fiery haired friend "we saw everything on TV! Darling, are you alright?"
Sunset blinked, feeling a bit overwhelmed by five sets of eyes glaring at her. She swallowed and shook her head. "No, I'm all right. The important thing is, we saw her! We saw my--"
"We know," Rarity interrupted her "Twilight told us that much. You didn't get into fight with her or anything, did you?"
Sunset blinked. Two thoughts crossed her mind. Why would they assume I had a fight with my double? The second thought had something to do with her purple friend. When met with a questioning gaze, Twilight shrugged.
"Umm, I wasn't supposed to tell them that?"
Sunset rolled her eyes. In hindsight, she could've specified what she meant when she told her to 'contact the others'. "Nah, I was going to tell them anyway. We found my 'clone', this time I have a proof and witness that it wasn't me! She even dropped--" She was about to reach out for the shades and beret, when Rarity raised her open palm near her face.
"Sunset, darling, let me stop you right there! Before you say anything else, we," she looked around at the other four, getting nods of approval before continuing "we all owe you an apology."
Sunset blinked. And once again. "It's okay, that's not really necessary. You had all the right to think I was doing something--"
Rarity slammed her hands on the table. "On the contrary! We jumped to conclusions and made our judgment before listening to what you had to say. That's not something a friend would do!"
While Sunset processed the speech, Applejack joined in. "We should'a trusted you from da beginning. The Sunset Shimmer we knew wouldn't hahd somethin' so big from any of us."
"And even if," Rainbow Dash added "for some weird reason, you were a magical girl fighting crime without our knowledge..." she scratched the back of her neck "that's not our business. We should've trusted you were doing the right thing."
Fluttershy nodded and also added. "Whatever you decide to do with your life, we trust your judgment and will always support your decisions." She paused, then turned slightly away, flock of her hair hiding half of her face "Unless you decide to go evil again, then we would've stopped you with the power of friendship and try to make you good again, but I doubt we will ever need to go that far and I really hope I didn't just jinx it by saying it out loud... meep!"
Pinkie Pie just nodded happily. "I have nothing to add!" She gladly exclaimed.
"That said, just after you left," Rarity took out a stack of neatly organized papers from her purse and put them at the table before Sunset "after you left with Twilight to conduct your investigation, we decided to skip on the classes as well. I wasn't exaggerating when I said that dresses like hers don't come from thrift stores. It got me thinking, so Fluttershy and I checked online for stores that sell the fabrics I could recognize from the pictures. It's not something a good designer worth their money would be buying online, it has to be hand picked."
"We managed to narrow it down to nine," Fluttershy added happily "it's still a lot and the other Sunset could be any staff or clients or maybe even stealing some of it, or using an accomplice, but it's something, I guess?"
"And while they were doing this," Rainbow chimed in "I went with Applejack..."
"Applejack and I..."
"WE went and asked around the street. Turns out there are a few thugs that were beaten up by a girl in a shiny dress."
"We had ta rough a few of'em a bit," Applejack shrugged "no biggie. We didn' found much, but we know she knows kung fu."
"Technically it was karate."
"Same thing."
"So are apples and pears?"
"NOW YOU TAKE THAT BACK!"
"And while they were looking for clues," Pinkie Pie interjected her two friends who were at their "fight or kiss" phase and took out a device out of her hair. It resembled a pink squirt gun, except with a lot of odd machinery around it "I modified my Portable Pink Party Pistol (trademark pending) to shoot cinnamon dough instead of confetti!"
Other than the two feuding tomboys, the rest of the table looked around each other in confusion, until Twilight Sparkle was the first one to ask. "Why dough?"
"Not just any dough! It's a special granny Pie recipe, modified by yours truly! Once it lands on something, it will harden into a giant cookie that's as hard as a stone in a manner of seconds! Not very effective if your enemy has metal teeth and a sweet tooth, but it might buy you a few seconds." She beamed.
Rarity sniffed the air around. "By any chance, is that the same recipe we had on your last birthday?" She received an enthusiastic nods as an answer. "That explains the cinnamon aroma."
Sunset blinked at the odd device and it's beaming inventor. "That's... convenient?" She smiled sheepishly and scratched her head, as she looked at the PPPP and the papers with a huge smile. "You did all of that... for me?" She got the attention of all of the Rainbooms (and Twilight Sparkle), and received a huge wave of nods and smiles. Which made her eyes teary for no reason at all. "Y-you guys are the best!"
Among the mass "d'awwws", Pinkie Pie beamed. "Girls, you know what this calls for?"
"Pinkie, there are times when a party isn't--"
"I meant an obligatory group hug! Party later!" She extended her hands and soul, inviting every single one of her confused friends inside. "Don't leave me hangin'!"
Other girls looked at each other, then shrugged. Just as the Rainbooms were going to join as one (platonic!), they stopped and looked at the only one left at the table.
Twilight Sparkle blinked. "W-what?" Six glares looked at her expectantly. She gasped once the realization hit her. "N-no! G-go on without me, I-I wasn't even involved in most of your adventures, so I shouldn't--"
They dragged her by force. She complained only for the first minute. Or two.
***
"... it's like I was looking into a mirror, except with different clothes. Speaking of which," Sunsets eyes narrowed "you were totally wrong! She was rocking that jacket like it's nobodies business!"
Now it was time for Coco to roll her eyes. "I'll believe it when I see it, the jacket, not the doppelganger, I mean" she shook her head "anyway, do you have any idea who it is? Maybe it's, I dunno... your long lost twin sister?"
Sunset shook her head. "Nope. I doubt any of my relatives have a girl my age. Who looks the same and has the exact same name."
Coco nodded. She remember Sunset mentioning the purple girl who called the jacket Sunset by full name. "Okay," she hummed for a while, staring at the ceiling for inspiration "a genetically engineered clone, then?" She earned herself a suspicious glare. "A time traveling you from future or past? Look, I know it's cliche, but I've been making costumes for a superhero for last few days. It's not that far away from the norm."
Sunset hummed, before groaning loudly. "Damn, I can't argue with that! Great, just perfect! My existence opened the floodgates for every possible superhero origin ever!" She slumped back on her bed with a thud.
Coco put a finger to her chin, thinking for a moment. "Your life became a typical Saturday morning cartoon."
She sat back to look into Coco's eyes with deadpan expression. "My life's always been a Saturday morning cartoon."
Coco snorted and nodded. After a short moment of thinking, she made another suggestion. "Maybe it's a parallel universe thing?" This comment earned her an annoyed, raised eyebrow. "You know, there are unlimited versions of reality, and a new one is created whenever someone makes a different decision, like a--"
"I know what that is," she rolled her eyes "so she's me, but from another universe?"
"To simplify it, yes."
Sunset blinked, then snorted. "Miss Pommel, I admire your dressmaking skills, intelligence, pop-culture references out of nowhere (who knew you were such a nerd?) and cute embarrassed reactions," Coco 'meeped' and turned her red face away "yes, like this one, but this has got to be the dumbest theory you had so far."
"B-but... you can use ma--" Coco's argument stopped when a finger touched her lips.
"Oh no, you don't!" Said Sunset right after teleporting before her friend. "Don't even try to insert the age old 'you have powers, so everything is possible' spiel. Just because I know a few neat tricks doesn't mean we get to insert alternative realities, aliens, ESP-ers, Loch Ness Monster and magical land of fairies and unicorns! At least not until season 2."
In response, Coco slouched back on her bed (if only to put distance between her face and Sunsets finger) and crossed her arms, pouting. "At least I'm trying to figure her out. If you think my theories are stupid, I want to see you try better!"
Sunset raised her finger up to say something, but quickly lowered it as she watched her clearly offended roommate. She stepped backwards and sighed heavily. "Sorry, I got carried away, I just... I'm still a bit shaken from seeing my... copycat. If I should vent, it should be on her."
Coco turned to Sunny, her face mellowing slightly. "It's fine."
Nodding gratefully, Sunset Shimmer started walking circles around their room, pondering quietly, though loud enough that Coco could hear everything. "I think we're looking at it from the wrong perspective. I've only seen her for about a few seconds and it really doesn't matter where or when she's from..." She gasped, turning to Coco with wide eyes and wider smile. "Why didn't I think of it sooner?"
"Think of what?"
"I know who she is!"
"You do?"
"You bet I do! She is..."
Coco leaned over her and swallowed in anticipation, as Sunset slowly uttered her next sentence.
"...a supervillain!"
About ten seconds passed. Coco blinked.
***
"I mean, what else makes sense?" Rainbow Dash asked. "She has to be you from this dimension, right?"
Sunset Shimmer shook her head, still drawing circles with her finger on her doppelgangers beret. "No, she can't be. There's something else to her."
"Hold on a minute," Applejack interjected "how can you be so sure of that?"
"Come to think of it," Twilight touched her chin in thought "you were quick to dismiss that possibility when I first mentioned it. Is there something I... we don't know?"
All eyes focused on Sunset, except Pinkie Pie's, who went for another slushie, though she joined them soon after. The fiery haired girl's focus was on the beret for the time being, but being drilled by stares eventually caught her attention. She shrugged before answering. "I know where this world's Sunset Shimmer is. And believe me, she's in no condition to fight crime, with or without magic."
A moment passed. Everyone blinked, then nodded.
"Okay, Ah guess that's fair."
"I-If you say so."
"Back to square one."
"Worth a shot."
"In that case we need to figuNOW WAIT JUST A MINUTE HERE!" Rarity slammed her hands on the table, spooking everyone, including making Pinkie Pie spit-take her slushie right in Fluttershies and Rainbow Dash's faces. "What do you mean you know where this world's Sunset Shimmer is?!"
Sunset blinked, then looked around her shocked, two partially wet and one chocking friends. "Didn't I tell you?"
"NO!" Everyone (except Pinkie, who still hasn't recovered) yelled back.
"Oh..." Sunset laughed sheepishly, scratching her head "must've slipped my mind... hehe... whoops." She coughed a few times, giving Pinkie time to do the same to recover and listen to her story without the lack of information. Once ready, she begun. "Shortly after I got used to having two legs, no hooves, no horn and full clothes (the same ones I wore most of my time in CHS), I started noticing many strange parallels to Equestria. Names of places, celebrities, Principal Celestia (and Luna too, I guess) being a carbon copy of Princess Celestia (and Luna). So I did what most ponies/people would do and I started looking for myself, out of sheer curiosity, not that I had any sinister plans towards myself or anything," she coughed again, trying to pretend she didn't see the confused/suspicious glares she was getting "and I eventually found me. Her. My other self..." she paused for a moment, building up her courage and tension in the air, as all of her friends leaned closer, each swallowing and awaiting the answer.
"Sunset Shimmer of this world..."
Long pause.
"...is dead."
***
"What."
"A supervillain! It only makes sense!"
Coco blinked again. Her head tilted. "I'm not sure I follow?"
"Think, Coco! Think back to every comic or tv show or book or whatever. What happens when a main hero or heroine gets some magical powers out of nowhere?" She paused, in case Coco had the answer. Few seconds after she didn't, she continued. "Someone else gets them too, of course! And by someone else, I mean, a LOT of people get them. And some of those people don't want anything to do with them, because, I dunno... they're boring normies or something? But most of them, by a huge margin... they become supervillains! I mean, who would stop them? If someone can, say, turn metal into liquid, or are bulletproof, or read peoples minds or some other overpowered, uhm, power, what's to stop the from robbing a bank? Or hurting people they don't like? Nobody, except those few gifted ones that have the power to stop them!"
"Like you?"
"Like me. And I mean, I can't be the only one who thought of becoming a superhero, right?" She gasped. "Oooh, I just imagined having a heroic team-up!" She beamed, looking in the sky. "So. Awesome!"
Fighting the battle to suppress the urge to burst her partners bubble, Coco coughed. "That doesn't explain who the other 'you' is."
"It doesn't matter who she is! All we need to know is that she took my appearance, voice and name, and that is never a good thing! She probably saw me on the internet and took my shape for... reasons. Oh crap, she's a shapeshifter! Or some copycat... huh, I wonder if my appearance is the only thing she copied? Does she have my powers? Or memories?" Her excited smile slowly turned into a frown. "Oh darn, what if she knows where I live? What if she knows who you are and uses you to get to me! That's a classic mid season plot, and my story has only just begun! I'm not ready to lose my only frie--" She stopped when a hand reached her shoulder.
"Sunset, relax," Coco's smile had a calming effect even in dire situations "we don't know any of that. Whatever happens, we'll deal with it when it comes up."
After a brief moment of silence, Sunset snorted, finally smiling halfway back to where she originally was. "Fair enough," she nodded "I guess I jumped the gun a bit, heh..."
Always glad to have her usual Sunset Shimmer back, Coco tried to change the topic. "So, how was the mission today? You didn't say a word since you came back."
The mere mention of her latest adventures perked Sunset up and released the excitement she was holding back this whole time. "Oh my gosh, that was so awesome! I mean, this was on a completely different level! The dude was like, an ex-marine or something and he almost landed a hit, and there was this girl hostage and she was so adorable and..."
***
"...d-dead?" Twilight meekly asked, to which her fiery haired friend nodded, her eyes still glued to the beret.
"Yes, dead. I made sure of that."
And then... nothing. Even though it wasn't even early evening and Sugarcube Corner was bustling with crowds, for some reason their favorite area was devoid of any sound. Sunset Shimmer sighed deeply after a while, before finally lifting her eyes from the hat of her copy, only to notice her friends acting... unusual. Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow Dash had their jaws dropped and eyes twitching nervously. Pinkie Pie was holding her mouth with both of her hands, chocking and hiccuping, as pink slushie slipped through her fingers. Twilight had her mouth opening and closing rapidly, while blinking her eyes so hard, her glasses started slipping off. And Fluttershy had, what could be best described as, a face that wanted to scream loudly, but glitched in the middle of an animation and was sitting idly with her mouth wide open, as a faint, barely audible white noise came out of it.
Sunset looked around all the wide opened eyes of her friend. "What?" She asked, getting no answers. "WHAT?"
Out of all her friends, Rainbow Dash was the first one to recover. "Sunset, I knew you were an evil bitch before Princes Twilight hit you with friendship beams, but..."
"But what?"
Rarity was second. "We all forgiven you for everything we went through because of you... but this is going too far!"
"What is going to far? What are you ta--"
"Sunset, please tell us this is a lie!" Twilight looked at her with those beady, tearful eyes. "I-it can't be, this must be a mistake... or, or... tell me it isn't so!"
"What is so? I don't--"
Fluttershies white noise intensified, as Applejack's eyes narrowed. "Ah can't believe our best friend is... is..." she swallowed "a murderer!"
Pause.
"I-I am a what?!"
"This is horrible!"
"Unbelievable!"
"N-no, it's not like tha--"
"Ah knew there was somethin' fishy 'bout ya!"
"You were lucky we didn't think of looking for other you earlier!"
Fluttershy intensified.
"B-but I didn't--"
"I don't know, should we call the police?"
"This isn't some minor friendship problem here."
"We still love you... just a bit less..."
SLAM!
"I DIDN'T KILL MYSELF!"
The echoing 'myself' was the only sound heard throughout Sugarcubes Corner, as everything around it stopped on its tracks, and every single pair of eyes turned towards the originator of said sound. And it just so happened that the place was filled to brim with Canterlot High's students, including most of their classmates. Sunset's head lowered in redness of shame and embarrassment almost under the table itself. At least Fluttershy restarted.
Twilight was the first one to speak. "Y-you didn't?" She received a timid nod from under the table. "Oh..."
"But you said 'you took care of her'," Rainbow Dash scratched her head.
"Actually," Pinkie interjected "she said 'she made sure of that' and we all assumed 'that' meant assassinating her double just to be on the safe side, while plotting how to take over CHS, gain the element of magic and turn us all into slaves and we all assumed that's how it was because Sunset Shimmer was a very bad girl before we struck her with beams of friendship and included her into our circle and helped her develop into a leader of Rainbooms." Pinkie blinked, smiling. "But 'that' probably referred just to double checking the truth."
Slowly but surely, Sunset's head raised from under the table. "W-what Pinkie said."
Rarity nodded, then looked at the onlookers in the bakery, eyes still glued at their table. "Do you mind?" Everyone still watching turned away, quickly resuming their own business. Even the background music was back on! Rarity coughed. "It seems like we developed a habit of jumping to conclusions prematurely. Sunset, darling, do go on."
After recovering from her recent embarrassment and climbing back to her seat, she continued. "Right, after I figured that this is a mirror world, I researched my name in the local library (that was before I learned about internet). That's where I found this..." she reached out for her phone and with few taps opened a picture. Everyone gathered to witness an old, vintage photo of what seemed to be a class photo from many decades ago. One particular girl stood out from the picture.
Twilight gasped. "She looks just like you!"
"Even in monochrome I can tell her hair has the same colors."
Sunset explained. "That is this worlds Sunset Shimmer in her teen years. She died of old age three years before I appeared in this world. I also tracked down her descendants in case she has a daughter or granddaughter like me, but none of them resembles me in the slightest."
A collective 'ooh' sounded in the air. "But, how is that possible?" Twilight asked.
Rainbow Dash added. "And how old exactly are you?"
"These worlds don't match up exactly, like Celestia in my world being immortal, instead of just middle-aged woman (though I wouldn't be surprised), and I'm not old enough to be a mother to any of you, and let's keep it at that!"
"Wow, that's... a lot to take in." Fluttershy said, what was probably the first coherent sentence in a long time.
"Kay, so we know who she ain't, but that don' explain who she is,"
"I have a theory," said Sunset Shimmer while pulling out a very familiar book from her backpack "but I needed to confirm a few details first, unlike some people I know," her eyes narrowed at five of her friends, who instantly turned their heads away, whistling, while Pinkie Pie waved happily "and it just so happens that I personally know an expert on the subject. The answer should be there by now."
She opened the book and flipped the pages until she got to the recently written text inside. It was two pages long block of text, most likely claw written by a particular dragon. All of it was headlined by a word she feared would strike true.
Changeling.