Watching the stars at night soothed my feelings as the past few days have been mentally exhausting from all the school’s activities I have helped put in order. What pleased me the most was able to see the constellations in the sky, just like in my world, albeit very slightly different in forms. Imaginary lines that connected the starry dots in the heavens, forming infinite figures and giving me small, entertaining challenges to my imagination, was there a better way to spend the last minutes of your day than this?
Admiring the stars on the rooftop of my apartment just added to the prettiness of the view… Hard to believe that the place I was living now was Vice-Principal Luna’s old storage room, full of trophies and antiquities like a vinyl disc player that reminded me of my world. Things that she kindly lent me to use them when I wanted after we cleaned the place. It looked like ages since I moved here from the gym’s closet from CHS.
I don’t know what would have happened if they haven’t gave me a place to call… home.
That was another reason to try harder on becoming the girl they expected from me. Reformed, changed for the better. I won’t give up, and I’ll do it for them, and more importantly, I’ll do it for me.
My past is not today.
As I grabbed my phone to put the alarm at eight in the morning, I marveled once again at the device I was holding in my hand. I may be used to it by now, but the technology from here almost make it seem that we ponies live in the dark ages, even when life expectancy and building architectures are as efficient as this world.
There is steam power, music, electricity and many more sources of energy that are shared in this world with mine… but it lacks magic, reliable magic, and sometimes I missed that. To be able to grab things with my thoughts, to perform spells to make things bend to my will. Becoming a better students in the magic arts was still my long-desired wish. But… I won’t deny that I love my phone now that I have many friends to share silly videos. I want an owl, and watching them online makes the desire grow strongly. But I don’t have the money to keep one, and in this world there are laws that prohibit petting them easily.
Fluttershy may know a way around it but I won’t trouble her with my silly wish.
Speaking of money, I forgot to check my weekly expenses. I took a look at them in my phone’s notepad app and I was relieved to see that my expenses were made efficiently like always. Thank goodness that Principal Celestia was able to get me a part-time job to compensate for my lack of tutors in this world. And giving that both sisters allowed me to stay here free of charge, I felt… They may be more similar to the Princess I once wanted to surpass.
I’m truly grateful that the Sisters of Fate gave me a second chance to start over.
Doing math tutorials for the elementary schools isn’t well paid for a part-time job, but it pays my needs and minor luxuries well enough, and it gave me a higher feeling of satisfaction than stealing money from the students. Not to mention that they are too easy to do, so it’s quick money. But that bore the feeling that I definitely missed my days as a filly on the castle. The only thing I needed to worry about was my performance in magic school, and Princess Celestia always paid for everything... Even the cake. This apartment could be considered another kind of cake, one that I definitely won’t misprize this time, ever.
But no point in complaining for the past that won’t come back. For now, I just want to relax. I just want to see the stars.
“The Orion Belt is shinier today.” I mumbled.
“Indeed it is!”
Coming from the outside staircase, the Princess of Friendship sat down at my side and looked above the stars. A tender breeze graced us, and soon we shared the same view.
“That looks like the Urza Major.”
“More like Canis Major. In this world, the Urza is… um, there.”
“Oh, I see it now!”
“…I thought you were asleep by now.”
“Spike didn’t take that long to do so but I couldn’t. Not after our intense battle for supremacy in the Magic History Card Game! I’m still a little pumped because it was too much fun!”
“I’m glad to know that what I learned under Princess Celestia’s tutelage is still relevant in my memory!”
“You and Starlight Glimmer were my hardest challengers yet. Nobody has given me so much trouble like you!”
“Well, I happen to be a very competitive pony.” I gloated a little.
“That’s exactly what Starlight said as well. Luckily, I was able to humble you through a graceful victory!” She smiled widely.
“You won by a difference of twenty two points.” I said dryly. “Even Spike threw up the match and started reading his comics.”
“I know. Sometimes I think that some ponies don’t appreciate what good fun is all about.” She crossed her arms in indignation.
“You and me both. Physical competitions are nice but sometimes putting your brain to the edge is where the real challenge is!”
“Hehehe! I knew you would understand… I wish more ponies enjoyed these kind of games as well.”
“But what about Starlight?”
“She gets bored quickly, even when she is about to win. But how can I blame her? She has great talent, that one. Sometimes I think she has greater prowess in creating new spells than me.”
“I still can’t believe that she was able to brainwash your friends to make things ‘funnier’. That speaks volumes of her talent.”
“When she was evil, her spell to remove cutie marks was something considered impossible. Then again, the zebras have magical potions that gives you artificial cutie marks… with disastrous results.” She rolled her eyes in dismay.
“There are still many things to research about magic.” I said with a bit of melancholy. “But at least it’s a beautiful, intriguing science!”
“I can agree to that. For now, just focus on the learning more about friendship.”
“Yes, your royal highness, the Princess of Friendship!” I saluted to her.
“Stop it!” She giggled.
“Speaking of friendship, are you ready for tomorrow?”
“The excitement of the adventure I’ll have tomorrow is making me worry if I memorized efficiently my counterpart’s differences! I mean, we are equal in the core, I noticed it during my last talk with her on Applejack’s home, but things work differently here. I was amazed by the number of projects she has being doing lately.” She read some of her notes she brought with her. “Il Rinascimento Bibliotecario is the name of the library data base, right? Oh, there are many things to memorize!”
“There aren’t many, really. You should relax, everything is going to be just fine.”
“I hope so. The bonds that Sci-Twi has is something I don’t want to damage.” She sighed deeply. “I thought we shared a good moment together that night… but perhaps it was too short to consider it memorable.”
“You’ll find a way to see through the ‘little buts’ in the relationship and make things work between you and the others… and me. You have a big knack for that.”
“Don’t make me commit the mistake I did the last time during our battle against the Dazzlings!”
“Yeah, you’re right.” I said in thought. “After all, it was I who saved you all!” I said jokingly in an arrogant manner.
“Ha, ha. Very funny, Sunset Shimmer!” She said with a playful grin.
“Hehehe! But talking seriously, it was a team effort. We all played our part, we just needed to find the answer to do so correctly.”
“And at that moment, it was you who we needed the most.”
I couldn’t help but blush at her compliment.
“Thanks, it’s what the girls say as well.”
“You have come a long way since the first time I met you last year… One year. I still can’t believe that much time has passed already. At this pace, you will no longer need me for anything… Perhaps you don’t need me at all and I’m just… holding you back.” She said with mature, straight face, gazing at the stars with dreamy eyes.
“That’s not true. I still have lots to learn... of you.”
“Don’t be silly. I know what I’m talking about. You’ll become what Princess Celestia expected of you. I just know.”
“But… sometimes I don’t feel that I have made any progress.”
“Why?”
“Because Friendship is a vast field, just like its magic. I want to make magic functional here like it does in our world! Magic is a big science, but unlike in Equestria where you can make it your own, spent thousand hours researching new and useful spells with scientific bases, in this world it is random, no matter how much of our world’s theories I pour during my investigations, even if we know how to activate it now!””
“I think that it will be a long shot before that happens! I mean, it took a powerful source like the Elements of Harmony to awaken you inner magic in this world. But don’t be disappointed by it! You really made a great discovery in finding the trigger to summon magic here! I still amaze myself on why I didn’t think that being your true self was the answer! That was practically the reason on how I summoned the Elements in the first place with my friends to defeat Nightmare Moon during our first encounter with her!”
“Yeah… it’s just that although it’s kinda cool that magic is random and you don’t know what will really happen when you activate it, sometimes a reliable source to depend upon wouldn’t be so bad. You know, don’t Pony-Up when we show our true colors while helping people. It causes trouble to some, like Principal Celestia with the ever harsh Principal Cinch.”
“But we managed to do a perfectly controlled spell last time! I believe that the end result was better than the original work you made before!”
“It sure it was! Not only the stuff were repaired, they were prettier and more functional and I just want to repeat the process again! The guys at the school loved it… but I think not everyone liked it.”
“What do you mean?”
“A few days ago, when I got inside the gym hall, some of the students looked at me… weirdly. I thought it was my imagination, but few of them gave me the cold look.”
“It must be your imagination. Some of you are still behind schedule, aren’t you?”
“Not by much but yeah… that must be it. It’s just stress.”
“Don't be depressed. Let's change the subject. So... Tell me... I noticed something different on your desktop during this visit… I have a hunch that you tried to do the spell on your own, didn’t you?”
Oops.
“I don’t know what are you talking about.”
“The mouse isn’t connected to the computer.”
“It broke.”
She frowned. “You tried the spell on your mouse.”
“Eh, no?”
“I also noticed a broken window fixed with duct tape. Care to explain what happened?”
"It was a cat."
"Cats don't have the physical strength to do that kind of mess."
"Here cats are way stronger, hehe, you know that, right?"
"Sunset."
I sighed in defeat. “The results were undesirable. I need to buy a new mouse."
“You broke it on purpose, didn’t you?”
“Of course not.” She gave me a funny look. “Fine, I might wanted to test the spell on smaller scale objects. For scientific purposes, of course.”
“And the window?”
“I exploded when I assumed the Pony-Up state by mistake, and the shockwave was strong enough to leave my place… uh, messy?”
“Interesting.”
“Yeah.”
“But why?”
“Well, I want to save money in the future.”
“Any specific reason?”
“Buy new hardware for my magic research. I won’t give up. We know we activate our magic on this side by being ourselves, our emotions reaching their peak, and we can somewhat control it when we think negatively, but at what potency do we really summon the magic? As you know, magic power is not the same for all unicorns back home. Some are more potent and eager than others, but here, rules don’t apply, as we proved when we united our magic to perform the spell. But the strength of the magic within is a mystery. For example, when we Pony-Up, in theory, Rarity should have stronger magic than Pinkie Pie because her other self is an unicorn and Pinkie’s counterpart is an earth pony, right?”
“You would be right if it weren’t that Pinkie – I hope she stopped with her party canon prank by Sunday evening!” She mumbled.
“Party canon prank?”
“Just forget I mentioned that. Anyway, she does possess stronger passive magical capabilities than the average earth pony. She was able to keep with Rainbow’s top speed during the first time we wanted to celebrate her birthday… She is a nightmare to deal with sometimes.”
“But it could be possible to measure it with the proper equipment to determine if my theory is correct in this world. I tried to measure it with some improvised equipment I created before the Friendship Games started but it didn’t give me concrete data. The closes thing that gave me any kind of useful data was Sci-Twi’s device, but it only detects the proximity of a magic source and absorbs it as a side of effect of the red diamond she used as the core of the device.”
“As you may know, certain crystals are able to hold a bit of magic depending on the material’s quality. Her red diamond must have been of immense quality to being able to hold all that magic you described afterwards. Even so, I'm amazed that Sci-Twi was able to came up with that device."
"More proof that you're truly similar to each other!"
She smiled kindly to that. "That's incredible indeed! But what happened to the diamond?”
“Busted into pieces. Most of it was truly shattered and useless after I managed to seal Sci-Twi’s powers.”
“I have a question regarding that. Did you feel that the Elements guided you during the process?”
“Now that you mention it, yeah! …It was like someone was holding my hand during the process. It felt different compared to the time we used it on the Dazzlings. With them, we destroyed their gems.”
“I knew I wasn’t the only one. My friends said the same after each time we used the Elements, but since there aren’t negative effects, we don’t talk about it.”
“You don’t have curiosity about them? Study them, perhaps?”
“Princess Celestia told me that it would be futile to make a research on them. Their powers are for the good of Equestria and even Discord admitted that they have an aura of divinity that shouldn't be messed with. That’s enough for me to not put my muzzle where it doesn’t belong."
"If the God of Chaos said it as well, then it's for a reason."
"What about the girls from here?”
“The girls, besides acquiring magical powers, haven’t experienced the guidance. Perhaps only real residents from Equestria can feel that. I wish I have something that could be useful here for my investigations.”
“What you truly want is a new diamond. That is why you really took the part time job as Principal Celestia’s assistant recently and tried to test the spell to see if you could fix the diamond as well.”
“It is insanely expensive in this world. And I believe finding one in Equestria is hard as well. Here is most of the rubble of what was left of it. I keep it with me in case I have the same luck as Sci-Twi in the future.”
“This diamond…! Where did she get this?”
“She won it on a fair in Saddle Arabia during a family trip many years ago. Is it like our gems in our world?”
“No. Gems are one thing, but this!?”
“You sound pretty excited. Is the material really rare?”
“Immensely. I don’t know where they get them here, but in Equestria, dragons spend hundreds of years to make one. I had the privilege to see two of these up-close. One was the Bloodstone Scepter, a symbol of power for the dragons. Pretty powerful relic. And the other is the Alicorn Amulet, made of such material as well. But it’s cursed and rends the user practically evil and unreasonable, so I had to confiscate it.”
“So many wonderful magic artifacts.”
“So little time to study them properly.”
We shared a long giggle.
“Do you think it can be repaired? Sci-Twi just kept the biggest chunk to keep functional her magic detector. Not big enough for the project I have in mind.”
“If it is like in our world, no. I believe trying to put strong magic in it would only result in the diamond absorbing the power and then disintegrating from the magic overload. But we could try tomorrow if you want.”
“I knew you would say that. Let’s try the Repairing Spell on it.”
“Worst case scenario is that it will end up becoming dust!”
“That… makes me worried now.”
“Don’t be. But let’s get back to the ponies’ magic traits subject. That picked your interest, right?”
“Don’t gonna lie, a little update to my knowledge would be nice!”
“With the exception of unicorn magic and the ability to fly from the pegasi, there are times where a pony from any tribe can actually match the prowess of one of the others. A unicorn or a pegasi can be as strong as an earth pony, and an earth pony could be as nimble as a pegasi and have an affinity to sense magic like an adept unicorn.”
“Like Pinkie?”
“Pinkie is… different… Who I am kidding? She is scientifically impossible sometimes!! I tried countless scientific test on her to no avail. On the other hand, for example, Fluttershy as pegasi has proven time after time to possess the gift of communicating with animals, something that an earth pony has an easier time mastering if he proposes to do it. And because they always compete all the time and it gave me sufficient data to make a conclusion, Rainbow is as strong as Applejack in some physical tests and Applejack is as nimble as Rainbow. It is true that ponies mastering other talents is weird to hear at first, but is not an oddity, really. And as you know, an earth pony can give birth to an unicorn if one of the parents has a family ancestor that was one. Becoming an alicorn myself just strengthened those theories.”
“What does it feel to become one?”
“Weird, really. I was dizzy at first. My magic became stronger, my body became more resilient and flying was harder than you would expect at first. But Cadence told me it was natural, saying that I should try to focus on improving my new abilities to make the best of them.”
“You spend most of your time reading, solving Friendship Problems and your talents are rusty.”
“And I gained some weight recently.” She said a little embarrassed. “Not to insult Starlight’s obvious talent and yours but an alicorn should have superior magic command than any unicorn.”
“What about Rarity’s talents? You didn’t mention hers.”
“She knows wrestling moves and won a tournament with Cheerilee … I don’t think I need to explain more. Diamante Elegante, such an extravagant name she used on the stage… her brutality wasn’t elegant at all. I admit that I was on the fire of excitement during the match, though.”
“That would explain her outbursts of physical energy. There is really a connection between counterparts in the core essence. So back to square one on my research if the diamond can’t be repaired, I guess.”
“I don’t want to demotivate you, after all, you are a great researcher as well, given your limited tools at your disposal. But I think that you would need a powerful medium to channel your latent magic, just like the Dazzlings did with their jewels, to make magic like ours.”
“Speaking of the sirens, I wonder what happened to them? Nobody knows where they are.”
“That is something that I have wondered myself every day, even if it’s for just a moment. Their pendants were they source of life and magic, but there is no research of what would happen to a siren if she lost her gem.”
“Hopefully, they found some help, just like I did. This world’s people can be nice… but not like back home.”
“Well, Equestria can have its share of troublemakers and ancient evils to be worried about, so I believe that evil is everywhere. We just need to think positively that they are fine.”
“Maybe you are right… They are fine and well, I’m sure of it.”
“That’s the attitude. But it wouldn’t hurt to look for them in the future.”
“Yeah.”
Silence suddenly embraced us in a welcoming manner. I wanted to keep talking, but it was getting pretty late, and tomorrow would be busy. After admiring the stars for a long time, I took a quick peek at Twilight’s persona. She was reading her notes diligently, not wanting to miss any detail for tomorrow’s mission. She may have some quirks here and there, but she is so dedicated in her studies. Persistent, always chasing for answers and not stopping until she founds what she wished to discover.
She was a beautiful mare… Pretty interesting too.
“Ok. I think I finally nailed everything about Sci-Twi’s quirks. Now, tell me a little about the guys I will go with. I know some of them, but only my world’s versions.”
“Well, there is only good things to say about the rest. Bon Bon isn’t necessary to talk about since she will protect you, and Lyra is a sweetheart, so don’t worry about her either. Soarin is incredibly polite and humble. Octavia is quite and sometimes I think she is a cold and a loner, but not in a bad way. She is a good friend of Vinyl Scratch so perhaps she is just selective with her friendships. Thunderbass is a nice guy and Flash’s best friend.”
“Flash Sentry’s best friend?” She blushed rather girlish.
“You still after him?”
“Uh, no!” Now it was my turn to give her the funny look. “I’m just curious how is he doing in life, that’s all!”
“Yeah, I’ll believe you.”
“You could be a little more, I don’t know, merciful.”
“No. It’s funny.”
“Sunset!”
“Alright, alright!”
“So… Sci-Twi hasn’t taken a liking to…”
“I believe they dated once.”
“WHAT!?”
“Quiet!”
The scream of my neighbor’s husband took the heart of us, followed by a fierce sound of a window closing.
“Are we in trouble?”
“As long as someone doesn’t gets too excited, no.”
“Sorry.”
“And answering your obvious question, Flash dated her, yes, but it wasn’t serious and they don’t talk often… but…”
“Oh… he got a new girl, right?”
“…Twilight.” I grabbed her hands. “I don’t know what happened between Sci-Twi and him with full detail, and you are my most… treasured friend, I just want the best for you. If Flash had any partner or something, I would have told you by now.” I gave her a small chuckle. “Besides, if she really had a girlfriend by now, it would have been a school news. So… I have faith you still have the chance.”
“Tell me truth, is this even right?”
“…When… When we…” I sighed a little remorseful. “Remember that time I mentioned you during our journal sessions that I went to a bowling center with Flash and the others? I omitted some parts of what happened… You see, Flash is a guy who needs to be with the one he loves all the time possible. Or at least have some sort of constant communication. And well, you don’t visit often this world to make a strong knot with him.”
“Princess Celestia told me the same thing a while back. She experienced something similar with another world’s version of King Sombra… It didn’t end well…”
I wanted to ask about that… but something told me that it wasn’t the best moment.
“Perhaps I can ask Bittersweet if she knows something about Flash and Sci-Twi. Not to say that she wouldn’t leave me in the dark and only tell him what’s going on, but I can try to ask her tomorrow before the slumber party.”
“Thanks! She will come, right?”
“I’ll call her tomorrow but I’m sure she’ll come.”
“Perfect! If the Sombra of our world could be redeemed and found happiness with Radiant Hope, then perhaps… I won’t lose!”
“That’s the attitude!”
“Yeah! I will stay positive and fight for my dreams!”
“And I will find my way to spread the Magic of Friendship in this world!”
We held our hands together, and something inside of me ignited a warm fire that was quickly spreading through my body. The feeling was mutual, as we both chanted at the same time, “Friendship will guide us through our darkest hours! We’ll always be together, because…” An explosion of red and purple soared into the sky, both of us no longer being able to contain the magic within us. “WE HAVE THE MOST POWERFUL MAGIC OF ALL! THE MAGIC OF-!”
“SOMEONE SHUT THEM UP!”
“YOU SHUT UP!”
“QUIET, ALL OF YOU!”
“LET US SLEEP!”
“PEOPLE WORK TOMORROW HERE!”
“WHO DARES TO INTERRUPT MY SLUMBER!?”
“SHUT UP, LUNA!!!”
“YOU SHUT UP!!!”
We quickly powered down by instinct and drowned ourselves in an embarrassment so deep and cold that our troubled, blushing faces wanted to bury themselves in the deepest depths of Tartarus. Dogs were barking, neighbors were fighting. I recognized the voice of the last two yells. Vice-Principal Luna and Principal Celestia weren’t merciful souls during mornings when their sleep is interrupted.
We… decided it was for the best to go inside and sleep now.