Sunset's available funds were starting to wear thin, so on Sunday morning, the group grabbed a quick, greasy fast-food breakfast before heading to the mall. Everybody else in Sunset's circle of friends had their own plans for Sunday, so it was just the "Equestria Club".
"So what's this 'mall' place like?" Starlight asked as they settled in on the bus.
"Huge," Sunset said. "There's...there's no real Equestrian equivalent for it." She went through her wallet, wincing. "We won't be able to do any actual shopping, but I think I can at least pop for lunch at the food court."
"Well, it's not as if we'd have any use for anything we'd buy here back in Equestria anyway," Twilight said. "Just the experience will be enough."
"Window shopping is pretty fun," Starlight said. "I've been doing a lot of that lately with...well...you know."
"So what kind of shopping are we talking about here, anyway?" Ember asked.
"Well," Sunset said thoughtfully, "about two-thirds of the stores at the mall sell clothes, shoes, and accessories. There's also some music stores, some book stores, a video game store, about five hair salons, a couple of nail salons...oh, then there's the specialty stores, the jewelry stores, that place that has all the overpriced gift baskets of smoked meats and cheeses, ummm..." She thought. "Well, the movie theater of course, and the food court..." She tilted her head. "Bunch of other places. Honestly, I only ever go to like, five stores. I mean, when I'm with the girls, we do a lot of window-shopping, but I never really pay much attention unless I see something I really want, y'know?" The bus stopped with a squeal of brakes, and Sunset looked out the window. "Well, here we are," she said.
The girls filed off the bus with about half the passengers and walked down a sidewalk flanked by a dozen evenly-spaced skinny palm trees planted in a narrow dividing island. At the intersecting curb, cars were coming and going at a steady clip. Sunset led them up another sidewalk; they emerged on an expansive concourse. The out-of-towners looked up...and up...and their jaws dropped.
"Holy cow," Starlight said, eyes wide.
"This is a store?" Moondancer gasped.
"This is a mall," Sunset said.
"It looks like a castle," Ember said, clearly impressed.
"It's bigger than any castle I've ever seen," Starlight said.
"It's bigger than Celestia's castle," Twilight added in an awed tone.
Sunset laughed. "I don't think it's that big," she said. "But it's pretty big." She frowned. "And if we get split up, it could be a problem. Hmm." She tapped her finger against her cheek. "Alright. At the main mall directory, they have mall maps you can take for free. We'll each take one. If we get split up, we'll pick a landmark in the mall, a place we can meet up." Sunset clapped her hands together and rubbed them briskly. "Alright! Let's go in."
The group approached a series of glass double doors which were admitting a steady trickle of people in either direction. There were five sets of doors in a row; when Sunset opened one door, the girls filed into a space roughly the size of Sunset's living room which was tiled with black marble, dotted with potted plants, and led to another row of glass double doors. At either end of the doors, a framed map of the mall hung on the wall; below each map was a row of free-standing wire racks boasting various colorful pamphlets. Some of them were ad circulars, some were coupon leaflets. Sunset walked over to these, scanned them briefly, and extracted several folded maps of the mall on glossy paper, which she distributed among the girls. "There," she said. Twilight and Moondancer immediately began reading the maps with interest. Ember shoved hers into her pocket, while Starlight carefully tucked hers away.
The group proceeded into the mall proper. They were greeted by garish storefronts to the left and right; the broad, open mall that stretched out seemingly endlessly before them was decorated with small islands of potted trees, wooden benches, trash receptacles, and standing ad placards. In the wide entrance atrium stood a broad concrete fountain that sprayed water several feet into the air.
"Wow," Starlight breathed. "This is a shopping center? It's more like...like some kind of plaza!"
"It's a bit of both," Sunset said.
Moondancer looked all around and drew in on herself. "So many people," she muttered.
"It...is pretty crowded," Twilight said. "Is it always like this?"
"More or less," Sunset said. "Actually, it's usually worse. Today's Sunday, Sundays are slow days at the mall."
"This is a slow day?" Starlight echoed, eyes wide as she scanned the dozens of people coming and going.
"Yeah, tons of people go to church on Sunday or just sleep in," Sunset said.
"Church?" Ember asked.
Sunset shook her head. "Not a subject I wanna get into. Let's just say it's something you probably wouldn't be interested in and leave it at that."
"I'll lend you the copy of the Holy Book I borrowed from Sunset sometime," Twilight said. "I find it fascinating, studying this world's history through religion."
"Those sound like two really boring words," Ember said. "Think I'll pass."
"I'd like to read that sometime," Moondancer said. She turned in a slow circle, taking in the closest stores. "Are we going into any of these places?"
Sunset bit her cheek, her brow furrowed as she studied the closest shops. "No point going into Cards & Tchtochkes," she said. "People only go in there if they need a card. Or a tchotchke." She studied the next store over. "We could go into Pop's Music..."
"Pass," Starlight said. "I think we all had enough music yesterday to last a few years."
Sunset chuckled. "Fair enough."
"Let's just walk for a bit, have a look around," Twilight suggested. She studied her mall map. "If we get split up, we can meet back...hmm...there! The fountain plaza at the center of the mall."
"Works for me," Sunset said. "Let's try not to get split up, though. Keep to the left, we can walk around more slowly and not get caught up in the mall-walkers."
"Mall-walkers?" Ember asked.
Sunset pointed at a middle-aged couple in workout clothes who were walking at a brisk pace; groups of senior citizens, younger people, and out-of-shape people with noticeable weight problems were right alongside them. "There are people who come to the mall just to walk," Sunset explained. "It's good exercise. Of course, the walkers are supposed to come early and clear out before the stores open, but you'll still see mall-walkers throughout the day, especially on Sunday."
"They come to this incredibly fascinating place just to walk?" Starlight asked.
"Well, after all, to most humans, the mall isn't all that special," Sunset said with a shrug. "It's just here and it's a place we go when we're bored or need to do some shopping."
"Or lose some weight, apparently," Ember said.
The girls walked the length of the mall's main plaza on the first floor, looking around with interest. There were clothing boutiques, jewelry stores, a comic book and trading card shop that Sunset referred to somewhat disparagingly as 'the nerd store', places that sold handbags and wallets and other assorted accessories, mostly made of leather. There were 'gift stores' that seemed to sell nothing but the kind of junk you'd buy as a last-minute 'gee, I forgot to get you a gift' gift. There was a toy store, a couple of hair salons, a bank (which Sunset stopped at to get some more money out of the ATM), and one place that caught Starlight's attention with its interesting blue sign. "Equal Rights Vape Club?"
Sunset groaned. "It's a shop for vaping enthusiasts," she said.
"Vaping?"
"It's..." Sunset frowned. "Okay, you know how tobacco was a thing for a while in Equestria, but it fell out of fashion pretty fast?"
"Ugh, yeah," Starlight said with a grimace. "I remember reading about that one time. Ponies used to actually put burning leaves in their mouths and suck on them! Gross."
Ember raised an eyebrow. "Really? Hardcore!"
"And toxic," Twilight said.
"Yeah, well...tobacco's been a thing in this world for hundreds of years," Sunset said. "Especially the last couple of centuries. Only recently, they've been banning smoking in public places pretty much everywhere. A lot of people are pissed about that, so someone invented these electronic cigarettes that, I dunno, somehow they're supposed to be less disgusting than blowing cigarette smoke in everybody's face? It's still a pretty new thing, so there's still a lot of debate about it, but it's created a whole new niche industry." She shook her head. "A couple of the teachers at CHS vape. I think Snips and Snails are doing it too since it's a lot harder to keep minors from getting hold of e-cigs and they think it makes them look cool."
"Does it?" Twilight asked.
Sunset snorted. "We're talking about Snips and Snails here," she pointed out.
Twilight giggled. "I guess...I guess not," she said.
"Wow, that was kind of mean," Starlight said, staring at Twilight.
Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Have you met Snips and Snails?" she asked.
Starlight frowned. "I don't...think so?" She scratched her head. "The names sound familiar..."
"They're the idiots who lured an Ursa Minor into Ponyville for Trixie to vanquish the first time she came to town," Twilight explained.
Starlight's eyes widened. "Oh yeah, now I remember!"
"They did what?!" Moondancer and Sunset cried in unison.
Ember blinked. "Wait. Wait. Hold up. You mean there's a couple of ponies who are actually that stupid?! What if the mama had come looking for it? Even dragons aren't stupid enough to piss off an Ursa Major!"
"Yeah, well, Snips and Snails aren't...the brightest colts around," Twilight said. "They bought into Trixie's hype word for word and decided they'd bring an Ursa to town so she could vanquish it."
"Vanquish a...Trixie can't even do a simple transmutation!" Starlight said.
"So what happened?" Sunset asked. "How...how is Ponyville even still standing?"
Twilight fidgeted. "I, umm...I got rid of the Ursa," she said sheepishly.
Moondancer's glasses slid down her nose. "Got rid of...how?"
"I had to cast a bunch of different spells and since I was still a unicorn back then, it really wore me out, but basically I..." Twilight took a deep breath. "Broke the Ponyville water tower to make a baby bottle, milked every cow in Ponyville with my magic, gave the Ursa a big bottle of fresh milk, made wind through the reeds to play a lullabye, and levitated the Ursa back into the Everfree Forest."
The others stared at her.
"How the hay did I ever beat you?" Starlight wondered.
"I've been wondering that myself," Twilight muttered. "Anyway, let's...let's keep moving. There's still a lot of mall to see!"
Unfortunately, "a lot of mall" quickly revealed itself to be "more of the same". There were some interesting and different stores here and there—a place that sold giant cookies, a store that sold bulk mix-and-match candy, and a store whose merchandise apparently changed with each new upcoming holiday—but the number of clothing stores, jewelry stores, accessory stores, shoe stores, and the like never seemed to change from one part of the mall to the next.
And there were kiosks every thirty feet, it seemed, where someone in a brightly colored polo shirt tried to get the girls to sign a contract for mobile phone service.
"My feet hurt," Starlight complained once they'd reached the other end of the main strip.
"Mine too," Moondancer said. She made a beeline for a bench near another fountain and plopped down; Starlight joined her. The others looked at each other, shrugged, and sat down as well. Except for Twilight, whose eyes were fixed upon one storefront.
"Twilight?" Sunset asked. "See something you like?"
Twilight was gravitating toward a brightly-lit store whose awning proudly displayed the name Le Stay Connected. "Think I'm gonna go in there," she said. "It looks really interesting."
"Oh, that! That's a high-end gadget boutique," Sunset said. "They cater to the too-much-money crowd who always have to have the latest tech..." She smiled. "But go ahead and have a look!"
Twilight zipped into the shop with a giddy expression on her face.
"Wow," Starlight said. "She is such a nerd."
"Yeah, she kind of is," Sunset agreed with a smile.
After a brief, awkward silence, Starlight asked, "Sunset Shimmer? Do you...do you really prefer living here to Equestria?"
Sunset thought about that for a minute. "I...I'm not sure," she admitted. "I mean, I know I need to go back to Equestria one day. Either my luck's gonna run out here and I'll have to go back, or..." She shook her head. "No. I'm not planning to go back for good. I...I have a life here, one I'd never have back in Equestria."
"Are you sure?" Starlight pressed. "I mean, you're friends with these versions of Princess Twilight's friends. You could make friends with their Ponyville versions, start over in Ponyville—"
"But it wouldn't be the same," Sunset said. "I have memories with the girls here that...that I'd never be able to have with the other girls." She smiled sadly. "Besides, it sounds like they already have enough wayward unicorns wandering around Ponyville." She poked Starlight in the shoulder with a wink.
Starlight rolled her eyes. "Yeah yeah," she said. "But seriously, you really like living in this world? With no magic, and all this strange...stuff this world has?"
"I think this world's kinda cool," Ember said.
Sunset shrugged. "I've been here a long time, Starlight," she said. "When I went back to Equestria, when I had my unicorn magic back, sure it was...exciting, for the few minutes it lasted, but..." She shook her head. "Ever since I gave up on my plan to ruin Princess Celestia, ever since, y'know, I learned the magic of friendship..." She gazed off in the direction Twilight had gone. "Well, so much has happened since then, and...and this place needs me. No, it's more than that." She folded her hands in her lap and looked down at them. "If I went back to Equestria...I'd miss my friends here. I'd miss my life here." She smiled wistfully. "There's so many little things I've gotten used to, you know? If I went back, I'd...I'd have to start all over again. Find a new home, make new friends, learn how to be a pony all over again. I don't...I don't think I want to do that, not when there's so much I'd be giving up here."
Starlight smiled. "I think I understand," she said. "It's like me, I...I had to pick up and start over again after my whole evil revenge thing went south. I'm...I'm enjoying living in Ponyville, learning how to make friends. I still make a lot of mistakes, and I'm learning that Twilight isn't the easiest pony to live with, but..." She gazed into the fountain. "It's becoming my home, you know? I'm...I don't know where my future leads, but I do know that where I am, right now, is the happiest I've ever truly been." She paused. "I mean, the living in Ponyville and learning from Twilight thing, not the whole...this."
"We know what you meant, goofball," Ember said with a smirk.
Twilight came charging out of the store she'd run into, a beaming smile on her face and a twinkle in her eyes. "Sunset! Girls! You should totally check it out! That store has a ton of cool devices!"
Sunset let out a strangled snort. "Wh-what?"
"Cool devices!" Twilight said eagerly. When Sunset started snickering, Twilight gave her a put-out look. "What? I'm just saying there's a lot of cool devices over there!"
Sunset doubled over laughing. The other girls stared at her.
"Your friend is weird," Starlight informed Twilight.
* * * * *
After another hour and a half of exploring the mall, during which they actually went into a couple of clothing stores and tried on a few things, the girls headed for the food court to get some lunch.
"So what are you all in the mood for?" Sunset asked. "There's just about everything here. Burgers, tacos, hot dogs, nachos, soft pretzels, noodles, egg rolls, sushi—actually don't try the sushi here, it's toxic—"
"That place seems popular," Starlight interrupted, pointing to a crowd of people milling around one shop whose marquee read THE CALZONE ZONE.
"Huh? Hey, this place is new," Sunset mused.
"The Calzone Zone," Twilight read aloud. "Catchy name!"
"What's a calzone?" Ember asked.
"It's kind of a stuffed sandwich type thingie," Sunset said. "Usually full of pizza toppings. Let's go check it out! If that's okay with you girls."
"It must be good if that many people want to eat there," Starlight said.
The girls joined the crowd around The Calzone Zone, glancing up at the menu that hung over the order counter. Sunset's brow furrowed. "Huh," she said. "Some of those things...don't really sound like a calzone. More like...a turnover? An empanada?"
"What's the difference?" Ember asked.
"Well, a calzone usually has pizza dough and Bitalian ingredients," Twilight said. "I see Sunset's point. Pretzel calzone filled with cheddar cheese and smoked bacon? Sourdough Filly steak calzone? I'm no expert, I mean I've only had a calzone once when I went to Manehattan, but..."
"But that's what's so cool about this place!" a girl standing beside her said. Twilight turned to see Lyra Heartstrings in the line waiting for service. "Sure, a Bitalian might look at some of that and say it's not a calzone, but the whole point of this is to have a calzone you can call your own! You know? With whatever you want inside, on whatever kind of dough you want."
"Hey Lyra," Sunset greeted. "So this place any good?"
"Bon Bon and I come here every weekend since it opened," Lyra said. "Of course, Bonnie's down with a sprained ankle right now, so I'm getting a couple to go."
"So what do you recommend?" Starlight asked.
"Me? I like the barbecue brisket and baked bean calzone," Lyra said. "Fair warning," she added in a stage whisper. "It makes you fart like nobody's business."
"Uhh...thanks for the warning," Starlight said.
Lyra blinked and looked at the group with Sunset. "Huh, never seen any of you before," she said. "And...Twilight? Where are your glasses?"
"Other Twilight," Twilight said. "You know, the one from—"
"Oh right, right, the magical one," Lyra said, nodding. "Cool." She tilted her head. "And the others?"
"They're with me," Twilight said. "We came for a visit."
"Cool." Lyra nodded again. "Well, see you around!" She shuffled up in the line.
"So that's Lyra Heartstrings as a human," Starlight said. "Are she and Bon Bon still, y'know, 'best friends' here?"
Sunset snickered. "Remind me to tell you about the time Vice-Principal Luna caught them 'befriending' each other in the restroom at school." She made air quotes and smirked.
"How about let's...NOT talk about that!" Twilight suggested brightly, face flaming.
When their turn to order arrived, Ember ordered the barbecue brisket and baked bean calzone, Sunset and Twilight ordered the supreme pizza calzone, Moondancer ordered the pretzel, cheddar, and smoked bacon calzone, and Starlight decided to try the Filly steak calzone. It took a while for their orders to be ready; when they were handed their food, the calzones turned out to be fairly large—not quite the size of a foot-long sub, but definitely larger than a six-inch sub. They found a table in the food court to sit down and eat.
"This is good," Twilight said.
"It really is!" Starlight agreed. "There's more cheese in this than I thought there'd be, though."
"You don't like cheese much, do you?" Sunset asked.
"I don't like the way I gas up when I eat cheese," Starlight said.
"Eh, farting's just nature's way of telling you you really enjoyed your meal," Ember said with a grin.
"Yes, but it's also not something you want to be doing in polite company," Starlight said through clenched teeth.
"Hey Sunset, what time is it?" Twilight asked.
Sunset wiped her hands on her napkin, pulled out her phone, and checked it. "It's just after one-thirty, why?"
"Hmm," Twilight said. "Hate to say it, but...we don't have much time left." She sighed. "We need to be back at the portal at five. I have...kind of a long day ahead of me tomorrow and I have a lot of scheduling to go over with Spike before bed. And I definitely need to get to bed early."
"Aww," Ember said.
"I'll need to catch the evening train back to Canterlot," Moondancer said. "I hate walking around after dark, no matter how safe Canterlot is."
"Well, it's been fun having you girls here for the weekend," Sunset said. "We should totally get together and do this again sometime."
"Yeah we should!" Ember said with a grin. "This place is pretty cool. I'd like to spend more time here."
"Next time I can get a break from my schedule, we should definitely all come back," Twilight agreed.
"Hey, maybe I can even bring Trixie with me next time!" Starlight suggested brightly.
Sunset and Twilight looked at each other and rolled their eyes. "We'll see," Twilight said with a smile.
"Well, if you need to be back by five, that gives us enough time to see a movie before we leave," Sunset said. "Sound good?"
"Works for me," Twilight said. "Girls?"
"You'll love the movie theater here," Sunset said.
"Sure," Starlight agreed, wiping her mouth and hands and finishing up her soda.
* * * * *
After a movie about a ragtag group of misfits in a broken-down spaceship getting caught up in epic shenanigans, the girls got on the bus that would take them to CHS. It was just past five when the group stood at the base of the shattered statue. Sunset looked around at her guests. "I had a great time this weekend," she said.
"Yeah, same here," Ember agreed.
"I needed this little vacation like you would not believe," Twilight said. "Thanks for everything, Sunset."
"This was very educational," Starlight said. "Thank you so much for hosting us."
"It was fun," Moondancer added.
"I'll write soon," Twilight promised, hugging Sunset. She looked at her other friends, then at the statue, and let out a heavy sigh. "Well, girls," she said. "Time to go home."
One by one, they disappeared through the portal, each waving goodbye to Sunset. Twilight was the last to go. Once she was gone, Sunset rocked on her heels, giving the portal a longing look. Then, with a smile and a shake of her head, she turned and walked away, hands in her pockets, whistling one of the Rainbooms' songs as she made her way home in the fading light of day.