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// Don't get Cooked, Stay Off the Hook - Inkopolis Aquare 
// Story: The Many Destinies of Sunset Shimmer 
// by ratedoni 
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First of all, her head was killing her, or at least that’s how it felt since it was the only feeling she had at the moment. She must have been unconscious to feel that disconnected to everything, which also said something about how quickly she recognized that she had been unconscious. Something was for sure, Sunset Shimmer always had an interesting life and this was just another strange chapter on her long series of book filled with bad decisions and faith showing her the middle finger. Blinking several times forcing her brain to start firing up once again, Sunset found out that this time she didn’t have a hangover, so it was not due to alcohol that she was in this situation; again, she knew some things about being unconscious and bad decisions.

Putting her hand over her eyes to fight back the darkness, Sunset quickly noticed something really bizarre about her situation. Now that she was finally awoken more memories were starting to come back to her, among them the fact that she right now shouldn’t even have hands to rub her face. Last thing she could remember was that she had stepped through the portal back into Equestria, so why was she still human? She should have hooves and a horn, not hands with fingers, so what was going on?

Something must have happened with the portal and it malfunctioned, so that means that she was a human on Equestria? Well, that will be something new for her original home and considering how nervous and panic prone ponies were in general, yeah, it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to get out and visit Ponyville. The small smile that appeared on her face quickly vanished at the memory of why she was in Equestria now; it seemed that destiny and fate really liked to screw with her at every opportunity.

Whatever the case may be, being depressed wouldn’t help her regain her friends or find the truth behind Anon-A-Miss, so she needed to get up and find Twilight. Well, now that she thought about it, the fact that Princess Twilight was nowhere in sight sent extra alarm bells in her head. Standing up she noticed that her body felt different somehow, more flexible and shorter for some reason and she saw the reason soon when she turned to the left.

She haven’t noticed before, but she wasn’t in Twilight’s castle, in fact, it looked as if she hadn’t left the Human world at all, because there was a shop to her left and it seemed as if she had been thrown into some kind of city plaza or something like that. Inside the shop she could see clothes and other paraphernalia, but they seemed shorter, as if made for kids, but focusing on the reflection, she quickly reached the conclusion that the weird creature looking at her was her reflection.

She looked humanoid, but instead of her usual voluminous hair, she had what seemed like four tentacles that simulated hair; her body seemed more compact and her head was larger, with eyes as big as when she was a pony. I synthesis, it was a good thing Fluttershy wasn’t there because she would have squeaked hard enough to break glass.

Looking closer she could see that she had markings around her eyes, almost like if she was wearing a domino style mask, but the rest of her was the same with the exception of the now peachy pale skin instead of its usual yellow. Same jacket and skirt, but in this case it seemed as if she was wearing spats underneath it like Rainbow, with shorter heeled boots than the normal ones. She was also wearing golden bracelets on both her arms so she looked as stylish as usual, not that it helped her in this regard, since she was still as lost as she had been when she woke up.

So it seemed as if the portal had screwed up and instead of sending her to Ponyville, she was somewhere lost among the alternate realities that were all loosely tied by magic. She may not have enough time to study the magic of the mirrors, but she had enough time to know that the original prototype of Starswirl could connect to different realities, but the one on Twilight’s castle was locked onto one in specific, a world that until now had very little magic.

Looking around her she couldn’t find anything that could be important enough to become the portal back to Canterlot High, not that she knew what could be considered important in this dimension, but just looking at the way the buildings looked and the clothes on sale at the other side of the mirror, it was pretty clear that wherever she was, it had more in common with humans than ponies. It was so modern, so hip and trendy that it made her think of the stores at the mall.

Thinking about the similarities between the two worlds, Sunset checked the pockets on her jacket, finding her cell phone, which by the looks of it had found a hot-spot and could access the internet. Seems that even being another species that just resembled humans didn’t mean that she had to say goodbye to one of the greatest inventions in the history of ever. It also raised more questions that she could write, but if she had internet, then that meant she could check information about the world she was in.

Sunset did realize that she had no way to write to Twilight since she didn’t have her book, but it was dumb to think she will have it with her when it was needed back at the human world to keep the portal open. It was a shame, but she had to work with what she had, so besides her cell phone she found her wallet with all of her ID cards -fake of course, there was no way for her to get the real thing since she was an illegal alien- and also several coins and bank notes. Well, that was weird, because all of them had changed shape, kind of like a dollar, but with a cartoon-like squid instead of an American president; weird and cute all at the same time, reminded her of Equestria.

So it was now clearer for her that what she had become was some sort of evolved squid; weird, but she was originally a pastel colored little pony that had then become a highly evolved primate and now a cephalopod. If she ever decided to write her memories everypony will think they were reading a fantasy novel; now that she thought about it, she could write something and she’ll probably rack up the dough, or maybe draw a comic, after all, she was starting to get better at drawing.

Sunset had to shake her head since at the moment she was in deep trouble, heck, it made Anon-A-Miss a simple annoyance in comparison; yeah, that rotten rumor spreader broke her friendships, but unless she found a way to return to her world, she would be forever separated from the friends she still got, not to mention that like this she had no way of clearing her name.

First, she had to get an idea of where exactly she was, so she began to walk into the plaza, noticing the marvelous displays of fashion and clean architecture that was present everywhere; the day was sunny, with such a nice breeze that mixed with the general vibe and mood of every… squid? It made Sunset stay in awe at the whole place. If she wasn’t as lost as one could possibly be this would be such an amazing opportunity to study everything around her. But, well, even if Sunset was not looking to be part of this squid civilization, the civilization was more than ready to make her part of it.

“OH MY COD! You have to tell me where you got that shirt because I’ve never seen Jelfonzo sell them before,” one squid, apparently female due to her long squid tentacle hair falling over one eye and combination of black skirt and white shirt basically began to rant as she got close to Sunset. Behind her, she could see someone who was obviously her companion due to how he was moving his head from side to side.

“Sara, I think you first need to introduce yourself to someone; sorry, she goes full inkjet when she sees new clothes,” If the way he used his hair, or tentacles, was any indication, alongside his facial structure, this squid was a boy. He was using what seemed this world’s version of jeans and a blue shirt with a long sleeved white shirt underneath it also looked stylish; wherever she was, it seemed that fashion was as important as in the human world.

“Oh, no problem, I had a friend that was like this with clothes and, well, I didn’t buy at… Jelfonzo you said? No, it was another store.”

“Oh, so it was Jelonzo then? So that means you are from the other side of Inkopolis?” Inkopolis? Really? What was it with puns that every single society used them to name places?

“Nah, I got them on a store that went belly up,” oh cod, now she was doing it! Fortunately what she said seemed to be a normal phrase since the squid kids didn’t react to her, except that the girl simply pouted in disappointment.

“Oh boo, I wanted to get a shirt like that, the sun logo is totally awesome by the way; oh well, I’m Sara Dine and this ray of sunshine behind me is Matt Tidal,” the squid kid lazily waved at her and she found Sara’s peppiness contagious, she could imagine how much Matt had to do to contain all that energy.

“I’m Sunset.”

“Ah, I see, no wonder that shirt looks so good on you, it combos with your name, that is so off the hook!”

“If you know what’s good for you, don’t encourage her to start with puns, once she starts you will not be able to shut her up.”

“Oh, come on, my puns kraken you up and you know it,” the banter between the two was starting to get silly and Sunset enjoyed it, considering that she had been pushed aside for the last couple of days by Canterlot High, to be treated this well by people she haven’t met before.

“They can make me laugh and I hate that fact, anyway, since Sara here liked your clothes she is probably gonna want to talk with ya about them for a long time, so, want to get something to eat? I just got out of a Turf War and I’m hungry.”

“Matt, you move away from your couch and you get hungry, so don’t blame some good exercise for your usual stomach rumblings,” well, this will be interesting, so what exactly do this squids eat? And what the kale was a Turf War?