[Good morning, students, and happy Thursday. Just a reminder to pick up your ballots for the Princess of the Fall Formal today. They are due at the time the dance starts tomorrow night, so don't forget to turn them in and make your voice heard.]
Twilight and Spike had awoken about half an hour ago and disassembled the book-bed. Once more, Spike had no idea where the blanket had vanished to. By the time Principal Celestia's announcement rang throughout the halls of the school, they had left the school's library and were walking through the halls. More specifically, Twilight was walking, Spike was once more situated in her backpack.
Twilight had an odd feeling. The way the students were looking at her. The way they quietly talked to one another as they passed. But more than any of that it was the emotions she felt from them. Amusement, Bewilderment and general confusion seemed to be what was most prevalent throughout the students.
Suddenly a door opened to her left and before she could react, a hand grabbed her wrist and pulled her into what appeared to be an empty classroom. By the time she had recovered from the shock, Twilight was standing in the middle of the room, wearing a green dress with fitting boots and a belt with a star-shaped golden buckle as well as a blonde wig. Her backpack had somehow remained on her back and Spike's head was poking out of it, looking as confused as she felt.
Standing before her was the girl from the photo she had seen the evening before, several years older of course but still unmistakably Rarity. The girl was looking her over, seemingly admiring her work. After a moment her gaze settled on Twilight's face and she gasped. "Darling, whatever happened to your eyes?"
Twilight's confusion only increased at that. "My eyes? Why? What's wrong with them?"
"Well, have you looked at them?" Rarity inquired before turning around to her own backpack, sitting on the floor next to her. After a short moment she turned back around and held a hand mirror out to Twilight.
"I don't see anything wrong." Twilight said after a short moment.
"Are you sure your pupils are supposed to be, well ... slitted?"
"Well yeah. They've been like that for a while now." Twilight explained, happy to finally have understood what Rarity was talking about. She only barely managed to stop herself from explaining how eyes like that were normal for a changeling queen.
"Well ... I suppose it is a rather unique look." Rarity considered, her expression shifting from worry to a professional interest. "Perhaps-" Her thoughts were cut off as the door swung open.
"There you are, Twilight" Applejack had entered the room looking concerned at the 'disguised' girl.
Rarity crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. "So much for the disguise."
"I've been lookin' all over for ya!"
"Me too." Fluttershy had appeared behind Applejack followed by ...
"Me three! I like your new look!" ...Pinkie Pie who seemed as happy as ever.
"I do have an eye for these sorts of things. Not that you seem to care." Rarity gave a stern glare to Pinkie Pie who in turn simply looked confused.
"What?!"
"Why do you think she doesn't care?" Twilight shook her head. "No, never mind. Why were you all looking for me? What's going on?"
"Oh, she hasn't seen it yet." Fluttershy gave a relieved sigh.
"Well, ah s'pose it coulda been worse." Applejack remarked.
"Indeed. I know that all too well. Look"
Twilight watched as Rarity pulled a small device out of her pocket. After a short moment a moving picture appeared on the screen and sound came from a speaker she couldn't see. After a short moment Twilight was pulled out of marveling at the technology before her as she realized what the video was about. Several clips of her in the library, clearly edited to make her look bad but fortunately not all too effective. The voice narrating the short piece made it all too clear who was responsible.
After the video was over, Rarity spoke up once more. "Truly it could have been much worse. I suspect she couldn't get enough material to work with on such short notice."
"So that's what they were doing!" Twilight suddenly exclaimed.
"Uhh, who are 'they'?" Fluttershy asked tentatively.
"Yesterday at the library I found two young boys watching me."
"Oh? How did they look darling?"
"Uhh, amber skin with green hair, blue skin with orange hair -"
"Snips n' Snails." Applejack groaned.
"Sunset's usual entourage." Rarity added.
"Well how bad do you think this is?" Twilight asked, gesturing at the now once more black screen.
"Well" Rarity spoke up, "you're an unknown Twilight, the students here may not like Sunset, but they know her. They don't know you, for all they know you could be worse."
"And if anything," Pinke chimed in, "this just confused them more."
Twilight groaned in exasperation. "How am I gonna deal with this?"
"Not that it'll make any difference, but I'll still vote for you." Fluttershy pointed out in her usual timid way. Twilight's forehead now got very quickly introduced to the surface of the table she was sitting at. Fluttershy continued undeterred. "You were so nice to stand up for me when Sunset Shimmer was picking on me yesterday."
"If ya still wanna run, maybe there's something I can do to help!" Pinkie smiled as Twilight raised her head off the table.
Fluttershy now approached Twilight more closely and whispered into her ear. "Word of advice? Don't accept her help. She doesn't take anything seriously!"
Pinkie groaned at that. "Why do you have to be so awful to me?"
After a few comedic noises that could only be interpreted as vague disagreement, Rarity regarded her with a stern glare. "Don't play innocent, Pinkie Pie! You are no better than she is!"
"And what is that supposed to mean?!"
Rarity now turned to Twilight. "I am happy to offer up my assistance as well." She turned to Pinkie, her gaze stern once more. "To someone who would appreciate what I have to offer!"
The three girls descended into general arguing. Before Applejack interrupted them. "Listen to y'all carryin' on! Get over it and move on!"
Rarity raised an eyebrow. "You mean like how you've gotten over what happened with Rainbow Dash?"
Applejack's face instantly became a mask of barely contained anger. "She said she'd get the softball team to make an appearance at my bake sale. I tell everybody they're comin', and then not one of 'em shows up! She made a liar outta me! That's different!"
"Is not!" Rarity and Pinkie replied as one.
"Is too." Applejack responded defiantly.
Once more the girls descended into arguing, this time it was all four of them. Twilight was feeling an oncoming headache from all the heated emotions around her.
"STOP! All of you!" She let out a relieved sigh when the others instantly stopped their arguing at her outburst "I wanna show you something." She pulled out the yearbook she had found the day before and reopened it to the photo of the four girls present and the as of yet absent Rainbow Dash. "You were friends once."
At seeing the picture, Applejack gained a look of nostalgia. "The Freshman Fair. Y'all remember?"
Pinkie and Fluttershy gave noises of general agreement while Rarity replied with a simple "Yes"
"But something happened." Twilight continued "I think that something was Sunset Shimmer."
Rarity scoffed slightly at that. "Well, it's a nice theory, darling, but Sunset Shimmer had nothing to do with it."
Fluttershy nodded vigorously. "She's right. Sunset Shimmer isn't the one who ruined my silent auction for the animal shelter by bringing fireworks and noisemakers! It was supposed to be a serious event, and Pinkie Pie ruined it!"
Pinkie's face lit up with confusion. "What are you talking about? I got a text from you saying that you didn't want a silent auction. You wanted a big party!"
Now it was Fluttershy's turn to be confused. "Uh! I never sent you a text!"
"You didn't?"
"You don't think she's the one who's been sending me those eMails, do you?" Rarity chimed in now, seemingly worried at the discovery they'd made. "Every time I volunteer to help with the decorations at a school function, I get an eMail from Pinkie Pie saying she has plenty of volunteers! And then I find out she's done everything herself."
"I never sent you any eMails!"
"Maybe she's the reason Rainbow Dash didn't show up for my bake sale!"
Twilight, who had been watching the exchange with growing exasperation, now spoke up, looking at Applejack incredulously. "Didn't you ever ask Rainbow Dash why she didn't show up?"
Applejack smiled sheepishly, scratching the back of her head. "Heh, I guess I kinda stopped talkin' to her at all after that."
Twilight rolled her eyes."Maybe now would be a good time to start."
A few minutes later, Twilight, Spike, Rarity, Pinkie and Fluttershy were standing at the edge of the soccer field behind the school glancing worriedly at Applejack and Rainbow Dash who were standing in the middle of the field.
"They're actually talking! That's a good sign!" Rarity pointed out. A moment later they saw that the two girls in the middle of the field were smiling at each other before embracing each other in a tight hug.
"Hugs!” Pinkie squealed. “Ooh, hugs are always good!" Soon enough the two girls approached them.
"Somebody, and I think we can all guess who, told Rainbow Dash that my bake sale had been moved to a different day. Dash showed up with all the softball team and thought I'd cancelled on her!"
Rainbow Dash gave Twilight an appraising look. "So you're lookin' to dethrone Sunset Shimmer and become Princess of the Fall Formal, huh? Gotta say, I'd really love to see that happen. I'll totally help you out! All you gotta do is beat me in a game of one-on-one."
"What?" Twilight's expression instantly became one of surprise, then of panic as Rainbow Dash picked up a ball, bouncing it in the air with one foot.
"First to five goals wins." She kicked the ball up once more before somehow hitting it over her head and landing it in the goal behind her. "One-zip!"
Twilight gulped audibly.
"That's game!" One disastrous match later, Twilight was panting heavily, lying on her back at the edge of the field.
The other girls leaned over her and Rarity spoke up with a nervous laugh. "I ... really thought you were gonna ... pull it off there in the end!"
Rainbow seemed unfazed. "So what's the plan? How can I help you be princess instead of Sunset Shimmer?"
Twilight could sense that she was being sincere, which only served to amplify her confusion. "But ... I ... lost!"
"Of course you lost. I'm awesome!" Rainbow held out a hand to help Twilight up, which she gladly took. "But I'm not gonna help just anybody try and beat Sunset Shimmer. The Fall Formal Princess should be someone with heart and determination. You've proved that you've got 'em both!" The two of them embraced in a hug while the other four girls cheered.
If Twilight hadn't been overwhelmed by the love and gratitude of the other five on top of her own exhaustion she would have noticed that Sunset Shimmer was watching them.
In a local café that Twilight guessed was this world's counterpart to Sugarcube Corner, Twilight was currently ordering a drink from this worlds counterpart of Mrs. Cake, before turning back to her friends. As she did, she almost ran into another customer behind her, only managing to avoid him because her empathic sense had alerted her to his presence. They both started apologizing at the same time. Taking a moment to look at him, Twilight found him to be a boy about their age, with yellow skin, blue hair and clothing dominated by a leather jacket.
As Twilight made her way to the table where her friends were sitting, Flash Sentry and Mrs. Cake simultaneously decided to ignore the fact that her drink was floating beside her.
As Twilight returned to the table, she saw her new friends engaged in idle chatter, the only one who saw her coming was Pinkie who, once more, didn't seem bothered by items floating next to Twilight. As she took her seat the others turned to her and she spoke up. "Who was that?"
"Who was who, darling?"
Just as Twilight was about to point him out, Pinkie, the only one who had been watching her, did it for her. "That was Flash."
"Who?"
"Flash Sentry, dear." Rarity, having now seen the boy herself, went on to explain. "He is, well was, Sunset Shimmer's boyfriend. He broke up with her a few weeks ago."
"I can't believe she hasn't done something awful to him yet." Fluttershy looked on incredulously.
"Maybe she's just waiting until she has the power to do something really awful." Twilight suggested morbidly.
Applejack then brought the conversation back to the task at hand. "All right, girls. Dance is tomorrow night, and we still don't know how we're gonna get Twilight the votes she needs to be named princess. We need to show folks who Twilight really is."
After some general noises of agreement and a few moments of more or less silent contemplation, it was Rarity who spoke up, rising to her feet. "I'VE GOT IT!" Everyone in the café turned to look at her prompting her to sit back down, a sheepish smile on her face.
"Ahem. I mean, um, perhaps I have a solution. Now this may be an absolutely preposterous idea, but what if we all wore these as a sign of unity?" She held up what could only be described as an attachable pony's tail that could be clipped to the back of one's clothing and a hair clip with two pony ears, both in the yellow and blue Twilight had begun to suspect were the school's official colors.
"Freshman year, they were very, very popular. A way for everybody to show their school spirit! You know? 'Go, Canterlot Wondercolts!'" Once more she grew a sheepish smile at the expressions he was getting from the group. "Ahem. I haven't sold any in ages. I mean, the five of us are obviously very different, but deep down, we're all Canterlot Wondercolts!"
As she spoke the girls put on the new accessoires one by one. "Sunset Shimmer is the one who divided us, Twilight Sparkle is the one who united us. And we're gonna let everyone know it! What do you think?"