//------------------------------// // So Long, and Thanks for All the Friends // Story: The Multiverse in a Nutshell // by Pennington Inkwell //------------------------------// Sunset had never thought that the day would come: Graduation. Today was the last day of school before the ceremony that night, and the Rainbooms were waiting their way through their last period: study hall. Rarity was happily humming to herself and doodling in her sketchbook, while Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were both huddled over a notebook, making last-minute adjustments to the new song they had written to perform at the the ceremony that night. Applejack was plucking away at her bass with ever-impressive dexterity and Twilight had joined Vinyl in optimizing their equipment for the night. "TASTE TEST!" Sunset was snapped out of her reverie as PInkie Pie shoved a cupcake up to her lips. She couldn't hold back a grin as she obediently opened her mouth, allowing Pinkie to shove the pastry into her jaw. The flavor was explosive, filling Sunset's mouth with the taste of strawberries and creamy sugar frosting. "MMMmmm..." "Well? What do you think?" "Ish goo!" Sunset mumbled, grinning from ear to ear around her mouthful of moist cake. Pinkie reached into her hair, retrieving a clipboard and pen and carefully scrutinizing her reaction. "Soo, would you rate that ABOVE or below the key lime?" Applejack sighed, finally bringing her playing to a stop. "Oh, for Pete's sake, Pinkie! You've been testing flavors all day! You're gonna send us all into a sugar coma before the ceremony even starts, and poor Sunset's got the worst of it!" Pinkie gasped, her hand flying to her chest in shock. "The WORST of it? Applejack, these are my most tried-and-true recipes, and I serve only the BEST to my friends! And I'm going to need the abso-tively posi-lutely best of the best for our graduation! I want EVERYONE in our class to associate the best NIGHT ever with the best TASTE ever, that way they'll never, ever, EVER forget it!" Sunset chuckled, swallowing the last of the cupcake. "Better than the key lime, but I'd say it's equal to the red velvet!" "But isn't Bulk Biceps allergic to strawberries?" Twilight asked, looking up from her soldering work with Vinyl. Pinkie Pie gasped again, the sheer force of the action seeming to carry her up into the air before she dashed to the tray, scanning over the assortment and cramming half a dozen into her mouth at once, somehow swallowing them all in seconds and sinking to the ground in relief. "Okay, no more strawberries for Bulk, no citrus zest to cover Pixel Pizzaz, no peanuts for Micro Chips, and no shellfish for Soarin!" Sunset and the rest of the girls exchanged nervous glances, all picking up Pinkie's casual implication of shellfish being present in the cupcakes. Before any of them could comment, however, Pinkie was already back on her feet, reaching for the next one. "Okay! Who wants to try the next one?" Sunset grinned and raised her hand, spurring Pinkie to grab another cupcake for her. She wanted to take in as much of this time as she could, savor every sense. Her time left with her friends was limited, after all. After graduation, the Rainbooms were planning on going on a cross-country tour as a final hurrah before the group split up. After that, Fluttershy was planning on becoming a full-time employee at the animal shelter, with hopes of saving up to open her own wildlife reserve someday. Rarity was going off to an internship with a big-name fashion designer, hoping to get her "big break" in Los Pegasus. Applejack was going to start tackling the full-time care of her family's farm, and Twilight had gotten a full ride scholarship to the Manehatten Institute of Technology's robotics program (a fact that had made Sunset somewhat jealous). Rainbow Dash had exceeded everyone's expectations, getting her free pick of just about any college she could ask for bringing her on board with sports scholarships of every kind. As for Sunset, she had made up her mind: the incident with the memory stone and her opportunity to see Princess Celestia again had convinced her that it might be time that she returned to Equestria and picked up her magical studies where she had left off, now with the improved vision and scope that her friendships had provided her. Princess Twilight had offered her an advance admission into her "School of Friendship" or to put in a good word with Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. She still hadn't decided if she would take either offer. The Rainbooms would always be the best of friends, nothing could ever break that, but they were all individuals leading individual lives, it was inevitable that the time would come for them to part ways. Just as Pinkie was about to shove another cupcake into her mouth, Sunset felt a familiar shaking coming from her backpack. "OOO! MAGICAL EQUESTRIA PRINCESS TEXT!" Pinkie shouted, tossing aside the cupcake and diving for Sunset's backpack in a mad dash to be the first one to the book. Unfortunately for her, Sunset's hand was faster, plucking the book from her backpack before Pinkie tackled it, sending both herself and the backpack sliding out the door and into the hallway, the door swinging firmly shut behind her. Sunset and the rest of her friends all looked at one another, wondering whether or not they should go check on her. "III'm ookAY!" Pinkie's unsteady voice came floating back, sounding dazed from the impact. Applejack shook her head, going back to strumming on her bass. "Ah swear, that girl's made a' rubber... Anyway, what's the word from Equestria, Sunset?" Sunset cracked open the book just as the last bell rang, signaling their final release from High School. Everything is ready on my end, what about yours? Sunset glanced around the room one last time, taking in the sight of all of her friends in one place. This was the last time that they would all gather in this room together, the home of so many of their memories. Clicking the top of her pen, she scrawled a short return message. Give us ten minutes to gather at the front of the school. "It's time." The rest of the girls all stopped to give one another uncertain glances. Applejack was the first to move, quickly finishing the last measures of "5 to 9" and placing her bass in its case. "Welp, time's a'wastin', I guess... Let's go close that portal." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sunset took a deep breath, trying to steady her nerves. Something about what they were about to do felt... wrong. "Is this... really necessary?" Fluttershy asked quietly, running her fingers along the edge of the mirror that served as the portal to Equestria. "I mean, what if there's some kind of magical emergency? What if Princess Twilight needs our help? What if-" her worried muttering was cut off as Pinkie Pie jumped up in front of her to interject. "What if there's some kind of magical feedback loop caused by time travelling heroes from the future that causes the whole portal to go KABLOOIE, SCATTERING US ALL ACROSS THE MULTIVERSE AND DESTROYING THE RAINBOOMS FOREVER?" There was a short pause as everyone turned to stare at Pinkie's typical overreaction, while Fluttershy seemed to have gone catatonic at the mere thought, whimpering and nodding with a thousand-mile-stare. "Trust me, Princess Twilight and I have accounted for every possible variable, and checked all of our math at least a dozen times." Sunset sighed, walking over and gently shaking Fluttershy's shoulder to snap her out of her day-mare. "Nothing could possibly go wrong!" "OOOOH! You shouldn't have said that!" Pinkie cried, nervously chewing on her nails to illustrate her point. "Besides, how long have we been planning this tour? We can't leave CHS for three months with the portal open, it'll be totally unprotected if some kind of crazy monster comes through!" Sunset sighed, rubbing her temples. "Look, no one is more reluctant to do this than me, believe me! But we'll be able to open it again any time that we want, just so long as we have the journal and the elements! The portal is my only way home if I want to return to Equestria, but I trust you all enough to put my fate in your hands. We won't mess this up." The rest of the girls all looked between one another, each one taking their turn to nod in affirmation, finally ending with everyone looking at Pinkie Pie, who stopped chewing on her nails just long enough to shrug carelessly. "Meh, I'm sure everything will be fine! It'll all work out in the end!" One by one, each of her friends joined hands, finally ending with Twilight and Applejack each offering her their hands to complete the circle. Sunset smiled and took hold, her geode beginning to glow and the power of the Elements of Harmony rising up inside her. Together, they all began to rise up into the air, the power sparking between each of them. On the other side of the portal, Sunset knew that Princess Twilight and her friends were doing the exact same thing, preparing to use their power to shut the portal from both sides at the same time. The magic grew stronger and stronger, and with well-rehearsed care, they all turned to face the portal, reaching out their hands one by one. Finally, as the giddy energy reached the point where Sunset was beginning to feel like she was ready to burst, beams of colored light leaped forward, joining together into a massive white beam that struck the center of the mirror. Sunset could see matching light seemingly coming from behind the glass, indicating that the group in Equestria was matching their actions step by step. Everything was going according to plan. Without warning, however, Sunset felt something unprecedented: a tremor in the Elements. An imbalance in the harmony. Glancing over, she could see the orange light coming from Applejack glowing even brighter, a grimace of pain on her face as her geode began to crackle with more and more electrical power. "AJ, you're coming on too strong! You need to back it down a bit!" Sunset shouted, trying to make herself heard over the sound of the elements. She and Twilight had allowed a margin for error in their calculations, but it wasn't much. If the elements on one side were thrown out of balance, it could ruin everything in only a few short seconds. "I- I CAN'T!" Applejack shouted back, letting go of Sunset's hand to grab at her geode. "Mah geode's goin' nuts! It- It's like it's overcharged! I gotta get it off!" "Just a few more seconds! Hang in there!" Rainbow Dash interjected. "It's almost there, I can feel- AAUGH!" She cried out in pain as her geode seemed to explode with power, wrapping her body in a cocoon of blue electricity. "RAINBOW DASH!" This was too much. They had to stop, no matter the consequences. Closing the portal wasn't worth losing her friends. Sunset reached deep down inside herself, trying to let go of the power of the Elements of Harmony, to break the loop and let it dissipate. But the magic didn't respond, only growing stronger. You took everything from me, and now I'll force you to watch as I destroy everything you LOVE! Sunset blinked, trying to understand. She had heard a voice, as if she were reading someone's mind with her magic, but it was a voice she had never heard before. You'll never get away with this! This time Sunset heard her own voice, speaking words she didn't remember, followed by the sound of breaking glass and a stifled grunt of pain. This feeling? SAVE it... For the rest of your life. NOOOO! As Sunset heard her own scream of desperation, a vision overwhelmed her sight: a great white dragon covered in gold and rainbow gemstones, towering over CHS and letting loose a roar that shook Sunset down to her bones. And with that, Sunset snapped back to the moment. She couldn't even see her friends behind the blinding light of their geodes. Below them, glowing white cracks had spread not only across the mirror portal, but out and into the air itself, like when Midnight Sparkle had opened the rifts to Equestria, only this time there was nothing on the other side, only blinding white light and a deafening humming. Finally, in one last, painful shudder that racked through her body, Sunset felt more power than she ever had come rushing out of her at once, spraying out of the tips of her fingers and pouring out of her eyes, making her hair stand on end and her teeth vibrate. And then, with one final sound of the mirror shattering, Sunset slipped into the darkness of dreamless unconsciousness, her only company one final, unfamiliar voice. You go on ahead, Sunny. I'll take care of it...