Magical Curiosity

by Comma Typer


A Picture's Worth

The Canterlot Movie Club, meanwhile, were huddled up inside an arcade of pews! and bangs! as patrons lined up for a chance at entertainment—and, for the unfortunate people who were waiting for their turn at the claw machine, their chance at either heart-breaking loss or heart-rending fury. Standing at the corner where no one would notice them behind some cabinets, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo stretched their necks to see Sweetie Belle navigating through the camera’s screen menu.
“This isn’t gonna end up like last time, is it?” Scootaloo asked, fearful about what might come.
Sweetie shook her head, confident all around. “If we’re going to expand our secret society, we’ve got to invest in skills everyone will find helpful.”
“Everyone needs to have their locks picked an’ their houses broken in?” Apple Bloom asked.
“And, we’re not exactly secret,” Scootaloo said as she shot a thumb at Silver Spoon who was busy wowing her onlookers by getting awfully close to a high score at Ladders and Plumbers.
“I already told you,” Sweetie began, “I’ve practiced a dozen times. Remember when I had to pay fifty bits for my own personal lock picking kit?”
“You sure this ain’t gonna end badly?” Apple Bloom asked as she ignored what her friend just said, tightening the bow on her hair.
“We’re not gonna hide from her or anything.” Sweetie tilted the camera around to check how much battery was left. “We’ll tell her in the morning that her front door is susceptible to bumper keys so she should buy a new lock...and also that everyone else was busy with their cameras tonight.” She paused, letting her friends think through the information. “We get a bonus for being able to break in—seeing what pictures are in here—and Sunset gets the memo to protect herself against actual criminals.”
“Aren’t we criminals because we didn’t ask Sunset permission?” Scootaloo asked, pointing to herself.
“Askin’ permission to breach her house?” Apple Bloom said sarcastically.
“We’ll be fine!” Sweetie reassured in a sing-song voice, smiling at the both of them. “We’ll just sneak back in and put the camera in its proper place while she’s sleeping! We’ve done it once, we can do it again!”
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo then leaned their heads closer as Sweetie scrolled through the pictures, seeing photos of Sunset and her friends hanging out with a familiar pink lady with a beanie.
“That’s Starlight!” Apple Bloom yelled, pointing at her. “That weirdo girl from some time back!”
“At least she’s getting used to how we live,” Scootaloo commented. “Wonder what hands must’ve felt like for the first time.”
“She’s probably gone now,” Sweetie said as she kept on scrolling. “Maybe there’s—“
Stopped.
As all three of them gazed upon photos of ponies in Ponyville, most of them flying kites and watching the competition unfold.
They stared at those photos in awe, unable to say anything for a while.
Apple Bloom raised a finger. “I-Is that who I think it is?!”
Sweetie nodded, jaw still hanging. “Th-That’s Sunset’s home home!”
“A-And look!” Scootaloo exclaimed, pointing at a smaller photo in the menu. “That’s Sunset!”
Sweetie turned to it and, sure enough, the photo showed a unicorn with Sunset’s color scheme along with some other ponies by a booth.
“Tw-Twilight?!” Sweetie blabbed, seeing the alicorn princess smiling for the picture.
“I c-could see Tr-Trixie and Pinkie’s sister, too!” Apple Bloom exclaimed though muffled by the crowd.
Then, she saw a button beside the picture with the words, Do you want to share?
Sweetie then tapped on it, seeing a couple of options for sharing the picture. One of them was labeled, Send to CHS LAN.
Apple Bloom tapped her on the shoulder. “Uh, Sweetie Belle? I’m beginnin’ to not like this idea.”
Sweetie rolled her eyes. “They’ll think that we’re just really good at making fake videos if they find out.”
“But we can’t even afford the programs!” Scootaloo said, putting her hands to her hair. “They’ll know!”
Sweetie gave her an odd look. “We’re only sending it to the school’s local network so we’ll pick it up tomorrow morning.”
“But what if Miss Cheerilee’s there and she receives it out o’ nowhere?” Apple Bloom pointed out.
“It’s Friday,” Sweetie said, brushing her hair with her hand. Then, looking at the camera once more: “As they say—“ tapped on the button “—paralysis by analysis!”
A loading bar appeared and then disappeared, with the message Photo Uploaded! in its place.
Then, the doors swung open, revealing a haggard Sunset with frazzled hair as she strode through the lines and crowds, garnering attention by her sudden arrival. “Hey, have you seen a lost camera?! Anyone with a camera that has short lens—you know, the small ones!” People looked her way, with only a few giving her a simple “No.”
The trio gulped at the sound of her voice.
“Scram?” Apple Bloom suggested.
Sweetie glanced at the backdoor. “It’s locked. I tried it.”
Her friends then gave her a strange look.
Sweetie understood the silent request. “Are you telling me I should lock pick this fine establishment?!”
“CMC!” said Sunset as she ran up to them, finally stopping her frenzied running. “H-Have you seen my—“
And she did see her camera.
Sunset gasped, a hand instinctively inching towards the device. “Why did you steal my camera?!”
“We were gonna return it!” Sweetie said, holding the camera up as cover. “Honest!”
Sunset placed her hands on her hips, gave the club a stare down. “Give it back to me this instant!”
Sweetie turned the camera off and gave it to Sunset, the three of them trying to hide behind each other from a potential angry outburst.
Sunset inspected the camera, seeing the menu and the Equestrian photos. “You know it’s wrong to snoop on other people’s stuff!”
The club collectively looked down, feeling the shame and guilt of the accusation.
Sunset sighed, trying to soften her voice as she gave the three of them a sweet smile despite her irritation heating up. “OK, let’s be honest here: What did you see and what did you do?”
Apple Bloom cleared her throat. “We...s-s-saw your pictures from across the magic portal.”
Sunset opened her mouth, then stopped. Then: “What did you do with that?”
Sweetie eyed Scootaloo who was now given the pressure to answer. “Uh, we...saved it on our phones!”
Apple Bloom shook her head in surprise, mouthed a “What?!”
Sweetie nodded and rolled with it. “Yeah! We, uh, decided to take pictures of your pictures because your camera wasn’t entirely compatible with our phones. They’re...really great, considering our sisters—“
“And sister figure!” Scootaloo added, pointing to herself and showing off a blue flag of a rainbow-colored lightning bolt.
“—have magic from your world!” Sweetie finished, shifting her eyes here and there to see if anyone else was listening. “Yeah...that’s how it went down...with your camera...and us...knowing and seeing...the photos in your camera…yeah….”
The arcade’s pews and bangs continued as Silver Spoon’s crowd erupted into stomping applause, the girl having just broken a record in her game.
Apple Bloom smacked herself on the face.


Back in the now darkened and almost empty library, Cheerilee and Luna were beside each other, using adjacent computers as the teacher browsed online resources for the next math lesson while the vice principal browsed ways to make the best out of her coffee grounds, having just found the tip that chewing them outright would make her awake faster than sipping the brewed beverage. At the other side of the round computer table around the horse bust was Diamond Tiara, switching between a tab on the history of the Everfree Forest and a tab on MyStable.
“How are the students using the computers, Cheerilee?” Luna asked without looking away from the certainly helpful tips.
Cheerilee wrote a few things down on her notepad beside the keyboard. “It’s as if they don’t listen. When I enforce the rules to their fullest extent, they take it as a challenge to try harder. When I act lenient and tell them to just use their common sense, they abuse their freedom and use the computers for hours on end without doing anything meaningful.” She gave an exasperated sigh, reaching her hand out to grab a cup of tea—but it was not there. “No matter how I do it, I just don’t get kids these days.”
Luna chuckled. “Times do not change much. Do you remember how we used to cut classes back in elementary school no matter how the teacher enforced her rules?”
Cheerilee then reminisced on the memory, remembering something about using paper planes as a distraction. “Y-Yeah, I suppose.”
“The only thing that truly changes is why they do it,” Luna added, “which, when one boils it down, is the very same ‘why’ passed down from generation to generation.” She chewed on imaginary coffee grounds as if to practice for the next time she could get her hands on them, making Cheerilee weird out at that. “We cut classes, they use MyStable and SnapGap. Their methods are different, but what we all want is to shirk from our duties and responsibilities as growing teenagers.”
Cheerilee smiled, doing her best to ignore Luna chewing on nothing. “Huh. Didn’t expect you to keep pumping out sage advice every night.”
“Believe me,” Luna said with a small smile, hearing a beep from their computers as she tried to see what it was about. “Past sunset, there are times when I feel like I possess the knowledge of a thousand years.”
Cheerilee then peered her head over Luna’s shoulder to see her screen as the vice principal selected the notification icon. “What’s going on?”
Luna raised a brow, reading the message on the computer: New file uploaded: Ponyville 53.photo.
Then, she clicked on it and saw the picture.
Cheerilee laid her eyes on it, seeing those ponies smiling for the camera. “Wow! I didn’t know we had such a talented artist in our school!”
Luna did not smile. “Cheerilee, this is not the work of an artist.”
The teacher looked away from the photo. “Are you saying that’s...real?”
Luna turned her head to Cheerilee. “This is a picture from Sunset’s little trip to Equestria this Wednesday night. I do not know the wisdom—or the foolishness—behind sending such a picture here to our network, but—“
“Hm….” they heard.
Cheerilee and Luna then craned their heads at Diamond Tiara.
“Diamond?” Cheerilee asked, putting on a rigid attitude. “What are you doing?”
She bit her lips. “Uh, n-nothing, Miss Cheerilee! Just brushing up on history...really brushing up ‘cause there’s no tomorrow!”
Cheerilee then mellowed out a smile. “I see.”
Luna stood up, pushed her own chair out, and stomped over to Diamond.
“Wait!” Cheerilee cried out in a whisper, reaching out to her. “What’re you—“
And then Luna was standing over Tiara’s shoulder, seeing the detailed history of the Everfree Forest along with illustrations of each individual river it contained.
“What were you really doing, Diamond?” Luna asked, overbearing.
Diamond felt a bead of sweat break out, moving her cursor through the page’s descriptive sentences. “N-Nothing much! Aren’t we supposed to pass our homework to—“
“What lies in that tab?” Luna said, pointing at the tab to the right.
It read, MyStable.
Diamond gulped. “Uh….”
“Give me the mouse.”
Diamond shuddered. With shivering hands, she let go of both mouse and keyboard, seated there in dread.
Luna took control of the computer as she clicked on the tab.
The screen switched from the forest’s history to Diamond Tiara’s feed on MyStable.
The first thing Luna saw was the picture of ponies with the added caption, Found this nice work of art in the internet! Can’t tell it’s not real! Must be from one of our art students which I’m sure isn’t Sweetie Belle!
Luna gasped, seeing the photo plastered in the news—or the social news, to be more accurate. “Do you know what you have just done?!”
Diamond rolled her eyes, being as composed as possible with her pompous style. “Sweetie Belle isn’t an art student, so I’m not wrong—unless I’m not updated.”
“First, you are not to disparage your fellow classmates like that,” Luna scolded, still focused on the photo, “but, more importantly, do you even know where that image came from?”
Tiara shrugged her shoulders. “All I could tell is that it was uploaded from someone’s camera to here...but, hey, it’s not everyday I get to post pictures like this, right?”
Luna glared at her, her face contorted by wrath. “Delete it!”
Eep!” She held her hands up, holding the mouse in the air. “O-OK, Vice Pr-Principal L-Luna!”
And, taking over the mouse, she deleted the picture from her feed.
“Phew!” Diamond wiped the sweat off of her face, seeing other photos and posts on her feed which included Silver Spoon celebrating a high score in the arcade. “Problem solved!” Then, turning to Luna with a self-satisfied tone: “Now, what was the problem?”
Luna’s phone beeped and she picked it up, Tiara and Cheerilee watching with curiosity. In her messages, she saw a text from Principal Cadance. Luna, a Crystal student told me about a photo of ponies circulating on MyStable, and they look a lot like some of your students. Someone’s already copied it in case Diamond Tiara took it out, and we’re trying to figure out who it is. What’s going on?
Luna lifted her head from the phone, muttering, “No...it will blow up by morning….”
Diamond made a nervous laugh, the magnitude of sharing the photo dawning on her. “So...does this mean detention?”
Then, Cheerilee walked into the scene. “Uh, what’s happening?”
Luna gave her a frightened glare. “Nothing good if we do not act quickly.”


Sunset sighed with her back turned to the Canterlot Movie Club as they stood outside the arcade, the trio of girls sitting by the tree as people passed them on the sidewalk. Cars sped by, the night rolled on.
“What’s she gonna do?” asked Scootaloo to her friends in a cupped whisper.
“I told ya’ it’s a huge mistake!” Apple Bloom lashed out at Sweetie, also in a whisper. “What if we caused some kind of disaster an’ it’s all our fault?”
“Calm down, girls!” Sweetie said, repeatedly lowering her hands. “She’s gonna forgive us, no doubt about it! It’s not gonna make her look good if she stays angry.”
“But...she has to do something!” Apple Bloom reacted, flailing her arms about. “We’re not gettin’ off easy!”
Then, Sunset sighed again.
The three straightened themselves up, trying to look best for the confrontation’s continuation.
Sunset turned around, camera hanging from her neck again. Then, she frowned. “What you did was wrong—no, it wasn’t just wrong. It was illegal and you could go to jail for that, or at least opt in for fifty hours of community service.”
The club hung their heads in sorrow. All together: “We’re sorry, Sunset.”
“We promise we won’t break in to your house again,” Sweetie added in as miserable a tone as she could make it.
Then, Sunset smiled which surprised them. “I’m impressed, though. You were willing to go through with lock picking my door and you were able to get away with it without anyone noticing—and it’s not even midnight yet! I’m both happy and scared for the three of you, really.”
The trio lightened up. “Does that mean you’ll let us go?” Sweetie asked.
Sunset shook her head. “I’ll let you go, but—“ brought up her phone “—I’m not sure if your sisters would when I tell them.”
Then, all dropped their jaws.
“I told ya’ we’re not gettin’ off easy!” Apple Bloom whispered to Sweetie as a car shot past them on the road.


Sunset sat on her bed in the dark, alone with her camera, her phone, and her journal. She texted a few things to this or that person, and then she turned it off.
Her journal beeped and rumbled.
Sunset raised a brow and opened the journal, using a nearby flashlight to see what the words were.
Sorry for being all so gung ho on you earlier. I was stressed out with all my royal duties these days; this weekend is the first real one I’ve had in a month. When you have to save Ponyville four times from the usual Everfree monsters, when you have to go with Rarity on a friendship mission to Seaddle over the owner of a successful coffee bar, and when you have to arbitrate over some disputes between the changelings and the dragons—which isn’t helped by both leaders being on opposite ends of the personality spectrum—then you’d want to relax with a bang and have everyone come over.
Sunset read them, thinking about the princess’s predicament.
Then, more words were scribbled on to it, fresh letters glowing with a tinge of purple.
You know, it’s funny what happened these past few nights with people falling into Equestria. If it weren’t for magic not always being fun and games, I’d happily bring them in for a chat. Concerns told me otherwise, but I know I can’t be cautious for long, especially knowing that you’ve already defeated a couple of magical threats yourselves.
Sunset sighed, smiling. She took up her ballpen and wrote in response: Yeah. I’m just wondering about what might happen while we’re gone.
She waited and got Twilight’s reply. I understand where you’re coming from. We should all stay rational and make sure everypony is accounted for. If one of us has to stay, then I’m more than fine with that.
“Heh. Twilight telling herself to stay rational. Like that’s gonna work out splendidly.” Sure. Field trips to the Everfree Forest?
She chuckled to herself as she watched Twilight’s reply form on her page: No way! Are you crazy?!
The chuckle morphed into a roaring laugh. You wrote to me about your school’s field trip; Rainbow and AJ almost got eaten by bite-acudas. This can’t get any worse than that, right?
As for how Twilight took that: Sunset, this is no laughing matter. I want to have fun with my friends from both worlds but not at the expense of their safety. Did Fluttershy and Applejack tell everyone else how to move like a pony, for instance, so they won’t trip and fall off a cliff?
“Uh….” That would be awkward to teach in this world, but I’ll see. Can’t I just tell them to put which hoof where first?
Sunset read Twilight’s next reply. You girls have two arms and two legs. Imitating horses can’t be that hard. Besides, if anyone looks at you funny, just say that you’re practicing for a play.
And Sunset wrote on the journal: What play? Our next play is about a bunch of spies in a fantasy kingdom.
Then came Twilight’s reply: Fantasy kingdom, huh? You know who you’re talking to? The princess of a “fantasy” kingdom!
Sunset could not help but hide a smile. Well, we’ll just think about it, but I still think it’s super weird.
But she was not prepared for what the princess had to say: The rest of the girls will think we’re all super weird by the time they go home.
After adding another bout of laughter to the list of laughs tonight, she wrote a simple goodbye to her and received one back.
She closed the journal and placed it inside her bag, closing it with a zip.
Then, her phone beeped. She got it out and saw a message from Luna. Sunset, this is urgent. Diamond Tiara has somehow gotten hold of one of your Ponyville photos, and it has now been leaked to MyStable.
She pressed the message and appearing below it was the photo itself.
Sunset saw herself in pony form, saw herself smiling.
She gulped. “And just when I got my camera….”


The living room in Applejack’s house was modest and rather country. A rocking chair beside a shelf of old and dated family photos, among them those of Applejack posing with her livestock and, yes, a couple of horses.
Sitting around on the floor, moving their pieces around, and throwing some dice at their board game were Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle. They all wore faces of resigned defeat even though Apple Bloom was winning the game.
“No movie outings for a week?” Scootaloo expressed with a long moan. “And fifty hours of community service on each of us? That means we’re only gonna be together as city-wide janitors for a long time.”
Sweetie glowered at her. “Metropolitan street-sweepers, Scoot.”
Apple Bloom pushed her piece closer to the winning square, avoiding pitfalls and traps along the way. “By the time we’re done, they’re going to release The Stray Pup and Lighthouse Nine, and we’re gonna miss the premieres!”
Scootaloo sighed, resting a heavy head on her hand. “Yeah, Sweetie Belle. Who told you that lock picking random people’s homes for practice was a good idea?”
“Didn’t I tell you guys?” Sweetie replied in rage. “It’s a sport these days! They have it in Manehattan, they have it in Vanhoover, and they have it in Fillydelphia! There’s a national tournament and everything!”
“Duelin’ to be criminals, I’m sure,” Apple Bloom remarked in snark.
“Hey!” Sweetie pointed at her as she grabbed her dice for her turn. “What if we got trapped in this house? My lock picking skills will come in handy and you have me to thank for!”
Then, the front door swung open, revealing a sweating and panting Sunset.
They all looked at her, surprised at a second appearance from Shimmer.
“CMC!” Sunset shouted, not angry but desperate. “What did you do with the photos in my camera?”
And Sweetie dropped her dice. “Alright, I confess!” She stood up, bracing whatever would come as she covered Scootaloo’s mouth. “We uploaded it to the school’s LAN and we thought it’d be nice to get it the next morning because your camera’s not compatible with our phones and we don’t just feel like taking pictures of pictures tonight!”
Scootaloo then wrested herself from Sweetie’s hand.
Sunset sighed, taking a second to rest form the long-winded reply. “Do you realize that there are people in the library right now, doing whatever teacher stuff they do?”
Scootaloo groaned and rolled her eyes. “But it was her fault—“
Sunset grumbled, covering her face with her hands to muffle out a louder sigh. Then, she opened her face and saw the three girls trembling, hugging each other in fear.
She frowned as she walked closer to them, remorse surfacing. “Sorry for acting like that. I...I let it get to me and—“ pushed that line of thought aside as she sat down with them, being on their level. “Nevermind. It’d do us more harm than good to scold you right now. What we need is to minimize the damage this leak can do.”
“How?” Apple Bloom asked.
Sunset smirked. “I have an idea!”
With that, she stood up and ran out of the house, going into the night once more.
Then, the club looked at each other.
“So, why did she go here again?” Sweetie asked.
“Maybe just to tell us that we’re not in big trouble,” Apple Bloom suggested though sounding unsure herself.
After a while of considering that idea, they returned to their board game as they sat on the floor, the roll of dice popping every now and then.


Diamond Tiara sat in front of her computer, awaiting further instructions as Luna and Cheerilee kept watch over her. Tiara’s superiors could see her mouse hand shaking from time to time as she tried to jot down notes from the history websites.
Cheerilee, sitting on the computer beside Diamond’s, was monitoring the situation at MyStable. The photo was on her screen, posted under the name of Pithy Sport with the caption: Got this one from somewhere. Leave a like if you like, and comment your thoughts so I can get your feedback, ‘kay? As for the comments themselves, there were plenty piling up already, with one from Sugarcoat saying, That’s clearly not real. Ponies can’t hold cameras with their hooves, and do you expect me to be fooled by those quills?
Luna, sitting on the computer beside Cheerilee’s, was furiously writing down something with her ballpen, having broken the previous two by snapping them in half. She wrote ahead of herself, racing her finger back to cross out a needless embellishment or insert a better word in place of an ambiguous one.
“Are you done?” Cheerilee asked, turning to Luna.
And the vice principal threw her ball pen to the desk, bouncing it around. She held the paper up to the light of her screen, and crumpled it.
Cheerilee glanced away from the sight.
“If all else fails,” Luna began, her sanguine frame of mind failing, “then an official statement is necessary.” Then, pointing at Cheerilee’s screen and grabbing her attention with her hand, “However, it is best to let them be confused as to the origin and the true nature of this mysterious picture. Let them speculate and, in the end, befuddle themselves so that the truth will be hidden by their action and not by our inaction.”
Cheerilee did her best to hide her snicker at that. “Wow, Luna. I know you’re quite...antiquated, but I didn’t know you sound like you lived as far as possible from society…”
And giggled.
“...like the moon!”
Luna squinted at her. “Do thou call me old?! I am well under fifty and you know it!”
Cheerilee heard Tiara giggle before the latter returned to history. “Well, your plan is...nice.” Then, her smile disappeared as she shifted her focus to the screen. “A lot of people are on the trail, though. We’ve got Juniper Montage asking about Sunset’s pony appearance.” Furrowing her brows and focusing on another comment: “There’s Gloriosa Daisy pitching in with her two cents about how familiar they look with those pony ears and their tails, and there’s Bon Bon—“
Luna’s eye twitched. “Bon Bon?”
“Oh, and Lyra’s there, too,” said Cheerilee as she directed Luna towards Lyra’s comment.
Her comment read: Yup! To all who are wondering whether this is real or not, this is certainly and definitely real! I’ve been there myself but it was on accident! Princess Twilight and her friends brought me, Bon Bon, and Wallflower back home!
There were dozens of comments underneath: Where are your pictures, then? and, I knew it! Lyra’s the artist! I thought she wasn’t a good painter, though, and, Trying to cop the trend? Lame move.
“This is getting out of hand!” Luna said to herself. “We need a distraction and—“
Cheerilee’s phone beeped and she picked it up. She saw a message from a certain Octavia Melody. Scratch is going to have the week off to help out with Floral Week.
Then, they looked at the computer screen.
Moop!
The photo and its comments moved down a couple notches, giving way to the next thing on Cheerilee’s feed: A status update from Octavia herself saying, DJ Pon-3 is going to work day in-day out for the school’s upcoming Floral Week. There will be a music competition, but stay tuned for further updates on that.
And already, the likes and shares of that status were rising fast, with comments piling up underneath as they mostly showed confusion and bewilderment united by one question: Was Vinyl Scratch leaving her job?
Luna shrugged her shoulders at that, breathing a sigh of relief. “I am glad that we have received a satisfactory distraction—“
Then the doors swung open, showing a tired Sunset shouting, “Do you have a distraction?!”
All three of those present looked at her with odd looks.
Sunset’s eyes were wide open, she was seething with tiredness, and her hair was more frazzled than ever. The poor lady was holding the doors open with her outstretched arms.
Cheerilee stood up, facing her. “Uh, yes. Octavia just posted something about her music friend and now everyone is abuzz on Vinyl’s job.”
Sunset sighed, putting on a sheepish smile as she waved them farewell. “Well, uh, that’s gr-great! I’ll just, um, leave you be and hope it all blows over when we wake up!”
And she walked back into the halls and made her exit, her footsteps fast and light as she ran.