The two sets of crusaders both sat there staring at the door before turning back to each other. “So... do, any of you remember going to the mirror pool, or did something else cause this?” Scootaloo asked eyebrow raised.
The Sherlock impersonating Applebloom shook her head and pointed over her shoulder. “Ah don’t know about any pool, but there was a mirror back there that we fell outta after we jumped into the portal.”
Applebloom tilted her head and squinted a bit in thought. “Twilight has a portal?”
Fiddling with her phone for a moment, Sweetie stuffed it into her mane and turned to the others. “Yeah, it’s back that way. When we jumped over, our Rarity came over here with Fluttershy, and your Rainbow and Applejack went over there.”
Scootaloo’s ears perked up instantly, and her head turned to her visiting counterpart. “Wait, there are two Rainbows?”
Ignoring her, Applebloom rubbed her chin in confusion. “But why would AJ jump into some magic mirror?”
The Bowler hat wearing pegasus hissed a bit and rubbed the back of her head. “That’d be kinda our fault, in the long run.”
Two of the three local crusaders shared a glance before Sweetie spoke for both of them. “What did you do?”
The three visiting crusaders all started to look anywhere but their counterparts. Their Sweetie Belle was very interested in the floor as she cleared her throat. “We might have, sorta, kinda, made the entire school mad at Sunset Shimmer.”
Two heads tilted in confusion. “Who?”
The third leaned in closer, eyes wide and frantic. “No seriously, there’s two of Rainbow Dash?”
Ignoring her counterpart again, Scootaloo waved a hoof idly. “Sunset’s a girl that goes to CHS with our sisters, who apparently came from here, somehow got stuck there, and was the biggest bully in the whole school.”
“Then, at the Fall Formal, she stole this world’s Twilight’s crown, and became a fiery evil demon when she put it on.” Applebloom chimed in, before playing with her hat. “Only, Twilight and our sisters blasted her with a big rainbow laser and knocked some sense into her head.”
The visiting Sweetie played with her hair for a moment, having the decency to look sheepish. “After that, she worked really hard to prove she was trying to be a better person, but even after saving the whole school from a group of evil monsters from Equestria, we... sorta didn’t think she was actually a good guy.”
All three crusaders stood there dumbfounded for a moment, processing what they just heard. The first one to snap out of it was Applebloom, whose eye was starting to twitch. “She saved yer lives... and you didn’t think she was a good guy? What the heck is up with you three?”
Scootaloo hissed a bit and rubbed the back of her head. “Yeah, it wasn’t our brightest moments.”
Moments after she did, however, she was tackled to the ground by her Equestrian double and was nose to nose with the pegasus filly. “Why are you not freaking out that there’s two of our big sister!?”
She blinked for a moment before Scootaloo pressed a hoof to her face and pushed the excited filly off of her. “Because the last time I met your Rainbow, she smacked me upside the head and kicked my sister into a soccer goal?”
Three jaws dropped before the orange pegasus could speak again. “Why would she do that?” Scootaloo paused, and her eyes went wide as she grabbed the visiting pegasus’s face in her hooves. “Wait a second, when did she do that!? You’ve already gotten to meet two of the best pony ever!? When can I!?”
An uneasy glance towards the filly was all Scootaloo did before she turned to her friends. “Do I always get like this when anyone brings up Rainbow?”
Four fillies deadpanned. “Yes.”
They all stared at each other for a moment before Scootaloo pushed her counterpart off of herself and stood back up. “I am so sorry.”
An exasperated sigh escaped Applebloom. “Can we please get back on topic?” The hat-wearing farm filly adjusted her attire and turned to her and her friend’s counterparts. “Look, the point we’re trying to get ta is that because we used to think she was still evil, we didn’t trust her. Then our sisters all started to cut our time together short and spent more and more of it with Sunset, which only made those thoughts seem like they were true.”
“And we came to the oh so brilliant conclusion that she was stealing our sisters because of it.” Scootaloo nodded with a roll of her eyes. “Seriously, why were we that dumb?”
Sweetie Belle stepped in, deciding it was better not to answer her friend’s question. “So to get back at her, Applebloom started to spread our sisters’ secrets around and framed Sunset for all of it. Then Scootaloo and I started to help her and... it really spiraled out of control with how many people kept sending us secrets to share. All of Sunset’s friends left her alone to fend for herself, and the school turned on itself.” A few tears started to bead at her eyes. “But mostly, they went after Sunset.”
“Ah was feeling really bad about it all, but with everyone sending in secrets, and how they were treating Sunset despite that, we were too afraid to stop,” Applebloom added with a frown. “It took seeing her desperately chasing after our sisters ta try and beg them to listen to her for us to get our heads on straight again and confess.”
The hallways were silent once more as the three visiting crusaders were stared at by their counterparts. It wasn’t until the Equestrian Scootaloo shook her head that the silence was broken. “Wow. That sounds like the Gabby Gums incident cranked up to eleven.”
Three more heads tilted in confusion. “The Gab-what-now?”
Now, it was the Equestrian half of the group’s turn to look sheepish. “Some time ago, we were working for our school newspaper under the name Gabby Gums, and Diamond was the paper’s editor.” Sweetie Belle started, rubbing her hooves together. “We kept submitting stories, but she’d reject them again and again. It wasn’t until we submitted a rather embarrassing one on some of the townsfolk that she posted an article we wrote.”
“So, we started finding as many secrets as we could from the town, invading everypony’s privacy in the process.” Scootaloo sighed and looked out the window, a bit of irritation shining in her eyes before she turned to the group. “Then she kept blackmailing us with our own embarrassing secrets us when we were getting uncomfortable with the articles and wanted to stop. The whole town wouldn’t even talk to us because of that gossip column when they figured out it was us.”
“So when we realized how much we broke our friendships all through the town, we came up with a plan,” Applebloom smirked a bit at the memory. “Diamond got caught thanks ta us confessing in an article that she hadn’t even bothered to read while she was threatening us to not be late again. It still took some time to get the rest of Ponyville to trust us as much as they used ta, but all the work it took was worth it in the end.”
Hearing all of this, the hat-wearing Applebloom sighed. “At least Y'all have that excuse. We ain’t got nothing to justify what we did, or anyone to blame. We were just a bunch of jealous idiots.”
“Not really.” They all looked at the Equestrian Scootaloo with confusion evident on their faces. Said filly scratched the back of her head and shrugged. “I mean, you said it yourself, all the students who were being mean were giving you the secrets as an excuse to get at that other girl. Laying all of the blame on yourselves isn’t really fair. If they went after you for that, then they’re the jerks, and they’re even worse for going after Sunshine.”
“Sunset.”
Rolling her eyes, Scootaloo face-hoofed. “Whatever. Point is, you screwed up, and you’re paying for it, but you’re not the only ones at fault.”
Scratching her head, the Equestrian Applebloom scrunched up her face. “What Ah don’t get is why our, er, your sisters would just leave Sunset like that. That don’t sound like AJ at all.”
The three winced again, and Scootaloo chuckled nervously. “Yeah... neither did your sisters. That’s kinda what lead to me getting smacked upside the head.”
The Equestrian Crusaders all shared a glance before Sweetie took the lead. “Did all our sisters go over?”
The white unicorn’s counterpart only nodded. “Yep, along with Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie.”
The three fillies all shared a brief moment of horror as that sank in, and sat squarely on their rears as Scootaloo looked fearfully over her shoulder. “Oh, sweet Celestia there’s two of her.”
Scootaloo’s counterpart waved her hooves frantically. “I know, right!? I’m surprised the school’s still standing.”
Sweetie and her counterpart looked at each other before sharing the same thought. “I’m surprised the town’s still standing.”
“So why exactly are ya girls over here and not on the other side of this portal or whatever?” The farm filly asked with a curious look in her eyes. When the others all looked at her, she waved a hoof in front of her. “Don’t get me wrong, this is really cool at all, but what’re ya doing over here?”
Applebloom ended up answering her own question, as her counterpart smiled a bit. “Well, after all that happened, we were wanting to try and get everyone to trust us again by doing something to help out and prove we’re sorry.”
Sweetie reached into her mane and pulled out a flyer. Across the front, was a picture of a pink-skinned girl with purple-ish hair and blue highlights under her loose-fitted beanie. “At first we couldn’t think of anything, then Applebloom found this missing person poster that was for someone she heard Sunset and Applejack talking about. Someone named, Starlight Glimmer.”
Scootaloo smirked a bit and puffed out her chest. “So, we figured if this world’s version of Starlight is right here, maybe she could help us figure out where her counterpart is! I mean, it’s not going to be a totally accurate, but it would at least give us an idea or something and make it super easy.” She took a hoof and rubbed it against her poofed up plumage, something that Sweetie noticed was there and made her go starry-eyed again, whispering something along the lines of ‘it’s so fluffy.’
Scootaloo’s Equestrian counterpart nodded with pursed lips. “Huh, that’s actually a pretty good idea.”
The smirk only grew on both pegasi. “We have our moments.” The two shared a hoof bump before the group turned to the doors before them as a whole. “Now we just need to get into her room and talk to her.”
Meanwhile, on the other side of the door, Starlight was pressing her ear to the crystal and listening in to the entire conversation. Silently cursing to herself, she started to look around the room. “Okay Starlight. Just... gotta find a way out of here before they catch you, and you manage to put a foot in your mouth trying to come up with a believable lie.”
Starlight started to pace about, desperately putting together a plan before she eyed the balcony and her bedding. Struggling to light her horn, she managed to rip the linen free of the frame and mattress, before tying it into a length of makeshift rope. She looked over the railing, making a note of the window below, before tying the makeshift line to the edge and flinging it off.
Next, however, was the more arduous task of actually climbing the rope.
“Dang it. I forgot how hard it is to climb with hooves.” Regardless of this lack of foresight, the pink unicorn knew it would only be a matter of time before the Crusaders would get in. Especially now that there were six of them. With the grace of a flounder, Starlight found herself dangling from the rope, as she slowly shimmied her way down; all four hooves pressed as hard as she could on the sheets.
Yes, Starlight thought to herself, I’m home free! Once I get downstairs, I can get to the portal and say sayonara! A giggle escaped her lips as she neared the lower floor. It was so tantalizingly close that she almost faltered on her grip.
Then the door opened up, and Twilight found herself staring at her friend, having a hard time understanding what was going on. “Um... Starlight? Why are you trying to break out of the castle’s third-floor window? And why is Sunset telling me there are missing posters of you on the other side of the portal?” Starlight hung there, frozen in place as she saw more ponies standing behind the princess.
Namely an amber unicorn who was looking at her with a raised eyebrow and confused eyes.
The only words that came from Starlight’s mouth were the first ones she could think of, and even then, they sounded pretty flimsy to be accepted by the princess, let alone her month old pen pal. “I can explain.”
Yeah, she was pretty screwed.