Sunset Shimmer regarded the several deathly quiet bodies that sat at the lunch table with her and sighed. She had expected this reaction from them.
Idle conversation filled Canterlot High’s cafeteria. Scores of students sat at their tables, flip-flopping between chewing their food and whispering half-baked rumors which garnered surprised gasps and subdued laughs (with some bits discussing the boards and caution tape over the broken door at the room’s front; apparently an accident with a football). But with the way everyone interacted, all of the tables could have very well been their own little islands; they kept to themselves and bothered no one else.
And that was fine in Sunset’s book; ideal, even.
Her friends from this world took up most of the table’s eight seats. Trays full of half-eaten food sat on the table in front of each of them. Applejack and Rainbow Dash took the seats on the end to her left, Fluttershy sat to her immediate right, and Pinkie Pie and Rarity took the seats on the end to the right.
And across the table sat two Twilight Sparkles. The one opposite Fluttershy adjusted her glasses and sucked in a breath before turning to glance at her double.
The latter Twilight nodded solemnly. “So, let me make sure that I have this straight. This off-ness that you’ve been feeling… the doctors over here couldn’t figure out what was wrong?”
Sunset shook her head. “No. I’ve been to a couple. They tell me that I’m perfectly healthy. But I can feel it… right here in my chest,” she said, pointing to the offended area.
Twilight nodded.
“Especially whenever we pony up with our geodes,” she continued, stroking the stone around her neck.
Her friends looked down at their own geodes with some hands stroking them in kind.
“And do you remember when I brought Starlight Glimmer over to the human world? And we had that fiasco with, uh, Juniper Montage? I felt it both times I crossed the mirror.”
Twilight folded her hands together and sighed. “Well, that does sound kinda strange. But if I’m to be honest, Sunset, I don’t have the slightest clue what the problem might be.”
“Ah’m sure it’s nothin’,” Applejack said. “Ah mean, unless you ran into some strange magic here or there or wherever.”
“Which we have,” Pinkie Pie pointed out in a sing-song manner.
“I too have wondered if it’s simply the imagination,” Rarity added, briefly fanning herself with a celery stick. “Your geode is mind powers, after all.”
A nearby table burst into laughter before one of its occupants lobbed a football across the room which another table caught.
Twilight shifted in her seat. “Well, anyway, Sunset… what about these dreams that I hear you’re having? Can you tell me about those?”
The words hadn’t even gone through Sunset’s head and she could already feel some sweat forming on her brow. Her mind drifted to what she had seen the night before; what she had seen on many nights before. She shuddered.
Everybody else’s frown deepened and they drew closer to her.
“Yeah,” she said. “I’ve been seeing the same thing in all of my dreams. A lot of the time, I still have somewhat-normal dreams, but I’ll still see the same thing appear in all of them in some way or another. But on some nights, it is my entire dream.”
“Ooze, right?” Fluttershy asked.
She brought up the image in her mind and could feel her body tremble under its weight. “Black ooze,” she said. “It’s like… a slime, I guess. There’s a little red light in the middle of that slime and it’s always there. I feel like that red ball of light is looking at me.”
Now she was certain that she was sweating.
And she also saw a flicker in Twilight’s eyes. She saw a little bit of color wash out of her face.
“And every time I see it… it grows and grows and…” She took a deep breath and forced her mouth to form the next words. “It’s death. Everything that this… thing even so much touches just… disintegrates. Or it disappears. And, in some dreams, that includes me.”
The whole table sat in silence for a few moments more. Rainbow Dash sighed and put another baby carrot into her mouth and chewed. Pinkie Pie shook her head and rested it on top of her folded hands.
The native Twilight, meanwhile, silently watched as her counterpart shuddered, and she shuddered in return.
Twilight finally placed her hands on the table and pushed herself to her feet. “Sunset… I think… maybe it might be worthwhile to have an Equestrian doctor look at you. Or an experienced mage. I don’t know. But… just to be sure.”
Sunset felt like her heart could have stopped beating at that moment. “You think so?”
“That’s not a normal thing to be dreaming about,” Twilight said. “I don’t know how you’re dreaming about it at all.”
“Ah, if you’re all goin’ to Equestria, how long ya reckon you’d be gone?” Applejack asked.
“I don’t know. A day. Maybe two. Who knows?” Twilight said.
As Twilight walked toward the end of the table, Sunset also stood up. Her chair scraped the floor as she went. “Then… should I go pack my bags?”
“We should take care of this right away,” Twilight replied. “So yes, Sunset. I’ll let Principal Celestia know where you’re going.”
“Oh my,” Rarity quivered as she stood up in kind. “You make it sound like it’s serious.”
Twilight turned, placed her hands on the end of the table, and tried to find her breath again. She looked across all of them, paused on Sunset in particular, and then nodded solemnly. “I… I’m hoping I’m wrong, but it could very well be serious. Sunset… that thing you keep seeing in your dreams… To me, it sounds…” Twilight shuddered. “It sounds like the Nameless.”