"YEAH, they sent the TAX MAN! I lost my JOB AND! You got hooked on OXYCODONE! They shut the LIGHTS OFF! They took the CAR AND! I bought a SAWED OFF SHOTGUN!"
Two wide-eyed unicorns stared with bemused frowns at the amber-coated, copper-maned alicorn who was cheerfully—and loudly—singing at one of the large tables in the castle library. Pens and pencils wreathed in red magic scratched away at various worksheets and notebooks spread out across the table. Next to the alicorn, a tiny baby alicorn with immense pink wings and bright, shiny eyes bounced happily in a high chair, burbling cheerfully to herself as a plush snail danced through the air in time with the singing.
Starlight Glimmer shook her head. "What. The HAY. Are you SINGING?!"
Sunset Shimmer blinked. "Huh? Oh, it's just a rock song that's popular right now."
"Those lyrics sound...absolutely dreadful," Trixie said sourly.
Sunset shrugged. "A lot of rock songs are like that in my world," she said. "It's supposed to be a catharsis, I guess, for people who are going through tough times with like, depression and drug addiction and stuff. And for everybody else, well, it's just really catchy music."
Starlight raised an eyebrow. "Those sound like pretty awful things to deal with, are they...are they common things over there?"
Again, Sunset shrugged. "Kinda, yeah. It sucks, but that's life."
The two unicorns looked at each other blankly. "And...you like living in that world?" Trixie asked slowly.
"Well, yeah," Sunset said. "I mean, I'm not personally going through stuff like that, and I don't really know anybody who is. Like I said, it's just a song that's popular. Don't overthink it."
"That's the thing," Starlight said. "You say that song is popular, but it sounds like the singer's, well..." She glanced at Trixie.
Trixie waved a hoof. "Kind of about to turn totally evil and go on a rampage?"
Sunset rolled her eyes and chuckled. "Really, guys, it's just a song. Isn't that wight, Fluwwypoo?" she added in baby-talk as she nuzzled Flurry, who cooed affectionately and hugged her nose with her tiny hooves.
The library doors opened, and Twilight Sparkle entered. "Hi girls!" she said cheerfully. "How's it going?"
"Sunset Shimmer was just talking about her world's popular music," Starlight said with a bright tone and a tight smile.
"Oh? How fun!" Twilight said, clapping her hooves. "Remember that music festival we went to?"
"I remember it being really loud," Starlight said. "I don't really remember the lyrics so much because the guitars were so loud!"
Sunset rolled her eyes. "These two are hung up on the lyrics to the song I was singing earlier," she said. "I told them not to overthink it, I'm only singing it because it's popular and catchy."
"A popular and catchy song about getting fired and buying a shotgun," Starlight muttered.
Twilight raised an eyebrow. "What now?"
"I said don't overthink it!" Sunset cried, flailing her hooves.
"Bagigigigi!" Flurry insisted, banging her hoof on her high chair tray.
"You tell 'em, Flurry!" Sunset said with a tone of satisfaction, crossing her hooves and nodding.
"Oh sure, take HER side!" Trixie complained.
Starlight blinked. "Trix...Flurry's a foal. She literally doesn't know what's going on."
"I knew that!" Trixie said hastily, blushing faintly.
Sunset grinned and opened her saddlebags. A smartphone levitated out, hovering in the air in front of her and Flurry. She leaned in close to Flurry and smiled hugely. A flash went off, and the phone floated back into her bag. Flurry blinked dazedly, burbling in baby speak as she chased the spots in her eyes.
"What was that?!" Trixie asked, rearing in alarm.
Twilight blinked. "You brought your phone through the portal? What if it'd been wrecked by the magic?"
"It's a cheap backup phone," Sunset said. "I wanted to take pictures here, but I didn't want to risk my regular phone getting broken or lost or eaten, so I got a backup!"
"Oh! Smart."
"Trixie asked a question! Ignore Trixie at your own peril!"
Sunset rolled her eyes. "It's a smartphone," she said. "It's..." She rolled a hoof. "Hard to explain because most of what it can do hasn't been invented yet in Equestria, but basically it's a tool most humans have that they'd be completely lost without. One of the many things it can do is take pictures."
"That tiny thing is a camera?" Trixie asked. "But...! How could that be? It wasn't even big enough to hold any film!"
"Humans don't really use film so much anymore. Well, except for like, film camera enthusiasts, I guess."
Trixie blinked. "How can you take pictures without film?"
Sunset started to explain, then hummed thoughtfully. "You know what? It'd be easier to explain if I just showed you. But not here..."
* * * * *
Three girls emerged from the portal into the brightness of the Canterlot High courtyard.
Starlight Glimmer looked down at herself and blinked. "Hey, my clothes changed!" The outfit she'd been wearing when she crossed over for the slumber party had been replaced by a purple-and-green short-sleeved top with a sleeveless black vest, dark jeans with artistic rips at the thighs and shins, high-heeled black ankle boots, and a star-spangled soft purple beanie.
"Huh, weird," Sunset Shimmer said, shouldering her backpack.
"Whaaaaaaaaaaat just happened?!" the third member of their group warbled in alarm, wobbling unsteadily on her feet. Sunset and Starlight rushed to catch and steady her.
Trixie had manifested on the human side of the portal wearing an off-the-shoulder navy blue top that bared her midriff, a light purple pleated skirt that fell to mid-thigh, dark blue tights, and sparkly light blue open-toe wedges. A short lavender cape fastened with a sapphire brooch lay loosely about her bare shoulders. She looked from one face to another, eyes wide. "S-Sunset...Shimmer? Starlight Glimmer?"
Her friends nodded.
Trixie frowned. "You look...very strange," she said. She looked Sunset up and down, frowning. "What in the name of Celestia is this supposed to be?" she added, poking Sunset in the chest. She examined her hands, then lifted them up and studied them intently. "And this is...what happened to me?! Oh look, I've got these...big lumpy things too...are they humps?" she asked as she squeezed her own chest. "Are we...did we turn into some sort of two-legged camels?"
"Trixie, cut that out!" Sunset hissed, eyes darting around to make sure nobody was watching them. "Here, hands at your sides, we'll show you how to walk like a human, okay?"
"O-okay," Trixie said uncertainly, "but this is definitely the most bizarre magic trick the Great and Powerful Trixie has ever seen, and she isn't sure she cares for it..."
Sunset led the other two up the steps into the school. "We're going in there?" Trixie asked. "What is it, the local castle?"
"School, Trixie. It's a high school." Sunset guided her Equestrian friends down a hallway sparsely littered with straggling students who were just finishing up detentions or extracurriculars. She took a right into the administrative hall and knocked on a door with a crescent moon mark on the frosted glass. "Vice-Principal Luna?"
"Enter," a voice said from within.
Starlight blinked. "Was that—?"
Sunset opened the door and ducked in. "Just here to pick up my stuff," Sunset said.
"Ah, yes," said the woman seated behind the cramped desk that occupied most of the room. She slid a large orange canvas bag across the room without bothering to look up. "I'm glad you returned early," the woman continued. "I certainly don't mind looking after a few of your things while you visit that other world, but I would occasionally like to get out of here a little early."
"Sorry, Vice-Principal Luna," Sunset said. "I won't make a habit of it, I just really really needed some horn time."
"I'll pretend I understood that," Luna said, finally looking up. She blinked. "Ah! Miss Lulamoon. I needed to talk to you about that—"
"Wrong Trixie, Miss Luna," Sunset said hastily, holding up a hand to stall her. "This is the Trixie from Equestria. I just brought her over to show her how smartphones work."
Luna paused, blinking.
"I'll let the other Trixie know you're looking for her if I see her though!" Sunset said as she picked up her bag and steered the other two girls away from the door.
Once they were several feet down the hall, Starlight turned back to look over her shoulder, her jaw agape. "Was that...Princess Luna?!"
"Her counterpart, yeah," Sunset said. "Here she's Vice-Principal of CHS. Celestia's the Principal." She led them back the way they'd come, back to the statue, where she sat down on the grass near the portal. The other two followed suit; Trixie kept looking around with interest.
"So...this is the world you abandoned Equestria for?" Trixie asked. "Gave up your unicorn magic for? I can't say I would ever willingly surrender my horn." She looked down at her hands. "Don't even get me started on whatever this nonsense is."
"It's not so bad here," Starlight said. "It's just loud and weird."
Sunset dug through the bag she'd gotten from Luna and pulled out a phone with an orange case. "Okay, so smartphones," she said. "Ooh, I've got a ton of texts, I wonder what's up?" She spent a minute scrolling the screen. Starlight and Trixie looked at each other, then at Sunset, then back at each other.
Starlight coughed pointedly.
"Huh? Oh! Sorry," Sunset said. "The girls are shooting memes back and forth."
"No idea what that means," Starlight said tightly, smiling too-bright.
Sunset chuckled, then launched into an explanation of smartphones...
* * * * *
Trixie's jaw scraped the ground as she held Sunset's phone reverently, staring at the screen, on which a video was playing. "So let me get this straight," she said. "This thing lets you talk to people who are clear across the world, either with your voice or by sending letters to them that they get instantly, it has access to some kind of massive invisible library that exists everywhere at once, it plays music, it's a movie theater that fits in your pocket, AND it can take pictures?!"
"And a bunch of other stuff, yeah," Sunset said, nodding.
Starlight deftly plucked the phone from Trixie's slacking grip and passed it back to Sunset. "Kinda mind-blowing, huh Trix?" she said cheerfully.
Trixie shook her head. "How? Just—HOW? All the greatest magic in Equestria couldn't come up with something that does all that!"
Sunset shrugged. "Decades of technology. Research and innovation. This world lives and dies by its technology, so the technology keeps getting better, faster, all the time. These phones didn't even exist until a little over a decade ago, and now you pretty much can't live without one."
//Space Unicorn! Soaring through the stars!//
Starlight and Trixie jumped. Sunset held up a hand and tapped the screen of her phone, then held it up to her ear. "Hey Rainbow Dash," she said. "What's up? Yeah, I'm over at the school. Sugar Cube Corner? Sure, gimme a bit." She disconnected. "Sorry about that," she said to the other two. "The girls wanna meet up at Sugar Cube Corner."
Trixie frowned. "How—were you talking to Rainbow Dash just now, when she's on the other side of the portal? And Sugar Cube Corner is in Ponyville?"
"Nono, this world's Rainbow Dash," Sunset said. "And this world's Sugar Cube Corner."
"You'll get the hang of it, Trix," Starlight said with a grin.
"It's...a bit much for me," Trixie said, shaking her head in bewilderment. "I believe I would like to return to Twilight's castle now."
"Yeah, I wanna get back to playing with Flurry Heart before Cadance comes to pick her up," Starlight said, standing and stretching. "It was fun visiting your world again though!"
"Yeah, we should do it again, but for a longer trip," Sunset said. "Hey, let's take a selfie before you go!"
"A whattie?" Trixie asked.
Sunset rolled her eyes. "Just get in here," she said as she pulled her phone out and held it up above her head.
* * * * *
"Hey girls," Sunset said as she joined her friends at Sugar Cube Corner a short while later.
"Hey Sunset!" Twilight Sparkle said. "What's up?"
"Oh, you know," Sunset said with a chuckle. "Got a ton of homework done, visited with Princess Twilight, played with her adorable niece, confused the heck out of Starlight Glimmer and Trixie..."
Rainbow snorted. "Confusing Trixie isn't exactly an achievement," she said. "Heck, it wouldn't even get you a bronze trophy."
Sunset rolled her eyes. "Pony Trixie," she clarified. "She's hanging around the castle a lot lately apparently. I blew her mind with my phone."
"Oh, you took the backup phone with you?" Twilight asked. "How'd that work out?"
"Better than I expected!" Sunset said, pulling out her backup phone and firing off a group MMS. The girls all pulled their phones out. Fluttershy let out a high-pitched gasp of delight.
"Oh my GOSH what IS THAT? I WANT ONE!" she squeaked.
"Izzat you as a pony?" Applejack asked.
"What the heck is that thing?" Rainbow wondered.
"Oh, that is absolutely adorable!" Rarity cooed.
Twilight adjusted her glasses. "Wow, so that's what you really look like, huh?"
"Seriously I will pay ANYTHING for one of whatever that insanely adorable, squishy thing is!" Fluttershy said, getting up in Sunset's face.
Sunset backed up. "Simmer down, Fluttershy," she said. "That's Twilight's niece. She's not a pet, no matter how adorable she looks. She's a baby."
"Oh," Fluttershy said, blinking. She sat back down, a disappointed look on her face. "Umm...well, next time you go back, can you get lots more pictures of her? And videos? Lots of videos?" she asked hopefully.
Sunset chuckled. "Sure. In fact, I'll ask Princess Twilight to let me know next time she's having Flurry over, and you can come with me, okay?"
Fluttershy gasped. "Yay!" she cheered quietly.
Sunset sent the picture to her regular phone, then pulled it out and went through her photos. She paused on the selfie she'd taken at the portal. A slow, evil grin split her face. "Hey, speaking of confusing Trixie..."
* * * * *
The Great and Powerful Trixie was in the middle of filing her Great and Powerful Fingernails while watching her favorite afternoon TV show in her Great and Powerful Bedroom when her Great and Powerful Phone buzzed with a text message. Blowing on her nails, she picked up her phone and frowned. "Sunset Shimmer? What could she possibly want with Trixie?" The spinning circle of an incoming photo took up several precious seconds of Trixie's time before finally displaying an image...
"WHAT?!" Trixie cried, shooting to her feet. "This is—! Trixie never posed for such a—! Who is that other girl? Trixie doesn't take selfies with Sunset Shi—Trixie does not even own that outfit! ...although it does look rather nice on Trixie..."