//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 - Fuzzyfurvert // Story: SunLight Sliders: Infinite // by Amber Spark //------------------------------// “Let me guess,” Twilight stage whispered out of the side of her mouth, “you stole something from this guy?” The buck in question walked out from the boughs and massive gnarled roots of the great white tree, moving toward the two of them.  With each graceful leap, Sunset shrank back visibly beside her, looking more and more nervous. “Maybe?”  Sunset stage whispered back, glancing around them at the other silent deer.  “I’ve stolen a lot of stuff from a lot of different people.  It gets hard to keep track of at times.” “That’s...disturbing.” “That’s my life, Sparky.  You try getting by on worlds not your own with cultures you don’t understand with no one to help you and let’s see what level you sink to.”  Sunset sighed tiredly.  “Thankfully, deer worlds are dripping in ambient magic.  The talisman should be ready to go in a moment.” “Do you always run away from your problems?”  Twilight raised an eyebrow.  “My Sunset tends to face her problems head-on.” “Again, not your Sunset.”  Sunset looked down at the amulet around her throat.  The seams of the device were already glowing faintly.  She glanced back up at the approaching deer.  “You heard Iron Tack, I’m a little sneakthief, not some reckless hero type.” “That pony...Tack...also called you a ‘scrub.’”  Twilight’s other eyebrow lifted itself.  “That kind of implies that you aren’t even very good at being a sneakthief.” “Tack’s just jealous.”  Sunset smirked, some of the characteristic bravado and confidence Twilight knew from her Sunset peeking through.  “I’m the best there is, Sparky.” The buck was just about on top of them when Twilight felt Sunset throw a hoof over her shoulders. Twilight stared wide-eyed at the TPT as it floated in front of them in Sunset’s magic.  The buck opened his mouth, but any noise he made was lost in the eruption of a new portal opening up under her and Sunset.  Twilight managed a yelp before passing the portal’s event horizon and the world once again turned itself inside out. The next thing Twilight found herself aware of was solid, grass covered ground under her feet.  She glanced down at herself.  Shoes.  She wiggled her toes, making her Mary Janes wriggle.  She was human again and so was Sunset—who she noted sported a new hairstyle that was about shoulder length and looked like something popular from when her grandparents were young.  Around them, familiar suburbia stretched in every direction, with rows of houses and little fenced off yards.  Distantly, she could hear the sounds of traffic and sirens.  Familiar city sounds. “Where are we now?”  Twilight adjusted her glasses and looked around.  “Is this...my world?  I think this is my neighborhood.”  She turned around and squinted at the house they were standing in front of.  It looked vaguely familiar.  Luckily no one seemed to be around to notice their sudden arrival.  As she was thinking about it, Sunset passed her and walked up onto the porch and took a seat in the empty swing seat there. “Who knows if this is your world, Sparky.  It’s not like I’ve been steering us from world to world.”  Sunset held up the amulet, letting it spin around lazily on the cord.  “The Talismans are pretty much set to random.  My old Twilight could run rings around anyone or anything with one of these, but I’m...let’s say less skilled at that particular aspect of interdimensional sliding.” Twilight tilted her head.  “‘Sliding?’  That’s what this is called?  Going from world to world?  And what, stealing whatever you can get your hands on?” Sunset sighed and started rocking the swing chair back and forth gently.  “The stealing is more of a me thing, but yeah.  Twilights and Sunsets slide all over the multiverse.  It’s...a thing.” Twilight nodded absently, letting that information sink into her.  Twilights, plural, but from Sunset’s tone more likely multiples bordering on infinite.  Countless versions of herself on countless worlds that were all different, but with overlapping similarities.  The theory was one she was fairly knowledgeable about, but being confronted with the reality of... well... reality was stunning.  However, pushing the idea of infinite options aside for a moment, there were some more pressing matters she needed to figure out first. I need to get my...er...not mine, but some Archmage’s amulet away from this Sunset.  Letting myself get dragged along without any leverage of control is just asking for trouble.  Twilight forced herself to smile and start walking toward the porch and the swing.  She’s not my Sunset.  She hit me, she bled all over my bedroom floor, and she sounds like a career criminal.  If I can figure out how to do this sliding thing, I can get us back to my world and let my Sunset and Princess Twilight know about this.  They can handle this stuff far better than I ever could. Twilight stopped at the edge of the swing.  Sunset stopped without being asked, letting her take a seat next to Sunset.  “So... let’s just talk... okay?” “Sure, Sparky.” “Please stop calling me that.” “No.” Twilight frowned, watching Sunset’s profile.  The girl hadn’t even looked her way since sitting down, Sunset’s gaze locked on nothing in particular.  “Erm... okay.  You know what, Sunset?  Go ahead and call me that if it makes you feel better.  Maybe, to better differentiate you from the Sunset I know, I could call you, Shimsham.” “Please don’t.”  Sunset finally turned to regard Twilight for a moment, her face half way between a grin and a grimace.  “It’s highly unprofessional.” “Speaking of professions,” Twilight smirked, “how did you end up a thief, anyway?  My Sunset only ever stole Princess Twilight’s crown.” “You do what you have to to survive.”  Sunset relaxed and pushed with her feet to get them swinging again.  “I’ve stolen a lot more than a crown thingie.  Plenty of jewelry.  Artifacts.  Weapons.”  She smiled and snorted with laughter. “What is it?” Sunset leaned toward Twilight, the amulet hanging low and loose from her neck.  “I think I remembered what I stole from that deer dude.  His heart.”  Sunset turned thoughtful, looking up at the porch ceiling.  “Or maybe his first kiss?  I seem to recall doing that.” Twilight paused, her hand midway out toward the TPT, and sputtered.  “You...you stole his first kiss?  How?  WHY?  Do you do that often?” Sunset grinned and leaned back, putting her arms out over the back of the chair swing.  “I wouldn’t call it often, but yeah, I’ve had to steal a few hearts in my line of work.  Even punched a V-card or seven.”  She flashed a smug smile at Twilight. Twilight gaped at Sunset.  This girl was nothing like her friend and she was feeling really warm and somewhat queasy.  Or was that nervous?  She wasn’t sure, to be honest.  Twilight shook her head.  “Sunset…my Sunset is nothing like you at all!  How is that even possible?” “You’re smart, Sparky, do the math.  Across an infinite number of dimensions, infinite numbers of variations are possible.  All the other Sunsets out there...all the Twilight’s too...we’re all slightly different from each other.  I’ve seen some charts of it on the more advanced worlds.  We all fall on some great bell curve of standard deviation.  But that means some of us fall pretty far off to one side or the other.”  Sunset faded out, looking off into the sky again.  She licked her lips before continuing.  “It also means that some of us...rarely...don’t fall on the bell curve.  Some of us are Wild Tangents.” Sunset sighed.  “Sometimes...some of us...are just off.  We—”  Sunset looked down, feeling pressure on her chest, at the purple hand on the talisman.  “What?” Twilight yanked upward, pulling the talisman up and off Sunset’s neck, the cord around her head and jumped up from the swing.  She backed up, holding the amulet to herself.  “Sorry, Sunset, but I just don’t feel comfortable with this in your hands.  Nothing personal, really!  I just want to go home.  The other Sunset and Princess Twilight...they can help you with whatever it is you need.” “Give that back!”  Sunset surged to her feet, spinning on her toes to face Twilight.  “We’re doing just fine!  You’re basically an Uninitiated Twilight, you’re going to get yourself hurt, or worse.  Give the talisman back to me, Sparky.”  Sunset held up one hand, palm up while the other swung to her hip to grab reflexively at empty air. “N-no,” Twilight stammered, taking another step back away from Sunset, “I helped you fix it back at the Manehattan Tower place.  I understand how it works.  I could probably figure out how to steer it too, if you’ll let me.  I made one from scratch not too long ago!” “I’m not letting another Twilight dump me on some backwater universe again, Sparky!”  Sunset growled, her open hand clenching into a fist.  “I slugged you once, I’ll do it again if you make me.” “That’ll just increase the likelihood of getting left behind!”  Twilight huffed angrily.  That temper is probably why I’m not her first Twilight.  She backed up to the edge of the porch.  “I was bored when you showed up at my home, but since then I’ve had to run from armed ponies and walk around a fey infested forest with talking deer!  That’s neat and all, but I’m not the adventurous Twilight!  I’m the nerd that screws things up!” “You got that right!”  Sunset dropped into a low, wide stance, her arms out.  Then she launched herself at Twilight, covering the porch in a red blur.  Sunset slammed into Twilight like a truck, throwing both of them into the grassy yard and sending them rolling.  Sunset grabbed at the talisman, but Twilight held it tight, scrambling on her backside away from Sunset.  A moment later, Sunset yelled out, pinning Twilight and straddling the girl.  “You screwed this up too, Sparky!  Let’s see how you like getting left on a world that isn’t your own away by someone that you loved!” “What?”  Twilight coughed, sucking in air between her teeth.  “What...what are you talking about?” Sunset blinked tears away from her eyes, her voice ragged and soft at the same time.  “You’re smart, Sparky, you figure it out.”  She grabbed Twilight’s hands that were still holding the talisman in a death grip.  She pulled at it halfheartedly.  “Trust me, you have no idea what it’s like out here.  I’ve been doing this for too long...but I can’t keep doing this alone, Sparky.  I...I need a Twilight.  A Normal Distribution Twilight.” Twilight swallowed and glanced at Sunset’s hands on her own.  She didn’t know if she could trust a word this Sunset said.  But if she was honest with herself, she did know that this person seemed to know more than a little about the wider reality of the multiverse.  She still wanted to get home, but who knew how long it might take to find without a full understanding of how sliding worked.  Slowly she let go of the amulet.  “I want to go home, Sun—gah!”  Twilight recoiled, flinching when Sunset’s fist slammed into the ground next to her head. “Never pull a stupid stunt like that again, Sparky...Twilight.  Please.”  Sunset growled again, shaking flecks of dirt from her fingers and slipping the amulet back around her throat.  “I’ll get you home, but it might take a few jumps to get rehomed in on your world, okay?” “You promise?” “Yeah, Twilight...I promise.”  Sunset grinned lopsidedly down at Twilight and seemed about to say more when the entire neighborhood started to shake, the ground rumbling like a series of earthquakes hitting at once and the distant sirens got a lot louder.