//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 - Heartshine // Story: SunLight Sliders: Infinite // by Amber Spark //------------------------------// Twilight and Sunset exchanged glances as the ground started to shake.  The swing on the porch chattered violently on its chain as the earth moved enough to knock Sunset onto her back.  This caused two simultaneous effects.  One, it moved Sunset farther away from Twilight than she was really comfortable admitting, despite their rather serious conversation, and two, it gave her a completely unobstructed view of the sky. Which allowed Twilight to draw the safe conclusion that they were not in her home universe, as she was fairly certain she’d remember the moon being what looked to be at about half the typical mean orbital distance that was typical for home.  She was also fairly certain that she remembered her moon being whole, and utterly lacking the massive rent that split the cratered spheroid roughly in half.  The small, flaming meteors which streaked into the atmosphere solidified her hypothesis that this was not home, and also not where she and Sunset wanted to be. Rolling to her knees, she scrambled over to Sunset, and grabbed the other girl’s hand.  “We need to go!”  She shouted as the sirens and the rumbling got worse. “It’s not recharged yet!”  Sunset shouted back as her fingers closed around Twilight’s.  “What’s going on.”  Twilight pointed straight up, and the fiery young woman’s face paled.  “Oh.  That’s… not good.” “No, no it isn’t!”  Twilight managed without letting her voice slip into a shriek.  “We need to go!  Do you know what happens when one of those meteors becomes a meteorite?” Sunset shook her head.  “Oddly enough, this situation is kind of new for me as well, but given how frazzled you look right now, I’m going to guess not good things.”  She said, rapidly pressing the amulet’s button as if it would help the device recharge faster.  “Argh!  This world doesn’t have a lot of ambient magic!” “What do you normally do when the world you slide to doesn’t have a lot of magic?”  Twilight asked, curling her legs around Sunset as the vibrations got worse.  A quiet part of her mind noted that, in human form, Sunset had very well toned legs Sunset stared down at her, making Twilight blush.  “Well, normally, I’d just wait it out, find someplace to sleep, and steal a meal.  This does not seem like a good idea right now!” Twilight pushed up her glasses a moment and bit her lip.  Think, Twilight, think.  The meteor shower overhead intensified as it hit her.  “I’m such an idiot!  This is why you wanted another Twilight!”  She said, grabbing the geode at her throat.  “Hold on tight to the amulet!” Sunset stared at her a moment before gripping the amulet with one hand.  The other slipped behind Twilight’s back. Twilight concentrated on trying to levitate the amulet to her.  Instantly, the amulet glowed, and the bright cracks on the amulet began to glow. “Twilight, I take it back, you’re a genius!  The other Twilights never had something like that on them!”  Sunset cheered as the event horizon of the portal opened, and the pair fell through.  Which was a good thing, Twilight reflected, as a rather sizeable chunk of the moon had been heading toward them at an alarming- “Oof!” Twilight landed on something soft and warm.  And slightly itchy. “Twilight.  Get.  Off!”  Sunset said shortly from beneath her. Twilight tried to scramble to her feet, only to quickly realize that, yet again, she had hooves.  Which made the scramble a little bit more of an ordeal than maybe it should have been. Sunset sat up and looked around.  Yet again, her mane had changed, this time into a pair of ponytails that were similar to what Applejack wore when she was working around the farm. “Where are we?” Twilight looked around what appeared to be a haymow.  “Um… a farm?”  She offered helpfully.  “Why do ponies have haymows if you already eat a lot of hay?”  She asked. Sunset got to her hooves, and stared.  “We just dodged the moon falling to earth, and you’re asking why ponies have haymows?”  She asked, giving Twilight a bemused smirk. “Ahah…”  Twilight laughed awkwardly, scratching the back of her neck as she tried to pull some of the hay from her hair - mane - was it mane?  “Well, we didn’t just die as the moon fell on us, so now I’m on to the next mystery!”  She explained.  She and Sunset locked eyes a moment, and the yellow unicorn appeared to be silently counting. Then it hit her.  “Oh my gosh we almost died!”  Twilight shrieked.  “What happened to the… the us that lived there?!  What happened to that world?!  What if we end up sliding back?!” Sunset shrugged, and lay down on one of the barrels of hay.  “Well, I know that I wouldn’t want to be the me from that world,”  She said quietly.  “As for what happened, I don’t know.  Magic and thievery is more my speed.  You’re the dork that’s into all the science and stuff right?” Twilight really didn’t want to think on the world ending consequences of the moon impacting the earth.  “Ok, well, that’s… horrible.  So what happens if we slide back there?” Sunset let out a sigh, then pulled up a long strand of hay with her magic.  “I think that the amulet has something built into it that prevents that from happening,”  She said, slowly chewing on the end of the hay before making a face and spitting it out.  “Ok.  Still too wet.  Anyways, I ended up sliding to a world where there were a bunch of volcanoes going off.  Don’t ask me what happened, I didn’t do it!  But the moment I took a breath, I started choking.  Probably some sort of toxic gas in the air.  But the amulet flared up immediately and sent me to another world.  This one with some nice ponies who had this gorgeous golden-”  Sunset paused.  “The point is, I don’t think it’s going to send us back there.” Twilight wasn’t sure how that worked.  Did the amulet scan a multiverse for safety?  That would be a very useful mechanism.  Or was it something else? Below them, the barn door cracked open and a pale orange earth pony mare with a curly mane trotted in.  Sunset and Twilight froze as she looked up at them in surprise. “Oh, Twilight!  I didn’t know you were here!”  She said brightly, her voice soft and melodic as she drawled slightly.  “Does Applejack know you wanted to see her?  Who’s your friend?” Sunset and Twilight exchanged glances.  ‘I don’t know who she is.’  Sunset mouthed to Twilight, who felt equally baffled. “Um, no, ma’am,”  Twilight called back.  “And this is Sunset Shimmer, a um, filly friend of mine that I wanted Applejack to meet.  I figured that AJ was busy with chores, so we’d wait until she wandered in.” The mare chuckled brightly.  “Twilight, how many times do I have to tell ya?  Just because I’m Applejack’s mom doesn’t mean you need to call me ma’am.  Miss Butter’ll do just fine.” Twilight stared wide-eyed down at the mare.  Applejack’s mom?  But didn’t Applejack say that her mom was…? Sunset let out a surprised snort from beside Twilight.  “Well, that’s new.”