//------------------------------// // Hope In Science // Story: Vanishing Act // by redandready45 //------------------------------// Juniper sat in the empty cafeteria, blankly web-surfing on her laptop with a scowl on her face. The ivory white-skinned principal had escorted her here and told her to wait while her friends and those girls sorted out...whatever they needed to sort out. She glanced at her watch and saw that fifteen minutes had passed. Her burning desire for answers and impatience made each minute feel as long as a year. "It wasn't supposed to be like this", Juniper thought miserably. She woke up this morning expecting to be part of some diabolical school prank. While she wasn't a troublemaker at heart, she liked the thrill of being a little bit mischievous. And more importantly, she was happy to be involved in things and hang out with her new friends. Instead, she became a witness to the most bizarre teen drama she had ever seen: Sunny's good friend, who supposedly died in a motorcycle accident, was apparently alive and well. Principal Cadence, some white-skinned man, and her friends accused her of faking her death, and those other girls accused her friends of committing murder. "It's like some badly written soap opera", Juniper thought to herself. She idly heard the cafeteria doors swing open. Juniper heard footsteps and glanced away from her laptop screen. She saw Sunny approaching her. "OK Sunny," Juniper bellowed, her frustration bubbling back up to the surface. She stood up and barked, "are you going to tell me what's going on?!" Sunny just stared silently at her. Juniper balled her fists in anger. "Well, are you going tell me, or are you just going to-," Juniper broke from her rant when she noticed Sunny's deeply uncomfortable expression, the fact that Sunny's makeup was running on her face, and that her eyes were red and puffy. Juniper's frustration gave away to concern. "Sunny, why were you crying?" Juniper asked her friend softly. Sunny just looked down. "Sunny, is everything OK?" "No June," Sunny said, sounding like all the life in her had been drained from her body. "It...isn't." Sunny sounded she was on the verge of tears. "Do you want to...talk about it?" Juniper said. Sunny bit her lip in frustration. "June I want to tell you the truth," Sunny said uneasily, "but...my answer is...going to make you rethink everything you know." Juniper cocked her head at Sunny's cryptic words. "How you see life and how you see...me." "So, if I choose the blue pill, I go back to thinking what I want to think, and if choose the red pill, there is no going back?" Juniper asked in jest. Her laughter died as she saw that Sunny was not in the mood to laugh. "No, this secret is the I'm-going-to-snap-your-legs-like-twigs-if-you-squeal' kind of secret," Sunny said furiously. Juniper was taken aback by the menacing tone in Sunny's voice. "I mean it June. You want the truth, you can't tell anybody what you hear." Sunny glared at her with an intensity June never expected. "Do you understand?" After a moment of hesitation, Juniper nodded. "OK, what is it you have to tell me?" Juniper said. "I can't really explain it," Sunny said in that evasive tone. "I have to...show you." The base of the Canterlot High horse statue glowed. Both Juniper and Sunny appeared, lying on the ground in a daze. Juniper felt like she had been spun around 100 times, and could barely get up off the ground. Sunny, have taken the trip before, was only slightly less disorientated. After a few moments, the two pulled themselves together. "So...magic...really is...real," Juniper said, her face full of wonder and contentment. "Yeah," Sunny said with a small grin, somewhat amused by Juniper's shocked expression. "Don't worry, I was as shocked as you when I found out." "And...that...Twilight Sparkle was apparently...a pony princess from that magic world where people can become talking ponies," Juniper repeated, looking like a kid who saw fireworks for the first time. "Pretty much," Sunny said with a sigh. "OK," Juniper said. "And you guys thought she was the...Twilight Sparkle you knew," Juniper surmised. "And you thought she was faking her death." "Yeah," Sunny said. "Sunny," Juniper said in a sad and inquisitive tone, "the Twilight Sparkle who...died. She didn't die in a motorcycle accident, did she? She died because of magic." "Yes," Sunny said in a weak voice. "That was...covered up...because we didn't want people to find out...about magic. I'm sorry I didn't tell you June, but we needed to keep the secret. I didn't know you that well, and I didn't know if you'd keep your mouth shut." "I understand Sunny," Juniper said in a accepting voice. "You didn't trust me and I can accept that." Her face became something stern. "But..did you have something to do with...what happened to the other Twilight?" Sunny looked down on the floor. Juniper's jaw set. "Sunny," Juniper said in a low serious tone. "One of those girls accused you and your friends of committing murder. You're not even looking me in the eye. Tell me. What. Did. You .Do?" Sunny finally pulled her eyes off the floor and flinched seeing the cold look in Juniper's eyes. With a sigh, Sunny dragged Juniper over to sit on a bench nearby. "Well," Sunny said. "Our school has the Friendship Games with Canterlot High. Every couple of years, our schools compete in a decathlon." She gulped loudly. "This was the first time I was allowed to compete. For the past ten games, we've kept winning. I had an older sister who was begging me to win, and our....principal Cinch," Sunny practically spat the woman's name kept breathing down my neck, "was yelling at me to compete, telling me I was a 'failure if I didn't'." Sunny clenched her fist remembering the woman and her nasty words. "This Cinch sounds like she was a dictator," Juniper inferred. "Yeah," Sunny said. "But you know, I also really wanted to win. I wanted my...parents and sister to be proud of me," Sunny said in a small quiet voice. "So I joined the team. Twilight," she paused, "was one of our teammates." "Really?" Juniper said. "So must've been excited when she was on your-," Sunny's face fell into her hand and began whimpering, much to Juniper's confusion. "June," Sunny said in a pained tone. "I made up being Twilight's friend. We weren't her friend. We didn't even like her. We...treated her like a whiny pest." "Why?" Juniper asked in a sad voice that hit Sunny like a knife to her heart. "Because she was a teacher's pet," Sunny said with some frustration. "Always raising her hand, always kissing up to staff, always getting A's. Cinch was always telling us we should be like her." Her eyes narrowed. "Plus she was a spineless little wimp who couldn't even lift a butterfly and-," Sunny paused when she saw Juniper looking at her with shocked eyes and a dropped jaw. Juniper looked utterly aghast at Sunny's rant, and with a regretful sigh, Sunny realized how cruel she sounded. "Anyways, I wasn't really happy Twilight was on our team," Sunny said. She began closing her eyes as she remembered the not-so-pleasant memories. "She was terrible at sports and stuff like that. When we did this decathlon thing, she was a complete failure at it and we made fun of her." Juniper's jaw dropped in disgust. "Anyways, during the decathlon, we learned about magic...but not in the way we hoped," Sunny said. "Suddenly, these portals opened up, and all these giant vine monsters came out trying to kill us," Sunny said, shuddering. "Sounds like some lame...horror movie," Juniper snarked joylessly. She was still clearly unhappy with Sunny after learning about her behavior. "And then one of those girls grew wings and started flying around rescuing everybody from them," Sunny said. "But...we were so obsessed with winning that we only cared that we lost the decathlon, and Canterlot High did it on purpose in order to cheat." She let out a sigh. "Or at least, that is what Cinch believed." "Anyways, we were about to play capture the flag to settle our tie. Cinch told us that Twilight was collecting the magic in some amulet," Sunny said. "And she told us since Canterlot was cheating, we might as well cheat back." Sunny bit her lip. "She told Twilight to open the amulet to help us win." Sunny bit her lip again. "Twilight told us she didn't know how it worked...but...I didn't care about what she had to say." She shut her eyes to block out the tears. "Instead I told her 'do it or else we'll lose and we'll tell everyone it was your fault'." Sunny clenched her fists, the shame of her actions making her shake. "When she opened it, there was this explosion that knocked us to the ground." Sunny felt tears roll down her eyes. "Twilight started hovering in the air, and she sucked into this purple sphere thing." She let out another pained whimper. "She begged us for help, but she was too high up. And then she was sucked in." Sunny's lip started quivering. "And then it exploded and...she was...gone." Juniper looked away from Sunny, and started staring at her knees. Juniper didn't look angry, or sad, or hurt. She looked so...conflicted. Like she couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Sunny," Juniper said in a small, sad voice as she turned to save. Suddenly, Sunny's self control was lost, and she finally began crying. "I know," Sunny said in between sobs. "I'm a monster!" Suddenly, she felt arms wrapped around her. She saw that Juniper was giving her a hug, "Your not a monster Sunny," Juniper said in a soothing voice. "Yes, I am," Sunny almost yelled as she rested her chin on Sunny's shoulder. "I made fun of someone and got them killed! All for a stupid game."' "Would a monster have saved me from a bucket of rotten milk?" Juniper said in a soothing tone. Sunny felt Juniper was rubbing her back in an attempt to calm her down. "Well..." Sunny said. "Would a monster have invited me to their party? Invited me to their house and given me a makeover? Let me sit at their table?" Juniper held Sunny for a few minutes as she let out her guilt and pain. Once Sunny stopped her sobbing, Juniper released her and looked at her with kind eyes. "Oh please," Sunny said in a self-loathing tone, "I lied and pretended not to be your friend. And I was nearly was gonna throw you under a bus to impress Suri." "But you didn't," Juniper said in a reassuring tone. "Yeah, you weren't perfect. And I didn't appreciate you telling everyone I whined to the principal to get invited to a party." Sunny winced at that, until she saw Juniper giving her a warm smile. "I can see that you weren't," Juniper paused, as if trying to sound diplomatic, "always a good person". "I was a rotten bitch," Sunny muttered. "But you're trying to change," Juniper said with another proud smile. "And it is hard to change who you are when you've lived a certain way for a long time. That's why you let Suri walk all over you." Juniper put her hands on Sunny's hands. "Again, it is hard to stand up to the popular girl. Hard to stand up to peer pressure. But you did it anyways. And not only that, you changed everyone else for the better. All those girls stood up for me, and you even got Indigo to punch that monster in the face." Juniper's smile become one of pride. "I think you're a hero Sunny." "I'm not a hero," Sunny said, scoffing with disgust. "I got Twilight killed." "But you didn't want that to happen," Juniper said in a reassuring tone. "You didn't know it was gonna happen. You did it because your principal told you it was good idea. If you were a monster, you wouldn't be crying your eyes out." "But...Twilight was so scared," Sunny said with a whimper. "And I didn't help her." "Yeah, but you stood up for me." Juniper said. "What happened in the past doesn't matter as long as you learn from it. You learn from your mistakes. You learned from them so well that you've helped change other people for the better. And that's why I am not just humoring you when I say your a hero." For the first time, a grateful smile formed on Sunny's miserable face. "Thanks June, I...I needed to hear that," Sunny said happily. "And thank you for telling me the truth," Juniper said. "June, there's another reason I told you the truth," Sunny said with some unease. "What is it?" Twilight and Sunset were sitting in the science lab, looking over their notes with no small amount of frustration. "So what are volts again," Twilight asked Sunset. Sunset sighed with frustration as she was about to have to explain another scientific fact when the doors open. Juniper and Sunny walked in. "Are you Juniper Montage?" Twilight asked. "Yes," Juniper said. "Are you...Princess Twilight?" "Yes," Twilight. Juniper turned to Sunset. "Are you Sunset?" "Sunset Shimmer," Sunset said. "I'm sorry our first meeting happened under these...circumstances," Sunset said uneasily. "Don't worry about it," Juniper said. She then turned toward Twilight. "So you really are some...magical princess?" "The Princess of Friendship," Twilight said proudly. Juniper started snickering, much to Twilight's annoyance. "I'm sorry," Juniper said. "There this cartoon called The Happy Kingdom I watched when I was a kid," Juniper said, still snickering. "You...you sound like one of the characters, who was also a princess." "Uh, what was a cartoon again?" Princess Twilight asked with genuine confusion. "Man, you really are from some other world aren't you?" Sunny said with a roll of her eyes. "Anyways," Juniper Montage, "you needed to see me about something?" "Yes," Twilight Sparkle said, sounding more professional. "Sunny has told you about the...tragedy from last week." Sunny looked down in shame. "And about the existence of magic." "Yes," Juniper said. "Sunny and her friends told us you were knowledgeable about broadcasting," Sunset said. "Yes I am," Juniper said. "Well the problem we're facing that we don't know about the properties of magic as it functions here in this world," Sunset said. "Properties?" Juniper asked in confusion. "Isn't magic just saying silly words to make things happen." Sunset and Princess Twilight rolled their eyes in annoyance. "If it were that easy I would've been a Princess before I turned ten," Sunset said with a snort. She paused when she saw Juniper and Sunny's confusion. "In our world, magic is a phenomenon that can be studied. In fact, the other Twilight had been studying magic," Sunset said. "Anyways, we're trying to figure out why the magic obliterated Twilight, as well as how the magic works as a whole. But I'm worried about the next magical calamity occurring, and I don't think I can figure out in time. I need an assistant to help me out." "Well," Juniper said. "Can't you bring in some...magic expert from your world?" Princess Twilight sighed in frustration. "We could, but the problem is my human self used human technology to study this, which I can't make heads or tails off," Princess Twilight said. "Nor would even the most seasoned scientist from Equestria be able to figure this out." "Which is why we wanted to ask you for help," Sunset said. "Me? But I don't anything about magic," Juniper said with astonishment. "You said you worked in broadcasting right?" Sunset said. "Well magic might actually have similar properties to electromagnetic spectrum, which you might be familiar with since you've studied radio waves." "Really?" Juniper said, putting her hand in her chin. "Can I see some of your notes." Sunset handed Juniper some notes and began reading over it intently, with the other three girls nervously watching. After a few minutes, Juniper happily returned the sheet. "I think I could figure this out," Juniper said with confidence. The other three girls let out sighs of relief. "I'm free Wednesday afternoon and all of Sunday each week to come in and help. Does that work for you?" "That's perfect," Sunset said happily. "Um, Cadence told us that we need to head back to school," Sunny said with some frustration. "Our friends are waiting for us in their car." "Alright," Juniper said. "Let's go." "Uh, I'm leaving tonight," Princess Twilight said. "If you guys want to see me off later, you're more then welcome too." "That sounds great," Juniper said. "See you later." Sunset and Twilight felt a bit of relief as they watched those two leave. While they had mountains of work to do, they at least had someone who could help them out.