Memories swirled in Twilight Sparkle’s mind as she rematerialized from the dust.
“I can’t leave Shining and Twilight,” her mother, Captain Celestia Daybreak had said in the past.
“Mom, it’s okay, we can stay with Cadance and her family,” her brother Shining Armor had assured Celestia.
“Your mother is so lucky to have such a brave boy like your brother and a clever girl like you for kids,” Aunt Luna aka Captain Marvel had said to her before leaving with Celestia to help the Skrulls.
Twilight awoke with a gasp once she fully rematerialized on the chair inside the hospital room. To her surprise and confusion, the room was completely empty. Even the bed next to her was empty. Did her family just leave the hospital without her? That was ridiculous. She couldn’t have been asleep for that long.
Twilight got up and opened the door. On the other side was total and utter chaos. Everyone was shouting as people rematerialized in the hallway while doctors and nurses rushed to accommodate the sudden influx of people.
“Excuse me,” Twilight cried as she ran to the nurse’s station, weaving through the bedlam. “I’m looking for Mi Amore Cadenza. She’s my sister-in-law. She just had a baby.”
“I’m sorry, miss, but we can’t help you,” the nurse said to her.
“Twilight?” a woman in a white coat exclaimed, approaching the nurse’s station.
“Dr. Swaddle,” Twilight replied, recognizing the woman. “Have you seen Cadance and the rest of my family? I must have fallen asleep while we were waiting for the baby to come back from the nursery.”
“Twilight,” Dr. Swaddle tried to explain. “This is going to be a lot to take in, but your family went home with Flurry Heart five years ago.”
“F-five years ago?!” Twilight nearly screamed.
Dr. Swaddle nodded before continuing, “There’s more. Three years ago, your mom and brother were killed by a drunk driver, which was two years after…”
“After what?” Twilight pleaded, trying not to cry.
“Two years after you disappeared.”
Three weeks later, Twilight entered the building that housed the headquarters of the Sentient Weapon Observation and Response Division aka SWORD. She soon discovered, to her frustration, that not existing for five years meant that her key card didn’t work anymore.
“Three weeks, and you’re the first to report,” a severe-looking woman with dark fuchsia hair and bluish-gray skin wearing half-moon glasses greeted her. “Welcome back, Captain Sparkle.”
“Director Cinch,” Twilight greeted back.
“Acting Director,” Cinch corrected her. “I’m so sorry for your loss. It’s a shame not even your brother survived. Major Armor would have been the obvious choice for your mother’s replacement.”
“I know, but you were the next best choice.”
“Unfortunately, I was also the only choice. Come. Let’s get you up to speed.” With that, Cinch opened the door for the two of them and led Twilight down a starkly lit white hallway towards her office.
“The FBI is requesting the use of one of our imaging drones for a missing persons case,” Cinch explained as Twilight took a seat in one of the office chairs. “I need someone to chaperone the drone.”
“With all due respect, Cinch, the drones usually chaperone me,” Twilight remarked. “Aren’t I a little overqualified for this assignment?”
“Unfortunately, it’s the only assignment I’m able to give you,” Cinch explained. “Before her passing, your mother had set up a protocol in case any vanished personnel returned. I’m only allowed to assign you to terrestrial missions.”
“Seriously?” Twilight deadpanned.
“If it’s any comfort to you at all, the protocol shows that Celestia believed you would come back. If only she had lived to see it,” Cinch added, causing Twilight to smile wistfully. “I don’t have anyone else I can send at the moment, but if you need more time…”
“No,” Twilight cut Cinch off. “I can take the assignment. No problem.”
Immediately, Twilight packed the drone into the back of her car and drove to Westview, New Jersey. When she arrived just outside of the town, an FBI agent was standing next to his van waiting for her. Twilight parked her car and stepped out to greet him.
“Flash Sentry,” the agent greeted, making his ID badge seemingly appear out of thin air in his left hand, “FBI.”
“Twilight Sparkle, SWORD,” she greeted back. “Let’s save the small talk and get to business, shall we, agent?”
“Suit yourself,” Flash agreed before explaining, “We had someone on Witness Protection here in Westview. We lost contact with him this morning, so we started checking in with known associates and family members.”
“Let me guess. They don’t know what happened to him either,” Twilight speculated.
“They never even heard of him.” Flash noted the dumbfounded expression Twilight made and continued, “That’s exactly what we thought too, so I flew out here to check things out, and well, things just got even weirder.”
“How so?”
Flash led Twilight towards the police car that was parked near his van and addressed one of the two officers who were standing next to it, “Excuse me, sheriff. Do you mind telling Captain Sparkle your claim about Westview, New Jersey?”
“No such place,” the sheriff answered almost immediately.
Twilight turned to Flash with an utterly perplexed look on her face before pointing to a nearby billboard and saying to the sheriff, “Are you sure about that? That sign over there says otherwise.”
“What sign?” the sheriff replied, not even looking where Twilight was pointing.
“The huge sign right behind you that says ‘Westview’ in giant letters,” Twilight emphasized.
“There’s no sign, and there’s no Westview,” the sheriff insisted.
“Seriously?” Twilight questioned Flash.
“Yup,” Flash replied. “I tried calling up the residents using the phone directory, and so far, I’ve been getting nothing but a bunch of dial tones. Of course, after that, I attempted to go inside to investigate, but, well, come here.”
Flash motioned for Twilight to follow him, so she did. Then, he stopped a just a few yards away from the billboard. Twilight stopped right where he stopped, and that’s when she felt it, the strange, invasive sensation repelling her from coming any closer.
“You feel it too, don’t you?” Flash asked her.
“Yeah,” she affirmed. “It’s so weird and kinda creepy.”
With that, the two of them began walking back to Twilight’s car to take the drone out from her trunk.
“So, let’s review,” Twilight began as she unloaded the drone and set it on the ground. “We can’t reach anyone inside. Everyone outside doesn’t believe it exists and ignores all evidence to the contrary, and some unknown sensation is compelling us to stay away from it. I do have one question though.”
“What’s that?” Flash asked as Twilight began to fly the drone up and forward.
“How come we are still aware that Westview exists?”
Flash bit his lip in thought before replying, “Are you from the area?”
“No.”
“Do you know anyone who lives in the area?”
“No.”
“Think that might have something to do with it?”
Twilight opened her mouth to reply but instead, immediately shut it and shrugged her shoulders. She flew the drone past the billboard, and not even six feet past the billboard, the drone vanished.
“Where did it go?” Twilight cried, moving towards where the drone had disappeared. She felt the invasive, compelling sensation to stay back again, but this time, she pushed past it, motivated by the curiosity. She reached her hand out, sending ripples through an invisible surface.
“What is it?” Flash asked, keeping his distance.
“It’s some kind of energy,” Twilight replied as she kept running her hand through the barrier.
“Captain Sparkle, I really don’t think you should keep touching—,” Flash called out in warning before being interrupted by Twilight getting sucked in past the barrier and vanishing from sight. “Captain Sparkle! Captain Sparkle!”
Three days, it took three days for SWORD to set up a base outside of Westview after Twilight disappeared. Everyone working on the case believed that Twilight likely was sucked into the town behind the energy field. Unfortunately, no one had any ideas for how to get through the field safely, let alone get Twilight out.
Meanwhile, inside one of SWORD’s transport vans sat a young woman in a gray turtleneck. Her name is Moon Dancer, and she had red hair with two purple stripes and wore thick, black-rimmed glasses. She was in the company of other similarly bookish-looking people.
“So, what’s your field?” she asked the man sitting next to her.
“Uh, we were told not to speak to one another,” he replied, his eyes darting around the van nervously.
“Okay, sure thing, Colt Scout,” Moon Dancer snarked back. “Everyone else?”
She received one reply of “nuclear biology” and one of “artificial intelligence.”
“Mine’s astrophysics,” Moon Dancer noted. “Judging by the varied fields, SWORD likely has no idea what it’s dealing with either.”
The van came to a stop, and a SWORD agent opened the door and ordered everyone off. Moon Dancer looked around the base and saw several agents flying drones into the barrier around Westview. A short distance from the drones, an agent in a hazmat suit stood next to a manhole while two other agents removed the manhole cover.
“Miss Dancer,” a rather gruff SWORD agent with a bald head called her.
“It’s Doctor Dancer actually,” Moon Dancer corrected.
“Your tent is this way,” the agent replied, seeming to ignore her.
After the agent led her to her station, Moon Dancer wasted no time making herself comfortable.
“So,” she began as she unpacked her equipment, “are you getting any useful info from those drones you’ve been sending in?”
“That’s classified,” the agent replied.
“I’ll take that as a no,” Moon Dancer retorted sarcastically. “By the way, what’s a girl got to do to get some coffee around here?”
Moon Dancer turned on a small handheld device and studied the information being displayed on its screen.
“I’m picking up an insane amount of CMBR,” Moon Dancer noted. The agent could only stare back at her, clearly unable to understand what she had just said.
“It’s a type of radiation that dates all the way back to the Big Bang,” she clarified, before pointing to the screen on her device. “More importantly, I’m also picking up these longer wavelengths superimposed over everything else. If I could just translate the information in those wavelengths, we might have a better idea of what’s going on here.”
The agent just continued to stare blankly at her.
“You know, now that I’m looking at it, these wavelengths kinda look like a broadcast signal like the kind used by radios and old TVs,” Moon Dancer continued, before her eyes lit up. She turned to the agent and requested, “Hey, can you get me an analog TV? You know, one of those bulky, not digital ones? And while you’re at it, get me some coffee.”
Meanwhile, Flash was attempting to have a discussion with Director Cinch as the two of them entered the tent.
“Director Cinch,” Flash began, “I highly advise against sending Agent Zest in through the sewers. It’s possible that the anomaly could extend underground.”
“Well, we have no proof that it does, my best agent is inside with no way out, and more importantly, we have no answers about what’s on the other side,” Cinch listed.
“Director, if the anomaly does extend underground, Agent Zest could end up trapped in there with Captain Sparkle,” Flash pointed out.
“I don’t tell you how to do your job, so maybe you should stop telling me how to do mine,” Cinch retorted coldly before addressing everyone else in the tent. “Do we have any useful information on what’s on the other side at all?”
Her question was interrupted by the sound of canned laughter coming from Moon Dancer’s station. Cinch furrowed her eyebrows at this while Flash raised his in confusion. Cinch furiously marched over to Moon Dancer’s station while Flash and a group of SWORD agents followed.
“Dr. Dancer, what is the meaning of this?” Cinch demanded.
“My equipment picked up high levels of CMBR,” Moon Dancer explained, “which is—”
“I know what it is,” Cinch snapped. “Continue.”
“Anyway,” Moon Dancer continued, “there was a broadcast signal mixed up in all the noise, so I hooked my equipment up into this old TV, and this came out. It looks like an old 50s sitcom.”
“Hold on,” Flash butted in recognizing the woman playing the female lead. “Is that Sunset Shimmer of the Avengers?”
“Sure looks like her,” Moon Dancer affirmed before pointing to the male lead, “and look who she’s with.”
Flash took a closer look at who she was pointing to, a man wearing a suit and thick, black-rimmed glasses. Upon closer inspection, Flash noticed the man bore a striking resemblance to a certain lavender and yellow synthoid.
“Is that Micro Chips?” Flash exclaimed. “How is that possible? Tirek tore a hole into his skull.”
“I don’t think I have enough data to answer that last question,” Moon Dancer deadpanned.
“Are you recording this?” Cinch questioned.
“Never stopped.”
“Get me back to headquarters now,” Cinch ordered. “I want everyone here analyzing this immediately.”
Cinch stormed out of the tent followed by the rest of the SWORD agents, leaving Flash and Moon Dancer.
“She seems pleasant,” Moon Dancer noted dryly.
“Yeah,” Flash sarcastically agreed before sincerely complimenting Moon Dancer. “Nice work, by the way.”
“Oh, I try.”
For the next 24 hours or so, Flash, Moon Dancer, and the rest of the remaining SWORD agents got to work. Under Flash’s recommendation, everyone decided that the most effective course of action would be to see if any of the sitcom cast members corresponded with known Westview residents using facial recognition technology. So far, they were able to identify Timber Spruce as Micro Chips’s coworker Norm, Carrot and Cup Cake as Micro Chips’s employers the Hearts, Fluttershy as Evergreen, Sandalwood as Herb, and Jet Set and Upper Crust as Fill and Dottie Notes. The only cast member they couldn’t identify was Sunset’s new best friend Shutterbug. That information, however, ended up on the back burner after the latest episode introduced a new cast member who they had absolutely no trouble identifying.
“Sentry, look,” Moon Dancer called, dragging Flash away from his whiteboard. Flash’s eyes nearly popped out of his skull when he saw who was onscreen.
“Captain Sparkle?” Flash exclaimed, recognizing Twilight in the black-and-white footage. She was sitting on a bench in period-accurate clothing reading a newspaper.
“Does she seem okay to you?” Moon Dancer asked.
“She doesn’t seem hurt physically, but she’s not quite acting like herself, not that I know enough about her to know what that normally looks like,” Flash replied.
“It seems like she’s being compelled to play along.”
“But why though?”
“Not sure, but I might have a way for us to find out,” Moon Dancer declared before leading Flash outside the tent.
About 15 minutes later, Moon Dancer had set up an assortment of radio equipment with Flash wearing a pair of earphones and holding a microphone.
“Okay, so I noticed that Sunset and Micro Chips have a radio next to their sink,” Moon Dancer explained. “So, I was thinking that next time she’s washing dishes, which, by the way, happens maybe once an episode, we shoot her a message and see if she responds.”
“Agent Sentry,” a female SWORD agent with lavender and pink hair and light blue skin called for Flash before handing him a photograph. “We just got this a few minutes ago from the latest episode.”
Flash accepted the photo from Agent Flare and studied it. It was a photo of a red and silver toy helicopter emblazoned with the SWORD insignia.
“It kinda looks like it’s supposed to be a SWORD drone,” Flash remarked, “but it’s been changed somehow.”
“Why is it in color when everything else is in black and white?” Moon Dancer noticed.
“It just showed up like that,” replied Agent Flare.
“Is it just this one, or is this what’s happening to all the drones?” Flash wondered aloud.
“Let’s just put that on the white board for now. We need to focus on contacting Sunset,” said Moon Dancer.
After putting the photo on the white board along with the questions it raised, Flash positioned himself by the radio equipment and waited for Moon Dancer’s signal.
“Okay, I’m watching the episode right now,” Moon Dancer relayed to Flash. “Sunset’s at some sort of HOA meeting. Oh, she’s talking to Twilight.”
“What are they saying?” Flash asked.
“She said she likes Sunset’s pants, and she just introduced herself to Sunset as Midnight.”
“Okay, no useful info there,” Flash noted.
“Now, she’s talking to Upper Crust, and oh, I see a radio on one of the tables. Attempt to make contact now.”
“Sunset, Sunset,” Flash spoke into the microphone. “Sunset, come in. Who is doing this to you, Sunset?”
As Flash tried to contact Sunset, Moon Dance continued to watch the TV. As soon as Flash began to speak, the image on the television became staticky, and then the footage jumped forward a few seconds.
“Moon Dancer, is Sunset responding?” Flash called into the tent.
“No, something weird just happened with the broadcast,” Moon Dancer replied, utterly astonished.
“Should I keep trying to reach her?”
“No, you can stop now. I don’t think it worked,” Moon Dancer sighed exasperatedly.
As if the failed attempt with the radio wasn’t bad enough, SWORD also lost contact with Agent Zest. If Cinch had been on the base and Flash had been the gloating type, Flash most certainly would have been giving her an “I told you so.” The sitcom also once again changed decades, and Sunset Shimmer somehow suddenly and magically became pregnant.
“How are Sunset and Micro Chips having a baby together?” Moon Dancer remarked as she munched on a bag of Doritos. “He’s a synthoid. He doesn’t have anything to make a baby with.”
“Some people get all the luck,” Flash muttered to himself, reddening when he realized that Moon Dancer heard him. “I mean, I’ve wanted a family of my own someday, but I’ve just never had the time to—You know what? I’m just going to stop talking. That was really unprofessional of me.”
“No worries. I won’t judge.”
“Can you believe it? Twins!” Twilight as Midnight exclaimed through the television.
“I’m a twin,” Sunset replied. “I had a sister. Her name was Rainbow Dash.”
“She was killed by Sombra, wasn’t she?”
Flash and Moon Dancer looked at each other with eyes wide and mouths agape.
“Did Twilight just mention Sombra?” Flash questioned. “As in the guy who nearly dropped Sokovia from the sky? Has she or any other cast member shown any awareness of our reality before this?”
“No, this would be the first time,” Moon Dancer exclaimed as the TV screen went staticky before once again jumping forward with Twilight suddenly vanishing from the scene.
“Wait. Where did Twilight go?” Flash asked in a near panic.
“I don’t know. She was there a minute ago,” Moon Dancer replied also close to panicking. “I can’t believe this happened again.”
“Again?” Flash noted. Before Moon Dancer could answer him, however, alarms started sounding all over the base, and the PA system announced a breach in the anomaly.
A few minutes earlier inside the anomaly at the Chips residence, “Midnight” had just finished helping Sunset deliver her twin girls, Amber Glow and Suncatcher. Now, Sunset was glaring at Twilight darkly with her head tilted towards the right. Her turquoise eyes seemed to gleam with a very slight reddish tint.
“Who are you?” Sunset demanded slowly yet threateningly approaching Twilight.
“I, I’m just your neighbor,” “Midnight” answered innocently, backing away from Sunset.
“Then, how did you know about Sombra?” Sunset continued as she formed orbs of red energy in her hands. “I don’t know who you are, but you don’t belong here.” The energy surrounded Twilight and lifted her off the ground. “And I want you to leave!”
Sunset suddenly flung Twilight through the wall and two fences before ejecting her through the barrier of the anomaly. Twilight hit the ground a short distance away from the edge of the anomaly. Other than some soreness and confusion, she didn’t seem at all injured by her forcible ejection from Westview.
Flash and Moon Dancer rushed out of the tent towards Twilight along with several SWORD agents.
“Twilight, what happened?” Flash exclaimed as he ran to help her.
“Sunset,” Twilight muttered as her head slowly cleared. “It’s all Sunset.”