//------------------------------// // Prologue: A Change of Plans (P. Celestia, Sunset Shimmer) // Story: On the Fine Art of Giving Yourself Advice // by McPoodle //------------------------------// On the Fine Art of Giving Yourself Advice A My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic / Equestria Girls crossover fanfic By McPoodle Edited by Hope Prologue: A Change of Plans (P. Celestia, Sunset Shimmer) P. Celestia—Equestria, Canterlot. Just after eight p.m. on Day Zero. Celestia’s royal throne room was in a state of pandemonium. Green earth pony guards in golden armor ran about at random, screaming “War is coming!” with eyes closed, bowling over servants and occasionally knocking themselves out by crashing into pillars. Unicorn mages were knocking each other over with improvised shield spells and ineffectual power beams, their focus broken by their attempts to look in ten directions at once, so certain were they that an assassin’s blade was about to be inserted between their shoulder blades at any moment. And a veritable rain of feathers made it clear that the pegasi above them had no clearer heads than the others. Discord would have been proud, if he wasn’t busy being stuck in a block of stone out in the gardens. Princess Celestia had had enough. “I have had enough!” she bellowed in the Royal Canterlot Voice. The various ponies froze in fear, some of the pegasi even dropping out of the air to hit the marble floor below. She continued in a calm voice. “We will accomplish nothing through fear. Instead, we must gather our data and act on it. Guard Captain, have you confirmed what has been stolen?” “Yes, your Most Royal Highness,” Guard Captain Whinnyfield declared without a trace of the fear that seemed to have infected everypony else. He was a dark brown unicorn with a black horseshoe mustache and afro. “The only papers missing are our complete battle plans to deal with a Yak invasion.” A Royal Mage, Kolbe, stepped forward. “I have had six of my colleagues study the residue, Your Highness. There is no doubt whatsoever that she teleported directly to the capital of Yakyakistan.” Whinnyfield’s second-in-command, a gray unicorn with a wild tan mane named Vinny, stepped forward. “And with those battle plans, there is no doubt that she can counter everything we throw at the Yak army, you know? She is after all the most-powerful unicorn alive! It’s my professional opinion that WE’RE ALL GONNA D—” The utterance was cut off as Celestia used her magic to put the panicking pony to sleep. A tall white unicorn with a blonde mane and handlebar mustache stepped forward. Looking at the Princess, he gestured towards the mage who had spoken earlier. “If I may?” he asked in an urbane voice. Princess Celestia inclined her head at her chief diplomat in relief. “Of course, Prince Blueblood,” she replied. “Are you certain that Miss Shimmer’s destination was the capital itself?” he asked. “Absolutely,” the mage replied. “The exact center.” Blueblood turned back to the Princess with a confident smile. “Then she is in violation of the treaty,” he told her, his voice pitched loud enough to be heard by all. “The Yaks are nothing if not predictable in their actions. Their pride will demand that they arrest Sunset Shimmer the moment she appears before them, refusing to listen to a word she has to say to them until she shows them the proper respect.” “And Sunset Shimmer never shows anypony a smidge of respect!” one of Whinnyfield’s other officers exclaimed. “Precisely,” Blueblood said. “I will lead a small delegation by hoof to the city walls, teleporting in one million strides south of the border, just as was stipulated in the treaty that my grandfather reached with the Yaks seventy years ago. And I am certain that my words will accomplish far more in our favor than Miss Shimmer’s will against us.” “That could work!” a random pony exclaimed. “We’re saved!” “But it will take forever to walk a million strides!” “And what if Sunset has set up a trap for them in the meantime?” “We’re doomed!” Princess Celestia loudly pounded her hoof on the marble floor, cracking it. This served to silence the crowd once more. “You will take a large contingent of troops and mages,” she commanded. “They will stay at the teleportation point. And you will be equipped with a speaking stone, so that you can inform this team of your situation at regular intervals.” The assembled ponies agreed that this was a very good idea, and further proof of why Celestia should be allowed to continue ruling over them for another thousand years. And then, with only a bit of prodding, they left the throne room to actually carry out the Princess’ plan. Celestia followed them from a distance, stopping at the covered walkway that connected the main body of the castle with the overhang that contained the throne room. The large crystalline windows on either wall showed that it was early in the evening, with the courtyard below illuminated by torchlight. Prince Blueblood’s wife and 10-year old son were waiting for him. “It is as I thought,” he informed them, maintaining his decorum with so many potential witnesses. “I will have to travel abroad for at least a couple of weeks. I will write to you if I can.” After the requisite “Canterlot hug”—i.e. an embrace utterly devoid of any emotion—he patted the boy’s head with a hoof. The young unicorn had the same coat and mane colors as his father…minus the mustache. “Now you’ll take care of the household while I’m gone, won’t you, Bluey?” The boy nodded his head rapidly up and down. “I will, Papa. I swear it! And I’ll write you a letter telling you all about how I got into Princess Celestia’s magic school and aced all the tests!” “That-a-boy,” the father commented, turning away to look the Princess in the eye. “That’s right,” Celestia said, stepping forward. “I’ll make extra sure that he’s treated like the little prince he is.” The boy cheered. Seeing a silent signal from Prince Blueblood, his wife led the boy out of the room. Once they were gone, Blueblood sighed. “You will be gentle with him, won’t you?” he asked her. “The foal has absolutely no chance of passing the entrance exam. And to be perfectly honest, even if I did arrange for him to get in, he’d just end up miserable.” He looked down the hall at his waiting son. “He loves the flash and spectacle, but can’t stand the book work.” The Princess looked from the distant boy to the father, and nodded silently. “At least he likes history and culture, so he stands a good chance of staying with the family line.” He sighed once again, before looking through a large crystal window in the side of the bridge. From there, he was able to see the various ponies gathering together for their departure to Yakyakistan. “Well, that’s that. I won’t let you down, Your Highness.” “You never do,” Celestia replied. After receiving the pair of linked sound stones from the Princess, Prince Blueblood turned and left, accompanied by his family. Celestia stayed in the middle of the bridge, looking down at the group of ponies below. As she watched, the earth ponies and pegasi formed a ring facing outward, with most of the unicorns in the middle, facing inward. They were joined by Blueblood and, a few minutes later, a blue unicorn in a parka. “That’s Baré,” Celestia explained to Raven, a light gray unicorn with a dark brown mane done up in a bun, black-rimmed glasses, and a white collar with a red cravat. Raven had been standing beside the Princess this entire time, but nopony had noticed her, so I didn’t either. “She’s the only living unicorn besides Sunset who can teleport, as it’s her special ability. However, she can’t summon enough mana to travel any significant distance herself, so she has to share magic any time she wants to go anywhere.” “I notice she’s the only one who bothered to dress for Yakyakistan,” Raven said acidly. “Yes, well Baré is very well-traveled, since that’s the only way she can learn the destinations for her teleport spells. I’m sure the others will do fine. Even with that many unicorns powering her, Baré will probably take about twenty trips to get all the way out to the treaty location outside Yakyakistan, with each fifth stop lasting an hour or two to refresh their strength. Plenty of time to figure out that they need a scarf or two…which will pour some much-needed noble bits into the local economies of each stop.” While Celestia was speaking, a glow began at the point where all of the unicorn horns met and gradually spread until it encompassed the entire group of ponies in the courtyard. The glow then grew brighter and brighter before, with a sudden flash, the entire group vanished. Another flash could be seen on the northern horizon a second later. “And in the meantime,” Raven noted, “Sunset Shimmer was able to cover the entire distance, by herself, in a single leap.” Celestia frowned. Without a word, she turned and walked back into the throne room, followed by Raven. Once they were both inside she closed the doors with her magic. With the permanent sound containment spell now active, it was impossible for anypony outside to listen in on their conversation. Celestia stopped and turned to contemplate the stained glass window depicting her defeat of Nightmare Moon. Only then did she reply to Raven’s earlier remark. “Sunset was the most remarkable student I have ever had. Nothing will ever change that.” Raven moved to stand beside her mistress. After looking to be sure that the throne room doors were indeed closed, she dared to say what had been bothering her all night. “I just don’t understand why she did it. I never for a moment thought that Sunset Shimmer was capable of treason. She might consider herself massively superior to any pony not as smart as her. And it was obvious that she hated you and Princess Cadenza. But she still considered herself a pony. So why would she do this?” “It wasn’t obvious to me,” Celestia said quietly. “The part about hating me, I mean. As for the rest…she wanted to hurt me.” “She’s very good at hurting her enemies.” Celestia nodded. “And what better way to hurt me than through my little ponies?” The two of them said nothing for several minutes. Finally, Raven pointed up at the crystal form of Nightmare Moon. “And what about The Plan?” she asked. Celestia sighed. “I find another Magic, the sooner the better. If I have a few years to train her—or him—that increases the chances that we don’t get something like…this…again.” Raven consulted a file folder. “There haven’t been any new reports of extraordinary magic-related cutie marks. And there have been no prospects at your school this year. Although…that review was five months ago, so I could try again…” “You needn’t bother,” Celestia said with a comforting smile, resting a hoof across Raven’s withers. “The entrance exam is tomorrow morning. If a new Magic reveals herself then, I will be ready. And if not…we still have fifteen years.” Raven looked up at her mistress and nodded. “And just to be doubly sure…Raven, could you please add a note to that message you were going to send to the regents on Blueblood’s behalf, instructing them to reinstate the dragon egg test for applicants with high magical potential?” Raven had taken out the Blueblood-related parchment she had already written, along with an ink bottle and quill, but paused with the quill tip black with ink over the paper. “The dragon egg? Are you sure? We had three nervous breakdowns the last time.” “I’m afraid it can’t be helped.” With a repressed sigh, Raven finished up the missive, read it aloud to her mistress for approval, and then tied it up with a yellow bow. The scroll was then sealed using a stick of red wax, the one magical torch in the room that actually generated heat as well as light, and the royal stamp. “I’ll deliver this personally,” she said. Celestia reached out a hoof to stop her. “It can wait until the sunrise. Come, let us get some sleep. We have much to do in the morning.” She turned and walked through the doors without waiting for a reply. Raven spent a few moments looking up at the stained-glass portrait of Nightmare Moon for a few more seconds before turning to follow her. She closed the door on the way out. Sunset Shimmer. It was more than an hour before Sunset Shimmer finally felt safe enough to move. She emerged from behind Celestia’s throne. A magical cloak muffled her from normal pony senses, while a tightly-contained spell on the tip of her horn kept even the Princess from detecting her, just so long as she wasn’t looking right at her without a powerful magical item in the way. Such as for example the royal throne and its wealth of protective enchantments. Sunset strode over to the doors to make sure they were shut, making not a single sound with her hooves thanks to a pair of enchanted rubber shoes that supplemented the powers of the cloak. Once she was sure she could speak without being heard, she let out a laugh of triumph. “The fools!” she cried out with abandon. “The complete and utter fools! I can’t believe I actually got away with that!” She walked back to where she thought the Princess and her assistant had spoken earlier, guessing wrong and ending up facing the Defeat of Discord panel. “‘Plan’…‘another magic’…” She looked up at the image of the triumphant Celestia (and Luna) defeating the draconoquus. “Why do you have to be so cryptic?” she demanded. “You know I can do anything you ask of me. So why don’t you trust me?!” That last part was a scream of rage. With an effort, Sunset calmed herself by pacing back and forth in front of the panel. “You always have to scheme, don’t you? If you’d just let me in on your plans, we could do this together…whatever this is. After all, that mirror showed us that someday I would be ruling by your side, so why didn’t you ease me in? Why did you force me to take extreme measures?” Sunset turned and walked to the other side of the throne room. The colored glass made it impossible to see the countryside below, but she knew that she was now facing north. “You should trust your assistant, Celestia,” Sunset said to yet another stained glass depiction of the Princess. “I am no traitor. In a week’s time, Blueblood will conclude his search of Yakyakistan and conclude that I couldn’t possibly be there. But the mages will make him and his party stay and keep searching for at least another month, because as everypony knows, ‘Not even Star Swirl the Bearded could fake a teleportation signature!’” The last part was a fair imitation of the mage who had reported to Princess Celestia earlier. Sunset took the opportunity to follow that with a wicked laugh. It wasn’t particularly wicked. “Maybe they’ll find where I hid the battle plans by then. After all, they’re right behind the Princess’ diet books in the library!” She looked around her one last time. “I feel good about this plan!” she announced to nobody in particular. She absolutely was not trying to convince herself of this opinion. # # # After a few minutes of very carefully navigating through the mostly-abandoned palace, Sunset Shimmer finally found herself in the first level of the castle’s basement. She went through an unmarked but unlocked door to enter a long unlit corridor. After closing the door behind her, she fumbled blindly in her saddle bags to find a gas lantern and a match. Lighting it proved to be a good deal harder than it had gone in numerous practice sessions, but soon she finally had a non-magical source of light. She then used it to walk several thousand strides, passing a single door in the wall without even glancing at it. That door led to an even-longer sloped passageway, an emergency escape route from Canterlot. That door was Sunset’s Plan B, in case tonight’s plan failed. At the end of the corridor she reached another door, identical to the first. After dimming the lantern to its minimum level Sunset opened the door, revealing another cluttered basement. Guided by her extremely low light, Sunset carefully made her way around numerous crates, trying her best not to cause any unnecessary noise by hitting any of the boxes with her hoof. Her enchantments would do a great deal to muffle those noises, but she didn’t want to take any chances, and she was a couple of hours ahead of schedule. Finally, she climbed a set of stairs and put one ear against the door at the top, listening intently. On the other side of that particular door was Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. Which at this hour should be abandoned. With an easily-picked door separating it from the rest of Canterlot. This was a huge security hole in Sunset’s opinion, but the royal guard was staffed entirely by idiots, so she didn’t think they deserved to be told about it. Sunset returned down the stairs and then turned her lantern up, allowing her to navigate much more easily. She worked her way far back in the basement, around a corner from the door to the palace and the door to the rest of the school. At the back of this room was a tall mirror, covered by a white sheet. This was in fact the same magic mirror that had revealed Sunset Shimmer’s destiny only a couple months previously. She peeked underneath, just to be sure. Then she tapped on its surface but as she expected, all she felt at this hour was glass. A few feet away from it was a small wooden crate filled mostly with straw. On the top of the crate was a painting of a speckled green egg. “Thought you were going to trip me up, didn’t you?” Sunset asked the box. It didn’t answer. She looked back and forth between the covered mirror and the box. The mirror would become active at midnight. Somepony was coming down here to pick up this box, probably at sunrise. So logically, there should be no reason to fear that anypony would discover her before she had the chance to use the mirror. But ponies had a bad habit of being very illogical around the Princess. Sunset wouldn’t put it past the pusillanimous officials of this school to scurry down here right at the absolutely wrong time, ruining all of her perfectly-laid plans. “No risk, no reward,” she muttered under her breath as she finally allowed her active spell to fall, the one blocking magical detection. She waited a few moments, then took a look behind her to see if the Princess was there. When that didn’t happen she levitated the box into the air and walked it over so that it was now right at the bottom of the staircase. Then she returned to her alcove and moved some boxes around to make it impossible for anypony to see the mirror without a lot of work. She even went to the trouble of putting a layer of dust on the blocking boxes. (Just as she had done with the diet books.) She then sat herself down in front of the mirror, cast a quick time spell to see how long she had, and began her vigil. # # # Sunset was awakened from a most unwanted nap by the sound of somepony slamming into one of the two doors. She sat in quiet fear until the string of muffled curses revealed that the sound was not that of somepony coming down to get her. There was another sound, a faint magical hum—the mirror was active. A glow was visible from underneath the cloth. The time spell told Sunset that it was now a couple hours before sunrise, her six-hour nap the consequence of a very stressful forty-eight hours. This made things much more difficult. But not impossible. After spending a few moments to make absolutely sure that nopony was in or about to enter the basement, she removed the cloak and horseshoes, and stowed them behind the mirror. By hiding them behind an active magical artifact, they were rendered impossible to find until after the three days had expired, and the mirror’s portal function had ceased. “See Princess?” she whispered to the imaginary Celestia in her head. “I’m not even bringing any magical artifacts with me through the mirror, to be used by potential enemies of Equestria.” She neglected to inform Imaginary Celestia that she was keeping her journal, an artifact just as powerful as the cloak and the horseshoes. “Just me, and my incredible brain. And to think I was originally going to wait until the end of the third day to use the mirror. What happens if the place turns out to be a dump? I’d be stuck there for thirty moons!” She put a hoof over her mouth when she realized that her voice had become loud enough to be heard. She waited a few more seconds to be sure she was safe. Sunset lifted the cloth with her mouth so that it draped over her. She was now directly facing her reflection, which seemed to faintly glow around the edges with magical power. She imagined she saw herself bigger, with a long magical horn and majestic wings: Princess Sunset Shimmer, co-ruler of Equestria. She was also nerving herself up. She had no idea what was on the other side of that barrier. Her scan of it revealed that it was indeed a portal between worlds, and by necessity it negated any magic in use during transit, to prevent any horrific outcomes of a botched transport. But that meant she couldn’t protect herself. What would happen to her if the other side was located inside an active volcano? Or in the vacuum of space? She’d be dead. That’s what would happen to her. But this mirror was constructed by Star Swirl himself. And if Sunset knew anything about Star Swirl the pony, it’s that he suffered from an abundance of caution. Nothing bad would happen to her. …Except for the near heart attack caused by the door at the top of the stairs slamming open. Sunset immediately turned her lamp down, hoping desperately that her weak light had not been noticed. A couple of ponies could be heard coming down the stairs. “I’m not sure I know where it is. It’s been a few years, after all,” a male pony said. “It’s about this big,” the voice of Raven replied. “And it has a picture of an egg on the top. …Assuming it’s right-side up.” She sounded like she didn’t get much sleep last night. “In fact, isn’t that it right there?” “What do you know? I could have sworn I saw it further in. But stuff gets moved around in here all the time.” Sunset could hear the other pony walking past the crate, closer and closer to her, right up to the stack of boxes she had set up. She heard him groan in frustration. “The first-day experimental apparatus is right past these boxes! It will take forever for us to move it!” He started using his magic to tug at the topmost box, which if removed would allow him to notice that there was a pony-sized shape under the cloth which covered the mirror. “You can do that tomorrow,” Raven chided him. “Didn’t you tell me you still needed the desks set up? I can help you with that if you like, but I’m only free for another half hour.” “Right, right,” the stallion said, putting the box back down. Sunset heard him levitate the crate containing the dragon egg and carry it up and out of the basement. The door closed, and then locked. Sunset walked right into the mirror, before something else had a chance to happen. # # # Sunset Shimmer fell out of the concrete plinth and onto the concrete sidewalk. For a moment, she was bewildered by a new set of senses, but she quickly pulled herself together and examined herself for injuries. Discovering that she was in a new body was a surprise, but a little reflection brought up her memory of one of Star Swirl’s spells, one which transformed the subject’s form into the dominant species of the region. After discovering that her saddlebags had transformed into a backpack, she removed it and dug out a compact mirror to examine herself. She preferred herself as a pony. But the hands were nice, particularly since… “No magic? No magic?!” For a moment, she considered jumping right back through the seemingly-solid plinth to return to Equestria. At the very least, she poked one hand through, feeling the cloth on the other side and seeing a hoof dimly visible inside the rock moving as she moved. In the basement of the School for Gifted Unicorns, the frame of the mirror glowed brightly as the hoof emerged from its surface. The glow faded somewhat when the hoof disappeared, but it was still present. Sunset sat down to think, leaning her bipedal back against the edge of the plinth. It was a thoroughly unnatural position for a pony to be in, although she thought for a moment about a strange green unicorn she saw sometimes in the park who did nothing but sit or lay in uncomfortable positions. She hypothesized that the beings of this world might have an entirely new form of magic, one unknown to even Princess Celestia. After all, most Equestrians were unable to even sense raw unicorn magic. Given thirty moons, maybe she could find out about this new magic. And just as unicorns could construct magical items that allow any boob to wield unicorn magic, so might she craft a tool that would allow her to use this strange magic after returning to her home and her native form. That’s of course assuming that any kind of magic even existed in this world. If there was no magic, she was definitely going back. There was always Plan B, after all. She might even be able to risk returning today, during the entrance exams, hoping she could cast her non-detection spell fast enough after leaving the mirror to prevent getting caught. And Celestia would probably be right there in the school to scope out Sunset’s instant replacement. (Why did the thought of that worthless alicorn replacing her with some snot-nosed unicorn brat make her hurt so much?) But Sunset knew her chances were good. Everypony was still convinced that she was in Yakyakistan, after all. While she was musing, she heard sounds approaching. There was a scraping, like a large animal falling down a gravel hill. There was the sound of powerful engines, running furiously—except engines that big shouldn’t be able to move. And most loudly and gratingly, the sound of a pair of Sirens wailing discordantly against each other. Sunset hid herself behind some trimmed bushes. As she watched, a red carriage, long and unnaturally flattened, raced by at impossible speed, barely making it around a sharp turn to retreat out of sight. Not even a second later, the first carriage was followed by two more in series, these ones colored black and white. Each was topped with a flashing red light and each one emitted that awful wailing sound. They too made it around the curve. Sunset was about to stand up when yet a third wailing car rushed by. This one however failed to make the turn, instead crashing head-first into a lamp post. Sunset had no idea what was going on. The carriage which had crashed was clearly not being pulled by a pony or anything else, and how could any creature fit inside? And more gruesomely, how could anything alive survive that crash? That question was immediately answered when two hatches on the side of the vehicle popped open and two bipeds limped out, wandering around at random for a few seconds. Sunset looked down at herself for confirmation that she and they appeared to belong to the same species, although they looked a little taller than her. The two men were wearing uniforms, and those were close enough to those of constables in Equestria to satisfy one of Sunset’s many theories as to what she had just witnessed. The two constables argued with each other as to who was to blame for the accident, confirming that at least to Sunset’s magically-altered ears, they were speaking in Equine. That of course was an expected part of Star Swirl’s Fitting In spell. She also managed to pick up their names, Whinnyfield and Vinny, which matched those of two of Celestia’s royal guards. They also referred to their supervisor, who was named Shining Armor. Sunset had had a memorable interaction with a foal named Shining Armor: he had made her look bad in front of Celestia, and she had made sure that he paid the penalty for his error. Based on an extremely-small sample size, Sunset hypothesized that this world was an alternate of Equus, which from her study of magic theory was the type of world easiest to connect to with one of Star Swirl’s portals. Also, it appeared that the age of the counterpart did not have to match the age of the Equus original. Unfortunately without their transportation, the two natives were walking by the school, and they managed to spot Sunset. “Hey you!” the constable named Vinny shouted at her. Whinnyfield looked at Vinny like he was an idiot. Sunset reluctantly stood up. “Get over here!” Vinny commanded. Sunset obeyed. “What are you doing out at this hour?” That question confirmed that she was indeed in the body of a creature under the age of independence. “Well you see…” she drawled, trying to come up with a good excuse. “Never mind that,” Constable Vinny continued, stubbornly ignoring the look of scorn from his partner. “We need to take you home. What’s your name?” “I don’t remember?” Sunset dared to ask. Vinny sighed theatrically. “Stop yakking and get in the car,” he said, gesturing towards the space on the road where a vehicle could be. He did a double take after looking at the empty spot, followed by a sheepish look over at the crashed chariot. “Well in that case we’re walking you down to the station.” “Do you really want to do that?” Constable Whinnyfield finally said. “The entire station would see us come in from the civilian entrance. Again. And then there’s the paperwork. Jane Doe paperwork. Which is the worst.” “Ah man!” Vinny sighed once again. “Look, Miss. We’re going to let you off with a warning. Just this once. Go home. And if you can’t remember where that is, stick around here for a couple of hours and walk through those doors into that school over there, and Principal Celestia will take care of everything. Do you think you can do that?” ‘Principal Celestia?’ “Err…yes, I can do that,” Sunset finally managed to say. “And don’t think of trying anything funny, Miss,” Constable Whinnyfield said, getting in Sunset’s face. “These two eyes never forget a thing, and if I see you being brought into the station, the vengeance of the Lady will be upon thee.” ‘Lady?’ thought Sunset. “What?” Whinnyfield raised a warning finger. Sunset did not say ‘what’ again. The two men then turned and continued to walk down the road away from the school. “I sure showed her with that ‘two eyes’ business,” she heard Whinnyfield brag to Vinny. “Are those the same ‘two eyes’ that totally forgot the road turned left?” “…Shut up.” When she was sure they were out of sight, Sunset practically ran down the road to get a good look at the crashed chariot. Her examination revealed that it was mechanical in nature, being far too complex a mechanism to be operated by magic, even magic that she could not detect. The constables’ survival seemed to have something to do with the slowly-deflating bags which filled most of the front compartment. She also examined the busted lamp post the chariot had crashed into: it seemed to be some sort of electrically-powered lantern, something possible in Equestria but not economically feasible. Yet here were dozens of them, all in a row, all shining incredibly brightly—well, except for this one—and apparently powered by wires laid under the concrete. And look at that concrete—so smooth! The asphalt the chariots had run on was again possible in Equestria, but not at the scale she was looking at. A blue garbage can contained a pile of thick newspapers, the Canterlot Daily Clarion. In Sunset’s Canterlot, a newspaper publisher trying to put out a paper that thick on a weekly basis would have to charge a week’s wages for it, and would swiftly go out of business. But in this counter-Canterlot, 30-page daily papers with color photographs on every page were cheap enough to manufacture in bulk, and throw away in bulk. Or “recycle”, as the big word on the blue can proclaimed. Also, she was thankful to Star Swirl that she could read and understand every word on that paper. Returning to the school with a newspaper under her arm, Sunset examined the windows, the frames, the ceiling fixtures visible through those windows that might be some form of lighting operating on a basis completely different than the lamp posts! She had to stop to catch her breath after just thinking that last sentence. In short, this was a technologically-advanced society, one that was far in advance of anything on the other side of that plinth. Sunset came to these conclusions so quickly because it was the exact line of thought she had pursued when Celestia had taken her to visit the griffons a year ago. They were all busy wallowing in greed and self-pity, feeling worthless because they couldn’t use magic. But they had claws! And at least a few of them were quite good inventors. With the right organization, they should have been able to capitalize on their differences from ponies to become just as good with technology as unicorns were with magic. They utterly failed to live up to the potential that Sunset had assigned to them. But these creatures had lived up to that imagined potential. Far exceeded it, in fact. So no, this world did not have any magic. But it could be very useful to Sunset Shimmer. Worst case scenario, she’d stay here for three days and use the mirror before it shut down, bringing a bunch of toys and books for her to study. That constable had told her to go to school, after all. And there was no way she was going to give up the opportunity to see the veritable Goddess of Ponies reduced to the role of educational bureaucrat. But first, she needed to get some of this world’s currency, and find a place to sleep. All while reading that newspaper to find out everything she could find about this world that you could get while not going to school. # # # It turned out that this human Canterlot was just as unwilling to sleep as pony Manehattan. Sunset had come to this world prepared for currency exchange, stuffing her saddlebags with a variety of items that might be considered valuable: quartz, adama clay, even some reproductions of fine art. (Amusingly, the subjects of the portraits had changed from pony to human in transit, while still retaining the distinctive style of each painter.) It turned out that the jewels she had brought along as a possible spell storage medium were the most valuable. She had found this out by going into the second pawn shop she saw—they had pawn shops here, just like in Equestrian Canterlot—and playing dumb about everything in her backpack. Once she had figured out what the good stuff was and about how much it was really worth, she booked it out of there and went to the first pawn shop she had found, using her knowledge to make nearly a thousand dollars. She then scoped out a place scummy enough to take in a minor with a fat handful of cash, no questions asked. After getting her room key, she headed back to the school by a circuitous route. There were people inside the school, preparing it for the day, but no students yet. Checking to make sure no one was watching—these pronouns were going to be a pain in the plot to keep track of—she stepped through the plinth back into Equestria. # # # Back in the basement of the Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, Sunset emptied most of the contents of her newly recreated saddlebags behind the mirror, keeping the cash (and the journal). She took but a moment to confirm that she was indeed still a unicorn in Equestria before returning to the human world. She failed to notice the glow of the mirror’s rim, or how it had brightened each time she passed through it. There was now a dangerous amount of magic built up in the mirror, a mirror that did not do a good job of handling the interface between a high-magic world and a low-magic one. If given a few days without interference, that magic would have harmlessly drained away. Or if Sunset had originally followed her plan to wait until the third day to use the mirror but once, then nopony would have ever known about the mirror’s dangerous potential instability. But this was the day of the School for Gifted Unicorns’ entrance examination, when all kinds of barely-controlled magic was being discharged in the air of the exam room located directly above the magic mirror. And when you add to that the effect of a Sonic Rainboom’s magic being shared between six magically-linked wunderkinder…the results were something that nopony and no one could have possibly imagined.