//------------------------------// // A Certain Magical Sunset - Act 1 - 02 - Sunset - The Everfree Trials Prelude // Story: A Certain Magical Sunset // by Babroniedad //------------------------------// Sunset - The Everfree Trials (Prelude) Friday, August 15 - 9:45 PM Canterlot time Sunset paged everyone, including Kaori, using the contact number she had given her. Saturday morning 10:00 AM. Everfree campground theater. Cleared with Gloriosa. Just us. She set the alarm on her phone, packed everything she would need for the following morning, then got ready for bed. Too excited to fall asleep right away, she got out the magical journal and sent Princess Twilight a message. Sunset: Hey Twilight! Are you still awake? Twilight: Hi Sunset! Up studying. Shocking right? What’s up? Sunset: Just a little nervous. And excited. Looking forward to meeting up with the other Magic users of this world, the ones I was telling you about earlier. They want to test us and see how our magic compares to theirs. They possibly might give us some pointers on using magic in this world. Twilight: That sounds exciting! Sunset: Yeah, it really does. I hope they decide we aren’t completely useless and we get to help them. I’d love to learn more about magic in this world and be a part of defending it. Twilight: I am so proud of you Sunset! You’re such an awesome pony and friend! I remember when you didn’t feel that way - but look at you now! You’re the definition of a true friend! Sunset glowed. Thanks, Twilight! That’s high praise coming from you! I had a good teacher! Twilight: I had an awesome student! I am so glad to have you as a friend, Sunset. I know you’re going to do fine, and I’m sure they'll be delighted to have the help of one of the friendliest - and most powerful - of Equestrian Mages. Sunset: I really hope so. I really want to be able to help out. Lol! I am starting to sound like your counterpart. She is totally fan-girling the mages! Twilight: I can only imagine! I know if our positions were reversed, I’d be doing the same. Sunset: Their magic is different from Equestrian magic, but the basics are the same. We shape our spells with our thoughts and will, then express them with an act of will. They shape their magic with words and express them with movement, usually with their hands. I’ve tried a few of their simple battle spells like launching an object at a target. The spell matrix feels the same, but they initiate it with a word. “Accelerate” in this case. At that point, it activates with a wave of their hand. The will controls what is projected, and how hard, as well as the target. The activation releases the spell and sets it into motion. The difference is that, as unicorns, we initiate the spell by visualizing the spell matrix, then activate it by will alone. The spell feels the same, but the initiator and activator are unique to their magic. Sunset: That said, the word isn’t the source of the magic. I tried that to see if it would work and it didn't. It’s more like the word itself is a macro for the spell matrix, and that allows them to trigger it quickly in combat and release it quickly with minimal effort. I have to say it’s an impressive adaptation of magic for battle use. I was wondering if we might benefit from something similar. It could allow less capable mages to form instantaneous spell matrices using more advanced battle magic than they might have been able to use otherwise. Twilight: Wait. One second. I recall Starswirl having written something about this in his research. I’m digging through his old notes now. Sunset waited for Twilight to continue. Twilight: Back. Yes, I found it. Right here. He says - “I have found it is possible to bind more complex spell matrices to simple triggers through repetition, allowing me to bring the spell to life quickly with a simple cue or phrase.” Right on Sunset! And you wouldn’t have to be able to create the spell matrix from scratch if you used your magical sense to replicate the spell from another mage sharing the matrix with you. If you then practiced binding the trigger to that matrix, you could potentially be able to quickly instantiate that spell matrix with just the trigger going forward. Twilight: Okay! I am going to try some experiments on this with some of the advanced students from the School for Gifted Unicorns. This could be very useful. Sunset: That’s awesome! I’ll have to share that with Kaori when I see her tomorrow. We’re already learning from each other! Well, we’re learning from them. But it still counts! Twilight: It totally does! Thanks, Sunset! I’m really looking forward to learning everything you learn. Sunset: You’re such a nerd Princess! Twilight: Takes one to know one Sunset! Sunset: You got me there! Sunset: Wait, are you calling me a princess? Sunset: Lol! Okay, I guess I better at least try to get some sleep. Thanks for the chat! It’s always nice to hear from you. Twilight: Likewise Sunset! Take care. Okay? And let me know how it went when you get back. Good night! Sunset: Good night Twilight! Sunset placed the journal back into her backpack, then rolled over to her bedroom mirror to practice her magic and transformations, determined to never leave her friends or herself unprotected again. Clearing her mind, she concentrated, then ponied up to her Daydream Shimmer form. She held it for a bit, then released it, returning to normal. She cleared her mind again, then ponied up again. Daydream Shimmer. That seemed to be her new default. Something had changed in the past few days. She had an easier time accessing her magic, and her angelic alicorn form seemed to be the new normal. She released her form, returning to normal. “Darn it. I should have asked Princess Twilight about that. I wonder if she meant something by that comment anyways?” mused Sunset. Keeping her normal form, she levitated various items around the room, individually and in groups. “Okay, that’s new. It’s almost like I have my unicorn magic back,” she wondered. She decided to try one more thing. Clearing her mind, she visualized her best friend, then imagined being by her side. In a flash of teal magic, she disappeared. Blinking her eyes clear, Sunset realized she was in a dark room. Looking around, she quickly realized she knew exactly whose room she was in. “Oh crap!” she cried out, then clasped her hands over her mouth. A figure in the bed next to her rolled over. “Sunset, is that you? What are you doing in my bedroom?” sleepily called out Twilight. “I’m sorry! I’m so sorry Twilight! I didn’t mean to wake you!” called out Sunset in a panic, waving her hands at her friend. “My magic has gone crazy! I was just trying to figure out what I could do, and I thought of teleporting over to you, then it happened. Crazy! I can’t do that! I could only do that when I was a unicorn! I can’t do that here! I don’t know what happened!” Twilight pulled back her covers and sat up, pulling her friend into an embrace. “Breath Sunset! Deep slow breaths. Look at me,” she instructed, looking into her friend's eyes. Sunset nodded, breathing slowly and deeply as her friend requested. She held tightly to her friend's hands. “Okay, that’s better,” Twilight smiled. She reached up and tucked Sunset’s hair behind her ear then cupped her cheek with her hand. “We’ll figure this out, Sunny. You’re not alone. Come here,” Twilight scooted over on the bed and patted the spot next to her. Sunset transferred over and sat next to her BFF. Putting her arms around her, Twilight pulled her into a hug. “Okay. Start from the beginning. Tell me what happened,” she requested. Sunset told her everything she knew. Three days ago, she had dreamt she had been kissed by Faust while in the Realm of Dreams. When she woke up, she found she was able to pony up completely at will, and her new default was her Daydream Shimmer form, which she had only been able to reach once before, during the Friendship Games while she was overpowered by the magic from all the other girls' geodes. Before then and since then, until the dream, she had only been able to pony up to her unicorn form. Also, her magic now came effortlessly to her, not just her empathic magic, but levitation, transformation, and now teleportation apparently. “Okay. We need to talk to the Princess,” agreed Twilight, still holding her friend in a hug. Rubbing her back, she asked. “Feel up to paying her a visit?” “Yeah, okay,” Sunset nodded. She transferred back to her chair. Smiling, Twilight pulled on her bathrobe and sat in her lap, holding tightly. “Okay Sunny. Show me some of that new teleportation magic you’ve got. Take us to the portal.” “Uh, okay?” agreed Sunset. She closed her eyes and imagined the portal outside the school. With a flash of teal magic, they disappeared. Sunset blinked the spots from her eyes and realized they were, in fact, in front of the portal at the high school. She reached out and felt the portal. Smooth stone, it was completely closed. “Well that’s not going to help,” groused Sunset to Twilight, who was still sitting in her lap and holding on. “We can’t get through if she hasn’t opened it. I guess we’ll have to go back to my bedroom and contact the Princess through the Journal.” “Wait up,” said Twilight. She got up from Sunset’s lap and touched the portal. “I can feel the magic on the other side. I think we could open it from here if we needed. Let’s pony up and try it first.” With a flash of magenta magic, she ponied up to her alicorn form. “Wow, that was easy. That’s new, it used to take a lot more concentration than that,” Twilight noted. Sunset ponied up to her Daydream Shimmer form. “Right!” she agreed. “See, this is my new form now. Every time I pony up I get this! What happened to my old form?” Taking a deep breath, Twilight put a hand on her friend's shoulder. “I find it helps to take a slow, deep breath sometimes when I get stressed or worried. Cadence taught me that. Don’t worry Sunny. We’ll figure this out. Take a deep breath. Okay, with me?” Closing their eyes, both girls took a slow deep breath, letting it out slowly. Twilight then continued. “Put your hand on the portal and see if you can feel the magic too.” Sunset placed her hand on the portal. “I feel it! Yeah, like it’s just down a bit deep and we just need to draw it out. Okay, let’s do it!” she agreed excitedly. Twilight placed her hand on the portal as well, concentrating. The portal glowed and, moments later, was opened. “Yes!” shouted Sunset happily. “It worked! Come on Twilight! Let’s go see the Princess!” She rolled forward. Her other hand was still clasped tightly to her friends. Together, the girls entered the portal. It flashed, then disappeared behind them, returning to its normal inaccessible state. The girls fell in a bundle onto Sunsets chair which rolled out of the mirror and into the middle of the room. Untangling themselves, they took a good look at each other. “Twilight! You’re an alicorn!” gasped Sunset, looking at her friend. True to her word, Twilight was now the spitting image of her counterpart, just without the crown or trappings. A majestic horn protruded from her forehead and beautiful purple wings graced her back. “Uh, Sunny, don’t look now but so are you!” gasped Twilight in return, staring at her friend. “Wait, what?!” shouted Sunset. She spun in place in her chair, realizing she had golden wings protruding from her back. “When the heck did that happen?” They both stopped when they saw the door open on the far side of the room. A winged purple dragon entered. “Who’s making all that racket?” he asked sleepily as he entered. Looking up, he stopped in shock. “Twilight?” he asked in confusion. “Spike!” called out Sunset happily, rolling over to him. “Are we ever glad to see you!” She scooped the little dragon into a hug. Twilight joined them. “Sunset?” called out Spike. “What are you doing here? And how did you get here in the middle of the night? And I just left Twilight in bed. How is she here with you?” he asked in confusion. Twilight answered. “Spike, I’m human Twilight. I came over with Sunset.” “What? But human Twilight is a unicorn. You’re not,” observed Spike, still confused. “Yeah, about that…” Sunset started to explain. The door opened again. A purple pony princess sleepily entered. “Spike, where did you go and what’s with all the racket…” She paused in mid-sentence when she noticed who was there. “Sunset! Other … me!? Is that you? How did you get here? I left the portal closed,” she called out, now fully awake. She rushed over to her friends then looked them over and checked the portal to verify that she had indeed left it off and closed. “Yeah, Princess. Something happened, so we had to come to see you. We were hoping you could help us understand what’s going on,” explained Sunset. “It started about three days ago,” Sunset went on. “I noticed that I could pony up much more easily than before and that whenever I did, I was in my alicorn form, not my normal pony form. Before then, the only time I ever even had an alicorn form was when I did the Daydream Shimmer during the Friendship Games.” Princess Twilight turned to look at her counterpart. “I swear, except for the glasses, it’s like looking into a mirror,” she observed. “Uncanny!” She trotted back to the door, opening it. “Come on. Let’s get some tea or something while we sit down and discuss this. It sounds like this may take a while, so we should get comfortable.” The girls and Spike followed her out and down the hall to the library where they sat around the table while Spike went to fetch hot chocolate, tea, and some snacks. “So yeah, it started three days ago,” continued Sunset. “I had a dream that Faust kissed my soul in the Realm of Dreams, and Twilight too. Then, when I woke up, I found I could pony up at will, but only into the Daydream Shimmer form. I also found out that I could do magic too! Without even ponying up! I could levitate things, including multiple things at once. I could also sense magic around me. I could transform and conjure objects. It was like I was a unicorn back in Equestria again, but I was still human. And tonight, I found out I could teleport too!” SciTwi nodded. “I have to add, I had noted that my magic was easier to use the past few days as well, though I have no recollection of any dream. I just wrote it off as more weirdness, maybe coming from the portal. Though the fact that I came through in this form does seem to lend support to Sunset’s story.” “And we were able to open the portal from our side,” added Sunset. “We ponied up and could feel the magic in the portal, so we reached out together and grabbed it. Once we did, the portal opened up for us so we came through to talk to you, Princess, in the hopes to try and figure out what was going on.” Princess Twilight nodded while taking notes as the girls explained. Spike passed out hot chocolate to the girls, tea to the princess, and put the snacks out on the table as they talked. “So you were able to trigger the closed portal to open from this side while you were both on the other side? Wow!” the Princess noted. “And clearly you’re both Alicorns now. That’s new.” She turned to Sunset. “I don’t think you were just dreaming, Sunset, and I don't think you were the only one Faust blessed. I really think you were both Soul Kissed. You’re both clearly ascended. That’s not something that just happens. There is always a trigger for it, a cause. I think you were seeing what actually happened in the Realm of Dreams. I bet if you could talk with Faust right now, she would confirm it. Your destinies have been marked, you’re both Soul Kissed!” She grinned and bowed. “Welcome Princesses!” she snarked. Sunset grinned, “You’re such a dork, Princess!” They all laughed. SciTwi smiled at Sunset. “Well, you always did want to be a Princess!” Sunset grinned back and pulled her BFF into a hug. “Only if I could be a princess with you!” she happily replied. Princess Twilight watched them with a snarky smile. “Gah, you two are precious! I should get a picture and frame it!” she teased. Spike just shook his head at their antics. “Okay, you know what comes next, right?” Princess Twilight asked her guests. They looked at each other and grinned, then turned and nodded together. “Science!” they all shouted out happily. They adjourned to Princess Twilight’s lab. They decided to test Sunset first. Princess Twilight hooked her up to the magical pathway potentiometer which looked suspiciously like a chair equipped with a colander trailing wires, with a hole for a unicorn's horn cut out in the front. SciTwi turned to her counterpart with a smirk. “You built all this yourself, didn’t you?” “I sure did!” enthused Princess Twilight. “I used spare equipment I had laying around to put it together!” “Including ‘equipment’ from the kitchen I was going to use to make dinner that night,” deadpanned Spike as he helped Twilight place the electrodes on Sunset. “I had to make a special trip back to the market to get a new one.” “We all make sacrifices for Science, Spike. It’s just what we have to do,” answered Princess Twilight earnestly as she adjusted the sensors on the device. Sunset stifled a guffaw as Spike grinned and rolled his eyes. “Sure we do, Twilight,” Spike said, resigned. With a few last-minute adjustments and after loading a fresh scroll into the device to record the test output, Princess Twilight declared they were ready. “Okay, Sunset! You might feel a slight tingling, but nothing worse than that. I just need you to levitate this ball while I gather some basic readings.” She telekinetically tossed a small ball over to Sunset. Sunset caught it in her magic and held the ball before her in a teal glow. “So, like what am I supposed to do with it?” she asked, looking at it. “Anything? Just hold it here? What should I do?” “Just hold it there is fine,” answered Princess Twilight, flipping the switch to start the recording. The scroll started feeding out from the front of the machine. Squiggly lines on it showed the measured potentials. Looking over the output, she nodded happily. “Perfect! Just a few more moments then I will compare it against our baseline measurements,” happily observed Princess Twilight. “Uh, what baseline measurements?” asked Sunset, still holding the ball steady in her magic. “I am pretty sure you’ve never measured me before in any contraption like this. How can you have a baseline?” “I’m the baseline,” answered Princess Twilight as she pulled the scrolled results from the device and spread it out on the table. “I’m comparing it against the measurements I took from myself before. I just need to check your potential against a known alicorn source.” “That actually makes a fair amount of sense,” agreed SciTwi, at her counterpart’s side, looking over the results. Princess Twilight pulled another scroll from the cabinet by the table and placed it above the scroll from Sunset. “This is mine from a test I took a month ago. This will be our baseline.” With a pop and teal flash, Sunset teleported out of the chair and colander and into her wheelchair. She rolled over next to the Twilights to view the scrolls. SciTwi grinned and snarked. “Not one to be left out, are you Sunny?” “Shuddup you,” snarked her BFF back with a grin of her own. “Science! No way you’re leaving me out of that! Besides, I really want to see how I stack up against the Princess here!” “Still got that competitive streak, eh?” teased the princess while giving her friend’s chair a slight hip bump. “Like you don’t?” teased Sunset back, giving her a slight push back and rolling up to the table. “So, how do we read this?” Princess Twilight explained, “Each line measures a magical locus in your horn and frontal cortex. As you would expect, the higher the line on the page, the higher the potential. With the calibrations I’m using, a powerful unicorn would measure typically in the bottom third of the page. An alicorn, like myself, measures in the top third of the page. Princess Celestia or Luna would be off the right up at the top of the page.” They examined the two scrolls. The similarities were striking. Both were clearly in the top third of the page. There were some places where Sunset’s markings were higher, and in others, Princess Twilight’s marks were higher. Sunset pointed that out. “What does this mean here?” Sunset asked. “See here? My marks are higher here. But here,” she pointed to another section on Princess Twilight’s scroll, “Here your marks are higher. What does that mean?” “Those are different magical locus points,” explained the Princess. “It just means there are some things you have a higher magical potential for, and some I do. For example, here,” the princess pointed out one of the higher marks in Sunset’s scroll. “This is a locus normally used in teleportation. You are extremely high here, even higher than I am, so that means that you are extremely capable with teleportation.” She then pointed to a section on her scroll that was higher. “And this is for raw battle magic. I am extremely high here. Just shows we have different strengths.” Both Sunset and SciTwi nodded. “Wow Sunny! I don’t see anything on this that drops below the top third of the page,” noted SciTwi. “Yup!” noted Princess Twilight, nodding happily. “Sunset, these confirm it. These are alicorn levels. You are a princess, girl! Congratulations! We’ll have to plan your coronation now.” “Yeah, no rush! Just thrilled to actually be one finally!” grinned Sunset. SciTwi pulled her BFF into a hug. “Yes! Congratulations, Sunny!” she cheered. “So, other me, you ready for a spin on my tester?” asked Princess Twilight with a grin. “Thought you’d never ask!” laughed SciTwi happily. She immediately sat down in the chair and placed the colander over her horn. Princess Twilight trotted over and helped her place the electrodes properly while Sunset rolled over to watch the process. Once they were all securely in place, Sunset rolled over to her machine and loaded a fresh scroll, then tossed the ball to her counterpart which she caught in her magenta aura. “Okay, the same drill,” instructed Princess Twilight. “Just hold the ball in place while I run the scan, then we can review your results as well.” They watched as the scroll rolled out from the device. When the test was completed, Princess Twilight pulled the scroll from the device and rolled it out on the table below Sunsets. Extracting herself from the test seat, SciTwi joined them back at the table while adjusting her glasses with her magic. Looking over the scroll, it was clear most of the marks on it were clearly in the top third of the page. Several, in fact, were higher than either Princess Twilight or Sunset’s markings. There were several others however that were still down in the lower half of the page. “So, what does that mean?” asked SciTwi, pointing them out. “Why am I so much lower than either of you on these markings? That's bad, right?” worried SciTwi. “It’s not great, but it’s not bad either,” acknowledged the princess. “These are clearly alicorn-level readings. You’re an alicorn too, other me.” She pointed out the cluster of lower scores. “These are associated with mana reserves. For some reason, while you clearly have mana levels way in excess of any unicorn, gifted or otherwise, they are still lower than I would have expected for an ascended alicorn. I wouldn’t worry too much about that though. It could just be that they are still developing. We would need to run further tests to clear that up and compare them over time. I suspect if we did that, we would see they are still growing, so I don’t think this will be a permanent problem for you. Mind you, I’m just speculating here.” “But I’m still an alicorn, right?” asked SciTwi with a bit of worry. “Yes, other me. You are definitely an alicorn,” answered the princess, pulling her other self into a hug. “And we’ll have a coronation for you too, eventually. In fact, I think we’ll do it with Sunset’s. You can do both together. Does that sound okay with you?” “Heck yeah!” agreed Sunset, hugging her BFF. “Princesses together!” Turning to the princess, Sunset asked, “So, how’re you going to explain having your twin here having a coronation to the rest of Canterlot? Going to spill the beans on the portal?” “Nah. I think you have the answer there already,” answered the princess. “My long-lost twin sister and her friend ascended. End of story.” “Keep it simple,” agreed Sunset. “Works for me.” SciTwi nodded as well. “There it is then,” agreed the princess. “Welcome to royalty, sister!” SciTwi laughed. “Thank you, sister!” she grinned. Princess Twilight turned to Sunset. “Okay, my next question, what’s up with the wheelchair?” “Don’t be like that!” Sunset growled. “You know darn well what’s up with the wheelchair and how I ended up in it. I know you’re not one of those ableist pricks, so what do you mean by that question?” “Sorry, Sunset. I wasn’t trying to offend you,” replied the Princess. “I am just curious, as I’m surprised you’re disabled on this side of the portal as well. I would have expected you to come through intact, or at least as intact as you left. Do you mind if I run some tests to see what is going on?” “Nah, that’s fine,” stated Sunset. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to get all indignant on you. Just sick of people telling me I could walk if I really wanted to, or that it’s all in my head, or all my fault.” “Yeah, I could understand that,” agreed Princess Twilight. “No worries Sunset. I would never think less of you because of your disability. I think you’re amazing, and you've overcome incredible obstacles to get where you are now. Not the least of which was overcoming your old nature and becoming the kind and empathetic mare, er.. girl? Whatever… That you are today. Anyone who thinks otherwise is sadly mistaken.” Princess Twilight pulled out another device from her cabinet. This one was just 16 electrodes, color-coded and numbered. She placed them over Sunset's flanks and withers as well as her lower legs. Hooking up the electrodes to her recording machine, she placed a new scroll into it and ran some quick calibrations. “Okay, Sunset. Can you try to stand up?” the princess asked. “No,” replied Sunset cooly, “I’m paralyzed. I can’t.” “I know,” responded the princess. “I wasn’t expecting you would be able to actually do it. I just need to record you trying. I want to look at the neural pathways while you try so I can examine them for any signs of damage.” “Oh, okay,” agreed Sunset. “Can you help me out?” she asked. “I got you,” agreed SciTwi. She held Sunset’s withers in her magic as she balanced on her front hooves. “Okay, I am trying to stand on all four hooves, but nothing is happening back there,” reported Sunset. The princess was running the scroll and examining the output as it rolled out from the machine. “Interesting. Can we try something, Sunset? Would you be willing for Twilight to back off holding you and see how you respond?” “Sure, just don’t drop me,” answered Sunset. “Falls hurt. If you promise I won’t fall, sure I’ll do it.” “No worries, Sunny. If you start to fall, I’ll just hold you back up,” promised SciTwi. “Okay, let's do this,” agreed Sunset. SciTwi slowly let the strength of her aura drop. Sure enough, Sunset’s back legs buckled. As promised, SciTwi caught her with her magic and continued to hold her up. “You okay, Sunny? Doing alright?” asked SciTwi in concern. “I'm fine. Thank you for catching me. I was a bit concerned there for a moment,” admitted Sunset with relief. “Well, this is interesting,” noted the princess, removing the scroll and placing it on the table below the other three scrolls already present. SciTwi helped her BFF back into her chair. From there, they both joined the princess back at the table. “So, what do you see?” asked Sunset. “I don’t see any damage or blockage to your nerves, but at the same time, they are clearly not firing. It’s like they are fine, but just not being used,” noted the princess. “How can that be?” asked Sunset, puzzled. “Well, it could be psychosomatic,” answered the princess, “Though I doubt that. Let’s run some more tests.” She went to the cabinet and pulled out a second colander also laced with colored electrodes. “Before you ask, don’t ask,” said Spike with a shake of his head. Sunset laughed while the princess looked sheepish. “Go with what you know, I guess,” snarked SciTwi, grinning at her counterpart. “Whatever,” groused the princess as she directed and assisted Sunset back into the chair, fitting the new test equipment onto her friend. Spike laughed. When she was done checking all the fittings, she moved over to the recording device and checked the calibrations. Checking that a new scroll was ready for the recording, she turned to her friend. “Okay, Sunset. I want you to try to get out of your chair. If you can’t actually do it, at least visualize it as if you were doing it.” Sunset nodded, then shut her eyes. Her legs and muscles twitched as if she were trying to get up, but nothing happened. Twilight examined the results on the scroll emerging from the test recorder. “Okay, that’s good enough. Thanks, Sunset,” the princess acknowledged, removing the scroll and laying it too out on the table. A flash of teal popped behind them and, a moment later, Sunset rolled to the table with them looking over the results as well. “See these lines?” the princess pointed out. Several lines jumped at different points along the plot. “These are where the loci in your cortex were firing to activate your legs to get up. They are working fine, with no issues with the firing, so this is not psychosomatic. Your brain is telling your legs to get up. They are just not getting the message, despite no sign of damage to the neural pathways. Something else is blocking the signal.” “So, it’s not all in my head,” nodded Sunset. “I didn’t think it was. Good to know,” “No, it’s not all in your head, but I have no idea where it is being blocked. We’d have to get more help to figure this one out. Maybe next time,” agreed the Princess. She pulled out her lab notebook then assigned identification numbers to each of the scrolls, inventoried them with a description of their contents and results in the notebook, then returned them to the cabinet with the two colanders and the harness used for the leg tests. “So, that just leaves the how,” noted the princess, leading them to the now cleared table and pulling up chairs for herself and her counterpart. Sunset rolled her chair up to the table to join them. “We know it started three days ago, and after my dream,” noted Sunset. Spike brought them both cups of coffee, which Sunset and SciTwi accepted gratefully. “Thank you, Spike!” She sipped the warm coffee with gratitude. “And you don’t recall having a similar dream?” queried the princess of her counterpart. “Nope, though I don't always recall my dreams. I can be a heavy sleeper at times,” acknowledged SciTwi. “Can I try something?” asked Sunset. “Sparky, are you okay with me trying my empathic magic on you? Maybe, with a little help, you might recall any dream you had that night.” “Sure Sunny. Worth a shot. Go ahead,” agreed SciTwi. Sunset rolled over in front of her BFF and placed her forehooves on her friend's head. Leaning into her friend, she pressed her muzzle up against her friends. “Okay, ready? Try to relax and we’ll visualize that night together.” Eyes closed, she focused on her friend. She clearly saw, in her mind's eye, her friend getting ready for bed that night then climbing into bed. A slight blush flushed her cheeks. She pushed that image from her mind, then focused on her friend falling asleep. As her friend drifted off to sleep, she saw the dream forming of her friend floating in the realm of dreams with her. “Hey, sorry Sunny. I guess you were right,” noted her friend out loud. “I did have that dream, just like you. I guess I forgot it.” “Yeah. This looks a lot like my dream,” agreed Sunset out loud also. “Almost exactly like my dream,” “Is there any way I can see what you are seeing?” asked the princess. “Let’s try. Take my hoove,” Sunset answered, eyes still closed. She felt her left hoove being taken. “Now place it against your forehead,” instructed Sunset. The princess did as instructed. Sunset visualized the princess, and Princess Twilight appeared beside her in SciTwi’s dream. “Wow!” gasped the princess. “This is just like when Luna pulled us into a shared dream.” “Okay, watch this,” instructed Sunset. “Here comes Faust. If this matches my dream, she is about to take us both out of the Realm for a moment and kiss our souls.” Sure enough, Faust pulled each of them from their place in the realm of dreams and kissed them with a flash of teal magic, and placed them back into their places in the dream realm. “Okay, that matched exactly what I dreamed. That’s too much to be just coincidence I’m thinking,” noted Sunset. “And that almost exactly matches what happened to me when I ascended, except it was Celestia for me, and I was in the realm of memories, not dreams,” noted the princess. “Likely because you were awake, not asleep,” noted Sunset. “Interesting.” They watched the rest of Twilight’s dream together. When it was over, another dream started. In it, Sunset was beckoning to Twilight to come to sit by her. When Twilight did, Sunset took her face in her hands and kissed her on the forehead. “Oh no no no!” exclaimed SciTwi blushing madly. “We don’t need to see this one! Party time is over. Everyone out of my head!” Blushing madly herself, Sunset agreed. “Yup, we’re done here!” She broke the connection. Everyone returned to their own thoughts. Their eyes opened quickly, everypony blushing and grinning madly. “Okay! That happened!” Sunset snarked in acknowledgment. “Nothing happened! I was just dreaming about spending time with my best friend! Honest!” flushed SciTwi heatedly. Sunset and the princess both laughed. “Yup! Nothing wrong with that!” agreed Sunset quickly. “Absolutely not!” agreed the princess, with a smirk. “Dang you two are just too adorable! Is it wrong that I kind of want to see the rest of that dream?” “Shuddup you!” groused Sunset, “Not helping.” With a final knowing smirk, the princess relented. “So entertainment value from that last bit aside, that does seem to confirm it. It really looks like you two ascended to become alicorns. I would like to confirm it with Faust herself, but it’s not like we have any way to communicate with her to ask. We can’t just trot over to Elysium and confirm it with her.” “True that,” agreed Sunset. “The only way I’ve ever been able to talk to her there is to almost die. Not really looking forward to making that trip again.” “I’ll check with Celestia and Luna. Maybe they know a way to confirm it with her,” proposed the princess. “Sounds good to me,” agreed Sunset. Princess Twilight looked to her friends. “I think we’ve done all we can here for tonight, and you two have a long day ahead of you tomorrow. Let’s call it a night so you can get some rest. I will contact you through the journal when I find out more. Sounds good?” “Sounds good to me. I could use some sleep after all this excitement,” agreed Sunset. “I second that,” agreed SciTwi. “And maybe you’ll have some more interesting dreams,” teased Sunset. “Shuddup you,” growled SciTwi with a grin. “Okay, let’s get you girls back home,” agreed the princess. They returned to the portal, where this time the princess used her journal to open the portal for them to return. Giving Princess Twilight and Spike hugs goodbye, SciTwi pushed her friend through the portal. With that, they returned together. Emerging out the other side, they were still ponied up. Pulling Twilight into her lap, Sunset teleported to Twilight’s bedroom, where she said goodnight to her friend. She then teleported back to her room, transferred into her bed, then drifted off to sleep. Our paths are our own; predestined, preordained, and foreknown, but we alone may travel them to our own chosen end - The Celestial Teachings Mikoto - Academy City Misaka Mikoto did not return to her Tokiwadai dorm room that night. After witnessing the murder of her cloned sister, and then her own fight with Accelerator, she felt lost, completely listless and dispirited. She wandered the city, finally sitting down on a park bench to ponder, where she remained all night. The next morning, Nunotaba Shinobu, who had previously worked on other sisters' related projects, walked up to her. From her despondent attitude Shinobu quickly deduced she had finally discovered the truth about her clones and the experiments. “Why?” asked Mikoto, helplessly. “Why is anyone willingly killing other people, taking their lives, all for the sake of these experiments?” Shinobu explained. “To the researchers, your clones are simply lab animals, required to be sacrificed for a greater good,” she explained. “I also used to think like that. At least I did, until I realized the clones were more than that.” She asked Mikoto. “What do you think of your clones?” Mikoto thought. “I don’t think of them as human, not really. But I can’t overlook that people are using my DNA for these experiments. So that makes this my problem.” Shinobu shook her head. “No, Mikoto, you are not being honest with yourself. You are not honestly facing what you truly believe. And if you’re going to take on this as your problem, you should know there are more than 20 facilities involved in the experiment at this point.” Mikoto nodded, still lost in her nightmarish thoughts. She got up and headed back to her dorm..