//------------------------------// // Quintessentials // Story: The Other Sunset Shimmer // by Jerec the Ascendant //------------------------------// Sunset sighs with disappointment as she sits at a table in Celestia's private study. She'd been summoned there and now, the summoner and her sister, are nowhere to be seen. "Really? We're at this now? She summons me and then completely blows me off..." She growls as she mumbles to herself. Eventually Celestia enters the room. "Hello Sunset. What was it you wanted to see me about?" She asks quizzically, walking to the table. "What do you mean? You summoned me." Sunset replies in angry confusion. Celestia stops her approach, taking a moment to think. "No. I got a letter from you asking to meet me here." She replies, also sounding fairly confused. Suddenly Luna comes through the door. "You two wished to speak with me?" She asks as she comes in and straight away takes a seat at the table. Sunset gives Luna an even more confused look, while Celestia takes her seat, looking confused and lost in thought. She then gets a hardened look on her face. "Alright Discord, what game are you trying to play." She says with a straightforward anger that makes Sunset's hair stand on end. She realizes this is actually the first time she's ever seen Celestia outside of her calm Princess demeanor, or her motherly matron act. A bright flash suddenly envelopes the room, and when it fades a man in a strange outfit is suddenly standing in the room. "I do wish you creatures wouldn't refer to me as that pitiful conglomerate of assorted body parts. I know this is technically the first time, but all the same it's quite dull being compared to that bland little creature." The being politely rebukes as he takes a seat at the table as well, everypony looking quite confused and shocked at the new arrival. "Though I do have to say, I think I'm going to have quite the interesting time. A good break from Captain Picard." Celestia stands up, horn glowing. "If you aren't Discord, then who are you?!" She asks defensively, readying her arsenal of spells for use against the unknown threat. "Quite jumpy aren't we. Good, that will make this extra fun." The being rubs his hands together with a big, almost malicious smile. He gets up and walks over to Celestia, leaning down to eye level. "To answer your question, I'm Q." He replies, before blowing out her horn like a birthday candle. "Now, now. Before you get any hastier. I'm here for a rather specific reason, namely, to put an end to your search." "You mean, you're going to help us send Jake home?" Luna asks, both hopeful and at the same time reluctant. "Oh no. Quite literally, I'm here to tell you to stop your search." Q replies, as if he's saying good news. "Nope, no more need to make an attempt to send him home. That endeavor is finished as it will only end badly for every party involved. Well except for me of course." He says as he walks back to his seat. "Why would that be?" Celestia asks, still angry but now coupled with a hint of fear. "It's simple, but instead of answering, how about I show you?" The being says, before snapping. Another bright flash erupts and the group finds themselves squeezed into a small bedroom. "Welcome, to the true Jake's home." He says, motioning to the room around them. It's a small room, with the furniture arranged in an attempt to maximize the usage of the space. A bed takes the center space, head resting against one wall. Against another wall is a dresser whose top is lined with game consoles and hanging above is a wall mounted tv. Next to the dresser on one side is a cabinet, on the other a small bookcase. Near the bookcase is a desk resting against another wall, with two small screens on it, clearly for a computer. In the back corner of the room is a minifridge positioned on a built-in desk. "Why are we here- Wait, did you just say, the True Jake? What do you mean by that?" Luna asks, standing on one side of the bed. "Simple, I mean that this is the real one. The Jake you have is nothing more than a clone. A copy." Q replies lackadaisically, as he looks around the room with a small hint of disgust. "So cramped in here." He comments as he wipes some dust off the top of the minifridge. "He really must clean this place." He continues as he opens the fridge and looks inside. "A clone?" Celestia asks, also on the other side of the bed. "Just watch." Q urges and points to the bedroom door at the exact moment Jake walks in. "I've taken us to that night that you receive your Jake, this is how it unfolds. Don't worry, he can't interact with us at all." The young man sits down and gets to gaming, before Q snaps his finger again, the room suddenly mostly dark and the young man lying unconscious on the bed. "Anyway, this is the good part." The real Jake begins to glow, surrounded by a prismatic light and the room suddenly changes. "Where are we now?" Sunset asks, looking around the new room. It's more like being trapped in a glass globe and suspended in the air is Jake in his pajamas. "It's simple, we are now going to watch as the clone is created and attached to... What do you call her now? Silhouette?" Q replies. The globe is suddenly picked up by a massive chitinous clawed hand. It's owner, a giant preditory looking, humanoid alien in a uniform carries the globe and its inhabitants to a large machine, attached to which is another larger globe with the creature that becomes Silhouette within it. She too, is fairly massive but to the alien is more the size of a medium sized dog, compared to the group being more mouse sized. "Oh, I don't think I have to explain this, but we aren't really here, we're still in your study. Essentially just think of it as a 360 degree movie. Or as Picard would call it, we're in the Holodeck. So don't worry, she's not going to see us." Q explains to the ponies, pointing to the large alien. "She?" Luna asks. "Well, I don't think there's any harm in telling you. Her name is Assilryn, she is a Thyxhalix scientist." Q explains. "All you really need to know is that she's part of the reason your Jake and Silhouette are on your planet." The group watches as several holographic grids scan across Jake. Then in the other globe the grid appears again, but as they scan empty air the clone of Jake appears. The clone is then plunged into the feral Silhouette, their bodies fusing, and their containing globe shrinks as Silhouette does. Soon all that is left is the Clone Jake. The holographic grids reappear and scan across the clone again. As they do so his clothes change, and he ends up with all the possessions he had when he was brought to the hospital so months ago. Q snaps and the image vanishes, leaving them back in the study. "So, now that you know there is already a Jake in his home dimension, you don't need to send this one to it. Doing so would just cause a number of complications that would end with one or both of them dying." He explains nonchalantly. "So what do we tell Jake?" Luna asks with concern for her adoptive son. "Should we tell him that he's a clone?" "Hmm." Q thinks, rubbing his chin. "No, then we'd have to deal with even more depression and him leaping out a window in despair. A perfectly boring ending, though, to be honest, he isn't very entertaining to begin with." Q chuckles. "Just tell him you couldn't find a way to send him home. It's practically true anyway. That way you'll have your droll adoptive little human nephew or son for another sixty to eighty years or so." Celestia and Luna look stunned. "What do you mean sixty to eighty years?" Sunset Shimmer looks at the two, confused by their question. Q lets out another chuckle. "Humans aren't immortal like yourselves, and they don't have the strangely long lifespans of your subjects either. Let's just say, at least in this case his odds of surviving until he reaches ninety years old have greatly improved due to his friends' active lifestyles, if you're really lucky maybe magic will lengthen his life even further. The one I showed you, will probably be lucky to reach sixty, considering his sedentary lifestyle and poor decision making." Sunset Shimmer sits there, stunned. Maybe she should look up pony physiology to get a better grasp on just how long she might be stuck here in Equestria. From Celestia and Luna's reaction, Sunset Shimmer may be wandering around the castle halls or Manehatten for a lot longer than she originally thought. Q stands up and wipes his hands together. "Well, I've been here long enough. I'm off to do something more entertaining. Torment Jean-Luc Picard, perhaps make a pass at Kathryn Janeway, or possibly even get into a boxing match with Benjamin Sisko. Really, anything is more entertaining than hanging around here at the moment." He says as he walks to the doorway, before turning and giving the group a sinister smirk. "Though, I may be back later if I get bored of my own Universe." He vanishes as he finishes his sentence with a chuckle that lingers a little too long after he's gone.