Sunset Shimmer checked herself in her mirror for the hundredth time in the last half-hour. And just like every other time, she saw the same exact thing; a red and yellow haired girl who would look absolutely stunning if she’d wipe that manic expression off her face. Other than that, pure beauty!
Sunset then checked her phone for the three-hundredth time. God, was time always this slow?
Maybe another check in the mirror would help…
“Sunset, darling, whatever are you doing?” A voice chimed out from behind her. Sunset swiftly flipped around to spot Rarity with Applejack in tow walking over to her.
“Oh! Uh, erm…just…admiring the Wondercolt statue?” She said with only a little bit of uncertainty, though, she was fairly sure her friends would buy it. Rarity simply raised an eyebrow while Applejack’s face went blank.
“Ya really expect me to buy that, sugarcube?” She asked her with a deadpan voice. Sunset started to sweat a little bit. Rats! Caught in a lie. Man, she used to be so good at that when she was a jerk. Maybe being nice was making her rusty. Though, that was an experiment for another day.
Rarity chimed in. “Yes, I must admit that was a rather poor lie.” She said, giving the girl a sympathetic look. “Sunset, whatever is troubling you dear, we’re here for you.” She said, placing her hand overtop Sunsets. Sunset hesitated for a second, but eventually caved in and let out a breath.
“Alright, you guys caught me. I wasn’t out here admiring Canterlot High’s strangely professional and impressive architectural collection.” She sighed. “As you may know, the statue is connected to a portal to Equestria.” She said, gesturing to the base of the statue. Applejack simply looked at her again.
“Kinda a hard thing ta miss, given how many times we need to come to the rescue.” She says. “So what, ya jus’ campin’ out, in case another monster or somethin’ comes barrelin’ out?”
Sunset’s cheeks turned a little red. “Well, not exactly…” Just as she was about to continue, the portal began to shine. Sunset immediately shot up, and turned to face her friends. “She’s here! Quick, get lost!” She shouted before she shoved both of them inside of the school before jogging back down to the statue.
‘Alright Sunset, this is it…Maybe another quick check in the mirror would be a good idea? Yeah, another check in the mirror would definitely be a good idea.’ She thought to herself. However, before she could even reach for the thing, a figure came stumbling out of the portal.
Upon seeing the figure, Sunset’s face instantly lit up with a bright smile. “Twilight! There you are!” Running over and helping the girl up, Sunset had time to reflect on everything that had led to this moment.
Princess Twilight Sparkle was the most wonderful girl–err, mare–Sunset had ever met. She had been the one to help pull her out of the dark she had found herself in after her exile to the human world and show her how great friendship could be. She had dropped everything to come to their aid when defeating The Dazzlings. Admittedly, she had shown up really late during the Friendship Games, but that wasn’t her fault! She was just being incredible and magnificent in her world! Gosh, what a wonderful woman…Nothing can compare to Twilight Sparkle, not even Twilight Sparkle!
Sure, she liked Twilight, but she just didn’t have the “pizzazz” Twilight had. Sure she was just as smart and good with technology, but Twilight just had something about her that Twilight didn’t. Yes, it was safe to say that Twilight just couldn’t compete with Twilight.
Yeah, to say Sunset was head-over-heels would be the biggest understatement of the century. Possibly of all time.
Standing up right after getting her balance, the princess quickly brushed off her shirt and skirt before looking over at Sunset and giving her a wide smile. “Sunset! Hello! I must say, I was surprised that you asked me to come here. Is there something wrong?” She asked, giving Sunset a confused look.
‘Yeah, there’s a problem.’ Sunset thought. ‘How adorable you are…’ Sunset analyzed every feature of the other girl's face. The way her eyebrow raised, the way her lips did a small pout, her eyes…
Sunset let out a dreamy sigh. Twilight clapped her hands together in front of Sunset to snap her out of it. Sunset jumped a bit and looked down at Twilight. “You ok? You spaced out for a moment. I can come back later if you’re unwell.” She spoke and Sunset immediately blushed and raised her hands.
“No! No, no, no! I’m fine! Everything’s fine!” She took a deep breath and grabbed Twilight’s hands. The princess’ eyes widened a bit at the gesture, but didn’t pull away. Sunset took another breath. She really wished she had that mirror on her right now.
“Twilight, I called you here, because I have something incredibly important to tell you…” Sunset spoke. Twilight tilted her head and looked at her friend. Taking this as a sign to continue, Sunset resumed speaking. “You’ve done so much for me, and I am eternally grateful for it all. Which is why…” Sunset looked straight into her eyes. “Which is why I’ve called you here to tell you that I, Sunset Shimmer, am utterly and hopelessly in love with you, Princess Twilight Sparkle!” She spoke with confidence.
Twilight’s whole face turned red at the proclamation and simply stood in place for a moment. “Um..I see…” Was all she said about the sudden confession.
Sunset’s immense amount of confidence suddenly shattered. That was not the type of answer one would want from the person they just told they were “utterly and hopelessly in love with.”
Twilight retracted her hands from Sunset’s and looked at the girl. “Sunset, you are an incredible friend,” She seemed to put an emphasis on that, and Sunset winced at the word. “and I love you a lot, but I’m afraid a relationship between the two of us is impossible.” This was her worst fears come true. Sunset started to panic just a little bit.
“I-Is it because you live in Equestria?! That’s okay! I’m fully okay with moving back to Equestria!” She exclaimed with a desperate smile on her face. Twilight frowned a bit more at this.
“No, it’s not the dimensional barrier. That’s a non-issue. No, I’m afraid what separates us is-” She was cut off by Sunset hastily cutting in again.
“It’s because you’re a princess isn’t it?! It would be shameful to be seen with non-royalty, and you don’t want everypony to look down on you! That’s okay too! I’m okay with sitting in our room all day not going anywhere if that means you’ll be there eventually!” Sunset pleaded, with an absolutely insane expression on her face. Twilight shook her head and waved her arms around.
“No! That’s not it either! Also, that’s completely unhealthy behavior!” She said.
“Then what?!” Sunset pleaded. “What is keeping us apart?!”
Before Twilight could answer, the portal began to ripple again as two more figures fell out of it. Sunset and Twilight both looked over in shock as one of them began to speak.
“Twilight Sparkle! Once The Great and Powerful Trixie received word that you were coming here, she has traveled time and space to come before you today to stop you from accepting the love of this traitor and to instead accept the love that Trixie has for you!” Trixie proclaimed, before beginning to try and stand, and utterly failing as she fell back onto the ground. “Umm…but first, Trixie asks that you assist her in her new form…”
The other figure, however, stood up…well not perfectly, but after waving her arms to balance herself for a moment, looked at Twilight. “Don’t listen to Trixie! Twilight, think about it, we were meant to be together!” She said, grabbing onto Twilight’s hand. Twilight could only sputter for a moment in pure shock.
“Starlight?! Trixie?! What in Equestria are you doing here?!”
“Trixie believes she made that quite obvious…” She muttered, still trying to stand up.
Starlight looked down and growled at Trixie for a second before looking back at Twilight with the sweetest look in her eyes. “Twilight, we’re two of the strongest magic users in Equestria! It’s practically like we were made for each other!” Starlight exclaimed, a twinkle in her eye.
“No, don’t listen to Starlight! She’s just mad Trixie lit her new kite on fire and so has dedicated herself to ruining Trixie’s love life!” Trixie yelled, still trying to figure out how to stand up. Starlight glared down at Trixie.
“Oh, please, you'd love someone who enslaved your hometown?" Suddenly finding her balance, Trixie shot up.
"I was under the influence of a magic amulet! Wait, and you did the exact same thing!"
"Nuh-uh, I enslaved a different town, doesn't count." She countered.
Sunset could only balk in shock at what she was seeing. Starlight Glimmer and Trixie Lulamoon both just tumbled through to proclaim their love for Twilight at the same time. How'd they even know she was gonna do that?! Observing them, Starlight looked the same the last time she had gone through the mirror, hat and ripped jeans and whatnot, but Trixie did not resemble her mirror counterpart. Instead of a hoodie and skirt, Trixie was donned in her titular hat and cape, with a light blue and white tuxedo. A typical magician outfit.
Twilight also was just standing in shock, watching her two friends argue over what counted as slavery and whether or not enforcing a belief onto a town is the same thing as becoming a tyrannical ruler. How could this get any stranger…?
Suddenly, the portal started to glow.
“Oh, come on!” Sunset shouted as she watched another figure emerge.
The figure that stepped out wore a turtleneck sweater with some baggy jeans, a pair of glasses, with the bridge taped together, and had red hair with a purple streak that was tied up. She glanced around for a moment, before shooting straight up, gaining her footing much faster than Trixie, and walked over to Twilight and placed her hand on her cheek.
Twilight, again, was shocked. “Moondancer?! What are-MMPH?!” Moondancer quickly cut her off by kissing her.
All parties went silent as they looked at the scene presented in front of them. Trixie spoke up first. “Who even is this?! Surely this pony is not more worthy of Twilight Sparkle's love than the Great and Powerful Trixie!” She shouted pointing a finger at the newcomer.
Starlight turned around and glared back at Trixie. “You’re not worthy of her love at all! You’re just some cheap magician! I’m a real master of magic!” She said, jabbing a finger at Trixie. Trixie’s jaw just dropped.
“How DARE you! Trixie will have you know that she is a better magic user than anypony in Equestria!” She then quickly turned and looked at Twilight. “Except you of course, my beloved.”
Starlight fumed at this and tackled Trixie with a shout. Trixie shrieked as she was taken to the ground and slapped over and over.
During that entire scuffle, Moondancer had continued to suck face with Twilight, who would’ve pulled away, but her cognitive thinking had long said bye-bye, so she was completely incapable of rational thought at the particular moment. This didn’t go unnoticed by Sunset, who ran over and yanked her off of Twilight.
Moondancer looked over and shot the yellow girl a dirty look. “Look, listen, we’re both sensible unicorns here. Why don’t we both agree I’m the better pick for Twilight and call it a day?”
The answer Sunset gave her was her fist colliding with her glasses.
____________________________________________________________________
Rarity and Applejack both looked outside to the courtyard from the glass door of the school, in shock at what was currently transpiring.
“Shoot, who knew Sunset could pack a punch like that?” Applejack commented, as she watched the young woman slam her fist into Moondancer over and over.
“My, this seems to have escalated quite quickly, no?” Rarity responded as she watched the two groups fight. “They must seem to all really care about Twilight for them to almost immediately start to scuffle.”
Applejack snorted. “Ah think ‘care’ might be an understatement, sugarcube. More like ‘completely obsessed with.'”
Rarity put her finger to her chin and looked down in thought for a moment. “Yes, maybe you’re right. Do you think we should intervene?”
Applejack glanced back out the window. “Naw, this’ll probably get sorted out soon. Ah mean, this Twilight is the princess of friendship afterall. Surprised this hasn’t been resolved by now, in all honesty.” She said.
“Yes, it is rather unlike Twilight to just allow this to go on for so long. Do you think she may be overwhelmed?”
“Ah’d say.”
“What’re you staring at?” A new voice rang out.
Applejack and Rarity both jumped and flipped around to look at the new person.
“Oh, hello darling!” Rarity greeted. “Um, I would advise against going outside. There are some…err…disagreements…going on outside right now…”
Applejack snorted again. “That’s putting it lightly.”
The other figure just took a glance out the window to see what they were talking about. “Oh, Twilight’s here! See you guys later!” They said before darting out the door before either of them could stop them.
The two of them just stared outside. “Oh dear…” Rarity mumbled.
___________________________________________________________________________
“Please stop, Starlight! Trixie’s face is more important to her than her hair, go back to tugging on that!” She pleaded as Starlight brought her hand back down on Trixie, having watched Sunset and Moondancer and learning how to form a fist.
“Admit you’re some cheap knockoff! Admit it!” She shouted holding her hand above Trixie again.
“Me?! If anything, Sunset is the knockoff! I mean, she was Celestia’s student, and her name means practically the same thing as Twilight Sparkle! Go beat on her!” Trixie shouted, holding her arms in front of her face. Starlight went to hit Trixie again and stopped to think for a moment.
“Hey, wait, you have a point…” She mumbled.
“Ha! Of course I do! The Great and Powerful Trixie always has a poi-AHH!” She was interrupted by one more slap to the face, before Starlight got up and made her way over to Sunset.
Sunset, for her part, had Moondancer held up by her collar and was about to plant another hit on her already decimated glasses, when Starlight came over and flipped her around. “Admit you’re a knockoff!” She shouted and went to punch Sunset in the face.
However what she didn’t count on was the fact that Sunset has been a human for much longer and in turn, dropped Moondancer, caught her fist, and then retaliated with a punch of her own to Starlights face. “I’m the knockoff?! C’mon, Starlight Glimmer is practically just another way of saying Sunset Shimmer! You’re just a knockoff of me!”
Starlight growled as she rubbed her cheek. “And Sunset Shimmer is just another way of saying Twilight Sparkle!”
“Which makes me the best match for her!”
Trixie and Moondancer had both stood up and glanced at each other for a moment. “Are we gonna fight too?” Trixie asked her.
“Not if you admit I’m the better match for Twilight. If you do the math, I’m statistically perfect. I’m on par with her for knowledge, and we were childhood friends.” Moondancer said with a snide smirk. Trixie looked enraged at the woman for a second and went to go hit her, however she didn’t exactly know how to use these “finger” things, so it came more of like a weak slap.
Before the four could start another fight with each other, Twilight’s brain suddenly seemed to start working again and she shouted. “STOOOOOOOOOOPPPP!”
The four of them all did indeed stop, and turned to look at the princess.
“Guys, please! I appreciate you all feel this way about me, but you shouldn’t fight eachother!” She said.
Moondancer spoke up first. “Then admit we’re a perfect match and accept my love!”
Trixie turned and looked at her again. “Puh-lease! Why wouldn’t she get with The Great and Powerful Trixie! She would bask in my glory everyday.”
Sunset glanced at the other girl. “If she doesn't drown in that ego first…” She mumbled.
Starlight rolled her eyes at Sunset. “You’re one to talk about egos Ms. Turned Into A Demon.”
Before the four could get into it again, Twilight spoke up. “No! No more fighting! Look, I love each and every one of you, but not in that way! You all mean very much to me, but I cannot be your special somepony!”
“Why?!” They all shouted in unison.
Before she could answer, a final voice rang out. “Twilight! There you are!”
Everyone turned and looked to see the newcomer. Twilight’s face brightened at the new arrival. “Twilight, hello!”
Twilight Sparkle quickly came running over, and gave a quick hug to Twilight, before the two of them kissed. After a moment, they separated. “You didn’t tell me you were visiting.”
The four other girls simply stood in shock at the scene they were witnessing. “T-Twilight?! What’re you doing here?!” Sunset shouting after snapping out of her shock.
Sci-Twi turned and looked at her friend. “Saying hi to my girlfriend? Why is there something wrong?” She could only stare at her.
“Y-You….” Sunset’s brain was REALLY struggling to comprehend what was happening. “Y-You’re DATING the pony princess version of yourself?!”
Sci-Twi pushed her glasses up. “Well, yeah we have a lot in common! Besides, why is this shocking you? I’ve told you before.”
“YOU’VE LITERALLY NEVER ONCE TOLD ME!” Sunset shouted. “YOU NEVER EVEN TOLD ME YOU WERE DATING SOMEONE!”
“Oh.” Was all she got in reply.
“Wait, Trixie is confused.” Trixie spoke up. “So…Twilight Sparkle is dating Twilight Sparkle?”
“It…would seem that way.” Moondancer spoke up. “Though I can’t see much with my glasses destroyed.”
Sunset rubbed her shoulder. “Sorry…I can pay for their replacements.”
Moondancer waved her hand dismissively. “No, I’ll be fine.”
Twilight stepped forward. “I don’t see why this is a big surprise. We both have the same interests, and both would know eachother better than anypony--anyone--else. This was a logical conclusion to come to.”
Sci-Twi chimed in. “And it gives us a wonderful opportunity to study the differences between human and pony anatomy! My research has never been more bountiful. Thank you, my love.” She spoke before giving Twilight another kiss on the cheek.
Starlight fainted.
"Oh my! I should probably head back now…things have gotten a little out of hand…” Twilight said as she pulled away from Sci-Twi and lugged Starlight over her shoulder. She looked over at all the other girls present there and spoke up. “I’m sorry I couldn’t reciprocate your love, but you will always have special places in my heart!” She said before she walked back through the portal.
Moondancer went to follow and walked into the side of the statue and bumped her head. After backing up and readjusting herself, she walked through the portal successfully.
Trixie, however, took off towards the school. “Twilight Sparkle has given Trixie an epiphany! The only one good enough for The Great and Powerful Trixie is The Great and Powerful Trixie! Now then, where could she be hiding?” She shouted as she ran into the school, passing by the dumbstruck Applejack and Rarity.
Sunset just looked around for a moment, looked down at her fist, still coated in Moondancers blood, and then thought about the last fifthteen minutes. “You know what? I’m gonna go to the mall and drown my sorrows in cheap sushi.” She announced before making her way to the mall.
Sci-Twi just kinda awkwardly stood in the courtyard looking around. “Wait, what happened here?” She asked, realizing that something more than her girlfriend talking to her friends had happened.
Applejack walked over and slung an arm around her shoulder. “Why don’t ya have a seat, sugarcube. This’ll be a long one.”