//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: NSL/Anon-A-Miss: Our Past Is Not Today // by cornholio4 //------------------------------// Twilight showed them to the outside of the castle and Sunset and Lincoln were in awe at the place; Lincoln did his best to steady himself as he would have to get used to walking on 4 hooves. "This is amazing... You really live here Princess?" Lincoln asked hardly able to believe that he was in a place like this or such a place would even exist. Twilight nodded and Lincoln then asked "you really are saying that we get to stay here in this castle? I mean getting to stay in this fancy royal castle that has a dragon... I don't think that anything like that would be possible had I stayed on Earth..." "It's no problem about you being welcome at the castle as my guests; there is plenty of room and please just call me Twilight. No need for formalities Lincoln." Twilight answered him and then thought of something. "Should I contact Princess Celestia to let you know that you have returned Sunset... Or are you not ready..." Twilight asked as Sunset became tense at the question and shook her head vigerously as she was not ready for that at all. "Isn't she the ruler of this place and I wanted to ask but why is she a Princess and not a Queen?" Lincoln asked as Twilight just shrugged her shoulders along with Sunset as Lincoln thought of something. "Wait.... Since I am now a pony; does that mean I have to eat grass or hay instead of meat?" Lincoln asked groaning wishing that he had thought of that. "Don't worry Lincoln; Equestria has plenty of sweets and there are meat food available but they are mostly intended for carnivore animals and the griffins and creatures like those." Sunset assured him with a hoove on his shoulder as Sunset used her magic to telekinetically pick up all of their bags. Lincoln looked on in awe as Twilight motioned for them to follow her outside; "I am appointing myself as your magical tutor to help you with basic magic like this since you are now an unicorn." Sunset told him as Lincoln was excited as they were following Twilight and Spike out. They got to the main part of the castle when there was party decorations up and a banner that said WELCOME TO PONYVILLE!!!! with all sorts of ponies there much to Lincoln and Sunset's surprise. Pinkie Pie bounced towards them with Sunset looking tense upong realising who she was with her excitedly saying while bouncing up and down on the spot "you must be Sunset Shimmer the former meanie who had stolen Twilight's crown but turned all good and helped her beat those meanie Sirens! Twilight told me that she had invited you here after things turned soured with her friends and that got me real sad! My Pinkie Sense told me that you arrived and I realised that I had to make this party extra special so I invited lots of ponies so that you can have lots of new friends! I'm Pinkie Pie and were you surprised; were you?" "Luan drinking 5 cups of strong coffee and a hundred bucks worth of sugary sweets could only hope to have the energy of this pony..." Lincoln told his invisible audience as Pinkie was now in his face. "Twilight also said that Sunset's young friend was also invited; I'm Pinkie Pie... What's your name?" Pinkie asked excitedly as Lincoln took a moment to gather himself. "Out of nowhere... Like Lucy only with more in your face..." Lincoln muttered to his audience and then faced her. "Nice to meet you Pinkie... I'm Lincoln Loud..." Lincoln introduced himself. Pinkie had her tail dragged backwards by Twilight. "Remember what I said Pinkie? How I told you all about how it would feel like at first facing you 5...." Twilight glared at Pinkie who took a big realisation face. "I am super sorry Sunset; I will be out of your way and I am super sorry for what other me may have done..." Pinkie told Sunset apologetically and Sunset sighed looking at her. "Thanks; I appreciate it but you don't need to apologise for what you haven’t done... The party is thoughtful but... Just give me time to adjust..." Sunset told her simply with Pinkie nodding sadly apologetically. "I will let you enjoy the party and I will keep my distance but I realised that Lincoln as a young colt should have a chance to meet some new friends his age." Pinkie said showing where there was a group of colts and fillies. Then Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo came over. "This is Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle & Scootaloo or the Cutie Mark Crusaders as they call themselve!" Pinkie explained giving them space to introduce themselves to eachother. The 3 fillies excitedly look to Lincoln and Apple Bloom asked "so nice to meet yah; oh what does your Cutie Mark mean?" "My what?" Lincoln asked confused with the CMC having their eyes widening as if they were asked what was breathing. "The marks near our flanks; it's a special magical mark that a pony gets when they discover their special talent. I think that your's shows about your talent with stage magic." Sunset explained as Lincoln looked towards his. "A mark that shows our special talent... That's dumb..." Lincoln muttered not keen about the idea that he wasn't special compared to his sisters being shown on his rear. The CMC looked as if Lincoln was out of his mind at his statement. "Give Lincoln some space; where he is from they don't have Cutie Marks and he was a different species known as a human." Twilight explained to the 3 with Lincoln going to his bag to take out his phone; but he ended up dropping it and looked frustrated as he tried to use his hooves to pick it up. Spike picked it up for him and Lincoln told him of the passcode to open it as there was a photo of Lincoln there. "That's what humans looked like? Weird hairless monkeys?" Scootaloo asked as Lincoln glared at them. "2 of you are Applejack and Rarity's sisters aren't you? Plus Scootaloo do you hang around Rainbow Dash as well?" Sunset asked remembering with a sigh reminding themselves not to let their counterparts influence her impression on them. "Oh yeah; seen you 3 about or your counterparts..." Lincoln managed to say remembering seeing them while he was sitting at the Sweet Shoppe or going about the streets. Lincoln ended up thinking "Never talked to them but I wonder what the other them are like...." Back in the human world; at the home of Applejack & Apple Bloom there were the local counterparts of Apple Bloom, Sweet Belle & Scootaloo with their heads down as they sat on the sofas in silence. Guilt and bad feelings about their stupid scheme; they really did believe that Sunset changed for the better after the mess with the Dazzlings but their jealous of their sisters (or sister figure in Scootaloo's case) spending so much time with her caused them to cook up this scheme and succeeded in tearing the school apart. The guilt was too much and they went to the 5 and came clean about it and even showed the Anon-A-Miss profile logged in as proof. After an explanation and yelling later; the 5 realised that they had to make the mother of all apologies to Sunset but then they got an alert from MyStable. From Sunset's profile as they had yet to unfriend her. It was a photo of Sunset smiling with that boy that she was seen with; they had before planned to see if they could somehow corner the poor boy that they had thought that Sunset had roped him into her claws so that they could warn him. They had forgotten what her smiling looked like. They saw the caption: Final post before a new beginning. Their eyes widened as they realised what this could mean. The three regretful children were told to stay put as the 5 then ran to the school to see if they could catch Sunset just in time. Said 5 teenagers came back in looked sad with their heads down; "Did you find her?" Sweetie Belle asked as their heads went back up. "We found her alright but we couldn't get close enough before she and that Lincoln kid got through the portal. Spent 5 minutes trying to go through so it's now closed to us for now at least if not forever. Could be that we will never get the chance to say sorry..." Applejack said fighting back tears and the 3 children looked worse than before. "We are sorry Applejack..." Apple Bloom spoke as the teenagers glared at them. "We know that you are sugarcube but some things you can't fix with a sorry; Sunset is now lost to us it seems and there is still everything your posts caused at the school! You know that you are going to admit to everyone and take whatever punishments that you get right?" Applejack told them and the 3 gave no protest. "Not that we don't deserve our fair share of the blame; we let ourselves fall victim to this and didn't let the poor dear plead her case... Why would she ruin her own reputation with such an obvious cover up; we lost a friend thanks to our fault..." Rarity sighed with them not arguing her point. "Along with Twilight; she no doubts knows from that book that Sunset has to communicate with her and if not then she would know when Sunset tells her after getting back to Equestria. You think that she would want anything to do with us now?" Fluttershy brought up and that made them feel worse. "So yeah.... Two bridges burned now..." Rainbow Dash muttered ready to kick something. Lincoln and Sunset ended up enjoying the party with Lincoln looking at the young ponies invited by Pinkie and noticing a shy one by herself; a filly pegasus with a black mane, orange bow and a red star for a Cutie Mark. "Hi... I'm Lincoln Loud and new to Equestria.... What can you tell me about the place?" Lincoln greeted the filly who looked her way. "Equestria is great but I am new to Ponyville myself; haven't yet to make any friends here... I brought some carrot sticks if you want some since Pinkie Pie told me that this party was for you and Sunset..." the filly explained showing her carrot stick bags with Lincoln doing his best to hold one carefully with his hooves together with the filly giggling at it. Lincoln managed to eat it and looked back at Sunset talking to Twilight; Lincoln hoping that his big sister figure can have the courage to go after her crush then turned to the filly. "You're funny Lincoln Loud. I'm Stella." the filly giggled as Lincoln laughed along with her.