Princess Twilight Sparkle sat in front of Derpy as she listened to what Sunset Shimmer had said.
“That would involve her being able to wake you up too though,” said Twilight.
“Maybe if the glass-breaker sound works I can try to tell her to look for sounds that break glass?” said Derpy.
“That could work, I guess,” said Twilight, “but I still have to actually test the spell.”
Sunset Shimmer paced around an empty room late at night. She thought of what needed to be done. She thought about the rare opportunity presented to her. She thought of home.
“If I need to wake her up, I should invest in smelling salts,” said Sunset Shimmer, “and some sleeping pills to put her to sleep.”
Sunset paused, realizing what she had just said.
“I mean make her fall asleep,” said Sunset, satisfied that she wasn’t trying to do harm, “If I need to.”
Another day had started in the world of humans. Derpy had decided to search for Sunset Shimmer, but as it was a weekend that mostly amounted to fruitless searching around town. She had checked the coffee and sweets shop, and asked Pinkie Pie if she had seen her. She hadn’t. She walked to the local pawn shop, but all that happened there was her somehow exiting with a weird contraption that looked like some kind of salad bowl with wires hanging off of it.
‘Why did I buy this?’ thought Derpy.
Derpy thought she saw a lead when she spotted Sunset’s cronies Snips and Snails. The two of them were rummaging thru a garbage can for some reason.
“Hey… you two!” said Derpy.
Snips and Snails turned their heads to face Derpy.
“Do you guys know where Sunset is right now?” said Derpy, “You work for her, I think.”
Snips’s eyes diverged and he spaced out as he looked into Derpy’s crosseyed gaze. Derpy wore an expression of annoyance. Snips then shook his head and returned to his usual state.
“Ahem,” said Derpy, “Again, whe-”
“What’s wrong with your face?” said Snips.
“What?” said Derpy, shocked. Generally people avoid mentioning her condition.
“Is it hard to see with your eyes like that?” said Snails.
“Yeah! Is it?” said Snips.
“Er… I gue- that’s not important right now, do you two know where Sunset is?” said Derpy.
“No,” said Snips.
“She just told us to find all the soda cans we can, so we are!” said Snails.
“Why?” said Derpy.
Snips and Snails stopped their rummaging and looked at each other. They turned to Derpy and Shrugged.
“Uh, thanks anyway… I think,” said Derpy right before she left them to do what they were doing.
‘What does Sunset need with soda cans?’ thought Derpy.
“What do you mean you don’t carry smelling salts?” said Sunset angrily to a cashier.
Sunset was in a Drugstore. The building was small and there was little room to walk around in. Every wall was covered with full shelves displaying product.
“It’s just something we’ve never stocked, you have to order from a specialty store if you want to get any o’ that stuff ‘round here,” said the cashier.
“Ugh!” said Suset right before she exited the store.
Sunset took a moment to stretch before walking home and coming up with a different way to get smelling salts. She stretched her arms outwards, hands balled into fists, and raised her arms to the sky.
“Ouch!” said someone who was hit in the jaw by this action.
‘Mom said to buy some aspirin,’ thought Derpy. Since she was going out already her mom had asked her to buy some and gave her some money for it, ‘I hope I have enough left over after buying that electric salad bowl thing.’
Derpy made her way to the drugstore and was very surprised when she was struck in the jaw right outside of it.
“Ouch!” said Derpy.
“Derpy?” said Sunset Shimmer.
“Yeah, that’s me, don’t wear it out,” said Derpy.
“I… don’t think that’s quite how that saying goes,” said Sunset Shimmer.
“Sorry, my brain’s a little rattled,” said Derpy.
Sunset brought a hand up to her face.
“Oh right, um, sorry?” said Sunset Shimmer, “That’s what I’m supposed to say, right?”
Derpy rubbed her jaw and tried to roll it back into place even though nothing was really out of place.
“Er, yeah,” said Derpy, she then remembered what Snips and Snails had been doing, “Hey, by the way. What do you need soda cans for?”
“I need metal to build a rudimentary device to monitor your brain when you sleep,” said Sunset Shimmer, “Any will do, I told them to get soda cans because those idiots work better with something to focus on. That and they’re a bit easier to reshape. I also need a way to attach it to your head. Originally I was just going to use an old salad bowl and some jumper cables, but that thing will do nicely.”
Sunset was pointing to the contraption Derpy had been swindled into buying from the pawn shop. Derpy suddenly realized that it looked an awful lot like the helmet part of Twilight’s machine.
“Uh, okay,” said Derpy.
“Great, we’ll meet at your house tonight and the next night,” said Sunset, “Tonight to set up the machine there and tomorrow night to ensure we get data.”
“Why can’t we meet at your place?” said Derpy.
Sunset became silent, she looked over to the street and sighed. She turned back to face Derpy.
“Trust me,” said Sunset Shimmer, “your place is better for this.”
And with that, Sunset walked away. Derpy stood there silent for a moment.
‘Guess I’d better go buy that aspirin now,’ thought Derpy, ‘Wait… does she even know where my house is?’
Derpy looked around saw no sign of Sunset Shimmer.
‘Oh well,’ thought Derpy, ‘Great, and now I really do have to take this thing home,’ referring to the item bought from the pawn shop.