Derpy was anxious for what awaited her come nightfall, but there was still a day ahead of her before that would be able to happen.
The room she was in was dark, but the front of it had been made quite bright. Students sat at tables as they watched others perform up front.
“To me the wind falls down onto the ground. Yet not the hope of younger men be found,” said Watermelody as she said the final part of her group’s excerpt.
“Very good,” said the teacher, “Next group!”
Derpy, Watermelody, and Golden Hazel sat down at their table. Derpy had been sweating the entire time, partially due to nervousness; but she was also really heated. Watermelody reached into her bag and grabbed a water-bottle from it and drank. Golden Hazel put her hands behind her head while she smiled smugly. She would’ve put her feet upon the table, but she really didn’t want to get in trouble.
“Ha Ha Ha!” said Watermelody, “I’m glad we didn’t get that one, I’d laugh so hard that I’d never be able to perform it!”
“Ha! A true thespian can keep a straight face thru any performance, be it their own or another’s. They can laugh at that which is not jest as well as they can cry at true tragedy…” said Golden Hazel.
“Dang-ammit, I got her going again,” said Watermelody, talking over Golden Hazel’s speech.
“...Night nor Knight can be misunderstood, lest we make it so! Over fire and thru the snow, they…” said Golden Hazel.
“What so funny about a character wanting to end it all?” said Derpy, who was also ignoring Golden Hazel.
“Ehh, you’re not really getting the context, Derpy,” said Watermelody.
“...One does not! Simply walk into their role, but become it! Though one might imply walk it thou art to play such a beast, my father once told me…” said Golden Hazel.
“If you say so,” said Derpy.
“-mango,” said Golden Hazel, “My father, though a very wise man, was a bit over obsessed with the fruits.”
Watermelody gave her an odd look, but Derpy continued not to pay her any attention.
Derpy sighed.
‘This can’t be over soon enough,’ thought Derpy.
Soon lunchtime arrived for Derpy, She immediately tried to find Sunset Shimmer and converse with her. Unbeknownst to Derpy, Watermelody was following her a silently as she could muster.
THUMP!
Watermelody tripped over a stray bucket that the janitor probably left out or something. She released a long breath and slowly got up.
“Aw knuckle-sandwich,” said Watermelody under her breath.
She had lost sight of Derpy.
Derpy could forgo the lunch line as she had opted to bring a box lunch that day. Derpy scanned all the tables in the cafeteria, looking for any sign of the red and yellow devil: Sunset Shimmer. She spotted her sitting in a surprisingly empty area, to her surprise she could see a pink girl sitting with her.
Derpy approached their table.
“-and that’s why I’m not allowed to go into the pet store anymore!” said the pink girl.
“Why are you telling me this, Pinkie Pie?” said Sunset Shimmer.
“There’s a very important lesson in it for you,” said Pinkie Pie.
“Feh, this may be my fault somehow,” said Sunset Shimmer, grumbling to herself.
“Is this a bad time, Sunset?” said Derpy.
Pinkie’s eyes went wide as something really wide. She gasped in shock.
“Sunset made a friend on her own?!” said Pinkie Pie.
“Not really…” said Sunset Shimmer under her breath, “Go ahead and sit down, Derpy.”
Derpy sat across from Sunset. She set her box down slightly to her right.
“What’s with that box?” said Sunset Shimmer.
“Yeah! That is a really funky looking box,” said Pinkie Pie.
Derpy rubbed the back of her head.
“Heh heh, this is the only container I had,” said Derpy.
It’s dimensions could be described as the width of two cereal boxes put together (the short sides next to each other, not touching face to face), but with the top half cut off.
“You know, when people say to bring ‘a box lunch’ this generally isn’t what they mean,” said Pinkie Pie.
“O… kay,” said Derpy, “Say, what happened to the rest of you guys?”
“What do you mean?” said Pinkie Pie.
Sunset Shimmer chose that point to lie her head down on the table.
“I’ven’t been seeing you, Pinkie, without your friends Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity with you also for a while recently,” said Derpy.
“Oh that, Applejack and Rainbow Dash decided to settle some sort of something and Rarity’s her friend Norman advice for male fashions,” said Pinkie Pie.
“Ah, okay,” said Derpy, “Wait… what about Fluttershy, the eco-girl?”
“I- I’m right here…” said Fluttershy, her voice barely a whisper.
“GAH!” said Derpy, “Oh man, I didn’t notice you there.”
“I’m sorry,” said Fluttershy, Derpy and many others always had to struggle to hear her when she spoke to them.
“Um… you don’t have to be,” said Derpy, “You do know that, right?”
“Oh, sorry,” said Fluttershy, her eyes flew open as she realized what she had just said, ”Oh no, I did it again. I’m so-”
Both Sunset Shimmer and Pinkie Pie shoved their respective hands over Fluttershy’s mouth.
“We don’t want her to get stuck apologizing for being sorry again!” ineffectively whispered Pinkie Pie.
“That was the worst day of my life thus far,” said Sunset Shimmer, “But to be fair, part of that has to do with a cake exploding in my face.”
“I still consider that experiment a success!” said Pinkie Pie.
“Only because I didn’t like the type of cake anyway, Pinkie,” said Sunset Shimmer.
“Well since it exploded, you didn’t have to eat it!” said Pinkie Pie.
“Is she supposed to be turning blue?” said Derpy.
Sunset and Pinkie both snapped their attention to Fluttershy.
“Uh oh,” said Pinkie Pie.
“Oopsss…” said Sunset Shimmer.
As they said that, they took their hands off the very recently blueish Fluttershy.
“I’m sorry,” said Fluttershy after she caught her breath.
“Fluttershy! You don’t have to apologize for almost-” said Pinkie Pie.
“Just let her have this one!” said Sunset Shimmer, a bit panicked.
Fluttershy went back to what she had been doing before Derpy’s arrival: poking her salad and maybe also eating it perhaps.
The other two turned their gazes towards Derpy.
Derpy looked back and forth between them, though they couldn’t really tell what with the eyes and all. She leaned in towards Sunset, one hand cupping her mouth for a whisper and the other resting upon the table so she could balance.
“Um… should I wait to talk to you about the thing?” said Derpy.
Sunset Shimmer pondered a bit, looking at the other two on her side of the table.
“I think these guys are familiar enough with the other world that there won’t be too much of a ruckus or anything, Besides,” said Sunset Shimmer, attention then shifted to Pinkie Pie, “We’re… friends, right?”
Watermelody searched the lunch room for any sign of that cross-eyed girl she knew. She scanned the room like at least three or so times before she found her target, but oh her target she did find.To her surprise, Derpy was also in the company of three other girls. Watermelody slid on up to their table and gathered information in the most reliable of spyly methods.
“What are you guys doing?” said Watermelody right around the time she tripped, catching herself by loudly slamming her hand upon the table.
“Ow, my hand,” said Watermelody.
“To what do we owe the pleasure…” said Sunset Shimmer, realizing that she didn’t actually know Watermelody’s name.
She decided to try to call her by name anyways.
“... Drama Notes?” said Sunset Shimmer.
“That’s not it, but you’re close,” said Watermelody.
“She was?” said Derpy, confused.
“The name’s W to the A to the T, several other letters, Wa- Ter- Mel -O- Dy!” said Watermelody
“That’s seriously your name?” said Sunset Shimmer.
“Oh like what you came up with is any better,” said Watermelody, “As for why I’m here, I’m spying on my good friend, uh…, Derpy!”
“Wow! You’re the worst spy ever!” said Pinkie Pie.
“Thanks, my mother always said that I was naturally gifted that way,” said Watermelody, “Or was it that she was naturally gifted that I was that way…?”
“You’re welcome,” said Pinkie Pie.
“I- I’m not sure that’s really the correct time to say that…” said Fluttershy, whispering more or less to herself.
Derpy’s head jumped up then abruptly swooshed over to face Watermelody, doing her best to show her attention was now on her.
“Wait, why would you want to spy on me?” said Derpy.
“Heh, everyone knows that you’ve been hanging around a suspicious individual,” said Watermelody, “I want to know why!”
Derpy looked at Sunset Shimmer in a gesture searching for help. Sunset mouthed ‘She’s not in the know.’ to her, but Derpy couldn’t read lips so that didn’t really amount to much. Still, Derpy did keep mum on the ‘two worlds, one mind’ situation she was in when near Watermelody out of her own fear that something vaguely bad could happen.
“So what are you going to tell us, Sunset?” said Pinkie Pie.
Sunset looked up and slightly glared at Watermelody.
“I don’t feel comfortable talking about it with her around,” said Sunset Shimmer, who pointed at Watermelody with her head as she said the word ‘her’.
“Did you wet yourself?,” said Pinkie Pie, “Hey Everyone! Sunset’s emb- mmmblfmmf!”
“No, don’t you ever dare insinuate that ever again,” said Sunset Shimmer, who had quickly shoved her hand over Pinkie’s talk hole.
“You should really put your metaphorical filter on a bit more often, Pinkie,” said Fluttershy.
“Okay!” said Pinkie Pie, Sunset’s hand removed from her due to leaning her head back a bit, “As soon as I find out what that means.”
“So! Y’all’re keeping secrets, huh?” said Watermelody, “Secrets so secret that not even all of the secret keepers are in on the secret.”
“Sure seems that way to me,” said Pinkie Pie with a bit of a shrug.
Sunset paused and looked at Watermelody for a bit. Eventually she sighed and relented. She put her hands out, fingers spread like claws and hands brought close to her shoulders though not in a way that looked particularly malicious.
“Listen,” said Sunset Shimmer, “When we go over what’s been happening with Derpy and me, I don’t want you making noise. Come to think of it, Fluttershy, please cover Pinkie Pie’s mouth for the remainder of this conversation.”
Fluttershy was reluctant, but she did in fact do what Sunset asked of her.
“Derpy?” said Sunset Shimmer, attempting to get Derpy to explain things as she was pretty central to what was going on.
Princess Twilight Sparkle was studying Derpy as she slept. Twilight knew that the mare showed no signs of any abnormality that could be detected by any of the machines currently at her disposal, but she had a strong gut feeling that if given some substance to measure; the mare would appear quite different when compared to the average amount.
Unfortunately, Twilight did not know of any way she could make a new device to detect an unknown factor. So most of what she did regarding her problem amounted to, well, poking Derpy a whole lot. It was lucky for them that Derpy was such a deep sleeper, because if Twilight had agitated near anypony else like she was Derpy, it would have come off as quite rude.
Twilight was repeatedly hooking Derpy up to machines and hoping that what showed up as ‘normal’ before would change to be ‘abnormal’. She also experimented with using two or more measuring devices at once, this often required her to relocate Derpy’s slumbering body.
Twilight Sparkle had been very eager the night she was supposed to attempt waking Derpy up on her side at the same time as Sunset would try to on her side. It was an attempt to get both bodies to awaken simultaneously.
Princess Twilight Sparkle was really hoping, really hoping, that it would be a success.
Derpy cleared her throat.
“So,” said Derpy, “you remember Twilight Sparkle, right?”
“Sure,” said Watermelody, “Probably... Who?”
“The girl who won the last ‘Fall Formal’,” said Sunset Shimmer, “And do you remember when she grew wings?”
Watermelody brought her hand up to her chin and tapped her index finger a bit.
“Yeah!” said Watermelody, “Boy, that was weird.”
“It turns out Twilight was an alien pony princess from another universe who came here to retrieve a crown that was actually a super important mystical artifact that’s part of one of her realm’s greatest defenses from Sunny over here who stole it because she was jealous and wanted to take over Twilight’s planet, which Sunny is also actually from, by brainwashing a roomful of teenagers in a ploy allegedly designed to install her as the new head princess of Equestria, but Twilight was able to thwart her plans with the help of your’s truly; her friends; and the fact that the crown was loyal to its owner and not its bearer, in the end Princess Twilight Sparkle returned home while Sunny stayed here to learn about friendship and recently she’s made friends with Derpy there all by herself!” said Pinkie Pie in one breath, squeezing Sunset’s cheek when she mentioned Derpy.
Fluttershy had failed to really cover Pinkie’s pie hole.
“Don’t call me ‘Sunny’,” said Sunset Shimmer, giving her high-powered death glare to Pinkie Pie and saying the words in a way that made it clear to her that that wasn’t the only thing she didn’t like about what Pinkie said.
Well, clear if it hadn’t been for her being Pinkie Pie.
“That’s not really the point anyway,” said Sunset Shimmer as she forced Pinkie’s hand off of her face, “Please continue, Derpy.”
“Ahem, I live in two worlds,” said Derpy.
“Wow, so do you have; like; a spaceship or; like; a magic portal?” said Watermelody.
“No, do you remember when I told you that I wasn’t sure you existed?” said Derpy.
“What? You what? I don’t remember anything like that, and frankly I’m insulted that you doubt I exist,” said Watermelody.
“You’re missing the point,” said Derpy, “Besides, I’m pretty sure you exist, now,” said Derpy.
“As you should,” said Watermelody.
“I remember that you told me that what I was talking about didn’t matter,” said Derpy.
“That does kind of sound like me,” said Watermelody.
“... You told me that reality’s just more real, but this place isn’t any more real than the other place. I literally have two bodies, when one is asleep the other’s awake. Recently, with some help from Sunset, I’ve been able to make this body wake up or fall asleep. With Twilight’s help I was able to make the other body wake up, though not fall asleep.
Tonight we plan on trying to wake both bodies up at the same time,” said Derpy.
“Oh, well that’s boring,” said Watermelody.
“What? But it i-” said Pinkie Pie.
“What?! But we’re making contact with an alien species!” said Atom, who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere.
Everyone but Sunset Shimmer jumped in shock at his appearance.
“You know, you’re sort of making contact with an alien whenever you talk to me, right?” said Sunset Shimmer.
“This is different though, these people aren’t displaced from their home,” said Atom.
“Yeah…” said Sunset Shimmer, who looked down and off to the side at that point.
“What’s with Tape Glasses over here?” said Watermelody.
“Actually, I’m Atomic Adam. Tape Glasses is the guy over there playing chess with one of the athletes,” said Atom.
“What’s with Atomic over here?” said Watermelody
“He helps Sunset run the machinery that she doesn’t fully understand,” said Derpy.
“Ah,” said Watermelody.
“We’re straying off topic, why are saying this is something boring?” said Atom.
“It doesn’t really help ME see another planet or alien location, now does it?” said Watermelody.
“Actually, a portal is the ultimate goal of our little project is to make a constant portal between this world and the other,” said Sunset Shimmer.
“Cool! When does that happen?” said Watermelody.
“By our estimations, it won’t happen until the time of ‘not very soon from now’,” said Sunset Shimmer.
Watermelody smiled a bit smugly to herself.
“Be sure to tell me first when you finish that kickin’ intradimensional portal,” said Watermelody.
“She’ll tell you second,” said Atom.
Sunset Shimmer cleared her throat to bring attention to herself.
“Now that we’re done aggravating one another, let’s listen to what Derpy has to say,” said Sunset Shimmer.
“I kind of already said it,” said Derpy.
“Really? I wasn’t really paying attention, but you didn’t really say much,” said Sunset Shimmer.
“Not much to say, I guess,” said Derpy.
“Wait!” said Pinkie Pie, “You mean you’re going to make a portal to Twilight’s world that’s open at all times?”
“That’s what we ultimately hope to accomplish,” said Sunset Shimmer.
“Oh that makes me so happy, I could just hug your face!” said Pinkie Pie.
She made a valiant attempt, but she ended up hugging Sunset’s entire head rather than just her face.
“Mrmph,” said Sunset Shimmer, wearing a disgruntled face unseen by all.
‘The night can’t come soon enough,’ thought Derpy.
Soon enough, the night came. Derpy was told to tell Twilight Sparkle ready herself. It was decided that when Pony Derpy fell asleep, they would wait just a little bit. Then both sides would try to play the ‘wake-up’ noise simultaneously. Princess Twilight Sparkle played the noise at 6:35 a.m. while Sunset Shimmer played the noise at 9:32 p.m., for it seemed like the two worlds might not have been totally synced up timewise. From what they could tell, Derpy’s other body didn’t seem to immediately wake up when the waking body fell asleep.
After both sides had played to her, Derpy’s bodies both woke up.
“Did it work?” said Princess Twilight Sparkle to Derpy’s pony body.
“So, was the experiment successful?” said Sunset Shimmer to Derpy’s human body.
Both bodies screamed in agony.