//------------------------------//
// The Party 
// Story: My Little Pony Equestria Girls 3: Twilight Vs Twilight 
// by Hopeful Soul 
//------------------------------//

	
Chapter 4


Later that evening, Human Twilight was currently investigating the area where the Rainboom’s battled the Dazzlings during the battle of the bands looking for anything that might have caused the strange lights and the alicorn shaped anomaly in the sky but so far she couldn’t find anything.
“There’s gotta be something informative around here.” The other Twilight muttered as she wiped the floor of the stage with a special cloth. “I’ve already checked the basement and the back of this place. Still no sign of any special technology that could have been used to create those strange and non-magical events anywhere… but I’ll find it. I have to.”
She then paused with wide-eyes and her face fell. “And I suppose I’ll just keep talking to myself out here because that makes sense,” she commented, deadpan.
Just then something odd caught her eye. Something red and sparkling. She then moved closer toward and soon found herself looking down at a piece of a broken red gemstone near the front of the stage. She picked it up.
“What’s this thing?” Human Twilight wondered, as she inspected the broken piece of the red pendent. She narrowed her eyes at it, unable to determined what it was. “This calls for further analysis. To the lab!”
Twilight then began running off before suddenly tripping again.
“I’m ok!” she called out to no one in particular before finally getting back up and leaving again with the gem. Little did she know that it once belonged to a certain group, a group called… The Dazzlings.



Later, Twilight arrived back in her lab with the pendant and began to get to work on learning more about it, regardless of the potential consequences. Puppy Spike watched as she ran back and forth, bring in some more supplies to inspect the strange object and he looked worried for some reason. Eventually, Twilight’s human self had several machines, magnifying glasses and other high-tech devices surrounding it while she herself sat in front of it with two little picks in her hands, ready to try and crack it up more.
“Alright… time to find out what makes you tic.” Human Twilight said as she prepared to experiment on the pendent fragment. Spike whined with worry and barked a bit, she turned to him. “Don’t worry Spike, I know what I’m doing.”
Spike continued to bark at her, which annoyed Twilight greatly.
“Spike! Knock it off! I am being careful!” she insisted. “Now get! And leave your master to her work, please.”
Spike whimpered and walked away sadly, leaving Twilight to try and inspect the fragment again.
“And… now,” she said before finally tapping the piece and causing it to crack up.
The instant she cracked the pendent even more dark energies were suddenly released from it, creating harsh winds that blew away everything and caused several the machines to spark and break down and spark. Twilight screamed while Spike yelped and hid under something, shaking like a leaf.
As the dark energies continued to swirl out uncontrollably the overload of negative energy hit the human version of Twilight right in the chest and surged through her body, causing her to shriek as it practically electrocuted body, shattered her glasses and unraveled her hair as well as ripped apart most of her clothing. It was enough power to kill a person, but the dark magical energy from Equestria did more to Twilight. It slowly began to change the color of her skin, hair and eyes and when that did was done all the machines exploded immediately, releasing a shower of sparks while Twilight’s body dropped to the ground, now encased in a giant black cocoon. Puppy Spike, overwhelmed by this immediately fainted dead away.



The next day, back at Canterlot High Sunset Shimmer was currently sitting on the bleachers near the soccer field and appeared to be trying to write something down in her notebook. She scribbled and scribbled but eventually growls in frustration, crumbles up the paper and tossed it into an overflowing pile located inside the garbage can below. She sighed.
“No… that’s not gonna work…” Sunset Shimmer muttered to herself before her friends showed up.
“Hey, Sunset Shimmer! Whatcha doing?” Pinkie Pie asked, curiously.
“Trying to come up with my valedictorian speech but… it’s proving to be harder than I thought…” Sunset Shimmer admitted.
“Ooh, wordy!” Pinkie Pie said, as she looked it over.
“Hold on, you got nominated for valedictorian and you didn’t tell us?” Applejack asked her, surprising.
“Darling, we’re your friends, why didn’t you tell us?” Rarity added.
“I was going to, honest! It’s just… I’ve had a lot on my mind lately and… I wanted it to be a surprise.” Sunset shrugged. “And admittedly I was pretty surprised myself… I never thought Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna would choose me to represent the school… after everything I did…”
“What you did last time was heroic, sugarcube.” Applejack told her as they walked up to joined.
“Yeah, you totally whooped the Dazzlings butts!” Rainbow Dash added.
“She’s right, he couldn’t have done it without you.” Fluttershy smiled.
“Plus you battled your own personal demons… and won!” Pinkie Pie cheered.
“But why does it feel like I’m still fighting?” Sunset Shimmer wondered,
“That’s your guilt talking.” Applejack told her.
“Aw, don’t tell me your still beating yourself up over that, the Fall Formal’s old news!” Rainbow reasoned.
“Yeah, kind of like his punching bag with your face on it.” Pinkie Pie said, holding up an old and broken looking punching bag with a crude drawing of Sunset’s face on it. Sand was also leaking out of it. Sunset cringed looking at it. “Don’t worry, it was in trash so I guess someone finally got over it.”
“Yeah… hopefully…” Sunset Shimmer said, slowly like she didn’t believe it all.
“How long have you been trying to come up with a speech anyway?” Applejack inquired.
“Since I got here.” Sunset Shimmer shrugged. “Which was… two hours ago.”
“Two hours?” Fluttershy gasped.
“Don’t believe me? Look at the trash.” The fiery haired girl said, gesturing to the overflowing bin nearby. Everybody winced when they see it, and then noticed a fluffy cat walk up to a rolled up piece of paper and play with it. “Great… now it’s attracting wildlife.”
“Aw, how cute…” Fluttershy gushed. The others glanced at her.
Sunset sighed. “Now I know how Twilight felt trying to come up with that musical counter spell… like her I only have one shot at this and it has to be perfect,” she said. “Do any of you have any ideas?” 
The others then began to think, mumble and groan as they tried to think of something.
“Nope!” Pinkie responded.
“You know I don’t see what your stressing about, you could totally use my graduation speech if I was named valedictorian.” Rainbow Dash told Sunset Shimmer before doing a peace sign, “Later losers.”
They all just stared at her, blankly.
“Its… not that simple Rainbow Dash…” Sunset Shimmer told her.
“Meaning what?” Rainbow asked, plainly.
“Meaning that she has to come up with an inspiring speech for all of us, it can’t just be a simple ‘goodbye’, it’s graduation for crying out loud!” Applejack stated.
“Just trying to help.” Rainbow Dash shrugged.
“By the way, what happened with the other Twilight, yesterday? Everything go smoothly?” Applejack asked, curiously.
“Not exactly…” Sunset said, slowly and sadly.
“Why? What happened?” Rainbow Dash asked, confused.
“Well… let’s just say she’s a lot harder to reach then I thought…” Sunset mused.
“Really?” Fluttershy asked, surprised.
“Yeah… all she wants is to be noticed, and she’ll do anything to make sure that happens.” Sunset Shimmer expressed, depressed.
“Aw, how lonely she must be…” Fluttershy expressed.
“Hold on, doesn’t she realize that she can solve all her problems by making a few friends?” Rarity questioned, a bit confused.
“I tried befriending her… but apparently she feels the same way about friendship as I once did… she thinks it’s a distraction… nothing…” Sunset Shimmer said, depressed.
“WHAT!?” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, shocked.
“Ok, she’s definitely not the Twilight we know.” Rainbow concluded.
“Ya think?” Applejack remarked, deadpan.
“I thought I could make her see how important friendship is like Princess Twilight did for me… but I guess I failed on all counts.” Sunset Shimmer said, depressed.
“I counted one time… just now.” Pinkie Pie said. Everyone then glared at her, annoyed. “What?”
“Meanwhile I still can’t come up with a speech for graduation.” Sunset Shimmer said, exhausted.
“Girl, what you need is a little R&R.” Rainbow Dash stated.
“R&R?” Sunset Shimmer repeated, surprised.
“Yeah, some time away from that speech of yours might just be what you need.” Applejack agreed.
“I concur.” Rarity nodded.
“I don’t know…” Sunset said.
“Come on, you’ve been at it all day and graduation isn’t for a couple of days, you’ve earned a little break.” Rainbow told her.
“Dash is right, in case we could all use a break from the whole idea of graduation and all.” Applejack added.
“Looks like this calls for…” Rarity began, waiting for Pinkie.
“PRE-GRADUATION PARTY!” Pinkie Pie then screamed.
“Precisely!” Rarity nodded, pleased.
“A party?” Sunset asked, surprised. “Really?”
“Yep! And your all invited! Including everyone else that’s graduating this year!” Pinkie smiled.
“Come on Sunset, what do you say?” Applejack asked her. “There’ll be lots of cute boys there.”
Sunset Shimmer smiled and chuckled a bit as she closed her book. “Well… I guess I could use a break… truthfully… my head has been a little full lately.”
“That’s the spirit!” Rainbow Dash said.
“Yay…” Fluttershy cheered, quietly.
“Great! I’ll see you all there! I got lots of party planning to do!” Pinkie said before zipping off, almost cartoonishly.
“How does she even do that?” Sunset Shimmer asked them, baffled.
“If you figure out, let us know.” Rainbow Dash told her.
“Well, we’d better get a move on or we won’t hear the end of it.” Applejack advised them, as she got up, along with the others, though as they were getting off the bleachers Rainbow almost dropped a pair of strange keys which Sunset quickly caught.
“Hey, Rainbow, you dropped your keys.” Sunset said, casually holding them up.
“Oh cool, the keys to my dungeon! Almost lost them!” Rainbow Dash said, pleased as she took the strange keys.
“You have a dungeon?” Sunset asked, surprised. “I thought those were house keys.”
“What? What have you heard?” The Athlete asked, quickly.
The former bully paused before speaking. “I don’t even want to know…” she said, shaking her head and walking forward, along with the others, though Applejack still looked disturbed to her Rainbow had her own dungeon.
“Uh…” she began, before shrugging and agreeing with Sunset. “Good point.”
She then began to follow the others as they left the field together.



Later, back at Pinkie’s house, by the time it was night, people were already beginning to pour into the establishment and marvel at all the marvelous decorations that were set up, including streamers hanging from the ceilings and walls, lots of blue and yellow balloons, a shiny disco ball overhead and lots of tasty looking snacks.
Once everyone was inside, Vinyl started record scratching and playing her loud rock music, as they guests each grabbed their pony ears and tails and started to enjoying the party. Pinkie’s sister Maud was also present for the party, though she was mainly feeding her pet rock Boulder, looking bored as usual. 
The host of the party meanwhile, was currently chugging down a large bottle of soda when she finished she smiled and then let out an earth-shaking burp that blew back everyone’s hair, shakes the fur off a pair of stray cats outside and blasted the door open. After a moment of stunned silence the crowd then cheered loudly. She blushed, smiling.
“Excuse me!” Pinkie Pie said, politely while Fluttershy and Applejack approached her.
“Great party, Pinkie!” Fluttershy smiled.
“Yeah, you sure know how to throw a good one, pink!” The farm girl agreed.
“Thanks, I do my best.” Pinkie Pie said, proudly while Rainbow walked past her while doing the ‘walk like an Egyptian dance’.
“Hey, has anyone seen Sunset Shimmer?” she asked. Everyone just shrugged. Then Rarity popped into view.
“I think saw her standing in front of the snack bar.” Rarity said, gesturing to Sunset just standing there and watching everyone dance while drinking her fruit punch looking shy.
“What’s she doing?” Applejack wondered.
“Looks like she’s too afraid to dance and has been sidelined.” Rarity observed.
“Well that’s no fun!” Pinkie huffed, childishly. She then began to dance her way toward her. “I’m gonna go liven her up!” 
The others all watched her go with bizarre looks on their faces, along with everybody else.
“Should we… stop her?” Rainbow Dash asked them, unsure.
“Nah, I’m interested to see if she can do it.” Applejack smiled.
“It is Pinkie Pie.” Fluttershy pointed out.
“So, it’s a safe bet that she can.” Rarity finished.
“Yeah… good point.” Rainbow admitted as she took a drink from somebody and drank it.
“Now… about that dungeon.” Applejack said, looking at Rainbow who had a nervous look on her face.
While Applejack confronted Rainbow, Sunset continued to observe and watch everyone have a good time until Pinkie Pie unexpectedly popped up near her, surprising her greatly.
“Hey, Sunset Shimmer! What do you doing standing around here? Shake that thing!” Pinkie Pie encouraged as she began to do a kooky little dance in front of her.
“Oh… I don’t know… I don’t really dance…” Sunset Shimmer admitted.
“Aw, come on! I’ll bet your good at it!” Pinkie encouraged. “Well, better than Twilight anyway. Did you see her dance at the Fall Formal? Yikes!”
“Well, yeah but…” Sunset Shimmer began.
“Come on, Sunset, you’ll never get any tail unless you shake yours first!” Pinkie said in a sing-song voice.
“Pinkie I…” Sunset started to say before the music changed.
“Ooh! This is my jam!” Pinkie said, before rushing off to the dance floor and beginning to dance and practically bump anyone in her way. “Come on, Sunset! Party!”
Not wanting to disappoint her friend, Sunset made her way over to the center of the dance floor. As Sunset started letting herself loose to the beat she started to slowly dance along, then before long she quickly became part of the rapidly dancing crowd.
“That’s it, Sunset! Shake it!” Pinkie cheered while jiggling around.
And so Sunset then began to do some very skilled dance moves and easily flowed to the beat. As this was happening she quickly found herself beginning to have fun and forget all about her problems, including the other Twilight.



Around the same time, back in the human Twilight’s lab, Puppy Spike was finally beginning to come out of his hiding spot and checked to see if his owner was still in the black cocoon, and sure enough she was. But then, the whole thing began to shake, startling the pup. It shook and shook even more, as whatever was now inside it struggled to get out, and the dog version of Spike slowly backed away again as glowing green cracks started to appear all over it.
Eventually a hand suddenly broke right through the cocoon, followed by the body of an unknown figure that was seemingly Twilight due to her having her voice, but also had a now slightly inhuman looking appearance that was still covered by shadows. 
The figure glanced at her hand and panted while she began to stumble forward, causing more of the tech in the room to explode and spark a little while Puppy Spike returned to his hiding place.
The being that seemed to be the other Twilight then picked up some, heavy dark clothing off the ground, including a dark brown hoodie and quickly put them on, replacing the torn clothing she was previously wearing. She struggled to keep herself from falling over as she stumbled into the side of the wall and then pushed herself off as she then began to go out the door, with Puppy Spike whining a bit as he helplessly watched her go.



At the same time, the pre-graduation party was still raging on. The music was blasting, people were talking and everyone was still having a good time. Sunset made her way through the crowd, smiling until she ended up bumping into someone, which caused her to nearly drop her drink until the stranger caught it at the last second.
“Sorry, here you go,” he said as he handed it to her. Sunset looked at him and was surprised to see that it was Flash Sentry, her ex-boyfriend and he looked surprised as well, probably more so.
“Oh! Hey, Flash!” Sunset said, smiling and waving nervously,
“Sunset Shimmer! Hey! Uh… long time no see, huh?” Flash shrugged.
“Yeah… it’s been a while…” Shimmer said, glancing away, blushing. There was a long period of awkward silence between the two before Sunset finally spoke. “So… how you been? You still miss Twilight?”
“Yeah…” Flash nodded. “Have you heard from her?”
“You could say that, yeah.” Sunset Shimmer nodded.
“Great! She doing ok?” Flash asked, interested. “She still upset with me for saying all those mean things to her at the Battle of the Bands?”
“I don’t think so… she’s not the kind of person who holds a grudge.” Sunset Shimmer assured him, comfortingly.
“Oh, that’s good to know…” Flash said, relieved.
There was another period of awkward silence between the two as they glanced away and shuffled their feet a bit before Sunset Shimmer finally spoke again.
“Well… it was nice talking to you again, Flash.” Sunset smiled.
“Uh… yeah, it was nice.” Flash admitted. “See ya around.”
“Guess you will.” Sunset Shimmer nodded before she turned and walked away.
She took one more glanced towards Flash as he talked to his bandmates and blushed a bit before Rarity suddenly appeared in front of her with an eager face, startling Sunset Shimmer greatly.
“Oh my gosh, darling! We’re you just speaking to Flash Sentry just now!?” Rarity exclaimed, sounding excited.
“Uh… maybe.” Sunset Shimmer blushed.
“Ooh! This is so exciting! Is this the first time you’ve talked since you broke up?” Rarity asked, interested. “Come on, tell me, tell me!”
“Well… I guess so… it’s was kind of awkward… considering we broke up a long time ago and haven’t talked since… but otherwise… not so bad.” Sunset admitted with a smile and a shrug.
“Does he still miss Twilight?” Rarity wondered.
“Yeah… and you know I think Twilight would be a great girl for him… I just wish she was here.” Sunset Shimmer admitted.
“We all do, darling.” Rarity assured her as she put a hand on her shoulder, which comforted her. “But don’t worry, I’m sure she’ll be back sooner than we expect.”
Sunset Shimmer smiled, comforted by her words. “Yeah, you’re probably right, I just hope it is soon…” she said, gazing out toward the starry sky, thoughtfully.



Meanwhile, while the party raged on, the now hooded human version of Twilight stumbled out of an alleyway, her face still hidden. She panted heavily as he wandered over to a lamppost and grabbed onto it to maintain her balance. As she touched it, dark purple energy began to travel up the pole, then the light from the post began to turn on and off over and over again until it exploded, after which she finally let go and resumed walking down the empty street by herself like a zombie. As she walked, the lights from all the parked cars began to flash, glass cracked and shattered instantaneously and several street dogs retreated into the dark alleys, whimpering in fear as she passed by. 
She then stumbled into the middle of the road, glanced up and noticed bright lights, as well as a large group of people half a mile away from her. She heard them laughing, cheering, talking and pretty much enjoying life without her. The positive energy they were all giving off seemed to make her angry as she clenched her now glowing fists tightly and began to waddle towards the area, where Twilight may shift from a nobody and into… something else entirely.