CRAAACCKK!!!
The sound that a Sunset Shimmer makes when she tries to punch herself - and misses, Twilight Sparkle thought numbly to herself.
The second Sunset had dodged out of the way just in time. But now there was a jagged-edged hole in the wall, through which Twilight could see a college dormitory room - which was (thankfully) unoccupied at the moment. The Sunset that Twilight had known for over four years growled, pulling her arm out of the wall, as the new Sunset turned towards her again, spreading her arms in a placating gesture.
"Relax. No one's trying to hurt you", said the second, healthy Sunset Shimmer. The original one glared at her again.
"Oh? And how am I supposed to trust any word that comes out of your mouth?" she asked sardonically. "You are the one who destroyed my LIFE!!!" She swung again, her enhanced prosthetic arm coming in at a blindingly fast speed.
THUNK!!!
One of the girls that had been standing behind the second Sunset Shimmer had leaped and brought down the first Sunset in a flying tackle. She had a head of rainbow-streaked hair, Twilight noted, her mind still partially paralysed by the unexpected appearance of a second Sunset Shimmer. How was such a thing even possible?...
Her thoughts were interrupted by another girl, this one with straight pink hair and yellow skin. "Uh...Rainbow Dash?"
"What? Can't you see that I'm-AAGGHHH!!!" The old Sunset Shimmer had grabbed Rainbow Dash's arm and twisted it in the wrong direction. Now, as Rainbow hunched over in pain, she kneed her in the neck, pushed her aside and rose to her feet once more.
"Well, it looks like Rainbow needs my assistance", a different girl, this one with blond hair and wearing a cowboy hat, drawled with a southern accent. She then proceeded to first unleash a roundhouse kick into the first Sunset's midriff, which knocked her down again, and then proceeded to jump on top of Sunset. They rolled away, wrestling each other.
"But what does she mean when she says that you destroyed her life, darling?" the fourth girl stated. This one had purple hair and white skin, and appeared to be the fashionable one of the group, Twilight noted. Her mind was starting to recover from the initial shock of finding another Sunset Shimmer, allowing her to think clearly.
The second Sunset looked somewhat uncomfortable. "Well, I-" she began, only to be interupted by the last girl, who was a walking advertisment for the color pink.
"Back when you were still evil and had just arrived from Equestria, you found out about her, and you decided to get rid of her, because you didn't want anyone seeing two of you walking around, which might have caused people to start asking questions that you couldn't answer, so you caused her and her parents to get into a car crash, in an attempt to forstall the problem permenantly!!" she stated very rapidly.
The new Sunset Shimmer gaped at her. "How did you know all that?" she asked.
The pink girl shrugged. "Just a thought."
And Twilight Sparkle was now in a state of shock once again.
The old Sunset grabbed the blond girl's left leg, and executed a sudden throw. She flew smack into the wall beside Twilight, and lay there, out cold. Twilight stared at the girl, wondering, How did my life turn into such a madhouse?
The girl of pink gasped. "You just hurt two of my best friends!" She began to glower at the original Sunset Shimmer, who had just finished brushing herself off and had fallen into her "combat-ready" pose. "And nobody does that! NOBODY!!!" She moved swiftly.
"Pinkie Pie!!" The cry came from the second Sunset, but it was too late - for the wrath of Pinkie had been unleashed.
She dodged the arms of the first Sunset, headbutted her in the stomach, and then, as Sunset gasped in surprise and pain, Pinkie brought her right leg behind Sunset's legs in a knife-like motion, dropping her to the floor. Then, she straddled the first Sunset's body and grabbed her around the throat. As Twilight looked on, the girl with the yellow skin spoke up.
"Ah, Pinkie? I think that there's been enough fighting for today, don't you?"
Pinkie looked at the healthy Sunset. "Do you think that there's been enough punishment? Or do I need to bring out the cupcakes?"
The second Sunset Shimmer hesitated for a moment. "Let her go, Pinkie Pie."
Pinkie Pie released her hold on the original Sunset's throat and rolled off her. She came up in a crouched position, in case Sunset wanted to resume the issue.
But the first Sunset Shimmer didn't. Instead, she stared at the second Sunset, her face full of surprise. After a moment, she spoke.
"You spared me? Again?" she said, somewhat incredulously. Then her face darkened with anger. "Oh, wait, let me guess. You've spared me just so that I can suffer some more?!"
The new Sunset looked back at her, and Twilight could see pain etched into that gaze. Pain that spoke of mistrust, suspicion, and an inability for some to forget - and forgive.
How can I get such clear impressions from a person I've barely even met? Twilight Sparkle wondered. She didn't know if there was an answer.
"I've changed. I'm not the person I used to be", the healthy Sunset stated. She looked at the other Sunset, her eyes pleading to be believed.
The first Sunset laughed, her voice filled with dark humor. "And I'm supposed to just take your word on that?"
The girl with the purple hair spoke. "It's not just her word. It's also mine."
"And mine", Pinkie Pie chimed in.
"I vouch for her as well", the girl with the yellow skin said quietly.
"I trust her." This came from Rainbow Dash, who was helping the blond-haired girl to her feet.
"And me also", replied the girl, with a bit of a drawl, due to her southern accent.
The original Sunset looked at them for a moment uncertainly. Then her face hardened.
"It'll take more than words to convince me", she declared.
"I wouldn't expect anything less from me, me", the new Sunset Shimmer said wearily. "But you need to change yourself."
"Oh really?", the first Sunset spoke scornfully.
"Yes. You need to abandon your ambitions for power", the second Sunset replied.
The old Sunset snorted. "Just so that you - or somebody else - can take over? I don't think so", she retorted. She turned to walk back down the hallway. "And this isn't over", she called back to them.
After she rounded the corner, the healthy Sunset turned to the blond-haired girl and asked, "Applejack, are you all right?"
Applejack responded. "I reckon that I'll be okay. Isn't the first time I've conked my head."
Twilight interrupted them. "Hang on a second. You're the girls from Canterlot High - the ones right at the center of the space-time anomalies!!", she said as her brain finally came out of semi-paralysis and began working at high speed again.
The purple-haired one looked at her. "Why do you refer to it as something foreign when you were right there in the center of it all?"
Twilight was thrown off-stride. "Wait, what? I certainly wasn't there, so what are you talking about?"
The purple-haired girl opened her mouth to reply, but the new Sunset Shimmer spoke first. "Rarity", she said to the girl, "this isn't the Twilight Sparkle we know. This is the one from this world."
"There's another one of me?" Twilight inquired, her curiosity coming to the forefront.
The healthy Sunset Shimmer looked at her and sighed. "Well, you're up to the neck in this thing now, so come along with us and I'll explain what's going on to you."
Twilight's sense of wariness and her burning curiosity wrestled with each other. Curiosity won. "Okay", she replied, taking Sunset's outstretched hand.
As they began to walk away together, Twilight thought, I've got a feeling that what I've seen so far is only the tip of the iceberg.