Light poured into Twilight’s castle. It was another fine and glorious day. Twilight Sparkle didn’t have anything to do. No friendship problems, no royal summits, not even friends to spend her time with. Fluttershy was away on some trip to see exotic creatures, Applejack had to make tons of deliveries of Apple family products to other regions in Equestria, and Pinkie Pie had her hooves full with watching Pound and Pumpkin Cake, who had grown into energetic four-year olds. Her friend Rainbow Dash never had much time to visit Ponyville, unless somepony was in danger, because she was a lead Wonderbolt. Rarity had traveled to Canterlot to check up on her fashion boutique. Well, Spike was around, but he was busy napping, and Twilight didn’t want to wake him up.
Twilight considered reading a book from the library, but she had read every book at least three times. Then she noticed one of her books vibrating. Sunset Shimmer! She had not heard from her in a very long time, and it was nice to have contact from a friend, even if it was because of an emergency. She summoned the book to her hooves and read the message that had been sent by Sunset.
Dear Princess Twilight,
I know it’s been a long time since I’ve sent a message, and I probably should write more often, but I’ve either forgotten to or things have come up and I haven’t had the time to stay in touch. But an emergency has come up in our world and I just don’t know what to do. Rarity has had her first baby and Fluttershy is expecting. There seems to be some strange Equestrian magic in the baby and I don’t know what will come out of it. If you’re not too busy with royal duties, could you come over here and help us? I’ll explain everything when you get here.
Your friend,
Sunset Shimmer
Twilight was intrigued. This would certainly be an interesting case. The girls weren’t in any immediate danger, but it was definitely a difficult dilemma to deal with. It would be nice to see her friends, who would have graduated from CHS by now, especially since she had nothing to do. This time, however, she didn’t want Spike to come just in case anything came up while she was gone.
She quietly flew up to Spike’s room and opened his door just a little bit. He was still sleeping, and snoring very loudly. Because Twilight didn’t want to wake him up, she scribbled a note for him and taped it to the door.
Dear Spike,
Sunset Shimmer just wrote me a letter and I need to go help my old friends over there. I don’t know how long I’ll be gone, but I need you to stay here and do some of the things I need to get done. If anypony needs my word on anything, tell them that I have granted you official permission to carry out royal duties in my name. Just don’t abuse this permission to get a bunch of free gems or anything like that. If you still need my help, contact me with Princess Celestia’s journal. I know I can count on you, number one assistant! -Twilight Sparkle
She teleported back to the library and set Celestia’s journal back on her portal contraption. She quickly packed a saddlebag. The mirror opened, and Twilight galloped back to the human world.
Sunset and the girls all arrived at the portal. The waited for at least five minutes before Twilight came flying out. It was still a bit hard for her to stand up on two legs, especially since she had not come here for a very long time. Sunset helped her to her feet, and the rest of the girls immediately gathered for a group hug. It had been ages since she was last here.
Rainbow Dash looked up at her old High School. “Seems like forever since we first united with the element of magic,” she remarked.
“Or since we all defeated the Dazzlings and freed the school from their spell,” Fluttershy added.
“And since we won the Friendship Games!” piped Pinkie Pie.
“We have certainly got far,” Applejack said. “But it still seems like Equestrian magic is following us wherever we go.”
Twilight stated, “So you still pony up when you play music?”
“Yeah,” AJ answered, “but we haven’t been playing a whole lot of music or even singing much, for that matter.”
“So what exactly is this all about?” Twilight asked.
Rarity explained, “We’re concerned about my baby, Stardust.” She let Twilight look at her baby.
“Oooooooh! She’s so cute! And very beautiful, too,” Twilight remarked.
Sunset said, “Yes, but that’s not why we sent for you here. See, Stardust appears to have flowing, translucent hair like the princesses from Equestria. Not only that, but She has pony ears, a tail, and a unicorn horn.”
Twilight thought for a moment. “We’re going to need to do some testing with some kind of lab equipment. Is there some place where we can do something like that?”
“Yes,” Sunset said. “Cloudsdale College of Sciences has a really big laboratory. I’ll ask my professor if it’s okay to use it after school hours.” She reached into her bag and got out her cell phone. After dialing her professor’s number and talking to him for about a minute, she hung up. “He said that I could use the lab tomorrow for just two hours. Is that enough time?”
“It should be. Rarity, if you don’t mind, I’m going to need blood samples from you and Stardust. I’ll probably need some from everyone else too, to compare the results. But magic is rather mysterious. In this world, the magic inside you could be anywhere since I don’t completely understand the effect it would have on humans.”
“Twilight, I tried finding out what effect Equestrian magic has on us all, but I didn’t get clear results,” Sunset said.
Twilight replied, ”Well, we’re gonna have to do the tests more carefully if we’re going to find out anything.”
“In the meantime,” said Rainbow Dash, “why don’t we all hang out at my place for the evening? It’ll be just like old times!”
“YAY! SLUMBER PARTY!” cried Pinkie.