The last bell of the day rang, and I took it as my cue to leave the building of Canterlot High on my own terms. My face still felt flush from the...well, I wouldn’t call what happened a “conversation,” it was more or less just Celestia teasing me and Sunset over Rainbow Dash’s story. It took a minute or two for her to settle down from laughing at both mine and Sunset’s flustered reactions, but I’m guessing it was mostly Sunset she was having fun with. I swear, those two are like mother and daughter.
As I exited the building into the courtyard, waving good bye at my little clique of friends, a slight rumble from back caught my attention, and soon enough, the purple head of my dog jumped out of my bag, poking over my shoulder, “Gah, you know I can’t breathe in there Twilight.”
“Then why do you keep jumping in then?” I asked in return.
“You’d get lonely without me.” Spike replied confidently. Well, he wasn’t wrong.
Looking at the courtyard of the school, I was once again stumped by the sheer normality of it. If you hadn’t been there, you’d never had guessed that the school had been a battleground for the fate of two universes between magical girls. Apparently though, it wasn’t the first time it happened, so I guess the students were used to it at this point. How and why were questions that currently eluded me, but I was sure I’d find the answer at some point. My thoughts were once again drifting to the lone statue base in the center of the front lawn, once, it held up a statue of a marble horse, rearing up bravely, as if heading for battle. It’s gone now, destroyed by...well, myself, in a magic induced rampage. Amazingly enough, there was no damage bill to my family from the school board, or local government officials showing up at my house, demanding I come with them into Area 51 where they would perform all kinds of experiments on my body. I’ve seen enough science fiction movies to know what they did, I don’t want to be probed.
...Ahem, anyway, what really drew my attention wasn’t the remains of the statue, but the base. In one of the walls, specifically, the one facing the school, was a portal to another land, the land Sunset came from. The magical world of Equestria.
A place ruled by talking ponies.
….I still can’t believe it, it sounded like a Saturday morning cartoon for little girls, but my dog was now talking in human tongue, so I guess I’m not the best to judge alternate universes. As I approached the portal, I raised a hand towards the entrance and pressed against it. True to form, it shimmered and ripples were formed from the pressure I put on it. It was still active, still on, still...passable. It would be so easy, to cross over. To see a land where the laws of physics could be bent and twisted, where the periodic table was your plaything, and the doorway was right here. All I had to do was apply a little more pressure and-
“Unlike you, I can have everything I want!”
My hand snapped back, and I reeled away from the portal as if it could hurt me.
“You okay Twilight?” Spike asked, concern written all over his doggy face.
“Just fine Spike.” I whispered back in a strained voice. In a sign of concern, or maybe reassurment, he licked my cheek. It was easy to forget, but my dog may be a talking dog, but he was still my dog. Smiling softly at him, I patted him on the head and walked around the portal, trying to ignore the temptation of going through it.
I didn’t need it; I didn’t want it.
At least that’s what I keep telling myself.
Shaking my head, I turned my head to the left and the right, checking for traffic as I crossed the street and onto the bus stop. I didn’t have a ride back in the afternoon, Cadance was busy, what, with being the dean and all and Shiny was the coach of the football team at Crystal Prep. My home wasn’t close enough for walking to be a valid option, so that left only one thing left to. The dreaded thing called...Public transport.
Luckily for me though, I have a bus pass. Pulling out a lavender phone from my bag, I opened the traffic app and checked the bus schedule. See, I programmed this app personally at my computer at home to give me a feed on the local traffic conditions and update periodically, also it can give me live coverage of anything newsworthy that happens in my current zip code. So far, I’ve only gotten twitter updates about people named “Cake” and their baby twins. It was strange, I don’t even own a twitter account....or any kind of account for that matter.
Ah, right, the bus thing. Checking the feed, I discovered, much to my dismay, that I would have to wait a few more minutes for the bus to arrive. It was being held up by a small time traffic accident off the nearest highway. Apparently, two girls were caught racing and almost crashed in the process. I didn’t see the names as I scanned, but I caught a “Lightning” and a “Gil” in the file. Either someone had a really fast and strange car, or someone really liked Final Fantasy. Anyway, that left me having nothing to do to pass the time while I waited for the bus.
Looking around, I tried to find something interesting to think about while the bus came. The clouds were...cloudy, and the sky was...blue. A nice, comforting blue.
“....I’m bored.” I said aloud and to no one.
“Don’tcha have a book Twi?” Spike asked.
Glancing back at him, I set my backpack down and rummaged around. Spike, being a dear as always, hopped out and started to help me look. I hate to say it, but my backpack was an irredeemable mess. I had my math book next to my art book, my art pens were next to my work pencils, and to top it all off, my hairbrush was next to my calculator!
The horror was almost too much to bear.
But, as before, and as today, my number one assistant pulled through, “Found it Twi!” To prove his point, Spike brushed aside the aforementioned objects and pulled out in his little mouth my copy of Ancient Myths and Mysteries.
“Thanks Spike.” I said, taking the book from him and wiping off the dog slobber.
“Why did you check that book out anyways?” My little doggy asked. I turned to him, squinting my eyes as I thought of a response.
“Well...you see…”
“You think that by study these, you’ll find a connection between this world, and Sunset’s.” Darn it! He could read me like an open book! “Twilight, I can read you like an open book.”
And he’s a mind reader too, wonderful.
“It’s just, I want to know so much more about magic, and it would explain so much about the past.” I murmured, “Like, how people thought of dragons and unicorns! I mean, could you imagine if someone came through the portal before the school was founded? Like in ancient Greece, it would explain why people made stories about people who could cast magic and rode winged beasts into battle!” Turning to him, I expected him to bask in the glory of my intelligence, but instead, all he did was roll his eyes.
“Riggghtt, I’m pretty sure people would notice magic pony people Twi.” I scowled at him, he smirked back, “You know you love me.”
“....I do. Come here.” Without a second thought, Spike leapt into my arms and started to lick my face affectionately.
As he did, the bus came up from behind me and slowed to a stop with a churn. Smiling, he hopped into my bag and I carried him onto the bus. Showing the driver my bus pass, I made my way there to the back and sat down.
In retrospect, I really should’ve seen who I sat down next to.
“Hello Twilight Sparkle.”
Turning my head, a twin tailed head of pure white greeted me. Staring at me from behind blue glasses, my former classmate Sugarcoat kept an impassioned face as she looked at me.
“H-hi Sugarcoat.” I stuttered. I hadn’t spoken to anyone at Crystal Prep ever since I left, there were a lot of bad memories there, and I really didn’t want to face the wrath of my former classmates. Especially Sugarcoat, she didn’t have the best way with words after all.
“How are you, Twilight Sparkle?” She asked.
“I’m f-fine. How are things at Crystal Prep?” I asked in return. Of course, I, more than anyone else, should have been aware of Sugarcoat’s true calling in life; a one girl filibuster.
“Ever since the friendship games, Principal Cinch has dedicated herself to “restoring” Crystal Prep’s reputation. As such, she has ordered the curriculum to be doubled and our punishments for failing to be more severe. Students who fall behind are now expected to take remedial classes on top of whatever classes they’re currently taking. The sports teams now have double the practice time, and the facility is being worked ragged. The top students in science, minus you, are now being asked to study the elements of magic. Cinch herself has gotten little, if any, sleep. I suspect she now lives in her office.”
At that onslaught of words, I could only blink and say in reply, “You’re kidding.”
In response, Sugarcoat just looked at me like I was the dumbest person on the planet. And, in a way, I suppose I was, “Right, stupid question.” I muttered, “But, what do you mean studying magic? There’s no way she could understand how it works!”
“Do you understand how it works?” Sugarcoat asked.
“.....” I couldn’t respond, “The Magic of Friendship”, that’s what Sunset called it, constantly eluded me. It sounded so simple and yet so damnably infuriating. I wanted to ask Sunset to explain it better, but while she understood how it worked back in her...pony world, it seemed here, it was completely random and unusable. Even….pony me couldn’t any advice on the subject when she came through the portal after some “time traveling” stuff in her world. It seemed no one really could use it, save for those six girls.
And, in a way, me, I guess.
“If you can’t figure it out, Cinch won’t either.” Sugarcoat said, misinterpreting my thoughts but snapping me out of my funk.
“I hope you’re right…” I sat back in my seat, taking care to place my bag on my lap. Trying to process this new information about my old principal, I spent most of the bus ride back in silence.
Closing the door to my room, I breathed a sigh of relief and plopped down on my bed, my muscles aching from the day, but while my body was a mess, my mind made Napoleon's march into Russia look organized. Thankfully though, Spike, bless him, jumped up next to me and trotted around in a circle before coming to a rest near my arm. Smiling, I petted his fluffy head and forced my arms to a push up position.
“No time for rest Twilight. You got work to do.” I muttered, making my tired body operate despite its protests that I wasn’t using it for its intended purpose, thus rendering the warranty invalid. Well, too bad I told my body, I had stuff to do. My bones creaked as I sat down at my desk, my laptop humming gently with its screen pitch black. Hitting the power button, I opened up a drawer while the machine powered up, taking out a screwdriver, I took out my most recent project and started fiddling with it.
“Twilight,” Spike said from behind me, “That’s…”
Looking down at the device in my hand, I sighed, I knew this was coming eventually, “Yes Spike. It’s the EM detector.” The purple, medallion like device that played such a large part in the catastrophe that made me drunk with power was now resting in the palm of my hand, no larger than my palm itself. It was currently turned off, and the latch that connected the upper and lower parts was broken. Not to mention it’s internal power core was disrupted, so, for the time being, it was pretty much a fancy looking paper weight.
“That thing caused a lot of trouble for you and the others.” Spike said, “I thought it was lost after you, uh, you…”
“I managed to snatch it when no one was looking, besides, it’s mine anyway. Not like I stole it or anything.” I replied, a faint light caught my eye, my laptop had finally powered up. Entering in my password, I went back to fixing the latch on the device.
“What made you keep it? I can’t imagine you having a lot of fond memories of it.” I paused as Spike said that, he was right. During the Friendship Games, the whole mess could have been avoided if I hadn’t made it and brought it along with me. But, that’s just playing the blame game, I was the responsible for what happened, this trinket was just a tool, in the end.
“It’s too useful.” I explained, “It’d take me forever to make another, not only that, but magic from Sunset’s world isn’t going to just stop because the Friendship games are over. The prototype I have doesn’t work as well as this one did.” Turning around, I saw Spike’s disapproving stare, “Uh, but, I’ll be more careful this time. Detection only.” I supplied weakly, “I’ll even add in a kill-switch in case it tries to absorbing thing again.”
Spike muttered something, but he relented, “What are you working on anyway? You don’t have any big projects coming up.”
“I don’t.” I agreed, “Here, I’ll show you.”
With speed fitting for a dog of his type, Spike jumped up onto my lap. As the computer finally finished booting up, I loaded up a program called; Magical Anomalies Triangulation Software.
“What’s this thing do?” Spike asked.
I smiled, “Well, for starters, I made it to cross reference electromagnetic waves and-”
“English, Twi.”
“It….reads magical signatures and can locate them.” I muttered, the wind taken out of my sails.
“It’s okay Twi, if you explain it to Sunset, I’m sure she’ll get it.” Spike consoled. Well, at least he had a point there. As the app loaded, a map of the city opened up, showing everything in a one hundred mile radius. The highways were highlighted and named appropriately, special locations such as the school had their own little blip. Other landmarks were likewise marked, like the public library.
“Neat.” Spike said, “What else can it do?”
Smirking, I hit a button appropriately labeled Scan. The screen pulsed, and a radar that wouldn’t be out of place on a submarine showed up on the center of the screen. A small dial rotated around in a 360 degree circle, swiping over the city and making several more turns. Soon enough, and to my own surprise, a small blip appeared on the radar, near Canterlot High itself in fact. That itself wasn’t strange, the school has been the centerpiece for most magical events and whatnot, but this one was small and on the move. Compared to the portal, which was larger but static. Because, you know, it was in a statue.
“What the…” Moving the mouse over it, I quickly typed a few commands on the keyboard. This was insane, a magical signature, this early? I hadn’t expected anything to show up for a few weeks really, but this was a interesting new development. If magic was showing up around the school this quickly then… I shuddered with excitement, “This could be my chance, come on, what is it? A new arrival from the other world? A tear in the fabric of reality? Some three headed beast that only I can stop?” The screen soon showed me a live feed from the school’s security cameras.
Spike shot me a dirty look, and I smiled sheepishly. Ignoring his glare, I quickly filtered through the cameras, the black and white feed playing hell with my poor vision, but sure enough, I found my source of magical energy.
Sunset Shimmer’s smiling face shown through the cameras, lighting up my room even through the computer. She was apparently laughing at something off-screen, and I felt heat rise to my face as I watched.
Spike and I shared a look, then he promptly burst out laughing, “Congrats Twi! You’re really watching the sun set huh? Hey, what will Rarity think when I tell her you made a Sunset stalking machine?”
“....Oh, shut up.” I muttered, closing the app.