Twilight Sparkle's All Unicorn Retreat

by smxsonic


Day 2, Part 1: Sunset Explains it all

The rooster crowed in welcoming Celestia’s sun. That was one thing about ponyville, an alarm clock came built into the town, and the distance made it so much less intrusive than a regular alarm clock.

Twinkleshine new she was romanticizing the smaller town of Ponyville, although one had to wonder how small the town would stay with a princess residing in there. These were thoughts for another time. Now was the time to get up and get ready for the rest of the day. She got up and went through the ritual of making her bed before exiting her room. Looking through the ‘unicorn hall’ as Twilight called it, she saw that Lemon Hearts had already left for breakfast as evidenced by the door bearing Lemon’s cutie mark was ajar with not a soul in sight. A ‘thump’ behind signified that she wasn’t alone, however. Twinkleshine looked back to see Sunset Shimmer tiredly picking herself up from the floor.

“Are you okay, Miss Shimmer?” Twinkleshine asked while helping the fellow unicorn out.

“I’m fine, just getting used to walking again, and please, call me Sunset.”

Twinkleshine was about the question the fact that Sunset had to get used to walking when Lyra burst out of her room.

“Good morning Twinkles, Sunny,” she yawned, “How’d you guys sleep?”

“Good morning, Lyra,”  Twinkleshine greeted while Sunset waved her hoof.

“You guys ready for some breakfast?”  

“I just hope Twilight remembers how I like my coffee,” Sunset said.

“How do you like it?” Lyra asked.

“Imagine, Donut Joe’s strongest blend, and multiply that by ten,” Sunset said.

The three walked to the kitchen, holding similar conversations about nothing.  Twinkleshine was pleasantly surprised with Sunset Shimmer. Of course one should never believe everything they hear, especially about another pony, but the legends of the Devil of the School for gifted unicorns reaches far and wide. The Sunset in those stories fancied herself a Princess, or at least Celestia’s surrogate daughter. Everypony at the school were practically celebrating the rumors of her banishment. Yet, here she was, talking to her like any civil pony would. Sunset was grumpy, but that was more from lack of caffeine.

Sunset kept stumbling over her hooves, almost like a newborn foal learning how to walk.  Twinkleshine raised her eyebrow at Sunsets antics.

“Are you sure you’re alright, Sunset?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I’ve just spent so much time on two legs, it feels weird to walk on four.”

“Walking on two legs? Didn’t you try to do that, Lyra?”

Lyra grunted, “That was a phase, Twinkles.”

Sunset chuckled, “Yeah, I know it’s kind of weird to explain, but the world on the other side of the mirror is so different and yet, everything is kind of the same. There’s a Celestia, a Twilight, a Trixie…”

“What about me?” Lyra cocked her head in curiosity.

“I think you’re in my 3rd period class, actually.”

“You think?” Lyra asked.

“Heh, Sorry, I’m not that familiar with most of my classmates yet,” Sunset explained while rubbing the back of her head with her hoof, “It’s been a process, but, you know, every day in every way and all that.”

The conversation was interrupted when Lemon Hearts hopped toward the  the group.

“Guys, Guys, I just saw something amazing!” Lemon squealed.

Twinkleshine smiled. If one were to meet Lemon Hearts they wouldn't think her a graduate from Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. Her cheery and somewhat ditzy personality was a stark contrast to the image of what one would think a Unicorn Scholar would present themselves as. What most ponies didn’t see was a great talent in multi tasking and automation magic. She worked as the royal caterer to all of the castle’s events and functions , she was even capable of turning over a feast in under 30 minutes per course.

“What is it, Lemon?” Lyra asked.

“Twilight is having a unicorn make us breakfast and it’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen!” Lemon Hearts said.

Lyra chuckled, “Really?”

“Come on! Let me show you!” Lemon Hearts cheered.

Lemon Hearts led the group to the kitchen. Both Lyra and Sunset’s jaw dropped at what they saw: an orange earth mare going from station to station cooking breakfast. The kicker was that she had a sugar cone strapped to her forehead like a party hat.

“Isn’t she amazing?” Lemon Hearts gushed, “She’s not using any magic or anything!”

“Lemon, sweetie,” Twinkleshine started maternally, “That’s an earth pony with an ice cream cone on her head.”

“Applejack, What are you doing?” Sunset deadpanned.

Applejack turned away from the cinnamon apple pancakes she was cooking, noticing the group of ponies.

“Well, howdy gals! Twilight invited me over to cook breakfast for ya’ll!”  Applejack explained while flipping the pancakes.

“I meant what’s with the cone?” Sunset said.

“What? Ya mean my horn?” Applejack replied, clearly having too much fun with this, “Why, I’m a unicorn, same as you sugarcube!”

Sunset sighed, it was way too early for this. At least she had a story for back home.

Twilight entered the kitchen holding a tray of Coffee mugs with her magic.

“Good morning, girls,” She greeted, while handing out the coffee, “I trust you slept well. Here’s something to start the day, There’s milk in the fridge, and, sugar… in the...pantry.”

Twilight trailed off as she beheld the spectacle of Applejack the Sugarcorn.

“Applejack, What are you doing?” Twilight said in almost the exact same tone as Sunset when she asked that question.

“I’m cookin breakfast for all your study buddies like ya asked me to!” Applejack answered.

Twilight struggled to find words until she finally floated a cup of coffee to herself and took a swig of it.

She sighed, “Come on girls, let me show you to the dining room. We shouldn’t distract AJ from her work.”

The unicorns walked into the dining hall. As each pony parked themselves at the table Sunset opened her mouth only to get interrupted by Twilight.

“No, I don’t know what’s going on with Applejack either,” She said, taking another swig of coffee.

“That seems so unlike her,through. She always seems so straight-laced. ” Sunset finally said.

“She has her wacky moments, you’ll see.” Twilight said.

The rest of the guests trickled into the room. Moondancer parked herself neatly next to Twilight. Twilight passed everypony their coffee. Conversations about nothing started among the ponies. Mostly just good mornings and the like. Starlight yawned, clearly more sleepy than the other unicorns. She was jolted awake by AppleJack busting through the door with a tray of pancakes. With the tasty hot cakes in front of them, Twilight called for attention.

“Alright everypony, We’re going have several panels throughout the weekend and talk about various subjects that we want to talk about. There’s a Classroom in the east hall that we’ll use as a panel room. So let’s have some fun, Shall we?”
Everypony nodded and started to chow down on their pancakes.


Panel 1: The World beyond The Crystal Mirror (Classified)

The Castle of Friendship was a complete mystery to every pony, but most ponies assumed that it wouldn’t have a classroom. These ponies did not know Princess Twilight Sparkle very well. The Classroom itself was pretty simple: Crystal desks rose out of the floor just high enough for a pony to write on from a sitting position. The presenting area had a whiteboard that was bordered by crystals.

 The Unicorns filed in and sat in front of their desks. The desks magically adjusted themselves to the preference of each pony, surprising everypony. Lemon hearts squeaked and backed away. Moondancer was mesmerized and quickly tried to see how that worked.  Applejack jumped a little but tried to play it off as nothing special, she was a unicorn after all, she was used to fancy magics.  

“Applejack, don’t you need to go back to Sweet Apple Acres?” Twilight asked, holding a folder filled with various notes for the upcoming lecture.

“Don’ worry ‘bout it, Big Macintosh has it covered” Applejack replied cheerily.

“Uh,huh…” Twilight droned, “And you’re not going to explain, are you?”

“Explain what?”

Twilight just sighed and went to the front of the classroom. She set the folder down and looked up to find Sunset Shimmer at the doorway rubbing her foreleg nervously. Twilight walked over to her to see what was going on, although she knew what the problem probably was.

“What’s going on, Sunset?” Twilight asked, not so much concerned, but more disappointed. Sunset still had her issues, true, the path of friendship was fraught with peril, but these tiny relapses of guilt she experienced with the redeemed only served to remind Twilight of just how long the road to true redemption actually was. Poor Sunset would probably never truly find closure until she finally got the courage to face Celestia again.

“I’m not sure I’m up to this, Twilight.” Sunset cried, “The human world is both the greatest thing ever and the most dangerous place imaginable!”

“You’re overreacting.” Twilight sighed.

“You’ve been there! You know how amazing Cell phones and motorcycles are! You’ve binged on netflix with Pinkie! If I tell them about this world, there will be a small equestrian invasion! Literally!”

Sunset locked eyes with the princess, who remained unimpressed. Sunset sighed.

“It’s also about their safety! You’ve seen what’s out there and you know the sirens aren’t the only ones that were dumped there!”

Twilight scooped her friend up in her wing, the same way Celestia would take her in her wing when she got super stressed. Being Twilight ‘ Let’s build an exact replica of Ponville’ Sparkle, it happened a lot. Sunset took a deep breath and let it out.

“Thanks, Twilight,” Sunset said, “I was just nervous.”


Twilight re-entered the classroom and took a seat in the back, next to Applejack. The rest of the ponies were talking amongst themselves. The talking ceased as the hear the door open and Sunset Shimmer sauntered in, with an air of confidence that commanded attention. Twilight forgot that this side of Sunset even existed. She usually saw a compassionate Sunset Shimmer, sometimes an insecure Sunset Shimmer. What she saw standing in front of the crystal whiteboard the rarest was the Sunset Shimmer who stole her crown, the Sunset Shimmer that help her summon a spectral Alicorn of Rock to vanquish The Dazzlings. This was a Sunset Shimmer who was in control.

“Alright,” Sunset began, “Last night I told you all that I ran away to another world. To elaborate, I had escaped through the Crystal Mirror after a …”

Sunset coughed into her hoof nervously before rubbing the back of her neck, “ … Disagreement with the princess.”

“What, Did she ground you for two weeks?” Lyra snarked.

Sunset glared at Lyra, and returned to her lecture.

“Beyond the Mirror is a world that is completely different from Equestria, but in some ways, the same.”

Sunset set a picture of her and her friends on the Whiteboard. It sprang to life as magic energy wiped it self upon it, become an enlarged version of the picture placed upon it. The other unicorns gasped in surprise.

“I gotta ask Twi, What’s with the glasses?” AppleJack asked

Twilight chuckled mirthlessly and then coughed in her hoof, giving AJ enough proof that there was something Twilight was hiding. Of course, she had no room to talk, she had an ice cream cone on her head and was claiming to be a unicorn.

“As you can see,” Sunset continued, “ The inhabitants of this world are very similar to the inhabitants of this one right down to the names. But due to the nature of this world there are many differences…”

Sunset launched into her explanation of the technological advances made for a world without magic. Some were analogous: enchanted books/paper being like instant messaging and E-mail, for example. She had a harder time explaining things like the Internet, which she explained as if Twilight Sparkle went Nightmare and tried to beam her library into everypony. All of the Unicorns giggled, even Moondancer. While Twilight silently fumed in the back.

“Of course, there lies some dangers in this world, especially now that magic has been introduced.” Sunset said as she put some of the other Twilight’s blueprints on the whiteboard.

“Unfortunately the mixture of magic and technology has had some adverse effects. a reckless mixture of the two can lead to monstrous results. This design once cause gaping holes to open between Dimensions.”

“Trixie remembers seeing those, they were all over the newspapers the next morning.” Trixie put in.

“Those reports were going in at the time as the temporal distortions !” Minuette noted.

Sunset hummed in mild surprise and then continued, “These dangers are compounded by other dangerous individuals. StarSwirl discovered the mirror and it’s properties and has used it at least once to banish some dangerous creatures from Equestria.”

Of course, She chose to omit the fact that said creatures banished happened to still be hanging around her school, generally being a nuisance.

“So, you said Cutie marks don’t exist in this world,” Starlight began, “How does anypony know what they do?”

“Hm, I from what I’ve seen it’s a sort of instinct, sometimes, they just know,and sometimes they don’t.”

Starlight was left to think about that. While Lemon Hearts was waving her hoof in the air. Sunset acknowledged her.

“So,” Lemon Hearts started in the most serious voice she could muster, “Is there any chance that we might get to tour around this other world?”

“Unfortunately, it’s too dangerous to let others travel between worlds, the inhabitants are still ignorant to the extra magic being introduced, and most will gawk at a bunch of doppelgangers touring the city.”

“Aw” Lemon Hearts intoned, but she nodded in understanding.

Sunset’s lecture ended and all the unicorns (and AppleJack) exited. There was about 30 minutes before Twilight scheduled the next lecture. The Ponies used this time to get to know each other and generally unwind in the castle.

Starlight had a lot on her mind. Sunset’s lecture and other things about this whole weekend felt, ‘off’ to her. There was a small feeling a guilt that nibbled away at her mind. It wasn’t anything new, but that little itch was getting more irritated as time went on. She needed to talk about it and she knew two unicorns that would understand.