Author Notes: Now I can finally feel the sweet embrace of sleep!

6286184
...holy Celestia on a pogo stick! I'm... just... WOW. LIKE... Can I just go with WOW? I'm going to go with WOW.

6286184

das sum pretty ponies

6286184

6286184
Holy crap, good stuff!

I feel like this time around there's more effort being put into making this a cohesive narrative with developed characters and not just a world-a-day story, and while every chapter so far has done at least a little of that, this one did a great job.

I should really endeavor to comment on these more, I think. Good stuff from everyone so far, and I can't wait to see what comes next!

*blink blink*

Ok, wow.

I’ve got no idea how to follow that up, honestly. Glad it’s not my turn yet.

6286184
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH Breathes AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

That was amazing!

6286184
Holy crap, that was amazing! Great job with the art, and with the plot/characterization bits. Really, really great.

I'm still processing what just happened, but oh my word that was glorious.

6286184

Oh my god, you guuuuuys! Thank yooooou! <3

6289572
You maaaay want to link to your gallery and/or comission page on your user page.

Just a suggestion.

6289678
Thank you for the advice. I've gone ahead and done so. :)

6286184
6286338

I’ve got no idea how to follow that up, honestly. Glad it’s not my turn yet.

* cracks knuckles *

The first thing Twilight felt was nothing.

Then she crashed hard into deep water.

Twilight flailed her arms and legs, all thoughts stopping as memories played in repeat, her body struggling instinctively to get air. Flashbacks to a memory of her floaties popping when she played in the neighbor’s pool when she was five years old merged with the memory of getting caught under a massive float on a lake as a ten-year-old. The desperate prayer that someone, anyone would save her.

No one did at first.

The water was too much. She couldn’t find the surface and her lungs were burning from lack of oxygen. As she slipped deeper, she wondered where Sunset had ended up...

Two hands grabbed her moments before she slipped into darkness.

Sunset brought Twilight over her shoulder as she breached the surface, making sure the lavender-haired voyager had her head out into air.

Sunset looked around and noticed a nearby ship. It looked bigger and taller than she expected from the surface of the water. It reminded her vaguely of a griffon trawler, but with no fishing nets.

Sunset glared at the letters stenciled on the side of the ship.

“Sunlight’s Dawn,” Sunset muttered. “Now there’s a name…”

Sunset shook her head, took Twilight in tow and slowly worked her way to the side.

After a few tries, Sunset managed to get a grip on the side of the boat. Still clutching Twilight, she pulled herself over the railing. She pushed with her legs against the boat, but failing to account for gravity, Sunset fell on her back. Twilight landed right on top of her.

The strangely familiar feeling of a wet and warm body against her own made Sunset space out for a few seconds.

Shaking her head, Sunset pushed Twilight off her and checked the other girl’s breathing. Her heart stopped when she didn’t hear even a gurgle, much less a struggled breath.

“Okay Sunset, you’ve got this…” Sunset muttered, trying not to panic as she kneeled down next to Twilight. While she knew a couple tricks, she’d never actually performed CPR.

Twilight always knew that stuff. Her Twilight.

Putting two hoo—hands on Twilight’s chest, just as she’s seen others do, she began to pump her arms down. She pushed against Twilight’s chest a few times, but nothing happened.

In any other situation, she may hesitate or even blush at the prospect of connecting Twilight’s mouth with her own. She wasn’t kissing her, but it was the same motions. However Sunset pushed such thoughts away as quickly as they came and focused on saving her companion. She could deal to think about the circumstances later. Not sure of how long she should breathe into Twilight, Sunset settled on two seconds for two breaths each.

Still no response. Sunset grew even more worried and desperate. Her heart pounded in her ears as Sunset breathed quickly for a few moments, before calming her lungs and readying her hands.

“C’mon Twilight, don’t die on me yet!” Sunset yelled. She began to pump her arms on Twilight’s chest again. After pumping again, she moved to breathe for Twilight again.

On the last breath, Sunset opened her eyes and found Twilight blinking up at her. Time stopped., as seeing those beautiful lavender irises finally alive brought sudden hope to Sunset’s heart. She slowly lifted her mouth away from Twilight’s.

In that second… everything was beautiful.

This isn’t my Twilight, she forced herself to remember.

And then Twilight threw up a stream of water in Sunset’s face.

“AAARGH!” Sunset screamed, wiping off the offending liquids at the top of her eyebrows as Twilight rolled over and heaved, coughing and sputtering onto the deck..

Once Twilight coughed up most of the water out of her lungs, she laid there on the deck, sucking in air..

“Well that didn’t look pleasant,” a voice said. Sunset and Twilight turned at the sound of the voice, and gasped.

At the back of the boat, a purple dog with a green underside and green puffy ears stood on stairs leading up to a captain’s lookout. Something had left the furry crest around his head patchy, and his right foreleg was replaced with a metal limb that had a hand instead of a paw.

Sunset stared and gaped at the animal.

“Spike!” Twilight yelled, crawling quickly over to the creature. Sunset watched, amazed at Twilight cuddling a small—and oddly augmented—dog after coughing up half her organs.

“Hey, finally, I get a hugger Twilight,” Spike laughed, nuzzling into the girl’s sopping wet arms.

“Not that I mind if Sparky goes around hugging random one-handed dogs, but who are you?” Sunset asked, walking up to the duo at the steps.

Spike hopped up to the top of the stairs. He used his hand to pull himself all the way up. “Twilight just said it! It’s Spike! At least… that’s what my Twilight called me.” Twilight opened her mouth but Spike stopped her with a wave of his… hand.

“Hey, if I wasn’t used to interdimensional guests, don’t you think I’d be freaking out a little more right now?” Spike winked at her. “It’s not like I get a lot of other visitors these days.”

Twilight looked around and Sunset followed her gaze. Nothing but water lay beyond the odd little ship. Not a speck of land in sight... “Why did the Talisman drop us in the middle of the ocean? Is there any land nearby?”

“Wow, a bunch of newbies, looks like.” Spike whistled, then laughed. “Yeah. There’s land. Down there.”

He pointed straight down.

“Oh.” Sunset blinked. For once, she couldn’t find anything to say.

“All the Twilight’s want to know the story. About forty years ago—long before Twilight or I were around—something happened. Flooded the whole world.”

Spike padded to the side of the boat and looked down, prompting Twilight to do the same. She repressed a shiver.

“There lies the ruins of the Old Ones. Houses, vehicles, and entire civilizations…” He shook his head. “As my Twilight would say, now hollow shells of their former selves. Hate whenever I have to go down there to collect mithril crystals…”

Twilight stared into the void of the sea, fighting back the panic trying to overwhelm her. If she squinted just hard enough… she could see the top of what might be a skyscraper, growing from the bottom of an unseen abyss.

“So, how come you’re on this boat? What happened to your world’s version of Twilight or Sunset?” Sunset asked.

Twilight glanced back at her ‘companion.’ Something that looked suspiciously like greed glinted in her eyes as she stared into the depths.

“Well, see, we used to be stuck on the few islands humanity still has. Twilight always said those used to be mountains, believe it or not. Then Twilight figured out the strange things we called ‘mithril crystals’ were actually condensed shards of magic. Even learned how to harness them. Pretty important since most ambient magic is gone now.”

“What?!” Sunset exclaimed. She grabbed the TPT and stared at the readout.

“What? What’s wrong?” Twilight asked.

Sunset turned the TPT and showed Twilight.

Twilight’s heart skipped a beat. The charge meter was barely moving.

“Whoa whoa whoa, relax.” Spike rolled his eyes and raised his metal limb in a calming gesture. “If you use a mithril crystal in it, it’ll recharge no problem. At least, it always did with other Voyagers.”

“What did they figure out with the crystals?” Twilight asked.

“Well, Twilight developed three prototypes to test their capabilities.. I was the first project. She gave me a voice, plus this awesome metal limb to replace one I lost to a shark.”

Twilight swallowed hard. Sharks were not something she wanted to think about right now.

“The other two projects? They were Twilight trying to save the world,” he grinned. “She developed a device capable of using the crystals as an energy source. The other was a transdimensional portal talisman to travel to a different universe. She hoped to find a new safe place for her family and friends, and possibly the whole Appleloosan island inhabitants. But…”

Spike sighed and stared out over the water, his expression too old to be on a dog’s face. “The first test run they did, Twilight and her assistant, Sunset, vanished. I had to teach myself about the crystals, and create the energy converter from her schematics. It’s used on a good number of ships, especially combined with MOPS.”

“Mops?” Twilight asked. “Why would it help for cleaning floors?”

Spike chuckled and shook his head. “Musically Operated Power System. You play music, the boats go forward. Man the rudder, and you can go anywhere. Provided you have enough crystals, of course. That design was all me.”

He pointed toward the front of the ship and Twilight spotted an old guitar and a bunch of drums at the bow of the boat.

Sunset shook her head again. “Listen. We were sent here because a… someone told us that a ‘brilliant engineer’ could help us with our Talisman, to get us back home quicker. Looks like you’re it, Spike, even if I don’t know if we should trust a dog with an interdimensional transportation device—”

“Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence there, Bacon.”

“—but I guess we got no choice but to…” Sunset paused and her eyes narrowed on the dog. “What did you just call me?”

“Heh, you’re touchy about that nickname too. Anyways, yeah, I can probably help with your TPT, but we need to get back to my workshop, and I still need to find more—”

A deafening horn cut Spike off. Instantly, he was on his paws—and hand—his eyes wide and his ears twitching. Then he scampered to the rear of the ship, behind the captain’s lookout. Twilight shared a confused look with Sunset before they followed him.

Twilight gasped. Three small dark ships tore through the ocean on a direct heading for Spike’s ship. The menacing riffs of their guitar players pounded their ears in painful bursts.

“It’s pirates! Bloody Crystalheads, they're after my mithrils! Man the MOPS! Quickly!” Spike ordered. He raced up to the captain’s lookout. “I’ll get the battery and the weapons working, but you two need to get us moving!”

Panic overriding questions, Twilight ran to the front of the ship, Sunset right behind her. Sunset grabbed the guitar with the confidence of an expert.  “Get the drums! I’ll get the guitar!”

“You know how to play it?” Twilight asked, staring at the drums and desperately trying to find the sticks.

“You learn a few things when you’re bored and caught,” Sunset shrugged. “You know how to play the drums?”

“No! I played recorder in grade school. But that’s it!” Twilight pulled at her hair, still trying to find those drum sticks. “I don’t even know what to play!”

“Play war drums!” Spike yelled out, a low whirring emanating from his lookout.

“War drums. Okay, war drums…” Twilight found the sticks—they’d been hiding under the seat—and sat herself down at tried a few whacks at the drums, mumbling sounds that she thought might sound like drums. “War drums… war… waaaaaaaar…”

“C’mon Sparky, we don’t have all day!” Sunset yelled as she settled herself into position.

“I’m sorry! I’m not a soldier! I don’t know what war drums are! I’ve only gotten violent twice in my life! Once at Canterlot High against… err…” Twilight coughed and didn’t meet Sunset’s eyes.“Sunset, and that one time on Black Friday!”

“Wait.” Sunset looked dumbfounded. “You have Black Fridays in your world too?”

That’s what she asks? Not about Sunset but about Black Friday?

Suddenly, a large projectile crashed into the ocean just beyond the front of the boat, sending a plume of water into the air. Twilight shrieked and almost threw her drumsticks overboard.

“While we’re young and alive, girls!” Spike shouted from his lookout.

Guitar riffs and drums echoed over the waves. Twilight wondered how close they were and how come their hearing wasn’t already impaired. Twilight took a breath and focused on the drums. She pounded her drumsticks against the drums, trying to put her terror into the ‘music’. Another splash on their right sent a wave of freezing ocean right on Twilight’s head, which made her start hyperventilating.

“SPARKY, JUST POUND IT HARD!”

Twilight threw sanity to the wind and just started screaming and pounding even harder. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

And thus, the drums of war began.

Author's notes: Big thanks to Novel for making this more readable, and bigger thanks to all of you guys for letting me be a part of this community!

Now we sound the drums of war...

6291398
Just remember your practice sessions with the band, Twi! Remember what Pinkie misquotes!

"Cry havoc, and let slip the drums of war!"

6291398
War, what is it good for? Apparently sailing away from pirates.

Nice chapter.

6291398
Sick! We're getting some Mad Max: Fury Waves up in here! I'll take it! Excellent chapter, a really fun read!

We Waterworld now!

Sunset played the guitar with focused fury, powering the ship's engines. Twilight played the drums like she was having a seizure, charging the weapons and she cried havoc.

"Let slip the dog of war!" Spike growled. Sunset's sick guitar licks sent energy throughout the the ship. The control panel lit up with power and the ship lurched forward with unnatural speed. Spike took up the controls that he had specially modified for his canine form, save for his human robotic arm.

Though the Sunlight's Dawn was larger, and armored, the pirate vessels were smaller, faster and more maneuverable. One came along the ship's broad side, and opened fire. The small arms fire wasn't enough to damage the ship, but that wasn't the objective. It was fatal to anyone on board. Once the crew was incapacitated, they would board and loot the ship, or more likely, keep the vessel for themselves. Spike brought the forward the forward gun online and locked onto one of the pirates' ships. He looked back at Twilight.

"I need more cowbell!" Spike yelled. Twilight couldn't hear him over the incoming fire, Sunset's guitar, and her own cacophony on the drums. Spike grabbed the PA microphone. "Cowbell, Twilight!"

Twilight realized that she hadn't opened her eyes since she had started screaming and swinging her drum sticks at the set. She looked at the drums and finally spotted the small affixed cowbell tucked safely out of the way of being struck. Twilight smacked the cowbell. The forward cannon fired into the broadside of the pirate ship, causing it to burst into flames. The wreckage drifted away like dust in the wind.

"Just a drop of water in the endless sea," Spike said as he steered the ship toward the second ship. Spike picked up the microphone again. "Shimmer, this is your big solo!" Sunset played even faster. Her fingers were a blur on the frets as she went from note to hammer-on to power chord. The front of the ship lifted up was the entire ship lurched forward in a burst of speed.

The armored bow of the Sunlight Dawn slammed into the pirate ship with a dragon force, splitting it in twain and causing it to burst into a fireball. They sailed through the fire and flames until all that was left was smoke on the water. The last of the three ships came around behind them. Even with Sunset playing at five-star speed, Spike simply couldn't move the ship fast enough to get away. The pirate ship fired a grappling hook at them and reeled itself in. One of the pirates boarded, landing next to Twilight.

"Oh, yeah, sure, just come sail away with me," Spike muttered while Twilight turned and tried to beat the confused pirate with her drum styx. Spike aimed the aft gun around at the attached pirate boat. "I gotta have more cowbell!" Spike yelled. The gun was charged. "Twilight!" He looked back at Twilight at the aft deck, futilely fighting the attacking pirate.

Spike jumped out of his captain's chair and ran to her. He closed the distance and leaped. Jaws met jewels and the pirate shrieked. He let go just long enough to drop to the deck and give him a bionic uppercut. The engine of the Sunlight's Dawn cut out. Sunset had stopped playing guitar, and was running at full speed to them. She lifted the guitar up over her head and swung her ax like... an ax, slamming the pirate in the face and sending him falling back off the ship into the other pirates that were trying to board behind him. He knocked them back into thier own boat, which was now firmly lodged against the vessel. Spike turned and looked at Twilight. "HIT IT!"

Twilight got back to the drum set and smacked the cowbell. The aft cannon blasted the ship behind them into a cloud of purple haze, showering them with wooden debris. As the last of the planks finished clattering onto the deck or splashing back into the water, the sea became calm and quiet once again.

"You saved my life again!" Twilight squealed, hugging a very surprised Sunset.

"Whoa," Sunset gasped.

"Oh, sorry," Twilight blushed.

"No, not you, that!" Sunset said, pointing at the talisman. It was glowing and ready to go. "I guess your hugs are magical."

"Or it's this," Spike said, holding up the Mythril crystal to them. "This is what they were after."

"It's just like mine," Twilight said, touching the crystal pendent on her necklace.

"You can use them for all sorts of things," Spike said. "It what I based most of my engineering technology around. You can use it to power lights, and tools, and ships-"

"And the TPT," Sunset finished.

"That too," Spike said.

"So if you've been working with this technology for a while, do you think you would be able to improve it?" Twilight asked.

"I wouldn't be much of an engineer if I couldn't," Spike replied.

"Do you think you possess the skills to help us better navigate our way back home with this TPT?" Twilight asked.

"Let me see it," Spike said. Twilight gave him the TPT. He snapped open the cover and inspected it. He grimaced as he looked it over. "Ah, now that's just sloppy craftsmanship."

"How so?" Sunset asked.

"This is almost an exact replica of the prototype," Spike said. "By the second iteration there were already many improvements. This has none of them. In fact, it just looks like someone tried to replicate the prototype just by looking at the pictures." Spike began to disassemble the TPT. "And there's something else."

"What is it?" Twilight asked. Spike brought over a few strange-looking instruments to his workbench. He used each one in turn taking measurements and getting readings.

"There's a strange king of energy in here that I've never seen before," Spike said.

"Oh... oh yeah?" Sunset asked nervously.

"Magic?" Twilight asked.

"Magic and energy are two sides of the same coin," Spike said, reassembling it. "But this... this is a currency I've never seen before."

"So can you make it take us home or not?" Twilight asked.

"Well, as a brilliant engineer, I could just Deus Ex Macarena this thing into a perfectly controllable dimension hopper that would take you wherever you want to go. Home, I would presume. But if I do, the magic in this thing might react poorly," Spike said.

"How poorly?" Twilight asked.

"Like, it could destroy the device entirely," Spike said.

"I don't want to take that gamble!" Sunset said, grabbing the TPT. "No offence Spike, but I don't want to be stranded here."

"But Sunset! It's a chance to get home!" Twilight said.

"Well, maybe this... mystery magic will help take us where we need to go?" Sunset said. "And besides, it's still my TPT. So it's my call." Twilight pouted. "You can come with me or stay here if you like." Sunset looked around at the smoldering bits of pirate ship strewn across the ship's deck. "But this seems like a damn dangerous place to stay."

"Can't argue with that," Twilight agreed. "Spike, you should come with us!"

"A captain never abandons his ship," Spike said. "And besides, I'm still waiting for my Sunset and Twilight to come back."

"For how long?" Sunset asked. Spike glared at her.

"How long would you wait?" he asked her. Sunset said nothing and activated the portal.

"Good luck, Spike," Twilight said.

"Now or never, Sparky," Sunset said, jumping through. Twilight quickly followed after.

They landed in a futuristic city. The streets were vacant, and quiet. But not for long. All around them red lights began to flash and alarms blared.

"Sunset alert! Sunset alert! Sector C! One Three Seven!" they heard a Twilight's voice repeating over the automated PA system. Purple flashes began appearing all around them as they became surrounded by hundreds of identical lavender unicorns.

The index magic that Void had put into the TPT caused it to tear itself loose from the necklace and self-destruct on the ground, leaving nothing but ash.

"Oh, not good!" Twilight cried.

"She's here," Sunset said, looking out into the growing crowd of Twilights. "My Twilight is here."

"But which one is her?" Twilight asked.

"I don't know," Sunset said, looking out at the sea of Twilights, realizing that trying to find hers in a city of Twilights would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. She looked at she scorched pile of dust that was once her TPT. "But something tells me we're going to have plenty of time to look. But we better find her. She has the other TPT, and our only ticket out of here!"

6291971
This is some truly glorious madness, but wasn't Waterworld!Spike supposed to help upgrade our heroines' TPT?

6292002
Fixed.

6291971
Holy crap that was fast

6292058 6292066 Thank you.
It's not hard for me to knock out 1,500 words in an afternoon.

[EDIT]: Twice

6291971
Jesus dude, that was quick.

6292015
Fair points all around. And again, awesome chapter.

And now we see why I don't usually offer prereading. Vastly improved from before, Shakes.

Bravo!

And cities of Sunsets or Twilights. They are equally frightening.

6291971
To be honest, this feels like it's rather completely dropping continuity and the thread left by the previous two chapters. I mean, I get you wanted to write your chapter, but this feels like you'd already written it a while ago and just added the brief section connecting the worlds, not really picking up on anything else beforehand.

Edit: chapter edited, disregard prior comment!

Sunset looked around and noticed a nearby ship. It looked bigger and taller than she expected from the surface of the water. It reminded her vaguely of a griffon trawler, but with no fishing nets.

Sunset glared at the letters stenciled on the side of the ship.

“Sunlight’s Dawn,”Sunset muttered. “Nowthere’sa name…”

I see your pun and you are the worst.

the WORST.

that's you. that's what you are.

i love you

6292113

6291971

...yeah, I'm going to be I guess the dissenting opinion and say that I honestly didn't like any of this. That kiss in the beginning scene comes out of nowhere and is never mentioned again, and Sunset honestly just doesn't feel like the Sunset we've been seeing up to this point. She seems... I don't know, smarter, more open about things with SciTwi. And all that stuff with the villages of abandoned Sunsets/Twilights was more cringy to me than anything else as well.

6292100
Agreed. The feeling I got with this chapter, between the suspiciously fast time it took to write and the whole off-ness I felt with Sunset and the plot as a whole, it really seems to me like this was something Shakespearicles had written beforehand and posted without bothering to see if it actually meshed well with the chapters that had come before it. Aside from the quick departure from Kuairu's Water World, which, again, wasn't really mentioned afterward.

Edit: None of this applies to the chapter anymore, so disregard.

6292100 6292290
I re-wrote it.

I really liked this chapter. I don't think it was completely fair of the last author to leave them in "Pirate World" when all of the other chapters ended on a very ambiguous, open note. I like what Shakes did with the whole "countless Twilights/ countless Sunsets". The chapter wasnt huge on action, but I think it has added the most to the relationship/shipping/history/mythos of the couple.

6292393
Thank you. This really keeps the continuity and plot threads going. It's great!

6292401 Thank you. I appreciate it.

6292393

Much appreciated, Shakes, thank you.. Gives me a solid foundation to go from for my turn.

6291457
You know, now I'm really wondering about that world.

6292401
Can we do one-offs on our own where we explore the created world? Don't even have to be related at all to Twilight or Sunset.

6292393
Thank you! This version is much stronger. Good job with pulling off the change! (Amazing how changing to a hug changes the tone so much).

6291971
A fun read, though I have to agree with others that it does feel like this was written prior to the past chapters and edited accordingly, especially given how quick it was uploaded. And it does feel like Spike delivered nothing in terms of progression of the story, what with his expertise quickly being discarded.

And from a biased perspective, I honestly expected the little plot thread I set up with Twilight to last a little longer before they would be in the same universe together, but I guess we'll see where the next author takes this.

Overall, it was a good read, but does feel rather forced and quick on resolving a couple of threads before they could really be explored.

6292417
Of course! I even have a special folder in this group for stories inspired by worlds in SLS2.

In hindsight, they probably should have tried to run.

Twilight wasn’t sure what it would have accomplished, exactly; they didn’t know where they were or where to go to even attempt an escape, and they were vastly outnumbered. Even if they had run, they would have had nowhere to go with the TPT in ashes, and they needed a new one in order to continue their adventure so that she could get back home. At this point she wasn’t even sure that Sunset was concerned about that, but Twilight definitely still was. She liked her home! She wanted to go home!

So all that considered, they hadn’t tried to run. But as an army of Twilights closed in on them and started to box them in so that escape would go from possible to impossible, Twilight found herself wishing they had tried, if only so they could see more of the city, so they could get the lay of the land and learn more about the Twilights.

On the other hand—hoof? Was it hoof now? They were ponies again, so maybe the saying was hoof, not hand—maybe this would make it easier to find the one Twilight that was Sunset’s Twilight, having them all in one place like this.

Twilight had always liked to be as optimistic as possible.

She leaned in to Sunset, close enough to whisper into her ear and not be heard. “So?”

Sunset’s ear flicked, her eyes locked on the Twilights surrounding them. “So what?”

“So can you tell which one of them is your Twilight?”

Sunset didn’t turn her head to look at her—keeping her eyes on the purple unicorns that had surrounded them was her priority, particularly as she was painfully aware of the fact that they were completely encircled, and the sudden silence after being surrounded was unnerving—but the sideways glare she aimed at her purple companion was enough to make wilt a little. “No, I can’t tell,” she hissed.

Twilight’s ears flicked back. “I just thought, you know, there was some defining feature of hers that you could recognize at a glance, maybe?” she offered, her voice getting weaker and weaker as she continued.

“… You realize how bad that sounds as a plan, right, Sparky? Please tell me you realize that so I don’t have to tell you how bad of an idea that is.”

“I know, I know, I guess I was just… hoping? It would be nice if for once it was that easy, you know? I thought we could use a break.”

That made the yellow unicorn next to her snort as she shifted her gaze back to the sea of purple surrounding them, and if she hadn’t been looking at her she would have missed it; Sunset’s lips twitched upwards slightly. It was only slightly, and it was for a brief time, but it was there and it lingered for a moment or two before it passed.

It felt oddly good, to see that smile.

Sunset made a show of peering through the crowd—probably to drive her point home—before she sighed and gave Twilight another sideways look. “She doesn’t have any immediately defining features, and there’s too many of them here. Even if she was here, I can’t tell right now. She might not even be in this group.”

Twilight opened her mouth to speak, even though she wasn’t even sure of what she wanted to say. As it was, it ultimately didn’t matter; before even a single word could get out, she was cut off by the whole line of Twilights in front of them stepping up. As if on cue, the Twilights on both sides of them and behind them also stepped up, closing the distance between them.

Sunset’s reaction was immediate and instinctive—her ears flattened and she stepped up as well, moving between the Twilight that was hers (for the moment, at least; she had to remind herself of that) and the small army closing in on them. “What do you all want?” she growled, painfully aware that her show of bravado was just that—a show. She could act protective all she wanted, but she couldn’t actually stop them if they wanted to hurt them or do something worse.

A moment or two of tense silence passed, before one Twilight stepped forward completely. She looked like all of the others as far as they could tell, except for her hair: a low tied ponytail slung over her neck. She cleared her throat a few times.

“Please come with us,” she said. “This is the first Sunset we’ve all seen in a long time, and it’s caused some… confusion. If we take you to our leader, I think we can get this all sorted out without any issues.”

It was a lot of information thrown at them at once, and Sunset and Twilight exchanged a quiet look. It wasn’t a decision in the end, really. They knew that they had no choice. The Twilight that had spoken to them knew this, too; it seemed her request was more for the sake of politeness, as the moment she was done speaking she turned away and began to walk. The sea of purple parted for her every step, and it soon became even more obvious that there was only one path available for the two ponies.

“… Stay close to me,” Sunset murmured as she reluctantly began to walk, making sure to keep her hooves in the same spot as the Twilight they were following. It was probably paranoid, but her paranoia had saved her life enough for her to trust it.

“Already staying close,” Twilight murmured back, pressing against her companion’s side. She cast one last glance at the small pile of ashes that had been their TPT, and then the ocean of Twilights closed up behind them as they walked and she couldn’t see it anymore.

They didn’t speak again for the rest of the walk. Twilight kept her eyes on Sunset, and Sunset kept her eyes ahead of them. In time, they seemed to enter what appeared to be the center of the city: a large circular clearing with a garden at the edges, and a massive old tree at its center, tall and strong. Twilight couldn’t tell from a glance what kind of tree it was, but she could certainly admit that it was a very good looking tree. As the Twilights before them continued to step aside, a closer look revealed that at some point in the past—or perhaps even recently, it was hard to tell—a throne of sorts had been carved into the bark of the tree, and flowers had been planted in the small bit of grass around it.

Twilight would have tried to enjoy the growing view more, except that in front of her Sunset abruptly stopped; the purple unicorn nearly walked into her, she was so taken in by the sight of the throne and the tree. “What was that for?” she whispered, stepping around her companion.

Sunset didn’t reply. She simply stared, her mouth opening and closing at the sight before her. Swallowing hard, Twilight followed the other unicorn’s eyes.

In that moment, she understood why Sunset had been struck silent.

Twilight had only heard stories of the alicorn princess Celestia from her Sunset, and descriptions had always been vague due to the redhead’s complicated relationship with her former mentor. Nothing she had ever described could have prepared the purple unicorn for the figure she saw sitting on the throne in front of her. Her coat was a dark purple, almost black, and her mane was a flowing mix of blues, purples, reds, and a faint hint of yellow. She was tall enough that all of the ponies had to tilt their heads back slightly just to look at her, and the Cutie Mark she bore on her flank was no doubt the one that belonged to a Twilight Sparkle.

Dangling from a silver chain around her neck was a perfectly intact TPT. Dark eyes widened slightly when she saw Sunset, then narrowed as she slowly drew herself up to her full height and stood, glaring down at the unicorn that had undoubtedly come from her world.

It wasn’t the warm welcome that Twilight had been hoping she would witness, considering they needed this Twilight to help her get home.

After a moment of silence that seemed to last for both an eternity and a second, the alicorn Twilight Sparkle finally spoke. As if to go along with her size difference from the other Twilights, her voice seemed lower and huskier than her pony counterparts.

“Sunset Shimmer.” Every word she spoke was as cold as ice, and Twilight watched her companion slowly shrink. “Give me one good reason I shouldn’t kill you where you stand.”

Dark purple eyes shifted to Twilight; she squeaked. The alicorn Twilight softened.

“And you,” she said gently. “Let’s get you home.”

WELL THIS CAN ONLY END WELL

Ooh, it seems our Twilight might have a choice to make. Just how loyal is she feeling toward Sunset here? If she's being offered a way home, she really doesn't have much reason to refuse...

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Now comes the real question... is that actually Sunset's Twi? Or a different Twi that Sunset has some bizarre history with? I dunno... that "dark purple to be almost black?" Feels important...

And then I remembered something. Specifically, Sunset's description of Twilight. After all, if her Twi was an alicorn, it would be pretty easy to see she wasn't in the crowd of unicorn Twi's. In fact, Sunset expressly said that her Twilight...

doesn’t have any immediately defining features

Oh my. This can't be Sunset's Twi. So... who is this dark Twi? Why's she want Sunny dead?

...and what in the WORLD is our Twilight going to do?

Nervoucited!