Chasing Shadows

by Yukito

2 - Uncomfortable Car Ride

Shining Armor felt uncomfortable during the long drive back to headquarters. He tried to calm his nerves by just watching the peaceful scenery outside of the car window, but he could still feel the heated glare of Sunset Shimmer driving into his skull. He chanced a glance over at the girl, and her glare intensified tenfold as their eyes met.

The woman sitting beside Sunset Shimmer chuckled, and leaned over to put a hand on her co-worker’s chest. “There there, honey. You don’t have to feel nervous about being around another girl just because I’m here.”

“It’s not that,” Shining Armor said, once again looking outside the window. “And for the last time, Chrysalis, that disguise does not make you Cadance. Please take it off.”

The woman, ‘Chrysalis’, gasped and brought a finger to her hair, twirling it about as she hid her blushing face behind it. “Shiny, please. We have company here, and we’re on duty.”

“You know what I mean,” Shining said through gritted teeth. “Stop disguising yourself as my girlfriend already! It’s really creepy!”

“Oh come now. I put a lot of effort into this one, you know? Her voice took a very long time to emulate, and I had to bind my breasts to make myself as flat as her. Of course I still can’t do anything about my height. Such a shame.”

“Can’t do anything about your weight, either,” Shining mumble. A finger and a thumb grabbed his cheek and pulled at it, causing him to swing his arms about in pain.

“What was that?” Chrysalis asked in a threatening tone.

“I-I said you look great! Y-You seem to have lost a lot of weight lately!”

Chrysalis released Shining Armor and shot him an innocent smile. “Why thank you! I go to the gym everyday to work out.”

“Hey,” Sunset said, not sure how much more of this she could take. “Mind telling me what this is all about? If I were under arrest, I should be wearing handcuffs. And you two wouldn’t be playing about like a dorky couple in love.”

Shining Armor cleared his throat and straightened his tie, and then turned to face Sunset Shimmer. She was still glaring at him. He averted his eyes and tried to explain the situation to her. “W-Well, you see, it’s like this…” Shining shifted his eyes back to Sunset Shimmer once more. “… She really does look like her, huh?”

“That’s because she is her,” Chrysalis explained. “She’s Sunset Shimmer just as much as the one from this world is.”

Sunset’s eyes widened. “You two… know the other Sunset Shimmer?”

Shining Armor nodded. “Actually, she’s my sister’s friend. She visits Twilie’s place quite often and the two together are at the top of their classes.”

Sunset Shimmer huffed. “So, the me here is friends with that spoiled little Princess, huh?”

“Am I sensing deep-seated issues here?” Chrysalis asked in a teasing tone. “Sounds like somepony is jealous.”

Sunset changed her glare to Chrysalis, who didn’t so much as flinch under her gaze. “Jealous?! Hah! As if! If anything, I feel sorry for that brat! Unlike me, she still believes Celestia’s every word! Unlike me, she’s still playing lapdog to that fat-flanked whorse! Unlike me… D-Did you say ‘somepony’?”

“I sure did,” Chrysalis said, pressing a finger to Sunset’s nose. “That’s right. We know all about the world that you came from. Well, not all about it. But we know that it is there, and that you came from it.”

“Some years ago,” Shining Armor began, “An agent working for the FBI spotted you at Canterlot High, but at the time you were spotted, you were also at my parent’s house, eating dinner with Twilie. I was there too, so I could vouch for that.”

“That’s why we kept an eye on you,” Chrysalis said. “It didn’t take long to conclude that you must have come from this alternate world we had spent the last fifty years trying to reach. We watched you from afar, and we took note of every one of your actions. Everything you did, we saw.”

“E-Everything?” Sunset asked, now worried about where exactly the two were going with this. “Y-You mean like-”

“You becoming a demon and enslaving your school? Yeah, we saw,” Shining said. “You may recall, during your transformation, there was probably a tingling feeling in your head at some point. As if something had hit it a high speed?”

“Huh? Uh, now that you mention it…”

Shining sighed. “To think that a sniper’s fire would do absolutely nothing. Magic is truly a force we must learn to control, before the wrong hands figure it out first.”

Sunset’s eyes widened in horror. “Y-You tried to kill me?!”

“What choice did we have?” Chrysalis asked. “From the moment you donned the crown and began to use a power we have no knowledge of, you became too big a threat for us to allow you to live. Of course, now, you’re just an ordinary little girl.”

“An ordinary girl, but with the knowledge we need,” Shining said. “You see, a few months ago, using the magical residue left around the school area, we finally had a breakthrough in our research. And with that, we finally accomplished something that we had been trying to achieve for so long. We opened up our own portal to this other world, one that is open when we want it to be.”

Quite a breakthrough indeed,” Chrysalis said. “With this, as soon as we can guarantee its stability and safety, we can travel into this other world and begin negotiations with its inhabitants. By exchanging knowledge and technology, our two worlds may just be able to guide each other into new, golden ages of peace.”

“Just, one problem,” Shining Armor continued. “Two days ago, a rogue agent by the name of Sombra stole an experimental weapon from our research department, and jumped through the portal.”

“The reason for his sudden betrayal is unknown,” Chrysalis said, “But we cannot simply leave things like this. Our boss has requested that Shining Armor here lead a search party into your world, to find Sombra, apprehend him, and recover the stolen equipment.”

“I’ve already decided that I will be taking Cadance with me,” Shining said. “And for our third member… I felt that somebody with actual experience in this world would be our best bet.”

The three remained silent for some time as Sunset Shimmer allowed all of this information to sink in. “So, let me get this straight: you want me to follow you through this experimental portal back to my home world, the place I fled as a child, to chase after some guy who stole a weapon that does who-knows-what?”

“Essentially, yes,” Shining said. “Of course, if you do not wish to come with us, simply providing us with information about your world will be sufficient. If you refuse to help, I’m afraid I’ve been given orders to lock you away until you change your mind. However, if you do assist us, then we are willing to strike all of your previous crimes from the record. You’ll be free as a bird.”

“… Two things,” Sunset said, “First, I want the FBI to stop watching me twenty-four/seven.”

“I think that can be arranged,” Chrysalis said.

“Second…” A grin crossed Sunset Shimmer’s face as she stretched her hand out towards Shining Armor. “Count me in.”

Comments

[Breaking News]

Chrysalis legimately had me fooled in the first chapter. Nice twist.

[Pinklestia]

This will sure be a dream team.

[Golden Flare]

Found another typo, well, somewhat,

Quite a breakthrough indeed,” Chrysalis said.

You're missing a quotation at the beginning of this piece of dialogue

[Emperor]

Damn, Chrysalis? Good show on her part.

How convenient that it won't be Chrysalis going through the portal, but Cadance. After all, while a couple of ponies that look like their new Crystal Empire rulers would be out-of-place, I assume Chrysalis would turn into a Changeling and all havoc would break loose right away.

[Josiador]

Huh, guess that mystery is cleared up. This interpretation of Sunset is very different from what I'm used to, but I guess you only had the first movie at the time.

[Prince Leviathan]

6495764
Yeah, Queen of the Changelings showing up with Shining would be pretty suspicious and automatically attacked.