Act I-VII
Had I been a better student, I probably would have counted Ms. Yearling as one of my favourite teachers in the school. She was equal parts challenging and fostering, enabling those who struggled to succeed, and pushing the gifted to excel. During my freshman year, I was enamored by her willingness to break away from the normal school curriculum and used literary sources that more conservative-minded adults might have considered too adult for high schoolers to be learning from. I never would have imagined that a Daring Do book could have been so educational and such an eye-opener.
She was the sort of teacher who would engage her students, and once upon a time, I actually enjoyed having conversations with her, or even just listening to her go off on a tangent, which could go on for a while if you didn’t interrupt her. I remembered the hour-long lecture on 15th century civilizations just because the subject was broached in the Daring Do book we were reading as a class. History lessons may not have been her responsibility, but I doubt I could’ve learned more under any other teacher.
Alas, as my ambitions drew back to Equestrian magic and securing myself as de facto ruler of the student body, my interest in Ms. Yearling faded. The sharp wit and keen mind no longer provided me with knowledge and entertainment, and instead became a nuisance whenever I had a new scheme to unfurl. Yearling was smart enough to know when things weren’t as they should be, and it took a lot of work on my part to avoid leaving evidence for her to use against me. When I started using my time in the newspaper club to further my goals, Yearling never stopped looking over my shoulders in hopes of catching me in the act of some crime. I still respected her, even after leaving the newspaper, but I kept my interactions with her to a minimum.
Fluttershy easing me into Yearling’s classroom would mark the first time I had spoken to the literary expert in almost half a year. To describe my mindset as ‘nervous’ would be like describing Fluttershy as ‘a little bit jumpy.’ Even with my friend between me and the door, fleeing like a scared rabbit still felt like a favorable option. Knowing full well that my second guessing would only get worse the more I loitered, I forced myself to take the last few steps that planted me in front of Yearling’s desk.
Now unless Yearling had developed cataracts since our last meeting, there was no way that the woman toiling away on a laptop had yet to notice my arrival. Behind those red, wire-framed glasses, her eyes remained fixated on her work, which I could only assume to be important and engaging given the speed that her fingertips flew across the keyboard.
I had hoped for Yearling to make the first move, but it was obvious that she was forcing that option onto me. I shot a nervous glance back over to Fluttershy, who stood at the nearby doorway, but she had nothing to offer other than a non-verbal gesture to get on with it.
Finally, I cleared my throat, loudly. The click-clacking of the keyboard stopped, and her magenta eyes glanced up to meet my own gaze. Still no words spoken, though.
“I...um, I was hoping to speak with you, Ms. Yearling,” I began. Why was I feeling so nervous? I was never the shy or soft-spoken type, so why did it feel like there was a vice tightening around my chest? There were so many potential outcomes to this conversation, and I had taken zero time to prepare for them. All I could envision was angry yelling, being dragged into the Principal’s office, and yet another Celestia realizing that I was beyond salvation. “I sorta need your help with something.”
Yearling said nothing at first, rather resuming her typing for a brief stint. When she stopped, she smirked and looked back to me. “Well, it’s not exactly freezing, but I guess relative to Tartarus’ usual, it’s cold enough,” she remarked. Yearling then closed her laptop and cupped her hands together on top of it, one finger beginning a steady, rhythmic tapping. “So to what do I owe the pleasure of Canterlot High’s most notorious of students?”
“You’re really enjoying this, aren’t you?” I asked.
She smiled again, less from amusement and more self-congratulatory. “Well I did spend the last year and half having my colleagues all insist that you were the model of perfection. It’s nice to know that I wasn’t paranoid, and you really were up to something this whole time. I almost wish I had a photographer at the Fall Formal so I could have had a framed picture of you as a hell-spawned horror, if only to remind myself that some students really can be that bad.”
I let out a quiet groan as my nervousness was slowly replaced with frustration and despair. “I guess help is out of the question, then.”
“Oh, by Ahuizotl, no!” Yearling insisted in a surprising move. “I might be deriving some small sense of satisfaction and amusement in light of your recent exposure as a morally-bankrupt ne’er-do-well, but I wouldn’t be much of a teacher if I didn’t do what I could to help you on your journey of self-improvement.”
“How did you—?”
“Principal Celestia sent out a memo,” Yearling deadpanned. She leaned back in her seat, folding her arms across her chest. “Believe me, even if I wanted to lambaste you for your past deeds, Tia has made it abundantly clear that she will drop a hammer on any member of the faculty that even thinks about sabotaging your second chance.”
I wasn’t sure how I felt about that news. On the one hand, it did mean that Celestia was doing more than I thought in ensuring my return to school wasn’t a terrifying ordeal, but at the same time, it felt a bit like how my new friends were acting on Twilight’s instructions too. It would have been foolish to think that people would be willing to help me without having to be coerced, but the adage of beggars and choosers came to mind.
“Anyways,” I said as I attempted to steer the conversation back to the important matter at hand, “I was wondering if I could talk to you about Diamond Tiara, and her recent actions as the student-editor.”
“What about her?” Yearling replied. “If you’ve got a problem with the newspaper, you should take to the Principal: she’s the one who told me that I needed to let the paper be a ‘student affair’ and to keep my duties strictly to an advisory role.”
I could tell by the tone that Yearling did not like that particular arrangement. Though I would never describe her as a control freak, she was the type that preferred to be involved with projects rather than sitting on the sidelines. It’s why she took over for the newspaper club in the first place, since most of the clubs just needed the teacher to watch over and make sure one student didn’t knock out another with a tennis ball or something. I didn’t believe that Yearling had no interest in what I wanted to say, but rather something else was holding her back. It took a moment of thought, but I eventually formulated a theory.
“I don’t believe for a second that you’d rather pawn this off to Principal Celestia,” I shot back, throwing in my own little smirk. I felt a whole lot more confident all of a sudden, though I was mindful this time not to let that confidence go to my head. “You’re scared of Diamond Tiara, too, aren’t you?”
As I had hoped, Yearling took that personally, rising to her feet and slamming her hands across the desk. “You think I’d be intimidated by some diamond-speckled whelp?” she snapped back. “I’m not scared of her, her father, or their thousand-dollar-an-hour lawyer.” Once she calmed down, Yearling dropped back into her seat and, with more restraint, interlinked her hands in front of her and recovered her mantle of professionalism. “I’m also not stupid, and flinging accusations without evidence is an easy way to become a target of vindictive children and their high-priced lawyers.”
“Well, your student-editor is strong-arming her staff into writing columns they don’t want to, and she coerced me into stealing Easy Glider’s playbook in order to create headlines.”
Yearling remained stoic in light of the accusation, merely replying with, “Serious accusations require serious evidence.”
I answered her challenge by dropping the playbook onto the desk. The hefty ‘thump’ of the decades-old tome was enough to break her facade, prompting a wide-eyed look of shock that took a few seconds for her to bury away.
“Okay, you’ve got my attention,” she said, reaching out and reorienting the book so that it faced her. She casually opened it up and began to flip through the pages, as if taking a moment to confirm its authenticity. “You do realize, though, that this only proves that you stole the book. This doesn’t even insinuate a connection to Diamond Tiara.”
For a brief instant, I regretted having surrendered my phone to Fluttershy, thus destroying any evidence I could have used to convince Yearling of my case. However, as my soft-spoken friend had explained, means and motive mattered just as much as the end result, and if I had to resort to lying then I didn’t deserve to win. People would have you believe that the only thing that mattered was the truth, but what good was truth if nobody believed it? I had nothing but my own stupidity and pride to blame for that, which meant I had to swallow what little pride I had remaining.
“I know how bad this makes me seem,” I said before making a brief pause to cast a glance back to Fluttershy, “and I’m willing to accept the consequences of my actions. All I’m asking is that you at least grant me the smallest benefit of the doubt, and please look into this matter. Please, I don’t ask this for my sake, but for my friends, who don’t deserve to suffer for my indiscretions, and for the students who are too scared to speak up. I’m asking—no, I’m begging you, please...help them.”
The silence I had to endure while waiting for Yearling to mull over her options, and perhaps having a silent chuckle at my rather pathetic attempt at begging, was enough to give a girl an aneurysm. Her fingertips began to tap out an almost rhythmic pattern upon her computer. Whether or not she believed me, at the very least I could comfort myself knowing that I would be able to walk out of the room knowing that I did the right thing...eventually.
“I can’t make you any promises,” Yearling finally spoke up, maintaining her level, professional tone, “but I’ll look into the matter. I...appreciate your honesty in this matter, and I will be sure to make note of that when I report this to Principal Celestia. Now I suggest you run along, and enjoy your freedom while it lasts.”
With a gentle wave of her hand, she gestured for me to be on my way while she returned to working on her computer. I felt conflicted upon meeting up with Fluttershy; on the one hand, I was going to be in a world of trouble with Celestia when she found out, but given the grave I had dug myself into, this was probably the only right choice to make. I was still worried about my friends, but I felt a bit more confident now that I knew that Yearling was going to be making her own investigations.
“I’m proud of you, Sunset,” Fluttershy said to me as we stepped back into the hallway.
“That makes one of us at least,” I said with a sigh of resignation. “I can’t believe I allowed it to get this bad. I should’ve just listened to you from the start.”
“It’s not your fault...well, not entirely,” my infinitely patient friend reassured me. “You’re used to solving everything by yourself on your own terms. Honestly, I wish I could have that kind of confidence. Still, you have friends now, and there’s no shame in turning to us for help.”
I managed a weak smile; it wasn’t much, but I felt a tiny bit better about my prospects thanks to Fluttershy. I had a feeling that I would be needing to turn to her advice many more times in the near future, if only to make sure that my moral compass was still aligned properly.
*******************
Despite a strong urge to return home and lock myself away in preparation for the stern lecture I would surely receive from Celestia, Fluttershy managed to convince me to join her and the others at Sugarcube Corner after school. The thought of something laden with chocolate and cream made for an enticing offer. On top of that, Celestia was bound to implement some form of punishment once Yearling told her of my misdeeds, so there was a good chance that this would be my last chance to socialize as a free woman for the next little while.
The other girls were already at the cafe by the time Fluttershy and I arrived: Rarity was enjoying her tea while discussing the latest gossip with Pinkie, and Applejack and Rainbow Dash were having a milkshake race. Rainbow Dash won, and by that I mean that she was the first to start screaming of an ice cream headache, clutching at the sides of her skull as though somebody had just jammed a frozen vanilla syringe into her brain. Judging by Applejack’s casual smirk, that had been her plan from the very beginning. They were gathered at their usual, favourite spot near the cashier with the big, green couch.
“Howdy you two, what kept ya?” Applejack was the first to greet our arrival.
“I needed some...help from Fluttershy,” I explained with the hopes of not having to get into too much detail about it.
It turned out that was a forlorn hope as Fluttershy gave me a nudge with her elbow. When I glanced her way to see why, she gestured to the others and said, “I think you owe a few of our friends an apology.”
Under normal circumstances, I would’ve objected to being forced to apologize, but with humble pie having become a staple of my diet, I went along with Fluttershy’s request. I still didn’t like the idea, but if apologies were supposed to be fun, then people would be doing horrible things all the time.
“Just give me a second to find the right words,” I said with a sigh. Once I took a seat, I noticed all of my friends were looking to me with varying degrees of curiosity and confusion. I think out of everyone, Applejack was the only other person who knew what this apology was all about. “The past few days, I may have been...not entirely honest with all of you, some more than others. In doing something that I thought would help Fluttershy, I instead wound up doing some rather unsavory things.” I then proceeded to explain the whole ordeal from the beginning, including my original plans to blackmail Diamond Tiara and how Fluttershy talked me down. The girls appeared to be surprised, but not disappointed or angry. I guess Applejack was right when she said my heart was in the right place even if my head wasn’t. “I owe Applejack a huge apology, I should have listened to you from the start, and I’m sorry I put you into a position where you had to hide the truth from your friends.”
“In all fairness, though, I did wind up telling Fluttershy in the end,” Applejack replied with an indifferent shrug. “I think we can call ourselves even.” I believe Applejack said that just to spare me from any further guilt, which I did appreciate.
“And I owe an apology to Rainbow Dash as well,” I continued, turning my gaze over to her. She had been paying little attention to the conversation, unfortunately, but perked up when she heard her name being mentioned. “I took advantage of your friendship in order to steal a playbook. So, again, I’m sorry.”
“No biggie,” Rainbow replied with a shrug. “To be honest, I’m sort of impressed you could break into a locked drawer in the minute or so that I had stepped out of the room. Where’d you learn how to do that?”
I hadn’t expected Rainbow Dash to show much interest in one of my obscure and clandestine hobbies. Like a lot of the new skills I picked up in this world, it stemmed mostly from necessity rather than a genuine interest. “Online resources and lots of practise,” I answered. “It’s not illegal to own a lockpick kit, after all. I bought a kit online along with a whole bunch of different locks and just kept working on it at night.”
“Okay, now that just sounds kinda boring,” Rainbow said as her interest fell to the wayside. “So does this mean you can break into all sorts of locked places?”
“Hardly, I’ve only been practising on and off for the past year or so,” I explained. Discussing my old habits felt awkward for me, as if I should be more ashamed of these skills, or at the very least, less forthcoming about them. “I can handle your run-of-the-mill padlock and maybe cheap locks on desks and filing cabinets, but I’ve never tried on anything more complicated than that.”
Rainbow Dash leaned back in her seat, balancing her milkshake on the palm of her hand, as she pondered over what I had just said. “Eh, I guess that’s still pretty cool,” she remarked after a moment of contemplation.
“Thanks...I think.” On the one hand, it was nice to know that my friends didn’t think less of me for possessing some more esoteric skills, but at the same time, I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to talk about it, lest I get tempted to put those skills to use again.
“I wonder if the school has a lock picking club. Maybe there’s another hobby we can try,” Pinkie Pie commented. She appeared to still be fixated on the idea of getting me into a club, not that I didn’t appreciate the effort. Everyone was quick to point out that no such club would get an approval from the principal. “You know, now that I think about it, Sunset, there’s a lot we don’t know about you.”
“Well if you want to ask, my pride is too tenderized to fight back against any personal or invasive questions,” I offered.
Pinkie’s grin grew twice in size as she began waving her arms in the air as if she were having a seizure. “Oh! Pick me first. I have a question!” she shouted.
I had to refrain from chuckling too loudly at her antics, though I did stay silent for a few more seconds just to watch her as she flailed about the table like an over-eager student. “Okay Pinkie,” I finally gave in, “what’s your question?”
Pinkie grabbed a nearby napkin and began to use the chocolate shake at the end of her straw to doodle crude pictures across them. “Okay, so Twilight told us that she was actually from another world where she lived as a pony princess,” Pinkie began, holding up a stick-figure drawing of a horse with a crown, “and she came to our world because you stole a crown from hers.” For some reason, Pinkie decided to make a slide-show out of her question, folding the napkin over to reveal another stick figure of what I presumed to be me and a stolen crown jumping through a portal. “So if you knew about her crown and how it works, then that means you’re from that world too.”
“Is there actually going to be a question?” I asked due to growing impatience.
“You were a pony too, right?”
“Yes, Pinkie, I used to be a pony.” Was all that lead-up necessary for such a mundane question? To be honest, I was surprised that Twilight hadn’t made any mention of that before she left.
“What was it like?”
Though I had a general idea what Pinkie was referring to, I felt nonetheless confused. “What was what like?” I asked in the hopes of clarification.
“Being a pony, obviously,” Pinkie answered. “Was it fun? Do ponies throw parties too? Are there, like, pony-version of pony rides there?”
Before I could even get a chance to answer Pinkie’s question, the subject opened a flood gate from the rest. What did they eat? What did they wear? Did they have sports? How did they farm? Could all the animals talk?
“Didn’t Twilight tell you any of these things when she was with you girls?” I snapped back, if only to avoid getting buried under more Equestria-related questions.
“She didn’t really tell us until the day of the Fall Formal,” Rarity explained. “We were all focused on helping Twilight get her crown back that we never really got a chance to ask. When your whole...um, demon-thing happened, that left us with even less time.” There was a quick round of nods and murmurs of agreement from the others. It was a pity that the portal only opened every thirty moons, otherwise I would’ve dragged Twilight back so she could field the hundred-and-one questions that she should’ve handled in the first place.
“Listen, girls, you’re asking a lot at once,” I tried to reason with them. With any luck, I could maybe talk them down to just a few very specific questions rather than having to spend my afternoon giving them a verbal guided tour of Equestria. “My world is...a lot like this one, except that instead of humans, everyone is a pony. I mean, there’s also goats, cows, donkeys, mules, and gryphons.”
“You have gryphons?” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. “Aw man, I wish I could be a gryphon. That would be so awesome!”
“As I was saying,” I cut in, unamused by the interruption, “there’s a lot of similarities between our worlds. I mean, the only other major difference is we use a lot of magic where you people would have technology.”
Unlike her friend, Applejack waited for a pause in the dialogue before asking her next question. “Could everyone use magic?” she inquired.
“If its imbued into a mundane object, like a book, then yes. Otherwise, though, magic was pretty much exclusive to unicorns.”
“So that means you were a unicorn?” Rarity chimed. “Oh my, that sounds so majestic. It must have been incredible to be able to use magic everyday like it’s completely normal.”
“Yeah, it was pretty awesome,” I replied. My voice began to falter and trailed off at the end. The realization that magic was now completely beyond my grasp hadn’t quite sunk in until that moment. As I fell deathly silent, my friends were quick to clue in on that root of my sudden tranquility.
“I’m sorry, darling, we didn’t mean to make you feel homesick,” Rarity apologized. There was another round of nods and murmurs of agreement from the others.
I knew they were trying to be polite, but none of them could fully understand what I was feeling at that instant. It was a little more than just being homesick: magic had been an integral part of me for most of my life. Back in Equestria, whenever somebody said ‘Sunset Shimmer,’ the first thing that popped to mind was ‘magic.’ A Sunset Shimmer without her magic was like Applejack without her farm, or Pinkie Pie without her parties. Remaining in the human world wasn’t just losing Equestria, it was losing a part of myself.
“It’s no big deal,” I said dismissively. There were enough things in my life that my friends were already helping me with, dumping a problem that they could never solve was not going to help anybody. “I guess a part of me just wishes I had gone back to Equestria with Twilight. Even though things would never be the same with me and Princess Celestia, at least I’d be back to my old self again.”
“Whoa! Hold the phone there, missy,” Applejack interrupted suddenly. “Did you just say Princess Celestia?”
“Didn’t Twilight mention that her world has a Celestia, too?” I asked back even though I could tell what the answer was going to be. The confused and stunned looks I got in response was all the confirmation I needed. “Of course she didn’t: because that would’ve been convenient and spared me from having to explain it.” As my friends continued staring at me, expecting an answer, I knew my hopes of avoiding this awkward line of discussion had just run out the door, across the street, and caught a bus out of town. “Okay, here’s the deal: the world that Twilight and I came from isn’t just another world, it’s a parallel world. Pretty much everyone who exists in this world, does or has existed in the other world. Here, Celestia is the principal of a high school, but where I’m from, Celestia is a princess and the nigh-immortal ruler of the Kingdom of Equestria.”
“Wow, somebody got the short end of the stick on that deal,” Rainbow Dash quipped.
Applejack was the first to start piecing together the implications of my response. “So that would explain how Twilight knew my name when we first met. She must know the Applejack from her world.”
“You probably both like wearing that hat,” Rainbow joked before giving the aforementioned chapeau a quick flick to tip it over Applejack’s eyes.
“But if you and Twilight are from a different world, then doesn’t that mean there’s a version of you already here?” Ten points to Fluttershy for being the first to reach the inevitable question.
“Yes, there probably is another me somewhere out there,” I answered. Though I had few options available if I ever did run into myself, I had taken the precautions of conducting my own investigations. “But I’ve checked the school records, and even did some searching on the internet. I couldn’t find any record of another Sunset Shimmer coming within a hundred miles of Canterlot High.”
A brilliant grin spread across Pinkie’s face as an idea dawned upon her. “Maybe next time we can visit Twilight’s world,” she suggested, “and then I can meet the other me. Oh! I bet I would be the bestest of friends with me!”
“I’m not entirely sure any universe is prepared to have two Pinkie Pies in it,” Applejack joked.
I sometimes wondered if even one Pinkie Pie was pushing our luck with cosmic boundaries.
“You don’t suppose this also means there’s another Twilight Sparkle out there somewhere?” Rarity remarked.
It was a thought that had crossed my mind in recent days. While I had done my research into any possible existence of a second Sunset Shimmer, I had never bothered to look into other Twilights. In my three years at Canterlot High, I had never encountered any sign of her, so I had always presumed that she was simply too far away to be of any concern. However, when Rarity broached the subject, I worried about what a second Twilight might mean. The response that I feared came swift.
“Maybe we should see about finding the other Twilight then,” Rainbow Dash suggested. “I mean, even if she’s only half as awesome as the other Twilight is, then that’s still pretty good.”
It was a natural response to the situation, as unnatural as said situation happened to be. It had only been a week, but they all missed their friend. They all knew, as I had explained to them, that the portal between our worlds only opened every thirty moons, which meant it would be years before Twilight could even potentially return, let alone pull herself away from her responsibilities as an Equestrian princess. It was only natural that the others would want to seek out any chance of having that friendship again, just like I would seek any chance at regaining magic.
Thankfully, Applejack gave voice to the concerns that would have made me sound jealous or paranoid if I had spoken them.
“Listen, I miss Twilight as much as the rest of ya, but we can’t just go up and treat a second Twilight like she’s identical to the first,” she interjected. One could always rely on Applejack to be the voice of reason to counterbalance Rainbow’s bravado or Pinkie’s hyperactive enthusiasm. “As far as we ought to be concerned, the Twilight of this world is as much a stranger as the next random gal. If we acted like we knew her, it’d probably creep her out...or worse.”
“We don’t have to act like we know her,” Rainbow Dash insisted. Whether she honestly believed that to be a valid idea or simply her usual behavior of taking anything Applejack said and assuming a counter-position to it. Everything had to be a competition with those two. “There’s no harm if we just bump into her and start talking. If we become friends, she’ll never have to know.”
“I can’t be the only one here who thinks that’s an even worse idea!” Applejack snapped back. I did, but I refrained from getting involved with the debate, as did the other girls. “There’s no way we could keep that kind of a secret, friend or not. Rarity’s got, like, a bazillion pictures on her MyStable page of Twilight at the Fall Formal.”
“For your information,” Rarity spoke up in her own defense, “those photo albums are set to private. They can be seen by my frien—oohhh. I think I may have realized a slight flaw in that plan.”
“No kidding,” Applejack deadpanned. “Listen, I know this may sound harsh, but it might be for the best if we just...forget about this world’s Twilight. I mean, she ain’t ever going to be able to replace our friend, so why try?”
There were quiet sighs of disappointment from the others as they realized the truth of her words. From freaking out a poor innocent girl with the news of a magical doppelganger, to the sheer risk of the magic portal becoming public knowledge, there were just too many risks involved. If word got out about the magic portal, we risked losing our only connection to Twilight, and my only way back home. Plus, if the world found out about the magic portal, they might find out about me, and then I’d wake up in the middle of night with a burlap sack over my head, being carted off to some secret government facility in the middle of the desert where they could do Celestia-knows what kind of experiments.
I didn’t want to be probed! I had seen the movies; I knew where they put those things.
“I think I should get going,” I announced all of a sudden and promptly rose to my feet. Lingering around any longer would just cause my mind to drift back to secrets and probings, and I would rather not have a panic attack in the middle of Sugarcube Corner. “I’ve got a lot of homework to finish, and I’m sure Princess—er, I mean, Principal Celestia will want to have a word with me.”
“You okay, Sunset? You look a little weirded out,” Applejack inquired.
“It’s nothing. I’ve just got a lot of probing—I mean reading! I’ve got a lot of reading to do.”
Despite their confused stares that begged for a better explanation, I made a hasty retreat before I embarrassed myself further. I wasn’t sure why I allowed myself to get so shaken up over a trivial thought, but it had never dawned on me what kind of repercussions I faced if more people found out that I wasn’t native to this world. Back when I assumed my stay here would be temporary and kept a low-profile, I had no real reason to be afraid. Suffice to say, though, that was no longer the case. Thankfully, the other students at Canterlot High didn’t realize the full extent of who and what Twilight and I were. As far as they were aware, Twilight Sparkle was just some magical girl from somewhere far away. So long as I didn’t attract any further attention, I should be safe.
As I headed down the sidewalk, I noticed that my backpack was lighter than it should’ve been. A quick check inside revealed the answers as to why. “Oh, blast it all. I forgot my history book in my locker,” I grumbled upon discovering the absence.
Though my homework wasn’t worth much in terms of marks, I saw no reason why I shouldn’t treat it with the same level of diligence as any other assignment. It would only require a brief detour back to the school to grab what I needed.
If I had known what events I was about to set into motion, I would’ve just gone home and handed in a piece of paper with alphabet soup poured across it.
*******************
Lucky for me, the school still had a few clubs and meetings running, so I didn’t have to beg a janitor to unlock the doors for me. However, at this hour of the day, only a few of the side doors were still unlocked, so I had to navigate around the school in order to get inside. On the way, I passed by the front entrance, pausing for a brief moment at the still-ruined main doors. Proper reconstruction had already begun, so the entire front entryway was covered in tarps and plastics in order to keep wandering students from interfering with the work. I still remembered spending the night of the Fall Formal cleaning the mess up.
Thank goodness that Celestia decided against having us do any actual rebuilding. Turns out there were legal and insurance-based reasons why it was better to leave such work to professional contractors.
I noticed that even the crater had yet to be fully filled in, though given its size, that wasn’t too surprising. I never realized how big a hole the incident had left until I was standing at the edge, looking down. A part of me wanted to forget about that entire night, but the big blue tarp over the front doors and the bright orange pylons around the crater made it hard for me to ignore the scars of my past ambitions.
“I don’t get it, Spike. None of these readings make sense.”
In that moment of fixation with my accidental landscaping, I failed to notice that I was not alone in the schoolyard, and that somebody had been lurking on the opposite side of the high school’s famous horse statue. When I turned towards the source of the unsettlingly familiar voice, I saw the last person I expected emerging into view. At first my mind was in absolute disbelief, as if I had just witnessed somebody rising from the dead. There was no way it could be her, and yet there she was.
“Twi—!” Thankfully, my brain had been fast enough to stop me from blurting out Twilight’s name as I slapped a hand over my mouth. Though the girl in the distance was, without a doubt, Twilight Sparkle, there was also no question that it was not the same girl that had been crowned Princess of the Fall Formal. Rather than the image of a prim and proper student, the girl in the distance looked as though she cared about appearances as much as I cared about a ham sandwich. The thick-framed glasses were a dead giveaway too, and it seemed like this Twilight hadn’t used a hairbrush since the last time I had four legs.
A lot of things were running through my mind as I stared in abject disbelief, most of which were words that should not be repeated in polite company. What was this Twilight Sparkle doing here? She was carrying around some sort of strange device in her hands, moving it around the air as though she were trying to get a wireless signal or something. Thoughts of Applejack’s prior warnings echoed in my mind; regardless of how I felt, I had to keep my distance and let this girl go about her business as though she were a complete stranger.
“Is that a geiger counter?” I pondered briefly. “Wait, she said ‘Spike’ so that means there should be a—”
My concerns as to where her tiny purple companion was were answered in short order as a sudden barking at my feet sent me into a blind panic. Now a more astute mind would have realized that I had no real reason to be concerned just yet. The Twilight Sparkle in the distance hadn’t even noticed my presence, and if she did, she would see me no differently than any random student from Canterlot High. In fact, unless another student showed up, Twilight would be able to go about her business and leave without any lasting repercussions. All I needed to do was go about my business and not draw attention to myself.
Of course, a more astute mind would’ve also remembered that I was standing in front of a giant hole in the ground. When the true-canine Spike began barking at me, without thinking I took a step backwards, only for my feet to discover there was nothing but two feet of air beneath it. With a cry of a most unlady-like profanity, I went tumbling down into the crater.
“That was a real work of brilliance, Sunset,” I lamented in silence, staring up at the blue sky above. At the edge of my vision, I could see Spike still standing at the edge of the crater, barking incessantly. I groaned and shut my eyes, hoping that my display of eloquence would go unnoticed.
“Um, excuse me! Are you hurt?” The sound of Twilight’s voice calling out to me confirmed that I had failed the ‘go unnoticed’ portion of my plan.
It wasn’t the end of the world, though, as I just needed to remain disengaged so that she could go back to her business. The sooner that this Twilight left the school premises, the better. If another happened to spot her, that would open up a world of problems so massive it would make Discord's reign seem like a minor inconvenience.
“I’m fine. Lucky for me, my dignity broke my fall,” I answered. If I stayed distant and cold, Twilight would go back to her business. It should be easy given that I had spent so many years acting that way to the rest of the school.
“Oh...okay then,” Twilight replied, sounding oddly nervous. She lingered for a few moments, which struck me as curious, but the reason why soon became clear. “Hey, um, since you’re already down there, do you think you could get me some soil samples?”
“Soil samples?” I muttered under my breath before getting back onto my feet. I thought that I had misheard her, but once I was up, I saw her holding out a small plastic bag with a spoon inside. I figured that she presented a valid point, and if a little bit of dirt helped her on her way, then I should lend what aid I could. “Might as well, I guess.”
I helped myself to the bag and started scooping out small amounts of dirt from various spots across the crater. After a few spoonfuls, she asked for some samples on the far side, which I grudgingly went along with. My curiosity was getting the better of my judgment as I pondered what this could be about, and it eventually got to the point where I just had to give voice to it.
“What could you possibly need all this dirt for?” I asked as I handed the sample bag back. Meanwhile, the voice inside my head was shouting at me to just shut up and keep my distance.
“It’s soil,” Twilight corrected. “And it’s...um, for a project.”
“Okay Sunset, it’s obvious that she doesn’t want to talk about it so just leave it at that.”
“Are you comparing the ambient radioactivity between the particulates in the air and the soil?” I inquired. It would explain the equipment, but why would she be snooping around here of all places? Had the incident with the Element of Magic left behind some trace evidence? There was a lot of magical energy being thrown about that night, so it was entirely possibly that some people outside the school may have noticed it.
“I...uh, I am, actually.” She was acting nervous again, but I suspected that may have been because her project was probably not at anybody’s behest. That meant you had a random girl snooping around a school afterhours, which could raise a few eyebrows since most teenagers spend their after-school hours watching television and eating pizza. “How did you guess?”
“Geiger counter.”
“Right. Of course.” Twilight probably did not expect anybody her age to be able to recognize such a device at a glance, though to be honest, I wasn’t certain until Twilight confirmed the nature of her project.
“Seriously, Sunset, just shut up already. No good can come from talking to her.”
Despite my rational mind’s insistence, I did exactly the opposite. “You do know that the subsoil under this city has a higher-than-average radionuclide count, right? Given the, um...gas line explosion that happened here last weak, a lot of those particulates are probably still floating in the air.”
Why I said that, I still do not know. Perhaps I was trying to throw her off from her investigation with alternate theories, or maybe I was just trying to sound smart after being corrected about dirt. Though to be honest, the only reason I knew that little tidbit of information was because it came up in one of the assignments I did for Gilda.
“Good point, I had forgotten about that,” Twilight remarked, sounding a bit more at ease. “I guess I’ll need to collect samples from a control group for better comparison.”
“Okay, you’ve had your fun. Now just climb out, get your books, and go home.”
It sounded like a simple enough plan. As I clambered up the side, though, I noticed an outstretched hand being offered. I should’ve stuck with ‘cold and distant’ but I saw no harm in accepting the help. Once I was out, I noticed that Twilight was regarding me with a strange look of curiosity.
“Are...you a student at this school?” she asked.
“Don’t answer that! Just lie, or deflect, or just...walk away!”
“Yes, I am,” I replied.
“Oh, okay then. I just never ran into anybody that knew about the whole radionuclide thing that hadn’t been a student in Mr. Slate’s geology class,” she answered, as though any of that would have made sense to me.
There was a brief pause of awkward silence, which I was about to use as my cue to leave when we started to hear a faint crackling sound. We exchanged confused looks before realizing that the noise was emanating from between us. That was when we looked down and noticed that Twilight had her geiger counter pointed at my crotch. It was a good thing Rainbow Dash wasn’t around or she would never allow me to forget this moment.
“Now that’s strange,” Twilight murmured to herself as she took a closer look at her device.
“Is that a ‘go see a doctor’ kind of strange?” I asked. There was a faint hint of concern, but only because I didn’t know the long-term effects of exposing human physiology to other-worldly magic.
Twilight didn’t answer right away, and instead just moved the sensor part of her geiger counter up and down my body, where it continued making the same crackling noise. “You weren’t...rolling about on the ground while you were down in that hole, were you?” she inquired.
“Well I did fall into it,” I said, folding my arms across my chest. Now might have been a good time to start acting more distant and cold.
“This doesn’t make sense at all, unless she lives under a thirty-year-old nuclear reactor,” Twilight continued muttering to herself. I got the impression that I didn’t need to act distant since she was more engrossed with her science gimmicks than the conversation. “Maybe I should get a sample from her just to confirm.”
“Excuse me?”
Twilight must have been lost in her own thoughts because she suddenly became very flustered. “Oh! I...er, I didn’t mean that,” she stammered, quickly tucking her device behind her back. “I was just...er, what I mean to say is that—” She started to babble, fumbling her words in a desperate attempt to avoid upsetting me. As her eyes darted around, mostly fixated upon some of the more interesting blades of grass, I almost began to feel a bit sorry for the girl. It was like she hadn’t a clue how to handle a conversation.
Impatience eventually got the better of me so I stepped in to put the poor girl out of her misery. “Okay, just stop,” I interrupted. “I think it might be a good idea if you just finish whatever it is you’re doing here, and head on your way…before you make things more awkward.”
“Y-yes, I should do that,” Twilight said with a quick nod. “Um, sorry to have bothered you.”
Desperate to escape the unease, she scooped up her canine companion and hurried off towards the nearest bus stop. When she finally disappeared from my sight, I was still standing in a confused stupor by the old crater.
“So that’s Twilight Sparkle,” I muttered to myself. “Maybe I don’t have that much to worry about, after all.”
Continuing on the day’s trend of poor decision-making, I chose to keep the details of this encounter to myself for the time being. There was no reason to get the other girls involved, as it would’ve just given them false hope and resulted in a stern lecture from Applejack. In the end, I figured that my life would be easier if I just put today’s events behind me.
Sadly, if I thought anything in my life was going to be get simpler from this point on, I was going to be very disappointed.
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Sunset meeting H Twilight, priceless
Hahaha.
Awesome usage of human Sparkle.
Hm, you can't be the first person to have thought about Sunset getting abducted and experimented on. I would like to know if some sick mind already made a gore fic about just that.
It's really great to see the girls actually being reasonable about human Twilight Sparkle, rather than shunting Sunset Shimmer aside in a creepy quest to recruit a duplicate of their friend (the choice of a lot of other stories).
The whole background with Yearling was great, I also remember that it was implied that Sunset Shimmer had a period soon after she arrived when she wasn't being evil, just trying to fit in.
Despite what I said earlier, it is cool to see Twilight scanning Sunset for radiation, and also that she has a very reasonable fear of ending up like E.T. I suspect that's why most of the adults are going along with Celestia on not reporting Sunset Shimmer to the police. I suspect most teachers, even if they want Sunset arrested, don't want her vivisected.
So I came in expecting lots of interesting things with Ms. Yearling and came out with a meeting with human world's Twilight.
This just keeps getting more and more interesting.
Things are starting to get good. Between Sunset's eventual punishment and human Twilight, I have a very good feeling things are going to start getting very, very interesting.
Yeah, Chekhov Device anyone?
5483754 YOU DO KNOW THAT SUNSET SHIMMER STILL HAS RESIDUAL MAGIC ON HER NOT FROM THE CRATER! THIS MEETING IS NOT AS INNOCENT AS YOU THINK IT IS! SUNSET MAY STILL HAVE MAGIC! AND TWILIGHT SPARKLE MAY GET EPILEPSY FROM THAT!
Sunset thinks that Twilight is going to leave her alone now, but she's totally wrong. Petty things like 'socially acceptable practices' and 'morals' are nothing before the curiosity of Twilight Sparkle.
Sunset's Brain: That's it! I am out!
cdn.meme.am/instances/500x/56295211.jpg
Well, well, well, well, well... The storyline thickens... Given the teaser at the end of "Rainbow Rocks," however, there's not much you can do with this line unless you slap an AU tag on this story. Hmm...
Huh, I wonder why she might have picked that book.
Is this like JK Rowling saying "By Lord Voldemort"?
That's very convincing.
Yeah, imagine Pinkie ever found a way to clone herself; that would be insane.
6129767 It'll be like the Mirror Pool of '13... or was '14?
Poor Sci-Twi! Running into Sunset Shimmer - Brash, confident and intelligent Sunset Shimmer - must have been like someone pulling an Ice Bucket Challenge on her without her knowledge or consent!
Yes, Twilight, Sunset is mildly irradiated due to a quantum field anomaly tracking across her entire body. Now... Do you know why?
Very interesting read, and it definitely raises some potential issues that I had not considered. Gonna keep going with this one.
Great first act.
I especially like the dynamic between Sunset Shimmer and Fluttershy in this. I liked that she was willing to put up with the abuse as long as it was for her new friends and that she has little to no concept of how to be good. In a way it reminds me of Starlight Glimmer in the show who constantly goes back to abusing magic whenever things aren't going her way and it usually backfires on her.
I wonder if Spoiled Rich is still head of the school board in this. I'd imagine not as it was probably written before she was a thing so the odds of Diamond having her own redemption later are slim to none, shame that but hey you might surprise me. Nonetheless Diamond made for an effective antagonist for the opening arc.
Wonder what trouble human Twilight is going to cause and if the Dazzlings are going to show up later. Better read the next arc and find out.
None of us want to be probed.
Famous last words.
:|
You know, these parts REALLY remind me of Ciaphas Cain.