Familiarity
Twilight grinned at her 10 page report she had written about Sunset and Shimmer’s first meeting for her experiment. Overall observations so far? Satisfyingly good. They were both showing progress on the path to becoming friends. To be honest, she had previously thought progress like that wouldn't occur until approximately a month after the research officially started.
"Any progress is good progress," she said to herself as she stowed the notepad away in her backpack. Right now, it was getting towards the end of the day, and Sunset was walking alongside her and Shimmer. Twilight had used every excuse in the book to keep the girl from drifting away so she could keep recording data. But of course, they had to separate to attend different classes; it couldn't be helped. Sunset waved her empty metal thermos around, voicing her desire for coffee to fill it to the brim like it had that morning.
"Coffee gods!” she called, “Send down that heavenly brown brew and fill this holy grail with its delicious presence. No cup of holiness should be without its 'holy water'!" she cried up at the sky, holding her thermos up as though the beverage was truly going to pour into it.
Shimmer rolled her eyes and made a face. "How do you like that stuff? It's so...so...bitter! And gross! And it smells bad!"
Sunset glanced at her. "Do you think alcoholics get addicted because of the taste?" she asked, a little sarcastically.
Shimmer tilted her head. "Yes...?"
"No! Alcohol tastes and smells like shit! They drink it because it makes them feel good inside and it's a great way to improve your mood." Sunset tapped Shimmer on the nose. "You feel all fuzzy and happy and warm when you drink it."
Twilight watched Shimmer's face, and from the look of it, she did not approve of what was coming out of her counterpart's mouth, not at all. She wasn't sure if Shimmer was more disgusted by her language or the content itself, but it was clear she wasn't on board with what was said. Shimmer opened her mouth and said to her in a whisper, "So...you drink??"
Sunset shrugged. "On occasion."
"But why??"
Sunset grinned. "Hey, I don't do it everyday. Just on special occasions to be all ready to party, you know? It's fun. Back in my world we have something like alcohol. It's called Cider. Very bubbly, and it can get you wasted after four shots."
Shimmer shook her head and prepared to deliver a long speech about the dangers of alcohol. Behind them, Twilight was scratching at her notepad furiously, writing down this new piece of information. The two of them continued their conversation/argument when they heard the blare of a car horn. The three girls looked to see what was up and saw a rainbow-haired girl waving her fist at the motorist who honked.
"Hey!” she shouted indignantly, “ I'm walking here!"
On the other side of the street were five girls, four of them frowning and yelling at the one in the street to hop on the sidewalk. They were a strange group; Shimmer felt as though she should know them, but she racked her brain and couldn't find any reason as to why she should. But there was one girl whom she did recognize. This young woman stood there with her arms crossed, and looked smugly at the "rainbow chick", who was currently in the midst of a loud disagreement with the driver of the car that beeped at her. The girl had blue skin and minty white hair. Her shirt was violet with sparkling stars on them. In one of her hands, she had a wand.
Before Shimmer could even register what was going on, she felt Sunset grab her hand and pull her away from the scene. "Let’s go. Right now."
"Hey, hey wait! What're we leaving for? My home is back that way!" Shimmer cried.
The ex-demoness placed a finger on the girl's lips to keep them closed before frowning at her. "Don't draw any attention to us." She grabbed Twilight and dragged them toward the ever flowing river of students exiting the building. They squeezed past the teenagers and were yanked out in front of the Main Office. Sunset glanced back before sighing.
"What was all that about?" Twilight asked. "What happened?"
"That bitch Trixie happened," the Equestrian grumbled under her breath.
"Language," Shimmer said sternly.
Sunset ignored her and crossed her arms. Twilight tapped her pencil on her cheek. "Trixie...Sounds familiar. Wasn't she the Student Body Secretary?"
Shimmer snapped her fingers. "That's right! That blue girl! She was the one Sunset and I were running away from at the Spring Fling!"
The oldest of the three groaned. "Yeah, that's her. She's a complete idiot! I'm not sure what she's doing here with the girls but whatever it is it can’t be good."
"Well, I'm not sure what your past might have been regarding Trixie, but it has nothing to do with the present," the human counterpart told her. "I want to go home; school's out for the day. We can all go out the back exit, and we’d better hurry. The bus is coming in five minutes and if I don't catch it in time, I'll have to walk home. And that takes about an hour since I live on the edge of town."
Both duplicates started heading toward the back exit. Twilight waved them on. "I'll catch the next bus. I have some research to do."
"Twilight, you better not get involved with Trixie, you hear? She's just not a good person," Sunset warned.
Shimmer slapped her arm. "And what makes you any better than her?"
"Hey I've changed, ok?"
"You sure this is the school she's goin' to?" Applejack asked Trixie as they walked across the street after the 15 minute delay. She pulled Rainbow along in her iron grip to keep an eye on her.
Trixie nodded curtly. "You asked for directions and you got them. Principal Celestia confirmed this was the location of Pointeville High. Riff Raff, the Student Body Treasurer, checked the Guest Log despite Trixie telling him her signature wouldn't be there. Trixie knows she crashed the party like she always does, that heathen..."
"I think it's best you don't go round callin' our friend names, Trixie," the cowgirl said with a huff. "What're you followin' us for, anyway?"
"Yes. I'd quite like to hear your response to that question," Rarity chimed, eyeing the magician warily.
Trixie patted her hair vainly before clearing her throat. "Trixie is merely here to look around. Trixie has nothing better to do this afternoon."
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "The only thing you're looking for is trouble. And would you quit with the third person talk? It's driving me insane!"
Applejack squeezed her arm warningly. Fluttershy glanced at all the students leaving the building. "It looks as though it's dismissal. I noticed them filing out while we were being held up earlier. The building should be empty by now; it's been about 20 minutes now. Where's Sunset?"
"Yeah, where is she?" Pinkie Pie wondered aloud. "We were going to talk to her about to her about the whole 'not the Twilight we know' thing!"
Trixie's eyes flickered to her, now ignoring the sluggish students she had been watching for a while. "'Not the Twilight you know'...?"
Rainbow Dash and Applejack shared a look before turning their attention back to her. Rainbow shrugged. "At least that's what we've been told. What makes you so interested in it?"
The arrogant one waved nonchalantly at them with a small chuckle. "Oh nothing." With one skinny finger, she pointed at Pointeville High. "Why don't you look inside the school if your friend hasn't come out yet?" The emphasis on 'friend' clearly held contempt, as if she were forced to to vomit.
"Oh, I don't know about that," Fluttershy responded. "Isn't that trespassing?"
"Don't be silly now! It's only trespassing when we're trying to do something illegal, like vandalism. It'll be fine. No one will cause us any trouble if we're looking for an oh so close buddy of ours." The words coming out of the outsider's mouth made everyone feel uneasy. They didn't trust her one bit. Her excuse for just 'looking around' was not one they believed, and now she was trying to help them find Sunset? What made her want to do that? She and Sunset were not close at all.
Trixie started walking toward the school. "You all can stand there all you want. She obviously isn't going to come out soon since it's been almost, what, 25 minutes now? Come on. You'll never talk to her at this rate."
As she got closer and closer to the facility and farther and farther away from the group of friends, they all slowly gave in and followed her from a distance. There was no other option but to turn around and go home if they didn't trudge behind Trixie. They entered the school without any trouble. No one seemed to notice that they weren't local students. The halls were empty if you didn't count the teenagers that stayed behind for after school tutoring or clubs and sports. As they walked through the halls looking into classrooms and wondering where Sunset could be, Trixie went in another direction in the hopes of finding Twilight.
"The bus!!"
Shimmer doubled over at the bus stop, heaving great puffs of breath as she fought to catch her breath.
Sunset casually walked up to her, not even breaking a sweat. "Looks like you missed it, kiddo." They watched the back of the huge automotive bump up and down the street until it was just a speck on the horizon, and turned onto another street.
Shimmer groaned. "Now I have to walk home..."
"What's wrong with that?" her 'friend' asked.
"Nothing. It's just I've been doing it for the last five years. I walked to Elementary School, Middle School, and PHS during Freshman Year. My father only just agreed to pay for monthly student passes on the bus and I wanted to take advantage of it..."
Sunset chuckled and nudged her in the shoulder with her elbow. "At least all that walking kept you healthy. Walking is exercise, especially when you're trying to hurry to get to school on time."
The technically younger one blushed slightly. "True. I'm just not feeling it today. I just want to get home using as little energy as I can."
Sunset smiled. "Stay right here, young’un'."
In a hurry, Sunset ran off toward the school and left Shimmer there at the bus stop but it didn't take long for her to come back. She rode up on her black Harley Davidson and revved the engine. Shimmer eyed the vehicle worriedly and covered her ears, tucking her thermos under her arm.
"Hop on," Sunset yelled over the roar of the engine.
"...Is it safe?"
"Yeah! Just don't fall."
"...I really would rather walk home..."
The motorcyclist killed the engine and reached a hand out to her other self. "Trust me, it's fine. Baby steps, my friend." Shimmer looked at her cautiously. "I'd rather take giant leaps on the sidewalk all the way home then hop on that thing."
Sunset rolled her eyes from behind the visor of her helmet. She pulled it off and handed it to her younger self. "Just get on, you pussy."
"...What??"
Sunset laughed and pulled her onto the bike. "I meant pussy cat, I swear." And with that, she started the bike back up again and surged forward, going from zero to forty in five seconds flat. Shimmer screamed, nearly falling off, dropping her thermos, and the helmet. Sunset half turned and shouted, "Put on the helmet already! After you do that you can grab ahold of me!"
"Why are you just now telling me all this?!?!?!?!"
"Oh...eh," she mumbled, shrugging.
"Oh, Sunset, you are THE WORST!"
"Why thank you! I didn't turn into a demon for being an innocent little flower girl like yourself!" Sunset snarked.
Shimmer didn't respond. She thrust the helmet onto her head and wrapped her arms around the biker hurriedly, holding the thermos in one hand. Now that the wind wasn't whipping in her face, the ride wasn't as scary, but the speed didn't do much to calm down her squirming stomach. Sunset made quite a few sharp turns as she headed toward the edge of town and Shimmer clung on for dear life. Next time, she would make sure she caught the bus. As they got closer to the Pointeville-Canterlot border, the motocyclist slowed down.
The older one called back to her casually as they went under the speed limit. "Take off that thing and tell me where you live."
The younger girl struggled to take the protective head covering before it came off and replied with annoyance, "You know, you could have asked where I lived back at the school."
"Too late for that now, isn't it? Give me directions, Sunny Side Up."
Said person sighed and pointed down Gallop Road. With a burst of speed, the Harley Davidson sped down the street with a roar. Shimmer shrieked, the air knocking the breath out of her as it rushed against her face.
"Tell me which one's your house!" Sunset asked her.
"THIS ONE! THIS ONE! RIGHT HERE!" She cried out in fear.
She swerved up next to the curb and stomped on the brakes, so hard that it nearly flung the both of them off the devilish machine.
"Whoa!" the driver said. "With the extra weight on this thing, we almost wiped out!"
Desperately, the human got off the mode of transportation and wobbled as she tried to blink away the spinning she could see in her vision. Everything was moving all around her and it was making her feel sick. She held on to the helmet like a lifeline, until she could steady herself. Once she was feeling better she sighed, and took a deep breath. Sunset watched her, all the while smiling to herself. Shimmer's hair stuck up in unruly curls all over her head; the tangled yellows and reds in a way becoming an orange if you looked at it from a distance. Her eyes were closed as she stood there quivering. Sunset hadn't noticed this before, but Shimmer was a bit bowlegged and her feet turned in. No wonder she had a hard time running alongside her; she had to swing her feet all the way around the other leg so's not to slam her foot into it, while Sunset could just shoot on ahead.
When Shimmer opened her eyes and looked at her counterpart, Sunset's grin widened. She could tell that the Terrestrial was upset but she looked cute anyway.
"Are you CRAZY?!?! We could have been KILLED!!!!"
Sunset winced at the volume of her voice. "Hey, I just assumed you would like a motorcycle ride at top speed. You know, since we're one and the same, I didn't think you wouldn't enjoy it." It was a complete lie and the person she was telling it to knew it.
"We may look alike, but we are not the same people, Sunset Shimmer!"
This statement was pretty clear to the both of them and only made Sunset laugh. "That's me: the original."
"You make it sound like we aren't the same age. Neither of us are the 'original' one."
"I am the first Sunset Shimmer! Technically, I'm older than you by about six years in Equestrian time. You're about 15, right? Back where I come from, I'm 21."
Shimmer frowned at her. "What? How?"
Sunset grinned. "Dimensional, hormonal, and physical alterations. Equestrian time moves a lot faster than your world's. Besides, I was a pony and ponies have a shorter 'puberty' than you strange creatures." She chuckled wryly. "It's a bit sad though. I didn't think I'd have such small boobs. At least my butt makes up for it."
The human blushed red, her facial features showing disgust, shock, embarrassment, and anger all at once. She immediately turned and hit Sunset, shouting her indignation at the inappropriateness of the comment. Her mad barks and Sunset's loud laughter caused a few of the neighbours to look out their windows and watch the two girls. The front door of a house opened up and a deep, calming voice called out to them both.
"Shimmer, my dear, what seems to be the matter?"
The two of them froze. The voice was one they knew and for Sunset it hadn't changed at all since the last time she heard it, nearly ten years ago. The man continued to speak and they could hear his shoes tap the wooden porch as he moved closer. "You're making an awful lot of ruckus out here."
Quickly, Shimmer, who was in front of Sunset, plopped the helmet she had in her hands on the other girl's head and tucked the ends of her hair into her collar before turning around. She stepped forward to greet the man.
"Hi. Sorry about all that shouting. Me and my...uh, friend were really excited and started talking loudly." It was a horribly told lie, but somehow the guy believed it.
"Your friend? Oh, you mean that blurry thing there?" he said. "Oh, I thought that they were a bunch of black garbage bags. Let me put on my glasses, dear..."
Shimmer glanced back at Sunset worriedly. "Wait, no..."
The man put on his glasses and squinted, before moving past the girl to look at the motorcyclist. He had short, coarse hair that was a dark red. His skin was very tan; a deep orange-ish brown like leather. His small blue eyes were filled with warmth and as he smiled, tiny wrinkles fanned out from the corners of them, giving away his age. He had stubble on his strong chin and upper lip.
"Ah, hello there. I didn't see you. I'm Mr. Flare, Sunset Shimmer's father. I see you brought my daughter home. Thank you, miss...?"
"Uh, her name's um...Sunrise! Yeah! Sunrise...erm, Shine," Shimmer interrupted so that her other self would not have to answer.
Sunset sat on her bike grateful that Mr. Flare could not see her staring at him from behind her tinted motorcycle visor. Her heart thumped in her chest as she considered just how close things had been. Had she not been wearing her helmet, he would have seen her hair and face, and things would have fallen to hell right then and there. The man wasn't just any man to her. He was her father, but only technically. She wasn’t born to a human but just seeing the counterpart of the stallion she had not seen in such a long time made her feel weak at the knees.
Mr. Flare ruffled his hair and grinned. "Sunrise Shine, what a beautiful name. So similar to my little girl's." He extended his hand to her. "My sincerest thanks."
Sunset shook his large, rough hand, and felt ready to die at the contact. She held onto his hand a little longer than what was appropriate for strangers meeting for the first time. Shimmer coughed and elbowed her friend and she quickly released his hand.
Mr. Flare chuckled. "You're mighty friendly, I see."
Sunset just nodded. Shimmer took her father by the arm and started walking toward the house. "Oh, dad! I have a lot to tell you about today! Maybe we can catch up on our conversation at school, Sunrise?" The girl looked at her with an awkward smile. The cyclist just nodded again, before starting up her engine and pulling off.
"Not much of a talker that one, huh?" the deep voice of Mr. Flare said.
"Uh...No. I guess not..."
The bacon-haired teen stared off after the motorcycle in thought, wondering how the encounter might have gone if she hadn't put the helmet on Sunset’s head. It certainly was an odd thing to happen, this meeting of their shared parent, even if they weren’t exactly the same being but identical souls meant to be one and the same. She continued to stare at the road long after Sunset had turned the corner and her father took his leave into the house, and pondered what Sunset must have been thinking, as she peered upon the face of someone she had known all her life, yet was a complete stranger.
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Well, first of all, it can't be accessed without authorization.
6555722 Uh oh... I'll talk to Feather, it should be fixed by tonight.
Yeah, can't access it without permission.
Also, any particular reason to publish it on GDocs rather than here? Seems like an unnecessary step.
6555722 Or, hold on. Here try here
6555729 That one works.. is this quite kosher though?
Need authorization.
Secondly, will the chapters still be uploaded on Fimfiction? If not, I will likely not read any more of this, unless Gdocs nows supports dark background with light letters.
Your story is good, but not good enough for me to be willing to give myself headaches and sore eyes.
6555733
6555735
Firstly, yes the link is "kosher". If you read the author's note, you'd know that I edited it, hence why I had access.
Secondly, I will be recommending to Feather that he upload to FIMfiction rather than this, however he is currently not online at this point. So if you really need it here, I'm afraid you're going to need to wait. Sorry.
Here is the link again...
6555746 Oh no, I didn't mean it that the link was kosher, but the fact that what you have here on fimfic is one word with a link and then authors notes.
6555748 Yeah, I'll just add it to the list...
On the plus side, this means nopony saw my screwup with the commments before I resolved them!
You realize all this is going to do is make you lose all of your readers, right?
6555799 What exactly is the problem?
Yeah....Eenope. I'm not reading this unless it's posted on here. The page is unsizable and I can't read it on mobile. I see no reason why the chapters can't be posted on FIMF.
Why not copy-paste it here? Unless it's NSFW, which I sincerely doubt, and even then you'd be better off making a spin-off of the main, but still posting it on FiM.
I can't even open it - I get an html file. Doesn't exactly help much.
But, really. The main question is, why?
6555803 There are a plethora of reasons why people come of Fim to get their stories, and sending them off site to get their chapter is a deterrent. Not to mention that google docs is a harder site to read on anyway. Fim has the feature that imports chapters from google docs. It would be better for you to use that rather than sending people to google. A huge number of them won't go.
Now on the chapter itself: Trixie really can't let it go, can she? She's approaching revenge level stalker. Nice to see the HuManes trying to get back in touch with Sunset though. I can't blame them too much for not getting the 'she's not the one you know' line. Too much. I still, but I'll try not to.
The meeting at the end though... really cut sharply.
Eesh, having to go to docs is not a smooth move. Hard to read on mobile, and you have to download it on the computer. A lot of people aren't going to be able to do that. Also I'm pretty sure fimfiction doesn't allow it, technically.
Other than that the chapter was good.
my browser let me download the file adn then I can open it
I'll just wait until you start posting chapters here again.
That was definitely an interesting chapter. I hope you'll post it regularly here so everybody can read it.
Nice chapter, but... gdoc? Really?
...Ok why Gdocs exactly? There must be a reason for it...
Gonna hop in that bandwagon and request the fic be actually posted on this site.
I can get an html file, but I'd prefer to read it straight from this site, I and everyone else is wondering why google docs instead of here? Is there a problem with fimfiction or something else?
PLEASE, NO GOOGLE DOCS.
Not everybody has a Google Account, asshole.
Oh good Faust what do you think you are doing?
Working on google docs is fine and all, but even with there being an upload option on the site, is it really hard to just copy paste? That's how I do it at least because I'm a basic bitch.
Those of you who couldn't read it, try here
I'll wait until the chapter gets posted here.
I'm not against it or anything and I get you probably have your reasons. As long as I can still read it, I don't care.
It is a bit odd though...
Great chapter!
Behold the power of Caffeine!
I'd rather take giant leaps on the sidewalk all the way home then hop on that thing
1. Than.
6559898 Yes, I recognized you. You were reading my Sunlight Trilogy.
6570765 If this story dissatisfies you that much, downvote it and look for one that's of better quality. I hold notthing against you.
Be happy you have a bus :3, literally every day my parents don't pick me up i have an hour and a half walkback home.
So, long time no see Feather fam, how's life been for ya?
6599564 Pretty good, buddy. How about you?
Sunset+Shimmer=Summer
Is it really a ship or just the cutting edge of masturbation technology.
Snark aside I'm really enjoying the story, I can't wait to read what happens next.
6607709 You're welcome! I hope the second half will be just as interesting!
6609879 That really was a good movie! This story was published before they announced EG3 would be in production, I think. Thanks a lot for enjoying the story so far!
6599812
to put it bluntly, life's been shit.
Not to mention i barely ever have time to go onto fimfiction, or really anything. So that sucks as well
6619744 Damn. Life sure does have a tendency of being a bitch. I hope it all turns around and gets better.
6599832 I personally prefer the term "Shimmerset", but that's just a matter of personal preference...
6620182
Thanks, and yeah. We can only hope it will.
6632249 I'm just your average Asian/African-American girl!
And yes, this story has been featured many times before. Not sure about nowadays but hey, what can you do?
6643962
Oh my gamikai... Your right...
I mean, uh, I TOTALLY thought of that... Ah who am I kidding, that's a lot better reason for the comparison than I had, well, at least Sunset doesn't drink people or we'd have some serious shit going down... Err... She doesn't... Right? I mean, we never saw it in the movies or any stories I'm aware of. Ok, not taking the awkward silence as a good sign, so is that a 'maybe'...
6644240 Sunset drinks people in the story Sunlight by The Albinocorn. She's a vampire. The story should show up in the Also Liked column next to this.