A Small Drop

by Glitch Hooves

Intersection Between Bad and Wrong

Felt like a truck. Well, actually no, a truck was probably a better feeling than this.

Felt as if her bones were ground to dust, her scales felt like they were being bent in the other direction and ripped off. And the burning feeling. That must have been the worst.

All this in less than a second.

She yelled out in pain; pulling her hand out so quick that she fell backwards. She dropped Squirt in the process, and considering he wasn't expecting that reaction, he bounced off the ground with a flop. But that wasn't what concerned him.

Sonata was panting heavily, holding her hand with a vise grip. Looking between her hand and mirror with nothing but fear.

Sunset heard her cries and immediately turned around in a panic. When she saw her on the ground, she dropped what she was doing and rushed over. Too bad she dropped everything.

Twilight lurched forward and fell face first to the ground.

Sunset was examining Sonata by every inch to find out what was wrong.

But there was nothing. Not a scratch on her. Squirt looked terrified for her safety and was doing the same.

She grabbed her shoulders and shook for her to focus on her eyes. "Sonata! Are you okay?!"

Sonata regained focus and looked down at her hand. Her hand was still intact. Everything was fine.

Why was everything still okay?

The pain! It was gone, like it never even happened.

"Sonata, can you hear me?" Sunset shook her by the shoulders.

Sonata focused on her face. She looked worried. Her eyes were in a panic. "I-I'm fine?"

"Are you sure? What happened?!" Sunset let go of her shoulders.

"I-I just put my hand through the portal, I felt like I was me again... then it just started to hurt so much," she explained. Squirt was curled up around her leg. A look of concern through his eyes.

"Are you okay?" Sunset asked.

"I'm fine... I don't know why," she answered.

"Glad to hear you're okay... look, maybe can Twilight can explain this in the morning. We've had a rough week so far. So how about we take it easy for a bit? The both of us,"

"Yeah... that sounds nice," Sonata nodded.

"Listen, I'll ask Twilight in the morning about what happened," she put a hand on her shoulder. "Now listen, I want you to take things slowly for a bit, and if anything happens, either to you or to Squirt: Find me, alright?"

"Okay..." Sonata nodded.

"Good to hear," she patted her shoulder before taking her hand off. "I gotta take Twilight to my home, try to get home and get some sleep. I'll see you in the morning," she got out of her crouching stance and went over to Twilight.

She struggled to get her off her feet, but she managed just fine.

"Sunny?" Sonata called, getting up.

"Yeah?" she answered, looking up at her. Twilight had a large bruise on her forehead. It was a miracle her nose wasn't broken. Or maybe it was and no blood came out yet.

"Thank you, that meant a lot to me," she said. Squirt was in her arms again.

"It's no problem," she answered with a warm smile. "What else are friends for?"

Sonata headed home, but her words stuck to her. Despite all that's happened, she let a small smile break free.

####

Dawn: Sunset Shimmer's home.

There was a crow on her windowsill. It refused to quiet down and continued with its obsessive cawing. It woke Sunset Shimmer from a dreamless sleep. Her eyes baggy and dark around the edges. She didn't get enough rest compared to what happened last night. After saying goodbye to Sonata, she realized her first problem. She had to trek all the way back home with an unconscious body leaning on her side. She was definitely heavier than expected considering that Twilight had the build of a twig. It took about an hour or two, and since it was still winter, the night was absolutely freezing. Her fingers felt frozen when she finally got home.

And despite her troubles, she found a few more to deal with. She spent about half an hour making sure Twilight's head was alright, and after finding a nasty gash just on her scalp, patched it up. She decided to give Twilight her bed while she would reside on the couch in the living room. It wasn't all that comfy, even when just sitting on it. But she was so exhausted, she just went out like a light. After the crow woke her up, she realized she'd be paying for her kindness with her back.

Slamming on the window to shoo the crow away, she looked at the time.

12:43

She very nearly had a miniature heart attack; that was until she realized something.

It was Saturday.

Taking in a sigh of relief, she went back to her current kingdom of the couch. Her back was now beginning to kill her. She lied down on the couch, stomach first. It helped lift off the pain a small bit. She was facing the TV, but the thing was off. And the remote was on the coffee counter, a mere inch away from her hand. She tried to reach for the remote desperately, but to no avail.

She decided the the TV would take her mind off the pain, and she sat back up and reached for it. Switching it on, she turned to the local news to make sure they were still anonymous.

There was the alley, and there was a woman talking over footage of the alleyway, it was just the way they left it, piles of rocks everywhere, and police tape strewn about. It cut to the image of a black silhouette with a white question mark over it. The woman began to talk about. 'Three lowly individuals who thought it'd be fun to steal evidence and go on a joyride.'

"Heh... you'll thank me later," she muttered.

Knowing she probably shouldn't lie back down, otherwise she wouldn't want to get up again, she decided to make breakfast. Or lunch? Brunch?

Anyway, she decided to make a plate for Twilight as well. grabbing a pan from the dish rack, she put it on top of the heaters and turned it on. And only after placing the bacon on the pan did she realize something.

She was sharing a home with an herbivore.

She groaned aloud as the smell was beginning to fill the house, so unless she was really out of it, she'd come to investigate.

She was really hoping she could put this off for another day, she really was. Heck, she wanted to never cross the 'Omnivore' gap, but fate is cruel in some ways. Like making you forget you gave your room to a pony-human hybrid... thing. That only ate plants and plant by-products.

She waited for the inevitable and just went along with the sizzling meat.

Sunset was really surprised when she actually finished the thing and she hadn't seen Twilight leave the bedroom.

'Wonder what did more damage, Squirt, or the concrete...' she'd check on her after she finished her evil meal as she would probably put it. She decided to help herself to some eggs as well.

Placing her food on her plate, she went for the table that accompanied the living room. Right before she could take her first bite, she heard the door open.

'Great...'

She could see Twilight's shadow in the hall leading to her bedroom, and by the looks of it, she was leaning against the wall for support. After reaching the end of the wall, she was out in the open.

Her hair was a mess, and there was a bandage wrapping around her head and covering one eye. It's not that her eye had any trouble, it's just that was the way Sunset had wrapped it.

She stumbled forward when she ran out of plywood to lean on. Take the fact she doesn't know how to walk on two legs properly, and make matters worse with head trauma, you can tell this looked a bit silly.

Sunset got out of her chair to help the princess up to her feet. After that, she started to head towards the second chair by the table.

"Ugh... what happened?" she moaned.

"Let's just say you got a bit too close for comfort," Sunset answered, assisting her into the chair.

"Heh... guess I underestimated the little guy," Twilight said jovially, or more rather tried.

"You can say that again."

"I just wonder how he can become that dense that quickly..."

"It's a mystery," Sunset said, taking the first bite out of her strip of pork.

"Say, what's that your eating?" Twilight asked.

She immediately tensed up, her mind raced to find an appropriate answer. "It's, uh... Tofu!" she blurted.

"To-fu?"

"Yeah! Tofu! It's a plant!" Sunset was wide-eyed.

"Strange... can't say I've ever heard of it in Equestria."

"Because it only grows here... on Earth... and not Equestria," she had a strange smile on her face.

Twilight had a thinking expression for a moment. "Could I try some?" she asked polity.

"NO!" Sunset barked suddenly, forcing Twilight to jump in her seat.

"W-Why? What's wrong with it?" she asked.

"It's.. uh, really bad! Tastes absolutely horrible!" Sunset was nodding as if she were trying to agree with or own statement.

"Well it can't be that bad if you ate it just fine," Twilight countered.

"It's an... acquired taste! Yeah! Like a mouthful of horseradish."

"Horseradish?" Twilight was starting to grow suspicious.

"Yeah..."

"I'm sure it wouldn't hurt if I try one," Twilight said, and without another warning, she reached over and grabbed a strip. before Sunset could protest, she had already taken a bite out of it.

Sunset was frozen, a dark sense of dread was coming over her.

'It's game over man! Game over!'

She was very surprised to find that Twilight was actually enjoying the greasy strip. Sunset's eyes were growing and her pupils were dilating.

'You fool!'

"Mmm! Thish 'Tofu' tashtes really good, I can't fathom why you think ish sho awful," she was still chewing as she spoke.

'... Just roll with it Shimmer.'

"Uh... yeah, I just didn't think you'd like it is all... yeah," she sounded nervous.

"Sho," she chewed a little more swallowing. "What happened last night after the creature knocked me down," she asked.

"His name is Squirt. And that's also what I wanted to talk to you about."

"What happened?"

"After you got knocked out, me and Sonata got you back up and I was gonna take you here when she asked if... she asked if she could go back home," she said.

"She didn't..." Twilight looked worried.

"Don't worry, she didn't actually go through, I said it probably wasn't the best idea, or at least until you said it was okay... but she wanted to try something," she looked down.

"What'd she do?"

"She put her hand through apparently and... and the next thing I know I hear screaming..." she trailed off a bit. "We might have taken their voices, but that scream... it was absolutely horrifying. I set you down gently, and I went over to see what was wrong and... nothing!"

"What do you mean nothing?" Twilight asked.

"She looked fine. Nothing was wrong. But that scream, and the way she was acting, she was panting like she was burning hot, but nothing was wrong," she finished.

Twilight looked ponderously for a moment before closing her eyes. "Did she describe how it felt?"

"No, she just said it hurt."

Twilight seemed to put on a bit of a contemplative look before letting her head drop down. "I was worried that would happen..."

"You knew!?" Sunset leaned in, her hands slamming against the plate.

"It was just a theory! I didn't know it would be true..."

"How'd it go?"

"After we fought the Dazzlings... you remember how the gems in their true forms were embedded into the base of their neck?"

"Yeah? So what?"

"So, I said that their physical forms, the ones in Equestria, lived off it," she started. "And without any magic to fuel them, their bodies would burn up, like a dying star,"

"Oh no..."

"If they were to go through the portal, one of two things would happen, maybe even both."

"And what are they?"

"They'll either revert back to a basic form where magic consumption for their bodies is extremely low; kinda like a polyp stage for Jellyfish. Or..." she looked sullen

"Or what?"

"... There's a... there's a chance they'll be wiped off the face of the universe."

Comments

[Eyeswirl the Weirded]

Bacon-haired girl eats bacon. Lives to regret it when a friend shows up!

And, consistency with the villains seriously getting the short end of the stick. Real charming, that rainbow 'friendship' magic.