Lack Of A Reflection

by Sun Aura

Mise En Abyme

The tenant meeting was hectic, of course. Not only did they have to explain that their landlord had locked them in because they were being held hostage by an escaped criminal, but Sunset and Princess Twilight had to answer way to many questions about Equestria. After all, none of them were going to believe that they hadn’t been magically teleported out of the building by two girls with Unicorn horns.

The most tedious part was playing ‘tell me what kind of pony I am!’. Sunset left that up to Twilight, since most of the tenants were from Starlight’s village. She did step in when she couldn’t name a couple.

Eventually, they left and went back to their hotel room. Pinkie had somehow already supplied the place with plenty of snacks, even ones for Shimmer and her roommates. Sunset and Twilight downed two bags of chips and several sodas each before Pinkie was even finished telling them about her ideas.

“We should go to the pool!” Pinkie exclaimed.

“Darling, I hardly think that’s the best idea right now,” Rarity said. “Three of us are still powered up, and I’m sure you’re half way there already. Besides, I doubt anyone other than me remembered to bring something to swim in.”

“That’s where you’re wrong!” she sang. “Last slumber party, you all left swim suits at my place! And we already found out that Sunset’s suits mostly fit Twilight, so when I had Sonata grab swimsuits from her place, I had her grab two of Shimmer’s!”

“That’s an odd preparation,” Sci-Twi said.

“It’s Pinkie,” the rest of their group chorused.

They reluctantly let Pinkie drag them to the pool. Luckily, since word of there having just been an escaped criminal in the area got around, all of the other guests were too paranoid to use the hotel pool. There wasn’t even a lifeguard to question the wings.

Sunset and Twilight took the hot tub for themselves. After an afternoon of stress and over-using magic, it was nice to relax in the hot jets of water.

“Weird question,” Sunset warned. “Are you, on any level, freaking out over possibly replacing me with Starlight?”

“Well now I am,” Twilight answered. “I don’t think I am. Are you worried I will?”

“Yes and no,” she said. “I was more worried that you’d be worried about it. But I know that you can’t really replace a friend, no matter their similarities. Stars, you can keep everyone separated across Universes. If you can’t easily replace Rainbow Dash with Rainbow Dash, I doubt you’d replace her with me. But you got on pretty quickly with this world’s Starlight, so I had to ask.”

“You two aren’t that similar,” she rolled her eyes.

“We do have a lot in common,” she said. “Powerful Unicorn turned supervillain, manipulated a large group of Ponies, or Humans in my case, defeated by you and turned into a friend.”

“Yeah, but you’re both very different too,” she said. “First off, just in your time as villains, hers started from abandonment issues that turned into control issues, while yours were more the whole ‘I’m not enough but also I’m great and deserve more’ thing. And you went for dark magic while she did Time travel.”

“But as actual Ponies,” she continued, not giving a chance for interruption, “I’m still getting to know her, so I can’t answer it well yet. But I guess I’d say you’re warmer, if that makes sense? I mean, if we’re talking first impressions as a friend, you were more open. Of course, there’s also your faults that are different.”

“Our faults,” she frowned, raising an eyebrow.

“Okay, that sounds bad, but hear me out,” she defended. “Your worse flaw is your temper and rashness. Quick to anger, quick to make decisions without thinking them through.”

“Even I’ll admit to that,” she half smiled. “I told you how I yelled at Sci-Twi during the games, and how I kept getting into fights back home. And you remember when Rainbow was playing ‘Awesome As I Wanna Be’ for the Battle of the Bands. Stars, even being here was a rash decision to jump through the portal.”

“Exactly,” she said. “Starlight’s problem is stubbornness. Even after learning she was wrong, she went forward with it. It took a lot to convince her to try again. As in, even after seeing how what she was doing was making ponies unhappy at best, and destroying the world at worst, I still had to give her the friendship speech.”

“Yeah, I just had to get blasted into a crater,” she laughed.

“You know what I mean,” she said, giving a playful smack with her wing.

Before Sunset could say anything, they turned to the shouts behind them. Someone had the bright idea to put Rainbow and Applejack on the same team for a game of chicken, and now they were arguing over who lost the round against Pinkie and Sonata.

It only lasted long enough for Aria to smack them both with a beach ball. Which of course started a very competitive volleyball game.

“So,” Sunset said, ignoring the game. “You sure you don’t think I’m ‘warmer’ because of the whole Dimensional thing? After all, you have to at least associate me with the wonders of this world.”

“Oh, uh, no, I’m past that stage,” Twilight replied.

“Which means you did feel it at some point?” she wondered.

“Yeah,” she admitted, shuffling her wings. “But it was with Flash.”

“Really?” she laughed. “Didn’t even think about that.”

“I mean, I’ve gotten over it,” she defended. “But when I first got here, I was lost and alone, and he was the first person to be nice to me, along with being the first ‘new face’. I’ve gotten over it a bit. After all, I’m friends with his Counterpart now. And I’m pretty sure this world’s Flash and I are decent friends too.”

“Good for you, working past it and all,” she said. “Wouldn’t want relationship issues.”

“Sometimes we can see things coming,” she shrugged. “Other times, we don’t realize there’s a problem until it blows up in our face.”

“Hey, mind if we join you two?”

Sunset looked up to see Shimmer and Adagio sanding behind them. Instead of answering, Twilight moved her wings away from the hot tub’s entrance. The two climbed in, sitting close together.

“Two girls, chilling in the hot tub no feet apart because they’re so gay!” Pinkie sang over to them.

“Oh no, whatever shall we do now that she learned our dark secret?” Adagio asked dramatically before kissing Shimmer’s cheek.

“Jokes aside, thanks for this,” Shimmer said. “For coming to find me. I think next weekend I’ll go home. Never thought I would do it, but hey, if my Interdimensional Counterpart can handle saving the world after nearly destroying it, I can do that.”

“If it makes you feel better, I’m still nervous about going home,” Sunset said. “But if I try to back out now, I think Twilight’d literally drag me back.”

“Or I could toss Lance through the Portal,” Twilight shrugged. “That said, you should make sure to ask my Counterpart for Lance’s address.”

“We needed to head to the area anyway,” Adagio said.

“I’d be glad to help you find what you need,” Sunset said. “Looking for something in particular.”

“Someone, actually,” Shimmer said. “Remember how I said I do tech work at the local college? Well, Dagi and her sisters are their own musical group. We’ve been talking to this girl we met online, and we were talking about how once she’s out of high school, we’d do a tour group thing. You know, travel around and perform?”

“It’s not just music though,” Adagio smiled. “It’s our band, her band, and her magic show. We could probably think of another act to toss in, if we wanted to. But Shimmer here can to the tech work for all sorts of shows.”

Twilight and Sunset shared an anxious glance.

“You wouldn’t happen to remember the name of the girl, would you?” Sunset asked.

“Trixie,” the couple answered.

Sunset gave a nervous chuckle and sank further into the hot tub.

They had stayed a second day, mostly because when Twilight sent the letter to tell Shining to bring Lance to the Castle, he said they’d be there Monday. That, and no one really wanted to go home and back to school just yet. The only one who really complained was Sci-Twi, since she didn’t want to be late for her first day as a Canterlot Wondercolt. Of course, everyone pointed out that the paperwork probably wouldn’t be fully done until at least Tuesday, so she wouldn’t have been able to go to class anyway.

The return trip itself wasn’t that bad, despite being cooped up in a car. They took their time, arriving back in the city by mid-afternoon. Deciding to send Princess Twilight and Sunset through the portal first, they headed for Canterlot High.

“You know,” Princess Twilight said, stretching her arms over her head. “While I get the convenience of these vehicles here, they’re too cramped. I’d rather take a train.”

“One of these days we should take you on a plane,” Sunset snickered.

“Hey, why’s Lyra waiting by the statue?” Rainbow asked.

Sure enough, they could see her aquamarine color from the street. They walked closer, and she saw them and came closer. Sunset noticed the different outfit she wore. She had a white and pink striped top, white shorts with a turquoise trim, a lyre necklace, and strappy gold sandals. Her hair was also pulled into a ponytail, a faded pink ribbon keeping it in place. She looked almost too happy, like she was about to cry with happiness.

“Pinkie!”she shouted.

“Heartstrings!” Pinkie gasped.

Pinkie practically jumped over everyone to tackle her in a hug. The two of them fell backwards, still hugging. They were both happy-crying as well.

“Darling, you’re acting like you haven’t seen each other in years,” Rarity sighed.

“We haven’t!” they chorused.

“Pinkie, I know you just saw Lyra during the games,” Rainbow sighed.

“Well, yeah,” Pinkie said, standing up. “But that was Lyra, this is Heartstrings!”

“Want to run that by me again, sugarcube?” Applejack asked.

“She’s Lyra but Not Lyra!” she smiled.

“Lyra, please tell me you didn’t,” Twilight sighed.

“Well, Pinkie said it was okay,” ‘Heartstrings’ shrugged.

“It’s totally okay!” Pinkie chirped from her perch on the mostly destroyed statue. “I mean, it’s for Friendship! Twilight literally can’t get mad at me for that!”

They looked between Pinkie, who hadn’t yet let go of ‘Heartstrings’, and Pinkie sitting on the statue. Then to Lyra standing next to the statue in her normal pink and blue outfit.

“I hate that you’re right,” Twilight sighed again, rubbing the bridge of her nose.

“Sorry, Twilight,” Heartstrings said sheepishly. “Though wow it’s so weird to see all of you guys but not you guys.”

“Wait, what’s going on?” Rainbow asked.

“You’re not used to this by now?” Sunset asked. “Heartstrings and one Pinkie are the ones from Equestria.”

“Yeah,” Heartstrings said. “I ended up here a while ago one time and met this Pinkie. The other Pinkie’s helped me stay in touch since I had to leave. Something about talking to herself in dreams?”

“Why am I not surprised,” she smiled.

“I’m not going to make you leave,” Twilight said. “Just explain all this later, okay?”

“Oki Doki Loki!” Pinkie chirped.

“We can finally have a sleepover!” Pinkie shouted. “I’ll call Maud! She’ll love to meet me!”

“Remember to come home eventually,” Twilight said before turning to Sunset. “So, you ready to go home?

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” Sunset nodded.

Letting Pinkie, Pinkie, Lyra and Heartstrings bounce around, the two of them walked to the Portal. Twilight walked through first, trusting her to follow.

Sunset placed her hand on its surface. She watched the ripples of magic spread over it. Taking a breath, she stepped into the other World.

Author's Note:

Well, this is finished. Of course I'm going to follow up with Sunset's adventures in Equestria, but this story was about finding 'Shimmer', so it's closed for now.
Also, the Pinkie and Heartstrings story is Friendship Through Dimensions, which actualy ended with their trip here.

Comments

[Magnus Orion]

THAT COVER ART THOUGH

Seriously though, get that shit outta here.

[LucarioFan2066]

Yeah, I must say the cover art isn't exactly...flattering. Sunset just looks chunky, with a too-small head and with a left arm/hand that looks too long and oarlike.
I've seen better Sunset fanart, is all. It also doesn't affect the story in any way, which is good; the story itself is fantastic.