My Little Pony: the Harmony of Friendship

by Godzilla313

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Just like she did every day at lunch period, Sunset Shimmer opened her locker to grab her bag lunch, something she had started grabbing ever since she realized that a cheese and salami sandwich made at home tasted better and was much cheaper than the gruel they served here. She had lived in the human world long enough to realize that humans were omnivores, and after a few months of trying to stay vegetarian and getting sick all the time, she finally gave up and ate meat. At this point, she was unsure if she could ever fully go back to that world, being in this one for so long. She could visit, but this was more of a home for her now than ever before. Besides, she had this world's Twilight to help along ever since the Friendship Games, and that was work enough as it was. She was indeed socially awkward, not sure what living outside her sheltered world was all about, but it could be changed in time. Yet, what this did do was limit the time the other world's Twilight could come and visit, because having more than one Twilight Sparkle running around could be problems, especially since the personalities of each were somewhat different. The other Twilight seemed to agree when she wrote back about the recent events, and knew she would have to time them when her world's Twilight was out of town or something of that nature. Besides, she knew the other Twilight would never need to visit unless there was a real problem to deal with, having explained about the Cutie Map, and thus having her hoofs full in that regard. Of course, Shimmer had to giggle about the "hoofs full" comment, considering that such things were common for Equestria, but would sound odd in common speech here.

All that was about to change, or at least for a short time.

As she started to close the locker, she noticed something glowing. "It's not my smartphone... that's in my pocket," she thought absently, "So, if it's not my smart-phone, the only thing it could be is..."

She smiled excitedly and reached back into the locker, fishing out the large brown book with a familiar symbol etched out on it. Her cutie mark, something she had grown used to not having emblazoned on her flank. The book was glowing slightly, and as Sunset cracked it open, she could see Twilight's familiar writing, but this was not some normal, "Hi, how's your family," kind of greeting. As soon as she opened it, sentence after sentence began to fill the page, and quickly. It went on and on about Equestrian history, and about three pages later, she finally came to her point, saying, "And so, I have been commissioned by Princess Celestia to come over and to see if we cannot find these twins. I don't know where they might be, but you would know them by the fact that they both have the same color hair and love music. It's in their blood. Their names are Quill and Downy Feathers."

After a pause, she said, "Let me know when it is clear to come over. I know it could be hard trying to find them, as they could have ended up anywhere. They were left on the doorstep of a foster care facility, so that makes the search that much harder. If they are not in the town, it could take some heavy records research, though that 'Internet' thingy you showed me the last time I was there was amazing, and could make it a lot easier. We could use something like that here, but as you know, magic dominates here, and we can quickly research in that regard, so we've never needed anything like a World Wide Web. (I keep humoring myself by imagining some really tired spider having had to have woven that!) In any case, it might be like trying to find a needle in a haystack, and believe me, that hurts when you're enjoying your lunch! But, for their sakes, we have to try. They are magical beings as we are, and as you know, magic in your world is more random. Thus, if they ever reach their full potential without having learned to control it, there could be problems. This is why we must hurry and find them. I look forward to reading your answer. Your true friend, Princess Twilight Sparkle."

The words finally stopped, but then another sentence appeared, which read, "Oh, and Princess Celestia wishes you luck, she is proud of you that you have changed your ways, and misses you."

She read that, and a slight tear rolled down her face. That felt good to read, and she dabbed away the tear and composed herself. However, she thought now about the task at hand, and now it seemed incredibly daunting. "Needle in a haystack?" she thought, "More like trying to find a piece of hay in a stack of needles!"

She finished the day and didn't say anything to the others as of yet, because she wanted to be sure that even getting that information from the foster system was even allowed. In fact she started to head downtown and bumped into this world's Twilight Sparkle. After greetings and a good hug, Twilight saw the concerned look in Sunset's face and said, "Hey, what's wrong?"

"Well, I got a communication from your pony counterpart," said Sunset. She then explained the issue and all it involved, adding, "And she has a task for me here, and believe me, it isn't going to be easy trying to find them."

"Tell me about it," said Twilight, "I'm good at tracking things down… Well, you know that already. Anyway, it seems like a neat challenge. It would be like helping myself…I guess."

"You're heling me help you…" pondered Sunset, who then said, "We've just entered the Twilight Zone."

It suddenly struck them both how funny that sounded, considering the involvement of two Twilights in two different universes, and how something like this could pass for an episode of that show. After gathering themselves from their laughing fit, which gathered them some really odd looks from those on the street, who glanced, and then became very interested in what they were doing as the shuffled along. Twilight then asked, "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to try the foster care center," answered Sunset, "I figured that would be best, you know, to try the source."

"Nope," answered Twilight, "That's no good. They would never consider telling a total stranger the status of the pair. You'd have to have a real good reason."

"Great," sighed Sunset, "So, where would we start?"

"Aha!" answered a confident Twilight, now knowing they were entering her realm, "Come with me. It starts with going to my house and going into the web on my computer. Trust me: when I was trying to track things down with the others, I had to do some digging. Believe me, I had to put some good virus filters on the system, considering where I had to go to find things."

"What are you talking about?" asked Sunset.

"You shall see," answered Twilight, "Let's go to my place and get our homework done. We can get started after that."

At her place, they did their homework and Sunset was invited to stay for dinner. After a good meal, they went to Twilight's room and got to work. She fired up her computer as Spike barked and happily leaped into her lap as she got to work. Twilight then said, "Well, the best thing we can start with is a name search. With names like Quill and Downy Feathers, I would not think that common, and should narrow the search down a bit. Let's start there."

She got up a good search engine and typed in the name. Very quickly hits came in, and the majority were references to entries involving these two names in a social networking site. "There you go," stated Twilight, "These days, if someone does not have an account there, you have to wonder what ancient world they must live in."

"Careful," said Sunset, "Remember, they could have doppelgangers in this world, so what you see may be them, but not the two we're looking for."

"Good point," she answered, "So we'll see how many pages are dedicated to those names."

She brought up the site in general and then brought up the names. There were three pages involved: one for Quill, one for Downy, and one for the pair together. "Hmm…" pondered Twilight, "Well, that does narrow it down a bit, but what I find interesting is that there is only one page for each one alone, and one for the pair. You would think there would be at least two for each and two for them as a pair, if that's what they wanted to do. Okay, let's look at the individual ones first and see what their profiles have to say."

After bringing them up, they found each of the individual ones, and quickly realized they had this world's two. They were twins and related, but each one had their own pages with their own interests. They both played music, but both were looking for musical careers: together if they could, but individually if needed. They both did like and play, but their musical tastes were different. "Why are you focusing on the music thing?" asked Sunset.

"Think about the parallels between your old universe and this one," answered Twilight, "Indeed, this world's pair do want to play, but they are more focused on careers in music, and have different tastes. Though they are twins, I think each one has enough of a stable social life and a solid home to be less codependent."

"Lost me there," said Sunset.

"Okay, look at their profiles," answered Twilight, having set up two different tabs for each, and going back and forth, "They both have a stable home, live with their folks, are in another state, and are pretty social, looking at their friends lists. If they were in foster care, it would reflect that, and for some reason, I would think that, considering who we are looking for, the pair would be more codependent, being that they are both the only blood family they have. I would think they would be very close. Here, they are close, and do want to play music. However, because they have a good social base and have their own groups of friends, they are less codependent, and therefore have formed their own personalities and tastes. They both express music careers, but solo if need be, and that backs up my theory. I think that's why there are only two pages for them alone. If the page where it is the two of them has all the same information, then we're at a dead end, and the pair we're looking for hasn't gotten into social networking."

With that, she went to the one where it is the two of them, and though the pictures were the same, the way they had the page, you would think them completely different people! They had flowers and peace signs in the borders, and they looked like two throwbacks from the 60s. "Whoa, that's different," said Sunset, "Never would have thought this."

"Well, I think we have them, but let's look at their profile," Twilight answered as she clicked on it, "Let's see… Hmm… Yep, it has to be them! Mentions being orphans, in foster care, and does not list a certain home. They both seem to have the same tastes in music, and… Let me see…"

She went to the photo section, and it shows them in a few different homes, but the majority of them seemed to be when they were kids and pre-teens, and they seemed to be in a house where the pair were hippies themselves. There were pictures of them playing and singing, dressed similarly to their most recent pictures, and then with their foster parents, and having a ball doing it. There were a lot with laughter and smiles, but those are the only ones where such happiness was expressed. The others showed them depressed and bland, but still playing. Indeed, they'd been all over the state, but seemed to end up back at the care center again and again. Twilight then said, "So, by this, it seemed most of their time was with this couple, and they seemed very happy there. I just wonder why they didn't remain there. Yet, it also seems no one adopted them, so they are still in the foster care system."

Looking at it, she then said, "And it seems they haven't made any comments in it for a few months, and they were at this previous address, but there is no way of knowing if they are still there."

"Well, drop a note or something," said Sunset, but Twilight countered and said, "Not just yet. We need to know more about them before we do. They don't know who we are and, besides, what would we tell them? We'd have to befriend them first, and I think it would be better if we did that first in person, rather than seem like we're stalking them. We have to find out more. Let's see, do they mention this place…"

She looked to see when they were with this couple and then followed the places where they had been. She noted the last known whereabouts the page had to offer, copied the page and circled the town where they had last been. She then said, "Now, we get shifty."

She made sure her antivirus was up to date and then clicked on a box on her desktop. It brought up a page Sunset had never entered before, and Twilight entered a code. After a few moments, a search engine came up that, again, was foreign to Sunset. Twilight then said, "Get ready. We're going into the deep web."

"Deep web?" asked Sunset, confused.

"The web we normally access is limited; the tip of the iceberg, as it were," answered Twilight, "There are far more places to go that are cut off from the standard web, because it is a place where people communicate who don't want to be seen doing so. It is a seedy place; it's 'that part of town' in the World Wide Web where you don't go after dark. It has many places that deal in quite illegal stuff, but as long as we don't go there, we won't catch the attention of the FBI, of whom I am certain are trolling the place trying to catch said crooks. However, there are also places where I can get data when I need it that would not really be questioned, but are not quite all that easy to access in normal channels."

"That seems…creepy…" answered Sunset, trailing off uncertain about the things her friend was getting into, but Twilight then said, "Don't sweat it. It was the only place I could ask questions about researching your school and my search for the odd activities at Canterlot High and be taken seriously. Honestly, what I was looking for would get me laughed out of standard circles on the standard web. Here, I can find kindred spirits. Now, let me just…"

She trailed off as she was looking over a few things, and then said, "Ah, here."

She clicked on an icon, and up hopped a page of someone known as "Hacker Jim." She had to enter a few codes, and then found herself in a special page that most folks seeking him probably could not access unless they knew them as well as Twilight seemed to know this Jim. They began to communicate, and indeed, they seemed very sociable. After a few pleasantries, she then said, "Well, you said you'd pay me back for the data on dimensional travel theories I came up with, and now's that time. I need you to hack into our town's foster care center and tell me all you can find about a pair of fraternal twins: brother and sister, named Quill and Downy Feathers."

"Ten-four," came back the answer, and Sunset then said, "Dimensional travel? What did you tell him about…?"

"Don't sweat it," she answered, "I didn't tell him it was actually possible, just gave him some data about how to detect certain energies and how to trace them, but that I had come up with no conclusions, but many odd happenings. Don't worry, though. He's halfway across the country, so he won't be snooping around here anytime soon."

After a few minutes, an answer came back, and he said it was something that might have to run most of the night, so she should contact him the next morning. "You're going to have to stay the night," answered Twilight, "This could take some time."

Sunset sighed, but said, "Well, I only have an empty place to go to, so that's not a problem. I'll go get a few things and be back.

The next morning, Twilight was up before Sunset and already on her computer. She printed out the data Jim had got her, and it ran for some pages. Sunset was up soon after and saw Twilight looking over the pages. "What do you have there?" she asked.

"I have their files," she said, "I knew Jim could get in without being detected. Let's get ready for class and read while we eat breakfast."

As they ate and read, it seemed that Jim was successful in getting all their details. It seems they were left on the doorstep of the foster care home with only a note that they were Quill and Downy Feathers, and a plea to give them a good home, as well as a hint that they would be back someday to retrieve them when they could take care of them properly. "Too bad that was never going to happen," said Sunset sadly, considering what the other Twilight had told her. She read on, and it seemed that they were bumped around from home to home, but they were the longest time with the couple that seemed like the hippie couple, from age five to eleven. At eleven, they had to go, because a situation arose where they could no longer take care of them, and that's where it seemed to get rough. They had a total of four different homes in that time in three different cities, multiple school transfers, and some those homes did not seem all that happy. Then Twilight gasped and said, "Oh, this is kismet!"

"What's up?" asked Sunset, just finishing the last page Twilight handed her.

"They've just recently returned to the home, in town…" answered Twilight, who trailed off as she read some more, "…YES! They're being transferred to Canterlot High as of today!"

"Magic!" answered Sunset, "It has to be magic! If they are really unicorns like me from my world, and it seems that I and your double are both looking for them, could it be that our magicks reached out and drew them to us in some odd way?"

"After what happened at the friendship games," answered Twilight, "Anything is possible."

They made some calls to the other girls, and they all agreed to meet up at the statue. Meanwhile, Sunset wrote about all they had found out, but she also wrote, "Don't come over just yet. We have to befriend them first, gain their trust, and then find some way of telling them that won't get them thinking we've flipped our manes and also convince them to cross over. It's not over yet. We have some work to do here. Your friend, Sunset Shimmer."

They met and Sunset filled them all in on what was happening. Pinkie then said, "Oh, you shouldn't have gone through all that trouble. You should have asked me!"

They all stared at her as Pinkie then said, "Principle Celestia took me aside yesterday and asked us to meet them and introduce them to everyone and give them a tour of the school. She thought we'd be the best ones for the task."

They all stared at her, and then Twilight and Sunset face palmed and realized they should have started with Pinkie. Of anyone, she knew the most about everyone in the school, considering she truly knew everyone and knew their interests, as she always had the nicest birthday gifts for them that matched what she knew about them. She always threw the best parties or gatherings, depending on what the birthday boy or girl desired. They all laughed, and got ready to meet the newcomers.