Chapter 1 - Homecoming
Discord was at his favorite perfectionist princess’ extremely gaudy crystal tree castle. Sure, maybe he would have rather been having a tea party with Fluttershy or pranking with Pinkie Pie or annoying Sunbutt, but they were all busy, so he had a Purple Princess of Pals to talk to.
“Ugh, I wish ponies would put books back properly,” the purple alicorn complained while reshelving. “Alphabetically and by section.”
Discord rolled his eyes. She was ignoring him and he hated being ignored. The draconequus snapped his fingers. “There, alphabetically and by section.”
Twilight blinked and looked around “Discord! You made them alphabetically by author AND rearranged all the sections!”
Discord grinned “Well you didn’t say where to put the sections. Besides, if you move your sections around occasionally, ponies will check their favorite section, see something different and might try a genre they never thought of.”
Twilight blinked. “Alright, you might have a point there.”
Discord grinned. “See, I CAN use my chaos constructively!”
Twilight nodded. After the Tirek debacle, she had realized that it was better to encourage him. “But please, relabel the sections and do them alphabetically by title.”
Discord nodded and snapped his fingers again as the books rearranged themselves back into position and the labels flashed to the new sections. “Better now, oh Purple Pony Princess of Pals?”
Twilight nodded. “Much.” As Twilight said that, the book started to shake and glow. She walked over and picked up the book.
Discord floated over behind Twilight’s shoulder. “Oh is that your secret penpal?”
Twilight rolled her eyes. “It’s not a secret, Discord. I’ve been talking to Sunset ever since I got this book.”
“Well you certainly never told me,” Discord said, miffed. “But OH, Sunset, that little firebrand and pain in Celestia’s rear?” He shifted tones disarmingly quickly.
Twilight raised an eyebrow slightly. “You were in stone Discord, how do you know about Sunset?”
“In stone and complete aware,” he chuckled. “And being in stone and utterly, predictably reliable to hear somepony’s problems, I ended up hearing more than a pawful, let me tell you… That and the picnics. But if she’s calling, you shouldn’t keep her waiting.”
“Right.” Twilight nodded as she opened the book, blinking. “She… She’s coming home!” Twilight said excitedly as she read the words, before blinking. “Wait, picnics?”
“Mustn’t keep your friend waiting, Twilight.” Discord grinned.
“Right.” Twilight facehoofed. “I need to set up the portal,” said Twilight as she rushed to her laboratory, a giddy excitement in her step.
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Twilight fiddled with the instruments as she placed the book in the portal. “Alright Discord. Picnics, spill.”
Discord chuckled. “Wanting a little gossip eh, Twilight?”
“Let’s go with yes, just so you won’t put words into my mouth.” Twilight continued to focus on what she was doing.
“Alright. Well, back when Sunbutt was Sunbutt’s student,” Discord chuckled at his joke, Twilight didn’t seem to care. “They would have picnics once a week, like clockwork, and it didn’t even bother me back then.”
“Back then?” Twilight quizzically responded as she fiddled with a few more dials. This thing got finickier every time it was used it seemed. It was probably for the best that she was bringing Sunset home, she mused.
“Well, I can hardly judge nowadays.”
“Right, Tuesdays with Fluttershy.”
“Exactly. As i was saying, not boring even back then. Those two always had some new argument or another that they were patching up. It was hilarious.” Discord chuckled.
“Was she really that bad?” Twilight wasn’t sure she wanted to believe that Sunset was ever like that, but then she chastised herself; she knew from personal experience that she was.
“Too alike in all the ways that mattered when you get down to–” Discord was then interrupted as the portal had activated.
“Am i disrupting anything?” Asked the orange pony with red and yellow hair.
“SUNSET!” Twilight blurted out and looked at her friend. She blinked for a moment to reassure herself that what she was seeing was real. “You’ve….changed.”
“To be fair, you haven’t seen a lot of me as a pony Princess.” Sunset chuckled.
Discord stretched and contorted himself, until he was right in front of Sunset’s face. “Then take it from me Sunbutt. You’ve changed.” He grinned as he held up a mirror. “Though I must say, your hair still looks like delicious bacon...” Discord added.
“What… but… WHAT?” Sunset Shimmer appraised herself carefully in the mirror. Her cutie mark had multiplied, one on each of her hooves and one emblazoned strikingly over her left eye, and her horn had been noticeably elongated. After taking a moment to compose herself, she said., “Wow...I really do look different, don’t I?”
“You look kinda like–” Discord started before being cut off.
“The Rainbow Power! It looks like the Rainbow Power forms we had when we fought Tirek!” Twilight blurted out. “But that doesn’t make sense. Those were a temporary enhancement from the Elements. You can’t just… have Rainbow Power all the time. Maybe it’s a side effect of magical buildup, since you haven’t used your magic over the years, but I’ve never heard of magical build up doing that…” Twilight started to ramble.
Discord rolled his eyes, licked one of the toes on his paw and placed it on Sunset’s horn as steam came off. “There ya go Twilight. 100% Harmony inside, What would you do without me? Well, I mean, you would do the obvious and go off in half a dozen hair brained directions, but besides that.” Discord stuck the toe in his mouth and sucked on it. “What?” he asked accusingly to no one in particular. “That stung.”
Sunset chuckled at the spirit of chaos antics. “There, mystery solved Twilight. Can we get to the part where I’m home and we can, you know, hang out?”
“I… Right, of course!” The princess grinned. “What do you want to do? We need to get to the most important stuff out of the way before Pinkie finds out and throws a party.”
“And before Celestia makes a huge fuss over it,” Sunset added in agreement. “So, ummmmmm… What do we do? I didn’t really put a lot of thought into this,” The orange pony admitted. “And don’t say books or studying. I literally just finished school.” She added before Twilight could speak up.
“Have you eaten?” Twilight asked.
“I haven’t,” Sunset said as she thought about her gnawing hunger. “And I haven’t had something from home in three years.”
“Well we could get something from a loc…” Twilight stopped before finishing, realizing that this would draw just as much attention as if Sunset had sprouted wings, maybe more. “Maybe it’s best if we get something from my kitchen.”
Sunset snickered “Yeah, maybe for the best. What can your cooks prepare up?”
“I, um… don’t really have much of a staff besides, well… Spike.” Twilight stated.
“AHEM!” Discord Interrupted as he stuck his head between the two ponies.
“AHHHH! Discord! You scared me, I forgot about you.” Twilight exclaimed.
“Yes, I noticed.” The draconequus made an exaggerated motion of pain over his heart. “However, since it is sunny butt the lesser’s first day back,” he watched as Sunset shot him a glare, “I figured I could make something for a friend and a friend of a friend, hmmmmm?”
“Thank you Discord, that would be greatly appreciated,” Twilight said smiling at him.
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“So I have to ask. What’s up with this?” Sunset asked as Discord set out supper in a maitre’d outfit.
“Hmmmmm?” The Draconequus responded as he continued placing out his overly elaborate display.
“This, all of this.” Sunset dramatically waved her hoof around. “Just nonchalantly hanging around, calling Twilight your friend. Last I remembered, you were a statue in Celestia’s garden,” she said between bites. “By the way, um, interesting taste with the hayburgers and the mandarin almond salad.”
“You know Sunset,” Twilight said. “I’d think you’d be a bit more understanding with your… shared experiences.”
“Now, now, Twilight. It’s perfectly fair for someone who’s been gone to wonder about their redemption… Wait, shared experiences?” The draconequus said as he sat down and began to eat an empty plate.
“We both got rainbows to the face.” Sunset sighed. “I ended up in a very dark place after leaving and I’d rather not talk about it.”
“Of course, of course. Wait, that makes us REDEMPTION BUDDIES!” He grabbed the orange pony in a hug before she shot him a glare. “And yes, my choice of plates, do you like it? I figured I should go whole-hog on inviting you back on things you might have missed out on, so I planned something you wouldn’t get over where you were, and it was expensive.”
“It’s wonderful Discord, just perfect.” Sunset let out a genuine smile before taking another bite, savoring the hay burger. She really had missed pony food, it could be a hassle ordering vegetarian back on earth and even if she did cheese on everything, she had never been much of a fan of salt. “So, you aren’t causing chaos anymore?”
“Getting there… ok, no, not really, I AM The Master after all. Just using it a little more constructively.” He smiled. “Like, say, this lunch. Who would have thought to mix this stuff? Or organizing Twilight’s library today. You can make everything a little better with just a bit of chaos.”
“Well, I’m happy for you Discord. I don’t know how much we can really talk about shared redemption experiences, but we can definitely be Redemption Buddies.” And at those words the orange pony was once again wrapped up in a draconequus.
Twilight looked at the two of them and raised an eye at the draconequus curiously. “Discord… Did you cause yourself to steam when you touched her horn?” She asked in a sickeningly sweet tone.
“Why yes, I did, why do you ask Twilight?” Discord responded snickering.
“Diissscooorrddd….” Anger flashed in Twilight’s eyes.
“Twilight, calm down. It’s the most likely that my experiences with Rainbow Power have left a permanent mark on my soul that wouldn’t manifest physically as a human, but would as a pony.” Sunset cut off her friend in a calm tone.
“Well, I was there both times and it didn’t affect me, so I don’t see how that’s possible,” the lavender alicorn responded skeptically.
“Three times. The first time, I was hit by it. The second time, I channeled it without the Elements. The third time, I took it into myself. I think our experiences in all three circumstances were very different,” Sunset countered.
“Aren’t you even the least bit curious at all?” Twilight stared at Sunset in bewilderment. She hadn’t touched her food since the discussion had started.
“I just left my world for the second time. No, I’m not curious. I have more important things to do, like spending time with my friends and family here.” She sighed. “And readjusting, though I guess dealing with this will be part of readjusting.” She mused as she felt her longer horn softly with a hoof.
Twilight slammed her hoof on the table. “Sunset! It could be detrimental! I know you are excited to be here, and I’M excited you are here, but it won’t be for anything if this is a problem!” The lavender princess shouted in an exasperated fashion.
Sunset shrank back. Twilight was right. She was just so used to being the teacher that she’d forgotten that back here she was the… no they were equals, but she was still right. She was her friend and was worried about her. “I’m sorry Twilight, I just didn’t think because I hadn’t bothered before going through the portal, and figured that whatever it is must have been there for a while. It could be something that’s only a problem now that I’m a pony again.” She looked at the lavender mare to confirm she had gotten her message across. “How about we go check in with a doctor, and if they can’t figure anything out, THEN we contact Celestia.”
“That’s reasonable, but I wonder why you don’t want to contact the Princess immediately.” The lavender mare replied as she calmed down.
“I can guuuuessssss.” Discord interjected not so helpfully.
“Look, I really want to see her.” Discord gave the orange pony a look. “I do! But I know she’ll make it a federal issue when I talk to her again, and I just don’t want that the moment I come home.” Sunset took another bite as she thought about Celestia. “I want a bit of calm to settle in before she makes a fuss.”
“Alright, I understand.” Twilight nodded. “Let’s finish up here and then head to Nurse Redheart’s.”
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Sunset Shimmer stepped into Nurse Redheart’s office. After all, this was just a checkup. No reason to worry...
“Now what seems to be wrong, Miss….” The white earth pony began to ask before taking a look at Sunset Shimmer. She paused for a moment, then took another look at her. “I… have no idea what that is or how that could have happened.”
“Sunset Shimmer.” The orange pony nodded. “Yeah, I don’t really know how this happened.” Nurse Redheart raised an eye at that. “It’s difficult to explain.”
“I’m a doctor.”
“I haven’t been in Equestria for a very long time, and when I returned, I was like this.”
Nurse Redheart just looked at the orange mare for a moment before deciding on the only proper course of action. “You know what? I’m just going to start testing you now, if that’s okay.” Sunset nodded as a thermostat was stuck in her mouth. After a minute, the nurse pulled it out, examined it, and then turned back to Sunset. “Your temperature is a little high. Any elemental affinities I should know about?”
“Fire.”
“Alright, then your temperature seems normal. I’m going to take a bacteria sample first. Then we’ll test your Meridians.”
Sunset sighed and nodded as the nurse swabbed her mouth before going into another room. A Meridian test would mean pushing her magic, and she hadn’t exactly been practicing its use since she got her magic back. Ironic, she mused, that all the effort to get Twilight’s crown so she could have magic back ended with her not having a use for it. But then, she reminded herself that she was at home, in a world of magic, where she’d be embracing it.
“Alright. Now, Miss Shimmer, we can start the Meridian test.” Nurse Redheart began to place diodes on Sunset’s body and an insulator was wrapped around her horn. “I’m going to need you to push your mana, not to your limits but just to the point of straining. A simple light spell will suffice.”
“I usually work with telekinesis, affinity with lighting.” Sunset replied.
“My apologies Miss Shimmer, telekinesis will be fine.” She waved at two orbs on the counter. “Those are designed for telekinetic use. They can take a large amount of pressure before shattering.”
Sunset nodded and began to concentrate on the two orbs as they were engulfed in yellow light. “More, please.” Redheart said, and, as requested, Sunset pushed even more power into the orbs. After holding them for a moment and feeling she could safely push further, she did so once again, and the orbs cracked.
“Stop! Stop right now!” Redheart shouted, and Sunset did so. “Miss Shimmer, those balls are registered for only up to 5,000mp of force.”
“I’m sorry?” Sunset responded blanky.
“It’s not your fault.” Nurse Redheart sighed. “We are going to have to be a little more creative here is all.” Nurse Redheart thought carefully for a moment as she considered what to do. “Alright, we’re going to use lighting as a test this time, and I’m going to go into the other room. You just push yourself until you feel you need to push yourself.”
Sunset nodded as Redheart walked out. She began to slowly cast a simple lighting spell. She soon closed her eyes as the brightness of the room increased to painful levels. With just a little bit more, Sunset could feel that this was the right power level to maintain without overexerting herself, but at the same time, she felt something waiting for her, past her current energy level. Sunset reached just a little further, and her world exploded.
Magic flooded through her being, but not her magic. She had felt this before This warmth, this light. Twice before she had allowed this power to hold her, to flow through her, and now for no reason it had come, as if merely to show it was still there with her even now. Sunset held the spell, simply enjoying the warmth flowing through her. Every fiber of her being was alive with an indescribable energy. She could feel it cracking down her horn, spreading through what felt like the core of her being, emanating from everywhere as it touched and reached her core. She knew peace and joy. She knew her place in the grand fabric, She knew the place of everything.
As suddenly as it began, it ended. Sunset came down from her ecstatic state and she instantly ended the lighting spell. After a moment, Nurse Redheart entered, looking extremely startled.
“You… you can go now, I’ll send my findings to Princess Twilight.”
“Thank you. I apologize for any inconvenience.” Sunset said breathlessly as she left the small office and went into the waiting room where Twilight Sparkle waited, along with the last pony she expected to see.
“That was quite the display, my little sun.”
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Stuck in powered up state.. yea Sunset's going to need tests designed for the princesses
*le extremely dramatic gasp!*
Well, I'm guessing that this is gonna get a skele-ton of likes.
heh heh heh.... I think it's funny. Tough crowd today.
Huh, would've thought that something one was never told about that altered some basic part of your appearance and inner functions might have freaked one out a bit more than "Oh, cool I guess".
Guess not though, Sunset seems super casual about all this
wow great picture for the story
6667894
She's deeply inclined to trust the obvious source of the changes, wants to spend time with her friend, she realizes whatever it is will require some adjusting but that trust precludes her from worrying.
6668250
A couple of answers to that.
A) If you include an originally Human Sunset Shimmer, that's pretty much your fics entire premise. If you are doing anything else you don't have twin meetings.
B) For a lot of people, Sunset Shimmer /is/ thought of as human so it just feels odd making another version the human version. Then there would be two Human Sunset Shimmers.
C) Sunset is a character with a lot of baggage tied to her situation. You have to make the duplicate Sunset Shimmer while untying her from her situation, this is actually legitimately hard. You could of course ignore that baggage but then she will feel off, it does after all have to be the same character.
6668767 Not really. It's lazy writing for the most part. It's always just convinate that an event kills Sunset's family and pony Sunset survives because she is a unicorn and has a flare.
6669844
I'm cutting this off here.
If you want to ask why the only kind of Sunset Shimmer fics aren't "She meets her doppleganger" ask In a thread dedicated to that, thank you.
6670098 Thank you for telling him off. He means well. He's really nice too! Ask him. BTW, I AM SO HAPPY THIS IS BACK! YES!
6679279
Yes.
6679862
Humans aren't ponies, it's a perfectly normal thing for humans to leave their high school friends. To her friends where they were going and what they were going to do were more important than how they could possibly stay together.
Does she ditch them, do they ditch her, or do they exist in a social context that encourages them to part? (Hint: It's C.)
6685215
What you say is true. But it just feels, unsatisfying, without the goodbye or at least her telling one or more of them were she was going. But, maybe that's just me.
Other than that, good story so far.
6687568
Well Showing that reason is the first thing I did, and even with that she considered stay a valid option.
6688405
I shall concede. I would have liked to have seen a goodbye, but I can live without it. Just one question.
The journal. Did she leave it with one of them, take it with her, or are you planning something around it that telling me anything would be spoilery?
There you butt iread it. “In stone and complete
you need to fix that
also i agree with loco it feels odd that you have the beginning scene at all and just jump straight into the story without doing more with it.
I believe Twilight said that in a different story to Spike.