"So how're things goin' over at Sunset's place?" Applejack asked as she and Rainbow Dash engaged in another furious video game battle.
Pinkie looked up from her phone. "Sunset says they're watching Kaijilla," she said.
Rainbow blinked. "Aw shoot, Kaijilla?" She looked at Applejack. "Raincheck?"
Applejack chuckled and rolled her eyes. "Sure, why not."
"SWEET!" Rainbow turned off the video game, grabbed the remote, and turned back over to the cable, then spent a minute finding the movie.
"What else are they up to?" Applejack asked as she put away the game controllers.
Pinkie's thumbs moved over her phone for a minute, then she waited for a reply. "She says they've mostly just been talking," she reported. "Twilight's friends are...an introverted bookworm, a laid-back dragon, and..." She blinked. "A psychopath?"
Twilight adjusted her glasses. "My counterpart sure keeps interesting company," she said.
* * * * *
"But why did Kaijilla protect us?"
"Maybe...perhaps it's because...Kaijilla is inside us all."
Ember burst out laughing. "The heck is that supposed to mean?!"
"Don't ask me," Sunset said. "I've seen this movie ten times and I still don't get that bit." She turned to Twilight. "Maybe it's a magic of friendship kind of thing?"
Twilight shook her head numbly. "I, uhh...I don't think friendship is a giant fire-breathing lizard," she said. "Then again, Pinkie Pie probably has a giant fire-breathing alligator costume lying around somewhere..."
Starlight blinked. "Why would Pinkie Pie have a giant fire-breathing alligator costume?"
Sunset stared at her. "Have you met Pinkie Pie?"
The title screen for a movie called Orcanado vs. Squidnami came up, accompanied by a dramatic cello sting and a visual of ocean water with blood and squid ink churning through it. Sunset groaned in disgust and changed the channel. "Ugh, so sick of those Orcanado movies," she said.
Ember tilted her head. "What's it about?"
Sunset rolled her eyes. "Tornados full of orcas terrorizing seaside communities," she said. "It's stupid."
Moondancer frowned. "Tornados...full of...orcas? How does that even...that doesn't even make any sense!"
"I know, right?"
Twilight blinked at the TV. "So...what's this then?" The screen showed two animated fish—one orange, one blue—frantically swimming through the ocean.
Sunset smiled. "Oh, this one's great! But you girls might not like it." She glanced at the clock. "Besides, we don't really wanna waste the whole evening watching movies, do we?"
Ember shrugged. "I dunno, this is kinda fun."
"We should probably think about eating dinner at some point," Starlight said. "I mean, don't get me wrong, these snacks are great and all, it's just—"
"Dinner!" Sunset groaned. "Oh, I am so sorry, I totally spaced!" She tossed the remote to Twilight and pulled out her phone. "I had thought about ordering a pizza, but I've been doing that a little too much lately and I don't know if you girls are up for that, so I thought I'd get sandwiches for everyone from the sandwich place down the street from here. That sound good?"
"Sandwiches sound good to me!" Starlight said brightly. "I love a good daffodil and daisy, especially the way that one place makes it."
Sunset grimaced. "Yeah, that's..." She coughed. "Humans don't generally eat flowers or hay or grass."
"Oh," Starlight said. She frowned. "So what do they eat?"
Twilight and Sunset exchanged glances. "Oh, the usual," Twilight said. "Lots of different veggies, fruits, cheeses, stuff like that..." In a small voice, she added, "Meat..."
Ember perked up. "Meat?" she said in an interested tone.
Moondancer's lips pressed together. "Meat," she said flatly.
Starlight blinked. "M-meat?"
"Yeah," Sunset said. "Chicken, turkey, pork, beef, that sort of thing."
"Oh," Starlight said, irises shrinking to pinpricks. "Oh."
Moondancer's brow furrowed; her cheeks shifted slightly as her tongue probed around inside her mouth. "That explains this dental configuration," she said.
"If you're not comfortable with it, you don't have to eat meat," Sunset said placatingly. "There's plenty of vegetarian options here. There's a lot of people who don't like eating meat!" She called up the number for the sandwich place on her phone, then looked around the room. "What do you all want?"
Ember grinned. "Anything meaty and tasty," she said.
"I'll take a barbecue chicken and red onion," Twilight said. At the disbelieving stares of Starlight and Moondancer, she blushed. "What? I've been to this world a few times, I...I've tried a few things..."
Sunset snickered. "And you two?" she asked Starlight and Moondancer.
Moondancer shrugged. "Anything without meat that isn't spicy," she said. "Maybe something with cheese."
"Anything with lots of vegetables that's flavorful," Starlight said. "Spicy's good. Oh, but no cheese."
Sunset considered that, then nodded and placed the call. "Hey, Poppyseed! It's Sunset. Got an order, I'll be by to pick it up in a bit. Uh-huh. I'll take one foot-long barbecue chicken onion on sourdough...Twilight, you want pickles? With pickles, one six-inch cheese melt on pretzel bread with marinara, no meat, no veggies...uh-huh, that's right...one foot-long spicy deli trio with provolone and marinara on regular bread, no veggies, one loaded veggie gyro with extra sauce and extra olives, no cheese, and..." She paused, touching her tongue to her front teeth. "One six-inch teriyaki chicken, light on the onions, whole wheat roll. Yeah, my usual. Oh! And a foot-long classic club on sourdough. No, no chips or drinks, we've got plenty. Yeah. Uh-huh. Okay, be there in a few."
As she hung up, she looked around to see Ember, Moondancer, and Starlight watching her curiously. "Who...were you talking to?" Starlight asked.
Twilight rolled her eyes. "They have a device here that lets you talk to people who are somewhere else," she explained. "Everybody has one."
Starlight blinked. "Oh," she said. "That...sounds really useful!"
Moondancer frowned. "You ordered six sandwiches, but there are five of us," she pointed out.
Sunset nodded. "Well, I know Twilight can take a foot-long, and I'm guessing Ember probably can, but you girls, I don't know about, so I got you each a six-inch, and myself a six-inch because I can't usually finish a foot-long by myself. But I thought it'd be a good idea to have an extra sandwich we can all share in case anyone's still hungry or in case you and Starlight decide you want to try a little meat after all."
Moondancer adjusted her glasses. "I guess that makes sense," she said.
Twilight smiled. "I know it seems strange, but trust me, in this world? You can try new things you can't usually do back in Equestria without really feeling guilty about it."
"If you say so," Starlight said skeptically.
Sunset stood and crossed over to her desk, digging out her wallet and her keys. "I'll be back in about twenty minutes," she said. She looked around. "Twilight, if you wanna go through the closet and dig out some board games, figure out what you girls wanna do while we eat...oh, and you can put whatever you want on to watch."
"Will do!" Twilight said. Sunset smiled, put her boots on, and left.
After a long moment, Moondancer asked, "Twilight...are you absolutely sure Sunset Shimmer is, you know...one of us?"
"What do you mean?" Twilight asked as she stood up and stretched.
"I think she means..." Starlight pursed her lips thoughtfully. "She doesn't...really seem like a pony, you know?"
"Oh," Twilight said. She laughed. "Girls...Sunset's lived in this world a really long time. I'm...honestly not even sure she's ever coming back to Equestria, even though Princess Celestia really wants to see her again." She smiled. "This is her home now. All her friends are here. She has a life here." She shrugged. "She's from Equestria, trust me, and she was Celestia's student before me. Her magic is as strong as mine. Well...when I was still a unicorn." She looked around the room. "But I think she's happier here. She misses Equestria sometimes, sure, and she misses having magic, but..." Her eyes misted. "This is her home."
Starlight gave Twilight a long, measuring look. "You want her to come back, don't you?"
Twilight ducked her head. "For a long time, I...I wished she would," she admitted. "We just...connect. Even when she was after my crown, I felt like we had a connection." She clapped her hands together lightly. "Right, so! Board games. Let me go find those board games, and...yeah..."
* * * * *
When Sunset returned, she found the other girls seated on the floor around the living room table, her Sternhalma board placed between them. Judging by Ember's impressed whistle, Starlight's aggravated groan, and Twilight's giggle, something interesting had just happened.
"Hey guys, I'm back," Sunset said.
Starlight sighed. "Perfect timing," she said. "Twilight's kicking all our butts over here."
Chuckling, Sunset carried the large bag of sandwiches to the kitchen. "Nobody get up," she said. "I've got it."
"Nonsense!" Starlight said, standing up. "I'll help."
"Me too," Twilight said. Sunset smiled gratefully at them.
Working together, the three girls quickly gathered paper plates, two big bags of chips, a stack of plastic cups, a large bowl of ice with tongs, and three different bottles of soda and carried it all to the living room along with the sandwiches while Moondancer cleared away the Sternhalma board. Sunset glanced at the TV and smirked; apparently, the girls had been watching one of the movies about that boy wizard in Trottingham. Sitting down at the table, Sunset extracted one sandwich after another from the bag, checking them and passing them around. The last sandwich—the foot-long club—Sunset cut into five equal portions with a large knife, arranging it on a plate in the center of the table before unwrapping her own sandwich and taking a large bite. Across the table, Twilight dug into her own sandwich with gusto. Starlight watched her with a conflicted expression. "I can't believe you're actually eating meat," she said.
Twilight shrugged. Shaking her head, Starlight examined her own gyro with interest. "I don't think I've ever seen anything like this before," she said.
Swallowing, Sunset said, "They do have them in Equestria. They're just...really ethnic."
"Oh." Shrugging, Starlight took a bite. Her eyes widened. "Oh," she said through a mouthful of vegetables and savory juice. She chewed, then swallowed. "Wow. This is good."
"It'd be better with the feta cheese that normally goes on that," Sunset said.
Moondancer studied her own sandwich critically before taking a bite. She hummed appreciatively. "Not bad."
Ember had already taken a few large bites of her sandwich. "What kind of meat is this, anyway?" she asked. "It's pretty good."
"Pepperoni, spicy salami, and hickory smoked ham," Sunset said. At Ember's confused look, she clarified, "Those first two are a type of sausage. They're...mostly beef and pork. Mostly. I think." She shook her head. "Best not to think too hard about it."
"Works for me," Ember said as she went back to eating.
"You know," Starlight mused, "if I had anything to do differently about that little village I founded, I think I'd have let Sugar Belle in on the truth, asked her to be my witting accomplice. That way I wouldn't have had to suffer through those godawful muffins with the...rest..." She looked around the room.
Everyone was staring at her. Twilight was frowning. Ember was smirking, one eyebrow raised. Sunset's face was flat and expressionless, her eyes half-lidded.
"Of...course...if I had it to do over again, I'd...never have stolen all their Cutie Marks and brainwashed them in the first place?" Starlight offered with a sheepish giggle.
"How did you and those other ponies get by for so long?" Twilight wondered. "I mean, there didn't seem to be any farming going on, and without special talents, you couldn't have had doctors or..."
Starlight grimaced. "I had to use my magic for a lot of things," she said. "I convinced myself I was doing the right thing, but..." She sighed.
Ember shook her head. "It's nice to know all ponies aren't insufferably cheerful and perfect," she said.
Sunset snorted into her sandwich. "Not even close," she said. "Good grief, is that what you dragons really think of ponies?"
"It's...kinda the stereotype, yeah," Ember admitted. "Usually because whenever dragons migrate past pony towns, there's always all this singing and celebrating and stuff." She shrugged. "It's hard to think of ponies as anything but singing, dancing goofs when that's always what you see when you fly past."
"And most ponies think of dragons as gem-eating, fire-breathing jerks," Starlight said. Her eyes widened. "No offense!"
Ember chuckled. "None taken," she said. "Most dragons are gem-eating, fire-breathing jerks."
"Trust me, ponies are far from perfect," Sunset said. "Take me, for example."
"And me," Starlight added.
"And me," Twilight chimed in. "Actually, pretty much everypony has their flaws. They could be jerks, pushovers, have a bad temper, be stubborn, cocky, foolish, overly determined to invade other ponies' personal space...maaaaaybe a little obsessed with organization..." She shrugged and bit into her sandwich again.
"I guess the only pony that even comes close to being perfect is Princess Celestia," Starlight said.
Sunset stopped eating and stared at her. "You're...kidding, right?"
"Oh boy," Twilight muttered around a mouthful of chicken and pickles.
"What, you don't think your immortal sun goddess is perfect?" Ember asked, raising an eyebrow.
Sunset let out a harsh bark of laughter. "Not even close," she snorted. She cut her eyes over to Twilight, as though daring her to say anything. "No matter how much ponies might worship the ground she trots on, Celestia is just as flawed as anypony else. She's just a lot better at hiding it."
"She'd have to be, being thousands of years old and all," Ember remarked thoughtfully.
Twilight looked as though she was desperate to come to Celestia's defense, but even as she opened her mouth to protest, she paused. She bowed her head and sighed. "You know what? I want to tell you how wrong you are, but...you're not. I mean, I used to think Celestia was perfect, and I guess even now I have this idealized mental image of her that I've had since I was a little filly..." She shook her head. "But honestly? When I think back on some of the decisions she's made just since I moved to Ponyville, I have to wonder."
"Does she still troll the Gala?" Sunset asked. "I'll never forget the year she doctored those nasty hors d'oeuvres with puffer peppers."
Moondancer nearly spit out a bite of her sandwich. "She did what?!"
Twilight's face turned red. "You mean all those stuffy Canterlot ponies...?"
Sunset nodded, a shit-eating grin spread across her face.
Twilight paled. "How did Celestia even get away with that?"
Sunset snorted. "Conspired with the kitchen staff to blame the whole thing on a clerical error with the ingredients."
Twilight groaned. "Yeah, that sounds about right," she said.
Ember tilted her head. "What are puffer peppers?"
"They're a rare type of chili pepper from Alpacapulco," Twilight explained. "They're kinda-sorta banned in Equestria...well, whole peppers are. The extract is fine, but nobody really uses it because it's not worth the effort and expense when more common peppers are better-tasting."
"So why are they banned?" Ember asked.
"They make you swell up with gas," Sunset said. "Instantly. Like a balloon." She smirked and added, "and particularly pungent ones, well..." She glanced at Twilight.
Twilight grimaced. "I never believed it until I saw it one time with my own eyes. One of Applejack and Rainbow Dash's stupid dares. Somehow, Rainbow got hold of a few puffer peppers. Then they were too embarrassed to go to the hospital, and Zecora had to come out to Sweet Apple Acres to deal with it. She...was not amused."
Ember blinked. "Hospital? For gas? What, you ponies don't fart?"
"Oh, we fart," Twilight said. "That's kinda the problem. You see, certain cultivars of puffer peppers, well..." Her face turned scarlet. "They make you fart, well...fire."
Ember raised an eyebrow.
"And ponies, well..."
Starlight paled. "Did...did their tails catch fire?"
"Yep," Twilight said in a deadpan tone, eyes half-lidded.
"Whoa," Ember said with a grin. "That's...that's really dumb. I mean, fire's nothing to a dragon, but you ponies aren't dragons."
"That does sound like exactly the kind of stupid thing Rainbow Dash would do," Sunset said. "I can't picture AJ doing something that stupid, though."
Twilight rolled her eyes. "When it comes to their 'most daring pony competition', AJ's common sense goes right out the window. I'll never forget the year they made complete fools of themselves at the Running of the Leaves. And I wasn't there for it personally, but I heard all about this one from Pinkie Pie: One time, they decided to try to prove which one was the most daring pony by covering themselves head to tail with bees."
Sunset raised an eyebrow. "Bees."
"Bees."
Starlight blinked. "Bees?"
"Bees," Twilight repeated flatly.
Moondancer frowned. "Your friends are idiots," she said.
Twilight sighed. "Yeah...sometimes." She smiled faintly, shook her head, and went back to eating.
"So Sunset! What is it you do in this world?" Starlight asked as she licked juice from her fingertips, then scrubbed them dry with a napkin. "Do you have a job, or are you researching something for the princess, or what?"
"I'm a high school student," Sunset replied, munching on a potato chip.
"Really?" Starlight asked. "I was under the impression you were older than Twilight."
"I am," Sunset said with a shrug. Her brow furrowed. "Portal turned me into a young teenager when I first arrived...this world and Equestria are parallel, but there's some weird..." She made a vague gesture with her fingers. "Timey-wimey stuff going on nobody can explain. This world's timeline and Equestria's don't match up at all, even though six months passed for both me and Twilight between the first two times she came here."
"We actually sat down and tried to figure it out once," Twilight said with a grimace. "That was the same day Sunset introduced me to something called tequila." She blinked. "I don't really remember much about that."
Moondancer looked around. "So how do you afford this place?" she asked. "I mean, everything here looks nice and expensive."
Sunset cringed. Twilight frowned, then reached over and squeezed her hand. "It's okay," she said softly. "You're not that person anymore, and you're making amends for who you used to be."
Sunset sighed and smiled. Clearing her throat, she looked at the other girls. "Let's just say it involves a very lonely, very wealthy old man who outlived his entire family and whose granddaughter I happen to look like, and leave it at that."
Starlight raised an eyebrow. "Isn't that inheritance fraud?"
Sunset narrowed her eyes. "I prefer to think of it as my reward for keeping a lonely old man company in his final days," she said tersely. "And are you really in any position to judge me?"
Starlight winced. "No, I...I guess not."
Twilight grabbed a napkin and a piece of the club sandwich and handed it to Starlight. "Starlight! You need to try this. I promise you'll love it!" she said loudly and a bit too cheerfully.
Starlight blinked at it, wrinkling her nose. "W-well...alright."
Moondancer frowned slightly, then reached for a piece of the club sandwich herself. "I guess I can try it for research purposes."
Ember grabbed one as well. "I'm just still hungry," she said.
Twilight and Sunset each took the remaining two pieces.
"So what exactly is on this?" Starlight asked. "Just so I know what I'm eating."
"Roast turkey breast, honey ham, applewood smoked bacon, lettuce, tomato, two different kinds of cheese, mayonnaise, and honey dijon mustard," Sunset said.
Moondancer took a bite. After a moment, she adjusted her glasses. "That's actually not too bad," she said.
Starlight tried hers. "Huh," she said. "I can't really even tell that's meat. Not that I've ever tasted meat, so I don't even know what meat tastes like."
"Eh, if it's mostly bird meat, you won't really notice," Ember said. "Especially not with all this lettuce." She quickly finished off her piece of the sandwich, then let out a loud belch.
Starlight glowered at her. "You could say 'excuse me'," she said.
"Excuse you," Ember said in a chipper tone, smiling cheekily.
Sunset's eyes flew open wide. "SO!" she declared loudly, clapping her hands together. "It's starting to get kinda late. Why don't we finish up, get this mess cleaned up, then go get changed into our pajamas?"
"Yeah, then we can do sleepover stuff!" Twilight said with a bright smile. "Makeovers! Pillow fights! Truth or dare!"
Nobody noticed the evil smirk that lit up Ember's face.
"Sounds great!" Sunset said. "Twilight, why don't you help the girls get changed since they're new to human clothes."
Ember's smirk faded. "Yyyyyeah, about these...pajamas," she said. "What's the point? I mean, I got the whole 'humans don't walk around without clothes' thing, but you've got separate clothes for sleeping in? That doesn't make sense."
"Well, ponies have pajamas too," Moondancer pointed out. "They're just...not something most ponies bother with."
Sunset grimaced. "Okay, three things. One: being naked at a slumber party isn't really a good idea in general, even if we are all from Equestria here. It's bad etiquette. Two: I've gone native enough that it'd make me really uncomfortable, so please don't. Three: Trust me, you don't want to. These human bodies lose heat really quickly at night. You'd wake up with a cold or something."
Ember rolled her eyes. "Okay, fine." She got up, finishing off the last of her soda, and stretched. "Lead the way, Princess."
Twilight giggled giddily as she started clearing the table. "This is gonna be so much FUN!"
This was enjoyable to read, entertaining to visualize, and more than a bit funny at various points.
Also, I can hardly wait to see some of Ember's dares. I can bet they'll be positively vicious.
You've met her. The better question is why WOULDN'T she?
Already Sharknado is stupid enough. Orcnado, that's borderline crackfic levels of insane.
To be fair, you don't HAVE to eat meat, advantage of being human, we're omnivorous. There's a LOT we can eat.
It is.
Plus, animals here aren't sapient like in Equestria.
Agreed.
Wise move.
Oh FAR from it.
Hah! Even she's flawed.
GLORIOUS!
That is simultaneously so stupid and so metal.
And we love them for it.
Agreed. Let's, change the subject...
Oh this is gonna be fun...
Probably. We don't exactly have scales or thick fur, so we have to adapt.
Oh Twilight, you have NO idea!
Oh, this is gonna be an awfull lot of fun.
God yes, those Sha-Sorry, Orcanado movies are really stupid aren't they?
Bees: my god...
7332058 It's some sort of deadly bee weapon!
7332037 Nah, hurricane filled with Cthulhu-esque beings and squids
*shudders* I just had flashbacks to Dwarf Fortress...
wait... what's that knocking?
oh god... no...
not the followers of Armok! I thought they couldn't find me here!
NO!
Blood for Armok, god of Blood... FUN... FUN... FUN...
Ha! This is one of the reasons I read fanfics. For characters to shine when they haven't gotten in show development
7332047 Even the Shark one is actually possible.. though orca's not so much.
...while everyone else silently agreed that, if Rainbow ever tried to translate her Rocket League skills to real life, they'd steal her driver's license.
"That describes Twilight, Spike, and Sunset, all right."
"Rainbow!"
"Kaijilla is friend of all children!"
"Kaijilla ATE a building full of children. And stepped on a schoolbus."
"OK... Kaijilla is friend to most children, and an awkward acquaintance to the rest."
"Hmmm..."
"Twilight, no."
"But it'd yield valuable scientific data!"
"Twilight, no."
"But think of all the help he'd be next time a villain tried to conquer Equestria!"
"Twilight, you are NOT rainbow-lasering Spike! I can't believe I have to tell you this!"
"For giant fire-breathing alligator emergencies," Twilight and Sunset chorused.
"Nevermind."
"And the last two happen hundreds of miles away from any body of water."
"Okay, that's just scientifically improbable."
"As improbable as blowing up a tornado is, yes."
"...I've REALLY been craving this Neighponese pizza I read about the other day."
"Other humans."
"Gah!"
"Sunset!"
"Not all of them food, by the sound of it."
"Starlight!"
"You got THAT right."
"SUNSET!"
"Hey, we're not saying what, you're the one making it dirty."
"B-bwuh..."
"Oh, like you and Spike."
"Spike's not my phone!"
"You use him to send letters back and forth all the time."
"You use Spike for texting?"
"ONE time, okay? ONE time I said, 'take a text', and I corrected immediately!"
An awkward silence filled the room.
"Sandwiches! I'm talking about SANDWICHES!"
"Ooooooooohhhhh..."
"Whatever happens in EG world, stays in EG world."
And that was the evening Twilight discovered Sunset's special video collection.
"Sunset Shimmer, we need to talk."
"...uh-oh."
"This 'Cards Against Humanity' game of yours..."
"Gah! Why does EVERYONE keep bringing that up? I played it once! Once!"
And judging by the pile of notes on the table, they had been studying and criticizing everything from the magic system to the syntax of the incantations.
"And you called ME a monster."
"I never called you that! ...wait, are you calling me a monster?"
"Mmm, mmm! This is a good sandwich!"
"Is the beef cow or minotaur?"
"Cow. They don't have minotaurs here."
"How do you know? Maybe minotaurs transform into something else."
"...hmm. That would definitely explain a few politicians."
"...using my magic to turn the local animal shelter into a field of daffodils was probably not the best way to solve that issue."
"......"
"You're not gonna rat me out to Fluttershy, are you?"
"I don't look forward to cleaning up so much gore from my nice, clean castle, so no."
Elsewhere...
"Sister, do you hear that?"
"I do, Luna, but I can't figure out where it's coming from."
"I believe it's coming from the portal in Twilight's castle."
"But who could be laughing hard enough to be heard all the way over here?"
"And the sanitation ponies that trail after her are a lot better at stealth than most."
"Applejack dealt with it just fine. She's Applejack. But Rainbow? We had to call out for three flights of emergency weather patrol pegasi to rain down on the fires she spread all around Ponyville."
"Yikes."
"And that was before she got the idea that a Sonic Rainboom would suffocate the fire."
"Oh no."
"Oh yes. Sonic Fireboom."
"Gaah!"
"On the bright side, it did put her tail out. And since she couldn't sit for two weeks, Celestia considered it enough punishment for slicing a tower off her castle with the fireboom."
"Oh God, not the bees. Not the bees! They'd get in their eyes!"
"I do compensated dating."
"Twilight? Twilight! She's choking! Quick, someone do the Marelich maneuver!"
...
.......ok, yeah, no riff can possibly top that. That line is pure gold enough on its own.
the-weaving.com/images/temp/birdinhoof.gif
Puffer Pepper + Rainbow Dash= Ass Blaster from Tremors.
That speech is something we can easily agree on.
Later on, they will probably remember this as the moment where things went downhill... assuming they remember the rest of the evening, considering Twilight's experience with tequila. Ember's grin is definitely a bad sign. Well, at least none of them have magic so can't accidentally brainwash someone while drunk.
I know shipping isn't in the plan, but Twilight seems a bit... lonely without Sunset, with those comments about wishing Sunset would return. Anyways, always funny to contrast Sunset who has just about gone full native human to partial native Twilight to newcomers Moondancer and Starlight. Wonder what other stories about Celesta Twilight and Sunset could share (not like Twilight ever caught on about how Celestia trolls the gala).
A part of me is hoping that human Twilight while out actually sees her brother and Cadence together as she starts to wonder if their lives will parallel their doubles. Also I would have thought that Sunset would just return now and then to Equestria and just grab some gems to pawn off given that they are plentiful back home and Flim and Flam do own a pawn shop apparently. I'm actually surprised she never wanted to go back if only to visit any family she has back there.
7332206 Any pawn shop worth their salt would know right off that any gems Sunset brings over aren't Earth gems. Despite being cut, they wouldn't have the special mark of a jeweler, so, as far as pawn shops are concerned, Equestrian gems are fake gems.
7332271 yes but remember this is Flim and Flam, can you expect those guys to run a business on the purely up and up? If they thought that they could get some good gems while paying a fraction of what they were worth I can see them doing it. Plus the way in this story doesn't make much sense as even if someone left her something, how could she legally prove she was that person to the lawyers and those in charge of the estate? You can't just go to someone claiming to be someone related after all without proof.
As usual, amazing chapter, eh?
I'm enjoying this.
r/nocontext material right here
I'm imagining a drinking game involving math
somehow.
Sweet pulsating spider-Christ Sunset! That was out of left field.
Just some bonding over stories and what counts as meals in another world. I'm looking forward to what Ember has in mind for Truth or Dare, it'll probably put what Applejack and Rarity did to each other to shame.
7332422
God damnit you beat me to it.
ten bucks says Ember is gonna dare Sunset and Twi to makeout or something.
What makes you so sure Ember and Twilight are friends?
7332084
There is no escape from !!FUN!!
Especially not with the new release out just a few days ago.
Am I the only one that wants to see them play scary games? XD Also great story so far! :D I'm loving it. :)
7332586 I think it's author's extrapolation based on the good terms we saw Ember, Spike, and Twilight leave on in the episode.
The Puffer Peppers part cracked me up. This just keeps getting better and better.
Keep on writing. I want to read the next chapter
For the record, this was a fun chapter and a really entertaining read.
7332603 did not know that, I haven't really been following the game in a while
also, the fact that every game I had started around the time I stopped playing, I either had an incredibly boring year, with literally nothing happening, or I'd end up A, drowning my whole fort trying to dig an underground lake for a well, or B, have all the water on the surface freeze in winter and my dwarves die of dehydration
I'd like to thank you for the mental image of Twilight, Starlight, and Moondancer watching the Harry Potter movies and inevitably riffing on them, with Ember chiming in when dragons get involved despite herself. That is truly fantastic.
Very entertaining chapter, with a good blend of exploration, explanation, comedy, and poignancy. Definitely looking forward to the havoc Ember will wreak with Truth or Dare.
Starlight is the one most likely to cause a fight at this stage. However, it is nearly as likely that she and Ember will either get into a private Alpha Female contest and will end up either (a) emulating Rainbow and AJ at their worst or (b) ending up in a hot, passionate clinch.
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My guess is she was smiling more at the idea of a pillow fight.
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I have to wonder what their reaction would be when they see Quirrel drinking unicorn blood.
7332271 this question has been answered. She took her savings with her when she left. Bits are gold, no one cares what the gold looks like.
7337351 I don't know where you're getting that from, but it isn't fact. Sunset didn't have TIME to "take anything with her" when she left Equestria. She left immediately after being banished from the castle, after stunning the guards that were escorting her out. (At least, that's according to the comics--which are the closest thing to official canon we have about that.)
7337351 In addition to MinthrilMoth's reply, selling gold in the real world isn't that easy. If you go through official channels, then it has to be assayed, which brings questions of where it came from and official attention to a recent immigrant who can't afford official attention. If you go through unofficial channels, then you get only a fraction of the market value and if you try to sell any significant quantity, such as would be required for someone to support themselves in the style needed for the top of the social pyramid even in high school, then that attracts attention of a different sort who will be interested in where it all came from.
Actually, the easiest way to make money that way would be to sell self-cut gemstones. If you look up "Lapidary" and your home city in a Google search, you'll undoubtedly find a local society which allows people to learn how to cut gemstones, and use their equipment. Some of them even do field trips to places where you can go spelunking for stones.
Of course, all of this assumes you have A) at least the minimum funds to afford to join and participate in field trips, and B) Time. While Sunset might have had time at first, she didn't have any money.
However, it's worth pointing out that the picture of her first Fall Formal crown doesn't look anywhere as nasty as what she turned into. So maybe she got a helping hand or two at the beginning, and only started to turn nasty when her plan began to crystallize. It's a big gray area that the movies sort of skipped over. But then again, they also skipped over Twilight's first night, what she ate for dinner, and so on. Plus how she paid for school lunches. I think if they were to be more focused on realism, the answer would probably be the generosity of students to the new girl.
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Glad I'm not the only one who, er, had to bite down on their tongue.
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7337515 Well, there's clearly some kind of disconnect between the comic and the movies, because the comic had her jump through immediately, but in the movie, she had her book.
One possible interpretation could be that she was always planning to go through, and had thought the shouting match would go her way. Planning for victory, she had saddlebags with her stuff waiting right at the mirror so Celestia wouldn't have time to reconsider if Sunset had won the argument. So when she dashed through, she'd already tossed them through the portal by the time depicted in the comic panel.
Okay, it's a stretch, due to the comic coming out before they realized they needed a plot hook for a second movie. But it holds water, I think.
I can't wait for the next part of this...or "Just Girls Talking".
I am enjoying this more than I though. XD tracking.
Wouldnt Ember be a dog in the EQG universe?
7435059 Sick of that question, have answered it both in the fics and in the comments section.
7435209 Pardon me then
Ember has something wicked planned....and I love it
7467771 Yes it should, and I'll fix it now...thanks...