• Published 10th Dec 2016
  • 6,832 Views, 706 Comments

Magical Girl Sunny - Jetto



She's strong! She's magical! She's beautiful! She's... Sunset Shimmer? Or isn't she? The answer is not as simple as one might think.

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06. Miraculous Sunny

An hour used to be only sixty minutes long. Each minute was sixty seconds long. Currently, each second took eternity, especially when all you had to occupy your mind and eyes were passing buildings, trees, people, other cars. None of them held Coco's attention long enough to save her from her own thoughts, which, for once, she would rather keep at bay. Her mind usually revolved around three things: fashion, her dream and passion; whatever movies, shows or games happened to occupy her free time whenever she needed to recharge her creative batteries; and Sunset Shimmer, her new roommate, a superhero she supported and... best friend? Can I refer to her like that? Should I...? She shook her head and tried to think of anything else, slowly driving herself insane to the point that she was worried about the other passengers of her bus. Innocent people who didn't know what she was going through. She didn't know what she was going through! She wanted to turn her phone on. Check the internet. Take a quick peek. But she was too afraid of answers. Especially the unreliable ones.

She sighed heavily, leaning her head at the bus's window. How did it come to this?

***

Just yesterday, Sunset Shimmer had been torn between being super excited over her last huge success, terrified of her doppelganger and paranoid over what it could do to them. It was Coco's job as a supporting, background character to keep her in check, keep her spirits high and just be there for her. The usual friendship, teamwork, all the shebang. And she was doing a perfectly fine job of it, if she was allowed to brag, and managed to carry her through towards the next day with only a few nightmares. Next day, after waking up, making herself presentable and enjoying breakfast in the cafeteria, came the last check up on MyStable before going to her classes. While Sunset was busy brushing her hair and applying makeup, Coco enjoyed reading the internet's reaction to Magical Girl Sunny and her latest, so far greatest, adventure, which was among the most upvoted things in local internet history.

And then she stumbled upon this:

Sandalwood: Good to see Sunset using her powers for good

She almost missed it, but quickly scrolled up when her brain registered something odd. She blinked a few times, copied and pasted it to a different document just to make sure she was reading it right.

Sunset?!

She tried to rationalize the use of that one particular word. Sunny and Sunset are very similar words. An autocorrect could easily mistake them, especially on cheap keyboards. Or on phones. This had to be a mistake. Otherwise, that would imply that the poster KNEW who Sunset was and knew about her powers! How many Sunsets were there with powers? Why did he write this sentence? Here, in a comment section right below the news article about Magical Girl Sunny? A day after the second Sunset Shimmer appeared out of nowhere and has been on original Sunset Shimmer’s mind this whole time?

She swallowed and refreshed the page. This is probably nothing, but just in case... The comment was gone, there was only a notification that it was deleted by the author. As if he accidentally wrote something he shouldn't and tried to erase his mistake before someone noticed. Someone who shouldn't have seen it. Pretend like there wasn't ever a sentence on the internet that implied that someone KNEW who Magical Girl Sunny was! Coco shook her head, took a deep breath and clicked on his profile page, swallowing as the page loaded.

Okay then, Sandalwood, if that's your real name, who are you, really?

A minute of inspecting his page gave her a lot of information. A high school student, attending Canterlot High School and getting involved in every hippie-thing she could imagine, if his dreadlocks and apparel were anything to go by. His front wall was full of eco messages, charity drives for nature, animals and healthy food, as well as some school events, with an occasional funny video here and there. Nothing special, if Coco had to guess by the page alone. He also had a lot of friends on his list, though one in particular made her heart stop for a moment.

Sunset Shimmer.

She blinked multiple times, but the screen didn't change. The smiling picture of a fiery haired teenage girl was still there. Breathing heavily, she clicked on it and prepared her heart for the worst, but nothing could have prepared her for what she found out. There was a lot of everything- pictures in multiple galleries. Friends on the friendlist. A lot of favorites pages. Many upvoted events, a lot of them dating back to years prior. What struck her the most were the pictures, few having less than two people on them, and almost every one of them had her and several strangers doing... friend things. Smiling, laughing, goofing around, posing in different outfits. And speaking of outfits, more than half of the pictures had her, "Sunset Shimmer", dressed in the same leather jacket, worn over either a black mini skirt and magenta shirt, or a one piece teal dress. Wow, she's really rocking that jacket!

Sunset Shimmer... her Sunset Shimmer, the original, was close by. From the sounds of it she was still preparing herself for the day. All Coco had to do was call her over and show her everything, but... she didn't. She couldn't shake off the feeling that something wasn't right. The other, "fake" Sunset Shimmer, whose page was opened before her eyes, seemed very off. Something about her didn't seem right.

She was too real.

Obviously, internet was a fickle invention, easy to crack, hack and fake. This page could've been created just to throw them off. One side of her brain told her it was impossible to do something this elaborate in such short time, but magic was involved. Sunset, her Sunset Shimmer, could levitate things, teleport, shoot fire and who knows what else. The fake one could have powers that, for example, could mind control the moderators of MyStable? Or create pages in an instant? As far fetched as it was, what exactly were the limits she was dealing with?

She was about to call for Sunset Shimmer, her Sunset, but her mouth stopped when a thought entered her head. She just found out so much about the fake Sunset, but...

...what do I even know about the real one?

"Boo!"

Coco jumped and squeaked, which made Sunset Shimmer, her Sunset, snort. Amongst the heavy breaths, Coco was grateful that, for once, she sat on her bed, with the screen of her laptop away from her roommate. "Sorry, couldn't help myself," Sunset apologized while still giggling "Sho kewt! You looked like you stumbled on some weird page. I thought you had adult filters on."

Coco was silent for a moment. Her gaze ventured from the Sunset standing in her room, to the one displayed on her screen, then back, and so on. She shook her head and managed a weak smile. "It's nothing, just... a nasty comment." She answered weakly, raising the screen just a few inches higher to shield herself from her roommate's eyes.

"I told you to ignore them," she rolled her eyes "what do they even know?"

"Yeah... what do they know..."

"Come on, let's not be late to classes."

As Sunset Shimmer went to open the door, Coco stared at the profile page of 'Sunset Shimmer' for a moment longer. "A-actually, I'm not going to... class..."

Sunset paused, turning to her friend with an eyebrow raised. "Huh? Something wrong?" She made a few steps forward, which made Coco quickly close her laptop and look around for an excuse.

"U-umm, you see..."

"Do you feel sick? Should I take you to the nurse office?"

"N-no, it's... uh... a family emergency!" She explained. Sunset frowned and raised her eyebrow even higher, waiting for a follow up. "Umm, my mom's in town and she wanted to talk about... stuff..."

"Okay, okay, I get it!" Sunset waved her hands and stepped away. "Family issues, no need to elaborate. Unless, you know... you want to talk about it?" She smiled apologetically, sending an invisible needle right into Coco's heart.

"N-no, it's nothing that big, just... I'll tell you later." A very long needle.

Sunset smiled lightly and nodded. "Okay. I'll let teachers know then. So... good luck with that thing, I guess?"

"Thanks." She smiled and waved her goodbye. As soon as the doors closed, she groaned loudly and fell on her back.

What am I even doing!?

***

"I don't even know what we're doing anymore!"

"Well, we can still try the--"

"Pinkie, for the last time, being out of baking powder is NOT an emergency!"

"Well, clearly someone here has never worked a shift at the bakery during rush hour! And that someone is Rainbow Dash..."

"Ugh..."

All six Rainbooms (and Twilight Sparkle, who still wasn't convinced to join the band as anything other than a stagehand) sat or stood in a circle in the middle of the soccer field. Rainbow Dash practiced her tricks with a soccer ball, Fluttershy brushed her pet Angel bunny on her lap, while Rarity braided Twilight's hair. Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Sunset Shimmer just sat quietly, still trying to think of a plan. Pinkie Pie had a plan, but it was swiftly rejected.

"Ah think we tried everythin' sensible. All Ah can think 'bout is a runnin' cart o'apples, but Granny Smith'll have mah plot if Ah damage it, so no dice."

They sighed again. It was barely noon, they even decided to skip school for the day (Twilight almost had a heart attack when they suggested it, but she got over it, give or take a few nervous twitches), but all they planned for luring Magical Girl Sunny turned into a disaster.

First, Rainbow Dash had the "brilliant" idea of (pretending to be) hanging by the ledge of a cliff, shouting to be rescued. Except they lived in the middle of a huge metropolis, with no hills in sight. Also, they rejected the idea of any of them endangering themselves for the sake of luring a person who might never show up in the first place, and doing it in safety gear defeated the purpose. They needed something more convincing. Something that "looked" like a job for a crime fighter.

The second idea came from Fluttershy, who feigned being attacked by a giant, wild bear, who was actually one of her animal friends and a pretty good actor, for an animal at least. It was going well, until "Beary" had a sudden attack of rheumatism and Fluttershy had to intervene and give him an... "improvised massage". By which she meant smacking him a few times in his pressure points and stretching his limbs, which Fluttershy had done in the past. The rest of Rainbooms all stood at least twenty feet away from them, with a tranquilizer dart-gun at the ready, looking at each other and wondering if the dart was meant for Beary. When it ended, the old bear was feeling fine. Pinkie Pie couldn't help but snap a photo of his blissful face, which earned her a hundred likes within ten minutes.

Realizing that cliffs and animals couldn't be trusted with this job (Fluttershy begged to differ, strongly!), Rarity made the third plan, which involved using nicely asking her new 'friends'. Rover, Fido and Spot, collectively known as "Diamond Dogs", were easily convinced to help their favorite fashionista in her plan, which had them 'play' a band of robbers trying to mug a poor, beautiful, fabulously dressed (the one piece dress was an overkill, she admitted after the fact) maiden, who could use the help of an equally fabulous superhero.

"She could use a few acting lessons, too!"

"I heard that!"

To be perfectly fair, despite Rarity's subpar performance (Oh pish-posh, that's your opinion!), the act was pretty convincing. So convincing, that it attracted not one, but two local heroes- the police officers! The bright side of the whole endeavor? Pinkie Pie gained a thousand more likes for the short video she posted on MyStable of the Diamond Dogs running away from the police, while Rarity tried to explain everything as she rushed after them. The Diamond Dogs enjoyed their five minutes of internet fame after Pinkie Pie got their permission to show the world the footage of them escaping police officers in broad daylight. Their response of "We've been worse!" was a little unsettling. But no amount of internet fame diminished the long lecture they got from the policeman for fooling around in such a dangerous way. They held back on snorting when one of the policemen mentioned that "such shameless behavior could detract heroes like Magical Girl Sunny from the real dangers!".

"Well, he wasn't entirely wrong!" Rainbow Dash noted while juggling her soccer ball, as they were remembering the recent events, earning herself a frown from some of her friends.

"Whose side are you on?" Rarity asked.

"I'm just saying that the policeman had a point," she caught the ball in her hands "from their point of view, she's been doing nothing but good. Meanwhile we're trying to catch her. We're the villains."

"Don't be ridiculous, Rainbow Dash! We all know she's a changeling and she needs to be stopped before anything bad happens."

"We don't know that," Fluttershy interjected.

"It's the best lead we have," Rarity, as well as everyone else, turned to Sunset "Sunset, darling, what do you think?"

Since reading the article about changelings, Sunset Shimmer went along with whatever crazy idea her friends had, but didn't add much to the conversation, silently standing on the sidelines.

She shrugged. "I don't know if it's a changeling. A lot of things add up, but not everything. I've been thinking... the way she acts, the spells she uses, the sheer fact that she looks... there's just too much resemblance not to think about it. And since changelings feed off love, becoming a superhero beloved by everyone makes sense- adoration is a form of love, and coming from crowds like yesterday it's... I dunno, probably a lot more than she'd get if she did things the 'old fashioned way'."

"That doesn't sound so bad," Rainbow noted "I mean, it's not like she's hurting anyone by feeding off our feelings?"

"True. But if what Princess Twilight wrote is to be believed, I'm more worried about their queen. Chrysalis is the type of leader that has a big plan. Probably."

"How do you even know she's behind this?"

"And why do we keep assuming it is a changeling?"

"Yeah, weren't we supposed to stop jumping the gun?"

Sunset raised a finger to say something, but stopped herself and groaned instead. "You're right, I'm thinking too hard about it. I just want this over with," her head lowered "I was supposed to take care of the magic problems in this world..."

She felt a hand touch her arm. She turned to see Applejack smiling at her. "We're s'possed to take care of it, together. An' we will."

Sunset smiled back to Applejack, then back to all her friends. There was supposed to be another mushy, emotional scene, but the multiple stomachs suddenly yelled for attention.

"Heh, all this magical girl hunting made us hungry." Sunset laughed. "I vote for a lunch break."

For the first time in forever, there was an universal agreement. While the other six debated over which place they should visit, Sunset pulled out her phone, where the MyStable app was still opened. Since this whole mess started, she has been following her own fan club, in hopes something more substantial would be posted there, but she soon realized that it was a dead end. Still, seeing such a huge following for the heroine made her feel a bit... guilty. When she first got to Canterlot, she was a textbook villain, defeated by the textbook heroes and having a textbook redemption arc. Meanwhile, Magical Girl Sunny started by stopping a robbery and saving a life. Which is the bad one, again?

As she scrolled by the message board for the fifth time, she noticed the original note about the kidnapping. The news were all over the TV, internet and radio, there were many ways she would've found out about it. But what if, by a small chance, she found it here first?

Can't hurt to try... She started typing a message, only occasionally casting a quick glance at her friends, just to be sure she didn't lose them, didn't bump into a signpost or, worse, had one of them notice what she was doing. It seemed like a bad idea to not involve her friends, but there was one detail that made it all more complicated. If it IS a changeling and it can feed on adoration or friendship, I shudder to think what it can do with a group of girls with powers that are FUELED by friendship. Literally.

"Sunset, you want pizza or tacos?"

"W-what?" She quickly looked up to see the other six look at her with confusion.

"Pizza or tacos. Which one do you prefer?" Rainbow asked again.

"Oh... uh, pizza." She quickly answered, prompting a few ecstatic responses and one tired eyeroll of a person who yearned for some more variety in her diet. She also attracted a concerned gaze from one.

"Sunset, you've been really quiet today," Twilight Sparkle asked "is everything okay?"

"Y-yeah. I'm all fine and good," she said smiling weakly, before frowning and turning her head away "as fine as someone who has to hunt her superpowered doppelganger can be, at the very least."

Twilight smiled toward her and gently placed a hand on Sunset's shoulder. "We'll find her. I promise."

Sunset answered the smile with her own. "Thanks, Sparky." After exchanging one more friendly nod, Twilight walked away from Sunset to join the others. As soon as she was left alone, Sunset Shimmer went back to her phone. There is no way I'm getting any of them involved! Not when our friendship could be used against us. Or worse...

***

'The number you dialed is unavailable at the moment. Please leave the message afte--'

Sunset Shimmer turned off the phone and sighed heavily. She already left one message before and there was nothing beyond 'hope you and your mom are doing fine, call me back when you can' she could offer back to Coco. She tried watching something on Netflux to pass the time, but she couldn't concentrate for five minutes, let alone an entire episode of whatever was going with this Crown show where everyone died when you started to like them. Not to mention having the danger of her double lurking around. She could only pass the time in only one way she wasn't bored of. MyStable... to think I used to hate this site, now I'm getting addicted to it! Even though she was yet to make her own account and kept using Coco's to browse, she spent an unhealthy amount of time on her fanpage. At least the comments helped her relax a bit and collect her thoughts. I need to start cooperating with the police. Maybe they could send me some info about a crime I could thwart? I did make a good first impression, a 'Sunny Hotline' shouldn't be out of question? I can't be stuck with news and gossip forever.

She passed comment after comment, not paying them too much attention. She was happy to see all the encouragement, but it was getting a bit repetitive. And then, she found this...

Nightfall Sheen: I wish we could meet! Call me.

She would've passed it as more fanboy/girl talk, except a lot of things looked dangerously suspicious. First of all, the sentence was followed by two emoticons- an emoticon with sunglasses and a beret. Nothing out of ordinary, except... That's exactly what I lost when I teleported back... is this a coincidence? And then two, it struck her like a lightning once she saw it.

Nightfall. Sheen.

A perfect synonym to Sunset Shimmer, while still sounding like a normal name. As if someone made it with a thesaurus in hand. Unable to believe that she just witnessed the most convoluted, yet cleverly disguised call, she clicked on the profile. The page was empty- no friends, no posts, no upvotes or favorites, no personal information except gender- female, and a profile picture of a treasure chest with teeth and a long tongue.

Sunset snorted and her smile grew. I see what you did there... alrighty, let's play!

---

Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash were busy fighting over the next slice of a pizza. Rarity was chastising the poor manners of Applejack, who refused to use the plastic utensils they were given. Fluttershy held Angel Bunny on her lap and fed him chopped olives which she got from Twilight Sparkle, who refused to touch even a tiny bit. And Sunset Shimmer was barely in any of the conversations, slowly chomping on her first slice, while looking patiently at her phone. Maybe she didn't get my message? Was I too subtle? Or maybe she doesn't visit MyStable at all--

DING!

Sunset twitched when Nightfall Sheen got a private message.

Occultistic Lass Starry: Who are you, really?

Sunset's eyes grew wide as she analyzed every single bit of the information she got. She looked at her friends at the table, none of them noticing her acting weird.

"Excuse me, gotta go, uhm... powder my nose," she exclaimed as she left her group and headed towards the girls bathroom, entering the empty stall and locking herself inside.

Nightfall Sheen: I could ask you the same thing.

Occultistic Lass Starry: You have something that's mine?

Nightfall Sheen: Beret and sunglasses.

Occultistic Lass Starry: Also my face.

Sunset sighed deeply. That sounds like a challenge. I guess it had to come to this.

Nightfall Sheen: Let's settle this. Face to face. Alone.

Occultistic Lass Starry: How do I know it's not a trap?

Nightfall Sheen: You won't believe me when I say it's not a trap.

Occultistic Lass Starry: ...

Occultistic Lass Starry: When?

Nightfall Sheen: Today. I want to get over it.

Occultistic Lass Starry: For once I agree.

After giving her doppelganger the coordinates for an empty warehouse in downtown (that she used back in the day), she left the stall and went to her table.

"Sorry girls, I gotta go now," she announced to the others, as she grabbed her backpack and cold piece of half-eaten pizza slice "we'll continue this tomorrow."

The group was visibly confused by the announcement and would've showered her with questions and doubts, if she hadn't bolted out of the restaurant before they could say anything.

"What's gotten into her?" Rainbow Dash asked, unaware that Pinkie took advantage of her guard being down to swipe the slice from under her nose.

Twilight frowned, as she looked at the closed door where her fiery haired friend had left. "Good question..."

***

Back in the Crystal Prep dorms, Sunset Shimmer let out a huge sigh, as her heart kept beating faster and faster. It's happening... I got a date... with myself! She grabbed her phone and dialed the number of her only real friend, only to hear the exact same automatic response.

She thought for a moment, thinking that maybe it would've been best to keep her in the dark until it was over with.

...except it was an awful idea. "Coco, I got contacted by, you know... her. I'll be meeting her in an hour, so don't be surprised that costume number 1 is gone. If, by any chance, you get this before I leave, I could use some... I dunno, encouragement? And if it's too late, then... well... wish me luck. Sun'ya."

She took a few deep breaths, as her eyes ventured toward her wardrobe. Here comes a boss battle...

***

Coco couldn't answer her phone, since she had it turned off the entire bus ride. She needed to find out the truth and her phone, MyStable and internet at large had a lot of faulty information that she couldn't rely on. The only one she could trust was herself and the only place where she could find the answers was here.

Canterlot High School.

Standing in front of the building, right next to a podium without a statue (wasn't there supposed to be something here?), she swallowed and took a deep breath. Let the investigation begin!

Author's Note:

In case you don't understand the meaning of treasure chest- it's a mimic, a DnD monster.

(I couldn't find an opening, only trailers and trust me, french one is better)
Magical girl long stopped being an excusive japanese product and I will get to more examples eventually, but for now let's look at the most recent phenomenon which I'm sure a lot of you are quite familiar with. But in case you're not...

Miraculous Ladybug (or "Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noire" or "Ladybug" or whatever title you prefer) is a korean/french/with japanese seasoning production made completely in CG that tells a story of two superheroes in Paris- Marinette, aka Ladybug, with powers of luck and making dots look awesome; and Adrianne, aka Chat Noire, with powers of destruction, bad luck (I think?) and having the best superhero name since Negasonic Teenage Warhead. Yes, you heard it right- we have a rare instance of a Magical BOY!

Instead of telling you what's so good about it, let me tell you how I got into it. I stumbled upon it when randomly looking at streaming site (ie: I liked it before it got popular- no, really, not trying to be a hipster, even though I very much am one). I liked the cover page so I started watching it and... oh god, that's korean! I cannot deny it, the korean language hurts my ears, and that comes from someone who always watches anime in japanese. But the animation was pretty awesome, the plot was standard but servicable (first episode aired in korea was "Stormy Weather", not "Bubbler", btw). There was no opening sequence, so imagine my surprise when I see Adrianne, a teen male model who our main heroine is obsessed about, transform into a superhero. I was like "wait, what? I didn't know that!", in the best way possible. Then the action started and... holy crap, it was good! They were doing le parkour, and using their gadgets in creative ways, both heroes worked TOGETHER as a TEAM, using TEAMWORK. Neither was worse or better, each had something to offer to the situation and they both had their limitations and do you have any idea how RARE that is? Not in a "lets combine our energy waves to make bigger waves" but actually being creative! Less Dragonball Z, more JoJo, if you know what I mean.

The best thing about the show are the main characters- Marinette is so lovably goofy and kind that I can't help but smile anytime I look at her. Adrianne is okay in civilian form, but as Chat Noire he steals the show- he's no Tuxedo Mask who does NOTHING and brags about being awesome- hell NO! Chat Noire kicks ass and gets his ass kicked just as much. Love it.
Also the show has one of the best, hateful villains I've seen. No, not Hawkmoth, he's not that bad. I mean Chloe. Geez, when season 1 DIamond Tiara tells you to 'chill with the evilz, girl' , you know you have a problem.

Next season is just around the corner and I can't wait! As well as another show in the same universe, "Pixie Girl" which looks like it will be equally as good.

Also, in case you didn't know, this is how the show was going to look originally. Which version is better is up to you, I would watch both if I had the chance.

Next time, a completely different kind of show from the legendary creator.