"You're Sunset's brother, right? I'm Twilight Sparkle and--what are you doing? Get up!"
"I'm sorry your highness! I didn't realize--"
"Your highness?" Twilight shook her head. "No, I'm not royalty! I'm just your run-of-the-mill genius prodigy with magical friends from another world! Which... now that I say that, I'm not that run of the mill."
"Don't forget your talking dog," Spike pointed out.
Sunburst rose from his prone position, and further rose when Starlight leaned down and pulled him up. "Biped. Forelimbs are for gripping, not locomotion."
"Right." The stallion--or, was it still 'stallion' in this world?--adjusted his cape. "Right, right. It's... a pleasure to meet you, miss Sparkle. And your talking dog. I take it that's normal in this world?"
"Actually no. It's pretty unusual." Twilight paused. "Aren't talking dogs normal in your world?"
"If you're talking about the diamond dogs, I'm pretty sure they're actually some sort of giant shrew--"
"We can debate scientific classification later," Starlight interjected firmly. "Right now we need to find Sunset Shimmer, all of her, and see if we can recombine her into her usual self."
"Right! Well. About that." Twilight rubbed the back of her head. "The rest of the Rainbooms are trying to track down individual components of Sunset's manifested psyche based on their understanding of her intrinsic profile, but, well, that's five to seven, and that's assuming they can find all of her."
Sunburst nodded. "And the remaining two personas?"
"Had some good luck there. One of them is intelligent enough to at least stay nearby--oh, there she is now." Twilight turned and waved at the figure coming out of the brown-red building. "Sunset! Over here, your brother came to help!"
The two native equestrians looked over, and Sunburst's eyes widened as he took in the image. He wasn't exactly sure what was considered normal in this world, but he could reasonably guess that this version of Sunset was definitely not it. There was something about the way the feathered boots flowed gracefully over the ground as she walked, the way her otherwise bare arm muscles slinked under her cutie-mark shoulder bracers, the way her fiery hair seemed to rise endlessly into the air, that seemed to project an otherworldly presence.
Oh, and the giant glowing wings and horn made of pure golden light, those were pretty big clues as well.
"Hello, Sunburst." Sunset's voice was calm and serene, even as her red-rimmed eyes turned to him. "It is good to see you again, even in such dark circumstances."
Sunburst swallowed. "Hey, Sunset. You... seem pretty calm, all things considered."
"I am comprised of Sunset's sense of harmony, her wisdom, as it were. To panic in this situation would service nobody, myself least of all." She turned to Starlight Glimmer. "I take it he is here to assist in the reunion?"
"Yes, basically. Why don't we all head back to the lab, look over the notes?"
"That does seem like a good decision," Sunset noted, absently dusting off her arm. "It will, at least, give us an overview of the problem, from which we can derive a course of action."
Sunburst watched her slowly stroll back to the school, swallowing awkwardly. "Yes, there's definitely something wrong with her. She's usually so much more... direct and active."
Twilight nodded. "Yeah. Don't get me wrong, she's a good person and all, but she's usually more... uh..."
"Abrasive?" Starlight offered.
"....domineering," Twilight replied. She knelt down, picking Spike up and walking off. "Come on, let me show you the lab. Maybe we can actually get something done, now that we have the original engineer with us."
"Well, I'll see what I can do." Sunburst started after her, his legs somehow moving into a rhythm that felt oddly natural. "But it might be good to know what progress you've made thus far?"
"There's a lot of theoretical technobabble that I can't quite parse. I'm not a native magical student--most of my work is in applying magic to the particular set of laws this universe imposes, instead of operating under the originating set of laws in the Equestrian universe. Starlight and Sunset have more of the technical know-how, I'm just the one that runs the system and collates the data."
"It's very important data," Starlight assured her. "And being honest I'm more of a juryrigger then a constructor like Sunset is. It's not like there's only one way to be intelligent, after all." She glanced at the ground. "My own 'brilliance' really causes messes, whenever I try to apply it."
"Well, not all the time," Sunburst offered. "I mean... you did kind of save Equestria recently."
"Yeah, but... I sort of broke the changeling hive to do it?"
"That wasn't you, that was Thorax."
"Well I was the one to tell him to--"
Spike snorted. "So, hey, is this actually important, or are you just going back and forth for no reason?"
"Spike!" Twilight cried.
"What? You and Sunset do this a lot too!"
Sunburst chuckled wryly. "Well, I suppose we should focus on what's going on now. Do you have the waveform records on hand? A fractal morphic cascade was purely theoretical before all this, but then again so was the ICKE formula back when I first created Sunset, so--"
"Created?" Spike tilted his head. "Like I was made by my mom?"
"No, Spike." Twilight opened the door. "It's more like, um... it's like... a computer program! Sunset was a computer program that got to be alive because of magic. You understand that, right?"
The dog nodded. "Not at all."
"Eeerugh." Twilight shook her head. "Anyway. Let me just... put you down here, where you'll stay, and I'll get all the data that I need from over there, and you and Sunset can catch up."
"I mean, sure, if she's OH SWEET CELESTIA you're right next to me." Sunburst chuckled awkwardly, scratching his beard as he managed to smile weakly at the fragment of his artificially generated sister. "You know, with all the light and the stuff, I kind of thought you would be a little less hard to miss, you know?"
"Silent arrival is often the way of wisdom," Sunset replied, unperturbed.
"Kind of thought it was having sense beaten into you," Starlight deadpanned.
"Wisdom can arrive in many ways."
Starlight blinked. "...what do you know. Even Sunset's wisdom is snarky."
Sunburst took a breath. "We'll get this fixed, Starlight. I promise."
"And it might even happen before Sunset!"
The two of them turned to Twilight.
"Cause, you know. Sunset. The time. And, the... girl..." She chuckled awkwardly. "I'll just... leave you with the notes."
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This is beautiful, and I would like to have more. Take all the time you need to, I will be patient.
I was so confused 'cause the Fractaling was still not fully unexplained!
Sunburst POV! Cool!
Twilight + Sunset ship? ... True. Even when Sunset is nice, she's a bit bossy?
something about this story reminded me of a scene in an online comic called "the Wotch": the main character, Ann Onymous (no kidding) messes up a spell, causing parts of her personality (anger, courage, etc.) to become separate people.
if i remember, that story was called...
schizophr-ANN-ia
This is going to be interesting.
You may fracture her psyche, but you WILL NEVER TAKE HER SNARK! ALL HAIL SUNSET SHIMMER, THE QUEEN OF SNARK!
8458915
What, does Twilight Snarkle not get a mention? Or her apprentice, Sir Spike, Duke of Snark?
8458925
ALL HAIL SUNSET, QUEEN OF SNARK AND HER CHAMPION/LOVER TWILIGHT SNARKLE! AND TWILIGHT SNARKLE'S ASSISTANT, SIR SPIKE, DUKE OF SNARK!
You can split the Sunset, but you cannot split the Sunset Snark!
Well, at least there's one bit of Sunset that's cooperative. Let's hope the rest can be brought to heel in fairly reasonable time. This might be one of those cases where the divided components can't sustain themselves indefinitely without recombining.
Snark is such a fundamental part of Sunset's personality that it permeates all facets of her being. I love it
I just recently thought about this again, but...
what's the seventh one?
8458955
There's a nuclear physics joke to be had in there somewhere, I just know it.
8459237
Actually I was trying to parody "They can take our lives, but they cannot take our freedom" line from "Braveheart".
No, Twilight. Just... no.
8459252
I think that "The snark must flow!" would be a better line for Sunset.
8459851
Eh, whatever.
To quote Luna here:
(I really wish they would hurry up and make a Luna emoji for this site.)
I gotta admit. I forgot all about this story. Not really because of the wait, but because I have over a dozen stories tracked and read about a hundred stories since this story was posted, so I guess it slipped my mind. That and I forget things easily. Overall, good chapter. Can't wait for the rest.
-Dark
8459223
It's Phoenix Sunset from "My Past Is Not Today"
i.ytimg.com/vi/WNXnC1xm63I/maxresdefault.jpg
I think it representts her confidence. She'll probably be super full of herself like a hellish version of Trixie.
Sunburst? Don't try to ease tension with humour. The effort is appreciated but I'm afraid that you really don't have the knack.
8462613
Are you talking about this?
That was Twilight making the awkward joke.
Sunset sounds like a fortune cookie.
8464974
I wouldn't expect Twilight to be able to defuse tension anyway!
8459237
I've replicated your measurements- there is definitely a nuclear physics joke present (with ~99.98% certainty).
im guessing demon sunset wont be evil but instead more of a prankster and the other 6 will each be a weird version of the elements
*Jerry-rigger. Juryrigger sounds like grounds for a mistrial <insert the ZWJ that should exist for👩⚖️ and😛 here>
(...oh, and while we're at it, *than.)
8745106
no it would be jury rig. Old sailing ship term.
8461925
Trixie's attitude was the result of an overwhelming lack of confidence. Someone who's truly confident knows it, and doesn't feel the need to be boastful.
twilight that joke was ten out of ten
Lol even sunsets wisdoms snarky
8745106
derpicdn.net/img/2012/9/7/91964/full.jpg
8766882
"Jerry-rigged" was used too but today it's outdated. Generally there is jury-rigged (temporaly fixed) and jerry-built (made in a shoddy, cheap way). Verbs are spelled separate, adjective forms are spelled with hyphen.