A Stone's Throw Away
Twilight Sparkle stood before the door of her house, a key in her hands. She hesitated unlocking the building that had sat cold for several days at this point. The windows were dark. Its rooms were silent. She blew a sigh through pursed lips and plunged the key into the hole it was made for.
“Is everything alright, Twilight?”
Twilight glanced back at her companions. Princess Twilight and Suburst were busy pouring over a book he had brought from Equestria. Little Spike was helping Sturm and Drang set up guard positions around the house. The one who had spoken to her was none other than the other princess, the big cheese herself.
Twilight pulled the door open and allowed Celestia to step through. “Um. Well enough. Did I say something…?”
“Not so much said as felt, I think.” Princess Celestia hobbled her way inside, her cane clicking against the hardwood floor of the entryway. “You don’t like this place.”
Twilight’s eyebrows rose of their own accord. “Oh.” She held the door for Little Spike, Sunburst, and Princess Twilight, who made a bee-line towards the basement. Conversely, Celestia waited beside the coatrack, a look of soft concern on her face.
“It’s…” Twilight rubbed the back of her neck. She shut the door behind her, leaving it unlocked to allow Sturm and Drang access to the interior should the need arise. She attempted to meet the High Princess’ eyes, but found them too piercing. Too intimidating. “It’s too empty after losing Spike.”
The strength in Celestia’s eyes was kind, at least. “I understand. It reminds you of him too much.”
Twilight said nothing, content as she was to nod. She led the way to the basement staircase, which Celestia took one painstaking step at a time. Twilight offered a helping hand, but Celestia waved her off.
“It’ll be fine. I’m still learning how to take it easy.” Princess Celestia laughed to herself. “Eternal youth just ain’t what it used to be.”
Twilight glanced across the room to where Princess Twilight and Sunburst were already examining her magic tracker machine. Little Spike sat nearby, perusing a set of printouts that had to be about two years old. “The other me has that, too, right? The youth thing?”
“As far as I know, yes.” Princess Celestia smiled at her protégé. “And so long as she avoids cataclysmic injury, she’ll be able to avoid… all this.” She gestured at her walking stick.
Twilight reached the bottom of the stairs and stood still on the bare concrete floor. “Any idea… how I can get that kinda power?”
“My dear, if I knew how to produce alicorns with any sort of regularity, I’d have an entire gaggle on hand.” Celestia smirked, but the expression faded quickly. “It hasn’t always worked out. But every once in a while, I surprise myself.”
Twilight crossed her arms and rubbed them to shield from the chill of the sunken room. “Was Sunset going to be…?”
When Celestia reached the bottom of the stairs, she lowered herself to sit on them. She gazed at the gemstone on the end of her cane, seeing herself reflected on its many surfaces. “There… was a possibility. Unfortunately, I pushed her towards something she wasn’t ready for.” A sigh as deep as an ocean hissed its way out of her soul. “I failed her in that regard.”
Twilight sucked on her lower lip. She took an uneasy step towards the equipment, lingering by Celestia’s side in the hope she would follow.
“It’s remarkable!” Sunburst said, dragging Twilight’s attention to their conversation. “This is almost exactly a miniaturized version of the magic detectors in your laboratory. Are you certain they were made independently of each other?”
Princess Twilight chewed on a lock of her hair as she looked the sensor over. “This machine is more than a decade old, and Twilight didn’t even meet Sunset until seven years ago, so yes. It’s true that great minds think alike.”
“Great minds think for themselves.” Twilight attempted a lopsided smirk. It felt strange on her face, so she quickly replaced it with a shallow frown. “Let me get the breakers turned on. This thing tends to pull a lot of power.”
It was the work of a moment to prep the machine for use. It chittered and hummed in a familiar fashion, its computer drawing up information from previous scans. The thing was about the size of two full-sized refrigerators side-by-side, and went from the floor almost to the ceiling. It was covered completely in sheet steel, save for where she needed access to screens or the printer. Lights blinked in their merry little way as she flipped a series of switches to the “on” position—which powered the antennae on the roof of her house. She took a cloth to wipe the dust off the main control screen.
Little Spike sat on an office chair, spinning around as he waited for the activation process to finish. “How much sensing range you get with that?”
“A couple hundred miles, depending on how strong I make the signal.” Twilight twisted a dial that caused the machine’s humming to drone even louder. “We won’t do that for very long, unless the princesses are willing to foot my electric bill.”
“I don’t see why not.” Celestia hoisted herself to her feet and hobbled over to a second office chair. “I imagine exchange rates are favorable toward the Equestrian Bit?”
“Far be it from me to question the economic prowess of horsedollars.”
“We put the ‘equine’ in ‘equity.’”
Twilight took a step back from the device, rubbing her chin as she completed the “pre-flight” checklist in her head. “It’s ready for the source of the magic. What is it, exactly?”
Celestia’s hand sat clasped atop her cane. She sat there a moment longer, drawing in a deep breath. She pulled a small piece of paper from a hidden pocket, one with a small bit of string on one end. The opposite end had been torn. She held it towards Twilight. “Please be careful.”
Twilight’s brow furrowed. This was Celestia’s most precious possession? This tiny scrap of paper that looked like it had been chewed on by a dog? She took it gingerly and rotated it in her hands. On one side of the paper, written in scrawling, beautiful calligraphy, was a single word: “Always.”
“In Sombra’s Equestria,” Celestia said, her voice low, “there is a garden. A Wishing Garden. Ponies would go there to tie wishes to trees in the hopes that one day they would come true.” She turned her eyes down to look at the floor. “This one… was Sombra’s.”
Little Spike placed a paw on her lap, giving her a gentle smile of encouragement.
Princess Celestia returned the smile and placed a hand on his back. “Though in Sombra’s case, it was more of a promise.”
Twilight swallowed. The weight of the history between the two immortal rulers was far heavier than the frail slip of paper implied. She pulled a drawer from the side of the scanner, on which sat several disk-shaped sensors. She set the wish upon the sensors and began to twist dials until the scan matched the radiation flowing from the alternate Equestria.
“Well, it has a different signature than Sunset’s journal did, so we’re on the right track.” Twilight retied the band holding her hair in its loose ponytail, pulling a few additional locks out of her eyes. “We’ll have scan data from three hours’ drive in every direction.”
Princess Twilight nodded. “And then, presuming we find something, we’ll be one step closer to solving our mysteries.”
“I’m not one-hundred percent sure about that.” Twilight sat on the office chair Little Spike had vacated. “Even if we find the world Other Twilight is from, there’s no real proof she was involved in any of this.”
“But she has close ties to the victim and people who know the victim.” Princess Twilight paced in front of the machine, tapping her fingers together. “It’s better than the literal nothing we have without interrogating Wallflower.”
“Then why don’t we just talk to her?” Twilight waved a hand at Princess Twilight, rolling her eyes to avoid contact with the princess’. “The secret’s out in regards to the two of us, so what are we actually hiding from?”
“That’s what we’re trying to find out.” Princess Twilight grimaced, electing to watch one of the scanner’s many screens produce information. “It isn’t wise to put our security on the line by sharing with somebody we don’t know.”
Twilight Sparkle sighed and flicked a switch to activate the printer. “Like when you first found out about me?”
Princess Twilight stumbled over her next words, rethinking them before they could be spoken. She tried again, but failed to find the right way to say whatever she was thinking.
Twilight took the opportunity to press. “I just know that I understand how painful it can feel to be left out of the equation. To fail every hidden test of character because I don’t match up with what’s assumed. To go untrusted.” She forcibly unclenched her fist. She slowed her pulse carefully to quiet the magic sparks flying from her fingertips. The tension remained in her shoulders. The sorrow ached in her heart. “It’s just… do we have to put the Other Twilight through the same ordeal? Haven’t we learned how to deal with our doubles just a little bit?”
Princess Twilight’s expression was guarded, but Twilight saw the twinge of guilt in her eyes. She’d seen the expression often enough in the mirror. The princess breathed slowly and took a step towards her duplicate. “I’m sorry. All we know about her is that her former friends are terrified of her. If nothing else, that concerns me.”
Twilight scoffed, but she knew the princess was right… About that one particular thing. “Maybe she needs a friend more than any of us.”
The scanner signaled a hit.
Twilight Sparkle jerked her head towards the screen. “That was a whole lot faster than…” She gripped the sides of the machine and leaned close to the readout. She pressed a button to activate the printer. “It’s way too close for comfort.”
Sunburst tried to catch the paper as the machine spit it out. He fumbled with the scroll-length page as it spooled over in his arms. “I-I’m not sure I understand the data here. Are these hoof-widths or gallops? Or something in-between?”
Little Spike peered at the page as it tumbled to Sunburst’s feet. “Kilometers, I think.”
“Miles,” Twilight said. “We use miles here.”
Sunburst adjusted his glasses, finally losing his fight with the printout and letting it tumble freely. “So when this thing says ‘three’ it means—”
“It’s…” Twilight Sparkle’s eyes met with Princess Twilight’s. “It’s at the high school.”
***
Shining Armor ran his hands under warm water as he washed the day’s grease away. No matter how hard he scrubbed, there remained a dark, muddy coloration, and the smell of gasoline would require a full-body shower to remove. That wasn’t his main concern, though; he had a date with his wife.
Scootaloo called out to him as she passed through the front door of the shop. “Yo! See you at the Apples’.”
“See you there.” Shining Armor judged his hands just clean enough to use the phone. He pulled it from his backpack and sought out a specific contact. It was around five-o’-clock his time, so by his calculations, Sunset was just seeing eleven. It was a little later than he would have liked, but he was far more a beggar than a chooser.
Sunset Shimmer answered, her voice low and more than a little tired. “Hi, Shiny.”
“Hiyah, Sunset.” He double-checked that he was alone in the shop. The owner was locking up the back rooms, so he didn’t have to watch what he said for a while. “Listen, things got pretty bad over here.”
“And you waited until eleven in the frickin’ night to tell me?”
Shining Armor sighed, resisting the urge to rub his eyes with his yet-grubby hands. “Things not going well over there, either?”
“Depends on who you ask.” The phone let out a mechanical hiss as Sunset’s sigh hit the receiver. “The doctor’s an inscrutable mess. What happened with you?”
“Look.” Shining Armor gritted his teeth. “First of all, we’re all okay.”
“Oh God, what happened?”
“We were attacked.” Shining sucked in his lips. “By another magic user.”
“Oh God.” Sunset’s voice grew lower as the sounds of a door closing reached across the ocean. “Is it the murderer? Is Twilight exonerated?”
“It might be, but we haven’t been able to question her.” Shining nodded to the shop’s owner as he passed by. He decided to take the conversation on the road and walked to his car. “Twilight took her out by hitting her with a car door. Your training’s paying off.”
“Do we know who it is?”
Shining stuck the key in the ignition. He set the phone to “speaker” and placed it on the center console. “Flash said her name is Wallflower Blush. He says you went to school with her.”
“I don’t know her.”
“You sure?” Shining gripped the wheel tight. It was a touchy subject to bring up, but for the sake of the investigation… “She sounds like the kinda girl you woulda bullied.”
Sunset let out a muffled noise that might have been a curse. She hemmed and hawed for a couple of seconds. “I still don’t know her. I feel like the name’s familiar, but I can’t—oh no.”
Shining Armor sucked in a breath. “Yeah?”
“Starlight Glimmer gave me a list of former students who’d left.” Sunset’s breath grew short as her words spilled out faster. “Wallflower was one of them.”
Shining Armor realized he was speeding. He hit the brake to bring himself to a more reasonable velocity. “So the school is behind the murder?”
“I can’t say for sure.” A loud crackle came out of the speakers; Sunset must have moved by the shore. “Aside from Raven, the other former students were named Night Glider, Party Favor, and Neighsay. Any of those names ring a bell?”
“Yep.” While waiting at a red light, Shining double-checked that his pistol was indeed safely concealed and within arm’s reach. “We questioned Night Glider and Party Favor yesterday. Never heard of Neighsay, but we might wanna question Wallflower about it.”
“What did the other two say?”
“Nothing much besides that they went to Starlight’s school.” Shining bobbed his head back and forth. “And that apparently Dr. Twilight is a scary woman who they parted on bad terms with.”
“They parted on bad terms with everybody.” Sunset huffed. Shining could hear pebbles and sand crunch beneath her feet. “Next time get a hold of me sooner, Shining. I had a whole text conversation with Twilight and she never even mentioned this.”
“We’re all a little—” Shining rolled his eyes at himself as he missed the turn to leave town. He took the long way, through the commercial district. “—a little frazzled, Sunset.”
“You got attacked by a wizard, Shining.”
“Yeah, it’s one of the reasons I wish you were home, Sunset.” He regretted the words the instant he snapped them, covering his mouth with a hand that was far too late on the uptake. To late to save him from embarrassing himself and irritating his wife.
He could see Sunset’s eyes radiating sass with true imagination-given clarity. “Oh, you’re really going to take that tone with me? Right now? When I’m clear on the other side of the planet?”
“Sunset, please—”
“I seem to recall you saying you’d be behind me the whole way if I came here. Regretting that decision?”
“I’m sorry I said something stupid. You need to calm down so we can—”
“I need to calm down, Mr. Snippy-Pants?” Sunset’s voice rose. Clearly she was alone, or she would have woken up the entire compound. “We’re supposed to be working together, but you can’t be bothered to update me when you’re under attack? What if Sunny was in danger?”
“Sunny should be used to having a parent overseas!”
He saw the words in his head before he spoke them. He had an opportunity to seize them. To chain them up so they could never see the light of day. But in his moment of choice, he chose to speak them.
It was possibly the worst thing he could have said.
“What the—what’s that supposed to mean?”
“I’m sorry, I just—”
“I’m over here because we thought it was the best thing for our family!”
Shining gritted his teeth. “But you’re still going to be the last one to hear about anything because you’re halfway across the world teaching magic.”
“You could at least send a text. Even if it’s in the middle of the night I still want—”
Against his better judgement, against his desire to defuse the argument, against everything decent inside him, he interrupted her. “You’re still not going to be around for people when they need you!”
Shining heard the call disconnect. The sound struck him right in the heart. He slowed the car until he could put it into park. He scooped the phone up and stared at the glowing screen.
He was an idiot. Needlessly harsh, even in the face of the threat they were facing. He should have been kinder. Given the softer answer. Not let his frustration get the better of him.
Now he had to live with the consequences, and the next conversation wasn’t going to be pretty.
***
Sunset roared and kicked a stone into the sea. It hit the surface of the water with a satisfying sploosh.
That conversation… really couldn’t have gone worse. Between the stress of Dr. Twilight’s subterfuge, being reminded of her awful old self, and learning her family had been attacked… She knew she was far too angry to hold a civil conversation. Shining had pushed her buttons, and she’d provoked him to saying more than he knew he wanted to say.
But dang it, she was still mad. Even after years and years of working on it, her temper flared as easily as a fire spell. She brushed the red sparks from her fingertips and flicked through her phone. She wasn’t ready to talk with Shining again. She needed somebody else. Somebody who could sooth her down to a mere simmer, rather than an eruption.
“This is Princess Twilight.”
Sunset gave the phone a double-take. “Sorry. I was trying to contact the other Twilight.”
“Oh! Yes! This is her phone.” Princess Twilight fumbled with the phone. Sunset could hear several other voices nearby. “She’s driving and can’t take the call.”
Sunset breathed a hot sigh through her nose. “Is everybody okay? Nobody got hurt by Wallflower, did they?”
“No, we’re all fine. Better than fine!” Another voice muttered something, and the princess added: “Wasn’t Shining Armor going to fill you in on this?”
“We aren’t—we can’t get a good connection.” Sunset cleared her throat, quenching the flame that was building up on her fist. “Right now. We can’t. I called you as a backup.”
“Gotcha.” Princess Twilight spoke with the other voices. She muttered something about “Speaker?” and Sunset got an earful of dial-tones. “I can’t figure it out. Anyway, Sunset, we’ve made an important discovery!”
Sunset made her way to the rickety old docks and sat on an empty crate. “Those are usually good things.”
“Yes, we have found what we think is a portal to Dr. Twilight’s world! And it’s in the high school!”
Two plus two added up in Sunset’s head. “And you’re headed there now?”
“Precisely!”
Sunset lowered her eyebrows and stared into the starry sky. “And you’re not just interrogating Wallflower becaaaaause?”
“According to your laws, a suspect cannot be interrogated without an attorney present.” Princess Twilight’s audible disgruntlement couldn’t be hidden beneath her chipper tone. “This cannot be waved even in the presence of royalty.”
“Libertas doesn’t have much respect for royalty. Or anybody.”
“Yeah, I’m starting to notice.”
Sunset rubbed her forehead. “So… there’s a portal at the school, and you’re going all the way to another world just to see if you can get dirt on Dr. Twilight?”
“That about sums it up.”
“And there’s no other leads to follow?”
“Not today, at least.” Princess Twilight clicked her tongue, and Sunset thought she heard Little Spike say something in a snarky tone. “The process to find Wallflower Blush a representative looks like a pretty frustrating one, so I might as well be off-world, am I right?”
“But…” Sunset Shimmer flashed back to the stories of two realities colliding, with only one able to survive. “Is it safe to go to the other world?”
“We’ll be using a natural connection. Or, if need be, we can shore it up based on my studies of Starswirl’s mirror portal to this reality.” The phone bumped against something plastic, and the resounding crackle-pop made Sunset wince. “We’ll be fine, Sunset. We’ll keep you updated.”
Sunset Shimmer glanced up at the moored fishing boat. “In the meantime, I just stay here and… teach.”
“Sounds like a plan!” Princess Twilight’s tone shifted to that of someone looking to end a conversation. “We’re coming up on the school, so talk to you later!”
“Talk to you later. Bye.” Sunset ended the call with a tap of her thumb. She stared across the sea and spotted the mainland glowing faintly with evening lights.
She turned around and beheld the darkened school of magic. Her anger faded slightly, replaced by a fearful memory. The last time she found herself in a magical land, her family was in mortal peril. Now, it seemed the very same danger had returned in a new form.
Was she cursed to face separation and fear every time she pursued her greatest desires? Her own heart’s promise to itself? Wasn’t she allowed a little fulfilment? Was it all just her rebellion against Celestia coming back to haunt her?
Shining Armor’s words stung. He had left the military in order to be closer to his family. Closer to Sunny. But it was completely different for Sunset to travel to the Highborn Isles to spend time at Starlight’s magic school.
Wasn’t it?
It wasn’t like she was planning to stay longer than the summer.
Or was she?
Her train of thought continued to Celestia and Sombra. Two star-crossed lovers separated by their dreams. Forced to live a life apart because their chosen paths were incompatible.
She and Shining were different.
Weren’t they?
She knew it was a road they didn’t want to go down. She certainly wasn’t going to start it now. She picked up her phone and opened her instant-messaging app to Shining Armor’s page. She didn’t really know what to say, but she needed to say something. After several long moments of staring at her husband’s picture, she hadn’t even typed a letter.
“‘Don’t let the sun go down on your anger,’ they say.” She scoffed and looked to the dark horizon. “That ship has sailed.”
A familiar voice with an unfamiliar tenor spoke out of the gloom. “Having difficulties with people?”
Sunset Shimmer jumped in place, her eyes snapping to the pair of glowing lavender eyes a few feet away. “Occasionally. We all have rough patches, right?”
“Inevitably.” Dr. Twilight Sparkle stepped closer. Sunset lit a fire in her palm to illuminate her face. “It’s why I’ve sought you out, actually. I’m afraid not everybody appreciates what Starlight is doing here.”
Sunset couldn’t hide the scowl that forced itself onto her face. She stared into the flames on her hand, trying and failing to just let herself be mesmerized by the wobbling tendrils of heat. She had too much on her mind, not the least of which was the doctor herself. “What else is new?”
Dr. Twilight’s eyebrows rose. “If you can let go of your anger at me for just a moment—”
“Please, explain away.” Sunset stuffed her phone in a pocket and waved Dr. Twilight on. “I’m your literal captive audience.”
“Viscount Dulcimer was sent by the Prime Minister to spy on us.” Dr. Twilight Sparkle rubbed her chin as she gazed across the sea. “But he now believes that Prime Minister Fancy Pants has changed his mind and simply wants all of us thrown in prison.”
“Prison!” Sunset bolted to her feet, propelled by the shiver shooting down her back. “On what charges? We’re not committing any crimes! What does he gain from doing something like that?”
“False charges of course. Designed to mesh with Starlight’s past as a political activist.” Dr. Twilight shook her head and switched to rubbing her temples. “We’re isolated on this island. If he comes for us quietly, nobody will know enough to fight his claims. The school will be destroyed along with all the lives within it.” She placed a hand on Sunset’s shoulder, and she didn’t immediately pull away. “As for what he’ll gain? Sole access to Starlight’s studies on the science of magic. He’ll have the power to do whatever he wants without repercussions.”
Sunset covered her mouth with both hands. What had she gotten herself into? An international conspiracy? A power-play in which the tools were literal cosmic forces? The murder mystery back home was starting to look like small potatoes. “We have to fight back. Get this out in the open.”
“And speed up his plans?” Dr. Twilight gave Sunset a look she might give to somebody about to smash their own face with a hammer. “We’re already too late to fight it, Sunset. We need to run, or everything we stand for is getting obliterated.”
“Run where?”
“That’s…” Dr. Twilight spread her hands, a look of plea taking hold of her features. “That’s why we need you, Sunset. Only you can get us far enough away to escape Fancy Pants.” She reached out to take the hand Sunset hadn’t set on fire. “Only you can bring us to your Equestria.”
Sunset blanched. She jerked her hand away, but the doctor held on tight. “I… I don’t think I can. Even if I had the tools—”
“You can use any of my devices. Whatever technology you need, you have at your disposal.” Dr. Twilight stared directly into Sunset’s eyes, her two glowing, magical focal points glaring deep into Sunset’s darkest thoughts. “You’ll never get the chance to reconcile if you don’t help us flee.”
Sunset’s gut swirled with a morass of pain and regret. Just looking into the doctor’s eyes seemed to conjure up thoughts of her worst fears realized. “I…”
“Please, Sunset.”
Sunset sucked in a breath, filled with salty sea air. She let it out in a slow hiss. If nothing else, this was a threat she could face. This was a danger she could overcome. “Alright. I think I have an idea how we can get out of here.”
Dr. Twilight jerked her head back. “Already?”
“Yeah. I just need a few parts to build a makeshift magic scanner.” She set off at a jog towards the school. “And I need your biggest antennae!”
Dr. Twilight Sparkle hung back a bit, then quickly caught up with Sunset Shimmer. “I think we have exactly what you need.”
***
Neighsay sat down for a small dinner at his favorite restaurant in Canterlot City, a diner with plenty of grease in its fryers and plenty of cocoa in its milkshakes. He ordered his usual hamburger and small shake, then turned on his phone to peruse the news apps he’d downloaded. Pushing his way past the usual drivel, he spied a mention of the previous day’s attack at the Party Favor Nightclub.
Details were sparse. Good.
His disposable phone beeped. He slipped it out of its hiding place and answered with a clipped “Yes?”
“It happens tonight or not at all.”
The call ended, but Dr. Twilight’s words rang in his ears. He set the phone back in place slowly, carefully, as though it were a bomb that could explode with the slightest misuse. His fingers tapped against the table as fear mingled with anticipation in his brain.
Part of his job was inevitable. They needed the pegasus fairy strings from somewhere, after all, and only one of Starlight’s former students had the build and magical ability to work.
The other part of his job had, unfortunately, been forced upon him and his partner. He scanned the rest of the news article for information about where the suspect had been taken after the scuffle, and found nothing.
“Pardon me,” he said as the waitress brought him his food. “Might you direct me to the local hospital?”
“You lookin’ for the baby hospital or the heart hospital, hun?”
Neighsay gave the older woman a nonplussed, quirked eyebrow. “The one more likely to treat general injuries.”
“Oh, you’re lookin’ for the one downtown.” The waitress pointed outside one of the diner’s large windows. “Take fourth down to Smith St. and take a right. It’s about two miles down. You can’t miss it.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Cake.” Neighsay wrote a quick note on his phone. “May I say this meal is looking lovely.”
“You can say what you want, buddy!” She waved as she walked back to the cash register.
He picked up a fry and gave it a tender nibble. “Hold on to your hat, Wallflower. I’m on my way.”
***
Twilight Sparkle stood just outside the driver’s seat of Shining Armor’s and Sunset’s minivan. Canterlot High stood before her, proud yet quiet. The day’s classes had ended a few hours ago. Now, only the janitorial staff and Principal Luna herself were around to greet the visitors.
The statue of the school’s mascot, a magnificent mare, stood proudly before the front door. A little ostentatious, perhaps, but quite fitting considering the students that had attended there. It lacked wings or a horn, but it still held the same sense of regality that she felt in the presence of Princess Celestia.
Twilight’s phone beeped, breaking the spell. It was from Big Mac. “Mac and Shiny are on their way. They said not to go anywhere dangerous without them.”
Little Spike snickered. “In my experience, there exists no more harrowing place than a school for children.”
“Teenagers, Spike,” Princess Twilight said with a narrowed gaze. “Teenagers.”
Twilight pulled a handheld magic scanner from her pocket, this one tuned specifically to seek out the magic of the Reflection reality. Even with so many inhabitants of Equestria nearby, this one wouldn’t be going off willy-nilly. She tucked it away as Principal Luna approached.
Principal Luna had been trotting along at a strong power-walk, but slowed as Princess Celestia came into view. “C-Celestia? Wha—?”
Twilight caught the concern on Princess Celestia’s face as she examined a woman who looked a good twenty years older than she. “Luna! You look…” The mask of serenity founds its usual peace and settled into place. “Remarkable.”
“You need to give me the name of your skin cream.” Principal Luna placed a hand on her hip and looked Celestia up and down. “Does your Luna look as young as you do?”
Sunburst leaned over the front of the van, spreading a scroll’s worth of scanner data over the hood. “If you don’t mind answering a few questions; have you noticed any strange occurrences around the school lately?”
“Nothing on the level of the—ahem—‘Canterlot High Hoax.’” Luna gave them a half-smile. “I was hoping you could find something. We’re fresh out of cataclysmic events.”
“That’s why we’re here.” Twilight Sparkle moved towards the front door. She activated her miniature scanner, which crackled faintly. “With your permission?”
“Investigate away.” Luna moved with Celestia as the latter hobbled forward on her cane. “Anything to keep the students out of trouble. I’d rather not face a repeat of the Dazzlings. Or Sunset.”
Celestia gazed around the main lobby, her eyes falling to the photographs and trophies that lined the wall. “This is where Sunset Shimmer works, isn’t it?”
“That’s right. She teaches math.” Luna gestured down a hallway. “I can show you, if you’d like. She says you were her teacher back in your world, right?”
“I… was, yes. A long time ago.” Celestia cracked a grin that didn’t feel genuine to Twilight. “I would love to see her classroom.”
“I’ll keep scanning.” Twilight held her magic device high, but didn’t pick up anything significant. “We should know the instant I find something. I think this’ll be quick.”
Princess Twilight and Little Spike followed Luna and Celestia towards the aforementioned classroom, leaving Sunburst to search alongside Twilight. He held the sheet full of readouts close to his face, pushing his glasses up onto his forehead to get a better look. “From the looks of this graph, the source of the signal was near the center of the school. Any idea what this room could be?”
“I never went here. I’ve barely visited.” Twilight found a simple map of the school on the wall. There were quite a few rooms that could have been considered the “middle” of the school. The cafeteria, the gym, a science lab… “It’ll most likely be on the ground floor. I don’t know many natural cave formations that hover in midair.”
“I… would agree with that assessment.” Sunburst folded the notes carefully. “Perhaps a basement area? The closer we can get to earth, the better.”
Twilight adjusted her glasses so they sit more comfortably on her nose. “Maybe deeper than that. It’s possible the school was built on top of the cavern.”
Sunburst’s mouth popped open with a sudden realization. “But there would still have to be access to the cavern itself in order for the magic to have been detected.”
“Which means we won’t necessarily have to get out the shovels.” Twilight Sparkle started walking towards the gym, urging Sunburst on with a waved hand. “Come on. We can come back for the others when we find something concrete.”
Sunburst hiked up the bottom of hid wizard robes so that he didn’t trip. “Yes, ma’am.”
The gym was devoid of Reflection magic. As was the cafeteria. As was the boiler room in close proximity to both of them. Twilight thanked the janitor who’d let them in, then leaned against the lockers. “Was that a bust? I think that was a bust.”
“There’s a whole lot more school to search.”
“Yeah, I know, but that doesn’t mean I have to be happy about—” She leaned upright as two familiar men approached. “Hi, Shiny. Hi, Mac.”
Shining didn’t look himself. His mouth was pulled down in a frown that reeked of discouragement. It seemed odd on his face. Of everybody in their family, he usually seemed like the most put-together. Maybe it was an act. “Find anything?”
“Not especially.” Twilight reached out to squeeze Big Mac’s hand. “You were a student here. Know any weird nooks and crannies we could look at?”
“As long as you don’t rat me out to Luna.” Big Mac’s eye sparkled, even if his mouth remained a serious straight line. “The guys and I had a couple of hangouts most people stay away from. We used to try and psyche each other out by sayin’ the place was haunted.”
They checked the boys’ locker room first, and found no trace of otherworldly energy. For the sake of completeness, the girls’ locker room was also tried, and also found wanting. The sports equipment storage was similarly disappointing, as were the lab rooms they investigated.
After an hour’s worth of nothing, they reunited with the other group. The ten of them gave each other a collective shrug, their hands literally and figuratively empty.
Twilight glared at her handheld scanner, which had remained dead since they stepped foot in the school. “I’m just about out of ideas. There hasn’t been a trace of magic anywhere.”
Little Spike lifted a paw towards the scanner. “Is there any way to boost the range on that thing?”
“If we had an antenna, sure.” Twilight switched the device off to conserve the least bit of battery power. “But this thing’s just proximity-based. It’ll only tell us if we’re close. It’s already got a range of twenty feet, which is a huge boost from my older model.”
Celestia’s fingers drummed the top of her cane in a fierce rhythm. “So we search every room, one at a time, until we find something.”
Luna snorted and crossed her arms over her chest. “This is a big high school, sister. That could take hours, if not days.”
Princess Twilight had remained silent up to this point. She unclenched the hands she held near her waist and falsified a grin on her face. “Alright then! We’d better hop to it if we don’t wanna watch another hour swirl down the drain!”
Twilight looked over the top of her glasses. She flicked the device on. “Say that again?”
Princess Twilight frowned. “Hop to it?”
“No, the other thing, the drain thing!” Twilight walked towards the janitorial closet and thrust a finger at the princess. “You’re brilliant!”
“Because I don’t wanna waste time, or—” Princess Twilight’s eyes lit up. She moved to follow close behind Twilight. “The drain! Of course! I should have guessed the instant we knew the portal was near the school!”
Luna looked at Celestia, who shared her bemused expression. “Yeah. Sorry, kids. You’ve lost me.”
“The portal’s under the school!” Twilight threw the door open and bent down. A tiny drain sat in the center of the floor, surrounded by damp mops. She held the scanner close. The faint crackle of detected magic sounded like sweet, sweet music to her ears. “In the sewers!”
Little Spike frowned up at Sunburst, his muzzle quirked to one side. “She’s waaaaay too excited for somebody who’s just decided to hop down a toilet.”
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Cue the Scooby Doo music ...
Ah. That'd, about do it.
So what happened to you?
I want you to know that I fucking love this exchange.
I suppose so. Still, something feels off.
Guess we'll find out.
Naturally.
Beware of Unreliable Narrator.
Oh, that's a bad choice of words.
Fun.
In a nutshell? Yes.
That's, dangerous.
That's your plan. You want to get back to Equestria. HER Equestria.
Ho boy.
Well yes.
Life is weird, man.
I expect Pennywise to pop up any time now.
A tough chapter, this one.
Love that Always reference. Still the best canon romance.
That conversation between Sunset and Shining was brutal. You really captured the feeling of that fight where you say one wrong thing, and then you kind of stand by what you said, but you say something else wrong, and you end up escalating things rapidly. No matter the reason or need, no one likes having their spouse halfway around the world at the best of times, let alone when things seem dangerous.
All of a sudden everything I though I knew about the Highborn Isles has come into question, because Starlight and Twilight have a huge incentive to twist the truth to Sunset, and they pretty much packed her from the airport off to an isolated school where they could control the information she gets. Is Fancy Pants actually doing anything shady at all, or is Dulcimer doing stuff in his name and then others are lying about it to scare Sunset into opening the portal? I hope she does, I kind of want to see what these students will get up to in Equestria.
On an unrelated note: What does Optimus Prime say when he takes his friends bird-watching?
Audubons Roll Out!
10595690
Ruh roh, Raggy. Ragic ponies!
Zoinks, Scoob! They're gonna, like, turn us into ponies too, my man!
Nuh uh. I get to be a ragin!
Let's split up, gang!
10596139
DayBreak happened. The one where she nearly got assassinated.
That's ONE layer of the plan, yes.
10596277
Except it's just Pinkie in poorly-chosen clown makeup. She does have a thing for balloons!
10599664
That arc still manages to bring a tear to my eye. It's really kinda the core of this whole story, too. More on that later.
I hate that conversation so much. It was no fun to write. But it's, like, the whole point of the story, so it had to be done. I've just been dreading it for three years now, so hopefully it comes out all worth it in the end.
Well, I've been very careful to basically make everything Dulcimer says sound suspicious, and Dr. Twilight is a known teller of tales...
But just because they're jerks, that doesn't mean they're wrong. Fancy Pants is a politician after all, and Azula always lies.
On that note, what do you call it when Starscream takes care of wildlife?
Decepticonservation!