Chapter 10
Sugarcube Corner was a well-known place around the Central Canterlot area and even beyond that, to a lesser degree. Its friendly workers, calming atmosphere and unbelievably tasty treats made it one of the most popular places among the townspeople, especially the students of Canterlot High.
This accomplishment came as a huge surprise for the Cake family after opening the place, but they did everything they could to live up to the expectations of their customers. Most of their free time was invested into the bakery.
Things changed after the birth of their twins, though. They couldn't spend every single moment at the bakery any longer without ignoring the needs of their babies, even though they lived above the shop.
That was when Pinkie Pie stepped in. She was the daughter of old family friends and offered her help so that the twins could get the attention they needed. Together, they were able to handle the shop and the babies at the same time, but in Pinkie's opinion, that was not enough.
She insisted that the Cakes get at least one afternoon each week to spend time with the kids. After some debating, the Cakes gave in.
Thursdays were usually the quietest days at Sugarcube Corner, so they agreed that Pinkie would take care of the shop after school on those days. The only thing Pinkie asked for was that she could use the kitchen after closing hours to create and test new creations with her friends. Mr. and Mrs. Cake saw no reason to refuse as long as they cleaned up everything after they were done.
Shimmer had spent many Thursday evenings there, and she knew that if there was a place to meet her former friends, it was at the sweets shop near closing hours. All of them in one place, with most likely no one else who could interfere.
Standing in front of the shop, she looked through the window beside the door, her face and hair hidden under her hoodie once again. Just as she thought, she could see the five Rainbooms inside waking around, most likely beginning the process of cleaning up. Checking her watch again, she saw that it was still a few minutes before closing time, so the entrance should still be open. She reached out to grab the handle, stopping as she felt a hand on her shoulder.
"Are you sure about this?" Sunset asked, worried. "You don't need to meet them."
“You’re right,” Shimmer admitted. She didn't need to talk to them to expose Anon-a-Miss. everything could be handled by herself, Sunset and her parents, or the police. "But there are a few things I have to know, including one which can only be answered by them and no one else. This is something I need to do myself."
"So that's why you asked Mom and Dad to wait for us," Sunset replied while she looked down the street at the car with her parents waiting inside. They were far enough away that she could barely see them, but she was sure her mother was waving. "But why do you want me to come with you if you wanna do it yourself?"
"For two reasons. The first is simply that they never even listened to me the last few times I tried to talk with them. I hope that by seeing both of us, they might be so surprised that they won't interrupt me.
"The second reason is that I would like to have a friend with me who can back me up and calm me down if I get riled up too much."
"Leave that to me," Sunset replied with a smirk. "So, got anything planned for a nice entrance or are we just gonna walk in?"
Shimmer’s only answer was a smirk. A few moments later, Shimmer, her face and hair hidden by her hoodie, grabbed the handle and opened the door to Sugarcube Corner.
Upon hearing the dinging bell from above the door, Pinkie Pie turned to address them. "Welcome to Sugarcube Corner. I'm sorry, but we’re about to... close..." she said, trailing off once she saw Sunset step in after the concealed Shimmer, who stayed back to close the door. "Oh..."
That got the attention of the other girls scattered around the room. At first, they were confused when they heard Pinkie's tone, but once they saw why, that confusion turned into anger.
"Oh, come on! Really?" Rainbow Dash yelled. "How often do we need to tell you to stay away?"
Sunset looked up at the ceiling in thought, one hand on her chin. "Actually, you only told me to ‘stay away’ the last time we met, if I'm not wrong. I, on the other hand, told you we would see each other again."
Before Rainbow could respond, another girl stepped beside her and laid a hand on the athlete’s shoulder.
"What do ya want, Sunset?" Applejack asked, before her eyes fell on Shimmer, who stood behind Sunset with her back to the girls. "And who's that?"
"She's a friend. And the only thing we want is to ask a few questions. Once we get the answers, we’ll leave."
"And why should we even talk to you?" Rarity threw in from behind Rainbow and Applejack. "After everything you published about us on that ghastly profile of yours, why should we listen to anything you have to say?"
"Well, at least I know what you are talking about now, but the answer is still the same: I didn’t do anything."
*BAM*
"This crap again?!" Rainbow shouted as she hit the top of the table beside her with her fist. She took several steps towards Sunset. "You know exactly what you did, and that you did it after everything we went through together makes it even worse!"
Now Rainbow was only a few steps away from Sunset, and both girls glared at each other. Sunset could just barely hear Shimmer growling behind her after Rainbow finished.
"We went through nothing together. I don't even know you all besides your names," she continued. "So, I’ll say it again: I. Didn’t. Do. Anything!"
"Why you little—" Rainbow growled as she took the last steps and grabbed Sunset by her collar.
"Dashie, stop it!" Pinkie called from behind. "No fighting in here."
"Alright, Dash, that's enough," Applejack said with a sigh. She was about to step up and pull Rainbow away but was beaten to it by someone else.
Without any warning, Shimmer quickly stepped up from behind Sunset, grabbed Rainbow's wrist, and twisted. Rainbow cried out in pain and surprise and let go of Sunset, but Shimmer didn’t let go.
"Don’t touch her, Rainbow Dash," she growled before shoving Rainbow away.
Cradling her wrist with her other hand, Rainbow stared at the still-concealed Shimmer in shock. Looking over her shoulder, she called out to the other girls. "Did... Did you hear that too, or are my ears playing tricks on me?"
The others all shared Rainbow's reaction and stared at Shimmer with wide eyes. "I heard it too, darling, but..." her eyes wandered to Sunset, who had a smirk on her face. "...how is that possible?"
"Well..." Sunset began as she took a step forward, "as I told you, I don't know any of you at all. She, on the other hand,” she pointed at Shimmer before finishing, “is a different case."
Shimmer finally raised her hands and pulled down her hood, showing her face and releasing her hair. "Your temper will come back to bite you one day, Dash. Maybe even sooner than expected."
"What in tarnation!?"
"Eeep!" Fluttershy squeaked out.
"Two... Sunsets..." Pinkie mumbled.
"Oh, my... That's something you don't see every day..." Rarity whispered as her eyes moved from one girl to the other.
Rainbow Dash stared with wide eyes at the two girls, before she frowned again. "Trying out a new magic trick or what?"
Sunset groaned, facepalming as she took a bill out of her pocket and handed it to Shimmer, who grinned smugly at her.
"Told ya the first thing they’d assume is magic."
"Yeah, yeah, rub it in even more," Sunset grumbled. "Should’ve known it was a bad idea to agree to a bet about someone I barely know."
Shimmer gave her a last grin before she got serious again. "And you’re wrong, Dash. This time, there’s no magic involved. Use your brains for once. You know what’s going on. After all, I told you about it before." Crossing her arms in front of her, she waited for them to say something, but nothing happened. Several seconds passed in awkward silence before it finally got broken.
"S-She is this world’s native Sunset Shimmer..." Fluttershy said, just loud enough for everyone to hear.
Applejack whistled. "Well, Ah'll be. It's like they’re twins."
"It appears at least one of you bothered to listen to anything I told you," Shimmer said. "Yes, she is my counterpart and arrived in town just this week at the worst possible time. But who am I kidding? You already met her on Tuesday and showed her what to expect."
Rarity gasped with her hand over her mouth. "That was you at the boutique!" She took a step towards Sunset, who glared at her and took a step back. Understanding the message, Rarity stayed where she was. "Darling, I'm terribly sorry for how I treated you. I had no idea. After everything that she did—" Rarity took a breath. "No. That's no excuse for my behavior."
"Rarity’s right. Ah’m sorry for everythin' Ah did and said," Applejack said with her hat in her hands. She put it back on, and her eyes wandered to Shimmer for a moment before they went back to Sunset. "But, seriously, Ah don't know what, well, our Sunset told ya, but Ah wouldn’t believe anything coming from her."
"Yeah, all she does is lie," Rainbow threw in.
"Unbelievable..." They all turned their heads to Shimmer, who stood with clenched fists and narrowed eyes. She slowly walked forward until she stood between Sunset and the Rainbooms. "First, you toss me aside, and now, you try to convince one of the last few people on my side to abandon me as well?!"
Rainbow huffed as she crossed her arms. "We’re only trying to save her the pain from when you show your true colors. And it's your own fault for starting that—"
"I'M NOT FUCKING ANON-A-MISS!" Shimmer yelled at the top of her lungs, glaring down at Rainbow Dash who recoiled in shock, just like the other Rainbooms.
Even Sunset was surprised, hearing her friend yell and swear like that, but she got a hold on herself quickly and stepped forward and in front of Shimmer. She put both of her hands on her shoulders and pressed the still-heavily breathing girl back and down into one of the chairs. "Calm down," she said softly. "Take some deep breaths. I’ll take over from here."
Turning around, she threw her own glare in the Rainbooms’ direction. "I appreciate that you tried to warn me, but I'm more inclined to believe the one who didn’t threaten me with violence at our first meeting." The other girls flinched back but said nothing.
"Now, as I said before, we aren’t here for trouble. All we want are some questions answered, and afterwards, we’ll leave. If you really want to apologize to me for our last meeting, I suggest you answer Shimmer's questions—without getting aggressive—once she has calmed down enough. Does that sound good?"
The Rainbooms looked at each other for a moment, and with some nods and shrugs, came to an agreement.
"We agree," Applejack said, "but Ah want to throw in that we ain’t answerin’ everything, like questions about private stuff."
Sunset shared a look with Shimmer, who nodded and agreed to the deal. The room fell into silence while they all waited. Shimmer's breathing had already calmed down in comparison to before, and a few minutes later, she rose from her chair and took one last deep breath.
"Alright, let's get this over with. There are only two things I want to know." She looked around the room at the girls who meant so much to her not long ago but now only infuriated her even being in the same room as her. She shoved the thought aside for the time being and focused on what was important. "Did any of you by any chance have a chat with Gilda since the beginning of all this?"
Rainbow gave a surprised sound, and every eye fell on the girl, who had settled down on a chair while they waited for Shimmer to start. She looked at Shimmer with one raised eyebrow. "No idea how you know about that, but yeah, I did. She was waiting for her bus when I got to the station, and we got to talk."
She received more than one surprised look from her fellow band members. To think that those two apparently had a casual chat despite their history came as a surprise. Shimmer simply narrowed her eyes slightly.
"And what did you talk about?"
A bored look in her eyes, Rainbow looked away and made a dismissive motion with her hands. "Nothing you need to know. It doesn’t concern you. "
"I doubt that. You see, Sunset here met Gilda on Monday, and Gilda, together with her goonies, gave her quite the beating.” Shimmer ignored the gasps from the other girls. “But the interesting part is what Gilda told her after they were done with her and left her lying at the ground. What were her exact words again?"
Sunset fixed the group with cold eyes before she spoke. "'Best regards from Rainbow and her friends.' She also said you paid her to beat me up."
"What!" the Rainbooms shouted together.
"No. No, no, no, that’s not right!" Rarity said.
"I... I could never do something like that," Fluttershy mumbled.
"Yeah, me neither!" Pinkie agreed.
"As far as Ah see it, either you made that up, or Gilda lied. There is no way that Dash did something like that. Right, RD?"
Silence.
"Rainbow?" Applejack asked hesitantly as she turned towards the athlete. Rainbow still sat on her chair, but now, her eyes were wide open and staring at nothing. Applejack crossed the distance between them and grabbed her with both hands by her shoulders. "Rainbow! Did. You. Do. That?!" she growled while the rest of the girls watched, speechless.
Rainbow finally snapped out of it. "N-No! I mean... I-I wasn’t... I was just joking!"
Applejack let go of the girl and stared at her in disbelief, her anger rising slowly. "You were joking... about hiring someone to beat her up?!"
"Yes! I mean..." she stuttered, before she took a deep breath. "It was one of the real bad days, and I was really mad. So, when I was talking with Gilda about Anon-a-Miss and what got out that day, Gilda said something like, 'Someone should teach her a lesson,' and I said I’d pay to see that. You know, the kind of stuff you say when you’re pissed! That was all. And I didn’t even pay her! It was just a stupid joke! How was I supposed to know she would take that seriously?"
Applejack stared at the girl, before she facepalmed. "You... You idiot! It's Gilda! You out of all people should know how she is!"
Rainbow opened her mouth to say something, before she closed it again and slumped down in her seat. "I know..." she mumbled.
"Can we move on now? We don't have all day for this," Shimmer said, bored, her arms crossed in front of her. She seemed pretty calm on the outside, but Sunset could see how tense she was and how her arms trembled in anger. She was furious, just like Applejack, but she did everything to not lash out and cause a scene.
"But is that not what you came for, darling?" Rarity asked. "To solve that problem?"
"No, not at all. Like I said, I came for answers, and I got one." Seeing the confused faces around her, Shimmer sighed and continued, "I wanted to know if there was any truth to what Gilda said, and it appears that there is, in one way or another." She motioned to herself and her doppelganger. "Finding out if either you or Gilda is telling the truth is not our problem. That's something that will be solved later by… others."
The Rainbooms shared a look. None of them understood what she meant by that, but the way she said it made them feel uneasy.
"Now, there is only one more question I have for all of you, and I want you to be absolutely honest with me. Once I have my answer, we’ll leave. Understood?" They shared another look before they all nodded. Shimmer took a deep breath and closed her eyes.
"Does even one of you have any doubts about me being Anon-a-Miss? Even one since it all began? If yes, say so now or stay quiet."
Shimmer waited anxiously for any sound to reach her ears with closed eyes. Deep inside, she hoped that there would be at least one of them who would say something. She thought that if there was one, it would be either Pinkie Pie or Fluttershy to come forward, the former no longer able to see her miserable and the latter maybe feeling pressured into agreeing. Surely, if there was one, it would be one of them.
Only silence reached her ears.
"I see..." Shimmer sighed as her shoulders slumped down, and without opening her eyes, she turned around.
She stood still for a moment, before she pulled out her phone and typed on it. Soon enough several notification sounds came from all of the Rainbooms’ phones. Unlocking their own devices, they all saw that Shimmer had sent them an audio file.
"Listen to that or don’t. I don't care anymore," Shimmer said. "You'll hear it tomorrow, either way. Consider it a last present for the... better times we had."
Nodding to Sunset and without waiting for any of the Rainbooms to say anything, the two girls left Sugarcube Corner.
Walking down the sidewalk towards the waiting car, Sunset put a hand on her friend's shoulder. "Hey, are you alright?"
"Considering what I just learned? I guess..." she replied quietly, the corners of her eyes growing wet with tears.
Sunset laid her arm over her friend’s shoulders and squeezed. "If I may ask, what was it you sent them?"
Shimmer remained quiet for a moment. She raised her hand, still holding her phone. She opened the photo of the Rainbooms and looked at it as the first tear found its way down her cheek.
"The truth..." she said, before she deleted the picture.
Yay, I got it done as fast as I hoped 
And here we have the first meeting between the Shimmers and The Rainbooms, along with some answers.
The next chapter may take a little bit longer than I would like myself, work has grown pretty stressful lately again and I couldn't find any time to start writing yet. 
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Damn, im glad the Cakes dont have a mess to clean up but... Still, I want Dash to pay
God damn this needed to happen already. Not exactly over due, since its only the tenth chapter, but I really wanted to see this, and you did a good job on it.
As always, looking forward to more.
"First meeting", you say? That implies there will be more. I certainly hope that's the case
.
Feel free to disagree with me on this but, You guys know that conversation that the CMC and Shimmer and; bet-by-bet, the conversation that the CMC had after that? I have a very, very high feeling that Sunset recorded all of it with her phone and that’s what Shimmer sent to the Rainbooms, hence her answering Sunset “The truth”. Just a guess I’m throwing out there.
Seems she caught the CMC on her phone, Rainbow didn't quite pay Gilda to beat Sunset up but comes darn close. Rainbow might be able to squeak out of getting brought up on charges, so long as she was telling the truth about no money changing hands, but its not going to look good in court.
However, even after they learn the truth, their lack of any trust, at all, has lead to Sunset to delete their group photo, she has cut ties and it will take something amazing for them to ever get her back after this.
Their really isn't much of anything keeping Sunset on this side of the mirror. She could leave her jurnal with her counterpart if things go magic crazy for her and or Twilight to come back and help, but unless she is going to live with her 'sister' and the parents that are not her parents, she really might, and possibly should, head back home.
MAKE. THE. RAINBOOMS. SUFFER
Let the Rainbitches suffer from their guilt for a long, long time...
yay
i cannot wait to see their reactions to it
ok if rainbow from equestria wants to come back and beat herself up this time, i'd half expect twilight wouldn't stop her, she'd help her.
I usually got pretty bad timing in real life but with MLP fanprojects I seem to be lucky. I found the story yesterday and today a new chapter's coming up. I also wanted to ask if you'd like to join the Sunset from the human world group since those seem to be scattered over the whole FIMFiction network and are really hard to find
9167616
thanks, I had this chapter in my head for a long time and enough time to work it out enough
9167776
we will see
9168478
sometimes we are lucky
and sounds interesting, I think I might join and look through my library for some stories to add
How long till the next chapter I'm enjoying this
9170173
glad that you like it
can't make any promises for the next chapter, it depends on how much time I can find to write, but I will do my best to get it done fast
9170296
Well I wish you God speed
If that file was what I think it was, Sunset's final action was both the final act of true friendship they will ever get from her and the most viciously cruel act of torture she ever inflicted on the Rainbooms in their entire history at Canterlot High, first as enemies then as friends. They deserve it completely.
Looks like the apocalypse is about to arrive. Can't wait for the next chapter, CHS is in for a massive guilt trip and I'm not to sure they deserve Pony's Sunset's forgiveness. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm heading into my bunker. (Closes large reenforced steel door)
The human cmcs should have remember Sunset cleverness because they gave her what she needed after all.
Sooooo, the lack of trust did.....
1) Shattered her friendship with Pony Sunset
2) Left RD in a precarious situation with the law, thought granted she probably would receive just a scolding because she didn't mean it.
3) The aforement case will cause inner problems between the rainbooms.
4) And befriending the human Sunset will be highly unlikely because she still could see how fragile the group trust really is and would rather find more likeable people to befriend.
Yikes, something as simple as lack of trust can give the Joker, a self-proclaimed agent of chaos, a run for his money.
9229300
Trust is truly the most important tool one has, for it can make entire civilizations fall if their is none. So yeah definitely agreed there.
Yowch
Ouch.
Ow/10