The Prodigal Daughter is Homesick
Entry 37: Dear Twilight,
Okay, so I learned that you should always be careful what you wish for. I got a way to prove that I’ve actually changed, alright, but it nearly took down the entire school. I’ll fill you in on the whole thing later. Right now I really just want to sleep. Suffice it to say, I’m not the only problem Equestria’s gotten rid of via the mirror portal. ALSO, started a band. Dash started a band. I’m in it. I’m also… really freaking tired. Fluttershy suggested a movie night. That sounds… good. Really good. I think I’llll
Howdy, Twi. Sunset fell asleep mid-letter, so I’m just gonna finish up. She did good today. We all did. There were, I think, fish-ponies? Something called sirens. We kicked their scaly tails with the power of friendship and/or rock’n’roll.
So that happened.
Quick question, sugarcube, what in Sam Hill happened to my life?
-Applejack
“Is— she— gone— yet?” Trixie panted.
“I— think— so—” Sunset replied, equally winded.
Trixie straightened. “Good,” she said. “Trixie told you not to wake her!”
“Me? You woke her up?”
Trixie glared. “WHAT WAS THAT? TRIXIE COULD NOT HEAR YOU!”
Sunset winced. “Okay, yeah, that was childish of me.”
“You think?” Trixie snorted. “Come on. We have apples that need buying.”
***
Back at Canterlot High, Sunset examined the note that she had found taped to her locker. It was written in bright pink crayon on bright yellow cardstock. Overall, it was rather blinding. Squinting closely, however, she could just about read the message. “Dear… Sunny,” she muttered, deeply focused. “Welcome to… Canterlot High. As a… representative… of the school… welcoming committee… I would like to… invite you to lunch… with my friends… Look for the balloons. Your friend… Pinkie.”
Sunset set the invitation down. “Welcoming committee?” she asked. “I didn’t hear anything about a welcoming committee.”
She looked at the card again. It would be nice to meet new people…
***
“Look,” Applejack said, “If ya don’t want t’ come out yet, that’s fine. Granny, Mac, an' Bloom know, an' that's good enough fer me in th' short term. But damn it, filly! It's been months since we started goin' steady! Ah jest want a time frame here!”
“It’s not that easy!” Rainbow replied. “You don’t understand…”
“So explain.” Applejack said, sitting back on her haunches. “Ah’m listening.”
Dash’s eye flickered nervously. “I, uh, well… Oh, hey look, other ponies!”
Applejack glanced over as Trixie and Sunset entered the clearing. Glaring back at the pegasus, she whispered, “This ain’t over.”
“Greetings, Applejack, Rainbow Dash,” Trixie announced as she walked over to the duo. “Pleasant weather we are having, is it not?”
“Heh. Thanks,” Dash said, grinning.
Trixie smiled and nodded at the pegasus in the tree. Turning to Applejack, she continued, “I’m here to pick up this week’s order?”
Applejack nodded. “It’s out by th’ barn. Ah’ll help ya find it. Come on, Dash, yer comin’ too.”
Rainbow pouted, but not much, and swooped down from the branch. “So, Trix, who’s your new friend?”
“I’m Sunset. Sunset Shimmer?”
Applejack raised an eyebrow. “Well, Ah’ll be! Heard tell of ya from Twilight, once or twice. Back from th’ mirror world at last? Well, it’s nice t’ meetcha, Miss Shimmer.”
“Sunset, please,” the unicorn corrected, with perhaps a little more force than she wanted. “Call me Sunset.”
“So, you met the human me, huh?” Dash grinned. “I must have looked weird without wings, and those… what’re they called? Like, forehooves or paws or whatever.”
“Hands,” Sunset said. “They’re called hands. But, yeah, you two were really great. You,” she said, pointing at Dash, “were the captain of the soccer team, and you,” she pointed to Applejack, “basically ran your family farm.”
Applejack shrugged. “Guess we ain’t so different after all.”
“What’s soccer?” Dash asked.
Sunset flinched. “You… don’t know what soccer is?” she asked.
Dash frowned. “Should I?”
“Well, you know… your human self did…”
“And Trixie’s human self was apparently some kind of buzzing insect,” Trixie said. “Like Twilight said, reflections aren’t always perfect.”
“That… that’s not what queen bee means,” Sunset said.
Dash shrugged. “I dunno about any ‘soccer’. I mean, how awesome can it be with players that don’t have wings?”
“Excuse me?” Applejack asked, glaring at the pegasus.
“Uh, not that not having wings is a bad thing,” Rainbow backtracked. “But, y’know, Wonderbolts. Daring stunts. Death-defying dives. Can’t do that without wings.”
Sunset just nodded, and continued sullenly on as the others chatted amongst themselves.
“There! That oughta do ya fer th’ week!” Applejack said, cheerfully pointing the two unicorns at a small wagon full of apples.
Sunset’s jaw dropped. “Wha— huh— how do you— how can anyone eat that many apples in a week?” she gasped.
Trixie shrugged. “Twilight Sparkle is the Princess of Friendship, and by extension, the Princess of Diplomacy. It took her awhile to get into the role, but now… well. Trixie will only say that we have a LOT of dinner guests.”
“Yeah,” Dash agreed, grinning. “It’s been pretty sweet, actually. More new ponies and griffons and gazelle and everything else come by to visit Ponyville, like, every week. My old griffon pal, Gilda, comes by every now and again. Took her awhile to warm up to Ponyville, but I think we've given her some ideas for improving Griffonstone...”
“‘Course,” Applejack added, “Took us some convincin’ t’keep Pinkie from throwing a party every time someone new came t’visit. Ah don’t think anypony could stand that much cake.” She made a face.
Sunset had stopped listening. “So, you just use wagons to haul around your apples everywhere you go? Isn’t that kind of heavy?”
Applejack shrugged. “Easier’n carrying ‘em all in a bucket, an’ Ah don’t know o’ any other way to do it.”
Sunset paused and shook her head. “Right. Okay, yeah, you don’t have internal combustion engines here, so you don’t have cars, right.” She sighed. These versions of Applejack and Rainbow Dash seemed nice enough, but they were poor substitutes for the ones she had left behind.
“Hey, you alright there, Sunny?” Rainbow asked, looking concerned.
“Huh? Oh, yeah. I’m fine. Just a little… homesick, I guess. Nothing you need to worry about.”
Trixie looked up in mild concern when she heard that. “We are here for you,” she said. “If you need a shoulder upon which to cry, the Sympathetic and Solid Trixie will be glad to provide.” She glanced from side to side. “Er. And not to speak for anypony else, but Trixie is quite certain they will aid you as they did me.”
Dash nearly fell out of the air. “What? What’s wrong?” Trixie asked.
“Huh? Oh, uh, nothin’. Just a big dragonfly trying to crash into my face, you know how it can be…”
“Oh. Okay, well, Sunset and Trixie had better get going, now,” the blue unicorn said, using her magic to pull the wagon upright. “Goodbye, have a nice afternoon.”
Once the two unicorns were out of sight, Dash turned to Applejack, eyes wide. “She said ‘me’. She actually referred to herself in the first pony. I mean… wow.”
Applejack sighed. “Shoot,” she said, kicking the ground. “Guess this means Ah owe Fluttershy fifty bits.”
***
Pinkie Pie, meanwhile, was back at the Castle of Friendship, whistling cheerfully to herself as she set up for the party. Twilight, meanwhile, stood by the door, watching dubiously. “I don’t know about this, Pinkie…”
Pinkie gasped dramatically, and turned to face her friend, causing the ladder she stood on to wobble disconcertingly. “You mean there’s actually something you don’t know about? Wow-ee! Well, I guess nopony knows EVERYthing…”
“No, Pinkie, that’s not what I… do you think you could come down for a second?”
Pinkie scrunched up her face. “Well, I THINK I can, but I don’t know that either. It might be better not to risk it.”
Though Twilight was of the opinion that the exact opposite was true, she knew better than to start arguing with Pinkie over something like this. That way lay only madness. “Well, I was just wondering if Sunset would really want a big party just right now. She’s a little fragile, you know? Especially since she had to leave all of her friends behind.”
“But Twilight! What better time to make new friends than when you don’t have very many? Or even almost none at all? If Sunny’s in a grump, there’s no better way to stop her slump than giving her a little bump (or a kick in the rump) towards making new friends! If she’s all sad and down in the dumps like a chump with the mumps, she’ll just keep sitting there like a lump. So, I’m going to lift her over this hump, and for joy she’ll jump!”
Twilight blinked, nonplussed for a moment, but then smiled. “Well, I can see you’re really pumped about this,” she chuckled. “And I suppose you do have a point about her needing to make new friends. We don’t want to overwhelm her, though, so if you could maybe tone it down just a little?”
Pinkie regarded her friend closely. “Is this about the party I threw for the minotaur ambassador?”
“...Maybe a little bit,” Twilight admitted.
“I already apologized for that, like, a bazillion times! And the ambassador did say that he had never been to such a great party!”
“After he got out of the hospital.”
Pinkie winced. “Okay,” she sighed. “I’ll try to keep things calm this time.”
Twilight smiled. “Thanks, Pinkie.”
“Um, Twilight?”
“Yes Pinkie?”
“I’m over here. That’s a cake.”
Twilight squinted a little closer. “Huh. Sorry, Pinkie, I think I might’ve strained my eyes or something.” She chuckled. “Guess my parents were right, reading in the dark really has ruined my eyes.”
Pinkie frowned. She was no doctor, but she was pret-ty sure that eye-ruining didn’t happen overnight. Not naturally, anyway. “Are you gonna be okay?”
“I should. I’ll see an optometrist later this week. For now, though, I should be fine. It’s not too terrible.”
She turned to go, but paused. “Pinkie.”
“Yes, Twilight?”
“Could you help me find the door?”
***
Sunset stormed through the door of the castle. “I SAID I was sorry!” she shouted. “How was I to know Lyra would react like that when I asked her about Bonbon?”
Trixie glared at her. “That’s not the point! You assumed that everything in here would be just the same as in your magical ape-world. Well, welcome back to reality, sweetheart! We don’t all live according to the dictates of talking monkeys, and we especially don’t date whomever they think we should!”
“Ugh! You don’t understand me! No one understands me!”
There was a delicate cough from off to one side, and a male voice said, “Is this a bad time to say hello?”
Sunset paused. That voice was familiar. Feeling her spirits rise once more, she spun around. “Spike!” she said, grinning. Then, she froze. “Whoa, boy. What have they been putting in your Alpo?”
The tall, skinny dragon grinned, and Sunset couldn’t help but notice his numerous long and pointy teeth. She swallowed. “Heh.”
“So, you are Sunset Shimmer?” a more cultured voice asked. From behind where the dragon lay, an alabaster unicorn stepped into view. She stuck out a hoof and smiled. “Rarity. Charmed. Really, darling, I can’t say what a pleasure it is to meet you at last.”
“Um… nice to meet you too?”
“And, of course, my dear drakefriend needs no introduction.”
“Spike? Yeah, I mean he’s bigger and… well, scalier—” Sunset’s brain ran over the white unicorn’s previous sentence, and encountered ERROR 2+2=17, DOES NOT COMPUTE PLEASE REBOOT REALITY REDO FROM START. “Dr-drakefriend?” she sputtered.
Trixie facehooved. “Here we go again,” she muttered.
Rarity’s smile drooped slightly. “Oh, dear,” she sighed. “Darling, please don’t say you’re one of those awful speciesists?”
“What? I— well— look, in my world, Spike is a dog and you’re a human. It’s just a little unusual when you look at it from that angle.”
Rarity blinked. “A dog?” She stifled a giggle as Spike put his head in his claws. “You said that you had turned into Twilight’s younger brother. A dog!”
“See, this? This reaction here is why I told you that,” Spike said flatly.
“Such a naughty boy,” Rarity teased. “Better shape up, or—” she snickered. “You’ll not get— heehee— not get a treat later!” She dissolved into a fit of laughter.
Spike remained stoic for a moment longer before cracking a grin himself. “Does this mean I can’t get up on the bed?” he asked, smirking.
Rarity paused. “Don’t be rude, darling,” she replied, a slight smirk on her face.
“Okay, what?” Sunset asked. “No. What is this? Are you two even old enough to be doing… that?”
Rarity blinked. “Er… yes, actually. I suppose I understand the confusion, dragons do age... oddly. But yes, we're both in our twenties.”
“Okay, but—” Sunset took a deep breath. “Right. Not in high school anymore. You aren’t a teenager anymore.”
“I should think not!”
“Yeah, you’ve been twenty-five for all three years Trixie’s known you,” Trixie said with a grin.
The usually white unicorn turned beetroot-red. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she said stiffly. “Come along, Spike. Goodbye, Sunset. We’ll see you at the party, later.”
“Nice going, oh Rude and Insensitive Trixie,” Sunset snarked after the unicorn and dragon had gone.
Trixie scowled. “You’re one to talk, Miss “Hi there, pony who doesn’t even know me, how’s your fillyfriend?”’
Sunset winced.“Well, when you put it like that, I guess it sounds kinda stalkerish,” she admitted.
“Stalkerish? Yes, if your information on Lyra had been correct. As it was, Trixie is almost glad that you got it wrong. If you had been right, that would have been a very long, very awkward conversation.” She paused for a moment, considering. “That is to say, longer and more awkward than the one Trixie was forced to have anyway. Probably. Maybe.”
Sunset growled, her good mood at seeing Spike almost evaporated once more. “Don’t you start on that again—”
And, still arguing, they walked into the castle, neither noticing that the lights in the hall were burning an unusually bright red...
***
Rainbow smiled in her sleep. She dreamed that she was flying with the Wonderbolts— not an unusual occurrence nowadays, even in reality, but a nice fantasy to have, nonetheless. They pulled off seemingly impossible formations as they flew, the ball rebounding from one player to another, almost seeming not to touch the ground. Wait, what? Ball? Dash took stock of her situation. She and the other Wonderbolts were… running? Across a field? A crowd was cheering from a nearby stand, and Dash saw her friends sitting in the front row. Pinkie and Fluttershy looked like they were wearing cheerleading uniforms, just like the ones she had seen back in high school.
Dash awoke with a gasp, falling out of the apple tree she had been using as a bed and crashing to the ground. Applejack chuckled. “Good mornin’, sunshine,” she grinned. “Pleasant dreams, Ah expect?”
Rainbow shook the dust from her coat and glared at the other mare, but without much heat. “Hey, AJ? Next time you wanna wake me up, just shout, alright?”
“Ah did. Six ‘r seven times, actually. Y’all were out cold.”
“Oh. Huh. So, what’s up?”
Applejack gave Dash a look of mock offense that couldn't quite hide her grin. “Can’t a gal just want t’ talk with her marefriend?”
Rainbow gave Applejack a flat glance. “Is this about getting me to tell everypony about us again?”
Applejack pulled back her hoof, her smile dropping. “Well, as it happens, no. Though Ah gotta say, Ah wish y'all would think about it.”
“Yeah, I know. I gotcha, it’s cool. I just... what do you want me to do?”
“Well, it’s a funny thing. Mac an’ Ah were buckin’ the west orchard, when we came across this… Ah don’t even know what t’ call it.”
Dash frowned, falling into step with Applejack. “What do you mean? Like, a weird glowing crystal thing, or a plant, or some kinda monster?”
Applejack just shook her head. “Whatever it is, it ain’t animal, vegetable, or mineral. Matter o’ fact, closest thing I can think of would be that Super-Squeezy contraption those no-good brothers had.”
Dash scowled in recollection. “D’you think it’s theirs? If they’re trying to make trouble, I swear I’ll buck ‘em to the moon and back for ya.”
Applejack chuckled. “Leave off their return ticket, an’ y’all might just have a deal,” she said. “But, nah, Ah don’t reckon it’s them. Fer one thing, it’s too quiet. Iffin it was them conponies again, they’d be back with all their jingles an slogans an’ whatnot. This contraption jest… sits there.”
“Huh. Maybe we should get Twilight?”
“Thought about it, but Ah figger she’s got enough on her plate right now with Miss Sunshine Sunset. Let’s see if we can’t solve this one ourselves, sugarcube.”
The two mares entered a clearing in the trees. Mac, Bloom, and Granny were already there, surveying the whatever-it-was. Rainbow’s jaw dropped when she saw it. “Whoa…”
Whatever it was, it was big, about twice as long as a carriage and nearly as tall. Most of it was a glossy cherry-red color, except for the black rubber wheels and the panes of glass— windows?— set into its front. And there was a large, almost cartoonish, apple painted on either side, the spitting image of Mac’s cutie mark.
Granny Smith gave the two newcomers a sideways look. “Ah thought yiz were goin’ fer that unicorn friend o’ yers, Pinkie summat.”
“No, Granny,” Applejack said in the tones of somepony who has been over this far too many times. “Ah was goin’ to get Twilight Sparkle. Y’know, th’ princess? An’ Pinkie Pie is an earth pony. Frankly, th’ idea of her bein’ a unicorn is more’n a little terrifying. But either way, Dash was closest.”
“Eeyup,” Mac agreed, without looking away from what he was examining.
“What’s that ya got there?” Applejack asked, trotting over to her brother’s side. She peered up, then scowled and whacked him with her hat. “Quit admirin’ yerself in the mirror,” she snapped. “We don’ even know what this thing does! Rainbow, help me out here!”
“Oh yeah, m’hm, that’s right,” Rainbow said from the other side of the contraption.
Applejack looked around and facehoofed. The pegasus had apparently found the other mirror, and was even now watching herself flex in it. Throwing up her hooves, she turned to Granny Smith. “That’s it. Ah’m goin’ into town t’ get th’ Doctor. Won’t be long.”
The old mare furrowed her eyebrows. “Doctor? Ain’t nopony sick, young’n! An’ doctor who, anyhow?”
It was only through incredible reserves of self-control that Applejack managed to keep from rolling her eyes as she walked out of the orchard.
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Princess Twilight needing glasses. Strange alien vehicles on the Apple farm. Rainbow dreaming about soccer.
Oh... crap.
That fit perfectly!
'by'?
9657157
Yep. Thanks.
Super Speedy....6000 Flim & Flam did, but they do seem to be rare
Um... maybe I'm missing something, but... why was Sunset (and Applejack) writing to Twilight in the diary in a way that they were telling her about the sirens? Twilight was there for that. If I remember correctly, Twilight was that told them they were sirens in the first place. Is this an AU thing? But the mirror had the machine Twilight built in Rainbow Rocks...
Oh no, stuffs mixing not good but wait why is it mixing Sunsets originally from this side of the mirror right? So then why are things from the other side coming over?
It's bleeding together!