• Published 26th May 2019
  • 4,471 Views, 86 Comments

Equestria Girls: Two Sunsets - moviefan-92



CHS is having a talent show, and the girls are eager to join. But then the human Sunset Shimmer suddenly appears. They try to befriend her, but she's shy and reserved, and seems to be hiding something magic. Is she evil like her counterpart once was?

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Chapter 13: Starbursts

Author's Note:

Well, this chapter was fun to write. We've got a bunch of interaction with the Equestria Girls and the Mane Six, which is another reason why I went with italicizing the names I did, otherwise things would have gotten pretty confusing and overly descriptive. Oh, and I know what you're probably thinking with the chapter title, but it has nothing to do with a certain shipping. I also have two theories about the Dazzlings and the MLP/EQG timeline that will be brought up. You'll see when you read them.

Anyway, last chapter we discovered that the Dazzlings were the ones behind everything. They used the shattered remains of their pendants to make human Sunset's choker in the hopes of getting revenge on the Equestria Girls by having her steal their magic, and then using the magic she gather in the choker to repair their pendants. A few of you noticed the similarities between human Sunset's choker and the Dazzlings' pendants. Well, now you know why. It had always been my intention to have the choker be made of the Dazzlings' broken pendants, so when the musical short Find the Magic came out, I just went with the choker only being made of the pieces that still had some remnants of magic in them. But it looks like their plans were foiled. And poor Sunset, she was totally played by them. And after everything she went through, it's no wonder she ended up like she did and ended up in the mindset she was in. I can't imagine losing one's parents like that at such a young age. Of course that would scar a person. But it looks like now the healing process can truly start to begin. Lets see how things go from here.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.


Equestria Girls and other human world residents: …Normal Font…

Mane Six, human Sunset Shimmer, and other Equestria residents: …Italicized Font…

Chapter 13: Starbursts

Twilight really didn't want this visit to be yet another all business and no pleasure trip where she came, helped take care of the problem, and then had to run back to Equestria. She wanted to stay a while and spend some time with her human friends. Not to mention both versions of her friends wanted to get to know their counterparts.

Fortunately, since she hadn't known how long she was going to need to be in the human world, she had been able to clear her schedule for a week back in Equestria. And since they had been able to deal with the problem with Sunset so quickly, it left her with a few days of free time that she and the Mane Six decided to spend in the human world.

It took a little work to get her Ponyville friends into the swing of things, but soon they were able to pass themselves off as normal humans; one the most difficult things they faced being their speech, where they had to learn to use phrases like "someone" and "everybody" instead of "somepony" and "everypony".

Of course, with there now being seven of the same people around, eight if they included Spike, there was some confusion with keeping track of who was who. To avoid this, the Mane Six agreed that they should do what had been done for Sunset, and each was assigned a nickname, with the exception of Twilight, since her counterpart had already been given the nickname Sci-Twi by Pinkie Pie. And so, for the rest of the Mane Six, when in the presence of their human counterparts, Applejack had simply become AJ, Pinkie Pie had used her full name Pinkamena, Rarity became Rare, Fluttershy became Flutters, and Rainbow Dash reluctantly let herself be called by her Wonderbolt nickname of Rainbow Crash. Even Spike agreed that he could be called Spikey-Wikey, but only after Rarity suggested it. Sunset had also decided that she didn't really mind being called SunShim too much.

It went without saying that each of the counterparts got along very well with each other, finding a great deal in common with one another, for very obvious reasons. The two Raritys greatly enjoyed exchanging fashion tips from both their respective worlds, bouncing various ideas off each other. Rarity did have a bit of a scare when she met the human world versions of the Diamond Dogs, until her counterpart had assured her that she pretty much had them wrapped around her finger. Eventually though, a conversation about Principal Celestia's nephew came up, where Rarity utterly destroyed the vision her counterpart had built up of Blue Blood in her mind.

As to be expected, Rarity was also quite eager to find out how her human body would look in various clothing styles, something her counterpart was very eager to assist her with, all but dragging her off to dress her up in various clothes she had designed.

"I must say, darling," she told her pony-copy, "seeing myself in a mirror, photograph, or video is all well and good, but to actually be able to see my designs on myself in person is something else entirely."

Rarity just smiled as she admired the dress she was wearing in the mirror. "And I must say that seeing all these clothes and how they were made for the human figure has inspired me in so many ways. Of course, I'll have to make some adjustments so their suitable for ponies, but it still opens a window of possibilities, including some ideas for the bipedal creatures of Equestria."

As anyone could have predicted, both Rainbow Dashs became very competitive with each other, but in a good and friendly way. Rainbow Dash wanted to test her new body and see what she was capable of doing in human form. And while she did miss flying, she quite enjoyed the advantages of having arms and hands. She was, however, nowhere near as used to the human form as Rainbow Dash, and pretty much lost to her counterpart every time, much to her annoyance, but that still didn't stop her from trying.

It wasn't just athletics that they bonded over though. As both had a love for Daring Do, they proceeded to fan over their favorite adventurer/author. Rainbow Dash became insanely jealous when her counterpart revealed that she and the other Equestria Girls had gotten to appear as extras in one of the movies. That is, until she revealed that she had actually met the real Daring Do in her world, and told her of how the author and the famous adventurer she wrote about in her books were one and the same. After that, Rainbow Dash became obsessed over the possibility that her world's A.K. Yearling was Daring Do as well, and that the book series might also be based on actual adventures, despite her friends claiming that that was highly unlikely due to the lack of magic in the world until it had been introduced into it by Twilight's crown.

Applejack was very interested in seeing what the human version of an apple farm was like. Applejack showed her the ropes, and they found that there wasn't too much of a difference compared to the one in Equestria. She did find it a little strange when she discovered that her counterpart actually had a horse on her farm, and wasn't sure how she felt about that, especially when she found out that the horse's intelligence was no greater than the animals she had on her own farm.

As it turned out, the only real difference from her farm in Equestria was in how it was when it came to collecting the apples. Plucking one from a tree, Applejack stared at it curiously before dropping it in her basket and glancing at her counterpart. "So you actually pick them one at a time by hand?"

"Pretty much," Applejack replied, plucking one of her own. "Why? How do you gather them?"

Smirking, Applejack gave the tree a hard kick. "With some good old apple bucking." She looked up at the tree expectantly, but the downpour of apples she was used to didn't happen. It seemed her human body didn't possess the strength of her pony one. "Um, it usually works a lot better than that."

Her counterpart just smiled. "I think this is what you may have been expecting."

Tapping into her geode's power, she used her super strength to give the tree her own powerful kick. This time the apples came raining down the way Applejack had been expecting when she did it.

"Yup," she said, "that's pretty much what I was going for. Guess it's a good thing you got that there magic geode."

Applejack fingered her geode, which was now attached to a hairband she wore. "Yeah, but we can't overuse it, otherwise it amps up the power of all of our geodes. A while back, Rainbow Dash began using hers for every little thing, and it began to super-charge all of ours so they began activating automatically."

Sharing tales of what each of them had gone through was common amongst them. Naturally, the Mane Six had a lot more stories to share, which the Equestria Girls were eager to hear all about. Fluttershy was particularly interested in hearing about all the mythical creatures her counterpart had come across. She was a little surprised when she heard about Fluttershy's strange friendship with Discord.

"Oh, he's nothing but a big softy," Fluttershy assured her as the two had tea in her counterpart's room. "In fact, we usually have tea together like this every week." Her eyes landed on something on Fluttershy's bed. "Oh, you actually have a stuffed animal of him!"

Confused at first, Fluttershy glanced at her bed and saw the stuffed animal in question. "Oh, that. Yes, Twilight won it for me at a carnival. Princess Twilight I mean. I was actually so surprised when I saw it that I accidentally knocked it out of her hands."

Needless to say, the two Pinkie Pies got along very, very well. Together, they threw a massive celebratory party, not just for the Rainbooms winning the talent show, but also for stopping the Dazzlings' plan.

The party was one of the biggest ones either of them had ever hosted. Pinkie Pie stated that she hadn't had so much fun planning a party since she had planned one with Cheese Sandwich. When her counterpart had asked who that was and had him explained to her, she became very excited and hopeful of meeting the human world's version of him, if there was one.

Unfortunately, she also broke her counterpart's heart when she revealed Rainbow Dash's secret; that she didn't actually like the pies her counterpart made for her. Pinkie Pie was utterly devastate by this revelation.

As anyone would have expected, both Twilights put their heads together and talked science, magic, and books almost nonstop. Both were eager to learn as much as they could about each other's world, and how things worked in them.

Twilight also asked a lot of questions about her counterpart's brother and his family after mentioning how her own brother and Principal Candance were now a couple in her world. Twilight was more than happy to talk about how delightful it was to have Princess Cadance as a sister-in-law and Flurry Heart as a niece, relieving Twilight of many of her worries that it might be awkward to have her brother be in a relationship with the principal of her old school, though she was warned to keep a look out for someone named Chrysalis who might be after her brother someday. Twilight made note of that, but didn't let it bother her as she now found herself almost eager for a possible upcoming wedding between Cadance and her brother in the future, not to mention becoming an aunt one day.

"Don't worry about it so much," Twilight told her confidently. "I'm sure you'll be the B.A.E."

"Um… best aunt ever?" her counterpart asked.

"You got it! And yes, you will be. After all, I certainly am in my world. Just be prepared for when you have to babysit. My world's Flurry Heart can be quite a handful."

Despite Spike being a dragon in his world and Spike formerly being an ordinary dog that could now talk and was at a much higher intelligence, the two became fast friends who got along very well, despite their differences. Spike asked him questions about dragon culture to see if it was all that different from a dog's. Being raised by Twilight, Spike hadn't been able to give him as much information as he would have liked, but from what he did learn, he could surmise that the two cultures were quite different.

"So then why did you, as a dragon, become a dog when you came to this world, but your pony friends and the sirens became human?" Spike asked curiously.

His counterpart just shrugged. "Who knows? Equestria does have a lot of creatures that aren't found in this world. I guess certain species from my world become one species of this world and other ones become something different. I really don't know how the portal works. It even made Twilight and the others younger than they are in Equestria when they came here. I wonder why."

"Maybe time moves goes by faster in Equestria than it does here, like a few months there is only a few weeks here. From what you've told me has happened since the first time you came here until now, it sounds like more time has gone by for you than it has for us. That might explain why your friends become teenagers when they come here; they become the age they would have been had they been born here."

Spike wobbled his head uncertainly at the suggestion. "Who knows how the portal works. I mean, it even materializes clothes for them. Don't know how to explain that either. Rarity was certainly happy about it though. She just loves getting new outfits."

Spike just smiled, looking quite smug. "Well, you lucked out in becoming a dog. We may be pets, but if you think about it, the humans are actually pretty much our servants. They feed us, bathe us, take care of all our life needs," he lowered his voice, "they even have to clean up after us. And I'm saying they clean up all of our messes, if you get my meaning."

Spike's eyes widened. "Whoa, I never looked at it that way before. Pets really have it good."

Unfortunately, not everyone got along with their counterpart. If anything, Sunset had become even more reserved and distant around hers. And not just with Sunset, but with all the Equestria Girls. She was friendly with them when they were together, but it was also clear that she was making a point to avoid them even more so than before. They knew why too; she felt guilty about deceiving and betraying them. Even though they had forgiven her, she was clearly ashamed of her actions and didn't know how to face them.

"She'll be ok eventually," Twilight had told them when they expressed their concern. "She's still angry with herself for what she did and doesn't know how to face you yet. It's not too different from when Starlight Glimmer was afraid of facing the town she deceived."

Fluttershy sighed sadly. "I feel so bad for her."

"So do I," her counterpart replied. "She faced such hardships in her past and didn't have anyone there for her for so long."

"Then wouldn't she want to be friends now?" Rainbow Dash asked. "She seems open to idea that she doesn't need to become super powerful before she can be friends with anyone."

"Just give her time," Twilight repeated. "I'm sure she'll come around."

It may have been hard for the Equestria Girls to see it, but Sunset was indeed opening up more, at least around the Mane Six. And while part of this was because she hadn't betrayed them the way she had the Equestria Girls, it was also because she was spending more with them since she wasn't sniffing around for magic anymore or planning to steal from them, allowing her to legitimately get to know them and be friends without worry.

After she had earned enough money between the night she had stayed with her counterpart and the night of the talent show, Sunset had managed to find a motel she could afford to stay at for a few days. And since she decided that she owed both the Equestria Girls and the Mane Six a great deal for saving her from her corruption, and for forgiving her for what she did, as way to say thank you and to apologize for what she did, she had offered to pay the extra money to get a bigger room, and had invited the Mane Six to stay with her. True, it made the room a little cramped with all seven if them sleeping together, but at least they had a place to stay, and the room was pretty much only used to sleep in at night. The Equestria Girls had even lent their counterparts sleeping bags so they would be comfortable.

The extra time with Sunset had also allowed the Mane Six to provide her with information on the many friendship lessons they'd learned over the years. Sunset had to admit, they were good teachers, and for someone like her, who had been without friends for so long, the lessons were quite valuable. However, despite their assurance that the Equestria Girls were not upset with her over her betrayal, it did little to change her feelings on the matter.

"I just can't bring myself to look them in the eye after what I did," she told the Mane Six unhappily one night.

"But they've already forgiven you, silly," Pinkie Pie said in response.

Sunset just sighed. "They say that, but how do I know it's really true?"

"A big part of friendship is honesty," Applejack told her, being an expert on the subject. "If they were sore about it, they would talk it over with you so ya'll can move past it. And don't forget, they've forgiven others for doing a lot worse. We have too for that matter, and are now good friends with some of our past enemies."

"Besides," Rainbow Dash added, "it's not like you were completely at fault. The sirens did manipulate you."

But Sunset just shook her head at this. "They may have given me a push in the direction they wanted, but I was the one in control of my actions. I made the decision to do what I did."

"Sunset," said Twilight, using her full name like they all did with each other when their counterparts weren't around, "you may have made the decisions to do what you did, but the sirens played off your weaknesses and offered you what you thought you needed. I told you, everypony makes mistakes. We've all forgiven you, now you just have to forgive yourself."

Sunset lowered her eyes to the ground as she considered this. "I don't think I'm ready to face them yet."

"And that's ok," Twilight replied kindly. "Just know that they'll be ready to accept you when you are."

"And in the meantime," said Rarity, "we'll be here for you when you need us, darling. That's what friends are for."

But while everything seemed to be fine on the surface, something strange had begun to happen to each of the Equestria Girls and the Mane Six. It had first happened as they were spending the day together, when suddenly, for no reason at all, there was a sound similar to the crack of a whip, and what appeared to be small starbursts or firecrackers suddenly appeared in the air.

It had only happened for a split second before the event ended just as mysteriously as it began, but it had left both the Equestria Girls and the Mane Six shocked and baffled as to what it was. Unable to figure out what had occurred, they had eventually dismissed it.

But then it happened again, and again. And as the days went by, they began to notice that this unusual phenomenon was happening more and more. At first they initially thought that it may have been the result of magic, but they were unable to find any indication that this was the case. There seemed to be no cause for the starbursts, and they seemed to happen completely at random.

Their worry over the strange occurrences grew as the starbursts started to appear more often, and had begun growing larger in size and number. Both the Equestria Girls and the Mane Six had discussed and theorized about them several times and tried to come up with a solution, but to no avail. For the most part though, the starbursts seemed harmless, and so they tried not to worry about them too much and enjoy spending time with their counterparts while still trying to come up with a solution whenever they got together.

Putting the strange starbursts out of mind for now, the Mane Six were attempting to enjoy their third day in the human world. It was the weekend, and they were currently on their way to meet their counterparts at the mall. Sunset was not with them, having taken up a job delivering orders for the Cake family in order to keep paying for their motel room. They had offered to help, but she had been quite insistent in wanting to do this for them.

"So you're saying that the sun just rises and sets all on its own here?" Applejack questioned Twilight as they made their way to the mall. "And the seasons change all by themselves as well."

"The weather too?" Rainbow Dash asked in bewilderment.

Twilight nodded. "Yes, that seems to be the case. I've been doing a lot of studying on how things work in this world with Sci-Twi."

"But how does all that happen without magic?" asked Fluttershy as she tried to make sense of everything.

Twilight rubbed the back of her head as she tried to think of the best way to describe what she had learned from her counterpart about the natural order of this world, and how it functioned without magic. "It's kind of hard to explain without getting into some pretty complicated stuff, but since this world doesn't have its own magic, it needs other ways to keep things in balance and in order."

Rarity nodded. "Well, it certainly sounds complicated, darling. But then again, this is a whole other dimension. I suppose it makes sense that things would work differently here."

"Hey," Rainbow Dash as a thought occurred to her, "maybe this isn't the only alternate world there is. Maybe there are a whole bunch of other ones."

"Yeah," Pinkie Pie agreed enthusiastically. "Like maybe there's these other First, Second, and Third Generation worlds that have humans and ponies living together with magic sentient rainbows and even have another version of me, and all the ponies there have the same funny looking face that that one mirror pool copy of me made during the paint drying test."

The others stared at her in bewilderment, and Applejack raised an eyebrow. "That was… oddly specific. And what do you mean by 'Generation' worlds?"

Pinkie Pie just shrugged, smiling. "I don't know, just a hunch."

However, Twilight thought that Pinkie Pie might have a point. "I guess it's possible that there are more worlds than just this one and Equestria, but I haven't seen any evidence to indicate as much. Still, doesn't mean that they're not there and are just undiscovered."

At that moment, there was another series of starbursts directly above them, drawing their attention. Like always, they were gone a second later, leaving the Mane Six just as confused as the other times it had happened.

"What about those sparkly poppy things?" Pinkie Pie asked, pointing to where the starbursts had occurred.

Twilight shook her head. "I still don't have a clue as to what those are. Neither does Sci-Twi. It's been driving us crazy."

She had been walking as she spoke, looking at the spot in the air where the starbursts had occurred. As such, she didn't see the person who came running around the corner, causing then to bump into each other, and Twilight went down.

"Whoa, sorry about that," the person said apologetically. "I'm kind of in a hurry. Oh, Twilight it's you."

Twilight felt her heart rate speed up and heat flood her cheeks. She recognized that voice, and she also recognized what seemed to be their standard way of bumping into each other, literally.

Sure enough, she looked up into the handsome face of Flash Sentry as he held his hand out to help her to her feet. "This seems to be a habit of ours," she said bashfully as she took his offered hand.

Pulling her to her feet, he chuckled at the truth of her words. "Seems like it. How've you been? We haven't really gotten a chance to catch up since you came back."

She smiled guiltily. "Yeah, sorry about that. I've kind of been busy helping my friends adapt to this world."

She motioned to her friends, who waved. Flash gave them a smile and a nod in greeting. "Right, your pony friends. Wow, I still can't believe how much you all look like the others. I mean, I knew you would, but to actually see it, well, you know."

Twilight giggled. "Yeah, I know."

He looked like he wanted to say more, but was interrupted as his cell phone chimed, and he nervously glanced at the text message he received before looking back at the others. "Listen, it was really great to see you again, and I wish I could talk longer, but I kind of promised Sandalwood that I would help him out with this environmental thing he's doing, and I'm really running late. But I'll catch you later?"

Feeling a little disappointed, but understanding the importance of helping a friend, she nodded. "Sure thing. Say him to him for me."

"You bet. I'll see you around. You girls too."

He hurried off to go meet with his friend. Twilight waved goodbye as her friends gathered around her.

"I see," Rarity said with interest. "So that's the famous Flash Sentry you developed a crush on the first time you came here."

Pinkie Pie popped out from behind her, looking confused. "Wait, Flash? I thought his name was Brad."

Twilight raised an eyebrow at her. "Um, no, it's Flash. And I do not have a crush on him, Rarity. We're just friends."

"Hmm," the fashion designer muttered. "Well, I certainly hope so, because according to our human friends, there's a pretty good chance that he and Sunset Shimmer might get back together once they stopped dancing around each other."

"I heard that too," Fluttershy replied.

Twilight's eyes widened. This had been the first she had heard of it. She felt a twinge of disappointment, but she quickly pushed it aside as she decided to be happy for her friend. "Oh, well, good for them. It's for the best anyway. I mean, it's not like anything permanent could have ever actually happened between Flash and me anyway. After all, I'm an alicorn princess who lives in another dimension." She gave a very forced laugh. "It never would have worked out between us. Um, not that there ever was anything between us."

She gave them a big grin. Her friends simply stared back at her with skeptical looks.

"Uh huh," Applejack muttered with her arms crossed and her eyes hooded. "Well, I'm normally all about honesty, but I guess denial's not the same thing as lying."

"I'm not in denial!" Twilight practically wailed.

"Don't worry," said Pinkie Pie, "you still have the other Flash Sentry back in Equestria. And maybe when you finally get some guards for your castle, he'll be stationed there."

"It'll be just like with your brother and Princess Cadance," Rainbow Dash teased. "The princess and the royal guard."

"A love story for the ages," Rarity added dreamily.

"Although," Pinkie Pie added thoughtfully, "a lot of your fans will probably be pretty upset that their waifu was taken away."

"Guys!" Twilight shouted, her cheeks bright red in embarrassment. "I don't have a crush on anyone!" She gave Pinkie Pie a confused look. "And what the heck is a waifu?"

Pinkie Pie dramatically slid over to her so she could whisper in her ear. "Something veeeeery powerful in this world. To steal a waifu could invoke the wrath of many."

Before Twilight could respond, there was suddenly another round of starbursts. This one was different, however. It was bigger and louder than normal, and it left the area it had appeared in slightly distorted. It was like looking at the road on a hot day when the heat caused a blurring affect that almost made it look like the air was wiggling. It didn't last long though, and the rippling affect soon ceased, but it had successfully distracted the Mane Six from the conversation they had been happening.

"Ok," Applejack muttered, "that one was different. I think it's safe to say that whatever's going on is getting worse."

"Are we sure it's not more stray magic on the loose?" Fluttershy asked worriedly. She gasped suddenly. "You don't think it's another threat, do you?"

Twilight crossed her arms in thought. "I don't know, but if this is getting worse, then we and the others really need to look into this further, and fast."

And that was exactly what they did upon meeting up with their counterparts. The starbursts once again became the main topic of conversation. The Equestria Girls had also noticed an increase in the starburst activity, though they had yet to witness the distortion that followed the phenomenon the Mane Six had seen.

Unfortunately, like every other time they discussed it, none of them were able to come up with any explanation for the starbursts, no matter how much they brainstormed. They had a few different theories, but nothing concrete that they could go on. None of them actually said it, but they were getting rather worried about the starbursts.

As the days went by, the occurrences continued to grow in frequency. They went from happening only a few times a day to happening several times a day, to happening every couple of hours. Even the distortion that followed began to occur more and more and last longer.

On the fifth day of the Mane Six's stay in the human world, the starbursts had started to happen a few times every hour, and they were just as clueless about what they could be since they first started looking into the causes, much to both Twilights' frustration.

Currently, they were all sitting in the school cafeteria having lunch. Like with Sunset, the Mane Six had been granted permission to attend the school as guest students by Principal Celestia, and they were rather enjoying school life in the human world, even if they were rather baffled by the technology.

"Hey, did you hear about what's happening with the Dazzlings?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Oh, yes," Fluttershy replied. "Apparently, they're transferring to Crystal Prep Academy."

"Crystal Prep?" Rarity repeated. "That's the other school ruled by this world's Cadance, is it not?"

Sunset chuckled. "I wouldn't say 'ruled', but yes."

"From what I hear," Rainbow Dash continued, "it seems that they're hoping that either their punishment won't carry over with them, or if it does, they're hoping for a lighter one since it'll be a different school."

Applejack scoffed at this. "So they're trying to get out of owning up to what they did. Somehow that don't surprise me."

"Well," said Fluttershy, "I did hear that Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna were pretty strict with their punishment."

"Mmm," Rarity muttered. "Well I suppose it's to be expected after what they did. At least Sunset owned up to her mistakes and attempted to make amends for what she did. They don't even appear to be the least bit sorry. I wonder if they'll even stick around, or if they'll just take off again."

"Well, I say that they got what they deserved," Spike chimed in.

Applejack frowned. "Speaking of which, are you sure it was ok to let them keep their pendants?"

Twilight gave her a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, I took a look at them after Vice Principal Luna confiscated them from the Dazzlings. Seems that in addition to revenge, they were hoping that SunShim would gather magic, which they could then use to repair their broken pendants when they reconstructed them. The pieces they used in the choker were the small fragments that still had any remnants of magic from when they initially shattered. But now that those fragments have been destroyed, the rest of the pieces are completely harmless. They won't be able to use any magic with them, or steal any for that matter."

Rainbow Dash gave her a confused look. "How exactly were they planning on getting those fragments back from SunShim after she turned into that big monster thing?"

"I doubt they were," her counterpart replied. "I think that was SunShim diverting from their plan with her own ambitions. Either way, their evil scheme blew up in their faces."

Fluttershy shifted uncomfortably. "I just hope they don't cause any other problems at their new school."

Twilight held up her phone. "Don't worry. I heard about their transfer too, so I called Sour Sweet and asked her and our other Crystal Prep friends to keep an eye on them. She said they would, and would let us know if they caused any problems."

Sunset nodded. "Good. It's nice to know that there will be someone making sure they keep out of trouble. Not that they can actually do any harm anymore. But maybe now they'll turn over a new leaf. Perhaps all they really need is a friend."

Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. "Really? You think this is a friendship problem? I mean, I know that that's been the case most of the time, but these are the Dazzlings we're talking about."

"I have to agree with Rainbow Dash," said Applejack. "They wanted to enslave the world and make everyone fight so they could feed off their negative energy in order to get stronger."

Sunset nodded in acknowledgement. "Yes, I know it looks bad, but I've learned to look beyond what's on the surface and try to see the deeper problem. The sirens fed off negative energy to get stronger, so they were always causing trouble for others. It can't be easy to make friends like that. And just think about what they wanted, for everyone to love and adore them, and that they wouldn't be ignored. Those things came up a lot in their songs too. Maybe, deep down, they really just wanted to be liked and have friends. That's not exactly something you can gain by always causing trouble for everyone, so they tried to get it by force. They were definitely going about it the wrong way, but, like me, maybe what they were really looking for got lost somewhere down the line, or maybe they didn't even realize it themselves."

Twilight beamed with pride at how far Sunset had come along from her darker days. From causing friendship problems to solving the most difficult of ones, she really had really come a very long way. "I think you might be right. They might not have realized it, but maybe what they really wanted was friendship, but after living the way they had for so long, they just didn't know another way."

Rainbow Dash stared at Twilight in disbelief. "You're saying that you want us to become friends with the Dazzlings!?"

Sunset gave her a pointed look. "Is what they did really all that worse than what Gloriosa, Vignette, Wallflower, SunShim, or I did?"

"Yes! Only like a hundred times worse! And when you guys really went bad, it was because you were corrupted by Equestrian magic, but the Dazzlings did everything on their own and were in complete control of their actions. Besides, you and the others were sorry for the things you did, they're clearly not. And looking back on it, I don't think you were actually evil, not until you turned into a demon anyway, just angry at the world and rebellious, which made you a big meanie."

Sunset raised an eyebrow. "Um, thanks, I think…"

Twilight, however, had to agree with her counterpart. "Maybe the Dazzlings just never had the opportunity to be anything more than what they were. Perhaps they just need someone to give them a chance. I'll ask our Crystal Prep friends to try and be friends with them. Who knows, they might surprise us."

A groan escaped Rarity, and she sank in her seat slightly. "Oh, very well, I suppose we could give them a chance too, but only if they want one. And I'll expect an apology from them for all that they've done."

"Here, here," Applejack agreed.

Pinkie Pie, however, was all smiles and much more enthusiastic. "I'd like to be friends with them. Especially Sonata; she seems like fun. I bet she and I would get along great!"

At that moment, Sunset appeared with her lunch in her hands. The others spotted her as she approached and waved her over. However, when she saw them, she just gave them a weak smile and sat down by herself to eat, just as she had been doing all week. The Equestria Girls and the Mane Six all sighed in unison at this.

"Speaking of making friends," Fluttershy said sadly, "we haven't made any progress with SunShim since the talent show. And whatever progress we had made before it is gone."

"Yeah," Applejack acknowledged, "seems she's still feeling guilty for what she did. Said she doesn't know how to face you guys yet."

"But we forgave her," Pinkie Pie stated.

"She knows that," Twilight replied. "She's just working up the nerve to face you."

Sunset nodded in understanding. "I know the feeling. It took me forever before I was able to bring myself to apologize to Princess Celestia for my mistakes. And I only managed to work up the nerve to face her because I really needed her help."

"Well," said Rarity, "I do hope it doesn't take quite as long as that." She glanced at the Mane Six. "How is she around you?"

"Well enough, darling," her counterpart replied. "But then, we weren't the ones she betrayed."

"Yeah," Pinkie Pie agreed. "By the time we got there, she was already her big, scary, monster, dragon-y self, so the real her wasn't really bad to us. That's probably why she feels less guilty around us." She reached into her hair and pulled out a cupcake, which she promptly shoved into her mouth. "You know, that really is a convenient place to keep them."

"I know, right!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed, and mimicked her counterpart by reaching into her hair and pulling out her own cupcake.

Rainbow Dash sighed. "I guess no matter what world it is or which version, Pinkie is still Pinkie."

Then it happened, and it was the worst one yet. A series of starbursts went off around the group. It lasted for nearly ten seconds before stopping, and what could only be described as a cloud of distortion hovered above their heads.

The event had drawn the attention of most of the students in the cafeteria while the Equestria Girls and Mane Six had ducked and covered beneath the table. Now that it was over though, both Pinkie Pies were the first to raise their heads and look at the distortion.

"Ooh, it's all wiggly," they chorused.

A grumble escaped Applejack. "We really need to figure out why that's happening. Who knows what it will do if it keeps up."

"Are you sure you haven't figured anything out?" Rarity asked the two Twilights.

Twilight shook her head. "I have no clue. I've never seen anything like it before, and there doesn't seem to be any cause for it. It just seems to be completely random." Her eye twitched slightly. "It's really quite frustrating."

Twilight was flipping through a notebook she had started keeping when she and her counterpart had begun looking into the phenomenon. "Whatever it is, it doesn't seem to be magic related. I've never seen readings like this on anything."

There were giggles from the two Pinkie Pies. One had stuck a spoon inside the distortion, watching as the utensil twisted into a spiral shape, while the other had actually stuck her hand in it, and watched as it became twisted and bent out of shape.

"It tingles," the latter said gleefully.

"Both of you, get your hands away from there this instant!" Rarity snapped. "You don't know what it will do."

The Pinkie Pie with her hand actually in the distortion pulled it back. Her hand stretched like rubber, but then came free of the distortion and shaped itself back to normal. The other Pinkie Pie pulled her hand back as well, but let go of the spoon. It continued to float within the distortion, twisting into odd shapes. When the distortion cloud ceased, the spoon return to its normal shape and fell to the table as if nothing had happened.

"Oh my…" both Fluttershys muttered simultaneously.

"That felt funny," Pinkie Pie stated as she wiggled her previously distorted finger.

"You done gonna lose your fingers if you do stuff like that," Applejack scolded.

"It's fine," Pinkie Pie told her. She picked up the previously distorted spoon and tried to see if it could be bent into another shape outside the distortion. "See, not bendy at all."

Twilight was frowning. "I still don't like it. I don't know what it is, but it's giving me a really bad feeling. I wish someone would just tell me what's happening."

Almost as if waiting for that cue, the cafeteria doors burst open, and a lavender-skinned girl with purple hair and aquamarine strips in it wearing a hat stood in the doorway, looking desperate.

"I'm looking for Princess Twilight and her friends!" she called to the cafeteria. "We have an emergency!"