• 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 2: The Second Sunset

Author's Note:

I should have mentioned this in the Author's Note of the last chapter. I often like to keep my stories as canon as possible so they can fit in with the actual series. So fitting in with the timeline, this takes place in the series for Equestria Girls after Rollercoaster of Friendship and before the second season of Better Together and Spring Breakdown. Meaning this also takes place between season 7 and 8 of MLP:FIM. Hope that clears things up. Also, as you can probably tell from this chapter's title, this chapter introduces the human Sunset Shimmer. According to the research I did for this story, Hasbro has stated that there is no human Sunset since they wanted her to be her own thing. I guess that makes sense since not everyone has a counterpart, be they human or pony, but it seems like a missed opportunity to do something, well, like this. But, whatever. So, cuz and my other readers, I hope you enjoy my idea of the human Sunset. By the way, I hope everyone understands what I'm doing with the italicizing for Equestria residents. I thought that would make things easier to understand of who I refer to at different times.

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 2: The Second Sunset

Mere seconds after Twilight Sparkle had walked through the doors of the school to the eventual conversation she would have with her friends about her brother and his new girlfriend, a lone figure stepped onto Canterlot High grounds.

Blending in as just another student, they were dressed in simple jeans with rips that had been deliberately made across the knees and a dark red hoodie. On the back of the hoodie was the design of a red and yellow sun. The hood was currently up, concealing most of their face as they looked up at the high school from which the rumors spoke of that claimed to have actual magic at it.

Reaching up, the hooded person pulled back their hood, revealing an amber-skinned teenage girl with turquoise eyes. A portion of her bright red and golden yellow hair was tied up in a bun while the rest hung down past her shoulders. Around her neck she wore a black choker decorated with small dark red gems that shimmered in the sunlight, much like her namesake, and her hand came up to touch it.

"So this is the place," she said curiously, looking at the school with interest. "It looks ordinary enough."

Appearances could be deceiving though, and she wondered how much of what she had heard was true. Rumors had been circulating that there was magic at this school, and not simple parlor tricks, but real genuine magic. The school was apparently trying to keep quiet about it, but people still talked.

Not that anyone really believed the rumors; there was no such thing as magic after all. For the most part, like most of the general public, she too had been skeptical of the rumors. But unlike those others, she, for her own personal reasons, had come to see how much of the rumors were true, if any at all.

"Doubt I can just ask around," she said to herself as she eyed the students entering the building. She wondered if she would be able to sneak in and pass for one of them while she investigated.

She wasn't entirely sure what she should be looking for though. Some type of magic, obviously, but what did that mean exactly? One thing was sure though, she would never get any answers standing around staring at the place.

Taking a deep breath, she tried to look as inconspicuous as possible as she headed for the main entrance. No one seemed to be paying her any attention so far, presumably thinking she was just another student, but there would be no telling what would happen once she walked through those doors; it was supposedly a magic school after all.

She stopped at the double doors, and stared at them for several long seconds. Was she really going to find what she needed here? She hadn't been led astray so far. Maybe she would-

"Morning, Sunset! Excuse us!"

"CMCs, coming through!"

"Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, wait up!"

Her thoughts were interrupted as three younger girls darted past her and into the school. The doors closed behind them, and she blinked in surprise. Had one of them… had they just called her 'Sunset'? No, that wasn't possible. She didn't know anyone here. And while she hadn't gotten a good look at them, she didn't think she'd seen them before. Had she?

No, she didn't think so. She must have misheard them. That's right, they must have thought she was someone else with a similar sounding name and she had misheard them. That was the only logical explanation.

So absorbed in her thoughts she was that she didn't notice someone come up behind her until they spoke. "Sunset Shimmer? You ok?"

Letting out a surprised yelp, she turned around. Standing behind her was a boy she didn't recognize. And what had he just called her? She may have misheard the girls, but there was no mistaking it this time, he'd definitely called her 'Sunset Shimmer'.

Her eyes looked the boy over. He had amber-colored skin, a lighter shade than hers, spiky blue hair, and light blue eyes. He was pretty cute she decided, and probably very popular, but she definitely didn't recognize him. So how did he know her? And by name too.

The boy cocked his head to the side questioningly. "Everything alright? You seem kind of distracted."

She blinked, coming out of her daze. "What? Oh, um, no, I'm fine. Just…" she rubbed the back of her head bashfully, "trying to figure out what's going on."

She'd said it more to herself than him, and he appeared confused by her words. He seemed to shrug it off though as he looked her up and down. "That's a new look for you," he said in reference to her hoodie. "Usually you wear your leather jacket. New hairstyle too. It kind of looks like it does when you put it up for your job at that sushi place."

Sushi place? She had never worked at a sushi restaurant. And what leather jacket? She didn't own a leather jacket. This situation was getting weirder and weirder. This boy seemed familiar with her, but she didn't know him; she would definitely wouldn't forget someone as handsome as him.

A look of concern crossed the boy's face. "Hey, you sure you're alright? You look a little out of it."

"I… um, I…"

She what? What was she doing? Making a complete fool out of herself, that's what. She'd come here in search of magic, and instead found people she didn't know who knew about her. Was this part of the magic? Did the school have divination or clairvoyance or something?

Before she could respond, to the boy's question, two more boys came walking up to them. The first was a light amber-skinned boy with green hair in dreadlocks who looked like a borderline hippie, complete with a recycle button pinned to his shirt, and the other resembled a stereotypical nerd, complete with glasses, with violet skin and dark gray hair.

"Hey, Flash Sentry, Sunset Shimmer," the green-haired boy greeted. "How's it hanging?"

"A very good morning to you both," the nerd chimed in.

The blue-haired boy, who was apparently named Flash Sentry, turned to them and gave them a smile before high-fiving them. "Sandalwood, Micro Chips, what's up, guys."

"My grades, of course," said the nerd, whom Sunset assumed was Micro Chips. "It's not easy being the smartest student at Canterlot High, but one does what one must."

"I don't know about that," Sandalwood replied. "Didn't Twilight Sparkle score higher than you last time?"

Micro Chips adjusted his glasses. "A minor setback, soon to be amended. I was elected the most likely to discover cold fusion over her for the yearbook."

Sunset stared at them, still trying to piece this whole thing together. From the way they greeted her, it was as if they knew her too. She didn't recognize either of them, or their names. And while she considered herself to be very smart, though apparently not quite up to this Micro Chips or Twilight Sparkle's level, she was beginning to feel pretty dumb right now, like everyone else knew something that she didn't. She wondered if she should ask how they knew her, but that only made her feel even more foolish.

Pushing his glasses further up his nose, Micro Chips held his chin up high. "I suppose only time will tell whether she or I will be Canterlot High's top student. Good day gentlemen, my lady. I shall see you inside."

He walked past Sunset and Flash with his head proudly held high. Sandalwood smirked at the nerd's confidence before returning back to the other two and nodding to the doors. "You guy's heading in?"

"We'll be there in a bit," Flash told him.

They would? Sunset didn't think she was quite ready to go inside anymore. Her head was spinning. Why were they talking about her like she belonged to the school, like they were old friends? How did they even know her? And if they knew who she was, did they also know what she had planned in coming here? This was not how she expected this day to go down. She needed to get out of here and rethink this.

"So, Sunset," Flash began, scratching his head in what appeared to be nervousness, "I don't know if you have any plans this weekend, but I got these tickets to this new movie that I think you'd like, and I wanted to ask if-"

"Sorry," she interrupted, "I gotta go!"

She took of running, away from the school, leaving a slightly bewildered Flash behind at her sudden departure. He recovered quickly though and waved to her retreating form as he called out to her. "Ok, cool, I guess I'll catch you later!"

With a sigh, he turned away and kicked at the ground in disappointment. Coming up behind him, the cross-eyed Derpy Hooves patted his shoulder comfortingly.

Sunset, meanwhile, had hurried away and ducked behind the remnants of the school statue. She needed a minute to collect her thoughts without being surrounded by people who she didn't know but who seemed to know her. She hadn't known what to expect from a school that supposedly had magic, but it hadn't been that.

Sighing, she rested her head back against the base of the statue and closed her eyes. On the other side of the base, the glossy surface briefly glowed with magic. With her eyes closed, Sunset didn't notice as the gems on her choker flashed in response.

By the time she opened her eyes, the glowing of both her choker and the statue had stopped, and she turned her thoughts to what had just happened. "Ok, so either there's a big chunk of my memory missing where I met a bunch of people I don't remember, or there are people who know me even though I don't know them."

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of two girls heading towards the school. The one on the left had curly pink and dark blue hair and light yellow-green skin, and the one on the right had long somewhat spiky greenish-blue and hair and light bluish-green. Would they know her too if she approached them?

Sunset hesitated for a moment before rushing over to them. "Hey, sorry to bother you," she said, coming on much stronger than she meant to. "This may sound a little strange, but do you by any chance know who I am?"

The two girls stared at her as if she had a second head. They exchanged bewildered looks before the curly-haired one on the left spoke. "Um, yeah. You're Sunset Shimmer. Everyone in school knows you."

Sunset's mouth dropped open. "Everyone?"

"Um, yeah, pretty much," the other girl replied before giving her a look of concern. "Are you feeling ok? Maybe you should go see Nurse Redheart."

Sunset ran a hand through her hair as she tried to process the fact that two more complete strangers knew who she was, as did the rest of the school according to them. "No, I'm fine. It's… been an unusual morning."

The two girls continued to look at her strangely as she stared out into space. They exchanged another confused look before shrugging and walking past her.

"Ok, well, I guess we'll see you later," said the one on the left before whispering to her friend. "That was weird."

"Yeah. Hope she's not getting sick."

Sunset barely registered their departure. She now had even more questions than before. How was it that everyone knew who she was? This just didn't make sense. She had never been to this school before. She had never even been to this town before, having lived most of her life in the city. How did they all know her?

Were the students here psychic, and they had predicted her coming? Was that what the "magic" here really was? No, she had been led to believe otherwise, and the rumors she'd heard had never mentioned anything about psychic powers. Besides, that display didn't point to psychic powers; more like knowledge of the unknown. Wait, wasn't that part of being a psychic? Maybe. She didn't know.

One thing was for sure though, there was definitely something mysterious about this school, and she intended to get to the bottom of it.

(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)

The bell rang, signaling it was time for lunch. The Equestria Girls meet up with each other in the hall as they headed for the cafeteria. Not all of them were cheerful though. Applejack's shoulders were slumped in disappointment while the others attempted to cheer her up.

"It's only one test," Twilight told her. "You can make it up. I'll even help you study."

"And besides, the retest is always easier than the first one," Rainbow Dash added cheerfully.

The blonde farm girl raised an eyebrow at her multi-colored haired friend. "Is that why you're so cheerful? 'Cause you scored even lower than I did."

Rainbow Dash just waved this off. "No sweat. Now that we know what exactly is gonna be on the test, we can focus on those topics specifically and we'll score even higher than we would have even if we did pass the first time."

Fluttershy cocked her head to the side curiously. "That almost makes it sound like you failed on purpose."

Lifting her chin up proudly, Rainbow Dash grinned arrogantly. "It's my new study method! Don't worry about the first test so you don't stress out, find out what's gonna be on it the first time around, then cram it all in and blow away the retest."

Sunset wasn't sure if she was in complete agreement with that strategy. "Um, Rainbow, you do realize that this is Mr. Cranky Doodle you're talking about, right? He's probably going to make the retest extra, extra hard. And he'll probably change the questions too."

Rainbow Dash stared at her blankly for a few moments before slapping her forehead. "Oh man, why didn't I think of that?" She rounded on Twilight, grabbing her shoulders a little too tightly. "Twilight, you gotta help me study!"

Applejack held up a hand. "I'd appreciate the help as well."

Reaching up, Twilight gently extracted Rainbow Dash's hands from her shoulders. "I'd be happy to help. In fact, we can all have a study session at my place if you want."

"Lets make it my place instead," Rarity offered. "It's much bigger, and you can all spend the night."

"Slumber party!" Pinkie Pie declared loudly. Reaching into her frizzy raspberry-pink hair, she seemingly magically pulled out a cupcake. "I'll bring snacks."

As they began to make plans for their study session/slumber party, they continued on their way to the cafeteria. Along the way, they crossed paths with Sweetie Drops and Lyra Heartstrings, who greeted the group.

"Howdy, you two," Applejack said in response to their greeting. "Having a good day?"

The two girls nodded. "Yeah, pretty good," Sweetie Drops replied.

"How about you, Sunset?" Lyra asked. "Did your morning get better?"

Sunset raised a questioning eyebrow. This had been the first time she had seen the two of them today. Had someone told them that she had been having a bad morning? "Um, yeah, it's been fine."

The two girls looked relieved. "Oh, that's good," said Sweetie Drops. "Glad things got better."

With that, the two walked off, and began whispering to each other. "Did she change clothes since this morning?"

"Yeah, and she went back to her usual hairstyle too."

Not hearing their whispers, Sunset turned back to her friends. "That was pretty weird."

"They seemed worried about you," Fluttershy noted. She gave Sunset a concerned look. "Did something happen this morning before school?"

Sunset shook her head. "No, it was a pretty normal morning."

Suddenly, there was a gasp from Rainbow Dash, and they all turned to her. The rainbow-haired girl was staring at a flier on the wall, her hands pressed to either side of it as she read the notice excitedly.

"Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh! Did you guys see this? The school's having a talent show! Individual or group acts are being accepted. How long has this been up? How'd we not see it before now?"

The girls gathered around and started reading the flier. It must have been up for a while and they just had been walking past it, because the date was only a couple weeks away, and the deadline for participating was coming up.

"Ooh," said Pinkie Pie as she saw the signup date, "good thing we saw this when we did, or we may have missed the deadline."

"Maybe someone was taking them down so there wouldn't be much, um… competition," Fluttershy suggested hesitantly.

"Mmm, 'someone' being Trixie?" Rarity asked, voicing all of their thoughts.

"That would have been pointless," Twilight stated. "Principal Celestia would have most likely made an announcement for a last chance to sign up before the deadline."

Sunset beamed excitedly. "You guy's thinking what I'm thinking?"

"That the Rainbooms are gonna rock down the school!" Rainbow Dash declared. "We gotta get in some extra band practice."

Rarity cleared her throat. "I believe you're forgetting something. You and Applejack need to study for your retest."

Rainbow Dash just waved this off. "Won't be a problem. We'll jam out at my place for a while, then head to your house for some good old studying before we have our slumber party."

Twilight gave her a look of mild disapproval. "I think you have your priorities a little mixed up."

"Nah. We'll rock out a bit to de-stress so we'll be good and ready for our study session, then we'll have the rest of the night to do whatever we want."

"Homemade s'mores!" Pinkie Pie declared, and suddenly had a bag of marshmallows, a chocolate bar, and a box of graham crackers in her hands.

Fluttershy glanced at the flier again. "I hope there weren't a limited number of spots, otherwise they might be all filled up."

"I'm sure there's some spots left," Twilight reassured her. "Otherwise they would have made an announcement, or at least taken down the fliers. But we should still sign up soon, just in case."

"Better reserve the music room so we can practice after school too," Rarity suggested.

Spike, who had poked his head out of Twilight's backpack, was considering the flier curiously. "You think I can enter? A magical talking dog would be sure to steal the show."

Sunset chuckled. "Sorry, Spike, but I think it's students only."

"What's students only?"

They turned around to find Flash Sentry walking up to them. Sunset smiled and raised her hand in greeting. "Hey, Flash. We were just talking about the talent show."

His gaze shifted to the flier. "Oh, yeah, I saw that too. Looks like fun." He glanced back at Sunset and frowned slightly. "Hey, did you change your clothes since this morning? And your hair?"

Sunset blinked and glanced down at her clothes, then at her friends questioningly. They shrugged in confusion, and she turned back to Flash. "Nope, same clothes and hair since I left the house this morning."

Looking confused, Flash scratched his head in bewilderment. "I could have sworn that…" He shook his head. "Never mind, it's not important."

Rarity, however, felt the need to address the issue. "On the contrary, it most definitely is important. You see, girls, this is the problem with owning so many copies of the same outfit. And while that does tell me that you all know what you like, I keep telling you that you still need to have a greater variety in your wardrobes. In fact, I insist that we all go clothes shopping this weekend at some point for some new outfits. And not just additional copies of the same ones you already wear again. We can go before heading over to Rainbow Dash's for band practice."

"Speaking of this weekend," said Flash. He glanced briefly at her friends before shrugging. "Sunset, I was trying to ask earlier that I got these two tickets for this new movie I think you'll like, and I wanted to know if you'd like to go with me."

She gave him an appreciative yet apologetic smile. "Sorry, but I'll have to take a rain check. It seems like this weekend is going to be pretty busy. The girls and I are planning on having a study session and getting in some band practice for the talent show." When Rarity cleared her throat, she rolled her eyes, looking amused. "And go clothes shopping."

Flash sighed in disappointment. "Yeah, that does sound like a pretty busy weekend. I guess I should probably get in some practice too."

"Oh?" said Fluttershy with interest. "Are you entering in the talent show too?"

Smiling, he gave her a thumbs-up. "You know it. I'm already signed up. Got a new song for it and everything. Hoping to bring home the grand prize."

"Oh yeah?" Sunset teased jokingly. "Think you can beat the Rainbooms?"

Giving her an equally as playful smile, he crossed his arms. "What? You think I can't?"

"Well, they did dominate everyone at the Battle of the Bands." Her smirk widened. "And that was before I joined them."

Flash chuckled. "Touché, Miss Shimmer. But in my defense, I was under an evil siren spell at the time, which turned me into a real jerk and probably affected my performance. Besides, lets not forget who taught you how to play the guitar in the first place."

Sunset playfully punched his arm. "Touché yourself. But I think it's safe to say that the student has surpassed the teacher in this case."

Flash gave her a small bow. "I look forward to the challenge, my lady. See you around." He turned to leave before smirking back at her. "And I'll hold you to that rain check. Later."

Sunset chuckled and waved goodbye before turning back to her friends. Much to her bewilderment, they were all huddled together with big goofy grins on their faces, staring at her in anticipation.

Sunset blinked in confusion. "What?"

"What do you mean 'what'?" Applejack practically cried.

"Is it not obvious, dear?" Rarity asked. "Flash Sentry is totally into you!"

Sunset's mouth dropped open, and heat flooded her face. "What? No, we're just friends."

"He was totally flirting with you," Rainbow Dash insisted.

Rarity nodded in agreement. "Mmm hmm, mmm hmm. And you were totally flirting back."

"And I'm pretty sure that that movie invite was him indirectly asking you out," Twilight added.

Sunset thought back to the playful banter she had just had with her ex and realized that she had been flirting with him. And the movie invite, had he really been asking her out? He hadn't used the word 'date', but he had only asked her. She'd thought that it was because it would be a movie that her friends might not like, and he had claimed to only have two tickets.

More heat filled her cheeks, and she shook her head in denial. "No way. We already did the whole boyfriend-girlfriend thing, and he was the one who broke up with me, remember?"

"Mmm, yes, darling," Rarity muttered in reluctant agreement before she countered with, "but that was back when you were still the school bully. You can't exactly blame him for wanting to break up with you back then. You were so mean that no one wanted anything to do with you."

Sunset cut her eyes at her. "Gee, thanks."

Pinkie Pie picked up from there. "But now that you're not a big meanie anymore, it looks like he wants to get back together with you."

"Old feelings are being rekindled," Applejack agreed.

"I think we're forgetting to ask the big question here," said Rainbow Dash before giving Sunset an expectant look. "Sunset, do you want to get back together with Flash?"

The girls stared at her eagerly, excited looks on their faces. Sunset was suddenly feeling very embarrassed at being put on the spot. She liked Flash a lot, sure, but after she had screwed up their relationship with how awful of a person she had been, she needed more time to think before she jumped back into anything. And her friends' interrogation was not making that easy.

"I… I…" Her eyes darted around for an escape route, and they landed on the flier again. She quickly tore it down and held it out to her friends. "There's no time to think about that right now. We should go sign up for the talent show while we still can. It's like Fluttershy said, we don't know how many spots they have left open. Don't want to take any chances."

She gave them a big hopeful grin. The other girls' faces had gone from excited to frowny with hooded eyes, and they exchanged looks. It was more than obvious that she was trying to dodge the question, but they decided to let it go… for now anyway.

"Alright," Applejack conceded, taking the flier from her. "Lets go sign up. It says to see Principal Celestia."

Sunset sighed as she and her friends headed for the principal's office. Today was certainly turning out to be a day of surprises.

Going by unnoticed, the girls walked past a window, just missing being seen by a pair of turquoise eyes that peeked through the window.

(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)

Principal Celestia looked up from her paperwork when she heard the knock on her door. She called for whoever it was to come in, and smiled when she saw that it was the Equestria Girls. As principal, she knew that she wasn't supposed to play favorites, but she had to admit that she had a certain fondness for the seven of them.

Her smile widened further when she saw the flier for the talent show in Applejack's hand. It was easy enough for her to figure out what they wanted, and she wondered what had taken them so long to sign up.

Folding her hands in front of her, she tried to keep her smile neutral. "Hello, girls. What can I do for you?"

The freckled farm girl held up the flier. "Principal Celestia, we're interested in signing up for the talent show."

"If there are still spots available," Fluttershy added hopefully.

The principal's smile widened. "Of course there are still some spots. I was actually wondering when you girls would come see me about it. I'm assuming it's for your band."

"You know it," Rainbow Dash declared, and began miming playing the guitar. "The Rainbooms are about to make the talent show 20 percent cooler."

Celestia chuckled as she reached into her desk and pulled out a clipboard with the signup sheet attached to it. "I'm sure you will. But I'm afraid I'm going to have to add a rule for your band."

Twilight frowned slightly. "Um, what rule?"

Celestia held up a finger in warning. "No magic allowed. That gives you an unfair advantage over the other students."

Applejack rubbed the back of her head. "Uh, that might be a bit of a problem. We can't always stop ourselves from ponying-up. It just kinda happens."

She gave Celestia an apologetic yet hopeful grin, and the principal crossed her arms as she considered this. "Hmm…"

Sunset quickly jumped in. "Principal Celestia, I want to assure you that we have no intention of using our magic as a means to win. We may pony-up, but we want our performance to be about our music, not our magic."

"Hmm…" Celestia muttered again, tapping her chin in thought. "I suppose that will be ok. We'll have to make it clear that your band is the talent portion of your act, but as long as you promise not to actually use your magic, I think we can overlook your pony-girl transformations."

"Wahoo!" Pinkie Pie cheered. "It's a promise. A Pinkie promise."

Celestia smiled and handed over the clipboard. Sunset gave her an appreciative smile of her own before writing down their band name with all their names in parentheses. "Thanks, Principal Celestia."

"Don't thank me," she said, unable to completely hide her favoritism from the group. "I was really hoping you girls would perform, I wish you the best of luck."

Rainbow Dash punched the air. "This is gonna be awesome! We're gonna rock the whole school to the ground. I'll book the school music room for us at the end of the day so we can practice."

Celestia glanced at the clock. "Just make sure you girls leave yourselves enough time for lunch." Her smile widened knowingly, and she decided to tell them the special treat since they would find out soon enough anyway. "They're selling cupcakes in the cafeteria for dessert."

This prompted exactly the type of reaction she expected. Pinkie Pie practically pushed her friends aside as she all but pounced at the principal. "What!? They're actually selling cupcakes!?"

Celestia couldn't help but to let out a light chuckle at the dessert-loving girl's reaction. "Chocolate and vanilla. And for 50 cents extra, red velvet."

Pinkie Pie's eyes practically popped out of her head. "To the cafeteria!"

Whirling around, she grabbed the two of her friends nearest to her, which just happened to be Fluttershy and Rarity, and took off at a speed that could rival Rainbow Dash's magical speed. The other girls stared after her for a few seconds before smiling knowingly and following after their friends.