Lack Of A Reflection

by Sun Aura

First published 1st of October, 2015

Sunset Shimmer has made a lot of mistakes, and she's going to set them right. But there's someone else that made similar mistakes, but has yet to been offered another way back.

After finding Twilight's counterpart, Sunset Shimmer feels the need to find her own counterpart, and help her fix their mistakes. Finding and helping the other Sunset Shimmer won't be easy. Will the other Sunset even want to be helped?

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Part of the Cornerverse-MLP Universe. Also, will contain some swearing, probably innuendo. I will try to keep it pg-13.

Mirrored Events

Explaining Magic to Twilight was easier than Sunset Shimmer thought it would be. Explaining multiple dimensions with a counterpart to each person was harder. Trying to explain that these counterparts were magical ponies and that Sunset was really a Unicorn, along with the fact that Twilight’s counterpart was a Princess? Nearly impossible, until the Princess herself came running through the portal. While they were both here the group had taken to calling the two ‘Princess Twilight’ and ‘Scientist Twilight’, to save the confusion.

Since then, the entire group had moved themselves to Sunset’s home, catching Princess Twilight up on the last few days’ adventures during the trip. Sunset’s home was far bigger than it needed to be. Now she’d be fine with a single bedroom with a fairly large living room, but when she first came out of the portal, nothing but an entire two floors with three bedrooms.

“How’d you even pay for a place like this?" Princess Twilight asked.

“Apparently gold, silver and jewels are really uncommon here,” she answered, unlocking the door. “Most of the Bits in my wallet was enough to get the house. A few more were used to get the officials on duty at CHS to let me enroll without meeting my parents.”

“Your parents must really miss you,” Applejack said.

Sunset froze as the lock clicked. She brushed off the shiver as the door swung open.

“They probably do,” she said.

She waved them in, holding her dog, Rhea, back to keep her from licking them and gesturing to the kitchen and telling them to help themselves. She deposited her bag in the bedroom upstairs and everyone minus one was in the living room when she came back down. Applejack had gone into the kitchen to make something more than a bag of chips for their gathering. Princess Twilight and Science Twilight seemed to be discussing how a study of one another’s worlds would work, most likely an exchange program of sorts.

Sunset didn’t fully pay attention. A good handful of ideas were running through her mind. With Twilight’s counterpart showing up, she had time to process things that she never bothered to think of. For some reason, she never thought of all the counterparts.

It’s not like she didn’t know. How could she not? However, this world, it felt more like it was just another city, full of ponies she didn’t know yet. Just a long vacation of sorts. Now the implications of traveling to this world were crashing down on her. Then Applejack brought up her family. Really, the only person she had met to remind her of this alternate dimension was Celestia.

No, that wasn’t true. She had met one other counterpart. It was years ago, and she nearly forgot about it, but there was one other.

She ran her fingers through her hair, thinking over what she wanted to do with all this. There were a few options, and they all should be first priority. Yet how does one decide. When Rhea licked her hand, it brought her back to the group. Their conversation was beginning to move towards the previous magical events at CHS, and Sunset decided that now was as good a time as ever.

“Girls,” she interrupted. She hesitated as their chatter came to a halt, but pushed through. “There’s something I need to do. I know I’ve messed up. A lot. There’s a lot of things I’ve done that I’ve been slowly making up for, but I’ve been focusing only on Canterlot High’s problems, and there’s a lot of other things that need to make up for there. But there’s other people, other ponies that I’ve hurt in some way, and a few I want to make this right.”

“Where do you want to start?”Twilight asked.

“I think,” she hesitated, looking at her options. “I want to find the other me. This world’s Sunset Shimmer.”

“Shouldn’t be too difficult,” Scientist Twilight said.

“She’s not in any of my social media contacts!” Pinkie exclaimed. “I don’t think I’ve seen hr around town either! It’s just been you since forever!”

“How long is ‘forever’?” Sunset asked.

“Well, like forever? Duh?” she giggled. “But, like, I’ve seen you around like all the time. I mean, I didn’t know-you know-you, like hang out all the time, until now, but I’ve seen you around since, like, mid-to-late Elementary School?”

“Pinkie,” she started. “I’ve only been here for about six years. I was thirteen when I came through the portal. You would have been in middle school.”

“Now that Pinke mentions it,” Rainbow said. “I do remember seeing someone who looks an awful lot like you back then.”

“That must have been this world’s Sunset!” she said.

“Then just a quick records check!” Rarity said. “She must have moved right about when you arrived. The school should have a database of that kind of thing, since they would have to transfer all of her data over.”

“Principal Celestia might not give it to us,” Fluttershy nearly whispered.

“If not, Vinyl’s pretty good with all kinds of tech,” Rainbow smirked. “Give her a few minutes alone in the office and we’ll be good.”

“How about instead of jumping to the illegal we ask my brother?” Scientist Twilight suggested. “He’s a police officer now, and should be able to run her name, as long as this world’s Sunset is the same age as Equestria’s Sunset. And I just realized how insane that sounds.”

“I assume a Police Officer would be sort of like a Royal Guard?” Princess Twilight asked. The other Twilight nodded. “Then I bet he does a great job. Shining Armor made it all the way to Guard Captain.”

“Wait,” Sunset interrupted. “Shining Armor is your brother?”

“Have you met him?” Both Twilight’s asked.

“I saw him a few times,” she said. “He and Lance joined the Guard on the same day. Lance had the biggest crush on him! He swears up and down that they kissed at their first Guard Nightmare Night party. What a small world. Well, a small multiple dimensions.”

“Who’s Lance?” Fluttershy asked.

Sunset stopped her chuckling. She sunk lower into the couch.

“He,” she hesitated. “He’s my brother, Gleaming Lance. I haven’t seen him since before I left. And unfortunately, I think this world’s Lance is our best bet to finding the other Sunset.”

“Right,” Princess Twilight agreed. “Finding an entire family would be much easier than one pony. Er, person.”

“She won’t be there,” she said. “Major events in our world seem to parallel one another unless the other world effects it. This world didn’t have magical abilities, so the events were different, yet similar.

“When both me and her were thirteen, we ran away from the home we knew. I ran through an interdimensional portal. While exploring this strange new world, I found a bus station and a girl just like me buying a ticket. I only saw her for about ten seconds, but I know it was her. And I know she won’t come back without someone coming to show her the way, just like you did for me. Lance can help us. He knows me, her, best and could tell us where she’d be most likely to go.”

“Well if he’s a Guard as well, he’s probably a Police Officer in this world,” Princess Twilight said. “Shining can tell us where he is.”

“We’ll have to explain all this to him,” Scientist Twilight sighed. She looked over at her counterpart. “You know how stubborn he is. And seeing the two of us is probably going to freak him out more than usual.”

“More than usual?” Applejack said, leaning her head out of the kitchen. The rest of her came as well, bringing a tray with a bowl of chips and a bowl of some kind of dip she whipped up with Sunsets lacking pantry.

“The other year, one of Cadence’s friends played a ‘prank’ on him,” she elaborated. “She used to a be cosmetology student at Cadence’s college, and used the makeup to look exactly like Cadence while the real one was on a trip. I was all ‘hey, she’s acting super different. Maybe something’s going on!’ but no, obviously there’s legitimate reasons she’s doing the literal opposite of what she usually would. The whole thing fell apart when Cadence actually came home, and Shining's been a bit jumpy since.”

“Going with the parallel dimensional event theory,” Princess Twilight said, “that should be the equivalent of when Queen Chrysalis kidnapped Cadence and replaced her, then Shining didn't believe me when I figured out she wasn’t right. He was all ‘she’s just stressed over her wedding’ and I was just ‘being possessive of my brother’ and ‘didn’t want to see him growing up and getting married’. Of course, I was right and we were nearly killed, but other than that it was a lovely ceremony.”

“Hold on,” Scientist Twilight stopped her. “Your Shining and Cadence are married? But they, I mean, sure they’re friends but it’s not like they, well, you know? I think I would have noticed if they were together!”

“A single day before the wedding,” Princess Twilight declared, clearly exasperated, “I got the wedding invitation. That’s the first time they told me they were together. Tried to say it was because ‘Canterlot needed him and he didn’t have time to come visit or even send a letter’! The city was only in a state of emergency for two days! ”

“We’re definitely talking to Shining today,” Scientist Twilight grumbled. “We can ask him about Sunset’s family. And I need to give him a piece of my mind.”

“Then we can just ask him where Lance is and this’ll all be done!” Sunset said. “I, I’m going to go get a drink.”

She nearly jumped off the couch and into the kitchen, Rhea following close behind. She used the handle on her fridge to keep herself up right. Her hands were shaking. Sunset couldn’t believe this was happening this quick.

“Hey, are you okay?” a voice asked.

Sunset jumped what felt like six feet. She turned to see Princess Twilight standing near the cabinets. She took a breath trying to calm herself, but it wasn’t working.

“I’m fine,” she said. “Just need to calm down for a moment. Maybe tea? No, not strong enough. Would it be morally unethical to go through the portal and buy a drink of something stronger there? Because I’m an adult there so it would be easy.”

“Okay, I’m stopping you right there,” she said. “Sunset, it’ll be okay. We have a good plan here.”

“It’s not just the plan!” she exclaimed. “It’s just, oh stars I was such an idiot! I didn’t even think about Lance or mom or dad or anypony until the last few weeks! And when we try to find the other Sunset, when we talk to my, her, family… Well, how do you think you’re family would react if you’ve been missing for six years? And there’s no way that we can talk to them without telling them everything about the multiple dimensions! At the very least he’s going to freak out and reopen old emotional wounds.

“And then after that, I have to go home and talk to my actual family! I have no idea what’s happened to them! Are they okay? Did they stay in Canterlot or move somewhere else? I know Lance’s thing for your brother didn’t work out, but did he meet someone else? What if he got married and I wasn’t there for it? What if something terrible happened? What if-“

“It’s okay,” Twilight said. She pulled her closer into a loose hug. “Breath in through your nose for four seconds, hold it for two, then breathe out your mouth for another four.”

She followed Twilight’s instructions, the other’s fingers tapping out the seconds for her to follow. Even Rhea helped, poking her thigh until Sunset gave into the comfort of petting a dog. She was still panicking, but she no longer felt like the world was being torn apart. Again.

“I’m okay,” she said.

“I have an idea,” Twilight said, backing up from the hug. “I left Spike back home and told him I’d use the diary if I needed him. I can send him a message and ask him to send a letter to Equestria’s Shining while we visit this world’s Shining. He knows all of the guards, and can tell us where Lance is. I can make sure he doesn’t tell them about anything.”

“No,” she said. “It should take at most few days to find the other me and convince her to come home. After that, I need to see them.”

“It’ll be okay,” she assured her. “We’ll help you fix this.”

“Thank you.”

Mirrored Past

Sunset had expected Applejack to own a pickup truck. It was the vehicle most known for hauling, and considering the apple products they had to transport it made sense. However, a minivan with the seats down can safely carry more volume than the bed of a pickup truck and you can put the seats up to transfer passengers.

Sunset sat next to Princess Twilight, who sat next to Scientist Twilight, who was giving Applejack directions to her brother’s apartment in between discussing ideas with her counterpart. Fluttershy was up front, holding Spike in her lap while he stuck his head out the window. Pinkie, Rarity, and Rainbow sat behind them, being slightly lost by the Twilights’ conversation.

“What in tarnation?” Applejack said, looking at something in the review mirror.

Before Sunset could turn to look, the something caught up with them and entered through the window. A swirl of smoke and green flame passed by Fluttershy, who let out a squeak of terror, before stopping in front of Princess Twilight. The flames condensed themselves into a sealed scroll, which she immediately opened.

“Hey Twilight,” she read. “I wanted to see if I could send a letter through the portal instead of rewriting Shining’s response into the journal. If this gets to you, use the journal to tell me and I’ll forward his letter. From, Spike.”

“Your Spike can send letters like that?” Scientist Twilight asked.

“Yep!” she said, writing a response in the journal. “Princess Celestia taught him the letter sending spell. Of course, he’s a Dragon, so the spell uses his fire breath instead of a Unicorn’s spellcasting. I know this world has a really easy way for sending messages in minutes, but anypony, or dragon, who doesn’t know the spell or just can’t use it have to send letters through the post office. The Pegasai working there are very fast, but a flight anything more than across town will take a while.”

“Aw man,” Spike said from up front. “Your me’s a Dragon? That’s so cool! I’d rather be a Dragon than a dog.”

Another round of flame and smoke flew through the window. This letter had a fancier seal, blue with what looked like the image of a shield pressed into the wax. Princess Twilight picked up this one, which unrolled considerably longer.

“Dear Twilight,” she read. “Yes, I know about Sunset Shimmer’s family. I didn’t mention it back in fall because I didn’t want to force Sunset to come back, nor did I want her family blindly jumping into an alternate dimension. I didn’t want you to do it either, but Princess Celestia overruled my objections.

“Onto your questions. Her parents are in Canterlot, and as far as I know everypony is okay, no major accidents or illnesses, but I will ask when I see them. The only major development I can think of is one Sunset Shimmer may or may not know about. When she ran away, her parents Sunset Silk and Daylight, were in the process of adopting a child. They adopted a Unicorn filly named Flare, and she’s about thirteen now.”

“I didn’t know about that,” Sunset said, sinking into her chair. “Think they ever told her about me?”

“You can ask her when you get back home,” Rarity assured her, reaching up to put a hand on her shoulder.

“As for Gleaming Lance,” Princess Twilight continued reading, “when Cadence and I first began running the Crystal Empire, we were down a lot of Guards. Some were missing because they had been outside of the Empire when it disappeared one thousand years ago, others quit because of the PTSD brought on by King Sombra’s reign, and a few of the older members took the opportunity to retire.

“We managed to keep Guard Captian Stormfall and a hoofful of good ponies, but most of what we had were newer recruits who need training. Princesses Celestia and Luna transferred a fair amount of Solar and Lunar guards to make up for it. Lance was a requested transfer, for being both a good friend and for being one of our best trainers. He lives in a small home here in the Empire. Flare wanted to live with him instead of with their parents, so she’s up here as well. After I send this letter I can go get him and tell him what’s going on. Please respond with a letter of when you will get back, and if you would like to meet us here, or if we should take a train to Ponyville. From, Shining Armor.”

“He’s still in the guard,” Sunset sighed. “That’s good. If you don’t mind I’ll decide later if I’d rather meet in Ponyville or go to the Empire. I might jump out of the train somewhere around Vanhoover, but I’ll try.”

“I’m getting the same feeling,” Scientist Twilight said. “I still have no idea how we’re going to convince Shining of anything right now.”

“Come on, Twi!” Rainbow exclaimed from the back seat, leaning forward to put her arms around her. “We have a talking dog and two of you! What’s not to believe?”

“He’ll at least have to think there’s something goin’ on,” Applejack added from the front seat.

“And maybe he heard about the stuff at CHS already!” Pinkie said. “I mean, Princess Twilight said he’s probably dating that cute Cadence lady from earlier, so she might have already told him everything about what happened! Though I guess you probably don’t want to tell him that you turned in a maniacal villain and almost destroyed this dimension. But with two Twilights you can figure it out! After all, you probably know exactly what to say! Unless one Shining is different from the other Shining and one Twilight doesn’t know how to talk to the other Shining? Can that happen? Are the counterparts different? You two are different enough. I mean, down to Princess Twilight not needing glasses!”

“Pinkie, settle down dear,” Rarity said. “The glasses are probably just because there is probably a spell to fix their eyes.”

“Not unless it happened in the last six years?” Sunset said. “As far as I know, Equestrian medicine is only slightly better than Human medicine, but nothing heals instantly. Though I did know a Unicorn who used her magic to create a solid prosthetic for her missing hind leg.”

“Headmistress Ivy,” Princess Twilight nodded. “And we do still have glasses. My Rarity uses reading glasses, and those fillies Twist and Silver Spoon still have glasses. And I, well-“

“Yes?” Sunset couldn’t help but smirk.

“I used to need glassed,” she huffed. “I didn’t wear them because of a hoofful of bullies, and then I was taking private lessons so I could go at a pace where I could sit there and decipher the blurs. Becoming an Alicorn did fix my eyes, so I don’t need them anymore.”

“That would be nice,” Scientist Twilight sighed. She glanced up toward the street. “Oh, we’re here! His apartment building is up on the left!”

She pulled out her phone and sent a text to her brother asking him to come out. Applejack parked up in front and they began piling out. As Sunset looked at the two Twilights, she couldn’t help but notice the differences between them, other than the glasses. Princess Twilight seemed much more confident, in every sense of the word. She looked taller. No, she was taller by a few inches. It suddenly hit her that if Scientist Twilight went through the portal to Equestria, she’d still be a Unicorn.
Scientist Twilight pulled Princess Twilight over to the side of the group.

“Maybe you should stay a little hidden?” she suggested. “You know, we break it to him easy before bringing out both of us?”

“That would be better,” she agreed. “I’ll stand on the side of the van, okay? Just say when you need me.”

She ducked to the side of the van just in time for Shining Armor to come out of the building. Even though Sunset was still getting used to figuring out what humans found ‘attractive’, she could tell that he would probably be considered handsome. He wasn’t her type, but she could see why Lance would like him.

“Twily!” he greeted, jogging over to the girls. “How’d the Games go?”

“No one told you?” she asked.”

“Well, Cadence left a message while I was in the shower,” he said. “But she mostly just said that she’d talk later because she needed to finish up there. So what happened?”

“Well, you see,” she began. “The Games, were kind of a tie? If you count that last, er, let’s call it a fight, then technically Canterlot High won.”

“Now that’s funny,” he chuckled.

“Well, you’ll find the next part hilarious,” Twilight said. “I kinda nearly destroyed the place, made a few friends, and I’m transferring to Canterlot High for the rest of the year?”

“Should I be focusing on the fact that you don’t sound like you’re joking anymore,” he asked, “or on that ‘destroying the school’ bit?”

“Not just the school,” she said, fiddling with her hands, “more like this dimension?”

“Wait,” he said, “start from the beginning.”

“The beginning,” she said. “So, remember that anomaly I was researching? I now know that those events were Canterlot High’s Fall Formal and Battle of the Bands. And it was caused by a portal to another dimension where everyone’s a talking pony, where a Unicorn and three Sirens came through and caused trouble but my dimensional counterpart who happens to be a princess came here and, to quote, ‘blasted them with an awesome rainbow of the Magic of Friendship’.

“And when I went investigating, I absorbed their magical energy throughout the Games, then during the tiebreaker event Principal Cinch found out about it and even though she already used my independent study application to blackmail me into competing, she said that I had to unleash the magic to win the games or else she wouldn’t approve the application, plus she’d make sure the entire school knew I was to blame for the loss.

“Hold on,” he tried to stop her, but she kept going.

“At that point I was half terrified, half swept up in the idea of actually studying this magic and learning what it even was and how it worked, so I used the Magic. Then I kinda turned into this monster thing where I had wings and could open portals to the other dimension and went power mad to the point of ‘I have nothing left for me in this dimension, so I might as well destroy it to get to the other dimension’, and nearly did until Sunset stopped me by using the magic properly. And Canterlot High’s busted and everyone’s still back there helping clean up, but Cadence already agreed to have me transferred so I can be with my new friends. By the way, meet my new friends, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Sunset Shimmer. Sunset also happens to be a Unicorn from the other dimension.”

“Okay, that’s,” Shining glanced at Sunset while trying to think of a word, “hard to believe?

“Want to start with the stuff that doesn’t involve magical dimensions?” she suggested.

“Okay, the normal stuff,” he agreed. “You guys lost the games. Crystal Prep must have really gone downhill to lose to Canter-not.”

“Tell me he didn’t just say that,” Rarity sighed. She glanced at Rainbow before bringing her hand up to her face.

“Hey, CHS is great!” Rainbow shouted at him.

“Really?” he taunted. “I remember a rainbow-haired freshman who detention for kicking Melon Mint in the shins for losing the dodgeball competition.”

“She used an illegal move!” she yelled back. “At least Canterlot High doesn’t cheat their way to the top!”

“No, you’ll just stay in second place,” he said.

“Shining, stop,” Twilight said.

“What, it’s just friendly competition!” he replied. “A friendly competition where the losers try to make up lies so they don’t have to face the fact that they can’t win.”

“CHS is much more honest than a principal who blackmails her students!” Applejack joined in, straightening up to full height.

“Come on, Twily,” he said. “Why would you ever want-“

“Shining, you’re being kind of a dick,” Spike interrupted.
They all stopped to look down at him. He just kind of looked up at them and shrugged.

“Note to self,” Twilight said, “Now that he can talk, refrain from teaching him actual swears.”

“So far the talking dog is the most believable part,” Shining groaned.

“Are we really starting this again?” Sunset sighed.

“Spike’s right,” Pinkie said. “You’re being a big meaniepants over nothing. If my little sister got a bunch of friends and wanted to transfer to their school to be around them more, I’d start setting up a ‘congratulations on making great friends and going to a new school’ party with cake and maybe a piñata and maybe help her impress them by using the ‘my sister’s in a band’ card and show up with my drum kit. And, you know, I wouldn’t be completely insulting them. Even with a longstanding rivalry, which is now kinda over anyway because, like, when you save someone’s life you kinda become friends, so it’s a bit pointless anyway.”

“Rivalry aside,” Shining continued. “You can understand why I have other objections to Canterlot students. I’ve heard every story of what the students do there. Destruction of property, letting animals loose on campus, illegal bake sales, scooters in hallways, taffy accidents, and that’s just the things that have happened on the grounds. There’s a long list of stuff individual students have done in town. There’s a small chance you found the only good students there, but more than likely it’ll be like last time and you’ve found a group pretending to be your friends for their own selfish reasons.”

“Shining Armor!” Twilight shouted. In half a second she was up in his face screaming. “Don’t you dare insult my friends! You have no idea what they’ve done for me! They’re generous and loyal and would never lie to me! They had no reason to even talk to me! I could have gone there and been gone in a few days, but everyone there showed genuine kindness when they could have left me alone, and they helped me when I almost screwed up everything! No one, not even you, gets to insult them like that!”

A faint glow surrounded her, and Sunset heard her words echoing. She looked over her shoulder to see that Princess Twilight had popped out to deliver the exact speech with a stronger glow. Realizing the mistake, she jumped back behind the van.

“Shining,” Twilight said more calmly this time. “These people are still offering friendship after I nearly got them killed, and they’ve already helped Crystal Prep’s students be better people. And considering this magic they have is literally powered by friendship, I’m inclined to believe them.”

“Okay, fine,” Shining agreed, backing up. “I’ll give them… more of a chance. I’ll still be fairly cautious, and I advise the same, but I’ll give them a chance. So, what’s the deal with ‘magic’ and ‘alternate dimensions?”

“What, talking dog isn’t enough for you?” Spike asked.

“It’s a start,” he sighed. “But you should have more when you explain all this to Mom and Dad. Especially Dad.”

“Well we do have one other thing on hand,” Twilight said. “Buy you have to promise not to freak out. Okay?”

“Well I’ve handled everything else fine,” he replied.

“Yeah, fine,” Sunset muttered.

Twilight walked over to the side of the van and pulled her royal counterpart into the open. She sheepishly waved at Shining Armor as she was dragged forward.

“Nope. Not freaking out at all,” he huffed. “I’m guessing that this is the ‘dimensional counterpart who happens to be a princess’?”

“Yeah, that’s me,” Princess Twilight answered.

“And you also have a talking dog?” he asked.

“Actually, Spike’s a dragon,” she said. “I have no idea why he’s a dog here, since Dragons are a sapient race and are treated, for the most part, on the same level as other ponies, and your world’s dogs seem to be exactly the same as the normal dogs we have like Applejack’s dog Winona.”

Shining didn’t respond. He just dropped his face into his hands and began rubbing his temples. Twilight stopped her ramble for a moment.

“Yeah, that’s how my world’s Shining reacted,” she said.

“Great. There’s another me as well,” he said. “Since you’re apparently a princess, does that make him prince?”

“Yes and no?” she said. When he raised an eyebrow she elaborated. “Neither of us were born into the Royal Family, but I became Princess through a very specific set of events that has not happened in at least a few hundred years. Your counterpart just married Princess Cadence, which bumps him up to Prince.”

“Speaking of that,” the other Twilight interrupted, “when were you going to tell me about the two of you?”

“Well I-“ he tried to explain.

“I told you,” Princess Twilight said, “He’ll wait until the day before the wedding, then send an invitation in the mail!”

“I was planning on telling you this weekend,” he said. “Mostly because we have a date set up Sunday and I was planning to propose, but I swear I was going to talk to you first. I just didn’t think you’d have any objections.”

“I don’t,” Scientist Twilight said. “But I’d still like to be kept in the loop.”

“We will,” he said. “As long as you keep us in the loop with this whole ‘magical dimension’ thing. Speaking of which, you still don’t have enough to convince dad about that.”

“Ugh, scientists are really stubborn,” she groaned. No one felt like pointing out she was a scientist as well. “Other than throwing him through the portal and turning him into a… what is he?”

“A Unicorn,” Princess Twilight answered. “Mom and my Shining are Unicorns too.”

“Great. I’m a freaking Unicorn,” he muttered. He looked up at Princess Twilight. “Is he that stubborn in your universe too?”

“Pretty much,” she said. “And tossing him through the portal sounds like the easiest option.”

“If I may,” Sunset interrupted. “I have an idea of a sort of proof we have that doesn’t involve someone getting the shock of suddenly being a Unicorn.”

“Go ahead,” both Twilights said.

“Pinkie?” Sunset asked, turning to the girl in question. “You know, usually when you get a new friend, you throw a big party for them. But you never got to throw one for Twilight. Now you have two Twilights to throw a friendship party for!”

“Oh my stars!” Pinkie exclaimed. “I totally forgot! I was going to throw one back when Twilight first came through the portal, but the Fall Formal was already happening and you can’t have two big parties that close together. Well you can but then you’re totally wiped out for the second party so it’s not nearly as much fun. But then you had to go back home because the portal was on a timer so I didn’t think we’d see you forever, so I was planning for when the portal opened next. Then the whole thing with the Sirens and the Battle of the Bands happened and you were back! But it was like, last on my list. And by the time I got around to it, you already left. And I’m not sure on ‘when is it okay to have you come over’ because so far we’ve only gotten you to come here for big disasters, so is a party acceptable even?”

“But now you’re here!” she continued, not giving a window for interruption. “And we have a second Twilight, and we won the Friendship Games, and we’re now friends with Crystal Prep’s students, and Shining Armor is attempting to be a new friend, and soon we’ll have the other Sunset and probably her family, and we can have a ginormous party when we get back! Everyone’ll love it and make even more friends and oh my stars I need to start on set ups! Do we have a place big enough for that many people? My house isn’t big enough and I can’t just rent out the school gym, and I wouldn’t want to cut people from the list because that would be super sad! So party for everyone!”

Pinkie kept talking, and it got to what Sunset expected to happen. Her body began to lift off the ground in a magical glow. Pony ears and the extended ponytail appeared as she ‘pony upped’. Sunset felt a surge of magic, sending a shiver down her spine, and she could see Princess Twilight felt it too. Shining seemed to be speechless, while Pinkie was still talking on.

“If you show that to dad, he will be on the floor in half a second,” he said.

“You’re taking this rather well,” Scientist Twilight said.

“Oh, don’t worry,” he assured. “As soon as you all leave I’m probably going to lock myself in my apartment and freak out for an hour. But for now I’m here for you. So that whole magical transformation thing. Who all can do that?”

“So far just us,” Sunset answered for them, “and three Sirens. We’ve had little time to fully test it out ourselves, much less see if anyone else can. But as far as we know it’s just those who either came through the portal, or those who tapped into the power through the Elements of Harmony.”

“Elements of what now?” he asked.

“Long, convoluted story,” Princess Twilight said. “I’ll explain it later, but we are far behind schedule. We need to find someone named Gleaming Lance.”

“What do you need Lance for?” he wondered.

“Another long convoluted story,” both Twilights chuckled, somehow not freaked out by the echo. “Sunset, you want to take this one?”

“Fine,” Sunset sighed. “We did mention that I’m originally from that other dimension, right? I want to find my counterpart in this world. While I expect she ran away from home like I did, Lance would be the best person to give us a starting place to where she is. Because My World’s Lance is my brother.”

“Now that you mention it,” Shining said, “I do see the resemblance, and Lance did mention a runaway sister. You do realize you’ll have to explain most of this to him when he gets here, right?”

“I know,” she sighed

“We’ll handle it,” Princess Twilight said.

He nodded, then pulled out his phone to make the call. Sunset sighed and leaned against the van. She glanced over at Pinkie, who had not yet powered down, now be talking to herself and waving her fingers through the air as if writing on a chalkboard. She seemed to be figuring out more party stuff. She wondered how long Pony Up can last when not forcibly shut down.

“He’ll be here soon,” Shining announced, clicking off his phone. “Lance has to pick Flare up from school. Appearently she’s a freshman at Canterlot High, oddly enough. I warned him about the destruction.”

Most of the group gave a nervous chuckle.

“Oh! I wondered if it was the same Flare!” Pinkie said, oblivious to the last comment. “Flare, age thirteen, Freshman, best classes are stagecraft and art. Worst class is History. She likes the sulfur smell of matches and fireworks, and her favorite party food is strawberry cupcakes with blueberry frosting!”

Shining Armor and Scientist Twilight looked at her completely bewildered. The others just shrugged thinking “don’t question it. It’s Pinkie”.

“What was that you said earlier about how everyone at CHS sucks?” Rainbow asked, sass apparent.

“Okay, okay! I get it!” he said, tossing his hands up in surrender. “I’m kind of a dick and shouldn’t make assumptions because of a school rivalry. I learned the lesson!”

Princess Twilight seemed to laugh at that phrase.

For the next while, they just waited. Pinkie was bouncing party planning ideas off Rainbow and Rarity. Fluttershy and Applejack had their own, quieter, conversation. Both Twilights were talking to Shining Armor, explaining more in detail the events that happened at Canterlot High, with Princess Twilight giving better explanations of the magics. Sunset spent the time trying not to bolt home.

Luckily, very few people passed them. Princess Twilight had figured out that most of the others in this apartment building were Guards in Equestria. She and Shining had started a sort of back and forth of ‘which type of pony is this person’. He even made a few lucky guesses, like Valor Knight the Unicorn. He seemed to be doing quite well for someone who should be freaking out.

It seemed like ages, but eventually a car pulled up. It was a dark blue, and looked quite used. Shining turned the group’s attention to it while Sunset ducked behind Applejack. She tried to tell herself that it was because she wouldn’t want to freak him out by suddenly being there, but she knew better.

When Lance stepped out of the car, he looked exactly like she expected him to. He was a pale yellow, lighter than Fluttershy, and his hair was various shades or orange, with a single streak of silver curling around his ear. Sunset took the time to look at what was different too: A small scar on his cheek, an earring. She tried to imagine those on her world’s Lance.

He was shorter than she pictured him. No, that’s not right. She was thinking of their height difference the last time she saw Lance in Equestria. He probably hadn’t grown since she ran away, but Sunset herself had grown a lot. She estimated that Lance was about the same height as her, had she not been wearing heels. She expected they would be the same height as Unicorns.

“Hey Shining!” he greeted. Sunset noted that his voice was the same. “Please tell me that this ‘important thing you need to tell me’ is you asking me out on a dinner date, because I really do not feel like cooking tonight!”

Before Shining could retort, a colorful blur shot out from the other side of the car. It was a girl; she was an orange-ish pink, with blue and green hair. Violet eyes gleamed up at them. Sunset had seen her once or twice around campus, but never talked to her before.

“Oh my stars, hi!” she exclaimed.

“Hi Flare!” Pinkie waved.

“Hey, since you’re here,” she began, “can you tell Lance how much of a butt he’s being? Because I’ve been trying to tell him about the Fall Formal and the Battle of the Bands and the Rainbooms and now I’m trying to tell him how the Twilight that goes to Crystal Prep went nuts and nearly tore the dimension apart and broke most of the school. But all I get is him saying ‘there’s no alternate dimension with magical ponies and counterparts to each person’.”

“So you’re the ones Flare’s been talking about,” Lance said. “It is a bit hard to believe, you know?”

“If Ah’ didn’t see it for myself Ah’ probably wouldn’t believe it either,” Applejack said.

“You’re kidding, right?” he asked, looking to Shining for an answer.

“It would be easier,” Shining answered. “But I’ve seen a talking dog, a girl whose only difference from my sister is a few inches of height, and the pink one floating and glowing while getting those ears. I’m inclined to believe them.”

He paused and looked between the Twilights, Spike, and Pinkie. Eventually he walked over to Pinkie, gestured for her to lower her head down, and inspected her ears. He was surprised to find only one set of ears, and that set was twitching and apparently ticklish.

“Okay, that’s totally weird,” he agreed.

“I have an idea!” Flare announced before running into the apartment building.

They debated going after her, but since it was the apartment building they didn’t think much of it. She was back soon enough anyway. It was barely a minute before she came back holding a guitar.

“Here!” she said, handing the guitar to Rainbow Dash. “You can give him the full show!”

“Where’d you get that?” Lance asked.

“Ms Gale Strike!” she answered. “Her niece keeps her spare guitar in Ms Gale’s apartment.”

“Pegasus,” Princess Twilight whispered to Shining.

“Well, usually I play electric guitars,” Rainbow said. “But you’re lucky I’m awesome enough to play acoustic too!”
She began to play a song. It wasn’t as bombastic as ‘Awesome as I Want to Be’; it was slower and more simple chords. It fit an acoustic guitar better than her usual songs. As expected, she began glowing and levitating. Her ears and wings appeared. Sunset felt another surge, and shivered again.

“That’s incredible!” Lance exclaimed as Rainbow came to a hover.

“Yeah, it’s pretty awesome,” Rainbow said.

“Now that I’ve proven I’m not going insane,” Flare said, “I’m going inside. I have a show coming on in a few. Great to see you!”

They all waved as she ran back into the building once more.

“So why am I really here?” he asked. “As cool as this is, Shining, I know there’s a lot of people you’d show this to before me.”

“Remember that thing Flare said a minute ago?” Princess Twilight asked. “About how everyone has a counterpart in our dimension, Equestria, and everypony has a counterpart in this dimension? We need to find this world’s Sunset Shimmer.”

“’This world’s’ Sunset?” he wondered, his smile falling.

Sunset took a shaky breath before peeking out from behind Applejack. She saw the entire gambit of emotions register on his face. First recognition, then shock, relief, then realization and sadness.

“We already know where Equestria’s Sunset Shimmer is,” she said, attempting a reassuring grin.

Lance reacted better than she expected. He dropped to the ground, put his head between his knees and began hyperventilating. Sunset still felt guilty.

She wasn’t sure who was faster, but in what felt like half a second both Shining Armor and Fluttershy were down next to him, speaking comforting words. She didn’t think there was anyone who could match Fluttershy in speaking as soft or gentle, but Shining was doing a pretty good job. Sunset couldn’t hear what they were saying, but their voices felt calming all the same.

It was another half a second before Fluttershy began to Pony Up. Sunset felt another surge, another shiver. Fluttershy let her wing fall across Lance’s shoulders. It seemed to help, as his breathing was becoming slower, more regular. While she still couldn’t hear what they were saying, she could tell he was responding to them.

Eventually he looked back up again. He gave a slight nod, and Sunset took it as an invitation. She walked forward and sat in front of him. She hesitantly put a hand on his arm.

“You’re not her,” Lance said, “not exactly. I can figure that out. ‘Dimensional counterparts’, right?”

“Yeah,” she said. “I know this is absolutely freaking you out.”

“Understatement of my life,” he said. “There was this half second, before everything clicked, where I saw you and thought she was back. I felt, I don’t know. Relieved maybe? But knowing you’re not her just hit me like-“

“Like a ridiculously ugly lamp?” she offered.

“Exactly,” he laughed. “Let me guess, even Grandma’s lamp has an alternate dimension counterpart?”

They shared a laugh. And for just a moment, they both forgot. Sunset forgot this wasn’t her Lance, that they weren’t a couple of foals making jokes in their family’s living room. Lance forgot that this wasn’t his Sunset, that they weren’t two kids stifling giggles behind a wall of library books. Until it came crashing down like Grandma’s ugly lamp.

“Why are you trying to find her?” Lance asked.

“It’s a long story,” Sunset answered. “And I’ll tell you all the details on a different day. Basically, I screwed up. A lot. I wanted to get out of it for a long time, but I didn’t know how, and I kept making more mistakes until I literally became a power-hungry monster intent on taking over the world. Without people to help me along the way, I’d probably still be on that path. I know the other me feels the same, but right now, there’s no one to help her. That’s why I want to find her. She needs to know that there’s always another way.”

“And if she doesn’t want to come back?” he asked. “If she can’t?”

“Well, I,” she began. She knew the real question he was asking. “I don’t know. She might want to but can't, or she might be scared to. Or... If, for whatever reason, she doesn’t come back, I can at least tell you what happened to her. But firstly, we need to know where she would go. I have a few ideas, but we need to narrow down the search. Is there a place you can think of?”

“Yeah.” He answered. “Hollow Shades.”

“Hollow Shades?” Princess Twilight asked.

“Yeah,” he affirmed. “She wouldn’t go anywhere near family, but she is smart. Hollow Shades is a town where it’s easy to not be noticed. High traffic, everyone is either a tourist, or one who pays no attention to faces. And there’s a performing arts college right near it, so students who don’t live on campus will live in town. They draw attention away from anyone else.”

“Makes sense,” Sunset nodded. Equestria’s Hollow Shades was very similar, and it would have been on her list had she not run away through dimensions.

“Just, promise me you’ll come back,” he said. “Promise me you’ll tell me what happens.”

“I will,” she promised. With a glance to Pinkie, she added, “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”

“We’ll make sure she does!” Rarity said, lowering down to them. “Or else she’ll invoke Pinkie’s wrath!”

“Thank you,” he said, glancing up at the pink girl. He really didn’t want to imagine her wrath. “And, thanks to the rest of you, for helping.”

“Helping others is kind of our thing,” Rarity said. “Plus I can imagine how you feel. Quite a few years ago, my parents took my little sister and I to Vanhoover. Long story short, Sweetie Belle decided she wanted a nap and managed to lift Dad’s keycard and make it back to the hotel without us knowing. She made it safely back, but for those few hours until we found her, I kept thinking of every horrible thing that could happen to a four year old on her own. Those were the worst hours of my life, and you’ve been living that the last six years!”

“Yeah,” he said. “It’s not as constant anymore, but it’ll pop up at random. At this point, bad news is better than no news, you know?”

“I have an idea,” she said, before jumping up from the ground and climbing back in the van.

“What’re you lookin’ for?” Applejack asked.

“Did none of you bring your backpacks!” she complained from the backseats.

“There weren’t any classes because of the games,” Rainbow answered.

“Applejack, you have to have a pen and paper in here,” she said. “Pinkie, don’t you carry emergency party invitations?”

“Wonky ankle,” Pinkie replied with a shrug. “I wasn’t going to invite anyone to a party today.”

“A single black marker,” she sighed dejectedly, climbing back out.

She stared angrily at the marker for a moment, her eyes flicking over to Lance. In the end, she gave the universal shrug of ‘screw it!’, and began tugging her top over her head. Half the group was too shocked to think anything, but the other half gave various shouts of ‘what are you doing!’.

A tank top of a similar color to her shirt was underneath, so they calmed down soon enough, but Rarity acted like she hadn’t even noticed their uproar. Instead, she used the side of the van to smooth out the fabric, and write something on it.

“Here,” she said, handing it to Lance. “My phone number. We can keep you up to date as we go. Or if you just need someone to talk to.”

“You didn’t have to ruin your shirt,” Lance said. “Like, you could have written it on my arm or something.”

“You’re more important than a shirt I have three of,” she said, turning to Shining. “Shining Armor, I know you want to have your own silent freak out about magic existing, but first I need you to do something. Take Lance upstairs, make sure eats something semi-healthy, maybe with a warm drink, take a shower, then make him go to bed earlier than usual. Learning about magic and seeing Sunset is a lot of emotional stress. Also, I highly suggest you do the same list of things. You need to take care of yourselves in times like this. Also, I know males don’t usually do ‘spa days’ but they are very good for this sort of thing, so if you’d like, there is one downtown. If you tell Aloe or Lotus that I sent you with the code ‘at your smallest components you are indistinguishable from a forest fire’ and they’ll give you an incredible discount.”

As soon as her rant was over, she began glowing and floating as well. Sunset felt a much larger surge of magic. When Rarity stopped glowing it was easy to see why.

“That’s new,” Sunset said.

Rarity quickly turned back around to the van, looking at her reflection in the windows. It was easy to see what was ‘new’. Originating maybe a centimeter above her hairline, was a long, spiral horn.

“That is very new,” Rarity muttered. She seemed unsure of how to react. “Sunset, dear, do you have any ideas on why exactly a horn has been added to my transformation?”

“Honestly? I have no idea,” she answered. “I’m still lost on why you didn’t get the horn in the first place.”

“Okay,” Rarity turned back to Lance and Shining, trying to keep everything together. “New horn aside, the two of you are still to do as I suggested.”

“Okay,” Lance agreed. “I should check on Flare anyway. I need to tell her about all this too.”
With that, they left. As soon as they were in the door, Rarity sighed and leaned against the van. Rainbow was the first to try and distract her.

“Taking your shirt off and giving him your number?” Rainbow teased. “You could’ve just asked the guy on a date. It’s a bit more subtle.”

“Because you, of all people, should be lecturing me on ‘subtle?” Rarity responded. “Besides, I’m not exactly his ‘type’.”

“Picked up on that, did you?” Sunset asked with grin.

Rainbow seemed confused by what they meant, but they decided it would be easier to explain in the van. It was difficult, with two pairs of wings, one horn, and a lot of extra hair, but they managed.

“My suggestion,” Princess Twilight began once the van was in motion, “is for everyone to go home and get ready. We can leave tomorrow morning.”

“Dress warm, but comfortable,” Scientist Twilight instructed. “I’ve been to Hollow Shades a few times, and even in the middle of summer its cold. You can imagine the temperature for near-winter.”

“Speakin’ of goin’ home for the night,” Applejack said, “where am I droppin’ y’all off? Ah’ll need directions to Twilight’s house, and Ah’ have no idea where Princess Twilight needs to go.”

“You can stay at my house,” Scientist Twilight offered. “It will help convince mom and dad about what all happened, and that I can go on your roadtrip tomorrow. We can also work on a plan to get set up for the trip. Think you can, er, ‘pony up’ when you get there to convince dad?”

“I’m not sure,” she answered. “But I do have a replacement idea. I can have Spike use his message flame to send a recent family portrait. The fire and picture should be enough, I think.”

“Speaking of,” she said, “is it okay for all you to be walking around with the ears and wings and stuff? Aren’t people going to notice?”

“Well, everyone already knows,” Rainbow said. “Like, it’s kinda hard to not notice. If Crystal Prep wasn’t so intent on cutting themselves off from any contact with us, they’d’ve known too. Heck, the school board probably knows too, since they had to pay for repairs. Bonus points to Principal Celestia for that bluff.”

Sunset tuned out their conversation. Eventually she must have dozed off, because next thing she knew there were three less people in the van and Rarity was poking her awake.

“Sunset, we’re at your house,” she said. “That ‘good meal, shower, and sleep’ thing I said applies to you too.

“Sorry,” Sunset mumbled. “And I will.”

She climbed out of the van and back into her house. Though she wanted to climb onto her bed and sleep, she did try to follow Rarity’s advice. A peanut butter sandwich and tea isn’t exactly ‘healthy’, but it does have protein and takes less than five minutes to make. She thought she’d take a quick shower, but once she got in she realized how much dirt and sweat was on her from the Friendship Games. She ended up spending nearly an hour under the hot water.

When she finally flopped into her mattress, it didn’t take long for her to fall asleep. She would not recall her dreams in the morning, but they left a hopeful feeling in her chest.

Author's Notes:

Sorry this chapter took forever. Like, literally the day after I posted Chapter 1, a bunch of stuff went down in my life. Hopefully the next chapter won't be as long. And, I managed to fix one of the two things that I hated about the EQG designs. The other fix is next chapter.
Also, if anyone wants a visual of Lance and Flare, I have art on my Tumblr. Well, art of them as Unicorns.

Cracked

Author's Notes:

Wow. I dropped this for a year and a half and come back with essentially an info-dump chapter. I will be working on this more, and I know generally where the story's going so I'll update it a lot sooner next time.

Sunset woke up to her ringtone. Blearily staring at the screen, she saw a message from Applejack, one from Twilight, and that she had woken up much later than she wanted. Twilight’s message was a time schedule for the day, and a list of who was doing what. Luckily, Sunset wasn’t assigned something to get ready.

Applejack’s message was an ‘on my way’ message. Sunset groaned and got up, knowing it would take less than ten minutes. She went downstairs and popped a bagel into the toaster before going back up to pack. It was strange being alone in her house again, but since they'd be gone for a few days she'd asked Fluttershy's parents to watch Rhea until they were back.

She shoved her phone charger, a few shirts, and an extra pair of jeans into a backpack. She put on her usual outfit, jeans and turquoise top with leather jacket and boots, but halfway down the stairs she changed her mind. In her closet, she found a jacket with longer sleeves. Then switched to combat boots; they have height and stability.

Sunset hesitated at the top of the stairs. Something felt missing. Walking back to her dresser, she pulled out a small box. Inside was a necklace, a black ribbon that would fit snugly around her throat. At its center, was the familiar red and yellow sun that was her Cutie Mark.

Though her Cutie Mark was no longer a part of her body, Sunset still felt better when she wore the symbol somewhere on her.

By the time she went back down, ate the bagel, and grabbed an energy drink from her fridge, there was just enough time to fix her hair and brush her teeth before Applejack arrived.

“Morning,” Sunset mumbled as she climbed in.

“Mornin’ Sugarcube,” Applejack greeted, oddly chipper. Then again, she usually got up much earlier. “Put your bag in the back.”

Like Sunset, Applejack had changed very little to her outfit. Instead of her skirt she was wearing jeans, and she had a jacket the same color as her boots. She had a bag about the same size as Sunset’s in the back.

Their next pickup was different. Both Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash had completely different outfits. Rainbow Dash wore a dark blue tracksuit, the zipper open to show a black tanktop under it, and with sneakers that had to be part of the set, as they and the zipper on the jacket had a cloud and lightning bolt. Fluttershy had a green sweater and tan pants with pink butterflies on the calf, neither item dangly or baggy. Fluttershy was nodding off, but Dash seemed even more awake than Applejack.

“What’s got you all up and excited?” Sunset asked her as she climbed in.

“I got up early and did some exercises,” she shrugged. “Figured I’d get my energy out now, since I’ll be stuck in a car all day.”

“So, what time did you finally power down?” she asked. Sunset got out of her seat long enough to put it down for Fluttershy to climb in the back.

“Not until after bed,” Fluttershy yawned.

“Same for me,” Rainbow said. “Took a while because sleeping on my back is weird with wings.”

After tossing their bags, Rainbow’s looking especially empty, into the back, they took off once more. They weren’t even half way down the block before Fluttershy was asleep again. She looked adorable, softly snoring against the back window.

Rainbow, on the other hand took the passenger seat this time. She pulled her phone and a few wires out of her jacket and began to plug them in, much to Applejack’s displeasure.

“Twi put me in charge of roadtrip music,” she explained, swatting Applejack’s hand away from the controls. “Don’t worry, I’ve got plenty of stuff on here for everyone. Even stuff I don’t usually listen to.”

As if to prove her point, she clicked on a country song, making sure the volume was low enough to not disturb Fluttershy’s sleep. Applejack rolled her eyes, but Sunset could see her tapping out the rhythm on the steering wheel.

Rarity was waiting for them on the sidewalk when they pulled up. She now wore a long-sleeved black top, purple shorts over black leggings, cream-colored boots with a faux fur trim, and a gold necklace with three diamonds on it. In her arms was a jacket that matched the boots, and at her side were two large suitcases.

“Rares, it’s a weekend trip!” Rainbow teased. “I don’t think you need your entire closet and bathroom.”

“Am I right to assume,” Rarity said, “that the only items in your bag are pajamas, an extra shirt, and your phone charger?”

“I don’t need much,” she said.

“Toothbrush, thoothpaste, hairbrush,” she listed.

“Okay, maybe I forgot a few things,” she admitted.

“Hairties,” she continued, “extra shirts and pants, deodorant, a few pairs of underwear, extra money in case your wallet gets stolen, socks, a sewing kit, a first aid kit, certain feminine items, painkillers, medicine for carsickness, multitool-“

“I get it!” Rainbow huffed.

Sunset chuckled to herself before getting out to help Rarity lift the suitcases into the back. After the hatch was closed, she put her seat down once more to let Rarity climb next to Fluttershy.

Applejack started the car going again, and Rarity’s phone seemed to buzz immediately. She looked over to see Sunset staring not-so-secretly curious.

“Yes, I’m talking to Lance,” she informed. “He texted me after I got home last night. We didn’t talk too long, since I enforced my ‘go to bed early’ suggestion. Mostly he just asked about what you’re like. I did have to tell him about the Fall Formal, I hope that’s okay?”

“Yeah,” Sunset sighed. “I was going to ask you to anyway.”

Rarity nodded before turning her head back to her phone. It was only seconds before their next stop.

“I’ll be right out!” Pinkie shouted from her doorway before jumping back inside. They all shrugged before seeing her carry out a medium-sized cooler and a backpack. The weirdest thing, was that she was still in her Pony Up form.

“What’s in the…?” Sunset asked, pointing to the cooler.

“Snacks and drinks!” Pinkie answered. “Mostly drinks. Twilight said we’d find a restaurant around lunch time, but roadtrips totally need snacks along the way, and we don’t want to have to spend a ton of money on this. Plus, I don’t know about you, but after I pony up I usually need to eat, like, a lot! And I have no idea if we’ll use any magic for this, but we’ve been using magic more and more often so I don’t want to be without something after coming down from that.”

“Pinkie, have you slept at all?” Rainbow asked.

“Nope!” she answered. “When I got home I started fixing up the actual plans for that party and, like, writing it all out in an actual plan. And before I knew it, it was morning and I had to get snacks ready. I’ll probably crash once the roadtrip gets going so I’ll apologize in advance but so far I haven’t felt tired! I don’t even feel cold!”

That explained her outfit. Despite the chill in the air, Pinkie was wearing blue shorts, a pale lavender tanktop with balloons on it, and no shoes whatsoever.

“Did you power down at all?” Sunset asked.

“Not yet!” Pinkie replied. “I’m sure it’ll happen when I fall asleep. And don’t worry, I have shoes and a jacket in my backpack! Oh, and Maud helped me make these!”

She held out a few straps of fabric and what looked like Canterlot High’s novelty headbands with the ears ripped off.

“Um, what are they, exactly?” Rarity asked.

“Disguises, duh!” Pinkie answered.

“Isn’t the point of a disguise to make us look like someone else?” Applejack said.

“They’re not meant to disguise our faces, silly!” she said. “They’re to disguise our magic! Like, CHS and really most of the town is kinda used to seeing us Pony Up by now, so if we walk around here with ears and wings and stuff it’s fine, but won’t we look super suspicious if we Pony Up in Hollow Shades? Or anywhere where they’re not used to teenagers magically transforming? The headbands hide our ears!”

She demonstrated this fact, slipping her pony ears through the holes in the band. It looked like it fit fairly comfortably, giving her ears enough room to move around.

“See?” she asked. “If someone sees us wearing these, they’ll think we’re just wearing costumes unless they look too close!”

“Then the straps are for the wings?” Sunset said.

“Yep!” she confirmed. “Just like from a costume store! Though you’ll have to keep them, like, really still, but it should work long enough! I can’t do anything to disguise the actual transformation though, and I’m not sure what we can do about Unicorn horns. We thought of making another hole in the headband to slip it over that, but we might need a wider headband and to measure exactly where to cut it and we didn’t have you on hand. Plus if Rarity has a horn added to her transformation, Sunset and Princess Twilight probably do too, so that’s even more measuring and-“

“It’s great, Pinkie,” she assured.

“With that out of the way,” Applejack said, gaining their attention, “let’s load up that there cooler and get goin’! We got a long drive to Hollow Shades, and we still need t’ pick up the Twilights.”

Sunset began to get up to lower her seat again, but Pinkie heaved the cooler over the top of the seats putting it between Rarity and Fluttershy’s legs, the former only seeming mildly annoyed. Pinkie followed behind it, clambering between the gap from the row and the roof, which seemed too small for someone Pinkie’s size, and twisting around to sit next to Rarity. They all shrugged it off as ‘just Pinkie’.

The next twenty minutes to Twilight’s house, they didn’t talk much. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were bickering about their music preferences, and Fluttershy was still asleep. Pinkie had pulled out a handheld game system, which was a good way to keep her entertained without driving everyone nuts during the ride. Rarity seemed to be furiously texting. It was amazing how dexterous human hands could be.

Both Twilghts were waiting on the sidewalk for them, trays of drinks in their hands. They each changed outfits, so it was even harder to tell them apart. It was hard to be mad at them when neither the Crystal Prep Uniform nor the skirt and blouse the mirror had given Princess Twilight were made for cold weather. She just had to remember; one was taller and the other has glasses.

Both were wearing loose black jeans, Princess Twilight’s seemed to fit a little better. Sci-Twi had her hair in a high ponytail, and was wearing deep purple flannel over a black tank top with the six pointed star on it. Princess Twilight had opted for a long coat black coat with a deep purple tank top, with a pink six pointed star on the coat’s hem. Her hair had been pulled into a ponytail as well, but a low one hanging over her shoulder.

“We stopped at a coffee shop!” Sci-Twi announced.

“I assumed you would have the same orders as your counterparts,” Princess Twilight explained before they could ask. She began handing cups to them. “Black coffee for Applejack, Strawberries and crème frappuccino for Rarity, cinnamon dolce frappuccino for Fluttershy, caramel frappuccino for Sunset and-“

“Pinkie and I don’t drink coffee,” Rainbow interrupted.

“Have you ever tasted it?” Pinkie shouted from the back. “It’s, like, bitter and burns the back of your throat!”

“And you don’t have coffee,” both Twilights said. “Rainbow gets a smoothie , oranges, lemons, all kinds of wakeup fruits. Pinkie has berry hibiscus tea with a generous amount of sugar. I would’ve gotten you hot chocolate, but I know you find the kind from most shops like that to be too powdered.”

It was a little creepy to hear both of them talking at once. Rainbow took the cup skeptically while the Twilights put their bags in the back. She took a sip before shrugging and settling back down into her seat.

“You not bringing Spike?” Applejack asked as they took off.

“No, for a few reasons,” Sci-Twi said. “Mostly because we’re trying not to be noticed and a talking dog really doesn’t help. Besides, dad wanted to see what all he could do. I made him promise not to go all ‘mad scientist’, but mom said she’d keep an eye on them.”

“Speaking of your parents,” Sunset said, “how did that go? I bet it wasn’t easy convincing them there’s another magical dimension full of ponies.”

“It went great actually!” Princess Twilight said. “The hard part was convincing dad, er, dad’s counterpart, not to immediately jump through the portal and investigate everything. We ended up discussing how magic and the world in general work. I even had Spike send over some family pictures. Speaking of, the horses of this world look really weird comparatively.”

“Comparatively?” they asked.

“She means that those in Equestria aren’t exactly your horses with magic and sentience,” Sunset answered.

“Exactly,” she agreed. “We look enough like your horses to be recognizable; we have hooves, tails, similar structure in general. But our muzzles are a bit different. And our coats and manes come in way more colors. Basically, your skin colors here are the same colors as your coats. Hold on, I put most of the pictures back in the journal.”

She rummaged through the smaller bag at her feet. She pulled out a small stack of photographs before passing one around.

“This one’s from last Hearth’s Warming,” she said. “Spike and I went back up to Canterlot to be with mom, dad, and Shining.”

“That’s definitely different!” Rarity exclaimed.

“You look so cute!” Pinkie shouted.

Sunset caught a glance at the image. Twilight was still a Unicorn in this one, and it was easy to recognize Spike and Shining Armor. Her dad, a blue unicorn, didn’t stand out much. However, the mare was interesting.

“Wait, that’s your mom?” she asked.

“Er, yeah?” She answered.

“I think I met her,” she said. “Or actually, her counterpart. When I went to buy my house here, a woman that looked just like that was talking to the Real Estate agent about buying the place. I got it because I paid cash on the spot, but she was intent on buying it and tried to talk me out of it buying it. And, uh, let’s just say I’m sorry for the things I said to her about that subject?”

“I remember that,” Sci-Twi said. “Not what actually happened, but her coming back and telling Dad about some rude girl. Actually, now that I think about it, Shining and I would’ve been in Canterlot High’s zoning if she bought the house. Instead we ended up at Crystal Prep.”

“Hey look,” Sunset sank into the car seat. “Another person whose life I screwed up with my power-mad phase.”

“Hey, you didn’t-“ she tried to protest.

“I’m not saying it as a ‘wow this sucks’ thing,” she assured. “If I hadn’t even entered this dimension, you would’ve gone to CHS and probably have become friends with all of them at the Freshman Fair.”

“Oh the fair!” Rarity chuckled. “That was quite a night!”

“What actually happened that night?” Princess Twilight asked.

“Vice Principal Luna happened!” Rainbow said.

“She said she’d had a fight with her sister,” Applejack elaborated. “She asked Pinkie to help her find Principal Celestia. So she came to my stand, and then we went to the sports team stands and found Dash and Fluttershy, but then we had to go over to Rarity’s stand to get a new shirt and-“

“And then we had to chase Principal Celestia across the fair!” Pinkie finished. “VP Luna was really glad we kept with it! We didn’t find her sister until right before the fair ended! And then at that point we were all friends!”

Sunset remembered that night. She’d kept running into them every time. She never did apologize for hitting Pinkie with a ball at the dunk tank.

“Um, by any chance, did your VP have shorter hair Freshman year?” Sci-Twi asked.

“Yeah! I got pictures!” Pinkie exclaimed, handing Twilight her phone.

Sure enough there was a picture of the five of them, Celestia and Luna hugging one another behind them. Sunset remembered this as well. She had been passing by when Pinkie asked her to take a picture. Just as Twilight asked, Luna’s hair was barely brushing her neck, and a much lighter blue than usual.

“Stars that’s weird,” Sci-Twi said.

“Did you know her?” Rarity asked.

“I met her,” she answered. “When I rode my bike home from Crystal Prep, I’d cut through the park. She was sitting on a bench all upset, so I asked what was wrong. She said she’d had a fight with her sister the year before and they hadn’t talked since. I told her she should try, and she gave me her scarf and jacket as a thank you. ”

“I didn’t know their fight had been that long,” she said.

“That’s nothing compared to their counterparts,” Princess Twilight sighed. “Wow, the nostalgia is hitting hard. Though it’s not really ‘nostalgia’ if it’s just a year ago. It feels a lot longer.”

“What are you talking about?” Rainbow asked.

“The fair seems to be another parallel event,” she said. “I’ve told you how in our world, Princesses Celestia and Luna are Immortals who raise the sun and moon. Well, a little over one thousand years ago, they got into a fight. Luna became Nightmare Moon, a monstrous version of herself, and tried to create an Eternal Night.”

“Who hasn’t become a monstrous villain?” Sunset chuckled to herself.

“Sorry,” she said. “Celestia used the Elements of Harmony to lock Nightmare in the Moon for one thousand years. A little over a year ago, she returned and tried to do it again. Your counterparts and I went on a journey to find the Elements of Harmony, and we became friends along the way.”

“So how true were the Nightmare Night stories,” she asked. She glanced at the confused looks. “Our version of Halloween, based on the legend. Loosely based.”

“Nightmare is scary, Luna’s quite nice,” she answered. “She won’t eat you for not giving enough candy though.”

Sunset snorted with laughter.

“Are there any other events?” Sci-Twi asked. “Like, things aren’t exact because of magic and stuff. But what happened?”

“Did you accidently destroy a fancy party?” Princess Twilight asked.

“Oh stars, don’t remind me of the Freshman year Fall Formal,” Rarity groaned. “That was a disaster.

“Then that was the Gala,” she sighed. “What about Discord?”

“He became our theatre teacher last year!” Pinkie answered. “He was there the year before too, but he was doing one of those ‘shadow a teacher’ things you have to do before you’re a teacher! He got in a passive-aggressive prank war with Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna! Until a prank went far enough for Fluttershy to yell at him!”

“Of course he’d be a theatre teacher,” she rolled her eyes. “What’s the best job for an over dramatic embodiment of Chaos to have at a high school? Theatre teacher. It fits too well actually.”

Flames of a deeper emerald color than last time flew through the window, solidified into a scroll, and fell in Princess Twilight’s lap. She opened it and sighed.

“You see what I mean?” she asked, holding open the scroll for them to see ‘I heard that!’ scrawled in what looked like glitter glue.

“Here’s a picture!” Pinkie said, holding the phone out for Sci-Twi. “Have you met him before?”

The picture was a selfie of Pinkie with Discord behind her, sticking his tongue out at the camera. His skin was grayish, his shoulder-length hair was black and white and held in a ponytail by a light and dark blue bow. Strangely, his beard and eyebrows were only white. One eye was red while the other was yellow. He wore a tshirt from last year’s Midsummer Night’s Dream play, and a long dark brown coat. One hand had a yellow glove, but the other seemed to be in a yellow-colored wrist brace. He had mis-matched earrings, one blue and the other white.

She couldn’t see his legs from here, but she could guess what he was wearing. Pants that had to be custom, as one leg was green and the other was golden brown. Different shoes, one white and one dark brown. And around his waist would be a red sash of sorts, with a bit of white fluff at the end.

Honestly he fit in with Theatre Students.

“I remember him,” Sci-Twi sighed. “I volunteer at the city library, and during my Sophmore year he came in and managed to knock over a shelf and make the whole place go down like dominos.”

“I have a feeling y’all would remember that even if he wasn’t dressed funny,” Applejack laughed.

“He avoided the library for a while,” she said, ignoring the comment. “Then he showed up months later and apologized for it. He’s been fairly friendly since then, although his library etiquette could use some work.”

“That’s true in any dimension,” Princess Twilight said. “I know you haven’t met Starlight, but what about Tirek?”

“The name sounds familiar,” she said. “But I can’t place my finger on it.”

“Eh, it’s not like that’ll be important later!” Pinkie said.

“What about Sombra?” Princess Twilight asked. “Have you girls run into him? Don’t know how some evil King of Shadows would translate here, but if Nightmare Moon can translate to general Teen Rebellion, who knows.”

There was general murmuring of no from the six of them.

“Um, I’ve run into a Sombra,” Sci-Twi spoke up. “Well, sort of.”

“Sort of?” Princess Twilight asked.

“There’s a student at Crystal Prep with ‘Sombra’ as a nickname,” she said. “I’m not sure how it started, something to do with hiding in shadows to attack people because he was kind of a dick. He’s not that bad actually. Well, not that bad anymore.”

“Anymore?” she asked.

“Well, it’s probably different from your world,” she chuckled nervously. “But the guy he’s, well, he had a lot of problems. It’s not really my thing to tell, but they the kind of problem where you have to get handed off to ‘next of kin’ that you didn’t know you had, in this case Cadence. He had a lot of anger issues, and he kept getting into fights at school. He really should’ve been expelled, but Principal Cinch wanted his test scores, even f the amount of detention he got disqualified him for the Friendship Games.

“Oh dear,” Rarity said. “You said it’s better now, what happened?”

“Well, I kinda got caught in the crossfire of one of his fights,” she said. “And I might’ve accidently broke his nose.”

“Go Twilight!” Rainbow cheered.

“Well, after that he kind of snapped out of it,” she said. “Cadence got him into therapy, he’s apologized. He’s actually really nice. And probably the only person who understands when I ramble about something in class.”

“You said ‘Sombra’ was a nickname?” Applejack asked.

“Yeah, his real name is Obsidian,” she answered.

“But that’s- but he-“ Princess Twilight stammered. “That’s- very different.”

“Are you okay?” Sunset asked.

“No,” she said. “Hand me the book, I need to ask Spike to send a letter to Celestia.”

Sunset watched her furiously write into the journal. She gave up trying to write with hands and began using her mouth again. She wondered why that was so important. Then again, she barely knew of how Equestria had changed since then.
She began wondering about her favorite spots. The cliff overlooking the towns below Canterlot, the restaurant that had those delicious strawberry cake. She didn’t snap out of it until she felt a tap on the side of her head.

Looking over, she saw Pinkie. She had leaned over Rarity to put her face right near Sunset’s.

“Are you okay, Sunny?” she asked. “You got really quiet!”

“Still thinking about home, I guess,” she answered. “Wondering what else has changed. Well, obviously there’s been quite a few big changes. But just little things. Normal things that happen when you’re gone for six years.”

“Well, you’ll find out soon enough!” Pinkie said. “Actually, I know something that would help!”

Pinkie leaned back and rummaged into her cooler. She pulled out an apple and handed it to Sunset. Sunset only raised an eyebrow at the idea of an apple, but Pinkie encouraged her to take a bite.

“Oh my stars!” Sunset exclaimed, bite still in her mouth. “How did you get this?”

“It’s an apple?” Applejack said. “I think that’s self-explanitory.”

“It’s an apple from Equestria!” she corrected. “Here, taste it!”

She passed the apple up to her. Applejack inspected it before taking a bite. Sunset watched her eyes widen at the taste.

“That ain’t like any apple I’ve tasted before,” Applejack agreed.

“How did Pinkie-“ Princess Twilight began.

“You left the portal open,” Pinkie shrugged, handing out more snacks and drinks. “So when you put me in charge of snacks, I hopped over and grabbed a few things. Don’t worry, as much as I wanted to go into town, I only talked to Spike. And Starlight, but I don’t know if she knew I was me or not, but I did help her with her hair!”

“So, why does the apple taste different?” Rarity asked.

“Probably because of magic,” Sunset answered. “I mean, while farms in Equestria use mostly the same tools as farms here, there’s a lot of magic that goes into growing food. Most farmers are Earth Ponies, who have passive magic that actually helps them grow things easier. And then there’s the fact that the weather is controlled by Pegasai, so the rainwater is different.”

“Huh,” Applejack said. “Think y’all’d do an experiment on that? I think it’d be interesting to see if it’s just the magic or if the apples over there are a whole new kind of apples because of it. If you need someone to try out growing apple trees in different dimensions, I’m your girl.”

“You know, I have a question about the differences,” Rainbow said, turning in her seat. “How old are you two?”

“What do you mean?” Sunset asked.

“I mean,” Rainbow rolled her eyes, “You and Princess Twilight. You’ve told us about our counterparts in your world, and we seem to be out of school with our own homes and jobs and stuff.”

“I was actually wondering about that,” Princess Twilight said. “I never got a chance to ask since, you know, we always had other things going on. But to answer your question, I’m sixteen. As for your counterparts, Rainbow and Pinkie are seventeen, Rarity and Fluttershy are eighteen, and Applejack is nineteen. I don’t know about Sunset though.”

“Wait, I’m seventeen now,” she said. “And the rest of the numbers are spot-on.”

“I’m nineteen,” Sunset said. “And the reason for that is cultural and species differences. A pony is a legal adult at fifteen.”

“Really?” Rarity asked. “Doesn’t that seem a bit young?”

“Again, species difference," she shrugged. "Basically, pregnancy and birth is one of the things where we're more like horses than Humans. A Human will be pregnant for nine to ten months before giving birth, and the baby spends the next two-ish years developing outside the womb. Ponies are pregnant for closer to a full year, so we come out able to walk and talk as well as a Human Toddler. We still age like Humans, so we're usually adults around fifteen or sixteen. Add in the culture around Cutie Marks, and you can pin it at fifteen."

“What’s a Cutie Mark?” she asked.

“A magic symbol that appears here, around the same age you’d hit puberty” she explained, pointing a hand to her ‘flank’. “It’s basically a symbol of your talent and your magic, and generally just you. Once you have your Cutie Mark, you pretty much have an idea of what you want to do with your life, so you’d go either straight into the job, to an apprenticeship, or to another school.”

“Are you sure you don’t have Cutie Marks here?” Princess Twilight asked. “I mean, everyone I’ve met is literally wearing their Counterpart’s Cutie Mark.”

“Really?” Rainbow asked, shifting around to look at all of her outfit.

“The cloud and lightning bolt,” she answered. “Rarity has the diamonds, Fluttershy has butterflies, Applejack gets apples, and Pinkie's is the balloons.”

“Huh,” Applejack said, trying to look at her boots without taking her eyes off the road. “It ain’t really a ‘thing’ here. I just like wearing it.”

“I put it on all the outfits I make for myself,” Rarity said, running her fingers over her necklace.

“Mine is the Sun I wear,” Sunset said, absentmindedly touching her own necklace. “Twilight’s is the six pointed star. Both represent Magic as a talent.”

“Oh, that explains it,” Sci-Twi said.

“Explains what?” Applejack asked.

“Why the other me turned down the rest of the outfits I offered,” she replied.

“To be fair, a few didn’t fit right,” Princess Twilight said. “But yeah, my Cutie Mark is a part of me. I can’t just not wear it.”

“Well, you could,” Sunset said. “But I get it. If you don’t have it, it feels like something’s missing. Although, when I Pony Up, the ‘missing’ feeling goes away.”

“Well if magic gives us ears, wings, and now horns, why not a Cutie Mark?” Rarity said.

“Have any of you checked?” Princess Twilight asked.

“No offense, Twi,” Applejak said. “But usually when we Pony Up, we ain’t looking at our upper thigh.”

“Wait! I’m still magic!” Pinkie exclaimed.

Pinkie twisted in her seat until she was practically sitting sideways. Thankfully, instead of pulling her shorts down, she pulled the hem upwards to her hip. There, they saw the same balloons.

“Sweet!” Pinkie shouted.

“You know, I have a question,” Rainbow said, turning to point at Sunset and Twilight. “If you both have Magic Talents, why don’t you have the same Cutie Mark?”

“It’s a little more than just a symbol of talent,” Sunset said. “It’s a combination of that and who you are as a Pony, with a little bit of what you associate with said talent. For example, I always saw Princess Celestia as the most magical thing, and my Dad taught me Magic, so when I got Magic as a talent, it was the Sun like theirs.”

“I’m honestly kind of similar,” Princess Twilight laughed. “But my Dad has the Moon for a Cutie Mark, so I guess I split the difference and got a star. You know, my first major spell was a Light Spell. Dad was so happy that I might be following in his hoofsteps. Obviously that didn’t happen, but I think he’s still happy with how it ended up.”

“Your Dad works with Light Spells?” she wondered.

“Yeah,” she replied. “He’s one of Canterlot’s Magic Researchers, and specializes in light spells.”

“Really?” she frowned. “What does your Mom do?”

“She’s a mystery writer,” she answered. “Why?”

“Because my Dad’s also one of the Magic Researchers,” she said. “He works in Light Spells too. And Mom writes romance novels.”

“That’s really weird,” she said.

“Romance novels?” Rarity asked.

“You’d only like half of them,” Sunset waved her off. “Half are actually good, and the other hald are purposely bad with phrases like ‘galloping abs’ and ‘she was on him like a piranha on a corndog’.”

There was a resounding snort of laughter from everyone.

“So wait,” Princess Twilight began. “We’re two magical prodigies, both with an older brother in the Guard, a writer for a mom, and a dad in Magical Research?”

“Don’t forget that Shining and Lance knew each other,” Sunset said. “And our dads had to have talked because they work on the same stuff. And all the writers in Canterlot know one another.”

“How the stars did we never meet as fillies?” she wondered aloud.

“Because we were both ridiculously anti-social?” she offered. “If Dad said ‘hey sweetheart, one of my coworkers had a kid around your age with similar interests. Want to meet her and make a friend this Saturday?’, I would’ve said ‘Sorry, I already planned to be reading the entirety of the Starswirl the Bearded section of the Library on Saturday!’.”

“To be fair, we could have met in the library,” she said.

“If one of us looked away from a book long enough,” she said. “Of course, after I was Princess Celestia’s student I didn’t have much time for friends, even if I wanted them. And then I hopped into another dimension.”

“And I find you six years later!” she laughed, despite hanging her head in her hands.

“Technically I found you,” she retorted.

“How’d you do that?” Pinkie asked, leaning forward to lace her hands on Sunset’s head. “Do you have some sort of awesome mind powers that let you see into another dimension through your dreams that let you know what was happening all the time?”

“Pinkie, I don’t think that’s how it works,” Applejack said.

“Actually, she’s pretty close,” Sunset said, raising an eyebrow at the pink girl.

“Wait, you can’t actually see into people’s dreams, can you?” Sci-Twi asked.

“As far as I know, the only one who can go in others’ dreams is Princess Luna,” she said. “But there are a few who are more connected to their Counterpart than others. The connection manifests as a Dream, showing the counterpart’s life.”

“But you don’t have a Counterpart in Equestria,” Princess Twilight said.

“Technically, she is the Counterpart from Equestria,” Rarity pointed out.

“True, I don’t have a Counterpart there,” Sunset agreed. “But Flash does.”

“You’re telling me that Flash can see into his Counterpart’s brain?” Applejack deadpanned from the front.

“Kind of,” she said. “He can’t really choose when to do it, but usually major events. He saw Nightmare Moon and Discord’s returns, the Royal Wedding, the Crystal Empire and his counterpart’s transfer, as well as Princess Twilight’s coronation. He didn’t really ‘know’ that it was more than a dream, but when he told me about it I could figure out what had happened.”

“The day before he and I ‘broke up’,” she continued, “was when he had a dream of the mirror being transferred to the Empire. I thought I would have had to track you down somewhere, but luckily, or unluckily I guess, you were visiting the Empire when I went through.”

“Well, he probably knows what he saw now,” Rainbow laughed, adjusting the volume for the next song.

“To be fair,” she said, “the whole reason I dated him was because I overheard him telling a friend about his ‘weird dreams’. It was a social power boost too, but there were a handful of guys I could’ve chose for that.”

“That’s another thing,” Applejack said. “You and Flash were dating for a few years. How’d you manage that, considering your reputation?”

“Was it blackmail?” Pinkie stage-whispered.

“No,” Sunset laughed. “He’s honestly someone difficult to get blackmail on, and trust me I had blackmail on nearly everyone. Overall nice, stays away from underage drinking or drug use, no cheating on tests or any embarrassing secrets. Hell, his only real ex was from middle school, and they broke up because she figured out she was gay so I couldn’t get much on that.”

“So how did you do it?” Rarity wondered.

“Well, during Freshman year,” she began, “I pulled him aside and said ‘hey, my parents found out I’m gay, so please pretend to be my boyfriend so they think I’m straight because they’re threatening to kick me out!’. “

Everyone had a silent reaction to that. Sunset saw the gaze Applejack gave her in the rearview mirror.

“Don’t give me that look, AJ,” Sunset sighed. “It was back when I was terrible. Besides, it was only a half-lie. Well, more like one-third a lie.”

“How can something be ‘one third a lie’?” Applejack asked.

“My parents found out I’m gay, but they didn’t threaten to kick me out?” she offered.

“So you and Lance are both the ‘gay sibling’,” Rainbow snickered.

“You know, I never did get that phrase,” she rolled her eyes. “Maybe it’s a culture thing?”

“Not a culture thing,” Pinkie said. “I have three sisters, and the only one of us who hasn’t liked a girl is Limestone. But she hasn’t liked a boy either so who knows!”

“Would it count if you split the gay sibling in half?” Princes Twilight wondered. “I mean, Shining and I are both Bi, so neither is technically the ‘gay sibling’, but there’s still a fifty-fifty split if you added us up.”

“Good to know that’s the same across dimensions,” Sci-Twi sighed. “You have a point though.”

“Only you could turn this into math,” Rarity said. “Though sometimes I think a ‘Princess’ would be better than a ‘Knight’.”

For some reason Pinkie Pie found this hilarious. She let out a snort of laughter as everyone looked confused. They wondered if her laughter would wake Fluttershy, but she barely shuffled over.

“Darling, could possibly be so funny?” Rarity asked.

“I’m pretty sure that’s her ‘this is inappropriate’ laugh,” Applejack sighed.

“Which means she should definitely tell us!” Rainbow shouted.

“Well, it’s just-“ Pinkie had to pause to laugh again. “Have-have you ever heard the phrase ‘a Knight in Shining Armor’?”

They all lost it, which woke up a very confused Fluttershy.

Warped

Sunset stretched as she stepped out of the van. They’d stopped for lunch, but they’d been in the car for another two hours after that, and all of her felt stiff. But they were finally in Hollow Shades.

Since they didn’t know exactly how long they’d be in town, they decided to get a hotel for the night. Rarity checked them in while the rest of them took time to remember how legs work. Pinkie, having not slept nor powered down, put on the headband to keep her ears in check. Thankfully she put on her shoes too, but she was still in just the tanktop and shorts, which made everyone cold just looking at her.

After that, they decided to leave the van behind and walk around. This world’s Sunset probably didn’t have a bunch of money with her when she ran away, so she would have a job somewhere. If they walked around long enough, they’d find her. Or at least someone who knew her.

“I’m guessing it’d be a bad idea to search from the air,” Rainbow frowned, looking at the sky.

“They’re not used to flying teenagers here,” Applejack replied. “Besides, you can’t see into walls.”

“Hey, with all the other powers I get, that should be one!” she smirked.

“Fortunately, that’s not a Pegasus ability,” Sunset said. “But maybe cloud cover could work? No, you can’t see through clouds that well either.”

“Cloud cover?” Sci-Twi asked.

“Pegasai control the weather in Equestria,” Princess Twilight answered. “They have passive magic that lets them touch clouds. There are actually entire cities made of clouds too. Like my Dash and Fluttershy are from the biggest one, Cloudsdale.”

“How do they make a city out of clouds?” she wondered. “Clouds aren’t even solid!”

“Magic,” Sunset and Princess Twilight shrugged.

“Fair enough,” she sighed.

“Well, technically most clouds are made in the Weather Factory,” Princess Twilight said, “So we have clouds that are normal and only Pegasai can move, but there’s also clouds that are always solid to Pgeasai, not to anyone else though since it’s still a cloud. I mean, if you’re going to make buildings out of clouds, you really don’t want somepony flying through your bathroom.”

“They can make any kind of weather,” Sunset agreed. “Storms, lightning and rain, snowflakes are actually hoof-made, even rainbows start in a liquid form before they’re put into the sky.”

“So wait, you could actually taste a rainbow?!” Pinkie exclaimed.

Rainbow Dash actually tripped at the phrasing. Of course everyone else had to subtly snicker at what was said.

“Well, uh,” Sunset laughed. “I don’t know if anyone’s tried it. I mean, who would just walk up to a pool of liquid rainbow and put it in their mouth without seeing if it’s dangerous or not?”

“Apparently Rainbows are edible,” Princess Twilight deadpanned. “And ridiculously spicy.”

Sunset stared at her. Princess Twilight, however, only gestured to Pinkie.

“What about tracing spells?” Applejack suggested. “Do y’all have any of those over there?”

“We have a few,” Sunset said. “But we’d either need an item of hers, or her Magical Signature. Think the magic version of a fingerprint. And I’m not sure if our Magical Signatures are the same.”

“Even if they were,” Princess Twilight added, “Having two of the same Magical Signature would confuse the spell and make it useless anyway.”

“So back to old fashioned searching,” Rainbow sighed. “This really-“

She was cut off as someone ran into her. Sunset didn’t pay the kid any attention, but Rainbow did. Rainbow’s hand moved to her pocket before she took off.

“Jackass grabbed my wallet!” was her shouted explanation.

The rest of them ran after her. Applejack, Pinkie, and Princess Twilight were quickest on catching up to her, their longer legs giving more speed than Sunset’s own. Sci-Twi would have been able to match them, but her lack of physical ability wasn’t doing any favors. That, and she didn’t want to leave Rarity and Fluttershy behind, since they were both the shortest and the least physically active of the group.

It didn’t take long for Rainbow to catch up and tackle the kid. Applejack picked both of them up and held on, partly to keep the kid from running and partly to keep Dash from jumping him again.

“Come on, Dash,” Applejack sighed. “He can’t be more than thirteen.”

“Doesn’t mean he should get to run off with my money!” Rainbow shouted, pulling herself free.

“I ain’t saying he should,” she replied calmly. “I’m saying that since he’s a kid we can let him go after he returns what he stole.”

“Hey, I know when to give up,” the kid said, holding out Rainbow’s wallet.

Rainbow angrily snatched her wallet back and made sure everything was still in there. She relaxed a bit, seeing everything still there. It gave everyone else time to catch their breath.

“So why’s a kid your age a thief anyway?” Princess Twilight asked.

“Do you come from a long line of thieves?” Pinkie guessed. “Are you honing your thief skills to avenge your parents’ murder!”

“Nothing like that,” the kid said. “Just teen rebellion.”

“Not the worst thing teen rebellion can do,” Sunset laughed. “He could’ve become a supervillian!”

“I think I’ll stick to the rebellion that won’t follow me for life,” the kid said. “But thanks for the idea Miss Shimmer!”

The group stopped and frowned at the kid. He shrank back under their gaze.

“You know me?” Sunset asked.

“I think?” the kid replied. “But you don’t know me, so I’m not sure. Are you Miss Shimmer’s long-lost-twin?”

“Something like that,” she replied. “I’m trying to find her. Do you know where she is?”

“I don’t know where she works,” the kid said. “But she lives in my cousin’s apartment building.”

“Can we have the address?” Princess Twilight asked.

“Are there any security codes?” Sci-Twi asked.

“No codes,” the kid said. “There’s supposed to be one to get out of the lobby area and into the actual apartments, but the thing’s always busted. Besides, this kind of town doesn’t have much for the ‘home invasion’ crime. Mostly just muggings and drunk college kids.”

“We noticed,” Pinkie giggled.

Once the kid gave directions and an apartment number, Applejack let him go. He ran off rather quick, and everyone checked their wallets just in case.

“So what if he’s lying?” Rainbow asked. “We should’ve waited to let him go.”

“Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy scolded. “We are not kidnapping a kid just to find Sunset!”

“I didn’t mean-“ she tried to defend.

“Then what would you call carrying around a kid until we know if he’s telling us where she is?” she demanded.

Rainbow opened and closed her mouth to try and think of a response. Yet none came. Instead she crossed her arms and pouted.

“Besides,” Applejack said. “He was telling the truth. Kid was smart enough not to lie about stealing your wallet. He didn’t seem like the type to lie about this too.”

“And even if he was,” Rarity said, “we don’t have much to go on. Either we find her at this apartment, or we keep walking around like we planned.”

With that, they set off toward the apartment building. While everyone talked to one another, she noticed both Twilights looking lost in thought. She debated which one to talk to, but Fluttershy caught her eye first. With a nod to her, Fluttershy fell back along Sci-Twi, leaving Sunset to slide next to the Princess.

“What’s on your mind?” Sunset asked, trying not to laugh when she jumped.

“Nothing, it’s just-“ Twilight sighed. “Was that too convenient? I mean, we’re barely in the town and we immediately run into a kid who happens to point us in the right direction? What if this is some sort of trap?”

“Twi, we’re not in Equestria,” Sunset said. “There aren’t any supervillains. I mean, there’s plenty of terrible people here, but they’re normal terrible. There’s no one who wants to trap us specifically. At least no one we can’t handle. I mean, there’s a handful of students at CHS who still don’t like me, but they’re not going to rent an apartment in Hollow Shades and pay off a kid to lead us there. Plus, they would’ve had to pay off Lance too, and get me on this quest in the first place.”

“It does sound ridiculous when you say it out loud,” she laughed. “I just keep expecting everything to go sideways.”

“Maybe it will,” she shrugged. “I’d say be cautious, but go forward.”

“Thanks,” she smiled. “Kind of reminds me of dealing with Ponyville. I know it’s all going to go downhill at some point, but I might as well have fun on the ride down.”

“Good way to put it,” she laughed. “Anything else I can help you with?”

“Uh, one thing,” she replied.

Princess Twilight glanced at everyone else, trying to see if they were listening. Still, she stepped closer and lowered her voice.

“After,” Princess Twilight began, “After the Fall Formal, did you have any, um, aftereffects?”

“Aftereffects?” Sunset asked.

“Yeah,” she said. “Nightmares, scars.”

“Oh,” she said.

Sunset double checked that no one was listening.

“I wasn’t going to mention it,” Sunset said. "I knew it might come up if you ever saw my back, but I wasn't sure how to bring it up so I wasn't going to."

“Sunset, I-“ Princess Twilight began.

“Let me finish,” she interrupted. “Dark Magic leaves scars, especially when it causes a physical transformation. The wings and tail left their mark, but they weren’t that big a deal. I remember the transformation itself hurt like a bitch, and it still hurt as I took everyone over, but I was out of my mind with magic. Then when you guys used the Elements on me, it mostly healed up. What pain was left was manageable, only needing basic painkillers at worst.

“As for the nightmares,” she continued, “Those didn’t go away as easily, and they’re a lot less frequent now. But there’s not much I can do about them. I can’t get therapy here, because how do I explain all that to a Human Therapist? And with the portal closing, I didn’t think I would be able to go home for three years. After you opened it up semi-permanently, I thought about asking, but I wasn’t sure how to bring it up. I knew you’d feel guilty about it.”

“You’re right about that,” Twilight sighed. “If you do want to, I can find a therapist in Equestria.”

“Thanks,” she said. “You might want to find one for someone else too.”

“Hm?” she wondered.

“You’re asking because of the other you, aren’t you?” she asked. “She had scars or nightmares and you wondered about me.”

“Yeah,” she sighed, crossing her arms. “I saw her back when she was putting her pajamas on last night. And then after an hour of sleep she woke up with a nightmare. Mom and Dad and Spike-her Mom and Dad and Spike- helped calm her down. I managed to Pony Up to use a sleep spell on her, just to give her a dreamless sleep. But I can’t do it all the time, and she’ll need to deal with it herself.”

“I know,” she said. “After I stopped her, I used the energy I had left on a healing spell, just so she wouldn't hurt or ruin her top. I haven’t had a chance to talk to her about it alone, but I want her to come to me about it, you know?”

“Trust me, I know,” she said. “If it were me, I mean actually me, I’d probably be upset if you knew. Just, be there as much as you can, but let her come to you.”

“Hey! I think we’re here!” Pinkie shouted.

Sunset looked up to the building. It wasn’t too tall, just three floors. It looked like it might’ve once been a hotel in the past, since there was a lobby. Like the kid said, there weren’t any codes or anything to get into the lobby-area, but she could see a keypad on the inside door.

Oddly, there was no one in the lobby area. Sure, most adults would be at work, but there should be kids or college students hanging with friends, right? Or at least someone heading somewhere. She tried the door, which was locked.

“This is weird,” Sunset said. “The kid said we’d at least be able to get into the lobby.”

“By the way, what was the plan from there?” Sci-Twi asked.

“Pretend to be this world’s Sunset,” she replied. “Tell the landlord I lost my key and forgot the codes. But if this door is locked, something’s up.”

“Maybe it is a trap?”Princess Twilight whispered.

“If it was a trap, why would they lock it?” Applejack asked.

“I’m with AJ on this one,” Rainbow said. “If I going to set a trap, I’d make it easy to get into.”

“So how are we getting in?” Fluttershy asked.

“Well, there’s always the old-fashioned way,” Sunset shrugged. “Anyone know how to pick a lock?”

“We could always just break it,” Rainbow said.

“We’re not really suggesting breaking into a building, are we?” Rarity sighed.

“Well,” Sci-Twi frowned in thought. “Technically, as far as the law is concerned, Sunset is ‘Sunset’, and this is ‘Sunset’s” apartment, so it’s like breaking into your own house, right?”

“Okay, but even if that’s true,” Princess Twilight said, “Technically the Landlord owns the building, so unless ‘Sunset’ is also the Landlord, that’s still a crime.”

“I’m out of ideas,” Pinkie shrugged. “At least out of ideas that don’t include ridiculous crossovers into yet more dimensions!”

“Actually, I know exactly what to do,” Sunset said.

Sunset stared at the lobby, analyzing every part of it she could see. Then she led everyone to the side of the building.

“What are you planning?” Princess Twilight asked.

“Give me a minute,” Sunset replied.

She closed her eyes and focused on her friends, on feeling their Magic. She thought of Lance, both Lances, of the few other friends she’d managed to make at Canterlot High. It began as a tingle at her fingertips, as if a string was brushing past. She held onto it, feeling it become a thrumming heartbeat.

Magic washed over her as she began to Pony Up. She didn’t need to look in a mirror to see if her horn was there, because she could feel it as well as if she had walked through the portal. Without missing a beat, she conjured up a picture of the lobby in her mind.

Reaching out with her magic, she grabbed hold of everyone around her. With a feeling of the world twisting and flipping, she opened her eyes to all of them inside the lobby. The only ones to not look disoriented, or even like they might throw up, were Pinkie and Princess Twilight.

“What in the hell was that?” Rainbow asked, leaning on the closest chair.

“Teleportation spell,” Sunset said. “Sorry, I would’ve warned you, but there’s not really a warning for that.”

“Like tossing a kid in a river to teach ‘em to swim,” Applejack said, giving up and sitting down.

“I remember my first teleportation spell,” Princess Twilight said while holding up her Counterpart. “Not fun, and surprise teleporting is always worse, even if you know the feeling. Still, you get better with time.”

“Do you mind if I take a minute?” Rarity asked from the floor next to Fluttershy. “I’m not sure if I can stand yet.”

“It should wear off soon,” Sunset said.

She took a seat as well. Within a second there was something in her face. Upon closer inspection, it was Pinkie holding out a couple granola bars.

“You look hungry,” Pinkie shrugged.

“Yeah, a bit,” Sunset sighed, unwrapping the bars. “Magic takes energy, like exercising would. Even for a level three-point-five, teleporting eight living beings is kinda tiring.”

“Level what?” Sci-Twi asked.

“How we measure Magic Power,” Sunset said through a mouthful of granola. “Level one and one-point five is average, and level twos are almost guaranteed to get into specialized Magic Schools. Level three-point-five is a record highest for non-Alicorns.”

“Oh! What level are we!?” Pinkie asked, bouncing.

Sunset looked to Princess Twilight.

“Assuming it’s the same as your counterparts,” Princess Twilight said. “Rarity and Fluttershy are a two-point-five, Rainbow and AJ are three, and Pinkie is a three-point-five.”

“Nice,” Rainbow said. “I might not be record breaking, but a three isn’t too bad!”

“What about you, Twilight?” Fluttershy asked.

“I used to be a three-point-five,” Princess Twilight said. “Back when I was just a Unicorn. Becoming an Alicorn bumped me up to a four-point-five.”

“That’s a mighty nice jump,” Applejack said.

“By the way, Sunset,” Rarity said. “When we get home, remind me to make something for you with that lovely orange color.”

“What orange color?” Sunset asked.

“Your magic color,” Pinkie chirped. “It’s like this really pretty orange! #FFA81E, if I had to guess!”

“Isn’t your magic blue?” Princess Twilight asked.

Sunset used her magic to pick up a nearby lamp. Just as they said, the magic aura surrounding it was orange, not blue.

“I could have sworn it was blue when we met,” Princess Twilight said.

“It was,” Sunset frowned, setting the lamp down. “It’s always been, well, more ‘turquoise’ than ‘blue’, but that’s still a lot different from-Pinkie what are you doing?”

Pinkie jumped in surprise. She had been waving her hand through the air next to Sunset, as if trying to touch something.

“Nothing!” Pinkie shouted. “Not a thing! I just thought I saw a pair of wings for half a second when you Pony Upped!”

“I don’t have wings?” Sunset said.

Then again, when Pinkie had been trying to find those ‘wings’, it wasn’t the hand waving that had gotten her attention. It felt sort of like when somepony interrupts your levitation spell by snatching the item out of the air.

“We should get going,” Sunset said, not wanting to think too hard about it. “Can you girls stand?”

“Yes, I think,” Fluttershy said, attempting to stand.
“What apartment number did the kid say again?” Rainbow asked, helping Fluttershy up.

“Apartment 3D,” Applejack said. “I’d imagine that means third floor.”

“Hopefully there’s an elevator,” Rarity said.

Thankfully, the code door was busted and left open. Unfortunately, there was no elevator. Once they made their way up the stairs, and caught their breath, they found the door they were looking for.

“So, who wants to knock?” Pinkie asked.

“Would it be weird if ‘Sunset’ answers to see Sunset?” Princess Twilight asked.

“Well it was weird meeting you,” Sci-Twi half-chuckled.

“Still, I think Sunset is the one who could explain this best,” Rarity said.

“Or it’d make her scream,” Applejack said.

“She does have the ears right now,” Fluttershy agreed.

“Okay, I’m just going to knock while you decide whether I should or not,” Sunset sighed.

Ignoring a half-protest, she knocked on the door. At first, it seemed like no one was home. Then, after a moment, they heard footsteps on the other side and the sound of the doorknob turning. They were met with a familiar face, but not the familiar face they expected.

Blue skin, blue hair with darker streaks, and magenta eyes. She looked tired, as if they’d just woken her up. Her outfit matched, being a spaghetti-strap top and pink shorts with music notes on them, but not everyone wears a necklace to bed.

“Hey, Sunny,” the girl yawned out. “I thought you were still in the room with Dagi?”

Looking Glass

“So, wait, who are you?” the girl asked. “And why do you look like Sunny?”

“That’s an excellent question!” Sunset replied. “One that I’d like to discuss with ‘Sunny’.”

“Uh yeah,” the girl replied. “Oh, I’m Sonata by the way! Sonata Dusk!

“Do you, know us?” Princess Twilight asked, frowning at the girl.

“Not that I can remember?” Sonata said, tilting her head. “I mean, this girl looks like Sunny, but I don’t think I’ve seen you before!”

“But how-?” Applejack began, scratching her head.

“Counterpart!” Pinkie shouted.

“What?” most of the group chorused.

“Counterpart to what?” Sonata wondered.

“She’s a Counterpart!” Pinkie repeated. “I mean, if she doesn’t remember us, she can’t the one we met because she’d definitely remember us! So if everyone has a Counterpart, they have ones too! So this is this world’s Sonata! Also, this one has a pink necklace, and the other one had a red necklace that got, like, completely shattered!”

There was a general murmuring of agreement from their group. Sonata just stared at them. Before anyone could even try to think of how to explain this to her, someone else came to the door.

“Hey, ‘Nata, what’s taking so long?” a familiar voice asked.

The person who walked up behind Sonata was the kind of familiar they were looking for. While Sunset had been expecting to see the other her, she wasn’t exactly prepared for how similar they would look. At first, Sunset thought her counterpart was shorter, but she quickly realized it was because she had boots on while her Counterpart was barefoot. Even her outfit, while very different, was similarly colored. A three-quarter sleeved turquoise top and yellow shorts, probably pajamas. Their only physical difference, was that Sunset still had her ears and horn.

“Stars, that’s weird,” both Sunsets said. “Please tell me we’re not doing the ‘Unison Speak’ trope. Great, we are.”

“I’m still lost?” Sonata said.

“Okay, obviously we have a lot to talk about,” the other Sunset said. “Just- let’s talk in the living room instead of the hallway.”

“You sure?” Sunset asked. “We have a big group.”

“I noticed,” she sighed. “Most of you will be standing, but we can fit.”

Sunset and the girls followed the other Sunset and Sonata into the room. On the only couch was another Dazzling Counterpart. If Sunset remembered correctly, this one was ‘Aria’, and she was the only one who looked dressed to go out. Of course, if there were two, a third was likely close behind.

As if on cue, the third Dazzling Counterpart, Adagio, walked out. Her hair was ridiculous, both from just how much there was and from it looking as if she’d just rolled out of bed. Her pajamas were almost a reverse of the Other Sunset’s; a yellow spaghetti-strap top with turquoise pants.

“Are we having a party?” Adagio asked. “I don’t think the Landlord’s on board with that, but what else can we do?”

She stopped short upon seeing two Sunsets. She looked back and forth at both of them, before looking to Sonata from an explanation. Sonata just shrugged.

The other Sunset sighed and pulled Adagio to the couch, pretty much on her lap. After a moment, Sonata sat on the other end of the couch. None of them were sure where to start.

“So,” Aria began, “Are you some sort of ‘furry’?”

That sent most of the room laughing.

“What’s a ‘furry’?” Princess Twilight asked.

“I’ll tell you when you’re older,” Rainbow joked.

“I-I’ll explain that in a minute,” Sunset laughed.”For now, let’s get to the ‘elephant in the room’. Hello, Sunset Shimmer, I’m Sunset Shimmer.”

“I can see that,” the other Sunset said. “But how do I have a clone?”

“Well, I’m not exactly a clone,” she half-chuckled. “I’m from an Alternate Dimension, and everyone has a Counterpart. Also, my Dimension is one full of magical talking ponies.”

“And that’s somehow more believable than a clone?” she asked.

Fortunatly, Sunset had just the thing to prove she was telling the truth. She lit her horn, and grabbed anything not nailed down. Books, cups, remotes, game controllers, all sorts of things floated through the air in her orange magic.

“Hey!” Sci-Twi shouted, grabbing her glasses out of the air.

“Sorry,” Sunset laughed, setting everything down.

“That’s crazy,” Adagio breathed.

“Trust me, the rest of us are still getting used to it,” Applejack said.

“So, are you all from that dimension?” the other Sunset asked.

“No,” Princess Twilight answered. “Just me and Sunset.”

“So, how come you don’t have the ears like she does?” Sonata asked, pointing to Sunset. “And why does the pink one have them?”

“It’s a side effect of bringing magic into this world,” she replied. “Because of how the magic works, it causes a physical change in the person using it.”

“I mean, do you think I could hide this with a hat?” Sunset laughed, pointing to her horn. “It’ll go away eventually.”

“So Sunset,” Sonata began, stopping to look between Sunsets. “Wait, that Sunset, not- this is going to get confusing real fast.”

“Yeah,” Sunset sighed. “We should probably do something to tell who’s who.”

“Well,” Pinkie said, bouncing at her idea. “Princess Twilight and Science Twilight were already different enough that we didn’t need a physical thing, and we could make silly nicknames! But you two are really close, like, if you two had the same outfit I couldn’t tell you apart, and I can’t think of any nicknames! So, what we’ll do is one of you can be ‘Sunset’ and the other one can be ‘Shimmer’!”

“But which is which?” Both Sunsets asked.

“Last time, we used the ‘this is your dimension so it’s your name’ rule,” she said. “So to make it fair with the Universe, we should switch it! So since the Pony is the ‘Guest’, she’s ‘Sunset’ while the Human is ‘Shimmer’!”

“Last time?” Twilight frowned.

“Well, you don’t want to upset the Universe, do you Shim Shams?” Adagio laughed.

“Fair enough,” Shimmer relented.

“So what about physical cues?” Rarity asked. “I’m sure I could find something that would make you two look different on sight.”

“I’ve got this covered!” Pinkie said. “We can just follow the Twilights!”

Pinkie almost seemed to disappear and reappear next to Sonata, which made the four on the couch jump in surprise. They jumped again seeing that Shimmer’s hair was now in a high ponytail, tied with a ribbon. Sunset could feel her own hair tied in a low ponytail.

“I keep ribbons on me for ‘differencing Interdimensional Counterparts’ emergencies!” Pinkie chirped. “So we have an orange ribbon for Sunset, a turquoise ribbon for Shimmer, and an adorable magenta ribbon with blue hearts for Sonata!”

“Why does Sonata need a ribbon?” Rainbow asked.

“Because, silly,” she laughed. “Cute girls get cute ribbons! And that ribbon’s the only one with my phone number on it!”

Sonata turned redder and redder as she stared at the ribbon. Pinkie giggled when Sonata gave up and put her face in her hands. It was difficult to know if Pinkie’s face was any redder, but it might’ve looked a few shades darker. Aria snickered at the two of them, and Sonata replied by reaching over Shimmer and Adagio to bat her hand at her.

“So, why are you trying to find me?” Shimmer asked, ignoring the three of them.
“If this was a book,” Adagio mused, “it’d be the beginning of some kind of Magical Adventure where we nearly get killed.”

“Eh, we just had a magical adventure where we nearly get killed,” Rainbow shrugged.

“Shouldn’t have another one for at least a month,” Applejack added.

“Oh dear I hope not,” Rarity sighed. “I don’t want anything to ruin our class trip next month.”

“Didn’t think you’d be looking forward to a camping trip!” Rainbow laughed.

“Camping, no,” she admitted. “A sort-of vacation with friends? Yes.”

“Girls, can we not discuss magical adventures where we nearly get killed right now?” Fluttershy asked, glancing between Sunset and Sci-Twi.

“Oh, right, sorry!” the three of them chorused.

“To answer the question,” Sunset interrupted them before it could go more downhill. “We’re not here for any adventures or such.”

“So then why?” Shimmer asked.

“Because I used to be a terrible person,” Sunset shrugged. “And because from what I know about our dimensions, a lot of things are the same. Unless, you know, someone from one dimension crosses over to change things. But I ran away, and I remember seeing a very familiar girl get on a bus out of town that night.”

“I thought that was a reflection,” she muttered.

“Yeah, well, you didn’t know about magic,” she said. “But I wanted to help. So, what all happened in this world to get you here?”

“Do I have to go through it?” she asked. “I mean, you already said that they’re similar.”

Sunset felt a bit bad about that. Technically, she didn’t need to know all of Shimmer’s life, since she could guess the basics. She was curious. About what differences there were in how they came to be here. Curious to what had happened to her, since she’d expected to find a girl just like who she was before the Fall Formal, but instead found a girl with friends, probably a girlfriend, and a decent apartment.

“Alright,” Shimmer agreed. “I grew up with a happy family and all that, and I’m guessing you did too. I was one of those ‘gifted’ students, the ‘prodigy’ type. My academic skills were far above my age level, and I was bumped up to the high school courses. Stars, I could follow along with Dad rambling about science! But I felt I wasn’t being taken seriously. Teachers would talk down to me. They didn’t even think I was as smart as other kids my age. They said, to my face, that I probably wouldn’t have passed the third grade if my dad wasn’t ‘obviously’ doing my homework for me.”

“Harsh,” Sci-Twi said softly.

“Yeah, well, Mom, Dad, and Lance tried to help,” she said. “But I pushed them away. I’d fight anyone who tried to say anything about me, and I pushed the rest away in case they did. At some point, proving myself became more important than my family.
“Then I made the dumb mistake of running away, thinking I could make it on my own,” she said. “I did, but there were a lot more nights of being cold and hungry than I thought. And I’m not going to bring up the various illegal things I managed to get into. That kind of thing humbles you pretty quick. But now I’ve got friends, a girlfriend, and a nice apartment. I used the internet to finish high school, and I managed to get a job at the local performing arts college doing their tech work.”

“Up to the running away, it’s pretty familiar,” Sunset said.

“A little too familiar,” Sci-Twi whispered.

“Let me guess, another ‘prodigy’?” Shimmer asked, to which Sci-Twi nodded. “Glad you stuck it out instead of running off. And hey, if any teachers or students bother you over that, send them my way.”

“That’d scare them for a whole different reason,” Applejack said with a nod to Sunset.

“Besides,” Adagio said. “If that Sunset is anything like you, she has nothing to worry about. Especially with a big group of friends. Or we could always hand her enemies off to Aria.”

Aria only raised an eyebrow.

“Your turn now,” Shimmer said, pointing to her Counterpart. “Let’s hear your life story.”

“It’ll sound so boring with all that magic,” Sunset teased. “But yeah, family’s all the same. Right down to Grandma’s ugly lamp.”

Shimmer snorted with laughter, but waved a hand telling her to go on.

“I’m a Unicorn,” Sunset said. “One of the most magically gifted Unicorns to ever exist, and personal student to the ruler of the country, and sort-of-goddess that controls the Sun, Princess Celesta. Since I was her personal student, I only saw the teachers at school for standardized tests. So I don’t know what they thought of me. The kids I got to interact with though, were Nobles. You know, ‘mommy and daddy paid good money for me to be here’ types. They’d kiss up to me, hoping I’d give them some kind of ‘royal perk’, then say things behind closed doors. I got into more than one fight over some snob suggesting I only passed because I seduced the test taker.”

“Stars that’s gross,” Rarity shuddered.

“If I get my hands on the guys who said that,” Rainbow growled. “Well, I guess it’d be ‘hooves’, since I’d have to go through the portal.”

“Right there with you,” Applejack frowned.

“I could already prove my skill that way,” Sunset said, pretending she hadn’t heard them. “But the only one I wanted to impress was Celestia. There’s a line between ‘Princess’ and ‘Celestia’; ‘Princess’ is the all-powerful ruler, the invincible protector, and Celestia is a pony, just like everyone else. I saw cracks in the ‘mask’, on Nightmare Night, near Discord’s statue, around her niblings. I wanted her to be ‘Celestia’ around me, but all I got was ‘Princess’. I wanted to prove to her that I could do anything, that she could treat me like an equal. Eventually, that turned to a goal of becoming an Alicorn, a princess like she was, because it would be ‘equal’.

“I studied anything I could get my hooves on,” she continued. “She confronted me when I broke into the Dark Magic section of the library. I demanded she make me a princess on the spot, because I was ready and I deserved to be equal, or even better than she was. She denied me, of course, and I quit as her student, telling her that this was the biggest mistake she could make. She replied ‘one of many’. It was the closest I came to hearing ‘Celestia’, but she wasn’t thinking of me in that moment, but of past mistakes.”

“After that, I ran away,” she went on. “I ran into this dimension. Fortunately for me, the conversion rate is ridiculous, so I had plenty of money. I started over my life, but it's hard to make friends when you have to hide most of your life. So when I thought I had a chance to not only go home, but to get everything I'd ever wanted, I did whatever it took to go back. I hurt a lot of people on the way, and could've done a lot more permanent damage before these six knocked some sense into me.”

She gave them a moment to let that sink in. She’d told her friends about all that before, though she couldn't remember if there was anything new for them to hear. She knew Twilight had only heard pieces, so she wasn't surprised to see the gears in her head turning at this knowledge.
“Not sure if that’s better or worse” Shimmer said.

“I think you’d have to do some sort of fusion or mind-meld to figure that out,” Sci-Twi said.

“But you asked why I came to find you,” Sunset said. “These past few months, I’ve been making up for everything I did, making amends and all that. It’s been slow going, making it up to the students and staff at school. I’d been debating about going home, making up with the Ponies I left behind. After we found Twilight’s Counterpart, I wanted to help you make whatever amends you needed to.”

“You want me to go back home, don’t you?” Shimmer asked, though it wasn’t really a question.

“I’m going home too,” she said. “I promised them, and myself, that once I found and helped you, I’d go home.”

“I know I should’ve,” she sighed. “I should’ve gone home a long time ago. Guess I’m just stubborn.”

“Don’t I know it,” she sighed. “If I wasn’t, I would’ve gone home three years ago.”

“Think they’ll be upset?” she asked, grabbing Adgio’s hand.

“It’s not like they can ground you,” she laughed. “Besides, I, uh, might’ve talked to Lance already?”

“Really?” she asked.

“Yeah, I wanted to know where to look for you,” she said. “He wants you to come back. I promised that even if you didn’t come back, I’d tell him what happened to you. But I still think you should see them yourself.”

“I-I think I might be ready to do that,” she agreed.

“We can go with you, you know,” Adagio said, squeezing Shimmer’s hand. “You’re not alone.”

“Yeah well, if you ever do the same,” she trailed off.

“Maybe,” Aria answered.

“Plus, Twilight here can go with you to meet Lance,” Sunset said, gesturing to Sci-Twi. “Do you remember Lance’s friend, Shining Armor?”

“Please tell me those two are dating now,” Shimmer laughed. “Lance always reminisced about the time they made out at a Halloween party.”

“You’d have to ask them if it ever happened,” she shrugged. “But they do live in the same apartment building, and Twilight here is Shining’s little sister.”

“Oh, yeah, I see it now,” she said, pointing to both Twilights. “The hair. Your hair’s the same dark blue that was in Shining’s hair.”

“I thought her hair was indigo?” Rainbow said.

“Rainbow Dash, for how colorful you are, you have a lot to learn about color,” Rarity scoffed. “Her hair looks purple because the rest of her is mostly purple, while Shining Armor had various blues. They’re both the same blue.”

“#3C4D85, to be exact!” Pinkie chirped, finally pulling away from an oddly quiet talk with Sonata.

“You know, I have a question,” Sonata said, her face still a little red. “I kinda forgot because two Sunsets and all that, but how did you girls get inside?”

“Well, you did let us in the door,” Applejack said, gesturing toward said door.

“I meant inside the building,” she countered.

Shimmer, Adagio and Aria all shot to attention, nearly knocking Adagio off the couch. They looked between Sonata and Sunset’s group.

“The door was locked?” Shimmer said.

“I used my magic to teleport us into the lobby,” Sunset replied.

“Yeah, the kid who told us about this place said it wouldn’t be,” Rainbow rolled her eyes.

“What kid?” Aria asked.

“Didn’t catch his name,” she replied. “He tried to steal my wallet, recognized Sunet, and pointed us here.”

“He said his cousin lives here,” Fluttershy offered.

“Must be Sugar Belle’s cousin,” Adagio said. “But you’re right, the door isn’t usually locked, and the codes are always on the fritz.”

“So what’s different now?” Princess Twilight asked.

“Our landlord went nuts the other day, that’s what,” Shimmer said. “She locked all the doors, told us we’d get evicted if we left, and cut off all the wifi and landlines.”

“You do realize that’s basically kidnapping, right?” Sci-Twi said, rubbing the sides of her face. “Or maybe a hostage situation. I’d have to ask Shining.”

“We’re in a cellphone deadzone here,” Adagio said. “The landlord’s always been strict with her rules. You know, what times are inappropriate to go out, how loud is ‘loud’, that sort of thing. Still better than a school dorm, mind you, but strict. This is ridiculous.”

“Well, maybe we can help,” Sunset said. “Either talk to her, or get out to call someone who can. Like the cops. Where’s your landlord?”

“If you think it’ll help,” Aria said. “She’d probably be in her office on the first floor. It’s the one with her name on it, Starlight Glimmer.”

“Guess I was wrong about her not being important later!” Pinkie shrugged.

Princess Twilight, meanwhile, smacked a hand to her face and muttered a few very un-princess-like works under her breath.

Author's Notes:

wow that took a while. Nowhere near as long as chapter three though.

Fun House

They decided on a smaller group to talk to Starlight. Pinkie said Sunset should go since she’s ‘the main character’, and Princess Twilight was an obvious choice having dealt with her own Starlight. They need one of the actual apartment tenants, and they volunteered Shimmer. Since they had Sunset and Shimmer, they figured Sci-Twi might as well come too, to make it a matching pair. After that, all that was left was for Shimmer to change into gray shorts and a pink top, and Sunset was sure she had a replica pair in her closet.

Remembering the long walk down the stairs, they decided to talk. Shimmer and Sci-Twi seemed to be getting along well, though it was mostly just about how the landlord was. Apparently she liked to disappear for days at a time. It’s good when you’re a few days behind on rent, but bad when the power goes out and she’s not there to fix it.

“Hey, are you okay?” Princess Twilight asked, slowing her pace to let them drop back.

“Yeah,” Sunset answered. “I just didn’t expect to bring all that up again. Honestly, by the time I stole your crown, I’d nearly forgotten what it was all for. It doesn’t change much though. Sad backstory or not, I was still terrible. As Pinkie says, ‘Cool motive, still murder’. ”

“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t really think on why you would’ve done what you did, past what I was told.”

“Hey, it’s not your fault,” she said. “You were, what, ten when I ran away?”

“I know,” she said. “But I feel guilty, because I think they learned the lesson.”

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“Keeping me away from the Nobles, for starters,” she said. “Celestia couldn’t watch me all the time, but now that I’m thinking about it, Cadence and Blueblood seemed to be working in tandem to keep them away from me. Either tricking me into leaving, or dragging them away for something else.”

“No wonder you had no friends,” she teased, earning a friendly arm punch. “Haven’t heard you talk about Blueblood much. Or any of the other Royals, for that matter.”

“I didn’t know him as well,” she said. “But he’s not that bad. Okay, he is, but only when rejecting Rarity. But he’s pretty nice to me and Cadence.”

“Of course she tried for him,” she rolled her eyes.

“We’re getting off track,” she said.

Sunset waited. She wasn’t sure what she would say next, but Twilight looked like she needed a hug.

“I think she knew,” Twilight said. “I think Celestia figured out that you wanted to see more than ‘Princess’, because she would be ‘Celestia’ around me. I got to see more than just cracks.”

“Oh,” Sunset sighed. “That’s not your fault either.”

“It’s not guilt that bothers me,” she said. “It’s that I’m not sure it was just your leaving that convinced her.”

“Why?” she wondered.

“Because I remember the first few months,” she said, looking at her feet as she walked. “I brushed it off, because I was still starstruck, but I remember seeing the cracks and wanting to see more. I remember her keeping herself cut off, always a bit detached. Then-Then Dancing Light and Philharmonica died.”

“They-“ she gasped. “I-I’m sorry. How-?”

“It’s alright,” she said, rubbing a tear away. “If Shining asks, I didn’t sneak a look at the accident report and only know what I was told, right?”

“Yeah,” she agreed, sadly smiling at how ‘Twilight’ that was to do.

“The three of them, Cadence too, were in a carriage that winter,” she said. “I think they were going to a Hearth’s Warming party? Point is, there was some ice, and it, well, you can imagine. Philharmonica was dead on arrival. Dancing and Cadence were both in pretty bad shape. I wouldn’t know how bad until I went through some medical books two years later and learned the terms I saw. But Dancing used his authority as Prince to order the doctors heal Cadence instead.”

“And even with healing spells, she was probably still pretty bad,” she sighed.

“Yeah,” she nodded. “By the time Celestia made it to the hospital to override his order, they’d used up all the magic they had on Cadence, and even with Celestia and Shining offering their own magic, they were too late to help Dancing Light.”

“I’m not sure what happened there,” she continued. “All I know is that I got to see ‘Celestia’ a lot more than I had before. And it bothers me that it wasn’t you leaving that changed how she was.”

“I don’t know either,” Sunset admitted. “Maybe it was the combination of the two? Or maybe someone said something. I could only guess.”

“I don’t really want to ask, either,” she said.

“Have you, uh, do you know if that’s the same here?” she asked. “Dancing and Philharmonica?”

“Unfortunately,” she said. “I’d suspected that deaths were the same across dimensions back when I first went through the portal. Both Applejacks asked about her parents. But my Counterpart asked last night about Dancing and Philharmonica. I guess they all hoped that even if they were ‘Counterparts’, they would at least be enough for them to get a proper goodbye, you know?”

“Yeah,” she said. “Listen, when you get home, tell Cadence I’m sorry.”

“You can tell her yourself, you know,” she smiled.

“Right,” she said. “Thanks for telling me about that, and about Princess Celestia. I don’t know if ‘thanks’ is the word for it, but thanks anyway.”

They had reached the bottom floor, and luckily the door they needed was right by the stairs. They wondered how they’d missed it before, considering it had not only Starlight’s name but her Cutie Mark on it. Shimmer knocked on the door.

“Come in,” the voice inside said, her annoyance obvious.

Opening the door, they saw a simple office space with a desk and filing cabinets. The woman behind the desk was in her early twenties, and almost just like Princess Twilight had described her counterpart; pinkish-purple skin, purple hair with a blue streak, but down and swooping instead of in a ponytail. She didn’t look much like a landlord either. Sunset had imagined maybe business-formal wear, but she was in a double layered pink and blue shirt, a black vest, ripped jeans, and a knit hat.

As soon as the four of them walked through the doorway, her eyes went wide. She reached for something under her desk, but didn’t bring it out yet. Sunset prepared a shield spell, just in case.

“Who the hell are you?” Starlight demanded, glaring at the Twilights.

“Hi, I’m Twilight,” Princess Twilight said, stepping forward. “We wanted to-“

“I don’t care!” she stated. “You need to leave. No, wait, you can’t leave. How’d you get in?”

“That’s a long story,” Sunset said. “But we wanted to know why the doors are locked in the first place, and maybe convince you to unlock them?”

“I can’t,” she said. “You two, or three? I don’t know if you had a twin before but I don’t care! None of you are leaving!”

“Starlight, listen,” Princess Twilight began, “We can help. Just-“

Starlight pulled the thing from under her desk, and in half an instant Sunset had a shield between them. Thankfully, it was just a wooden bat, but she didn’t yet drop the spell.

“What is that?” Starlight demanded, gesturing to the shield with her bat.

“It’s part of our explanation,” Sunset said. “If you want to know, you have to let everyone out!”

“I can’t!” she repeated. “Do you think I want to keep everyone in here? I have things I want to do with my life!”

“Like finding your friend?” Sci-Twi asked. “You’re looking for him, right? That’s why you disappear sometimes, right?”

“Wha-how?” she stammered, lowering the bat. “How do you know about that?”

“We can explain it,” she said, keeping her voice calm. “We can help you find him. But you have to tell us why you’re keeping everyone locked in.”

“I-I can’t,” she repeated again, though not as forceful this time.

“It’ll be okay,” she said. “Just think of seeing Sunburst again, right?”

That had to be the name of the friend the other Starlight had lost too. She hadn’t told them about it yesterday. But Sunset and Shimmer jumped at the name.

“Wait, Sunburst?” both Sunsets asked. “Twenty-ish, almost my color but with white markings, red orange hair, complete dork?”

“Y-yeah,” Starlight said, somehow relaxing and perking up at the same time. “Do you know him?”

“He’s my cousin,” Sunset said.

“Wait!” Shimmer gasped. “I remember you now! Sunburst’s twelfth birthday party!”

“Oh yeah! “she exclaimed. “The bouncy castle filled with soap and water!”

“Whose bright idea was it to fill a bouncy castle with soap and water?” Princess Twilight demanded with a frown.

“Lance!” both Sunsets answered guiltily.

“So you, you could tell me where he is, right?” Starlight asked, an almost maniacal grin coming to her face.

“Well, I’m kind of estranged from my family at the moment,” Shimmer said. “But I’m trying to reconnect with them. Once I do that, I could help you find him.”

“You have to let everyone out though,” Sci-Twi reminded her.

Starlight froze. She dropped the bat to the floor, letting it bounce away, then sunk back into her chair. She just covered her head with her arms.

“Starlight, what’s really going on?” Sci-Twi asked. “You kept saying ‘I can’t’, not ‘I won’t’. What’s happening here?”

“It’s complicated,” she muttered from under her arms.

“Hey, complicated is our thing,” Sunset gave a half-chuckle.

“This is probably above your paygrade,” she said, looking up at them. “What do you know about a guy named Tirek?”

Both Twilights let out a long string of swears. Oddly enough, while the swears were the same, Princess Twilight sounded exasperated, while Sci-Twi was panicked.

“I might’ve remembered where I heard the name Tirek before,” Sci-Twi chuckled.

“Considering the interesting swearing, I’d guess so,” Sunset said. “Care to enlighten us?”

“Uh, well, I might keep an eye on crime stuff because of Shining,” she said nervously messing with her hair. “I forgot because of all the, well, interdimensional stuff. And long story short, Tirek was an underground Crime Lord until his brother sold out the whole operation to the cops. Everyone got arrested, but Tirek might’ve escaped from custody a few days ago? ”

“And then showed up here,” Starlight muttered. “He’s staying here until the police presence is low enough for him to slip away and get out of the country. As far as I know, I’m the only one who knows he’s here, but no one’s allowed to leave just in case. And you can imagine what was threatened if anyone left, or if I tried to call the cops.”

“So, how are we going to deal with this?” Princess Twilight said.

“You can’t,” she sighed. “If it were just a simple ‘call the cops and have them deal with it’, I would’ve done it by now. But there’s a whole apartment building of people who could get hurt. I don’t think he has a gun, at least he didn’t when he showed up and he hasn’t left to get one, but he’s enormous, and has access to blunt objects, maybe knives.”

“Okay, but here’s the thing,” Sunset said. “We literally have magic as an option.”

“I wouldn’t go for a direct confrontation at first,” Princess Twilight muttered. “Magic gives us an upper hand, but should something go sideways there’s a building full of human shields. I honestly wouldn’t suggest using magic on him anyway, considering his Dimensional Counterpart.”

“Yeah, even if the cops were involved that’d be a problem,” Shimmer agreed.

“If we could evacuate everyone, that’d make it easier,” Sci-Twi said. “Then we could just lock him in a room and call the cops. But a large group of people heading out of a building would be very noticeable.”

“What about however you guys got in here?” Starlight said. “Could that work?”

“Actually, yeah it might!” Sunset exclaimed. “If we teleport everyone out, no one would really notice from the inside. Of course, they’d be disoriented as hell and we’d have to explain everything later.”

“That’s what tenant meetings are for,” Shimmer shrugged. “Could you actually do that?”

“In theory,” Princess Twilight said. “Between Sunset and I, we could probably do it. The only problem is that we’d run out of energy eventually.”

“We can raid a few fridges after we teleport them,” Sunset shrugged. “As long as we keep eating we should be good. It’s technically stealing, but we’re doing it to help them out. Okay, maybe I could leave a couple bucks on their counters.”

“Fair enough,” she agreed. “We still have to cover the possibility that, even with magic, Tirek’d catch onto everyone being evacuated. Or catch onto the fact that we showed up here.”

“But no magic,” she repeated. “That cancels ward spells. A lookout would be nice, but I don’t want to put our friends into that.”

“I’ll do it,” Starlight offered. “I’m already in this.”

“No,” Princess Twilight said. “We need you to come with us so that we know we’re getting everyone out. Besides, even if you were a lookout, you’d have no way to contact us.”

“I hate to say that our friends are the best option,” Sunset frowned. “Rainbow could fly to us immediately, and Aj has the brute force to be able to restrain him. Maybe Pinkie’s party canons could be a weaponized distraction?”

“I still think it’s a bad idea,” she said.

“Eh, they faced a literal demon without magic,” she said with a smirk. “I think they’d be willing to face some jackass with a kitchen knife. That said, it’s still a bad idea, and if an emergency calls for it they should use magic. Really wish we’d taught Rainbow how to use some lightning.”

“Doesn’t this seem like a bad idea?” Sci-Twi asked. “It seems simple, but couldn’t everything go sideways at some point?”

“Try living in Ponyville for a week,” Princess Twilight huffed. “Okay, so plan is to teleport everyone out, lock Tirek in the building, then call the cops. Am I missing anything?”

“Don’t think so,” Shimmer said. “But I think I’ll be sitting this part out. Think I can get a ride with everyone else?”

The five of them went up the stairs once more. After explaining everything to the group waiting in the apartment, all of the remaining Rainbooms volunteered to help before hearing the plan. Deciding that they should keep it to as little as possible, Sunset took the initiative to teleport Rarity, Pinkie, and Fluttershy out of the building with Shimmer and her roommates.

Once Starlight told them which room Tirek was hiding out in, and gave them a decent map, they had Sci-Twi lead Ranbow and Aj down to where it was. After that, teleporting everyone out was simple.

After the first two apartments, they’d decided explaining would be too complicated. It was much easier to teleport them out and agree to stay later and explain. Unfortunately, they did end up raiding someone’s fridge about half way through the floor.

“You know,” Twilight said through a bite of cold Chinese food. “I really should’ve figured out Starlight was here sooner.”

“Really?” Sunset asked.

“Speaking of,” Starlight said. “You really need to explain the magic and the-“

She gestured to the horn, ears, and wings that had appeared on Twilight.

“Right,” Twilight said. “Long story short, there’s another Dimension full of magical talking ponies, and everyone has a Counterpart. Sunset and I are from there, and we accidently brought Magic here so some humans can use it.”

“If I didn’t literally see you teleport people out, I wouldn’t believe it,” Starlight sighed. “So what does that have to do with me?”

“Your Counterpart was in charge of a village,” she said. “Well, sort of a cult, but I guess since you don’t have Cutie Marks here, or any kind of Magic really, there wasn’t anything for you to get obsessed over besides Sunburst.”

“Wow, other me sounds kinda terrible,” she half-chuckled.

“To be fair, they said you were a bitch of a landlord,” Sunset shrugged.

“And my world’s Starlight broke several Time laws in an attempt to spite me, which almost destroyed Equestria many times over,” Twilight said, ignoring Starlight’s shocked expression. “But the point was that Adagio mentioned Sugar Belle.”

“That’s the cousin of the kid we found, right?” she asked.

“Yep,” she said. “Sugar Belle is one of the ponies from the village. I should’ve connected the dots of an apartment being sort of like a small village.”

“I guess?” Starlight said.

“By the way,” Sunset said, pausing to swallow her own food. “Why are you using the fork? Figured you’d be into doing it ‘right’ and using chopsticks for this.”

“Not all of us have six years experience using hands!” Twilight said, sticking her tongue out at her. “You even said some Humans have trouble with those!”

Sunset bit her lip to stop from grinning like an idiot. She then reached over the table and tapped Twilight’s horn with her own chopstick.

“Oh,” Twilight said, her face growing red as the other two snickered.

Evacuating the building was slow going. Too many people wanted to ask questions. Too many people refused to answer the door. Thankfully Starlight had a Master Key, but that really only annoyed people.

And of course, stopping to eat every few minutes didn’t help. Starlight’s anxiety seemed to be going through the roof. Sunset understood, but then again, she’d faced worse. Maybe that wasn’t a good thing. Suddenly therapy sounded like a much better idea.

Eventually, they were back on the first floor. Unfortunately, despite being almost done, this was more difficult. If someone here started an argument about leaving, Tirek could hear. Despite the fact that he shouldn’t be suspicious, they all agreed he was probably paranoid as hell. Every time the ‘pop’ of teleportation sounded, they jumped and braced for the worse.

They were almost done. They’d reached the hallway with Tirek’s door. Well, technically it was Starlight’s door, as he had taken over her apartment. Still, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Sci-Twi stood guard and flinched every time they teleported someone out. Despite the fact that they should stop and eat, they pushed through.

They held their breath as they teleported the last four out of the building. After a moment, they breathed a sigh of relief. Then a loud alarm sounded through the hallway.

The six of them froze, eyes wide. It felt like an hour, but within a second the door burst open. An enormous man, who Sunset could only assume was Tirek, followed out. He rammed Applejack into the far wall before trying to run the other way.

Sunset was trying to shake herself enough to use her magic, even though something was screaming at her not to.

Tirek went to push Sci-Twi out of the way, or maybe take her as a hostage, but she grabbed his arm instead. Dropping to deadweight, she managed to flip them both into a somersault. There was an audible grunt form both as they landed; Tirek flat on his back and Sci-Twi on top but quickly rolling off into a standing position.

Everyone cringed as Rainbow gave a literal flying heel-kick to somewhere no one wants to be kicked. Applejack then planed her boot firmly on his chest. They all expected more of a fight, but Tirek barely moved.

“I think one of y’all knock him out,” Applejack said, cautiously taking her foot off him.

“Where’d you learn to do that?” Rainbow asked, turning to Sci-Twi.

“Shining,” Sci-Twi answered, nervously twirling her hair. “I asked him to show me some self-defense stuff when I started biking through the park to get home. I don’t get to use it much outside of sparing practice.”

“From how you were in the games, I didn’t think you were the athletic type,” she said.

“Well, it was an obstacle course and archery,” she answered. “I haven’t practiced those much. Plus it was a competition in front of everyone. And I was being blackmailed to win. And Sour Sweet was yelling at me.”

“You know, maybe we can continue this later?” Sunset said. “Aj, drag him into the room while we get something to block the exits.”

Princess Twilight went into the previous apartment, while Sunset followed Aj into Starlight’s. She used the rest of her Magic to move shelves and other type things in front of the windows. Once the two of them got out, Princess Twilight levitated a bookshelf in front of the door. It wouldn’t hold him for long, but hopefully it’s long enough.

“So, what was the alarm that sounded?” Sunset asked.

“I think that might’ve been my phone?” Applejack said.

“Really?” Starlight sighed. “You didn’t at least put it on vibrate?”

“Hey, that Adagio girl said we’re in a deadzone,” she defended, checking her phone. “I didn’t think it was going to be a problem since it shouldn’t be ringing in the first place.”

“Who’s even texting you right now?” Rainbow asked. “The girls are all here, and I know you have dumb ringtones for your family members.”

“They’re not dumb,” she frowned. “And it’s from the school messaging site.”

“You have a school messaging site?” Starlight asked.

“It’s mostly used to get notes or assignments if you’re out sick,” Sunset said. “Some teachers send reminders to do the homework.”

“It wasn’t even my teacher,” Applejack frowned. “Applebloom’s in stagecraft, and I got the reminder to make sure she doesn’t forget about her mid-year exam.”

“Stagecraft is a theatre class, right?” Princess Twilight sighed. “Please tell me it’s not the teacher I think it is.”

Applejack just sighed and turned the phone toward her. There, grinning out of the goofiest profile picture a teacher could get away with, was Discord’s face. He was almost mocking them.

“Mind if I use this to call the cops?” Starlight asked, ignoring Princess Twilight’s longest string of swears yet. “Since it has a signal and all.”

“Sure,” Applejack replied, handing over her phone.

They stayed silent while Starlight talked to the police. After teleporting outside and reuniting with the rest of their group, it was only another minute before several police cars and the like swarmed the building.

“You know what this calls for?” Pinkie asked, ignoring the shouting behind her as Tirek was tossed into a waiting police car.

“A party?” everyone guessed.

“Correctamundo!” she cheered. “A big party in our hotel room! And maybe the pool! With my new girlfriend!”

“One one condition,” Sci-Twi said. “No one can ever tell my brother or my parents that we technically just took down an escaped crime lord.”

“Not much of a crime lord if we took him down like a little bitch!” Rainbow laughed.

“Still, a celebration doesn’t sound too bad,” Rarity said.

“You girls do realize you might have to give a police report, right?” Starlight asked.

“As an interdimensional Pony Princess, I literally cannot do that,” Princess Twilight said.

“I probably shouldn’t either,” Sunset said. “And Dash should power down before she does.”

“Yeah, that’s going to be a problem,” Rainbow said, shuffling her wings.

“Disguises!” Pinkie practically sang, handing her the two scraps of fabric from that morning. “Just keep your wings really still!”

“Think we could make it out of here?” Sunset asked.

“Knowing the police, they probably have the whole area roped off,” Sci-Twi said.

“I have an idea,” Princess Twilight said. “Sunset, think you can hold onto me?”

“You don’t have enough power for a teleport,” Sunset answered.

Princess Twilight just extended one of her wings in response. Catching on, Sunset wrapped her arms around her waist and let her fly them into the air. Thankfully, they were mostly out of range of sight, and no one wanted to admit to seeing two flying girls.

“Think you have enough energy for a cloudwalking spell?” Twilight asked as they reached the first few clouds.

Sunset nodded before casting the spell. Testing out the cloud first, she stepped onto it before flopping fully into it.

“I could use a nap,” Sunset sighed.

“I’m not stopping you,” Twilight agreed, laying beside her.

They woke up two hours later, thanks to Pinkie calling Sunset’s cellphone. Apparently they had a tenant meeting to go to.

Author's Notes:

That was a bit anticlimactic.
Firstly, the beginning bit makes a reference to another fic about Cadence's parents, and the events in that.
Fun fact: the much darker original script had Shimmer and her roommates being a part of Tirek's still-ongoing crime operation, with Starlight as his second in command, and the Rainboms having to kick major ass in some sort of superhero fight scene. Despite it having more action, it had a sudden dark turn that I didn't like, so I went with this version. Lest of a climax, but fits better.

Mise En Abyme

The tenant meeting was hectic, of course. Not only did they have to explain that their landlord had locked them in because they were being held hostage by an escaped criminal, but Sunset and Princess Twilight had to answer way to many questions about Equestria. After all, none of them were going to believe that they hadn’t been magically teleported out of the building by two girls with Unicorn horns.

The most tedious part was playing ‘tell me what kind of pony I am!’. Sunset left that up to Twilight, since most of the tenants were from Starlight’s village. She did step in when she couldn’t name a couple.

Eventually, they left and went back to their hotel room. Pinkie had somehow already supplied the place with plenty of snacks, even ones for Shimmer and her roommates. Sunset and Twilight downed two bags of chips and several sodas each before Pinkie was even finished telling them about her ideas.

“We should go to the pool!” Pinkie exclaimed.

“Darling, I hardly think that’s the best idea right now,” Rarity said. “Three of us are still powered up, and I’m sure you’re half way there already. Besides, I doubt anyone other than me remembered to bring something to swim in.”

“That’s where you’re wrong!” she sang. “Last slumber party, you all left swim suits at my place! And we already found out that Sunset’s suits mostly fit Twilight, so when I had Sonata grab swimsuits from her place, I had her grab two of Shimmer’s!”

“That’s an odd preparation,” Sci-Twi said.

“It’s Pinkie,” the rest of their group chorused.

They reluctantly let Pinkie drag them to the pool. Luckily, since word of there having just been an escaped criminal in the area got around, all of the other guests were too paranoid to use the hotel pool. There wasn’t even a lifeguard to question the wings.

Sunset and Twilight took the hot tub for themselves. After an afternoon of stress and over-using magic, it was nice to relax in the hot jets of water.

“Weird question,” Sunset warned. “Are you, on any level, freaking out over possibly replacing me with Starlight?”

“Well now I am,” Twilight answered. “I don’t think I am. Are you worried I will?”

“Yes and no,” she said. “I was more worried that you’d be worried about it. But I know that you can’t really replace a friend, no matter their similarities. Stars, you can keep everyone separated across Universes. If you can’t easily replace Rainbow Dash with Rainbow Dash, I doubt you’d replace her with me. But you got on pretty quickly with this world’s Starlight, so I had to ask.”

“You two aren’t that similar,” she rolled her eyes.

“We do have a lot in common,” she said. “Powerful Unicorn turned supervillain, manipulated a large group of Ponies, or Humans in my case, defeated by you and turned into a friend.”

“Yeah, but you’re both very different too,” she said. “First off, just in your time as villains, hers started from abandonment issues that turned into control issues, while yours were more the whole ‘I’m not enough but also I’m great and deserve more’ thing. And you went for dark magic while she did Time travel.”

“But as actual Ponies,” she continued, not giving a chance for interruption, “I’m still getting to know her, so I can’t answer it well yet. But I guess I’d say you’re warmer, if that makes sense? I mean, if we’re talking first impressions as a friend, you were more open. Of course, there’s also your faults that are different.”

“Our faults,” she frowned, raising an eyebrow.

“Okay, that sounds bad, but hear me out,” she defended. “Your worse flaw is your temper and rashness. Quick to anger, quick to make decisions without thinking them through.”

“Even I’ll admit to that,” she half smiled. “I told you how I yelled at Sci-Twi during the games, and how I kept getting into fights back home. And you remember when Rainbow was playing ‘Awesome As I Wanna Be’ for the Battle of the Bands. Stars, even being here was a rash decision to jump through the portal.”

“Exactly,” she said. “Starlight’s problem is stubbornness. Even after learning she was wrong, she went forward with it. It took a lot to convince her to try again. As in, even after seeing how what she was doing was making ponies unhappy at best, and destroying the world at worst, I still had to give her the friendship speech.”

“Yeah, I just had to get blasted into a crater,” she laughed.

“You know what I mean,” she said, giving a playful smack with her wing.

Before Sunset could say anything, they turned to the shouts behind them. Someone had the bright idea to put Rainbow and Applejack on the same team for a game of chicken, and now they were arguing over who lost the round against Pinkie and Sonata.

It only lasted long enough for Aria to smack them both with a beach ball. Which of course started a very competitive volleyball game.

“So,” Sunset said, ignoring the game. “You sure you don’t think I’m ‘warmer’ because of the whole Dimensional thing? After all, you have to at least associate me with the wonders of this world.”

“Oh, uh, no, I’m past that stage,” Twilight replied.

“Which means you did feel it at some point?” she wondered.

“Yeah,” she admitted, shuffling her wings. “But it was with Flash.”

“Really?” she laughed. “Didn’t even think about that.”

“I mean, I’ve gotten over it,” she defended. “But when I first got here, I was lost and alone, and he was the first person to be nice to me, along with being the first ‘new face’. I’ve gotten over it a bit. After all, I’m friends with his Counterpart now. And I’m pretty sure this world’s Flash and I are decent friends too.”

“Good for you, working past it and all,” she said. “Wouldn’t want relationship issues.”

“Sometimes we can see things coming,” she shrugged. “Other times, we don’t realize there’s a problem until it blows up in our face.”

“Hey, mind if we join you two?”

Sunset looked up to see Shimmer and Adagio sanding behind them. Instead of answering, Twilight moved her wings away from the hot tub’s entrance. The two climbed in, sitting close together.

“Two girls, chilling in the hot tub no feet apart because they’re so gay!” Pinkie sang over to them.

“Oh no, whatever shall we do now that she learned our dark secret?” Adagio asked dramatically before kissing Shimmer’s cheek.

“Jokes aside, thanks for this,” Shimmer said. “For coming to find me. I think next weekend I’ll go home. Never thought I would do it, but hey, if my Interdimensional Counterpart can handle saving the world after nearly destroying it, I can do that.”

“If it makes you feel better, I’m still nervous about going home,” Sunset said. “But if I try to back out now, I think Twilight’d literally drag me back.”

“Or I could toss Lance through the Portal,” Twilight shrugged. “That said, you should make sure to ask my Counterpart for Lance’s address.”

“We needed to head to the area anyway,” Adagio said.

“I’d be glad to help you find what you need,” Sunset said. “Looking for something in particular.”

“Someone, actually,” Shimmer said. “Remember how I said I do tech work at the local college? Well, Dagi and her sisters are their own musical group. We’ve been talking to this girl we met online, and we were talking about how once she’s out of high school, we’d do a tour group thing. You know, travel around and perform?”

“It’s not just music though,” Adagio smiled. “It’s our band, her band, and her magic show. We could probably think of another act to toss in, if we wanted to. But Shimmer here can to the tech work for all sorts of shows.”

Twilight and Sunset shared an anxious glance.

“You wouldn’t happen to remember the name of the girl, would you?” Sunset asked.

“Trixie,” the couple answered.

Sunset gave a nervous chuckle and sank further into the hot tub.

They had stayed a second day, mostly because when Twilight sent the letter to tell Shining to bring Lance to the Castle, he said they’d be there Monday. That, and no one really wanted to go home and back to school just yet. The only one who really complained was Sci-Twi, since she didn’t want to be late for her first day as a Canterlot Wondercolt. Of course, everyone pointed out that the paperwork probably wouldn’t be fully done until at least Tuesday, so she wouldn’t have been able to go to class anyway.

The return trip itself wasn’t that bad, despite being cooped up in a car. They took their time, arriving back in the city by mid-afternoon. Deciding to send Princess Twilight and Sunset through the portal first, they headed for Canterlot High.

“You know,” Princess Twilight said, stretching her arms over her head. “While I get the convenience of these vehicles here, they’re too cramped. I’d rather take a train.”

“One of these days we should take you on a plane,” Sunset snickered.

“Hey, why’s Lyra waiting by the statue?” Rainbow asked.

Sure enough, they could see her aquamarine color from the street. They walked closer, and she saw them and came closer. Sunset noticed the different outfit she wore. She had a white and pink striped top, white shorts with a turquoise trim, a lyre necklace, and strappy gold sandals. Her hair was also pulled into a ponytail, a faded pink ribbon keeping it in place. She looked almost too happy, like she was about to cry with happiness.

“Pinkie!”she shouted.

“Heartstrings!” Pinkie gasped.

Pinkie practically jumped over everyone to tackle her in a hug. The two of them fell backwards, still hugging. They were both happy-crying as well.

“Darling, you’re acting like you haven’t seen each other in years,” Rarity sighed.

“We haven’t!” they chorused.

“Pinkie, I know you just saw Lyra during the games,” Rainbow sighed.

“Well, yeah,” Pinkie said, standing up. “But that was Lyra, this is Heartstrings!”

“Want to run that by me again, sugarcube?” Applejack asked.

“She’s Lyra but Not Lyra!” she smiled.

“Lyra, please tell me you didn’t,” Twilight sighed.

“Well, Pinkie said it was okay,” ‘Heartstrings’ shrugged.

“It’s totally okay!” Pinkie chirped from her perch on the mostly destroyed statue. “I mean, it’s for Friendship! Twilight literally can’t get mad at me for that!”

They looked between Pinkie, who hadn’t yet let go of ‘Heartstrings’, and Pinkie sitting on the statue. Then to Lyra standing next to the statue in her normal pink and blue outfit.

“I hate that you’re right,” Twilight sighed again, rubbing the bridge of her nose.

“Sorry, Twilight,” Heartstrings said sheepishly. “Though wow it’s so weird to see all of you guys but not you guys.”

“Wait, what’s going on?” Rainbow asked.

“You’re not used to this by now?” Sunset asked. “Heartstrings and one Pinkie are the ones from Equestria.”

“Yeah,” Heartstrings said. “I ended up here a while ago one time and met this Pinkie. The other Pinkie’s helped me stay in touch since I had to leave. Something about talking to herself in dreams?”

“Why am I not surprised,” she smiled.

“I’m not going to make you leave,” Twilight said. “Just explain all this later, okay?”

“Oki Doki Loki!” Pinkie chirped.

“We can finally have a sleepover!” Pinkie shouted. “I’ll call Maud! She’ll love to meet me!”

“Remember to come home eventually,” Twilight said before turning to Sunset. “So, you ready to go home?

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” Sunset nodded.

Letting Pinkie, Pinkie, Lyra and Heartstrings bounce around, the two of them walked to the Portal. Twilight walked through first, trusting her to follow.

Sunset placed her hand on its surface. She watched the ripples of magic spread over it. Taking a breath, she stepped into the other World.

Author's Notes:

Well, this is finished. Of course I'm going to follow up with Sunset's adventures in Equestria, but this story was about finding 'Shimmer', so it's closed for now.
Also, the Pinkie and Heartstrings story is Friendship Through Dimensions, which actualy ended with their trip here.