The sequel to Friendship Games and finale of the Equestria Girls series: what happens when you get dimensional doubles together?
Princess Twilight Sparkle went through the portal to find herself face to face with the Twilight Sparkle of the human realm. Is it a simple meeting or did they just stumble on something much more? The fanmade sequel to Friendship Games and the concluding chapter of the Equestria Girls saga.
I would appreciate any commentary or thoughts you can provide. I'm always looking to improve.
“Make that…the second weirdest thing…” Princess Twilight Sparkle said, visibly taken aback by what she looking at. Twilight had just stepped through the portal linking the realm of Equestria with Canterlot High School’s statue and finished a very hurried description of her previous adventure. She had gotten so wrapped up in her exposition that she wasn't even paying any mind to her surroundings and only just noticed the odd situation she now found herself in.
The other girls seated on the grass were equally as dumbstruck at what they were seeing. Standing opposite Twilight was a girl dressed in a dark red prep academy uniform. Her hair was the same color as Twilight’s but tied into a bun with a pink, star-shaped hairpin and she had a pair of black-framed glasses adorning the bridge of her nose but otherwise she looked identical to Twilight. Her facial expression turned to a nervous enthusiasm upon making eye contact with the Princess of Friendship.
“Uhhhh…” was the closest thing Rainbow Dash could manage to speaking.
“Ahh…ehhh…ahem!” Rarity stammered, taking over for her speechless friend. “Rainbow Dash! Let’s not be…rude!”
She stood to her feet and brushed off her skirt. “Princess Twilight Sparkle, please meet our new friend…umm…Twilight Sparkle…” She attempted an introduction but was clearly at a loss for the very strange situation. She curled the corners of her mouth into a forced grin. The human universe’s Twilight sheepishly waved at her counterpart.
“Two…Twilights?” Spike, Twilight’s talking dog, said in confusion.
Suddenly the tension was broken by Pinkie Pie with a grand outburst. “WOOOW! Both Twilights in one place! I can’t believe it, this is super, SUUUUPER crazy!” she exclaimed in a joyful squeal. The shrillness of her voice seemed to shake the other girls out of their dazes and they started to absorb the event.
“Heh…wow…I can’t believe this is happening,” the native Twilight, said, twirling her purple hair nervously. She held out her hand towards her counterpart. “It’s nice…to finally meet.”
“Uh…what are you doing?” Princess Twilight asked, confused by the gesture. She looked around at the other girls.
“Oh, right, you ain’t from ‘round here,” Applejack, said, realizing Princess Twilight came from a different culture. “She wants to shake hands. Just grab it and give it a quick pump!”
Twilight reached out nervously and grabbed her universe double’s hand. “Ni-…nice to meet you, t-“ Twilight started to respond. Suddenly a spark of energy jumped between their hands. “Wha-?”
The girls’ clasped hands released a large wave of energy. Human Twilight’s eyes grew wide as the energy wave burst forth and covered the surrounding area. It washed over the six other girls and they found themselves standing in the middle of a large grassy field. Everyone else also experienced drastic physical changes. Their bodies took on more equine forms as hooves appeared in place of their hands and feet while everyone present was now standing on all fours. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy sprouted wings while Sunset Shimmer, Rarity, and human Twilight grew horns on their foreheads. Princess Twilight grew a pair of wings and a horn. Spike found himself transformed into a small dragon-like creature with green spines and claws instead of paws.
“What’s happening?!” Sunset Shimmer cried out, confused and panicked by the event. “Everyone's turned into ponies!”
“E-Equestria?!” Princess Twilight said, looking around and seemingly recognizing where this strange energy nexus had brought them. “But…how?! We never went back through the portal!” Human Twilight pulled her now-hoofed limb away from Princess Twilight and the energy withdrew as quickly as it emerged. Everyone returned to their human forms and collapsed to the ground.
“Ugghh…” Rainbow Dash groaned while rubbing her head. “You really are new to this ‘handshake’ thing.” Applejack shot her a dirty look for the remark and Rainbow Dash just shrugged innocently.
“What was that? Did…did we all just ‘pony-up’?” Fluttershy asked when she and the others were back on their feet, still trying to process what had just occurred.
“That was way more powerful than a simple pony-up,” Sunset Shimmer replied. She looked at Princess Twilight for insight but only got a small shrug and a confused look as a response.
“I’m sorry, I can’t explain that,” she responded while shaking her head. “It was like a huge release of magical energy that somehow caused us to temporarily merge with Equestria. But I thought our realms were separated by the portal.”
“Maybe I have an explanation,” her human counterpart interjected, her voice hinting at a possible lead. “Let’s meet in the lab.” She set off for the campus of Canterlot High and the rest of the girls followed her.
“Wait, darling!” Rarity said, grabbing Princess Twilight by the arm.
“Rarity, what are you-?” Twilight tried to ask, confused why she was being pulled aside.
“We can’t have you wandering around out in the open now that Twilight…the, ‘other’ Twilight, that is, attends CHS,” Rarity explained. "Might create some confusion." She rolled over a rack of clothes, pulled out a hooded sweatshirt and pants, and whisked Princess Twilight into the outfit in a flash. She completed her ensemble with a pair of sunglasses. “Voila! Now no one will recognize you!” Twilight lowered the sunglasses to make eye contact with Rarity but, proud of herself, had already started skipping off towards the school with the rest of her friends. Twilight took a quick glance around then put the sunglasses back over her eyes. She tucked her hands into the front pocket of the sweatshirt and tailed her friends into the school.
Inside, Princess Twilight followed her friends through the Canterlot High School halls as they made their way to human Twilight's laboratory. Class had let out so the other students were roaming the halls. The human Twilight came up to a door and unlocked it with a key from her pocket. She and the rest proceeded inside, with the disguised Princess Twilight entering last.
“Hey, Twilight,” a student said in passing before Twilight could enter the room. The remark startled Princess Twilight; her disguise had clearly failed. The sunglasses popped off her ears and she fumbled to catch them.
Twilight fished for a reply. “Wait, how did you-?! WAH!” Before she could finish her sentence, Applejack's arm reached out from the lab and yanked her inside.
Twenty minutes later the girls were standing in the lab as human Twilight Sparkle rolled her chair back and forth between two tables containing a computer and a set of written diagrams that she was constantly jotting notes onto. As she worked, she could be heard muttering calculations and figures to herself.
“You almost done there, sugarpie?” Applejack asked.
“Just a minute more,” Twilight responded as she continued to zip back and forth between the pair of desks, not even breaking eye contact with her work. Princess Twilight wiped a small tear from her eye as she watched her counterpart work with such zeal.
Rainbow Dash looked over at Princess Twilight. “Are you…crying?” she asked.
“Dearie, what’s wrong?” Rarity added.
“Oh…oh! It’s nothing,” Princess Twilight said, slightly flummoxed. The tone of her voice had a hint of strain to it, as though she was holding back some emotion. “It’s just…seeing her work so hard, it reminds me of how I was before I found my friends in Equestria. Spending hours upon hours studying and researching instead of appreciating the value of having others in your life. I'm so glad she found a circle of friends.” The other girls smiled, feeling touched.
“Well it was thanks to you that we were able to be friends,“ Sunset replied. “You brought everyone together after…I tore them apart.” The seven girls reached in for a collective hug but were suddenly interrupted by human Twilight.
“Done!” she proclaimed as she finished the last bit of typing on her computer. Next to her computer was a small handheld device. It had two antennae and a meter on the display. Twilight pulled the cable out of the device and walked over to the group.
“Ooo! What does that do?” Pinkie Pie asked enthusiastically.
"This is a 'spectral analyzer'," human Twilight explained. “It lets me detect and read nearby abnormalities in energy then upload the data it captures to a computer in order to help determine the source. Originally I had used it to confirm that there was some kind of energy anomaly here at Canterlot High. I've recalibrated it to operate in a different sensitivity spectrum that should help me understand what's going on.” She gave the device to Fluttershy. “Fluttershy, could you hold this, please?” Twilight asked. “Twilight, you stand over there,” she instructed with her finger, indicating to her alternate self to stand at a distance across the room. Princess Twilight complied and took her position.
“Alright, when I say so, raise your arm towards mine. Fluttershy, please aim the meter's antennas towards the space between us,” human Twilight continued. She nodded to her counterpart and they both raised their right arms in unison. Fluttershy pointed the device at the area between the girls. “Now, Twilight, walk towards me one step at a time until I say ‘stop’.”
The girls each took a step towards one another with their arms outstretched. Fluttershy and the others looked at the spectral analyzer. The dial on the face oscillated at the lower end of the scale. The two Twilights took another step towards one another and the dial began to move up the face of the meter. Another step and the dial moved steadily to the center of the gauge. A strange, glowing aura also began to fill the space between their extended arms.
“What’s going on?” Sunset wondered as she observed the aura take form.
“It’s like I thought,” the human Twilight said. “Take one more step then stop.”
Princess Twilight did so and her counterpart followed suit. Doing so caused the mysterious aura to condense and then change into a cloudy bubble. Within the bubble a small fragment of another world could be seen within. The girls looked intently at the strange phenomenon. The spectral analyzer's meter was now reading a maximum energy discharge in the area.
"Wooooah..." Rainbow Dash said, awestruck by what she was witnessing.
“What is it?” Rarity said, in curious wonderment.
“I don’t know yet,” human Twilight said. “You can put your arm down now.” The two girls lowered their arms and the aura immediately dissipated. She took back her device from Fluttershy, returned to her workspace, and reattached the cable connecting it to the computer. “Now I just need to pass these numbers through my program…” she said to herself as she typed into the computer. A few minutes later the nearby printer sprung to life and began feeding out sheets of paper. Once it had stopped, Twilight collected the papers and stapled them together. She adjusted her glasses and began to read what had been printed.
“So whaddya got?” Rainbow Dash inquired.
“Fascinating…” Twilight said as she briskly flipped through the stapled sheets, skimming down each page. “According to this the aura you just saw is a homogenization of the magical energy fields around myself and Twilight. When beings that possess identical magical affinities come in close contact, the stasis of their energies is thrown into disarray and can’t coexist in the same metaphysical plane. The barrier that protects our dimensional framework destabilizes and tries to evict the unstable coagulation of energy into the opposing reality.”
“But if the unstable magic crosses into the other dimension,” Princess Twilight continued her train of thought. “Then the same reaction would occur and it would cause a repulsion of the erratic energy back to the source dimension. The constant shifting between dimensions would eventually shatter the barrier entirely and lead to a collapse of both dimensions into a singularity!”
Human Twilight nodded in understanding and Princess Twilight covered her mouth in horror. However everyone else in the room was stumped.
“Sooo…Ah take it y’all mean…” Applejack tried to feel her way through the two girls’ logic but was clearly at a loss to put it in terms she could understand.
“It means that two creatures from different dimensions with the same magical energy can't touch or it'll break reality,” Sunset Shimmer put succinctly.
“Right, Sunset,” the human Twilight confirmed. “Think of it like this.” She went into the drawer of her desk and pulled out two small magnets. “If you try to force magnets together with the same magnetic polarity, they will push away from each other.” She demonstrated her point by placing both magnets on the desk then trying to force them to touch. The magnet she wasn’t holding slid across the desk away from the one in her hand. “Since Twilight is the same as me from the dimension of Equestria, we aren’t meant to be in the same realm at the same place. We’re ‘same-pole magnets’. After the incident at the Friendship Games, I must have unlocked a considerable amount of latent magical energy and since Princess Twilight and I are counterparts, it must be the same as hers. However, because we aren’t actually magnets, the ‘pushing’ effect you saw between the magnets would occur in the time-space surrounding us instead. This dimension would attempt to rid itself of the now-unstable magical energy by sending it into the opposite dimension and the metaphysical ‘barrier’ that separates our reality from theirs forcibly opens in order to send the energy there.”
“But when it gets sent there,” Princess Twilight continued, “the unstable energy can’t exist in that realm either so that dimension will try to 'push' it back to where it came from.”
“It sounds like a really creepy inter-dimensional ping-pong,” Pinkie Pie summarized.
“You...could say it like that, yes,” human Twilight replied. “However, since the dimensional hole cut by the unstable magic isn’t natural, the longer it stays open the more it begins to tear through the rest of reality. If the rift stays open for too long or the magical energy continues to magnify out of control, the barrier will collapse entirely and the two realms will collide, which would mean the end of all existence in both.”
Everyone present in the room gasped. “That’s…that’s awful!” Spike said in shock.
“As much as I hate to admit it,” Princess Twilight said, “I don’t think I should stay here at Canterlot High. Being in too close proximity to Twilight probably puts everyone at risk.”
The other girls let out a chorus of groans in disappointment. “But you just got here!” Rainbow Dash cried. “Now you’re just going to leave again?!”
“I’m sorry, Rainbow Dash, but it’s really for the best,” Princess Twilight said dejectedly.
An hour later the girls had reconvened in front of the Canterlot High School statue and Princess Twilight was hugging all her of her friends goodbye.
“Aww…I really wish I could go back with you!” Pinkie Pie moaned.
Twilight chuckled. “Me too, Pinkie, but then we’d have the same problem in my dimension!”
“It’s such a shame, darling,” Rarity said. “We’ve got so much catching up to do.”
“I wish we could figure out how to stabilize the energy around you and Twilight,” Sunset said. “This seems like such a lame reason for you to have to go back to Equestria.”
“I agree,” Twilight said, “but I can’t risk the stability of both of our universes, even if we are good friends.” Sunset gave her friend a hug.
“Please write back this time,” Sunset pleaded into Twilight's ear.
“I will,” she responded. “I’m not so indisposed this time…at least I hope not.”
Twilight then went to embrace the human Twilight before suddenly catching herself and realizing what would happen. Both girls pulled back cautiously.
“I’m disappointed we couldn’t get to know each other better,” human Twilight said to her counterpart, shuffling her feet awkardly. “I feel like there’s a lot we could have shared.”
“Me too,” Princess Twilight said.
“I intend to research how to stabilize this energy,” human Twilight said, hopefully. “I think it’s possible to create a nullification field but I need time to sort it out.”
“I look forward to it,” Princess Twilight said confidently.
“Heh, maybe next time you could introduce me to your Spike,” Spike said with a grin.
“Possibly. He and you would probably get along quite well,” Twilight said patting him on the head. He flashed a wide smile at the gesture. She set one foot into the portal beneath the statue and waved goodbye one last time. The other girls did the same then she stepped into the portal fully and was gone.
Just then the group heard someone running up behind them. It was a boy with blue hair and a black jacket. He was panting heavily as he slid to a stop. It was Flash Sentry, the boy that Twilight had befriended on her first trip to the human dimension.
“Was…was Twilight…here?” he struggled to say between breaths.
“Oh…Flash…no, you just missed her,” Fluttershy responded. He collapsed onto the grass.
“Aw man…I had heard someone mention Twilight came back! I ran out here as fast as I could when I saw you guys out in front of the statue,” he said, exhausted and annoyed that his rush was for nothing.
“Sorry, Flash,” Sunset said.
“Any reason she had to go back so quickly?” Flash asked. Sunset pointed to their universe’s Twilight. She waved sheepishly.
“Apparently those two can’t be near each other… It causes ‘unwanted’ consequences,” Sunset explained. Flash frowned and picked himself off the ground.
“I’m sorry, Flash, I wish it could be different,” Twilight said. “But with the magical instability that occurs when she and I come in contact, she thought it was best if she went back through the portal in order to keep everyone safe.”
“It’s okay, it’s not your fault,” Flash said he as he turned back towards the school. The look in his eyes conveyed a hint of confused frustration. "I'm not sure how I should feel. You're Twilight yet...you aren't. It's so weird, I'm having to tell myself that whenever I see you in the halls." Flash walked back towards the campus as Twlight and her friends watched him, finding themselves at a loss on how to make him feel better.
The other side of town…Saddleback Mall
Three girls stood outside a large clothing store. They were wearing gray hooded sweatshirts and had backpacks draped over their shoulders.
“Two minutes,” the girl in the middle said. “We do this in two minutes then meet outside.” The other two girls nodded in unison. They each put on a pair of sunglasses then raised the hoods of their sweatshirts over their heads.
The three entered the store inconspicuously and out of the line of sight of any employee on duty. They split up and ducked into the clothing racks. They stealthily moved between the racks while surreptitiously removing pieces of clothing as they did, jamming the merchandise into their backpacks. If an employee came near, the girls ducked behind whatever they could find in order to stay unseen before continuing to steal more clothes.
Once the two-minute mark arrived, the planned exit from the store began. Each girl selected the shortest route to the nearest exit they could find and began to make their way out. Unfortunately for one member of the team, she found herself in a bad situation when she observed a member of the mall's security force quietly conversing with an employee, directly in the path of her planned escape. It seemed as though the employee was aware that something undesirable had been in the store, as he indicated to the security guard that they ought to look around. The lead guard nodded to his other squadmates and they split up to cover the store. As they did, the other girls also began to see the security staff combing the aisles and racks. Panic set in and it was clear that the security team knew that they were in the store.
All three girls quickly tossed their loot under the racks and swiftly dodged the eyes of the security staff as they made for the exit to the store and back into the mall. Having seemingly evaded the security team, they reconvened near one of the mall exits and began hastily making their way outside.
“How did they find us?” one of the thieves whispered to the team's organizer.
“Psh, it was probably Pearlesecent’s fault,” she whispered back.
“What?!” the third girl said, offended. “I bet Jade Jewel was being too obvious again. Why do we take her on these? She’s bound to mess them up!” Jade Jewel lowered her sunglasses slightly to shoot Pearlesecent a dirty glare.
The trio managed to get through the exit to the mall but as soon as they did, they could see more members of the security team were waiting outside the exit. They did an abrupt about-face and attempted to double-back into the store they came from but were then met by the team sent into the store to catch them. They were now pinned down and didn't have a way out. Before they could react to their situation, three of the guards grabbed them by the shoulders from behind.
“Ungh! Unf! Let me go!” the ringleader struggled as she was being restrained. Her hood and sunglasses fell off as she tried to wiggle herself out of the guard's grip, revealing her bright orange hair underneath.
“Twice in the same year, huh, Ms. Shimmer?” the security force lead said to the would-be thief, recognizing her face and hair. “You should apply for the mall’s loyalty program…” She flashed a snide grimace of contempt at her captor.
The guard team removed the hoods and sunglasses of her two partners. Without their hoods on the girls' hair flowed out, revealing Jade Jewel's jagged green locks and Pearlescent's smooth pink hair. “Couldn’t resist, could you? Well we were nice enough last time to just ban you from the mall but I think we need to be a little firmer now…” Jade Jewel snorted defiantly while Pearlescent just looked at the ground, trying not to make eye contact with any of the security guards.
A few minutes later the police had arrived at the mall and the three girls were sat in the back of a squad car in handcuffs. Their backpacks of stolen clothes were handed to the arresting officer before he got into the car and drove to the precinct.
"It's such a shame," Judge Curt Law said, flipping through the case files. "You were a star student until two years ago."
Sunset Shimmer and her accomplices were seated before a judge. They were at a hearing concerning the possibility for early release, having spent the past five months in juvenile detainment.
"Then it was just a backslide into skipping school, vandalism, and now shoplifting?" he said, disappointment clear in his voice. "It all seemed to start when you moved to this city."
"Yeah...well..." she muttered. She averted her eyes from the judge, not wanting to discuss her misdeeds in great detail.
The judge removed his glasses and looked down at the girls. "I'll be frank: I don't think any of you want to be criminals. Quite honestly I simply think all three of you deserve a chance for a fresh start," he assessed. "However, I don't take these things lightly. I will grant you an early release pending the condition that the three of you attend your senior year at Canterlot High School. Do we have an understanding?"
"Canterlot High?" Pearlesecent said, confused. "That's six miles from our old high school."
"I'm sorry but I think you've got too many negative connections at your old school," the judge replied. "Nothing against Saddleback High but if you're going to get back on the right foot, you need to be put into a different environment."
The three girls exchanged glances. "Fine," Jade Jewel said. "Beats being in detention." The other two girls slowly nodded.
"I'm glad you are seeing reason. I sincerely hope you don't make me regret this," the judge said. "If I get even one report that you were absent for an unjustified reason, I will have everything I said here revoked. There will be no exceptions." He banged his gavel and finalized his decision.
The school day was starting at Canterlot High and the students were all making their way to the entrance of the campus. It was an average late summer morning and the weather was cooling down as fall was rolling in. Sunset Shimmer was waiting by the school's statue in the front courtyard, reading a textbook, when Rainbow Dash skidded to a stop in front of Sunset on her skateboard.
"You know that thing's gotten you into trouble before, right?" Sunset reminded her friend, looking out the corner of her eye.
Rainbow Dash nonchalantly blew one of her bangs out of the way and flashed a smug grin. "Psh, life isn't worth living unless you're willing to take the risk!" She stomped the tail of her board, which popped it up off the ground. She caught the board in the air and tucked it under her arm. "So, you're coming to the Rainbooms practice today, right?" she asked.
"Sorry, I've got a lot to do as head planner for the homecoming festival," Sunset informed her. "I'll be booked through the afternoon."
"Eh, duty calls, I guess," Dash said with a shrug. She tucked her board under her arm and made her way into the building. A short while later, Sunset saw Twilight Sparkle coming her way. She put her book back into her backpack and slung it over her shoulder as she stood up to greet Twilight.
"Hey, Twilight," Sunset said. "What's up?"
"Nothing special," Twilight said. "Just a regular day, I suppose."
"Did you make any progress with trying to stabilizing the energy field?" Sunset asked. Twilight shook her head.
"It's difficult to grasp since I don't have Princess Twilight's magical energy signature readily available to test with," she said. "All my calculations have to be made based on a single energy signature, which is the magical energy around me. I'm making headway, it's just a lot slower than I was expecting." She paused and her eyes lit up. "However, I was able to start an offshoot project that has made more progress. I've built a device that will let me close a dimensional rift when one is forcefully opened. It's not quite what we were looking for but I think it might come in handy anyway."
"Really, how?" Sunset asked.
"Well it's really quite ingenious," Twilight said, giddily twirling her braids as she often did when she was in the moment. "When two magical creatures of the same affinity come close and the rift opens, I can just sever the dimensional li-"
"Ah..." Sunset interrupted, looking at her phone. "On second thought I think I need to get inside."
Twilight pulled out her own phone and did the same. "Yeah, me too. Meet for lunch?" Sunset nodded in reply and they set off for the school. As the two girls walked through the school entrance, a city bus pulled to a stop into the school's main drive. Two girls stepped off: Pearlescent and Jade Jewel.
"So..." Pearlesecent said. "Canterlot High School, home of the Canterlot Wondercolts."
"Didn't our old school wipe those guys at basketball?" Jade said. Pearlescent nodded proudly and the two girls laughed about it. A third girl stepped off the bus behind them and then the bus left the premises. Pearlescent and Jade turned their heads towards the third girl.
"Sunset I don't know why you were so serious about this 'fresh start' thing," Jade said to her friend. Sunset Shimmer was wearing a dark green sweater and modest, well-kept jeans. On her feet were a pair of black and white sneakers and she had a pair of sunburst earrings instead of her usual single hoop earring. She had also trimmed her orange hair significantly compared to five months before. "No one at this school even recognizes you." Pearlesecent and Jade Jewel, comparatively, had changed little about themselves in the intervening months, continuing to stick with their usual, skater-inspired ensembles. Jade had on a black tank top and long black cargo pants while Pearlescent was wearing a white t-shirt with the logo of a local band and dark green flood pants.
"Yeah, well, this is a personal thing," Sunset replied. "I need to convince myself just as much as everyone else here that I'm not who I used to be." She set her bag on the ground and pulled out a wig of dark brown hair and a pair of glasses. Pearlesecent and Jade Jewel started to crack up as she put on the accessories.
"Laugh if you want, I feel more comfortable this way," Sunset said, unaffected by their opinion of her. She threw her bag back over her shoulders and proceeded towards the campus. Jade and Pearlesecent took her offer and burst out laughing. Sunset rolled her eyes at her friends' lack of understanding.
"What's the big deal?" Jade asked, once she had stopped laughing. "Pearl and I aren't getting all worked up about having to go to school here, it's just another school. We just finish out this school year and we can do whatever we want, we'll never have to see these clowns again."
Sunset didn't answer immediately. "Why don't you care about what other people think about you?" she said once she had thought about what she wanted to say. Pearlesecent and Jade exchanged glances but didn't respond. "You heard the judge, didn't you? Before I came here I was a great student. I had friends who were close to me and we all wanted to succeed together. Then I moved to this city and I lost that. I couldn't fit in at that old school, I never found a close circle who were like the friends from my old town."
"Is that why you started hanging around us?" Pearlesecent asked.
"Surprised it took you so long to figure that out," Sunset said. She tried not to be insulting but it was hard to find words that expressed her feeling on the matter. "It's nothing against you, you've been good friends through it all. I just...came from a different crowd one time in my life."
"Well, hey," Jade said, wrapping her arm around Sunset's shoulders. "If your little 'reinvent myself' gimmick doesn't go anywhere, you know where to find us, 'kay?"
"You changing your name too?" Pearlescent said, jokingly.
"Yeah," Sunset responded. Pearlesecent was taken back slightly. "Call me 'Amber Sunrise.'"
That set the two girls into another bout of laughter but they said no more and swung their bags over their shoulder to head to the campus. Sunset followed them with a slightly sheepish stride.
At her locker, the Sunset Shimmer of Equestria was writing an entry in her journal. The book was a magical artifact from Equestria that was linked to another such book in the possession of Princess Twilight Sparkle. Whenever a message was written on the pages of the book, the same text would appear in the opposite book, which allowed Sunset to communicate with Twilight across dimensions.
"Hiya, Sunset!" a cheery, accented voice said from behind. Sunset looked over her shoulder and saw Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Rarity standing behind her.
"Hey, girls," Sunset said. She closed her book and put it back into her locker.
"Sendin' Princess Twilight our regards?" Applejack asked, observing what Sunset had been doing before they arrived.
Sunset nodded. "It's been a little while since I sent a message to Twilight, figured I'd catch her up on things," she said. A low sigh escaped her breath. Rarity picked up on it.
"Sunset, dear, is something the matter?" she asked. Sunset averted her eyes and leaned against the wall of lockers. Her facial expression morphed into a mild frown. The other three girls exchanged confused glances.
"Are you upset, Sunset?" Pinkie asked, now concerned.
"I...I didn't want to burden any of you with this," Sunset responded, in a dejected tone. "But...I think I'm starting to miss Equestria."
"That ain't a burden, sugar!" Applejack said, relieved the issue wasn't more serious. "Gettin' homesick ain't nothin' unusual. We're friends, you don't gotta hold stuff like that back from us."
"I guess, Applejack," Sunset responded. "But, even so..." she sighed again, "in a way I feel like that's exactly why it might have been better to keep this to myself. For all the trouble I've caused since coming here, I've still managed to find friends. I even led Twilight to discover that joy for herself. But now I'm thinking of leaving it all behind and going back to the world where I burnt all my bridges. It feels...selfish."
"What makes you want to go back?" Rarity asked.
"Do you miss the taste of hay?! I'm sure Applejack has plenty!" Pinkie excitedly added. Applejack and Rarity gave her strange looks. "What? It's what they eat over there, isn't it?" she deferred to Sunset. Sunset chuckled a little then nodded.
"Hayburgers, actually," Sunset said, now smiling again. "But, no, the food in this world is great. In fact I'd probably miss it if I went back! What I'm talking about is...I've been reading Twilight's responses to my messages and she talks about all the things she and her friends are doing back there. It makes me want to return and reconnect with my homeland, where I was born. In this world magic is unpredictable and erratic, in Equestria it can be controlled and used for practical ends. As a unicorn pony, I feel like magic is something that is a birthright for us and I'm not claiming it if I remain in this world. Plus...I've learned so much about friendship here, I wish I could share it with my old mentor, Princess Celestia."
"Your Celestia is a princess?!" Rarity said, awed by Sunset's description. "That sounds amazing!"
"She was more than a princess, she was a caring and compassionate teacher," Sunset said, in somber remembrance of her errant ways. "And...I squandered all of that to come here."
"Sunset," Applejack said, coming over to her side to put her arm over her shoulder. "We're the best friends you're gonna find. If you think that you need to go back to Equestria, don't let none of us hold you back. You didn't come from our world, your roots are back there and we understand that. It's always important to follow your heart, yeah?" The other girls nodded in agreement.
Sunset wiped a tear from her eye. "Thank you, all of you." She collected all her friends in a group hug. "I'll think about it. But don't worry, I'll at least wait until after graduation before I go anywhere."
As they hugged, the mid-morning bell rang. "Gotta go," Sunset said. "Meet for lunch?" Everyone nodded and Sunset set off for class.
"Try to set up that tent there," Sunset instructed, pointing with her pen at the spot she wanted to put the cotton candy tent. Three students unpacked the tent supplies and set to work constructing the awning at the location Sunset asked for. The construction for the senior homecoming festival had begun on the front grounds of Canterlot High and the students had already set up several tents to house festival attractions such as games or refreshments. Sunset looked back down at her clipboard to check the progress of her project.
"Hey! Could you help us hold this leg?" one of the students working on the cotton candy tent called out. On the far side of the festival site, another student was about to take a bite of a fresh apple in his hand when the request for assistance reached him. He set down the apple on a nearby workbench and walked over to help the other three with the tent. The uneaten apple caught Sunset's attention and she gazed upon its bright sheen in the sun. The sight of the apple inspired her to reminisce.
"Concentrate, Sunset Shimmer," Sunset was instructed. "This exercise is to help teach you precision."
Sunset was standing in the throne room of Canterlot Castle before her mentor Princess Celestia. She was levitating an apple and focusing her magic intensely on it.
"I'm...trying, Princess," Sunset said, concentrating with all her might. She clenched her teeth and closed her eyes as her face began to become slightly flush. She focused more magical energy into the apple and it began to vibrate.
Sunset grunted and used as much magical energy as she could find in herself on the apple. Suddenly, the apple split in half. Sunset looked upon the result with disappointment. "Oooh!" she spat. "I hate this exercise! I can't even do it right!" She stomped her hoof down in frustration as she released the apple halves from her magic and they fell to the floor.
Celestia stepped over to a table where several apples were laid out. "Sunset, you show strong magical potential," she said, levitating another apple herself. "However magic is not something you can force, it is a trained and conditioned talent that grows with mastery." As she spoke, Celestia hovered the apple in front of her own face then magically split the apple into six even sections with little effort. "We are not simply born into magical ability, it is practiced and developed. Once understood, we are all capable of great things." She levitated the apple pieces towards Sunset.
Sunset sat down on the floor of the hall and sighed at the relative simplicity Celestia had demonstrated with her own ability when she herself couldn't even complete the task correctly when pushing herself. "But why do we need to dwell on these sort of exercises? I'm sure there's a thousand different ways to learn what you're trying to say. This can't be the only method for me to master this!"
"Skill is a product of process, Sunset Shimmer," Celestia explained. "I have chosen these tasks not to illuminate your shortcomings but as a way for you to grow your knowledge. It is not enough to simply execute a magic spell but to understand why it works. Our comprehension of functional magic hinges on the research that forms it as much as the ability to use it." Sunset narrowed her eyes and let out a small huff then looked off to the side, away from Celestia.
"I think we've covered enough for today, Sunset," Celestia said, dismissing her pupil. "You may return to the dormitories."
Sunset exited and closed the door behind her. "Celestia says can see my potential but throws these unnecessary tasks in my way as a way of slowing me down so I don't overtake all her other students," Sunset said to herself as she slowly trotted down the corridor outside the throne room. "There's probably loads of spells in the Canterlot Library that don't require any of this petty nonsense to learn...and I intend to find out..." Her facial expression grew into a sinister grin as she began plotting.
"Oh, Sunset!" a voice called from the front doors of the school. Sunset snapped out of her memory and turned towards the school doors. Rarity and Fluttershy were standing at the top of the steps. Rarity was holding a pile of fabric.
"Hi, Rarity, Fluttershy," Sunset responded. "Are those the festival banners?"
"Oh yes, you simply must see what we've created," she said, enthusiastically. "You'll simply love them! Fluttershy's designs are inspired!" Fluttershy blushed modestly.
Sunset nodded and began walking towards the pair to examine their work.
Pearlescent was checking emails and status updates on her phone as she walked through the halls of Canterlot High on her way to the front of the school to meet Jade Jewel. The school day had ended and other students brushed past her in the hall but she remained fixated on her phone's screen.
"Junk...junk...already knew it..." she muttered, thumbing through the various unimportant communications she had received through the day. Having cleared her queues, she slipped her phone back into her bag when a familiar sound brought her to a pause.
"Hm...?" she wondered to herself. The sound was that of a rhythmic percussion accented with the crash of cymbals. She stayed where she was, continuing to listen to the sound and tapping her foot to the beat. It was coming from around the corner of a nearby hallway. Pearlescent pulled her phone back out of her bag and typed out a short text message to Jade Jewel then returned her phone to her bag and began to search out the origin of the sound. After rounding the bend and walking a short way down the hall, she came upon the music room where the beats were coming from. Pearlescent peered into the door's window and saw a girl with fluffy pink hair practicing on a drum set inside. As she watched, the girl set down her drumsticks for a break and took a drink from a water bottle that was near her feet.
Pearlescent opened the door to the music room and stepped inside. The pink-haired girl took notice quickly.
"Hiya!" she said in a sing-song voice. Her speech was slightly labored from playing the drums but she still managed to greet her guest with cheer.
"Uh...hey," Pearlescent responded. "Couldn't help overhearing you in the halls."
"Yep, just working on some drum lines for our next show," she said. She picked up her drumsticks again and resumed her practice, filling the music room with percussion. Pearlescent set down her bag against the wall and nodded her head in time with the beats as she walked over to the drum kit. After another round, the girl set down her sticks again and took another sip of water. "You like the drums?" she asked Pearlescent.
"Yeah," Pearlescent answered. "Mind if I try?"
The pink-haired girl got off the drum throne and passed her drumsticks to Pearlescent. Pearlescent sat down at the kit and positioned her feet onto the bass pedals. "I think I know what you were going for," she said. "Let me know if I'm on the right track."
Pearlescent proceeded to play what she had heard the pink-haired girl do to the best of her ability. "You might have been rushing yourself in the middle here," Pearlescent observed as she played, shouting slightly to be heard over the sound of the drums. "It'll keep the band on tempo and also not wear you out as quickly!" She played at a more even pace than the pink-haired girl to demonstrate her point while adding some new drum fills in order to spice things up. The pink-haired girl listened attentively to this new girl's skillful play. At the end of her demonstration, she set the drumsticks down.
"Wooow!" the pink-haired girl blurted out after she was done. "That was a big improvement! I'd love to put something like that in our next performance!"
Pearlescent smiled and laughed a little. "Thanks. It's been awhile since I played. Felt good to get back to it." She rotated her left shoulder to stretch it out.
"My name's 'Pinkie Pie'," the other girl said, introducing herself properly. She reached out her hand to shake Pearlescent's.
"Pearlescent," she responded. She took Pinkie's hand in her own and completed the gesture.
"How'd you learn to play so well?" Pinkie Pie asked.
"I used to play in a band; the 'Rebel Mares'," Pearlescent explained. "We did quite a few shows at the local scene, mostly rock and grunge. We even made runner-up in a band competition last year and got to open for a big show at the town's festival."
"Did you quit playing?" Pinkie asked, curious about the 'used to' part of Pearlescent's story.
Pearlescent frowned slightly and broke eye contact with Pinkie. "Not really by choice," she said, in a mildly ashamed tone. "When I got arrested they kicked me out. Said I was creating a 'bad image' for them. I haven't spoken to them in about six months now."
"Awww..." Pinkie sympathized. "I'm sorry, Pearlescent. But, hey, if you want to you could come listen to the Rainbooms practice sometime!"
Pearlescent smiled, feeling appreciated and welcomed for the first time since before going into juvenile detainment. "I think I might, thanks..." She looked up at a clock in the room. "Hey, this was fun but I have to get going. Thanks for letting me play, Pinkie."
"No problem!" she responded cheerily. "You were really helpful!"
"I'll try to show you how it works next time," Pearlescent said as she picked up her bag. Pinkie grinned and the two girls waved good bye as Pearlescent left the music room.
A chirp came from Jade Jewel's back pocket. She was waiting at the front of Canterlot High for Pearlescent to join her. Jade reached around and retrieved her phone. She brushed aside her dark green bangs and looked down at the lock screen.
"Pearlescent: Found something cool in here, want to check it out. I'll meet up with you at the smoothie shop, go ahead without me."
"Eh, whatevs," Jade said to herself. She wrote up a quick reply then put her phone back into her pocket before setting out on her own. After walking for a short distance she came across the local library. The library had a large flight of stairs running up to the entrance and she could see a girl with rainbow hair and cyan skin standing at the top of the steps. She was focusing intently on the rail and using her right foot to push a skateboard back and forth. Jade stopped walking and observed what was about to happen.
The girl pushed off the ground with her left foot then put it onto the board once it was rolling. She crouched down then hopped her board up as she approached the stair rail in front of her. The board's trucks landed on the rail and she began to grind the railing down. However she was struggling to maintain her balance as she rode the rail, shifting her weight in an increasingly desperate fashion to stay level.
"Wh-wo...wo...AHHHHH!!!" she cried halfway down the railing. She lost her balance entirely and got flung off her board. Jade winced as she witnessed the trick go terribly wrong. "WAAAAAAA...OOOF!" The rainbow-haired girl had crash-landed in a set of shrubs at the bottom of the stairs. Jade dropped her bag and quickly ran over to the shrubs to check on the girl.
"Are you alright?!" she said, panicked that the girl had hurt herself during her failed stunt.
"Uuuughhhh..." she groaned. "Yeah...nothing broken..." she said sheepishly. Jade helped her to her feet and noticed the skateboard rolling by. She stopped it with her foot. "Thanks," the rainbow-haired girl said as she brushed the dust and leaves off her clothes.
"You ever make it down those steps before?" Jade asked. The other girl shook her head.
"I can grind that wheelchair ramp," she said, pointing to a nearby handicap ramp rail, "but I've always wanted to do the big set."
"Name's 'Rainbow Dash'," the skateboarder introduced herself. "I've seen you around. You're new to CHS, right?"
"Yeah, my name's 'Jade Jewel'," she said, returning Rainbow Dash's introduction. She was carefully assessing the rail Rainbow Dash had tried to grind while rolling the skateboard back and forth beneath her foot, as Rainbow Dash had done before attempting her grind. "You know...that doesn't look so bad. Can I have a go at it?"
"Knock yourself out," Dash permitted with a nonchalant shrug. Jade picked up Rainbow Dash's skateboard and the pair climbed the stairs back to the top. Jade Jewel walked back away from the stair rail to give herself enough room to build up momentum as Rainbow Dash stood off to the side and watched. Jade lined up her run at the rail and concentrated. She took two large strides forward then set the board down while moving so it would be rolling as soon as it hit the ground. She set her right foot on the front of the board then gave one final kick with her left before lifting it onto the board. Jade crouched down as Rainbow Dash had done on her attempt then popped the board up. Her leap was almost in slow motion from Rainbow Dash's point of view, gracefully sailing both herself and the board into the air.
The trucks hit the rail evenly and Jade smoothly maintained her balance as she rode the board down the rail to the bottom. Dash was awestruck at the control and elegance Jade demonstrated with her technique. At the end of the rail Jade landed back on all four wheels and continued to roll towards the shrubs Dash had landed in the first time. She jumped off the board shortly before hitting them and leaped over the shrubs to the grass on the other side as the board itself came to a halt at the edge of the pavement.
"WHOA!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed when Jade had finished. She hopped onto the rail herself and slid down to the bottom to meet Jade Jewel. "That was amazing!" Jade flicked her hair back in triumph.
"Wow, that felt great!" Jade said, excited she had completed the trick successfully. She could still feel the adrenaline from the moment.
"You can really skate!" Dash said, congratulating Jade on her feat.
"Yeah! Haven't done something like that in ages!" she replied.
"You gotta show me some of your stuff sometime!" Dash begged. "Are you pro?"
Jade responded to the question with a coy shrug and a blissful grin. "Couple of years ago I thought I was going to be. I had won some local skate comps and people were starting to talk." She climbed back over the shrubs and picked the skateboard off the ground. "I guess I would have by now if I stuck with it."
"Why didn't you?" Rainbow Dash asked, puzzled why someone so gifted wouldn't try to go as far as possible.
"Oh...you know..." Jade said, thinking back. "Stuff happened...found myself hanging with a different crowd...wasn't going to the skatepark as much...or...at all..." Her enthusiasm began to retreat as she thought through the poor choices she had made that took her away from skating.
"Oh..." Rainbow Dash said, reading between her words. "Well, hey, I won't dig it up if you don't wanna talk about it. But, still, you really have to show me what you can do with a board!" trying to redirect the conversation back to Jade Jewel's skating talent.
"Sure, I never turned down a chance to sho-" Jade started to say. Suddenly the doors to the library slid open and one of the librarians came storming out.
"Hey, you kids! You can't skate here!" she shouted from the top of the steps, aggressively pointing down to the pair at the bottom of the steps. Jade Jewel and Rainbow Dash looked at each other in panic. "You've got to the count of five to get out of my sight or I'm involving the police!"
"Whuh oh!" Rainbow Dash said upon hearing 'police'.
"Oh man, I can't get busted again!" Jade exclaimed herself. She tossed Rainbow Dash's skateboard back to her and hurriedly picked up her bag. "Guess this'll have to wait!"
The two girls began to run off in separate directions. "Hey! I'll see you Monday!" Dash called after her while they were still in earshot. Jade quickly nodded then the two girls hastily vacated the area.
"...and then she jumped off the board at the end and landed perfectly in the grass!" Rainbow Dash excitedly regaled her friends around the lunch table with the story of Jade Jewel's impressive rail grind from the week before. "I asked her to show me a few new tricks but then the library worker came running out and threatened to call the cops on us! We had to book it out of there before she could show me anything!" she said, slightly miffed. Her friends chuckled a little at Dash's near-miss.
"I made a new friend too!" Pinkie Pie jumped in on the conversation. "I was just working on my drumming and this girl named Pearlescent came into the music room and listened to me play! Then she picked up the sticks and showed me an even better way to play! She said she played in a band before, I invited her to come to one of our practice sessions!"
"Pearlescent?" Rainbow Dash wondered aloud. "Is she new to the school too?"
Pinkie Pie thought for a brief moment then shrugged. "I never asked, Dash." She looked around the lunchroom and saw Pearlescent leaving the lunch line. "Hey! Pearlescent!" she said, standing up and trying to wave her new friend over.
"Oh, hey, Jade Jewel is with her," Rainbow Dash said, once she saw who Pinkie was waving at. "I guess they're friends." She tried to wave Jade Jewel over as well. The two girls walked over to the table where their new friends were sitting.
"Wanted you to meet my other friends," Rainbow Dash said to Jade Jewel when they arrived. "Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Applejack, Twilight Sparkle, and Fluttershy," she said, going around the table. Everyone waved when their name was called and Jade Jewel and Pearlescent did the same. "We have another friend too but she had to miss lunch to work on something."
"Are you two friends?" Pinkie Pie asked Pearlescent. Pearlescent nodded.
"We met at our old school," Pearlescent explained. "Jade Jewel and I were arrested at the same time and as part of the terms of our release, we had to move to this school. We've got another friend who came over with us but I don't...see..." Pearlescent scanned the lunchroom for the third member of their group. "Oh, there she is," she said once she spotted the other girl, pointing across the lunchroom. She had sat down by herself at a faraway table.
Jade Jewel frowned upon seeing their friend sitting alone. "You know, Pearl, maybe we should sit with Suuu-..." Jade immediately cut herself off before saying the girl's real name. "I mean...'Amber Sunrise'..." she corrected. Jade stuck her tongue out as if saying the name left a bad taste in her mouth. Pearlescent giggled softly at her friend's reaction.
"Oh, well...that's cool, we can just meet up later," Rainbow Dash said. She glanced at Jade's arm and saw she was carrying a skateboard with her. "Hey, you brought your board! You up for some action after school?" she asked, pointing at the skateboard. Jade nodded and made a gesture with her hand to suggest Rainbow Dash call her to set up plans later before she and Pearlescent set out for the other side of the lunchroom.
Meanwhile, Sunset Shimmer was sitting by herself, staring at her food and lost in her own thoughts. She sighed when she suddenly was stirred by Jade Jewel dropping her lunch tray right in front of her. "Jade!" she said, mildly irritated by the abrupt interruption.
"Psh, some way to greet your friends," Jade Jewel said. Pearlescent sat down next to her. "Why are you sitting way over here?"
"I...I dunno, I was just...wanting some space," Sunset said, trying to come up with an excuse for being antisocial.
"Really?" Pearlescent asked, taking a bite into the apple on her lunch tray. "Weren't you interested in making friends here?"
"Yeah, you went to all the trouble to put on this getup," Jade added, indicating Sunset's wig and glasses. "Figured you'd at least want to get some mileage out of it."
"I would if I could..." Sunset said in a forsaken tone.
"What do you mean?" Pearlescent asked.
"I'm just not used to meeting new people," Sunset said, dejectedly. "I've tried to join clubs at this school and I just feel out of place. Photography, drama, debate...none of it feels right for me. The other students here...I don't get them."
"Maybe you're just trying too hard," Pearlescent said. "I met this cool drummer just by hanging around the campus. She's really high-energy and it just kind of...clicked," she shrugged.
"Hey, when's the last time you had that thing out?" Sunset asked Jade, pointing at her skateboard.
"Oh, this? I was going skating with someone I met after school," she replied. She pointed over to the table where Rainbow Dash and her friends were sitting.
"That drummer I met is with them too," Pearlescent said, pointing out Pinkie Pie.
"Uuuuugh..." Sunset groaned, frustrated at her friends' ease at socialization. "Why do you guys have it so easy?"
"Like I said," Pearlescent said, biting another chunk off of her apple, "you're just trying too hard. Quit jumping into activities expecting to find people who will like you. Just do something you enjoy and you'll find someone to be friends with."
"Yeah, sure..." Sunset said, uninterested in being lectured by her friend. She pounded her forehead against the table.
"Well, we tried," Jade said, playfully giving up on Sunset's plight. "So whaddya want to do after class?"
"Meh, I was just going to go home," Sunset said in a burnt out tone.
"Sure you don't want to meet our friends?" Pearlescent asked.
"Maybe later," Sunset said. She collected her belongings and piled the trash onto her tray before standing up and walking towards the cafeteria door. Pearlescent and Jade Jewel watched as she left with frowns on their faces.
Later that day, the human Sunset Shimmer was studying in the school's library. She got up from her table and went to return some books she had been reading to the shelves. As she was shelving her books, the sound of some light whispering from around the corner piqued her curiosity. She peered around the bookshelf and saw two boys sitting at a nearby computer watching a video.
"That was more dramatic than I remember..." one of them said.
"Look what she did to Snips and Snails," the other boy remarked.
Psh, Sunset thought, I bet it's something dumb. She tried to go back to reading the book spines on the shelf but couldn't quell her desire to know what the boys were watching. She continued to listen in.
"Wow, Twilight and her friends are amazing!" the first boy said, enthusiastically.
"I wish all of us didn't get turned into zom-" the second boy said before cutting himself short. "Aw, man, I gotta get to class!"
"Oh dang, me too!" the other one said. They both grabbed their backpacks and quickly vacated the library, leaving the computer still logged in. Sunset couldn't fight her curiosity any longer. With the two boys gone, she subtly walked over to the computer and took their seat, looking at the video they had left on the screen. She rewound the video to the start. The title below the video player read "Demon Rampage at School". I guess I'm not surprised, Sunset told herself as she started the video from the beginning, thinking back to the two students who had been watching it before her.
The video appeared to be amateur footage shot from a cell phone camera. From the nearby landmarks in the shot, it looked as if the video had been recorded at the front of Canterlot High School.
This was shot here? Sunset thought as the video began.
The camera was focused on a winged, demonic creature that was floating above the school's statue. The creature raised its hands above its head and shot down a large beam of energy, aimed at two more students on the ground. In an instant the two students were transformed into demons themselves.
Wow...this is impressive for an amateur project, Sunset thought as the video played, impressed by what she perceived were special effects. The demonness had turned her attention to the other students at this point and, using her power, tore a hole through the front of the school. Suddenly the person filming the video dropped their phone. The video cut out briefly then resumed at a later point in the scene.
What happened there? Sunset wondered, perplexed by the odd cut. As the video resumed, there was now a large crater in the front of the school. The video focused on the six girls who were positioned at the lip of the crater. They appeared human but had extra features like wings. Sunset paused the video at this point to get a closer look at the six.
Hm... she thought. Weren't those Jade and Pearl's new friends? She looked intently at the pink and blue girls specifically, recognizing them as the two girls that Pearlescent and Jade Jewel had pointed out at lunch. As she looked at the paused image longer, she noticed the rest of the girls who were with them were the same group that they had been sitting with in the lunchroom. So they helped with this project? Sunset wondered, upon recognizing the rest of the girls in the shot.
Sunset resumed the video and the camera operator began to walk closer to the large crater while filming, along with the rest of the student body. Guess we're going to see the aftermath, Sunset thought. The video crested over the threshold of the crater and aimed down towards the center. In the bottom, a girl could be seen slowly getting off the ground. She was wearing a black jacket and a magenta skirt but the camera operator was standing at a poor angle to capture her face. She could be heard speaking to the crowd of students standing at rim of the crater. The tone of her voice conveyed sadness and it sounded as though she was sobbing. The girl began to crawl out of the crater as the camera operator zoomed in to her. She pulled herself to the top of the crater and at that moment, one feature in particular caught Sunset's attention: the girl's hair.
"Wh-...what?" Sunset said softly, shocked at what she was looking at. The footage on the screen depicted the back of the girl's head and it could be clearly seen the girl's hair was a fiery red and yellow blend. But that looks just like my hair! Sunset thought, thinking about her own natural hair coloration. The girl in the video was wearing her hair longer but Sunset could not deny that the girl's hair color was a perfect match to her own. The purple girl with wings pulled the other girl to her feet and when she rose, she turned to face the camera operator. Sunset's jaw dropped upon gazing into the face of the girl in the shot as she could not believe what she was looking at: the girl who had come out of the crater looked exactly like her...
Sunset Shimmer hastily fumbled for the mouse to pause the video, astonished by what she saw.
"...But...how?" she muttered to herself. She continued to stare in bewilderment at the screen, gazing into the face of someone who had the same hair color and the same face as her. "Did this really happen?"
She picked up her backpack and slowly rose to her feet. There's no way this is a coincidence, she thought as she left the table. Whoever that is, she and I are connected and she has some kind of power...I have to know more. Sunset pulled out her phone and began to write up a text message.
That day, after school, Sunset met with Jade Jewel and Pearlescent under the football bleachers.
"Why are we meeting over here?" Jade asked.
"I need a favor from you guys," Sunset said. She pulled out her phone and showed her friends a photo. It was of a purple-haired girl with thick black glasses taken in the school halls.
"Huh...that's one of Pinkie Pie's friends...uh...'Twilight Sparkle'," Pearlescent said, recalling her name. "What about her?"
"I've been following her around most of the day," Sunset said. "I have a hunch about her but I want to be sure."
Jade Jewel and Pearlecent exchanged confused looks. "So...what does that have to do with us...?" Jade asked.
"She has a lab in the school," Sunset explained. "I need copies of the notes she keeps on her desk."
"Uh...can't you do it?" Pearlesecent asked, uncertain about her friend's strange behavior. "Why do you need us for that?"
"I need to make some prepartions of my own," Sunset answered in a scheming tone of voice. "Besides, you guys are in their circle, it shouldn't be hard for you to get her to show you her lab."
"What's all this about?" Jade said, getting fed up with Sunset's lack of forthcoming.
"Look...I just think I'm onto something big. There's something weird about this school and I can't be sure until I know what she's been working on," Sunset snapped back. She slung her bag over her shoulder. "Just do this for me and try to have them by the end of the week..." She concluded as she started to walk away. Pearlesecent and Jade Jewel gave miffed expressions to her back as they watched her leave.
The next day, Jade Jewel and Pearlescent were in the music room with the rest of the group watching the Rainbooms practice. The band was just finishing a song and Rainbow Dash ended with a big flourish.
"You guys are electric!" Jade said, complimenting them. Rainbow Dash proudly flicked her hair back as she took off her guitar.
"Hey, you took my advice," Pearlescent said to Pinkie Pie. Pinkie grinned.
Jade Jewel pulled out her phone and checked the time. She lightly nudged Pearlescent to get her attention and nodded when Pearlescent was looking at her. Pearlescent responded with her own nod.
"So whaddya'll wanna do now?" Applejack asked the group.
"I think we've earned a trip to the ice cream shop," Rarity said, checking her eye liner in her compact. Everyone in the group nodded in agreement.
"Care to join us?" Applejack asked, extending an invitation to Pearlescent and Jade Jewel.
"Uh...actually, we had a little request," Pearlescent replied. "Before we go do you mind...uh...showing us your lab?" she asked, looking in Twilight Sparkle's direction.
"My lab?" Twilight said, a little perplexed. "What's so interesting about that?"
"Oh, um, nothing..." Jade said, nonchalantly. "We just saw you go in there the other day and were...wondering what you...work on in...there..." Jade's face twisted around slightly while she spoke, as though she hadn't prepared to answer. She glanced over at Pearlescent with a stranded look in her eyes. Pearlesecent frowned and shrugged slightly in response.
"Well...I guess it's alright..." Twilight said. She looked over at her friends and they shrugged at her. "Okay, I'll show you around."
The three girls made their way through the halls to Twilight's lab. She pulled out a key and opened the door, leading them inside.
"Well, here we are," Twilight said, grinning a little uncertainly as she presented her lab to her guests. The girls took a quick look around and saw Twilight's chemistry equipment on a long, tall table in the center of the room. At the far end, there was a computer set up perpendicular to the length of the table and a stool on wheels under the table. The whiteboard behind the table was covered with complex calculations and a little ways away from the central table was a smaller drafting table of equal height with a little lamp clipped to the edge. On the drafting table a folder full of paper was resting, which drew Jade Jewel's attention.
"You know, I just remembered, I left my textbook in fifth period," Jade said, spontaneously. She glanced at Pearlescent, who immediately understood what was happening. Jade quickly excused herself and left the lab. As soon as she was outside the door, she took off her backpack and removed a roll of tape from within. She cut off a small strip of tape and placed it over top of the door's bolt. Pearlescent looked over her shoulder and saw Jade flash a thumbs up after she was done before vanishing beyond the edge of the door frame.
Pearlescent took out her phone and looked at the screen. "Oh! Uh...look at the time, we should meet up with the other girls, yeah?" she said, somewhat hastily.
Twilight looked confused. "But...I didn't even tell you what I'm working on..."
Pearlescent laughed nervously. "Well...you know, can't keep them waiting!" Twilight frowned but led Pearlescent out of the lab and locked the door behind her. They walked down the hall together.
"Don't you want to wait for Jade?" Twilight asked, noticing Pearlescent wasn't waiting for Jade to return.
"I'll just text her, she knows where we're headed," Pearlescent said. The pair turned down another hallway towards the exit of the school. At that moment, Jade reemerged from around the corner and returned to the lab's door. With the tape she placed over the bolt keeping the door unlocked, she pushed it open with ease. She made a beeline for the drafting table and picked up the folder. She sighed with some mild guilt as she looked at it in her hand.
This better be worth it, she thought before stuffing the folder into her bag.
"Here, 'Amber'," Jade Jewel said, tossing a folder from her bag onto the table in front of Sunset Shimmer at lunch the following day. Pearlescent was standing next to her with her arms folded and a look of mild disapproval on her face. Sunset smiled and opened the folder as her friends sat down opposite her. She briskly skimmed through the photocopied notes.
"What are these?" Pearlesecent asked, trying to glean what she could see of the notes. The notes contained things like drawn diagrams, charts, and graphs. Much of it was handwritten by Twilight. "Do you even understand this?" she continued, picking up a sheet of graph paper that was covered in confusing calculations and equations.
"Enough to know what I'm looking for..." Sunset replied, her eyes still focused on the pages she was quickly shuffling through. Jade simply rolled her eyes in response.
"Perfect!" Sunset exclaimed, satisfied with the information contained in the notes. She dramatically closed the folder upon finding what she was after. Her friends jumped slightly at the loud clap of the folder closing. "It's just like I thought, now I simply need Twilight Sparkle to clarify the details..."
"Just like you thought about what, Sunset?" Pearlescent said, confused and exhausted by her friend's behavior. "You've been going on for days about this huge 'thing' you've been investigating but you haven't told us what it's about."
"I won't keep you waiting for long. Right now I need to 'speak' to Twilight Sparkle..."
"So we'll be wrapping up the festival preparations tomorrow before the homecoming game," Sunset Shimmer said to the body of students gathered for the festival planning committee. She had a flowchart projected from the computer onto the whiteboard showing the roles everyone was taking for the final preparations. "Any questions?" she asked her audience. The rest of the room all shook their heads and Sunset adjourned the meeting and pulled her portable storage drive out of the computer at the front of the room. As she was packing her bag, she noticed she was still holding onto a library book she no longer needed.
Oh...right, I needed to return this, Sunset thought, remembering that she had meant to visit the library before lunch to take care of the book. She zipped up her bag and set out for the library. When she arrived, she walked up to the circulation desk.
"Hi, Ms. Cheerilee," Sunset greeted the librarian behind the desk. She unzipped her backpack and pulled out the book she had to return. "Checking this back in," she explained as she handed over the book.
"Why thank you, Sunset," Ms. Cheerilee replied. She took the book and began to process it in. "How's the festival planning going?" she asked.
"Oh, it's great. There's been a lot of volunteers!" Sunset said, enthusiastically. "We'll be ready for the festival to open tomorrow after tomorrow night's homecoming football game."
Ms. Cheerilee nodded. "Alright, looks like everything's all sewn up here. Thanks for returning the book!" Sunset waved back as she walked away from the circulation desk. As she walked towards the exit through the center of the library, she slowed down as she looked at the aisles of bookshelves that curved around the middle of the library. She sighed and began to reminisce about her past again.
In the dead of night, through the halls of the Great Canterlot Library, a squad of royal guards patrolled the halls, their magical horns illuminating the milky darkness. However, out of their line of sight, a nimble figure wearing a black cloak darted back and forth between the large pillars that lined the corridor. The shadowy pony took refuge behind a column and waited for a guard to pass by. As he did, the mysterious figure levitated a nearby pebble using her own magic and tossed it down an adjoining hallway, creating a sound.
"What was that?" the guard said. "Whoever's there, show yourself!" he said, looking in the direction of the noise, his horn's light focused on the darkness beyond. He walked down the hallway to get a closer look at the source of the strange noise. Taking advantage of the distraction, the stealthy pony darted past the hallway and rounded the bend before coming to a room that was sealed by a gate. She used her magic as the guards did to cast light on the plaque that was affixed next to the gate, which read "Spell Archive: In honor of Starswirl the Bearded." The pony took down her hood, revealing her bright orange hair. It was Sunset Shimmer.
"Perfect..." she said quietly. She focused her magic on the lock and it opened. "With such a primitive locking spell I don't see who they were trying to keep out," she said to herself, smugly. She gently opened the gate then relocked it behind herself as she entered the archive. She gazed around the room on first sight, looking at the numerous scrolls and spells.
Celestia doesn't want me in here because she thinks I'll outgrow her if I had access to this, Sunset thought. She picked a scroll at random and unfurled it, speed reading through the contents. I could learn this entire archive in a month, I bet, Sunset confidently read down the page. She quickly reshelved the scroll then unfurled another, continuing to read.
Night gave way to morning and Sunset was still in the Archive at dawn. Unfortunately, fatigue had gotten the better of her and she had fallen asleep in the midst of reading. Voices from the hallway startled her awake, one of whom was distinctly familiar to her.
"...Are you certain there was an intruder here?" Princess Celestia asked the guard detail as they walked down the halls of the library towards the Spell Archive.
"Yes, your highness," the guard replied. "I had heard an inexplicable noise last night while patrolling this floor. When I went to follow up on it, it led me to nothing. I believe somepony was trying to distract me."
Meanwhile, in the Spell Archive, Sunset was frantically reshelving the scrolls before Princess Celestia and the guards arrived. However she was too late, as the trio had entered the Archive before she could finish. She quickly ran behind one of the bookshelves and put her hood back on.
"Look, your highness," the other guard accompanying Celestia said upon entering. "There's a stack of scrolls on the floor, somepony was here!" He drew his party's attention to the pile of scrolls Sunset had failed to reshelve.
"Search the Archive," Celestia ordered. The two guards began to crisscross the aisles of shelves looking for the intruder. Sunset attempted to stay one step ahead as she moved between the shelves where the guards weren't looking. She frantically tried to devise a way to escape the Archive unseen when she saw a window leading to the outside of the library. She made a beeline for the open window but caught the eye of a guard as she darted out in the open.
"Halt, intruder!" he shouted, upon seeing Sunset, but she did not yield. Using magic, he latched onto Sunset's cloak and ripped it off just as she was leaping for the window. The force of the cloak being pulled from her stopped her momentum mid-jump, causing Sunset to crash to the floor before reaching the window. The other guard and Princess Celestia both ran over to the window and gasped when they saw who the intruder was.
"...Sunset Shimmer?" Celestia said, bewildered that her own student had broken into the library. Sunset slowly stood back to her feet, her head held low. Celestia turned to her guards. "Leave us," Celestia ordered, dismissing the guards. "I will address things from here. Thank you for your assistance." The two guards nodded in compliance and exited the Spell Archive.
"Hmph..." Sunset grunted softly, struggling to make eye contact with her disappointed mentor.
A chirp from Sunset's back pocket shook her out of her memory. She reached back and read her phone. She typed up a quick reply and left the library.
"Heeeey, Twilight..." Jade Jewel said, coming up from behind Twilight Sparkle at her locker. Twilight turned to face her.
"Hello, Jade Jewel," she responded.
"Pearl wanted me to find you," Jade said. "She's in the library and wanted your help with something."
Twilight checked her phone. "I guess I have time," she said. The pair began to make their way through the hallway. As they walked, they approached an open door to a classroom. As they were passing by the door, Jade abruptly shoved Twilight inside.
"Wh-hey!" Twilight exclaimed, caught off-guard by Jade's push. Jade quickly closed the door behind her before she could leave. "What's going on?!" She pounded on the door, trying to get out.
"Sorry, Twilight," Jade said through the door. As she held the door shut, Pearlesecent came up from behind her.
"Does this feel right...?" Pearlescent asked. Jade frowned and shook her head but continued holding the door closed.
Twilight sighed when she realized she wasn't going to be able to convince Jade Jewel to open the door.
"Apologies for the rude accommodations," a voice from behind Twilight said. Twilight glanced over her shoulder. Standing there was a girl with glasses and a hooded sweatshirt worn over her head. Underneath her hood, Twilight could see the girl's dark hair peeking out.
"You...you're Amber Sunrise, right?" Twilight asked nervously, remembering Jade and Pearlescent had pointed her out a few days ago in the lunchroom. "What do you want with me?"
'Amber Sunrise' produced a folder. She opened it and flipped through the first few pages. "What I need...is for you to tell me who this is." She held up a photo of Sunset Shimmer.
"That...that's my friend, Sunset Shimmer," Twilight responded.
"Uh-huh..." 'Amber' continued. She pulled out another picture. "And this...?" The picture was of Sunset Shimmer's demon form.
Twilight shook her head. "I don't know."
"No, I suppose you don't," 'Amber' said, feigning a concession. "Apparently you weren't going to this school when this incident happened. But for someone who never knew what this was, you sure have a lot of data on it..." She pulled out several sheets of paper from her folder and showed them to Twilight.
"These are my notes!" Twilight said, taking the notes from 'Amber' and reading them over. "Why do you have these?!" Her voice conveyed moderate offense at the invasion of her privacy.
"This is research into a different world that is connected to ours, isn't it?" 'Amber' asked forcefully. Her aggressive demeanor caused Twilight to retreat. "According to your notes there's been several supernatural incidents at this school and you've been keeping tabs on all of them. However, I don't think you needed any notes...because you have first-hand experience, don't you?" She pulled a third picture out of her folder. It was of Twilight Sparkle as 'Midnight Sparkle', the dark entity that overwhelmed her when she tried to harness the magic of friendship.
Twilight covered her mouth in surprise, reminded of the terrible destruction that was caused by her reckless ambition. "How did you find out?" Twilight asked, withdrawn.
"I just pulled the thread," 'Amber' answered nonchalantly. "Your notes were quite informative in that regard. This power you and your friend are drawing on comes from their world, doesn't it? I want to know what is going on and how I can have it too."
"I...it..." Twilight faltered, flustered by 'Amber's' extensive research.
"But maybe this isn't making sense..." 'Amber' said coyly. "I think I owe you a little more explanation."
She set her folder down and removed her glasses. The girl took her hood down and slowly removed the black wig atop her head, revealing her natural orange and yellow hair beneath. As she removed the wig, Twilight's eyes widened in panic.
"Do you understand now?" she smirked, having exposed herself as Sunset Shimmer.
"No....nononono! It...it can't be!" Twilight exclaimed, clearly alarmed at this development. "You've been attending Canterlot High?!"
"So you do know!" Sunset zeroed in on the information she was trying to get out of Twilight. "You're aware of what her power is and what it does!" She circled Twilight in an attempt to intimidate her into talking. "The Sunset Shimmer you know isn't from this world, is she?! She brought this power with her when she came here! And now that it's here in the school, it must be something I can have as well! You just have to tell me how..."
Twilight bit her lip, scared and paralyzed into silence.
"Hey, Pinkie!" a voice called from down the hallway. The pink-haired girl looked down the halls to see a small purple dog running up towards her.
"Hiya, Spike!" she called back, knowing it was the dog who was talking to her. The dog scurried up to her and sat down at her feet.
"Have you seen Twilight?" he asked her. Pinkie Pie thought for a moment before shaking her head. Spike looked perplexed. "She said we were going to the dog park after school today. I was waiting with Fluttershy all this time..." he said, a tinge of complaining heard in his voice.
"Maybe she's just studying," Pinkie proposed. Spike wiggled his nose at the insinuation. While Twilight was known to prioritize her studies, it wasn't like her to blow off spending time with him for it. Pinkie noticed his mild disgust and put her hands on her hips. "Well if you're going to be grumpy about it I guess we could try to find her," she said with some resignation. Spike leapt into her arms and wagged his tail vigorously.
Pinkie Pie carried Spike through the halls until they approached an open classroom door. Inside they could hear a familiar voice on the phone.
"....no, I wanted to get green plates...and we'll need about 20 packs of plastic ware..." they could hear coming through the door.
"That sounds like Sunset," Spike said. The pair approached the door frame and looked inside. They saw their friend hunched over a desk at the rear of the classroom with their back to them, taking notes on a notebook with one hand with her cell phone in the other. Pinkie knocked on the door lightly to get her attention. Sunset Shimmer turned around and saw Pinkie and Spike standing at the front of the room.
"Let me call you back, Blue Sky," she said, ending her call so she could address her friends. "Hey guys, what's up?" she asked, once free from her phone.
"Spike wanted to know if you've seen Twilight today," Pinkie explained. Sunset paused for a moment like Pinkie had when Spike asked her then shook her head as well. "Only time Twilight and I were together was at lunch," she explained. "I've been too busy with this festival planning stuff otherwise."
Spike looked dejected and Sunset saw he was unhappy. "Well, hey, she's probably still at the school. Did you check the lab?"
"No, I've been with Fluttershy for most of the day until I ran into Pinkie," Spike said while shaking his head. Sunset grabbed her notebook off the desk then left the classroom with Pinkie and Spike.
"So are you guys looking forward to the game on Saturday?" Sunset asked Pinkie as they walked through the halls.
"Oh yeah! We always kick butt at the homecoming game and then it's festival time!" Pinkie excitedly proclaimed.
"What's 'the festival'?" Spike asked.
"It's the senior homecoming festival," Sunset explained. "Every year our school holds a homecoming football game on the second Saturday of October and then a homecoming dance for the juniors and seniors the following weekend. The week between the game and the dance the senior class puts on a week-long festival for the rest of the school with carnival games, snacks, student performances, and just a chance for everyone to cut loose."
"This is the first time you and Twilight will be able to come, huh?" Pinkie added, remembering that Twilight and Spike only came to Canterlot High in the past year.
"Since we're seniors this year, I wanted to be the one to manage the festival," Sunset continued. "It's been a lot of work but I love spending all this time with the other students."
"Plus the Rainbooms are gonna perform during the festival!" Pinkie said, enthusiastic about their show. "We're all really excited since the student performances are always the best part of the festival."
"Tomorrow at the game I'll be giving a speech to the student body to usher in the start of the festival and I'm going to have Twilight, Pinkie, and the others up there with me," Sunset said. "Pinkie and Rainbow Dash are always good at getting a crowd hyped up."
The trio descended the stairs to the ground floor of the school and continued towards Twilight's lab on the lower level. When they rounded another bend Pinkie saw two people standing in front of a door further down the hall.
"Hey, it's Pearlesecent and Jade Jewel!" Pinkie said, immediately recognizing Pearlesecent's soft, straight pink hair. "Hi, Pearl!" she called down to her friend with a wave.
"You don't need to keep stalling," Sunset Shimmer said, continuing to badger Twilight Sparkle for the information she wanted. "I've got nothing against you, you just have something I want to know and you know that you can help me."
"Please...please don't," Twilight said, nervously fidgeting from the pressure put on by Sunset. "You don't know what you're asking!" Her hands were trembling, causing the papers she was holding to rattle loudly.
"I'll be the one to decide that. So just tell me what I need to know about these notes."
Outside the room, Jade Jewel and Pearlescent stood watch over the door.
"Hi, Pearl!" a cheery voice called from down the hallway.
"Eh?" Pearlescent muttered, glancing to her left, her attention piqued by the sound of her name. She saw Pinkie Pie and another girl standing at the hallway intersection with a small purple dog in her arms. "Huh, it's Pinkie Pie," Pearlescent said to Jade Jewel.
"Who's that with her?" Jade added, unfamiliar with the other girl who was with Pinkie.
Pinkie and the other girl made their way down to the pair.
"Hey, guys!" Pinkie said with a big grin. "How's it going?"
"Uh...great," Pearlescent said apprehensively, not wanting to allude to what they were really doing. Jade Jewel looked over at the girl who was with Pinkie Pie and raised an eyebrow.
"Hi..." Jade said, slightly unsteady by what she was looking at. "I...don't think we've met before." She gave the girl a quick once-over and was hit with an odd sense of deja vu. "Are you one of Pinkie Pie's friends?"
"Guess we haven't," the girl replied. "Yeah, Pinkie Pie and I are friends."
"I...like your hair..." Jade said, her attention focused on the girl's bright orange and yellow hair. "One of our friends has really similar hair." Pearlesecent seemed equally as mesmerized by the girl standing with Pinkie.
"This is 'Sunset Shimmer'," Pinkie said, introducing her friend. "She's helping plan the senior homecoming festival!"
Jade and Pearlescent's eyes widened and they both looked at each other. "Did...did you say your name is 'Sunset Shimmer'?" Pearlescent said, now very surprised.
Sunset tilted her head, slightly confused by the reaction she was getting. "Um...yes?" she responded. "Were you expecting something else..?"
"Er...well...no but..." Jade stammered, at a loss to find appropriate words. She glanced over at Pearlescent for help.
"Yeah it's just...um..." Pearlesecent tried to continue her friend's train of thought was just as befuddled by the unusual scenario. "It's just like one of those weird things that-"
"Hey, there's Twilight!" Pinkie interrupted Pearlescent. She looked through the window on the door Pearlescent and Jade Jewel were standing in front of and saw the back of Twilight's dark purple hair. She reached for the door handle but was cut off by Jade Jewel grabbing her wrist. "Hey, what's the big idea!" Pinkie said, offended by the sudden confrontation. She pulled her hand back sharply.
"Sorry, can't let you in there," Jade said tersely. Pearlescent folded her arms to show she stood with Jade.
"Why not? That's our friend," Sunset protested, also unhappy with the response from the two girls. "We just wanted to bring Spike back to her." The dog in Pinkie's arms gave a low snarling growl towards Pearlescent and Jade.
"She's busy," Pearlescent said without explaining anything more. "We'll let her know she's looking for you."
Pinkie Pie set Spike down and lowered her eyebrows. "Let us in there!" she said, now nearly shouting. She attempted to push past Jade Jewel but was shoved back. Sunset Shimmer got involved and tried to break past Pearlescent towards the door but was met with the same resistance.
Inside the room, the shrill sound of Pinkie's objection pierced the door and the human Sunset Shimmer diverted her attention to look out the door's window. She saw Pinkie Pie wrestling with Jade Jewel and knew that she was about to be found out.
"Hmph..." she grunted. She snatched back the papers that Twilight was holding and stuffed them into the folder. "Guess we'll need to continue this later!" Sunset raced to the door and threw it open. She was looking towards Jade Jewel and Pearlescent as she exited, not seeing the other girl who was with Pinkie Pie as she fled the room. As a result, she stumbled and fell on top of the other girl as she tried to push through the confrontation outside.
"Oof!" she exclaimed, falling to the floor on top of the girl she plowed into. She came to rest her hand on top of the other girl's shoulder.
"Hey! Get off!" Sunset Shimmer said, trying to get this unknown girl off of her. However, as she grabbed the other girl's arm to push her off, a spark jumped between the girl's hand and her shoulder. At that moment, Twilight had come through the door and saw the two girls lying on the ground.
"Oh no...!" Twilight said, seeing what had happened and knowing what was about to occur.
"Hm...?" the human Sunset Shimmer muttered when she noticed the sparks jumping between her and the other girl. Just as she did, an explosion of energy burst from the point of contact between the two Sunset Shimmers. The area became blanketed in a sphere of bright energy that enveloped Jade Jewel, Pearlescent, Pinkie Pie, Twilight Sparkle, and Spike. As had happened before when Twilight touched her Equestrian counterpart, everyone within the sphere was transformed into more equine forms, save for Spike, who once more turned into a small dragon. Everyone present was transported to a completely unfamiliar location in the middle of what looked like a town.
"What?! What's going on?! Where are we?!" Jade screamed, horrified by what was happening. She looked down at her arms, which had turned into hooves. She and Pearlescent exchanged glances and screamed in terror at the drastic changes their bodies had undergone.
"Y-y-you look like...like...an animal!" Pearlesecent cried, equally as terrified as her friend. She looked around and saw that the other girls had also taken on equine forms. "Sunset!" What is this?!"
"And who are they?!" Jade exclaimed. She looked out across what she could see of the town and saw several other four-footed creatures standing outside the energy sphere, their mouths agape at what they were looking at.
Meanwhile, the human Sunset Shimmer was in awe of what she was witnessing. "This...this is it! I did it! I knew you came from another dimension!" Her equine face twisted into a sinister grin, knowing she had found what she was looking for. "This must be the world you came from! I need to know more! How is this done?!"
Sunset felt a new sensation, the likes of which she had never experienced before. The horn that had emerged from her head began to glow as Sunset discovered that she was able to channel magical energy with help from the dimensional rift. She began to focus and tried to create a spell.
The Equestrian Sunset Shimmer took advantage of her counterpart's distraction with her newfound ability and managed to throw her off before she could unleash any magic. As soon as she did, the energy sphere retreated and everything returned to normal with the dimensional link broken. The other girls caught in the nexus fell to the ground as soon as the energy sphere dissipated. Sunset Shimmer was panting in fear as she looked her dimensional counterpart in the eyes. "It...it's you..." she stammered, only barely able to get out the words.
"I guess I don't need you after all," the human Sunset Shimmer grinned devilishly, looking in the direction of Twilight Sparkle. Twilight could only manage an exhausted and strained look of panic in response.
"What just happened...?" Spike said, still recovering from the unexpected dimensional shift. Pearlescent and Jade Jewel both looked in shock at the dog.
"Di-did that dog just talk?!" Jade said, still scared from what she had just experienced and now having yet another supernatural event happening in front of her. "What is happening?!" she cried, now feeling like she was losing her mind.
The human Sunset Shimmer began reaching for her dimensional counterpart again in order to cause the nexus to reappear but felt something take hold around her leg. She looked back and saw that Pearlescent had grabbed the cuff of her pants, trying to prevent her from making contact again. Pearlesecent's eyes were full of fear and she direly shook her head at what Sunset was attempting to do.
"Smh...fine," Sunset muttered, acknowledging Pearlescent's protest. She picked herself off the ground and began to take off running down the hallway. She looked back at her two friends, who were still lying on the ground. "Well, come on!" she ordered to Jade Jewel and Pearlescent. Pearlescent and Jade nervously stood up and looked at the other girls, who were still as shocked as they were, before reticently following their friend towards the school exit.
The three girls burst through the red double doors to the school's exterior before stopping and catching their breath.
"What...what was that?!" Jade said between gasps, still trying to take in everything. "What's going on...Sunset?!"
Sunset Shimmer just laughed quietly at Jade's panicked questions. Pearlescent grew agitated and grabbed Sunset by the hood of her shirt. "You know what's going on, don't you?!" she demanded to know. "That's why you were so interested in Twilight, isn't it? Magical powers, alternate dimensions, talking dogs...it's all connected to her! And that other girl...she looks identical to you and even has your name! All of this happened when you touched her! Who is she?!"
Sunset brushed her friend's hand off her shirt and turned to face them. "Isn't it exciting?" she said, a scheming tone in her voice. "All that power and the key is that girl!"
"You don't even know what happened!" Jade said, accusing Sunset of being reckless. "All you did was fall on her and as soon as you put your hand on her shoulder, reality turned upside down!"
"I know what I need to know," Sunset responded confidently. "Once I control this power then no one will ever disrespect me again!"
"Is that all this is about?!" Pearlesecent said, adamant that her friend has such a petty reason for dabbling with something so dangerous.
"She did the same thing when she came to this world," Sunset replied, undeterred. "She used her powers to rule this school and if she can do it, so can I. This school has been the site of several similar events in the past and Twilight was keeping notes on them."
"Did it ever occur to you that she was keeping notes because of how BAD it would be if it happened again?!" Jade Jewel argued. "And here you are deliberately trying to tempt fate!"
"Suit yourself," Sunset Shimmer flippantly responded, slowly backing away from her friends. "I've got all the information I need now, I don't need your help or anyone else. I just need to get that other Sunset Shimmer to come to me and then I'll unlock this power for sure."
"You haven't changed at all," Pearlescent said, admonishing her friend's attitude. "All you want is respect and acceptance without working for it."
"No!" she snapped back, pointing aggressively at Pearlescent. "No one wants to know me! They never had any interest in anything about me and it's just taken me too long to realize that I don't need to care about them either. She knew that when she came to this world and used what she brought with her to change that. If it worked for her then I'll make it work for me." With that, Sunset ran off, leaving her friends confused and upset.
Back in the hallway Pinkie Pie, Sunset Shimmer, Twilight Sparkle, and Spike were still picking themselves up off the ground.
"Ughhh..." Sunset Shimmer moaned as she lifted herself to her feet. "That just happened, didn't it?" She glanced over at Twilight Sparkle, who was wiping off her glasses. Twilight responded with a nervous nod as she put her glasses back onto her face.
"The last time that happened..." Pinkie Pie started to say.
"...was when Princess Twilight Sparkle was here," Twilight finished for Pinkie. She picked up Spike off the ground, who gave her a lick on her cheek.
"I thought you said that this could only happen if the dimensional double had tapped into their magical potential," Sunset reminded Twilight. "How could she if she hadn't come into contact with any of us until now?"
"I guess I was wrong," Twilight said, disappointed her theory was incorrect. "I suppose all creatures carry magical energy even if they've never been exposed to Equestrian magic. We were just never able to see it in our world until it was brought through the portal." Sunset frowned at Twilight's postulation.
"So BOTH Sunset Shimmers go to Canterlot High?" Pinkie said, seemingly enchanted by the fact that such an unlikely coincidence had occurred. The two other girls looked at her incredulously, mildly bewildered by her upbeat assessment when the reality was clearly much less optimistic. Pinkie Pie shrugged in response. "What do you want me to say, it's still kind of cool when you think about it."
"It won't be so cool when she finds me again and rips reality apart just by making contact..." Sunset Shimmer reminded her with ominous dread in her voice.
"She stole my notes and knew what I had been researching," Twilight explained. "She figured out that you were a duplicate from a different dimension and was trying to get me to explain the meaning of my notes to her before you and Pinkie Pie showed up. But now that she saw for herself what can happen, she won't need me anymore, just you..."
"So she was already aware that I wasn't the same as everyone else at this school, even before she knew exactly how we were connected," Sunset deduced. "She won't back down knowing that she and I are linked together and that she can use me to discover whatever magical potential she has, even if she doesn't actually know what she's stumbled on."
"I wonder why she's so interested in magic," Pinkie thought out loud. "It's not like any of us had ever talked to people about what happened at the school."
"Well I was able to figure out something wasn't normal about this school," Twilight said, reminding her friends of what drew her to Canterlot High in the first place. "It's not a stretch that she may have found out through some other means."
"Regardless, it's not safe for me to stay here at Canterlot High. I have to open the portal and return to Equestria before I run into the other Sunset Shimmer again," Sunset told her friends. "Call the others and tell them to meet me at my locker."
Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack arrived at Sunset Shimmer's locker as a group, where they found Twilight Sparkle with Spike and Pinkie Pie waiting with her. Sunset had her head in her locker and was writing something out of view from the others.
"We got Pinkie Pie's text and came as quick as we could, what's the trouble, Sunset?" Applejack asked, concerned over the urgency of the message.
Sunset came out of her locker with her magic journal in hand. She was applying the final words to her message to Princess Twilight Sparkle before closing the book and returning it to the locker. She leaned against the wall of lockers and slowly closed the door to her own before letting out a long sigh.
"We've...got an unlikely problem," Sunset began. "It seems that, through some strange coincidence, the Sunset Shimmer of this universe...attends Canterlot High." Twilight held up the wig and glasses the human Sunset Shimmer was using to disguise herself as 'Amber Sunrise'. "She was pretending to be someone else at the school, which is why we never noticed."
The other girls looked at each other in surprise. "What's worse, she knows about what happens when two dimensional counterparts come into contact," Twilight picked up the explanation. "She bumped into Sunset and they touched, resulting in another inter-dimensional nexus."
"Now she's cooked up this crazy scheme to make it happen again because she thinks it's gonna give her magic powers!" Pinkie exclaimed to conclude the explanation.
"I was writing a message to Princess Twilight telling her to reopen the portal so I can return to Equestria before I have another encounter with the Sunset Shimmer of your universe," Sunset told the rest of her friends.
"Where did she go after you ran into each other?" Fluttershy asked.
"She took off with Pearlesecent and Jade Jewel," Sunset said. "They were in the middle of interrogating Twilight on what she knew about the dimensional rift and where our Equestrian powers come from when I came along."
"Those jerks!" Rainbow Dash cut in. "They were in on it? When I find them I'll..." She cracked her knuckles in anger.
"No, don't," Sunset calmed her down. "I don't think Jade and Pearlescent knew what Sunset was planning. They seemed just as confused as the rest of us when they got caught up in it."
"But it's not like Sunset knows about magic in this world either, does she?" Rarity asked.
"Even if she doesn't, she's convinced herself that coming into contact with our Sunset Shimmer will grant her the same powers we have," Twilight said. "I don't know why she's so obsessed with having powers but there's probably no talking her out of it."
"And...because of that...I can't stay here..." Sunset said with sadness in her voice. She turned away from her friends and put her face in her arms against the wall of lockers. The others could hear her sobbing before she suddenly pounded the lockers with her fist, rattling all of them. The loud noise caused everyone to jump.
"Sunset..." Fluttershy tried to reach in to make her friend feel better.
"It's...it's not fair to you," Sunset said, still sobbing. She sniffed before continuing. "I wanted to stay at CHS until graduation and...and now this happens!" She slowly slid down the lockers until she was in a crouching position. She turned around while remaining crouched as the rest of her friends gathered around and moved down to her level.
"Where I come from...magic is a controlled element," Sunset explained to her friends. "It's a constant presence in Equestria and everypony lives in almost oblivious harmony with it. When I came here I wanted to use it to control and dominate this world. However I only discovered that...in this world, magic is unpredictable. It's...unstable and random. I brought magic here and it's caused nothing but trouble ever since." She sighed again. "I know I was talking about going back to Equestria but...I didn't want it to be like this! Not because I have no way of understanding of magic here!"
"We understand, sugar," Applejack said, trying to reassure her friend. "None of us could have ever predicted this would happen."
"Did...did I ever tell you how I came to this world originally?" Sunset asked the others. The rest of the girls shook their heads. "Back when I was living in Equestria, I was a rebellious and arrogant unicorn..." Sunset began.
Sunset Shimmer stared out into the dark night sky through the window of her private dorm room within Canterlot Castle. She had been caught breaking into the Spell Archive and violated the trust of her mentor Princess Celestia. On the floor were boxes of her personal belongings that once decorated her room.
"I'm sorry, Sunset Shimmer, but you have gravely disappointed me on this day. If I had allowed you to visit the Spell Archive, you would not have had to break in and so I cannot trust that you will honor my teachings and methods. It is with a heavy heart that I must expel you from private study. Please clear out your dorm room tonight." Her mentor's words still rang fresh through her mind.
Stupid, Celestia, she thought. What use is a mentor who does nothing but hold you back?
Sunset got off her bed, strapped on her saddle bag, and began to roam the halls of Celestia's castle.
"What's the point of staying in Canterlot?" she said to herself. "There's an infinite number of possibilities out there. I can't just live under Celestia's hoof if I want to reach my potential."
She found herself trotting past Celestia's throne room as she wandered the quiet halls. Sunset looked at the empty throne with contempt before slowly walking over and seating herself upon it.
"I, Queen Shimmer," she said, mocking Celestia's regal tone, "hereby banish Celestia of Equestria for being a lousy mentor!" She waved her hoof dismissively to the empty throne room before quietly giggling to herself.
Just then, she heard some sounds coming from the small room adjacent to the throne room. Sunset quickly ducked behind the throne to avoid being found out. As she did, the door opened and Princess Celestia trotted out from it accompanied by a counselor. Sunset Shimmer listened in on their conversation.
"This is the third day of the thirty moon cycle." Celestia said. "Soon the portal will be closed again."
"Why have we not sent anyone through the portal?" the aide asked. "We have observed this behavior for decades but never acted on it."
"I am simply not ready to risk the lives of my people for such a meaningless gamble," Celestia responded. "I cannot prioritize endeavor with the risk that they may never come back from the other side."
Waiting until Celestia and her aide were a fair distance away, Sunset Shimmer walked slowly and quietly around the back of the throne room and over to the door that Celestia had left slightly ajar. She gingerly pulled it open and looked inside. From within, she could see a strange glow emanating from the back of the room. The glow was pulsating and seemed to be centered on the large floor mirror that was positioned at the rear of the storage room. Sunset pulled the door open further and stepped inside. She approached the mirror hesitantly. As she walked closer, wisps of magical energy began to flow out from the mirror, almost as though there was a light breeze that was being produced by the strange mirror.
Back outside, Celestia looked behind her and noticed the door was open. "I don't remember leaving the door open that wide..." She began to walk back to the side room. As Celestia approached the door, Sunset was holding her hoof towards the mirror. Upon touching what should have been the glass surface of the mirror, her hoof phased through.
What's going on...? Sunset thought. She quickly pulled her hoof back out of the mirror.
"Sunset Shimmer!" Celestia said from behind Sunset. Sunset whipped around and saw her mentor standing behind her. "What are you doing here?! Do not go near that portal!"
Sunset grimaced, her mind racing having been caught in the moment. She looked back and forth between Celestia and the portal. "I...I don't care! I won't be lectured by you any more!" she spat, disregarding any doubt in her mind about what she was about to do. "If it means I don't have to live under your methods any longer then that's good enough! Goodbye, Princess!" With that, Sunset broke for the portal and jumped into the mirror, vanishing into the mysterious beyond.
"No!" Celestia shouted. She tried to run after Sunset but as soon as she reached the mirror portal, a great flash of light poured from the mirror portal followed by a haunting silence. Celestia slowly trotted over to the mirror and touched it with her hoof. The portal had closed and the mirror was once again solid. She looked at her own reflection in the mirror before bowing her head and letting out a low, dejected sigh as a single tear rolled down her cheek.
Meanwhile, in the grip of the portal, Sunset was being pulled along by an ethereal force. She had never felt a sensation like it before, as though she was slowly falling apart at a molecular level. Rays of otherworldly light blazed past her at an amazing speed before it suddenly ground to a halt and Sunset found herself regaining consciousness in an unknown location.
"Uhhh..." Sunset Shimmer groaned. She was lying on the ground, her eyes closed, and feeling confused. She tried to move her foreleg but was struck with an odd sensation, as though her joints weren't in the same place as before. She blinked her eyes several times to clear them and looked down to see why she felt so different. Looking at where her leg was supposed to be, she was perplexed to see it no longer resembled a leg, but instead her hoof had been replaced by a strange appendage with smaller limbs coming off the end. Still dazed, she glanced upwards and was greeted with the facade of a large, multi-storied building that wrapped around on both sides of the courtyard. Sunset peered over her shoulder and saw that the portal had brought her to rest in front of a large statue of a stallion.
"What...is this place...?" she muttered.
"...and that's how I ended up here..." Sunset finished her story. "All because I refused to face the consequences for my actions and ran away from my problems. I wasn't any better when I came to this world, I hadn't changed who I was, so I plotted to grow stronger while I was here and someday return to Equestria to defeat Celestia once the portal reopened. I learned the ways of this world and manipulated the students of CHS in order to leverage authority here."
She paused looked around at the other girls, remembering what she had done to them. "I saw any friendship as a threat to my desire for dominance so I lied and spread ugly rumors to divide friends and seed conflict. I played with Flash Sentry's feelings and tricked him into dating me just to share his spotlight...he saw through me but I didn't learn anything. It wasn't until Princess Twilight came here that I...finally realized I was in the wrong. That true friendship is not something to be feared but embraced and selfishness only leads to misery. And now...this stupid circumstance is going to render everything pointless!" She closed her eyes and began to tear up again. "After everything we've been through together as friends, it only takes some bitter girl who doesn't know what she's messing with that's threatening to break us apart..."
The other girls looked on with empathy at their friend's distress. "No one blames you, Sunset," Fluttershy said on behalf of the group. The others nodded in agreement.
"There was no way to know that the...'other you' would be at CHS," Rarity said, continuing Fluttershy's point. "We just had an unlucky break, that's all."
"Whatever happens, Sunset, you'll always have us with you!" Rainbow Dash chimed in. "Friendship isn't something that stops just because you're in another dimension!" She wrapped her arm around her friend's shoulders.
"Thanks, guys," Sunset responded, wiping her eyes. "If I have to leave, I won't forget everything I learned in this world."
The seven girls all shared a big group hug around Sunset Shimmer.
Elsewhere, a classroom door slowly swung open and a lone girl walked through.
"Mr. Clay?" she said, softly. At the front of the classroom, a teacher was working with his back to the door. He turned around at the sound of his name.
"Amber Sunrise?" he asked, when he saw the girl. "What brings you by?"
"I needed to email something to a partner," 'Amber' said. She produced a small removable storage drive from her hooded sweatshirt. "My Internet's in and out at the house right now, they're working on the wires in the neighborhood."
"Sure," he replied. "The computer's already logged in." He pointed towards to the computer on his desk.
'Amber Sunrise' sat down at the desk and opened the email client. She inserted the drive into the face of the computer and then composed a new email. She typed an 'S' in the "To..." field and a dropdown list of names appeared. She scrolled through the list until she saw what she was looking for: "Sunset Shimmer". She grinned slightly then began composing the email. After typing it up, she clicked "Send" then went into the "Sent Items" folder and deleted the email she created in order to cover her tracks. She pulled out her drive and stood up.
"All done, thank you, Mr. Clay..." she said as she left. She exited the classroom with a sinister smile on her face.
Sunset Shimmer was standing in front of Canterlot High's statue with her phone in hand. A light breeze was blew through her fiery hair. It was the night of the homecoming football game and Sunset wasn't at her appointed place at the football field.
Mr. Clay said he'd meet me out here before the game... she thought, reading the email that had summoned her presence to the festival site. She looked around the area with some urgency. I need to get back to the football field to do the speech...
After a couple of minutes passed, Sunset put her phone away and resigned that she wasn't going to be meeting anyone that night. She turned to leave when the sound of a female voice rounded the back of the statue.
"Mr. Clay won't be coming," the unseen female said. Sunset froze, now knowing exactly why she had been summoned. The other voice was distinctly familiar to her because it sounded identical to her own.
"You...I should have expected this..." Sunset responded cautiously. She slowly turned around and saw a girl in a gray hooded sweatshirt leaning on the base of the statue with her arms folded, her mouth curled into a cunning smile. The hood of her sweatshirt was lowered to reveal her short-trimmed orange and red hair, the same hues as Sunset's. It was the human Sunset Shimmer. "How did you email me from Mr. Clay's email address?"
"Just had to pretend I needed to send something to a partner," the other Sunset Shimmer answered. "As the festival's supervisor I knew getting an email from him would send you right over." The wind was starting to pick up, blowing leaves and small debris past the two girls.
"What is it that you want?" the Equestrian Sunset Shimmer asked her counterpart.
"You already know," she replied. She slowly walked towards her dimensional double. "You used this school as a playground for your special powers. You came from another world and subjugated the students of this school with magic. You unleashed something in this universe that is now mine to take."
"You don't understand," the Sunset Shimmer of Equestria warned. "I didn't know what I was asking for when I brought that power here. Bringing magic into this world was a mistake. There is no way to control magic here and it has disastrous effects."
"Well maybe you just haven't figured it out..." her human counterpart answered, undeterred from her objective.
The Equestrian Sunset Shimmer knew there was no way to convince her double that dabbling with magic was only going to end badly. She slowly started backing away before trying to run.
"Don't think so!" the human Sunset Shimmer said. She dashed forward and reached out to grab her counterpart's wrist.
"No, don't!" the other Sunset protested. Unfortunately her escape was unsuccessful and the human Sunset got her hand onto her counterpart's wrist. "You have to let go! Don't do this!" she continued to plead.
The human girl's grip on Sunset's wrist began to spark as it had the other day when she landed on top of her. She looked her counterpart in the eyes as the magical energy nexus began to consume the pair once more.
"S-Stop!" her otherworldly double begged, her eyes full of fear.
"What are you so scared of?!" she cackled. "Haven't you been down this road before? You introduced magic to this universe and now I just want my own slice of the action!"
The sphere of energy that surrounded the two girls began to transform the human Sunset Shimmer into a unicorn while the dimensional rift once again started to merge their universe with Equestria. In order to keep her restrained, the human Sunset pulled her counterpart to the base of the Canterlot High statue and pinned her against it. The other Sunset Shimmer had also started to transform into a unicorn as well as they were being pulled through the nexus.
"You...you can't!" she resisted, powerless to fight back against the dimensional rift's effects.
Meanwhile, Sunset's friends were waiting besides the bleachers at the football game.
"Where's Sunset?" Rainbow Dash said impatiently. "Principal Celestia is almost done with her part, she's gonna miss her own speech..."
The other girls also looked tense as they waited for their mysteriously absent friend.
"...And now, I'd like to introduce the organizer of our senior homecoming festival," Principal Celestia said to the packed audience. "Sunset Shimmer!" She gestured over to the area where the group was standing but no one came onto the field. Principal Celestia looked confused and shot a glance at her sister, Vice Principal Luna, who was standing next to her. "Um...Sunset Shimmer!" she repeated, hoping that Sunset had simply missed her cue.
Applejack knew she had to do something so she gestured towards the principal with her hands, telling her to keep going, before shrugging to indicate she was just as confused as Celestia was as to where Sunset was.
"Uh...very well," Celestia said, continuing to speak in the absence of Sunset Shimmer. "It appears our speaker is not yet ready for her address, but rest assured she has prepared a sensational senior homecoming festival for all of you to enjoy!" The crowd broke out into cheers as the football teams took the field with the conclusion of Celestia's speech to begin the game.
The six girls exchanged confused looks when Jade Jewel and Pearlescent came running around from behind the bleachers. Rainbow Dash made eye contact with the pair and crossed her arms defiantly.
"Well look who it is," she said in a cross manner. "Surprised you two would want to show yourselves around us after what you got up to with 'Amber Sunrise'..."
"Or maybe you prefer 'Sunset Shimmer'?" Rarity said, picking up Rainbow Dash's train of thought.
"No, you got it all wrong," Jade Jewel said, trying to quell the tension between themselves and Sunset's circle of friends. "We need your help."
"Sunset's gone off the rails," Pearlescent explained. "At this point she won't stop at anything to get superpowers or whatever she's after. We think she tricked your friend to get her alone."
The six girls looked at one another. There was still some palpable skepticism among their group before Fluttershy spoke up.
"Remember what Sunset said?" she asked the others, reminding them of what Sunset had said the previous day about Jade Jewel and Pearlescent's involvement. "She didn't think Jade or Pearlescent knew about the other Sunset's plans. I think we can give her the benefit of the doubt..."
"True..." Applejack conceded. "I guess you two wouldn't have any reason to lie to us about somethin' like this."
"We saw how chaotic things could be when those two come into contact," Pearlescent assured the others. "We know we don't want any part of that but Sunset is lost in her own del-"
Suddenly Pearlescent was cut short by bright flash and a loud bang, as though a thunderstorm had instantly descended on the area.
"What was that?" Rainbow Dash asked. She wouldn't have to wait long for an answer because over towards the front of the school, a large column of light was raining down from the sky.
"Oh no!" Twilight Sparkle exclaimed. "It's happening! She must have gotten to Sunset!"
The eight girls took off running towards the front of the school's campus. As they passed by the school, Twilight stopped running.
"You go on ahead," she instructed. "I need to get something from my lab. Try to stop them before I get there!"
The other girls nodded. They all looked up at the sky and began to see jagged red cracks appear from nowhere throughout the atmosphere.
"What are those?!" Fluttershy asked, pointing to the strange phenomena.
"Reality is starting to break up!" Twilight shouted. "You have to separate them!"
The other seven continued to run for the school's main entrance as Twilight and Spike broke for the school's side door. As they ran, Twilight reached into her skirt's pocket and pulled out a key. They arrived at the door to Twilight's laboratory and she hastily unlocked the door and burst inside. She went underneath her computer desk and pulled out a small electronic box with an antenna dish on top.
"Ooo...I was hoping it wouldn't come to this..." she said to herself, distressed that she was having to resort to using her untested invention.
"C'mon, Twilight!" Spike said. Twilight nervously nodded then tucked the device under her arm and left the lab.
Back at the front of Canterlot High, the human Sunset Shimmer continued to restrain her Equestrian counterpart as the unstable magical energy surrounding them spiraled out of control. By this point they both had completely transformed into unicorns thanks to the nexus pulling them through to Equestria.
The human Sunset Shimmer grinned with glee as she could feel the same sensation from earlier. "So this is what it's like to be able to wield magic..." she said. Her horn illuminated a light blue hue as she began to channel magical energy. "All I have to do now is bring this power back with me to my world and..."
"Just because you can feel magic doesn't mean you know how to use it!" the Equestrian native rebuffed. She charged up her own horn and aimed at her double. "I'll show you what a real Equestrian unicorn can do!"
She fired a bolt of magical energy at point blank range towards the other Sunset Shimmer but the effect was instantly negated. "Wh-what?!" Sunset exclaimed.
"Hmph...must be this energy bubble," the human Sunset scoffed. "No matter, once I pull this power through the portal then I'll be able to use it freely in our world!"
At that moment the energy nexus began to reverse its effect on the two girls as the dimension of Equestria pushed the unstable magic back through the nexus. The two girls gradually began to transform back into humans again.
"Now then..." the human Sunset grinned, beginning to notice her transformation. She once again ignited her horn but this time sent the power down her own body and into her free foreleg. Her foreleg began to change back into a hand and the power she had channeled was collecting in her palm as it transformed back.
"Sunset, listen, I know you want to bring this power back to your world but...but...this won't work!" the Sunset Shimmer of Equestria pleaded.
"And why not?!" she snarled back.
"Because all you're doing is tearing apart reality!"
As they argued, the seven girls arrived at the front of the school and saw the chaotic scene. Huge sparks of energy were leaping off the white sphere that contained the dimensional rift and violent winds were being kicked up by the vortex effect seemingly summoned by the column of light piercing the sky. The ominous red cracks continued to fragment the atmosphere the longer the two girls remained in contact. Everyone in the group shielded their faces with their arms once they were close to the sphere.
"We can't get near that thing!" Applejack shouted over the squalor. "How are we gonna separate the two Sunsets?!"
"Sunset!" Jade Jewel shouted towards her friend. "You have to let go of her!"
The human Sunset Shimmer whipped her gaze over to the sound of her name and grimaced at her friends standing outisde the rift.
"What is with you?!" she mocked. "Can't you see I'm on the verge of something great?!"
"Sunset!" her counterpart said. "The longer we stay on contact, the more reality starts to collapse! Look up!"
The human Sunset Shimmer turned her eyes skyward and saw the jagged red cracks that were covering the clouds. "What...what are those?!"
"It's this world falling apart!" Rainbow Dash shouted at her. "If you touch your double from a different dimension, all this out-of-control magical energy is going to destroy both worlds!"
Sunset remained silent for a moment, pondering the implications of what her actions were having before offering a simple response: "...Whatever." She maintained her grip on her counterpart's arm in spite of the dire warning.
"That's it, y'all, enough messin' around!" Applejack rallied her friends. "We gotta stop this and stop it now!" She held out her hand to her friends. Rarity grabbed her hand and then formed a chain with Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie. They each closed their eyes and focused themselves as light began to pour from their clasped hands. Jade Jewel and Pearlescent looked on in astonishment at the power they were witnessing. The girls' hair grew to a much longer length and small pony ears magically appeared on their heads. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash also spouted a pair of wings from their back as a result of the transformation.
"Huh...so you five can do this too?" the human Sunset Shimmer said with a snide smirk. "Guess it's no surprise..."
A bright rainbow-colored aura surrounded the five girls and they began to levitate. "Sunset Shimmer, let go of our friend!" Applejack ordered. With their combined magical power, a large rainbow-colored beam appeared from above them and raced towards the energy nexus. However, once it got close to the dimensional tear, the beam suddenly curved upwards and began to spiral around the column of light that was being produced by the energy sphere.
"What's going on?!" Rainbow Dash said, uncertain of what she was seeing.
"I'm...feeling funny!" Pinkie Pie said.
"Me...too!" Rarity added, feeling as though she were being drained against her will. The rainbow aura began to slowly dissipate and the girls gradually lowered back to the ground. When their feet touched down, their hair returned to its normal length and the ears and wings vanished.
"What happened?" Fluttershy asked. "Why can't we pony up?"
"Because that vortex is feeding on magic!" a voice from behind the girls said. They all turned around and saw Twilight Sparkle and Spike running in their direction. As they did, pieces of the atmosphere above broke off at the red cracks, began to fragment, and get sucked into the vortex as well. "Any magic used near it will just be pulled into the disruption! The more magic it consumes the more erratic and unstable it will grow!"
"Sunset! You need to let me go!" the Equestrian Sunset Shimmer pleaded.
"No!" her counterpart fought back. She pressed the hand she was holding Sunset down with against the statue base even more firmly.
"Why are you doing this?!" she asked.
"Because...I saw you do it!" the human Sunset Shimmer answered. "I saw what you did to the other students. How you made them your pawns! I want that kind of power! To command the kind of loyalty and respect that you had! No one ever tried to know who I was before I discovered this power but once I have it, it won't matter!"
"When I came to this world, I wanted the same thing," the Equestrian Sunset Shimmer tried to reason with her counterpart. "I was full of anger and pride and all I wanted was power too. But it didn't have to be that way...I was shown something better. You don't have to make the same mistake I did to know that!"
For the first time, the human Sunset Shimmer had a brief pause amidst the calamity she was causing. She reflected on what brought her to this point. "But I've come this far already..." the human Sunset said, a hint of remorse in her voice.
"You can still turn back..." the other Sunset said reassuringly. "It's not too late..."
The human Sunset looked at her friends standing outside the rift.
"You're the only one who's able to stop this!" Pearlescent shouted. "Just let her go and end it already!"
"Yeah, Sunset, we're sorry if we haven't been good friends to you but you don't need to go this far!" Jade Jewel added.
Meanwhile, Twilight was on the ground configuring the device she brought from her lab.
"You won't be able to separate them using magic," Twilight told her friends. "The only way is to break the magical energy bond itself and the only way that can happen is by closing the disruption."
"So what does that do?" Spike asked his owner.
"This is a machine I made that will allow me to close a rift," she explained. "It acts as a buffer between two unstable magical entities and forces them apart. But I obviously never tested it because we never had an unstable rift open since Princess Twilight was here."
"Well it's now or never!" Pinkie Pie said. "That swirly hole up in the sky is about to eat up this universe!"
The vortex was continuing to consume pieces of reality and a strange, nebulous field of energy could be seen beyond the destroyed fragments.
"The barrier between our world and Equestria is barely being sustained at this point, we have to close the rift now!" Twilight said, urgently.
The human Sunset Shimmer was still caught between her decisions, trying to figure out if she should stop the chaos or take it all the way. "What's the point?" she asked. "You can tell me how you salvaged your reputation but I never had one to begin with!" Tears began to appear in the human Sunset Shimmer's eyes.
"So start now!" the Equestrian Sunset Shimmer urged.
"I like my way better!" the human Sunset said, rejecting her counterpart's offer.
"There's no talking her out of it, Twilight!" Rainbow Dash said. "Whatever your solution is it's all we've got!"
Twilight turned a dial on the top of the device. "Alright, it's ready!" she called to her friends. They all stood aside and gave Twilight's box a clear shot to the rift. She stood up and pulled out her phone. "Here we go!"
The rift was once again transforming the two girls back into unicorns as the energy began to shift back to Equestria. The human Sunset Shimmer looked at Twilight's readying her device.
"Like that's gonna help!" she said defiantly.
Twilight pushed the large button on her phone's screen. The device sprang to life and a green ball of energy appeared on the tip of the antenna dish. Twilight slid her thumb across the face of her phone and the green energy burst into a wide beam from the antenna.
"Wha-?!" the human Sunset Shimmer said, surprised the small box produced such a large quantity of energy.
The green beam collided with the energy rift. It began to push through the bubble that shielded the rift from the rest of reality.
"It's working!" Twilight shouted as her device began to disrupt the nexus. "It's closing the dimensional tear!" The green beam continued to envelop the merged reality within the rift.
"What's...going on?!" the human Sunset Shimmer said. She felt herself slowly being pulled away from her dimensional counterpart. "What is that thing doing?!"
For the first time since she was pinned, the Equestrian Sunset Shimmer felt able to free herself from her counterpart's grip. She began to push her double off her with help from the dimensional tear's closing.
"Wait! Stop!" the human girl said. "I'm being pulled through!"
The Equestrian Sunset began to panic upon realizing what was happening. "Twilight! Shut it off! She's being sucked into the rift!"
"I can't!" Twilight said. "It's only going to shut off when the rift is closed!"
"...NOOOOOO!!!" she cried, unable to fight the ethereal current pulling her through the dimensional gap. At that moment Twilight's device successfully closed off the rift. The column of energy flew into the vortex it created and the red cracks in the sky vanished. With the rift's closure, a huge repulsion of energy burst forth and triggered a massive shockwave at the epicenter of the rift. A blinding white flash blanketed the area...
There was an eerie silence that blanketed the courtyard of Canterlot High School with only the sound of a haunting breeze wafting through. The nine girls were all on the ground in varying stages of consciousness. Their hair was mussed and they had scuffs and tears on their clothes.
"Ooooh...my head..." Rainbow Dash groaned.
"Unnngh...did it work?" Applejack asked to anyone who might be listening.
Twilight Sparkle picked herself up off the ground. Her glasses were scratched and slightly bent. "Spike?" she called out to her pet. The small purple dog ran up to her and leaped into her arms. She nuzzled his cheek closely then glanced around the Canterlot High courtyard. All of the festival tents had been knocked asunder and several of the windows around the face of the school were cracked. She saw Sunset Shimmer lying on the ground, knocked a good distance from where she was standing originally, and ran over to her.
Sunset groaned as she came to. Her vision was blurry but she could make out Twilight and Spike looking over her. "Twilight...?" she asked, weakly. She sat herself up as Jade Jewel and Pearlescent also walked over to her. She looked past her the girls and suddenly her eyes widened. "No...no no no!" she stammered in a panic.
Sunset hurriedly got off the ground and ran over to the Canterlot High statue. "The portal!" she cried, dropping to her knees upon reaching the spot where the statue was supposed to stand. Instead of the statue, there was a pile of rubble lying on the ground with only the muzzle of the stallion still intact. She began to tear up as she lay her hand on the fragmented pieces of the statue. Rarity and Fluttershy crouched behind their friend and laid their hands on her shoulders.
"What happened to the other Sunset Shimmer?" Pinkie Pie asked the others, as though she were posing the question they were all thinking but didn't want to ask. They all looked at each other then looked out into the sky in different directions.
Two days later
The cleanup process was underway to repair the damage from the weekend incident. There were city workers repairing the windows of the school as a large scoop was slowly removing the remains of the Canterlot High statue from the school grounds. The students milling about the courtyard, busy trying to mend the festival tents. Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna were conversing with the school district superintendent about the cleanup.
"I...don't understand what all this is about..." the superintendent said, perplexed. "Tell me again what caused all this damage...?"
The two women looked at each other, unsure of how to respond. "Would...you believe a large discharge of magic energy...?" Luna said, her facial expression suggesting she wasn't sure her response was what the superintendent was hoping to hear. His only answer was a raised eyebrow and his face turning to an expression of confusion.
Meanwhile, Sunset Shimmer sat on the stoop of the school's entrance with her chin on her hands and propped up by her elbows resting on her knees. She looked on at the cleanup efforts with a dejected expression. Sunset was most focused on the removal of the remains of the school statue. She let out a low sigh as the other eight girls walked up to her.
"Sunset?" Fluttershy asked. Sunset looked up at her friends but her expression remained unchanged.
"I'm sorry about the portal," Twilight Sparkle said. "I didn't realize that severing the dimensional bridge would cause such a strong reversal of energy."
"It's not your fault," Sunset assured her. "I just...this feels like the worst possible outcome."
"If it helps, Twilight thinks nothing bad happened to the other Sunset Shimmer," Rarity told her friend.
"I guess," Sunset said, still frowning. "But look where we ended up. The other Sunset Shimmer was pulled into a dimensional void and I have no way of returning to Equestria."
"Don't blame yourself," Jade Jewel attempted to reassure her. "It's sad about what happened to Sunset but she brought this on herself. Everyone kept warning her about playing with forces she didn't understand but she kept on pushing it."
"Yeah," Pearlesecent added. "Actions have consequences. It's just lame that it had to end up this way."
"I shouldn't be moping here," Sunset said. "I should be helping with the cleanup and restarting the festival."
She looked around and saw a couple of students attempting to raise one of the fallen tents back up. "Hey, let me help with that," she said. Sunset got off the steps and walked over to the students. She took one of the legs and helped to prop it up while a boy started anchoring it back into the ground. After the tent was successfully anchored, the students thanked her before walking away. Sunset looked at the tent and started to smile for the first time that day. Her other friends came over to join her.
"You know, I should remember what I've accomplished in my time here," Sunset said to the others. "I was tied up with how much I missed Equestria but I've laid so many roots here that I guess I took it for granted." She glanced around at her friends standing nearby. "Plus...with the portal closed for good maybe we can finally focus on just being good friends instead of good friends who have to save the day."
The other girls laughed at the remark. "But we love saving the day with you!" Rainbow Dash joked.
"It certainly made things unique," Sunset agreed. "But...really, I think it's time we settled into something more normal, don't you agree?" Her friends nodded. "And," Sunset said, looking behind her friends, "I think a couple of people could use some friends right now." She looked over at Pearlescent and Jade Jewel standing near the school entrance.
"You'd still want to be friends after what we helped Sunset with?" Jade asked, uncertainly.
"We basically betrayed your trust," Pearlescent said. "It would never have gotten as bad as it did if we hadn't gave Sunset Twilight's notes."
"Water under the bridge," Applejack replied with a smug grin. "Part of bein' good friends is knowing when to forgive and forget." She gave them a reassuring wink.
"I still need someone to skate with!" Rainbow Dash said to Jade.
"And I can't think of a better drummer than you, Pearl!" Pinkie added.
Jade and Pearlescent looked at each other and smiled.
"Now c'mon, everyone, let's get this festival fixed up and ready for prime time!" Applejack rallied. All her friends cheered in unison before enthusiastically setting to work.
Later that day, Sunset was sitting on the floor next to her locker, writing in her magic journal to Princess Twilight.
Hey Twilight.
I don't know if you can still get these messages without the portal intact. If you do, I just wanted to let you know how things ended up.
The portal is closed for good on this side. I guess we won't need to worry about dimensional doubles crossing paths anymore. I'm sorry that I won't get to see you again, I'm going to miss you but I have a great circle of friends here in this world and I'm grateful for the time I get to spend with them. You've taught me so much about friendship and I intend to carry it on in this world and make you proud. Hopefully with the portal closed we won't be seeing as much rampant magic in this world now.
This is the last school year we'll be at Canterlot High together so I want to make the most of it. I've got a lot planned but for right now, it's time for the homecoming festival and the Rainbooms are going to perform. I can't wait!
I hope you're having fun in Equestria and solving all sorts of friendship problems. If you get this, please write back and let me know how everything is on your end. Maybe someday we'll figure out a way to meet again.
~Sunset
Sunset closed her journal, stood to her feet, and put it into her locker before shutting the door.
Some time later, the book began to glow and vibrate...
"I just need to get something out of my locker," Sunset Shimmer said.
"Alright but hurry up!" Rainbow Dash responded. She was waiting down at the other end of the hallway with Twilight Sparkle and her guitar in her hand. "We're going on in fifteen minutes!"
"Don't worry, I won't miss it!" Sunset reassured them. Her two friends rounded the corner and headed out to the main festival grounds. Sunset opened up her locker and peered inside. She pulled out a necklace but then did a double take, noticing that her magic journal was vibrating. Her eyes lit up with excitement. She knew this meant that Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria had successfully received her last message, even with the portal to Equestria closed thanks to the destruction of the Canterlot High School statue, and had written her something back. Sunset eagerly opened the book to the latest page with writing on it and began to read intently.
Dear Sunset Shimmer,
I did receive your last message! It's a shame about the portal and it's even worse because the portal on our side is also closed now. But I have a lot to tell you about what happened in Equestria. It seems that...
"Hey, Twilight!" Spike, Twilight Sparkle's loyal dragon assistant said as he came running into the main throne room of Twilight's crystal castle. Twilight and her six friends were gathered around the large map table that occupied the center of the throne room. "It's a message from Sunset Shimmer!" He was holding Twilight's magical journal in his right claw and it was glowing and vibrating as it did when it had a new message waiting to be read. Twilight levitated the journal out of his claw and opened it up to the new message.
"What does it say?" Applejack asked.
"Oh no!" Twilight said, alarmed. "Sunset has an emergency! It seems the counterpart Sunset Shimmer ended up at CHS and now she's threatening to destabilize their world by forcing contact with our Sunset! She needs us to open the portal to Equestria so she can escape from the other Sunset!"
A few minutes later, Twilight and her friends were gathered around the magical mirror that served as the portal to the human realm. Twilight had added equipment to the mirror in order to facilitate opening it at will via the power of her magic journal's connection to Sunset's. Twilight placed the book into the slot at the top that connected it to the machine.
"Okay girls, here it goes," she said. She pulled a switch and the machine sprang to life. The magical energy was channeled from the book and through the various pipes and mechanisms that made up the portal machine before being collected and fed into the mirror. The mirror began to glow brightly before a large flash of light appeared and turned the mirror's glass surface into a swirling pool of energy.
"It's open!" Twilight said. She levitated the book off the machine and opened it to write to Sunset that the portal was open and she could return to Equestria. However, as she began to write, the ground began to shake beneath their feet.
"He-hey!" Pinkie Pie said. "Wh-wh-what's go-go-going o-on?!" her words being broken up by the tremors.
"I d-don't know!" Twilight said. "Th-this didn't h-happen last time!"
Suddenly, a large wave of energy could be seen pushing through the portal. "Get down!" Twilight warned her friends. All the ponies in the room ducked in fear as the energy reached the end of the portal, which led to a large explosion through the face of the mirror. There was a bright flash that flooded the room and the shockwave knocked all of Twilight's books off their shelves. After it had passed, everypony got back to their feet.
"What...was that?" Rainbow Dash asked the group when they were all standing again.
"I'm not sure," Twilight said. "It's like opening the portal relea-" she cut herself off and gasped in shock. Looking at the mirror, the glass was now lying in shards on the ground and Twilight's portal opening machine had been badly damaged by the energy wave. Several pieces had fallen off and the machine was smoldering. "Oh my gosh, the portal! It's destroyed!" she cried. The other ponies looked on in dismay at the ruined portal.
Unable to do anything else, the seven ponies and Spike slowly walked out of the portal room.
"What do you suppose triggered that?" Applejack asked the princess.
"I wish I could tell you," she responded. "But now we're cut off from their world so who knows what happened!"
As the ponies walked through the foyer of the castle, Fluttershy glanced out one of the castle's front windows. Something immediately caught her attention and she ran over to get a better look.
"Girls, look!" she said, pointing with her hoof outside the castle. The others gathered around her and surprised expressions overtook their faces. Twilight threw open the doors to her castle and they all ran outside.
In front of the castle, there was a large patch of singed ground that was still smoldering. In the middle of the patch, what looked like an orange pony was lying face down in the center. She was covered in scuff marks and her short orange and yellow mane was badly mussed.
"Oh my gosh, are you alright?" Twilight asked the pony. The mysterious pony blinked her eyes rapidly, trying to gain her bearings.
"Wh-what...?" she mumbled, still heavily dazed. "Wh...where am I?" She slowly lifted her body up off the ground so she could see who was standing around her. "Who are...all of you?"
Twilight cocked her head slightly at the pony. "Sunset...Shimmer?" she asked, recognizing the strange pony.
"Ye-yes...?" the other pony answered, softly.
"How did you end up here?" Twilight asked, confused. "And why do you look so...different?" remembering the last time she saw Sunset her mane was much longer.
"I don't...know what you're...talking about..." Sunset responded, still trying to regain her composure. She attempted to stand up but, strangely, attempted to stand on her hind legs. "Wh-woah!" she said, quickly losing balance. She fell down and landed on her forelegs. "Why can't I stand up normally?!"
"'Normally'?" Twilight said, confused. "Why woul-" she cut herself off and raised her hoof to her mouth. "Oh my goodness...you're not the Sunset Shimmer from Equestria...you're the Sunset Shimmer from their world!"
The other ponies gasped in unison. "How is that possible?" Rarity asked on behalf of the group.
"You must have fallen through a dimensional tear!" Twilight surmised.
"The last thing I remember was Twilight Sparkle trying to close the rift," Sunset said, groggily. "After that, nothing at all until just this moment. What are you...what am I?"
"This is Equestria," Twilight explained. "It's where the Sunset Shimmer you encountered came from originally. We are ponies, as are you; a unicorn to be exact. Most of the creatures who live in this world are ponies."
"E...questria?" Sunset asked, taking in all of the new information. "Twilight Sparkle was researching a connection between our world and another. Is this that world?"
Twilight nodded. "And I'm the Equestrian counterpart to the Twilight Sparkle of your world," she explained. "You probably also met the counterparts of all my friends." She stood aside and let Sunset see her other friends, whom she did see resemblances to of the friends Twilight had in her own world.
"How did I end up here?" Sunset asked, confused.
"You must have made contact with the other Sunset Shimmer, which created a dimensional hole, and when that hole was sealed, you got trapped on the other side," Twilight postulated. "That was likely the source of that large wave of energy that came through the portal right before you appeared. Unfortunately, that wave of energy also destroyed the portal. I hate to say it but we won't be able to send you back to your world."
Sunset looked hurt by the revelation that she was trapped in their world.
"I'm sorry," Twilight said, sympathetically. "I know it must be hard to be trapped in a strange place with no way to get back to where you belong. If there's anything we can d-"
"No..." Sunset said, interrupting Twilight. "No...it's fine. In fact...it's better than fine." Her facial expression gradually changed to a nervous smile. "I ended up in this world through my own actions. I was greedy and wrong. Everyone warned me about what would happen if I made contact with Sunset Shimmer and I did so anyway. I have to accept the consequences."
She paused and looked around at the other ponies. "When I came to Canterlot High, I was trying to gain a fresh start; a blank slate. But I just fell into bad habits and wanted respect without earning it. I thought I could force it, the same way that your Sunset Shimmer did when she crossed into our world."
Sunset paused again and looked up at the sky. "Before I got pulled into your world, your Sunset told me that it wasn't too late. That I could still turn back and gain the forgiveness and respect that I desired. I rejected it...and I ended up here. She was right. She knew and understood so much about friendship and I wish I had taken some of that to heart." She looked off to the side, ashamed of her reckless and selfish behavior.
Twilight walked over and put her hoof on Sunset. "Whatever you did in your world, you've already paid for it."
Sunset nodded. A tear welled up in the bottom of her eye but she brushed it away. "If it's alright...I'd...like to live here," she requested. "To make this my real clean slate. To truly start over and learn how life works in this world. I have nothing left for me in my world but I feel like I can become the person I want to be here, with your help..."
Twilight looked at her friends, who all smiled back compassionately. "We'd be honored," Twilight said. She gave Sunset a hug and the other ponies gathered around to do the same. The eight ponies slowly began walking back towards Twilight's crystal castle together.
Sunset wiped a tear from her eye as she read the end of Twilight's message. She was happy to know her counterpart was safe and had truly decided to change for the better.
Good... she thought. There's no one better she could have found...
"Sunset Shimmer!" a stern voice called out. It was Rarity and she was growing impatient. "You have five minutes to be onstage with us and you're just reading your journal?!"
"Coming, Rarity!" she said, wiping another tear from her eye as she returned her journal to its locker with a smile on her face. She took one last look at it then slowly closed the door before following Rarity out to the festival site.
