The Equestria Club

by MythrilMoth

First published 5th of June, 2016

Princess Twilight Sparkle brings Moondancer, Starlight Glimmer, and Princess Ember over to Sunset Shimmer's apartment for a weekend sleepover.

As the Princess of Friendship, the only thing Twilight Sparkle loves as much as books, reading, books, making new friends, books, spending time with her friends, and...books...

...is spreading the magic of friendship. And one easy way to do that is to introduce your friends to each other.

In need of a weekend away from the castle before heading out to the Crystal Empire to spend time with her family, Twilight decides to take a little vacation to the human world...and brings three of her newest friends along.

After all, if Princess Ember, Moondancer, and Starlight Glimmer are all Twilight's friends, surely they'll get along well with each other and with Sunset Shimmer!

Right?

(Cover compiled from various source vectors.)

Prologue: Arrival, Party

Sunset Shimmer made one last circle of the living room to make sure everything was clean and tidy, then checked her refrigerator and cupboards again to make sure she'd stocked everything they'd need for the weekend.

An entire week of planning had gone into this moment, and as the day grew closer, Sunset grew more excited. And nervous.

Pinkie Pie called it 'nervoucited'. And had demonstrated the feeling with an anatomically impossible display of flexibility that made Sunset's spine hurt just to think about.

She sighed at the thought of Pinkie Pie and her other friends, who had been excluded from this particular weekend sleepover. She hated the idea of her six best friends not being invited, but she understood the reasons why. Besides, not even Applejack had enough room for a party of eleven.

She grinned as she thought back to the day, a week ago, when an overexcited Princess Twilight Sparkle had abruptly appeared in the school cafeteria at lunch and rushed up to their table...

* * * * *

"Sunset! I need to talk to you!" Princess Twilight said in a breathless rush as she slid into a seat next to Rarity. Rarity glanced at her worriedly and handed her the water bottle from her tray; Princess Twilight took it and gulped down a third of it before passing it back. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it," Rarity said. "Is everything alright?"

"What's wrong, Twilight?" Sunset asked. "Is there trouble in Equestria? Is...is there something dangerous loose in this world again?"

Princess Twilight waved a hand in a warding gesture. "No, there's no trouble, nothing's wrong," she said airily with a light laugh. "Actually, everything's great, but I need to set something up with you and I kinda need to do it fast."

Sunset blinked. "Okay," she said as she picked up her sandwich. "What's up?" She took a big bite.

"I want to introduce you to three new friends—well, one old friend and two new friends—well, one old friend I patched things up with over a year ago after being a really bad friend for a really long time and one friend you already know a little about and one really new friend—but you haven't met any of them yet so they're all new friends, so—"

"Whoa, you sure you're Twilight and not Pinkie Pie in disguise?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"How could she be me when I'm right here?" Pinkie Pie asked, waving a fry at Rainbow Dash.

"She could be the other you. The pony you."

Pinkie Pie considered that. "That's true," she said. She turned to Twilight. "Are you the other me in disguise?"

Princess Twilight blinked. "Huh? What? No! I'm Twilight."

Swallowing and taking a sip of her soda, Sunset smiled. "Settle down, Twilight. I'm sure we'd all be happy to meet your new friends."

Princess Twilight ducked her head. "Umm..." She glanced around the table at the other girls. "So here's the thing..." She sighed. "I, umm...sort of...only want them to meet you, Sunset." She then looked up, eyes wide with alarm. "N-not that I wouldn't want to introduce them to the rest of you or anything! It's just, well...they sort of already know my pony friends, and meeting their counterparts here...I think it might kind of...overwhelm them. And then there's, well..." She looked down the table at the one girl she'd deliberately been avoiding looking at. "Then there's you," she said. "You're absolutely more than they can handle. Hay, you're almost more than I can handle!"

Twilight Sparkle blinked in confusion. "I'm...not really sure how to take that," she said over the top of her tuna on whole wheat.

"Sorry," Princess Twilight said sheepishly.

"I can see how being around two Twilight Sparkles at the same time might be, err...disorienting," Rarity said.

Sunset gave Princess Twilight a reassuring smile. "I'd love to meet your friends," she said. "Coming back to Equestria for a day or two is no problem, just let me know when, and—"

Princess Twilight held up a hand. "See...that's the thing," she said sheepishly. "I, uhh...kinda wanted to bring them here."

"Oh," Sunset said, blinking and pursing her lips. "Okay. Why, though? I mean, not that it's a problem or anything, but—"

Princess Twilight flung herself across the table and grabbed desperately at Sunset's jacket. "I need a vacation!" she wailed. "And not the kind where I lock myself up in the library for three days sorting and shelving books! The last time I did that I ended up missing a whole weekend of...stuff...and I wound up so stressed out I might as well not have even taken a booksortcation in the first place!"

Sunset stared at Twilight, gently dislodging her lapels from her fingers. "Ooookaaaaaay," she drawled. "Pretending I understood that. So you want to come here, and bring your new friends with you, for a little vacation?"

Princess Twilight nodded rapidly, a huge smile on her face.

"Sure, no problem," Sunset said. "When were you thinking of doing this?"

"I was thinking next weekend," Princess Twilight said. "Actually, it kinda needs to be next weekend. That's the only time I can get Ember and Moondancer to come when I'll actually be able to arrange time off from my schedule. I've got most of next week booked with this conference and the week after that I'm going to the Crystal Empire to spend time with my niece, and after that I've got..." She frowned and chewed on her lip. "Well, I'm not sure what I've got after that, I'd have to check my schedule, but I know that next weekend is the only time I'm really able to clear my schedule and it's absolutely the only time I can get all three of them to come with me!"

"Wow, your life sounds rough," Twilight said. Then, she blinked. "Wait. Niece?"

Princess Twilight blinked at her. "You're not an aunt yet?"

Twilight shook her head. "Shining Armor doesn't even have a girlfriend as far as I know. We, umm...we are talking about Shining Armor, right? I mean, I'm sort of just assuming you have the same family, right?"

Princess Twilight nodded. "Yeah. Shining Armor married Princess Cadance a few years ago. They just had a baby a couple of months ago."

"Crap, I forgot to tell everyone!" Sunset said, facepalming. "Sorry, guys. It slipped my mind."

Twilight giggled. "Cadance? And...and my brother?" She shook her head. "Sorry, I...I can't see it..."

Princess Twilight tilted her head. "Huh? Why not?"

Twilight coughed. "Well...it's just...Dean Cadance is nice and always looked out for me when I went to Crystal Prep, and she's still checking up on me even now, but my brother? He's, well..." She ducked her head. "He's kind of a tool."

"Ouch!" Rainbow Dash said, cackling. "Burn!"

"Really?" Princess Twilight asked. "Huh. I mean, yeah, my Shining Armor can be a real dork sometimes, but a tool?"

Sunset smirked. "Oh, I'm sure you've noticed more than a few differences between people here and their counterparts in Equestria."

Princess Twilight rolled her eyes. "That's true," she said. "Take Flash Sentry for example. Here, he's..." She blushed and ducked her head, playing with her hair. "But the Flash back home, well..." She leaned in close and stage-whispered, "He's a wiener."

Fluttershy spat out a mouthful of apple juice and coughed, then started giggling. The other girls laughed.

Sunset snickered and shook her head. "Okay, so...I guess we're talking a weekend sleepover at my place, then?"

Princess Twilight nodded. "If that's okay," she said. "I mean, I know your apartment isn't that big, but—"

"My bed's big enough to share," Sunset said. "And then there's the couch, so we'll just need two sleeping bags for the others, right? It won't be nearly as crowded as that slumber party at Pinkie's place."

"Or any of the other slumber parties we've had," Applejack said. "Well, except th' ones at mah place." She shook her head. "Ah can see why you want us t' sit this one out, though. Ah mean, th' whole pony applebangers thing aside, that'd be eleven girls in one place..." She shook her head. "Ain't none of us got enough space fer that."

Princess Twilight scrunched her nose up in confusion. "Applebangers?"

"I think she means 'doppelgangers', darling," Rarity said with a roll of her eyes.

"Oh. Right." Princess Twilight shrugged. "Anyway, yeah, that's the other reason. Not the main reason, but it's a factor. Even if Ember comes through the mirror as a dog like Spike does, that'd still be ten girls and a dog. It's too much."

Sunset frowned. "Why would this Ember come through the mirror as a dog?"

"Oh! I didn't tell you about Princess Ember? She's the new Dragon Lord." Princess Twilight smiled. "It's a funny story, I'll tell you sometime."

Sunset blinked. "She's...a dragon? She's the Dragon Lord?! And you want to bring her through the portal?!"

Princess Twilight shrugged. "She's a new friend, and she's just starting to learn about friendship. She's already met my Ponyville friends and she writes letters to me and Spike when she can." She smiled faintly. "I don't wanna jinx it, but I think there might even be a little something there..." She shook her head. "Anyway, she's..." She gestured around the table. "Pretty much human-sized, if I'm right about the size difference between species, so she'll either come through as a big dog, a human girl like me, or..." She shrugged. "Honestly, I'm not entirely sure."

Sunset frowned. "Hmm. Well, if she's your friend, I don't have a problem with it. I just hope you warn her before she changes into something she's not okay with and gets mad. Wouldn't want to start a war between Equestria and the dragons."

"I don't think Ember would get mad over a little thing like turning into a dog," Princess Twilight said. "She's a lot nicer than most dragons."

"Well, the rest of us might have to sit this one out," Pinkie Pie said with a mild pout, "but that doesn't mean we totally won't help you get set up for the big party, Sunset!" She paused, then gasped. "Oh! Oh! And while Sunset and Twilight and their new friends are having their party, the rest of us can have one over at my place!"

"Sounds good to me!" Rainbow said.

"Heh...it has been a while," Applejack chuckled.

"Are you sure that's okay?" Twilight asked. "I don't think your sisters like me very much."

Pinkie rolled her eyes. "They like you just fine," she said. "Marble just doesn't talk much, Maud's...Maud, and Limestone's a grump to everybody."

"Well...okay," Twilight said, ducking her head and poking her fingertips together.

"A sleepover at Pinkie's sounds lovely," Rarity said. "Oh, but Twilight dear—ahem, Princess Twilight, I mean—do come by the boutique with your new friends before you head over to Sunset's place, alright? I'll set you all up with pajamas."

"Ah've got some sleepin' bags y'all can borrow," Applejack said. "Ah'll drop 'em by Sunset's place this weekend."

"I'll help with the snack shopping!" Pinkie cheered.

Sunset smiled around at her friends. "Girls...thank you," she said. "I don't want to put you out for something you won't even be coming to—"

"Eh, it's no big deal," Rainbow said. "Besides, we can text back and forth and send pics to each other from both parties, right? It'll be like we're havin' one big party in two places!"

"Ooh, a two-party party!" Pinkie Pie said gleefully. "That sounds super fun!"

Princess Twilight smiled as the girls descended into back and forth chatter about the upcoming parties. She stood. "Well, I have to go," she said apologetically. "I'll see you next Friday, Sunset."

Sunset nodded, a happy smile on her face. "Can't wait."

* * * * *

Four girls walked down a sidewalk in the heart of Canterlot's midtown.

One of the girls walked with an excited, eager gait. Another of the girls strode alongside her with an air of cool, disaffected indifference, tinged only by mild curiosity and faint annoyance.

The last two girls were unsteady on their feet, nervous, and gawking at things most pedestrians in a city wouldn't ordinarily gawk at.

"Wh-wh-wh-what in the hay was THAT?!" one of the girls screeched as a car drove past, belching exhaust from a rattling muffler.

"A car," the excited girl said. "It's how they get around in this world. Well, how some people get around."

A motorcycle roared by. The two nervous, unsteady girls jumped in fright. The disaffected girl raised an eyebrow. "That looks like fun," she said.

"Fun?! That noisy thing?!"

"Yeah! I love things that ROOOOOOAR," the disaffected girl said with a grin.

The leader of the little group giggled. "Come on, it's just up here..."

* * * * *

The doorbell rang, and Sunset rushed to the door, throwing back the safety bolt and unlocking the deadbolt before yanking the door open. She smiled brightly at Princess Twilight Sparkle, who wore an excited smile. "Twilight! I'm so excited for this weekend!"

"So are we!" Twilight said.

"Come in, come in!" Sunset said, stepping aside. Twilight walked in, followed by three unfamiliar girls. Each girl had a small tote bag in hand.

The first girl looked quite a bit like Twilight—the local version, not the princess—except for her cream-colored skin and bright fuschia hair. Like Twilight's, her hair had two vertical stripes—one dark violet, the other lavender—in the exact same arrangement as Twilight's own distinctive violet and pink stripes; it was long and straight in the back like Twilight's, but pulled up into a messy, ugly knot in the front, held in place by a pink beaded band. Her purple eyes were magnified by thick-framed glasses with a thick layer of tape wrapped around the bridge, and her eyebrows were shaggy and enormous. She wore a black pullover sweater, an ankle-length dark blue skirt, white socks, and severe, sensible brown loafers. Her expression was one of awkward scrutiny.

The second girl looked nervous, but excited—not in the same way as Sunset, but in more of an "I'm eager to please my teacher" way; it was an expression Sunset knew all too well from her own fillyhood. She had light pinkish-purple skin and long violet hair in a stylish wave; her hair had twin vertical streaks of alternating lighter violet and pale aquamarine. Her eyes were a bright purplish blue and sparkled with intelligence, eagerness, hopefulness, and a hint of fear. She wore a dark purple jacket over a royal purple shirt which was adorned with a four-pointed pink star over a four-pointed white star, as well as a knee-length indigo skirt and matching boots with twin aquamarine stripes at the tops.

The last girl was...different from the others. She had deep cyan skin which reminded Sunset of the time Rainbow Dash had gotten a suntan, bright red eyes which shone with amusement, and short, spiky dark blue hair with a fringe that hung over her forehead and sidetails that faded from blue to white and curled upward at the ends. She wore a black midriff-baring crop top and tight black jeans, a gold mesh weave vest, a wide gold belt in the design of two intertwining dragons, and gold platform boots with black soles, low fronts, flared tops, and steel spikes on the backs of the heels.

Twilight set her bag down next to a chair, then stood alongside her three guests. "Let me introduce everyone," she said. She gestured to the first girl. "This is Moondancer."

Moondancer adjusted her glasses and shuffled her feet awkwardly. "Hi," she mumbled.

"This is Starlight Glimmer," Twilight said, gesturing at the second girl.

Starlight waved and smiled brightly. "Such a pleasure to finally meet you! Twilight talks about you all the time." Sunset returned her wave with a sheepish smile.

"And I'm Ember," the third girl said with a smirk, folding her arms. "Princess Ember, Dragon Lord. Yeah, that's right, I'm a dragon."

"That...would explain the punk rock look," Sunset said. "I'm Sunset Shimmer, and I'm really looking forward to getting to know all of you! I'm happy to call any friends of Twilight's my friends too." She paused, then added, "Well...almost any friend. I mean, every time she mentions Discord..." She chuckled awkwardly. "You know?"

"Shh! Careful!" Twilight hissed, eyes wide with alarm. "I'm not sure he can't hear you."

Sunset blinked. "Uhh...Twilight? We're in another universe."

"But it's Discord," Twilight replied through clenched teeth. "Do you really want to take that chance?!"

Sunset tilted her head, chewing on the corner of her lip. "Good point," she said.

"Ah, relax," Ember said, rolling her eyes. "I saw old Dippy on my way into Ponyville. He was tormenting some pegasus dude."

Twilight's expression changed to one of consternation. "What pegasus dude?"

Ember shrugged. "I dunno. He was blonde, kinda green, needed a shave..."

Twilight sighed. "Oh," she said, her posture relaxing immediately. "Then it's Fluttershy's problem."

Sunset blinked. "Blonde and doesn't shave? That sounds like Zephyr—"

"—Breeze," Twilight finished resignedly. "Yeah, Discord just met him a couple weeks ago. He, uhh...didn't make the best first impression."

Sunset rolled her eyes. "Does he ever?"

"You know this pony?" Moondancer asked curiously.

"I know Fluttershy's brother," Sunset said. "Well, our Fluttershy, I mean. If the Zephyr Breeze over there is anything like the Zephyr Breeze over here, I hope Discord gives him the Trots."

Ember snickered. "I like you," she said. "I think we're gonna get along juuuuust fine."

"It's still hard to get my head around the idea of there being two of everypony I know," Starlight said. "I mean, even after I saw this world's Rarity with my own eyes, I still..."

Twilight giggled. "I know, right? The first time I came here, I didn't know what was going on!"

Moondancer shifted on her feet. "Do you, umm...mind if I sit down?" she asked. "Standing on two legs like this is kind of..."

"Oh! I'm sorry, I kept everybody standing," Sunset said sheepishly. "Of course, of course!" She clapped her hands together. "Why don't you all just...take off your shoes, sit down, I'll get us all some drinks."

"I'll help!" Twilight said as she slid off her boots and lined them up next to the front closet. As she padded off barefoot to the kitchen with Sunset, Starlight tugged her own boots off with some difficulty, then lined them up evenly beside Twilight's. Moondancer stepped out of her shoes and toed them into roughly the same position against the wall.

Ember frowned.

Starlight gave her an expectant look. "Come on now, boots off!" she said. In a softer, hissing whisper, she added, "I'm pretty sure our gracious host doesn't want us tracking outside dirt onto her nice clean carpet."

Ember looked over the deep blue carpet that covered the floor, snorted, rolled her eyes, and tugged her boots off, tossing them haphazardly by the others. Starlight frowned and busied herself with straightening both Ember's boots and Moondancer's shoes, then took a seat on the sofa beside Moondancer, while Ember threw herself into the biggest easy chair and leaned back.

As Sunset broke ice cubes free from trays and dumped them into a bin while Twilight took glasses out of the cupboards, Sunset quietly remarked, "So. A whole weekend with a kinda dorky princess, a rebel, a good bad girl, a reclusive nerd, and a neurotic sociopath."

Twilight frowned and glanced at her out of the corner of her eye. "Wow. That was a bit harsh."

"Sorry," Sunset said with a smirk. "I was just thinking this sounds like a setup for a wacky teenage comedy."

Twilight started to retort, paused, pursed her lips, then giggled.

Sunset joined in with a light laugh as she grabbed a six-pack of cola out of the refrigerator. "Come on," she said. "We don't wanna keep the Equestria Club waiting."

Author's Notes:

A little something that was originally going to be three separate chapters of Just Girls Talking, but then I decided to merge them into a separate story to allow for more varied character interaction. For those who are curious, this was originally going to be Sunset meeting Moondancer, Starlight, and Ember individually.

I think this has more potential for fun.

This won't be a terribly long story. There will be, at most, three more chapters and an epilogue.

Chapter 1: Talking, Movies

The rest of the girls were already at Pinkie's place when Rarity arrived.

"Well?" Rainbow asked eagerly. "What are Twilight's new friends like?"

"Hmm," Rarity said, worrying at her lip. "Well, they're...hmm."

"Hmm?" Fluttershy echoed.

Rarity tapped a slender finger against her lips. "I...how do I say this delicately?" She frowned. "They're...odd."

"Well, they're from Equestria, ain't they?" Applejack asked. "Ah reckon they're gonna stand out no matter what, like Twilight did when she first showed up."

"No, I mean they're very odd," Rarity said. "One of them was a more severe version of this Twilight, one of them was a..." She shuddered. "punk rocker, and the third just...I don't know. Something about her just set me on edge. She reminds me of those impossibly cheerful housewives you see in old movies and TV shows, only..." She tilted her head. "Oh dear, how do I say this...?"

"She had a smile so tight you're gonna have nightmares about her pouring boiling water on you in your sleep while she sings about going on a bloody homicidal rampage?" Pinkie suggested.

Everyone stared at her.

"Err...y-yes," Rarity said. "Something like that."

Twilight frowned. "Wait a second. What do you mean 'a more severe version of m—' Do you think I'M odd?!"

"N-not at all, darling!" Rarity said, holding her hands up defensively. "I just...I meant..."

"That this other girl was way, WAY nerdier than Sci-Twi?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Yes, that's EXACTLY it!" Rarity said brightly, pointing at Rainbow Dash. "I simply meant that this girl was...well...a horribly stereotypical hermit. Taped glasses, bad hair, ridiculously huge sweater, the whole thing." She shuddered.

"Oh," Twilight said, frowning and absently reaching up to her own bun. "But...I'm not like that, right?"

"Nah, you're good," Rainbow assured her. "You could still stand to loosen up a little more, but you'll get there."

"Maybe some contacts," Fluttershy suggested softly.

"Lose the bun," Applejack suggested.

Twilight frowned and folded her arms. "In other words, change my appearance to look like her."

"N-no, not at all!" Fluttershy gasped. "We want you to find your own look! It's just...you have a lot of natural beauty, and, um, and, um, help me out?"

"A bit of a makeover is all we're suggesting," Rarity said. "Just so you're not letting your good looks go to waste! That's all."

Twilight let out a noncommittal grunt, but relaxed her posture.

Rarity sighed and held out her phone, showing Twilight a picture of the fuschia-haired girl she'd only just met. "We just don't want to see you become this," she said.

Twilight stared at the picture. "Oh my god, that...that is pretty bad. Those eyebrows..." She shuddered.

The other girls crowded in for a look. "Yikes," Rainbow Dash pronounced.

"Yeah, now there's a girl that needs a makeover," Applejack said, scratching her head.

"I'm sure she's a lovely person," Fluttershy said with a hint of reproach. "You're all being a bit judgmental, don't you think?"

Rainbow took the phone and thrust it in Fluttershy's face. Fluttershy drew back. "Oooo-okay, maybe she could use a...a pluck..."

* * * * *

"So, tell me more about yourselves!" Sunset said. The five girls were all comfortably seated—more or less; Moondancer looked awkward and stiff—and had drinks in hand. "I've heard a little about Moondancer and Starlight, but I don't think I've heard anything about you yet, Ember. Other than you being the Dragon Lord."

"Yeah, sorry, I haven't had a lot of time to write lately," Twilight said sheepishly. "What with Rarity's new boutique opening and so much else going on, I've been pretty busy."

"I know what you mean," Sunset said. "Any time I can get an evening to myself to just unwind and relax, I take it. Don't get me wrong, I love getting involved and doing stuff with my friends! But sometimes, you just need—"

"A quiet evening at home with a long hot bath and a good book," Twilight finished with her. They paused, then burst into giggles.

"You know, if you two need to slip us a few bits and send us to the movies, we'll understand," Starlight said with a smirk.

Ember tilted her head. "Huh?"

Moondancer frowned. "I don't get it."

"I do," Sunset said, her face going red. "And we're not—it's not like—" She groaned in frustration and sipped her drink.

Twilight coughed. "So! Umm...Moondancer, why don't you...?"

Moondancer blinked, shrinking into herself slightly. "Oh. Well...I study a lot, and sometimes I do stuff with my friends, and...that's pretty much it." She ducked her head.

Ember leaned forward. "I'm the daughter of the former Dragon Lord," she said. "I won the Gauntlet of Fire..." She paused, grimaced, then amended, "Actually, Spike won the Gauntlet. And then abdicated power to me because he didn't really want to be the Dragon Lord."

"Actually, you won the Gauntlet together," Twilight reminded her with a smile. "Never forget Friendship Lesson #1."

Ember rolled her eyes. "Friends accomplish more working together than trying to go their own way," she said. "Yeah. I got that." She shook her head. "Anyway, ever since then, I've pretty much just been kickin' it in the Dragon Lands, makin' a few trips to Equestria to visit Spike and Twilight...I gotta admit, Equestria's not bad." She smiled slightly. "I'm glad none of the others won. They'd have burned Equestria to the ground by now."

"They'd have tried," Sunset corrected. "I doubt they'd have gotten very far if they managed to tick off the princesses. Especially now that there's four of them."

Ember chuckled. "Yeah, I've heard that a long time ago, Princess Celestia showed a couple of dragons why messing with her was a bad idea." She shrugged. "Honestly? I think it's pretty stupid to pick a fight with someone who controls the sun. I mean, hello! Am I right?" She shook her head. "Anyway, this little side-trip to weird wacky world is better than spending another weekend judging belching contests." She sighed. "Especially since I don't get to compete anymore."

Starlight wrinkled her nose. "You...compete in belching contests?"

"Of course, I'm a dragon," Ember scoffed. "But when you're the Dragon Lord, you always win because the other dragons don't want to make you mad, so...yeah."

"From what I've seen of dragons, I'd think that'd be a bonus," Twilight said.

Ember snorted. "No dragon wants to win a belching contest by default," she said. "It's insulting." She drained her drink in one swallow, then blinked. "Oh, hey, this is good!"

Twilight laughed. "We have it back in Equestria, too. You can pick up big bottles of it at Barnyard Bargains."

"I'll have to remember that," Ember said with an appreciative smack of her lips. She then let out a massive belch.

Sunset blinked. "Yeah...sounds like you could win a belching contest easily," she said.

"You could at least say excuse me," Starlight muttered under her breath.

"Why don't you tell Sunset and the others all about yourself?" Twilight suggested to Starlight.

"Yeah," Sunset said. "I'd love to hear more about the unicorn that almost destroyed Equestria and how you ended up as Twilight's friendship student instead of rotting in Tartarus."

Twilight frowned. "Sunset," she said, "you...really aren't in a position to judge."

Sunset flinched. "Okay...yeah, you're right. Sorry."

"It's...it's okay," Starlight said.

Ember blinked. "Wait. What am I missing here?"

Sunset sighed. "I, uhh..." She coughed. "A while back, I stole the Element of Magic and tried to use it to enslave every student at Canterlot High into my own personal army so I could invade Equestria and conquer Canterlot." She looked away. "All to settle a petty personal grudge against Princess Celestia." She looked around the room, eyes wide. "But...but I'm in a better place now! I've learned that friendship is the better way. The right way."

Starlight blinked. "Wow. Twilight never told me all that," she said. "All she ever talks about is how amazing a friend you are and how you were Celestia's personal student before her and how sometimes she feels like you're the only pony who really understands her because you were both Celestia's prize students."

"Starlight!" Twilight hissed, blushing furiously.

Sunset stared at Starlight, then at Twilight, eyes wide and irises reduced to pinpricks. "Umm...wow," she said quietly.

Ember raised an eyebrow. "Aaaand now I get that crack about going to the movies," she said.

"STARLIGHT HERE," Twilight said loudly through clenched teeth, "stole the Cutie Marks of an entire village of ponies and brainwashed them into thinking the only way they could be happy was if they were all exactly the same with no special talents. When we exposed her for a fraud, she decided to take revenge. Tell them all about that, Starlight!"

Starlight cringed. "O-okay," she said, swallowing. "S-so, I, umm...I found out about the Cutie Mark bond Twilight shares with her friends, and I altered an old time travel spell Starswirl the Bearded wrote, then used the Cutie Map in Twilight's castle to activate the spell. I, umm...I went back in time to the day Twilight and her friends all got their Cutie Marks at the same time, and I tried to change the event that caused that to happen."

Sunset blinked. "Whoa. That's...that's some really powerful magic. How did you—I mean—just—how?!"

Moondancer frowned. "How do you even steal a pony's Cutie Mark?"

"Starlight Glimmer is the highest-level unicorn ever born," Twilight said. "She's actually even more powerful than Starswirl the Bearded. Princess Celestia herself says so. The problem is...Starlight doesn't always exercise the best judgment in using her magic."

Starlight looked down. "Yeah, I'm...still working on that," she admitted. "Even though I'm not using my magic against ponies for my, umm...schemes...I still make a lot of mistakes."

Ember frowned. "So how does screwing with Twilight's past equal destroying Equestria?"

Twilight recounted the various alternate timelines she and Spike had visited, caused by Starlight's interference in the past. Starlight added in her own part of the tale, about her motivations for everything she did. When they were finished, everyone in the room was visibly shaken.

Moondancer looked at Starlight, then shifted away from her. "Don't take this the wrong way, but...you are getting therapy now, right?"

"Yeah, I mean...I was just a conceited jerk who went down a bad road," Sunset said. "You, uhh...you've got problems."

"I know," Starlight said miserably. "And I'm working on it, really. And yes, I'm getting therapy...sort of..."

"So Twilight, how is she not in one of your dungeons?" Ember asked. "I mean, I know you ponies are all about love and friendship and rainbows and stuff, but I also know you have dungeons. And Tartarus."

Twilight took a sip of her drink, then set it back on its coaster. "If a pony can be reasoned with, I like to think they can be made to see the value of friendship. Starlight made a lot of mistakes, but she's willing to make up for them and learn about friendship. To me, that makes her worthy of a second chance."

Sunset chuckled softly. "That sounds familiar," she said.

"And I'm not really comfortable with the idea of sentencing a pony to imprisonment except as an absolute last resort," Twilight continued. "We sent Tirek back to Tartarus because he will never understand friendship. He can never be allowed to roam free. Queen Chrysalis is determined to be an enemy to ponykind, so we treat her like one. Sombra...Sombra was just pure evil. But even Discord proved he was worthy of a second chance, so..." Twilight shrugged. "I couldn't just put Starlight in Tartarus or banish her to the moon without at least giving her a chance."

"And I've learned so much and been so much happier since I moved to Ponyville," Starlight said with a smile. "Twilight's made me realize...how foolish I was to just give up on friendship because my first friend moved away." She scratched her head sheepishly. "I really am kind of a crazy pony, huh?"

"You scare me, and I'm a dragon," Ember said, popping open one of the sodas still sitting on the table and chugging it without bothering to pour it over ice.

Sunset frowned. "That reminds me," she said slowly. "How is it Ember came through as a human, but Spike comes through as a dog?"

Twilight shrugged. "Dunno," she said. "I honestly think it's because this world's Spike is a dog. If he was, say, your Twilight's little brother, then my Spike would probably have come through as a human too." She tilted her head and tapped her chin thoughtfully. "I don't really think it's a species thing, because you know those three big, kinda dumb gray guys at CHS?"

"The ones Rarity has wrapped around her little finger?" Sunset asked.

"Yeah, them," Twilight said. "In Equestria, they're Diamond Dogs." She shrugged. "And then there are the Sirens. They're closer to dragons than they are to ponies, but they're human girls here."

"Good point," Sunset said, nodding. She chuckled. "I guess we'll never completely understand how the portal works."

"It might even be that we're not the same species of dragon," Ember said thoughtfully. "Spike's a tunnel drake. They're not very common west of the Griffon lands."

"Really?" Twilight asked, leaning forward with interest. "How come you never mentioned that before?"

Ember shrugged. "I thought you knew." She arched an eyebrow. "Didn't his not having wings clue you in?"

Twilight frowned. "I just thought it was because he's a baby dragon."

Ember shook her head. "No, it's because he's a tunnel drake. They don't fly."

"Oh." Twilight's frown deepened. "I don't think he'll like hearing that."

"And by the way, he's not a baby," Ember added with an amused smirk. "He's just short."

"Oh." Twilight blinked. "If you say so."

Ember snorted and shook her head. "I have a lot to teach you about dragons," she said.

Starlight clapped her hands loudly. "So hey!" she exclaimed brightly. "How about this world, huh? I wanna hear more about this place!"

"It is quite...fascinating," Moondancer said, adjusting her glasses. She glanced at her hand and frowned. "And strange." She looked at Sunset. "Is it true there's no magic here?"

"More or less," Sunset said. "I mean, the only magic here is what we've brought from Equestria. And the portal." She shrugged. "The magic from the Elements of Harmony that leaked into this world when I stole Twilight's crown sort of...intensified on its own. Once it found hosts here, it got stronger. It's not like unicorn magic, though. None of us really have any control over it. It just sort of...happens on its own." She chuckled. "And even then, all it really does is make us grow pony ears and ponytails. Oh, and Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy get wings."

"But you do know how to trigger it, right?" Starlight asked. "I mean, you've done experiments, right?"

"I've tried experiments," Sunset said. "The results..." She winced. "Inconclusive."

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Interesting way to put being fried, splattered with rainbow goo, buried under a pile of magic apples..."

"Oh god they told you about that?" Sunset cried, facepalming. She sighed. "Anyway, we have a general idea of how to make the magic happen, but without something specific to do with it, it's just..." She shrugged. "Pointless magic hot flashes."

"But wouldn't that be where spells, pegasus magic, earth pony magic...?" Starlight asked. "I mean, that's the very definition of something specific to do with it."

Sunset shook her head. "When I said that, I actually meant something along the lines of 'combining the Magic of Friendship to rainbow laser an out-of-control magical supervillain'. Because that's really pretty much the only thing we can get it to do on purpose." With a wry chuckle and a roll of her eyes, she added, "Not exactly a practical everyday skill."

Ember snorted. "Yeah, that must happen like what, once ever?"

"Three times in the last two years actually," Sunset said sheepishly.

"Seriously?" Ember asked, tilting her head.

"Well, first there was me," Sunset said, ducking her head. "The Element of Magic turned me into an actual demon. Then there were the Sirens. And a while back there was this world's Twilight Sparkle. She pretty much had the same demonic transformation I did, except it was caused by being absorbed by a huge ball of uncontrolled Equestrian magic and then going a little...crazy." At the disbelieving looks of Ember, Moondancer, and Starlight, Sunset hastily added, "It wasn't her fault! She isn't...I mean...all she ever wanted to do was study the magic here at CHS, and she didn't even know it was magic. Then this device she made started sucking up magic left and right, then spitting out random anomalies that caused all kinds of trouble, and then her principal and her classmates pressured her into using that magic against CHS..." She shrugged. "Poor girl was a victim, not a villain."

Starlight shuddered. "I...don't think I want to even imagine a Nightmare Twilight," she said. She tilted her head. "Or would it be Nightmare Dusk?"

"Midnight Sparkle," Sunset said. "That's the name the students at CHS came up with for it. It's kinda stuck."

Ember grinned. "Well, Twilight, now you know what to call yourself if you ever go mad with power and try to take over Equestria."

Twilight groaned. Starlight and Sunset giggled.

Moondancer looked around the room with a frown on her face. Her eyes fell upon Sunset's bookcase. "Do you mind if I read some of your books?" she asked.

"Sure, go ahead," Sunset said. "Oh, horseapples! We've just been sitting here talking forever and now we're out of drinks and I haven't even put out snacks or asked what you girls want to do for the rest of the afternoon!"

"What's there to do here?" Ember asked curiously.

Twilight grinned. "Sunset? How about I get the refreshments while you introduce these girls to television."

Sunset smirked. "Sounds good to me," she said, picking up the remote and turning on the TV. Moondancer returned to the sofa with three books, sat back down, and looked on with interest, while Starlight and Ember jolted at the sudden influx of image and sound.

"Is...is that a movie screen?" Starlight asked. She looked around the room wildly. "Where's the projector?!"

Sunset laughed and began explaining the concept of television while she browsed the listings. As Twilight returned with more drinks and an assortment of snacks, Sunset settled on a movie and leaned back in her chair. The five girls watched—with volleys of questions about different concepts, terms, and the like—an action/adventure/comedy/romance film about a weathered old pilot and a neurotic younger woman who were stranded on a deserted island. Throughout the movie, the protagonists sniped at each other and got on each other's nerves as they struggled to survive the island's various dangers, up to and including an unexpected brush with pirates.

"How can they even make movies like this?" Starlight asked, eyes wide. "It's so...so realistic!"

"I wanna know more about those pirates," Ember said excitedly. "Is that a real thing? I mean, all the stuff they had?"

"Oh, everything in this movie exists in real life," Sunset said. "The planes, the boats, the guns, all of it. There's lots of movies that have stuff that doesn't really exist in this world, too. With a little imagination and a lot of money, they can pretty much make anything happen in a movie." As the credits began to roll, Sunset picked up the remote and opened the listings again. She raised an eyebrow. "Case in point," she said as she selected another show.

The room shook from the rumble of an earsplitting bestial roar. Moondancer jumped in terror. Starlight's eyes widened.

Ember grinned and leaned forward. "Now you're talkin' my language," she said.

Chapter 2: More Talking, Dinner

"So how're things goin' over at Sunset's place?" Applejack asked as she and Rainbow Dash engaged in another furious video game battle.

Pinkie looked up from her phone. "Sunset says they're watching Kaijilla," she said.

Rainbow blinked. "Aw shoot, Kaijilla?" She looked at Applejack. "Raincheck?"

Applejack chuckled and rolled her eyes. "Sure, why not."

"SWEET!" Rainbow turned off the video game, grabbed the remote, and turned back over to the cable, then spent a minute finding the movie.

"What else are they up to?" Applejack asked as she put away the game controllers.

Pinkie's thumbs moved over her phone for a minute, then she waited for a reply. "She says they've mostly just been talking," she reported. "Twilight's friends are...an introverted bookworm, a laid-back dragon, and..." She blinked. "A psychopath?"

Twilight adjusted her glasses. "My counterpart sure keeps interesting company," she said.

* * * * *

"But why did Kaijilla protect us?"

"Maybe...perhaps it's because...Kaijilla is inside us all."

Ember burst out laughing. "The heck is that supposed to mean?!"

"Don't ask me," Sunset said. "I've seen this movie ten times and I still don't get that bit." She turned to Twilight. "Maybe it's a magic of friendship kind of thing?"

Twilight shook her head numbly. "I, uhh...I don't think friendship is a giant fire-breathing lizard," she said. "Then again, Pinkie Pie probably has a giant fire-breathing alligator costume lying around somewhere..."

Starlight blinked. "Why would Pinkie Pie have a giant fire-breathing alligator costume?"

Sunset stared at her. "Have you met Pinkie Pie?"

The title screen for a movie called Orcanado vs. Squidnami came up, accompanied by a dramatic cello sting and a visual of ocean water with blood and squid ink churning through it. Sunset groaned in disgust and changed the channel. "Ugh, so sick of those Orcanado movies," she said.

Ember tilted her head. "What's it about?"

Sunset rolled her eyes. "Tornados full of orcas terrorizing seaside communities," she said. "It's stupid."

Moondancer frowned. "Tornados...full of...orcas? How does that even...that doesn't even make any sense!"

"I know, right?"

Twilight blinked at the TV. "So...what's this then?" The screen showed two animated fish—one orange, one blue—frantically swimming through the ocean.

Sunset smiled. "Oh, this one's great! But you girls might not like it." She glanced at the clock. "Besides, we don't really wanna waste the whole evening watching movies, do we?"

Ember shrugged. "I dunno, this is kinda fun."

"We should probably think about eating dinner at some point," Starlight said. "I mean, don't get me wrong, these snacks are great and all, it's just—"

"Dinner!" Sunset groaned. "Oh, I am so sorry, I totally spaced!" She tossed the remote to Twilight and pulled out her phone. "I had thought about ordering a pizza, but I've been doing that a little too much lately and I don't know if you girls are up for that, so I thought I'd get sandwiches for everyone from the sandwich place down the street from here. That sound good?"

"Sandwiches sound good to me!" Starlight said brightly. "I love a good daffodil and daisy, especially the way that one place makes it."

Sunset grimaced. "Yeah, that's..." She coughed. "Humans don't generally eat flowers or hay or grass."

"Oh," Starlight said. She frowned. "So what do they eat?"

Twilight and Sunset exchanged glances. "Oh, the usual," Twilight said. "Lots of different veggies, fruits, cheeses, stuff like that..." In a small voice, she added, "Meat..."

Ember perked up. "Meat?" she said in an interested tone.

Moondancer's lips pressed together. "Meat," she said flatly.

Starlight blinked. "M-meat?"

"Yeah," Sunset said. "Chicken, turkey, pork, beef, that sort of thing."

"Oh," Starlight said, irises shrinking to pinpricks. "Oh."

Moondancer's brow furrowed; her cheeks shifted slightly as her tongue probed around inside her mouth. "That explains this dental configuration," she said.

"If you're not comfortable with it, you don't have to eat meat," Sunset said placatingly. "There's plenty of vegetarian options here. There's a lot of people who don't like eating meat!" She called up the number for the sandwich place on her phone, then looked around the room. "What do you all want?"

Ember grinned. "Anything meaty and tasty," she said.

"I'll take a barbecue chicken and red onion," Twilight said. At the disbelieving stares of Starlight and Moondancer, she blushed. "What? I've been to this world a few times, I...I've tried a few things..."

Sunset snickered. "And you two?" she asked Starlight and Moondancer.

Moondancer shrugged. "Anything without meat that isn't spicy," she said. "Maybe something with cheese."

"Anything with lots of vegetables that's flavorful," Starlight said. "Spicy's good. Oh, but no cheese."

Sunset considered that, then nodded and placed the call. "Hey, Poppyseed! It's Sunset. Got an order, I'll be by to pick it up in a bit. Uh-huh. I'll take one foot-long barbecue chicken onion on sourdough...Twilight, you want pickles? With pickles, one six-inch cheese melt on pretzel bread with marinara, no meat, no veggies...uh-huh, that's right...one foot-long spicy deli trio with provolone and marinara on regular bread, no veggies, one loaded veggie gyro with extra sauce and extra olives, no cheese, and..." She paused, touching her tongue to her front teeth. "One six-inch teriyaki chicken, light on the onions, whole wheat roll. Yeah, my usual. Oh! And a foot-long classic club on sourdough. No, no chips or drinks, we've got plenty. Yeah. Uh-huh. Okay, be there in a few."

As she hung up, she looked around to see Ember, Moondancer, and Starlight watching her curiously. "Who...were you talking to?" Starlight asked.

Twilight rolled her eyes. "They have a device here that lets you talk to people who are somewhere else," she explained. "Everybody has one."

Starlight blinked. "Oh," she said. "That...sounds really useful!"

Moondancer frowned. "You ordered six sandwiches, but there are five of us," she pointed out.

Sunset nodded. "Well, I know Twilight can take a foot-long, and I'm guessing Ember probably can, but you girls, I don't know about, so I got you each a six-inch, and myself a six-inch because I can't usually finish a foot-long by myself. But I thought it'd be a good idea to have an extra sandwich we can all share in case anyone's still hungry or in case you and Starlight decide you want to try a little meat after all."

Moondancer adjusted her glasses. "I guess that makes sense," she said.

Twilight smiled. "I know it seems strange, but trust me, in this world? You can try new things you can't usually do back in Equestria without really feeling guilty about it."

"If you say so," Starlight said skeptically.

Sunset stood and crossed over to her desk, digging out her wallet and her keys. "I'll be back in about twenty minutes," she said. She looked around. "Twilight, if you wanna go through the closet and dig out some board games, figure out what you girls wanna do while we eat...oh, and you can put whatever you want on to watch."

"Will do!" Twilight said. Sunset smiled, put her boots on, and left.

After a long moment, Moondancer asked, "Twilight...are you absolutely sure Sunset Shimmer is, you know...one of us?"

"What do you mean?" Twilight asked as she stood up and stretched.

"I think she means..." Starlight pursed her lips thoughtfully. "She doesn't...really seem like a pony, you know?"

"Oh," Twilight said. She laughed. "Girls...Sunset's lived in this world a really long time. I'm...honestly not even sure she's ever coming back to Equestria, even though Princess Celestia really wants to see her again." She smiled. "This is her home now. All her friends are here. She has a life here." She shrugged. "She's from Equestria, trust me, and she was Celestia's student before me. Her magic is as strong as mine. Well...when I was still a unicorn." She looked around the room. "But I think she's happier here. She misses Equestria sometimes, sure, and she misses having magic, but..." Her eyes misted. "This is her home."

Starlight gave Twilight a long, measuring look. "You want her to come back, don't you?"

Twilight ducked her head. "For a long time, I...I wished she would," she admitted. "We just...connect. Even when she was after my crown, I felt like we had a connection." She clapped her hands together lightly. "Right, so! Board games. Let me go find those board games, and...yeah..."

* * * * *

When Sunset returned, she found the other girls seated on the floor around the living room table, her Sternhalma board placed between them. Judging by Ember's impressed whistle, Starlight's aggravated groan, and Twilight's giggle, something interesting had just happened.

"Hey guys, I'm back," Sunset said.

Starlight sighed. "Perfect timing," she said. "Twilight's kicking all our butts over here."

Chuckling, Sunset carried the large bag of sandwiches to the kitchen. "Nobody get up," she said. "I've got it."

"Nonsense!" Starlight said, standing up. "I'll help."

"Me too," Twilight said. Sunset smiled gratefully at them.

Working together, the three girls quickly gathered paper plates, two big bags of chips, a stack of plastic cups, a large bowl of ice with tongs, and three different bottles of soda and carried it all to the living room along with the sandwiches while Moondancer cleared away the Sternhalma board. Sunset glanced at the TV and smirked; apparently, the girls had been watching one of the movies about that boy wizard in Trottingham. Sitting down at the table, Sunset extracted one sandwich after another from the bag, checking them and passing them around. The last sandwich—the foot-long club—Sunset cut into five equal portions with a large knife, arranging it on a plate in the center of the table before unwrapping her own sandwich and taking a large bite. Across the table, Twilight dug into her own sandwich with gusto. Starlight watched her with a conflicted expression. "I can't believe you're actually eating meat," she said.

Twilight shrugged. Shaking her head, Starlight examined her own gyro with interest. "I don't think I've ever seen anything like this before," she said.

Swallowing, Sunset said, "They do have them in Equestria. They're just...really ethnic."

"Oh." Shrugging, Starlight took a bite. Her eyes widened. "Oh," she said through a mouthful of vegetables and savory juice. She chewed, then swallowed. "Wow. This is good."

"It'd be better with the feta cheese that normally goes on that," Sunset said.

Moondancer studied her own sandwich critically before taking a bite. She hummed appreciatively. "Not bad."

Ember had already taken a few large bites of her sandwich. "What kind of meat is this, anyway?" she asked. "It's pretty good."

"Pepperoni, spicy salami, and hickory smoked ham," Sunset said. At Ember's confused look, she clarified, "Those first two are a type of sausage. They're...mostly beef and pork. Mostly. I think." She shook her head. "Best not to think too hard about it."

"Works for me," Ember said as she went back to eating.

"You know," Starlight mused, "if I had anything to do differently about that little village I founded, I think I'd have let Sugar Belle in on the truth, asked her to be my witting accomplice. That way I wouldn't have had to suffer through those godawful muffins with the...rest..." She looked around the room.

Everyone was staring at her. Twilight was frowning. Ember was smirking, one eyebrow raised. Sunset's face was flat and expressionless, her eyes half-lidded.

"Of...course...if I had it to do over again, I'd...never have stolen all their Cutie Marks and brainwashed them in the first place?" Starlight offered with a sheepish giggle.

"How did you and those other ponies get by for so long?" Twilight wondered. "I mean, there didn't seem to be any farming going on, and without special talents, you couldn't have had doctors or..."

Starlight grimaced. "I had to use my magic for a lot of things," she said. "I convinced myself I was doing the right thing, but..." She sighed.

Ember shook her head. "It's nice to know all ponies aren't insufferably cheerful and perfect," she said.

Sunset snorted into her sandwich. "Not even close," she said. "Good grief, is that what you dragons really think of ponies?"

"It's...kinda the stereotype, yeah," Ember admitted. "Usually because whenever dragons migrate past pony towns, there's always all this singing and celebrating and stuff." She shrugged. "It's hard to think of ponies as anything but singing, dancing goofs when that's always what you see when you fly past."

"And most ponies think of dragons as gem-eating, fire-breathing jerks," Starlight said. Her eyes widened. "No offense!"

Ember chuckled. "None taken," she said. "Most dragons are gem-eating, fire-breathing jerks."

"Trust me, ponies are far from perfect," Sunset said. "Take me, for example."

"And me," Starlight added.

"And me," Twilight chimed in. "Actually, pretty much everypony has their flaws. They could be jerks, pushovers, have a bad temper, be stubborn, cocky, foolish, overly determined to invade other ponies' personal space...maaaaaybe a little obsessed with organization..." She shrugged and bit into her sandwich again.

"I guess the only pony that even comes close to being perfect is Princess Celestia," Starlight said.

Sunset stopped eating and stared at her. "You're...kidding, right?"

"Oh boy," Twilight muttered around a mouthful of chicken and pickles.

"What, you don't think your immortal sun goddess is perfect?" Ember asked, raising an eyebrow.

Sunset let out a harsh bark of laughter. "Not even close," she snorted. She cut her eyes over to Twilight, as though daring her to say anything. "No matter how much ponies might worship the ground she trots on, Celestia is just as flawed as anypony else. She's just a lot better at hiding it."

"She'd have to be, being thousands of years old and all," Ember remarked thoughtfully.

Twilight looked as though she was desperate to come to Celestia's defense, but even as she opened her mouth to protest, she paused. She bowed her head and sighed. "You know what? I want to tell you how wrong you are, but...you're not. I mean, I used to think Celestia was perfect, and I guess even now I have this idealized mental image of her that I've had since I was a little filly..." She shook her head. "But honestly? When I think back on some of the decisions she's made just since I moved to Ponyville, I have to wonder."

"Does she still troll the Gala?" Sunset asked. "I'll never forget the year she doctored those nasty hors d'oeuvres with puffer peppers."

Moondancer nearly spit out a bite of her sandwich. "She did what?!"

Twilight's face turned red. "You mean all those stuffy Canterlot ponies...?"

Sunset nodded, a shit-eating grin spread across her face.

Twilight paled. "How did Celestia even get away with that?"

Sunset snorted. "Conspired with the kitchen staff to blame the whole thing on a clerical error with the ingredients."

Twilight groaned. "Yeah, that sounds about right," she said.

Ember tilted her head. "What are puffer peppers?"

"They're a rare type of chili pepper from Alpacapulco," Twilight explained. "They're kinda-sorta banned in Equestria...well, whole peppers are. The extract is fine, but nobody really uses it because it's not worth the effort and expense when more common peppers are better-tasting."

"So why are they banned?" Ember asked.

"They make you swell up with gas," Sunset said. "Instantly. Like a balloon." She smirked and added, "and particularly pungent ones, well..." She glanced at Twilight.

Twilight grimaced. "I never believed it until I saw it one time with my own eyes. One of Applejack and Rainbow Dash's stupid dares. Somehow, Rainbow got hold of a few puffer peppers. Then they were too embarrassed to go to the hospital, and Zecora had to come out to Sweet Apple Acres to deal with it. She...was not amused."

Ember blinked. "Hospital? For gas? What, you ponies don't fart?"

"Oh, we fart," Twilight said. "That's kinda the problem. You see, certain cultivars of puffer peppers, well..." Her face turned scarlet. "They make you fart, well...fire."

Ember raised an eyebrow.

"And ponies, well..."

Starlight paled. "Did...did their tails catch fire?"

"Yep," Twilight said in a deadpan tone, eyes half-lidded.

"Whoa," Ember said with a grin. "That's...that's really dumb. I mean, fire's nothing to a dragon, but you ponies aren't dragons."

"That does sound like exactly the kind of stupid thing Rainbow Dash would do," Sunset said. "I can't picture AJ doing something that stupid, though."

Twilight rolled her eyes. "When it comes to their 'most daring pony competition', AJ's common sense goes right out the window. I'll never forget the year they made complete fools of themselves at the Running of the Leaves. And I wasn't there for it personally, but I heard all about this one from Pinkie Pie: One time, they decided to try to prove which one was the most daring pony by covering themselves head to tail with bees."

Sunset raised an eyebrow. "Bees."

"Bees."

Starlight blinked. "Bees?"

"Bees," Twilight repeated flatly.

Moondancer frowned. "Your friends are idiots," she said.

Twilight sighed. "Yeah...sometimes." She smiled faintly, shook her head, and went back to eating.

"So Sunset! What is it you do in this world?" Starlight asked as she licked juice from her fingertips, then scrubbed them dry with a napkin. "Do you have a job, or are you researching something for the princess, or what?"

"I'm a high school student," Sunset replied, munching on a potato chip.

"Really?" Starlight asked. "I was under the impression you were older than Twilight."

"I am," Sunset said with a shrug. Her brow furrowed. "Portal turned me into a young teenager when I first arrived...this world and Equestria are parallel, but there's some weird..." She made a vague gesture with her fingers. "Timey-wimey stuff going on nobody can explain. This world's timeline and Equestria's don't match up at all, even though six months passed for both me and Twilight between the first two times she came here."

"We actually sat down and tried to figure it out once," Twilight said with a grimace. "That was the same day Sunset introduced me to something called tequila." She blinked. "I don't really remember much about that."

Moondancer looked around. "So how do you afford this place?" she asked. "I mean, everything here looks nice and expensive."

Sunset cringed. Twilight frowned, then reached over and squeezed her hand. "It's okay," she said softly. "You're not that person anymore, and you're making amends for who you used to be."

Sunset sighed and smiled. Clearing her throat, she looked at the other girls. "Let's just say it involves a very lonely, very wealthy old man who outlived his entire family and whose granddaughter I happen to look like, and leave it at that."

Starlight raised an eyebrow. "Isn't that inheritance fraud?"

Sunset narrowed her eyes. "I prefer to think of it as my reward for keeping a lonely old man company in his final days," she said tersely. "And are you really in any position to judge me?"

Starlight winced. "No, I...I guess not."

Twilight grabbed a napkin and a piece of the club sandwich and handed it to Starlight. "Starlight! You need to try this. I promise you'll love it!" she said loudly and a bit too cheerfully.

Starlight blinked at it, wrinkling her nose. "W-well...alright."

Moondancer frowned slightly, then reached for a piece of the club sandwich herself. "I guess I can try it for research purposes."

Ember grabbed one as well. "I'm just still hungry," she said.

Twilight and Sunset each took the remaining two pieces.

"So what exactly is on this?" Starlight asked. "Just so I know what I'm eating."

"Roast turkey breast, honey ham, applewood smoked bacon, lettuce, tomato, two different kinds of cheese, mayonnaise, and honey dijon mustard," Sunset said.

Moondancer took a bite. After a moment, she adjusted her glasses. "That's actually not too bad," she said.

Starlight tried hers. "Huh," she said. "I can't really even tell that's meat. Not that I've ever tasted meat, so I don't even know what meat tastes like."

"Eh, if it's mostly bird meat, you won't really notice," Ember said. "Especially not with all this lettuce." She quickly finished off her piece of the sandwich, then let out a loud belch.

Starlight glowered at her. "You could say 'excuse me'," she said.

"Excuse you," Ember said in a chipper tone, smiling cheekily.

Sunset's eyes flew open wide. "SO!" she declared loudly, clapping her hands together. "It's starting to get kinda late. Why don't we finish up, get this mess cleaned up, then go get changed into our pajamas?"

"Yeah, then we can do sleepover stuff!" Twilight said with a bright smile. "Makeovers! Pillow fights! Truth or dare!"

Nobody noticed the evil smirk that lit up Ember's face.

"Sounds great!" Sunset said. "Twilight, why don't you help the girls get changed since they're new to human clothes."

Ember's smirk faded. "Yyyyyeah, about these...pajamas," she said. "What's the point? I mean, I got the whole 'humans don't walk around without clothes' thing, but you've got separate clothes for sleeping in? That doesn't make sense."

"Well, ponies have pajamas too," Moondancer pointed out. "They're just...not something most ponies bother with."

Sunset grimaced. "Okay, three things. One: being naked at a slumber party isn't really a good idea in general, even if we are all from Equestria here. It's bad etiquette. Two: I've gone native enough that it'd make me really uncomfortable, so please don't. Three: Trust me, you don't want to. These human bodies lose heat really quickly at night. You'd wake up with a cold or something."

Ember rolled her eyes. "Okay, fine." She got up, finishing off the last of her soda, and stretched. "Lead the way, Princess."

Twilight giggled giddily as she started clearing the table. "This is gonna be so much FUN!"

Chapter 3: Changing For Bed, Video Games, Scary Stories, Sleep

One by one, the Rainbooms had gone to the bathroom to change into their pajamas. When Fluttershy's turn came, she was gone a long time; she returned wearing a loose silk robe and blushing furiously. "Umm..." She ducked her head. "I'm having one of my episodes," she said. "Do you girls mind if I...?"

The girls looked at one another. Rarity smiled gently. "Not at all, darling," she said kindly.

"Yeah, we'll have to cool it with the selfies, but it's no big deal," Rainbow said.

"Thanks," Fluttershy said. "Oh! I left my lotion in the bathroom. I'll be right back."

As Fluttershy left the room, Twilight frowned. "Episodes?"

"Oh, right, you've never seen this before," Pinkie said.

"It doesn't happen very often," Rarity put in.

"Yeah, it's only happened at a sleepover like, what, three times?" Rainbow added.

Twilight frowned. "What, does she have violent mood swings or something? Or—"

"It's nothing like that!" Rarity insisted. "It's—oh, let her explain."

Fluttershy walked back into the room, a bottle of medicated lotion in one hand. "Pinkie, you'll help me with my back, won't you?"

"Of course," Pinkie said. "Umm...you probably need to explain this to Twilight," she added. "Do that while I get that sheet you like out of the closet."

"Thanks," Fluttershy said. "Sorry to put you girls through this...again..."

"It ain't no sweat, sugarcube," Applejack said. "We understand."

"Yeah, don't worry about it!" Rainbow said.

"What kind of episodes are we talking about?" Twilight asked, adjusting her glasses and tilting her head.

"Oh," Fluttershy said, her lips thinning. "W-well..." She blushed and looked down. "I have this...really rare type of eczema," she said. "Usually it doesn't bother me, I have a medicine I take for it and I use this lotion that keeps it from flaring up. But sometimes, like when I'm about to start my period or when the humidity is weird or something, I have these little...episodes." She shifted. "It's also why I hardly ever wear a bra. Even the most comfortable sports bras give me a rash."

Twilight's mouth formed a small 'o'. "I always wondered about that," she said. "I just assumed it was a vegan thing."

Fluttershy stared at her oddly. "Umm...that doesn't even make sense," she said. "What would being a vegan have to do with..." She shook her head. "Nevermind. And I'm not a vegan. I'm not even a vegetarian! Why does everyone assume I—"

"Sorry!" Twilight said, scooting away and holding her hands up defensively. "It's just..." She sighed. "Sorry." She coughed. "Anyway, you were saying about your eczema?"

"Oh, right," Fluttershy said. "W-well...when I'm having an episode, I..." She squirmed. "Everything irritates my skin. I mean, anything rubbing on my skin irritates it. Like...like cotton or silk or satin or anything."

"Basically she's gonna be naked for the rest of the night," Rainbow said.

"Oh," Twilight said, her cheeks heating up slightly.

"Does...does that bother you?" Fluttershy asked.

"Not at all!" Twilight said hastily. "I mean, we're all girls, right? It...no, it doesn't bother me..." She ducked her head. "I mean...it'll be a little weird, but I can...I can deal."

"I'll be naked too!" Pinkie said cheerfully as she spread a large linen sheet over her bed. "I always get naked with Fluttershy so she doesn't feel too awkward."

"P-Pinkie," Fluttershy said, her face heating up even more. "Wh-when you say it like that, it sounds..."

"I know," Pinkie said with a devilish smirk. "Come on, drop your robe so you don't get itchy. Have you put your lotion on yet at all?"

Fluttershy shook her head. "The robe would've rubbed it off." She slowly removed her robe and hung it on a hook on the closet door. Pinkie peeled down and flung her nightgown and panties into the corner.

"Woo! Too hot for TV!" Rainbow crowed wildly.

"Oh, shut up," Fluttershy said, ducking her head and hiding her face behind her hair. She lay on her stomach on the bed. "Get my back, Pinkie," she said. "I'll do my front later."

"Okie-dokie-lokie!" Pinkie sat cross-legged on the bed next to Fluttershy. "Wow, it's all red back here," she said. "This one's worse than usual, huh?"

"It's pretty bad," Fluttershy said, tensing up as Pinkie started rubbing lotion on her skin.

Twilight wrenched her head away from the sight. "So!" she said in a strained voice. "How's it going over at Sunset's place?"

* * * * *

"I don't see why we can't just be naked," Ember grumbled as she looked at the dark blue pajamas Rarity had given her.

"You heard Sunset," Starlight said as she examined her own royal purple silk pajamas. "It wouldn't be polite to our host. We are guests here."

"Fine," Ember groused. Tossing the pajamas onto Sunset's bed, she started stripping off her clothes. As she did so, she frowned at her bra and panties. "What the heck?"

"Underwear," Twilight said absently as she shed her own clothes. "I don't entirely understand it except that, well..." Her cheeks turned faintly pink. "Humans are more...aware of their genitalia than most creatures in Equestria usually are."

"I can't imagine why," Starlight said sourly as she peeled off her panties and examined herself in the mirror. "Whose bright idea was it to put that there?!"

"YEEP!" Moondancer squealed, averting her gaze.

Twilight groaned. "The panties stay on, Starlight," she said patiently as she unclasped her own bra. "The bra can stay on or off, it's up to you. I find it more comfortable to sleep without it."

"Oh, okay," Starlight said, grabbing her panties and putting them back on. She frowned at her reflection in the mirror. "How does this thing come off? I didn't really see how you did it."

"There's hooks in the back," Ember said as she fumbled with her own bra, shedding it. Her breasts bounced free, and she stared at them. "Okay what the hell are these?!"

"You're just now noticing?" Starlight asked. "I've been wondering about it since we got here. I just...didn't want to ask." She coughed as she looked from Ember to Twilight, who was busily putting on her yellow felt pajamas. "Twilight?"

"Huh? Oh! They're breasts," Twilight said. "They're, well...teats. Except they're in a really weird place on humans for some reason." She blushed. "I don't totally understand it, but for human girls, they're always...pretty big, and some girls' are bigger than others, and I think there's something about boys liking to look at them?" She flashed the others a sheepish smile. "I don't really know too much about them except that you usually wear a bra to hold them up."

Starlight pressed her lips into a thin line. "Hmm," she said. She shook her head and started putting on her pajamas, not even bothering to try to remove her bra.

Moondancer looked at the other girls, a mild frown on her face. "I don't think I can get used to these weird bodies," she said.

"Don't worry," Twilight said with a smile. "It's alright. Go ahead! Get changed."

"Well..." Sighing, Moondancer took hold of the hem of her sweater and slowly, haltingly pulled it over her head. When she finally managed to struggle out of it, she found the other three staring at her. She frowned. "What?"

"Some are bigger than others, huh?" Ember said with a smirk. "Boy, I'll say."

"Wow, Sunset's aren't even that big," Twilight said.

Moondancer looked down at herself, an unhappy frown on her face. "I'm a unicorn, not a cow," she grumbled. She grabbed the pink nightgown Rarity had given her and examined it. "This looks more like a dress than pajamas."

Twilight shrugged. "Some girls wear one of those to sleep in instead of pajamas," she said.

Once all four girls were changed, they headed back out to the living room. There, they found Sunset lounging in her easy chair, already changed into her purple pajamas with her Cutie Mark on the front. She smiled and waved. "Hey! Took you girls long enough."

Ember snorted. "Blame the ponies who couldn't figure out how these crazy monkey bodies work." She stretched, cracking her knuckles. "So! What was that I heard about pillow fights?"

Sunset winced. "Sorry, girls," she said. "I don't think we have enough room for a good pillow fight. Or enough decent pillows, for that matter." Her eyes lit up. "I've got some cool video games we can play, though! But they only go up to four players, so someone's gonna have to rotate out."

"Video games? What are those?" Starlight asked. In response, Sunset got up and walked over to her entertainment center, opening a cabinet and pulling out four controllers covered in buttons. One was fiery red, another was sky blue, a third was orange, and the fourth was bubblegum pink. She laid them on the coffee table, sat back down, grabbed her TV remote, fiddled with it for a bit until the TV screen was blank, then picked up the red controller and pressed a button on it. Something next to the TV beeped, and the screen came to life, showing a pattern of waves and colors and the logo XStation V.

"What do you girls feel like playing?" Sunset asked. "A racing game? Fighting game? Shooting game? I've got a few dozen games to choose from."

"Fighting sounds fun," Ember said with a grin.

Starlight frowned. "Those all sound awfully competitive and violent."

"They're just games," Twilight said. "I've never played one, but I've watched this world's Rainbow Dash and Applejack play them." She paused. "Okay, the 'awfully competitive' thing is actually pretty right. But that's mostly just because it's AJ and Rainbow."

Sunset laughed. "Yeah, they get way too into it." She tilted the stick on her controller, and a whole list of games scrolled down the screen.

"So, what, this is all just a bunch of games you play on this movie screen thingie?" Ember asked, tilting her head. "How does that even work?"

"It'd take all night to explain the science behind it," Sunset said. "You'll understand when we start. All you need to know is these are the things you use to play them." She waggled her red controller for emphasis.

Moondancer looked up from the book she'd already grabbed. "This world has very impressive technology," she said. "You certainly use it for strange things, though."

"Yeah, if we had those phone thingies in Equestria, or any of the amazing stuff in just this one room," Starlight said, letting the unfinished thought hang in the air.

Sunset shrugged. "Well, when you have a civilization that develops advanced technology instead of magic, you use it in as many aspects of your life as possible." She paused as she landed on a game called "Cat Fight", and broke out in a happy beam. "I haven't played this one in forever!" she said. "Pinkie Pie's the only one who'll ever play it with me because the other girls think it's stupid. Well, no, Fluttershy plays it sometimes. But it's really been a while." She launched the game. "Anyway, this one's pretty easy to play and really silly, so it's a good way to introduce the concept."

The girls watched with interest as a series of logos flashed across the screen one after another before the game's title screen faded into view, depicting fat cartoon cats shooting dogs at each other with bazookas. Music poured from the speakers; it had the air of a bombastic war march, but the atmosphere of the music was broken by flat farting-brass notes and squeaky cat meows.

Ember blinked. "What the—?!"

Starlight stared. "Umm."

"Here, I'll set it up for a quick team game," Sunset said as she started rapidly pressing buttons. Stuff flashed across the screen faster than the girls could follow; when she was done, the word "Loading..." appeared in the corner of the screen underneath an animated cat playing with a ball of yarn.

And then the screen showed a giant litterbox full of sandcastles, upon which stood numerous colorful cats. The cats were clearly divided into teams; one team wore red scarves, while the other wore black scarves. The cats with black scarves looked meaner and more vicious, while the team with red scarves were chubby, playful-looking housecats.

"Okay girls, if you're playing, take a controller," Sunset said. "I'll show you what does what."

Twilight quickly grabbed the pink controller; Starlight and Ember shot each other dubious glances before reaching for the orange and blue controllers respectively.

"Okay," Sunset said. "See how each cat has a name over its head? The different colors of the names show which cat goes with which controller. That's how you'll know which one is yours." Indeed, the cats with red scarves bore the names "Mr. Cuddles", "Fuzzy Wuzzy", "Puddy Paws", and "Tabbikins", each in a different color.

"Ugh, you gotta be kidding me," Ember said sourly.

"The cats move in turns," Sunset said. "I'll show you how it works since my turn's first." She slowly, patiently explained the game's controls as the other girls watched her fingers and tried to figure out how the unfamiliar controllers worked. They watched the screen as Sunset's cat, Mr. Cuddles, crawled down to the base of one of the sandcastles and pulled out a rubber squeaky mouse. "And once you select your weapon, you aim like this, and..."

Mr. Cuddles threw the squeaky mouse at one of the enemy cats in a high, wide arc. The mouse overshot slightly, bounced back down the slope toward the target, and exploded, spraying a cloud of catnip everywhere. A number above the target decreased sharply, and the enemy cat started yowling wildly and batting at the air, spinning in a circle.

"I get it now!" Twilight said happily. "Cat, FIGHT!"

As soon as Sunset's turn ended, one of the enemy cats jumped up into a tree, pulled out a water bottle, and started spraying Ember's cat, Puddy Paws. Puddy Paws hissed and spat angrily as a few ticks rolled off his life counter.

"Oh no you didn't," Ember growled.

"Here, I'll knock him down for you!" Twilight said cheerfully as her turn came up. She guided Fuzzy Wuzzy into the middle of the litter box and, with a few false starts, found her bazooka. Aiming it straight up, she fired a startled beagle at the tree. It impacted with a loud yip, breaking the branch and dropping the enemy cat practically on top of Fuzzy Wuzzy's head.

"This is weird," Starlight declared.

Sunset laughed. "Yeah, it's pretty weird. But it's funny! And pretty addictive."

As the girls got used to the controllers, they got into the action on the screen. Strange and quirky as the game was, once they got past the bizarre ammunition and the fact they were controlling housecats fighting a weird litterbox war, they started laughing and working together as they defeated dozens of enemy cats together using exploding dogs, catnip grenades, yarn balls, bags of flaming poo, spray bottles, and even more bizarre weapons. Once they were all used to the controls, Sunset suggested a player versus player game; each girl had a team of four cats to control, and the battle got pretty aggressive. In the end, it was down to Ember and Starlight, and both of them played dirty. All the while, Moondancer split her attention between watching them play and reading.

An hour and a half later, they decided to take a break. "This is awesome!" Ember said happily. "What else you got?"

Sunset laughed. "Enough that we could spend the whole weekend playing video games, but there's plenty more to do," she said. She smiled. "Don't worry, though! You're welcome to come over from Equestria and play video games whenever you want! Just be sure to give me some advance notice."

Ember grinned. "I'll take you up on that," she said. "Being Dragon Lord is crazy boring."

"So what else can we do?" Starlight asked as she set her controller down on the table and carefully lined it up along the edge. "I'm not quite ready to hit the hay yet."

"Ooh! How about we tell scary stories?" Twilight suggested. "I love telling spooky stories with my friends!"

"That sounds fun," Sunset said. "Let's all head to the bedroom. I'll grab some flashlights, we can turn off the lights for drama!"

* * * * *

"Hey, Pinkie," Rainbow said, "did your boobs get bigger recently?"

Pinkie giggled. "Yeah, I went up about a cup size. I'm pretty glad, too. I was tired of being part of the itty bitty titty committee."

"Speakin' of which," Applejack said from where she was playing cards with Fluttershy, "Ah noticed somethin' about Twilight here. Oh, hope Ah don't embarrass you or nothin', sugarcube," she said hastily.

"Huh? About what?" Twilight looked up from where she was playing checkers with Rainbow while Rarity gave her a pedicure.

"Not t' be crude or nothin', but..." Applejack paused to lay down a card. "Anyone else here noticed this Twilight's boobs are bigger than the other Twilight's?"

"Oh, definitely," Rarity said. "It's rather interesting, isn't it?"

"They are?" Rainbow asked. "Huh. I didn't notice."

"Oh, I bet Flash Sentry noticed," Pinkie said with a smirk.

Twilight scrunched into herself, frowning. "I...kinda wish he'd stop noticing me at all," she said. "I mean, I don't mind him wanting to be friends with me, but the way he walks up to me and tries to talk to me and gets all awkward and..." She shook her head. "It creeps me out."

The other girls sighed. "We'll talk to him about it," Fluttershy promised. "He's a good guy, I don't think he realizes it's bothering you."

"Thanks," Twilight said. She paused, then looked down at herself. "They're not that big, are they?"

Rainbow smirked. "Why do you think guys are always offering to carry your books?"

Twilight blushed. "Oh dear..."

* * * * *

"—and so the hatchlings watched in helpless terror as the blue-eyed albino dragon ripped open their mother's scaly hide, tore out her heart with his massive claws, gave them a ferocious grin, and ATE IT!"

"Gah!" Twilight cried. "EMBER!"

"That's not scary, that's just horrible," Starlight said, frowning.

"So much for sleeping tonight," Moondancer muttered.

Sunset rolled her eyes. "Gory stories aren't scary," she said.

"Oh yeah?" Ember challenged. "Then you tell a scary story, monkey girl!"

Sunset smirked. "Alright." She took the flashlight from Ember, then fished around under her bed for something. The light clicked off, and the girls shifted in place to listen as Sunset began.

"Once upon a time, there was a family so poor they could barely afford bread and cabbage. The mother mended all their clothes by hand with needle and thread, but since they couldn't afford thread, they had to use the threads that had come loose from their own clothes to mend them. They stole the large leaves from a neighbor's tree to patch their roof when it leaked."

"That doesn't make any sense," Moondancer said. "For one thing, wouldn't those clothes fall apart like that?"

"Shh," Twilight whispered.

"They had three children, but the oldest died from cholera and the youngest was stolen from her crib in the night by a fox and eaten. Only the middle child was left, and she cried herself to sleep every night because she was lonely.

"Her parents hated to see her heartbroken and lonely, so they scraped together what money they could and bought her a stuffed gnome doll to keep her company. It was a sad, raggedy thing, not much to look at, but it was all they could afford. It was also the first toy she'd ever owned. The daughter still missed her brother and sister, but every night she went to bed cuddling the gnome and as time went on, she cried less and less.

"Five years passed. The father had found work delivering goods for the local blacksmith, and with the money he earned, he was able to buy flour that the mother could bake into bread. The mother baked the best bread in the village, and soon she was able to sell several loaves of bread every day. They had more money than they'd ever had in their lives, and they bought a new cottage in the village. They packed all their meager possessions up in their wagon and took them to their new house.

"The daughter had so many friends that she hadn't slept with her ratty old gnome doll in years, so it lay forgotten in a dusty corner of her bedroom at their old house. On the fifth night in their new house, the daughter went to the kitchen for a glass of water before bed. There, in the kitchen, sitting on the table, she saw her old gnome doll. 'How curious,' she thought. 'I'd forgotten all about that old doll. I don't even remember putting it on the wagon!' Putting it out of her mind, she drank her water and went to bed.

"The day had been cloudy, and thunder rolled as night set in. Lightning flashed outside, and rain lashed against the windows. Comfortable in her dry bed, secure under a roof that didn't leak, the girl snuggled into her warm blankets and let the thunder and the rain sing her to sleep. But just as she was about to drift off, she heard her bedroom door creak loudly open. There was a bright flash of lightning, and then—!"

The dark room was suddenly lit by the harsh glare of Sunset's flashlight, illuminating a plush gnome sitting on the floor in the middle of the group of girls. Twilight screamed and scooted away from it.

The flashlight went out.

"The gnome was there, in the doorway, staring at her with its worn felt eyes. The girl stared at it, her heart beating rapidly. 'How did it get there?' she wondered. The room fell dark again, and the girl settled down, trying to go to sleep, hoping the whole thing was a dream or her imagination.

"But then, with a loud crack of thunder, the room lit up with lightning again, and the gnome was even closer! The girl sat up in bed, breathing heavily, eyes wide, heart pounding in her chest. 'What's going on here?' she wondered. 'How is this possible? Why is my old gnome doll in my new bedroom, and how is it moving on its own?'

"Again, the room became dark. A floorboard squeaked. The girl considered jumping out of her bed and running to her parents' room, but found herself frozen with fear. Then, the brightest flash of lightning yet flooded the room with light—" Sunset began turning her flashlight off and on rapidly. "And the gnome LEAPT AT THE GIRL'S FACE!" she yelled, throwing the gnome at Twilight and cackling maniacally.

Twilight screamed, falling over on her back and flailing madly at the air.

Sunset put the flashlight beneath her chin, casting her face in an eerie glow. "The storm broke, and morning came. When the mother went to wake her daughter for her morning chores, she found nothing but a ragged felt doll of a girl who looked just like the daughter sitting on the bed, her button eyes black and dead and her felt mouth open in an eternal, silent scream."

Ember stared at her, eyes wide. "O-okay," she said with a soft quaver, "That...was pretty scary."

"I don't think I'll ever be able to sleep through a thunderstorm ever again," Starlight whimpered. "I'm gonna have nightmares for days!"

Moondancer frowned. "Absolutely nothing in that story makes sense," she said.

Sunset rolled her eyes. "It's not supposed to!" she said. "It's a ghost story. It's meant to be scary and fun!"

"It sure was scary," Twilight said as she sat up, throwing the gnome doll at Sunset. "Especially with your little helper here."

Sunset snickered. Then she yawned. "Well, I don't know about you girls, but I'm about ready to call it a night." She stretched. "Besides, we've got a full day of fun ahead of us tomorrow. I wanna show you girls around town!"

"Yeah, that'll be amazing!" Twilight said. "There's so many incredible things to see in this world!"

"Sounds like fun," Ember said.

"So how are we dividing up the sleeping arrangements?" Starlight asked.

"I call the sofa!" Ember said, throwing a hand up. She smirked at Twilight. "I bet you wanna share the bed with Sunset."

Twilight flushed. "Wh-what makes you say that?"

A similar smirk spread across Starlight's face. "I don't mind, so long as you keep the noise down."

"Ugh! BOTH of you?" Twilight groaned.

Sunset laughed. "Well, I guess we'll be taking the bed then. Starlight, Moondancer, I guess that leaves you with the sleeping bags." She yawned again, then started turning down her bed. "Everything's in the living room, just spread out wherever you like."

Moondancer, Ember, and Starlight left the bedroom. Twilight shuffled her feet, twiddling her fingers nervously. "Umm..."

Sunset rolled her eyes as she slid onto the bed and scooted against the wall. "Come on, Princess," she said. "I won't bite."

"W-well...okay." Twilight slipped into bed next to Sunset, who handed her the flashlight she'd been holding ever since her gnome story. Twilight turned it off and put it on the nightstand next to Sunset's clock radio, then pulled up the covers and nestled in for the night. "Goodnight, Sunset," she said sleepily.

A minute later, she let out a loud squeal. "SUNSET!"

"I promised not to bite," Sunset said, her teasing grin audible in the darkness. Laughing, she said, "Goodnight, Twilight."

Twilight groaned and rolled her eyes. "Goodnight..."

Chapter 4: Breakfast at Hinny's

Author's Notes:

So there'll be a few more chapters of this than I really planned for. Ah well.

"Pinkie. Pinkie! Wake up, Pinkie!"

"—zzz...but I don't wanna be a virgin sacrifice! That's fun for everybody but the virgin!"

"PINKIE!"

"Hwah—AH!" Pinkie shot to her feet on top of her bed and started kicking left and right. Her antics caused Rainbow Dash to stagger back, colliding with Twilight, who went down with a surprised wail and a panicked flailing of arms. By the time Pinkie was awake enough to take stock of the situation, Rainbow Dash, Twilight, and Rarity were splayed out on the floor in a complex tangle of limbs. Pinkie blinked. "Aww, you guys started Twister without me?"

Three pairs of annoyed eyes glared up at her. "Get dressed," Rainbow said. "We were all gonna go out to breakfast."

Pinkie's eyes widened. "Omigosh!" she hopped down off the bed and started throwing clothes out of her closet.

Rarity extracted herself from the pile on the floor, stood, and straightened herself, fixing her hair in the mirror on Pinkie's dresser. "Really, Pinkie Pie, you simply must learn to wake up in a civilized fashion."

"Yeah, Pinkie," Rainbow grumbled as she got to her feet and helped Twilight up. "Your Kung Fu Pussy Beam was kinda funny the first two times, but it's gettin' kinda old now."

Twilight blinked. "Kung...Fu...Pussy...Beam?"

Rarity's cheeks flushed. "You...er...you had to be there, darling."

"So where're we going for breakfast?" Pinkie asked as she put on a clean pair of panties.

"Probably Hinny's," Rainbow said. "Everywhere else is too crowded on a weekend."

* * * * *

It took over half an hour for Twilight to wake up Ember while the other girls got dressed. Once she was finally awake, Ember ran a hand through her hair and laughed. "Sorry," she said. "Dragon, y'know? We wake up slow." She yawned. "So, what's the plan?"

"Soon as you're dressed, we're going out for breakfast," Sunset said. "We'll go to Hinny's because it's cheap and not as crowded as the other places will be today."

"You have Hinny's here?" Twilight and Starlight asked at the same time. They looked at each other, blinked, and giggled.

"I'm missing the joke, aren't I?" Moondancer asked with a sour frown.

"Sorry, it's..." Twilight stifled a giggle. "There's not one in Canterlot because Canterlot's, well, Canterlot, but a lot of other cities in Equestria have a Hinny's. Manehattan, Whinnyapolis, Las Pegasus, Fillydelphia..." She shook her head. "One time my friends and I had this absolute disaster of a trip to Hoofston, and we ended up parking our flanks at Hinny's for three hours until the staff finally asked us to mosey along."

Sunset snickered. "Yeah, there's a joke in this world. Nobody ever goes to Hinny's, they just end up there." She stretched. "But their breakfast menu's good."

Ember raised an eyebrow. "Any place that has an ominous reputation in two different worlds has to be worth checking out."

"Prepare to be underwhelmed," Starlight said.

* * * * *

"I'm underwhelmed," Ember said.

The five girls had taken the bus across town, which had been an...interesting experience. Moondancer and Starlight Glimmer had expressed mortal terror during the entire ride, Twilight had been excited because she'd never actually ridden a bus before, and Ember had slept for most of the trip.

"Okay, I don't know anything about this world's culture, but this place kinda looks...manufactured," Starlight said with a frown.

"Yeah, they pretty much all look the same," Sunset said. "Same chairs, same tables, same booths, same counter, that same neon sign in the kitchen, even the same pictures on the walls." She shrugged. "I think it's supposed to let you know you're getting exactly what you expect, or something. Like no matter where you are, Hinny's is the same everywhere."

"This is what you call not crowded?" Moondancer muttered, shifting awkwardly. A faint buzz of chatter and consumption noises rose from the half-full diner, and servers were bustling to and fro, carrying trays and refilling coffee.

"Trust me, it'd be worse at Panwaffle Shack," Sunset said as she led the group to the line of customers waiting to be seated. It was a short line; there was a family of three right in front of them. A server greeted them and led them away; the girls moved up and waited for the next greeter.

They'd been waiting almost a minute when the door opened behind them, and a loud gasp sucked half the air out of the diner. "SUNSET SHIMMER!" a high-pitched voice cried enthusiastically.

Sunset blinked, as did Twilight. Starlight's eyes widened. As did Moondancer's.

The five girls turned to see the group of six that had just walked in.

Starlight's jaw dropped. "No way..."

Twilight grinned. "Hey girls!" she said, waving enthusiastically. Her gaze fell onto the native Twilight, and her grin dimmed slightly, taking on a forced edge. "And...hi, Twilight...who isn't me...gosh, that's still weird..."

Twilight adjusted her glasses and gave Twilight a sheepish wave. "Hi...again," she said.

Ember looked between the two Twilights, raising an eyebrow. "Okay, that's trippy."

Sunset smiled. "Hey girls! Didn't expect to run into you here!"

"Well, y'know, everything else is full on a Saturday," Rainbow Dash said. "Hey Twilight!" She looked at the other girls. "'Sup?"

"Moondancer, Starlight, Ember, meet the human versions of my Ponyville friends...and me," Twilight said.

"It's one thing to hear about it, it's another to see it for yourself," Starlight said.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," a voice called from behind Sunset. "Welcome to Hinny's! How many..." The girls turned as the server trailed off, her eyes wide as she looked over the group. "Shit," she said. "Umm...you're...you're not all together, are you?"

"Yeah, I guess we are," Princess Twilight said. "I mean, we're all friends, we should have breakfast together, right?"

"Breakfast at Hinny's Party!" Pinkie Pie yelled enthusiastically.

"Uhh, girls? I'm not even sure they can seat eleven..." Twilight said doubtfully, adjusting her glasses.

The server plastered on a huge, falsely cheerful smile. "I...think we can push together a few tables for four," she said, looking out into the dining room. "Would you excuse me for juuuuuuust a minute?" she rushed off, grabbing another server by the arm. She pointed at the group, then started whispering hurriedly.

"Ah think we dun goofed," Applejack muttered.

The two servers had a quick, heated exchange. The second server threw up her hands, then started helping the first server move a group of empty, not entirely clean tables at the center of the diner. Some of the patrons looked on curiously. Once they'd managed to assemble three tables into a table for twelve, the second server hurriedly wiped everything down while the first server rushed back, a huge stack of menus in her arms. "Riiiiight this way," she said in an overly syrupy voice.

The girls shrugged and followed her, seating themselves; the five Equestrians took one side of the joined table, while the six natives took the other side. The server hurriedly passed out menus, then pulled out a notepad. "I'm Syrupy Sweet, I'll be your server this morning...well, one of your servers," she amended. "Let me just get you started with something to drink?"

The girls placed their drink orders, and Syrupy Sweet bustled off. A few feet away, they heard her call out, "Sour Sweet? I'm gonna need your help, we got a huge table in just now."

"Well that's wonderful!" an overly sugary voice said. Sunset and the six native girls froze, eyes wide. Seconds later, the same voice, much closer to their table, muttered, "Oh you gotta be fucking kidding me."

"Oh! H-hey! Sour Sweet," Twilight said nervously. "I...didn't know you worked here!"

"Well of course you didn't!" Sour Sweet said. "Because you don't really know me," she added. Smiling brightly, she produced her own pad and pencil. "What can I get you all?"

It took the girls several minutes to decide what to order, during which time Sour Sweet's mercurial temper warbled through several cycles of false sweetness and bitter, barely-suppressed rage. When she finally wandered off, Ember snorted. "Well she's a pain in the ass," she said.

"Be nice," Starlight chided in an almost bored tone. She looked across the table and smiled brightly. "So! Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack...and Twilight." She toyed with a napkin. "I have to say, even though Twilight told me all about you girls, and we already met Rarity yesterday..." She laughed lightly. "Seeing all of you here, in these crazy bodies..." She shook her head. "It's...a little overwhelming." She glanced between the two Twilights, then added, "Especially with this going on."

"Yeah, none of us are used to seein' both Twilights in the same place yet," Applejack said with a chuckle.

"So," Rarity said lightly, "what are you girls planning to do today?"

"Not really sure yet," Sunset said. "Just sightseeing, y'know? Thought I'd show them around town, maybe see what kind of trouble we can get into." She smiled. "You're welcome to join us if you want."

"Can't," Rainbow said. "I've gotta get to baseball practice in a couple of hours."

"Gotta go home for a family thing by lunch," Pinkie said.

"Meetin' Big Mac at th' feed store when Ah leave outta here," Applejack said.

"I have to work at the boutique at eleven," Rarity said apologetically.

"Animal shelter," Fluttershy put in.

All eyes turned to Twilight, who blinked behind her glasses. "Oh," she said. "I...I guess I don't have anything too important to do," she said. "I could...I guess I could join you."

"Yay!" Pinkie said happily, grabbing one hand of each Twilight and slapping them together. "Purple Twin Powers Activate! Form of...a bookworm! Shape of...ANOTHER bookworm!" She collapsed back into her chair, giggling hysterically.

Everyone stared at her.

Both Twilights blinked in confusion. "I don't get it," they said simultaneously.

This set Ember off snickering, which in turn spread to the entire table. By the time Syrupy Sweet and another server brought trays laden with drinks, the entire table was lost in helpless giggles.

"Enjoying yourselves, girls?" Syrupy Sweet asked as she started placing the drinks in front of each girl. She smiled at the two Twilights. "You two must run your parents crazy," she said with a giggle. "I can't even begin to imagine what it'd be like if Sour and I were twins."

"Oh, we're not—" Twilight began.

Princess Twilight held up a hand and returned Syrupy's smile. "We're easy enough to tell apart," she said. "She wears glasses and always has her hair up, I don't and always have mine down, and we don't really do that twin thing because Mom and Dad can always tell. Right, sis?"

Twilight blinked at her. "Oh. Um. Right," she said.

Syrupy laughed. "Well, your food will be out before too long," she said. "I'll be by to check on you in a bit!"

As she wandered off, Twilight looked at Princess Twilight with wide, startled eyes. "Why?" she hissed.

Princess Twilight smirked. "Why not? What's the point trying to explain it when we'd just be holding her up from doing her job? Besides," she added with a giggle, "if people think we're twins, that makes it easier on us, right?"

Twilight blinked. "Well...I guess so," she hedged.

"If I ever get to hang out with the other Pinkie Pie, I'm painting my entire body white, bleaching my hair gold, and introducing myself as Surprise," Pinkie said. At everyone's confused stares, she rolled her eyes. "Because I look like my granny, Surprise Pie?"

"If you say so," Applejack said.

Sour Sweet wandered over. "Hiiiii," she said sweetly. "It's going to take just a bit longer to get your food out because the kitchen wasn't expecting eleven orders all at the same time." With that, she stalked off again, swinging a coffee pot and nearly splashing scalding coffee all over the place.

Princess Twilight blinked. "Wow. Touchy."

"She's always like that," Pinkie Pie said with a frown. "We met her at the Friendship Games. She either needs to get laid or pull out whatever's stuck up wherever."

"Pinkie Pie!" Rarity scolded. Clearing her throat, she added delicately, "I do believe the poor thing has a mental health issue of some sort."

"Friendship Games?" Ember asked.

"An academic and athletic competition Canterlot High School has with its rival Crystal Prep Academy every four years," Sunset Shimmer explained. "Twilight went to Crystal Prep until the Friendship Games. Then she transferred to CHS after..." She hesitated, then finished, "after she met all of us."

"After I turned into a horrifying winged monster and tried to destroy reality," Twilight said quietly, bowing her head.

"And none of us hold that against you, darling," Rarity said primly, patting Twilight's hand. "Think nothing more of it." With a smile, she turned to Princess Twilight. "So! Do tell us what you've been up to since the last time you visited! I mean, the last time you properly visited."

"Oh! Well. I've been keeping busy," Princess Twilight said. "I have a new student, I've been making new friends, reconnecting with old friends, helping solve friendship problems, sending my friends across Equestria to spread the magic of friendship..." She sighed. "Having lots and lots and lots of meetings and formal parties..." She smiled tiredly. "Don't get me wrong! I love being a princess. I love helping ponies. I love organizing lots of events and having lots of meetings where important things are discussed."

Starlight stared flatly at her. "Twilight, you spent three days last week meeting with the hay board about changing the official size of standard hay bales by three quarters of an inch."

"Three quarters of an inch of hay is a day's food for a family of three!" Princess Twilight protested. Then she sighed. "Okay, so maybe that hay meeting was boring even for me."

"So you eat hay?" Rainbow asked, tilting her head.

"Well...yeah!" Princess Twilight said. "I mean, it's not all I eat, but we are ponies."

"Just for the record, I don't eat hay," Ember said. "I eat gemstones."

Rarity stared at her. "Eat...gemstones?" She swooned; Applejack caught her.

"You know, I saw a llama eating hay the other day," Pinkie said. "Evilly eating hay."

Rainbow laughed. "Oh yeah, that video! I guess it did look a little evil."

Princess Twilight facepalmed. "What is it with Pinkie Pies and evilly eating hay?"

"I don't evilly eat hay!" Pinkie protested. "Does your Pinkie evilly eat hay?"

"No, she doesn't!" Princess Twilight said. "Not unless you call covering it in sugar evil."

"Well I evilly eat gems," Ember said cheerfully. "I'm a dragon, we do everything evilly."

Fluttershy paled. "D-dragon?" she squeaked.

Princess Twilight rolled her eyes. "Ember's teasing," she said. "Sure, a lot of dragons can kinda be jerks, but Ember's not like most dragons."

The food began trickling in, then, though it took ten minutes for every girl at the table to be served, with Ember's meal arriving last. Fluttershy, Twilight, and Applejack each had a fairly standard breakfast consisting of two pancakes, two sunny-side-up eggs, two strips of bacon, and a scoop of hash browns. Rarity had a crisp golden waffle with syrup, a poached egg, and two sausage links. Rainbow and Princess Twilight each had a huge omelette stuffed with sausage, bacon, veggies, and cheese. Pinkie Pie's breakfast was similar to Applejack's, except that her pancakes were drizzled with cinnamon syrup and glaze. Moondancer and Starlight Glimmer had the most simple breakfasts, consisting of blueberry pancakes, scrambled eggs, and hash browns. Sunset Shimmer had a grilled cheese sandwich stuffed full of ham and scrambled eggs, with hash browns on the side. Ember's breakfast, however, came served on a sizzling hot iron skillet, and consisted of a skewered bits of sizzling steak resting atop a bed of roasted peppers, onions, mushrooms, and potatoes. A smoky-sweet-smelling sauce coated the beef, and two fried eggs sat on the plate.

"Holy crap that looks good," Rainbow said, eyeing Ember's breakfast. "I may have to come back tomorrow and try one of those."

"Share some of yours and I'll share some of mine," Ember said. "Friends do that, right? Still new to the whole friendship thing."

The next half hour saw the girls swapping bites of breakfast back and forth, trying a little of everything, making light conversation all the while. By the time the last morsel had been consumed, it was a quarter of ten.

Rarity pushed her plate away and dabbed her mouth primly. "Well, it was lovely meeting you all," she said as she dug some bills out of her wallet. "We simply must do this again sometime."

"Yeah, this was fun!" Pinkie said as she chipped in. One by one, the native girls and Sunset added to the pile of money on the table.

Starlight frowned. "We...don't have any money," she said.

"Relax, I've got it covered," Sunset said. "You're my guests, after all!"

"Yeah, but still—"

"Don't worry about it," Sunset repeated firmly. She sighed. "Well, soon as I settle up, I guess we'll head out and figure out where to go next."

"Have fun, y'all," Applejack said as she stood up. "Ah gotta git goin'. Later!"

"I as well," Rarity said.

"Time to bounce!" Rainbow declared.

"I should get going too," Fluttershy said.

"Have fun, girls!" Pinkie said as she waved.

In minutes, Sunset, Starlight, Moondancer, Ember, and the two Twilights were left alone at the table.

Sunset looked around at the girls, smiled, and said, "So! Ready to go have some fun?"

Chapter 5: Music Festival in the Park

The six girls had been riding the bus for a good half hour, passing stop after stop. Ember finally asked, "Where exactly are we headed, anyway?"

"I don't know yet," Sunset admitted. "I'm trying to think of something interesting to show you all."

"The library and the museum are interesting!" Twilight suggested.

"Libraries are always interesting," Moondancer said.

"Oh, I agree!" Princess Twilight said.

"Umm..." Starlight frowned. "Not that I don't love a good library, but we have libraries and museums back in Equestria. Maybe something a bit less...indoors and musty, and something a bit more...fresh air and noisy?"

Princess Twilight sighed. "Starlight's right," she said. "We came here to see new things, we shouldn't hole up in some library, no matter how much I want to check out this world's libraries."

Sunset frowned. "Well, I guess we could just go to the mall until I find something more interesting to do," she mused. "I hate to do teen cliches, but..."

"What's a mall?" Starlight asked.

"Oooh, I know this one!" Princess Twilight said, bouncing eagerly in her seat. "It's like a huge bazaar, except...it's more like a shopping district, except it's not like that because everything's all indoors, and..." She paused, settled down, then frowned. "Okay, so I don't really remember that much about it from my research the first time I was here."

Sunset rolled her eyes and smirked. "It's a monument to wasting too much money on things you don't need," she said. "Except for the handful of shops that actually sell useful things. But the places teens hang out are the places they can't really afford to buy anything, so they just spend all day looking. And hanging out with friends. And eating cruddy food at the food court." She paused, then added, "Oh, and there's a movie theater."

"Hmm," Moondancer muttered. "Since none of us have any money, it does sound kind of like a waste of time."

"Yeah," Starlight agreed. "I think I'd rather spend time doing something more productive or..." She shrugged. "I mean, shopping is shopping, right? And window shopping is window shopping."

"How about we visit the mall tomorrow?" Princess Twilight suggested. "We can look for something else to do today."

Sunset shrugged. "Sure, works for me. The trick is finding some—"

A blond head suddenly popped up over the back of the seat in front of her. "If you're looking for something to do today," the familiar voice of Ditzy Doo said as the grey-skinned, wall-eyed girl turned to face them, "get off with me at the next stop, there's a free music festival at the park today!"

The girls looked around at each other and shrugged. "Sounds good," Sunset said. "Thanks, Ditzy!"

"No problem!"

"Weird I hadn't heard about it though," Sunset mumbled.

"Oh, it's one of those indie scene things," Ditzy supplied. "They didn't really promote it to the high school crowd, just the college and club crowds." She smiled brightly. "I only know about it from the fansite for one of the bands!"

"I see," Sunset said. "Well, it's something to do," she decided with a shrug. "Girls, you in?"

"I love music!" Princess Twilight said.

"I guess it could be interesting," Moondancer offered.

"Music is fun," Starlight said.

Ember shrugged. "Music is one of those things dragons don't have much use for, but I'm kinda getting to like it."

Twilight pushed up her glasses. "Something tells me this is going to be a rude awakening, but..." She shrugged.

"Okay! It's settled," Sunset said. "We'll get off..."

The bus stopped.

"...here, apparently." The group of girls followed Ditzy off the bus. They found themselves at the edge of a small, loosely-gathered, decidedly eclectic crowd milling around the cobbled trail leading into City Park, a sprawling expanse of grass, trees, flowerbeds, and ponds which was actually four separate parks merged together.

"Oooh, this is a nice park," Princess Twilight said.

"What's up with that walled-off part over there with the funky gate?" Ember asked.

"The Neighponese Garden," the native Twilight said.

"We're headed for Pavilion Park," Ditzy said. "You girls should check the Garden out later though if you're from out of town!" She looked at them, blinking. "Umm...why are there two of you, Twilight?" She tilted her head. "Wait, you're the Twilight from the Fall Formal, and this is the Twilight from the Friendship Games..." She bit her lip. "Different Twilights?"

"I'll explain later, but yeah," Sunset said.

Ditzy shrugged. "No wonder poor Flash is so confused lately." She shook her head. "Come on, I've got a friend waiting by the Sun Pavilion."

The group followed Ditzy up the cobbled trail into the park proper, weaving through the scattered crowds that were headed in the same general direction. After several minutes, they entered a broad area of the park dominated by four large bandstands, each with its own section of seating. Ditzy led them to a bandstand which was painted in hues of white and bright gold, with a giant sun ornament mounted above the stage. Five grungy-looking guys were setting up on stage. Near the seating section, a blue-skinned, blue-haired girl stood, hands behind her back. Sunset and Princess Twilight stared, eyes wide.

Ditzy waved to the girl. "Hi Sonata!"

Sonata Dusk waved back. "Hi!" She ran up to meet them. "They're starting pretty...soon..." She blinked as she noticed the girls behind Ditzy. "Umm..." She took a step back, eyeing Sunset nervously. "You're...not gonna blast me with magic again, are you?" Her eyes drifted to Princess Twilight...and then to the other Twilight. She gasped. "Eep! Twinsies!"

"Ditzy, you're friends with one of the Dazzlings?" Sunset asked.

"Uh-huh!" Ditzy chirped. "We bonded on the fansite for our favorite band, Angry Taco Sex!"

Starlight blinked. "Angry...Taco...what?"

"Uhh, Ditzy?" Sunset began uncertainly. "You...do remember what the Dazzlings did at CHS...right?"

"Yeah," Ditzy said dismissively, "and the other two are still jerks, but Sonata's cool."

Sonata looked the group over. "Wow, new faces," she said. "What happened to the other Rainbooms?"

"They're off doing their own stuff today," Sunset said. "Princess Twilight brought some friends from Equestria for a visit."

"You don't say," Sonata drawled, eyes narrowed as she leaned in and studied the girls intently. "So, you're all ponies, huh?"

"Most of us are," Starlight said. She pointed at Ember, then at the human Twilight. "She's a dragon, and this one's the Twilight from this world."

"Oh yeah, that whole doubles-of-everyone thing," Sonata said dismissively, straightening up and putting a bubbly smile on her face. "Well, if Ditzy wants to hang out with you guys, I guess I can hang out with you guys too."

"Where've you and the other Dazzlings been since the Battle of the Bands, anyway?" Sunset asked. "It's been bothering me for a while."

Sonata scratched her nose. "Well, things got ugly for us in the city thanks to you and your friends," she said. "So we skipped town. We moved down to Canterlittle, used what savings we had left to buy a little snack shack on the beach. We pretty much live there now. Adagio and Aria aren't great cooks, but they do okay to keep us comfy." She rocked on her heels. "And we're happy being back on the ocean. I guess after all this time being, y'know, evil and stuff, we kinda just needed a place that feels like home."

"Evil?" Ember asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yyyeah, me and these two other Sirens from Equestria got banished here a really long time ago by that unicorn geezer Starswirl," Sonata said. "We kinda had this power to make anyone do whatever we wanted, but we needed to feed on negative emotions to make our power stronger. Basically, we tried to plunge all of Equestria into chaos so we'd have the power to do whatever we wanted, but Starswirl flushed us down the magic mirror into this toilet of a world." She paused, then glanced at Ditzy and Twilight. "No offense."

"Uhh..." Twilight said, blinking.

"Anyway, when Adagio realized there was Equestrian magic at CHS, we headed there to try to steal it for ourselves so we could, y'know, start the whole thing over again." Sonata sighed. "But we lost, and now we don't have any magic." She shrugged. "So yeah, we're beach bummin' it now." She shoved her hands in her pockets.

"Wow, harsh," Ember said.

"Eh," Sonata said indifferently. "I kinda like things the way they are now. I get to spend all day on the beach every day." She giggled. "Guys here are easy to manipulate even without magic! All you need is a sexy bikini."

Sunset smirked. "That's true enough." She looked around; while they had been talking, more people had gathered, and half the seats were full. "Well, looks like things are getting started here, we'd better grab some seats."

The girls quickly found a section of seats that could accomodate all of them. As they sat down, Starlight asked, "So, exactly what kind of music are we here listening to today?"

"Well, Angry Taco Sex is kind of all over the place," Ditzy said. "They're basically a celebration of every kind of rock music." She shrugged.

"They like doing covers of songs nobody's heard in decades," Sonata added. "They've made a whole bunch of songs popular that even the fans of the bands who did them first didn't care about."

"What kind of name is 'Angry Taco Sex'?" Princess Twilight asked, grimacing. "Is that...is that normal here?"

Sunset snorted. "Not hardly."

"Eh, it's more of an indie scene thing," Sonata said with a shrug. "Indie bands always come up with really crazy names. They either get bored with it and quit music after college or they get real jobs or they form new bands that are more serious after a few years and have more normal names."

"You know a lot about this," Twilight said, pushing her glasses up her nose.

"Well, I was a professional musician for like, a thousand years," Sonata said.

Sunset frowned. "You've been here for a long time but you're still, well...a teenager," she said. "Is that—"

"Well, our Siren magic kept us young," Sonata said. "Now that it's gone, we'll probably grow up, grow old, die..."

Princess Twilight winced. "I'm sorry," she said. "If there'd been any other way..."

"You know what? I think I'm okay with it," Sonata said. "Honestly, immortality gets kinda boring after a few centuries." She rolled her eyes. "Besides, it's not like we're gonna just turn to dust and die like that one guy in that one movie. I mean, if we don't get sick, take care of ourselves, all that stuff, we've got another seventy, maybe eighty years. You know, like all these other dumb apes." She glanced at Ditzy and grimaced. "Uhh, no offense."

"SO! Band names," Starlight said with false cheer and an unnaturally large, toothy smile. "You said these...'indie' bands all have really crazy names?"

Sonata brightened up. "Yeah!" she said with a giggle, pulling out her phone. "Some of the other bands playing at this thing are Bifurcated Spork, Bastardcase, Cloven Wiener, Fondled Otter, Hooterface, Pies for the Retarded, Pork Juice, Porpoise Fire, Turdgasm, Toilet Horse..."

As she rattled off the list of absurd band names, the looks of incredulity, shock, and disgust on the two Twilights', Starlight's, and Moondancer's faces grew more comical. Sunset, for her part, just buried her face in her palms, while Ember started snickering uncontrollably.

"There's something wrong with this world," Moondancer declared sourly.

"More like there's something wrong with the guys that came up with those band names," Sunset muttered. "Trust me, that is so not normal."

"Eh, it makes sense if you think about it," Ditzy said with a shrug. "These guys give their bands quirky names to catch attention. I mean, if you hear about a band playing called, I dunno, Flash Drive, you think 'eh', right?"

"Ouch," Sunset said with a smirk and a sidelong glance at Ditzy, then at Twilight.

"But you see something like 'Fondled Otter' and it makes you stop and notice them," Ditzy continued.

"That...actually makes a lot of sense," Starlight said slowly, blinking.

"Ooh, they're starting!" Sonata squealed. Everyone turned to the stage, where the band were taking their places. The singer, a man with light green skin, short, oily black hair, and a scrubby black goatee raised a hand in salute to the audience.

"How y'all doin' today?" he called. The audience cheered. He gave a signal to his band; the drummer counted off a beat, and the guitarists started playing a slow, distorted riff. The cheering grew louder.

As the singer started singing, Princess Twilight leaned forward. "Hey, this is pretty nice," she said.

"Yeah, actually," her counterpart said. "Not what I was expecting at all." She laughed. "I thought they'd be all screamy and grinding guitars and stuff."

"They do some of that too," Sonata said. "Like Ditzy said, they're all over the place. This is one of their slow songs, they like doing a slow one for a warmup and another one for an encore."

"They're not bad," Sunset said, nodding her head along with the beat. "The Rainbooms are better, but they're not bad."

Sonata snorted. "You would say that," she said.

"This is kinda...soothing," Ember said as the song trailed off into a long, slow outro. "Actually, it's kinda starting to make me a little...drowsy..."

And then the drummer shifted into the next song, and a long, loud, overdriven screech came out of the lead guitar. Ember sat up, eyes wide. "Whoa!"

Princess Twilight jumped. "What the heck?"

Ditzy bounced in her seat. "I love this song!"

Starlight's eyes bugged out. "How are they making that...that sound?!"

Sunset stared. "Oh dude, I have got to get whatever pedal that guy's using."

"Pedal?" Ember asked.

"Guitarists use pedals to change the sound going into the amp on the fly," Sunset explained. "I play guitar. I'm not great, but I'm learning."

"Why's he singing like that?" Moondancer wondered. "He was singing so differently before, now it's like he's singing through his nose or something."

"That's just how you do this song," Sonata said.

"This song is loud," Starlight said as the first verse ended.

"Yeah it is!" Ember agreed, bouncing in her seat. "I love this!"

The song continued, drawing a variety of reactions from the girls. Starlight was bewildered by it, Moondancer and Twilight looked like their ears were hurting, and Princess Twilight had a thoughtful look on her face. The rest of the girls were outright enjoying it and were cheering enthusiastically.

The song wound down. "The lyrics of that song were kind of depressing," Princess Twilight said.

"Yeah, a little bit, but who cares?" Ditzy said. "These guys rock, right? Woohoo!"

The singer broke away from the microphone to drink some water, while the drummer did a long hi-hat fill and the crowd cheered. Once the singer was done, he stepped back up to the mic, but pulled a sweatband out of his pocket and slipped it around his head.

"Oh, that's the signal!" Sonata cried, bouncing in her seat.

"Signal?" Princess Twilight asked.

The drummer stopped filling as the second guitarist swapped his guitar for a keytar. The next song was unlike either of the previous, so much so that Princess Twilight had to keep checking the stage to make sure it was still the same band.

"Holy crap this song is shitting the eighties all over the place," Sunset said.

"I know, right?" Sonata agreed excitedly, clapping. "That was me and the girls' favorite decade here!"

Sunset shot her a wry look. "Gee, I never would've guessed," she said.

"Oh my gosh," Twilight said, "this reminds me of when Shining Armor went through his retro phase. So many headbands, so many weird posters..."

"I can totally picture this being the epic soundtrack for one of those metal fantasy movies," Sunset said. "You know, where the hero is like, a techno-barbarian saving his road crew, and he's got a wolf as his spirit animal, and he's fighting laser-shooting robots with a sword..."

When the song finished, the second guitarist grabbed his guitar again, while the drummer counted off a beat. The singer ditched his headband, and the lead guitarist stepped off to the side to adjust his amp. Once everyone was ready, the drummer counted off a fast beat...

The next song was loud, rough, and hard. Ember got more into it than the others, standing up and pumping a fist. Starlight and Moondancer were completely shellshocked; Twilight shrank down in her seat, while Princess Twilight watched with interest.

"Those instruments sure can make a lot of different sounds!" Starlight yelled. "Some of them sound really nice, some of them...not so much!"

Even as she said this, the singer trailed off into grunts as the song ended, and the guitarist began producing an unsettling, helicopter-like noise while the drummer pounded out a heavy beat. The beat and the noise built up to a loud, fast, klaxon-like riff; Sunset, Ember, Sonata, and Ditzy all jumped to their feet and cheered, while the rest of the girls huddled closer together as the singer's voice took on a raw, desperate edge as he screamed the lyrics into the microphone.

"How is he even doing that?" Princess Twilight wondered of the guitarist and the fast, violent noises coming out of the guitar. None of the others heard her.

"This guy's gonna wreck his voice screaming like that," Starlight said.

The song ended with as much bombast as it began, and the audience cheered wildly. The singer went for his water again while the guitarists adjusted their guitars and the drummer kicked the bass drum a few times. When the singer stepped forward again, he took up the microphone. "Thank you," he rasped. He coughed, cleared his throat, then tried again, "Thank you. We got time for one more song?"

A loud cheer erupted.

"What, it's over already?" Starlight asked.

"Well, they have to let the next band play," Ditzy said. "There's at least five bands sharing each stage."

The singer waved a hand over his head, and the audience calmed down. "You guys have been great," he said. "Be sure to check our MyStable page for our next gig if you wanna come out." He turned and nodded to his lead guitarist, who started strumming a slow, soft riff with no distortion. As the song kicked off proper, the rest of the girls stood up, clapping along with the rest of the crowd.

"I like this song," Twilight said.

"Me too," Moondancer agreed. "It's different..."

"It's really good," Starlight said.

"I liked the loud stuff better, but this is good too," Ember said.

As the song ended, the band took a bow and waved while the audience cheered. As the band started clearing the stage, Ditzy turned to the other girls. "Wanna wander around, check out some of the other acts?"

"Sure!" Sunset said. "What do you say, girls?"

"Why not?" Starlight said. "This is turning out to be...really educational!"

"And fun!" Princess Twilight agreed.

"I'm diggin' it," Ember said with a grin.

The group wandered over to the Moon Pavilion, where a new band was just taking the stage. Several seats opened up as some of the crowd wandered away; others were milling around, seemingly undecided as to whether to stay or change venues. As the girls moved through the crowd, Princess Twilight caught sight of a familiar head of spiky blue hair. Her breath caught in her throat.

A light-skinned boy in a dark windbreaker, a ripped white T-shirt, and jeans turned around at exactly that moment. His eyes landed on Sunset, and he waved; then his eyes fell on the two Twilights, and he staggered back in shock, eyes wide.

Princess Twilight rushed breathlessly over to him. "FLASH!"

Chapter 6: The Football Game

Flash Sentry's breath escaped his lungs as Princess Twilight collided with him, nearly knocking him off his feet in a fierce, rib-crushing hug.

Sunset groaned and shook her head. Ember raised an eyebrow. Moondancer and Twilight looked at each other and shrugged helplessly. Sonata giggled. Ditzy facepalmed.

Starlight blinked. "Umm...did I miss something?"

Princess Twilight and Flash started trying to talk to each other awkwardly, with much blushing and scratching of heads. Sunset sighed. "Yeah, so...there's sort of a mutual crush thing going on there, I don't know how it started, but Flash has it bad for her, and she kinda has it bad for him too."

Starlight frowned. "Really? But...no, I mean how? I don't remember Twilight making time with any stallions back home, so he can't be like, the human version of her boyfriend...unless she had a boyfriend before I met her and I don't know about it, or—"

"No, I'm pretty sure it's just this Flash," Sunset said. "She uhh...doesn't think much of the Flash Sentry back in Equestria." She coughed. "Anyway, Flash keeps pining after her, and ever since this Twilight came to CHS, it's been..." She made a vague gesture. "Awkward."

Ditzy frowned. "He really needs to let this go," she said softly. "He's just gonna get himself hurt. I mean, they can't have a real relationship, and with this other Twilight at CHS now, it's..." She shook her head. "It's messing with his head."

"So that's what's up with that guy," Twilight said, eyes wide. "No wonder."

Sonata retched. "Sounds like a lame soap opera," she said. "Come on, let's find seats for the next band."

Princess Twilight led Flash over to the girls, meeting them halfway. "Starlight, Moondancer, Ember, this is Flash Sentry," she said. She blushed coyly, playing with a strand of her hair.

"Hi, nice to meet you," Flash said. "Hey Sunset, hey Ditzy." He looked at Sonata and his brow furrowed; he looked at the other Twilight, then hastily looked away, coughing.

"Didn't know you were coming today, Flash," Ditzy said. "If I'd known, we could've come together."

"Ah, well, you know..." Flash said awkwardly. "I didn't know you were coming either, I mean...I did, I just...I didn't know I was coming, you know? But I ended up not having anything else to do, so I kinda made it out..."

"You could've come looking for me at the Angry Taco Sex show," Ditzy said.

Flash shrugged. "Eh, I decided to hit this stage first, check out Rind."

"Rind, huh? They any good?"

"Nah, I didn't find them very appealing." Flash looked at Princess Twilight. "So! You into indie music too?"

"Actually, I don't know much about music other than what the Rainbooms play," Princess Twilight said sheepishly, digging a toe into the ground. "But me and my friends are visiting Sunset Shimmer for the weekend, and we decided to check out this music festival. We're really having a good time!"

"That's good," Flash said. He looked at Moondancer, Starlight, and Ember. "So, you uhh...you go to...Twilight's school or something, I take it..."

"School?" Ember asked, eyebrow raised.

"I did go to school with Twilight when we were fillies," Moondancer said.

"I'm her student now," Starlight mused, rubbing her chin thoughtfully, "so I guess you could say I go to school with her..."

Princess Twilight sidled up to Sunset. "So, umm...exactly how much does Flash not know about where I'm really from and what I really am?"

Sunset shrugged. "I dunno. Like...maybe all of it?" She scratched the back of her neck sheepishly.

Princess Twilight facepalmed. "Great."

A commotion rose from the seats; the group looked to the stage to see the band already in place. They scrambled to the nearest collection of open seats; Flash, Ember, and Princess Twilight ended up standing as the rest of the group occupied the remainder of the open seats.

The expanded group of girls and Flash spent the next few hours together, roaming from pavillion to pavillion, stopping at the concession carts for a bite to eat in between. Starlight watched with amusement as Princess Twilight and Flash awkwardly flirted with each other. Ember shook her head in disgust at the whole scene, while Twilight mostly engaged Moondancer in conversation when they could hear one another over the music.

In the middle of the afternoon, as they walked away from a set that had just finished, Flash's phone went off in his pocket. He checked it, then grimaced. "Shoot, I almost forgot about the game," he said.

"Game?" Ember asked.

Sunset smacked a fist into an open palm. "That's right, the big game against Cloudsdale U is this afternoon!"

"What kind of game are we talking about?" Starlight asked.

"Football," Flash said with a confused frown. "You don't have football, uhh...where you guys are from?"

Starlight made to answer, but Princess Twilight cut her off. "Not...as such, no," she said. "Besides, none of us are really...really all that into sports. I mean, Spike is, but...heh..." She let out a nasal sigh. "Yeah..."

"Oh," Flash said in a disappointed tone, jamming his hands in his pockets. "Because I was gonna ask you to go with me. Oh, and your friends too! I mean, since...since, y'know, you're all—"

"Hold up there a second," Ember interjected, raising a hand. She pulled Sunset to the side. "What exactly is he talking about?"

"Canterlot Central College has a big game against Cloudsdale today," Sunset explained. "Football. It's a big deal in this world. If they win, they make the playoffs."

Ember rubbed her chin. "Is it a pretty rough sport?"

"Yeah," Sunset said. "Some people think it's too rough."

Ember grinned, then sauntered back over to the group, draping one arm across Flash's shoulders and the other across Princess Twilight's. "You know, I think a football game sounds like a great way to kill an afternoon." She smirked. "You two can spend some more time together, the rest of us can have a good time..." She looked around the group. "Girls? You in?"

Starlight shrugged. "I'm okay with whatever, really."

Moondancer frowned. "Well...I suppose," she said. "I'm not really into sports, but my friends encourage me to get out of my element once in a while, and I've actually been having fun today...I think."

"I've got nothing better to do," Sonata piped up.

"Same here," Ditzy said. "I actually forgot about the game, thanks for reminding me."

"Great!" Sunset said. "Then we'll all go cheer on Canterlot!"

* * * * *

Getting to the stadium had taken a while and one bus transfer. The huge line at the stadium had been a stifling, uncomfortable experience. The seats had not been particularly cheap, but Sunset, Flash, and Sonata had covered the entire group.

"I'll sneak some gems through the portal when I get back to Equestria," Princess Twilight whispered to Sunset as she passed out the tickets. "I feel bad about all the money you're spending this weekend."

"I'm not sure I'd even be able to sell them, but thanks," Sunset said.

Once the group made their way to their section in the stands, Flash, Sonata, and Ditzy went on a snack run for the group. While they were away, Starlight said, "So, explain this football game."

"Well, it's a little like hoofball actually," Sunset said. "Only not quite, and a lot rougher. Plus, humans don't take a pounding as well as ponies do, so players get injured a lot."

"I've never seen the appeal of a game you can get hurt playing," Moondancer said with a frown.

"You'd hate dragon games then," Ember said. "Especially King of the Hoard or Fart in the Lava." She turned to Sunset. "And since I know nothing about pony games so the hoofball comparison means nothing to me, how's this game work?"

"Well, the team that's on offense tries to move the ball down the field to the end zone," Sunset said, pointing at the two ends of the field. "The other team, their defense tries to stop them. Each play is called a 'down', and each team's offense has four downs to move the ball ten yards." She pointed out the numbered lines on the field. "If they make it ten yards with the ball, they get a new set of downs. If they don't make it ten yards by the fourth down, they can try to go for it, or if they're close enough, they can try to kick a field goal—see those goalposts at the end zones? But if they're not close enough for a field goal or desperate enough to go for it, they usually punt it to the other team so that their offense has a lot more yardage to cover." She grimaced. "Sorry, I've never tried explaining it before. You'll pick it up as you watch."

The rest of the group soon returned laden down with drinks, nachos, hot dogs, and other unhealthy foods, which they distributed among the girls. At Starlight and Moondancer's apprehension at some of the items, Princess Twilight gently encouraged them not to think about it too hard and instead just enjoy it.

When the game started, Sunset, Flash, Ditzy, and Sonata were peppered with questions:

"So they just throw it or run with it?"

"That guy, the one in back, he's like the team captain?"

"If it's called football, how come they're not footing the ball?"

"Wait, so they only kick the ball when they mess up? Or no? They can kick it to score points too? This is confusing..."

"Wait, so...if they only need to go two more yards, why are they kicking it away? I mean that guy just made a twenty yard play like five minutes ago."

"So if the other team catches it it's their ball? But if that guy just drops it, they can pick it up and it's their ball? But if it...wait—"

"So you get more points if you get it all the way to the end than if you kick it? But if you get it all the way to the end you have to kick it anyway? So why don't they just make the whole point of the game kicking it?"

By the time the band and the cheerleaders took the field for halftime, the out-of-towners had mostly gotten it straight. Mostly.

"Okay, hold up," Starlight said as a player was taken off the field on a stretcher, to a thick buzz of crowd noise. "That guy just broke that guy's leg."

"Looks like it, yeah," Sunset said, wincing. "Man, that was a nasty hit."

"Okay, but he's not getting in trouble for it? Because before the half, that one guy punched that other guy right in the face and he got thrown out of the game or something."

"Unsportsmanlike conduct," Flash said. "Accidents happen on the field. Sometimes bad ones. But when somebody does something like that just...y'know, to be a jerk, that's a penalty."

"But the guy who got punched is just fine, he's still playing," Starlight pointed out. "That guy there has a broken leg."

"But he got hurt during a fair tackle," Flash pointed out. "Like I said, accidents happen."

Starlight frowned. "That doesn't seem very fair to me."

"It's a contact sport," Ember said dismissively. "Stuff happens. I get it. If it happens during the actual game, it's just bad luck. If it happens when they're not playing, it's a fight. Right?"

"Pretty much," Flash said.

Starlight pressed her lips thin. "Well, I still don't like it."

"Don't ever watch boxing or wrestling then," Flash muttered.

"But...wrestling's a noble sport," Starlight said. "Athletes pitting strength against strength, skill against skill," she said. Her gaze took on a faraway look. "Lean muscles shifting and straining, rippling beneath skin, sweat beading, veins cording on thick necks...the steam of exertion..."

She trailed off when she realized everyone was staring at her.

"Do you need a minute?" Sonata asked with a smirk.

"Or a cup of ice water over your head?" Sunset added wryly.

Starlight's face turned beet red, and she made a show of dropping a napkin and stooping over to pick it up.

Flash coughed. "So, uhh...wrestling fan, I take it?" he asked awkwardly.

"I...think she probably means classical wrestling, not, y'know, GWM or Shin Neighpon," Sunset said.

"Oh," Flash said. "The really gay stuff."

Princess Twilight frowned. "Ex...cuse me?"

Ditzy facepalmed. "Nice one, bonehead..."

Flash sighed heavily. "Why...don't I just go get some more drinks? So I don't dig myself in any deeper."

"Good call," Sunset said.

As Flash left, Starlight stared holes in his back. Once he was out of sight, she turned to Sunset. "So what exactly was that all about?" she asked somewhat testily.

Sunset shook her head. "Classical wrestling isn't what you'd call popular here," she said. "When people say 'wrestling' here, they usually mean professional wrestling, which..." She frowned, tilting her head. "Oh, how do I even..."

"It's huge guys hopped up on roids beating each other bloody for cheering crowds," Sonata said. "And they're encouraged to fight dirty. Like, hitting each other with steel chairs and folding tables and stuff."

Ember raised an eyebrow. "Now that sounds wicked."

Starlight, on the other hand, recoiled in horror. "What?! But...but that's...that just sounds like brutality!"

"Eh," Sonata said dismissively. "Most of it's fake."

"Oh," Starlight said, letting out a sigh of relief while Ember's face fell. "So they just put on a show of hurting each other with heavy objects?"

"Oh, no! The blood and the bruises and the broken bones are real," Sonata said. "It's just that it's usually all a show. I think?" She scratched her head. "Ever since GWM took over everything, I'm not so sure anymore."

"Yeah, it stopped being fake when that one guy started killing other wrestlers in the ring," Sunset said with a frown. "Even Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie stopped watching. Well, until..." She trailed off, looking at the confused Equestrians, then shook her head. "Nevermind."

"Humans...kill each other? For entertainment?" Moondancer asked, eyes wide and voice quiet.

"Not in this day and age," Sunset said. "At least...they're not supposed to."

"You know, I kinda miss the gladiator days sometimes," Sonata said chipperly. "Oiled-up dudes getting fed to lions, and—"

"Okay BULLSHIT," Sunset said fiercely, glaring at Sonata. "I know for a fact you Sirens haven't been around since the Ronan Empire."

Sonata pursed her lips. "Well, no, but I've watched a lot of gladiator movies! And it's my favorite time in human history." She paused, then added, "Well, except for the eighties."

Sunset facepalmed. Ember snickered. The rest of the group just stared blankly, blinking.

When Flash returned with drinks and more snacks, the group settled in to watch the rest of the game. It went into double overtime, with Canterlot winning. The home crowd exploded with applause, and their little group was swept up in the good cheer of it all.

The sun was low in the sky by the time they finally headed for the bus. Flash and Princess Twilight bid an awkward farewell at the bus stop; she hinted that they might be at the mall the next day, and Flash said he'd try to meet up with them there if he could.

Once he was gone, before the bus arrived, Ditzy pulled Princess Twilight aside. "Please don't lead him on," she said seriously. "You know it's not going to work, and him still having this crush on you and having her around, it's just confusing and frustrating him. He needs to let go and move on."

Princess Twilight frowned. "I...I wasn't...I mean, I..." She looked at Sunset, who was engaged in a conversation with Ember, then back at Ditzy. "I don't want to hurt Flash! Or anyone. I just..." She played with her hair. "When I'm around him, I get...kinda...y'know?"

"Yeah, I know," Ditzy said softly. "But you can't be together, right? I don't know your whole story, but I know enough to know you're not from this world and you're kind of an important Princess where you're from. Unless Flash gives up his entire life here for you...it's not going to work, is it?"

Princess Twilight sighed. "You're right," she said. "I...I should apologize. I should tell him—"

Ditzy held up a hand. "No," she said. "No, I think it's best to let Sunset do it." She looked over at the other girls, then leaned in and whispered, "I know Flash well enough to know what's going to happen if Sunset sits him down and tells him he needs to let go. He's going to want to get back together with her. A year ago, I'd have slapped him upside the head for it. Now? I think it'd be the best thing for him."

Princess Twilight blinked. "You think...they'd get back together? Really?"

Ditzy shrugged. "I don't know, but I think it's what would be best for him."

"Huh." Princess Twilight thought about that. She then smiled gently at Ditzy. "You care a lot about him, don't you?"

Ditzy shrugged. "What can I say? We've been friends forever. Oh, the bus is coming." They rejoined the group.

As they boarded the bus, Sunset nudged Princess Twilight. "That looked pretty serious," she said softly. "What's up?"

Princess Twilight sighed. "Just...getting some sense knocked into me." She giggled. "By Derpy of all people, I swear..." She shook her head. "Rainbow Dash would never let me hear the end of it..."

Chapter 7: The Last Day

Sunset's available funds were starting to wear thin, so on Sunday morning, the group grabbed a quick, greasy fast-food breakfast before heading to the mall. Everybody else in Sunset's circle of friends had their own plans for Sunday, so it was just the "Equestria Club".

"So what's this 'mall' place like?" Starlight asked as they settled in on the bus.

"Huge," Sunset said. "There's...there's no real Equestrian equivalent for it." She went through her wallet, wincing. "We won't be able to do any actual shopping, but I think I can at least pop for lunch at the food court."

"Well, it's not as if we'd have any use for anything we'd buy here back in Equestria anyway," Twilight said. "Just the experience will be enough."

"Window shopping is pretty fun," Starlight said. "I've been doing a lot of that lately with...well...you know."

"So what kind of shopping are we talking about here, anyway?" Ember asked.

"Well," Sunset said thoughtfully, "about two-thirds of the stores at the mall sell clothes, shoes, and accessories. There's also some music stores, some book stores, a video game store, about five hair salons, a couple of nail salons...oh, then there's the specialty stores, the jewelry stores, that place that has all the overpriced gift baskets of smoked meats and cheeses, ummm..." She thought. "Well, the movie theater of course, and the food court..." She tilted her head. "Bunch of other places. Honestly, I only ever go to like, five stores. I mean, when I'm with the girls, we do a lot of window-shopping, but I never really pay much attention unless I see something I really want, y'know?" The bus stopped with a squeal of brakes, and Sunset looked out the window. "Well, here we are," she said.

The girls filed off the bus with about half the passengers and walked down a sidewalk flanked by a dozen evenly-spaced skinny palm trees planted in a narrow dividing island. At the intersecting curb, cars were coming and going at a steady clip. Sunset led them up another sidewalk; they emerged on an expansive concourse. The out-of-towners looked up...and up...and their jaws dropped.

"Holy cow," Starlight said, eyes wide.

"This is a store?" Moondancer gasped.

"This is a mall," Sunset said.

"It looks like a castle," Ember said, clearly impressed.

"It's bigger than any castle I've ever seen," Starlight said.

"It's bigger than Celestia's castle," Twilight added in an awed tone.

Sunset laughed. "I don't think it's that big," she said. "But it's pretty big." She frowned. "And if we get split up, it could be a problem. Hmm." She tapped her finger against her cheek. "Alright. At the main mall directory, they have mall maps you can take for free. We'll each take one. If we get split up, we'll pick a landmark in the mall, a place we can meet up." Sunset clapped her hands together and rubbed them briskly. "Alright! Let's go in."

The group approached a series of glass double doors which were admitting a steady trickle of people in either direction. There were five sets of doors in a row; when Sunset opened one door, the girls filed into a space roughly the size of Sunset's living room which was tiled with black marble, dotted with potted plants, and led to another row of glass double doors. At either end of the doors, a framed map of the mall hung on the wall; below each map was a row of free-standing wire racks boasting various colorful pamphlets. Some of them were ad circulars, some were coupon leaflets. Sunset walked over to these, scanned them briefly, and extracted several folded maps of the mall on glossy paper, which she distributed among the girls. "There," she said. Twilight and Moondancer immediately began reading the maps with interest. Ember shoved hers into her pocket, while Starlight carefully tucked hers away.

The group proceeded into the mall proper. They were greeted by garish storefronts to the left and right; the broad, open mall that stretched out seemingly endlessly before them was decorated with small islands of potted trees, wooden benches, trash receptacles, and standing ad placards. In the wide entrance atrium stood a broad concrete fountain that sprayed water several feet into the air.

"Wow," Starlight breathed. "This is a shopping center? It's more like...like some kind of plaza!"

"It's a bit of both," Sunset said.

Moondancer looked all around and drew in on herself. "So many people," she muttered.

"It...is pretty crowded," Twilight said. "Is it always like this?"

"More or less," Sunset said. "Actually, it's usually worse. Today's Sunday, Sundays are slow days at the mall."

"This is a slow day?" Starlight echoed, eyes wide as she scanned the dozens of people coming and going.

"Yeah, tons of people go to church on Sunday or just sleep in," Sunset said.

"Church?" Ember asked.

Sunset shook her head. "Not a subject I wanna get into. Let's just say it's something you probably wouldn't be interested in and leave it at that."

"I'll lend you the copy of the Holy Book I borrowed from Sunset sometime," Twilight said. "I find it fascinating, studying this world's history through religion."

"Those sound like two really boring words," Ember said. "Think I'll pass."

"I'd like to read that sometime," Moondancer said. She turned in a slow circle, taking in the closest stores. "Are we going into any of these places?"

Sunset bit her cheek, her brow furrowed as she studied the closest shops. "No point going into Cards & Tchtochkes," she said. "People only go in there if they need a card. Or a tchotchke." She studied the next store over. "We could go into Pop's Music..."

"Pass," Starlight said. "I think we all had enough music yesterday to last a few years."

Sunset chuckled. "Fair enough."

"Let's just walk for a bit, have a look around," Twilight suggested. She studied her mall map. "If we get split up, we can meet back...hmm...there! The fountain plaza at the center of the mall."

"Works for me," Sunset said. "Let's try not to get split up, though. Keep to the left, we can walk around more slowly and not get caught up in the mall-walkers."

"Mall-walkers?" Ember asked.

Sunset pointed at a middle-aged couple in workout clothes who were walking at a brisk pace; groups of senior citizens, younger people, and out-of-shape people with noticeable weight problems were right alongside them. "There are people who come to the mall just to walk," Sunset explained. "It's good exercise. Of course, the walkers are supposed to come early and clear out before the stores open, but you'll still see mall-walkers throughout the day, especially on Sunday."

"They come to this incredibly fascinating place just to walk?" Starlight asked.

"Well, after all, to most humans, the mall isn't all that special," Sunset said with a shrug. "It's just here and it's a place we go when we're bored or need to do some shopping."

"Or lose some weight, apparently," Ember said.

The girls walked the length of the mall's main plaza on the first floor, looking around with interest. There were clothing boutiques, jewelry stores, a comic book and trading card shop that Sunset referred to somewhat disparagingly as 'the nerd store', places that sold handbags and wallets and other assorted accessories, mostly made of leather. There were 'gift stores' that seemed to sell nothing but the kind of junk you'd buy as a last-minute 'gee, I forgot to get you a gift' gift. There was a toy store, a couple of hair salons, a bank (which Sunset stopped at to get some more money out of the ATM), and one place that caught Starlight's attention with its interesting blue sign. "Equal Rights Vape Club?"

Sunset groaned. "It's a shop for vaping enthusiasts," she said.

"Vaping?"

"It's..." Sunset frowned. "Okay, you know how tobacco was a thing for a while in Equestria, but it fell out of fashion pretty fast?"

"Ugh, yeah," Starlight said with a grimace. "I remember reading about that one time. Ponies used to actually put burning leaves in their mouths and suck on them! Gross."

Ember raised an eyebrow. "Really? Hardcore!"

"And toxic," Twilight said.

"Yeah, well...tobacco's been a thing in this world for hundreds of years," Sunset said. "Especially the last couple of centuries. Only recently, they've been banning smoking in public places pretty much everywhere. A lot of people are pissed about that, so someone invented these electronic cigarettes that, I dunno, somehow they're supposed to be less disgusting than blowing cigarette smoke in everybody's face? It's still a pretty new thing, so there's still a lot of debate about it, but it's created a whole new niche industry." She shook her head. "A couple of the teachers at CHS vape. I think Snips and Snails are doing it too since it's a lot harder to keep minors from getting hold of e-cigs and they think it makes them look cool."

"Does it?" Twilight asked.

Sunset snorted. "We're talking about Snips and Snails here," she pointed out.

Twilight giggled. "I guess...I guess not," she said.

"Wow, that was kind of mean," Starlight said, staring at Twilight.

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Have you met Snips and Snails?" she asked.

Starlight frowned. "I don't...think so?" She scratched her head. "The names sound familiar..."

"They're the idiots who lured an Ursa Minor into Ponyville for Trixie to vanquish the first time she came to town," Twilight explained.

Starlight's eyes widened. "Oh yeah, now I remember!"

"They did what?!" Moondancer and Sunset cried in unison.

Ember blinked. "Wait. Wait. Hold up. You mean there's a couple of ponies who are actually that stupid?! What if the mama had come looking for it? Even dragons aren't stupid enough to piss off an Ursa Major!"

"Yeah, well, Snips and Snails aren't...the brightest colts around," Twilight said. "They bought into Trixie's hype word for word and decided they'd bring an Ursa to town so she could vanquish it."

"Vanquish a...Trixie can't even do a simple transmutation!" Starlight said.

"So what happened?" Sunset asked. "How...how is Ponyville even still standing?"

Twilight fidgeted. "I, umm...I got rid of the Ursa," she said sheepishly.

Moondancer's glasses slid down her nose. "Got rid of...how?"

"I had to cast a bunch of different spells and since I was still a unicorn back then, it really wore me out, but basically I..." Twilight took a deep breath. "Broke the Ponyville water tower to make a baby bottle, milked every cow in Ponyville with my magic, gave the Ursa a big bottle of fresh milk, made wind through the reeds to play a lullabye, and levitated the Ursa back into the Everfree Forest."

The others stared at her.

"How the hay did I ever beat you?" Starlight wondered.

"I've been wondering that myself," Twilight muttered. "Anyway, let's...let's keep moving. There's still a lot of mall to see!"

Unfortunately, "a lot of mall" quickly revealed itself to be "more of the same". There were some interesting and different stores here and there—a place that sold giant cookies, a store that sold bulk mix-and-match candy, and a store whose merchandise apparently changed with each new upcoming holiday—but the number of clothing stores, jewelry stores, accessory stores, shoe stores, and the like never seemed to change from one part of the mall to the next.

And there were kiosks every thirty feet, it seemed, where someone in a brightly colored polo shirt tried to get the girls to sign a contract for mobile phone service.

"My feet hurt," Starlight complained once they'd reached the other end of the main strip.

"Mine too," Moondancer said. She made a beeline for a bench near another fountain and plopped down; Starlight joined her. The others looked at each other, shrugged, and sat down as well. Except for Twilight, whose eyes were fixed upon one storefront.

"Twilight?" Sunset asked. "See something you like?"

Twilight was gravitating toward a brightly-lit store whose awning proudly displayed the name Le Stay Connected. "Think I'm gonna go in there," she said. "It looks really interesting."

"Oh, that! That's a high-end gadget boutique," Sunset said. "They cater to the too-much-money crowd who always have to have the latest tech..." She smiled. "But go ahead and have a look!"

Twilight zipped into the shop with a giddy expression on her face.

"Wow," Starlight said. "She is such a nerd."

"Yeah, she kind of is," Sunset agreed with a smile.

After a brief, awkward silence, Starlight asked, "Sunset Shimmer? Do you...do you really prefer living here to Equestria?"

Sunset thought about that for a minute. "I...I'm not sure," she admitted. "I mean, I know I need to go back to Equestria one day. Either my luck's gonna run out here and I'll have to go back, or..." She shook her head. "No. I'm not planning to go back for good. I...I have a life here, one I'd never have back in Equestria."

"Are you sure?" Starlight pressed. "I mean, you're friends with these versions of Princess Twilight's friends. You could make friends with their Ponyville versions, start over in Ponyville—"

"But it wouldn't be the same," Sunset said. "I have memories with the girls here that...that I'd never be able to have with the other girls." She smiled sadly. "Besides, it sounds like they already have enough wayward unicorns wandering around Ponyville." She poked Starlight in the shoulder with a wink.

Starlight rolled her eyes. "Yeah yeah," she said. "But seriously, you really like living in this world? With no magic, and all this strange...stuff this world has?"

"I think this world's kinda cool," Ember said.

Sunset shrugged. "I've been here a long time, Starlight," she said. "When I went back to Equestria, when I had my unicorn magic back, sure it was...exciting, for the few minutes it lasted, but..." She shook her head. "Ever since I gave up on my plan to ruin Princess Celestia, ever since, y'know, I learned the magic of friendship..." She gazed off in the direction Twilight had gone. "Well, so much has happened since then, and...and this place needs me. No, it's more than that." She folded her hands in her lap and looked down at them. "If I went back to Equestria...I'd miss my friends here. I'd miss my life here." She smiled wistfully. "There's so many little things I've gotten used to, you know? If I went back, I'd...I'd have to start all over again. Find a new home, make new friends, learn how to be a pony all over again. I don't...I don't think I want to do that, not when there's so much I'd be giving up here."

Starlight smiled. "I think I understand," she said. "It's like me, I...I had to pick up and start over again after my whole evil revenge thing went south. I'm...I'm enjoying living in Ponyville, learning how to make friends. I still make a lot of mistakes, and I'm learning that Twilight isn't the easiest pony to live with, but..." She gazed into the fountain. "It's becoming my home, you know? I'm...I don't know where my future leads, but I do know that where I am, right now, is the happiest I've ever truly been." She paused. "I mean, the living in Ponyville and learning from Twilight thing, not the whole...this."

"We know what you meant, goofball," Ember said with a smirk.

Twilight came charging out of the store she'd run into, a beaming smile on her face and a twinkle in her eyes. "Sunset! Girls! You should totally check it out! That store has a ton of cool devices!"

Sunset let out a strangled snort. "Wh-what?"

"Cool devices!" Twilight said eagerly. When Sunset started snickering, Twilight gave her a put-out look. "What? I'm just saying there's a lot of cool devices over there!"

Sunset doubled over laughing. The other girls stared at her.

"Your friend is weird," Starlight informed Twilight.

* * * * *

After another hour and a half of exploring the mall, during which they actually went into a couple of clothing stores and tried on a few things, the girls headed for the food court to get some lunch.

"So what are you all in the mood for?" Sunset asked. "There's just about everything here. Burgers, tacos, hot dogs, nachos, soft pretzels, noodles, egg rolls, sushi—actually don't try the sushi here, it's toxic—"

"That place seems popular," Starlight interrupted, pointing to a crowd of people milling around one shop whose marquee read THE CALZONE ZONE.

"Huh? Hey, this place is new," Sunset mused.

"The Calzone Zone," Twilight read aloud. "Catchy name!"

"What's a calzone?" Ember asked.

"It's kind of a stuffed sandwich type thingie," Sunset said. "Usually full of pizza toppings. Let's go check it out! If that's okay with you girls."

"It must be good if that many people want to eat there," Starlight said.

The girls joined the crowd around The Calzone Zone, glancing up at the menu that hung over the order counter. Sunset's brow furrowed. "Huh," she said. "Some of those things...don't really sound like a calzone. More like...a turnover? An empanada?"

"What's the difference?" Ember asked.

"Well, a calzone usually has pizza dough and Bitalian ingredients," Twilight said. "I see Sunset's point. Pretzel calzone filled with cheddar cheese and smoked bacon? Sourdough Filly steak calzone? I'm no expert, I mean I've only had a calzone once when I went to Manehattan, but..."

"But that's what's so cool about this place!" a girl standing beside her said. Twilight turned to see Lyra Heartstrings in the line waiting for service. "Sure, a Bitalian might look at some of that and say it's not a calzone, but the whole point of this is to have a calzone you can call your own! You know? With whatever you want inside, on whatever kind of dough you want."

"Hey Lyra," Sunset greeted. "So this place any good?"

"Bon Bon and I come here every weekend since it opened," Lyra said. "Of course, Bonnie's down with a sprained ankle right now, so I'm getting a couple to go."

"So what do you recommend?" Starlight asked.

"Me? I like the barbecue brisket and baked bean calzone," Lyra said. "Fair warning," she added in a stage whisper. "It makes you fart like nobody's business."

"Uhh...thanks for the warning," Starlight said.

Lyra blinked and looked at the group with Sunset. "Huh, never seen any of you before," she said. "And...Twilight? Where are your glasses?"

"Other Twilight," Twilight said. "You know, the one from—"

"Oh right, right, the magical one," Lyra said, nodding. "Cool." She tilted her head. "And the others?"

"They're with me," Twilight said. "We came for a visit."

"Cool." Lyra nodded again. "Well, see you around!" She shuffled up in the line.

"So that's Lyra Heartstrings as a human," Starlight said. "Are she and Bon Bon still, y'know, 'best friends' here?"

Sunset snickered. "Remind me to tell you about the time Vice-Principal Luna caught them 'befriending' each other in the restroom at school." She made air quotes and smirked.

"How about let's...NOT talk about that!" Twilight suggested brightly, face flaming.

When their turn to order arrived, Ember ordered the barbecue brisket and baked bean calzone, Sunset and Twilight ordered the supreme pizza calzone, Moondancer ordered the pretzel, cheddar, and smoked bacon calzone, and Starlight decided to try the Filly steak calzone. It took a while for their orders to be ready; when they were handed their food, the calzones turned out to be fairly large—not quite the size of a foot-long sub, but definitely larger than a six-inch sub. They found a table in the food court to sit down and eat.

"This is good," Twilight said.

"It really is!" Starlight agreed. "There's more cheese in this than I thought there'd be, though."

"You don't like cheese much, do you?" Sunset asked.

"I don't like the way I gas up when I eat cheese," Starlight said.

"Eh, farting's just nature's way of telling you you really enjoyed your meal," Ember said with a grin.

"Yes, but it's also not something you want to be doing in polite company," Starlight said through clenched teeth.

"Hey Sunset, what time is it?" Twilight asked.

Sunset wiped her hands on her napkin, pulled out her phone, and checked it. "It's just after one-thirty, why?"

"Hmm," Twilight said. "Hate to say it, but...we don't have much time left." She sighed. "We need to be back at the portal at five. I have...kind of a long day ahead of me tomorrow and I have a lot of scheduling to go over with Spike before bed. And I definitely need to get to bed early."

"Aww," Ember said.

"I'll need to catch the evening train back to Canterlot," Moondancer said. "I hate walking around after dark, no matter how safe Canterlot is."

"Well, it's been fun having you girls here for the weekend," Sunset said. "We should totally get together and do this again sometime."

"Yeah we should!" Ember said with a grin. "This place is pretty cool. I'd like to spend more time here."

"Next time I can get a break from my schedule, we should definitely all come back," Twilight agreed.

"Hey, maybe I can even bring Trixie with me next time!" Starlight suggested brightly.

Sunset and Twilight looked at each other and rolled their eyes. "We'll see," Twilight said with a smile.

"Well, if you need to be back by five, that gives us enough time to see a movie before we leave," Sunset said. "Sound good?"

"Works for me," Twilight said. "Girls?"

"You'll love the movie theater here," Sunset said.

"Sure," Starlight agreed, wiping her mouth and hands and finishing up her soda.

* * * * *

After a movie about a ragtag group of misfits in a broken-down spaceship getting caught up in epic shenanigans, the girls got on the bus that would take them to CHS. It was just past five when the group stood at the base of the shattered statue. Sunset looked around at her guests. "I had a great time this weekend," she said.

"Yeah, same here," Ember agreed.

"I needed this little vacation like you would not believe," Twilight said. "Thanks for everything, Sunset."

"This was very educational," Starlight said. "Thank you so much for hosting us."

"It was fun," Moondancer added.

"I'll write soon," Twilight promised, hugging Sunset. She looked at her other friends, then at the statue, and let out a heavy sigh. "Well, girls," she said. "Time to go home."

One by one, they disappeared through the portal, each waving goodbye to Sunset. Twilight was the last to go. Once she was gone, Sunset rocked on her heels, giving the portal a longing look. Then, with a smile and a shake of her head, she turned and walked away, hands in her pockets, whistling one of the Rainbooms' songs as she made her way home in the fading light of day.

Author's Notes:

Not going to promise a sequel. Not even going to promise an epilogue/post-script chapter unless I truly get inspired. Thanks for reading!