"We need to go through a magic mirror to a world populated by sapient mostly hairless apes. I understand we'll be transformed into a member of the species ourselves once we go through, but--"
"No, I know about that, Sunset's explained all that to me. I'm just... wondering how this happened. What's going on? Why do we need to get over--"
"Look," Starlight said flatly. "You were the one that made her in the first place, right?"
"Um. Yes."
"So if anybody's going to stabilize her morphic outline it's probably going to be you."
"Pretty dramatically, yeah. It--" Starlight paused. "...Well. The best way to put it is it fragmented, but that doesn't quite convey the scope of the problem in its entirety..."
"Oh my goodness. What's the extent of the damage?"
"...you really won't believe me until you see it for yourself. And to see it for yourself, you need to get over here and jump through a magic mirror and become an ape. Can you do that?"
"Well, I'm in the Crystal Empire right now," Sunburst pointed out. "And you're in Ponyville."
Starlight rolled her eyes. "Obviously I want you to buy a ticket and ride the train. Unless these changeling beetles can serve as portals as well as communication devices."
"Vocoleoptera."
"What?"
"They're called vocoleoptera." Sunburst cleared his throat. "From the order coleoptera, which contains all known beetles and itself a derivation from old pegasus words koleos and ptera, meaning sheathe and wing respectively, combined with the word vocal, which--"
"Sunburst, normally I would love to listen to your lectures on magic and history and all that you know, but your sister is in serious danger and I need you here as soon as possible!"
Sunburst adjusted his glasses. "Quite right, quite right. What should I bring, do you think?"
"All the books you used to make her in the first place," Starlight suggested. "And anything about mental... stuff."
"Mental stuff?"
"Like, uh, how the mind works, how it can be torn apart, that sort of thing."
Sunburst frowned. "Starlight... what exactly happened to Sunset?"
"I... well..." Starlight bit her lip. "So, apparently she's regularly transformed via magic while she was on the other side, and I got a little curious and I asked her about all her transformations and, she kind of thought it might have been due to emotional, uh... the point is we agreed to an experiment--which she designed!--and that we took all sorts of precautions, and now there are like seven very different Sunset Shimmers running about the other world."
"Ah, a fractal morphic cascade. I'd say that was purely theoretical, but it is Sunset we're talking about here."
Starlight blinked. "Wait, that's it, you believe me? Just like that?"
"Well, you wouldn't be using a vocoleoptera if you weren't serious about this. I mean according to Thorax, they're one of their most highly demanded exports, but they're so rare that getting a hold of them is incredibly difficult and learning how to use them is actually surprisingly complex." Sunburst paused. "Granted, you are a genius and you live with a princess, so neither factor is as much of an issue as it would be for the common pony, but the point remains."
"So the only reason you believe me is because I'm using an expensive and hard-to-use method to contact you," Starlight deadpanned.
"...Um." Sunburst coughed. "The way you worded that implies I don't trust you normally, which is certainly.... not the impression I wished to give, because I do. Trust you normally. I trust you. And that means I take what you say seriously. So I believe you, because I trust you, and I trust you not to abuse resources to contact me about a situation I don't need contacting about. This is what I wanted to communicate."
"Well, that's a nice save." Starlight sighed. "I'm sorry, I just... I feel like this is my fault, you know? Even if I never expected this and wasn't the person to design the experiment, the point is I'm just so worried that I've done something which can never be fixed. I tend to get that feeling a lot, now that I think about it."
Sunburst frowned. "...But you've always found a way to fix things, haven't you?"
"Not without help."
"There are very few things a pony can do without help. Being able to recognize one needs help is one of them. And of course I'd be willing to help you. I just have to get on a train and ride to Ponyville which... is going to take a bit of a while, you understand."
"Of course." Starlight nodded. "Look, the situation is weird and complicated and I think it would be best if I was on the other side of the mirror for the moment. I don't know if this form of communication works between universes, so--"
"I'll have Twilight use her journal to contact you when I'm at her palace."
"Makes sense. So... uh... yeah. Come here soon. Bye, I guess."
"Good luck and fair fortune, Starlight Glimmer."
The fiery circle flashed out of existence, leaving the unicorn to stare at the black beetle in front of her. "...Good luck and fair fortune. Two things I've never had." She took a deep breath. "Oh please, whatever sick gods and forces of nature have made me their plaything, don't let this situation get any worse for Sunset..."
"You're Sunset's brother, right? I'm Twilight Sparkle and--what are you doing? Get up!"
"Your highness?" Twilight shook her head. "No, I'm not royalty! I'm just your run-of-the-mill genius prodigy with magical friends from another world! Which... now that I say that, I'm not that run of the mill."
"Don't forget your talking dog," Spike pointed out.
Sunburst rose from his prone position, and further rose when Starlight leaned down and pulled him up. "Biped. Forelimbs are for gripping, not locomotion."
"Right." The stallion--or, was it still 'stallion' in this world?--adjusted his cape. "Right, right. It's... a pleasure to meet you, miss Sparkle. And your talking dog. I take it that's normal in this world?"
"Actually no. It's pretty unusual." Twilight paused. "Aren't talking dogs normal in your world?"
"If you're talking about the diamond dogs, I'm pretty sure they're actually some sort of giant shrew--"
"We can debate scientific classification later," Starlight interjected firmly. "Right now we need to find Sunset Shimmer, all of her, and see if we can recombine her into her usual self."
"Right! Well. About that." Twilight rubbed the back of her head. "The rest of the Rainbooms are trying to track down individual components of Sunset's manifested psyche based on their understanding of her intrinsic profile, but, well, that's five to seven, and that's assuming they can find all of her."
Sunburst nodded. "And the remaining two personas?"
"Had some good luck there. One of them is intelligent enough to at least stay nearby--oh, there she is now." Twilight turned and waved at the figure coming out of the brown-red building. "Sunset! Over here, your brother came to help!"
The two native equestrians looked over, and Sunburst's eyes widened as he took in the image. He wasn't exactly sure what was considered normal in this world, but he could reasonably guess that this version of Sunset was definitely not it. There was something about the way the feathered boots flowed gracefully over the ground as she walked, the way her otherwise bare arm muscles slinked under her cutie-mark shoulder bracers, the way her fiery hair seemed to rise endlessly into the air, that seemed to project an otherworldly presence.
Oh, and the giant glowing wings and horn made of pure golden light, those were pretty big clues as well.
"Hello, Sunburst." Sunset's voice was calm and serene, even as her red-rimmed eyes turned to him. "It is good to see you again, even in such dark circumstances."
Sunburst swallowed. "Hey, Sunset. You... seem pretty calm, all things considered."
"I am comprised of Sunset's sense of harmony, her wisdom, as it were. To panic in this situation would service nobody, myself least of all." She turned to Starlight Glimmer. "I take it he is here to assist in the reunion?"
"Yes, basically. Why don't we all head back to the lab, look over the notes?"
"That does seem like a good decision," Sunset noted, absently dusting off her arm. "It will, at least, give us an overview of the problem, from which we can derive a course of action."
Sunburst watched her slowly stroll back to the school, swallowing awkwardly. "Yes, there's definitely something wrong with her. She's usually so much more... direct and active."
Twilight nodded. "Yeah. Don't get me wrong, she's a good person and all, but she's usually more... uh..."
"Abrasive?" Starlight offered.
"....domineering," Twilight replied. She knelt down, picking Spike up and walking off. "Come on, let me show you the lab. Maybe we can actually get something done, now that we have the original engineer with us."
"Well, I'll see what I can do." Sunburst started after her, his legs somehow moving into a rhythm that felt oddly natural. "But it might be good to know what progress you've made thus far?"
"There's a lot of theoretical technobabble that I can't quite parse. I'm not a native magical student--most of my work is in applying magic to the particular set of laws this universe imposes, instead of operating under the originating set of laws in the Equestrian universe. Starlight and Sunset have more of the technical know-how, I'm just the one that runs the system and collates the data."
"It's very important data," Starlight assured her. "And being honest I'm more of a juryrigger then a constructor like Sunset is. It's not like there's only one way to be intelligent, after all." She glanced at the ground. "My own 'brilliance' really causes messes, whenever I try to apply it."
"Well, not all the time," Sunburst offered. "I mean... you did kind of save Equestria recently."
"Yeah, but... I sort of broke the changeling hive to do it?"
"That wasn't you, that was Thorax."
"Well I was the one to tell him to--"
Spike snorted. "So, hey, is this actually important, or are you just going back and forth for no reason?"
"Spike!" Twilight cried.
"What? You and Sunset do this a lot too!"
Sunburst chuckled wryly. "Well, I suppose we should focus on what's going on now. Do you have the waveform records on hand? A fractal morphic cascade was purely theoretical before all this, but then again so was the ICKE formula back when I first created Sunset, so--"
"Created?" Spike tilted his head. "Like I was made by my mom?"
"No, Spike." Twilight opened the door. "It's more like, um... it's like... a computer program! Sunset was a computer program that got to be alive because of magic. You understand that, right?"
The dog nodded. "Not at all."
"Eeerugh." Twilight shook her head. "Anyway. Let me just... put you down here, where you'll stay, and I'll get all the data that I need from over there, and you and Sunset can catch up."
"I mean, sure, if she's OH SWEET CELESTIA you're right next to me." Sunburst chuckled awkwardly, scratching his beard as he managed to smile weakly at the fragment of his artificially generated sister. "You know, with all the light and the stuff, I kind of thought you would be a little less hard to miss, you know?"
"Silent arrival is often the way of wisdom," Sunset replied, unperturbed.
"Kind of thought it was having sense beaten into you," Starlight deadpanned.
"Wisdom can arrive in many ways."
Starlight blinked. "...what do you know. Even Sunset's wisdom is snarky."
Sunburst took a breath. "We'll get this fixed, Starlight. I promise."
"And it might even happen before Sunset!"
The two of them turned to Twilight.
"Cause, you know. Sunset. The time. And, the... girl..." She chuckled awkwardly. "I'll just... leave you with the notes."
"How tha HAY am Ah going ta explain THIS to tha insurance company?!"
"You could just tell them that a teenage girl in an outfit with crystal-embedded pauldrons ripped the hood off your truck to use as a shield in her duel against another version of the same girl that has big wings made of fire."
Applejack leveled a flat look on Pinkie. "Do ya think they'd really believe that?"
Pinkie simply pointed at the countless people who had whipped out their smartphones and started recording the battle in the sky.
"...Ah'll just check it off as hooligan damage," Applejack conceded. "Probably a lot easier that way." She glanced up at the duel and sighed. "Yeah, we're not goin' ta be able to get them calmed down any time soon. Ah'll call Rarity, maybe between her shield things and mah rope wranglin' skills we'll be able ta get them tied down."
"Okay, you do that. In the meantime, do you mind if I nip into this ice cream parlor?"
"Pinkie, now ain't tha time to be indulgin' your sweet tooth!"
"Well, duh, you know that and I know that but the Sunset Shimmer in there seems not to have gotten the memo."
Applejack blinked, looking through the window of the shop. Sure enough, a version of Sunset dress up in her Camp Everfree formal wear was holding a sundae dish to her face and nomming down on frozen sweets.
"Huh. Alright then." She nodded. "Let's go in and get her, Ah suppose..." She tapped a few keys on her phone. "Rares, when ya get this, come meet us in tha Marble Slab off the corner o' Stirrup street and Saddle Way, we've found a few of... Sunset, Ah guess?"
Pinkie skipped through the door, giggling as she sat down next to Sunset. "You seem to be having fun."
"OH MY GOD. PINKIE. PINKIE DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS IS."
"Literally or metaphorically? Cause both have like, ten different answers."
"THIS." Sunset licked the final stickiness off the sundae dish. "THIS IS... this is the total, the amazing, this is the amazing total. OF SWEET GOODNESS."
Pinkie nodded. "Well, not the total total. You, uh, got a little something on your cheek there."
Sunset blinked, looking at her reflection in the dish and trying to wiggle her tongue out to catch it.
Applejack rolled her eyes. "Hey, uh, look. If ya'll're done here, maybe we should getcha back to tha lab."
"But Twilight is still in the boring data analysis phaaaaaaase!" Sunset whined. "I don't wanna listen to statistics!"
"Actually, Ah got a text from her a short bit back. Starlight's back and she's brought yer..." Applejack glanced at the phone. "Ah think brother?"
"OH MY GOD." Sunset swiped the sundae dish aside as she lunged over the table. "SUNBURST IS HERE?!"
"Uh... yeah, that's what Ah just--"
"Ohmygod this is amazing! Wait no this is horrible, I'm split into so many parts--no, wait he's here to fix that, right? I mean duh, of course he is!" The girl dropped Applejack and started pacing. "But what if he needs me to go back to Equestria to fix this? I could miss the new Daring Do movie!"
"Oh my gosh that's kind of important!" Pinkie agreed. "But that's a month away, and I'm pretty sure he'll have this fixed by then."
"Oh right, right right! Yeah, time, it's a thing!" Sunset giggled. "I guess I could use the time to read some more of this world's history or find some more sweets to eat or something."
"Could you maybe consider going to the lab and lettin' yer brother do his fancy magic with ya?" Applejack offered.
"I wouldn't be able to stay put!" Sunset explained. "I think I'm the feelings, right? Like do you know how good this ice cream was? It was soooooooooo good!" She sniffled. "And now it's gone, forever!"
"Hey, hey hey!" Pinkie put an arm around her. "Do you know what I do when I realize I've run out of ice cream?"
"What?"
"I..." Pinkie grinned. "BUY MORE ICE CREAM!"
"Oh my gosh. You're right! There's an economic solution!" Sunset fumbled around her dress. "Wallet, wallet, where's my wallet--"
Applejack facepalmed. "Sunset, ya know that's gonna get you a stomachache, right?"
"What?!" Sunset whirled to her, tears in her eyes. "Really?!"
"I never get stomachaches," Pinkie pointed out."
"You're Pinkie Pie," Applejack reminded her.
"...Fair point. Still." Pinkie took Sunset's quaking shoulders. "Look at that face, AJ. Look at that sad sad face."
The farm girl looked at the quivering lips, sniffling nose, and water-drenched eyes.
"...Seen worse in the mirror," she replied, unimpressed.
"Whhhyyyyyyyyyy?" Sunset wrapped her arms around Pinkie, burying her head in her shoulders. "WHY IS AJ SO MEAN TO MEEEEEEEEE?!"
"There there," Pinkie cooed, patting her back. "She's just trying to be a level-headed responsible adult without realizing that the situation needs a delicate touch."
Applejack threw up her hands. "Pinkie, we gotta get all of them back to tha lab. Letting one of them pig out on ice cream is not 'gettin' them back to tha lab!'"
"It is if she's pigging out in the lab."
"The lab doesn't have ice cream."
"Not yet." Pinkie twirled out her cell phone, flicking it open. "Maud! Sister my sister, my beloved big sister, Maudalina Daisy Pie, I have a big huge super big ginormous humongous little favor to ask of you!"
"What is it?"
"You know my super-secret-special-stupendous-sugar-sweet-succulent supply of ultimate ice cream that I keep hidden in the back of the freezer that's in the room behind the locked door that's behind the heating unit in the cellar?"
"...I do now."
"Well there's a tub of mint chocolate ice cream beside it. Could you get that and bring it up to the laboratory at the school? It's a magical emergency type thing. Oh, and whatever you do, don't touch the SSSSSSS ice cream with your bare skin. Wear rubber gloves. It's technically legal, don't worry, it's just... kiiiiiiind of experimental right now."
"Okay. Be there in ten minutes."
"Thanks a bundle, Maud!" Pinkie flipped her cell phone shut. "So you'll get ice cream if you come with us to the lab, okay Sunset?"
"Oh my gosh that sounds incredible!"
"And we can watch a movie!"
"Can it be the one with the dogs?!"
"Absodutley!"
Applejack blinked as the two walked past her and out of the ice cream parlor. "Uh... okay then. That works, Ah guess..."
Rarity rushed in, grabbing her shoulders. "Applejack, I saw Sunset and Sunset. You have a plan?"
"Uh--right, those two." Applejack shook her head. "Sorry, got distracted by Pinkie's nonsense. Ah've got mah rope, you've got yer shields, so Ah was thinkin' maybe..."
"Look, cats have a terrible sense of direction, okay?"
"Are you sure it's the cats that have a terrible sense of direction?"
"It's their awareness of spacial connectivity, alright? Sometimes they don't realize that a room with two doors is the same room no matter which door you go through. This is... just the same thing on a larger scale."
"Fluttershy," Rainbow deadpanned, "We've been following this feline for fifteen minutes, and I know we're going in circles. If we want to find Sunset Shimmer... or whatever part of her we're going to find... we need to pick up the pace."
"Sneaksniff is doing the best he can!"
"...Sneaksniff?"
"That's what the other cats call him. Or, um, as close as it comes to in english." Fluttershy bit her lip. "There are some subtleties that don't exactly translate without--"
The mangy tomcat in front of them looked over his shoulder with a deep mrrrooowr, glancing toward a nearby dance club the moment the two girls were looking his way.
"Oh?" Fluttershy followed his gaze. "She's in there?"
"RrrRrr," the cat replied with a lidded gaze.
"Thank you Sneaksniff. Oh!" Fluttershy reached into her backpack, pulling out a chunk of meat, and knelt down to gently stroke his ears. "You're really such a help."
"Mmmmmrr." The tomcat took the chunk and, after a moment, quickly batted her knee with his head before trotting rapidly away.
"...You carry around chunks of meat in your backpack?" Rainbow asked incredulously.
"You don't?" Fluttershy asked, equally surprised.
"Wha--no! Of course I don't, why would I?"
"I just thought, you are an athlete and--"
"No no no. For me it's granola on the go, keep the meat to mealtime." She shook her head. "Look, we need to find out if Sunset's in there, alright?"
"If Sneaksniff says she's in there, then she's in there." Fluttershy stood, walked over to the dance club, and paused. "Although, um, I don't know if, you know, if she's busy, maybe--"
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, stepped past her, and pushed the door open. "Fluttershy, there may be a crowd, but we won't have to attract attention to find--"
Her voice trailed off when she caught sight of Sunset stealing the show with a saucy salsa, singing with scintillating segments of spanish scattered across her speech.
"...or she could just be wearing the music video dress and getting everybody to look at her," Rainbow acknowledged. "Okay, don't panic Fluttershy. All we have to do is convince her to go back to the lab. I know you don't like crowds, just... for friendship, okay?"
"I mean... yes, but--"
"Alright, let's go." A blue hand grabbed a yellow arm and dragged a squeaking Fluttershy into the building.
Sunset Shimmer sashayed and swayed in the centerstage, sparing a single glance toward the swinging door and smiling broadly. "¡Amigas! ¿Qué tal? ¡Entra, entra, la música es muy animada y también lo es la multitud!"
"When the heck did Sunset learn spanish?" Rainbow asked Fluttershy.
"Chalk it up to magic?" Fluttershy suggested quickly.
"Ayiyi, maybe bit too much in character, sí." Sunset grabbed a random man, bending backwards so low that her hair brushed the ground. "But it is very much an expression of my self! ¡La pasión de la vida fluye a través de mí y el lenguaje de los amantes se derrama de mi boca!" She let out a shriek of joy as she twirled the man away into a woman that had, until then, been standing alone.
"That's french," Fluttershy deadpanned.
Rainbow gave her a confused look. "Sounded spanish to me."
"No, she said the language of love is spilling from her mouth."
"No dije amor," Sunset corrected, raising her hands as her hips shimmied to an 8/4 tempo. "Dije amantes. The arts of the french are of great beauty, true, but it is the beauty of a smooth statue--gorgeous to look upon, a dream of perfect smoothness and dreamlike wonder. But if you want to find songs that move the body to a heated height, then take the route of the spanish south--salsa, samba, las canciones de sexo y seducción!"
Fluttershy went pink as the crowd parted in front of the dancing girl, jumping behind Rainbow Dash--who was pulled onto the floor without warning.
"Whoa wait--!" The blue girl found her face mere inches from Sunset's smirk, blushing heavily as the red-garbed body grinded against her.
"Ah, entonces te gustan las chicas, ¿eh?" Sunset laughed, twirling the flustered Rainbow in her arms. "Mi lindo pequeño arcoiris, yo te ayudaré a conseguir que usted tiene los ojos en, ¡sólo decir la palabra!"
"Okay I may be failing spanish class," Rainbow admitted, "but come on! Why does everyone think I'm gay?!"
Sunset blinked. "You're... not?"
"No, I'm bisexual, thank you very much! Yeesh." Rainbow frowned. "Wait... are you Sunset's sex drive or something?"
"Feh, if I were merely that, would I be here with the dance?" Sunset chuckled. "No no no, I am not just the carnal, I am the connective. I embody every relationship, that of love and hate, of friend and foe. Call me Íntima, if you must call me anything..."
She lidded her eyes, spinning Rainbow into the arms of a green girl in a brown sweater. "Though I'd prefer you merely enjoy my song!"
The girl gave Rainbow an awkward, embarrassed smile. Rainbow blushed back, before shaking her head. "Uh, okay, just--"
"Íntima?" Fluttershy stepped forward onto the dance floor. "I know you're having a good time here, but we really need to get you and the others back to the lab."
"Sí, sí, ¡pero todavía no! No se ha hecho ningún progreso--"
"Well, that might change. Your brother's here now, you see--"
"¿Mi hermano? ¿¡Te refieres a Sunburst!?" Sunset dived through the crowd and grabbed Fluttershy's hand. "¿¡Por qué no lo dijiste!? Hondele, hondele, ¡vamos de una vez!"
"Could you stop with the gratuitous spanish?!" Rainbow cried, rushing after them.
"¿Qué, y no ver tu linda cara frustrada?" Sunset laughed. "¡NUNCA EN LA VIDA!"
Fluttershy giggled.
"What?" Rainbow demanded. "What did she say? What did she just say?!"
The girl in the sweater sighed. "And not even a phone number. Typical."
"Okay, something is definitely off about you. And I'm not talking about the horse ears."
"Pony," Sunset said flatly. "They're pony ears--why am I even talking to you? I need to find the others!"
"The other girls?" Flash asked. "You could just call them on your phone. Seriously, are you feeling okay?"
"No, I am not feeling okay! I've been cooped up in the lab for three damn days and, I mean I get it and all, but I need to do something or--or else, what am I?" She flung up her hands. "Just a copy of Sunburst that managed to get to think? A failed student of Celestia who jumped into another world? A wannabe tyrant that got trounced by teenagers? I have to do to be, to be more than what I was!"
Flash Sentry nodded, paused, and then shook his head. "I'm sorry, I get that you're having some sort of existential moment, but I'm still not sure what you're talking about. It's just, you seem kind of twitchy--"
"OF COURSE I'M TWITCHY I DON'T HAVE ANYTHING TO DO!"
"Well, what do you want to do?"
"I want to... I..." Sunset clasped at the air. "I want to be me! I want to be who it is I am!"
"Alright, who are you?"
"That's just it! I know I'm Sunset Shimmer, or, you know, part of her? But..." Sunset sagged against a wall. "I'm not able to figure out... what that means, exactly. I thought I knew, when this first happened, but... the more time I spent not contributing to the situation, the more time I spent being... this..."
She clutched at her bangs, pulling them over her eyes as she sunk to the ground. "Damn it all. This is the gala all over again. Is that what's happening? Am... are we seven, now no longer the one? But if it is, then why do I feel like this?"
Flash sighed, sitting down next to her. "Look, Sunset, we all get confused sometimes. Heck, I'm confused right now, I don't even know what you're talking about." He put a hand on her shoulder. "It's okay to be confused. To ask questions. It's okay not to know who you are sometimes--because you can change over time. You used to be, let's be honest, a power-mad self-absorbed bully. But you've come so far since then. You've become... a leader, in your own right. A caring friend. A confident young woman. And maybe you're going through some weird new magic thing that's making you wonder if you're still who you were--and I can say, no. You aren't. Because change is a part of life, Sunset, and what we do... what's best for us to do, is to find the best way to incorporate it into ourselves."
Sunset, slowly, turned to look at him.
"...Flash, I am literally a split off portion of Sunset Shimmer, who is in turn an artificial magical opposite sex clone of a nervous unicorn made something like five years ago."
"Oh....kay, I did not know that, but that's just what you are, not who you are. So my point still stands."
She snorted, shoulder-checking him with a small smile. "You dork."
"Well I figure, if I'm going to have that sort of reputation I might as well live up to it." Flash paused. "So... you used to be a guy?"
"Yes and no. I have the memories of living as a unicorn stallion, but I was literally created as a unicorn mare, and the stallion I used to be still exists...? I self-identify as female and have since my spontaneous creation, if that's what you're asking." She smirked. "What, I thought you weren't weirded out that you dated a horse from another world, how is this any stranger?"
Flash opened his mouth, paused, and then frowned. "I sort of think even trying to answer that question is going to land me in some serious hot water."
"You can be very intelligent when you want to be."
"Yep. So... about this thing where you're a split off portion of Sunset... are you like her spleen or something?"
Sunset snorted. "No, I'm more... I think, like, her drive. Her power and identity, her will to act--that's why being locked up and not being able to do anything bugged me so much. And why it's so... frustrating, not being able to figure out who I'm supposed to be."
"Maybe you're not supposed to work alone. I mean, people are more than just their drives. They're their emotions, connections, wisdom..."
"Which is why I need to find the others," Sunset stated firmly. "I've got to find them all and bring them back to the lab. The problem is, I don't know where any of them are!"
Flash Sentry chuckled. "Well, your friends are probably looking for them... and you. Maybe you should call them. I mean, it's not like they'll just fall out of the sky, right?"
A great fireball smashed into the road in front of them, resolving into a blouse-clad Sunset Shimmer with a pair of flaming wings. The teenager spat, rubbing some blood off her lips as she formed a great flaming sword out of the aether. "YOU CANNOT DEFEAT ME, WEAKLING! I HAVE THE POWER!"
"Power? HA!" A crystal-armored Sunset Shimmer, wielding a car hood as a shield, slammed into the ground. "Power without purpose is pointless! I will always reign over you, for I have DETERMINATION!"
"Of course I could be wrong," Flash admitted. "Uh, so these two are...?"
"I think she's supposed to be my magic," Sunset mused, pointing at the flame-winged avatar. "And she... I think she's actually supposed to be my purpose. Huh. Is it weird that I find her incredibly sexy?"
"...Maybe a little, but, um... maybe you should step in before they wreck everything."
"Yeah, that's a good call."
The pony-eared Sunset stood up, marching forward. Both the flame-winged and the armored teenagers paused when she walked between them.
The armored one lowered her shield. "...This is not your affair--"
"This is entirely my affair!" The pony-eared one gestured between them. "We're the same person! Why are you two even fighting?!"
"She said I was an undirected pattern of heat and passion!" the flame-winged one accused. "I'm a VERY directed pattern of heat and passion, thank you!"
"Directed at what," scoffed the armored one, "being a brazen show-off?"
"Oh sweet Celestia." The pony-eared one put her hand to her face. "Look... you. Just because she's flashy doesn't mean she's a waste of energy. She's our magic. Has our magic ever been used frivolously?"
"...on... rare occasion..."
"Rephrase, have we ever used our magic frivolously after we were twelve?"
The armored one sighed. "...no."
"And you." The pony-eared one turned to the flame-winged one. "Why did you attack her after that?"
"Well... she was wrong. I mean, it wasn't even that she insulted me, it was that she was wrong."
The pony-eared one quirked an eyebrow. "So you didn't even bother to try to correct her."
"Well--I... no." The flamewinged one fidgeted. "You're right. This was not thought out well."
"No, it wasn't. Then again, none of us are thinking entirely straight. We should all head back to the lab and--"
"AHA!" Rarity rushed around a corner. "THERE YOU TWO... three are?"
"...right. We should all head back to the lab," the pony-eared one said slowly, "and talk this over."
"Especially since yer brother's here," Applejack added, coming out after Rarity.
Flash blinked. "Hold on, you have a brother?"
"It's... you know what?" The pony-eared one turned to him. "Why don't you come with us? We can explain on the way."
"Just because I'm a dog doesn't mean I'm an idiot."
"Nobody said you were an idiot, Spike." Twilight stacked her papers calmly. "It's just that you're hanging around people with quite a bit of intellectual prowess and we have the unfortunate tendency to assume that the majority of the population will not be able to keep up with our thought processes, ergo we have a bad habit of treating those around us as require simplification for translation."
"And yet, I don't see you treating any of the girls like you do me."
"...you're right. I'm sorry." Twilight turned around and knelt down. "I just... I guess I'm still kind of used to thinking of you as the family pet."
"Just... even if I can't help, that's no reason not to let me know what's going on."
"Well..." Twilight bit her lip. "The girls have found five of the split Sunsets, and they're all coming here to talk with her brother. So plus the one we've already got that's six. But nobody knows where the seventh one is, and we're not sure how to find her."
"The best place to find a thing is where that thing would go," Spike said firmly. "Squirrels are in trees, treats are in bags, and people are usually trying to get to where they think they should be."
Twilight sighed. "The problem is, we don't know where this part of Sunset would think she should be."
"Well why don't you ask the other Sunsets? They probably know how she thinks."
"That..." Twilight began, before considering for a moment. "...is actually a really good idea, Spike. I'll do that right away!"
She rushed off to the crowd of identically faced but not identically garbed teenagers, clearing her throat. "Excuse me! Excuse me, everyone! Now then. As you can all tell, we have six out of seven of the Sunset personas here. The final one, however, has yet to be located. So... to you various fragments of Sunset... you're part of the same person. Maybe you could help us figure out where the last one of you would head, right?"
The Sunsets all looked at each other.
"What, like telepathy? I don't think we have telepathy." The one wearing the Everfree dress gasped. "Wait, of course we have telepathy! The crystal thingamajigger we got at that place! Where is it?"
The pony-eared Sunset rolled her eyes. "Even if we had it the thing is contact based. I supposed it could work over a range in this specific incident due to thaumic resonance, if we worked together, but we'd need the geode to do it."
"No, no lo hacemos ¡Nos tenemos el uno al otro! Y con el poder mágico de cada uno podemos causar una cascada de resonancia que--"
"Are you using a translation spell?"
The salsa-dancer Sunset crossed her arms. "Déjame soñar, maldita sea!"
"Oh my god!" One Sunset covered herself with her flaming wings. "Why didn't anybody tell me my pants had been burned off?!"
"Well, you were the one that burned them off," pointed out the one in crystal armor. "I thought you knew."
"It's a good thing we wear bloomers," mused the one in the Everfree dress, "otherwise that could have been a lot more awkward."
Rainbow Dash blinked. "Wait, you seriously all wear bloomers?"
The Sunsets nodded in unison.
"Huh. I'd have thought you were a thong kind of gal."
Twilight dragged a hand down her face. "Focus, everyone. We're looking for the last Sunset--do we have any idea where she would be?"
"Well, she'd go where she wanted to," pointed out the one in the Everfree dress.
"Okay, yes, but where would she want to go?"
"I went to the ice cream parlor!"
"Mi corazón me llevó al club de baile."
The one in pony ears shrugged helplessly. "I just wanted to get out and do something, I didn't have any idea. Hey you! Alicorn Sunset, or whatever you are, you got any ideas?"
"To understand where she is, we must understand what she is. And what she is is what we are not."
"That is an incredibly deep sounding series of similes," the crystal-armored Sunset stated dryly.
"No no no, she's got a point." The flame-winged one gestured at herself. "Like, I'm the perceptive one, I can figure out what's going on real quick, and also I've got magic. You're the determined one, the one that figures out what we want to show to the world. Dancer there--"
"Íntima."
"Whatever, she's our friendships and relationships, and pony ears is our drive. And the one in the dress is our... ditziness, apparently."
"Excuse you, I have a broad and well developed emotional spectrum!"
"And this one," Twilight pointed at the stoic Sunset, "is apparently your wisdom. So... Wisdom, Perception, Expression, Relation, Action, Emotion. What's missing...?"
"You know if this were based off the elements of harmony it would be so much easier," Starlight pointed out. "I mean Magic, Kindness, Generosity, Loyalty, Honesty, Laughter... then again, there's only be six of you."
"The elements of harmony..." Sunburst adjusted his glasses. "Of course! The elements came from the Tree of Harmony! The missing Sunset must be a fundamental binding force, something that ties the rest all together!"
"The will to exist," the alicorn Sunset agreed. "The need to be. The survival instinct."
"Whew!" Pinkie wiped imaginary sweat off her brow. "Glad we got that squared away. Hey, wasn't the last Sunset the one that looked like she did after the fall formal?"
"You mean the demon?" Rarity nodded slowly. "Now that you mention it, yes, I do recall that... although I had assumed that she would be easier to locate, what with looking so obviously different and all."
"The last Sunset don't want to be found! If'n she is, she don't get to be seperate from the rest of them. She vanishes."
"Well, that's not entirely true," Sunburst pointed out. "Even ignoring the unique circumstances of the fractal cascade, the simple fact is that without a proper stabilizing magic network she will disintegrate. And I know she probably knows that, so unless there's somebody here that can construct a harmonic formation she's out of luck."
"...She's scared. She's desperate. She doesn't think we have her best interests at heart..." Fluttershy frowned at the ground. "She'd seek help... from somebody we wouldn't think. But who could help her that isn't already--Oh. Oh no."
Her eyes went wide. "We have to move now!"
"...no seriously, who the hell are you? I don't recognize you at all."
"It's not just the wings," Adagio said flatly. "If it were just the wings, I could figure out who you were before you went all edgelord."
"I am not an edgelord!" snapped the demonic girl with hair like flames and skin the color of blood.
"Have you looked in the mirror lately?"
"Look, I didn't choose to look like this, alright? I was... ugh, never mind." The demon pinched her nose. "I need your help. Stabilizing my magic, that is."
"Not even going to ask how you knew we were magical. Past tense. We're not magic anymore."
The demon smirked. "Really now."
"Our gems were shattered. No gems, no magic. Simple as that."
"Oh, yes, that little... limitation." The demon was still smirking. "And what if I told you there was a way around it?"
"I'd demand proof."
"How about you think of a number, and I read your mind?"
Adagio rolled her eyes. "Fine, number in my head."
The demon took her hand... and put on an expression of disgust. "Wow, geeze, at least take me out to dinner first--actually, no, don't, because not in a million years would I do THAT."
"Prude." Adagio quirked a brow. "So you have some ESP. Contact based. Fun, sure. And if we stabilized your magic, we would get our magic back?"
"You would get some form of magic," the demon hedged. "Not sure what kind. We're talking about being way past theoretical at this point, I can't say with a hundred percent accuracy."
"See, that's the sort of promise that can go wrong in so many ways for all of us. That's something I know to avoid. If you can't give me a hard guarantee--"
The demon crossed her arms. "You want a hard guarantee when dealing with magic."
Adagio rolled her eyes. "Magic has rules, you know. Even in this world. I mean, sure, you seem to be breaking them, but that's pretty unique and that means you probably have a good understanding of the rules."
"It's... a lot more complicated then that."
"Were you cursed?"
"No!" The demon paused. "Well, no. It wasn't intended as a curse. But it might be, in effect--look, I just need a few extra hands while I work on recoherizing my internal magical structure. You three have experience with magic and can... keep me from falling apart while I'm doing my thing, I guess."
Adagio leaned back warily. "Okay, if you're asking us to be therapeutic and supportive then I have no idea where you got your information--"
"No, I mean like--literally falling apart. Decoherizing. It--" The demon sighed. "I am literally a sapient magical construct, alright? I just need to ensure my matrix won't destablize... any more then it already has."
"...right. And you came to us for help."
"Yes."
"Instead of, say, those rainblow kids from that high school."
"It's Rainboom," the demon corrected. "And honestly they--I mean, they're not part of the problem, but it could become a problem if I suggested--I want to show that this can work before I go back to them, alright?"
Adagio examined her for a moment or two, her expression thoughtful.
"Wait... are you Sunset Shimmer?"
"I'm going to say yes, because the full situation is stupidly complicated."
Adagio pinched her brow. "So let me get this straight. After not only humiliating but also emasculating us in front of a large audience and thereby ruining any chance we have of accomplishing our goals, and also letting us languish for the space of almost half a year, you suddenly get turned into a magical construct, somehow piss off all your friends, and come crawling to the people you defeated and discarded in some vague hope they'll help you get out of this mess."
Sunset rolled her eyes. "Okay, so I've tried being nice, but you know I could threaten you right? I do have magic."
"Oh, the ability to read minds, oh so scary, violating my privacy--which could be an actual threat if you could, you know, go out in public without getting holy water tossed on you every five feet!"
"Gah! You are--you are infuriating!" Sunset growled, her eyes glowing with shadows. "Alright, fine, I'm desperate, alright? I'm desperate, you're some crazy manipulator person, I know that going in there's a very good chance you'll find some way to turn this on me or to your own profit but--just--Adagio, can you not be a complete and total bitch for once in your life? Like, only half-bitch. I can take half-bitch."
Adagio leaned against the doorframe. "Girl, you think you know bitch, you ain't even seen the half of what I've seen. I've been around since before--"
"Yeah, you can't do ghetto."
"Surprised you even know what that means."
"Well, as an illegal immigrant with no idea of the local law I had to end up somewhere, and at it turns out--"
Adagio held up a finger. "You're doing this thing where you think I care about how you got to wherever you are, which I actually don't because frankly you're just another idiotic pony turned hormonal ape turned edgelord demon which is, I will admit, a rare situation that I have only come across twice before, but my point is that you don't matter to me, your offer does not matter to me, your life does not matter to me, begone."
She slammed the door shut.
"...Okay." Sunset flexed her wings. "Screw it, I tried playing nice, I tried playing fair, now it's time to bring the pain." She lifted a booted leg, took aim, and rammed her foot into the door.
For a moment, the world was still.
"....Oooooow! Ow, ow ow, what the hay? I thought I had like demonic strength or something! What is this door made of, steel-reinforced concrete?" Sunset rubbed her foot and winced. "Okay, not getting in through there."
She glanced around the house for a moment... and then facepalmed. "Wings. I have wings, doy. I can fly up and get through one of the upper windows." With but a moment's thought, she was in the air, flying fast toward a glass pane--
--and pulled up suddenly when Aria leaned out and casually pointed a pistol at her.
"Yeah," the purple siren drawled, "No. Seriously. Get out of here."
"...Why do you have a gun?!"
"Why wouldn't I have a gun?"
"You're a magic--you were a magic, like, thing--"
"Yeah, so?"
Sunset gestured vaguely. "I--seriously can you not point that at me?"
"I mean I could," Aria replied, not lowering the gun.
"Look, I jus--"
"SUNSET SHIMMER!"
Sunset looked down at the road, seeing a familiar truck with six familiar students, six sort of familiar faces, and two other people and a dog pull up.
"GET YOUR FLANK DOWN HERE THIS INSTANT!" Starlight shouted.
"Yeah if this causes any damage," Aria deadpanned, "you're going to be paying for it."
Sunset facepalmed.
"Darling, I know you're upset, but summoning giant flaming arrows isn't the way to solve things."
"OH SCREW YOU RARITY!" spat the demon Sunset. "You don't understand anything!"
"Well I certainly don't understand why you're acting so childish," Rarity allowed, even as she deflected another blazing spear with a hexagonal projection of energy.
"Can you move your banter off our lawn?" Aria shouted. "Replacing topsoil is stupidly expensive, you know!"
The red-skinned woman in the air spun around and threw a wheel of fire at her (which she dodged with a small lean to the left). "SHUT UP! YOU'RE EVIL!"
"You just smashed my vanity stand, and you're calling me evil?"
"My apologies," the white-clad Sunset offered, grabbing the demon Sunset from behind. "She is a touch unhinged at the moment."
The demon shoved her tail against the other Sunset. "Let go, you pretentious Celestia wannabe!" She grabbed the girl and slammed her into the Sunset with flaming wings.
Sunburst looked up, biting his lip. "I feel like we should be doing something about that."
"Like what?" Flash asked.
"I don't know, it's just... there's a big battle going on above us and, you know, that seems like something we should be worried about?"
"Worry about getting the spell ready," Starlight advised, rolling out a large square of parchment. "That will take care of itself."
"HEY!" Aria shouted. "What are you doing to our lawn?!"
The demon Sunset glanced down and scowled. "I recognize those runes! I'm not going back into nothingness!"
"No estaríamos un nada! ¡Nuestra existencia continuaría a través de nuestros amigas!"
"STOP BEING A POORLY TRANSLATED STEREOTYPE!" the demon screeched. "WE'RE BETTER THAN THAT!"
"Right, of course," deadpanned the Sunset with ears. "Which is why you're throwing a tantrum and setting everything on fire, because we're better than that, obviously."
"Does that show we're better?" said the one in a dress. "Because I sort of think that shows we're worse."
Sunburst yelped as Rainbow shoved him out of the way of gout of fire. "Oh sweet Celestia, that almost hit me!"
"Yeah, you should maybe stay out of the way until we need you," Rainbow suggested. "Why don't you hang out with Fluttershy over there?"
"Right, yes, right..." Sunburst rushed over to the indicated girl crouched behind a fence. "This, this is crazy. This is insane."
Fluttershy shrugged. "I suppose it must seem that way."
"You're not scared?"
"Oh, I am. But at this point it's not exactly unexpected." She tapped her smartphone, idly leaning out of the way of a stray fireblast. "Oh, well, that's interesting."
"What is?"
"Oh, there's this... well, I guess you could call them a theatre troop, and one of them is pregnant. I hope she has good luck with that really..."
"Yeehaw!" Applejack cried, slinging her lasso into the air.
"So you are a hick stereotype!" Aria shouted from her window. "I always suspected, but I never actually knew!"
Applejack gave her a flat look. "This 'hick stereotype' is in tha process o' capturin' the demon burnin' up your lawn!"
"Yeah, sure you are. Your rope's on fire, by the way."
The cowgirl looked up and sighed. "Right, of course. Hey, what's with you and fire anyway?"
"Well," the demon mused, "magically speaking fire is easy. It's just proper excitation of the molecular bonds and--HEY! DON'T DISTRACT ME, I'M NOT GOING BACK!"
"Then why haven't you run away?" asked Pinkie Pie.
"Because I need to convince them--" the demon pointed at the house-- "to help me stabilize my matrix in order to prevent decohesion!"
"That's what we want to do too!"
"No, you want to stabilize Sunset's matrix!"
"But aren't you Sunset?"
The demon opened her mouth, paused, and then got a horrible smile. "Aren't I...? Maybe not yet. But..."
She looked down at the Sunset in a dress.
"...I can change that."
With surprising speed she dove toward her counterpart, who was shoved out of the way at the last minute by Rainbow. Applejack lunged at her, wrapping her arms around her--and screamed as the demon bent her arm out of alignment.
"Oh," Aria mused, "now this is getting interesting."
"I'll be taking that," the demon snarled, pulling a gem from Applejack's necklace. "Ha, haha... Yes, that's useful. That's very useful, yesssss...."
"¡Tonto! ¡Si tomas todas las gemas, la magia abrumará tu matriz y te convertirás en completamente decoherente!"
"Seriously, cut that out!" the demon snapped. "The people who don't speak spanish don't care what you're saying and the people who do find it offensive!"
"Hey Adagio!" Aria shouted into the house. "Sunset's trying to eat herself!"
A voice called back.
"Sort of both, really!"
With the loud thumping of footsteps, Adagio pushed her head through the window. "Oh, wow, this I've got to see. SUNSET! MAKE THEM SCREAM! ANY WAY WILL DO!"
The gathered Sunsets, as one, turned to glare at her.
"...As soon as I'm finished with them," the demon growled, "you'll be next. You got that?"
"And you never even asked me out to dinner," Adagio mused. "How standards have fallen."
"Oh for the love of--"
Twilight rammed herself into the demon, shoving her over a circle on the piece of paper Starlight had rolled out. "Sunburst! Ladies! Positions!"
"Oh, that's our cue." Fluttershy pocketed her smartphone. "You know which circle's yours, right?"
"They're all labeled," Sunburst agreed, peering around the fence. "Um, that demon is struggling--"
"Twilight has telekinetic magic, she can keep that Sunset down." Fluttershy took the arm of a random Sunset and smiled. "Now or never, right?"
"Ha sido divertido. Dame un poco de diversión más tarde, ¿no?"
"Mmm, ordinary friend fun."
Twilight reached out and grabbed the two crystals in the demon's grip. "Come on, Sunset, give!"
"I'm not going to die!" the demon growled. "You're going to kill me, you know that, but I'm not going to die!"
"Let go! Let go so I can save you, you.... idiot!"
"NNNNNRRRRRGGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
Spike jumped forward and bit her on the hand.
"OW! You damned--NO!"
The demon realized, too late, that the crystals had loosened in her grip. One went shooting to Applejack, who was supported by a Sunset in crystal armor. The other hovered to Starlight, herself holding the Sunset dressed in white.
"No, no no!" The demon spun, scrabbling at Twilight. "Give me your crystal, you little--!"
Twilight smiled, sadly. "You can have it."
Sunburst stepped into his circle, the only one not occupied by a Sunset and a crystal-bearer, and opened a book.
"Wait..." The demon looked at him. "The source... harmonic resonance, that--no, no, NO!"
She was held back by Twilight, struggling to reach the man, and only heard the first words of his chant.
Up in the house, Adago sighed. "Welp. Show's over, I guess. All that's left is the fireworks."
"...Hey," Aria asked, "where's Sonata?"
"I step out for fifteen friggin' minutes, and this is what I come home to?!"
"LOOK AT OUR LAWN!" Sonata screeched. "Our beautiful, pristine lawn, burned and crisped in criss-cross-crassery!"
"Sonata, you need to calm down."
"I need to calm down? I need to calm down?" The siren shook her bag. "Do you know. Do you know how much, just how much, your favorite fish costs, Adagio? Well do you?!"
"I used to buy it," Adagio pointed out.
"Yeah, sixty years ago! Inflation is a thing, Adagio! And we don't control Funafuti anymore, what we've got in the bank is pretty much everything!"
Sunburst adjusted his glasses. "Should... should we go?"
"Oh you are staying right where you're standing nerdy mcWizard, because I am done holding back, and everyone is about to get the tonguing they deserve."
"Tongue-lashing," Aria deadpanned.
"SHUT UP. Shut up, shut up, just SHUT. UP." Sonata took a breath. "Just... let me get my thinkings organized. Right. Right. Look. I get, right, that I'm the youngest and that I'm easily distracted and that, right, like, I... get that this was just an errand. Grocery shopping. Fine. Whatever. I'm good with that. The least you two could do is try, you know, to not have everything fall apart while I'm out buying your stuff, right? Like, no fires on the lawn, no, no damn cars through the wall, no raccoons in the bed, no, no no, no stupid blaring noise that masquerades as music or angry cops or, or, or---"
She fell to her knees, eyes wet. "Just stop. Just... just stop, okay? Just... can we have this thing we had, where we, we didn't have everything falling apart all the time? I want that back. Okay?"
"...Uh...." Flash Sentry glanced around awkwardly. "Um. Hey... so... uh... I guess, you know... we'll help fix the lawn."
"Yeah," Sunset agreed, awkwardly rubbing the back of her head. "This was kind of my fault anyway--"
"I was the one that designed the experiment," Starlight pointed out. "I'll... stick around too."
"And.... if you need help to get on your feet..." Twilight swallowed. "Well, I... my family's kind of got a little more money than is strictly necessary..."
Adagio grumbled. "By the torrid waves... Look, morons, our problems are our own, we don't need your help, we don't want your help, now skedaddle!"
"They are kind of responsible for the lawn being a wreck," Aria pointed out.
"Yeah, and can you see them actually fixing it?"
"Hey, look." Sunset held up her hands slowly. "I'm sorry, alright? For ruining your lawn, and... your lives, I guess. I'm not sorry for saving the world, but I should have done more than a token check on you after the battle of the bands. And I know just saying 'I'm sorry' isn't going to undo that, but I'd like to think... maybe I can help you, moving forward?"
"Yeah!" Pinkie cried out. "We'd all be willing to help you get your feet under you! I mean, we're okay with Sunset, and Twilight after that thing she did that she likes not to talk about, and Juniper after that thing with the mirror, and Starlight after... wait, did that even affect us?"
"I kind of agree," Rainbow said reluctantly, "but... I'm sort of focused on the whole 'Sunset got split into multiple parts' thing right now..."
"Well, that's over," Applejack pointed out. "Sunset's all one person again."
"Standing right here," Sunset pointed out casually.
"I'm just saying, though, this is just completely randomly something else. It feels like... we haven't even finished with the Sunset thing, we need some sort of... part where we all talk about what this means to us."
"Real life ain't a storybook, sugarcube. Sometimes things just happen and we roll with it."
"While I agree in principle," Rarity mused, "we do deal with extreme magical circumstances rather regularly. And they're usually handled by some sort of revelation on the nature of friendship and helping each other heal and all that. So I suppose we could, just to satisfy Dash, talk about what we all learned through this experience."
"Still standing right here," Sunset pointed out with a smile. "Hearing all of this. Not deaf."
"I mean, that kind of happens once a week in Ponyville," Starlight mused. "Something crazy goes down, and we all talk about how friendship works and what we've learned."
"Wait, are you saying magic forces people into a storybook model of life?" Fluttershy asked.
Starlight threw up her hands. "I'm just saying! This isn't really that weird, wanting to talk about things. That way we all learn something!"
"I learned a valuable lesson about self worth," Sunset offered. Nobody noticed.
"This is all very fascinating," Adagio drawled as she crossed her arms, "but you are all still on our lawn, a lawn which you wrecked in the process of cleaning your latest magical screw-up. As much as I want to just send you packing, the other sirens seem to want to enjoy watching you perform back-breaking manual labor in retaliation--a prospect which I do find to be amusing anyway, so for the moment I'm willing to concede. So long as said events actually happen, instead of just a bunch of teenagers gabbing away about storybooks and life."
"Hold up!" Applejack countered. "If'n we want tah fix yer lawn, we'll need to get new topsoil first, which means drivin' to the supermarket."
"And drawing up a shopping list," Rarity added.
"I don't think they sell dirt at supermarkets," Rainbow hesitantly pointed out.
"You've been to the wrong supermarkets," Fluttershy countered.
Sunset rolled her eyes, turning to Sunburst. "So... hey, thanks for coming out for me."
"Hmm? Oh, not a problem. Well, not a big problem. It was just a matter of scheduling, which isn't a matter at all. Unless you ask mother, of course--"
"I'm sorry," Flash Sentry interjected, "who are you again?"
"Flash, this is my older little brother Sunburst. Sunburst, this is my somewhat dense but well meaning ex Flash Sentry."
"Older little brother?" Sunburst adjusted his glasses. "I'm older than you, actually."
"And you're still mostly a hikikomori, right?"
"A... what?"
"Sorry, human slang from a foreign country. I mean you're an asocial shutin."
"...well, no, I'm dating Thorax," Sunburst pointed out. "Or I was, anyway."
Sunset winced. "Bad breakup?"
"No, not a breakup, just... he kind of became the new leader of the changelings, and that takes up a lot of his time and we're living on opposite ends of the continent..."
"Long distance relationship, ouch. Bad enough here where we all have cell phones..."
Flash held up a finger, glanced over to where the other girls were busy arguing over dirt, and lowered it. "So... Sunburst, huh? I guess you've got a lot of stories about Sunset's childhood days?"
Sunburst chuckled. "Oh, no, not like that. But... you know there was that one time with Blueblood--"
"Oh don't you dare," Sunset growled. "Don't you even dare, Sunburst!"
"See, it was the Summer Sun Celebration, and Sunset decided to buck the trends and wear a tuxedo. Now I was alright with that, and so was princess Celestia, but the nobles of Canterlot are a bit too eager to interpret things for a scandal. And, as it turns out, Blueblood had a hangover from, well, let's just say there were a lot of mares involved..."
Sunset buried her face in her hands. "Why.... why do you do this to me, fate?"
"Hey, uh... thanks for coming over to help, by the way."
Sunburst gave her a confused look. "You're... welcome? I'm not sure why you're thanking me for, well, having basic decency..."
"Look, let's be honest, I've done a lot to make your life... terrible." Sunset rubbed her arm. "I mean, from the get-go I was basically obsessed with outdoing you and proving myself and... that kind of shoved you in the dirt a lot. Even when I got a handle on my whole ego issue, I... well, I tried to shove Starlight on you because I thought I knew what you wanted because... Anyway, my point is, I haven't been the best sister for you, and I can totally get if, you know, you only did this because of basic decency."
"Well... you have been acting like mom a lot," Sunburst allowed.
Sunset's eyes went wide. "...Oh... oh crap, you're right. Oh sweet Celestia--what does that say about me?!"
"That you fall back on bad habits when you're stressed out?" Sunburst offered.
"Am I becoming my mother?! Is that what's going on?"
"Oh, I know the feeling," Fluttershy assured her. "But I don't think so. Even if you have some similarities with your mother, that doesn't make you identical to her by any means. Although... I don't know your mother, so I'm not in a place to judge how much like her you're becoming..."
"Wait, I thought Sunburst was your mom," Pinkie pointed out. "Cause you're like, some sort of magic clone of him that he grew or something?"
"Haha, no." Sunset shook her head. "I have his memories right up to that point, and I mean he was not nearly parental material. At the time. I guess he could make a good dad now if he wanted to." She waved her hands in the air. "We're getting off topic. My point is: Sunburst, you didn't have to feel like... if you don't want anything to do with me, that's fine. I understand. Just... thanks for being there when I needed it."
"...I never said I wanted nothing to do with you," Sunburst mumbled. "I mean... I wasn't at all ready for suddenly having somebody that I was responsible for, back then. And... then you took over my life and..."
"Yeah, I get it. I'm kind of a terrible person."
"No, that's not what... look." Sunburst adjusted his glasses. "My whole life has been defined by other people. I would research magic for Starlight when I was a colt. I became Celestia's student after I got my cutie mark. Then you came in and, well, you were amazing in your own way, which was more you than me. Then, after you left, I kind of broke it off with Celestia and started doing whatever Mom wanted, until I ended up in the crystal empire and became the Crystaller to an alicorn and... I've basically been less the hero of my own story then I have the reason that other people were able to become heroes in their own right."
Sunset glanced at the ground, rubbing her arm. "Whereas from the day I first existed, I was determined to make something of myself... even if it came at the expense of the people I cared about."
"See, that expense part, that's a bad thing, but you've learned that. You're a great person, Sunset, it's just..." Sunburst spread his hands wide. "I want to be your friend, but I don't just want to be a side character in everyone else's story. I want to be somebody worth meeting on his own. Not just as Sunset's brother, or Celestia's student, or Starlight's friend, or Stellar's son, but..."
He trailed off for a moment.
"...you are the royal wizard of the crystal empire, right?"
"Crystaller to an alicorn. Even that's just relying on others for my own fame."
"Well... you need other people to be famous," Sunset pointed out. "You can't be admired if you have no admirers, right? And admirers need to know you're worth admiring... somehow... so you do things that help others. I mean... you're not just Sunset's brother, or Celestia's student, or Starlight's friend, or Stellar's son. You're Sunset's brother and Celestia's student and Starlight's friend and Stellar's son and the crystaller to an alicorn and the pony who cracked the ICKE spell and a traveller between worlds and--and a good person. A great person. A... better person than I am."
Sunburst shook his head. "Sunset--"
"Look, I know from experience the best people beat themselves up over their mistakes. Because they want to be better. Because... because they can be better. I mean, sure, terrible people do it too because they think regret excuses their bad actions... and depressed people do it because they can't... help themselves..."
She paused, turning to the other girls. "I was going somewhere with this. Where was I going with this?"
"...It's alright to feel bad, because it shows you where the problems are," Pinkie offered. "So long as you acknowledge them and... work toward ensuring they get fixed, or that they never happen again. Or... something. I'm sorry, I really am not good with this sort of emotional problem, I usually just either throw cupcakes at frowns or frowning people at their friends. It solves a good seventy-six of frown-related problems. Talking about emotions is important and something I'm terrible at... which is why I study psychology! See, problem, acknowledged, and I'm working on a solution."
"...My point is, you're you, Sunburst. And you'll be recognized as you... at least by me. No matter what."
Sunburst nodded. "...thanks."
"OKAY!" Sonata clapped her hands together. "Big emotional talk about self and what self is, and I don't think I understood half of it, but I think it's over and everyone's good, right? So please, GO BACK TO FIXING OUR LAWN!"
"You three know we're only doing this because it's the right thing to do, right?" Rainbow dug into the soil. "Not because we like you in any way, you're all terrible people."
"Yes, fine, whatever, I don't actually care!"
"AND THAT'S WHY YOU'RE TERRIBLE PEOPLE!"
"By the waves," Aria groaned, "will you all just shut up, this day has dragged on stupidly long already."
