Sunset takes a trip to Peach Creek for the summer. That's pretty much it.
Rated Teen for a few dating scenes. I could've probably gotten away without it, but the kids of the Cul-de-sac are in high school.
MON14AUG2018: I was reading a few creepypastas, and I decided to incorporate them into the story. I don't go into much detail because I don't want it dark. It's just going to be brief stuff (Dodgeball accident, got sick, etc).
Tuesday 23 May 2017, 3:30p; Peach Creek, Canada, almost to the Cul-de-sac; Sunset Shimmer's POV
As I turned onto a Cul-de-Sac, I glanced down at a paper that read 200 Rethink Ave, Peach Creek, Vancouver that I had taped to my 2012 Triumph Bonneville before looking back up at the addresses as they went by.
100...110... 120... 130- there's someone!
The person was a tall, yellow guy, wearing a green jacket over a striped red-and-white shirt, blue-jean pants, and had auburn hair, and he was reading what looked like a comic entitled EVIL TIM: THE EVIL BRIDE, "Bingo!"
I turned into the driveway and dismounted the motorbike, then headed over to him.
"'xcuse me," I said.
"Oh, hello! My name is Ed, Friend!" he said, "Well, it's just Ed, not Ed friend, I am Ed, and you are a friend so–" he said before abruptly stopping and reading something in his comic book.
What he did next was odd, making even Pinkie Pie seem normal.
"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT IS THE BRIDE OF THE UNDERWORLD!!!!!!!!!! GO AWAY WITH YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"Ed?"
He dug a hole, jumped in, and put a rock over it.
"Ed...?"
That was weird.
I got back on my motorbike and started going across the rest of the houses.
140... 150- Aha!
Here was a blonde girl, sitting on a lawn chair in the yard clad in a black shirt under a white tank, blue-jean bell-bottoms, and she had a flower-shaped hair clip, and was painting her nails, "Celestia, please..." I prayed under my breath, dismounting the motorbike.
"'xcuse me," I said, repeating my original greeting.
"Hey, dude," she said, looking up at me, "What's up?"
"Do you know where 200 Rethink Avenue is?"
"All the way down the street to your right."
"Thanks," I replied, heading back toward my bike.
"Oh," she said, making me turn around, "By the way, I'm Nazz."
"Sunset Shimmer."
"Cool name. Where're ya from?"
"Canterlot," she looked at me for a second, "In California in America."
"Oh! We should talk sometime, 'kay?"
"Alright," I said, getting on my motorbike and riding to the end of the street again, "See ya around."
I turned into the driveway to a blue house sporting a modern-style window that encased a strip of the front with a length of the spinal street with the garage open. Someone clad in a hat, jacket with red-and-white squares, muted-blue pants, and blue shoes was working on something inside. Surprisingly, the roaring two-cylinder engine in my motorbike wasn't enough to get his attention. He was just mumbling what notes he was taking.
Reminds me of Twilight.
"Four and carry the three... optimal frequency at 935 MHz for a shortwave control... 18 feet..."
"Um, hello?" I said, knocking on the wall next to the door's track.
He snapped out of his trance and turned to face me, "Oh, can I help you?"
He was wearing black-framed glasses that were heightened for someone who was longsighted, and was wearing a red shirt under the jacket.
"I'm looking for Eddward. Does he live here?"
"Yes, ma'am," he said, "I'm Eddward."
"I'm Sunset Shimmer. From Canterlot."
"You must be here for the summer," he said, adjusting the sleeves on his jacket some, "Please, let me give you a tour of my house. Also, you can call me 'Double D'."
"Alright," I said as he left the garage and led me inside the front door, which was also blue with two diamond-shaped windows at the top of it.
"Here is my living room. The door to your right will lead you back out into the garage, and the archway in the back of the room," he led me into the next room, "leads to the kitchen."
"Whoa," I said, shocked at all of the sticky notes, "What are these?"
"My parents and I communicate through sticky notes."
"That's different," I said, "I live by myself in the eastern wing of Canterlot. I'll tell you about it later."
"Alright," he said, leading me into the next room, "This is the mudroom. The door on your left will take you to the backyard, the door on the right leads to the basement, and the remaining door leads to the powder room."
He opened the door and showed me the basement, which had an abundance of free space, and also seemed to double as a laundry room, then proceeded to take me upstairs.
"Alrighty then," he said, pointing to the door on the left of the wall across from us, "That's my bedroom, and across from it is my parents' room, strictly off limits," he pointed to the right, "The door on this wall, coming up this side of the staircase, is the primary bathroom, and across from it is the Auxiliary Bedroom. If you need any help, please tell me and I will gladly assist you."
"Thanks," I said, smiling as I looked him over and thought about the design of the house for a second, "Has anyone ever told you that you look like you're straight out of 1985?"
"That's... a rather odd statement to make," he said, examining himself and looking down the staircase to the living room, "But, come to think of it, I see where you're coming from. Do you want me to help you unpack? Can I get you anything?"
"Nah, I'm fine. It was a 24-hour ride up here, though."
"Let me get you something, then. Do you have any dietary preferences?"
"If you insist," I said before I started unpacking in the auxiliary bedroom as he went down to the kitchen and started making me something, "I don't eat meat."
The auxiliary bedroom was on par for what I would normally see back home in my own bedroom, sans the pictures and gaming PC that Seth made for me as an I-don't-give-a-shit-if-you're-Queen-Bitch present. That was honestly the first time that someone did something other than cower that didn't end up in me beating them up.
I miss that feeling.
Tuesday 11 October 2016 11:45a; Outside the CHS lunchroom at a picnic table
~~~~~
"You know the drill!" I said, going up to Seth.
"I can't today," he said, picking at his food.
"What the hell do you mean 'you can't'!?"
"I don't have anymore on me today."
"Then you'd sure as hell better give me something if you don't want a two-week vacation to the emergency room!" I said, grabbing him up by his jacket.
"Do you game?"
I threw him back down.
"What kind of joke are you playing?"
"I'm not. I'm just asking because I have a present-of-sorts for you if you do."
"Where. The fuck. Is it."
"At my house. I'll bring it to you tomorrow."
If this asshole works with computers like he claims, then I'm gonna get the best.
"Bring it," I said, "Or you've just dug your grave."
"Okay," he said, looking back down at his food and picking at it.
"Also," I said before going away, "I'm just gonna take this since you don't have my money today."
I took his lunch, threw it on the ground, and stomped it into the grass. After that, I took his coffee, drank some, and then poured it out because it didn't taste good.
"Maybe something from the trash," he said as I walked away, proud of my work.
~~~~~
The Next Day, 08:25a; CHS Library
~~~~~
Seth finally came in, carrying a large box that had my name written on it as if he had just learned to write.
"You're late!"
"I'm sorry," he said, setting the box down, opening it, and taking out what had to be a 20-year-old piece of junk, "but here it is. I named it Philomena for you."
I took a look at the front and saw that the only thing that didn't look beige was the word Philomena, stylized in perfect script, etched into the front. Otherwise, it was bare apart from the DVD drive and... FLOPPY drive!?"
"What the hell, Seth!? You promise me the best, and then you double-cross me and give me complete and udder GARBAGE!? What the actual fuck do you think I am!? A damn idiot!?"
"Just watch," he said, setting it up on a table to a screen, keyboard, and mouse with the same word etched onto them, but still looking like ancient junk, then turning it on. He then looked at his feet
Just like I had expected, it sat and acted like something from two decades ago seeing the light of day for the first time in forever.
"Just wait," he said, sitting down and looking at his lap.
First, it whirred, then beeped two times. Next, in the top-left corner of the screen, a red triangle was drawn as horizontal lines before drawing the letters "American Megatrends" in an old fontface before writing Philomena in a fiery-colored script at the top-right corner of the screen. It then drew a thin, white line under that across the screen before listing all of the stuff that was in it, again, proving to be ancient in its appearance with the font a command prompt uses.
"This is complete junk!" I said, slamming my fist on the table and glaring at him as the floppy drive began to make noises for a second.
"Just wait," he said, almost in tears, "I built it myself."
The screen blanked for a second before displaying the words SYSTEM IS STARTING in the same font with a progress bar under the words, telling how much has loaded.
"You tell me what the hell you thought you were doing, and I might not hurt you as bad."
"When I build computers, or do anything for that matter, I'm stuck in the 80s and 90s," he said, tears beginning to flow.
The thing beeped again, and the screen blanked, but when it came back, it had a stylized phrase, Welcome, Sunset Shimmer, under a picture of my cutie mark that looked like it had been hand-drawn by an artist. From then on, it was a beast.
"3.0GHz Octa-Core CPU, water and air cooled, running Q4OS with Wine, 32 Gigabytes memory, 5 terabytes in SSDs, Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11ac WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, 2880X1800 19-inch panel, tactile keyboard, NVIDIA Titan Xp Graphics card, CrystalClear Audio, and all of the USB you'll ever need," he said, looking at the floor the whole time before pulling out two $20 bills from his pocket and giving them to me, "Yesterday's and today's money," he said, tears dripping off of his face, "I hope you like it. It was the best I could do," he said as he began to cry and get his things to go to class. Or run home like a baby, either was fine by me.
"Did that just..." I asked myself as he left the library, "Whoa."
I shut off the thing put it back up, and thought about how I would get it home.
We all had fun playing Steam with it.
"Guess I should check my messages while Double D is down in the kitchen," I said to myself, letting my phone boot as I sat it and my bag on the bed, then looked at it, "I'll just unpack everythingas I need to."
Just then, someone began frantically knocking at the front door, "Don't worry, Double D, I got it."
I went to answer the door and was greeted by a tall boy with green teeth, blue hair, a unibrow, gray-toned skin, and was wearing a yellow shirt under blue overalls, and blue shoes standing next to a bald boy wearing a white shirt, blue jeans, handles, and holding a piece of wood with a face drawn on it.
"Double-D-Ed-boy," he said, frantically, "Rolf needs- You are not the Ed-boy," he turned to the boy and furiously said, "Johnny-the-wood-boy, this is not the house of the middle-Ed-boy!"
"According to Plank, it is."
"Wood, tell Rolf where you went wrong."
They were officially having a conversation with a plank of wood.
After getting Double D, I went to unpack my things. I had enough clothes to get through a week at a time, stuff I would need in the bathroom, my phone and charger, $5,000 from Seth on a reloadable card, and my journal from Twilight.
"It's just a matter of time until I have something to write Twilight about," I said, putting my stuff in the closet, but I was caught off-guard by how they had already provided toiletries for me to use, unopened.
"They are really nice here," I said to myself as I unpacked.
"Interesting," Double D said from the kitchen, "A time-delay ink."
"My journal from Twilight!" I said, running downstairs.
I looked in the living room and kitchen, but no luck.
"Sunset?" Double D said, coming in from the garage, "Is something amiss?"
"Where is it!? It's a link to Equestria!"
"Calm down, Sunset. Is it the book?"
"Where is it!?"
"Oh, I went out to the garage to take notes about it," he said, "You see, your use of time-delayed ink is-"
"Thank you!"
I ran out to the garage and, true to his word, it was on a desk, clean and by itself.
"Thank Celestia!" I said, running over to get it.
"'Celestia'?" he said, following me out to the garage.
"What?" I said, holding the book to my chest, somewhat like an anime schoolgirl, "Oh, it's from where I came from, before I moved to the US."
"Okay then. I was going to give it back to you, you left it on the kitchen table, but it began to vibrate, and you were already in your room. Mix that with my curiosity and-"
"I'm not one to poke and prod people about their problems," he said, leading me inside to the couch, "But something is clearly bothering you. What is it?"
"Double D," I said, "I..."
"Yes?"
"I have a confession to make. I haven't been completely honest with you."
"Oh," he replied, taken back by this.
"Or honest at all."
"Oh," he said, now expectantly, "Care to explain?"
I sighed, "Make a pot, or ten, of coffee and sit with me on the sofa. It's a long and, frankly, unbelievable story."
"I see," he said, now following me into the living room, "Just don't try to blow me away."
"I wouldn't count on it."
Two Hours, A Half Gallon of Coffee, and One Cactus Later...
Two hours (and an easy half-gallon of coffee) later...
Double D was sweating profusely, now laying down on the couch and shaking, somewhat. He was also holding a potted cactus labeled JIM.
"There, there," I said, stroking his head a few times, "None of the holes in the space-time continuum are still here."
I think.
"I knew that Marie had... but you... and the fire... almost gym class over again."
"Celestia forbid, I know that feeling exactly."
"You... you do?"
"The part about this world's Twilight Sparkle turning into Midnight Sparkle. Remember?"
"You had magic. I was killed in a dodgeball game, then brought back to life somehow."
Equestria's used their world as a dumping ground for far too long.
"Killed? When?"
"1986 Monday, April 14."
"Interesting," I said a particular detail not making its way to the front of my head, "I've seen this before, I think," I got up, dismissing the thought. If it's important, it'll come back. "Just lie there. I'll get you some water."
"Thanks."
While I was getting him a glass of water, the doorbell rang, "I'll get it, Edd!"
I gave him the glass of water, but he just sat it down and gibbered for a minute or two.
"Yes?" the person at the door was my height, had shoulder-length blue hair that covered one eye, black tank top, green pants, pink belt, and a dark green wristband with dark shoes, "Can I help you?"
She looked around me, then pinned me to the floor, "WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO TO MY MAN!?" she said, in a huge rage
"Nothing!" I said, "Just let me go and I'll tell you everything!"
She read me for a minute, then let me up, "If you try anything, I'll do things to you that shouldn't even be possible!"
"Okay," I said, "I'm a pony from another world. More specifically, a unicorn. I can read people's minds, and, with my mom being the literal avatar of the Sun from where I'm from, my magic specializes around pyrotechnics," I said, setting the rug on fire with my magic before smothering it again, "I had to come completely clean with Double D and explain this to him," Double D was hugging his knees now, "I don't think he digested it very well."
The girl went from pissed to having to digesting the information, and finally, sitting on the staircase.
"I... didn't know that there was a bridge between worlds like this."
"What... are you saying?"
"Well..."
Monday 01 May 2017, 3:30p; Double D's and Marie's Van, Junkyard; Marie's POV
~~~~~
"Are you sure that you have something?" Double D said, waiting for the photocopyer/printer/fax to begin ringing.
He had decided to call home and tell his parents that he would bespending time with his science partner (girlfriend, actually), working on a robot. And fixing a laptop. Marie was at her laptop, an old, Compaq Presario 1200 that stayed running 24/7 so the Kankers could have HDTV in their trailer. The events had played out just good enough that she could take the computer (since her's and the van's PineBooks were in the shop) and keep it plugged in for a week for the duo to do research.
"Don't you need to get that back home, Marie?"
"No. Lee's in detention for beating a kid, while May's too stupid to ever catch on that she's watching stuff from a terrabyte hard drive. The detention ends Friday at 6:45, so we have until then to get it fixed. How's the dial on the phone?"
Since his parents didn't answer, Double D had left a brief message, and was working on an old rotary phone so they could make calls over Marie's hacked cell connection like any other person who wasn't calling from a cell, "It's not pulsing. All of the circuits seem to be fine, though," he said, unplugging the fax from the adapter's telephone jack and plugging the phone straight into it, "What's your number?"
"1-698-759-4562."
I heard him dialing, then my phone rang and showed VAN.
"What did you do?"
"I guess it was the fax. Originally, the phone was broken, but now that it's fine, we just won't be able to plug the printer into the telephone network."
"Alright. Also, I think I've came across another world. Come check this out."
"Marie," he said, inspecting the code and currently printing results page, "You're using dated hardware. If that's 100% accurate, I'll lose it."
I thought about the computer for a bit.
300 MB of memory, Windows 1998, 800 by 600 laggy screen that has to be propped up, dead battery. Maybe, but I'll keep everything in a drawer.
"Maybe, but it is substantial on its own."
"You are right about that," he said, putting the phone back together and looking at the printouts, "But why Peach Creek?"
"Not here, but it's still somewhere. We just have to figure that out," I said, turning a fan on the laptop so it wouldn't overheat, "Hungry?"
"...so, yeah."
Double D had made a decent recovery. He was now sitting upright and speaking coherently, but was still trying to digest what I said.
"I'm Sunset Shimmer, by the way."
"Marie Kanker, " she replied.
"Kanker..." I thought, "That name rings a bell."
THAT hit me like a rock. Those three sisters died on Sunday July 15, 2012 in a massacre shooting!
Sunday 20 November 2016 11:45p; Sunset's Apartment, Canterlot City, California
~~~~~
"Come on," I said to myself, trying to make out Seth's writing, "You've read stuff he gave you before, Sunset Shimmer, you can do it now for a card.
I had the side panel of Philomena opened so I could put in a FireWire card but I couldn't get the covers off of the slots in the back of the computer.
"Augh!!"
I threw the side panel over to the wall, making a hole in it, but the computer plate was fine. I noticed some script that was the exact same as the boot logo inside the plate, but it had a date- two dates! And names!
Philomena: Made in Arnold's Basement 11.10.2016- Mitzi Groß/Mitzi Groz: Born in GDR 08.11.1971 - Died in GDR 08.11.1989 Arnold Groß/Seth DeMeats: Born in GDR 08.11.1971 - Died in GDR 08.11.1989
"I need to remember this," I said, taking a picture with my phone, "Screw the cards, I need some answers!"
I did the math and called Seth.
"11:45p here is... add nine hours... it's 8:45 tomorrow morning for him. He better answer."
"Hello?" he said over the phone with a natural German accent, "Sunset? What are you doing up at this hour? Mitzi's asleep."
"I have some questions for both of you. Firstly, what does 'GDR' mean?"
Nothing for a few seconds
BEEP BEEP BEEP
Dammit, he hung up!
PING
I looked at my phone and saw that 'Seth' had texted me.
Meet Mitzi and I at the school gym. I'll tell you everything there. Just steer clear of Mitzi, though; she can be, beg pardon, pissy when someone wakes her up at night. I'll try to have some coffee for her, but no guarantees.
I'll be there on my motorbike, and I have a key. Don't wake anyone up.
I got my keys, jacket, turned everything off, and rode to the school. There, Arnold and Mitzi were waiting in his blue Yugo Polski Fiat 126p.
"I'm here," I said, the duo getting out of the ancient car. Arnold was rather awake, but Mitzi was... sleepwalking. With steaming coffee. Not a good combo.
"Good."
I unlocked the door to the gym and we all went in.
"Both of our stories are the same."
"Go the hell ahead."
"It started when I was born in East Germany. Mitzi and I were born on the same day. Our parents let us lead our own lives when we were twelve, but on 08 November 1989, just one day, one day, before the Berlin Wall fell, we tried to cross over. It was 8:30a German Time, and our plan was to cross into West Berlin, stay there until about 8:00p, then cross back into East Berlin. When we almost to the wall, we were blown up by landmines before we could actually get to it and climb over. The next thing that I remember was that we were in a dark alleyway and couldn't understand anyone. We had no money, couldn't understand the language, and didn't even know where we were at. It was hard for the first few months until a girl named Sonata Dusk got us a hotel room to stay at. She gave everything that we needed, food, a place to live, and taught us how to speak American English. Our stories split here, but only to how we adjusted. Even after about 27 years, I'm still not adjusted to a time change of -9 hours, but I adjusted to other aspects like the food, for instance, rather fine. For the most, we kept our East German mannerisms. Mitzi, on the other hand, adjusted to the time change over about a week, but still won't eat anything that's not Central-European."
"Where does 'Seth DeMeats' and 'Mitzi Groz' come in?"
"One day, 30 September 2014, Greg and us ran into each other in a restaurant. He said that he was lonely, and wanted a roommate. Mitzi and I talked it out, and agreed. I told him that my name was Seth DeMeats, but Mitzi decided to keep her name, changing the ß to a z. The Fiat came as a New Year's present for 2015."
"Why did you lie?"
"Would you believe that, unless you'd been through something extrordinary, we were really blown up the day before the wall began to come down?"
"Good point. I lived my whole life thinking that you were from the northeast. But knowing this, I..." I was speechless. Two of my closest friends were essentially dead, East Germans!
"I know. It's a lot to take in," he said, giving me a pair of 3.5 inch floppy disks, "On them are several articles, pretty shocking."
At that, we all left to go back home. I was stunned.
"I don't care that he's East German, hell I don't care about any of that! But DEAD!? Twenty-seven years!? Oh sweet Celestia!"
I decided to keep my mouth shut for the rest of the way home.
Why? How!?
When I got back to my apartment, I booted up my computer (the only thing missing was a side panel that had to be freaking TITANIUM), and, for the first time, used the floppy drive.
"If this is what digital articles were like 20 years ago," I said as the drive mounted to the desktop with the label CANTERLOT [FAT32], "I'm not going to complain when I can't watch YouTube in HD."
After two long minutes, the slow drive displayed its contents in a Konqueror window. Eight files, almost completely filling the disk: SAMANTHA_GALES.PDF; JANICE_WALTERS.PDF; ALEXANDRA_MATTHEWS.PDF; JAMIE_SANDERS.PDF; KATHERINE_JACKSON.PDF; CYNTHIA_LITTLE.PDF; ARNOLD_GROZ.PDF; MITZI_GROZ.PDF.
Being a fast reader, I figured out who was who rather quickly, but spent all of the next two days digesting it.
"Fluttershy is actually Samantha Gales. Rarity is Janice, Rainbow's real name is Alex. Applejack fell into a wood chipper as Jamie Sanders. Katherine is Pinkie who had... severe sanity issues!? And Twilight isn't... She's Cynthia Little!? She tried to cheat, just so her parents wouldn't think she's complete GARBAGE!? THAT is fucked up!"
I saved the other two files for last. I was DEAD wrong to think that they wouldn't have records of mourning in them.
I opened the last two files on the disk, and after reading them, I couldn't believe it, "Both of them were first-cousins on their mom's side with the East-German leader and first-cousins on their dad's side with the Soviet leader!? They could've had it all, but he just enjoyed driving her around and she enjoyed making and listening to music with him? And they're the reason that the Berlin Wall fell?"
I took my phone and texted him.
Arnold, I read the documents. I... I just can't believe it.
Seth didn't reply immediately like he normally does. Instead, my phone just flashed Seth is typing... for a couple of minutes.
If you want to know, don't bring up any of their past lives. If you mention anything about Samantha Gales or her family, Fluttershy will run into hiding and stay there for several weeks; despite being a nature person, her dad beat her to death on her 18th birthday in 1968. If you bring up Janice to Rarity, she'll go into a depression because of how her family was. Things only got worse when the Depression hit. Her neck was snapped in 1932 on her 18th birthday in a car accident. Alex, if Rainbow so much as dreams the name, makes her overuse performance-enhancing drugs; That and a heart problem makes it explode. If anything about the Sanders family is mentioned to AppleJack, she'll commit suicide by poison and toxins; she committed suicide on her 18th birthday in 1903 that exact same way, hoping that with only her two siblings' mouths to feed, they could keep the, very run-down, farm. They lost it a week later. If Katherine or any slight of instability is mentioned to Pinkie, well, she died originally by jumping out of a fifth-floor window and splattering on the pavement. Any mention of her past life will trigger her into going back to a concernable level of a manic disorder, and she'll kill herself, thinking she can pull an extraordinary feat. If the slightest self-imperfection makes its way to Twilight on herself, or if she's reminded of Cynthia, she'll immediately go and hang herself. You know Mitzi and my stories, but Greg is the most modern. He died in late 2014 because of an alien attack. His space-goddess girlfriend was able to bring him back, but told him to come to the other side of the country where he'd be safe. None of us, except for Greg, who died at 22, will ever age past 18.
I looked through my pictures on my computer, and found a group picture from a week earlier of all of us. We were all still there, but Fluttershy was now Samantha Gales, the flower girl from 1968; Rarity as the fashion designer from the late 1920s, Janice Walters; Rainbow Dash was now the female athlete from 1977, Alexandra Matthews; Applejack was now the struggling farmer from 1903, Jamie Sanders; Pinkie Pie was now the unstable, hyperactive girl from 1999, Katherine Jackson; Twilight was now the girl pushed and overworked to more than succeed from 2002, Cynthia Little; Seth DeMeats and Mitzi Groz were now the German-Soviet siblings, Arnold and Mitzi Groß born into the top ranks of both governments, but just happy to enjoy life, still looking for a way to see 1980s West Berlin for a day. All in all, they were still recognizable as my friends, but they looked now exactly like they would've when or right before they died. Stuck as eighteen-year-olds.
And I was with them. The living, breathing, humanized spirits of these poor eighteen-year old teens who died violent deaths, never getting a chance at life.
And I turn eighteen in August.
I sent a text to Principal Celestia, then cried myself to sleep that night, with all of my friends coming over the next day, now looking like they did in the picture.
"Darling, what's wrong? Principal Celestia told us to come and spend the day with you."
"Ain't lost some'ne have ya?"
"I... I know. I know the truth," I cried, "But I couldn't get to the second one."
"Well shucks, we're all fine now, Sugarcube."
"Do you have a lab of any kind?"
During my insanely long memory, it occurred to me: Double D was dead because of high school gym class. He had also made a full recovery.
"I'll drive us," Marie said, leading us out to a Yugo tagged EDD.
Skype Video Chat: Sunset Shimmer with Seth DeMeats, or is it Arnold Groß?
"If you want," Marie said, Double D getting in the passenger seat while Marie took the driver's and started the car.
Sunset used this time to bullcrap a mount for her phone on her bike. It worked surprisingly well, so she Skyped Seth, or so she hoped to Celestia. When the call went through, she started her motorbike and followed Marie and Edd.
"Hallo?"
"Se- Arnold?"
The signal was shotty, to say the least.
"Ja?"
"Where are you?"
"Coming out of the Berlin International Airport in East Germany."
"I thought you said that you guys were leaving your past lives behind and that you didn't want to be reminded of them."
"When you left, we decided, after that night, ja? After that night, we needed to come to closure on our previous lives."
"You lied to me?"
"Nein! Nein es ist nicht so!" Arnold replied, realizing the close call he had just made. [No! No, it's not like that!]
"English?"
"It's not, not like that, no."
"Then how."
"Seeing you sad like that, that had made us wunder if we go back to our, our last moments, ja? If it would help us with the same problem you had, no?"
"Problem?"
"You went back to the school after the Autumn Formal and sang your song My Past is not Today. After, you said that you felt better."
"Oh."
"We, we didn't want to leave you alone, so that is why we're... in... just... Germany?"
"Are you okay?"
"What happened? This parking lot used to be for Škodas, Trabants, and Maluchs."
"Okay, I'm lost," Sunset said. THAT could be the understatement of the century because Seth Arnold mumbled something rather quietly.
"Ostdeutschland?" [East Germany?]
"What?" Arnold (and Mitzi, offcamera) were both crying, "Is something wrong?"
"Auf Wiedersehen." [Goodbye.]
Arnold ended the call, making Sunset wonder if the others were truly any better off. Subconsciously, she had made it to a junkyard. Specifically a large van.
"Sunset?" Double D said, snapping her out of her trance.
"Yes?"
Sunset looked around and noticed Marie prying the doors open to a van.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," she replied, producing two suspicious, 3.5-inch beige pieces of plastic, both with an aluminum piece at the top, "Do you have a computer that reads these?"