Sunset's Shutdown

“The heck do you gotta do to send someone to juvey anyway? She totally deserves it.”  Rainbow grunted to herself, kicking a soccer ball at the side of the school and running up to it before it could bounce all the way back.

“I mean, we are looking out for her, not like anyone else would at this point.” The soccer ball slammed into the side of the building again without an arc, shuddering the window panes and shades on that particular wall. A few students inside heard the repeating thumps and glanced at the origin of the noise, wondering what could possibly be making that sound.

“And you don’t want to break away from your friends do you?” A voice called out, Rainbow turned to the bleachers where a shaggy haired teen strode down from skipping over every second step while adorned in a bathrobe and brown shredded pants. Coughing twice, smoke slipped through his lips each time as he shed the bathrobe and let Rainbow Dash see his army jacket sewn with dozens of different patches, a poorly drawn pentagram, several animals, and grey t-shirt that read “I do bad all by myself”. Rainbow noticed the lucky rabbit foot necklace, and white feathers tucked into his bandana tied around his ears, the left ear showed severe signs of abuse and the beginning stages of cauliflower ear, the other was pierced with a diamond earring. Flexing his hands through black finger-less gloves, the teenage wore a look of mischief, extending each leg to its fullest as he kept his upper body as straight as possible.

Rainbow caught herself from grimacing away from the smell of bitter oil that hung on his clothes. “I can put Sunset in juvey for you for like seven dollars.” He chuckled.

“And who are you?”

“Man of mystery! A man of wealth and taste! Someone who can make the walls of the establishment come crashing down all for like seven dollars. I can break your mind down and rebuild it, show you things that the Twilight girl spoke about and countless more visions- all for like seven dollars.”

Rainbow cast a wary eye at this newcomer, “Do you even go here? How’d you know about what Twilight said? And what’s with adding ‘like’ instead of just saying ‘seven dollars’?”

“My good gracious! Where are my manners? I am terribly sorry. Discord is my name, spreading anarchy is my game.”

“Do you even go here?” Rainbow asked again, spotting the smoke rising out of the bathrobe.  “Your bathrobe’s on fire.” Discord quickly threw It to the ground and stamped it out with his excessively loose, well worn sneakers that look like they were pulled from a trashcan.

“Were you smoking? You know smoking’s not allowed on campus.”

“That’s why I was under the bleachers just moments ago, my good lady. Then after a carefree stroll to the top, I placed myself accordingly to dramatically make your acquaintance-you were shouting to yourself for quite a while there."

"And should I even guess what you were even doing, watching me from over there?" Rainbow Dash rolled the soccer ball to the top of her foot, and kicked it up yo hold in her arms.

"Out of sight from Celestia’s gaze and in the modus operendai of selling small quantities of all-natural stress releasing stimulants for a mere thirty dollars, and pleasant times for after school at the low price of seven dollars.”

Rainbow Dash shook her head, this guy was not making a lick of sense. “Yeah, I’m not really in the mood to play your little game, I just really want to work out my anger.”

“I can sell you a small amount of anti-anger for five.” Discord said, patting his coat pockets.

“I really don’t have five, or seven, or thirty dollars, and I really don’t want to talk to you.”

Discord raised his hands. “Alright! I concede. I know when a sales pitch does reach the intended audience. However, should you ever need me, you can find me in metal, glass design, the library serving detention on Saturday, or my office here beneath the bleachers during lunch. But, please give me the professional curtesy of not telling Celestia or Luna about my offers, hmmm? I’m trying to turn over a new leaf.”

“Uh…no to the first thing, and ‘what?’ to the second.”

“Very good! Now, I must see to my customers, I suggest you leave now to keep high opinions of the people- you thought you knew- around you.”  Discord said, waving Rainbow Dash off.

The break in Rainbow's concentration by Discord hadn't lifted her sour mood, he only extended it. Normally getting outside would clear her head, but right now she felt like punching something that really deserves it. Ever since pony-turned-human Twilight left, there's been a weird funk hanging around the school; everyone couldn't believe they were brainwashed zombies. Now they were waiting for Twilight to show up and tell them it was real, or let that night dissolve into an urban legend about an exorcism that happened after a gas leak blew a hole in the front of the school.

"What's it take, huh!?" Rainbow shouted, letting her words echo around the empty field as she walked back towards the school. Like seven dollars. "Yeah, no. That creep sounds like he's got enough cans of worms." Rainbow muttered, trying to push Discord from her mind. "And what the hell can you buy for...oh." She said, looking over her shoulders to the bleachers again. Two people were walking that way, quickly looking around before disappearing into Discord's personal lair.

The route Rainbow took back inside was an attempt to delay the inevitable of confronting her friends inside as long as possible. When she rounded the corner to the front side, the statue Twilight had jumped into was dull and grey as ever. Rainbow sneered, "Come on out," she pressed on hand against it, leaning in with force, but the supposed gateway refused to open. "Come on out, pony Twilight, or let me in." Banging her head against the smooth rock, she pushed herself back and kicked it for good measure. "Stupid statue, stupid other dimension and different universes, stupid ponies-" Her rant finally closed off at the last word, she was letting this go on for too long and wasn't getting anywhere with finding pony Twilight, or even snapping Sunset out of her broken state.

"Aw...shoot. Pony Twilight said something about..." The thought lingered, only a half formed realization that Rainbow didn't want to lose. Her subconscious pushed her back through the doors of the school and down the halls, stopping at the doors to the library. "All right, human Twilight, where are you?" Pony Twilight did spend most of her time here, they even found her bed made of books on the second floor. So what's to say she's not here right now? Pushing through the doors, a few kids were wrapping up last minute projects on computers, some were trying to take cat naps, a dozen or so people were crammed around one table, studying the questions to a test someone grabbed from an earlier period, but over all, there wasn't a whole lot of reading going on.  "You brought me here, now what?" She couldn't see her purple haired friend anywhere, even after roaming past all the shelves in hopes of finding her. Checking her phone, Rainbow remembered Twilight hadn't even left them a number, she didn't even have a phone, and she didn't even know what one was, but human Twilight did.

The realization finally surged through like a water breaking through a dam. Half formed ideas on how to track Twilight down gave Rainbow the inspiration to follow through with every one of them until something finally panned out. Fast walking towards the librarians desk, the librarian smiled and asked if there was anything she could help Rainbow with. "Got a phonebook?" Rainbow asked.

The librarian reached under her desk and pulled out a thick book still encased in shrink wrap. Pulling it away and discarding it, she handed it to Rainbow. "We still get quite a few, and you're probably the first student who asked for one all year." The librarian jabbed a bony thumb towards the recycle bin where six more phonebooks, minus the shrink wrap, were sitting.

The rush of finding this world's Twilight was ground to a screeching halt when the fifth period bell finally rang. Gritting her teeth and growling, she shoved the phonebook into her bag before asking "Oh, do I have to check this out?" The librarian shook her head, pointing back to the recycle bin.

Passing through the hall towards fifth period, she passed Applejack who was about to voice a complaint about her attitude, obviously, when Rainbow showed her the phonebook and drummed her fingers over it, wiggling her eyebrows in excitement and quickly running off with out saying a word.

"Darn it, Rainbow, what are you doin' with a phone book anyway? Ya know you gotta apologize to everyone for stormin' off like that!" Applejack called after her. The feeling of glee and knowing something everyone else didn't made her giggle, all she had to do was find that one name and blow their minds away. Rainbow was feeling pretty confident that finding this Twilight would make up everything.  Her fifth period passed with a highlighter in her hand, illuminating everything with a 'Twilight' or a 'Sparkle', but not once did she find the name 'Twilight Sparkle' on the same line.

As Rainbow scanned through the S and T sections of the phone book she didn't once see 'Twilight Sparkle on the same line. 'Figures teens aren't listed', but on the bright side with only 23 Twilight's and 15 Sparkle's, her parents might share a same first or last name. Her hand hovered over the dial key for the remainder of the period, begging to be called during passing when a shortcut suddenly popped into her head. "Wait...Princess Celestia, Principal Celestia, Princess Luna, VP Luna, Princess Twilight, human Twilight the student? Everyone who was a princess knew pony Twilight really well, and who was that other one? Princess Katie? Carol? Cathy, Cadance, Carmine, Cassidy, and something about her having a brother? She could practically remember Twilight rattling off every little detail about her life, and herself at the time ignoring most of it. Practically anyone but her would remember what Twilight said about things on the other side of the portal, now to ask the right person without them realizing until after she had found the family members first.

"Fluttershy." She nearly choked at the sound of her own name, but instantly relaxed when she saw Rainbow Dash. "What do you remember pony Twilight saying anything about her family, and the princesses?"

"Oh, and you don't? Twilight went into fabulous detail about her mentor to student relationship with Princess Celebstia, and how we...the other us...brought back Princess Luna after she was changed into Nightmare Moon. Then there was how we fought Discord by reuniting our friendship after he-"

"Stop! Discord? You mean the guy who tried selling me drugs during lunch? The guy I swear I've never seen before, like, ever?"

"Oh dear, selling drugs? I thought we were making a lot of progress after he started attending social reformation classes after school."

"You know the guy?"

"Well, we kinda...sorta...saw... a movie together."

"You're dating him?!"

"And why not Rainbow Dash? Twilight told us that Discord and I were very good friends in her universe, so after she left, I found him in detention and started talking with him."

"Just because something happens in one universe, doesn't mean it has to happen in another. That's like, the whole point of having a different universe! There are differences!"

"Rainbow Dash, your behavior is out of control today, what if I were to say that if your theory is true, then why should we be friends?" There was no use in arguing now, Fluttershy just played a make-it or break-it card in the terms of friendship, and even if it was a bluff, it was a really good one Rainbow didn't want to call.

"Alright, you're right, you can date Discord, just make sure he doesn't offer you anything."

"Rainbow, I am going to fully discuss the sale and use of illegal narcotics on campus with Discord and how bad it could get for him if he doesn't stop." Fluttershy looked away for a moment, already planning what to say to Discord before turning back to Rainbow Dash. "Is there anything else you wanted to know about before sixth period started?"

"Twilight's family, the brother is married to the other princess?"

"Oh you mean Shining armor and Princess Cadanza Mi Amoure? Twilight wasn't able to go into full detail how we helped her-the little pony us- stopped the Changeling Queen from taking over Canterlot after kidnapping Princess Cadanza and brainwashing Shining Armor into making him believe it was her." Fluttershy said.

Never would've guessed that.

"Twilight kept calling her Cadence."

Nailed it. The number of students in the hall rapidly dwindled as their five minute passing period came to a close. "Tell me more about this later, okay Fluttershy? I gotta get going."