“Make a noise in there and I swear I’ll find some new replaceable henchmen.” Sunset Shimmer threatened while her hand was holding onto the locker door. “Am I making myself clear?”
Snips and Snails returned a reassuring face. “Yes, ma’am! We read you as clear as a-“
SLAM
“Ugh,” she groaned, “starting now.” She said, irritated as she walked away from the locker, or more importantly: The Principal’s office.
“Were you interested in running for Princess of the Fall Formal this year?”
“Princess of the Fall Formal?” Twilight replied back to Princes- Principal Celestia.
“It’s Canterlot High’s big fall dance,” Principal Celestia said, pointing to the respective poster. “Students select one of their peers to represent them. She’ll then receive a crown at the Fall Formal.”
“Can anyone run?”
“Yes,” Celestia said warmly. “Now, was there anything else you need?”
“Um…” Twilight looked around the room for a bit. Not in search of things in the room but it was just some bad habit of hers to look around while clueless. “Nope! That was it!” She chuckled faintly.
“Well, if you need anything, my door’s always open.”
Twilight waved goodbye but when she grabbed the door, Celestia spoke again.
“Remember, the students want to vote for the ones who represent who they are.”
“So act and look like a role model. Got it.” She smiled. Principal Celestia returned a smile back. And with that, Twilight’s grip over the handle turned and entered the main hallway which was bustling with students standing and chatting, opening their lockers, and getting to their classes.
However, unbeknownst to her, hiding in the locker room right beside the Principal’s office were two of Canterlot High’s bumbling henchmen: Snips and Snails. Since the lockers weren’t exactly big enough for the two, they had to tightly pack themselves into it like a can of tuna. Speaking of which, Snips couldn’t imagine why Snails had a can of tuna inside his locker.
“Snails, why do you have an opened can of tuna just sitting in your locker!” Snips said, holding his nose.
“Because uh… uhhhhhh… tuna has mercury which is good for you. I learnt that in biology today.” He said, proud of that statement. For once, he felt smart. But when Snips moved his feet around on Snail’s back, the small victory was sidelined. “Why do you get to see through the openings? I’m the taller one.”
“Because you got to eavesdrop on the new girl and the principal. So now it’s my turn to carry out our boss’ job so I can get equal credit. Besides, you have better hearing ‘cuz you never go to those rock concerts with m-.”
“Errrr- Quiet! It sounds like she’s talking to someone!” he quietly exclaimed, having placed his ear onto the surface of the locker’s door.
Both of them kept quiet with Snips trying to see who the new girl was talking to. Unfortunately, he could only see the new girl’s back while the person she was talking to was in front of the new girl. Suddenly, he caught sight of two pointy white ears coming out of the unknown person’s bag.
Snails on the other hand, heard the new girl talk about running for the Fall Formal.
Against their boss.
“Sunset Shimmer ain’t gonna like that.” Snails said, moving away from the locker door.
Snips turned his attention to Snails. “The boss ain’t gonna like knowing that the new girl is talking with others in this school. I say we ditch this joint and get to telling her about- “
But before he could finish, the two came crashing out the locker. Papers, books, and that opened can of tuna also accompanied them. The two, dazed and on the floor and smelling like tuna, saw a tall figure rising over the two and asked.
“Tell.me.what?”
And I thought girls took long to shower.
Snips and Snails, taking an eternity in the shower room, meant that she couldn't follow Twilight and at this rate, she probably met her at least most of her 'friends' already.
Finally, the two came out soaking wet and their waists wrapped in their towels.
Given the incompetence of the two, she wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t even know how to properly wrap a towel around themselves.
…
She just had to think about it, didn’t she?
“Oh… sorry.” They both said, their cheeks red and covering their… areas in front of Sunset Shimmer who was covering her closed eyes with her arm.
“J- just tell me what you saw and heard!” Sunset Shimmer demanded, still covering her eyes. Because no one else was using the boy’s shower room at that time, not even the Wonder Colts, the school’s football team, she decided to just talk it out right here, right now, when no one was around.
“And put those towels back on as well!”
The two shrugged. They didn't really get why she was so disgusted by their abnormally well built figures, or at least, they thought of themselves as that. Regardless, they bent down to grab their towels and began their report to her. Snails went first.
“Well, your gorgeousness, the new girl was in Celestia’s office, and they were talking about the Fall formal.”
Sunset Shimmer opened her eyes and lowered her arm in surprise. “The Fall Formal?”
“Yeah!” Snails continued. “And when she left the office, she was talking to another girl-“
“Another girl?”
Snips then joined in. “I couldn’t see who she was talking to but she had two pointy white ears popping out of her backpack.”
Fluttershy, she thought. “So, not only is Twilight going to enter in the Fall Formal but she also is trying to unite her friends to stop me.” She started pacing herself back and forth, “By the time the Fall Formal begins, she would have united all her friends together, thus calling upon the Elements of Harmony to defeat me as they have done with Nightmare Moon, Discord, Chrysalis and others in the past!” She then punched the closest wall next to her.
Snails and Snips remained silent for a while, but not because of her sudden violent turn but rather…
“Wh- who’s Nightmare Moon?” Snips asked.
“And I didn’t go to Biology class today so I didn’t get to learn about butterflies and chrysalises.”
Note to self, she thought, covering her face with her palms, don’t mention the names of villains from Equestria. But instead of explaining or talking down to them, she instead walked up to them, wrapped her arms around their necks, smiled and asked:
“How ‘bout we just focus on preventing Twilight from winning the Fall Formal. Hm?”
The two anxiously nodded.
Having these skills in arcane arts and chemistry really is paying off.
Sunset Shimmer, former student of Princess Celestia, was glad that she paid attention to potion making back when she was still under her mentor’s wings. In fact, it’s why she was given special permission from Principal Celestia herself to let her use the school’s science lab whenever she wanted.
The lab, filled with beakers, test tubes, safety goggles, dishes, funnels, and many more science equipment was left unattended thanks to it being lunch time. Or more specifically, close to the end of lunch time. She started to panic a bit inside. She needed to hurry. Sooner or later some nerd was going to start banging on the door.
Despite having permission to be there though, she rather not draw too much attention to what she was secretly trying to concoct and thus she had locked the door into the lab. If someone were to ask why she locked the door, she would make up some excuse such as not wanting to be disturbed. And again, since she had official permission from the principal herself, no one would further question her.
From her pocket, she pulled out a small pouch containing magical glowing light green dust she procured from Equestria just before she escaped into this world and laid it off to the side. She wouldn't need that... for now.
She then took some with his fingers and poured it into a flask, turning the liquid in the flask into the same color as the green dust.
A finger entered her vision as it moved closer to the center of the work space. She automatically slapped that hand away.
“Owww!” Snails cried.
“Shhhh! How many times have I told you? Don’t touch anything!” She whispered but loud enough to make it sound threatening.
“Awww, but I want to see touch the green goo.” He said, sounding like a baby. “I wanna play with the Boogers Slime.”
“Mmmmm!” she growled from behind her closed lips. “It’s not a toy.” She then directed herself to Snails, “Get me the bag.”
Snails, despite not being given the order, decided to help Snails with carrying the bag, what with Snips’ short height and all.
“Now, did you get the ingredients I wanted from the mall?” Sunset Shimmer asked as the two bumbling henchmen came stumbling towards her with the large bag of purchased goods. They then rested the bags onto the table right beside Sunset Shimmer’s working space.
“Careful! Careful!” She warned, ready to use her arm to shield her experiment as the bag looked like it was about to come tumbling out and ruining her work space. Fortunately, it didn’t come to that.
“The women said we were cute.” Snails uttered.
“They’re paid to say that, Snails.” Snips said. “They probably think you looked as cute as a plank of wood.”
Sunset Shimmer was getting annoyed by the lack of answer to the question she asked earlier. “I don’t care what they think of you worms. Did you get what I asked for?”
“Yes, your, awesomeness. We got your…stuff.” Snips reluctantly said.
"We missed lunch so we can get these pretty stuff for you." Snails said. If it was any other person, Sunset Shimmer would have assumed they were blaming her directly for missing out on lunch but since it was Snails...
Snips started rummaging through the bags. Taking them out and reading each one by one. “Eyeliner, lipstick, glitter, mascara, nail polish, fake eyelashes, tanning spray, perfume, and more. Including… growth hormones?”
Of all the things they bought, it was the last thing that confused them both.
“You know,” Snips began, holding the container of growth hormone pills “we do have a school gym if you want to get muscle-“
“It’s not for me nor is it for muscle growth, fool!”
She swiped the container away from his hands and laid it on the table. Pushed Snails out of the way and rummaged through the bag, taking out a crimson red-tipped lipstick.
With the lipstick, she screwed it open and proceeded to dipping the tip into the flask of green liquid. When she pulled it out, the green liquid that covered the actual lipstick area then vanished.
“Whoa… it’s like invisible ink!” Snails exclaimed in wonder.
“Heh heh heh… much better than invisible ink,” Sunset Shimmer smirked, holding the lipstick up as if to show everyone what she was holding. “In fact, the effects won’t just be visible, but it’ll be impossible to make it... invisible.”
The two looked to one another and shrugged again.
“Darn it!” She said, looking at the time. Lunch was over. She and the other two could even begin hearing footsteps and chatter from behind the door. "Quick, get me the fake eyelashes, eyeliner, and the stick-on beauty mark. We'll need to continue tomorrow." She then took out her phone, quickly checked her social news stream, discovering where someone was heading towards soon. "But at least for today, we're gonna have our very first test subject." She grinned, closing her phone.
"Hoooo-weeee, this is a lot of Apple Cider."
"Eeeee....yuuuuup!" He struggled to say. Despite his larger size, he was never shy to admit that his sister had more upper body strength than he did. She didn't even sound like her load was uncomfortably heavy.
Each carried one stack of three crates each. Neither of them could see past their stacks without shifting their necks to the sides to see what was directly in front of them.
"Don't worry, Big Mac." Applejack chuckled. "The gym is just a minute awa-"
BUMP
Applejack staggered a bit backwards and it seemed like the crates of apple cider was going to come crashing down. But then, someone held onto her stack, stabilizing them and letting Applejack get to grips with her balance.
"Why, thanks, Big Mac." She said.
"Errr, noooope?"
Confused, Applejack decided to stretch her neck to the right and saw a familiar face.
And not the one she wanted to see again.
"Sunset Shimmer." She said, sounding like an Old Spaghetti Western character when they'd meet some rival from their past. "What are you doin' here?"
"Oh, sorry, Applejack. I was just going to the auditorium too but I guess I should have looked when I came around from the side of the hallway." Sunset Shimmer said, sounding all innocent and sorry. "As a matter of fact, I was going there to look for you."
"Oh?" Applejack said in surprise. "Of course, Pinkie Pie..." she realized. She and her constant obsession with keeping everyone up to date on people's locations and destinations.
"Anyway," Applejack continued, "so why're ya followin' me?"
Sunset Shimmer glanced at Big Mac and back to Applejack. "You mind if we talk in private?" She whispered.
"Big Mac?"
Applejack proceeded to walk towards him and just rested her stack onto Big Mac, who now was carrying two stacks on each side of his arms.
"Think you can make it?"
"E- e- e- eeeee- yuuuuup..."
As soon as Big Mac left at a snail's pace, Sunset Shimmer began her ruse.
"You see, Applejack, when I was on the socials, I discovered that you were about to go to the gymnasium. But I also discovered someone else who was there already."
"Who?"
"Rainbow Dash."
Ugh, Rainbow Dash, Applejack thought. That no good blowhard Wonder Colts wannabe. Rather spend time trying to get a spot on the Wonder Colts team than show up for the bake sale we planned together.
Even though Sunset Shimmer couldn't read minds, she could read facial expressions. All the signs pointing towards: Frustration and resentment. Just as planned. Now, the second phase.
"You seem bothered, Applejack." She frowned. "I didn't mean to-"
"No, no. It's fine, Sunset." She said with a sigh. "Thanks for telling me though. I would take an all-math-classes day than to see Dash again." She joked.
Sunset Shimmer genuinely laughed in response. Now, it was time for the real apology.
"Look, Applejack. I'm sorry that I've been a bit
She then asked, "Say, you wanna do something instead?" Applejack smiled and nodded. "Why don't we go to your place tonight, have a slumber party. And do that thing we used to do back when we were... closer."
Applejack's eyes became wide opened. "No... you mean that thing?"
Sunset Shimmer nodded with a devilish grin. "Oh yes..."
Back when
"Don't worry, I got you covered with all the make up. You don't have to do anything... except watch me give you a girly makeover like when we were kids!"
"Heh," Applejack snickered. "You know what? Sure. I'll see you at 8 at my home, I guess."
"Great! See you there then, AJ!" Sunset Shimmer then began going back the way she came in before being stopped by Applejack.
"