Alternate Realities

Chapters

Trial And Error
Secrets
Move Along
Dream
Return
Unsettling Revelations
The Other Side
Daughter of Evil
Breakthrough
A Different Shade of Red
Worst Morning Ever
Universal Friendship

Trial And Error

If you asked anyone who the most versatile pony in Ponyville was, most of them would fearfully say Sunset Shimmer’s name before running away in fear. Others would say that it was Time Turner, the Inquisitor and sole survivor of the Time Charger genocide. There are also some ponies who say that it’s either the Sun Priestess Bon Bon, or the Chaos Priestess Vinyl Scratch…

Anyway, Quickfix is a very versatile pony, able to hold her own in a fight and make a name for herself as Ponyville’s resident inventor. Although, she wasn’t the most social of ponies. If she had to choose between going on a picnic with her friends or continue building her latest invention, she’d think for ten minutes and weigh the pros and cons of both before finally choosing to stay at home and invent. But if she had to choose her friends, then she’d spend most of the time talking about science-y stuff that would bore anypony else.

It was also known that her assistants never stayed longer than a week before they all quit the job.

“Um, Quickfix, you sure this is safe?”

“Can’t say it is. Ah mean, it’s a flame thrower. But ye shouldn’t worry aboot it. After all, yer impervious ta fire at this poin’, eh?”

“Wait, impervious?”

Nobody needed to ask why, though.

FWOOOM

“AAAAAAAAAAAAARRGH!!”

The young stallion’s pained screams echoed through the soundproof barriers of the cuboid-like building. Quickfix, on the other hoof, only nodded her head as she took notes on her latest invention. Don’t take this the wrong way; Quickfix knew that he was in pain. She even asked him for his consent just in case he decided not to help her. But in the end, he signed the contract and told her to use him any way she wanted to.

“The range is a bit short, although it’s hot enough ta pass through fireproof cloth… Ah’ll have ta change the mixture ta make sure ah get a better range.”

“My flesh is melting!” the stallion rolled around on the floor, trying to put the fire out but to no avail “What is this thing made of?!

“Quit complainin’, Shade. Sunset’s burned ye worse.”

“AAAAAGGGHHHH!!”

Quickfix rolled her eyes as she levitated the clipboard and pencil back to her work table. She never could understand ponies. If Shade didn’t like getting burned alive, then why tease the resident pyromaniac every other day? Maybe he was a masochist, or maybe he had some sort of mental disorder. She should really get that lie detector working, anyway.

Ever since Nightmare Moon’s defeat, Shade has been pardoned from the few crimes he has committed. He didn’t even have to go through the whole ‘asking for forgiveness’ phase, either. The ponies of Ponyville were so open to the thought of having a new neighbour that they invited him with open hooves.

Sadly, that means that now he has nothing better to do during his free time. Apart from teasing Sunset and taste testing the food in Pizzelle’s bakery, Shade was pretty much a freeloader living in the Apple Family barn. Really, what else was he supposed to do if his special ability is literally dark magic?

Seeing the young Unicorn with nothing better to do, Quickfix thought that it would be a good idea to hire him as an assistant. It sounded like a good idea at first. After all, he got an hourly wage and could play with all the cool stuff Quickfix built.

He could never have been more wrong.

“AAGH! AAGH! AAARRRGHGHGHG!!

The flames that coated his body still burned brightly as Shade rolled around on the floor. Seeing her assistant in constant pain wasn’t something Quickfix liked to do. But then again, there was something fascinating about it. Was it the fact that he didn’t seem to be in any immediate danger? Or was it the fact that the fire still hasn’t extinguished? Maybe, just maybe, Shade really is fireproof.

Still, Quickfix wasn’t psychotic. She turned on her emergency sprinkler system and watched as the fire slowly disappeared along with Shade’s screams. Apparently, the only proof that showed that he was just set on fire was a few dark patches of fur.

Interesting.

“Anyway, ah’m done with today’s experiments,” smiled Quickfix as she pushed a button on the wall, revealing robotic arms that started clearing the experimenting area “Same time ‘morrow?”

“Sure, why the hell not?” muttered Shade under his breath with an annoyed huff “It’s not like I have first degree burns or anything. Don’t worry, Sunset uses me as her plaything all the time! You’re the hospital’s number one patient! …”

A light chuckle escaped the brown mare’s mouth as she imagines Shade wrapped in a full body cast. No doubt Redheart would even stop anyone from visiting him knowing just how terrible his luck is. Not that it would stop Fiddlesticks from suddenly appearing from out of nowhere and play him a country solo. And then she’ll accidentally break a few more of his bones when she pulls him into a square dance.

Poor, poor Shade. Maybe she should try to invent something that could increase luck. Maybe some sort of… liquid luck?

Just as Quickfix was about to send her assistant off at the entrance, a green burst of flame exploded right in front of their faces. She barely even had the time to levitate a fire extinguisher over before the flames suddenly died out, leaving behind a scroll that landed on the floor with a simple plop. Shade took out the Handy Dandy Poking Stick™ and poked the piece of paper, half expecting it to reignite.

“I think it’s safe.”

“Probably safe.”

“Think it’s from Sunset?”

“Should be.”

“Never got one before?”

“Nope.”

“You gonna open it?”

“Ah don’t see why ah shouldn’t”

With a glow of golden yellow magic, Quickfix levitated the scroll towards her face and checked the scroll for any special markings. Surprisingly, the piece of paper isn’t singed at all. Maybe Shade was made of the same materials as the paper. Or did her fire have the same magical properties as Spike’s? She should make some more experiments on this matter later.

Putting aside the question for the meantime, Quickfix then noticed that the letter came with the royal Canterlot insignia on it. The Northerner gulped as she opened the letter and read through its contents. Sunset had told the others that she would only use the royal Canterlot insignia during emergencies. Terrible, horrible, world ending emergencies.

“So, what is it?” asked Shade as he tried to take a peek at the letter “Cerberus left Tartarus? The Moon is crashing towards Equestria? A giant fire breathing turtle just kidnapped Princess Celestia and is holding her captive inside another castle?”

“Ah’m not sure either, Shade,” Quickfix’s eyebrows scrunched up as she rolled up the letter “But it looks like we’re makin’ a trip to the library.”

Quickfix bolted towards one of the sleek, metallic walls of the room and pressed a big red button labelled “DOOR”, which was precariously placed right next to another big red button labelled “DANGER”. Nopony knew what that button did. Not even Fiddlesticks dared to press it. Who knows what unspeakable horrors Quickfix had built; biding its time to wreak havoc upon Equestria the moment that button is pressed!

“Ye comin’, Shade?” the mare said as the wall slid open, revealing a concealed entranceway

“Not until you tell me what’s going on!”

“Ye won’t believe me. Ah can tell.”

“Then what makes you any different than me?” Shade squinted his eyes and stomped his foot on the ground “Sunset’s my friend too, and even if I’m not one of the Elements of Harmony, I’m still a part of this group! So you’re gonna tell me what that letter said, or I’ll… I’ll… I’ll press the big red “DANGER” button!”

GASP

“Ye wouldn’t press it!”

“I would!”

“Ye wouldn’t dare!”

“Try me!”

With a manic neigh, Shade charged towards Quickfix with his eyes focused on the big red “DANGER” button. However, the Northerner wasn’t someone you should ever look down on. She kicked her hooves onto the floor and raised her upper body in an attempt to grapple the former Nightmare cultist down. Just as Shade made it close enough for Quickfix to grab him, he teleported out of the way and instantly reappeared behind the mare.

Another laugh left Shade’s mouth as he pointed the Handy Dandy Poking Stick™ at the button. He was so close. So very close!

“Ye aren’t gettin’ away that easy!”

With the force of a thousand stallions, Quickfix raised her hind legs in a bucking position that would put Big Macintosh to shame. Shade didn’t even get to scream as two hooves slammed right into his face, sending him crashing right through the wall and into an unsuspecting drunk purple Earth pony.

“Nopony pokes mah button,” Quickfix muttered as she closed the door behind her “C’mon, Shade. We’re gonna be late!”

“I could get you arrested for assault!”

“Could ye even find a lawyer good enough ta defend ye in court?”

“… Fair point.”

Shade quickly got off of the unconscious mare and dusted himself off, thankful for the fact that ponies’ bones were probably indestructible when it isn’t done for comedic purposes. However, he couldn’t leave a drunk lady unconscious on the ground without anything to protect herself with. But he didn’t want to make Quickfix wait any longer.

Thinking quickly, Shade used his magic to conjure up a broken wine bottle and placed it in her hooves.

She could take care of herself.

Probably.

After pocketing the Handy Dandy Poking Stick™ inside his saddle, Shade then chased after his employer who had already started to trot away “Hey, wait up! You’re the one who invited me!”

“So basically, our Sunset Shimmer was replaced by somepony from a different dimension and we don’t know where she is right now?”

“Eeyup.”

“And now we’re all going to the library to see if we can use the Elements to fix this problem before anything else happens?”

“Ya got that right.”

“And if all else fails, we’ll have to go to Canterlot and visit Princess Celestia to see if she could find our Sunset Shimmer without accidentally opening a rift in the space-time continuum?”

“Y’er right again!”

Coco Pommel bit her lips as she tried to make heads or tails of what she had just said. Even though she had repeated the contents of the letter again and again, it still didn’t make much sense. Then again, she made friends with a sea serpent and a grundle and was the bearer of the Element of Selflessness. She should have known that logic wasn’t par for the course on any of her adventures.

Beside her, Fiddlesticks was humming a self-made tune as she skipped across the streets. Oh, what Coco would do to have her confidence or devil-may-care attitude. Or any of her abilities, to be exact.

Actually, a lot of ponies would want Fiddlesticks’ abilities. Not that they would be able to handle it, however.

It still came as a surprise when Fiddlesticks suddenly appeared right in front of her during her lunch break, saying that she was waiting for a letter. Sure enough, just as soon as she finished yelling and took a sip of Coco’s tea (“I don’t mind, really. Please, enjoy.”), two bursts of flame appeared in front of the two mares, leaving behind two letters. The contents were mostly identical, of course, so Fiddlesticks gave herself the honour of saying the contents of her letter out loud.

“Signed, Spike. P.S. Please stop breakin’ into the library, Fiddlesticks. It’s startin’ to get into Sunset’s nerves, and havin’ so many shield spells on makes it real hard ta invite ponies over. Pfft! Classic Spike!”

She then put the letter into her hat, joining all the hundreds of other items she had somehow stuck in there and never bothered to take out. Both Quickfix and Sunset Shimmer had taken the hat into experimentation. However, neither of them could come up with an answer as to how it could store so much in such a small space, whether it be scientifically or magically.

Although, Fiddlesticks did say that she got it when she last visited Time Turner’s house.

Coco remembered the day Rarity had asked if she could patch up the holes and scratches on Fiddlesticks’ hat. It took weeks to get the apple sauce off of the rug!

“I do hope Miss Rarity’s okay with me leaving early…”

“Oh, horsedroppings! Y’er panickin’ more than a squirrel in an orange orchard!” Fiddlesticks pulled her friend into a tight hug, somehow still keeping with the pace of her previous trot “After all, she’s got Grundle! Little tyke’s prob’ly psyched about livin’ in an actual buildin’!”

“Y-Yes, he probably is…” the tailor thought back to her friend who had become the boutique’s portable pincushion “But what about that letter? Something bad happened to Sunset! Should we really be acting this calm? Shouldn’t we be panicking? A-And running?”

Fiddlesticks gave a hearty laugh and wiped a tear from her eye “Don’t ya worry a single hair from that pretty lil’ mane a yours! Ya know what Granny Smith says; Ain’t no use screamin’ bout Timberwolf droppin’s! Heck, ah’m sure Shade’s just as confused as you are ‘bout that there letter!”

“Just Shade?”

“Well, Lightnin’ reads them comic book of hers, and Redheart sees weird stuff every day,” Fiddlesticks tapped her chin with her forehoof “Quickfix builds them weird doohickeys so she’ll be happier than anythin’ ta get there, and Pizzelle’s Pizzelle!”

Coco nodded lightly, but her eyes betrayed her rising anxiety. Fiddlesticks gave her a warm smile as she hugged the pale mare.

“Ah’m sorry ah can’t cheer ya up any better,” the country mare looked a little down as she finally went back to trotting with all four of her hooves “If Ghoul were here, he’d probably do a better job. After all, ah’m just a girl with a fiddle. Ah ain’t no miracle worker! And seriously, how long does it take ta bring a ghoul back ta life?!”

“O-Oh my! I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings!” Coco Pommel apologised “I really appreciate your help, I really do! Say, why don’t you sing one of your songs? Those are usually fun to listen to!”

“Sure can do, sugarcube!” cheered Fiddlesticks as she took off her hat and pulled out her fiddle “C’mon, Coco! Ah know yer gonna love this one!”

Fiddlesticks’ country music rang through the streets, attracting the attention of many ponies that were passing by. At first, nopony cared. It was just a silly little tune. But then Fiddlesticks sang. Her voice weaved through the ponies’ ears, enchanting them as they all flocked towards the duo with huge grins on their faces. They all joined in, singing and dancing like they’ve choreographed and practised the steps for months on end.

As the ponies cantered back and forth, Fiddlesticks kept her attention on Coco Pommel who was finally showing hints of a smile. Even though she is the Element of Joy, she knew that she couldn’t use the same method to cheer everypony up. She had to start getting creative, and for Coco’s case she was even willing to lower her own self-worth just so the tailor could find it in herself to cheer herself up.

Seeing the introverted mare sing and laugh, Fiddlesticks knew that all of it was worth it.

“Is that… music?” Sunset Shimmer peeked out of the window trying to look for the source of the singing

“Looks like Fiddlesticks is almost here,” was Lightning’s simple response as she slammed a card onto the floor “I summon Amethyst, Gemstone Princess and attack your Dark Illusionist!”

“Not so fast! You just activated my Trap Card!” Pizzelle smirked smugly, earning another swear from the daredevil Pegasus “I activate Reversing Mirror, which takes the amount of damage I’m supposed to take this turn and return it to you instead! And with Hikaru’s Damaged Goods, the damage is doubled!”

“Hold it,” Redheart’s stern gaze bore through the baker and Kitsune “You forgot that I had a card face down in our field. I activate Armoured Core, cancelling the attack.”

“Uhm… Pizzelle, do you have any Quick Play Trap Cards?” Hikaru turned towards his caretaker with panic written all over his face

“I’m all out!”

“NOOOO!”

Apparently, children’s card games were a normal pastime in this world.

Sunset Shimmer tuned out the sound of the card game and continued looking out the window as she tried to find the source of the music. According to the others, this Fiddlesticks was the Element of Joy, which is the same as Pinkie Pie being the Element of Laughter. If her Pinkie Pie was anything she should go by, Sunset started to wonder whether she should be thinking too much into this.

Spike said that he was going to call the other Elements of Harmony to see if they could blast her with the friendship laser and send her home. Because really, nopony could explain what those things did. It might send her home, or it could turn her to stone. Who could really explain what the Elements did?

Speaking of which, there were seven Elements?! Maybe Sunset could find it back in her Equestria and become the seventh Element of Harmony? After all, she is quite inspirational of she does say so herself.

Her intense staring at the window was finally broken when she saw half the town dancing towards the library. At the centre of the dancers, she could see a mare fiddling with her fiddle as she hopped around and singing an impromptu song. For some reason, Sunset suddenly realised that she, too, knew the lyrics to the song and had the inexplicable need to dance.

“And here comes the mares of the hour,”

Sunset jumped to the side, not even realising that Spike had walked up next to her.

“No need to fear, dear Shimmer. ‘Tis only Fiddlesticks and her delightful music that you’re hearing right now. And I see that she also brought the other two Elements with her! And is that Shade I see over there? Wonderful! The whole party is already here!”

“So, care to point them out to me?” Sunset leaned in closer to the window “I could tell that Fiddlesticks is probably the… well, fiddle player… but what about the others?”

“That one over there,” Spike pointed to a brown mare shaking her flank like she just don’t care “Is Quickfix, Ponyville’s inventor and Element of Inspiration. And that one…” he pointed to a pale yellow mare who was trying to get away from all the excitement “is Coco Pommel, Miss Rarity’s assistant and Element of Selflessness. Also, just in case you might be interested, that dashing stallion over there is Shade.”

Spike then pointed to a young grey Unicorn who was being pushed around as he tried to get closer to the library. He tried to teleport, only to get yanked by the tail which broke his concentration. Sunset watched as he tried every trick in the book to escape the crowd, ranging from barriers to laser beams; all of them leading to failure. The two Unicorns then locked eyes, and Shade screamed.

“SUNSET!!”

She then closed the curtains and walked away from the window.

And she thought her friends were crazy.

Rumble

“Huh?”

The yellow Unicorn looked at the wardrobe that was shaking and moving around on its own. She did a headcount of everyone, but they were still playing their card game. Any other day, she would simply walk away and not given the wardrobe a passing glance. But this isn’t any other day. This is the exact opposite of any other day. With a gulp, Sunset Shimmer grabbed the handle with a magic spell and pulled it open, only to reveal-

“Nothing? Well, that was-”

“HEYA SUNSET!”

“BWAAAH!”

Fiddlesticks jumped out of the wardrobe and slammed right into Sunset, knocking the two mares tumbling down the stairs. The sound of screaming and bones cracking, with the odd “YEEHAW!” slipped in there reverberated around the building, attracting the attention of the ponies and Kitsune who were still playing their game. They looked over the railings, only to see the two mares in a jumbled heap on the floor.

“Lightning, get the medkit,” Redheart sighed as she trotted downstairs “Pizzelle, could you and Hikaru bring Sunset back upstairs? And if you see Quickfix, please tell her to install a door. I don’t want any more incidents happening in the future.”

“Sunset!”

“Well, that’s convenient. Pizzelle, Hikaru, it looks like you’ve got your work cut out for you,” the nurse trotted over to the bed and opened the kit Lightning had just given her “Why don’t you go entertain our other guests while Spike brings Sunset here.”

The two saluted and trotted downstairs, passing by a panicking Spike along the way. Sunset will be okay. After all, she’s under the care of Nurse Redheart! She’ll be fine in no time!

Reaching downstairs, the first thing that the duo noticed was that Fiddlesticks, who had just hopped out of Sunset’s wardrobe and fallen down the staircase with Sunset 2.0, had disappeared. Feeling a nudge on her shoulder, Pizzelle turned around to look at the young fox sitting on her back.

“Umm, Pizzelle…” he started “Where’s Fiddlesticks?”

“Hikaru, what did I tell you about questioning Fiddlesticks?”

“That I should never do it and save my sanity…”

“Good!”

The mare then continued her trot down the stairs, seeing the other three ponies who have just arrived on the scene. Quickfix was talking to Coco, no doubt talking about some techno jargon that Coco would just nod to and pretend to understand. Shade, on the other hand…

“Pizzelle! Hikaru!” the stallion ran towards his two friends from his place near the door “Finally, somepony who would tell me what’s going on! Quickfix wouldn’t tell me anything, and Coco is obviously just as confused as me. Please give a guy some rest here!”

Despite the panicking tone that Shade had implied, Pizzelle and Hikaru only looked at each other and giggled. That was so Quickfix all right! If she doesn’t think that something is worth doing, she’ll ignore it completely. Understandably, Shade was pissed off.

“Hey! Is this really how you treat your friend?!”

“Oh, silly,” Pizzelle managed to hold her giggles in “Well, to keep things simple, the Sunset Shimmer that you just saw fall down the stairs just now isn’t our Sunset Shimmer. She’s actually a Sunset Shimmer from a different dimension! Lightning had this crazy idea to try and shoot the Elements of Harmony at Sunset Two and see what happens, because with the Elements of Harmony anything could happen really. I mean, Princess Celestia used it to imprison Nightmare Moon in the moon for a thousand years. And then we used it to take away her dark powers for good! I think. Probably. I mean, if she ever gets her dark powers back, we’ll probably just shoot her again and it’ll all be over, so it doesn’t really matter, does it?”

A moment of silence.

“What.” Shade said in a tone so flat it didn’t even deserve a question mark “can you explain it to me like I’m five?”

Before Pizzelle could even open her mouth, Hikaru had jumped on top of her head and squealed “We’re gonna shoot Sunset Shimmer’s alternate universe clone with the Elements of Harmony because reasons!”

“Oh… okay.”

With that matter settled, Pizzelle and Hikaru moved towards Quickfix and Coco, where the latter had taken out the blueprints for one of the inventions that she was building. Seeing that he had nothing better to do, Shade walked upstairs to go check up on Sunset. Or her alternate universe clone.

In fact, what was he supposed to call her? Sunset? But what if both Sunsets were in the same room at the same time? Maybe he could think up of an awesome nickname. Something like Hotshot, or Sunbutt, or what about-

“Is Shimmer okay?”

Yeah. That’s… let’s go with that.

Lightning Dust was the first to turn and look at the stallion while Redheart and Spike were still treating an unconscious Shimmer. Beside them, Fiddlesticks was playing a soft, quiet tone as she tried to keep the tension in the room low. Huh, so that’s where she was.

“Yo, Shade, Sunset- I mean, Shimmer’s doing fine,” Lightning said as she walked towards Shade “Apparently, the combined shock of seeing Fiddlesticks and falling down a staircase knocked her out. Damn, I knew that girl was gonna be the death of somepony one day.”

“Should… Should I be worried?”

“Nah, it’s Sunset Shimmer,” she snorted and waved a half-hearted hoof at the young Unicorn “No matter what universe she’s from, the pony’s got guts. She’ll make it through.” She then suddenly gave him a rather menacing gaze “But the question here is, are you man enough to take on your new role?”

“Wait, what do you-”

Before he even had the chance to react, Lightning Dust took out Sunset Shimmer’s crown, the Element of Magic, from behind her back and stuck it on Shade’s head. Obviously, he did the sane thing any pony would do when someone stuck something weird on their head; he screamed. This made Redheart turn to scold at the two.

“Lightning Dust, Shade, could you please keep it down? I have a patient here,” she then noticed that Shade was wearing Sunset’s crown, albeit unwillingly “Well, I suppose that’s one way to solve the problem. Fiddlesticks, please call the others back here. We should start before Shade has any second thoughts about wearing that crown.”

“Will do, Redheart!” the pale yellow mare jumped onto her feet and ran towards the staircase

“Now, could you please do it-”

“C’MON UP HERE, EVERYPONY! WE’RE READY TO GO!”

“… quietly.” She slapped her forehead with a low groan.

A few moments later, the whole top floor of the library was filled as everyone surrounded the still unconscious Sunset Shimmer. The girls all sported their necklaces as Shade stood at the back, slowly trying to escape from this whole mess. Sadly, his attempts were stopped short as Hikaru made an illusion of Sunset staring at him sternly, scaring him back onto his feet.

“Um, shouldn’t we… you know, wait till she wakes up?” Coco asked with hesitation in her voice “This does seem a little… rude.”

“Trust me, I think we should as well,” answered Redheart “But we don’t know where our Sunset is, and she could be in danger right now. As much as it pains me to do this, we have to.”

“We also have her consent!” Pizzelle reminded them “She said that we were free to try and shoot her with the Elements, since she doesn’t have any darkness in her. It should be a pleasant experience, if you ask me!”

“Well then, formations everypony.”

On Redheart’s command, the six mares and one unwilling stallion pointed their Elements at the unconscious Sunset Shimmer, ready to fire. As the mares concentrated hard on their thoughts, the crystals started to emit a dull glow and a steady stream of colours shot out from them. However, Shade was still struggling with the crown. He knew that this was a bad idea. You can’t replace an element just willy-nilly!

“Guys…!”

His voice was the last thing the group heard before an explosion engulfed the room and knocked everyone out.

Author's Note

I'm sorry I update slowly (Is once a week slow? I mean, most others update daily or bi-daily. That just makes makes me feel inadequate...). Anyway, I'm finally done with chapter two! Took a few rewrites here and there. In fact, the finished product you see here is entirely different from what it started out as.

Really, you guys do not want to know what it originally was. There was more ship teasing, and everyone was in the same place and it was just... chaotic! Okay, I admit that I can't actually write a group of more than three people at the same time. It's hard, okay? But I'll make the best of what I have.

Once again, constructive criticism is appreciated. Tell me what you like or dislike, and what I should improve on to make the fic even better.

Secrets

“... and that’s where Shade and Quickfix came from, and where I’ve been for the entire day. Do you have any questions?”

A yellow hand rose up slowly.

“Anything other than our relationship status?” Sunset rolled her eyes in annoyance

Fluttershy meekly dragged her hand back down; muttering something about being Sunset being a sore loser. Speaking of which, why is Fluttershy so concerned about Sunset’s sex life? No, best not to think about it. The less Sunset knew, the better.

As Sunset repeated the question, a grey hand shot into the air with vigour.

“Well... I wasn’t expecting you to have any, but okay,” Sunset Shimmer blinked and cleared her throat “What did you wanna ask, Shade?”

“What’s with the book?” Shade asked, looking at the large brown book with yellowing pages in the middle of the table that Sunset had been writing into as she spoke “Diary or something?”

“Oh, this?” answered Sunset as she finished her last sentence before closing the book “It’s a, I can’t believe I’m saying this, phone book, in lack of better terms. Anything I write here ends up in Twilight’s copy of the book. I need to ask her in case she knows a way to fix this mess. The faster we find your Sunset Shimmer and send you guys home, the better, am I right?”

The group was sitting in the dining room, since that was the only room in the whole house that didn’t have animals scurrying around. Honestly, how does her family live with all these animals? Fluttershy must be insanely rich to actually get a permit to keep all of them and buy animal feed. Not as rich as Applejack, of course. Girl’s a god damn millionaire.

Then again, Rarity is an upcoming fashion designer who makes her own clothes, Pinkie Pie throws parties every other week like it’s her life support, and Rainbow Dash excels in every single sport she’s ever tried to the point that she’s the reserve for the national sports team. Maybe those rumours that she only made friends with them for their money really did have some truth to it.

Maybe Sunset should really rethink her life choices.

“Seems about right,” Quickfix muttered as she tinkered with Sunset’s cellphone, marvelling at all the nifty features “Wait, ye don’t have magic but ye have magic books? Ah call shenanigans!”

“It’s not from this world, it’s from Equestria,” answered Sunset for the umpteenth time. It’s not even funny how many times people have asked her about the book “And like I’ve told you, I come from a different Equestria. Of course I’ll bring some souvenirs from home! ”

If Quickfix heard her explanation, she didn’t show it. Instead, the former Unicorn continued going through app after app, trying to figure out how the phone worked and how she could make one herself. Sunset stopped bothering to take it back. One punch to the jaw was painful enough already.

“Wait, why can ye take pictures of yeself nude but ah have ta wear clothes? An’ who’s Flash Sentry?”

Fluttershy arched an eyebrow and cast Sunset a knowing gaze. Well, at least Fluttershy now knew which way she swung. In an attempt to salvage her reputation, Sunset reached a hand over to take her phone back, only to be stopped when Shade got off his chair and tackled Quickfix, wrestling her for the phone.

‘You don’t even have the same hormones!’ Sunset screamed internally as she watched Quickfix finally dominating over Shade and sit on his back

Damn Northerners and their insane strength.

“A-Anyway,” Sunset Shimmer quickly regained control of the conversation “Are you sure you haven’t seen another me around at all?”

“I’m sorry, but nobody’s seen you since last night,” the butter yellow girl sighed apologetically, trying her best to ignore the fight that had just broken out “It’s the whole reason Pinkie Pie organised that search party after all. We’ve looked everywhere, and I mean everywhere.”

“Everywhere?” Shade arched an eyebrow from his place on the ground

“Everywhere.”

Silence filled the room as the group all stared at Fluttershy.

“Pinkie was very thorough with the search route.”

“What about my place?” Sunset crossed her arms “I don’t think I’ve ever told you guys where I live.”

At the mention of this, Fluttershy took her gaze off of Sunset and suddenly found that the carpet was really interesting. Like, really, interesting. Why hasn’t she ever noticed it before? It was such a nicely made one as well! Some of the animals really liked sleeping there as well. Daww, is that kitty cat gonna go sleep on it? It is! It’s just so-

“Fluttershy…” Sunset’s voice was very calm, yet it was laced with poison

“Well, Applejack might have forced Vinyl Scratch to tell us that you were… well, living at her place… for the time being…”

“And you thought Vinyl knew because…?”

“… Pinkie Pie was very thorough with her investigations.”

Sunset Shimmer slammed her fist on the table as soon as Fluttershy shut up, making all eyes land on her. But at this point, she didn’t care anymore. Oh, she was furious all right. She didn’t know how Pinkie knew, but she was going to make sure that the pink party planner never invades her privacy ever again!

Feeling that the air in the room was starting to get really thick, Quickfix continued to scroll through the phone while humming a random melody. She had finally found Sunset’s messages and was busy reading through all of them when something caught her eye.

It was a message with, surprisingly, Rarity, and the contents were about a contest where the girls had to run around Canterlot in… bikinis? What are those? Apparently the girl wanted to know Sunset’s sizes, and if possible to also ask the same thing to… Princess Twilight Sparkle.

“Princess Twilight Sparkle?!” she screamed “Ye’r sayin’ that in yer ol’ world, Twilight’s a Princess?!”

“Y-Yeah,” Sunset answered, her previous rage already lost “She was the Element of Magic in my world and was elevated to Alicorn status just recently. Speaking of which, I never did see your world’s Twilight. What’s she like?”

The two other worlders cringed, physically shuddering as terrible memories of old pranks and manic laughter filled their memories. Prayers of protection even left Quickfix’s mouth as she hugged her knees tightly. The sight of the two former Unicorns in such terrified states left Sunset feeling guilty for asking as she glanced at Fluttershy, who had kneeled down to whisper comforting words in Shade’s ears.

“O…kay… Let’s just… change topics, okay? Now, let’s just calm down and-”

“I still hear her laughter in my nightmares...” Shade muttered under his breath, his eyes glazed and blank “So much chaos... so much chaos... so much chaos...”

Considering how much shit Shade goes through on a daily basis, this Twilight must really be terrifying. Taking her eyes off the two, she made a passing glance to the clock nailed onto the wall and clicked her tongue in annoyance. It was getting dark out already. Looks like they’ll have to leave the search for the other Sunset Shimmer tomorrow.

“Why don’t I go and cook dinner?” Fluttershy suggested as she got up “You could use the rest. I don’t want you to get tired fixing up this mess, after all. I’ll call my parents and ask if you could stay for the night.”

“Sounds like a great idea!” replied Sunset enthusiastically “Man, I haven’t had a decent meal since yesterday. Come on, Quickfix. Let’s see if you could fit into some of Fluttershy’s clothes.”

Stopping right in her tracks, Fluttershy turned to look at her friend with a disapproving gaze “Sunset, what about school?”

With a shrug of her shoulders, Sunset placed a hand around her two cowering friends and smiled “Principal Celestia will understand, I’m sure.”

“… Principal Celestia?”

Shade’s question hung on the air as Quickfix was dragged away by Sunset who was muttering something about getting a bath. As he sat there quietly, cleaning his mind of the memories of Twilight’s pranks, Shade came to a sudden realisation. He was in a house filled with girls, they were going to sleep together in the same house, and Shade is still single.

It was official. Shade had a harem.

“I have a harem…” he muttered to himself, feeling the words roll off his tongue like butter “I have a harem… I have a harem!”

With an uncharacteristic squeal, Shade jumped onto his feet and screamed in joy. Finally, after years of being single, Shade finally managed to get it on with a girl. And not just one, but three! But then again, Shade was being too optimistic. He should probably start slow first. Would the girls allow him cuddling them while they slept?

“Umm, excuse me.”

But then what if they had to go home? Then he’ll only have Quickfix as a memory that he managed to sleep with three cute girls. Sure, she looks nice and is really smart, but he doesn’t want to be in a relationship with her. Who knows what health hazards that would cause?

“Uhm, Shade was it?”

And then there’s his world’s Sunset Shimmer. Would she approve of him being in a relationship with somepony else? Wait, why is he even thinking of her? It’s not like he like likes her, right? She... She’s just a friend that he likes to tease, right? Nothing wrong with that!

“I’ll just leave your blanket out here, then,”

Wait, what?

Shade’s head darted to Fluttershy as she placed a thick yellow blanket onto the sofa and slowly walked back towards the kitchen to prepare the dinner. As Shade picked up the fluffy blanket, he finally understood the meaning of the gesture. He’s sleeping solo tonight. Again. Well, that’s what you get for getting too optimistic, Shade.

“… I miss Sunset…” he smiled and hugged the blanket, imagining it as the most beautiful mare he ever laid his eyes on. Placing it back onto the couch, Shade wandered into the kitchen. Maybe he could help Fluttershy with dinner.

Elsewhere in the house, Sunset was facing even bigger problems. Teaching Quickfix how to walk was hard enough already, but walking in a wet bathroom? It was downright murder. Luckily, the Northerner managed to leave the bathroom with only minor injuries. Strangely enough, there’s a crack on the toilet that wasn’t there when she last went in there.

After a quick hot shower, Sunset Shimmer walked out of the bathroom to see that Quickfix had gotten onto Fluttershy’s laptop. Of course, it was only a matter of time before the inventor finally came across the internet and all its glory. As she got dressed and dried her hair, Sunset took a peek at what kind of websites Quickfix had found.

Add that to the pile of things Sunset regrets.

“Quickfix, how the heck did you get to that website?!”

“It came up on its own! Ah just touched this thing and – Wow, tha’ girl can really stretch!”

“You had to literally type that in to – Hey, you’re right, she really can – Stop changing the subject!”

Somehow, either by plain curiosity or misfortune, Quickfix had gone to one of the darker recesses of the internet. Millions upon millions of places and things that she could have found, yet it all boiled down to perverted images and videos that plagued the web. Sunset didn’t know if she should be surprised or disgusted at the Northerner right now.

“Come on, Quickfix,” Sunset tried to pry Quickfix from the monitor but to no avail “We’re having a sleepover! Think of all the things we could do. Makeovers, and scary stories, even pillow fights. Do you wanna waste the chance to hang out with your new friends and just stay on the computer the whole day?”

“Shimmer,” replied Quickfix as she turned to look at the girl “Ah’m an engineer. Ah spend most of me time ‘round machines, and ah lock meself in a lab. Do ye think that ah would have chosen that life if ah didn’t know of the consequences?”

Sunset blinked.

“Wait, but you’re an Element of Harmony! That must mean that you must be good at making friends or… something. At the very least, you’re friends with the other Element Bearers, right”

Not even bothering to turn away from the screen, Quickfix continued to scroll through site after site. She paused for a moment, weighing Sunset’s question and thinking of the best way to answer it without hurting anyone’s feelings. After all, Sunset Shimmer was not a robot. At least, not that she knew of.

Quickfix never did like dealing with other ponies. Robots were easier to work with. Much less of a hassle to talk to and easier to fix, too.

“Ah welcomed Sunset into the lab because she was royalty,” she finally admitted “Joinin’ her on the quest for the Elements was mostly a grudge on mah part. Hated it when Nightmare Moon broke all of me turrets. And then ah even managed ta find a helicopter in the Everfree, so lucky me ah guess.”

“Quickfix…”

“Ah’m the Element of Inspiration, but ah’m a terrible role model, right? Parents tell their foals ta make some friends so they don’t end up like me, and me lab has a terrible reputation already. Ta be honest… Ah’m scared. Ah don’t know why yer all friends with me, even if ah don’t deserve it. Why can’t somepony else be Inspiration? Why… why did the Elements choose me…?

Tears slid down the girl’s face as she finally turned her head away from the monitor and faced Sunset. Before she could break down any further, Sunset wrapped her arms around Quickfix in a tender hug. After all, she was the one who could understand Quickfix’s feelings the most. It’s what runs through Sunset’s mind every time she meets her friends, after all.

“Please don’t question it,” Sunset whispered into Quickfix’s ear, struggling back tears of her own “Just be grateful for your friends. You are an inspiration to everyone, you know. You proved that no matter what hardships you go through, you could still make friends and have a happy life. No one hates you for being caught up in your work. In fact, I’m sure some ponies are even proud to call you their friend!” She finally let go of the girl and led her towards the door “So what do you say? Do you wanna go and hang out with some of your friends right now?”

“… Ah… Ah need a moment fer meself…” said Quickfix as she limped towards the computer “Gotta think things through, ye know?”

Nodding understandably, Sunset moved towards the door alone. Just as she was about to turn the doorknob, Sunset suddenly thought of an idea. Walking back towards Quickfix, who was back to surfing through websites, Sunset pushed her inter-dimensional friendship report diary towards the girl.

“You could read through this if you want,” she smiled “I’m sure that’s what Princess Twilight would want me to do. You know, spread my own lessons on friendship to other ponies.”

“Thank ye…”

With a nod, Sunset Shimmer walked out of the room in hopes of having a nice dinner with her friends. What she found instead was a house filled with rampaging animals as smoke came out of the kitchen. Fluttershy was coughing and sputtering outside the kitchen, and Shade was nowhere to be seen.

“Fluttershy!” Sunset called out as she ran towards the girl “What happened?!”

“AARGH!!!”

CRASH

Shade’s voice could be heard from inside the smoke filled kitchen, filling Sunset with a sense of dread. He was still new to his body! Who knows how he’s trying to put out the fire! Quickly pulling out her phone, Sunset Shimmer dialled the fire department and managed to actually tell them about the fire without breaking into a panicking mess.

As the group was still trying to figure out what to do, Quickfix burst out through Fluttershy’s bedroom door and ran into the kitchen yelling at the top of her lungs. This prompted Sunset to follow in after her. Fluttershy just sat there, hyperventilating as she tried to catch her breath.

Needless to say, it was a sleepover none of them would forget any time soon.

Canterlot was filled with many secrets. In fact, the only pony who knows all of them is Princess Celestia herself, and that’s because she was the one who made most of those secrets herself. Secret dungeons filled with cursed artefacts, mysterious rooms where Unicorns underwent insane experiments, and torture chambers for the worst of criminals are all hidden under the very hooves of the most bustling city in all of Equestria.

However, today she must unveil one of those secrets to some of her most trusted subjects. If what she was told of was true, then it is the only way for her to see her daughter again.

As she walks down the endless amount of stairs, closely being followed by five of the Elements of Harmony, her adopted son, and a few of her most loyal knights, Princess Celestia knew that this moment will change these mares’ lives forever. Things will never again be the same for them.

“Is this artefact really so powerful it had to be hidden?” Redheart inquired as she trotted up towards the goddess “Why hasn’t it been destroyed yet?”

“Unfortunately, yes,” Celestia looked dead ahead into the dark chasm “The World Mirror is an extremely powerful tool created by Starswirl The Bearded that could traverse through dimensions. As for why we have not destroyed it… It is because we cannot.”

“I’m sorry?”

“The mirror absorbs power by ripping open the very essence of space and time, moulding it and shaping it into a solid surface that acts as a portal between dimensions. If we destroyed it, then we risk destroying space-time itself. This world will be in tatters and the rip that it leaves behind will be large enough that any creature will be able to enter this world and wage war on us.”

“Whooee! Now that there sounds more dangerous than ridin’ a buffalo in a rattlesnake nest!” Fiddlesticks tipped her hat off in admiration “But that don’t mean that our lil’ Sunset’s gone through that portal, Yer Highness.”

Celestia nodded. Yes, she was aware that this event had nothing to do with the mirror, but it is the only item that could access alternate universes. Right now, this was their only lead to Sunset Shimmer. Thankfully, her loyal subjects had managed to get enough information on this alternate Sunset Shimmer’s world for her to pin it down. If anything, they could at least find Quickfix and Shade if they are with her right now.

“Oh, this is all my fault!” Spike wailed, wiping a tear from his eyes “If only I reached them sooner, then we wouldn’t be in this mess!”

“It is nobody’s fault, Spike,” Celestia draped a wing over her son in an attempt to reassure him “You were kind in trying to heal your friends, and you didn’t expect the enemy to attack within your own home. However, you did the right thing in contacting me as soon as you found out about your sister. If anything, it is my fault for not being able to come immediately to your aid.”

“Bu-But Shimmer even said that she had a weird dream! What if that was really important? If only I listened to what she was going to say!”

“If it really is a premonition and not just a dream, then we will come across it as well. Just keep your hopes up, and aim for the best. Your sister will be found, and she will not be harmed.”

“We are here, Your Majesty,” a royal guard mentioned as the group dispersed, giving their lord ample space to move

Before them stood an ancient door that towered above them all. Roots and vines had covered the door, showing its age. If one wasn’t actually looking for it, they would have merely bumped into it and thought of it as nothing but a wall. Of course, anypony who had found this staircase that led to nothing but a single door must actually be aware of what they are looking for. Nopony, no matter how lucky or insane they are, can find this place with mere luck alone.

Stopping right in front of the door, the white Alicorn looked at the circular hole in the middle of the door. Inserting her long, magnificent horn into the hole, Princess Celestia fired a magic beam into the hole, lighting up the large door with ancient blue writing. The magic burnt away the foliage, revealing a glistening oak door that stood proudly before them.

Carefully, Princess Celestia opened the door with her forehoof, revealing a large chamber bathed in darkness. With a simple flick of her horn, she activated an illumination spell and walked into the room.

“That… was awesome,” Lightning Dust whistled “Maybe I could get something like this for my house door!”

“Did anypony else notice that there were exactly 777 steps to this here door?” Fiddlesticks said nonchalantly as she skipped into the room “S’like they were countin’ jus’ ta make sure they had a good number!”

“Oh, I wouldn’t put it past Starswirl The Bearded to do that,” Pizzelle giggled, following suit into the room “After all, he is one of the most intelligent and powerful Unicorns to ever exist! My, I’m sure that he has quite a perfectionist attitude to match with his otherworldly wisdom. The Unicorns must be really happy to have somepony like that as a hero!” she then let out a distraught sigh “If only Sunset and Quickfix were here. They’d love to see things like this!”

One by one, the ponies and dragon all entered the room in a single file, following closely behind each other so they don’t get lost in the darkness. Even with the Sun Goddess illuminating their way, the room was far too large to entirely light up. There was also the way that the furniture and items were placed. It was as if Starswirl wanted as little light to enter this room as possible.

Minutes pass with nothing but light from the Alicorn Princess and her Unicorn Knights, and the voices of the excitable ponies leading them on. Pizzelle had made sure to stay in the back of the group, keeping tabs on the quiet and meek Coco and making sure that she didn’t get lost in the darkness. Before Fiddlesticks could ask for the thousandth time, the group stopped.

They were at their destination.

“Whoa…” Lightning Dust was the first to speak, marvelling at the contraption that stood before them.

It was a dark purple mirror, one fitted with rare jewels that would make a Diamond Dog drool. Wires criss-crossed the machine, sending jolts of magic into it as its surface gleamed in the artificial light. Despite being kept underground for hundreds of years, it still looked clean and new. The surface of the glass rippled with energy, showcasing mysterious worlds that they had never seen before. Surely there was some powerful magic at work here.

“Oh no,”

Those simple words sent a wave of fear running down the group’s spines. Whatever could scare their great ruler was sure to be terrible news for them. Everyone stood still as Princess Celestia walked towards the mirror and stopped, staring into its mysterious glass.

“The World Mirror is active,” she said with a hint of fear “I don’t know how or who is responsible, but somepony managed to enter these chambers and activate the Mirror!”

“Then let’s go in there and stop them!” Lightning bumped her hooves together and grit her teeth, allowing her fangs to show

“If it is the only way to save our friends, then I must agree!” Redheart joined in as she stepped forward “Please, Princess. This may be the only way to rescue Sunset Shimmer!”

“I would allow you to go if you could, but at this point you cannot,” the news slammed into everyone like a sledgehammer “The Mirror is active. It is not supposed to act this way. This World Mirror is supposed to only activate for a short moment to allow entrance and exit, and deactivate as soon as no one is using it. If it’s active, then that means…”

“…Somepony is still in it…?” Coco Pommel squeaked, taking a step backwards.

As the group stood there, wondering just how they were going to rescue Sunset Shimmer now, they never noticed the heavy haze that surrounded the group. However, when they did notice, it was far too late. They all tried to fight back against the unknown mist, running away in an attempt to escape it.

“Ah, I see that more lost lambs have stumbled into my domain…”

“I-It’s that voice!” Coco hid behind Spike, trembling in fear as she tried to block the voice out of her ears

“The same one that attacked Shimmer and the others at the library!”

Spike’s rage reached its peak as he breathed out a pillar of flame at the mist, burning down whatever it was that used to be there. However, a wispy, blood-curling laugh alerted the group to the revelation that the owner was still unharmed, and that their attempts were futile. After all, how do you defeat something that cannot be touched?

“Sleep, my little lambs. Forget all of your worries, and sleep for an eternity. Why worry about your problems here in the mortal world? In your dreams, anything can be possible…”

One by one, the group all fell into a deep slumber. Soon, only Redheart was left awake and fearing for her life. Despite her ideals and virtues, the nurse knew that she was no match for this new enemy. If it can take down Princess Celestia, then who knows what it could do to her? Against her better judgement, Nurse Redheart ran towards the only place where the mist did not touch; The World Mirror.

“Please, forgive me!” she screamed, jumping into the portal as she withheld her tears.

The last thing she remembered before blacking out was milky white nothingness, squeezing against her body as it tried to crush her bones. Mysterious black figures flailed helplessly beside her, but Redheart was in no condition to reach out to them.

And then, darkness.

Author's Note

Sorry this chapter came out a little late. I just bought a new drawing tablet and I was trying to draw a cover image for the fic. Needless to say, I sucked. Maybe in due time, I guess.

Move Along

Mondays.

Mondays.

It is a unanimously agreed by everyone that has or will ever live that Mondays are the worst thing that has ever been invented by mankind. It’s that weird transition from a relaxing and fun-filled weekend with the depressing droll life that we are forced to live when the new week begins. Kids hate it, adults hate it, even ponies hate it. In fact, science has proved that winning the lottery is easier than finding someone who honestly loved Mondays.

This hatred, of course, was also prominent in a group of teenagers walking down the street as they headed for Canterlot High. Each one had a reason to hate Monday, and this Monday in particular was even worse than any other.

One of them just had their kitchen burned down for miscellaneous reasons.

The lone boy in the group had been denied the chance to finish watching the last episode of the show he had started watching.

Another didn’t have time to put on her third layer of make up before being unceremoniously dragged out of her own home.

The fourth had been denied access to the computer despite her insistence that she was only using it for research purposes.

And last but not least, the last girl was this close to getting the chance to skip school because she was trapped in an alternate universe.

Despite how petty some of their complaints are, to them it was the worst possible thing ever. Mondays just had that effect on people, really. Small things look like huge disasters and suddenly missing a sock is more dreadful than world hunger. Mondays, man. Just… Mondays.

“Urgh...” Sunset stretched her body as much as she could. After everything she’s been through yesterday, going to school today was just a chore for her. She would have called in sick if the damn portal wasn’t located at school in the first place “Last night was just brutal…”

“Ye tell me,” Quickfix groaned. She tightened the straps of her satchel, which had miraculously replaced the saddle she had brought over from her world. It was a miracle that most of her inventions even survived the trip here. “Ah’m not the one who thought that stayin’ up the whole night before a big mission was a good idea. I blame Shade.”

“I wouldn’t blame him for anything, really,” said Fluttershy, stifling a yawn. Besides her backpack, she also brought along a large travelling bag filled with clothes. She really didn’t want to see her parents’ reactions when they see their house when they get back from their trip “We were the ones who stayed up late playing board games.”

“He blasted those speakers so loud the neighbours probably have a new favourite theme song.”

“Well, you have to agree that it’s a really upbeat and catchy-”

“Ah know, ah memorised it.”

Thwomp

“Mrrrrrrgggghhhhh…”

Four sets of footsteps stopped as their brains tried to process what that voice was. For some reason, it sounded suspiciously like Punchbag Bob had fallen onto the ground and was trying its best to complain about his life. But really, who cares? It’s just a punching bag. Those things fall down all the time.

“Oh, Shade darling, now is not the time to have an afternoon nap.”

“Dammit, Shade…” Quickfix grumbled as she slapped her palm on her forehead. Man, doing it as a human really did feel different. For one thing, she didn’t have a horn getting in the way anymore. And since she didn’t have hooves, it wasn’t as painful either “Can’t we just, ye know, leave him there, Rarity? It’s not like anyone’ll notice.”

As Rarity, who was voted Canterlot High’s most high maintenance girl three times in a row, ignored the former Unicorn’s incessant grumbling, she whipped out a cleaning rag from her handbag and proceeded to dust the poor boy off. She would have used any of the more sophisticated items in there, such as the feather duster or the handkerchief, but she really didn’t want to dirty them.

“Quickfix dear, Shade here is your boy-” Quickfix gave her a death glare that would make daggers proud “-mutual friend. If anything, you should be the one concerned about him, not me. After all, I only just met him yesterday.”

“Serves him right for watching that damn show till 6 a.m. in the mornin’.”

“I wanna join the Recon Corps, mom,” Shade muttered blissfully. Quickfix slowly came to the realisation that he was completely unaware of what was going on around him. In fact, if she completely loathed the guy, she would have used that to her advantage. Unfortunately, she really needed a lab assistant and finding a new one, especially one that’s also fireproof, was near impossible.

“Quickfix, give it a rest,” Sunset placed a hand on her friend’s shoulder “At least he had fun, right?”

“Define fun.”

“Not getting your kitchen burned down,” Fluttershy chimed in, raising a knowing finger “And obviously not going to a dolphin show.”

“… What do dolphins even-?”

“I just really don’t like dolphins.”

The group turned to Rarity for answers, considering that the two of them had been friends the longest. In turn, she only replied by raising her arms in an ‘X’ symbol and shaking her head. Now that Sunset thought about it, she finally realised just how Fluttershy always conveniently skipped the dolphin show whenever they visited the aquarium.

“Puttin’ that topic aside…” Quickfix dragged Shade off the ground and shouldered him “Why did ye choose to move the sleepover ta Rarity’s house, anyway?”

“Oh, her house was the nearest, actually,” replied Sunset nonchalantly. She was lying, of course, but it wasn’t like the others could prove her otherwise.

“We had ta take a taxi ta get ta her house.”

“The others live farther away. Much farther away.

The truth was that she really didn’t want to go to her other friends’ house. Pinkie Pie and her sisters were, to be perfectly honest, a bit on the crazy side of the sanity scale. The last time they had a sleepover there, Sunset nearly died of a heart attack. Rainbow Dash was a terrible host. If they ever crashed at her place, they’ll be sleeping on the couch. Going back to Vinyl’s house would just be awkward, and no doubt Pinkie’s other sister Octavia would be sleeping there in her stead. She always did that whenever Sunset wasn’t around. As for Applejack’s house…

Let’s just say that Big Mac is not willing to let a random boy sleep in their house.

But it didn’t matter in the end, really. Rarity welcomed them into her humble abode with open arms. She was also apparently fine with the knowledge that Fluttershy’s kitchen had burned down. She muttered something about understanding her plight, before ominously looking at a picture of Sweetie Belle she had hanging on her wall.

At first, Rarity didn’t know what to do with Shade. Her house wasn’t really boy-friendly, what with how all of her things just screamed ‘girly’ with a capital everything. So instead she allowed him to rummage through all her movie DVDs so he wouldn’t get too bored.

And then he found the anime DVDs.

“I never knew Sweetie Belle was such a huge anime fan, though,” Sunset laughed, entirely missing the terrified look in Rarity’s eyes “I mean, did you see how many DVDs she had hidden behind all of those romantic-comedy movies? I never took her to be into those kinds of shows, though. She always seemed so… clueless, I guess.”

“Yes, yes, they’re so obviously Sweetie Belle’s that you can’t even deny it, because who else would watch those shows? Not me, that’s who,” Rarity said as fast as she could. Somehow, Sunset still didn’t catch all the panic she was emanating “I’ll have to hide them- I mean, tell her to keep them someplace else next time. Don’t want anyone else finding out about her secret now, do we?”

“I WANNA KILL ALL THE TITANS!”

“That’s very nice, Shade,” Fluttershy patted Shade’s back gently, like a mother telling her son that Santa’s coming to visit this year if he acted really, really nice “You go and kill those titans nice and good now. And while you’re at it, the dolphins are also attacking everyone. Could you be a dear and-”

“KILL ALL THE DOLPHINS!”

“Thank you, Shade.”

A shiver ran down Quickfix’s spine as she wondered just what Fluttershy was truly capable of. And to think that she pegged her as the innocent timid type, just like Coco. She also wondered just what brought about this whole dolphin hatred, but her rational mind wasn’t willing to go that far for the truth. At this point, she was hoping to get to the school as fast as possible just so she could get this whole thing over with.

That was why, as soon as she saw the large building with the plaque reading Canterlot High out front, Quickfix ran straight towards it with Shade still in tow. All of the other students, who were obviously down with the Monday blues, stared at her in shock and wisely kept a two mile radius away from her. When they noticed that she was previously walking with Sunset Shimmer and friends, some of them even quickened their pace and walked straight into school without a second glance.

“Wait, wha-?”

Approaching the school, the first thing that Quickfix noticed was the giant statue of a horse standing proudly in all of its glory. But that wasn’t the weird thing. After all, Princess Celestia had a whole garden filled with statues which may or may not be actual living, breathing beings turned to stone just outside her castle. The weird thing was that the glass panels on the base of the statue were rippling as if they were sheets of cloth being blown in the wind. Also, nobody else seemed to notice, or if they did they didn’t care.

It was the latter, by the way. They just knew that today was going to be one of those days. Some kids even turned around and started walking home, saying that it wasn’t worth it. Good for them!

“Uhm, quick question,” Quickfix tapped on Sunset’s shoulder and pointed to the statue “Does that thing always do that?”

“Huh, weird.”

Sunset approached the statue which acted as this world’s World Mirror. Strange, it never did act this way before. Normally, she’d have to chuck a rock at it to see if it was active or not. Quickly glancing around, she picked up a tiny pebble on the ground and chucked it at the mirror. She patiently waited for the sound of someone screaming in pain on the other side of the mirror.

CRAKOOOOOOM

That did not sound like someone screaming in pain.

“I…I think the portal’s busted,” she says after a moment of silence for the poor pebble. Rest in pieces, little friend.

“Can a magical mirror portal even malfunction?” Rarity inquired as she raised a finger to her chin “Perhaps you should ask Princess Twilight? Maybe it’s a problem on her side.”

“No need to tell me twice.”

Taking out the self-christened Phone Book, Sunset started to write down her next letter to Princess Twilight, right next to her explanation of her weird dream and the long explanation trying to tell Twilight that, no, she is not crazy and no, she doesn’t need any medication.

“We’ll probably be here for a while,” Sunset said in between thinking of a way to phrase the sentence so that Twilight wouldn’t go crazy and try to fix the problem by herself “Why don’t you give our guests a tour of the school in the meantime, ‘Shy?”

“Oh, I wouldn’t mind,” Fluttershy mutters as she holds Quickfix’s arm, making her visible flinch and almost drop Shade “That is, if you want to.”

Quickfix desperately tried to pull her arm free. Fluttershy was nice, yes, but who knows just what menacing thoughts she had hidden behind that beautiful smile of hers “But we’ll probably just be here for a few hours.”

“Better safe than sorry, right?”

Quickfix raised an eyebrow “Yer sayin’ that like y’er expectin’ us ta stay here.”

Ignoring Quickfix’s question, Fluttershy quietly dragged the two former Unicorns into the school. Finally giving in, Quickfix allowed herself to be dragged by the wrist with Shade in tow. On their way to the grand entrance of the school, she noticed just how many boys, and even some girls, were staring at Fluttershy with that same look you would give an abandoned puppy. She randomly wondered just how many valentines’ cards she gets every year considering how adorable she looks.

No, Quickfix does not swing that way. Or the other way, either. In fact, even she isn’t really sure if she even swings.

“So, where do you want to go first?” Fluttershy asked with the kindest smile she could muster “We could visit Principal Celestia. I heard that she’ll accept anyone into the school if they visit her office.”

Thwomp

“Mrrrrrrgggghhhhh…”

Grrrrrrmmmmble

“… or we could visit the cafeteria. We didn’t really have the chance to eat breakfast back at Rarity’s house, didn’t we? I didn’t know that all of her foodstuff was already burnt somehow. Oh, Pinkie Pie said she’s helping out at the cafeteria today! I’m sure she’ll be happy to give us a free sample.”

“Ye know, fer someone with ‘shy’ in her name, yer pretty talkative, aren’t ye?” Quickfix managed to say as she literally allowed Fluttershy to drag her along the ground

“This only happens with pony-people…”

“Ah.”

As Fluttershy and Quickfix both drifted off into whatever direction Fluttershy finally agreed for them to go to, they both failed to realise that their load had suddenly gotten quite lighter. In fact, if they listened carefully they would have heard the distinct sound of Punchbag Bob falling onto the floor. But sadly, this is the sad life of Shade, forever to be forgotten even by his best friends. But in their defence, it was a high school hallway. They were bound to lose something one way or another.

Now it’s not to say that people didn’t notice Shade falling face first onto the floor. Some people even had half a mind to help him up. However, the other half of their mind which had been cultivated by the school system was constantly knocking on their heads, asking them why they weren’t already running to Physics 101 because oh my god guys, it’s Physics!

“Celestia, if you’re listening to me right now, then can you please send me an angel? I promise I won’t hit on your daughter for a week.” Shade muttered to no one in particular. After a moment of silence, he quickly added “If you bring me breakfast too, I’ll make that two weeks.”

“Oh, it seems like we have an injured patient here.”

“THANK YOU, CELESTIA!”

Standing above Shade was a girl with pale white skin who had her light pink hair tied up into a bun. She was sporting a pink nurse’s uniform, which isn’t really something teenagers wear, but Shade isn’t supposed to know that, is he? But that wasn’t what caught his attention. What did catch his attention were the two huge buns she had on her chest, swinging voluptuously in front of Shade’s hungry eyes.

“Would you like a bun?” she handed him one of the buns she was holding in front of her chest, to which Shade happily accepted “You seem rather heavy for me to lift, and the infirmary is pretty far... Ah, Bulk dear, could you please help me carry this boy to the infirmary?”

“YEAH!!”

“Thank you, darling.”

Just as Shade was finally getting a good look at the beautiful angel who had saved his life, she was instantly replaced by a huge, hulking beast of a man whose muscles would make watermelons feel inadequate. Remembering all of his past experiences with these kinds of people, especially those damned Angry Knights, Shade did the most rational thing he could think of and screamed. Oh, he screamed all right. The beautiful white nurse even took out a stopwatch, silently calculating how long he could scream before he needed to gasp for air.

“Um, Redheart, should we-” Bulk tried to say, but was instantly shushed by the girl

“Ah, thirty-one seconds. I guess he doesn’t have any lung damage. Although, he needs a lot of work if he wants to beat the record for longest scream,” she then took out a clipboard from her backpack and wrote down her findings before quietly slipping it back into her bag “Come on, Bulk. We don’t want him to fall unconscious now.”

While the two white-skinned students talked about random topics on their way to the school infirmary, Shade’s brain was finally assessing the situation. He was separated from his friends, in an alternate world, with no magic, and with no way to contact the others. Sure, he could say that things couldn’t get worse than that, but his bad luck streak was bad enough already. He didn’t dare evoke Murphy’s Law any more than he normally did.

Somehow despite his never ending screams, the hulking beast had managed to bring Shade all the way to a sterile white room with beds lining the walls without slamming his face into a wall just so he would shut up. Usually, that’s what everyone else does to him when he starts to get too loud. Finding an empty bed near the end of the room, the muscular giant dropped him off there and left, but not before getting a peck on his cheek by the cute white girl in the nurse uniform.

“I’ll see you after class, Bulk,” Redheart smiled, hugging the muscular teen’s stocky chest

“I’ll be counting the seconds, Redheart,” Bulk replied, not even hiding the glaring blush on his face

Meanwhile, Shade was there watching the whole thing. There was something extremely wrong about this scene, but he can’t quite put a finger on it. Speaking of which, this girl said that her name was… Redheart, right? Then by that logic, then this must be this world’s version of his friend. That wasn’t the weird part. In fact, he was sort of expecting that. No, whatever it was, Shade knew that it was just so surprising that if he would never look at Redheart the same way again.

He quickly pushed that thought aside as Redheart walked towards him, clipboard in hand and a pen placed on her ear.

“I’ve never seen you before, and trust me, I never forget a face,” she says quickly, jotting down notes on her trusty clipboard “My name’s Redheart in case you don’t know, and no, you may not call me Nurse Redheart. No, you cannot ask me out on a date and I don’t care how much it hurt when I fell from heaven. Yes, I have a boyfriend. You just met him, in fact. And no, he isn’t compensating for anything. I know, I checked.”

Oh, so that’s what’s wrong. Redheart’s dating Bulk Biceps!

Wait.

“WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-”

“Silence, please,” Redheart placed a thermometer into Shade’s mouth and started feeling his pulse “Blood levels are normal, and your temperature is fine. You seem healthy on paper, but that… grumbling stomach seems to say otherwise. Please eat the bun, thank you. It seems to me like your eyes are rather swollen, and judging by what you’ve been muttering on the way here, I would assume that you’ve been binge watching anime the night before?”

“-AAAAAAAAAAAAAA-”

“Now, I won’t complain about your lifestyle. Heaven knows, I binge watch shows all the time, but I would assume you would know that you shouldn’t be sacrificing sleep to watch them. And on a school night, at that. Unless of course, you simply forgot that today was a school day.”

“-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!”

Oh, for crying out loud-

“Is it really that surprising that I have a boyfriend?” Redheart sighed, rubbing her forehead in astonishment “I mean, I’m a girl, too! I think I deserve my own happiness. It’s not like I’m getting any younger, you know! Also, that was forty two seconds. If you keep this up, you’ll beat that record in no time.”

An uncomfortable silence wafted through the air as the two teenagers just sat there, not doing anything. Sure, Redheart was used to these reactions from most of the male population. For some reason, they just can’t get it into their thick skulls that she wasn’t going to NTR her boyfriend any time soon. However, there was something different about this person. It wasn’t that he seemed disappointed. No, it seemed more like he was… happy?

In Shade’s mind, only three words echoed endlessly as he tried to wrap his head around the fact that in this world, Redheart was probably the most popular girl in school and had a boyfriend. Three words that would never leave his mind, and would always haunt him for the rest of his life whenever he sees Redheart and Bulk Biceps ever again.

‘I ship it’

Elsewhere in the school, Fluttershy was pacing nervously in a circle. Quickfix stood nearby, munching on a biscuit and completely uncaring of Fluttershy’s plight. To the normal man, she would seem rather uncaring or unforgiving. Even Quickfix agreed that she could become rather heartless sometimes, as well. But then again, Fluttershy was worried about Shade.

“Oh, what if he gets lost? Or what if bullies picked him up and dunked his head into the toilet!?! Oh, I am such a terrible host!”

“Calm down, Fluttershy!” Quickfix muttered again for the umpteenth time “This is Shade we’re talkin’ aboot. He’s not goin’ ta die any time soon. In fact, ah’m sure we’ll find him in a hospital or somethin’.”

“H-Hospital?!”

Maybe saying that wasn’t the best thing she could have done.

Ignoring Fluttershy’s outburst, Quickfix walked over to the cafeteria counter where two teenagers were setting up food for lunch. One of them had pale whitish-grey skin and had her blonde hair tied up into a bun, while the other just screamed ‘PINK’. Somehow, she had managed to keep all of that hair into a small hairnet. Quickfix would have asked her how she did that if she wasn’t already friends with Fiddlesticks.

“Fluttershy’s still panickin’,” Quickfix took one of the muffins they had placed on the counter and bit into it, savouring the sweet blueberry taste that it had “So Pizzelle, tell me aboot ye’self.”

“Wow, that’s the first time someone asked me to talk. Usually they tell me not to talk!” the grey skinned girl smiled as she stirred some of the cafeteria’s mystery meet. She should really ask Granny Smith what they’re made of. Or why they’re spelled wrong “But if it’s for an inter-dimensional friend, then I’ll be happy to help! Anyway, I live in a bakery across the street with my family, and I sort of work there part time. Does it even count as part time if I live there? Then doesn’t that mean that I should be working there full time? Speaking of which, I don’t think my parents even pay me, so I’m not technically working per se. Or maybe my daily allowance is really my pay. Huh, never really thought of it that way.”

“Interesting,” Quickfix said out of formality more than anything else. Having Pizzelle around was good for background noise, and boy did she need it. What Quickfix was really interested in was what Pinkie Pie (Celestia, her parents had a weird naming sense) was doing with the wooden spoons.

Could wooden spoons even bend like that? Because as an engineer, she knows that wood does not bend like that!

“-And last week, me and my boyfriend picked up this really cute kitty at the adoption agency! Oh, it was just the cutest little ball of fur! We named it Aki Hikaru, that’s Neighponese for ‘Shining Autumn’, by the way. Speaking of which, have you noticed that a lot of places have horse puns in their names? I mean, Canterlot?”

“Wait, what did you say?”

“Um, that a lot of places have horse puns in their names?”

“I just assumed that they were drunk when they named them!” Pinkie Pie interjected. She had ditched the wooden spoons and was- Wow, how do you even do that with a spatula? Doesn’t that go against the laws of gravity?

“No, no, before that,”

“Aki?”

“Before that!”

“Me and my boyfriend-”

“Yeah… that.”

Well, it didn’t really surprise Quickfix that this Pizzelle was in a relationship. After all, her Pizzelle had been looking for a husband for months. Years, even, if her stories were credible. And considering her title as the Element of Truth, they most probably were. Maybe she should find out more about this person. If she’s lucky, then she could help out her Pizzelle by getting the two of them together.

No, that probably wouldn’t work. After all, alternate universes and all. Just look at Sunset! She’s nothing like her world’s Sunset Shimmer, but they have the same name and everything. In fact, she wouldn’t be surprised if in a whole other world, there was a Sunset Shimmer who was much more sociable and friendly, and was the Element of Magic! No, not Magic. No doubt the Sunset of that world ditched the whole Magic thing and called herself the Element of Friendship.

Hopefully, she won’t be dragged into that alternate world.

“-And he’s just the nicest person I’ve ever met! You just have to meet him! Wait, why don’t you meet him right now? I could give him a call! I do hope that he‘s fine with meeting people from alternate dimensions. What should I tell him?”

“What about you?” Quickfix turned to Pinkie Pie, who was finally using the spatula the way that it was supposed to be used “You have any boyfriends or anything?”

“Nope! Never had one,” she said matter-of-factly, flipping ten patties and stacking them perfectly on top of a plate “But I do know what it’s like to get hot and dirty on bed! I doubt even Rarity’s done that before.”

“Wait, but aren’t you-”

“Youngest of the group? Yeah, that’s what they want you to think. Wink, wink.”

Well, that conversation got really weird really fast. Seeing as Quickfix was starting to feel uncomfortable just looking at Pinkie Pie, and that she doesn’t actually care about Pizzelle’s love life, Quickfix decided to go back to Fluttershy. Maybe she could hold a decent-

“We have to file a missing person report!”

Why did she ever get her hopes up?

Knowing that she was probably never going to get any peace of mind surrounded by these… people, Quickfix opened her satchel and started rummaging around for anything she could use. She had packed a lot of miscellaneous items, most of which aren’t even useful in any situation. Honestly, what was she supposed to use a portable egg beater for? Several uneventful minutes later, she finally gave up and pulled out a few pieces of scrap metal, opting to let her fingers move for her.

RRRRRRRRRNNNNNGGG

“Ooh, time for class!” Pinkie Pie squealed, taking off her apron and hairnet, instantly making her hair explode everywhere like a mini-firework. She then casually walked back into the kitchen, disappearing from Quickfix’s view.

“I have Biology with Fluttershy after this,” Pizzelle kindly said as she took off her apron and hung it on a nearby rack “If you’ll excuse me, I’ll be taking her now. See you soon!”

“Yeah, see ye soon… Wait, do ye know where the infirmary is?”

“Down the hallway, turn left at the creepy dark hallway with the flickering lights, third door on your right. You can’t miss it!”

“Thanks!”

Pizzelle calmly wrapped an arm around Fluttershy’s shoulders and brought her through the large double doors. Quickfix then waited for Pinkie Pie to come out of the kitchen, but was confused when she never did. Quietly slipping past the counter, Quickfix peeked through the windowed door and scanned for the bright pink girl.

She wasn’t there.

“Welp, not questionin’ that,” Quickfix continued tinkering with the two pieces of scrap metal in her hands. For now, it was best if she went to look for the school clinic. If there was anything she learned from working with Shade after all this time, it’s that if he was missing, he’ll probably be at the hospital.

On the other side of the school, Sunset Shimmer was busy trying to dial up Fluttershy to ask her where she last left her two new otherworldly friends. She silently cursed at Fluttershy for always keeping her phone on silent. How many times does she have to tell her to leave it on during an emergency?!

But then again, she wasn’t really aware of just how big of an emergency this really is.

She quickly bolted past students who were on their way to class, apologising every time she bumped into someone. Weaving through the group of people, Sunset noticed a familiar person waving at her, or maybe it was her general direction? She quickly looked around, wondering if there was anyone else that the person could have waved to. Do you know just how awkward it is when you find out that someone was really waving at someone behind you? Very. Seriously, you’ve never felt awkward until you’ve done it.

“Sunset Shimmer!”

Well, that answers that question. Quickly making her way to the girl, Sunset wondered just what she had to say to her.

“Hello, Sunset,”

“Um, hi… Redheart.” Sunset replied, not really sure how she was supposed to act.

She knew exactly who Redheart is. After all, she’s undoubtedly the most popular girl in school without even trying. With a rack that huge and working part-time in a job that requires her getting up close and personal with people, it was inevitable that she would gain a following. Not that she wanted to, of course, but still.

But no matter how popular she was, they all knew one thing. Whenever she starts a conversation with you for no reason, it’s never for anything good.

“I take it you brought a… friend, from your world?” Redheart asked, crossing her arms underneath her chest

“Well, two actually. How’d you know?”

“I met one and helped him to the infirmary. As for how I knew that he was your friend… he didn’t really try to hide that fact.”

After watching him fall face first onto the ground and not even flinch, Sunset really should have seen that coming. And that ominous second part, too. She suddenly had this strange mental image of Shade trying to sign his name using his mouth, much akin to what Princess Twilight does. She’s gonna need a lot of brain bleach to get that picture out of her head.

Before Sunset apologised and thanked Redheart for her assistance, she felt a hand touch her shoulder.

“Sunset, please be honest with me,” Redheart said, worry imminent in her eyes “How much trouble are we in this time?”

“I… I can’t say…”

“You can’t, or you won’t?”

Sunset visibly winced, hugging her Phone Book even tighter to her chest. She wasn’t willing to make other people worried, and this wasn’t really knowledge that the average person she live knowing. But then she looked at Redheart’s eyes and felt a pang of guilt crawling around her heart.

After the Battle of the Bands, Sunset found herself in a very weird position with her schoolmates. Most of them felt apologetic for how they’ve been treating her all this time, while others didn’t dare look her in the eye. However, one thing was prevalent with the whole school body, being friends with Sunset Shimmer was dangerous. Who knows what kinds of crazy things they would get sucked into just for being near her?

But now here Redheart was, asking her – no, forcing her to tell her what’s wrong. The hallway was already mostly empty and time was running short. Reluctantly, Sunset sighed and looked at the nurse’s assistant with worried eyes.

“If what Twilight told me was true, then we’ll probably be safe. Code word ‘probably’. But the other world, my new friends’ world… I’m not sure,” she muttered, clutching the Phone Book even tighter to her chest “If you really want to know what’s going on, then you could follow me to the infirmary. I need to tell everyone else too, and I don’t think that I wanna mention this twice.”

She hoped that Redheart would be okay with just that. After all, she still had classes to go to, and Redheart didn’t look like someone who would skip classes. Instead, Redheart just gave a wry grin and started walking towards the infirmary.

“Well, then we better not waste any time. Come on, I know a shortcut.”

“Wait, but what about classes?” Sunset called out as she caught up to the girl “At least I have an excuse. And I could always get the other Rainbooms, too! Principal Celestia wouldn’t mind us skipping class to save the world, but you’re-”

“Now your friend, Sunset Shimmer,” Redheart giggled “And I’m the nurse’s assistant. I go to class late tons of times. I take it your friends are coming as well?”

Well, it wasn’t like that was really worth asking. Rainbow Dash, Vinyl Scratch and Pinkie Pie have already received warning letters from skipping one too many classes, while Fluttershy was probably too scared to skip class. Rarity was the class rep, so she had to go to class early, while Applejack wouldn’t want to break her good student record. However, they all promised to come as soon as the homeroom teacher took their attendance records.

“Of course they are,” Sunset’s smile was much more hopeful now than it was this morning.

With their vigour at its highest peak, both girls started running as fast as they can towards the school clinic. The students and teachers that passed by them would start to question just what they were up to, but quickly went back to their original task. No use getting into Sunset’s business. Soon, they could see their goal just standing before them. Just a few more steps and they would make it!

“Now, stop right there,”

“Oh god dammit,” Sunset cursed as she came to a screeching halt “Of all the people…”

“Oh, I’m hurt! Am I not good enough for you? I may be a janitor, but I have feelings, too!”

The two girls only rolled their eyes as they were stopped by the one most annoying janitor in all of existence; Discord. He held his mop proudly as if it was a staff or a sword. Maybe even both. If his manic grin was anything to go by, then they knew that they were going to be there for a long time.

“It looks like our little pony princess is going out on a new adventure!” he giggled like a schoolboy, which coming from Discord actually made it sound eerily creepy “Oh, and you made a new friend! How wonderful!”

“Look, we need to hurry, Discord. Can you please-”

“Tsk, tsk, tsk,” Discord tsked as he threw his staff-sword-mop onto the floor and dug his hands into his cleaning bucket “You save the world once and now you think you’re above everyone else. If I were you, I’d act more humble with my peers. No wonder you don’t have that many friends.”

“I-”

“Don’t tempt him,” Redheart warned “He’s only playing with you. He’s Discord, after all.”

Discord made a hearty laugh as he rolled on the floor, laughing like a mad hyena on laughing gas. Sunset took this chance to sneak past him and enter the clinic room but was stopped short. She didn’t even get to take a single step before Discord stood back up, hands behind his back and a face so grim it was hilarious.

“Nuh uh uh,” he wagged his finger in front of Sunset’s face, a little too close for comfort “I won’t let you go on a world saving adventure. Don’t you know that it’s dangerous to go alone? Take this!”

Dunking his hand into the cleaning bucket, Discord started searching around for that blasted thing. When he finally pulled his hand back out, he was holding a Linkin Bark CD. After throwing that into the trash can, he continued his search and pulled out a chicken wing. Seeing that it wasn’t that dirty, Discord promptly bit into the chicken wing and placed his hand back into the bucket.

“Umm, is this going to take-”

“Ah ha!” Discord yelled triumphantly as he pulled out-

“A pen,” Sunset deadpanned “You held us up so you could look for a pen.”

“It’s not just any pen, it’s a magic pen that turns into a sword if you uncap it! But it only works once, so you best not waste it.”

“How can we even be sure that it is a magic pen-sword?”

“How can you be sure that it isn’t?” Discord wiggled his eyebrows in that one way that made him look so punchable, yet no one would dare punch him because they knew he would win. Damn those eyebrows! “Well, I’m off to mop Principal Celestia’s room. Toodles!”

The two girls watched as Discord merrily skipped along the hallway, mop in one hand and bucket in the other. They then looked at the pen that Discord had given them, eyeing it wearily. They really wanted to open it, but at the same time they were a little scared at the thought of a pen turning into a sword. Hey, they’ve seen stranger things after all.

“Wait, I thought Principal Celestia’s room has a carpet floor?” Sunset leaned her head to see if Discord was still there, but he had already disappeared.

“Just… don’t question it.”

With that out of the way, Sunset finally pushed the infirmary door open, and who else would they meet first if not Quickfix? She was sitting by Shade’s bed, tinkering with a few cogs absentmindedly as her mouth muttered something incomprehensible. When she looked up to look at the newcomers, Quickfix groaned.

“Ye brought this world’s Redheart, whoop de freakin’ doo.”

“Now’s not the time, Quickfix,” Sunset walked over to the bed Shade was sleeping on and dropped her book on it, instantly waking up Shade “I think I might know just who’s doing all this, and the way for us to get your Sunset Shimmer back.”

“Is it gonna hurt…” complained Shade as he rubbed his tired head. Tilting his head to the side, he saw Redheart standing beside the two girls with a stern look on her face. He had so many questions about this, but didn’t really want to ask them. He’ll find out eventually.

“Have you seen the things we’ve been through?” Quicfix laughed a bit at Shade’s question “A course it’ll hurt!”

“I take it you were in a rush to tell us?” Redheart asked politely, earning a gaze from everyone there. She was right. There was no use in stalling the facts any longer.

The atmosphere suddenly grew thicker as Sunset finally opened the book, flipping to the latest page with Twilight’s response. Her reply was extremely long, covering up to two pages, but they knew that Twilight meant well. She only wanted to make sure that her friends were okay. With a heavy heart, Sunset read the first page of Twilight’s reply.

“Have you ever heard of the God of Dreams, Morpheus?”

Author's Note

Sorry that this chapter took longer than usual. I'm sure you all know that I've been busy writing another story for Valentine's Day. But anyway, the next chapter might also be a little late. I'll be busy writing a different one-shot, also for the Shimmerverse.

Yes, I really like this verse.

Dream

“D-Dad,” the young mare called out from behind the door “I-I made breakfast…”

“Why are you cooking, sweetheart?” her father asked, though his attention was still on his work “Shouldn’t you be getting ready for school?”

“Dad, I…I’m an adult now, and I’ve been one for years. I’ve graduated for… a while now.”

“Yes, yes, that’s nice sweetie. Now leave daddy alone and go get ready for school. I’ll be down in a minute.”

The mare sighed as she slowly backed away from her father. It had been years since her father had last come down for dinner. In fact, it’s been years since he’s done anything other than focusing on that new spell of his. A small part of her told her to stop, to just give up and leave the house like she had planned to do for years now.

No, she can’t give up now. One day, she will have her father back.

As she trotted down the staircase, the mare looked at the many pictures and awards that hung on the walls of her home. They were all memories of a happier time, back when her family was whole. But in just one day, all that went down the drain. Her father lost his reputation and sanity, while she lost the pony she cared about the most. The once lively household had become as silent as a graveyard.

She stopped in front of an award dated five years ago. It was the last one her father had won before the Magic Institute stripped him away from his title and shunned him forever. She dusted off the frame and stared at the name written on the small piece of paper.

Morpheus.

Releasing a nostalgic sigh, the mare returned to the kitchen and started eating the eggs she had fried for breakfast. Her mind was busy trying to cook up another plan to get her father down, but she knew that she’s tried them all. At the very least, he eats the food she leaves in front of his door.

Putting aside the fact, the mare continued with her meal in silence. After this, she’ll have to clean the house and fix whatever it is that her father had broken during his late night experimenting. This has been her routine for years now, and she doesn’t see it stopping soon.

Sometimes, she wondered how her life would have been like if she had been born to a normal family. Would she be happier? Would she still grow up to be the same cowardly mare she was today? Would she care about her family as much as she does now? She doesn’t know. Maybe in some other world where her family had been there for her when she needed them most, she would have managed to become the nurse she had always dreamed to be.

As she gulped down a cup of orange juice, she noticed a particular smell coming from her father’s workroom. In fact, it smelled suspiciously like…

“Smoke!”

Without second thoughts, the mare jumped off her chair and dashed upstairs. All sorts of terrible images popped up into her brain, and all the while she prayed that she was wrong. Maybe her father had just dropped a vial of chemicals, or was just using an extremely strong fire spell. There was no way that the smoke really came from a fire!

However, just like the hundreds of wishes she had made, none of them ever came true. As soon as she reached the second floor of the house, she could see the raging fire licking and burning down anything it could reach. The mare wasn’t an idiot; she knew that the old house would burn down soon. If she were to run now, it would only take a few seconds to reach the front entrance.

She turned to face the stairs, but soon remembered her father still in his workroom. Even if he wasn’t the best of parents, he was still the only family member she had left. She couldn’t just leave him to die!

“DAD!” she shouted as she bucked the door “Please, hurry! The house is on fire!”

She kicked and kicked, all the while smoke entered her lungs and soot dirtied her pristine white coat. She coughed and spluttered, but her will to protect her father was far too strong. Tears streamed down her dirty face as she continued to call out her father’s name in between coughs.

“DAD!!”

With a final swing of her legs, the door finally buckled and fell down, revealing a raging fire that enveloped the entire room. She stared into the roaring flames, imagining just how long she could survive in there. Her brain was already screaming at her, telling her to get out now. There was no way a weakling like her could save her dad.

She took a step back, apologising to her dad for her cowardice. The smoke was getting thicker now, and the flames were reaching out to her, trying to grab the terrified mare. Turning her back to the burning room, the mare took her first step away from the burning room.

“Ugh…”

“Dad…!”

Despite her better judgement, the mare ran back towards the workroom and charged in. As soon as she stepped into the room, she could feel the searing heat scorching her body. Sweat started to pour down her face in buckets, and more than once she screamed as the flames singed her body. However, she still pulled through. She can’t leave her father behind!

“Dad…” the mare whinnied. She was running out of energy quickly. If she didn’t leave now, she might black out “Dad…”

Just as she was about to give up, she saw her father’s figure in the corner of her eyes. With all the willpower she could muster, the mare dragged her hooves through the burning building, all the while her tears dripped onto the carpeted floor. Her once beautiful coat and mane were ruined, burnt beyond all recognition. She didn’t know just how much longer she could stand the heat.

A small smile graced her lips as she finally reached her father’s location. She wasn’t a strong pony, despite being an Earth pony. The most she could do right now without straining her already pained body was to drag her father by his tail in hopes that she could escape quickly.

Minutes passed, and the mare could swear she could hear the sound of sirens blaring from outside her house. Had the fire department arrived? Do they have enough time to save them before the sweet embrace of death grabs hold of them? Her energy was wearing thin. Even if she could reach the front door in time, she doubts she still had long to live. She had been in the fire for far too long.

Even though she was facing her imminent doom, the mare smiled. At least she’s going to die trying to save her father. She wouldn’t want to leave any other way.

“Red… heart…”

“Dad?!”

The mare turned to look at her father, coughing up a storm. She had already resigned to her death. The least she could do was listen to her father’s dying words.

“I… I’ve finished it…”

“That- *cough**cough* That’s wonderful…” Redheart cried. She had given up trying to pull her father to safety and had dropped to the ground. Her breaths were heavy and slow.

“I’ve finished the spell…!” Morpheus cried out louder, getting up onto his hooves “I’ve finished the spell!”

Redheart could only smile. Her tears had all but dried up by now, so she only sat there in silence. She wished she could have replied to him, but she was far too weak to do so.

“Nopony will have to die anymore…” Morpheus’ voice had fallen gravely silent, and a shiver ran down Redheart’s spine “Nopony… will have to die… anymore…”

Morpheus took out a small hoofful of flowers from inside his lab coat. Despite coming out of a pony that had been crushed by rubble, they were still pristine. She could barely make out the flowers through the thick smoke. They were a bright red colour, and Redheart swore that she’s seen them before but couldn’t remember where. As the memory suddenly rushed into her brain, the mare’s eyes flickered open in panic.

Demonsbane.

If she had more energy, Redheart would have stood up and run away right there and then. But alas, she was left lying in the floor in pain as her father crushed the flowers down and swallowed them. He reached for a broken piece of glass lying nearby and slit his forehoof. Blood dripped onto Redheart’s face, but Morpheus paid it no heed. Instead, he started chanting a mysterious spell in another language and drew symbols on the ground with his own blood.

The fire had already surrounded them, giving them no chance of escape. Just as Morpheus finished chanting his spell, charging his horn with pure black energy, the fire fighters managed to reach them. They gasped in shock as Morpheus released the spell, enveloping the whole house in a bright light.

Energy seeped through the entire land, and soon all the ponies could feel as if their bodies were feeling lighter. Just as their confusion was about to set in, dozens upon dozens of ponies started dropping onto the ground. Fear finally overcame them and they screamed, running around in a frenzied panic.

Their screaming did not last long, however, as their spirits were forcibly torn off from their bodies. The ponies managed to stay sane long enough to actually see their bodies drop down onto the floor. Cries of fear and panic filled the lands as all the ponies soon found themselves as nothing but spirits, standing over their now deceased corpses.

Redheart blinked her eyes open, realising that she could no longer feel the heat of the flames. Not only that, but her previous injuries were also completely healed. As she stood up, she could see her father’s figure standing before her. Despite her fears, Redheart faced her father and called out to him.

“Wha… What did you do… Dad…?” she asked, shuddering in fear “What did you do?!”

“Well, my little lamb… Your father has made a very, shall we say, wise choice…”

That was not her father’s voice. Redheart had lived with her father all her life, and that sounded nothing like him. It sounded too ancient, too menacing. The voice terrified her, especially since it came from her own father’s mouth.

“What did you do to Dad?!” Redheart screamed, backing away from her father’s body “What did you do to him?!”

“Dear lamb, why must you scream?” the voice chuckled, but all it served to do was fill Redheart with even more fear “Your father had asked me to aid him in his quest to give his world immortality. And what he asketh, I giveth. Now your bodies are all asleep, and your souls are free to wander. You have an eternity to live, so live it to your fullest…”

And with that said, her father disappeared from before her eyes. Redheart could only scream as she called for her father back. No longer feeling fatigued, Redheart ran through the burning house, but quickly realised that she could no longer touch the physical world.

She stared into the sky, wondering just what had happened to her father and what he had done to summon such a demon. Turning around to see her childhood home burn down, Redheart felt her tears fall down once more. If she thought that she had lost everything before, then she had truly lost everything now. Her father, her home, and now even her physical body.

“This is all my fault…” she whispered “This is all my fault…”

Millennia have passed, and the inhabitants of that world were forced to watch as the land they lived on slowly perished. Morpheus never returned, no doubt using his new body to his heart’s content. All the while, Redheart kept to herself inside a dank cave, crying for all the she was worth.

It was then that a miracle happened. A small doorway had suddenly opened where Redheart’s house had been, revealing a creamy white void of nothingness. With nowhere else to go, the inhabitants of that world all walked into the portal, bidding their former world goodbye. Redheart was the last to leave, wondering if she was even worthy of following them to this new land.

After debating it for a while, Redheart stepped through the portal and into a bright world full of nothingness. A thought occurs to her that maybe they have made a grave mistake, but by the time Redheart turned around the portal had already disappeared.

Now what were they to do in a world filled with nothing? Turns out, it didn’t take long for them to find out.

Whatever the ponies imagined, it appeared before them so they may use them to their heart’s desire. After so long of having nothing to do, the former world’s inhabitants found that they had much more to do than they ever had before. Joy spread through the land as they were finally able to rest in peace in what they claimed was their Heaven.

That is, until today.

Nurse Redheart wanted to scream, but her voice was drowned out by the sheer thickness of the white creamy walls surrounding her. For hours now, she had drifted in and out of consciousness, each time witnessing the black creatures floating ever closer towards her.

This must be the price she had to pay for leaving her friends behind when they needed her most, to die alone in purgatory.

Just as she was about to fall unconscious again, she finally made out the black figures that have been moving ever so closer to her. Ponies, all of them. Were they the spirits of the dead here to bring her to the Afterlife?

Redheart tried to swim back towards the portal, just as she had for hours, but again her strength failed her. She drifted there in the creamy white space as her breath grew thinner.

“Hello?”

Panic engulfed the nurse as she twisted her body around, crushing her body even more. One of the black figures had approached her, and Redheart swore she could have fainted there and then. Standing before her was what could have been her own mirror image.

“A-Are you hurt?” the mirror-image asked as she hugged her body around Redheart “How can I help you?”

Nurse Redheart’s eyes slowly gazed at the portal entrance she had just come through. The spirit turned to look at it as well, giving a knowing look of surprise.

“Should… Should I bring you there?” the spirit asked, earning no reply from Nurse Redheart “Hold on, I’ll get you out. I promise!”

The spirit held Redheart as she swam towards the entrance with all her might. A familiar sense of déjà vu entered the spirit’s mind, but she didn’t give it much heed. All she knew was that this pony was in pain, and she needed to help her.

She never even bothered to ask why the two of them had the exact same face.

Author's Note

Short chapter is short

Return

Sunset Shimmer looked at her phone and noted the time. With a click of her tongue, she pocketed her phone and turned to look at her friends. The room was a mix of both curiosity and boredom. After all, they’ve been waiting for what seemed like fifteen minutes, yet both Vinyl Scratch and Applejack haven’t appeared yet.

“Where are they?” she silently mused to no one in particular.

After she recounted the tale of Morpheus based on Twilight’s letter, Sunset brought all of her new friends to the band room; or as Pinkie calls it, “The Rainbooms HQ”. A few text messages from Sunset later, and all the members of the Rainbooms were present, save for the two absentees.

She could understand Vinyl being late – No doubt she was caught by Principal Celestia for listening to her headphones in the halls again. But Applejack? No way. She was the most dependable and honest people Sunset knew. If anything came up, no doubt Applejack would have told them about it. The thought of the two girls being attacked by Morpheus came to Sunset’s mind, making her shudder in fear.

There was no way Morpheus followed them here, right?

She quickly shook her head in denial. No, she was just being pessimistic. Maybe the girls’ phones just ran out of battery, or the teachers confiscated them because they used it in class. There was obviously a perfectly acceptable explanation for all this weirdness. Why should she instantly go to the worst possible thing without even considering them?

Maybe it was because deep down, Sunset knew that her history with these kinds of events were never good.

As Sunset sat there wondering about what their next course of action should be, she felt a hand wrap itself around her shoulders. She turned around to see Rarity, smiling at her. Sunset tried to get her arm off of her, but Rarity only held on to her tighter,

“Dear, whatever are you doing over here?” she asked, doing one of her best male-dominating pouts “Everyone’s over there with our new friends, why not join us?”

“I could ask you the same question.”

“True, true,” Rarity nodded, though she still kept up her haughty attitude “Although, I only came here because you looked, what word am I looking for… hmm… worried. Yes, worried. Would it trouble you if I asked just what it is that is causing you such distress?”

Sunset rolled her eyes at Rarity’s antics as she showed small hints of a smile “Oh, you know exactly why I’m worried. Don’t you deny it.”

The seamstress let out a small sigh, no longer able to hold up the charade. She glanced at her own cellphone, her brow furrowing in worry. When Sunset glanced at the phone’s screen, she noted the seventeen failed calls and twelve unsent text messages. Looks like she wasn’t the only one worrying about the situation.

“It’s just not like Applejack to not call,” Rarity finally said as she typed out a new message “If it was Rainbow Dash, then I wouldn’t mind. After all, she’s Rainbow Dash. But Applejack? Applejack?! My, I never would have dreamed that I’d see the day that she made us worried!”

“Good to know that I’m not the only one that thinks that!” Sunset chuckled “Don’t forget, Vinyl’s late, too. Think she got caught by Principal Celestia?”

“As much as I’d like to agree with you, I highly doubt Principal Celestia would actually stop her from helping us save the multiverse,” answered Rarity “She’s a teacher, but she isn’t crazy.”

It took a moment before Rarity finally understood the implications of what she had said, but by then it was far too late. Sunset took out her phone and gripped it tighter, trying to call her two friends in dismay. Thinking quickly, Rarity hugged Sunset even tighter, smiling weakly as she tried to comfort her friend.

“Don’t worry, they’re fine,” she said calmingly, rubbing Sunset’s back soothingly “They’re just running late, is all. I’m sure that they’ll be running through those doors any second now. Then we can start trying to send your friends home, okay, dear?”

Sunset said nothing. She only continued fruitlessly dialling Applejack and Vinyl Scratch’s numbers, praying that they would pick up soon.

Elsewhere in the room, Shade and Quickfix were both conversing with their new inter-dimensional friends. Although, Quickfix was the main attraction of the two. Shade was left sitting on the side, sipping on the soda that Pinkie Pie had brought to the room. Fluttershy was the only ones who were listening to his stories.

But then again, Quickfix was an insane mad scientist. Of course everyone else would be drawn to her.

“-And then Sunset shot another fireball at me. Burned me so bad that I had to stay in a hospital for about a month. Now that I think about it, I think that’s when Redheart started booking that room for me.”

“Oh my!” Fluttershy gasped “That sounds awful! I do hope that she apologised after all that. It didn’t even sound like it was your fault!”

Shade waved her dismissively, laughing in the process “Fluttershy, this is Sunset Shimmer we’re talking about, daughter of Princess Celestia and Bearer of the Element of Magic. Apologising is beneath her.”

*Gasp*

“But hey, at least Pizzelle gave me free food for the whole month! Even Coco came to visit, too. She drew on my casts!” Shade suddenly perked up and waved his cup around “Do you know just how good she is at drawing?! Man, I sure wished I got to keep them. But then again, I don’t really have a place to keep ‘em. Pretty sure the Apple Family wouldn’t want their barn to be filled with casts.”

Fluttershy smiled at Shade’s sudden burst of joy. He’s told her a lot of stories, and each one was even worse than the last. It was nice to know that even the little things in life made him this happy. With a life as bad as his, he needed all the joy he could get. Still, she couldn’t help but feel a bit worried about him.

“You know, you only ever tell stories about the other Elements of Harmony,” Fluttershy suddenly noted “Don’t you have any guy friends as well?”

“Well, a few of ‘em, I guess,” Shade scratched his chin and pondered the thought for a moment “I hang out with a few guys from the local bar a few times, and sometimes Ghoul hangs out with us, but mostly it’s just me and the girls. Wait…”

An uncomfortable silence hung between the two as Shade started to understand the implications of what he just said.

“… Does this mean that I actually had a harem all this time?!” he suddenly shouted, slamming his cup onto the table

“Oh, Shade…”

“And to think, I actually thought that I lost my harem last night! But it turns out that I had them all along! Thank you so much Flutters! Say, would you like to be another official member of my harem? There’s always room for one more!”

She shook her head in reply, suppressing her laughter as well. At least Shade had another happy memory now, even if it was all a delusion on his behalf.

“Come on, it’ll be fun! Wait, what do I do with a ha- ARGH!”

Graar!

A metal creature the size of a fist suddenly leapt onto Shade’s face, roaring and jumping around freely. Fluttershy panicked as she tried to grab the little metal monster but it was too fast. Every time she tried to grab it, it merely jumped away and onto another part of Shade’s body, each time making him gasp in pain.

“Whoops, sorry ‘boot tha’, Shade!”

Quickfix walked up to Shade and held out her palm. The little metal creature jumped into it willingly before curling up into a ball. She scratched the metal ball like someone would scratch a kitten. If you listen carefully, you might even hear her making baby noises at it as if it were her pet.

“Who’s a good lil’ Dino? Ye are. Yes, ye are!”

“What the actual hell, Quickfix?!” Shade shouted, getting off of the floor “Urgh, you spilled soda all over my clothes. How do I even clean this thing?”

“Ye could take it off,” Quickfix answered matter-of-factly as she placed her invention into her satchel “Not like ye ever wore clothes in the first place. Well, except for that cloak a yer’s, anyway.”

“Didn’t Sunset say that wearing clothes is ‘ethical’ or something?” Shade took off his black hoodie, revealing a light blue t-shirt underneath it “Well, it’s not like we’re keeping the clothes when we go back, anyway.”

“THAT WAS SO AWESOME!” Pinkie Pie bounced in front of them, giggling and squealing like a little girl “What else did you bring, huh? Huh? Ooh, I bet it’s some sort of cool raygun! Or maybe it’s a collapsible spear! Wait, wait, wait, don’t tell me. It’s a squirrel mech, isn’t it?!”

“Ah wish ah could’ve brought mah squirrel mech, but it was kinda too big for mah saddle,” sighed Quickfix “Maybe ah could invent a collapsible squirrel mech with rayguns an’ spears?”

“YES! All my yes!!”

“Send us a picture if you finish it!” Rainbow Dash ran up to them, laughing “Wait, other dimension, right. Darn it!”

“INTER-DIMENSIONAL CELLPHONE!” Pinkie squealed “Make a cellphone that can call people from other dimensions!”

“But what if two people from different dimensions have the same number?” Rainbow Dash asked

“Ah’ll fix up the kinks later,” Quickfix brushed the thought aside. She’ll get to it when she gets to it.

The three girls laughed, thinking up of even more things to add to the new inter-dimensional laser shooting, spear wielding squirrel mecha cellphone. Redheart, on the other hand, walked past them and checked up on Shade. Even if she was starting to accept that he was pretty much immune to pain now, she was still the nurse’s aide. She wasn’t going to leave him behind.

“We need to find a way to stop you from getting hurt so much,” she sighed, noting that there were no bruise marks on her body “It’s either that, or you should start hanging out with different people.”

“Hey, the universe hates me. Who am I to judge?” Shade laughed “As long as I don’t die any time soon, I should be fine, right?”

“Please don’t say that,” squeaked Fluttershy, tightening her grip on her hair “Nobody would be happy if you died, you know.”

“Yeah, like I’ll even get to kill myself right. I’ll probably trip on a banana peel on my way and land myself in the hospital. Again.”

After confirming that he wasn’t harmed, Shade turned his attention to Sunset and Rarity. They separated themselves from the conversation for quite a while, and Shade was starting to wonder just what they were doing. He noticed that Sunset was sweating bullets, tapping on her phone like crazy while Rarity wrapped a comforting hand around her. A pang of guilt started to swell in his chest.

Excusing himself from the two pink-haired girls, Shade walked towards Sunset and Rarity. Even if this was a different Sunset, he still didn’t like seeing her worried.

“Hey,” he said flatly, waving to the girls in question “Do we have a problem or something?”

“It’s just… Well, I…” Sunset stammered as she tried to find the best thing to say “I don’t know…”

Shade sat on the stage that the girls were leaning on and crossed his arms. He was quite a patient pony. With his luck, he needed to be as patient as he could get. It wouldn’t mind him that much if Sunset wanted to skirt around the topic for a bit more.

“Didn’t you say that there were supposed to be two other girls?” he added

Sunset merely looked at her phone in dismay. Rarity continued patting her back and smiled weakly.

“Well, they apparently came across some… difficulties, if I should say so myself.” Rarity said on Sunset’s behalf “We’re not sure if they could make it in time.”

“Then we should jus’ get started,” Quickfix joined the conversation, hands still twiddling inside her satchel “Ye said that ye could channel magic from playing music, right? Well, s’not like ye’ll need all the members of the band, right? What do they even play?”

“Bass and mixer,” Sunset sighed

“… Does anyone even notice if the bassist isn’t there?” Shade asked, quickly getting a slap on the face courtesy of Quickfix “OW!”

“S’much as ah’d like to disagree, Shade’s right,” Quickfix stuffed the Slapper 9000 back into her satchel “C’mon, just one practise song or somethin’?”

The two eldest members of the group looked at each other, and then back to the dimension travellers. It was worth a try, and they really don’t have the time to wait for Applejack and Vinyl Scratch for much longer. If worse comes to worst, at least Shade and Quickfix could go back to their world and try to fix the whole mess before anyone else gets hurt.

“I don’t see why not,” Rarity finally agreed as she picked up her keytar “We’ll play one song. If that doesn’t send them back, then we’ll go look for Applejack and Vinyl. Is that okay with you, Sunset?”

“Sure, I guess,” Sunset jumped off the stage and walked to her other friends “Hey guys, we’re gonna start playing now!”

“Took you long enough!” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes “I thought you just wanted to skip school today. Although, that isn’t such a bad idea…”

“Dashie, don’t you think your tardy record is bad enough?” Fluttershy reminded her while twirling her tambourine around “I wouldn’t want you to get suspended now,”

“Ugh, fine, mom.”

Rainbow jacked in her electric guitar to the amplifier, strumming a few chords to test them out. When she felt that they were good enough, she started to play a quick guitar solo, feeling the magic flow through her body like a nice cool drink on a hot summer’s day. She could feel the pony ears and wings slowly willing into existence. Her hair grew twice as long, simulating the pony tail that she was supposed to have. As soon as she stopped, the new appendages disappeared into nothingness.

“Oh yeah! Still got it!” she shouted, finishing with a heavy chord “So, what’re we gonna play? Awesome As I Wanna Be?”

“We play that song all the time!” Sunset groaned “Can’t we play something else?”

“Like what, Better Than Ever?” Rainbow raised an eyebrow “Or maybe you wanna go all out and sing Shine Like Rainbows instead?”

“Are you guys really going to start arguing over what song you want to play?” Redheart shook her head in despair “I don’t think that’s really the biggest issue we have here.”

“Yeah!” Pinkie’s voice echoed through the room before she started playing a few beats on the drums “I thought we got past that after the whole Dazzlings episode. Wait, Morpheus isn’t secretly a Siren, is he?!”

“I highly doubt that,” Rarity got into her spot and pressed a few keys “They told me that they were the only Sirens around, and I take their word on it.”

“But you forget, Sirens are part dolphin! And you can never trust dolphins. Right, Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy nodded enthusiastically, happy that someone else has taken an interest in her distrust of dolphins. She was one step closer into proving that dolphins weren’t the cute adorable little angels that people made them out to be, and were really heartless, cruel monsters that ruin other animals’ lives with their cruel behaviours!

“Ready guys?” Rainbow called, earning a nod from everyone in the room “And a one, and a two, and a one, two, three, fo-”

The band room door suddenly burst open, revealing a panting Applejack carrying an unconscious Vinyl Scratch. The group rushed towards them, their instruments lay forgotten on the ground. Redheart took out a medical kit she had brought and started checking the two for any injuries. Strangely enough, the two of them didn’t have any physical ailments.

“What happened?!” Sunset shouted as she helped lift Vinyl to the stage

“It... It was a… a… Ah dunno, monster or… or somethin’,” Applejack said in between pants “Smoke an’ mist, everywhere… Everybody’s droppin’ like flies!”

“Mist?” Quickfix asked in confirmation, raising an eyebrow “Ah don’t like where this is headin’,”

She was already opening up her satchel, looking for a good weapon she could use. But the problem was, what could she use to attack something that she couldn’t touch? She really regretted not bringing her upgraded vacuum cleaner. Maybe she could have had some success with that.

“Okay, we need a battle plan,” Dash pumped her fists “Everybody, get your instruments. We could blast Quickfix and Shade later. Right now, we’re aiming our magic at that smoke monster!”

“Morpheus,” Fluttershy reminded her

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. C’mon, guys. Chop chop!”

Seeing as there was nothing else for them to do, the group all scampered around to reach their respective instruments. Even Applejack tried to shake off her fatigue as she limped towards her bass with Rarity’s assistance. The room was a flurry of activity and movement.

Shade stood to the side, not sure what his role in the whole event was. Sunset and the Rainbooms were already at their instruments, only waiting for the enemy to appear. Redheart was busy trying to wake Vinyl up. Even Quickfix was busy, combining any and all weapons that she had in her disposal as she muttered a prayer to Deus Machina. Swallowing a wad of saliva, Shade took out his Handy Dandy Poking Stick™ and peeked out the door. However, he instantly regretted that decision.

“Damn…”

The whole school was filled with the same thick mist that had attacked them back in Equestria. He could already feel himself getting drowsier just looking at it, but Shade held on. He turned back to the group, all of which had their battle faces on.

“Should… Should I open the door?” his face was sweating buckets

“Do it,” Dash ordered

Praying to Celestia for safety, Shade pulled the double doors open. The room was quickly engulfed in mist, prompting the Rainbooms to start playing their instruments. As they played, a rainbow of colour surrounded their bodies, transforming them into their pony-hybrid forms and forming a protective field around the whole room.

Quickfix wiped the sweat off her brow, finally finished with her invention. She grabbed the bottle of soda that Pinkie had brought and emptied its contents into a small hatch. Once the bottle was empty, she raised the laser gun-esque weapon into the sky, aiming for anything moving.

“C’mon out, ye lil’ wanker!” Quickfix shouted to the heavens “Ah know ye’r in there somewhere!”

“So we meet again, my little lamb…”

A wave of fear chilled everyone to their bones, almost making the Rainbooms stop playing. Shrugging off the coldness, they started playing even louder. With a command from Sunset Shimmer, they played a loud chord which engulfed the room with rainbow-coloured light. When the light finally faded, they noticed that the mist was still there.

“Oh, silly lambs…” Morpheus’ chilling laugh echoed throughout the room “You would need much more than that to kill a God. Relax, surrender. It is futile to continue trying. Join all your friends in my land of slumber, and perhaps you too shall find peace.”

“Hogwash!”

Quickfix fired her gun at the mist, spraying acidic soda all throughout the room. Morpheus merely laughed as it moved the mist around, dodging the shots as if they were butterfly kisses. A curse escaped Quickfix’s mouth as she cocks the gun and aims once more, waiting for another opportunity.

Just as she was about to fire, Quickfix noticed a small spherical ball roll out of her satchel. She had no memory of placing this item in the bag, yet she wasn’t one to question things. It might have fallen in while she was packing or something. Grabbing the sphere, she easily identified the item as a grenade – one of the items that she had recently invented.

Morpheus’ laugh was starting to get to her nerves, and the Rainbooms as well were unable to counter the dream god’s attack. With no second thoughts, she pulled the trigger and threw it towards the mist. Seconds later, the bomb exploded with a spray of light and gunpowder, blinding everyone and creating an explosion so loud it shook the entire building.

In a fit of coughing, Redheart was the first that noticed that something was off. The music that everyone was just playing had… stopped. She cursed Quickfix, thinking that the blast was far too powerful for them to handle. When the dust was clear, she noticed that the Rainbooms were all on the floor, unconscious.

“Quickfix!” Shade shouted through the chaos “What the hell?!”

“Ah was… *cough* hopin’ that it’d work…”

“Poor, lost lamb. Your attempts at helping have only caused more suffering for your dear friends… All this destruction, and it is all your fault.”

“No… no…! Ah’m not listenin’ ta ye!” Quickfix shouted, firing her weapon at the air “Tis all yer fault! None a this woulda happened if ye never showed up!”

“Ah, yes, but remember this. I did not cause your friends any harm. You yourself did that. Look around you, young lamb. Look at all that you have done. Do you still think yourself as a hero?”

Against her better judgement, Quickfix turned to look around her. The band room was a mess. Debris was scattered everywhere, and the musical instruments were destroyed. The Rainbooms were dusting themselves off, some were even unconscious.

“No…” she muttered, lowering her weapon “Ah… It’s not me fault. It’s not me fault!”

“Quickfix!”

The girl cocked her head around. Shade was standing before her, covered in dust and grime. Guilt ran through Quickfix as she saw her assistant in such a terrible state. Tears started to stream down her face as she finally saw what her chaotic actions had lead to.

“Quickfix, calm down!” Shade grabbed the girl by her shoulders and shook her out of her shock “We’ll handle this later, okay?! Don’t let that asshole get to you. We need to finish him up first!”

“Shade…”

Letting go of Quickfix, Shade reached for the girl’s satchel and passed it to her. The mist was getting thicker, and both of them were quickly losing consciousness. If they didn’t finish this fast, then they’ll fall victim to Morpheus as well. A huge grin graced Shade’s face before he keeled over, falling face first onto the ground.

“Shade!”

Quickfix kneeled down to help him up, but soon found it difficult to stand up herself. Her energy was quickly draining, and soon Morpheus will emerge victorious. She couldn’t help but blame herself for causing this much damage. If only she didn’t throw that grenade just now!

Two other people kneeled beside Quickfix, and she quickly identified them as Redheart and Sunset. The former was already treating Shade with her medical kit, while the latter was strumming her guitar with all the energy that she had left.

“We can’t hold on for much longer…” Sunset coughed “I’m gonna try sending us back to your world…!”

“Hurry!” Quickfix answered forcefully, holding on tightly to Shade’s hand

Sunset nodded, putting her heart into playing the guitar. The rainbow surrounded the group, creating a force field that repelled Morpheus away. As the light shone even brighter, almost filling their entire vision with white, Sunset looked at her friends all spread out across the room, unconscious.

“I’m sorry…” a single tear streaked down her face “I’m sorry…!”

The group felt their bodies slowly being lifted away, growing lighter and lighter by the second. And then, they were gone.

Author's Note

Okay, this chapter is a bit... dark. But hey, the story is already reaching its end soon. With everything they have at stake now, I just can't find anywhere to place the comedy. I am a disgrace to the Comedy tag!

Sorry this chapter was late, by the way. I posted a blog post about my excuse, if you're interested.

Unsettling Revelations

Sunset woke with a start, sweat pouring down her face as she checked her body. Once again, she had transformed into her unicorn form, confirming the fact that the spell had worked. She didn’t have much hope in her plan, especially since she was the only one left standing. Thankfully, nothing terrible had happened to them.

They had been transported back to the Golden Oak Library and judging by the position of the sun, it was still daytime. Sunset stood up, ready to go look for the other three, when she suddenly keeled over in pain. She forced back a scream as her entire body screamed in pain. Her muscles had tightened and were burning as if she was roasted on top of a burning pyre, and her bones could have broken with even the lightest slap. Even her brain felt like mush just swimming around in her skull.

It looks like her attempt at sending them back didn’t come without a few consequences.

Forcing back her screams, Sunset pushed herself up off the ground. She didn’t care about the pain she had to go through; she had to make sure that her friends didn’t face the same fate that she did. Only when she finally managed to stand up did she start to hear sobbing coming from behind her.

“Hello?” she called out before clutching her head in pain “Urgh, are- are you okay?”

There was no reply. The sobbing started to get louder, in fact.

The voice sounded distinctively female, so that ruled one pony out. She didn’t peg Quickfix as the type to only sob; she would have made a spectacle out of it. So that only left Redheart, and Sunset could understand why.

Slowly, carefully, Sunset turned around to face the owner of the voice. By the time she managed to fully face the other way, her muscles had already buckled making her fall down with a loud yelp. The sobbing stopped for a moment and Sunset looked towards the pony who made the noise. There, huddled up right next to the bed, was a pale white pony. Her light pink mane was tied up into a bun, and her tail hung down lifelessly. Redheart was facing Sunset, a million questions filling her mind as she tried to make heads or tails of the situation.

“S-Sunset?” she asked, wiping away her tears “Is that you?”

“Yeah, it’s *URGH* - it’s me…” Sunset groaned, fruitlessly trying to get herself back up “You okay, Redheart?”

“I…” Redheart raised a hoof to her face, fear clearly etched onto it “I don’t know,” she finally answered “What happened, Sunset? Why am I a horse?! Where are we?!

The mare started hyperventilating as tears started to well up once again. Oh, how Sunset wished that she could comfort her right now, but in her current state she was in need of immediate medical attention. Maybe inviting Redheart along was a terrible idea after all.

“C-Calm down, Redheart, please,” Sunset said weakly “When I played my song, I opened up a portal to try and send us to Equestria – my old world. It worked, and now you’re a pony. There’s nothing wrong with it, okay? It’s… It’s fine!”

Redheart’s panicking died down a bit and she wiped away some of her tears. She had heard that Sunset’s world was one dominated by ponies, and that she and Twilight Sparkle were ponies as well. She started inhaling deeply, calming herself down from the fear and regret. At least she had friends to help her get her bearings while she’s here. Who knows what would have happened if she came here alone?

“We’re… we’re safe for now,” Sunset had finally given up and slumped down, rolling over to lay on her side “As long as Morpheus doesn’t know we’re here, then we’ll be safe…”

“You seem hurt, Sunset. Hold on, I’ll- Aah!”

Forgetting about her current predicament, Redheart tried to stand up on her hind legs only to fall onto her flank. She then tried to stand on all fours, but found that finding her centre of balance was much harder than it looked. Not being one to give up so easily, Redheart tried to stand back up, only for her to once again fall over. Sunset, feeling apologetic for her plight, mustered up all of her mental strength to levitate the mare towards her.

“I was like that too, you know,” she sighed, remembering when she had first come to the human world “It took me a while before I could actually walk right.”

“Oh yes, you did come to our world alone, didn’t you?” Redheart placed a hoof on Sunset, a worried glance passing through her face “Oh my, this seems rather…” she looked at Sunset “… Why don’t you tell me how you were like back when you first came to the human world?”

“It’s not really something I’d like to remember, really,” she winced as Redheart accidentally pushed too hard on her side “You know how I was like during that time, right?”

Redheart nodded, thinking back to the days where Sunset had been the school tyrant. Students came to the nurse’s office almost every day, each time with varying degrees of bruises and injuries. If she had been in the same shoes as Sunset, no doubt Redheart would have suppressed those memories as well. However, she knew that Sunset was trying her best to amend her old ways.

Already finished with her initial check-up of Sunset’s body, Redheart reached out for the medical kit which she usually brings around, only to notice that it wasn’t beside her. She clicked her tongue in annoyance, wondering just how she was going to try and heal her without it. Even then, could her hooves even hold things? Was she going to have to use her mouth now?

Just as she was about to attempt to get up once again so she could look for a new medical kit, Shade suddenly appeared right next to them. She jumped back in shock, surprised to see the boy in his stallion form. He was beaten and bloody, although she didn’t remember him taking that much damage in the previous battle. That was when she noticed the bookshelf toppled over near the staircase and the stream of blood behind him.

“Shade, are-”

“Am I okay? I don’t know. I mean, a bookshelf just thought it would be funny to fall on top of me, after all. My face is bleeding, I think I broke a few ribs, and I’m pretty sure I should be admitted to a hospital. But other than that, I’m great! Brilliant, even.” he answered quickly “But enough about me, how’s Shimmer?”

Redheart’s face scrunched up, her face glowing red in anger.

“Shade, I don’t think this is the best time for you to be sarcastic. I think-”

“Redheart, please,” Shade cut her off once more “As long as I’m not screaming in agony, then you shouldn’t worry about me. So please, is Shimmer alright?”

Furious that her concerns were pushed aside, Redheart merely harrumphed and faced Sunset. She was slowly starting to lose consciousness from the pain, and Redheart really needed that medical kit. As much as she didn’t want to admit it, Shade had a point, at least until Redheart could get walking on four legs right. She envied how quickly he and Quickfix mastered walking on two legs so quickly.

“The first time I met you, you were losing consciousness,” Redheart retorted “But I guess mental exhaustion is another thing altogether.”

Shade laughed, wiping some of the blood off of his face.

“She’s gravely injured right now, but nothing that could take her life,” she answered curtly

“Must be from the huge amount of magic she had to channel to send us here,” Shade muttered as he shrugged and sat on the ground right next to Sunset “I should know, I’m a unicorn.”

“… Anyway, I don’t know where my medical kit is, so could you please find one for me?”

“Medkit? Sunset keeps them downstairs near the kitchen. I could probably go pick it up on my way down. I needed a glass of water, anyway.”

He stroked Sunset’s mane, his eyes glassy and calm. Moments pass, and Redheart was starting to grow tired of waiting. Although, she couldn’t really fault him. She knows that look very well. After all, she used to do the same thing as well. But right now, time was of the essence.

“Ahem, Shade?”

“Eh?”

“Medkit, remember?”

“Oh!” he suddenly jerked up “I’ll be back in a little bit. You just make yourself comfortable, okay?”

After a mock salute, Shade bolted towards the staircase, only to trip over a step and come crashing down the stairs. Redheart watched on in fear, wondering just how the boy could take that much abuse. She silently wonders if Shade was actually just putting up a brave front. Yet at the same time, she couldn’t quite see him as the kind to do that.

“Shade’s really nice, huh?” said Sunset, bringing Redheart’s attention to her

“Yes, he really is,”

Hopefully, she wasn’t wrong about that.

Shade held his head in place as he tried to stop the world from spinning around. After all this time, he should have known about that step. Really, how did he miss it? Putting aside the question for a later date, Shade quickly headed for the kitchen. He wondered if Sunset had restocked on medical supplies since the last time he came over. Celestia knows he uses them up so fast. Maybe he should have followed Redheart’s suggestion and bring a kit everywhere he goes.

The first thing he did when he reached the room just beyond a doorway was to open up the sink and wash away all the blood dripping from his face. Shade wondered what he looked like in a mirror. No doubt he looked like he had just come back from a warzone right now, what with all the bruises and blood. Maybe it was a good thing that there isn’t a mirror in the kitchen.

Once he was sure that he looked slightly more presentable, Shade opened up the drawer and started sifting through its contents. He finally found the small kit tucked way in the back of the drawer. Opening it, he noticed that they were running out of rubbing alcohol. He should probably get that restocked sometime soon. Maybe when all this is over, he’ll go and ask Pizzelle for some more. She has a nice large stock of them.

“Shade,”

“Hm? OOF!”

A large body suddenly pushed against Shade, knocking him and the contents of the medkit onto the floor. Panicking at the thought of being attacked, Shade tried his best to conjure a teleportation spell, only to be prematurely stopped when the body crushed against him even harder, this time wrapping its hooves around him. In the end, all he could do to try and get the attacker off of him was to scream and flail around in spot.

“Shade…”

“I DON’T WANNA DIE! PLEASE, I HAVE SO MUCH TO LIVE FOR!!”

“Shade…!”

“I’ll tell you anything you want, just please let me go!”

“SHADE!!”

The attacker grabbed Shade’s mane and twisted his head around, forcing him to look behind him. His panic died down when he noticed who it was. Quickfix was lying on top of him, and even Shade could tell that she had just been crying. Knowing his past experience with crying girls, Shade knew that this was not going to end well for him.

“Umm, hi… Quickfix…” he gave her one of his best fake smiles “How’re you doing today?”

Silence.

“Well, can I… help you with anything, I suppose?” he asked once again.

Once again, silence.

Shade was starting to get worried. He knows Quickfix quite well. He did work as her assistant, after all. If one thing he was sure about it was that she was never this quiet. Speaking of which, he doesn’t even remember the last time he’s seen Quickfix of all ponies crying. Even if he was scared of her sometimes, Shade couldn’t just leave her like this.

“Quickfix…” he slowly tried to push her hooves away, but Quickfix was adamant about holding him in place. In the end, he sighed and resigned to his fate of being her body pillow “Is… Is this about what happened back there? The whole grenade thing?”

A few more tears dropped from Quickfix’s face and she hugged him closer, making Shade feel a little bit uncomfortable. This wasn’t the Quickfix that he knew, and he was terrified.

“It’s all me fault…” she sobbed, letting her tears stain Shade’s shoulder “Ah was the one that almost killed us all… Ah hurt Shimmer’s friends…”

“To be honest, you kinda did do all that – HURK!”

Quickfix hugged Shade even tighter, almost suffocating him from the lack of oxygen. He responded by trying to push her away, but it was no use. She was a Northerner, after all.

“But it’s not your fault!” he screamed even louder, trying to get the crying unicorn off of him “You were just doing what you thought was best for everyone, right?”

“Ah never hurt innocents before!” she finally let go, allowing Shade to inhale the oxygen he so desperately needed “How can ah be the damn Element of Inspiration if ah’m the one hurtin’ me friends?! What if ah keep hurtin’ innocents, Shade?! That makes me no better than the guys ah’m tryin’ to kill! Ah’m a monster, Shade… Ah’m a monster…”

“No, you’re not…” Shade crawled out from underneath Quickfix and continued to regain his breath “Quickfix, you’re a lot of things. You’re crazy, you’re violent, and you tend to go overboard with your experiments. But if there’s one thing I know you’re not, it’s a monster. You’re more than just a warrior, Quickfix. You’re a protector.”

“But-!”

“And hey, even if you do turn out to be a monster, you still have us! We’re your friends, all. Me, Sunset, Coco, everyone!”

Quickfix fell silent, not knowing how to react to that question. Meanwhile, Shade was quickly levitating the contents of the medical kit back into its box. Once he was sure that he managed to get everything, Shade turned back to look at his employer and friend. He had a lot more to say to her. There was no way that Quickfix was this weak. She was Quickfix Aperture; Bearer of the Element of Inspiration, after all. Weak wasn’t in her dictionary.

Just as Shade was about to open his mouth, Quickfix suddenly slammed her face onto Shade’s own. She stayed there for a moment, forcing Shade into a kiss that he didn’t ask for. When she finally let go of him, her horn glowed and she performed a teleportation spell, leaving nothing but a bright flash where she used to be. Shade blinked, wondering just what happened. He subconsciously moved his hoof to his lips, realising that Quickfix had stolen his first kiss. A flurry of emotions rushed into him; joy, sadness, anger, but most of all confusion.

“Shade!” he heard Redheart calling from above the staircase “I heard screaming, did something happen? Is Quickfix down there?”

“… I’m fine…!” he slowly replied “Quickfix… She went back home to pick up a few things. I’m coming up with the medkit right now. Need anything else from downstairs?”

“I’m good, thank you very much,” Redheart’s voice started to calm down “Come on, Sunset’s fallen asleep. I’ll have to treat both of you right away.”

Shade looked at the medkit once more, and then towards the doorway. He really wanted to go check up on Quickfix, yet he also had to go and give the kit to Redheart so she could patch up Sunset. When he weighed them both, Shade finally agreed that helping Sunset was the right thing to do. Quickfix was a big mare, anyway. She could probably take care of herself.

Probably.

As he trotted upstairs, his mind was still caught up on his one-sided talk with Quickfix. Redheart did not miss this, easily seeing that Shade was far too distracted. Still, she had far too much on her plate to worry about that now. Sunset had fallen asleep, her injuries finally getting the better of her. If anyone walked in right now, they would be crushed by the sheer weight of the silence.

Being used to working in silence, Redheart continued to try and get her hooves to work the way she wanted them to work. They certainly weren’t as useful as hands, but for some reason she could still hold on to things if she concentrated hard enough. As she managed to bandage up Sunset’s body, Redheart allowed her mind to wander.

In the span of one day, so many things had already happened to her. She never would have guessed that she would be facing an omnipotent God that controlled dreams when she woke up this morning, and to be honest, she never wants to do this ever again. She felt a little annoyed seeing that she didn’t have a horn like Sunset and Shade, but seeing as she can’t even walk straight, maybe this was for the best.

Redheart yawned. The silence was starting to get unbearable, and she has been using a lot of energy. Maybe if she just… took a light nap…

Closing her eyes, Redheart barely noticed the mist that started to fill up the room.

Author's Note

Something tells me this story COULD be considered a failure, all things considered. But hey, I'm not the kind of person to end something prematurely. I think I should just stick to one-shots next time. At least I won't have to worry about long, drawn out plots with one-shots.

The Other Side

Sunset has seen a lot of weird things in her life, but this certainly takes the cake.

All around her, she could see nothing but a thick mist shielding the darkness that was right in front of her. This place felt oddly familiar. It was as if she had been here quite recently. Racking her brain for an answer, Sunset decided to allow her mind to wander as she continued to traverse through the dark area.

Thump

The sound made Sunset freeze in her tracks. It was all starting to come back to her: the darkness, the mist, the loneliness. She has been here before, and she knew exactly what she was going to face. This was the same nightmare she had when she fell unconscious and met Morpheus for the first time. Without wasting any more time, Sunset lit her horn up with magic. She didn’t want to get caught unprepared this time.

She recalled something else that happened the last time she was here. Her reflection. It called out to her, screaming for help as it punched against the crystalline ground. Perhaps it was the same this time? If her theory was correct, then her so-called reflection could might as well be the alternate Sunset Shimmer that she was looking for all this time.

When she gazed below her, Sunset didn’t see her reflection any more. However, she did notice something else. Noise. There was no doubt about it, it came from below her.

Readying her horn, Sunset cast a spell on the ground. Slowly but surely, the ground started cracking as if it was a mirror breaking. Pieces soon started to fly upwards, shocking Sunset when they nearly cut her. When she looked at the ground again, she noticed that it was slowly closing up the crack she had just made.

“No!”

Sunset jammed her horn into the hole, unleashing every single destructive magic spell she could think of. Once again, the hole continued to crack open bit by bit. She didn’t know how much time had passed. It could have been minutes or it could have been hours. All Sunset cared about now was finding out was beyond the ground. The crack soon grew bigger and bigger, until it was large enough for Sunset to fall through.

Despite being prepared for the fall, Sunset did not expect gravity to suddenly reverse as soon as she got to the other side. With a loud scream, she crashed back onto the ground. The only thing stopping her from falling back into the other side was the ground slowly closing up.

“I’m never gonna do that again…” she sighed, looking on ad the hole finally closed up. She could easily open it back up again if worse came to worst, but now she just wanted to explore this new area.

The first thing she noted was the figures scattered about. Ponies, humans, and several other creatures she could not identify were lying on the ground unconscious. What made this worse was the fact that she knew some of them as the people from her school. However, the thick fog covering the area made it quite hard to see. Who knows just how large this area is, or how many people she knew were here.

“Hello?” she called out, praying for any kind of response “A-Are you hurt?”

She walked up to a human, a boy she recognised as a classmate, and tried to shake him awake. After a few nudges, she moves on to a mare with a tan coat and a dual-coloured blue and pink mane. She, too, didn’t respond. With a soft sigh, Sunset continued her trudge through the unconscious bodies of the various creatures there.

As Sunset continued to try and shake the tenth person awake, she noticed someone quite familiar off in the distance. She carefully sneaked through the bodies, wondering if her theory was correct. Reaching it, Sunset flinched. She wasn’t wrong. It was her, or at least a pony that looked exactly like her.

“H-Hey, wake up,” she started to shake the mare. No response “Wake up!”

Sighing, Sunset wondered just how she was going to do this. With a shrug, she levitated the mare and placed her on her back. Maybe she could find a way to escape with the other her in tow. Having a magical prodigy to help right now wouldn’t be so bad, after all.

“And where do you suppose you’re going, young one?”

Sunset froze in her tracks. She considered fleeing, but there were far too many people strewn about for her to actually get some good distance. Even then, how was she going to run away from a disembodied voice? She’d shoot it if she could, but she can’t.

“Out,” she answered matter-of-factly

“And I suppose you have a way of doing that, my little lamb?”

A soft chuckle escaped Sunset’s mouth “I’ve done it before, I could do it again.”

“Here I thought you cared about your companions,” Morpheus’ voice echoed

Before Sunset could ask him what he was babbling on about, she noticed some of the figures were starting to hover off of the ground. She could barely make them out before they were unceremoniously flung towards her, forcing the mare to drop her load and jump away in time. When she noticed who the people were, her eyes widened. The Rainbooms were piled up unconsciously. Looking down at the bottom, she could barely make out a grey hoof sticking out under Rarity.

“No…”

Sunset clambered over to the group, trying to shake them awake. Deep, rumbling laughter echoed throughout the room. Taunting her. Laughing at her. Slowly, Sunset turned to face the sky. Tears marked her face and fury filled her eyes. Her face scrunched up as she readied a spell and aimed it at the eternal black abyss. She would have fired had Morpheus not raised her alternate self up into the sky, forcing her to stumble back and absorb all of the energy.

“You monster!” she growled, wiping her tears away “I’ll kill you, I swear I’ll kill you!”

“But Sunset my dear, you are not worthy of laying hands upon me,” Morpheus’ voice turned grave, booming even louder than before “You are but an infant in this world, compared to I who have lived for eternities. You cannot defeat a God!”

“Bite me.”

With another flick of her horn, Sunset fired a beam of golden energy up to Morpheus, who countered by flinging the other Sunset Shimmer at her. The spell connected with the girl, but Sunset did not wait to see what the results were. Sunset continued with rapid firing more spells, all of which dissipated soon after. Sweat started to pour down her brow, but Morpheus just kept chuckling. To him, this was all a game. He was not scared, not in the least. Why would he? His enemy was not one of note, after all.

“You amuse me,” laughed Morpheus “Your valour reminds me of a mare I knew. She was brave, thinking that she could save her father at the cost of her own life. But in the end, she too had failed and fallen just like all the others.”

A face emerged from the mist, a stallion with a long, thick beard and hollow eyes. His horn swirled with dark, concentrated energy which sent shivers down Sunset’s spine. She could almost feel the cold embrace of death wrap itself around her neck. Morpheus was right. Sunset was weak, and she should have thought twice before challenging a God to a battle.

There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. Without a second thought, Sunset shot out the largest shield spell she could muster. Just in time, too. A second sooner, and she would have died along with countless others to Morpheus’ spell. She held on for as long as she could, screaming as her magic quickly drained. With no other way to support the shield, Sunset tapped into her own life force, using it to replenish the shield for as long as she could. She could feel her years pass by and dissipate, years she would never be able to experience. Years she will never get back.

“Impressive,” Morpheus noted as his spell stopped “For an infantile lamb to dare stand before me, you are indeed something else.”

Sunset did not reply. She merely panted and flopped onto the ground, wishing for an escape. Morpheus’ presence grew even stronger as he approached her. A tendril of darkness caressed the mare’s face.

“I would not mind having you as my queen.”

“?!”

The tendrils grasped itself around Sunset’s waist, dragging her away as she desperately tried to grab hold of the ground. But without the use of her fingers, Sunset could not find a good grip. Her screams of terror amplified twofold as she then tried to use her magic to cut off the tendril, only for more to emerge and drag her even deeper into the darkness. Just as all hope seemed lost and Sunset was going to accept her fate, a fireball whizzed overhead and struck the tendrils, forcing them back into the shadows.

“Wha-huh?”

Sunset dragged her body away from the darkness and started searching for her saviour. Pupils shrinking in shock, imagine Sunset’s surprise when she saw herself standing proudly off in the distance, smoke emanating from her horn. Her rage was quite apparent in her emotions, from the panting to the murderous glare in her eyes. Sunset didn’t know how, but her doppelganger had somehow woken up during the fight.

“My Mom, you’re pathetic!” the other Sunset huffed, taking a few steps forward “I can’t believe I actually asked you for help!”

Sunset didn’t reply. She didn’t have the energy to do so.

“Look, you did your part, okay? I’ll take over from here,” the other Sunset huffed as she ran forward, horn glowing with pure energy “What are you waiting for, get out of here!”

Blinking back her confusion, Sunset tried to get back up despite the strain on her body. She watched on as her doppelganger fought back Morpheus’ advances with a string of magic attacks mostly attributed to fire. If she never left for the human world, would Sunset have become as strong as her?

“I… I’m not running…!” she shouted, getting onto her feet “I’m gonna help!”

“You moron! You’re hardly strong enough to get on your own feet. What makes you think you can help?!”

“I…”

The other Sunset projected another shield spell, hardly even looking at the mare “Now shut your pretty little mouth and get the hell out of here! I’ll take care of this myself!”

Just as Sunset was about to complain, her alternate self turned around and fired a golden beam at her, surrounding her in bright light. She felt her body slowly growing lighter, shrinking, disappearing. Fighting back was useless. As she reached out her hoof, shouting at the top of her lungs, the light had fully engulfed her and sent her screaming through an endless light.

In what seemed like an instant, Sunset stood up. She could hear screaming nearby, but it stopped very quickly. Never had she been so furious to find herself in the library once more, safe from harm and that villain Morpheus. She could have helped. She could have fought back. But no, a total stranger had to save her skin in the last minute.

So much for the former student of Princess Celestia.

Sunset rolled and stretched her body, trying to get off of the bed she did not want to be on right now. Her body was limp and weak. She had used up too much energy, physically and mentally. Who knows when she could use magic again? Her mind told her to rest, but her heart was egging her on. The fight wasn’t over.

“Redheart?!” she shouted, wondering where the nurse had gone “A little medical attention, please…”

A moment passed by, then another, and another. Soon, it became apparent that Redheart was not coming any time soon.

“Th-This isn’t funny, Redheart… please…” Sunset pleaded “Sh-Shade, are you there? Quickfix? Hello?”

Hearing no reply, Sunset could only expect the worst. With no one to call for help, Sunset dragged herself off of the bed, holding back the aching pain jolting through her whole body.

Slowly, carefully, Sunset got back up onto her feet. She took a step forward, then another, and then another. With each step, her body screamed in agony, telling her to stop and rest. She was tired, hurt, and scared. Not a good combination at all.

Sunset was doing fine up till now, slowly moving towards the staircase. This forced her to stop, however, remembering her first trip down this flight of stairs. How was she going to get out of this without several broken ribs, she didn’t know. Maybe she could teleport downstairs?

Concentrating all of her magic into her horn, Sunset forced herself to teleport down the staircase, only to miscalculate the distance and land a few steps from the bottom. Her legs quickly buckled and she tumbled down, landing on the floor with a loud crunch. There was no doubt about it. Some of her bones were broken. At this point, Sunset didn’t care anymore. Tears streamed down her face as she tried to caress her broken form.

She lied down on the ground like that for a few minutes, wondering if Morpheus would get her first or her injuries. All the while, she couldn’t stop wondering about what happened to Redheart and Shade. After escaping him in the human world, did they just as quickly get captured as soon as they got here?

The sound of the library entrance creaking brought her attention to the door. Just how could there be a customer right now? But then again, she could use the help. Perhaps whoever this pony was, they could bring her to the nearest hospital.

“Hello?”

Wait, that voice…

“I-Is anypony in here- OH!”

To Sunset’s surprise, Redheart appeared at the door, albeit she looked more confused than anything. The nurse trotted over to Sunset and started inspecting her, panic written all over her face. This confused Sunset. The Redheart she knew from her world would have her medkit on standby at this point, while this world’s Redheart was a trained professional. Neither of them would be panicking this much.

“Ah- I could… Um, there’s a- a hospital nearby, yes! I saw it on the way here. Maybe I could…” she tried to lift Sunset with her hooves, only for the mare to squeal out in pain “O-Okay, bad idea. Wh-What if I-” another squeal as she wrapped her tail around Sunset “Ahh! What do I do? What do I do?!”

“Redheart!” Sunset screamed out, making the nurse flinch “Please, calm down.”

The two shared an awkward silence for a moment, neither of them moving a muscle.

“H-How do you know my name?”

Now Sunset was starting to get worried.

“Um, which Redheart are you?” she asked

“What do you mean? I’m my own pony, why would there be more than one me?”

“So you’re… not the Element of Benevolence?”

“What’s that?”

“Not my friend from school either?”

“Haven’t met you in my life.”

Great, a third Redheart. But to be fair, there were many creatures when she was in that dream world. Perhaps she was from one of those worlds. For all she knew, maybe some of them were displaced as well, like she was. It would be great to have a friend to share this problem with, after all.

“Hold on, I think I know how to help,” the Redheart mumbled

She held out a hoof to Sunset’s muzzle and concentrated. After a few tense seconds, the hoof started glowing and bandages appeared out of thin air, wrapping itself around Sunset. Thinking that she had done a job well done, Redheart tied a cute knot at the top and smiled at her handiwork.

“So, how does it feel?”

“It hurts!” Sunset shouted when she tried to stand up “Didn’t you put any medicine? Or try to set the bones straight or anything?”

“I-I’m sorry, I never got a medical license!”

“But you’re Nurse Redheart! Medicine should be your thing!”

Redheart cast a wistful look as he mouth curved into a thin smile “Oh, so your Redheart’s a trained medic, huh?” she lowered her head, sighing “Must’ve been great to be her…”

Sunset stared at the mare, feeling as if she needed to apologise. Whoever she was, she was Redheart in name and appearance only. Steadily standing up, Sunset wrapped her hooves around the mare and pulled her into a hug.

“Sorry, I was just a bit furious after my last fight with Morpheus.”

“Wait, d-dad?!”

Redheart pushed Sunset away, making her wince. Sunset didn’t care, though. She was too surprised at what Redheart had to say and what her story was.

“Who are you?” Sunset asked, eyeing Redheart up and down “How could you be related to that monster?!”

“He’s not a monster!” Redheart shouted “He’s not a monster…”

Wincing at Redheart’s sudden outburst, Sunset then opted to take a kinder approach to the situation.

“Sorry, I didn’t know that you were serious,” Sunset scratched the back of her head, quietly wishing that she had her human hands to actually scratch properly “It’s just that… you look like a normal pony, while Morpheus is this… well, to put it lightly, insane smoke god of dreams and nightmares. I’m struggling to think of a connection, here.”

“It’s okay, I understand where you’re coming from…” Redheart sat down, wiping away the tears she didn’t know had started streaking down her face

“I’d love to hear your story, though,” Sunset sat next to her “Who knows? Maybe I could help as well.”

After pondering the situation for a while, wondering whether she should trust Sunset or not, Redheart found that she had no other choice right now. With a glassy look in her eyes, Redheart recalled the story of her life, especially of her father’s descent into madness. She explained in explicit detail the story of how an entire race was stripped of their mortal bodies and were forced to live as phantoms in their own world, and how they found the portal that led to the strange world where everything they imagined would appear before their very eyes. And then she spoke of the strange mare who fell from the sky, and how Redheart had tried to help save her. The next thing she knew, she was stuck in this world and the mare, who had looked exactly like her, had disappeared.

Sunset had a lot to take in. She listened carefully to Redheart’s story, each time getting more and more bewildered at it. When Redheart finished, Sunset was still trying to piece together some of the more confusing pieces together. Alternate worlds were always confusing to her, despite living in one herself.

“So how did this portal appear? And what world actually materialises your imaginations?! Isn’t that dangerous?”

Redheart shook her head, though she knew exactly what Sunset meant by that “We don’t know, it just appeared one day. And, well, we’re already dead. What does it matter what we imagine? You can’t kill us any further than that.”

A brief shiver ran down Sunset’s spine. She was seriously hoping that she was wrong, but there was no doubt what world Redheart was from. As for what happened to the pony that Redheart had saved, she had a theory. It was a long shot, but it was still something.

“What if you’re actually possessing that body right now?” she pointed to Redheart “It’s the most logical conclusion, right? Where else could she have gone?”

“B-But, I still have my powers!”

“Yeah, and you could be forcing it through the other Redheart’s physical form. Until we know more about this, could you please refrain yourself from using too much of your power?”

“I… I… oh, fine…” Redheart complied, her head hanging down in defeat “But still, you are the first pony I could find in this town. Might as well –”

“Excuse me, what?”

“I–It’s true! This whole town is empty. In fact, I thought I stumbled upon a ghost town before I found you.”

The more Sunset found out, the worse the situation seemed to be. If what this mare was saying is true, then she should be back in the dream world helping the other Sunset Shimmer fight Morpheus. In fact, she’s questioning herself right now. She should be looking for a way back, not talk to some stranger.

“Are you sure that the town’s empty? Not a single pony in sight?” Sunset asked for confirmation

“Well, I did think that I saw this one mare running past me, but it could’ve just been my imagination. I never got to catch her.”

“It’s good enough for me. Come on, lead the way!”

Leaving the library was easier said than done thanks to Sunset’s injuries. She had to lean on Redheart as the two trotted outside in search of any signs of life. However, just like she had said, the town was completely barren. Signs of activity could still be seen, but it was like the person doing it had stopped midway and ran off into the sunset. Food lay on tables attracting flies, a few taps were still left running, and a JoyBoy was discarded on the ground. Sunset recalled a movie she had watched with her friends last weekend having the same atmosphere as the town right now. She half expected eldritch abominations to start popping out of the ground.

Unfortunately, Redheart wasn’t a resident of the town, either. The two were left wandering here and there in search of the mysterious pony Redheart might have seen, and even then that was still left up in the air. Every second wasted wandering was another second Sunset could have used to fight Morpheus.

“I wonder if Quickfix has any inventions I could use…” Sunset muttered to herself as they passed by the town hall.

“Who’s that?”

“Oh, she’s just this mad scientist I know. She’s really smart, so I thought she must have invented a machine to travel into dreams or something.”

“Do you know where she works? Maybe we could find her lab or something.”

Sunset racked her brain, trying to think of any hints Quickfix could have given her “Aperture Science Laboratories, I think. If my guess is right, that’s where she works.”

“Ooh, sounds smart!” Redheart giggled, earning a raised eyebrow from Sunset “I think I passed by something like that on my way here. It’s over… there,” she pointed to a random direction “Probably.”

Since she didn’t have any other leads to go on, Sunset agreed to Redheart’s decision and slowly trotted in the direction she had pointed at. She had expected to reach a dead end and would have to resort to circling the area for hours before stumbling across the building by accident. Imagine her surprise when they do end up finding a large rectangular building with the words “Aperture Science Laboratories” on top of the door.

Not being one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Sunset thanked Redheart and started looking for an entrance. She soon found it, a large doorway that led to the dark laboratory. The fact that it was open didn’t settle with Sunset well. Did someone break into the building?

Graao!

A small metallic raptor jumped out of the darkness and started chomping on Sunset’s mane. If there was anypony left in town, they would have thought that a banshee had come into town judging by how shrill her shrieking was. She finally managed to grab hold of the small beast with her hooves and yanked it out of her mane.

“Whatwasthat?!” she shrieked and jumped onto Redheart’s hooves

When she finally managed to calm herself down, Sunset took a closer look at the robot before realising just what it was.

“Dino?” Sunset asked the robot, earning a friendly gaar in return “Wait, if you’re here, then…”

Sunset didn’t even finish her question before jumping off of Redheart’s grasp and heading inside the dark building. The nurse followed from behind, a little wary at Dino. She had never seen an actual robot before, much less one that had a mind of its own.

“This place is a mess,” Redheart commented, noting all the machines haphazardly strewn across the lab “Is this Quickfix just a total slob?”

“I don’t know,” answered Sunset “Only met her a few days ago.”

Graargh! Graargh!!

The two mares turned their attention to Dino, who was hopping around like a puppy trying to attract attention. It dashed off into a dark corner, as if begging the mares to follow it. With a shrug, they followed suit.

“You know, we should really turn on the lights,” Redheart mused

“Are you crazy?! Quickfix is a mad scientist! Who knows which of these buttons is a light switch and which of them are self destruct buttons?!”

Gao!

The metal dinosaur had stopped and was hopping around in front of a giant metal doorway that led to nowhere. Before either of the girls could comment on it, Dino had kicked a lever downwards, activating the machine. The doorway shone brightly before revealing an image of an underground cave network, although the sound of grunting could be heard nearby.

“Wait, you want us to go in there?!” Redheart took a step back and almost tripped over a crowbar “But we don’t even know where it leads to!”

Raagh!

Before the duo could even start discussing about what course of action to take, Dino turned around and hopped into the doorway. It ran around a corner and disappeared, earning a disgruntled grunt from Sunset.

“Looks like we have no choice now,” she sighed and was just about to step inside before Redheart pulled her back

“I… I don’t think this is a good idea…”

“We’re at a dead end now,” Sunset pried Redheart’s grip off of her “Look, I saw Quickfix using Dino once. It’s hers, you don’t have to worry about it.”

“But- But what if it was programmed to lead trespassers through this door?” Redheart retorted

“I’m pretty sure she has automatic turrets for them. Quickfix seems like the kind of pony to have automatic turrets.”

“URGH!”

Sunset gazed through the portal, hearing the sound of water dripping off in the distance. Dino was somewhere in there, still waiting for them to follow. If they’re lucky, then Quickfix was also in there. She didn’t know what Quickfix needed by going into a cavern network, but it must be important if she even programmed her robots to lead others to it. She turned to look at Redheart, shivering on the ground in fear. It was such a contrast to the Redhearts that she knew before that it was pretty jarring.

“Listen, Redheart,” Sunset’s expression softened, extending a hoof out to her “You’re scared, I’m scared, we don’t know what’s ahead of us, but it’s the only way forward right now. You said that Morpheus was your father, right? Then maybe… maybe this portal will help lead us to where he is. If you don’t wanna follow me, then I won’t blame you. I’ll just head on ahead, and you can stay here and rest, okay?”

Hearing no response from the mare, Sunset took that as her agreement to stay there. She took a few steps forward and entered the portal, honestly surprised when she didn’t feel anything. It was just like walking through a door. She should really praise Quickfix for her genius next time they meet.

After a few minutes of walking, she heard the sound of hoofsteps coming behind her. There Redheart was, panting and shaking, but otherwise unharmed. The two mares shared a glance before continuing on their journey, looking for the robot dinosaur that had led them there.

“Are you… Are you sure you could beat my dad?” Redheart suddenly asked

“Of course!” Sunset puffed her chest proudly “I may not look it, but I’m a really good mage!”

“… Please, save him, okay?”

Sunset nodded, not wanting to take her word back any time soon. The sound of distant metallic roaring attracted their attention and, after some initial hesitation, the two of them chased after the sound. What met them when they reached there, they did not expect.

“Princess Luna?”

Author's Note

I have no way to explain this late chapter. I procrastinated, okay? Hey, at least I still updated.

Originally, I was going to cut Luna out of the fic, but thought against it and continued with the original plan. Now, I have to confirm a few thins before starting on the next chapter...

Daughter of Evil

In all her life, Sunset Shimmer has never met Princess Luna.

Back when she still lived in Equestria, Princess Luna was still trapped on the moon, waiting to return as the dreaded Nightmare Moon. And then she hid herself in the human world which had Vice Principal Luna, although she never actually knew if the two of them acted similarly. After all, Vice Principal Luna never grew jealous and tried to overthrow her sister.

What would she even do when she does overthrow Principal Celestia and became the new Principal? Made it so that classes would start in the evening? Sunset personally knows a lot of people who would love that.

In short, her picture of Princess Luna is coloured entirely by her letters with Princess Twilight Sparkle. She had imagined her to be loud and cheerful, with a rather playful and awkward streak. She also seems to have a way with children, since more often than not her fanmail would always come from foals and fillies who would love to hang out with her.

She never expected her first meeting with Princess Luna to go like this.

“Princess Luna?” Sunset Shimmer asked, blinking back her confusion “Is that you?”

“Ah, and here comes Celestia’s prized daughter,” Luna spat out the words as if they were poison “Come to teach me more about your beloved ‘Friendship’?” she made air quotes with her air and spat on the ground

The Princess of the Night was bound under heavy chains that circled her wings. She stayed in her one spot far from the light, attempting to hide her body as much as possible. It was a miracle that Sunset even saw her, too, considering the crystal wall that blocked the path to reach her. She was a prisoner through and through, yet Sunset could not think of why she would be left in such a state.

“What happened?” Sunset instinctively asked “I – I thought that you were purified! And – And then you were forgiven, and ruling again, and-”

A delightful chuckle escaped Luna’s mouth, sending a shiver down both Sunset and Redheart’s spines “Purified? Forgiven? Did you finally snap a nerve in that pathetic little mind of yours? Or is that how you insult ponies nowadays?”

“I think she-” Redheart stammered, but was instantly cut off when Luna slammed her hoof on the ground, making the sound echo through the cavern.

“Don’t play games with me. You might act all nice and humble, but you’re just as big of a reason that I’m here as she is!” her pupils dilated as Luna turned around, pointing her hoof towards Sunset “You came here to laugh, didn’t you? That’s why you’re acting all innocent and pure. You want to make me feel bad for everything that I’ve done! Well, do you deny these accusations?!”

Redheart took a step back, her eyes watering in fear. The only thing stopping her from fleeing was the knowledge that if she did that, then Sunset would be left all alone to deal with Luna. And she did not want to wish that upon anyone.

The room echoed as Luna slammed her hoof onto the floor once again, panting heavily as she continued to stare at the duo. Sunset Shimmer was starting to wonder if Redheart was right in her theory that the portal that led them here really was just a way to catch trespassers.

“I swear, when I get out, I will personally find every last one of you and gauge your eyes out. I will strip your skin off piece by piece as your loved ones watch, and then I will pour boiling water onto your exposed flesh. You will know pain far worse than anything that you could imagine! You will never be safe, not even in your dreams, you despicable waste of oxygen!”

Unable to hold back her fear, Redheart finally let out a gut wrenching screech that echoed and bounced off the walls of the caves, making them ring louder and louder forcing Sunset to close her ears in pain. Hearing Luna’s mad ravings terrified her, and all she wanted to do was escape.

“What is it that you seek me for?” Luna finally said, turning her face away from the duo back to her dark, gloomy side of the jail cell “Be quick. I have other matters to attend to.”

“Why do you think that we need you?” Sunset asked, opening her ears again once the screaming finally started to dissipate “Maybe… Maybe we just want a nice chat!”

“HAH!” scoffed Luna “So you’re telling me that you travelled into the deepest mountains of Canterlot, crossed through every single trap laid out, with no food on your self at all, just for a nice chat? My, I never knew you had a comedic side to yourself - unlike that Northerner.”

“Northerner? You mean Quickfix?” this certainly piqued Sunset’s curiosity “She was here?”

“Just a moment ago. Wanted some sort of spell to travel into dream worlds. She was awfully persistent about it, too. I dare say she was willing to kill for-”

“She wouldn’t!”

Silence filled the room as none of the ponies dared speak. A moment passed, and then another, and another, before Luna finally let out an amused chuckle. She pushed her mane back and cast a mocking glare at the duo, as if silently laughing at a joke no one had told.

“Sensitive topic, I see,” she bemused “Afraid that one of your own might not be as nice as you thought she was? Are you assuming that she might one day even end up as an enemy?”

“Just tell us the spell you gave her!” Sunset bellowed. She was not going to allow anyone, no matter their status, to insult any of her friends

“Insolent brat,” Luna merely scoffed as she turned back to her corner “Has your mother not told you? These chains drain magic. I couldn’t have taught her any dark magic even if I wanted to. And trust me, I do. I’d like nothing more than to see the light in your eyes slowly disappear as you agree that I am the true ruler of Equestria. Oh, the look on Celestia’s face when she sees her greatest warriors succumbing to the darkness will be just marvellous!”

“Can… can we please leave?” Redheart softly tapped Sunset’s shoulder, reminding the mare that she was still there “I don’t think she’s going to be very… cooperative.”

Sunset considered the option for a few seconds. Surely Dino had brought them here for something, although they have no idea what it actually is. Maybe the pony they’re looking for is deeper into the caves? Dino isn’t here, after all. But then again, Quickfix did come to visit Luna. But since she couldn’t teach her any spells, then that must have been pointless as well.

“Sunset…”

“We don’t have any other leads right now,” she calmly explains despite her frustrations “If we ever want to even have a chance at dealing with Morpheus, then this is it.”

“Hm?”

The two mares turned to look at Luna, who’s ears perked up at the mention of the God’s name. Sharing a puzzled look, they inch closer towards her crystalline wall, waiting for the former Princess of the Night to speak. When she did not, Redheart was the first to raise her voice.

“What do you know about my father?”

“That old sod is your father?” Luna sounded unimpressed, with a slight hint of disgust in her voice “I know plenty. Although, that would explain a lot about what that insufferable Northerner was asking about…”

To say that the two mares were speechless was an understatement. Sunset, utterly surprised that they finally had a lead on where to go next, slumped on the ground with a tired grin on her face. Redheart had been much more direct, ramming herself onto the crystal wall with such ferocity that even Luna was taken aback.

“What do you know?!” Redheart’s face was plastered against the wall, her pupils wide and her naturally timid demeanour totally forgotten “How can I save dad?!”

“… The things I…” Luna mutters to no one in particular before returning to her cold self “Do you really expect me to tell you anything after everything that you’ve done to me? I’m more inclined to see you all fail by the hands of that delusional demon!”

“But we’re not this world’s Sunset Shimmer and Redheart!” Sunset had appeared next to Redheart “And if we don’t find a way to defeat Morpheus, all of our worlds will be doomed!”

“So you’re saying that there you came from a different world, entirely unlike our own?” Luna snorted, laughing at the thought “If you can prove that, I might consider helping you foals out.”

Just as Luna turned around to face the two mares in the eyes, she was quickly taken aback. Claws had suddenly emerged from Redheart’s hooves, and she slowly, painfully, scratched the crystal wall with them. Despite all odds, the claws scratched through the crystals, causing a sound to pierce through all three of their ears which sounded like the sound of nails on a chalkboard, except ten times as loud. Sunset, who’s ears were already starting to burst from all the onslaught of sounds she’s heard today, knocked Redheart down with her forehoof in an act not unlike punching.

“What are you trying to do?!” she screamed, still holding her ears in pain “You could have made me go deaf!”

“I was trying to prove that we were from different worlds...” Redheart softly answered as the claws disappeared “I’m sure your Redheart couldn’t do that, right?”

“You could have done anything else! And I thought I told you to stop doing that in case that really is Redheart’s body!”

“I… I was just trying to help…”

“Enough!” Luna shouted, still rubbing her ears in pain “If it gets you two out of my sight, then I will tell you everything I know!”

Sunset tried to smile, but she was in too much pain to do it properly “So you’re saying you believe us?”

“You annoying little maggots! Even if you are lying, I don't care!I just want you gone as soon as possible!” Luna’s rage had reached a boiling point, and it was only the knowledge that she couldn't murder the two mares that stopped her from doing anything insane “You want to know about that fake god, then shut up!”

Silence.

“… Good,” Luna scoffed, still panting from her rage

The three of them stood silently as Luna tried to collect her thoughts. She had no reason to lie to them, even if it would be amusing to see what they would do with said false information. However, she herself knew that lying to them would cause more trouble even for her. She would probably never be able to escape her prison if what they said was true.

“I first met Morpheus while I was still on the moon,” she finally said after she had finally calmed down “I still had my magic, although it was certainly much weaker compared to when I was on Equestria. I could still enter the dreams of ponies, but I only existed as a spectator who could only watch the ponies dream. But then he showed up.”

“He was quite powerful, I can say that. He claimed that he was a God of Dreams, but I could see him for what he truly is; a Demon, and a fairly pathetic one at that. He didn't even have his own form; he just used this one Unicorn's body. He took pleasure in messing around ponies’ heads, giving them nightmares whenever possible. He could see me, as well. But alas, all he did was laugh at me and my inability to do anything but exist. Although, he doesn’t always appear. Only once every few months, if I’m not mistaken.”

“So he’s already had contact with Equestria before…” Sunset tapped her chin “Did he have any motive?”

“Nothing I could think of,” Luna sneered “As far as I could tell, he was doing it because he can. But I could be wrong. I never took the time to get to know him. Why do you ask?”

“He’s kidnapping people from various dimensions and placing them in this… dream world, I guess,” Sunset added “They were all asleep there. Well, everyone but this world’s Sunset Shimmer. Darn it, I hope she’s still holding up fine…”

“Perhaps he wishes for his own world, and his own subjects. After all, what is a God without followers?” Luna asked, followed by the two mares nodding “So you wish to return to that dream world? I have a spell that would let you go there, but that is all. If you wish to defeat him, then you have to use your own strength for that. I told the Northerner the same thing, if you wish to know.”

"We'll take it!" Redheart piped up

Luna chuckled darkly "Ah, yes. This will be your introduction to dark magic, old magic. If you take this spell, you will be one step closer to the dark side."

"I've had my share of dark magic, thank you very much," Sunset remembered the time she had stolen the Element of Magic "I don't think it would corrupt me as easily as it used to."

Smiling to herself, Luna walked in front of the wall and used her hoof to scratch out words on the ground. Sunset’s eyes followed along, softly muttering each word that the former princess managed to write. Several times, Luna had to scratch out several words that she had written wrongly. But to be fair, she was trying to write upside down and backwards for the two girls outside to understand.

“eris edd nasmaerd fom laereht ne po” Sunset finally managed to read the spell “So it's a spoken spell, huh? This is gonna be hard.”

“It is an old spell indeed,” Luna dusted the words away “I would show you how to use it if I were outside. But then again, I would have scorched your eyeballs if I were outside as well. Now LEAVE!”

"But-"

"OUT!!"

The mares blinked before nodding their heads and slowly walking away. As much as they had wished for more information, especially on how to defeat Morpheus, they had to take what they had and go with it. Sunset, too, still had questions she wanted to ask Luna. What was she doing here? What did this world’s Elements of Harmony do? How could Celestia leave her here alone without any sort of company?

Now was not the time to find those answers, however.

Back at the jail cell, Luna watched the two ponies leave from her corner in the jail cell before disappearing around a corner, just like all of her former guards when they saw smoke filling the prison. Cowards, the lot of them. There was far too much shouting for her to make out what was happening, so Luna merely assumed that a fire had broken out. Leave it to Celestia’s guards to leave her as soon as the situation was dire.

Alternate worlds, demons, and powers beyond her knowledge; there was far too much that she did not know of. She could have easily gotten the two of them to release her. But something inside her told her that she shouldn’t. Were her sister’s attempts at teaching her the magic of friendship finally working? No – she simply didn’t want that damn demon getting in her way when she finally managed to get out and continue her conquest of Equestria.

“Smarmy little swines, all of them,” she muttered before lying on her back, wishing nothing more than to have a good night’s sleep

“He’s a Demon…” Redheart finally broke the silence “Dad… he got the wrong flower…”

Sunset looked at Redheart quizzically.

“One of the last steps of that unholy summoning ritual my dad made,” Redheart answered despite not being asked “I… always wanted to be a nurse, so one of the books I read up was on herbology in case I needed to make medicine. The flower dad used was Demonsbane, I could tell. It looks exactly the same as a Spiritrite. The only difference was the colour…”

“Redheart, if you aren’t ready to talk about it, then you don’t have to,” Sunset placed a knowing hoof around the Earth pony

“No, no, I’m fine,” she reassured Sunset “I’ve had centuries to deal with the truth.”

Sunset’s eyes grew as wide as dinner plates at Redheart’s casual remark. Her? Centuries old? But she didn’t even look like she was past her twenties! But then the reminder that she could have been using the body of this world’s Redheart came to mind and all she could do was gape. Today was just full of impossibilities, wasn’t it?

“Why? Did… Did I do something wrong?”

“No, no, of course, not!” Sunset stuttered “It’s just that… I never would have imagined…”

“Yeah, well… it’s not something you normally talk about, is it?” Redheart laughed solemnly. Just then, an idea popped into her head. An idea so crazy it might just work “Hey, what was that spell again?”

Sunset tapped her forehead, recalling the words that Luna had told her and told the mare. She silently praised herself over her good memory “Why do you ask?”

Redheart stopped in her tracks, her eyes closed in concentration. It took a few seconds before Sunset finally realised what was going on. She barely even had any time to react before Redheart spoke the words. Memories of Unicorns back in her old world using spoken magic came gushing into her head as a horn grew on her forehead. When her eyes opened, they were glowing white.

Magical energy, amplified tenfold with Redheart’s own ability to create at will, swirled around her horn. However, not having studied magic at all, she quickly lost control of the magic and it came gushing out like a dam bursting and releasing all of its contents. The energy connected to a wall as a zipper emerged on it. With every second of excruciating pain, the zipper pulled downwards, revealing a word much too familiar to Sunset’s liking; the misty dream world that she had visited twice now.

Just as suddenly as it appeared, the magic dissipated leaving behind a portal that led directly to their destination. The horn on Redheart’s head also shrunk, more and more until all that was left was a small bump not unlike a bruise. Redheart rubbed her head in a daze before coughing, spluttering out blood onto the ground.

“Redheart!” Sunset lay next to the mare, holding her close to her chest “Why did you-?! How did-?!”

Redheart’s body seized up, making Sunset jump. She curled up into a ball as her body started shivering. Her body glowed a pale blue as something started to split itself from her. Redheart twisted and shook in pain as the blue glow finally broke itself free from her, and then it took form. The form it took, though, was far from perfect.

It looked exactly like Redheart, but bits and pieces were missing from the full body. An eye, parts of her skin, patches of her mane, most of her left foreleg, a large chunk of flesh from her ribcage, all leaving behind black holes of nothingness. If Sunset had breakfast this morning, she would have already puked it all out.

The two of them made eye contact. One look at Sunset’s terrified expression and the spirit knew exactly what had happened. She gazed at her own body before shrieking and zooming away into the caves.

“Wh-Wha…?” Sunset blinked

Her confusion was quickly overshadowed by the mumbling on her chest. Redheart slowly woke up, blinking and yawning as she stretched her body.

“Where… am I…?” Redheart rubbed the back of her head as she slowly got back onto her feet

“Redheart?”

“Hmm?” the nurse looked at Sunset Shimmer, the gears in her head slowly turning “Ah, Sunset! No, wait, you’re… you’re the other one, right? Shimmer, right? What am I doing here? Last I remember, I… Oh no.”

“What? What’s wrong?” Sunset asked as she got back onto her hooves

Redheart pushed Sunset aside and started pacing around the room, checking around every corner in absolute fear. She stopped in front of the large zipper portal on the wall and tried to close it, but to no avail. She tasted something on her lips and panicked. It was blood. Wiping her mouth clean, she started to look for her medkit, only to realise that it was not there.

“What’s wrong?!” Sunset was starting to panic as well “Which Redheart are you?!”

“What are you talking about? There’s only one of me,” Redheart stuck her head through the portal, only to quickly pull it back out “Interesting…”

From inside the portal, a trickle of mist started leaking out. More and more smoke and mist filled the room, making Sunset inch run towards Redheart and the portal. She remembered Luna, still imprisoned within her crystal jail cell. Was she going to be all right? What about the other Redheart? More importantly, were they going to be okay?

Graao! Gaaaorg!

A small metal dinosaur jumped towards them, and Sunset grinned. She had totally forgotten about Dino. The raptor leaped onto Sunset’s mane and started biting her ear, but she did not care. She was just glad that it was there with them.

“One of Quickfix’s inventions?” Redheart asked before a thought came to mind “Wait, you were with her and Shade! Where are they?!”

“Talk later, run now!” Sunset answered, pushing the nurse into the portal.

Sunset followed right after, praying that the other Redheart was following as well. As soon as she stepped through, the zipper started to close back up. She prayed and prayed, but it seemed like her wish would not come true. With only a few seconds left before it close off for good, a blue ball of light squeezed right through the opening and collided with Dino, causing it to fall.

And with that, the portal closed.

Breakthrough

Thick mist surrounded her, blocking Sunset’s view of what was ahead of her. The last time she was here, Sunset was terrified and alone. She didn’t know what to do and where to go, or where she was for that matter. But not anymore. She now stood proudly with Nurse Redheart by her side and a robot dinosaur in her hooves, walking forward with the courage and determination to make it through.

“So this is the place, huh?” Redheart mused, tapping what she assumed was the floor beneath her

“No doubt about it,” replied Sunset “I’ve been here a few times myself, you know. Do you really doubt me that much?”

“Well, it’s not like I know you that well myself,” Redheart sighed as she scanned the surrounding area. Nothing but mist “We only knew each other for a few hours before that explosion knocked us out cold. And then you disappeared along with Quickfix and Shade. Now you claim that I was possessed by a ghost of my alternate self, and the two you were with have disappeared without a trace. You can guess why I have a hard time believing you.”

“Is this really the time to start suspecting me?”

Redheart rubbed her forehead, her face scrunched up in exasperation “No, I guess not,” she relented “Well, since you have a better understanding of this place, I hope you know where we’re headed.”

“Ehehe…”

“We’re lost, aren’t we?”

Sunset turned to look at the robot in her hooves, not willing to look Redheart in the eyes. Honestly, she was glad to finally be with the Element of Benevolence, but she was quite difficult to work with. Compared to how lax her group of friends were, and the chaotic duo of Quickfix and Shade she was travelling with prior, Redheart was much more mature and independent. If anything, Sunset thought she should have lead them instead of her.

“That robot,” Redheart pointed to the dinosaur in Sunset’s hooves “It’s Quickfix’s, right?”

Sunset nodded her head, her mind wandering back to the Unicorn. Where did she run off to? “Is this thing important to her?”

“Honestly saying, I don’t know. She has a lot of machines and seldom favours one over another. I swear, she loves these things more than any actual living being. If she ever did love another creature, it’d probably be something outrageous. Like a shark.”

Sunset laughed awkwardly, wondering if she should accept that as fact or a joke. Honestly, it’s hard to decide with this Redheart. At least with her world’s Redheart, she could tell when she was joking or serious!

“We’ve got company,”

It took a while, but Sunset finally noticed them. Dark blue and black balls of darkness flew overhead, dropping blots of liquid darkness that slowly took form. Slimy, wet legs moved one step at a time. Tentacle-like arms swayed furiously. Sharp-pincer like mouths snapped at them, making the duo take a few steps back.

“Are you good in a fight?” Sunset whispered to Redheart

“Unfortunately, not quite. I’m a medic and a chemist, my upper body strength isn’t really my strong point.”

“Gotcha.”

The creatures moved closer and closer, absorbing more darkness from the clouds above them. Sunset, though, was prepared for them. Her horn glowed golden with pure magical energy as she got ready to strike. The monsters took one, two, three steps before Sunset let loose her attack, taking down two of the dark creatures in a single strike.

With the first shot made, the monsters screeched and charged forward, too fast for the two mares to keep track of. The first one knocked into Redheart, covering her in thick black goo. As she spluttered out the few specks that went into her mouth, she felt something. Pain. Oh, so much pain. The slime sizzled and sparked, burning Redheart as she struggled to get the tar-like creature off.

A magic beam struck Redheart, bathing her in its golden glow. When she opened her eyes, the goo had disappeared, flung far away where no one could see it. The only proof of its existence was the burn marks covering Redheart’s body.

“Three down…” Sunset huffed, trying to aim for another “A hundred more to go!”

Just as she said that, one of the dark creatures slammed into her flank, knocking her forwards and falling face first onto the non-existent floor. She got up and tried to fire a beam of magic at it, but to no avail. It was moving around too much, already knowing what Sunset was capable of. It slithered across her body, scorching whatever it could touch.

“Get off her!” Redheart wailed, charging towards the Unicorn hastily.

Her path was blocked by four more dark slime creatures, all of whom zoomed forward and struck her square in the face. Five more appeared out of nowhere and followed suit, slamming into the nurse and covering her with more and more venomous slime. Her screams died down by the time fifteen of them had covered her.

Sunset wasn’t having a better time, either. Just as the creatures had ganged up on Redheart, they had done the same for her. She was now faced with twenty of them, all of whom were already poised to attack. She tried desperately to shoot them down, but with every one she killed, three more took its place. Her flank burning like acid, her magic quickly being drained, and her focus shifting between attacking, defending, and fleeing, Sunset thought that this would have been her last stand.

And she didn’t even get to meet the others, too.

Five of them shot forward, covering her in acidic slime that burnt to the touch. Her first manner of action was of course, to scream. Scream so loudly her lungs were about to burst. Three, eight, twelve more shot forwards, covering her in more and more burning sludge. Drowning was what she felt like. Drowning in lava.

GROWRGH!

Sunset’s eyes burst open as she located the tiny robot dinosaur she had dropped when they were attacked. However, it was no longer just a tiny raptor. Oh no, not at all.

The robot started growing, adding more metal and machinery into its parts. Pieces fit together like jigsaw pieces, creating a beautiful pattern of red, white and yellow. Its jaws snapped open and shut, as if testing out the gears in its mouth. Green eyes blinked open as it finally saw the creatures attacking the ponies, and anger filled it to its very core. What was once a small raptor was now a large tyrannosaurus, about the size of Princess Celestia’s castle.

RAAARGH!

It took one step forward, crushing ten dark creatures underneath its massive foot. Letting out a massive roar, it stomped over to where Sunset and Redheart had fallen and chomped down, biting and killing off several of the enemies. Several of the creatures charged and covered the metallic beast in its slime, but the tyrannosaurus merely shrugged them off, emitting a weak magical energy field that deflected them off.

With another mighty growl, the robot bent down and chomped on the mound of slime that surrounded Redheart. When it raised its head, only Redheart remained. Burnt and in pain, but otherwise still okay. The mare panted and wheezed, holding back her screams at the back of her throat. Oh, how she wished that she had her medkit with her right now. She could have put up a better fight if she knew where it was.

“What in the…?!” Redheart exclaimed as she saw the large mech that stood before her. She knew Quickfix had a knack for building weapons of mass destruction, but surely even she didn’t know how to make a small machine grow in size with no extra parts!

The dinosaur chomped down on Sunset’s slime pile, revealing the pony trapped underneath it. Unlike Redheart, Sunset wasted no time in screaming for her life. She rolled around on the ground, trying to get the burning feeling off of her skin. Redheart was quick to run up towards her, holding her and trying her best to calm her down.

“Sunset Shimmer, calm down!” she screamed, wishing that she had her medkit even more now

“But it burns!” Sunset wept, holding her sides in pain “It hurts!”

Amidst Sunset’s panicked screaming, Redheart gazed back upwards towards the towering beast that is protecting them. Imagine her surprise when it turned to face them, staring at her with its glowing green eyes. Before she even had time to react, the dinosaur opened its jaws and leaned forwards. Redheart’s heart seized as the tyrannosaurus’ teeth surrounded them, and then slammed shut, swallowing the duo into itself.

Redheart expected them to be crushed and broken by the multiple gears and mechanical parts that made up the beast. What she didn’t expect was a large black chamber with a yellow floor. A long stand, white with pink highlights, stood in the centre of the room. And on top of the stand…

“Hello, me.”

Standing on top of the stand was none other than Redheart herself, which confused the mare lying on the floor. She touched her face and her mane, wondering if someone else had taken control of her body. Realising that she was still in control, she sighed and turned to face Sunset.

She didn’t notice it at first, but now that the shock of seeing her double had calmed down, Redheart noticed that they were covered in some form of jelly-like water. The burns she had previously experienced were healing rapidly, even her coat was starting to grow back. Sunset stirred, slowly getting up and blinking at the scene before her.

“… Redheart?” The Unicorn rubbed her eyes before realising that she was covered in jelly. She shook it off of her hooves and got onto her hooves “What’s going on here?”

“Well, this would be my Heartyranno mech!” the spirit said gleefully as she made a few gestures with her body “Your friend wouldn’t mind it if I borrowed her robot, would she?”

“No, I don’t think so,” Nurse Redheart muttered “In fact, she’d be delighted to find out you turned it into a weapon of mass destruction.”

“Say, Redheart?” Sunset asked, earning the attention of both of them “Okay, this is gonna be confusing. Hey, would it offend you if I called you Heartyranno? Or just Tyranno, if that’s too long.”

“I’m fine with Tyra, if you want.”

“Great!” Sunset clapped her hooves and turned around, seeing a large screen showing the scene outside.

Whatever action Tyra did, the mech responded and followed suit, taking out some more monsters with a mighty strike. It wowed her to see the fighting, but Sunset knew that this wasn’t what they needed to do. She needed to find out where everyone else is so they could defeat Morpheus.

“Excuse me, Tyra, was it?” Redheart asked, earning a questioning ‘yes?’ from her “But how did you manage to turn that small robot into… well, this?”

“Oh, that? Well, did Sunset ever tell you about my abilities?” Tyra asked as she made a chomping motion with her hooves.

Sunset sheepishly apologised, followed by Redheart telling her that it’s fine. It wasn’t like they had that much time to have a nice long chat, after all. They were at war.

“Well, I have the power to create things from my imagination. On the outside world, Sunset warned me not to use it too much. I was using your body, after all. But here, in this dream world, my powers just seem so… powerful!”

“Your powers are amplified in this realm, interesting…” Redheart muttered to no one in particular “How can we use it to our advantage?”

“Redheart, it’s the power of imagination. We could do anything with it,” Sunset reminded the Element bearer “You know, I think I have an idea. Okay, here’s the plan…”

Back outside, the forces of darkness were starting to falter. The Heartyranno mech had destroyed hundreds of them, and the dark clouds overhead were starting to run out of slime. Seeing as they were about to fail, the slime creatures all started to merge and become one giant monster, standing just slightly above Heartyranno. Just as it was about to attack the robot, a beam of light shot out of its mouth, striking the monster and pushing it back.

“IYAAH!!”

Sunset Shimmer appeared from the beam of light, but she was no longer a pony. She had taken on her human form, kicking the monster and making it toppling over onto its back. In her hands was a black ballpoint pen. She dramatically held it up, one hand on its hilt and the other on its cap.

“Please don’t lie to me, Discord!”

She pulled the cap off, fully expecting to see a pen inside. Instead, a shining golden blade emerged from the tip, growing in length the further Sunset pulled the cap out. She gazed wistfully at the weapon, surprised to see that Discord was not lying when he said that it was a magic pen-sword. But then again, it could have been Tyra’s ability, she didn’t know.

Her amazement at the weapon had to be cut short when the monstrous black slime got back up, letting out an ear-splitting screech that rocked the ground she stood on. Heartyranno stumbled, dropping onto its knees from the vibrations. It would take a while for it to get back up, especially with those tiny little arms. Sunset knew exactly what to do.

“YAAA!!” she screamed, jumping high into the sky assisted by Tyra’s imagination ability.

She struck the monster square on the forehead, plunging the blade deep into its form. With a mighty yell, she pulled the blade downwards, cutting the beast in half. She let gravity finish the rest, pulling her and the blade lower, cutting off its torso, and then its waist. With a final shout of “SEIYA!”, she pulled out the sword, watching the monster split in half and falling apart.

“Whew,” she wiped her brow and turned around, giving the giant tyrannosaurus mech a thumbs up.

Another beam of light fired from the dinosaur’s mouth, revealing Nurse Redheart. The robot managed to stand back up after several tries, and stared intently at the two. Sunset and Redheart both waited for Tyra to also emerge from it, but she never did. Only the robot stared back at them.

“Redhe- I mean, Tyra!” Sunset called out “Come on out!”

The robots shook its head.

“I don’t think she wants to, or she probably can’t,” Redheart hypothesised “She didn’t give me a reason when I was inside, though.”

Sunset felt crestfallen, but quickly perked up.

“Well, as long as she’s with us, it shouldn’t matter.” Sunset waved her hands happily “Now then, we’ll just have to go underground.”

“Underground?”

“Yup! I remembered that I had to break through the ground last time I was here,” Sunset snapped her fingers “But since I’m in this form…”

She took one look at her sword and nodded her head. It was strong enough to cut through a giant monster, which was probably made by Morpheus himself. Surely it had some sort of magical properties. Honestly, just where did Discord find this weapon?

“Hyaa!”

With a thrust of her arms, Sunset stabbed the ground beneath her, forming a visible mirror-like crack. Gritting her teeth, Sunset stabbed the sword even deeper into the ground, breaking it apart slowly.

Redheart watched Sunset try to pierce through the glass-like surface. Even if she does not know her that well, she had to agree that this Sunset was just as determined as her own. With a small smile, she placed her own hooves on the hilt of the sword and assisted the girl in pushing the sword deeper and deeper. Shouting as loud as their lungs would let them, the two girls managed to push the blade deep enough, making the ground shatter beneath them. The two girls and one robot fell through, falling along with hundreds of glass shards that broke simultaneously.

Sunset didn’t know what to expect when she broke through the glass, but she was sure she didn’t expect this. As the two fell from the sky, the Unicorn-turned-human could see thousands of creatures fighting against the dark forces of Morpheus.

Several brown-skinned men put on colourful belts, transforming into bug-eyed warriors with a shout of ‘Henshin!’. A pink puff ball sucked in a few dark creatures, swallowing and absorbing their powers. Blue armour-clad robots came charging through, shooting down waves upon waves of enemies. She could even spot a blue dinosaur covered in green slime that exploded everything it touched.

Just how many worlds did Morpheus put to sleep already?

“Your Sunset probably did this,” Sunset turned to face Redheart, who had remained calm despite the perilous drop

“Well, I don’t doubt it. She does have a knack for leading others into battle.”

The trio landed squarely onto the battlefield, no doubt thanks to Tyra’s imagination ability. Brandishing her sword, Sunset prepared a battle stance. Tyra had also created a weapon for Redheart, a laser gun that could shoot out syringes at enemies. It isn’t something she would have chosen, but it was better than nothing.

“Let’s go!” Sunset shouted, joining the multiple factions as they battled with the infinite dark slime creatures.

The Heartyranno roared, charging after a group of Morpheus’ minions with a look of pure malice in its eyes. Redheart, on the other hand, fell back, firing at whatever enemy she could see. In a battle this large, there must be a place where the injured go for medical attention. She would be more useful there than on the field of battle.

Deep within the recesses of the world, Morpheus stirred. He did not expect a single pony to cause so much mayhem, especially in the world he had created himself. In fact, he was facing said pony herself, and she wasn’t going to let up any time soon.

“Your days are numbered, Morpheus,” Sunset scoffed, firing several more fireballs at the false God “And that number is zero!”

Author's Note

So we've finally come at the climactic battle. Well, I assume it's climactic, anyway. I'm not really good at writing fight scenes. But hey, what can you do?

A Different Shade of Red

If someone told Shade he would soon find himself in an interdimensional battle between multiple universes and an insane God of Dreams, he… would probably believe that guy. I mean, he’s already friends with a mad scientist. Then there was the time he was in a cult, then he’s hanging out with literal superheroes. And let’s not forget the cheese noodle incident. Shade’s life was just weird in general.

It’d still be pretty weird, though.

So there he was, dazed and confused as he ran through a battlefield with a human school nurse’s assistant on his back. There were scratch marks and burns here and there on his body, but nothing too life threatening. At least, not that he knew of. He’s been physically tortured by Sunset and Quickfix for so long his concept of pain is sort of warped. His mind was perfectly intact, though. And all he could think of at this moment was;

“What the hell is going on?!”

“Sh-Shade!” the human Redheart screamed, hugging the Unicorn’s neck even tighter as she narrowly avoided one of the creatures

“I’m trying, I’m trying!”

Why was he in this situation? Hell if he knew. Apparently, everyone had woken up much earlier than him and the Sunset from his world was awesome enough to actually get them to form ranks so she could lead the charge against Morpheus. Since he was as dead as a brick and way too heavy for a girl with no physical training to lift, Redheart had taken it upon herself to make sure that he didn’t get stepped on by the various huge mobile suits, combining zords, or dinosaurs that were roaming the battlefield.

Really, Redheart was just the best. Shade briefly wondered if the Redheart from his world would do the same. Probably. Though, his Redheart was much stronger. She’d probably slap him awake and carry him all the way to safety just because.

“Take a left next to the giant pickle dinosaur,” Redheart shouted over the din of battle “It’s right in between that giant mobile armour and the spider with spikes growing on its back!”

“I see it!” Shade panted, a grin fixed on his face

The medic tent, which Sunset had made sure was erected for the thousands, if not millions of civilians who might be caught in the crossfire. To any normal person, a normal tent would be the absolute worst place to seek shelter, especially with people throwing plasma beams and giant deathscythes around. But Sunset somehow managed to make it work. Not only did she get enough wizards to constantly surround the tent in protective charms, she even got this one dude in a blue box to make the tent much larger on the inside to accommodate for everyone who can’t fight as well as the injured.

He sidestepped past the pickle dinosaur and slid underneath a stream of fire shooting out of the fists of a man with pink hair. Shade cheered, thinking that his luck was finally turning for the better. Unfortunately for him, the universe didn’t want to see him happy. Oh, no. That would be far too kind for him.

Instead, a hulking green man with extremely stretchy pants suddenly appeared out of nowhere and kicked him hard in the flank. He zoomed through the sky, Redheart hanging on for her dear life, as they barrelled straight for the tent. A few second before they entered the protection charms, though, Shade was positive he saw a yellow octopus monster thing suddenly zoom in, comb his hair, brush his teeth, fix Redheart’s clothes, brush her hair, and wipe the sweat off of the two of them before zooming back off at Mach 20. He then zoomed back and took a picture of Redheart’s panties before zooming away, leaving the two of them to crash into a girl who looked like she was part squid and part kid; like she was some sort of squid-kid.

“Urrghghrhg” moaned Shade as he rubbed his head “You okay there, Redheart?”

The medic in training was already standing up, apologising profusely to the girl they had crashed into. She simply waved them off and held up her huge paint roller, strutting off towards the battlefield outside.

“Somehow,” she smiled unsurely “You’re injured, we should get you patched up.”

“When am I not?” Shade waved his hoof dismissively as he shrugged off the pain and limped over towards the table where all the bandages were kept “Now that you’re safe, I need to go back out there and help Sunset – I mean, the other Elements. Yeah, them. I’m totally not just going out to try and find Sunset so I could help her out and possible get her to feel grateful that I helped her. No sirree.”

“That is… oddly specific,” Redheart pondered, but thought that this was just too much trouble for her to care about “Anyway, I am not going to let you go out there in your current condition.”

“Who’s gonna stop me? You? I told you I’m fine,” Shade found the bandages and effortlessly used his magic to wrap it around his injuries “What can I do here, anyway? You’re a nurse, you could help people. I’m a dark mage and a cultist. If anything, I’m more useful outside than here.”

“Nurse in training,” reminded Redheart as she grabbed the bandages from Shade’s telekinetic hold and ushered him to a bed “I know you’re strong, and I know that you could handle a fight. But where I’m from… stuff like this isn’t normal. You’re my patient, and you’re injured. I can’t let you go to war with those injuries.”

“Ooh, better reword some of those sentences. Bulk might get jealous,” reminded Shade, making Redheart’s face turn several shades redder

“I trust him to not cheat on me, and he trusts me,” was Redheart’s abrupt answer, though it felt more like she was reassuring herself than Shade “Anyway, why would I want to date a horse, anyway? I’m a human being. I’m not into bestiality, thank you very much.”

“Eh, I’m not too big of a fan of inter-species romance either,” Shade shrugged. If there was something he was, it was a bro. And a bro does not steal another bro’s girlfriend regardless of whether he knows the guy or not “Where is that lump of steroids, anyway?”

“HEY!”

“Ye asketh, and doth ye receiveth...” Shade sighed, not really surprised by Bulk Biceps’ sudden appearance

The hulking white teenager picked up his girlfriend with a single arm and hugged her tight as if she was a throw pillow. Really, for all intents and purposes, that looks like it should hurt. But Redheart... she seems to be enjoying it. Oh Celestia, has she been a masochist all this while?! With a boyfriend that muscular, she had to be!

“WHAT’RE YOU DOIN’ WITH MY PUDDIN’ CAKE?!” Bulk bellowed, eyeing Shade as if he was some sort of untrustworthy cult member.

Well, he was wrong. Shade was an untrustworthy former cult member.

“I swear, we were just talking!” Shade quickly shook his forehooves in defence. He did not want to be on the receiving on of this guy’s fist “In fact, I – uh... I already have a girlfriend! Y-Yeah! Why would I hit on someone else if I already have someone I... uh, someone I’m dating. Yeah!”

Bulk squinted his eyes. Bulk might be the clear definition of a meathead, but he wasn’t that stupid.

“Sugarbottom, does this pony here have a girlfriend?” he turned to ask Redheart, his tone suddenly dropping several octaves in volume. In fact, he sounded like a completely different person!

“Hmm...” she tapped her chin, pondering the question for a moment “Not that I know of, no.”

“YOU LIEEEE!” Bulk suddenly twisted his head back to look at Shade, his veins popping out and a murderous glare filling his eyes.

Shade was going to die He was so going to die. And it’s not even an honourable warrior’s death, either. Not that he expected to die like that, but he at least hoped he could die with more dignity!

Just as all hope seemed lost to Shade, the universe finally threw him a bone and gave him a chance for once. The tent’s entrance was pulled back and a single pony rushed inside, sweaty and covered in blood. Even her breathing sounded ragged and uneven. She tossed her weapon aside and rushed over to the medicine cabinet, pulling out several band-aids and sticking them carefully onto her wounds.

“Redheart!”

Nurse Redheart looked at the trio, though her expression remained stoic and calm.

“Shade?” she raised an eyebrow. She didn’t expect to meet him here. She then noticed the humans next to him, particularly the girl in Bulk’s arms “Oh boy...”

“ANOTHER BUGGYBEAR?!” Bulk screamed, holding on to his girlfriend even tighter “WHY ARE THERE TWO FLUFFYBUNSES?!”

“I-It’s cool, Bulk!” Shade sprinted over to pony Redheart’s side, placing a hoof around her neck “This is the Redheart from my dimension! And she... uh... she’s my girlfriend!”

The entire world suddenly silenced. Not even the universe could comprehend the amount of stupid that Shade was emitting right now.

“What –" Redheart tried to say, but was quickly cut off by Shade

“See, it looked like I was flirting with your Redheart just now because she, uh, reminded me of my own Redheart! It’s a common misconception, really. No need to kill me for it!”

Just what chain of events occurred for Shade to actually say that? Redheart didn’t know. In fact, she didn’t even want to know. After the whole even with that other Sunset Shimmer and the other her inside the tyrannosaurus mech, she knew that it was just going to be convoluted and not worth her time. She was a woman of science, not insanity!

Although, Quickfix would probably tell her that the two of them were basically one and the same.

“Look, now is not the time to talk about this,” pony Redheart finally said as she went to pick up the syringe gun that Tyra had given her. She could probably upgrade it to heal people, but it would take too much time. Instead, she passed it over to Shade “Take this. You’ll need it more than me.”

Confused as heck, Shade grabbed the weapon with his telekinesis and tested it out. Wow, this thing is… amazing! If he could just supercharge it with his own dark magic, it could be even stronger!

“Whoa, thanks Red!” he twirled the weapon around, too overjoyed for words

It was then that he realised that, wait, Redheart didn’t deny his accusations? From the seven Elements, Shade probably knew Redheart the least. Especially since she was always busy with her job whenever he did visit her in the hospital. Did she really not care that Shade was making such a bold claim?

“Daww, you guys look so cute together, too!” human Redheart cooed, finally getting out of her boyfriend’s grip and sitting comfortably on his muscular shoulder “It’s like you were meant to be together!”

“Aheheh… yeah…”

This should have been a happy moment for Shade. But why… why did he feel like this was wrong? Well, it was wrong. Maybe that’s why. He’s lying to the two of them just to save his skin, and Redheart doesn’t even care. Even when the world is finally giving him a chance, Shade still isn’t happy. Damn.

“WE BELIEVE YOU”, Bulk shouted, backing off into deeper into the tent with his girlfriend in tow “SEE YOU GUYS LATER”

“I’ll be here if you need me!” human Redheart called out “There are a lot more patients for me to take care of. Huh, I wonder if I could write this off as practical training…”

The lovey-dovey duo soon disappeared from sight, leaving Shade and Redheart along at the front of the tent. Without them to instigate any conversations, the air around the two of them started becoming much more awkward. Redheart continued to collect medical equipment, silently marking off a checklist of things she would need to treat the wounded inside.

“Hey… Red?”

“I’m a bit busy, Shade,” Redheart explained curtly “Could you please leave? There’s a war outside, and that means injured soldiers. I need to treat them right now.”

“Look, I’m, uh… sorry about that,” he hung his head down low. He can’t remember the last time he felt so guilty “I was just trying to not get killed by Bulk and-”

“It doesn’t matter,” Redheart continued with her job, too busy to even look at Shade in the eyes “Only an idiot would believe a lie that simple. I think they knew, and they were just trying to make you feel better.”

“Really?”

“Of course,” Redheart finally turned to face Shade, a warm smile on her face “And even if I did like you, I’d give up right now. Sunset would probably kill me if she ever found out.”

Huh? Sunset? What did she have to do with anything?

“Listen, Shade. Right now, there’s a third me out there inside a giant red and yellow tyrannosaurus mech. I can’t do anything to help her, but I know you can. She’s probably going to look for Morpheus, and there’s no doubt that Sunset is going to be there as well. If she’s smart, the other Elements should be with her as well. The other Sunset Shimmer might be looking for him as well, I don’t know. I need you to go help them out.”

“But-”

“No ‘but’s,” she passed him a bag filled with spare empty syringes “Go.”

“I’m on it!”

Saluting the nurse, Shade galloped outside with the syringe gun in tow and the bag of syringes. Oh, Shade. Simple, simple Shade. Just wave Sunset in front of his face and he’ll probably murder an entire town for her.

Redheart picked up the tray of medical equipment with her mouth and trotted deeper into the tent, all the while wondering about the future of Shade and Sunset. If they do end up getting together, and take over Celestia as ruler of Equestria… Sweet merciful Celestia, she can’t even imagine what would happen to Equestria!

Hopefully, that wouldn’t happen for a long while.

Meanwhile, outside the medic tent, Shade was already facing problems. For one thing, he didn’t know how to reload the syringe gun. So as soon as he finished up the six that were left inside, he was left screaming and running from the hundred slime creatures that had targeted him.

“Shit, shit, shit, shit, SHIT!”

Shade could only curse out obscenities as he hid behind a large stone man, passing on his pursuers onto him. Unfortunately for him, though, he was Shade. And the world was never kind to him. Just as he thought that he had enough time to figure out how to stick more syringes into the gun, a giant slime monster sneaked up behind him and swallowed the bag of extra syringes.

“Oh, hell no!”

Shade jumped into the monster’s mouth, fighting and struggling against the acidic sludge as he tried to pry the ammo out before they were dissolved. Try as he might, though, Shade was only able to pull one out of the hundreds that Nurse Redheart had supplied for him. The acidic sludge was finally taking its toll on Shade as he finally felt the effects searing into his skin.

“FINE!” Shade screamed, filling the empty syringe up with dark energy “You want it? Then TAKE IT!”

He stabbed the needle into the insides of the slime monster and pressed on the lever on top, pushing all of the compressed dark energy into the creature. At first, the monster seemed to grow bigger. Great going, Shade. You just made things harder for everyone else! How was he supposed to know that they fed off of dark magic?!

But then, something weird happened.

The sludge monster kept on expanding more and more, but… was it screaming? In fact, holes started exploding out of the monster’s body. Shade took this as his chance to jump out, grabbing as many syringes as he could grab before the monster exploded, splatting the surrounding area in dead monster carcass.

“Well, that was… convenient,” Shade blinked, looking at the newfound weapons in his hands “But it works!”

Quickly locating the gun he had dropped, he then turned it around and noticed a label that said “Insert Ammo Here”. Slapping himself for his stupidity, Shade stuck as many syringes as the weapon could hold in and took aim, but not without filling them all with his magic beforehand. He notices a red bipedal mechanical dragon jumping around, swinging at slime monsters with his microphone. Shade takes aim and steadies his breathing. This was all or nothing!

“Watch your back!” he shouted, firing off a dark magic imbued syringe at the enemy.

The dragon was quick to dodge, merely grazing his green earphones before stabbing the slime monster and making it slowly expand before exploding into a huge goop. The dragon thanked Shade and ran off, looking for more monsters for him to kill. On the other hand, Shade was ecstatic! He had a cool weapon and he’s actually helping, guys! He’s not just a random background character!

Cocking his gun once more, Shade dashed across the battlefield; shooting whatever slime monsters he could find. And for the first time in his life, he actually felt useful! People actually thanked him for once, and he wasn’t screwing up! Maybe life was finally looking up for him!

And for the first time, the universe didn’t interfere.

He passed by a group of giant monsters and robots wrestling against the larger slime creatures, and had to make a double take. Right there, in between the king of monsters and the silver and red man, was that…

“A TITAN!”

Squealing like the fanboy he was, Shade grabbed a boy flying nearby on a broomstick and begged him to send him on top of the titan. The bespectacled boy complied and used his magic wand to levitate Shade onto his broom. They flew across the sky, all the while firing at whatever monsters got too close for comfort. When he was close enough, Shade jumped off and thanked the boy, landing squarely on top of the Titan’s head.

“Hey,” Shade muttered, trying his best to look cool “It’s been five years,”

All the giants turned to look at him, as if confused at what he was doing.

“Oh, uh… I was, a… BACKUP!”

He cocked his syringe gun and fired at the large slime monsters, making them expand and grow. The king of monsters took this chance to fire up a nuclear blast, turning all the enemies to dust. Shade squeed, giddy at the prospect of seeing such an awesome move up close. As he did a little victory dance, Shade noticed two people running at a certain direction. Well, one person and one tyrannosaur mech, at least.

“There they are…” Shade muttered, checking his gun. Only five more syringes left?! Since when did he start running low?! He needed to catch up to them and help, fast! “Hey, uh… can any of you guys, you know, send me over there?” Shade pointed to the duo that he had noticed.

Just as he said that, a dimensional rift wall appeared right in front of Shade, and out came a man in pink and black armour that looked like he had a barcode on his helmet.

“And you are…?”

“Just a passing through Rider,” he replied, turning back to the dimensional wall “I hear you wanted to go to your friends? Jump in.”

“Thanks!”

Shade thanked the large combatants for being awesome and followed the pink armoured man through the portal, appearing just a few feet in front of the place he had seen the human Sunset and red-and-yellow dinosaur Redheart had told him about. He would have thanked the man, but he had already left. Oh well, he’ll just thank him later.

There, in the distance, Shade saw them. Sunset, well, Shimmer in this case since both Sunsets were here, had a gleaming golden sword. Where she got it, he didn’t know. But who cares, it looks awesome! She swung it left and right, cutting up any of Morpheus’ minions that dared get too close. The mechanical dinosaur was not far behind, gobbling and stomping its away across the sea of enemies.

“Yo, guys – AAH!”

Shade took a step forward and tripped over a discarded beam sabre, tumbling over his hooves and planting face first onto the ground. He groggily tried to pick himself up, only to accidentally kick his syringe gun which sent a syringe flying right into his thigh.

“GAAAAAGHH!!”

“Shade?” Sunset called out, running up to him and helping him back up “You okay?”

“Ahaha~ Sure, why not?” Shade muttered, pulling the ammo out of his flank. Four left.

“I was heading towards Morpheus, and I suspect he’s over there,” Sunset looked off into the distance, and Shade had to track where her eyes were looking at.

Off in the distance, a large black cloud was hovering maliciously over the heads of even the largest of the people fighting against Morpheus. He could barely make out five coloured lights zooming around, and every time they connect with the cloud, it backs away just by a tiny bit. No doubt it’s five of the Elements of Harmony fighting against Morpheus.

But then that begs the question… where is Quickfix? The five that are fighting are probably Sunset and the four girls who were absorbed first by Morpheus, and Redheart was off at the medic tent. Surely Quickfix would have a riot waging war here. Unless…

“Ah never hurt innocents before! How can ah be the damn Element of Inspiration if ah’m the one hurtin’ me friends?! What if ah keep hurtin’ innocents, Shade?! That makes me no better than the guys ah’m tryin’ to kill! Ah’m a monster, Shade… Ah’m a monster…”

Shade held his lips, remembering the abrupt kiss that Quickfix had given him. Where was she? It wasn’t like her to be so caught up in her emotions like that. First thing he’ll do when he gets back is to find Quickfix and just sit down and talk to her. If he can find her, at least. He hoped that she didn't hate him for some reason and would actively avoid him.

“Looks like a long way away,” Shade muttered

“Seems like it…” agreed Sunset. She then turned to face the large red dinosaur behind her “Think your imagination power could send us there faster, Tyra?”

GRRAAORRGHH

Before Shade even knew what was going on, the dinosaur swung its head down, swallowing Sunset whole. Shade panicked. What the hell?! Did that thing just - ?!

He didn’t even get to finish that thought before the dinosaur chomped down on him. The last thing he remembered doing was screaming, screaming for his dear life.

Author's Note

How long has it been since the last update? I don't know. Too long that a lot of you might have dropped the fic by now, I presume. Anyway, I (FINALLY) managed to get around to writing the next chapter. It's light hearted, it's weird, and it stars Shade. Surely this is the weirdest combination for the chapter to get everyone back into speed.

Hopefully, all the sudden cameos from all the different characters won't distract you guys too much. But knowing me and my writing style, it's probably a bit distracting.

I apologise for any trouble I caused.

Worst Morning Ever

Author's Note

Before reading this, it's required that you at least have read or have minimal knowledge on Evowizard25's fic, A Different Sunset since this story is based on that fic.

Any and all constructive criticism is accepted.

Worst Morning Ever

Sunset Shimmer groaned as she tried to pull herself off of the bed. Last night had been crazy, especially after Pinkie Pie brought out the cider. So much for Rarity’s brilliant idea for a sleepover study group session. That plan was doomed to fail from the start.

‘Really, she should’ve known that studying and Rainbow Dash do not mix well at all’ Sunset thought to herself, letting out a small sigh

She tossed and turned on the bed, trying to find the edge to no avail. After minutes of failed attempts, Sunset just pushed herself off, falling face first onto the floor with a loud groan. She tried to get back on her feet but found it surprising when her legs failed her making her fall onto the ground with a soft ‘Oomph!’.

“I must be drunker than I thought...” Sunset muttered to herself “Applejack needs to make those things with less alcohol...”

Knowing that her attempt at standing up was a failure in the making, Sunset Shimmer tried to open her eyes instead. The world was a little blurry, and she swore that Fluttershy’s room suddenly got a huge makeover in a single night. Did Rarity go on one of her decorating sprees again? No, there are way too many books and too little gems for this to be Rarity’s doing.

Trying to shake the grogginess out of her head, Sunset Shimmer rubbed her eyes with her... hooves?

“Wha...?”

Now fully awake, Sunset Shimmer gazed at her former hand, praying that this was just one of her drunken fantasies. A sudden thought came to mind, and Sunset quickly turned to look at her back. Just as she had feared, there was a beautiful red tail with yellow streaks, just like the one she used to have. She can even see her dual coloured sun Cutie Mark again.

In this kind of situation, there’s only one thing that any sane person should do.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!”

Panic.

“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!” Sunset Shimmer started heaving, standing on all four of her hooves.

This was obviously just a dream. Yes, a dream! All she needed was to do something to wake up, and everything would be all fine. She’ll be back in Fluttershy’s house and everyone would be piled up in one huge drunken pile that the guys in class would obviously say looks “hot”. Now, what’s the best way to wake up from a dream?!

In the corner of her eyes, Sunset noticed a staircase that spiralled downwards. Instantly, her mind thought up of a plan. A plan so crazy it just had to work! Without any second thoughts, or any first thoughts for that matter, Sunset ran towards the staircase and jumped off of it.

THUMP

CRACK

GROAN

The former human quickly rolled down the staircase, probably cracking several of her ribs and leaving obvious marks on the stairs. The moment she landed on the hard wooden floor with a might CRASH, Sunset Shimmer let out a pained groan. Okay, maybe that was a terrible plan. Maybe she should have started with something safer, like splashing cold water on her face.

“Oh, Sunset, you’re awake?” a rather mature, dapper voice called out to her. She didn’t know why, but it sounded very familiar “How many times do I need to tell you that you shouldn’t run down the stairs. Shade wouldn’t like it if your pretty face is scarred on your wedding day.”

“W-Wedding?!”

In an instant, Sunset Shimmer jumped up and teleported back onto her hooves. The yellow mare the slowly blinked, slowly touching her forehead. No doubt about it, she had a horn once more, just like back when she was a unicorn. No, not like back when she was a unicorn. She literally was a unicorn now!

“M-Mirror?!” Sunset cried out, her mind far too panicked to actually form coherent words “Mirror!!”

“You don’t have to shout, Your Gracefulness,” the gentleman-like voice cooed again, and she heard footsteps coming her way that forced her to turn and look at the foreign voice.

It was a dragon. A purple-scaled, green-spiked, pony sized dragon walking over to her with a mirror. At this point, Sunset Shimmer’s mind was already too far gone to actually panic anymore. Instead, she felt a part of her mind break, not believing what she was seeing anymore. After everything that she’s been through, nothing could destroy her sanity any more than it already has.

Oh, how wrong she was.

Sunset took one look into the mirror and saw her unicorn form gazing back at her. Her pure yellow coat was filled with bruises from falling off the staircase, and her mane was frizzled to the point of looking like Pinkie Pie’s hair. Acting like the sane girl that she was, Sunset Shimmer did the only thing her mind could still process.

“Ugh...”

*Thud*

Stress wasn’t a foreign concept to Sunset Shimmer. In fact, you could even say that she faces stress every day thanks to past Sunset Shimmer acting like a pompous prick and giving present Sunset Shimmer a hard time. However, today’s stress was something different. That’s because, for one thing, Sunset couldn’t actually explain today’s cause of stress or the way for her to counter it.

And it’s because of this exact reason that the yellow former Unicorn turned human turned Unicorn again didn’t want to get off of her bed. Well, what she assumed was her bed, anyway.

“Come on, Sunset, you can’t sleep in the entire day,” the purple dragon nudged her again, but Sunset was adamant with her resolve “Listen, I apologise for making that joke about Shade. I know how sensitive you are about that topic, and I promise that I won’t do it anymore… for the rest of the week.”

…

“Mm mmrrt,”

“Excuse me?”

“Mm mmrt,”

“I can’t quite make out what you’re saying. But if you want me to get Shade to translate, then I’ll be happy to-”

“I’m hurt!”

She didn’t know why, but the mere mention of Shade’s name sent the mare into a panicked frenzy. Maybe the dragon’s joke left that much of a lasting impression on her. Was there anyone called Shade back in Canterlot High? Actually, there probably is. And knowing how much of a tyrant she used to be, that guy must hate her guts as well.

At least she had the fact that she could summon a giant spectral Alicorn that shot a tactical rainbow beam to cheer herself up.

“Big sis, you survived a fall from a staircase with only minor injuries. You don’t really have any excuse to stay bedridden.”

Hearing the dragon call her ‘big sis’ caused Sunset Shimmer to wince in horror. What kind of world is this?! A unicorn and a dragon; siblings?! Whoever her parents were, they must have had a very kinky sex life. The mere thought of it sent shivers down her spine.

The dragon released a heavy sigh as he walked away from the bed knowing that his attempts at coercing his sister to wake up would be fruitless. As he walked down the staircase, ready to start his librarian duties since Sunset was being uncooperative, the purple-scaled dragon remembered something he had forgotten to tell his sister.

“I sent a letter to Nurse Redheart to come over, by the way!” he called out from the bottom of the stairs “Even if you don’t look that injured, it’s best if you get checked just in case. Don’t want any internal bleeding now, do we?”

Redheart? Sunset wondered where she had heard that name before. Was there someone in school that had that name? Oh yes, the school nurse’s helper. She was quite popular among the students, although she suspected it was because she had, as most boys called it, ‘a nice rack’. In fact, it’s a mystery why she hasn’t been sexually assaulted yet.

Obviously, they asked for her whenever they visited the nurse’s office.

Before Sunset Shimmer could contemplate meeting the pony version of the school medic, a Pegasus crashed right through the window with a loud CRASH, sending glass scattering everywhere. Thanks to constantly getting bombarded by trash on a daily basis, Sunset’s evasion skills kicked into overdrive as she rolled off the bed and used her blanket to shield herself from any of the oncoming glass shards.

“Hey, you could’ve hurt someone!” Sunset Shimmer shouted after throwing the blanket aside

“Pfft! I’ve crashed through that window way too many times to count,” the Pegasus scoffed, shrugging off the unicorn’s fury “You should be used to it by now, you know.”

The unicorn raised an eyebrow as she heard the Pegasus’ remark. Whoever this is, she seemed to know her personally. Also, she breaks windows on a casual basis and she’s used to that. That was… unsettling. However, there was something about the turquoise mare that felt familiar to Sunset. Somebody at school, maybe? In fact, she could even say that this pony was sort of like Rainbow Dash.

But how to react? Should she come clean and tell her that she doesn’t know her? Or maybe she should lie and watch the scene play out so she could get a better grasp on the situation?

“Hellooooo” the Pegasus waved a hoof in front of Sunset’s face “Anypony in there?”

Lying it is.

“I hope you have the money to replace that,” scoffed Sunset in an attempt to hide the fact that she had no idea who this Pegasus was “What if it starts raining?”

“Okay, two things. One; the Pegasi aren’t planning any rain for the next three days. Two; you’re the freakin’ Element of Magic! Just magic this baby up and we’ll be on our way! Unless, of course, setting things on fire is the only magic you could do.”

Element… of… Magic…?

Sunset did not expect that. She did not expect that at all.

“I… Well…”

How long has it been since Sunset had even practised her magic? While she was a tyrant, she mostly kept her thoughts back on Equestria so the moment she returned, she could still access her magic. But after she reformed from her evil ways, she started to focus more on her high school life instead. That meant cramming for tests and studying like there’s no tomorrow. That left her with the magical knowledge equivalent to someone on their first year of Magic School.

“What were you even doing to merit crashing through a window?!” she finally screamed, wanting to divert from the original topic as quickly as possible

“Oh, well I asked Bulk Biceps if he can launch me from a catapult, I wanted to see if I could break my top speed!” the Pegasus answered nonchalantly, almost as if she was used to answering that question she then perked up, slapping her forehead with her hoof “Speaking of which, I finished the last Wizarding World book I borrowed from you. Can I borrow the next? I’ll bring ‘em back by tomorrow, tops!”

“Wizarding World?”

Now Sunset was starting to panic. This wasn’t her house. In fact, she didn’t even know about any book series called Wizarding World! It must have a counterpart back in the human world, but what?! How were the books even arranged here? The circular structure of the building made it almost impossible for her to start looking. The Pegasus started tapping her hooves impatiently, making Sunset panic even more.

Maybe lying wasn’t the best idea.

“Yo, Sunset, you all right?” the Pegasus scanned her over, circling the terrified unicorn “You don’t sound as proud or princess-y like you always do. In fact, you haven’t even tried to burn me yet! No, wait, you haven’t used any magic at all. Don’t you normally let out this huge aura of magic just to show off?”

The Pegasus kept circling Sunset, eyes full of questions and distrust. On the other hand, Sunset was starting to form a rather unsavoury picture of her counterpart in this world, and boy was she an asshole. Before Sunset could even speak up, the turquoise mare slammed her hoof on the ground.

“Are you the real Sunset, or are you a spy?!”

“Spy?!” Sunset retaliated in shock “How did you even come up with that? What, do people get replaced by spies that often?!”

The Pegasus cocked an eyebrow at that question. Okay, so ponies get replaced by spies commonly as well. This didn’t help Sunset with her rising panic meter, not at all. Just what kind of mess did she get herself into this time?!

“Fine then,” the turquoise mare said in determination as she walked towards Sunset, slowly pushing her towards a corner “If you are the Sunset Shimmer I know, then you won’t have any problems answering these simple questions!”

Gulp

“Who does Coco work with?”

“Wha-? I…” Sunset stammered

“How many cookies does Pizzelle cook every day?”

“Uh…”

“What does Quickfix use to stick things together when she’s in a rush and ran out of screws?!”

“Umm…”

“What. Is. My. Name?”

Sunset Shimmer sighed and admitted defeat, knowing that it was futile to resist any longer. If only she gave her a multiple choice question instead. Sunset was great at guessing the answer to those! In fact, she passed most of her tests just by guessing!

‘Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later,’ she thought to herself, sitting on the wooden library floor in defeat

“I don’t know…” the Unicorn admitted

“So you ARE a spy!” the Pegasus poked Sunset’s muzzle, effectively terrifying her even more “Tell me the truth! Who are you and what did you do to Sunset?! You don’t want to mess with me. I’m a Wonderbolt in the making!”

“I’mSunsetShimmerbutfromadifferentuniverseandthenIwassenttothisweirdworldwhereeverybodywasahumanandonedaymeandmyfriendsdrankwaytoomuchciderandwhenIwokeupIwasalreadyhereinthisworldIdon’tknowwhathappenedtoyourSunsetohpleasedon’thurtme!”

Silence then overtook the room, bathing it in a pregnant pause that hung over the two mares like a heavy curtain. Finally, after a few moments of nothingness, the Pegasus spoke.

“Whoa, didn’t expect you to give up so easily,” she looked rather confused and slightly disappointed. She was really hoping for an epic fight. Looks like she’ll have to find one somewhere else.

It was true, and Sunset knew it. If she was anything like the person she used to be, she would have fought on to the bitter end to try and get this mare to believe her lie, or literally just punch the living daylights out of her. If all else fails, she could always use her cunning to one up her and probably get some blackmail material to hang over her head as well. However, that was the old Sunset. She’s come a long way from that.

“So lemme get this straight,” the Pegasus walked back towards the bed, letting Sunset calm down from her outburst “You’re from some kind of… alternate world and you switched places with our Sunset Shimmer?”

A shrug. Hey, she didn’t know the answer either.

“Wait, you believe me?” Sunset gasped, wondering just how gullible this pony really was “What if I’m a Changeling? Or, maybe I really am spy! I could be lulling you to a false sense of security and take you out with a surprise sleep spell!”

“Meh, I could take you on,” the Pegasus mocked with a snarky grin. Sadly, Sunset believed her “Name’s Lightning Dust, by the way. And seriously, you have a lot of explaining to do.”

“I suppose she does.”

The two mares turned towards the staircase where two figures had suddenly appeared. One was a dragon with purple scales and green spikes. The other was an Earth pony with a sterile white coat and faded pink mane. Neither of them looked too pleased with the situation.

“Redheart!” shouted Lightning “How long did you- What are you-”

“Carousel Boutique, one hundred and seventeen, and peanut butter,” Redheart answered, leaving the two mares stunned “Spike sent me a letter saying that Sunset Shimmer here fell down the stairs and knocked herself unconscious, both surprisingly on separate occasions. But now it looks like we have more problems to take care of as well.”

“What did you do to my sister?!” Spike got into a fighting stance, teeth bared as he prepared to lunge at the fake Sunset “Tell me where she is right now or I will personally rip you a new hole!”

In the blink of an eye, Lightning Dust had suddenly appeared in front of Spike with her body spread out in an attempt to protect Sunset from the dragon’s rage. She knew just how protective Spike could get of Sunset, even if she did abuse him daily. Call it sibling love, if you will. She just called him a masochist.

“Don’t you dare, Spike!” Lightning scoffed haughtily “In these kinds of stories, the two ponies usually just swapped places! And if what she’s been saying is credible, then you bet your flank that your sister’s safe!”

“Spike, if you attack her now, we might never know where your sister is,” Redheart reminded the dragon “Just calm down. The two of us could handle things here.”

The rage had slowly started to cool down inside Spike and he reluctantly backed down, getting back into his usual formal self. Nurse Redheart was, after all, the eldest of the group and had the most life experience from her life on the field. With his sister out of the picture, she was the most likely to take over leadership and call the shots.

“Pizzelle is good with illusions and such, if I’m not mistaken,” Redheart walked over to Sunset and gently pushed her towards the bed “Could you please send her a letter asking her to come over?”

“Anything for you, my dear maiden. Would you three ladies require any refreshments? Maybe some tea and crumpets?” he then flashed the mares a winning smile “I wouldn’t want you three to starve! After all, young ladies such as you need to take care of your physiques.”

“I’d like that, sure!” said Lightning as she glided back towards Sunset “And seriously, Spike, could you please stop trying to flirt with us all at the same time? It gets weird.”

She then realised that her wings were erect.

“Really weird,”

With all that said and done, Spike left the room to find some parchment and ink. It was a good thing he learnt how to control where his flames sent the letters. It makes contacting the other ponies much easier in times like this.

“Now then, when Pizzelle comes, I’d like you to tell us your story from the start, Sunset Shimmer,” Redheart used her tail to take out some towels from her saddle (which was new to Sunset. Were Earth pony tails that versatile?) and asked Lightning Dust to get some ice “Don’t omit any information. You’ll only make things harder on yourself if you do,”

“Why are you helping me?” Sunset meekly allowed the nurse to take heal her despite the fact that her injuries were basically non-existent at this point “Like I said, I could be a spy!”

“I am a leading member of Order Hospitaller, and the Element of Benevolence. However, above all else, I am a nurse. Therefore, it is my duty to care for the injured and listen to their needs. Now please, rest your head on this pillow. Lightning, could you get me that bottle of aspirin? Thank you.”

Seeing that arguing with the elder mare wasn’t worthwhile, Sunset decided to keep quiet and watch the two mares tend to her needs. Surprisingly, despite her rather rough nature, Lightning Dust was an amazing assistant to Nurse Redheart. Sunset wondered if the two had any history together, but thought against it. She just needed to get home right now. Then she could forget about all this and never speak of it ever again no matter how many times Rarity begs her.

“I still can’t believe this, you know,” Lightning Dust broke the monotony in the room, not liking the long silence “I mean, we’re taking care of Sunset, but she isn’t trying to roast us! And she’s just so… so… nice! Man, alternate universes are weird.”

“You never could wrap your head around those kinds of stories, did you?” Redheart chuckled as she remembered the times Lightning Dust tried to read a Time Riders book “Oh, I think I see Pizzelle right now!”

Sunset looked out the window that Lightning had unceremoniously crashed through and noticed a Pegasus bobbing her head happily to an unknown beat as she flew towards the library. Lightning poked her head out of the window as well and called her friend. Not being one who would pass up on a convenient entrance, Pizzelle flew towards it and gently landed inside Sunset’s room.

“Hey there, Redheart! Lightning! Did you two get Spike’s letter too? I was really surprised when I got mine! I mean, I was with Coco over at Carousel Boutique when suddenly this green burst of flame exploded right in front of us! We were so scared and Rarity even ran over with a bucket of water! But then it turned out that it was just Spike’s letter so we told Rarity ‘Oh, it’s just a letter from Spike! No need to worry!’ And then the letter asked if I could come to the library, so of course I’ll come! I mean, why wouldn’t I? Coco wanted to come, but she had some work to do back at the boutique. And since I was coming over, Aki asked if he could come as well so I thought ‘Why not?’ and-”

“Pizzelle!” Lightning Dust shouted, covering the mare’s mouth with her hoof “Breathe!”

Pizzelle quickly nodded her head, prompting Lightning to pull her hoof back. She then noticed Sunset and cocked her head to the side. Her expression slowly turned to one of confusion.

“Uh, girls?” she said, making sure that she didn’t let herself get carried away “I know this might sound a little crazy, but that isn’t our Sunset Shimmer.”

“Wait, you could tell that I’m someone else?” Sunset pulled her head back. She didn’t expect her to figure it out so fast. A Unicorn, maybe, but a Pegasus? “But how?”

“It’s simple,” Pizzelle stated matter-of-factly “You see, I worked with the Great and Powerful Presto when I was a little filly, and he said that I was really good at looking past illusions! But then again, this isn’t really an illusion. I should know; Aki and I practise every morning. I guess you could say that after practising so many times, I’m just good at looking through magic. And I could tell that your magic is sorta different than anypony else’s magic. Sorta like how a cupcake from one shop tastes different than a cupcake from a different store. But I guess two shops could – Oops!”

Realising that she had started going on a tangent, Pizzelle covered her mouth. The other three ponies, on the other hand, only let their jaws fall down onto the ground. Could a Pegasus really be this adept at magic even if she didn’t have any of her own?

“So you’re saying that, somehow, you could tell that she’s somepony else just by looking at her magic?” Redheart asked for confirmation. Oh, Quickfix is going to have a field day with this!

“Well, that, and the fact that she doesn’t have her usual princess-y smirk, and she isn’t boasting or anything” Pizzelle admitted “Seriously, that’s the one thing people think of when they hear Sunset’s name. But then again, Shade thinks of firm flanks when he hears your name…”

A wave of déjà vu came over Sunset as she remembered how she was like back before she was humbled by the magic of friendship (saying that still left a bad taste in her mouth). This Sunset must really have a lot to learn if this was any indication. And seriously, who the heck is Shade?! It’s starting to drive her up a wall!

“I have returned with snacks, ladies” a masculine, magnificent voice called out from the staircase. Out came Spike, holding a plate of snacks on hand and a warm smile on his face “And I see that Pizzelle is kind enough to grace us with her presence. It is a pleasure to meet somepony so honest and kind. If only she were honest with her feelings of love…”

“Spike, we have a minor in the room!” Redheart reminded. If there was one thing she didn’t like, it was adults being terrible role models to children.

“Wait, we have a kid here?” Sunset asked, looking around for someone she missed “I don’t see anyone.”

As if answering Sunset’s question, a golden ball of energy suddenly bolted from Pizzelle’s back and landed on the plate Spike was holding. It was a golden fox with bright blue eyes, and it stared at the group of ponies as it chewed on a crumpet. The little fox then cocked its head at Sunset with a questioning look.

Sunset had to force herself from squee-ing at the adorable little scene.

“Oh, Aki!” Pizzelle giggled, picking up the little bundle of joy and hugged him “You should have introduced yourself sooner! You can’t keep hiding every time you’re scared. What if I’m not there to take care of you?”

“I’m sorry, Pizzelle…”

Sunset clutched her chest, terrified that the concentrated cuteness could prove fatal and give her diabetes. No, she would not falter right now! She was best friends with Fluttershy, for goodness sake! She was supposed to be used to these things!

“So… you’re not Miss Sunset?” Aki asked, looking up at the Unicorn with glistening eyes “I’m Aki Hikaru, nice to meet you!”

HNNNNNNGGH!

Why must this world be so cruel?!

“Nice to meet you too, Aki!” Sunset Shimmer quickly replied, hoping that she wasn’t making a fool out of herself “I’m Sunset Shimmer, but since you already call this world’s me Miss Sunset, I guess you could call me Shimmer.”

“Okay, Miss Shimmer!”

HNNNNNNGGH!

As soon as Aki returned to his snack, Sunset turned to look at the group surrounding her. She slowly hugged her body, trying to make herself as small as possible. Thanks to past experience, having people other than her friends look at her caused her to shy away even if they didn’t mean her any harm. It was just a habit of hers that she’s slowly losing as people started to accept her.

“A-Anyway,” Sunset got up and sat on her bed “You wanted me to tell you my story, Nurse Redheart?”

“Please, just call me Redheart,”

“And remember, there’s five of us and one of you,” Lightning Dust gave a smug smirk “So don’t you dare try to do any funny business!”

The three ponies, dragon and Kitsune all gathered around her, waiting for her to begin her story. Sunset couldn’t help but be reminded of her own friends, supplying her with the love and friendship she so desperately needed. The thought of that gave Sunset the courage to speak, and so she began telling her alternate self’s friends her story.

Universal Friendship

When Sunset Shimmer opened her eyes, her last waking memory was of being ambushed by a crazy country mare and falling down the stairs. Not really a good last memory in case she, you know, died. Honestly, she had half a mind to burn that crazy mare once she remembers how to make a big enough fire spell.

Now that she was finally awake again, Sunset could see that her surroundings were, once again, different. But this time, it didn’t seem… natural. In fact, it reminded her of that one time she went into the space observatory’s Augmented Reality chamber. Dark and lonely, yet oddly calm and soothing.

She never actually realised it until now, but Sunset Shimmer’s life really did revolve around alternate universes. Sure, she was the one who wanted to run into the World Mirror back in her Equestria, but she never asked to go into a different Equestria! And now she’s in, what, space? What’s next? A world where made of jelly?

Taking in a deep breath, Sunset got on her hooves and started walking on the ethereal plane.

‘Don’t panic, Sunset,’ she tried to reassure herself ‘I can’t really be dead, right? I mean, there aren’t any angels or fluffy clouds or anything. But then again, that’s what human heaven looks like. Did ponies even have a concept of heaven? Now that I think about it, I don’t think there were. Speaking of which, how am I walking anyway? This place doesn’t seem to have a floor. I wonder if I can float…’

Realising that she was starting to go off on a tangent, Sunset shook her head and started walking through the awfully lonely space. Minutes pass by with nothing but absolute silence, and Sunset was starting to feel the solitude kick in. There was no one in sight for miles, and that scared her. At this point, she was willing to have Sonata Dusk as a companion. Anything was better than being this alone!

“Get it together, Sunset!” she slapped her face awake “You are a strong, brave mare! You can survive being alone for a few hours! You don’t need anything like food, or water, or even a nice comfy bed! You can survive with nothing but talking to yourself!”

With a newfound resolve inside her, Sunset Shimmer ran through the empty world in search of something to do.

Hours seem to fly by as her pace gradually slowed down. Has it really been that long? Or has it been days? Sunset didn’t know anymore, her sense of time is skewered in this world. And with no cellphone to check the time, she could have just been running around for months and she still wouldn’t know it.

“…lp”

Was that… a voice?

Sunset stopped her walking and listened, wondering if she had finally gone crazy. That was when she heard a distant Thump Thump noise. It was reminiscent of those times Rainbow Dash tapped on the fish tank in Fluttershy’s house, only… angrier, maybe? Whoever was doing it, they were probably trying to smash through that fish tank and earn Fluttershy’s wrath.

“…elp!”

There’s that voice again. But it was just too muffled to make out.

With no other option left, Sunset Shimmer ran towards whichever direction she heard the voice coming from. Just like her sense of time, Sunset Shimmer’s sense of direction was also messed up. She didn’t know if she was moving forwards or backwards, left or right, right side up or upside down. For all she knew, she was just running around in circles!

“Help!!”

The sound was much clearer now, but Sunset didn’t know where else it could be coming from. She couldn’t see anything in the distance, yet that voice was just so close that she could almost touch whoever was crying out for help.

THUMP THUMP THUMP

It was the same noise again, only much louder. Sunset Shimmer looked around the area, only to be met with the same nothingness as before. As the thumping got louder, Sunset soon realised that the sound was coming from right below her. Swallowing a gulp, Sunset glanced down at the floor, hoping that it was a friendly giant butterfly that was building a house for itself.

THUMP THUMP

“HELP!!”

And then she saw her reflection, banging against the ground in a mad rage.

“Huh?”

Sunset leaned in closer to her “reflection” to get a better look at it, and was surprised by what she saw. It was her, yet at the same time it wasn’t. The expression on her “reflection’s” face was a mix of fear and anger as she slammed her hoof onto the ground, screaming for help. As Sunset continued to watch in surprised wonder, her reflection slowly stopped as she fell to her hooves, panting from fatigue. How long had it been calling out for help?

“Is there another lost lamb within my land?”

A shiver ran down the yellow Unicorn’s spine as she looked for the source of the voice, only to be met with nothingness. No matter what she did, Sunset couldn’t quite make out the voice. It was old, yet young. Violent, yet soothing. Wise, yet innocent. It was like listening to the sound of eternity.

“Has another lost lamb come to my land seeking refuge? Please, stay for a while. Let your troubles run free and settle down into a deep slumber. There is no use in fighting. Sleep, my dear lamb. Sleep…”

Fear started to take root inside Sunset’s heart, yet she had this strange urge to follow the voice’s orders and give in. After all, it only spoke the truth. She didn’t know where to go, and it seemed like the only one in the vicinity that felt real in this world. Nothing else existed, nothing else mattered. Only the voice.

“… get out… hurry…”

The yellow mare looked at her “reflection” once more, surprised that it still had more to say

“please… send help… get out…”

With the last of its strength, Sunset Shimmer’s “reflection” fired a beam of magic from her horn which engulfed the mare in a white light. Adrenaline pumped into her body as the fear and troubles that plagued her mind suddenly vanished, replaced with a newfound confidence in herself.

She raised her head up high, focusing all of her magic into her horn. It has been a while since she last used her magic, but she was Princess Celestia’s prized pupil. Magic should come naturally to her. Could a fish forget how to swim? Could a lion forget how to roar? No, and Sunset Shimmer was not going to be the first Unicorn who forgot how to use her magic.

With a mighty yell, Sunset lit her horn up with as much magic as she could muster. As she looked down to see her reflection again, Sunset saw that it had already fallen unconscious with tears streaming down her face.

“I see you have found your freedom, my little lost lamb. No matter. You shall return, they all do…”

“Aargh!”

With a final triumphant yell, Sunset let loose all of the magic she had stored inside her.

“Bu-hah!”

Sunset Shimmer’s eyes fidgeted back and forth, taking in the view of the Golden Oaks Library before her. Despite the relief she felt from getting away from that horrifying place, Sunset still felt a twang of disappointment fill her heart. Why can’t it be a dream? She’d rather wake up naked in school after sobering up from an alcohol-induced nightmare!

…

Then again, her pride was in shambles already. Did she really need to sink even lower?

As she got back onto her hooves, Sunset then noted that the six ponies who were part of this world’s Elements of Harmony were all unconscious, while the room itself looked like it had just gone through an explosion. Were they attacked already? Sure, Redheart said that this world was in constant war, but come on!

“Where are the others…?” she wondered aloud, looking for the three boys who were also in the library “Hello? Hello~?”

“Miss Shimmer’s awake!” a young squeaky voice shouted in joy

“Oh, thank goodness. I was worried for a minute there,” replied a dapper, masculine voice

“Look, if anypony asks, it’s Lightning’s fault, all right? I’m the victim here!” spoke a third voice, although it sounded more like he was trying his best to suppress his rage

“You’re always the victim, Shade.”

Sunset walked downstairs, following the voices of the three conscious creatures in the building. Sure enough, the three boys were all downstairs, tending to the wounds they all attained from the explosion. Just as she was about to ask them what happened, Hikaru, the least injured of the bunch, jumped towards the mare and wrapped itself around her neck.

“Miss Shimmer!” he sobbed, nuzzling her as tears ran down his face “Everything was going so well, bu-but then, then it exploded! S-Spike protected me, but everyone else- They, they were all-And Mom was- Mom was-!!”

“There, there, Hikaru…” she stroked the poor child knowing just how terrifying the experience must have been for him “Everypony’s okay. Your Mom will be up soon, and then we could all think up of another plan, okay?”

“I knew this idea was stupid,” Shade muttered as he scratched his wounds “Seriously, Me? The rebound Element of Magic? Horsecrap! Heck, we’re lucky nopony got killed.”

Hearing that, Sunset released a contented sigh. She walked up to the table that Spike and Shade were sitting on and took a seat herself.

“So, what really happened?” she asked as she opened up the medical kit and looked for any medicine she could use, all the while stroking the poor Kitsune wrapped around her

“Plan failed,” answered Shade matter-of-factly “Since the others had their elements on, they took the brunt of the force. Meanwhile, I…” he tapped on the crown sitting atop the table “was lucky enough that this thing didn’t see me as its bearer. Nothing came out of it, we just redecorated the top floor of the library. Might have scared off a few birds, too.”

“Are you harmed in any way, dear Shimmer?” Spike looked at Sunset, who had finally found some aspirin “You were in the centre of the blast, after all.”

“Surprisingly, I’m fine,” she replied with a smile “Just a bit of a headache, really. Although, I did have this really weird dream…”

“Mayhaps you could share this dream with us once everypony else is awake,” Spike nodded and stood up from his seat “If you had it while in direct contact from the Elements’ beam, then it might hint us as to how we could fix this mess. In the meantime, I shall be upstairs tending to the others. Feel free to make yourself at home,”

“Will do.”

The trio watched Spike as he picked up Redheart’s medical kit as well as the library’s emergency kit and walked upstairs on his hind legs. Hikaru too had uncurled himself from Sunset’s neck and ran upstairs, probably to check on his adopted mother. That left only the two Unicorns sitting at the dining table.

Neither of them had that much energy left to spare, so they sat there in silence. In fact, if somepony were to walk into the library right now, they’ll probably think that Sunset and Shade were on an awkward first date. Knowing both of their bad luck streaks, it wouldn’t surprise either of them if that was the case.

Fortunately for them, the ponies of Ponyville were far too used to huge explosions happening in the library for them to give a damn.

Unsettled by the awkward silence, Shade finally turned to look at Sunset Shimmer and talked.

“So, how’s the me from your world?”

Sunset Shimmer looked at Shade and thought for a moment “Sorry, I don’t think I know you there. Back in my world, people usually just make friends with people who are in the same class or club as they are because, hey, if you have to be stuck in the same building as everyone else till you’re eighteen, might as well make the most of it. The only person I think who actually knows everyone in school is Pinkie Pie.”

“School till you’re eighteen?!” Shade’s jaw hung so low that it could have swept the floor with it “That sounds like torture!”

“I know! Thank god I didn’t live there my entire life! Thirty moons was bad enough already!”

A small chuckle left Shade’s mouth as he imagined Sunset Shimmer’s predicament “The way you said it, you make it sound like you never even came from that world either.”

Sunset slapped her forehead in frustration. She should really word her sentences better. Next thing she knows, she’ll be blurting out her social security number.

“… You didn’t…”

The silence was so heavy you could hear a feather drop.

“Oh man, you did!” Shade howled even louder, almost dropping off of his chair

“Yeah, yeah, before that I lived in a different Equestria,” she admitted with a huff “And I was a total shut in back then. So… I don’t know a Shade from that world either. Even if I did, he’ll probably hate me. I mean, I’ve done a lot of terrible things in the past.”

“I was in a cult that wanted Princess Celestia murdered,” Shade deadpanned “You can’t get worse than that.”

“Yeah? Well I stole my world’s Element of Magic and turned into a raging she-demon hell bent on invading my old world with hypnotized high schoolers!”

The thought of hundreds of school kids walking into Canterlot, unarmed, suddenly crossed Shade’s mind. Damn, that was a bad idea.

“Wait, you stole the Element of Magic?!” laughter escaped Shade’s mouth “Oh, that is priceless! I bet nopony ever let you live that down!”

“Oh, they reminded me, all right,” Sunset sighed, thinking about all the hate-filled stares she got from her schoolmates “But things are starting to look up for me. After all, I helped save the entire world from three Sirens some time ago with the power of friendship! Well, that and a convenient DJ who really hated taking off her headphones. And a dog. But mostly the magic of friendship!”

Shade couldn’t help but laugh even louder at her story. Even Sunset Shimmer joined in, giggling at her past actions. Thinking back on it, she really had acted like a total bitch back then. But you know what? It was totally worth it. She had five great friends now, and she was pen pals with the Princess of Friendship! Life couldn’t get any better than that.

The sound of hooves clopping brought their attention to the staircase, where they saw two mares slowly trotting downstairs. Quickfix and Coco Pommel appeared, a little dazed but healthy for the most part. Once they saw Sunset Shimmer and Shade sitting by the table, the two mares joined them.

“You two feeling better?” Sunset asked. She felt sorry for them. After all, they were only using the Elements because of her.

“Sor’ ef,” the Northern mare grunted, her thick accent sloshing up some of the words “Us Northen’rs could take a hit, ye know. Coco was lucky ta be standin’ next ta th’ bed, so it di’nt hur’ that much.”

“Um…” Coco looked at the ground as she kicked her hooves “It’s nice to meet you…”

“Oh yeah! I never introduced myself, did I?” the mare got up and extended a hoof “I’m Sunset Shimmer, but you could call me Shimmer since, you know, alternate universe and all. I’ve heard a lot about you two from the others!”

“Quickfix Aperture, inventor and fighter. If y’need somethin’ fixed, ye could visit mah lab.”

“I’d keep that in mind.”

“… Coco Pommel,” she then tried to hide behind her mane, failing terribly in the process.

As the seamstress took her seat at the table, Quickfix went over to the fridge to look for something to fill up her empty stomach. She didn’t realise it, but using the Elements really used up a lot of energy. Now, what does her Sunset eat that doesn’t scream ‘fancy schmancy princess food’?

“You know, Coco,” Sunset looked at the timid mare curiously “You look really… familiar.”

“Oh, come on! You know your world’s Coco but not me?!”

“Well, sorry that I can’t make friends with the whole student body, Shade!” she scoffed and turned her head away, all the while failing to suppress a laugh “But really, you look a lot like this exchange student Rarity made friends with. Apparently, the two of them bonded over sewing.”

“You’re friends with Miss Rarity in your world?” the two Unicorns were surprised when Coco suddenly spoke

Now that she thought about it, it does make sense that her friends had counterparts in this world as well. Sunset wondered what it would be like if she gave Rarity a dress made by her alternate self. But then again, this world’s Rarity probably only made pony dresses…

Hopefully her Rarity’s into kinky consplaying.

“She’s one of my best friends, actually,” Sunset added “You could even say she’s the de facto leader of the group.”

“I see…”

“What about me?” Quickfix suddenly appeared from behind and slammed a plate of leftover spaghetti on the table “Am ah an inventor there in yer world?”

The yellow mare shook her head apologetically “Sorry, never heard of you before. But I have heard of Aperture Science Laboratories. They’re the leading company in electronics, medicine, and abominations against nature!”

…

“They also make cakes and that fuzzy green thing on tennis balls.”

“Really? Ah always wanted ta know what that green thing was made of!”

“I’d like to try one of their cakes.”

“Wait, what did you -”

Thud

“SHIMMER!”

Without warning, Sunset Shimmer suddenly dropped onto the floor like a lifeless ragdoll. Quickfix was the first to act, taking out her saddle and started rummaging around. She quickly found the item she was looking for; a small yellow sponge, and shot a beam of magic at it. After a few moments, the sponge started to freeze up and she placed it on Sunset’s forehead, which was already heating up.

“Coco, go upstairs and get Spike,” she ordered as she dug around her saddle for anything else she could use

“O-Okay!” Coco shouted and ran up the stairs in a panic induced frenzy

Beside Quickfix, Shade was standing still, concentrating as his horn slowly glowed a faint purple colour. When he deemed it strong enough, Shade placed his horn on Sunset’s forehead which surrounded her in a purple aura. Sweat poured down his face and he clenched his teeth. He has never used healing magic yet. In fact, it was one of the experimental magic spells that he was studying. But if there was a time to practise, it was certainly now!

As the two Unicorns continued their frantic attempts at getting Sunset to wake up, they suddenly realised that the library suddenly grew colder. Mist started to form around them as silence filled the room. Quickfix looked around for the source of the weird phenomenon, thinking that it had something to do with Sunset Shimmer falling unconscious. And then the room spoke.

“I see that my little lamb has returned to my humble land…”

“Who’s tha’?!” Quickfix scanned the building but to no avail “Who’s there?!”

“Do not fear me, young one. Fear is but a hindrance in life. If you stay within my land, I assure you that you will no longer face any of your worldly fears. Come, my little lambs. Come join me in my world.”

“Don’t listen to that thing!” screamed Shade as he tried to keep his focus on the spell he was casting “It’s dark magic!”

“What is dark but the absence of light? However, light will always be obscured by the darkness. You can try with all your might to escape it, but the shadows will catch up. Such is the frailty of light.”

The mysterious voice echoed throughout the room, slowly but surely making the two Unicorns lose consciousness. Shade soon found himself unable to hold the healing spell and it soon dissipated leaving him falling asleep beside Sunset Shimmer. Quickfix tried to put up more of a fight, levitating anything she could and throwing it around in an attempt to hit the owner of the voice.

“Show ye’self ye coward!” she shouted at the top of her lungs “Ah’ll kill ye! Ah’ll rip ye ta pieces!”

She levitated a plate and got into throwing position, but soon found that her magic’s grip on it was starting to weaken. It soon disappeared altogether as the plate smashed onto the floor, and Quickfix dropped as well. In a last ditch attempt at saving themselves, Quickfix kicked her saddle, activating one of the many defensive barriers she had stuffed in there.

It didn’t take long for a bright silver disk to come rolling out of Quickfix’s saddle, releasing a steady stream of magic that formed a defensive field around the three Unicorns.

“You do not wish to follow me into my realm? Very well, then. Perhaps one day you shall accept my invitation and fall into a deep slumber within my land.”

The voice finally let his presence disappear from the room, taking with it the eerie mist and silence. Seeing that her inventions had once again saved the day, Quickfix grinned smugly as she dropped onto the floor, too tired to continue fighting.

Before blacking out, Quickfix saw Spike running towards her, hand outstretched and calling out their names.

Sunset Shimmer groaned as she tried to stand up. A familiar sense of déjà vu filled her as she tried to remember what she was doing before fainting. She was talking to her new friends about her world, and then…

What happened after that?

What if… what if all that was just a dream?

She tossed and turned, realising that she was on a bed. Was she actually back in Fluttershy’s house? Maybe all that was a dream after all! After minutes of struggling, Sunset finally realised that there was something, or someone, on her.

“Get up…” Sunset muttered loudly “You’re too heavy…”

Knowing that her attempt at waking up was a failure in the making, Sunset Shimmer tried to open her eyes instead. What greeted her next was the best thing she could ever wish for. Well, the best thing next to a time machine, that is.

It was Fluttershy’s room.

“THANK YOU!”

After struggling to push whoever was on top of her away, Sunset Shimmer checked her body to see if she had returned to her human self. Thankfully, she was back in her slim, humanoid body and was wearing her pink pyjamas. It was official. She had just been dreaming!

Remembering that she had pushed someone off of her, Sunset then looked at the girl who was lying sprawled on the floor. She really hoped it was Rainbow Dash. Oh, she had so many witty replies to tell her!

And that was the exact moment Sunset regretted every single life choice she has made up to this point.

Instead of one of her friends, the girl lying on the ground had chocolate brown skin and pale white shoulder-length hair. She wore a plain white t-shirt and black slacks. She even had a lab coat on, for some reason. If someone asked Sunset Shimmer to think up of a mad scientist, this would probably be what she looked like.

Realisation then dawned on Sunset that maybe, just maybe, all that wasn’t just a dream.

“DAMMIT!”

“Urgh, will you please keep it down?” another voice muttered. A distinctly male voice.

Quickly rolling to the left, Sunset came face to face with a grey skinned boy with messy purple hair. His black hoodie jacket and dark blue jeans looked pretty plain, but Sunset didn’t have time to think about his clothes now. She was far too busy panicking!

“Can’t ye let a girl nap for jus’ a few minutes…” the rather familiar accented voice spoke up from the ground “Ah just had a rough day, ye know.”

Before Sunset Shimmer could say anything, the brown girl pulled herself up onto the bed and stared at the two people in front of her. She then looked at her former hooves, suppressing a scream as she realised that they were now arms. Spotting a full body mirror near to the entrance, the former Unicorn crawled towards it and stared at the girl in the mirror, her lips quivering as she tried to find her horn.

“Aah… aah…”

“Quickfix, calm down,” Sunset said reassuringly “Listen, I can explain what’s going on right now, but all I’m asking from you is that you don’t-”

“SWEET CELESTIA WHAT IN TARTARUS AM I?!”

“… scream…”

Sunset fought off the urge to roll her eyes in annoyance before turning to look at Shade, who was apparently taking this quite well. Sure, he was still in shock, but at least he wasn’t screaming or anything.

“I thought you’d be the first person to panic,” she said, cocking her head in confusion

“Meh, Quickfix tests her experiments on me on a daily basis,” was his rather mundane answer “After you get turned into a potato for a weekend, nothing really surprises you anymore.”

Wow, maybe there weren’t that many differences between this world’s Aperture Science Laboratories and theirs. Maybe she should start buying her cakes and tennis balls somewhere else…

“Sunset? Is that you?”

No…

Oh please, no…

Quickly getting onto her feet, Sunset Shimmer bolted for the door and opened it, revealing a girl with butter yellow skin and soft pink hair. The two girls stared at each other for a moment a neither wanted to start the conversation. After moments of awkward silence, Sunset finally spoke.

“Fluttershy! Oh, am I glad to see you! How’ve you been?”

“Um, pretty fine actually,” Fluttershy replied with a hint of confusion “Everyone was surprised when you disappeared this morning. Pinkie Pie organised a search party and everything!”

“Ahahah… Well, that’s Pinkie Pie for you! But here I am now, safe and sound! You could call off the search party now.”

Nodding rather awkwardly at Sunset’s unnatural behaviour, Fluttershy took out her phone and typed out a message, sending it to all of her friends. She then looked at Sunset Shimmer, who was trying her best to smile as naturally as she can.

“Um, sorry if I sound mean or anything, but you really aren’t really fooling anyone acting like that.”

Sunset sighed, scratching her hair in exasperation “Okay, fine. You got me. Listen, ‘Shy, I have a confession to make. You see…”

She slowly opened the door and let her friend enter her own bedroom, only to be met with a brown-skinned girl taking off her clothes. Fluttershy stood there, dumbfounded at what she was looking at. Finally, she turned to look at Sunset, shock still evident on her face.

“O-Oh my, I didn’t know you swung that way.”

“No, wait, that isn’t- Quickfix, why are you taking off your clothes?!”

“Well, it’s not like we’re goin’ to a party or anythin’,” she replied, thrusting her chest forward as her breasts jiggled freely “There’s no real reason ta be wearin’ dresses.”

Her patience already at its peak, Sunset pulled her hair and started thinking happy thoughts. Thank Celestia she never did that back on her first day in this world. In fact, it’s a miracle she never did go streaking before she became native. Oh God, that would have been traumatizing!

“NO! You’re supposed to-”

“Umm, why do I feel aroused?”

Fluttershy looked at her bed, where a grey-skinned boy was looking under his pants.

Now, Fluttershy was always the type of person who would think of a calm and rational reason as to why things happen. Especially ever since the whole Fall Formal event. She knew that this situation had a really complex explanation that probably has something to do with dark magic and Equestria. Maybe even a life threatening evil deity that wanted to enslave the world.

And so, she came to the only logical conclusion that she could think of.

“… I didn’t know you swung that way”

“Fluttershy!”