“I'm trying to figure out how magic works here,” Sunset Shimmer explained, plugging in the last of the convoluted machinery. Shifting in her white lab-coat, she looked back at the rest of her friends with a smile. “Why you grow ears, tails, and wings when you pony up and what your instruments have to do with it.”
Fluttershy stood in the center of the school laboratory, nervous and pigeon-toed. “Uhm...” Her fingers curled pensively along the circumference of her tambourine. “Are you sure we need to figure it out?”
Fluttershy flinched, for by the end of her breath, Sunset Shimmer was there—her arms stretched out as she placed a metal helmet atop the teenager's pink crown. Several metal diodes and electrical cables were embedded into the headpiece. They were being funneled into a nearby computer console that bleeped and blooped with oodles of recorded data.
“It'll be fun!” Sunset assured with a smile. She strapped the chin tight beneath Fluttershy's delicate chin. “Just start playing. You won't even know I'm here.”
Fluttershy clenched her teeth, glancing nervously at the rest of her friends.
Within a minute, Sunset Shimmer had everything set up. The room hummed with electrical energy, and Fluttershy was in the center of it all. After a final checkup on her computer monitor's readout, Sunset spun around, her blue eyes glistening above a friendly smile. She gave Fluttershy a gloved thumb's up.
Fluttershy's response was to glance anxiously at the metal cap clinging to her skull. Nevertheless, after a few lingering seconds, she began rattling her tambourine. The melodic percussion brought with it an air of familiarity, and the soon the girl relaxed, getting into the rhythm of a rehearsed musical number she had written herself. Within a minute, she had forgotten completely about the experiment, the wires strapped to her person, or the multiple scrutinous eyes glued to her figure.
Not long after, magical yellow ears materialized beneath her hair. A fluffy pink tail grew in a haze of golden light. And just as things were starting to go swimmingly, there was a burst of ethereal pink energy, and then...
“Finally, after all this testing, I've come to a definitive conclusion.”
The girls looked up from their instruments, blinking curiously.
Sunset Shimmer stood on the far end of the school lab—or at least most of her. The young lady's lab coat was in charred shambles and her hair stuck out in random directions, still sizzling with excess magical energy.
Coughing up a translucent rainbow breath, she teetered back and forth, her eyes thin and heavy. “I have no idea how magic works in this world,” she moaned defeatedly, then toppled over onto a nearby couch. “Unnngh.” Fwomp!
“Oh!” Fluttershy hid behind her tambourine. “My goodness!”
“Woohoo!” Pinkie Pie pumped her fist from behind her drum set. “Now that is what I call a flop!”
“I do believe I taught her well,” Rarity said with a soft smile. Setting aside her keytar, she walked over and sat beside the exhausted teenager. “Are you quite alright, darling?”
“Mmmmff... I'm alive,” Sunset wheezed. “Though, not quite so enlightened.”
“So you couldn't figure out the nature of our pony powers!” Rainbow Dash shrugged, shouldering her guitar. “Big deal! It's magic!” She smiled proudly. “You can't measure awesomeness no matter how hard you try!”
“Though, I reckon we learned a thang or two about our abilities just from hammerin' it out,” Applejack said with a smile. “Why, if I could make so many delicious glowy apples appear out of nowhere from pluckin' a few bass strings, then my family's produce business could skyrocket overnight!”
“Yes, well, I'm afraid it doesn't quite work that way, Applejack,” Sunset said. Rarity helped her stand while the young woman dusted her lab coat off. “All of those magical projections of apples, butterflies, and balloons? They last only as long as the magic spell itself. I'm afraid they aren't permanent.”
“Oh.” Applejack blinked, then rubbed her tummy. “Well no wonder I feel so darn hungry after eatin' that one apple!” She shrugged. “Guess it plum vanished inside my belly.”
“Come to think of it, I'm rather famished myself,” Rarity said. She smiled at the others. “Perhaps a visit to the bakery is in order, hmmm?”
Clanggg! Pinkie Pie knocked over several cymbals in a mad sprint for the door. “I call shotgun! Cupcakes shotgunnn!”
“Hey!” Rainbow Dash charged after her. “I-I call the ones with blue frosting! Pinkie!”
Applejack and Rarity calmly walked out the door. “Sunset?” Rarity looked back. “Would you care to join us? You must be absolutely starving after all that sweaty... erm... science. Eheh.”
“Thanks. But... uhm... no thanks.” Sunset smiled nervously. She was halfway through straightening the frazzled ends of her mangled hair. “I feel like the burnt end of a cigarette.” Stifling a yawn, she smiled dazedly. “I think I'm going to go home, shower, and call it a night.”
“Oh, very well then.” Rarity curtsied and was gone. “Take care, darling! This was... uhm... very informative!”
“Eeyup! See ya tomorrow, sugarcube!” Applejack added. The door closed quietly behind the two.
Sunset sighed. She turned around to gather her things...
...when she bumped noses with a soft yellow face.
“Eeep!” Fluttershy stumbled back, hugging the tambourine to her chest.
“Guh!” Sunset steadied herself against a computer monitor. “Oh! Fluttershy! I'm so sorry! I didn't know you were still here!”
“It's... it's alright...” The girl straightened a loose lock of pink hair that... dangled loosely again. “It's not your fault I'm quiet as a mouse.”
“I just gotta straighten a few things up,” Sunset said, stripping her lab coat off and hanging the tattered thing over an edge's desk. She suffered goosebumps from her exposed shoulders and arms. “Don't you want to join the other girls in an after school treat at the Cafe?”
Silence.
Sunset blinked. Reaching over, she grabbed her jacket and slipped it on, turning around. “...Fluttershy?”
“Hmmm?” The teen blinked, then jolted slightly. “Oh! Uhm... yes, but... but first I just...” She cleared her tiny throat. In the afternoon light from the windows, her pale cheeks took on a rosy hue. “I just wanted to be sure that you were alright.”
“Huh?”
“Well, you took an awful lot of painful bumps from all of that experimenting,” Fluttershy said. “I almost had a heart attack when the cables attached to Rarity tripped you to the floor.”
“Pffft.” Sunset rolled her eyes with a pleasant smile. “Please... I've been through worse. Heck... I once turned into a she-demon and got nuked by a rainbow laser. You remember that?”
Fluttershy stared at her.
Sunset arched an eyebrow. “...'no offense?'”
“Oh! Uhm... right. Of course.” Fluttershy glanced at the floor. She bounced one of her legs up and down, toeing the tile beneath them. “So... uhm... you're not hurt or anything?”
“Of course not! It's awfully nice of you to be so concerned for me, though.”
Fluttershy produced a breathy exhale. “Yes...” More silence. “Well. Uhm.” A wave, a shuffle, and she exited in a yellow blur. “Bye, Sunset.”
Sunset Shimmer stared after her. Her brow furrowed in heavy thought. Eventually, she shrugged, then circled about the room, storing away her various sets of laboratory equipment.
In the middle of all this, however, something tickled the back of the woman's neck. At first, she thought it was air conditioning coming out of one of the ceiling vents. Only... the tickling touch lingered, and soon it took skittering steps across her skin.
With a gasp, Sunset swatted the back of her neck. Something fluttered across her peripheral vision. She spun about in time to see a pink, see-through butterfly with a glittery thorax phasing through the ceiling tile and disappearing in a puff of nebulous ether.
“Huh...” Rubbing her chin, Sunset leaned back. “One of the musical spells must have left some residual feedback.” She stood in contemplative silence. “Fascinating!” Fumbling about, she grabbed her clipboard, noted the time and the observation, and circled it with a red pen. “Who knows, Applejack, maybe there're some scrumptious 'glowy apples' waiting to be eaten after all.”
With a casual giggle, Sunset shelved the clipboard away, grabbed her backpack, and left the laboratory. She switched off the lights on the way out.
“Mmmmm-mmm-mmmm...” Sunset hummed pleasantly to herself as she shuffled across town, gripping the straps of her backpack. She passed a girl in purple shades and headphones, sharing a wave and a smile. “Hmmm-mmmm... lasts through the agessss...” She paused at an intersection, waiting for the signal. “Unnnngh... frickin' ear worm, I swear...”
Cars and trucks throttled by, their windows glistening in the red sunset of the waning afternoon. Across the street, Sunset could see three little girls riding two bicycles and a scooter to a bowling alley. They waved at her.
Smiling, she waved back. As she did so, however, a feather-light object clung to the tip of the teenager's ring finger.
“Huh?” Sunset lowered her hand. She gasped, a little surprised, to see a glowing butterfly perched on her hand. “What...?” Before her blinking eyes, it traveled down to her wrist, tickling the inside of her forearm. “Uhm... wow. That's... that's a long distance from the lab—”
In a burst of bright light, the thing spread its wings and lifted off. It just so happened that Sunset's wincing face was in the way.
“Gaah!” She leaned back, furiously paddling her fists in front of her like a rearing horse. Two panting breaths later, she reopened her blue eyes, seeing nothing but a fading cloud of fuchsia energy. Coughing, the girl waved the glittery mist away and exhaled: “Okay. Weird...”
Beep! Beep! An SUV honked its horn.
Sunset looked ahead to see that the cross-walk signal had turned green. Several impatient vehicles waited in a line.
Gulping nervously, the girl gripped her backpack again and scurried across the road, heading straight for her apartment.
The front door unlocked with a metallic click.
Sunset shuffled in, closed the door behind her, then stripped her backpack off. She rubbed her head with a tired sigh, then shuffled into the kitchen. Flipping on a light, she slumped down in a chair at the kitchen table, then reached down to unlace her boots. At last, she pulled the first article off with a tired groan.
The very moment her foot was free... something else slipped out of her boot. Make that two things.
A tiny shriek left Sunset's lungs as she shrank into the chair, hugging her knees to her chest and clenching her teeth. Her eyes darted around, finally finding a pair of glowing butterflies darting in criss-crossing formation across the ceiling. She watched with pensive breaths as they parted ways, flying towards opposite ends of the apartment.
“Okay... hold up!”
Hopping out of her chair, she ran across the domain. Sunset frantically followed one butterfly until it phased through the sliding glass window of the living room, only to evaporate in the trailing sunlight outside. Panting, Sunset spun around, catching sight of the last butterfly as it flew up the stairs. She bounded after it, one foot thudding louder than the other because of her boot. She followed the anomaly as far as the wall to the neighboring duplex, where it vanished from sight.
“Darn it!”
She slapped the wooden banister to her stairs, then leaned against the wall with a sigh. She rubbed her chin in thought, then limped defeatedly back to the first floor.
There, she paused by the refrigerator, hugging herself.
“... … ...”
At last, she shrugged it off, turned around, and opened the fridge. She pulled out a can of Dr. Pepper, popped the lid, and leaned in for a sip—
—only to have a kaleidoscope of glowing butterflies soar out and breeze across her face.
“Gaaaaie!” She flailed, hopping back and holding a hand over her chest. With wide eyes, she looked up at the ceiling.
The butterflies collected in the corners of the room, flexed their wings, then dissolved in salmon streams of cosmic glitter.
Gnawing on the bottom of her lip, Sunset looked at the aluminum can in her grasp. She squinted down the lid, shuddered, then poured the bubbly contents into the kitchen sink before shuffling awkwardly up the stairs.
There was nothing more relaxing than a hot, steamy shower.
Sunset lathered her arms and shoulders with a foamy soap sponge. With a delighted sigh, she stood once more under the shower head, thoroughly rinsing her hair and upper torso with warm flowing water.
Smiling, she clenched her eyes shut and reached across the shower stall. Her hand wandered over the shampoo shelf until she felt the tell-tale curves of her conditioner bottle. Popping the cap open, she poured a liberal amount into her moist hair.
However, instead of the soul-cleansing scent of peaches and lavender...
...she felt a squirmy mass of feather-soft wings tumbling over her skull.
“Huh?” Sunset opened her eyes, staring into a clustered forest of glowing compound eyes and antennae. “AAAAAAAAAH—”
She batted at the swarm, and they dissolved into a pink miasma under the shower faucet. The water carried their magical essence until it flowed down her exposed figure in luminescent rivulets.
“Oh jeez oh jeez oh jeez oh jeez—!” She flailed, teetered, lost her balance and—“OOOMF!”—fell through the shower curtain. Water stained the tile and carpet around her body and the plastic tarp wrapped around her like a pastel cocoon. “Unnnnngh...”
Sunset Shimmer's bedroom stood in cold silence.
A solar crest nightlight was all that illuminated the otherwise dim place.
Seconds passed.
Minutes.
Slowly, the door to the room creeeeeaked open.
“... … ...” A trembling hand clung to the frame. Seconds later, Sunset leaned her head in, peering left. Blinking. Peering right. Blinking. With a heavy gulp, the girl tip-toed nervously into her room, a difficult task when she had to hold the towel wrapped around her damp figure the entire time. An identical towel was wrapped around her sopping wet hair. Tiny, shower-stained footprints followed her every soft step across the pastel carpet.
Once she was more than halfway inside her domain, she came to a stop. She looked all around with quick, darting glances. Biting her lip, she gripped the door of her closet, took a deep breath, then opened it slowly.
All was silent and still.
Turning around, Sunset approached her bed. She gripped the edge of her fluffy orange duvet... then lifted it in one swift motion.
All she found were pink sheets. Safe and secure.
The teenager exhaled. Turning around, she saw her backpack sitting in the chair before her computer desk. With a suspicious squint, she shuffled over, clung the towel tighter, and gripped the zipper of the backpack with her free hand. After silently counting down, she flung the satchel open and leaned back, flinching.
All that greeted her was a stack of textbooks and folders.
Sunset fidgeted. She looked all around... and finally relaxed. With a calm smile, she hummed to herself, walked over to her wardrobe, and casually opened her underwear drawer—
FW-FW-FW-FWOOSH! A wave of kamikaze pink insects soared into her, knocking her across the room.
“Aaaaugh! Are you friggin' kidding me?!?!”
Hours later...
Many hours later...
Sunset Shimmer's alarm went off.
The girl yawned, turning over in bed. “Mrmmmfff...” Her forehead tensed, and she curled up beneath the covers in a trilling display of quiet protest. Nevertheless, she reached a hand out, slapped it around the bedside table, then finally made contact with the blaring clock.
The alarm shut off, drowning the room once again in silence.
“Hmmmm-mmmff...” Slowly, Sunset's eyes fluttered open to the dim light of the early morning. She smiled contentedly to herself, hugging a white alicorn plushie to her chest. Her eyes traced the ceiling, then the far edges of her room.
It was an hour and a half before she had to leave for school. She might as well make the best of it.
The girl yawned... then yawned again. She gave the plushie one last nuzzle, smiling with her eyes closed.
Her legs moved under the covers... then moved again.
“... … …!” Sunset's eyes flew open.
She shuffled her ankles, then touched them together... or at least tried to.
Her blue pupils shrank. Sitting up, she peeled up the edge of her duvet.
A single glowing butterfly flew out.
“Huh?” Sunset gawked. Then, paling, she threw the sheet the rest of the way off of her.
An entire layer of butterflies clung to her pajamas, glowing brighter than the rising dawn.
“Aaaaaaugh!” She snarled and kicked and punched and bucked at the enchanted insects. “Mmmfngh! Guh! Yaaugh! Nnngh!”
They flew into the air, dissolving, exploding like mauve fireworks.
“Rrrnnngh—get off—nngh—damn it!” In her struggles, she rolled completely off the bed. “Ackies!” THUD!
Hours later...
Rarity, Applejack, and the rest of the girls shuffled into the school laboratory, laughing in casual conversation.
Rarity grinned wide. “And then two weeks later, it fell out of her!”
“Hah hah hah!” Applejack guffawed, slapping her knee. “Whewwww boy! Now I know why they call them thangs Troj—” She and the rest of the girls froze in place, eyes wide. “Uhhhh... Sunset? What in the hay, girl?”
“Whoah!” Rainbow Dash gasped.
“Ooooooh!” Pinkie Pie cooed, eyes sparkling. “Pretty!”
“No!” Sunset Shimmer wheezed and panted. She ran from one side of the laboratory to another, frantically batting away at wave after wave of glowing butterflies with her clipboard. “They're not pretty! They're annoying! I-I-I mean...” She hyperventilated, struggling in vain to straighten her frazzled hair before rushing from one piece of computer equipment to another. She wore her lap coat inside out and shivered so hard she could barely speak. “I-I suppose they would be pretty if they weren't flippin' dive-bombing me all hours of the day!”
“What ever is going on, darling?!” Rarity exclaimed.
“Huh?” Fluttershy wandered into the room last. “What's with all the noi—?” She shrieked, hiding behind Rarity and trembling. “Oh my! Oh my goodness!”
“I kn-know!” Sunset stammered, eyes moistening in frustration. “At first, it was j-just a few of them appearing on my way home. But th-then, they started materializing all over my home. I-I couldn't even ride the bus to school this m-morning because they were swarming all over me!”
“I thought you were done experimenting on our awesomeness!” Rainbow said. She ducked her colorful head while a train of them soared low. “So, like, what gives?”
“I d-don't know!” Sunset stammered, sniffling. She stumbled herself into a corner, hunched over and hugging herself. “I-I've tried everything to g-get them to go away! But no matter where I go, they just come right after me!”
“Well, worry no further!” Rarity said, clenching her fists. “We won't let no magical swarm bother our friend! No matter how glamorous!” She waved a dainty hand in the air. “Shoo! Shoo! Naughty magical glowing butterflies! Naughty!”
“Hang on, y'all!” Applejack rolled up her sleeves and marched towards the closet. “I'll wrangle 'em up in a bucket or somethin'—”
“No! No!” Sunset ran up and stood in her way, arms outstretched. “I don't want to risk them imprinting on any of you girls or your underwear drawers either!”
“Uhhhhh...” Rainbow blinked.
“Underwear?!” Pinkie Pie gasped, clutching her face. “I knew it! Butterflies were the ones stealing my briefs all this time!”
“This is no laughing matter! Just... j-just...” Sunset clenched her teeth, forcibly shoving all of the girls out into the school hallway. “Leave me alone in this! I was the one who first studied them! Somehow, I just know I'll find a way to make them disappear!”
“Well... if y'all say so,” Applejack said. She and the others gazed into the laboratory with concern. “But, the moment you need our help, just holler—”
“Hopefully it won't come to that!” And Sunset slammed the door, locking it tight behind them. She turned around, her face immediately bumping into a wispy cloud of pink wings. “Guhhh! Dang it!” She punched and batted at the swarm, panting, sweating. “I used to be Celestia's most gifted student! I've got to find a solution to this! I've just got to—”
As the butterflies parted ways, there Fluttershy stood on the other side, hugging herself with a nervous grimace. “Uhm... Sunset?”
“Fluttershy?!” Sunset reeled, breathless. More insects clung to her hair, and she squealed, shoving them off with furious waves of her fingers. “Guhhhh!” Wheezing, she stumbled forward, standing by Fluttershy's side. “Why... why aren't you outside with the other girls?”
“You shouldn't have to deal with all of this alone.”
“I said that I've got it under control!” Sunset grumbled, swatting at another butterfly or two as they ducked low. The insects filled up half the room now, and they were closing in, forming a pastel cloud around the two teenagers. “S-somehow.” She gulped. “Ohhhhhh Fluttershy...” She sniffled, once again close to tears. “I'm at my wit's end! They just keep swarming closer and closer to me and I can't get rid of them! I just don't know what to do!”
“I... uh...” Fluttershy twirled a lock of hair, rubbing one foot against her other ankle. “I... I-I think I know how to get them to disappear.”
“Huh?! You do?!?”
“Yes. But... uhm...” Fluttershy gulped hard. “I-I don't think you're going to like it.”
“What do you mean?!”
“That is...” Fluttershy's cheeks were beet red. She avoided Sunset's gaze like the plague. “...you might like it, but... odds are, you won't. And it'll be okay if you hate me for it, I mean you have enough reason to—”
“Fluttershy, what—?” Sunset clenched her teeth. “Just spit it out! Do you know how to get rid of these magical glowy things or not?”
“Well... yes... but... b-but Sunset, we're friends and—”
“Fluttershy!” Sunset gripped the girl's shoulders, snarling into her face. “I swear! If we are truly friends and you know how to get rid of them then please! I'm begging you! Do anything and do it no—Mmmmmmmff!” Sunset's eyes crossed, for she was on the receiving end of a deep, passionate kiss.
And Fluttershy was on the other side, leaning in, her soft hands enfolding sunset's waist and shoulder. Soon, the two tilted at a sharp angle, with Sunset arching back and Fluttershy hovering assertively over her, soft lips empowering, encompassing, devouring—and all within the spastic space of five heart-fluttering seconds.
And at the end of the embrace, a golden burst of light streaked across the room, like a supernova. Every individual butterfly stopped in its tracks, burning to glittery ashes, then showering the two teenagers with a liberal spritz of pixie dust.
Fluttershy graciously let go of Sunset, and the girl teetered on her boots, breathless, off-balance. She ran a hand along the curves of her skull—just to make sure it was there. She felt the trailing outline of fuzzy pony ears, but soon theyvanished—along with the faint shadows of nuked butterflies all around. At last, the girl was free, and she felt weightless from the lingering scent of Fluttershy's flowery perfume. Looking across the room, the stars stopped bursting just long enough for Fluttershy's blushing figure to come into focus.
“F... Fl... Fluttershy...?” Sunset squeaked.
“Look! Eheheheheh...” Fluttershy brushed a loose strand over her ear, only for it to fall loose again. “All gone! Isn't th-that wonderful?” She smiled crookedly.
Sunset simply gawked at her.
“So... uhm... uhhh...” Fluttershy backed up, bumped past a rattling trash can, then opened the door to the laboratory with a trembling hand. She stood in the entrance, pigeon-toed, and gulped. “Your lab coat's on backwards.” Another gulp. “So... uh... bye!” And she was gone in a pink blur.
Sunset stood in a mouth-gaping stupor. There was no fluttering of ethereal pink wings for the first time in over twelve hours. The girl wasn't prepared for how hauntingly lonely that would feel.
Fwump!
Sunset slumped into a seat across the cafeteria table from Rainbow Dash.
“Rainbow...” she wheezed. It was an hour later, and still she was struggling to catch her breath. “I... uh... c-could use a loyal friend's advice right about now.”
“Sure thing, Double-S!” Rainbow kicked her shoes up, leaning back with a lazy smile. She took a juicy bite out of some fruit and gazed across the table. “Mrmmmff... what's up?”
“Well... uh...” Sunset fanned herself... then fanned herself some more. “It's about Fluttershy. I think she might... erm... that is to say, I-I think she's got a crush on... on...” She blinked... then leaned forward. “Uhhhhh... Rainbow Dash?”
Rainbow took another bite. “Mrmmmff... Yeah?”
“... … ...where did you get those apples?”
Rainbow gulped. “Oh, what, these?” She turned towards her open backpack which was stuffed full of glowing, see-through fruit. “Yeah. Heh. Ever since yesterday, they've been appearing all around me! Isn't that sweet?” She took another bite of the glittery specimen in her grasp. “Mmmmmm... tangy... but not too filling, y'know? Mmmmf... ain't nothing like free food on the go! Especially when you're an awesome athlete like me! Ha!”
Sunset Shimmer stared at her, twitching slightly.
Rainbow took another bite. “So, what were you gonna say, Sunset?” She chewed and chewed, then arched an eyebrow. “Hey, how'd you ever get rid of those dang annoying butterflies, anyhow? Meh... science sure is headachey, don't ya think?”
