Sunset pulled her jacket in around her as a cold wind blew through the bus shelter. It wasn’t very sheltered. She rubbed her hands together for warmth, the thin top and leggings of her uniform perfect in the warm café, but awful when waiting for the night bus. Couldn’t the damned things run on schedule?

She stared absently at an apartment across the road, the flowerpot on the balcony catching her eye. Apparently neon was popular with the owner of the wilted plant, considering the pot had been painted with a giant neon yellow star on the side. She could only imagine how tacky Rarity would find the pot.

The fire-haired girl rocked back and forth on her heels, pressing her friction-warmed hands to her cheeks to spread the warmth through her skin. She set to rubbing them again, the friction coaxing warmth into her cold fingers. She fumed silently, berating herself for leaving her precious lighter in her other jacket. She could use the small light right about now. Even if she didn’t light it, she could still have something to do with her hands.

She wished she had some gloves. Warm, woollen thick gloves. Those would be awesome right now. Seriously, 110% awesome.

She had a sudden feeling she was spending too much time around Rainbow Dash. The athlete’s ‘totally radical’ way of speaking was rubbing off on her.

She breathed hot air into her cupped hands, trying to increase the warmth. At least she was off work tomorrow. That was why Thursdays were great. And she could finally go to Rarity’s with the girls and see how the fashionista lived. Apparently Rarity had a pool. It sounded fun. For people who could swim.

She actually looked forward to it, despite her lack of aquatic skill. She’d finally be able to just spend time with her friends, and talk to them properly instead of being busy and not there.

She did wish they were here now though. No matter how many times she had done this, standing alone at a bus stop in the middle of the city at night was a terrifying prospect. If her friends were with her, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. But she’d just have to rely on her own courage to stop her panicking and doing something stupid.

She breathed another puff of hot air into her hands and yelped in pain. Too hot! She shook her hands out immediately, hoping that the cold air would dispel the burning sensation on her left palm, a teal glow following her wrist. The pain faded enough and she studied her hand under the hazy orange glow of the flickering streetlight.

A patch of her skin was puffy and red, right by the sleeve of her jacket. The sleeve was actually singed, a couple of what looked like embers around the burnt bit. But embers weren’t normally the same hue as her old magical aura was. She blinked in shock. Was that fire?

More importantly, was that magic?

She had to get home. She had to look at her reflection, check her aura. She’d been avoiding the prospect ever since the indigo-gold of magic had vanished from the aura of her friends, too scared to see if it had vanished from her’s as well.

She had to find out if she still had a trace of it left in the nearly invisible colours that cloaked her body. It was imperative. Maybe it meant that the magic wasn’t gone after all.

“Sunset? Is that you?” The fire-haired girl looked up in surprise, thrown out of her contemplation on magic and auras as the motorbike pulled up in front of her. The biker stepped off and kicked the stand out, turning the engine off.

“Dash?” It was indeed her friend, pulling a motorbike helmet off her head and shaking out her polychromatic ponytail.

“What are you doing out in the city this late?” Rainbow Dash grinned, looking around with a hint of wariness.

Sunset shrugged, a tired grin forming on her face. “Waiting for a bus. I need to get home somehow. And you?”

“Dad and I came to see that new movie Solid Death. It was awesome!” Rainbow Dash began waving her hands around in excitement and to act out what she was saying. She tended to talk with her hands a lot. “So first the main character’s a cop, and he’s visiting some lady, she could be his ex-wife, I don’t know,” she shrugged. It didn’t really bother her.

“Anyway, so these bad dudes break into the fancy bank where this party’s being held, and they catch everyone except the cop, and he’s got to fight them with guns and bombs and hand to hand and stuff, and it’s seriously the coolest movie I’ve ever seen since Power Pack: Return of the Mane-iac. And all the Daring Do movies. Especially the second one with the stolen children and the sidekick kid and Daring Do gets brainwashed. That’s my favourite.”

Sunset chuckled. “I don’t think I’ve seen a Daring Do movie. Never had the time.” Or the money.

“WHAT?!” Rainbow Dash screeched, looking at the older girl like she had just admitted to eating the flesh of fluffy kittens. “You’ve never seen one? Ever? We have to fix that. Dad!” She yelled, looking at the biker who had been sitting on his bike the entire time, the engine still purring under the sleek blue paint job that Dash’s bike shared.

The shiny leather jacket pulled tight around his broad chest squeaked as he reached up his hands to pull his helmet off, shaking out the same polychromatic hair his daughter had. He raised an eyebrow, a faint curl to his mouth. “Yeah, Rainie?”

It was at that moment Sunset realised she’d never met Dash’s father. Or most of her friends’ family. Aside from the odd sibling and Applejack’s clan, as she had called it. She quickly held out a hand, giving the tall man her nicest smile. “It’s nice to meet you, sir. My name’s Sunset Shimmer.”

He looked once at her hand and back up to her face. “The same Sunset Shimmer who made my little girl’s life hell for two years?”

She dropped her hand as her cheeks flushed, looking away. Rainbow Dash immediately came to her defence, placing a hand on the older girl’s shoulder and locking eyes with her father. “Yeah, and now she’s one of my best friends. Lighten up, old man.”

There was a staring match between the two, the tension so thick Sunset could cut it with a knife. Dash’s father eventually shook his head, his shoulders shaking as he grinned, holding back laughter. “Alright, alright, I’ll let it go.” He offered his hand to Sunset’s. “Rainbow Blaze. Just call me Blaze.”

She hesitantly reached out when he grabbed her hand and shook it strongly, almost crushing her hand in an iron grip, biting back a whimper as she was reminded quickly of the small burn she’d recently sustained on her hand. “N-nice to meet you.” She quickly extracted her fingers from his grip the moment it was polite to do so, quickly stretching the digits to make sure they were okay.

Rainbow Dash laughed and clapped her shoulder. “Cool! Hey, Sunset, you should totally come over to mine tonight for a Daring Do marathon. It’ll be great, hot chocolate, lots of coffee in the morning, and you won’t have to wait for a bus!”

Sunset smiled at her. “It sounds pretty good. But only if it’s alright with your dad.”

He shrugged, spinning his helmet on the tip of his finger. “I’m cool with it, but you should check it with your family first.”

Sunset cringed. Family. Crap. “Uh, there’s no need, my… guardian would be fine with it. I already told him I’ll be home pretty late.” Guardian was the best word she could use. And Halt sort of was. He gave her a home and occasionally fed her and got her jobs. And papers to do both jobs. He was also her emergency contact, just in case.

“Are you sure?” Blaze asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah, it’ll be fine,” she smiled awkwardly, trying to ignore the odd look she was getting from her friend.

He didn’t look convinced. “If you’re sure.” He put his helmet back on and sat on his motorcycle, waiting for Rainbow Dash as he threw her a spare helmet. She passed it to Sunset and sat on her bike, pulling her helmet on and starting the bike. Sunset sat behind her, making sure her bag was zipped shut and that the helmet wouldn’t go flying off as she held her friend’s shoulders, careful not to use the part of her palm that was burnt. She was pretty excited. Motorbikes were awesome. They were one of the few things that was good about not being in Equestria.

She couldn’t stop the wide grin that spread over her face as the engine roared, sending them flying down the road, the scenery blurring around them until they finally stopped outside a skyscraper, a man in a dapper looking suit standing outside the doors. She got off the bike and held it awkwardly. “What do I do with this?”

“I’ll take it. You go show your friend upstairs, Rainie.” Rainbow Blaze lifted it from her hands and began wheeling his bike around the side, the tuxedo guy getting Dash’s bike and following him.

Sunset stared up at the skyscraper with awe. How expensive was it to live here? “You live here?”

“Yep.” Dash looped her elbow through Sunset’s and half walked, half dragged her inside, automatic doors opening as the girls entered the lobby. It was beautiful, the entire design almost completely white. It felt open and full of space, possibly due to the columns and sweeping, fluid architecture. It looked like everything was made of clouds or something, the lounge chairs looking comfy enough that Sunset had half a mind to go jump on one.

Aside from the occasional rainbow design to break the achromatic palette, the only other deviations were the silver metal that gleamed on the elevator doors and on every fitting, and the deep blue lounge chairs. There was a water wall in one corner, adding a sense of tranquillity as trance beats played on the speakers.

Rainbow Dash tugged her towards the elevators, causing Sunset to almost trip over her own feet. She caught herself in time and followed her friend through the chrome doors. The elevator was all different shades of blue. With a mirror. How thoughtful.

“So what do you think of the Cloudsdale so far?” Dash grinned, elbowing her gently in the ribs, pressing a button marked P.

“It’s pretty cool,” she smiled. “Did you just press the penthouse button?”

“Yep!”

Sunset stared at her, bug eyed. “You live in the penthouse?”

Rainbow shrugged. “My mom owns the hotel chain. Sometimes she visits. Dad’s a world class surfer which helps pay for other stuff. So, how’s the magic research going? Find any yet?” She asked curiously, magenta eyes brightening with hope.

Sunset bit her lip. She wasn’t entirely sure. There was that odd bit of green fire that had burnt her palm, but maybe that was just a fluke. She should stay quiet until she had a better chance to investigate. She shook her head, watching as her friend’s face fell.

“Sorry.” It was all her fault anyway. It only disappeared after she transformed into that golden super mode. But maybe it was coming back. She had to get to a mirror.

Rainbow Dash began laughing. “What are you sorry for? You saved our asses. If it weren’t for you we’d all be in a land of talking rainbow horses. That’s Equestria, right?”

Sunset chuckled. “Basically. Didn’t Princess Twilight tell you all about it?”

“Nope,” the other girl shrugged. “And AJ made us promise not to bug you on it. Rarity agreed. Apparently it was a sore spot for you. Even Sci Twi’s trying to hold off on the interrogation. We figured that you had enough worries about being hated here, then trying to understand the magic, then trying to find it, and so we decided not to make you think too hard about it.”

Sunset stared at her as the elevator stopped, the doors opening to show off a spacious living room with similar architecture to the lobby. Rainbow Dash ran out of the elevator and jumped onto one of the couches, kicking her legs up on the coffee table.

They hadn’t pestered her for a reason. She just thought Twilight had told them everything. She should tell them though. They deserved to know. “So what do you want to know about Equestria?” She smiled, sitting next to her friend.

“Aw, man, everything!” Dash grinned widely. “You’re gonna tell me?”

“May as well. You deserve to know,” she shrugged.

“What about the others? And why did Twilight point to me and say ‘loyalty’ the first time we ponied up? And why did you do the same? Also, how did she know us? Was it magic? And why did you leave?”

“Well, long story short, there are six powerful talismans in Equestria called the Elements of Harmony, and they’re the strongest magic there. Honesty, Kindness, Generosity, Laughter, Loyalty, and Magic. They’re powered by friendship. And there’s six bearers there. Princess Twilight is the bearer of Magic, and the Princess of Friendship. She’s the leader of the Element Bearers. The others are her five friends, who each hold one.”

She wasn’t going to explain that there were alternate versions of the others until tomorrow. She had a feeling they had an idea about it, but it was still a weird concept. “In this world, when I tried to take the Element of Magic, the other five responded with diluted magic that is now in you guys.” Or it was. “You’re Loyalty. That’s why she said that.”

“And why do I get wings and some of the others don’t?” She flapped her arms in a poor imitation of real wings.

“That’s harder to explain and something the other girls should hear too. Sorry,” she smiled awkwardly.

Dash shrugged and waved it off. “No problem then. So a land of ponies has special talismans that ward off evil? Sounds like that book series we had to read for English in freshman year.”

“Eldarot Quest? I loved that one!” She grinned, “especially the sixth one with the giant slug monster in the labyrinth where they were looking for the amethyst. And yeah, I guess it does sort of match Equestria’s Elements. Down to them being gemstones. Except Equestria’s aren’t any specific stone.” Although she heard they were unbreakable so maybe they were made of iridium diamas, one of the most magically conducive and toughest gemstones found in Equestria and actually came in a wide array of colours. What she wouldn’t give to test it out…

She was getting off track. “What was that, Dash?”

“I was just asking if you were hungry, but maybe sleep is more important. After we watch Daring Do and the Temple of Doom. Please stay awake until the end.”

Sunset yawned as she sat on the edge of the pool, wearing a random black and gold bikini top and shorts Rarity had shoved in her hands twenty minutes after she explained she had no bathers. It was almost scary how the fashionista did stuff like that and managed to get changed herself even quicker, currently cutting through the water like a fish. Or a mermaid. A very graceful mermaid. Sunset almost envied her ability to hold her breath so long. Swimming almost looked fun the way Rarity did it. And her hair was still somehow good looking and not clinging to her face and shoulders like Dash’s was.

She let her feet lightly dip into the cool water, staring at the rest of the pool with some trepidation. She was fine sitting here and watching. She couldn’t swim anyway. Besides, the sun was nice on her skin. Why would she get all cold?

“Hello Sunset Shimmer.” She turned to see the owner of the timid voice, smiling kindly.

“Hi Twilight. Care to join me?” Twilight shook her head, a fluffy blue towel wrapped around her shoulders.

“Rainbow Dash said that there was a meeting in Rarity’s room and that you’d be telling us some facts about Equestria. Is that true?” Her dark eyes were wide with hopeful caution.

Sunset nodded and stood. Good thing Twilight reminded her. “Yep, so we should go in. It’s a bit of a lengthy talk.” She grabbed her jacket and threw it on. All her other stuff was in Rarity’s room. Twilight followed her in and up the stairs. It looked like on Applejack and Pinkie Pie were left, and eventually ran upstairs with water still clinging to their clothes and hair. Sunset should probably get started. Rarity even left out paper for her to draw diagrams with. How thoughtful.

“Okay, so what I explained to Rainbow Dash is that there are six talismans in Equestria, Honesty, Generosity, Kindness, Laughter, Loyalty and Magic.” She sketched out what she had heard the gems were shaped like.

“Ooo! That one looks like a balloon!” Pinkie Pie pointed excitedly at it. “And that’s Twilight’s hairclip!” Twilight immediately brought a hand up to cover it, staring in confusion at the sketches.

Sunset chuckled. “Yep, they match the cutie marks of the bearers from what I heard. Anyway, these are the Elements of Harmony. They’re very powerful and pretty much run on friendship. Princess Twilight is the leader, with the Element of Magic. Her friends carry the same elements you do. It’s simple enough. The complex part is that her friends there are your pony counterparts, the way she’s the counterpart to Twilight here.”

“You’re saying there’s another Dash in another world?” Applejack drawled.

“Yeah, I don’t know much about them though. They’d look a little like you though. Which is how she recognised you the first time. She knew different versions of you. I understand it’s weird.”

Rainbow Dash looked very perturbed. “Is that why Shy and I have wings?”

Sunset nodded. “From what I can tell, the bearers are two earth ponies, two pegasi, a unicorn and Princess Twilight, who’s an alicorn.” She could see confusion on their faces. “Okay, the first three are very different from alicorns, which I’ll explain after. But they’re all very similar in build on the outside. pegasi are like the ones of legend, wings and such. They have magic that relates to flight and their ability to control weather. I figure that’s you two in the Elements, hence the wings. Loyalty and Kindness.”

She pointed at Applejack and Pinkie Pie. “You two are Honesty and Laughter. In Equestria, those bearers are earth ponies. Earth ponies are the most like regular ponies, no wings or unicorn horns. They’re ten times stronger and tougher on average and tend to be the land workers in Equestria, growing all the food.”

She smiled at Rarity and Twilight. “Rarity, your counterpart is a unicorn, bearer of Generosity. Unicorns tend to be able to learn specific spells based on their talent. Like in those computer games where mages can only learn fire magic or healing magic and such. All unicorns have telekinetic abilities though.”

She thought for a second about explaining cutie marks. It was probably too complex. “And Twilight, from what I remember, Princess Twilight was originally a unicorn as well. She was a magic talent like me though. It means we can learn all sorts of spells. The downside is that while a unicorn whose talent was gemstones could be able to do just about anything regarding gemstones without draining on their magic very much at all, unlike if they were controlling anything else which would cause a drain, magic talents use up energy with each spell. It sort of evens out. Some unicorns, no matter what their talent, tend to be stronger than others. Like someone who’s naturally better at running. Magic is like another muscle really. It’s got a base strength which can be improved on with practice, but lack of use makes it weak. Do you all understand that?”

There was a chorus of nods and furious scribbling from Twilight, who had produced a pencil and notepad and was writing down everything Sunset said. Fluttershy raised her hand. “You mentioned alicorns. What are those?”

Sunset bit her lip as she thought. “Alicorns are very rare. There’s four that I know of. They have the abilities of the other three ponies combined, strength, wings, magic. They’re also far more powerful naturally. They tend to look different as well. While the others all look mostly similar aside from wings or a horn, they are all of a similar size as well. The average size tends to be around the height of those St Bernard dogs.”

“That’s a little small, hun,” Applejack raised an eyebrow. Made sense that she was the one most surprised. Sweet Apple Acres was also a horse farm. She knew ponies and horses.

Sunset nodded. “Of the four alicorns, the strongest is easily twice the size of a pony there, the other two are a bit smaller, maybe a head shorter than her, and Princess Twilight stands only a little taller because she only recently became an alicorn. All the alicorns are princesses, rulers of the land, because they have power and tend to be fairer towards all. There’s the princess of the sun, the tallest, the moon is her sister, the princess of love was originally a pegasus who ascended, and Twilight Sparkle is the princess of friendship.”

“How did that work? You mentioned ascension?” Twilight asked, pausing in her note taking.

“Yeah. Twilight and the princess of love, she’s got a long, Italian sounding name but everyone calls her Cadence, like the music. They were originally normal ponies, which is the group term. Then they became alicorns. I don’t know how.” She figured Celestia did it to them. She gave them power. Gave them everything.

“Any questions?” She sort of hoped not.

"So does Sci Twi here have an Element of Harmony?” Rainbow Dash grinned and ruffled her hair lightly, causing the shyer girl to duck her head slightly.

Sunset mulled it over for a second. “I don’t know. I’m not sure who has the Element of Magic. I assume Princess Twilight’s the bearer. Besides, it’s not like the Elements are actually here. It was just their magic inside you guys. Magic doesn’t come naturally to this world, so I guess that’s why it’s now gone. Not like Equestria. Magic is innate there.” It was more predictable. Easier to study. And she did miss being a magically talented unicorn sometimes. It had its perks.

“Darling, if there was naturally magic there, and it was your home, why did you leave?” Sunset looked away from Rarity’s crystalline eyes.

“Because I was an idiot,” she said shortly. “Can we drop that one please? I prefer not to think about my past. It’s behind me.”

“Sorry, darling. Forgive my curiosity.” Rarity smiled at her, flicking her fringe out of her face. “I believe dinner should be ready soon from the smell of it. Shall we all head down?”

Sunset smiled back. “It’s fine, sorry. It’s just a bit of a sore subject, still.” She looked at everyone. “I still haven’t found out what happened to the magic here,” she was going to check her reflection’s aura but couldn’t. She was too scared to see if the magic had gone from it. “But I will. Promise. Dinner sounds good. And smells good.” Her stomach let out a loud growl that caused them all to jump before breaking into laughter. “I’m so hungry I could eat a bowl of live rats,” she joked, watching as Dash redoubled her hysterics while Rarity and Fluttershy cringed.

“I thought you were a vegetarian,” Pinkie tilted her head in confusion, taking it literally.

“Joke, Pinkie, just a joke,” she reassured her. Pinkie nodded and began letting out high-pitched hyena cackles, so loud it almost hurt Sunset’s eardrums. She smiled at the sight before her jaw gaped slightly. There, ever so faintly in the vibrant colour that danced with glee on Pinkie Pie’s frame, was a touch of indigo gold, centered around the faintest hint of pink magic that wisped from the corners of her mouth, barely visible for little more than a moment, invisible to all but the aura seer.

No way.

Running again, running away from her darker self, darkness nipping at her feet as she cried. She fell and threw her hands out to brace herself. The rock sank under them, like thick mud. Or quicksand. She screamed in fright as large waves of the jet rock rose around her and pulled her down, like it was trying to drown her.

She covered her eyes in a childish attempt to hide herself, curling in a ball. She heard a clatter of claws and squeaked in terror, her eyes shooting open as something touched her foot. She scrambled backwards as her breathing quickened. It was a rat. Just a little brown rat.

“Oh,” she smiled in faint relief. “That’s not so bad. You’re sort of cute.”

The rat chittered and strands of colour encircled it, gold, blue and green. She stared in horror as it began to grow, the chittering sound rising in pitch and agony. The light was hurting the poor rodent. She gulped as the three colours sank into white fur, marking the pelt with flowing, watery swirls. The former rat swung a head towards her direction, a trio of feral gold eyes joining the original two on its face. The creature was as tall as a horse and twice as long, the pelt dripping with water as the hairless tail whipped through the air, the end forked. Long claws dug into the ground as the creature roared and lunged at her, devouring her whole and giving her no chance to run.

She gasped as she woke up, quickly patting about for her glasses and turning on the bedside lamp. That was worse than her usual dreams. It was awful. She doubted she’d be going back to sleep tonight.

Twilight crawled out of her bed and over to her bookcase, sitting in her bean bag. Spike jumped silently into her lap as she selected a novel and began to read, trying to banish the dream from her mind.

Elsewhere in Equestria, a rat sniffed the air of the Everfree Forest inquisitively, picking up a new scent. It could be danger. It could also be food. With that in mind, the rodent scurried through the undergrowth towards the new scent. The potential of food far outweighed potential dangers.

Author's Note

More practice on trying to write the characters, and the plot is beginning to form further. A lot of this is also trying to explain how things will work in this story for convenience. I hope you enjoy.