//-------------------------------------------------------// Sunset's fallen and she can't get up -by SilverTongueOfCanterlot- //-------------------------------------------------------// //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 1: Oops! //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 1: Oops! Sunset stood in her lab, clipboard and pen in hand as she observed the results of her latest experiment. A white lab coat draped over her pale jeans, green top and short cut jacket. "Alright now let's see, test number seventeen, magical radiation effects on household items. As usual testing is being carried out in a carefully controlled environment." she said clearly into the tape recorder as she pulled it form her pocket and set it on the table, pen pressing against paper as she placed her hand on a bright brass lever on the wall next to her. Three pedestals sat in the middle of the room, clear glass domes over rested atop the items they held perched upon them. There was a bright red book containing a number of old happy and funny stories Pinkie was fond of reading which she'd happily lent Sunset for her experiment, a set of bloody bandages from when Rainbow Dash had so recklessly jumped between Fluttershy and a stray dog, allowing the mongrel to bite her arm and finally a cuddly teddy bear Apple Jack use to sleep with as a kid, one of the little guy's button eyes had fallen off and a green one used to replace it giving him one black eye on green eye, he also had what seemed to be part of a tablecloth wrapped around his neck like a scarf. Above the pedestals was a rail frame upon which rested an odd device with a glowing glass canister attached to the top. Attached to the side of the rail frame was a pulley system of sorts, operated by a crank meant to move the glowing canister to hover over any of the three pedestals. With a quick tug downward Sunset pulled the switch and giving a strange humming sound the canister glowed brighter and the odd looking device it was inserted too shot a beam of prismatic light down upon Pinkie's book. Sunset shielded her eyes and throwing the switch back up again she quickly jotted down the results of what had just occurred onto her clip board. "Results as follows, object number one has undergone dramatic changes, closer inspection results to follow." Putting the Tape recorder down again, the device still recording every noise made in it's presence, Sunset placed her clipboard on the table next to it and retrieved the book from it's glass cover. It's cover had changed, it was tattered and faded, like it'd been left on a shelf and just forgotten about, the colour had also change, it was now a foreboding sky blue and instead of reading 'Click Clack the skeleton's back, a thousand tales to tickle your funny bone' the title now read, 'Sombre stories for sad sacks.' Opening the book Sunset turned to her favorite story, only to find it had completely change. Instead of finding his dog the man was forced to shoot him as the dog had gone feral, and instead of a heart warming if hollow ending where the man and his dog walked off into the sunset, the mane slowly descended into madness and slaughtered an entire town before shooting himself through the head. "Oh god." Sunset whispered to herself, utterly shocked by the dramatic changes to the book and quickly placed it back under the glass dome. She pulled the switch again and with another blinding flash of rainbow coloured light the book reverted to it's original state, a vibrant red with a cover that showed years of tender love and care for it and the stories it kept within it's pages. Sunset picked up the clipboard and began writing, the tape recorder resting on the top of the paper as she wrote on it. "Results were very informative." she gave a small sob before drying a small tear from her eye, trying to calm herself and dispel the tremble in her voice. "The magical energy caused, extreme changes to the book to the point where I barely recognized what I was reading." she shook her head and smiled. "Sorry, wasn't quite prepared for such... drastic alterations, all those happy stories became so... so sad, however this does propose some very fascinating possibilities." with a click Sunset stopped and then ejected the tape, filing it with a multitude of others after writing the words 'magical cause and effect research, voice record number twenty seven dash A.' Taking a new tape out of her pocket Sunset placed it in the tape recording device and put it on the table behind her, closing the filing cabinet in front of her and walking over to the pulley device attached to the frame above the pastels. gripping the crank with both hands she began turning it slowly until the glowing glass canister now hovered just a few feet above the glass dome containing Dash's bloody bandages. Sunset picked up her clipboard and tape recorder again hitting the record button as she stood next to the brass lever again. "Test number eighteen, the changes in the book were... unexpected." she gave a short pause remembering the book and how different it was to the version she knew before shaking her head and continuing. "I can only imagine what might happen once the energy is exposed to the bloody bandages I swiped when Nurse Red Heart wasn't looking." Pulling the lever again Sunset watched, shielding her eyes for a moment as the blinding rainbow light shone down upon the bandages, and when it faded with another throw of the switch Sunset stared in absolute disbelief. The bandages were now completely spotless, as if they'd never been used in their entire existence and yet Sunset had been present with Nurse Red Heart was removing them from Rainbow Dash's arm to replace them with fresh ones. Sunset quickly pulled out her phone and snapped a picture, planning to develop it later and include in the file. She quickly wrote down the results on her clipboard and spoke into the recording device she held firmly in her hand. "Incredible, simply incredible." she started off now struggling to contain her excitement. "The bandages look almost brand new, there isn't a drop of blood on them, this either means the blood was vaporized by the magical radiation or if the previous experiment is anything to go by, somehow exposure to magical energy caused the bandages to swap places with some parallel version of itself, possibly from a world where Dash never had to or chose not to put herself between Fluttershy and that dog.... i'm optimistically hoping if this is that case that it was the former." Sunset walked over to the Filing cabinet again, opening it as she continued. "The possibilities these effects present is amazing, properly harnessed it might be possible for me to regain some of my magical abilities in this world, maybe even unlock the potential in others. We could be looking at a new stage of cross dimensional human evolution." as she ejected the tape Sunset wrote 'magical cause and effect research, voice record number twenty seven dash B' on it and placed it behind the previous tape before closing the drawer again. "I just can't believe it." Sunset said. "This is incredible, the potential for this kind of discovery is endless, i could get a Nobel prize for this, maybe even-" "Hiiiii Sunset." Sunset's thoughts were cut off as a cheerful pink girl with a curly mess of pink poofy hair atop her head leaned in from the door frame before walking in, hands behind her back as she asked in a slightly sing song tone, "Whatcha doin?" "Oh hey Pinkie." Sunset replied to her friend. "Just testing the effects of magical energy on common household objects, after what happened during the friendship games with Twilight... uh this world's Twilight I mean, I found myself getting more and more curious as to how Equestrian magic would effect things OTHER than people." "Neato torpedo." Pinkie said excitedly. "So what I miss? did you test it out on anything yet?" "Yep so far i tried it on Rainbow Dash's old bandages and your book of funny stories, results were.... informative." Sunset rubbed the back of her neck and Pinkie tilted her head. "Huh?" "Nevermind, anyway you wanna see for yourself? i've got one more item to try it out on." "Sure that sounds awesome." Pinkie said giving a fist bump. "So what're we gonna zap next?" Sunset gave a chuckle. "Oh an old teddy bear Apple Jack gave me." "Aaaaw he looks so cute." Pinkie said pressing her face and hands to the glass dome staring at the cuddly toy. "Oh i just wanna cuddle him sooooo bad." Sunset chuckled. "Tell you what, you help me out with this experiment and i'll let you hug him all you want." "Okie dokie Loki." Pinkie said with a smile and a quick salute. "Alright you stand over there and pull that lever when I say ok?" Sunset instructed pointing to the brass lever on the wall. "This one?" Pinkie asked putting both hands on it. "Yes exactly." Sunset replied. "I'm gonna just turn this crank and move the device over the bear, once it's in place you pull the lever." "Rodger Rodger." Pinkie said with another salute, closing her eyes with an adorable smile. Sunset smile back and began turning the crank, the device slowly moving further towards her and by extension the glass dome with the teddy bear. As it stopped just above it Sunset wiped a bead of sweat from her brow and was about to get to a safe distance when. "Here we go, Pinkie pull the switch!" Pinkie yelled excitedly. "Huh?! No! Wait! Pinkie!" Sunset's eyes widened, her pupils shrinking to pinpricks as she was immediately blinded by a flash of rainbow coloured light, causing her to stumble and eventually fall backwards onto her back. As Pinkie pulled the switch again she lifted a pair of welding goggles she had seemingly pulled out of nowhere to shield her eyes. "Oh my Gosh!" Pinkie slapped both her cheeks staring wide eyed in shock. "Sunset!" she ran over to the device. "Uuuuhhh P-Pinkie Pie?" Sunset slowly opened her eyes, rubbing the back of her head as she sat up into a sort of slouching position on her back. "Mhhh Wha-What happened?" "Oh my gosh." Pinkie said in utter disbelief. "You're... YOU'RE!... ADORABLE!" Pinkie pressed her face and hands to the glass case again, the teddy bear imitated the pink haired girl, staring back at her with it's stubby arms pressed against the glass, it's head tilted slightly as it stared unblinking at Pinkie. "It's alive.... IT'S ALIIIIIIVE! HAHAHAHAAA!" Sunset sighed face palming. "Really?" "What?" Pinkie said with a shrug and an adorable airhead smile. "The readers might not have understood the reference, after all out of both quotes the second one is the more well known." "Huh?" Sunset tilted her head. "Pinkie what're you talking abo-" Sunset paused as she pushed herself upward into an upright sitting position, she had intended to stand but in doing so she quickly discovered something that made everything around her seem to freeze as her brain took a few seconds to process what she'd just discovered. "M-my legs.. I CAN'T MOVE MY LEGS!" Sunset yelled panicked. "P-Pinkie Why can't i move my legs?!" Pinkie took a look at the panicking red and yellow haired girl as she tried to stand herself up by moving her legs with her hands, only managing to bend her knees before her legs fell limply back onto the floor. She then proceeded to look back at the moving teddybear and back at Sunset. "Uh Ooooooh." "Uh oh? WHAT UH OH?!" Sunset asked utterly hysteric at this point. "O-ok before i say anything Sunset, you gotta Pinkie promise you won't be mad and yell at me." "PINKIE PIE!" Pinkie flinched. "W-well it might be possible that when I threw the switch with your next to the machine, the magic might've effect both you AND the stuffed toy at the same time, ultimately putting the motor function from your legs into the bear." "WHAT?!" Pinkie flinched again. "Now now Sunset you said you wouldn't be mad. You Pinkie promised." "I MADE NO SUCH PROMISE!" Sunset yelled furiously. "PINKIE WHAT YOU'RE SAYING IS YOU BASICALLY PARALYZED ME!" "W-well yeah but i can fix it, look see may if we zap you and the bear again it'll undo what it did to both of you." Sunset took a deep breath trying to calm down. " *sigh* Fine, I guess it's worth a shot. I mean, it worked for the book." "Alrighty then, up we go." Pinkie picked up Sunset by placing her hands under her arms hoisting her up like a life sized doll and placing her on the floor leaning on the pedestal with the bear on it. "Okay, here goes." Pinkie said nervously, putting her goggles on again pulling down the lever. Sunset snapped her eyes shut as the bright flash of rainbow light fell down upon her, the bear falling limp inside the glass dome as it's mobility was taken away. Removing her goggles Pinkie ran over to Sunset as she turned off the machine, helping her up to her foot. "Did it work?" "Only one way to find out." Sunset said, still being supported by Pinkie, she looked down at her legs, and with a deep breath pushed herself forward off of Pinkie Pie and landing on her face with a startled cry and a resounding thud. "WAH! OOF!... uuugh nope... I don't think it worked." Sunset groaned. "Also, I think I broke my nose." Pinkie Gasped putting her hands to her cheeks with a look of shock and awe. "Not your nose! it's the cutest part of your face!" Author's Note if anyone can name ALL 5 references in this chapter then congratulations you get your very own trixie plushie that may or may not contain a hidden camera .> <.< anyway in all seriousness though hope you guys enjoyed this first chapter, i do plan on making it longer but how much is as yet unclear it may be a 5 chapter minimum it may be longer only time will tell XD