THE CHOICE
A “My Little Pony: Equestria Girls” fanfic
by Erin Mills
“My Little Pony: Equestria Girls”
©2016 Hasbro/DHX Media
It happened at lunch. Sunset Shimmer and her friends had been eating and chatting as usual when the announcement came over the PA.
“Sunset Shimmer, please report to the principal's office. Sunset Shimmer to the principal's office, please.”
“Uh oh,” Rainbow Dash smirked. “Somebody's in trouuuublllllle.”
“Oh please,” Rarity said, “Not everyone ends up in the principal's office every other day, unlike some people sitting at this table I could mention.”
“It's not every other day!” Rainbow protested. “Once a week, tops! And I only get called to Vice Principal Luna's office. You gotta do something really bad to get called to see Principal Celestia.”
“Oh dear,” said Fluttershy. She looked at Sunset with concern. “You didn't do anything that bad, did you, Sunset?”
Sunset smiled. “I doubt it. Principal Celestia mentioned the other day that she wanted to follow up with me after what happened at the Friendship Games. I think she wants to know more about the magic and how we can control it so things don't get out of hand again. This is probably about that.”
“Do you need me to come along?” asked Twilight Sparkle... their Twilight Sparkle. Her transfer to Canterlot High had become official last week. “If it's about that, then I still have all my notes and research. I transferred them to my tablet the other day.” She began fumbling in her bag for her dPad, her glasses sliding down her nose. Applejack put a hand on the other girl's shoulder.
“Easy, sugar cube, don't work yerself into a lather just yet.” She looked up at Sunset. “Probably best if ya go see what the principal wants, then if it is about the magic, ya can call in the rest of us.”
“Good idea,” Sunset got up from the table, slinging her backpack over one shoulder. “If I'm not back before lunch is over, I'll meet up with you in the music room for practice.”
Her friends made their goodbyes and Sunset headed for the principal's office. If she were honest with herself, she had no real idea why Principal Celestia wanted to see her. She hadn't been a troublemaker for months, and despite what she had told the others, the principal seemed to think a “don't ask, don't tell” policy on magic was the best course of action.
Of course, that could have changed now that Crystal Prep knew that magic existed at CHS and that Sunset Shimmer and her friends were the focal point. And frankly, ego or not, Sunset Shimmer didn't entirely trust that a damaged reputation and the sheer impossibility of what happened during the Games would keep Abacus Cinch's mouth shut.
Sunset stopped outside the office and took a deep breath before going in. The secretary behind the office desk looked up as she entered, then indicated with her head that Sunset should go right in.
Sunset waked into the office. “You wanted to see me, Principal Celest–”
Sunset stopped short when she saw the man in the dark suit standing next to Celestia's desk. Behind her, the door suddenly slammed. Sunset whirled around to see another dark suited man standing behind her. The man who had slammed to office door pointed at the chair in front of Celestia's desk, indicating she should sit.
Sunset quirked an eyebrow but sat down. The man behind her moved to block the office door.
Not good, Sunset thought.
Celestia cleared her throat. The principal's body language was tense. Despite the calmness of her voice, Sunset noticed her eyes were open wider than usual. Something had the principal spooked.
And angry, Sunset thought, looking at Celestia's left hand which was clenched tightly around the edge of her desk blotter. She only does that when someone's done something that's really ticked her off.
“Sunset,” Celestia began, “I wanted–”
“I'll take it from here, ma'am,” said the man next to her. He turned to look at Sunset, his expression hard and unreadable. “You are Sunset Shimmer?”
“Yeah,” Sunset answered slowly. “And you are?”
“I'm the one asking the questions here, miss. You enrolled at Canterlot High approximately two years ago?”
“More or less. Could somebody please tell me what's going on?”
“Sunset, these–” Celestia's composure slipped and she glared briefly at the man in the dark suit. “– gentlemen are interested–”
“And where exactly did you attend school before you enrolled here, Miss Shimmer?”
“I was home schooled,” Sunset replied, the old lie coming easily to her. “My parents taught me all they could on that front, so they decided–”
“Really,” said the man. He leaned over the desk. Sunset felt herself pushing back into the chair. “Because according to everything we could find out about you, Miss Shimmer, which isn't much, you don't have any parents. As far as we can tell, until you enrolled at this school, you didn't exist. Then one day, a local pawnbroker reports a teenage girl came into his shop looking to pawn what appeared to be an actual bag of solid gold coins, and somehow, convinced him to hand over the cash despite the girl not having any actual identification. Later, that same girl opens a bank account in town, rents a room from a local boarding house, and then manages to enroll at the local high school, again with no official identification. Would you agree with me that this series of events is rather unusual?”
Sunset said nothing. She tried to keep the rising panic she was feeling in her chest from showing on her face. “Who are you?”
“I'm asking you the same question,” the man responded. “You show up out of quite literally nowhere with a bag of untraceable gold, exchange it for cash, and begin setting up a life with no birth certificate, no Social Security number, and, in fact, no records of any kind.
“And then,” the man continued. “Reports start coming in of strange events focusing around this school. Rumors at first. Then suddenly we hear stories of everything from giant man-eating plants appearing on your athletic field a couple of weeks ago, to a mass hallucination involving three giant flying seahorses fighting an even larger unicorn in the sky over Canterlot Arena during your Battle of the Bands a few months ago, to a literal demon attacking students during a dance last fall!”
Sunset visibly flinched at the mention of the Fall Formal. She cursed herself when she saw the man had noticed.
“I thought so. Sunset Shimmer, under Special Executive Order 738 –“
“Dash 04,” the other man interjected.
“Dash 04,” the first man continued, “you are hereby detained as a potential threat to the United States and will be taken to a secure facility for further questioning and examination until such time as we have determined whether you represent a danger to this country and its citizens. Stand up, please.”
“What?!” Sunset's eyes widened, the panic finally bursting free.
“She's only a teenager!” Celestia protested, standing up. “You said you only wanted to talk to her!”
“Don't interfere, Principal Celestia,” the man said as his partner yanked Sunset roughly out of her chair and handcuffed her. “You're already in enough trouble for keeping this from the proper authorities.”
The two men took Sunset's arms and marched her out of the office towards the entrance of the school. Sunset hung her head.
I should have known something like this would happen. This world's too paranoid for this to have gone unnoticed.
A breeze ruffled her hair and Sunset looked up, realizing they were already outside the school. A crowd of students had gathered. In the parking lot, she could see several police cars, a large police van, and a couple of cars that might as well have had “Government Issued Nondescript Vehicle” stenciled on the side. Police officers kept the onlookers from getting too close.
“Isn't this overkill?” Sunset asked. “I mean, I'm not resisting and there's only one of me.”
The lead agent snorted. “It's not just you that's being detained, Miss Shimmer.”
Sunset frowned and looked back at the school. Her eyes widened as she saw her friends being dragged out by other faceless government goons. Rarity and Applejack were struggling against their captors.
“Unhand me at once!” Rarity screamed. “I don't know who you are, but my parents will hear about this!”
Applejack, on the other hand, was cursing a blue streak that, in other circumstances, would have been both shocking and impressive. Behind them, Fluttershy was being roughly manhandled out the door and looked on the verge of tears. The other set of doors burst open and Rainbow Dash zoomed out, leaping onto one of the arms of the agent.
“Leave her alone! She's not doing anything!”
The agent calmly transferred his grip on Fluttershy to his other hand, then grabbed Rainbow's arm, and began forcing the two teenagers to walk forward again. Rainbow kept struggling, but the agent must have been stronger than he looked because the star athlete wasn't able to break away.
Sunset forced herself to look forward and swallowed, still hearing her friends cries and protests. But that provided no respite, as she saw Pinkie Pie and Twilight ahead of her at the back of the van. Pinkie was subdued and quiet, trudging along, looking at the ground. Twilight just looked terrified and was stammering out questions and getting nothing in response but gruff orders. The back doors of the van were thrown open and Twilight was roughly thrust inside. She apparently tripped because there was a loud bang and then Sunset heard her friend crying. She turned her head back to the first agent.
“Let them go! They don't know anything about all this!”
The agent gave her a look. “You really thought that would work?”
Sunset growled. She turned her head away from the agent.
As they passed the newly repaired Wondercolt statue, Sunset took a quick glance at it. Mercifully, no one official was standing anywhere near it.
But today, it seemed the universe was determined to be a very unmerciful place.
“Ah ha,” said the lead agent, noticing where her eyes went. He stopped, letting his partner hold Sunset in place. He put two fingers to the radio in his left ear. “It's in the statue. Send them in.”
Suddenly, a armored personnel carrier zoomed around the far end of the school and came to a halt on the lawn. Sunset stared in horror as a full platoon of heavily armed soldiers filed out and began marching towards the statue.
“No!” she screamed. She felt a surge of adrenaline and managed to break the agent's grip. Still handcuffed, she dashed across the lawn. “Get away from there!”
She forced herself to run faster, trying to keep her home world from being invaded. Before she could get far however, the two agents form Celestia's office tackled her to the ground.
“Let go!” Sunset struggled at the agents hauled her to her feet. “Equestria is peaceful! It's not a threat to you!”
“'Equestria,' hm?” said the lead agent. “Thank you, Miss Shimmer.”
His partner called to one of the other agents near the van. “This one's trouble. Bag her.”
Sunset felt the agents' grip on her tighten. The handcuffs were removed and she looked from one to the other, perplexed. She looked forward and stared in horror at the other two agents that were coming toward her with what appeared to be some kind of hybrid between a straitjacket and a mail bag.
The bag was quickly dropped over her and the sleeves cinched and locked together behind her. A strap was pulled between her legs and latched into place. The bag itself covered her head, but she could still see out a hole in the top.
Or she could, before the agents started closing that too. Sunset struggled, but the bag interfered with her movements, and she felt someone holding her in place on top of that.
The last thing she saw before the bag trapped her in darkness was a line of soldiers charging through the portal into a completely unprepared Equestria.
“NO!” Sunset sat bolt upright in bed, sweat pouring off her. She swallowed and tried to get her breathing under control. “A dream... just a dream.”
She got out of bed and headed for the bathroom. She splashed some water on her face and toweled off.
I should never have taken Pinkie's advice and watched “Brazil” before bed.
Sunset got back in bed and lay staring up at the ceiling.
I know it was just a dream. I know that. Nobody outside of CHS and Crystal Prep knows magic exists in this world now. The government isn't coming to haul all of us off and invade Equestria.
Sunset frowned.
But they could. If things keep going the way they have been, somebody official is bound to notice and start asking questions. Twilight worked out something was happening and she had almost nothing to go on.
Sunset rolled on her side, her mind whirling with possible outcomes if magic became public knowledge. Nearly all of them ended badly for her and her friends. Sunset frowned.
I'm going to have to do something.
“... three armed men entered a bank in Oakland…”
CLICK.
“... situation continued to deteriorate...”
CLICK.
“... troops deployed in the Middle East...”
CLICK.
“... six dead in...”
CLICK.
“... enhanced security protocols being implemented for all...”
CLICK.
Sunset tossed the remote for her TV aside in disgust. While she normally liked starting her day with the news while she got ready for school, today it all seemed the same: violent and depressing. She got up from her bed and grabbed her jacket and backpack, her mood dark.
She locked the door to her room and headed downstairs. As she reached the front door, Miss Bookbinder, the boarding house's owner, called to her.
“No breakfast this morning, Sunset?”
“Not today, Miss Bookbinder,” Sunset answered. “I'll pick something up on my way to school.”
“You better, young lady,” Miss Bookbinder responded, looking out from the kitchen doorway. She had green hair done up in a bun, and peered at Sunset over half-moon spectacles. This gave her the appearance of looking older than she actually was. Sunset liked her. She was no-nonsense, and sarcastic as hell, but she cared about her tenants. “You have lunch money, yes?”
“Yes, Miss Bookbinder,” Sunset said. “Do you need me to pick up anything on my way home?”
“Nothing comes to mind,” Miss Bookbinder answered, disappearing back into the kitchen. “Have a good day at school.”
“If you do need something, send me a text,” Sunset said. “I'll see you later.”
Miss Bookbinder hummed a goodbye and Sunset left the boarding house. As she walked towards the school, her mood turned dark again and she found herself focusing on her problem.
Okay, it's morning now. You can think rationally about this. Obviously, nobody official knows about magic existing in this world yet. But we should be prepared for that eventuality. If things keep going on the way they have been though, somebody's going to start asking questions. Somebody with more resources than Twilight had.
Sunset turned a corner.
I know the CHS kids like having magic as a school secret, so none of them are going to say anything to anyone outside of the school. Let's give CPA the benefit of the doubt and assume none of the students there will deliberately spill the beans either. Let's go even further and assume that Principal Cinch isn't willing to risk her precious reputation by admitting that magic exists. But, people talk, and it's entirely possible that somebody could overhear something, which could, in turn – no, that can't be right.
Sunset sighed and frowned. “What am I doing?”
“Going to school, silly!”
“GAH!” Sunset leaped a full foot in the air as Pinkie Pie's voice came into her ear. “Pinkie, for crying out loud!”
“Sorry!” Pinkie reached into her hair and produced a vanilla frosted doughnut with sprinkles. “Doughnut? I had a couple of spares this morning.”
“Um... no thanks,” Sunset said.
“Okay! Just checking since you were looking all broody and thoughtful and whenever you're looking broody and thoughtful that usually means you skip breakfast, although why anyone would would skip Miss Bookbinder's cinnamon rolls makes no sense to me, but then a lot of things don't make sense to me, like why they're called pineapples when they don't taste like apples or pine trees, and believe me, you never forget what pine trees taste like, especially on the way back up, but anyway I saw you were looking all broody and thoughtful and figured you needed something for breakfast!”
Sunset stared at Pinkie while her brain worked it's way through the run-on sentence, then blinked when comprehension set in.
“No, no,” she said, “I'm fine, Pinkie. I just... had a really bad nightmare last night.”
“It wasn't, you know, that one again?” Pinkie asked, suddenly serious.
Shortly after the Fall Formal, Sunset had recurring nightmares. Violent ones about her demonic alter ego taking bloody revenge on her. Pinkie had noticed and declared a week of Emergency Anti-Nightmare Sleepovers. Each of the girls had spent a night with Sunset, and it was during that week where she had been able to become real friends with each of them. The nightmares faded soon afterwards.
“No, not that one. This one's new,” Sunset admitted. “But I'm still wrapping my head around it. I promise I'll tell you and the girls later once I know what I want to say about it, okay?”
“Sure!” Pinkie said. She held the doughnut up again. “Sure you don't want a doughnut?”
Sunset smiled. “I'm good.”
“Suit yourself!” Pinkie crammed the whole thing into her mouth. A few seconds later, her eyes bulged out. “Mlllk! Mmph murphhgrt mllk!”
Sunset looked at her friend's bulging cheeks and eyes and laughed. Thank whatever runs the multiverse for Pinkie Pie. I needed that this morning.
Sunset took Pinkie's arm. “I think there's a convenience store up ahead. We'll get you some milk there.”
“Something's bothering you, Sunset, darling,” Rarity said, examining the sewing machine without looking up.
“Hm?” Sunset blinked. The two of them were sitting in Home Ec. Sewing was on the agenda at this point in the semester. Needless to say, Rarity was excelling at this part of the course. Sunset herself muddled along as best she could, but she was only passing by the skin of her teeth.
Today was even worse. Even though Pinkie had managed to cheer her up for a while, by third period her brain was back to obsessing over her nightmare. She became so distracted by her thoughts that she managed to somehow snag her sewing machine thread in the mechanism for the needle and wound up jamming the whole thing. Rarity was helping her out by disentangling it.
“You're brooding,” Rarity answered. She grabbed a loose end of the thread and gave it a sharp tug. The thread moved slightly before another knot tightened. Rarity frowned. “Hmmm. This is going to be a bit trickier than I thought. Anyway, as I was saying, you're brooding again.”
“I am not,” Sunset protested. “It's just... I had a bad night.”
Rarity looked at her friend over her glasses. “The nightmare again?”
Sunset shook her head. “Not that one. But, yeah, a nightmare.”
“Oh, you poor thing,” Rarity said sincerely. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“Not yet,” Sunset answered. “Maybe later when we're all together. I'm not sure how to describe it. You know how it is with nightmares.”
“Oh yes,” Rarity said, turning her attention back to the sewing machine. She began fiddling with the stubborn knot that had formed. “But, if you don't mind some advice, don't let it consume your waking moments either.”
“Don't worry, I'm not.”
Rarity looked back at Sunset, one eyebrow quirked in a manner that Applejack would have been proud of. Sunset felt herself beginning to blush.
“What?” she asked.
“As I said, you're brooding. And we've been friends long enough for me to notice that you only brood like this when you have some sort of problem that you can't get a grip on.” Rarity turned back to the sewing machine. “Ah ha!”
She fiddled with the thread, while still talking to Sunset. “Understand I'm only saying this because I care about you, darling. You have a tendency to shoulder anything that is bothering you all alone until you run yourself ragged. Then you get frustrated, then your temper tends to get the better of you, and then – ”
“I get your point, Rarity.” Irritation crept into Sunset's voice.
“Not quite,” Rarity said kindly. She grabbed one end of the thread and began to pull. “My point is simply this. Tell us what's bothering you, and let us help you before frustration sets in. A little help from us in the right place – ”
Rarity smiled and, with a flourish, pulled the thread, unbroken, from the mechanism. “And voila! Problem solved!”
Sunset sat down at the machine. She put her foot on the pedal and smiled as the machine revved to life. “You did it!”
“Not yet, I haven't,” Rarity smirked. “We'll deal with that later.”
Sunset blinked and looked at her. “Rarity, I – ”
The bell rang, interrupting her. Rarity grabbed her bag from the next machine over. “We'll talk at lunch. Don't be late!”
“Rarity, wait!”
But Rarity had already disappeared into the hall. Sunset grabbed her backpack and headed to her next class. As she walked down the hall, she thought about what Rarity had said.
She's right. I don't have to do everything on my own anymore. Sunset frowned. But, if I tell them what's really bothering me about the nightmare, they may not understand. Or worse.
Sunset stopped at her locker. She opened it, taking out her history book. She paused and looked at it for a moment, before opening it and riffling through the pages. She sighed again and put it in her backpack. As she did, she felt the other book. The one she never let off her person. She pulled the book out and looked at the yellow and red sunburst on the cover.
Before I tell them, maybe I need to get the perspective of somepony on the other side.
Dear Princess Twilight,
I wish this was a social call. I have a problem and I'm not sure what to do about it.
I've been having nightmares, Twilight. Nightmares where the government gets curious about the magic and detains me and our friends, trying to figure out how to weaponize it. On top of that, they always end with a full scale invasion of Equestria. I know it's unlikely, and I'm sure that if an invasion from over here were to occur, you, your friends, and the other princesses could probably find a way to repel it. Hell, I'm even sure that if I was able to get a message to you, you could just close the portal from your side before things got out of hand.
But here's the thing, Twilight, I can't shake the fear. No, it's not just fear. It's terror. I'm terrified. *Ever since I came to this world, I've tried to understand how it works. And more and more, I've noticed that it kind of... well... doesn't.*
I've come to accept that war is part of this world's culture. I don't really understand why it is, but I accept it as the way things are, and honestly, given some of the things that happen around the world, I can also see the necessity. But there's a lot of other things that just don't sit right with me. They're making headway on a lot of them, but there's just as many people committed to keeping things as they are, no matter who gets hurt in the process.
And the thing that really scares me is their capacity to let their paranoia and mistrust take over. Right now, there seems to be this underlying message in everything from the media, to the news, to simple household conveniences that you can't trust anyone. That the safest thing to do is never leave your room and keep interactions with others to a minimum. It goes against everything you've taught me. Why would they insist that isolation is the only way to live? Why is it that so many people are perfectly content to never interact with anyone except on the most superficial level?
I've had both Pinkie and Rarity insist that I tell them and the others about my nightmare and why it's bothering me. And I want to. I want to so much. But, they're humans and they have the same potential for paranoia and mistrust that all humans – and all ponies – do. I'm worried that expressing my fears will cause them to misunderstand. To not see why I'm scared.
I love this world, Twilight. It's become more of a home to me than Equestria ever was. And while Equestria will always be dear to me, I don't want anything to happen to my home here. I don't want anything to happen to my friends. And I don't want anyone finding a way to use the magic in a manner it shouldn't be. We've seen that happen twice now. And if it ends up in the hands of someone who can't be talked down like this world's Twilight was, we don't have the Elements of Harmony to defend against them. If the government realizes what's going on here, and decides to do something about it, not only will the seven of us probably end up in some lab for the rest of our lives, but sooner or later, they'll figure out how to make the magic work for them. And then...
... I'm convinced it will tear this world and Equestria apart.
So, I guess what I'm asking is this: What should I do? Do I tell our friends what's really scaring me, no matter how irrational it may sound? Am I just being paranoid myself? Please, Twilight, I need your advice.
Anxiously waiting,
Sunset Shimmer
