Two in Exile

Chapters

Prologue - First And Last Test
The Girl From Another World
The Bully
Shady Business
Shopping Spree

Prologue - First And Last Test

“Well, Miss Sparkle?”

Twilight Sparkle stared at the cart before her, a simple wooden construct and yet the load it bore was the most terrifying thing she had ever seen in her life. The cart was small enough that she could see over it without stretching her neck, the purple egg on it was barely bigger than her head, motionless and completely non-threatening.

It was the most terrifying thing she had ever seen.

A dragon egg! Hatching an honest-to-Celestia dragon egg was the minimum requirement to get into the School For Gifted Unicorns?! Twilight’s breathing got faster and her vision blurred out everything but the egg and the quartet of test instructors who were already beginning to look impatient with her. Everything sounded like she was hearing it through a large ball of cotton. All the spells and knowledge she’d so readily called upon in the previous parts of the exam suddenly seemed as far away and unreachable as the fiftieth digit of pi. Which, a detached part of her realized, she could have also flawlessly recited on every other day.

The part of her who had pointed this out then suggested hysterical giggling as her next course of action.

“Well, Miss Sparkle?” the same mare asked again, while one of her fellow instructors halfheartedly stifled a yawn. A yawn! All her hopes and dreams were crumbling with this yawn and she had barely even moved yet.

Slowly, she turned back towards the egg again, the purple menhir that towered over her. Every hoofstep felt like lead as she walked up to the cart for what seemed to be an eternity. She took a deep breath, then another and another, then quickly clamped her mouth shut before she would start to hyperventilate again. Her cheeks bulged out as she closed her eyes and tensed her whole body, calling onto that well of thaumic energy that she had spent so many months building and training.

Nothing. There wasn’t even a single spark jumping from her horn. Her magic felt like it was all over the place, taking detours through her hooves, tail and everywhere else except the place it was supposed to go. The few drops that did make it to her horn ran against a wall that seemed impossible to get through. Some of it had apparently gotten into her eyes, as she could feel something hot pooling in them.

The older mare cleared her throat. “Well, Miss Sparkle… I think we have seen enough.” Her pen started writing on a clipboard along with three other pens and clipboards of her colleagues as they quietly talked to each other.

Twilight couldn’t hear them. Her ears were filled with static, her vision was going black at the edges and her whole body was shivering. She had failed, failed completely, and there was nothing she could do about it. Her parents were somewhere in the room, but right now she couldn’t bear to even imagine their disappointed faces, or even worse, understanding and assurances that the situation somehow wasn’t as terrible as it was.

Her legs suddenly started moving, turning her around and galloping towards the door out of the room. She kept her eyes closed, trying to ignore the tears running down her muzzle and the surprised shouts of the instructors and her parents. She barged through the doors and kept running, making turns at random, trying to just run away from the shame and disappointment and never look back.

Naturally, it took her less than a minute to get completely lost.

Twilight stopped in the middle of a hallway, looking around frantically. She didn’t know where she was and she barely knew what turns she had taken to get there. Nearly identical wooden doors lined the walls to both sides and more hallways branched off in the distance. The little filly tensed as she heard hoofsteps coming from behind her, looking around frantically as the voices from around the corner came closer.

“…just like last year. I wish I could see what spells the foals try on it this year to make it hatch.” A group of older colts rounded the corner, one of them pausing and looking around the empty hallway. “Say, did you guys hear something?”

Twilight panted and shivered, leaning against the door. She’d jumped into the first room at random and now she was standing in complete darkness, waiting for the group of ponies to walk by. After taking a few moments to calm down she scrunched and tried to cast a light spell so she could see where she was, but her magic still didn’t want to respond. Instead she took a step forward to try and find a light switch.

“Yipe! Ow! Ooof! Whoa! Ow…” Twilight groaned, lying flat at the bottom of the stairs that apparently led down from the door. She slowly sat up, rubbing her muzzle with both hooves. “Ohhhhh, this is the worst day of my life… I don’t even know how it could possibly get any–“

BOOOOM!

Every muscle in her body tensed in surprise, including her magical muscles. The sudden explosion was shocking enough, but what really hit her was the wave of magic that washed through her without warning, tearing down all the dams she had been struggling against since the exam and even more she didn’t even know about. Magic reserves she didn’t know she had coursed through her body, lifting her into the air in a bubble of purple energy and filling the room with a contrast of light and shadows.

Twilight hung in the air like that for a moment, with glowing eyes. Then she jolted forward and face-first into the wall. Her energy sphere staggered backwards, going a bit too far and bouncing down the second flight of stairs that was now visible, swerving left and right to slam into the wall and railing several more times before she finally reached the bottom. Her bubble sent beams of magic randomly around the room for a few more seconds before it burst in one last wave of energy, dropping her to the floor.

Twilight sighed, staying still with her face on the dusty floor. Maybe if she didn’t move, the day would just forget about her and pass. A soft but bright light in front of her taunted her to look up, however, and it didn’t take long for her natural curiosity to win out over her resolve.

Looking around, she could see that she was in a basement, full of old furniture and various knickknacks. And right in front of her stood a large ornate mirror, easily three times her size and showing a glowing surface of light instead of her reflection.

Twilight’s eye twitched. ‘I’m hiding in a room with a magic mirror and who knows how many other important artifacts. They could court-martial me just for knowing about this room. I could be exiled from Equestria, or locked up in Tartarus, or–‘

The door at the top of the stairs opened. “…telling you, I heard something. You think one of those brats from Magic Kindergarten snuck in here again on a dare?”

Twilight’s eyes shrunk down to pinpricks. She hadn’t been able to properly hear most of the sentence, but what she had understood made her blood run cold. Magic Kindergarten. The worst punishment she could possibly imagine. Being sent to hunt Cerberus through all layers of Tartarus would be better than going to that place.

Her eyes snapped to the glowing mirror. It was a split-second decision, but before she could think about it her legs were already moving.

~~~~~

Sunset Shimmer muttered under her breath, stomping out of the school building into the cool evening air. She had been getting better at masking her intentions and being subtle, but today she had gotten too careless and earned herself a generous detention from vice principal Luna. It didn’t matter much to her, of course, barely more than an annoyance. It wasn’t like she had anything better to do most of the time, and every slip-up like today was just another lesson in the game of high school politics she was now playing. Playing, and already winning.

She stopped at the bottom of the stairs. Something felt off, something odd about the air. Looking ahead, she noticed the pedestal of the school’s statue glimmer and glow slightly, barely perceptible if you didn’t know what to look for.

“What the…? The portal isn’t supposed to open for a good two years yet!” Sunset frowned, feeling confusion and a bit of dread. From what she had learned of the portal before she went through, the only pony who had ever been able to open it outside of the thirty-moon cycle had been Starswirl the Bearded. If Princess Celestia had figured out how to activate it, it stood to reason that she was sending guards to retrieve her errant student and exiled criminal. If Sunset didn’t want to give up what little of a life she had built in this town and run away again, she might have only mere seconds to push them back again and find a way to seal the portal. “I’m not letting you- ooof!”

Something slammed into her right as she had reached the portal, throwing both of them to the ground. Sunset flailed and tried to push it off, sitting up just in time to see the portal ripple one last time and turn back into the lifeless slab of marble it usually was.

She blinked, slowly looking down from the now inactive portal to the little girl in her lap. Grape colored skin. Purple hair with stripes in a haircut that was probably self-inflicted with a ruler and a steam iron. A skirt and a blouse in matching colors, with a burst of stars on the sides of the former. And the whole package looked to be maybe ten years old, twelve at most. Though with the way her own transformation had gone and the misleading age groups she had seen in this world, it was hard to actually confirm that the girl was more than half her age.

As she stared down at the unconscious girl, Sunset’s brain analyzed all this information in less than a second, sorted it into the appropriate folders in her mind, made notes and connections and formulated the most appropriate response to all the data it had gathered:

“…what?”

Author's Note

And it begins.

The Girl From Another World

“Not Magic Kindergarten!”

Sunset paused and looked up, twitching a bit at the still somewhat unfamiliar feeling of her ears not perking up. She sighed and closed her laptop, standing up to walk over to the bedroom of her small, three-room apartment. Several thumps and crashes came from the other side of the door, followed by several seconds of silence and then a high-pitched scream and even more thumps.

She quietly opened the door, sending a sliver of light into the darkened room. On the far corner of the room she could see a shivering bundle of blankets, wide eyes barely visible as they stared at her.

Sunset rolled her eyes and fully opened the door, standing with her arms crossed and half silhouetted against the light coming from the living room. “Well, you’re certainly taking this a lot better than I expected.”

The bundle of blankets kept staring at her, voice cracking. “W-what are you?”

Sunset casually raised a hand to inspect her fingernails. “I’m a magical talking unicorn from a land beyond the veil. Also, I’m a female human adolescent.”

“A… hyoo-men?” The blankets stopped shivering, though they didn’t show any other intention of moving.

“So that’s what you’re getting hung up on?” Sunset smirked. “Well, if I needed any more proof I suppose that would be it. You’ve been pretty lucky, kiddo, walking into the only other Equestrian in this world. At least I don’t think there are any others.”

The bundle of blankets finally opened up enough to reveal the girl’s head, leaning forward. “You’re from Equestria?! Please, can you show me the way back? I don’t even know exactly how I got here and my parents are probably worried and…” she gasped. “Oh no, the exam!”

“Whoa, whoa, calm down filly.” Sunset leaned against the doorframe, faking disinterest. “You got all the time in this world to figure yourself out. Or as long as it takes me to kick you out, at least. The only reason I even carried you all the way here in the first place was because I was curious and you wouldn’t wake up.”

“You would kick me out?” Twilight tried to fold her ears back, cringing and shuddering when it didn’t work. “W-what did you mean when you said I have all the time in this world?”

“Well, the way I figure it’s gonna be a good two years before the portal opens again. And even when it does I don’t see why you would try to go back if the old nag made so much effort just to banish you in the first place.” She frowned. “How did Celestia manage to open it anyway?”

“Princess Celestia?” Twilight gave her an incomprehensive look. “I was running away after I failed the entrance exam and got lost. Then there was a loud boom and… wait, did you just say two years? I’m stuck here for two years?!” She threw off the blankets, staring in shock.

“Yup.” Sunset turned around, walking away again. “Sounds like you got here by some freak accident. And that means you’ve just gone from interesting to useless. You have five minutes to pack your bags and get out.”

Twilight jumped up and stumbled after her, almost tripping over her strange new legs as she tried to keep up. “I… what?! B-but I don’t even have bags!”

“Great, then you won’t need five minutes.”

“Where am I supposed to go? I don’t even know where I am!”

Sunset sat down at her laptop again, absentmindedly gesturing towards the door. “You’re in my apartment. There’s the door. Everything after that is not my problem. Congratulations, you’re a man now. Woman. Whatever.”

Twilight stared up at her, tearing up. “Y-you’re just sending me out there? All alone? Into a world of hairless minotaurs that I don’t know anything about?”

“Cause that’s what happens when you jump through a weird magic mirror without thinking…” Sunset grumbled under her breath. She groaned and rubbed her eyes. “Alright twerp, you can stay here for tonight. On the couch. You’re going to be quiet, you’re going to stay away from my stuff and if you start to annoy me I’m kicking you out faster than you can say ‘ow, ow, I’m sorry, please stop hitting me with a broom’. You got all that?” She glowered down at the little girl.

Twilight gulped and nodded quietly, staring up at her. She quickly scampered away to the off-green couch.

Sunset watched her, meeting her gaze for a few moments as the girl peered over the couch’s backrest at her. Then she turned back to her laptop and started browsing the internet again, grumbling under her breath.

For several minutes the only sound in the apartment was that of Sunset typing and occasionally clicking on her laptop. She didn’t react to the thump and the series of small, shuffling steps moving around her table, nor the top of a head slowly coming into view over the table’s edge, staring at her.

“What are you doing?”

Sunset’s eye twitched.

~~~~~

Sunset quietly ate her pop tarts, trying to ignore the obnoxious cereal crunch that only little colts and fillies – or little girls and boys, as it were in this world – could produce at this volume despite drowning it in milk. Twilight had barely said a dozen words all morning, acting subdued and stealing glances at her.

Finally Sunset put down her coffee mug and sighed. “Alright, what’s wrong? Don’t like frosted cereal?”

Twilight flinched and looked up, biting her lip. “I’m, uhm…” She muttered something into her bowl.

Sunset leaned in. “What was that? Speak up, filly.”

“Pleasedon’tkickmeout!” Twilight blurted out, blushing and quickly making herself small again after her outburst.

Sunset blinked, having leaned away from the girl in surprise more than she would like to admit. She opened her mouth, then closed it again and frowned. “Well, I’m not letting you stay alone in my apartment for hours. You could burn the whole place down by accident before I’m even three blocks away.” She stood up and took her plate as well as the girl’s bowl, dropping them in the sink in a gesture of finality. “I have to leave for school and you have to leave, period.”

Twilight perked up for a second at the mention of school, then wilted again at the memory of just how she had gotten into this situation in the first place. “I-I understand… I think.”

Sunset nodded. “Great.” She started to clean their dishes, trying to ignore the awkward silence as she finished cleaning up, grabbed her bag and put on her boots. She held open the door, waiting impatiently as the girl shuffled out of the apartment and down the stairs.

They finally made their way outside, Sunset deliberately locking the front door with an air of finality. She gave Twilight one last look, then turned around and started walking off. “Well then, good luck. Don’t follow me around.”

Twilight bit her lip, fidgeting nervously before blurting out. “Twilight Sparkle!”

Sunset paused, looking over her shoulder. “What?”

Twilight blushed, mumbling. “M-my name… it’s Twilight Sparkle.”

Sunset stared at her for a few seconds, then shrugged and turned her head back to keep walking. “Good for you. If I find out you’ve gotten rich somehow I’ll send you a bill.”

Twilight shivered, nervous and with no idea where to go as she watched Sunset disappear down the road.

~~~~~

“Well well well, if it isn’t Fluttercry.” Sunset walked up to the pale yellow-skinned girl by the school’s front entrance, reveling in the way the girl flinched just from hearing her voice. “Begging money for your animal friends again? I didn’t know they let beggars loiter on school grounds.”

Fluttershy shrunk a bit, trying to hold the stack of flyers protectively in front of her. “I-I-I’m not b-begging for money. I’m trying to find volunteers… for the animal shelter...” She looked away, voice breaking towards the end.

Sunset smirked and leaned in. “Piece of advice. You might even find some poor idiot willing to volunteer if anyone could actually hear you.” She pulled back and walked past into the school building without waiting for an answer.

An easy target like Fluttershy was just what she had needed. She felt back in her game again, ready to play her fellow students like a fiddle and extend her influence over the school some more. Maybe today would turn out to be a good day after all.

~~~~~

“Sunset Shimmer, please come to Principal Celestia’s office at once. Sunset Shimmer to Principal Celestia’s office.”

Sunset flinched at the name that still sounded way too much like ‘Princess Celestia’ for her liking, growling as everyone in the classroom turned to look at her. Without a word she stood up and grabbed her bag, walking out with her head held high. She wouldn’t let these teenagers see any weakness, certainly not because of something as meaningless as a visit to the principal’s office. One of her victims of this morning must have snitched on her. Maybe Fluttershy had finally been pushed so far as to run there, though she really didn’t strike her as one who would do that. She really was a far too easy victim. Either way, a few empty apologies and half-truths, maybe another detention and she would be out of that office before the lunch break.

Sunset walked into the front room to the teacher’s lounge, ignoring the look from the school’s secretary Miss Raven as she made her way to the unassuming door that led to the Principal’s office. Knocking and taking a second to put on an appropriately innocent and mildly surprised expression, she opened the door as soon as she heard the “Enter” from inside.

“You wanted to see me, Principal…”

She trailed off, staring at the young lavender girl sitting in front of the principal’s desk, looking down nervously with her back to the door.

Celestia looked up from the girl to meet Sunset’s eyes, raising an eyebrow. “A hall monitor found this young lady, and I quote, sneaking around the school. She doesn’t go to Canterlot High, she doesn’t carry any ID and when we tried to ask where she was from she just asked for you. Maybe you can shed some light on all this, Miss Shimmer?”

Author's Note

I'm sure this will have no consequences whatsoever for Sunset or Twilight.

The Bully

Sunset watched Principal Celestia and the girl with a stunned expression, but her mind was racing. The filly had followed her, obviously, and then gotten caught. And to make matters worse she had somehow managed to drag Sunset into her mess. Not that she cared about what happened to the filly, but once people started asking questions about her and getting no answers – or even worse, if they did get answers from the filly – they were going to ask those questions about Sunset next and going by all she knew it would make her time in this world a lot less pleasant.

In the end, it came down to two options. Deny everything and try to divert the attention as soon as possible, as thoroughly as possible. If it worked, everything would be fine, but Sunset could see half a dozen ways it could go completely wrong and no way to effectively prevent them other than hope and luck. The other option…

“Twilight, what are you doing here?!” Sunset walked over to Twilight, putting on as much of a concerned expression as she could muster without looking obviously fake.

Twilight flinched a bit at her voice, still staring down at her hands folded in her lap.

“You know this girl then, Miss Shimmer?” Celestia looked at Sunset, not reacting to Twilight if she had noticed the flinch.

Sunset nodded, trying to force a natural smile. “She is my little sister. She must have followed me here.” She put one hand on the filly’s shoulder, gripping it with just a little more force than necessary. “You know you aren’t supposed to go out all by yourself. What if you had gotten lost?”

Twilight flinched again and tensed, but stayed quiet.

Celestia looked between them for a moment, raising an eyebrow as she considered this turn of events. Then she leaned forward. “Is that true? Is Sunset really your older sister?”

Twilight nodded almost imperceptibly, mumbling. “Y-yes, Ma’am. Sorry, Sunset.”

Celestia stared at her for a few more seconds, then sighed and leaned back to look at Sunset again, steepling her fingers. “This is the first time I hear of you having a sister. The first time I hear of any of your family, in fact. It raises a lot of questions, especially why she has not been enrolled at Canterlot High yet. She seems to be the proper age for the undergrad classes.”

Sunset took a deep breath, forcing herself to shrink back a bit. “I would rather not talk about that right now. Not right now, and especially not in front of Twilight. I can tell you that she was homeschooled, though.” It was a bluff, of course, but both common sense and predictable human TV shows told her that trying to make up an elaborate cover story on the spot would lead to problems, more lies and hijinks. Sunset hated hijinks.

Celestia stared at her for a moment, trying to read her. She wouldn’t see any signs of deceit, of course; if she had managed to keep secrets from a millennia old alicorn, for however short a time, then standing up to a high school principal was laughably easy. Of course the woman would have her suspicions, something that earned her slightly more favor than the Princess had with Sunset, but she wouldn’t just act on it without reason and she certainly wouldn’t accuse Sunset of lying in front of what might be her little sister.

Celestia took a deep breath and let it out, then started to write down some notes. “Very well. We will talk about this later. Furthermore, I expect Twilight to be enrolled at Canterlot High by next week. That means Friday afternoon at latest she will have to come here again to give the necessary information and sign the necessary forms, in attendance of her parents.” Celestia paused, this time noticing the visible flinch and quiet choke that went through the filly. “…or her legal guardian, as it were. That is all for now. You can take the rest of the school day off to bring her home and tend to her.” Celestia went back to writing, muttering under her breath. “Heavens know your in-class studies are the least of your problems.”

“Thank you, Principal. Come on, Twilight, let’s go home.” Sunset turned around to leave, pausing and looking back with a frown as the filly didn’t seem to want to move. “Come on, Twilight.”

Twilight slowly stood up and moved to follow her, still keeping her head down. Sunset did her best not to grab her and drag her along as they made their way back through the thankfully still empty school halls. It took her twice the usual time to walk back to her apartment complex, having to wait for the little filly every couple steps. The closer they got, the more Twilight seemed to be dragging her feet. Finally Sunset stomped back to her, crossing her arms to glare down at the filly. “You know, you’ll have to move a bit faster if we want to be home before sundown.”

Twilight flinched again, wrapping her arms around herself and mumbling. “I-I’m sorry. I should just… leave you alone and find somewhere else to spend the night. In fact, I-I think I’ll do just that, get out of your mane.” She turned around, looking almost relieved as she tried to get away.

Sunset grabbed her shoulder before she could even make her second step, holding her with an almost painfully strong grip. “Oh no you don’t. You got me into this mess and now we are both stuck in it, and by the stars if I’m going down I’m taking you with me. Besides, you wanted to have a place to stay so badly, didn’t you?”

Twilight, tensed and shook her head, still trying to back away. “No! I-I mean, it’s fine, I’ll be fine. You really don’t have to–“

Sunset poked at the filly’s chest, then pointed at the front door with the same hand. “In. Now. We’ll talk once we are in my apartment, and it will not be fun for either of us if I have to pick you up and carry you the whole way.”

Twilight flinched back and teared up, nodding with a quiet whimper and running past Sunset to get into the house as quickly as she could.

Sunset rolled her eyes and followed, unlocking her… their apartment door and locking it behind them once they were both inside, leaning against it and crossing her arms. “Alright, time to talk. What was all that about? Why were you following me? How did you even know my name, I’m pretty sure I never told you.” She narrowed her eyes. “Did you snoop through my things while I was asleep?”

“N-no!” Twilight shook her head rapidly, backing away until she bumped into the couch. “I-I didn’t do anything, honestly. I just overheard your name when I was in that school, ponies… or hyoomen or whatever they are called here… they talked a lot about you when you weren’t around.”

“It’s humans. In fact, that’s probably one of the first things we have to teach you.” Sunset frowned and walked over to the table, opening her laptop. Everyone talking behind her back was nothing new to her, even before she came to this world. At least it meant that the other students knew her and most likely knew her standing in the school hierarchy too. “I’ll have to draft up a cover story for you first. I don’t care what you do, as long as you don’t leave the apartment, don’t go into my bedroom, don’t annoy me and don’t touch my stuff.” She turned her head to give the filly a challenging glare.

To her surprise, Twilight just whimpered and nodded quietly. Sunset watched as the filly climbed onto the couch, grabbing the spare blanket she had left there this morning and pulling it over herself as she curled up.

Sunset frowned, turning back to her laptop and trying to write before she sighed and rolled her eyes. “Alright, I’ll bite. What’s wrong now? Yesterday I couldn’t get you to stop talking and now I barely get a single word out of you.”

The lump under the blankets mumbled something, completely incomprehensive through the fabric.

Sunset rolled her eyes and stood up, walking over to the couch. “You’ll have to speak up if I’m supposed to understand you.”

The lump shifted, a tear-streaked face poking out of the blankets and glaring up at Sunset with a surprising amount of both fear and anger as it yelled at her. “Because you’re a big bully!”

Sunset blinked. “What?”

“I saw you in school. You’re nothing but a big, mean bully and… and…” Twilight shrunk back again, lying down and curling up so she was facing the back of the couch. “Magic Kindergarten is not fun if you like books and can’t even use your magic to turn a page…”

Sunset scoffed. “That’s it? All that trouble just because I’m a bully? Well, I’ll let you in on a little secret.” She put a hand on Twilight’s shoulder and leaned in, smirking. “I’m not just any old bully. I’m the biggest bully in the whole school.”

She waited a few moments for a response, frowning when none came. The little filly only started to curl up more, shivering under Sunset’s hand. After a while Sunset stood up and walked back to the table again. “Whatever.”

She tried to write on their cover story, but found that she just couldn’t concentrate properly, glancing over at the filly every few minutes.

After two hours of barely getting anything done, she pushed the laptop away to prepare an early dinner. Twilight got up to eat a little, but still didn’t say anything and kept avoiding Sunset’s gaze.

They went to bed early, or rather Sunset went to bed while Twilight slept on the couch again.

~~~~~

Sunset’s ear twitched at the sound of children’s laughter. She turned her head to see a group of unicorn foals in the distance, pushing around a little human girl and playing keep-away with her book. She watched as one of them tripped the girl and sent her into a mud puddle, cantering away laughing and leaving the girl crying on the ground next to her now muddy book.

Sunset turned away with an indifferent shrug, ignoring the small twinge in her chest. This wasn’t her problem. If the girl was too weak to stand up for herself, that wasn’t Sunset’s fault. Besides, she had an important meeting.

“Sunset Shimmer. I see you have returned.” Princess Celestia was standing in front of Sunset, giving her one of her calculating looks. With Sunset as a human, the Princess was actually at the same height as her, a fact that made Sunset smirk, even more so when she imagined her as one of the dumb horses from the human world.

“So I have. What are you going to do about it?” Sunset casually walked past Celestia, leaving the mare to catch up.

Celestia cantered after her as expected, frowning a bit before she inclined her head. “Nothing. Regardless of my own opinion on things, you have shown both the power and application thereof required for… an ascension.”

Sunset actually stumbled a bit at that, eyes going wide. That was certainly not what she expected. “An ascension? You’re serious? No more riddles, no more stringing me along with half-truths and secrets?” She noticed they were walking towards a door, the bright light fading to reveal the balcony of Canterlot Castle looking out over crowds of ponies.

“No more guiding you. I have done all I could and you have rejected what I wanted to teach you.” Celestia sighed, stepping out onto the balcony and gently pushing Sunset along to the railing with one of her soft white wings.

A shrill scream startled her and made her take a step back in reflex. The ponies down on the plaza had started to panic, many of them suddenly turning tail to run away as fast as they could, carrying foals along. Sunset watched in confusion as some of the ponies pointed up at her, shouting things that she couldn’t understand from her height.

“What’s wrong? Why are they all acting like… Princess?” She turned her head to find herself alone on the balcony. With a frown she looked around, nose twitching as she picked up a faint smell of fire and brimstone that was quickly getting stronger. It would explain the sudden panic, but she couldn’t see any fires or even smoke…

Oh, nevermind, there they were. The buildings around the plaza were definitely in flames and collapsing. Oh, and the ground was bursting open in places to spew even more fire. It really looked rather impressive from up on the balcony.

“Doesn’t it just? Nothing like some screams and fire to make a day.”

Sunset tensed, realizing only now that the brimstone smell was not coming from down on the plaza but from behind her. She turned around to tell the intruder off, but stopped cold when she came to face the creature: A red demon with leathery wings, easily seven feet tall and looking down at her with an unsettling grin.

“Who…” She frowned as her voice cracked and started again, channeling all her anger and frustration. “Who are you?”

The demon actually seemed to grow a bit from that and grinned wider, leaning forward slightly. “That’s the thousand Bit question, isn’t it? Why don’t you guess?” It pulled its hands apart in front of itself, gathering magic to create the illusion of a stylized sun, half of it a warm yellow while the other half was a healthy red.

“W-what do you… no. I’m supposed to be an alicorn, not some kind of… monster!” Sunset watched in horror as the yellow side of her cutie mark started to burst into flames from the bottom, the yellow turning into into a sadistic shade of red that made her skin burn just from looking at it.

“An alicorn? You?” The demon started to laugh, rearing her head back. “You are selfish, short-tempered and have been lashing out at your fellow ponies for years, and now you make life for these humans a living hell. I can assure you, the differences between us are purely physical.” Before Sunset could reply, the demon spread her wings and charged at her with a manic grin, arms stretched out and body wreathed in fire. “And when I’m done we will really be one and the same!”

~~~~~

Sunset sat up with a gasp, eyes wide in the darkness of her room. Her heart was pumping in her chest and her body felt soaked in cold sweat. Her blanket was too warm and stuffy, like she was burning alive. Or maybe she really was. She shuddered as the details of her dream came back to her far too vividly.

She slowly sank back onto her pillow, hands over her face as she tried to calm down. Sleep was definitely out of the question for the night. She waited a few minutes until the worst of the shaking stopped, then stood up and started to get dressed for the day. She moved around the apartment as quietly as she could so the filly wouldn’t wake up, making her way into the kitchen.

A squeeze bottle of pancake mix was still waiting for her in the door of her fridge, something she usually kept for weekends. For a teenager living alone without a stable income, it was as fancy as breakfast would get. Just what she needed as a pick-me-up.

She reached out to take the bottle, but pulled back as her stomach tightened painfully and the dream echoed through her mind again. Eating pancakes after her past actions and life choices had been thrown in her face like that just felt wrong in a way nothing had felt wrong to her in a long time. Even if it was all just in her head, they would probably taste like ash to her.

If she was lucky. She didn’t care to find out what brimstone tasted like.

~~~~~

Twilight rolled over and pulled the blanket around herself, trying to block out the sounds of dishes and sizzling oil. The unsettling feeling of her weird new ears not twitching woke her up for good, however, and she rubbed her eyes with a sigh.

“Finally awake, huh? Just in time, I’ll have to leave soon.” Twilight tensed and curled up under her blanket at the sound of Sunset’s voice, only slowly pulling it back to look in the direction the voice had come from. The older mare was sitting at the table, eating a sandwich and staring back at Twilight with a neutral expression.

“I made some pancakes. Only had enough mix left for one of us, though.” She pointed at a stack of pancakes on the other side of the table, right in front of the only other chair she seemed to own.

Twilight said nothing, just looking between her and the pancakes. Even from over by the couch the stack looked big enough that both of them wouldn’t go hungry until lunch at least.

Sunset waited a moment for an answer, then shrugged when none came. “I also left you the laptop open… if you’re going to enroll at that school you’ll have to know at least some basics about this world. History, pop culture, stuff like that.” She pointed to the old laptop where she had copied several dozen Wikipedia pages into documents and disabled the internet, then hid some of her more personal files and triple-checked that the internet was disabled just to be sure. She wasn’t that stupid, even at her worst. “It’s probably not all completely accurate, but it’s not like they’ll expect a girl your age to know all the historical dates and names of random political figures. Don’t go snooping around my stuff, don’t pull out the charger - that’s this cable here - or the laptop will turn itself off after a while, and don’t go snooping around my stuff.”

Twilight kept staring at her silently, pulling the blanket closer to herself again.

Sunset groaned and stood up, putting on her leather jacket and grabbing her backpack. “Whatever. Just don’t go outside and try not to burn the apartment down. I’ll try to be back as soon as I can.”

Twilight waited a minute after Sunset closed the door behind herself, then stood up and slowly made her way over to the table, dragging the blanket along against the morning chill. She poked the strange machine with the glowing screen a few times, then turned her attention to the pancakes and sat down. Looking around the table she found a butter knife and a mostly full jar of what seemed to be some strange, brown spread.

Twilight opened the jar and took a sniff, then peered inside and grimaced. It looked like somepony had taken a pound of perfectly good chocolate and made it wrong in every possible way. She pushed the jar as far away as her arm could reach and turned back to the pancakes, wondering just how she was supposed to eat even half of them, not to mention without syrup.

~~~~~

Fluttershy froze, stopping near the statue in front of the school. Sunset Shimmer was standing at the bottom of the short flight of stairs up to the school’s entrance, leaning against the right railing with her head tilted up and her eyes closed, looking almost peaceful. It wasn’t her pose that made Fluttershy nervous, though, so much that Sunset was standing in the exact spot Fluttershy usually took when she was looking for volunteers for the animal shelter… something she had hoped to do again this morning. She looked to the left corner of the stairs that was occupied by a trashcan, then back to Sunset.

Sunset tilted her head back down and opened her eyes, immediately spotting her and smiling. Most people would have compared her smile to that of a shark, but Fluttershy liked sharks. Sharks could be friendly and wonderful animals if you were careful and considerate with them.

She swallowed nervously and hesitantly stepped up to the other girl, clutching her stack of flyers to her chest like a shield, not that it ever helped much. “Uhm… S-Sunset?”

“Yes, Fluttershy?” Sunset’s voice sounded unusually calm, almost serene with a sting that was very well hidden. It made her only more nervous, causing her to stammer and fumble.

“I-I uhm, that is… y-you’re kind of standinginmyspot.” She squeaked.

Sunset looked around herself in mock surprise as if she’d only just now noticed where she was. “Why what do you know, I am.” She leaned forward, her smile growing slightly. “You know, it always seems to me that you’re scared of going up to people and talking to them. It’s probably why you always stand here and hope for students to come up to you, isn’t it?”

Fluttershy looked away, fidgeting. It wasn’t much of a secret, but it still stung to be called out on it like that. “U-uhm… maybe?”

“And I might be taking a shot in the dark there, but I’d say you’re also scared of me, yes?” Sunset leaned even closer, far too close for Fluttershy’s liking.

“T-terrified,” She squeaked out, shivering slightly and clutching her flyers even tighter.

Sunset suddenly pulled back, grinning. “Wonderful. You know, I had an idea for an experiment and I’m just dying to know the answer. It’s easy, really. I’m going to stand right here, until either class starts… or you’ve managed to hand out all those flyers to people. Or of course you could just head inside and disappoint all those poor little animals at the shelter.” She pouted, giving Fluttershy a strange look of faux disappointment.

Fluttershy stared up at her in confusion. “W-what?”

Sunset frowned, crossing her arms. “I thought it’s rather simple. You can either stand here, right next to me, or you can pony up and actually talk to people. Clock is ticking.” She pointed towards the street where the first groups of students were already arriving after the few lonely early risers.

Fluttershy turned and fidgeted, looking back at Sunset and wincing at the raised eyebrow the other girl gave her. She gulped and pulled up her shoulders, then hesitantly stepped into the way of one group of students.

~~~~~

It took way longer and way more conversations than Fluttershy was comfortable with. Surprisingly enough however, to herself the most, she did not give up and run inside. In fact, she couldn’t help but feel good about herself, despite every part of her body being tense and sweat running down her back towards the end.

The five-minute bell rang out just as she finally got back to the waiting Sunset Shimmer, looking up at the girl nervously. “I-I did it. I talked to all those students and I-I got them to take flyers a-and oh gosh…” She shivered and tried to take deep breaths to calm down.

Sunset simply watched her, raising an eyebrow at the last flyer clutched to her chest. “And what’s that, then?”

Fluttershy felt another shiver down her back and took a deep gulp of air, closing her eyes as she jerked her arm forward, holding out the flyer. “Pleasetakeaflyer? The local animal shelter would, uhm, appreciate your help. Probably.”

She felt something tug at the flyer several times before she finally managed to open her tense fingers and let go of it. Opening her eyes nervously she saw Sunset Shimmer already heading up the stairs into the school, stuffing the flyer carelessly into her bag and glancing over her shoulder down at her. “Whatever. Good job, I guess.”

Fluttershy let out a long sigh as she finally managed to relax, slumping against the railing. She stayed there for a few minutes, catching her breath and trying to calm down until the bell made her jump up again. “Oh no, I’m going to be late for class!”

~~~~~

Twilight groaned, hanging in her chair with a teaspoon sticking out of her mouth and holding her stomach. An empty plate stood on the table in front of her, next to an empty jar, every last dreg scooped out.

“Too much… chocolate…”

Author's Note

And there you have it. Sunset's big turning point... or something like it, at least. Don't worry, she won't suddenly lose her snark (or any of it, at all, ever), but it's a start.

I will probably make a blog post about it sometime in the next days, but if you have any ideas for Slice of Life chapters (things that might be interesting to see) feel free to send them to me. While I have the relevant parts of the story pretty much planned out, I'm drawing blanks when it comes to prompts for the less relevant slice of life chapters that I'm sure many of you want to see eventually.

Also, I want to thank all of you for getting this story into the Feature Box, and earning it my best rating yet (88:0 Upvotes, at the time of this Author's Note). Here's to hoping I can keep the story at this quality and without too many long delays.

Shady Business

“Alright Shimmer, what’s your deal?”

Sunset flinched as the rainbow-haired girl slammed her locker door shut for her, glaring her down. She steadied herself and met the glare with a calm smile. “I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean, Rainbow Dash. But please, elaborate.”

Rainbow blinked and paused, confused for a second before she shook it off. “Don’t play dumb with me, Shimmer.”

Wouldn’t dream of it. Sunset bit back the comment; picking a fight with Rainbow Dash was probably the fastest way to get a broken nose. Some days the girl seemed to have a worse temper than she did.

“What did you do with Fluttershy this morning?” Rainbow stepped forward, trying to be intimidating. Sunset had to admit that it worked somewhat, probably because she knew that the athlete could trounce her if she really wanted to.

“Why, I only tried to help her promote her animal shelter.” She kept up her smile, taking a step back as casually as she could. “I didn’t think that would make you so mad, though. Is it because I helped your friend when you couldn’t be bothered to?”

Rainbow grabbed the collar of her blouse, pulling her close and making her wonder if she hadn’t pushed a bigger button than she thought. “Don’t you dare compare yourself to me. What’s your goal, huh? Are you trying to use her for one of your ploys? Because if you are, I swear I’m gonna–“

“Gonna what? Pick a fight with me on school grounds? If you want to give them a show, you better do it fast before one of the teachers arrive.” Sunset gestured around at the small crowd of onlookers. She smirked as Rainbow let go and pulled back again with an angry glare. “Thought so.”

Rainbow glared at her for a couple seconds longer, then huffed and turned around, stomping off angrily. Sunset took a deep breath to calm down, looking after her as the students dispersed again to make their way to class. She was actually rather glad that Rainbow hadn’t taken her up on the offer. The girl was strong, and she really didn’t need yet another visit to the Principals’ office to draw attention to herself, even if it was as the victim.

Stepping into the room she paused as every conversation seemed to abruptly cut off. Two dozen students staring at her in silence were rather giving her the creeps and she couldn’t keep from rubbing her arm nervously as she made her way to her desk at the back of the room.

As soon as she’d sat down the whispers started up again around her, just barely loud enough that she could make out a few single words. Sunset tried to listen in for a minute, but quickly groaned and decided to just give up, rubbing her temple and actually hoping for once that the teacher would arrive soon.

~~~~~

Sunset grumbled to herself as she fumbled with the keys to open the door to her apartment, stomping inside and tossing her bag into a corner before slamming the door shut behind her. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, then let out a long and heartfelt groan of frustration.

“…how was school?”

She opened her eyes and blinked in confusion before remembering the girl that was now living in her apartment. She rubbed the bridge of her nose to keep from blowing up again, gritting her teeth. “Oh, just wonderful. You’ll be happy to hear that apparently I’m not a bully after all.”

“Uhm… You’re not?”

“Well, I was, but that reputation seems to be thoroughly shot. I swear, every time I think I’ve started to understand humans…” Sunset stomped over to the kitchen, pouring herself a glass of tap water and downing it in one. “I decide to do some constructive hazing for once, you know, to change things up once in a while, and they all look at me like I’ve grown a second head and act like I’ve turned into all three founders at once. It’s like they don’t have any standards at all for what is considered good or bad.” She set her glass down and turned around again to glare at Twilight. “Between that and rumor getting out about how I care for my ‘little sister’, people might as well call me–“

She froze, staring at the younger girl who was doing her best to look innocent while keeping her body between Sunset and the living room table. She wasn’t anywhere large enough to hide the various bits and pieces that equaled about one laptop’s worth of electrical components, laid out over several sheets of paper full of notes.

Sunset opened her mouth, then closed it again, left eye twitching. She stared for a moment longer, then turned away and silently made her way past the table and towards the bedroom door.

Twilight watched her nervously, fidgeting in her chair. “W-where are you going?”

Sunset paused at the door, turning her head to glare at Twilight. “I’m going to bed. Maybe when I wake up again I won’t have the urge to kill everyone around me.”

Twilight gulped and nodded, watching as Sunset went into the bedroom and slammed the door shut before locking it. There was the sound of angry stomping and shuffling for several minutes, then some very loud cursing she didn’t understand as the key turned again and Sunset stepped back out.

“Get yourself ready, we’re going out.”

~~~~~

Sunset leaned back in her seat, looking around the nearly empty vehicle before glancing at her charge again. Twilight’s eyes were glued to the window, watching the buildings and people outside pass by and doing the best to take everything in at once.

She stared at the little girl for a moment, then rolled her eyes and tapped her on the shoulder lightly. “Stop staring like that, you’re starting to look weird.”

Twilight turned her head a bit, still glancing out the window every few seconds. “But… there’s so many things out there! And most of it looks kind of like back in– back home, but also completely different!”

“Yes yes, it’s your first road trip in a new world. Just try not to make that so obvious to everyone else.” Sunset rolled her eyes again, slumping back against her seat. “People are going to think you’re even weirder than you actually are, and then they’re going to think I’m weird for running around with you. At the very least keep it down until we got what we’re going out for.”

“…okay.” Twilight sunk back into her own seat, still glancing outside cautiously every couple seconds. “What are we going out for anyway? You still didn’t tell me-“

“You’ll see when we get there.” Sunset cut her off gruffly. She noticed the girl shrink down a bit more and sighed, looking for some way to change the topic before her ‘sister’ would start crying in public. “You’re actually taking this trip pretty well so far. I didn’t think you’d follow me into this thing without fussing.”

Twilight blushed lightly, looking down at the floor under her feet and from there over the seat in front of her, inspecting everything. “This is one of those ‘cars’, right? I read the article about them, so I know how they work. I thought they were supposed to be really expensive though?” She looked up at Sunset questioningly.

Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Technically, cars are the smaller ones. This one is called a bus, but that’s mostly semantics, really. You pay for riding in it, not for the whole bus.” She paused, giving Twilight a scrutinizing look. “Pretty astute observations for a little kid. How old did you say you are, again?”

Twilight looked down again. “Uhm… seven. I’m sorry, I just thought…”

“Yeesh, it was supposed to be a compliment, kid. Take it, you’re not gonna get a lot of them from me.” Sunset leaned back, crossing her arms and staring ahead again. “Is that one of those ‘Magic Kindergarten’ tics? Makes me almost glad I never went there.”

“Uh-huh…” Twilight nodded slowly, looking down for a moment before glancing up again. “You didn’t go to Magic Kindergarten? I thought every unicorn goes there.”

“Yeah, no, you want a story time you can go to the library.” Sunset paused, then frowned a little deeper than before, furrowing her brow. “Wait a second… the article on cars was somewhere three quarters down the list of files I left you. Did you read them all out of order?”

Twilight blushed again, twiddling her fingers – something she found to be far more interesting and therapeutic than doing the same with hooves had ever been. “No, I, uhm… I just read a lot.”

Sunset stared at her for an uncomfortably long moment, trying to find some sign that she was lying. After a while she turned away, staring straight ahead again and grumbling under her breath. “Another prodigy. Great…”

~~~~~

“So, uhm… are you going to tell me where we're going now?” Twilight looked around, staying as close to Sunset as she dared without getting the older girl mad at her again.

“This is the Upper Canterlot shopping district,” Sunset answered curtly. She kept walking for a bit, then sighed at the confused look Twilight gave her from the side. “The school and my apartment are in Lower Canterlot. This is… the part of town for the wealthy people, basically. I don’t usually shop here, but there’s something we’re not going to get anywhere else.”

She put a hand on Twilight’s shoulder to stop her, turning her around to face one of the stores, a quaint shop on the ground floor of a two-story building. The shop windows showed shelves full of books, fancy pens and other high-quality writing implements, while cursive letters across the door’s glass pane proclaimed the shop’s name as “Thornton’s Books & Stationary”.

“Now I know it doesn’t look like anything interesting, but…” Sunset paused, looking down at the wide-eyed expression of wonder on the younger girl’s face. “Oh, right, books and all that. Don’t get yourself too hyped up, we’re mostly gonna buy textbooks.” She trailed off as the expression on Twilight’s face seemed to somehow get even more excited, turning back to the store and muttering under her breath. “Yeah, can’t imagine why you would’ve gotten bullied in school.”

Twilight didn’t seem to have heard, already rushing through the door, making the little bell over it chime loudly. Sunset let out a quiet groan, rubbing the bridge of her nose with two fingers before following – pausing only to take note once again of how physically satisfying some simple human customs could be.

It took her a good two minutes to find Twilight again, the girl having made her way to a small corner between shelves at the back of the store, looking through a shelf full of required and recommended textbooks the various schools of the surrounding area used. Sunset was just about to pull her away from them when she heard a familiar voice from behind her.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone your age get this excited about textbooks.”

Twilight blinked and finally tore her eyes away from the rows of book, turning around to the slim young man in a casual suit who was standing behind Sunset, giving her a friendly grin. He had dark grey skin, short, pale cyan hair and piercing ice blue eyes. A small pendant of a pair of books, with a stylized wisp of green fire on the cover of the top one, hung around his neck.

Sunset sighed and stepped aside slightly to give them a better view of each other. “Twilight, this is Thornton. He’s the owner of this store and the one we need if we want to get you ready for school by Monday. Thornton, this is Twilight Sparkle, my sister.”

Thornton raised one eyebrow slightly at Sunset, still smiling. “I wasn’t aware you even had a sister.”

“Now you are.” Sunset said, meeting his gaze without so much as blinking.

Thornton held the stare for a moment, then turned back to Twilight as if nothing had happened. “Wonderful! So what can I do for the little sister of my favorite customer? Textbooks? Notebooks? Fresh folders to fill? Writing implements? If we don’t carry it, we can order it, just say the word.”

“Yes, yes, all of that.” Sunset pushed him away a step, looking around the aisle before leaning in. “But that’s for later. We’re not here to be buzzkills.”

Thornton straightened up, his smile fading for a colder, more calculating look to replace it. “Is that so? And you think your little sister can keep a secret?”

Sunset glanced back at the girl in question who was watching them and looking confused and slightly intimidated by now. “If she can’t, that will be my problem long before it’ll be yours. She’s pretty smart though. Either way, I’m vouching for her.”

Without warning Thornton’s grin returned in full force as he grabbed one of them by the wrist with each hand and began to drag them through the store. “Brilliant. Come along then, you two. I think I got a new shipment of pens in the back that would be just right for you.” He led them around the desk with the register and the bored-looking teenager manning it, through a door into the back of the building and then through another locked door partially hidden behind a couple of crates of stock. He closed and locked the door behind them before switching on the light, revealing a mostly empty room with a desk in one corner, a professional photography corner set up in another corner and various printers and other devices along the remaining wall.

“Well then…” Thornton pulled over the office chair from behind the desk, sitting down in it and steepling his fingers as he looked at the two girls with a relaxed and confident smile. “Let’s talk about what we can do for you, and what you can do for us.”

Author's Note

Ended this chapter a bit earlier than originally planned so you guys don't have to wait another two days. As an added bonus, now you can suggest another slice of life scene or two for the next chapter before Sunset and Twilight head home again.

The chapter after the next one is going to be an intermission. Who wants to see some filly Sunset? (Disclaimer: cuteness of filly Sunset may vary)

Thornton's name and design are a reference to another fic by another author. That's all I'm saying for now.

Shopping Spree

Sunset stared down at the young man impassively for several seconds before rolling her eyes with a huff. “So we’re doing it this way, again?”

“Please, Miss Shimmer. I have a reputation to uphold.” Thornton raised an eyebrow, still smiling confidently. “It’s quite easy. We have something you need, so you’ll give us what we want.”

Sunset glared at him for another moment before her mouth twitched up and she quickly turned away. “Stars, you’re incorrigible! Is everyone in your family like this?”

“Most of them have some quirk or another. It’s what makes life fun. It’s not like we’re trying to be nameless drones.” Thornton smirked, eyes sparkling with mirth as he watched her. “Now, shall we discuss the terms of your surrender?”

Sunset sighed and jerked her thumb back at Twilight. “I need proper identification for my sister. Before Monday.” She raised an eyebrow. “Is that going to be a problem?”

Thornton rubbed his chin, frowning lightly. “It might be? It’s not impossible, of course, but I’m definitely going to have to pull some strings and grease some palms.”

“Uhm… excuse me?” Twilight piped up from behind Sunset, looking at them nervously as she rubbed her arm again. “I’m sorry, but what’s going on? Are we in trouble?”

“You didn’t tell her, then? Good to hear you still keep to the important rules.” He turned to the younger girl, giving her a wide smile. “Well then, little lady, let me enlighten you. I am a part of the Mesis family, an interconnected clan of people working key positions all throughout the country if not the world. We specialize in business dealings of all kinds, giving people what they need for the right price without having to go through all the… more legal channels..”

Twilight’s eyes widened slightly and she stepped back. “You mean we’re doing something illegal? Am I going to be a criminal now? I don’t wanna go to jail!” She looked between the other two people in the room in panic, shrinking down.

“Well now, it’s nothing quite that horrible. If you don’t tell, nobody will even know.” Thornton kicked off and rode his chair back behind the desk, turning to the PC set up there and quickly hitting a couple keys before pressing enter with a flourish. “Maybe this here will convince you.”

Music began to filter out of small speakers hidden in the corners of the room right under the ceiling. Sunset blinked, then groaned as she watched Thornton get up and step forward in time with the beat. “Oh you gotta be kidding me…”

Thornton smirked, moving around Twilight before pulling the nervous girl in close and guiding her towards the photograph corner.

I admit my family's not pure and innocent
And some folks might even call me, well, a crook
But you'll find in modern times
Things just aren't black and white
And besides I always liked the grey-green look
Don't you?

He pulled back with the last word, leaving Twilight on the seat as he picked up a camera and went to work snapping several shots. Before the girl had fully managed to rub the spots from her eyes he was already back at his desk, plugging in the camera.

What we do might sometimes seem to you like magic
I assure you, it is skill and earnest work
And milady, please don't laugh
But we do it on behalf
Of the people who have nowhere else to turn

He turned back to Twilight, picking up a couple of pictures of other people as props as he made his way through the song.

Those poor unfortunate souls
They're lost, off course
One feels buried under problems
One is running out of time
So we help them,
But of course
Those poor unfortunate souls
It's sad, but true
They need money, they need favors
It's what makes this world go round
And we have both
Yes, we do

He pulled Twilight over to Sunset, getting an annoyed roll of her eyes from the older girl as he popped up between them, putting an arm on their shoulders each.

Now this service has its price
We've had bailers once or twice
So we raked 'em – just a little – 'cross the coals
But I know you'll understand
If we take dollar, dime and cent
From you poor, unfortunate souls~

Sunset waited a few beats after the music faded out, then raised an eyebrow at him. “You done now?”

“No sense of drama! Or theatre!” Thornton threw up his arms in mock exasperation, then turned to Twilight again. “What about you, little lady? Do you understand what our business is about now?”

“I, uhm… kind of? I think so, at least.” Twilight tilted her head, a mildly confused look on her face.

Sunset smirked. “By the way, Thornton, congratulations. You just butchered a Disney classic for the one girl in the whole nation who’s never heard of The Little Mermaid.”

Thornton froze, his eye twitching a bit before he turned around. “Bah! What in the blazes are you teaching the kid?!”

Sunset bit her lip, then snorted and giggled, following him as he stomped back to his desk. She leaned over with a smirk, giving a mock pout. “Oh no, did I hurt your precious wittle feelings? Or did I hit your masculinity when I criticized that fabulous little broadway offshoot?”

Thornton glowered down at his screen. “One day I’m going to stop holding back against you and you will be helplessly outmatched in this battle of wits.”

“Sure, you keep telling yourself that.” Sunset smirked, then straightened up again. “But as fun as this is, we’re here for a reason. Did you actually get a decent picture during that little stunt of yours?”

“What do you take me for?” Thornton huffed and glanced over at Twilight. “So, how old is she?”

Twilight blinked, then straightened up a bit at the sudden attention. “I-I’m se-”

“She’s twelve.” Sunset cut her off. “Looks a bit younger, sounds way older, it evens out.” She shot Twilight a glare to make sure the girl got the message before turning her attention back to Thornton.

“Uh-huh, whatever you say.” Thornton gave a disinterested shrug. “I assume the address is the same as yours… date of birth?”

They both looked over at Twilight again, who squirmed under the attention. “Uhm… forty-fifth of Spring.”

“So that would be the twentieth of…” Thornton froze for a second before he resumed typing. “Huh… that’s interesting.”

Twilight shot an unsure look at Sunset. “Why? What’d I say?”

Sunset rolled her eyes. “Nothing important, I’ll tell you later. It’s just a coincidence, Thornton.”

“I’m sure it is.” Thornton muttered, then shook his head and spun his chair towards a printer as it started to work noisily, pulling a sheet of paper out as soon as the machine let go of it.

He held up the paper, showing a colored print of a child’s passport. “There we go. If I can’t get the real deal to you in time, you can just say you’ve misplaced it and give them this. It’s not really the important part anyway.” Sunset made to reach for it and quickly pulled it away. “Ah ah ah, what did I say? Payment in advance, please, I know that you have it.”

Sunset sighed and reached into her jacket’s inner pocket, pulling out a small silk pouch. She carefully shook out a clean-cut ruby, holding it between two fingers. “This should cover everything and then some. Deal?”

Thornton took the gem, carefully turning it between his fingers with a light frown. “...I’m sorry, but I need at least a coin with that. Not that I don’t trust you, but neither me nor you are expert jewelers. You’ll get the rest on your account, as always.”

Sunset blanched, staring at him. “You… what?! You can’t be serious! This is a solid ruby!”

“I said I’m not an expert, not that I’m blind.” Thornton rolled his eyes, dropping the print-out on the desk. “Do you have any idea just what you’re asking us to do? The papers aren’t the problem, I could fix those in a couple hours if I had to. But you need a paper trail, a digital one. And since you need it by the end of the weekend, I will have to get a bunch of government workers to do something for me before they leave for the weekend. Family or not, do you have any idea how difficult that is?” He shook his head, taking a deep breath before holding out his hand. “The gem and one coin. Like I said, you’ll get what’s left over to your account.”

Sunset glared at him for a moment, then grumbled and reached into her jacket again, pulling out a gold coin. “One coin… And I get the stuff Twilight needs as well as a grand in cash.” She narrowed her eyes. “And don’t give me crap about how that’s not enough, I checked before I came here. The value of gold went up again.”

Thornton glared at her, ignoring the coin to keep up their stare duel. After a moment he slowly cracked a smile, however, grabbing Sunset’s hand to shake it and relieve her of the piece of gold. “Always a pleasure to do business with you, Sunny-jam.”

Sunset groaned, then glared at him. “Can I make this 900 bucks and a punch to your face?”

Thornton grinned, flipping the coin once before catching it. “Sorry, a deal’s a deal. And you really should cut down on those Japonese comics, they’re making you violent.”

“Implying that I ever wasn’t.” Sunset smirked, her leg twitching and making Thornton flinch. “Heh, still got it.”

“Uhm… Sunset?” Twilight walked up to them, looking between them and fidgeting nervously. “I’m kind of confused… Are you two friends? Because you’ve been acting all mean with each other, but you’re smiling? I mean, sometimes at least.”

Thornton grinned and moved forward to put an arm around Sunset again. “Are you kidding? Sunny Smiles and me aren’t just friends, we’re practically besties.”

Sunset grimaced like she’d just tasted curdled milk. “Sad as it is, he’s technically right. I haven’t really put much effort into… socializing. And loathe as I am to admit it, Thornton is fun to talk to, in small doses.” She turned her head to glower at him. “And you’re going to delete any recordings of me saying this, or it’s not the shins I kick you next time.”

“Awww, you’re no fun.” Thornton didn’t even try to look disappointed, pulling away and prancing back to the desk to open one of probably several hidden compartments, pulling out a bundle of paper bills and counting off one thousand. “But as much as I enjoy our banter, I do have a business to run. I’ll send someone over with the finished ID on Sunday, if I can.” He swept around Sunset, pushing the bills into her pocket and pushing a surprised Twilight out of the room ahead of him. “I’m sure my minions can help you with the more mundane items on your list.”

Sunset pulled out the wad of bills again to count them, walking after them back into the public area of the shop. “You mean your employees?”

“Potato, potahto.” Thornton chuckled. “I’ll let them know to put what you buy on my tab, so try not to buy out my shop. I’ll see you around, Sunny-bunny.”

Sunset growled, shaking her fist after him as he laughed and ran towards the back of the shop. “One of these days someone’s gonna put you in the hospital for that, and it’s probably gonna be me!”

~~~~~

Sunset stared up at the massive building of the Upper Canterlot Mall for a moment before turning her head to look down at the girl next to her. “Now, remember what I told you?”

“Don’t gape or freak out, don’t run off, don’t ask dumb or obvious questions in public.” Twilight recited and Sunset had to raise an eyebrow at the factual tone and neutral face the girl was keeping up.

“Good. Human malls are, quite frankly, completely overwhelming. I don’t know how humans manage to just take them in stride, because I still have trouble doing that.” She shook her head. “Anyway, I don’t think anyone will actually bat an eye at some little girl getting excited about toy stores or whatever… but seriously, don’t run off. It could take hours to find you, and I really don’t want to have to let them call you out over the P.A. systems. Oh yeah, they got speakers everywhere, so don’t freak out if there’s suddenly announcements coming from the walls or ceilings.”

Twilight blinked in surprise, then frowned and took up her neutral expression again. “I am treating this as a scientific study. I’m going to learn more about this native culture and I’m not going to let myself get overwhelmed by some lights or noises. As long as I don’t draw attention from everypony, I mean everyhuman-”

“Actually, they just say ‘everyone’ or ‘everybody’. There aren’t really any other sentient species to distinguish from.”

“Right, everyone then.” Twilight took a deep breath, then let it out in a huff. “Can we just go in and get this over with? Besides, you kind of oversold these malls. I mean, ‘a small town’s worth of commerce crammed into one building’? It’s doesn’t look anywhere that big.”

Sunset smirked, taking Twilight’s hand and moving towards the entrance from where they’d paused by the side of the parking lot. “Sure, you keep telling yourself that when we get in. It might just work.”

The automatic doors slid open as they approached and Sunset led Twilight inside, feeling the girl grip her hand tighter immediately. The mall was rather empty for an early Saturday afternoon, which meant that they could move without fighting their way through. Humans in all shades of the rainbow were milling about and Sunset could spot at least three cliques that together could maybe bring up enough brain for five minutes of engaging conversation. She spotted a flash of purple curls in one of the groups and rolled her eyes; ten minutes then, maybe.

Feeling Twilight press into her side mercifully distracted her from having to think about Rarity. The filly had actually managed to somewhat keep up her poker face, pressing against Sunset while trying to look like she wasn’t trying to hide. It was hard to hide her shivering from Sunset, however, or the fact that Twilight was clinging to her hand hard enough to make the girl’s knuckles turn white (or light pink, at least).

Sunset forced down a scowl, reminding herself that Twilight wasn’t as old and mature as her, and that even she herself had barely kept herself from finding a place to hide the first time she had come here. Instead she gave the hand a light squeeze to get Twilight’s attention. “Come on. You wanted to get this over with, yes? Just try to ignore everything else, it gets surprisingly easy after a couple minutes.”

Twilight nodded quietly and kept herself pressed to Sunset’s side as they navigated the mall, staring around at everything with wide eyes.Sunset did her best not to keep them in the middle of the crowd for too long, slipping them into the first clothes store she saw and letting go of Twilight’s hand once they’d reached the section for girls of whatever the little girl’s approximate human age was.

“Alright, I’ll get you everything you actually need while you… look through the shirts or something. Don’t break anything and don’t make a mess and everyone should probably ignore you. If you manage not to cause any more chaos you can pick some things you like, too.” Sunset lightly pushed her towards a circle of shirt hangers. She was not going to have the kid actually try to pick whole outfits for herself; from what she’d seen even actual human kids her age weren’t trusted with that, so she really didn’t feel bad about any perceived slights in that. Hopefully looking at all the glaringly colorful things they tried to sell children would keep the kid busy for a while.

~~~~~

“Can I have this one?”

Sunset didn’t even look up from where she was comparing skirt lengths and sizes. “Is it one of those funny shirts?”

“Yes! It’s-”

“Is it still going to be funny in five minutes?”

“...”

“You’re going to thank me when you’re older. About five minutes older, in this case.”

~~~~~

“How about this one?”

“Pinkie Pie wouldn’t wear that and I’ve seen her cosplay an epileptic attack.”

“...so if Pinkie Pie is a bad example and she wouldn’t wear this, it’s a point in its favor, right?”

“Nice try, but no.”

~~~~~

“Here, try these on. Changing booths are over there, you know how curtains work. Hop hop, we have a bunch of these to go through still.”

~~~~~

“...is that Nyancat?”

“...”

“Nyyyooooooot in my house…”

~~~~~

“Another o- AUGH! My eyes!”

“See? The second one wasn’t that bad.”

“It burns! And sparkles!”

~~~~~

“Why do I even have to wear these?”

“Because running around without underwear is the fastest way to get just about every kind of attention we don’t want.”

“It itches. And pinches.”

“You’ll get used to it in a few days. Be glad you don’t have to wear a bra yet. And that you don’t have any fur under it. Because for some reason humans do get fur in the worst places, Harmony knows why.”

~~~~~

“What did I say about Nyancat?”

“It’s Taco Cat. That’s different.”

“...fine, I guess. Now go change into this outfit, I need to know if it fits.”

~~~~~

“How does this…?”

“Oh right, zippers. Ponies don’t use them for obvious reasons. Here, let me help you.”

~~~~~

“...”

Sunset stared down at the shirt that simply said “*YOU’RE”, nodded once and patted Twilight’s head before turning around again.

~~~~~

“Wait, a second, where did you even get that?” Sunset blinked as Twilight came out of the changing booth again. “This store doesn’t even sell lab coats, Twilight. Why did you even get that?”

Twilight huffed and straightened up, pulling the little clean white lab coat closed over her chest.
“Science always finds a way. Besides, I think it suits me, thank you very much.”
“Science always finds a way. Besides, I think it suits me, thank you very… wait, how do you know my name?”

Twilight paused and blinked.

Sunset blinked.

Twilight blinked.

Sunset slowly turned her head to look from Twilight to the taller Twilight standing behind her in the same type of labcoat, then turned it forward again and closed her eyes, rubbing her forehead with a long-suffering look. “Well, horseapples.”

Author's Note

Shout-out to the sadly discontinued story A Broken Mirror, which features a cameo by everyone's favorite mafia weirdo.

Let me know in the comments if you want more musical numbers or if you'd rather do without them.

~~Now enjoy this cliffhanger and see you in 2021.~~