Two Truths and a Lie

When Starlight Glimmer finally regained consciousness she had almost forgotten that she wasn't in Equestria anymore. She half expected to wake up in her own bed in Princess Twilight's castle in Ponyville. She would wake up when the sun started to overtake the room thanks to the large windows that adorned the castle. The first thing she would see would be one of her kites, she had specifically put them on the walls in a way that no matter how she slept that night, she would always wake up to one of her kites.

What a great way to wake up. It certainly was part of the reason why waking up in Morning Dew and Rondache's bedroom for her wasn't as thrilling, although it still was a nice place to sleep.

When she opened her eyes, she briefly couldn't remember where she was or what had happened to her before she had fallen asleep. Even after slowly going over the events in her mind, she was still incredibly confused.

How is it possible for both Sunset and I to pass out and get stolen away when there was nobody else was around?

Was that strange man from the diner the culprit behind all of this?

Where am I? And where's Sunset Shimmer?

None of those questions had any obvious answers, at least none that she could gather from a quick glance around the room.

The room was small, much closer to what she would deem a closet as opposed to an actual bedroom. There was only room for a small cot that seemed to be bolted to the floor. The uncomfortable cot was what she had woken up on, seemingly unharmed from where she fell outside on the ground after leaving Diner Joes. Her clothes were still on and seemed no worse for wear and her hat was still firmly planted on top of her head.

The only other thing that appeared to be in the room was a mirror. She tried to stand up to look in the mirror, but upon standing up she immediately realized that the pressure around her right wrist wasn't just part of her imagination, it came from a pair of handcuffs that kept her attached to the cot.

She used her other hand to rub her eyes. She hoped that as soon as she opened her eyes again, this would all just be some part of strange dream that happened after eating too much food at Diner Joe's.

No such luck.

She looked around the tiny room again, now with the creeping realization that not only did she not know where she was, but she had even less of an idea about where Sunset Shimmer was, and Sunset had been with her when she went down. She hoped that wherever she was, Sunset was safer than Starlight was right now.

Footsteps suddenly broke apart her thought process and she slowly eased back onto the cot, bringing herself further and further towards the wall and away from the door, even going so far as to wrap her arms around her legs as if they would act as some shield against whatever person or monster dared to walk through the door.

In this world Starlight had no magical powers and she still lacked a lot of the range and mobility that most humans who have been in this world longer than she had, but she liked to think that she had a lot of raw will and strength. After all, the last time she was in this world she was able to kick Juniper Montage hard enough that she dropped the magic mirror. Maybe she would be able to do something similar this time should the need arise.

She heard a hand turn the doorknob and dared herself not to close her eyes, the person entering the room was inevitable, but she was more likely to be endangered if she wasn't alert when the stranger opened the door.

The door opened slowly, and a black boot stepped in first, at first Starlight drew in a deep breath as she watched the door slowly enter into her room until she noticed that the black boot was attached to a familiar body.

Sunset Shimmer.

She let herself exhale that breath she had been holding for far too long.

Thank Goodness. I wasn't sure I would be able to get out of here to find her, but she found me!

“Starlight! I knew it! I was so worried this door would lead me to something far worse,” Sunset said with a sigh of relief.

“Where are we?”

“I'm not sure,” Sunset admitted. “I woke up in a room kind of like yours except I wasn't handcuffed to the bed. I've been wandering around trying to figure out what's going on, but so far I don't recognize everything. It's like we are in some kind of strange laboratory, but there aren't any of those within the Canterlot city limits and I don't feel like we've been out that long, ya know?”

Starlight nodded in agreement.

Sunset walked over and took a bobby pin out of her hair.

“Don't worry, I've got this. I've had plenty of alone time to learn random stuff like this,” she said with a wry smile as she used the bobby pin to pick away at the handcuff lock. After a few seconds of controlled wiggling, the handcuffs practically popped open and Starlight quickly took them off her wrist and massaged it for a few seconds to get rid of that feeling that there was something holding her wrist.

Sunset helped her up off the cot and they made a break for the doorway which was easily accessible in the closet sized bedroom. As soon as they both stepped outside, Sunset immediately shut and locked the door behind her, hoping that whoever came looking for Starlight next wouldn't be immediately thrown off to find an unlocked and wide open door that led to a Starlight Glimmer-less room.

“Where to?” Starlight whispered.

Sunset grabbed her friend's hand and led her down the hallway at a brisk pace.

Then down another hallway.

And another after that.

All of the hallways looked exactly the same though. The entire building looked like it was built as a gigantic metallic looking underground bunker with doors lining the hallway. Nothing about the walls or doors had any distinguishing features and there were no stairs or posters or even any indication that they had been going anywhere at all. The girls couldn't help, but feel like they had just been going around and around in circles this whole time.

It was a defeating feeling.

They rounded into another hallway, this one had a doorway at the end of it. That was a start. They looked at each other and gave a brief nod before running down the hallway as quickly as possible and opening the door with the hopes and prayers that this would lead to an exit.

Unfortunately, the door led to a much larger room much like the ones that both girls had woken up to except this one had more than just a cot and a mirror in it. It also held a large machine that had more buttons and switches than either Starlight or Sunset had ever seen in one place and next to that machine was a girl who looked like a direct copy of Starlight Glimmer except this version looked tired and angry and instead of ripped jeans, a t-shirt, a vest, and a hat, this Starlight Glimmer wore only a dingy hospital gown.

“Well, we found Starlight Glimmer,” Sunset said quietly.

The Equestrian Starlight wasted no time running towards her Earth counterpart and slid onto the ground next to her cot before taking the other version of hers hands. The other Starlight Glimmer struggled to process the situation at first, but as soon as she blinked a few times a small smile appeared on her face.

“So, he was right, you really did come here to rescue me.”

“Who was right?” Starlight asked.

The other version of her ignored her question and continued on, “I almost didn't believe him when he said that he got in contact with you and was going to bring you here. He's an idiot who thinks he is playing God so of course I wouldn't believe him, but here you are.” She reached out and touched the Equestrian Starlight's hair and then moved her hand to her face, as if in shock that she was right there in front of her in flesh and blood.

“You wouldn't believe what I've been through to find you,” Starlight said so relieved that she thought she could laugh. “I went through practically every record I could find of yours and I even talked to your friends the Dazzlings...”

The Earth Starlight frowned. “You talked to Adagio, Aria, and Sonata?”

Starlight nodded.

“And you went through my notebook and all my other files?”

Again, Starlight nodded.

“And you still wanted to rescue me? Ha! And Miss Care probably thought I was past the point of no return.”

“We don't think you're a saint,” Sunset piped up from the doorway. “Actually, you're kind of a dick. Those pranks that you and the Dazzlings pulled were uncalled for and the whole petty revenge diary is disgusting.”

“Sunset Shimmer,” Starlight said, looking at the red and yellow haired girl up and down with an evil smile. “I was going to come look for you before I was captured. Oh boy, do my friends have a grudge against you.”

Sunset raised an eyebrow, unimpressed.

“If it weren't for the fact that Abacus Cinch's payback required all of my time and attention, I would have done something to you far earlier. I had it all planned out too, I'd tell you about it, but I'm sure at some point I'm going to want to put it into motion and I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise.”

“Wow, thanks.” Sunset rolled her eyes.

“Abacus Cinch,” the Equestrian Starlight said slowly. “Adagio was telling us about your last prank to her. Did you stop the prank so suddenly because you were worried about people following you? I'm so sorry that you were followed and kept here for so long before Sunset and I were able to rescue you.”

“What? No. I stopped it because I added a 'No Index' code to the HTML of her education blog. She probably has no idea why it's not getting the amount of hits it used to and she never will.”

The human Starlight Glimmer looked so sure of herself as she said that, as if she were mentally patting herself on the back for coming up with something so sinister and she expected everyone else in the room to agree with her.

The Equestrian Starlight Glimmer did not seem impressed whatsoever, in fact, she seemed more confused than anything. She looked over at Sunset Shimmer for some help, but Sunset could only shrug in response.

“I have no idea what that means,” Starlight Glimmer admitted.

“Don't worry about it, sweetie, it just means Google can't find her website so nobody can read it anymore unless they were to specifically type in the whole URL. Just keep in mind that the other version of you is so bad ass she did things most people don't even know exist.”

“Honestly, I'm not sure that is bad ass.” The Equestrian Starlight admitted. “I mean, I found your notebook, you did a lot of things that weren't... well, ya know, nice.”

“Nice isn't a real word. People just say nice to be polite.”

“Fine. You were a raging jerk to people who ticked you off slightly or did something you didn't agree with and that got you in trouble. I mean you literally knew that you were being chased so you sent me a letter to come get you.”

“Wow, jerk alert! And you thought I was bad. You're the one being a judgey-mcjudgey pants.”

“That's... that's not even a word.” She turned back towards Sunset Shimmer. “Is it?”

“Wow, seriously? Could you be any more simple minded? You're supposed to be me! Don't tell me that they breed them stupid on whatever planet or universe or what-have-you that you came from.”

“Hey!” Sunset Shimmer interrupted. “Knock it off you two! We have no idea where we are or why any of us were taken and locked up in here. So instead of arguing about whatever comes to mind, how about we put our brains together and do something about our situation.”

“Ha! Trust me, kiddo. There's nothing you can do about this except ride it out.”

“Oh yea, and how would you know?”

“Because I lived with the guy who did this for years,” Starlight Glimmer said simply.

“What?!” Starlight and Sunset exclaimed.

“Yea, he was my foster father before he and his wife ditched me because I was a 'bad kid' or something,” Starlight said with a shrug. “Dude is crazy, like literally crazy. Smart guy though. Doesn't quite even out the crazy.”

“Thank you for that wonderful introduction, Starlight Glimmer, my dear.” A new voice rang out behind them. Starlight and Sunset whipped around to face the door to see a tall man with graying hair, the same man that had been staring at them through the mirror at the diner. He wore scrubs covered by a lab coat and a twisted smile that sent a shiver down both girls backs.

“There's just one thing you left out though,” he said as he walked into the room slowly, making every step echo around the room. “It was my wife's idea to send Starlight Glimmer back, honestly, I loved having her around because she was a bright girl and she seemed to have an uncanny understanding of what was going on around her, even my livelihood which as a rule had to be kept secret from everybody in my life, especially my family. She seemed to have a sort of knowledge about the portal and about my division studying the portal and the magic that was appearing in this world. She never outright said anything to myself or my wife about it, but she started using excuses to the cops about not actually being Starlight Glimmer and actually being the Starlight Glimmer from another world.”

“Why did you take her then?”

“I learned she was expelled from Crystal Prep from Abacus Cinch when she visited my home to speak with me about my former foster daughter. She told me that she had learned from another coworker of mine, who had blabbed to everybody about our secret undertaking while drunk at a party, what we do here and told me about the events of some friendly competition between schools called the Friendship Games where magic was running rampant.”

“I wouldn't say that it was running rampant,” Sunset interjected. “It was controlled except for Abacus Cinch going out of her way to destroy the world with the magic that one of her students had stored in a necklace. She bullied a girl into opening it and releasing the magic which almost destroyed our world and Equestria!”

“That's not how she tells it.”

“Of course it isn't!”

“I thought Starlight Glimmer might be the link between these two worlds and after setting up cameras and doing some evaluations of the proposed portal that Abacus Cinch mentioned, I saw both of you come through it. Seeing another version of Starlight Glimmer coming through the portal might be the key that our department had been missing for so long, so after you had gone back, I put a team on getting the Starlight Glimmer of this world and bringing her to my office for some tests.”

“She didn't even come in contact with either of us while I was through the portal last time, what would the tests return?”

The strange man ignored her. “Of course it would have been silly to just take a teenage girl and not have a backup plan. Sure, Starlight is a bit of a runner, but if she was missing for a really long period of time, people would start asking questions and poking around so I put that letter through the portal asking you to come through.”

“You're the one that did that? I thought that this world's Starlight...”

“Nope, but if I didn't say that, would you have come through the portal?”

“Um, no probably not.”

“So it worked and you took over for Starlight Glimmer while my team and I tested her and did our best to learn more about the magic of that portal.”

“You somehow closed the portal, didn't you? You made it so I wouldn't even be able to go back to Equestria so I would be stuck here performing the other Starlight Glimmer's role and I fell for it... I went right into the palm of your hand and did everything you hoped I would do.”

“Well, not everything. I hoped that you wouldn't find me before I found you. Starlight Glimmer's file from Crystal Prep was helpful seeing as it helped me learn more about my so-called acquaintance Abacus Cinch. However, the sirens were the real treat in all of this,” the strange man said as he pulled a little remote out of his pocket and pressed the big red button on it. The wall behind the large machine lit up and revealed that it wasn't actually a wall, but a two way mirror and on the other side of the mirror sat the three Dazzlings, chained to their cots just like Starlight Glimmer had been just a few minutes earlier. “I had no idea there were even other creatures that came over from Equestria so that's a nice catch. Two Equestrian ponies and three Equestrian sirens. I always just thought that the three of them were the worst teenagers I had ever had the misfortune of meeting. I never would have guessed that they were actually mystical beings that fed on the negativity they created. What a wonderful twist of fate for me and I owe it all to that wonderful conversation you five girls had at the diner yesterday.”

The Earth Starlight Glimmer turned around to see what the two interlopers and the stranger were looking at. Her eyes widened when she saw her friends sitting just a few feet away from her, chained to their beds. She couldn't hear what they were saying, but through the mirror she could see their terror and their anger as they cried out silently. She screamed at the top of her lungs, but none of the sirens could hear her.

“There are people that would be looking for us, you know!” Sunset called out.

“Who would be looking for you?” The man questioned. “There's another Sunset Shimmer living on the other side of the country, all it takes is a little form sent to your school, job, and landlord that say that you were just taking somebody else's identity and you had decided to flee after somebody found out. Then, there are those three over there.” He pointed to the sirens. “Nobody would ever miss those three; they had no friends, no family, jobs, and they never even had a real place to live.”

“But what about this world's Starlight Glimmer?” Starlight asked. “Are you really going to just keep her here? She had to have been more than just bait for me, right?”

“Starlight,” Sunset said quietly. “I think he was holding on to her to test the two of you together.”

“And then what are you going to do?” Starlight asked the stranger as she walked towards him, brimming with anger. “Now there are two missing Starlight Glimmer's and there is nobody else who can fill the void. I was doing well at Canterlot High School, you know. Do you really think people are just going to believe that after less than three days at a great school with great friends that I just up and ran off again with no indication to anybody? That's insane. People will come poking around and when they do, I hope that they find you and punish you for what you have done.”

“I'm not worried. You are Starlight Glimmer, after all. Nothing you ever have done or ever will do will actually make you happy and I think it's clear that everybody in your life knows that. Sure, they will search for you for a little while, but they'll give up. Even the beings in the other world of Equestria will give up after a while especially since my team and I have blocked off the portal. Nothing is getting through that statue now.”

Both Starlight Glimmer's glared at the strange man wordlessly, their jaws had practically opened so far that they hit the ground. Even Sunset Shimmer was too shocked to speak and just stood in place, eyes wide open.

“Now, with two girls from both sides of the portal, three mystical sirens, and one girl who has seemingly been here for years without aging much... I have a lot of experimenting to do.”

The strange man left the room, leaving both Starlight Glimmer's and Sunset Shimmer alone except this time it felt like there was no way out.