Two Truths and a Lie

“Thanks for coming with me. I have to admit, having somebody here who already knows what it's like to transition through the mirror... it's kind of helpful,” Starlight admitted.

Starlight Glimmer and Sunset Shimmer had waited until they were sure there was nobody from Canterlot High School around in the courtyard before backing away from the schoolyard and running out of sight as soon as they felt the pavement on their feet.

They didn't stop running until they had hit a back road a few blocks away from the school where not many cars drove by, aside from a few dogs barking in the distance, they were in a quiet area where Sunset deemed them unlikely to get caught by passerby's that were on their way to work.

“Do you know the way back home?” Sunset asked, ignoring Starlight's initial comment.

“Oh, no, I don't. I mean I thought I could just go through the portal again, but it seems like it's closed.”

“No, I mean to your foster parents' home; do you know how to get back there? Sorry, I guess I kind of forgot that for you, Equestria is home.”

“Yup.”

The girls walked in silence for a few minutes before Starlight looked over at Sunset and asked, Do you ever miss it?”

“Miss what?”

“Equestria, of course! I mean there has to be something you miss about Equestria, right? I mean, this world is cool and all, but there's no magic, at least not in the ways that I'm used to and what's with these bodies? They're so weird.” She spread out her fingers and wiggled them. “It feels so wrong.”

Sunset shrugged. “You get used to it.”

“What about the magic? I mean, you used to be Princess Celestia's prized pupil. That had to have been a difficult adjustment when you first came through the portal.”

“Can we... do you mind if we don't talk about Equestria?”

“Oh, my mistake,” Starlight admitted quietly. “I just thought after all this time, you probably would have appreciated having somepony to discuss your old home with.”

“Trust me, Equestria is not my home anymore.”

Starlight didn't respond, she just looked down at the ground warily, kicking small pieces of pavement as she walked.

I didn't think I was prying, I mean, if I had lived in a strange world for a long time, I think I would relish the fact that there's someone from home visiting; like, sharing experiences and all that crap.

Starlight quietly led the way back to Rondache and Morning Dew's home and once the two girls arrived on the back porch of her foster home.

Sunset looked around warily while Starlight dug through her bag to find the key that they had given her.

“Are you sure your parents won't know that we're skipping school? Starlight, I really just don't want to get you in any more trouble than you're already in.”

“It's fine, trust me,” Starlight assured her. “It doesn't seem like either of them are home and if they come home while we're still here, we'll just make up some excuse and then go back to school. I think we'll be okay, though, I'm pretty sure they work during the day. Besides, Starlight already got herself in plenty of trouble, a little more wouldn't kill her... or me, I guess.”

“Right,” Sunset responded, unconvinced.

Starlight inserted the key that Morning Dew and Rondache had given her and leaned in towards the lock as she turned the key. She leaned down to put her ear closer to the lock and smiled wryly when she heard the lock clicked back into the door, before slowly pulling open the door. The girls stepped inside quickly and pushed the door closed so that if there were any of Starlight's neighbors who were home, they wouldn't be able to see her.

The house was silent except for the girls footsteps as they walked through the bottom floor.

“Wow, this place is really nice. You're really lucky,” Sunset said, still in awe of the richly decorated home she had just stepped into. “My place is practically a hole in the wall compared to this.”

“Thanks, I think? It wasn't quite what I expected when I came here, but I really appreciate it. I mean, I totally get the hole in a wall thing... not that I think you actually do live somewhere like that, but I practically did in Equestria when I was growing up.” She abruptly closed her mouth and smiled in embarrassment. “I'm sorry, I'll stop talking now, but I will definitely appreciate this place more once we find that stupid notebook.”

Sunset Shimmer didn't look convinced. “Right, the notebook. Where do you think it is? I mean, it could be anywhere in this house. Aren't you worried that it is kinda gonna be like looking for a needle in a haystack?”

“No, it definitely couldn't be anywhere. I know that it is somewhere in Starlight's bedroom, I'm sure of it. She didn't seem to really care for Morning Dew and Rondache so it's the only place in the entire house that she seemed to have any of her things. Follow me.”

Starlight made her way up the stairs with Sunset following slowly behind her as she carefully looked around her with every step she took as if she were worried that at any moment, a neighbor or Starlight's parents would burst into the house and run straight to their location and punish them somehow. When Starlight finally pushed open the bedroom door, Sunset let out the sigh of relief that she hadn't realized that she had been holding all this time. They closed the door behind them and stood in front of it as they surveyed the room.

It looked the same as it has when Starlight had left it this morning, but for some reason as she stood in the doorway, it felt like it was much bigger than it was this morning. She gulped.

Maybe this was a bad idea. It's going to take forever to go through every nook and cranny of this room and who knows if it's even in here? This could just be a fool's errand.

“Where do we start?”

“Um... you take the dresser, I'll take the area around the bed. She had a few bags next to her bed, so maybe it's possible that I missed something while I was rushing this morning? We'll just make our way around the room and meet in the middle. Sound good?”

Sunset nodded and made her way over to the dresser. She opened up each of the four drawers on the dresser, but to her surprise, each and every single drawer that she opened in that dresser was empty. She knocked on them anyway, just in case they had false bottoms or Starlight Glimmer had come up with some other way to hide the book that maybe the girls hadn't thought of that morning.

That idea proved to be fruitless when Sunset realized that she still couldn't find anything, no matter what methods she attempted. She was surprised that even the area around the dresser was spotless. In fact, most of the room looked as if it had never been touched before today.

At the same time, Starlight was tentatively checking every nook and cranny around the bed, even though she was sure she had checked it when she woke up this morning. Yet, she still held on to the sliver of hope that maybe she was just so tired this morning, after her exciting adventure through the portal yesterday. Perhaps, she just missed the book.

Unfortunately, after several minutes of searching and tearing apart the room until they met in the middle, both girls came up empty-handed.

“How can we be so sure that it's even here? What if she took it with her to... I don't know, wherever she went?” Sunset asked. “I mean, those pictures seemed like they were really trying to figure out what was in that book, so maybe she thought it was safer to take it with her when she ran away?”

Starlight's fists balled up, she tried to calm herself down, but she was just too frustrated.

“No! This is insane! It has to be here! I didn't come all the way from Equestria to be screwed from every direction the moment I landed in front of Canterlot High School!”

“Woah, okay, Starlight. Relax. It's not a big deal. The girls are probably checking up on Starlight's facespace account and there are no girls I trust more than them to do this. I bet the book isn't even that important, let's just go back to school.”

“No, it is important! I can feel it! And this is absolutely insane, first the portal closes right after I come through, then I find out this Starlight Glimmer is a jerk who lies and runs away all the time, then I find out bacon is made from pigs...”

“Wait, you're still on that bacon thing? Seriously, Starlight it's really not that big a deal.” Sunset interjected.

“Then I find out someone is taking pictures of the other Starlight while she's in her bedroom and now her stupid freaking book is gone! I haven't even been in this world for a day and a half and this is just terrible!”

“Hey, it's okay. We'll figure it out. I promise.”

She tried to put her hand on Starlight's shoulder, but she shrugged her off.

“No! I refuse to go back to CHS empty-handed, Sunset! That isn't fair! I get in trouble all the time, but you don't and you left school to come with me. I can't let you get in trouble and have nothing to show for it!”

Starlight was so frustrated that she pushed the mattress on the bed as hard as she could, which, surprisingly, was pretty hard and the mattress started to slide off the bed.

“Starlight! Starlight, seriously, it isn't that big a deal, it's just a book. It was just a theory you had anyway. You have to...” Sunset stopped mid sentence and stared past Starlight with a slack-jawed expression.

“I have to what?” She asked, whipping around to face her friend who had stopped short without any explanation.

Sunset knelt down and reached her hand in between the mattress and box spring and slowly pulled out a tiny bright pink notebook. Starlight's eyes widened and her shoulders relaxed, for the first time in what felt like forever, she finally allowed herself to crack a smile.

“Oh thank goodness,” Starlight said while laughing with relief.

“I guess that worked. I think this is the notebook that we've been looking for,” Sunset said quietly.

“I'm sorry about that. Sometimes I just get so frustrated that...”

“No, you don't have to explain it. I understand. I used to be the same way. At least, in this case, it worked in our favor. Now we have the notebook.”

Starlight scrambled to get up off the mattress and over to Sunset Shimmer.

“Are you ready to see what it says?” Sunset asked.

“Absolutely.”

The girls opened the book and looked at the first page with rabid excitement. Since first seeing the pictures with the book in it, Starlight assumed this had to be her counterpart's diary.

She hoped that the book had all the information she needed to know about the other Starlight Glimmer and her life. There had to be some sort of paper trail left behind that would help her figure out where her counterpart had gone. If she really was the one who had sent the letter through the portal in the first place, Starlight thought it was only fair that she be given some sort of help for coming all this way. After all, the whole reason she had skipped school on her first day was to find this missing piece of information that she thought she so desperately needed.

Unfortunately, as soon as she and Sunset opened the book, she realized that if the book was a diary, then it was written in some sort of language that she didn't understand at all.

So far in her experiences on this world she noticed that the language of modern Equestrian was very similar in characters, sound, and style to the Earth language that she had encountered so far; which was helpful in so far that it made everything she encountered easy to understand.

Well everything except this.

Starlight's hornwriting was awful and she would be the first one to admit it and this Starlight's writing was no exception. Of course in this case, not only were the words illegible, but none of them even made any sense. Perhaps she was writing in some sort of code or language that only Earth Starlight Glimmer could understand?

“I don't understand,” Starlight finally said with an annoyed huff as she slammed the book shut. “Do you understand it?”

Sunset shook her head. “This is just a mess of numbers and letters that don't make sense.”

“Is it another language?”

“I don't think so, but let's head back to school and during lunch we can show the other girls what we found. Maybe they'll be able to help us figure it out; there's something that we're missing. The more eyes that we can get on this, the more we'll understand!”

Sunset didn't look as hopeful as she sounded. Starlight didn't pick up on the hesitation in her face. She eagerly stuffed the book into her message bag.

We'll figure this out, I know we will! She assured herself.

* * *

“I don't understand this at all,” Twilight announced, as she threw the notebook down on the cafeteria table in front of her.

She had spent the past few minutes of lunch attempting to read through it while the other girls looked on expectantly, hoping that she had more luck figuring out than they all had before then. The book had been passed around the table one by one with each of the girls spending a few minutes staring at the book with puzzled expressions before giving up. Twilight at least seemed to have spent the most time focused on what it could possibly be.

“See what I mean? It makes no sense whatsoever!” Starlight exclaimed.

“It's definitely not in English... or any discernible Earth language I've ever come across,” Sunset replied. “What about you girls? What do you think?”

“All I've gathered from staring at it for so long is that it is probably a cipher of sort” Twilight suggested. “I mean, it has to be, otherwise it's just kind of a jumble of incoherent letters and numbers.”

“A what now?” Applelack asked.

“A cipher,” Twilight repeated. “It's kind of like a code. For example, somebody like Starlight would write something down, use a cipher of some sort and then encode the message so only the people who know how to break the cipher can figure out the message.”

“So since you know that it's a cipher, now, are you able to figure out what it says?” Starlight asked.

“Er... no. There are a ton of different ciphers out there and each and every single person would probably have their own way to break the code. I mean, I could give it my best shot, but without actually knowing anything about Starlight Glimmer, I would just be making a shot in the dark.”

“What if you and I went to the library? There has to be some books about ciphers there, right? Maybe we can narrow down at least which one she used?”

Twilight perked up. “That's a great idea, Sunset Shimmer! There has got to be a ton of books about Cryptography in the library!” She shot up out of her seat and pulled Sunset Shimmer along with her as she ran out of the cafeteria.

Once Twilight and Sunset left the cafeteria, the table had grown quieter, the table had moved from one larger and overall conversation to side conversations between two or three of the girls before Fluttershy cleared her throat.

“I'm glad you and Sunset hit it off so well,” Fluttershy said quietly. “And we're especially glad you two made it back to school without any major problems.”

“And with the book in tow,” Applejack added. “We didn't think you girls would find anything and it would all be for nothing. Sunset had texted us a few times while you guys were heading over to your home saying she was worried this was a wild goose chase. We were all wondering if maybe this would be a mistake..”

“What do you mean? Why would it be a mistake?”

“Well, it's just that you had no idea that anything was even at your home,” Rarity explained.

“Of course we did! Or I did, at least! I knew that something had to be there; Starlight Glimmer had to leave me something to lead me to her. She did try to get me through the portal, after all.”

“Of course, and we're all thrilled that it was a successful mission and neither of you got in trouble for skipping school. We were just worried about it being just the two of you out there.”

Starlight's smile faltered. “Why is that?”

“Well, we had heard about you from Sunset Shimmer before we even met you. Apparently Princess Twilight wrote about you a lot whenever she was sending Sunset an Equestratext!” Pinkie announced.

“Really?” Starlight's face lit up at the thought of her mentor praising her to people in another world; it was really telling at how far she had come in just a short period of time. She didn't want to say it out loud, but she was a little bit proud of herself for making strides toward moving past her insecurities. The other girls nodded, but their faces lacked the enthusiasm that Starlight felt bubbling within her.

“That's so wonderful to hear!” She added. “I heard so much about all of you as well! I mean, I admit that I was a little hesitant when Princess Twilight first told me about all of you. Who wouldn't be though, I mean it just felt kind of strange that there was a group of girls just like her and her friends in another world on the other side of the mirror and I had to admit that I was a teeny tiny bit jealous at first when she mentioned that there was a girl here that she was kinda sorta mentoring, but not really? Of course, once Sunset Shimmer actually came through the mirror and we met and we got past that initial awkwardness it was great, ya know?”

The girls looked at each other hesitantly before Rarity put on a sweet and comforting smile and put her hands on Starlight's shoulder.

“Of course, darling that is sweet. Sunset felt similarly when she heard that Princess Twilight had taken on a new pupil.”

Starlight looked at the rest of the girls warily. “...I take it she wasn't exactly comfortable with the idea of me at first, was she?”

The girls teettered uncomfortably.

“I don't think that's the case,” Fluttershy finally said after several strained seconds of silence.

“Ehhhh she was definitely at least a teeny weeny bit jealous, but I mean, who can blame her? She came from a distant pony world because she was mad at her teacher and came here where she was a big meany pants and then Princess Twilight followed her through the magical portal and was all like 'Sunset Shimmer, I can help you become better' and I think we all just assumed that the other Twilight was kinda like her mentor, I mean they would send each other Equestratexts all the time whenever Sunset needed some help or advice. Then, out of the blue, a few months ago, Sunset found out that Twilight had taken on her very first pupil and...”

Rainbow Dash put her hand over Pinkie's mouth, who, despite the barrier, kept trying to talk even though every word that came out of her mouth was muffled and incoherent.

“So Sunset Shimmer was a little jealous at first, that's not important,” Applejack said. “What's important is that she realized that she didn't have to be Princess Twilight's pupil to be happy and she has accepted Starlight Glimmer as a new friend.”

“Sometimes Sunset can be a little rough around the edges. She's really a sweet girl, but she's very... guarded,” Fluttershy explained.

“Probably because there's still a fair number of people here at Canterlot High School who still don't fully trust her after that whole 'trying to create a teenage zombie army to invade Equestria' thing. So, we're really happy she's making a new friend!” Pinkie exclaimed.

Starlight wanted to ask more questions, but the bell signifying the end of their lunch period rang and the other girls got up from the table without a second thought to head towards their next class. She stayed at the table though, pushing her peas around her lunch tray for a few extra moments wondering if Sunset was actually more annoyed with her than anything especially after she asked her all those personal questions about Equestria and if she missed it.

She had to admit though, now she was more curious about Sunset Shimmer than anything. Looking back on it, she could remember how shocked Sunset was when she found the book and how she had tried to get Starlight to turn around or stop so many times.

She was especially curious to know what happened to the other Sunset Shimmer since nobody around here seemed concerned that there were two Sunset's running around town just like they hadn't been concerned when they saw Starlight Glimmer.

What if she was trying to keep me from finding the book? What if Sunset Shimmer knew more about the other Starlight than she was letting on and just didn't want to tell any of us because she was already not exactly a model citizen in the eyes of the CHS population? And what happened to the other Sunset Shimmer? Did she have to replace her like I did? Or maybe the other Sunset is just somewhere else? Has Sunset ever wondered about the other version of her like I am? I was never especially curious about the other version of me when I lived in Equestria and I probably never would have wondered about it until I got that note. Maybe it's the same way for her?

Starlight finally got up, threw out her tray and started to slowly follow the crowd of people still trying to leave the cafeteria and to their next class, but one thing was for sure, now Starlight was curious about Sunset's time in this world.