Ch 1 - The Stranger Stranger from Equestria!
It had been a pretty long day for Fluttershy, but at least it was the end of the week. She couldn't believe how well her first week of high school had gone. Rainbow Dash and her no longer had all the same classes, but she'd introduced Flutter shy to her other friends at the club fair earlier in the week, and now she had a friend around almost all the time. This was going to be the year Fluttershy came out of her shell, and got over her shyness, she could tell! She'd even gone out of her comfort zone, and printed up some flyers for the shelter near her house, and tried giving them out this afternoon after classes. So maybe she still had difficulties raising her voice, or getting the attention of the students walking by, but it was definitely an improvement, and for a great cause too!
This weekend she would take a little bit of time for herself however, for her secret hobby. She'd gotten some new manga that she really wanted to get to, a bit of a mix between several series. It was a bit of a rare treat, since the only comic and games store was in the city, so her mom had to drive her there, or she had to buy them online.
As she cleaned up and put away her flyers in her backpack, she took a moment to look around. It was amazing how quiet the school had gotten now that everyone had left for the day. Maybe next time she would stop handing out flyers a bit earlier, since it would be dark before she got home at this rate, though the sunset played colors on the glass of the school entrance in a very pretty manner. The reflections actually centered on the base of the school mascot statue, now that she noticed. It was a pretty cool effect, almost prismatic from the colors of the stained glass, all combining into white in the middle. That must have been some fancy architecture work to plan something like that.
Fluttershy cocked her head to the side, then looked behind her at the school then back to the statue base. Oddly enough, it looked like the base of the statue seemed to be getting brighter, even though the sunset was almost done. As she stepped a bit closer, she noticed there was a shimmering effect to it, like the sun reflecting off ripples on a pond. As she went to touch the stone, the stone itself suddenly brightened as much as a camera flash blinding her. She raised her arms to cover her eyes just in time to have something heavy slam into her.
*oof!* "Ouch!" She was sprawled on the grass, trying to blink away the spots in her eyes, when she saw what had crashed into her. It looked like a large leather backpack filled to brimming with stuff. Where did that come from? Suddenly she looked at the statue, and saw someone fall out of it, only to land face first in front of her. "Oh my!"
Sunset Shimmer had crossed the line way too far it seems. Celestia had just banished her from the castle, something she had not believed in her wildest dreams to be possible as recently as an hour ago.
She knew that the likelihood of keeping her extracurricular studies secret would not hold up for much longer, but she hadn't thought that Princess Celestia would react this harshly. She could admit to herself that it probably didn't help how she was caught red-hooved reading the Neighcronomicon, but it wasn't like she was even thinking of using any of the spells! She had mostly opened it since it was referenced in another book which, while also banned, focused on cataloging different rituals of summoning. Sunset was trying to figure out if she could create a custom summoning spell that would allow somepony to summon her back from the other side of the mirror after it's portal closed. She didn't want to get stranded for 30 moons in an alien realm. She had actually just been about to give up having it finished for this latest portal activation, seeing as it was the last day before it closed. It would still be there in 3 years. Well, apparently she wouldn't be.
Sunset let her thoughts wander, trying to find a solution as she was escorted to her room, to pack up her things and then be kicked out of the only home she'd known for most of her life. Well, if the princess wouldn't help her reach her potential, nor let her reach it with her own hooves here in the palace, then that left her with the worst option a magic researcher like her could take. Using unknown magic on herself without enough research.
She had known for a week that the magic mirror that showed her future as an alicorn, great and powerful, was supposed to also be a portal. She had been studying the magic during the last 2 days it was activated, and gleaned that it had some safety measures imbued into it. From what she could tell, the portal would only activate as long as the other side was safe for life, somehow equip the user with basic survival tools based on the closest thaumaturgically equivalent beings to ponies on the other side. She wasn't quite sure how it did that second part, but the rune work spelled out the intent very clearly. It was definitely built to make sure the travel to the other side was safe and survivable, which was why she had already planned to visit the other side, if in a more controlled manner.
Leaving the guards at the entry of her room, she slowly walked around her room, pulling out an extra large set of saddle bags, enchanted to be lighter and slightly larger on the inside. She'd already filled it with some basic exploring equipment, such as camping gear, a few days worth of food, some books and focusing crystals, an emergency magical beacon, and a medical potion kit. However if she was going to be staying for longer than a couple days, she would need more things. She opened her lower desk drawer, pulling out a bag of gems she had for enchanting, and after some thought, also added her jewelry and the pouches of bits. While Equestrian mint would not likely be recognized on the other side, precious metals like gold usually had some value if only as a magical conducting or jewelry making material.
She paused as she opened the top drawer. Her journal lay there on the top, a reminder of the betrayal she had just been dealt by the pony closest to her. After a moment, she threw it behind her shoulder, and rummaged through her other books, taking the book with her research notes, some reference books on dealing with natives and wilderness survival, along with a couple blank books, and pencils. With that out of the way, she turned took another look around the room.
She walked to her closet and took her travel cloak along with her heavy duty horse shoes. She looked further in her closet, then back at the guard, before pulling out a small ornamental rapier, a gaudy thing with jewels encrusted all over the hilt. She concentrated before breaking the hilt off. She left the blade on the floor while adding the hilt to her bag. One of the guards had taken a step into the room, before wincing when she broke the rapier, but settled back down when it was clear she didn't mean to take a weapon with her. She took one last look around, before cantering towards the door.
"I think I've got everything." she said before accidentally kicking her journal. She stopped and looked at it.
"Well come along then" One of the guards stated, before backing out of the entryway, never taking his eyes off of her. She looked back up at him, before levitating the journal and adding it to her near overflowing saddle bag. She wasn't sure why she did it, but it was time to go. She began slowly walking down the hallway, both guards beside her and a step behind. She would only have one shot at this. She wouldn't even have that if the princess hadn't sent two pegasi instead of unicorns.
As they passed the corridor leading towards the mirror, she grabbed their helmets and pulled them down over their eyes before bouncing them against each other. She turned up the speed, galloping down the side corridor. Hopefully she'd gain enough time that she could get a bit of a head start, though she knew they would quickly catch up. She just needed to be ready.
"Stop! In the name of Princess Celestia!" She heard behind her. Well they had gotten over that really quick. She was almost to the door when she got bowled over. She rolled on the floor with the guard that tackled her. She grabbed his armored chest piece and pushed him hard towards his partner, and quickly rolled out of the way, and into the mirror room. She was definitely going to have some bruises tomorrow, but thankfully nothing major. The guards were still trying to be nice, and stop her without undue force. Sunset would take any advantage she could.
As the two guards burst into the room she surprised them with a concussive spell, along with conjuring some smoke. As the guards tried to recover, she put a locking and soundproofing spell on the door that should last a couple hours, so the guards wouldn't be able to sound the alarm. That should delay every pony long enough for her to make her escape. She then levitated her bag through the mirror, then jumped after it.
The travel through the portal was incredibly disorienting. Her mind couldn't tell up from down, red from blue, or even where her legs were. If she didn't know any better she would think her body wasn't even pony shaped any more. Thankfully it didn't last too long before she tumbled out onto a patch of grass.
While the landing was painful, she was alive and well. It looked like the environment was fine for pony kind to live in. She was just going to lay here with her eyes closed for a moment, until her stomach could settle.
"Oh my!" someone said to her left. Sunset jerked her head to see and opened her eyes wide, suddenly realizing she wasn't alone. There was a squinty eyed being in front of her, seemingly studying her.
Normally Sunset Shimmer considered herself a very cosmopolitan pony, growing up with Celestia had exposed her to members of most of the other known races in the world, but usually she wasn't hyped on adrenaline after making a daring escape to another planet. So it was that her reaction was a little bit less graceful than it could have been.
Fluttershy flinched as the girl that just appeared out of the statue base snapped her head around to look at her, before trying to smile awkwardly at the new arrival. Fluttershy was a bit in shock herself. She had just seen someone appear from a magic portal! This was like something straight out of a story.
In response to Fluttershy's smile however, the girl's face paled, seemingly terrified, before she screamed at the top of her lungs then slammed her head into the corner of the statue when she jerked her whole body around to try and run away. Fluttershy gasped and covered her mouth after seeing the girl hurt herself like that, then carefully approached to see if she was ok. the redhead was holding her head in pain, which wasn't surprising with how hard she hit it against the stone.
"Hey... um... I'm not going to hurt you ok? Just let me see... um, I was just sitting here before you... arrived?" Fluttershy softly said to the girl, her instincts to help overriding her shyness in order to make sure the other girl was alright. Fluttershy helped her sit up, the girl seemingly forgetting her fear with the head pain. "There we go. Ok, can you tell me you name please?" Fluttershy asked as she parted the girls hair, looking to see if she had any blood or bruising. The girl's red hair didn't help, so she took her time to make sure.
"Sunset. Sunset Shimmer. Now you, what are you?" She replied, hissing at the pain. She seemed to have calmed down quite a bit, though she still had very wary eyes on the pinkette.
Fluttershy was a bit confused. What did she mean but what was she? Her mind jumped as she took note of Sunset's appearance. he also took note of the girl's appearance. She looked to be about her own age, and was dressed in clothes that would not be out of place in a renaissance fair or cosplay competition, though definitely not historically accurate. The heavy cloak around her shoulders seemed quite a bit more rugged than the rest of her clothes, which along with the two large bags, made it seem as if she had been running from something. More and more, it felt as if Fluttershy had fallen into a neighponese anime series, like the ones about an alien princess that runs away to earth and doesn't know anything until a normal schoolboy helps her learn about how to live among humans!
"Um... My name is Fluttershy, and I'm a human I guess? I mean, that's my species if that's what you meant." After saying that, Fluttershy sat back, feeling silly for where her thoughts had gone. However, it didn't change the fact that she just saw Sunset arrive through a portal. She gave Sunset a little bit of space, idly pulling some grass from her lap. She was starting to feel herself fall back into her shell now that she knew Sunset wasn't hurt that badly.
"Uhuh" Sunset replied, seemingly distracted by her hands, which she was holding in an odd half closed fist position. Sunset's thoughts were running away from her, but she wasn't the most gifted unicorn of her generation for nothing. The mirror clearly transformed her into the dominant species of this realm as a form of camouflage for some reason. It may be that the original intent was to study these hoomanes without influencing them, or a safety feature to ensure survival on an alien realm no matter how different it may be from home.
Fluttershy couldn't tell why she was so fascinated with her hands. Thinking she might have scraped them, Fluttershy took one and looked it over before Sunset yanked it back. "Eep! sorry, I just wanted to make sure there wasn't anything wrong with your hands. Um, it didn't look like you scraped them. Do they hurt?"
Fluttershy's cheeks grew warm, "sorry for grabbing them like that." Fluttershy tried to think of something to get them back on track "um, so I sort of... saw you just come through a portal? Are you... well, where do you come from and whydid you come here if you don't know anything about this place?"
Sunset looked at her suspiciously for a moment, but she knew she needed more information about the place she found herself in, and there was a native guide, apparently willing to help, right in front of her. Fluttershy already seen her fall through the portal anyway, it wouldn't hurt to give some information, but she would make sure to keep it vague for now, "Yes, I used a magic mirror to... come here. I didn't have the option to choose the location I'd end up in however."
Sunset debated whether to say any more, before deciding it should give the local a sense of urgency. "As for why? Well, you could say I had been planning to explore the other side for a while... but... I was attacked... and had to flee through the mirror. We should probably not stay too close to the exit, since I don't know if they'll try to follow me here while it's still open."
"Oh my gosh, you're magical? Like, that was magic?! wait..." Fluttershy looked at the statue a bit scared now, "Um who-who was attacking? are-are we safe here?"
"Never mind that for now, look let's get somewhere safe and I'll explain everything then. Now help me up, I'm not...uh... feeling strong enough to walk on my own" Sunset snapped back, almost confessing that she didn't know how to use her current body. Thankfully, as Fluttershy helped her stand, Sunset noticed that the portal magic helped her there, as she was soon able to walk on her own without leaning on the dainty girl.
"Ok... um I actually live nearby, it's walking distance. I can tell my mom I invited you over for a sleepover? Well... Let me just call her. I'll tell her you stayed with me cause it got too late, and I invited you to stay over cause it was dark" Fluttershy said as she pulled out her cellphone. Sunset stared, trying not to show her amazement at the technology as Fluttershy called her mother to let her know she would have a friend over for a sleep over for the night. Thankfully her mom sounded just as kind and gullible as her daughter, and agreed to the last second arrangement.
They slowly walked away from the school, each looking back every couple moments to make sure no one was following them.
===
As they walked towards her house, Fluttershy gently answered Sunset's questions, though the conversation remained somewhat stilted. Neither really wanted to get in depth until after they were in a more private setting. But surprisingly some of their innocuous response betrayed just how different Equestria was from Earth. One example was Sunset's surprise that the building she arrived by was not just a school, but one for minors. This segued on to the reason Fluttershy still lived with her mother was because she was considered a minor, which had some troubling connotations for Sunset as they looked to be the same physical age. Sunset's badly hidden fascination with Fluttershy's phone made it clear that she was not from anywhere with technology, making Fluttershy think she was likely from a medieval world at first, though when Fluttershy tried to explain plumbing, Sunset sarcastic reply burned her ears.
On the flipside, Sunset was busy contemplating the fact that she was stranded on what was apparently a world that did not possess accessible magic, at least according to Fluttershy. What's worse, was that humans were the only intelligent creatures on earth, though she took that with a grain of salt. They may just be very xenophobic. She didn't pursue that line of thought too much as she would have time to research after she was somewhere safe. However it was looking more and more like the next 3 years would be more difficult than she had imagined in her worse case scenarios. Once they reached her house, Fluttershy turned to Sunset.
"Ok, remember, um... just let me talk and follow along until we get to my room ok?" Fluttershy reminded Sunset one last time, before opening the door. They walked into the living room, where a woman seemed have just been setting down a plate of snacks. She wore a pair of large glasses and a pearl necklace, and had darker pink hair, but Sunset could still make out the resemblance to Fluttershy was much greater than with the strangers she had noticed on the walk here. It seemed the transformation gave her enough human instinct to distinguish between humans as well. Hopefully it hadn't remapped too many of her instincts to fit in, but she would leap over that hurdle when she got there.
"Oh Flutter dear, you're home just in time!" Fluttershy's mother said, standing up and greeting the pair. "You must be Sunset right? I'm very thankful you stayed with my daughter after it got so late. Please, feel free to have some snacks. Fluttershy can you help me with the kitchen for a second?" Sunset waited a couple awkward seconds for Fluttershy to say something before realizing that she seemed to be have frozen up.
"Thanks ma'am! Um... Fluttershy, do you mind showing me to your room first, so I can put down my bags?" Sunset replied, as she tugged on her heavy bag.
"Oh! um, follow me." Fluttershy stammered, then rushed up the stairs. Sunset could only shake her head at how skittish the pinkette seemed to be, before slowly following her up the stairs, careful not to trip on her clumsy feet.
==
Fluttershy showed Sunset her room, before going back down to help her mother in the kitchen.
Sunset was looking in her bag trying to see if anything else in it had been changed by the magic from the portal. It had changed her pair of saddle bags into this oversized backpack, so she was a bit nervous, seeing as this was the sum of her worldly possessions for the next 3 years. Thankfully it all mostly seemed to be intact. And the enchantments that used stored magic seemed to have kept their charges. She'd already known the spells such as the weight reduction had stopped working obviously, from how heavy the bag had been to carry, but this meant magical objects did not get transformed She would have to look at them in more detail later. She packed everything back up, and placed in the corner.
She looked around the room, which had a lot of what she presumed a normal filly's room would have. It was decorated in pastel yellows and pinks, with a desk, a bookshelf and some posters on the walls.
She noticed the bag on the bed, it seemed like some new purchases. She rifled through them, then seeing that they were books, she pulled one out. It seemed to be some kind of light novel, she'd seen similar back home, but it had humans instead of ponies on the cover. Interestingly she was able to read it. She began leafing through it, before stopping for a moment to read the summary on the back. The plot seemed to be about an evil tyrant that ran away through a magic portal to earth, to hide from forces taking over his kingdom. Another in the bag seemed to be about a squad of magical special forces trying to rescue their moon princess from earth while hiding as students or something. Another was a comic about a princess Butterfly, living on earth as an exchange student? She was seeing a theme here. Well, this gave her ideas.
She carefully placed the items back in the bag, and continued to think on how to best use this to her advantage.
===
Fluttershy finished helping her mother pull out the good plates and silverware from the top of the pantry. As she did so her mother continued her gentle prodding, trying to find out more about her daughter's new friend. Thankfully her mom didn't really push too hard before she could make her escape back upstairs. She was so excited to find out more about her new friend, and what exactly was going on.
Fluttershy couldn't explain it, but as she stopped before her door, she could feel that her world would change after going through. No, it already changed, and all she had to do was take this chance, just like she always imagined.
Author's Note
Another plot bunny that wouldn't leave me alone. Kudos if you can get the reference in the chapter title.
This is part of a set of prompts I came up for myself around what if scenarios for Sunset meeting the rest of the Mane 7 early, and how things would change.
for this particular one, the way I'm envisioning it, is that on Sunset is going to start off by taking advantage of Fluttershy's anime hobby, but the goal is to slowly write this up into more 'anime' feeling story, where misunderstandings and hijinks abound.
Sadly, this is likely going to be a slower story as my initial focus is SSC, probably a monthly update at the most, though that may change as I get writer's block.
As always feedback is greatly welcomed, and if someone feels they can do this better justice, please feel free to take the concept and run with it! I just ask that you please let me know so I can read what you write :)
