Author's Note

Heya!

Just a heads up that these next few chapters are gonna be short ones, just focusing on quick interactions between Sunset and the Pony Rainbooms~

Hope you enjoy these! ^^

Nyhll~

Princess' Arc 7: An Hour of Loyalty

“So, what's this I hear about a ball being held suddenly in Canterlot?” Twilight asked shortly after Sunset teleported back to Ponyville.

“Mom being needlessly theatrical…” Sunset chuckled weakly before attempting to change the subject. “Now who are we meeting first? I’m going to be uneasy the entire time, though, so heads up.”

“You should calm down soon enough. I figured we would start with Rainbow Dash- Though, fair warning? I’ve tried to tell her not to ask about the other her, but I promise that one of the first three sentences out of her mouth will be asking about her.”

“Joy…” Sunset snarked humorlessly as she rolled her eyes. “Where’s she at? I haven’t seen a soccer field around Ponyville, so I don’t know where else she could hang out at.”

“She should be-”

“Right here!” came a bombastic voice, instantly recognizable as it cut off Twilight Sparkle, its owner appearing just as fast as she effortlessly hovered a few feet above Twilight. “And when can I come over to the other world and beat the stuffing out of the other me? Why the hell would she abandon you like that? I thought she was the Element of Loyalty.”

“...Are you done?” Sunset asked flatly, staring at the pony form of Rainbow Dash as the pegasus finally landed.

“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight hissed venomously, her wings flaring up as her eyebrows tilted down. “I thought we agreed that you wouldn’t talk about that subject!”

“Well ex-cuuuuse me, Princess!” the rainbow maned mare exclaimed with an overly dramatic rolling of her eyes. “But I take personal offense at the fact that the me from another world would betray someone like that!”

Sunset sat there and glowered as Twilight and Rainbow bickered back and forth with one another, already regretting that she agreed to meet Twilight’s friends.

“Look, any friend of Twilight’s is a friend of mine!” Rainbow said loudly, breaking Sunset out of her fuming. “I’ve given Starlight a second chance and she’s been perfectly fine.”

“That’s very similar to what the other you said, ya know.” Sunset said, alerting the other two to the fact she had sat there listening to them argue.

“Ya, well, I’m not her, okay?” Rainbow started by sounding insulted, before her tone shifted to being more annoyed. “I hope you realize that.”

“You’re right, sorry.” Sunset’s head hung in shame as she realized that she was still trying to project the Gaian Rainbow Dash onto her Equestrian counterpart. “Look, why don’t we go and do something? Get our minds off of the happenings in the other world?”

“I’m done cloud busting for the time being.” Rainbow shrugged as she looked over at Twilight. “What about you, egghead?”

“...I was the one who set this whole thing up, Rainbow.” came the “egghead's” snapping retort.

~

“Wait, so you’re telling me that there are more Daring Do books!?”

Sunset hunched over as the entirety of Sugarcube Corner glared over at the overly excited pegasus that was now hovering in the air on rapidly beating wings. The trio had spent the last half hour sitting in Sugar Cube Corner relaxing and sharing tales, Rainbow usually boasting of her accomplishments.

“Yes, but if you don’t calm down then you are going to get us kicked out.” Sunset whispered as she shook her head, not bothering to look at the crowd of eyes looking in the direction of her table.

“Ohmanohmanohman! I want them- All of them! How much do I owe you!?”

“Well they don’t use Bits in the other world, Rainbow, so there isn’t going to be an easy way to do this.” Twilight said, still glaring at her friend in annoyance.

“And there’s no telling that the transfer across the portal won’t affect them.” Sunset added, pawing at her chin. “For example, whenever me and Princess Twilight cross we end up wearing clothes on Gaia, whereas when we return here to Equestria, we aren’t wearing anything.”

“So if you were to transfer the Gaian Daring Do books over to Equestria then they would probably just change to the Equestrian version…” Twilight crossed her arms in thought. “But what about your magic journal? It didn’t change.”

“True… But I still don’t know why.” Sunset tilted her head back and forth as she continued to ponder. “I mean, our saddles and backpacks shift back and forth, which doesn’t give much hope for the books to not change into their world’s variant.”

“So what you’re saying is that I have to go across the portal if I ever want to be the ultimate Daring Do fan then…?” Rainbow stared at the pair with puppy dog eyes, a look that caused Sunset to give an uncontrollable laugh when she saw it.

“I guess so, but-”

“Then it’s settled!” Rainbow rocketed back up into the air as she boldly shouted her claim for all to hear. “I’m gonna go to this other world, read all the Daring Do books so I can finally prove I am her ultimate fan, and beat up the other m- Oh crap! Is that the time!? Gotta dash!”

The pair sat there in silence as Rainbow vanished from Sugar Cube Corner in a rainbow coloured stream, the door slamming open before shutting just as fast, leaving everyone to sit and pontificate on what had just occurred.

“So, uh…” Sunset slowly shifted her head towards Princess Twilight, her eyes still locked on the door. “Is she always like that? Protective, I mean.”

“Rainbow? Yeah.” Twilight nodded with a knowing chuckle. “She tends to say what’s on her mind, for better or for worse, but she will always be at your side when you need it. I guess that’s why she’s the Element of Loyalty…”

“Sure wish I had one of those…” came the sombre response from the amber unicorn. “Er, who’s next to visit with?”