Equestria Girls JT

Chapters

A Vision in the Crystal Mirror
The Intruder
A Strange New World
New Yet Familiar Friends
Research and Rumors
Freshman Fair Chronicles
Heart and Determination
Time to Come Together
The Big Night
Returning Home

A Vision in the Crystal Mirror

Sunset Shimmer was finally about to take her entrance exam into Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns and she couldn't be anymore nervous than she ever had been in her entire life. She stepped forward to the testing area, where she saw the judges for her exam.

"Now, Sunset Shimmer. For your entrance exam, you will be tasked with growing a house plant." One of the judges on the left side of the table informed Sunset, directing her to a flower pot filled with soil on a nearby table.

"We will be looking forward to seeing your progress." The judge sitting at the middle of the table informed Sunset.

"If you wish to be accepted, we expect big, big things from your results." The judge on the right informed Sunset.

Sunset looked at the pot and realized this wasn't going to be easy since she never grew plants with magic before, nor was she skilled with gardening.

"Let's hope that it turns out better than Juniper Berry's attempt at it." The judge in the middle remarked.

"Juniper Berry?" Sunset asked in confusion.

"GAH! GET OFF ME!" A student pony, who was Juniper Berry, screamed at his now living plant, which then tried to reach out and attack him.

Sunset immediately took action and saved Juniper Berry by zapping the plant with her magic, turning it to ash. Sunset then turned back to the pot and began her test.

With nothing else holding her back, Sunset braced herself and blasted her magic at the pot. She noticed her magic wasn't taking any effect on the plant and focused more on it. She then gave all that she got, hoping desperately that it will work.

We cut to outside the part of the school that Sunset's test was at and suddenly, giant vines began popping out of the tower. All of this was in view of Princess Celestia, who happened to just pass by.

"I see somepony just passed their entrance exam." Princess Celestia remarked.

Back to Sunset, she was utterly shocked at what she had just conjured up. Vines were all over the classroom with her instructors climbing on top of the vine in front of them to face Sunset. Everyone stared at her without a word and Sunset feared that this might mean that she probably failed.

"I'm really sorry! I should've realized--" Sunset tried to apologize, until everyone started applauding her, to her surprise.
However, she soon realized something. Did this mean she passed her exam? With her only answer being the applause of both her instructors and even Juniper Berry, she couldn't be any more prouder that day and jumped in excitement.

"Thank you! Thank you all! I swear, you won't regret this!" Sunset thanked her instructors with all her heart hugging them in gratitude.

Later that day, Sunset was studying at a table at the park. She was still happy to now be a part of Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns and was now dedicating all of her time on studying magic and not let anything distract her. That soon didn't last, however, as a couple of fillies were then playing nearby. Said fillies happen to be Minuette, Twinkleshine, Lemon Hearts and Lyra Heartstrings. The girls were playing with a ball while their friend, Twilight, who is also a filly at this time, was busy reading her book and minding her business. However, the ball bounces off course and is about to hit Twilight. Fortunately, Twilight was spared when Sunset caught the ball using her telekinesis.

"Whoa, there. That was close." Sunset said.

"We're so sorry. We didn't mean to." The young Minuette apologized.

"Yeah, it was all an accident! Honest!" the young Twinkleshine apologized as well.

"It's alright. Just be sure to be more careful next time you're playing." Sunset told the girls handing their ball back and walking off to her next class. The fillies admired Sunset for what she did.

"Wow, she's really nice." The young Lemon Hearts remarked on Sunset's generosity.

"Yeah, it's a good thing she caught the ball. Otherwise, it would've hit you, Twilight." The young Minuette then said to Twilight, but the latter didn't respond. "Twilight?"

As such, Twilight was still reading her book, unaware of what happened.

"I'm sorry, did you say something?" Twilight asked Minuette.

"Never mind." Minuette said annoyed at Twilight's focus on studying.

As time passed, Sunset had focused more on her studies than she had on trying to make friends. This brought concern onto Princess Celestia and so she decided to have a talk with Sunset about it.

"Sunset, it seems that you haven't been socializing with the other students." Princess Celestia said to Sunset. "What seems to be the matter?"

"Well, you see, Princess Celestia, I've been thinking about what if things don't work out with me making friends. What if I mess up and lose the ones I've befriended?" Sunset told Princess Celestia.

"Well, hopefully, today's lesson will help solve that." Princess Celestia suggested as they were now at the front of two doors, which the former opened and stepped inside.

Sunset looked inside the room and, to her surprise, the only thing within it was a large, standing mirror. It had a purple frame and had a few pink gems dazzled on each side while its center was flawless. Though she questioned the purpose of being here, Sunset still followed her mentor, who stood beside the mirror while Sunset was now facing it.

"Look into the mirror, Sunset, and tell me what you see." Princess Celestia instructed her student.

Sunset looked directly at the mirror. She was a bit skeptical about this. After all, nothing appeared to pop up at first. But then she saw an image on the mirror that made her lower her head in shame.

"*sigh* I see a unicorn... who's unable to make friends on her own and in a sense, isn't worth having any friends. And even if she did, she would eventually lose them, leaving her forever alone." Sunset told Princess Celestia admitting how she feels as it showed Sunset by herself in a black void.

However, she soon saw something come up.

"Wait...I think I see something else..." Sunset said seeing another vision in the mirror.

In the mirror, Sunset could now see, to her horror, Equestria now in flames and ruins. She then found herself in the vision standing in the middle of a ruined and burning Canterlot. She didn't know what to think nor say about what was in front of her. All she could do was stare at the burning buildings with no sign of life in sight. Though, she could still hear screams of terror echoing in the distance. Tears then streamed from her eyes at the horror she was witnessing, mourning inside for all those that perished in this great travesty. How? How could this have happened? she wondered in her mind. She soon felt the ground shaking as though they were large footsteps and noticed a large shadow casting over her, causing her to turn around. It revealed to be a large creature she had never seen before in her life. The thing was made entirely of metal. Sunset looked down on the ground below the metal creature and soon spotted a humanoid being in a black cloak where what appeared to be four metallic tendrils came from behind its back, which charged directed at her.

She then snapped back into reality before the tendrils attacked her, where a big gasp of horror came out of her, to Princess Celestia's surprise. She collapsed onto the floor and Princess Celestia came to her aid.

"Sunset, are you alright?!" Princess Celestia asked Sunset in worry.

Sunset couldn't speak about the horror she just saw. She simply sat there almost traumatized in fear. And so, this would be one moment that would change Sunset forever.

And it soon took effect when Sunset had basically stopped going to her exams and she began her own personal quest to learn more about the mirror and what it might've been telling her. She looked over every history book she could get her hooves on, but to no avail. As this happened, ponies had started seeing less and less of Sunset, including Princess Celestia herself. One day, Princess Celestia invited Sunset to a picnic, wanting to catch up on what the latter had been doing as of late.

"Thank you for inviting me, Princess Celestia." Sunset thanked Princess Celestia.

"Your welcome, Sunset." Princess Celestia assured Sunset.

"Listen, Celestia. You mind if I asked you something? It's about the mirror you showed me a couple of weeks ago." Sunset asked Princess Celestia.

"What about the mirror?" Princess Celestia asked.

"Well, I feel as though maybe it was showing me that something terrible will happen in the future and will destroy Equestria if you don't do something to stop it. And I was wondering if you could tell me anything else about the mirror so that we can prevent that from happening." Sunset then said. Princess Celestia didn't know exactly know what to say about what she just heard.

"Sunset, I'm not sure what the mirror showed you, but I don't think you are ready to know more about the mirror." Princess Celestia informed Sunset.

"But I really feel like something might happen if we just do nothing," Sunset then tried to reason with Princess Celestia, "Please, there's gotta be more about the mirror that could--"

Just then, rain clouds rolled in and it looked like it was about to rain.

"I'm sorry, Sunset Shimmer, but for your own good, you are not allowed to go back to the mirror until you have behaved better." Princess Celestia told Sunset somewhat frustrated with the latter's paranoia as she folded up the blanket for their picnic and left.

From the way Princess Celestia reacted to her words, Sunset sensed that she was hiding more about the mirror from her and now that Princess Celestia won't listen to her, she decided to take matters into her own hooves. As time passed since then, Sunset had learned about supposed information about the mirror in a library that contained dark magic. It wasn't exactly the last place she expected to find more info on the mirror, but she knew that if she were to save Equestria from an apocalyptic future, she would have to enter this forbidden place, which she did. To her surprise, however, she saw that it seemed it looked almost like a normal Canterlot library did where the librarian was resting her head on her desk and there didn't seem to be any royal guards around to keep watch of the place.

"Huh. You'd think that Celestia would put more security around in a place that has books about dark magic." Sunset thought to herself as she stepped over to the first few shelves before her.

Sunset stopped at the edge of both shelves, deciding to look through these books one by one on each shelf. As she spent hours upon hours going through the pages of every book there was in the library, Sunset became more aggravated as there was no mention of the mirror anywhere from within the pages.

"UGH! No luck!" Sunset thought irritated. "There's gotta be something about the mirror in here. There's just gotta."

However, she was also getting tired while looking through the books due to it being nighttime. She almost fell asleep a couple of times, but she managed to keep her eyes open. She then came across a parody of the Necronomicon, which caused her to jump back in horror and scream a bit before covering her mouth. She then noticed that the shelf behind her was going to fall, but she manages to catch it with her magic in the nick of time. She looked over at the librarian and found her still asleep.

"I guess she's a heavy sleeper." Sunset thought as she placed the bookshelf back where it stood and placed the Necronomicon-like book away.

Unfortunately for her, the librarian just then woke up from her nap and soon spotted Sunset.

Sunset, meanwhile, then saw a book on the bottom titled "Canterlot Castle History: Vol. II". Could this have all the information she needed? Sunset then took the risk as she took the book off the shelf and began through it until she came across a section detailing the mirror.

"Yes! Finally something about the mirror!" Sunset said quietly to herself where the librarian then snuck out of the library while Sunset then studied the pages. What she found out was more than she could comprehend. "Oh, my gosh, this mirror doesn't just tell possible outcomes of the future. It can also lead to other worlds."

"That's not for you to know now, isn't it?" Princess Celestia's voice was heard, catching Sunset by surprise.

She turned to where the heard came from, Princess Celestia was there confronting her along with two royal guards. Sunset would've been without any excuse as to why she was at the library, but with the information she had just learned about the mirror, she then confronted Princess Celestia.

"You lied to me about the mirror!" Sunset confronted Princess Celestia facing her. "I thought I could trust you with saving Equestria from a horrible future, but you instead tried keeping me away from the truth!"

"Is that what this is all about? I told you specifically that you were no longer allowed to go near it until you moved past this." Princess Celestia reminded Sunset not having any of the latter's bullcrud. "And now it is only getting worse--"

"You're not listening! Why are you--" Sunset argued back before pausing for a moment and realizing something. "Wait... it was you. It was you, wasn't it!? Of course, I should've known all this time! After Princess Luna turned on you, you're probably planning on destroying everypony who might try and take your place on the throne and you would have giant metal monsters to do all of your dirty work! Well, I won't let you get away with it! And if it means I have to fight you, I will--"

"That's enough!" Princess Celestia cut off Sunset putting her hoof down and now staring directly at the unicorn with a merciless glare. "I thought I could cure you of your fears, but now you accuse me of destroying my own kingdom?! I'm afraid you've left me with no other choice. Sunset Shimmer, I am removing you from your position as my pupil and you are to be removed from these premises."

Despite what she herself said earlier, Sunset was left utterly speechless at Princess Celestia's words. For a long time, she had been almost like a mother to her and to see her act like that to her was a huge blow that her heart couldn't take and started streaming tears.

"Don't bother..." Sunset replied running out of the library not looking back.

Despite Princess Celestia's orders, Sunset sneaked back into the castle and hoped to see another vision of how to save Equestria. As she looked right into the mirror, nothing even happened. This continued for the past 10 minutes before she then gave up and then turned back to the door and was about to leave when two guards passed by and spotted Sunset in the room.

"Stop right there!" One of the guards ordered Sunset, who backed away from them.

As Sunset got closer to the mirror, she soon tripped and went right through the mirror. Both guards were utterly shocked at what they just witnessed and immediately informed Princess Celestia about what happened. After which, Princess Celestia then had one of them help her move the mirror to a more secure place.

"Why are you giving it to Princess Cadence, Your Highness? Shouldn't she know about what this mirror can do, too?" The guard helping move the mirror asked Princess Celestia.

"She will. I want to have it in her safekeeping, in case Sunset returns." Princess Celestia informed her guard regretting about how she reacted to her former student. Perhaps she should've told her about the mirror. That way, this probably wouldn't have happened and Sunset would still be here.

Elsewhere, in another world, Sunset emerged from one of the sides at the bottom of a statue. She got back up on all fours and surveyed her new surroundings.

"This isn't Canterlot. Where am I?" Sunset wondered turning back to where she emerged from and on the reflective service, she found that even her appearance had changed from a unicorn to...something else entirely. She was now a human teenager and was also nude as her hair censored her breasts. She then looked down at her hooves-turned-hands. "What's happened to me?" She then noticed from behind that her legs seemed longer than before and tried standing up, naturally losing her balance on her try. She then tried again, this time with success. "Is this how I'm supposed to stand now?" Sunset wondered about her new anatomy as her body was censored by a close up of a flowerhead on the ground while her head and shoulders were visibly shown.

From behind, a light shined on her bare back.

"Twilight Sparkle." Princess Celestia's voice was heard, catching Sunset's attention as she turned around to see what was going on behind her and saw that another vision was being shown to her, just like the mirror back in Equestria. The vision depicted Princess Celestia meeting Twilight Sparkle when she was a filly in "Cutie Mark Chronicles".

"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to--" Filly Twilight apologized.

"That filly. I know her!" Sunset said recognizing the filly she had helped earlier in the story and approached the statue further to get a better look at what going on. "Wait, why is she--"

"You have a very special gift. I don't think I've ever come across a unicorn with your raw abilities." Princess Celestia said to Twilight.

"But, she has. I've done spells like that before. Why is she acting like no one has done it before?" Sunset asked herself sensing something was wrong here.

"But you need to learn how to tame these abilities through focus study." Princess Celestia continued. "Twilight Sparkle, I would like to make you my own personal protege here at the school."

Hearing those words, she reached out to the vision and touched the surface where she saw that the portal to Equestria was gone, leaving her stranded in this new world. She soon sank to the ground in both anger and distraught no longer watching the rest of the vision and more focused on her own emotional breakdown. She had never felt this much betrayal and hopelessness in her life and wanted it all to end as she clenched her fists and cried. After a moment, Sunset rose her head back to where the vision was being shown on the statue's base and saw now that perhaps she was right all along about Princess Celestia and her possible plans for Equestria, seeing now that it might be too late to save it. But that didn't mean she couldn't save this new world she was now at and swore to make sure that neither Princess Celestia nor anypony working for her will ever set hoof on it.

Unbeknownst to Sunset, a black car was parked across the street from the left of the school where its driver had witnessed Sunset's arrival while it seems as though he was talking with someone else on his phone. From his appearance and voice, he seemed to be a young man around the Humane 6's age, including Sunset and Sci-Twi.

"Hey, I'm gonna have to call you back. I think I've just found something...interesting related to the project." He said on the phone developing a pleased smile on his face at his newfound discovery, as if he had been looking for both Sunset and the Equestrian magic his whole life.

Author's Note

For those wondering why Celestia is called a queen, that's because I wanted to integrate Lauren Faust's vision for the character in my take on the show's continuity as she wanted Celestia to be Equestria's queen, but Hasbro wouldn't allow it and changed it to princess because of their belief that Disney stereotyped queens as evil in their movies.

The Intruder

On this very night, Twilight Sparkle of Ponyville had just become an alicorn after having helped restore her friends' cutie marks and who they are. Princess Celestia had arranged for her coronation tomorrow morning at the Crystal Empire and Princess Cadance had invited Twilight and her friends to spend the night over at her and Shining Armor's palace. The Man 6 had just then arrived at the palace where the three other alicorns are waiting for them. Everypony was practically excited for Twilight's coronation into becoming a princess tomorrow, including Twilight herself.

"Hoo-wee! Your very own princess coronation tomorrow. You must be over the moon, Twilight." Applejack said to Twilight.

"Ooo, I am excited." Twilight replied to Applejack. "But, to be honest, I'm a little nervous, too."

"You're nervicited." Pinkie Pie told Twilight before bouncing up and down repeatedly. "It's like when you want to jump up and yell 'Yay, me!'. But you also want to curl up in a teeny-tiny ball and hide at the same time." As Pinkie said that last part, she did exactly that. "We've all been there!"

"I'm there almost every day." Fluttershy said to herself disappointedly.

"You've got no reason to fret, Twilight." Applejack reassured Twilight. "Everything's going to be ju--"

Suddenly, Rarity dashed to Twilight in despair.

"Twilight!" Rarity partially shrieked before reverting back to her normal tone. "Ugh. Sorry, darling. But I just realized you're not wearing your crown!" Rarity checked Twilight's entire head for any sign of said crown while she said that. "You haven't forgotten it back in Ponyville, haven't you?"

"It's in my bag." Twilight answered, which it then showed Twilight's bag next to Spike. "Just feel a little self-conscious about wearing it. Haven't really gotten accustomed to these yet, either." Twilight then unfolded her newly acquired wings from a few hours earlier. She then attempted to fly, but lost balance and dropped to the floor.

"You are a princess now, Twilight. Embrace it." Rarity encouraged Twilight. "I'm telling you, why if I had a crown like that, I would never take it off. Why, I'd sleep in the thing."

Twilight then gave a smile at Rarity, knowing her friend's love of elegant and regal attire. The group eventually arrived to the throne room of the palace, where both Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Shining Armor and Princess Cadance were there to greet them as the royal guards blew their horns to Twilight's arrival. The Mane 6 were all taken by surprise by this as they entered the throne room. Deep down, Twilight felt that this was unnecessary. After all, she didn't wish to be treated as if she were like Celestia or Luna or even Cadance, she just wanted to be who she always was; herself. She failed to notice that she was about to bump into one of the guards, which happened soon afterwards. The guard was different than the other royal guards greeting Twilight. His coat was bright orange, his mane and tail were blue and he appeared to be wearing the standard gold armor that the guards of Canterlot wore, indicating he was also from the same place. The pegasus smiled seeing Twilight before him.

"Her highness! Princess Twilight Sparkle!" The guard exclaimed announcing Twilight's arrival.

"Twily." Shining Armor greeted his sister.

"Twilight!" Cadance then greeted her sister in-law. "I'm so glad I'll get to see you in your coronation tomorrow."

"We're all looking forward to your big day tomorrow, little sis." Shining Armor said to Twilight.

"We have so much to discuss, but it can wait until tomorrow." Celestia said. " It's been a long day for all of us. We better off to bed now."

Everyone then took Celestia's advice and went to their rooms to sleep for the coronation tomorrow morning. Twilight and Spike were getting ready for bed where Twilight was unpacking her things and Spike was fluffing his small bed. Twilight then pulled out her crown and decided to wear it to see what she looks like with it on in a nearby mirror. She sighed, which caught Spike's attention.

"What's wrong, Twilight?" Spike asked Twilight in concern.

"I don't know, Spike. I'm just worried, I guess." Twilight told Spike feeling unsure of her newfound destiny. "Princess Cadance was given the Crystal Empire to rule over. What if after I become a princess tomorrow, Celestia expects me to lead a kingdom of my own when I become one?"

"That would be awesome!" Spike said finding the idea...well, awesome.

"No, it would not!" Twilight disagreed. "Just because I have this crown and these wings, it doesn't mean I'll be a good leader." Twilight removed her crown and placed it on the bedside.

"Ah, sure you will, Twilight. Now, come on. You should get some shuteye. Big day tomorrow." Spike told Twilight as he tucked into bed, turned off the lamp and went over to his bed to sleep for the night.

Twilight appreciated Spike's support as she went to sleep. However, she was having some trouble doing so when her wings wouldn't fold.

"Can't...tuck..." Twilight said in frustration as her wings kept unfolding. "Just trying to get comfortable!" She seemed to have gotten them folded at last laying back down before the wings unfolded again, to her chagrin as she groaned in irritation.

During that night, as the guards were keeping watch over the halls of the Crystal Palace, one of the doors had a mysterious light coming from inside the room behind it through the keyhole. The door then opened before cutting to the perspective of the person inside the room watching one of the guards passing by and out of sight. A silhouette of a hooded figure was shown roaming through one of the halls, but stopped when the figure spotted the light from an approaching guard. The same guard walked in and the figure was hiding behind the wall to the guard's right and sneaked passed him while he wasn't looking. The figure then quietly roamed through the halls before coming across a room of interest as the shadows of legs appeared underneath the doorway and the door opened.

It revealed to be Twilight's room as Twilight and Spike were asleep. The hooded figure then entered Twilight's room, quietly approaching Twilight and carefully passing by Spike. The figure wore a grey hoodie, a backpack on her back, an orange skirt and black boots on her hind hooves. As the figure came up to Twilight's crown on the bedside, it appeared the figure was a orange-yellow unicorn with a red mane. The unicorn carefully lifted the crown with her telepathy, but ended up accidentally knocking over the bedside lamp. Fortunately for her, the unicorn managed to telekinetically catch the lamp just in time before it hit the ground, showing to be sweating on the forehead. The unicorn then looked at both Twilight and Spike and gave a quiet sigh of relief seeing they were still asleep. The unicorn then placed the lamp gently back onto the night stand and swapped the crown with a duplicate. The unicorn felt confident about having succeeded in taking Twilight's crown, decided to trot in victory for a bit before returning to the door. However, the figure failed to recognize Spike's tail on the floor and so the unicorn tripped over it as a result. The noise of the unicorn tripping then woke Spike from his sleep.

"Huh? What?" Spike said waking up.

The unicorn was trying to get back up on their feet, but Twilight was the second to wake and then notice her crown being placed into the unicorn's backpack, whom then sealed it.

"My crown! That pony's got my crown!" Twilight exclaimed pointing at the unicorn.

The unicorn now realized her situation and bolted out of there with Twilight giving chase.

"STOP! THIEF!" Twilight demanded, where the rest of the Mane 6 stepped out and were wondering what was going on. "That pony's stolen my crown!"

Hearing this, the other ponies soon joined in at helping stopping the thief.

Twilight tried to use her magic to unzip the unicorn's backpack. She managed to do so and reclaimed her crown with her magic. However, the unicorn noticed and used a teleporting spell on the crown to place it back into her backpack, though she didn't seem to zip it back up while Twilight went after her again.

The unicorn looked back and found the entire Mane 6 now chasing after her where Twilight caught up to the unicorn to reach for the backpack.

Twilight then tackled the unicorn into the room the latter came from where the crown flew out of the backpack and bounced around the room before fazing through the mirror, which the unicorn appeared to be glad about. The unicorn was then revealed to be a female and her mane was actually a mixture of red and yellow, almost resembling fire.

"What did you do with my crown?" Twilight demanded to the unicorn.

The unicorn's smile faded and gave Twilight a cold, scornful stare without saying a single word with a look as if she had a personal grudge against her. She soon teleported to the mirror and went through, to the Mane 6's gasp in shock.

"Who was that?" Fluttershy wondered.

Later that night, the Mane 6 had awoken and informed Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Shining Armor and Princess Cadance. Celestia seemed to be the first to recognize the description of the thief that stole Twilight's crown.

"Sunset Shimmer. A former student of mine." Celestia said giving the Mane 6 the name of the intruder from last night. "She began her studies with me not long before Twilight. But when she did not get what she wanted as quickly as she liked, she turned cruel and dishonest. I tried to help her, but she eventually decided to abandon her studies and pursue her own path. One that has sadly lead her to steal your crown."

"She replaced Twilight's with this one." Spike informed Celestia taking out the fake crown that Sunset tried to replace. Celestia then analyzed the object.

"I suppose Sunset Shimmer thought you wouldn't notice right away that this was not yours." Celestia theorized as she walked past the Mane 6 to leave the room. "And by the time you did, it would be too late to go after your crown and Element of Harmony."

Twilight caught up with Celestia and asked her more about what was happening.

"But I don't understand. Where did she go? Where did she take the crown?" Twilight asked.

Behind them, everyone else followed them out of the room.

"You'll know more about this place than even I do." Celestia answered.

As they all left, it transitioned to the mirror from the previous chapter, which was now housed in a lone room in Cadance's palace, similar to how the mirror was back in Canterlot.

"This is no ordinary mirror. It is a gateway into another world." Luna explained to the Mane 6 standing to the left side of the mirror where her reflection was shown on the mirror. "A gateway that opens once every 30 moons."

Just as she finished, Pinkie raised her hoof from below Luna and touched the mirror, causing it to glow.

"Sparkly." Pinkie said entertained before Luna used her aura to remove Pinkie's hoof off the mirror and move her away from it.

"It has always been kept in our care at Canterlot Castle. But when Sunset Shimmer escaped into the mirror, Celestia entrusted it to Cadance for her to watch over." Princess Luna continued.

Celestia sighed in disappointment from behind the Mane 6 and stepped forward. "I had always hoped that Sunset Shimmer would use it to return, to come back to Equestria, seeking my guidance. Obviously, this is not what has happened."

"Twilight, you must use the mirror to go into this other world and retrieve your crown." Cadance informed Twilight, whom stepped up to the mirror while Shining Armor was by her side. "Without it, the other Elements of Harmony have no power and Equestria is left without one of it's most important means of defense."

Twilight nodded, understanding the situation and was ready to go into the mirror. The rest of the Mane 6 showed concern for their friend.

"Your crown does not belong in the place Sunset Shimmer calls home." Princess Luna informed Twilight. "And in her possession, your Element of Harmony will no doubt be used to bring harm to the inhabitants of this other realm. They will not have the power to defend themselves."

Luna then placed Twilight's saddlebag on her back, preparing her for her trip.

"You understand the importance of your task?" Celestia stepped up to Twilight and asked.

"Of course." Twilight assured to Celestia.

"Good. Then you must go at once." Celestia insisted.

With determination, Twilight sighed and made her way to the mirror.

However, Rainbow Dash then landed right in front of Twilight, stopping her.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. If she's going, we're going with her. Right, girls?" Rainbow Dash insisted as the other members of the Mane 6 then joined her.

"Ooohh! I'm nervicited!" Pinkie Pie excitedly said.

"You do realize that's not a real word, right?" Applejack asked Pinkie.

Twilight was touched by her friends' loyalty and made a warm smile.

"If you truly wish to go, then I won't stop you." Celestia assured, to the Mane 6's delight. "But you all must go at once."

"Time is of the essence. On the third day, when the moon reaches its peak in the night sky, the gateway will close." Luna then explained. "And once it does, it'll be another 30 moons before you will be able to use it to return."

With nothing else stopping them, Twilight stepped up to the mirror first where she raised her hoof to touch the mirror. The hoof then went through the mirror a bit and took it out in hesitation. She looked back at Celestia, who nodded her approval and so Twilight stepped into the mirror first.

As Twilight was about to enter through the mirror, Spike then saw what seemed like a sinister figure reflected on the mirror's surface and it looked as though it were about to attack Twilight. Spike then dashed to Twilight's aid, but tripped as he then knocked both her and himself into the mirror. The two were then changed into small light spheres traveling through a rainbow colored tunnel, almost reminiscent to the Bifrost from the Thor films. As the spheres reached the end, a bright white light flashed covering the whole screen.

A Strange New World

Everything was now black when Twilight regained consciousness in her POV. She saw that it was nighttime where she and Spike were at.

"Uh, Twilight?" Spike's voice was heard asking her.

"Huh? Spike? Why did you--" Twilight was about to ask Spike turning over to where she heard his voice, but soon found him as a dog. "Spike? Are you a...dog?"

Spike then checked himself and saw that his body had changed entirely into a small dog.

"I...think so..." Spike confirmed, though he was unsure why. "But I have no idea what you are!"

Twilight raised her front legs and was taken by surprise when she saw they were replaced with human arms and hands. She screamed in horror for a few seconds before covering her mouth as we soon see she was now a human teenager, but was also completely naked since as a pony, she didn't wear clothes. Only her upper body and head were shown as her lower body was offscreen. The only form of clothing she had was her saddlebag, which fell off behind her. The only thing that seemed to cover part of her nudity was some of her hair covering her chest. Twilight then analyzed her hand and was stupefied by the additions of fingers as she moved them around. She then grabbed her right hand by the wrist and tried to shake off the fingers, but soon found they were attached. Twilight was clearly panicking whilst Spike and didn't know what to do. Twilight then tried to lightly pull her finger off, but failed. She then checked to see her hind legs have also changed into that of a human's.

"Twilight, you have to get it together." Spike told Twilight.

Twilight then took Spike's advice and calmed down placing her hands on the ground.

"What...does the rest of me look like?!" Twilight asked Spike in concern.

"Um, like you. Only not you. Your muzzle's really small." Spike answered.

"My muzzle?!" Twilight repeated what Spike said as she found it was replaced with a human nose and was about to go on another panic attack. Spike soon placed his paws on her mouth, preventing her from screaming.

"Are you going to scream again?" Spike asked her.

Twilight shook her head in response and Spike took his paws off her mouth. The two then surveyed their surroundings where they were on the now closed school grounds of Canterlot High.

"Where are we?" Spike asked.

"I don't know." Twilight said turning around to find a horse statue behind her. She stumbled over to the part of the statue that houses the portal to Equestria. "But this must serve as the gateway back to Equestria." Twilight inserted her hand into the portal where it changed back into her hoof in the reflection where the hand's supposed to be, to which she took it back out and it changed back into her hand. "The others should be arriving any minute now. We better wait for them here."

Twilight and Spike then sat down facing the statue as they waited for the rest of the Mane 6 to greet them while the camera panned over to the top of the school where the moon was out and about.

The scene dissolved to the next morning where Twilight and Spike were still at the same spot they were waiting at having fallen asleep.

Spike was the first to wake and realized that Twilight was now fully clothed and her saddlebag was replaced with a blue backpack, where the latter soon awoke. "Hey, when did you get new clothes last night?"

"I didn't get new...clothes?" Twilight said before realizing she was now fully clothed. "Where did these come from?"

"I don't know." Spike said before he looked around to find that the other ponies hadn't shown up. "Hey, did the others manage to go through the portal last night?"

"Well, it looks like we might have to continue without them." Twilight said getting up. She then turned her attention at Canterlot High. "I suggest we start this school first."

"Works for me." Spike said hopping onto her back as she sprinted to the school on all fours.

Spike soon spotted something to his left and tapped Twilight to show her what it was that he was seeing. It was a young man walking his dog and they were easily confused as to why a girl was walking like an animal while her dog was riding on her back. Twilight immediately rose up on her feet as she brushed herself off and smiled nervously at the boy. The boy's dog looked at him hoping his master would let him do the same, but the boy didn't think the same pointing his attention back to their walk, to the dog's dismay.

Twilight was then having trouble adjusting to her legs as she struggled to stand up straight. She managed to walk a bit before almost falling over and catching the rail to the steps at the entrance.

"Come on, Spike. I do not want to be like this for longer than I have to." Twilight told Spike as she struggled to climb up the steps while holding onto the rail.

"Well, look on the bright side. At least you don't have those pesky wings to worry about anymore." Spike said, which he then nervously smiled after seeing she didn't find what he said funny.

Twilight reached the front doors of the school and moves her head back thinking she opened the doors with her magic, only to hit directly at the doors instead.

"Hmm." Twilight responded as she tried again to use her magic, but to no avail. "My magic. It isn't working."

"Makes sense. You don't exactly have your horn." Spike remarked.

"WHAT?!" Twilight reacted at Spike's revelation looking at her forehead.

"We really need to find you a mirror." Spike said pushing the door open.

The two peeked inside to find no one around and entered quietly. Twilight surveyed the room she and Spike and walked over to one of the trophy cases where she saw her reflection and saw her human form.

"What am I?" Twilight asked herself.

Just at that moment, the bell rang and students filled the hallways getting to their class. Twilight tried to navigate through the crowds of students, but was then accidentally hit in the face and fell to the floor. She then crawled through the sea of students passing by her too busy to even notice her. Twilight managed to get out, but her foot got caught between the feet of two separate students and as she pulled her foot out, she stumbled backwards to a nearby student by his locker.

"Whoa. You okay?" The student asked offering his hand to her.

She didn't reply and accepted his offer at helping her off the floor. Twilight then nodded yes and the student soon left for his next class.

Twilight then started studying her new environment while roaming through the halls of the school to learn more about this world.

[Twilight]

I've never seen a place

That's quite like this

Everything is turned around

This crazy world is upside down

Twilight soon tripped and fell to the floor again. Though, this time, she did manage to get back up on her own with her new hands.

Getting on my feet

It's the hand that I was dealt

But I don't have much with them

Got to learn all that I can

Twilight studied the students of the school and witnessed such things as two playing hackey sack, the theater club doing rehearsals, a couple holding hands and lastly, the shape of human ears. She then looked through the window of a classroom door seeing the human version of Cheeriley writing on the chalkboard.

They don't use any magic

Or fly with any wings

She turned away from the door and turned down at her body before touching her nose.

I don't get these funny clothes

Skinny legs or tiny nose

Twilight then continued roaming through the hallways seeing that most of the students in this school resemble other ponies from Equestria, such as ones resembling Vinyl Scratch and Photo Finish.

Everything's confusing

When it seems so new

But I look a little closer

And it starts to feel familiar too

Twilight then enters and surveys one of the school's restrooms when a boy steps out of one of the stalls, revealing she's in the boys' restroom. She soon runs out of their without anyone else outside the restroom noticing her.

What a strange new world

I'm trying to make heads or tails

Of this strange new world

Sorting through the small details

Of this strange new world

What a strange new world

Twilight continued her tour around the school through the halls until she heard a nearby conversation.

"I'm really sorry." A voice apologized offscreen, in which Twilight somewhat recognized. "I-I just found it and-and I thought I should give it to her."

Twilight leaned in from the corner to see where the voice was coming from.

"I didn't know it belonged to you." The voice continued.

"Well, it does. And I was going to retrieve it, but then you decided to swoop in and steal it away from me." Another voice said, coming from a girl with familiar clothes, red and yellow hair and yellow skin. This voice sounded to be a mixture of both frustration and intimidation. The camera panned a bit to reveal she was talking to the human counterpart of Fluttershy, who was clearly afraid of the unseen girl talking to her. Twilight's jaw dropped in awe at seeing another version of her friend in this world. "You shouldn't really take things that don't belong to you."

"It doesn't really belong to you, either--" Fluttershy said under her breathe.

"Excuse me?!" The other girl demanded slamming her hand on a locker next to the Fluttershy-like girl.

"N-n-nothing..." The Fluttershy replied in fear sinking to the floor.

"Look, I'm asking you nicely to stay out of my way from now on. Got that?" The other girl declared, much to Twilight and Spike's anger, to which the latter growled. "And if I catch you doing it again, I'll report about you bringing stray animals to school."

Twilight had had enough and finally stepped in and confronted the bully.

"How dare you speak to her that way!" Twilight said to the bully.

This caught the bully's attention, who turned to Twilight. "What did you say?!"

"I said how dare you speak to her that way!" Twilight repeated as she and the bully approached each other and stopped right in front of each other.

Both girls angrily glared at each other almost up close, but the bully soon realized it wasn't worth it.

The girl sighed. "You know what? I don't have time for this. I've got more important things to worry about." The girl said walking away from Twilight and Fluttershy without giving them a second glance. As the girl walked away, she noticed a male student watching her and when she glanced at him, he jumped into his locker in fear as the girl continued walking away.

"I can't believe you did that." Fluttershy said astonished by Twilight's act of bravery.

"I couldn't just stand there." Twilight said.

"Well, it's just that...Nobody's ever stood up to Sunset Shimmer before. In fact, I don't think anybody's seen Sunset Shimmer like that before." Fluttershy said.

"Sunset Shimmer?" Twilight asked looking back to Sunset Shimmer, who had just left the hallway.

"You know her?" Fluttershy asked Twilight.

"Sort of..." Twilight answered.

"I noticed you were asleep at the front of the school this morning, but I don't think I've seen you around before. Did you just transferred to Canterlot High from another school?" Fluttershy asked Twilight.

"Umm...yes. Another, uh-huh, school." Twilight answered trying to sound casual. "My name's Twilight. What's your name?"

Fluttershy paused for a moment after hearing Twilight asking her name and soon enough, she sheepishly attempted to respond back.

"Oh. Um...I'm Fluttershy..." Fluttershy answered very quietly.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" Twilight asked Fluttershy unable to hear what she said.

"Um...my name is, uh, Fluttershy..." Fluttershy answered again still too shy to speak up any louder.

"Didn't quite catch that." Twilight said as Fluttershy soon spotted Spike next to her. "Are you saying your name is--"

"Oh, my goodness! Who's this sweet little guy?" Fluttershy soon asked gushing over seeing Spike.

"That's Spike." Twilight answered. "My...dog."

"Ooh! He's so cute!" Fluttershy said taking out a dog treat from in her backpack. "Go on. Eat up, little pup."

Spike then took a bite out of the treat mostly out of morbid curiosity, but soon realized how tasty it was and ate the rest from Fluttershy's hand.

"Wouldn't you just give anything to know what they're really thinking?" Fluttershy asked Twilight expressing her love of animals.

"He usually just tells me." Twilight simply answered.

"W-What do you mean?" Fluttershy then asked merely confused by Twilight's answer. While she wasn't looking, Spike was signaling to Twilight to not tell her about Spike being able to talk. Fluttershy soon turned back to Spike, who barked like a dog and gave a nervous smile.

"Oh, uh, nothing... Never mind." Twilight answered trying to shift away from what she said, which Fluttershy didn't seem that concerned with as she was more focused on Spike. Twilight then turn her focus back to the crown. "Sunset Shimmer said you picked something up. Something that belonged to her. It wasn't a crown, was it?"

Fluttershy was shocked by what Twilight asked her as she rose back up to her feet. "How did you know?" She then asked.

"Uh, lucky guess?" Twilight answered nervously. "Do you still have it?"

Fluttershy nodded no to Twilight's question.

Twilight then thought of another question to asked her. "But you know what happened to it?"

Fluttershy this time nodded yes. "This morning, I was passing out flyers for the animal shelter like I do every Wednesday."

It then flashed back to a few hours earlier where Fluttershy was by the statue trying her best to reach out for any volunteers for the animal shelter. Twilight and Spike were of course shown sleeping nearby the statue where Twilight was already fully clothed, meaning she had gotten her new clothes sometime before the school even opened.

"Canterlot's animal shelter needs more volunteers. Won't you help an animal that can't help itself?" Fluttershy said to the students passing by her trying to reach out to them. However, she spoke with her usual quiet tone, which made it hard to get anyone to notice her. Fluttershy soon sighed in disappointment over not getting anyone's attention when a couple of flyers fell out of the stack she was holding.

"Oops." Fluttershy exclaimed as she kneeled down and started picking up the dropped flyers off the ground. Suddenly, something shined in her eye and got her attention as she saw that the shine was coming from a nearby bush. Fluttershy went over to the bush to see what was causing the shining, where it turned out to be Twilight's crown, much to her confusion.

"I have no idea how it got there." Fluttershy continued her story as it faded back to the present. "But I didn't want anything to happen to it. So, I decided to give it to Principal Celestia."

"Principal Celestia?" Twilight asked confused about the last part Fluttershy said. "She's in charge here?"

"You could say that." Fluttershy responded albeit a bit puzzled by the question. "Technically, I guess she and Vice Principal Luna do make all the rules."

"Where is she now?" Twilight then asked eager to reach Celestia.

"In her office--" Fluttershy answered to which Twilight immediately ran off, only to come back not knowing where the principal's office is. "Third door on your left."

"Thank you!" Twilight hollered as she already ran off.

"Oh, wait!" Fluttershy then called out to Twilight, who stopped. "You're not really supposed to have pets on school grounds. Might wanna tuck them into your backpack. That's what I do."

Just as she said that, some animal friends of her popped out of the backpack. They were a rabbit resembling Angel, a small white cat with a blue bow on top and a red bird.

"They just get so lonely when I'm at school all day." Fluttershy explained wrapping her around her animal friends together.

Twilight could see that just from seeing her around those animals, she knew that this was definitely Fluttershy. Despite this one being from a different world, she still had the same kind heart and love for everypony and animals that the regular Fluttershy has.

"Oh. Okay. Thank you." Twilight thanked Fluttershy when the school bell rang.

"Oh, no! I'm late for class!" Fluttershy exclaimed gathering her animal friends back into her backpack and immediately hurried to her next class.

Twilight decided to take Fluttershy's advice and place Spike into her saddlebag, but that's when she realized.

"Oh, no! I forgot my saddlebag outside!" Twilight exclaimed.

"Actually, you do seem to have that other thing on your back like Fluttershy does." Spike pointed out. "You've had it on you since this morning."

Twilight was taken by surprise by this and looked her to find there was a backpack on her already. Though, this did raise the question of what exactly happened to her saddlebag while she and Spike were asleep last night. However, she need to focus on what was more important and find Principal Celestia's office as she then unzipped the backpack and Spike entered. She put the backpack back on and walked away.

Later, Twilight arrived at Principal Celestia's office and entered by opening the door with her head. She acted as though she bowed to who she believed was her queen from Equestria with her arms raised as though they were her alicorn wings. However, she soon saw that Sunset Shimmer had already beaten her to Principal Celestia where she was trying to convince the latter to give her back the crown. Celestia then noticed Twilight behind Sunset and showed a face of confusion to what Twilight was doing.

"Um, can I help you?" Celestia asked Twilight.

Sunset saw that Celestia was talking to someone else behind her and she turned around to see it was Twilight, to her surprise.

"You again?!" Sunset exclaimed to Twilight's presence visibly annoyed.

"You know this girl, Sunset?" Celestia asked Sunset.

"Uh, sort of. We just met a little while ago." Sunset answered calmly not wanting to draw any suspicion from Celestia before turning back to Twilight expecting her to explain her reason of being here.

At that moment, Twilight realized Sunset and Celestia were looking directly back her and rose herself up from her stance to prevent the awkward moment to continue and explain why she was here. Twilight then placed her bag down and then focused on Celestia.

"Ummm... Uhhh... Whew..." Twilight struggled to say.

This only made Sunset even more annoyed as she was starting to become impatient wanting Twilight to say what she needed to say and hopefully for her to leave. From behind Sunset, Celestia then made a small gesture telling her to say something.

Twilight gathered her senses and finally spoke clearly.

"My name's Twilight. I'm new here. And...well, I understand that one of your students, Fluttershy found a crown this morning and gave it to you."

"That would happen to be the Fall Formal crown, which Principal Celestia entrusted me to hold onto for safekeeping until the night of the dance and I was going to retrieve it." Sunset informed Twilight.

"Yes. But then it was found on school grounds out of your watch, Sunset, which I've now assigned to Vice Principal Luna for safekeeping." Principal Celestia reminded Sunset about what happened this morning picking up a file on her desk before getting up and going over to a filing cabinet to put it away. "No idea how it ended up on the front lawn without you knowing about it, let alone in one of the bushes."

"What?! Bu-But--" Sunset tried to say to Celestia.

"I'm sorry, Sunset, but you know that in order to have the Fall Formal crown, you have to run for Princess of the Fall Formal." Principal Celestia reminded Sunset before turning her attention to Twilight. "Were you interested in running for Princess of the Fall Formal this year, Miss?"

Sunset was even more frustrated than ever as she now had to try and earn that crown back by running for prom queen, which she clearly showed no interest in. She glanced to Twilight with a displeased look on her face.

"Well, not exactly. The truth is... Well, the truth is... You see, the crown is actually--" Twilight try to respond to Celestia but soon picked up on what the latter just said, who stumbled over to a dashboard. "Princess of the Fall Formal?"

"It's Canterlot High's big fall dance." Celestia explained marking a date off the dashboard.

"Like the Grand Galloping Gala?" Twilight asked interested.

Sunset recognized what Twilight said and was both surprised and confused by that revelation.

"What did you say?" Sunset asked Twilight under her breathe.

"Err, Grand Galloping Gala?" Celestia asked confused by Twilight's choice of words.

"Oh, uh, it was a...big deal at my old school." Twilight lied.

"And was there a princess?" Celestia asked.

"Yes, but she wasn't exactly a student." Twilight continued.

Sunset was speechless at what she was hearing and couldn't help but wonder who this girl was. Where did she come from and what does she want with the crown she took from Equestria? All of these kind of questions burned within Sunset's head, but Sunset soon discarded her concerns about the girl for the time being in order to know how to win Princess of the Fall Formal to get back the crown.

"Here at Canterlot High, the students select one of their peers to represent them." Celestia then explained to Twilight showing her a row of pictures showcasing previous students from years past who had won Princess of the Fall Formal. Sunset rolled her eyes at the whole thing, believing it to be total nonsense. "She receives her crown at the Fall Formal."

Hearing that last bit of vital information, both girls' goals were set and so they each planned to run for Princess of the Fall Formal. Sunset was the first to step out of Celestia's office and left to go somewhere else in the school. Twilight, too stepped out, but stopped to ask Celestia more information about the Fall Formal.

"You asked me if I was interested in running for Princess. Can anyone run?" Twilight asked Celestia.

"Yes. You just need to let the Head of the Fall Formal Planning Committee know you like to be on the ballet, which it seems is what Sunset Shimmer already left to go do. Was there anything else?" Celestia explained and then asked Twilight.

"Um. No. That was it." Twilight answered eagerly.

"Well, if you do need anything else, my door is always open." Celestia informed Twilight calmly before ironically closing her door, to Twilight's surprise.

Spike popped out of her backpack and was rather confused by Twilight's actions earlier.

"Twilight, why didn't you just tell her the crown was yours and ask for it back?" Spike asked Twilight, who was walking away from Principal Celestia's office and ended up in the room they entered the school in.

"Oh, I was going to. But imagine one of them showed up in Equestria saying they came from a place full of tall, fleshy, two-legged creatures with these? We think they were crazy!" Twilight then asked Spike back. During her conversation with Spike, one of the students, Micro Chip walked by and witnessed Twilight shaking her arms in the air, lifted her left leg and showed Spike her hands, which caused him to get weirded out of Twilight's behavior (not to mention talking to a dog in her backpack) and backed away slowly.

"Hmm, you make a good point." Spike soon replied understanding her reasons.

"Looks like if I want to stop Sunset Shimmer from getting my crown, I'll have to become Princess of the Canterlot High Fall Formal. So, that's what I'm gonna do!" Twilight declared.

"And how exactly do you plan on doing that?" Spike then asked.

"I have no idea!" Twilight answered when the school bell rang and everyone stepped out of their classrooms.

New Yet Familiar Friends

Later, during lunch, Twilight met with Fluttershy again at the cafeteria just as the two were getting themselves some food.

"I know we've just met, but I was wondering if you might be able to help me with something." Twilight asked Fluttershy.

"Of course." Fluttershy answered politely as she took a small bowl of fruit from the stand.

Twilight decided to take one herself. "I've decided to run for Princess of the Fall Formal and--"

Fluttershy gasped in horror hearing what Twilight just said accidentally dropping and spilling her fruit salad on the latter. Fluttershy covered her mouth seeing Twilight's clothes stained in what was going to be her fruit salad. "Oh, gosh." Fluttershy looked around before grabbing a stack of napkins off the stand and tried to clean up the mess on Twilight's clothes. "Sorry, it's just--Oh...running for Fall Formal Princess right now is a really bad idea."

"Why?" Twilight asked her confused.

"Word is is that Sunset Shimmer wants to be Fall Formal Princess." Fluttershy answered discarding the used napkins. "And after what had happened earlier today, I don't think you should take the risk." Fluttershy placed her lunch tray on the counter where the lunchlady, who was this world's version of Granny Smith, placed an apple onto the tray along with Twilight's. "She might make your life awful if you stand in her way. I don't even want to imagine what she would do if the girl who was Princess of the Spring Fling ran against her."

"I have to try!" Twilight reasoned with Fluttershy as they left and went to go sit down at one of the tables.

"I don't think you understand. You'd have to convince everyone here to vote for you instead of her." Fluttershy said to Twilight as they walked past several groups of students. Each represented the kind of students that Fluttershy was referring to. "The athletes; the fashionistas; the dramas; the eco-kids; the techies; the rockers."

Twilight seemed confused about the purpose of the groups, since in Equestria, all ponies lived together equally. As they walked, the aforementioned groups passed by them at their own tables. However, what she seem to notice more was the absence of one particular student she had in her mind.

"Where's Sunset Shimmer?" Twilight asked.

"Well, she's usually not seen eating in here. Nobody really knows anything about Sunset Shimmer ever since she first arrived here last year." Fluttershy explained to Twilight about Sunset Shimmer's history at Canterlot High. "But if she really is like what we've seen, she might rule this school until we graduate." Fluttershy soon took a bite out of her fruit salad.

"Not if I can help it!" Twilight declared as she bit into the apple with only her mouth and not her hands, causing Fluttershy to look at her strangely. Twilight noticed the look on Fluttershy's face and moved her hand up to put the apple onto it. "So, uh, heh, where would I find the head of the Party Planning Committee?" Twilight soon asked leaving an embarrassed smile on her face.

Fluttershy informed Twilight where she could find the head of the Party Planning Committee and she went to the gym after lunch.

"Fluttershy said she'd probably be in here." Twilight said to Spike, who was out of her backpack and followed along as they both entered the gym.

The gym was all decked out for the Fall Formal as there were balloons floating on top of the ceiling, banners hanging from above, speakers on each corner of the gym, a stand for the DJ, a snack table with a punch bowl and a photo stand. As Twilight and Spike surveyed the room, they couldn't help but feel something was rather familiar about how all these party decorations were laid out when all of a sudden.

"INCOMING!!" Pinkie's voice shouted from above as streamers rained down onto both Twilight and Spike, hitting and covering them.

Twilight and Spike got out from underneath the streamers and found this world's version of Pinkie Pie, who then peeled off one of her cutie mark's balloons on her skirt and with a big huff, blew into and inflated the balloon.

"Hi. My name is Twilight Sparkle and--" Twilight introduced herself to Pinkie Pie, who turned around to face her with the balloon still in her hand, causing Twilight to duck to avoid getting hit by it. Twilight soon recognized who the head of the Party Planning Committee was and under her breathe said. "Pinkie Pie?"

Pinkie Pie seem to hear Twilight call her by her name, catching her offguard as the balloon she was holding deflated into her face, to Twilight's dismay. Then, suddenly from behind, Pinkie grabbed Twilight by the arms and turned her around to face her.

"Are you psychic?!" Pinkie Pie gasped and asked Twilight in concern.

"Uh, no. I don't think so. Unless, of course, that's something you can do here." Twilight answered making sure not to give away her identity.

Pinkie let go of Twilight, dropping her to the ground buying her explanation. "Not usually." Pinkie then went back to setting up the decorations around the gym as she inflated another balloon.

"Fluttershy said this is where I find the head of the Fall Formal Planning Comittee." Twilight explained to Pinkie her reason for being here.

However, Pinkie's eyes dilated in horror hearing what Twilight just said, causing her to stop inflating the balloon she was inflating and unwittingly allowing the air from inside the balloon to cartoonishly inflate her head like a balloon before she turned back to Twilight.

"You talked to Fluttershy?!" Pinkie exclaimed in terror letting the inflated air out through her mouth blowing into both Twilight and Spike as her head deflated back to normal. "Did any of her animals attack you when you asked?! Or worse, she let you come here and secretly sent her animals to ambush us while we're talking!!"

Twilight was appalled by what Pinkie just asked her and was understandably confused by her sudden paranoia.

"What are you talking about?" Twilight asked back.

Instead of answering, Pinkie checked outside the gym and then the entire gym itself to see if her believes were true.

"Well, it looks like you manage to get away safe and sound, which is a relief." Pinkie said calming down and moving back to Twilight wanting to ask her as the head of the Party Planning Committee. "Need to get your name on the ballet, huh? Dance is the day after tomorrow."

"I'm brand new here." Twilight told Pinkie.

"Oooh!" Pinkie gushed interested before taking a closer look at Twilight. "I thought you didn't look familiar." Pinkie then zoomed over to Twilight and checked all over her body, literally to get a better look at her. "Though, now that I'm really looking at you." Pinkie then stepped back and her face expressed of having figured everything out. "Do you have a twin sister who lives in the city? Has a pet dog named Spike, who looks just like that one?"

As Pinkie asked Twilight her question, Spike was playing with a balloon on the floor.

"Uh...maybe...?" Twilight answered hoping it would convince Pinkie.

"Thought so. Anyhoo..." Pinkie said accepting Twilight's answer before pulling out both a clipboard and a pen out of her hair. "...just need to fill this out and you are officially up for the coveted Princess of the Fall Formal crown."

Pinkie then offered Twilight the pen for her to sign her name onto the clipboard. Twilight then reluctantly her mouth to take the pen, but realized how weird it made her look in front of Pinkie, who didn't seem to change her demeanor despite it. Twilight then took the pen out of her mouth with her hand and tried her best to write her name down. Pinkie turned the clipboard around for her to see Twilight's name.

"Wow! You have really bad handwriting. It's like you never held a pen before." Pinkie remarked in surprise about Twilight's attempt at handwriting.

Twilight nervously laughed in response. "Is it?"

Just then, the gym doors opened.

"Somebody order a dozen cases of Fizzy Apple Cider?" Applejack's voice called out where a silhouette of someone was by the gym doors carrying one of the cases of cider.

"Oh! Oh! Me! Me, me, me!" Pinkie cheered.

The person carrying the case went over to a table set up for the dance and placed the case down as it soon showed said person to be this world's version of Applejack, who took her hat off and wiped the sweat off her forehead. Twilight's eyes rose at seeing another version of her friends here in this world.

"Can you bring in the rest?" Applejack asked someone, who turned out to be this world's version of her brother, Big Mac.

"Yep." Big Mac replied carrying a couple of cases of cider stacked together into the gym.

Pinkie bounced up and down in utter joy at seeing her cider for the Fall Formal to arrive. Applejack took one of cases from on top of the stack Big Mac was carrying when she saw Twilight looking at her.

"Hey, I know you." Applejack said to Twilight recognizing her.

"You do?" Twilight asked in surprise.

"Sure. You're the new girl who was found sleeping outside the school grounds with her dog." Applejack stated placing the case she was carrying down onto another nearby table and pulled out one of the bottles of cider from the case. She soon bit off the bottle's cap and started drinking.

"Twilight Sparkle is gonna run against Sunset Shimmer, who I hear is also wanting to run for Princess of the Fall Formal." Pinkie informed Applejack.

Applejack suddenly almost spat out the cider she was drinking and choked up a bit.

"Sunset Shimmer? As in Sunset "I Spend All Day At The Library Reading Books" Shimmer?" Applejack soon asked shocked and surprised from hearing this bit of news. "She's running for Princess of the Fall Formal?"

"Yes, but you also mention she spends her time at the library reading." Twilight asked interested in seeing if she could get any more information about Sunset from Applejack. "What else can you tell me about her?"

"Not much, other than the fact that she spends her time studying like it were super important." Applejack said. "And she hardly ever talks to anyone other than the teachers. So, we don't really mind. Though, I'm glad she's nothing like Rainbow Dash."

"Rainbow Dash?" Twilight repeated what Applejack said.

"Yeah. She plays on every team in Canterlot High." Pinkie explained while bouncing on an overinflated balloon.

"She's also said to kick soccer balls at you 'just for kicks'. Can't you believe that?" Applejack said revealing another rumor about one of Twilight's friends.

"Thanks for the advice, Applejack. But this is something I really need to do." Twilight thanked Applejack.

"Eh, suit yourself." Applejack said almost shrugging it off before realizing what Twilight said. "Hey. How'd you know my name was Applejack?"

"Um...I, uh... *nervously laughs* Didn't you say?" Twilight nervously responded.

"Nope." Big Mac replied back with a counterargument while still taking more cases of cider into the gym from outside.

"Well, uh, it was sure nice meeting you both. I'm sure I'll be seeing you around." Twilight greeted both Pinkie Pie and Applejack goodbye while making a run for it.

Applejack was confused by Twilight's behavior, as well as her knowing her name without telling her.

"That one's trying to hide a secret, but I am totally onto her." Pinkie Pie came up and told Applejack before whispering to her. "She's psychic!"

"Uh-huh. If you say so." Applejack merely said to Pinkie not taking her words seriously.

Just then, the gym doors opened, where Sunset Shimmer stepped in. As she was walking toward Pinkie Pie and Applejack, she took a look at what the Fall Formal would be and needless to say, she wasn't that much of a fan of what she saw.

"Excuse me, which one of you is the head of the Party Planning Committee?" Sunset asked the girls in front of her.

"That would be me." Pinkie answered Sunset's question.

"Well, wouldn't ya know? Sunset Shimmer really is running for Fall Formal." Applejack said out of surprise. Hearing that line from Applejack caught Sunset's attention.

"And what do you mean by that? Are you saying I'm not fit to be Princess of the Fall Formal?" Sunset turned to Applejack and questioned her.

"What? N-No, it's not like that, at all." Applejack said caught off guard by Sunset's sudden outburst. "It's just that, running for Princess of the Fall Formal doesn't seem like your style. I mean, you're usually by yourself."

"Maybe not before, but this is something very important to me right now. Something that country folk like you won't understand." Sunset talked back at Applejack shoving her hat into her face.

The top of Applejack's hat popped open showing Applejack's eyes dumbfounded by what just happened between her and Sunset Shimmer. What had gotten into that girl, she thought to herself. Was this who Sunset truly was underneath her workaholic attitude? Whatever it was, Applejack grew mighty ticked off by how Sunset acted towards her as she now wanted Twilight to win.

"Anyways, I would like to run for Princess of the Fall Formal." Sunset said to Pinkie, whom presented her with the clipboard. Before Sunset could sign, however, she noticed Twilight's poor handwriting. "Uh, what's this squiggly line here?"

"Oh, that's Twilight Sparkle's signature. She was just here earlier and she signed up to also become Princess of the Fall Formal." Pinkie explained.

"TWILIGHT SPARKLE?! But...how did--" Sunset exclaimed reacting to what Pinkie Pie said before remembering the girl she crossed paths with earlier today and more specifically, when she compared the Fall Formal to the Grand Galloping Gala. From that, Sunset finally pieced together who that girl really was as she was now determined to find and confront Twilight with a threatening look on her face. "Where is this Twilight Sparkle?" Sunset turned back to Pinkie Pie and Applejack, only to discover that they were giving her an odd look by her behavior and so, she shifted to a polite tone to lower their suspicion. "Uh, I'm looking forward to the competition."

Applejack and Pinkie Pie looked at each other, now confused by what was going on with Sunset Shimmer.

Twilight was roaming through the hallways when she came upon an area that was dimly lit, giving off a creepy feel as one of the lockers suddenly opened a bit. On the top right, what seemed to be a security camera was set up on the corner that appeared to look out of order.

"Can't believe I didn't recognize you earlier." Sunset said from behind Twilight leaning on a locker before stepping over to her. "Shoulda known the great Queen Celestia would send her own prized pupil here after my crown. And her little dog, too."

"It's MY crown!" Twilight corrected Sunset, though the latter didn't seem intimidated.

"Whatever. And don''t bother introducing yourself. I know all about you and your friends back in Equestria." Sunset said brushing off Twilight's words. "As well as the Elements of Harmony."

"If you already know that, then how did you know about my coronation?" Twilight asked somewhat curious whilst still keeping her guard up against Sunset. "You went to an awful lot of trouble to switch it with the one that belongs here."

"You are familiar with how the Crystal Mirror works, right?" Sunset asked Twilight, to which she saw that the latter was confused by what she meant. "Really? Ugh, the mirror that you came to this world through!" Twilight then got the message, seeing which mirror Sunset was referring to now.

Unbeknownst to them, the security camera from on the upper right corner of the wall at the end of the dark hallway was actually still active as it automatically turned itself on and focused its lens on both Twilight and Sunset's conversation.

"If you must know, the Crystal Mirror isn't only known to go through worlds, it was originally used by Celestia herself to show her personal students to see their inner selves, myself included." Sunset explained before cutting to the security camera's POV, which showed that it was now watching them from on the left wall of the dead-end hallway, as if it had moved itself there. "But the mirror instead showed me something else. Something that convinced me Celestia isn't the oh-so benevolent ruler we all thought she was and is planning to destroy the kingdom she claims to protect."

Twilight couldn't believe the words that came out of Sunset's mouth. How could she say that about Queen Celestia herself, she thought to herself, as if Celestia were some sort of monster. At that instant, Twilight felt the need to defend her mentor.

"How dare you speak about your former teacher like that!" Twilight talked back at Sunset. "You're the one who's cruel and dishonest! That's what Celestia told me!"

"She called me WHAT?!" Sunset shouted back outraged by what she heard. "I can't believe this! She hasn't even changed a bit since I fled!"

"Fled? But Celestia said that you left." Twilight corrected Sunset.

"Is that what she's been telling you? No! I escaped and fled here." Sunset then corrected Twilight, revealing her side of the story as it flashed back to the night that Sunset first arrived in this world. Sunset was on the ground and had a face of determination and as she was about to leave, the mirror displayed another vision, this time of when Twilight moved to Ponyville when Nightmare Moon was about to return. It was at that moment that Sunset realized that these vision were the key to her protecting her new home. "I realized that I could still save this world from what Celestia might do to it, but I needed to know how. That was when I saw that the mirror showed me the way and since then, I had come back to it every night, learning more about you and your friends through the visions. Sure, I had to adjust to new things, like clothes, a place to stay and such, but I never forgot my mission." It then showed a montage of Sunset coming back to the statue and gathered information about the Mane 6, specifically their strengths and weaknesses. She showed to have also adapted to her new surroundings while living in this world as she soon learned about walking on two legs, acquiring and wearing clothes, getting her own apartment, how to act like a human in public and most of all, learn just about there is to know about this world and essentially finding a way to prevent the dark future from happening, explaining her constant studying. "But when I saw that Celestia wanted to make you a princess, I knew that I couldn't let that happen. And the mirror seemed to agree with me." Sunset was then shown prepared to steal Twilight's crown and Element of Harmony as she was in front of the statue, where the portal was now open and soon entered into it, starting the entire events of this story. "And that is why I can't let you have it."

"But the Elements of Harmony can't work without my crown." Twilight tried at least to reason with Sunset. "Without them, Equestria will have nothing to protect itself."

"From Celestia." Sunset said. "You and your friends were her own personal weapons and you didn't even realize it. Your welcome, by the way." Twilight expressed disgust over Sunset's views on her former mentor. "Tell you what? Why don't you and I make a deal? Leave now and never come back and I promise I won't return to Equestria and the crown will be in my protection."

Twilight knew she couldn't just leave the crown here with Sunset Shimmer. Celestia and everypony else back in Equestria was depending on her and she couldn't let them down no matter how resourceful Sunset's intentions seem. After a moment, Twilight then gave Sunset the answer she would naturally say in this situation.

"No deal." Twilight refused Sunset's offer, to which the latter reacted with an annoyed expression before fading back to her threatening face.

"Fine. But don't expect it to be easy. Unlike last time, singing some song about being 'a true, true friend' won't make you Princess of the Fall Formal. You don't even know the first thing about fitting in here." With that, Sunset then walked away turning her back at and leaving Twilight and Spike alone as the dimly lights went out with the security camera still at the right corner at the end, despite the different angle from earlier.

Some time later, Sunset was thinking about how to prevent Twilight from succeeding. She knew she wouldn't give up that easily and she needed to find a way to convince people to vote for her instead of Twilight. She soon heard something coming from her right and turn to see what it was. To her surprise, it was both Snips and Snails having somehow having gotten themselves covered and stuck together in bubble gum. Sunset figured these boys would have to do as she pulled out some scissors and snipped the long band of gum that was keeping the two together. The two boys fell to the ground as a result of being separated from the gum.

"Uh, thanks?" Snips thanked Sunset a tad surprised at her random act of kindness as he and Snails got themselves back up on their feet, though this was merely her trying to earn their favor.

"Uh-huh, anyways, I would like to ask if you two would do me a little favor for me." Sunset then asked the duo.

"Uh, sure. What is it?" Snails asked.

"I want you both to follow the new girl, Twilight Sparkle." Sunset instructed them. "Bring me something I can use against her so that I can win the Fall Formal."

"You got it, Sunset Shimmer." Snips responded as he and Snails saluted to Sunset, who turned her back toward the duo.

"When the crown is back in my protection, Princess Twilight Sparkle and Queen Celestia will both be sorry they ever set hoof in my world." Sunset said to herself. "Not that Celestia would've minded her own business back in Equestria."

She then heard Snips and Snails' laughter from behind, shocked that they still there.

"Yeah. In Equestria." Snips said amused by what Sunset just said.

Sunset then turned to them.

"What are you still doing here?! Go!" Sunset demanded to Snips and Snails who do as they were told before bumping into each other and then finally heading off.

It cut to a close-up of what appeared to be camera lens that had Sunset reflected on the front before zooming out to reveal it was the security camera from earlier, now on a different wall. The difference here is that it now had robotic, almost spider-like legs. (thing the spider bots from Conker's Bad Fur Day) It then turned the other direction and crawled away unnoticed by neither Sunset, Snips, Snails nor anyone else for that matter.

Research and Rumors

Twilight came across a vending machine containing various snacks. Twilight licked her lips a bit feeling a bit famished despite having lunch with Fluttershy as she soon spotted a snack, in which had fruit on the label. She eagerly chose to get the snack, but soon she couldn't figure out how to get the vending machine open. She tried opening it like a refrigerator, then pushed into it, but all those attempts naturally failed. Twilight was still determined to get the snack and so, left with no other choice, she got on all fours and planned to buck the vending machine like the pony she was despite being a human being. But before she could even have the chance to do that, however, a student walked up in front of her. Twilight looked up to see that it was this world's version of Trixie.

"Excuse me." Trixie told Twilight going around her to the vending machine. "The Great and Powerful TRIXIE..." Trixie declared until she paused and glanced around the area and then pulling out a cent. "...needs some peanut butter crackers." She inserted the coin into the vending machine, which gave her exactly what she asked for as she retrieved the snack from the bottom of the machine. "Voila!" Trixie exclaimed as if she performed a magic trick before walking off with her crackers.

"Sunset Shimmer is right. I don't know the first thing about this place." Twilight told Spike, who popped up from her backpack realizing Sunset's words were true as she walked away from the vending machine and tried to figure out a plan. "If I'm gonna really fit in and win votes, we need to do some research."

"Research?" Spike asked.

"This place is a school. I have to believe it's got a..." Twilight replied to Spike where she then came across the school's library. "...library!"

Twilight soon entered the library just as Snips and Snails sneaked up to spy on her. Both of them were on each side of the library's entrance; Snips was on the right side and Snails was on the left.

"Got your camera?" Snips asked Snails, whom pulled out a camera which resembled a Nikon FA.

"Got yours?" Snails asked back, in which Snips took out his own before he snickered mischievously.

The duo sneaked into the library acting as stealthy as possible. They found Twilight gathering some book from the shelves and tried to carry them into a rather large stack, but due to both the weight of the stack and it leaning over, she soon lost her balance and fell to the floor with the books landing on top of her, providing good photos for Snips and Snails to take with her noticing since she had some books on her face. Twilight then tried to help pick up the books off the floor, picking one up with her mouth, in which Spike was also doing. But Spike soon pointed to her hands, reminding her that she can still use them without resorting to using her mouth. She spat the book out and then started picking up the books with her hands, as well as hoping no one saw her picking up a book with a book earlier, which, unfortunately for her, Snips and Snails already did and took the photo of it happening. Lastly, Twilight stumbled upon the library's photocopier where Snips and Snails got their cameras ready. Twilight was looking around the machine to see how it worked when she accidentally pressed the print button and the light that flashed while printing caught her off guard and caused her to stumble backwards onto the floor, much to Snips and Snails' amusement as they already took the photo of what had occurred and gave each other a high five at their work.

Time passed to the point where the school was locking up for the night while Twilight was still doing her research in the library.

"The library will be closed in 5 minutes." The library's intercom announced as Twilight yawned.

Twilight soon realized what the intercom meant and looked down underneath the table. "I hadn't even thought about where we're gonna sleep tonight." She was talking to Spike, who was reading a book.

"Way ahead of you." Spike said walking out from underneath the table to show Twilight something he did earlier. Twilight followed Spike to an area of the library which looked as thought it hadn't been touched by anyone in years. Next to Spike was something underneath a tarp, which he unveiled and dust came up and settled.

"It's a little-- *coughs* --dusty-- *coughs* --But it doesn't seem like anybody comes up here." Spike said revealing he had made an arranged stack of books in the shape of a bed for Twilight to sleep on.

Twilight sat on the book bed and saw how much hard work Spike put into it.

"It's perfect, Spike." Twilight told Spike appreciating his work, to Spike's delight as she even scratched his head and belly as another way of saying 'thank you'.

"So, how did your research go?" Spike then asked.

"I found one of this school's yearbooks." Twilight said. "Maybe we can find something in here to see if we can get to know more about the students here." Twilight then read through some pages of the yearbook when she came across some familiar faces. The page she was looking through had separate photos of all 5 of her friends back home. "Look, that's Pinkie Pie. Rainbow Dash. Applejack. Fluttershy. And I'm gonna bet the girl on the far right is Rarity."

Spike's eyes popped when she mentioned Rarity's name and swiped the book from Twilight's hand to see if it was true.

"There's a Rarity here?!" Spike asked eagerly and wagging his tail before trying to cover up his affection for Rarity. "Eh... I mean, uh... Heh, interesting photo."

"It's interesting because from what they said, it sounds like they don't know each other at all." Twilight remarked on their paranoia.

"They do know each other. But I thought we figured that out already." Spike said.

"No, I mean, they each seem to believe stories about each other that I know aren't true. And because of those rumors, they probably never will." Twilight said lamenting over the possibly lost potential of her friends ever getting to know one another without fear before laying her head down on the book bed. "I just can't help but get the feeling that Sunset Shimmer had something to do with it."

"I wouldn't put it past her." Spike agreed dragging the tarp to the bed and blanketing Twilight with it so she could use it as a bed sheet. "But she wants her crown because she's probably planning on doing something worse. If you're gonna stop her, you have to focus on making friends here. Can't worry about why these girls aren't friends with each other, even if they *yawn* do remind you of your Ponyville friends."

As Spike told her what she needed to do, Twilight took another look at the page featuring her friends in the yearbook. Something about Spike's advice reminded her that even though the girls in the photos were her friends' counterparts, her real friends were back home in Equestria waiting for her return and that she still had a mission to accomplish. She also was glad that Spike was here to help aid her on her adventure in Canterlot High.

"You're right, Spike." Twilight agreed with Spike wrapping her arm around him as she let out a yawn. "Eye on the prize."

And right up on the dome-shaped glass ceiling of the library on the right side of where Twilight and Spike were at, in the distance was the same robotic camera that surveyed Sunset Shimmer, having monitored the two while they were talking before it scurried away.

The following morning, Twilight discussed with Spike about her plan to win Princess of the Fall Formal.

"Fluttershy said I need to win over all those different groups if I want to become Princess of the Fall Formal. So, I've compiled a list of talking points." Twilight told Spike holding said list in her left hand as she was leaving the area where she and Spike spent the night in.

"You made a list? That's so unlike you." Spike laughed over Twilight's strategy.

Twilight was easily not pleased and without saying a word, she held her backpack open and ordered Spike to get inside.

"*nervously laughs* Uh, please...continue." Spike said nervously entering the bag where Twilight carried it.

"I'll start introducing myself. Sprinkle in some things I've learned about their world into the conversation. And show them how I fit in here." Twilight explained as she strolled over to the library's entrance. "*breathes in and out* Okay, Spike. Time to make a good first impression on my fellow students." Twilight opened the doors where she saw several students being their casual selves as they were passing by, talking to each other and getting to their next class. "The whole world sort of depends on it." Twilight then walked by acting casual.

However, the students soon turned toward her direction and began snickering and laughing at her. Twilight was left confused and worried, unable to figure out what was causing the students to act like this.

"Why's everyone looking at me funny?" Twilight asked Spike before she was then dragged by someone into a nearby classroom that wasn't being used. "What did you--? Why did you--?" Twilight tried to ask the person who dragged her into the room when she saw that it was, to her shock, this world's version of Rarity. "Rarity?"

Rarity ran up to Twilight and measured her body length and width, then inspected her clothes. She then paused to think for a moment until she came up with an idea, where she reached into her hangbag and pulled out a matching green outfit for Twilight to wear.

"Perfect!" Rarity said as she slipped it onto Twilight literally, giving her a new appearance. Twilight was now wearing a blonde short-haired wig along with matching green shirt, skirt and socks. "Oh, yes, this is good. Now, no one will recognize you."

"Why wouldn't I wanna be--" Twilight almost asked her, but Rarity continued.

"And we'll need a disguise for your dog, which is too bad. He really is so adorable." Rarity said placing her hands on Spike's face, to his delight. "You know, with a little work, I think I could make him a rabbit instead."

"Huh?" Spike exclaimed snapping out of his trance and soon dropping to the floor.

"A rabbit?" Twilight asked in confusion.

Just then, Applejack entered the room through another door behind Twilight.

"There you are, Twilight." Applejack said to Twilight.

"So much for the disguise." Rarity remarked annoyed at her outfit's failure to disguise Twilight.

"I've been looking all over for ya." Applejack told Twilight.

As Applejack stepped in, Fluttershy passed by and spotted Twilight in the room.

"Oh, Twilight, it's you." Fluttershy greeted Twilight stepping over to her. "I--"

"Hi, Twilight." Pinkie Pie popped up from above in front of Fluttershy greeting Twilight when she turned to Fluttershy.

Both screamed in terror at each other and ran immediately away from each other. Fluttershy hid behind a desk while Pinkie hid behind Rarity. Pinkie then turned her direction back to Twilight.

"I like your new look." Pinkie complimented on Twilight's new wardrobe.

"Why, thank you. I do have an eye for these sorts of things... What is your name, dear?" Rarity thanked Pinkie before asking the latter's name.

"I'm Pinkie Pie. What's your name?" Pinkie answered, which Rarity soon recognized the name herself, rather in a look of horror very familiar to Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie's.

"Pinkie Pie?!" Rarity reacted to Pinkie. "No! Shoo! Get away!"

Pinkie Pie felt both a bit puzzled and yet hurt by Rarity's actions toward her.

"Why do you want her away from you?" Twilight asked Rarity in confusion before seeing Applejack signaling to skip that question. "No, never mind. Why were you all looking for me? What's going on?"

The four girls soon expressed a look of concern seeing that Twilight had no idea of what they wished to inform her about.

"Oh, she hasn't seen it yet." Fluttershy said from behind the desk she was hiding behind.

"Seen what?" Twilight asked not understanding their concern.

Pinkie Pie then handed Twilight the latest copy of Canterlot High's school newspaper. "Oh, it's really not that bad." Pinkie assured Twilight letting out a nervous laugh afterwards.

As Twilight took the paper off Pinkie's hands, she read the front article. It was then to her horror that she saw why they were worried for her: the article featured printed images of exactly the same mishaps she had experienced yesterday at the library and all of them were taken right under her nose. She then felt a sense of dread and embarrassment while the others couldn't help but feel sorry for her.

"I take that back. It's pretty bad." Pinkie Pie soon corrected what she said earlier.

"But this all happened yesterday! At the library! Has everyone at the school seen this? Is that why they were all looking at me that way?" Twilight asked now worried about the outcome of this affecting her chances at winning Princess of the Fall Formal. Neither one of the girls answered, too afraid to admitting the cold truth to her, but she could tell it was a yes. "What am I gonna do? No one is gonna vote for me after reading this!"

"Not that it will make a difference, but I'll still vote for you." Fluttershy reassured Twilight, who simply slammed her head to the desk. "You were so nice to stand up for me when Sunset Shimmer was picking on me yesterday."

"If you still wanna run, maybe there's something I can do to help." Pinkie Pie volunteered.

"No!" Fluttershy spoke up in fear at Pinkie's offer. "I mean, if it's alright with you, please don't throw one of your scary pranks on us. I only just want to help Twilight win Fall Formal. Honest."

Pinkie was caught offguard by Fluttershy's reaction and was rather confused by what she meant.

"Wha-- But, what are you talking about?" Pinkie asked Fluttershy having no clue as to what she was talking about.

"Oh, don't play innocent, Pinkie. You're just as guilty as she is." Rarity accused Pinkie walking past her before pointing to Fluttershy. "I know all about the things that you'd do to people like me."

"I don't even know you!" Pinkie then shouted into Rarity's face now getting a little frustrated from her question being unanswered.

"Well, I would be happy to explain." Rarity told Pinkie rather calmly before shifting to judgemental. "You're planning to ruin my latest winter lineup at the Carousel Boutique by staining every one of my clothes with your frosting!"

"Why would I do that?" Pinkie asked Rarity confused.

"That's because my family owns the store." Rarity pointed out to Pinkie.

"Your family? Wait, you mean you're Rarity?!" Pinkie soon asked Rarity reacting in horror at learning that fact.

"Yes, that's about ri--" Rarity answered before Pinkie screamed in terror, which caused Rarity and then Fluttershy to panic as well as a result.

All the screaming was too much for Spike as he went into Twilight's backpack hoping to drown it out.

"Will you three just stop already?!" Applejack called out to them having had enough of the screaming. "None of you are any better than each other. In fact, you're just like Rainbow Dash."

"And how exactly are we like Rainbow Dash?" Rarity asked Applejack.

"Simple. Y'all like to cause trouble and even hurt people. Just like Rainbow Dash." Applejack told them.

"How can you say something like that about Rainbow Dash?" Fluttershy asked Applejack feeling appalled by what she had heard the latter say about Rainbow Dash showing to have a connection with her.

"Because it's the tru--" Applejack almost told Fluttershy.

"STOOOP!!" Twilight shouted getting everyone's attention. "All of you! I want to know what got you all to be like this. Where exactly did you all learn about each other?"

"The freshman fair." All answered in unison, soon to their shock as they all looked at each other confused at what they each heard themselves say before they turned their attention back at Twilight.

"Then, if it's alright with all of you, can you please tell me how you got to know the stories of each of you?" Twilight asked again.

"You want use to tell you about our freshman year? Together?" Rarity asked.

"I really appreciate it, but I don't think I have anything special about me to offer." Fluttershy asked Twilight.

"That's just it. I want to know more about why you all feel that way about each other." Twilight explained. "So, if there's anything you want to tell me, go ahead."

"Okey dokey!" Pinkie agreed to Twilight.

"Well, if you insist. But this'll probably be a long one." Applejack told Twilight as she sat down to tell her story first.

Freshman Fair Chronicles

"Well, if you insist. But this'll probably be a long one." Applejack told Twilight as it flashed back to the freshman fair with Applejack stopping by some booths.

"Oooh, a gardening club? Where do y'all meet?" Applejack asked the two club members of said club at their booth.

"Uh... Thursdays after school." One of the club members answered with an uninterested look on her face.

"Thanks! I'll see you gals there!" Applejack told the club members taking a slip from their booth and walked away to find more clubs to sign up in. Applejack looked at all the slips in her hands and couldn't help but smile for all the time she'll spend at all the clubs she'll attend before thinking to herself, "Gosh, look at all these activities... I should find out what Sunny does after--"

Her thoughts were cut short as she bumped into someone in front of her while she wasn't paying attention. As a result, Applejack stumbled backwards and landing right on her rear.

"Hey, are you all right? Sorry if I was in your way." The stranger in front of her apologized.

"Naw, s'my fault. I wasn't watching." Applejack reassured the person in front of her where she looked up and saw that the person who apologized was her young cousin, Babs, who was roughly the same age as Applebloom. "Why, hey, there, Babs. I never thought I'd see you in a place like this. Though, I think you're still a little ways off from being a freshman at the moment."

"Oh, hey, Applejack. Uh, no, I'm just waiting for my sister, Sunny." Babs explained. "She's talking to someone about the other clubs here."

"Hey, Applejack!" Another voice called out to Applejack offscreen, who turned out to be Babs' sister, Sunflower (or Sunny as Applejack and Babs call her) as she joined the two of them and turned her attention to Babs. "Sorry for keeping you waiting, sis. That girl I was talking to just wouldn't stop talking about what activities she suggested. But, anyway--"

"Hold on there!" Pinkie then interrupted cutting back to the present. "Your cousin wouldn't happen to have blonde hair and wore a red and black striped shirt, did she?"

"Uh, yeah. Why?" Applejack asked confused.

"Because I was the one who was suggesting those activities to her!" Pinkie explained. "Don't believe me? Let me tell you my story."

"But I wasn--" Applejack tried to say, but Pinkie then pulled in the flashback to her story (literally), covering the screen.

"Just before you bumped into your cousin, her sister was looking for some clubs to sign up for. So, I thought I'd help her out." Pinkie narrated through the flashback as it showed both Sunflower and Babs walking through several booths when Pinkie popped up from a nearby tree, much to the sisters' surprise.

"Hi, I'm Pinkie Pie!" Pinkie greeted the sisters.

"Uh, hello, there." Sunflower awkwardly greeted Pinkie.

"Oh, you're looking for the Gardening Club? They throw some kickin' parties!" Pinkie asked.

"Oh, so, you're a member?" Sunflower asked Pinkie.

"Nope! I'm just helping people find clubs!" Pinkie explained, to Sunflower's confusion and annoyance. "Ooh! Sports! I bet you'd be great at sports! Where's the soccer booth!"

"And that's when you showed up." Pinkie narrated showing Applejack bumping into Babs, which Sunflower soon noticed and saw an opportunity to get away from Pinkie.

"Uh, gee, that's super great, Pinkie, but why don't you show me around the fair? I'll follow." Sunflower suggested to Pinkie.

"Okay. Follow meeeeeeeeeeeeee!" Pinkie said zooming off in the direction Sunflower was pointing towards, which was forward from where she, Babs and then Applejack were walking in.

Pinkie then pushed her flashback away.

"Huh. Guess you really do know my cousin." Applejack said amazed about that fact in Pinkie's story, to which Pinkie nodded yes in response, "Anyway, as I was sayin'. As much as I wanted to make friends here at CHS, I also wanted to get in touch with my cousin, Sunny..." It then flashed back to some time later after Applejack ran into Sunflower as they were entering the cafeteria together.

"So, Sunny, how long is Babs going to be staying here?" Applejack asked Sunflower.

"Only for today." Sunflower answered. "She's here for high school orientation. So, I'd thought I'd show her around while she was here, to show her what it's like."

"I get it. You want to get her ready for when she comes here." Applejack said seeing why Babs was at school with Sunflower.

"Bingo. That way, she'll know how to become popular like me." Sunny said to Applejack as they reached the counter where Granny Smith, who was the lunchlady, was serving the food.

"However, I soon noticed that out of all the people Sunny talked to around her, she hardly spent any time with Babs." Applejack narrated as her past self saw how Babs tried to talk to her sister, but Sunflower was too busy talking with other people to even pay attention to her. "Eventually, she talked to me about what's been goin' on an' she told me that she had been havin' bullying problems lately." As Applejack explained, it showed her talking with Babs, who was now wearing new clothes following an incident during lunch, about her bullying issues. "So, I decided to go talk to Sunny about what Babs was going through..." Applejack was with Sunflower and Babs at the first soccer game of the season sometime later. Sunflower was surrounded by and was talking to her admirers, who were blocking Applejack and Babs from her. Applejack then tried to talk to Sunflower through the circle of admirers, but alas , it wasn't working.

"Hey, Sunflower! Sunflower! I gotta talk to you about something!" Babs called out to Sunflower trying to reach her.

This got two of Sunflower's admirers to take notice of Babs as they stood up to confront her.

"I'm sorry. Are you talking to Sunflower?" One of them asked Babs in an intimidating voice.

"Yeah, she's my sister." Babs pointed out. "Could you maybe move over so I can talk to her?"

"She's already talking to someone: us." The other admirer told Babs. Behind them, Applejack was witnessing the whole thing before her very eyes. "You freshman are so desperate, wanting to be popular so bad that you actually go as far as to claim you're related to someone like Sunflower."

"So, why don't you do her a favor and scram." One of them told off Babs shoving her away.

Applejack was furious at what she saw. Not only seeing Babs being mistreated by her sister's admirers, but also because Sunflower focused more on talking with her admirers to take notice. Applejack rose from her seat to take action at last passing by Sunflower and help out her cousin, Babs, to which she turned back to confront Sunflower before the same admirers who bullied Babs earlier stopped her.

"Hold up there, who are you?" One of them asked Applejack.

"The name's Applejack. I'm Sunflower's cousin." Applejack told off the admirers, who didn't believe her.

"Yeah, right. And I suppose you're--" One of them almost said to Applejack, only for the both of them to be moved aside by the latter, who finally reached Sunflower.

"Well, you got some nerve! How can you let your sister get bullied while you talk to the very people who are bullying her?!" Applejack told off Sunflower, who took notice of what the former said to her.

"Babs's been getting bullied?" Sunflower asked Applejack her cousin turning her attention away from her admirers.

"You darn right she has." Applejack answered. "In fact, she's been wantin' to tell you since then."

Sunflower then turned towards her sister, Babs and came over to her passing by the admirers. "Babs, is all of that true?" Sunflower soon asked Babs in concern, who nodded yes. "Oh, my gosh! Babs, I'm so sorry! I had no idea!" She then gave her sister a hug to comfort her, to which Babs hugged back. She then turned to her admirers, giving them a scornful look to show how displeased she is of their mistreatment towards Babs. "And as for you people, if you're going to outright attack my sister, then you don't deserve my respect." Taking her words, the admirers then walked away from Sunflower left with only their shame.

"I didn't want to do that to Sunflower, but for Babs, I knew I had to step in and knock some sense into her." Applejack narrated while her past self smile seeing Sunflower and Babs making up with each other. "Since then, Sunflower's been spending more time with Babs and I couldn't be happier. After that, that's about when I first heard about all y'all. Well, except you, Twilight." Applejack's flashback faded back to the present.

"Thank you, Applejack." Twilight said to Applejack before turning to Pinkie. "Pinkie, you shared a bit of your story during Applejack's. Would you like to go next?"

"Sure thing!" Pinkie agreed as she continued her story flashing back to when she zoomed off from Applejack, Sunflower and Babs. "I wanted to show Sunflower all the clubs at the fair, but when I stopped to show her around, she didn't seem to follow. I initially thought she might've been trying to catch up to me, so I try out the clubs while I waited for her."

"So, did you find a club that suited your interests?" Twilight asked Pinkie.

"Actually, I tried them ALL!" Pinkie said, to everyone's shock.

"All?!" Twilight exclaimed.

"Yep." Pinkie replied as it cut to her past self at the tennis club, where two of its members were impressed.

"Please join! Your backhand is amazing!" One of the members insisted to Pinkie eager to have her in the club.

"We need more players like you!" The other member insisted as well.

Before Pinkie could give her answer, it cut to her this time at the jazz club, where two of its members had similar interest in having Pinkie in their club.

"Pinkie, you are one swingin' cat!" On of the members praised Pinkie for her jazz skills.

"Won't you stick around and help the jazz club jam?" The other member asked Pinkie wanting her to join.

And much like earlier, it instead showed Pinkie at a different club, that being knitting club, with two of its members, of course, asking her to join.

"Wow, Pinkie! You're a natural knitter!" One of the members applauded Pinkie's knitting skills.

"I didn't know it was possible to knit a skateboard." The other member said astonished.

Pinkie thought about it for a moment, but soon gave out her honest answer, "No thanks." This was her exact response to all three clubs, viewed in a splitscreen as they were all disappointed with Pinkie's answer when it flashed back to the present.

"You didn't join any clubs? Why?" Twilight asked Pinkie confused.

"Well, let me ask you this, Twilight: why did you ask me, Applejack, Fluttershy and Rarity about where we heard about each other?" Pinkie answered Twilight with another question.

"Because I want to help figure out what is causing you all to be against each other." Twilight answered genuinely wanting to help clear the misunderstanding rumors surrounding them. "You know that, Pinkie."

"Exactly!" Pinkie responded revealing her answer to Twilight. "I wanted to help make the clubs fun for everyone. But then I thought what about the rest of school? How could I help everyone else have fun at school? It was a tough problem and I was still thinking about it all day."

Throughout the rest of the day, Pinkie tried out other clubs, including the goth club and one where she was having tea with a ferret in a waistcoat... Wait, what?

"Oh, right, the ferret teatime never actually happen." Pinkie remembered as it then showed her in class thinking about how to make things fun for everyone at school.

"Good morning, everybody. Take your seats." Pinkie's classroom teacher, Mrs. Harshwhinny told her class. "First, the paper's looking for more help. And lastly, players have been picked for all the sports teams."

"And that's when it hit me. Maybe I could help lift everyone's school spirits at the upcoming soccer game that day." Pinkie narrated as her past self developed interest in what Mrs. Harshwhinny said and was already thinking up her plans for the game.

Later that day, Pinkie was talking with Vice Principal Luna underneath the bleachers during the soccer game. Pinkie was also holding a duffel bag in her hands while she talked with Luna.

"And I spent all my money getting every one of these today! I only had the idea for them last night!" Pinkie pleaded with Vice Principal Luna.

"You could have asked me about this earlier, Miss Pie." Vice Principal Luna pointed out to Pinkie. "Still, it's awfully short notice."

"I know, I know, I know, but the school needs this! We all need this!" Pinkie continued. "I've been looking for something like this for so long and I just know that this is it!" Pinkie's face then changed into a puppy eyes expression. "Pleeeeaaase?"

Pinkie was truly hoping that Luna would understand her idea and so, after a moment, Luna sighed and took out her phone.

"Fine, but after the game, you, me and Principal Celestia will talk about what comes next." Luna informed Pinkie as she called her sister, Celestia about Pinkie's idea, who immediately beamed at Luna's answer to her. "And you'll need volunteers."

Pinkie soon got to work on her plan, first looking for volunteers to help her. Her first choice was Fluttershy, who was sitting by herself watching the game.

"Excuse me." Pinkie asked Fluttershy, unintentionally catching the latter offguard.

"Oh, uh... can I help--" Fluttershy almost asked Pinkie, who cut her off.

"You sure can! Hold this and follow me!" Pinkie told Fluttershy handing her her duffel bag.

Fluttershy rose from her seat and followed Pinkie around the bleachers as they handed out headbands with pony ears and fake pony tails to everyone. After having handed out all the headbands and tails, Pinkie was ready to bring her newfound school spirit to the test as she stepped down to the bottom of the bleachers and brought out a megaphone.

"Okay, everyone! WHAT! ARE! WE!" Pinkie asked the crowd through the megaphone.

"WONDERCOLTS!" The crowd cheered.

"All of our cheering helped us win the game. Before I came to this school, I never realized I could make people laugh until that day. But it took me a while to realize that laughter can bring people together like nothing else!" Pinkie narrated as it then flashed back to the present. "And then after the game, I learned about all of you guys."

"Interesting." Twilight remarked on Pinkie's comment. "Who would like to go next?"

"Actually, I've had some interactions with Applejack's family. Would it be alright if I go?." Rarity volunteered.

"Me, too. Though, it wasn't much." Fluttershy spoke up. "Um...actually, I was wondering if I could go first. What do you think, Twilight?"

Twilight saw that both Rarity and Fluttershy wanted to share their stories and after she spent a minute thinking, she thought of a solution. "I think maybe you two should tell your stories together. That way, you'll both share your experiences with Applejack's cousins without having to wait on each other to finish."

"Is that alright with you?" Rarity asked Fluttershy, who nodded yes in respond and so, they took Twilight's advice. "Alright, then. Now, let's see. How did it go? Ah, yes. I had a splendid new outfit I wanted to show off." It flashed back to Rarity walking through the halls in her aforementioned new outfit (which was really her regular outfit), catching the attention of everyone she passed by. "But I knew that not everyone was so optimistic." Rarity entered her next class, where she spotted Babs standing by one of the desks and so decided to approach and talk to her.

"Excuse me, Miss?" Rarity asked Babs, catching her attention. "I couldn't help but notice that I seem to recall seeing you at the freshman fair earlier this morning. Is that correct?"

"Uh, yeah. I was there." Babs answered just as her sister, Sunflower was coming back to her desk, when the latter spotted Babs talking with Rarity. "You see, I was with my sister and we--"

"Well, what do we have here?" Sunflower appeared and introduced herself to Rarity. "Your outfit caught my attention and I just had to know where'd you get it!"

"Well, actually, I made it myself! Thank you!" Rarity thanked Sunflower flattered by the latter's complimentary to her. "Oh, where are my manners? I'm Rarity."

"Sunflower." Sunflower informed Rarity. "And I see you've already met my little sister, Babs."

"Oh, you two are together. Well, that's a relief. I almost thought your sister was at the wrong school all by herself." Rarity said relieved.

"You know, I'm always on the lookout for new friends. Wanna join us for lunch?" Sunflower offered to Rarity.

"Why, yes, thank you. I would love to." Rarity replied accepting Sunflower's invite.

It then transitioned to Rarity in the cafeteria having gotten her lunch. She then spotted Sunflower with Applejack, Babs, along with her admirers and then headed over there to have lunch with her. However, a few of the admirers noticed Rarity approaching them and without anyone looking, one of them moved their leg in front of Rarity and she ended up tripping over it, causing all the food on her tray to fall on top of Babs.

"Oh, my! I-I'm so sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going." Rarity apologized to Sunflower.

"It's okay, are you alright?" Sunflower asked Rarity.

"I am." Rarity said before turning to see Babs covered in what was supposed to be her lunch. "Oh, sweetie! Your clothes!"

"Here, let's find you something else to wear." Rarity suggested to Babs.

"Ooh, that's so generous of you." Sunflower thanked Rarity touched by her generosity as she dragged Babs from the table.

"But, what about lunch?" Babs asked.

"Don't worry about that. Right now, we need to get you cleaned up." Sunflower reassured her as they left the cafeteria. Sunflower's admirers were visibly displeased by this.

The three walked through the hallways until Rarity stopped at her locker.

"My locker's right over here." Rarity told Sunflower and Babs.

"Guys, it's okay. Really." Babs assured her sister and Rarity.

"I think I have something in her size." Rarity turning the dial on her locker to all the combinations.

"You sure you have spare clothes in that tiny locker of yours?" Sunflower asked Rarity a bit confused and skeptical.

Rarity opened her locker where a clothes rack extended from within it, much to both Sunflower and Babs's shock and surprise.

"Wow. You really come prepared!" Sunflower told Rarity astonished by all the clothes hung from the rack, which included various shirts, skirts, and dresses.

"Why, thank you. It's just that I'd hate to see your sister looking like that for the rest of the day." Rarity said to Sunflower taking off a shirt off the rack and holding it over Babs's to see if it would look good on her. "Besides, a change of outfit can do wonders for one's outlook! I think this one look better on her, don't you?"

"You know, Babs, I think she might be on to something. Maybe you need to update yourself a bit. What else do you have?" Sunflower told Babs before asking Rarity as she now wanted to update her sister's current attire.

"Wait, what? Don't I get a saying in this?" Babs asked, though neither Sunflower nor Rarity heard what she said.

Rarity and Sunflower looked through all the clothes on the rack to see what would fit well with Babs. Babs, however, wasn't really that into the girly stuff that her older sister was into and so, the two settled on her wearing a white top and skirt, much to Babs' dismay as she changed into it in the girls' restroom. Rarity felt proud about having helped someone out with a situation that she was familiar with.

"Eventually, Sunflower returned the clothes I loaned to Babs the next day." Rarity narrated as it flashed back to the present.

"Uh-huh. But how did you learn about Pinkie, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Applejack?" Twilight then asked.

"Oh, I was told about them after the game." Rarity answered.

"Alright, that leaves only Fluttershy left to tell her story." Twilight said turning her attention to Fluttershy.

"Thank you, Twilight." Fluttershy thanked Twilight as she soon told her story. "Applejack, I know you think Rainbow Dash is this troublemaker, but I want to say that's not true." It then flashed back to her with this world's version of Rainbow Dash at the freshman fair. "You see, I already knew Rainbow Dash before I learned about all of you. We met at Cloudsdale Junior High and so we went to the fair together." Fluttershy then narrated while her past self and Rainbow Dash were passing by the booths.

"You see the soccer team booth yet, Fluttershy?" Rainbow Dash asked Fluttershy.

"Um... sorry, not yet." Fluttershy replied back.

"Hey, while we're lookin', maybe we'll find a club for you." Rainbow Dash suggested wanting to help her friend.

"Oh...um...maybe?" Fluttershy asked warily about the idea. "I guess they've got *voice gets quieter* clubs for... everything..."

Eventually, the two found the booth for the soccer team that Rainbow Dash had been looking for.

"And I believe I saw Pinkie run right past us at that moment." Fluttershy narrated just as Pinkie's past self ran past the two when she zoomed off from Applejack, Babs and Sunflower in the previous stories.

"Hey, that's me!" Pinkie exclaimed excitedly somehow spotting her past self in the flashback.

"Uh... as I was saying..." Fluttershy said continuing her story transitioning to her in class where panting was heard outside the classroom. It turned out to have been Rainbow Dash, who was running in the halls to try to prevent being tardy. She skidded to a halt having managed to make it on time before the bell rang.

"Safe!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed just as Mrs. Harshwhinny entered the classroom. "You're not late if you get in ahead of the teacher, right Mrs. Harshwhinny?"

"Well, you're not late yet, but the day's still young." Mrs. Harshwhinny told Rainbow Dash nonchalantly before heading to her desk while Rainbow Dash went to hers. "All right, everybody, settle down. I'm Mrs. Harshwhinny and some of you might also have me for social studies. Let's start by taking attendance..."

"I don't know if you all know this, but...I'm a very shy person." Fluttershy narrated.

"I...couldn't tell." Twilight said offscreen.

"Oh, yes! Even back then!" Fluttershy confirmed. "So, it was hard for me, even when I had Rainbow Dash as my friend. I was still looking for what I wanted to do here. Rainbow Dash, however, already knew what she wanted to do her at this school. She was really wanting to join the school's soccer team that day and it was all she could think about. In fact, I don't think she heard a single thing in class that day." Fluttershy narrated as Rainbow Dash just sat at her desk not really paying attention to what her teacher was saying until she heard about players being picked for the soccer team. After class, she immediately exited the classroom and ran over to the bulletin board to see if she made it on the team, in which she did, to her delight. "Rainbow Dash was looking forward to playing on the team and as a loyal friend, I wanted to be there for her." It then faded to Fluttershy walking with Rainbow Dash, who was now in her new soccer uniform, to soccer practice.

"Well, I'm off to practice. You gonna watch me play at the game later today?" Rainbow Dash asked Fluttershy.

"Of course. I'll be sure to be there rooting for you and your team." Fluttershy assured Rainbow Dash. "I'll see you then."

"See ya." Rainbow Dash greeted Fluttershy goodbye before walking into the soccer field to meet her teammates.

Fluttershy then headed off back into the building to get to her next class. But before she could, she came across Sunflower, who was talking with her admirers as usual while her sister, Babs stood next to the group shown to be a little bored.

"Ugh, this year's freshmen are so lame." Sunflower complained to her admirers.

"I know, right? I can't believe we were that bad!" One of the admirers agreed with her.

"And their fashion choices, augh!" Another admirer agreed.

Fluttershy then noticed Sunflower's pet chihuahua with its head poking out of Sunflower's purse. The chihuahua appeared to be getting neglected as it looked sickly and coughed a bit. Seeing that it needs its owner's attention, Fluttershy decided to step up close to Sunflower and inform her of her dog's medical needs.

"Um...excuse me. Miss. But your dog seems to be--" Fluttershy tried to say to Sunflower, only for the latter to give her a cold glare followed by two of her admirers to hiss at her, causing her to flinch. Fluttershy merely stood whimpering in fear along with her eyes almost tearing up as Sunflower and her admirers continued on with their conversation as it nothing had happened.

"After that, Sunflower's sister, Babs, came over to me and said that she would recommend my advice to her sister for her dog. Then, the next day, Babs must've been able to convince her sister to come to the animal shelter to have her dog looked at, which I was all so happy to help." Fluttershy narrated as it transitioned to Fluttershy working at the shelter just as Sunflower came in with her chihuahua in her arms. Babs was by the door smiling at Fluttershy, which the latter smiled back as she helped out Sunflower. "That was definitely the toughest time of my life, but I learned something valuable: everyone deserves kindness. Oh, right, you want to know how I know Pinkie, Rarity and Applejack. Well, I learned about them just sometime after the game."

After they had heard each of their own stories, the girls soon realized something didn't add up.

"But, wait, Pinkie Pie, I was told you would force people like me into a party that was full of people." Fluttershy said realizing that what she was told about Pinkie didn't match the one she heard about just now.

"What are you talking about? I was told you would unleash your own army of animals onto anyone you didn't like!" Pinkie then explained.

Fluttershy was left without words after what Pinkie just said. "But-But I'd never do that."

"You wouldn't?" Pinkie asked confused.

"So, you don't have animals that would potentially rip and tear any outfits I worked on?" Rarity then asked Fluttershy.

"No! Of course not!" Fluttershy responded appalled by even the thought of what Rarity just said.

"And I was told Pinkie Pie would stain my winter lineup. I spent months getting it just right." Rarity then stated.

"But I wouldn't do that." Pinkie said.

"Do you all know who it was that told each of you about each other?" Twilight asked wanting to know the culprit behind the rumors.

They all remembered and realized who the person that told them all the rumors about each other was.

"SUNSET SHIMMER!" All four of the girls answered in unison.

Twilight saw that all this had been Sunset Shimmer's doing, but why, she didn't seem to have the answer to. For now, she felt that she had to help clear the misunderstanding between these girls.

"But why would Sunset say all that about us?" Applejack wondered.

"I'm not sure, but I think we should probably talk to Rainbow Dash. Sunset Shimmer's probably done the same thing to her." Twilight said.

Author's Note

The outfit that Rarity and Sunflower change into features the exact same shirt Rarity gave Fluttershy in the second story of the 2013 annual comic this chapter is based on.

Heart and Determination

Out in the soccer field outside the school was this world's version of Rainbow Dash kicking soccer balls into a goal. Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Rarity were all watching her from the bleachers while Applejack walked over to the field to talk to Rainbow Dash. From a distance, the two appeared to be talking and it ended with Rainbow Dash and Applejack shaking hands. Applejack then brought Rainbow Dash with her to the group.

"Somebody, and I think we can all guess who, told Rainbow Dash that Rarity swaps the soccer team's uniforms with the other team's, Pinkie likes to bring fireworks to disrupt the game and that I would set up a bake sale in the middle of the field." Applejack explained to the others about what Sunset Shimmer told Rainbow Dash about them.

"So, Sunset Shimmer made up stories about all of us? What for?" Rainbow Dash asked before kicking a soccer ball repeatedly in the air.

"We're not sure, but I believe it has something to do with me running for Fall Formal." Twilight explained. "And we would appreciate it if you helped us."

"So, you're the girl in the school paper who's running against Sunset Shimmer and win the Fall Formal crown, huh?" Rainbow Dash asked Twilight, to which the latter nodded yes in embarrass about what happened to her this morning. "Gotta say, I'm really looking forward to seeing you doing that now. And if Fluttershy's helping you guys out, then count me in, too. All you gotta do is beat me in a game of one-on-one."

"What?!" Twilight asked taken by surprise by what Rainbow Dash told her.

"First to 5 goals wins." Rainbow Dash stated kicking the soccer ball over her and into the goal behind her. "One zip!"

Twilight couldn't believe what she had gotten herself into, looking at Rainbow Dash in unease. She clearly had no experience in soccer before in Equestria, though that's mostly because it didn't exist there. But she knew she had no choice since she and her friends needed her by her side. The scene transitioned to Rainbow Dash getting the ball towards Twilight's goal, whom was the goalie as her legs shook nervously. Rainbow Dash then kicked the ball hard towards the goal, which Twilight ducked and unwittingly allowed Rainbow Dash to score, much to Rainbow's satisfaction and Twilight and the others' dismay, where Pinkie was keeping score of the whole game and added a point for Rainbow Dash, whom had won twice already. Rainbow Dash seemingly decided to give Twilight a chance at kicking the ball to the goal, only to swipe it away and kick it back into Twilight's goal, making the score 3 to 0. A bit later, Twilight was managing to get the ball to Rainbow's goal, but before she could expect it, Rainbow swiped the ball away from her and made another score. With this being the last match, Twilight didn't had that much of a chance to beat Rainbow, who was kicking the ball around her before accidentally hitting Twilight in the face. Twilight saw that the ball was now by her feet and so she took her chance and tried to get the ball to Rainbow's goal. As she got close, Twilight then prepared to kick the ball, only to miss Charlie Brown style. The ball rolled over to Rainbow's goal, who was standing in front of it and then kicked the ball hard enough to fly through the field and into Twilight's goal, thus winning the game. Rainbow Dash celebrated her victory while Twilight lied on the ground panting out of exhaustion.

"That's game!" Rainbow told Twilight while the rest of the Humane 5 gathered around her.

"I...really thought you were gonna pull it off in the end." Rarity said to Twilight trying to cheer her up, but it didn't work as Twilight simply lied there upset that she lost the game.

"So, what's the plan? How can I help you win Fall Formal instead of Sunset Shimmer?" Rainbow Dash asked Twilight kneeling down and helping her up from the ground.

"But...I...lost..." Twilight told Rainbow Dash.

"Of course, you lost. I'm a soccer player." Rainbow Dash said. "But I'm not just gonna help anybody beat Sunset Shimmer. The Fall Formal Princess should be someone with heart and determination. You proved that you got them both."

Twilight couldn't believe that she had managed to get Rainbow to help her as the Humane 5 cheered for Rainbow's inclusion into the group.

The now complete Humane 6 decided to celebrate at this world's version of Sugarcube Corner, the Sweet Shoppe in downtown. The cafe's version of Mrs. Cake was finishing up making Twilight's coffee as she added some whipped cream on top.

"And can I mine with extra oats?" Twilight asked Mrs. Cake.

"Oats?" Mrs. Cake asked confused by Twilight's request.

"Uhhh...scratch that. However you normally make it is fine." Twilight soon said seeing what she said wasn't exactly what anyone would ask as she blushed in embarrassment and had her hands behind her back.

Mrs. Cake then shrug off Twilight's behavior as she placed Twilight's cup on the counter for the latter to take and walked away from the counter. Twilight collected her coffee, but just as she was heading back to her friends, she ended up bumping into someone in front of her, spilling her coffee into the person's shirt in the process while her cup fell to the floor. She looked up and found it was Flash Sentry, who didn't seem to have been bothered by the coffee spilled on his shirt.

"Sorry--Hey, I know you." Flash said to Twilight recognizing her.

"You do?" Twilight asked nervously thinking he read the paper's article about her.

"Yeah. You're that girl I helped out yesterday." Flash said instead, to Twilight's relief. "I heard you're running for Princess of the Fall Formal."

"Yep And I'm running against Sunset Shimmer." Twilight explained nervously, which made Flash go silent upon mention of Sunset Shimmer's name. "Oh, did I say something that bothered you?"

"No, it's-it's fine." Flash assured, though he was clearly lying. "Anyway, it was nice seeing ya."

"Uh, yeah, you, too." Twilight said as she went back to her friends while Flash went up to the counter to order a coffee. Twilight couldn't help but wonder what Flash was upset about.

"Don't even think about it." Rarity warned Twilight while petting Spike. "The poor boy's had enough rejection for one day."

"I'm not trying to...I don't even know...we just accidentally--Rejection?" Twilight then asked upon hearing the last word Rarity mentioned.

"Earlier today, Flash Sentry tried to ask Sunset Shimmer out on a date, but she turned him down." Fluttershy explained as Flash Sentry paid for his coffee and just as he left, he almost spotted the group looking at him before they looked away and pretended they weren't while he passed by them.

Twilight felt more bad for him than before, knowing now that Sunset Shimmer broke his heart. "Maybe she's just waiting until she has the power to do something really awful."

"Alright, everyone. The dance is tomorrow night and we still don't know how we're gonna get Twilight the vote she needs to be named Princess." Applejack told the group getting up from her seat. "Luckily, folks only know about through the school newspaper that Sunset Shimmer published. We need to show them otherwise."

The group then tried to come up with ideas on how to help change the student body's view on Twilight.

"I GOT IT!!" Rarity shouted loudly enough to catch the eye of practically everyone in the cafe, much to Rarity's embarrassment as she simply smiled and blushed before she explained her plan. "*ahem* I mean, um, perhaps, I have a solution." Rarity reached for her bag and took out a pony-eared headband and a fake pony tail. "Now, this may be an absolutely preposterous idea, but...what if we all wore these as a sign of unity?" The group looked at Rarity confused. "I remember what Pinkie Pie said about buying these for Rainbow Dash's soccer game and I thought maybe we could use them again for helping Twilight. After the game, they were very popular. A way for everyone to show their school spirit. You know, 'Go, Canterlot Wondercolts!'" There was an awkward silence until Rarity cleared her throat and continued. "I haven't sold any since then."

"Okay, but what does my story have to do with helping Twilight?" Pinkie asked not getting Rarity's point.

"Because like how you bought them from me and used them to help give everyone school spirit, maybe we could do the same for Twilight." Rarity explained, though everyone still didn't get the plan. "I mean, the 5 of us are very different, but deep down, we're Canterlot Wondercolts." Rarity started handing the headbands and pony tails to each of the other Humane 5. "Sunset Shimmer is the one who tried to divide us and Twilight Sparkle is the one who reunited us! And we're gonna let everyone know it!" Rarity then placed on a headband on Twilight's head, who seemed to like where Rarity was going. "What do you think?"

The group each visually showed their support of Rarity's idea, including Spike, who was already smitten with Rarity's passion like he does with the one from Equestria. The next day, the Humane 6 (except Twilight) each talked to one of the several student groups that Fluttershy told Twilight about two days ago: Rainbow Dash talked to the athletes; both Rarity and Applejack talked to the fashionistas, including Applejack's cousin, Sunflower, who she felt she owed them for helping her with her sister, Babs; Fluttershy talked to the eco-kids; Pinkie Pie, however, talked to both the dramas, techies, and even rockers since she had dedicated her time at school befriending everyone (except Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity and Rainbow Dash before they met Twilight, that is).

[Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity and Rainbow Dash]

Hey, hey, everybody

We've got something to say

We may seem as different

As the night is from day

But you look a little deeper

And you will see

That I'm just like you

And you're just like me, yeah!

Hey, hey, everybody

We're here to shout

That the magic of friendship

Is what it's all about

Yeah, we thought we were different

As the night is from the day

Until Twilight Sparkle

Helped us see another way

So, get up, get down

If you're gonna come around

We can work together

Helping Twilight win the crown

So, get up, get down

'Cause it's gonna make a sound

If we work together

Helping Twilight Sparkle win the crown!

[Pinkie Pie]

Hey, hey, hands up now

We're sending a message

To the crowd

Hands wave up

Then come down

We party together

All around

[Rarity]

Generous, honesty

[Applejack]

Laughter, kindness, loyalty

[Fluttershy]

Twilight helped us each to see

[Rainbow Dash]

All that we can be

[Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity and Rainbow Dash]

So, get up, get down

If you're gonna come around

We can work together

Helping Twilight win the crown

So, get up, get down

'Cause it's gonna make a sound

If we work together

Helping Twilight Sparkle win the crown!

Twilight also socially interacted with all groups to help show them more about her, which, eventually, she gained their trust after spending enough time with her.

[Twilight]

I'm gonna be myself

No matter what I do

And if we're different, yeah

I want you to be true to you

If you follow me

We'll put our differences aside

We'll stick together and start

Working on that school pride!

[Twilight, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity and Rainbow Dash]

Jump up, make a sound