Author's Note:

For those curious about the part of the chapter title that says "Pt. 1/?", I'm not sure whether I'm going to split this chapter into two or three parts. When I do get it figured out I'll update the chapter title and get rid of this A/N

Sunset realized she had walked passed her apartment door when she saw the bus walked by the bus stop that she knew was by hear home. She turned around and quickly found the entrance to her building. She walked up the stairs and pulled the key to her door out of her pocket and stepped inside.

She slipped her boots and socks off, placing the former by the door, and throwing the latter in her laundry bag. She went up to her loft and pulled a pair of shorts out of her dresser, trading her jeans for them. She went back down to use the bathroom and brush her teeth before she could go to bed.

While she was brushing her teeth her mind returned to the clouds it had been in for the last hour, thinking back to the days following the message from Pinkie.

Pinkie quickly sent another text asking if she would be able to meet at the mall food court in an hour, to which she had agreed. At first she had calmed herself down with the thought that it was probably just special effects and video editing. Pinkie had displayed some degree of skill with it in the past, so it was within the realm of possibility. That excuse hadn't stopped her from being on edge until the meeting came though.

When she got to the mall she found her friends together at a table. She walked up and greeted them. Applejack and Rarity looked like they were about to say something back, but she quickly turned to Pinkie and Rainbow and asked, "So what was with the special effects in that video?"

This seemed to confuse Pinkie, as she simply tilted her head to the side and made a sound that was eerily similar to that of a pigeon. Rainbow, on the other hand, gave her the response she had been dreading for the last hour.

"There wasn't any editing at all, that was 100% my awesomeness! Who else has the power to grow wings just from playing music?" She said as a cocky smile made its way onto her face, whereas the shaky one Sunset had been holding up collapsed in an instant. The others groaned a little, Rarity bringing her hand to her face, but Fluttershy spoke up.

"Um... actually, I do too." They all, excluding Rarity, turned and stared at her. She blushed and tried fruitlessly to hide herself behind her hair. Rarity was the one who provided them with the answer they desired.

"You see, last Friday I accompanied Fluttershy to the animal shelter to assist her in her duties. To make a long story short we needed to get a group of hamsters under control and Fluttershy opted to do so by using her tambourine to lure them back into their enclosure. Whilst she was playing it she also regained her equine attributes from the fall formal, or as Pinkie has dubbed it, 'a pony up'. Fluttershy asked me not to tell anyone about it because she thought it would just be a one time thing and she didn't want to get any of you worried over nothing."

Sunset was still a little dazed by the fact that her friend had managed to use magic in a world she had thought had no magic for the last five years, but she still managed to register most of what Rarity had said.

Pinkie ran off for a few minutes to bring them food and they spend the next hour discussing the strange magical happenings. They eventually decided that they would have to run some tests later to see if it would happen again, or if Rainbow and Fluttershy had simply had one off occurrences. Sunset reasoned that it was likely a one time thing, just the excess magic they had absorbed during at the fall formal burning itself out with one last burst of energy. Somehow though, she knew in her gut that it wasn't true.

The girls finished their food and went their separate ways. Sunset hopped onto her bike and headed back home. As she was waiting at a stoplight she glanced at the sidewalk. For a split second, she could have sworn she saw a familiar purple figure, but it disappeared around a corner before she could get a good look. She would have stayed there for longer, but the driver behind her honked their horn and she looked ahead and saw that the light was green. She assumed it was just her imagination playing tricks on her, so she sped off down the road, not stopping once until she reached her apartment.

The next day at school had been totally normal. There were no new sighting of magic from any of her friends, so the day went on as usual. On Tuesday however, she almost did a spit take at lunch when Applejack delivered the news to her that she too had had her own case of magic appearing as she was playing music.

Sunset decided that they couldn't wait any longer to run their tests. "Okay, we need to get to the bottom of this, and fast. I have an old friend in the city that owes me a favor who has a lab and some equipment we could use. I can call him and see if we can go there this afternoon if everyone is okay with that."

The group gave a few murmurs of agreement. "Alright then. I'll call him after lunch and text you all when we can be there." With that they returned to their food.

Twenty minutes later Sunset found a secluded corner in the library where she could spend her free period studying, and make a phone call undisturbed.

Before the fall formal, the closest thing she had ever had to a friend in the human world had been Derpy Hooves. It wasn't that they got along, it was just that she could never bring herself to be mad at her no matter what. She had seen a few others try to bring her down, but all of their attempts just bounced off her, as if she was immune to the teasing. From all that she had seen, Sunset had deduced that the only way she would be able to affect Derpy would be with physical harm, and even back then, that was something she refused to do unless absolutely necessary. Even back then, she had some standards.

Derpy's seeming total resilience to every attempt made to get her down had earned her Sunset's begrudging respect, so Sunset never actually tried to do anything to mess with Derpy, making her one of the very few to be virtually unaffected . It hadn't been until their first year of high school that they actually became acquainted with each other though.

Sunset was renowned for being one, if not, the smartest student in the entire school, so it was no surprise to her that she received the occasional request from a parent to tutor their child. She rejected almost all of them. Unfortunately, her computer had decided that it no longer enjoyed its life and had completely stopped functioning, and it couldn't be fixed despite Sunset's best efforts.

Replacing it would cost a rather large sum of money, one she didn't currently have, and wouldn't have for several months at the rate she was currently making money. But then she happened upon an opportunity she couldn't pass up. Derpy's father, Professor Doctor Hooves, or just "Doctor" as he preferred to be called (she still had trouble believing that that was his actual first name), had sent her an email offering to pay her $40 an hour to tutor Derpy in her math and history classes.

She had promptly accepted his offer and worked out a schedule for when she could help Derpy. She had taken several other tutoring jobs in the past that meant nothing to her, but Derpy was different. Whenever she was around Derpy she couldn't help but feel some degree of happiness. Derpy too seemed to always be in a good mood. Throughout their tutoring sessions they had some conversations about different topics, eventually leading Sunset to question Derpy as to how she was always so perky.

"I don't get it. I see those people picking on you at school all the time, but you never seem to let it get to you. How do you do it? If they did that to me I would have ensured that they never tried anything like it again." Sunset had been running it over in her head for ages but she could never think of an answer that suited her. She had concluded to simply ask Derpy directly and finally get her answer.

Derpy smiled, a response Sunset hadn't anticipated. "When I was little, it did get to me, a lot. One day, after I got picked on real bad, I just went into my room and cried alone once school was over. After a few minutes my mom came in and found me there. She asked what was wrong, and when I told her what had happened she said to me 'Derpy those kids don't see just how perfect you are. If they want to say bad things about you, then it's their own fault that they'll never get to be friends with a girl as amazing as you, and no matter what anyone else says, you should know that your family will always be here for you anytime you need us.' After that day, I was never all that bothered by what they said. I just told myself that if they were going to judge me based on nothing more than the fact that one of my eyes is slightly different than theirs, then their opinions don't matter."

Sunset had been stuck staring blankly at her paper for few seconds after Derpy finished talking. She felt something then that she hadn't felt since before she first entered this world. She felt empathy for Derpy. After they had finished the lesson they kept talking for thirty minutes until Derpy's mom Roseluck got home.

Sunset bid Derpy goodbye and headed home. She hadn't noticed it until years later, but after that day, Sunset became much less aggressive in her endevours. She had no clue of the impact that Derpy had had on her that day.

After one of their tutoring sessions Doctor remarked that Sunset's intelligence was highly impressive for someone her age. He asked her if she would be willing to participate in a few studies he was working on for Canterlot University. In Equestria she had been highly interested in many different branches of science, from potion making, to the physics of transfiguration magic. Even wouldn't say no to a chance to contribute to the scientific understanding of the world, so she agreed.

After Sunset finished helping out with Doctor's studies he thanked her for her help, both with his research and with Depry's classes. He told her that if she needed anything she could call him.

She still hadn't once taken him up on his offer. Before the fall formal she had been far to stubborn to take help from anyone but Snips and Snails, who were really just there to do her dirty work. Since the fall formal she had had no reason to ask for his help. But now, she decided, it was time to call him and see if he could help.

She pulled her phone out from her back and scrolled through her contacts until she found him. She pressed the call button and put the phone to her ear. It only rang twice before he picked up.

"Hello. This is Doctor Hooves. How can I help you?" He asked.

"Hi Doctor, it's me, Sunset. I need small favor."

"Oh, hello Sunset, it's been quite a while since we've spoken. What do you need?"

"I was just wondering if my friends and I could use one of your labs and Canterlot U for an experiment we wanted to run."

"Of course you can. Why I'm available right after school if you want to come by today. You'll have to come by my office first though, you'll need to have some kind of adult supervision if you're going to be using our lab equipment. We don't want anybody getting hurt now do we?"

"Thanks Doctor, that's perfect. We'll be there at 3:30. But just a fair warning, you might be surprised by what we have."

"What do you mean by that?"

"That all depends on whether or not our results turn out how I think they might. Don't worry though, it's nothing dangerous... probably."

"Well alright then. By the way, you don't mind me asking what it is you're researching do you?"

"Sorry, but you'll have to wait until we get there to find out. Though if I'm being entirely honest, I'm not entirely sure what it is we're studying."

"That sounds a little ominous, but okay. See you in a few hours. Goodbye."

"See you Doctor, bye." With that, Sunset hung up the phone. She sent a message to all her friends, telling them to meet her in front of Canterlot University at 3:20, instructing Rainbow, Applejack, and Fluttershy to bring their instruments with them.

She sighed, dropped her phone back into her bag, and turned to her books. "Why do I get the feeling this is going to end badly?"

Author's Note

Hey, I did it! I got 2000 words in a single chapter. I'm currently working on a blog post with some additional information about this story. If you have any questions, comments, or complaints about the story, feel free to post them in the comment section bellow.

Additional information: Click Here

-Red