Dawn stared into those crimson orbs. They should, by all rights, have been threatening to her; she should be afraid of them, or atleast wary. Yet, they had attempted to give her nothing but comfort in the last days. Even though so much had changed so fast. Even though she had tried to destroy them.

Two days ago, all she had worried about was going with her friend to a fancy restaurant and wondering why she had insisted on them wearing pretty dresses. Then, in short order, she had fallen sick only to wake up with a whole new live awakened inside her and had attempting to take the live of her only friend in a fit murderous confusion and blind rage. And now, in the aftermath of it all, came this. A normal human, nothing more than a curious double of Sunset’s savior, who was now pulled into the entire mess.

And now the crowning question: What to do?

It was too early for this. But she could see the eagerness in Aria’s blood-like eyes. Predator she was, her senses were smelling the chance, maybe even her only chance, to convince her of acting maliciously against her former band-friends. And there might have been a part of her screaming for revenge, but now that part was gone. “I… I don’t know Aria. I just- I can’t decide on this now.”

“And why not? Do you feel for them?” There was no anger, neither in her silver voice nor her crystal eyes. But there was want, there was need. Aria leaned forward so her face was only a handlength away from Dawn’s. “Are you not angry at how they treated you?” She almost whispered.

“Yes, I am angry. But still-“ She did not give Dawn the time for a better explanation. The siren had tasted blood and now she wanted to get as much of it as possible.

“So then! Why not give them even just a small taste? Your revenge, your rules. We can do whatever you want.” Aria grabbed the two red hands and held them tightly but reassuringly. “You deserve this, Dawn! They had little right to completely abandon you like they did! You saved their lives; you saved the entire school and yet they discarded you the moment they chose they didn’t trust you anymore.”

This caused Dawn to pull back. She held her hands over her eyes to shield them from the red orbs boring into them. “No!”

“What!.-“ Aria attempted again to close the gap between them but this time she was repelled.

“Stop, whatever you are doing Aria!” Dawn snapped at her, though she could not stop her eyes from watering. Her mind was filled again with these last days before her cataclysmic breakdown, all that she had experienced then. It took too much effort to try and push them away again. “Please, just stop. Don’t fill my mind with this shit!”

The Siren stared at her intently. Then she raised her hands and backed off enough to give her friend a bit of breathing space.

“I am in this world because I followed such thoughts once.” Dawn wiped away the moisture building up in her eyes. “Princess Twilight made me want to be a better person. I…just can’t… I won’t think like I once did, never again!”

Aria snorted at this, though she restrained herself from making a more pointed remark. She knew when to quit; pushing further would yield no results now, it would only make Dawn more upset.

“Careful what you proclaim. But alright. We will put a pin in it for now. Returning to the present, what to be done about Twirly here?” She gestured to the still soundly unconscious form next to them.

Neither of them said anything as they watched her, letting her steady breathing be the only sound. Eventually, it was Dawn who broke the silence.

“Simple, we explain everything she wants to know.” She said plainly.

Aria nodded slowly. “That is a bit dangerous. But if we cannot outright silence her than there aren’t really any other options.”

“So, your mind control is still not available?” Aria just sighed and fixed her friend with a humourless stare.

“That stuff is a bit more complex than ‘mind-control’. Alone, I could normally make someone act like I want to by nudging their perception and will into the direction I want it to go.” She indicated to her bandaged wrists. “Even that is going to be difficult now.”

Dawn nodded affirmatively and decided to pick up the subject later on. Instead, she leaned over the still unconscious schoolgirl.

“You think it’s time to wake her up?” She said out loud.

“We should probably. Better to get it over with now.” Aria said, standing up and stretching. “She is still in her school uniform. Probably here on her break or something. I think we will have to deal with her running late to school, after we’re done here.”

She rose slowly from her slumber. The cloth underneath her was so comfortable, she could not remember it ever being this soft. Maybe she had dismissed it too much recently, so much so that she had forgotten the feeling.

“Twilight. Twiii…”

The voice was just as soft, like an angel almost. It called out to her, trying to bring her away from the realms of dreamless sleep.

“Come on, please wake up.”

Sluggishly she stirred. “Sixty seconds.” She mumbled as she turned in the bed. Even though she wanted to hear more of the voice, to see the face it belonged too, Twilight also clinged to the peace and quiet of sleep.

But, as with so many other things, once started the process of awakening could not be reversed. So she rose, her thin arms barely managed to press her body off the mattress. Now she could make out a form sitting next to her on the bed, barely discernable through blary eyes and her own hair falling all around her.

“What time is it?” She grumbled.

The other figure waited for a moment, maybe looking at a corresponding device before she again graced Twilight’s ears with her voice. “9:37, give or take.”

“That’s too early for weekend.” The woud-be-scientist rubbed her eyes as she complained.

“It’s Monday.”

She felt like someone had emptied a bucket of ice over her. Monday. 9:37 AM. That meant school. Immediately she scrambled, right into a cardinal red arm that held her back.

“No! Let me-I have school, I have to go!” Her mind raced into full capacity, information started flowing and her memories came back.

“Twilight calm down! It’s too late for that already, just wait a moment!” Dawn grunted as she strained, not noticing the other girl’s eyes widening as she remembered what had happened today.

Which was why Dawn was not prepared when her charge suddenly stopped pressing forward but backward, letting her fall onto the bed and scampering to the headboard.

“Y-you. Whe-ere am I? Who are y-you?” She yelled, her body shaking and tears forming in her eyes. “A-and… h-how do you know m-me?!”

Dawn carefully moved backwards. This had to be handled smoothly and friendly, otherwise they would have a real problem on their hands. “Please. Breath. Calm yourself, I will not hurt you. I can explain all of this if you can give me a chance.”

“Wait… Ohnononono. This is bad. I… this is where-I am so, so sorry. Please, it was just a stupid dare. I promise I did not mean anything.”

She was a bad liar. Did not help that Dawn already knew everything, but still, she would never have believed the reason why this girl was here.

“Twilight, I already told you, I am not going to hurt you.” The scared teenager was looking around like a scared animal, barely being able to see anything, which only furthered her panicked state. “And my… friend, she will also not hurt you, I promise. Now, please, calm down for but a moment and let us talk so that we can clear this whole thing. Sound good?”

“B-but, I b-broke into the house.” Twilight stammered.

Dawn smiled, she hoped that she could avoid making it look creepy. “Yes, you did. We are however not angry for that. I can understand why, and if you let me then I could explain this to you.”

Finally, the purple girl calmed to the point of not being a scared animal anymore. She sat up straighter and pushed the hair out of her face. One hand grasped at her face and then searched around her for her glasses. There were not there, though luckily Dawn had them ready and handed them to her.

Now looking clearly, Twilight somewhat composed herself and looked the other straight in the eyes. There was conflict inside her own. She was still afrain, shellshocked from the last hours. Yet here was the, seemingly, peaceful offer of complete information. “I… have questions.”

“And I will answer them to the best of my ability.” Dawn said, clasping her hands a bit nervously. “So, shoot.”

A hundred thoughts swirled through her mind. “W-why did sh-your friend throw knives? If you didn’t want to hurt me; just why!?”

Dawn did not reply immediately, instead she took a good minute thinking about how she could correctly explain the situation.

“My friend is, let us say rather unusual and extreme in some cases-”

“I HEARD THAT!” came a shout from just outside the room.

Twilight immediately flinched fearfully. Dawn on the other hand just rubbed her eyes with a low groan. She was trying to be diplomatic here and Aria was not helping an already strenious situation.

“Look. She isn’t really a nice person, atleast not always. And uh, we had a bit of an… argument if you will. She just needed to blow off some steam. That whole, knife-throwing thing with you was a rather unfortunate circumstance. But she never wanted to hurt you, nevermind kill you! She, uh…”

Dawn gesticulated some rather uncouth gestures towards the door. Unfortunately for her, Twilight just stared at her, completely missing the meaning. The red girl opposite her just sighed and decided to just say it.

“She is just kind off a bitch sometimes.” She told the young scientist who subconsciously made a face at the .

Dawn tried to play it off as a jest with a chuckle, only for it to come across as akward and forced, which it was. The hollow chuckle died off slowly and ended with the red girl rubbing her eyes while sighing again.

“Sorry. Anyway, as horrible as it was for you and I apologize for the entire thing; for her it was not really more then some impromptu entertainment. I am truly sorry.“

“Alright, sure. Maybe the most traumatic exerience in my life yet and it was just a game.” Now it was Dawn’s turn to flinch.

“Next question.” She said bristly in an attempt to change the subject. If things would continue like this, they would get nowhere but far away from Twilight and they could not afford that. They needed her trust, or atleast willingness to not endanger them.

It was difficult wether or not the attempted subject change was a success or not. Twilight did not pursue the subject of her unfortunate greeting any further but neither did she open a new one. No, the timid girl simply stared at the other one; her eyes were falling down to the bed in thought and then darting back up again to look over the red figure, sometimes she would squint at the door from where she had heard the voice of her recent hunter.

“Ok, since you don’t want to talk right now, I’ll just continue.” Dawn said. She had to take the initiative here and get the favor of the young scientist. Luckily, she had just the thing for it. So, she reached into a pocket. “I know what this is, and I understand what it does. And let me say here that it is really impressive, all things considering. This is a lot. But uh, yeah. I know what it detects and… let me show you.”

Slowly, Dawn got Twilight’s sensory device out of her pocket. She caught a twitch in the scientist’s face, obviously she wanted it back. But she did nothing as she watched the girl in front of her fiddle with her own creation until it turned on.

Then her eyes grew and grew until they resembled dinner plates. She was practically glued onto the screens as Dawn held the device straight at herself, watching the readings and the sensors, her mind already bringing it all together to the obvious conclusion: The one in front of her was the source of this new energy.

“See?” The cardinal red girl whispered as she leaned forward, like she was sharing a secret. Which was true from a certain perspective. “In a way, you hit the right spot. Your… aproach needs work but, small steps.”

“What is it?” Twilight asked, carefully setting her wariness aside for the exitement over actually being able to learn more about her discoveries. “Is it an energy source, a new kind of radiation? There are so many possibilities, please tell me!”

Then she paused for a moment. It was clearly visible on her face that the gears in her head were working, arriving only now on a new revelation. “W-what are you?”

“Ok, that is a difficult one.” Dawn grabbed one of the big pillows close to her and leaned back into it, looking at the ceiling to appear more casual. Her fingers still turned the sensor absentmindetly. “My friend and I, we are, well I don’t know how to phrase it. Guests maybe, visitors-“

“Aliens?”

Dawn grimaced at that word. “I mean, not in the way… We are not from space if you’re wondering. As far as I can tell we are biologically human, though I didn’t really look under our skin so far. But, in a way? We are not from this world, or dimension for that matter. Sooo, you could say that, I would just prefer you not to.”

“Then… what are you supposed to be?” Twilight actually leaned forward, her eyes flashing curiously behind her glasses. Her right hand was twitching slightly, clenching as if it was holding a pencil.

It was the first time that Dawn was actually put on the defensive in this conversation; she felt like being sized up like a lab specimen. Nevertheless, she chose not to divulge her first big secret right now already. “Well first of all, my name is Sunset Shimmer.”

Twilight just nodded, not entirely happy with the reply.“Is that a translation or like, did you pick that one?”

Sunset had to suppress a more genuine chuckle.

“No. We have the same naming conventions as you, I’ll explain more later. So yeah, you can call me Sunset. As for my friend-“

“Name’s Aria Blaze.” It came from the door.

Aria had apparently managed to open the door and sneak in without much noise, as she was leaning against the door frame, arms crossed, with a light smirk on her face.

Twilight sounded like she was choking on something, though to her credit she didn’t run away or even leave the bed. She did put Dawn between herself and the siren.

“Ok, please, Aria! Just knock before you enter, would be helpful. You’re lucky she didn’t-” The cardinal red girl stopped herself by burrying mouth and nose under her hands and breathing deeply. “You know what? Ignore her, just, continue asking.”

“Ok…” Twilight forced herself to avert her eyes of the smirking purple figure at the door. Instead, she looked at her sensory device in Dawn’s hand. She gathered herself before asking. “So, these readings that I have been receiving. What is it? Some kind of energy source? A new wavelength that you are emitting?”

“Yeah, about that.” Dawn replied carefully. “Purely theoretic, it is a sort of ambient energy from our dimension. The reason you found your way to us is because both Aria and me have it in our body, it is a part of us.”

“But I also found weak traces in open spaces or received short flunctuations from massive emissions.” The scientist explained, raising her eyebrows as if asking a question.

“Like where?” Dawn asked uneasily. Aria silently walked up to them and set down next to her on the bed. She had stopped smirking.

“Well, there was the yard in front of Canterlot High School. And the Royal Bridge, where the accident happened…” Twilight said eagerly yet she started to trail off. Her brow furrowed; her eyes widened as worry grew on her face. The comfortable sense of ease that had been building between them died a horrible death as she tried to slowly bring more distance to the red girl.

“Was that you?” Her voice wavered, afraid.

“I…” Dawn struggled to find an answer. She looked to Aria, who was just as unsure. They had the choice of telling this girl everything, not knowing how deep they would pull her into a pit that she might not climb out again. Yet, they had done a rather big leap already. Especially with Twilight’s curiosity, it might have already been too far to her to turn back.

That realization seemed to come to Aria first. She reached out and put her hand on the cardinal red one of the girl that had somehow wormed her way into her life. Looking into those cyan eyes, she nodded.

“That was me, yes.” Dawn carefully said. “But I did not cause it in the way that you may think. I… was the one inside the medical. The accident was the result of… it is a long and complicated story. Something we should only really tell after this has been cleared.”

“I agree.” Aria pipped up. “The question is really, what do we do now? What is the plan here? Because until now we have been just winging it and I admit completely; throwing knives and hunting someone through the house is not the best thing I have done.”

Twilight would have had very right to yell ‘No really!?’ as her face was already screaming this, though she refrained from actually doing that. Instead she made an effort to keep herself level-headed, as well as maintaining the distance to her former hunter.

“Here is the problem that we have, Twilight. You don’t really have any reason to trust us, not with our past actions. And our promise to not hurt you only really goes so far as you would let our word count. But simultaniously, we can’t trust you, except to the point that you have too much of an academic interest in studying us, to not rat us out to the police.” Dawn explained.

“That is fair. I… this feels stupid but, I want to make this work too. But how can I trust you to not use me?” Twilight asked. Dawn was not sure, it almost sounded like there was a desperate hope in the young girl’s voice. Was her need to discover more that great, or maybe there was another hope?

“We could, for example, as a first step into our new ‘friendship’ help you to cover the fact that you skipped school.” She proposed.

“Yeah, that. To be honest here, I really didn’t think things through either.” Twilight groaned as she rubbed her face. Her eyes stared pleadingly at her new compatriots. “Oooh, I will get in so much trouble for not coming.”

“Can you call in sick?”

The school girl shook her headed. “No. If that were the case then I should have already called it in at the school. Also, my parents think I went to school just like always, they will know that something is up.” She couldn’t suppress the instinctual whimper at the thought. The possibilities of what would happen to her when her parents found out about this day’s exploits were too many and too terrible for her mind. And that did not factor in her brother.

“How about we say that you fell sick on your way there? Went to the hospital.”

“That is a bit too difficult I think. But good base idea.” Aria said, while her hand rubbed her chin thoughtfully. Then she suddenly snapped her finger. “How about this: on your way to Crystal Prep, you were jumped by someone and went to the police afterwards.”

“I was… jumped?” Twilight asked confused. The snap had brought her out of her day-nightmare, though she thusly had only heard half of the idea. The purple siren couldn’t suppress rolling her eyes.

“Mugged. Robbed, whatever you want to call it. Some dude stole your bag and went off running, maybe knocked you over or something.” She elaborated driely.

Dawn nodded, rubbing her hands absentmindetly. “We might have to dump your bag with your stuff for credibility-“

“Deal!” Twilight said. She looked suprisingly determined.

“Decisive. I like it.” Aria whispered next to Dawn’s head. Twilight must have heard her.

“This is the opportunity of a lifetime. There is so much that I could learn; loosing school material is worth it.” She said, though her hands displayed her still-present nervousness, as she intertwined them.

“If you say so. Atleast we have a plan now that might work.” Dawn nodded, standing up from the soft mattress of the bed. “After that… We will have to see.”

The two purple girls also climbed off the bed, the younger schoolgirl more hesitantly. Once standing she regarded her new compatriots with a mixture of still-lingering caution and nervousness, as well as a sudden feeling of akwardness. A feeling that did not seem to be confined to her alone. For all the talking they had just done, the two ladies of the house too seemed to suddenly be taken by apprehension concerning their freshly planed actions.

The slowly building akward tension came to a point when Twilight subtly clenched her legs and tried to avert her eyes towards the door. “Hey, can I maybe…”

“Sure, bathroom is just to the right.” Aria quickly responded.

They watched together as the purple schoolgirl quickly scampered off the bed and disappeared out of the room. And they still looked at the open door, contemplating this days events, from the bloody early morning to the hectic chase in the afternoon leading up to this. Then going over the plan they had just hatched, and what this rushed little arrangement might mean for their future.

Aria was the first to say anything. “I don’t think we are going to have a lot of quiet time in the next few days.” She spoke quietly. There was neither sarcasm nor even her smirky casualness in her voice. She just sounded as she looked. Tired and cautious.

“Yep.” Dawn let her body go slack and fall sideways onto the soft bed. One hand brushed over the covers, rubbing the fabric between her fingers. It brought back memories. Of home. Of parties with her friends. What all that had led into.

“Honestly, everything has been moving so fast. I am… I am a bit scared what will happened next.” She confessed quietly.

Aria gave her friend a saddened look. Then she plopped down next to her. “Me too, Dawn, me too. Let’s just not jinx it.”

They remained like this, even when they finally heard the toilet flushing. When Twilight left the bathroom, Dawn had let her eyes fall closed as she let her memories flow freely. She could barely feel Aria playing with a few strands of red and gold hair.

Her body was protesting as she sat up. Her siren friend felt the same, or atleast judging from her expression she seemed to. They both had only gotten a roughly combined nine and a quarter hours of sleep after the fight, which, as they unspokenly agreed, was not nearly enough after all the strain.

But they had a plan and they needed to carry it out. Then they maybe could sleep for the rest of the day. And the following night.

Twilight was waiting outside of the bedroom. For all the talking, none said anything as they made their way downstairs.

The young schoolgirl was actively biting her lip as she descended the stairs down into the more than familiar ground floor. It only got worse when she saw the pile of equipement she had dropped, some damaged by the fall. Not far from it was her backpack, which Dawn picked up and held to her.

“If you have anything irreplacable that you could justify carrying on your person, take it. The rest will have to stay here with us.” She said, trying her best to give an assuring smile.

There were fortunately only few things that Twilight seemed to cheerish enough to keep on her person. She even left her own customised equipement behind.

Stepping outside, Aria had already brought the car to the front of the house with the doors open. Twilight hesitated for a moment. Then she bit her lipp, clenched her fist and climbed onto the back row. Dawn joined her there, although it was mostly to give the girl some company and reassurence.

Once seated, her eyes locked with Aria’s. The siren nodded before starting the engine and driving onto the street. No one said a word for the first minutes of the drive, before Dawn turned to Twilight.

“So, while we drive to the next police precinct; how about I tell you a bit about where I come from?” She spoke.

With this, she might get the girl to become more at ease and trust them. Also, if they were about to include her, then it was best to start early. There was a lot to tell her.

They ended up parking a few blocks away from the precinct, walking the last stretch by foot while talking. Or rather, Twilight was talking.

She had taken to the subject of parallel dimensions very quickly, which was barely surprising, and spent most of the car ride as well as the walk voicing her theories and other thoughts. Dawn tried her best to actively listen and understand all the rambling, though it proved quite hard sometimes. At first, she had also given answers and her own thoughts, but by this point Twilight could barely be interrupted.

Aria on the other hand had a look of only mild interest, mostly looking ahead and occasionally making sounds to show that she was still listening. Wether she actually was or just pretended, Dawn didn’t know.

There were nearing the police station by now. Luckily, Dawn had managed to impress upon Twilight not to say too much specific of what she had been told and to restrict her theorizing to general principles; just to be safe. It might not have mattered, Twilight looked for all intents and purposes like a very excited nerd or student.

Which she was in a way. Thusly, few would actually pay much mind to what she was rambling.

“… but it is rather interesting how the parallels work. Would the same person be a complete copy in the parallel dimension? Will they achieve the same sort of things that their counterpart has? Or might they be completely unbound from their other self’s achievements? There is so much possibility, the variation…”

Suddenly, Twilight went ahead a few steps of the trio and turned around whilst still talking, now walking backwards. Surprised, Sunset’s mouth wasn’t able to form any words, instead just hanging open slightly.

“And what about the butterfly effect? How many dimension exist that are completely similar to ours with only minor things being different? Or, maybe only big changes can create their own separate dimension…”

Then she spotted it, just up ahead the pavement was blocked by two men carrying a thick pipe from a delivery truck to a house. In the moment, the one in front seemed to argue with a third person at the entrance, while the other carrier had rested the pipe on his shoulder facing them. Neither had spotted the girl rapidly approaching the heavy metal between them. Sunset called out to the purple student to stop…

…only for her mouth to not produce any sound. Instead, the only thing she heard was a dull humming sound in the back of her head. She immediately looked at Aria, whose eyes were narrowed into two slids. Inbetween them, she could see the crimson red eyes of the siren.

“Let us say for example that the earth we know was invaded by aliens who established a regime to hide the fact that they are making us into their new forms because they are dying…”

Twilight seemed to notice nothing, still walking backwards, and talking until-

BANG!!!

It took them a fair few minutes until the young girl was conscious and cognizant, to some extent at least. The workers had already carried on after being stopped from apologizing profusely for the next five minutes, on account that Twilight would be fine.

“What in hell was this for.” Same could not be said for her compatriots, as Dawn was now angrily hissing at her siren friend. “I thought you said earlier that manipulating someone was still difficult.”

Aria gave her a somewhat tired glare back, she was rubbing her throat with a gloved hand, all bandages skillfully hidden underneath cloth.

“And it is. But this will only help us.” This only got her an even harsher glare.

“Oh, come on, think about it.” The siren snapped back. “This will only give our story more credibility. She got knocked out, her stuff was stolen, we found her. Now stop glaring so much.”

“Ugh, my head is spinning.” Came the voice from below their heads. To let her come to her bearings, the two had laid Twilight on their knees. The girl still looked dazed by the sudden introduction to a metal pipe, a proportionaly large bruise already forming on the point of impact.

“That does not make this okay in any way or form.” Dawn grumbled to her friend, even though she had to quietly admit that Aria was right. Unfortunately, Aria caught this and answered with an equally silent but still aggrivating smirk. “Now come.”

Together, they each took one of Twilight’s arms over their shoulders and started to halfway carry her to the precinct.

“Twilight, you remember our plan?” Dawn asked the dazed girl between them as loudly as she dared, luckily there were few pedestrians nearby. She only got a slow nod as an answer. It would have to do, she thought.

Soon enough they were there, supporting Twilight as she took the few steps towards the main door.

“Now, do your best Aria.” Dawn said to her friend, despite everything she was not able to stop herself from grinning.

Aria grinned back. She felt nostalgic, plotting to trick some poor officers into doing what they wanted and believing whatever she would say. She took one good look at her friend and their newest aquientice between them. It almost felt like the good old times.

“Showtime.”

Author's Note

"Don't worry, you can trust us. We won't use you."
*Proceeds to magically manipulate her so she walks into a pipe.*

Sirens.

Puh, well that is done. Not gonna lie, not my most favorite chapter to work on. Apologies if it isn't that good. If you find any mistakes, reporting them is welcomed greatly.

Stay safe out there.