Dealing with the Dazzlings
Sunset Shimmer was sitting on the stairs of the entrance to the school, remembering her short confrontation with the Dazzlings.
“You're never gonna get away with this.
Why? Because you didn't? Oh, we know all about you, Sunset Shimmer. You've got quite the reputation at Canterlot High.
I've changed! I'm in a much better place now!
Waiting in the wings while your friends have all the fun?
Oh, yes, you girls are so tight. And yet... they didn't ask you to be in the band.
Probably afraid no one would want to see them play if she was in the group.
Too bad! So sad!
If it's any consolation, no one is going to remember you at all by the time we're done.”
She hugged her legs and closed her eyes tightly at the memory.
Their words had cut surprisingly deep, and she was starting to question if she would ever be forgiven for what she had done during the Fall Formal. No matter how much she tried, everyone still saw her as a monster, and even her friends reminded her constantly of her failings.
Sunset raised her head, looking at the statue just a few meters in front of her. “Maybe… Maybe I should just try again in Equestria.”
The redhead stood up, wiped some tears she hadn’t realized she had let out, and walked to the portal. “Everyone already hates me here, no matter how much I apologize or try to do good.”
She slowly moved her hand towards the portal. “Celestia may truly forgive me. Or at least allow me to stay somewhere where nopony knows who I am.”
Before she could push her hand through, the portal activated, and a teenage-shaped figure came out of it, crashing into her.
Sunset fell on the ground, rubbing her head where she had been hit by the unexpected interdimensional visitor.
“Watch it you idiot!”
Sunset’s eyes widened and she quickly got to her feet, observing the girl that had come through the portal. It was… herself. A perfect copy of how she looked when she arrived at CHS for the first time.
The interdimensional traveler also stood up, took a good look at her, and glared. “Who are you?”
“I’m you!” Sunset exclaimed.
“If you’re me, then who am I?”
Sunset rubbed her temples. “Okay, I’m Sunset shimmer. What is your name?”
“Sunset Shimmer,” Sunset Shimmer responded.
“You can’t be Sunset Shimmer, I’m Sunset Shimmer!” Sunset Shimmer exclaimed.
“No, you can’t be Sunset Shimmer, because I’m Sunset Shimmer, and there can’t be two Sunset Shimmers.” Sunset Shimmer declared.
“Well apparently there can be two Sunset Shimmers, because I’m sunset Shimmer, and you are also Sunset Shimmer. In fact, there could be other Sunset Shimmers out there who have met other Sunset Shimmers, at the same time that there may be other Sunset Shimmers who have never seen other Sunset Shimmers because there are no other Sunset Shimmers in that Sunset Shimmer’s world,” Sunset Shimmer deduced as Sunset Shimmer just looked at her wondering how this Sunset Shimmer could be a Sunset Shimmer if there was truly more than one Sunset Shimmer.
Sunset snapped her fingers and pointed at the recently arrived Sunset Shimmer. “I know how to fix this. You’re Sun-set Shimmer.”
Sunset raised an eyebrow. “What?”
“Would you prefer to have this conversation with everyone you meet in this world?”
Sunset crossed her arms. “How about you change your name to something stupid?”
“Hey, I came here first, and I can teach you how this place works. So, don’t make things more difficult for yourself… and me… which is also yourself.”
Sun-set sighed in frustration. “Fine. I’m Sun-set.”
Sunset smiled. “Thank you. Now, could you please explain why you’re here?”
“Celestia threw me into the portal after I ate on of her cakes,” Sun-set said casually.
Sunset’s eyes went wide. “What?! That can’t be true!”
Sun-set snorted. “It isn’t. But I did stab her with a kitchen knife the last time we argued.”
“You stabbed princess Celestia?!” Sunset exclaimed horrified.
Sun-set laughed. “Nah, I wish I had. What I did was try to overthrow her using the Alicorn Amulet.”
“You’re just going to keep lying to me for your own amusement, aren’t you?” Sunset deadpanned.
“Sorry, your panicked face is just adorable.” Sun-set sighed with a smile. “Now it’s your turn, how did you get here?”
Sunset rolled her eyes. “I ran away from Equestria when Princess Celestia disowned me and banished me from the castle.”
Sun-set nodded. “Yeah, she’s a bitch.”
Sunset narrowed her eyes for a second. “You seem to have a more… “colorful” language than me. There must be some difference between our worlds. Maybe we should-”
Sun-set snapped her fingers in front of Sunset’s face before she could start thinking about it. “Hey, focus! What happened next? Did you try and take over this world like I’m about to do? How did it go?”
Sunset let out a heavy sigh. “Well, I… failed. I was stopped by Twilight Sparkle and the human versions of her friends.”
“Who’s Twilight Sparkle?” Sun-set asked.
Sunset blinked. “Oh, right, you wouldn’t know about her yet. She’s Celestia’s new student after us.”
“What?! That bitch just replaced us with a similarly named nobody?” Sun-set gritted her teeth. “I’m gonna shove my horn up her ass and cast the largest fireball ev-” She stopped for a moment as she looked at her hornless forehead. “Uh, that could be problematic. How do you cast magic in this world?”
“You can’t.”
“What?!”
“Yeah, I went back to Equestria and stole Twilight’s crown, the element of magic. But when I put it on-” Sunset winced a bit at the memory. “-I transformed into a raging she-demon.”
Sun-set’s eyes widened. “Really?”
Sunset nodded.
Sun-set smiled. “That’s sounds awesome! Can you transform at will?”
Sunset did a double take to confirm she heard her correctly. “No. And it’s not awesome! It was a horrible thing and I deeply regret it.”
Sun-set rolled her eyes. “Bah, you probably didn’t enjoy it because you were defeated.”
“What part of turning into a demon would be enjoyable?!” Sunset exclaimed.
“Power, intimidation, flight, pyrokinesis I bet.” Sun-set counted with her fingers.
Sunset sighed. “Yeah, and I mind controlled a lot of people.”
“Really? What did you used them for?”
Sunset scratched the back of her head with a bit of embarrassment. “I… was planning on using them as an army to invade Equestria.”
Sun-set stared at her, and a deafening silence filled the air for a few seconds until she finally reacted. “That’s… incredibly stupid.”
Sunset hid her face under her hands. “I know.”
“Wait, and you were defeated doing that?! What the fuck were you thinking?!”
“I wasn’t!” Sunset exclaimed. “I got kind of lost in the surge of power and let myself go. In retrospective, being defeated before going to Equestria was the best way that plan could’ve ended.”
“Dear bitch, you got one taste of power and it got to your head? You’re a disappointment.” Sun-set said, shaking her head.
“Oh, like you would’ve handled it better!” Sunset scoffed.
Sun-set raised her chin. “Of course I would. It’s me who we’re talking about.”
Sunset’s eyes narrowed. “I’m also you dipshit,”
“Hey, you’re learning,” Sun-set exclaimed. “But insults aside, if you were defeated, why aren’t you in jail?”
Sunset looked away. “Well, after being hit with a rainbow laser-”
“Rainbow laser?”
“I don’t know, just go with it,” Sunset said before continuing. “Twilight gave me a chance to repair my mistakes with the help of her friends in this dimension. Even after all I did, she still believed that there was some good in me.” Sunset smiled warmly as she said the last words.
Sun-set wasn’t impressed. “And how’s that working out for yah? I don’t see any of these “friends” here and your cheeks are still wet with tears.”
Sunset wiped her face more thoroughly. “Well, I was kind of the bitch queen of the school and manipulated everyone into hating each other for my own personal gain.”
“You may not be so useless after all,” Sun-set remarked with a smile.
Sunset grabbed her arm tightly. “Well, now everyone hates me for what I did to them. And I’m still trying to show that I changed for the better.”
“Wait wait wait,” Sun-set said holding up her hands. “You’re telling me that you had the entire school at your feet, got defeated, and then tried to undo everything?”
“Well, yes,” Sunset answered, a bit unsure of where she was going with this.
“Okay, if the ungrateful bastards aren’t happy that you’re not ruining their lives anymore, why not just go back to manipulating them and forcing them to respect you?”
Sunset took a step back in shock. “What? No! I don’t want to do that.”
“Why not? You said they aren’t giving you a second chance no matter how hard you try to be good. Surely they are only giving you attitude because you got defeated with magic, just beat some of them up and make them remember why they feared you before. I will hold them down for you if you want,” Sun-set explained matter-of-factly.
Sunset looked terrified of her alternate counterpart. “I don’t want to go back to that! I have friends now.”
Sun-set raised an eyebrow. “Are those friends defending you from these people hurting your feelings when you try to be better?”
The words “No offence” resonated in Sunset’s mind. “They… are trying. But Twilight trusted them to help me, so I do too.”
Sun-set’s eyebrow raised higher. “Tell me, did that Twilight go back to her dimension and left you with them?”
“Yes,” Sunset answered slowly.
“Did she try and check on you during this time of redemption?”
“No. But she was locked on the other side of the mirror. It wasn’t until I called her that she came back and…” Sunset trailed off but then shook her head. “It doesn’t matter, I know she cares about me!”
If Sun-set’s eyebrow rose any higher, it would meld into her hair. “Did she ask you how you were doing with your reformation when she came back?”
Sunset didn’t respond.
Sun-set’s smile was almost like the one of a predator ready to pounce. “She just gloated about defeating you, didn’t she?”
Sunset shook her head and did her best to stare down at the evil version of herself. “She’s not evil like you. She must have her own problems to deal with. That’s all.”
Sun-set looked at her with pity. “Sure. She must be feeling so rejected by society being Celestia’s precious student. Compared to her, your problems are noting.”
Sunset clenched her fists tightly. She wanted to say something, scream at her, maybe throw a punch or two, but she found no words to defend herself.
She knew she was playing with her emotions just like she had done with the students at CHS.
“Tell me, why did you ask Twilight to come here?” Sun-set asked.
Sunset looked back at the school. “We’re dealing with a group of sirens that are threatening the school.”
Sunset genuinely smiled. “Uh! Hero work. Great chance to prove your reformation. What did they asked you to do to help? I’m sure they are providing you the chance to prove yourself as a good person.”
Sunset gritted her teeth. “Stop that.” She walked up to Sun-set and got right in her face, staring her down. “You made your point, they are not perfect, but we need to stop the sirens, or all of this won’t matter anymore.”
Sun-set rolled her eyes. “Fine, I will help you.” She sighed. “I need to stablish a good front with the school anyway.”
Suddenly remembering to who she was talking to, Sunset grabbed her double by the shoulders. “Wait! You can’t be here! You can’t take over the school either!”
Sun-set pushed her back. “Stop panicking you idiot. Your plan already failed, so I won’t just try the exact same thing. I need to reassess the situation.”
“But-”
“No buts other than mine! You said it yourself, stopping these sirens is the priority right now, so give me the details and you can judge my intentions after we deal with them,” Sun-set said firmly.
Once again, Sunset didn’t find the words or logic to contradict her, so she slumped her arms and gave in. “They are three girls looking about our age, maybe a little older. They have been mind-controlling people to make them fight each other so they can feed off their negative emotions.”
Sun-set rubbed her chin with her hand. “Interesting. And how are you and your friends protecting yourselves from their mind control?”
Sunset opened her mouth to respond, got no answers, and facepalmed.
“Dear bitch, you guys are idiots,” Sun-set exclaimed incredulously.
Sunset glared at her and flipped her off.
“Real mature Sunset,” Sun-set deadpanned.
“Whatever, Twilight and her friends have the magic of friendship. They’re probably immune.”
“Wait, they have magic? You said you couldn’t cast in this world?!” Sun-set exclaimed.
“It’s not that easy. That magic is exclusive to them and their friendship,” Sunset explained unenthusiastically.
Sun-set narrowed her eyes in thought. “And these sirens can also use magic?”
“Yeah, that’s how they have been feeding off negative emotions and mind-controlling people.”
“Interesting,” Sun-set said with an evil grin. “How would I find these sirens?”
“Just look for absurdly long ponytails.”
“Soon, everyone in this pathetic little world will adore us.” Adagio gloated with a sneer as she and her two sisters walked through the halls of the school.
“And we will have all the taco’s we want!” Sonata exclaimed enthusiastically.
Aria groaned. “I wouldn’t be surprised if your brain is made of-”
“mine mine mine mine mine.”
“What is that?” Sonata asked as she and her sisters looked around confused.
“Is it getting closer?” Adagio wondered.
“mine mine mine mine mine mine mine!”
Aria turned around just in time to see the soles of two leather boots speeding towards her face.
Sun-set’s double kick sent the purple siren flying through the air before landing on her back with a bloody broken nose, her body giving a few small spasms before she fell unconscious.
“What the-?” Adagio tried to say, but the violent redhead wasted no time in pinning her against the lockers with one arm while prepping the other for a punch.
“Tell me how you cast magic!” Sun-set demanded.
“Have you gone insane?!”
“Wrong answer!” Sun-set exclaimed before ramming her fist against the siren’s teeth.
Sonata, completely terrified, tried to run away from their assailant, only to bump into another redhead that grabbed her by the shoulders.
“Tell me what your plan is before she murders one of you!” Sunset exclaimed, almost as scared as Sonata.
The blue rapid-fired her answer. “We were planning on making everyone hate each other and use our pendants to transform back into our siren forms and mind control the students to then take over the world!”
“Dammit Sonata you didn’t have to say anything!” Adagio exclaimed furiously.
“I can’t shut up when I’m scared!” Sonata shouted back.
Sunset blinked a few times. “Wait, that’s what I did! You’re copying my plan!”
“Yes, but with the small difference that we are going to win in the end, and not end up like a washed up loser that needs a double with more guts than herself to do her dirty work,” Adagio scoffed, earning another punch from Sun-set.
Sunset’s eye twitched, and she slowly moved Sonata aside. “Sun-set.”
“Yes?”
Sunset cracked her knuckles. “Hold her arms behind her back.”
Thirty minutes of pain later, the Rainbooms, Twilight and the two Sunset’s gathered in the practice room.
“Well, ah guess that is one way of taking care of the sirens,” Applejack said a little uncomfortable.
“I would’ve preferred if it didn’t involve sending two girls to the hospital,” Fluttershy said while hiding behind her hair.
“Luna didn’t give us detention, so I say that we did the right thing,” Sunset declared off-handily while she continued cleaning the blood off her knuckles.
“Shouldn’t we be concerned about your, uhm, evil double?” Rarity asked.
“Nah, I’m good,” Sun-set responded, admiring her new necklace of three shiny red gems.
“Well, at least it was fun seeing you girls again,” Twilight said. “And I don’t need to worry about getting the song right,” She added in her head with relief.
“Now we can have fun playing in the battle of the bands!” Pinkie exclaimed excitedly.
“Yeah, and we won’t have to worry about fighting a second crazy monster trying to take over the world,” Rainbow exclaimed with a smile. “No offence,” she added looking at Sunset.
The redhead frowned, seeing red as her piled up frustrations overflowed her rational thinking. She gritted her teeth before shouting. “Go fuck yourself Rainbow Dash!”
All the Rainbooms froze in shock at the response, but Sun-set was ecstatic. “That’s the attitude you should have with this bullshit!” She exclaimed hugging her double.
“This attitude is telling me to shove your ass back into the portal,” Sunset responded, not reciprocating the hug.
“Can we go eat first? All this violence opened my appetite. Do hayburgers exist in this world?”
Sunste let out a long exasperated sigh. “No, but there’s this thing called The Impossible Burger, it’s the closest thing you can get to it,”
“Lead me to it then. By the way, mind if I crash at your place for a couple of days? I doubt bits work in this world.”
Sunset rolled her eyes as she walked to the exit. “I guess you’re my responsibility now, so yeah, you can stay in my apartment. And no, you can’t use bits here, I learned that the hard way.”
“You did promise to tell me how this world works.”
“I did no such thing.”
Pinkie finally managed to recover from the shock. “Sunset wait, don’t you want to see us play at the battle of the bands?”
“You have friendship on your side, you can win without me,” Sunset shouted as she and her double left the room.
One by one, the rest of the Rainbooms recovered their ability to speak.
“Ah think we missed something with Sunset between all this siren nonsense,” Applejack said, looking at her friends.
“I- I should go talk with her. Good luck with the band,” Twilight said as she went to chase the Sunset’s, leaving her friends to ponder about what to do.
“See, what did I tell you. Respect!” Sun-set said pointing at the scared faces of the students in the cafeteria.
“Still, I feel like I came back to square one,” Sunset said dejectedly as she took a bite of her burger.
Sun-set rolled her eyes. “Was square one so bad?”
Seeing red again, Sunset slammed her fist on the table. “Yes! I don’t want to be the bitch queen again, but no one is giving me a chance to change, and now you appeared and solved the problem by beating the shit out of it. And we both got away with it! So what now?! I punch my way through my life and scare off everyone but you?! Is that really all that I can hope for my future?!”
Complete silence took hold of the entire cafeteria while Sunset stared at her double with eyes about to burst into flames, until a small voice finally broke it. “It doesn’t have to.”
“Fuck off Twilight! I’m really not in the mood for a friendship speech,” Sunset shouted, but the purple girl sat down at her side anyways.
“I don’t want to lecture you. Just to help.”
“I know Twilight, that’s basically your job. You help everyone you meet and leave things better than how you find them.” Sunset sighed. “And I know it’s an unfair pressure on you.” She then hit her head against the table. “And I’m just making it worse. Because I’m an asshole. And a hypocrite since I told Rainbow to go fuck herself for doing the exact same thing.”
Twilight looked down dejectedly. “Yes, I was afraid of disappointing my friends. But I did disappoint you Sunset. I should have-”
“You did nothing wrong Twilight,” Sunset interrupted her. “You can’t babysit my reformation from another dimension, it’s something I should resolve on my own. I’m just really bad at it.”
“May I ask a question?” Sun-set asked, raising her hand.
“If you say something sassy, those gems will end up inside you in a non-pleasant way,” Sunset warned.
Sun-set rolled her eyes before pointing to Twilight. “Why are you trying to be her?”
Both Sunset and Twilight blinked twice. “What?”
“You’re trying to be friends with her friends, do the whole “make things better for others”, and you expect the same results of being loved or at least accepted by everyone. Maybe you’re failing because you’re not bettering yourself by your own means, but instead you’re trying to be the exact opposite of what you were before. Go for the middle ground.” Sun-set finished her explanation with a shrug and a bite of her burger.
Sunset took a few seconds to process her words. “I… I guess it could be that. It certainly isn’t working this way.”
“I wasn’t completely sarcastic with the “hero work to show your good side” thing. Maybe that was what would have given you a free pass to full reformation. But if you ask me, you shouldn’t need to save the school to have more people than the literal princess of friendship and her friends giving you a second chance.”
Sunset stared down at the table for a full minute, deep in thought, and then looked at her double. “So, and I can’t believe I’m asking this to you of all people, what are you suggesting for me to do?”
“Don’t try to be the perfect girl. Be yourself, get your own friends that accept you for who you are rather than because Twilight asked them to, don’t be afraid to act because of the possible repercussions. I certainly don’t. You did get wrecked by rainbows because of it, but would you have changed for the “better” if it didn’t happen?”
“I guess you’re right.” Sunset let out a long sigh. “You would be my first friend then.”
“I don’t need friendship, but why don’t you start with her,” Sun-set said pointing behind her double.
Sunset turned around, and saw Sonata sitting alone on the other side of the cafeteria. She was staring at her food with sad eyes, clearly lost without her sisters, even if they weren’t the best company for the blue siren.
Sunset shook her head. “We sent her sisters to the hospital, remember? I don’t think she wants to talk with me.”
Sun-set shrugged. “I’m just saying, she won’t have anyone giving her a second chance after what she did. You two have that in common.”
Sunset looked back at the siren for a few seconds, seeing how alone and lost she was. A feeling she knew very well.
“I will give it a try,” Sunset said with a small smile.
Twilight put her hand on Sunset’s shoulder. “Maybe I can’t be here for you, but with the diary we can keep in contact. Tell me how things go and ask me if you need any advice.”
Sunset’s smile turned brighter. “Thanks Twilight, for everything.” They both shared a quick friendly hug, and she went over to sit by the siren to have a little chat.
Twilight turned around and looked at Sun-set. “I know you aren’t reformed, so please be honest. What are you getting out of this?”
Sun-set shrugged. “For now, roof and food. But if you’re worried about me trying to take over the school, I doubt Sunset or your friends would let me. And I won’t risk getting lazored by rainbows.”
“And what about your revenge against Celestia?” Twilight asked, not really convinced.
“I still have a few moons until I can even make an attempt, maybe I will decide that it’s worth it by then.” Twilight still looked unsure of her intentions, so she rolled her eyes. “Look, I hate the bitch, but I have no intentions of going back to Equestria to challenge her. I wanted my own kingdom, and I thought coming to this world without magic would make for an easy take over, but I wasn’t counting on my horn being removed. So there, my evil plan was thwarted from the start. Happy?”
Twilight stood up slowly, keeping eye contact with the redhead. “Maybe, but I will ask my friends to keep an eye on you. At least until you’re truly reformed and I’m sure you won’t try anything against my or your Celestia.”
“As you wish princess,” Sun-set said unenthusiastically, and then and idea popped into her head. “Actually, could you send a letter to your mentor for me?”
Princess Celestia was sipping her morning tea when a scroll appeared in front of her. Putting her cup aside, she opened it and started reading.
Dear Princess Celestia,
During my visit to the human world, I met an alternate version of Sunset Shimmer that asked me to give you a message. Well, she said message, but she just drew a weird sigil on the paper.
Celestia looked at said sigil and wondered what kind of spell it could be used for, and if it could be dangerous.
P.S: Apparently, it means “flipping the bird”.
Author's Note
A sequel will still be made in the future.
Have a nice existence.
