Refuge in Sunset

by PactOfSkyranger

Rating: teen
Tags: Thriller, Equestria Girls, Sunset Shimmer, Twilight Sparkle, Gore, Dark, Human
Length: 9806

What if Twilight managed to escape the soiled grace of Canterlot for the Human World?

This is a work that is non-canon to the original Cheerilee's Garden. Please support the official story.

We all know the story.

Once upon a time, a schoolteacher became a serial child killer, and Twilight, while ripping her to shreds, inadvertently got painted the killer in a murder case.

When even her mentor had given up faith, Twilight threw herself from the roof, and thus began the rise of the Solar Empire...

...but what if Twilight, by some interference, had snuck her way to the mirror?

Escaped from an undeserved noose, Twilight Sparkle attempts to piece her life, traumatized by Cheerilee's torture and Equestria's lack of faith in her, back together, with the help of one last pillar of hope.

Sunset Shimmer, jarred from her corrupt ambition by the untimely arrival of a new girl wearing the Element of Magic who she suspects is Equestrian, almost handing it to her on a platter, finds herself learning the true magic of friendship and leaning away from her old plans as she attempts to help Twilight through her attempts to make a new life, away from a world that blames her for the deaths of its people.

But then again, some things never stop haunting us.

I know, this is a jarring paradigm shift.

But I read this story, and while I want somepony to write a story where Celestia goes Daybreaker and makes everypony pay, I want Twilight to find her peace.

Hence, I want to try to give Twilight a true caring shoulder to lean on (and redeem Sunset in the process.)

As for how an exhausted and depleted Twilight escapes jail and somehow stumbles on the mirror in that rare three-day window?

Let's just say that certain forces have conspired to facilitate Twilight's escape.:trixieshiftleft::trixieshiftright:

Oh, I wish Flash wasn't dying... so the stealth sequence would have some interactivity.

I would try to wean you off the dark side, but honestly, I had certain plans.

Gore tag for nightmares. Not quite sure if I want to ship in this one, but right now, I think a Dark Thriller fits perfectly. And no, I don't want Twilight to face the human counterparts.

Hmm... will I have the Bio-Ether scenario in this? Time will tell.

Published 2020-10-31 18:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2023-10-31 05:55:06 UTC

A Scarlet Harvester's Safe Passage

Twilight stewed, depleted, in her dank jail cell.

It was over. She was going to die come the next few hours at nightfall.

She sobbed away in her cell. Why had she lost control?, she asked herself. If she had held back her anger, she might have been in danger of dying again, but Cheerilee still had a slim chance of actually answering for her crimes. IF she hadn't levelled the theatre, Cheerilee might have paid then.

Now the real culprit, unsuspecting as she was to be a serial killer, was dead, and thanks to a hastily written letter from Spike and her rash action burying the proof to the contrary, Twilight soon would be too.

Of course, the guards didn't care. For all they knew, she was crying crocodile tears to escape the consequences of "her" actions.

But there were no crocodile tears tonight. Every last droplet from her was genuine.

But to people who may not have even known her, and even those she did, that she trusted in the wake of her recent pedicides and amicicides, and even the filicide of Spike, who had always been like a son to her.

But there was nothing she could do. Her magic was gone, and the walls of the jail may have been enchanted to dispel just in case. She was exhausted after waking from a coma (thanks in no small part to Princess Celestia donating some of her own life force) only to find she was taking the fall for a murderer.

Celestia.

The name almost rung out in hope for her. If Celestia had been awake, she might have been able to vouch for Twilight.

But Celestia was asleep, exhausted from the transfer.

And beside that, a doubt festered in Twilight's mind that night.

Would she even believe me?

Tonight was a sleepless night for Twilight, regardless her exhaustion. After all, is it not a sleepless night when you find yourself about to be tied up and left as a package on Death's door?

These thoughts all culminated in one.

I'm sorry.
Applebloom...
Sweetie Belle...
Scootaloo...
Silver Spoon...
Diamond Tiara...
Snips...
Snails...
Twist...
Fluttershy...
Applejack...
Rainbow Dash...
Pinkie Pie...
Rarity...
Spike...

I failed you.

Her thoughts were cut off by a sudden flash of red eyes with yellow sclerae encompassing her vision, and the guards never noticed that Twilight had been removed from her cell, as her crying continued on.

The jarring warp for Twilight woke her up almost immediately.

In fact, she had all her energy back. The star that was the Element of Magic hung from her neck on a golden chain as well, and it seemed too good to be true, but she felt the grass and the wind, so it couldn't be a dream.

The one thing that prevented her from teleporting right up to Celestia and trying to explain her story was the presence of an old-style telegram around her hoof. The words DON'T USE MAGIC were visible on the unfolded part of the letter before she even unfolded it with her hooves.

DON'T USE MAGIC STOP
LUNA WILL TRACE YOU STOP

THEY INTEND THE GALLOWS FOR YOU IN 2 HOURS STOP
THEY WILL DO MUCH WORSE IF THEY CATCH YOU OUT OF YOUR CELL STOP
I EMPLOYED A SOUND ILLUSION TO DECEIVE THEM STOP

DO NOT MAKE A SOUND STOP

A FRIEND TELLS ME YOU WERE WRONGFULLY ACCUSED STOP
I CAN RELATE BUT AT LEAST IT WAS MY CHOICE STOP

GET OUT OF HERE STOP
FIND MIRROR IN CASTLE LIBRARY STOP
FRIEND WILL HOLD THE PORTAL STOP

YOU MUST LEAVE THIS DIMENSION EMPANEL STOP
YOU WILL BE SAFE AND CAN REBUILD YOUR LIFE BEYOND THE MIRROR STOP
-LOOK BEHIND YOU

Twilight chanced a gaze at what was behind her. Atop a plinth was a mismatched creature that looked like it was yodeling. A deer antler and blue goat horn adorned a long pony face with bushy eyebrows, a snaggletooth fang, a goat's beard, and a snake's tongue. The arm on its serpentine body was a lion's paw, while the one outstretched to the sky was the talon of an eagle, and its legs were that of a lizard and a goat.

The creature was decidedly masculine, had the wings of a bat and a pegasus, and his tail was serpentine yet draconic with a tuft at the end and a close-cut mane that stretched down his whole head.

This was the statue of Discord, though of course the thought that Twilight knew such was questionable.

One thing Twilight did know was that somehow, this statue had most likely saved her.

Whispering a hushed, "Thank you," to the stone statue, Twilight swiftly but silently made her way to and through the castle.

She had been unable to stay longer due to a guard patrolling the statue garden, but had the guard or Twilight looked in that darkness at Discord's wide maw, they would have been able to make out a certain trick of the light that made him look like he was... winking.

Now this... this would be where I'd put a stealth Flash game. IF I HAD ONE!

It was improbable, convoluted, and just plain goofy at times, but Twilight had managed to maneuver through the halls of the castle exactly thirty seconds before her window to escape had passed, and now stood in front of an ornate mirror.

The mirror itself was a simple oval that seemed to glisten with magic, but it was set within a horseshoe-shaped frame adorned with a small picture of a pony at the top.

As Twilight laid a hoof on its surface and marveled as it began to go through, she heard a loud shout of "WHERE IS SHE?!" from Princess Luna that chilled her to the bone, and knew she had not the time to marvel at such a relic or say any farewells.

Looking back for a fraction of a second as she heard hoofsteps approach, it felt like forever as she pushed into the mirror and swirled away in a tunnel of rainbow light...

...and as if it were waiting for her, the mirror went dim just as Luna burst in with a contingent of three bat pony Night Guards.

Frustrated, Luna shouted, "WE KNOW THOU ART HERE, MURDERER! SURRENDER TO THY PUNISHMENT!," and galloped off with her guards in tow.

Almost as a taunting gesture, the outline of a similar creature to Discord shimmered, curled around the top of the mirror, before vanishing.

And unbeknownst to either party or the guard that now tripled his speed in patrolling so as to search for the escaped mare, the statue of Discord began to crack, a black glow and a deep cackle emanating from the fissure...

(I would play something like the Dawn Of The Dead 1978 theme for extra spirit.)

Stratus Skyranger, Pacted Hippogriff Of The Human World
presents
A Dramatic Follow-Up To Cheerilee's Garden
and A Possible Alternate Future To
Cheerilee's Garden 2: The Scarlet Harvest

Cheerilee's Garden (Possibly) Gaiden 1:
Refuge In Sunset

(Record scratch)
At this point, imagine Falak dressed as Joseph Joestar popping onscreen.

"Nope. No 'possibly' about it. This is a Gaiden."

He then scrubs away the "(Possibly)." (Now return to playing the music.)

Cheerilee's Garden Gaiden 1:
Refuge In Sunset

Nodding at that, he throws up the bunny ears and says, "Happy Nightmare Night-slash-Naberus-slash-Samhain-slash-Halloween, everycreature!," and dips out.

starring
Tara Strong as Twilight Sparkle
Rebecca Shoichet as Sunset Shimmer
Tabitha St. Germain as Rarity and Luna
Andrea Libman as Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy
Ashleigh Ball as Applejack and Rainbow Dash
Nicole Oliver as Celestia
Kazumi Evans as Adagio
Diana Kaarina as Aria
and Maryke Hendrikse as Sonata

Author's Note

And here is the first chapter of Refuge in Sunset. Did you like my dramatic opening credits?

I think we've established three key points here:

-The events of Garden and Harvest, especially the fact she's taking the fall, have left Twilight with a mix of survivor's guilt and PTSD, as well as in a somewhat brittle state.

-This story takes place in the EqG universe.

-This story, I have decided, takes place at the cusp of Season 2, but instead of the Crusaders weakening the seal, it was the fallout from Twilight's wrongful accusation.

As for the string of holidays...

-Nightmare Night for the bronies
-Naberus for the Warframe people (and to spite the fact that the game has been crashing for me lately meaning I CAN'T FACE NIHIL!)
-Samhain for the old-school folk (and the Conal Cochrans that might be in an audience, and by the way, sorry about reminding you of the time Halloween tried to get back on track as an anthology flick series like it was originally written.)
-Halloween is obvious.

A New World Holds New Companions...

The halls of Canterlot High were empty that night.

Regardless of that, Sunset Shimmer waited outside its doors for someone.

She checked her phone, waiting for another text from her mysterious texter.

The first thing that made this text unique was that it woke her with a phone call, playing an airhorn before playing a metal song, and when she had answered, the unlisted caller hung up and sent a sequence of text messages that was still on her phone.

?: I want to make a bet.
If I lose, I will give you all six.
If I win, you only get one.
Go to the school.
If something happens before the moon passes the window, I win.
If you don't go to the school, you will get none.

When she had tried to reply, the number was apparently not in use, so she figured this was interesting enough to humor.

Suddenly, just as the moon was about to center in the window, she saw the portal in the base of the statue shimmer, and a girl with a tattered skirt and burned blouse tumbled out.

What really made Sunset look at this girl, however, was the fact that she was wearing the Element of Magic on her head, which tumbled to the pavement before the girl crawled over to it, stared longingly into its gem, and put it back on, sitting there wide-eyed.

Definitely Equestrian, Sunset thought to herself, but she must be really out of it if she hasn't noticed the changes.

Just as she was thinking that, the unlisted number buzzed in her pocket again.

?: I win the bet.
Then again, how could I not?
Be gentle with her.
After all, she's lost so much already.

He rigged it!, Sunset realized, before she thought, If he was really willing to give me all of the Elements of Harmony, something big must have happened.

She reached out and grabbed the girl’s shoulder, but the moment she made contact, the girl writhed and wriggled, saying, “NO! PLEASE! IT WASN’T ME, I SWEAR! I DIDN’T MEAN TO DESTROY THE EVIDENCE! GIRLS! DON’T SEND ME BACK TO DIE!”

Sunset’s eyes widened. Die?! From the sounds of it, this girl was framed for murder… and everyone believed she did it. “Calm down,” she said. “I’m not letting anypony take you back there. You’re safe.”

The girl turned to Sunset with shock, and a fair amount of relief, before her eyes landed on Sunset’s symbol and she hugged her. “You know Celestia?”

Sunset nodded. “I was her personal student.” Before she denied me my rightful wings, she thought to herself.

Twilight wiped a tear from her eye and said, “I was probably the student right after you, then. I’m not sure if she would have believed me or just asked me to run away with her, but after Princess Luna scheduled my hanging, I’ll take any link to Celestia I can hang on to.”

Sunset quirked an eyebrow. “Princess Luna? Who’s that?”

The girl’s eyes widened, before she said, “Celestia’s younger sister. She was corrupted into Nightmare Moon by her jealousy, and Celestia, unable to truly wield the full set, had to seal her in the moon. I was able to reawaken the Elements and purify her, with the help of my frien-“

The girl paused at this, tears building in her eyes.

Call Sunset “a queen bee bordering on the manipulative bratfest that would be Lila and Chloe combined,” if you knew Lila and Chloe, but she knew painful memories when she saw them, so she laid a hand on the girl’s back and said, “It’s okay. Let it all out if you want.”

The girl spent 3 minutes expressing her pure sorrow, peppered with lines like “I’m sorry” and “I couldn’t save you,” and even a heartfelt, “I miss you, my faithful assistant,” for flair.

Eventually, the girl wiped her face, and continued. “My friends, who I never would have even reached the castle ruins without; Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity Belle, and my faithful baby dragon assistant, Spike. After that, it was all pretty okay, until the day we went to that school theatre performance.”

The girl’s eyes hardened. “Cheerilee, the teacher… well, some of the fillies and colts were going missing, but until the fire - and the torrent of water that may have ruined my chances at being exonerated - we only had vague ideas of the depravity she had delved into. But then… she took Twist to the ruins, and we followed.”

Her eyes closed as she hung her head. “Cheerilee picked us off, one by one… even Spike. The last thing he did was send a misconstrued message, and Cheerilee would have killed me too… if the spirits of my friends and their Elements hadn’t resurrected me. So intent on making her pay, I didn’t give any thought to making her face Justice in a court… I ended it.”

Sunset could spot tears in her eyes as the girl’s story continued. “The next thing I know, Celestia was out cold recovering from a magic transfusion to keep me alive, Sherlock Hooves is convicting me in court, and two hours from the gallows, I think that mismatched statue in the garden teleported me out of my cell so I could escape here.”

Sunset’s eyes widened. There was only one mismatched statue she knew of, and she didn’t doubt it would have the requirements. “Well, now that it’s off your barrel, I think it’s only fair I tell you the truth,” she said as she gave an abridged, but no less honest, account of the events that led to her own escape to this world, thinking, Look at me. The only thing it took to break my veneer was an innocent girl with a murder story. Still, I can’t forget my ambitions.

When she finished, Sunset extended her hand and said, “Now that we’ve traded sincere stories, I think it’s only fair we introduce ourselves.”

The girl hesitated for a bit, but then took the hand and said, “I’m… Twilight Sparkle.”

Sunset smiled as she pulled Twilight up and replied, "Sunset Shimmer."

Twilight got to her feet… then her legs wobbled as she keeled over, and Sunset caught her arm on her shoulder. “It’s alright… I wasn’t any better at walking like a human when I came here. We should probably work out how to get you enrolled in Canterlot High; a new environment might help you heal better than just stumbling through and expecting every corner to contain a Royal Guardspony when I’m not around.”

Twilight nodded and replied with, “That sounds nice.”

Sunset smirked. Get her in a place she can be near me; check. Get her to trust me; check. Still, open friendship with me might paint a target on her back, so I’ll need to find her a more… respectable friend.

Sunset’s eyes then widened, and she said, “Oh yeah, and about the school… it’s bound to be full of familiar faces. Whatever you do, try not to act like they should already know you… or go nuttier than Discord when you see the math teacher or the vice-principal.”

Twilight sounded confused as she answered, “Um… okay?”

Let’s rewind a bit, and see these events from Twilight’s perspective.

No sooner had she ran into the mirror than she found herself tumbling through a prismatic vortex, no purchase to be found.

Thinking illogically that her savior was simply a trickster, she screwed her eyes shut-

And tumbled out onto a paved road, not unlike those in Manehattan, the necklace - no, crown - slipping off of her head and landing a few hooves away.

Almost as if it were the body of Spike, she instinctually crawled over, barely registering the small protrusions on her forelimbs, grabbed the crown, and stared into the glimmering star sapphire.

Girls, she thought to herself as she raised it to her head, I don't know if you're still with me, but I'm sorry I couldn't save you. At least... I still have this to remember you by.

So lost in her thoughts was she, not even lending notice to the fingers on her hand, she remained there kneeling on her hind limbs... until a faint grip on her shoulder jolted her into panic.

“NO! PLEASE! IT WASN’T ME, I SWEAR! I DIDN’T MEAN TO DESTROY THE EVIDENCE! GIRLS! DON’T SEND ME BACK TO DIE!,” she pleaded, before she heard a gentle, “Calm down,” from beside her. “I’m not letting anypony take you back there. You’re safe.”

Twilight turned towards the voice, and to her relief, it was no mare she had ever noticed in CSGU, or even anypony from the castle in general. Instead, Twilight laid eyes upon a figure with skin of goldenrod and hair like raging fire, garbed in a studded leather jacket and boots with fuschia accents. The skirt she wore - for this had to be a mare - had a stripe of fuschia beside one of butter yellow and surrounded by orange, and the shirt under that was fuschia as well, though it displayed a symbol, however different, Twilight recognized immediately as one she could trust, even if doubt still swirled in her head.

She leapt to embrace the girl. “You know Celestia?”

She nodded. “I was her personal student.”

Twilight wiped a tear from her eye and said, “I was probably the student right after you, then. I’m not sure if she would have believed me or just asked me to run away with her, but after Princess Luna scheduled my hanging, I’ll take any link to Celestia I can hang on to.”

The girl quirked an eyebrow. “Princess Luna? Who’s that?”

Twilight's eyes widened, before she said, “Celestia’s younger sister. She was corrupted into Nightmare Moon by her jealousy, and Celestia, unable to truly wield the full set, had to seal her in the moon. I was able to reawaken the Elements and purify her, with the help of my frien-“

At this, Twilight's memories came rushing back, and her hind limbs went limp, tears building in her eyes.

The girl seemed to notice this and set her down before kneeling themselves, laying a hand on Twilight's back and saying, “It’s okay. Let it all out if you want.”

Twilight, lost in pure sorrow, lost track of time as the floodgates opened, tempests of tears pouring from her eyes and her mouth moving on its own, speaking, “I’m sorry” and “I couldn’t save you,” and at the end, she let out a faint, “I miss you, my faithful assistant,” wiped her face, and continued. “My friends, who I never would have even reached the castle ruins without; Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity Belle, and my faithful baby dragon assistant, Spike. After that, it was all pretty okay, until the day we went to that school theatre performance.”

Even as her eyes hardened at the mere thought of Cheerilee, the gates had opened, and Twilight did not stop until she related every last minute of the events that led her here.

After the last word had long since slipped Twilight's mouth, the girl said, "Well, now that it's off your barrel, I think it's only fair I tell you the truth. You see... well, you remember the mirror you went through?"

Twilight nodded, and the girl continued. "Well, I'm also from that side. My... disagreements started after a mid-term test. A couple of classmates wanted to invite me for lunch, but I had to practice for my Advanced Summoning exam, and I wanted to re-read Advanced Elemental Magical Practices to refresh my knowledge."

Twilight couldn't help but notice a grimace on the girl's face as she soldiered on but decided to pay it no mind as she said, "Celestia took me aside, gave me a little talk about friendship, brought up a humility lesson, and took me before the mirror. She told me to look into the mirror, and I saw somepony who could be great, powerful... even-"

The girl coughed as she was about to go on, let off a quick apology, and remarked, "Anyway, Celestia called time, and as we were leaving, I saw something she dismissed as a 'trick of the light' when she told me to reflect, and I was obsessed from that point on. Eventually, she told me I wasn't ready, and I tried to impress her."

She laid a hand on her arm and turned away. "It was a big mistake in hindsight to try the dark magic wing, but I wanted to know... and I did. That mirror, an artifact called the Crystal Mirror, is supposed to only open the gate between this world and Equestria every thirty moons - around two and a half years. Given that statue you mentioned lined up pretty well with a couple of the stained-glass murals in the castle about a creature named Discord and how the princess - well, princesses - sealed him away, I'd say something caused a leak in the seal, and he found it entertaining enough to watch Luna squirm when she found you escaped."

Twilight couldn't help but imagine the scene Luna would be making, and she giggled - just a bit - as the girl continued. "When Celestia found me, we got into a big argument about ambition and reflection and how 'becoming a princess must be earned,' and it ended with me getting banned from the castle."

The girl's extremity clenched as she said, "I wanted to prove myself, even if I wasn't going to enjoy a smile from the princess, so I pressed my luck and ended up catching the gate just before it closed... about the last bit of luck I had in Equestria."

The girl then perked up, extended her extremity, and said, “Now that we’ve traded sincere stories, I think it’s only fair we introduce ourselves.”

Twilight felt the tiniest bit of hesitance, then laid her own inside, first with the growths balled up, then letting them go flat like the girls, and said, "I'm... Twilight Sparkle," to which the girl replied, "Sunset Shimmer."

As Sunset pulled Twilight up to her feet, her legs wobbled, unused to this bipedal motion like Sunset was doing, and she keeled over, Sunset catching her arm on her shoulder and saying, “It’s alright… I wasn’t any better at walking like a human when I came here. We should probably work out how to get you enrolled in Canterlot High; a new environment might help you heal better than just stumbling through and expecting every corner to contain a Royal Guardspony when I’m not around.”

Twilight nodded and replied with, “That sounds nice.”

As they walked away from the building behind the portal - which, Twilight saw, was a mirror set into the pedestal of a statue - Sunset's eyes widened, and she said, “Oh yeah, and about the school… it’s bound to be full of familiar faces. Whatever you do, try not to act like they should already know you… or go nuttier than Discord when you see the math teacher or the vice-principal.”

Twilight was confused, but simply answered, "Um... okay?," as the two set out towards something of a new life.

The next day...

Twilight's eyes were wide, her stance rigid, as she laid eyes upon an unmistakable figure emerging from the door behind her.

"Okay," Twilight whispered to Sunset. "Now I see why you didn't want me to freak out... but I am still scared as a filly right now."

Though their hair didn't appear like a night sky, Vice-Principal Luna and Principal Celestia exuded a similar air to the princesses she knew so well.

Luna looked upon Twilight with a sort of indifference, before saying, "And why, pray tell, are we interviewing a random girl who brought a facade crown to school?"

Twilight tensed at that, before her eye twitched and she yelled angrily, "This is not a facade! This is the one thing I have left of my friends!"

Luna responded, with equal outrage, "You would do well to watch your temper, young lady! Such disrespect will not... get..."

Her mood trailed off, however, as she saw a fear in Twilight's eyes and a return to being as stiff as a board, eyes wide with faint whispers of, "Not here... she's not here, you're safe... it's not her, not her, no, no, nononononono".

"Aaaand she's frightened again," Sunset retorted glibly as she laid a hand on Twilight's. "Seems like every shock she gets from someone new puts her into panic mode."

Luna felt guilty for frightening her, but sighed as she reserved her judgment. "Miss Sparkle, I assure you that you have nothing to fear from us. Miss Shimmer, would you care to enlighten us on why your new acquaintance is so tense?"

Sunset racked her brain for a moment, nearly considering saying Twilight was haunted by a dream - and she had had a nightmare about Princess Celestia not believing her innocence and choosing to commit suicide, Celestia realizing the truth too late and Twilight too late to reach up to her, so it wouldn't be a total lie - but eventually sighed and said, "She was involved in a serial child murder case she lost her friends and little brother in. She was lucky to survive the wounds she received but ended up killing the murderer - an insane schoolteacher obsessed with "killing the weeds" in her class - in a blind fury and got convicted by mistake. You remind her of the woman who vilified her in her trial."

The sisters were shocked, but Celestia found it in her to speak. "Did-"

Sunset's eyes hardened. "Stop. There. Why would a teenager like this girl kill her closest friends and baby brother? I asked that myself, and I couldn't find a reasonable answer, because there is none. Not only that, but you also remind her of her old mentor. How would you feel, seeing the likeness of your mentor ask that question? I may be stuck-up at times, but I know that if you say another word... it would ruin her."

Celestia found herself struck speechless at that, and after noticing a small tear in Twilight's eye that threatened to break her rigid fear, she realized it.

It wasn't her, she thought as she turned to her sister, who had come to a similar conclusion. Nobody could falsify that pain, that loneliness.

As she was about to speak again, her computer let out a short noise; one Sunset recognized as a message notification from MyStable.

Looking at it, Celestia frowned and said, "Alright, Sunset. Just one more question. Who is this girl, really?"

At this, Sunset froze. "Come again?"

Celestia's frown deepened as she explained, "I may not like Crystal Preparatory's principal Abacus Cinch, but us and Dean Cadance do keep in touch. She is like a niece to me, after all, and according to her, Twilight Sparkle is in class there right now. From the description I gave her when you walked in, the one there and the one right in front of me are nearly identical - asides a lack of prescription glasses, a looser hair style, a lack of uniform, and of course, the facade crown."

Twilight and Sunset gaped. First, Twilight had frozen up when Vice-Principal Luna was called in. Second, Twilight had briefly been enraged when Luna called the crown a facade, only to freeze at Luna's frustrated yell. And now, they were both frozen as Celestia revealed she knew this world's native Twilight.

So stiff were they, neither of them reacted as Twilight's crown slipped off her head, only snapping out of it when the crown clattered on the floor.

The two sisters were also surprised by the clatter, as well as Twilight's fervent search for it before cradling it and placing it back on her head, where the whole thing gave off a noticeable glint that, Celestia noted, had nothing to do with the light in the room.

Celestia held up a hand and said, "I believe we may need to deliberate this with the dean and other in question present. Rest assured, we will sort this out, miss Sparkle, so I advise you get some rest, familiarize yourself with your homeroom teacher, and socialize with some of the other students."

Twilight and Sunset relaxed at this, nodded, and filed out of the office.

Before Luna did the same, however, she said, "Sister... that crown..."

Celestia nodded. "It's just like the legends of Clover and the stone circle. Something unnatural is passing through these halls, and it's not like miss Blush's lucky charm. However, broken as she is, I trust that girl to do the right thing with any power such a thing might hold."

Luna looked down, as if recalling something long past. "I still remember her, you know. That little ebony girl with the blue catlike eyes."

Celestia stilled. "The girl who you felt left a part of yourself feeling empty? The girl who spoke as if she was the deepest, darkest part of you given a conscience?"

Luna turned. "She knew, Celestia. She knew about my darkest thoughts, and told me to talk with you before they had to rush her to the hospital and she just... blasted into nothing when we were visiting."

Celestia nodded, a faint tear in her eye as she replied, "You're right. That girl was a phenomenon. No coloboma, scleral collagen normal, and no illness; her eyes were just like that, her cells' proteolysis resisting all modern medicine... and then she went up in a blast of some unknown energy and there was no trace of her. It was like..."

Luna hummed before interjecting with, "Agreed, sister."

"It was like she had something, was something, that couldn't exist in our world."

"So," Twilight said, "What are we going to do now that's out of the way?"

"We," Sunset replied, "are doing nothing together, not in these walls. I have a... certain reputation, one that will single you out if you hang near me during school hours, or even say my name!"

"Rich kid?"

Sunset sweated a little - what she said next could bring her plans crashing down - but eventually formulated the response of, "More like a 'temper bomb,' Twilight. I couldn't exactly get over my rebellion, so, as you saw, I can get pretty opinionated when I feel something is... undeserved."

Not a lie, per se, but not the whole truth, Sunset thought to herself as, thankfully for her, Twilight seemed to accept the answer.

Twilight, of course, had her doubts about Sunset - a conveniently placed shoulder to lean on? Something has to be up - but decided not to say anything, smiling and nodding before saying, "So who do you think I should hang out with in the meantime?"

Sunset put a hand to her chin, then smiled as she walked away. "You strike me as fitting in with the Techie clique as a single unit. That said, you might want to keep a distance from the Eco Kids, Fashionistas, Dramas, and Athletes until you've got a handle on your emotions around familiar faces."

Twilight quirked an eyebrow at that, asking, "What do you mean? What'd be so familiar about-"

"Darling!," interjected a voice behind Twilight that made her shoot up straight in recognition.

As Twilight's mind raced, she heard the sound of heeled boots coming closer, and a familiar liltling, "Whatever happened to your outfit? It looks as if you've been through a burning building!"

As the girl passed over to Twilight's side, Twilight's eyes threatened to burst into torrents as she took note of ivory skin, a coiffed purple hairdo, and, most identifying to Twilight's memories...

...three lozenge-cut gemstones in a distinct arrangement.

"Darling," Rarity asked, "whatever is the matter? You look as if you've seen a ghost!"

The dam broke, and even though Twilight knew the girl in front of her was not her Rarity, the mere sight of her in all her elegance caused her legs to go weak as she took the Element off her head, held it to her chest, let the tears flow, and whispered in the most ephemeral way she could, "Rarity, is it chance that I see your image first? Is it your way to assure me? Is it providence?"

Rarity, of course, heard none of this, seeing only a girl in need of comfort, and ever so gently swept the girl into her arms before taking her to one of the spare classrooms she knew not to be frequented by her former friends, laying her in one of the chairs, and letting her get it out of her system.

When Twilight's tears finally ran dry, Rarity took the opportunity to ask, "Now that you've gotten it out of your system, would you mind terribly if I inquire as to why you are so downtrodden?"

Twilight looked up, back into those radiant sapphires, and found the courage to say, "You... remind me of an old friend. She was killed in the Garden Murders, by jaw wedge. That psycho even fed her eye to me!"

Rarity's eyes widened. "Oh my! That certainly wouldn't be pleasant, death or unorthodox enucleation. Even so, I must admit a lack of knowledge on anything resembling 'Garden Murders.' Would you care to enlighten-"

At that point, Rarity felt a vibration from her skirt, lifted a decorated rounded rectangle to her eyes, then abruptly switched topics. "Oh, dear. I'm afraid we may have to pick up this conversation later. Sweetie Belle is wondering where I am."

Happy to have an excuse not to bring up the Garden Murders in full, but sad at a reminder of another pony she had failed to save, Twilight took some time to extract herself from her seat as the bell rang for home.

Trailing behind the throngs of teenagers, a few bearing likeness to others she knew but too obscured to tell, Twilight met Sunset at the door, and the two returned to Twilight's apartment.

A few minutes prior, however...

Rarity examined the text she had received not long after Sweetie Belle's question of where she was. The two messages that such vastly different tones, but seemed to originate from the same number, unknown ID or not.

SB: Sis where r u?
SB:Weren't you going to bring me along before you finished your work on that dress?

???: Yes, miss Belle.
???: Best scurry along now.
???: After all, you'll need all your precision if you want to win a prize.
???: Just be careful how curious you get. In your dreams, the Garden Murders will have yet to be resolved...
???: ...so won't you help a lady out?

Putting the unsettling mystery out of her head for now, Rarity met her sister at the front and returned to the Carousel Boutique's loft.

Unbeknownst to her, an ornately dressed man walked into the woods behind her, smirking as he looked at a fine chain necklace, gold and a sort of blue metal interwoven.

If anyone, say, a certain green girl with a turtleneck, were to follow him, they would find nothing.

[Deleted Scene: A Bad Breakup]
It was this realization that prompted Luna to say, "Sunset, can you step outside for a minute? You can stay by the doors, but this is private. Twilight, I am going to come closer. If you don't want me to, just say so, but I am sorry you had to go through something like that."

Luna softened her posture as she approached, Twilight leaning back for a moment before tensing as Luna wrapped her arms around her, and Luna felt a deep connection at that moment, saying, "My ex-boyfriend, Cristallus Sombra, was the bad boy in the year above mine. He used to talk about how his ex, Radiant Hope, left him because of a disagreement he had two years prior with her godmother, Nostro Amore."

Luna shuddered as she pulled away. "When I got close with another student, Amore's biological daughter Mi Amore Cadenza, she revealed that Radiant had been declared mad and raving for saying Sombra was a criminal and not providing evidence and that Nostro had been murdered under mysterious circumstances... two years prior."

As Luna sat on Celestia's chair, Twilight's eyes widened as she said, "Did... did he-"

Luna nodded. "After I brought it to Sombra's attention, he pulled a knife and held it to my throat. He said, 'The old lady had it coming. She snitched on the Umbrum, and the shadows told me to collect.' You see, Sombra's mother, Rabia Sombra, ran a sweatshop for a budding gang disguised as an orphanage, and Nostro was an escapee that managed to bring evidence to light."

Twilight shivered as Luna continued. "She was better armed and more rabid a fighter than Nostro said, and the force had to... finish it. Afterwards, most of the Umbrum were rounded up... but one of the members had commissioned Cristallus to get revenge, and now I knew too much."

Luna put a hand to her throat. "I would have had my throat torn out if Celestia hadn't been listening and startled him by pulling the alarm, allowing me to disarm him. She had even created a recording we could use as evidence if Sombra made it to court... but I wasn't thinking straight. He reached for a sheath I noticed on his boot, and I moved on instinct, driving right into his leg and tossing away the boot before-"

At this, Celestia laid a hand on Luna's shoulder, and the story stopped for a moment as Luna let out a breath of panic she might not have realized she was holding before continuing with, "When the police arrived, I was kneeled over Sombra, crying, and the pocketknife was buried in his palate. There were those that cried for me to be locked away, which sent me into a goth phase that got me suspended, but Celestia's recording of the confession exonerated me and Radiant."

At this, Twilight couldn't help but go into a short laughing fit that surprised the sisters. When she realized the two were watching in disbelief, she said, "My mentor had to give me a transfusion after they rushed me to the hospital. She was unconscious for my trial, and all the evidence ended up misconstrued; Spike's message, my outburst in a suburb... They didn't believe me, and in that holding cell, I had doubts about if my mentor would believe me."

As the sisters' eyes widened, Twilight felt tears stream down her face. "I was lucky a paralegal took my case and found the evidence needed to open inquiry into the teacher that actually committed the murders."

"Paralegal...," Twilight thought to herself, that's really the best way to describe Discord's intervention, if putting it lightly. Already sentenced with two hours before the gallows; "paralegal" is exactly the word to describe "escaping to another world."

Author's Note

My crisis training notes didn't prepare me to write all of the bit in Celestia's office. The last line of that scene is a way to set up a twist. Or is it? (Not in the way you think.)

Sunset may be fudging a lot, and some of it having to be on-the-spot fibs doesn't help, but remember, Twilight's receiving sympathy for the first time since the Garden Murders. If you get into a traumatic situation that involves everyone from your neighbor to your friends to your mentor's sister (and possibly your mentor herself) to the ruler of your homeland, you're going to want to look for someone who believes you, is willing to shelter you, and - Okay, I'm just taking a shot in the dark. My self-esteem enhancing pamphlet never covered "nobody trusts me, I know I didn't do it, somebody please reach out to me" in much detail. (Abuse and codependency, yes, but this isn't abuse and Twilight may be desperate for people who believe, but Sunset is still using Twi and Twi has the feeling that Sunset is trying to insinuate herself into Twilight's life, or something else is insinuating Sunset into Twilight's life. They'll keep at a distance before we get into rebuilding Twi's self-esteem.)

Also, yes, Rarity's cutie mark uses lozenge cut. Yes, lozenge is an actual cut of gem.

And we're just going to refer to the events of Cheerilee's Garden and Scarlet Harvest as "the Garden Murders" from now on.

Also, for the deleted scene, I winged a backstory and some names with Fiendship is Magic plotline. Of course, having Luna say "mood kindred" was way too fast-paced, so I decided to use Celestia's connection with Dean Cadance as a drama device and set up a mysterious subplot.

Happy Nightmare Night.

…And New Challenges

Author's Note

First things first, the med terms I was referring to last chapter:
-Coloboma is a prenatal ocular abnormality manifesting as a gap in the eye due to missing tissue in one of the eye structures, from the retina to the optic nerves. It usually appears as a keyhole-shaped pupil, but it can make the eye look slit.
-The sclera is the white of the eye. It can be discolored in various ways, but what Celestia and Luna were talking about was the blue tinge of osteogenesis imperfecta, which usually stems from collagen deficit or malformation.
-Proteolysis is the breakdown of proteins into polypeptides and amino acids. Abnormal proteolysis is associated with many diseases, such as pancreatitis, muscular dystrophy, degenerative skin disorders, and malignancy. It wouldn't be hard to interpret a homunculus' cellular breakdown from lack of ambient magic as abnormal proteolysis at a cellular level.

…And New Challenges

“Any last words?”

She thought for a moment, then shook her head. There was nothing left to say.

He shrugged, and pulled down the lever.

Twilight felt the floor disappear beneath her, felt the noose tighten as she hung, and as she gave her last breath, she-

Twilight sat bolt upright and screamed like the devil had jabbed a white-hot pitchfork in her foot.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

The breath once more filled her lungs as she gasped and panted at the nightmare.

The screaming, of course woke her bedmate.

"Another nightmare, Twilight?"

Hyperventilating, Twilight slowly calmed her breath and nodded, to Sunset’s dismay. “Sweet Celestia, this is some major trauma. Even in the same bed, you’re tossing and turning with ‘what if’s’ and ‘if only’s’ terrorizing your dreams. And before you ask, Nightmare Moon and Princess Luna can’t reach across the dimensional boundary since this world doesn’t have magic to speak of. If your Element was in the wrong hands, it might cause a magic surge, but right now, it’s nothing but the annals of your mind imagining.”

Twilight sighed. “This time it was actually being hung.”

Sunset laid a hand on her shoulder. “Better than being saved, only for Celestia to distrust you and cause you to lose all your faith and fall to your death. At least it ended quickly this time.”

Twilight clutched her neck. "Yeah... clean snap is better than the feeling of asphyxia any night."

In another head...

Rarity woke up on a cold stone floor.

Strange, she thought as she looked around, this isn't the loft. And I'm certain I put on my pajamas, so why-

Her musing was interrupted, however, by a strangled choke from behind her. She turned to look... and was horrified at what she saw.

There, behind her, she saw a skeleton in shambles over a wooden donkey of sorts, bound on each limb by chains; the arm chains going into the ceiling, the leg chains going into the floor.

Most unnerving of all, however, were the single sapphire in its orbital cavity, the fractured hands... and the wedge clear through its jaw.

"Oh, my," Rarity said as she inched closer, removing the wedge from her skull's jaw - for it was a woman, she pieced together from the elliptical, if bisected, pelvis - and setting it back into place. "Who did this to you?"

"...hide!," the skull choked out as Rarity heard footsteps down the hallway.

Thinking on instinct, Rarity ducked under a shadowed table and quieted her breathing. Not long after, something glided into the room.

What it was, Rarity couldn't tell, but it was obscured with clouds, and spoke with a distorted, if feminine voice.

"I feel an intruder in this place," it spoke, its very words sending shivers down Rarity's spine. "Familiar, yet obscured... No matter. I'll show them what I do to weeds."

With that, the presence left, and Rarity breathed a sigh of relief before going back to the skull.

"Fancies herself a gardener," the skull spoke. "Took my eye, broke my jaw, and broke me over that wedge."

"I'm terribly sorry," Rarity spoke in horror. "I don't suppose I can do something?"

"...the throne and my eye," the skull spoke. "Bring me the eye she took from me, in the upper throne room. Once I have myself back together, the door with the starburst will open. Reassemble my bones over the throne with the diamond symbol, and I may be able to answer your questions."

Realizing that the only one with the answers was the skull, Rarity swallowed her fear and said, "Alright, darling. I will."

Another stealth game segment you have to imagine.

As the last piece of the skeleton's hand slotted into place, the footsteps of the Gardener thundering in her head, the skeleton's sapphire eyes glowed with prismatic light, and as the Gardener turned the corner, she was caught in the blast.

"NO! HOW DID YOU FREE THAT WEED?!," the shadowy figure cried out as the bleak ruins of the castle faded into a void of pure black, the only notable thing being a table with seven seats around it.

At the other side of the table, a bright figure was encased in a crystal around a seat with a starburst, a dragon sitting imperiously in the small seat beside her.

As Rarity marveled at the table, the dragon leapt toward the skeleton behind her... though the wooden throne had yet to fade as the skeleton rubbed her wrists.

As she got up and the dragon nuzzled her, however, her bones were wreathed in a bright light, wisps of violet trailing as she, now identical to the figure in the crystal, sat in one of the seats.

"Thank you, darling," the figure addressed in a lilting tone. "I trust you had no outstanding issues with the Interloper's little test?"

"Interloper?," Rarity questioned as she noticed faint cracks in the crystal prison. "Whatever do you mean?"

To her surprise, it was the dragon who spoke, in a voice that belied his size. "The Interloper imprisoned the spirits of five of the Gardener's victims in that nightmare, along with the power they held, to test five 'trusted mirrors' in your world."

He then turned to the crystal. "That is Magic, my former caretaker's power, sealed when the spirits were imprisoned and trapped in nightmares of worlds that could have and would have been. The Interloper's elder released her mortal self from imprisonment to enter your world, and they themselves contacted one other person in your world to shelter her as she heals from her wrongful persecution."

Turning back to Rarity, the creature said, "I take some blame. My message for help, written as I lay dying, was misconstrued, and the only evidence accounted for. However, that is not why you are here. You are here to shoulder a mantle, a mantle that will lead you on a journey you may not want to take, but which has lived within you as your truest aspect."

Rarity turned to the woman, who manifested a massive geode, then cracked it down the middle and produced a lozenge amethyst from it that shone against her and shifted her image into a visage Rarity was far from unfamiliar with.

As Rarity gaped, the woman - or rather, Rarity - giggled. "I suppose it is rather much to take on. Why, when I received Generosity for using my mane to repair a sea serpent's moustache, I was surprised too."

The Other Rarity's eyes then glowed as she spoke. "I, Rarity Belle of Ponyville, forswear this power, this Element of Harmony unto thee. May you not abuse this generosity, and instead show it in kind."

The amethyst then floated to Rarity, phasing into her, and her dopple smiled as she faded back into a blank figure and said, "These powers are now yours... but they are not yet useable. This power that existed in our realm does not yet manifest in yours. Until the last spirit takes their seat and forswears their Element, this power remains dormant save for the astral realm we find ourselves in, a pocket of dreams impregnable to their mistress. Know this, however... I shall be with you in the jewel he delivered. Now, use this power and waken!"

Rarity nodded, finding a wellspring deep inside that blossomed into violet light, cascading into a band of purple that rent the void... and as it went silent within her, she woke up in her bed, in her pajamas.

Wiping sleep from her eyes, she noticed a box with an origami horse by it on her dresser. Getting up to open it, she found a lozenge-cut amethyst in a pendant on a fine chain of gold and some sort of blue metal.

Realizing it could have only been the Interloper, Rarity unfolded the horse delicately, revealing a delicately written note that said,

Dear Rarity,

Congratulations. You released your other self's spirit from my labyrinth.
Here's something to consider; Was Pinkie really the one saying she had all the help she needed?
Enjoy the Element. Next on the list, someone will be holding their tongue... in a somewhat literal manner.

-S_____ _____K__

P.S: Hold on to that signature. You'll need it when all the pieces come together.

Deciding to keep her letter in the box where the necklace was, she donned it - it was quite a stylish piece, after all - and set about getting dressed.

In another world...

"She's gone, Princess Luna," Shining Armor said. "Even I couldn't say where she went."

"So what you are telling Us," the princess balked, "is that not only did the traitor steal the Elements of Harmony from Our vault, but you cannot muster the slightest idea of where she could have run to?!"

Moonlight Blood, Luna's personal guard captain, reluctantly nodded. "We detected no unauthorized ponies near the cells, no citizens of Ponyville reported her taking refuge in her old haunts, her family has been truthful that they do not harbor her, and our lines of questioning in Vanhoover and Manehattan have turned up no leads. Whatever happened to Twilight Sparkle, ma'am, it's clear that there was no conventional way to do it."

Luna fumed for a moment... before growling. "You had best find results, captains! Aside your efforts, the only choice that is left to me is to use the Crystal of Chaos... and after the nightmares I suffered last time, I do not say that lightly."

The captains saluted and left, leaving Luna to slump down in her throne.

"Why didst thou have to obsess over running away with her, dear sister?," Luna griped. "Now you are to be locked away in the dungeons, and We must handle what you once did whilst thou gallivant in search of a murderer..."

At the school...

(Specifically, a few minutes before Twilight's first math class as a human.)

Sunset sported a rare nervous look as she stared at Twilight's eye twitching while she looked at the math teacher.

"Miss Shimmer," the teacher said, "would you mind me asking why your friend looks torn between throttling me and being polite?"

Ignoring Twilight's repeated muttering of, "it's not her, it is not her, don't blow it, do not throttle your math teacher," Sunset sighed and said, "You know that scene from Lonsdaleite is Eternal, where Double Bonded has to work out the real Blowhard?"

Cheerilee raised an eyebrow. "Yes...?"

"Well," Sunset said, "the Garden Murders that Twilight survived had a lookalike of you as the perpetrator. Real piece of work, she was. Killed her whole class, all of Twilight's friends, and her baby brother. Faces like that get burned into your mind, especially when you end up throttling them yourself with hysterical strength."

"Oh!," Cheerilee said in realization. "Well, rest assured, miss Sparkle, I haven't the slightest inclination to such brutality. The only bad weeds in my opinion are stray dandelion flowers, and even if I had the slightest inclination, I have much more healthy and legal outlets for my frustrations, including a suite of therapists to help me prune such impulses!"

She then turned to Sunset and said, "That said, Sunset, didn't you schedule any therapy sessions for her to visit?"

Sunset looked sheepish, scratching her head as she said, "There aren't that many appointments open in the local clinics, and I especially don't know any therapists qualified to treat a PTSD case... especially not with almost everybody on the streets being a dead ringer for someone Twilight knew before."

Cheerilee gaped, but before she could pry further, the bell rang, and the math class filed in.

After math class...

"Well?," Sunset asked Twilight.

Twilight sighed. "I am so glad we managed to explain that lookalike scenario to Cheerilee... and even more glad that you stopped me from experiencing another psychotic episode because of her appearance."

Sunset nodded, but before she could leave, Rarity called, "Yoo-hoo? Twilight?"

The girls turned to Rarity... only for Twilight's eyes to focus in on what she was wearing.

"That's... a very nice necklace, Rarity," Twilight stammered out, to which Rarity replied, "Yes, it is rather mysterious. It showed up on my nightstand just this morning, but not before the most peculiar nightmare last night!"

"What kind of nightmare?," Sunset asked as Twilight noticed a faint shimmer in the necklace's amethyst.

"Oh, wouldn't you like to know, miss Queen Bee?," Rarity retorted acidly.

"I'd definitely like to know, too, Rarity," Twilight said, but before Rarity could react, another familiar face cut in.

"Howdy there, Twilight!," a tanned girl with a green and white T-shirt said, which drew Twilight's attention away from the necklace and onto the visage of another old friend; Stetson hat, eyes that shone like emeralds over freckled cheeks, and the very same country drawl she had come to count among her best friends.

"Well, howdy do, miss Twilight! A pleasure makin' your acquaintance! I'm Applejack. We here at Sweet Apple Acres sure do like makin' new friends!"

"Uh... you okay there, sugarcube?," Applejack said, and Twilight realized she was crying with her Element held to her chest again.

"Oh, my," Rarity said. "Another commonality, dear?"

Twilight nodded, and after a whisper from Rarity, Applejack pulled her into a hug and said, "Shoot, girl. Nobody could fake bein' that choked up about a familiar face. Sorry for draggin' up bad memories. You wanna sit down in the Cafeteria?"

Twilight sniffled. "I'd... I'd like that, Applejack."

As the two girls headed off, Rarity glared at Sunset, and the two retired to a dark hallway.

"I don't know what you intend to achieve with your nice girl act, Shimmer," Rarity berated, "but that girl is not another pawn for you to shape as you see fit!"

"Don't you think I know that?!," Sunset shot back. "I was initially interested in that gemstone of hers, and whoever sent me some weird message handed her to me on a platter, but despite what you think, Belle, I'm not so callous as to abuse a girl who just lost everything to an accidental self-framing! I want her to heal before I spring the false friendship on her."

"Why, to make it hurt more?" Rarity snipped, to which Sunset angrily but quietly said, "No, because while I don't regret my actions, I know better than to kick somebody when they're at their lowest point. I didn't have friends or a brother, but I don't threaten others with their confidants' safety just for a shiny prize."

Rarity, still mad but chastened enough, backed off while Sunset went to rendezvous with Snips and Snails.

Unheard by Rarity, Sunset whispered one thing. "You and your old friends better care for her, Belle. She'll need a foundation after I pull the rug out from under her."

At the Cafeteria...

"That Sunset's bad news, Twi," Applejack said. "I know she helped pick you up, but there ain't many people here willing to look past the rep of the Fire Devil of Canterlot High."

"She gave me the 'temper bomb' spiel, AJ," Twilight said. "I'd seen worse anger on Vice-Principal Luna's face... and the face of my plaintiff in the farce trial."

Twilight shuddered, and Applejack pat her on the back. "There, there, sugarcube, it wasn't your fault. You got served a rotten bushel, and you made the most of the water they put on the side."

The reassurance made Twilight sniffle with joy, and she replied with, "Thank you, Applejack. My farmer friend always knew how to comfort me like that, too."

Applejack couldn't help but smile. "You're welcome, Twi."

Her smile was cut short, however, by a mysterious text.

???: Poking at the truth, and still blinded by a lie.
???: We'll see how you handle the unvarnished details in a few nights.
???: Don't go to pieces, Applejack. You might have to hold your tongue soon.

Applejack frowned, but decided against answering what she figured was a set of spam texts.

Of course, from the crowds of other students, a man made a pattern of snaps unheard by the masses.

Snap. Snap-snap. Snap. Snap-snap. Snap. Snap-snap. Snap. Snap-snap.