The morning sun clobbered Sunset’s eyelids with painful assault. Her head throbbed as she sat up from her bed. Instinctively, Sunset rubbed her forehead where her horn would have once been. Blinking through the discomfort as her eyes adjusted to the dark, the events of the night prior slowly came back to her, and with no regard for her own comfort, she shot her eyes open, darting her strained gaze around.

The room was empty.

It wasn’t a dream. It couldn’t have been one. It was too real and she definitely had the marks to show for it, she realized as she uncovered herself, happy to at least find herself in shorts and a shirt. Panicked, she stood up, ignoring the pain throbbing in her brain and leaned against the railing that overlooked her main living space. Shimmer wasn’t there either.

Sunset blinked frustrated tears away and shook her head. “Of course she’d do that! She is me, after all, and I wasn’t always the most considerate!” she hissed. She flung her arms down and huffed, deciding it best to just forget about it. It had to be late morning since it was already bright outside. The snow had stopped at some point, but she couldn’t exactly remember when.

As she approached the stairs that led to the lower level of her open-concept loft, she noticed a bright red sticky note on the railing. Cocking her head, she picked it up and squinted at it.

[q]Hey Sunny!
Sorry to leave you hanging but you looked like such a sleeping dork! I didn’t want to wake you
Plus I thought maybe you died or something.
Anyway I didn’t just leave you as a notch on my bedpost (or technically yours?), don’t worry. I had a shift at work so I had to go. I may be a bitch but I do have some sort of self-respect.
Hope your head feels better, though you didn’t seem to be having too much trouble with it last night.
I’ll see you later
And I left my number in your phone (we have the same password lol)

(not anymore I changed mine)

The Cooler Sunset Shimmer[/q]

Sunset held the note in her hand, a crooked smile crossing her face. It was so… weird, admittedly but… well, she’d already crossed that, what with being a magical unicorn from another land and all. What was another facet to the weirdness?

The way Shimmer acted the night before was so different from the note she left. It was strange. But, there was one person she wanted to tell everything to immediately.

Grabbing her phone from her bedside table—the wallpaper was now a picture of Shimmer with a double horns sign and her tongue sticking out (oh so that’s what that was!!!)—Sunset opened her contacts app. Right at the top of her list was her best friend. She hit the dial button. Almost immediately, there was a response.

“Sunset! Oh my gosh, are you okay?”

Sunset snickered. “Yeah, Twi. I’m fine? Why do you ask?”

“Because you texted me last night that you found your counterpart and crashed your bike and then never picked up again!” Twilight shrieked. Sunset held the phone away from her ear. “I was just about to freak out and call a search party or something!”

“About to? This is about to?”

“Shush! I’m glad you’re okay,” Twilight added with a calm voice that allowed Sunset to bring the phone back to her ear. “So, how was she? Was she just like you? Taller? Older? Oh, why would she be any different? Unless she is!”

And there was the excitable Twilight that Sunset knew. She grinned and rolled her eyes, making her way downstairs to sit down on the very couch where it had all started. “She looks a tiny bit different, but nothing too crazy. I mean, she’s crazy hot but that’s beside the point.”

Twilight stayed silent for a moment. “Hot?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh. How so?”

Sunset sighed dreamily. “She’s basically a cooler me. She’s got shorter hair, sharper jawline, a scar on her eyebrow and a tongue piercing!”

“Woah. Wait, a tongue piercing? Did you guys talk a lot or something? How’d you find out?”

The memory played back in Sunset’s mind. “Oh, we made out.”

“You made out?!”

“And then some.”

“WHAT? SUNSET?!”

She chuckled awkwardly, bringing a sore arm to rub the back of her neck. “Look, it’s kind of a long story. She brought me home after I crashed—I’m fine, by the way—and we were just hanging out because it was getting snowy. There was some beer involved, but it’s not like we got drunk or anything. One thing led to another and the next thing I know, my hotter self is making out with me!”

“Sunset. I am not going to lie. That. Is kind of gross.”

“No it’s not,” Sunset defended, a bit hurt and embarrassed. “We’re two completely different adult people. We just happen to have some similarities!”

“As in you look, talk, sound, and act entirely the same,” Twilight deadpanned.

“Not completely,” Sunset whined. “Come on, it’s not that weird! I mean maybe at first it was but eventually it wasn’t. Come on, Twi, you can’t tell me you were never curious.”

Twilight hesitated. “About what?”

“You met Princess Twilight,” she reminded her. “You weren’t… curious about what it might be like? What she might be like?”

“Well, the thought did cross my mind,” Twilight admitted, “but I don’t think I’d ever try to find out. It’s too weird! Plus, I don’t like the idea of any sort of romantic intimacy unless it means something.”

Sunset frowned and adjusted herself on the couch to lay on her back. “I wasn’t planning on it happening… but I guess I’m not too upset it did. She left a note telling me to call her. I’m… not sure what that means, but she didn’t just leave after last night. That has to mean something, right?”

“Do you want it to mean something?”

Did she? Sunset shrugged, even though Twilight couldn’t see her. “I don’t know. Maybe? I wouldn’t hate seeing her more often. She’s kind of a lot but… she can be nice. She’s definitely not as bad as I used to be, at least.”

“Well, I certainly don’t understand, nor do I think that it’s morally acceptable, but I suppose there are no real laws against it seeing as you two are not related and are literally the same person,” Twilight said quickly. “Do what you want, I guess, but people are going to think the wrong thing. If you… date.”

Sunset sighed and rolled over onto her stomach, pushing herself up with a hand. “I know. That’s the worst thing. But it doesn’t matter. I don’t know what it is that she wants so I won’t assume that I do.”

“Good plan. And whatever happens… I just hope you’re happy. Really.”

That brought a warm smile to Sunset’s face. “Aw, thanks Twi. I’ll keep you updated.”

“Alright! This is definitely one for the books. I’ll talk to you later, I have some… unrelated things to do.”

The phone clicked dead after Sunset said her goodbye. She had been expecting pretty much that exact reaction from her, so she wasn’t really surprised. It was a bit of a pain to get your head around.

Shrugging, Sunset sat up and made her way to the bathroom. Her hair was a mess and she needed to brush her teeth. The bathroom itself was dark; a bonus of having it in a separate room with no windows.

She flicked the light switch on. The light flickered as she entered the small bathroom and stood in front of the mirror. She stared at herself scrupulously, as if she’d catch a discrepancy or something. But she stayed the same—no demon coming to ruin her.

At least she knew she definitely was awake. She looked down at her arms and grimaced. There were light scrapes left free and a few bandages all over her arms from the deeper scrapes. It could have been worse, she supposed, but road burn sucked, leather jacket or not.

After redressing her wounds and applying cream to her slightly bruised eye, Sunset grabbed her toothbrush and squished a thin layer of toothpaste, then stuck it in her mouth.

All the while, she stared at herself, trying to imagine Shimmer as her. There was something impossible about the fact, though. She couldn’t imagine herself as someone she wasn’t. If she tried to imagine herself as Shimmer, she would end up simply imagining Shimmer. While that might seem like it was what she wanted, she knew she was really just imagining Shimmer. It was different.

She groaned and spat into the sink, rinsing out her mouth with water. “I just had to go chasing after her, didn’t I?”

Cold water felt strange on her face. The air had been anything but warm since she woke up, though that was to be expected when the heater never worked. She dragged her palms down her face, blinking away the chilly water. “Am I really upset I did, though?”

Before she could even pick up her brush—Wait, where is my brush?—the sound of a knock interrupted her. A final glance around revealed that her brush was nowhere to be seen, and with a frustrated growl, Sunset did her best to smoothen out her bedhead with a hand as she approached the door.

It didn’t work.

Sunset pried open the door and stared blankly in front of her. Before she could say anything, Shimmer grabbed Sunset by the shoulders and gave her a quick kiss on the lips. “Hey, Sunny. Did you just wake up?”

Shimmer wore a warm-looking leather jacket, paired with a different black turtleneck and a teal scarf that had probably once been used to cover her face.

Well at least now I know how she feels, Sunset thought. She nodded. “Yeah, I guess I was tired or something.”

Shimmer laughed, little puffs of condensation giving it life. “Yeah, I can tell. Your hair is a mess!”

Sunset blushed as the cold hit her bare arms and legs. She held her arms to herself and bit back a shiver. “What are you doing here? Did you finish up at work?”

“Yup. It sucked, but hey, I’m a free woman now,” Shimmer exclaimed. She eyed Sunset and smirked. “Go put some clothes on, I’ll take you out for brunch.”

“Like a… Like on a…”

“A date? Sure, if you want to call it that.”

Sunset lifted a hand to rub the back of her neck. “Do you?”

Shimmer was quiet for a moment, staring off to the side at the snowy sidewalk. It had definitely come down hard last night. She looked back at Sunset with a confident smile. “Yeah. I do. Last night may have gone a bit too far, but I definitely don’t regret it.”

Sunset looked back inside her home and dragged Shimmer in. She closed the door behind them and rubbed her bandaged arms, trying to find some heat. “I don’t either.” She huffed and looked at her double. “I told one of my friends about you. She thinks it’s weird.”

“Well, it is,” Shimmer agreed with a shrug. “But then again, so is you being some… magical unicorn from another dimension,” she added with a wink. “So who the fuck cares, right?”

“That’s what I thought!” Sunset exclaimed, leaving Shimmer on the lower half as she went up to put some clothes on. “Besides, she wants me to be happy, and I haven’t felt this elated in a long time. I never thought I’d get to meet you.” Once dressed in warmer clothes not unlike Shimmer’s own, Sunset made her way down. “Honestly, for the longest time, I’d hoped I wouldn’t.”

Shimmer feigned offence as she not-so-discreetly checked Sunset out. “Ouch.”

Sunset snorted and punched her double in the arm. “No, it’s just that… I was afraid you’d be like, well, me. Or at least, how I used to be. I keep having nightmares about her… about me, and I guess I didn’t have much faith in any version of myself.”

Shimmer played with Sunset’s collar, leaving it crooked. “Well, I’m not exactly the nicest, but I’m definitely not like how you used to be. Not anymore. I was a mean kid.”

They both glanced at each other and chuckled. In unison, they both reached up to rub their necks, and upon noticing, they blushed and giggled. Shimmer took Sunset’s hand and led her out the door. Once the door was locked, they made their way to Shimmer’s bike.

Shimmer reached across over her bike and pulled out a helmet that was like Sunset’s except with a shiny red and gold trim. She handed it to Sunset. “Your last helmet is beyond fucked, and I had an extra from when I had my old bike. You can have it.”

Sunset took the helmet in her hands and stared at her reflection in the shiny black plastic. “Wow. Thanks, Shim.”

“Yeah, yeah, no biggie. Now come on, we have a date to go on.” She climbed on the bike, Sunset following suit. Holding the helmet in her hands, Shimmer looked over her shoulder. “And hey, who knows, if you buy me dinner, maybe I’ll let you kiss me,” Shimmer joked with a wink.

Sunset rolled her eyes and leaned forward into a soft kiss. Just as Shimmer was getting into it, Sunset pulled back, eliciting a frustrated breath from a blushing Shimmer. “Maybe,” Sunset teased as she put on her new helmet. “We’ll see.”

Shimmer shook her head, breathing warm air into the cold around them. She snapped on her helmet and lifted the visor to give Sunset a wink. “You’re such a tease.”

And she wasn’t? Sunset simply nodded her head as Shimmer started the engine. Automatically, Sunset wrapped her arms around Shimmer’s stomach.

It felt right.

Author's Note

The people asked, so I delivered.

Plus I thought it’d be fun. It kind of was, though it was mostly just the worst writing experience of my life. 10/10 would do again