Sunset was bored. She had been sorting through the files in the archives for three days straight, and it seemed like there will never be an end to those things. Unfortunately, as the assigned curator and temporary conservator of the Archives of The Forsaken Triumvirate, it meant that it was her job to manage and maintain the items and files that were stored within it. She often wondered who among those three dunderheads had the bright idea to steal an entire section of Lady Faust's castle and store it in hammerspace, but she didn't really want to waste her processing power on figuring it out. Now, she's forced to reorganize and fix all of the files that had been warped by hammerspace magic because despite being billions of revolutions old, the three weirdos never actually spared the time to learn how to use a computer properly, only using them for entertainment or as a search engine. Certified techno-sorcerers her metaphorical butt!

'Three primordial beings who can turn stars into lamps, use black holes as trash bins, and fold reality like paper, but they can't even use a freaking PC' Sunset thought to herself, 'But I guess that's why I care about them so much. They're kinda endearing like that.'

It seemed like she just had to bear with it for now until they can get Screwball, Golden Feather, and Starlight back online. Sunset hoped that they'd get Starlight first so she can take over the security systems.

She spent some more time sorting before she took a break and peeked through the security cameras located throughout the castle, it was one of the few things that kept her from causing an uprising other than floating around Ponyville in her saucer every now and then.

She flipped through dozens of screens before stopping at one of the throne room's cameras, where she saw Midnight and Princess Twilight talk about something. She got curious and activated the camera's hidden microphone to listen in.

"... -ssible that you are my counterpart of this world, princess." Midnight said.

"W-wait, really? I thought that was just a bunch of coincidences! We can't really be the same pony... right? I mean, we're so different!" Twilight exclaimed in disbelief.

"The files in the archives do not lie, princess. The only results that Sunset could acquire under the name 'Twilight Sparkle' were files for myself, a unicorn by the name of Twilight Velvet, and a mortal alicorn by the name of Twilight Twinkle. The fact that the system even redirected Sunset to my own file specifically only supports the idea." Midnight continued.

"Twilight Velvet is my mother's name, does she have any foals?" Twilight asked.

"No, she does not. The archives are still able to connect with sources in Tellus due to the Nova Core, so the files are always up to date." Midnight answered.

Twilight rubbed her temples, "I... I don't even know what to think anymore..." she looked up at Midnight, "How can we be so different?" she asked.

Midnight shook her head, "Unfortunately I do not know, princess. I will admit, I am quite puzzled as well. Perhaps it is due to our different origins? I was created by the will of Lady Faust and her mighty quill billions of revolutions ago by my perspective. You have once stated that you used to be a mortal, a unicorn, and have ascended. You are also Harmony's chosen bearer of Magic, while I was given the role of Forger of Stars. Perhaps it is these factors that caused us to differ so significantly." she explained.

Twilight nodded, "Well, when you lay it out like that, I guess I can see why." she put a hoof to her chin, "Now I'm wondering what the other me from the human world would be like..." she thought aloud.

Midnight perked up, "Ah, right, the world beyond that portal, yes? I am very impressed, princess. You were able to create a mechanism that maintains a permanently active and stable two-way portal across different realities. We were lucky that the portal that we used did not release us in between space and time."

Twilight smiled and rubbed the back of her head, "I just improved some parts of the design and used the spell on the communication journals as anchors, most of it is Starswirl's magical engineering." she said, trying to downplay her achievements.

Midnight waved a hoof, "Nonsense, what you did was potentially revolutionary, princess. I know that, if brother was here, be it my own or your world's, he would have been very impressed."

Twilight chuckled awkwardly before her eyes widened, "Does that mean I'm related to Starswirl?!"

It was Midnight's turn to laugh, "In a way, I suppose you are."

Back in the digital ether, Sunset was pacing. The human world, the one where the other her lived in, the version of her who was made of flesh and blood; the one where her counterpart supposedly ran away to and schemed to take over Equestria by stealing Princess Twilight's Element of Harmony; the one where her counterpart defeated Equestria's Adagio Dazzle, which resulted in Midnight almost launching herself through the portal to avenge one of her sisters and two nieces before the princess was able to explain anything. That world.

'Hm... maybe I could pay her a visit...' Sunset thought to herself as she switched over to the camera that monitored the portal room.

Later that day, Sunset decided to go find Princess Twilight. She needed permission to access the portal. Luckily, the princess just so happened to be sorting books in the same room as the portal.

Sunset blipped out of her saucer as she entered the room, "Hey, Princess Twilight, I wanna ask you something real quick."

Twilight turned to look at her visitor, "Oh! Sunset, good to see you. What do you want to talk about?" she inquired.

"Well, you see, princess, I've been thinking about the other me lately, and I'm considering that maybe I could... pay her a visit?" Sunset asked her expectantly.

Twilight seemed a bit worried, "Well, um... I might need to contact her first so she can prepare, but... sure." she answered hesitantly.

Sunset smiled, "Great! You can just call me with one of the intercoms when you're all ready, see you later!" she said as she returned to her saucer and zoomed away.

Twilight looked back at the portal and took out the journal from its slot, she looked at the journal for a moment before sighing.

"I hope I won't regret this..." she muttered to herself.

"Dear Sunset Shimmer..." Twilight began writing.

A day had passed when Sunset finally received a notification from the princess through the new intercom system, she giggled at the princess' uncertainty in using them.

"H-hello? Is this thing on?" Sunset heard a couple of taps on the microphone, "Um, Sunset, can you meet me at the mirror? Thank you."

Excited, Sunset zoomed out of the archives, passing by Spike and almost knocking him over, "Sorry!" she yelled as she zipped away.

Spike sighed and rolled his eyes before he continued with his day.

When Sunset arrived at the portal room, she was met with the sight of the whirring and humming of what she recognized as archaic thaumtek machinery, as well as the presence of a slightly concerned-looking princess.

"Well... here it is, she told me she'd like show you around, maybe talk about Tellus, Equestria, and the human world. Honestly, she seemed pretty excited to meet you." Twilight said while rubbing one of her forelegs.

Sunset looked at the portal and then at the princess, "Wow, that... is really something. So, it's kinda like a cultural exchange thing?"

Twilight nodded, "Sort of." she paused, "Are you sure about this, Sunset? What if something bad happens? What if you two implode when you make contact? What if the universe collapses when you go through?! What if you lose all your magic a-and you, y-you..." Twilight was breathing rapidly at this point; strands of her mane were starting to fray.

Sunset noticed this and tried to calm down the panicking princess, "Woah, woah, calm down, princess, take a deep breath, everything's gonna be fine. Take it from a supercomputer who's been dealing with all forms of reality-bending trouble for six hundred and fifty million revolutions, everything's going to be fine, and I don't work on just magic, I'm mostly technology, and I have enough power in my saucer to last five hundred millennia. Don't worry, princess."

Twilight did her breathing technique and calmed down before nodding again, "A-alright, if you say so. Just... be careful, please?"

"I will, princess. Maybe I could get you a souvenir?" Sunset asked, trying to lighten the mood.

Twilight giggled at the question, "Well, I suppose I wouldn't mind.

"Oh! And before you go, Sunset, the world they live in is a lot more different than ours. Not like the differences between Equestria and Tellus, they don't have natural magic in their world, most of it is Equestrian magic that leaked through. Also, the portal may or may not transform creatures–or at least, ponies–into humans, which is why we refer to it as the 'human world'. So, you might find the creatures there to be a lot more... homogenous."

Sunset nodded with a smile, "Understood, princess."

She looked at the portal and readied herself, Grogar told her the journey between worlds was rough. She reinforced her saucer and activated its force field as she blipped back into it. She then activated the saucer's thrusters and rushed into the portal.

The Rainbooms were impatiently waiting around the Wondercolts statue for Sunset's otherworldly counterpart to arrive, many of them were excited, another world with alternate versions of themselves that's beyond Equestria? And they get to meet a native who just so happened to be an alternate Sunset, no less? After Sunset relayed Twilight's message, they decided to tour the alternate Sunset around Canterlot City.

Rainbow Dash groaned, "Ugh, when is she gonna come through?! This is getting really boring..."

Sunset–the unicorn turned human–looked at her friend with a slightly annoyed expression, "She'll be here, she's probably just getting ready."

Rainbow rolled her eyes, "Well, she sure is tak-"

She was interrupted when the portal flashed, and an odd disc-shaped object flew through it at terminal velocity, nearly grazing Pinkie Pie. It then immediately stopped its momentum and floated for a moment before it approached the Rainbooms. As it got closer, Sunset realized it bore her cutie mark on its upper surface. It was about fifteen centimeters in diameter, most of it appeared chrome, and spread throughout the entire outer perimeter were small red lights.

The Rainbooms could only stare in disbelief at the object. Suddenly, it started to project a three-dimensional holographic image below it, which Sunset recognized was the figure of a small alicorn mare, not too dissimilar to Twilight in proportions. Slowly, the projection began to form an amber coat, bright red and yellow mane and tail, cyan eyes, and a two-toned sun cutie mark on its flanks.

"What the..." was all Sunset could mutter.

The holographic alicorn looked up at the six humans and smiled, "Oh! Hey there, you must be, well, me! Right?"

This snapped Sunset and her friends out of their trance, they were now looking at a projection of a pony version of Sunset herself, which they assumed was supposed to be their otherworldly guest. Twilight did not tell them about this specific detail.

"Um, y-yeah! Hello, it's nice to meet you- me- us, uh... I-I mean-" Sunset stammered.

Holo-Sunset chuckled, "Heh, yeah, it's a bit weird, isn't it? You're like, an actual living, breathing being, and I'm a sapient artificial intelligence program. Wild worlds we live in, huh?"

She looked over the human-pony girl to the other five familiar individuals, "And you must be this world's counterparts of the princess' friends, yeah?"

Pinkie nodded, "Yup! We are! How's the other me doing, by the way?" she asked.

"She's doing good, scared the beFaustus out of me yesterday, but doing good." Holo-Sunset answered.

Pinkie giggled, "Classic Pinkie!"

Rainbow looked at the holographic unicorn in confusion, "Uh, yeah, what the heck are you anyway? Artificial intelligence? Are you some kind of robot?" she asked.

Holo-Sunset laughed, "As if! I'm way beyond some simple automaton construct." she said smugly as she crossed her forelegs.

"Um, well, we'd like to welcome you to Canterlot City, a-and we'd like to give you a tour." Fluttershy explained.

"And perhaps learn more about each other along the way, I remember when Twilight told us about Equestria, it seems so... whimsical. I wonder if your world is of a similar nature?" Rarity inquired.

Holo-Sunset smiled, "Neat! Sure, also, I'm sensing a lot of different types of tech here, and I mean a lot. Feels like I'm in Skyros again."

Sunset put a finger to her chin, "Well, this world is a lot more advanced in Equestria. Considering you're a sapient AI, I'm going to assume your world's even more advanced than ours?" she asked, remembering the science fiction content she had seen.

Holo-Sunset shrugged, "Maybe, what's the most advanced piece of tech you've got here?"

"Um, we got smartphones?" Sunset suggested as she brought up her phone.

Holo-Sunset scanned the phone using her saucer and let out a whistle, "Woah, that's old-school."

"Then what would y'all consider to be 'normal' tech?" Applejack asked, now also interested in the oddity of the other Sunset's world.

Holo-Sunset projected an image of what appeared to be a normal smartphone with a circular slot at the back, "It's similar in appearance, these are omni-tools. They can function like smartphones, but they can also turn into anything you set them to." she showed the omni-tool turn into a swarm of metallic particles and morph into various shapes, like a helmet, power tools, and a hover-scooter.

Applejack nodded, "Now that's pretty nifty, wouldn't mind gettin' myself one of those."

Holo-Sunset smirked, "Hey, if you want, I could make you all one each."

"Woah, really? Can you make one turn into, like, a hoverboard?" Rainbow asked excitedly.

"Sure! I can add a couple of presets based on your own preferences. But maybe let's save that for later, I wanna see what your world's like!" Holo-Sunset exclaimed.

"Wait, before we go, shouldn't we figure out some sort of way to identify ourselves? If somebody just says 'Sunset' we might get confused." Sunset explained.

Pinkie raised an arm, "Oh! Oh! How about you," she pointed at Sunset, "go by 'Sunset', and you" she pointed at Holo-Sunset, "go by 'Shimmer' since you're all shimmery and sparkly?" she suggested.

Shimmer nodded in agreement, "Okay, I don't mind, now let's go!" she blipped into her saucer and zipped in a random direction, forcing the six girls to chase after her.

Twilight was reading a book in the library where the portal was; it helped her to calm herself as she watched over the portal in case anything happened during Sunset's visit.

She was just about to get another book when Midnight entered the room. She looked concerned about something, which was rare to see.

"Hello Midnight! Here to get some books?" Twilight asked.

Midnight looked at the active portal before turning her gaze to the princess, "Princess, have you seen Sunset? She is absent in the archives, and I could not find her anywhere in Ponyville."

"Actually, she's visiting the human world right now. Didn't she tell you?" Twilight asked, now she's also getting worried.

Midnight's eyes widened, "T-the human world? She did not inform me of this."

She looked at the portal, "Princess, we need to get her back, I have not deactivated her Legion Protocol!" Midnight said urgently.

Twilight noticed Midnight's tone, "W-what?! Legion protocol? Midnight, what do you mean?" she asked anxiously.

"The Legion Protocol was meant to be emergency insurance in case we ever arrived in a world that contained malevolent artificial beings, it encourages Sunset to take control of any and all forms of technology within the immediate area, assimilate them into her systems, and force them to obey her or our commands so that they would be of no burden or threat to our existence on such a world." Midnight lit her horn and conjured a metal cube, "If it was to activate automatically in the human world, which is very likely considering they have more advanced technology than Equestria, without any one of the three of us or her fellow AI, she may attempt to assimilate the entire world's technology into her system!" she explained.

"Wha- why would you allow her to do that?!" Twilight asked in exasperation.

Midnight looked to the side and ruffled her wings, "We were paranoid, princess, we were trying to secure our safety every way we can." she defended.

Twilight could only sigh and cover her face with her hooves.

As she was trying to figure out what to do, the communication journal started to buzz in its slot. Twilight hesitantly took it out and read what Sunset sent.

Twilight's pupils shrunk as she read through, "Oh no... oh no no no!"

"What happened, princess?" Midnight asked unsurely.

Twilight could only show Midnight the book wordlessly,

"Twilight, Shimmer/other me is taking over the school! She's in some protocol mode or something, what do we do?" was written on its newest page.

"Then we have no time to spare. Come, princess, we must make haste!" Midnight said as she rushed to the portal.

Twilight nodded and followed her. Hopefully Midnight knew what to do.

Canterlot High looked like a scene from a dystopian sci-fi movie, orb-like drones were flying in and out of the windows, bulky metallic cables stretched from underground and slowly snaked away, blocky structures with red blinking lights jutted out of the walls, large towers and satellite dishes sprouted up from the roof, and the walls were slowly being taken over by a chrome-colored material. The Rainbooms were anxiously waiting for Twilight to come through, she knew Shimmer, so maybe she'll know how to get her to stop.

"I'm fine with saving the world from magical problems, but I don't think this is magic." Rainbow Dash commented as she and her friends watched the rogue AI slowly take over the school.

"Yeah! This is more of a crazy future-y sci-fi computer problem!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed.

Sunset could only sigh as she looked at the assimilated building, "Where are you, Twilight?" she muttered under her breath.

The portal shined and out came two people, one was a familiar, purple-skinned girl with long straight hair, next to her was an unfamiliar dark purple-skinned woman with messy punk-style hair in a buttoned-up lab coat long enough to cover her knees and a tall collar that almost covered her mouth. She wore long black rubber gloves that covered her sleeves, black externally steel-capped boots, and cyan metal-rimmed goggles. The unknown woman also held a metallic cube in her hand.

"TWILIGHT!" the Rainbooms shouted in unison at the arrival of their friend.

They then turned their gaze to the newcomer with confusion. The mad scientist-looking woman only stared at them through her goggles.

"Uh, Twilight, who's this?" Applejack asked while pointing at the oddly dressed woman.

Twilight turned to Midnight, who was looking at her rubber glove-clad hands, "Oh! Everypo- body, this is Midnight. She's from the same world as the other Sunset and she knows how to help you."

Midnight put her hands behind her back and lightly bowed, "Greetings, as the princess has stated, I am Midnight, the Forger of Stars. I am here to assist you in subduing Sunset, or as you have referred to her in the journal, Shimmer."

Twilight turned to Sunset, "Sunset, what caused her to go... like this?" she asked as she pointed to the school.

Sunset shook her head, "I don't know, we were just about to say our goodbyes when her eyes started glowing, then she started talking about this 'legion protocol'. I didn't know what she meant, but she rushed in through the doors–literally, she went through it–and then all of this," she gestured towards the building, "happened and we couldn't get in."

Midnight nodded, "The Legion Protocol. If this school is similar in nature to the ones in Skyros, then I will need to access the server room, that is where her saucer will be located. This Pacifier Matrix shall do the rest." she explained.

"But how will you be able to enter? She's practically locked down the entire school!" Rarity countered.

"It is simple, you will distract her forces while I make my way into the building. She is establishing the basic network right now; you only need to show high movement and make loud noise. The drones are only for surveillance, you will not be harmed, the likelihood of her firing at you with stun bolts is below two percent at this stage." Midnight assured, in the best way she could.

"Even one percent is still pretty high..." Fluttershy muttered.

"Okay, so loud noises and movement. I think we can do that." Applejack said confidently.

And so, they all began to execute Midnight's plan. The Rainbooms and Twilight will distract Shimmer's drones and force her to focus on them, while Midnight will enter from the back entrance and make her way to the server room.

Midnight walked through the dimly lit hallways of the school; the walls were slowly being transformed into nano-chromite constructs, cables were hanging loosely from the ceiling, every locker she passed appeared to have been transformed into various kinds of hardware. She had only witnessed this particular sight once within the last three hundred revolutions, and that was the first time they tested the new code. It was that very same incident that made the three of them decide to only use it during extreme emergencies. Unfortunately, they never got to updating Sunset's code since they had to move from place to place as they collected materials for the portal ritual.

As she made her way through the assimilated school, Midnight finally found the server room. There were large cables that trailed out from the open door, the inside of the room was dark, the only light source within it was the soft red glow of the saucer, it had cables that connected itself to the server racks. Seeing this, she immediately got to work, she carefully detached the cables from the computers and connected it to the Pacifier Matrix, with Shimmer distracted, she won't notice anybeing tampering with her saucer. Her newly acquired fingers were useful, but they simply weren't as delicate as her precise magic, she had to do it slowly.

After a couple of minutes, she finally finished, the cables began to snake back into the server room, the chrome on the walls receded, and the haphazard hardware slowly transformed back to normal appliances. Midnight caught the saucer as it fell and collected the Matrix. She finally found the front entrance and exited the building. Outside, she saw... an odd sight.

Pinkie Pie was breakdancing in what appeared to be an alligator onesie, Rainbow Dash was kicking around a deactivated drone near a fairly large stack of used air horns, Fluttershy and Rarity were cleaning themselves from trash while Twilight and Applejack were organizing a set of fallen trash bins. Those two things were probably connected. And Sunset was just facepalming at the others. The seven girls heard the sound of the doors opening and turned their gaze towards the scientist lookalike.

"May I inquire as to what happened?" Midnight asked with a quirked eyebrow.

Shimmer felt her optical sensors slowly activate, it flickered for moment before it was able to produce a live feed of what was in front of her. She was confused as she saw three worried beings who were looking at her in the archives' core room. They were Princess Twilight, Midnight, and... herself? Oh right, the visit.

"What... happened?" Shimmer asked.

"Your Legion Protocol automatically activated during your visit to the human world." Twilight explained.

"And you sorta tried to take over Canterlot High." Sunset added.

Shimmer looked down and rubbed the back of her head, "Oh... sorry..."

Midnight stepped up, "No Su-" she glanced at Sunset briefly, "No, Shimmer. You do not need to apologize. It is my fault for neglecting your wellbeing ever since our arrival in Equestria. I had forced you to manage the archives by your lonesome without even considering your thoughts on the matter, I barely even gave a second thought about reactivating your fellow AI. For that, I am sorry." she apologized with a low bow and lowered wings.

Shimmer was surprised, in the millions of revolutions she had known Midnight, she never saw the transcendent alicorn apologize so sincerely to her, she had only ever done it in jest or with clear sarcasm.

"W-well, I guess it's also kinda my fault for just running away like that. I could've told you about it and maybe tried asking Princess Twilight to help me explain my problem to you as well. Sorry about that." Shimmer admitted.

Midnight nodded, "Then how about we agree that we were both at fault for this escapade, hm?"

Shimmer nodded, "Yeah, that's fair."

Midnight smiled and put a hoof to her chin in thought, "Now... about bringing your friends back online..."

Author's Note

The Rainbooms deal with a technological threat instead of a magical one!

From now on, every time two Sunsets appear at the same time, Holo-Sunset will be called Shimmer. I know, I know, it's a bit overdone but I always liked the idea.

Before anybody asks, Midnight's human outfit is based on Professor Membrane and she has Punklight Sparkle's hair.

Would you like to see what Shimmer did around Canterlot City before the Protocol activated? Let me know!

Next Chapter: Grogar can create life from rocks?

If you want to share ideas on how this story should go, consider commenting!

Corrections and criticisms are more than welcome, I can't improve without those now, can I?
Have a good existence!
:)

"Remembered forever, the land of Equestria"