“Aww buck no!” Applejack and Rainbow Dash cried in unison.
Twilight sighed, she’d thought about it before, and seen it in Cadence and Shiny too, but she still found it a little creepy how couples started to act alike.
It had been two days since Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Twilight had united in Aj’s treehouse. While she wanted to let her friends settle into their ascended bodies a bit more before springing anything new onto them, time and mana build-up waited for nopony. So it was, that on Twilight's third night in Ponyville, she’d managed to return to the Dreamscape and pull three of her friends in with her.
That was the easy part.
“I dropped out of flight school Twi, and I almost flunked your class on the Wonderbolts, what makes you think I’ll sit through months of stuffy unicorn classes so I might be able to flip a page of Daring Doo eventually.” Complained Rainbow, “I remember what foals our age can do with magic, and you don’t count. There is no way I’m egg-heading up enough to do any cool stuff before we get this sorted!”
“Yeah Sugarcube, I know magic is your thing, but with the farm an ma family, there ain’t no way I’d have time to learn magic.” Applejack chimed in before she visibly considered something, “Though, I wouldn’t mind givin’ flyin’ a shot.”
Rainbow’s face lit up, “Oh yeah! I’ll have you flying in no time, and then we can have another picnic on a cloud, only, without you falling through it after thirty minutes.”
Fluttershy gasped while Applejack hid her face behind her hat, and mumbled something about not trusting Applebloom’s potions again.
Noticing she was losing control of the conversation, Twilight cleared her throat.
“Girls, I know our current situation is almost definitely temporary, but we currently have no idea how long we’re stuck like this, so we need to head off some… problems.” Twilight winced at a variety of memories that had returned unbidden to her.
“Problems?” Asked Fluttershy, “What do you mean? Are our disguises not enough to keep us safe?”
The howl of Wendigoos, screams of ponies, the horror on Celestia’s face as she was crushed by a sentient cake monster, and the feeling of vertigo after being teleported into the stratosphere all played through Twilight's mind. In all honesty, there probably wouldn’t be any problems, but probably wasn’t good enough. Taking a breath to calm her nerves, Twilight put on her brave face.
“There was only one Flurry Heart, and she had an Alicorn within shouting distance of her at all times to mitigate her mana flares. If you don’t learn to control your Arcane Wellspring, I have no idea if I’d be capable of mitigating the effects, especially if all three of you have an outburst at the same time.”
Realisation dawned on the three new Alicorns, and while they’d rarely been present for Flurry Hearts outbursts, they’d heard the stories. Any unicorn foal could use magic accidentally in moments of extreme emotion.
Something making you angry? Slightly warm laser beam.
Laughing so hard your sides begin to hurt? Mana sparks.
Overwhelmed? Lage telekinetic blast making a few mugs rattle.
When it came to Flurry Heart, the list of triggers was near endless, with a varying magnitude of results. When Flurry caught her first cold, she sneezed and encased Cadence in ice, and when Shining attempted to withhold cake, Flurry teleported all the way to Silver Shoales and consumed half of the cakes Celestia had stockpiled.
It had taken years for Flurry to gain full control of her magic, and she was still self-conscious about it to this day… or at least the day they were last on their Equestria. If each of them could be capable of the same destruction and chaos…
“All right Sugarcube, what's the plan.”
⁐⁑⁐⁑⁐⁑⁐⁂⁐⁑⁐⁑⁐⁑⁐
Everything was burning, and smoke was quickly making breathing difficult, if she stayed here much longer, she’d be extra crispy bacon. Summoning up the last of her strength, Sunset Shimmer crawled towards the alley’s exit.
Inch by painful inch, she crawled to freedom, but Sunset could feel darkness beginning to take her, she wouldn’t make it, damn those thugs, why’d they continue to fight after the first volley of firebolts, hadn’t they heard of her reputation?
Collapsing to the floor, Sunset could only pray to Celes… Anyone that she’d be alright, she’d gotten out of the burning debris and trash, but she hadn’t quite managed to reach the street, hopefully, she’d regain consciousness before anyone dared investigate the fire.
The last thing she saw before she lost consciousness was the shadow of a unicorn with a horn glowing a sickly green.
“Twi… light”
⁐⁑⁐⁑⁐⁑⁐⁂⁐⁑⁐⁑⁐⁑⁐
Twilight awoke with a start. She’d finished making plans with the others, and after agreeing to meet up in Sweet Apple Acre’s around lunchtime, they began to wake up, but just before waking, she could have sworn she heard some creature calling her name.
Sitting up in bed, Twilight tried desperately to recall that final moment, she felt like she knew the voice, but she couldn’t even remember the sound, just her name. Looking over to the side of her bed, Twilight found two large green-slitted eyes staring back at her.
“Taaa?” Said the baby dragon.
“Good morning Spike, have you been up long?”
“Waa”
Twilight chuckled to herself, Spike was such a cute hatchling, and while she missed her number one assistant more than anyone else, she would hopefully never forget this second chance to be with her baby brother.
“Alright then, let's get you some breakfast, how about I add some crushed garnet to your oats today?”
“Yaaa ya” Spike gleefully cried, bouncing in his basket.
Smiling, Twilight clambered out of bed and began to focus on Spike. Normally this spell would be second nature, it had been decades since she’d given the spell more than a second thought, but considering she would be trying to teach Rainbow, AJ and Fluttershy this spell in a short few hours, she needed a few practice casts first. Focusing on her wellspring, she guided magic through her body and into her horn, casting her sight on Spike, she willed magic to flow from her horn and coalesce around the baby Dragon. When she felt her spell complete and the familiar aura began to surround Spike, she pulled him from his basket and onto her back.
Telekinesis, the first spell any unicorn learns, for most foals, it made a perfect practice in mana flow, control, mana capacity and casting discipline, for Alicorns however, it can also be used to prevent the accidental crushing of targets more important than balloons, or filling the spell with so much mana it explodes, no creature needed to relive the Whammy disaster.
At least there’d be an orchard full of apples for practice, what's the worst that could happen?
⁐⁑⁐⁑⁐⁑⁐⁂⁐⁑⁐⁑⁐⁑⁐
“Move it Sunset.”
“We know all about you Sunset Shimmer.”
“Did you ever think you shouldn’t be messing with things you don’t understand?”
“All those pictures were taken by you!”
“Unleash the magic.”
“Sunset Shimmer, askin’ to be on our best friend's picture.”
“Somepony, help me.”
“You should try to make some friends”
“More power than I could ever imagine.”
“You don’t even have friends”
“I want Equestria!”
“No one is going to remember you at all.”
“Way to go anon-miss.”
“Wallflower, stop.”
“I think you’ve helped enough.”
“Heh, no offence”
Sunset Shimmer, we need you.”
“It was us”
“I’ve missed you, Sunset Shimmer.”
“We’d be proud to call you, our friend”
“Remember who you are, and find your family.”
“The most important magic of all, the magic of friendship.”
“Whhaaaaaaaaaa”
Sunset Shimmer awoke with a start, bolt upright and gasping for breath to fight her racing heartbeat. She’d had that dream again, of those, monsters, humans… and friends. None of it made sense, she was a unicorn, not some weird, creature, but then she saw that explosion, and now she couldn’t make sense of anything.
She desperately wanted Celestia, but why did she long for the ruler of Equestria whom she’d never met? Why would the ruler of the nation have anything to do with an orphan such as her? Nothing made sense, nothing…
*Well, seems like you’ve walked into the wrong alleyway little mare.*
The muggers, the fire. Where was she?
In a panic, she franticly looked around her current environment:
Walls, no windows, I’m on a bed, with bedding, hands? No hooves, why would I have hands? Roof, door, me… Me?
What had finally captured Sunset's attention was a long mirror on the opposite side of the room, currently aimed towards her, and the reflection was far from flattering. Dirty and charred hair, a messy coat stained with muddy water, and her eyes, sunken cyan eyes accented by dark shadows, it was impossible to tell if it was grime or lack of sleep. When was the last time she had any real sleep?
After the explosion, so many thoughts filled her brain, too many, conflicting thoughts, it hurt, oh it hurt. It was like a dream, and nightmare all in one, like something inside her was clawing to gain control, telling her that everything was wrong. What was worse though, was that being awake almost felt like more of a nightmare, like everything was wrong.
But it couldn’t be right, she was Sunset Shimmer, she’d grown up without a family, and those close to her were only as loyal as her power over them could guarantee, she do friendship, she had minions, there was no ‘Princess of Friendship’ to make everything better, she didn’t need that! She didn’t need any pony.
So why was she crying?
She looked back to the mirror, but her vision was blurred, images of friends huddled around her for… pictures and selfies seemed to flash in the mirror frame, in the distance, she could swear she heard someone giggle, a familiar and warm laugh, but a drop of something landing on her hoof bringing her back to her reality. Wiping her eyes with the back of her hoof, Sunset again looked into the mirror and found exactly what she knew would be there.
Sunset Shimmer, the unicorn, burnt, dirty and as always, alone.
*Knock knock*
Slowly, the door to her current room inched open, and a pink, freckled muzzle, with a long black and yellow fringe, hiding the pony's eyes cautiously moved into the room. “Hello, a-are you awake?”
Sunset simply stared silently at the mare, she didn’t remember seeing her in the alley, but as the mare walked fully into the room, revealing her horn, Sunset remembered.
She’d tried to crawl away, then a shadow blocked her path, a shadow with a green glowing horn.
“-ok?”
“Huh?” Sunset flinched, now inches in front of her, sat the mare, who had been waving a hoof in front of Sunset, had she really not noticed the mare crossing the room?
“I was asking, a-are you ok?” She said softly, “You were in an awful state when I found you, so I b-brought you here, oh, my name is C-Chatter Bug by the way.”
“Hello, erm, I’m ok, thanks. I’m sorry for causing you trouble.”
The now-named Chatter Bug seemed to relax, and even though Sunset couldn’t see the mare's eyes from the long fringe, now she could see the mare fully, her fringe was matched by a long braided ponytail, that wrapped around and hung in front of the mare, where it was currently been nervously tugged in the mares forehooves. She had a slender horn and a long tail which was wrapped around her protectively. She looked like she was half ready to run away, not that Sunset could blame her.
Chatter Bug smiled, “Oh good, I was beginning to worry, y-you’ve been asleep for a few hours, a-and you’ve been having the most fitful terrors.”
“I’m fine, just a bad dream, it's nothing.” Sunset lied, of course, she’d lie. She’d been at this mare's mercy for Cel… who knows how long, she must want something, or need something, it would only be a matter of time before-
“Oh, that's good. W-would it be alright if I ask you something?”
*Bingo, what’s it going to be, dealing with some pony? Money, ha no point asking for that.*
“W… Would, y-you p-please b-b-b-b-bemyfriend!” The mare squeaked, as her ears blushed into a burning red and clamped down around her head.
“Eh?”