Ranger
Chapter 91: FMP Pt. 1
By Wanderer D
Sunset snorted when someone shook her shoulder.
"Sunset! Come on!" Rainbow Dash's voice cut through the haze of her confusion. "We're going to be late!"
"Late?" Sunset asked, blinking blearily and realizing she was sitting on a table and had fallen asleep on it. She could smell food. When did she get to the mess area?
"Yeah! Late! As in, you know…" Rainbow struggled to think of a word. "Not in time!"
"Yeah, yeah," Sunset sighed standing up and yawning, the world around her still a blur. She rubbed her eyes with the back of her leather jacket sleeve.
"What is it this time? Couldn't Central just call me on the comms?"
"Central? Who the hay is that?"
That woke up Sunset faster than salvo. "What?!"
She spun around, in the process realizing several things:
1) She was NOT in the Avenger.
2) Rainbow Dash was a teenager
3) She was in a school… and it looked familiar.
4) She was a teenager too.
And the whole student body was looking at them. Sunset looked down at herself. She had no armor, no weapons… she was wearing a skirt and boots and a t-shirt and her jacket… but no guns! No sword!
"Sunset? Are you—"
"You stay the fuck away from me!"
"That ain't no way to speak to your friends!"
Someone unknown grabbed her by the arm, and Sunset reacted. She twisted under the grasp of her assailant, forcing them into a hammerlock with one hand, while the other grabbed the back of their head and slammed their face on the table.
There were cries of shock and dismay from the people around her, but Sunset wasn't thinking about that, she was looking around for the next threat. "Stay back! I don't know who the hell you are, or how you're doing this, but I'm not playing along, you hear me?"
The girl—or whatever it was that she had slammed on the table—whimpered in pain.
"Sunset! Calm the hay down! Let her go!"
"Shut up! You're not really Rainbow Dash!" Sunset retorted. She glanced around, noticing that a tough-looking teen with white bangs ending in purple had been approaching her from behind. The moment she was noticed, she wasted no time, dashing forward to tackle Sunset.
Sunset shoved the other girl off the table and dodged to the side, letting the supposed teen grasp the air and put down her hands on the table to stop her momentum, by the time her attacker had done that, Sunset was completing a crouching spin-kick that violently swept the other girl's legs from under her.
The white-haired girl cried out in pain, falling hard on top of the chair and hitting it with her left arm before crumpling to the ground, groaning.
"Gilda!"
Dash was the next to attack, and the sight made Sunset hesitate long enough to be tackled and lifted off the ground.
"Shit!"
The pair crashed down, scattering students. Rainbow Dash was on top, furious, punching down. Sunset kept her arms up and twisted until she had a knee in between them, giving herself some breathing space, then slid back her right leg and planted a solid kick on Rainbow Dash, sending her flying back, completely winded.
Sunset rolled to her feet, wiping her mouth clean of blood quickly as two more attackers, a massive young bodybuilder and a blue haired guy in a leather jacket, charged her.
She dodged under the bodybuilder's attempt at restraining her and clotheslined the blue haired guy with sheer momentum. The bigger guy panicked when he turned around and saw his companion down, but it wasn't enough. More "students" were coming forward, scared-looking but trying to choke her down to where she could be overwhelmed, so it became time to improvise.
She edged around, keeping her pivot opponent between herself and the other students until she was closer to the cafeteria bar, then quickly, she took hold of one of the students, a young lady with purple-blue stylish hair and spun her, putting her between herself and the attackers, and for much more effectiveness, took a knife left close enough for grabbing and held it against the girl's throat.
She stiffened immediately. "S-Sunset?" she sounded terrified and a sliver of doubt entered Sunset, but she quenched it down. Somehow the aliens had managed to use psionics on her. Or she was suffering from magical poisoning or something.
"Shut up!" she ordered.
The other students had stopped, staring wide eyed and seemingly horrified at what was happening.
"Good," Sunset hissed, "all of you stay where you are. No sudden movements."
She had to split her concentration, trying to figure out an exit strategy. It was then that the cafeteria doors opened and two women and two more girls came in.
It was impossible not to recognize Fluttershy, who quickly moved, not towards her, but to the first girl she had downed and ordered Rainbow Dash to help put her on the table. The young blonde girl had a bloody nose and tears running down her cheeks, wincing as Fluttershy checked her.
Sunset's eyes narrowed at who else had stepped in. The mind invader's boldness was almost staggering. But they had probably caught a glimpse of Celestia and Luna in their human forms from that picture she had seen so long ago.
"D-darling, I'm not sure what we did t-to make you a-angry b-but—"
"I said shut up, ADVENT scum," Sunset hissed, eyes on the two women. Another one came in, this one in a nurse's uniform. She glanced quickly at Fluttershy's work, then went to check on the others, concentrating mostly on the white-haired girl she had dropped on the table.
When it was obvious she was taking them out of the room, Sunset spoke up, unwilling to give her advantage. Any advantage. Whatever advantage she had. She needed to measure their state of mind, after all.
"No one move!" she shouted, stopping Fluttershy and the nurse in their tracks. "I want to know what the fuck is going in here, who is doing it and how in the name of stupid did you think I wouldn't catch on!"
"Sunset Shimmer," the tallest woman called out, "what is wrong with you? Why did you attack your friends and the other students?"
"Y-shut up! I know you're not real. Who's doing this? Is it Aria? The Warlock?"
"Aria?" her prisoner asked, confused. "The siren? But… darling, we defeated the Dazzlings a few months ago."
"What are you talking about?" Sunset hissed, glancing around. "This is not real!"
Slowly, as her adrenaline died away, she could hear it. Sniffling. Moans of pain. Whispers of confusion. A quick glance at her prisoner revealed tears streaming down her face.
This wasn't real. It couldn't be!
A thought crossed her mind, and she used her bloodvision.
The knife clattered to the floor and she pushed the girl away. The young woman didn't spare a second and dashed to the safety of the other students, but Sunset couldn't bring herself to do anything.
Every beating heart. Every blood-pulse. All of it. It was too real. Too much for any illusion to maintain with that level of control and realism.
She backed away, wrapping her arms around herself, shaking her head. "N-no! It's not real! It's a trap! How did you do this? How?!"
It was then that something stung her and she felt her body convulsing until she passed out.
"Hey Twilight," Jane called, peeking into the room, "I've been trying to find Sunset to let her know, but she's nowhere to be found. We have a mission, though. We're off to pick up a VIP and you're on the roster."
Twilight looked up from the diary slowly, her eyes tearful.
"Um… we still have like… an hour and um…" Jane cleared her throat. "It seems you need some time, I'll check on you before we leave."
Twilight nodded, unable to speak, and went back to reading the diary.
o.0.o End Chapter 91 o.0.o
wot? wot da zog is this? I am the confused.
Did Sunset have a dream/vision of the original timeline I wonder?
...wut?
"That woke up Sunset faster than salvo."
Salvo?
"Sunset shoved the other girl of the table and"
"Sunset shoved the other girl off the table and"?
Well. What? Time travel, or... no, but that... what? Consider me intrigued. :)
8926046
Agreed, where did this come from? Also FMP? Is that supposed to be an acyronom like FML?
My first thought was "stable time loop" where Sunset goes back in time and takes the place of EqG!Sunset before and up to her death. But then I realized that they mentioned stuff that happened in the Equestria Girls movies, so that's off the table. There was no foreshadowing this development at all. Some sort of alternate timeline shenanigans? This seems like it would be better suited for a spinoff story because right now I can't tell how this has anything to do with the larger story. You've done a very good job with this fic so far and I'll give you the benefit of the doubt, but right now there's a serious WTF thing going on.
odd.. very odd.. is this the past? what could be happening to poor sunny? and twi read the damned thing at last!
really confused right now.
Considering the mention of the sirens, this has to be parallel travel to the normal timeline...which is definitely a huge 'ehhhhhhhh?'. But not a bad one. This definitely has my curiosity.
...........
I was gonna get annoyed at the use of this cliche but the ending makes certain that there is no attempt being made to fool the readers so I guess it's okay.
Um... what just happened. Why and how did she get to the cannon timeline? Did cannon sunset end up here or is she possessing her... did... did i miss something?
Interesting development
8926093images2.imgbox.com/b0/38/OycRXted_o.png
Confusing but i guess she dreamed From the past.
I thought April 1st was more than a month ago...
This is one way for her to find out how to get that portal open.
I think I read too much manga cause the first thing that came to mind was Full Metal Panic.
Aside from that seems like Sunset experiencing this phenomena and her missing from the rest of the team is actually happening at the same time. From the current glance anyhow.
Wait... Could this be... A chance to alter history?
I'm recalling that the alien attacks happened after their graduation, this is still before. Assuming that Sunny 2 didn't somehow get slingshotted back and temporarily possessing Sunny 1 of that time she could theoretically plan some things ahead.
Also for some asking, remember that both of them are psionically capable, it's just a matter of what direction they went. Though it does beg to question, how will Blood Magic affect her body as is?
what did twilight do?
8926154
You're EEEEEEEVIL. Chrissy would be proud
I'm also wft'ing at what the hell is happening, but I'm putting my chips in a vision of some sort. Of what could've been...
Realisticness?
Realism. Also...wat?
mmmmm ok.. i trust you will explain......because im really lost
it seems Interesting.
8926154
What did you do!?
8926154
Tick the counter up one for me. I am so zarking confused right now.
8926154
WTF?
8926165
This isn’t a dream from the past. EQG never happened and she wasn’t in the high school Rainbow Dash is older than her, remember? This is either a forced reality trick as I’ve seen used before, which falls apart when used incorrectly, or it could be that she somehow ended up in the EQG world, in which case I hope she didn’t swap with their sunset or she could be killed.
My theory, as outlandish as it is, is that the tweaks Twilight made to the diary did time shenanigans to Sunset. Or more likely, after reading the notes from her friends Twi lost control of her emotions (partially focused on Sunset) and the Element reacted a strange way (time shenanigans or parallel universe, or "it was all a dream"). It's really hard to say with psionics and magic involved but I'm sure it will be a fun read non the less.
Oh Celestia, what did you DO??!?!
Okay... not an illusion, or the blood vision wouldn't corroborate it.
Not time travel, or Rainbow Rocks wouldn't have happened (and it's clear that it did).
So it's clearly an alternate timeline, which begs the question: what the heck happened to the local Sunset?
Also "how did this happen", that's important too.
and as confused and intrigued as I am
8926413
I know but she could Dream of her counterpart's past.
THat feeling you get when you get home from a long trip only to find worried messages from your local friends littered around your stuffed mailbox, And remembered that you forgot to tell them you were going on that trip in the first place.
WTAF
What the hell...? Do we have parallel timeline shenanigans going on now?
Ohhh, oh no
Why did this have to happen, is the Equestria Games happening soon there, is that why? Some magical contrivance is trying to influence the flow?
CRAAAP~
Man, this really reads like Sunset having a psychotic break in the middle of the cafeteria and just going apeshit on everyone. Some sort of mental link with her past self in high school, before the attack?
Finally. Let the friendship in, Twilight.
Reality check... Yup Snafu. Discord? Hmmm... answering machine. I am intrigued and wondering just WTF? But I can't wait to read more!
Well now. A number of possibilities here. Mental transposition, immersive dreamscape, time shenanigans, magical mishap... and yet I get the feeling that it isn't anything we could anticipate. And there's the question of what happened to the Sunset of that timeline, assuming there is one.
Also, glad to see Twilight finally checked her inbox. She needed this as much as she needed that brawl with the Skirmishers. Now to let her digest the emotional overload.
Buh?
Alternate timeline shenanigans!
We have to go back!
Did Sunset mind jump like Phi and Sigma from the game Zero Escape: Virtue Last Mission ?
... Did we miss a chapter or something? I'm confused.
And now that we have this plot twist cliffhanger we will probably have to wait a week for the next update
Getting all Quantum Leap up in this joint.
Also, Twi FINALLY stops avoiding it and reads the journal. Good, she needs it.
NOOOOOOO! After all of this binging... I catch up to a clifhanger!?
D:
This is the real world. Sunset has been unconscious since she stepped through the mirror the first time, and the last 3 years have been a dream.
This just dropped me out of the story. I get you may have had a reason, likely in story.
But i'll pick it back up after this segway, and hope to follow, because right now.
This story subreddit just had me out of here. It may be grand, but its such a throw into left field, all im seeing is the corn maze.
And I have to walk for the moment.
I'm kind of glad I decided to take a random break from this story right before this FMP arc. No cliffhangers for me.
W-What.