Tang Ri Shan

My Little Pony Equestria Girls- Project Tantabus

(This is a sequel to Equestria Girls- Seeing Double)

Ch 2

In Twilight's Castle:

"Oh my gosh! Are you sure?" Twilight Sparkle squealed, somehow able to maintain a steady grip on the teacup before her with her magic, despite the excitement rapidly building up within her.

Her speaker nodded once, but Twilight wanted to be absolute. "Are you really sure?" She pressed, placing the teacup on the table before gazing up at her guest with wide eyes. The teacup rattled in it saucer as Twilight set it down.

Princess Celestia chuckled as she observed the reaction of her most faithful student. "Yes Twilight, I am quite sure. Assuming that time flows the same in her world as it does here, it should happen in two days time."

"Oh wow! Two days! That's not a lot of time! I need to go tell the other girls!" Twilight leapt to her hooves and made to dash out of the room, but suddenly caught herself and sheepishly turned to look at the Princess. "Would you please excuse me?" She asked, giving her mentor an embarrassed smile.

"Of course Twilight" Celestia nodded, smiling to herself as she watched the purple pony skip out of the room, leaving Celestia alone in the room.

The sun princess smiled to herself and let her vision travel along the glittering walls of the reception room, coming to a stop when it fell upon a certain photograph on a shelf. Celestia charged her horn with golden aura, using her magic to move the photograph until it was hovering in front of her. It was the photograph of Sunset Shimmer's human form that Twilight had brought back from the human world the last time she had visited.

"Oh Sunset" She breathed, staring sadly down at the picture of Sunset staring back up at her happily. "I miss you so much. I wish I could see you again" She sighed, then paused and her eyes widened as a thought entered her mind. "Hmmm, maybe I can" She pondered, and her sad frown curled up into a cheeky smile

---

Meanwhile, in Canterlot City:

Five girls chatted with one another as they climbed the stairs to 'Sunset' and 'Twilight's laboratory, clutching their instruments as they clopped up the stairs.

"Any idea why Sunset wanted us to rehearse here?" Rarity asked as she adjusted the strap on the case containing her Key-tar.

"Beats me" Applejack shrugged her shoulders. "But she said she had a good reason"

"I guess we'll find out, cause here we are!" Rainbow Dash announced from the front, having reached the landing.

"I don't think we've ever seen Human Sunset and Twilight's lab before" Fluttershy spoke up.

"I know. It's gonna be awesome!" Pinkie crowed from the back of the group as Rainbow Dash opened the door and lead the group inside.

"Huh?" Each of the girls explained simultaneously upon stepping inside, their eyes wandering between the large machines and high-tech equipment that ran along the walls of the room.

"Uh Sunset?" Rainbow Dash spoke first when she spotted the fiery-haired girl in a corner, wearing a white lab coat.

Sunset glanced up, "Oh, hi girls!" She smiled at them.

"Uh, I thought we were supposed to be rehearsing" Rainbow Dash voiced her confusion. After all, the text they had all gotten from Sunset asked them to come by for a rehearsal.

"Well you are, sort of" Sunset answered as she stood up and walked towards them. "You see, back when I was Principle Celestia's student in Equestria, I learned best by going out into the field and actually doing something, not just reading about it" She explained as she reached for a box of latex gloves that lay on a nearby table. Clutching a pair out of the box, she continued. "Studying books and scrolls may work for some people, but I like to solve mysteries and problems by rolling up my sleeves and getting my hooves, er...hands dirty" She chuckled while slipping the gloves onto her hands, then turned and headed back towards one of the machines that lay along the wall.

"Well, Ah can relate ta workin' hard outdoors" Applejack spoke up, "But what they hey does that have to do with us playin' music?"

"As you know, for the last few weeks, I've been trying to figure out how magic works in this world." Sunset explained as she plugged two different cables together, causing a nearby device to emit an electronic hmmmmmm. "Like why you all grow ears, tails, and wings when you pony up, and whether or not your instruments may have something to do with it"

"And what makes you think our instruments may be connected to this?" Rarity asked, instinctively wrapping her hands around her instrument.

"Because from what I've seen, every person who used magic in this world has drawn it from a particular source, a conduit if you will. Twilight and I drew magic from her crown, our doubles and Imitae drew it from the Star Stone halves, and the Sirens drew it from their pendants." Sunset theorized.

"And you think our instruments are the source of our magic?" Pinkie finished.

"That's what I'm hoping to find out today" Sunset nodded as she typed something in on one of the computers, then picked up a metal coriander with wires sticking out of it and approached Fluttershy.

Seeing her coming with the metal 'hat', Fluttershy's eyes widened. "Um, are you sure we need to figure this out?" She asked nervously

Sunset smiled at her friend as she placed the coriander on Fluttershy's head and secured the strap under the girl's chin. "Relax, It'll be fun" She promised, though Fluttershy did not look convinced. "Just start playing, you won't even know I'm here!"

Fluttershy glanced nervously towards the other girls, who just shrugged their shoulders back at her. She glanced back as Sunset typed a command on a computer keyboard, then gave her a thumbs up. "Okay" Still looking nervous, Fluttershy started playing, rattling the tambourine as she slapped it with her hand in time with a beat in her head.

When nothing seemed to happen, Fluttershy allowed herself to smile in relief and began playing louder, her eyes closed. Sunset was examining the machine when her eyes were suddenly drawn to a screen that was supposed to show a wavy purple line. Before her eyes, the purple line warped into a butterfly image and seemed to endlessly jump out at the screen. Sunset glanced back in time to see Fluttershy's body glow with a soft yellow light. Wings erupted from the girl's shoulders and her hair extended down to the floor in a ponytail.

As Fluttershy raised her hands up, the light enveloping her body flashed brightly and the metal 'hat' shot off her head, trailing a long stream of sparkly items like a comet tail. The coriander hit the ceiling and a pulse of light spread out from it, causing the ceiling lights to flicker off one by one. As Sunset stared up at darkened lights, she felt one of the sparkly items land on her nose and realized that it was actually a glowing butterfly. As Sunset stared at it, she could hear the other girls snickering in the background.

It took a while to get the lights back on, and even longer to clear out the butterflies, but when they were finally gone, Applejack volunteered to be next. The hat was damaged beyond repair, so Sunset just asked the country girl to start playing. No sooner had Applejack begun to strum her base when her body was enveloped in an amber light and her hair grew into a tail. Applejack floated off the ground and hovered in the air like a hummingbird, then suddenly the light faded, her hair shortened and she landed back on the floor. She glanced down at her guitar, than shrugged at Sunset, who wrote something down.

"Ow!" Sunset yelped as an object suddenly bonked her on the head. Wincing from the impact, she saw Applejack lean forward and catch the offensive item, an apple. Sunset stared at the apple in confusion before a faint rumble drew her gaze upwards. "Waa!" She cried out as it literally began raining apples all around her. In seconds, Sunset was completely buried in apples. Fighting her way out of the fruity mess, she saw Applejack shrug again and wander over to where the other girls were giggling, munching on the apple she had caught.

Rolling her eyes, Sunset carted the apples to a corner and then beckoned Rarity forward. While Rarity adjusted her Key-Tar, Sunset ran a series of small wires attached to electrodes over and began placing them, one by one, onto the exposed skin in Rarity's arms and legs. Rarity whimpered nervously as Sunset stuck the final electrode onto the center of her forehead, but Sunset patted her shoulder reassuringly and the fashonista seemed to relax. Sunset nodded at Rarity, and the girl began playing a tune on her key-tar.

Almost instantly, her body was enveloped in a royal purple aura that was studded with sparkles. With a flash of light her pony ears sprouted up from the top of her head and her purple hair grew and curled of its own accord. As Sunset quickly began jotting notes down on her clipboard, Rarity closed her eyes, and began playing louder. The aura around her body got brighter and her feet lifted off the ground. As Rarity began rising towards the ceiling, Sunset smiled excitedly, not realizing that she was standing on the wires that connected to the electrodes, wires that tightened around Sunset's ankles as Rarity rose and pulled the girl off balance. "WOAAHH!" Sunset cried out, as she fell on her back, her clipboard and pen flying out of her hands. As she gazed at her feet, which were now sticking straight up in the air and hopelessly tangled in the electrode wires, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie burst out laughing. Rarity smiled apologetically from her new vantage point while Applejack rushed over to help untangle Sunset from the mess of wires.

"You okay, sugarcube?" Applejack asked as Sunset rose to her feet.

"Yeah, I'm fine" Sunset replied, bending down to rub her ankles as Rarity floated back down the ground. "Pinkie, you're next"

"Sweet!" The pink-haired girl beamed before literally bouncing over to where a drum set had been set up. She plopped down on the stool, twirled a pair of drumsticks in her hand like batons and began tapping them on the drums while Sunset strode over to a large machine that had a bolt of electricity arcing between two antennae on the top. She checked the machine, pressed a few keys, then nodded to her friend, who nodded back and then began pounding louder.

A pink aura appeared around her which quickly spread to the drum set as she played. As Sunset watched her ears sprout, she motioned for Pinkie to play even louder. Happily, the girl began to beat her sticks on the drums, her arms became a blur as she moved from one drum to the next. With every hit, the aura surrounding the drums seemed to get brighter and brighter. Finally, when Pinkie slammed both of her sticks down at once, there was a flash of light and what looked like a long stream of balloons covered in pink aura came shooting out from the base drum as if they had been fired from a machine gun. Sunset's eyes widened as she saw the stream of inflatable projectiles coming her way, but before she could react, the balloons slammed into her with such force that she was knocked off her feet and slammed against the far wall. As everyone else gasped, the balloons began to spark, arcing white bolts of electricity between each other, then one by one they lifted off the wall, floated up to the ceiling and popped, disappearing as they did so. Sunset could feel the electricity from the balloons make her hair stand on end, and as the last of the balloons lifted free, Rarity gasped in horror.

"Sunset! Your hair!" She exclaimed, as Applejack and Rainbow Dash began laughing so hard they literally fell over.

"Wow! Neat Trick!" Pinkie cheered as the aura around her faded.

"Mmh! Mmh!" Sunset grunted, trying to pull herself off the wall, but to her amazement, she seemed stuck. "Uh girls. A little help here, please?" She begged, smiling sheepishly as Pinkie and Rarity rushed to pull her off the wall, but whatever was holding Sunset there had a really strong grip. It took all five girls to pull Sunset off the wall, but finally she came free, landing on her backside rather ungracefully in the process.

"Let's see, that's Magic 4: Sunset 0" Rainbow Dash chortled as the girls pulled Sunset to her feet.

"Don't be so cocky, Rainbow Dash, you're next" Sunset retorted, handing her a power cord for her guitar. The rainbow-haired girl shrugged and plugged it into her guitar as Sunset dashed behind the glass of the control room. Plugging in her laptop, she waited for a few seconds, then gave Rainbow Dash a thumbs-up. The girl nodded and began strumming her guitar as Sunset reached up and switched on a video monitor hanging from the ceiling. A black-and-white image of Rainbow Dash appeared on the monitor and Sunset glanced at it before typing a command on her laptop and a graph appeared on the screen with a white line that looked like a seismograph. As the line started spreading out, Sunset looked up in time to see Rainbow Dash's body become enveloped in blue light and lift her off the ground, she twirled in the air as her wings, ears, and tail appeared, slowing them off with such flare that Sunset felt herself smile.

"Aw Yeah!" Rainbow Dash crowed as she lifted higher and higher.

"That's great Rainbow Dash! Keep it up!" Sunset called though a speaker as she watched the line on her computer go crazy. "Give me some more if you can!" She called a second later. Rainbow Dash smirked and strummed a super mega power chord on her guitar, loud enough to make everyone in the room cover their ears. "Maybe not quite that...much" Sunset's voice broke off as she noticed something unusual, a rainbow-colored stream of...something was traveling down the power chord away from Rainbow Dash's guitar, making the chord move as it did so. As Sunset watched, the stream followed the chord across the room, through the wall of the control room and, before she could stop it, flow into the cord plugged into her laptop computer. "Uh oh" Sunset mumbled as her computer screen was suddenly filled with a dazzling kaleidoscope of rainbow-colored light that seemed to pulse as she stared at it, growing brighter and brighter. Sunset, realizing what was about to happen, barely had time to shut her eyes before the rainbow colors suddenly exploded outwards, covering the windows, walls, floor, ceiling, and everything else in what looked like rainbow-colored paint.

"Sunset!" Applejack called, dashing towards the control room door and trying to open it. "Are you okay in there?"

The speaker above the door crackled on and the girls heard what sounded liked coughing. "I'm alright!" Sunset finally answered. "I'm okay. I think I've got what I need. Just wait there, I'll be out in a few minutes once I compile the data"

The girls glanced at each other and they all seemed to shrug.

"I hope Sunset's okay in there" Applejack frowned as she strode back to where the others were.

"Ah, she'll be fine" Rainbow Dash scoffed as she floated down to the floor. "It anyone can figure out why this is happening, Sunset can."

"Ooooh! I hope she can tell me how to make those balloons again! That was so cool!" Pinkie squealed as she tapped her sticks on the high hat.

"I must admit I did enjoy levitating like that" Rarity confessed as she twirled a knob on her Key-tar.

"Likewise" Applejack agreed. "That was kinda cool"

"Well, I guess we'll know soon enough" Fluttershy finished, as she brushed a few strands of hair out of her face.

As the girls waited for Sunset, they each began tuning their instruments in preparation for the rehearsal they were planning to do afterwards. Finally the girls heard the door open and Sunset announce "Finally, after all this testing, I've come to a definitive conclusion!"

"Great, what...is it?" The girls all spun around, and were shocked by what they saw. Sunset's white lab coat was scratched and scuffled and was torn in several places. There were scratch marks on her forehead and cheeks, and her hair still stuck out like the Bride of Frankenstein. As they watched, small rainbow-colored bolts of energy seemed to chase each other across her hair. "Sunset, are you okay?" Rainbow Dash asked, looking worried now.

Sunset coughed, and a tiny rainbow burst from her mouth as she did so. Wobbling slightly on her feet, she answered. "I have no idea how magic works in this world" With that, her legs gave out and she collapsed backwards.

"Sunset!" Rainbow Dash and Applejack shot forwards, catching the girl before she hit the ground.

"Sunset, are you ok?" Fluttershy whimpered as they crowded around her

"Oh Sunset, please wake up!" Rarity exclaimed, gently tapping the girl's face.

Sunset could hear them, and feel them, but her body felt like it was made of stone, she couldn't move. She could feel the magic, or whatever it was, coursing through her, giving her goosebumps. What's happening to me? She wondered as she felt her mind begin to fog over. But just before she lost consciousness, she heard a sound that made her shudder, a evil chuckle in her own voice, that briefly pierced the dark fog in her mind.

"What a surprise, you failed Sunset" Sunspot whispered in her head. "You've always been a failure" With that, Sunset felt her mind go dark.

Meanwhile, in a secret location:

"Well well, I think we're getting another signal!" A voice echoed through the insides of the truck, followed by the clicking of computer keys.

"Well, where's it coming from?" Another voice growled

"Keep your pants on sir" The first voice chuckled as the computer screen lit up the dim truck interior. "Searching now" As the computer showed a plan of Canterlot City and began zooming in, the figure leaned back in his chair. "We seriously need to thank Starlight Glimmer for developing that ingenious search program. Some of her calculations are...beyond me! That girl is, quite literally, a genius! Hmm, I wonder if she would consider working to help me prove my new theory about spacial displacement..."

"Enough!" the man winced as a heavy fist came down on a nearby table. "Just get the results Time Turner, and stop mumbling!"

"Okay, Okay! I'm on it!" Time Turner groaned as he bent over a computer screen. The glow from the monitor illuminated his pale face, brown spiky hair and brown trench coat with a golden hourglass emblazoned on the breast pocket. "Not like you'd be able to read them yourself anyway" He said under his breath.

"What was that?" Time Turner winced as he heard heavy footsteps behind him and felt hot breath on the back of his neck.

"Nothing! Nothing at all!" He chuckled nervously. The computer beeped and he pressed a few keys. "Let's see, signal captured, tracking now. Origin appears to be..." He paused and squinted at the screen. "Wait, that can't be right"

"What can't be right?" The large man behind him asked.

"According to the computer, the signal isn't coming from Canterlot High this time. It's coming from somewhere else" Time Turner pressed a few keys and a screen over his computer flickered to life, showing a street map of Canterlot City. A red dot appeared at one end of the map. "Here's Canterlot High" Time Tuner pointed to the dot, then typed another command "And here's the location of the signal we're getting now" A second red dot appeared on the map, some distance away from the first one. "Interesting" He mused.

"Can you get an address on the current signal location?"

"Checking.." Time Turner resumed typing. "It's coming from an apartment complex on Kundudo Road, address number 1717"

The large man nodded "Good"

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a phone. He dialed a number.

"Yes?" A deep voice answered

"It's me boss, we've got another one, at a different location" The man said.

"Confirmed?"

"Oh yeah" The man smiled. "The address is 1717 Kundudo Road. Looks like its from an apartment complex"

"I'll get a team out there. Get all the info you can on the location" The voice ordered.

"Already on it boss" The man said before hanging up. Turning back to Time Turner, he ordered "Get me all the details you can on that building. I want to know who owns it, who lives there, what happens there, the works. Get me floor plans of each level, hack any online systems you can find..."

"Now wait just a minute!" Time Turner spun around the face him, he looked angry. "This is not what I signed up for! The deal was that this would be for scientific research, not criminal activity!"

"The deal, Time Turner, it whatever I say it is" The large man growled.

"No, this is going too far! I won't do it!" Time Tuner shook his head and crossed his arms. But his new-found confidence quickly wavered when the large man rose up to his full height and towered over him.

"You know what your problem is, Time Turner?" He said, chuckling as he spoke. "You're just not a practical guy. All you've ever cared about is your research, which is why my boss had to bail you out of debt, and now he wants to see some return on his investments"

Time Turner opened his mouth to argue, but was cut off. "Of course, if you don't feel comfortable with the current solution of repayment, I'm sure we can find...other ways... to settle your accounts" The man cracked his knuckled threateningly as he spoke.

Time Turner's face paled. "N-no-no need for that" He mumbled, quickly turning back to the computer and starting to type rapidly. "I'll get you what you want"

"Indeed you will, Time Turner" The large man smirked, looking satisfied. "Indeed you will. Tantabus always gets what it wants"

---

And Cut!

Okay, before you say anything, let me make one thing clear. I introduced Time Turner as a member of project Tantabus SOLELY because he struck me as the kind of person that would find themselves being used by the bad guys, a person who cared only about his work, which in my opinion, makes him easier to target and manipulate. He's not a bad guy, he's just being used by them. I'm sorry if this upsets any Dr. Who fans out there!

FYI: The Kundudo is the name of a species of feral horse in Ethiopia that is currently threatened with extinction. Consider that your WOW fact for the day!

I know I said that updates to this chapter would be few and far between, but I've been known to eat my words before. Just keep watching! (and keep reviewing! That always helps!)

Until Next Time!