Principal Celestia had seen quite a lot of things in her life, especially in the past time. Still she couldn't decide what was crazier. The fact that one of her students was a unicorn from another world, who turned into a demon, got blasted by a rainbow beam and was now the "perfect" student (top grates from the get go and now top behavior) or the fact that just two weeks ago she talked to her own counterpart from the other world.

She took a sip off from her tea and looked down at the list of students who would be the first ones to go on this trip. Officially it was brought to the parents as a school trip, which is kind of was in a farfetched way, just normally you don't send students so far away. How far? Into another world.

Celestia didn't know how her counterpart managed to convince her into this kind of thing in the first place, there just had been something godly about her. She asked Sunset Shimmer about quite a few topics about the other world. There Celestia learned that Princess Celestia and Luna were seen as gods by their subjects and that everyone felt the same around Celestia the first time they meet her in person.

Someone knocked at the door. "Come in." Celestia called. The door opened and revealed one of the key people/ponies: Sunset Shimmer.

Speak of the devil. Celestia thought, not missing the irony about Sunset's transformation into a demon. "You wanted to speak t me, prince-...cipal?"

She's still having a hard time talking to me, after she met her old mentor. I should cut this conversation as short as possible.

"Yes, Sunset Shimmer. And don't worry, I won't send you to the moon or something. Not yet anyway." Celestia giggled over her own joke. Sunset grimaced a little and placed herself in front of Celestia. "Bad jokes aside, are you sure you're feeling alright about this?"

Sunset's face became straightforward. "I am. Twilight's going to need all the help she can get. If only a single one of them turns into a unicorn and loses control over his or her magic, well...not so nice."

Celestia could see Sunset Shimmer was remembering something. Not the transformation, but something about her own past. Perhaps a hilarious mistake of her own?

"If I may ask, how was your talk to your former mentor?"

Sunset flinched visibly. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked."

"No it's okay. We...got a few things straightened out." She rubbed her arm. "Oh, reminds me. She said if you ever want to visit, you should inform her a few weeks ahead. Having suddenly two ponies that can control the sun, might be a little overkill for everypony."

"Everypony?" Celestia asked.

"Woops. Old habits die hard. Yeah, instead of somebody or someone, we say somepony, everypony, you get the gist of it."

Celestia nodded understanding. "Good. One last thing Sunset Shimmer. It is about the project..." Celestia trailed off. Sunset blinked confused until she understood. "THAT project? Uh, what about it?" she asked nervously in return.

"I wanted to ask you something more...personal, if that is okay with you."

"Ummm..."

"Before you decide to answer, I want you to hear it first: How was it?"

Susnet's eyes widened for a second. Unconsciously she put her hand on her head. They shared a long moment of silence until Sunset Shimmer spoke up again. "I'm sorry. I can't answer that yet. I think I need some time to think."

"Of course, take all the time you need."

Sunset chuckled. "If I would, the project would have been already finished until I found an answer. Good thing I have at least SOME time." she muttered more to herself.

"Very well. That'll do for now. And have a nice trip."

"Thank you, principal. Well, I'll see you in a week." Sunset exited the office, leaving Celestia in alone. She sighed and took out some paperwork. Time to do something "normal" for a change. Let's see about the candidates...

"Vinyl, Derpy, huh? Flash, Snips and Snails won in the lottery too." Sunset mumbled to herself as she went over the list of people, soon turned into magical equines for a week. She should have gone through this list earlier and asked Twilight in what kind of ponies they would transform.

None of her friends won the lottery sadly. But there was always next time. Sunset got chosen by default, since she is kind of going home and it would be good for the students to have someone with them, who knows them and the other world.

"Lyra, oh dear Celestia, not her. At least Bon Bon is there to keep her in check. Wait, that's it? Only those seven? Oh well, less trouble for us all, I guess."

Sunset put the list away and took a deep breath. It's been quite some time since Sunset has been accepted by the student body. She kept contact with Twilight with her book and one day all of the sudden she visits Canterlot High. Everybody in school by now knows about her being a princess and since everyone pestered Sunset for details about her world, she eventually had to tell them that she was an actual unicorn on the other side.

It's a wonder that so for no kind of paramilitary organization from this world caught on about what was going on in Canterlot High. And that brings us to the topic at hand. During her visit, Twilight attended a few classes, being the overall egghead. Needless to say she totally failed in PE, despite not really being a complete slacker with all the adventures she has. Or maybe football just wasn't her thing.

History had been...interesting. Oh well, Sunset had been a little shocked too, when she heard about all the violence in this world. Of course in Equestria there have been wars, but that's a thing of the past. The biggest incident that came closest to war had been the changeling incident at the wedding of Shining Armor and Princess Cadence.

Twilight's curiosity got the better of her and she read a lot of history books from the library. It probably had been the pictures of what triggered something inside her head. Nazi Germany, bloody revolutions like in France, speaking off, the war in which Napoleon tried to conquer Europe (it had been NOT nice reading of how soldiers who walked through the hard Russian Winter, eating horse parts) and you get the gist of things.

Twilight, after returning, immediately contacted the other princesses and after a long debate Project Harmony was brought to life. What in praxis was a very complicated magical ritual, which needs a lot of preparation, was in theory very simple. With the help of her friends, Sunset had become a harmony bearer. No one or pony knows exactly what the logic behind that was, since the Element of Magic rejected Sunset the last time, but it was very convenient for the project.

So in total of two worlds there are now 12 element bearers. Now how the elements bring harmony in the first place is questionable itself. So far they either banished, turned someone into stone or redeemed AKA brainwashed the "victim", the latter part being the main concern of many people and ponies. In short, the twelve element bearers will use their power to bring the Harmony of Equestria to Earth. You guys still following?

Now back to the brainwashing thing, because many are concerned that this is exactly what's going to happen. And it is not really uncalled for, right? Imagine the elements get used against you! And honestly, I personally would prefer a trip to Tartarus, because there I had the ever so slight chance of escaping and still being myself afterwards.

And that is where Princess Celestia's visit came in. Although it should be as good as impossible to use magic on earth, Celestia seemed to be not as affected as Twilight or Sunset. She still had a lot of her power and everyone could feel it. And being a, who knows how old, politician, she managed to convince everyone to go with the project and promised that they would be extra cautious. That's the three hour speech she actually gave in a nutshell. Though most people were probably more interested in her floating hair or for the male population...you get it, don't you?

Project Harmony had officially started and everyone helped. How? It's pretty easy and sounds rather cheesy, but it's bringing harmony to everyone around. Like doing charities, helping each other out, hell even doing stuff with friends. Laughter, Generosity, Loyalty, Honesty and Kindness. Sunset and Twilight would be the ones providing the magic, much to the dismay of Trixie.

After everything was established, Sunset thought she would be able to sneak home. She hadn't been ready to talk face to face with Princess Celestia, but this time Sunset hadn't been able to escape. She hadn't been able to escape a rip crushing hug. The two spent the rest of the day in private at Sunset's apartment.

It had been pretty awkward from Shimmer's point of view. It certainly didn't help that her home was a mess. After trying to make it for Celestia as comfortable as possible, it was Celestia who started with the apologizing. She apologized for not being the responsible teacher she should have been, that she should have encouraged Sunset further, instead of telling her to be patient, that she should have been more there for Sunset like she had been with Twilight. Unfortunately Celestia learned that lesson a little too late, as Sunset had the feeling she wasn't really acknowledged by her teacher. Royal duties and all.

Sunset however quickly silenced Celestia, saying it was all her fault because of how greedy she had been and how she had rubbed it in front of everyponys face that she was the personal student of Celestia. She also found friendship being a waste of time, in which Celestia only retorted that Twilight saw friendship the same way as Sunset. The only reason Twilight didn't turn out like Sunset was because Celestia knew now how to handle such situations.

It kind of went back and forth, with Sunset pointing out what she had done in the past and Celestia always having something to retort it and put the blame on herself.

In the end they both came to a conclusion that the two of them made mistakes and decided to start over. Celestia insisted on kind of officially becoming Sunset's friend, seeing as Twilight was the better teacher in the sun goddess' opinion. Uh...blasting someone with a rainbow beam is the first step of becoming friends?

Sunset pushed those thoughts aside, as she exited the building. For now she would have to focus on the task at hand: leading a bunch of high school students through a magical mirror, which was about to open in a matter of minutes.

"SUNSET SHIMMER!" A high pitched voice shouted. The next moment Sunset found herself in a tight hug. "Urgh....Pinkie.....air..."

"Ooopsie." Pinkie giggled and let go of her. Her other four friends approached and each of them gave Sunset a hug. "Now don't you forget to write back, darling. And please bring back some cute pony designs."

"I will Rarity, I will." Sunset laughed.

"Sunny!" Sunset inwardly groaned. Pinkie held out a backpack. "I have your favorite cupcakes in here! And please, please, please..."

"Yeah, yeah, I'll bring back some sweets from over there."

"YAY! You're the best!"

Fluttershy, Applejack and Rainbow Dash approached. "Well sugercube, hope you'll have a good time over there."

"Uh, have fun."

"Show 'em how awesome you're and if anyone bothers you, just tell me and I'll show them how we humans do things over here."

"Thanks girls." Sunset hugged the three in front of them, which unfortunately...

"GROUP HUG!" Pinkie announced. She also was the last one to let go of Sunset.

"By the way sugar, about you bag, won't it bother ya?" AJ asked. Sunset shook her head. "No, it'll turn into a saddleback on the other side, just like my clothes somehow turn into fur. Hmm, wonder if my color will change if I wear something different?"

"I just wish we could come with you." Pinkie pouted.

"Don't worry, Pinks. You'll need to come all one day anyway, because of...that thing, you know."

"Okie dokie lokie!"

Sunset waved with her arm and walked towards the statue, where the students from the list were waiting for her.

"So, any last questions, anyone backing off?"

"Uhh, well..." Bon Bon began.

"You're not backing off, are you?!" Lyra asked accusingly.

"No, no, it's just...well you know me and Lyra and all, do they..."

Sunset couldn't help but laugh. Everyone knew Lyra and Bon Bon had a thing together. "Bon, 75% of the pony population are female. Lesbians are normal over there."

"Oh!"

"Wait!" Flash interjected. "Just...out of curiosity. If on one guy come four girls, won't that make it pretty problematic to keep the population up."

"That, oh well, since you guys are going to find out someday anyway. You remember when I said we couldn't go earlier than today?"

All of them nodded. Sunset's cheeks became a little red and she smiled sheepishly. "Well it was mating season. During that time we mares...go a little crazy and are ready to kill for a stallion, uh guy."

"So, if we would have gone sooner..." Snips began. "Nah, you and Snails are too young. But Flash here, well I can't guarantee you would have survived."

Sunset laughed over all of their faces.

"So, why didn't you go crazy?" Snails asked. "Because I am human right now. It something triggered inside a pony's body. And don't worry, I double checked. It is definitely over, no crazy mare left on the street."

Everyone gave each other a look. Their attention was caught by Sunset's book starting to glow. She looked inside and nodded. "Alright, we can go now." She handed over the book to Fluttershy who said goodbye yet another time.

Carefully Derpy held a hand inside the mirror. She stumbled in the process and fell through it. Vinyl raised an eyebrow, barely visible because of her sunglasses and followed. Snips and Snails had a little race and blocked the portal, being stuck in it. Sunset rolled her eyes and pushed them through forcefully. Lyra dragged her girlfriend through the mirror, excited to finally see aliens and becoming one of them in the process.

Flash put his hand through the portal and pulled it out. He took in a deep breath and went through it. Sunset looked back and waved towards her friends. "See ya in a week!"

"See ya/you!" They replied.

I'm going home. Hoo boy.

Sunset jogged through the portal, figuring taking things slow, would only make her hesitant.

In the meantime somewhere else, Twilight Sparkle was playing with her dog, eagerly waiting for an answer. A beeping sound from her PC caught her attention. She threw the rubber ball once more, before walking over and checking the e-mail.

"YES! They're giving me a week to see if I fit, Spike." The dog only barked in response. His owner smiled. What had she been worried about? She probably was the youngest human who had achieved three doctor titles. They would have been fools to not take her as a teacher. Good, she never really aimed for that job, but when she wanted to investigate Canterlot High, she needed to get directly inside. And there was no way she was going to be a student again, not after she finally made it out.

"I'm going to find out what's going on there."

Spike barked happily in response. Twilight smiled herself and petted him on his head. "Thanks boy." Next Chapter: First steps on both sides Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 4 Minutes