If you asked anyone who the most versatile pony in Ponyville was, most of them would fearfully say Sunset Shimmer’s name before running away in fear. Others would say that it was Time Turner, the Inquisitor and sole survivor of the Time Charger genocide. There are also some ponies who say that it’s either the Sun Priestess Bon Bon, or the Chaos Priestess Vinyl Scratch…

Anyway, Quickfix is a very versatile pony, able to hold her own in a fight and make a name for herself as Ponyville’s resident inventor. Although, she wasn’t the most social of ponies. If she had to choose between going on a picnic with her friends or continue building her latest invention, she’d think for ten minutes and weigh the pros and cons of both before finally choosing to stay at home and invent. But if she had to choose her friends, then she’d spend most of the time talking about science-y stuff that would bore anypony else.

It was also known that her assistants never stayed longer than a week before they all quit the job.

“Um, Quickfix, you sure this is safe?”

“Can’t say it is. Ah mean, it’s a flame thrower. But ye shouldn’t worry aboot it. After all, yer impervious ta fire at this poin’, eh?”

“Wait, impervious?”

Nobody needed to ask why, though.

FWOOOM

“AAAAAAAAAAAAARRGH!!”

The young stallion’s pained screams echoed through the soundproof barriers of the cuboid-like building. Quickfix, on the other hoof, only nodded her head as she took notes on her latest invention. Don’t take this the wrong way; Quickfix knew that he was in pain. She even asked him for his consent just in case he decided not to help her. But in the end, he signed the contract and told her to use him any way she wanted to.

“The range is a bit short, although it’s hot enough ta pass through fireproof cloth… Ah’ll have ta change the mixture ta make sure ah get a better range.”

“My flesh is melting!” the stallion rolled around on the floor, trying to put the fire out but to no avail “What is this thing made of?!

“Quit complainin’, Shade. Sunset’s burned ye worse.”

“AAAAAGGGHHHH!!”

Quickfix rolled her eyes as she levitated the clipboard and pencil back to her work table. She never could understand ponies. If Shade didn’t like getting burned alive, then why tease the resident pyromaniac every other day? Maybe he was a masochist, or maybe he had some sort of mental disorder. She should really get that lie detector working, anyway.

Ever since Nightmare Moon’s defeat, Shade has been pardoned from the few crimes he has committed. He didn’t even have to go through the whole ‘asking for forgiveness’ phase, either. The ponies of Ponyville were so open to the thought of having a new neighbour that they invited him with open hooves.

Sadly, that means that now he has nothing better to do during his free time. Apart from teasing Sunset and taste testing the food in Pizzelle’s bakery, Shade was pretty much a freeloader living in the Apple Family barn. Really, what else was he supposed to do if his special ability is literally dark magic?

Seeing the young Unicorn with nothing better to do, Quickfix thought that it would be a good idea to hire him as an assistant. It sounded like a good idea at first. After all, he got an hourly wage and could play with all the cool stuff Quickfix built.

He could never have been more wrong.

“AAGH! AAGH! AAARRRGHGHGHG!!

The flames that coated his body still burned brightly as Shade rolled around on the floor. Seeing her assistant in constant pain wasn’t something Quickfix liked to do. But then again, there was something fascinating about it. Was it the fact that he didn’t seem to be in any immediate danger? Or was it the fact that the fire still hasn’t extinguished? Maybe, just maybe, Shade really is fireproof.

Still, Quickfix wasn’t psychotic. She turned on her emergency sprinkler system and watched as the fire slowly disappeared along with Shade’s screams. Apparently, the only proof that showed that he was just set on fire was a few dark patches of fur.

Interesting.

“Anyway, ah’m done with today’s experiments,” smiled Quickfix as she pushed a button on the wall, revealing robotic arms that started clearing the experimenting area “Same time ‘morrow?”

“Sure, why the hell not?” muttered Shade under his breath with an annoyed huff “It’s not like I have first degree burns or anything. Don’t worry, Sunset uses me as her plaything all the time! You’re the hospital’s number one patient! …”

A light chuckle escaped the brown mare’s mouth as she imagines Shade wrapped in a full body cast. No doubt Redheart would even stop anyone from visiting him knowing just how terrible his luck is. Not that it would stop Fiddlesticks from suddenly appearing from out of nowhere and play him a country solo. And then she’ll accidentally break a few more of his bones when she pulls him into a square dance.

Poor, poor Shade. Maybe she should try to invent something that could increase luck. Maybe some sort of… liquid luck?

Just as Quickfix was about to send her assistant off at the entrance, a green burst of flame exploded right in front of their faces. She barely even had the time to levitate a fire extinguisher over before the flames suddenly died out, leaving behind a scroll that landed on the floor with a simple plop. Shade took out the Handy Dandy Poking Stick™ and poked the piece of paper, half expecting it to reignite.

“I think it’s safe.”

“Probably safe.”

“Think it’s from Sunset?”

“Should be.”

“Never got one before?”

“Nope.”

“You gonna open it?”

“Ah don’t see why ah shouldn’t”

With a glow of golden yellow magic, Quickfix levitated the scroll towards her face and checked the scroll for any special markings. Surprisingly, the piece of paper isn’t singed at all. Maybe Shade was made of the same materials as the paper. Or did her fire have the same magical properties as Spike’s? She should make some more experiments on this matter later.

Putting aside the question for the meantime, Quickfix then noticed that the letter came with the royal Canterlot insignia on it. The Northerner gulped as she opened the letter and read through its contents. Sunset had told the others that she would only use the royal Canterlot insignia during emergencies. Terrible, horrible, world ending emergencies.

“So, what is it?” asked Shade as he tried to take a peek at the letter “Cerberus left Tartarus? The Moon is crashing towards Equestria? A giant fire breathing turtle just kidnapped Princess Celestia and is holding her captive inside another castle?”

“Ah’m not sure either, Shade,” Quickfix’s eyebrows scrunched up as she rolled up the letter “But it looks like we’re makin’ a trip to the library.”

Quickfix bolted towards one of the sleek, metallic walls of the room and pressed a big red button labelled “DOOR”, which was precariously placed right next to another big red button labelled “DANGER”. Nopony knew what that button did. Not even Fiddlesticks dared to press it. Who knows what unspeakable horrors Quickfix had built; biding its time to wreak havoc upon Equestria the moment that button is pressed!

“Ye comin’, Shade?” the mare said as the wall slid open, revealing a concealed entranceway

“Not until you tell me what’s going on!”

“Ye won’t believe me. Ah can tell.”

“Then what makes you any different than me?” Shade squinted his eyes and stomped his foot on the ground “Sunset’s my friend too, and even if I’m not one of the Elements of Harmony, I’m still a part of this group! So you’re gonna tell me what that letter said, or I’ll… I’ll… I’ll press the big red “DANGER” button!”

GASP

“Ye wouldn’t press it!”

“I would!”

“Ye wouldn’t dare!”

“Try me!”

With a manic neigh, Shade charged towards Quickfix with his eyes focused on the big red “DANGER” button. However, the Northerner wasn’t someone you should ever look down on. She kicked her hooves onto the floor and raised her upper body in an attempt to grapple the former Nightmare cultist down. Just as Shade made it close enough for Quickfix to grab him, he teleported out of the way and instantly reappeared behind the mare.

Another laugh left Shade’s mouth as he pointed the Handy Dandy Poking Stick™ at the button. He was so close. So very close!

“Ye aren’t gettin’ away that easy!”

With the force of a thousand stallions, Quickfix raised her hind legs in a bucking position that would put Big Macintosh to shame. Shade didn’t even get to scream as two hooves slammed right into his face, sending him crashing right through the wall and into an unsuspecting drunk purple Earth pony.

“Nopony pokes mah button,” Quickfix muttered as she closed the door behind her “C’mon, Shade. We’re gonna be late!”

“I could get you arrested for assault!”

“Could ye even find a lawyer good enough ta defend ye in court?”

“… Fair point.”

Shade quickly got off of the unconscious mare and dusted himself off, thankful for the fact that ponies’ bones were probably indestructible when it isn’t done for comedic purposes. However, he couldn’t leave a drunk lady unconscious on the ground without anything to protect herself with. But he didn’t want to make Quickfix wait any longer.

Thinking quickly, Shade used his magic to conjure up a broken wine bottle and placed it in her hooves.

She could take care of herself.

Probably.

After pocketing the Handy Dandy Poking Stick™ inside his saddle, Shade then chased after his employer who had already started to trot away “Hey, wait up! You’re the one who invited me!”

“So basically, our Sunset Shimmer was replaced by somepony from a different dimension and we don’t know where she is right now?”

“Eeyup.”

“And now we’re all going to the library to see if we can use the Elements to fix this problem before anything else happens?”

“Ya got that right.”

“And if all else fails, we’ll have to go to Canterlot and visit Princess Celestia to see if she could find our Sunset Shimmer without accidentally opening a rift in the space-time continuum?”

“Y’er right again!”

Coco Pommel bit her lips as she tried to make heads or tails of what she had just said. Even though she had repeated the contents of the letter again and again, it still didn’t make much sense. Then again, she made friends with a sea serpent and a grundle and was the bearer of the Element of Selflessness. She should have known that logic wasn’t par for the course on any of her adventures.

Beside her, Fiddlesticks was humming a self-made tune as she skipped across the streets. Oh, what Coco would do to have her confidence or devil-may-care attitude. Or any of her abilities, to be exact.

Actually, a lot of ponies would want Fiddlesticks’ abilities. Not that they would be able to handle it, however.

It still came as a surprise when Fiddlesticks suddenly appeared right in front of her during her lunch break, saying that she was waiting for a letter. Sure enough, just as soon as she finished yelling and took a sip of Coco’s tea (“I don’t mind, really. Please, enjoy.”), two bursts of flame appeared in front of the two mares, leaving behind two letters. The contents were mostly identical, of course, so Fiddlesticks gave herself the honour of saying the contents of her letter out loud.

“Signed, Spike. P.S. Please stop breakin’ into the library, Fiddlesticks. It’s startin’ to get into Sunset’s nerves, and havin’ so many shield spells on makes it real hard ta invite ponies over. Pfft! Classic Spike!”

She then put the letter into her hat, joining all the hundreds of other items she had somehow stuck in there and never bothered to take out. Both Quickfix and Sunset Shimmer had taken the hat into experimentation. However, neither of them could come up with an answer as to how it could store so much in such a small space, whether it be scientifically or magically.

Although, Fiddlesticks did say that she got it when she last visited Time Turner’s house.

Coco remembered the day Rarity had asked if she could patch up the holes and scratches on Fiddlesticks’ hat. It took weeks to get the apple sauce off of the rug!

“I do hope Miss Rarity’s okay with me leaving early…”

“Oh, horsedroppings! Y’er panickin’ more than a squirrel in an orange orchard!” Fiddlesticks pulled her friend into a tight hug, somehow still keeping with the pace of her previous trot “After all, she’s got Grundle! Little tyke’s prob’ly psyched about livin’ in an actual buildin’!”

“Y-Yes, he probably is…” the tailor thought back to her friend who had become the boutique’s portable pincushion “But what about that letter? Something bad happened to Sunset! Should we really be acting this calm? Shouldn’t we be panicking? A-And running?”

Fiddlesticks gave a hearty laugh and wiped a tear from her eye “Don’t ya worry a single hair from that pretty lil’ mane a yours! Ya know what Granny Smith says; Ain’t no use screamin’ bout Timberwolf droppin’s! Heck, ah’m sure Shade’s just as confused as you are ‘bout that there letter!”

“Just Shade?”

“Well, Lightnin’ reads them comic book of hers, and Redheart sees weird stuff every day,” Fiddlesticks tapped her chin with her forehoof “Quickfix builds them weird doohickeys so she’ll be happier than anythin’ ta get there, and Pizzelle’s Pizzelle!”

Coco nodded lightly, but her eyes betrayed her rising anxiety. Fiddlesticks gave her a warm smile as she hugged the pale mare.

“Ah’m sorry ah can’t cheer ya up any better,” the country mare looked a little down as she finally went back to trotting with all four of her hooves “If Ghoul were here, he’d probably do a better job. After all, ah’m just a girl with a fiddle. Ah ain’t no miracle worker! And seriously, how long does it take ta bring a ghoul back ta life?!”

“O-Oh my! I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings!” Coco Pommel apologised “I really appreciate your help, I really do! Say, why don’t you sing one of your songs? Those are usually fun to listen to!”

“Sure can do, sugarcube!” cheered Fiddlesticks as she took off her hat and pulled out her fiddle “C’mon, Coco! Ah know yer gonna love this one!”

Fiddlesticks’ country music rang through the streets, attracting the attention of many ponies that were passing by. At first, nopony cared. It was just a silly little tune. But then Fiddlesticks sang. Her voice weaved through the ponies’ ears, enchanting them as they all flocked towards the duo with huge grins on their faces. They all joined in, singing and dancing like they’ve choreographed and practised the steps for months on end.

As the ponies cantered back and forth, Fiddlesticks kept her attention on Coco Pommel who was finally showing hints of a smile. Even though she is the Element of Joy, she knew that she couldn’t use the same method to cheer everypony up. She had to start getting creative, and for Coco’s case she was even willing to lower her own self-worth just so the tailor could find it in herself to cheer herself up.

Seeing the introverted mare sing and laugh, Fiddlesticks knew that all of it was worth it.

“Is that… music?” Sunset Shimmer peeked out of the window trying to look for the source of the singing

“Looks like Fiddlesticks is almost here,” was Lightning’s simple response as she slammed a card onto the floor “I summon Amethyst, Gemstone Princess and attack your Dark Illusionist!”

“Not so fast! You just activated my Trap Card!” Pizzelle smirked smugly, earning another swear from the daredevil Pegasus “I activate Reversing Mirror, which takes the amount of damage I’m supposed to take this turn and return it to you instead! And with Hikaru’s Damaged Goods, the damage is doubled!”

“Hold it,” Redheart’s stern gaze bore through the baker and Kitsune “You forgot that I had a card face down in our field. I activate Armoured Core, cancelling the attack.”

“Uhm… Pizzelle, do you have any Quick Play Trap Cards?” Hikaru turned towards his caretaker with panic written all over his face

“I’m all out!”

“NOOOO!”

Apparently, children’s card games were a normal pastime in this world.

Sunset Shimmer tuned out the sound of the card game and continued looking out the window as she tried to find the source of the music. According to the others, this Fiddlesticks was the Element of Joy, which is the same as Pinkie Pie being the Element of Laughter. If her Pinkie Pie was anything she should go by, Sunset started to wonder whether she should be thinking too much into this.

Spike said that he was going to call the other Elements of Harmony to see if they could blast her with the friendship laser and send her home. Because really, nopony could explain what those things did. It might send her home, or it could turn her to stone. Who could really explain what the Elements did?

Speaking of which, there were seven Elements?! Maybe Sunset could find it back in her Equestria and become the seventh Element of Harmony? After all, she is quite inspirational of she does say so herself.

Her intense staring at the window was finally broken when she saw half the town dancing towards the library. At the centre of the dancers, she could see a mare fiddling with her fiddle as she hopped around and singing an impromptu song. For some reason, Sunset suddenly realised that she, too, knew the lyrics to the song and had the inexplicable need to dance.

“And here comes the mares of the hour,”

Sunset jumped to the side, not even realising that Spike had walked up next to her.

“No need to fear, dear Shimmer. ‘Tis only Fiddlesticks and her delightful music that you’re hearing right now. And I see that she also brought the other two Elements with her! And is that Shade I see over there? Wonderful! The whole party is already here!”

“So, care to point them out to me?” Sunset leaned in closer to the window “I could tell that Fiddlesticks is probably the… well, fiddle player… but what about the others?”

“That one over there,” Spike pointed to a brown mare shaking her flank like she just don’t care “Is Quickfix, Ponyville’s inventor and Element of Inspiration. And that one…” he pointed to a pale yellow mare who was trying to get away from all the excitement “is Coco Pommel, Miss Rarity’s assistant and Element of Selflessness. Also, just in case you might be interested, that dashing stallion over there is Shade.”

Spike then pointed to a young grey Unicorn who was being pushed around as he tried to get closer to the library. He tried to teleport, only to get yanked by the tail which broke his concentration. Sunset watched as he tried every trick in the book to escape the crowd, ranging from barriers to laser beams; all of them leading to failure. The two Unicorns then locked eyes, and Shade screamed.

“SUNSET!!”

She then closed the curtains and walked away from the window.

And she thought her friends were crazy.

Rumble

“Huh?”

The yellow Unicorn looked at the wardrobe that was shaking and moving around on its own. She did a headcount of everyone, but they were still playing their card game. Any other day, she would simply walk away and not given the wardrobe a passing glance. But this isn’t any other day. This is the exact opposite of any other day. With a gulp, Sunset Shimmer grabbed the handle with a magic spell and pulled it open, only to reveal-

“Nothing? Well, that was-”

“HEYA SUNSET!”

“BWAAAH!”

Fiddlesticks jumped out of the wardrobe and slammed right into Sunset, knocking the two mares tumbling down the stairs. The sound of screaming and bones cracking, with the odd “YEEHAW!” slipped in there reverberated around the building, attracting the attention of the ponies and Kitsune who were still playing their game. They looked over the railings, only to see the two mares in a jumbled heap on the floor.

“Lightning, get the medkit,” Redheart sighed as she trotted downstairs “Pizzelle, could you and Hikaru bring Sunset back upstairs? And if you see Quickfix, please tell her to install a door. I don’t want any more incidents happening in the future.”

“Sunset!”

“Well, that’s convenient. Pizzelle, Hikaru, it looks like you’ve got your work cut out for you,” the nurse trotted over to the bed and opened the kit Lightning had just given her “Why don’t you go entertain our other guests while Spike brings Sunset here.”

The two saluted and trotted downstairs, passing by a panicking Spike along the way. Sunset will be okay. After all, she’s under the care of Nurse Redheart! She’ll be fine in no time!

Reaching downstairs, the first thing that the duo noticed was that Fiddlesticks, who had just hopped out of Sunset’s wardrobe and fallen down the staircase with Sunset 2.0, had disappeared. Feeling a nudge on her shoulder, Pizzelle turned around to look at the young fox sitting on her back.

“Umm, Pizzelle…” he started “Where’s Fiddlesticks?”

“Hikaru, what did I tell you about questioning Fiddlesticks?”

“That I should never do it and save my sanity…”

“Good!”

The mare then continued her trot down the stairs, seeing the other three ponies who have just arrived on the scene. Quickfix was talking to Coco, no doubt talking about some techno jargon that Coco would just nod to and pretend to understand. Shade, on the other hand…

“Pizzelle! Hikaru!” the stallion ran towards his two friends from his place near the door “Finally, somepony who would tell me what’s going on! Quickfix wouldn’t tell me anything, and Coco is obviously just as confused as me. Please give a guy some rest here!”

Despite the panicking tone that Shade had implied, Pizzelle and Hikaru only looked at each other and giggled. That was so Quickfix all right! If she doesn’t think that something is worth doing, she’ll ignore it completely. Understandably, Shade was pissed off.

“Hey! Is this really how you treat your friend?!”

“Oh, silly,” Pizzelle managed to hold her giggles in “Well, to keep things simple, the Sunset Shimmer that you just saw fall down the stairs just now isn’t our Sunset Shimmer. She’s actually a Sunset Shimmer from a different dimension! Lightning had this crazy idea to try and shoot the Elements of Harmony at Sunset Two and see what happens, because with the Elements of Harmony anything could happen really. I mean, Princess Celestia used it to imprison Nightmare Moon in the moon for a thousand years. And then we used it to take away her dark powers for good! I think. Probably. I mean, if she ever gets her dark powers back, we’ll probably just shoot her again and it’ll all be over, so it doesn’t really matter, does it?”

A moment of silence.

“What.” Shade said in a tone so flat it didn’t even deserve a question mark “can you explain it to me like I’m five?”

Before Pizzelle could even open her mouth, Hikaru had jumped on top of her head and squealed “We’re gonna shoot Sunset Shimmer’s alternate universe clone with the Elements of Harmony because reasons!”

“Oh… okay.”

With that matter settled, Pizzelle and Hikaru moved towards Quickfix and Coco, where the latter had taken out the blueprints for one of the inventions that she was building. Seeing that he had nothing better to do, Shade walked upstairs to go check up on Sunset. Or her alternate universe clone.

In fact, what was he supposed to call her? Sunset? But what if both Sunsets were in the same room at the same time? Maybe he could think up of an awesome nickname. Something like Hotshot, or Sunbutt, or what about-

“Is Shimmer okay?”

Yeah. That’s… let’s go with that.

Lightning Dust was the first to turn and look at the stallion while Redheart and Spike were still treating an unconscious Shimmer. Beside them, Fiddlesticks was playing a soft, quiet tone as she tried to keep the tension in the room low. Huh, so that’s where she was.

“Yo, Shade, Sunset- I mean, Shimmer’s doing fine,” Lightning said as she walked towards Shade “Apparently, the combined shock of seeing Fiddlesticks and falling down a staircase knocked her out. Damn, I knew that girl was gonna be the death of somepony one day.”

“Should… Should I be worried?”

“Nah, it’s Sunset Shimmer,” she snorted and waved a half-hearted hoof at the young Unicorn “No matter what universe she’s from, the pony’s got guts. She’ll make it through.” She then suddenly gave him a rather menacing gaze “But the question here is, are you man enough to take on your new role?”

“Wait, what do you-”

Before he even had the chance to react, Lightning Dust took out Sunset Shimmer’s crown, the Element of Magic, from behind her back and stuck it on Shade’s head. Obviously, he did the sane thing any pony would do when someone stuck something weird on their head; he screamed. This made Redheart turn to scold at the two.

“Lightning Dust, Shade, could you please keep it down? I have a patient here,” she then noticed that Shade was wearing Sunset’s crown, albeit unwillingly “Well, I suppose that’s one way to solve the problem. Fiddlesticks, please call the others back here. We should start before Shade has any second thoughts about wearing that crown.”

“Will do, Redheart!” the pale yellow mare jumped onto her feet and ran towards the staircase

“Now, could you please do it-”

“C’MON UP HERE, EVERYPONY! WE’RE READY TO GO!”

“… quietly.” She slapped her forehead with a low groan.

A few moments later, the whole top floor of the library was filled as everyone surrounded the still unconscious Sunset Shimmer. The girls all sported their necklaces as Shade stood at the back, slowly trying to escape from this whole mess. Sadly, his attempts were stopped short as Hikaru made an illusion of Sunset staring at him sternly, scaring him back onto his feet.

“Um, shouldn’t we… you know, wait till she wakes up?” Coco asked with hesitation in her voice “This does seem a little… rude.”

“Trust me, I think we should as well,” answered Redheart “But we don’t know where our Sunset is, and she could be in danger right now. As much as it pains me to do this, we have to.”

“We also have her consent!” Pizzelle reminded them “She said that we were free to try and shoot her with the Elements, since she doesn’t have any darkness in her. It should be a pleasant experience, if you ask me!”

“Well then, formations everypony.”

On Redheart’s command, the six mares and one unwilling stallion pointed their Elements at the unconscious Sunset Shimmer, ready to fire. As the mares concentrated hard on their thoughts, the crystals started to emit a dull glow and a steady stream of colours shot out from them. However, Shade was still struggling with the crown. He knew that this was a bad idea. You can’t replace an element just willy-nilly!

“Guys…!”

His voice was the last thing the group heard before an explosion engulfed the room and knocked everyone out.

Author's Notes:

I'm sorry I update slowly (Is once a week slow? I mean, most others update daily or bi-daily. That just makes makes me feel inadequate...). Anyway, I'm finally done with chapter two! Took a few rewrites here and there. In fact, the finished product you see here is entirely different from what it started out as.

Really, you guys do not want to know what it originally was. There was more ship teasing, and everyone was in the same place and it was just... chaotic! Okay, I admit that I can't actually write a group of more than three people at the same time. It's hard, okay? But I'll make the best of what I have.

Once again, constructive criticism is appreciated. Tell me what you like or dislike, and what I should improve on to make the fic even better.