Sunset has seen a lot of weird things in her life, but this certainly takes the cake.

All around her, she could see nothing but a thick mist shielding the darkness that was right in front of her. This place felt oddly familiar. It was as if she had been here quite recently. Racking her brain for an answer, Sunset decided to allow her mind to wander as she continued to traverse through the dark area.

Thump

The sound made Sunset freeze in her tracks. It was all starting to come back to her: the darkness, the mist, the loneliness. She has been here before, and she knew exactly what she was going to face. This was the same nightmare she had when she fell unconscious and met Morpheus for the first time. Without wasting any more time, Sunset lit her horn up with magic. She didn’t want to get caught unprepared this time.

She recalled something else that happened the last time she was here. Her reflection. It called out to her, screaming for help as it punched against the crystalline ground. Perhaps it was the same this time? If her theory was correct, then her so-called reflection could might as well be the alternate Sunset Shimmer that she was looking for all this time.

When she gazed below her, Sunset didn’t see her reflection any more. However, she did notice something else. Noise. There was no doubt about it, it came from below her.

Readying her horn, Sunset cast a spell on the ground. Slowly but surely, the ground started cracking as if it was a mirror breaking. Pieces soon started to fly upwards, shocking Sunset when they nearly cut her. When she looked at the ground again, she noticed that it was slowly closing up the crack she had just made.

“No!”

Sunset jammed her horn into the hole, unleashing every single destructive magic spell she could think of. Once again, the hole continued to crack open bit by bit. She didn’t know how much time had passed. It could have been minutes or it could have been hours. All Sunset cared about now was finding out was beyond the ground. The crack soon grew bigger and bigger, until it was large enough for Sunset to fall through.

Despite being prepared for the fall, Sunset did not expect gravity to suddenly reverse as soon as she got to the other side. With a loud scream, she crashed back onto the ground. The only thing stopping her from falling back into the other side was the ground slowly closing up.

“I’m never gonna do that again…” she sighed, looking on ad the hole finally closed up. She could easily open it back up again if worse came to worst, but now she just wanted to explore this new area.

The first thing she noted was the figures scattered about. Ponies, humans, and several other creatures she could not identify were lying on the ground unconscious. What made this worse was the fact that she knew some of them as the people from her school. However, the thick fog covering the area made it quite hard to see. Who knows just how large this area is, or how many people she knew were here.

“Hello?” she called out, praying for any kind of response “A-Are you hurt?”

She walked up to a human, a boy she recognised as a classmate, and tried to shake him awake. After a few nudges, she moves on to a mare with a tan coat and a dual-coloured blue and pink mane. She, too, didn’t respond. With a soft sigh, Sunset continued her trudge through the unconscious bodies of the various creatures there.

As Sunset continued to try and shake the tenth person awake, she noticed someone quite familiar off in the distance. She carefully sneaked through the bodies, wondering if her theory was correct. Reaching it, Sunset flinched. She wasn’t wrong. It was her, or at least a pony that looked exactly like her.

“H-Hey, wake up,” she started to shake the mare. No response “Wake up!”

Sighing, Sunset wondered just how she was going to do this. With a shrug, she levitated the mare and placed her on her back. Maybe she could find a way to escape with the other her in tow. Having a magical prodigy to help right now wouldn’t be so bad, after all.

“And where do you suppose you’re going, young one?”

Sunset froze in her tracks. She considered fleeing, but there were far too many people strewn about for her to actually get some good distance. Even then, how was she going to run away from a disembodied voice? She’d shoot it if she could, but she can’t.

“Out,” she answered matter-of-factly

“And I suppose you have a way of doing that, my little lamb?”

A soft chuckle escaped Sunset’s mouth “I’ve done it before, I could do it again.”

“Here I thought you cared about your companions,” Morpheus’ voice echoed

Before Sunset could ask him what he was babbling on about, she noticed some of the figures were starting to hover off of the ground. She could barely make them out before they were unceremoniously flung towards her, forcing the mare to drop her load and jump away in time. When she noticed who the people were, her eyes widened. The Rainbooms were piled up unconsciously. Looking down at the bottom, she could barely make out a grey hoof sticking out under Rarity.

“No…”

Sunset clambered over to the group, trying to shake them awake. Deep, rumbling laughter echoed throughout the room. Taunting her. Laughing at her. Slowly, Sunset turned to face the sky. Tears marked her face and fury filled her eyes. Her face scrunched up as she readied a spell and aimed it at the eternal black abyss. She would have fired had Morpheus not raised her alternate self up into the sky, forcing her to stumble back and absorb all of the energy.

“You monster!” she growled, wiping her tears away “I’ll kill you, I swear I’ll kill you!”

“But Sunset my dear, you are not worthy of laying hands upon me,” Morpheus’ voice turned grave, booming even louder than before “You are but an infant in this world, compared to I who have lived for eternities. You cannot defeat a God!”

“Bite me.”

With another flick of her horn, Sunset fired a beam of golden energy up to Morpheus, who countered by flinging the other Sunset Shimmer at her. The spell connected with the girl, but Sunset did not wait to see what the results were. Sunset continued with rapid firing more spells, all of which dissipated soon after. Sweat started to pour down her brow, but Morpheus just kept chuckling. To him, this was all a game. He was not scared, not in the least. Why would he? His enemy was not one of note, after all.

“You amuse me,” laughed Morpheus “Your valour reminds me of a mare I knew. She was brave, thinking that she could save her father at the cost of her own life. But in the end, she too had failed and fallen just like all the others.”

A face emerged from the mist, a stallion with a long, thick beard and hollow eyes. His horn swirled with dark, concentrated energy which sent shivers down Sunset’s spine. She could almost feel the cold embrace of death wrap itself around her neck. Morpheus was right. Sunset was weak, and she should have thought twice before challenging a God to a battle.

There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. Without a second thought, Sunset shot out the largest shield spell she could muster. Just in time, too. A second sooner, and she would have died along with countless others to Morpheus’ spell. She held on for as long as she could, screaming as her magic quickly drained. With no other way to support the shield, Sunset tapped into her own life force, using it to replenish the shield for as long as she could. She could feel her years pass by and dissipate, years she would never be able to experience. Years she will never get back.

“Impressive,” Morpheus noted as his spell stopped “For an infantile lamb to dare stand before me, you are indeed something else.”

Sunset did not reply. She merely panted and flopped onto the ground, wishing for an escape. Morpheus’ presence grew even stronger as he approached her. A tendril of darkness caressed the mare’s face.

“I would not mind having you as my queen.”

“?!”

The tendrils grasped itself around Sunset’s waist, dragging her away as she desperately tried to grab hold of the ground. But without the use of her fingers, Sunset could not find a good grip. Her screams of terror amplified twofold as she then tried to use her magic to cut off the tendril, only for more to emerge and drag her even deeper into the darkness. Just as all hope seemed lost and Sunset was going to accept her fate, a fireball whizzed overhead and struck the tendrils, forcing them back into the shadows.

“Wha-huh?”

Sunset dragged her body away from the darkness and started searching for her saviour. Pupils shrinking in shock, imagine Sunset’s surprise when she saw herself standing proudly off in the distance, smoke emanating from her horn. Her rage was quite apparent in her emotions, from the panting to the murderous glare in her eyes. Sunset didn’t know how, but her doppelganger had somehow woken up during the fight.

“My Mom, you’re pathetic!” the other Sunset huffed, taking a few steps forward “I can’t believe I actually asked you for help!”

Sunset didn’t reply. She didn’t have the energy to do so.

“Look, you did your part, okay? I’ll take over from here,” the other Sunset huffed as she ran forward, horn glowing with pure energy “What are you waiting for, get out of here!”

Blinking back her confusion, Sunset tried to get back up despite the strain on her body. She watched on as her doppelganger fought back Morpheus’ advances with a string of magic attacks mostly attributed to fire. If she never left for the human world, would Sunset have become as strong as her?

“I… I’m not running…!” she shouted, getting onto her feet “I’m gonna help!”

“You moron! You’re hardly strong enough to get on your own feet. What makes you think you can help?!”

“I…”

The other Sunset projected another shield spell, hardly even looking at the mare “Now shut your pretty little mouth and get the hell out of here! I’ll take care of this myself!”

Just as Sunset was about to complain, her alternate self turned around and fired a golden beam at her, surrounding her in bright light. She felt her body slowly growing lighter, shrinking, disappearing. Fighting back was useless. As she reached out her hoof, shouting at the top of her lungs, the light had fully engulfed her and sent her screaming through an endless light.

In what seemed like an instant, Sunset stood up. She could hear screaming nearby, but it stopped very quickly. Never had she been so furious to find herself in the library once more, safe from harm and that villain Morpheus. She could have helped. She could have fought back. But no, a total stranger had to save her skin in the last minute.

So much for the former student of Princess Celestia.

Sunset rolled and stretched her body, trying to get off of the bed she did not want to be on right now. Her body was limp and weak. She had used up too much energy, physically and mentally. Who knows when she could use magic again? Her mind told her to rest, but her heart was egging her on. The fight wasn’t over.

“Redheart?!” she shouted, wondering where the nurse had gone “A little medical attention, please…”

A moment passed by, then another, and another. Soon, it became apparent that Redheart was not coming any time soon.

“Th-This isn’t funny, Redheart… please…” Sunset pleaded “Sh-Shade, are you there? Quickfix? Hello?”

Hearing no reply, Sunset could only expect the worst. With no one to call for help, Sunset dragged herself off of the bed, holding back the aching pain jolting through her whole body.

Slowly, carefully, Sunset got back up onto her feet. She took a step forward, then another, and then another. With each step, her body screamed in agony, telling her to stop and rest. She was tired, hurt, and scared. Not a good combination at all.

Sunset was doing fine up till now, slowly moving towards the staircase. This forced her to stop, however, remembering her first trip down this flight of stairs. How was she going to get out of this without several broken ribs, she didn’t know. Maybe she could teleport downstairs?

Concentrating all of her magic into her horn, Sunset forced herself to teleport down the staircase, only to miscalculate the distance and land a few steps from the bottom. Her legs quickly buckled and she tumbled down, landing on the floor with a loud crunch. There was no doubt about it. Some of her bones were broken. At this point, Sunset didn’t care anymore. Tears streamed down her face as she tried to caress her broken form.

She lied down on the ground like that for a few minutes, wondering if Morpheus would get her first or her injuries. All the while, she couldn’t stop wondering about what happened to Redheart and Shade. After escaping him in the human world, did they just as quickly get captured as soon as they got here?

The sound of the library entrance creaking brought her attention to the door. Just how could there be a customer right now? But then again, she could use the help. Perhaps whoever this pony was, they could bring her to the nearest hospital.

“Hello?”

Wait, that voice…

“I-Is anypony in here- OH!”

To Sunset’s surprise, Redheart appeared at the door, albeit she looked more confused than anything. The nurse trotted over to Sunset and started inspecting her, panic written all over her face. This confused Sunset. The Redheart she knew from her world would have her medkit on standby at this point, while this world’s Redheart was a trained professional. Neither of them would be panicking this much.

“Ah- I could… Um, there’s a- a hospital nearby, yes! I saw it on the way here. Maybe I could…” she tried to lift Sunset with her hooves, only for the mare to squeal out in pain “O-Okay, bad idea. Wh-What if I-” another squeal as she wrapped her tail around Sunset “Ahh! What do I do? What do I do?!”

“Redheart!” Sunset screamed out, making the nurse flinch “Please, calm down.”

The two shared an awkward silence for a moment, neither of them moving a muscle.

“H-How do you know my name?”

Now Sunset was starting to get worried.

“Um, which Redheart are you?” she asked

“What do you mean? I’m my own pony, why would there be more than one me?”

“So you’re… not the Element of Benevolence?”

“What’s that?”

“Not my friend from school either?”

“Haven’t met you in my life.”

Great, a third Redheart. But to be fair, there were many creatures when she was in that dream world. Perhaps she was from one of those worlds. For all she knew, maybe some of them were displaced as well, like she was. It would be great to have a friend to share this problem with, after all.

“Hold on, I think I know how to help,” the Redheart mumbled

She held out a hoof to Sunset’s muzzle and concentrated. After a few tense seconds, the hoof started glowing and bandages appeared out of thin air, wrapping itself around Sunset. Thinking that she had done a job well done, Redheart tied a cute knot at the top and smiled at her handiwork.

“So, how does it feel?”

“It hurts!” Sunset shouted when she tried to stand up “Didn’t you put any medicine? Or try to set the bones straight or anything?”

“I-I’m sorry, I never got a medical license!”

“But you’re Nurse Redheart! Medicine should be your thing!”

Redheart cast a wistful look as he mouth curved into a thin smile “Oh, so your Redheart’s a trained medic, huh?” she lowered her head, sighing “Must’ve been great to be her…”

Sunset stared at the mare, feeling as if she needed to apologise. Whoever she was, she was Redheart in name and appearance only. Steadily standing up, Sunset wrapped her hooves around the mare and pulled her into a hug.

“Sorry, I was just a bit furious after my last fight with Morpheus.”

“Wait, d-dad?!”

Redheart pushed Sunset away, making her wince. Sunset didn’t care, though. She was too surprised at what Redheart had to say and what her story was.

“Who are you?” Sunset asked, eyeing Redheart up and down “How could you be related to that monster?!”

“He’s not a monster!” Redheart shouted “He’s not a monster…”

Wincing at Redheart’s sudden outburst, Sunset then opted to take a kinder approach to the situation.

“Sorry, I didn’t know that you were serious,” Sunset scratched the back of her head, quietly wishing that she had her human hands to actually scratch properly “It’s just that… you look like a normal pony, while Morpheus is this… well, to put it lightly, insane smoke god of dreams and nightmares. I’m struggling to think of a connection, here.”

“It’s okay, I understand where you’re coming from…” Redheart sat down, wiping away the tears she didn’t know had started streaking down her face

“I’d love to hear your story, though,” Sunset sat next to her “Who knows? Maybe I could help as well.”

After pondering the situation for a while, wondering whether she should trust Sunset or not, Redheart found that she had no other choice right now. With a glassy look in her eyes, Redheart recalled the story of her life, especially of her father’s descent into madness. She explained in explicit detail the story of how an entire race was stripped of their mortal bodies and were forced to live as phantoms in their own world, and how they found the portal that led to the strange world where everything they imagined would appear before their very eyes. And then she spoke of the strange mare who fell from the sky, and how Redheart had tried to help save her. The next thing she knew, she was stuck in this world and the mare, who had looked exactly like her, had disappeared.

Sunset had a lot to take in. She listened carefully to Redheart’s story, each time getting more and more bewildered at it. When Redheart finished, Sunset was still trying to piece together some of the more confusing pieces together. Alternate worlds were always confusing to her, despite living in one herself.

“So how did this portal appear? And what world actually materialises your imaginations?! Isn’t that dangerous?”

Redheart shook her head, though she knew exactly what Sunset meant by that “We don’t know, it just appeared one day. And, well, we’re already dead. What does it matter what we imagine? You can’t kill us any further than that.”

A brief shiver ran down Sunset’s spine. She was seriously hoping that she was wrong, but there was no doubt what world Redheart was from. As for what happened to the pony that Redheart had saved, she had a theory. It was a long shot, but it was still something.

“What if you’re actually possessing that body right now?” she pointed to Redheart “It’s the most logical conclusion, right? Where else could she have gone?”

“B-But, I still have my powers!”

“Yeah, and you could be forcing it through the other Redheart’s physical form. Until we know more about this, could you please refrain yourself from using too much of your power?”

“I… I… oh, fine…” Redheart complied, her head hanging down in defeat “But still, you are the first pony I could find in this town. Might as well –”

“Excuse me, what?”

“I–It’s true! This whole town is empty. In fact, I thought I stumbled upon a ghost town before I found you.”

The more Sunset found out, the worse the situation seemed to be. If what this mare was saying is true, then she should be back in the dream world helping the other Sunset Shimmer fight Morpheus. In fact, she’s questioning herself right now. She should be looking for a way back, not talk to some stranger.

“Are you sure that the town’s empty? Not a single pony in sight?” Sunset asked for confirmation

“Well, I did think that I saw this one mare running past me, but it could’ve just been my imagination. I never got to catch her.”

“It’s good enough for me. Come on, lead the way!”

Leaving the library was easier said than done thanks to Sunset’s injuries. She had to lean on Redheart as the two trotted outside in search of any signs of life. However, just like she had said, the town was completely barren. Signs of activity could still be seen, but it was like the person doing it had stopped midway and ran off into the sunset. Food lay on tables attracting flies, a few taps were still left running, and a JoyBoy was discarded on the ground. Sunset recalled a movie she had watched with her friends last weekend having the same atmosphere as the town right now. She half expected eldritch abominations to start popping out of the ground.

Unfortunately, Redheart wasn’t a resident of the town, either. The two were left wandering here and there in search of the mysterious pony Redheart might have seen, and even then that was still left up in the air. Every second wasted wandering was another second Sunset could have used to fight Morpheus.

“I wonder if Quickfix has any inventions I could use…” Sunset muttered to herself as they passed by the town hall.

“Who’s that?”

“Oh, she’s just this mad scientist I know. She’s really smart, so I thought she must have invented a machine to travel into dreams or something.”

“Do you know where she works? Maybe we could find her lab or something.”

Sunset racked her brain, trying to think of any hints Quickfix could have given her “Aperture Science Laboratories, I think. If my guess is right, that’s where she works.”

“Ooh, sounds smart!” Redheart giggled, earning a raised eyebrow from Sunset “I think I passed by something like that on my way here. It’s over… there,” she pointed to a random direction “Probably.”

Since she didn’t have any other leads to go on, Sunset agreed to Redheart’s decision and slowly trotted in the direction she had pointed at. She had expected to reach a dead end and would have to resort to circling the area for hours before stumbling across the building by accident. Imagine her surprise when they do end up finding a large rectangular building with the words “Aperture Science Laboratories” on top of the door.

Not being one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Sunset thanked Redheart and started looking for an entrance. She soon found it, a large doorway that led to the dark laboratory. The fact that it was open didn’t settle with Sunset well. Did someone break into the building?

Graao!

A small metallic raptor jumped out of the darkness and started chomping on Sunset’s mane. If there was anypony left in town, they would have thought that a banshee had come into town judging by how shrill her shrieking was. She finally managed to grab hold of the small beast with her hooves and yanked it out of her mane.

“Whatwasthat?!” she shrieked and jumped onto Redheart’s hooves

When she finally managed to calm herself down, Sunset took a closer look at the robot before realising just what it was.

“Dino?” Sunset asked the robot, earning a friendly gaar in return “Wait, if you’re here, then…”

Sunset didn’t even finish her question before jumping off of Redheart’s grasp and heading inside the dark building. The nurse followed from behind, a little wary at Dino. She had never seen an actual robot before, much less one that had a mind of its own.

“This place is a mess,” Redheart commented, noting all the machines haphazardly strewn across the lab “Is this Quickfix just a total slob?”

“I don’t know,” answered Sunset “Only met her a few days ago.”

Graargh! Graargh!!

The two mares turned their attention to Dino, who was hopping around like a puppy trying to attract attention. It dashed off into a dark corner, as if begging the mares to follow it. With a shrug, they followed suit.

“You know, we should really turn on the lights,” Redheart mused

“Are you crazy?! Quickfix is a mad scientist! Who knows which of these buttons is a light switch and which of them are self destruct buttons?!”

Gao!

The metal dinosaur had stopped and was hopping around in front of a giant metal doorway that led to nowhere. Before either of the girls could comment on it, Dino had kicked a lever downwards, activating the machine. The doorway shone brightly before revealing an image of an underground cave network, although the sound of grunting could be heard nearby.

“Wait, you want us to go in there?!” Redheart took a step back and almost tripped over a crowbar “But we don’t even know where it leads to!”

Raagh!

Before the duo could even start discussing about what course of action to take, Dino turned around and hopped into the doorway. It ran around a corner and disappeared, earning a disgruntled grunt from Sunset.

“Looks like we have no choice now,” she sighed and was just about to step inside before Redheart pulled her back

“I… I don’t think this is a good idea…”

“We’re at a dead end now,” Sunset pried Redheart’s grip off of her “Look, I saw Quickfix using Dino once. It’s hers, you don’t have to worry about it.”

“But- But what if it was programmed to lead trespassers through this door?” Redheart retorted

“I’m pretty sure she has automatic turrets for them. Quickfix seems like the kind of pony to have automatic turrets.”

“URGH!”

Sunset gazed through the portal, hearing the sound of water dripping off in the distance. Dino was somewhere in there, still waiting for them to follow. If they’re lucky, then Quickfix was also in there. She didn’t know what Quickfix needed by going into a cavern network, but it must be important if she even programmed her robots to lead others to it. She turned to look at Redheart, shivering on the ground in fear. It was such a contrast to the Redhearts that she knew before that it was pretty jarring.

“Listen, Redheart,” Sunset’s expression softened, extending a hoof out to her “You’re scared, I’m scared, we don’t know what’s ahead of us, but it’s the only way forward right now. You said that Morpheus was your father, right? Then maybe… maybe this portal will help lead us to where he is. If you don’t wanna follow me, then I won’t blame you. I’ll just head on ahead, and you can stay here and rest, okay?”

Hearing no response from the mare, Sunset took that as her agreement to stay there. She took a few steps forward and entered the portal, honestly surprised when she didn’t feel anything. It was just like walking through a door. She should really praise Quickfix for her genius next time they meet.

After a few minutes of walking, she heard the sound of hoofsteps coming behind her. There Redheart was, panting and shaking, but otherwise unharmed. The two mares shared a glance before continuing on their journey, looking for the robot dinosaur that had led them there.

“Are you… Are you sure you could beat my dad?” Redheart suddenly asked

“Of course!” Sunset puffed her chest proudly “I may not look it, but I’m a really good mage!”

“… Please, save him, okay?”

Sunset nodded, not wanting to take her word back any time soon. The sound of distant metallic roaring attracted their attention and, after some initial hesitation, the two of them chased after the sound. What met them when they reached there, they did not expect.

“Princess Luna?”

Author's Notes:

I have no way to explain this late chapter. I procrastinated, okay? Hey, at least I still updated.

Originally, I was going to cut Luna out of the fic, but thought against it and continued with the original plan. Now, I have to confirm a few thins before starting on the next chapter...