Rediscovery

Disclaimer: I do not own My Little Pony, nor am I profiting off this literary venture.

----

Today had been so different!

The ponies here had such totally different social dynamics from anything she'd ever been familiar with!

Couples were grasping each others hands in public rather than nuzzling and smaller herds or groups seemed to be the norm as compared to the large massing of friends as was common in Equestria.

And this castle...

This school! If she had more time, if she didn't have to worry about getting trapped in this world for thirty moons, she'd be studying everything!

"I didn't know you had dropped it." Twilight had to strain her ears to hear the quiet voice in the hallways.

"Well I did! And I was about to get it before you swooped in and ruined everything." That voice, the biting tone. "You shouldn't pick up things that don't belong to you."

Twilight would recognize a bully anywhere. But the first voice, there was no way she wouldn't recognize it.

Fluttershy!

"It-it doesn't really belong to you either." The girl who spoke brushed a lock of her mane out of her face and looked down, she couldn't meet the bullies eyes.

"Exscuse me!?" The bully, a red-maned mare slammed a hand against the lockers, startling both Twilight and the Fluttershy counterpart.

"Nothing." She slid down the wall while looking up, inching away from the girls ire.

"That's what I thought!" Twilight looked down, she could hear Spike growling. "That's as good as mine and you know it! You really are pathetic. It's no wonder your best friends are all stray animals."

She'd had enough. This, this was unacceptable!

"How dare you speak to her that way!" She spread her hooves and solidified her stance, glaring at the girl down the hall.

"What did you say?" The bully turned around and glared.

That mane, those eyes.

The thief!

The two closed in on each other, had they horns they'd be crossed.

"I said, How dare you speak to her that way!" They locked eyes.

The thief blinked first, her countenance breaking into a confident grin as she leaned back.

"Heh, you must be new here." She slid a finger under Twilight's muzzle and flipped up. "I can speak to anyone any way I want."

She sauntered down the hallway, passing Twilight and intentionally terrifying her classmates. One so much so he hid himself in his locker.

"I can't believe you did that!" The bully's first victim spoke up excitedly. Or at least with as much excitement as Fluttershy ever had.

"I couldn't just stand there." It would have stood against everything she was.

"It's just that... Nobody ever stands up to Sunset Shimmer!" The pinkette sounded so surprised.

Could nopony here stand up for themselves?

Well, alright, maybe this one didn't count.

But still!

"Sunset Shimmer?" It wasn't really a question, it was just surprising how easily this was all falling together.

She knew there was a catch somewhere.

"You've heard of her?"

She broke into my room, stole an artifact of immeasurable power and, oh, right. She's from my world.

"Sort of."

"I don't think I've seen you around before. Did you just transfer to Canterlot High from another school?"

"Yes! Another... School!" She nervously dug at the air with her forehooves, thrown internally by the lack of ground beneath them. "My name's Twilight."

"I'm..." The girl, Fluttershy's counterpart was rubbing her left limb nervously and looking between Twilight and the ground. "Fluttershy."

No. Absolutely not. A counterpart in a sister reality was one thing. Direct parallells?

"Sorry. What was that?" Twilight put her hand against her ear, hoping to funnel the whisper a little more fully.

"It's flUttershy!" Her voice came out as a squeak, even harder to understand than before!

"It sounds like you're saying Fluttershy but... How can that..." Twilight looked down to her right, catching Spike in her peripheral vision and offering him a questioning look.

"Oh my goodness!" This was definitely Fluttershy. Her fear broke at the sight of the dragon...

Puppy.

Her fear broke at the sight of the puppy and she ran to him, sliding down to speak at him on his level.

"Who this sweet little guy!"

"That's Spike! My-" Dragon. "Uh, dog."

"He's so cute!" She lifted him by placing her hands under his muzzle for a second before bringing him back down. She grabbed something, a dog treat, out of her backpack and held it in front of him. "Go on, eat up little pup!"

Spike took a tentative bite and nearly spoke before snagging the rest of the treat.

Close. Way too close!

"Oh, wouldn't you give anything to know what they're really thinking?" Fluttershy seemed absolutely enamoured with the idea.

"He usually just tells me." It wasn't really that fascinating. More snark and irony than anything else lately.

Spike looked at her at the same time Fluttershy did, waving a paw across his throat.

"What do you mean?" Spike barked, regaining her attention.

"Nothing, nevermind!" That was even closer! This was bad! "Sunset Shimmer said you picked something up. Something that belonged to her. It wasn't a crown, was it?"

"How did you know?" Fluttershy stood back up and looked at her, finally meeting her eyes.

"Uh... Lucky guess?" She leaned forward, an excited grin on her face. "Do you still have it?"

Fluttershy shook her head, humming a negative.

"But you know what happened to it." This wasn't a question. She was piecing it together, this was what Sunset Shimmer had been upset with Fluttershy about. It had to be.

Fluttershy nodded.

"This morning, I was passing out flyers at the animal shelter like I do every Wednesday. I was out in front of the monument and it hit me, right in the back of the head. I have no idea how it got there! But I didn't want anything to happen to it, so I decided to give it to Principal Celestia." During her explanation Fluttershy had sat back and started petting Spike. It seemed to make it easier for her to explain things.

"Principal Celestia? She's the ruler here?" Her being here wasn't a surprise. Being a school administrator though?

What would that mean as a parallel to Equestria?

"You... Could say that. Technically I guess she and Vice-Principal Luna do make the rules." Fluttershy stood back.

"Where is she now?" This could solve everything!

"Probably in her office."

Spike ran off behind Fluttershy, Twilight in the opposite direction. An instant later they both returned, a sheepish looked shared between the two.

"Third door on your left." Fluttershy pointed past Twilight.

"Thank you!" And the pair ran off again, the right way this time.

"Oh wait!" It was still soft, but Fluttershy's voice carried well enough it drew their attention. They poked their heads around the corner to look at her. "You're not really supposed to have pets on school grounds! You might wanna tuck him into your backpack. That's what I do."

A trio of animals, a cat, a rabbit and a bird jumped out of her yellow backpack, emblazoned with Fluttershy's cutie mark and ran around her.

"I just get so lonely when I'm at school all day."

"Oh, okay!" A bell rang overhead. "Thank you!"

"Oh no!" Fluttershy stood up. "I'm late for class!"

With practiced ease she scooped up her animals and ran off, leaving Spike and Twilight behind.

----

"So uh, where would I find the head of the party planning committee?" He heard Twilight ask from nearby, seated across from the Fluttershy belonging to this world.

He barely had time for this. Swapping out his blazer for his hoodie wasn't too time consuming but he knew he was cutting this one close.

Fitting this in between classes was going to be a nightmare.

He'd been thrown back in time and he didn't have time. Someone out there must think they're hilarious.

He finally caught a glimpse of her as she was setting down her apple, ready to grab the burger.

"I wouldn't suggest that." She hesitated at his words and looked over, catching sight of him walking up to her table.

"Oh, you're from earlier." She set it down and looked up at him. Fluttershy across from her was also staring, though he couldn't tell how much she saw from behind her hair. "Why? What's wrong with it?"

"I just... Don't think you'd like it. It's made of hamburger." Both of them were confused.

Right, Twilight wouldn't know what that is yet.

And Fluttershy could eat that everyday, it was normal for most people here.

"You'll need to watch that." He pressed on. He remembered the consequences of this meal. "This place, folks here eat meat."

Twilight turned green at that, staring at her burger. Fluttershy simply continued to look confused for a moment.

"Oh, you're a vegetarian?" Fluttershy had put two and two together, coming up with four. At least for now she was lacking the perspective to see the rest of the problem.

Spike sat down next to Fluttershy, across from Twilight. He could make out his canine counterpart looking at him from Twilight's bag.

"Oh, uh, yeah. We don't have these hamburgers?" Twilight glanced at him, continuing at his nod. "Yeah, we don't have hamburgers where we're from."

"Oh goodness. Then it's a good thing you're friend was here." Fluttershy poked at her fruit salad for a second before getting up. "You might want to save it for you-know-what in your backpack like I do then. I'm going to go take care of that, so I'll see you soon?"

Twilight smiled at her and nodded, getting the same back.

"Thank you." Twilight said to him once Fluttershy left, testing her grip on her as of yet unmarked apple.

"It's no problem." It was actually a serious problem. He was going to be cutting it down to the bone to get to his next class on time. "Sorry I didn't introduce myself earlier."

He held his hand across the table to her, waiting for her to grab it. She hesitantly did, getting one shake before he let it go.

"Everypony here calls me Thorn."

Author's Notes:

I know it needs to be done, but it's not very fun.
The part where I very nearly quote the movie directly.
That first scene up there? It's roughly 1200 words long and covers all of five minutes.
This is why authors use time skips.