The immaculate day of Sunset’s plan had come upon her; the day where she could begin her life anew. She would finally go home to Equestria, the place she was supposed to be. It was all plotted out in her head. She’d go back home and restart, maybe even beg Celestia for forgiveness and start her magic career from scratch. She’d have to take a hit to the pride and admit she was wrong, but it would be worth it to escape this hell. This place had turned her more into a monster, Flash was right. It was time to face her fears and return to where she came from. No one in this dump would miss her.

With her hands atop of the portal to her home, the shining marble slowly became more reflective, a signal that the portal was finally open again, the window to return finally upon her, ready for her to enter and return to the place of her origin. Without hesitation, Sunset looked around her to make sure none were watching, once she was certain, she pushed her entire body through it and felt a familiar pulling sensation that she had experienced the first time going through the portal. It only took a few seconds before she found herself stepping out onto the other side, her feet turning into hooves, her height losing several feet, and her body taking its original form, she smiled as she looked herself over.

She was actually excited to be a pony again, to take upon her original shape, she missed it, she missed being able to use magic freely and walking on all fours. With a gentle prance of delight, Sunset appeared on the other side, back to the form she preferred. Excitement overtook her as she glanced herself over; four hooves, golden coat, cutie mark, it was enough to make her want to dance for a moment, however she composed herself as she decided the best thing to do is check what kind of damage she was dealing with. After all, she left abruptly years ago and it wasn’t as if Celestia could simply tell ponies her absence was from traveling to an alternate universe. It was likely that kind of information would be kept between royalty.

The castle, however, appeared different from how she remembered it. Crystalline structures and decorations filled the halls and sparkled as far as the eye could see. Gone was the usual artwork and decorations. The castle couldn’t have changed this much in only a few years. Sunset stepped up to a nearby window and gazed out to see a completely different city than she remembered. She could only draw one conclusion, this wasn’t anything like Canterlot. This was another place altogether.

With her hoof upon her chin, she could only conclude this was a different castle altogether, meaning that the mirror had to have been moved here, but where was here? Quickly Sunset flicked her horn and conjured up a cloak to conceal her form and it came to her; the library! Every castle had one, and this one had to be no exception. There would be records, newspapers, archives that could explain what she had missed when she was gone.

It wasn’t long before Sunset had discovered the library of what apparently was the Castle of the Crystal Empire. After searching through old archives and newspapers, she was able to discover that the empire had been unfrozen after thousands of years and was now led by the royal Princess Cadance and her husband, Shining Armor.

She read tales of the many epic adventures of a Twilight Sparkle who had been donned the Princess of Friendship by Celestia after being a star student. The first of her star students to be named a princess, and it wasn’t Sunset. She frowned as she looked at the photo of the girl who stood in the place she knew she could have earned had she stayed and been a better student. The purple alicorn looked so content with herself, so happy, so unfit. Sunset couldn’t help but feel she looked like a weakling, a creature unfit to lead. Yet there atop of this mare’s head was the crown that Sunset knew she deserved.

Trying to take her mind off of opportunities lost, Sunset got curious as to what the world thought of her. Casting a search spell, Sunset looked for any articles in the archive that possessed her name. Finding only old articles long before her departure, she decided to search for the names of her parents.

The spell flashed, and no papers appeared in front of her. With a blink, Sunset grabbed a few books with years dated from the year she left to the current year and placed them on a table. Quickly flicking through the first to the “S” section, she looked for her name in a list of ponies filed as missing; nothing. Hectically she grabbed the next and searched there as well; the same results. Before she knew it, she had burned through every year up to the present day, and all of them were the same, no mention of her.

She blinked and fell to her haunches as she contemplated this information. No one had reported her missing. Not even her own parents. The entire world had continued on without her, it had completely forgotten her. She wasn’t even a blip on the radar of Equestria, not a soul cared that she had vanished.

With anger building up in her, she flipped the table and spilled the books and scrolls onto the floor. Her blood had reached a boiling point. Sunset was tired of feeling sorry for herself, it was clear that there was no place for her here or in the human world.

She wanted to break down and finally cry but fought it. No, she couldn’t let herself become that weak, she promised herself that she wouldn't. Instead, she flipped those desired tears into more anger, more rage, more venom. It all started to formulate in her mind, bring her thoughts to the only obvious answer. With a smile, she brought herself to a stand. She spoke her thoughts aloud, “if there is no place for me in these worlds… I will make a place... By force if necessary...”

Eyes opened to see a familiar ceiling above Shimmer. Lifting her hands in front of her face she discerned she was not dreaming, but somehow back in her own bedroom. With her head throbbing she reached over to the end table blindly. Without her glasses on, everything was a blur. Once she located them, she quickly placed them on her face and reached over to grab the pill bottle she kept at her end table for headaches like this. They were frequent enough when she woke up to warrant such a thing being at the ready.

Popping one of the small pills into her mouth she sat up trying to remember how she got here. Not a single memory of coming back to this place came to her, thinking hard the only thing she could recall was being at a bowling alley with Sunset’s friends. Focusing on that memory, Shimmer tried to bring more of it forward.

There was something about Rarity wanting to take us to the beach, Rainbow made some kind of perverted comment and then-

It had come back to her; Rarity had produced some kind of force field out of thin air. Shimmer could remember the painful images that shot through her mind, causing her to clench her shoulders even now. She shook her head trying to clear those thoughts out yet again so she didn’t faint a second time. How could Rarity do such a thing? Surely she was imagining it. No impossible, the memory was too vivid. That meant it had to have happened, right? But it couldn't have, could it?

That explained why she had no memories after that, as she was out cold, but how did she get back here to her bedroom?

Looking to the other side of the room, she could see Sunset sitting at her vanity mirror in the nearby chair. She was leaned in a way to prop her head up with her arm, using her elbow on her knee. The girl was fast asleep, snoring lightly, clearly not looking very comfortable. She definitely came off as a heavy sleeper, making Shimmer a bit jealous as she usually woke up from raindrop on a window ten miles away. That faint was probably the soundest sleep she had achieved in years.

Shimmer’s stirring had clearly woken her up though as Sunset’s snoring came to an abrupt stop and her eyes opened gently. She grumbled and rubbed her head before realizing that Shimmer was sitting up. “Oh good…” She yawned before finishing, “you’re up…”

“What was that all about?” Shimmer asked as she pulled herself off the bed slowly and came to a stand, her legs wobbled a bit, but she composed herself and placed a hand upon the windowsill to prop herself up. Her body was shaky, but she was determined to not lay in bed a moment longer if she could make herself stand.

“Okay, let’s just talk about this for a second…” Sunset tried to approach the subject gently as she too came to a stand, her hands in front of her in a defense position.

Shimmer found herself clutching the windowsill tightly. Fury welling up inside her, churning and making her left hand twitch. It didn’t take long before she was flooded with the blindness that came with her anger. In this state she had no control over her volume, no control over her words; she would speak her mind without a second thought.

“FUCK YOU!” She growled viciously. Her voice piercing the room.

Sunset blinked, a bit surprised by her reaction. She gave a cautious hand gesture as she put her hands up in defense, trying to show she meant no harm. “Listen…”

“NO! YOU LIED TO ME SUNSET!” Shimmer shouted her voice loud enough to echo through the entire mansion probably.

Taking a step backward, Sunset was actually semi-intimidated by the girl’s anger. “Calm down…”

“YOU LEFT OUT PRETTY IMPORTANT NEED TO KNOW INFORMATION!” Shimmer growled as she took a few steps forward, her feet pounding the ground.

Keeping her distance, Sunset made her way walking back all the way to the door to the bedroom, ready to make an escape if Shimmer took it to a level that Sunset didn’t think she could handle. Shimmer found her way to the vanity mirror that Sunset was previously sitting at. She placed a dainty hand upon the table as she shouted again.

“A REAL FRIEND DOESN’T FUCKING LIE TO HER FRIEND, DOES SHE SUNSET!?”

With a grimace, Sunset could barely get a word in, “Shimmer, I…”

“DOES SHE, SUNSET!?” Shimmer repeated. “TELL ME TO MY FUCKING FACE THAT YOU DIDN’T LIE TO ME! TELL ME THAT YOU DIDN’T NOT TELL ME SOMETHING YOU THINK I SHOULD HAVE FUCKING KNOWN PRIOR, LIKE HOW YOUR FRIEND HAS MAGIC POWERS!”

“I didn’t intend to lie to you,” Sunset explained meekly, trying to make herself small as she shied away.

“BULLSHIT!” Shimmer’s eyes had dilated to where her pupils were mere dots as she banged her fist so hard onto the table she actually put a crack in the wood finish. Sunset was a bit surprised at how strong she was when she was angry, she recalled when she walked into the room that the vanity desk was a pretty tough wood that wouldn’t crack so easily. However, Shimmer had managed to send a crack through the wood with a single pound.

“Calm down!” Sunset finally commanded, trying a different approach.

“I AM SO FUCKING SICK OF PEOPLE LYING TO ME! WHAT ELSE DON’T I KNOW!?” Shimmer banged the table again, making the crack worse.

“STOP IT!” Sunset shouted back.

Shimmer blinked, trying to process what Sunset was saying.

Sunset frowned and shrunk a bit as she gripped her arm nervously. “Y-you’re scaring me…” She admitted with a blush, hiding her face as she huddled her body close together in protection.

Looking down to the table, Shimmer saw the dent she had placed in the finish. Her anger calmed for a moment as she came back to reality, realizing what she was actually doing. Shouting at Sunset and scaring her half to death over probably an honest misunderstanding. She didn’t even try and get Sunset’s side of the story, hell she didn’t even confirm if Sunset knew about Rarity having powers or not. Shimmer closed her eyes and tried to calm herself as a sense of regret washed over her.

Sighing, she took a few breathes to relax herself before opening her eyes again and taking a seat in the nearby chair.

She shook her head as she cleared her mind. “I’m sorry, Sunset… I told you before… I have a huge anger problem…”

“Clearly…” Sunset replied, arms crossed.

“Not helping…” Shimmer rolled her eyes with a scoff.

“Kidding, but listen… I didn’t mean to lie to you. I was trying to ease you into a lot of this because I didn’t want to freak you out. Magic stuff seems to cause a lot of trouble whenever it gets brought up…” Sunset admitted with a frown as she approached and placed a hand on Shimmer’s shoulder.

“Do all of you have magic?” Shimmer asked.

Sunset nodded. “Afraid so. We all have unique abilities too.”

“Interesting…” Shimmer placed a hand upon her chin in thought; her finger reached up and touched her lip before she turned to Sunset. “I’m willing to overlook this if you do me two things.”

“Anything, name it,” Sunset responded.

Shimmer nodded and met the girl’s eyes with her own. “No more keeping me in the dark from here on out. I want to know everything. No secrets.”

“Promise I will try and tell you everything I remember. Forgive me if I forget some details though,” Sunset replied rubbing her neck.

“Good, and as for the second thing… I may require your assistance or your friends for some tests I am conducting. Your magic changes a lot of things, so I have a lot of tests I need to run now…” Shimmer explained.

“Consider it done, I’m sure the rest of the girls will be okay with it when I smooth it over with them,” Sunset responded.

With a nod, Shimmer finally smiled and placed a hand upon Sunset’s side. “Sorry… For scaring you…”

She could see genuine remorse in Shimmer, a feeling of regret that had taken her over. It was difficult to stay upset given the circumstances. Sunset returned the smile and nodded. “It’s okay… Just a little taken by surprise is all… Bad memories too…”

Shimmer wanted to inquire further but decided it was best not to cause more painful thoughts for Sunset. So despite her curiosity, she dropped the subject and smiled. “What does your magic do?” Shimmer asked.

Sunset perked up and smiled with a bit of pride as she touched the medallion upon her neck. For a moment she was reminded of how she acquired it, she had actually earned it, it was something that had actually earned herself so she wore it with pride. It was a constant reminder that she was able to lead her friends in the right direction for once, a reward for her accomplishments under Princess Twilight’s teachings along with her friends.

“I can see people’s memories through their emotions, sort of… If I touch a person I can peer into their emotions and see what memories are fueling said emotions,” Sunset explained.

“Fascinating…” Shimmer adjusted her glasses with genuine curiosity.

“I could show you if you like,” Sunset offered, reaching her arm out.

“No!” Shimmer quickly pushed herself back to escape Sunset’s reach. “I mean… It wouldn’t be ideal… My anger issues kind of would probably just make it so you see how terrible I can get… I don’t want to scare you again,” she quickly defended.

With an awkward expression, Sunset nodded. “Sure…”

Coming to a stand, Shimmer gave Sunset a sugary smile as she gestured for her to follow. “I suppose now would be a good time for you to explain everything you know to me. Come on, we can record it all in the lab. I want to refer back to it for my research.”

“Alright, but I have to ask… Why are you so interested in this?” Sunset asked as she followed Shimmer out of the room.

Shimmer paused and stopped dead in her tracks. “Why, you ask?”

Sunset nodded. “Yeah, I mean it seems like an odd thing for a scientist like yourself to be interested in…”

There was a long silence as Shimmer faced away from Sunset, her stance very serious, but Sunset couldn’t see the girl’s face. The silence dragged on for a few more seconds before Shimmer turned her head to look over her shoulder at the confused Sunset. An innocent smile was playing on her lips, but something about her demeanor seemed off. “I guess I’m just curious is all.”

A mighty whack from a racket sent a green ball flying over a net. Reaching the other side, the ball got another whack from a racket on the opposing side in the left hand of a girl with her multi-colored hair up in a ponytail. With a mighty, swing the ball was sent back yet again, and the rainbow-haired maiden jumped to try and stop it, before missing.

The other girl smirked and adjusted her glasses. “That’s game,” she stated.

Pouting, Rainbow lowered her racket with an annoyed expression. “I don’t ever lose… How did you beat me?”

Setting her racket down, Shimmer walked over to the side of the court and opened a cooler to retrieve a couple of water bottles. Tossing one to Rainbow, Rainbow caught it swiftly and popped the top off, guzzling it at lightning speed. Clearly their game had given even the star athlete of Canterlot High a workout. Shimmer took a sip for herself and wiped the sweat off of her brow before smiling to Rainbow. “I’ve been playing this game since I was eight.”

Rainbow rolled her eyes and took another sip before answering, “okay, but I’m awesome, so explain that?”

Shimmer found herself giggling as she sat down in a nearby chair, gesturing for Rainbow to take a seat next to her. Obliging, Rainbow shrugged off the humiliation of her defeat and took a seat next to her friend. A cool breeze alleviated the sensation of the harsh sun on this Summer day for a brief moment as the two sat.

Leaning back, Shimmer sighed contently as she enjoyed the weather. Rainbow and she sat in silence for a few minutes as they just enjoyed the weather. Both of them had a love for the Summer in common apparently as Shimmer had learned prior. Rainbow loved the season because of the lack of school and the ability to go out and play sports. Shimmer just enjoyed the peacefulness of it and the warm weather. As a child, they vacationed a lot in the Winter and it conditioned her to prefer warmer weather.

Finally speaking up, Shimmer asked a question, “so what is Sunset’s world like?”

Rainbow flinched at the sudden breaking of the silence. She looked to Shimmer with confusion. “Why not ask her yourself?”

“Truthfully, I feel like she avoids difficult subjects with me… Understandably though…” Shimmer admitted.

Leaning back into her seat, Rainbow looked up to the clouds, perhaps hoping a good answer would fall from the heavens, that or a convenient excuse to avoid the question. When nothing of the sort came, she spoke quietly, “to be honest… None of us have really seen her world up close. Once during the Friendship Games we got a brief glimpse of it, but we were all too freaked out to really pay close attention. Sunset avoids talking about it too; all I know is that magic is apparently pretty common there.”

Shimmer leaned in to hear her better. “Magic, huh? So why did Sunset come here exactly? She avoids that subject like the plague.”

With a chuckle, Rainbow shook her head. “Then you’re in the same boat as us. She doesn’t talk about it with us either. Pretty much a majority of Sunset’s life is a mystery; she doesn’t talk about her parents, her home, or life before this place very often. I know she was a star student of the princess of their world for a while, but that fell apart.”

It was hard to believe that a girl who was a prized star student of the leader of their world would just up and leave for little to no reason. Whatever happened to push Sunset to leave must have been major; to just leave a magical place like that to come here, to abandon everything she had there. Shimmer was curious, but it was clear that the answers weren’t going to be leaked out of Rainbow Dash, as she was just as clueless as Shimmer. She felt guilty for prying into Sunset’s life, but her curiosity got the better of her. It was okay if she was trying to help Sunset, right?

“Sounds rough… She’s lucky to have you girls then…” Shimmer admitted.

Rainbow smirked and gently punched Shimmer’s shoulder. “You have us too, dummy. We’re all friends, right?”

Rubbing her shoulder, Shimmer realized that Rainbow hit harder than she probably thought she did as she nodded. “Yeah, of course, we’re friends. Why else would you be at my estate, right?”

A perverted grin crossed Rainbow’s face, and Shimmer could already tell where this was going. “I thought you were just making a booty call when you invited me over.”

Shimmer rolled her eyes. “I specifically said ‘Tennis’ over the phone…” she reminded.

“I thought that was a metaphor for ‘Rainbow please come over and rock my world, I can’t stand another minute without it!’ or something along those lines.” Rainbow did a mocking impression of Shimmer’s voice as she clasped her hands together in a faux lady-like fashion. Seeing Rainbow pretend to be lady-like just felt wrong to Shimmer though.

“Please, didn’t you hear your friend Applejack?” Shimmer smirked as she leaned back in her chair crossing her legs. “I’m out of your league.”

“Ouch, you’re cutting deep.” Rainbow feigned being hurt as she placed a hand upon her heart.

“That’s okay you probably wouldn’t want to date me anyway. I’m more trouble than I’m worth trust me,” Shimmer said.

“Apparently you need to get to know me better…” Rainbow laughed.

“True, you are kind of a trouble maker…” Shimmer lowered her glasses with a finger and winked at Rainbow.

“Yeah, but I make up for it by being awesome in all the best ways,” Rainbow boasted.

Shimmer chuckled and nodded. “I suppose that’s true…”

“So… Is that a yes then to the fooling around?” Rainbow smirked, making Shimmer unsure if she was just joking around or being serious.

Rolling her eyes Shimmer shook her head. “Not a chance.”

“Eh, you’ll come around, I'll treat you right.” Rainbow winked.

Leaning back in her chair again, Shimmer’s mind traveled to this magical place she had been told was called “Equestria”, a land where Sunset was from; a place where magic was common and strange happenings were the norm. As a scientist, she didn’t want to believe it was a real place, but given that she had seen the evidence in front of her, she had no choice but to accept it.

“A place where magic is all around you…” She whispered aloud to herself.

She closed her eyes and smiled. “Sounds terrible.”

With her hand wrapped around a pen, and the pen touching her lips, Sunset thought of how she wanted to write her report to the Princess. It had been a while since she updated Twilight on the situation, but she knew that the equine princess would certainly want to know about what was going on with the former student of Celestia and her doppelganger in this human world. There was so much to fill her in on, however, she knew she didn’t want to overwhelm the probably busy mare.

Sunset scrunched up on her tiny bed and leaned her head back as she sat there in her pajamas thinking of what to say, how to open the conversation. Ultimately realizing she was thinking too hard and thinking of it too much like a formal letter. Shrugging, she scribbled into the book that allowed her and Princess Twilight to communicate.

Hey Twilight, are you there?

To Sunset’s surprise, she saw an answer appear within a matter of seconds. It made her smile that she had caught the mare when she had a free minute, it was easier to communicate more direct rather than relaying messages back and forth in slow time.

Yeah, what’s up, Sunset?

She scribbled back with haste.

A lot actually, do you have a few minutes? I don't want to take up too much of your time.

Sunset waited a moment and got her response.

I just finished up for the day and I have a good hour or so before bed, take as much time as you need. What’s bothering you, Sunset?

Cracking her wrist, Sunset prepared to write out quite a bit to explain as much of the situation in detail to Twilight, hoping that Twilight would be able to take it all in at once, but it was far faster than explaining the little details.

As you may know, Shimmer and I have been hanging out a lot. I approached the situation cautiously, but as you may have guessed I have the worst luck in the universe. The other day she saw Rarity had magic on accident. It was an honest mistake, but Rarity tried to stop a drink from falling on her using a barrier.

The next thing I knew, Shimmer was freaking out, vomiting and eventually she passed out. It was kind of a mess.

Sunset took a moment to let Twilight digest that bit and got a response.

Sounds rough, what did you do?

Quickly Sunset jotted down her answer, not wanting to keep Twilight waiting in anticipation for too long.

I carried her to my car and drove her home. I waited until she woke up after that.[

Twilight as per usual didn’t waste a chance to praise Sunset.

Sounds like you’re a good friend.

With a laugh, Sunset rolled her eyes.

Thanks, but really I don’t feel like one. See after she woke up, Shimmer was furious with me for not telling her about magic. I tried to explain I was trying to not overwhelm her, but she just got angrier and angrier, she punched a crack into a solid wood table, it was actually kind of scary…

There was a pause before Twilight’s answer.

Anger makes some do some strange things. I’m sure she didn’t mean to scare you, Sunset, after all, you of all people should know what anger can do to a person. It wasn’t that long ago that you were fueled by it, however, you changed, and that means that Shimmer can too. Something is hurting her, that’s a usual cause of anger. The best thing to do is to find out what makes her angry and try to help her overcome it.

A smile came to Sunset’s lips as she felt glad for contacting the princess. Twilight was smart and usually able to figure these kinds of things out and her interpretation echoed Sunset’s. It made her more confident in her theories and showed that maybe she was starting to learn a lot more.

I think so too, but that’s why I want you to do me a favor if it’s not too much trouble?

Twilight responded quickly as expected.

Sure, what is it?

Sunset stretched before replying.

I need you to look into magic in this world. See if you can find when it first showed up, and more about it. I have a big feeling that I am going to need to understand it more before all of this is over, as Shimmer is now curious about it. She wants to run some experiments, but I have a feeling she will need your help to turn up any meaningful results. I just know that understanding the magic in this world will be the answer.

Not expecting Twilight to be so keen on the idea, her response was a bit of a surprise to Sunset.

If it’s for helping you with friendship, I’ll dedicate the next few days to exactly that. You can count on me, Sunset just as I know that I can count on you.

A blush crept up on Sunset’s face, her cheeks flaring red, but she contently scribbled a response to Princess Twilight.

Thank you, Twilight. I’ll try my best not to let you down.

Week 9. Wow, we're that far in huh? We're getting close to the end of Act I. Big thanks again to Applety for her continued hard work. She's been sick (myself as well) the past few days so be sure to send her some love.

Behind the scenes: The original portrayal of Shimmer's anger was actually a lot scarier. She actually punched the table and breaks her hand in the process in the original concept. However I ultimately decided that Sunset being scared was more than enough, no need to overkill.