Shimmer knelt down and rolled Sunset’s still body over, she couldn’t see her chest rising of falling, only spreading more fear and panic into her. She took a deep breath to calm herself as she crawled over top of Sunset and placed her ear up to Sunset’s open mouth. She could still feel air, that meant she was still breathing, but barely. Shimmer regretted not taking a CPR class briefly before she contemplated what to do. She needed to take serious action, this was getting out of her control.

Her eyes wandered to a bag of Sunset’s things that they had brought over for her at her request when she was still feeling well enough to form thoughts. Shimmer came to a stand and raced to the bag digging through it. Eventually, she found a journal with an odd emblem on the front. It looks old and definitely worn.

Flipping through the pages she saw tons of text that looked like Sunset’s handwriting and the handwriting of someone else, she assumed Princess Twilight. There was no doubt, this was the book used to communicate between the two worlds that Sunset often utilized. She had heard her talk about it, but never actually seen it. Questions started to fill her brain of things to ask the princess when she had a better time, however now all she could think of is what to say.

She had to make a decision, and within seconds her mind was made up. Sunset’s opinion on the matter had to be overruled. Taking a pen out of the bag, Shimmer began to write in the journal.

Dear Princess Twilight,

I hope this works for more people than just Sunset. Either way, I hope you can see this, and I apologize if this is sort of last minute but the circumstances call for it. This is Shimmer, Sunset’s counterpart or sister in this world. Something has gone terribly wrong, Sunset is not well in the slightest.

I need to come to Equestria she can’t be taken care of here and she can’t make it on her own. I don’t know if there are some kinds of laws about humans coming to your world, but this is an emergency, please respond ASAP.

Sincerely,

Shimmer

She sighed as she waited tapping her foot, hoping Twilight got the message. She had recalled something about a portal needing to be opened to go to Equestria, so she knew that if Twilight didn’t open it then they were stuck here.

Her patience paid off as she saw text from the princess begin to appear on the adjacent page, she watched in awe as the magic book revealed a sliver of its power before her.

Shimmer,

I was starting to get worried that she hadn’t written me in so long. I just assumed she had a busy life going on over there, given the last few months have been pretty crazy. I’m sorry to hear that she is not doing well, and I offer you all the help I have at my disposal. Ordinarily, there probably would be some red tape about humans coming here, but I’ll write some letters to explain it away. I’m opening the portal momentarily, please proceed to the statue in front of Canterlot High, if my theory is correct, then anyone who has magic should be able to enter the portal, yourself included.

Do remember though that most of my world doesn’t know about your world or the portal, so please keep quiet about where you are really from. I’ll arrange for your arrival in the next few minutes, I’ll see you shortly. Please be very careful, and make sure Sunset makes it here in one piece.

I’m sorry that you get to see our world for the first time is under these circumstances. When we fix this problem, I promise to show you around properly.

Good luck, Shimmer.

With Regards,

Princess Twilight Sparkle

Nodding, she closed the book and stuffed it under her arm while she approached Sunset. She was given the go-ahead by the princess, now she just needed to figure out the rest of the plan. Regardless she knew the first step was getting Sunset into her car. She’d never make it to Canterlot High on foot, not while carrying her sister anyway.

Reaching down she placed an arm under Sunset and lifted her with a groan. Sunset didn’t even respond, her body simply lay there, not even fazed by Shimmer’s touch.

“Shit…” Shimmer cursed before she realizing that if she wanted to get Sunset into her car, she was going to need to drag her. She was thankful she stayed on the ground floor and that the entrance to the building wasn’t far, however, she would need to go to the carport instead.

With a heave she pulled Sunset along the floor, groaning as she dragged the nearly lifeless girl across the living room. Each step she felt like Sunset seemed to get heavier and heavier, more and more difficult to move, but it was likely just her strength giving out. Somehow though she managed to find the adrenaline to keep moving.

It took a few minutes but she managed to make it all the way to the carport door. Unlocking it from a set of keys, Shimmer stuffed them back into her jeans pocket and continued the drag. Looking around she realized that the car would likely be parked at Canterlot High for a long period of time, so she needed one that she wasn’t too worried about.

Ultimately she decided on the Camaro, she never really did like that vehicle that much anyway. Bringing Sunset to the back door she ran around the other side of the car and opened both doors. Climbing inside and over the seats, she pulled Sunset into the back seat of the car before closing both doors and rushing to the driver’s seat.

She reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone typing up a text to Twilight.

Hey, gonna be away for a bit with Sunset. I need you to watch after Moon for a little while for me. I’ll text you when I get back.

Despite it being 11:08 PM, she still got a reply from Twilight, who she guessed was either up all night studying or was such a light sleeper that the text woke her up.

What’s going on? Where can you possibly be going with Sunset when she’s so sick?

Shimmer sighed and shook her head as she replied and turned her phone off.

Don’t worry about it.

With those words, she revved up the car engine and looked back to Sunset. She was still breathing thankfully.

“Sorry Sunset, we tried your way, now we’re going to do it my way…” Shimmer spoke.

Twilight frantically tried to dial Shimmer’s number, growling in annoyance at the dial tone only to hear her voicemail alert her that she couldn’t come to the phone. “Fuck!” Twilight threw her phone onto her bed.

Where could Shimmer be going? There was only one place: Equestria. She recalled how Sunset was against going, but nonetheless, it was the only feasible option. Who knew if Sunset would even be allowed to return?

There was only one option for Twilight: she needed to get there first.

She composed herself and threw on a hoodie over her pajamas and slipped her bottoms off and grabbed the nearest pair of jeans, struggling and fighting to get them on. With a groan, she managed to get them zipped and buttoned before running to her bed to scoop her phone back up.

Glancing at Spike in his doggie bed, she decided to allow him to continue his slumber. If she was lucky she wouldn’t be too long.

Racing down the stairs, Twilight ran to the entryway to the living room and poked her head in. There on the couch were her parents snuggled up in front of the TV. If she weren’t in such a hurry she might have commented how the two are still very much like lovesick teenagers.

“Dad?” She asked.

Her father looked over at her with a concerned expression, seeing how obviously frantic she was.

“Everything alright, pumpkin?”

“Yeah, well sort of… I need to borrow your car. It’s super important,” Twilight said.

He tilted his head and looked at his watch. “At this hour?”

“I don’t have time to explain, it’s about Sunset…” Twilight frowned.

Her parents knew a bit about Sunset’s situation, but she left out the really complicated parts. Apparently, though that was enough of an explanation as her father nodded and pointed toward the door.

“In that case, you’ll want to take the Impala, the minivan is low on gas,” he instructed.

Twilight blinked, her father never let anyone drive his car. However, deciding not to question it she nodded and ran toward the door and snagged the keys before racing toward the garage.

Reaching the car, she hopped inside, fastened the seatbelt and adjusted the mirror quickly. Looking to her phone she decided to give Shimmer one last call.

Sure enough, she was met with voicemail. She growled but decided to leave a message for the teen.

“Shimmer, it’s Twilight. I know what you’re trying to do and I am telling you it’s a bad idea. I’ll get there first, I live closer, you won’t beat me. We have to think this through. I’ll meet you there.”

With those words, she hung up and threw her phone into the passenger seat and revved up the car. After the garage door opened she peeled out of the driveway at top speed, trying to keep control of the fast car. Twilight wasn’t the most experienced driver, but at this point, she was running on pure adrenaline. She was determined to get there before Shimmer did.

Picking up her phone again she quickly sent out a text to Sunset.

Shimmer kept her eyes focused on the road as she weaved in and out of traffic. She knew the city quite well so she knew how to avoid some of the most congested traffic areas. Canterlot High wasn’t too far away.

Her concentration was interrupted by a vibration from Sunset’s pocket. Coincidentally pulling up to a stoplight Shimmer took advantage of the opportunity to reach back and shuffle through Sunset’s pocket to retrieve her phone. She read the screen with frustrated eyes.

Sunset, I’m coming.

Shimmer dropped the phone and picked her own up and turned it back on. Sure enough, she had a voicemail from Twilight.

She pressed play to hear the message repeated to her.

“Shimmer, it’s Twilight. I know what you’re trying to do and I am telling you it’s a bad idea. I’ll get there first, I live closer, you won’t beat me. We have to think this through. I’ll meet you there.”

She blinked and dropped her phone. Twilight thought she could get there before she did?

“Fat chance, Sparkle,” Shimmer thought out loud.

The moment the light turned green she floored the gas pedal. She would need to drive faster and take advantage of every shortcut to beat Twilight there. Twilight meant well, but she didn’t understand the scope of the situation. She couldn’t risk losing precious seconds trying to argue with Twilight that this was the best thing for Sunset. She needed to get there first.

Picking her phone back up as she kept her eyes on the road she called Twilight back.

The phone didn’t even get a chance to ring once before Twilight answered.

“Shimmer, think about what you’re doing…”

“I know exactly what I’m doing,” Shimmer replied.

“If Sunset doesn’t want to go back to Equestria there might be good reasons for that,” Twilight said.

“I don’t care. I’ve decided already, we’re going,” Shimmer replied plainly.

“Please let’s talk about this and if you still feel the same way then we’ll go together…” Twilight attempted to coax.

“It’s not negotiable, Twilight. We’re going and I’ll beat you there.” Shimmer hung up with those words and kept moving.

Twilight growled at Shimmer’s dismissal of her opinion on the matter but calmed herself quickly as she placed her phone back down and tried to remember if she knew any shortcuts to get to the school. She cursed herself for not driving more often.

Part of her knew that going to Equestria might be a good thing for Sunset, but she also knew there were a number of other possibilities. What if what she had was contagious there and she was quarantined the moment she arrived? What if Shimmer got in trouble for traveling there? She wasn’t familiar with the laws in Equestria, but she imagined it wasn’t a good thing for random strangers from alternate universes going there.

Her mind came back to when she and Sunset first met, and then to all the time they had spent together. Her heart tinged in pain at the thought of her staying in Equestria, unable to see her ever again.

While she got under her skin sometimes, Sunset was her best friend, and it was only because of her that she even had any friends at all.

Twilight gathered her books from her newly appointed locker. She had just transferred to Canterlot High only a few days ago, and it was taking a bit longer to get her paperwork through, she had just gotten a locker today. Principal Celestia had pulled some strings for her and made a lot of it go through much faster.

Closing the locker two male students stood there next to her with an annoyed expression. She noted the band T-Shirts on them from bands she didn’t recognize. One of them placed a hand on the locker next to her and leaned in staring her down.

She turned around to try and leave only for the other one to get behind her and do the same on the locker behind her.

Trembling she shrunk down. “C-can I help you?”

“You can start by getting the hell out of here,” the taller of the two said.

“W-what?” Twilight shook, her weak legs wobbling in fear.

“We don’t need any more magic freaks at this school. That stupid Sunset girl and her retarded friends are enough…” the other one explained.

Twilight trembled and started frantically darting her eyes back and forth looking for any possible opening to escape the two boys closing in on her. She wanted to just shrink and disappear.

“Hey!” A familiar voice rang through the air.

Twilight who had been sitting on the ground at this point as the two boys towered over her peaked between their legs to see a pair of heeled boots and impressive legs standing only a few feet away from the group.

“What do you want, She-demon?” One of the boys growled in the direction of the voice.

“Watch out or I’ll show you what a She-demon can do,” the girl replied.

“This doesn’t concern you…” the other boy stated.

“Really? It looks like you’re harassing my friend, so you just made it my business,” she growled.

The two boys laughed and stepped away from Twilight with fists raised. Looking in that direction she could see her savior was Sunset Shimmer standing tall at the ready as the two boys approached in a fighting stance.

“What’re you gonna do? There’s two of us and one of you? We’re way stronger than you. Without your weird magic you can’t do shit,” the taller male said as he took a fighting stance.

Sunset smirked and reached into her pocket retrieving a hairband. She tied her long locks behind her and removed her jacket tossing it aside as she readied herself. “Tell you what… take one step closer and I’ll show you.”

“She’s bluffing!” the shorter boy said as he jerked his head in her direction.

“Who wants to be the one to find out?” Sunset smirked as she stood with her hands positioned in front of her in a unique fighting stance.

With a hiss, the taller one stepped forward and took a swing only for Sunset to move quickly and slap his hand down with her palm. Swiftly she lifted her leg into the air and hopped doing a full spin kick hitting him in the face. He stumbled backward as she thrust forward with her other leg getting him in the gut.

The other boy tried to take advantage of her focus on his friend, but Sunset grabbed his arm and twisted before she jabbed him in the throat. He coughed before Sunset pulled him closer and thrust her knee into his groin. He released a high pitched groan before falling to his knees.

The taller one regained his composure and took another step at her only for her to duck and grab him from the leg. With a bit of work, she managed to flip him over her shoulder and throw him behind her on his back.

A loud thud echoed as the two groaned in pain, Sunset merely scooping her jacket back up and slung it over her shoulder as she approached Twilight with a smile. She extended a hand and helped her up.

Twilight merely stared in awe at Sunset.

“You okay?” Sunset smiled.

Twilight nodded silently, her mouth still half open.

“You get used to it. Most of the kids have forgotten about what happened, but you always have a few holdouts…” Sunset explained still smiling at Twilight.

“T-that was… amazing…” Twilight spoke finally in total awe.

Sunset blinked and looked back at the two boys on the ground. “Oh, right. Yeah, I learned Krav Maga a while back; I sort of needed to learn to defend myself. When I first got here, I had… well, let’s just say I wasn’t in the best place…”

Before Twilight could comment further she heard the stern voice of the Vice Principal call both of the girl’s names. Her voice was loud and booming and made Twilight shrink slightly in intimidation. Vice Principal Luna was far scarier than her older sister somehow, and it only made Twilight more nervous that she had just potentially seen the whole ordeal.

Turning to face her, Twilight could see a serious expression on the woman’s face who stood there with crossed arms tapping her foot. She extended her arm and pointed as she spoke. “Sunset Shimmer, I believe my sister would like a word with you regarding this violence in school.”

Sunset decided not to object and instead just nodded and did as she was told while she began her walk toward the Principal’s office.

Luna gestured Twilight to follow her, which made the girl gulp, but she nodded and followed behind the woman closely.

The principal and vice principal’s offices were both stationed on separate ends of the hallway, likely because the two sisters liked to have a little distance between each other.

Luna opened her office and entered with Twilight meekly following behind into the poorly lit room. She wondered to herself why Luna preferred to sit in the dark, but decided not to voice the question.

“Please sit,” Luna instructed as she sat at her own desk and gestured to the chair in front of it.

Twilight nodded and sat down and the moment her rear touched the chair she found herself rambling. “Please Vice Principal Luna, Sunset was just defending me, those guys were-“

She was cut off by Luna’s raised hand.

“Please Twilight, save it,” Luna said as she began to scribble down some notes.

“But I don’t want Sunset to get in trouble because of-“

“She’ll be fine. I only sent her to my sister as a formality. I saw the whole thing, what she did was admirable. I just can’t have other students seeing me letting her off so easily for fighting. She’s not in any trouble; we’ll give her a slap on the wrist and call it a day… I understand the circumstances of the situation, but those boys parents might not so it’s best to cover all our bases wouldn’t you agree?” Luna finally smiled.

Twilight blinked in shock. “I… I don’t understand… you’re letting her off easy…?”

“Well, so long as she doesn’t go and make a habit of fighting other students obviously…” Luna coughed and nodded.

“That’s awfully nice of you…” Twilight replied quietly.

Luna tidied up her messy desk a little and looked at Twilight sternly. “Miss Sparkle, I know you’re new here and fitting in isn’t difficult but I do have some advice for you…”

“What would that be?” Twilight leaned in with interest.

“Stay close to Sunset. She knows what it’s like to have to earn everyone’s forgiveness, I’m not sure if you’ve heard about the fall formal yet…” Luna raised a brow in anticipation only for Twilight to shake her head, “well, I’m sure you will soon. Either way, Sunset clearly is looking out for you and I would be thankful for that… she reminds me a bit of myself when I was her age…”

“Ma’am?” Twilight tilted her head in confusion.

“I wasn’t always the disciplinarian you see before you, truth be told I was a bit of a troublemaker myself, I found redemption just like Sunset has. Like I said, stay close to her, there’s no doubt in my mind she will help you with anything you need.” Luna smiled at Twilight.

Twilight nodded. “Yes ma’am.”

Luna gestured for Twilight to leave. “Alright then, you’re dismissed and Twilight, do stay safe. Try not to let the other students get to you.”

Coming to a stand, Twilight nodded. “I won’t ma’am, thank you.”

Twilight’s memory of Sunset faded as she came back to reality and pressed her foot down hard on the brakes of the car, the vehicle screeching to a halt as she looked in front of her to see a line of cars.

Grumbling she rolled her window down and poked her head out to see what the holdup was.

There at the traffic light was an accident with two people yelling at each other standing outside their destroyed vehicles. Police and the fire department were already on the scene slowly directing traffic.

Twilight pulled back into her car and looked behind her to see if perhaps there was a chance she could turn around and take another path; however by the time she turned around she already saw a line of cars behind her, preventing her from leaving.

She banged on her steering wheel in frustration at her terrible luck. “Fuck!”

She blushed for a moment at her own cursing which wasn’t like her, but retrieved her phone from the seat and tried to dial Shimmer one more time.

To no surprise, there was no answer.

In frustration, she gave the horn a few honks before finally accepting she would have to wait it out and hope she got directed out of the traffic jam quick enough to still beat Shimmer to Canterlot High, or hope that Shimmer would get stuck in similar traffic.

Weaving through the final stretch of traffic, Shimmer pulled into the school parking lot which was fortunately not that populated at this time of night. With a smirk, she looked around and saw no Twilight to be seen.

Parking her car, she stuffed her phone into her purse and paused for a moment thinking it over. Would she really need her phone? Was it even possible to bring any of her belongings to Equestria? She had never bothered to ask how any of this portal business worked, but she did know one item that she could bring.

She reached over the seat and onto the floor in front of Sunset and picked up the journal before exiting the car and coming around to the back side where Sunset laid. Quickly though she realized that the journal likely would be better left behind, so she stuffed it under Sunset's seat, before reaching to Sunset.

Shimmer shook her to see if she could get a response, but Sunset barely moved. Leaning down she gave another listen to her mouth to make sure she was still breathing. Shimmer almost skipped a breath herself when she heard air leave Sunset’s mouth.

With that, she began to haul the girl out of the car and pulled her up. Being only able to partially lift her, Sunset’s legs dragged on the ground, leaving dirt stains on her pajamas. Shimmer accepted she may need to buy the girl new ones and trudged onward, stepping back toward the direction of the statue in front of the school. She recalled it being broken before, but the school must have had it replaced; Shimmer returned her mind to the task at hand though. The parking lot was a good distance away, so it wasn’t going to be an easy trip and she needed to hurry before Twilight arrived.

With a deep breath, she gave a few tugs and managed to travel a few feet before needing to stop and take a breath or two. Sunset wasn’t the heaviest person in the world, but Shimmer’s body clearly was designed more for looking attractive and less for manual labor. Her entire life she had never really known what it felt like to do manual labor, and for this brief moment, she regretted it. She prayed that even a fraction of Sunset’s strength would rub off on her as she dragged her sister further and further, slowly approaching the statue.

She looked over her shoulder to see she was only a good forty or so paces away, she just needed to make it to that statue and she was home free, after that she didn’t need to worry about anything else.

After another short break, she took another good ten steps only to stop again.

Gritting her teeth she decided to try and power through the last stretch and sure enough, she took a good twenty or so steps and found herself directly in front of the statue.

She released Sunset for a moment and wiped her sweaty forehead.

Shimmer lifted Sunset back up and looked over her shoulder at the statue. She could see ripples in the mirror-like marble behind her as she nodded. “Sorry, Twilight but I am doing this for her own good…” Shimmer stated.

With those words, she pulled backward and fell into the mirror, Sunset’s body following after her.

Twilight had managed to finally escape the traffic jam and sped through the remainder of the town to try and make up for lost time. She checked her phone to see she had lost a good eight minutes sitting there. There was no telling how much of a lead that gave Shimmer, but she was determined to still beat her there.

Only a few more turns and she would be arriving at the school. Sure enough, when the school came into view she couldn’t see anyone standing in front of it.

A cold sweat ran down her neck as she pulled into the parking lot.

There parked in the parking lot was a recognizable car. She had seen Shimmer’s Camaro once before and there was no mistaking it. To confirm she parked the Impala next to it and stepped out, looking into the window of the expensive Camaro. She could see Shimmer’s rose gold iPhone sitting on the seat, and a purse that was undoubtedly Shimmer’s.

“Damn it…” she thought out loud.

Shimmer had beaten her there, but that didn’t mean she had won just yet. There was still time.

Twilight raced as fast as her weak legs would carry her all the way to the statue in front of the school.

The nerdy girl stared at the large horse and then down to the base with awe. This was supposedly the portal between the two worlds, the place where Sunset first arrived at the human world, and where the princess had traveled from many times now.

She was always fascinated by this portal and wished she had more time or the opportunity to study it more and understand how it worked or why it was even there in the first place. It was perhaps the one mystery that made the least sense; why did the portal exist at all?

It was a mystery for another day however as Twilight composed herself and approached cautiously.

Twilight reached a careful hand forward and closed her eyes, not sure what she was expecting as she inched closer and closer.

Her hand touched the marble and she winced for a moment only to open her eyes and blink.

Nothing happened.

She placed her other hand on the marble only to feel hard rock.

“W-what!? No!” She panicked, trying to pat the rock all over, hoping for something to happen.

It couldn’t be; Shimmer anticipated Twilight’s arrival and she had the portal closed behind her.

Twilight banged her fists against the rock in frustration and growled. “Shimmer! Open this portal!” she howled.

She waited only a few seconds to realize she wasn’t answering and likely couldn’t even hear her.

“Shimmer you bitch! You have no idea what you’re doing!” Twilight yelled at top volume.

She looked over to the sidewalk in front of the school to see a man walking his dog staring at her awkwardly.

Twilight composed herself and pulled her phone out of her pocket and held it up. “S-sorry… bad phone call…” she lied.

The stranger shrugged and kept walking as Twilight sunk down and let her bottom sit on the cold concrete in front of the statue. Not knowing what else to do, she closed her eyes and decided to wait.

Portal travel was definitely the oddest experience that Shimmer had felt thus far in her life. Magic was one thing, but this was on a whole other level. Moving between worlds made her body feel like it was being stretched and tugged in all directions. There was a small period of weightlessness and then the sensation of falling before finally tumbling out of the portal on the other side.

She could feel pain as she tumbled backward and rolled, crashing into a wall, Sunset flying right behind her and landing in front of her on her stomach.

Shimmer groaned and composed herself as she reached to find her glasses that had fallen off. She tried to move her fingers only to find nothing happened. She reached her right hand over to her left hand to feel it up as she squinted to see it better.

It didn’t feel like a hand at all, but instead some kind of flat surface.

Frantically feeling around she managed to locate what felt like her glasses. She curled her odd new appendage around them and lifted them awkwardly to her face. A little fumbling and she was able to secure them onto herself before looking down at the rest of herself.

She blushed and covered herself with her… hooves when she realized she wasn’t wearing any clothing. Then she recalled Sunset mentioning clothing was optional in their world and calmed herself.

Looking at Sunset in front of her, she examined the creature. She was definitely a pony, but not much like the ones she had seen in her homeworld.

Shimmer assumed she was much of the same given she had figured out that she had hooves now.

She took a few awkward steps to try and gain her balance before finally nodding as she felt comfortable.

The girl wouldn’t get much extra time to learn about her new form as through the doorway to the room she was in came a purple mare with a familiar looking haircut. The mare extended her wings and smiled as she looked at Shimmer. There was no mistaking it, this was Princess Twilight in her true form.

Shimmer gazed in awe at how gorgeous her wings were. She took note of the girl’s horn as well and remembered that Sunset had mentioned she was a unicorn in this world.

The Princess extended a hoof to Shimmer. “So, we finally meet in my world. I have to admit it’s a bit surreal.”

Shimmer shook the Princess’ hoof awkwardly and nodded.

“I suppose I should have expected you’d be a unicorn her too… though a bit odd that you have a different cutie mark than Sunset…” Twilight pointed to Shimmer’s backside.

Shimmer blinked and turned to see the back of her body. Looking above her hind leg she saw an emblem that appeared to be some kind of shining Sun over a horizon. She peered back to Sunset to see that her sister was sporting a yellow, red and orange shining Sun logo. This must have been what a cutie mark was, Shimmer imagined.

The Princess approached Sunset with a frown and placed a hoof on the girl’s neck. She waited and then leaned in to hear her breathing.

“Oh no… she’s barely breathing. Spike, get the doctor and the nurses in here!” She called out.

Shimmer blinked, unsure of what was going on. The Princess nudged Shimmer to step aside as a small dragon entered the room with a few other ponies all sporting various pieces of medical garb, the one leading the charge being a female with a stethoscope around her neck.

“Nurse Redheart, I need you over here, bring the cart!” the doctor stated.

“Doctor Healer, I have the serums over here!” another nurse called out as she dragged a cart behind her.

The group gathered around Sunset as the doctor levitated the stethoscope to the mare’s chest. She listened for only a moment before she gestured to the other nurse. “I need a vital monitoring spell, right now!”

The nurse nodded and placed a hoof upon Sunset before her horn glowed a vibrant yellow as she closed her eyes in concentration. “Vitals are dropping, doctor…”

“Alright, I need serum 422, Nurse Redheart,” Doctor Healer commanded.

The nurse nodded and handed off a syringe that the doctor quickly injected into Sunset and emptied the contents.

“Vitals continuing to fall, doctor…” the other nurse warned.

The doctor leaned in and placed the stethoscope back on Sunset’s chest and lifted her eyelids to look into her eyes. “What’s her name?” the doctor asked out loud.

“Sunset…” The princess choked out.

Shimmer watched with her hooves covering her mouth, unable to even breathe.

“Sunset? Can you hear me, Sunset? I need you to stay with me…” The doctor ordered.

At those words Sunset’s entire body began to convulse violently, causing the doctor and Nurse Redheart to hold her down. “She’s going into arrest, she needs air!” Nurse Redheart cried.

Nodding the doctor held Sunset’s head down and opened her jaw before placing her lips to Sunset’s and blowing heavily. After a few breaths, Sunset’s body stopped moving entirely. “Doctor she’s flatlining,” The other nurse spoke.

“I need a defib, now!” Doctor Healer barked.

With a nod, Redheart retrieved a defibrillator from the cart she had brought into the room. Levitating the paddles the doctor took a deep breath herself and yelled before placing them down on Sunset’s stomach. “Clear!”

A loud zap was heard through the room before the other nurse spoke again. “Vitals returned, but she’s dropping fast.”

“Okay… I need…” the doctor froze in thought. “I need…”

“She’s going to code, doctor!” Nurse Redheart rushed her.

“Okay, judgment call here, I need serum 88 and 89!” Doctor Healer instructed.

“Doctor that’s a big risk…” the nurse warned.

“We’re out of options! Give them to me, now!” she yelled.

Nurse Redheart obeyed and handed off the two syringes. Shimmer and Twilight looked on with wide eyes in silence as the doctor took a deep breath once more and jabbed the two needles into Sunset. She spoke quietly as she injected her. “Come on… work… stay with me, Sunset… please…”

The entire room fell silent for a moment, and it seemed like time stopped entirely. The silence was ultimately broken by Sunset inhaling loudly, causing everyone in the room to release a breath they didn’t even know they were holding in.

“Vitals returning… stabilizing… and… stabilized…” the other nurse sighed before ending her spell.

“You did it, Doctor…” Nurse Redheart patted Doctor Healer’s shoulder.

“We did it, Miss Redheart… please… take her back to the hospital, we’re not out of the woods yet…” the doctor instructed.

Nodding, the two nurses ran out of the room and returned with a stretcher which they proceeded to use to lift Sunset up and carry her out of the room.

The doctor sighed and placed a hoof to her temple as she sat down. Twilight and Shimmer approached cautiously, Shimmer speaking softly, “T-thank you, doctor…”

“And who are you?” the doctor raised an annoyed brow.

Twilight placed a hoof on Shimmer’s shoulder with a smile. “Doctor Healer, this is Shimmer, Sunset’s younger sister…”

“If there’s anything I can do-“ Shimmer began but was cut off by the doctor with an annoyed expression.

“You can start by being more responsible! What were you thinking!? This girl should have been in the hospital long ago! I’m a doctor, not a miracle worker; you’ve made my job a lot harder now!” she scolded.

Shimmer blushed and sunk her head down as she stuttered. “I-I… I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to…”

“Doctor, the circumstances were… unique…” Princess Twilight attempted to explain.

“I don’t care. I’m not a therapist, and I don’t care about your circumstances, that’s not part of my job. You should have known better, Princess. Now if you two excuse me, I have to get to the hospital if I have any hope of saving this girl. I suggest you two wait there…” Doctor Healer said before stepping out into the hallway.

Shimmer couldn’t even find words to describe how she felt at that moment. All she knew was she was praying inside that she wasn’t too late.

I actually had to stop a few times writing this chapter because it got a little too intense for me.

Behind the scenes: I actually didn't give Applety any specific scenes to draw this time, she literally just chose them herself.