The classroom was alive with activity. Students wrapped up in white lab coats busied themselves with test tubes and Bunsen burners, weaving in and out of the tables and engaging in conversations. Tucked away in the corner of the class were CHS’s two leading students, Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle. As the rest of their classmates joked and played with each other, these two remained stone-faced and focused on their activity.

Or at least, one of them did.

While Sunset’s hands re-enacted the well-rehearsed science experiment, her mind couldn’t have been further away.

“Dad's here.”

Since getting on her bus last night, that scene had been on repeat in her mind. It had been what she’d thought about in the shower, the last thing that crossed her mind before bed and the first thing to greet her when she woke up.

It was so alien. Sunset had faced sirens and she-demons, yet none had left her as clueless as this. It had looked too much like him not to have been him. It was her father. Or her father’s human counterpart, at least.

Upon arriving in this world it hadn’t taken her long to figure out everyone here was a mirror image of the ponies in her world. One of the first things she did was try and seek out her human self so she could enlist her help with her revenge plot, but the search had come up short. If there was a human Sunset Shimmer in this world, she didn’t live in this country, she was sure of it.

But the counterpart of her dad did, apparently.

And her dad was also… Sunny Flare’s dad?

It just didn’t seem possible.

Her first hunch was the only logical explanation: that in this world he fathered three children instead of his Equestrian counterpart, who just had Sunset and her brother. But if that was the case, why didn’t Sunny Flare mention Sunset looked identical to her sister? And what happened differently in this world that made him have the extra kid? She had noticed before that, as similar as the two worlds were, they did have their differences. In this world Twilight was never Celestia’s pupil and didn’t move to Canterlot like her Equestrian self did

... but then she remembered the reason Twilight became Celestia’s pupil was because of Sunset’s exile, which complicated things so much that it took her all the way back to square one.

She build a theory on what she had, she needed more information.

But what could she do?

She had Sunny Flare on MyStable now, but she could hardly pop up and strike a casual conversation with her about her father. She’d have to worm her in if she wanted answers. And she knew just the place to start.

“Twiliiiiiighht?”

Twilight had become so engrossed in her work Sunset’s sudden voice caused her to flinch.

“Erm, yes?” she gave a shy smile.

How did she even approach this?

Come straight out with it?

Strike up conversation and try to steer it from there?

“Errr….” she spluttered, ”soo… How you doing?”

Twilight squinted at her for a second, before pointing at the lab equipment.

“I’m reversing the density of the hydrogen–”

“I mean how are you feeling, Twilight?”

“Ohhh,” Twilight returned to her work, talking while she fiddled with instruments, “I’m okay. Why?”

“Just askin',” Sunset smiled sweetly.

Catching the smile from the corner of her eye, Twilight looked up.

“How… are… you?” she asked cautiously, sensing Sunset’s anxiousness.

“Oh, I’m good… Just thinkin’ about stuff.”

Twilight blinked again, as if waiting for a cue card to tell her how to proceed.

“What… stuff?” she finally settled on.

“Well, actually,” Sunset placed her lab equipment down, “I was thinking about your old friend, Sunny Flare?”

Sunset noticed how Twilight deflated at the mention of her name.

“What about her?”

Sunset shrugged.

“Seen anything of her recently?”

“No, why?”

“You never mention her,” Sunset thought for a second. “Or any of the Shadowbolts, actually. I thought since you spent three years with them they’d probably have made a bigger impact.”

Twilight shrugged awkwardly, avoiding eye contact.

“I didn’t really like them that much… I mean, they were my friends, still are, I suppose… but…”

Sunset frowned.

“They were your friends, but you didn’t really like them that much?” she scoffed. “Twilight, that makes no sense.”

Twilight shrugged and gave a sad smile. “I just mean, like, in comparison. They were the only friends I had, we tolerated each other, but I enjoy hanging around with you girls way more.”

Sunset gave a slight chuckle at Twilight’s words.

“Tolerating someone doesn’t mean you’re friends, Twi.”

Her words came out harsher than she’d intended, but it was too late. Sunset noticed Twilight’s face drop, but as she opened her mouth to correct her mistake she was beaten to it.

“Why’re you asking, anyway?”

Oh yeah, she had a point to this uncomfortableness.

“I bumped into her last night, and she seemed nice. But… she made me realize that you never talk about them, that’s all. We never really got introduced to them when they visited… or got their names, for that matter.”

“Well…” Twilight thought for a moment, before holding out her hand and ticking off each of her fingers. “There’s Sugarcoat, the one with the big hair. She says some harsh stuff but she never means it. She has Apsergers, so we usually let it slide.”

Twilight lowered a finger.

“Then Indigo Zap, the short-haired one. She’s… fun…” Twilight didn’t sound convinced, “…to be around, I mean. Not really my cup of tea, she can be quite loud.”

“Yea, I kinda picked up on that,” Sunset nodded.

“Lemon Zest is a music student, she’s the one who always wears headphones. She normally keeps to herself, but sometimes we’d eat dinner together... in silence… it was more pleasant than it sounded; we could be ourselves without feeling the need to socialize.”

“That’s nice… I suppose.”

Twilight lowered another finger.

“Everyone is friends with Sour Sweet… We kinda didn’t have a choice; Principal Cinch made us so she wouldn’t feel left out, cause… well, y’know...”

Then she gasped.

“Oh, that was a horrible thing to say, wasn’t it?”

Sunset gave a gentle laugh and placed her hand on Twilight’s shoulder.

“Lil’ bit,” she nodded. “And Sunny Flare?”

“She was in charge. She didn’t like it when she was left out of things, and when she was, she got quite mean. But she also kept the bullies away from us, which was nice," then Twilight laughed, "All in all you’re a better leader than her, though.”

Sunset could have sworn she heard a record scratch on those words.

She frowned.

“I’m not the leader.”

Twilight’s eyes skirted round the floor.

“O-okay.”

“Am I the leader?” Sunset seemed to be asking herself this more than Twilight.

“N-No. I mean… do you want to be?”

“I’m not the leader,” Sunset shook her head. “I’m just… very friendly. Yeah. I’m approachable.”

Twilight nodded in agreement.

“Okie-dokie.”

With that the two awkwardly returned to their work. Or Twilight did, anyway. Sunset’s mind went back to its usual theorizing and overthinking.

What Twilight just said about Sunny did line up with the way she acted last night.

Sunny did seem quite defensive, and she mentioned that she would give Twilight a hard time sometimes. Which showed that she knew some of the teasing was wrong, at least, and if she was aware of that then the leap could be taken to assume the fact she asked about Twilight at all meant she actually care about her, deep down.

But Twilight didn’t seem to particularly miss Sunny (or any of the Shadowbolts for that matter), which intrigued Sunset to know how she’d react if Sunny Flare did indeed pop up to her MyStable. Because if one thing had made itself clear from this conversation, it was that Twilight really didn’t understand friendship before coming to CHS. The way she talked about the Shadowbolts made them sound more like nuisances than friends.

But none of this was helping her get any closer to any answers.

“Odd question…” Sunset carried on with her work, not looking up. “Does Sunny Flare have any siblings?”

“A brother, I think. Why?”

Drat.

Well there goes that theory.

“No reason… Heeeyyy,” Sunset suddenly twirled back around, smiling, “I think we should have an all-girl get-together sometime.”

Twilight cocked her head, intrigued.

“What’d you mean?”

“The Shadowbolts and Wondercolts. You never know, now we don’t have that silly competition between us we might end up liking each other’s company.”

Twilight didn’t seem entirely comfortable with that prospect. She pulled a see-through smile and began paying attention to the wall behind them.

“That sounds… fun.”

Sunset felt bad.

But Sunset needed answers.

And when Sunset needs answers, she gets them.

“Awesome!” Sunset smiled brightly. “We’ll arrange something!"