Author's Notes:

Another chapter~
Sorry for delays, life is still giving me no time for anything xP

Sunset sighed as she slid her backpack off, letting the hefty sack of cloth hit the floor with a muddled thump, her hands brushing through her hair. It had been a tiring day filled with tests and dealing with the Sirens acting strange around her. Well… stranger than usual.

“Hey, Twilight?” Sunset called out as she striped off her blazer. “You in your room?” Slowly she stripped out of her uniform, throwing on a more casual set of clothes before a set of knocks rang on her door.

“Yes, Sunset? What do you need?” Twilight asked as Sunset opened the door, Sunset noticing how the girl had yet to change out of her uniform.

“Could you let your mom know I’ll be back in a few hours? I just wanna jump cross the portal quick.” Sunset smiled as she walked over to her desk and opened a drawer, pulling her magic journal and leaving it on her desk as she turned back to the lavender teen. “You guys can reach me through this if you need to.”

“Sure!” Twilight nodded, looking at the mystical tome. “One of these days I’m going to have to go with you.”

Sunset chuckled as she walked back over to Twilight. “I’ll talk to Princess Twilight about it. We don’t know what would happen if one of you crossed the portal and we would hate for something to happen.”

“I know that…” Twilight whined as she jabbed her forefingers together. “I’ll let Mom and Dad know when they get home.”

“Thanks, Twilight.” Sunset gave the girl a friendly hug before heading over to the mirror portal. “I’ll see you guys later.”

“I don’t see why that would be much of an issue.” Princess Twilight held a hoof in front of her muzzle as she sat lost in thought. “I mean, we haven’t observed any issues with us and the Sirens, so it should be fine.”

“True…” Sunset said with a worried smile. “I’m just worried about what the other Twilight would do here is all.”

“Oh! Oh right!” Twilight gave a hesitant grin and a self knowing laugh. “Yeah, she would have a bit of a hayday here if she’s anything like me.”

“Maybe I’ll tell her that we are doing some investigations?” Sunset asked as she stood up from her chair and walked over to her friend.

“I think that would be best.” Twilight started laughing as she stood up and embraced her friend. “But enough about that, I am surprised to see you! Pleasantly of course.”

“Yeah, I felt like I needed to get away from all the tests and happenings back there.” Sunset grinned as she backed up. “Maybe you could show me around Ponyville? I mean, you having a castle is awesome enough, but I keep hearing things about how great this town is.”

“Sure! I know you saw a bit when you were with Rarity, but I bet there is still quite a bit I can show you.” Twilight nodded as she started to make her way out of the room. The pair made their way Twilight’s castle, Sunset earning a knowing giggle from the Alicorn Princess when the unicorn mentioned how much like a maze this place appeared.

“So where to first?” Sunset asked as she looked around, Twilight saying farewell to Spike as the two walked out onto the path leading into Ponyville. “I really don’t know what to expect really.”

“Well how about we start by heading out to Sweet Apple Acres? I believe Rainbow Dash was helping Applejack with something out there, plus we can stop by at Fluttershy’s on the way?” Twilight asked as the great doors to her castle slammed shut behind them. “We can visit with Rarity last and do lunch!”

“Works for me.” Sunset nodded in response before pausing with a silly grin. “Though we really need to get the portals magic working right to sync the two worlds better, it's almost supper time back there.”

“I did notice time was different there, maybe due to the Sun and Moon not being naturally lowered and raised?” The lavender pony pondered as she walked beside her friend, the two of them discussing all sorts of small subjects.

“O-Oh! Oh My!” Came a panicked cry, the two of them recognizing it’s owner and breaking from their casual trotting.

“Please do come out from there, Meowzers! You’re going to get your fur all messed up!” Fluttershy was kneeling before a tree, holding a pale yellow hoof towards a gap in its gnarled roots.

“Fluttershy? What’s wrong?” Twilight asked as the pair skidded to a halt to avoid tripping over the soft spoken Pegasus, not realizing they had been so close to her.

“Oh, Twilili-i-i-i-i-ight!” Fluttershy had turned around to regard her friend, only to notice the amber coated unicorn with ketchup and mustard coloured hair. Seeing Sunset Shimmer sent her into a panic, causing her to zip up into the tree to hide.

“Fluttershy, we’ve been over this.” The Princess sighed as she shook her head. “Sorry, Sunset. I’ll calm her down in a sec.” She took to the air mumbling to herself, rather cutely Sunset thought as the Unicorn found herself to be the only one with hooves still on the ground. She looked around and noticed a gleam coming from the bramble of roots, the glow hinting to the beast hiding in the snarl.

Sunset looked up to see Twilight struggling to disentangle her Pegasus friend from the tree and, with a shake of her short maned head and a smile, took a few steps towards the stealthy beast. She stopped a short distance away and kneeled down, getting as close to its level as possible, and reached out an amber hoof. The eyes studied the offered limb, crawling across its length before looking back up to the smiling aquamarine iris of the pony that waited patiently.

“Mrow?” The cat left the roots and slowly stalked towards the hoof, smelling it before starting to rub up against it. Sunset smiled as the feline got accustomed to her, giggling when she felt its rough tongue lap out against her.

“Wow, Sunset…” Twilight said as she floated down to gently land beside her friend, rearing back as the cat shot up into the safety of the embrace of Sunset’s hooves.

“Oh, Meowzers, why are you such a scaredy kitty?” Fluttershy asked as she landed on her hind legs and held out her front hooves, asking the beast to come to her, frowning slightly when the beast curled up further into the amber coat of Sunset.

“I didn’t know you were so good with animals, Sunset.” Twilight said as she attempted to reach a hoof out to the feline to pet it, only to retract it when the cat gave a warning.

“Thanks. I got used to it back when I lived alone.” Sunset said with a smile as she adjusted the cat in order to pet it, at least as best as one could with hooves. “There were lots of alley cats sadly, plus I volunteered time at the other ‘Shy’s animal rescue thingie, so I am pretty used to animals like this.”

“Um… ‘Other ‘Shy’s”?” Came the quiet question from the buttercream Pegasus who instantly hid behind her long hair when the two horned ponies looked at her.

“Remember, Fluttershy? The whole other world which has duplicates of all of us?” Twilight looked at her friend in confusion, having explained about all this so many times already.

“Oh! Right!” Fluttershy blushed when she remembered the many lectures that lasted hours. “Sorry, um, Sunset.” She looked at the Unicorn apologetically.

“No worries, Fluttershy. Just glad I could help.” She nodded in response before looking down at the cuddly cat she still held. “Time for you to go back now.” The cat gave a sad sound as Sunset handing it over to Fluttershy, waving as the animal lover departed.

“So, exactly how awesome is the other me?” Rainbow Dash asked around the hoofful of apples she was carrying.

“Come now, Rainbow,” Came the response from Applejack, the farmer giving a solid kick to a tree and watching as the apples fell into buckets placed all around her. “Ah’m sure Twilight was tellin’ ya tha truth when she-”

“Second opinions are always appreciated.” Rainbow said as she deposited the apples into a bin, only to steal the stetson from the head of her friend and flying off with raucous laughter.

“Fer land’s sake, RD!” Applejack yelled as she barreled after the Wonderbolt Reservist, the two making circles around the section of orchard the four were in.

“So have they…?” Sunset asked as she levatated another batch of apples from multiple trees into baskets scattered all around. It was nice to be able to stretch her magical muscles.

“W-what!?” The apples that had been held securely in Twilight’s magic suddenly found themselves falling to the ground, only to be saved at the last possible second.

“Waaahg!”

Or not, as both Rainbow Dash and Applejack tumbled through the wall of fruit and landing in a pile before the two magical ponies.

“Have we what?” Rainbow asked before sticking her tongue out at the, once again, stetson wearing apple farmer.

Twilight looked in shock at Sunset as the amber unicorn started to smile dangerously.

“Sunset, I don’t think-”

“Oh, you know.” Sunset ignored Twilight. Time to see just how similar the worlds were. “Just wondering if you two have fucked yet? There’s tons of obvious tension between you two.”

The two ponies looked at each other then back to Sunset, mirrored looks of confusion on their features.

“Er, What’re ya talkin’ about, Shugahcube?” Applejack asked, noticing Twilight doing her best to silence the question asking unicorn.

“Sunset, please!” Twilight begged.

“Oh, right! We’re in Equestria, sorry! I believe what I should have asked was-”

“Sunset! Stahp!” Twilight pleaded, doing her best to interrupt her friend.

“Have you two bucked yet?” Sunset asked with a silly grin, noticing the pair of blushes spreading across the faces of the two ponies.

“Land’s sake!” Applejack shouted as she shifted her hat to in front of her face.

Rainbow suddenly burst out laughing, falling onto her back and rolling around. “O-oh man! AJ, your face!” She said between massive bouts of giggling. “C’mon, cowgirl, you know you want to taste the Rainbow!”

“Pardon me?”

Everyone stopped the merriment as a culture voice rang out in the orchard, the four apple retrievers turning and looking at the bonnet wearing unicorn that stood watching the scene before her.

“Would one of you dears like to explain what our resident cloud buster just implied to my marefriend?” Rarity asked with a neutral expression, her eyes speaking of the severity that her face did not.

“Eer…” Rainbow stood up hesitantly, understanding the gaze she was receiving from Rarity. “Gotta Dash!”

“Well then.” Rarity stated as Rainbow vanished in a blink of an eye. “Maybe the three of you would like some lunch?” The mare levitated her saddlebags off her bag and laid them down beneath the shade of one of the biggest trees on the farm, a striped blanket unrolling itself as a basket landed on top.

“Sorry about that, Rares.” Sunset apologized sheepishly, blushing and unable to look at the Unicron before her. “That was all cause of me wanting to play a trick.”

“A rather crude trick if’n ya ask me.” Applejack said as she trotted pass, nuzzling her marefriend lovingly before resting beside her.

“Oh, but you turned the most adorable shade of red!” Rarity teased as the other two ponies joined them, three of them devolving into laughter while the fourth hid behind her hat.

“Strange that Pinkie isn’t around.” Twilight said as they departed from Sugar Cube Corner, the Princess levitating a drink, with extra oats, in front of her.

“If the Pinkie I know is any indicator, I hope your castle has some kind of ‘Party Insurance’, Twilight.” Sunset gave a worried smile.

Twilight paused, her drink levitating just out of reach of her mouth.

“Run.”

“Welcome, welcome, welcome! A warm welcome to you!” Pinkie Pie sang as the two unicorns burst into Twilight’s castle, the front foyer set up for a welcoming party.

“Pleasepleaseplease, please, tell me you didn’t do anything else to the castle, Pinkie?” Twilight begged as she interrupted the jaunty tune Pinkie was still singing.

“Nopie-dopie!” Pinkie responded with a warm smile as she slid down the railing from the top of the stairs, riding it down all the way to the bottom of the stairs. “Geronionimo!” She called out as she launched herself at Sunset, wrapping the amber unicorn in tight hug.

“Hello to you to, Pinkie.” Sunset chuckled as the girl embraced her, party cannons erupting from all around them, disgorging confetti by the chariotful onto the room.

“Pinkie Pie!” screamed the poor owner of the castle.