“This… is exactly what it looks like.”

Rainbow blinked once. Twice. A third time. She looked at a loss for words, so Sunset took the opportunity to break the awkward silence.

“S-shampoo! Right! Uh, h-help yourself, Rainbow,” she tried, hoping maybe if she played everything off like it was no big deal, she would leave all the quicker.

“Okay,” the girl said slowly, her eyes narrowing. “Uh, who’s this?”

Glancing up above her, Sunset felt her stomach sinking down further into her gut with every passing second — and then was relieved to see Flurry Heart’s wings and horn were gone, and her skin was a much more believable complexion. Her hair still looked like something out of a bad anime, though, but at least that was easily explainable. Overall, she no longer looked so out of place that the automatic assumption would be ‘a being from another plane of existence’ and instead the slightly more plausible ‘fetish sex worker’.

Sunset wasn’t sure which she would have preferred.

“This is, uh, Flurry Heart.” Kicking herself, she realized that she should have used another name. “A friend of a friend. Sorry, if I’d known you were coming over, I’d have told you I had… company.”

“Nice to meet you!” Flurry chirped, still straddling Sunset without a care in the world. Obviously surprised, Rainbow nodded vaguely by both the woman’s presence and their odd position on the couch.

“Right. Um, so uh, I’ll just get the shampoo real quick. Don’t let me interrupt, um, whatever’s going on in here!”

“Okay, good,” Sunset laughed awkwardly. Then caught herself and squeaked, “I mean, not that you weren’t welcome to hang, but we… yeah, if you need the shampoo… yeah.”

“Yeah!” Rainbow laughed back — just as uncomfortably — as she went into the bathroom. Flurry was shaking with barely controlled giggles when she called out, “Hey… Sunset?”

“Yeah? I mean, what?”

“Has this… uh, funky symbol always been on your bathroom floor?”

A chill shot down into the pit of her stomach. “Oh, that? Uhh…”

“I only ask ‘cuz it… well, it looks like it’s drawn with eyeliner. And what’s this page on the sink?”

Flurry was absolutely no help; she rocked with silent laughter at Sunset’s mounting panic. Just how the hell was she supposed to explain some kind of magical summoning circle and an incantation without just admitting what they were?

“Oh, I was just messing around,” she finally said in a would-be amused voice. “Don’t worry about it.”

“No, this is weird… have you been marathoning Charmed or something?” When she came back into the living room, she was holding the spell, narrowed, suspicious eyes flicking between the two. “And here you introduce me to a new friend that's just a little too hot to be real. So either you joined a new clique of supermodels who like to draw weird shit in bathrooms, or…”

When the room had been silent for about ten seconds, Flurry, her amusement at the situation finally exhausted, extricated herself from Sunset’s lap and stood. “Or what, child?”

“Or you guys have a lot of explaining to do.”

“Sunset,” Flurry said, her tone silky smooth. “Do you want me to alter her memory? This could be trouble for the future.”

Rainbow’s eyes widened comically. “W-what?!”

“No, there’s been enough of that happening to her already,” Sunset hissed.

“Oh?” Flurry blinked, and then nodded. “Oh… the reversal spell; you were dissatisfied.”

“Well, she did die, so I didn’t really feel like it was an overreaction!”

“Who died?!” Rainbow interjected, her expression rapidly flicking between outrage and shock.

“You,” Sunset sighed. “Okay, um, you might wanna sit down -- this is going to take a while…”

“So let me get this straight,” Rainbow muttered weakly about an hour later, her hands shaking around a mug of now-cold cocoa Sunset had fixed her when she started telling her story. “You… have been doing this for weeks, and nobody else knows? Nobody’s noticed the, um, otherworldly activity?”

“Who’s gonna notice? I mean, the guys on campus would probably recognize Twilight if they saw her, but—”

“And you’re gay?! Wow, glad you trusted me enough to tell me!”

“It’s been like, a few days!” Sunset snapped back. “And I’ve been figuring it out myself the whole time, alright?! God!”

Rubbing at her face with one hand, enough to make the pale cheeks and nose as red as her highlight, Rainbow looked over at her with a strained, worried face. “Just… are you sure you’re in love with this… immortal princess?”

“Technically she’s a goddess. Well, both, I guess.”

“Whatever! That’s crazy — this whole thing is crazy, and you might be, too! I can’t believe you’re even thinking about going there to… to Equestria or whatever, to what, win her over? Win her freedom or something?”

“Rainbow… I have to.”

“Because you think you love her.”

“Because it’s the right thing to do. She’s one of the most incredible people I’ve ever met, and… and I have to try. For her, even if not for us — even if there is no ‘us’ at all.”

They held each other’s gaze, gauging seriousness, trying to psych the other out — to force one of them to admit they were fighting a losing battle. Eventually, Rainbow broke and sighed as she looked away. “You really are serious. It… sounds like love to me.”

“Yeah, I’m not really one hundred percent on calling it that yet, personally. But I’m not ruling it out anymore, either. It’s… this is scarier than I’m probably acting like it is. Just don’t want you thinking I’m walking into it blind, okay? I know it’s stupid, and I know it might not work, or I might get in over my head…”

“Then why do it?” Glancing briefly at Flurry Heart, Rainbow leaned closer and grasped Sunset’s shoulder, shaking it hard. “From what you’ve told me about how all this works, if this is even real and I’m not just having an intense dream because of that expired can of ravioli… anytime you want to bring Twilight over for some reruns of Futurama, all you have to do is go say the magic words. The mirror won’t be breaking anytime soon; not at least in our lifetime. You can still see her all the time with no risks at all, so what’s the point? Why do this?”

“Because she deserves to be free.”

The answer was so short and to the point that it silenced all. The shuffling of feet and the sound of the clock on the wall filled the small space until Flurry spoke up.

“Well… this has all been… interesting, but I need to be getting back. I have to talk to my mom about your plan and do a bit of reading up on inter-world transportation magic. And the sooner I can leave, the easier it’ll be when you next summon me. Which you should not do using my name; if I’m unable to figure out how to bring you back with me yet, I won’t answer, and you can call Twilight Sparkle and watch some cartoons instead.”

“Right. Okay,” she sighed as she pushed to her feet to follow Flurry Heart to the bathroom. Peripheral vision told her that Rainbow was right on her heels. “Just… do your best. I know this isn’t part of your usual thing…”

“Meh. No problem. Really, you have a sort of tenacity and determination that inspires me. Most humans these days aren’t capable of such depth.” Glancing over her shoulder, she said, “I take it you don’t mind if I make my exit in front of Nosy Nancy?”

At the same time that Rainbow said “Hey!” Sunset shrugged, “Doesn’t matter at this point.”

“Honestly… you should reconsider having me cloud her memories. This could be troublesome later.”

“Okay, I was wondering about that -- you can only affect her memory of tonight, right? Like Twilight with that reset button?”

“Exactly. And with what that sort of magic does to the mirror — and by extension, Twilight herself — it isn’t a decision to be made lightly.”

“Hey!” Rainbow snapped again. “I’m standing right here, you know!”

“Chill down a notch — you won’t remember this if we do decide to wipe your memory,” Sunset said offhandedly as she drummed her fingers against her bicep. “And if we don’t, hey, we didn’t lie to you about it, either.”

“Well… I guess that’s true…”

Nodding, Flurry stepped into the circle and turned. “Final chance, Sunset.”

“I trust Rainbow. Just… go do what you gotta do.”

“Alright. Hopefully I will have some good news for you the next time we meet. And...” She winked at Sunset. “I’ll cue up DuckTales for you.”

“Bitchin’.”

When she began to fade and eventually disappear, Rainbow fell to her knees beside Sunset, staring at the spot where the goddess had just been as if waiting for the trick to be over, for someone to come out from behind her shower curtain and let her know that she was being punk’d or something. No such moment came, which eventually forced her to whisper, “It’s… real. It’s all real, you’re not even fucking kidding.”

“Yeah.”

“How… how have you been dealing with this, on top of your classes and your mom and everything? Like… I’d crack. I’m already about to crack now, and this shit isn’t even really happening to me!”

Sunset went back to her couch and flopped down, splayed across it like a starfish. “Sometimes, you do what you can. And… even the weirdest shit eventually starts to feel normal if it goes on long enough. Maybe losing my mind and I can’t even tell. Who knows?”

“No, you… seem pretty lucid. Adaptable as all hell, but lucid.”

Nodding her understanding, Sunset laid there for a while, letting the pressures and pitfalls swirl around her mind. When she opened her eyes, it was to find Rainbow staring down at her, and she raised her eyebrow. “What?”

“Um… okay, promise not to laugh?”

“No. Just tell me, I’m too tired to guess or jump through hoops.”

“Is it weird that I’m more surprised about you being a lesbian that you summoning a magical princess from another world?”

“Oh, so I’m the kind of person who would summon beings from another world, but not the kind who might crush on a girl?! What kind of—”

“Okay, okay! Should have asked you not to get mad instead, since clearly, you aren’t laughing!”

“Yeah… okay, I shouldn’t have snapped. But why is that? And for the record, I don’t really think of myself as a ‘lesbian’ — I mean, I have crushed on a guy before, remember?”

“Bisexual then, whatever.” She thought for a moment. “I don’t know. You just barely even thought about dating the whole time I’ve known you, and when you did, it was about Flash. So it’s… yeah, I guess if you just don’t care that much, the gay part of your brain wouldn’t have surfaced, of something.”

“Ah.” Sunset couldn’t help but laugh. “Captain, we have visual on the gay quadrant of Sunset’s brain. Requesting confirmation!”

“Oh, shut up!” she snorted. Then her face fell. “You and Twilight… you really think this can work?”

“It has to. I mean, I don’t have many options.”

“I guess… and once you get her free?”

“I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.”

Rainbow finally sat down in what Sunset started to think of as her ‘Princess Throne’, on the edge of the cushion and visibly nervous. “But you heard it yourself… she doesn’t want to be free. I know it sounds like she got a bum rap… but there’s got to be a reason for her still being trapped, right? I mean… she wouldn't refuse help unless there was a good reason.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. Thing is, I know Twilight is miserable like this. She is stuck coming here at every beck and call, forced to grant wishes from fucking asshats—”

“Asshats like you?” Rainbow interjected.

“—fucking asshats!” Sunset forged on. “Whether she wants to or not. And just because Twilight has some sort of fucking martyr complex doesn't mean she is happy with it! I know she isn’t...I can feel it.”

“How can you be sure, though?”

“Because I am! You’ve met her, don’t you…” Then she trailed off. “That’s right. You met her before, but we erased your memory because…”

That definitely killed the mood in the room, even if nothing else was going to before that point. Their eyes met, and Rainbow turned to look out the window.

“How… you said it happened, but not how it happened. What… I mean, what did you stop?

“Don’t think about it.”

“But you did this thing for me, and I don’t even kn—”

“Don’t.” Both of her arms snaked around her stomach as she whispered. “Just… I don’t want to think about it anymore. Please believe me when I say I’m glad I was able to do something about it, but… thinking about… what happened, it’s—”

“Hey,” Rainbow whispered, kneeling by the couch to grasp Sunset’s hand and give it a hard squeeze. “I’m sorry, I… yeah, this is really messed up for me, and will probably give me some nightmares, but I guess when it comes down to it, you were the one who had to live through the experience, so… I’m sorry for prying.”

“No, you’re fine.” Wiping both her eyes, she cleared her throat. “I… told myself that since you are, there was no use crying. So I need to stick to that.”

“Yeah,” Rainbow replied in a tight voice.

“Okay. Okay, I’m good, I promise.”

“Okay. Should… I mean, do you need time to yourself? Or what?” No immediate response. “Yeah, I’ll go.”

“Could you maybe not just yet? It’s… having you around is kind of… comforting. You’re still here. I didn’t make the wrong choice — I didn’t, I know I didn’t!”

Curling both arms around Sunset’s back, Rainbow began to rock her gently. “Hey, hey… you’re awesome, okay? We’re both okay, and it’s because you made the right choice. We’re good.”

“You sure? You sure you’re… not mad that I didn’t tell you?”

“No! Not even — dude, you saved my fucking life! You… God, you saved me and I never even knew. You were going to let me go on without even knowing how lucky I am to be alive!”

Then they were both crying. Sunset would later recall it being way disgusting, and wishing other things had been said so they could have avoided such an ugly exposure of their innermost feelings, but she also knew this had probably been one of the most healthy things that could have happened to them. Catharsis is not always so easy to come by.

By the following evening, Sunset had resigned herself to many possible outcomes. Freeing Twilight from a five-thousand year imprisonment from a magical gateway to other worlds: check. Finding out that nothing would change and she had wasted her time: check. Managing to do either of the two and still managing to piss of an immortal goddess: check check checkaroo.

Thinking about everything that could come from this made her fears feel very real, but in the end, she knew she was still going to try. This wasn’t about her.

Just in case things went tits up with her little ‘visit’ to another world — even though she was a bit skeptical that it was actually going to happen yet — she penned a hasty note to give Rainbow, so she might pass it along to anybody who would ask about her. It wasn’t very long or detailed, but it was nominally more responsible that simply disappearing without a trace.

Sorry for not saying goodbye. You probably won’t be able to find me and that’s for the best. But I love you and I hope you have a long and happy life. I wasn’t depressed and it wasn’t your fault; I was trying to help a friend. Maybe someday you’ll understand. Sunset Shimmer.

The wording was so ambiguous and stupid, but she knew there was no way to temper it into a more useful shape, and fretting over it had already cost her two balled-up rough drafts. Hopefully it would be enough for her mother and the few friends who might care enough to ask.

When she ‘soft-summoned’ Flurry Heart later the following evening, the girl arrived with a ‘crack’ and flash of light, and a ready lead-in to the DuckTales theme song. They belted it out like a couple of old-hands, and that alone almost made the nervousness in Sunset’s gut disappear.

Almost.

“Wow, so that was a thing,” Sunset breathed, wiping a few errant strands of hair from her face. “So… what’s up?”

“Oh, this and that.” Flurry shrugged and fingered the hem of her sequin shirt idly. “You up for a little road trip?”

“Am… am I really going with you?”

The look the goddess fixed her with was carefully measured. “Only if you wish to. I can’t make you do anything you don’t want to.”

“Okay,” she said, wiping her hands on her jeans nervously. “Okay… I got this.” She started pacing around her bedroom, muttering, “You got this, Sunny. You got this. It’s no big deal, you’re just going to another world to help a magical princess. No big deal at all. This shit happens all the time.”

“Actually, this is the first time anypony has brought back a human to Equestria so… I legitimately don’t know if this’ll work.”

Sunset’s eyes slowly widened, her eyebrows shooting up into her bangs.

“What?!” she squawked. “I thought you said you were gonna talk to your mom and figure out how to do this… and stuff! And now you tell me this shit might not work?!”

Flurry rolled her eyes. “Yeah. And I did that... though Twilight is the the real expert on inter-dimensional travel. But I’m no slouch; I’m pretty sure I can handle it.” She grinned slyly at Sunset. “If it’s any consolation, I’m the only other one besides Auntie with enough raw magic and experience to be able to bring someone back to Equestria with me.”

Blinking, Sunset had a thought. “That reminds me… Twilight said something about not being able to bring anything back home with her.”

“Any non-living thing, sure,” Flurry agreed with an easy shrug. “Because there’s no innate magic in, say, a book. We can bring stuff here because everything there is totally saturated with magic; even something as mundane as a book. It’s how we lost a whole bunch of books from random libraries all those millennia ago,” she finished with a grumble.

“Like Starswirl’s book?” Sunset offered, knowing Flurry already knew the book she was referring to.

“Among many others. Anyway, the point is I can bring back a living being because, even here on your world, sentient creatures have a small trace of magic inside them. Not much, but enough.” She paused. “At least, in theory.”

“In theory.”

Folding her arms below her chest, Flurry sighed, “Look, it’s all I got without running it by Twilight first. And I kinda got the feeling you didn't want that. You down or what?”

“I’m down, I’m down,” Sunset nodded vigorously. “Better do it quick, before I change my mind.”

“Alright; buckle up for the ride of your life, Sunny.” She reached out a hand towards Sunset. “Just take my hand and we’re on our way.”

Swallowing and taking one last look around her apartment, Sunset gingerly slipped her fingers into Flurry Heart’s palm.

And thus the ride of her life began. Sure, she had seen and felt some very odd things recently, including the time-slip from hitting the reset button, but nothing like being pulled through a dimensional portal. That was new.

Energy swirled around every limb and nerve ending as she and the goddess holding onto her rocketed between the layers of reality, heart pounding in her throat — if she still had a heart in this form. On the other hand, a lot of her body still felt exactly as it did every other moment in her life, but there was also a sensation of floating that she had only felt in her dreams. Maybe that meant that astral projection was real — that people really did leave their physical forms behind when they entered REM sleep. She’d probably never know for sure, but the thoughts wouldn’t leave her alone.

Before she was truly ready for it to happen, her feet felt solid ground under them again -- and then collapsed fully on said ground with a groan.

“Fuuuuuuuuuck me sideways,” she moaned, feeling her entire body catch up to her as the sensation of being inside of it once again hit her with the force of a truck. “Now I know how Charlie felt going on that fucking boat ride… seriously, fuck Willy Wonka.”

The sound of footsteps beside her brought her more back to the present, and she forced herself to roll over onto her back and mutter some kind of curse to Flurry for having her suffer through that ‘ride of her life’—

Only to yelp in shock as she caught a glimpse of who — what — was looking down at her.

Large blue eyes, an elongated face covered by pale pink fur, blue-and-lavender cotton candy colored hair that fell from the top of her head in waves of curls and twists, and four — count ‘em — four legs ending in hooves. Not feet, but fucking hooves!

The large, feathery wings from its back and horn jutting out from its forehead should have probably freaked her out more, but really, considering the company she’d been keeping for weeks, the hooves were actually more shocking.

“What in the ever-loving fuck?!” Sunset screeched as she scrambled backwards as far as she could go. She eventually hit a wall and whimpered, watching as the vaguely familiar-looking creature approached. “S-stay back! I don’t know where your fucking balls are, but I swear to Christ I’ll find them and kick them so hard you’ll shit them in installments!”

Then the creature plopped down on its ass in front of Sunset and leveled a flat stare at her, and the voice that came out of its mouth was all-too recognizable. “Wow. That’s nice. For one thing: I don’t have balls. And another thing: didn’t you know I was a pony? I mean… Twilight didn’t forget to mention that little tidbit, did she?”

“I... “ Sunset stammered, her limbs shaking and her hair falling in her face. “I, wha—who… Flurry Heart?!”

“Duh,” the girl — pony!!! — replied, rolling her eyes dramatically. “You mean this is the first time you’ve seen our real forms?”

“I… the… wha — um, yeah?”

“Huh.” Flurry frowned, and then her lips curled up into a bright smile. “Well, this is what we look like!” And, shooting to her feet… or, hooves… she turned around in a circle for Sunset to inspect. Her wings fluttered gently, blowing a gust of air against Sunset’s face and ruffling her hair. “And I’m not too bad of a specimen, if I do say so myself.” She finally finished her rotation and nickered softly, lifting a single hoof in a pose. “Don’t got the flanks mom has, but damn it I don’t know how to use what I got.”

“Um… okay.” Sunset breathed in slowly, closing her eyes and counting to ten in her mind. “Okay… you can do this, Sunny. You’re just in a world filled with magical talking ponies. You knew this was coming. You can deal. You got this.” Then she took another breath and opened her eyes, still finding Flurry smiling back at her. “I got this. No problem. I’m the fucking queen of coping mechanisms and I can do this.”

“Great. Good. Glad to hear it. Because I got some possibly upsetting news.” Flurry’s horn shimmered with a pale yellow light and a small hand mirror popped into existence before her. “Promise you won’t freak out and… well… just, here.”

Blinking, Sunset reached with with her hand and took the mirror.

Or… tried to reach out with her hand.

If only it was a hand that she used to reach out with.

Instead of a hoof.

A hoof.

A… hoof.

“What,” she said slowly.

She waved the hood to the left, and to the right. Up and down, and in a circle. Yep, without a doubt; it was hers. She tried to move her fingers, but the only part that moved on command was the edges of the dark, spongie underside of said hoof.

“I… what.” She tried to speak again, but words failed her.

“Yeah, it’s not just your hands. It’s, um…” Flurry trailed off, shifting uncomfortably where she sat.

“It’s what?” demanded Sunset.

“It’s… sort of… all of you.”

“What?!”

And fumbling for the mirror — finally managing to wedge it between two hooves like an infant with a toy — Sunset looked at her reflection.

And saw the face of a yellow-furred, teal-eyed, red and yellow-haired pony looking back at her. For a split second she thought that the face in the mirror wasn’t hers, that it was some trick of the light or, just maybe, some prank being pulled by Flurry Heart. But when she felt herself blink and saw the reflection blink back at her, she swallowed, slowly turning her eyes to the goddess in front of her.

“Yeah…” Flurry laughed nervously. “Trust me when I say that I had zero idea this would happen to you.”