“Looks like I’m not the only one with money,” Sunshine said as she looked at the large house Twilight lived in.

Sunset shrugged a bit. “Well, she has to get funding for her inventions somehow.”

Sunshine took a thinking pose. “So, bribing her into friendship would be harder.”

“Hey! Don’t brainwash my friends with money!” Sunset exclaimed with a little smile.

Sunshine laughed. “I’m just joking.”

Both women walked up to the door and it automatically opened for them. Sunshine noticed a camera looking at them. “Your friend seems to be full of surprises.”

“Wait to see her laboratory,” Sunset said as they entered.

“She has an actual laboratory?”

“Yeah, she’s the full mad scientist package.”

They finally arrived at the heavy door that lead to the lab, and once the locking mechanism finish opening, they entered to find Twilight sitting in front of a computer with multiple monitors wearing a lab coat.

“Hello and welcome!” Twilight greeted them. “How did things go with Rarity?”

Sunset crossed her arms. “Sunshine managed to make her faint again.”

The woman chuckled. “It was surprisingly easy.” She then looked around the room, admiring all the machinery and chemistry sets the young scientist had all over her laboratory. “I’m curious, what project are you working on right now?”

“Well, I’ve been working on this little drone right here.” Twilight pulled the device from its small stand so Sunshine could see it, and the woman picked it up to examine it closely.

“Interesting, some of these parts seem custom made.”

Twilight tapped the tip of her fingers. “Well… sometimes it’s easier to build it yourself rather than find a piece that fits your criteria, but it's a bit more expensive sometimes.”

“Admirable job, but I think you should implement a better cooling system, or the battery will give you problems after constant use.”

“Yeah, that’s one of the issues I’m working on." Twilight exclaimed with a bit of annoyance. "Any suggestions?”

“Maybe the solution could be a more efficient camera that doesn’t put too much strain on it. Have you considered a 40 pro?”

Twilight sighed. “Yeah, but I couldn’t convince my parents that buying an entire phone just for the camera was justified. And it’s really expensive.”

Sunshine pulled out her phone from her pocket. “Take it from mine. I barely use the camera and I can buy another one later.”

“Really? Thank you!” Twilight immediately took the phone and started breaking it apart with her tools.

Sunshine took advantage of her concentration to spy on the screens of the computer. “You’re giving it a custom IA?”

Twilight didn’t look away from her work. “Yep, I want it to be as independent as possible.”

Sunshine grabbed the mouse and inspected the coding. “Hum, sorry to say, but this coding is very poor.”

That got Twilight’s full attention. “Excuse me?”

“There are a lot of unnecessary sequences that you could trim down into a more basic set of commands. No wonder the battery gets such abuse with the amount of unnecessary processing power it uses.”

“Can you show me?” Twilight asked, the phone now forgotten.

Sunset felt a sense of déjà vu as her friend and future mother engaged in a conversation that she couldn’t realistically follow, so once again she had to seek entertainment on her phone. She ended up leaning against a nearby wall and downloading a sudoku game to play around.

As the minutes passed, Sunset could hear the excitement in Twilight’s voice rise, until it started to sound dangerously close to what Starlight had described as a 'Twilight-ing'.

“Do you want a second daughter?!” the scientist shouted with a huge smile and starry eyes.

Sunshine chuckled. “Sorry, the only way would be for you to marry Sunset.”

Sunset froze for a second before turning her head towards them, but Twilight had already closed the gap in that brief period of time. “Would you marry me?”

“Wha– no! Why would I marry you right now?” Sunset exclaimed.

“Oh, come on, we have so much in common,” Twilight pulled out a list out of… somewhere. “We’re both smart individuals, we have the shared experience of tasting the power of dark magic…”

Twilight continued listing all the reasons her and Sunset would make a great couple while Sunset looked at the grinning Sunshine and muttered. “You’re evil.”

The older woman let things play out for a few more seconds to amuse herself before going up to Twilight and whisper something in her ear.
The young scientist suddenly stopped ranting as a shudder took over her body, and Sunshine had to catch her before she collapsed to the ground unconscious.

“Wha– What did you do? What did you say to her?” Sunset asked in a bit of a panic.

“One of the greatest secrets of the universe,” Sunshine responded mysteriously as she set Twilight’s unconscious body back on the chair.

“Are you going to knock all my friends unconscious?”

Sunshine chuckled. “I will stop when it stops being funny.”

After securing Twilight to the chair, they got out of the house thanks to the automatic system, but before they could get on the car, Sunset stopped. “Hey, I wanted to ask you something.”

Sunshine looked at the girl, noticing the distress in her face. “Is something wrong?”

“It’s…” Sunset seemed to have problems phrasing her words. “I know what you said about making my friends faint and bribing them is just you joking around.”

“They are just jokes,” Sunshine felt the need to clarify.

“I know, but…” Sunset grabbed her arm. “It reminded me of myself... when I was a bully.”

Sunshine flinched. “I’m not like that. I can stop if you want.”

“No, it’s not that,” Sunset quickly added. “It just made me wonder. Were you like that during highschool?”

Sunshine let out a long sigh. “Okay, I guess it'll be better if I tell you the full story.” She looked around for a place where they could sit, but found nothing, so she simply continued. “For starters, I went to Crystal Prep, not CHS.”

Sunset cringed. “Oh. Was it like before the ACADECA??”

“Maybe worse,” Sunshine admitted. “When I started, I quickly realized that it was kill or be killed in there. Metaphorically speaking. So, I decided to place myself at the top.” Sunset winced as memories of her darker days came back. “While I was smart, I knew it wouldn’t be enough, so I looked for the biggest student in the faculty and got her to beat up anyone who posed a challenge. With her at my side, we cutthroated our way to the top. Again, metaphorically speaking.” Sunshine clarified. “Well, except that one time, but he pulled a gun on me.” She added in her mind.

“Okay, that sounds… a bit worse,” Sunset admitted uncomfortably.

Sunshine grimaced. “Sorry, but it’s just a past of mine.”

“What made you change?” Sunset asked.

Sunshine shrugged. “Maturity I guess.” Sunset looked at her confused, so she elaborated. “I didn’t have a big revelation or got literally hit with friendship, I just… graduated and went to learn how to do business with mom.” Sunshine looked away for a moment, with a bit of shame in her eyes. “I guess that’s why I make you uncomfortable.”

“It’s not like that,” Sunset quickly corrected. “It would be unfair to judge you for your past, specially knowing you didn’t have friends to help you move pass that.”

“Well, now you and your friends can teach me,” Sunshine offered with a small nervous smile.

Sunset shook her head. “No. Please keep being yourself. It makes me feel a bit better knowing that I could’ve eventually moved on from that.” She looked down at her feet. “Sometimes I felt like I would’ve been stuck as the queen bitch forever.”

Sunset was suddenly held in a warm hug. “People change Sunset, even if it takes them years on their own or a few good friends. And you said it yourself, it could’ve been worse.”

Sunset surprise turned into a smile, and she hugged her older not-self, enjoying the moment of peace between them.

After a short while, Sunshine let go and asked. “Who would be next?”

“It would be Fluttershy. That one could be a bit problematic,” she answered with a bit of nervousness.