"Why the surprised face, Sunset?" Tirek asked. "You should've known you'd see me again. After all, what you told me turned out to exist; Equestria, the pony magic, everything."
"That's why you're doing this?" Sunset Shimmer asked. "Because of what I told you? You should've faced prison instead of running off."
"Whoa!" Tirek exclaimed. "Why the hostility? For someone who's learning how to treat her friends, you seem to be assertive towards me."
"We are not friends!" Sunset enunciated. "You tried to convince me that I was crazy; that I only imagined Equestria to better deal with reality! You were actually willing to destroy my mind!"
"Yes," Tirek said, "But life isn't all just fun and games. I had some real work done. You would not believe what I've done since you got me kicked out of town. These capsules are run with the very notes I collected during our sessions. With what you told me, I was able to harvest the energy of friendship to better suit my needs. After you, all that's left is Fluttershy, the easiest."
"Wait a minute..." Sunset realized. "This was all a set-up! Both Starlight Glimmer and the Reflection work for you! And you had Starlight trick me into coming here right into your claws!"
"Figured that out on your own?" Tirek asked. "Well, let's get you in your capsule and wait for the kind one, okay?"
"No way!" Sunset Shimmer shouted. She dashed to the door and slammed it open.
The red-haired girl was looking back at Tirek behind her, but she hit someone else and fell back. She didn't see Starlight Glimmer blocking her path. Two guards emerged from behind her and grabbed Sunset Shimmer's arms. She tried to struggle out, but had no lock being dragged across the room. Starlight watched with regret while Tirek approached her with a soda can.
"Excellent work, Ms. Glimmer." Tirek congratulated. "You've done the company proud."
"Starlight, you've got to listen!" Sunset shouted trying to escape the guards' grips. "Whatever Tirek promised you, he's going to break it! He's going to stab you in the back the very second he gets his chance! Even you must realize this is going to far! This is wrong!"
"Don't listen to her, Ms. Glimmer." Tirek said. "Let's make a toast to equality."
"Of... course." Starlight said with no enthusiasm in her voice. She opened her soda can and a flash of light escaped from it that surprised her. When the flash ended, Starlight found herself tied up with a jump-rope. "What the... what's going on?!"
"What do you think?" Tirek replied. "You brought the Reflection back. You set it up so that all the Equestria girls could be in my clutches. And now, you have no use to me."
"But... you promised that you and I had a mutual goal." Starlight said. "You and I would bring equality to all of Canterlot."
"I did say that. Yes, I do want equality almost as much as you do. However, it's not the sort of equality that you want."
"W... What else is there?" Starlight asked.
"Forget it, Starlight." Sunset called from inside her sealed capsule. "He's not playing with a full deck. Compared to him, you're sane."
"Make all the comments you want, but you're helpless to do anything about it. And Sunset, since you're my favorite, I'll leave you awake, but still trapped, in that capsule until the Reflection delivers Fluttershy to me." He walked out of the office with his guards.
Sunset gave a pitiful look towards Starlight. "Surely, you saw this coming."
"I didn't." Starlight sighed in sadness. "I truly didn't."
"Devastator!" Fluttershy called to the front door of the closed school. "Come on, we need some help! Let us in! ...He can't hear us. That's weird."
"No problem." Twilight said pulling out a hairclip. She opened it wide and slid it into the lock.
With a few slight twists and turns, Twilight was able to make the lock click and opened the door. They both ran through the door and entered the principal's office down the hall.
"Remind me again," Fluttershy said, "Why are we here?"
"You said the computer here alerts you when something happens to your friends." Twilight explained. "Since we haven't heard from him, something must be wrong. I'm hoping I can fix him."
Suddenly, without warning, a haunting screech was heard in the hallway. In panic, the two girls picked up random objects and prepared to strike. The door handle jiggled before the door slightly opened. Two shadowed figures walked through the door arch and in a quick reaction, Twilight and Fluttershy repeatedly whacked on them with their weapons. Grunts were heard until the light came back on when the two girls looked down at the two pets with a mirror.
"Spike?" Twilight gasped.
"Twilight!" Spike shouted.
"Fluffy?" Fluttershy gasped.
"Meow!"
"Discord!" the boy in the mirror shouted.
"What are you doing?!" Twilight asked loudly.
"Us?" Spike returned. "You hit us with... Are those a nameplate and a computer keyboard?"
"We saw you coming in here and followed you in." Discord said. "What happened?"
"If I had a guess, your Reflection switched places with you and tried to kidnap me." Fluttershy said. She stared at the flower in Discord's shirt pocket. "Luckily, I saw through his charade."
"It's not just him." Discord said. "He's working with Starlight and some other guy called Tirek."
"Starlight's in on this?" Fluttershy asked. "But... I thought she had changed."
"I kinda saw that coming," Discord said, "But nobody listened. 'Discord, give her a chance. Discord, I'm sure she's okay now.' Wool, eyes, pulled over!"
"I don't know who this Tirek guy is," Twilight said, "But I know that he can't be up to anything good."
As the crowd started talking over each other, the screen behind them started to brighten. Soon, Devastator's digital face appeared all woozy and dizzy. He saw his friends talking and made a throat-clearing sound that got their attention.
"What happened?" Devastator asked. "All I did was go to sleep."
"Devastator!" Fluttershy expressed. "What happened to you?"
"I don't know. The last thing I remember, Starlight Glimmer did something to me. She must have shut me down for a few days. I feel so violated!"
"Of course!" Discord shouted. "That's why you didn't alert us when the others got kidnapped! This Tirek guy is always a step ahead of us."
"Tirek?" Devastator asked. "I think I've heard that name before."
"You have?" Twilight asked.
"Sure. Give me a minute." Everyone fell silent for a few moments while the screen had a loading logo on it.
"So..." Twilight broke the silence. "Discord, what's it like in a mirror?"
"I'll tell you this," Discord said, "When Alice went through the looking glass, I bet she's never seen this side of Wonderland."
"Found it!" Devastator shouted. "A newspaper headline from a few years ago. According to this, Tirek was the town psychologist and professor at Canterlot University. He even worked on a few crazy teenagers, including... Wow!"
"What?" Discord asked.
"One of them was Sunset Shimmer." Devastator explained. "According to this, around the time she arrived in town, she kept claiming to be from Equestria and having incredible power. Thinking her insane, the town assigned her to Tirek and they had three months of sessions. One day, Sunset revealed to the city council that Tirek was using illegal methods on her as well as a few other patients. But before they could arrest him, he disappeared. That was about the time Sunset stopped talking about Equestria."
"Of course!" Twilight shouted. "Tirek must have come back for the same reason I have: the magic. Of course, he wants something from it."
"We can't let him get away with this!" Fluttershy shouted. "We've got to stop him!"
Spike looked up at her with half-open eyes. "How exactly are two pets, a nerd, a wimp, and a mirror-bound magician going to stop three bad guys with their own industrial crew?"
"If I wasn't in here, we'd have no problem." Discord said.
Twilight scratched the side of her head for a second. Suddenly, she smiled and pointed her finger up. "That's it!"
Everyone looked at her with confusion. "What's it?" Fluttershy asked.
"I know someone who can help! And I know just where to find her! We've got to find Lyric!"