> Four Powerful Unicorns
>  by Twilicorn01
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> Chapter 1
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	The moon was high in the sky when Twilight Sparkle awoke that night. She glanced around her wide, sparkling room, looking closely at Spike as he slept at the foot of her bed. When she was sure that he was asleep, she leaped out of bed, pulling on a dark cloak. She grabbed a bag and silently walked out of her room and down the empty palace halls. She arrived at a balcony, and walked into the open night air. She closed her eyes for a moment, a look of concentration crossing her face, before her silhouette blinked out of view and she was gone.
Twilight let out a satisfied sigh, and looked around to the place where she had teleported. The area was as familiar as her own home by now. It was an abandoned cave deep in the Everwood Forest, barely visible behind the thick wall of ivy and bracken growing around it. The entrance to the cave was dismal, it had a woven straw mat and an oil lamp for decoration, along with a cracked mirror. Expertly, from many, many times of doing this, Twilight walked up to the mirror. With a few quick words, the mirror slid aside to reveal in enchanted tunnel. Unlike the room before it, the tunnel was lavishly decorated with a silk rug running down its length, and ornate torches hanging in golden brackets on the walls. Twilight dismissively walked down the tunnel, entering a large living space, where a fiery golden unicorn looked up from her scroll.
"Twilight!" Sunset Shimmer dashed over to Twilight as she entered to room, levitating the spell scroll behind her. "I wrote a wicked new spell, you have to try it!"
"Hey Sunset," Twilight said, zapping the spell scroll over to herself for further investigation. "Where are the others?"
Sunset shrugged uncaringly, teleporting over to the couch to sit down. "I don't know," she yawned, lounging back on the couch. "We're the first two here. They're probably fine."
"Probably?" Twilight asked sharply. "What if something's wrong? What if our secret is revealed?"
Sunset laughed. "Relax, Twi," she said, calling Twilight by the nick name she hated. "They're two of the four most powerful unicorns in Equestria. They can take care of themselves."
Twilight relaxed. "You're right," she said, strolling over to sit on the couch besides Sunset. "So, tell me about this new spell you wrote."
Sunset sat up much straighter, almost bursting with pride. "Look," she said, zapping the scroll to herself. "It's an interrogation spell. Paired with a honesty spell, it'll make anypony admit anything and make them tell the truth while they're at it!"
Twilight scanned the spell, nodding occasionally at the well written spell. "Well done Sunset, we'll defenitely be using this, hopefully in the near future." She let out an almost evil laugh, and Sunset joined in with her.
Suddenly, a puff of blue smoke burst into the room as rolling thunder broke out. Lighting zapped everywhere, leaving charred marks all over the ornate furniture. Out of the smoke stepped a blue unicorn, her horn sparking with light pink magic. A booming voice echoed through the cavern: "The Great and Powerful Trixie has arrived!"
Twilight scowled. "Trixie!" She scolded, looking around. "You burnt all the furniture!"
Trixie shrugged. "So? We can fix it in the blink of an eye." She pointed out, rolling her eyes. "Watch." Quickly, pink magic flooded the room, pulling charred furniture back together. The plush carpet reknit itself into a soft mass, the picture righted themselves on the walls, and the lavish furniture were suddenly without any signs of burning.
Twilight rolled her eyes, but let it drop. "Great," she said. "Where is Starlight Glimmer?"
"She's gonna be a bit late," Trixie informed her, "She sent me a message saying she was doing business in Apploosa." She grinned. "And by 'business' she meant stirring up chaos and taking down loyalty to Celestia."
"Good!" Sunset cheered. "A step in the right direction."
"Alright," Twilight nodded with satisfaction, "Do you know when she'll be here?"
Trixie shrugged, popping a hayburger into existence with a flash of her horn. "Beats me," she said, chewing. "Ya can't rush chaos, you know."
"Whatever," Twilight said, rolling her eyes and popping away Trixie's hayburger. Trixie let out a squeal of protest. "Let's get this meeting started. Sunset came up with an interrogation spell, and I," she said with a smug smile, "Have got us a prisoner." With that, she teleported a certain unicorn into existence. Sunset and Trixie gasped, looking with awe at the dark black unicorn. His royal caped flowed around him as he struggled with invisible bonds, letting out a roar of frustration. "Thats right, fillies- the one and only Sombra." Twilight said, grinning at the shocked expressions on her companion's faces.
After the initial shock faded away, an evil grin crossed Sunset Shimmer's face. "Well well well, what do we have here?" She drawled lazily, circling around Sombra. He froze, stopping struggling in his bonds. "Look's like we'll have some...fun... Today."
Trixie was more wary of this new development. "Twilight, how did you get him?" She questioned, glaring at Sombra from the corner of her eye. "I don't like this, I don't like this at all."
"Relax, Trixie," Twilight said, patting her shoulder. "I took a trip out to visit my brother and that soft old' wife of his." She snorted in distaste as she thought of Cadance, the princess of love. "On that 'trip', I took a little excursion out onto the ice- where I cast a powerful summoning spell. Sombra still has all of his magic- for now. We'll get to draining it soon."
Trixie now looked convinced, as Sunset still circled Sombra ominously.
"Sombra, what do you have to be afraid of?" Sunset cooed in a mockingly sweet voice. "Don't worry, we'll be done with you soon." She had a wicked gleam in her eye as she said that, and Sombra trembled slightly as he looked at her.
And suddenly, a fourth unicorn joined them. She shook her head, the slight curl in her purple and mint green mane falling effortlessly back into place. "What, starting without me, girls?" Starlight Glimmer said in a fake pouty voice, twisting her lips into an endearing smile. "Now where's the fun in that?"
"You're finally here," Twilight said, getting straight to business. "We were just about to drain this prisoner. Then lock him in the dungeon, probably." Sombra let out a yelp at the new piece of news of what was to become of him.
"Great," Starlight said, "Lets get started."

> Chapter 2
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	The four of them gathered around Sombra. He started to squirm, and a few of the invisible bonds snapped.
Starlight clicked her tongue. "Now now, Sombra, don't struggle. We wouldn't want the bonds to get tighter, would we?" With a sweet grin, more bonds came up, binding his feet together. Sombra roared in pain as the bonds drew his hooves closer and closer together while the rest of the ropes cut into his skin.
The other mares laughed at him, and at once gathered into a circle. Sombra, now collapsed onto the floor, looked up at them in wide eyed terror. "Please..." he forced out in a strangled gasp. "Don't... hurt..." The rest of the unicorns chuckled in delight at the first words they had heard him speak.
"Stand up, Sombra," Twilight said curtly. "We don't have all night." Using her magic, Trixie dragged him to his hooves, and he swayed shakily, looking around at them.
"So. Who's first?" Sunset sweetly asked, looking around at her companions. 
"Me," Twilight said, stepping forward. "I was, after all, the one who caught him." Without waiting for a response. Twilight stood in front of Sombra, glaring into his red eyes. Green still shone from behind the red, pulsing with magic. Then, Twilight tilted his chin up, and pressed his horn to her own. Sombra let out a scream, but Twilight promptly sealed his lips shut. The horns now touching, Twilight's horn started to glow. Sparking black magic began to flow from Sombra's horn to Twilight's. After a moment, she drew her head back, pulling a last bit of magic from Sombra. She let out a relaxed sigh, daintily stepping back.
"Twilight!" Starlight complained. "You took more than your fair share."
Twilight rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Just make sure there's enough left to share between the three of you." With that, she zapped herself off to a couch, her magic looking even brighter than before.
Starlight let out a huff, and stepped up to Sombra. Once again, after touching her horn to his, she sucked out some more magic. Sunset did the same, until only Trixie was left.
"Hey! You did not leave much left for the Great and Powerful Trixie!" Trixie shouted angrily. Sunset and Starlight exchanged an annoyed glance. While nonpony acknowledged it, they all knew Trixie was the least powerful out of the four. Sure, she was better at magic than your average unicorn, but not as good as Twilight, Starlight, or Sunset. None the less, Trixie sucked out the final bit of magic from Sombra, leaving only sparks to fizzle out at the tip of his horn. With a heaving sigh, Sombra collapsed. He was much smaller without his magic, not physically, but with his shoulders hunched and head bowed. His cutie mark was still on the side of his flank, but even that seemed duller than before. Perhaps the most shocking change was his eyes. They no longer glowed green, but were a now a crimson red.
Trixie zapped over to Twilight and the others. She nodded in Sombra's direction. "What're we gonna do about him?" She asked.
Twilight shrugged. "Zap him to the dungeons, will you?" 
Trixie nodded, proceeding to zap Sombra to a cavern far below them, where it was dark, dank, and musty.
"Starlight, where were you earlier? Trixie said something about you being in Apploosa?" Sunset asked.
Starlight let out a terrifying laugh. "Ah yes, Apploosa. Charming place, really. I was just in there to look for some unicorns that might be useful to us later on." She sniffed. "But its rather full of only Earth ponies."
"Hmm." Sunset said, now uninterested. Suddenly Twilight yelped.
"It's getting early, I have to go! Celestia will be raising the sun soon, and who knows when my friends will be around. Gotta run!" With that, Twilight zapped herself out of the cavern and back into her castle.
Sunset, Trixie, and Starlight sat in silence for a moment.
"Did she just...?" Trixie started.
"I think she did." Sunset said.
"She zapped herself out of this cavern before even going into the entrance room. She zapped straight past all those magical barriers." Starlight said, musing over the fact. "Our little Twily seems to be getting used to those new alicorn powers more with each passing day."
The three continued to talk for another hour, before bidding each other a good morning and zapping themselves back to home.
Meanwhile, back in the caste, Twilight woke Spike up, hearing her friends already bounding down the halls this early.
"Come on Spike. My friends are here." They both got up, and went down to meet the rest of the elements.