Sunset’s grin was enormous as they sped from the house. Celestia’s was… polite.
“Now Sunset,” she began one last time as they eased onto the school’s road.
Sunset cut her off. “You’re the one who’s always telling me to have fun while we hunt. And when you unlocked the gun room, you specifically said, ‘grab anything.’”
She held up the tube from her lap. “A rocket launcher is ‘anything.’”
Celestia gave a brief, rueful smile before her face grew serious once more. “I will not make myself a hypocrite, but I am placing a lot of trust in you. You must neither damage the school nor any students, and that doesn’t leave much use for the thing.”
“I know.” Sunset’s grin only inflated as she held up what looked like a revolver shotgun. “That’s what the beanbag gun is for!”
Celestia groaned, though was unable to quite hide her smile. “Try not to have too much fun. Remember, the Crystal Prep students are innocent.”
“Totally innocent,” Sunset not-agreed with a grumble. “Except for that one time they bullied an emotionally-vulnerable girl into summoning magic beyond her control. But hey, it was the Friendship Games, and the stakes were high. What’s a little dimensional cataclysm when a plastic trophy is on the line?”
Celestia made to respond, but snapped her mouth shut as they neared the school. Hundreds of students had mobbed the parking lot. Most were presently crowding the gym, but Canterlot’s reinforcements had not gone unnoticed. Stragglers moved to intercept the car, and as Celestia pulled into the lot, one hurled herself onto the front. Celestia jammed the brakes just in time to not crush the Crystal Prep girl.
Sunset was leaping out with a roar before the car fully stopped. “Sour Sweet, what the hell!?”
“I’m a good student and would die for Principal Cinch!” The freckled girl cheered with a loud grin as other students surged closer. She finished, snarling, “Shoot me now.”
“B’okay.” Sunset lowered the beanbag gun and fired. The shot connected with the girl’s shoulder, sending her flying from the car.
“Find Cinch! I’ll fend them off!” Sunset crouched, bracing the gun and sending another three shots into the crowd. One for Jet Set, one for Lemon Zest, and one for that green girl on the Shadow Bolts who never really said or did anything.
Sunset snap-drew a second weapon with her left hand, just like Luna taught her. Her pistol had been swapped out for a stun gun, now pointing at Blueblood. The white preppie dove behind Fleur De Lis, holding her steady as Sunset pulled the trigger. The thin wire shot out, struck Fleur, and electrocuted both of them at once.
“I should be enjoying this less,” Sunset admitted. Her hand swung down, dropping the pistol, and on its way up snatched a tear gas grenade from her belt and underhanded it into the crowd.
A glance to the car showed the driver-side door open, and Celestia in a low sprint towards the school. A brief thrill of pride came to Sunset’s smile. It may have been one sentence, but it was still Sunset’s plan of action. That the older woman followed it immediately was a bigger vote of confidence than any words could give.
Sunset’s own role was the distraction. “Ha! Suck lemons, Crystal Prep!”
A droll, female voice answered. “Nice G-rated smack talk.”
Sunset let a shot beanbag form her rebuttal, blowing over Sugarcoat with a direct hit to the sternum. She kited the barrel to the next closest, finding–
“Soarin!?” Sunset squeaked. She jerked the barrel away, realizing too late it was probably her last mistake.
Fortunately, she was wrong. The pale jock ran past her, collapsing against Celestia’s car with a panted shout. “Sunset, run!”
“Stay behind me,” Sunset said coolly. She swiveled the gun to the next, though another surprise greeted her. “Aria?”
“Yeah,” the purple siren grumbled. “My fearless leader ran us right into a pack of them.”
Sunset shrugged and temporarily put her out of her misery with a beanbag to the head. She tossed a second gas grenade to the crowd, tilting a glance sideways. “Hey, Soarin.”
“Uh… yeah?”
A fresh cylinder entered the beanbag gun with a satisfying clack, and Sunset smiled. “I am probably never going to feel more self-confident than I do right now, so let me ask. Do you want to go out sometime? Like, to a movie or something?”
A weak, breathless chuckle came as Soarin righted himself. “Sunset, I can’t really answer that right now.”
Sunset sniffed, and fired again. “If the answer’s ‘no,’ just say it.”
“That’s not it,” Soarin said. “I get that this is like a slow Thursday for you, but I am kind of having an emotional event. You know the old saying that men think about sex every nine seconds? That is class-A bullshit. I have been very consistently thinking about not getting eaten by zombies for the last thirty minutes, and I don’t have room for much else. Watch your left.”
“Thanks.” Another quick-draw stun gun handled the infected student creeping on Sunset’s left. “So, too be continued?”
“Y-yeah, sure.” Soarin chuckled and scratched the back of his head. “What movie do you want to see?”
Sunset’s smirk slid back into place as she fired again. “I liked the trailers for Texas Zombie Chainsaw Massacre 7.”
“You’re kidding, right?”
Sunset shook her head. “Nope.”
A few seconds of light from the unicorn’s horn, and Luna was whole. Healed. Nothing even hurt, save her pride. Zecora nearly topped Luna’s ‘people I don’t want to save me,’ list, beaten only by the pony princess Luna. That would have just been embarrassing. Not that Zecora was much better – the cryptic know-it-all had pissed off all the hunters in their decade of operation, and Luna more than most.
“I owe you one,” Luna grumbled, rising unsteadily to her feet. “I’m talking to the unicorn, by the way. Not you.”
Their antagonism was mutual. Zecora raised her nose. “Your sister is a friend, so true. For her, we act…”
A brown finger poked Luna on the chest. “Not you.”
Luna rolled her eyes. “She who lives in huts of grass,
Bend down low and kiss my–”
The unicorn neighed, throwing back its head. The created noise sounded suspiciously like laughter – an uncharacteristically high-pitched “Nay-hee-hee!”
Zecora shot it a frown, accompanied by an arched eyebrow. She shook her head and turned back to Luna.
“Your sister comes, her school to save,
Charging to an early grave.
‘Gainst vampire and corrupted friends,
Without your help, she’ll meet her end.
It’s time to fight, and not to hide.
And so, as my friend bids you – ride!”
“O…kay?” Luna slowly mounted the giant steed, crawling up onto its back. “Can the horn fix my gun? I’m not much good without it.”
Zecora laughed. “He cannot make your weapon new,
But why bring guns when a scythe will do?”
The brown-skinned woman flipped up the staff she was leaning on to show that yes, it was definitely a scythe. One fit for a grim reaper, with the blade curved so far inwards that a straight swing would pierce nothing.
While the mystified Luna accepted it, Zecora went on.
“A long story – I’ll keep it fast.
I once met Death, and shared repast.
He gave me this, so long ago,
To help collect what he is owed.”
“God damn, Zecora,” Luna grumbled. Holding the awkward, unbalanced scythe nearly made her lose balance on the unicorn. She glared at the weapon, more in disgust than awe. “How do I even cut with this? I can’t stab, and I can’t even really swing it without falling over. It’s like I need to dangle it behind me and hope the blade connects.”
Zecora gave her a nonplussed glare.
“We save your life. We heal your pain.
We gird your hands. You still complain.”
“It’s a practical consideration!” Luna shouted, then looked away with a frown. “But... sorry. It’s not like I have a better option, so... thanks. For real, this time. I’d be screwed without you, and maybe the rest of us too.”
A hand touched her leg – so tall was the unicorn that Zecora did not have to lower her arm to do so. The shaman offered a twisty, snarky smile with one eyebrow raised.
“Your gratitude, sincerely given,
Finds my soul and leaves me driven.
Though I’ve few friends in humankind,
One more, I do not think I’ll mind.”
Luna smiled back. “Don’t make this weird.”
Zecora laughed again, moving the hand to the unicorn’s flank.
“The moment’s done. Now flip the switch.
To save the school, be a stone-cold bitch.”
Luna made to respond, but Zecora slapped the flank. The unicorn broke immediately into a gallop, leaving Luna screaming as it leaped from the roof.
“A loud, obvious distraction? Come on, Celestia, we did that against Alphonse.”
Celestia’s instincts moved before her mind, turning the crouched hustle into a forward dive. The speaker pounced from the top of a car, entering the space she was in one second ago.
The path in front of her was closed too, by two figures walking forward. One of them stretched the fingers of her one good hand before curling them into a fist. “Frankly, Miss Celestia, I expected better.”
Cheerilee and Harshwhinny, both disarmed and approaching with clear hostile intent. The latter was injured, with her right arm hanging limp and her knuckles bloody.
“What happened to you?” Celestia asked.
“Thrown off a roof,” Harshwhinny grumbled. “A mob of infected students broke my fall, for better or worse.”
Celestia glanced behind her – Redheart was rising from her pounce, and Whooves moved up alongside.
“All of you, hm?”
“Yep.” Redheart furrowed her brow, frowning. “It sucks. I… know I’m supposed to be on your side, but I also know I have to kill you. I’m not allowed to do anything else.”
Whooves nodded. “It’s the brain worms. They set, ah, ‘rules’ that you have to follow. I mean… ‘we’ have to follow.”
“Sorry.” Redheart shrugged, and removed a ceramic jar from her lab coat.
Celestia’s eyes went wide. “I told you to get rid of that!”
The infected nurse tossed the phosphorus bomb up once, and shrugged again. “No, you told me ‘not to use it.’ So this is partially your fault.”
She tossed it up again, then threw it at Celestia with all her might.
Celestia’s hand snapped forward and plucked the jar from the air.
Redheart blinked. Celestia smirked, and held the bomb at her side. “Good thinking. This will come in handy.”
Redheart returned the smile, and accompanied it with a drawn knife and charge. Celestia tumbled to meet the attack, dropping to her hands and twisting her whole body into a long, horizontal kick. The length of her legs gave them a whip-like quality that impacted perfectly into the side of Redheart’s head.
Celestia was already turning as the nurse slammed into a car. The two on her flank ran forwards, Cheerilee a half-step before Harshwhinny. But the younger teacher wheeled abruptly and plowed her first into the older woman’s stomach, doubling her over.
Unsure but unquestioning, Celestia finished her turn in the same direction she started. Whooves charged as well, leading with barred teeth.
Celestia pointed to his feet. “Your shoelaces are untied.”
Whooves didn’t pause, though he did give a snort. “Brain worms do not make me stupiAH!”
A cry marked the descent as he tripped over his untied shoelaces, catching his head on a car mirror on the way down.
“Never change, you guys.” Celestia gave the fallen pair a small, apologetic smile before turning back around. Cheerilee had easily overpowered the injured Harshwhinny, and now looked to Celestia with… embarrassment? That’s certainly how it seemed – the young math teacher chuckled bashfully, blushing and scratching the back of her head.
Celestia kept her distance. “How did you fool them?”
Cheerilee gave a nervous laugh, and stuttered as she produced the first word. “P-people infected with brain worms give off a kind of scent to recognize each other, and, um, changelings can mimic it. The real Cheerilee is infected, and, um, tied up in a closet right now. I’m…”
She finished with a gesture. A flash of green surrounded her head, briefly it turning to that of an equine bug.
Celestia blinked, confused for one second before the coin dropped. “You’re the changeling. Who mimicked Sunset, and left the note.”
“Yeah.” The changeling gave another weak chuckle. “I’m not really a fighter, so without Chrysalis controlling me I can’t do much. I’m just glad I got a chance to repay you. She was really mean, and I’m much happier being your student.”
“That’s great. Thank you so much.” Celestia offered a kindly smile. “You need to get to safety now. You might be able to fool brain worms, but not vampires.”
“Sure thing.” Not-Cheerilee nodded, dropping to a crouch. “I’ll just slip out through all the cars, um…”
She set her hand on the first car, making to leave. Her head turned back to Celestia, but the eyes above didn’t look right at her. They had turned yellow, and now split to gaze in different directions.
The changeling poked her tongue out. “Thanks again!” she called in a younger, familiar voice, and disappeared into the maze of cars.
Celestia breathed out, confusion replaced with satisfaction. She smiled.
And leaped away as the car next to her exploded. It broke near-exactly in half, severed through the middle by a caped form hurtling from above.
“What a worthless gesture,” Cinch growled. She lifted one of the halves and hurled it at Celestia, high enough that a simple duck avoided it.
Cinch stomped from the wreckage, every move the work of a woman whose patience was at an end. “For the record, I am not at all curious how you survived the ghasts. It is a grievance that will be rectified shortly.”
Celestia braced her pistol and fired, sending three rounds squarely to Cinch’s chest. Two of them struck the heart, causing the vampiric principal to flinch back.
“Inadequate,” Cinch hissed. Pain seemed the only effect, and she resumed her stride forwards. “To stop me you would need a–”
An explosion burst at her left side, consuming most of it and sending the rest flying ragdoll-like through the air.
The body fell to the pavement. Celestia looked in the other direction to see Sunset Shimmer braced atop her car with a large, smoking tube in hand.
Even a dozen meters away, Celestia could see the teeth in her grin as she called, “Good thing I brought the rocket launcher, huh? Made things pretty easy.”
Celestia smiled back, but it was a weak one. Carefully, she slid the phosphorus bomb from her pocket and readied it in the left hand. “Sunset?”
“Yeah, Mom?”
Celestia closed her eyes and took a steadying breath. “It’s never easy.”
A sound came from where Cinch fell: a scream, but to call it thus would imply a humanity it lacked. Only vaguely did it resemble Cinch’s voice, seemingly mingled with a dozen others. Some guttural, some shrill, and all thoroughly pissed off as they cried together, “Enough of this foolishness!”
She exploded upwards, taking to the sky with black and purple lightning circling around her. Same-color smoke oozed from her wounded left, and the eyes above glowed a pure, hateful red.
“Enough of you all!” Cinch extended her remaining arm and stretched its fingers, chanting bizarre syllables in her many voices. “Ich nau Freserai! Ich nau Maerlanai! Ich gai La’ctjaka, Ich Nai, Nai, Nai! Ich nau...”
A dimming of daylight accompanied the words, but that was their smallest effect. Celestia’s heart tremored as she tried to aim. The tremors grew harder, stronger, and faster until each one was a bolt of pain through her chest. Cries emerged, both from the infected crowd and beyond the gym doors. Celestia saw students collapsing until she too met the same fate. Cinch’s chant went on, chasing her wounded mind into unconsciousness.
Before the end came, though, a new voice rose in answer. Young, unsteady, and hesitant, its chant nonetheless had power of its own.
“Ich Claui! Ich Claui! Ich… oh shit, um… right, Ich Claui, nau ut simcantiles! Sincantiles nau ut simcantiles!...”
Sunset’s voice. Celestia’s dimmed vision beheld the girl still standing on their car, now with the launcher discarded and both hands raised up and outwards. No magic flashed around the young teen, but that itself seemed oddly noticeable. The dusk Cinch created was returning to daylight in an expanding bubble around Sunset. And with each syllable she spoke, the pain in Celestia grew less and less. She groaned and pushed herself to her feet.
The words seemed to affect Cinch as well. It took a few moments for Celestia to realize Cinch’s extra voices were falling silent, one by one. Soon, the principal’s own voice stopped, and Sunset ended her chant a second later.
“You have magic?” Celestia managed.
“Technically, no.” Sunset raised a finger as she explained. “Cinch was using a kind of black magic that relied on words for power, but an opposing chant sort of breaks it up with its own words.”
She grinned. “By the way, isn’t it cool how my magical knowledge finally came in handy?”
“Sunset, duck.”
Unsurprised by the move, Sunset broke smoothly into a dodge as Cinch swooped down towards her. The yellow teen dove from the car, hitting the asphalt with a roll.
Celestia ran towards them. Too late – Cinch loomed above Sunset, imperfectly regenerated from the rocket wound. Her left arm and leg were gangly and thin, though purple lightning wove ominously around the fingers.
“You’re clever.” A rare smile broke the vampire’s features as she considered the fallen girl. “I like clever. Accept my bite, and live.”
Blood leaked down Sunset’s lip where her face met the ground. She spat some out, then laughed. “You’re kidding.”
“Oh, no.” Cinch stepped closer, and cast a cruel smirk at Celestia. “Normally I wouldn’t bother, but to bring the cheater’s whelp into my fold would be a fitting revenge.”
Sunset’s hand rose, gripped around her last stun gun. The wire shot out, impacted Cinch, and unleashed its jolt.
Cinch paused, only long enough to give an aggrieved sigh. “Very well.”
“Then…” She swept her arms back, and electricity coursed as she brought them forwards. “…Die!”
Purple lightning arched from her fingertips, but something got in the way. Celestia had thrown herself before Sunset, and screamed and spasmed as the bolts struck.
Smoking, but still breathing, she collapsed sputtering to the ground. Cinch advanced another step, her smirk turning to a full-on leer.
“A tenth of my power.” Lightning flared again from the vampire’s fingertips, and again Celestia thrashed and screamed. “I want you to suffer for what you did to me.”
Sunset made to rise, crying her mother’s name. Cinch spread her hands wider and struck again, this time lashing both of them with the purple lightning.
Another strike, and Cinch laughed out loud. “What clever plan did you use to escape the ghasts, hm? How did you outwit your infected staff, and fend off the students? You’re out of luck, Miss Celestia, and you’re out of cheap tricks. Was it worth it to cheat me so? I think not, but it is too late for apologies, and too late for–”
A noise interrupted: the wild neigh of a massive, feral horse. Cinch paused her attack, and all three looked to the source.
A grey unicorn stood on two cars at once. It reared back and neighed again, and something gleamed above it. Its rider lowered the scythe, pointing the top at Principal Cinch.
“Luna?” Celestia managed.
“No,” came the iron response. Luna’s cold blue eyes never moved from Cinch.
She kicked the horse into a full gallop, charging directly for the vampire. “I am the motherfucking Night.”