Rainbow paced back and forth, watching Starlight read from her book of spells. She’d had it with her when she showed up at the Castle, and it had always given Rainbow the creeps. The thing had an unnervingly round face on its cover, and weird symbols down its spine. The colors were a little off, and after Rainbow had glanced away for a second she could swear the symbols were different. It looked weirdly smooth and undetailed, as if it was an illusion of a book brought to life.
“Are you done yet?” she demanded.
Starlight lashed her tail, annoyed by her companion’s constant interruptions. “I just need to lay the charm onto the bracelets themselves. Be patient.” She cleared her throat and levitated a pair of small metal bracelets in the air. “παρακαλώ, εξοστε αυτά βραχιόλια!”She intoned in some language Rainbow didn’t understand. The bracelets flickered, briefly becoming transparent before a pulse of black energy splashed out of the bracelet and swept across the room. Rainbow yelped and dove for cover, but it ultimately didn't matter as the wave moved over her, leaving her with nothing more than an odd chilling sensation. After a moment, she peeked out to see Starlight grinning smugly.
“Was that supposed to happen?” Rainbow asked as she cautiously trotted up to the device.
Starlight snorted. “Oh, don’t worry. I know what I’m doing.” She levitated one of the bracelets to Rainbow, who reluctantly held out a hoof and let her lock it around her. “The charm I placed on these bracelets will allow you to keep your magic when we travel to earth, but not your form. Template Override will try to transform you into a human, or something similar so that you can fit into that universe. In order to keep your magic, these will turn you into a kind of Pony/Human hybrid.”
Rainbow unconsciously flexed her wings. She liked her body the way it was, and didn’t look forward to a law of the universe messing around with it. “That didn’t look like any magic I’d seen before,” Dash noted. She leaned forwards and cautiously poked the other one with her hoof. Starlight jerked it away and secured it around her own foreleg. “And since when do you need to talk to cast spells?”
“Since whenever this book was written. Now, when we get to the school, I need you to confront Sunset Shimmer while I use a tracking spell to locate the magical signature Twilight found.”
Rainbow nodded slowly. As hesitant as she was to trust Glimmer, she was the only one that could find the girl. Besides, between the two of them it was clear who the better fighter was.
“Just be as quick as possible,” Dash warned. “That Realm might not have magic, but it doesn't mean that the ponies living there are helpless.”
“Don’t worry about it,” the unicorn soothed. “Everything is going to go according to plan.”
Abigail leaned against the cold brick of the school, her eyes closed and her hands deep in her pockets. That particular day had been rough. There were a few bright spots, but overall the world just seemed so gray. Her house was quiet now that her brother was in college, and trying to take care of her grandmother was a challenge in and of itself.
The new girl, Diane, had been rather exhausting. She had insisted on calling Abigail, ‘Abby’, and while Abigail certainly liked her, attempting to keep pace with her was very tiring. I can’t wait to go home and catch a nap. She frowned to herself. Or check on Granny, weed, walk my dog, start dinner, do all my homework, and then maybe catch a quick nap right before bed.
She sighed. Everything just felt so meaningless lately. Abigail knew, intellectually, that what she did had a purpose. But more and more, she felt like she existed in a vacuum. No matter how hard she pounded on the walls, no one could ever hear her. More than anything, she wished that something could come along and change things.
There was a distortion, an odd shimmering noise that shouldn't have been as loud as it was. The students that were still near the school stopped and looked around for the source, Abby included. A flare of light shone from a mirror set into the statue in front of the school, blinding Abby. She could see a silhouette of something stepping through. Whatever it was, it was a good foot and a half taller than it should have been, and had wings. Abigail's mouth went dry. It can’t be these things again.
It was. The monster was tall, balancing almost birdlike on her oddly thin legs. Her wings were relatively small, but still a good deal longer than Abigail's arm. Scarlet-colored electricity coursed up and down her light blue skin, and the eyes were black with glowing red irises.
Her wings flapped, and she casually floated about five feet into the air. She hovered over the ground, her glare sending the students cowering back from her.
“I’m here for a mare named Sunset Shimmer!” she declared. “And if she doesn’t show up in the next five seconds, you’re all going to be sorry!”
Say what?
Abigail's first thought was that this was some kind of juvenile prank. This was discarded almost immediately; anyone who could create a fake monster attack could do substantially worse with far less effort. Of course, that meant that for some reason Sunset was being targeted by a flying demonic monster. What in the world could it want with her?
The demon shifted her weight, slowly drifting towards the school doors. Her wings beat slowly, less often than Abigail would have thought they would need to in order to stay aloft. The monster threw a lightning bolt at the side of the building. Sparks cascaded off of it, causing a panicked scream from those inside.
“I’m not gonna ask again!” she called out. “I want Sunset Shimmer, and I don’t care who falls underhoof in order to get her!”
Under wha—? Abigail focused. As bad as Sunset could be, she was a typical high school student. She didn’t deserve to have this thing steal her soul or whatever it was that demons did. But if she didn’t say anything, someone could get hurt. That really just left one option.
“I’ll tell ya where she is!”
The demon turned towards Abigail, who almost literally felt her heart freeze when it looked at her. She drew in a deep, shuddering breath before she spoke again. “I know where she is- but ya gotta promise to let these folk go first!”
The demon's eyes narrowed. “No problem. Talk.”
Abigail held her ground. “Nu-uh. Not ‘till everyone here’s gone.”
The monster landed in front of the teenager. Despite standing on even ground, it loomed over the frightened teenager. “And how do I know you won’t just wriggle out of the deal when all your friends are safe?”
Abigail’s heart, to make up for stopping mere moments before, began to beat at a frantic pace. That was, of course, precisely what she had intended. Okay, just think of somethin’ that’ll convince her. No problem.
No problem at all.
Any second now.
...Aw, nuts.
She coughed, searching desperately for the perfect words. Much to her surprise, when they arrived they didn’t come from her mouth.
“Because there’s no point, silly!”
Both Abigail and the demon turned to look at the source of the high pitched intrusion, the demon mouthing the word ‘silly’ in disbelief. Much to Abigail's surprise, it was Diane. She stood casually with her hands in her pockets, leaning back and forth on the balls of her feet and grinning like she was meeting her personal hero. “I’ve been here forever and she’s been nothing but mean to everybody. We’re basically arch-enemies. Why would we want to help her?”
The demon stared at her. “You… want her to die?”
Diane chuckled weakly, glancing to the side as she thought of a proper response. “Weeeeeell, maybe not die exactly… Just, you know, mainly me not dying…” She glanced around at the surrounding students. “Oh, and everyone else too! You know, everyone doesn’t die.” Diane smiled awkwardly. “Besides Sunset. Everyone besides Sunset not dying. That’d be good.”
The monster clenched its fists, the lighting shifting from a dark crimson to a much brighter scarlet, before she relaxed and allowed her magic to fade. “Fine. Maybe you guys suck, but it works out for me. Where is she?”
“Cheerleadin’ practise!” Abigail shouted. “She’s at cheerleadin’ practi—”
The monster spun around back to her, holding a ball of energy right in front of her face. “Ya know, I don’t even know anything about human tells… and I can tell you’re bad at lying,” she said. “It’s nice to see that at least one of you losers has the guts to stand up for a friend, but right now, that’s getting in my way.”
Diane waved. “Hey! You were threatening me, not her! Remember? Jeez.” She coughed. “Aaaanyway, Sunset’s probably in the computer lab right now. She’s usually there, buttering up the science teacher so she can get good grades without, you know, actually trying.”
The monster stalked over to Diane. Despite her attempts to remain relaxed, Abigail could see that Diane was trembling from fear. The demon awkwardly grabbed the front of her jacket and lifted her up to eye level “And how do I know you’re telling the truth?” she growled.
Diane smiled weakly. “I told you. I don’t have a reason to lie.”
The monster regarded her for a long moment. “...Show me.”
“Do what?”
“Show me,” the demon growled, hoisting her up by the front of her shirt. “Show me exactly where she is. And if you don’t take me right there…”
“OKAY! Okay, I’ll do it! No problem!” Diane babbled furiously. “No problem at all! I’ll just do that! Yep! Let’s go!”
The monster dropped her. Diane fell on hands and knees, coughing. She looked up at Abigail, their eyes locking. Abby suddenly had a horrible realisation. Diane’s only been here a day. She don’t know where the Computer lab is. “Hold on! I’ll come with—”
The monster gestured with her wings, sending a gust of wind strong enough to knock Abby back down. “No, you’re going to stay right there and not do anything stupid at all. Got it?”
Abigail nodded. “G-got it.”
Sunset was not sulking.
Sunset Shimmer was a schemer. A plotter. A master of long term strategy and a cunning manipulator. She didn’t sulk, she brooded on the source of her ire until the problem went away. There were a number of subtle differences that she didn’t expect anypony else to fully understand.
Her original plan was in shambles, and her various fallbacks weren’t much better. She and Starlight had originally planned for Sunset and Diane to meet and become friends, and then Starlight would show up dramatically seeking help for some far away magical kingdom. They’d use Diane's latent magic to enter the Dream Castle, steal the Elements, then return Diane to Earth and gain phenomenal cosmic power. Starlight wasn’t sure that a normal human could survive the trip between the Realms, so they needed to find a way to steal the Mirror away from Twilight. Twilight had ruined that by moving early.
Sunset’s backup plan had been to befriend the girl, and then lead her away from the school before the Burn-Ever-And-Ever curse wore off, thus returning to plan A. Sunset herself had spoiled that one. Would it have killed me to pretend to be nice? No, I had to go all evil on her and try and scare her.
Fortunately, Sunset was still in a relatively good position. She knew roughly when Rainbow Dash would be coming through, and the Guardsmare didn’t know that Sunset existed. All I have to do is ambush the guardsmare close enough to Diane for her to see, and then say something like ‘Come with me if you want to live,’ and boom! Problem solve—
—Then Sunset’s mind stopped for a second. She’d felt the sensation before, when Celestia had taught her to resist mental compulsions. Something had blanked out her thoughts for a moment, and suddenly she was standing in an empty classroom.
Whoever this is, they just made a serious mistake.
She slammed on her bracelet and summoned a fireball with every intention of burning the intruder to a crisp, but something clamped down on her magic with some kind of inhibitor spell. She staggered back, getting a good look at the monster.
“Starlight?”
“Who else would it be?” Starlight hissed.
Sunset glared, punching through the spell with little effort. She stalked over to the taller mare until they were inches apart. “What are you doing here? My curse—”
“Twilight broke it a few minutes ago.”
“WHAT?”
“Yes, as it turns out that an out of practice drop-out isn’t as good at magic as the current apprentice to the most powerful Alicorn in Equestria.”
Sunset glared. “Celestia is way more powerful than Luna.”
Starlight huffed. “At any rate, thanks to you, now Twilight and Rainbow Dash are alerted to your presence. We need to move fast.”
Sunset frowned. The expression was starting to become aggravatingly familiar to her. She was getting rather used to setbacks and things going wrong. Not because her plans were poorly thought out, of course. Clearly the universe just liked screwing with her. She pinched the bridge of her nose with her fingers and sighed. “Okay. Is the idiot guard with you?”
Starlight nodded. “She’s supposed to fight you while I get the girl.”
“No problem. We can do that, then when I win all we have to do is overpower Twilight and go take the Elements.”
Starlight looked at her like she’d grown a second head. “You want to pick a fight with Twilight Sparkle on purpose?”
Sunset shrugged. “Think about it. It’ll be two against one, and we have the element of surprise on our side. We’re both good; she won’t stand a chance.”
In the distance they could hear a loud scream getting closer, before it was drowned out by the fire alarm. Sunset took off running towards it without a second thought. “Just go with it! Make sure none of the other humans come near our fight!” she called over her shoulder. The last thing I need is some Facebook-obsessed, selfie-taking idiot to get in the middle of our fight and get hurt.
Rainbow stalked forwards, deeply uncomfortable. She felt like she was doing a good job of hiding it, but everything just felt wrong. Her body balanced well enough on its own, and her Pegasus magic felt the same as it did before. But nearly everything else made her want to throw up. Like these weird tentacle things at the end of her forelegs. She knew how to move them and make them do things, but that didn’t change the fact that they were fundamentally creepy. Her face felt so flat, and without hair on her body she was already feeling cold.
“Are we almost there?” she demanded. I need to take Sunset out quickly. Without the element of surprise, I’m not sure I can win in this form.
The girl flinched but somehow carried on smiling. “Just a liiiiiiiiittle bit longer,” she cheerfully insisted. Rainbow carefully kept her own expressions hidden. As much as she hated terrorizing ponies who hadn’t done anything, this was the fastest way to get to Sunset. Shouldn’t be that much— Wait. What’s that sign say?
Rainbow awkwardly pointed her new foreleg at one of the doors. “Hey, isn’t that the computer lab?”
The girl barely glanced at the sign before she started panicking. “Whaaat? No, ‘course not. Why do you ask?”
Dash gave her a flat stare. “Because it literally says ‘computer lab’ on the sign by the door.”
“Oh.” To her credit, the girl rallied gamely. “But that’s not the right computer lab!”
Rainbow turned her body towards the tiny human. She narrowed her eyes. “It’s not, huh?”
The girl smiled as confidently as possible. “Nope! We need the second one!”
“The second one,” she repeated quietly.
“Mm-Hm! It's on the other side of the—”
Rainbow allowed some of her magic to leak out. Trails of lightning slid down her forelegs and across her chest, and the girl stopped talking.
“Okay, look; I don’t actually know what a computer is, but I think it's pretty clear that you're starting to make things up.” Her eyes narrowed. “I’ll ask nicely one last time; where is Sunset?”
The girl gave up any pretense of bravery she had. “I have no idea, I started here today, I made everything up, please don’t harvest my soul, and if you do, please don’t use it for something stupid.”
Rainbow took a step towards her. The girl flinched and stepped back, eyes closed. Aw, c’mon! “Look! I don’t want tothreaten anypony. Just tell me where she is, and I’ll leave you alone.”
“You leave her alone!”
Rainbow closed her eyes. This is supposed to be a simple job. Easy. Where are all these complications coming from? She awkwardly turned and faced the newcomer, the same girl she talked to outside if she wasn’t mistaken. She was shaking, but she still bravely took a step forwards. “Now listen here, you overgrown Smurf, I don’t care what kinda magic power you got, if you don’t put her down this instant, I’ll make you wish you’d never been born!”
Rainbow considered her for a long moment. Ya know what? Forget this. “Okay.”
The stetson wearing (Hey, they have stetsons here too!) girl blinked, clearly surprised. “Well… good!” She rubbed the back of her neck. “Uh, that’s ‘okay, I’ll give her up,’ right?”
“Yeah. Catch.” She lightly tossed the pink talky one to the weird southern one. The two humans collided and collapsed on the ground together in a tangle of limbs. Rainbow ignored their noise and just walked off. She was here for Sunset, not to take hostages. I’ll just find the mare by myse—
And then a monster tackled her.
Abigail and Diane froze in place on the floor, staring at the place the monster had been standing mere moments ago. “Did she just get tackled through a wall by some kind of fire demon?” Diane asked, a bit hesitantly.
“I guess so. I stopped tryin’ to make sense a’ all this a while ago.” Abigail slowly stood to her feet, snatching her stetson off of the floor with trembling fingers. “C’mon. We need to get outta here before those two bring the whole school down around them.”
Diane grabbed the wall and hoisted herself up. Now that the monster was more or less gone, it was hitting the girl just how hard she’d been working to look brave. She leaned against the wall, her legs wobbling and unsteady. “Wow. That really just happened, didn’t it?”
“Eyup.” The farmer looked Diane over with a critical eye. “Are ya gonna be alright?”
“Yeah, I guess, I just…” She looked back at Abigail, her eyes wide. “It was a monster! Monsters are back! That’s amazing, except they want to kill us-” her tone darkened as she realised just how much danger she’d been in. “Holy crap, almost died. I almost, very nearly, got ripped to pieces by a monster—” and her tone shifted upwards again, “—an actual monster! This is the most amazing, world changing event ever!” She paused her rambling for a moment. “Well, aside from the first time it happened, I guess.” Diane took a deep breath, and slowly let it out. “Wow. Sorry, it's just…”
Abigail nodded, her face looking grim. “It’s a big thing, all right. Just focus on not dyin’ right now; get to worrying’ about the whole city gettin’ wiped out later.“ She started to walk towards the door, moving cautiously in case something else horrible happened. Diane followed behind her, straining her ears to hear sounds from the fight. She flinched at a particularly loud explosion.
She shook her head. “The city isn’t gonna be destroyed. The Power Rangers wouldn’t let -” A sudden thought struck her. “Do you think there won’t be any Power Rangers this time?”
Abigail stopped short. “Well, I hadn’t before you said that. Thanks.”
It was a sobering thought. There were only two teams of Power Rangers left on Earth, three if one counted the Silver Guardians. None of them were anywhere near Angel Grove. There was occasionally rumors of a lone Ranger saving a village or foiling a robbery, but the bulk of those were unsubstantiated. What if no one’s going to be here this time? “I guess we’ll have to think of a way to stop them ourselves, if it comes to that.”
Abigail snorted. “Let’s just hope it don’t. That was more than enough excitement for me, thanks.”
Diane nodded. “I know. That wasn’t like what dad said it was like.”
Abigail looked incredulous. “Your pa was a Power Ranger?”
Diane snorted. “No, of course not! He was with one of the newspapers that only covered the Power Rangers, the Power Press? He always told me stories about them when I was a girl. I always liked the ones from Silver Hills, the, uh...” she trailed off as she tried to remember what that team was called.
“Time Force.”
“Yeah, them! He got a lot of good stories from following them.” Her smile grew wistful. “Man, I was really little back then.” Her mind wandered to a happier time, a time where whenever her dad left, he always came back. That time feels so far away…
“What about your parents?” Diane asked, partly to pull herself out of her own head. “Did they ever talk about—”
“No.”
Diane glanced at the other girl, suprised by her terse response. Abigail was walking alongside her, but when she looked closer she could see her shaking a little. She’d been so wrapped in her own break down, she hadn’t thought at all about how Abigail was taking this. Wow, she’s trying really hard not to freak out about all of this, isn’t she? “Hey,” she said compassionately, “everything’s going to be okay.”
Abigail snorted. “Are ya jokin’? They’re back! And even if the Power Rangers do show up, how do you know that they’ll be able ta’ keep us from gettin’ hurt?”
For once, Diane felt herself at a complete loss for words. “I… I just do, okay?” Mentally she winced at the words. Why did I say that? That’s the worst answer ever!
Abigail regarded her for a long moment, before nodding. “Heh. You ain’t exactly normal, are ya?”
“No, she isn’t.”
Both girls spun around. To their horror, a third demon was standing behind them. It looked as though it was made from knives; tall, thin, and with a smile that just screamed you should run now. She had a long, sharp looking horn protruding from her forehead, glowing with magical energy. The energy field flowed forwards, surrounding Diane and dragging her into the air. Abigail charged the monster, but an odd, pulsing bolt of green and blue energy sent her flying across the hall. She hit the wall with a troubling crash, and fell to the ground in a heap.
“Leave her alone! Who are you?” Diane demanded as she fought the constraints. “What do you people even want? You are demonic monsters with magic powers! We are of no use to you!”
“Oh, that’s where you're wrong,” the monster said gleefully. She levitated Diane closer, gazing at her in a way that made Diane very uncomfortable. It was like she was a collectable, or some kind of antique that the demon had been after for a long time. “I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time. You are going to help me save Equestria.” She chuckled. “Heh, with a little work, we could even extend our efforts over all of Arcadia, maybe even include this place. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?”
Teenage attitude briefly struggled with survival instinct. As was often the case, attitude won. “Okay, I’m sure you make sense to you, but for people who aren’t… wherever you are mentally, you maybe want to break that down a little more?”
Somehow, Starlight’s grin got wider. “Oh, you’ll see soon enough.”
The field surrounding Diane flared brightly, and she knew nothing more.
Sunset Shimmer dove towards Rainbow, taking her deeper into the building. It was a calculated move; while Pegasus soldiers were trained to fight in cramped conditions, it was still more difficult for them to maneuver compared to the other two Tribes. Even if that wasn’t as applicable for a biped, close quarters combat would still give Sunset the advantage, as she had more practise as a she-demon than the guardsmare. Alright Rainbow Dash, let’s see how tough you really are.
The two of them smashed through a wall with a loud crack, sending debris flying everywhere. Rainbow had managed to land on top, and slugged Sunset in the face with her fist twice.
That’s pretty tough, Sunset thought, dazed. She sent a wave of sparks and flames spiraling up towards Rainbow’s face, throwing the mare off-balance. She leapt to her feet and charged.
Sunset swung hard enough to take Rainbow’s head off, but the young guardsmare ducked the blow and delivered a devastating right jab to the fire demon’s gut. Rainbow shoved Sunset back through the wall, shattering it. She grabbed the nearest object, a teacher's desk, and charged Sunset as hard as she could.
The blow sent Sunset spiraling left into the hall, smashing a row full of lockers. She leapt to her feet, her hands glowing with blue fire. Rainbow matched her pose, crimson lightning casting eerie shadows all around.
The pillars of energy met in the center of the hallway, the mystical forces pushing against each other with enough power to scorch the walls and shatter what was left of the windows. Sunset gritted her teeth, pushing as hard as she could. Little by little, she gained ground. That’s right. Fall back, you miserable little—
With incredible speed, Dash disengaged from the beam o’ war and dove down the end of the hallway. The bolts of fire impacted the wall where she had been standing, obliterating it and sending burning shrapnel cascading around the hall.
Sunset raced after her, sending a gigantic wall of fire at Rainbow. The Pegasus-demon countered with a burst of wind that created a tear in the wall large enough to dive through. She ducked down and the wall passed around her, igniting nearly everything else around them.
Sunset staggered back in horror. The entire hallway was lit up like a bonfire. The flames consumed the ceiling, and embers showered down on the two of them. One of the walls had burned through. Sunset wasn’t sure the school had even been evacuated yet.
This is getting out of hand.
Sunset took an uncertain step backwards, before she rallied and charged the Guardsmare again. I have to take her out, now!
Rainbow met her head-on, grabbing her around the waist and diving right. They went all the way through a classroom and landed outside, around the back of the building. Rainbow clasped her fists together and started to bring them down on Sunset’s face, but the demon jabbed her in the stomach and broke free. She leapt into the air, circling the weather-demon. Let’s see how well you do when you don’t have any tricks left to pla—
Rainbow leapt into the sky like a bullet from a gun. Sunset shook in the air from her wake, staring up at her retreating form in shock. Impossible! Nopony is that fast! She sent another wave of heat pulsing off the ground, and rose after her.
The two of them spiraled around each other, bolts of energy flashing at the two as they went higher and higher. Sunset began to shake in the air as she got higher; since she relied on the updrafts she generated to fly, the higher she was, the less control she had. “Stand and fight, you coward!”
Rainbow obliged.
The trained guardsmare turned and dove back towards Sunset, so fast she didn’t even see the other mare do it. All that she could remember was a sudden impact and a great deal of pain. She was smashed out of the sky and sent in an out-of-control spiral.
She tried to bring her wings out, to stabilize, but the one on the right refused to open properly. Rainbow must have broken it. She flapped her remaining wing desperately, trying to slow herself down enough to survive impact. Dimly, she could see Rainbow Dash beneath her, flying in a tight circle. She felt an updraft beginning to rise, spinning her around in a circle.
Soon Sunset was caught in a vortex of spinning air, sending her around and around in a dizzying circle. The wind pressed her huge wings down around her sides, trapping her arms and leaving her basically helpless.
Dimly, she could see the ground flying up to meet her. This won’t end well, was the last thing she thought before she hit the ground with a loud crash!
Rainbow, carrying Sunset, landed near the Crystal Mirror behind Starlight. She’d been tempted to leave the fiery Unicorn behind, but she had no idea what the humans would do to Sunset if she did. “Aw, come on!” she cried as she saw the human Starlight was holding. “That’s who we were looking for? She's the one who led me to Sunset! We didn’t need to fight her at all! She doesn’t even look anything like Starswirl!”
“Yep!” Starlight replied cheerfully. “Funny, huh? Oh, before I forget…”
Before Rainbow could react, Starlight formed an energy bubble around herself and the Mirror. Rainbow slammed her fists against it, but it did no good. “What are you doing?” she demanded.
“Getting you out of the way before you screw up my plans even more. I was surprised Twilight brought you, and this was the first opportunity I had to dispose of you.”
Rainbow threw punch after punch at the bubble, but it refused to yield. “I knew you were a liar!”
Starlight snorted bitterly. “That’s awfully rich coming from you.”
Rainbow growled. “What are you planning to do to Twilight, you—”
“Language,” Starlight chided. “This is a school, you know.” The demon turned her back on Rainbow to face the mirror. Trailing a finger lightly over its surface, she mused, “I wonder what you would do, if you were me? I mean, you attacked your fellow Guardsmares for what you believed in. That’s all I’m doing; what’s necessary, and no more.“
“Necessary for what?” An exasperated Rainbow asked. “What is this?”
Starlight didn’t answer. Grimmly, she pulled her arm back and smashed it against the stone casing that held the mirror. With a terrifying shriek, cracks spread across the stone arch and onto the mirror itself. With one finger, Starlight lightly tapped it’s surface
It shattered.
Rainbow charged Starlight, slamming her arms against her shield. “What are you doing!” she shouted. “That was our only way home!”
Starlight snorted. “Your only way home,” she corrected. “I have… other methods.” Her horn lit up, the glowing field of magic extending and forming a spiral in the air in front of her. Her magic took on a different shape, becoming more jagged and darkening.”μου, πέρασμα!”she cried. She began to back away as Starlight’s field began to spin. It shifted forwards, and cut the fabric of Reality itself.
The noise was horrendous, a low booming that penetrated the deepest parts of her brain. The hole that was formed looked like no magic that Rainbow had ever seen. Magic was always bright and colorful. Magic was wishing brought to life, your innermost self brought to life. This stuff… wasn’t.
She could see the outer edges of the portal, because they were framed in some kind of black gunk that oozed out of the crack in space and time and killed the grass where it landed. Whatever the ooze was, it clearly didn’t belong here. In between the ooze, there was Nothing. It wasn’t even blackness; Rainbow could very easily see where the very black ooze stopped and the portal started. The portal was made from Nothing. Her mind couldn’t process it. She shielded her eyes from the sight.
Starlight was grinning as she picked up the girl and walked up to the portal. “Be sure to thank Sunset for guarding the girl for me!” she cried. “You two made my life so much easier. Have fun!”
Without a trace of fear, she stepped through the Nothing and was gone. The portal exploded, shattering the bubble and sending Rainbow Dash flying backwards. When she could stand again, she saw that the only thing left of the Mirror and Starlight was a gigantic smoking crater.