The next day, Discord and the Rainbooms gathered around the Wonder Colt statue and talked.
"So Scimitar won't tell us anything?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"I'm sorry." Sunset said. "But he kinda told me something... unbelievable. Even more unbelievable than Equestria. It kinda made me feel sorry for him. So I told him that if he ever wanted to talk more, I'd be ready to listen. I think he'll tell us before his dad goes too far with... whatever he's planning."
"Sunset, you know I'm a mischievous guy." Discord said. "But the fact of the matter is, I don't trust this guy any more than I can make Cinch a decent person. Why do you..." He widened his eyes before putting on a grin. Suddenly, the other Rainbooms knew what he was thinking sharing his grin toward Sunset, who didn't know what they were thinking.
"What?" Sunset Shimmer asked.
"Sounds like Sunset Shimmer has a little crush on the bad boy." Rainbow Dash teased.
"What?!" Sunset gasped showing a little blush. "That's crazy, girls. You're crazy."
"Let's just get going." Applejack said. "The next event is in three hours. We can talk about Sunset's love life afterward."
"I don't have one!" Sunset denied.
What they didn't know was that Twilight was watching them from behind a column. She then saw Fluttershy sneaking behind bushes and opening her backpack. A little, grey kitten popped out and purred at the sight of Fluttershy.
Fluttershy then caught sight of Twilight, but she smiled and invited her over.
"Would you like to pet her?"
"Looks like I'm not the only one who smuggled her pet into school." Twilight said.
Fluttershy chuckled. "Not just one." Suddenly, a bunch of small animals crawled out of her backpack leaving Twilight amazed.
"Wow. All I have is Spike." She opened her backpack and her purple dog appeared.
"Oh, it's so uncanny." Fluttershy said. "Congratulations on winning, by the way. Although, it didn't look like your teammates were that grateful."
"No one in my school isn't excited about anything they didn't do themselves." Twilight said.
"That's awful." Fluttershy said.
"Well, that's why I want to go to Everton." Twilight said. "There, all your work in contributed and respected. It's hard for me to live where my peer group doesn't appreciate the stuff I do."
Fluttershy saw a small rabbit and had an idea. She picked it up and offered it to Twilight. "Here. Petting a bunny always makes me feel better."
"Well, that doesn't make any sense." Twilight said taking the rabbit. She gave it a soft stroke and smiled a little. "Oh, but it's working." She then got confused. "I'm on the other team and you lost the first event. Why are you being nice to me?"
"You looked like you needed it." Without warning afterwards, a yellow light illuminated from Fluttershy's body as she hovered in front of Twilight. To her amazement, her hair extended and she grew pony ears.
"What the..." Twilight asked. Suddenly, her pendant opened up again. A stream of energy started to escape from Fluttershy and into the pendant. And around them, black holes opened up out of thin air. A rabbit with antlers escaped through one of them and in Spike's way. The dog growled and jumped through a portal after it.
From one hole into another, Spike jumped and leaped until he stopped in the middle of the stream. He tingled for a moment before plopping back down. Twilight managed to shut her device and check up on her dog while Fluttershy was laying on her belly in exhaustion.
"Spike, are you okay?" Twilight asked.
"Uh... I guess so." Spike spoke. It took a second before both he and Twilight screamed in surprise. Twilight ran into the school and Spike followed.
"Okay." Fluttershy sighed all tuckered out. "I'll be fine."
Twilight ran down the hallway until she stopped. She almost hit Tartus, who was admiring the Golden Apple.
"Whoa, kid! Where's the fire?"
"Twilight, wait up!" Spike's voice called from the end of the hall. As soon as he stopped, Tartus raised an eyebrow.
"Did your dog just... Twilight, is there something you want to tell me?"
"Well, there was a girl that glowed..." Twilight confessed, "And holes popped out of thin air... and now, my dog is talking."
"Yeah, weird." Spike said.
"Holes out of thin air?" Tartus asked. "Sounds like you've just created wormholes."
"Now, I don't want anything to do with worms." Spike said.
"No, Spike." Twilight said. "A wormhole is like a doorway made of energy. But the question is, what's on the other side? Spike?"
"Don't look at me." Spike said. "I didn't have much time for sightseeing. I was chasing that horned rabbit before getting hit by that beam."
"Twilight." Cinch's voice called.
"Oh, no!" Twilight gasped. She opened a locker and got Spike into it. She left it a creek open before Cinch saw her.
"Who were you talking to?" Cinch asked.
"With me." Tartus said. "Twilight was just discussing some of her studies with me. Isn't that right?"
"Yeah." Twilight said nervously. "Were you looking for me?"
"Indeed, I was." Cinch said. "How coincidental that Canterlot High's advanced group turned out to be the same girls you talked to when you arrived, don't you think? Perhaps you should get to know them better."
"I thought you didn't want me to." Twilight said.
"Let's just say I'm covering my bases. We may have won the last event, but they almost caught up. Who knows? Perhaps they'll give you the secret of their newfound success."
"I don't know." Twilight said. "Spying doesn't feel right."
"Of course, it doesn't." Tartus said. "Sorry, but I will not allow Twilight to spy on others if she doesn't want to. And if you try to force her to, I'm reporting you."
Cinch looked at Tartus with disgust and anger in her eyes. She breathed in and walked away.
"Thank you." Twilight said.
"Don't mention it." Tartus said. "Now, why don't you get ready for the next event?"
"I don't know what happened to me?" Fluttershy asked. "I just handed her a bunny and I ponied up."
"Just like Rarity with her dresses, or Pinkie Pie with the party." Sunset said. "I don't understand."
Discord stopped walking for a second to smack his forehead and whisper to himself. "Seriously?"
"It was exciting at first," Fluttershy said, "But then, Twilight's pendant opened up and pulled the magic out of me."
"You're not hurt, are you?" Discord asked.
"No." Fluttershy said. "I was just tired."
"So many things don't add up." Sunset Shimmer said. "Twilight has a device that took magic from us and the portal. The device was indirectly made by Tartus, who I learned is a world traveler who came here for a unknown purpose."
"It wouldn't be unknown if you'd just ask his son for info instead of just be smitten with him." Rainbow Dash said.
"I'm not smitten with..." Sunset tried to deny. She then sighed. "All right. Tell you what. I'll ask him right after the next event. Hopefully, nothing happens to keep me from it."
"Dramatic irony, anyone?" Discord asked.
"Well, as long as this puts me in a playing field, I'm game!" Rainbow Dash shouted.
"Oh, it puts you in a playing field, all right." Discord chuckled. He opened the door and revealed what it was. The whole field was a big cluster of different sports. In the center, there was an archery course. There was a roller-derby ring circling the center. Lastly, on the outer ring, there were dirt ramps with four motorcycles at the starting line. The sight of it brought surprised looks to the girls' faces.
"Where the hoot did this come from?!" Applejack asked.
"I made it." Discord admitted.
"YOU?!" Pinkie gasped. "Did you use the..." She then snapped her fingers three times. Discord nodded.
"You weren't supposed to use your magic, remember?' Sunset Shimmer asked.
"Nothing to worry about." Discord said. "Last night, Vice Principal Luna called me here and told me to make this. I was able to use my magic, and the Shadowbolts have no clue how we did it."
"Am I the only one who thinks this is overkill?" Sunset asked.
"Um, Rarity," Applejack said, "I don't suppose you made any motocross outfits."
"Why, don't be ridiculous, darling." Rarity said. She pulled out two motor suits. "Of course, I did!"
"I did it!" Ricky shouted. The computer club went to him and saw him hold up his phone. "I didn't get any sleep, but it was worth it. With Devastator's help, we created an app that can locate and identify erratic chaos energy."
"How do you know it works if Discord's magic is the only chaos energy we've seen?" Terry asked.
Ricky stopped for a moment to think. He then sighed in discontent. "You're right. There's no way to know for sure if it works. We can't risk it."
"What are you talking about?" Joe asked. "We don't have any other choice. If we don't do something, things might go bad."
"But we might make it worse." Ricky said. "What if, after so much work on trying to hide it, we're the ones who expose the magic. All we got to go on is an app that probably has a 20% chance of working."
"Ricky, let me tell you something." Devastator called out from his laptop. "I get you're afraid. Heck, even I'm afraid, and I'm a computer program, an AI, a living Wi-Fi hotspot. I shouldn't feel anything, but I still do. You think it's easy for me to run the school network on my own? Every day, I risk exerting myself until I malfunction. It may be discomfort for some people, but for me, it's the same as getting into a car wreck. But I still help because I'm helping my friends. Sometimes, to be a true friend, you have to take a leap for others."
Ricky took a moment to think. He looked at his friends and back at his phone. He smiled before picking it up and standing up. "Thank you, Devastator. Now, let's go find that source."