//------------------------------//
// Troubles Past and Present 
// Story: A Tale of Two Suns, Book 1: The Two Suns 
// by Lupin 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 2: Troubles Past and Present

It was a cold February day in Canterlot City. Snow had fallen earlier in the morning, one of winter's continued efforts to reassert dominance. The crunching of shoes on frozen water could be heard everywhere. 

It was a Monday and a teacher work day. Seven girls and one purple and green dog were huddled inside the warm confines of Carousel Boutique. But rather than shopping, Sunset and her friends were loading boxes with various items of clothing.  

Sunset suppressed a yawn as she packed away a green sweater. She'd hardly gotten much more sleep after the nightmare. Thank goodness for coffee. She'd never been one for it, far too used to tea from years spent with Celestia. But she'd tried it more than once for late nights tearing through school assignments and plotting various schemes. 

Her intake had only increased with the rash of nightmares, and she'd found herself resorting to even stronger blends to keep fully awake. She loved her friends, but she'd rather not let them onto her particular problem, not yet. 

As if I didn't have enough problems, now I'll probably have to add 'caffeine addict' to the list.

"I'd like to say thank you again, girls, for helping me with this," said Rarity as she batted at one of her purple curls, drawing Sunset from her thoughts. The boutique had been closed, the usual merchandise moved out of the way to make room for folding tables practically overloaded with garments of various colors, styles, and sizes. 

"It was no trouble at all, sugarcube," replied Applejack as she sealed another box.

"Same here," added Sunset, folding a winter coat before packing it away. 

Next to her, Twilight was sealing her own box. She pushed her falling glasses back up onto her nose. "I think it's really nice that your store is giving all of these clothes away to homeless shelters." 

"They were old inventory," explained Rarity. "But they were still perfectly serviceable. My manager was actually going to throw them out before I made the suggestion."

Rainbow Dash let out a chuckle as she worked, packing and sealing boxes so quickly Sunset would have thought it was a competition. "Let me guess, you charmed him into it?"

Rarity bristled. "Rainbow Dash, you make it sound as if I seduced them, which I most certainly did not! I simply pointed out how it would not only benefit those in need, but that it would also be excellent for promoting business." She let out a humph of annoyance. "And, for your information, my manager is a woman."

Rainbow blinked. "Really? Then who's that guy that I see coming out the back room when we stop by here? The one in the three-piece suit and pink shirt?"

"Her brother," said Rarity flatly.

"Um, Rarity, can I have this scarf?" asked Fluttershy as she picked up a small red item. "I've been meaning to get one for Angel."

"Of course, darling," replied Rarity with a smile, glad for the diversion. She moved carefully and meticulously. Every one of her boxes had the tape perfectly centered without a single wrinkle. Out of all the piles they'd accumulated, hers was the smallest. "I don't think I would have been able to get this done today without your help."

"Not at that snail's pace you wouldn't," shot back Rainbow. "We're supposed to be heading to the movies after this, remember? You need to move faster than that."

"Yeah, A Buffoon's Life is playing!" said Pinkie happily. She was referring to a biographical film, which Sunset thought was odd for her to choose when she'd first heard Pinkie mention it. But then Pinkie explained how it was about Ponyacci, her favorite comedian of all time. 

From seemingly out of nowhere, Pinkie pulled out a little clown doll and held it aloft. "Don't you want to see it again, Little Ponyacci?" She moved the plush toy's head in a nod.

"Pinkie, you've seen that movie three times already!" complained Rainbow. "We should go see something else."

"I thought we could go see Jog in the Sky," said Twilight quietly. "My, um, my brother gave me tickets this morning." She pulled out an envelope containing several brightly colored slips of paper. "He said I should see it with all my new friends."

"Isn't it that movie based off that book by Jade somethin' or other?" questioned Applejack.

"Jade Singer," Twilight corrected. "And yes." Her face split into a bright smile. "It's my favorite book of all time. Jade Singer is so brilliant. I've been waiting for it to come out for so long and you wouldn't believe how disappointed I was when it was delayed and..." she paused, noticing her friends staring. 

Her smile turned sheepish. "And, um, it's okay if you girls don't want to see it. It's just Shining went to the trouble of getting them and I was waiting for a chance to bring it up."

Applejack laughed and put a muscled arm around Twilight's shoulders. "It's alright, sugarcube. I reckon we can go see it today. Like you said, your brother already went to the trouble to get those for us, and it would be a shame to see that go to waste." She looked at the others. "Right, girls?"

Fluttershy gave a quiet nod. "I'd be glad to see it with you, Twilight."

"I haven't read the book, but if you really think it's that good, then I'll definitely go see it," added Sunset. 

She'd heard of it, of course. People talked about it quite a bit, even though it had come out years before Sunset even got to this world. But at the time she'd been more interested in surviving, learning about this world, and then her dreams of conquest, so cultural reading was largely tossed aside.

"Oh, she does," said Spike flatly from his corner of the room. "She once went on about it to me for an hour and a half. A solid hour and a half!"

"That's not fair, Spike," protested Twilight. "I took breaks to drink water!" 

A round of laughter broke out from everyone other than Twilight, whose cheeks now glowed pink.

"In all seriousness, darling," said Rarity as her giggles died down. "It really would be a tragedy to waste that kind of gift. I've heard there's a great deal of anticipation about that movie. I can't imagine procuring seven tickets on the opening day was an easy feat." Rarity rolled her eyes. "And at least it's not something based off that dreadful vampire series."

The bespectacled girl cringed. "Oh please, Dusk? Those books were an insult to good literature. I only got to the first one and I actually felt tempted to burn it. Me, burn a book!"

Sunset nodded her head. That particular series had only helped cement the low opinion she'd had for her fellow students at the time.

As one, the group looked to Rainbow. The athlete seemed disappointed for a second before voicing her opinion. "I'm in." 

"You're sure you're okay with it?" asked Twilight, not missing that moment of hesitation.

"Sure," Rainbow said firmly. "Not exactly what I'd planned on, but I'm in. Besides, Twi," she added with a cocky grin, "You're like, a giant bookworm. So if this is your favorite book out of all the other books, then it's got to really be something." 

Twilight's blush returned. "Thanks... I think."

"I'd take it as a compliment, Twi," said Applejack with a chuckle.

"This will totally be awesome!" shouted Pinkie with a burst of confetti from who even knew where, and making Fluttershy jump several inches off the ground. 

"But, um," asked Fluttershy, taking deep breaths to slow her rapidly beating heart, "what about Ponyacci?"

"Well, Dashie is right, I have seen it a lot. And while I love Ponyacci," she held the little clown doll out at arm's length and did a twirl, "I also love sharing in other people's joy! And this is going to be full of joy! Twilight's joy!"

"Thanks, girls," said Twilight. "The showing is for two-fifteen, so we should have plenty of time." 

"Not if Rarity has anything to say about it," scoffed Rainbow, bringing the argument back around.  

The fashionista huffed, her cheeks tinged red with anger. "I simply want the boxes to be perfect. There's no need to be sloppy in packing them. This is an act of charity, after all, and we should put care in how we send them." She began to write on her latest box, but the marker in her hand wouldn't work. "Oh dear, this one dried up."

Spike marched up to her, marker clutched in his mouth. "Here you go, Rarity." 

"Thank you, Spike." Rarity scratched behind his ear as a reward. She glanced over at Pinkie Pie's efforts. "Pinkie, dear, I don't think you should be packing balloons."

"But balloons make people happy!" argued Pinkie, giving a little bounce as she continued the task of fitting another one into the space. "Wouldn't it be awesome if they all came out when someone opened these?" 

"But couldn't they break in transit?" asked Twilight.

The smile that had been on Pinkie's face diminished just a little. "Oh yeah. I hadn't thought of that."

"Don't worry, Pinkie," assured Sunset as she worked through her own stack. "I'm sure the people at the shelters will be just as happy to get these as they would balloons."

Soon, the seven were almost done packing the donations. Sunset was placing the last few items in her remaining box. She held up the small jacket. "Are there a lot of kids at these shelters?" she asked, turning to Rarity with a frown.

Rarity nodded solemnly. "Sadly, there are children there. I saw a few the last time I donated some of my old work."

Applejack grimaced. "If there are, I hope they're with their families. Better to be together than alone in a place like that, I'd think."

Sunset nodded slowly as she put the jacket inside and sealed the box. "Yeah," she said, her voice tinged with sadness. "Being an orphan stinks." She paused, before whispering to no one other than herself, "no matter what world you're in."

Twilight, close enough to have heard her, tilted her head. "You're an orphan?" When Sunset looked over at her in surprise, Twilight flinched. "I'm sorry, that was rude of me, wasn't it? But the way you said that, it sounded like you were speaking from personal experience, and—"

"It's okay," assured Sunset, raising her hand to cut off any more rambling. "And you're right. I'm an orphan."

"Hey now, wait a minute," said Applejack. "I know during the holidays you said you weren't close to your parents, but I always thought they were still around."

"I didn't lie, AJ," said Sunset. Applejack's green eyes stared back at her, unblinking. Sunset squirmed. "Not... really?" 

Applejack's stare didn't waver. 

"Okay, okay," admitted the former unicorn. "I did know my parents, and I'm an orphan. I was really young when I lost them, so I guess I never got to be real close to them, not the way other ponies and people are. I just... I didn't really want to get into it back then." 

"What happened?" asked Twilight. The lavender girl gave a pause. "If you don't mind my asking," she added hurriedly. "It's okay if you don't."

Sunset looked at the six girls. Curiosity burned in their eyes, curiosity mixed with sympathy. "No," she said firmly. "I might as well tell you. I owe you a full explanation anyway, since I sort of lied before." 

She took a seat on a nearby chair. "It was when I was seven. One night, my parents and I were in a hurry to get to the train. I don't know what it was about specifically. All I remember is everything being packed up. Along the way, I got separated from them." 

Fluttershy let out a gasp. "That's horrible!"

"Separated how?" asked Twilight. 

Sunset leaned her head back against the boutique wall, closing her eyes. She'd long ago set those memories aside, buried them deep within, like stuffing them inside a box up in a dusty old attic. 

Now, she'd found the box again, and opened it up. Everything came back to her, sights and sounds and events under the watchful gaze of the Mare in the Moon. Slowly but surely, they all came back. 





Little Sunset Shimmer stirred, the sound of rolling wheels filling her ears. The seven-year-old filly shifted on the little blanket underneath her. It was comfy enough, but she wished it were her bed. 

But they had to take a trip. Daddy had gotten some special letter about work, and they had to leave for the train right away. What it was about, where they were going, or for how long, Sunset didn't know. 

All she knew was that it was very dark out and she was a very sleepy filly. A sleepy little filly that didn't like being woken up until morning. She'd just ask her mommy and daddy when there was daylight. 

The sounds of the wheels had changed, no longer the clack of cobblestones, but something smoother. She could hear her parents voices as well, just barely, muffled and unintelligible through the wagon walls. Mixed in were the sounds of their hooves, growing louder as they seemed to pick up speed. 

The amber unicorn curled up tighter, eager to return to her dreams. Then there came a loud thud, making the unicorn jump. Sunset lifted her head groggily, blinking as she tried to figure out the source of the noise that startled her. 

The door to the wagon was swinging free. Sunset got up slowly, trotting past the boxes and chests her parents had packed, right up to the open doorway. The door latch must have come undone, she realized. She vaguely recalled Mommy saying it was loose when they were packing up. 

She could see Canterlot in the distance, its huge towers shrinking by the second. They had gone onto a bridge, one she recognized. It crossed one of the bigger mountain streams in Canterlot, big enough to safely call it a river.

The bridge had been rebuilt only a few months ago, and Sunset had come to like it. Since it was new, it still had several knots in the wood, particularly towards its sides. One of the bigger ones looked like a dragon's head. On the few occasions they went over this bridge, she'd always wave to Mr. Wooden Dragon Head.

Poking her head out, she wondered if she could spot him. She should at least wave goodbye to him, since they were going away. 

She squinted her eyes. The river under them glowed in the reflected light of the full moon, but there were still plenty of shadows strewn over the wooden surface. Where was Mr. Dragon?

The wagon tilted to her right, coming within a hair's breadth of the low rails. Sunset felt the wagon jerk, running over one of the wooden knots. Behind her, a trunk slid forward, bumping into her flank and sending the filly off balance. 

They hit another bump, making the wagon jolt even harder than before. Already unsteady on her hooves, the shock sent her tumbling out the door, rolling right off the edge of the bridge over the rail before slamming into the water below. 

The bridge arced over the water, and while it was taller than most of Canterlot's bridges, the distance to the river wasn't too far. Certainly not enough to cause anypony serious injury. Even still, the impact succeeded in knocking all the air from her lungs.  

Most ponies that took such a fall would have gotten out straight away. The current was average most of the year barring spring flooding. In fact, it was slow enough that the only reason it hadn't frozen was magical heating charms placed in all of Canterlot's streams. 

But that only applied to adult ponies. Sunset was just a filly, and she hadn't really learned to swim beyond the basic knowledge of moving her legs. 

Try as she might, her desperate splashing only just managed to keep her head above the water, and the current was still carrying her away.

"MOMMY! DADDY!" she called out, looking up at the bridge. Her parents' voices were even more distant now, words still indistinct. She saw their silhouettes against the moonlight. They looked engaged in an argument of some kind. "Help!" she called again, just barely keeping herself from sinking. 

Even with the heating charms, the water was so cold. It had already soaked completely through her winter coat, making her teeth start to chatter. 

She flailed her little legs as hard as she could, but they just weren't strong enough to fight even the river's moderate current as she was swept further and further away. "Help! Mommy, Daddy, help me!"

Her voice seemed lost over the volume of her own splashing. Her parents still couldn't hear her. 

As Sunset was carried downstream, she could only watch the moonlit forms of her parents gallop off into the night, wagon and all.





"Eventually I managed to grab a rock and pull myself out."

As Sunset opened her eyes, she could see the assembled girls giving her looks ranging from sympathy to shock. Fluttershy was on the verge of tears, arms wrapped tightly around her torso. A veil of silence had fallen on the whole room. 

Which was promptly shattered when Rainbow spoke up. 

"You fell in the water and they didn't fish you out?!" she screamed. "How did they not hear you?"

Applejack snorted, signifying her agreement. "What kind of lowdown, rocks-for-brains fools would just run off and leave their daughter like that? Why, if something like that happened to Apple Bloom I would've jumped in after her without a thought."

Every muscle in Sunset's body went stiff. "They didn't mean to!" she shouted, jumping back to her feet to glare at the two. "I know they didn't! So don't you dare say those things about them!"

Applejack and Rainbow were taken aback by the outburst, and their previous anger shriveled up in the presence of Sunset's like a flower in the noon day sun. "You're right," admitted the farmer, looking down at her shoes guiltily. "I shouldn't a' jumped the gun. I'm sorry sugarcube. I didn't mean to offend you none."

Rainbow shuffled one of her sneakers against the floor. "Yeah, me too."

Sunset blinked, her temper cooling, before allowing herself to sit back down. "I'm sorry too. I didn't mean to snap like that." Her cheeks flushed a little, and she tugged at the sleeve of her jacket. "My parents tended to get really distracted. They'd get so caught up in what they were doing they wouldn't realize anything else was happening unless it poked them." 

A memory sprang forth of her father being so preoccupied reading something work related that he failed to hear her when she asked for him ten times in a row. "That's just the way they were. So I'm not really surprised they didn't hear me." Her face fell. "Not that they're around anymore to defend themselves."

"What do you mean by that, darling?" began Rarity, before realization dawned on her. "Oh no."

Sunset nodded her head. "Yeah. Celestia found me a little while after I got separated. She searched all over for my parents. But when she tracked them down, they were gone."

Twilight's eyes widened behind her glasses. "How?"

"Some kind of accident," Sunset answered solemnly. "She didn't say, and I didn't ask. Never really wanted to, I guess. But she said that they'd been looking all over for me."

Rarity put a hand on Sunset's shoulder. "Darling, I'm so sorry... Pinkie dear, what are you doing?"

Pinkie Pie, who had been listening intently, stood there, her whole body trembling. At Rarity's question, she jumped upwards, like a spring released from a mechanism. In a blur of pink, Sunset found herself pulled from her seat and wrapped in a hug by a bawling Pinkie Pie. "THAT'S SO SAD!" she wailed. 

"Pinkie... vision going... dark... I need air..."

"Oopsie," said Pinkie quickly as she released the other girl. 

Sunset stumbled as she filled her lungs, savoring the precious oxygen. Her ribcage was burning. "It's okay, girls. It's ancient history." She gave them a reassuring smile in spite of feeling like her heart was being embraced by a cactus, reopening wounds she thought had healed. 

"This calls for another hug!" declared Pinkie. She bolted forward, moving in for another strike against Sunset's poor, already abused ribs. This time however, Sunset managed to twist out of the way. The pink-skinned girl kept her forward momentum, running right into a pile of boxes. With a resounding crash, she and the pile fell over. 

A pink hand gave a thumbs up. "I'm okay!"

Applejack proceeded to help her up, and Rarity fussed over the boxes Pinkie had trampled. Sunset, for her part, just laughed at her friend's silly antics. A pure, warm laugh. And somehow, the throbbing in her heart went away. 

"Come on girls, let's get this done. We have a movie to get to, remember?"

From there the conversation turned back to more mundane things. The former unicorn picked up a marker to scribble on one of her boxes, while Twilight had started going on about the book-turned-movie. 

"I'm so excited to see it. I saw the trailer and the lead actress they picked looked exactly the way the character was described on page three! And they showed her sister and they even made sure to include that dark colored birthmark on her forearm from page twelve. That attention to detail has me convinced the director is a fan, and that just increases the chances that it will be fantastic..."





Abacus Cinch marched through the doors of Crystal Prep Academy the next day. Her footsteps smashed down on the polished tiled floors in a way that was more of a stomp, but Cinch refused to admit that she was stomping. It was a dignified march, and that was that. 

Behind her glasses, her pink eyes turned upwards to look at a clock on the wall. It read 10:39 AM. She sneered at it, willing the mechanism to turn backwards. 

She despised being late, and she wouldn't have been most days. But her car had developed a flat tire and she'd had to take a taxi of all things to get to work. A taxi whose back seat was covered in blackened gum marks. 

As she made her way through the foyer, her eyes turned to the many trophy cases. Each one was almost bursting with medals and awards in every form of school event conceivable, and each was carefully cleaned once a month for maximum sparkle under the lights. 

Cinch moved past these to the actual halls. Students turned to the principal in surprise, parting before her. She passed the student lockers, frowning at the image of a thunderbolt drawn on one. Her frown deepened when two lockers down, she saw a little flower sticker on another. Did those students not read the Crystal Prep code of conduct? She'd have to deal with them later.

A group of girls stood in the hall, still engaged in animated conversation. She recognized most of them as regulars at the after school study sessions held in the library. 

Now they were talking about going to the mall after class, something that sent a wave of nausea rolling through her.

Cinch glared at the girls as she passed. But rather than being rendered mute, the girls met her eyes, and kept on talking as if they hadn't even noticed her, or perhaps because they had.  

By the time she reached the door to her office, the principal was grabbing the handle in a death grip. Twisting the knob, she walked into her personal space.

She'd liked to keep the room relatively dark. The main light source was the one on the ceiling, an adjustable light that she always kept low, and the only other light was a little lamp on the back desk she never even bothered to plug in. 

The darkness helped to emphasize the sense of quiet she appreciated. And of course, that same darkness helped to put visitors to her office on edge, making it easier to emphasize her complete dominance of the academy. 

It was a place where Abacus could go to get away from whatever nonsense had assailed her that day. It was a place of her complete control. 

Or at least it should have been. 

Her eyes squeezed shut in reflex upon opening the door. Someone had turned the light all the way up. Someone was in her office. Blinking a few times to adjust to the unexpected glare, Abacus searched for the intruder, feeling not unlike the classic trio of bears who discovered a little blonde trespasser. 

And like the story, this trespasser was still here. She was leaning back in Cinch's high-backed swivel chair, face buried in the contents of a folder. Cinch had bought the chair for the lush cushions and the fact that it resembled a throne. Soft pink and gold curls spilled over the surface of her polished oak desk, another item she'd spared no expense for when decorating the seat of her power. 

The invader in the chair looked up. "Oh, Principal Cinch, you're here."

The principal ground her teeth. "Dean Cadance," she replied slowly, managing a curt nod. She tried her best to ignore how comfortable the pretty young dean had made herself behind Cinch's desk, like she belonged there. "What are you doing in my office? I simply told you I would be late. I did not give you permission to enter."

"I'm sorry, Principal Cinch," she replied politely, getting up from the seat and smoothing out her skirt. "But there were a few students I needed to deal with and their files were still in your office." She held out the folder she'd been reading. "I wanted to start going over them before I spoke to the students themselves."

"Hmmph," was all Cinch could say. "Well, since I'm here now, you may return to your own office."

"Yes ma'am," replied Cadance with a nod as she headed for the door. The smile on her face never wavered. 

"And Dean Cadance," called back the principal. "On my way over here, I noticed a few lockers had stickers and other markings. Seeing as such things are against the school code, I want those students to be punished immediately."

"That won't be necessary, ma'am," said Cadance, a little twinkle in her purple eyes. 

The principal raised an eyebrow. "And why not?"

"I relaxed the rules regarding the lockers," said the dean simply. "As long as the students don't use anything permanent and offer to remove any stickers when they relinquish the lockers, I saw no problem in allowing them a little creativity."

"You allowed them to deface the lockers?!" screamed the principal. 

If the volume bothered Cadance, she didn't show it. "It's not defacing. It's a form of personalization for a private space. It was suggested by a member of the student body and had quite a bit of support from the other students, so I allowed it."

The principal's eyes narrowed at the dean. "Very well. Just make sure they abide to these new rules of yours. Any infractions will reflect back on you, Dean Cadance."

The pink woman's smile grew, showing off her perfect, pearl white teeth. "I'm sure it won't be a problem, Principal Cinch."

With that, the dean left, and once again Abacus Cinch was alone in her office. Quickly turning the lights back down, she sank into her chair, willing away an oncoming headache. 

Her eyes wandered to her inbox, full of the day’s business. Perhaps it would help her to relax. Taking up the first new document, she discovered it to be a request for a new school club, a… a glee club.

"A glee club," she hissed, almost crushing the paper. Similar, non-academic, proposals followed as she continued to sift through the documents. Her jaw clenched, the pain almost unbearable. She crumpled every single document before throwing them into the trash with such force, the little can almost toppled over. 

Relaxed rules. Non-academic clubs. Students spending time at malls instead of after-school studying. Crystal Prep, her academy, was falling apart. 

And Dean Cadance. Dean Cadance was just waiting to take over. Cinch had no delusions about that. The young dean had always been popular, a pretty face much closer to the age of the students. But she'd been gaining even more popularity and pull ever since...

Ever since the Friendship Games. 

Cinch let out a curse at the thought of those games. It should have been an easy win for her academy. It always was. Her students were the best of the best, pushed to the very limit. A simple public high school like Canterlot High should have always lost to them in the most satisfyingly humiliating way possible. 

But this year, they'd won. It was a blot on their reputation. On her reputation.

And then there was Twilight Sparkle. Their top academic asset had transferred to CHS. For a student such as her to transfer from their hallowed halls to a common institution like that was unheard of, and Cinch had already had to deal with several embarrassing questions from teachers regarding the move. 

Oh, but Canterlot High School wasn't just any little high school anymore. No, they had magic. It was insane, but how else could Cinch describe what she'd witnessed?  

The "magic of friendship," they'd called it. That same magic had turned Twilight into a monster, and it was still causing her no end of trouble. It had infected her precious academy. It had infected her students, turned them against her, against everything she'd drilled into them. 

This school was hers. Her empire of education. She'd come in when it had been in decline. She'd brought it back up to glory. She, Abacus Cinch, was responsible for its prestige. She'd pushed her students to excellence in every field, made it once again a stepping stone to the greatest universities in the country. 

But because of that disgusting magic, her power and authority were slipping, bit by bit, day by day. If things kept sliding the way they were now, Cinch would be replaced by Dean Cadance. 

The image of the dean behind her desk popped back into her mind. That soft-hearted brat, sitting in her seat, doing her job. Such a thing was unacceptable.  

Getting up to pace around her office, the principal's anger continued to boil. Out of reflex, her fingers played with a little charm on her right wrist, normally hidden under her sleeves. 

It was a gold chain, and hanging from it was a golden abacus. An old family gift. It always reminded Abacus of the mathematics competitions she'd won, of the relaxation she'd felt when working with numbers.

The world was built on numbers, her world too. Students accepted to universities, career opportunities opened, alumni created, awards won. Each one the moving of a bead on the ancient instrument. But now there were losses. Empty spaces in the foundation, an instability she had yet to correct. 

If it hadn't been for those brats at CHS, her world wouldn't be crumbling. She couldn't report them without being placed in a mental ward, even if the image of them being taken in by the higher authorities for study brought a smirk to her lips. 

There had to be a way to get back at those six little witch girls. This magic of theirs had to be stamped out, and the best way to start was the source of it. 

As she paced, her mind turned the problem over, like a child trying to find the trick to a puzzle box. Finally, an old adage of military strategy floated to the surface: To defeat the enemy, first take out the leader. 

"The leader," she muttered. Her thoughts turned back to the miscreants that had caused all this. Even among a group of teenagers, leaders emerged. Gangs had leaders, and what were those brats but a small, magical gang? 

She remembered the disaster with Midnight Sparkle. The girl with the red and yellow hair had confronted her, been the one to stop her. Thinking back to the other, few times she'd seen her, Cinch realized that she definitely seemed to be the leader of that little group. But what was her name? 

Cinch returned to her desk, the clack of keys filling the room. Very soon, she'd found the name she'd wanted. 

"Sunset Shimmer, hmm?" The wheels in Cinch's brain turned. All she had now was a name to go with a face. She needed more information on this girl, much more.  

A cold smile formed on her features. Fortunately, Cinch knew just how she could get it.