//------------------------------//
// Part III:  Redemption's Flower || Chapter 30:  Learn Your Lessons Well 
// Story: Full Circle 
// by Sotharan 
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The Rainbooms and Sunset all started a little as Rainbow leapt to her feet and hurled herself at the door one more time, bouncing off it with a pained grunt.
“Give it up, Rainbow,” Applejack snapped.  “You’ve been tryin’ at this for hours.  It’s not gonna open.”
Rainbow growled at the door and kicked it savagely.  Applejack sighed with frustration.  The sounds of Trixie and the Illusions performing filtered down through the closed trapdoor ten feet above them.  They had been very lucky they had not been seriously hurt, and that they had been able to find a light switch.  
“Maybe it doesn’t even matter that we’re trapped down here,” Twilight said dejectedly.  “I don’t think the counterspell would have worked anyway.”
“Of course it would have worked, Twilight!” Applejack cried vehemently, standing up and turning to Rainbow.  “Assumin’ a certain band member didn’t try to hog the spotlight the whole time we were tryin’ to play it!”
Rainbow bristled, deliberately missing the point.  “Hey!  If you wanna tell Twilight she’s getting a little too caught up trying to be the new leader of this band, you don’t have to be all cryptic about it!”
Rarity leapt to her feet.  “She was talking about you, Rainbow Dash!” she yelled.  Sitting next to Twilight, Sunset visibly flinched.  An icy feeling was stealing over her heart.  Twilight said nothing, staring into space.
Rainbow Dash was getting angrier by the second.  “Me?!  I’m just trying to make sure my band rocks as hard as it needs to!”
“OUR BAND!” the other girls, minus Sunset and Twilight, screamed.   
Twilight continued to be oblivious to the bitter argument that was exploding around her.  “But why wasn’t it working?” she asked herself listlessly.  “I should know what to do.  How could I not know what to do?  How could I have failed like this?”  Sunset listened to her in horror, which only grew as she saw a familiar green mist begin to creep over the floor as it leaked from her friends.  They didn’t react – apparently Sunset was the only one who could see it.  Sunset’s alarm grew as she noticed the green mist was much thicker than the mist she had seen leaking from other CHS students in the past.
“I’m the one who writes all the songs!” Rainbow retorted to her bandmates.
“I write songs!” Fluttershy yelled with surprising volume.  “You just never let us play any of them!”
“I had the most perfect outfits for us to wear,” Rarity lamented, completely ignoring Fluttershy.  Fluttershy stamped her feet in frustration, looking daggers at Rarity.
“Again with the costumes!  No one cares what we’re wearin’!” Applejack thundered.
“I care, Applejack!” Rarity seethed.  “So sorry if I enjoy trying to make a creative contribution to the band!”
Sunset’s heart was breaking – there had been true venom in what Applejack and Rarity had just said to each other.  She started trying to get to her feet.  She felt like she had to do something, but she had no idea what.  Wheels were turning in her highly intelligent mind, even as fear and sadness threatened to overwhelm her.  
“Hey! Anybody here remember fun?!” Pinkie cried sarcastically.  “I’ll give you a hint:  It’s the exact opposite of being in the Rainbooms!”
“Oh yeah?” Rainbow yelled dangerously.  “Well, I wish I never asked any of you to be my band!”
“Well I wish I’d never agreed to be in it!!” Rarity screeched.
“Me neither!”  Fluttershy and Applejack bellowed.  And just like that all five of them were yelling and pointing at each other.  The green mist intensified and began to float up toward the stage.  Twilight did nothing.  She just sat there, staring at the wall, a look of deep melancholy on her face.
Sunset watched as the green mist accelerated upward and disappeared through the floor of the stage.



Above her, the Dazzlings took the stage, the green mist flowing into their gems.  Adagio exulted.  She could feel her power waxing; she hadn’t felt this strong since the hated Star Swirl had banished them.  She knew her sisters felt it too.  She started to sing, her sisters joining her, as they began to weave their most powerful spell.



Sunset rightly suspected the Dazzlings had just absorbed a substantial portion of her friends’ magic.  She fought tears as she felt her whole world falling apart around her, which was extra terrifying because she had just been through that already, only two months before.  Her friends, these wonderful girls, who had cared for her with a compassion and kindness that was, as far as she was concerned, epic, were at each other’s throats.  The warm bower of their friendship that had cradled her and helped her, slowly, haltingly, tearfully to begin to heal was turning into a viper’s nest.  And the girl most responsible for her transformation, her personal hero, was sitting next to her, dejected, inactive, with her head in her hands.
At last Sunset could bear it no more.  I am Sunset Shimmer, former personal student of the Princess of the Sun, she thought to herself.  And I’ve learned, at great cost, what it means to be a friend.  I WILL NOT go down like this!  I WILL NOT let them go down like this!  She jumped to her feet as she felt her heart swell with a strength of will she didn’t know she still possessed.  
“Stop it!  STOP!  Please, you HAVE to stop!” she pleaded at the top of her lungs.  The other girls, stunned by both her volume and the tone of her voice, were instantly silent.  They turned to look at her in complete amazement.  “This is what they’ve been after all along!  They’re feeding off your magic!” she continued, pointing at the stage above.
“How can they be using our magic?” Applejack asked in confusion.  “It’s the Magic of Friendship.”
Sunset sighed heavily.  Everything was beginning to make sense to her, and now that she realized it, the cracks had started to form weeks ago.  “Ever since you started this band, you’ve been letting little things get to you.  I haven’t said anything before because I didn’t feel like it was my place – not when I’m so new to this whole ‘friendship’ thing.  Not when I’m on such thin ice with everyone.  I…still have a lot to learn.  But I have learned that if you don’t work out even the smallest problems right at the start, the Magic of Friendship can be turned….into something else,” she finished with a shudder.
The girls’ eyes widened.  One by one, their faces fell as they comprehended the truth of Sunset’s words.  
Twilight stood up, shaking her head.  “I can’t believe all this tension was happening right under my nose and I didn’t realize it.  I’m supposed to be the one with all the answers.  And all I’ve done since I got here is let you all down.”  Her shoulders slumped.
Sunset knew what to do.  She had learned her lessons well, and this time, it was her turn to feel compassionate toward Twilight, who had clearly been putting far too much pressure on herself.  “Twilight, I don’t think anyone is supposed to have all the answers,” she said gently, putting her hand tentatively on Twilight’s shoulder.  “But you can count on your friends to help you find them.”
Twilight’s head snapped around.  She looked at Sunset with wonder.  Slowly, the light returned to her eyes, and a smile that grew quickly into a grin broke out on her face.  “I think you already have, Sunset,” she breathed.  “C’mon!  We need to get out of here!”
All seven of them slammed into the door, which still didn’t budge.  As one, they pulled back to give it another try, when a knock sounded from the door.  Stunned, they looked at each other in confusion.  Suddenly the door opened and they looked down to see Spike come into the room as if he was out for a pleasant walk.  
“Sorry I took so long,” he said almost nonchalantly.  “I had to find somebody who wasn’t under the Sirens’ spell to help me get you out.”  To answer their unspoken question, Vinyl Scratch leaned into the doorframe with a warm smile.
“Why isn’t she under their spell?” asked Twilight.
“Never takes off her headphones,” explained Spike.  Vinyl gave them a jaunty thumbs-up.
“Well come on, ya’ll!” Applejack cried.  “Time to prove we’ve still got the Magic of Friendship inside us!”
“And there’s only one way to do it,” Twilight said pointedly to them all.
Pinkie started jumping up and down.  “We’re getting the band back together?”
“We’re getting our band back together!” said Rainbow Dash by way of apology.
Pinkie exploded with glee.  
“Ooh, Twilight!  Which version of the counterspell are we going to play?” asked Rarity.
“I don’t think it matters what song we play,” answered Twilight, looking gratefully at Sunset.  “As long as we play it together, as friends.”
Rainbow saw her chance.  “I know just the song.  Fluttershy’s written a really great one.”
Fluttershy’s joy was almost palpable.
Applejack, too, saw a chance to make amends.  “We’re about to save the world here.  Personally, I think we should do it in style.  Rarity?” she asked softly, looking at her friend with a chastened expression.
Rarity was almost moved to tears.  “I thought you’d never ask!” she gushed.   With that, the seven friends, plus Spike and Vinyl, dashed out the door to battle.  Sunset came last.  It would be difficult to express in words how relieved she was – not only that her friends were friends again, but that she hadn’t been wrong about what was keeping them apart.  Still, she fought a nagging doubt.  The Sirens had absorbed a lot of magic from her friends.  Will what they have left be enough? she wondered to herself.