//------------------------------// // Chapter 16. // Story: Equestria Girls and The Golden Bell // by Sparky Brony //------------------------------// The gates close behind the mages. Sunset follows her friends through the main entry. She wraps her arms around herself to prevent herself from shivering too much. Just a matter of minutes before, she was fighting for her life. She had watched two young mages have their lives snuffed out so casually by those Death Eaters, and now she’s as safe as anyone can be in this stone fortress. She watches as Fluttershy comes out from a hallway and descends upon Rarity. With gentle resolve, Fluttershy directs Rarity towards the infirmary. In a matter of moments, she’s alone with the teachers. Professor Dumbledore walks rapidly through the castle; she knows his destination. She quickens her step to move up next to him. “Professor.” They turn the corner and are at the entrance to the headmaster’s office. She glances back at the other two teachers as he says the password into his office. She shakes her head as they all end up inside the large and cluttered room. He whirls around on her, “What were you doing there? Did you know you could have been killed, child?” Sunset bristles, “I’m not a child, I’m older than most of the students here, I’m a senior at home with years at home beyond that.” That gets a grim smile from Professor Dumbledore. “So, you think you have enough life experience to not be considered a child? Would your princess Celestia, whom by your own admission, is far in excess of a thousand years old, consider you a child?” That gets her to falter, “Yes, she likely would.” She’s able to bark a laugh, “But I’m thinking she would refer to you as a child as well, Professor.” “Indeed, you may be right, but you should not have jumped into a combat situation like that.” He raises a hand to silence her when she opens her mouth to object, “If it had not been for a quick-thinking Mr. Longbottom, I would not have known that something was wrong.” He whirls around on Snape and Hagrid, “And what kind of teacher leaves without informing others of the situation!” he stalks towards them, “When you discovered that things were not as they should be, you should have come immediately to me! You know that Sunset and her friends have this necromancer that is intent on gaining power in our world.” He spins away in a huff, “The ministry must be informed, and we need to get more information on what happened to those mages.” Sunset steps forward. “I believe I have a way to get more information, if Professor Snape has completed his work on the potion.” Snape clears his throat, “Based on what you have told me, and the information I’ve been able to glean, the potion is as far as I can take it.” He looks Sunset up and down, “I doubt you have the necessary power to turn it white. You can try at your leisure.” That gets a grin from Sunset, “I’ve been thinking about it. I’ll be down in your lab later and we can work on that, okay?” Snape nods as Sunset turns back to Dumbledore. “Grogar is a real threat to all of us. I need to see what happened, why he’s here, how he got here, and how we can banish him again.” “Banish?” Dumbledore asks, arching an eyebrow. She nods, “He’s a necromancer; I don’t think killing him is possible, but we need to seal him away, permanently if possible, so he can never threaten your world again.” Dumbledore nods as he moves over to his desk. He takes a moment to settle into his chair. “Do what you must to find out the information you need. But do it quickly, for I fear that with such an open attack, he will be emboldened.” Sunset nods grimly, “We are on it, Professor.” She turns on her heel and heads from the office. *** Sunset Shimmer contemplates the Erlenmeyer flask sitting on Snape’s desk. Inside the flask is a deep purple liquid. She looks up at Professor Snape with a smile, “That looks right.” She glances at Rarity and Twilight. “Are you girls ready?” Twilight Sparkle fiddles with her wand, running her fingers along it’s ebony length, “Are you sure, Sunset?” Sunset nods. “I can direct the magic, we just need to form a ring. “I'm used to doing this with a hoof, but..." stamping her foot, a magical circle flares into existence,  spreading out from her foot impact. The center of the circle is the flask itself. She directs her friends to stand equidistant around the circle. She looks at Twilight, “You know how to touch your magic, what I need you do to is open yourself to that magic, not actually at the point of the touch, but on the cusp, and I will reach through you and touch it for you. Okay?” Twilight holds out her wand and stands ready. She can feel her friend reach out to touch her magic, and she moves quickly, pulling on the magic and linking the two. Twilight’s wand glows mutely as they both turn to Rarity. Rarity holds her wand. “It’s just that simple?” Sunset nods and Rarity steels herself for a moment. “Ready,” Rarity says softly as Sunset reaches out again and draws her into the ring. She looks at the two. “Now, the ring has a buffering effect, you cannot draw more magic than you can handle while in a ring. Though it can get close. Let us do this.” She turns to the flask, her own wand already glowing. She glances over at Professor Snape, who is watching them with a contemplative look. She reaches out with her wand and the other two copy her motion, all three wands glow bright white as Sunset pulls deeply on all of the magic in the ring. An alicorn’s magic, that is what it is supposed to take. What do alicorns have other than amazing strength? Sunset releases the magic into the flask, light from all three wands converge on the liquid within. The entire dungeon room lights up brightly as the power from the three girls plays through the flask. Sunset grunts as she pulls harder, getting grunts and gasps of effort from herself and her friends. Despite how bright everything is, she can see the bright purple of the flask is remaining unchanged. “Come…on…” she murmurs as she reaches a hard wall, she’s pulled everything she can from the girls. The magic circle is glowing brightly and the girls have floated off the floor. With another murmur, she focuses the energy as tightly as she can on the flask before her. “Sunset!” Twilight gasps, “I can’t…” She feels Twilight’s presence in the circle start to fade, Rarity’s own grasp of the power is starting to falter as well. They wouldn’t be able to lose the power fully, but they can lose focus. And that could be disastrous. Sunset pulls back on the power quickly and feels her feet settle onto the floor. She takes a step forward and puts a hand on the desk. As she does, she releases the other two and they also collapse to the floor. Sunset pants softly, “That should have worked. That was more power than any alicorn that I know in existence.” She looks at Twilight and Rarity, who are both struggling to get up from the floor. She moves over to them, “It’s nearly dinner time, let’s get some food in all of us. We will figure this out, but later.” “Miss Shimmer, a word.” Professor Snape says as her friends retreat from the dungeon, Sunset puts a hand over her growling stomach, that much magic use in such a short time, with the fight and then this attempt, has her feeling like she’s running on empty. She looks up at the professor questioningly. He leans forward, “You have said that the alicorn possesses the traits of all three pony tribes.” Sunset looks thoughtful, “The strength and magic with life of the earth ponies, the flight and magic of the air and sky of the pegasi, and the elemental magic of the unicorns.” Snape tilts his head, “Would it not be best for your potion to have you incorporate the magic of all three tribes?” What you just attempted seemed to be along the lines of trying to brute force it.” Sunset shakes her head, “Their magic isn’t expressed the same way, I don’t know how to draw it out so it can be added to,” she gestures to the flask, “that.” Snape turns away. “I’m certain you will find a way, young lady.” Sunset walks slowly up the stairs, her mind back on the potion. She’s been able to learn the castle well enough over the last few weeks that her feet automatically take her to the grand hall. With a blink, she sees her friends all sitting at their usual tables. Pinkie Pie is huddling with Fred and George, Rainbow Dash, and that student from Bulgaria, Viktor Krum, are talking animatedly about something to do with flying, it looks like. Fluttershy is up by the teacher’s table, talking with Hagrid. Twilight is sharing a book with Hermione. Applejack is sitting near Pinkie, another of the Weasley children is sitting next to her, their heads together as they laugh and eat. Rarity is even sitting with one of the other wizards, Neville Longbottom, as they chat and eat. They are so very different, yet are able to get along so well together. Sunset sits down and grabs a serving spoon. Though it’s not very long until her own plate is empty, and she’s leaning back, patting her stomach in contentment. She sighs softly, an alicorn combines the attributes of all three pony tribes. She glances at Applejack, who is drinking her pumpkin juice from a large goblet. Though looking close, Sunset can see how her fingers are deforming the metal even though she’s being careful. Pinkie Pie has nearly as much strength. A shift of her glance brings her to Fluttershy, who has a half dozen owls sitting around her, and apparently quite a few of the other student’s familiars are on friendly terms with her shy friend as well. She’s now holding an enormous toad in her hand as she talks with the French witch from the tournament, Fleur. She and Rainbow Dash are both creatures of the air. Even here on this Earth, they gravitate to flight. Even songbirds are flitting around Fluttershy’s head, accepting food scraps as Fluttershy focuses her attention on her new friend. Sunset Shimmer leans back and closes her eyes. “Ahh, my faithful student.” Comes a very familiar voice. Sunset looks around, though that feels very odd. She looks down, a pristine yellow-orange hoof greets her eyes, she closes her eyes and can feel the magic within her. She has her horn back! “Princess Celestia?” Sunset calls out, trotting forward, everything around her is blackness, but she can feel the warmth and strength of her teacher and mentor. “I am here, child.” The voice gets Sunset Shimmer to whirl around. There she is, lying down, her wings folded at her sides, “Come sit with me.” Sunset happily scampers to her teacher, she crawls in close to Princess Celestia, “Oh, Princess, how I’ve missed you!” And she is nuzzled by the princess. “You seem troubled, young one, what can I do to help?” “You are an alicorn, and you have so much magic, you can move the sun itself.” She looks down, “There are no alicorns in this world, I need to get more power, but Rarity and Twilight are the only two others who can use magic the way Equestrians can…” She trails off at her mentor’s chiming laughter, “Princess?” She gets a nuzzle for her trouble, “Oh Sunset Shimmer, my ever faithful student.” Celestia’s wing comes forward and the stiff primary touches her snout, “You think I move the sun across the sky through sheer strength? The sun is pure energy. No one pony, no matter how powerful, has the ability to make it move across the sky.” She leans closer, “It has a volition of its own, it wants to cross the sky, I simply facilitate it in doing so. I am attuned to the sun, as Luna is attuned to the moon, as the pegasi are attuned to the sky to make the rain, and the earth ponies are attuned to the earth, to make the food that sustains us all.” She nuzzles Sunset softly, “All ponies are needed to make the world work as it should.” Sunset gasps and nearly falls out of her chair, “I need all of you.” She says to Pinkie Pie, who’s looking at her curiously. She stands up, “All of you girls, I need you with me. We can find out how to get this magic to work.” Pinkie stands at attention and salutes as Sunset rushes towards the dungeon room of Professor Snape. As big as the castle is, it doesn’t take long for her to get there. She slams through the door, “Professor Snape, you were right, we need to bring those with Equestrian attributes into the ring.” Professor Snape stands up and glides over to his store room, he quickly grabs the flask and again sets it down on the bench in the middle of the classroom. With a flick of his wand, the rest of the desks disappear. Sunset pulls out her own wand, once again conjuring the magic circle. She gets busy getting everything ready, she can hear her friends entering, but she doesn’t really pay attention. Finally, she’s ready and she turns around. “Pinkie, I meant all of us from America!” She glances around at everyone in there, even Professor Hagrid has squeezed his frame through the door. Pinkie steps forward, Fred and George flanking her, “I got everyone we need, Sunset. We all have made new friends here at Hogwarts. They are just as important.” Sunset huffs as she pulls her Canterlot friends closer. “Now, we are going to form a ring. Using the magic of that ring, I’m going to change the color of the potion so it can be safely used.” She looks at Twilight and Rarity, “I tried before, but we needed the aspects of what truly makes an alicorn, the connection with the magic of all three pony tribes, to make this work.” Pinkie cocks her head to the side. “Twilight back in Equestria is an alicorn -- why can’t she here help?” With a sigh Sunset glances at Twilight, who is trying to draw into herself, she reaches over and hugs Twilight gently, “Pinkie, No. She’s not skilled or experienced enough to focus that kind of magic as of yet.  It takes years of training, practice, and skill to do so.” She squeezes Twilight tighter, “In a few years, she might be able to.” She looks at Pinkie seriously, “None of you have enough of a handle on your magic as of yet. I need to focus this.” Sunset’s friends array themselves around the circle, everyone drawing their own wands. Their friends from Hogwarts stay back, quietly watching. Everything hangs on this working. First off, she brings Twilight and Rarity back into the ring. She smiles as she pulls Twilight in. “The easy part, the unicorn elemental magic.” She turns to Rainbow Dash, “Now for the pegasus…” Rainbow Dash looks at the wand in her hand, “I don’t know what to do? I don’t know how to use my magic like you girls do.” Sunset smiles, “I’ve got a few ideas.” She leans close, “First, close your eyes…good.” She whispers in Rainbow’s ear, “The flight, the thrill of being in the air, out maneuvering everyone around you. Being faster than anything else in the air. The feel of the G forces as you make a hard turn.” She continues talking softly as she reaches into her friend with her magic. She can feel the spark of that Equestrian magic within Rainbow, pulsing slowly, but there, nonetheless. She can feel her friend’s excitement growing and the magic inside her grows as well. Finally, it’s close enough and Sunset pulls on it, crossing her wand with Rainbow’s. Rainbow’s magic comes out and she ponies up, her wand glowing a bright cerise. “I knew you could do it.” Sunset says softly as Rainbow opens her eyes, looking at her wand glowing. Her eyes widen, and a big smile plays along her lips. Sunset moves over to Fluttershy, this time she talks about what makes Fluttershy the woman she is, her kindness, her love of all of life around her. In a matter of moments she’s also ponied up, her wand glowing a very pretty teal. Soon she’s got Pinkie Pie and Applejack drawn into the ring as well. She can feel the power coursing through the ring. She can do this! Turning, she stands in her place in the circle around the potion, it’s time to make this work. Her wand is already brightly glowing from everything from her friends. She points it at the flask and starts to pull on the magic, drawing deeply from Rarity and Twilight, then she starts to pull from Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. Their magic pulses brightly, but she can’t get the magic to do anything but pulse. She tries to draw deeper, starting to pull from Pinkie Pie and Applejack. Sunset focuses on the potion, it must turn for her now. She draws on the magic with everything she has. And is promptly blown backwards as the ring falls apart. She ends up on her back, smoke rising from her body as she lies prone for several seconds. What happened?” Fluttershy was the first to get next to her. “I don’t know, Sunset. I felt you try to use the magic, and I really wanted to give you everything I’ve got.” She pulls her hair from in front of her face as the inspects Sunset for injury, “But something blocked it. I was surprised you were able to even pull on the magic at all.” “I was able to draw it out…” Sunset grumbles, “Never actually pull and use any of the magic.” She flops back down, “I don’t think I can make it work.” Twilight kneels down next to Sunset, “What if we use the magic ourselves? Instead of this ring? Why not have us all do this together?” Sunset mutters for a moment, finally she looks at Twilight, “It takes years of practice to be able to do something like this. This is very dangerous magic, trying to get a potion like this to work. You could be hurt, or even killed, in the attempt. That’s why it usually would take an alicorn to do that.” She shakes her head, “I’m sorry, but I can’t let you do this, you simply are not ready. I can’t let you get hurt.” Another face moves into her vision, “One thing about learning, Miss Shimmer, is the making of mistakes, and possibly getting hurt in the process.” Professor Snape leans forward, “Your friend does have a very good point there.” Sunset closes her eyes, though the tears continue to fall, “It’s all my fault, I found the portal, I brought my magic into this world.” She flops her head back onto the stone floor. “I need to fix this.” She finds herself being drawn up, into a tight hug, “Oh, darling, we are never going to be able to learn, if we don’t try.” Strong fingers direct her head slightly, and she opens her eyes to see Rarity’s big blue eyes, “We trust you to teach us, can you trust us to learn?” Rarity’s hand is extended, Sunset stares at it for a long moment, finally she reaches out and lets her friends haul her to her feet, “Be careful. But we all need to do this. But I don’t know how to bring the magic out from you girls.” Applejack comes forward, putting a hand on Sunset’s shoulder, “I’m just from a little ole apple farm, we don’t use much magic there.  The magic that you mages use is like comparing apples to pears, and just as volatile when mixed. I wouldn’t be knowing where to start.” She smiles, “But together, we have been able to use magic in the past.” She squeezes Sunset’s shoulder very gently then she turns towards the other girls. “Once upon a time,” Applejack starts to sing, “You came into my world and made the stars align.” “Pfff.  Is this really the time to start singing?” Professor Snape says with a snide huff. Applebjack continues to sing out loud and true, as she does everyone finds the energy within them start to stir. “Uh yeah it is,” Rainbow Dash says excitedly and nods at Rarity. Holding her wand like a fencing saber in front of her face, Rarity smiles and steps forward. She lowers her wand to the side and it begins to glow as she starts to sing herself, “Now I can see the signs, you pick me up when I get down, so I can shine!” Sunset’s smile brightens, they’ve sung this song before, and now she can feel the power in the room being amplified, she adds her voice in as they launch into the first chorus, “Shine like rainbows.” Quickly all the girls cheer and join in, “Shine like rainbows, shine like rainbows, shine like rainbows!” “Oh, oh, oh,” Pinkie squees and opens her bag. In one fluid motion, she pulls out Rainbow Dash’s guitar and hands it to her. A moment later Pinkie has her drumsticks in her mouth and her drum set sitting on the floor in front of her, though the fact that the bass drum is larger than the mouth of the bag doesn’t seem to raise many eyebrows. Strumming her guitar, Rainbow Dash sings out, “Friends, you are in my life, and you can count on me to be there by your side,” With a swing of her hips, she gives Sunset a little thump. Sunset smiles and gives her head a light shake, Pinkie somehow knew that she wouldn’t need her guitar for this, though she can see Applejack strumming her bass. She finds herself adding herself to this magic.  It was clear, it was her time to sing, “And when the music comes alive, you sing us songs to lift us up so we can shine!” As if taking a life of its own, the music and magic begins to intermix.  The magic starting to swirl around all of the American girls like a storm of energy, the colors as though they are using the elements, though this is not the elements themselves, this is something different, something more. They all lift their voices in unison, “And the sound that we hear in our hearts makes a crescendo, and the light that ignites in the dark, It makes us all glow, And shine like rainbows.” Looking at each other the girls smile, their pony ears perked upright as they sing out with all their joy, “We shine like rainbows, shine like rainbows, we shine like rainbows!” Sunset looks at the flask, it’s not enough. A fantastic amount of magic is coursing through the room. A new voice pipes up to join them. Looking confused for a moment Sunset glances across the room. “Together we stand, As the rain begins to fall,” Hermione joins them, a flat screen tv akin to a karaoke machine, is sitting beside Pinkie who’s angled the screen for the others to see. The tip of Hermione’s wand glowing as a glowing otter appears at her feet, adding to the magic. Fleur moves up to stand next to Hermione, her French accent joining the voices. “An oldin' our heads up high,” holding her wand between both hands, the tip glows bright and true, the ghostly image of a unicorn appearing in front of her. A moment later a glowing horse appears beside the unicorn looking at it and nodding, as Ginny joins in the song, stepping up beside Fleur and looking up at the older witch, smiling brightly to her as her words fill the air too, “As the sun shines through it all.” Soon male voices come into the song, Fred and George, along with Hagrid and Viktor, and to Sunset’s absolute shock, even Professor Snape is singing, the magic expands even further, a magical coyote and a hyena appear, their own light adding to the brightness of the room. Sunset glances over as a large magical golden eagle perches on the bench. It adds its own magical light to the din of the room, and the colors coalesce on the flask, “And the sound that we hear in our hearts, makes a crescendo, and the light that ignites in the dark It makes us all glow.” A magical doe timidly moves up on the other side of Fleur's unicorn, looking up at the two equines it lowers its head.  Gently the unicorn looks down and nods, smiling.  The doe looks up, gaining confidence, spreading its legs a bit for a more stable stance and stands proud beside the equines. She can feel the pull of the magic, the potion is taking every scrap of magic everyone in the room can produce, sucking it down like a black hole. Her eyes fasten on the purple liquid as it starts to glow with energy of its own. “And shine like rainbows, we shine like rainbows, shine like rainbows, we shine like rainbows, we shine like rainbows!”  The group sings out almost laughing, the joy and excitement as strong as the magic. The song ends, Sunset finds her feet settling gently onto the stone floor of the dungeon. She looks around, motes and sparks of light from the magic they had used fly randomly around. She shakes her head. Rarity puts her fingertips to her temples as though trying to suppress a headache. She blinks several times, “Sunset, it worked.” She says through her exhaustion, she moves over to a chair and sits heavily. Twilight Sparkle sways a bit as she puts out a hand, Hermione grabs her hand and they both steady each other, Twilight looks at Sunset. “That was brutal.” Sunset nods, “Alicorn magic.” She moves forward and reaches out to pick up the pristine white potion. A black robed hand reaches out and grabs her wrist. Professor Snape leans close, “Not…A…Word…” He whispers fiercely. Sunset smiles tiredly, “We call it the magic of harmony back home.” She reaches and picks up the flask, it now weighs almost nothing to her, she glances around. Nearly every eye in the room is locked on her. “Do you need anything else to be able to use that effectively?” Twilight asks, touching the glowing glass. Sunset shakes her head, she glances around once more, “Well, no time like the present.” She brings the flask to her lips and tilts her head back.