//------------------------------//
// Fighting the Shadows 
// Story: Sunset and the Seven Girls 
// by Kinni 
//------------------------------//

In between blasts of her wand, Sunset managed to ask:

“What is going on?” In a voice that came very close to meriting an exclamation point.

“Magic, specially dimensional magic, attracts problems.” I summarized.

Her expression was halfway understanding and halfway miffed, that second part probably due to me apparently not taking the situation seriously (at that time, I was shooting spells with one hand while keeping the other under my chin, so maybe I was indeed being too flippant), considering what she said next:

“Why aren't you taking this seriously?” Again, in a voice that avoided the exclamation point only due to a technicality. She probably felt that shouting would not improve her chances of being answered, but still wanted to show her feelings somehow.

“Because of that.” I said, pointing at a particular student, who was completely surrounded by shadow monsters. One of them pounced.

“AAh-” That definitely would have been a shout had it not been interrupted.

She had seen that student turn into light and disappear when the monster was about to hit him.

“The situation is under control.” I said, putting some seriousness into my voice, because this was new to Sunset, something which I had almost forgotten “There's an automatic escape system.”

The look on her face felt like she wanted to ask a million questions, but she managed to suppress her curiosity and ask:

“Okay, so what should I do?”

“Just stay near me, I'll try to find the source of those things.” I said.

Then I activated a spell to try and do what I had just said. It wasn't anything really complicated, simply a magic that analyzed the energy signature of the shadow monsters and searched for the biggest source of that signature.

It didn't take long until I got what I was expecting, a massive energy signature coming from the direction of the main offices.

“Let's go!” I called Sunset and ran towards the institute building.

Entering into it and moving towards the backdoor, with Sunset following closely, I took a moment to assess the surrounding situation. The fight between the students and the shadow monsters was particularly brutal, and interestingly well matched. The shadow monsters had numbers on their side, but the students were taking advantage of cover and choke points as well as cooperating effectively.

I blasted several shadow monsters to reduce the pressure on the students, and a few of them even managed to find the time to give me thumbs up, before going back to the fight and allowing me to exit the building from the other side, where I could easily see what that energy had been about.

A gargantuan, two story tall humanoid shadow monster was punching at a white magical barrier around the main office. This wasn't such a surprising thing, since the most important magical artifacts that kept the spells around the school working were stored below there.

Thankfully, as befitting such an important location, there were several layers of automatic protection spells, and the Shadow Leader (as I had nicknamed him in my mind) was still struggling against the first layer.

There was also a huge crowd of shadow monsters between the institute building and the Shadow Leader, perhaps enough to allow them to overwhelm the defense the students were mounting there, but those shadows were actually acting as guardians, in order to prevent enemies from interfering with the attempts of their leader to breach the shield.

I moved far enough away from the building to be free from the repercussions of the battle, but not close enough to the guardian shadows to cause them to attack. Then I stopped and started to think, as Sunset stopped by my side and eyed the monsters warily.

If I could reach the barrier, I could use my access to draw power from the formations and use a few spells capable of dealing with the problem, but it would be too dangerous to try to get through the crowd of shadows without any support, specially because I didn't want to risk leaving Sunset by herself in this kind of situation.

Thankfully, I wasn't alone.

A sound from above made me look, and what I saw was Rainbow Dash, leaping from the top of the institute building and softening her landing with a burst of magic, before looking up at me with her usual grin. And she was only the first.

In short order, the other five arrived as well. None of them had an entrance as impressive as Rainbow Dash's (three of them simply came running from the same place me and Sunset had passed, while Fluttershy and Twilight came from the west, flying low on top of a magical platform), but their timing had been absolutely perfect.

As soon as we were all together, I could feel the locket filling me with extra power drawn from the connection. Now, things had changed.

Rarity noticed Sunset beside me and smiled at her “Hello. You must be Sunset's new roommate. My name is Rarity.”

I noticed that she didn't call Sunset something like “other-Sunset” or similar titles. Rarity really was good at dealing with people.

“And I'm Sunset, but you already knew that.” Was the answer.

The other five quickly introduced themselves to her, and then we started to plan what to do.

“The best option is to borrow power from the formation.” Was my opinion “Twilight, do you think just destroying the boss will also get rid of the others, or do we need to do something extra?”

“Let me check.” She closed her eyes, muttering soundlessly and fidgeting with her hands.

After preparations were complete, she extended her right hand with the palm upward, and a very detailed image of the Shadow Leader appeared there. And a moment later, visible representations of the lines of magic around him also appeared to complete the model.

“Yes.” Twilight said after a few moments of peering at it “Destroying that shell should be enough to handle all problems.”

That was all I needed to hear. I turned back to the others and gave a suggestion:

“I think the best way to do that would be joining our powers and forcing our way through the crowd.”

“I'm up for it.” Rainbow answered almost instantly “Some speed magic should help getting through faster.”

“Ah can go in front using barrier magic.” Was Applejack's contribution.

“I'll keep watch to see if they'll try anything unexpected!” Pinkie giggled, mimicking binoculars.

“Ah. I think it would be best if I helped with the barriers.” Fluttershy spoke softly.

None of the others seemed to have decided on what to do, so I took charge.

“Rarity, you and me should focus on thinning the herd in ranged magic. Twilight, you keep an eye on all the spells and make sure everything is working correctly.”

Both of them nodded, and I turned to look at Sunset.

“This place should be reasonably safe, but even if it isn't, remember that the emergency teleportation spell will trigger, and don't panic. We should be done soon.”

She looked a little uncertain for a moment, before banishing it with a nod, I nodded as well, and the seven of us got into a triangular formation, Applejack at the point, me and Rarity at the back, Twilight and Pinkie in the center and Fluttershy and Rainbow just behind Applejack.

And then we ran in, the magic of the pendants helping connect us and make the formation stronger.

-0-

“You'll have to give me a few more details later.” Twilight looked interested “You weren't as advanced in the use of the pendants the last time I went there.”

“Do those supplies include writing supplies?” Sunset asked.

Twilight gave her a Look.

“Oh yeah. Stupid question. I'll deal with it later, now back to the story.”

-0-

Applejack created her barrier, which followed the outline of our formation, and Fluttershy reinforced it with root-like crystals. Rainbow Dash used her own spell and suddenly we were going twice as fast, and I couldn't pay attention to what the others were doing, since I was continually shooting magic ahead of us to create a path.

The distance we had to cross to get to the barrier was about a kilometer and a half. And considering the speed at which we were moving, it should have took around twenty seconds to cross it. But I would not be confident to state that based only on my memory. Time seemed to stretch unnaturally as I focused only on the best places to shoot next, collaborating with Rarity easily as both of us used piercing spells that went through a few of the enemies, allowing the others to be trampled by our charge.

I really can't say much else about it. Well, I would have noticed if Twilight had needed to do something, or if Pinkie had alerted of some surprise, but neither of those things happened.

We got to the barrier. Far enough away from the Shadow Leader that it couldn't attack us without moving first. All of us put one hand on the barrier and extended the other hand towards the enemy.

You should understand more or less how it is to do that kind of united magic. The feeling is a little like how it was in the battle against the sirens, but less... spontaneous. It just felt like we had an understanding and could communicate our intentions clearly.

Twilight formed the base of the magic, knowing what would be effective on the monster. I shaped the magic into an arrow to make it easier to penetrate and deliver the energy, and the other five did their own small modifications and helped stabilize everything.

And then, our arrow of green energy shot at the monster before he could react.

There was a flash of light, and I could briefly see the large hole in the middle of the enemy, and then, a phenomenal noise was released. It sounded like a building sized paper being torn in half, and the monster quickly lost its form and split into thousands of grains of shadow before vanishing. And immediately after that, the rest of the army of shadows vanished in the same manner.

I allowed the magical connection to fade, and then looked towards Sunset.

Classes would definitely be canceled due to this, so that moment would be the perfect opportunity for all of us to have a talk with her.