The tiled floor bulged suddenly, a loud rumbling forming from beneath it. The ground began to glow a dull red before it exploded upwards in fire and smoke, two figures following through it, one after the other. Rainbow Dash bounced off the ceiling, knocking down the classroom’s ceiling projector in the process and landing between two rows of desks with a loud groan.
Lightning Dust screamed in terror as she was flung from below not long after, jacket smoldering from the earlier blast and grabbing onto what was left of the projector’s mounting in a panic. “How’re we not dead?!...Holy shit, we’re gonna die!”
Dash pulled herself into a standing position, rubbing her head in pain, and quickly looking for an exit. “Dust, get down from there and help me!” Adrenaline was flowing and she was pretty certain she may have lost a bit of eyebrow from that blast. Losing hair twice in a few days was more than a little annoying and having another Sunset demon bearing down on them was just the icing on the shit cake that was this entire week. “We have to move.”
“Some good it’ll do you.” Sour, or rather human Sunset, rose from the hole, cyan magic glowing in her hands, “You’re a lot more durable than I remember, Rainbow Dash, but you’re only human!” She pulled back a fist, magic swelling around it and threw forth another blast of flame.
Dash yelped in fear and tumbled backwards, the flame dissipating on the floor between her legs, an ashen spot where she once stood, “Wait a tick, you’re actually trying to kill us?! What’s wrong with you?!”
“More than a few things, I’ll admit.” She deadpanned back at her, “I mean...look at me. I’m a demon, that doesn’t happen without going through some truly freaky shit.” A crooked grin grew on Sour’s face, “Not that it matters to you of course.” Fire reignited in her palms.
“Whoa whoa whoa! W-we’ve gone through some freaky shit too!” Rainbow held up her hands, taking a few jumpy steps back, “Listen, w-we can talk about this, work it out.”
She seemed to consider it for a moment before raising her hands again, “I think I’d rather just blast you and be done with it.” As she charged up a beam however, Dust fell from her perch, landing roughly on the demon and rolling off to the side, “Ugh! You pest!” Turning to look at her instead, Dust had quite the terrified look splayed across her face, seeing the crosshairs on her now.
Now given a moment to plan, Dash responded to the situation in the most calculative manner she could come up with. She grabbed one of the desks sitting alongside her, hefted it over her head with a grunt and flung it at Sour Sweet with a shout.
“What the-OOF!” Rainbow had a good feeling that despite the noise of the impact, it probably wouldn’t do much for them in the long run. As Sour went sailing into the teacher’s podium at the front of the room, shattering it with the loud cracking of wood, Rainbow darted for the door. She grabbed Dust by the arm and pulled her alongside, pushing through and out into the empty hallway.
Picking a direction at random, Rainbow took off down the halls of Crystal Prep. Lightning’s brain seemed to catch up with the situation a few seconds later and she pulled her arm free, running alongside, adrenaline pumping through both of them. “Holy crap, are we gonna die?!”
“Stop saying that!” Dash glared over, hooking a right as she heard a scream of rage from the classroom now several rooms behind them, “We just gotta get out of the school. There’s no way she’ll chase us into the town itself!”
“Wait, haven’t you dealt with this before?” She asked, glancing over with an almost hopeful look, “The Fall Formal?”
Rainbow laughed, “Heh, yeah, with five others and a buncha magic artifacts! You think I can take on a demon mano a mano?!”
“W-well…” Dust glanced off, nodding, “Okay, fair point. So what was the plan? Get outta the building?” Rainbow nodded sharply. “Okay, how do we manage that?” Dust was back to the panicked look on her face, looking far more so than Dash did at the moment.
‘Oh God, I’m starting to normalize this sorta thing.’ She thought with an almost bitter deadpan, “Find some stairs. We’re on the second floor.”
“Oh yeah! That reminds me! You got blown through the ceiling by a magic blast! How are you not dead?!”
“I dunno! Magic bullcrap?!” Rainbow gestured wildly at her in turn, not wanting to explain the full demon situation right now, “Adrenaline? Maybe I’m just more durable now? I honestly don’t know, but whatever it is, let’s question it after we’re out of this place!”
“Y-yeah, fair enough.” Dust took a turn in picking a direction, taking a small left at a three way intersection ahead, “God, why is this place such a maze?”
“Because we’re panicking and you’ve never been here before?” Dash suggested, taking another brief moment to acknowledge something, ‘Lightning has no powers. If Sour gets her hands on her, that’s it.’ Her expression hardened, glaring behind her. Sour would probably be on them any second now.
They were brought to a halt when Dust shouted in alarm, skidding to a stop. Dash looked back ahead, crashing into a familiar red and yellow shape. “Ow-!” She hardly had time to voice her complaint before being hefted up in a claw by her throat. “Ack!”
Sour was glaring at her furiously, dark energy wisping from her sclera in sharp snapping motions. She even had that slight eye twitch Sunset had developed when Twilight had started giving her big friendship speech. Given that Sunset had tried to nuke them with a fireball the size of a small meteorite by that point, Rainbow didn’t feel as though this was a good sign. That and she was being choked, that wasn’t much of a good thing either.
“You annoying little vermin!” Her hair flared violently, glaring a hole straight through Rainbow’s face. Dust took a shaky step back, freezing once Sour raised her free hand at her threateningly, “And don’t you go anywhere either!” Lightning whimpered as she listened to her rival gasp for breath.
Dash grit her teeth, legs kicking uselessly in the air. She managed to swing her legs enough to deliver a kick to Sour’s stomach, finding herself dropped to the floor in response. For a brief moment, she felt victorious. That ended quickly when she found Sour staring down at her, chuckling, “What, you wanna fight?” She cooed, finding that almost adorable. That earned a snarl from Dash, forcing herself back up to stand. “Cute or maybe a little pathetic. More pathetic honestly. You really think you stand a chance against me in a fight? You can’t even keep your memory intact around me!” She taunted.
“Cap?” Dust glanced over at Rainbow worriedly. She had started to shake as Sour’s taunting continued, fists clenched to the point where Lightning could see her nails digging into her palms. “Cap.” They were trapped now. If Sour could teleport, they wouldn’t get far.
“Though neither can the rest of Canterlot High.” She continued, “You losers have always been a bunch of wild animals, but now…” Sour scoffed, “One too many knocks to the head and you just lose it.”
Rainbow stopped shaking, looking up at her with a mostly blank expression, eyes widening ever so little, “...what?”
Sour seemed willing to humor her, “Think about it, genius. Friendship Games are every year. I’m the smartest student here and frankly, I haven't exactly looked like this for the past 4 years. Neither have those other girls you made friends with.” She sneered tightly, “What happened at the last Friendship Games?”
“...” Dust looked down, eyes widening. She could hardly remember.
“...we...lost.” Dash muttered bitterly.
“No kidding?” Was the deadpan response from the demon, grabbing her shoulder tightly in a claw. “What else?”
“Ah! AH!” She yelped, caving slightly as she felt flesh pierce. “I...I don’t know! It's all a blur, things happened, but I can’t think of any details!”
Lightning glanced up, “It's like an old dream...it happened, but I can’t recall much of anything.” A rush of bravery filled her for a brief moment, taking a step forwards. “What did you do?”
One more thing she seemed to find amusing, “It doesn’t really matter, but it's nothing more than what I’ve been doing for the last 4 years or so.”
“Y-you’ve been...screwing with our heads all this t-time?!” Dash glared up at her, fists clenched again.
“Here and there.” She grinned coldly, “Gotta cover my tracks. Sometimes that means making a few kids forget a thing or two, keep the Shadowbolts and Wondercolts at odds. We’ve always been such bitter rivals after all. Just like that mess at CHS recently is exactly the type of thing my doppelganger would pull~”
Dust flinched back in surprise as the pin dropped.
“What did you do?” A fist collided with Sour’s stomach, earning a satisfying cough of surprise, “WHAT DID YOU DO?!”
“How did you-?” Sour was cut off by the very distracting force of being electrocuted by a screaming high schooler.
Lightning yelped in terror, falling back on her rump as she stared up at the two. Similar jagged, leathery wings fanned out from Rainbow’s back as violet electricity sparked to life around her. She hissed coldly, sending a blindingly fast punch into the other, knocking Sour back a fair bit. “Oh God, what?!”
Sour’s eyebrows shot up as she collected herself, looking over Rainbow in a new light. Her skin has darkened drastically and she now had similar black mist leaking from her eyes, hair sparking up in a flickering mess of colored lightning. “This is all YOUR fault!” Rainbow darted forwards, pinning Sour against a wall of lockers, “I thought my classmates were just idiots! You messed with them!”
Sour Sweet gasped in faux shock, “What? Me? Never!” The false surprise was quickly replaced by a cold smile, “Gotta practice my tricks somehow. Edging suspicion over your friend’s little ‘reformation’, gotta say, I think I’m getting pretty damn good at being precise with it.”
Rainbow screamed, grabbing hold of her by the neck and hurling her at a nearby window as hard as she could manage. The window stood no chance, it and parts of the wall giving way as Sour flew out the back of the school, landing with a WHUMP in a large mound of snow that had built up recently.
“Dash, we-!” Lightning started, only to cut herself off as the other demon flared her wings and shot out of the hole after her. “Oh dammit…” She groaned, sitting back against the wall. A skittering sound caught her attention as her hand bumped something. Turning to look, her eyes brightened. It seemed that Rainbow had dropped her phone at some point during the scuffle. She grabbed it eagerly and thanked several higher powers that it was already open to the contacts page. It seemed Rainbow had been waiting to call Sunset if things went south. Rapidly scrolling through the contact list, she found the number she needed. One ring was all it took.
“Dash? What’s going on over there? Did you find something out?”
“Uh, yeah, Sunset?”
“Wh-Lightning? Where’s Rainbow?”
Dust let out a long sigh, rubbing her face. Thunder rumbled outside, sky beginning to darken. “Yeah, you’re gonna want to get to Crystal Prep as soon as you can. We have a...small problem. Two small problems. We need some help over here.”
An errant bolt shot past Sour and shattered the glass of a nearby streetlight. Sour threw a ball of flame back, melting the snow covering a tree and igniting it’s branches.
“...bring those Shadowbolt girls you went to meet with you too. I think we could use a few more magic wielders.” Dust pursed her lips, hearing plenty of movement and background noise on the other side.
“Alright, we’re on our way. Now, talk to me.” Sunset finally got back to her, screeching tires echoing out from nearby.
A heavy weight sat on Sunset’s shoulders, wearing a grim expression as she listened to Dust’s explanation, her frown deepening with every passing second. “I see…” She blew out a slow breath, leaning back in the passenger seat with a resigned sigh, “Okay, just…stay out of danger until we get there. Yeah, I know there are demons involved. We’ll be there soon.” She clenched a hold of her armrest as she hung up, Aria taking a sweeping dive to the inside lane, a large black sedan not far behind them.
“Surprised that your friend can keep up with us.” Aria remarked, watching it follow the maneuver through light traffic.
“Starry’s got some unexpected talents.” Nightshade commented with a frown, currently riding in the back seat with Twilight, the Princess looking terrified for a number of reasons. “Just don’t dent my bro’s car. He’s not the type to get on me about it, but Shitflyer will. But yeah, so what’s going down at CP?”
“Demons? Again?!” Twilight squeaked, wide-eyed stare locked on Sunset.
“Yeah...Sour Sweet-”
“Oh Jesus Christ, really?” Nightshade groaned, facepalming, “She’s been some evil monster all this time? I knew it! Anyone that struts around a high school like that-”
“Before you go on and probably insult me by accident, per tradition, I’d like to point out that it sounds that she’s a victim of this cult as well.” Stanza cut in sharply. “Given the manner that most of you have changed identities against your will.”
There was an awkward silence until Twilight spoke up, “Insult y-Wait, she’s...?” Her face fell, realization dawning, “...another one?”
“Afraid so.” Sunset’s frown deepened, “Lightning’s rambling was hard to make out, but I was able to get that Sour Sweet is my mysterious human counterpart and that Dash is currently fighting her.”
“I always knew Wondercolts were weird.” Nightshade muttered under her breath.
“Wait, WHAT?!” Twilight gasped, “How can Rainbow single handedly fight a dark magic charged monster?!”
And here came the admission, “Well...you see, she was kinda dying at the time and I only was able to access one type of magic that could heal her and-” Sunset mused idly, tilting her head to the side as she looked out the window.
“She has a demon form too, doesn’t she?” Twilight responded lowly.
“Occasionally. If she’s transformed again, that would make this the second time it's happened. The first time, that power plant thing we mentioned earlier, she was pretty feral. She didn’t talk, and acted like some cornered animal. Only thing was, she wouldn’t hurt me.” She sighed, “Even her magic attack curved around me.”
“So even subconsciously she doesn’t want to see you hurt.” Twilight calmed down, smiling just a little. “I just wish you had explained the plant thing in full when I asked earl-“
“Okay, one sec?” Aria butt in, “This is all cutesy and all and the noble demon vying for Stanza’s love is great, but-” Sunset blushed hard, giving Aria a tight frown, “When did this happen? And why wasn’t I told?”
“Uh, what?” Sunset gave her a look., “Why would you need to be told? Nothing of serious consequence went down and the situation had been handled.” The reply came off a bit colder than she had intended, but it was nothing she would take back without reason.
“Look, I know you’re new to this and all.” Aria jerked the car into the middle lane, earning another pair of surprised cries from the backseat. “That and I didn’t really go into detail while at your friend’s place, but your safety kinda matters to me. I know you don’t fully trust me, crazy monsters trying to take over the world once upon a time and all, but the simple fact is you’re one of us now. That means you matter to us, that means we have your back as long as you have ours. There’s four of us now, one more than there had been for a millenia. You also saved our lives already and that kinda debt is a huge deal in our culture.”
Twilight leaned forwards, the prospect of knowledge almost enough to make her forget they were driving towards impending, fiery doom. “Is that anything like the dragon code?”
Aria rolled her eyes, “Not really. Their crap is a bit more official and almost like taking a servant. There are similarities, but amongst sirens, it's more a measure of your character in how you uphold your debts and gratitude.” She glanced back at Sunset, “And given I’m an Argonaut, I have a duty to the crown even without you saving our lives.”
Sunset stared at her, silent for a moment, “Thank you.” She managed, nodding, “I’ll be sure to keep all that in mind... and I won’t let you down.”
“We’ll do the same in turn.” Aria nodded, attention returning to the road in full. It wasn’t nearly as prevalent as Rainbow liked to show, but Sunset thought she could see a familiar thin veneer of fervor under the layers of abrasiveness.
“A two way streak, in a way?” Twilight spoke up again when she was certain Aria and Sunset had lapsed into silence.
The elder siren chuckled, “Curious, aren’t ya? Yeah, something like that. You scratch my back, I scratch yours, but don’t abuse the honor of me doing a favor in turn.”
Twilight blushed, assuming that was necessarily a bad thing, “Well...there isn’t much information on the sirens, and this is a huge opportunity to change that.”
“Have we all forgotten we’re still driving towards certain death?” Nightshade piped up.
“We’ll be fine, Nightshade.” Sunset assured, “It doesn’t sound like anything we can’t handle.” She glanced up at the street signs as they pulled back onto a two lane road, entering a more northern area of town.
“Fine?” Twilight looked over now, “Sunset, we needed the Elements of Harmony the last time something like this was about!” She reminded with a scared look, “And now we have two of them brawling!”
“Yes, well one is on our side, and we also have two sirens present.” Sunset reminded, pulling her phone back out, “Which reminds me.” She rapidly started typing out a text.
“I mean yes, but what if we need to stop Dash from rampaging too, once we stop the other Sunset?” Twilight asked, biting her bottom lip before being thrown back to her seat as Aria swerved into the parking lot.
Nightshade spoke up, “And, yeah, let’s talk about how we need to continue to have the magic thing on the down low? Great as the Canterlot PD is, they can’t cover up everything.”
“I can take care of anything Dash causes.” Sunset nodded with an air of confidence, “As for the aftermath? Well, we better make sure things stay confined then.” She smiled, stepping out of the car. Immediately, there was a tenseness in the air, and the sounds of grunting and angered shouts didn’t hide the source very well.
As they pulled in, Lightning Dust had run up to them, having escaped the building through a side door. “They’re...behind the….school.” She panted out.
“We figured as much.” Aria deadpanned, climbing out and tossing the keys over to Nightshade. “Now then, time to go to work.” She grinned darkly, only to be stopped when Sunset put her arm out, “What?”
“No full siren form.” Sunset ordered quickly, “Feel free to bring out your wings, but this can still be hidden easily enough. A giant purple dragon might be a bit too much for Captain Barrage to cover for us though. Not to mention, any sort of attack that wouldn’t easily hit a smaller target will probably leave more damage than they’d do alone.”
Aria mulled it over, nodding in resigned agreement a few moments later, “Fair point…” Honestly, she was rather disappointed. None of the three sirens had accessed their full draconic forms since getting their new Hearts yet, and missing a perfect opportunity to give it a good stretch was a little unfortunate. However, it was also a full invitation to still give her full powers a welcome back.
A flash emanated from her amulet and a red energy quickly spread over her, fading fast as it culminated on her back. Translucent, webbed, purple wings grew from between her shoulder blades, lifting her a few inches from the ground with no more than a flitter. Soon after, an equally purple scaled and webbed tail grew from the small of her back, swishing idly. Aria’s eyes opened, faded to a pure red. “Oh hoooo~ That feels good.” She grinned.
Nightshade’s eyes widened slightly as she watched. “Damn…”
“Uh...Stanza?” Twilight blinked in realization, turning to the other, “How much of their power did you restore again?”
Sunset just smirked in reply, taking a calming breath and mimicking the actions she had read in the journal. A moment later, she was at Aria’s eye level, floating mid-air. It felt odd to have that weight on her back after last time, as well as the moving weight of a tail as well. Glancing back at them, she was easily able to note their brilliant red color. Beyond that, they were a fair bit larger than Aria’s own.
Aria eyed them in what seemed like approval, giving a smirking nod and slightly exaggerated bow. “Your highness.”
“Could you two do this after you stop the bad guy!?” Dust gestured angrily.
Sunset chuckled, glancing to Twilight and Nightshade, “You two get to cover. Update the others when they pull in. We’ll deal with the situation.” Her voice was slightly altered. It didn’t echo quite like during her Fall Formal fun, but it carried an almost melodious undertone. It was oddly soothing.
The two gave a curt nod, Nightshade wasting no time to get to cover. Twilight, though, hung around for a moment, “Be safe, alright? I’ll let the other sirens know where you are and keep them from using their draconic forms.” With that, she dragged Dust along to where Nightshade was taking cover, thinking that she’d be keeping the humans safe.
Sunset could hear the sedan pull in right as she and Aria flew off, around the side of the building, intent on staying low. The scene she found was more or less what she was expecting. A very familiar red shape currently had Rainbow pinned to the ground, foot planted firmly on the side of her head, “Why won’t you stay down?!”
Rainbow responded with a piercing scream of anger, enough to even make the two sirens flinch. The same strange effect from the previous night started again as Dash’s head seemed to almost...split. She had started to shake at first, before her head violently split into two parallel duplicates, all four eyes glaring at Sour with furious intent and energy sparking between them.
“WHa-?!” Of course, this meant that Sour was no longer standing on her previous footrest, leg falling the missing few inches of Rainbow’s face and sinking into the snow between the two heads.
Dash grinned evilly and grabbed the leg, pushing her back in an impressive show of strength and pulling herself into the air with her wings, dangling the red demon in her grip, “Screw you, that’s why!” Her voice was even more layered with two heads, which soon reformed into a single one. With a heave, Dash swung her over her shoulder in a inverted pendulum, sending her face first into the ground. It very nearly left a snow angel in her place, earning a manic, amused snicker from Rainbow.
Sour’s eye twitched as she pulled herself out of the rapidly melting snowbank. Her hair flared upwards into an active inferno. Aria and Sunset decided to get involved when she grabbed hold of a streetlight, hefting it like bat.
“Alright, break it up, kids!” Aria called, making herself known first. Both girls looked over at her, Sour looking no less furious and Dash looking minorly annoyed. “Alright, which one of you is gettin’ grounded?”
“Screw off, Aria! I’m busy!” Rainbow spat venomously, hurling a javelin of lightning at Sour, her giant metal bat working as a wonderful conductor until the spasming demon dropped it. This earned another round of amused laughter from Dash and another angry shout from Sour.
“Damn, touchy.” Aria deadpanned in turn, glancing at Sunset. “Well? You said she’s not the type to take a shot at you.”
Sunset shook her head, descending and hovering next to Dash, looking at her oddly. Seeing it all this close was surreal, not as much as seeing the screaming child that was her human self down below, but a solid second.
Dash’s gaze whipped over to her, but the scowl melted away instantly upon seeing her, ‘Sunset.” She spoke, missing the guttural growl now.
“Hey, Rainbow.” She smiled, offering a nod to her, “Need a hand with her?”
“It's her fault.” And the snarl was back, “She caused all this. She did something to CHS. Magic, something with memories.”
“Calm down.” Sunset set a hand on her friend’s shoulder, “We’ll deal with that later, but we need to get her de-powered before we can manage anything else, okay? Just let us help with that.”
Dash snorted, eyeing Aria for a moment before nodding, “Alright, but I don’t want those three getting in the way.”
Sunset furrowed her eyebrows, “Thre-?”
“Sorry we’re late~” Adagio purred from behind them, “Flying and staying out of sight slows you down a bit.” Sunset glanced back, noticing Sonata had arrived too, both in a similar form to herself and Aria. Sonata looked over the moon despite the demons and Adagio just had that usual smirk on her face. “I’ve wondered for awhile now how a fight like this would’ve turned out.”
It was around then that Sour wanted to let them know how annoyed she had become at being ignored, charging up at the group, screaming bloody murder. Her hands outstretched, she shot off several balls of flame.
“Girls!” Adagio called, a surprisingly serious attitude now present from the woman. The other two sirens lined up either side of her, harmonizing to let out a wall of pounding sound waves. Sour was hit dead center, slowing to a crawl as she winced heavily, eyes screwing shut tightly.
Sunset responded justly, flying up behind and above the two, and joining in with the song. That itself was a bit of an experience. Externally, it didn't look like much more, but it felt much like being invited to come sit around a campfire with a group of friends after shivering in the cold. Welcoming, to put it simply.
A fourth voice was too much for the other to take, halting in her progression and desperately trying to block out the noise, screaming in frustration and pain. A perfect opportunity for the finishing blow. Dash happily took it, aiming a shot straight down the middle of the four, a bolt of lightning firing out and striking Sour dead center.
That final fifth strike was too much for the demon to take, shooting back down to the ground with more force than before. Sunset stopped singing as she hit, making an annoyed face as the dust and snow flurry cleared, leaving a small crater in its place.
The five came in for a gentle landing on the ground, Adagio and Sonata falling back to give an ‘all clear’ to the others. Stanza grabbed Marred’s shoulder before she could take another step towards the edge of the moderately sized hole in the ground. “Marred...not until you calm down.”
“I am calm…” She frowned, fangs poking out in a manner that Sunset may have teased over if the situation wasn’t as complex as it happened to be.
“Marred, demon form too.” She repeated, letting her own magic start to deplete, red fading away and turquoise irises returning. Sunset gazed up at her with a hard look, “Please, just take a breath and let the dark magic creep back. Just let the anger go for now.”
By now, the others had started peering around the edge of the school building, watching the scene between the two play out. Twilight was watching in studious awe, noting every action between the two. Despite her lack of natural magic as a human, she could still sense the dark magic flowing off the girl in waves.
Adagio on the other hand watched with a Cheshire smirk at the way the Sunset was approaching the situation, acting calm and almost soothing to her friend.
“...”
“Sun’s gettin’ real low…” Lightning Dust muttered.
“I understood that reference.” Sonata gasped quietly with a grin. Adagio took the liberty to smack them both.
“For me.” Sunset pleaded a final time.
That seemed to get more of a reaction out of the girl, lowering her head and sighing in resignation. Her sparking mess of hair returned to a limp ponytail, skin lightening again, and returning to her normal height. “...sorry.” Dash glanced away, feeling a little sheepish the past few minutes.
“You did what you had to do. Thanks for keeping Dust out of harm’s way, that and not getting yourself too banged up.” Sunset hugged her, a weight falling from her shoulders that she had forgotten was even there. “I’m just glad things are okay.”
Dash felt a bit of annoyance flare up again, not due to the hug, but the heat she felt rise to her cheeks during the hug, “Yeah, well, I ain’t afraid of some angry chick.” She coughed lamely.
“Well, from what I heard over the phone, this isn’t just any chick.” She pulled away, leaning over the edge of the crater and peering down. Sour Sweet was back in her human form, as expected, groaning slightly as she stared back, a empty frown forming on her face. “Hello, Sunset Shimmer.”
“Hello, bitch.” She echoed crudely.
“That’s not nice.” Sunset had the gall to deadpan back.
“I’m not nice!” She sneered, forcing herself up as if to leap out and scorch her. However, the sudden movement only resulted in her falling forwards onto her knees and crying out in pain. Sunset frowned, but wasn’t surprised. Getting thrown into the ground by the Elements of Harmony had roughed her up plenty, so it only made sense that taking a blast from five powerful beings of dark magic would be quite painful as well.
“You’re also hurt.” Sunset pointed out with a frown. Dash was looking progressively less angry as this went on, frowning blankly now.
“So what?” She snapped, “I’ve hurt before, nothing new here.” Sour forced herself back to her feet, wobbling precariously and falling again as soon as she tried to set a foot on the steep embankment. “Agh…”
“Stop that.” Dash frowned, “You’re just hurting yourself more.”
“Oh why would you give a crap? I just tried to incinerate you.” She rolled her eyes as she attempted it again. Sour frowned when another retort never came, but the clear sound of sliding dirt and rocks did. She looked over in time to see Dash hit the bottom of the slope, calmly walking over to her. “Oh, gonna kick me when I’m down, huh?” She sneered, “Well I’m not-”
“Shut up and come here.” Dash rolled her eyes, grabbing hold of her carefully and suddenly swinging her over her shoulder.
“HOW. DARE-”
“Just shut up and let me help you out of here.” Rainbow rolled her eyes again, making sure she wasn’t about to get raked across the back and dug her foot into the ground, taking a few advancing steps up before letting Aria and Sunset help the two all the way up. From there, she dumped Sour from her shoulder, letting her lay in the snow.
The scuffed up girl glared as the three stared down at her. “How do you feel?” Sunset asked.
“Cold. Pissed off.” She responded flatly, stewing angrily. If she tried summoning her demon form again, while she might be able to pull the energy to the ready, she’d certainly get stomped back down by the five once more. “So, you figured it out, huh bodysnatcher?”
“I’m not a movie monster from the 50s.” Sunset deadpanned at her, crossing her arms with a passive expression, “I’m every bit you as you are, just from-”
“Another dimension, yeah, I know.” Sour rolled her eyes, “You may be a Sunset, but you are not me. You don’t know a damn thing I’ve been through.”
“Maybe not the same, but I think I know a thing or two about you.” She shot back, cocking an eyebrow daringly.
“Oh yeah, like what?” She forced herself to sit up.
“We’re asking the questions here.” Aria glared, stepping forwards threateningly. Given the situation, Sour was furious to realize she had flinched back.
“Or at the very least we’re asking first. How do you know about Equestria?” Sunset cut in.
Sour Sweet snorted in amusement, “Because you and those idiot bandmate friends of yours told me. Not my fault you don’t remember~” She smirked knowingly. Noticing another angry flash on Dash’s face, her smile widened, “Oh, that’s right, you guys aren’t friends anymore.”
Even so, Rainbow held herself back, “You’re going to explain all of that. All of it.” She demanded, voice shaking.
“Oh yeah? Says who?!” She shouted back, scowling furiously.
Sunset sighed, nodding to herself. ‘She really is me. No one else I know would shout back at an enemy so vehemently after getting so thoroughly trounced.’ She cleared her throat, taking the floor once more, “Sour, look...you and Dash did a lot of damage in your little scuffle. I know I can clear her even without magic. You on the other hand…”
“Are you threatening to send me to jail?” She asked in bemusement, “Yes, jail the she-demon. That will work perfectly. Try sealing me in stone while you’re at it! I heard that’s got a great track record of working out back home with you guys!”
Sunset’s fists clenched for a moment, ‘How much does she know?’
“If I may?” A meek voice spoke up, Twilight poking into the conversation haphazardly, “W-well...it probably wouldn’t be too hard to imbue a pair of cuffs with an anti-magic charm. Especially given we have several magic users here in the city now. At the very least, her powers would be inaccessible from there.”
Sour’s eyes narrowed as she glared through Twilight. Sunset had no intention of sending Sour off to Lightspeed Barrage. At least, not at the moment. Given the larger, looming threat, she was an asset in information if anything. However, the idea was worth it just to see the angry look on her face. “Sparkle.” She sneered.
“Trotter.” Dust mimed as the rest of the group approached, eyeing her with a mixture of disgust and suspicion.
“Ohhhh, if it isn’t the whole peanut gallery!” Sour smiled mockingly, “Come to stand around some more and play DnD while the rest of us actually learn our powers?” Came the inevitable dark followup.
“Pleasant.” Starry frowned harshly, “Sour, my mother is going to have quite a few words for you once she sees what you’ve done. What you are.”
“Dean Cadence too.” Blitz nodded with a sad look.
Twilight was very nearly distracted by the happily familiar name, but was able to keep on topic for the moment, “So what’s it going to be, Sour Sweet? Explain things to us, or go to jail?” She frowned as well, feeling echoes of disappointment. She didn’t like the way such an ultimatum sounded, coming from her. ‘This is how Sunset could’ve turned out.’ Twilight mentally mused, ‘She didn’t, but this is just another possible path.’
Sour was silent for several seconds longer, “...ffffine. If it gets you assh-holes off my b-back.” She stuttered, cold really starting to catch up on her now.
Dash sighed, “You had another set of clothes inside. C’mon, let’s go get those and then we can really talk in full.” She nodded when Sour didn’t reply, picking her up again, bridal style this time, careful to avoid causing discomfort.
Dust blew out a long sigh, the group collectively following. “Well let’s look on the brightside.” Several gazes shot towards her, “After all this? How much worse can things really get?”
A sudden loud shattering sound echoed out, a shard of window falling from the second floor hole in the wall, making near everyone jump. Blitz screeched in terror, jumping into Starry’s arms and knocking them both over.
“...S-SORRY!” A voice from above called nervously.
“Oh no.” Twilight muttered, glancing up with all the others to see a frazzled, frightened girl peering down at them with wide eyes framed with thick rimmed glasses. A purple and green dog ran up to her side, growling and barking down at the group.
The two parties just stared at each other for a long time.
THWACK
“OW!” Dust shouted in alarm, hitting the snow from Aria’s fist.