Everyone had bad days. Some more than others, some hardly at all, but Sunset Stanza was starting to feel like the deck was seriously stacked against her somehow. She had no way to prove it, no evidence to even start an argument that the universe lacked any sort of pity for the young siren, but it was getting more than a little annoying to deal with Princess Twilight’s kind of near-weekly evil-doers.
Of course, today’s had to be even more aggravating than nearly all of the others.
Stanza was huddled behind Marred’s car, protecting herself from the gale force winds around her and the flurry of insults from her side.
“You’re a real idiot, your highness!” Came the words of her rather charming human duplicate, “Twilight’s a smart girl! She’ll be safe collecting a little magic to study~” Came the annoyingly accurate mockery from Sour Sweet, “Now you’re the one allowing more she-demons!”
“Actually, she looks more like some eastern video game boss reject!” Even if her timing for smart-alec comments were as stellar as always, Stanza was happy to hear Marred’s voice from above in place of Sour’s shouting.
“Stop comparing me to that dumb game!” The angered, echoing voice of Twilight Sparkle thundered with surprising volume for the meek nerd. This was quickly followed by a scream fused with a voice crack, the telltale sign of Marred Spectrum barely dodging a blast of magic.
“It’s really sad how normal this is for me after just a few months.” Stanza sighed, glancing up at the stormy sky. Lightning was flashing around them, bolts of two violet auras crashing into each other.
“Yeah, how do you think I feel, seahorse?” Sour deadpanned, peeking over the car’s hood to launch off a volley of fireballs up at her old source of lunch money. “I’ve been doing this for nearly a year now!”
Another yelp sounded from Marred as she darted away from her close quarters combat, allowing Twilight to be accosted with the flames, which earned another angry scream.“You seem really upset! Have you tried Dean Cadence’s breathing exercises?!” The rainbow-hued demon continued to ‘help’.
“I almost miss CHS. Things were so much simpler back then. Stealing crowns, band competitions, and cyber-bullying. No cults, or wandering monsters, or weather vanes.” Stanza shook her head, typing at her phone and calmly asking in all caps why Aria and the other sirens weren’t there yet.
“Weather va-? Nevermind, you have the opportunity to get killed either way! So I’m fine with that.” Sour Sweet responded as she rolled behind another parked car, a purple beam of magic shooting past them both. “And why aren’t you helping?!”
“Love you too, Sourpuss.” Stanza chuckled in return.
“No.”
“And it’s the same reason I told you to stick to fire. Dark not-demon our dorky friend may be-”
“She’s not my friend.”
“She’s still running off of stolen light magic.” Stanza persisted nonetheless, “You can meet her next blast with one of your dark beams if you’d like, but I doubt Captain Barrage can cover up that large of a crater in the middle of the street.”
“...you really think the explosion would be that big?” Sour hesitated, half tempted to give it a shot.
“The unstable combination of innate portal magic and four magically charged teens versus one Sunset Shimmer?” Stanza tilted her head, “I’m thinking we lose a street block at best.” She glanced back down at her phone, frowning at the misspelled request for ‘10 more minutes’, “And unless I want to break and drain every water main in the neighborhood, I don’t think I have many options for fighting her head on. Music isn’t going to soothe the savage beast here.”
Sour paused, opening her mouth to suggest a third option.
“I am not eating her.”
Sour closed her mouth.
Another flash filled the sky and Marred was flung into the pavement below, “Ya know, I’m a pretty good fighter! Been training with Aria for more than a few months now. Can I PLEASE stop playing DISTRACTION?!” Fast as she had come down, she rocketed back into the sky, claws outstretched towards her foe, only to be forced to divert course lest she zip right into one of Twilight’s new wormholes.
“Twilight! Stop tearing apart the fabric of reality and opening up interdimensional rifts, you stupid genius!” Sour shouted into the sky, head practically on fire even without her demon wings. “I wanna go home and eat, dammit! You’re wasting my time!”
“No! You’ve been wasting my time!” Sparkle decided to fire back this time, with words that is. Making sure Marred was still held at bay, she continued. “Stanza! You promised me that I’d learn this magic, that you’d teach me!”
“Yeah, But this ain’t how it’s done though! Trust me on that one!” Stanza held back the knowing laugh, feeling just slightly bitter that Twilight didn’t seem to be in nearly as much pain as Sunset’s own first little transformation had caused her. Perhaps that was just the difference between light and dark. “Why not just knock it off, you come down here and we all go...get some drinks and laugh about this all?”
“No! I’m tired of waiting! How dare you keep this kind of magic from me! You know that I’m ready for this, that I can do great things with it!” Twilight hissed, ready to go into a long monologue.
“Okay. No.” Stanza stood now, not even close to ready for a round of ‘Celestia berates the student’ with Twilight. “Alright, Sparkle. Even if I can’t talk you down with a song, I can still smack you around with a solo!” Transparent webbed wings weaved themselves into existence on her back, a matching siren tail forming below, and her pupils faded, eyes shifting to a ruby red glow, all magnified by the gleam of her amulet.
Of course, this was always a spectacular thing to watch in person, but it did take a second to ‘siren up’ (as Marred had once put it, before being slapped by Adagio). Beyond that, not everyone was so enraptured by it, especially when annoyed or angry. Twilight Sparkle was both at the moment, and by the time Stanza was hovering off the ground, ready to face the transformed teen, a pillar of bright magic was already streaking down at her.
“Catch!” Sour suddenly called behind her, something clonking the Queen in the head, flipping over her, and landing in her palms.
“Sour, I sweAR TO FU-” Stanza didn’t get to finish her angered death threat as the beam engulfed her.
Everyone had bad days. It couldn’t just be her.
Canterlot High was being pelted by powerful gusts of wind. There was a cacophony of panicked cries from the other students as they either scrambled for cover or desperately tried to pull their fellow classmates from harm’s way.
If one wanted to locate the source responsible for the most recent wave of anarchy that threatened the school, all they would need to do was look to the dark skies above.
The human version of Twilight Sparkle, or rather, the corrupted creature that she had become, had a maniacal gleam in her eyes as she fired off an onslaught of magical beams in every direction. With each blast, a new rift had been torn through reality. If left unchecked, the entirety of the human world ran the risk of either being forcibly sucked into Equestria or worse.
Sunset, at the risk of her own safety, ran out from behind the cover of a nearby car and screamed at the top of her lungs. “Twilight, you need to stop this! You’re going to destroy everything!”
The demon momentarily ceased her frenzied assault and slowly turned towards the Equestrian with an arched eyebrow, wisps of dark magic flickered from her eyes as she glared down at Sunset with utter contempt. “And why should I listen to you? You aren’t exactly in the best position to do anything to stop me even if you tried!”
“Sunset, she’s lost it!” a familiar voice cried out, one that the fiery-haired student immediately recognized as belonging to her friend Snips. She turned her back just for a moment to see that the pudgy teen was frantically motioning for her to run back towards the school. “Hurry and get back here where it’s safe!”
Safe.
Sunset scoffed at the word. There was no such thing as “Safe” in this scenario. If Twilight continued on like this, wildly tearing reality asunder with little to no regard for herself and for those around her, then soon enough, no place would be safe. As a matter of fact, some of the rifts that Twilight had created were beginning to increase in size the longer that they stayed open.
“Twilight, just listen to me for a second, alright?!” she tried again. “The magic inside you is running out of control! I’ve been there before, and I know how it feels, but this isn’t you! You need to stop this before this entire world gets ripped apart!”
The creature looked down at Sunset with an expression that was a mix of irritation and unsuppressed rage. “Oh, now I see … you’ve known about the magic here all along! I bet you wanted it all for yourself, which would more than explain why you’ve been trying to interfere with my experiments at every turn!”
“What?! N-no, that’s not-” Sunset was quickly cut off before she could finish.
“Well too bad! I won’t stop until I’ve learned everything that there is to know about magic! And with this new power, no one’s going to get in my way or tell me what to do. Especially you!” She pointed her open palm towards Sunset and then, seconds later, a shapeless mass of corrupted magic had begun to form. “Now, I think it’s time for you to disappear, along with everything else!”
Sunset looked on in absolute terror. ‘Nothing I say is going to get through to her!’ she realized. She frantically tried to come up with something, anything, that could help end this crisis before the situation had the chance to spiral any further out of control. It was then, by pure chance, that she spotted the strange device that Twilight had used to drain the magic from Rarity and the others. It was located not too far away from the damaged remains of the Canterlot High statue.
The high schooler suddenly got an idea, and just in the nick of time too; endless volleys of magic were beginning to rain down in her direction.
Sunset bobbed and weaved through the mystical hailstorm while making a mad dash towards her target. If she could just get her hands on that device, then maybe she could use Twilight’s own creation against her. It worked on the girls after all, and, if nothing else, it seemed like a better option than just standing around like a frightened child while the world was being picked apart.
Unfortunately, Twilight must’ve pieced together at least some inkling of an idea about what the other girl was plotting, or maybe it was a simple case of dumb luck.
The very instant that Sunset had plucked the device from the ground, there was an incoming beam hurtling towards her exact location. By the time she had taken notice the blast was already a mere fraction of a second away from connecting. It was far too late to even think about trying to dodge.
Sunset had just enough time to swear under her breath before her perception of reality had faded away into a blank nothingness.
The silence of a plane eternally uninhabited was broken with the pained groan of a troubled teenager. Stanza pulled herself to her knees, squinting at the ground below her, if it was fair to even call it that. It was there. She could feel it and was clearly not falling through empty space. Despite that, the white nothingness below her lacked texture, temperature, or any other identifying characteristic.
Deciding that spending any more time considering the texture of a not-floor would lead to her having some sort of existential crisis, she climbed back up to her feet, looking ahead of her with a sigh. Stanza’s heart sank to her feet as she surveyed more white nothing. There was no telling where the horizon separated the above from the below. For all she knew, it stretched on for eternity or even was a single inch away from her face. A disgruntled groan of annoyance followed her earlier one. Her only saving grace was that this wasn’t the strangest thing to ever happen to her. Otherwise, she’d probably be panicking, running around and screaming for someone else.
Shortly afterwards, there came a sound from somewhere behind Stanza, like that of another person being stirred from a deep slumber. Sunset groggily opened her eyes and was met with a slight headache. She wasn’t sure if it was from getting hit by Twilight’s blast or if it was the sudden exposure to the endless sea of white nothingness that was to blame for her discomfort. It was very possible that it could’ve been all of the above.
The high schooler closed her eyes and laid there for a moment longer before opening them again. Nothing had changed and she was forced to once again endure the same surroundings from seconds ago.
Finally coming to terms with the fact that this was the new environment that she had found herself in, and that this clearly wasn’t a dream, Sunset rose to her feet and gave herself a quick once-over.
As far as she could tell, none of her body parts were missing and she didn’t appear to have any alarming new injuries aside from a slight soreness from where she had assumed that she had gotten hit earlier.
‘Speaking of which ...’ Sunset glanced downwards and picked a small circular shaped object from off the ground. She still had Twilight’s device in her possession. Good. Now all she needed to do was figure out where she was and how to leave before anyone from CHS got zapped into … wherever she was now. The last thing she needed was to get stuck with someone annoying, which from perspective could be narrowed down to almost the entire student body save three or four people at best.
After sticking the device in her coat pocket for safekeeping, she did a quick survey of the area in order to see if she could spot anything worthy of note. What she found instead after turning around, was another person, female by the looks of it, with blue hair decorated by streaks of yellow.
‘Looks like I’m stuck here with someone else after all,’ Sunset thought to herself following an eyeroll. She took a deep breath before waving towards her new cohabitant in an effort to get her attention.
Stanza too had found a familiar compact device between her boots, frowning when she realized it had been the device Sour had so kindly tossed at her head. ‘Well, I suppose that’s a start. Maybe I can unbreak reality with it?’ She rolled her eyes at the thought. However, movement caught her attention, train of thought being discarded for the moment as she looked over at the source, eyes widening in surprise. She stared across at the other girl for several long seconds, hesitantly approaching when she realized the Sunset wasn’t that far away. ‘And to think my day was weird enough.’
The siren looked the newcomer up and down as she neared, confirming that it was indeed distance and this wasn’t a much younger Shimmer. Stanza had to admit, whoever this duplicate was, she had style. The new jacket was a slick upgrade alongside the boots, and the blue top was certainly her color. Fashion choices aside, a much more pressing topic came to the forefront of her mind. Last time, another Sunset meant a large problem on top of another enormous problem. The thought in mind, Stanza kept herself on high alert.
The other Sunset slowly stopped her movements the instant that she was able to get a closer look at the woman. Face scrunched up in confusion, she looked Stanza over, double checking to make sure that she wasn’t imagining things.
Nope. They definitely had the same face.
Sunset took a half step forward after some hesitance and slowly gave the Siren Queen an experimental poke in the arm. After getting a weird look in response, she took a step back and asked the first two questions that came to mind. “Why do you look like me and how did you get here?”
Not keen to respond to a question without retaliating for the poke, Stanza was more than happy to respond in kind by poking Shimmer’s cheek, “I could ask you the same thing. Though technically, neither of us actually look like each other. Specifically, you look how I used to, but I suppose that’s neither here nor there. To erase any shadow of a doubt, you are Sunset Shimmer, correct?” Stanza brought a hand to her chin, looking the other over methodically. She seemed roughly the same age, though it was hard to tell just eyeballing it. Even so, the same was true with ponies. “As for how I got here, a friend of mine went overboard in both her science experiments and how eager she is to...learn.” Stanza blew out a frustrated breath.
“I see … well, I’m Sunset, just like you guessed. And last I checked I don’t have a big sister,” she replied, having decided to ignore getting poked in the face by a perfect stranger. Not that she could blame her, she did just get finished poking the woman in the arm not even 10 seconds ago. “And your trip here sounds similar to what happened to me not too long ago, judging by the fact that I still feel a little sore.” She brushed a hand across her mid-region for emphasis.
“A new girl transferred to my school a couple weeks ago,” Sunset continued, “She was working on … we’ll call it a really advanced science project. Things got out of control. One magic blast later, and all of a sudden I wake up here, talking to …” Sunset paused and stared at the siren once again, still trying to make sense of why they looked so similar to one another. “Whoever you’re supposed to be.”
“You can call me Stanza for simplicity, as Sunset would get confusing and frustrating, and I feel like no matter what world you may be from, referring to me as ‘your highness’ would be beneath you.” She chuckled with a coy grin, “Odd you look the way you do. Forgot I used to wear my hair that long.” The siren reached behind herself, brushing at her shortened locks. “As for myself, well, Twilight’s human counterpart is about as ready for advanced magic as I was 6 years ago.”
Stanza stretched, looking around and frowning after a moment, “You know, despite there just being nothing here, you wanna sit and chat? Standing isn’t getting us anywhere after all, and considering we woke up here? I wouldn’t want to wander far.”
Sunset weighed her options and concluded that Stanza might’ve had a point and that perhaps staying put wasn’t necessarily a terrible idea. The high schooler still didn’t trust her completely just yet, but best case scenario she’d possibly have a second head to try and find an exit with. She nodded once, and then took a seat on what she assumed was the floor.
“Alright, Stanza, so it’s starting to sound like you might be me from the future.” Sunset was surprised by how casual her statement was regarding the absurdity of the situation. However, given some of her past experiences, something like this was surprisingly still in the realm of normality. “But then again, I don’t see how that’d make sense because it sounds like you’re just now dealing with Earth’s Twilight. If you really are supposed to be me, then you should’ve taken care of this already.”
Stanza’s eyebrow raised considerably from the conclusion, “An interesting theory, no doubt there, but I doubt that’s the case. Just visually, I know I never owned that ensemble you’ve got, and then there’s the issue with Earth’s Twilight Sparkle.” She nodded in agreement, “So time travel can be ruled out, given that if we’re not from the same point in time, we’re dealing with the same event in itself.” She hummed thoughtfully as she joined her double on the ground, “Twilight, she’s a...well, not a demon, more of some dark fairy lookin’ thing?”
“More or less,” Sunset replied, “Dark wings, kinda looks like an alicorn in a way, but the horn’s all jagged looking.” She explained just before reaching inside of her pocket and pulling out the device from earlier. “Somehow she used this to drain the magic from the girls. It looked like it got overloaded somehow, and then she changed into that thing. It didn’t seem like it was intentional, but she’s not herself anymore.”
“Yeah, that sure sounds familiar,” Stanza rolled her eyes, “I swear, if she ends up in a crater by the end of this, I will smile at whatever deity is mocking me and walk backwards into Tartarus.” She flicked a bang out of her eyes, sitting back somewhat. “She got magic from the portal too, so she’s got a good bit of mana backing her up.”
“The portal … right. I almost forgot that it stopped working around the time that she showed up. That might explain why she has the ability to tear holes in reality just by shooting off what looks like a basic beam styled spell. After talking things out didn’t work, I thought about using her machine to try and power her down to the point where’d snap out of it. Instead, I got hit. Would I be wrong in guessing that that’s pretty much how you got here too?”
“More or less,” Stanza nodded with an embarrassed nod, “She got me right as I left the ground. I can only assume that’s the result of being hit with a reality splicing spell?” She shrugged, “So, getting the possibility of time travel out of the way, I assume the other possibility is that this is more of a parallel timeline or alternate dimension?”
“I wouldn’t find it all that surprising if that’s the case. What I am amazed at is the fact that we both apparently got hit by the same spell at relatively the same time,” Sunset shook her head in disappointment, “By the way, are you going up against her all by yourself like I am, or do you have other people backing you up?”
“I don’t think it’s that unbelievable,” Stanza disagreed, “If this is proof of multiverse theory or at least the Doc’s thing from the time travel movie with the car, then that means the chances of two different Sunsets getting hit at the same time is actually 100 percent. It just happened to be us,” She paused, thinking it over for a moment, “Or at least, I assume it’s something along those lines. That aside, I have half of my usual crew present. One’s taking her head on with elemental magic and the other’s hiding because she has no magic. The other half, all three other sirens, were short of 10 minutes out when I got slammed. We also have our little 7th ranger of the group, but I’d call her an uneasy ally at best. She kinda hates my guts for even existing, so we try to avoid each other unless we absolutely have to.”
“You’re hanging with the sirens?” Sunset asked in surprise, “Weird. I haven’t seen them since I talked Twilight, the Princess not the human, into whipping up a batch of replacement Heart Stones to make up for the ones that got destroyed. Good to hear that you’ve got your own little circle of friends that you keep around though. The number of people that I associate with took a pretty big nosedive not too long ago. Not that I’m complaining. It turned out to be one of the best things to ever happen to me in the long run. It’s mainly just me, Snips, and Snails now,” She explained matter-of-factly.
“Twilight made the Heart Stones?” Stanza gawked, “I’m shocked she knows how to. As far as I was aware, it’s supposed to be a big secret that only a siren queen can manage,” She laughed, shaking her head in mild amusement, “Yeah, they’re odd enough, between Aria’s style of physical training and surprisingly laid-back attitude, Sonata’s personality and sublime cooking skills, and Adagio’s…uh, everything, they make for interesting company in their own right. The others and some of the Shadowbolts just make things even more surreal every day,” As the next topic came about through, her expression turned dour, “Oh. I see you went through something similar then? Let me guess, a small group of kids did more damage than 3 sirens or 3 and a half years of us could ever do?”
Sunset’s features went cold as she focused a bit more intently on Stanza, “Sounds like we might have more in common than I thought. You’re talking about that stupid little webpage Apple Bloom and her two sidekicks threw together, right?”
Stanza didn’t bother with the name, amulet glowing with her darkened expression, “Yeah. That one, little brats,” She huffed, “Several months ago now. Ticks me off, which is a massive improvement over where I was given how my wonderful classmates decided to get involved.”
Sunset took notice of the shiny red gem around her older self’s neck, deciding that she’d ask about it later. “I just had my six month anniversary a few days before Twilight transferred to CHS. Fun times,” She remarked with heavy sarcasm, “In a way, it helped me a little. Up until that point, I thought everything was fine. With as much as everyone smiled and waved and made me feel like I was actually welcomed for once; I thought that all of that work I put into trying to better myself had finally counted for something. Then tweedle-dee, tweedle-dumb, and tweedle-dumber unintentionally lifted the curtain and pointed out what everyone else really thought.”
Sunset had a slight sneer on her face as she reflected on past events,“Won’t be making that mistake again. Cutting ties with the girls was probably one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.”
Stanza considered her response for a moment, “I would agree that...after all was said and done, Anon-a-Miss, the end results that is, was the best thing to happen to me in the human world. It cleared up where who stood in terms of loyalties and who was just waiting to sink their teeth into me. No shock Gilda was biding her time, and while I never took the girls for the types to do that to me, Applejack’s behavior during the Battle of the Bands and the fact that we broke them up with the most basic of fake texts...well, to quote another: ‘Maybe we were never a group of friends to begin with,’” She sighed, shaking her head, thinking for a few moments longer.
“I really like to think I’m in a better place now. All three of the sirens have really driven home how indebted they are to me, with Aria and Sonata more than happy to use the term ‘friend’ by this point. Adagio’s not suspicious of anything, so that seems equivocal based on our interactions. I’ve managed to find a few friends in more surprising places like Crystal Prep, and in the end, Fluttershy hasn’t been blocked on my contacts list due to an...incident, yeah that’s right, in between now and Winter Break’s close. Say what you like about yours, but mine’s...decent,” She shrugged flatly, not willing to dig for anything more of a compliment.
“You’re on good terms with Fluttershy again? To each their own, I guess,” Sunset replied after a long period of thought. The idea of still being friends with any of her former friends after everything that had taken place just before Christmas break was an alien concept to her. Each one of them had abandoned her without a second thought when she desperately needed them the most. The fact that they were supposed to be friends and yet they still believed that she had it within herself to betray the group like that was something that she found baffling to this very day. Still, she made sure to keep her real thoughts to herself so as not to risk offending the woman in front of her. “Is it just Fluttershy, or are you friends with any of the others too?”
“Well, she’s the only one I’m on okay terms with that actually ditched me,” Stanza nodded, “And, really, friend is a strong word. I...don’t avoid her. I say hi. I smile,” She shrugged, “Only one other person from our old group is the one that joined me tied up at the worst sleepover of all time...Gilda has way too much free time on her hands to kidnap two people.” She deadpanned dryly, rubbing her face as another sigh broke through her lackluster defenses, “I could really use a beer right now. This story just makes me tired, it pisses her off.”
“What do you mean, two people?” Sunset asked cautiously, “I got steamrolled by Gilda and her legion of idiots too, but when I got attacked and left out to die, it was just me. Snips and Snails bailed me out afterwards, but as far as kidnappings go, there was no one else there.”
“I had one person that thought I was innocent and hung back with me. So clearly, she was my co-conspirator and needed to be taught the same lesson,” She tossed out a lazy gesture, sneering off into the white void, “We were found by a trio of Shadowbolts and carted off to Canterlot General.”
The high schooler cast a passive glance towards the ‘ground’ while silently comparing some of the events in Stanza’s life to her own. She had a nice batch of friends that she seemed comfortable with, one of the girls from her timeline had cared enough to at least give her a chance to prove her innocence, and she found it within herself to forgive another one of her former friends even after getting snubbed over the faultiest of logic. Sunset wasn’t sure if she herself would ever be willing to overlook a breach of trust that sunk that far down.
“You’re a lot more forgiving than I am, and it sounds like things are going pretty well for you overall,” Sunset finally replied, “Whatever happened to Gilda and the other students who helped her with the kidnapping?”
“Oh, we threw them the Hell in jail!” Stanza scoffed, grinning slightly at getting asked that directly after being complimented on her forgiveness skills, “Lightning Dust got her nose broken in the fight and was sent off to the hospital. She gets out and hears what went down in full and darts over to the cops about it. She’s a punk, but she’s not a murderer.”
“Not a murderer, huh? Where I’m from that might be more than a little debatable depending on how much she actually knew about Gilda’s plan. She’s the main reason why I wasn’t able to escape the ambush they laid out for me. She paid for it when I decked her in the nose though. I don’t know if I broke it or not, but she definitely felt it afterwards,” Sunset replied back.
“Same on my side, but…” Stanza shrugged, tilting her head a bit and agreeing, “She made it more than easy for us to get the others locked up, Gilda especially. She tends to hang around us now. The friend I mentioned with no powers? That’d be her,” She chuckled at the thought, “I think she was peeking out the window of the local coffee shop before I got blasted. This might be the third time she’s had to directly deal with a demon incident and is about as capable of handling it as she was last time.”
“The sirens, two of my former friends, and one of the students who helped Gilda,” Sunset calmly recited the different people who Stanza had confirmed that she’d been keeping company with. “That’s a pretty diverse group you’ve got there. Although, if it’s true that Lightning doesn’t have any notable skills like the rest of you, then what was the point in her coming along for the ride while you were trying to get a grip on Twilight? Seems to me like she’d be needlessly putting herself at risk.”
“Indirect witness protection at first, that and insistence. We recently found a, well, an old airship back on our island though. Dust seems to be taking a...rather fanatical interest in it,” She paused, considering her words, “Maretonia is our base of operations back home, the Sirens’ old island. It was-” Another snicker from Stanza as she remembered the voice crack that always seemed to follow this word, “Again, to quote another, awesome!”
“You have your own island, and said island was owned by the Sirens’ in the past …” Sunset cast a glance at the sparkling red gem hanging from Stanza’s neck, finding that to be just a tad more interesting than talking about one of her assailants, “I take it you’re one of them somehow; I know a Heart Stone when I see one. And seeing as how you joked earlier about me calling you ‘Your Highness’ … that would make you some sort of Siren Monarch, right?” She slowly deduced, “What’s the story behind that one?”
Stanza nodded to confirm, “Queen, yes. I inherited the title from Crescendo, the previous ruler after my night in the cold. I...well, I died,” She winced, shrugging loosely as she got that out of the way, “I mean, the damage was extensive. I don’t think I was going to make it even if I hadn’t had a reaction to the meds they gave me,” Stanza glanced down, playing with the necklace between her fingers idly, “...I honestly don’t know if I was worse off than Dash or not,” She shook her head, thoughts going back to that morning, waking up and looking nothing like herself, finding Dash sliced and frozen in the bed beside her own. A shiver wracked her form.
Sunset gave her counterpart an odd look. She quickly figured that her ‘Death’ must have been the result of whatever actions Gilda had taken against Stanza during her timeline, something that she found believable enough given her own experience with the short-tempered psycho. “So, the old ruler tossed you a lifeline and gave you her old spot. And I’m assuming then that Dash was the one from our old circle who decided to hear you out instead of immediately jumping on board the ‘Blame Everything on Sunset Shimmer Express’. Does that sound about right so far?” There was a subtle harshness in her voice at the mention of the multi-hued girl’s name.
She nodded, “That’s accurate. Dash was my lifeline through the incident. Got herself cut, frozen, and stabbed for her troubles. I was able to heal her after I came back, but dark magic is...iffy. Her colors got a little messed up and she’s using the alias Marred now. It was a split second name, and we all tease her for it, I assure you.”
The high schooler tapped her finger against the floor, producing an echo in the empty space she found herself in. “If she really did stick with you during that trainwreck, then I’m glad you at least had some level of support. The Rainbow Dash from my timeline on the other hand, she’s a different case all together. The issues that I have with her are worse than anything I have with the others. In some ways, she pisses me off more than Gilda.”
The siren queen whistled, long and low, “Stars...seriously? More than the girl that tried to kill you? I can understand different world, different Dash, but what could she have done that gets her that mark?” Stanza sat up again, tilting her head in worry.
Sunset closed her eyes in concentration while doing her best to word her feelings in a way that’d make sense. When she opened them again, her gaze held a cold fury, and yet her tone remained calm and collected. “Simply put, Gilda’s a brute. She always has been and it’s something that you can always count on her to be. After Snips and Snails came to the rescue, the fact that she was the one who helped put that trap together didn’t come as that much of a shock. Because, again, all she knows how to do is throw her hands around and act tough when she has a problem with someone.”
There was a brief delay while Sunset’s gaze had slowly sharpened to that of the deadliest of blades, “And then there’s Dash. Nevermind the part where she turned her back on me just like everyone else, or anything that she might have said or did whenever I tried to get the girls to at least hear me out … she helped Gilda plan the very attack that almost killed me. And while she claims that she didn’t know just how far her old pal was going to take things, she was still perfectly fine with me getting stomped out in the gym. Element of Loyalty my ass …”
“My ass as well,” Stanza frowned, scooching alongside her double now, “I hope you gave her something to chew on after it was all said and done? She sounds like a total bitch. Sorry to bring mine up,” She winced lightly, glancing down for a moment before resting a hand on Shimmer’s shoulder, “We can change topics if you’d like.”
Sunset took a deep breath, and then her expression softened a little. She didn’t do anything to protest against Stanza moving closer or her comforting gesture either. “How long do you think we’ve been in here for?” She asked after a while, “I don’t mind talking to you like this, because who’d better understand the problems weighing you down than yourself? But at the same time … Twilight’s still out there wrecking havoc. Your world is probably in good hands either way, but mine? I doubt the girls can handle Twilight even if they’ve somehow recovered to the point where they can ‘Pony Up’ again.” She had a look of mild annoyance on her face now. “I swear, they can’t get anything done without me being there to save the day.”
“Considering nothing else exists here? I’d be shocked if time even passes,” Stanza frowned up at the sky, “For all I know, Twilight’s blast hasn’t even dissipated yet. Marred is still sprawled on the sidewalk with her wing in her face and Sour Sweet is mid-snark at me,” She shrugged, “I don’t think we’ll be getting any kind of result if we wait here for rescue,” Looking down at Twilight’s absorption device again, she hummed in interest, “You grabbed yours too, before you were blasted, right?”
Sunset reached down into her pocket again and held out the device where her counterpart could see it. “Yeah, it’s right here. Why?”
“Curious. So we were both blasted by a magic that is mostly from absorbed portal energies and we both had the device used to absorb said magic when we were hit. I’m not sure of the specifics, but that smells like some sort of link to me. There has to be a connection,” She nodded, popping it open and examining the interior of her own.
The high schooler studied the device in her hands. She could feel the power of Harmony trapped inside, almost like it was begging for release. She stared for a moment longer, pondering over everything she knew about Twilight’s creation and how it worked. All of a sudden she was struck by the beginnings of a potential escape plan.
“Some weird things have been happening all over CHS ever since Twilight got started with her little experiment. Faint traces of magic seeping into the air around the school … objects and creatures that were clearly Equestrian in origin mysteriously popping up here and there. Up until recently, I didn’t have a clue what was causing it. But then I watched Twilight siphon the magic from Rainbow Dash after she stood up for Sweetie Belle after some kids were giving her a hard time. Immediately after Rainbow went down, her device started spasming out and then it opened up some sort of wormhole that I’m pretty confident led into Equestria.”
Sunset clutched the device in her hand and mulled it over some more before she felt confident enough to announce what she was thinking. “Maybe we can use this to tear open an exit?”
Stanza smirked confidently, holding up her own, “More than that, I think we can tear open two,” Twirling it in her hand, she nodded, “Hell, I have little doubt that we might be able to open a full-on tunnel connecting our worlds. You said it yourself, without you, they’re doomed. How’d you like a little backup?”
The high schooler looked over at the Siren Queen with an amused smirk of her own. “Considering how bad things were right before I came here? I’ll take any help I can get.” She stood back up, giving her body a much-needed stretch, “Alright, so how should we go about doing this? It activates in response to magic. I could try singing? That sometimes does the trick.”
Stanza couldn’t help but grin at the suggestion, “All due respect to someone I know has a lovely singing voice, but if we’re talking about song-induced magic, perhaps that’s best left to the siren queen?” She chuckled, holding two fingers to her gem to drive the point home, “That said, can you still access your magic?”
“First, I just want to point out that once this thing detects magic, it drains every last drop from your body and the person on the receiving end is left in a weakened state. If any of us should take one for the team, I think it should probably be the one of us who’s more expendable than the other. As for me being able to access my magic …” Sunset glanced down at the device with uncertainty, “I don’t know. Never had a reason to try up until now. It’s probably worth a shot though.”
“Well, if you close it, won’t it cut off the drain? From what I recall, Twilight just wanted it all and didn’t care for safety,” She shook her head, “That girl is worse than I was...in the magic thing, no one can match my inability to out-bitch them,” Stanza said seriously, “No one’s taking that from me.”
Sunset glanced at the device one final time, “Getting it to work shouldn’t be a problem if we use you … and worst case scenario, if you start getting backed into a corner, I was originally planning to give Twilight a taste of her own medicine if all else failed …” She cast a cautious glance towards Stanza before finally relenting and handing her world’s copy of the machine off to the Siren Queen, “Just be careful, alright?”
“I’ll try. Feel free to tackle me if I lose control of it. I don’t know the limits of my pendant, but trying to absorb all of it would probably either kill me or blow up the device and the shrapnel would kill me,” She blew out a breath, “Well I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Clicking open the device, she started to sing a vocalizing solo, not focusing on any real song but instead just summoning the magic itself. It manifested in droves, appearing as a calm cyan mist, vanishing rapidly into the device. The LED circle around its surface lighting up to signify how full of energy it was. Stanza gestured for Shimmer to keep a close eye on it.
Understanding immediately what was being asked of her, Sunset rushed forward and monitored the device to make sure that it didn’t overload. It didn’t take too long before the machine started to shake and spark uncontrollably. Shortly afterwards, a powerful burst of magic launched itself from the machine and a portal was opened. Sunset peeked over into the rift and was able to make out the unmistakable image of Twilight firing a plethora of magic beams in the direction of a newly formed scorch mark on the pavement. Time seemed to have stood still as the blasts, much like Twilight, appeared to be frozen in place.
Just to double check that this was indeed her world that she was looking at, she squinted her eyes towards the front doors of CHS. Snips was still there frozen in place, still pleading with her to turn around and hurry inside.
“Well, that’s pretty convenient,” Sunset stated with a smirk, “This is my world alright. Let’s hurry and jump through before that machine gives out.” As if on cue, the device in question was beginning to smoke. It looked as if it might shut down for good at any second, or worse, detonate in front of Stanza at point blank range.
“Hmm?” She looked down as it began smoking, yelping in surprise as she tossed it away, diving for the portal to pull off a flawless swan dive through into the new world, “You comin’ or what!?” Stanza asked behind her, light panic still evident in her voice.
Sunset nodded once before taking a running leap through the portal, hopefully leaving the strange white void behind for good. There was a flash of light, and then Sunset found herself being unceremoniously deposited several feet away from where she had gotten blasted by Twilight the first time. She was still within the other girl’s line of sight, however.
“What?! How did you -?!” The creature looked back and forth between where Sunset had been mere seconds ago and where she was now. She floated in place in a momentary state of stunned confusion while trying to make sense of the seemingly impossible act that she had just witnessed.
“You know what? Pretty soon it won’t even matter anymore.” Twilight outstretched her hand and quickly began to charge up for another mystical assault, “This time stand still!”
Sunset dusted herself off and took a moment to look around for Stanza, “Ok … anytime now please …” She mumbled to herself.
Before Twilight could let loose her blast once more, a shrill cry sounded out from behind her. The familiar shape of a glowing, transparent water dragon was perched upon the school’s roof. Its long body shone gold, fins alternating a paler yellow and vibrant blue. Sunset at the very least knew the relevancy of the sharp cyan irises the siren was sporting.
Stanza herself was alongside the school, fiddling with her own compact device to charge up a larger portal, ‘No chances. We need more numbers if we’re fighting a reality warper.’ For the moment though, the distraction of a siren re-appearing above CHS would have to do.
“What in the world?!” Twilight mouthed to herself while recoiling slightly at the apparition.
The moment that the creature had turned her attention away from Sunset, the Equestrian immediately used the opportunity to run for cover. There wasn’t too much that she could actually contribute anymore, and the last thing she wanted was to get blasted again.
Meanwhile, the sudden movement from the retreating girl had only served to snap Twilight from her confusion, “Oh, I get it … this is supposed to be some cheap prank meant to buy you time to get away,” She laughed in realization. Her palms began to charge with magic again as she got ready to take aim at Sunset, “You almost had me for a second there. Too bad.”
“AHHHHHHHH~” A physical wall of sound slammed into the magically charged girl, sending her shooting towards the ground at a steep angle. Perhaps it wasn’t as cheap or much of a prank at all.
Groaning from the impact, Twilight rose back onto her feet. Despite initial appearances, she’d managed to take the hit fairly well thanks to her magic-induced durability. She bared her teeth and slowly took to the air again. She glared at the transparent projection with growing malice, having officially had enough of all the interruptions. Her hands began to glow with a greater intensity than anything that had been witnessed so far as a large teal orb began to manifest.
After the orb had reached a size that she felt would undoubtedly do the job, Twilight launched the swirling mass towards the apparition on the school’s roof with the intent of taking out Stanza’s projection in one move.
Stanza took her projection to the skies, deciding that she didn’t wish to be responsible for damaging that school again. Back at street level, Stanza was filling up her own copy of Twilight’s device, grinning as it reached capacity. She cut the song off quickly before it started to smoke again, channeling it into the air in front of her and tearing open her own rip in reality. She nodded with a smirk, and snapped her fingers, vanishing the siren form once it had lured a shot from Sparkle into the sky, “Hey! Twilight!” She called up at her.
Already frustrated that her shot from earlier had harmlessly sailed over the spot where the apparition was perched moments prior before suddenly vanishing, the creature stared down from her position in the sky and glared bloody murder at Stanza, “What do you want now, Sunset?!” her voice thundered out. She still hadn’t made the connection that Stanza and Sunset were technically two different people.
“I’m ordering you one time, Sparkle. Get your glowing ass back to ground level right now or my friends and I will mow you down with a magical Rainbow!” She forced back a grin at her precise choice of words. The portal was now fully open behind her, glow providing an eerie light over her.
There was an angry involuntary twitch in Twilight’s left eye - the end result from how she was being addressed by someone who from her perspective was now less than an insect compared to her. Her vexation only grew upon taking notice of how ‘Sunset’ now had possession over her invention.
Twilight’s response to Stanza’s taunting came in the form of entire chunks of pavement from all over the immediate area being uprooted from the ground using telekinesis. She pointed a single finger towards Stanza, and that was all it took to send a hailstorm of concrete and all other manner of debris hurtling in the Siren’s direction.
Stanza crossed her arms, not moving as a wall of violet energy caught the asphalt in its tracks, zapping between the various bits of rubble and the ground with rapid frequency. She shook her head, sighing with disappointment, “So this is what it’s like on the outside. Sorry it had to be this way, Twilight. Sic her!” A figure flew out of the portal on command, another figure following at a more leisurely stroll. A darkly saturated chromatic blur slammed into Twilight’s midsection, carrying her upwards up at high speed before delivering a rough kick to her abdomen after letting her go.
Twilight stabilized herself with several panicked flaps of her wings, shaking her head and looking around weakly. That one had hurt a little bit, having at least knocked the wind out of her. In theory, it would be enough to put her on guard, if it wasn’t for the force already slamming into her shoulders from above, forcing her to descend at a blistering speed. ‘“F-FAST!...” Was all she managed, as both she and the assailant shot back to the ground with a seismic slam.
Aria joined Stanza’s side moments after impact, the dust beginning to clear with a bemused expression, “We dealt with ours, and by that I mean Sour has her restrained. She seems mad,” The siren deadpanned.
“Sour Sweet or Twilight?”
“Does it matter?”
The creature, meanwhile, found herself laying in a small crater. Unlike the first time she’d gotten swatted from the sky, this time it actually hurt. She laid there, head still spinning from a major case of vertigo while trying to make sense of what just hit her.
“I swear to Lumen, Mar,” Stanza rubbed her face, sighing as she noted the positioning of the crater. “She did that on purpose, I swear.”
A whistle caught Twilight’s attention, a pair of sharp, blue claws snapping in front of her face. Beyond them stood a twisted, but familiar face, “For your own good, Twi? I suggest you stay down now,” Marred snickered, foot currently pinning her anyways.
Twilight made one last pitiful attempt to try and get back up, but there was no freeing herself from the limb that was keeping her pinned down. Vision still swimming, she glanced up at her attacker and saw what could only be described as a weird demonic bat creature with sparks of electricity occasionally crackling around her body in sporadic intervals. She groaned as her head fell back against the ground in resignation. There was a bright flash that overtook the crater, and then Twilight was back to her normal self again.
Marred smirked, flying back to the edge of the crater and looking down into it with a frown, wings folding into her back, “Quite the performance, Sparkle. I think you’ve done a wonderful job in showing everyone who you really are!”
Stanza’s eyes widened as she recognized her friend’s word choice, already on the move towards her.
“You’ve shown them what’s in your h-WOAH!” Whatever dramatic tone Marred was trying to get across from her mimicking failed as she let loose a trademark voice-cracking yelp.
“Get in the hole, Dash!” Stanza growled, sending the demon tumbling with a rough shove, “Idiot…” She crossed her arms, rolling her eyes as she glanced over at Twilight, ‘What to do about her though…’
The girl in question appeared to have slipped into a state of unconsciousness. Meanwhile, the students of Canterlot High were slowly beginning to emerge from their hiding spots now that the commotion appeared to have died down. Hushed mumblings could be heard regarding various topics, mainly about why there was a woman standing nearby who looked almost exactly like Sunset, or what the explanation was for the sudden appearance of the thunder demon that had just slammed Twilight into the ground.
Speaking of Sunset, she was already in the process of making her way towards the crater. She peeked inside and shook her head at the two bodies lying inside, “I’m getting the strangest sense of dejavu,” She said to the Siren Queen, “Still, all’s well that ends well I guess. Thanks for the save back there, Stanza. I really owe you one.”
“Awwwww yeah! Slam dunk!” Marred popped her head up alongside the edge, now returned to her standard human form, hair still wild from her recent transformation.
“You play soccer,” Aria deadpanned over at her.
“It was a slam dunk, don’t spoil my monster hunting fun, fish face,” Marred pouted in turn.
“Rampaging she-demon.”
“I’ve lost my title,” Stanza said flatly, looking back to Shimmer, “Happy to help, even if it did wind up giving CHS multiple craters to fill in this time. Marred, mind getting the unconscious girl out of the hole in the ground?” The other Rainbow ducked her head back below to do the deed.
Sunset watched as the energetic woman, who she was easily able to identify as Rainbow Dash, carried Twilight off to safety. “I wouldn’t worry about a little property damage seeing as how this entire plane of existence was falling apart just a few seconds ago,” She said to the siren. A glance around the area revealed that the portals were now beginning to seal themselves shut, presumably a side effect from Twilight being knocked out of commission. “And seeing as how Aria’s here, it looks like you weren’t kidding about being the Siren’s new leader.”
“Yeah, she does a decent job,” Aria shrugged, breaking out into a chuckle after Stanza elbowed her with a sideways look, “Glad to help out, or at least throw Dash at your problem. She is always looking for a reason to use that form.”
Stanza smiled, “Don’t worry about it too much. You needed help and it wouldn’t sit right to watch your reality fall apart. However, there’s no telling what will happen now that Twilight has magic inside of her like that,” She glanced off after Marred.
The lesser chromatic girl was at CHS’ steps, looking up at the heads poking out of the door, “Hey! Anyone got a place I can drop this off? Like, does Redheart deal with magic exhaustion?”
Seeing Marred carry Twilight around like one would a small injured animal that was discovered while out on a hiking trip was enough to get a small laugh from Sunset, “Yep, that’s definitely Rainbow Dash. Looks like I’m gonna have some explaining to do later about quite a few different things,” She turned back towards Stanza and sighed sadly, “In any case, the show’s more or less over now. I guess this means that you’ll be hitting the road soon, huh?”
“Perhaps, but considering they have to deal with a portal to one alternate world on their doorstep every day, I’m sure a simple ‘timeline’ hand wave will placate,” Stanza mused as she heard Marred repeat herself, shaking Twilight at them.
“Hey! Wonderasses! If you’re not gonna talk, at least point me to the Lost and Found!”
Snickering lightly, Stanza gave her other self a pat on the shoulder, “Don’t look so glum. If Princess Twilight can figure out how to force a connection that only opens every 30 moons in 5 minutes, I’m sure she and I can figure out a little way for you and I to at least keep in touch. Even if we have to pull out soon to keep Sour Sweet from stealing Twilight’s lunch money as a demon, I doubt this is the last we’ll be seeing of each other.”
Her alternate self’s words seemed to lift Sunset’s mood somewhat. She was still a little upset, but the knowledge that this might not be the end was enough to earn a slight nod in response, “Alright, I’ll be waiting then. I’ll see if I can get the Princess Twilight from this side of reality to pitch in too. I wouldn’t mind having a look at that island of yours someday.”
Stanza smirked, “Once we get the place into a more presentable shape, we’d be glad to have you. Even before then, we’d be glad to have you over for pizza sometime,” She glanced over, waving to another set of familiar faces, “Snips and Snails are welcome too, of course.”
Over with said duo, Marred was busy handing off her problems. “Hey, hold this,” The de-spectrumed girl pushed Twilight into their collective arms, “You may want to sign your classmates up for basic English. They don’t seem to know the language.” She whispered, not at all lowering her voice. Several faces still barricaded inside were staring out at them, faces to the glass and bug-eyed.
“But yeah, two Sunsets and two Twilights? I think we could work out more than a little something,” The siren queen nodded, “I’d suggest writing to her about your human Twilight first though.”
“Good point,” The high schooler replied in agreement. “We were able to manage this time, but I’d rather we not have another incident like this again. And after she gets it under control, who knows? She might be able to help out if this world ever gets hit by another magic crisis.”
“Perhaps, especially given she’s a Twilight. Dorky, good at magic, and her heart is typically in the right place. Provided that you can ease her into it and she doesn’t develop an irrational fear of it, I think you’ve got yourself a powerful ally never far from reach,” Stanza nodded with a smile, “It’s been good meeting you, Sunset,” She chuckled at the very phrasing.
The rapid footfalls signaled the approach of a Dash, now finished pushing Twilight off on someone else, “Hey! Sorry about that, WCs are busy catching flies!” She paused, looking between the two, “Oh, God. Not again…”
Sunset crossed her arms and looked Marred over as if the other girl were an odd piece of art that she couldn’t decide if she found enjoyable or not. There was no mistaking it, Marred was definitely a slightly older version of Rainbow Dash, and yet they were different. Her skin was gray instead of blue, her hair was dull and faded instead of bright and vibrant; even her seemingly goofy personality served as a contrast to the sullen demeanor that her former friend carried about.
“So, you’re Marred,” Sunset began slowly, still not quite sure what her thoughts were. “Stanza told me a little bit about you ... Mainly about how you were the only one to give her a chance when her name was getting dragged through the mud. My Rainbow Dash was the complete opposite, which is why I’m still a little skeptical. However, Stanza seems to trusts you and I can’t really ignore the part where you just got done helping us get Twilight under control, “Following a deep breath, Sunset allowed herself to relax, “I never thought I’d say this again to anyone with your face or birth name, but ... Thanks for the help.”
Marred’s worried expression released as Sunset talked, “Ah! So you’re this world’s Stan-er, Sunset. This world’s Sunset!” She nodded, correcting her wording, “Sorry, last time we bumped into your human counterpart, ehh…” She surveyed the craters left behind, “Well actually I don’t know if it was quite this bad.”
“I think Cinch would have something to say about that,” Stanza chuckled in turn, “You’re a menace.”
Mar chuckled, less bombastic than earlier as she toned herself down, switching to the heavier topic, “Opposite, huh?” She threw her red scarf over her shoulder, playing with it in what seemed to be a nervous habit, “I’m real sorry to hear about that. Can’t say why she did it-or rather why she didn’t do it, or-“ She cut herself off, fumbling over her words, “I think it’s more than obvious I’m different. I can understand why you’re skeptical. I’d be too in your position. What I’m trying to say is, well…” She gave a more traditional grin, scratching her head, “You’re welcome! And if you ever need anything, don’t hesitate to ask. I’ll be there in a-“
“Dash?”
Marred turned and punched her friend in the shoulder, “I was gonna say ‘flash’! Even I’m not that corny, Sunfish!” The punch didn’t seem to detract from the teasing smirk decorating Stanza’s face.
“Seriously, you guys almost act like an old married couple,” Sunset commented after watching the two interact.
“Look, you nearly die with someone more than once and you get to know them really well, okay?” Marred tried to brush it off simply, but an embarrassed blush still peeked through, “My point is, yeah, let’s keep in touch and we’re happy to come give ya a hand again if you ever need it.”
“More than once? Sounds like there’s never a dull moment over on your side,” The other girl replied back with a smirk. “In any case, sure. I’d be more than happy to stay in contact. Especially if it means having a few extra hands on deck in the event that we ever get backed into a corner like this again.” She outstretched her hand towards Marred, inviting the other girl for a handshake, “Sound like a deal?”
“Well, cults, demons, your human counterpart. We deal with a lot,” She smirked, instead giving her a hi-five, from an angle, but a hi-five nonetheless, “Deal! And hey, even if it’s not a corner, feel free to just come hang out.”
“I wouldn’t be against that either,” Aria nodded, “Just come prepared to deal with Adagio. The jokes about there being more Sunsets...I can see it all now.”
The informal gesture committed by Marred wasn’t what Sunset had been expecting, but then again, she was still Rainbow Dash after all, so she probably shouldn’t have been all that surprised. Putting those thoughts aside, Sunset nodded in acceptance. “Well, it’s not like I have much of a reason to say ‘no’ …” She turned towards Aria next and shrugged with indifference, “And unless she’s up to anything nefarious, I doubt I’d have too much to really worry about. Unless you know something I don’t?”
All three of them shared a knowing look, silence reigning as they seemed to have a silent conversation, “I think she’ll be fine,” Aria finally deduced.
“I survived Dazzle,” Stanza inputted with a simple shrug.
“I have faith in her,” Marred just laughed, “You’ll be fine, Sunster. Just try to keep your mind away from the gutter if she starts getting...well, Adagio.”
“Tch, whatever. It’s not like it’d be my first time seeing her get provocative around someone. All of that aside though,” She looked around the area, taking note of the battle damaged caused by Twilight’s rampage, “I think I should probably head off now and make sure that none of the other students got hurt too badly. It might be a good idea to check in on Twilight too; she’s gonna need some support after this.”
“And as much faith as I have that Snips and Snails can take care of her while she’s unconscious, I don’t think they’ll know what to do when she wakes up with the past hour or so on the mind,” Stanza nodded, “Perhaps it’s for the best that you do go grab the reins again.”
“God knows what these guys would do without you,” Marred snorted, eyeing the specks of debris herself.
“Whatever it is, it’s worse than all this,” Aria shrugged, “Now, let’s get back before Sour-”
Their portal shimmered again and a familiar soccer punk tumbled through. While that was enough to get their attention, what she was holding was a bit more worrying, “Dust?!” Stanza blinked.
“Where is she?! I’m ready to help!”
“Where did you get a revolver?!”
“OKAY! TIME TO GO HOME!” Aria shouted, grabbing Lightning by the wrist and hoisting her into the air like a rag doll. Marred was too busy rubbing her face to comment.
Sunset watched the events unfold for a moment before turning towards the two remaining visitors. “Right, I guess that’s your cue to get moving then. Marred, thanks for the save. I haven’t known you for very long but, shockingly enough, you don’t seem all that terrible so far.”
She turned towards Stanza next, “And you. I appreciate everything you did today, just as much as I do for Marred. And I really enjoyed that talk we had earlier. I don’t usually bring up that specific event all that often, but talking about it with someone who gets it, no matter how brief it might’ve been … I honestly didn’t mind for once.”
Marred dragged her hands away from her face to give an appreciative smile, “All things considered, I think that’s more than I could ask for. Appreciate it, Sunster.”
Stanza smiled as well, nodding, “Similar goes for Marred and I. It doesn’t come up often, and as much as talking can help, talking with someone who can relate is miles better,” The siren glanced over to the struggling Lightning Dust being robbed of her firearm by Aria, “Even so, yeah. I think we better get going, but don’t worry,” She held up the surviving device, “You’ll be hearing from us again soon enough.”
“So long, Shimmer,” Aria waved Dust in place of her hand, the girl’s body ironically flopping around like a fish.
“Later, Sunset. Take care of Twilight. She...means well,” Marred nodded, clapping the girl on the shoulder before joining Aria and Stanza by the portal.
Sunset gave a short wave while Stanza and her little group journeyed back to their own world. Her shoulders slumped shortly after the portal sealed itself shut. ‘I guess that’s the end of that,’ She thought to herself. The fiery-haired girl took one final glance around the battle damaged school and released a short breath before making her way towards the front entrance.
Assisting with getting CHS back in order wasn’t going to be very fun. That could wait, however. First things first, she needed to check-in on Twilight.
Stanza reemerged to what she was more or less expecting.
Twilight was impacted into the concrete, looking both unhappy and minorly concussed. On top of her sat the familiar form of a non-rampaging she-demon. Sour had a cell phone out, and judging by the sounds it was making, was currently playing one of the dime-a-dozen mobile card games that were flooding the market.
“Welcome back,” The fiery-headed demon didn’t bother glancing up, “From wherever you were. Can we finish this now? I wanna go home.”
Stanza shook her head as Aria threw Lightning Dust into the grass, now reprimanding Sonata on why it was still bad to give someone a gun just because they asked, even when they were a friend.
“Yeah, we’re ready to put a lid on things, Sour,” Stanza chuckled, tossing the magic capture device up and down, “And don’t worry about it. You probably would’ve hated it anyway.”