Equestria...
It was only a few days later after Lord Tirek's attempted to steal all the magic from the ponies in Equestria. Surprisingly, everything went back to normal real quick and everypony could live in peace for again. However, Tirek's attack didn't completely leave everything untouched. Princess Twilight Sparkle's home, for example, the Golden Oak Library, was destroyed in the process and she needed another place to live.
Conveniently, a giant castle appeared in the middle of Ponyville to serve as a new home for Twilight. Right now, this castle was still a little empty which is why all of her friends helped to bring some of Twilight's stuff in there. Star Twinkle helped out as well.
The earth pony stallion walked inside the doors of the castle while pulling a wagon behind him. On the wagon was a pile of books that Princess Celestia gave to Twilight as a kind of compensation for the books that got destroyed by Tirek.
Star Twinkle's friends, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Spike and Twilight herself were inside what looked like the throne room and also helped to bring some of her stuff into the castle.
"Alright, Twilight, where do you want me to put all those books from Princess Celestia?" Star Twinkle asked.
Twilight didn't even look back at Star Twinkle, she was probably too busy telling everypony where to put everything. "The library," she simply replied.
"Figures," Star Twinkle replied before he looked around in the room. "Right...library...library..." he said to himself after realizing that he had no idea where the library was. This was a pretty big castle after all and Star Twinkle only saw it a few times from the inside.
Once Twilight noticed how lost Star Twinkle was, she began to smile. "Third door on the left," she explained.
"Got it," Star Twinkle said before he attempted to walk away only to stop after a few steps again. "Um...even the one that is glowing and vibrating?" He asked confused.
Twilight got confused about what Star Twinkle meant with that and took a look at the pile of books. She quickly figured that Star Twinkle was referring to the book on the very top of the pile, which was literally glowing and vibrating just as Star Twinkle said.
Wondering what this was all about, Twilight used her magic to levitate that book towards her. The book had Princess Celestia's Cutie Mark on it so Twilight figured that it was rather important. She flipped it open and looked inside to see what this was all about.
The rest of her friends noticed that something was wrong with this book as well so they waited until Twilight would explain.
As soon as Twilight lowered her eyebrows, Fluttershy went on ahead and asked what everyone else was thinking. "What is it, Twilight? What does it say?"
Twilight quickly explained. "It looks like a message to Princess Celestia from my friends at Canterlot High,"
"How is that even possible?" Rarity asked confused. After all, it was a different world they were talking about.
"I have no idea, but it... sounds like they need my help," Twilight replied with a worried expression on her face.
Star Twinkle quickly asked the question that worried him the most. "Don't tell me that Sunset Shimmer and Radiant Blast cause trouble again?"
But Twilight shook her head. "Actually, this letter came from Sunset Shimmer," she explained. Twilight asked everyone to follow her to the library where she was looking for a book. It didn't take to long until she found the book that she was looking for. "The way Sunset Shimmer describes the situations, I think there are three new girls in the school. And they sound an awful lot like... the sirens,"
"Not the sirens!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed in shock, much to everyone's surprise. She then moved her head towards Fluttershy. "I don't actually know what that is!" She then whispered loudly.
Star Twinkle rolled his eyes. "Yes...that is why Twilight is explaining it to us now...right?" He said, causing Twilight to do exactly that.
Twilight went ahead and explained the whole story about those sirens. "The sirens were three beautiful but dangerous creatures who had the power to charm ponies with their music. But to maintain this power, they had to feed on the negativity and distrust of others. The more of this negative energy they consumed, the stronger their voices became, and the farther they could spread their dark magic. If the sirens had their way, they would have divided and conquered all of Equestria. But a certain Star Swirl the Bearded wasn't having it. Rumor has it he found a way to banish them to another world – one where he believed their magic power would be lost,"
It was obvious to Star Twinkle to see the connection. "So this world where Starswirl banished them to, is the one where our friends in Canterlot High live?" He asked to which Twilight nodded in response.
Applejack, however, saw some flaws in this story. "But Star Swirl must have sent them there ages ago. How come they're just surfacin' now?" She asked.
"I don't know," Twilight replied. "But if my hunch is right and it is the sirens who have come to Canterlot High, this spell they've cast is just the beginning. My friends need us. We have to get back to them," Twilight said, determined to deal with the sirens.
But in the middle of the Twilight's sentence, Star Twinkle got a little confused. "We...us?" He asked confused.
Twilight looked towards the stallion. "Yes, you and me Star Twinkle. You are coming with me aren't you?" She asked even though it already sounded as if the decision was made for him.
Before Star Twinkle could reply, Pinkie Pie was the one who answered for him instead. "Of course he does! He went with you to this world already and knows all about it after all!" She said with a wide grin on her face which was a huge contrast to Star Twinkle's glare.
Star Twinkle sighed and figured that what Pinkie Pie said was true. "I guess, you're right, besides, it would look strange if any of you would show up and meet any of your counterparts in this world,"
Rainbow Dash, however, pointed something out that no one seemed to have thought about so far. "I hate to burst your bubble, but the connection between their world and Equestria will still be totally cut off for a super long time,"
"But Sunset Shimmer managed to get a message to us with that book, didn't she?" Star Twinkle further pointed out.
After Twilight heard those words, an idea seemed to pop up in her head. "Exactly!" She just said before she took the book and placed it next to the portal to Canterlot High. Conveniently, the mirror to the other world was also brought into this castle for emergencies like this.
Without wasting a word, Twilight grabbed a few random things, like musical instruments, cables, and gears to build some kind of contraption around the mirror. After she was done doing that, she actually explained what all this stuff was but the way how she was explaining everything was way too confusing for anyone to understand.
"...And the interval between the two points is defined as the square root of the sum of the squares of the separation between the points along three spatial dimensions," Twilight said to end her almost endless explanation of this machine that she created.
Everyone was highly confused and tried to make sense out of what Twilight just said but Spike pretty much took the words out of everyone's mouth.
"Say what now?" He asked confused.
"Duh!" Pinkie Pie immediately replied. "She's gonna take the magic in here and put it in there," she said while she pointed towards the book and then the machine around the mirror. "That'll make the portal open up so that whenever she wants to, she can go from here to there," she explained, referring with here to Equestria and with there to Canterlot High.
"Oh...okay," Star Twinkle replied in his realization before he looked over to Twilight. "She is right, is she?" He asked in confirmation.
Twilight nodded in response. "We just have to see if it works," she said before she put the book on top of the mirror and right into the machine. It didn't take long until the machine reacted to the book and magic started to flow through all of it. Gears started to turn and the whole machine was shaking in response. The group had no idea how but they all figured that Twilight's plan worked and as soon as the portal opened, it was only confirmed.
"Looks like it worked," Star Twinkle said, stating the painfully obvious before he walked closer to the mirror.
"Well," Applejack started. "I suppose the rest of us has to wait here again,"
"Yes," Twilight replied. "It's like Star Twinkle said. Things could get a little confusing if Canterlot High all of a sudden had two of all of you,"
"But I still get to go, right?" Spike said before he walked up to Twilight. "There isn't another one of me at Canterlot High. And you never know if you might need your trusty assistant," he said almost proudly to which Twilight happily agreed.
After everyone was done saying their last words and giving some advice, Star Twinkle, Twilight, and Spike all stood ready in front of the mirror to go through it any moment.
"Ready, guys?" Twilight asked.
Star Twinkle took a deep breath since he remembered all too well how weird it was to go to the portal the last time and Spike cracked his knuckles and stood ready to sprint through the mirror any second now.
There was not much left to say. The three of them sprinted towards the mirror and quickly vanished as soon as they touched it, meaning that they were now on their way to the other world.
On the other side of the mirror...
Some time has passed since Sunset Shimmer wrote into her book and sent the message to Princess Celestia. All that she and her friends could do was to wait patiently in front of their end of the portal in hopes of Twilight coming through it. The longer the group waited, however, the more they thought that it was unlikely that Sunset Shimmer's message reached her.
"I'm starting to think she's not coming," Rainbow Dash said. She was clearly the first one to lost her patience.
But Radiant Blast still had his hopes up and inspected the mirror a little closer, even going so far to knock on the mirror. "Maybe they didn't know how to activate their portal on the other side ye-"
But before Radiant Blast could finish his sentence, one person came flying right towards him and knocked him to the ground.
"Twilight!" All the girls except Sunset Shimmer shouted in excitement as soon as they saw her.
Twilight was sitting on the ground and it seemed like her head was still spinning from going through the portal."I'm back," she said a little embarrassed after an entrance like that.
"Welcome back," Radiant Blast said, much to Twilight's confusion since she didn't know where his voice was coming from until she realized that she was sitting on him right now.
"Oops! Sorry!" She apologized with a nervous smile on her face.
Sunset Shimmer was the first one to offer Twilight a hand and help her up but Twilight had some second thoughts about accepting that at first. Still, after Sunset Shimmer smiled nervously at this awkward moment, Twilight accepted her hand and got up again.
Shortly after, Twilight looked around and only noticed Spike, who was transformed into a dog again standing next to her. She was wondering where Star Twinkle was. However, her worry quickly vanished as soon as Star Twinkle came flying through the portal as well, landing on the ground with his face. He wasn't hurt so he quickly got up on his feet again and stretched his back a little after the whole trip to this world was done.
"Yep! I knew that it wasn't going to be pretty," he said while he pushed his hands against his back.
He and Twilight were wearing the same clothes that they were wearing in the last visit to this world. However, Star Twinkle noticed how he was not wearing his cape anymore and wondered where it was. But Radiant Blast quickly held the cape in front of Star Twinkle's face.
"Looking for that?" He said with a smile on his face while he gave Star Twinkle the white and light green cape with a white star on it, back.
"Thanks," he said while he put it on his head. Star Twinkle then looked around to see if Twilight and Spike made it to this world in one piece as well. He quickly found the two in the middle of the crowd which consisted of the counterparts of this world's Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy.
While they were all greeting each other after such a long time, Radiant Blast and Sunset Shimmer both seemed to keep their distance, something that Star Twinkle quickly realized.
"They seem to be happy to see each other again," Radiant Blast figured.
"Yeah," Sunset Shimmer added.
Since the girls were to busy right now, Star Twinkle figured that he should at least talk to those two. "I hope you two were behaving since we were gone," was the first thing he asked, which was a rather weird question after he heard himself saying that.
"Nope, all good," Radiant Blast replied happily.
But as soon as Star Twinkle took a look at Sunset Shimmer and how she was rubbing her arm uncomfortably, he just knew that something was bothering her. "But...there is still something bothering you?" He said towards Sunset Shimmer.
Sunset Shimmer felt a little pointed out but she still explained what she was thinking. "It's nothing too bad really...I just...still feel a little weird in this new group of friends. I mean it all happened..."
"Too sudden?" Star Twinkle interrupted.
"Yes!" Sunset Shimmer replied. "And I don't quite feel like I-"
"That you belong there?" Star Twinkle interrupted again.
"Exactly!" Sunset Shimmer replied. "And because of that I-"
"You don't know what to do..." Star Twinkle interrupted once more.
By now Sunset Shimmer was feeling weird that Star Twinkle was pretty much taking all those words out of her mouth. "Yes! How do you know!?" She asked confused.
"Let's just say that I kinda know where you are coming from..." Star Twinkle replied. He was in a similar position as she was a while ago after all.
By now, Twilight and the girls seemed to have exchanged their greetings. "As much as I am happy to see you all again, I have to share with you some bad news about those new girls," she explained with a serious tone in her voice.
Everyone quickly noticed the serious tone in Twilight's voice and got serious as well for a moment. There was a reason why Twilight was summoned here after all and that reason had to be talked about.
In a nearby cafe...
To discuss what was about to happen next, the group decided to go and meet somewhere else while ordering some milkshakes in the process. This gave the group from Canterlot High the chance to explain the situation at the school a little better. It quickly gave Star Twinkle, Twilight and Spike a good idea of what was happening.
"Oh, I do hate that you had to return at a time of crisis. There's so much catching up to do!" Rarity said.
"For starters, a certain blue-haired guitar player was just askin' about you, Twilight," Applejack said.
Twilight quickly got excited as soon as she heard that and began to blush. "Flash Sentry was asking about me?!" She said excitedly. Soon, the girls were all looking at her and Twilight felt a little embarrassed. "Isn't that nice?" She then said in a calm voice before she took a sip from her milkshake.
"Perhaps you would give us just the slightest bit of gossip from your world? Rarity then asked, being curious about Equestria now.
Spike quickly had something prepared, that he wanted to share. "She's got an official title now. The Princess of Friendship!" He explained proudly.
Sunset Shimmer couldn't help but share how she was impressed by what Twilight archived. "Wow, that's really impressive. Guess you really were Princess Celestia's prized pupil," she said while she rubbed her arm. She was most likely thinking about how that title could be hers if she didn't decide to escape from Equestria.
Noticing how Sunset Shimmer might felt about that, Radiant Blast decided to say some comforting words to her. "What's so special about that?" He said in fake disinterest, in hope that it would make feel Sunset Shimmer better.
But Spike wasn't done yet. "She's even got her own castle!"
"A castle?! You have your own castle?!?" Rarity then exclaimed while almost spitting out the tea that she was drinking.
"Wow..." Radiant Blast then said impressed before he was at a loss of words, much to Sunset Shimmer's surprise who was lowering her eyebrows after those words.
Since Twilight felt a little embarrassed to talk about this matter, she decided to quickly change the subject. "What's new here? I mean, besides your school becoming the target of dangerous magical creatures from Equestria?" She said almost jokingly, in order to lift the mood.
Rainbow Dash was the first one to point out something else that was happening recently. "Yeah, so, that isn't exactly the only strange thing that's happened since you left," she said before she pulled out a small strange device in front of Star Twinkle and Twilight.
"We call this a cell phone," Radiant Blast pointed out.
"Not the phone, Radiant! Look!" Rainbow Dash said before she pointed at the video that was playing inside the cell phone. It showed the girls in their last band practice.
Star Twinkle quickly noticed something off in this video. "Wait..." he said after he saw what was happening to the girls in this video. They were growing pony ears, their hair got longer and Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy even grew wings. "That's just like back then...when we were here the first time," he figured.
"Pretty sweet, huh? It happens to all of us when we play," Rainbow Dash said proudly.
"But I thought there was no magic in this world?" Star Twinkle asked. "I mean other than when Twilight's crown was brought here,"
Even though she was confused as well, Twilight had a slight guess about all this. "My crown was returned to Equestria, but some of its magic must have remained here at Canterlot High," she said. However, that didn't need to be a bad thing at all. "Now that we're all back together, we can use that magic on the sirens. Just like when we were able to use it on Sunset Shimmer when she turned into that horrifyingly awful winged monster!" She said in order to raise the morale of the group again. But as soon as she realized what she said, she felt bad. "No offense," she said towards Sunset Shimmer as an apology.
"None taken," Sunset Shimmer said bothered after having to say it yet again. "I'm used to it," she added while she crossed her arms.
"So that's the plan?" Star Twinkle asked. "We go and do the same thing to the sirens what we did against Radiant Blast and Sunset Shimmer?"
"You bet!" Rainbow Dash replied enthusiastically. "They'll never even know what hit 'em!"
"Yep. We've got nothin' to worry about now that you are back," Applejack agreed.
"Oh, I'm pretty sure I could find something to worry about," Fluttershy said. "But it won't be the sirens," she added while maintaining a positive attitude about the whole situation.
After agreeing to do this, everyone figured that it would be best to deal with the sirens, or rather, the Dazzlings as soon as possible. But no one knew where they were at the moment, making it a little hard to deal with them right away.
Unexpectedly though, one person actually knew where they were. And that person was Pinkie Pie, who casually pointed out that information. "There's a big party tonight for all the bands who signed up to be in the showcase! That would include the Dazzlings," she said as she was taking the last sip from her milkshake.
"There we go," Star Twinkle said.
"Yes," Twilight replied. "Looks like we've got a party to crash,"
"Awesome!" Radiant Blast said excitedly. "And this time we are on the good side!" He added while putting his arm around Sunset Shimmer.
"Yes," Sunset Shimmer replied, feeling happy that this was the case as well.
With all that being settled, the group just had to wait a few hours until this party started to go up against the Dazzlings. Star Twinkle would really like to deal with them as soon as possible and without anything that would pressure them this time.
Later at the gym of Canterlot High...
Star Twinkle, Twilight and the rest of the group went to the party and waited for the Dazzlings to arrive. The gym was already full of people. Like Pinkie Pie said, all the bands that would participate in the music event showed up there. This was also when Star Twinkle, Twilight, and Spike realized the changes in the school. Everyone was acting rather hostile towards each other.
Radiant Blast went on ahead and explained. "Everyone was so excited about the music event but when the Dazzlings showed up and began to sing, they all turned out like this! Winning the music event seems to be more important to them than anything else," he said with a frown on his face.
"It won't be like that any longer once we deal with the Dazzlings though," Star Twinkle replied, confident that everything should return to normal again.
"Yeah, you're right!" Radiant Blast replied forming a smile on his face shortly after.
"The Dazzlings don't seem to be here yet," Sunset Shimmer pointed out.
"Well, since they are not here yet, I'm going to grab a little drink," Star Twinkle said before he left the group to walk up to the table where some punch was handed out.
Before he reached the table, however, someone walked up to him. "You?" This person asked, causing Star Twinkle to turn towards someone familiar. It was Flash Sentry if Star Twinkle remembered it right. He vaguely remembered him from his last visit to this world. "I haven't seen you here since the...incident..." he said, referring to when Sunset Shimmer tried to take over Canterlot High. "Wait! Does that mean, Twilight is here as well?" He then asked in a small boost of excitement.
"Yeah, she is over there," Star Twinkle said before he pointed towards his friends.
"Oh! I'm gonna go and say hello to her if you don't mind," Flash Sentry said before he walked off to meet Twilight.
Star Twinkle just ignored this little interruption and continued his way to get some punch. He picked up one cup of punch and he couldn't help to overhear the conversation right next to him.
"I tell you the punch is good," One girl next to Star Twinkle said angrily.
"And I tell you, the punch is awful!" Another girl said back in an annoyed tone in her voice.
"What do you know about good fruit punch?" The first girl replied before she crossed her arms.
"More than you!" The other girl replied.
"Do not!"
"Do too!"
Star Twinkle quickly felt a little annoyed to overhear this conversation and just wished that those two girls would discuss this matter a little quieter. But as soon as he was thinking that, of course, things got even worse.
"You!" One of the girls then said, talking to Star Twinkle and doing the last thing that he wanted now, making him part of this discussion. "The punch tastes good, right?" The girls with the blue skin and the blue hair asked.
Star Twinkle had to come up with an excuse. He had to focus on the Dazzlings and had no time to deal with another minor problem now. "I haven't really tasted it yet so..."
But before his excuse could be received by the two girls in front of him, another girl showed up. "Girls!" She said in an angry tone. "Could you please stop wasting your time with stuff like that!? We have more important business to attend right now!" She said with her teeth clenching in anger.
Star Twinkle was kinda relieved that this girl was kinda pulling him out of this conversation and apologized to Star Twinkle. "Sorry, those two can be rather...stupid,"
"That's...very direct..." Star Twinkle thought after this bold sentence.
Shortly after, Star Twinkle was hit on the head by something small. He grabbed his hair and quickly found something that was stuck in it. It seemed to be a piece of chocolate, like the ones that usually were on chocolate cookies. When he turned around to see where it came from, Rainbow Dash was looking at him and looked back and forth between him and the three girls in front of him.
Star Twinkle didn't know what this was all about and he decided to walk back to his friends who were all giving him some strange faces. "What?" He replied as soon as he noticed those expressions.
"What were you doing over there, talking to the Dazzlings!?" Sunset Shimmer asked almost shocked.
"The Dazzlings?" Star Twinkle replied in shock before he turned around in his realization. "Wait, those three were the sirens!?" He asked in shock.
"Yes!" Sunset Shimmer replied.
He thought that those three girls were a little weird but he didn't expect them to be the sirens. "W-well, what are we waiting for then? Let's go and take care of them!" He said, in an attempt to distract from his accidental encounter with his enemies.
The group didn't waste any more time and straight out walked up to the three girls to get this all over with. As soon as Star Twinkle, Twilight, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie were close to the three girls, they started to wonder what this was all about.
Twilight decided to take the lead and straight out confronted the three girls. "We know who you are and we also know what you are after! There isn't going to be a Battle of the Bands! We're gonna make sure of that!" She said before she and the rest of her friends started to hold each other's hands, much to the surprise of the Dazzlings.
"Let's do this!" Star Twinkle said determinedly.
"Friendship is magic!" Twilight then shouted out trying to summon the magic inside of the seven friends to shot it right at the three girls.
...
There was silence in the room and all of the people in the gym were wondering what they were doing.
The group didn't seem to notice it yet but Radiant Blast and Sunset Shimmer did. "Um...they do realize that nothing is happening...right?" Radiant Blast whispered towards Sunset Shimmer in a confused and nervous tone.
But Sunset Shimmer kept looking at the group and didn't know what went wrong. There is only one thing that she knew for absolute certain.
"This...is not good,"
To be continued...