"Okay, everyone stay calm, it's fine... it's gonna be fine," Applejack said, trying to keep her cool.
"How is this going to be fine, Applejack!?" Pinkie screeched. "This is really bad! How are we going to get them back if they've been trapped in a super magic device!? It's not like we can just open a portal out of nowhere and bring them back!"
Everyone blinked.
"... You scare me sometimes, Pinkie."
"You know I say random things when I'm scared, woman!" Pinkie rattled Rainbow by the shoulders.
"Look, we can't just stand here and panic, we gotta come up with some kind of plan here," Applejack broke them apart.
"Plan? Oh sure, let's confront a crazed lunatic who just captured Trixie and her friends in some magic device! Like that's not going to go wrong at all!" Rainbow snapped.
"We don't know if she's crazed, you saw what happened out there! Did you not see her crying her eyes out?" Fluttershy intervened.
"I know I did! But how can we approach her after something like that? I don't even think I can!" Rarity quivered. "This is just like everyone here after Sunset Shimmer's reign of terror again!"
Rainbow sneered. "Seriously? You're bringing her up now of all times?"
"Don't tell me you're not seeing a similarity here!"
"I'm not saying that, but I'd like to keep that monster out of this as much as we can!"
"Can you go one day without barking your head at off at someone?" Fluttershy growled. "Oh look at me, I'm awesome, I'm the best athlete ever, well boo-hoo! You have any idea what it's like not being able to talk to anyone? They take one look at me and all they see is someone who wants to hurt them! You know what that's like!?"
Now the Rainbooms went silent. And Fluttershy's seething tone slowly died, realizing how much her friends were reacting to this. They looked scared, and not in the right way.
"O-Oh... I'm... I'm sorry," Fluttershy quivered, turning her head away to avoid eye contact. "I... I don't want you all to fight. I know we're scared, but we can't just sit back and do nothing."
"What was that?"
All of the Rainbooms froze. Slowly they turned their heads around, and saw their Shadowbolt friends standing there with confused faces.
"Uhhh... how much of that did ya hear?"
"Enough to know there's something you're not telling us. What was that about Sunset Shimmer?" Sugarcoat asked.
"Um, uh... we didn't say that," Rainbow lied.
"I'm not dense, Rainbow, I heard it. What are you hiding?"
"I... I'm not sure you want to know," Rainbow gulped.
"Even I have to agree, you really shouldn't--"
"--Oh, out with it," Sour spat. "You can tell us, it's fine."
"... Can we at least talk in private?" Fluttershy asked.
"Of course," Indigo nodded, gesturing the group to follow.
Everyone went back to the home-ec room, thankfully still empty and still occupied only by the ten students who went in. But now the Rainbooms could feel their spines crawling all over, like a million tiny bugs racing across their skin.
"So, what was all that about?" Lemon asked.
"Oh boy, this is going to break our friendship for sure..." Pinkie whimpered.
"Just spit it out!"
"We worked for Sunset Shimmer, okay!?" Rainbow barked.
The five Bolts flinched.
"What? What are you talking about?"
"Okay, those five girls that the news were covering about being associates of her, it was us! We are the former associates! We're the ones who were always with her and making everyone's lives miserable!"
The Shadowbolts were confused, until the puzzle pieces slowly were put together.
"Wait, it was you five?" Lemon pointed.
The Rainbooms shamefully nodded.
"But... why?"
"The five of us were nobodies in this school. No one cared who were were, until Sunset Shimmer found us. She said she could make us popular and promised us 'unlimited power'. And over the course of the past months, we started makin' this entire school a livin' Tartarus for everyone," Applejack explained.
"And the worst part... we loved it!" Pinkie bawled her eyes out.
"We enjoyed every sick twisted minute of making everyone miserable," Fluttershy said with gloom before turning herself to look away.
"But as time went on, we realized it wasn't what we wanted. It wasn't fun anymore. Nobody liked us. And we wanted to end our partnership with Sunset right there and then."
"Only for her to blackmail us by putting our sisters in the hospital under some stupid magic spell, and then threatening to put more of our families in their place!" Rainbow screamed, tears now starting to leak from sheer anger. But Indigo came over and gave her a tissue, allowing her to clear her face.
"Well, why didn't you tell us from the start?" Sunny Flare asked.
"Sunny, would you really have wanted to befriend us after you heard of all the horrid things we did with Sunset Shimmer?"
Sunny was going to speak, but she was stumped. She rubbed her chin and tapped her heel on the ground. "Okay, you got me there... that's a good question..."
"Sooo... what did she have you guys do?" Sour asked. "If you don't mind me asking...?"
"I set animals to scare students to get out of my way!" Fluttershy said.
"I used party items that were for fun and turned them into mean nasty pranks!" Pinkie cried.
"I lied and destroyed friendships between people," Applejack shamefully admitted.
"I upset everyone during soccer practice and boast about how awesome I am and constantly trip them whenever they make a tiny mistake!"
"I sabotaged a qualifying band for a competition out of petty revennnngeeeeee!" Rarity wailed.
The Shadowbolts stared at them in awkward silence with a few blinks here and there.
"... I'll admit, I don't think I was ready for an overload of, well, that," Sour admitted.
"Why are you telling this only now?" Indigo asked.
"Because you five are the first real friends we had and we didn't want you to turn on us just like everyone else did!"
Sugarcoat blinked for a second. "So... you five did really nasty things. You feel guilt and shame for said nasty things, and you were afraid of what we all thought?"
The five Rainbooms nodded.
"Okay, well here's my question. Is that what you girls really are now?" Sugarcoat asked.
The five of them stopped.
"Well, uh--"
"-- Is it?" Sugarcoat asked again.
"Well, no--"
"--Then quit beating yourselves up," Sugarcoat bluntly stated.
"Ow! Hey," Rainbow whined. "Your words can hurt you know."
"I know, but this time, I need to say this. I'm not saying this to hurt you; I'm saying this because we're your friends, and you need to hear this. You've done bad things, very very bad things, no doubt about it. And yes, I completely understand that it's hard trying to push through when everyone won't let you live it down," Sugarcoat said, addressing all of them. "But you cannot let them get to you, and you absolutely cannot let fear control your life. If you're going to let them have the power and continue to stay put down, then you might as well not even come to school."
The Rainbooms were quiet, as they looked at one another and then back at Sugarcoat.
"I had gone through something like you have. All of us," Sugarcoat said more calmly. "My constant monotone sounding voice? Kids in school made fun of me for sounding like a robot."
Indigo stepped up as well. "When I was in 7th grade, the boys and girls picked on me because I didn't act like their definition of a girl. They kept calling me a boy."
"My rage issues got me into fights with other girls," Sour admitted, looking down, guiltily.
"I was made a laughing stock when I tried out drama class in 8th grade," Sunny Flare added. "My classmates said drama was only for losers and nerds."
"I uh... I made an insensitive joke when a new kid showed up to school. And I wish I could have taken that back," Lemon said too.
"But you know why we're still standing?"
"Cause you have to attend the Friendship Games regardless?" Applejack asked.
"No," Sugarcoat said, not changing her voice (not that she could). "The reason we're still standing is because we get a chance to start over with every new day; it's called living life. I know you girls got hit hard, I do. And I don't expect things to be 100% perfect for you all. But if the day is always the same... maybe you're all the ones who need to change."
The Rainbooms had never thought of that before. All of those days, they had expected nothing more than continuous (but understandable) hate from everyone, everywhere they go. Always reminded of the horrible deeds they had done over the course of the past few weeks at school. But ever since the games began... it didn't seem so bad.
"You know what? Maybe yer right. I mean look at us, we're always expectin' the worst every day," Applejack said, standing up.
"But we totally deserved it!" Pinkie piped.
"True, but look at what's happened in the past few days. I reunited with Rara, Rarity's found herself reborn in a new style, and Rainbow, I saw you talk to Vinyl at the mall yesterday," Applejack said putting her hands on her hips.
"Well... it was nice talking to her without feeling hated," Rainbow admitted. "I don't know what it was, but I think part of me was just happy that day.
"Trixie could talk to me without running away. And Fluttershy, what about Tennis Match, she said was hoping you and Rarity were okay, right?"
"Mmmhmm," Fluttershy nodded with a soft smile. "That did feel good."
"And lets not forget," Applejack continued, looking over at the Shadowbolts. "Fer the first time, we made real friends."
The Shadowbolts all shared collective smiles back at the Rainbooms. And the Rainbooms were all sharing similar faces. For once, they were all in sync with one another.
"Come on. Lets go talk to her. For all we know the poor girl's cryin' her eyes out and needing a friend," Applejack suggested.
"Agreed. Operation; Cheer Up is a go!" Rarity chirped, leading the girls away.
"But we still got to get them out of that thing you know," Rainbow pointed out as she followed them.
"Of course silly! We'll just cheer her up, smash the device for good setting them all free, and we can play the final around of the Friendship Games!"
"That sounds too easy," Fluttershy mumbled as she followed her friends, who she was honestly thinking were walking into certain death just talking to her.
The room was quiet. And so the Shadowbolts were left alone, pondering in their thoughts
"You heard the rumor, right, about the newest students in this school?" Sugarcoat asked.
"No."
"Mmm mmm."
"What is it?"
"Apparently, three of their newest classmates are actually seaponies from another dimension where everybody is a horse," Sugarcoat explained.
"Ahhh..."
"Of course..."
"That sounds weird..."
"Where do you get all these rumors, I mean, who tells them to you?" Indigo asked.
"I dunno," Sugarcoat shrugged. "Anyone talks, I listen. Always have, I guess I love gossip."
The five Shadowbolts were quiet for a second. It was quiet, so quiet the only sound you could hear was the electricity buzzing in the ceiling, or the sound of the radiator.
"Well this is boring," Sour said, walking out into the hallway.
"Wait, where are you going?"
"I want to see if they're going to fight some magic demon! Come on, it beats being in here, I wanna see a showdown!"
"Okay, now you're scaring me Sour," Sugarcoat remarked as she followed.
"Magic fight? I'm in!"
"Girls, I'm not sure if there's even going to be a... magic fight..." Indigo put her finger down. She exchanged looks with Sunny Flare before shrugging and following after the rest of their friends.
"You have any clue what they're talking about?"
"May the gods help if I know," Sunny shook her head. And soon she was the last to leave to room. And when she stepped out, she didn't see the lights in the ceilings buzzing a bit, flickering. Very unusually...
Unbeknownst to Rainbow Dash and the others, Trixie and her friends were completely okay. All six of them now were trapped inside Twilight's device, and so far, had no means of escape. But right now, they were content to see that they were still okay.
"Can't believe this, first we get powers, now we're trapped in some magic prison," Trixie scrunched her face.
"At least we're still alive," Vinyl softly smiled, trying to stay optimistic.
"Me too. For a second there, I'll admit, I... I thought I saw a bright light," Amethyst shivered, holding onto her arms. Octavia patted her shoulder in sympathy.
"But what do we do now? We can't just wait around, we have to find a way out of here," Bon Bon said, pacing back and forth.
"We all fell out of the sky, I'm pretty sure we can't just jump up and go right through again," Octavia rolled her eyes. "But we'll figure something out."
"You know something else?" Trixie said, sliding down on her butt against the Wondercolt statue. "I... I wish I could undo what I did."
"What did you do?" Lyra asked.
"When Amethyst and Vinyl were taken, I... I lashed out at her," Trixie said, shamefully. "I didn't want to, but I was just so upset, I thought something had happened to you guys, and I... if something did happen, I... I don't know. I couldn't live with myself knowing that something bad had happened."
Lyra frowned as she walked over to Trixie, kneeling down to her face. She wiped a tear from her face and smiled.
"It's okay. We're all here," Lyra said, pulling Trixie for a hug. "There, there."
"At least the Dazzlings are still... wait a minute," Bon Bon snapped her fingers. "Adagio, Aria, and Sonata are still safe. They're supposed to be coming home today! I don't know where they are, but if they come back here and find out what happened..."
"Then there's a good chance they could get sucked up and trapped just like us," Octavia scowled.
"I was going to say there's a chance they could find a way to set us free. Is there anyone else who saw us get trapped?"
"Well... I dunno, I think I might have seen some of the Rainbooms when I let my anger take control of me," Trixie thought.
"And I did explain to them about Twilight's actions and to take caution," Octavia added.
"Then there's a good chance someway, somehow, we're going to get out of here. I know it."
Vinyl and Lyra looked back up, and their eyes shrunk.
"Um, girls?" Lyra interrupted. "What's that?"
Everyone looked up. Red clouds were now forming over them, some soft bolts of lightning flashing above their heads.
"That's not good..."
The Rainbooms pushed themselves out the doors and down the steps. The thunderclouds continued to hover over their school, although a bit more darker than they remembered. And some lightning flashes appeared as well.
"Uhhh, shouldn't we go back inside? I mean being outside during a lightning storm is not such a good idea," Rainbow Dash suggested.
"And leave Twilight all alone out here?" Rarity inquired. "I think not!"
"Besides, somethin' ain't right. I know I'm no weather expert, but that doesn't look too natural. Sides, the weather report this mornin' said we'd only get a side of thunderclouds and rain, but that's it."
"The weather service is unreliable. Besides, it's the only job in the world where you could be entirely wrong and still get paid," Fluttershy snarked.
"Lets just focus on finding Twilight," Pinkie Pie insisted, patting her friend's shoulder.
The courtyard was quiet. Too quiet, in fact. They could hear the thunderclouds in the skies, and the sounds of the wind. But nothing else out of the ordinary. No trace of Twilight Sparkle, for sure.
"Twilight? You here?" Applejack asked. "C'mon now, don't be shy, we just wanna talk to ya! We just wanna... talk..." Applejack froze. She saw something. "What in the world... lands sake, what is that?" The apple farmer pointed.
Just up ahead they could see metal poles arched on the road, just in front of their school. They didn't look like they were always there. And even though it wasn't huge, they could see small sparks of lightning pulsating at the top of the poles, connected together like a line. Even in between they were visible.
"I have a bad feeling about this..." Pinkie admitted.
"Me too," Fluttershy nodded.
Everyone stopped talking. They heard a strange sound aflutter in the air. Almost like a whoosh, like someone or something had flown right past them.
"W-What was that?" Rainbow zipped, turning to the direction of the whoosh.
"Am I the only one who thinks something happened when we went back inside?" Pinkie quivered. "I mean just looking at those poles..." She vanished in a cloud of smoke to take a closer look. Ahead, they could see her slightly touching it before she yelped and came back in another smoke cloud, her hair now all frizzy and sticking straight up. "... That doesn't look like it belongs there."
"Come on, Twilight! We know you're out here! We just want to talk!" Rainbow called. But she was nowhere to be seen.
"Y-Yes! Bring it on you ruffian!"
"Rarity, she's not a supervillain," Applejack deadpanned.
Rainbow's head looked up and her eyes sunk in her head. "Um... are you sure about that?"
The girls looked up, and all of them shrunk down.
"Uh oh..." they all said in unison.
"What?" Pinkie said until Rarity got her to look up. "Oh... no..."
The Shadowbolts busted out the door and took notice as well.
"Oh..."
"My..."
"Goodness..."
And the Principals exited the building with everyone else, all of them taking in the horrific sight before them.
"Girls, there's strange metal poles sticking out the back of... the school..." Principal Luna was about to begin, until she looked up and noticed.
"No..." Principal Cinch was breathless. "It cannot be..."
A pair of glowing steel boots were the first in sight. A purple sash hung in the middle of the girl's waist, held from her hips. Dark steel covered her chest, and spiked shoulder pads rested on her shoulders, giving off an apocalyptic vibe. A samurai-esque looking helmet sat on her head, with a horn in the middle, and two on the sides. Spiked gauntlets covered her arms, but left hands exposed. Her skin was a darker shade of purple, and her eyes were radiating like two bright stars. A mask was over her eyes; a glowing one at that.
Out of her back were metal coils that were bent into what could be the skeletal structure of wings, with short beams of electricity zapping and forming the full wings.
"Well... I thought demon Sunset's getup was severe," Rarity quivered.
"T-T-Twilight?" Rainbow gulped.
"I am not Twilight Sparkle. Now I am Midnight Sparkle." She looked down at her gauntlet covered hands, her face staying completely blank. "I never imagined having magic. But now that I can control the magic from the girls, I can finally protect our planet from the demons like Sunset Shimmer. Illusion, lightning, metal, sound, creation, teleportation, all within my fingertips."
"But what about Trixie and the others!?" Rarity shouted.
Midnight looked down. "They're very close. Always have been. They will stay safe until I can decontaminate the magic from their systems. And soon they will finally be freed from the curse that this, Equestrian Magic, has brought upon them. And they will be freed from my device. For now... it is time I protect you all, until I can purge the magic's infestation!"
And she hovered up in the air, bending more metal to connect to the already standing poles, trying to make sure everything stayed in place. The metal groaned throughout the yard, making everyone cringe.
"Girls, I think we may be in over our heads... waaay over our heads..."