“Git line, line pourtal?” Twilight attempted to translate the journal. “Get two lines portal? Get to portal? Sunset’s sending zombies through. The whole skoe—school?!”
Twilight’s face paled under its purple fur.
“”WHAT!?”” The Applejacks yelled back immediately.
“Sunset’s sending zombies through the portal?!” joined Primo. “Meaning for real zombies this time?”
“It’s a mind control spell thing!” answered Rad.
“Wasn’t that her old conquest of Equestria plan?” asked Spike.
“Oh, no! She’s gone evil again?” cried Butterfly, hugging Posey for support.
Renae leaned in to read the entry herself, “Did you say the whole school?”
“But you said the universes wouldn’t survive that!” gasped Share.
The sound of the palace doors being slammed open broke them free of the stunned surprise to see the Applejacks already entering Twilight’s palace. The rest of the group took notice with the Rainbows flying in at high speed and the other eight following further behind.
Peachie looked at the clock tower just before entering the palace. “Isn’t school over by now?”
Shindy would have scratched her chin if her hooves weren't busy galloping. “It was already explained that time moves faster in this world than ours so it might not be. Also, there’s after school clubs. So, either way, there will still be a bunch of people at the school.”
A few flights up, Shindy tripped and planted her muzzle into a step with a loud honk. Thankfully, Peachie caught her on the bounce back. A little dizzy, Shindy said, “Ponying up back home is one thing, but ponying up stairs isn’t anywhere near as magical.”
“I might be able to help,” Butterfly offered, unfolding her wings from a few steps below.
She took to the air, matched altitude, and swooped her forehooves under Shindy’s before lifting.
Feeling herself flying, Shindy giggled. “Oooh! It’s like having a butterfly for a hang-glider! Except hang-gliders don’t have vertical takeoffs.”
They quickly learned that butterflies, including the one present, weren’t adept at hauling freight when Butterfly’s attempt to continue up around the stairwell ended up going into the stairwell.
“Eeeek!”
Honk
Thud
“Could you just teleport us up there, darling?” Share requested of Twilight.
With a sheepish blush, Twilight rushed to the fallen duo and motioned for the others to get closer.
Once the group of eight were gathered, Twilight lit her horn, and in a purple flash later they had appeared outside her private study containing the portal.
Just in time for two Rainbows and two Applejacks to plow into them.
“Honestly! Again?” Renae groaned from near the bottom of the resulting pile.
Another purple flash later, they changed from conglomerated and confused to decentralized and dazed.
Primo was the first to shake off her swirling vision, her Wonderbolt training coming to her aid. She then tilted her head at the oddity of Twilight’s wardrobe, normally in her bedroom a few floors up, now standing along one wall, and a series of scrapes and grooves ground into the crystal floor.
She shrugged and was about to help the others get on their hooves when a shaky voice called out from within the study.
“H-help! Is anyone out there?! I’m not sure how to walk and I have an injured … an injured something here. Hello?”
Twilight snapped to attention. “Flash?!”
“Twilight?” the unseen voice yelled back. “Equestria Twilight?!”
As Twilight and crew got back onto their hooves, the visiting members of the group heard the familiar clop and thud sounds from when they were first learning to walk as ponies.
Before Twilight could do so herself, a mustard yellow hoof pushed open the doors from the inside, revealing a pegasus stallion. On his back was a purple creature covered with scales and fins.
It was gasping for breath.
Twilight lit her horn and opened the doors the rest of the way, startling Flash Sentry who fell onto his side while the purple creature tumbled to the floor with a wheeze.
The creature looked like an earth pony mare from the front with two legs ending in hooves and a purple mane pulled into twin pigtails. Her back half, however, appeared to belong to a seapony. Unlike a seapony, however, this creature had a cutie mark printed on her scales of a five-pointed star on top of a musical segno symbol.
It looked up at Twilight and croaked, “Water.”
“I got it!” cried Peachie, who zoomed in with a glass balanced on her hoof.
The creature zeroed in on the glass and its dying gasps halted in a moment of severe incredulousness. When the moment faded, the creature drank the water … or at least poured it in her mouth. It came splashing out the sides of her neck, through sets of gills.
One apparent “breath” later and the creature gasped again.
“I have another one!” called Shindy, arriving with another glass sticking out of her mane. “Oh, hey, Aria! Did you shrink? You look different.”
Aria Blaze saw Shindy and her eyes widened, flicking between her and Peachie. “T-two of’em?” she croaked. “Jus’et me die.”
Twilight gasped and lifted Aria in her magic then turned to the others. “I’ll be right back!” she announced before they both vanished in a purple flash.
The remaining girls and Spike then turned to the Flash on the floor. Jackie went up to him and held out a hoof while Ponyjack continued into the study with the Rainbows following her. Rad noticed Ponyjack flick a dial-shaped crystal by the door that lit up the dim room. Something they could have used when they had first arrived.
The others watched the three begin to explore the portal room but kept with Jackie and Flash.
“Take it easy there, Flash, Ah got you,” Jackie soothed. “But remember, you got four legs now. Don’t try to stand on less than three.”
He looked up. “Applejack?”
“Eeyup! But call me Jackie here to avoid confusion with there being two of all of us.”
Flash awkwardly hooked a pastern around Applejack’s and shakily got standing upright. He then looked around, taking in Applejack, the two Pinkies, Rarities, Fluttershies, and the purple scaly thing. “S-so it’s all real? I didn’t think you were all making it up, but, really? All of it?”
“Sure is. Alien world, magic, ponies, ponies that look just like us and have the same names. Whole shebang.”
He lifted a fore hoof to look at it, then put it back down. “Was that purple one Twilight, and am I naked?”
Shindy giggled, “Couldn’t keep it in your pants?”
Flash quickly crossed his hind legs as a blush formed on his cheeks.
“You’re fine, Flash,” Shindy followed up. “All the guys here just let it hang.”
Also blushing, Butterfly nodded. “We, we’ve seen a … lot today. Just, um, keep your tail down?”
“And I don’t think you can walk like that,” Peachie noted.
Ponyjack and the Rainbows returned from the portal room. “Ain’t no zombies in here! Nothing’s happening!” announced Ponyjack.
“Yeah, room’s empty!” Primo followed up.
“Empty?!” Flash yelled. “It was more than just me and Aria.” He tried to turn back but tripped over his hooves and just called from the floor. “Twilight? Wallflower?”
“I’m here!” Wallflower Blush called back, clearly standing beside a pile of debris.
“What the?” gasped Primo, jumping away from the green earth pony. “Where’d you come from? Were you there a second ago?”
Wallflower sighed, “Yeah, I was.”
“Where’s Twilight?” asked Flash.
Carefully, Wallflower pushed a few books away from the debris pile to show a purple unicorn with glasses lying on her side. “I think she might have hit her head coming in.”
“”Twily!”” multiple voices shouted.
The Fluttershies rushed in with the Rarities behind them. The Rarities used their magic to move books and other items away, while the Fluttershies carefully inspected their fallen friend. Starting with head and neck, they were relieved to feel no obvious injuries aside from a scratch on her glasses.
“Twily, can you hear me?” asked Butterfly.
“Nmhh,” Twily groaned. “Fluttershy?”
“That’s it, darling. We’re here. Take it slow,” Renae encouraged her.
Twily opened her eyes and lifted a hoof to her head with another groan. She then noticed her fur and took another look.
At her hoof.
At her foreleg.
At her reflection in the crystal floor.
“Wha—ahhhhhhh?! All my things are horse things!” She looked lower. “And they’re all on display!”
Share unfastened her gown with her magic and fit it around Twily, helping her to stand in the process.
“Oh, thank you,” Twily sighed in relief.
“I’m afraid it doesn't suit your colors well,” said Share, “but it should help you adjust to our world. I understand public nudity is not common where you’re from. I’d rather love to see that, actually.”
“I don’t suppose you have a suit, or just some pants somewhere?” asked Flash, still huddled where he fell.
Renae looked to him. “Not handy—or hoofy as it may be—but,” she looked at the dress she was wearing, “I’m more comfortable with my pony form now if you’d like this.”
Flash looked at the red dress with a thoughtful expression … and a blush. “Um. Maybe I’ll just stay here on the floor a while.”
“Oh!” Renae turned. “Wasn’t Wallflower here too?”
“Here,” said Wallflower.
“Ah, there you are!”
“I haven’t moved,” she deadpanned from right next to Renae.
“Right, sorry, dear. Uh, would you like this dress?”
Wallflower looked down at herself, then the other naked ponies in the room, then back at her new tail. “W-well … If I’m not going to stand out anymore here than back home, maybe I should just stay with this if nudity really is normal here?”
“It is, but let me know if you change your mind.”
Now fully dressed and standing, Twily shook her head and winced. “Wait. ‘Our world’?” She looked up, scanned the pony faces around her, and brought her hoof back to the bump on her head. “How hard did I land? Am I seeing double?”
With a giggle, Shindy got right up in front of her.
“No you’re not!” she singed.
“There’s two of us!” Peachie songed, joining her twin.
Twily took another look at the ponies around her. “Do I have a concussion or did the plan succeed?”
“It worked,” Rad informed her. “We all have twins now. Yours is off making sure Aria doesn’t die.”
“What?!”
“She couldn’t breathe,” Jackie answered.
Twily gasped, “They’re aquatic! That’s right. Is she okay?”
“Don’t worry,” said Spike, getting wide-eyed expressions from the newest three aliens in the room, “Twi looked like she had a plan. I’m sure she’s not just going to drop her in a bathtub and teleport her back here still in it.”
There was a loud whump from the hallway that vibrated throughout the floor.
“Gah! Easy there, Princess!” came Aria’s voice in a growl.
“Well excuse me for trying to keep you from asphyxiating!” Twi’s followed up with one of her own.
“Or maybe she did,” Spike finished.
“Twi?” Twily called.
“Twily?” Twi answered. “You’re here too?”
Twi trotted in carrying a bathtub filled with water and a grumpy Aria in her magic. She looked around, cringing at the mess in the room but noting that there seemed to be no emergencies at present.
“Whoa,” Twily commented. “You have wings, and you’re taller. And you’re soaked!”
With her mane and tail hanging limp and water dripping in her wake, Twi grumbled, giving Aria a dirty look, “I hadn’t noticed.”
She got a smirk in return.
Leaving the tub near the doorway, Twi let it drop to the floor again, jostling Aria, then ignored the resulting retort and addressed her twin, “What’s going on? We got a message from Sunset’s journal that she was sending zombies through!”
“That was us,” said Flash, awkwardly pulling himself back into the room from the hallway. Twi blushed, realizing she walked right past him after her return teleport. “The zombies I mean. Sunset hit the three of us with that mind control thing again and forced us through the portal.”
“Even Aria and Twily?”
“She didn’t do me,” Twily answered.
“Heh, phrasing,” Aria snorted.
“But you said three,” Twi asked Flash. “Who’s the third?”
“Um.”
“Gah!” Twi jumped back from the green earth pony who she could’ve sworn hadn’t been there a moment ago. “Who are you?!”
“Wallflower Blush,” Wallflower greeted her softly. “We’ve met before, but … you wouldn’t remember.”
Twi stared at her a moment before the name clicked. “Oh, the memory stone incident. Sunset’s been telling me about you since then! Nice to meet you. Even if it’s not the first time.”
With a blush, Wallflower gave the princess a small bow, but she was already turning back to Twily. “Then why are you here? And it’s just the four of you, right?”
“Yes,” Twily answered, “I tried to stop it but Sunset had them shove me through.”
“Sorry about that,” apologized Flash. “I tried to stop.”
“It’s okay. It’s mind control, nothing any of you could have done.”
“Speaking of which,” asked Rad, “how are you not still zombied right now?”
“Woke up soon as I got back in my real body,” Aria answered. “Feels nice. Bathtub sucks though. Gotta get back in an ocean. Actually get some swimming room.”
““Then the spell doesn’t work across the portal,”” the Twilights theorized.
“So, if you four were doing all that,” began Spike, “who wrote the message in the journal?”
Twily looked over at the green, scaly thing. “Are you Spike, uh, Claws?”
“Yup!”
“Oh, hello. Well, Paws wrote it.”
“Yes!” Claws cheered. “He can write! Though he’s got a lot to learn about spelling and chirography.” Seeing a few confused looks his way, he added, “What? I know big words too. And with all the letters I write, of course I’ve taken classes. You should see my calligraphy.”
“But the message said she was sending the whole school!” insisted Jackie. “What’s going on?”
“Well, she tried,” started Flash, turning to look at Aria, “but Aria, uh, scared them off.”
Aria smiled devilishly. “Baseball bat, megaphone, and a large vocabulary of profanities.”
“No kidding,” Twily cringed. “How many languages do you speak?”
“Fluently or just the profanity?”
“Never mind.”
“Wait,” Rad jumped in, addressing Aria, “You scared them off? Not Sunset?”
“It’s a gift.” Aria shined a hoof on her scales.
Ponyjack took a breath. “So, the magic turned Sunset evil and she tried to send the school through the portal as a zombie army, but the four of you stopped her and got sent over instead? And now, what? She’s chasing the students down?”
“Hay!” Aria growled. “First of all, she’s not evil, she’s confused! Magic’s messing with her head! She hates mind control magic and she’d never use it on anyone!”
“Ain’t you one of them evil, mind controlling sirens yourself? Why are you here?”
Aria glared at Ponyjack, pushing herself up off the rim of the bathtub and dripping water onto the floor. “She’s a f—“ Aria held her glare through the slight blush, “—friend, okay?”
“They’re also roommates now,” Shindy added.
Aria quickly ducked back into the water to breathe.
Forcing an indignant expression off her face, Twily turned away from Aria and coughed nervously. “I left the journal with Spi—Paws. We could ask.”
“On it!” Claws cheered, quill already in one claw and reaching for the journal with his other.
As the dragon flipped to the last entry and began to write, Flash spoke up, “I don’t know if she’d be going after the others. When we got to the school she was trying to get through the portal herself. Then she forced us to go through when we tried to stop her.”
“ ‘Trying’? If you didn't stop her, what did?” asked Twi.
“So, remember when she transformed back at the Fall Formal?” Flash answered, getting a lot of sighs and sad nods in return. “Remember how she got really … big?”
“She did get pretty tall,” Butterfly answered.
“Well—“
Flash stopped when the portal began to ripple and shimmer.
“The portal’s still active?!” Twi gasped.
Primo and Ponyjack glanced at each other. “We, probably should have turned it off, huh?” admitted Primo.
Suddenly, a large, coal-black hoof attached to a fire-red leg shot out of the portal.
There were gasps and screams in the room.
But nothing else happened.
They all watched as the leg shifted from side to side.
“Are you saying she can’t fit in the portal?” asked Twi.
“Her a▓s is too big,” Aria explained with a slight smirk.
“And that’s as far as she can get?” asked Renae.
“And in the other world right now, there’s just her back end sticking out of the other side?” asked Peachie.
“Like a plot sticking out of a barrel when apple bobbing gets too rowdy,” surmised Ponyjack.
A second hoof emerged from the portal and the two seemed to try and grip the floor to pull themselves forward without having any luck.
“Should we turn off the portal now?” asked Share.
Butterfly gasped and Posey answered for her, “but what if she gets stuck forever?!”
“Or cut in two,” added Shindy.
The wide-eyed Fluttershies bit their hooves in horror.
“Then do we pull her in?” asked Primo.
“Or push her out?” Rad finished.
“Hay!” Claws perked up. “Paws says that the rest of the school managed to escape!”
The Twilights turned to him. ““So it’s just Sunset near the portal now?””
“Then no one else is coming through!” Jackie cheered and the Applejacks leaned into each other in relief.
“But he also said she’s acting strange,” Claws followed up.
“Strange how?” asked Wallflower, startling a few who had forgotten she was standing next to them.
“He said she keeps talking to herself, and she was angry one moment then crying the next. There’s more but it’s hard to read his writing.”
“Let me see,” Twily requested. “I’ve seen him writing before. Not the strangest thing I’ve seen—which might be this room right now—but it’s up there.”
Claws brought the journal around to Twily, but before she could try reading it, the portal began to shake.
They all turned to watch as the forelegs retreated for a moment before what appeared to be a fiery missile launched out of it, crashing into various debris left scattered by the events earlier in the day.
Books, broken pieces of furniture, dust, ponies, and a dragon went flying toward the back and side walls.
Aria, still in the bathtub by the doors was outside the line of fire, but still had to duck to avoid shrapnel. “Hay!” she called once it stopped flying. “Is everyone alright in there? No one’s dead, right?”
After a moment of no sound aside from settling debris, Aria ducked again to take some deep breaths and leapt out of the tub. Hitting the floor, she headed for the closest pile large enough to hide at least one pony, using her tail as a single hind leg. “You better all be breathing,” she grumbled, “I don’t have the lung capacity for mouth-to-mouth.”
She shifted around some rubble, eventually noticing one pile that seemed to be breathing. Moving aside a chair cushion and half the chair it was meant for revealed a pink cutie mark. Aria quickly uncovered the rest of the pegasus.
“Yellow?” Aria called. “H-hay, Yellow, wake up.” Far too much time passed. “C-come on, Fluttershy.”
With a groan, Butterfly opened her eyes and Aria sagged in relief.
“Aria!” gasped Butterfly. “You do care!”
Aria recoiled on her tail as if the sudden blush on her face had stung her. “Gah! Jus—just help me find the others before I run out of oxygen.”
Butterfly gasped, looking around at the remains of the room and followed behind her, some groans beginning to sound out.
They worked, uncovering the others, some freeing themselves and joining the search.
“Ow, ow, owie!” Poking her head up from under a toppled over bookcase, Peachie turned to her twin. “What was that about this being a comedy?”
“I hope it wasn’t a mis-tag,” Shindy mumbled back.
“Is everypony alright?” Twi called, lighting her horn and casting a light wind spell to clear the air, funneling the dust and smaller settlements into the hallway.
“We’re okay!” Shindy responded.
“Aria got me out,” Butterfly added loud enough to be sure the others all heard her, watching the former siren fume with embarrassment on her way back to the bathtub.
“We’re good here!” Primo called, crawling out of a dismantled sofa, an annoyed Rad right behind her.
“Same here,” Ponyjack added while helping Flash to his hooves. Beside them, Jackie helped Renae into a clearing.
Share, Posey, and Claws signed off as well.
“Twily?” Twi called.
For a moment there was no reply, and then knocking was heard from under a larger pile in the center of the room.
The ponies and dragon closed in around it and began clearing the pile.
Once they’d removed the outer layer, they began to hear a deep growling sound.
They stopped.
The growling got louder as the pile grew larger.
“Um,” Peachie began, “Twily didn’t turn herself into the Saddle-Rager did she?”
Before anyone could attempt a reply, the pile broke apart as a large, crimson-red nightmare of an alicorn smashed her way out from within.
The monstrosity reared back onto her hind legs with a thunderous roar.
Her horn was gnarled and knotted. Wings leathery with holes strewn throughout; sharp talons at the end. Her mane and tail wild, waving and flickering like fire in the absence of any breeze and colored to match.
But everyone recognized the cutie mark.
It was Sunset’s.
At least, it was almost hers. The familiar two-toned sun symbol was clear, but the yellow portion had faded to a dull gray.
The girls, Flash, and Claws all looked up at her and backed away, Claws grabbing and pulling Flash after he tripped on his hooves.
Twi’s jaw dropped. It was hard to tell with her rearing, but it looked like Sunset was taller than Celestia. The wingspan seemed wider as well.
Sunset’s roar was cut off suddenly when it turned into a wince and she brought a hoof up to her neck, yelling in a booming voice. “Holy CRAP that hurt! Why’d that portal have to be so small?! Should have given that shrinking spell more time to work before coming through.”
They watched as Sunset tilted and rotated her head around until a loud crack popped out and Sunset sucked in a breath. “Oooh! Oh, that’s better.”
Still feeling her neck, Sunset wobbled, her eyes opened, revealing solid black sclera, and she flailed out her fore legs in a futile attempt to regain her balance, before belly-flopping hard onto the floor. The impact rumbled throughout the room and kicked up more dust. She lay there groaning a moment and brought a fore leg up to look at the hoof at the end. “Oh. Right.”
The others in the room just watched, looking from one to another silently.
Shindy leaned in toward Share and whispered, “Should we pretend we didn’t see any of that once she notices we’re here?”
“Heavens, yes!” Share hissed back.
And that’s when Sunset noticed them.
She looked directly at Share who drew back with a squeak. She then got her hooves under her and stood to her full height.
The others all craned their necks up and up to follow her.
Sunset began to laugh. A deep, dark, booming, pompous laugh that caused all the pony ears to turn back on instinct.
She looked around, the laugh fading as she noticed all the twins. “Whoa! Don’t see that everyday. And you’re all so tiny!” She chuckled, still booming, “Hi girls! I wondered where you all ran off to! I’ve been looking all over! But Equestria?! Wow! You even found all your counterparts! And you made name tags!”
A slight child-like glee entered the booming laugh as Sunset read the tags. “Let’s see: Peachie, Shindy, Share, Renae, Twi of course, oh, hi Flash, Jackie, Ponyjack, Butterfly, Posey, Primo, Rad, and then there’s Spike! But I guess we should call you Claws now since everyone—everypony—else is using nicknames.” Several of the ponies had waved back to her or cringed as their nicknames were called. “Ha! I like them, but aren’t we missing some?”
Sunset turned around and spotted the lone figure in a bathtub. “Aria! Why are you in—? Oh right! Sorry, I forgot you’d need water here. It’s a good thing you found some. I’d be so upset if I lost a friend.” Lighting her gnarled horn in a brilliant opal glow, the tub lifted into the air. “How about you to join the others?”
Aria held on as the tub shakily floated over to the line of ponies and crashed down hard enough to crack the crystal floor and bend the tub’s legs before Sunset let go. Some water splashed out onto the floor, as well as Twi and Renae, refreshing Twi’s wet mane and soaking Renae’s dress.
Renae nearly protested but thought better of it.
“There! Isn’t that better?” Sunset asked pleasantly, before her tone gained a hard edge through the smile that revealed so many very sharp teeth. “Make sure you get along now! Be friendly for a change!”
Twi pushed her mane back out of her face and was about to say something, but Sunset turned away again. “Now where’s cute, little Twily?”
Sunset scanned the room, a beam of light extending from her horn in a cone making everything it touched transparent.
She found her, head down and tail in the air under a collapsed stack of books and curled against a wall.
“Ha! Found you!” she cheered and all the objects in that area of the room lit in the same opal light, quickly lifted into the air, some objects striking the ceiling in their haste.
Twily smiled sheepishly as her cover vanished, but trying to wave just caused her to slide off the wall onto her side. “Uh, hey, Sunset. Are you o—”
“You’re a unicorn. I’ve been wondering about that.”
Sunset didn’t bother waiting for a reply and just floated the books and other objects away, letting them crash first into a wall and then the floor.
“Eek!”
The sudden noise grabbed Sunset’s attention. “Wallflower! There you are! I was afraid we’d lost you again!” The hard edge returned to her voice. “Don’t keep disappearing like that!”
“S-sorry,” she squeaked.
Sunset laughed, walking up toward Wallflower, just sitting near the corner of the room. “You’re an earth pony! That’s great! Fits your love of plants! Just wait until you try your new earth pony magic. I’m sure the native Applejack—Ponyjack—would love to show you how!”
Twily and Wallflower felt themselves being lifted in the opal glow of Sunset’s magic and they were set down with the others. Wallflower between the two Applejacks and Twily between Renae and Twi. The impact caused them to wince and grunt. The landing would have been softer if they had just been dropped. Thankfully, they had twice the number of legs to absorb the shock.
“Now then,” Sunset giggled, causing the others to cringe back at the awful sound, “we’re all such great friends. Aren’t we?”
The others looked back at her and traded glances between each other.
“Sunset?” Twi got her attention.
“Yes, Twi?”
“Are you okay?”
“Are you kidding?! I’m better than ‘okay’! I feel great!” Sunset laughed, tapping her hooves on the floor, sending vibrations through it. “The day has been such a rush! All the power! I actually grew w—“ she paused, pointing to her side and her wings jolted up.
“Wings! Twi, look! I kept my wings on this side! That means I’m an alicorn now! I’m actually an alicorn!” A few tears escaped her eyes, boiling away into mist almost immediately. “I have to show Princess Celestia!”
Turning, Sunset headed for the doors in an almost pronk-like gallop.
“Sunset, wait!” Twi called, but got no reaction. “Stop!” Twi slammed the doors shut with her magic.
There was deafening silence in the room after Sunset came to a halt just shy of the doors. The temperature seemed to increase as she slowly turned around, the tiny irises of her eyes glowing. “Stop? You don’t want me to show Princess Celestia my power? Why wouldn’t you want me to show Celestia my power?!”
With the final word, Sunset struck the floor with a hoof, creating cracks and a sizable imprint.
Twi took a calming breath and took a step forward. “Please calm down.”
“I am calm, I am calm, I am calm,” Sunset droned as if chanting. A chant that broke with her next words. “I was calm. I was happy! I am not anymore.”
“We’re your friends, Sunset.”
“I didn’t say you weren’t.”
“That’s good because we really should talk about what’s happened to you.”
“What’s happened to me is amazing. It should be shared across both worlds. I could spread friendship to every creature. I could end wars. All wars before they even start! I’ll make Celestia proud!”
“Not like this!” Twi countered. “This isn’t you!”
“This is better! I’m better! I learned friendship and it gave me this power! It’s not like before. I can control this! I can fix everything! Make up for it all!”
Smoke began rising near Sunset’s hooves. She looked down and saw books and other objects combust into flames near them. She jumped back to a clearing and shot a beam from her horn, totally destroying the flaming objects. “See? I have it under control! It’s all under control!”
“Sunset!” sobbed Butterfly. “You’re scaring us.”
Her face softening, Sunset took a few steps back. “I’m sorry, Butterfly. I don’t want to scare you. There’s no reason to be scared. I know my voice is a little loud now—I’m working on that—but it’s all okay. I’m fine. I am calm. I am calm.”
“Just look at yourself, Shimmer!” Aria shouted. “You’re not fine!”
Sunset looked down at herself, taking in her red colors, almost fire and blood for shades. Her wings red and black. Sunset’s breathing quickened, becoming shallow. “I’m not a MONSTER!” she roared at them, her mane flaring up like a wildfire, almost blinding her friends.
The others ducked back, some letting out surprised squeaks, yells, or screams.
“I’m sorry!” Sunset gasped, breathing still rapid.
“We know you’re not a monster!” urged Flash. “We never said you were. But something is clearly wrong right now. You need help.”
“Help? I don’t need help. It’s others I can help. With this power I can do anything!”
“It’s the power that’s the problem!” Twily shouted. “It’s affecting your mind too, not just your body.”
Movement caught Sunset’s eye and she looked down to see Wallflower stumbling forward. “Sunset, we—“ She reached out a hoof to Sunset’s foreleg, recoiling suddenly upon making contact. “Ahh!”
“Stay back!” Sunset jumped away. “You’ll get burned!”
Wallflower shook her hoof to cool it. “Will you never be able to touch anyone again, ever? Is that what you want?”
Sunset staggered back, her friends calling to her.
“It’s okay, Sunset.”
“We’re here.”
“We don’t want to lose you.”
“We can help.”
“Please let us.”
“Just one rainbow to the face should do it!”
“Aria!”
“What? It’s your thing! Don't think I've forgotten!”
"Sunset," Twily shuffled forward, "we want to help you the way you helped me. You remember? 'Take my hand'? Please come back to us."
Almost hyperventilating, Sunset looked down. The bright glow of her mane reflected back through the crystal floor illuminating the blood-red face, the eyes that would be black voids save for the tiny irises, teeth that could never belong to an herbivore.
Boiling tears streamed down her cheeks.
She collapsed in a heap. “Do it.”
There were gasps and cheers of elation as Twi took center place in front of Sunset and had the others join her.
All six sets of twins lined up, preparing for the familiar charge of the magic of friendship to run through them.
But Twi stopped and the others looked to her.
“Wallflower, Flash, Aria,” Twi called, getting their attentions, “why don’t you join us. You too, Claws.”
Twi stepped to the side to let them join the line. Claws quickly stood next to her.
“What?” Wallflower startled, trading a glance with Flash. “But we’re not magical.”
“Ah think all ponies are magical,” Jackie answered. “No horn or wings necessary.”
Seeing Twi and the others nod, Flash and Wallflower gingerly shambled up between Claws and Twily.
Twi then turned to Aria, watching from the bathtub. “You too.”
Aria shook her head. “I don’t think that would work. Blow something up, maybe, but nothing helpful. I can’t do that stuff. I used to be a siren, remember?”
“You’re Sunset’s friend too. The magic of friendship is in every creature, in any world.”
Aria hesitated, sinking into the water for a few deep, calming breaths. “You sure? I don’t exactly have a lot of harmony in me.”
“I’m sure it will be enough.”
Another breath later, Aria jumped out of the tub and hurried over. “Fine! But if something goes wrong I’m not taking the fall.”
Wallflower and Twily shifted over more to let her in. Wallflower placed her singed hoof on Aria’s wet scales, sighing at the coolness.
“Nothing will go wrong,” Twily assured her.
“Better not! That’s my f-friend there.”
“Our friend,” Wallflower corrected her with a smile.
With the friendship chain completed, Twi focused and the magic happened.
One by one they all lifted in the air and the charge built, culminating into rainbow ribbons that shot up from them all and combined into one before launching toward Sunset Shimmer.
There was a bright flash as it struck.
And when the flash cleared
Sunset was gone.