//------------------------------//
// 1: The Test 
// Story: In Your Corner 
// by Bookish Delight 
//------------------------------//

Sunset Shimmer and her friends stood in the middle of the wide, grassy field that was Twilight Sparkle’s suburban backyard. Normally, this backyard was visible to curious passersby from any angle. However, Rarity had come up with the idea some time ago to place specifically-molded crystals, using her geode powers, around the backyard’s borders. The crystals reflected and refracted light from the innocuous surrounding area, making the backyard look empty, thus giving the girls some welcome privacy.

Said privacy was as needed as it was welcome, because standing in the backyard along with the girls was a table housing technological inventions, the likes of which the world had never before seen.

Nor was the world ready to see them, because these were actually magi-technological inventions.

And of the seven girls present in Twilight’s backyard right now, only one of them had full grasp of the inventions’ purposes. That girl, a bespectacled lavender scientist in a full-length white lab coat, tapped her headwear, and spoke to the rest gathered.

"I’d like to once again thank you all for taking time out of your weekends to support me in my endeavors," Twilight Sparkle said. "Rest assured that your assistance with these matters has been of the utmost help. Magic can be a fickle thing sometimes. Not that any of you need to be told that."

Fluttershy nodded. "Anything to help the poor innocent people and creatures who hardly deserve to get caught up in these powers without any knowledge of how to control them."

"Or being controlled by them," Pinkie Pie added. "Pony forms and magically-induced alter-egos? Talk about super-mega-crazy tough to handle—even for trained professionals like us!" she giggled, grabbing a cookie from her hair and chowing down.

"Heh, well said, both of you," Sunset said with a breathy chuckle, while pushing the word ‘fickle’ out of her mind. She knew what Twilight meant, after all. "Anyway, what Twi said goes double for me. The quicker we understand the magic to its fullest extent, the better things get for all of us—but I also know how big of a favor this is. So, thanks."

"Oh, darling, we’re absolutely willing to help," Rarity said, wrapping her hands around Sunset’s shoulder. "We’re here for you."

"You said it," Rainbow said, wrapping her arm around Sunset’s shoulders from the other side. "Besides, you made me more awesome than I already am! And that’s not easy to do. The least I can do is help return the favor."

Sunset blushed, warmth rippling through her. "Thanks, girls. Well, then, Twilight, I leave the floor to you and your scientific method."

Twilight beamed, visibly readying her Lecture Mode, and picking up a long pointer from… actually, Sunset had no idea where Twilight had gotten it, and the longer she thought about it, the less she wanted to know. 

"Thank you, Sunset. This is the next in a set of tests to help us analyze the true nature of the energies—the magic—that our geodes appear to be concentrated with. The original containment device that I used during the Friendship Games merely classified them as EM wave anomalies, but over the course of the last several months, we’ve found they’re much more than that, to the point where we’ve barely scratched the surface of their potential. But I think we’re finally close.

"So far, I’ve done individual tests on each of your pony forms, and your geode powers. Through these tests, I’ve learned a fair bit more about the stones’ unique energies—which, until further notice, I’ve dubbed ‘Harmonic Frequencies’—and how it resonates with our distinct personality types."

Twilight paused, looking to Sunset, who gave an encouraging nod in return. She could see Twilight gathering her nerves, before launching into the final part of her briefing.

"Today, we’re running tests of all seven geodes at once. Which, in a way, is advantageous. All of us being here at the same time means that we can be at our most prepared if something unexpected happens—which is almost entirely guaranteed, since, in our experience, whenever all seven geodes are brought together, or at the very least, their energies are—"

"Something unexpected happens?" Applejack chimed in.

"It’s not so much ‘unexpected’ as it is a phenomenon unique to my world," Sunset said. "But yes, it qualifies as ‘unexpected’ here, because this world’s not used to magic."

Twilight nodded. "This is Magical Field Test Number Eight—utilizing all known and combined Harmonic Frequencies! Everyone, please present your geodes."

All other girls present did so, taking the small, multicolored stones out of the various fashion accessories which housed them, and holding them out in their hands. Twilight took a deep breath. "I won’t lie—it might be too soon to do this. Even with the previous seven tests, it’s hard to overstate just how big of a jump this is."

"Do you think we should call this off?" Sunset asked, doing her best to hide her uneasiness. Whenever Twilight worried, she did too. Not that that was the only reason: she’d been around for all of the previous tests, and while nothing had gone ‘wrong’ per se, she’d noticed odd, unique effects during every single one over the couple of hours of prolonged use the test sessions requested.

Palpitations from Rarity. An increase in adrenaline from Rainbow. Random as-of-yet unexplained urges to sob from Fluttershy. Pinkie Pie temporarily acting and speaking as if she had three espressos in her system instead of her usual one. (If Applejack had had anything happen, she’d kept it on the inside.)

After a moment’s hesitation, Twilight replied. "No. This is necessary. Without this analysis, we’re stuck in one place, unprepared for the future."

"Then I believe in you," Sunset said, pushing down all of worries, and giving Twilight her most reassuring smile.

After smiling back, Twilight walked over to the table, which contained a larger, solar-powered machine, and a small, chrome-lidded glass box. Twilight picked up the latter, showing her geode housed inside it. "As per the previous trials, I’ll be using my Harmonic Analyzer Mark I for all analysis. Today, my geode will be the conduit. Ready, everyone?"

Everyone gave sounds of approval.

"All right, then. Let’s pony up!"





Sunset smiled. In all honesty, she loved this part.

She closed her eyes, doing her best to concentrate on love—love she only recently, in the grand scheme of her life, knew she was capable of feeling.

Specifically, love for her friends. How she’d do anything for them, how she would, anytime, anywhere, listen to anything they might be feeling, do her best to understand, to help, to support, to empathize.

All for her friends, who made her life worth living…!

A familiar warm, rippling sense of joy coursed through her. She felt it burst—and opened her eyes to see herself resplendent in a full-length, sparkling, fiery dress and boots, matching her hair and skin, humanizing the burning phoenix she’d metaphorically once been. She mused, as she often did, on how she never felt it when her hair doubled its length and density—or for that matter, when she grew two extra pony-shaped ears on the spot.

She looked around to see the other six girls in their own sparkling dresses accessories—color-coded and personality-molded, as Twilight had suggested. At least, thematically, there was a reason the magic manifested such forms. While using their geode powers was one thing, their transformation into full-on equine-alikes, achieving a new plane of their personal being, could be brought about only when they embraced the best and most earnest parts of themselves.

For Sunset Shimmer, that meant caring, where she never knew she could care before, to an extent she never could have dreamed she could. It was almost too much sometimes, logically or emotionally.

But her friends were worth it. Her friends were everything. More than even herself.

The seven girls rose above the ground, and the box in Twilight’s hands which contained her geode glowed a bright violet. Twilight noticed, and after several more seconds of peering inside, said, "These readings are fantastic! We’re so much more when combined than apart… it’s like we’re magnified! It’ll take months for me just to plumb the depths of these results!"

The girls all made happy, cheering, congratulatory noises, toward each other and Twilight. Their victorious jubilation, however, was short-lived. "Erm, Twilight?" Applejack said.

"Yes, Applejack?" Twilight said, still concentrating on the device in her hands. "Also, could you speak up?"

"Probably be easier if y’all just came back down to us!" Applejack replied, pointing even further up.

Sunset and Twilight looked around each other, to see that Twilight was at twice the altitude as the others, and still rising. And several things were rising with her—blades of grass, the table and machine that once stood on the ground, tree branches, the lawn mower, even tools and lab supplies from the nearby shed. They all levitated, bathed in Twilight’s violet telekinetic aura, surrounding her, twirling around her, faster and faster in a lavender storm.

"Wh… what’s going on?" Twilight panicked. "I-I don’t know how… Sunset, help!"

The plea from Twilight instantly set off Sunset’s instincts—and at the same time, her own panic. She wanted nothing more than to be able to somehow reach through everything, every force in the known universe, to save her. But the storm was too strong, and kept pushing Sunset out with her every attempt to fly into it.

Damn it! Of all the powers to inherit, why did it have to be the power to read other people?

Wait, that was it! Other people! "Rainbow! AJ! Rarity!" Sunset said, thinking fast, and pointing to the center of the storm.

"You got it!" Rainbow said, responding at the same speed. She flew over to Applejack, who lifted Rainbow off of her center of balance with her super strength.

"And a-one, and a-two," Applejack chanted, swinging Rainbow one way with a firm hold, then the other, before twirling around completely and ending with, "and-a swing your partner, do-si-do!"

Applejack let loose, hurling Rainbow upward with storm-piercing force. From there, Rainbow used pieces of debris, lab equipment, and crystals from Rarity as split-second stepping stones.

She grabbed a wrench in the maelstrom, launched herself towards the still-floating device, and shattered it, freeing the geode, which lost its glow in moments.

Twilight was the last to land at ground level, and when she did so, Sunset made sure to catch her in her arms, and set her down gently on the grass.

Which was far more gently than Sunset’s heart was beating at the moment—because Twilight was barely moving.





"Is everyone all right?" Rarity said as she used all of her powers to keep things under control, out of harm’s way, and still hidden from the world. The others were no different: Pinkie evaporated stray airborne grass and falling branches with precise flicks of her fingers, while Fluttershy made sure to get any animals she saw—including a few bugs—to a safe distance. Applejack and Rainbow Dash handled yard cleanup duty.

And Sunset still cradled Twilight in her arms—a Twilight who still showed only the small movement of breathing, and even that was barely noticeable. Rainbow fetched a damp cloth, which Sunset placed on Twilight’s head.

The more Sunset looked at her friend in peril, the more her heart screamed.

I let this happen.

"Twilight, please," Sunset said, her voice soft and desperate. "Please wake up. Please talk to me."

Would she have to take Twilight to a hospital? Would all of their secrets be exposed? Most importantly, would Twilight survive the experience?

I could have stopped this ten minutes ago. I could have stopped all of it. Followed my gut. Given my veto.

Twilight still didn’t move. Ice crept over Sunset’s heart. Before long, with all of the self-defeating thoughts infecting her mind, all it would take was a single tap to shatter her.

I let everyone get hurt in some way, but now…!

However, just before Sunset could conclude the worst, before the chill could take over her heart completely, before she could burst into uncontrollable tears… she heard the softest of groans. "Ugh… add… 'energy loss'… to the list of side effects," Twilight weakly managed.

"Twilight?" Sunset lurched, her voice frantic. "Twilight, oh, thank goodness. Are you okay? Please tell me you’re okay!"

"I’m… all right," Twilight murmured. "I’ll just be a second, I was just overtaxed. It felt like this massive surge of energy, bursting inside me, causing me to use my powers to an unprecedented extent. Fascinating, really." She struggled to sit up. "Did we get any data?"

"Doubtful." With Twilight sitting up, Sunset embraced her, fully and firmly. "We broke whatever device that was around your geode to save you. You were more important. You’re always…"

Sunset nearly choked on the words, her mind flashing back on so many times where she, her friends, and so many other people had been endangered by the very thing they were trying to analyze, to harness—and with about as much success as they’d had today. A full minute of emotional torture later, Sunset stood up, helping Twilight to her feet as well. "You’re always more important. So, I have a question. Do you still have your original energy container?"

Twilight blinked. "Yes, but why?"

A new chill crept over Sunset’s heart as she said her next words. A chill she knew well. A deeper chill, a deeper fear, which she always wrestled with, in public or by herself.

Fear that she would never be able to undo the mistakes she’d made, the ones she was making now.

"I think you should make a new version of that. One which can hold all of the geodes. We’re going to store them in there, and any other magic we come across."

"Interesting notion," Twilight said, adjusting her glasses. "What do we do then?"

Sunset looked at Twilight once more, then at all of her other friends, feeling as if the color were draining from her body the entire time.

Never again. Never this close, ever again.

Her eyes narrowed, her hands balling into fists. "Nothing."

Twilight’s brow furrowed. "I don’t follow."

"Trying to work with the magic, at least in this world, is proving too much of a risk," Sunset said, in the most definitive tone she could manage. "The individual tests were dangerous enough already, but this was just too close. Therefore, in my opinion as the most experienced of us in the field… I say we should stop. Any magic in this world, we find, we trap, we seal." She slammed her fist into her palm. "For good."

Dumbfounded looks greeted Sunset… then, slowly but surely, the other girls’ protests erupted in a chaotic chorus.

"Listen, Sunset," Twilight’s voice finally won out, "did you miss what we said earlier? What you said earlier? That the whole reason we’re doing these tests is so that we can understand the magic and help so many others?"

"Is that really the reason?" Sunset fired back. "Or is it because you’re still just hungry for knowledge?"

The others stopped, stunned into silence. Twilight stepped back. "Sunset…"

"We hold our geodes in the machine," Sunset said, with all the energy of a grim commander. "Maybe toss them into Equestria for safeguarding. Meanwhile, if anyone else is infected with magic, we’ll just suck it out of them and call it a day. Understanding people is one thing. But trying to ‘understand’ magic as its own force? I’m sorry, but this world is just too uncontrolled an environment to try."

"But you’ve seen what happens when you just try to ‘suck out’ magic from people," Rarity protested, waving jazz hands. "They get all… washed out. In serious need of a spa day afterwards. A spa month, even."

"Someone who has magic in them can’t just have it forcefully taken out of them!" Twilight agreed. "They lose a part of themselves!"

"Maybe." Sunset kept her voice, and her heart, hardened—the vision of Twilight’s arms still fresh, still stinging, as she held back tears. "But they still get to live."

"So that’s it, then?" Twilight said, stepping up to Sunset. "They either get to die, or live as a physiological shadow of themselves? Great, benevolent choice from our resident empath, here!"

"Now hold on just a minute," Applejack said, raising her hand. "I don’t know much of anything about this crazy magic, and only slightly more about Twi’s science, but what I do know is, not knowing about how the magic works has always had crazy results. Someone grows big and evil, weird teleports n’ portals happen, heck, we almost destroyed an entire dimension with us in it! Researchin’ this may come with its own dangers, but just goin’ off our experience, I think it’s worth it."

"You might have a point, Applejack," Sunset said, facing her.

"Shucks, was just speakin’ my mind, but thank you kindly."

Sunset’s glare turned pointed. "So, are you willing to put yourself in the line of fire next? Put your geode in Twilight’s happy box? Maybe you’ll demolish a house. Get it crashing down on top of you. Go on." Her eyes became slits as her voice approached baritone. "Punch someone a little too hard."

Applejack stayed quiet.

"Thought so. You’re right about one thing, AJ." Sunset stamped a foot. "You don’t know how the magic truly works. None of you know. Meanwhile, I know the most—enough to know that this whole time, we’ve been playing with it, like we play with fire, and we make happy noises while we watch it burn things!"

"And yet, if you knew so much, you wouldn’t be here, doing these experiments with us, would you?" Twilight said, finally, truly getting in Sunset’s face. "But you don’t. Because you left in the middle of your training back in Equestria. But that didn’t stop you from bringing magic here with you, from stealing it here!" Her voice rose, sure in her point, sure in her conviction. "Everyone’s lives who are affected by it, in this world, are on your shoulders!"

"And you think I don’t know that?" Sunset practically screamed, loud enough to get passersby to look, even as they couldn’t pinpoint any source of the noise.

Silence was Twilight's reply.

"I live knowing that every day," Sunset continued, in a quiet, shaken voice. "After everything I’ve tried, everything I’ve done, everything I’ve had to live with, I can’t believe it. You actually think I don't care about…" Her mind spun. "Wow. I can’t believe I almost believed. Believed in friends."

Pinkie walked up to Sunset, placing a hand on her. "We are your friends, Sunset," she said "We’re in this together."

"No," Sunset sighed. "We’re not. This was always Sunset Shimmer Damage Control. So I’ll just make it easier."

She took off her geode, and threw it on the ground, in the middle of the other girls.

"Do what you want," she said, walking off to her motorcycle. "I’m done."

The next sound the neighborhood heard was the roar of Sunset’s bike as it zoomed to parts unknown.