After Monday’s incident in the locker room, between being spotted by Rainbow Dash and Twilight almost being pulled into a magical portal to who knows where, the trio decided it would be best to head home for the night. After an uneasy dinner with her parents, Twilight had snagged what snacks she could sneak in her pockets and took them up to her room for her guest.
“Sorry, I couldn’t get you more, Twilight apologized as she placed a couple of granola bars and an apple on the desk beside the tiny unicorn. "I can probably grab some more later after my parents go to bed."
“It’s okay," Sunset reassured her, "I usually end up so immersed in my work I have to be reminded to eat anyway."
Seeing the stressed and worried look on the girl’s face, the pony raised a brow, “I have a feeling though, that the lack of dining options isn’t the only thing that's bothering you though.”
Twilight dropped onto the bed with a defeated sigh. “What are we supposed to do, Sunset?” Twilight asked, her voice pitched higher. “The spectrometer was never designed for what we’re trying to do with it. The more energy it collects, the worse the dimensional rifts are getting. That one today was...it almost...I almost…” Twilight’s voice had grown higher before her breathing grew ragged as she tried and failed to inhale deeply. Spotting this, Spike jumped into her lap trying to calm her as he used to, letting her pet him slowly and using the familiar feeling to help focus and ground her in order to calm her anxiety.
“Come on, Twilight, you need to breathe. In and out, just like Cadance showed you,” the puppy reminded her.
Sunset hopped up on the bed in front of the teen, her large teal eyes met and held the teen’s own violet ones. “It’s okay, just like Spike said, “In and out,” you can do it, Twilight. We’ll get through this together. Don’t worry.” Sunset slowly went through the motions that accompanied the breathing technique and with a shaky nod, the girl followed suit. It took a few minutes, but the two continued the motions until the teen’s breathing had steadied.
“You doing, okay now?” Sunset asked, still a bit worried considering all Twilight had been through.
The teen nodded causing her glasses to slip down her nose a bit. “Yeah, I think so,” she said not exactly back to normal, but a definite improvement from where she’d been. That is until the door burst open a moment later and in stepped a pale-skinned man with moppy blue hair.
“Hey, Twily, you okay in here? I thought I heard...” It happened so quickly but there was bright flash of crimson light and there was no longer a tiny unicorn seated on her bed. Shining Armor blinked a couple of times then shook his head, sure that he had been working too many double shifts. “What kind of experiments have you been doing in here?" he asked letting himself in and heading for the window to air it out, afraid the source of his hallucination might be chemical. "You know you’re now allowed to work with anything potentially volatile after that time you almost burned down the house, that's why mom and dad gave you the garage,” he said as he started to scan the room with a detective’s eye for anything suspicious and honed in on a nervous sister. "Unless it's not an experiment you're hiding in here..."
Worry and anger spiked in the teen, knowing Sunset still had to be somewhere nearby, and eyes flashed behind her thick frames. She bolted up and marched toward her door. “First, it’s my lab, not the garage. Second, it was a controlled flame for my chemistry experiment, that only spread when you freaked out and tried putting it out by stomping it into the new wood floors. Third, you are supposed to knock before you enter my room, Shining Armor.”
“Okay, okay, I’m sorry," he apologized. "I just got home and mom and dad said you were a little down at dinner. I heard what sounded like a panic attack and I got worried."
Twilight smiled at that. True, Spike and Sunset had helped her with her panic attack, but it was always nice knowing there were more people looking out for her. "Thanks, BBBFF, but Spike had me covered on this one."
"Well, it's nice to know someone's looking out for you when I'm not around," Shining joked making the dog in question seem to beam with pride, and a smile spread on his muzzle. Shining was a bit puzzled at Spike's seeming comprehension but shook it off as Twilight redirected his attention.
"So what did you come up here for in the first place?"
"Oh, I thought maybe you’d want to go for a little run." Shining's grin proved to his sister there was more to it so she crossed her arms and leveled a glare at him until he continued. "You know relax, get some fresh air, and limber up. The Games are only a couple of days away.” While Twilight's temper after the room invasion had started to cool with her brother's show of concern, mention of the Friendship Games brought it roaring back to life and reminded her that sometimes her big brother was an over-competitive idiot.
Rolling her eyes, she said firmly, “No thank you, now get out,” before she shoved her brother out the door and shut it in his face.
“Come on, Twily, I really think you could use some time to decompress,” he called from the other side.
“No thank you! Just leave me alone.” The sounds of retreating footsteps could be heard in the hallway as Twilight rushed back to the bed. “Sunset?” she called looking over where the pony had been before she vanished.
“Down here,” called a muffled voice before the fiery pony emerged from under her bed. After extricating herself fully she sat heavily on the rug and began rubbing her head slowly with her forehooves.
“Sunset, did you teleport yourself under the bed?” the teen scientist asked.
“Uh, yeah. Look I’m sorry,” the pony said tiredly.
“Sorry? Sorry for what?” asked the teen completely befuddled.
“Everything, all of this. Bringing magic here, getting you involved, and now making you have your first fight with your brother.”
“First fight?” Spike asked with a chuckle making Sunset stop rubbing her aching head and look up at the purple puppy.
“Yeah, isn’t he, like, your B.B.B.F.F. or something? You know Big Brother Best Friend, you know, "never have a single fight" kind of deal?” Sunset asked. Twilight and Spike looked from the pony to each other and after a moment of befuddlement the two both bust out into hysterics leaving the unicorn unsure what to make of the situation. “I’m sorry. Did I miss something?”
“I’m sorry,” Twilight said wiping her eyes, “I’m not sure if it’s a cultural difference or just the fact that you’re an only child, but clearly you don’t know what it’s like to have siblings.”
“Huh?” Sunset asked eloquently. She’d heard Princess Twilight speak of her family on a few occasions and she had always spoken of her relationship with her brother as idyllic.
“Twilight and Shining fight all the time. I mean to be fair, most of it is good-natured ribbing and attempts to decide who the dominant one is.”
“Please don’t phrase it like that,” Twilight said with a shiver, “It makes it sound creepy. It’s the Sibling Supreme and there’s a bit more to it than that, Spike,” she corrected her dog before turning her attention back to the befuddled unicorn. “Sunset, all siblings fight. Sometimes it’s just a result of being so close that it’s easy to get on each other’s nerves and let me tell you because you’re so close, you know exactly what buttons to push to get them mad or get back at them.”
“Like how Shining ratted you out for disassembling your mother’s laptop so you told your babysitter that Shining
thought she was pretty and nice and smelled like flowers,' and that he had the biggest crush on her, but he was too scared to actually ask her out,” Spike laughed.
“Yeah, he was so mad about that one I thought he’d never speak to me again, but I think he forgave me for that one in the end, seeing how it worked out,” Twilight laughed. Looking at the quiet pony, it was clear Sunset was mulling over the new information. “You okay?”
“Uh...yeah, it's just, like you said, no real personal experience with siblings. Just what I heard…”
“Well, take it from an L.S.B.F.F., siblings fight. Heck, t’s basically a little sister’s job to annoy their older sibling. And though it may result in some name-calling, hurt feelings, or retaliatory erasing of one's game files, it doesn’t mean we don’t still love each other.”
The silence held for a few minutes as Sunset mulled over these words before Twilight finally asked, “Are you okay?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah, I’m good,” the pony replied absently.
“Good because it’s going to take both of us to figure out how to enhance the storage capacity of the magic siphoning device without losing containment on energy already stored within it”
“Actually,” said Sunset returning her full attention to the teen scientist, “I had some thoughts on that. Do you have your blueprints for the device as well as the printout for the energy levels you recorded?”
“Pfft, it’s Twilight,” laughed Spike, “of course she does.”
“What are you thinking?” asked the girl in question spotting the spark of an idea in the unicorn's teal eyes, while she moved to her desk to pull out the requested documents.
“Well, storing magic in Equestria would be relatively easy if we were in Equestria. A few gemstones infused with the right spell matrices and you’ve got yourself an easy storage battery for your mana,” explained the unicorn.
“Uh, Sunset, that might work in Equestria, but we’re not in Equestria, and we don’t have any gemstones, just lying around,” said Spike.
“Yeah,” agreed Twilight, “ and I don’t think my research budget is big enough to afford one.”
“Yes, but you’ve proven that technology can substitute for traditional magical mediums and be surprisingly successful. So what I’m thinking is that we combine the two. If we can strengthen the design with magic, some runes and sigils inscribed on the casing should help stabilize the spell lattice.”
Scanning her original plans, Twilight nodded. “You, know, I bet I could reinforce the circuitry as well. I wish I had built it bigger, we’d have more options.”
“Here, let me see,” called the pony, as Twilight brought them over. Rubbing her chin with her hoof she nodded, “Yeah, I see what you mean. Well, we could always add a pocket dimension spell as well, but that will mean extra calculations to ensure the circuitry doesn’t rupture the extradimensional space or leak any of the portal’s magic into it. Trust me that would not be fun for anyone in the vicinity if that happened.”
Twilight nodded, unsure of whether her O&O knowledge was applicable, but trusted the serious look on the unicorn's face. “I can help you run numbers if you can walk me through the formulas.”
Soon the two were starting on crunching numbers and working up a list of what components they might need for their upgrades. Still, something about Twilight’s earlier conversation was still niggling at the back of her mind.
“It’s basically a little sister’s job to annoy their siblings.”
And then it hit her. “It can’t possibly have been that easy...that stupid.” In over a year of dealing with the fallout from Anon-A-Miss, Sunset hadn’t really thought about the true culprit behind the profile. She had figured there were probably a lot of people who had not forgiven her for her behavior prior to the Fall Formal, and really she’d been far more focused on her friends’ betrayal. But looking back now with this new insight she was shocked that she hadn’t figured it out sooner.
The Crusaders.
***
The morning was bright and sunny. March seemed to have finally made the turn to Spring, with warmer temperatures expelling the winter bite from the air. With any luck, the weather would hold through the Games at the end of the week and continue on for the Spring Break Trip to Camp Everfree at the end of the month.
Celestia sighed. Not that this year’s trip was going to be much this year, she thought bitterly. With the number of students still suspended from school functions thanks to the Anon-A-Miss incident, they didn’t have enough students to meet the registration requirement. They’d had to open the trip up to middle school students and even then the numbers were still depressingly small.
There was a hasty rap on her office door before Rainbow Dash barged into the principal’s office followed closely by the rest of the Rainbooms. Not all of the Rainbooms, a voice in the back of her mind reminded her, memories of the last time the group had barged into her office like this and the news they bore causing the normally serene visage of the educator to frown at the intruders.
"Rainbow Dash, honestly, that is no way to behave, bursting into the principal’s office like that,” Rarity chastised, gaining the athlete’s attention for long enough that Celestia was able to readopt her calm mask.
Rainbow waved off her friend’s chastising and headed straight for the principal’s desk, slamming her hands down and staring determinately at the educator. “This is important. She needs to know ASAP,” the athlete replied, not looking at her friends she addressed the educator, “Principal Celestia, she’s back.”
Celestia’s heart leapt, a hope sparking in her, warmth seeping into her and filling a whole she hadn't realized had been there. The feeling was not to last though as the prismatic girl went on.
“Twilight and Sunset are here, and they’re at Crystal Prep.”
The principal sagged at the thought of the girl...the two girls in Abacus' hands. “Are you sure?” she asked, “You saw both of them?”
The intensity of the boisterous athlete faltered a bit at that. “Well, not exactly. I saw Twilight though...I think. It was hard to tell for sure. She was on the other side of this swirling magic vortex, so I couldn’t see perfectly, but I heard them, both of them. They took my magic,” the girl frowned, “what was left of it anyway.”
“They took your magic?” Celestia asked worriedly.
Fluttershy stepped up and patted her oldest friend consolingly on the back. “Actually, we think they may have taken mine and Rarity’s magic too.”
“Yes,” the fashionista took over knowing Fluttershy wouldn't want to be the one to elaborate, “the three of us each had an interesting encounter the past few days in which we started to pony up, but were suddenly left feeling drained. None of us has been able to produce even a hint of magic since.”
“And you two?” Celestia asked regarding Applejack and Pinkie Pie.
“Nope, no sign of anythin’ fishy on my end,” replied the farmer, while Pinkie just shook her head.
“I see,” said the educator slowly, trying to hide the fact that she most certainly did not see and had no idea what should be done in regards to magic theft. Meanwhile, her emotions were a messy jumble in her chest and distracted her from the problem. She was saved from having to elaborate by another knock on the door followed by Luna entering while staring fixedly at a sheet of paper in her hand.”
“Sister,” Luna started clearly uneasy, “Cadence has just sent over the final roster for Crystal Prep’s team for the Friendship Games, and I think there’s something you should see.”
The principal wasn’t given the opportunity though as Rainbow Dash snagged the paper from the vice principal’s hand and hurriedly skimmed it quickly spotting what Vice Principal Luna had been talking about. There, listed as team captain for the Shadowbotls, was Twilight Sparkle.
The athlete’s face fell, “You’re saying that Twilight isn’t just scouting Crystal Prep or whatever. She’s actually gonna compete against us?”
“Do you think she’s already found people at Crystal Prep to replace us?” asked Fluttershy.
“So much for our plan,” sighed Applejack, removing her hat and running a hand over her hair.
“No, it’s not over,” said Dash, “Look, even if she already has replacements picked out. Twilight still needs to get AJ’s and Pinkie’s magic, right? So we just have to make sure she doesn't get them until after the Games. If we can show Twilight that we’ve learned from our mistake, work together to actually beat the Shadowbolts, show her we remember what it means to be Wondercolts and have the magic of friendship, maybe we'll get the chance to apologize and try to make it up to both of them.
“But even if they don’t. If she still wants to give our magic to a bunch of Crystal Prep kids, then I'll at least be able to say I tried. But to do that, we need to make these the best Games ever!” The sports captain turned back to the educator, rubbing a nervous hand on her neck, “I did have a few ideas, uh with your permission that is, Principal Celestia.”
“Yes,” Rarity piped up, “there’s actually something I’ve been working on as well.”
Looking at the determination in the girls’ faces, the principal nodded. If she was going to lose the games, magic...and possibly Sunset Shimmer to Crystal Prep, she would make sure it was one hell of a fight.
“Of course, whatever you need. Vice Principal Luna can get you the numbers for what we have left in the hosting budget for the Friendship Games.”
“Sounds good,” Applejack said, “Ah can hit the mall after school and pick up whatever supplies Pinkie needs.” She nodded at the pinkette furiously scribbling on a pad of paper that no one had seen her with beforehand. “Mac’s droppin’ off supplies with Granny so Ah should be good to snag the truck for a bit. Do ya mind if Ah take Applebloom and her friends for the heavy lifting?”
“As it is for a school function, it seems as good a way as any for them to serve today’s detention,” Celestia said.
With a nod and a tip of her hat, Applejack herded the group of girls out of the office to go start with their plans. Luna however waited at the door ushering the girls out before shutting it after them and turning back to her older sister.
“Tia,”’ she began carefully, “I know how much you’ve been hurting these past few months-”
“Luna, do you know why Sunset ran away to our world in the first place?” asked the principal sadly.
Luna was taken a back, the past few months when she had tried to approach her sister on the subject, she had gotten a firm, "Stay out of it". “Something about not being made a princess, by her former teacher," she replied carefully.
Celestia shook her head. “She was looking for somewhere to belong. She thought becoming a princess would get her that, but she pushed too much, started to obsess over it, and was kicked out. Kicked out, Luna, of her home by that teacher of hers,” the woman said bitterly, “Princess Celestia.”
“Tia-” Luna began but was cut off by her teary-eyed sister.
“She was a child and that Celestia,” the principal practically spat the word, “threw her out.” The woman’s anger cooled as she continued, “After the Fall Formal, Sunset was so surprised I wasn’t expelling her, she broke down in my office. We’d learned so much about her and her origins, that she was alone in this world. I wanted to help her more, but when she told me what my doppelganger had done to her, I froze. I couldn’t ask her to trust me, not after what that other Celestia had done to her. So I made sure she was safe and had a residence and food, but I left it at that, left her alone. But she had her friends, I rationalized, just like Princess Twilight had said.”
“Sister, you couldn’t have known what was going to happen.”
“But it did happen, and I can’t help but think if I hadn’t been such a coward. If I had been so afraid to ask her, maybe she would have felt she had someone to turn to during the Anon-A-Miss debacle. Maybe she would have had somewhere to belong instead of having to run away again.”
“But Tia, even you can see the girls’ plan is wishful thinking at best.”
“Luna, if anything we do can show Sunset how sorry we are and how much we miss her. Just the thought that we can show Sunset that she really and truly is wanted and has a place to belong, is enough motivation to give the Rainbooms whatever they need.”
“Very well, sister, I will go get the numbers for the remaining Friendship Games budget and let the girls know.” Leaving the office she thought, Please don’t get your hopes up, Tia, I don’t want to see you hurt again.
Inside the office, Principal Celestia sat at her desk gingerly massaging her temples as she stared into the tea before her. Celestia frowned at the cooled cup and pushed it away. Tea wasn’t going to be enough to make it through today. Pulling out her phone she pulled up the online ordering menu for Sugarcube Corner. Today required a double slice of Marzipan Mascarpone Meringue Madness.