Dawn cracked over the town, bathing every building in a beautiful orange glow. It had been a cold and bitter Winter, but now Spring was here, bringing everything that came with it. Dew covered whatever greenery the town had going for it, and even at this early hour the air was starting to fill with birdsong. Many vendors of the various stores and venues of the town were opening up their doors, and while it would still be a while before they got any customers, they were diligently getting everything ready for the rush of people they'd inevitably get. One store-owner in particular, a greengrocer, took in a deep breath of the cold air of this fresh Spring morning, smiling to himself and giving a quick wave to whatever familiar faces he saw across the street, before turning to attend to his own work. This work did not last long, however, as it was right around this point when the relative silence was shattered by the sudden zooming past of what appeared to be an out-of-control van, hurtling down the road at who knows what kind of speed.
But as shocking as that was, it was overshadowed by the accompanying sight of about half-a-dozen teenage girls, clad in bizarre and brightly-coloured outfits that, at a glance, could be described as superhero attire. Many eyes, including the aforementioned grocer, did not really have time to stop and stare though, as this whole scene sped fast so quickly that, within only a few moments, the van and the girls were out of sight, having zipped around a nearby street corner. And as silence returned once more, several of the people looked to one another not with concern or fear or any other feeling that one would expect after such a sight. Instead, they simply shook their heads slightly before returning to their interrupted work, with the grocer in particular sighing before finally speaking the shared sentiment of all of them. "Huh...the girls are early today."
Said girls were a group that, over the last few years worth of antics, had managed to earn quite a reputation for themselves, for good or for ill. Leading them was, of course, Sunset Shimmer, with known teen genius Twilight Sparkle close behind her. The eager Rainbow Dash was running alongside them, as was farm girl Applejack, who was of course trying her hardest to keep up the same pace as Rainbow in that competitive way of hers. The least combative of their number, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie were just behind the rest, and after simply looking at the back end of the crazy and driverless van, it was left to Sunset to eventually address her comrades. "If anyone's got any ideas, I'm all ears!"
Twilight, who was able to adjust her glasses a bit even during the act of frantic running, glanced to her otherworldly friend. "It hasn't hurt anyone yet, but we need to stop it before that changes!"
Rarity looked over to the former prodigy of Crystal Prep. "Dare I ask if your power can halt it?"
Twilight looked on, thinking only for a moment about that prospect. "Doubtful. My power has limits. And something that big? Going at that speed?"
She didn't finish, but her words had made it clear that she wasn't going to be the saving grace of this operation, leaving the floor open for Pinkie to look ahead with a bit of a mischievous grin. "How about a little boom-boom to stop it?" she asked, whipping out a few marbles from out of nowhere, as she usually did, before rattling them in her hand, no doubt ready to light them up with her power.
But again, Twilight had her doubts. "It'd stop it perhaps, but right now it'd also send it flying off to cause all kinds of damage afterwards."
Pinkie looked to her blank-faced for a time, then stuffed the marbles into her pickets. "Meh, maybe later."
Applejack punched one fist into her other hand, grunting with frustration. "Look! The longer this goes on, the worse this is gonna get!"
Rainbow nodded in agreement with her friend, but then her face lit up, as if having had a brilliant idea. Grabbing hold of her pendant, she activated her power, zipping over to just behind Applejack before the latter had a chance to react to it. "AJ, please don't read too deep into this!" she called out.
Applejack, for her part, only had enough time to look over her shoulder in confusion. "What?" Before she could even get a second word out, Rainbow had managed to pick her up and began carrying her in much the same way a newlywed bride might be, before using her superspeed to hurry them both down the road ahead of the rest of their friends. They all looked on, with Sunset and Twilight's eyes widening when they realised what their speedy colleague was planning. And speaking of Rainbow it took no time whatsoever for her to get far enough ahead of the van to stop, screeching to a halt before dropping Applejack back onto the ground. The young farmer, herself having figured out what Rainbow had as her unspoken plan, turned around as fast as she could, activating her own gem to bring her great strength into the fray. "Here goes nothin'!"
All watched as this once-unassuming girl stretched out both hands, palms flat, just as the van rushed towards her. But instead of the expected tragedy that usually followed such a thing, the van's collision with her merely resulted in its speed dropping immensely, with Applejack being forced back only slowly. She was still being pushed however, and she dug her heels into the ground as much as she could to try and force back the magical transport. Sweat poured down her brow with this effort, and the tyres of the van smoked and span with this road-bound joust. Thankfully, the rest of the girls had caught up, and both Twilight and Rarity began to use their own powers, with Twilight's levitation grabbing hold of the back of the van to pull on it while Rarity conjured two giant diamond-shaped constructs to stand alongside Applejack to join her in pushing at the front. "Have no fear, darling! Your friends are here!"
Applejack smiled, but only just, as her efforts were very much focused on trying to stop herself getting smashed. With the combined efforts of the girls, the force behind the van began to waver, and in this moment, Sunset ran right up to the thing, leaping as high as she could and landing smack-dap onto the vehicle's hood. Reaching down, she pulled as hard as she was able, and though there was some clear magical resistance, she eventually managed to get the thing open. Just as she'd suspected, the engine was aglow with Equestrian magic, vibrating incessantly, and after just a quick look-over, she smirked before grabbing hold of one pipe in particular, giving a sharp tug and dislodging it. Mere moments passed before the small miasma of magic fled from the engine, flying high up above them all before dissipating into the air. And as soon as it had done that, the van stopped at last, giving the girls a chance to deactivate their powers and breathe a collective sigh of relief, with Sunset wiping her brow. "And that, girls, is that."
They all cheered, with Rainbow especially punching the air with triumph. "Oh yeah! That's one more for the Rainbooms!" Tapping onto her gemstone, she shifted back into her normal civilian garb, reaching into her pocket afterwards to pull out what appeared to be a small notepad, which she placed a small tally onto. "And by my count that makes about twelve wins for us this month!"
After having taken a moment to catch her breath from her earlier effort, Applejack arched an eyebrow to her more sporty friend. "Don't sound so happy, Rainbow. This was a close call." Her eyes narrowed shortly afterwards. "And would it have killed ya ta warn me before ya go an' do somethin' like that?!"
Rainbow tapped her pencil against her chin for a few moments, then shrugged and wrote a little note next to her tally. "Note to self, warn AJ before making her the MVP of the day."
Applejack rolled her eyes, but for now she stayed quiet, as indeed did everyone else as they all looked to Sunset. She too resumed her civilian appearance, as had all the rest by this point, and after giving another quick look at the engine, she began to look worried. "Rainbow's scorekeeping aside, she's not wrong. This is happening a lot nowadays. We all knew Equestrian magic was pretty much here to stay, but it seems we can't go even a week before it stirs up trouble."
Giggling, Pinkie walked next to her, slapping her hand down onto her shoulder. "No worries, Sunset! As long as we're here, that sneaky-old magic won't hurt a fly!"
Fluttershy, raising a hand as if to get the attention of the teacher in class, spoke up with no small amount of worry. "Um, well, a few innocent worms and ants got trampled back there on the road before we stopped it."
Pinkie looked to her, seeming very much unhappy about her apparently-poorly-chosen earlier words. "Well...mostly wouldn't hurt a fly."
Sunset smiled to the exchange, but looked ahead to the rest of the street shortly afterwards. "Either way I'll need to talk with Princess Twilight about it when we speak next."
Their Twilight walked over to her. "When's your next correspondence?"
Sunset thought on that for a second. "Later tonight. I'll talk with her about everything we've been doing..." She took on a look of fondness. "And then she'll be telling me how ruling Equestria is going."
Fluttershy clasped her hands together. "It was so wonderful to hear she's been made a Queen!"
"Princess," Sunset corrected. "Equestria's a principality, not a kingdom."
But Rarity scoffed at that. "Semantics, dear. She's a lady of absolute power. That's a Queen in my book."
Getting out her phone, Sunset busied herself with clearing space by deleting old messages as she carried on with their conversation. "Regardless, it must be hard for her right now. All that governance. I'm sure a break from it all with a message from a friend will be nice for her."
Sneaking over to her, Pinkie gave her a playful nudge. "It wasn't that long ago when you were looking for that kind of power, Sunset."
Sunset sighed, then acknowledged that remark with a smile. "Fair point, Pinkie. But frankly, she can have it. Thinking on it, ruling is the absolute last thing I'd want in my life. All those people coming to you about problems, expecting you to fix what goes wrong? Yeesh, no thanks."
Rainbow looked over to her with a confident grin. "No, you just solve all the problems of every monster of the week we have over on this side."
Pausing to consider that, Sunset's shoulders slumped slightly. "Well...shoot."
The group all had a good laugh together over that, and just long enough to suddenly see an older man, the apparent owner of the van they'd been chasing, to come down the road to look over his wayward vehicle. Applejack greeted him, starting to explain what happened and what needed to be done to stop it, and though Sunset never said anything on it she very much hoped the damage they did to the thing could be undone quickly so the man could get it back. But she kept that to herself as Twilight again looked to her, keeping her voice low. "I've been making something of a study of all these magical occurrences myself. Do...do you think Princess Twilight will be able to do anything about it?"
Another sigh from Sunset, and a deep one at that. "Hard to say. She's seemed to be just as nonplussed about it all as we are. We may need to accept the possibility that Equestrian magic is just a fact of life in this world now."
Though clearly worried about that notion, Twilight still had it in her to give a smile to her former pony friend. "Well, at least we're here to do something about it when it shows up."
Looking to her warmly, Sunset took her hand into her own, eliciting a slight blush from them both. "That, Twilight, is a promise."