It's been two days since Snowdrop's party, and everything was going great. The only tension being the anticipation of the upcoming Friendship Games. Sunset, as usual, found herself walking into the music room where everyone else was waiting for band practice.
"So Sunset got any news about the friendship games?" Rainbow asked, tuning her guitar.
"No, mom and aunt wouldn't say anything about it. I tried sneaking into their room to find anything but either they were expecting me to do that, or they didn't bring anything home. In any case, I wasn't able to find anything," Sunset said. She picked up her guitar and began to strum it, making small adjustments as needed. "Everyone's anxious about the Friendship Games. Is it really that bad?"
"You have no idea. We lost a lot of times in a row. Plus, the Chrystal Prep students like making fun of us all the time. All they care about is winning," Applejack said. "Ah, wonder whose bright idea was it to name it friendship games."
"Make fun of us? Why don't you just ignore them and-" Sunset was interrupted when a book was pressed against her face with a picture of the Wondercolt Statue vandalized. "Oh! I see," Sunset said with Pinkie putting the book back in her hair.
"Don't worry, Sunset. Principal Celestia asked me to boost the school's spirit, so that's what we are going to do. You sure it's okay for us to use that drawing?" Rainbow asked.
"Yeah. She's not me, and I drew it myself for this," Sunset said before joining others with the band practice.
"If you say so. Let's get this practice session started!" Rainbow declared.
The day went by like normal for the remainder of the day. Towards the end of school, everyone gathered at the school stadium for a special announcement. Once everyone was settled in, Celestia began the announcement.
"Good afternoon, students of CHS. As you all know, we'll be joined by our fellow students from Chrystal Prep to participate in the Friendship Games tomorrow," Celestia began. All the students clapped lazily with unimpressed moans, with a few grumbling about not wanting to clean the statue and soccer so soon. "Since the games only happen once every four years, I'm sure you are all curious what goes on."
"You mean other than us losing?" Flash Sentry shouted from the crowd earning a scowl from Celestia.
"And that's exactly why I've asked Rainbow Dash to come up and give you all a little… context," Celestia said. Rainbow came up to Celestia and thanked her before snatching the mic from the holder.
Rainbow then began to give the students a little pep talk before beginning an impromptu musical number with the CHS band. They performed a catchy song, to which Vinyl Scratch helped with a beat of her own. While this was going on, Rainbow began to glow and pony up in the middle of the song, surprising the girls as Rainbow transformed without playing her guitar. After the song was over, the whole school was pumped up with spirit. The girls joined Rainbow on the stage.
"That was awesome, Rainbow. Even I believe we can win this time." Fluttershy said.
"You are mighty right. We will win this time," Applejack said determinedly.
"But I do wonder how Rainbow was able to transform without playing her guitar," Rarity said.
"It's because I'm awesome," Rainbow boasted.
"Yeah yeah. But I think I do have an explanation, but I need to study it a little bit since this world's magic is a bit different," Sunset said.
"Then you should do it fast," Luna said behind them. The girls looked back to see Luna walking up to them. "We need to have magic as far away from the games as possible. Because the last thing we need is a reason to forfeit."
"Don't worry, aunt. I'll try my best," Sunset said.
"Oh, by the way, what's up with that… um… your," Luna stumbled over how to ask.
"Oh, the drawing they used at the song. Well, I drew it. And she's not me. So yeah, don't worry."
"If you say so, Sunset."
With everything finished for the day, the girls all left for their respective homes. Sunset stayed with Snowdrop for a while to figure out what was happening with the girl's magic. Celestia and Luna also stayed to finalize some works.
"So Sunset? What do you think is happening?" Snowdrop asked.
"I think they are getting used to their magic," Sunset said. "When unicorns first begin to use magic, we need to concentrate a lot, even for very basic spells. Over time, it becomes second nature. My guess is, our bodies are slowly getting used to the transformations, and it becomes easier to transform now."
"I see. So you are going to transform randomly?"
"uh oh~," Ari, who was also present with them, said.
"Not exactly," Sunset said, giggling at Ari. "You see, we all thought the only way to transform is when we play. So when we play and don't want to transform, we control the power so we wouldn't transform. But now that we don't want to play, we'll transform if we don't control it. So just a little practice, and we should be fine," Sunset said, walking out of the school entrance. That's when they saw a hooded figure lingering near the statue with an odd-looking device.
"What the- Hey! Can I help you?" Sunset asked, only for the figure to flinch and ran away from them. Sunset tried to chase them only for them to board a bus before catching them.
"Ari! Look who it is!" Snowdrop shouted. Ari quickly flew after the bus. She came back before long and perched on Snowdrop's shoulder.
"So?"
"Face… not… see…."
"Oh, fuzz buckets," Sunset said.
"Who do you think it is?" Snowdrop asked.
"I don't know. Probably someone from Chrystal Prep. Applejack said they like to prank us," Sunset said.
With the mysterious figure lingering in her mind, Sunset and Snowdrop returned home. But Sunset couldn't help but think it was Twilight, and she's messing with things that she doesn't understand. Of course, calling her wouldn't be an option as it would raise suspicion. Pushing the thought to the back, Sunset texted her theory about their magic and asked them to try and control it tomorrow. Now, all Sunset could do is hope everything would go perfectly.
(Sci-Twi POV)
Everything was not going perfectly. Not only did she have to participate in the games when Principal Cinch literally threatened her to decline her Everton application. Now it seemed her fellow classmates hated the fact she was joining them. Not to mention all of CHS seemed to know who she was.
"Did Sunset tell everyone about me?" She asked herself, following the signal coming off of her necklace. "No, she doesn't seem like the most talkative of the group. It's probably that pink one, Pinky," She was startled when she could have sworn she heard the girl scream "YES". However, a quick glance around showed she was alone.
After a while, her necklace began to give off a very strong signal before opening itself up. Before Twilight's very own eyes, it began to absorb what appears to be purple smoke coming off of a closed door. Determined to find what the source of the smoke was, Twilight walked over to the door and opened it and saw her new friends from Snowdrop's party.
"Twilight?" Everyone shouted.
"Uh… hi?" She said nervously.
"Huh- you are participating in the games too?" Applejack said. "Well, Sunset, it seems you are our only hope now,"
*woof* *woof*
They heard a dog barking from inside of Twilight's bag, and sure enough, Spike came out of the bag.
"Oh… Spike too?" Fluttershy said before scooping Spike up. "Hello, Spike. Remember me?" She asked to which the little dog licked the shy girl's face.
"Uh… Did you guys tell everyone about me?" Twilight asked.
"Uh… why would you ask that?" Sunset asked nervously.
"Well, it's that everyone here knows about me,"
"Oh! Really um… what-" Fortunately for Sunset, Principal Celestia choose to interrupt them at that exact moment. Fluttershy quickly hid Spike behind her.
"Twilight? Uh, what a-"
"I must apologies for the curiosity of my prized student," Principal Cinch interrupted.
"Oh no, it's-"
"The smart ones are always curious. I'll return her to check in with the rest of the classmates."
"Oh no, it's okay, really. I know her. I met her once with Cadence. Seems she made some friends. Why don't we let them hang out a little bit?" Celestia said, appearing just as suddenly, not wanting to let Cinch know Sunset was her daughter and to save Twilight from the woman.
"Oh no, we don't have time for that. We have much to discuss concerning the games. Let's go, Twilight," Cinch said before taking Twilight with her.
"It's called friendship games for a reason," Celestia said to herself, looking at the retreating form of Twilight and Cinch.
"I'm pretty sure she doesn't even know what friendship means," Sunset said.
"You're probably right, my little sun. Be careful around that woman. I don't trust her for a minute."
"Gotcha, I'll keep an eye on her," Sunset said as she followed her mother's gaze towards the duo, moving away from them.
"I'll see you later in the games, alright?"
"Of course. I'll make you proud, mom."
"You already do, sweetheart," Celestia said, giving Sunset a sideways hug.
Once Celestia left, Sunset turned back to the girls.
"Okay, what was that?" She asked Rarity.
"Oh, I'm terribly sorry, Sunset. I just got excited," Rarity said apologetically.
"Try to tone it down a little bit, okay? Just for the day, please? We don't want to sabotage the games," Sunset said. "Also, I talked with Twilight this morning, uh, pony Twilight that is, and she said the magic might have something to do with your elements. So when you have something to do with your elements, be careful, understand? I'm looking at you, Pinkie."
"Okay, okay, I'll try not to party too much at the party," Pinkie said.
After following Principal Cinch and having another conversation, with her trying to pressure Twilight more to win the games and not to get distracted, Twilight waited near the statue with the rest of the Shadowbolts. She was contemplating what was up with the student of CHS and what's that purple smoke her necklaces absorbed is. It wasn't even supposed to do that. She even lost Spike thanks to Principal Cinch. She didn't have time to take Spike with her. Though she wasn't worried about him since he was with Fluttershy, she knew Fluttershy was very good with animals. That didn't change the fact that she noticed how the necklace reacted when it was close to Sunset. She was defiantly hiding something, and she was determined to find what that is.
Speaking of, Twilight then realized her necklace was reacting again, and when she turned around, it was pointing at the statue.
"What the? This is weird. Why is this-" before she had time to complete the sentence, the necklace again opened up and started to absorb a bright yellow smoke from the statue. Once it was finished, she looked around to see that no one noticed anything.
"Twilight, you have to check in with the others," She heard Cadence calling her, and Twilight quickly ran up to Cadence.
Twilight had no idea what was happening, but she knew one thing. CHS was at the center of all the weird readings she was receiving, and she was going to find what they were. No matter what.