After the incident with the statue, Twilight found herself walking into the CHS stadium with the rest of the Shadow Bolts to join the party. It didn't take long for her to realize the party was not going well, despite her lack of social skills. All the CHS was hostile towards the Shadow Bolts, who were taunting them. So Twilight decided to wait in the bleachers, studying her spectrometer.
"Hey, Twilight!" She was startled by the sudden voice calling her name. Looking to the side, she saw Pinkie, somehow sitting beside her without her knowing. "What's that?" She asked, pointing at the necklace.
"Oh Pinkie, um… this is… sort of a spectrometer. It tracks EM frequencies, and it can also contain anomalies… somehow," Twilight said, but the lack of response made her look back at Pinkie, who was still looking at her expectantly like she was still waiting for her to answer. "It measures things."
"Oh, I see!"
"So where are the others," Twilight asked.
"Oh, they are fighting over there," Pinkie said, pointing towards the group arguing with some Chrystal Prep students while Sunset and Applejack tried to contain it. "So, what do you think about the party?"
"It's… okay, though it doesn't look like much of a party."
"Yeah, you are right. Something is missing. Come on!" Pinkie said before pulling Twilight with her. The pink-haired planner ignored the startled shout coming from the girl as she moved down the bleachers.
Pinkie took her outside the stadium, where she found two large gift boxes on the floor.
"Help me with these," Pinkie said before pushing one towards the stadium. Twilight, unsure of what to do, began to help the girl push the other box.
"What in… the world… is in these?" Twilight grunted as they pushed the boxes inside the gymnasium.
"Party cannons, of course," Pinkie casually said before disappearing just as she appeared. Suddenly, the lights dimmed out, and a disco ball activated from the ceiling above. That was when the party's music got more upbeat, and many of the CHS students, along with a few Crystal Prep kids, began to nod their heads to the music. Pinkie was once again at Twilight's side and pulled open the boxes revealing large party cannons with each having a long pull string.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Twilight asked.
"Absolutely," Pinkie said before grabbing all the strings and pulling them, which ignited the cannons, causing confetti to rain all over the room. Everyone's spirit for partying skyrocketed as everyone began to dance. While everything was happening, Twilight's attention was soon drawn towards Pinkie by a bright light coming off of her, and her necklace began to beep aggressively. Twilight looked on in wonder as the party girl literally began to float in the air and grew a pair of pony ears. Before long, her necklace opened itself, and it began to absorb a familiar-looking smoke from Pinkie.
"What the?" Twilight said as the necklace finished absorbing the smoke from Pinkie, who was back to normal, causing her to wonder if she just hallucinated the scene. The only thing causing her to doubt herself was that the once energetic girl looked like she could fall down any minute. Twilight quickly tried to close the necklace, but before she was able to, an energy ball inside the necklace crackled, causing sparks to fly towards the bleachers. She watched in slight fear as a purple portal appeared below the bleachers, into an odd-looking forest. Afraid of what would happen, Twilight quickly forced the necklace close, and the portal vanished. Despite being deeply interested in what she saw, Twilight quickly led Pinkie towards the bleachers before she slipped away to figure out what happened.
After the party was over, Sunset made her way towards the rest of the girls gathered at the bleachers.
"Ah'm, sorry, Pinkie. Ah thought your party additions were real swell," Applejack said.
"They definitely broke the ice," Fluttershy said.
"Yes, if only that Principal Cinch hadn't frozen it again," Rarity said angrily.
"Whoa, Pinkie, what happened to you?" Sunset asked, looking at Pinkie, who looked close to collapsing.
"I don't know. Everyone began to have fun, Twilight and I fired the party cannons, well mostly me, but then I pony-up-"
"Whoa, what?! You pony-up? Pinkie I-"
"Yes, yes, I know, but I couldn't help it. It just happened. I couldn't control it. Also, I think Twilight absorbed my magic."
"Absorbed? What do you mean absorbed?" Sunset asked.
"I don't know. It's her necklace, I think. She said something about a sparklemeter or something, and-and… a bizarre tracker. I can't remember, too tired."
"I knew she's up to something. I gotta talk to her. Where is she? The games are going to be starting in a few minutes."
"Oh, she's over, she over… she was right here."
"Great," Sunset facepalmed.
It seems as Sunset's luck had run out as she was unable to catch Twilight before the games begin. Every time she approached to talk with Twilight, either a Chrystal Prep student would get in her way or that Principal Cinch wouldn't let Twilight leave. Which unfortunately led to the first event of the friendship games. An academic decathlon.
The whole event was going great for the CHS as they gave the Shadow Bolts a fight by winning half the rounds before the final round. And it was up to Sunset and Twilight to decide the winner by finishing the last round, a math test. Both contestants from both teams walked up the stairs and faced each other. Sunset had a judging look on her face as she was focused on winning the games, but she couldn't help but think about what Twilight would do next, as she was messing with things she didn't understand.
The timer buzzed, signaling the start of the test, and both girls began solving the problem. Both girls completely blocked out the world as they focused on the equation in front of them. The CHS students cheered for Sunset, but there was a lack of cheers from Twilight's fellow students. Once the timer was up, both girls finished the problem and moved aside for Principal Cinch to evaluate the equation. After a few heart beating seconds,
"INCORRECT!" She said with a smug grin on her face, pointing at Sunset.
And with that, the first event of the games finished with CP gaining the first victory.
"That was awesome, Sunset," Rainbow said, putting an arm over Sunset.
"But we didn't win," Sunset said.
"Who cares? That was as close to winning as CHS has ever been," Applejack said.
"They don't seem to think the same way," Fluttershy said, looking at the Shadow Bolts.
All the Shadow Bolts had a bored look on their faces. Once again, the lack of cheering was noticed as no one cheered for Twilight or congratulating her for winning. It looked like it was beginning to affect Twilight as she stood beside them with a dejected look on her face. Sunset gave her a concerned look.
"Sorry, girls. We would have won this, but I couldn't stop thinking about Twilight. She is going to get herself in a lot of trouble if we don't stop her."
"I know, darling, but don't worry. We will help her, she's our friend, and it's only right to do so," Rarity said.
After the end of the first round, the girls joined at the statue to discuss what to do about Twilight. Clearly, there's no way they can talk to Twilight with all the CP students. So they ultimately decided to try to contain their magic as much as possible when Twilight was around. They were fortunate enough that no one else saw them pony up.
"You girls go. I have to take a look at my animal friends and Spike," Fluttershy said.
"Oh, Spike is still with you?" Sunset asked.
"Yeah. Twilight wasn't able to take him after we met her at the music room."
"Hm… there's a pretty good chance Twilight would try to meet you to get Spike back. If she did meet you, try to learn as much as you can about her experiment. We need to know if any part of it is dangerous. She's not used to magic. The last thing I want is for her to mess with something and get herself hurt," Sunset said.
"I'll try," Fluttershy said. And with that, the group breaks off. Fluttershy went to a secluded area near the entrance covered by bushes to tend to her pets.
"Hey Spike, you okay there?" Fluttershy asked, opening up the bag.
*woof* *woof* Spike barked before looking around, looking for someone.
"Don't worry. Twilight will come soon. I promise," Fluttershy said. And just then, Spike began to bark happily as Fluttershy saw a bush rustle, and sure enough, Twilight emerged from it.
"Spike!" Twilight shouted with her hands extended. Spike quickly jumped up to Twilight's outstretched hands.
"Miss me? Sorry, Spike. But Principal Cinch came at the wrong time," Twilight said. "Thanks for looking after him. He didn't bother you, did he?" She asked Fluttershy.
"Oh no, he didn't. I'm pretty used to sneaking pets around school," Fluttershy said, opening up the bag, and a bunch of animals came out of it. An annoyed rabbit, a tiny hummingbird, and a cat.
"Whoa," Twilight said as the bird perched on Twilight's hand.
"Congratulations on winning, by the way. Though it didn't seem anyone on your team was very excited about it," Fluttershy said.
"No one at my school gets excited about anything they didn't do themselves," Twilight said sadly. "Maybe Sunset's right."
"Here, hold this," Fluttershy said, holding Angel bunny towards Twilight.
"Huh?"
"Holding a bunny always makes me feel better."
"That's ridiculous… but… ohhh, I think it kind of works," Twilight said, petting the bunny. "You guys are a lot different than my school. In a good way, of course, thanks."
"You are welcome," Fluttershy said, smiling before she was engulfed in yellow light. She was then lifted off the ground, and just like with Pinkie, she too gained a pair of pony ears, but this time a pair of wings grew too.
"Whoa, it's happening again," Twilight said to herself.
"O-oh… oh no… I-" Fluttershy was interrupted by the sudden noise coming off of the necklace Twilight was wearing, before opening itself up and, just like Pinkie said, began to absorb her magic.
"O-oh no, I'm sorry. I don't-" Twilight wasn't able to finish the sentence as the necklace crackled with energy like it did before. This time it opened more than one portal, and they were everywhere. From one of them emerged a small white fox with black dots on its back and a pair of small deer antlers on its head and hooves instead of paws. Spike growled at it before Spike chased the strange creature from the portal.
"Spike! No!" Twilight shouted, but the dog was too caught up in the chase to hear her as he chased the fox back and forth through the portals before getting caught in the magic field coming off of Fluttershy. It zapped the poor dog a few times before Twilight closed the necklace, and all the portals closed with it.
"Spike!" Twilight shouted, scooping up the fallen dog. "You okay?"
"Uh… yeah… I guess so…" Spike said.
…
…
…
"AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" both Spike and Twilight shouted after they realized Spike just talked. Twilight dropped Spike in fear before running off inside the building.
"Twilight, wait!" Spike shouted, chasing Twilight.
Meanwhile, an energy drained Fluttershy looked up at the running duo as she teetered.
"Wait…Twilight," And fell backward.
"Twilight? Why did you run away?" Spike, now able to speak, asked the confused girl at one of the hallways in the school.
"I-I don't know. Maybe the glowing girl, or the holes in the space, or my dog TALKING!"
"Yeah, weird, right?"
"How do you feel? What happened to you? Where did you go?" Twilight asked.
"One question at a time, okay? This is pretty new to me. All I know is, I chased that weird-looking fox, then I was in somewhere new, and then got zapped by that light, and now I can talk. I really don't understand why I couldn't before. I mean, it's really easy."
"Twilight!" They were interrupted by the voice of Principal Cinch.
"Quick, hide," She said, pushing Spike into a locker and partially closing it.
"Who are you talking to?" Cinch asked as she met Twilight.
"Um… myself. It's an n-nervous habit. Were you looking for me?"
"Indeed I was. Quite a coincidence that the CHS students moving on to the next event are the same nice girls who were so interested in you don't you think?"
"I- it is?"
"Perhaps you should get to know them after all."
"But I thought you told me-"
"Let's just say I'm covering my bases," Principal Cinch interrupted Twilight before she could ask her question. "Who knows? Perhaps they will reveal to you the secret to Canterlot High's newfound success."
"I-I don't know. Isn't spying a bad thing?"
"It's okay if you don't want to. It's not like your application hangs on the line- oh wait… it does," Cinch said, smirking before she walked away, leaving Twilight alone in the hallway.
"Man, she's awful. What are you gonna do?" Spike asked after Cinch left.
"I don't know Spike, I don't know. But I have a feeling that Sunset might be right."
"-I gave her Angel, and then I pony-up," Fluttershy said.
"Fluttershy, come on, you guys. We can't act on our elements until the games are over. I know you can't help it because that's who you are but try to resist, for everyone's sake," Sunset said. "And she stole the magic, right?"
"Yeah, she did. It's her necklace."
"So what's up with our elements again?" Rainbow asked.
"We've been through this Rainbow. According to my theory, our magic, specifically yours, is now evolving. Since our bodies are used to magic, we can channel it through the next easiest way, our elements. When you do something related to your element, you can easily channel your magic and pony-up."
"Okay, I think I get it now. Anyway, let's worry about that later. Let's try to win the games first," Rainbow said.
"Were you even listening?" Sunset asked, exasperated.
"What do you think the next event would be?" Applejack asked, changing the subject much to Sunset annoyance.
"Who cares? We know it's on the field. Which means I got you covered." Rainbow said as they walked out of the door and into the field. Which had completed changed into a dirt track that had students buzzing with energy. There was a distinct path around the field with a miniature obstacle course in the middle of it.
"Am I the only one thinking this is overkill?" Sunset asked, who once again without an answer as the girls rushed forwards to inspect the field.
This was the second event of the day—a Tri-cross Rally. After Dean Cadence finished announcing the rules, she brought up an air horn and blew it, beginning the game. Meanwhile, just beside her, Celestia was having a slight issue.
"Luna? What is Sunset doing on a motorbike?" She whispered to Luna.
"Uh… um… hey look, we took the lead!" Luna said, avoiding the question.
"Luna, you are in so much trouble."
Just like Luna said, the CHS got the lead as Applejack and Fluttershy quickly getting two bullseyes. But it seems Twilight was having a little bit of trouble. As soon as Twilight got the bow and arrow, she fumbled with it before finally drawing it shooting. But the arrow completely missed the target.
"Well, that's just fantastic," Sour Sweet snarled as she stomped her foot.
"I'm sure glad I don't go to Chrystal Prep," Fluttershy said, looking at Twilight in concern.
"You said it," Applejack said. She wanted to go help Twilight, but this is a competition. Plus, she can't sabotage the game by ponying up.
"If CPA can't hit another bullseye soon, they will be out of the race," Cadence announced as Twilight missed the arrow for the second time.
"You are really bad at this," Sugarcoat said from up in the bike, bringing tears into Twilight's eyes.
Twilight kept shooting arrows as tears clouded her vision. She was on the verge of having an anxiety attack, and all the eyes on her plus the venomous words that she could hear certainly weren't helping. Her only thought was that should she cause them to lose the Friendship Games, Principal Cinch would destroy all chances of getting into Everton.
"Augh, Ah can't take it," Applejack shouted before giving her bow to Fluttershy and jumping onto the other platform.
"Twilight, you gotta stop aiming at the target," Applejack said.
"Of course, that makes perfect sense. Don't aim at the target. Thanks so much," Sour Sweet sarcastically said as she once again stomped her foot.
"You have to stop aim at where the target is and aim at where it's going to be,"
"Yeah, definitely take advice from the person you are competing against!"
"Do you wanna get a bullseye or what?" Twilight nodded. "Then trust me. Take a deep breath…" Twilight took a deep breath and pulled the bow and aimed. "…and let go… NOW!" Twilight let go of the bow. And the arrow flew through the air and hit the bullseye.
"That's my girl!" Spike shouted from below the platform, surprising the other CP girl. Twilight hugged Spike before moving to Applejack.
"See? Ah was telling the truth," Applejack said as she hugged the girl. Just then, Applejack began to glow in orange light. "Uh-oh," But she couldn't do anything as she pony upped in front of everyone.
"Huh… will ya look at that… Ah-" she was cut short when the necklace Twilight was wearing began to glow and, just like before, absorbed Applejack's magic. "Hey, what are you doing?"
"I don't know. It just does that."
"What do you mean you don't know?"
After the magic was absorbed entirely, Twilight was able to close the necklace, but she tripped over Spike and fell to the ground. The necklace rolled over to the running track before getting hit by one of the Shadow Bolt's rollerblades.
"Oh no," Twilight shouted as she looked on in horror as the necklace began to open small portals all over the field. Twilight tried to get the necklace, but a giant monster plant stopped her.
Back at Sunset, she and Rainbow were going neck and neck with the CP team, when all of a sudden, a purple portal opened in the middle of the field, and a plant monster came out of it, almost hitting Rainbow. Fortunately, she was able to dodge the plant and keep going. Sugarcoat and Sunset, on the other hand, was not so lucky. One of the plant's heads almost ate Sugarcoat, and Sunset barely dodged it but fell from the bike. Both girls were clearly confused as to what was happening. After Sunset got herself together, she looked up to see a plant's head straight towards her. But she was too late to dodge as it was too close to her. Sunset closed her eyes, waiting for the pain when she was suddenly snatched up by Rainbow Dash.
"Dash? You saved me?"
"Of course. I wasn't about to let my friend become plant food," Rainbow said before she too began to glow in a familiar blue light. She stopped the bike and got out before the transformation was complete.
"Rainbow, any other time, I would be angry, but now, you need to stop that plant. I'll quickly finish this and get back to you," Sunset said, taking the bike.
"You got it!" before Rainbow flew off to distract the plant monster.
Sunset quickly resumed the race while Rainbow took the attention of the plant and lured it towards her. Taking the chance, Sunset was able to finish the race gaining a victory for CHS. As soon as Sunset finished the race, she quickly turned back and rode towards Rainbow.
"Sunset, a little help here," Rainbow shouted as the situation was getting out of control.
Sunset looked around and saw that the students are quickly leaving the field. It looked like the plant was not going to back off either. In fact, the portals that the plants are coming through seem to get bigger.
"What do I do, what do I do?" Sunset asked herself. "Right!" Sunset said before focusing her magic. "Come on, come on."
Rainbow flew back and forth, trying to dodge the plant. She was doing a great job as she was swift and had great air superiority. But she didn't see a vine slowly rising from behind her as it tried and succeeded in snatch her leg.
“AAAHHHH! Sunset!" she shouted when the plant wrapped a vine around her leg. "Sunset, do some-" She was interrupted by a fireball hitting the plant holding her leg. Rainbow flew out of reach from the plant.
"Hey ugly, look what I got!" Sunset shouted as she summoned another fireball larger than the last. It flared out in a barely controlled flame. The flame's heat licked at Sunset's face as her cyan eyes glowed slightly. Instead of sending the giant fireball at the plant, smaller fire bolts from the large flame. Five bolts slammed into the central mouth while two smacked against the stem of the plant. The plant screamed in pain as it backed away. "Don't like that do you?" Sunset said before shooting another barrage of flaming bolts. The stream of attacks matched that of a flamethrower.
"Whoa! Neat!" Rainbow shouted. Sunset was covered in a fire as she shot more flame at the beast as the heat caused a vortex causing many of the bolts to spin, looking similar to a fire whirl. The plant began backing away into the portal.
After a few more minutes, the portals became smaller and finally disappeared, taking the plant with it.
*huh* *huh* *huh* Sunset panted.
"What, just, happened?" Sunset asked.
"Sunset?! You are on fire!" Fluttershy shouted as she came with the rest of the Rainbooms.
"Huh? Oh," Sunset said, looking at herself before she de-transformed, causing the flame to fizzle out almost instantly. "There we go."
"Um… excuse me," They heard Twilight approaching them. "I didn't mean for any of this to happen. I just wanted to learn about the strange energy coming from your school. I didn't know that it would cause all this. I just wanted to know... how it works-"
"It's okay. We-"
"Rainbow, get back!" Sunset said firmly with an edge of panic. "She'll zap your magic too."
"I-I'm sorry. I don't know why it's happening."
"What do you mean you don't know?" Sunset shouted.
"I don't know. That's why I want to understand it."
"But you don't. All you are doing is messing with things you don't understand and put everyone else in danger. Didn't you listen to anything I told you before?"
"I-I… I'm sorry… I didn't mean to…." Twilight said with teary eyes before running off.
"Twilight, wait!" Spike shouted while running toward Twilight. Sunset, after realizing what she just did, felt very guilty.
"Oh no… what did I do?" Rainbow placed a hand on her shoulder for reassurance. Sunset looked to the side, feeling like an awful friend for letting her anger get the best of her. She looked up and saw her mom was also having a problem of her own to deal with as she saw she was talking with Cinch. "Great," Sunset said before walking towards them after Cinch left.
"I'm sorry I wasn't able to stop all this from happening," Sunset said.
"It's not your fault, my little sun," Celestia said.
"Isn't it? I'm supposed to stop the magic from appearing. But I wasn't able to do it, and now Principal Cinch thinks we are cheating."
"Principal Celestia is right, Sunset. If only we had listened to you, none of this would happen," Rainbow said.
"Don't worry, Sunset, it doesn't matter what Cinch thinks. As long as everyone is safe, that's all that counts," Celestia said, putting a hand on Sunset's shoulder. "And that's exactly what I need to talk to you about after this is over," She said with a stern motherly voice.
"Hehe- okay…" Sunset said, rubbing her neck.