Sunset lowered Twilight to the ground as the white light that had surrounded them began to fade. Similarly, the powered-up unicorn could feel her own energy flagging. She had used most of what the Elements had granted her to heal Twilight, but there was still work to do so Sunset set off to save another friend. Reaching out with her power, the pony searched for the now familiar power of Element magic. After a moment, she felt something echo with the energy still within her, and with a flash of her horn, she disappeared from the courtyard in front of CHS and rematerialized in the back parking lot.
With all that had happened today, Sunset was no longer worried about being spotted and so she appeared right in front of the school bus containing Spike as well as the handful of Crystal Prep students who had been tasked with guarding him.
Her sudden appearance at first went unnoticed by the disinterested teens who were more focused on their phones, so Sunset called out to them. “Excuse me, you’re holding my friend there, and I’d like him back.”
“Get lost, Wonderdolt,” one replied. Everything about him screamed ‘I think I’m so much better than you, from his condescending smirk to his meticulously styled quaff. It took him a moment to deign to acknowledge the one that had spoken to him, but when he finally chose to look up, his jaw fell and his cellphone almost followed suit.
“What the hell is that?” he shouted gaining the attention of the others.
“I dunno,” one of them replied, “some kind of tiny mutant horse?'
“Sweet Celestia, I thought students at Crystal Prep were supposed to be smart,” Sunset sighed. “Or did you really miss the horn coming out of my forehead? I’m a unicorn. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure you learn never to make that mistake again,” she said as the aforementioned appendage began to radiate with a crimson glow. The Crystal Prep students’ eyes grew wide at the sight, and they tried to run from the strange talking creature in front of them only to find their feet were no longer touching the ground. “Now," Sunset said, her voice hard, “I’ll ask again, where’s Cinch keeping Twilight’s dog?”
They looked back at Spike and then at her as their eyes widened in fear. “He’s in there,” the leader said, nodding at the back of the school bus they had been leaning the best he could do to point considering his constricted state. “Cinch told us to guard him, but he’s all yours.” Sunset lifted the group out of her way as she walked to the rear door of the bus and let the group drop to the ground. The group promptly made a break for the school and away from the bizarre creature. Using her magic, Sunset opened the door to the bus and spotted Spike trapped in a dog carrier, but he smiled when he saw her, and his tail was wagging furiously.
“Sunset!” Spike called from inside the bus. “You came to rescue me.”
“Of course,” she smiled, “Couldn’t leave a friend in trouble.” Using her magic, Sunset opened the door to the cage and then formed a set of stairs for him to exit the bus.
Spike raised a quizzical eyebrow, “You okay to be using your magic now,” he asked as he hopped down.
“Yeah, there was a bit of an…incident with Twilight and the magic collector, but long story short, I’m doing great magic level-wise.”
The puppy just gave her a deadpan look. “Yeah, I’m a dog not blind, unlike those idiots, I noticed the tears in space and the blinding pillar of light coming from the other side of the building. I think I’m going to need a lot more detail. To start with, where’s Twilight? Is she okay?”
“Twilight, she let the magic out,” the pony said shocking the dog and causing his eyes to bulge.
“She did what?! After all the work you two put into stopping the magic from leaking out. After all the problems it was causing and nearly sucking us into who knows where. Why would she purposely let the magic out?”
Sunset sighed, “The bullying and the threats from Cinch and the others at CP finally got to her and she tried to use it. She wanted to protect us." Seeing Spike’s concern, Sunset hastily added, “She’s fine now, I promise. She’s probably looking for us both right now so we should probably get over there. I’m sure she’ll be thrilled to see you.”
“Sounds good,” Spike began, before his expression fell and he breathed, “Oh no.” His eyes grew wide as he caught a familiar scent of polish and paper buried under too much hair spray approaching them. It was all the warning the pair got before they were both caught up in the familiar power of Twilight’s magic siphon. They felt the magic being pulled from them, sapping their energy and causing both of them to collapse to the ground.
“Oh, I don’t think you’ll be going anywhere,” said a cold voice, and turning they spotted Principal Cinch approaching them flanked by the goons Sunset had just run off and clutched in her fingers was the device Twilight had dropped when she had freed the magic it had contained.
***
Spike was the first to be freed from the grip of the magic siphon. The portion of Fluttershy’s magic that had been caught inside him was significantly less than the power that Sunset held.
“Spike,” Sunset started in a pained wince. The little puppy opened his mouth to assure the unicorn, but when he tried the only sounds he could produce were nervous yaps and whines. “Spike,” Sunset said again, “you have to get out of here. Go find Twilight.”
Thoughts warred in the pup’s mind. He knew that something had been done to him. Things that had been so clear before, he was now having trouble remembering. Twilight was smart and big so she would probably be able to help. But at the same time, Spike remembered the woman standing over them was bad, and he refused to leave the little talking pony to be hurt by her. He may not be able to think as clearly or talk, but he had to try and help.
Taking up a defensive stance in front of the pony, Spike lowered his head and bared his teeth in an angry snarl. Dashing forward he jumped at Cinch hoping to bite her and get her to drop the thing she was holding that was hurting the unicorn. Unfortunately, one of the boys that was with her blocked him causing the little puppy to crash into the boy’s knee instead of the woman. Spike fell to the ground landing awkwardly but was quick to get back on his paws. Pain shot up his front right leg as he tried to resume a threatening stance causing him to instead stand awkwardly on only three legs.
Cinch opened her mouth, but before she could shout more orders to her students, her eyes squinted, and her nose scrunched up as Principal Cinch let out a powerful sneeze that sent a convulsion through her body and caused her to grip on the device to slacken. Seeing his chance, Spike leapt again, this time not aiming to take a bite out of the vile woman, but instead, his teeth latched on to the dangling cord that Twilight had used to wear the pendant around her neck. The sudden weight of the puppy jerked the spectrometer free, and Spike hurried away as fast as his three good legs would allow.
“Grab him,” Cinch yelled to the Crystal Prep boys once she was finally able to stop sneezing long enough to produce words.
Spike quickly found himself being chased by three of the boys while Cinch sent the blue-haired boy with glasses to the bus he had been guarding. A grey-haired boy with a bowl-cut dove for Spike, trying to tackle him. He was slow and the movement was well-telegraphed, so the puppy was able to easily leap out of the way and avoid him. Unfortunately, though the dodge sent Spike right into the reach of the spiky-haired blond boy. Rough hands grabbed him, but they were quickly met with sharp puppy teeth and that problem was soon solved, but it caused Spike to fall from his grasp and hit the ground hard, this time driving the wind out of him.
Taking in his current situation, it was clear to Spike that things were not looking good. He had already felt run down from the magic being pulled out of him, and now he was unable to put weight on his leg and was sore all over. What was worse, the puppy saw the blue-haired boy return from the bus with the pet carrier and begin to load the barely conscious unicorn into it.
Spike was seriously thinking he should run for Twilight, if he could even manage to run away at this point. At the very least, Spike was going to make these boys work for it if they wanted to try and put him back in a cage. Lowering his head and glaring at the smug boy with purple hair approaching him, his two allies flanking him. The pup uttered as menacing a growl as he could manage and readied himself for a fight.
As focused was he on the boys in front of him, Spike was surprised when a blur of a similar color scheme to the smug boy, went sliding past the puppy into the boy’s legs, taking him out and sending him pitching sideways across the grass landing ungracefully with a thud. The blur was back up in a minute and Spike saw that it was a young girl he thought looked familiar. Then another girl in a large bow rushed in to deck the blond boy while the first girl did the same to the one with the bowl cut. Spike noticed the smug one had gotten back to his feet and started to bark a warning when a third girl arrived and attempted to protect her friends. She was clearly not as comfortable with violence as the other two girls. Closing her eyes, she lashed out with a wild kick at the boy. Whether through intent or sheer luck she hit him where it truly counted, and the smug boy fell back to the ground with a pained wheeze.
Seeing them together, Spike recognized the three from their run-in at the mall and was thrilled by their timely arrival. He wasn’t sure why they were here now, but he was grateful for the help. His joy was cut short when the downed boys started to get up, and the looks on their faces made it clear that they would not be going easy on the group of middle schoolers.
“You’re gonna pay for that, runts,” growled the blonde boy.
“We’ll see about that,” came another voice Spike didn’t recognize. Turning, he saw another girl, older than the ones from the mall. She was tall with short hair and a hawk-like gaze trained on the boys from Crystal Prep.
“Gilda!” the middle schoolers called in a mix of relief and apprehension.
Spike didn’t know exactly who this Gilda person was, but she did look like she could handle herself in a fight. With a smirk, the little dog turned back toward the boys, but his face fell when he spotted Cinch lifting the pet carrier, a visibly woozy Sunset inside. The blue-haired boy, who had been with the principal was now heading towards them, apparently sent to help end this quickly and get ahold of Spike, but they were surprised when he called the others to head for the bus.
Barking for attention, the girls’ eyes met the pup’s, who frantically looked in the direction they were heading.
“What is it, Spike?” asked Sweetie Belle.
Following the dog’s line of sight, Scootaloo spotted the Crystal Prep principal. “Isn’t that the grumpy lady who was threatening Twilight in the hall?”
“Where’s she goin'? I thought she was after Spike,” said Applebloom, puzzled at the woman giving up so easily.
Spotting the familiar red and yellow colors in the pet carrier, Gilda’s eyes widened. “She doesn’t need Spike, anymore. She has Sunset!”
The trio’s eyes fell to the pet carrier and went wide at the sight of the unicorn bearing the familiar locks of the girl they had hurt so many months ago.
“That’s Sunset?!” they cried.
“Yeah, it is, and she’s in trouble,” said Gilda.
“We have to save her,” Scootaloo eagerly piped up, the other two quickly nodding their agreement.
Gilda however was not so sure. While the Crusaders had gotten in some nice surprise attacks Gilda did know how good they would be if it turned into an actual fight. The odds did not seem to be in their favor if they chose to chase after the Crystal Prep students. Then Gilda’s eyes met Sunset’s behind the bars of her cage and her resolve hardened, and her hands balled into fists. As she moved to go after the boys, Sunset shook her head. She was tired and drained Gilda could tell but her voice was clear despite the distance, “Save Spike. Get him back to Twilight…please.”
Gilda wanted to do more, but Sunset was right. Without taking her eyes off the group slowly finding their feet, she called over her shoulder, “Apple Bloom you pick up Spike and get him out of here. Scootaloo and Sweetie run ahead and find Twilight, let her and whoever else you can find know what happened. I’ll cover you.”
“But what about-” Sweetie started before the older teen cut her off.
“Sunset wants us to get him out of here, so that’s what we’re going to do. Now go!” The three took off toward the front of the school, Scootaloo in the lead while Applebloom slowed down by the weight of the puppy brought up the rear. Gilda watched as the principal and her students entered the bus. The sight made her insides squirm, feeling she had once again been the one at fault for losing Sunset Shimmer. Sunset had told them to save Spike not her, and as much as it hurt Gilda, this time she would listen to what Sunset had to say, but that didn’t mean she had to give up. As the door closed, and the bus started to pull away, Gilda turned to sprint after the Crusaders. They had to find Twilight and then figure out how they were going to get Sunset back. They wouldn’t abandon her this time.