Outside of Canterlove Studios, the familiar red pony with blonde hair, Sprout Cloverleaf, was still smirking to himself as he sat down in a folding chair. He was sitting at a table with an assortment of baked goods and sweets on top of it and holding a mug of lukewarm cocoa in his hooves. He put the mug down on the table and pulled out a pair of binoculars.
“Heh heh heh…” he snickered as he watched Sunny and her friends approach the building from a distance through the binoculars. “Oh, I can’t wait to see the look on their faces when they learn that I really do have the strongest magic of any pony in Maretime Bay…”
He then put the binoculars away and grabbed the mug of lukewarm cocoa again, putting it on top of one of his hooves. Soon, somehow, it became hot…
“And I also can’t wait for them to see you…” he said excitedly as he turned his head toward the front doors of the building, talking to something invisible to the naked eye. “My familiar…”
Whatever he was talking to let out a yawn. Zipp could faintly hear the sound of this yawn, something that led her to stop in her tracks and put a hoof to her head.
“What’s wrong, Zipp?” Sunny asked her friend in concern.
“I don’t know.” Zipp answered honestly. “I just felt…like there was this strange vibration in the air…”
“We’re definitely getting close…” Izzy remarked forebodingly. “I can sense a spiritual presence from close by…something tells me we’re going to have a supernatural encounter before we even enter the building…”
“Really?” Hitch reacted in surprise. “Do you think Canterlove Studios is that haunted?”
“The level of how haunted it is bears no relevance to what’s likely waiting for us outside the building.” Izzy answered. “I have a good feeling that he’ll be there…”
“Who’s “he”?” Zipp asked in perplexment.
“Sprout.” Izzy replied blankly.
“Ha!” Sunny exclaimed cockily. “Knowing what a scaredy-cat he is, I bet if he has decided to visit the place today, he’s already galloped off with his tail between his hind legs!”
“I wouldn’t bet on it…” Misty retorted. “Sprout knows about the sixth sense Izzy and I possess.”
Sunny’s attitude immediately shifted from happy and confident to disillusioned and uncertain just from hearing what Misty said.
“…You’re kidding me, right?” Sunny remarked in a subdued tone. “Sprout of all ponies knew about your otherworldly senses before we did? What are you going to tell me next, that he has supernatural powers too?”
Izzy and Misty both looked at each other abashedly. Noticing this, Sunny’s face displayed a pained expression of terror.
“Oh my hoofness…” she said, now greatly worried. “What kind of abilities does he have?”
“Nothing you, the alicorn, should feel threatened by, heh heh…” Misty replied sheepishly.
“We’ll be fine.” Izzy explained assuredly. “It’s not like Sprout is interested in fighting us. He’s just going to try silly games with us.”
“Seems you’ve done your homework…” Zipp interjected with her usual tone of suspicion.
Izzy looked away guiltily, leading an equally ashamed Misty to speak defensively.
“We’re just honoring what Pipp wants…” she said sincerely.
“Wait…” Zipp replied, curious. “Are Pipp and Sprout…”
“Uuurrrooohhh!”
Zipp was cut off by a sudden eager cry from an excited Sparky, who had just detected the pleasant smell of something.
“What’s up, little buddy?” Hitch asked the baby dragon that had been perched on his back.
“Uuurrrooohhh!” Sparky cried happily again as he jumped off his caretaker’s back and ran ahead.
“Sparky!” a concerned Hitch exclaimed as he and the others naturally gave chase. They were running toward a table that Sparky hopped on top of, ready to grab a heated cookie off a plate of cookies that had been laid out on the side of the table. Just before he did though, Sparky saw a red hoof emit something that normally couldn’t be seen by the naked eye.
“Uuuwwwooohhh…” he reacted in surprise.
“Hmm?” the owner of the red hoof said in response, also surprised. “When did you get here?”
Sprout, the owner of the red hoof, had been admiring what he had made appear in his hoof before Sparky arrived. He was looking at Sparky confusedly before he looked back at his hoof and continued talking with…
“Oh yeah, that’s right. This morning, you didn’t actually-”
“Sparky!” Hitch exclaimed again as he and the others arrived at the table, where Hitch promptly grabbed the baby dragon and put him back on his back.
“You can’t go running off like that! Not to mention almost spoiling your dinner!” he admonished the hatchling.
Sprout chuckled upon hearing this.
“You sound like my mother…” he joked.
“What it’s to y-” Hitch was about to retort before he paused in mid-sentence, seeing in Sprout’s hoof what Sparky had seen.
“What…what is that…?” he asked in astonishment.
Sprout, realizing that Hitch could somehow see what was in his hoof, quickly made it disappear.
“What’s what?” he responded, playing dumb. “I’m just hosting a friendly bake sale here! Want to try something?”
Sunny and all of her friends shot Sprout an unamused glare, not buying his act of feigned innocence.
“Nothing on the table is poisoned, I assure you!” he exclaimed in an inviting tone that failed to convince them.
“That’s what they all say…” the always suspecting Zipp responded.
“You can drop the act, Sprout...” Sunny interjected.
“You know who else needs to drop the act?” Sprout made a rejoinder. “Your mom!”
“I don’t have a mom.” Sunny replied bluntly.
“Well, I do!” Sprout exclaimed giddily. “Score one for the boys back home!”
“You know what, forget you.” Sunny told him off before turning away and addressing her next remark to her friends. “Come on gang, we’re going inside.”
“Sure, just waltz on in there…” Sprout told them sarcastically, swigging his hot cocoa condescendingly on his hoof. “…If you can…”
“Oh, what?” Sunny retorted, turning back to face him. “Are you going to use your “spooky” supernatural powers to stop me? In case you didn’t know, I’m an alicorn! I’ve faced off against worse than whatever you could throw at me! I held my own against Opaline!”
With the simple utterance of Opaline’s name, Sunny saw a smug grin on Sprout’s face immediately fade, but not for the reason she wanted. His hot cocoa began to bubble ominously before he put it down. She began growing nervous, becoming overwhelmed by an eerie premonition when Sprout shot her a displeased look and said in a tone that made him sound like he had become possessed by a demon…
“Did you say…OPALINE?”
Sunny gulped, trembling as she now felt like she was in the presence of a completely different pony. There was fear in her eyes as they met Sprout’s eyes, seeing a fire in them that filled her with the dreadful thought of ponies burning to death…
“…Yes.” Sunny finally told Sprout sheepishly. “I’m sorry…is her name…taboo to you?”
“No.” Sprout replied in his normal voice, though he sounded angry despite trying to speak blankly. “It’s just that the spirits who haunt this building don’t like hearing their killer’s name used flippantly by an outsider. My familiar who guards this place is one of her victims too…and let me tell you that he’s definitely not going to let you enter the building after hearing that.”
Sunny regained her composure slightly after hearing the word, “outsider”, and shot Sprout a stern look.
“No one’s an outsider here, Sprout.” she rebutted him. “I don’t care what supernatural force says otherwise, this building is for every pony, and my friends and I are going to keep it that way.”
“Ha ha ha…I like you…”
Sunny could hear that laugh and those words spoken in a familiar voice addressing her, and in shock, she turned around to see the entrance to the building. There was nothing to be seen…by the naked eye. However, for a moment, she knew something was present…it was as if something had briefly awakened her sixth sense…
“That voice…” she said to herself in her mind in bewilderment. “It sounded like…Twilight Sparkle’s voice? But…more masculine? What’s going on here?!”
“I can see that my familiar has taken an interest in you…” Sprout commented, a bit of cockiness returning to his tone. “However, under no circumstances is he going to let you by just because of that. Nor will I.”
Sunny sighed, realizing that she had no choice but to play Sprout’s game. Although that presence guarding the building was likely just messing with her by trying to imitate Twilight’s voice, she had sensed that it was stronger than her…
“What do you want from us?” she begrudgingly asked Sprout.
“First,” answered a Sprout who had his cockiness fully restored, “you, Zipp, and Hitch need to try one of my cookies. I normally charge for them, but I’ll let you each have a free sample. Just mind the cake ghosts…”
He slid the plate of cookies that had attracted Sparky from the side of the table to the center. Small, purple spirits emerged from the cookies, making Sunny, Zipp, and Hitch slightly nervous.
“Why don’t Izzy and Misty have to eat one?” the usually suspicious Zipp asked.
“Because these cookies are for fully awakening one’s dormant supernatural abilities.” Sprout explained. “Izzy and Misty have already become fully aware of their power to sense the supernatural, so they don’t need one. We’re all adult ponies here who have to watch our caloric intake, after all. Ha ha ha!”
“You, Izzy, and Misty are hardly my idea of adult ponies…” an unamused Zipp thought to herself, not impressed by what she felt was Sprout’s attempt at subtly flexing his supposed maturity. “You especially, at least Izzy and Misty are cutely immature…”
Despite her friends sharing her lack of enthusiasm, however, they all knew what they had to do…
Sunny, Zipp, and Hitch each took a cookie and ate it. After they chewed and swallowed the cookies, they felt an uncanny sensation…and each of them experienced something different…
Sunny saw a ghostly image of her father flash through her mind before she could feel a pony from behind place a hoof on her shoulder and whisper something in the same voice she had heard earlier when she momentarily sensed Sprout’s familiar…
“We’re dying to meet you…once you have the power that existed before Twilight’s time…”
Zipp saw an image of her sister as a ghost flash through her mind before she could hear something spoken in what sounded like her sister’s voice distorted…
“Our family has a secret…the blood of powerful unicorns runs through our veins…”
Hitch saw an image of a pink and purple fire flash through his mind before he remembered a time when he was a colt, eating cookies his Grandma Figgy had made as she told him…
“I’ve been making these cookies for a very long time now…ha ha ha…”
After these experiences ended, all three ponies could now feel a new sensation come over them…they looked at their bodies and became awestruck as they could now see and feel a white and gray light glowing around them.
“Woah…” Hitch reacted in amazement.
“What is this?” Zipp asked curiously.
“Have Izzy and Misty always been able to see this?” Sunny said, pondering.
“Yes, we have.” Izzy gave her friend an answer. “That’s your aura. It’s the supernatural light that surrounds us all, not to be confused with your sparkle, a luminescence that reflects the unique aspects of your soul.”
“Speaking of unique aspects,” interjected Misty, “you three should each start seeing your own unique latent supernatural ability fully emerge. Though we all have the power to sense the spiritual, each one of us has a different calling to a different kind of power based on predilections, convictions, and upbringings.”
“For example,” Sprout chimed in, “I love food that reminds me of my mom’s cooking, so I’m good at preparing sweets like those cookies that awakened you to the power to see your aura. I also dream of being a great leader, so I was called to the power to summon familiars to do my bidding.”
“So even with supernatural powers, he’s a lazy mama’s boy…” Sunny thought to herself in amusement. “Some things never change…”
“Don’t start getting overconfident now though just because I’ve graced you with new power…” Sprout admonished the three with a complete lack of self-awareness. “First, look up at the sky. Then, look over at the entrance to the building.”
The three curiously looked up at the sky and saw that the sun was beginning to set…they felt a slight chill course through them as they realized that even though it only felt like minutes had passed since they ate the cookies and experienced what they did, it was actually hours that had passed. They felt even more unnerved once they glanced over at Canterlove’s entrance and saw the form Sprout’s familiar had taken…a slightly overweight, lavender unicorn stallion that bore a striking resemblance to Twilight Sparkle. He was resting with one eye open in front of the doors…
“What the…” the three went in confoundment.
“Don’t rack your brains, that’s not Twilight.” Sprout said to alleviate their bemusement. “That’s just a spirit trying to imitate Twilight’s form. Although I didn’t command it to take that form…it just likes that form for some reason…”
“A reason that doesn’t concern you at the moment, heh heh…” Sprout thought to himself amusedly, having played dumb.
Despite the three still being bemused, they could sense this familiar was stronger than them, strong enough to stop them from getting into Canterlove without making a wholehearted effort.
“How do we get him to move?” Sunny asked inquisitively.
“I’ll dismiss him once you pass my test.” Sprout explained his conditions. “I’ll ask you, the alicorn, one question and you have to give me the right answer…or at least an answer I like, heh.”
“Just one question for me?” Sunny replied, slightly puzzled.
“Yes.” Sprout answered blankly. “It’s a question just like one Pipp asked me not too long ago…”
This line instantly caught Zipp’s attention, leading her to inquire…
“Hold on…” she interjected. “Are you two working together?”
“Hmmm…that’s a tricky question…” Sprout replied in a tone that sounded derisive. “I think the way I’d describe our business is…none of your business, bwa ha ha!”
“Grrr…” a frustrated Zipp growled. “But why not tell us?! What detriment is it to you?! Pipp’s our friend! My sister!”
“Maybe Pipp asked me not to tell you.” he teased with a wink. “Regardless, I’m the one asking the questions here. So if you want answers from me, you better hope your alicorn friend gets this question right.”
“Enough mouthing,” said Sunny sternly, unhappy with Sprout’s rude behavior towards Zipp, “just ask me the question.”
“Since you’re begging, sure.” Sprout agreed after one more declaiming. “What would you do in the following scenario?”
Sunny felt a bad premonition similar to the one she had felt earlier when Sprout had reacted the way he did to the mention of Opaline’s name.
“You’re in a burning building.” he told Sunny the scenario. “Izzy and Misty are on one side of the building, Pipp is on another side of the building, and I’m lying on the floor unconscious. You can only save Izzy and Misty, Pipp, or me. Who do you save?”
Sunny and her friends were completely taken aback, alarmed and shocked by what Sprout had asked.
“You can’t expect Sunny to answer something like that!” Hitch protested in indignation. “There’s no right answer to a question like that, never has been!”
“Sprout, that’s sick!” Sunny exclaimed, also indignant. “I value all life equally! I’d try to save every pony!”
“Not a valid answer, I’m afraid.” Sprout retorted. “Although speaking hypothetically, one choice could lead you to save every pony, so choose wisely.”
Zipp, Izzy, and Misty were speechless, recalling what Sprout had said about this question being like one Pipp asked him…
“What’s gotten into my sister?!” Zipp thought in terror. “She’s definitely possessed!”
“I think I already know what Sprout’s idea of the right answer is…” an unnerved Izzy thought. “When I was here this morning while I was watching Sparky and wanting to check on Pipp…I heard him talking to himself and gloating about how an answer that looked obviously wrong was going to turn out to be right…”
“Sprout knows from the spirits of Opaline’s victims how awful it is to be burned alive…” a shuddering Misty thought. “And so does Pipp…I know she doesn’t have the option to hold back, but allowing Sprout to ask Sunny something like this feels like too much!”
Despite the intense amount of pressure she was feeling, Sunny knew she had to be resolute and sound of mind.
“I have to remain calm…” she reminded herself in thought. “This is just a puzzle…and I will find the correct solution that allows me to save every pony!”
“No matter how she answers…it’s a win for me.” an always overconfident Sprout thought. “I’ll still see her submitting to my will…in realization that my magic is the strongest in Maretime Bay! Mwa ha ha!”
Unbeknownst to him, however, Pipp the Poltergeist was watching everything from above, looking out from a window in a room on the top floor of Canterlove Studios. She could tell what Sprout was thinking from a smirk on his face and chuckled.
“He doesn’t know yet that the strength of one’s supernatural power isn’t measured by the strength of one’s magic…” she thought amusedly. “It’s measured by the strength of one’s will. Sunny will surely triumph over Sprout, for her willpower is far stronger.”
She then looked at the pendant with a familiar symbol on it before saying…
“Especially with it being enhanced by your faith, wouldn’t you agree?”
A blue, ghostly energy began to exude from the pendant, leading Sunny to start sensing a warm presence…her aura began to grow larger as she entered the space of her mind, now able to see her own thoughts…