Chapter 7: Eclipse
Some time has passed and now the friends are gathered outside Canterlot High for an auspicious occasion, a total solar eclipse. When suddenly a group of shadowy humans with wings fly in, “Attack!” a woman who seems to be the leader commands.
“Run!” someone yells and the students scatter.
“I wish I still had those wings.” Rainbow Dash says, “I’d show them one for!”
“We can’t fight them if they keep coming in from the air.” Twilight points out.
“Interesting!” The woman in charge says and lands near the group. “You seem familiar,” she looks to Sunset. “Not you, but these six.” she reaches out and touches Twilight’s face, “This one in particular.”
“Get away from Twilight, you freak!” Applejack yells.
“Twilight?” the woman ask and malicious look crosses her face, “Twilight Sparkle by chance?”
“Um, yes, and you are?” Twilight asks.
“I am Queen Chrysalis, and I rule over these changelings.” Chrysalis answers, “Your double stopped me from taking over Equestria, but I was able to bring my army here using my powers. Now I’ll kill you!” Chrysalis lunges at Twilight, when Sunset, whom she forgot about hits her across the back with a sign. Chrysalis drops Twilight and turns to Sunset who quickly runs away. “Get her!”
Twilight and the others run away as quickly as they can. “I hate having to run,” Rainbow Dash says.
“We can’t exactly fight.” Twilight says, “How would we?”
“Sport’s equipment lock-up.” Rainbow Dash says, “I can kick some balls in their faces!” With that they run toward the lock-up.
Meanwhile Sunset runs to the horse statue that also serves as the portal to Equestria only to end up cornered, she starts to back toward the statue. “I’ll get your friends next!” Chrysalis threatens as she swipes at Sunset who instinctively dodges backward, fully aware that she should hit the statue, only to find that portal open and herself slip through the gateway.
After a moment Sunset realizes first that she’s not dead, and second that she’s a unicorn again. She turns to the mirror and goes to go through only to find the portal closed, “I need help.” She teleports herself to the throne room, and finds more than she expects, as not only Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are there but Princess Twilight and her friends.
“Sunset Shimmer?” Princess Twilight asks surprised, “What are you doing here?”
“I’m not entirely sure HOW I got here,” Sunset answers, “But some creatures calling themselves changelings, lead by a woman calling herself Queen Chrysalis, are attacking the school, and somehow I seem to have fallen through the portal.”
“Sunset, please tell us everything that happened since Princess Twilight has left,” Princess Celestia requests.
“Of course,” Sunset says and she recounts all the events quickly.
“I see,” Princess Celestia states, “Sounds like this solar eclipse must be activating the gateway.” She looks to her sister, “We should do the same thing sister.” Luna nods and the first ever solar eclipse in Equestria starts. “The portal should work both ways now, but I doubt it’ll work for long.”
Sunset turns to Princess Twilight, “Please, the 6 of you, come with me quickly only the Elements of Harmony can defeat her.”
“Sunset!” Princess Celestia stops her, “I can’t allow the Elements of Harmony to go through to your world, I definitely can’t allow all 6 of the bearers of the elements go through. Especially not knowing the how long the gate will remain open on your end.”
“I understand,” Sunset mutters sadly. “Just allow me to return and fight for my world then.”
“I will,” Princess Celestia says, “But not empty handed, you will require help to defeat the changelings.”
“But you said….” Sunset starts but is cut off by the Princess.
“I said I would not allow the Elements of Harmony to go through, or their bearers. From what Princess Twilight has told me there are those in that world who could be the bearer of the Elements of Harmony, all they need is a spark.” A bag comes floating from behind her throne. “These are the shards of the Elements of Harmony, when Twilight and her friends remade them there was some left over pieces. I was holding onto them incase of an emergency. They may not have much of a spark, but they should have enough to spark the Elements in your world, especially after the Element of Magic was there.”
Sunset takes the bag, “Thank you Princess,” she bows. “Now I must run maybe I can save my friends.”
“Go with our blessings.” Celestia commands and Sunset teleports off.
Sunset appears in front of the mirror and goes through it, readying herself for the change back into human form. Sure enough she appears back at Canterlot High in her human form, holding the bag of shards. “The others,” she looks to where the most commotion is and runs in that direction.
“We’re all out of balls for ya to kick Dash.” Applejack states as the changelings corner them against the school.
“It was nice knowing all of you,” Twilight gulps
"I don't plan on giving up without a fight," Rainbow Dash says as she balls up her fists. "I don't care if they tear me apart."
Applejack pushes down her hat, "I'm with ya!"
The others nod in agreement. "Let's do this!" Pinkie exclaims and the bag Sunset is carrying starts to glow, scaring Sunset
“What the!” Sunset exclaims, as she drops the bag, and several of the shards come flying out of the bag sparkling many colors, they go to five of the cornered girls and glow.
One of the shards floats in front of Pinkie glowing pink brightly. “Ohhhh, pretty,” Pinkie says enthralled and reaches out for the shard.
"What in tarnation?" Applejack asks staring at the orange shard glowing in front of her, she reaches for it to investigate.
One shard glows white and floats in front of Rarity "What a lovely gem" she says as she goes to acquire it.
Rainbow Dash grabs the shard that floats in front of her, glowing blue quickly while Fluttershy hesitantly reaches out to the shards softly glowing yellow floating in front of her. As they reach out for the shards the shards fly into them and they are enveloped by the appropriate color light. They shards turn them to their pony-hybrid forms, they all acquire ears and tails of their appropriate doubles colors, as Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy also get their wings, they all stand there in shock for a minute.
Until Rainbow Dash quickly takes the the air, "Awesome!"
“What is this?” Queen Chrysalis asks as she lunges at Pinkie.
Pinkie cartwheels around Chrysalis confusing her, as she's not paying attention Applejack moves and kicks Chrysalis right into the school, making a hole in the wall, “My bad,” Applejack looks embarrassed.
The changelings look confused for a minute then quickly grab Queen Chrysalis and fly away leaving the friends standing there. Sunset comes running up holding the bag of shards and panting, “what… happened?”
“The changelings, they just flew away when the one who called herself their Queen was knocked unconscious,” Twilight observes.
“Just flew away?” Sunset asks.
“They all paused for a minute like they were confused and then grabbed Chrysalis and fled.” Twilight says.
“Some kind of self preservation thing then?” Sunset asks.
“Perhaps, they did seem to swarm us like insects, perhaps they have some sort hive mind?” Twilight suggests.
“That would make sense,” Sunset admits.
“Now onto more important matters,” says Rainbow Dash as she flies.
“I am totally a pony girl again!” Pinkie screeches, “I am so excited!”
"You're excited?" Rainbow Dash asks as she flies, "I'm like 120% more awesome!"
Twilight goes to Pinkie, “Are those real?” Tweaks her pony ears.
“Hey!” Pinkie says, “That kinda hurts!”
“They are real.” Twilight says as she steps back shocked.
“This is the magic of Equestria,” Sunset says having had finally caught her breath.
“What are you talking about?” Applejack asks, “Twilight took the crown with her.”
“During the fight the changelings pushed me through the gateway to Equestria,” Sunset states.
“Whoa, back up a minute there,” Applejack looks at her suspiciously. “Whatcha mean pushed ya through the gate?”
Sunset nods and tells them everything that happened, they all look up only to see that the eclipse has ended. “So the gate’s closed again?” Twilight asks
Sunset nods, “Looks that way, but at least Princess Celestia gave us these shards of the original Elements of Harmony to help us fight the changelings.”
“Is that what happened to us?” Pinkie asks.
“Some of the shards flew out of the bag as I was running to find you all.” Sunset says, “Somehow it must have done,” waves her hands up and down the hybrids, “this to all of you.”
“Now we just need to find a way to reverse the process,” Twilight says.
“Why?” Pinkie asks, “This is great! I have a tail!” she turns around and waves the tail around. “And I feel so full of energy!”
"And there's no way I'm giving up my wings again!" Rainbow exclaims
“Pinkie, my dear,” Rarity starts, “Aren’t you concerned what everyone is going to say about our ears and tails?” Pinkie shrugs seemingly unconcerned.
“I like her ears and tail.” Fluttershy admits quietly looking at Pinkie with a smile. “Makes her look like a cute animal.”
“See?” Pinkie asks, “Flutters likes it, I should just keep the look!”
“People will talk!” Rarity remarks, "Besides I for one don't want to keep the tail, the ears aren't so bad. And you Fluttershy, aren't you a bit concerned what people are going to say about your wings?"
"I have wings?" Fluttershy stammers, "I didn't notice." she blushes and folds them up against her back, "Seems like they'd be well hidden under a loose t-shirt."
Rarity notices that the hybrids are all wearing necklaces with the appropriate cutie mark on them. "Did anyone else notice these necklaces?"
Pinkie touches her necklace, “No.”
“That’s got to be the Shard of Harmony,” Sunset says, “I bet if you take it off you’ll turn back.”
Rarity quickly grabs for her necklace in an attempt to remove it. "I can't seem to remove it."
"That's fine!" Rainbow Dash grins, "cause I don't mind staying like this."
"You know they'll kick you off the soccer team," Rarity says.
"She has a point, them dar wings would be unfair," Applejack says.
Rainbow Dash looks unsure for a minute, "Ok, any other ideas?"
“If I had the magic I had in Equestria I could create an illusion to cover the changes at the very least.” Sunset Shimmer states.
“Try using one of them shards,” Applejack suggests, “The crown gave you and the other Twilight power, maybe the Shards will do the same.”
Sunset takes a shard out of the bag and holds it in her as she closes her eyes, concentrating on the shard, and remembering what it felt like to use magic in Equestria, after a minute or so she sighs. “No, not working.”
“Let me try,” Twilight says and she reaches out and grabs Pinkie’s necklace gently, and closes her eyes. The bag of shards starts shaking in Sunset’s hand and suddenly another shard comes flying out glowing purple brightly, and it flies right to Twilight and merges with her. The purple ears appear on her head, and the tail and wings appear on her back. A headband appears on her head, decorated with a 6-point sunburst and 6 smaller stars. At the same time the changes on Pinkie seem to fade to the point of obscurity.
“Well that works!” Rainbow Dash sounds impressed.
“Except now Twilight seems to have a shard,” Fluttershy mumbles.
“Huh?” Twilight asks, as she opens her eyes, only to very suddenly realize the extra weight of having wings and fall backwards. “Ow!”
“Not a natural flier I see,” Rainbow Dash says as she goes to help Twilight up.
“I’m willing to bet my other self wasn’t either as she wasn’t born with wings.” Twilight snides back.
“I…. I never mentioned that,” Sunset stammers.
“Then how did I know that?” Twilight asks.
“It’s got to be like I said,” Pinkie points out. “You’re slowly getting the memories of the other Twilight, pretty soon you’ll have both her and your memories, that’ll be so cool.”
Twilight sighs, “Maybe it’ll help with the wings, and the obvious magical abilities I already seem to have.” she finally gets up with Rainbow Dash’s help and spreads her wings trying to get her balance. “This is going to take some getting use to.”
Rarity walks around Twilight “The amazing thing to me is as far as I can tell there’s no holes in your outfit, it’s more like your wings are part of your dress more than you.”
“Maybe it’s the magic of the shard?” Twilight suggests,
“That would make sense,” Rarity says.
Twilight reaches for the necklace she assumes she has, “It’s not there.”
“You got a headband there Twilight.” Applejack motions to Twilight’s head.
Twilight feels the headband and the ears. “Great, just great.”
“Just use your magic like you did for Pinkie,” Sunset suggests.
Twilight nods and takes a few breaths calming herself down, the star on her headband glows faintly as the changes to her fade like they did on Pinkie Pie. “So much better.”
"Now, would you mind doing the rest of us?" Rarity asks. Twilight complies and soon they all appear human again, and Rainbow Dash is begrudgingly on the ground.
"I think I made it so that each of us can turn the illusion on and off as we need." Twilight says and then glares at Rainbow Dash, "But that isnt' a good reason to go flying around."
"I got it!" Rainbow Dash says, "Keep my feet on the ground unless necessary."
"I'm not saying we can't fly." Twilight says, "In fact I'm hoping you can teach me, I'm just saying we've got to be careful, and find an area where people can't see us."
Rainbow Dash nods, "Then everything's settled."
"Right," Twilight says.
“You just need to tell your boyfriend,” Pinkie points out.
Twilight groans, “don’t remind me, I’m sure THAT conversation is going to go wonderfully.”
“Well, he saw your double when she had the ears, tail and wings, so it might not come as too much of a shock.” Rarity says.
Twilight nods, “We shall see.”