//------------------------------//
// Worse Than Ever 
// Story: Tell Us That You Want Us 
// by Summer Knight 
//------------------------------//

	In the ruined remains of the practice room at Canterlot High, seven bruised and battered girls slowly picked themselves up from the broken pieces of chairs and instruments that had been torn apart in the whirlwind of dark magic. 
“Oh, wow, the Dazzlings betrayed us.” Rainbow Dash was the first to recover her voice, and it held the most sarcastic tone any of them had ever heard from her. “Show of hands, who’s surprised?”
Fluttershy, still facedown on the floor, lifted one shaking hand into the air.
“Yeah Flutters, tell me, how’d that whole making friends thing go?” Rainbow snarked. 
Fluttershy curled up on herself and whimpered something inaudible. 
“Leave Fluttershy alone!” Pinkie screamed at her. Perhaps as a strange side effect of the dark magic, her hair was lying perfectly flat and straight. She had a manic glint in her eye. “You were sure happy enough to have her around after you saw that knife. I mean, come on, you puked!”
“Would you all shut up?!” Sunset shouted. If she’d thought she had a headache before, now she was nursing a positively skull-splitting migraine.
“No, ah won’t!” Applejack replied, though she hadn’t been speaking before. “If y’all hadn’t been so keen to reform yourself and every other bad seed in the world, we wouldn’t be in this mess!”
Without quite knowing how, Sunset found herself on her feet with her hands clenched into fists. “Oh,” she yelled, “I’m so sorry for trying to do a good deed. If that’s how we’re doing this, you might as well blame Twilight for taking me down in the first place!”
“Don’t you dare bring me into this!” Twilight snapped back at her. 
“Well, if that isn’t the most ungrateful thing I ever heard!” Rarity said to Sunset. “You apologize to Twilight this instant.”
“Make me!” Sunset shoved the obnoxious drama queen away, then staggered and fell to the ground as something connected with her head. She looked up to see Applejack standing over her, rubbing her knuckles. 
“Hey, not cool!” Rainbow Dash tackled Applejack to the ground and tried to pin her down, but the farmgirl was stronger than expected. The two ended up rolling around the floor of the practice room trading ineffective punches. 
“Everyone stop!” Twilight shouted, but her voice was lost in the ruckus. “Stop!” Still, no one listened. She stomped a foot angrily. “I am a princess, and you will all listen to me right now!” No one paid her the slightest heed. She shrieked in frustration and threw one of the few unbroken chairs across the room, then caught a faint wisp of green out of the corner of her eye.
The sirens! Twilight whipped around looking for them. Forget magic, forget friendship, she was going to rip them apart with her bare hands! There was no one there. The same bit of greenish vapor still hovered in the corner of her vision, seeming to move with her as she looked around. 
Rarity screamed as the chair that Twilight had thrown narrowly missed her. “Oh, that is it!” She plunged a hand into her purse and came out holding Adagio’s knife. She’d meant to dispose of it somewhere, but now she was glad that she’d never had the chance. She advanced on Twilight with murder in her eyes. 
Murder, and something else. As Twilight prepared to make this prissy diva sorry she’d ever messed with the Princess of Friendship, she noticed thin trails of green smoke leaking from the corners of Rarity’s eyes. Everything clicked into place. 
Oh, no. Twilight felt a rush of nausea as she realized what was happening. She tried desperately to assert her reason, the logical thought processes that she prided herself on. 	Everyone’s confusion, Fluttershy’s sudden depression, the murderous rage that Twilight was feeling toward Rarity, and Sunset, and the world as a whole; all of it was their psyches trying to compensate for the fact that they’d just been exposed to an enormous amount of dark magic. It was amplifying their aggression and their fears, bringing out the worst in all of them.
Twilight tried to explain this to Rarity, who was nearly within striking distance, but all that came from her throat was an animalistic growl. The rational part of Twilight’s mind was a tiny thing shrieking in the vast maelstrom of her wrath. Nothing would satisfy her now except Rarity’s blood on the floor of Canterlot High. 
With a scream of mingled fear and anger, Twilight fled the room. She needed to get back to Equestria. She needed her horn and her magic. She needed to purge herself of this negative energy before she did something truly horrible.
“That’s right, you had better run!” Rarity called after her. It was almost enough to get Twilight to turn around and make her eat those words, and Adagio’s knife with them, but she managed to stop herself. Now that she knew the source of this rage, it was at least somewhat easier for her to control. 
If she’d been thinking more clearly, she might have realized that abandoning her friends when they were all in the same state as she was was a dire mistake.
“Twilight?” Spike watched her leave in confusion. As the only one who hadn’t been in the broken array, he was the only one currently in his right mind. He’d been battered by the force of the magics, but it took a lot of abuse to keep a dragon down, even if that dragon were in the body of a dog. “Wait up!” He ran after her. 
Sunset, whose own anger was somewhat dampened by her now-crippling headache, half-opened her eyes and saw Twilight and Spike leaving. The wisps of green trailing from Twilight’s eyes were enough to clue Sunset in to what was happening, and she came to the same conclusion—she needed to get to Equestria immediately. Everyone was too involved in their own fighting to notice or care about the girl staggering dizzily toward the door, clutching her head and fighting back tears of pain. 
Twilight heard the door to the practice room open again and looked behind her, in case it was Rarity or one of the others coming to finish their fight with her. Instead, she saw Sunset leaning heavily on the wall as she held her head in both hands. Sunset pushed herself toward the exit one painful step at a time. 
Seeing the girl looking so vulnerable brought the memories of Twilight’s first time in the human world flooding back. She remembered the awkwardness, the humiliation, and the fact that Sunset had literally tried to kill her. She could take revenge for all of it, right now. With Sunset as weak as she was, it would be so easy. 
Twilight mentally slapped herself. She’s your friend, Twilight reminded herself. She’s your friend, and you’re the Princess of Friendship. Don’t let the dark magic win. Right now, her friend clearly needed her help.
Sunset stiffened as something touched her. She lashed out with a fist, but she was blinded by pain and her wild punch missed. After blinking enough to clear her vision a little, she saw that Twilight had put an arm around her waist and was helping her to walk. 
Sunset tried to swallow the anger and resentment that rose up at the sight of the perfect little princess, beating it back down into a corner of her heart and locking it away. It was only the dark magic making her feel that way, she told herself. Once they got to Equestria, everything would be fine. 
With both girls fighting to resist what amounted to a seething hatred of the other, they made it outside. Sunset finally pulled away to stand on her own feet. Though she could barely see where she was going, she ran behind Twilight as they both sprinted for the statue. Twilight dove through the portal, with Sunset Shimmer only a step behind. 
Discord was still in the library, and a massive shudder ran up and down his body as Twilight and Sunset flew from the portal and fell to the ground. There was something extraordinarily wrong about their magic. “What in Equestria—?”
“Move!” Twilight shouted. A massive wave of black energy was bubbling up her horn, and her eyes glowed a sickly shade of green as she forced the dark magic inside her to surface. With a yell of agony, she forced the magic from her horn in a flood of power. Discord yelped and dove for cover as the negative energy blasted outward and washed up against the wall. The crystal it struck bubbled and melted from the incredible power, leaving a large scar on the room. Mostly purged, though with some off-colored sparks still sputtering from her horn, Twilight stood trembling from the strain.  
Sunset was having less success. She couldn’t seem to get the focus or the strength she needed to expel the magic corrupting her. She whimpered and ground her hooves into her throbbing head, pleading for someone, anyone, to help her.
“Sunset, shh,” Twilight murmured, kneeling beside her. “I’m here. You can do this. Just let go,” she encouraged the suffering unicorn. “Let it all go.”
“I can’t,” Sunset sobbed. “It hurts so much, Twilight. Please make it stop,” she begged.
“Alright, I’m going to help you.” Twilight carefully lowered her horn to touch Sunset’s. “This will be painful, but it’s going to make you better, okay?” 
Sunset whimpered and nodded. Twilight gave her a sympathetic nuzzle, then sent a pulse from her horn into Sunset Shimmer’s, stirring up the magic inside the unicorn and drawing it out. She then hastily joined Discord against the far wall and put up a protective bubble around them. 
Sunset writhed and screamed in agony. The dark magic seemed to be trying to tear her apart from within. She felt it boiling up from her core, searing her insides as it raced for her horn. It seemed to rend her leylines apart as it passed through them, driving jagged knives through every inch of her horn. With a final wail, Sunset at last unleashed the harmful energy. 
She did not have even the semblance of control that Twilight had used in purging herself. She was magically weaker than the alicorn princess, and had been tired before she’d even begun the purge. The magic erupted from her horn, her eyes, and even her mouth, seeking and taking any egress it could. It washed over and around Twilight’s shield, which began to tremble under the strain. Rather than the directed burst that Twilight had released, this was an unfocused maelstrom of power. 
“It’s too much!” Twilight cried out. “I’m too tired, I can’t hold it!”
“Then allow me,” Discord said. He snapped his fingers and teleported straight through Twilight’s field, emerging in the midst of the whirlwind of dark magic. He put his hands together and what seemed to be an ordinary bucket appeared in them. 
Discord dipped the bucket down as if he were scooping water, and a portion of the dark energy flooded into it. He repeated this until there was nothing left but a few wisps of green in the air, which quickly dissipated. Discord heaved an audible sigh of relief and snapped his fingers again, dismissing the bucket and its dangerous contents.
Sunset fell to the floor, utterly spent and completely overwhelmed. Mingled pain and relief, combined with the stress of the day and something else that she didn’t have the wherewithal to identify just then, overcame her. She began to sob helplessly. She buried her still-pounding head into her forelegs and soaked them with her tears. 
“Hey, it’s alright,” Twilight cooed gently. She approached the distressed unicorn and laid down beside her, wrapping a wing protectively around Sunset’s body. “You did it. It’s alright.”
Sunset was surprised by the touch, but welcomed the soft warmth of Twilight’s feathers. It was comforting, and oddly nostalgic. It reminded her of being with Celestia. “Thank you,” she whispered. She nestled her face into Twilight’s side, crying like a foal. “Thank you so much.”
Heedless of the tears dripping onto her, Twilight tightened her hold and stroked Sunset’s mane, trying to soothe away her friend’s pain and fear. “Shh. You’re okay now, Sunset. Everything’s okay.”
Twilight reached out with her magic and pulled Sunset’s book down from the portal. Luckily, Sunset did not have her saddlebags on her, which Twilight took to mean that she had left her backpack in the other world. After a bit of searching, Twilight found a quill and hastily penned a message.
Everyone, she wrote, you’re under the effects of dark magic. It’s making you quite literally insane. You need to come to Equestria immediately so that I can purge the negative energy for you. Come through the portal.

Twilight

Twilight returned the book to its place, re-opening the portal. Though she longed to stay and comfort Sunset Shimmer, and Celestia knew she needed some rest herself, Twilight kept an eye on both the book and the mirror. If she didn’t get a reply within a minute, she promised herself, she’d go back for them personally.
“Sunset, it’s over,” Twilight murmured. It had certainly been a frightening experience, but she didn’t understand what had set Sunset off like this. It wrenched her heart to see her dear friend so upset. “You’re okay now.”
Sunset shook her head, but a fresh wave of crying drowned out whatever she’d meant to say. She wrapped her forelegs around Twilight and held on tightly, waiting for the storm to pass.
The book buzzed, and Twilight took it down again. She read the reply, and her eyebrows furrowed. The others said that they were alright, which was an enormous relief, but the rest of it didn’t seem to make much sense. 
Twilight was preparing to write back and ask them to clarify their message when Discord, who had been staying out of the way of all of this, quite literally snapped his head around. That was to say, his neck made a disconcerting sound like a breaking twig and his face turned to point directly behind him. 
“I think you girls may want to hide,” he warned them. He snapped his fingers and an illusion shimmered to life in front of them, concealing them behind the appearance of an empty floor. 
The tinkling sound of two sets of metal-shod hooves on crystal galloped down the hallway toward the room holding the mirror, and an all-too-familiar voice cried out, “Twilight Sparkle! Twilight, are you here?”
Sunset, who’d been at the end of her rope already, wished that she could simply die on the spot. Not like this, she thought desperately. Not right after her failure, not with a debilitating migraine, tears running down her face, and traces of dark magic still clinging to her. She wasn’t ready to see Celestia at all, but please, whatever higher powers were listening, please not like this! 
“I’m afraid Twilight Sparkle isn’t home,” Discord lied smoothly.
“Discord!” Sunset recognized this voice from her time in the other world. It belonged to Princess Luna. “What in Equestria is going on here?”
“Well, I’m sure I don’t know what you mean,” Discord replied. 
“My sister and I detected two enormous surges of dark magic centered on this castle,” Celestia explained. “You must have sensed it?”
“Of course I sensed it, why do you think I’m here?” Discord was lying to the princesses through his teeth, and Sunset could have kissed him for it. “I would guess something to do with this fascinating portal,” he continued, “but whatever happened here was over by the time I arrived.”
Sunset stuck a hoof in her mouth to muffle her hysterical cries. She wasn’t sure whether Discord’s illusion would block sound as well, and if the princesses noticed her, she was certain that her life would be over. 
Twilight continued stroking Sunset’s mane “Calm down, Sunset Shimmer,” she admonished, her voice no more than a breath on Sunset’s cheek. “You’re with ponies who love you. No one here is going to hurt you.”
Sunset sniffled and looked up with red, puffy eyes. “But what if I hurt them?” she asked.
Suddenly, a great number of things started falling into place for Twilight. Sunset Shimmer was having trouble moving on, but not because she was ashamed of what she had done, or even because she was afraid that others wouldn’t forgive her. Her reasons weren’t that selfish. 
“I think I get it now,” Twilight said. Sunset made a questioning noise at the apparent non-sequitur. “I think you’re afraid that, somewhere deep down, you’re still the same Sunset Shimmer who stole my crown and attacked me. Am I right?” 
Sunset grit her teeth and let her mane fall forward, hiding her face. It was all the confirmation Twilight needed. 
“You’re not that pony anymore,” Twilight said softly, “and I’m going to prove it.” 
“What do you mean?” Sunset asked. 
“Trust me,” Twilight said with a smile. She carefully disengaged herself from Sunset and stood up. “I promise you, it’s going to be okay.”
Twilight teleported out from behind the illusion, appearing in the hallway behind the others. With no way to trace the origin of the teleport, she could have come from anywhere. She galloped in and skidded to a stop.
“Celestia, Luna!” she gasped, feigning surprise. “And Discord? What are you all doing here?”
Celestia relaxed somewhat as she saw that her former student was safe. “Twilight, did you feel that magic as well?” she asked. “Do you know what happened here?”
“I think I do,” Twilight replied, “and I’m glad you’re all here.” She ran a hoof nervously through her mane. “I think I need someone to talk to.” She was doing this mostly for Sunset’s benefit, but there was more than a grain of truth to those words.
Celestia walked toward the smaller alicorn, her eyes betraying her concern. “Of course you can talk to us. What is it?”
Twilight took a breath, preparing to share what had just happened with the sirens. “Well…”

Chaos reigned in the practice room at Canterlot High School. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were still fighting, both now sporting bruises and split lips. Fluttershy huddled miserably in the corner, rocking back and forth and whimpering to herself about what a failure she was. 	Pinkie Pie had goaded Rarity into attacking, then deftly taken the knife from her. She now stood in the middle of the room with a crazed grin, taunting the others and brandishing the blade at anyone who came too close. One of her eyelids twitched sporadically. Rarity, furious though she was, didn’t dare approach her. Very soon there would be some real bloodshed, and everyone but Fluttershy was looking forward to it.
One by one, the girls became aware of a beautiful melody floating through the air. Someone was singing, and it somehow seemed to wash away their rage and fear. Each stopped what she was doing and tried to seek out the source of the irresistible music.
“Sonata?” Rarity murmured, catching sight of a blue-skinned, blue-haired figure standing near the door. One of the sirens had come back. In spite of their recent betrayal, Rarity felt no desire to harm her. 
Sonata stood alone, her heart glowing brightly and her arms opened as if to embrace the entire room at once. Tears streamed down her cheeks, but did not interfere with the magic. There were no magically-produced instrumentals, no supporting vocals, not even any words to her song. It was just a single angelic voice bringing peace to the madness. 
“What’re we doin’?” Applejack asked, aghast, as the green trails faded from her eyes. The negative energy that had polluted her body and soul was being drawn into Sonata’s heart.
Rainbow Dash released her grip on Applejack’s shirt, where she’d been preparing to pull the girl in for another punch. She wordlessly shook her head and stepped away. 
Pinkie Pie’s hair regained a little of its puffiness as Sonata’s song leached the dark magic out of her. She looked at the knife in her hand as if seeing it for the first time, shrieked in horror, and dropped it to the floor. 
Rarity’s hands flew to her mouth as she realized that she had threatened one of her friends with a knife, and actually attacked another. If Pinkie Pie hadn’t been so dexterous, she could very well have been dead. Rarity swooned and sat heavily on the floor, feeling as though she might be ill. 
Fluttershy uncurled from her fetal position and looked around uncertainly. She wasn’t certain what had brought on such an intense bout of depression and self-loathing. Thinking back, it seemed like an enormous overreaction to what had occurred. After all, it wasn’t her fault that Aria had betrayed them. “What happened?” Fluttershy asked.  
Sonata finished singing, her heavenly voice echoing once more through the room before fading to nothing. Tears still fell unchecked from her eyes. 
“Sonie?” Pinkie asked, taking a hesitant step toward the siren. “What’s going on?”
Sonata shook her head and brought her arms in to hug herself. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. Before anyone could stop her she opened the door and ran. Pinkie moved so quickly that she left a pink blur in her wake, yet by the time she got into the hall the siren was already gone. 
“Oh mah stars,” Applejack gasped as she took in the injuries on Rainbow Dash’s face, “did I do that? I… I cain’t tell you how sorry I am.”
“Hey, I started it,” Rainbow answered with a sickly attempt at a grin. She sat down and wrapped her arms around her knees, huddling into herself. “I’m sorry too.”
“Pinkie Pie,” Rarity called out shakily. Pinkie looked over from her position by the door. “It’s more than I even deserve to ask, but… can you ever forgive me?”
“Okie-dokie-lokie,” Pinkie replied with a pale ghost of her usual enthusiasm. “It wasn’t your fault, anyway. I think we all went a bit cuckoo.” She returned to looking out into the hallway, though she knew there was no chance of Sonata returning again.
“Where are Twilight and Sunset Shimmer?” Fluttershy asked. As if to answer her question, a faint buzzing noise filled the room. The girls all instinctively reached for their phones before Rarity pointed to Sunset’s abandoned backpack. 
“It’s coming from Sunset’s bag,” she said. She felt a bit guilty about going through her friend’s things, but if her suspicion was correct, this was very important. She carefully sifted through the contents of the backpack and found Sunset’s book, which was glowing and vibrating. She uncertainly opened the book to a blank page. 
“Everyone,” Rarity read aloud as a message appeared, “you’re under the effects of dark magic. It’s making you quite literally insane.” Her eyes widened as she read that sentence. “You need to come to Equestria immediately so that I can purge the negative energy for you. Come through the portal. Signed, Twilight.”
“Well, ah suppose that explains a thing or two,” Applejack said. She didn’t look much relieved by it, though.
“So Twilight is clearly in Equestria right now,” Rarity reasoned, “and I’d expect Sunset is as well. I actually do seem to remember seeing her leave this room.”
“What about Sonie?” Pinkie asked forlornly, still gazing into the hall.
“First things first,” Rainbow said. “We gotta write Twilight back and let her know we’re okay. Then we need to figure out how we’re going to beat the Dazzlings. Again.”
Rarity already had a pen out and was crafting a reply in her immaculate handwriting. “I’m letting her know that we’re alright,” she explained, which was half-true. They weren’t in any immediate danger, at least. “I’m also telling her that Sonata was the one who saved us.” She still felt sick to her stomach thinking that, had Sonata not come along, they might very well have ended up killing each other.
“Thanks for that,” Pinkie said softly. 
“What do we do now?” Fluttershy asked. 
“If I may,” a familiar male voice joined their conversation. The girls all whipped around in surprise to see Mr. Discord standing by the doorway of the practice room. “I’d suggest you all get out of here now, before someone wants to know what happened and how you were involved.”
“Mr. Discord, sir,” Fluttershy replied uncertainly, “what about you?”
“Me?” The eccentric teacher feigned surprise. “I’m sure I don’t know anything about it. The place was empty when I got here.”
“Why… I don’t know what to say except thank you,” Rarity said. Why was he helping them when they were clearly the ones responsible for trashing the room? That wasn’t even taking into account the knife on the floor and the injuries on Applejack and Rainbow Dash. If this were traced back to them, they’d be lucky to get away with mere expulsion.
“Then I suppose just ‘thank you’ will do for now,” Mr. Discord answered her. “Now move along. I’m sure you all have somewhere else to be.”