We pick up our story where we last left off, with a confused Sunset unable to figure out exactly what happened that night. Another thing she doesn't know is that the Green Pentagon has started its invasion of Canterlot High! Let's hope Sunset can figure out how to stop them before they do unspeakable things to her!
Sunset Shimmer burst through the school doors, gasping. "I'm--late--aren't I?" she asked.
Principal Celestia stood there, a clipboard in one hand, as if conveniently waiting for late students to burst through the doors.
(Her record for catching them was nineteen in a row one day. She was hoping to break past twenty; then Luna'd have to buy her a new mini-coffee-maker for the teacher's lounge.)
"Yes," she said. "By..." She looked up at the clock. "thirty-four seconds."
"Faust buck it," swore Sunset.
Celestia frowned. "And now you're late by ten minutes."
"But I--wha--you know what? forget it..."
Nearby, in Space...which is still capitalized...
"The Green Pentagon is ready to invade Urth," said one of the cloaked figures. Another nodded.
"Toss 'em down."
Back on
UrthEarth...
Sunset Shimmer sat in class, pitying herself and imagining various large objects landing on Principal Celestia's head at high velocity. "This sucks..." she spat. "Detention? For what? Because a friggin' meteor decided I'd make a good landing pad?"
"Well, you do have quite the mane on you," snickered Adagio from across the classroom. Ever since the Battle of the Bands, the Dazzlings had been living at an 'open 24-7' internet cafe. (They were living there before, too, but people noticed them a lot more now.) One would think creatures of such long lives would be old and wise, but even Adagio was barely passing trigonometry, let alone Sonata. Who, in fact, was at the board, trying to solve a triangle.
"Find X," said Cheerilee.
Sonata took a piece of pink chalk out of her ponytail (she had a full 47 colors in there) and circled the letter X written on the hypotenuse.
"'S right there," she deadpanned.
While this was going on, Sunset took the opportunity to vent at Adagio. "Well, look who's talking, mattress head," she said. "Where'd you get your hair done? The circus?"
Adagio huffed. "Well, at least...erm...look at your...*cough* wow. You're actually so much better off than me that I can't think of a snappy, insulting comeback like in the second EQG."
"I'mma pretend I know what that means," said Sunset. "But look, Adagio. I've had a really rough morning, and if I so much as see you blink at me the wrong way, you're gonna wish Celestia'd decided to banish you to Mercury."
"Ooh, temper!" said Aria, waving a finger in the air. "Don't want that hair of yours to catch on fire. Oh, wait, too late."
"I'm still better at snappy comebacks than her..." muttered Adagio to herself. "I'm still awesome...I'm not an idiot like Sonata..."
Sonata suddenly raised her hand.
"Teacher! The triangle's too pointy and I cut my finger."
Cheerilee facepalmed. "It's a chalk drawing, Sonata."
Sunset tried to search her mind for something, anything, that could possibly make this day better. Stuck in math class with Dumb, Dumber, and Had-To-Be-Rescued-From-A-Maze-Painted-On-The-Ground. It wasn't shaping up to be a good day.
And it was about to get worse...
"Hey!" said Sunset. "Who said that?"
Erm...nopony...keep doing...whatever it is you're doing.
...
Ignore me. I'm not even here.
Come lunch, Sunset was only feeling marginally better.
She walked up to the buffet line and served herself a generous helping of delicious baked beans with extra pepper. "Now I bet I'm gonna trip and have all these beans go all over my studded leather jacket," she said. "Its been that kind of day."
"Somethin' the matter?" asked Applejack as Sunset sat down, looking like she'd just been told she was adopted.
Which was true, but we'll ignore that for now.
"You're lookin' like how you did when the Dazzlings sang that long and much-too-seductive-for-a-kids-show song that one time."
"It's been...un-good," said Sunset. "I was late, and I accidentally said Faust buck it to our principal, and I've got detention, and the Three Stoogettes wouldn't shut up during math class."
"That's pretty rough," agreed Rainbow Dash.
"Also, a ball of fire, which was blue, which makes me suspect there was some sort of chemical in there, hit me in the face."
"..."
"And now my hair's got this blue streak that doesn't go with the rest of me at all."
Rarity actually choked on thin air at that point, rolling around on the ground for half a minute before she managed to get her lungs back in her control. "That--that's pretty bad," she rasped. "We must find some hair dye!"
"That's what scares you," said Sunset. "Not the detention, or the meteor, but the fact that I'm no longer in style."
"Mm-hmm..." nodded Rarity tearfully, putting on a near-perfect Fluttershy impression.
Sunset sighed. "Fine. Whatever. I don't even care how weird my friends are. Just...I need some Sunset-time. Everybody shut up and don't bother me."
"Wow," said Fluttershy. "She's really upset."
"you don't say," replied Rainbow Dash.
"How come I didn't get a line this time?" asked Pinkie Pie.
Suddenly, an earth-shattering explosion rocked the school.
Earth-shattering as in "really loud", because the Earth didn't actually shatter. That'd be a pain to clean up.
And "rocked the school" as in earthquake rocked, not as in Dazzlings rocked. That one already happened in the last movie.
"What was that?!" asked Sunset. "It sounded like Flash Sentry's mom walking out of the bus."
"I dunno," replied Pinkie. "Maybe it was the realization that you're actually super-depressed and lonely, and that you wish you had a boyfriend who'd do all that stuff you learned about on the Internet with you, and that you wish I didn't have a mouth, all hitting Earth at once."
"No, Pinkie, you're thinking of last month."
"Oh. Sorry."
Suddenly, a blast of air strong enough to knock a hole in the school...well...knocked a hole in the school.
Following it was a voice that was so loud and angry, it had to be written in caps lock and in red, bold, double-sized font, with extra punctuation marks.
WHERE IS THE SHIMMERING SAPPHIRE PENTAGON???
Sunset gasped. "That's what the Sapphire Spirit called it," she realized out loud.
"The wat nao?" asked Rarity, without bothering to use proper spelling.
"When the meteor hit me," explained Sunset, "a voice calling itself the Sapphire Spirit told me to find the Tome of Time in the Vault of She-Didn't-Mention-The-Name."
"And you're sure you weren't asleep?" asked Rainbow Dash.
Sunset shrugged. "Dunno. But it happened."
Suddenly, out from behind the dust that somehow took this long to clear, stepped a really angry-looking teenage girl wearing an eagle-patterned leotard and lion-fur crotch-high boots. "Wow," said Sunset. "Same fashion sense as Adagio."
"I!" shouted the figure, saying each word as a separate sentence for dramatic effect.
"Am!"
"Gilda the Griffon, one-fifth of the Green Pentagon!"
"...Some people also call it the Glittering Emerald. Whatever floats your boat."
"Gasp!" Rarity said. (The whole word, not just gasping noises.) "It's one of those supervillains I read about while surfing the Internet for things to add to my closet obsession with steamy anime!"
A blast of air came out of some metal ring-shaped things on Gilda's wrists, blowing all but Sunset against the cafeteria table, where they landed in Sunset's plate of beans. All five of them, somehow.
"Gimme the Sapphire!" shouted Gilda, marching towards Sunset. "And nobody gets winded!"
"Actually, it doesn't really hurt when you do that, it's actually kind of like a massage--" said Pinkie before a blast of air knocked her backwards onto somebody else's plate of beans.
Sunset backed up. "What Sapphire?" she asked. "I don't have any Sapphire."
"That blue streak in your hair!" said Gilda, grabbing it and pulling. "It's proof you've got the Sapphire! Just...like...MINE!"
Gilda suddenly brushed her hair aside, revealing a streak of emerald green. "That's right, girlie...I've got one, too! And I've had more practice!"
A trading card flew out of nowhere and hit Sunset Shimmer in the face. "If you're gonna battle, you're gonna need this!" shouted Pinkie.
Sunset picked it up. "This is a Ponymon card," she said. "And it will not help in the slightest."
"I've gotcha..." said Gilda, coming closer and preparing to rip the Sapphire out of Sunset.
A voice suddenly popped into Sunset's head.
"Welcome to the Shimmering Sapphire User's Manual," it said.
"To use your powers, shout 'Maho Shojo Transform!' as loud as you can, for dramatic effect, and then close your eyes. A list of skills will appear, along with instructions on how to use each one. Enjoy, and thank you for choosing Shimmering Sapphire!"
Sunset didn't waste any time, because she was sure the transformation would do that for her.
"Maho-Shojo Transform!!"
To Be Continued...
(insert dramatic music)