The next series of events happened suddenly in an insane downward spiral. The day, once a warm and humid spring day, turned quickly colder, the temperature dropping at least twenty degrees. The heat was rushing towards the center of the mess, spiraling around in a cone, a tornado.
It eventually rushed back to them, and everything was restored and normal for a moment -- if you could pretend there wasn't a bat-like girl floating over the top of the school. Or that it the sky had turned an unnatural empty black.
Rainbow Dash and others looked up in horror at the sight. "What the-- what the hell!"
"Dashie, no swearing!" Pinkie covered her friends mouth. "This is a kids' movie!"
Rainbow Dash was quick to move her friends hand out of the way. "Yeah, and there's a flying bat demon girl. Kids would have already been scared by now."
And, of course, the 'flying bat demon girl' was none other than Twilight Sparkle. Yet being transformed into some sort of monster, she looked horribly beautiful. She had a huge flowing gown, drifting in the violent wind she was causing. Twilight's hair had turned a few shades darker and extended just as the other's hair had. Her signature nerd glasses turned into a green mask, with a point representing a horn she would have had in Equestria.
Yet the main attractions were her new wings, which shone and sparkled in the otherwise inky black midnight. They extended, growing bigger and bigger, adorned with her signature cutie mark star.
"Students, please calm down, and quietly and orderly leave the premises. Remember to keep your cool, we must get everyone out of here in an orderly fashion. " Cadence said, using her megaphone.
The first scream was heard and soon followed a few more. Students finally realizing what was going on started to run around in circles, trying desperately to escape whatever monster had appeared again this time.
"Orderly fashion, please!" Someone knocked it out of Cadence's hands while they ran past her. "Who are we kidding, panic!"
The other missing Shadowbolt girls rushed back to Sour Sweet, who was still with the rest of the girls, and absolutely terrified at this point on. "What's going on?!" Indigo Zap asked rudely, grabbing Sunset Shimmer by the jacket.
"I.... I have no idea!" She threw Indigo Zap off of her. "I honestly have no idea what to do!" She seemed to be caught in a flurry of panic and started to pace back and forth.
"There, there Sunset... ah'm sure there has to be an.. uh.. easy fix to this sort of thing!" Applejack said, trying to stay positive. "How about -- ah got it! We can just power up those Elements of Harmony again and blast her with that ginormous rainbow. Just like how we defeated you way back when."
Sunny Flare jumped between the two girls. "Elements of Harmony? Defeated her? What the heck is going on here?"
Sunset brushed Flare off, ignoring her questions for time's sake. They can be answered later."No no, Twilight said she had to seal the Elements of Harmony away in some magical tree or something for the better." She frowned, trying to think of something else.
"Oh, oh!" Pinkie Pie said, raising her hand like she was in school at the moment. "How about we use our magical instruments and play another song like we did with the Sirens? Wouldn't that work Sunny?"
Sunny Flare looked up again. "Someone said my name?" She stepped in again, only for Sunset to push her out of the way again.
Sunset threw her hands up in frusturation. "Ugh! Sorry Pinkie, but that wouldn't work either. We don't even have our instruments here, and if we had to go back and get them, it would be too late."
They weren't the only ones trying to stop Midnight Sparkle in her tracks. A few students were already on the job, trying various - yet unsucessful- attempts to defeat her. In a triumphant throw, Maud Pie used her rock throwing skills to toss a small pebble at the monsterous girl.
"You will not win," Maud said with no expression, watching it hit her cheek.
Midnight flinched from the power of the pebble hitting her. It might of been a tiny thing, but Maud had to of had some otherworldy rock powers, not kidding. "Ow!" She brushed her cheek, eyes turning black as she turned to Maud. "You would of never gotten away with that anyway, it's too small to inflict any damage. You need a boulder. Look, I have one here," she levitated a pebble.
Wrapping it in a shadow magic, it rose into the air and grew larger and larger, the magic enveloping it. When the darkness was lifted from it, the rock once before tiny, was terrifyingly huge.
Getting ready to throw it at the girl, a figure jumped infront of Maud. "Do not worry, the Great and Powerful Trixie is here to save you from this abomination!"
"Abomination? How dare y-"
"Yes yes, it is true," Trixie spoke as if she was performing for just another magic show. "Trixie does have an array of great talents that will defeat you! Behold!" Trixie tried to form a fireball in the palm of her hand. "Err.. this was working before.."
In a patient phase, Midnight waited for Trixie to do something more. It was actually quite sad too see this, but humorous still. She would finish her off in time, but now to let this girl pretend that she was a real threat to her. "Y'know, I'm so scared for this grandeur trick," she said, laughing.
Trixie had only managed to get a small spark from her hand, which was actually impressive still. But this wasn't child's play for Midnight Sparkle. "Now if you're done, I'll go." She lifted both Trixie and Maud into the air, and gripped both of them in the dark oblivion.
When they opened their eyes again, they were black. She placed them softly back on the ground, and tested her two new creations out. "Bow down, if you will." They looked at her, and eerily bowed down, sitting on one knee.
The rest of the strange people she had met in the tent did so too. She spun happily around, relishing in all of her new talents and things she could do with this magic. It was amazing, she should have figured it out earlier, she would never live without it now. Never. Hahahaha -- hahaha!
The eleven girls were watching the whole exchange, horrified and taken aback by a seemingly harmless girl turned into this. Just like what happened with me then... Sunset Shimmer thought. Wait, that's it! "Guys, I think I know what happened!" She jumped a bit, excited that she had a bit of an answer.
"You.. do?" Sugarcoat took a step back from the girl, and suddenly avoided eye contact. The four other Shadowbolts did something similar, except of course Lemon Zest, who still was assessing the situation by herself.
Applejack raised an eyebrow at this. "Why? You seem to know something that we don't." She said, crossing her arms.
The four all looked at each other, silently fighting on who was going to be the unlucky one to spill the beans. After an awkward minute, Sour Sweet finally stepped forward.
"I'm so angry at you guys for putting me up to this!" She turned and stomped at her friends before regaining her composure. "Sorry. And to be the better man, I'll tell you guys what happened." Sour looked down at the floor. "We might of tampered with the bracelets a bit."
Everyone took in the shock. Rainbow Dash quickly jumped forward, defending her friends as if they would try and hurt them. "You what?"
"Well we-"
"Come on Twilight! We're losing and you know it," Sunny Flare said fiercely, stepping in front of her so she couldn't walk away again. "That was the deal, remember?"
Twilight looked to glance at the six girls on the bleachers. "Yes, but they're kind of my friends and.. it.. it doesn't feel right!" She frowned sadly at them, all laughing and talking with each other. I wish I had my friends like that.
"Yes, but you want us to win, and you want the magic, no?" Sunny Flare put on a sympathetic face and toned down her volume. "We're your friends, right? We only want the best for you."
Twilight looked at her, almost agreeing and giving in for a second until she turned stone cold again. "No. If you really wanted the best for me, you would have let me have my choice. Now excuse me, I'm going." She turned, walking away and leaving Sunny in the dust.
No, no. This wasn't how it was supposed to work! Everything was supposed to go as plan, but then she had to make those stupid 'friends'. Sunny Flare kicked over someone's drink in anger.
The girl looked at her. "What?!" Sunny shouted angrily, before storming off.
She had a duty to hold, and that was to keep her school's winning streak. And no matter what she had to do or sacrifice to get it, she would pull through.
"Then we asked Lemon if she could use her weird brain to tamper with the bracelet to transfer some of your magic to us. Since it's so powerful and seems to make you perform better as Twilight noted, we thought we could use it to win. But this is what happened.." They all braced themselves, ready to be shot down right away. Seconds passed, and nothing happened. They all opened their eyes and saw Sunset looking at them.
She took a deep breath in, and started to speak. "So don't get me wrong, I'm really mad, furious actually, at you for -- for all of this! But we need to understand what's going on, and then I'm sure that we'll deal with you later."
They all gulped, yet not taking their eyes off of Sunset.
"I'm thinking that maybe, just maybe, she happened to absorb all the dark magic we left on this school. Just like how the good magic stayed here with us."
Rarity put her hand on her friend's shoulder. "You mean that instead of just taking a bit of our magic, it started to take everything?" She looked around nervously.
"Yes." Sunset pointed at Twilight, now Midnight, and the other students whom were in a trance. "Doesn't it all seem familiar? She was using the same magic me and the Dazzlings used, just both of it together."
Midnight Sparkle used her magic and turned more and more of the students into her zombies, doing whatever she wanted them to do. Her brand new slaves to say. The pace she was doing so was frightening, she was getting stronger and faster.
Lemon Zest who had remained quit and fixated on the scene across from her turned her eyes to the rest of the group. "She has double the power then, for sure. We can't take down that kind of magic, it will be twice as hard as before." She said bitter-sweetly, solving an answer yet leaving another question.
"I think I have an idea. But it will involve everyone helping, especially you girls." the Shadowbolts all looked at each-other uneasily before sucking it up and nodding. "Ok, so the plan is-"
The ten girls were now hidden in the shadows, creeping alongside the wall. The dark of the midnight helped them to camouflage in, so they weren't noticeable. They stood in silence, waiting for the signal from Lemon Zest.
Meanwhile, Midnight Sparkle continued her reign of terror over the school, not stopping anytime to take a break. Really, it was unclear what her motivations were, but all the dark magic must have been getting to her head. There were only a few students left whom hadn't been affected; Canterlot High. Some were quite skilled in monster avoiding by now, as it had happened twice before.
She cornered in on the kids, ready to corrupt them too, when she heard an all but too familiar voice behind her. Lemon Zest.
"Hi... Twilight!" She said, watching as Twilight winced at her previous name for who-knows-why. "Quick, take this," She rummaged through her pocket, pulling out a half eaten Snickers bar. "You get a little weird when you're hungry, right?" Lemon Zest was nervous, this all had to be planned on time.
Midnight froze for a second, confused to why a Snickers bar would do anything to stop her. Her over-analytical brain was working over all the details and theories, giving them the perfect window of time to sneak in.
"Everyone, into formation," Rarity said, organizing the attack. They held hand in hand, just like their first attempt on the Sirens. Though this time, it was different, and had a chance at working.
"Over here, dummy!" Indigo Zap yelled out to Midnight, as she immediately turned her head around. One thing Twilight hated most of all, was her being called stupid or dumb. She was still taken aback by both of the attack on her, so they continued on while she was still weak.
"Yeah you! What do you think you're doing with our friend?" Sour Sweet said defensively, stepping forwards to get closer to her.
Midnight paused, then let out a genuine laugh. "Oh.. your friend, right! The friend you tried to make go against her own will for a stupid trophy? Sorry to burst your bubble, but I am her now."
Fluttershy suddenly broke free from the line of girls, looking very angry. "Of course she is our friend, and she is not you, because I know her now and know that she would never do such a thing!" Using her infamous stare, she tried to get through to the real Twilight Sparkle, yet still hidden deep inside of Midnight.
Sunny Flare stepped forward just after Fluttershy, looking at Midnight sincerely. "I.. I forced you in to trying to make us win, and now I'm really sorry. I'm sorry that I used your friendship and that magic with it for something other than what it is meant to be." Saying this, Midnight smiled a bit, before regaining her frown.
Lemon Zest was next, linking on to Sunny Flare's arm triumphantly. "And Twilight, I'm sorry for the time that I fiddled with the magic bracelet to make us win, I didn't know what we were dealing with." Midnight stayed speechless at these two girls. Right when she was about to say something, another one butted in, blocking her out completely.
Midnight tried to grip them with her shadowy magic, but they had some sort of field protecting them from her. She grunted, and unknown to her, the sparkles on her wings started to dissipate one by one.
Indigo Zap, Sugarcoat, and Sour Sweet joined the line of the Shadowbolts, linking each others arms. Individually they were nothing compared to Midnight, but together like this they were all a greater threat.
"We should have cherished the friendship that you had," Sour Sweet said, looking over at Sugarcoat "and listened to your concerns," Sugar said, smiling confidently.
"I know I can be mean and teasing sometimes, but listen to me. Is it you that really wants this magic, this power, this victory? Or is it..." She cut off looking down to the pavement in guilt. "Or is it us that put this whole idea in your head? Do you really want this?"
Midnight Sparkle's presence became less and less threatening to the girls, and to everyone. Her dark hair came back lighter to it's original color, and slowly but surely, her magic started to weaken from the formerly enslaved students at the school.
The six girls from Canterlot High finally joined arms with the other Shadowbolts, after giving them their own time to shine. "You may of taken away our magic, but we still have our original friendship that brought us together. Magic is not the true friendship, but friendship is the true magic." Sunset took of her bracelet, and the others followed suit.
"It was Twilight who showed them friendship, and them who showed it to me. We now gave it to all these new friends, and we're giving it to you now." The Shadowbolts waved at her awkwardly at the mention of them.
The night sky started to change back to the original blue color, and students started waking up from their previous trances, brushing themselves off and standing behind the eleven girls. "That friendship now, is shared with all of us, with those people behind there, standing up because of this friendship. Our world has no magic-" Every student now linked arms with each other. Derpy, Bon-Bon, Luna, Celestia, Lyra, Flash Sentry, even Lightning Dust and Trixie. A bond that could never be broken.
"But we have friendship!" Sugarcoat said, picking the final straw of Twilight's transformation.
The magic rushed out of Midnight Sparkle all at once, as it came apart in brilliant sparkles that exploded like little fireworks. Her purple wings started to shrink and shrink, until they were no more, no longer holding her up in the air where she was before. It took a split second to realize, but she was falling.
And falling quite fast.