Midnight Sparkle looked over the town. Her power had grown since the night before. A shadow moved behind her.
“Soon we will have enough power to overthrow the humans, my Queen.” The pale yellow winged figure added quickly and apologetically, “Umm, uhh, if you want to.”
The dark queen smiled. Her new addition had been quite easy to corrupt. The stream of “friendship” from their social link fed into her. She drifted up beside her and brushed her pink hair aside. She spoke breezily into her ear.
“You six shall rule the six kingdoms of man in my name. You will all be free to govern as you see fit, kneeling to none except I.”
Her quiet yellow minion shivered with delight.
“And I can have animal shelters and wildlife parks for all the fuzzy animals!”
The Queen blinked. She had expected her dark minion to turn out a bit more dark. She decided to just let it slide.
“Go my minion! Fly out into the night and gather more energy for our conquest of the moon kingdom!”
“Sure thing Twilight!” and she jumped off the tower.
“You’re supposed to call me Midnight Sparkle! Or Queen!” she shouted, as she shook her fist at the shrinking yellow nightmare.
"I really need to step up my recruiting efforts,” the dark Queen sighed. “Once I’ve gathered the six elements under my control and found the missing princess, this entire world will be mine!”
Her beautiful melodious laughter echoed into the night.
---
Tuesday morning. Six days until the Friendship Games. Sunset Shimmer walked alone towards the school. She found herself uneasy. There was definitely magic swirling around the town, but her human body had no way to really make sense of it. It was like she was a Turkey. She theoretically had all the same parts as an Eagle, but stuff just didn’t work the same. She could feel the wind blowing, but there was no way her wings could get her off the ground. She could feel the hair on the back of her neck rising, and goosebumps up and down her arms. There was electricity in the air. What she wouldn’t give for a horn right about now. Or a magic wand. She stared at her hand. Hmm? Really, really focused on it. The currents flowed around her. A simple spell, one even a baby unicorn could do. She snapped her fingers-
“HEY SUNNY!! WHATCHADOING?!”
Sunset nearly had a stroke as Pinkie Pie leaped onto her shoulders and hugged her around the neck. She hadn’t noticed the teal green sparks that leaped from her fingertips. Applejack, Dash, Rarity, and Fluttershy walked up as she tried to get her heart back into her chest.
“Nothing.” She breathed out, as her heartbeat finally slowed. “The magic is starting to get out of hand. We need to find the source and take it out.”
---
Adagio, Aria, Anon, and Sonata crowded around Dagi’s laptop in homeroom.
“There’s been another incident. A group of people let a bunch of animals loose from the zoo,” stated Adagio.
“They weren’t angry though, it says they were chanting and singing kumbaya. 'Zoo officials say it was lucky the bear scared them off before they could release all of them',” added Sonata.
“In other news, there is a freaking bear loose somewhere in town,” groaned Aria. “I’m not going anywhere near the zoo.”
The bell rang and all the students headed out to the field. Anon shook his head and fell into line. Today was the first day of qualifiers. Aria growled. She had been tapped for the mile relay. Absolutely ridiculous. Not that it would be difficult, she could probably do a six minute mile pace all day. It was just the Principal of the thing. Not the principle, but the actual Principal. Celestia said she had to do it. They all did. God horse help whoever was running Sonata’s event.
“Later guys! I have to get ready for the motorcycle race!”
And with that, Sonata sprinted off. Adagio and Anon’s eyes met, jaws hung open, their pupils dilated in absolute terror. They both took off screaming after Sonata. Aria sighed. They could handle it.
“Hey Aria!”
Aria looked up to see Twilight.
“Oh, hey Doc!”
“Aria, listen. I’m pumping the Rainbooms for more information on my pony counterpart. I think I’m really close to figuring something out. If I act weird, please don’t take offense or call me on it in front of them!”
Their dark purple eyes met. Aria could see the concern behind her suspiciously thin lensed glasses.
“It’s cool Doc, but don’t expect me to actively play along. We aren’t on very friendly terms with the Rainbooms at the moment.”
“That’s great! The understanding, not the possible aggressive tension thing.”
She smiled.
“That thing I was telling you about? I should have it ready sooner than I thought!”
“Well, that’s awesome. Where you heading?”
“Archery. I need to do well enough to qualify, but without drawing suspicion.”
“Well, good luck I guess? I have to head to the track, catch ya laters!" She looked behind Doc. "See you bacon hair!”
As Aria took off at a jog, the Rainbooms rolled up.
“Hmm, talking to Aria, huh? Those Sirens are bad news!” shouted Rainbow Dash.
“Dash, that’s not cool,” retorted Sunset. “They’re trying to change, stop holding the Battle of the Bands against them.”
“We should be friends with them if Twilight and Sunset think they’re okay,” added Fluttershy.
“Fluttershy, you’d try to be friends with a bear if you could!” laughed Rainbow Dash.
Fluttershy laughed uneasily at this.
“Yeah… a bear. That would be crazy, ha ha haa ha.”
The laugh was very unconvincing. The rest of the Rainbooms stared at her, a little concerned.
“Soo, guys, I really need to get over to the archery qualifiers!” said Twilight, snapping back everyone’s attention.
“Oh, I do too,” replied Fluttershy.
“I need to get over to the dirt bike race. You guys can go cheer on Twilight!”
With that, Sunset Shimmer left the Rainbooms to Twilight.