"That girl is something else."
Indigo Zap frowned heavily as she paced back and forth outside the door of the dormitory. Ever since the latest Friendship Games ended yesterday, everything had gone topsy-turvy for her and her friends. Granted, it had managed to pull them together a bit more than they had been, but the degree to which it brought them together couldn't compare to how it had pulled them apart. On one hand, it was nice to actually be friendly with Twilight Sparkle now. They couldn't possibly stay mad at her after knowing that it was due to Principal Cinch's pushing (and their own as well) that she had gone off the deep end. She wasn't a bad person, she just ended up messing with powers beyond her control. Nothing she had done was intentional, although that knowledge didn't help fend off her feelings of guilt.
"Is she almost done in there?" Sunny Flare asked.
Indigo didn't respond. She didn't know the answer, which played a large factor in her silence. It didn't help that she wasn't quite in the mood for conversation. She enjoyed the company of all of her friends, but there was one whom she seemed to get along with better than all the rest.
"It's been a really long time now," Lemon Zest sighed, leaning against the wall. "She's gotta have something by now."
Lemon Zest was always optimistic. It was a good attitude to have sometimes, but "always" was pushing it a bit. Indigo really wished she could have that attitude right now though, because her demeanor had been decidedly negative ever since her best friend had vanished.
"I'm sure she's doing the best she can!" Sour Sweet said with a smile. Then her expression grew dark. "But she needs to do better!"
"At least I'm not as negative as Sour Sweet," Indigo thought as she gave Sour a look. That girl was always dampening the mood. It just so happened this time that the mood was already too low to be dampened further.
It had been an entire day since Sugarcoat had vanished. In the chaos that had ensued from Twilight succumbing to the magic and becoming a reality-rending demon, she had fallen through one of the many tears in the fabric of time and space that had been created. The others had tried to save her, but they hadn't been strong enough. Indigo could still clearly remember the feeling of Sugarcoat's fingers slipping through her own, the shouts of worry from the others as they watched her plummet. The last words she'd heard from Sugarcoat had been, "You really shouldn't have lost your grip on my hand." It was such a Sugarcoat response, and the words refused to leave her head. She knew...she hoped Sugarcoat didn't mean to wrack her with guilt like that, but her guilt was only a fraction of the guilt felt by-
"Twilight!" Sunny shouted, knocking on the door. "Come on! Have you found anything yet?"
"You need to say yes!" Lemon said, wringing her hands together.
"I understand it's not easy..." Sour said gently. Then she reared back and slammed herself against the door. "But we're coming in there!" Indigo groaned as she watched the door fly open, Sour collapsing through the doorway. Indigo didn't exactly agree with her methods, but that didn't stop her from running into the room herself, the others close behind her.
"Twilight..." Indigo said as she approached her chair. "C'mon, tell me you found something."
The chair slowly turned around, revealing a very distraught Twilight. Papers and notes cluttered her desk, frantic scribblings all over them. Post-its were tacked to the corkboard in front of her, strings and tapes leading between different ones. The layout made no sense to any of the other girls, but it was pretty likely that they made perfect sense to Twilight. If they did, though, she wasn't showing it. The worry showed on her face, her hands shaking slightly.
"I've tried everything I could," Twilight said, barely able to make eye contact. "I...I just don't think I have enough knowledge of the magic I was forced to deal with to know what happened to her at all, let alone how to get her back." She buried her face in her hands. "And if it wasn't for wanting her back, I don't even know if I could bear to look into these things after what I did." The others looked at each other, some sighing and some groaning.
"Twilight, stop blaming yourself," Indigo said with a frown.
"But it was me who-" Twilight began, but her mouth was quickly covered by Indigo's hand.
"Stop," Indigo said. "That wasn't you doing those things. You wouldn't have done that. You would fix it, and you...we need to figure out how to fix it."
"But I just don't think I know enough about magic to manage this..." Twilight moaned. Indigo frowned, then put a hand on Twilight's shoulder.
"Then we need to go talk to someone who does," Indigo said. "When's the next bus to Canterlot High?"