//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2 
// Story: Equestria Girls: Waves 
// by Deaku 
//------------------------------//


Equestria Girls: Waves


Chapter 02


By Deaku



Sunset gave a quick wave goodbye to the teacher as she left the classroom. With her task done she began to make her way towards the foyer; the majority of the new transfers were arriving today and Sunset had volunteered to show more new arrivals around this morning. Sunset hoped that everything went as well as the day before.

“Sunset Shimmer!” A very familiar voice rang out through the hallway.

Sunset turned towards the source of the voice and saw Pinkie coming down the hallway waving energetically, Applejack was walking next to her and just gave a simple smile and nod rather than waving.

“Good morning Pinkie.” Sunset greeted as the pink girl gave her a quick hug. “Morning Applejack.”

“Morning Sunset.” Applejack replied as the three began walking together. “All fired up to show some more new arrivals around?”

“Well you know, just want to make sure they’re feeling welcome here. And maybe make sure there’s nothing supernatural about them.” Sunset laughed a bit when Applejack gave her the same look as she did the day before when they had been taking about it. “How about you two?”

“Of course I’m all fired up!” Pinkie jumped up in excitement. “A chance to make new friends? No way I’m passing that up.”

“I figured it might help to have another pair of eyes on the look out for any weirdness when we’re welcoming the new guys.” Applejack chuckled a bit then smiled. “Can’t be too careful, right Sunset?”

“Right.” Sunset smiled back. “Better to be safe than sorry after all. But I’m sure everything will be fine.”

Just ahead of them a young man stepped back from his locker as he closed it, then adjusted his jacket and quickly ran his hands through his blue hair to make sure it was in its proper style. He smiled as he saw the trio coming down the hallway.

“Heya Flash.” Applejack greeted before he could say anything.

“Morning Flashy!” Pinkie gave him a high-five when he raised his hand to wave.

“Morning.” Flash took a moment to respond, having been surprised by the unexpected high-five. “You guys heading to the foyer?”

“Yup,” Applejack confirmed. “We all volunteered to show the new guys around.”

“How about you Flash?” Sunset asked as Flash began walking with them.

“Yeah, me too.” Flash admitted. “I thought it sounded kinda fun; get to meet new people, show them around the school and all that.”

“Never pass up a chance to meet new friends.” Pinkie said seriously, then grinned. “You never know what fun you’ll miss out on if you don’t meet new friends.”

“So where are the others?” Flash wondered aloud as he glanced around.

“Busy with other things mostly.” Sunset told him. “Rainbow Dash is running the soccer team through some early morning drills. Rarity is working on a class project. Twilight felt she didn’t know enough about the school yet to give a proper tour and so she decided to get some studying done. And Fluttershy went to her first class early.”

As Sunset finished they reached the foyer and she looked around at the other students who were already there who had also volunteered their time to show the new arrivals around. Sunset saw Lyra, Bon Bon, Octavia, Bulk Biceps, Trixie, Roseluck, Sandlewood, Micro Chips, Mystery Mint; and there still were others arriving. Vice-Principal Luna was going from student to student checking names off a list and handing everyone a slip of paper; eventually Luna came to Sunset, Applejack, Pinkie and Flash.

“Good Morning, I commend you all for donating your time.” Luna smiled as she checked their names off of her list. “Although Miss Shimmer you did already show a group around yesterday so you shouldn’t feel it necessary to show more around today.”

“It’s okay Vice-Principle Luna, I’m glad to help out the new students however I can.” Sunset assured her, then glanced at Pinkie and smiled. “And like Pinkie says, you shouldn’t pass up a chance to meet new friends.”

“A good sentiment.” Luna nodded in agreement. “But you do recall that while you do get out of class to show the new students around you still need to do whatever assignments were given?”

“Already taken care of,” Sunset said proudly. “I’ve finished all the work and turned it in before coming here.”

“Excellent.” Luna said as she handed each of them a slip of paper, which all had numbers on them. “These will help you find your assigned group.”

Just then Principle Celestia walked into the foyer; while smiling and waving to the students which said good morning to her she glanced over to Luna who gave her a nod.

“Good Morning everyone,” Celestia waited a moment before continuing until she was sure she had everyone’s attention. “Let me say that I am so proud of you all for donating your time this morning to help your new classmates get to know our school. They may have lost their old school but let’s do our best to make them feel welcome at Canterlot High. Now let’s all head to the gym where they’re waiting for us.”

With that all the students present began to follow Celestia and Luna towards the gym; most were talking and wondering aloud what sort of people they were about to meet, others were looking at the slips of paper they were given trying to guess how they were going to help find their assigned group.

“So what number did you get?” Pinkie leaned in close and asked in an almost conspiratorial manner, then immediately grinned and jumped up with her paper held high. “I got number ten!”

“Fifteen.” Applejack answered simply.

“Lucky seven for me.” Flash held up his paper.

“Mine’s four.” Sunset answered with Pinkie looking over her shoulder.

When they entered the gym they saw several groups of people standing around talking amongst themselves, though everyone quickly quieted once they saw someone else had come into the gym. Sunset took a look around the room making a quick study of the new arrivals; most were looking at them with neural and unsure expressions but she saw quite a few smiles as well.

“Hello new students, and welcome to Canterlot High. I am Principle Celestia.” She greeted warmly. “This morning your fellow students will be giving you a tour of our school. I believe Vice-Principle Luna already handed out signs to every group so hold them up to help your assigned guide find you so that they can introduce themselves and start the tour. I hope you all come to love Canterlot High as much as we do.”

Celestia stepped to the side and looked back at the students who had volunteered and waved a hand towards the new arrivals with a smile. Everyone looked at their number again and began to walk around the gym to look for their group, Pinkie was skipping amongst all the people giggling the whole time.

Sunset weaved her way through the groups looking for her matching number and she finally spotted the number four sign, with, unsurprisingly, a group of four. As Sunset studied them a bit before approaching she was amused that it was yet another group of three girls and a boy just like her last group. 

The one that stood out the most to Sunset was a very tall pink girl with long red hair and eyes wearing jeans and a purple sweater with a stylized heart on it, she looked around the room with a warm smile on her face. The boy was orange with his blond hair combed back wearing blue jeans and a T-shirt with a dark green jacket; he was looking around and quickly jotting things down in a notebook that had a half-sun mark on the front. A purple girl with white hair pulled back into a short ponytail looked around with an expression of boredom, her outfit of black pants, gray shirt and black leather vest was quite a contrast to the girl next to her. The golden girl had her sky blue hair loose and wore a bright pink top and violet jacket with a light blue skirt and boots, she was holding the number four sign and bouncing in place excitedly.

When the golden girl saw Sunset looking their way she grinned and pointed at her sign; Sunset nodded and held her paper around so that the girl could see the matching number on it. With it confirmed that Sunset was the one that was going to be their guide the girl’s blue eyes seemed to sparkle and she got even more excited, even starting to clap.

“Hello, I’m Sunset Shimmer.” She introduced herself as she approached the group.

The golden girl dropped the sign and darted forward. “Hi Sunset Shimmer! I’m Sunny Joy!” She shook Sunset’s hand so hard that it was shaking Sunset’s entire body. “It’s so good to meet you!”

“N-n-nice to m-m-meet you S-S-Sunny Joy.” Sunset managed to stammer out despite the shaking.

The tall girl came over and put her hand over Sunset’s and Sunny’s and stopped the handshake before gently prying Sunny’s hand away while giving her a somewhat disapproving look. Sunny quickly backed away and gave a sheepish smile.

“I’m Venus Love.” She introduced herself while giving Sunset a normal handshake. “ I apologize for Sunny’s… enthusiasm.”

“It’s okay, no harm done. I’m glad she’s so happy about becoming a part of our school.” Sunset laughed. “She actually reminds me a bit of a friend of mine so I’m sure she’ll fit right in.”

“Oh aren’t you an Angel? So forgiving.” Venus let out a squee of delight and hugged Sunset, lifting the shorter girl completely off the ground as she did so.

Sunset wasn’t quite sure how to react to the unexpected hug, she couldn’t even return it since the way Venus picked her up had Sunset’s arms pinned to her sides. But after a moment Venus put Sunset down and smiled brightly.

“I hope you don’t expect us all to be so physically demonstrative.” The purple girl commented dryly. “I’m Aurora Gloom.”

Aurora looked over to the boy but he didn’t take notice, in fact he didn’t seem to be taking notice of any of them as he continued to write in his notebook. Venus cleared her throat but that still failed to get his attention; she then frowned slightly and tapped him hard on the head.

“Ow! What was that fo…?” He trailed off when he saw Venus looking at him, then looked around at the others and closed his notebook. “Oh… right. My name is Sundown Calm.”

“Well now that the introductions are out of the way how about we get to that tour?” Venus smiled brightly as she wrapped an arm around Sunset’s so that they could walk arm in arm. “I’m so looking forward to getting to know our new school.”

“Right…” Sunset nodded, not sure what to make of Venus’s ‘touchy-feely-ness’ but decided to let Venus walk arm in arm with her if that’s what she wanted and not comment on it. “I’d be happy to give you that tour.”

Sunset led them out of the gym; Venus was smiling and waving at others they passed by while Sundown had gone back to jotting things down in his notebook as he looked around, Aurora just looked at him and shook her head as she followed along.

“New School! Yeah!” Sunny cheered as she spun around a few times before matching pace with the rest. “I can’t wait to see what sort of people are here. Oh! Are there any clubs?”

“Of course, there are all sorts of clubs you can join.” Sunset confirmed, which just seemed to excite Sunny more. “Though if you’d just rather go home or hang out after school that’s fine too.”

“That’s good to hear.” Aurora said with barely any emotion. “I’m not much of a joiner.”

“Speaking of hearing things,” Sundown stopped writing and flipped back several pages in his notebook. “I’ve been hearing some very strange things said about this school. Maybe you can confirm or deny some of this stuff I’ve heard.”

“How about we finish the tour before getting into those rumors?” Sunset decided to dance around that subject for now; she wasn’t sure how much she should tell them, she certainly didn’t want to freak out any of the new students on their first day. “Maybe you’ll get some of the answers while I’m showing you around.”


*******


A figured dressed in jeans and a purple hoodie stalked through the halls of Canterlot High; her hood was up and pulled low over her face and she kept her head down to better hide her features. She was so angry with the whole situation that it was taking quite a bit of effort on Adagio’s part not to be stomping as she walked, at least she was finally able to get away from all those groups looking around and found a part of the school with relatively few people wandering through the halls.

It seemed that Starwind’s spell was working the way he said it would though, no one had paid her any mind as she went through the halls. When he had cast the spell before sending them out to observe the school Starwind told them they would be able to move around without being recognized; just so long as they didn’t do anything to draw attention to themselves others would just ignore them and go about their own business. Sonata had suggested that Starwind should make them invisible instead, he told her that invisibility wouldn’t be as nearly useful as she thought in such a crowded space. Invisibility wasn’t much good if someone ran into you because you were in the way and they couldn’t see you, not to mention a big enough impact would disrupt the invisibility spell. Adagio thought they were both idiots for wasting time talking about it.

Adagio said they should just use their songs again to mesmerize the school and then Starwind could have all the answers he wanted from the students, he pointed out that the ones mostly likely to have those answers had proven immune to their songs. Adagio growled as she thought about it since using their power might as well be a moot point. While Starwind did restore their voices and they could sing again they couldn’t put any power into their songs without Starwind granting it, since they had lost their own magic any power they used now had to come directly from him. In fact if they wanted to use any power at all they had to ask for it through the link they now shared, another part of the deal they made that she hadn’t expected.

This whole deal had turned out nothing like Adagio had initially planned when they first met Starwind. Her initial plan was just to play along until he restored their power then they’d use that power on him and walk away fully restored, but that’s not how it went. When Starwind restored their power they could feel it coursing through them and they immediately began to sing, only for it to have absolutely no effect on him. Starwind explained that since their power now came from his own trying to use their songs on him was just giving the magical energy he had granted them back to him. Adagio had been furious, accusing Starwind of purposely not telling them the exact nature of the deal so that they could embarrass themselves like that for his amusement. Starwind told her that no embarrassment was intended on his part, but if they wanted out of the deal it would be simple enough to take back the power he had given them and they could go on their way. Adagio seriously considered it, but in the end just couldn’t go back to being powerless.

Afterwards Adagio had attempted to change tactics a bit and tried to use seduction to try and get more power from Starwind or at least loosen the restrictions about having to ask him to grant them power every time. But that got nothing, he didn’t even react. That had almost made her angrier than she had been after the failed attempt to use their song on him. It may have not been her Siren form but Adagio knew her current body had what these humans liked, she was gorgeous by their standards. But Starwind didn’t react positively or negatively to her seduction attempt, he just carried on like he hadn’t even noticed. Later Adagio had felt like killing Aria and Sonata when they were having a laugh at Adagio’s failed seduction attempt. Though Aria stopped laughing long enough to point out that it was possible that Starwind might have sensed Adagio’s intentions through the link and knew what she was trying to do and so ignored her. While Adagio hated to admit it Aria was probably right, though that still didn’t excuse all the laughing.

A sight coming down the hallway brought Adagio out of her thoughts of what had happened and back to the present, Sunset and Applejack were walking in her direction as they talked. Adagio forced herself to be calm as she stepped to the side of the hallway and waited; she figured if there was a situation that would test how well Starwind’s spell worked it would be this.

“…and I think they’ll fit in just fine.” Applejack told Sunset as they walked by. “They all were friendly enough and eager to get to know Canterlot High.”

“I think my group will find their place too.” Sunset gave a nod, though a look of slight annoyance crept onto her face. “Though one of them was a bit overly-friendly really.”

Adagio could hardly believe it, they passed right by without even noticing her even when she was close enough to touch them. It seemed Starwind’s spell worked as he said after all. Adagio began to follow a ways behind Sunset and Applejack; the whole point of them being here was to observe the Rainbooms’ magic by keeping an eye on them after all and if she passed up a possible chance she was sure Starwind would lecture her or something, then Aria and Sonata would never let her hear the end of it.

“What do ya mean Sunset?” Applejack was a bit surprised to hear her say such a thing.

“Well I’m probably just being overly sensitive about it but one girl was very physically demonstrative, she insisted on walking arm in arm during the entire tour and kept hugging me.” Sunset explained with just a hint of exasperation in her voice. “It’s not that I don’t like hugs, I get daily hugs from Pinkie after all, it’s just this girl kept hugging me for no reason. Seriously we only just met and barely know each other but she keeps glomming onto me like I’m her long lost best friend.”

“Sounds like someone took a shine to you.” Applejack chuckled. “Maybe she liked what she saw and is doing that to let the other new guys know she’s already put a claim on you.”

“AJ!” Sunset said a bit louder than she intended, she blushed as she cleared her throat. “I seriously doubt it’s anything like that.”

Applejack just started laughing while Sunset gave her a bit of an annoyed look, but the pair stopped as they came to one of the intersecting hallways and waved at someone coming their way. Adagio hung back a bit then leaned against a locker and waited, a moment later Pinkie and Flash walked into view.

“So how’d your tours go?” Applejack inquired, but by the way Pinkie was grinning it was pretty obvious what her answer was going to be.

“It went great!” The pink-hair girl was practically bouncing with joy. “More new friends made!”

“Mine went great too, I had a pretty cool group.” Flash answered with a smile. “Even made plans to show them where all the good hangouts are later.”

“Good to hear.” Sunset grinned, happy to know things were going so well. “As for me, I’m not done yet. I volunteered to show a second group around today.”

“Well have fun with that, I gotta get to class. Maybe I should have signed up for a second group too.” Flash considered for a moment, then shrugged and smiled. “I’ll see you guys later.” With that he began to head for class.

“Be sure to make lots of new friends Sunset.” Pinkie told her before skipping off in the same direction Flash went.

“Good luck with the second tour.” Applejack said before a smirk appeared on her face. “But be sure not to use your feminine wiles to charm anyone else into being under your spell.”

“AJ…” Sunset said warningly, but then they both burst out laughing. Applejack patted her on the shoulder before walking off and Sunset headed back towards the foyer.

All of them splitting up in different directions left a choice for who Adagio wanted to follow and keep an eye on. Certainly not Sunset; Adagio was slightly worried that if she was alone with Sunset she’d blow her cover by trying to strangle the red and gold haired girl. Definitely not Pinkie, even though she barely knew her the energetic girl annoyed Adagio to no end. That left Applejack, seeing as how she really didn’t have a choice at all Adagio simply followed after the country girl.


*******


Sunset relaxed in the foyer, since there was time in the schedule between the groups she was going to be showing around she decided take the time to rest a bit since she had already done the work for her morning classes. Now Sunset was watching the second group of students that had volunteered to show the new arrivals around arrive. It seemed that she was the only one that had volunteered for both groups since she didn’t see anyone else that had been with the earlier group. Also waiting were Amethyst Star, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, Brawny Beats and Thunderbass; with still more arriving.

“Muffin?” Suddenly Sunset found what looked like a chocolate chip muffin right in front of her face.

“What?” Sunset was a little surprised at the sudden appearance of the muffin, but her eyes followed down the gray arm of the hand the muffin was sitting on to find a familiar smiling face with golden crossed eyes and blond hair. “Oh! Thanks Derpy.” Sunset smiled back as she took the Muffin.

“You’re welcome.” Derpy showed Sunset a basket full of muffins. “All homemade too.”

“I didn’t know you signed up to show the new students around.” Sunset said before taking a bite of the muffin; she was hungry since she had actually skipped breakfast while finishing up the schoolwork she had turned in. “I didn’t see your name on the list yesterday.”

“Well I signed up kinda late.” Derpy laughed and stuck out her tongue. “I wasn’t sure about it at first; but I was talking to Pinkie in our afternoon classes yesterday and she was just so excited about it and the possibility of making new friends, she even introduced me to a couple of the new ones from yesterday, that she convinced me to sign up too. Principle Celestia okayed it even if I was a little late. I spent yesterday evening preparing so that I’d have plenty to share.” She grinned and held up the basket of muffins.

“That’s actually a really nice idea.” Sunset commented while looking at her own muffin. “I wish I would have thought of something like that, a small gift like that would certainly help to make the new arrivals feel more welcome I think.”

“Good food can help make good friends.” Derpy said cheerfully. “At least I think so.”

“I believe you are correct Miss Hooves.” Luna said as she walked up. “Thank you both for donating your time. Or rather in your case Miss Shimmer, thank you for donating more of your time.”

“Always happy to help Vice-Principle Luna.” Derpy grinned.

“Same here.” Sunset agreed.

“An excellent attitude.” Luna checked their names of her list and handed them both slips of paper. “While Miss Shimmer already knows I shall reiterate for Miss Hooves sake, these shall help you find your assigned group later.”

“I’m Number One!” Derpy held up her paper triumphantly.

“And I’ve dropped down from four all the way to nine.” Sunset gave an exaggerated mock sigh.

Derpy moved to Sunset’s side and stuck her paper next to hers. “Don’t worry Sunset, if we put our numbers together like this we’re nineteen, college age.” She then put her paper on the other side of Sunset’s. “And this way we’re ninety-one… oh that’s old… I think I like being college age better.” She quickly switched back.

Sunset couldn’t help but laugh, even Luna laughed a bit as she moved on to the other students. As Luna finished giving everyone their numbers Celestia arrived and gave pretty much the same speech Sunset had heard from her earlier and then led everyone else to the gym where the rest of the new arrivals were waiting.

When Sunset found her matching number she saw that it was a group of five this time with four girls and one boy. 

The boy was smaller than the rest, though Sunset wasn’t sure if he was younger or just short, and had cream colored skin with blue and yellow striped hair; his green pants and vest seemed to have more pockets on them that Sunset previously believed possible. A girl with snow-white skin and short light blue hair wearing baggy jeans and a loose yellow sweater seemed to be falling asleep where she stood. The girl next to her had red skin with white freckles and dark green hair wearing a long violet dress and shirt; she looked rather worried for the snow-white girl and would raise a hand up every time it’d look like she was about to fall over only to see her straighten back up. Another girl was tall and quite muscular looking with turquoise skin and dark blue hair pulled up into a ponytail, she was wearing jean shorts and a tank top.  The last girl had red skin and wild bright green hair wearing a plaid skirt and a white shirt with a black leather jacket, she was twirling their sign around and even tossed it up and caught it a few times.

“You the one that’s gonna show us around?” The red and green girl asked as Sunset walked up and twirled the sign one more time then stuck her hand out. “Name’s Raspberry Fizz, good to meet ya.”

“Nice to meet you, I’m Sunset Shimmer.” She shook Raspberry’s hand. “And yes, I’ll be showing you around the school.”

“Awesome.” Raspberry grinned, then looked over Sunset’s jacket. “You know, I think we’ll get along just fine Sunset Shimmer.” She looked back towards the girl in the violet dress. “Hey sis get over here and introduce yourself.”

Casting one more worried look towards the girl that seemed to be asleep on her feet the other red and green girl stepped forward held and shook Sunset’s hand. “I’m Strawberry Jam. I’m actually the older sister even if I am the shorter one.”

“Do you have to bring that up every time?” Raspberry groaned. “You shouldn’t freak out just because your little sis had a growth spurt and is taller than you now.”

“I have not ‘freaked out’ about it.” Strawberry stated matter-of-factly. “And I don’t bring it up every time, I was just informing Sunset of something that wasn’t apparent just by looking at us.”

When it looked like an argument was about to break out the girl with turquoise skin cleared her throat and both Raspberry and Strawberry looked at her then sighed and turned away from each other. Raspberry looked like she was about to say something to the larger girl but backed away from the stare she got in return.

“Right then, if we won’t be having any more problems…” She said as she looked between Raspberry and Strawberry. “I’m Ocean Blue, thank you for showing us around Sunset.”

“It’s no problem.” Sunset told Ocean Blue as she looked between the two sisters, while they weren’t looking at each other they both seemed to have calmed down considerably.

Ocean Blue reached over a gave a quick tap on the shoulder to the snoozing girl who jumped as her violet eyes opened wide in shock for a moment, but then fell back to a half-lidded slightly confused look. She shook her head a bit as she looked around, then her gaze finally fell upon Sunset.

“Hey there…” The snow-white girl’s voice trailed off.

“Chill Out, this is Sunset Shimmer.” Ocean Blue said in a bit of an annoyed tone. “She’s going to be showing us around the school.”

“Oh, well thank ya SunSun.” Chill Out laughed a bit. “Like, totally cool of you to show us around.”

Ocean Blue just shook her head and sighed, then motioned towards the boy. “This is Pockets.”

Pockets just waved and gave an awkward smile.

“Pockets doesn’t talk much.” Raspberry told Sunset in a whisper as she leaned closer to her.

Pockets brought a hand to his chin in thought for a moment and then he smiled like he had an idea. He searched through his pockets and eventually found what he was looking for and held it out to Sunset, she saw that it was a small package of hard candies.

“That’s his way of saying hello and that he hopes you can be friends.” Strawberry explained.

“Thank you Pockets.” Sunset accepted the offered candies. “So now that we all know each other how about I show you around now?”

“Yeah!” Raspberry said enthusiastically. “Let’s see what this school’s got.”


*******


Aria sat up at the top of the bleachers as she watched the P.E class run laps around the track, keeping an eye on Rainbow Dash and Pinkie in particular. Not that it was particularly difficult; not only did Rainbow Dash’s hair stand out like a beacon but she was also the fastest one on the track, and Pinkie was skipping around the track rather than running. Not that she was going to complain about it if they made it easy for her to observe them. Whether they used their magic or not didn’t particularly concern her, she was told just to observe so Starwind really didn’t have any right to complain should they not actually use magic while she was observing them.

At least Starwind’s spell had worked perfectly so far; she had been able to move freely around the school grounds, it seemed the most people had been able to notice her was just enough to avoid running into her while walking through the halls. Even a pair of students that had tried sneaking away for a break from the P.E. class had been sitting no more than an arm’s length away from Aria and didn’t notice her, nor did the coach when he had yelled at the pair of errant students to get back down to the track. While Adagio didn’t seem to appreciate the effects of the spell Aria certainly found it useful for what they were doing, though Sonata seemed to be having entirely too much fun with it when she saw her earlier.

A whistle piercing the air disrupted Aria’s thoughts and she saw the coach bringing the class to an end and sending everyone to the showers. Next was lunch so Aria decided to move on to a quieter place since the bleachers would most likely soon be full of noisy students, she hopped off the bleachers and headed back into the main building of the school.

Aria wondered just what Starwind’s plan really was. All he had told them was that he wanted to know the full extent of what Equestrian magic was capable of in this world, but had been excessively vague on any other details. Aria knew there had to be more to it than that, someone like Starwind that had the power that he possessed always had plans. Be it something like taking the power for himself like Adagio thought or destroying it to eliminate magical competition, there had to be something more to what they were doing. But with Starwind keeping things to himself Aria would just have to keep an eye on him as well until she could figure out just what he was up to.

Although Aria had to admit the deal they made hadn’t been too bad so far. They had food and shelter which was a definite step up from the situation they would have been in had they not made the deal; Starwind had even given them spending money to buy food out of the vending machines if they got hungry while out doing their observation. Their voices had been restored and while they did have magic again that came with the proviso that they had to ask Starwind to use it through the link they now shared to do so, like Adagio Aria was less than pleased about that part of the deal. However a bit of the sting was taken out of that, for her at least, after Adagio’s failed attempt at seducing Starwind. Aria snickered, seeing that and Adagio’s reaction afterwards had been hilarious.

Aria stopped by a vending machine to get a few things to eat. It was a bit strange just dealing with normal hunger now; for so long the hunger for negative energy to fuel their power took precedence over all other needs, but now that their gems were destroyed the need for negative energy was gone leaving only their basic physical needs. She didn’t know about the other two but to be honest Aria found it rather nice to not have that overwhelming need constantly gnawing at the back of her mind.

As she finished off her food Aria spotted a familiar figure walking down the hallway, she definitely knew the pearl white skin and purple hair. Rarity walked by talking with some girl Aria didn’t know, someone with dark green skin and black hair with a green streak. Aria tossed the wrappers from her food into the trash and followed after the pair.

“Thank you for sending me those links last night.” Rarity told Blooming Hope. “Those pictures sparked quite a bit of inspiration for our project.”

“You’re welcome.” Blooming Hope smiled, but then her expression fell a bit. “Sorry about sending them to you so late though; my sister got caught up in a binge-watching of her favorite movie series on our computer yesterday.”

“Think nothing if it Dear.” Rarity assured her with a warm smile. “I was actually still awake when I got your message, I was just finishing up an outfit I had been working on.”

The pair entered into the library with Aria following unnoticed close behind. Rarity and Blooming Hope chose a table and set their stuff down, pulling out multiple folders and notebooks and putting them on the table. Aria sat down at the next table then propped her feet up, making sure her hood was pulled low to help keep her face from Rarity’s view just in case, and got comfortable so she could continue her observation.

Rarity opened up her sketchbook and showed her newest designs to her project partner. “Now these are just preliminary designs based on those pictures you linked me to but I’m quite proud of them. What do you think?”

“Oh wow… these look wonderful.” Blooming Hope stared in amazement at the designs. “Will you really be able to make all these by time the project is due?”

“Oh but of course, never doubt me when it comes to creating fashion.” Rarity said proudly then gave a wink. “With the two of us working together this project is going to be absolutely amazing.”

As Rarity and Blooming Hope got to work on the writing portion of their project and continued to plan Aria inwardly groaned, thinking that she should have either found someone else to observe or just kept watching the rainbow-head and hyper girl. If Starwind wanted a report or something on this Aria hoped he liked fashion talk.


*******


Sunset grabbed a bottle of juice and set it on her tray, with the final item of her lunch acquired she began to make her way to the usual table. All in all it had been a good day so far she thought, she had helped new students get to know the school and made new friends. The new arrivals seemed to be integrating well from what Sunset could tell and everyone seemed willing to help them get adjusted to their new school. As she made her way across the cafeteria Sunset could hear several conversations between new students and old.

“Really?! I love that band too!”

“I was at that game dude! I didn’t believe it when I saw either and I was right there!”

“I’ll show you where we hang out after school, you’ll love it.”

“I’m telling you they got the best burgers in town.”

“Hey! Where’d my tacos go?!”

“You read it too? I was beginning to think I was the only one!”

“That sounds awesome! You gotta join our club!”

Sunset arrived at the table she and her friends usually sat at and found that Applejack, Fluttershy and Twilight were already seated and eating lunch; Firecracker and Dragon were there as well.

“Hey there Sunset.” Applejack greeted

“Hi Sunset.” Twilight smiled as Sunset sat down next to her.

Fluttershy just waved since she was taking a bite of her sandwich when Sunset got there.

“Hey Sunset.” Dragon said as she looked his way with an inquisitive expression. “I’m here as Pinkie’s dully appointed representative apparently.”

Twilight giggled a bit. “Pinkie pulled him out of the lunch line and dragged him over here and sat him down, then told him to watch everything and tell her about it later.”

“Said somethin’ about not wanting to miss anything while she’s introducing some of the new guys to everyone.” Applejack said with a laugh.

“I was gonna sit with him anyway and here’s a good a place as any.” Firecracker commented as she continued to eat.

“Well that explains where Pinkie is, not too surprising.” Sunset just laughed and shook her head. “ I talked to Rarity before coming here so I know she and Blooming Hope went to the library for that project of theirs. What about Rainbow Dash?”

“Competing with Shining Nova again.” Fluttershy said rather worriedly. “They were having what started as a civil conversation but then it got heated and they started challenging each other.”

“They settled on a race and went out to the track.” Twilight explained. “They decided whoever lost would buy the other lunch.”

“Knowing them two they’re gonna spend the whole lunch racing.” Applejack commented as she continued to eat.

“Don’t know about Rainbow Dash but when Nova gets going like that she tends to forget things like having to eat.” Firecracker gave a bit of an annoyed sigh. “Then it catches up to her later when the hunger hits her.”

“Yeah Rainbow gets like that too.” Applejack admitted with a sigh. “I imagine this’ll be happening a lot.”

“Well we’ll just have to keep an eye on them and make sure they don’t take it too far.” Sunset told them, then smiled and raised her bottle of juice. “To new friends, or perhaps rivals in this case. May they always make our lives interesting.”

Everyone smiled and raised their drinks, but then a voice they all knew called out excitedly

“Guys! Guys! Guys!”

They all turned to see Pinkie leading a group of four other girls, whom they guessed were the new arrivals she was introducing to everybody. She brought them to the table and lined them up; Pinkie doing it by physically grabbing them and quickly putting them into place seemed to surprise the four judging by their expressions.

“These are some of my friends.” Pinkie waved a hand to present those sitting at the table. “Sunset, Twilight, Applejack, Fluttershy, Firecracker and Dragon.”

After they all gave some sort of greeting; either a hi, a wave or even just a nod, Pinkie turned back towards the four new girls.

“This here is Happy Ditty!” Pinkie put her arms over the shoulders of a girl with lime green skin and curly yellow hair wearing worn looking jeans and a tie-die shirt.

“Pleased to meet ya.” Happy Ditty gave a huge grin and waved. “Pinkie said you were all great.”

“And this one is Jubilee.” Pinkie hopped sideways to the next girl and put a hand on her shoulder. The girl had chalk white skin and short black hair with pink shades over her eyes, she was wearing a yellow long coat over jean shorts and pink shirt.

“Hey.” Jubilee said simply and blew a bubble with the gum she was chewing.

Pinkie stepped to the next one and waved an arm dramatically. “I present to you, Crimson Sun.” She had yellow skin with long flowing red hair and was wearing a long dark dress in the gothic lolitia style.

“A pleasure.”  Crimson Sun said with only a hint of emotion in her voice as she nodded her head.

“And last but not least is Whirl!” Pinkie practically spun around the girl with light blue skin and dark blue hair that was tied up into pig tails but had the bangs hanging down over one eye and was wearing denim overall shorts with a t-shirt underneath.

“Hi there.” Whirl said as she gave a rather dangerous looking grin.

“And now it’s time to meet even more new people!” Pinkie announced and quickly rushed the four off.

“You’ll get used to that sort of thing soon enough.” Sunset commented with a chuckle as she saw Twilight, Firecracker and Dragon staring after Pinkie.

“Hey Applejack.” A new voice greeted.

Everyone looked to the source of the voice to see a pair of girls standing by the table. One had light gray skin with chestnut brown hair wearing black pants and a loose dark gray sweater, while the other had red skin with purple streaked hair also wearing black pants but with a green and black shirt.

“Good to see ya again Grey Mist, Scarlet Thorn.” Applejack smiled and held out a hand, which Grey Mist shook as she smiled back. “What can I do ya for?”

“Oh we just wanted to come over and say hi, and say thanks again for showing us all around.” Grey Mist answered while looking over everyone at the table.

“I hope we weren’t too much trouble.” Scarlet Mist gave a bit of a nervous smile.

“No trouble at all Scarlet, I was glad to help y’all out.” Applejack assured her, then saw Grey Mist looking inquisitively at the others. “This here is Fluttershy, Sunset, Twilight, Firecracker and Dragon.” She took a look around herself. “So where’s Winter Rose, Boomer and Brainstorm?”

“Brainstorm took off to the computer lab.” Scarlet Thorn answered somewhat apologetically, as if apologizing for her friend’s absence. “He really loves computers and technology of all kinds.”

“Winter’s trying to keep Boomer from buying out one of the vending machines.” Grey Mist gave a bit of a smirk. “Or from putting all his money in, whichever happens first.”

“I swear I have never seen someone who liked vending machine snacks so much.” Applejack laughed and shook her head. “He must’ve bought somethin’ from every machine we passed by earlier.”

Just then a jingle came from Grey Mist’s pocket; she pulled out her phone and looked at the screen, a slight frown appeared on her face.

“Looks like we gotta go save Boomer from Winter now, he must have done or said something to set her off.” Grey Mist sighed as she showed the message to Scarlet Thorn, then flipped it around to show Applejack. There was just one word in big bold letters ‘HELP!’ “We’ll see you around Applejack, it was nice meeting you all.”

The two quickly walked off to find their friends and possibly stop one from hurting the other.

“They seemed nice.” Fluttershy gave a small smile as she watched the two leave.

“It’s seems both you and Pinkie met some interesting people today.” Twilight’s expression fell a bit. “I wish I knew enough about the school to give a tour, it sounds like it was a really good experience.”

“Don’t worry Twi, I’ll bet you’ll know all there is to know about the school in no time.” Applejack encouraged as she reached over and patted Twilight on the hand. “And now you got a chance to make even more friends.”

Sunset simply relaxed and enjoyed the company of her friends, but suddenly found herself grabbed from behind and pulled into a tight hug.

“Hiiiii Sunset.” Came a singsong voice from behind her.

Sunset didn’t have to look to know who it was. “Hi Venus…”

“I saw you sitting here and I just had to come over to say hello.” Venus said with a sweet smile as Sunset turned around to look at her. “Are these the friends you mentioned earlier?”

“A few of them yes.” Sunset told her, feeling a bit calmer now that she was out of Venus’s grip and could breath again. She saw that Sundown was also there standing behind Firecracker and Dragon, writing in his notebook like usual. “Twilight, Applejack, Fluttershy, Firecracker, Dragon.” She pointed to each one in turn.

Dragon leaned back slightly and tried to peek into Sundown’s notebook but the orange boy saw what he was doing and quickly turned the notebook away; which left it facing towards Firecracker who also tried to see what was in it. Sundown quickly shut his notebook and stepped back a bit before opening it again and continuing to look around and jotting things down. Firecracker and Dragon stared at him a moment before looking at each other and shaking their heads.

“It is so great meeting all of you, I hope we can become great friends.” Venus said as she gave Twilight a quick hug, not seeming to notice the bespectacled girl’s discomfort, then reached over and gave Dragon a pat on the head.

Before Venus could say or do anything else Sunny Joy darted by laughing while pulling Aurora Gloom behind her, the purple girl had a resigned look on her face as the other pulled her through the door and out of the cafeteria. Everyone in the room just stared after them for a moment before going back to whatever they had been doing before.

“Well… I guess we’d better go see what that was all about.” Venus said in a strangely impassive voice, then turned back to the others and smiled again. “See you all very soon. Come Sundown.” The pair quickly walked off, following the other two out the door.

“That the one you were talking about earlier?” Applejack inquired as she watched the pair leave.

“Yeah, that’s her.” Sunset answered as she straightened her hair a bit since earlier hug had messed it up. “Venus Love.”

“You were right about her being physically demonstrative.” Applejack said before a familiar smirk appeared on her face. “Though what I guessed earlier about the reason why she does that still might hold true.” Then laughed as Sunset gave her a deadpan stare.

“Why did she hug me?” Twilight asked, sounding a bit incredulous.

“I really don’t know, she was doing that all the time when I was showing them around.” Sunset sighed and shook her head. “Sorry about that Twilight, I guess you kinda got caught up in it since you were sitting next to me.”

“It’s okay Sunset, that was hardly your fault.” Twilight’s expression brightened. “Though I think I’ll try and stay out of her reach from now on, she gives very tight hugs.”

The group continued on with their lunch, talking and laughing until the bell rang and they had to get back to class.


*******


A blue and violet form zipped chaotically through the halls of Canterlot High; from behind doors of classrooms and open lockers to behind trashcans and whatever shadows she could find, Sonata was doing her best to sneak around and keep an eye on what was going on around the school.

Sonata was having fun; this observation stuff was like being a spy, a super-spy. Or maybe a magical spy considering the spell Starwind had cast. It kept them from being noticed but Starwind had told them to be careful and not to push their luck by doing something that would draw attention. Which was why Sonata was doing her best to keep out of sight as she moved around, even during classes when most of the students wouldn’t be in the halls. If she was hiding she definitely wouldn’t draw attention to herself. While the sneaking around was pretty fun Sonata was a bit sad that Starwind hadn’t made her invisible instead; while she did understand the reasons he gave for not doing so she thought being invisible would have been a real blast.

A large muscular guy with white skin and red eyes came walking out of a classroom, to stay out of his view Sonata quickly moved up right up behind him as he walked down the hall. She matched his movements like a shadow, keeping her steps timed with his so that he wouldn’t hear her walking behind him. He suddenly stopped and looked around, even turning completely around to look back where he came from, but Sonata avoided being seen by keeping directly behind him no matter which way he turned. Eventually the muscular student scratched his head and shrugged then continued on his way, still unaware of Sonata right behind him. Eventually he came to a junction in the hallway and when he turned left Sonata went right.

Sonata giggled as she continued to sneak around and soon began to hum a little tune, even if Adagio was being all grumbly about their current situation that didn’t mean she couldn’t find ways to enjoy it. She knew why Adagio was so mad of course, it was because she wasn’t in charge anymore and had to follow someone else’s orders; that was pretty much the exact opposite of what the orange-blond siren liked to be. Sonata really didn’t see the problem with it though; they had food, shelter and had their voices back, even if their magic now came with a rule or two about using it, Starwind even gave them money to get food if they got hungry while at the school. Not even Aria seemed to have too much of a problem with their current situation so Sonata really thought Adagio should consider how lucky they were not to be on the streets with nothing and start trying to look on the bright side of things.

As Sonata went over her day in her mind she began to sing to herself, just a little something she made up as she went along. She had been all over the school that day doing her best to observe the Rainbooms and what was going on in general. Though all the people wandering around the halls earlier had made that a bit more difficult than she thought, and so many new faces to keep track of. Sonata had managed to watch each of the Rainbooms at least for a little while, although she hadn’t seen any of them use their magic yet which was kind of defeating the point of watching them. And when she wasn’t watching any of the Rainbooms specifically she was sneaking around the school seeing if there was any other magical shenanigans happening around Canterlot High, which was also proving to be bust so far but she wouldn’t let that deter her. At least the day hadn’t been a complete bust in her opinion; when she was in the cafeteria keeping an eye on a few of the Rainbooms during lunch she was able to snag herself some tacos without being noticed so she didn’t have to spend any of her money.

Unexpectedly around the corner ahead of her came two more students carrying boxes. One was a guy that had pale purple skin with bright orange hair wearing a red jacket with a flame design on it with brown pants, the other was another guy with gray skin and a red mohawk wearing a torn up shirt with a skull on it with black leather pants. 

Sonata quickly looked for a place to hide and only saw an open locker, she quickly stepped to it and faced inside like she was looking for something. She was so focused on trying to look inconspicuous that she didn’t notice that she was still holding the last note of her song.  She heard them stop behind her and they seemed to be just standing there for what seemed to be an uncomfortably long time to Sonata and she wished they would just keep walking. She glanced back over her shoulder just in time to see them look at each other and shrug before continuing their way down the hall. Sonata finally dropped the note and breathed a sigh of relief as she closed the locker and quickly headed off in the other direction.

The bell rang to let out the final class of the day and Sonata stepped to the side of the hall to let the students go by while she waited for the halls to clear a bit, but a familiar giggling from a nearby classroom caught her attention. Sonata quickly moved to the door to take a peek inside and saw Pinkie talking with three other students; a blond with funny eyes that she was sure she seen before with a girl and a guy with light green skin and black hair and clothes that she hadn’t.

“…and I’m calling it my ‘Sugar Rush Blast’!” Pinkie grinned as she held up a drawing of something Sonata couldn’t quite see. “I’m still working the kinks out of the recipe but when I finish it I’ll bring some to school so you can all try it.”

Sonata decided to get a bit closer so that she could hear the conversation better so she ducked down low as she could as she entered the room and slide under one of the tables.

“I don’t know Pinkie,” Dragon said rather apprehensively. “I swear my teeth are still shaking a bit from that ‘Super Choco-Coffee Blast’ cupcake you talked me into eating this morning.”

“The name ‘Sugar Rush Blast’ doesn’t exactly get my appetite going.” Firecracker just shook her head.

Sonata snuck to the next table peeked up over it.

“Don’t worry guys, I promise when I get it done it’ll be soooo gooood.” Pinkie was nearly drooling at the idea of perfecting her newest recipe.

“I’ve been working on a new muffin recipe I’m calling the ‘Nutty Fruit Swirl’, though it’s not ready yet either” Derpy mentioned with a small smile.

“Oooo! That sounds good!” Pinkie hopped over to Derpy. “What’s in it?”

“Well so far there’s bananas, walnuts, strawberries…” Derpy counted off on her fingers as she began to list the ingredients.

Sonata slowly creeped over to the next table, ducking so low she was nearly crawling. They were only a table away and she figured she’d be able to hear everything crystal clear. But then Sonata noticed everything had gone quiet, and suddenly there was a pink face right in front of hers.

“Hey there! Are you playing spy?” Pinkie asked with a bright smile, but then an expression of recognition appeared on her face and she gasped. “Sonata!”

Sonata let out a shriek and jumped out from under the table and ran out of the room.

“Hey get back here!” Pinkie yelled as she took off after Sonata

“What was that about?” Firecracker questioned as she watched Pinkie disappear out the door.

“I don’t know what she thought she was supposed to be doing there.” Dragon said as he quirked an eyebrow.

“I think that was a Dazzling…” Derpy tilted her head to one side trying to recall the blue girl.

Out in the hallway Sonata ran as fast as she could dodging around people and trying to get away from the pink girl running after her. She sidestepped a familiar purple girl with glasses; it definitely wasn’t the time to keep an eye on her so Sonata keep running as Twilight watched her go by with a quizzical look on her face.

“Come on Twilight!” Pinkie grabbed her arm as she ran by, dragging Twilight into the chase. “That’s one of the Dazzlings!”

“You mean one of those Sirens Sunset was telling me about yesterday?” Twilight tried her best to keep up while remembering what she had been told the day before.

“Yup, that’s the one called Sonata!” Pinkie confirmed as she tried to keep up with the surprisingly speedy siren girl.

While dragging Twilight along with one hand Pinkie pulled out her phone with the other and began texting her friends. She had no clue why Sonata was back at Canterlot High, if she had good or bad intentions this time, or even if the other Dazzlings were somewhere around. But she had to be there for some reason and she knew her friends would want to know she was there and why. But first Pinkie had to catch her.

Sonata shot through the backdoors of the school and out into the parking lot behind it, she ran around or jumped over the various vehicles parked there. She could still hear Pinkie yelling behind her as she reached the back fence and scrambled over it and kept running. Sonata practically dove into the wooded area behind the school, panicking a bit and not sure what to do Sonata eventually picked a large tree and began to climb as high as she could. Nearly slipping a few times she finally picked a branch and hung on as tight as she could, hoping she was high enough and hidden enough to be out of sight.

“Spike!” Sonata heard Twilight call out. “Spike!”

“I’m coming Twilight!” The dog’s voice answered. It first sounded like it was some distance away, but the next time Sonata heard his voice it was much closer. “What is it Twilight? Is there trouble?!”

“Someone just ran in here that we need to find.” Twilight told him. “Can you find them?”

“With my nose I’ll sniff them out in no time!” Spike gave a bit of a howl and dove into the foliage.

“Pinkie! Twilight!” Sonata heard Sunset’s voice coming closer.

“What’s this about one of the Dazzlings being here?” Applejack’s voice asked.

“I saw Sonata!” Pinkie answered. “She ran in here!”

“Well let’s go find her then!” Rainbow Dash’s voice rang out.

Sonata didn’t know what to do. Maybe she should get down out of the tree and run some more, but they were already so close. Maybe she should have kept running instead of climbing the tree, but she might have gotten lost then. They were already looking for her down there, not to mention the dog trying to sniff her out, she couldn’t think of any way to get away.

But then an idea came to Sonata; the link with Starwind! It was there so that they could ask to get some magic from him to put power into their songs. While she already knew no song she could sing would work on the Rainbooms maybe she could just send a message through the link. Sonata still wasn’t quite sure how the whole thing worked but she focused as much as she could on the link.

“I need help! They’re gonna find me! Please Help!”

Not having a clue if it worked or not all Sonata could do was hope as she heard the noise of the Rainbooms pushing their way through trees and brush below.

“I am here Sonata.” A familiar echoing voice spoke.

Despite knowing the voice Sonata slammed her hands over her mouth so as not to let out a surprised shriek at its suddenness. However with her hands over her mouth Sonata was no longer hanging onto the branch… this time she wanted to scream.

Before she could fall a black gloved hand grabbed Sonata’s arm and she breathed a sigh of relief upon realizing she would not be crashing to the ground. When she finally looked up away from the ground and towards Starwind she was again surprised. He was not simply standing on a branch like she thought, Starwind was standing on the trunk like he enjoyed his own personal gravity as he stood horizontally out from the tree.

“Uhhh…” Sonata just couldn’t find the words.

“Magic.” Starwind stated simply

“Ah, okay.” She just nodded.

“Now Sonata,” Starwind began, speaking quietly so those stomping around below didn’t hear. “I appreciate your enthusiasm for your work, I really do. But perhaps you could tone down the sneaky spy antics just a bit.”

Sonata gave a sheepish smile. “You saw?”

“I saw.”

“Sorry for messing up.” Sonata sighed and hung her head.

“It is okay Sonata.” Starwind told her as he looked in the direction of the noise as it was getting closer. “Barring almost getting caught at the end you did well for your first day.”

“I think I heard a voice over this way!” Rainbow Dash yelled to the others.

“Though perhaps we should have this conversation elsewhere.” Starwind said as the noise of multiple people rushing through the foliage below was converging on their location.

The shadows around Starwind and Sonata seemed to warp and became a dark mist that quickly enveloped the two of them, a moment later the mist dissipated and they were gone.

Down below on the ground Spike was the first to reach the tree Sonata had been hiding in, he moved around the tree a few time sniffing to confirm what he thought he smelled. He looked up into the tree and saw nothing, but barked a few times anyway in an attempt to scare out anyone who may have been hiding up there.

“What is it Spike?” Twilight asked as she came running up with Rainbow Dash. “Did you find them?”

“I thought I did, the scent trail ends here.” Spike explained as he sniffed around again. “But I can’t see anyone up there.”

“Neither can I.” Twilight walked around the tree as she looked up into the branches.

“I’ll go up and check it out.” Rainbow Dash said determinedly as she jumped and grabbed onto a branch to pull herself up into the tree.

“Didja find anything?” Applejack asked as she came running up with the others.

“Well Spike says the scent trail he was following ends at this tree.” Twilight answered as she watched Rainbow Dash climb the tree.

“The trail does lead here.” Spike insisted. “My nose never lies.”

“We believe you Spike.” Fluttershy kneeled down and patted him on the head.

“Do you see anything Rainbow Dash?!” Rarity called up after her as Rainbow Dash reached the highest branches.

“Nothing!” Rainbow Dash yelled back down as she hung from the branches at the top of the tree. “There was a couple broken branches though so somebody was up here!”

“But where could she have gone?” Sunset mused, then turned to Pinkie. “Where did you see Sonata anyway?”

“In a classroom where I was talking to Derpy, Dragon, and Firecracker.” Pinkie tilted her head to one side and tapped herself on the head as she thought. “I’m not even sure how she got in there, we were talking when I suddenly noticed someone hiding under a table. I didn’t even realize it was Sonata until I got a good look at her face.”

“Well unless she flew away I’m not sure how she got out of there.” Rainbow Dash commented as she dropped back to the ground.

“But the Dazzlings supposed to be powerless now are they not?” Rarity inquired.

“Yeah, Princess Twilight even examined the gem fragments they left behind and said as far as she could tell there was no magic left in them.” Sunset crossed her arms over her chest as she thought back. “Adagio did grab the pieces of one of the gems before they ran off but it should have been depowered just as the others were.”

“But why would any of them come back here?” Fluttershy wondered. “They’d have to know they definitely wouldn’t be welcome.”

“Maybe they think they can repower themselves again using our magic?” Applejack suggested.

“I don’t know Applejack, there’s nothing that I know of that they could do with just a single broken gem.” Sunset replied as she thought through every possibility she could think of. “And they didn’t seem the most mechanically inclined so I doubt they could create anything to absorb magic like Twilight did.” Sunset realized what she said and gave Twilight an apologetic look for bringing up that subject.

Twilight just smiled to let Sunset know it was okay. “So there’s no way they could repower themselves here?”

“None that I know of.” Sunset just shook her head. “Even if they managed to make it back to Equestria there’d be nothing they could do with a broken gem. Considering their original forms are aquatic based they might end up worse off than they would here.”

“So why don’t we just keep an eye out for them and if they try to cause any sort of trouble we just…” Rainbow Dash punched and kicked the air a few times. “If they didn’t learn their lesson the first time we pound it into them this time.”

“I don’t think we’d have to get so violent if they don’t actually have any power any more.” Fluttershy cringed a bit as she watched Rainbow Dash continue her imaginary fighting.

“Well let’s keep an eye out for them just in case, if they do pop up again we’ll decide what to do then.” Sunset told everyone, then smiled. “So how about we get out of here and head on home since school’s out?”

They all headed out of the wooded area and back to the school to pick up their stuff; all of them still wondering what the appearance of a Dazzling could mean for them.

To be continued…