“And that’s it for the fundamentals. I think you have a solid grasp of all the basics, and probably won’t kill yourself if you experiment.”
The true human woman collapsed to her knees, panting. Her hair was no longer up in its bun, but hanging loosely down her back in a tangled mess. Her brow was covered with sweat and her skin was flushed. And yet, despite her exhausted state, she was happy. And, like her mentor, her smile showed a few too many teeth.
“So, what next?” the high-schooler-turned-mage asked, looking up at the dark goddess standing above her.
Said goddess looked down on her newest student. Death, having just been sparring magically with her student, stood without the robe the mirror had given to her. The upon seeing the undergarments remaining, Science had described them as “really skimpy,” much to Death’s secret pleasure. Her mask sat similarly discarded.
“Well, that depends on you,” Death replied.
The human girl stood up and scooped up the discarded vest from her uniform. “What do you mean?”
“Pick one subject. We’ll go from there.”
“Errr...” she began, “What do you recommend?”
“Well, there’s necromancy, which will allow you to do what I did to save you, plus make specters and zombie servants, which are helpful. Then there are the mind arts, including illusions, hypnosis, mind control, and the extremely complex field of memory magic. You could learn curse crafting, which is good if you have enemies. And you could learn enchanting; self-explanatory, that one. There’s also ritual magic, which is powerful, but dangerous. We could also work on your flight, your earth pony magic, or your dragonfire.”
Twilight Sparkle frowned; there were too many choices, and she didn’t know what to pick. Instead, she voiced her indecisiveness.
“Well then,” Death replied. “On this list, what scares you the most: dying, lack of control, other people, unpreparedness, or weakness of body?”
Twilight Sparkle thought for a moment. “I think... if you’d asked me before we’d met, I would have said lack of control or unpreparedness, but now I’m not so sure.”
“Necromancy, then.” A quick nod of the head accompanied her declaration.
“Really?”
“Yes. Dark magic works best when you are emotional, and necromancy works best when you are afraid. Any fear works, but that instinctive, animalistic fear of death also helps keep you focused. Even I, despite being Death, can conjure up that very mortal fear for myself. I don’t need much, since I can substitute with raw power, but that fear is always there.
“And so I think that, given your uncertainty, and given what I’ve seen so far, the best fit for you is Necromancy. You lack the dominance and desperation needed for mind magic, the hatred for curses, and the sadism for rituals,” Death said.
Science blinked. “And what of enchanting?”
“It accentuates the other disciplines. I personally think you’d be better off learning how to use another discipline well first. You can always experiment on your own later.” Science nodded in understanding. From the basics she’d learned so far, Death’s explanation made sense to her. “Right, lesson one: what is the soul?”
Two necromancers stepped out of the dimensional portal and into the infirmary of Crystal Prep. On the wall, the second hand of the clock ticked for the only third time since they had left.
The first shorter of the two, Twilight Sparkle had changed. Her hair was longer, her fingernails were sharper than they had been, her teeth were just barely too sharp to be natural, and her ears had slight points, like an elf’s. As for her body, the metabolic effects had slightly eaten away at her bodyfat without any improvement to her muscles. None of it was too noticeable at a quick glance, but if you looked too hard...
What an observer would claim hadn’t changed were her eyes — if she was wearing her glasses. Behind the enchanted frames lay eyes that were much like Death’s — green sclera, red irises, slit pupils, and purple smoke emanating from the corners. And if the glasses were ever knocked off, she could hide them with magic, and now do so without involuntarily transforming.
Death emerged from the portal wearing a too-wide grin, something that was quickly becoming a permanent feature on her face. This particular grin was rooted in pride, for she was quite pleased in Science’s progress. The student, however, was not so happy. With a concerned glance, the newly minted necromancer looked back at her teacher. “What now?”
“I don’t know. It’s your choice.”
“But what if... what do I do?”
Knowing which issue she was referring to, Death came up with an answer. It had been a frequent question from Science, so the answer came quickly to Death. She placed a hand on the smaller woman’s shoulders. “I can’t tell you how to live your life, Twilight Sparkle. Look, if you have sex, have a child, or use your magic on another person, you run the risk of spreading our type of magic, and once you let that cat out of the bag, there’s no taking it back. So, you can either spread it or no. You can keep your magic a secret, or not. With no magic on this planet, there’s no jail that can hold you if you choose to be evil, but you also have the power to do great good. If I were you, I’d introduce magic to the world on a good note. Again, that’s your choice.”
Though her frown didn’t fade all the way, Twilight Sparkle nodded in understanding. “Right. Thanks.”
It was at that moment that something unexpected happened. The portal to the afterlife, which had closed after Death had stepped through, opened from the other side. Yet it wasn’t the afterlife they saw. Instead, the opening of the portal was inches away from another portal, which appeared to lead from the afterlife to a secluded room of the school. Cobalt, unusually disheveled, stood on the other side of the portal, though he wasn’t alone.
“Indigo?”
“Twilight?”
The two students stared at each other through the artificial rift in reality. Further conversation between the pair was prevented as Death Spoke up. “Cobalt?”
“The Princess Twins found the location of the thieving triplets. They’re heading there now.”
Death raised an eyebrow, but under her mask, the gesture went unseen. “Ah. We’ll be there shortly.” She looked more closely at her apprentice. “Let me guess, ‘First Contact,’ hmm? Well, make sure you take precautions. We don’t need a hybrid running around.”
Cobalt snorted, while Indigo Zap blushed while looking confused. “I’m not an idiot,” Cobalt retorted.
“I didn’t say you were.”
Cobalt didn’t reply. Instead, he waved his hand and shut the portal. Death didn’t mind; in fact, she found it funny. “He forgets I’m in his head,” she muttered mirthfully to herself.
“Wait, Death, did Cobalt just do it with Indigo?”
“Obviously,” Death drawled sarcastically.
“But wouldn’t that expose her to magic?”
Death replied, “Earth pony magic. It’s nowhere near as explosive as unicorn magic. In fact, the selling point of Earth pony magic is its subtly; without training, she’ll just be a little stronger and faster than normal. Maybe she’ll grow pony ears like you do when you transform, but that would probably be the extent of it.”
“So what was that about anyway?”
“You forgot already? They found Sunset Shimmer. Want to go watch them catch a criminal?”
Princess Twilight, Goddess of Life, Princess Twilight Sparkle, Goddess of Magic, their Spikes, nicknamed Spear and Blade, respectively, and one Sunset Shimmer, currently possessed, all walked down the street. As they made their way towards the residence of the Sunset Shimmers, Life interrogated the possessed mare-turned-woman.
“So, why did you come through the portal?”
The specter lodged in her brain, wrapped around her soul, compelled Sunset to answer. “To see if we could acquire any sort of magical artifact that could be used on this side. I was tired of being without my magic. It is my special talent.” The four native Equestrians all winced; a pony being denied their talent would make them quite stir crazy. “And the Elements of Magic?”
Again, she was compelled to answer. “The most powerful things they, the other Sunsets, could find on such short notice. The only other major artifacts were all tied into that city’s ward scheme. We couldn’t remove anything without drawing attention to ourselves.”
“Now, what do you expect the reaction of the other Sunset Shimmers to be?”
The possessed mare shrugged. “Depends on how you handle it.” Her voice shifted. “Likely, this one will run while the other two will don the crowns and try to use them against you. Worst case, they will try and get physical. They carry knives.”
“Are you not staying?” Life inquired.
The specter shook Sunset’s head. “The mistress has requested that I go into standby mode and temporarily sever my connection with Cobalt for his sake, in the event that the elements misfire. While they will be watching, and ready to intervene in the worst case, Death collectively will be keeping their distance.”
“Understood.”
It didn't take them much longer to reach the house where Sunset Shimmer lived. The specter stopped Sunset right in front of the house. “This is where I leave you. Magic, both Spikes, please restrain Sunset while Life does her work; she really wants to run.” The specter then extended the mare’s arms out to the side and waited. A second later, the possessed Sunset was lifted far enough off the ground with lavender telekinesis that she could find no purchase.
The specter closed her eyes. When they opened again, it was by Sunset’s unrestrained will. “Ugh... Where am I?”
“Welcome home,” the light goddess replied, not looking at her but instead turning towards the front door of the home. She raised her right arms and knocked three times with the pair.
Sunset started squirming in the field of Magic’s namesake. “What did you do to me? Let me go!”
“We did nothing,” Life insisted before Magic could reply. Sunset Shimmer kept squirming, but Life made a point of ignoring it as she waited for someone to come to the door. Though it was taking a while. Growing slightly impatient, Life peeked through the nearby window. She saw nobody. “Are they even here?”
“No, we’re HERE!” The shout came an instant before twin blasts of magic hurled the two goddesses through the wood of the front door. The sudden impact broke Magic’s concentration, freeing Sunset to see what had just happened.
There, floating above the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street, were a pair of twin demonesses, with hair like fire and wings like a dragon’s. On their heads were the two Elements of Magic, and on their faces were vicious smirks.
Death walked down a row of shelves, Cobalt and Science following behind. On every shelf sat four or five of the strangest candles the human had ever seen. Each was a pale, off-white color, with wicks of various colors. Each candle was also held by some appendage, be it a four-fingered, blue hand, a claw, a hoof in any pastel color, or what-have-you. Death seemed to be searching for a specific candle.
Science picked up one of the hand-held candles to investigate it. Something about it gave her a strange feeling, but she couldn’t place it. Then it clicked. “Is this a hand of glory?”
“Glory candle, actually. It doesn’t have to be a hand.”
Disgusted, she put down the pickled, severed hand. “Why do you have so many of them?”
“They’re useful,” Death replied. “Ah, here it is!” Death picked up a candle mounted on a purple hoof, one that matched the human’s skin tone exactly. “Don’t tell my sister I have these. They’re, for obvious reasons, more than a little bit illegal, quite immoral, and she’d be furious. This one especially.”
Suddenly, the world shifted around them. When everything snapped into focus, they were standing in an ornately decorated lounge. Death motioned for her to sit in one of the chairs, while Cobalt plopped down onto the sofa. “It’s not often you pull out a glory candle. Is it really worth it?” he asked.
Death shrugged. “It’s not like I have any other way of watching right now that doesn’t open up a direct path to our souls. I want to watch, but I want even more to not be blasted by those horrid things; having my soul nearly implode was bad enough.” And with that, she lit the candle.
To the human, it was as if Life had suddenly stepped into the room and filled it with her presence. The flame, whiter than any flame she’d ever seen before, danced in a nonexistent breeze. Death shot a little bit of magic at it, causing the flame to start billowing out black smoke. The smoke split into two trails, moving sideways, then up, and then back together again to form a ring of smoke. Within the ring, a hazy image appeared, swiftly growing crisper. They saw a shifting pile of wood and tangled limbs.
Twilight pulled herself out of the shrapnel pile, her body sore and bleeding. Beside her, Twilight Sparkle was doing the same. The life goddess scrunched her face; a second later, the bleeding stopped and the pain faded. She glanced over at her doppelganger, whose cuts were fading just as fast.
Dusting herself off, Life stepped out into the sun to see their assailants. Said assailants spoke first. “Well, well, well. You’re tougher than we gave you credit for.”
“Are you crazy?” The uncorrupted Sunset Shimmer shouted at the two demonic mares. “They’re the prin-”
“SAVE IT!” The other demoness shouted, hand bubbling with black and green magic. The still human Sunset flinched.
Life leaned over to the other goddess and whispered, “Shields or fighting; what are you better at?”
Without hesitation, the magic goddess replied, “Shields.”
Life’s eyes glanced at the uncorrupted Sunset and the growing human crowd that had stopped to watch. “Protect the bystanders.” Magic nodded. Addressing the two demonic mares, Life said, “So, could we have our crowns back?”
“Hmm.... How about NO!” Another laser blast of magic from both punctuated their declaration. Life dodged, while Magic shielded, deflecting the blast skyward.
Speaking in Unicornian, the language of magic, Life incanted, “Justice Arena!” A seven pointed star of white light formed around her hand, parallel with the ground. It swiftly expanded to encompass the whole block. Throwing up her hand, she again incanted, “Valor Hammer!” And like the star, a massive warhammer of pure light formed, already held aloft by her magical grip.
Switching back to the common tongue, Life said, “Sunset Shimmer and Sunset Shimmer, return the Elements of Magic to us.”
“And you think we’re just going to give it to you for showing off with some pretty lights? You’re more foolish than I thought,” they said in perfect sync.
“I am Princess Twilight, Goddess of Life and Paladin of Equestria. This is Princess Twilight Sparkle, Goddess of Magic. We bear the Elements of Magic. You stole them from us.” She switched languages. “Justice Arena: Seal!”
The heptagram on the ground flashed brighter, and a dome of white light formed above it. “This is the Justice Arena, and this-” Life held the hammer aloft. “-is the Valor Hammer. Both are conditional magic, which both grow stronger the more of an advantage you have.”
The hammer flashed and grew bigger and brighter.
“Neither of us can leave, and I can be harmed by the magic just as you can.”
Again, the hammer flashed and grew.
“I will use only one other spell - a teleportation spell.”
For the third time, the hammer flashed and grew. Now larger than her own body and glowing so bright that it was hard to look at, most users of the Valor would have stopped charging it. Life was not most users. “I stake my honor-” Flash! “-my titles-” Flash! “-and my crown-” Flash! “-on your defeat! Make your move.”
There were three flashes that time; one final flash came from the hammer itself, but the other two came from the transformed mares as they launched their attack. The beams shot forward, but Life deflected them with a flick of the brilliant hammer.
The beams bounced off the dome of the arena, but then smashed into the front of one of the houses that had the misfortune of being within the arena’s perimeter. Life winced, hoping that nobody was hurt, then resolved to have better aim.
She hefted the massive weapon up, twirled it once, and then brought it down against the low-hovering Sunset on the left. Dirt exploded upwards from where Sunset hit the ground, but Life paid it no mind as she shifted her attention to the Sunset retreating upwards. “Oh no you don’t!”
In an instant, Life’s body dissolved into light and shot upwards, reforming at eye level with Sunset. The hammer struck.
That Sunset shot across the arena, slammed into the dome, and bounced straight down into the ground. Dirt exploded, scattering against Magic’s hastily erected shield.
Life, without her wings in this form, fell to the ground, landing with a thud. Her hammer was noticeably dimmer already, while her breath was quick and gasping. The Valor Hammer and the Justice Arena were both incredibly draining on her. As she couldn’t exactly stake her life on winning, being immortal, she had to substitute resolve for raw power. Add in the fact that she was using a hand to channel the magic instead of a horn, and the problem was only compounded.
Unfortunately for Life, whatever twisted power the Elements of Magic had given the Sunset Shimmers, it was enough to allow both twisted mares to stand up again. “That fucking hurt, you bitch!”
Life didn’t reply with words. Instead, she flashed herself over once more and struck. She flashed again and struck the other. Both flew through the air and crashed near where the other had been standing. But again they stood up, and this time, they were beyond pissed.
As explosions rocked the block, inside Magic’s shield, the uncorrupted Sunset Shimmer begged Twilight Sparkle. “Please, you have to let me out!”
“No you’ll be killed!” The other people in the bubble with them nodded in agreement.
“But I have to stop them! This isn’t what we wanted! Maybe I can make them stop!”
The princess bit her lip. Sunset begged once more, “Please! Someone’s going to get killed if we don’t stop them!”
The princess relented. “Fine, but be safe.” A hole, barely wide enough for Sunset to squeeze through, appeared on the magenta bubble.
Sunset squeezed through. “I will be!”
She ran towards the middle of the arena, heart pounding so loudly that she could barely hear anything else. “STOP!”
And they did. For an instant, Life froze with her foot pinning one of the demonic mares to the ground, while the other was picking herself off the ground directly across from them. And then the latter one growled. “Out of my way!”
The uncorrupted Sunset Shimmer had only an instant to process what was happening before the black and green telekinesis slammed her against the arena’s dome with a sickening crunch.
Death sighed and snuffed out the glory candle, ending the magic that was allowing her and her companions to view the fight.
“Aww!” Cobalt whined. “It was just getting good!”
“We have work to do,” Death replied, which shut her apprentice up instantly. Meanwhile, Science cupped her mouth with her hand, suddenly realizing what she’d just seen. Death looked over at Science, who looked faintly green. “You don’t have to come, but do clean up after yourself if you get sick.”
With that, a portal opened and two of the three aspects of Death walked through.
The magical arena shook as the massive, dark presence spilled in. Two figures emerged from the portal. The first was a tall, robed figure spilling darkness from within, while the second was a man covered in black markings that gave him a skeletal appearance. To all that looked upon them, they knew who and what they were instantly: Death personified.
The Reaper walked slowly to the broken body of Sunset Shimmer and knelt beside it. Her hands plunged into the corpse, which parted as if it were water, and pulled out the trapped soul within. It screamed in agony. “Do not fear; you are safe now, Sunset Shimmer. Let me take you somewhere free of pain.” She embraced the soul, and took it within herself.
The battle had halted completely, and the whole street had fallen silent. Even the cops, firefighters, and civilians, both inside and out of the barrier had fallen silent. Few had ever seen someone die, and none had seen the reaper herself come for them personally.
Through his connection with his mistress, Death’s Sleeper knew what he needed to do now. “It seems we have a little problem. You would have been just a thief, but now you’re a murderer too.” His wrist flicked out, and a knife embedded itself in the guilty Sunset’s chest. As the blood flowed out, it spread across her torso and formed itself into the shape of a skull. Cobalt held up his hand. “Remove that crown and repent, or die and suffer the pits.”
Shakily, she pulled the crown off. Without the magic supporting her any more, her legs gave out. Her body reverted to normal, but the blade remained embedded in her chest. Cobalt walked over and kicked the Element of Magic aside, and then knelt down and placed his hand on her breast. His hand glowed red, then black. With his other hand, he removed the knife, then watched as the wound healed shut. The blood that was on her, no longer bound by magic, began spreading across her as blood normally would. “You’d better regret it.”
The other Sunset Shimmer looked down at her clawed hands, as if seeing them for the first time. Suddenly, she yanked off the crown and hurled it as far away from herself as she could. As she reverted back to normal, she broke down into tears and collapsed to her knees.
Above them, the Justice Arena flashed once more, then vanished altogether, as did the Valor Hammer. Magic’s force-field shattered as well. The two then quickly retrieved their Elements of Magic.
When Life looked back, Death and Cobalt had vanished once more, as had the body of Sunset Shimmer. Her breath still heaving, Life looked down at the Element of Magic in her hand. It felt heavier than it had ever had before, and she half wondered if it was actually as good as they thought it was.
She looked up. The police were approaching her. She sighed.
Hours later, all the Equestrians — the drakes, the alicorns, the Living Sunset Shimmers, and Cobalt — plus the native Twilight Sparkle, and excluding Thorn, were all gathered by the mirror portal. Life and Magic, having escaped the police, were about to escort their Sunset Shimmer’s home, while Death stayed behind for a while longer, just in case something went wrong with the mirror, so she could pull them back if needed.
Well, that and Thorn was off doing something and wasn’t there yet.
The somber attitude of the gathered made for a very strange goodbye. Magic quietly made her way to the mirror with her version of Spike and Sunset Shimmer in tow. She then paused, looked back, and said, “So is this it? Am I going to walk through this mirror and never see you again?”
“Well, never is a really long time. Maybe, maybe not,” Life replied. “I hope we can see you again.” Spike, Death, and Cobalt nodded in agreement.
Magic smiled faintly. “I guess this is it, then. Bye.” She turned and then lead her group through the mirror.
As soon as they were gone, Life looked back at the native Twilight Sparkle. “Sorry we caused such a mess. We kind of blew any chance you had of keeping magic a secret.”
Science cracked a half-hearted smile. “Well, it’ll help when I go to get published on magical research.”
“So you are going to tell the world?” Life asked.
Science stuck out her thumb and pointed it at the Reaper. “Death here showed me some of the good uses of magic, and I love the flight and strength that comes with it. There’s so much benefit to society that it’d be criminal not to share it. But I plan on keeping the strong stuff for myself,” Science replied.
“Define ‘strong stuff?’”
Death whistled innocently.
Life shook her head. “Maybe I’m better off not knowing.” She turned to the mirror portal. “Anyway, we’re off.” She levitated her Sunset Shimmer, who, unlike her counterpart, was sedated with a sleep spell. “Say bye to Thorn for me.”
“He knows.”
Life and company disappeared through the mirror. Since neither reappeared within the next few minutes, but the specters Sparkle had sent with them did, she assumed that they all returned home safely. She then looked at her human student, who, had spent a little longer training in the afterlife after having seen what magic was capable of in a fight.
Science, now the only one here who responded to “Twilight,” looked even more like a vampire-elf than before. Here ears were noticeably pointed, and her teeth were far too sharp to be human. It seemed that the physical corruption affected humans faster than it did unicorns, so they had improved the illusion enchantment on her glasses to restore her normal face.
“Twilight, you know how to reach me, right?” She nodded. “Don’t be afraid to call, even if it’s just for a chat... or if you want another lesson.” Twilight nodded again.
“Sure. But I’ve got to go now. My brother and parents are probably worried about me.” She paused. “What about your Shining Armor? You don’t talk about him much.”
“Meh... we don’t talk much. But that’s fine,” she lied. “Anyway, off with you. Don’t keep them waiting.”
“Right. See you ‘round.” Twilight the magical human vanished in a puff of black smoke that faded into the shadows.
Cobalt walked up to Sparkle and wrapped his arm comfortingly around a pair of hers. “Don’t worry about it. Everything will work out.”
“I hope you’re right.”
They stood like that for a while, silent and arms entwined, waiting for their wayward member. It felt nice, Sparkle supposed. The air was pleasantly cool, the sky was beautiful with the colors of dusk, and she had pleasant company with which to share it comfortably.
A portal opened behind her, announcing the arrival of her son. For an instant, she felt a stab of annoyance at him for ruining the mood, but then shoved the feeling aside. She turned around, dropping her right arms to her side. Six eyes locked onto Thorn.
The jackal-headed young dracolich wasn’t alone. Three women were following him out of the portal. But rather than human souls, they had seapony souls, and modified ones at that. Sparkle raised a questioning eyebrow. A second later, her soul-sorting spell gave them each a number — minus fifteen across the board — and her eyebrow went higher. “Thorn, who are they?”
“The Sirens.”
“Wait, the Sirens, the masters of auditory mind control that Star Swirl the Bearded fought? Those Sirens?”
“Yeah, yeah,” the one on the left said. The soul-sorting spell informed Sparkle that she was named Adagio Dazzle. “Rub it in.”
“No, that’s not what I meant! I mean, I’ve been trying to perfect my auditory mind magic for a while, ever since I read about you three! I didn’t realize you three were still alive!”
“Still alive?” The second one, the one the spell informed her was Sonata Dusk, said. “Why wouldn’t we be alive?”
“Yeah,” the final one, Aria Blaze, said. “It’s only been a few years.”
Sparkle took a second to process that. “Ah. Trans-dimensional relative temporal progression.” They gave her a blank stare. “Time passed faster at home than it did here. Star Swirl died a little less than a thousand years ago, from our perspective.”
“Wait, really?” Adagio exclaimed. Sparkle nodded “Haha! Take that, bastard!”
“So, ah, who are you two?” Aria asked. “Thorn here just dragged us here shortly after we met him. And what’s up with his head?”
“We’re Death,” Thorn replied, flaring his magic without dulling the deathly edge to it so that they could feel the truth of his words. The sirens shivered. “Anyway, I found these three singing, liked it, and thought, ‘Hey, they’d probably like performing at the Lazuli Casino. I should hire them!’ And here we are.”
“You want to hire us? That’s, like, awesome!” Sonata exclaimed. The other two nodded, though there was a calculating glint in Adagio’s eyes.
Sparkle glanced over at her son. Through the link, she asked, “So, did you bring them here to get my permission?”
“No,” he replied. “I brought them here because I already made up my mind and I’m showing off the new gems of my collection.”
Sparkle snorted mirthfully. “But you’re keeping them in line.”
Thorn grinned. “Now, ladies, why don’t we head home to our world so we can discuss the details, m’kay?”
“Deal!” Aria exclaimed. Adagio glanced at Aria, but said nothing, while Sonata bounced in place excitedly.
Smiling, Thorn flicked his wrist, creating a portal that swept them up and into the afterlife. “Don’t need them duplicating like Sunset Shimmer did.” Now ready to go, he and the other two aspects of Death finally stepped forwards and into the mirror portal.
One swirling vortex of pure color later, the trio was deposited in a heap at the mirror’s base. As they disentangled themselves, they were pleased to find that they were all back in their original bodies.
The dracolich was the first to speak. As his claw traced out a new portal to the afterlife, he said, “Well, that was fun, but I’ve got things to do. See you.” Then he vanished.
Sparkle nodded, letting him go. Then she started brushing her semi-crystalline fur with her magic to smooth it out. A moment later, she paused to looked at Cobalt. “You’re not running off to do whatever, Cobalt?”
“Nah. I’m fine here.” What went unspoken, but not unheard, was the “with you” at the end.
“Well then,” Sparkle said as she started moving towards the door to the room they were currently in, “I feel an approaching death nearby.” She opened the door and started to step out. “Shall we-guh!” Sparkle exclaimed as a passing unicorn ran into her side. And while she was fine, the sudden unbalance knocked the white stallion to the ground.
“Whoops, sorry abo- wait, Shining Armor?”