Cold Fire

by blackcat

Chapter Two

Flash Sentry sat hunched in front of the CHS statue, scribbling in a songbook. He pulled himself up with one hand on the statue. As he leaned on the statue scrutinizing the book in his other hand, Flash hummed the tune he had been working on. It was a good tune but it just didn't seem to line up with the lyrics quite right and the middle felt weak. He was used to writing short, high energy music, but this was supposed to be longer and slower and that was throwing him off, over compensating in one direction or the other. Flash sighed, he had gotten as far as he could alone, he'd have to bite the bullet and finally show his bandmates. They were going to snicker at it, it was rather sappy after...

Wham!

“Please be Twilight.” Flash groaned from sidewalk.

"Flash? Are you okay? I didn't hurt you did I?" Twilight scrambled to her feet and pulled him up.

"No, no. I'm fine. But we really have to stop meeting like this, It's getting painful." Flash grabbed his book off the sidewalk, making sure Twilight couldn't see what was written in it. If he was reluctant to show it to his best friends, he definitely did not want it's subject seeing it before it was finished.

Twilight laughed. "Oh yes, at the rate of acceleration It could be disastr...ous." Remembering why she was here, she grabbed Flash's shoulders and spun him to face her. "The sirens! Have you seen them? Where are they?"

Shocked at her sudden mood swing, Flash stammered. "W-what? Sirens? No, I don't think so." Unless you counted people who looked sort of like one from a distance, there had been no sign of the Dazzlings sense their defeat. "Sunset might know where they went, I heard she tried to find them after the Battle. You know, give them the same second chance she got." He shrugged apologetically at his rather unhelpful lead, she was going to talk to Sunset anyway. "Why? Please tell me the world isn't in danger again."

"She found them all right." Twilight glanced around, looking for any other familiar faces among the few students waiting for classes to start. She then scrutinized Flash. He had taken Twilight crashing into him in good humor instead of being enraged which meant he was not under the Sirens influence. "Do you know where my other friends are then?"

Flash checked his phone for the time. "School starts in about twenty minutes. If they're not already here, then they should be soon. Seriously Twilight, you're scaring me, what's going on?"

"Sunset says they're..."

Hey AJ! Guess who has a Birthday next month!" Rainbow Dash's voice called out.

"Here!" Twilight grabbed Flash and dived into the nearest bush, his songbook slipping from his hands in the process.

At the door Bon Bon turned to Lyra. "Should we get involved with this or...?" She wasn't sure they could help even if they wanted to.

"I'm just hoping this means Principal Celestia will let us go home."

Bon Bon pushed her friend through the door. "She won't."

"We should ask though, it's worth a shot." The mint green musician whined.

"No. No, it's really not."

Rainbow Dash came into view roller skating circles around a blatantly unimpressed Applejack, as she walked to the school. "I know what you're thinking: 'What do I get for someone who is already so awesome? Something that makes her more awesome is almost impossible. Oh, woe is me!'" As she circled Rainbow performed tricks, spinning and skating backwards . Amazing the other party was the first and only rule in Rainbow Dash's Guide to Negotiating. Which also doubled as her guide to sports, combat, music, romance and life in general. "Not to worry! There's always a way to be cooler! But how?"

"Unless it's your twenty first, you ain't touching the hard cider!" Applejack snapped.

"Why are we hiding? They're your..." Flash whispered before Twilight shushed him.

"Girls!" Applejack shouted as the rest of her friends appeared. Twilight limping behind just behind the others as glared suspiciously at Pinkie Pie, a band-aid under her left eye and bandages wrapped around her right hand. "Help me, Rainbow's begging for cider again."

"Begging?! Me?" Rainbow stopped her orbit and jabbed her chest in indignation, which pushed herself backwards down the sidewalk. "I'm far too cool for that! I'm... um, wait a minute while I come up with a cool word for what I'm doing." Rainbow Dash continued to drifted backwards while she racked her brain.

"Oh, that sounds just horrible, someone bothering you like that, right Rarity?"

"Oh, come now Fluttershy, I'm merely informing you of a second chance for us to break into the fashion scene."

"You remember I didn't want the first chance right?"

"It will go far better this time, I made Photo Finish promise to restrain herself, and keep her two gossipy friends away."

"Bartering! I'm bartering! It's not a cool word, but it's better than the others, which is close enough." Twilight grabbed Rainbow before she drifted further. "What happened to you, Twilight? You look like you lost a fight with Fluttershy's demon rabbit." Noticing she was at her destination Rainbow Dash started to take off her skates.

"Angel Bunny is a fuzzy little saint! Unless you wake him early or pet him the wrong way or give him room temperature carrots for second breakfast or..."

"I've been the victim of Pinkie Pie's juvenile sense of humor, that's what! Tricking me into studying her made up 'Pinkie Sense' to lure me into pranks."

"Tricked nothing! I told about my Pinkie Sense and you shoved a pasta strainer filled with Christmas lights on my head and followed me around like a creeper! What made you go so cray-cray about it? It's just magic, right?

"I told you! Because I can't detect what makes your so called 'Pinkie Sense' work with any of my magic scanners. Every other magic thing registers, but not that." Twilight pulled a battered handheld device, damaged from trying to study Pinkie all day yesterday, from her backpack and waved it in Pinkie's face. It made a pained whine. She pointed at the readout. "See? Just the magic of your geode. That combined with the fact that it supposedly predates Sunset's arrival means your Pinkie Sense can't be magic and must therefore be an elaborate trick. It's the only logical explanation."

"What if it's just a type of magic you can't detect yet?" Rainbow Dash offered.

Twilight shot a death glare at her. "You stay out of this! Just let me vent at this collection of bubblegum colored nonsense!" She pointed angrily at Pinkie with her scanner, It gave out an even more painful whine before something inside burst and one of the antenna popped off. Rainbow backed away towards Applejack.

Twilight cradled her broken machine in her arms like a sick baby. "My poor little invention, you had your whole operational life ahead of you. It was the good one! It can't absorb magic and threaten the world like it's prototype and you killed it!"

"I don't suppose duct tape will fix it?" Pinkie offered a roll of duct tape and the detached antenna with a weak smile.

"Oh that poor thing." Princess Twilight whispered sympathetically, she knew what it felt like to lose a creation to Pinkie's Pinkieness. "They have to be under the Siren's spell to be fighting like this." Flash meanwhile slowly inched his hand towards his book, hoping to grab it before anyone noticed.

"Come on AJ, It will be the talk of the school when I'm the first in the whole school to drink Sweet Apple Acres' famous hard cider. Think of it as advertisement!"

"You want me to break several laws and my family's trust so you can brag about it? Just how stupid are you?"

"There really is nothing I can say to make you agree to it, is there, Fluttershy?" Rarity pleaded.

"I'm very sorry Rarity but there isn't. I will not subject myself to Photo Finish again for any reason."

"Well I respect your choice in this matter, Fluttershy darling. I must say how far you have come since we first met is truly impressive. I couldn't be prouder of your..."

"The answer is still no, Rarity."

"Of course, of course darling. I see that I've crossed a line if you would think so ill of me and I won't bother you with it again." Rarity mentally made a note to get Fluttershy something to make up for her behavior. After the shoot of course, lest it be mistaken for more bribery.

She was in a bind, Photo Finish's parents worked at Canterlots premier photography studio and sometimes they enlisted their daughter to find new faces for modeling. Photo Finish took this, like most things, extremely seriously and would only accept those with "Da Magiks". Which seemed to mean crippling social anxiety. The last time had been a strain on her friendship with Fluttershy.

Her eyes fell on Pinkie Pie turning Twilight's scanner into a duck tape ball with a handle. "Oh Pinkie Pie, darling. Do you think I could get some help from your sister?"

"Huh? Which one?"

"The quiet one."

"That doesn't narrow it down."

"Hmm, you're right, compared to you, they may as while all be mute. The least rock obsessed then." It made an odd amount of sense that Pinkie talked enough for half a dozen people when her entire immediate family barely said a word.

"Limestone! She doing great, only growled at me once this morning, that's how you know she had a good nights sleep! Why?"

"No, I meant... Wait, the angry one is the least rock obsessed?" It was hard to tell when Pinkie was joking, she could say complete nonsense with a straight face and then be completely confused by normal things. Literally the only reason she ever lost a poker game was when she got bored and forgot which game she was playing.

"Yep! Limestone wants to inherit the family business because she thinks she'd be better at it than Maud or Marble or me. The rock part's just icing. Mmm icing." Pinkie stared off into space for a minute, thinking about her favorite food topping. "Yeah, Limestone only really cares about rocks because she needs to, not because she wants to. Kinda sad really."

"Doesn't care about... She threatened to break Rainbow Dash's arm when she touched a boulder during the field trip to your quarry! I'd never seen her more scared!"

"Was not! I could take her! Ten seconds flat!" Rainbow yelled indignantly while rubbing her wrist. "Didn't cause I was a guest! It'd be rude to lay her out with my wicked moves! Yeah, that makes sense." She muttered under her breath.

"Houlder's Boulder is a family heirloom and she's a wee tiny microscopically barely noticeably bit more-violently-territorial-than-an-angry-wolf." Pinkie finished quickly. "Also she likes threatening people." She beamed happily, like that wasn't terrifying.

Rarity stared agape for a second then shock her head, she could worry about Pinkie's potentially psychotic sister later. "Back on topic, would Marble be interested in doing a quick bit of modeling?"

"Don't know, you'll have to ask her. And Limestone too, can't leave her out!."

"Well played, Pinkie Pie, well played."

"Yay! What did I win? Both meanings of that sentence." Getting outwitted by Pinkie Pie was doubly embarrassing because you could never tell if she meant to do that or not.

Rarity ignored her perky pink friend for the purple genius next to her. "Twilight! How about you? Ever wanted to walk down a runway? Because I have a golden opportunity for you!"

"No." Twilight said offhandedly, distracted by pulling the duct tape off her scanner to reveal it was somehow completely fixed.

"Would you do it for me? It's a chance for my designs to be seen by the trend setters." Rarity pleaded.

"How did? That doesn't make any..." She tore her attention away from the scanner to Rarity for the sake of her own sanity. "What would that involve?" Hopefully a lot of thinking about things unrelated to Pinkie Pie.

"Remember how you acted before we all met? Withdrawn, skittish and unconfident? All you have to do is put on my dresses and act that way in front of a camera."

"You want me to relive the feelings I had during the worst years of my life? That seems unwise to say the least, especially considering the end result."

"Oh nononono! Of course not! The appearance nothing more."

"I don't know Rarity. This is definitely something I should talk to Mrs. Chrysalis about before trying."

Were it possible Rarity would have gone pale. There were two members of the Canterlot High faculty that the students genuinely feared, perhaps not coincidentally both had psychology degrees. Luna, the schools Vice-Principal and self appointed disciplinarian, was nicknamed "The Nightmare" by the more trouble prone students because she always found the culprit and ran detention like a prison. The rest called her that because of her overfondness for using a megaphone.

The other, Chrysalis the school psychiatrist, wasn't feared for her uncanny ability to blend into to a crowd or the fact she always announced her presence by suddenly speaking up from behind you. That she was the only member of the faculty to
have known about the old Sunset's antics and did nothing about it because she thought it was an interesting social experiment was not widely known. Her morbid and creepy sense of humor and decoration was mostly seen as a good thing. She and Luna organized the schools yearly haunted house, one of the few areas CHS regularly outdid Crystal Prep. (Even if the alien insect hive theme was getting repetitive.) It was a combination of all of that but mostly it was the large pet tarantula that was often perched on her head or shoulders.

For Rarity, in this situation, the part to be afraid of was her well known habit of getting overprotective of those under her direct care. No one could prove she ever did anything of course, but how else did you explain the lockers of Hoops, Dumb-Bell and Score simultaneously being infested with ants after Fluttershy started her counselling sessions two years ago? She probably wouldn't do anything over an insensitive and ill conceived idea like this. But why get on the bad side of someone who insisted, with complete sincerity, that bullet ants were cuddly?

"Twilight, dear, darling! That won't be necessary! Consider the subject dropped!" Rarity made a mental note to stock up on bug spray and ant traps the next time she went for groceries. Relying on the strength of her designs certainly wasn't wrong but lacking "Da Magiks" was the only feedback she had to work with. She would just have to hope Photo's tastes had shifted since.

As Flash's hand neared his book Twilight, the pony Princess, noticed and slapped his hand away. The resulting rustling bushes attracted the attention of Fluttershy. "Ow!"

"Shush!"

"Is someone there? You can come out I won't hurt you. Huh, whats this doing here?" Fluttershy picked up the book.

"Look, AJ, you know I can pay you back."

"That's more illegal, you multicolored moron! That's it! If I hear one more word out of your mouth about it, yer on the blacklist!"

Rainbow cocked her eyebrow at this. "Blacklist? You've got to be kidding me."

"Yep. If you keep this up your name will be along side the likes of Thuggish McColt, Brutish Hoofield, Snips and Snails, the Flim-Flam brothers and the entire Pear family!" Technically the Pear family was only on the list in spirit, their numbers matched the Apples and none of them bought apples of any kind, so listing them would have been a pointless waste of ink. Bur Rainbow Dash didn't need to know that and wouldn't have cared anyway.

"So the mall won't let my parents buy apples because you tell them to?" Rainbow Dash crossed her arms smugly, this was supposed to scare her?

"Admittedly the threats lost a lot of teeth since great grandpappy's day, but it still means you can't buy from us directly."

"I live on the other side of town, Applejack. Do I even buy anything from you at all?"

"Ya can't touch any apples on the orchard."

"You don't let me do that anyway, how is that a threat?"

"No apple slices, sauce, pie or crumble at lunch."

Rainbow reacted with mock horror. "Oh no! whatever will I do? I'll have to settle for the pudding! That the best you got?"

Applejack smiled predatorily. She knew what she had listed weren't things that Rainbow cared about, she just wanted to see if Rainbow Dash needed the real threat spelled out for her. "No cider, hard or not. Ever."

"That's... big deal! I never get any, anyway!" Rainbow Dash pouted. Living at the opposite end of town made it all but impossible to get there before they ran out of cider. No matter how early she got up or how well she planned her route there was always a hundred strong line in front of her. And of course Granny Smith refused to budge on the traditional 'first come, first serve, buy as many as you can carry' policy. All she usually got for her trouble was exhaustion and a grounding. Her parents might have been mindlessly supportive of her but there were still rules she had to follow and not running through town before sunrise was one of them.

But the cider was so good.

"It's a pity you haven't recently found a way to move faster or anything like that." Applejack dangled her own geode in front of Rainbow Dash as a reminder.

Rainbow snorted derisively. "Doesn't matter how fast I get there when everyone else was there the night before."

"We caught some of the campers pouching apples last year. So Granny made a new rule: we see you with a sleeping bag or tent, you don't get a drop."

"Really?"

"I don't lie, do I?"

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" Getting a mug on the first day of cider season was a dream she had though was impossible but now it was finally in reach. "Sweet delicious cider! Mine at last!"

"If your're not on the blacklist."

"Right, sure whatever you say." Rainbow Dash was lost in her own world. A world filled with cider. "Maybe I'll even get two mugs this year! Can you imagine it? Two whole mugs of sweet apple cider?"

"Easily." Applejack smiled. Her friend was happy and no longer annoying her, sometimes everything worked out. Except for one detail. "You can stop drooling anytime now, Rainbow."

Pinkie Pie, bored with Rarity and Twilight wondered over to Fluttershy. "Whatcha got there Flutter-butter?"

"I think it's Flash Sentry's songbook, but what is it doing on the ground?"

"I don't see a name on it. What makes you sure it's his?"

"Who else puts so much effort into song titles with puns on the word flash?"

"Me?"

"Why would you do that Pinkie Pie?"

Pinkie stared blankly at her. "I don't understand the question."

Fluttershy sighed, it was going to be one of those days with Pinkie Pie. "Is it your book then, Pinkie?"

"Nope! Never seen it before in my life. I keep mine in a triple reinforced beryllium steel vault deep beneath the Alps, guarded by robot samurai pelicans! Or a shoebox under my bed. One or the other, I forget which."

"Of course not." Fluttershy rolled her eyes at this, things were never simple with Pinkie Pie. "There's an animal in the bushes and I think it's scared of us. Please hold onto this while I calm it down."

"Okie dokie loki!" Pinkie saluted.

"Come out little fella, I just want to say hi. No one here will hurt you, they're just a little loud, but once you get past that they're very nice. Most of the time."

One of the school doors opened and out stepped a confused Sunset Shimmer. "Hey girls! Bon Bon said Twilight needs help? And Lyra thinks it will cancel school for some reason."

"Who's Bon Bon?" Twilight the human asked.

"What?!" Twilight the pony shot up and rushed to Sunset, causing Fluttershy to shriek and run behind Pinkie Pie and Rarity to jump into the arms of Twilight the human, who immediately collapsed under the sudden weight.

"How are you here when you're there?" Twilight the pony demanded from a stunned silent Sunset.

"What in Boot Hill is going on?"

Pinkie jumped up and down with her hand raised. "Ohh, ohh! Are you here to throw a surprise birthday party for Toola Roola, Archer, Sassaflash, Spot, Chance-A-Lot and/or Mr. Doodle Donkey? Because you really shouldn't do that last one. Trust me on this, bad idea."

Flash picked twigs out of his hair as he stepped out of the bushes. "Don't look at me. I never know whats going on here." He held his hand out to Fluttershy. "Can I have my book back, please?"

"Why do you name all your songs after yourself anyway?" Applejack questioned, maybe her standards were skewed by being friends with Rainbow Dash and being regularly within earshot of Trixie but he didn't seem that self-obsessed. Unlike them, none of his songs were actually about him, he just kept putting his name in the title for no apparent reason.

He shrugged. "I'm going to be embarrassed by this in twenty years no matter what happens, I might as well have fun while I can." Technically most of Flashdrive's songs were named after whoever wrote them, to help distinguish them from the cover songs, but since Flash was the main creative force behind the band the majority ended up with his name. He was more invested in it as a creative enterprise than the others, Drive Train was more interested in the fame and Backbeat just wanted to play the drums, they had mostly ran out of ideas long ago.

Twilight circled a confused Sunset Shimmer, scrutinizing her from every angle. "If I didn't know any better, I would say you really were Sunset."

"Thank you? Wait, who do you think I am?"

"The only person with the theatrical skills, vocal range, knowledge and orange skin needed to impersonate Sunset Shimmer. Adagio Dazzle!"

"...I seriously can't believe I'm asking you, of all people this, but are you on witch weed!?"

"Confess Siren!"

"Girls, a little help?"

Applejack stepped forward keep one friend from hurting another. "Twilight..."

"Prin-Light!" Pinkie declared.

"What?"

Pinkie pointed at the pony Twilight Sparkle. "She's Prin-Light!" Then she pointed at the human Twilight Sparkle. "And she's Sci-Twi!" She smiled proudly.

'Prin-light' didn't bother tuning to look at Pinkie, too busy staring at Sunset in case she attacked. "I don't like being reduced to my title, though I suppose it's better than being reduced to my species."

'Sci-Twi' shrugged apathetically. "I've had worse nicknames."

"Okay fine. Prin-Light, she can't be that singing sidewinder, we would have noticed if she was acting different."

"But Applejack, we haven't seen her since yesterday afternoon." Fluttershy noted.

"And, ahm, Prin-Light is right, Sunset and Adagio do resemble each other a great deal. Why, Sunset would look just gorgeous in purple. Preferably without all the gauche spikes though."

"And Twilight looks like the other two, too!" Pinkie Pie leaned in close to Sci-Twi, looking for any imperfections in her 'disguise' then licked her finger and ran it across Sci-Twi's cheek hoping to wash off face paint. The purple girl shuddered in disgust, she knew both where Pinkie kept that finger and what she put in her mouth.

"When she's right, she's right." Rainbow Dash agreed. "Also eww!"

"I know how to prove you're not a Siren!" Pinkie pulled a worn poster for the cafeteria's Taco Tuesday from her pocket. "What do you feel when you see this?" Sci-Twi opened her mouth. "Other than confusion at why I have it. Shesh." Pinkie rolled her eyes. Had no one ever heard of a Taco Tuesday poster related emergency?

"Phantom gastrointestinal distress. You know I'm lactose intolerant!" Sci-Twi growled.

That was enough for Pinkie. "She's not a siren!"

Fluttershy raised her hand. "Um, what about the third one?"

Pinkie Pie was instantly back in Sci-Twi's face. "Thought you could fool me didn't you, third one! Nobody makes a fool of Pinkamena Diane Pie but me!"

"Do you even know the 'third one's' name?"

"Tempo Glare, I think." Applejack guessed. For a group that hungered for the spotlight, the Dazzlings hadn't made much effort to introduce themselves.

"I mean seriously, a spiked belt! How does that even work?" Rarity wasn't paying attention to any of this, too busy critiquing the Dazzlings fashion choices to herself.

"Are we talking about the blue one now or the pink one?" To Flash, the whole thing with the sirens was a blur. Mind control wasn't kind to your short term memory, especially when you didn't want to remember what happened under it.

"There was a third one?" Rainbow Dash hadn't paid much attention to her competition at the Battle of the Bands, only remembering them as another band blown away by her awesome skill, that just so happened to be evil monsters from another world.

"She looked like a Slipstream to me, acted like one too." Pinkie mused absentmindedly.

"None of you know her name? She nearly destroyed you and you never learned her name?"

They all shrugged. "It never came up."

"Do you know anything about her at all?" Twilight crossed her arms in annoyance.

"She's purple?" Rainbow offered.

"Really more of a fuchsia, darling." Rarity corrected.

"She looked mean. Really mean. I'm sorry." Fluttershy squeaked. "I mean, I'm sorry I don't know more! Not that I think you are her, which I don't! But I am sorry I called her mean and oh dear..."

"She acted like a puppy on pixie sticks. Or was that was the other one?" Applejack did her best to remember any details about them before giving up. "Rotten to the core, either way."

Pinkie renewed her accusation. "Ah ha! Why would you care what we thought about her so much, if you weren't her? J'accuse! Tu are pas Aube!"

Sci-Twi threw up her hands. "Gah! This is ridiculous! Do any of you really believe this?"

"Nope." Her friends all agreed. Including Pinkie Pie.

They all turned to look incredulously at Pinkie Pie. "Then why?" The purple genius growled through clenched teeth.

Pinkie shrugged. "Prin-Light seemed to be having fun, I wanted to try."

Sci-Twi twitched as she fought the desire to strangle her friend for the second time in as many days. Sometimes she wondered why she left Crystal Prep. Then she remembered they put Cadence in a position of power and then she wanted to be even further away.

The aforementioned pony Princess circled, a by now thoroughly annoyed, Sunset Shimmer at the base of the steps looking for any minute flaw. "You're good Siren, but not good enough to fool me!"

"I'm not a siren! What do I have to do to convince you?"

"Tell me something only Sunset and I would know."

"Like what? What we said to each other in the kitchen at Pinkie's sleep over? What getting a Cutie Mark feels like? Celestia's first lesson?"

"The Eight Enchanted Items of Mage Meadowbrook!" Prin-light declared, grinning smugly.

Sunset blinked. "Come again?"

"Meadowbrook is considered the mother of modern enchantment, her work is the basis for everything from automatic doors to the Cloudsdale weather factory. No graduate of Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns worth her salt wouldn't be able to recite them from memory. And any graduate would also know she was born in 64 A.U, fourteen years after the Siren Sisters attacked the first Grand Galloping Gala and were banished to this world! There is no way they would know the first thing about her!"

"Fine, whatever gets this over with." Sunset took a deep breath. "The Neverlost Compass, The Purifying Crystals, The Saddlebag of Holding, The Yolk of Fortitude, The Mana Catcher, The Spell Seeing Spectacles, The Everlasting Salt Lick and The Tin Soldier. Happy?"

Prin-light stared slack-jawed. "You even listed them in chronological order!"

"Well, there is some debate over which came first, the Mana Catcher or the Spectacles."

"Revisionist nonsense! That debate was based on an out of context line in a letter to Starswirl. The Mana Catcher worked before she invented the Spell Seeing Spectacles, she just didn't know it until after, so obviously the Mana Catcher should be listed first!""

"Sure, sure whatever you say!" Sunset knew from first hand/hoof experience that the passion involved in some debates was inversely proportionate to how minute the distinction being debated was. It was something she used to enjoy exploiting. Hint she, and therefore Princess Celestia, supported one side and sit back and watch the fireworks. Hours of fun and a new batch of emotionally raw ponies to manipulate for even more fun later.

"You are Sunset!" She turned to her other friends. "But why were you all fighting each other if you aren't under the siren's spell?"

"It's Friday, after four days of school nerves get a little frayed before the weekend."

"Because there's no more school work?"

They all stared at each other. "Sure."

"I remember when I thought like that. Then I met Fleur de Lis." With what she had had to put up with at CPA, it was minor miracle that Midnight Sparkle had only been destructively curious instead of actively murderous.

"For the record what was your plan if I was Adagio?" Sunset asked.

"...Flash, Spike and Starlight hold the others off while I appeal to their true selves. Then I guess we blast you, I mean her, with rainbow magic again."

Flash glanced at the others. "Unless this Starlight is some kind of super soldier that's not doable, like at all." Taking on Rainbow Dash or Applejack one on one would have been a struggle before they gained superpowers. If certain rumors about Sunset were true than he stood no chance against her either, although a part of him still wanted to try. As for the others, if they were under mind control then their main weaknesses, low self confidence (Fluttershy and Twilight) and poor prioritization (Rarity and Pinkie Pie) wouldn't be a factor.

"If you're the real you, than who was the other you?"

"Adagio?"

"She'd have had to go through me to get to Twilight."

"Aww that's sweet Flash."

"Thanks, but I meant literally. I was sitting in front of the statue for about fifteen minutes. You were acting too panicked for whatever is wrong to have happened before that. So whatever's wrong got there before or is from your side."

"Don't do that, if you fell backwards while I was going through who knows what could have happened!"

Starswirl probably, but his notes on the matter only mentioned 'safeguards' without any elaboration or clue what they were. His papers were notoriously hard to get anything useful out of. Not reading them, while his hoof writing and style did shift somewhat over his long life, it always remained legible, albeit now archaic. But deciphering what he was talking about, he had plainly not accounted for somepony other than himself or his students reading his notes and they were a mess of self references and unexplained logical leaps. The fact he pioneered the study of time magic made things extra confusing. This all combined with the sheer volume, forgeries and a period of time where he encrypted his work out of paranoia and it was easy to see why the Cantorlot archivists had invented a filing system just for him.

"Who's Starlight?"

"Starlight Glimmer, my friendship student, she's kind of like Sunset, a powerful unicorn with a bad past working to improve herself. You'd all love her, I know because most of you already do! Ha! Multiversal humor! She's a little shy because of the whole 'founded a cult over foalhood trauma' thing but she's... not here... Why isn't she here yet?" She suddenly noticed that Starlight and Spike had yet to follow her and were therefore alone with an impostor with unknown but probably nefarious motives. She bolted towards the statue but Pinkie jumped in front of her.

"Twilight! I mean Prin-Spark, I mean Twi-Sci, I mean, gah! Whatever! Running into that thing is just going to end with a splat! The laws of Comedy, Drama and Logic all say that's what must happen. All Three! That never happens!" Pinkie pulled three small theater masks from behind her back and pointed to them in turn. The classic Comedy and Tragedy masks plus 'Logic', a mask with a straight line mouth and eyes and a crescent raised eyebrow over one of them.

"Here, let me a least get Comedy on your side." Pinkie Pie put her arm out to lean on the statue. When she didn't fall through she started loudly pointing out this fact. "See! It is completely solid! I am one hundred percent confident I will not fall comically!" Nothing. "It's out numbered two-to-one, what can you do?"

"Well thanks for not letting me run head first into a rock at least." The now marooned pony muttered halfheartedly as her friends gathered around to comfort her.

"That's the least a friend can do! Or an acquaintance. Or random bystander. Basically anyone that doesn't hate you. Which I don't! I don't hate anyone!"

Sunset dug her book out of her backpack and handed it to Twilight. "Here, you need this more than I do."

"What's that for?" Flash Sentry asked.

"It's the magic book Twilight and Sunset use to communicate through the portal. It's like a phone but it can only text and absolutely nothing else, so it's really not like a phone at all. But it's magic and works across dimensions and that's really cool!" Pinkie Pie gushed while Sunset Shimmer looked like a deer caught in the headlights.

"You mean the type of thing you told everyone you don't have?" Everyone except Princess Twilight turned on Sunset.

In retrospect, hoping Flash never found out about the book while not doing anything to keep him from it wasn't one of her better plans. "Err, that wasn't a lie when we said that. I just didn't update you when things changed after the... that's not better is it?" Everyone shook their head and glared at her disapprovingly. This sort of manipulation was supposed to be behind her.

Flash glanced at the others. "So I'm clear, none of you were in on this?"

"You know talking about books makes me sleepy."

"This is the first time we've spoken since that book report on Shaking Spear, I believe."

"..." Fluttershy squeaked inaudibly, which proved her point more than the actual words she was trying to say would have.

"I'm Pinkie Pie!" She was either offering an explanation or reminding herself of her own name. You could never tell.

"Thought you knew." Applejack shrugged, no reason not to tell him or anyone else, so she just assumed someone else had.

"Same. Also I try to avoid you. Sorry." Sci-Twi shrugged. This was the first time someone at CHS knew less than her about the schools pre-Friendship Games magical happenings.

Sunset latched unto her bespectacled friends statement like it was a life preserver. "I was doing it to help you! His pining over your counterpart was hurting both of you. I figured distance would help."

"It's not." Flash noted dryly.

"I suppose, I appreciate the sentiment." She said in a tone that made clear she didn't, she had transferred to avoid getting thrown under the bus like this. "But wouldn't that goal be better served by the opposite method? Have them meet more not less?"

"Err." That hadn't occurred to her.

"That way he and the rest of the school get better acquainted with the differences between her and me." She was still getting asked questions about 'Pony World.' Anything that stopped that was worth attempting. And if it also happened to give herself access to a second source of information about said world? All the better.

"Oh! Just like in Mirrored Passions Parts One through Three! The unspoken irony of the whole thing was that if Rose Thorn and Rose Petal could stand to be in the same room together than the love triangle with Charming Wit wouldn't have happened!"

"There's three books about a love triangle with twins? Sounds like it'd get stale fast." Applejack questioned incredulously.

"Eight, last I checked. I stopped reading after book Four introduced a triplet and just reset the whole thing. I heard the most recent introduced fairies or some such."

"And you wonder why I don't go to your book club."

"You should! Rainbow Dash recently joined and she's having a wonderful time! Aren't you, darling?"

"Yep! It's perfect! Right after practice, comfortable chairs, not to warm and best of all, no teachers. Best place in the whole school for a post exercise nap! No matter how pumped I am, when Fluttershy starts talking about manga I'm out like a light!" It wasn't that Fluttershy was a poor public speaker, when was speaking about something she cared about, like her books, she was often very engaging. But when she was talking about manga she always prefaced it by reminding everyone how it was supposed to be read, which was very, very boring. "Plus I can talk about the latest Daring Do book when I'm done my nap. Best idea I've had in awhile!"

Rarity fumed as Applejack laughed. Only Rainbow Dash would use a book club to nap and consider the whole point of it a happy bonus.

"You really should get that biblio-narcolepsy of yours looked at." How Rainbow Dash maintained the grades needed to stay on the sports teams before Twilight transferred and began helping her was a mystery to the former Shadowbolt.

"I don't use steroids! Who keeps spreading those rumors?!" Rainbow snapped.

"Probably Pixel Pizzaz." Fluttershy noted. Pixel, Violet and Photo together were the heart of Cantorlot Highs rumor mill and they didn't always care if the rumors they passed along were even close to true. A lot of Sunset's old power in the school had come from keeping them on her side, smearing her rivals and burying anything that hurt her. They weren't quite as bad now, without Sunset Shimmer or Diamond Tiara rewarding their worst habits.

"There are issues with having too many people cross over. So we should limit it to more important things than dates." She assumed, Celestia seemed to think so, but neither she nor either Twilight had found any basis for that belief. At this point less people wouldn't fix anything and more wouldn't make anything worse, certainly.

"Like you attending pubic school?" Every argument she could try was instantly undermined by her own presence.

"Exactly! Wait no! I mean..." There were reasons that she should say at CHS and Princess Twilight should minimize contact, but it was impossible to articulate them at the same time in a way that didn't come across as self serving hairsplitting. And they weren't the main reasons both were doing that anyway.

"There's only so many pages in the book and I want to save them for more important things like her Friendship Lessons and comparing the... oh road apples." In hindsight the problem with Sunset's plans was that they were made by Sunset.

"I used to be so good at lying to people, what happened?" She thought. "Oh right, a conscience."

"I recall other me saying these linked books aren't that hard to make. You could just ask for a second one, everyone wins that way. Flash and other me have a way to communicate that doesn't go through you and the portal device has a backup book. Who doesn't love redundancies?"

"Um, err, uh... Twilight! Any news?" She desperately needed the distraction to come up with an explanation and maybe think if this had been a good idea in the first place.

The Princess of Friendship simply tuned the book to her friends revealing the blackened pages. Before their eyes it slowly faded leaving only Sunset's writing.

---

"So you see, King Thorax, I cannot in good conscience leave Ponyville while both of my former students are in danger and an unknown threat rises. I'm sorry." Princess Celestia finished her apology to the changeling king as his subjects filed out of the train to stretch before continuing to their destination.

"I will not be attending as well, vile mind control is plainly at work and I am best suited to ending it." Luna added. "We have reason to believe it is one of Equestria's first foes and I will not let them escape justice again."

"How can we party while our friend is in danger?" Rainbow Dash declared. "We're staying until we know Twilight's safe!"

Pinkie Pie gasped, that this might prevent them going to the Crystal Empire was only now occurring to her. "Staying!? But we'll miss the Crystal Fair! And then the Crystal Empire will have less power! Less power means less happy crystal ponies! Less happy crystal ponies means less power next Crystal Fair!" She pulled a nearby Unreformed changeling to her chest, hugging her like she was a scared foal. "And what about the poor changelings? They're counting on this proving to all the scaredy pants's of the world that they're all nice now!"

"How did you know that?" Thorax wondered.

"I hear beating, did we put a bomb in her and not take it out after the master's defeat?" The changeling, Pixel Pizzaz, asked worriedly.

"Pinkie! Calm down darling, the Crystal Empire has been having Fairs for generations. I think they can handle one Pinkie-less Fair without entering a death spiral." Rarity and another Unreformed changeling, distinct from the others by her violet coloring where the rest were green or blue and a line of spikes along her head running from ear to ear, Violet Burr, tried to pry the unlucky changeling free.

"Why is her chest pulsing? That's not right!" Pixel wailed.

"Pinkie must party or Pinkie is not Pinkie. But I must also be loyal to friends. Rainbow Dash is loyal to friends, I am loyal to friends, therefore I am Rainbow Dash!" letting go of Pixel, which sent her flying into her would be rescuers, Pinkie slicked back her mane turning her puffy curls into a pink version of Rainbow's short mane. She bobbed up and down to mimic the pegasus flying in place.

"Is this normal?" Celestia asked. A part of her always hoped her student was exaggerating about Pinkie Pie.

"More or less." Spike muttered.

"This is a new one though." Fluttershy pointed out.

"Watch this! I bet it will impress you changelings." Rainbow Dash flew in front of her imitator and started pulling poses for Pinkie to mirrior to show off both ponies (but mostly her) abilities. "Pretty good huh?" Both of them asked.

"It's terrible! The worst impersonation I've ever seen in my life! If a nymph performed so badly at it's first day training, it would be beaten and deservedly so!" Violet pushed Rarity off herself and stomped in front of Pinkie Pie. "And the voice! It sounds nothing like him! If you want to mimic his rasps, you should be vixing your xixix, not your xixic! I don't even know how you could make that mistake! Are you even using your kixnik at all? And stop bouncing! Unless Rainbow Dash actually does that on the ground, it's just annoying."

"Him?" Rainbow Dash hadn't been mistaken for a colt sense she had hit puberty.

"But the thing with the mane is pretty nifty, right?" Spike spoke up to help Pinkie's pride.

"Yeah, I guess. How did you do that anyway?"

"I dunno." Pinkie just shrugged, her mane poofing back to normal. She never put much effort into trying to understand all the weird things she did. She was just happy they were funny.

"Feeling better Pinkie?" Fluttershy asked.

"Yeapers! Sorry bout that everypony, it's a big party we're going to miss and I don't like to miss even little parties." She suddenly perked up. "Oh! I know when Twilight gets back we'll throw our own Crystal Fair! It can double as a welcome home Twilight party and triple as a we defeated the bad guy party! We're going to need a disco ball..."

"See? She's fine. Always bounces back that one." Applejack assured the Princesses.

"Back to the topic at hoof. Can we help? After so long causing problems, it would be nice to help fix them. Changelings are nearly immune to mind control and we can search places you monoforms can't. We're perfect for stopping whatever's at work!"

"Too perfect I'm afraid, Lord Thorax." Timber noted morosely.

"I'm not your lord, Timber! Explain please."

"I'm sorry, Thorax sir." Thorax flinched at every utterance of sir. "What I mean sir, is that we have been trained our whole lives to hunt. To track, to bite, to kill. Sir, I worry that when we find this 'Human' we won't want to stop. This town is full of love, wrapped in soft, trusting flesh. It is our nature to betray trust and we have not all evolved beyond that." He did nothing to disguise the hungry look he gave the assembled ponies, eyeing them like cuts of meat.

"You worry too much Timber!" Sandalwood protested. "We've come so far, we're not going to backslide like that."

Timber pointed to the other end of the train platform where a trio of changelings, one Reformed and two not, were gathered around a rat they had dragged from under the platform and were batting it like a tiny punching bag. The rodent was obviously drained of it's love and was almost certainly dead.

"That poor mousy, is it okay?" One of the changelings chomped down on the whole rat and began chewing. "Um, nevermind."

Thorax glanced back and forth between Celestia and Timber, torn between his desire to help a friends and his worries about his subjects.

Celestia solved the dilemma for him. "Don't worry, we have no need of aid. A company of guardsponies are already in Ponyville, with her mind addled as it is, she will not hide long." Nor would she want to, no matter how much initiative a thrall was left with they would still be compelled to complete their mission, no matter the odds. Sunset would strike again and sooner rather than later. "There is however, one task I would entrust you with."

"Yes! What is it?" Thorax almost tripped over himself to agree.

"Diplomacy is new to me, but shouldn't you have asked that before agreeing, sir?" Timber asked.

"Sunset's words to Spike and Starlight imply that they are singled out as targets to her. We don't know if this because of orders or the dark magic stripping away her inhibitions and returning her to her former envious and vengeful state. Either way, I would have them go with you to the Crystal Empire."

"What?"

"We're not abandoning Twilight!" Spike took his duties as Twilight's assistant seriously. Well some of them, the important ones, not the double double check the checklist duties, those he could do without.

"If you are her target, you are in great danger. Sunset is powerful, intelligent and driven, the fact she is not in her right mind only makes her more unpredictable and dangerous. I won't leave you in danger when I can prevent it."

"If they are the target, why wouldn't she follow them?" Applejack questioned.

"Then she has to attack the train station, where we will be waiting in force. If she follows then she will have to do so on hoof over open field, even if she does elude us the spell on her should will wear off before she reaches the Crystal Empire. If they aren't her goal then there are less ponies in danger when she does show herself."

"I guess I can't argue with your reasoning Princess." Starlight reluctantly agreed, she felt terrible at the thought of leaving her teacher behind but there wasn't anything that she added to the effort to retrieve her. "She brought in a team of engineers to rebuilt Twilight's machine, if she says they don't need me, they don't need me."

Timber approved. "A plan with no non-winning moves, just what Queen Chrysalis would have done. Well, if burning down the town and forest weren't options for some reason... why aren't they options?"

"Don't talk like that please, it reminds me of mother." Thorax muttered before straightening. "You can count on me Princess! I won't let them out of my sight!"

"Siegies fall in!" Thorax yelled, at his call a dozen armored changelings rushed to his side. Their mandibled helmets marked them as the former Queens elite guard and enforcers. Thorax pointed at two of them and then Spike and Starlight. "You two! Fire Wall, Carbon Copy, you are to guard these two like they were larva."

"Rush them home at full speed and destroy anything that looks at them?"

"Not exactly like larva, just keep them safe please. The rest of you are to keep on alert, there is a threat on the loose here and I don't want anyling getting hurt or making it worse, am I clear?"

"We are immortal!" The Guardslings saluted and set to work.

"Just don't worry so much you forget to enjoy the comforts of Ponyville! We're not the fancy schmancy Crystal Empire but we got plenty to do while you stretch your bones!"

"Hisskit?" Thorax tilted his head at an angle that was not possible for a vertebrate while the other changelings erupted in a flurry of debate with each other in the changeling language. A rapid fire series of hisses, clicks, buzzes and sounds inaudible to pony ears.

The ponies (and dragon) stood there in confusion at this extreme reaction to one of Applejack's countryisms.

"Do we need to have bones to enjoy Ponyville? Because we don't." Thorax asked.

"Have bones in our bodies that is, we have plenty of other people's bones. Piles of them. 'the road to Maredor is lined with bones,' that's not a metaphor you know. Though I suppose it's a bit late to bring them now." Microchips pointed out.

Applejack did her best to hide her disgust. "Er, no you're good, it's just a saying."

"To clarify, bones don't stretch do they? And trying to stretch them is bad, right?"

"No, they're not supposed to."

"I told you! Next time listen to the changeling with the torture degree!" Sandalwood declared to his fellows smugly.

"You have a degree in torture?" Luna asked, understandably concerned.

"The changeling education system doesn't have other ways to learn about fleshling biology. Didn't like it but I figured it would help get my biology doctorate."

The group stood in awkward silence at the reminder of the Changeling Kingdom's evil. Everyling here was until recently a servant of the most infamous evil empire in the world. They were all trained from birth to inflect horrors on every other living creature, that they were repentant didn't change what many of them had done in service to their Queen. Or how eager many of them had been to obey.

"So... Everylings off the train! Micro, Sandalwood start distributing the spending bits to everyling..." The sound of beaking glass rang out from inside the train station and a changeling scampered out to cower behind Thorax. "And pay for whatever he just broke. As if I can't guess." He sighed tiredly.

The owner of the train station gift shop chased the changeling out. "This rotten bug just broke all my snowglobes!"

"He admits it! He spreads cold! Evil! All must burn!"

"All must burn! All must burn!" The small army of changelings cried out.

"No! No burning! Visiting Friends 101: 'Guests don't burn their host's things', remember?" The crowd groaned at this, what was the point of visiting new places if you couldn't see them burn? Thorax turned to the changeling that had started this, still hiding behind him. "It's not real snow, the ponies just like looking at frozen hellscapes."

Every changeling in earshot looked at him in confused horror. "I don't get it either, I think it's a dominance thing."

The ponies shared worried glances with each other. If this was how they reacted to snowglobes of all things, how would they handle the fact ponies made real snow? "No tours of the Weather Factory." Celestia whispered to Rainbow Dash.

"No tours, got it."

The Princess of the Sun rose to her full height. "I shall leave the tour of Ponyville to those more acquainted with it than myself. I need to check up on the engineering team."

"But you just left the castle." Pinkie noted before Rarity shushed her.

"King Thorax, I still look forward to visiting your fair kingdom, I will see to it that this unfortunate incident will not interfere with that. In fact I will spend an additional day there as apology for not attending the Crystal Fair with you. Please do not worry about us and enjoy your stay." She bowed politely and turned to leave.

The twin Princesses walked away toward Twilight's Castle. "Luna, you have seen into the dreams of the changelings, I assume?"

"With difficulty, their minds blur together when they dream, it is hard to tell where one ends and another begins. Of course as shapeshifters, their view of themselves is more fluid then most, which makes it harder for me to tell what is dreamer and what is dream. After our release the changelings that watch over their dreams gave me a tour, it has made it only slightly easier."

"What have you been able to see?"

"Nothing less than a picture of hell. Flames that consume the world, shadows that choke all light, deafening screams of pain and fear from uncountable sources. A molten, evershifting world of ash and agony."

"Such horrible nightmares! What can we do to help?"

Luna stared her sister straight in the eye. "I was talking about their happy dreams. Their nightmares are somewhat more pedestrian, worries that Thorax will betray them, that we will betray them, their Queen's vengeful return, invasion by literally every other life form, a metallic squid monster heralded by the cries of infants, cold in all it's forms, clowns. They really seem to hate clowns for some reason. What has always cheered them up is destruction and cruelty that would make your blood run cold."

"From what I've seen of their collective subconscious they are ruled by paranoia and sadism. They treat pain and fear like we do candy. Sister, I fear this peace will not long outlive Thorax, if not by Chrysalis than by their very nature."

Celestia sighed. "Than we must work all the harder to maintain it. For them as much as us. They genuinely what to be better, I won't deny them the chance simply because it's a hard road."

Luna looked unconvinced, it would be hypocritical of her to deny them a second chance but she was the cynic of the Royal Sisters and her pessimism told her 'hard road' was an understatement. "Easier said than done. Just keep them away from anything flammable."

"I presume they are easily amused by fire?"

"It is their religion. It is the entirety of their religion."

"I was hoping to give them a gift to make up for missing the Crystal Fair. It seems a bonfire will do nicely. I'll order a supply of Rainbow Falls lumber and have it delivered to the Changeling Kingdom, It should arrive before I have to leave. I know a spell that creates a giant lens, if I line it up with the Sun just right..."

"They will love it. Be sure to make a speech with lots of fire metaphors when you do it."

"I know plenty, the Sun Cults loved using them in their praise of me. The difficulty will be not sounding creepy while I do it." Normal she avoided using the rhetorical flourishes of her would be worshipers, but this felt like time to make an exception.

"That would be a plus to them, I think."

"If whoever is responsible for this is hoping to put an end to Equestrian/changeling peace, they shall be very disappointed. And in jail."

---

Rarity's father stomped to the river, his fishing gear floating beside him. He needed to clear his head, he had nearly yelled at his wife just for cleaning his old trophies. He didn't even know why. Sure they were precious to him, a unicorn athlete was considered an oxymoron by most so the proof he not only existed but excelled were his most valued possessions, but Cookie could handle a feather duster. She had done so countless time over their marriage, so why was he suddenly consumed with fear that she would destroy them?

He stuck a piece of cheese on the plastic hook (he didn't want to hurt the little fishies, just feed them and play a little game of tug-a-war.) and cast it into the river. Almost immediately he felt his frustrations start to fade as he watched the bobber bob. It was hypnotic really, felt like his cares were floating away with the water. He whistled a tune, he didn't know the words to it or remember where he heard it, only that it refused to leave his brain.

So hypnotic he almost didn't notice when a fish began pulling on the line. It took him a second to start reeling it in. "A lot sooner than normal, must be young and reckless." He thought with a smile, reminded him of himself when he was young. "If it wants to make things harder on itself by not waiting for me to nod off, I'm not going to complain." He prepared for the familiar pulling match when the fishing rod was ripped from his hooves and disappeared under the river water.

It shot back up seconds later, snapped in two. As he fished his fishing rod out of the river, wondering what sort of fish could or even would want to do this, he didn't notice the large dark shape moving below the surface.

"Ahh, ahh. You didn't know that you fell...urp! Under our spell..."