The Phoenix Queen
Seeing the danger was over, Principal Cinch peered out from the stands she'd been hiding behind. Not seeing any immediate threats, she stood tall and straightened out her jacket before walking up to Principal Celestia.
"Principal Celestia, on behalf of Crystal Prep, I demand that you forfeit the Friendship Games! Clearly, CHS has had unfair advantage for quite some time! And it's certainly obvious that your students have been using magic for their own benefit!"
Vice Principal Luna and Dean Cadence turned to see where the commotion was coming from, while Celestia gave a sly smile. "I'd like to think that saving the world benefits us all."
More students from both schools where now approaching, eager to see what was going on, now that the danger had passed. Sugarcoat was the first to speak up, her voice deadpan as usual. "At least they didn't manipulate Twilight into releasing all the stolen magic and turning into a power-crazed magical creature that tried to rip the world apart just to win a game."
Pinkie gave her a flat stare. "Wow! That's a lot to take in when you say it all at once."
Impressively, it only took Cinch a short moment to regain her voice. "That's ridiculous!"
"Nope," Spike interjected in a deadpan that rivaled Sugarcoat's, "that's pretty much what happened."
"Actually, we're all to blame." Sour Sweet fell in saccharinely, before falling into a deep grumble. "Mostly it was her."
Principal Cinch could see that she was losing ground, but she still had one ace up her sleeve. "Obviously my students have been infected with your magic, but I plan on taking all of this up with the school board!"
"Good." Celestia fell in with a sweet smile. "I'm sure they would be very interested in hearing all about the magical students with wings."
"Oh," Luna continued, immediately understanding where her elder sister was going with this. "and the portals to different dimensions."
Cadence equally picked up on Celestia's meaning. "And don't forget to tell them about the talking dog," she managed before having to suppress a giggle.
Said talking dog simply had to get in on the fun as well. "Because that would never ruin your reputation."
Principal Cinch tensed up as she looked to the gathered students and faculty, her one trump card thoroughly rebuffed, then simply stood up straight, unnecessarily smoothed out her clothes again, turned around and walked off, the circle of students parting to let her go between sly smiles and barely suppressed giggles.
As soon as she was out of sight Celestia spoke up again. "Well, I know these Friendship Games haven't been what any of us expected, but given what we've all just been through, I think it's fair to declare us all winners."
The gathered students erupted in cheers.
Twilight sat alone on the steps up to the entrance to CHS. After a few moments she looked up as she heard footsteps approaching her. She turned just in time to see Dean Cadance sit down beside her.
"I guess that was one way to finish up your time at Crystal Prep. Pretty sure Cinch will be fast-tracking your application after all of that."
Twilight gave her a sheepish smile. "I've been thinking about it and ... I'm not so sure now is the time for me to apply to Everton."
"Really?"
"I may know about a lot of things, but friendship isn't really one of them. And I'm definitely not gonna learn more about it by being alone all the time."
"So, you're staying at Crystal Prep?"
"Well, it seems the students here at CHS know an awful lot about the subject. I don't suppose ..."
"You could transfer to this school instead."
"Really?"
"You'd certainly be missed at Crystal Prep. But I think that's a great idea! I'll be sure to speak to Principal Celestia about it right away." As she spoke, Cadence, for the first time, took a closer look at the girl before her. "Say Twilight, did you dye your hair?"
Twilight gave her a confused look. "No, why?" She picked up a strand of hair from beside her face and gazed upon. "I don't see anything wrong, but I can't see much of anything at this distance."
Cadence quickly reached into a pocket and pulled out a small mirror. "Here, have a look."
Twilight took it and looked upon her reflection, then stopped. For a good few seconds she simply sat there, not believing what she saw, the dual strands of pink and purple that ran through her hair had been replaced by brilliant orange and soft vanilla. But that was only the beginning.
Both of them took a closer look and found other things out of the ordinary. The first thing they noticed elicited a small gasp from both of them. Twilight's eyes retained their rich purple color, but they had reshaped into reptilian slits. Cadence was growing worried rather quickly, while Twilight was caught between fear and curiosity. As her mouth fell open in surprise, she noticed another detail. while she didn't have fangs per-se, her upper canines had grown noticeably longer and more pointy. Worriedly she looked herself over in more detail but couldn't find any further changes.
"Huh," she finally managed, "seems like turning into a rampaging magical monster has some side effects." She looked at Cadence. Seeing her frantic worry, she placed a calming hand on her shoulder. "Cadence, breathe."
Snapped out of her panic, Cadence looked up at her. Then took a deep breath placing her right hand on her own chest, mimicking the motions she herself had taught Twilight all those years ago.
Once she had recovered from her onsetting panic, she spoke up again. "Okay, all of ... that actually looks kinda nice. We just need to make sure there aren't any side effects."
Twilight nodded in agreement. "It'd probably be best to ask Sunset Shimmer and the others about that. It sounded like they encountered magic before."
"That's probably a good idea. I'll go talk to Celestia and see about getting things underway."
Sunset stood surrounded by her friends near the spot where half an hour earlier there had been a hole in the ground. They had by now fetched their bags from inside the building and some of the other CHS Students were already departing, while the students from CPA were filing back into the busses that would take them home. Sunset had taken the magical journal out of her bag and was quickly flicking through her correspondence with Queen Twilight, looking for the latest messages.
Looking over her shoulder Fluttershy scanned the pages. "Still no word from Queen Twilight?"
"Not yet. But I think I may have figured out how magic works in this world. We pony up when we're showing the truest part of ourselves. I was so busy waiting for someone else to give me the answers that I gave up looking for them myself. I'm sure there will be more magical problems that pop up in this world, but like Applejack said, Queen Twilight has her own problems to worry about in Equestria. We can't expect her to always be around to help us."
"But maybe I can be?" Unnoticed by all of them Twilight had approached the group.
Principal Celestia was trailing behind her. "It seems we have a new Wondercolt here at Canterlot High!"
Twilight timidly looked at the gathered girls. "I'm not sure how much help I could be. But I'd like to try. If you would all give me a chance."
Celestia looked over Twilight's shoulder at Sunset "I'm sure I can count on you girls to help her feel at home."
Sunset put an arm around Twilight's shoulder and smirked at the Principal. "You sure can." Pinkie quickly gathered up the others in her arms and enclosed Twilight and Sunset in a large group hug. Satisfied, Celestia turned and walked back towards the school.
After the group hug had dissolved, Twilight turned to Sunset. "Sunset?"
"Yes?"
"I had question."
"You're one of us now, Twilight. Ask away."
"Well, after we turned back, thanks for that by the way, I noticed some ... residual effects."
Sunset gave her a confused look. "Residual ... What do you -" She cut off as she noticed Twilight's slitted pupils. "Whoa. That's new."
"Exactly, I don't really mind it, but I want to make sure there aren't any side-effects." She twirled a lock of hair around her finger, drawing attention to the vanilla and orange strands running through it.
Sunset was silent for a moment. "Hmm, I don't think there would be ..." She finally ventured. Then she visibly perked up. "In fact, I think I know what's going on here. Oh, but explaining it might take a while, and it's getting late."
Twilight, looked around, confused. "Huh? Oh right, improved night vision, still getting used to that. So when would you say?"
Sunset thought on that for a moment. "Well tomorrow is a Saturday. How about noon at the statue?" She suggested pointing over her shoulder at the marble pedestal and the noticeable absence of a statue.
"Uh, Sunset?" Applejack piped in. "There really ain't much of a statue anymore."
Twilight visibly winced as Sunset looked over her shoulder. "Oh right, That'll take some getting used to. Oh well, at least the facáde is still in place this time."
Twilight was pulled out of her self-deprecating considerations by those words. "Huh, what would the facáde have to do with anything?"
Now it was Sunset's turn to give a sheepish smile. "It's a long story. I'll tell you with the rest of the story."
The next morning, some few minutes before noon, The seven girls and one dog sat on and around a quilt laid out before the now statue-free plinth that served as this world's terminus to the trans-dimensional gateway connection. Sunset and Applejack were leaning against the smooth marble, enjoying the food and drink they had brought along. Twilight and Fluttershy were busying themselves with Spike. Rarity was occupied dealing with Rainbow's hair, a fact the chromatic girl with the currently purple face was wholeheartedly disapproving of. That she could feel everyone's silent amusement didn't help either. Pinkie was lounging atop the plinth, a drink standing beside her watching the spectacle, none of the other's needed their newfound empathy for each others' emotions to know that she was enjoying their antics.
Suddenly the portal between them lit up and a second Twilight stepped out, stumbling like all the times before, but prepared for the inertia this time. They had never quite gotten around to finding out just why the portal seemed to expel travelers at such speeds. Not that she cared about that for the moment.
"I'm sorry I didn't come here sooner. I didn't get your messages until just now because between the foalnapping and the trial I needed some time with my family and I didn't get back to my room on the Phoenix the entire week." Her hasty explanation that was opening up more questions than it was answering cut short as she found herself opposite a copy of herself. "Huh, I guess if I wasn't used to others looking just like me this would be really weird. So I take it the usual happened then?" She gave a questioning look to Sunset who had gotten up from her seated position and was now standing beside her.
"A magical demon transformation?" Twilight gave her a nod prompting Sunset to continue. "Yup, an unintentional one this time."
"Huh, unintentional, how novel ..." Queen Twilight gave her a sly grin before turning to her counterpart, still staring wide-eyed at the apparition before her. "Twilight Sparkle, I presume?" At the mute nod her counterpart gave her she continued. "Yeah, me too, Queen Twilight Sparkle of - Well of nowhere quite yet, my hive is still confined to an airship for the time being, we're working on that. A pleasure to meet you."
Twilight stared at the mirror image standing before her, then took the offered hand. Slowly she turned to Sunset. "Is she part of the 'long story' you promised to tell me?"
Sunset and the others giggled at that. "Yeah, kinda is."
The next few minutes where spent giving Queen Twilight a summed up version of the events the day prior had brought, ending on Sunset saying: "And since then we've found out that we could suddenly feel each other's emotions, kinda like your empathy."
Queen Twilight looked a bit surprised by that. "Huh, that's interesting. Hold on." She closed her eyes and focused on her psychic senses. "Oh my, that is interesting. It's like a weaker version of a Hive Mind that only transmits emotions. I guess that accounts for it only working between you."
The others seemed surprised by that revelation, especially her own counterpart. "Wait, Hive Mind? What?"
"Okay ... we'll really need to bring her up to speed on this, won't we? Now I might be able to work with that, provided I ... Yeah, that'll do. Sunset?" At the girl's questioning look she continued. "Can you set it up like last time? The Barn's still free, isn't it?"
"Course it is, Twi," AJ piped in. "But why're you askin’?"
The others had similar looks of confusion, though Sunset quickly gained one of understanding. "You improved the spell, didn't you?"
"And the gatekeeper, that way the portal won't be wide open but will keep the link going. Could you see if the sirens have time too? I still have something for them."
Sunset quickly nodded. "Yeah, they should have time, we'll let them know."
"Okay then, I'll go set things up on my end, could you at least give her the general run-down of Equestria in the meantime?" At a sole nod from Sunset she turned around. "Okay then, see you soon girls." And without another word, she turned to the gateway and was gone in seconds.
While Sunset was still looking at the portal, the others turned to one another. Finally it was Fluttershy who asked what they were all thinking. "Uhh, what just happened?"
Sunset turned around with a smile. "I'm not quite sure. But if it's anything like what I think it is, you'll like it. AJ can you get the barn set-up like last time?" A nod from the farm girl. "Okay, then I'll get the journal. Rainbow, can you fetch the Dazzlings?"
"Sure thing."
"Okay, Rarity, Fluttershy, can you show Twilight the way to Sweet Apple Acres and give her the general idea of Equestria, I don't want Queen Twilight to scare her too much."
"Of course, darling."
"Good, Pinkie can you get us snacks?"
"As if you even need to ask."
"Good, we'll meet there in half an hour. Sound good?"
There was a round of nods before the group quickly split apart, leaving Rarity and Fluttershy behind with Twilight.
Twilight herself was baffled by the quick change in plans. "Not meaning to be repetitive here but ... What just happened?"
Rarity just smiled at that. "You'll find that out soon enough. For now, come along dear, we have quite a few things to tell you."
Merily talking, the three set off to follow Applejack to Sweet Apple Acres, Spike trailing behind them.
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How is Rainbow gonna find the Dazzlings? They disappeared & forgotten faster than Firefly!
Phoenix Storm and Storm Phoenix: the official eyes and ears, and sometimes mouths, for the Queens of Phoenix Roost.
9087254
Well, as far as I'm concerned the Dazzlings are still in town and friends with the Rainbooms, as described in the early chapters of AQP - Correspondence. They just don't go to CHS as they are slightly too old for that. (If you're still in school after several centuries something has gone terribly wrong.)
9088076
Fair enough.
9089067
Ah right, the Phoenix King ... I forgot about that ... good thing that human Pop-Culture doesn't affect the world of MLP ...