MLP - Equestria Girls: The Magic of Friendship

by MLPEG Lover

Missing Magic

In Twilight Sparkle's bedroom, Spike continues to sleep peacefully in his bed. He rolls around a couple times until finding the perfect position to continue his rest. His peaceful sleep is cut short though once a giant explosion goes off. The explosion may have been quite a ways away from the house, but it still didn't go unnoticed. Spike's eyes shoot open at the sudden noise, and he jumps straight up out of his bed. "Wh... What the, huh, who what where." He then gathers his barring's and hurries to get outside. He runs out on the front yard and can see in the distance a pillar of light raging into air. Based on the direction it was coming from, and from past experiences, he knows it could only be coming from one place. Obviously, the place where Twilight and her friends are. "Well, that can't be good."

---

Waves of Equestrian magic continue burst from out of the stone block in the CHS courtyard. Standing in front of the block, the mysterious man in the black coat, wielding a crystal tipped spear, is watching in awe as the swarm of magic got bigger and bigger. He then turns his attention to the six girls in front of him. He feels a wave of joy overcame him as he then shouts out to them. “Girls you’re here!” He says with excitement. “Look at what I’ve done. Isn’t it incredible?!”

“Incredible?!” Applejack says with a mixture of anger and confusion.

“What part of this is incredible?” Rainbow Dash adds. “You better fix this or else…” Before Rainbow Dash could finish her threat, the mysterious man snaps his fingers, and her hands are forced over her mouth. No matter how hard she tries, she just can’t pull her hands away.

The mysterious man face palms himself and then says, “Oh, where are my manners? I haven’t even introduced myself. Hmm, our current situation seems to indicate that I’m the villain of our little story. So, I need a name that fits the role. Like Dark Mage, or Chaos Lord, or…” He takes a minute to think and then gasps with excitement. “Nightshade,” he says quietly. “You all can call me Nightshade! That name just screams evil wouldn’t you all agree?”

While Fluttershy is trying to help Rainbow Dash get her hands off her mouth, Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie steps forward to confront the cloaked villain. “We don’t care what you call yourself,” Twilight says. “Look at what you’ve done.”

“I’ve already said how incredible it is Twilight,” Nightshade says. “Was that not a strong enough word? Oh, sorry were you about to give the whole, this is magic I do not understand bit.” Nightshade snaps his and Rainbow Dash’s hands are finally freed from his magical grip. Subsequently, all six girls are magically pulled together with their backs all facing each other and are all constricted in a ring of magical energy.

The girls all struggle to get free but then start to rise off the ground. Nightshade uses his index finger to gesture for them to come closer to him and the girls do just that as they quickly floated over to him. He spins the girls around until Twilight is the one facing him. “Well let me tell you something Twilight,” Nightshade says. “I know exactly what this magic is and what it’s capable of. And you’re not gonna tell me otherwise,” he says in a more aggressive tone. "Now I know about you Twilight –“ Nightshade swipes his finger in the air from right to left, and the group of girls turn clockwise so now Rainbow Dash is turned to him “- and you Dash.” He turns to Applejack. “Don’t know you –“ Then Pinkie Pie. “- or you.” Then Rarity. I know of you. He turns to the last girl, Fluttershy. “And you –“ He takes a minute to get a close look at her face. “- could be a problem,” he murmurs.

Nightshade flicks his finger, and the six teenage girls go flying back, landing in front of the steps of the school. On the bright side they were also freed from the magical ring that was binding them. “Now let me show you something really cool.” He raises his spear and points it directly at Fluttershy. The crystal tip of his spear begins to glow and Fluttershy once again rises off the ground, glowing a bright yellow aura. Suddenly that aura begins to leave her body and all her magic along with it.

Fluttershy falls back on to the ground, feeling completely drained. Her friends all run to her aid, and they all watch as the magic stolen from her body turns into a yellow wisp of magic. The wisp flies into Nightshade’s hand and he closely observes it. “This little one is kind and sensitive,” he says referring to the wisp. “She can let me speak to any beast in any world.” He ponders at what he just says and then says, “You’re good little one, but with my help you can be perfect.” He waves his hand all around the wisp and it start to change, almost as if it was mutating. The bright yellow it once glowed was now dark and the wisp actually looks like it’s in pain. He forces the wisps into his chest and the magic that comes with it is absorbed into his body.

The girls all gasp at the sight as the magic flows through him. Nightshade looks over and spots a red bird in a nest in the tree. “Come here now,” he demanded to the bird. The bird couldn’t help but obey him. As if it was put under a spell. Actually, it was exactly like that. The bird flies down and perches itself on Nightshade’s spear.

“Huh, Ricardo,” Fluttershy weakly says in distress.

“Watch this girls!” Nightshade says with excitement. He raises his arm and a red wisp of magic flies out of his oversized sleeve. “Isn’t magic just the greatest?!” The wisp flies into Ricardo and the bird suddenly starts to act crazy. Flying all around Nightshade in pain and confusion. Ricardo starts to fly aimlessly as smoke starts to appear from off his body. This kept on until suddenly, the bird bursts into flames leaving nothing but a pile off ash.

The girls all once again gasp in horror and Fluttershy is brought to tears. Even Nightshade is confused as to what just happened. “Huh, that wasn’t supposed to happen,” he says looking at the pile of ash. But then, flames start to form from out of the pile of ash and in a burst of flames, and emerging from the flames comes a new creature emerges soaring high into the sky. A giant flaming bird with red and gold feathers. Ricardo has become a phoenix.

The girls couldn’t believe their eyes and Nightshade bursts into a hysterical laughter. “Heh, heh, Hah-Hah-Hah-Hah!! Oh man, I did not see that coming!” He exclaims. “Magic really is the greatest!” The phoenix lands right behind Nightshade, waiting for his orders. “Now listen up Ricardo. Those girls over there are our enemies. Rain fire down on them.”

---

Sunset ‘s eyes slowly start to open. Her vision is blurry for a second, but then start to clear and she can know see the ceiling of the CHS hallway. Her head feels woozy and as starts to get off the hard floor of the hallway. Obviously, something weird and magical had to be going on. Again. She has trouble getting up as she feels something lying on top of her. She raises her head up and sees two strange unconscious people on top of her, one on her left side the other on the right. “Hey, wake up!” Sunset says with little success. "Hello." She struggles to get from under the two people. “I said wake up!” She raises her left side as much as she can, lifting the girl in red, E1, up and shaking her awake.

E1 groans as she starts to come to. She looks down and sees a very unhappy Sunset Shimmer. Once she realizes exactly who she was looking at, she quickly stood up and began to groan. “Ugh, you have got to be kidding me,” she says with much aggravation.

Sunset slides from up underneath the remaining unconscious girl and gets up on her knees. She shakes her head to fully regain her bearings and tries to wake up the girl in 1blue. “Are you okay? Hey, come on wake up. Wake up.”

“Hey! You Get Away From Her!” E1 yells pushing Sunset away. She turns her attention to her sister, still lying on the floor, kneels down, and gives her a little shake. “E2 wake up.” The girl doesn’t budge. She shakes her again this time a little hard. “E2 get up right now!”

E2’s body begins to stir. She rolls over on her back and the starts to mumble half asleep, “Oh, Mom I don’t wanna go to school today. Her eyes start to shutter before fully opening. E1 sighs with relief while her sister sits up and takes a good look at her surroundings. “Nuts.”

E1 shakes her head a little says and helps her sister to her feet. “Come on, let’s go do our job.”

Sunset has no idea why two strange girls wearing neon lighted space suits are here in her school, but she knows they have to have something to do with whatever is going on outside. And she needs to know exactly what. “Wait, hold on.” The two sisters begin to walk outside until Sunset places her hand on E1’s shoulder to prevent them from leaving. She tries to use her magic to see into her mind to maybe get a few answers, but to her surprise, nothing happened. She tries again, but still nothing.

“If you’re trying to read my mind, you’re wasting your time,” E1 says.

“What,” Sunset says taking a step back. She doesn't know what's more surprising. That her magic didn't work, or that this strange girl knew she was trying to use them “But how did…”

“Our suits protect us from that,” E2 explains. “You wouldn’t believe how many times we have to deal with mind related magic.”

Sunset runs in front of the two strangers and holds her arms out to stop them from leaving. Since her magic didn't woks, she'll just have to get answers the old fashion way. “Who even are you two? And why…”

“Look!” E1 cuts off Sunset. “Right now, we have a magic crazed lunatic out there and we need to do something." E1 forcibly shoves pushes Sunset out of the way, wanting absolutely nothing to do with her any longer. "You… You..." She takes a deep breath before she finishes her sentence. "You should just stay here... where it’s safe… please.” E1 lowers her head a little but shakes off whatever it is she's feeling and just continued to walk outside.

E2 looks at her sister and whispers to her, “Sis don’t you think we…”

“No.” E1 says.

"But that was Sunset Shimmer. Shouldn't we..."

"I said no!"

There's clearly no point in trying to convince her sister. E2 decides that it's just best to let it go.

The two girls walk out leaving Sunset thinking about the last words said to her. Just then, the sounds of doors opening could be heard all around her as students started to leave their classrooms to see what all the commotion was outside. Before Sunset knew it, she was being bombarded with questions.

“What’s going on out there?”

“Is that a flaming bird outside?”

“What’s going on this time?”

“Is there anything we should do to help?”

“When are you finally gonna put an end to all this magic stuff?”

“Everyone, just stop!!” Sunset shouts. The crowd goes silent. “Just, uh… let us handle this. You all just stay here where it’s safe, please.”

Sunset runs outside and finds out that it’s even worse than she thought it would be. The Rainbooms are trying to stop the giant phoenix, but that’s easier said than done. Meanwhile the Equestria Girls duo are working on capturing Nightshade, and they’re actually have even worse luck. They try to attack him, and he just keeps teleporting away. He eventually teleports in front of the stone block and looks up at the swirling vortex of magic above him. “Maybe I’ll just absorb all the magic coming out of this stone,” he says.

“Oh no you won’t!” E1 exclaims. She uses her powers to put a forcefield around the stone, blocking him off. As more and more wisps try to emerge from the stone, it gets harder and harder to hold the forcefield together.

Nightshade looks to the girl responsible for the forcefield and is annoyed that they're here, but also knew they'd be coming.

Sunset runs to the people nearest to her, Pinkie Pie and Rarity, and asks them, “What’s going on out her?’

“Oh, you know, some guy using Equestrian magic in order to fulfill his own ambitions and know we’re fighting him in order to save the world from complete and total annihilation. The usual.” Pinkie explains in her usual Pinkie manner.

Just then a wave of fire comes straight for the three girls, but Rarity puts up a diamond shield to protect them.

“Oh, is that all?” Sunset says deadpans.

“Oh, and that guy stole Fluttershy’s magic and is using it to control that big birdie thing.” Pinkie says.

“What!!” Sunset exclaims. She looks over to Nightshade and furrows her eyebrows. And runs straight for him. She doesn’t get very far before the Pheonix blazes a trail of fire right in her way. The phoenix sets his sights on Sunset and swoops down on her. Before it can get its talons on her Rainbow Dash rushes in and pulls Sunset out of the way. The phoenix keeps dive bombing until it crashes on the ground.

“You okay Sunset?” Rainbow asks.

“Yeah, thanks Rainbow Dash,” Sunset answers.

“Hey, it’s what I’m here for.”

Fluttershy runs to the head of the phoenix. “Ricardo listen, you don’t have to do what the man tells you to do.” Ricardo stands back on his feet and his wings start to ignite with flames. He strikes at Fluttershy with one of his flaming wings, but before it could make contact, A rope is raps around Fluttershy and she is suddenly pulled to safety.

The person who pulled her to safety is of course Applejack. “Careful Fluttershy,” she says. “Ya ain’t got your magic. He won’t listen to ya anymore.”

Nightshade looks in Sunset’s and Rainbow’s direction and snaps his fingers and vanishes. E1 and E2 look around to see where he went and find him right behind Sunset and Rainbow. He raises his spear at Rainbow Dash and is about to do to her what he had already done to Fluttershy. “Rainbow Dash look out behind you!!!” E2 shouts as she and her sister try to run to the rescue.

Rainbow and Sunset look behind him and see Nightshade with his spear glowing just as it did before. Rainbow Dash pushes Sunset out of the way and Nightshade starts to drain her magic. She rises off the ground and glows a bright blue aura.

“Rainbow Dash!” Sunset charges at him, trying to save her friend, but Nightshade snaps his fingers, and she is teleported above the E1 landing on top of her. With E1’s concentration broken, the forcefield around the stone block disappears and magic continues to burst out of it.

The blue aura begins to leave Rainbow’s body along with her magic. The magic transforms into a blue wisp of magic. Rainbow Dash falls to the ground and is completely drained.

He raises the wisp to his face and says, “Loyal and competitive. With super speed to boot. This little one is cool, but I think I can make her at least hmm, twenty percent cooler wouldn’t you say.” He waves his hand all around the wisp and changes it just as he did to the one he obtained from Fluttershy before. He absorbs the wisp and time suddenly slows down around him. “Well, this is interesting. Is this how fast I am, or did time slow down around me?” He looks over to Pinkie and Rarity. “Either way, now I can speed things along. With his newly obtained magic, he drains the magic of the two girls. He snaps his fingers and time returns to its normal speed.

The two girls fall to their knees and feel really weak. “What, what just happened?” Rarity asks.

“I don’t know,” Pinkie weakly says. “But I feel like a deflated soufflé.”

“Funny and generous,” Nightshade says now holding a pink and a white mutated wisp. “You know what’s funny, how generous you two are to share this magic with me. Actually, that wasn’t funny at all. Maybe absorbing the pink one’s wisp will help my sense of humor.” He absorbs both wisps and obtains both magical powers.

A bunch of students are watching everything going on from inside the school through the glass doors. They watch silently, aside from the frequent gasps and awes, until a certain blue haired guitarist, Flash Sentry, speaks up and says, “We shouldn’t just be standing here and watching, we should try to help them.” Flash, followed by a few other students, run out in hopes of helping out, only to be stopped by a towering wall of diamonds, as tall as the school, emerging from the ground. The wall moves back, forcing all the students back into the school.”

The diamond wall Is created by Nightshade, using an enhanced version of Rarity’s magic. “Sorry, no uninvited guests,” Nightshade says.

The phoenix continues to soar until his ankle is caught within Applejack’s rope. He keeps trying to fly away, but Applejack’s super strength held him back easily. “I think I got him,” she says with confidence. All of a sudden, Applejack starts to rise and glow an orange aura, simultaneously letting go of the rope. Fluttershy looks behind her and sees Nightshade draining her magic.

“A wisp that truly embodies honesty,” Nightshade says, now in possession of Applejack’s magic. “And super strength doesn’t sound too bad either.” He absorbs the wisp and once again teleports away.

The phoenix ignites his body in flames and the rope catches fire as well before burning to ash.

“Now what?” Fluttershy asks, as she helps Applejack to her feet.

E2 runs up beside Applejack and Fluttershy and an energy lasso forms in her right hand. “Let me try,” she says. Just as Applejack did before, E2 lassos the ankle of the phoenix. Though unlike Applejack, she wasn’t strong enough to hold the giant bird back and is pulled into the air, holding on to the rope for dear life.

“Who the heck was that?” Applejack asks.

“Is she going to be okay?” Fluttershy asks.

They suddenly hear the sound of joyful laughter coming from above them and look up to see E2 actually enjoying what she’s doing. “I think she’s uh, having fun,” Applejack says.

“Woo-hoo!!! This is awesome!” E2 exclaims with joy. She forms another lasso in her left hand and raps the end of it around the neck of the phoenix. Her right hand let’s go and uses rope in her left hand to swing above the phoenix and land on his back. The flames of the phoenix ignite but her suit seems to be protecting her, for the most part. “As if this suit wasn’t hot enough already. But I guess these flames could feel worse. And who else can say they rode on the back of a phoenix.” E2 pulls out a circular device and starts to drain the magic out of the phoenix. He starts to riot in protest and E2 is almost thrown off quite a few times.

Twilight runs to Sunset Shimmer, who was still lying on top of E1, and asks, “Sunset Shimmer, are you okay?”

Sunset shakes her head to regain her focus and is immediately pushed aside by E1. “Ugh, you couldn’t have just stayed inside, could you?” E1 says in anger. A blast of magic suddenly hits her from behind and she is sent flying and hits her head on the stone block knocking her out cold.

Sunset and Twilight turn around to see Nightshade behind them. Before either one of them could make a move, Nightshade uses Rarity’s powers trap them both in diamonds. “Now then,” Nightshade says. Before he finishes his sentence, He notices Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity running towards him. He takes Twilights glasses to her and uses Pinkie Pie’s powers to set them to explode.

“Hey!” Twilights yells in protest.

Nightshade throws the glasses over to the three girls running to them and it explodes, blowing the three girls back. He redirects his attention back to Twilight and finds something about her intriguing. “You have so much magic inside you,” he says. “More than the others. Why is that?”

“You stay away from her!” Sunset demands. She tries to break free from her diamond imprisonments, but to no avail.

“I think it’s about time I finished up and move on to the next part of my plan.” He raises his spear and steals both Sunset’s and Twilight’s magic at the same time. “A wisp that embodies magic itself huh. No wonder I felt extra magic coming from you. As for your wisp Sunset Shimmer.” He absorbs both the wisps and snaps his fingers. All the Rainbooms, except Sunset, are teleported in front of the diamond wall in front of the school.

Sunset continues to try to break free but to no avail. Nightshade walks towards Sunset. Though Sunset couldn’t quite see his face under his hood, she could see a glowing red light appear where his right eye would be. "Sunset Shimmer!" The way he said her name. She could just feel that there was a lot of hatred behind it. "I'll spare your friends." As he walks closer, a dark aura surrounds him. "I'll spare those classmates of yours. But you Sunset Shimmer. You, You...AAAAHHHHH!" Nightshade lets out a scream of pain and backs away. Sunset isn't sure what's happening, but before she could say anything about it, Nightshade quickly shakes his head, and the red light under his hood vanishes. Feeling like he’s done enough, he frees Sunset from the diamonds trapping her. He looks up in the sky and sees E2 trying to drain the magic out of the phoenix.

Before she could finish, Nightshade uses Twilights magic to pull her down and slam her on to the ground. Fortunately, her suit protected her from the pain. Or at least from being seriously injured. “Oooowww!” She exclaims in pain. “Okay I take back every bad thing I’ve ever said about this suit.”

“Hmm, I suppose I already have telekinesis,” Nightshade says. He uses the telekinesis again to throw Sunset over to the other Rainbooms. “But it’s so much more satisfying having the whole set.” He slowly walks to the Rainbooms and says, “Now which one of your powers should I use to get rid of you girls. I could use the pink one’s powers to blast you all into oblivion. Or should I just use the cowgirl’s strength to crush you all under a school bus.” Sunset stands up and stands in Nightshades way, trying to protect her friend. “You just can't stay down, can you?” His anger starts to grow, but he simply lets out a sigh of disappointment. “But this is all you girls are capable of isn't it, disappointing. Ricardo.” The phoenix answers his call and lands behind him. He snaps his fingers and Fluttershy’s backpack appears in his hand. “Maybe you just need some more motivation. Like the students left in that school. Or maybe, a phoenix trying to roast you all alive.” He points to the phoenix behind him as it ignites with flames once again. “I make a pretty good villain; wouldn’t you girls agree?”

E1 gets back on her feet and sees her sister lying on the ground in pain. She quickly runs to her in a panic hoping that she’s okay. “E2, Sis!” She exclaims. “Please say you’re okay.”

“I’m fine sis.” E2 says despite sounding like she’s in pain. “Just need to catch my breath.” She looks up to her sister, who is now standing straight up, and she can tell something’s different about E1. “Uh, Sis?” The lights on E1’s suit glow brighter than ever and she sets her sights on Nightshade. “Oh no, not again.” E2 says as she tries to stand up.

E1 uses her powers and makes a forcefield wall in front of her. “I’ve had enough of this!” She says in a violent manner. “She pushes the forcefield forward. The forcefield phases straight through the phoenix and keeps going until ramming into Nightshade at full speed. Nightshade is sent flying into his own diamond wall. The forcefield then wraps around the phoenix perfectly outlining the flaming bird.

“Sis stop. You’re doing it again.” E2 says. “You have to calm down before you completely drain yourself.”

E1 doesn’t listen and controls the forcefield encasing the phoenix and slams the bird to the ground over and over. The Rainbooms and Nightshade watch in shock as they see how aggressive E1 is being. It's almost as if she's trying to kill the bird. Maybe she is. “So, this is what he meant.” Nightshade murmurs.

The phoenix is now whirling around in the air until being slammed back down to the ground. The phoenix is then dragged all across the courtyard until his head collides the sole of E1’s foot. She pulls out her magic draining device and drains all the magic out of the phoenix until he reverts back to his original tiny bird form.

Thinking he may have overstayed his welcome; Nightshade snaps his fingers and teleports away. Seeing that Nightshade had left, E1 turns to the stone block that’s still spewing out magical energy. She creates a forcefield around the vortex. She starts to struggle to keep to all contained, she feels like her heart is about to explode. Needing to put an end to this, she then uses all the strength she has left and then clenches her fist. All the magic is forced back down the stone as the forcefield shrinks down.

“Sis,” E2 says with concern.

“Fix the stone, now!” E1 orders.

“Uh, right.” E2 holds out her hands to the stone block and her powers begin to fix it. It's not as much of a strain as it is on her sister, but trying to fix the stone as magic tries to flow out of it is still a difficult task. Even with E1 holding the magic back. The cracks and damages start to disappear and eventually, the stone block was good as new. The lights on E1’s suit completely turn off and she falls to the ground. “Sis, sis!” E2 pulls her sister up and drapes her arm around her shoulders.

E1 pulls her mask up just enough to uncover her mouth and nose so she could breathe better. “A-Are you… okay?” E1 weakly asks between her gasps for air.

“Yeah, but you shouldn’t have used up so much energy at once. Now you can barely stand up.”

No matter how much concern she showed for her sister, her big sis didn't care. As long as she got results. "But I did... my job. Right?"

"Ugh, you big dummy of a hero." E2 says as she pulls her sister in for a hug.

“What about the Rainbooms?”

“They’re mostly okay physically," She's reluctant to finish her sentence, she knows how her sister will react. But she went ahead and finished answering the question. "but that cloaked guy stole all their magic... and then got away."

"What!" E1 tries to stand up straight, but immediately collapses. "You've... got to be kidding... me..." E1 trailed off and became silent.

"Sis." E2 says with concern. "Sis!" She starts to worry, until she started to hear E1 snore. She never thought she'd be so happy to hear the wild animal like sounds coming from her sister whenever she sleeps.

---

Nightshade teleports into the CHS music room, still with Fluttershy’s backpack, and keeps thinking about the show of force E1 displayed. “Her power could be troublesome,” he says. “But if what I was told is true, after a performance like that she probably has no energy left. It’s time to move on to the next phase of the plan.”

Nightshade unzips Fluttershy’s backpack and lets out the three animals inside of it. A cat, a bird, and of course, Angel Bunny. “Hello, you cute little creatures,” he says in a welcoming tone. “Come here, all of you.” Due to Fluttershy’s magic, the animals are now practically his slaves. Nightshade crouches down to the animals and says in a devious tone, “You don’t know me, but I think we’re all gonna be real close friends.”

Three wisps of equestrian magic fly out of his sleeves. They all appear to have been mutated by Nightshade. "The bunny's first." a wisp flies into Angel and the bunny starts to transform and grow in size. Though now Nightshade starts to fear it might get too big for this room. "Huh, perhaps I didn't think this all the way through." He snaps his fingers and the currently transforming Angel vanishes. "Why don't you finish that in the gym. Now then." He levitates the bird closer to him and begins to wonder what to do with it. "Huh, I already did a bird. Doing a repeat would be boring." He looks at the cat and then looks back to the bird and comes up with an interesting and somewhat disturbing idea. "Well, this is probably a crime against nature, but on the other hand..." He pushes the bird into the cat the second magical wisp flies into the two animals and their bodies start to change... and merge! Nightshade once again snaps his fingers, and the newly fused animal disappears. "You can go to the cafeteria. Hopefully it'll fill up on some of the food there instead of, you know, the students." He looks to his third and last wisp and realizes he ran out of animals to use it on. "Huh, but now I'm one pet short. What else can I use this on." He considers what could be useful to his plans and then comes up with an idea. He snaps his fingers once more and a spider appears in his left hand. "You'll do nicely." He opens the door to the hallway and tosses the spider into the hall. The third wisp follows and flies into the spider causing it to grow. As the spider begins to grow, Nightshade gets another major headache. The pain is much worse than it was the first couple times. Much, much worse. He got on his knees and held his head until the pain finally ends. He takes a minute to get his head together. He gets back on his feet and witnesses the giant spider in front of him. "Remember, don't hurt anyone. Just scare them a little. Or a lot if needed." He explains to the giant arachnid. He levitates on top of the spider, and it scurries down the hallway in search of the students of CHS.

---

E2 puts her arms under her sister's back and legs and lifts her into a princess carry. She struggled a little at first but is able to carry her over to the newly fixed stone block. She gently lays her sister down with her back leaning against the stone. "Don't worry Sunny." She whispers. "I'll make sure everything turns out okay. E2 stands up and turns to see the Rainbooms trying to recover from what they've just been through. She slowly walks over, mostly because she predicts that as soon as she tries to start a conversation, she'll be in for a barrage of questions. Might as well get it over with. "Uhm, hey everybody." The girls all sharply turn their heads to face E2 causing her to jump back a little. She takes a deep breath and continues to speak. "Hey... heh heh... Is everyone okay?"

"Okay?" Rainbow Dash scrambles to her feet and rushes to the girl standing in front of them. "Okay?!" Well, here it comes, just what E2 was afraid of. "Exactly what part of any of this is okay?! And who the heck even are you anyway. What all do you know about that crazy cloaked guy." Four of the other Rainbooms joined Rainbow with the interrogation.

"How could he just steal our magic?" Applejack asks.

"What was all that going on with the portal?" Rarity asks.

"Is Ricardo okay? And What is he going to do with Angel and the other animals?" Fluttershy asks.

She isn't sure where to start. How could she be. All the questions came at her at once. She leans to the right, looking past the girls, and looks at the Sunset and Twilight. Sunset seemed lost in thought and Twilight is struggling to see what's in front of her face without her glasses. "Excuse me." She walks through the four girls in front on her. She kneels down on one knee in front of Twilight and reaches for a case attached to the side of her waist.

"Hey, don't ignore us." Rainbow Dash says. "What do you think you're doing?"

E2 opens the case and reveals a pair of glasses. They looked just like the ones Twilight was wearing before only the frame was dark blue instead of black. "Here Twilight, you can wear these." She puts the pair on Twilight's face allowing the nearsighted girl to see clearly. "I always keep a spare pair with me. You just never know when you'll need one, you know."

"Uhm, thanks?" Twilight said feeling very confused. "But who are you?"

"Rainbow Dash already asked that." E2 says.

"And you still didn't answer... wait, how do you know my name?"

E2 ignores Rainbow and walks up to Sunset and extends her hand out to her. Sunset is skeptical at first. "Oh, don't worry, she's the kinda cold and standoffish one of our partnership. Not me." E2 says referring to her, currently sleeping, sister.

Sunset doesn't know who she is, but on the other hand, she was clearly trying to help them earlier. So, what the heck. But before she could accept the handshake, E2 pulls her hand away. "Oh right, there are people in this school with a very dangerous magic criminal." E2 says, as she swiftly walks past her. She walks up to the diamond wall and places her face right up against it, trying to see inside the school.

The Rainbooms follow behind her, still wanting answers.

"So, can we finally get a name dearie?" Rarity asks.

"You can call me E2."

"Weird name. It's foreign, isn't it?" Pinkie says.

"It's fake Pinkie Pie." Applejack says. "I reckon she ain't gonna tell us her real name."

E2 walks along the diamond wall. There doesn't seem to be any way around it. "You reckon correctly. I know that makes me suspicious but trust me. I don't have much choice in the matter. Protocall, you know."

"No." The Rainbooms respond.

"Good, now I need to focus on stopping..." she stopped in the middle of her sentence and decided to ask a question of her own. "Hey, did he ever tell you his name. Like during an evil monologue or something?"

"He said to call him Nightshade." Twilight answers.

E2 stifles a laugh. "Nightshade? So what, he wants to make sure everyone knows he's the bad guy. Not the most creative name huh?"

"Said the girl called E2." Rainbow Dash says with a smirk.

E2 is not amused.

"So what can you tell us about Nightshade and the magic he uses?" Sunset asks.

"Not a thing." E2 answers still trying to see through the diamonds. "This is the first time I've ever even seen the guy. I am familiar with his work though. He uses wisps of Equestrian magic to poses things. Objects, animal... People sometimes." She finally pulls her face away from the diamonds. Not that she could really see anything from the other side anyway. "Me and my partner have been capturing these wisps for a few weeks now. Once we had enough, we were able to trace their point of origin to this school. Or, more specifically, that stone block over there."

The Rainbooms look over to the stone block and then back to E2. "The por..." Pinkie starts to say before Sunset stops her by covering her mouth. She isn't entirely sure that telling this girl that there's a portal to another dimension full of magical ponies right in front of the school is such a good idea. At least not yet.

"They seemed to have been leaking through a crack on the top of it." E2 explains. "You know, you girls really should've had that fixed. It would've saved us all a whole lot of grief."

"Hey, we didn't know that..." Sunset starts before the sounds of screaming cuts her off.

---

Within the school, Nightshade rides his giant arachnid using its webs to capture any student he could find. Some students manage to escape and hide, but most of them aren't so lucky. "Why is everyone running." Nightshade asks, as if he didn't know why. "I just want to introduce them to my new friend." He jumps of the spider's back and as he lands on the floor, magical energy surges through the hall, shutting off all the lights. "You keep playing with the nice students Legs." He tells the spider. "I'm gonna go visit the principal's office." As more and more students ran for dear life, Nightshade walks to the principal's office as if he owns the place. At this point, he might as well.

---

The girls couldn't do anything but listen to the screams of the people inside the school. It didn't take long for them to grow tired of waiting around and ready to take action. "Okay, will finish this discussion later." Sunset says. "Right now, we need to get inside before Nightshade finishes doing who knows what to everyone in the school."

"On It!" E2 exclaims. She runs away from the diamond wall and stops once she gets in front of her sister, still sleeping up against the stone block. She turns back to the school and takes a running position. She runs at full speed, in an attempt to jump over the wall. She runs up until getting just a few feet away from the wall before she makes her grand leap forward. The Rainbooms all watch in amazement, she actually jumped really high up there. Unfortunately, not quite high enough. She gets to the top, but completely face plants into the wall. The Rainbooms could just feel how painful that must've been. Before she falls back to the ground though, she's able to get her hands at the top of the wall and is able to hold on. She pulls, basically drags, herself over the walls and to the other side. Her landing is, however, ungraceful. As in she falls straight down to the stairs to the school entrance. The Rainbooms once again can tell just how painful that was. She should not be okay after a fall like that. But despite all logic, she stands up, a little dazed and bruised, but otherwise okay. "Oh, Ow. Heh, heh, yeah. S... Success." As E2 raises her fist in triumph, the diamond wall, as if just to make her feel like an idiot, starts to retract back into the ground. The keeps getting shorter and shorter until it's completely gone. The Rainbooms just stand and stare at E2, now feeling really sorry for her. "Oh, come on!"

The girls walk into the school and can't see anyone else around. For that matter, they can barely see anything since the lights have gone out. They cautiously walk forward, their surroundings getting darker as they walk away from the door. And to make matters worse, a new diamond wall forms behind them, completely blocking the front door. There's no turning back now.

"Spoooookkyyy." Pinkie says in an ominous voice. Much to the others annoyance.

"It's so dark and can barely even see my hand in front of my face." Rarity points out. "Such a shame too, I just had my nails done."

"Let me see what I can do." E2 says. She tries to use her magic to fix the broken lights in the hall, but between the damage she took during the fight with Nightshade and fixing the stone block, the best she could do is fix a couple of lights. It's not much, but at least they can see a little better. "Nuts, well that's about all I can do. Gonna have to give the magic thing a rest for a bit.

"So what you're saying is, now we have to fight Nightshade, completely on his terms, with poor lighting, with who knows what else he has in store for us, with absolutely no magic, when he could already beat us with our magic! The fact that the first diamond wall disappears and now a new one forms when we're inside means just one thing. This is a trap." Twilight points out. She is right. Things are a little one-sided.

"Great pep talk Twilight. Very inspirational." E2 says. She really didn't need Twilight to point out how bad things are right now.

"She does have a good point yah know." Applejack says. "The odds aint exactly in our favor."

E2 knows she's right, but right now they're the only one who can do this right now. Guess it's her turn to give a pep talk. "Well, things our... pretty uh... bad right now. But you know, most of the time the bad guys have the advantage. This is unfortunately one of those times. But you... that's life. Bad guys constantly having one over you. Over and over, you wonder to yourself, why me. Why do I have to face overwhelming odds against these villains all the time. And what if one day, I don't make it back." E2 is clearly spiraling. So far, her pep talk sounds even worse than Twilight's. This definitely isn't making them feel better about their current position. "I'm not helping at all, am I?" The Rainbooms all shake their heads. E2 lets out a sigh and then tries again. "Okay look. I know that technically we don't really know each other, but I know that you seven have done some super amazingly incredible things. The way you all just whoosh and wham and rainbow laser all the baddies." The she was speaking, it's as if she's a child fangirling about her favorite TV superhero. But hey, it sure beats her last speech. Plus, it did put a bit of a smile on their faces. Even if it's just because of how playfully childish she's acting. "You've defeated so many evil magical forces before, there's no way you're gonna let a hooded weirdo walk all over you."

"Course not." Sunset says. "We weren't just gonna give up. Right girls."

"You kidding." Rainbow Dash says. "Being at a disadvantage is just gonna make our victory that much more awesome."

"Yeah!" Pinkie and Rarity agree.

"He hurt Ricardo and kidnapped Angel and the others." Fluttershy says. "We need to save them."

"Not to mention everyone else who needs our help." Applejack adds.

"Of course we're not going to quit, but a plan would still be useful." Twilight says.

E2 looks at the Rainbooms and is overwhelmed with emotions. Seeing them getting ready to face overwhelming odds with such confidence. Though now that she thinks about it, them still going to fight should have been obvious. "Whatever we come up with, as long as the seven of you are all together, we can't lose."

The Rainbooms all nod in agreement and start to walk forward to confront Nightshade. But just when things are starting to look up, the Rainbooms all disappear right before E2's eyes. In a flash Applejack and Pinkie Pie teleport into the cafeteria, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy teleport into the gym, and Sunset, Twilight, and Rarity teleport into the library. None of them have a clue how they got to where they are now but they do know one thing, the seven of them are now no longer together. Leaving E2 all alone in the hallway.

E2 lets out a sigh of grief and only one phrase comes to mind in a moment like this. "Oh, apple fudge."

Author's Note:

Thanks for reading. Next chapter I'll have to do all from scratch. Hope you're all enjoying the story so far.