> The Twilight Effect (2017)
>  by evelili
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Friendship is Some Unexplainable Science and Certainly Not Any Form of Magic, Part One
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight chewed the eraser of her pencil, lost in thought. That’s not right. She scratched out the formula again and rewrote it completely different. Yeah… better. Returning to chewing on her pencil, she tapped her toe in her sneaker as she attempted to calculate the rest of the problem in her head.

While that happened, the part of her brain on standby did a quick survey of her surroundings.

Period one, advanced functions. Teacher: Mr Johnson. He’s talking. I’m not listening. 9:03, 87 minutes to go. Mood? Eh.

Today was an ‘eh’ kind of day for Twilight.

She looked up the whiteboard to see if Mr Johnson had assigned the lesson yet, but was instead greeted with the sight of an unfamiliar girl standing next to him. Twilight rolled her eyes and looked back down at her paper. Ugh, still talking. Cute girl, though. Whatever.

As she started on the third extra-credit problem, a chorus of laughter suddenly swept through the room and caused Twilight return to reality in time to catch the tail end of the girl’s sentence.

“-yes, I know, that’s my real name.” She shrugged, and continued, “It’s pretty… unique, I’ll give you that.”

You’re pretty alright, Twilight thought, then mentally slapped herself. Bad Twilight. Down, girl.

“Sunset Shimmer?” The boy to Twilight’s right snickered and made a face. “What, are your parents hippies or something?”

“Hey, at least now Twilight Sparkle has a friend!” another girl jeered.

And at that, all eyes were on her. Her, Twilight. Pink and purple haired, geeky, don’t-talk-to-me Twilight.

Twilight adjusted her glasses, rolled her eyes, and mentally flipped everyone off. “...Good one,” she said. Sunset gave her a look, but said nothing.

The class started to dissolve into talk again, only for Mr Johnson to slam his ruler against the board. “Hey, hey! Brett, Felicia, enough. Sunset, since everyone is so keen about you and Twilight, you can take Brett’s seat and sit next to her.” The boy made a noise of protest, but, at the glare he received, grabbed his bag and sulked over to another vacant seat.

The class resumed as Sunset slid next to Twilight. “Hey,” she whispered. “Nice to meet you.”

Twilight blinked and did a quick once-over of Sunset. Black hair, curly. Brown eyes. Olive skin. Seems to fit the bad-girl archetype, what with the leather jacket and ripped jeans. Unsure about intellect, but she’s definitely got looks. Conclusion? Eh. Again.

Grunting, Twilight gave her a halfhearted wave and continued working on her problem.

“I’m new,” Sunset continued, as if Twilight wasn’t already done with the conversation. “My transfer request just went through yesterday.” She dug around in her bag and pulled out a few notebooks and a pencil case. “Sweet, right?”

When Twilight didn’t respond, Sunset frowned. “So, uh… you sure do like math.”

“Mm-hm.”

“Same. Though, I’m more of a science girl myself, you know?”

At that the frantic scratching of Twilight’s pencil slowed, and she finally looked up. “Science?” she whispered back.

“Yeah, I like ‘em all. Bio, chem, physics… though, physics is really mathematics based, you know.”

“Duh.” Twilight rolled her eyes and jabbed her pencil in Sunset’s direction. “Everyone knows chemistry’s the best out of the three, anyways.”

“Agreed. Nothing against biology, but those dissection labs? Urgh. Last year the smell of antiseptic almost made me hurl.”

The two shared a giggle. Twilight opened her mouth to whisper something else but was cut off by Mr Johnson and his ruler again.

“Alright, alright! Settle down. Today we’re going to introduce how to graph trigonometric functions…”

Sunset shot Twilight a look. “Yikes. He needs to learn to tone it down with the whacking.”

“Definitely.”

They giggled quietly before deciding it was better to not risk being on the receiving end of the ruler, and looked at their own papers. Twilight managed to use the class time to complete all of the required work and another extra-credit question before a small slip of paper bounced onto her desk and disrupted her concentration.

Frowning, she unfolded it. Then she shot Sunset a look. “We sit next to each other,” she hissed. “This is ridiculous.” 
 
 

Instead of replying, Sunset looked her in the eyes and tossed her another slip with a smirk.

Twilight sighed and compared the two. The first read, “Sit with me at lunch? -SS”, while the second had a crude drawing of a frowny face with Sunset’s tangled hair.

The clock read 10:28 when Twilight finally tossed back an answer: yes 


---


“So what’s with the hair?” Sunset asked, stirring her soup to cool it. “No offense or anything, but it’s pretty out there. How long does it take to dye?”

They were sitting in cafeteria, having met up after second period. Sunset was wise enough to recognize Twilight’s lack of a social presence and chose a table near the main entrance, in the corner. When she asked, Twilight had just taken a large bite out of her sandwich and cursed her terrible timing.

“Itch doschent-” Twilight chewed, swallowed, and let her famous scowl return to grace her features. “It doesn’t take long at all, considering this is my natural hair.”

Sunset blinked. Then: “Whoa, really?”

“Why would I lie?”

“I dunno. It’s just…” Sunset’s spoon clinked against the side of her bowl as she let go of it to twirl her own hair around her fingers. “You don’t see that every day. Sure is something magical, alright.”

Twilight paused, and slowly put her sandwich down. “Magic?”

“Yeah. You know, like wizards and monsters and unicorns and elves.” Sunset brandished her spoon like a sword and said in a heroic tone, “To protect the world by harnessing the hidden energy of the aether!” She paused. “Or something like that.”

“No.”

“Hm? What do you mean?”

“Magic can’t exist is what I mean!” Twilight nearly shouted. The table beside them shot her a look and she quickly lowered her voice. “It goes against almost everything we’ve learned in science, not to mention that it violates the laws of energy and consumption. It’s a fictional device used in children’s stories. How can you possibly believe in it?!”

Sunset flinched and lowered her ‘sword’. “Hey, hey. I know science as well as you do. But don’t you think it’s a little fun to pretend that magic is real?”

“No!”

Smirking, Sunset waved her spoon. “Aw, is little Twilight too grown up to believe in fairy tales?” She closed her eyes in mock thought and said, “Maybe I should show her the true extent of my power! Bibbidi bobbidi b-”

“GIVE ME THAT,” Twilight hissed, and leaned across the table to grab the spoon away from Sunset.

As soon as their hands touched there was a flash of light, and the two were blown back away from the table. Twilight hit the ground with a small cry and instinctively rubbed her sore bottom to alleviate the pain. “Ow ow ow…”

“Jesus, Twilight!” Sunset groaned from the other side of the table. She used it to prop herself up with one hand, the other rubbing the spots from her eyes. “For someone who doesn’t believe in magic, you’re sure convincing me it exists.”

“I didn’t do anything!” Twilight protested as she got to her feet. People were definitely staring now, a whole lot of them, and she probably should have been nervous. Correction, she thought, feeling perspiration break out on the back of her neck. I am nervous.

“Well then what the hell was…” Sunset trailed off as she pushed her mane of hair out of her eyes and froze. “...that.”

Stunned, Twilight looked at Sunset, then at her hand holding the spoon, then back to Sunset. More accurately, she was taking in Sunset’s new hair color - red and gold tangled together instead of her normal dark mess. “Uh. That’s… new.”

The students around them were definitely whispering now. Twilight could feel her heart racing, could feel her mind shutting down. Everyone was watching; looking at the freak with weird hair and weird eyes and who just made something happen, and-

-and then Sunset was right next to her, grabbing her wrist.

“C’mon, Twilight!” she hissed. “We’re outa here.”

Before Twilight could protest she was dragged through the crowd and out the door, the chatter of the lunchroom fading as she tried to get a grip on her panicking thoughts. The hand being held in Sunset’s was sweaty and far too warm, and she barely processed where they were going.

Sunset’s hair changed colour. I changed Sunset’s hair! How is that possible?! There has to be some explanation-

“-ilight! Hey!”

Twilight blinked, and realized that Sunset was staring at her with worried blue eyes. They were in the girl’s washroom, with Twilight backed against the wall and still holding Sunset’s hand. Wait. Blue eyes?

“Your eyes are blue!” Twilight blurted out. “I-I mean, not that that’s a bad thing, brown was still really pretty! But, it changed, like your hair, like my hair, oh my god how did that-”

“Hey, hey. Shh.” Sunset cut her off with a shake of her head. “That’s not important. Are you okay?”

“Am I okay?! I’m fine! Perfectly fine; why wouldn’t I-”

“Twilight, I’m pretty sure you’re having a panic attack.”

Twilight nodded, then processed what Sunset said. Oh, she thought. Aloud she sputtered, “Y-yeah, that happens!”

I’m hyperventilating. Explains why thinking is so incredibly difficult right now! Okay, what did Celeste say? “When defensive emotions malfunction, it may result in an over-exaggeration of the threat, leading to increased anxiety and, in extreme cases, panic.” But how does that help me?!

Sunset gently eased Twilight down the wall until they were both sitting, Sunset criss-cross while Twilight had drawn her knees towards herself and was shaking like a leaf. “Twilight. Twi. Breathe. If you don’t control your breathing you’ll lower the amount of carbon dioxide that gets to your brain, causing-”

“-me to feel lightheaded, dizzy, and creates tingling in my extremities. I noticed!” Twilight squeezed Sunset’s hand harder and took a few short breaths. “The next step is loss of consciousness, which should probably be avoided, huh?”

“Okay, you know your stuff.” Sunset carefully extracted herself from Twilight’s death grip and instead scooted next to the shaking girl. “Tell me then, what are some ways to treat hyperventilation?”

“Pursed-lip breathing, breathing into a bag, stomach breathing, and holding your breath,” Twilight answered automatically. She blinked, and immediately pursed her lips. “Right, right. Should probably apply that to myself.” Attempting to calm down, she leaned against Sunset’s side and focused on her breathing, not her rampant thoughts.

Eventually Twilight calmed her breathing down, though her head was still a mess. She was almost set off again when Sunset shifted on the floor and caused her red and gold hair to fall into Twilight’s vision, but managed to keep it under control.

“...So,” she asked weakly. Lunch was nearly over according to the clock above the sinks. Thankfully no one else had tried to come in yet. “What class do you have next?”

“Physical education,” Sunset replied. “Fun, right?”

“...Eurgh. I forgot.” Twilight buried her head in her knees and mumbled, “I can’t believe it’s a governmental requirement.”

Sunset chuckled and nudged Twilight until she looked up. “Hey, hey. I’ll be there. And you could always just tell the teacher you aren’t feeling well. I mean…” She gave Twilight an obvious stare and said bluntly, “You look like you just spent the last half-hour hyperventilating in the washroom.”

“Funny. How’d you guess that was exactly what I’d been doing?”

“Dunno. Just lucky, I suppose.”

The two smiled for a moment, though Twilight’s faded as the whole hair-eyes situation came to the forefront of her mind. “What are we going to do?”

Sunset tilted her head. “About what?”

“Your hair, your eyes! Plus all the kids who saw us in the cafeteria. They probably think you’re just as much of a freak as me now. Great!” She looked away and muttered, “First friend I make and I’m already rubbing off on her.”

“Oh, yes. Like the name ‘Sunset Shimmer’ didn’t give them any forewarning.” Smirking, Sunset grabbed Twilight’s hand and pulled her to her feet. “C’mon, Twilight. I already stood out. Hell, I think the new colour suits me.” She tossed her head and shot Twilight a wink. “What do you think?”

At that Twilight cursed her incredibly gay mind as a spectrum of emotions suddenly struck her, from oh my god that’s so hot typical Twilight-ness to the more raunchy please do that again except this time under me and- agh! Bad Twilight!

Sunset chuckled as Twilight’s dark skin flushed darker and led her out of the washroom. “I take that as a yes?”

“Uh huh,” Twilight managed to get out, sounding like an absolute dunce. As they made their way through the halls, stopping at their respective lockers, she wrangled her tongue back into place to try, “At least today can’t get any weirder, right?”

The bell rang as Sunset nodded and pushed open the door to the changerooms. “Yup. I mean, what could beat science-loving Twilight Sparkle performing some honest-to-goodness magic?”

“It’s not magic! It’s… okay, I don’t know what yet, but there’s definitely a logical reason for this!”


---


“Welcome back to physical education, champs!” Coach Williams clapped his hands and motioned to the five girls standing beside him. “Headmistress Celeste sure has thrown a curveball at me today - five new students! Crazy, huh?”

Twilight squinted. “Oh no.”

“Let’s see, we have… Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity Belle, Applejack Macintosh, and Flutter Shy.” He squinted at his list as a chorus of giggles rang out across the field. “Okay, which one of you squirts messed with the attendance?”

The girl in the middle let out a longsuffering sigh and crossed her arms, indicating she was used to the reaction, while the girl to her left giggled and bounced up and down on the spot.

“Um…” The tall, lanky blonde girl at the end of the row raised her hand hesitantly. “It’s… it’s Fluttershy. One word.”

“Oh, alright.” Coach Williams folded the paper back up and nodded. “That explains- wait, no it doesn’t.” He jabbed a finger at her and hissed, “Don’t joke with me. What’s your real name?”

Fluttershy let out a whimper, but before she could do anything a short Latina girl with choppy rainbow hair smacked the coach’s finger away.

“Hey!” she yelled, though the effect was somewhat diminished by a poorly-timed voice crack. “Leave her alone. What; you’ve never met somebody with a unique name before?”

Someone at the back of the group giggled and whispered, “Looks like Twilight and the new girl managed to reproduce.”

Cheeks burning, Twilight ignored the connotations of the comment and took the in the rest of the line. Assuming the coach was introducing them in order, she did her best to create a mental file on each girl.

Rainbow. Short, even more than me. An athlete. Rainbow hair, though it’s presumably brown based on her features. Tan skin, brown eyes. Brash, takes-no-shit archetype.

Pinkie. Chubby, average height. Frizzy black hair - though, it almost looks like someone dumped cotton candy on her head. The darkest skin of the five, black eyes. Excitable and unstable.

Rarity. Similar height to Sunset. Straight black hair, but it’s been styled. Pale skin. Asian features. She’s very pretty. Custom gym uniform indicates a seamstress of some sort.

Applejack. Tall, and the most muscular. Does she work out? Dirty-blonde hair. Tan skin and freckles. Green eyes. Wearing a stetson for some reason. Annoyed at the situation.

Fluttershy. The tallest. White blonde hair, and it’s the longest too. Pale skin and surprisingly angular features. Has a shy personality and seems to be just as terrible socially as me.

Having finished cataloguing the girls, Twilight adjusted her glasses and whispered to Sunset, “I’ve come to a conclusion.”

“...Which is?”

“These girls are trouble. One hundred percent.”

“Oh, gee. How could you tell?”

Coach Williams glared at Rainbow, and straightened up. “Alright then. Those are your names. But take my word, I’m bringing this up with the headmistress at the end of the day. If I find out you’re lying…”

Rainbow scoffed and flipped him the bird. “Yeah, and then what?”

The coach let out a strangled cry as Applejack quickly knocked Rainbow’s hand down. “Hey now, knock it off. Don’t cause a ruckus on yer first day, y’hear?”

Twilight mentally added ‘has an accent’ to Applejack’s folder.

“DETENTION!” Coach Williams screamed. He pointed to Rainbow, then Applejack. “You for disrespecting authority, and you for colluding!”

Applejack paused and exchanged a look with Rainbow. Then she let go of the shorter girl’s arm and stepped back. “Let him have it, Dash.”

A shit-eating grin plastered on her face, Rainbow let her offending finger make its presence known again and hollered, “Gotta catch us first!” Before anyone could do anything she was off down the field like a bullet, Applejack hot on her heels.

Coach Williams sputtered, then whipped around to the rest of the stunned class. “Alright, whoever catches those troublemakers gets extra credit!” When no one moved he screeched, “LET’S GO, SLACKERS!”

The swarm of students jumped to life, and they charged in a pack after the two, the girl named Pinkie leading the pack with an excited, “GET ‘EM! YEAH!” Rarity made no attempt to follow and rolled her eyes in disgust, while Fluttershy meekly tried to hide herself behind the bleachers.

All in all, it was a total disaster.

“Well.” Sunset nudged a shell-shocked Twilight in the ribs as the scene continued to unfold. “And you said things couldn’t get any worse.”
> Friendship is Some Unexplainable Science and Certainly Not Any Form of Magic, Part Two
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Catching Rainbow Dash proved to be a completely impossible feat. Even with the entire gym class (sans Rarity, Twilight and Fluttershy), Coach Williams, and Pinkie Pie of all people on her heels, no one managed to get within an inch of her before she would laugh maniacally and speed up even more.

And, though it was indeed possible to catch Applejack, there was no way to make her move.

(Sunset tried. It ended up with her sprawled breathless on the grass and Twilight desperately trying to reign in the gay.)

Half an hour in Coach Williams just gave up. He marched inside haggard and beat, not even bothering to yell at the class on the way out. Rainbow hooted and hollered and ran laps around the exhausted class until a boy yelled a string of expletives at her ending in, “AND SIT YOUR GODDAMN ASS ON THE GRASS!”

Pinkie told him that he rhymed. The boy told her to shut up. Rainbow tried to punch him “for being a dick”, and suddenly Twilight and all the rest of her ‘freakshow’ ended up kicked out to the baseball diamond.

No one really complained.

“Well that was a right mess,” Rarity sighed, daintily sweeping off her spot on the bleachers before sitting down all proper-like. “Honestly, Rainbow, I thought you knew better than to pick fights on your first day.”

Rainbow blew up her bangs and flopped down onto the highest bench. “Look, I was defending my friends. It’s a perfectly good reason!”

“Yeah, a reason to get us all expelled. Again,” Applejack grunted. Her good mood had worn off, and now she was looking uncharacteristically serious.

Twilight glanced over to Sunset, but before she could voice her question Sunset did it for her.

“Whoa, again? All of you were expelled?”

The new girls flinched and turned towards Twilight and Sunset, as if noticing them for the first time. Massaging the bridge of her nose, Rarity muttered something under her breath and said, “Well… yes, darlings. I suppose you could put it that way.”

“Are you kidding?! We totally got super-duper kicked out!” Pinkie shrieked. Then she seemed to deflate as she added, “Oh, wait. Not a good thing.”

“You think?” Rainbow scowled and kicked at Rarity’s bench.

Sunset frowned. “So is this some super-secret tragic backstory we get to unlock later, or are you going to share?”

Rarity chuckled all ladylike, as she was, and coaxed Fluttershy to come sit down beside her so she could do her hair. “Oh no no no. It’s quite public info, really. Last year’s farewell assembly simply didn’t quite go according to plan.”

Bouncing on her seat, Pinkie shoved her hand towards the sky. “Oh, oh! Is it because I totally spiked the punch?!”

“...Yes, dear. Part of it.” Rarity combed her fingers through Fluttershy’s hair as she spoke, continuing, “Really, it’s mostly Rainbow Dash here-”

“Hey!”

“-who caused the commotion by drinking the punch she knew was spiked. With copious amounts of alcohol I do believe.”

“Okay, yeah. Accurate.” Grinning like a loon, Rainbow leaned back against the railing and said, “I may have been the one to start the streaking, but I sure as hell didn’t force Pinkie or anyone else to go through with it, y’know?”

“Oh, I remember that! Good times, amiright?”

Twilight’s ears burned. “S-streaking?”

Rainbow nodded. “Yup. Get this - it’s supposed to be this ‘goodbye ‘til next year’ thing for everyone, right? So it’s supposed to be all nice and boring and PG. Imagine the looks on the teacher’s faces when it dissolved into a gym filled with drunk toddlers!”

“Drunk toddlers would’ve had better hand-eye coordination than Rarity did,” Applejack muttered, and repressed a shiver. “Or better mouth-face coordination.”

“Why-! Applejack, I’ll have you know I was the perfect picture of a lady! Just…” she paused, and bit her lip. “...slightly tipsy.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Okay. Very tipsy. Borderline drunk, if you will.”

“Ah wish you had done me the favour of being like Fluttershy here and just plain passed out.”

“I did say I was sorry, darling. Profusely.”

Fluttershy reached up to feel the braid Rarity was starting and managed a small smile. “I mean… it wasn’t that bad? The school board did allow us to apply to another school in their jurisdiction. And Kanterlot High seems pretty nice.”

Rainbow leaned forwards to flick Fluttershy gently on the forehead and deadpanned, “That’s because Kanterlot’s headmistress was the only one that would take any of us. And you weren’t even expelled; you just wanted to stick with me!”

“O-oh. Right.”

Sunset blinked, then cracked a grin. “Wow. You guys are a crazy bunch, that’s for sure.”

Applejack rolled her eyes. “Yeah? Says the two weirdos with the crazy hair.” She paused. “How long does it take ya to dye it?”

Twilight and Sunset glanced at each other. “Um,” Sunset began. “Well, I know mine was… done in a flash.”

At this Twilight glared, spun her around, and socked her right in the shoulder.

“Ow! Hey, lighten up, noodle arms.” Rolling her sore shoulder, Sunset turned back to Applejack and said, “Believe it or not, Twilight’s is natural. And mine is… permanently genetically altered?”

Applejack snorted and leaned forwards. “No way.”

“Yeah! She just touched my hand at lunch, and bam. Magic.”

“Science,” Twilight coughed rather conspicuously. Sunset ignored her.

“Huh.” Curiosity beat out suspicion in Applejack’s mind, and she reached out towards Twilight saying, “So if I grab your hand here-”

“W-wait!”

Their hands met and there was a tiny flash between their palms, but nothing else happened. Applejack was still Applejack - blonde hair, green eyes.

“Whelp. That’s about that, then, I reckon.”

Confused, Twilight stared at her palm. “...Huh. Nothing happened? Though, there was a similar light, but much smaller in its range than before. No physical shockwave either…”

“Pfft, come on.” Rainbow crossed her arms and said confidently, “Everyone knows magic ain’t real.”

Twilight nodded enthusiastically. “Yes, exactly! That’s what I’ve been trying to tell Sunset-”

“It won’t enter the world until my cousin Daring manages to bring back the six gemstones of Divinity from the deserts of Africa!”

“...Nevermind.”

Laughing, Sunset shouldered Twilight gently and turned her attention back to Rarity. “I’m wondering, though, why did you all get introduced after lunch while I was first period?” She paused. “And on the third day of school?”

“Hm. Why is that?” Twilight poked Sunset. “You have an excuse, saying your transfer finally went through. I know how Celeste can get with paperwork. But the rest of you?”

“...Celeste?”

“Th-the headmistress I mean! Ah ha ha.”

Rarity snorted and rolled her eyes, tugging a bit too hard on Fluttershy’s hair as she did. “Oh, our paperwork was similarly delayed. And we were lectured very strongly by the superintendent this morning, sofar that we were a bit… ah, held up, yes?”

“We were chewed out harder than granny on a strong piece of tobacco,” Applejack grunted. She took her hat off her head and let it rest on the bench beside her, saying, “Having an unwanted reputation as a troublemaker gets you places, it does, but certainly not the nicest ones.”

Sunset smiled. “Yup. I get you there.”

Definitely a bad girl, Twilight thought to herself, and cursed her luck. My first friend is hot, smart, and rebellious. This won’t end well.

The blare of the bell cut off her train of thought, and the girls reluctantly got to their feet. Fluttershy was sporting a pretty waterfall braid that flowed over her left shoulder, with Rarity looking proud of her handiwork. “It will look even better once we’re changed out of these unsightly uniforms!” she promised.

“I-if you say so.”

“Well,” Applejack said. “Catch y’all later?”

“Well, duh,” Sunset said, and tossed her hat towards her. “Always needed a couple more crazies in the club.”

“Ha!” Rainbow vaulted the benches and landed with a crash beside Twilight. “Awesome!” Before Twilight could back up her hand was slapped with a stinging high-five, and another flash of light occurred. Grinning, Rainbow pulled her hand back and moved to chase after Applejack and the others, leaving Twilight to think she almost imagined the flash.

“You know,” Sunset said slowly. “Call me crazy, but I think her eyes are pink now.”

“Sure, crazy. Like another part of your so-called magic happened.”

(Curiosity killed the cat, though. Twilight snuck a glance at Rainbow when they passed each other getting to the buses at the end of the day, and saw to her increasing displeasure that the other girl’s eyes were indeed a light shade of magenta.)


---


“Welcome home, Twily! How was your third day of school?”

As soon as Twilight stepped through the door to her house she was swept off her feet by her older brother, Shining. She struggled in his grasp for a second before relenting and muttering, “Fine. Just like yesterday, and the day before. Can you let go of me?”

He pouted, but put her back on the ground. “Fine. I’m just worried, you know? High school can be tough, and as your guardian-”

“Yeah, yeah.” She pushed past him and into the kitchen, dropping her bookbag by the stairs as she did. “Is Celeste here yet?”

“Yup. Living room; came early since it's her first meeting with you since the end of last year and all. She’s waiting for you.”

Twilight took a deep breath, snagged a cookie from the counter and stuffed it in her mouth, and rounded the corner to the living room. Celeste was standing at the sliding door and staring out into the backyard, apparently oblivious to Twilight’s presence. Her long blonde hair caught in the fading sunlight, casual white dress hanging gently from her shoulders.

“Um.” Twilight quickly swallowed her snack and cleared her throat. “Good afternoon.”

“Oh! Twilight!” At this Celeste turned around, a small smile on her face. “You startled me.”

“Ah ha ha. Sorry.” She shuffled on the spot hesitantly until Celeste took the hint and motioned to the couch.

“Come, Twilight. Sit with me.”

“O-okay.”

Here we go again. Time to see if I’ve made any friends yet this year, Celeste? Well, this time’s different. Twilight felt her face heat up as Sunset popped into her head, only for the other five girls she’d met to follow. Huh. Are they my friends too?

“And how was today, Twilight? Did you-”

“I made a friend!” Twilight blurted out. “Her name’s Sunset Shimmer and she’s really nice!”

Celeste chuckled and pat her on the head with one delicately manicured hand. “Oh, wonderful job! Tell me more about her.”

“Well…” Frowning, Twilight decided to start with personality, then looks, so as not to seem shallow. “She likes science. And she was pretty good at gym, from what I saw. She’s a bit sarcastic and likes to joke, but I think she’s really nice, too.”

“She sounds like a great match for you.”

“Oh! And, she’s really pretty. Like…” Twilight made a few vague gestures and settled on, “Really, really pretty. She’s got this curly hair and brown eyes - oh, wait, blue eyes, and-”

Frowning, Celeste cut her off. “Both brown and blue eyes?”

“No, no. They were brown, but now they’re blue. Some sort of scientific anomaly happened during lunch,” she said, dismissively. “I’ll have to look into the theory of parallel universes and instigators more, since that seems the most probable option, but-”

“What exactly happened?” Celeste said. All the warmth in her voice was gone, replaced by a cold steel that made Twilight flinch. Uncertain, she looked up to her mentor and tapped her fingers together.

“We touched hands, and there was this light. Her hair colour changed with her eyes, but she was the only one that happened to.” She paused. “Well, there was a flash with Applejack and Rainbow’s eyes-”

Celeste suddenly stood, a strange shadow flitting across her face. “Wonderful, Twilight,” she said, though her tone suggested it was anything but. “If you’ll excuse me, I do believe it’s time for me to leave.”

“What? But you just… got here,” she tried, only for Celeste to ignore her and sweep out of the room. She heard Shining call something out and the front door slam, and then the engine of a car fading away. Groaning in frustration, Twilight sank back against the couch with a thump.

“What was that all about?” Shining asked, poking his head in from the kitchen. “In the three years we’ve known her, I don’t think Celeste has ever left before dinner.” He ran a hand through his black hair and muttered, “And I was making her favourite, too…”

Twilight sighed and buried her face in her arms. Her anxiety from earlier flooded her mind, and she had to shake her head a few times to clear it. Eventually she decided to pursue a different topic to get her mind off Celeste.

“...Shining?”

“What’s up, Twily?”

“Why did our parents name us so weird?”

Shining blinked, not expecting the question. Slowly, he put down the mixing bowl and made his way into the living room, saying, “What brought this on?”

“Today there was a new girl with a weird name. And then five more. And it’s just… I don’t know. We all ended up together in gym because everyone else was sick of us, which I don’t really mind, but…” Twilight rolled over to look a Shining and said, “What if I only get to know them because I’m weird, too?”

A pause. Hesitating, Shining sat down next to her and put his arm around her. “Well. If you had to pick a normal name, what would it be?”

“I dunno.” She leaned into his side and muttered, “Something simple, like Lauren or Tara. Do you think that fits?”

Shining laughed. “Twily, the only name that fits you is your name. Twilight Sparkle.” He put a hand on his chest and said, “Besides, no matter what, you’re still going to have that hair. Being ‘Lauren’ won’t change that. Embrace your differences, okay?”

Frowning, Twilight pulled on her pink streak and sighed. “I guess. Thanks, Shining.”

“That’s Shining Sparkle to you, missy. The man with the manliest name!” He ruffled her hair, kissed her on the forehead, and got back to his feet. “But seriously. Don’t worry about it. Our parents named us because it’s us.”

“Yeah.”

“Now, I gotta finish dinner. There will definitely be leftovers, unless you’re hungry enough to eat a horse tonight? No? Thought so.” Shining rolled his eyes. “Can’t believe Celeste walked out on us, though.”

Twilight didn’t move from the couch, but said, “She seemed stressed. She’ll probably be back to normal tomorrow. I can get to school early to talk to her, if you want?”

“Yeah, sounds good. That’s probably for the best.”


---


Twilight glared at the locked door in front of her, and wished she had Applejack’s strength so she could knock it in. Celeste’s normally open office was shut tight. And after she had gotten to school an hour early, too!

She rapped softly on the door, and, when there was no response, she knocked a little harder. “Celeste? It’s Twilight. I was wondering if you were busy…?”

There was a loud thunk from the office, and the sound of locks unlatching. Then the door swung open an inch, held fast by a chain across the gap.

“Twilight?” Celete’s face was worn and tired, dark circles around her eyes. She was dressed in her normal white pantsuit as far as Twilight could see, but there were splatters of red across the front. “Whatever are you doing here?”

Twilight fidgeted, staring at the floor. “I, um, was worried. About you. Since yesterday you walked out so suddenly, and… oh. You've got a little... something on your shirt.” She trailed off and squinted at Celete’s visible hand. “And, wait, is that a gauntlet? An honest-to-goodness gauntlet?”

Quickly, the hand retreated into the room. “No,” Celeste said. She raised an eyebrow and said, “Don’t you have classes to get to?”

“...It’s 8:15. School starts at 9:00.”

“Oh. Well.” Clearing her throat, the headmistress moved to close the door, only for Twilight to shove her sneaker in the gap.

“Celeste, I know you have your secrets. Shining and I get that!” Twilight rattled the door chain and continued, “But this isn’t like you at all. Why are you acting so distant?” She paused. “And please tell me you had an accident with fruit punch, or something, because all that red is really disturbing and I'm kind of starting to freak out.”
 
 

Celeste opened and closed her mouth a few times, but no sound came out. “I…”

“Is this what my parents would have wanted you to do?” 

As soon as she said it, she new she had made the wrong move. Celeste’s eyes burned with some distant emotion, and she said sharply, “Goodbye, Twilight. You’ve said enough.”

The door slammed shut, leaving Twilight alone in the hall. She debated knocking until Celeste got fed up with her, but decided not to. Maybe she just needed some alone time. Sighing, Twilight decided to walk around the school a bit, the forty-five minutes she had to kill seeming like long, drawn-out torture.
> Okay, Maybe Friendship is a Little Bit Magic
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight let out a groan once she finished ranting to Sunset, and dropped her fork back into her leftovers. It was amazing pasta, and she could see why Celeste loved it, but truth be told it wasn’t doing it for her at the moment.

Blinking, Sunset took a swig of her pop. “Let me get this straight. The headmistress is your personal mentor?”

“Since freshman year, yeah.”

“And she comes over to your house every week to check up on you.”

“Uh huh.”

“And you’re mad because she’s suddenly not talking to you.”

“Yes!”

Silence. Then, “...That’s pretty unusual.”

After nothing else came, Twilight raised an eyebrow. “And?”

“And what?” Sunset said. “This is an unusual situation. I don’t know what you expect me to do.” She stabbed her green beans with her fork and added, “The only advice I can give is wait it out, y’know?”

Twilight stuck out her tongue and sank lower against the wall. She knew Sunset was right, but it was still super frustrating. How could she just sit there and do nothing?!

“Twilight, if you’re trying to use your death glare to burn a hole in the floor, just remember it might actually work.”

“Magic isn’t real,” she said for what felt like the thousandth time, “and laser vision is scientifically impossible without the correct implants.”

“Explain the hair-eyes thing, then.”

At that, Twilight perked up. “Oh, I was thinking about that a lot last night!” She grabbed her phone and began scrolling through her notes as she said, “For the eyes, it could have been dormant heterochromia triggered by the light, which in itself was most likely a chemical reaction between different substances in the area. As for the hair, well. I’m not sure yet, but-”

Sunset held up her hand. “Okay, whoa! Slow down, I’m drowning in info over here.”

“Then learn to swim!”

The two shared a giggle together before falling silent. The hallway they were sprawled out in was much, much less crowded and noisy than the lunchroom, but it was quite lonely. Sunset had decided that going back into public was not worth it if it risked Twilight panicking again.

“Well,” Sunset eventually said. “Look on the bright side. It’s Friday, so that means you can spend the whole weekend worrying your pretty little head about science and magic and colour changing hair.”

Twilight flushed a bit at the ‘pretty’ comment and fidgeted on the floor. “Uh, yeah. Just a period of outside hell, a period of dangerous chemicals in which I’m the only one who knows what they’re doing, and a welcome back gathering of torture are in the way of me and freedom.”

Smirking, Sunset nudged Twilight in the shoulder and translated, “So, gym, chemistry, and the end of week assembly?”

“Gee, how did you guess?”

“And I know you’re joking about the dangerous chemicals. You’re probably going to be reviewing the periodic table for weeks.”

“Please don’t remind me,” Twilight hissed, and stabbed her fork back into her lunch.


---


Sunset sighed, tugged her gym shirt over her head, and stared into the mirrors hanging over the sink. She did a quick double take, only to realise it was her new hair and not some sort of fiery creature sitting on top of her.

“I’ve gotta get used to that,” she muttered, then banged her hand on the stall beside her. “Hey, Twilight! Hurry up!”

There was a squeak, and Twilight practically flung herself out into the open while only half-dressed, sending the clothes in her arms in every direction. “Sorry, sorry!”

Smirking, Sunset averted her eyes tossed her shoes and shirt towards her. “It’s fine. Coach Williams’ll be pretty mad if we don’t hurry up, though.”

“You don’t think he’ll mind we used the spare changeroom?” Twilight nervously glanced around as she struggled to tie her shoes and put her shorts on at the same time and said, “We didn’t exactly ask, and-”

“Yes, when we go outside he’s going to ask us which exactly changeroom we came from.”

Twilight paused, then lowered her head. “Oh. Right.” She tugged hard on her laces before getting to her feet, and nervously adjusted her glasses. “Sorry about this, by the way. I just… with Celeste acting all weird-”

“You’re way more jumpy than usual, especially around people,” Sunset finished. “It’s cool, I get it.” And flustered you is kinda cute. Bonus!

“Th-thanks.”

The two made their way out into the hall and then to the field where most of the class was already gathered. A few minutes later Coach Williams stomped out, followed by Rainbow dragging a bag of dodgeballs, pylons, and team jerseys behind her.

“This sucks!” she whined to no one in particular, and dropped all the stuff onto the grass. “Why do I gotta be a pack-horse, huh?”

“‘Cuz ya ran yer mouth off last class,” Applejack whispered.

“So not fair!”

Sunset rolled her eyes at the display and shot a glance towards Twilight. The other girl was staring across the field, lost in thought and biting gently on her lip. She’s worried about Celeste, huh? she thought to herself. Man, this sucks. I wish I could help somehow.

Rarity and Fluttershy eventually emerged to stand beside them, joined seconds later by Pinkie from who knew where. After the coach finished talking (yelling) to Rainbow and AJ, they shuffled over to top out the headcount of their posse at seven.

Coach Williams sharply clapped his hands, and when the chatter didn’t die down he stuck his whistle in his mouth and let out three short blasts. “Hey! Listen up!” He glared at Rainbow and Applejack in particular as his eyes washed over the class, and barked out, “Dodgeball. Two teams. You; you - captains. Get picking. Now!”

“Yikes,” Sunset whispered to Rarity as the two unlucky captains scrambled to the front. “He’s in a wonderful mood.”

“Oh, darling, I’ve had teachers with worse.” Scowling, Rarity examined her nails and muttered, “Though, I do feel sorry for whoever gets on his bad side today. He’ll probably just send them to the headmistress without even hearing their defense.”

The tiniest flash of an idea popped into Sunset’s head. “Straight the the headmistress? No detention or warnings?”

“Mm, probably not.”

“Huh.”

The two captains started picking, the most athletic-looking kids going first. Applejack and Rainbow ended up on opposite teams, something they seemed very pleased about.

“Jared.” Left team.

“Monica.” Right team.

“Uh, Nathan?” Left team.

“Dude with the long hair, I dunno your name.” Right team.

Sunset winced as the crowd thinned out, leaving her, Twilight, Rarity, and Pinkie. Rainbow had threatened her leader to draft Fluttershy a few turns ago, and the two were standing nervously on the left.

The leader of right team glanced over the group and twisted her face in disgust. “Pinkie whatever. Get over here.”

“Hell yeah!” Pinkie shrieked, and did a little dance over to high-five Applejack. “You’re going down, Rainbow!”

The left leader looked them over again and nervously pointed to Sunset. “You. Bacon hair.”

Sunset rolled her eyes and marched over to stand next to Fluttershy. Twilight had snapped back into focus when she started walking away and was staring at Sunset with wide, nervous eyes.

Shit. She might be last, Sunset thought. That’s terrible. She switched her gaze over to the other leader and tried to telepathically communicate with her to choose Twilight over Rarity.

“Ugh, wow, you two both look awful.” The leader put one hand over her eyes and randomly pointed at the pair. “You.”

Sunset breathed a sigh of relief as Twilight scampered over to the other team, while Rarity shrugged and moved to Sunset. The fashionista didn’t seem too bothered to have been the last one left.

“Alright, slackers!” the coach yelled. He tossed the bag of jerseys towards Applejack and pointed to where he’d set up a dividing line on the soccer pitch. “We’re playing dodgeball, for those of you who couldn’t guess. No doctors. If you get hit in a no-no area, don’t come crying to me!” He herded the groups to the back ends of opposite sides and dumped the balls out in the centre circle.

Sunset eyed the pile, foot on the back line. Beside her was a trembling Fluttershy and an unamused Rarity. Both were going to be absolutely no help for her plan. That meant…

“Psst, Rainbow,” she whispered. “I need your help.”

“Yeah? Shoot.”

“What’s the worst thing I can do to piss off Coach Williams?”

At that Rainbow’s face broke into a wide grin, and she shoved past Fluttershy to stand beside Sunset. “Holy shit, I thought you’d never ask.”


---


About five minutes later, Sunset glanced at Rainbow out of the corner of her eye. The two were sitting ramrod straight in the waiting area for the headmistress, an unamused secretary staring them down as she typed away on her computer. “Worth it?”

“Totally.”

Sunset sighed and picked at the worn cushion of her chair. She was deemed the instigator this time, and was seated closer to the headmistress’ office. “Let me tell you, Rainbow, you sure know your stuff.”

“Duh.” Rainbow snuck a peek at the secretary before tilting her chair back on two legs. “If you’re talkin’ gym teachers, I got a tip for you - always go for the gut.” She snickered. “AJ and I call it the ‘coach bod’. Trust me, they’re always sensitive about it.”

“Absolutely ruthless. I love it.”

The secretary cleared her throat. “Four on the floor, Miss Dash.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Rainbow let herself fall back down with a thud, and when she wasn’t being looked at flipped her off. “Buncha stuck ups, here,” she whispered to Sunset. “Glad you seem pretty cool.”

Sunset opened her mouth to respond, only to be cut off by a crash from the hall next to her that sent her and Rainbow flying to their feet. “Whoa! What the hell?!”

“Sit back down, Miss Dash. Miss Shimmer.”

Rainbow mimicked her voice in a high-pitched tone but did as she was told. Sunset, however, only pretended to, and when the secretary glanced back to her computer she rounded the corner and took off down the hall.

“Hey!” Rainbow whisper-shouted after her. “What are you-”

“Cover for me!”

Sunset ignored Rainbow’s strangled protests and made a mad dash for the towering door at the end. Once she reached it she squatted down next to it and pressed her ear up against the wood, praying it was just as thin as the rest of the doors in the school.

Behind it someone was swearing. There was another crash and a scrape of metal on metal before the voice of someone she recognized as Celeste shouted, “Enough of this!”

There was silence for a second, and then rustling papers. Sunset’s heart was hammering in her throat but she forced herself to stay put.

“...Today, then,” Celeste finally said. “We’ll do it today.”

Today? What?

“...Yes, yes. I’ve picked the sacrifice; don’t be like this. You know how much I miss-” she stopped. “Nevermind that. You’ll be freed soon, so please refrain from throwing my office into such a state! You saw how Twilight reacted this morning.”

Frowning, Sunset tried to make sense of the words, only for a PA system inside to beep. “Headmistress Celeste, Sunset Shimmer is on her way now.”

The rustling of papers continued, and Celeste said so quietly that Sunset almost missed it, “...We’ll talk more later. Now go.”

Sunset barely managed to remove herself from the door before whatever was inside let out the most terrifying, blood-curdling scream she’d ever heard in her life.


---


“What was that about?!” Rainbow hissed as they made their way back to the field. “You know what I had to pull to convince the secretary that you were using the washroom?” She jabbed her pointer finger at Sunset and hissed, “You owe me an explanation, Shimmer.” 



“Later,” Sunset said, scanning the pitch for Twilight’s pink and purple streaks. She shoved the note she’d gotten from Celeste into the pocket of her shorts and said, “I gotta talk to Twi.”

“Wha- hey! Get back here!”

Sunset jogged over to where Twilight was slumped dejectedly in the corner of the ‘jail’ zone, and threw herself down next to her. “Hey, I have to talk to you.”

Twilight glanced up at her, and scowled. “Oh, don’t think I don’t know what you did.”

A pause. Then, “What?”

“You got in trouble on purpose! Why on earth would you do that? Look, if it’s about Celeste, I can handle myself, okay?”

“Okay, guilty as charged, and you can yell at me later. But Twilight, please.” Sunset dropped her pitch and whispered, “Listen to me. I snuck outside the headmistress’ office, and I heard a bunch of weird things.”

At that Twilight paused. “What kind of things?”

“She was talking to herself, first of all. And not like talk-talk, but having-a-conversation talk. It was so weird!” Frowning, Sunset held up her fingers and started counting things off. “There was this loud crash, she mentioned a sacrifice of all things, something made this terrible screech that nearly shattered my eardrums, and when she met with me she wasn’t even paying attention! Just gave me a note and told me not to do it again.”

Twilight nervously adjusted her glasses. “Did she have a suspicious red stain on her front and a metal gauntlet on one hand?”

“Yes and yes. Super creepy.” Sunset nervously looked around, and when she thought the coast was clear hissed, “I think she’s totally evil.”

“Wha-?” Twilight’s jaw dropped. “That’s not-”

“Omigosh, the headmistress is totally evil!” a voice whisper-shouted from beside Sunset.

“Gah!”

Twilight and Sunset whipped around to see Pinkie Pie staring at them innocently. A wide smile broke across her features as she continued, “Man, that’s so cool! Like, the villain to some sort of angsty teenage novel, y’know?”

“What are you doing?!” Twilight yelped. “You’re supposed to be playing-”

“-dodgeball? Oh, silly. Rainbow nailed me as soon as she got back, and you were having such a super-duper interesting convo that I just had to get in on it, y’know?”

“...No.” Twilight ignored her and turned back to Sunset to say, “And what you’re saying is stupid. Evil headmistress? That’s something that only happens in B-rated fantasy plots. Reality check: we’re not living in a fantasy world right now!”

“My hair would like to request a lawyer.”

“This isn’t a laughing matter!” Glaring, Twilight got to her feet and started to pace back and forth. “Celeste is acting terribly weird and I have no idea what to do!”

Pinkie raised her hand as if she was in class. “Oh, oh! Pick me!”

Twilight paused. “Yes, Pinkie?”

“We should tell the others and make a battle plan!”

“Absolutely not-”

“Greatgottagobye!”

A Pinkie-shaped blur shoved Twilight to the side as she raced off to the other jail box, a flash of light surrounding her for a split second. The only two players left on the field were Rainbow and Applejack, and Pinkie was almost smacked by a stray ball as she sprinted across.

“Holy shit!” Twilight heard Rainbow shout from far away. “Pinkie, what the hell did you do to your hair?!”

Twilight stared after her, frozen. “Sunset?”

“Yeah, Twi?”

“I think I’m going to freak out. Again.”
> No, Never Mind. Not Magic at All.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The rest of gym class almost left Twilight in shock. Not only did Pinkie’s hair indeed turn to her namesake’s, but when Fluttershy and Rarity tried to help calm her down both of their hair colours changed the second they touched her, sending her back into hysterics. Even Coach Williams shot their group a sympathetic glance as he passed.

Eventually the five other girls decided to leave just Sunset with Twilight and hope for the best.

When the period ended Sunset almost dreaded sending her terrified friend off by herself, but Twilight convinced her she would be alright. In her panic she was desperate to return to something that made sense, even if it was just the periodic table.

(Though, all throughout history Sunset found herself shooting glances at the clock and willing it to to move faster. It didn’t work.)

Eventually the clock hit 3:15 to signal the end of the school day and the beginning of the assembly. Sunset couldn’t get out of class fast enough, practically sprinting across the school to get to the auditorium.

How’s Twilight?

“Sunset!” A bouncing Pinkie near the stage waved her down. The other girls were with her, even Twilight, though she looked just as shaky as she was in gym.

Sighing, Sunset jogged over and plopped herself down beside Twilight. “Hey guys.”

“Don’t ‘hey guys’ us!” Rainbow crossed her arms and shot the two of them a look. “What the hell is going on here?! Magical colour-changing hair and shit?”

Sunset shot Twilight a glance, waiting for the inevitable ‘it’s not magic!’. It didn’t come.

Yikes. She’s worse than I thought. Aloud she said, “We don’t know ourselves, okay? This whole thing is clearly really hard for Twilight especially, so can you maybe tone it down a bit?”

Rainbow visibly deflated and averted her eyes. “...Okay. Yeah. But after this we’re all meeting at the mall, got it?”

Squinting, Applejack put her hands on her hips and said, “Why, so you can grill Twi more? Leave the poor girl alone, Dash.”

“Hey! I meant just to hang out! As pals, duh. Clearly we’re not just gonna send her home like this, right?” She gently clapped Twilight on the shoulder and said, “That sound okay?”

“...” Twilight didn’t say anything, but nodded slowly.

“Good enough for me!”

Fluttershy fidgeted with her new pale pink hair and hesitantly asked, “Um… but, maybe we should give her some space. If I was feeling overwhelmed, I definitely wouldn’t want to be around people…”

“Fair point, darling,” Rarity said. She shot Rainbow a look and said haughtily, “Not all of us can be as extroverted as Rainbow here, after all.” She paused. “Oh, thank goodness for that.”

“Hey!”

Twilight lifted her head, eyes vacant and still focused on the ground. “...I don’t care, really. Whatever is fine.”

The group fell silent. Sunset reached over to squeeze Twilight’s hand reassuringly, but she was brushed off. Yikes. Not good.

Rainbow opened her mouth to say something else only to be interrupted by the lights dimming and the squeal of a mic. She shrugged and whispered, “Later,” to Sunset, before dragging Applejack over to the seats on the end of the row.

“Good afternoon, students,” Celeste said. She stood in the centre of the stage, mic in one hand and the other behind her back. She had also changed her shirt, for the red stain was nowhere to be seen. “It is my distinct pleasure to welcome you all back to Kanterlot High School once again, or, to welcome you for the first time.”

There was a scattered round of applause. Clearly, no one was paying much attention.

Celeste launched into a speech about unity and goals, which was of no interest to Sunset. She decided used the opportunity to sneak in a word to Twilight.

“Hey,” she whispered. Twilight’s eyelashes flickered as an indication she’d heard, but her gaze was fixed on Celeste. “Twi. Everything will be fine. We’ll figure this out together, alright?”

Twilight’s hands bunched in her skirt, knuckles going white. Then she dipped her head in a stiff nod.

“...Thank you, Sunset.”

The rest of the assembly went by in a slow, boring half hour. Sunset had to fight to keep her eyes from closing, envious of Rainbow’s don’t-care attitude - she was snoring away.

“...and, finally, if you have are having any troubles adjusting this school year, don’t hesitate to come and talk to me. That is all.”

Celeste stepped back from the mic and the auditorium immediately dissolved into chattering as the students began to pack up. Sunset stretched her arms out over her head and stifled a yawn. “Man, glad that’s over.”

“You’re telling me,” Rainbow grumped. She rubbed her eyes and slung her backpack over her shoulder. “Mall now?”

The group collectively glanced at Twilight, and, when they received no answer, turned to Sunset.

“Yeah, ok.” Sunset decided. “That sounds fine.”

As they all got up, however, there was a sound louder than a gunshot the threw the whole room into stunned silence.

The doors to the outside had slammed shut on their own.

Applejack narrowed her eyes. “What in tarnation?”

Sunset felt cold sweat drip down her forehead and took a step closer to Twilight. All around them the other students started to fidget nervously. A group of boys attempted to open the doors - but they wouldn’t budge.

“Students,” Celeste boomed over the panicked chatter. “Please listen to me.”

Okay, it’s fine. Celeste knows what’s going on. She’ll calm everyone down, get the doors open, and-

“I am very, truly sorry for what I am about to do.”

And then, all hell broke loose.


---


Twilight found that filing her thoughts away in times of stress was particularly conducive to staying conscious. Which was important, really, when your mentor had just unleashed a terrifying nightmare-like shadow of doom from her gauntlet.

As the whole auditorium devolved into chaos, Twilight thought that externally she sounded something like this:

“Ohsweetjesusmaryandjosephholymotherduckwe’reallgonnadie-”

However, internally she was fine. Relatively speaking. There was this tiny, niggling thought at the back of her head trying to pull her back into the throes of panic. She was managing to hold it off for the time being, but she wasn’t sure how long she could.

“Oh shit, what the fuck?!” someone screamed from her left. Probably Rainbow. “What the fuck is that?!”

“Ah don’t know, but ah’m not stickin’ ‘round to find out. Girls, move!”

Though the others found their legs and ran for the doors, Twilight found herself rooted to the spot in fear. Vaguely, she was aware of Sunset yelling her name beside her, but her brain was too busy processing what was going on.

Screaming students, everywhere. They’re breaking windows to call for help; we’re on the second floor so they can’t very well jump. The boys have managed to break down the doors. And- right. The doom shadow. Twilight quickly whipped around to make sure once more that she wasn’t hallucinating.

The humanoid, whirling mass of darkness attached to Celeste’s arm grinned and waved at her.

Twilight froze, and the shadow lunged forwards only for Celeste to yank her arm back and drag it away. She locked eyes with Twilight and shouted over the chaos, “Get out of here!”

Beside her, Sunset took the hint and grabbed Twilight by the wrist. “C’mon, Twi! Move!”

They weaved through the thinning crowds towards the door as the shadow swiped at Twilight again, barely managing to make it through before a massive shockwave slammed into them and knocked them off their feet.

The doors crashed shut behind them. Sunset scrambled to her feet, eyes wide, and tugged Twilight up beside her. “What the hell,” she whispered as the started to run. “What the hell?!”

A few halls later Twilight realized she was still babbling, and cut herself off between a ‘dear baby jesus’ loincloths’ and a ‘sweet mother of all things holy’ with a shuddering breath. Her sides were burning from the physical activity, and fact that they couldn’t find an openable exit of any sort was getting pretty concerning.

“Sunset,” she managed to wheeze after passing through the same hall for the third time. “I can’t feel my lungs.”

“What- oh. Sorry.” Sunset let go of her wrist and watched sheepishly as Twilight doubled over in exhaustion. “Um, let’s find some place to sit down?”

“Y-yeah.”

After trying the side door one more time, but to no avail, Sunset ushered Twilight into the art room, where they flopped down behind one of the counters. Outside the halls were filled with the screams of students and the roar of the shadow, but once Sunset kicked the door closed everything was engulfed in silence.

“...So,” Sunset tried eventually. “That just happened.”

Twilight buried her face in her knees and let out a pained groan. “This is terrible.”

“Oh, uh, geez Twi. I know it’s hard to believe your mentor would do something like this, but-”

“Not that! Everything that’s happened in the last two days; everything that’s happening now-” Here she paused to take a shaky breath and whined, “-is testing my faith in science to its limits.”

Blinking, Sunset stifled an exasperated laugh. “You don’t believe in magic or anything supernatural even after this?!”

“Of course not,” Twilight spat hotly. “I’m a scientist, and I know there’s a logical explanation for everything. I just…” She shrank back against the counter and mumbled, “I just don’t know what it is.”

Sunset’s expression softened, and she nudged the other girl’s shoulder in an attempt to comfort her. “Hey, hey. You’ll figure it out once we get out of here.” She winced. “And once you’re not in a completely panicked state of mind, since, uh… ow”

Confused, Twilight looked down to see that she was unconsciously clinging to Sunset’s arm, her fingernails pressing deep enough to leave indents. She quickly removed them and sputtered, “Oh geez. I’m so sorry-”

“No, it’s fine.” Sunset flashed her a confident smile and rolled her sleeves down - though, not quick enough for the faint traces of blood to escape Twilight’s view. “Don’t worry about it. Right now our priority is getting out of here.”

“And finding the others?” Twilight’s mouth moved before her brain could catch up and mentally flinched. Did she really think so highly of the five girls she had met only yesterday?




Thankfully, Sunset didn’t seem to think anything was off. “Yeah, that too. I can only hope they aren’t stuck here like us.”

“...Yeah.”

The next few minutes consisted of gathering supplies from around the room that hadn’t been locked up, which was difficult in the dark. Neither of them wanted to risk turning the lights on in case Celeste moved away from the auditorium.

In the end they ended up with a pile of scrap paper, a mountain of pencils, and a set of crayons that Sunset immediately snatched up and started doodling with, much to Twilight’s chagrin. Once Sunset’s urge to make art was sated, they both had nametags with their - admittedly cute - faces drawn in the corners.

“Okay, now what?” Twilight said. She spread a sheet out in front of her and tucked her pencil behind her ear as she pulled her hair up into a bun - her thinking hair. “Scientific method of problem solving?”

“Oh yeah,” Sunset said, grabbing her own pencil. “Step one: what’s the problem?”

“We’re trapped in the school with a shadow demon that has unknown intentions, and are unsure of the other’s whereabouts,” she replied, writing down the key things she had said. “We also have no way of contacting anyone since my phone is dead…” she trailed off. “Wait, do you have-”

“In my car,” Sunset cut in with a sigh. “Left it there by accident this morning. Stupid, huh?” She doodled on the corner of the paper with her pencil before perking up and adding, “But, if we could get you a charger-”

“-we could contact the outside world-”

“-and let them know what’s going on!” the two shouted in unison. They grinned at each other in the dim lighting for a second before quickly averting their eyes. Twilight scrawled the idea down in the corner and said, “Okay, that’s an option. But then for the whole being stuck in here thing…”

They sat in silence for a second, save for the occasional sound from outside. Suddenly, Sunset sat up straight and smiled a mischievous, troublemaking smile. “Hey, Twilight…”

“Oh God. I’m not going to like what you’re suggesting, am I?”

“You? Probably not. It’s the scientist in you that I’m hoping will understand where I’m coming from.”

A pause. Then Twilight put down her pencil and swivelled in her seat to lock eyes with Sunset. “I’m listening.”


---


Five minutes later Twilight was alone, doing her very best to sneak through the hallways. They were empty, both a good and bad sign - good in that no one evil had spotted her yet, but bad in that there were no other students at all.

You can do this. In and out. You know the lab like the back of your hand, after all.

Of course, life always liked to throw her a few curveballs. As soon as she pushed open the door to the chemistry storage she was clocked on the forehead with… was that a notebook?

“Ow,” Twilight said, though out of habit and not because the flimsy book had actually hurt. “Uh, hello?” She bent down to pick up the book, noting that it was filled with neat and tidy handwriting.

“T-Twilight?” There was a rustle, and the lights flicked on to reveal a cowering Fluttershy holding an armful of notebooks. “Oh thank goodness! I thought you were the shadow thing, o-or a monster, or-”

She’s got more nerves than me, Twilight thought to herself. Outwardly, she gave the book back to Fluttershy and started fiddling with the locks on the cupboards. “Nope. Just me. What are you doing in here by yourself?”

“Um, well…” She ducked behind her hair and mumbled, “I don’t run very fast, but I was too scared to stay with Rarity since heels are a real disadvantage when you flee…”

“Ha. Relatable.” The lock clicked and slid off the door, and Twilight sent a silent prayer of thanks out to Shining that the trick he’d taught her still worked.

Fluttershy peered into the shelving and frowned. “What are you doing? Shouldn’t we be looking for a way out? Or a better hiding spot?”

“Oh, this is our way out, don’t worry.” Twilight scanned the shelves before settling on on the large bottle marked 'glycerin'. She paused, then passed it to Fluttershy. “Hold this.”

“But-”

A funnel, a beaker, a Bunsen burner, and a bottle of red liquid labeled 'RFNA' followed the first bottle, forcing the poor girl to drop her notebooks to fit all of it in her arms. Twilight finished up their pile by pulling the fire extinguisher off the wall and looping its end around her arm. “Think we need anything else?”

Fluttershy tottered on the spot, but managed to keep it all from falling. “I, um, don’t really know what’s going on. Maybe that little shiny thing?”

“What?”

There was a purple rock in a plastic baggie shoved between the jug of hydrochloric acid and jar of pipettes. Shrugging, Twilight snagged it and shoved it in her pants pocket before speed walking to the door. “Okay. Let’s move.”

“But, where are we going? And why do we need all this? Twilight?!”


---


The two of them ran into Rainbow and Applejack in the shop, narrowly avoiding being skewered by a battle-ready Rainbow in the process. Twilight somehow pushed the urge to freak out again to the back of her mind and instead ordered the other two to help her carry some plywood, a toolkit, and lots of bungee cables.

They agreed, but asked why. Twilight refused to answer.

Finally, finally, they made it back to the art room. It seemed Sunset had managed to find Pinkie and Rarity, bringing their group’s headcount back up to seven once again.

“Jesus, Twilight,” Rainbow wheezed, and tossed the bundle of plywood to the floor with a crash. “I don’t see how all of this junk is supposed to help us, I don’t know, defeat a literal fucking demon?!”

“Not a demon,” Twilight corrected. “Whatever it is, there’s probably an explanation. And we don’t need to defeat it, we just need to get out.” She took the rest of the materials from Fluttershy and spread them out on the counter in front of Sunset. “This all good?”

“Oh yeah. This is perfect.”

Rarity frowned at the seemingly random bunch of materials and crossed her arms. “While I do appreciate a good sense of mystery, I’d quite like to know what is going on here. I mean, this can’t possibly help us unlock the doors.”

“Or build a ladder,” Pinkie chirped. She eyed the bungee cords and added, “Unless your plan was to make a zipline, and-!”

“We’re doing neither of those,” Sunset interrupted, smirking in the way only mad scientists could. “Twilight and I came up with something way, way better than anything you could think of.”

Frowning, Rainbow narrowed her eyes. “Oh yeah? Better than a laser cannon?”

“Let’s be realistic here, Superman.”

“Jesus, fine.” She rolled her eyes and tried, “Battleaxe.”

“Science hammer,” said Applejack.

“...A call for help?” Fluttershy attempted. She shrank back into herself as the others shot her a look and mumbled, “No, um, never mind.”

Sunset wrinkled her nose. “Nope, nope, and definitely not. No, girls, we…” And here she paused for dramatic effect before slamming her hands on the table with enough force to shake the paintings on the wall. “...are doing something that would most definitely get us in trouble on a normal day. Twi?”

Slowly, Twilight held up the bottle of glycerin and forced a smile.

“We’re going to build a bomb.”
> Hypothesis: Is Science Magic?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight held up her checklist. “Base.”

Rainbow looked up from where she and Fluttershy were piecing together the wooden boards and gave the construct a solid knock. “Check.” The thing resembled a sloppy sort of fusion of an upside-down table and a rocking chair with wheels. Somehow, it worked.

“Good. Applejack, Pinkie. How’s the catapult?”

“Right on track, Twi.” As if to emphasize Applejack’s point, Pinkie pushed down on one end and watched the bungee cords snap it back into place, giggling as she did. “Just followed everything as close to the diagram you ‘n Sunset made.”

“Hm.” Twilight made some notes on her paper, looked carefully at the structure, and said, “You might want to adjust the fulcrum. It’s a little too close to the launchpad.”

“Right. On it.”

As the two got back to work, she stepped around the planks on the floor to one of the art counters, where Sunset and Rarity were piecing together a spherical shell. Sunset’s expression was delighted, while Rarity’s seemed to scream that she’d rather not be there at all.

“How’s the bomb coming?” Twilight asked, nearly causing Rarity to fall right out of her chair.

“Don’t startle me, Twilight!” she whined. “I’m already around this- this explosive; I don’t need the element of surprise as well!”

Frowning, Twilight shrugged. It wasn’t her fault she was unintentionally sneaky. “Sorry.”

Sunset perked up at the sight of Twilight and wiped her hands on her pants. “Okay, so take a look at this: it acts like a water balloon, but can hold the nitroglycerin in a suspended container so we don't blow up immediately.”

“We hope,” Rarity cut in. She made a face and said, “I, for one, certainly do not wish to be die in the middle of constructing it.”

“Oh, relax. We haven’t even made the stuff yet.”

Twilight gave the sphere a poke with her pencil and raised an eyebrow. “Interesting. You took our original idea of a balloon and made it out of wood-”

“-with a layer of plastic to stop it from soaking through, of course-”

“-and will suspend the bomb in the centre container? So that during launch the contents explode instead of while we work with it?”

Sunset grinned. “Yup.” She shook the bottle of glycerin and waggled her eyebrows. “This bad boy is gonna blow the front of the school sky high.”

Rarity winced. “Er, yes. Though, do remember that any damages we make might be held against us in the aftermath, yes? Perhaps a smaller hole-”

Twilight shook her head. “We’ve got one shot at this. If we split the amount we have in half and it’s not strong enough, then what?”

“...Hm. That is a problem, I suppose.”

After checking off a few more things, Twilight clapped her hands together and said, “Okay. As soon as you’re done try and help the others. I’m going to go back to the lab and start on the bomb, or see if there's anything else we might need.”

Sunset frowned, but nodded reluctantly. “Okay. But be careful. I don’t want you getting hurt out there or anything. I mean, not that you would throw yourself into danger or anything! I just- don’t die, okay?” She winced at the word vomit that she’d produced and shrugged sheepishly. “That’d really suck.”

Rarity glanced between the two for a second before an almost-visible light bulb went off over her head, a mischievous grin spreading across her features. Oh, she mouthed at Twilight, raising her eyebrows.

Twilight fought back her blush quickly averted her eyes. “Y-yeah. Of course. I’ll be fine.” She spun on her heel to make her way to the door and nearly ran into a counter. After readjusting she glanced back over her shoulder and added, “Bye, Sunset.” She paused. “A-and you too, Rarity. Ha ha.”

You’re so smooth, Sparkle. Not.

When the door to the art room closed behind her Twilight was once again reminded of how eerily silent the school was. Fear began to build in her chest again, but she shoved it back down. Not now. First we get out, then I panic. Not the other way around. Steeling herself, she straightened her shoulders and set off in a brisk march down the hall.

As she got closer to the lab, however, something in her pants pocket started to get uncomfortably warm. When it reached a burning temperature, she hissed and pulled the baggie out, muttering, “What the heck?”

The purple stone was glowing.

Twilight blinked. Once, twice. Then, the stone melted clean through the bag and clattered to the floor.

The sound seemed so loud against the silence. Then, there was a thud from a few rooms away, and the clatter of footsteps.

“Shoot!” In her panic, Twilight scooped the stone up and made a mad dash into the closest room. Not a second too soon, for just as she pressed the door closed a shadow passed over the doorframe, followed by all the lights in the hall simultaneously going out.

“She’s not here,” a voice said. “You probably imagined it.” Celeste, Twilight thought, trying to still her heartbeat. Then the shadow thing must be-

“Hmph.” The second voice was lower, more sharp, yet it was also… familiar? “Keep moving, then. We’re going to destroy your precious star before she learns the truth.”

There was the sound of footsteps fading back the way they appeared. After a second, the lights went back on. leaving Twilight pressed against the door by herself.

“Holy crap,” she whispered. Mentally she thanked whatever gods were out there that the room she was in was unlocked, before glaring at the purple stone clenched in her fist. “You almost got me killed!”

The stone continued to glow, but its heat diminished slightly. Twilight rolled her eyes and moved to open the door, but paused.

There, on one of the desks, was a pink rock pulsing in time with the one in her hand. Of course, she thought to herself. More ‘magical’ things is just what I need. Nevertheless she snatched it up, deciding to give it to Pinkie or something. She’d probably get a kick out of a shiny glowing rock.

The two stones blinked at her, then went still and cold. Twilight frowned, and shook them. “Excuse me.” Nothing happened.

Feeling a bit silly for talking to a bunch of rocks, Twilight rolled her eyes and decided that someone must have been fooling around with fluorescent paint. That was that.

After all, magic wasn’t real. Right?


---


Twilight made it back to the art room nearly half an hour later, sweaty and out of breath, and holding a container of frozen nitroglycerin as carefully as she possibly could. When she threw open the door and stomped inside the other girls froze in their conversation. Something was up.

“This,” Twilight hissed, chucking a handful of rocks down onto the nearest counter, “is ridiculous.”

“No they aren’t, silly,” Pinkie said. “Those are rocks!”

“Rocks that dragged me around the school and nearly got me killed about three times!” At the girls’ expressions morphed into shock she continued, “First they nearly got me found by Celeste, then they wouldn’t stop burning me unless I went in the right direction and picked up even more. What gives?! I barely had enough time to nitrate the glycerin and freeze it before I got third degree burns.”

Sunset coughed into her hand and muttered, “Magic.”

“Anything but that, please.” Scowling, Twilight eyed the rocks and grumbled, “Just get them away from me.”

Rainbow finally got over her shock and stared at the table with the stones. Suddenly, she leaped out of her seat and smacked on fist against her palm. “No way! These are the things cousin Daring was looking for - the six gemstones of divinity!”

A pause. Pinkie tilted her head to the side. “Those are rocks,” she repeated, but with less enthusiasm than before.

“No duh. They haven’t been activated!” She picked up the orange one and shook it in the air for a second. “Daring told me that if you find the right people at the right time they become a totally awesome weapon.” Rainbow dropped the rock back on the table before spinning back to the others and shouting, “We can use these to beat Celeste!”

Twilight narrowed her eyes and pushed her glasses up with one hand. “Okay, let me clear some things up.” She placed the container she was holding down gently on the counter and crossed her arms. “First, magic isn’t real.”

“But-”

“And if, and only if, it was, what would some ancient artifacts from the desert be doing here?”

Rainbow wilted, and sank back down onto her stool. “...You don’t gotta ruin it for me, y’know.”

“Not to mention the fact that they ‘activate around the right people’. If we were able to use this fictional weapon, wouldn’t it already have formed?”

“Augh, okay! I get it.” Pouting, Rainbow kicked her feet up on the counter with a huff. “But then what the hell are these things?”

“Um…” Fluttershy raised her hand hesitantly. “Where did you find these, again?”

Twilight blinked. “Huh? Um, the lab, a classroom, the kitchen, the shop, the gym, and the last one was in one of the art projects hanging outside.” She paused. “I think I just ruined some poor kid’s sculpture, now that I think about it.”

Rarity buried her head in her hands and muttered something about a travesty against artwork.

“Then… not that I know for sure, but I think those are part of the decorations the student council members were setting up.” Fluttershy shrank down further in her seat as she continued, “My brother, um, was complaining about having to decorate all over the school with a bunch of rocks. They were supposed to light up, so that might explain the warmth...”

“Oh.” Suddenly, Twilight felt a little foolish. “They were in kind of odd places for decorations, though.”

“Zephyr was probably trying to get the job done as fast as possible. Like, um, usual.”

Applejack nodded and stretched as she got to her feet. “Well that’s that, then. Do what ya want with the rocks; ah say it’s high time we busted outa here.”

“Gently, Applejack, please! Like I said earlier, the school could always press us for damages-”

“Relax, Rares. I’m sure they’ll make an exception for a life-threatenin’ situation.”

With some legwork and a lot of organization from Twilight, the girls managed to fit all three pieces of the catapult out the art room doors - though Rarity insisted that Twilight carry the nitroglycerin as far away as possible from her. Rainbow and Applejack hauled the bungee cord monstrosity between them, while Pinkie was pushing the base along the floor as fast as she possibly could.

That left Sunset and Fluttershy bringing up the rear as lookouts. At least, one of them was looking out. Sunset was busy playing with the decorative rocks.

“If we get out of this, I’m totally gonna get these made into like, a necklace or something. They’re so solid for just decorations.” She held one up and squinted into it with a frown. “I can’t see any circuitry, though. Think Twi imagined them lighting up?”

Fluttershy nodded nervously, her eyes darting around in every direction. If she was comparable to anything as they made their way to the front, it would have been a frightened rabbit ready to bolt at any second. “U-uh huh.”

“...You really need to get a security blanket, or something.”

Fortunately there was no sign of Celeste on their way. When they made it to the foyer Twilight jiggled the handles of the main doors just to make sure they were still stuck. They were.

“Then that’s that,” she said with the confidence of someone about to make a very terrible decision. “Let’s set it up.”

The mess of bungee cords was fitted on top of the base and locked into place. Sunset then opened up the inner section of the shell and placed it into the arm of the catapult.

All seven of them took a step back to survey their horrible creation.

“Well,” Applejack said after a few seconds, “For just under an hour this is pretty good.”

“But otherwise it kinda sucks,” Pinkie added.

Twilight rolled her eyes and held out the rapidly-melting nitroglycerin. “I’ll do the honours. AJ, Rainbow, Sunset. Can you aim it just above the doorframe?” She turned to the other three girls and forced a sheepish grin. “You guys might want to stand back.”

Rarity paled and took a good three steps back, dragging Fluttershy with her.

“No, no. I mean, back. Like, over there-back.” She pointed to one of the hallways opposite from the door and continued, “Preferably behind a locker or something. And a wall. I don’t know how much shrapnel there will be but-”

“You don’t have to tell a lady twice! Come on, girls.” Rarity grabbed the hands of the other two and started marching away as fast as possible in her heels.

Pinkie shrugged and let herself be pulled away, but managed to wave a cheery, “Good luck!” back over her shoulder.

Twilight steeled herself, and then turned back to the girls holding the catapult in place. “As soon as we let go we run. Got it?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Rainbow flexed one arm and pressed the lever down even farther. “Let’s do this!”

As Twilight undid the lid and prepared to pour it in, Sunset grabbed her free hand and looked her dead in the eyes.

“You got this, Twi,” she said.

Nodding, Twilight swallowed the lump in her throat and tilted all of the liquid into the capsule, then closed the lid. “I know.”

And then they let go of the bomb, and ran.


---


“Well,” Rarity coughed, waving her hand to clear the smoke. “I can’t say I’m particularly fond of what the dust did to my clothes, but good heavens! Please use your brilliant mind only for the forces of good, Twilight. Alright?”

Face down on the floor with her arms protectively over her head, Twilight slowly uncurled from her ball. “...I’ll take that as a compliment.”

As soon as the bomb had made contact with the wall it had exploded in a wash of smoke and sound bigger and louder than even Sunset had anticipated. Rainbow and Applejack were strong enough runners that they were too far for the shockwave to take effect, but Twilight had found herself knocked to the ground just as the first of the rubble started raining down.

Thankfully, it seemed to be over. Wincing in pain, she propped herself up on her elbows and turned to face the front of the school.

The front doors were blown right off their hinges. Above them, the circular window was just a few shards glass that managed to hold on to the damaged frame. Brick and insulation was scattered all over the ground in massive chunks that gradually decreased in size the farther away they were from the door.

“Well,” Twilight said, and wiped the dust off the lenses of her glasses. “I’d say that worked better than expected.”

“Aw, yeah!” Rainbow did a dance on the spot - some sort of embarrassing mixture of headbanging and stomping - and pumped her fist into the air. “We’re free! Let’s get the hell outa here and-” she trailed off, gaze fixed on the outside. “Uh. AJ?”

“Yeah?”

“How long have we been in here?”

Applejack glanced at her wristwatch and frowned. “Not much more than an hour - one an’ a half tops. Why?”

Slowly, all the girls looked to where Rainbow pointed, out over the front lawn of the school and into the pitch black night

Something was very, very wrong.

“That’s not possible,” Twilight whispered. “What happened to the sun?” She took a step forwards, then another, until she was practically sprinting out into the fresh air. It was cool against her skin and heavy with the scent of nighttime - but the stars and moon were gone.

“Twilight!” Sunset and the others ran up behind her, their faces similar expressions of disbelief.

“Oh goodness,” Fluttershy whispered. She grabbed ahold of Rainbow’s hand and ducked behind the smaller girl as well as she possibly could. “This… This is not good.”

A low, dark chuckle sounded behind them. Twilight spun on her heel, panicked, and came face to face with the disembodied shadow.

“Hello, dear star.”

Twilight froze, and in that instant Celeste yanked on the rope-like substance between the two with her gauntlet and dragged the shadow away from the girls. Surprisingly, it didn’t seem to care.

“Twilight-” Celeste tried, struggling to hold on to the shadow. “I-”

“What… what the hell is going on?!” Sunset stepped in front of Twilight protectively and held out her arms. When Celeste didn’t answer she continued, “I’m serious! Twilight and the rest of us deserve more of an explanation than a lousy ‘I’m sorry’. What, are you doing some illegal shit or something?”

“This is not the place for that,” Celeste snapped. “We will tell her when we are ready.”

“‘We’? So is this demon a thing a part of you? And what the hell was the sacrifice I heard you talking about, because I don’t think-”

“Oooh, she knows, sister,” the shadow purred.

“Be quiet, Nightmare.”

Sunset narrowed her eyes. “Nightmare, huh? Fine; I’ll just ask it myself.” She took a step towards it and balled her hands into fists at her sides. “Explain yourself.”

Honestly, the sight of Sunset being so badass would have been thrilling to no end for Twilight if not for the single word that the shadow had let slip out of its whirling, grinning maw.

“...Sister?”

Everyone froze. Twilight heard Rarity stifle a cry of shock, while Pinkie gasped louder than should have been possible. In front of the group Sunset turned her head, distracted, and said, “Wait, you mean that thing is-”

“Oh for crying out loud. If you won’t get her, then I’ll just do it myself!”

Twilight had no time to react as Nightmare tore out of Celeste’s grip and shot towards her. Luckily Rainbow and Applejack were faster, managing to leap in front of Twilight with their fists raised-

-only to watch as it veered off course and slammed into Sunset instead.

Rainbow blinked in confusion. “Uh.”

“No!” Twilight threw her hand out in an attempt to grab Sunset, but Celeste dragged the two back towards herself, far from the girls.

“Lemme go!” Sunset yelled, struggling against the darkness wrapped around her torso. She twisted her head as far around as possible and cried, “Twilight, help!”

“Ah, shut up.” Nightmare shifted its hold to cover Sunset’s face for a second, and she went limp in its grip. “You’re just an impudent extra. Lucky that the star cares for you so much, hm?” The shadow around her face peeled away and shifted into a hand to cup her cheek almost tenderly. “You’re the perfect sacrifice.”

Sunset, unconscious, did not answer.

“You bastard!” Rainbow broke into a run at the shadow, Applejack and Pinkie hot on her heels. “We won’t let you take her!”

Celeste intercepted the three before they reached Sunset and swiped her gauntlet across the air in front of them. A second later they were all blown backwards by a shockwave of heat and flame, slamming into the ground at Twilight’s feet with a crash.

“Shit!” Rainbow scrambled back to her feet just in time to get hit with another blast. “Agh!”

Applejack snatched her hat back up and pressed it down against her hair. “What the hell?”

“She’s totally got some sort of magic!” Pinkie whimpered into the dirt. Then she shot a glance at Twilight and corrected, “Or, uh, something sciency really similar to it, right?”

Twilight didn’t answer. Instead, she locked her gaze with Celeste and barred her teeth. “Let her go. Now. It’s me Nightmare wants, so give us back Sunset!”

Eyes distant, Celeste raised her ungloved hand and said softly, “I can’t do that.” A golden flame materialized over her hand as she continued, “Come, Twilight. Come and set my sister free.”

“I won’t help you. Never!”

Celeste sighed and narrowed her eyes. “How I wish you had that choice.”

The white dots that were Nightmare’s eyes burned bright, and the air around the school began to shimmer. Twilight could only watch in horror as the entire building started to shift and transform into something entirely different.

The wrought iron gates became pitch black and twice as high, as the entrance repaired itself and morphed into towering double doors. The red brick turned midnight blue and every horseshoe insignia visible morphed into a crescent moon. Suddenly, it was as if the width and height of the school reversed, for instead of a sprawling high school across the lawn there was…

“A castle,” Twilight breathed. “No way.”





And it was. Tall, elegant, and distinctly dark was the only way to describe it. In the centre was the tallest tower, attempting to reach as far as it could into the starless night.

“See you at the top, star,” Nightmare chuckled. “If you want to stop the sacrifice, that is.”

The last Twilight saw of Sunset before she, Celeste, and Nightmare vanished into thin air was her eyes.

They were closed as tightly as they could be, tears caught in her lashes, as if she was unconsciously suffering from some sort of awful, terrible dream.
> The Return of an Ancient, Definitely Magical Evil
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight hadn’t moved in the last minute, still rooted to the spot where she had watched Sunset vanish into thin air. She still didn’t believe in magic, of course - that was a laughable notion easily disproved by any competent scientist - but no matter how hard she tried to think she couldn’t come up with an explanation for anything that had just happened.

Sentient shadow monster? Nope.

Teleportation? Maybe if technology was more advanced, but no.

School turning into a castle? That was the most ridiculous out of all of them, and the thing that had caused Twilight to pinch herself in the arm to make sure she was awake. Several times.

Surprisingly, Fluttershy was the one to break the silence.

“We have to save her,” she said, though not without a tremor in her voice. “A-and we have to beat Nightmare t-too.”

Rainbow blinked, then slung her arm around the taller girl’s shoulders and pulled her down slightly. “Hell yeah! Shy’s right - and ‘sides, I wanna pay those assholes back for throwin’ me around like that!”

“This can’t be Celeste’s fault,” Twilight snapped, and pinched herself in the arm again. “Whatever Nightmare is, it’s what we should be fighting.”

“Ugh, fine. Asshole, singular. Whatever.”

Frowning, Applejack rubbed the back of her head and let out a long breath. “Ah can’t say I oppose the idea of savin’ Sunset, but goin’ into the school-turned-castle? It’ll be mighty dangerous...”

“We don’t even know what kinds of awful creatures could be waiting for us!” Rarity added. Her voice raised a few notes as she almost shrieked, “So many horrible things!”

“Well, shouldn’t this be up to Twilight?” Pinkie piped up. When the others turned to look at her she explained, “Since she and Sunset totally have this thing and all-”

At that Twilight’s cheeks burst into flames and she started to choke on nothing.

“-and Celeste is like, totally a mother figure to her, amiright?” She spread her arms and offered up an awkward half-grin. “Does that make sense?”

“No,” Rainbow muttered under her breath, but stopped talking nonetheless. All eyes shifted to Twilight - a slightly terrified, still-convinced-she-was-dreaming Twilight - who was still staring off into space. She had stopped coughing, at least. There was a minute of relative silence under the starless sky before her lips parted and she let out a shaky breath.

“...Yeah.”

Pinkie blinked. “That’s not an answer, silly.”

“Yeah, as in, we need to get in there and save Sunset. Now.”

Two groans came from behind her along with two whoops of excitement and a singular whimper. Twilight didn’t bother to turn to see who had made what sound, since if she took her eyes off of the castle she was terrified she wouldn’t be able to look back at it.

Terrified. That was an odd word to describe what she was feeling. Fear? No, not completely. There was something else - something in her chest that was pulling her towards that monster, Nightmare. What was it?

“Oh.” A soft voice sounded beside her, and Rarity gently reached out and placed one slender hand on her shoulder. Somehow it helped to ease the storm billowing in Twilight’s mind. “I know that look - my little sister wears it almost constantly.”

“I don’t- I don’t know what I’m feeling. I’m so scared, and angry, and honestly I think I’m going to pass out-”

“Twilight. Look at me, darling.”

Slowly Twilight let her gaze drag over the castle and towards Rarity’s eyes, something snapping into focus as soon as the terrifying building was out of her sights. She focused on Rarity’s comforting smile and took a deep, long breath in.

After the exhale she blurted out, “I think- I think it’s doubt.”

And to that Rarity could only let her smile take on a sadder tone, her hand squeezing tighter. “Yes,” she replied. “But don’t we all?”


---


However powerful Nightmare was, even she could not repair the damage that had been done to the front of the school. However, the inside had changed completely. As the six girls moved forwards they stepped not into the front foyer of Kanterlot High School, but a spacious hall with an elegant staircase leading upwards at the end.

Applejack shuddered as the chandelier above them suddenly lit with blue flames and ran her hands up and down her arms. “This place sure don’t scream ‘welcome’ or anythin’ of that sort.” She jogged forwards to the foot of the stairs and made a face. “Yeargh.”

“Yeah, it’s fucking creepy.” Rainbow squeezed Fluttershy’s hand tight, though if it was to comfort herself or the other girl was unclear. “How’re we gonna know where Sunset is?”

As if on cue a wall of blue smoke roared to life behind them, effectively sealing off the entrance. Pinkie let out a shriek as it grazed her elbow and stumbled backwards, eyes wide.

“Ow!”

Twilight felt a stab of fear as she saw crimson blossoming through Pinkie’s sleeve and raised her hand. It was shaking, but she managed to close it into a fist.“Stick together! We don’t know what Nightmare is going to do-”

Five ink-black tendrils shot out from the smoke at the girls, each picking a different target. Applejack could only watch in horror as her friends were dragged back down the hall to a different spot in the room with the darkness wrapped securely over their eyes.

“Girls!” Applejack took a step of off the staircase only for the ground to shake underneath her boot. “W-whoa. Ah don’t-” She glanced around frantically and cupped her hands around her mouth to shout, “What do ah do?!”

“Stay calm!” Twilight shouted back. She was the farthest one away, held fast against the wall. “Look around you - what’s going on in your surroundings?”

“Um, ah-” Blinking, Applejack licked her lips nervously. “All y’all are separated, you’re at different points in the room. The darkness is coverin’ your eyes or something. And the floor…” She glanced down and noticed for the first time a tile-like pattern with different symbols on them. “...it looks like something out of an Indiana Jones movie or something. Fancy symbols and stuff.”

“Traps!” Rainbow shouted. “They gotta be traps!”

“What kind of traps?!” Rarity shrieked.

“Heck if I know, man!”

“Um, girls?”

“This is too much!” Plowing right over top of Fluttershy’s question, Rarity began struggling against her bonds. “What if it’s snakes? Or rats? Or poison gas?!”

“Why are you worrying about traps when I’m the one who already got hurt?” Pinkie whined. “I can’t feel my elbow!”

“Girls?”

Twilight made a face and shouted, “You probably dislocated it! Once you’re free I can help you set it back into place!”

“Ouch, dude!” Rainbow crowed. “That’s gonna hurt like hell; I speak from experience.”

“Aw. That’s no fun.”

“What if it’s a poisonous snake-rat hybrid out to kill us all?!”

“Can someone calm Rarity down? Ah think there’s a pattern to the floor tiles but it’s really hard to think when she’s screechin’ like that-”

“GIRLS!”

The room fell silent. Everyone turned to look at Fluttershy, or more accurately, turned in the direction her voice came from. Now speaking at her normal half-whisper, she managed to get out, “Um, I can move.”

Applejack blinked, finally noticing that Fluttershy was the only one of the group unrestrained. The darkness was still securely covering her eyes, however, but her arms and legs were free. “Okay, that’s good, ah think.” She took a look at the tiles around her feet and said slowly, “Try taking half a step forwards.”

“O-okay.”

Slowly, Fluttershy inched forwards from her blank tile to the one marked with a triangle. For a second nothing happened. Then there was a loud, echoing click.

“Back Fluttershy! Move back!”

It was a good thing Fluttershy was so frightened, as she immediately followed Applejack’s instructions. A second later a black spike shot up from the floor in all its pointy and deadly glory.

Applejack swallowed loudly. “Dear Lord.”

“What’s goin’ on?” Rainbow called out. “Was it a trap? What kind?”

“Um… not a trap. Just… just playing it safe. Yeah.” Mentally she crossed the triangle tile off of her list of ‘safe’ tiles. And since the one she had stepped on that wobbled was a square, she could take that one off to, which left the circle, star, and diamond.

Applejack took in another breath. She could do this. “Okay, Rarity, I need you to step on the tile to your left, but stay where you are. Rainbow, Pinkie, you two press the ones in front of you.”

“Got it!”

Three loud clicks rang throughout the room and Applejack braced herself for more spikes of death. As she did the tile beside Rarity vanished completely, while the one in front of Pinkie burst into flames.

Rainbow’s, however, did nothing.

“Hey, did it just get warmer in here?” Pinkie asked.

Applejack wisely decided not to answer. Instead she called out, “Ah think ah figured it out. We gotta stick on the star tiles, those are the safe ones. ‘Shy, ah’m gonna guide you towards the stairs, alright? Just follow my lead.”

Fluttershy nodded frantically. “Okay. I will.”

“Good. Now, go two steps to the left and rotate right…”

With a bit of coaxing and a single scare where Fluttershy accidentally activated another fire tile, Applejack managed to lead her over to the staircase. As soon as her shoe touched the first stair the bindings around Rarity vanished with a pop.

“Great,” Applejack muttered, but kept up a brave face. “Four to go.”

And so they carried on their strange game, saving Rarity, then Rainbow, then Pinkie, until Twilight was the only blindfolded girl left on the tiled floor. Sweating, Applejack scanned the ground and said, “Twilight, two steps forwards.”

A pause. Twilight didn’t move.

“Two steps, Twi. Don’t worry, it’s safe.”

Twilight bit her lip, but shuffled forwards anyways. “How far is it?”

“Uh…” Applejack glanced at the long hall and instead answered,“Just keep following my lead.”

And she did, for the most part. Twilight got about halfway to the stairs when the ground began to rumble. Then, starting at the door, the tiles began to drop in rows into a void of darkness below.

“Shoot!”

Twilight flinched. “Wh-what’s wrong? I can feel the ground moving; is it supposed to do that? How much farther, Applejack?”

“Don’t worry about the distance. Ah just need you to trust me, okay? Now, one step left and one step forwards.”

Even with the threat of the vanishing floor, Applejack guided Twilight as best she could. When she was five tiles away, however, Applejack felt her heart drop.

From where Twilight was, there were no star tiles she could reach.

“Applejack?” Twilight had noticed her hesitation and was wringing her hands together in panic. “What’s wrong.”

“Ah-” Applejack glanced around furiously, trying to see if she could loop back around to another path - but no, the tiles were falling too fast for that. What if she ran over the traps? That’d be dangerous, but-”

“Applejack!” Twilight’s voice was frantic now, shrill and scared. “Help me!”

“Aw, sugar.” Swearing under her breath, Applejack wiped the sweat off her brow and yelled, “You gotta jump, Twi!”

“Wh-what?!”

“There ain’t any safe tiles left - you gotta jump over the rest.”

“I can’t do that! That’s insane, practically impossible for someone of my physical ability-”

“Twilight!” Applejack was shouting over her protests before she could stop herself, her concern overriding her politeness in an instant. “Ah’m countin’ to three, and on three you’re going to jump.”

Twilight flinched and crossed her arms over herself. “But-!”

“Trust me, Twilight. You’ll be fine.”

There were no rows left behind Twilight, the last one dropping into the abyss. As the one beneath her started to wobble, she took a deep breath and backed up her heels to the edge of her tile.

“One…”

“Applejack, I-”

“Two…”

“Please, don’t make me-”

“Three!”

Gathering what was left of her courage Twilight took a step forwards and pushed off with all her might. She couldn’t see the ground, or how high she’d gone, or where she was going to land. The only things she knew were that she had jumped in the direction Applejack’s voice was coming from, and that she had chosen to trust her.

I really don’t want to die!

Twilight shrieked as she hurtled through the air, only to slam into someone and send them both tumbling back onto the staircase. As soon as she touched the floor the blindfolds all vanished, letting the other five see the room once again.

Rainbow took a look at the lack of floor and raised an eyebrow. “No traps, my ass.” Beside her Rarity’s eyes widened and she choked out a few strangled syllables.

“Didn’t wanna scare Rares,” Applejack muttered. She propped herself up with her free arm and uncurled her arm from around Twilight’s waist. “You good?”

“I, um-” Twilight rolled off of Applejack onto her back and watched as the last of the floor fell away. “...Yeah. Thanks for catching me. You really were telling the truth, I guess.”

“T’weren’t nothin’. Ah don’t make it a habit to tell untruths.”

“Except that there weren’t any traps,” Rainbow muttered under her breath.

Before Applejack could respond a burst of light shone from her wrist, looping around in an elegant cursive before vanishing back into the air. Squinting, she looked at the word written in gold and read, “Integrity. Now what in the heck does that mean?”

“Magic,” Pinkie breathed.

“Anything else,” Twilight growled.

“Don’t care!” Rainbow yelled. She grabbed Fluttershy’s hand again and declared, “We gotta keep moving - Sunset’s a sacrifice, remember? And there’s no way I’m gonna let her die before Twilight gets to make out with her or whatever.”

Twilight went beet red and buried her face in her hands. “That’s not why we’re saving her at all!”

“Whatever, let’s just move it. Follow me!”


---


Though Rainbow tried to barge ahead to the next floor, Fluttershy somehow got her to wait a bit while Twilight set Pinkie’s elbow back. Or, tried to at least. As she did Pinkie suddenly proclaimed that she didn’t hurt anymore, and no matter how hard Twilight tried she couldn’t find a dislocation or break anywhere. Her cut had even scabbed over unnaturally fast.

Pinkie called it magic. Twilight rolled her eyes and changed the subject to something she actually believed in.

So, the group ascended the stairs to yet another hallway, with yet another set of stairs. This time, the floor was carpeted, with suits of medieval armor lining the sides of the walls that Rarity immediately shied away from.

“They’re going to come to life, I just know it,” she hissed, and leaned closer to Twilight for support. Twilight didn’t know why - she would be pretty much useless in a fight. Maybe Rarity wanted to use her as a meat shield.

Halfway down the hall a wave of pain washed against her temples, like a migraine, and she winced. “Ow.”

Fluttershy tilted her head to the side. “What’s wrong?”

“Headache,” Twilight muttered. “It’s probably the stress. And with my luck it’ll only get worse since I know Nightmare’s going to make us face something on every floor. It’s so predictable. I mean, I’m pretty sure Rarity’s right about the armor-”

Again a wall of smoke roared up behind them, covering the exit. This time Pinkie stuck her tongue out at it and pointed obviously to her elbow.

“Sword fight time! Yes!” Rainbow got into a battle stance and waved her arms around her head. “C’mon, metal-faces! Do your worst!”

Silence. Nothing in the hall moved that wasn’t supposed to be moving in the first place. Frowning, Rainbow lowered her arms and grumbled, “Well that’s lame-”

And then a gigantic manticore burst through the ceiling with an almighty roar.

“Not lame! Not lame!”

“I hate my life!” Twilight yelled before bolting away as fast as she could, Fluttershy and Rainbow hot on her heels.

Surprisingly, it was Rarity who leaped into action, darting forwards and leaping to kick it across the face with her heels. She dodged one paw and rolled away with a yelp, then shrieked as a wave of spittle splashed down around her as the creature roared.

“Ew!” She stumbled back without the bravado she’d shown a second ago and screeched, “Applejack, do something!”

Though terrified herself, Applejack held her hat down with one hand and ran to Rarity. “On it, Rares!” She let out a piercing whistle and, as the manticore turned, leaped up and latched on to its shoulder. “Get along, lil doggie! Ye haw!”

“Your hick side’s showing, AJ!”

“Shut it, Dash!”

Applejack managed to hold on long enough for Rarity to duck behind one of the suits of armor. Eventually the manticore tossed her off, sending her slamming down into the ground beside the rest of the girls.

Winded, Applejack reached for her hat and jammed it over her face. “All yours.”

Rainbow and Pinkie locked eyes, then grinned. “Don’t gotta tell us twice!” Still smirking, Rainbow took off at a breakneck speed with Pinkie right behind her and waved her hands over her head. “Hey! Over here, jackass!”

“Yeah!” Pinkie grabbed an axe off the wall as she ran and held it above her head. “Let’s party!”

Half of Twilight was glad to see that someone else was willing to take action against the beast, but the other half was still reeling from the fact that a mythical creature had appeared in front of them. And even though she didn’t have any halves of herself left to ration, a pang of fear struck part of her as she watched the monster rear back on its hind legs and pump its wings hard enough to blow the armor off of the walls.

They’re going to get themselves killed.

So as Rarity scrambled to find new cover and Applejack picked herself up to get back into the fight, Twilight did the stupidest thing she could think of - because, really, wasn’t that what fighting was all about - and grabbed the closest projectile she could.

As the manticore leaped to snap at Pinkie, a metal helmet bounced off the side of its mane. It was a terribly weak throw and did no damage at all, but achieved its purpose, which instead left Twilight under its angry glare.

In her defense, she wasn’t doing her best thinking while she was somehow split into three halves.

“Yeah. I’m going to run, now.”

And she did.

With three girls fighting, one running, and one trying to take cover behind the carpet, that left Fluttershy. She was still frozen in the middle of the hall, far enough away that she wasn’t in any immediate danger but close enough to see what was happening.

The manticore reared up again and howled with rage as Rainbow clawed her way up onto its back. As it did, Fluttershy noticed something she hadn’t before, and the fear that had seized her body suddenly faded just enough for her heart to let her take action.

First it was one step, which was the hardest, really. But soon she found herself making a slow walk into the fight, until the walk became a jog and the jog became a run and she could hear Rainbow calling her name from somewhere far away and-

-and then she was staring into the eyes of the beast, close enough to see the individual strands of hair on its muzzle. A hot puff of its breath washed over her as it growled, but she stood her ground.

“Fluttershy! Move!” Rainbow scooted forwards to tug on the monster’s ears in panic, but nothing happened. “It’s gonna eat you!”

“Oh, I can’t watch,” Rarity breathed, and covered her eyes.

Fluttershy, however, stayed where she was. With a deep breath she stretched out her hand and placed her palm flat against the bridge of its nose. “U-um,” she tried. “Hi.”

The manticore blinked and narrowed its eyes. In the background Rarity started to hyperventilate.

“I’m, um, sorry that we attacked you out of the blue all of a sudden. And I know you’re angry, but I need you to hold still for a second, okay?” Carefully, Fluttershy reached forwards with her other hand and pressed it forwards into the monster’s mane.

To no one’s surprise it jerked its head out of her hand and howled with enough force to blow Fluttershy’s hair straight back from her head.

“Well that didn’t work-” Pinkie started to say, only to be cut off by the manticore gently headbutting Fluttershy with a contented purr.

“Um.” Twilight blinked. “Is it… nuzzling her?”

“Appears so,” Applejack said, confused. She dropped the sword she’d been holding and tried to look as innocent as she could.

As the monster pulled back, Fluttershy removed her hand from its mane so the others could see a pointed obsidian spike the size of her palm. Suddenly, everything clicked.

“Oh…” Sheepish, Rainbow gave the manticore’s head a pat before sliding down its back to the ground. “Whoops. Sorry, big guy.”

“In our defense, Rarity attacked it first,” Pinkie piped up, as if she hadn’t tried to axe it a few minutes ago.

Rarity glared at her. Pinkie pretended not to notice.

“Fighting isn’t always the answer,” Fluttershy said. She gave the manticore one last pat and stepped back to stare at the spike she’d removed. “Sometimes we just need to be shown a little bit of kindness.”

Suddenly, a beam of light shot out of the crystal and onto her wrist, moving in the same looping way as with Applejack. When it faded it left the word ‘compassion’ in thin cursive along her skin.

Twilight frowned. “That shouldn’t be possible.”

“Who cares?” Grinning, Rainbow crossed her arms and declared, “We beat two trials! That’s gotta put us on like, superhero levels or something.”

“Aside from that,” Applejack said, “it looks like the way’s clear now. Look.”

The girls glanced up to see the manticore’s outline fading slightly. They watched as it let out another contented purr before dissolving into golden light.

Fluttershy sighed and watched as the spike in her hand disappeared as well. “Ah. I guess he wasn’t real, in the end.”

“Obviously,” Twilight muttered, but didn’t dare say it louder. Instead she pointed to the stairs and said, “Let’s go. We’ve probably got four floors to go.” Her headache was back in full force, but she didn’t mention it. No use worrying the others when it was only going to get worse.

“How on earth did you get that?” Rarity asked. She made a face and added, “Oh, drat. And that’s right it means four more trials, too.”

“Yup.” Twilight then pointed to herself, then to Rarity, Pinkie, and Rainbow. “If the pattern holds true, one of us is going to be facing the next one.”

Pinkie and Rainbow exchanged a glance of what could only be called delight, while Rarity crossed her arms and glared at the floor.

“Fine,” she said eventually. “But whatever it is, I’m not going to like it. Not one bit!”
> More Trials, More Words, and A Whole Lot of Magic-Like Occurrences
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Unsurprisingly, at the top of the next set of stairs was yet another hallway. Nightmare was beginning to get quite predictable. Twilight ushered the rest of the girls into the hall and said, “Purple smoke in three, two-”

Right on queue another wall sealed off their exit. No one flinched this time; Rainbow even stifled a fake yawn.

“Okay…” Pinkie pursed her lips and looked around. “Zero creepy knights this time, that’s a plus.”

“Yes, but it’s so empty. Not even a hint of, I don’t know, melodramatic decor? Angst-fueled furnishings?” Rarity rolled her eyes. “I’m a bit disappointed, to be quite honest.”

“Disappointed, shmointed. Let’s just dive right in!” Smiling, Pinkie strode forwards three large steps and spread her arms wide. “C’mon!”

To her, nothing changed in the room. However, the girls behind Pinkie suddenly began to scream in pure, unbridled terror. Confused, she spun around to see… nothing.

“What? Girls? What’s happening?”

No coherent response came, though they did stop screaming and instead started to babble different things in varying tones of voice. The loudest was Rainbow, alternating each noun with a profanity, while Twilight opened and closed her mouth silently a few times yet said nothing more.

“Huh. That’s a little weird.” Pinkie checked over her shoulder again - just in case they did see something after all - then waved one hand in front of a petrified Fluttershy and narrowed her eyes. “Helloooo?”

Fluttershy didn’t react to the hand. Instead tears started to stream out of the corners of her eyes and she started whispering, “Grandpa, no, please don’t- I’m sorry, I won’t do it again! Please don’t- ah! No!”

Pinkie stumbled backwards, confused. “Your grandpa? ...I thought that meanie was long gone?” Curious, she moved over to Rainbow, who had curled into a ball on the floor and was yelling at the top of her lungs.

“Stay away from me! You fuckers; STAY AWAY! You’re gonna hurt me! STAY THE FUCK AWAY!” She lashed out and caught Pinkie in the shin hard enough to make her yelp. After a good minute of rubbing her leg Pinkie made the decision to stay at least arms length away from Rainbow for now.

A few feet away Rarity and Applejack were fairing no better - Applejack was crying out to her parents while Rarity kept repeating over and over, “Not good enough.” Even when Pinkie tried to shake them out of it they didn’t seem to notice she was there.

Finally, a thoroughly-unnerved Pinkie made it over to Twilight. She was standing completely still, eyes glassy and unfocused. Pinkie slowly reached out a hand and waved it, ready for any reaction. She figured if Fluttershy was seeing her dick of a grandfather, then whatever the other five were going through must have been a real event.

“Twilight?”

“...Celeste,” Twilight whispered. A single tear rolled down her cheek and she took a step back to press herself against the wall. “What happened to Auntie Luna? Why does my heart hurt?”

“Um, Twilight? Can you hear me? I think… I think you’re dreaming.”

“...Why are my parents on the floor? Why is there so much blood?”

A chill ran down Pinkie’s spine and she grabbed Twilight by the shoulders and shook her gently. “Twilight, listen to me! Whatever you’re seeing, it’s not real. It’s not gonna hurt you, okay?”

After a tense second of silence Twilight let out a shuddering breath and blinked a few times, her gaze still fixed on nothing. “Pinkie? What are you doing here?”

“Yeah, It’s me. And you’re dreaming, I think.” She gave her shoulders a squeeze before pulling away and tilting her head to the side. “What’s going on? What are you seeing?”

“...I don’t know.” Twilight frowned and whispered, “Celeste is here. She’s covered in blood; I think she’s the one who killed them- but that can’t be. They died in a car crash...”

“What about Luna?”

Twilight blinked a few more times and furrowed her brow. “I don’t know who that is. I… I don’t even remember how I got here. I’m just so cold...”

Pinkie frowned and placed her hand on Twilight’s forehead. She was right; it was cold as ice. “Hey, Twilight. Look at me.”

Twilight turned her head to Pinkie’s voice though her sight was still elsewhere. Her eyes were slightly red and tears were still streaming down her cheeks. “...Yeah?”

“Smile for me?”

A pause. Hesitantly, Twilight forced the corners of her mouth upwards into an awkward grimace. “Like this?”

“No no no. A smile, silly. Wait, um, hold on. I know a song for this.”

“A song? ...But my parents, and Celeste-”

“Too late!” Grinning, Pinkie took a step back and cleared her throat. “Now, this is a little song my granny taught me when I was scared of the dark, you see-”

Before she could start singing the room went pitch black. Pinkie couldn’t even see her hand in front of her face. Then an almighty shriek ripped through the air, and when the light came back Nightmare was hovering in front of her, tendrils of darkness pooling from her form and onto the floor.

“You were going to sing them free?”

“Oh! Hey, Nightmare,” Pinkie chirped, completely unfazed. “Yeah, see, there’s this song my granny-”

“I heard!” Nightmare gnashed her teeth and spat, “And that’s preposterous. These five are facing their worst fears; there’s no way a silly little song could snap them out of it.”

“Well if that wasn’t going to work, then why are you here? To help me?”

“Of course not I-” Nightmare paused, seemingly at a loss for words. Then she shook her head and growled, “You are a failure as the spirit of optimism!”

Pinkie shrugged. “You don’t know that. I didn’t even get to try!” She quickly inhaled and sang, “When I was just a child and the sun was going dooooown-”

“Cease your prattle at once!”

“-the darkness and the shadows, they would always make me frown-”

And that was as far as Pinkie got before Twilight punched right through Nightmare’s face.

The shadow wailed in pain as a fist burst through her formless body, and she exploded outwards only to reform on the other side of the room.

“What the-”

“Wow! Nice shot, Twi!”

“You were the one... who was distracting her,” Twilight panted. She was still pale and shaky-looking, but was smiling as wide as could be. Her eyes were also clear, no longer covered by the haze from before. Apparently punching an embodiment of evil was a bit of a power trip.

Nightmare swore under her breath and folded in on herself, vanishing in an instant. As soon as she did the other four girls quieted, and they all slumped to the floor.

“Guys!” Pinkie ran over, Twilight following as fast as she could. “Are you okay?”

Fluttershy shook her head wordlessly, while Rainbow scrubbed her face furiously with the back of her arm.

“Ah…” Rarity wiped her thumb under her eyes and frowned at the mascara that came with it. “So it was a dream.”

“Ssssomething like that,” Pinkie said, sheepish. “Though, since I heard Shy talking about her gramps, I get a feeling that they weren’t so much dreams as bad memories, y’know?”

“Aw, fuck,” Rainbow muttered. “Which one was it; the one where those assholes hospitalized me or-”

“That one,” Pinkie cut in. She didn’t want Rainbow to reveal more than she was comfortable with. “And, AJ, you were crying for your parents.”

Applejack sighed and crossed her arms as best she could while sitting cross-legged. “Ain’t no secret, that one. Still hurts as much as it did at first, though.”

“Yeah… I’m sorry, guys.” Then, Pinkie brightened and added, “Oh, but you’ll totally get a kick out of this! Okay, so Nightmare literally just popped by to visit for some reason, right? And she was all mad at me for some reason - something about optimism, blah blah blah. So I started singing and-”

“You started singing?” Rainbow interrupted. “Like, just fucking serenaded this bitch?”

“Yeah, and-”

“Pinkie, that’s fucking awesome.”

“But that’s not even the best part! So, get this, she’s screaming at me to stop when out of nowhere Twilight runs at her from behind and just punches-”

“I punched Nightmare right in her freaky demon face,” Twilight finished, a proud smile bursting across her face.

Silence. Then, one by one, all of the girls started to dissolve into laughter until the hall was echoing with the happy sound of disbelief.

“That’s the best thing ah’ve ever heard!” Applejack chuckled, one hand smacking against the floor. “Our Twilight, punching someone? Ah wish ah’d seen that!”

Even Fluttershy was giggling along with the group, all of them fueled on by Rainbow’s cackling and Rarity’s high-pitched snorts. They were so caught up in their mirth that they almost missed the light writing a new word along Pinkie’s wrist.

“Optimism,” Twilight read, before cracking up again. “See that, Nightmare? Pinkie’s a great spirit!”

“The best!” Rainbow yelled, and pulled Pinkie into a hug to knuckle her mane of hair. “Suck on that!”

And, as they celebrated, Nightmare looked on from the shadows in disbelief for a moment before disappearing into nothingness once again.


---


“It’s just a one in three chance, right?” Rarity clung to Twilight’s arm and whined, “You’re the smart one; tell me it’s probably not my trial next!”

“It’s not your trial next,” Twilight intoned as sarcastically as she could through her splitting headache, and tried to pry Rarity off of her. “Look, it’s either you, me, or Rainbow, and considering this room doesn’t seem dangerous at all it’s definitely you or me.”

Rainbow flexed an arm with a grin and bragged, “My trial’s gonna be the hardest, no contest.”

“Oh, but Twilight’s some sort of chosen one in this adventure,” Pinkie piped up. “She’s saving her girlfriend, remember? So her trial’s probably last.”

“Not my girlfriend,” Twilight tried to correct, only for a familiar purple smoke to spring up behind them.

Shaking, Rarity let out a long whine into Twilight’s sleeve. Then she took a deep breath in and scrunched her eyes up. “Fine. Fine! It’s me. Nightmare, do your worst!”

As she spoke a circle of light as large as a minivan appeared on the carpet in front of her. Then the rest of the hallway dissolved, leaving an uncrossable gap in the ground between the group and the next set of stairs.

“Hm.” Rarity cracked one eye open and said slowly, “I suppose this isn’t so bad.”

“Don’t jinx it,” Applejack muttered.

Carefully Rarity stepped forwards to the circle of light. When she did an ethereal voice rang out through the hall, saying, “Give all that you can to reveal the path.”

“...Huh.” Rainbow shrugged, then stepped back. “Alright, dude. Try your best.”

Rarity tilted her head. “Give all that I can? Well, let’s see.” She removed one of her many bracelets and placed it into the circle. “How’s this?”

The bracelet shimmered, then disappeared. As it did a section of a bridge appeared over the gap - though only about a foot of distance compared to the enormous expanse between them.

“I see.” Rarity made a face and sighed. “Though it pains me to part with all of these, I will do what I must.” She started to remove all of her jewelry and place them into the circle, another foot of bridge appearing each time she did.

When she placed her last ring, however, the bridge was only about a quarter of the way there.

“Hrm.” Rarity glanced back over her shoulder and shrugged helplessly. “I’m out of valuables; now what?”

“Could I help?” Fluttershy tried. She stepped forwards to place her hair clip down, but as her hand touched the light she squeaked and jumped back as if she’d been burned.

“That answers your question, I suppose,” Rarity said. She then tried to put the clip in herself but it simply lay on the floor instead of adding to the bridge. After a second of thinking she snapped her fingers before slipping out of her heels and tossing them in. “How’s this?”

Another segment appeared, the path stretching almost halfway, but it still wasn’t enough.

Applejack blushed slightly and averted her eyes. “Now, don’t go undressing yourself any further-”

“Applejack!” Flushing, Rarity peeled off her sweater and tossed it in the light with a bit more force than necessary. “I intend to do no such thing!”

The bridge shimmered again and added another section to the tune of Pinkie’s applause.

“Well ah’m sorry, it just doesn’t seem…” Applejack trailed off and mumbled, “It doesn’t seem like it’ll reach unless you give everythin’, y’know?”

As Rarity sputtered and tried to come up with a response, Twilight raised her hand and said, “Actually, that’s not quite right. From what I can tell, even if Rarity intends to remove her undergarments-”

“-which I do not intend to do if I’m not forced to, by the way-”

“-that won’t be enough material to create the rest of the bridge. It looks like it will only get about fifteen feet from the other edge.”

The teasing mood that had appeared vanished in an instant, Rarity going a bit pale.

“But,” Fluttershy tried, “what else can she give?”

Everyone turned to Rarity, who was instead staring at her hands. She mumbled something under her breath and stared at the circle, and, if one looked close enough they could almost see the gears turning in her mind.

Then, with a determined nod, she clenched them into fists and declared loudly, “Well then! I know what I must do!”

“Rares?” Applejack tilted her head to the side and said, “But what-”

“Oh! Um, please turn around, everyone.”

“...Ah.”

The other five turned back towards the smoky wall, hyper-aware of Rarity rustling some fabric behind them. Again there was the hum that came with the light activating, only, this time it didn’t stop.

Then from behind them Rarity let out a pained sort of grunt.

Applejack, despite her awkwardness about seeing one of her best friends in her birthday suit, spun back around on her heel. “What’s wro- Rarity?!”

Instead of a potentially naked Rarity, there was a fully clothed one standing in the centre of the circle trying her best not to cry. As Applejack stared in shock she noticed, to her horror, that Rarity’s legs were starting to dissolve.

“No!”

The others turned at her cry, each reacting the same way Applejack did. Pinkie tried to run to Rarity but she threw out a hand and yelled, “Don’t come closer! You’ll… you’ll get hurt.”

“But-” Twilight wrung her hands together and cried, “What are you doing?!”

“What I must!” Rarity winced as the light creeped up her thigh and continued, “This must be the answer to the riddle - I’m giving everything I can, so please, beat Nightmare for me, alright?”

“You can’t!” Applejack pressed her hat against her chest and yelled, “You don’t need to do this- we’ll find another way! Rares, please-”

“Applejack,” Rarity cut off, and with that word everyone knew there was no way to convince her otherwise. “Please just let me do this.”

Applejack fell to her knees in disbelief while Fluttershy quickly buried her face into Rainbow’s shoulder. Pinkie and Twilight were both frozen in panic as they watched more and more of Rarity disappear, and Rainbow…

Rainbow wasn’t having any of Rarity’s heroism. Not one bit.

She shoved Fluttershy to the side and, before anyone could stop her, charged at Rarity with all her might. “You jerk!” she screamed. “I’m not letting you say goodbye yet!”

Rarity’s hands flew to her mouth and she gasped out, “No, you can’t-!”

The circle flared to life as Rainbow tried to cross it but she pushed forwards, her skin burning hotter than what she imagined the sun to feel like. The two steps it took to get to Rarity were like wading through lava, but she kept on pressing and screaming and sobbing until she had her hands on Rarity’s shoulders and was staring her dead in the eyes.

“Rainbow,” Rarity whispered. “You’re burning up.”

“And I… don’t… care…” she spat back. With the last of her strength she pushed Rarity backwards and screamed, “There’s no way I’m gonna let you die for me!”

Shocked, Rarity stumbled out of the light, her legs reappearing as soon as she was out of it. A gold light flashed across her wrist but she paid it no mind as Rainbow let out a pained wail and the circle of light turned into a pillar of fire.

The rest of the bridge appeared and solidified across the gap, but the pillar kept burning for a solid minute longer before fading into embers and then smoke.

Then it rose up into the air and vanished, leaving Rainbow facedown on the burnt carpet and covered head to toe with ash.

“Rainbow!”

Fluttershy broke the silence first, and that was enough to snap the rest of them out of it. Rarity, the closet, frantically crawled over to Rainbow and rolled her over so her head was resting in her lap.

“What have you done?” she whispered, and ran one hand through Rainbow’s shaggy locks. “Oh, Rainbow Dash…”

Fluttershy collapsed next to her, the other three following suit, and grabbed Rainbow’s hand as tightly as she could. As she did she noticed a golden word etched on her skin, and read it out loud: “Devotion.” A tear ran down her cheek and she said, “She- she got her word before she- before she-”

“We both got ours, I suppose” Rarity said numbly, revealing her own word across her wrist. “Charity and devotion.” She blinked rapidly and said, “But she didn’t have to-”

“-but she did,” Twilight said softly. “And that’s why she got her word.”

Silence settled on the group, broken only by Rarity’s choked attempts to stifle her tears. Then-

“Wait,” Fluttershy whispered. “I- I think I feel a pulse.”

Before all of their eyes Rainbow’s eyelids fluttered and she gasped for breath hard enough to make her chest heave off of the ground. She coughed up a good cloud of ash and suit before cracking open one eye and wheezing, “...Did I save her?”

Instead of answering Rarity cradled Rainbow’s head against her chest and burst into tears.

“W-whoa! Geez, Rarity, it’s not that big of a deal-”

“But it is,” Pinkie interrupted. Her voice was unnaturally stern as she said, “Don’t you ever, ever do that again. Ever!” The sternness faded as she finished, “You scared us.”

“Yeah, yeah, I got it,” Rainbow muttered in a don’t-care way, but her cheeks tinted pink anyways. “No more heroics.” She endured Rarity for a few more seconds before worming her way out of her grip and sitting up straight. “For either of us.”

“At least not without proper discussion,” Applejack added. She leaned over to wrap one arm around Rarity with a relieved sigh. “You two scared the living daylights out of me…”

“Out of all of us,” Twilight added. She scratched her chin and mumbled, “Even though I still don’t believe in magic, I was sure that circle killed you…”

“Sorry.” Shaking the dust out of her hair, Rainbow wiped her face off before pausing to add, “But there’s a bridge now, at least! C’mon, at least we got that now.”

Applejack punched her lightly in the shoulder rolled her eyes. “Ah suppose that’s the silver lining then.”

“Let’s just wait a bit, though,” Rarity hiccuped, and pulled Applejack closer with a wail.

“Yeah,” Twilight agreed. Though her headache was getting increasingly worse she refrained from complaining - after all, two of her friends had almost died, for crying out loud. What was the harm in waiting just a few minutes longer?


---


Once they found their energy and the tears were mostly dry, Twilight lead the group up the stairs to the next hall. No trial appeared there, leading her to believe Rainbow had disrupted the pattern by earning her word prematurely.

And instead of another staircase at the end there was a large set of double doors shut as tight as could be, just in case they weren’t certain the final battle was approaching.

Pinkie made a joke about remembering to save before going in. Twilight would have laughed under any other circumstance, but she knew Nightmare was waiting for them inside and her headache was bad enough to be considered throbbing.

“Let’s get this over with,” she muttered.

“No, wait.” Rainbow, still mostly covered in ash, grabbed her arm with one hand and held out her other with a grin. “We gotta do our group thing.”

“...What?”

“Look, c’mere.” She dragged Twilight back so they formed a sort of circle and jabbed her hand into the centre. “One.”

Fluttershy blinked, then placed her hand on top of Rainbow’s. “Two.”

“Three,” Applejack said.

“Four!” Pinkie chirped, placing her other hand in for good measure.

“Five,” Rarity finished. She turned expectantly to Twilight and said, “Now you, darling.”

Twilight stared, then looked at her own hand. She was the only one without a golden word on her wrist underneath - but did that matter? Without her hand there was a gap in the circle, word or not. Sighing, but smiling nonetheless, she reached forwards and placed her palm on top of Rarity’s.

“Six.”

Nothing spectacular happened, but it made Twilight feel a little bit better about facing down the unexplainable force her mentor had summoned.

“Okay,” she said, and straightened her shoulders. “Let’s go.”

In Twilight’s head they made a grand entrance - six unlikely heroes charging in to rescue the damsel in distress. Nightmare was caught off guard, Celeste rose to meet them, and the atmosphere was tense enough to cut with a knife.

Really, though, it went something like this:

BLAM

“Wow, those opened way easier than I expected.”

“Freeze motherfuckers!”

“Rainbow Dash, ah told you not to start with that-”

“Um, did you really need me to bring the sword, or-”

“Good heavens, what on earth is that?!”

Somehow managing to overlook their atrocious attempt at barging in, Twilight let her gaze fall on the focal point of the room. Once she got past the throne Celeste was sitting on and how much more solid Nightmare looked, she finally lay eyes on the reason she’d even gone on the whole adventure in the first place.

There, splayed across a jet-black altar, lay Sunset. Her clothes had been changed to flowing robes of silver and dark blue, while the opposite gauntlet to Celeste’s was clasped over her hand. Twilight also noticed with a distant sort of horror that Nightmare’s shadow was still wrapped tightly around her throat.

“Give her back,” she hissed. “Whatever you think you’re doing, we won’t let you!”

“Precious,” Nightmare muttered at the same time that Celeste got to her feet.

“Twilight, listen to me,” Celeste said. She yanked on the tie between her and Nightmare, but it was much thinner than before and barely managed to pull the demon back. “You’ve been doing so well. I’m so proud of you, but-”

“Give her back!”

Chuckling, Nightmare rolled her shoulders and bared her teeth in a grin. “Hurry up, sister. I think she’s trying to threaten you.”

“Be quiet.” With a wince Celeste raised her gloved hand and said to Twilight, “Please forgive me for what I am about to do.”

Rainbow narrowed her eyes and snatched the sword away from Fluttershy. It was a lot heavier than she expected and she ended up struggling to hold it in a very non-threatening way. “Yeah? C’mon, do your worst!”

Celeste’s glove lit up with golden fire, the one on Sunset’s arm following suit. The six stones from earlier floated out of Sunset’s pockets and hovered in a circle overtop of the altar - which, while still alarming before, just served to add to the whole ‘sacrifice’ threat.

Then the orange gem lit up and shot a beam of light right into Sunset’s heart.

“No!” Twilight darted forwards, but it was too late. The rest of the gems fired their own lights, and together they combined in a massive flash of white that nearly knocked Twilight off her feet. Nightmare’s laugh echoed throughout the hall as the light expanded, and over the rush of wind Twilight managed to catch Celeste’s final words:

“You can still win!”

Then a hand reached out of the light. It was pale and unblemished, stretching towards Twilight in an almost pleading way.

“Sunset?” Twilight whispered.

“Close enough,” Nightmare snickered in Sunset's voice, and pressed the tip of her finger against Twilight’s forehead. Immediately the dull pain of her headache blossomed into a hammering underneath her skull, and everything became too much - too loud, too stressful, too dangerous.

Twilight could only let out a soft cry before her mind gave out and everything sank into darkness.