The Friendship Games between Canterlot High School and Crystal Prep Academy are almost ready when Fragment Hunter returns with a few guests. However, when Twilight Sparkle starts researching Canterlot High's recent magic, something else shows up too.
After the Battle of the Bands, things have been peaceful for the Rainbooms at Canterlot High and Fragment Hunter stops by for a friendly visit with friends and family just in time for the Friendship Games against Crystal Prep. But when somebody is sneaking around the portal to Equestria, things get complicated when Fragment Hunter discovers another Twilight Sparkle. Especially when Twilight's research experiments end up interacting with magic and bring something dangerous into the world. Can everyone figure out how to deal with this? Or will they lose more than just a competition?
I originally had this up before, but I wasn't satisfied with how I did everything. So, I decided to restart the whole story from scratch. Hope you still like it.
Cover art is of my RWBY Original Character, Azalea Calla Holstein, made by jkl930 on Tumblr.
It was the late afternoon when Sunset Shimmer was rushing toward Canterlot High. Rainbow Dash had messaged her and the other Rainbooms about an emergency that she needed help with. As Sunset ran toward the school's front doors, she saw that her other friends have just started to arrive as well. "I got your text, Rainbow Dash," Sunset said as she approached her friend. "Did something come through the portal? Is Equestrian magic on the loose? Did Twilight come back with a problem that only we can solve?!"
"Has a giant cake monster covered all the cakes in the world in cake," Pinkie loudly asked in excitement as she appeared next to Sunset with some cupcakes in her hands and ate them both at once.
"Um, not exactly," Rainbow Dash said as she kneeled down to open her guitar case and take out her instrument.
"I don't understand. What's going on then," Sunset asked in confusion.
"Well, Sunset, I was just tellin' Rainbow Dash here that a broken guitar string doesn't really qualify as an emergency," Applejack explained as she fiddled with the aforementioned string on Rainbow Dash's guitar.
"It totally does count," Rainbow Dash said as she brought her guitar closer to herself to get Applejack to stop playing with the broken string.
"And I was just about to tuck everyone in for the night at the shelter," Fluttershy said as she was petting her rabbit, Angel Bunny. "Now we'll have to start stories all over again."
"Why would you send all of us an emergency text for a guitar string," Sunset asked. "Shouldn't you have spares of your own?"
"Well, I was going to pony up and show our fans some awesome guitar licks, but I kinda need all six strings to do it," Rainbow Dash explained as she pointed to Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle (also known as the CMC or Crusaders), who were all waiting on the front steps of the school. "Plus, I forgot my spare strings at home. Got any extra?"
The others just groaned in annoyance as Sunset Shimmer pulled a spare guitar string from her backpack and handed it to Rainbow Dash. "Here you go. Good thing I make sure to carry spare strings in my backpack," she said to Rainbow Dash. "But everyone finished practicing for the day. I'm pretty sure all the music rooms are locked."
"No problem. The acoustics in the hallway are perfect for power chords," Rainbow Dash said as she finished replacing her broken string. Just as she played a power chord on her guitar to add to her explanation, everyone saw a flash of rainbow light and the nine girls turned to see what it was.
"Well, here we are! Canterlot High School," they heard a girl that looked similar to Sunset Shimmer say to someone from behind the Wondercolt Statue. Looking in the statue's reflective base, the girl paid attention to her hair before speaking up again. "Why is it that our hair keeps changing when we come here? I like my highlights."
"Don't know. But at least we can see our friends," a voice that sounded familiar to the Rainbooms said.
"Blaze? Azalea? Is that you," Sunset Shimmer asked as she walked toward the statue.
"No. It's the princess of Pony Land and I'm here to give you a knighthood," Rua Amaranth said sarcastically as she stepped into view and laughed at her joke. "How's it going?"
The rest of Fragment Hunter appeared from behind the statue before Pinkie ran toward them for a hug. Tackling Slate, Silver, and Vinyl, Pinkie was quick to give them all a tight embrace in her excitement. "Hey, guys! It's so great to see you again," she exclaimed with her usual chipper tone.
"Well, it's been a while since a friendly visit, so we decided to bring friends and family to show this place off to," Azalea said as she walked up to the Rainbooms. Everyone saw that instead of her green sweater and jeans, she was now wearing a sleeveless purple leather jacket, black leather pants, a fuchsia tank top, vambraces, and a new pair of boots. Not only that, but Azalea's black cow horns were on full display for everyone to see instead of being hidden by a bandana.
"Azalea, you look gorgeous! Why the new outfit," Rarity complimented. "I mean, it's always a good idea to change up your wardrobe every now and again. But why this kind of ensemble?"
Azalea looked over her attire and just shrugged before answering. "I felt that after finally dealing with some bullies that I was afraid of for so long, it was time for a complete change of how I show myself to others. I'm a new Azalea who's ready to be a Huntress," she stated.
"And you'll be a great one, princess," a deep voice said and everyone turned to the source. Stepping out from behind the statue was an enormous and muscular man with dozens of scars, red eyes, and large black bull horns that added six inches to his intimidating height. He wore a red coat, worn-down jeans, and heavy boots as he walked forward and introduced himself. "I'm Terracotta Gaia. Azalea's father and a professional Huntsman. Nice to meet you all," he greeted.
The Rainbooms and Crusaders were speechless at Terracotta's sheer size, barely able to utter a word until Pinkie appeared next to him. "Wow! You are big! We saw a photo of you before, but we didn't expect you be gigantic," she said as she circled around Terracotta.
Terracotta only laughed loudly at the girl's antics before a woman who looked very similar to Azalea appeared next to him, but she didn't have freckles and had white horns instead of black. "Oh my. It seems that we have some interesting characters in this world," she said and caught everyone's attention. "Hello there. I'm Azalea's mother, Ivy. A pleasure to meet you all."
Just like with Terracotta's size, Ivy's beauty had captivated the Rainbooms and Crusaders until someone snapped out of it to speak. "Mrs. Holstein, I believe that I speak for everyone here when I say this. You're absolutely divine," Rarity said as she stepped forward to inspect Ivy's attire. "Are these custom made? I would believe so with your... figure."
"Indeed they are. We have an old family friend in my hometown who runs a boutique and we're their best customers," Ivy said and she leaned against her husband.
"You'd be amazed how many shirts and jackets I go through daily," Terracotta said completely serious and deadpan.
"Is there anyone else waiting around that we should know of," Sunset Shimmer asked.
"We'll bring them over later," Lapis said before noticing Rainbow Dash's guitar. "You about to play something?"
"Oh yeah. Want to listen," Rainbow Dash replied. "Come on. We'll talk more in the school."
As everyone started to head inside, Applejack saw Sunset Shimmer with Azalea, Rua, and Rebecca. "You girls coming or what?"
"Just a minute, Applejack. I want to write to Princess Twilight," Sunset explained as she pulled out the magic journal she used to communicate with the princess.
"And we want to just relax a bit," Azalea mentioned as she stretched her arms over her head. Applejack shrugged and headed inside with the others as Sunset Shimmer began to write.
'Dear Princess Twilight, how's life treating you in Equestria? Any cool new magic spells? It's been pretty quiet here at CHS since the Battle of the Bands. We still pony up when we play music, which Rainbow Dash just loves to show off. But I still can't quite grasp what it's all about. I would love to hear what you think about it when you get a sec. Your friend, Sunset Shimmer. P.S. Fragment Hunter stopped by with Azalea's parents. Terracotta's bigger than the picture Azalea showed us before. You'll need to see him for yourself.'
As Sunset continued writing, Azalea and the others were relaxing when a bus pulled up and dropped somebody off. They were wearing a hoodie, so their face was hidden from view. The mystery figure pulled out a machine of sorts and began to search for something with it. As the stranger walked toward the Canterlot High School campus, the device started to react to something as they got near the statue. Circling around it, they noticed that the device they had began to show some different readings and placed a hand against the statue's base.
Sunset Shimmer looked up from her journal and noticed the unusual person near the portal to her original home of Equestria. "Hey! What are you doing," Sunset called out to the stranger and alerted the others to the situation. Seeing that they were noticed, the mystery figure ran away toward the bus stop as Sunset stood up. "Wait! Stop," Sunset called out to the figure.
"Don't worry! We've got this," Rua said to Sunset as she, Azalea, and Rebecca began to chase the unknown person. As they approached the road, Sunset had to come to a sudden stop to avoid getting hit by a car while Rua jumped on top of it before leaping off. The stranger managed to get across the street before Rua or Sunset and another bus just began to pull in. Grabbing onto a lamppost, they managed to swing around and run inside the bus just before it headed into the city. As Sunset missed the bus, Rua used her athletic skills as a Huntress-in-training to jump onto the roof of the vehicle. "Hehehe. Got you now," Rua chuckled to herself before noticing a lamppost approaching her. "Ah, Grimm paste," she muttered before hitting the post and falling off the bus.
"Whoa! Are you okay, Rua," Sunset asked as she picked up the girl.
"Yeah. I've taken worse hits," Rua said. "Thank you, Aura." The two girls saw the bus leave their sights as it left for the city. "I'd chase after it, but I need to know where I'm going to use my teleportation Semblance," Rua told Sunset Shimmer.
"Who was that," Sunset asked in suspicion. Looking around, she noticed that Azalea and Rebecca were missing. "Where are the others?"
As the stranger sat down at the back of the bus, they pulled down their hood to reveal their face. It was a girl with purple skin, purple hair in a bun that had three different shades of color, and a pair of glasses on her face. She sighed as the bus headed for the city, but didn't notice that she wasn't the only girl to get on the bus. Rebecca and Azalea were staying hidden with the latter's Semblance hiding them from sight, but they were shocked to see that the girl they were following was their friend, Twilight Sparkle.
Rebecca and Azalea couldn't believe their eyes when they saw another Twilight and the two tried to make sense of it while they continued riding the bus she was on. "Why is there another Twilight? What was she doing at the portal if she didn't come through it? This is just getting confusing," Azalea said to Rebecca.
"Maybe she's not from the other side of the portal like the Twilight we know," Rebecca theorized. "She's probably from this world. But, why she was near the portal anyways? That thing in her hands earlier was some sort of scanner, so what's she looking for?"
"We'll just have to keep tailing her," Azalea said quietly as they saw the bus stop and the other Twilight got up to leave the bus. Using her Semblance to hide themselves, Azalea followed Twilight off the bus with Rebecca behind her. The three girls soon walked into a prep school that looked like the exterior was lined with crystals. The two Huntresses continued to quietly follow the girl until she reached what looked like a private room that was remodeled into a lab or a workshop.
Rebecca and Azalea saw the Twilight doppelganger approach a board and pin a photo of the portal to Equestria to it. As Twilight walked away from the board, she began to work on the device she had used as a scanner earlier. With the girl focused on her work, Rebecca and Azalea looked over the board in front of them. The pair of rookie Huntresses saw that the board was covered in notes, charts, and other research that was related to Canterlot High School as a large picture of the building was at the center of it and several pieces of information were connected by red string. Some of the other photos they saw included the broken shards of the Dazzling's pendants and even Fragment Hunter themselves fighting the Sirens, but those were all blurry and unfocused.
As the two kept looking over what research this Twilight did, Azalea saw something to the side and was connected to the research by a red string. On a calendar was a sticky note that read 'Friendship Games' and according to the marked days on the calendar, it was in two days. As the bespectacled girl focused on her scanner, Rebecca and Azalea began to sneak out of the room quietly. Just as Azalea shutting the door, she saw a purple and green dog napping in the corner.
Returning outside, the girls began to walk back toward Canterlot High and discussed what they saw. "There's not just another Twilight, Rebecca. When we were leaving, I saw that she had Spike with her," Azalea mentioned. "And what was with that board?"
"I have no idea," Rebecca admitted. "But, I think we should still tell the others about what we saw. Especially if that 'Friendship Games' thing is important."
"Yeah. Let's talk with the gang and the others," Azalea said as she sighed.
After reaching Canterlot High again, Azalea and Rebecca explained what they saw to Fragment Hunter and Azalea's parents while Sunset Shimmer went home with the Rainbooms. "So there's a doppelganger of Twilight in this world," Lapis asked in curiosity.
"Yup," Azalea stated. "And she doesn't go this this school. More like a prep school or something."
"Then, what was she doing here of all places then," Cereza inquired.
"She was apparently studying the school because of something involving our first visit here," Rebecca explained.
"You mean with those Sirens you all fought," Ivy asked.
"Exactly, Mom," Azalea said. "There were papers about all kinds of things on this board, blurry photos of our fight with them at the Battle of the Bands, and something on a calendar that said 'The Friendship Games' that's about two days away."
"That sounds so much worse than 'Princess of Friendship'," Rua snarked to herself as she remembered Princess Twilight's official title in Equestria.
"Well, there are banners and posters everywhere in the school for it," Sunset Blaze said as she looked around the hallway the group was briefing in. "Maybe we could ask Principal Celestia or Vice Principal Luna about this thing if it's going to be here?"
"Let's find them," Terracotta stated as Blaze guided the group toward Principal Celestia's office. After they reached their destination, the visitors from Remnant saw the two sisters about to lock up for the night. "Celestia and Luna, I presume," Terracotta said and caught the attention of the women. Hearing their names, the principals turned to see an enormous, scarred, muscular man with bull horns alongside a woman and the teenagers they met during the Musical Showcase/Battle of the Bands.
"You would be right," Celestia said as she and Luna stared at Terracotta. "How may we help you?"
"I'm Terracotta Gaia and this is my wife," Terra introduced.
"Ivy Dahlia Holstein. Please, call me Ivy," the Bovine Faunus greeted. "You know our daughter, Azalea and her friends. They were just showing us around and we were curious about the 'Friendship Games' that are coming up."
"Is that all," Luna asked.
"Actually, there was something weird going on earlier," Slate said. "Apparently there was somebody snooping around the Wondercolt Statue. When Rebecca and Azalea followed them, they ended up at this prep school."
Celestia and Luna looked briefly at each other before they turned back to the visitors. "Did the school look like it was lined with crystals," Luna asked for clarification.
"Yeah, it did," Rebecca answered.
"Great... They're at it again," Celestia muttered to herself before speaking to the others. "The Friendship Games are a series of competitions between Canterlot High and Crystal Prep Academy. It started as a sign of goodwill between the schools decades ago. However..."
"Crystal Prep are a bunch of jerks who keep gloating about constant victories," Rua guessed.
"And are a bunch of sore winners? Possibly even sore losers," Silver added on.
"Have some tact, you two," Celadon said as she berated the two warriors of Team SLVR.
"Actually, they're completely right," Vice Principal Luna whispered to her sister.
"Perhaps they can be taught a lesson or two," Cereza suggested as she fixed her glasses. "We would just need to compete against them."
"That doesn't sound like a good plan. Principal Cinch would probably look down on the idea of you joining," Celestia mentioned.
"How about you let them compete," Ivy said as she stepped forward. "If these are the 'Friendship Games', then allowing an additional class to participate would show what they were meant to be about. Camaraderie, growth of character, teamwork, and striving to become better than you were before in a positive manner. Wouldn't you agree?"
Principal Celestia pondered over Ivy's suggestion for a while and the more that she thought about it, the more it made sense to include Fragment Hunter in the Games. "You're absolutely right, Mrs. Holstein. The twelve students of Beacon Academy should compete."
"Excellent. Now if we can just discuss what's going to happen for the events, I'm sure that my husband and a few associates can supply additional help for the Games," Ivy said as she walked alongside the two principals.
"You kids better figure out what was going on with that girl you saw," Terracotta told the others. "I need to help out Ivy."
"Okay, Dad. We'll try and figure this out," Azalea answered her father before he headed off in the direction of the other three women. Turning back to her friends, Azalea had one thing to say to them. "Now what?"
"I think we should find out more about this second Twilight," Sunset Blaze said. "Tomorrow, we're going to sneak into Crystal Prep Academy."
The next day, Fragment Hunter was making their way to Crystal Prep Academy as Rebecca and Azalea guided them. "It's just a little further ahead," Rebecca told the others. "You can't miss it with the description of the building."
"Remember, guys. We're only checking up on this second Twilight," Sunset Blaze told her friends. "Which means no sabotage, no pranks, and no fighting," she said while looking at Vixen and Rua. Rua only snapped her fingers in annoyance while Vixen pouted. After another minute of walking, the twelve teenagers arrived at their destination. "Well, this looks like the place. Now to get inside."
"Hold on, guys," Rua said before she teleported to the other side of the front gate and unlocked it for everyone. "At least now that I know where this place is, I can teleport here whenever I want while we're in the city."
"Okay. Time to see where she is," Lapis said as she and the others entered the school's campus. Before they reached the door, Vixen used her Semblance to create an illusion around the twelve teenagers and hide them from view as they entered the school. Fragment Hunter all looked around and avoided the other students until they saw Twilight Sparkle in the Crystal Prep uniform.
She sighed to herself before trying to make her way through the hall, but kept bumping into people or weaved around them. As she apologized, students either ignored her or gave her dirty looks. Fragment Hunter were all upset at what they saw, but Azalea and Rua were the most angry out of the twelve as they silently growled at how Twilight was apparently being bullied. The twelve warriors continued to follow Twilight until she reached her private room away from the other students.
"Spike? Spike," Twilight called out for her dog until he popped out of a trash can because Twilight accidentally knocked him inside it when she kicked open her door. "There you are," Twilight giggled as Fragment Hunter all smiled at the sight of her relationship with her dog. "Okay, okay! Last night's field test confirmed it, Spike. With this device, I can track and contain the bizarre energy coming from Canterlot High," she told her dog as she pulled out a purple device from her desk drawer that resembled an amulet, locket, or pocket watch. Spike growled at the mention of Twilight's visit to CHS yesterday, but Twilight calmed him down. "I know you didn't like me going over there, but I just couldn't wait. And soon, I'll have all the time I need. All of Crystal Prep is gonna be there for the Friendship Games. I just hope all that 'rivalry' nonsense doesn't get in the way of my research. If I can collect enough data on these EM frequencies, I should be able to extrapolate the waveforms to determine their origin. That would practically guarantee my entrance into the Everton Independent Study Program," Twilight explained to her dog and unknown to her, Fragment Hunter.
As Twilight was getting excited about her research, she leaned back in her chair and fell to the floor. Just as she did that, Rebecca sensed somebody was approaching the door and silently warned the others. A pink-skinned woman with yellow, pink, and purple hair entered the room and saw Twilight on the floor with her puppy licking her face. "Twilight, you know the rules against pets," she said to the girl.
"Well, Spike isn't a pet, Dean Cadance," Twilight told the woman. "He's the focus of my research project. Human-canine cohabitation: effects and implications."
"I believe there's another name for that project," Azalea said to the others with Sunset's Semblance. "It's called having a pet."
"If you say so. But Principal Cinch is highly allergic, so I suggest you put on a clean shirt," Cadance said as she picked up one of Spike's hairs from Twilight's shoulder. When Fragment Hunter heard this, they briefly looked at Silver before he glared back at them. They continued to hide with Vixen's illusions while Cadance and Twilight spoke about Principal Cinch wanting to see Twilight. While Twilight believed it to be about her application to the study program she wanted to get into, but Dean Cadance was concern about Twilight as more than just a favorite student. "I've been meaning to talk to you about that. Are you sure that's what you really want?"
"Why wouldn't it be? A program that allows me to focus all my attention on my own advanced math and science projects? What a dream come true," Twilight responded.
"Nerd," Rua thought and the rest of Fragment Hunter heard her.
"But there aren't any classrooms with other students. You'll be doing everything on your own," Cadance explained to Twilight.
"That is why it's called an 'independent study program'," Twilight reminded.
"I just don't want you to miss out on anything. I was your babysitter when I was still a student and you're like a little sister to me. I'm always going to look out for you when I have the time," Cadance said. "Being around other people isn't a bad thing. Sometimes it's how you learn the most about yourself." Fragment Hunter silently agreed as their own friendship allowed them to learn more about themselves and become better as both warriors and people.
"I guess you're right, Dean Cadance," Twilight said as she nervously rubbed her arm.
"Meet you in Principal Cinch's office in a few minutes," Cadance asked Twilight and the girl just nodded before the Dean left the room. "Make sure to change your clothes," she reminded as she closed the door.
"What's she so worried about? Everton is exactly what I need right now." Twilight said to Spike, who was playing with a chew toy. Spike looked back up at Twilight questioningly after she spoke to him. "It's not like I have anything left to learn at Crystal Prep," Twilight sighed. The members of Fragment Hunter couldn't help but feel sorry for the girl when they realized what her school life was like and Azalea empathized with her the most.
Deciding to give her a little bit of privacy, the teenagers from Remnant combined their Semblances to teleport out of the room without being detected by Twilight. However, Spike looked around the room just as they left and he thought he sensed some other people inside Twilight's lab. Ignoring it, he decided to take a nap while his friend and owner changed into a clean uniform. With some new clothes on, Twilight exited her lab as she adjusted her tie. Closing the door behind her, Twilight began to make her way through the halls toward Principal Cinch's office. Fragment Hunter followed her to keep their eyes on the girl and see what the principal of the school actually wanted with Twilight. After bumping into some more students, Twilight began to sing to herself as she made her way toward her destination.
I've walked through all these halls before I've been in and out of every door, oh-whoa-oh There's nothing in this school that I don't know In every class, my grade's the best The highest score on every test I think that means it's time for me to go
I know there's more that's out there And I just haven't found it yet I know there's more that's out there Another me I haven't met
This school is full of people But still I don't belong They only dream of winning Look at me like something's wrong Maybe I'm better off alone Will I find what I'm looking for If I just do it on my own?
I know there's more that's out there Something to fill this hole inside I know there's more that's out there And I'm not afraid to try
There's only so much this school can offer And I'm not saying that it's wrong But I know there's more that's out there 'Cause I've been searching all along
Beyond these rooms, beyond these walls So much to learn, I can't see it all There's somethin' out there callin' me And it's a mystery that I can't wait to see
'Cause I know there's more that's out there Another place, another way And I know there's more that's out there And I'll find out someday!
I'll find out someday...
The song started out sad, but Twilight's singing showed that she still had hope about something to find when she leaves Crystal Prep and was looking forward to it. Most of Fragment Hunter found the song to be beautiful, but some still questioned the sudden musical number. "Did she really need to sing," Rua asked her friends telepathically.
"She's definitely this world's version of Twilight with that voice," Cereza commented.
"Let's just keep following her. She's already at the door," Sunset Blaze told the others. "Silver, you and Vixen stay out here with Cereza, Lapis, and Slate. Vinyl can use her Scroll to keep you posted." The five teenagers nodded before the Twilight opened up the door to Principal Cinch's office. As Twilight was encouraged to enter and take a seat by Cadance, the others quickly entered while Vixen's illusions kept them hidden.
As soon as Twilight took her seat, the door was closed by somebody she recognized when she looked behind her. "Shining Armor? Why is my brother here," Twilight asked.
"As an alumni, Principal Cinch thought he could provide some unique perspective," Cadance explained to Twilight.
"Perspective on what," Twilight asked and the members of Fragment Hunter silently questioned the same thing.
"Why, the Friendship Games, of course," a new voice said as the woman that Fragment Hunter guessed was Principal Cinch turned her chair around to face Twilight, Shining Armor, and Cadance. "You competed in the games, did you not, Shining Armor," she asked the man.
As she was asking the question, Shining Armor and Cadance were looking at each other and smiling like they were smitten teenagers before an embarrassed Shining Armor composed himself and answered. "I did."
"And do you happen to recall who won that year," Cinch asked as she stood up.
Shining Armor chuckled as he answered. "Crystal Prep did. We always win."
"We always win," Cinch echoed before she walked over to a trophy shelf in her office. Rebecca and Celadon were standing nearby it while their were hidden, so they snuck away to not be detected by Cinch.
"Why did you ask to see me," Twilight asked nervously.
"Twilight, I'll be honest. It doesn't matter whether or not Crystal Prep wins or loses," Cinch said as she polished one of the trophies. "The important thing is we are expected to win because Crystal Prep has a reputation. And it is that reputation... my reputation that is responsible for everything we have here. For everything you've done here. And you've done quite a lot, haven't you?"
"I don't know. I guess," Twilight replied as Principal Cinch made her way back to her desk.
"Oh, don't be modest. You're the best student this school has ever seen. What I can't understand is why my best student wouldn't want to compete," Cinch said as she moved a pencil on her desk into place.
"In the Friendship Games," Twilight asked as she adjusted her glasses.
"Look, Twily, I know it's not really your thing, but representing the school is kind of a big deal. Plus, they could really use your help," Shining Armor told his little sister.
"Didn't seem like any of them wanted to be involved with her in the halls," Rua bitterly mentioned to Fragment Hunter.
"It seems Canterlot High is undergoing something of a renaissance," Cinch said as she held a paper about recent changes for the aforementioned school. "Test scores are up, grades, even athletics are on the rise. You see, they are developing somewhat of a reputation. This can not happen!" Fragment Hunter noted the glare on Cinch's face and her tone as they all scowled at the woman.
"Principal Cinch, I can't possibly participate in the games," Twilight stated. "My work here is very..."
"Ah, yes. Your work. Cadance, could you and Shining Armor find my contact sheet for the Everton Independent Study program," Cinch asked. After Cadance agreed to go retrieve the document with Shining, Twilight was nervous to be left alone with Principal Cinch and Fragment Hunter couldn't blow their cover just to make her feel better. As soon as Cinch believed herself to be alone with Twilight, she pulled out a file that held Twilight's application to Everton. "I understand you've applied. You see, one of the advantages of having a reputation is a certain amount of influence in such things. So, let me offer you a deal. In return for contributing your agile mind to these games, I will use my influence to guarantee your application is approved. Though, I suppose I could also have it... denied. What do you think I should do?"
"Is she... blackmailing her," Layla mentally asked in disgust as Twilight felt pressured by Cinch's 'deal'. The other members of Fragment Hunter were all angry at the underhanded tactic that Cinch was using to try and make sure that she could keep her reputation. However, the angriest of all of them was Azalea as her body began to shine from her Semblance and the glare had the others cover their eyes. Thankfully, Vixen's illusions managed to hide the light from view and Fragment Hunter stayed hidden.
Twilight sighed before finally answering Cinch. "Alright. I'll compete in the Friendship Games."
Cinch smiled as if she secured victory for the upcoming events already. "You've made the correct choice as you always do," she said as she put the file away.
"Come on, guys. We need to get out of here," Sunset Blaze telepathically told the others before Rua teleported all of them out toward Canterlot High.
After Fragment Hunter teleported back to Canterlot High, they saw that the students were all excited for the Friendship Games. "Did we miss anything," Lapis asked as she and the others approached Flash Sentry.
"There was a pep rally for the Friendship Games and thanks to Rainbow Dash, everyone's pumped for the competition," Flash explained. "I have to go. You should probably go talk to her and the Rainbooms if you want to know more about everything," he said before he left.
"Come on, let's find them," Sunset Blaze said before they began searching for their other friends. After a few minutes, they found the girls by a vending machine getting snacks. "Hey, girls! We missed a pep rally?"
"Yeah! It was awesome! Everyone was mopey because Crystal Prep always won the Games, but I reminded them that we dealt with magical threats and surpassed them," Rainbow Dash told Fragment Hunter. "Not only that, but that you guys are competing alongside us to make it more fun."
"But there was something funny that happened during the song Dashie sang to psyche us up," Pinkie said as she opened the cap of her drink bottle with her hair. "And not the good kind of funny."
"What was it," Layla asked as she tried to ignore Pinkie's method of opening her bottle.
"You see, Rainbow Dash managed to pony up without playing her guitar," Applejack said and got surprised reactions from Fragment Hunter. "It was just weird considering the other ways we transformed. It was with Princess Twilight's crown the first time and with our music every single time before now."
"Vice Principal Luna was concerned with it, too," Fluttershy told the others. "She thinks that if we use magic during the Games, we'll be accused of cheating."
"Well, I guess that means we're going to have to compete without using our Semblances for the events themselves," Celadon stated as she gave her hair a gentle toss.
"Considering that several of us have combat-oriented powers, I don't think that will be a problem for a high school competition. It's not like it's the Vytal Festival Tournament where we actually have to attack the other team," Slate mentioned.
"In any case, Sunset Shimmer is looking into the matter and we still need to prepare for tomorrow," Rarity told the Remnant teenagers. "We have idea what the events are going to be, so I don't know what outfits are going to be needed. Soccer uniforms? Swimsuits? Goalie equipment? There are so many ideas," Rarity said with concern and slight excitement.
"You have no idea what's going to happen," Sunset Blaze asked and the Rainbooms only shook their heads in response. "Well, I suppose it makes sense that the officials wouldn't want any teams to get an advantage by knowing the events ahead of time."
"Perhaps y'all should make sure to do some studying," Applejack suggested. "Never hurts to learn more about this world compared to Remnant and some rumors have been going around about at least one academic contest because of some of the previous Friendship Games."
"We'll try and figure stuff out. But, we've also got a few other problems," Silver said as Fragment Hunter began to leave. "See you girls later."
As the twelve teenagers managed to reach the library, they saw Terracotta and Ivy approach them. "Rua, Sunset, I need some help," Terra said. "We need to return to Remnant to grab a few associates to help out with the Games."
"Hello, everyone," the pink haired woman greeted with a smile before seeing the second Sunset. "You weren't kidding about there being two of you," she said to Sunset Blaze.
"Hey, Shimmer. Meet my mentor and mother figure from my days at Garrison Academy, Aurora Celeste," Blaze introduced. "And the other woman is her sister, Nocturne Celeste."
"A pleasure to make your acquaintance," Nocturne said. "We learned the whole story about you and the current situation from our student. We are here to assist in these 'Friendship Games' as additional judges and set up the playing fields."
"Well, the more the merrier then," Shimmer stated before she looked at Aurora a bit more. "You really remind me of my own teacher from before I came here myself," she said to Aurora.
Aurora only smiled before turning to Fragment Hunter. "If you could show us where to go, maybe we can help with the preparations."
"This way," Vinyl said as she guided everyone from Remnant out of the library and toward Principal Celestia's office. After Terracotta explained who the new arrivals were, the adults all went on to finishing up the field for the Friendship Games. This left Fragment Hunter on their own as they pondered what to do about the Crystal Prep situation they saw. "Now what," Vinyl asked.
"It's not like we can just tell somebody about Twilight without being accused of spying on Crystal Prep. Mostly because we technically were," Lapis mentioned.
Everyone was wondering about what to do, but Azalea came to her own idea. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm going to help Twilight out."
"Lea, what are you talking about," Layla asked.
"Most of this Twilight's problems seem to be because she's a bullied girl who doesn't have a single friend outside of her family or dog. I was pretty much like that until I came to Beacon Academy and met you guys, so I'm going to be her friend while she's here," Azalea stated.
"Count me in," Rua said as she stood by Azalea's side. "We'll go to Crystal Prep and help her out there."
"Sounds like a plan," Blaze pondered aloud. "Okay. Silver, Celadon, Cereza, and Slate will go with you guys for backup. Meet back at the courtyard when you can."
Back at Crystal Prep, it was the day of Friendship Games and Twilight was packing up her bag with a few things when Spike grabbed at a sweatshirt Twilight was holding. He growled and pulled at it to show that he didn't want Twilight to go to Canterlot High like she was. "Come on, Spike! I was always gonna go to Canterlot High for the Friendship Games," she said as she pulled the article of clothing away from her dog, but it ended up hitting her in the face. "The only difference now is that I have to compete. Besides, it's not like Principal Cinch gave me much of a choice," she sadly mentioned.
Spike whimpered sadly when Twilight mentioned that she was being blackmailed into participating or her application to Everton would be denied. "I know, Spike. I don't like it either. I probably won't be able to collect anywhere near as much data as I thought," Twilight told Spike as she scratched his chin. She held her new device in her hand and pondered over what to do. As she looked at her invention, she noted the design of it and thought of an idea. "But maybe I can still get some," she said as she placed the device onto a necklace and effectively turned it into an amulet she could wear around her neck.
With the issue of collecting data solved, Twilight then felt Spike placing his paw against her and heard him whimper again. "Spike, I wouldn't leave without you," she said as she hugged her friend. "Just remember to be quiet," she told her dog as she placed him in her backpack. "And try not to shed. I don't want Principal Cinch to find you... or for my stuff to get covered in hair." Leaving her lab, Twilight made her way toward the buses that Crystal Prep was taking to Canterlot High. Unsure of where she was supposed to go, she saw Dean Cadance and went to get an answer from her. "Dean Cadance, I'm not really sure where to go."
"One second, Twilight," Cadance said as she went to go check on some of the other students. As she left, a few girls that Twilight accidentally cut in front of glared at her. At the same time, Azalea, Slate, Cereza, Silver, Rua, and Celadon managed to teleport to Crystal Prep unseen. Making sure that Azalea hid her horns with a bandanna and Silver hid his tail under his jacket, they approached Twilight.
"You could try the end of the line," a girl with yellow skin and rose-colored hair with an aquamarine streak in a ponytail said in a sour tone.
"What did you say," Twilight asked after adjusting her glasses.
"Just that someone as smart as you should definitely go first," the girl now said in a falsely sweet voice as a girl with blue skin and purple hair arrogantly smirked.
"Well, I think it's obvious that she's smarter than you," Rua said as she appeared next to the three girls with her friends behind her.
"What," the rose-haired girl asked in irritation.
"I'm saying that she's better than you, Cranberry," Rua said as she noted the decoration in the girl's hair that held up her ponytail.
"First off, my name is Sour Sweet," the girl told Rua as she poked the rookie Huntress in the shoulder. "Second, who are you and what makes you think you can say that?"
Rua only responded by grabbing at Sour Sweet's wrist and twisting it. Sour Sweet cried out in pain before Rua let go after a few seconds. "Name's Rua Amaranth and I said that because it's obviously true that the girl you were badmouthing is smarter than you," Rua told the girl.
"I've never heard of you before," the blue-skinned girl stated as Sour Sweet rubbed her wrist to deal with the pain. "And why aren't you in your uniform?"
Rua rolled her eyes at the girl before speaking again. "If you want to know, Sunshine..."
"Sunny Flare," the girl said to Rua as Dean Cadance approached the group and saw the new arrivals.
"Don't care. Me and my friends aren't students here, but we are going to the Friendship Games because we were invited," Rua said.
"Well if you're going to head to Canterlot High with us, you can get on the bus right here with Twilight," Cadance instructed.
"Thank you, Miss," Slate said with a tip of his hat.
Twilight was confused by what was going on, but then she felt someone place a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, I'm Azalea. That's Slate, Cereza, Celadon, and Silver," the young Huntress introduced herself and her friends.
"Hi. I'm Twilight Sparkle," the girl greeted back politely.
"It's nice to meet you, Sci-Twi," Azalea said.
"Sci-Twi," Twilight asked in confusion.
"We already have a friend named 'Twilight', so I think a nickname will help avoid confusion," Azalea explained. "If you want, you can me 'Lea', 'Farm Girl', 'Freckles', or anything else that you can think of," she said as the the two girls stepped onto the bus with Silver just ahead of them.
As they entered, a girl with blue hair and goggles was excited for the competition and voiced to the group... loudly. "Are we gonna win?!?!"
"I... I don't know," Twilight said after she, Azalea, and Silver were startled.
"Wrong answer!! Try again," the girl exclaimed. "Are we gonna win?!?!"
"You do know that you have more than one team to face off against this year, right Goggles," Silver asked as he tried to check his hearing.
"It's Indigo Zap and it's not like we're going to lose to anyone. Not even some new guys from a school we never heard of," the girl said.
"I wouldn't look down on your competition that quickly," Silver told Indigo Zap.
"Right. And I heard that CHS is doing well now. With their reputation. And, I mean, it's not better than ours, of course. But we can't let them do it, you know? Win, I mean? Right," Twilight tried to say to her classmates, but her speech failed as every Crystal Prep student was just confused by what Twilight was trying to say.
"Come on, Sci-Twi. Let's find a seat," Azalea said as she urged the girl forward.
When the girls reached the back of the bus, they found a few seats between a girl with long green hair listening to music on her headphones and a girl with white hair in pigtails wearing glasses. Twilight turned to the latter and greeted the girl. "Hi, Sugarcoat."
"That was a really bad speech. You should consider not speaking in public," Sugarcoat bluntly stated to Twilight.
"Wow... I can see that your name is ironic," Azalea said in Sugarcoat's direction before turning back to Twilight and saw the girl hanging her head in sadness. But, Azalea saw that Twilight had a small smile when she unzipped her backpack and Spike peeked out from it.
"Well, Spike, at least I've got you with me," Twilight whispered to her dog, but briefly forgot that there was another person right next to her. Twilight saw Azalea smiling at her and Spike before she mimed a zipper across her lips to show she would be quiet about Spike as the bus started moving.
Spike then heard music blaring to Twilight's right and the green-haired girl with headphones turned to see Twilight and Azalea. "Dude, you have got to hear this," she exclaimed over her music as she removed her headphones and placed them over Twilight's ears. Twilight flinched at the sudden rock music blaring into her ears, but Azalea removed them to help Twilight and to check for herself.
"Not bad. Me and my friends are in a band and we play rock a lot," Azalea said to the girl as she placed the headphones on her lap.
"Awesome! I'm Lemon Zest," the girl introduced herself and offered a hand to Azalea.
"Azalea," the Cow Faunus greeted back and shook her hand before returning Lemon's headphones to her.
"Your name sounds so familiar. Where have I heard it," Lemon Zest asked as she put her headphones around her neck.
"You heard of me," Azalea asked.
Lemon Zest thought it over for a minute before she snapped her fingers and pulled out her phone. "Of course! You're on the web," Lemon Zest said as she searched for a video. Showing Twilight and Azalea, the latter's eyes widened as she saw the video.
"SOMEBODY POSTED MY FIGHT WITH THE DAZZLINGS ON THE INTERNET," Azalea yelled out in surprise and startled every student. Silver, Slate, Cereza, Rua, and Celadon all reached Azalea to see what she was talking about. As the members of Fragment Hunter saw the video, they were shocked to see somebody actually posted Azalea's battle against Adagio, Aria, and Sonata online, complete with the song that Vinyl played during it.
"How is that even possible," Cereza asked.
"Hold on a second," Celadon said before she took a look at the video description. "Does this look familiar to you," she asked as she pointed out the person who posted the video.
Azalea looked at the name and sighed before saying something under her breath. "Pinkie Pie, you are in for it when we get to CHS."
As the buses from Crystal Prep made their way to Canterlot High, Sunset Blaze and the rest of Fragment Hunter were all waiting for their friends outside along with Azalea's mother, Ivy. To make sure that the visiting school didn't find out about the Faunus, Vixen used her Semblance to hide her tail while Ivy hid her horns with a bandanna just like Azalea did. "I wonder if Rua's gotten into trouble yet," Layla asked as she inspected her bracelets.
"Probably not," Blaze said. "Everyone would keep her in line. Besides, she would want to wait to beat them at their own game while they're here."
"You got that right, Hot Head," Rua said mentally through the telepathic link Blaze had up.
"Well, looks like you're almost here," Blaze replied back.
"We're just another minute away, so we'll meet you there," Cereza mentioned.
"Alright then," Blaze telepathically stated before turning to the others. "Okay, let's meet up with them," she said as she stood up and walked to where the buses from Crystal Prep would park. As they made their way past the Wondercolt Statue, Fragment Hunter and Ivy saw that Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna were already waiting for Crystal Prep. When the buses stopped and dropped off the passengers, the Remnant natives saw Cinch and Cadance speaking to Celestia and Luna respectively as students were exiting the vehicles.
"Vice Principal Luna and our other visiting teachers can help your students get settled if you'd like me to show you around, Principal Cinch," Celestia said. "There have been quite a few changes since your last visit."
"Oh, yes, Principal Celestia. I'm sure that would be fascinating," Principal Cinch replied with sarcasm to humor Celestia. Fragment Hunter and Ivy noted the way Cinch spoke and rolled their eyes in disgust at how Cinch believed the rival school to be beneath her. As they looked at Luna and Cadance however, they could see that the Dean had the opposite opinion of Canterlot High as she and Luna gave each other a warm greeting as they hugged each other.
"Oh, it's always such a pleasure to see you, Dean Cadance," Luna said fondly. "Even if it means another defeat."
"Thank you, Vice Principal Luna, but I hear it's not going to be so easy this time," Cadance stated. "I heard that there's a third team this year as well. Some of them even caught a ride here with us, so I'm wondering if the rest of them are here."
"Indeed they are," Ivy said as she approached the two women. "My name's Ivy Dahlia Holstein," she said as she extended a hand to Dean Cadance. "I'm chaperoning my daughter and her friends."
"Mi Amore Cadenza. Please, call me Cadance," Cadance introduced herself as she shook Ivy's hand. "I'm the Dean of Students at Crystal Prep Academy."
"Seems like a challenging occupation given what kind of students you're helping," Ivy said.
"It does have it's difficulties, but I feel like it's worth it to help the student body improve," Cadance answered before looking in Principal Cinch's direction. "I just wish that some other teachers agreed with me," she said in a slightly annoyed tone.
"I heard how she spoke to Principal Celestia," Ivy stated as she looked in the same direction as Cadance. "I'd say that she needs to take a trip to the spa, but I don't think they have treatments for her bad personality." Cadance tried to suppress a laugh before composing herself again. As Ivy and Cadance hit it off well, Fragment Hunter went to find Twilight and the other members of their group.
As Silver jumped off the bus and landed on all fours, Celadon flipped her hair a little before stepping off the bus herself. After she did that, Twilight poked her head out of the doorway before adjusting her glasses and stepping off with dignity. Unfortunately for her, Indigo Zap was excited to get ready for the Friendship Games and shoved Twilight in her haste. Because of that, Twilight lost her balance and ended up falling on top of Sunny Flare. "Seriously," the girl asked in annoyance as she and Twilight picked themselves up.
"HEY! It was an accident," Celadon said as she scolded Sunny Flare.
"It's not like she could've prevented it in your teammate's rush," Cereza mentioned as she got off the bus with Slate and Azalea behind her.
"They're right. I didn't mean to," Twilight tried to apologize. Sunny Flare just shot dirty looks at Twilight and the others as she angrily walked off. Twilight groaned as she stood back up, but almost bumped into Sour Sweet. "Oh, sorry. Why don't you go ahead?"
"You are such a sweetie," Sour Sweet said kindly before speaking to Twilight in a hushed and harsh tone. "I am watching you!" As she left, Sour Sweet glared at Twilight. Twilight was upset at how her classmates were treating her, but Azalea walked up to her and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. A quiet smile from her somehow managed to get Twilight's spirits up. As Rua was kept from going after Sour Sweet, Twilight noticed something about her amulet as Azalea and the others met up with the rest of Fragment Hunter.
The device that Twilight wore as a necklace began to hum and a few lights on it pointed toward the school. Twilight smiled with hope that she could find the energy signatures that she was studying, but turned back to the Crystal Prep students behind her and had an uncertain look. As Spike briefly poked his head out of her backpack, Twilight decided to go do what she originally planned and investigate the strange readings coming from Canterlot High. Sneaking away from her classmates, Twilight went and headed toward the school with Fragment Hunter following her to keep an eye on the girl. As Twilight reached the door, two girls who Fragment Hunter recognized from their last visit as Lyra Heartstrings and Sweetie Drops (also known as Bon Bon) waved hello to the girl they thought was the princess from Equestria. "Hi, Twilight," Bon Bon greeted, but Sci-Twi was too focused on her amulet to reply and the two girls felt ignored.
As Twilight made her way inside, she continued to follow the tracking device and more students began to talk to her. As more and more people said hello, Twilight was nervously answering back despite her confusion about the number of Canterlot High students apparently knowing her. Eventually, Twilight ended up bumping into Flash Sentry and knocked each other to the floor, making Twilight's glasses fall off her face as well. As they recovered, Flash noticed who he bumped into and was pleasantly surprised at who he thought he met. "Twilight? I almost didn't recognize you," Flash said as he helped Sci-Twi to her feet. After he did, Twilight began to move her hands in front of her as she couldn't see and Flash looked at the ground to see the girl's glasses. "When did you start wearing glasses," he asked.
"Um, like, since forever," Twilight said with a shrug of her shoulders.
"Oh, so how long are you here for," Flash asked as he kneeled down to pick up her glasses.
"Just for the Friendship Games," Sci-Twi answered.
"Right. Of course. We'll totally win with you here," Flash said as he started to put Twilight's glasses back on for her. As they looked at each other, Twilight noticed her amulet began to glow and point in another direction.
"Uh, I gotta go," Twilight said she ran off with her amulet guiding her.
Flash awkwardly said goodbye, but was embarrassed at how he acted in front of who he thought was Princess Twilight. Fragment Hunter and a girl affectionately nicknamed 'Derpy' all consoled him as they showed up. "One day," Vixen said as she tousled Flash's hair for a second.
"I think she's heading to the music room," Silver told the others.
"Well, let's beat her there," Rua suggested as she grabbed everyone together and teleported them in a purplish-red flash of light.
In the music room that the Rainbooms finished practice in, Fragment Hunter managed to teleport in and saw what was happening. Everyone was in a variety of different costumes as Rarity went around and made adjustments to whatever was needed. "What the hell is going on here," Rua asked bluntly.
"Rarity decided to make costumes for the Friendship Games because we don't know what events are going to happen," Pinkie Pie said as she sat on the piano wearing a cowgirl outfit.
Slate looked at Pinkie's attire and spoke up. "You kinda look like my sister when she decided to dress up similar to me, Pinkie. The main difference would be that you don't have my eye color." Pinkie only giggled at the gunslinger's mention of his family.
"By the way, why did you post a video of my fight against the Dazzlings from the Battle of the Bands party online," Azalea asked Pinkie with a stern face.
"Because I thought everyone would enjoy watching a fun video," Pinkie stated. Getting an answer, Azalea just rolled her eyes with a small smirk before checking out the other outfits Rarity had prepared.
"Oh, I just remembered that I still have another costume rack with outfits I designed inspired by all your stories from Remnant," Rarity said as she pulled out a new clothing rack and showed Fragment Hunter. As they looked at the selections, they saw that each outfit was similar to combat uniforms worn by their friends from Beacon and the other Academies. "It was a bit of a challenge getting them to be both functional and fabulous, but I feel like I've done a great job."
"Uh, Rarity, these outfits are great, but why would you put so much time and effort into clothes we might not even wear," Applejack asked as Rarity adjusted her shirt to fit properly. "You're gonna exhaust yourself before the games even start."
Rarity scoffed at Applejack as she placed a dress back onto a rack. "Don't be silly, darling! Putting effort into clothes is what I live for, and spending time on my friends fills me with energy," Rarity exclaimed before she surged with magic. Her ears changed shape and placement, her hair grew longer, and she finished her transformation with a dynamic pose as she floated in the air.
Fragment Hunter and the Rainbooms were all amazed at the sight of Rarity ponying up without music. "And magic, too. I guess," Sunset Shimmer said as Rarity floated in front of them.
Just as Rarity transformed, Twilight was continuing to track the energy signature she detected while walking down the hallway toward the music room. Suddenly, her amulet popped open and surprised Twilight as her glasses began to slip off her face. In the classroom, Rarity's magic began to flow out the door and drift toward Sci-Twi. When the stream of magic approached her, the amulet began to absorb and contain it. At the same time, Rarity floated back down to the ground and began to feel tired. "Actually, Applejack, now that you mention it, I suppose I could use a tiny break," Rarity told her worried friends as she held her head and her ears turned to normal.
"Vixen, go find my mom and bring her here," Azalea said to the Fox Faunus as Rarity collapsed and Applejack caught her. Nodding, Vixen decided to jump out the window to make her way outside. "Why did she jump out the window," Azalea asked.
Soon, Twilight entered the band room and saw everybody inside. When the Rainbooms saw the girl, they were all excited to see who they thought was their friend. "Well, I'll be. You should have told us you were coming," Applejack said as she wrapped an arm around Sci-Twi's shoulder.
"Darling, those glasses. What are you wearing? It's so... severe," Rarity questioned as she tried to stand up, but was still a bit woozy.
"My uniform," Twilight replied in confusion as she looked down at her clothes when Rarity asked.
"Your uniform for what," Fluttershy now asked.
"For... Crystal Prep," Twilight hesitatingly answered. "But, why does everyone at this school know who I am?"
"Remember when I said that we had a friend named Twilight? Well, you look very similar to her," Azalea told Sci-Twi.
"Almost like looking in a mirror," Sunset Blaze said as she stood near Sunset Shimmer and got a chuckle out of Fragment Hunter.
"Wait, back up for a second," Rainbow Dash said as she heard Twilight earlier. "Did you say 'Crystal Prep'?"
Suddenly, Spike popped out of Twilight's backpack and barked. "Spike," Fluttershy and Rarity both exclaimed as they recognized the dog's appearance.
"You know my dog's name, too," Twilight asked in surprise as Fluttershy started to pet Spike.
"Yeah, the Twilight we know has a similar dog. It's a pretty common name for a dog and a lot of breeds can look alike," Lapis said. Suddenly, Silver and Spike sensed somebody else coming toward the band room and the boy made sure that Spike was hidden and zipped up Twilight's backpack before he jumped out the same window as Vixen did. "That was weird," Lapis said before she saw Principal Celestia and Principal Cinch approaching.
"And our music program has especially taken off," Celestia mentioned to Cinch before she saw the Crystal Prep Twilight speaking to the Rainbooms. "Twilight?"
"This is getting ridiculous," Twilight exclaimed because now the teachers of CHS were confusing her for the other Twilight that Azalea mentioned.
"I must apologize for the curiosity of my prized student," Principal Cinch said to Celestia.
"Your student," Celestia asked before Sunset Blaze used her Semblance to mentally talk to the principal.
"She's apparently the Twilight Sparkle of this world. And don't freak out, you're just hearing me with my powers," Blaze explained.
"The smart ones are always curious," Cinch said. Despite not liking her for blackmailing Twilight into competing, Lapis and Blaze had to agree with her on that aspect. "I'll return her to check in with the rest of her classmates," Cinch said as she lead a nervous Sci-Twi away.
As the two from Crystal Prep left, Vixen managed to return with Ivy and the latter placed a hand on Rarity's head. With a green glow coming from her hand, Ivy used her own Semblance to heal and energize Rarity back to health. At the same time, Silver came in through the open window again when Cinch left. "I swear that ever since the Fall Formal, this school has been getting involved with all sorts of crazy things," Celestia commented as she left to prepare for the welcome party for the Friendship Games.
"I'm going to check on Twilight," Azalea said as she left the room and went in the same direction as Sci-Twi. "Come on, Vinyl," the Cow Faunus said to her headphone-wearing friend and the second girl followed silently.
"And because nobody else is doing it right now," Pinkie said before she turned to the window. She soon ran toward it and jumped through with an excited squeal. "Wheeeeeee!" Everyone watching just rolled their eyes at Pinkie's antics and continued on their day.
Back out at the courtyard, Twilight began to explain what she could to Cinch. "I'm sorry, Principal Cinch. I was just following these strange readings. Actually, they led me to those girls and-"
"Twilight, what you do in your free time is of little interest to me, but while you're here, I... all of Crystal Prep, in fact, require your complete focus," Cinch told Twilight, who understood what Cinch wanted. Azalea and Vinyl stayed hidden with the former's Semblance and kept an eye on what was going on.
"But why does everyone in this school seem to know me," Sci-Twi asked. "That Azalea girl said that there was another Twilight, but I don't think that I would be mistaken that easily."
"Perhaps they're trying to confuse you. Perhaps they're trying to lure you away," Cinch told Twilight her hypothesis.
Twilight was skeptical about Principal Cinch's belief about that. "It didn't feel like anyone was trying to lure me," Twilight said. "In fact, I think that Azalea was trying to get to know me more."
"I don't know what they're planning, but I guarantee, it isn't to help us win," Cinch told Twilight before guiding her back to the other Crystal Prep students. As Twilight quietly followed, Azalea and Vinyl uncloaked and glared at Cinch's direction before deciding to stay with Twilight to keep her company.
After meeting their world's version of Twilight Sparkle, the Rainbooms all changed back into their regular clothes and walked down the hall with Fragment Hunter. "I can't believe our world's Twilight goes to Crystal Prep," Rarity bemoaned.
"You're saying that Twilight's gonna play against us," Rainbow Dash questioned. "She'd never do that!"
"Our Twilight wouldn't," Fluttershy said.
"Our Twilight is a princess in Equestria and an expert in friendship magic! And if she was here, we'd have already figured out why magic is randomly popping up during pep rallies and costume changes," Sunset Shimmer stated angrily. She soon paused when she saw her friends were surprised by her outburst.
"You seem really stressed about this, Shimmer," Layla said with concern.
Sunset Shimmer took a deep breath and sighed heavily before speaking again. "Sorry. I'm just frustrated that I haven't heard back from her," she apologized.
"She's a princess in Equestria. She's probably got problems of her own to deal with," Applejack reminded.
"If she had to deal with magical threats similar to the Dazzlings or that 'Discord' being she told us about before, then I'm sure that her absence is justified," Rebecca surmised.
"Either that or boring meetings that even Professor Ozpin has to sit through," Silver suggested.
"We certainly can't expect her to drop everything and pop through the portal whenever like Fragment Hunter can," Rarity reminded. "Especially if it's to deal with something as minor as a few random pony-ups."
"But they aren't minor! Magic came into this world when I stole Twilight's crown. It's taken a lot for me to earn everyone's trust. Especially after what I was like before Twilight came after it," Sunset Shimmer reminded as she slumped against a locker and looked like she was losing her confidence. "If we have to forfeit the games because I can't think of a way to keep it under control..."
"Oh, Sunset, I'm sure you'll be able to figure things out," Fluttershy said as she tried to cheer up her friend by showing her faith.
"You're the one who helped us understand what was goin' on with the sirens. Remember," Applejack reminded.
"Yeah. Without you, we wouldn't have been able to beat the Dazzlings down," Rua explained.
"I guess. But Twilight was the one who really figured out what we needed to defeat them," Shimmer mentioned.
"But don't you remember, darling? What we needed to defeat them was you," Rarity told Sunset Shimmer.
"Yeah. With you helping, we were able to keep fighting and that giant rainbow alicorn was able to finish the Dazzlings off," Sunset Blaze said.
As her friends from Canterlot High and Remnant all continued to lift her spirits, Sunset Shimmer was beginning to feel reassured. "All right," Shimmer replied and her friends cheered.
"Come on, guys! Let's see if we can find any info about the events and come up with a strategy," Rainbow Dash said as she and the Rainbooms continued down the hall. Most of Fragment Hunter followed along, but the ones that stayed behind were Sunset Shimmer, Rua, and Sunset Blaze. Shimmer was biting her thumb in thought while Rua and Blaze saw this before the other members of Fragment Hunter left. "You girls coming," Rainbow asked as she saw the three still standing around.
"I'll... catch up with you guys in a bit," Shimmer told Rainbow Dash. Dash just gave a thumbs-up and headed back to find out some information. Sunset Blaze and Rua looked at Sunset Shimmer as the latter pondered over something. Soon, she got an idea and began to make her way toward her locker as Blaze and Rua followed her.
Back outside with Crystal Prep, Twilight was feeling unsure about even participating in the Friendship Games. She was soon snapped out of her thoughts when she heard music playing loudly next to her. Thinking it was probably Lemon Zest, she was soon proven wrong when Azalea stepped into the girl's view. "Hey, Sci-Twi! I want you to meet my friend, Vinyl Aurum," Azalea greeted and introduced her music loving friend to Twilight.
"...Hello there," Twilight waved to Vinyl with slight hesitation. Vinyl waved back and continued to enjoy her music as she danced in place to the beat. "C-can she even hear me," Twilight asked Azalea.
"She's a girl of few words who likes to listen to her headphones. She can also read lips, so she can keep track of conversations," Azalea said. "Comes in pretty useful for classes at Beacon Academy with Professor Port, who goes on these long stories about his youth between lectures, and with our history teacher, Doctor Oobleck. Given that he's always zooming around the classroom while talking fast and drinking his coffee, it's pretty interesting to see Vinyl keep track of the lectures." Twilight listened to Azalea and adjusted her glasses before the latter continued talking. "Anyways, Vinyl was the first of my friends that I met when I started at Beacon. I was actually pretty shy back then, so Vinyl decided to be my friend by sharing her music with me," Azalea told Twilight about her first meeting with the dancer.
While Azalea and Twilight continued to talk, Sunset Shimmer walked out the front doors with her journal in hand with Sunset Blaze and Rua following behind her. "What's up, Shimmer," Sunset Blaze asked as her doppelganger opened up the magic journal used to write to Princess Twilight.
Sunset Shimmer sighed as she checked the pages past where she wrote to her friend and saw that they were still blank. "I'm still not getting a reply in my journal," Shimmer told the two girls. "But, maybe I can reach the Twilight we know another way," she said as she saw the base of the Wondercolt Statue.
"You're willing to return to Equestria just to ask your friend for advice? It takes a big person to do something like that," Rua stated as Sunset Shimmer walked toward the portal.
At the same time, Twilight's amulet began to light up and hum again as it detected more of the energy signature that she was tracking. Following it, Sci-Twi stopped in front of the Wondercolt Statue and examined it in confusion while her glasses began to slip. Readjusted them, Twilight was soon surprised when her amulet popped open again. As Sunset Shimmer was in front, she spoke to Blaze and Rua before entering the portal. "If I'm not back soon, Blaze can take my place on the Wondercolts team and I'm sure that you can go back to Remnant and get somebody else for your team." Rua and Sunset Blaze nodded as Shimmer placed her hand on the portal, but something was wrong when she did. Instead of going through the portal with a ripple, Sunset Shimmer's hand was stuck to the portal as a fiery aura circled it. "Hey, let go," Shimmer exclaimed as she tried to pull her hand free. Rua and Blaze were quick to act as they immediately went to help pull there friend free.
On the other side of the portal, Twilight was shocked to see her amulet acting up like it was and beginning to contain a red stream of energy coming through the portal. As it continued, an additional purplish-red stream of energy flowed alongside the regular red one and flowed into Twilight's containment device. Azalea and Vinyl soon saw Twilight's amulet device acting up and they reacted as soon as they saw it. Helping Twilight close the amulet, the three managed to make sure the device was slammed shut. When it was closed, Twilight, Sunset Shimmer, and the four girls of Fragment Hunter all fell over backwards onto the ground. As they all began to recover from their respective dazes, Twilight's tracker began to give off an electrical discharge that nobody noticed.
When Sunset Shimmer managed to get up first, she saw Twilight on the ground as Azalea and Vinyl began to get up themselves. "What did you do," Sunset asked as she realized something happened to the Wondercolt Statue. Twilight was feeling scared and put on the spot as she stood up, but Dean Cadance called for her to check in with the rest of Crystal Prep. Taking the chance, Twilight clutched her tracker and ran away as soon as she could. Sunset Shimmer and the members of Fragment Hunter only watched as the girl left in a panic. Turning her focus to the statue, Sunset Shimmer soon made an unsettling discovery about what just happened. "Where's the portal," she asked as she kept pushing her hands against the base of the statue and kept failing to go through it. "Where's the portal?!"
"Shimmer, what's going on," Azalea asked as she placed a hand on the girl's shoulder.
"The portal's not working! Something happened and I can't go to Equestria to ask Princess Twilight for help," Shimmer said with increasing panic and concern in her voice.
"Calm down," Vinyl told Sunset Shimmer as she placed her headphones over the girl's head and began to play a song to help her relax. "Better," Vinyl asked as the song played for a bit.
"Slightly," Shimmer said as she returned the headphones to Vinyl.
"If we visited Equestria before, we would take you there with the magic we were given during the Battle of the Bands," Rua stated.
Shimmer only sighed as she and the others headed inside. "Come on. We have a welcome party to get to," she said. "It's not like things will get worse." However, when the courtyard was empty, something appeared next to the Wondercolt Statue. A small red and black rift in space with a white border that had yellow spots appeared and released something before vanishing. A black figure with bone-like spikes on its back, exposed ribs on its upper body, no lower body, and black skeletal arms with sharp fingernails came through the rift and looked around its new location. Its face was only a mask-like bone plate with red markings and had a single red and yellow eye.
It resembled a ghost of sorts and even moved around like one as it left a black smoke trail when it left where it came from. The creature sensed something it was drawn toward inside the school building and it phased through a window to get inside. When it entered the school, the creature found the metal shop and saw a collection of scrap metal around the room. Flying toward one item, the monster phased into the object and its mask-like face appeared on the scrap metal. Soon, red glyphs that resembled its face appeared on the sides and the creatures skeletal arms emerged before grabbing more metal. As the monster began to form an armored shell of sorts, it found a piece of old metal that resembled a knight's helmet and placed it on its body to act as a new head. With the helmet on, the new face had a menacing red and yellow glow in its 'eyes' that turned to the direction of what it sensed.
In the CHS gymnasium, the two schools were at a party meant to be a welcome to the competitors and spectators. While Flash Sentry, Sweetie Drops, and Lyra Heartstrings tried to be friendly to Crystal Prep, Sour Sweet smiled back before she snarled at them and crushed her drink cup in her hand before dropping it to the ground and stomping on it. Because of Sour Sweet's attitude, the three Canterlot students had bitter expressions as they glared back at her and Crystal Prep. Aurora and Nocture Celeste saw the behavior from Crystal Prep and could only give disapproving looks as they waited for Fragment Hunter to arrive.
In the hall leading to the gym, the Rainbooms were all dressed up in new outfits courteous of Rarity. While the fashionista made some last minute adjustments to Fluttershy's outfit, Fragment Hunter all joined them and everyone was informed about what happened with the portal to Equestria. "What do ya mean the portal's gone," Applejack questioned.
"I mean it's gone. It's closed. It's not there anymore," Sunset Shimmer explained with a slightly irritated tone.
"How did that happen," Rainbow Dash and Cereza asked as the large group of teenagers entered the gym for the party.
"I don't know. But, it has something to do with that Twilight," Sunset Shimmer said as she pointed out the girl from Crystal Prep. While the party was going on, Twilight Sparkle was continuing to track what she was looking for, but ended up bumping into some balloons as she was focusing too much on her amulet and was using it like a compass.
"What in tarnation is she up to," Applejack asked as she and the others saw Twilight bump into Indigo Zap and spill her drink near another Crystal Prep student. The girl just growled and snarled at Twilight for not paying attention where she was going and making her drop her cup.
"Leave this to me," Sunset Shimmer told Fragment Hunter and the Rainbooms as she went to talk with Sci-Twi. As the girl kept looking for signs of the energy she was looking for, she flinched when she heard Sunset Shimmer call for her. "Twilight, what have you been up to?" Twilight tried to act innocent, but was failing under Sunset's glare. To the surprise of not only Twilight, but also Fragment Hunter and Sunset Shimmer, Indigo Zap got in Shimmer's face and began to argue with her.
"Who wants to know," Indigo asked as she pointed at Sunset Shimmer.
"Um, we do," Rainbow Dash and Silver said as they got in Indigo's face to get her to back off of Sunset.
"All right, everyone. Let's not get too competitive before the games even start," Applejack told the three teams in order to calm them down.
"The games aren't really competitive since we've never lost," Sugarcoat bluntly stated.
"Wow. You really don't live up to your name," Cereza said as she cleaned off her glasses.
"That's not a very nice thing to say," Fluttershy said as she tried her best to not get involved in the conflict.
"Sorry, dearie, but these games aren't about being nice," Sunny Flare stated. "They're for Crystal Prep to win."
"Well, you might use a little tact," Rarity and Celadon told Sunny Flare.
Twilight was feeling nervous about the three teams confronting each other because of something she did and tried to back out of the potential fight. Soon, Pinkie stood next to the Crystal Prep Twilight and greeted her with Azalea and Slate standing off to the side. "Hi, I'm Pinkie Pie!"
"Oh, hi. I'm Twilight," Sci-Twi replied as she started to shake Pinkie's hand.
"I know. You look just like my friend. Her name is Twilight too," Pinkie said as she enthusiastically and violently shook Sci-Twi's hand. After the energetic girl stopped, Twilight's glasses started to fall off her face and her hair was shaken loose from its bun. As Twilight's hair fell down, Azalea and Slate saw that she looked just like Princess Twilight when she came to Canterlot High and quickly took pictures with their Scrolls as they snickered.
Twilight soon fixed her hair and glasses as she stared at Pinkie. "Um... right. Azalea said that too," Twilight replied as she made sure her glasses were on straight.
"What's that," Pinkie asked as she pointed at Twilight's amulet.
"It's sort of a spectrometer," Twilight began to explain. "I built it to track EM frequencies, but it can also contain anomalies," she said as Pinkie had a blissful smile on her face that didn't change a bit as Twilight spoke. Feeling that her explanation went over the girl's head, Twilight decided to give Pinkie the layman's terms. "It measures things."
"Like the party," Pinkie asked as she, Twilight, Slate, and Azalea looked around the gym. The four saw that everyone who wasn't getting in each other's faces over the Friendship Games were bored out of their minds.
"It doesn't look like much of a party to me," Slate bluntly said as he saw a few students falling asleep.
"I know. Something is definitely missing," Pinkie mentioned as she began to think of what to do. Figuring something out, she grabbed Twilight and Slate to get their help. "Come on!" As the three left in a blur, Azalea went to get some punch.
After she grabbed her drink, Azalea walked toward her friends in Fragment Hunter when she saw them. Unfortunately, she wasn't paying attention to the people around her and bumped into somebody and spilled her cup near their feet. "Oh, I'm so sorry about that," Azalea apologized.
"Oh, it's no problem," Azalea heard a familiar voice say in a sweet tone before it changed to a more harsh and sour one. "Unless you're a dumb dairy cow," Sour Sweet snarled. Just as she said the last two words, the room was deathly quiet as DJ Pon-3 stopped the music and the only sounds were some empty cups dropping to the floor. Everyone from CHS heard what was said and they all slowly stepped back in fear of what was coming next.
Sour Sweet and the rest of Crystal Prep were confused by what was happening until the other eleven members of Fragment Hunter all surrounded the girl who insulted Azalea. "WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL HER," all of them shouted as they glared at Sour Sweet.
"What does it mean to you guys," Indigo Zap said as she approached the group and tried to help her teammate. However, Silver turned around and he gave off a ferocious snarling growl like a real wolf that made Indigo back away in fear. "N-n-never mind."
"I'm not going near them right now," Sugarcoat stated as she began to walk away from Fragment Hunter for her own safety.
"What's going on here," a deep masculine voice said as they approached the group. Fragment Hunter and Sour Sweet saw that Terracotta Gaia was walking toward them, but Vixen was using her illusion Semblance to conceal his horns. Even without them, his physique was still enough to unnerve Sour Sweet and the other Shadowbolts that looked in his direction. Terracotta saw Fragment Hunter surrounding one of the Crystal Prep students and shook his head before speaking in a calm and professional manner. "We're here as guests. I shouldn't have to remind you that just like at Beacon, any physical confrontation before a contest is looked down upon and will be severely punished."
"Sir, she called your daughter 'Dairy Cow'," Slate told Terra.
Without changing the tone in his voice or showing any sign of emotion, Terracotta only said three words to Fragment Hunter. "Kick her ass."
Before anything could be done though, loud footsteps were heard approaching the gym and the doors burst open to reveal something that startled everyone. A large being made of scrap metal stomped into the gym and searched the room for something. The creature looked like a large suit of knight's armor, but most of it was made out of scrap metal. Fragment Hunter saw what it was and they were all shocked to see it in this world. "A Grimm?! What's it doing here," Lapis exclaimed telepathically.
"I don't know, but we have to do something," Sunset Blaze told the others. "Azalea. Vinyl. We didn't bring our weapons because we thought this was just going to be a friendly visit, but you two never leave without your gear. You guys handle the junk heap of an Arma Gigas while we keep everyone here safe," she instructed.
"On it," Azalea said while Vinyl just gave a thumbs-up. The two girls rushed the Grimm and pushed it out the door to get the monster outside. When the three were in a more open area, they prepared to battle. "I'll distract it. Get ready to cut or blast it," Azalea told Vinyl. Vinyl nodded as they prepared their weapons. Azalea pulled out her Multi-Action Dust Baton called 'Gladion' while Vinyl made sure that her Hard Light Projection Braces aka 'Rhythm Scratch' were functional. Azalea turned to the Arma Gigas and stared it down. "Let's go, you scrap heap," she called out to the Grimm.
The Grimm started to attack Azalea by going in for a punch, but the Faunus was quick to dodge and counterattacked by smacking the suit of rusted armor with her baton. When she did hit the monster, ice built up on it in large chunks that weighed it down. The Grimm tried to grab at Azalea again, but she smacked the monster's hand away with Gladion and froze it even further. Following up, Azalea changed the Dust setting on Gladion to Gravity and struck away at the Grimm. With the monster weighed down even further, Vinyl jumped forward with her hard light katana glowing a gold color and she slashed the monster in half. As the 'corpse' of the monster fell apart, the ghost-like Grimm flew out of the shell it previously used and tried to flee. Vinyl and Azalea only smirked at each other before the former held her hand up and fired an energy blast from her palm with her Semblance, nailing the Geist in the face as it looked back to see what the sound it heard was. With a clean hit, the Creature of Grimm died and its body dissolved in a cloud of smoke. "Well, that's that," Vinyl said.
"But why was there a Geist here in the first place," Azalea asked. Vinyl only shrugged as she was just as clueless as Azalea and probably the rest of Fragment Hunter. Azalea only sighed before Terracotta opened the door to signal to the two girls. "We should get back inside. I'm wondering what everyone's going to say about seeing that Grimm."
After everyone calmed down after seeing the monster, Crystal Prep just believed it to be a prank set up by somebody in the CHS Robotics Club. Soon, Principal Celestia stepped onto the stage and addressed the three teams participating in the events. "Hello, everyone! I'd like to take this opportunity to greet all of our visitors from Crystal Prep Academy as well as Beacon Academy and welcome them to CHS."
While Celestia spoke, Pinkie Pie had Slate and Twilight help her with improving the party. She mostly needed their help pushing some large boxes into place. "What in the world are in these," Twilight asked as she struggled to assist Pinkie move one box while Slate was handling the second by himself.
"Party cannons, of course," Pinkie said excitedly.
"Party what now," Slate asked with concern as his hat began to fall off his head.
"And lastly, I would like to recognize the twelve students that CHS has elected to compete," Principal Celestia said as she gestured to the members of the Wondercolts team. When Fragment Hunter looked around, they saw that the team consisted of the Rainbooms, Flash Sentry, Lyra, Bon Bon, Derpy, and two other boys named Micro Chips and Sandalwood. "I don't think we could have chosen a better group to represent the excellence, sportsmanship, and friendship the games stand for." While Celestia spoke, Pinkie was quick to work on improving the party by switching out the snack platters for her own personally made cupcakes, lowering a disco ball, and giving DJ Pon-3 a new CD to play for the music. As the music changed, students from both Canterlot High and Crystal Prep began to start friendly conversations with each other.
When Pinkie revealed her party cannons, Slate and Twilight backed away slightly and asked the same question. "Um, are you sure this is a good idea?"
Pinkie only said one word for her reply as she had a fiery and determined look on her face when she held the cords for her cannons. "Absolutely!" When Pinkie fired the party cannons, they gave off a fun-sounding squeak and confetti flew everywhere. As soon as she did that, everyone got into the spirit of the party and were either talking with each other or were out on the dance floor enjoying themselves. When Slate and Twilight saw the raining confetti, they were amazed at what Pinkie was able to do. Pinkie herself was excited that she managed to make everyone happy when she improved the party's mood and her body began to glow with a pink aura. Her ears changed and her hair grew longer to show that she had ponied up, which confused Slate and Twilight when they saw her floating in the air after her transformation. "Ooh, floaty," Pinkie said as she noticed her transformation.
As Twilight and Slate saw this, Twilight's amulet floated in Pinkie's direction and opened up on its own. Twilight was confused about what was happening and her amulet began to drain Pinkie of her magic. When this happened, Slate saw Pinkie lose her figuratively unlimited energy as she lowered back to the ground and transformed back to normal. "I'm feeling party pooped," Pinkie groaned. As Slate went off to find Ivy so that she could restore Pinkie's health to normal, Twilight saw a bright light from behind bleachers she stood next to. Investigating what it was, she saw some kind of dimensional rift with a purple border open and reveal a dark forest. Twilight was surprised at what she saw and stepped back before shutting her amulet. When she did, the purple rift closed itself while a second one just nearby it with the same colors as the one that brought the Geist briefly opened before closing with the purple rift. The second red and black rift released another Geist, but this one seemed to be bigger and have more bones along its body. The Geist left the gym as it phased through the floor and began to bide its time until the chance to strike.
While Twilight was wondering about what her spectrometer just did, the party was continuing and the students from CHS and CPA were happily mingling. Unfortunately, a tapping noise on a microphone caused some feedback that startled everyone to catch their attention. Stopping the music, everyone turned to see what Prinicpal Cinch had to talk about. "I'd like to thank Principal Celestia for her unconventional welcome," she began as she cleaned off her glasses. "It's been four years since the last Friendship Games, but it feels as though nothing has changed. Canterlot High continues to pick its competitors in a popularity contest and Crystal Prep continues to field its top twelve students. It is a comfort to know that even after so many years of losses, your school remains committed to its ideals, however misguided they may be," Cinch stated and offended the principals of CHS while the students separated to opposing sides of the gym. "I wish you all the best of luck, regardless of the inevitable outcome."
"Yeah, well fuck you too, you hag," Rua shouted as Cinch's speech ended. Everyone not from Remnant gasped at Rua's behavior as she spoke to Principal Cinch. "You think you're better than anyone else because of the accomplishments of others? That just says a lot about yourself. Canterlot has been improving pretty well, so you can't underestimate them. And don't forget that you're dealing with me and my friends this year, so things are going to be different," Rua said as she punched her palm and cracked her knuckles. "You better be prepared to give up that winning streak of yours because one way or another, you and these Crystal Prep pieces of crap are going to lose to somebody."
Principal Cinch only glared at Rua before fixing her glasses. "I don't believe that some undisciplined punk such as yourself will be of any threat to Crystal Prep Academy's reputation in the Friendship Games. But by all means, go ahead and do your best while the conclusion of the events will be the same as always," Cinch said as she dismissed Rua's words and walked away. With that, none of Crystal Prep took Rua seriously and they just returned to acting smug toward the others.
After Rua's speech was dismissed by Crystal Prep, she returned to Fragment Hunter as they regrouped with the Rainbooms and saw an exhausted Pinkie Pie. "I'm sorry, Pinkie. I thought the party additions were really swell," Applejack said to the girl as Slate showed up with Ivy to help Pinkie.
"They definitely broke the ice," Fluttershy told Pinkie.
"Yes. If only that Principal Cinch hadn't frozen it again," Rarity mentioned. "And even if Rua's methods were... crass, she did her best to try and put Crystal Prep in their place. Even though Cinch is still an ice queen."
"That's an insult to our friend, Weiss," Rua told Rarity. "That Cinch bitch is way worse."
"Yeah, she's awful," Pinkie said as Ivy used her Semblance to restore Pinkie's energy.
"Pinkie, what happened to you," Sunset Shimmer asked with concern as she barely saw Pinkie without her usual excessive pep.
"I don't know," Pinkie told the others. "Everyone started having fun after Twilight, Slate, and I fired the party cannons and I ponied up."
"Of course you did," both Sunset's said as they crossed their arms and rolled their eyes. However, Shimmer was a little more concerned because of another transformation that she didn't have the answer to.
"But then the magic just drained right out of me," Pinkie told everyone when Ivy finished healing her.
"Wait, what do you mean 'drained out of you'," Sunset Shimmer asked in confusion.
"Hey. Where is that other Twilight," Applejack questioned as she didn't see the Crystal Prep Twilight anywhere.
As Fragment Hunter and the Rainbooms looked around, they saw that Twilight Sparkle had vanished. "I think you'll see her eventually," Ivy stated. "For now, just get ready for the first event. You'll need to be prepared for it."
After everyone left the party in the gym, they began to go about their day or prepare for the first event of the Friendship Games. Eventually, Vice Principal Luna turned on the P.A. system and addressed everyone. "Good morning, students. I'm sure you're all thrilled to start the first day of the Friendship Games," Luna said to everyone listening. "Our competitors will face off in every aspect of the CHS curriculum, culminating in the elimination equation finale. If the teams from Canterlot High, Crystal Prep, and Beacon Academy would please come to the main foyer, we can begin the first event." Hearing Luna's announcement, all three teams made their way to the main entrance of the school and an audience soon gathered.
After everyone was gathered, Dean Cadance stepped forward to start the Friendship Games. "Welcome to the first event, the Academic Decathlon! You'll be scored on chemistry, home economics, and everything in between," she said as all three teams began to glare each other down. However, Azalea and a few other members of Fragment Hunter saw that Twilight was feeling uncomfortable about the whole rivalry between her school and Canterlot High. "But remember, only the six students from each team with the most points will move on to event number 2. Good luck," Cadance stated.
"Luck won't have anything to do with us winning," Sour Sweet said to the Wondercolts.
"In your dreams, Cranberry," Rua retorted to the moody Crystal Prep student.
"Yeah," Rainbow Dash agreed with the young Huntress before they gave each other a high-five.
"If everyone would follow us to the chemistry lab, we'll begin the first round of the Academic Decathlon," Principal Celestia told the competitors.
For the first stage of the Academic Decathlon, the contestants had to showcase their knowledge of chemistry and to the surprise of the Rainbooms, Fragment Hunter was doing extraordinarily well. "Wow. You guys are pretty good at this," Sunset Shimmer commented.
"Yeah, how are you guys are doing that well," Rainbow Dash asked.
"Well, the students of Beacon Academy aren't strangers to volatile substances," Lapis explained subtly before Sunset Blaze used her Semblance to telepathically link the Rainbooms and Fragment Hunter. "Dust is extremely volatile on its own and even worse in powdered form. Even a sneeze can set off explosions."
"Are you messing with us," Applejack asked.
"Nope," Silver stated. "One small sneeze with powdered Fire Dust in the air and BOOM, you can say goodbye to the sidewalk you were standing on."
"It's one of the main reasons Dust mining in Remnant can be a dangerous profession," Celadon told the girls. "In fact, I believe that one of our friends caused an explosion in front of the school on the first day," Celadon thought back to when Fragment Hunter all reached Beacon Academy.
"You cannot be serious," Rarity said in disbelief.
"Oh, it actually happened," Azalea stated. "An old friend of mine, Ruby Rose, knocked over some of her future teammate's luggage. When the girl, Weiss Schnee, started scolding Ruby about knocking her stuff over, she went on this tirade about Dust while shaking around a bottle of powdered Dust. Ruby ended up getting a nose full of it and there was a fiery explosion with some bits of lightning and ice that was heard all over the campus."
"Wow," Pinkie said in reply before a loud bang was heard in the chemistry lab.
Everyone turned to see that Derpy's chemical compound had exploded and covered her in ash. The blonde girl had an embarrassed smile as she turned to her team. "I just don't know what went wrong," she said before Ivy took her outside the lab to get her medical attention, just in case.
"It was actually kind of like that," Vixen remarked. "Only with more annoyed scolding from a formerly spoiled brat."
After Derpy was taken care of and cleared for the rest of the first event, the teams moved onto the next few rounds and reached home economics. Everyone was to work in pairs to create a cake or some other baked goods for the judges to sample on presentation and taste. Fragment Hunter and the Rainbooms could swear that both Principal Celestia and Aurora Celeste were waiting with hungry stares at the thought of enjoying cakes made by the competitors. Out of all of the students, Pinkie Pie was the one who was the most excited for this round. "Oh, I just loving baking," Pinkie said with a small squeal in her voice. "I help out at the local Sweet Shop with the Cakes on weekends that I'm not busy. But, I'm thinking of getting a job as a waitress at this fun retro malt shop diner in town."
"Really? That sounds neat," Silver replied as he handed Vixen ingredients to measure out and mix together.
"It is! There's a working jukebox, great food, and the waitresses get to wear cute uniforms and roller skates," Pinkie told Fragment Hunter and the other Rainbooms as she continued to mix up her cake's batter in the right way. "You guys should come and visit whenever you get the chance!"
"We'll try. First, we have to get through this," Cereza stated. "At least we aren't having any problems in the kitchen here. I swear that the one in Beacon is cursed or something with all the mishaps."
"Like what," Applejack asked as she and Rarity continued making their cake.
"Ruby making a mess when she's baking cookies, the time Weiss accidentally burned Ruby's cake and set the drapes on fire, problems with pickle jars," Slate listed off. "Oh, and let's not forget all the times with Ren and Nora. Especially Nora."
"That's right, she kept eating every single pancake Ren made just as he turned to get the syrup," Layla said as she recalled the memory. "It's a good thing that she didn't come here with us for today, otherwise nobody would be eating cake."
"Hahaha! The last few surprise parties that Ruby threw all had Nora eating the cakes before they were even cut," Vixen remembered. "I just wish that I could've used some trick candles on them."
"Hey, what was that song that Nora had in her head before," Azalea asked Sunset Blaze with a mischievous smile on her face.
"Don't even," Blaze said as she placed the cake she and Azalea prepared in the oven. "I couldn't get that song out of my head for a week when I first heard it." Azalea just smirked as she looked at the other members of Fragment Hunter before facing Blaze again. "If you start singing it in any way," Blaze warned, but it was too late.
"I think, 'Oh whoa, what am I to do?'~ I didn't know that I would fall in love with you~ And what to do right now, I haven't got a clue~ I just bite my tongue and when I want to say 'I love you' I say 'Boop'~" most of Fragment Hunter began to sing and made Sunset Blaze slam her face against the counter before giving up and singing along for the next while. Eventually, the Rainbooms all decided to sing along to the catchy song while their cakes and other dishes were baking in the ovens.
After everyone got what they needed out of their ovens, they began to start decorating their creations and the judging began. Celestia, Luna, Cadance, Aurora, and Nocturne all inspected each dish and saw the various results. After two girls from Crystal Prep offered their cake to the judges, all five were impressed by their efforts and the girls were confident that they secured victory for Crystal Prep. However, it was Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie's turn to be judged and Pinkie sliced her cake in half to reveal that she had somehow created a replica of a famous portrait in the center of the cake. The five women were all shocked to see the sight and all of Fragment Hunter had the same reaction. "Damn! That's impressive."
After the judges graded the other categories of Pinkie's cake, the two Shadowbolt girls walked off in defeat with the rest of their cake before they saw Principal Cinch. Cinch glared at her students in disapproval and the girls trembled under her stare. In their fear, one of them dropped the cake and only gave an embarrassed smile in response. Cinch only removed her glasses and pinched the bridge of her nose in annoyance before the Home Economics round ended.
"For this round, you will be working in teams of two and creating a birdhouse that we will be judging," Vice Principal Luna explained to the three teams.
"Can we make something other than a birdhouse," Silver asked.
The women judging discussed it for a brief moment before Principal Celestia spoke to Silver and the other students. "You may create something other than a birdhouse, but you will not receive the full score," Celestia said.
"Fair enough," Silver said before he exited the room. "Come on, guys. We'll need more room for our projects," he told Slate, Sunset Blaze, and Celadon. The four left the wood shop classroom and headed outside while the rest of Fragment Hunter and the other two teams continued on with the original task. After a while, almost everyone who made a birdhouse had created one had their projects judged. When Vice Principal Luna approached Sandalwood and Micro Chips, she saw that their birdhouse was weakly made and it collapsed in on itself when she tested its stability. After taking off points for their poorly-made birdhouse, Sugarcoat and Indigo Zap presented their project. When Cadance, Celestia, and Luna saw their birdhouse was much larger than the other ones, they dropped their clipboards in surprise at the project by the Crystal Prep students.
After Crystal Prep earned their score, Sandalwood comforted Micro Chips before they walked off with the remains of their birdhouse. However, Sugarcoat and Indigo rudely shoved them aside and knocked the remnants of their birdhouse to the floor. The two boys were angry at the Shadowbolts, but Applejack and Fluttershy helped calm them down. At the same time, Rua was being held back by Azalea while Layla and Lapis tried to clam her down so that she wouldn't assault the other team. After the situation was dealt with, Nocturne Celeste looked around to see that Silver and the others had not returned. "Where is Mr. Wuruhi," she asked before Celadon came back inside and gestured for everyone to follow her.
When everyone got outside, they saw Celadon waiting for them. "Ladies and gentlemen. May I present the amazing projects provided by Silver Wuruhi, Sunset Blaze, Slate Quartz, and myself," she announced dramatically before everyone saw what she wanted to show them. Jaws dropped to the floor as they saw Silver cleaning up a chainsaw he borrowed from the tool shed as he sat next to a large wooden sculpture while Slate and Blaze just finished a woodcarving mural of a field of flowers. The sculpture resembled a large wolf-like beast with black fur, red and yellow eyes, and white bone-like spikes all over its body. The creature depicted was posed like it was howling before it pounced toward its prey.
"So... how many points do I lose for not making a birdhouse," Silver asked as he finished cleaning the chainsaw.
The rest of the first event continued on and all three teams began to lose competing members after a spelling bee was done for the semi-final event. Going into the final elimination equation round, only Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle remained for Canterlot High School and Crystal Prep Academy respectively. Twilight and Sunset started to write on the chalkboards provided for them and the two girls started to solve their math problems as their schools watched in anticipation.
As the final round went on, the members of Fragment Hunter were watching both girls as they were rooting for their friends and concerned for Twilight. Soon, the final moments of the Academic Decathlon were approaching as Sunset and Twilight started to wrap up their equations. Fragment Hunter could tell that Sunset Shimmer was getting nervous while Twilight stayed calm as they both wrote down what they believed to be the answer. Cinch approached the stage and looked over both chalkboards for a few tense moments before she stated one word to Canterlot High's competitor. "Incorrect!"
Sunset Shimmer hung her head in defeat while Vice Principal Luna finished tallying the points among all three teams. "That means the winner of the Friendship Games' first event is Twilight Sparkle and Crystal Prep," Luna declared. While Twilight was happy to win the first event, the rest of Crystal Prep only sighed or gave a lackluster applause. Fragment Hunter all saw this and they glared at the prep school students for not being glad that they won the first round thanks to their longest lasting member.
Back with Sunset Shimmer, the other Rainbooms all congratulated her for a job well done. "That was awesome," Rainbow Dash exclaimed as she ran onstage and hugged Sunset Shimmer.
"Truly amazing," Rarity added as she stepped forward.
"But, we didn't win," Sunset stated as she was surprised by her friends congratulating her.
"That was as close to winning as Canterlot's ever been," Applejack explained as she placed her arm on Sunset's shoulder. Fragment Hunter all joined on the stage as well to tell Sunset Shimmer what they thought of her near-victory.
Dean Cadance soon approached the stage and some members of Fragment Hunter moved out of her way. "After a careful tally of the points, we'd like to present the students moving on to the Friendship Games' second event," she said before listing off who would participate in the next round. "For Canterlot High, we have Sunset Shimmer, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie. Crystal Prep has Twilight Sparkle, Indigo Zap, Sour Sweet, Lemon Zest, Sunny Flare, and Sugarcoat. And the students representing Beacon Academy are Sunset Blaze, Rua Amaranth, Azalea Calla Holstein, Silver Wuruhi, Vinyl Aurum, and Lapis Ondine."
The Rainbooms all cheered that they would be moving onto the next event together while the members of Fragment Hunter showed their excitement as well. At the same time, Twilight looked away from the two teams and felt a little jealous because they all appreciated each other while Twilight had nobody. Her family was too busy to come to the Friendship Games to cheer her on, the entire student body of Crystal Prep treated her like an outcast, and she started to see her current team members start to leave the stage without her. Twilight felt alone as she stepped down from the stage, but she soon saw Flash Sentry in front of her and flinched so that she wouldn't bump into him. "Congratulations! You were really great," Flash said to Twilight, but she soon noticed her amulet acting up again.
"I'm sorry. Excuse me," Twilight interrupted Flash and began to follow her tracking device. Flash was speechless at that moment and felt dejected. Soon, Derpy and the other Wondercolts members approached him and tried to cheer him up as they left the gym. Twilight continued to follow her amulet's signal and saw the Rainbooms heading for the courtyard with Fragment Hunter. "Them again," Twilight questioned as she grabbed her backpack and Spike peeked out of the bag to hear Twilight speaking to him. "Come on, Spike," Twilight whispered to her dog before she followed Fragment Hunter and the Rainbooms.
The Rainbooms and Fragment Hunter were all hanging out at the Wondercolt Statue and talking about some of the things that the latter did in Remnant. "And when Azalea was getting pushed back by Tremor, I jumped in and kicked the guy in the face to end his combo attack before I was out of the battle," Rua explained as she recalled the time that Fragment Hunter had to rescue Azalea from a gang of thieves. "They fought on even ground before he eventually maneuvered behind Azalea and overpowered her. I think he said something like 'You won't hear the full ten count' and he knocked Lea to the ground."
"Whoa! What happened next," Rainbow Dash asked as she was excited to hear the rest of Silver and Rua's side of the story.
"As Azalea was getting back up, she was determined to not lose after all that we did for her. Her Semblance kicked in and she let off a bright glow," Silver told the Rainbooms. "With Tremor blinded, she rushed him similar to how she dealt with Adagio by punching him in the arm when he tried to strike back and the pain left his face wide open. After depleting his Aura, Azalea uppercutted him into the air before ending it with a lariat."
"Awesome," Rainbow Dash practically squealed in excitement over the story.
"Well, it also explains that light Cereza, Celadon, and Layla saw. Even without being directly nearby, Azalea still assisted her friends handle that 'Rouge' woman," Rarity mentioned.
As the large group continued to talk, Twilight hid behind a pole near the school entrance to spy on them and see how they were involved with her research. "Well, I could use a snack before the next event," Applejack said as she started to head back into the school. "Any of ya'll want to come with?"
Fragment Hunter and most of the Rainbooms all agreed, but Fluttershy opted out. "I have something else to do. I'll catch up," Fluttershy told them as she headed off in the opposite direction. As Pinkie Pie and Azalea jumped off the statue, the latter dropped something and didn't notice immediately as the group was talking about a few things. Twilight turned her focus on the lone girl who walked over to the bushes in front of the school and made sure that nobody was around before she opened up her backpack. Popping out of her bag was a small gray kitty that Fluttershy started to nuzzle and Twilight poked her head through the bushes to see what was happening. Seeing Sci-Twi, Fluttershy spoke to the girl who resembled her friend. "Do you wanna give her a treat," she asked as she referred to the kitty.
Twilight thought it over as she looked at her amulet and saw it wasn't humming, beeping, or lighting up. Thinking there wasn't any harm in speaking to Fluttershy at the moment, Twilight decided to join the girl and sat down next to her. "Guess I'm not the only one to smuggle her pet into school," Twilight mentioned as she referred to her dog that Fluttershy met earlier.
"Not just one," Fluttershy giggled before unzipping her backpack to reveal that she also had a bird, a hamster, and her pet rabbit, Angel Bunny with her.
"Oh, wow," Twilight said as she saw the bird fly by her and circle around Fluttershy's location. "All I have is Spike," she told Fluttershy as she let the puppy out of her bag.
Spike was happy to get some fresh air and see Fluttershy again. "It really is uncanny," Fluttershy said as she picked the puppy up, remembering the alternate Spike that came with Princess Twilight. "Does he talk?"
"Um, not that I know of," Twilight said as she adjusted her glasses.
Soon, the two girls heard footsteps and a familiar voice approaching. "Where did I drop it? Ah, there you are," Azalea said as she picked her misplaced item up off the ground. Standing back up, she saw Fluttershy and Sci-Twi sitting around and relaxing with their pets after the first round of the Friendship Games. "Mind if I join you," Azalea asked.
"Of course," Fluttershy told the girl and gestured to a place to sit down. When Azalea did, the cat immediately climbed onto her lap and started purring.
"I'm feeling like the odd one out here," Azalea said as she pet the kitty on her lap. "My pets are back home on the farm."
"What do you have," Fluttershy asked as she leaned in toward Azalea.
"A collie to help with animals, a corgi named Drei, and then there's my dad's hunting dog, Dante," Azalea said. "There's also a few cats to help with any rodent problems, but they aren't as friendly as Dante and Drei are. Kind of like Crystal Prep was earlier."
"Congratulations on winning, by the way," Fluttershy said to Twilight as she rubbed Spike's belly and the bird landed on her finger. "But, Azalea's right. It didn't seem like anyone on your team was very excited about your victory."
"No one at my school gets excited about anything they didn't do themselves," Twilight told the girls.
"That sounds awful," Fluttershy said as she and Azalea were told about the truth of Crystal Prep. Azalea grit her teeth in annoyance at Crystal Prep's behavior when it came to accomplishments. The two girls also saw Twilight looking depressed about how her school treats her and Fluttershy wondered how she could help cheer up Twilight. Seeing Angel at her feet, Fluttershy picked up her rabbit and held him out to Twilight. "Here. Hold this." Twilight nervously took the bunny from Fluttershy and questioned why she should. "Holding a bunny always makes me feel better," Fluttershy told Twilight.
"Well, that's ridiculous," Twilight dismissed before Angel started to nuzzle up to Twilight. "But... Ooh. It actually kind of works," Twilight as she began to nuzzle Angel Bunny back and hold him warmly. Twilight turned back to Fluttershy and Azalea to see the two girls smiling at her. "I'm on the other team and you just lost. Why are you being so nice to me," she asked them.
"You looked like you needed it," Fluttershy stated like it was the simplest answer in the world. Soon, her body began to glow in a yellow aura and she began to transform. Her ears changed shape and position, she grew yellow feathered wings, and her long pink hair grew longer to resembled a tail. As Fluttershy floated in front of Twilight and Azalea, the two were amazed at the transformation before Twilight's amulet acted on its own. Floating in Fluttershy's direction, it opened up and began to absorb her magic.
Just as the amulet opened, it sparked and several purple rifts opened around the girls. Just out of sight near the Wondercolt Statue, three different rifts opened up. The first two were the same red, black, white, and yellow rift that brought the Geists, but you could see locations through them. The first one showed an abandoned city in ruins while the second revealed a body of water with floating islands high above it. The third rift was much different however as it was silver in color with a rainbow-colored border. Back with the girls and Spike, they looked around at the purple rifts wondering what they were. Spike looked at a rift that appeared in front of him and saw a rabbit of sorts with antlers like a deer jump out. Growling at the animal, Spike began to chase it on instinct when it ran back into the rift. "Spike," Twilight called out to her dog as she, Azalea, and Fluttershy watched the dog jumping in and out of the multiple rifts that appeared around them. Eventually, a new rift opened up in front of the stream of Fluttershy's magic and Spike ended up falling into it. "Spike," Twilight cried out in fear and worry when she heard him yowling in pain.
Fluttershy managed to catch Spike in her arms while Twilight's amulet continued to drain her magic from her. Twilight managed to close her amulet while Azalea made sure that Fluttershy was safely on the ground. When the pendant was shut, the purple rifts closed as well. Fluttershy shuddered as she transformed back to normal and gave Spike back to Twilight, but she then heard something. "What's that sound," she asked as the girls all turned to see two sinister creatures near the Wondercolt Statue. The first resembled Silver's sculpture from the first round, but with black smoke emanating from its body and its glowing eyes left a red trail of light when it moved its head. The second monster looked like a large boar with black fur, four red eyes, white bone plates all over its body, and large tusks. The boar snorted at the three girls as it scraped the ground with its foot while the wolf-like beast growled menacingly. "A-are those..."
"Grimm," Azalea stated as she stood up. "You two stay back. I can handle this," she told Fluttershy and Twilight as she pulled out her weapon and extended it. The werewolf monster started its attack by leaping toward Azalea and going in for a slash of its claws. Azalea countered by swinging her baton and releasing a gust of wind that sent the Grimm flying into the street. The second boar-like Grimm rolled up into a ball and spun in place before charging at Azalea. The rookie Huntress managed to stop the monster's attack by grabbing at its tusks and pushing the beast back before kicking it aside. Making sure she held onto its tusks, the Grimm's natural weapons were ripped off its body when it was kicked away and it landed on its unarmored back. Azalea took the chance to kill the monster by jumping at it and impaling the boar with its own tusks.
Twilight and Fluttershy gulped at the monster's death and stared as its body disappeared. The werewolf soon raced back at Azalea, who only changed the setting of her weapon to create a blade of ice over her baton. When the beast reached Azalea, she dodged out of the way and cut off the monster's arm. As the Grimm roared in pain, Azalea ended the battle by stabbing its neck and decapitating the beast in one swing as the ice shattered off her baton. As the Grimm's corpse turned into black smoke, Fluttershy and Twilight were amazed by what Azalea did. "I- Just... What were those things," Twilight asked as she processed everything.
"Creatures of Grimm. Specifically, a Beowolf and a Boarbatusk," Azalea stated. "Beowolves are one of the most common Grimm and Boarbatusks can be trouble for some fighters, but I've had training to handle them. At least it was just these two and not something like a Death Stalker or... a..." Azalea said before she heard a buzzing sound. Turning around, she and the others saw a giant wasp-like creature with red eyes, red wings, and an armored body crawling on the Wondercolt Statue. Azalea's eyes widened in fear as she stepped back to Twilight, Spike, and Fluttershy. The Grimm insect began to fly and fired its stinger on an organic tether at the girls like a harpoon. Azalea shoved the others to safety as she dodged the attack, but she ran instead instead of fighting back.
"What is that thing," Twilight asked in fear as the girls were now back up against the wall of the school.
"Lancer... Why a Lancer," Azalea said in a shaky voice as the Grimm flew higher. Sensing fear from all three girls, the giant bug began to dive at them. Azalea could only scream as the wasp came flying at the girls, but they all saw something that they couldn't believe. Before the Lancer could strike them, it bounced off of a green barrier that shielded the three. The Lancer, Azalea, Fluttershy, and Twilight all heard a growling sound and turned to see what it was. A large Wolfhound-Great Dane mixed breed with a reddish coat, brown eyes, and a green collar with a tag that showed an emblem that resembled a dog's head on a shield was growling viciously at the big bug.
The Grimm turned to the angry canine and fired its stinger at the animal, but the dog jumped out of the way before it leapt at the Lancer. The wasp flew out of the way before flying back at the beast, only for the dog's eyes to flash green and a green bubble formed around him. Smacking into the barrier, the Lancer was soon pushed back as the dog expanded it and charged at the Grimm. The monster wasp soon chose to fire its stinger harpoon again, but the hound jumped onto the statue to dodge and kicked off of it to leap at the flying Grimm insect. With his eyes flashing green again, a green barrier formed on the dog's muzzle that resembled a beak or a drill. Firing its stinger at the dog's face, the Lancer saw that the attack was useless when it bounced off the dog's 'weapon' and cut up its wings. Seeing the two beasts falling to the ground, Azalea, Twilight, and Fluttershy witnessed the dog bite down on the Grimm's neck and shake it around violently while growling. With the Lancer weakened, the hound bit down harder and decapitated the monstrous wasp with a sickening crunch. When the Lancer's head and body fell, they both dissolved upon death and the dog only stared at the three girls.
Seeing the dog, Azalea slowly stepped forward and the dog approached her. "Wait, Azalea," Twilight tried to warn the girl, but the dog jumped at the three and landed on the Huntress. However, Twilight wasn't expecting the dog to do what it was doing now after witnessing it kill a demonic wasp.
"That's Dante," Fluttershy asked as the dog approached her and proceeded to lick her cheek. Fluttershy giggled at the affectionate hunting dog before remembering the other dog with them. "Oh, how's Spike," Fluttershy asked Twilight.
After all the chaos that happened with the monsters appearing, Twilight almost forgot about the puppy she held in her arms. "Spike, are you okay," she asked the dog as he began to wake up from his daze.
"Um, I think so," Spike said. Twilight and the others were happy that Spike was okay, but they all realized something after a brief moment of peace. Spike spoke to Twilight. The girl and her dog both screamed in shock at what they heard while Azalea could only stare in surprise while Dante let Fluttershy lean against him. Twilight ran off on her own as she just heard her pet speaking to her. "Twilight, wait," Spike called out as he chased after her.
"Okay, this just got even weirder," Azalea mentioned. "I'm going to check on them. You stay with Dante and try to recover," she said to Fluttershy. Fluttershy waved weakly as Azalea went to check on Twilight, but she smiled as she scratched Dante behind his ears.
Running into the school, Twilight went through the foyer as Spike was following her. At the same time, Azalea chased after the girl and her dog. "Twilight, come on! Wait for me," Spike called out, but Twilight just covered her ears because she couldn't believe anything that was happening. She soon reached a dead end in a hallway and saw Spike in her view when she turned around. She kept her distance from him and tried to circle around the puppy as he spoke. "Why did you run away like that," Spike asked.
"Um, oh, I don't know," Twilight said as she believed that she was losing her mind. "Maybe it has something to do with the glowing girl, or the hole in space. How about the black monsters? Or my talking dog," she listed off just as Azalea caught up with Twilight and Spike.
"Yeah. Weird, right," Spike said as he scratched himself with his hind leg.
Seeing that Spike was perfectly normal aside from his new ability to talk, Twilight calmed down and examined her dog closer. "Are you okay? How do you feel? What happened? Where did you go," Twilight asked as she scratched Spike's chin and held his face.
Spike licked Twilight's face to get her to back away. "Hey, one question at a time. This is pretty new to me, too," Spike reminded. After Twilight apologized, Spike spoke up again. "All I know is I chased that pointy rabbit through the glowy thing and then I was somewhere else. Next thing I knew, I was back in that nice girl's arms and I could talk," he explained and Twilight thought of what he said. "I don't really understand why I couldn't before. I mean, it's so easy."
Soon, Twilight, Azalea, and Spike all heard Principal Cinch call out for Twilight. Twilight began to panic and thought of how to hide her dog, but Azalea was quicker to act. Grabbing a hold of Spike, Azalea used her Semblance to make Spike and herself invisible. While Twilight was surprised by that, Cinch walked toward her. "Twilight, who were you talking to," she asked.
"Um, myself. It's a nervous habit," Twilight lied as played with her hair. "Were you looking for me?"
"Indeed I was," Cinch stated. "Quite a coincidence that the CHS students moving on to the next event are the same nice girls who were so interested in you, don't you think?"
"I'm not sure," Twilight said as she rubbed her arm nervously.
"Perhaps you should get to know them after all," Cinch told Twilight as she paced in front of her.
This surprised Twilight because of Cinch's earlier comments about not getting involved with the Canterlot students. "But I thought you didn't want me to."
"Let's just say I'm covering my bases," Cinch explained. "Who knows? Perhaps they will reveal to you the secret to Canterlot High's newfound success."
Twilight heard Cinch's implied task and felt uncomfortable about spying on the Rainbooms. Investigating them for her research was one thing, but doing it just to help Crystal Prep win a sporting event was a different story. "I dunno. Spying feels kind of... wrong."
"Well, it's your decision, Twilight," Cinch said as she walked away. "It's not as if your application hangs in the balance. On second thought, yes, it does," she reminded Twilight.
As soon as Cinch left, Azalea and Spike came out of hiding. "Man, she's awful," Spike said as he voiced his opinion about Principal Cinch. "What are you going to do," he asked Twilight.
"I don't know, Spike. I don't know," Twilight sighed before Azalea placed her hand on Twilight's shoulder.
"You have questions that you want answers to. I can help with some of them," Azalea said before pulling out her Scroll and calling somebody. "Guys, we need to talk to Twilight about everything. Meet us in the gym and bring the Rainbooms."
In the Canterlot High School gymnasium, Terracotta, Ivy, Aurora, Nocturne, and Fragment Hunter all gathered with the Rainbooms (minus Fluttershy) after Azalea called her team. "What happened earlier? I felt Azalea's fear, but it soon went away," Sunset Blaze questioned.
"Who knows, but she said that we were going tell Twilight about everything," Layla mentioned. "Does that include about Equestria and all the magic?"
"One way to find out," Rebecca said as she pointed to the doors. Soon, Azalea walked forward with Twilight and Spike following behind her. After they met up with the others, Rebecca spoke again. "Do you want to tell us what occurred after you went to find what you dropped," she asked Azalea.
Azalea nodded before she replied. "More Grimm showed up." Fragment Hunter was concerned before Azalea explained more. "Three types this time. A Beowolf, a Boarbatusk, and... a Lancer," she said with a gulp before saying the last Grimm's name.
Fragment Hunter and Azalea's parents were surprised to not only hear about the Grimm that came into this world, but also the last type of Grimm. "A Lancer?! That explains what I sensed," Sunset Blaze said as Layla, Ivy, and Slate all hugged Azalea. "How did you even get rid of it?"
"What's a Lancer," Rarity asked in concern as she saw the reactions of the others when Azalea explained.
"Big wasp Grimm about the same size as a regular human," Slate told the others. "They tend to swarm in groups near the floating islands of Lake Matsu in Anima and attack airships."
"If it was just one of them, then why was Lea so scared," Rainbow Dash asked.
"You try getting nearly stung to death by regular insects called 'Rapier Wasps' when you're four and not develop a fear of stinging bugs," Azalea stated. The Rainbooms all shuddered at the name of the insect and completely understood why a giant Grimm insect would freak Azalea out.
"But, how did you beat it," Silver asked.
"I didn't," Azalea said before placing her fingers in her mouth and whistled loudly. Soon, the doors burst open to reveal Fluttershy and a large shadow was soon seen covering Silver. He could only look up and process what was jumping at him before he had an expression that said 'Not again'. Everyone flinched as they saw a large dog land on Silver's back and force him to the ground. "Dante somehow showed up and fought the Lancer," Azalea said as she scratched her dog's back.
"And it seems that he's excited to see us as well," Silver said while muffled under the canine.
Twilight was confused as everyone talked about what Azalea told them. "Who are all of you," she asked the people in front of her.
Terracotta stepped forward and Twilight looked up at the man. "Vixen. Drop the illusions," Terra said to the Fox Faunus. With a snap of her fingers, her tail returned and Terracotta's horns appeared on his head. While Twilight saw the sudden appearance of the animal traits on Terracotta and Vixen, Silver revealed his own tail from under his jacket while Azalea and Ivy removed their bandannas to reveal their own smaller horns. "We are not from this world, Twilight Sparkle," Terra stated as he stepped back. "We come from a world that is similar to this one called 'Remnant'. Beings that exist in Remnant include humans, Faunus, and Grimm. If you wish to learn about anything involving Remnant, ask now and we will answer to the best of our abilities."
Twilight processed what she saw and what Terracotta said, but so many questions came rushing from her thoughts. "What's Remnant? What were those Grimm things? What are Faunus exactly? Why could that dog create barriers? How did Azalea fight those monsters?"
"Twilight, calm down. I'm sure that they need to answer things one at a time," Spike told Twilight and everyone was shocked to hear the smaller dog speaking.
"Oh, yeah. Spike can talk because of something that happened with Twilight's amulet," Azalea mentioned casually.
"I'm sure that we all have questions for each other," Sunset Shimmer stated.
"We'll start with what Remnant is like itself," Aurora said as Vixen used her Semblance to provide visual references for Twilight. "The world of Remnant has four Kingdoms that each have their own distinct cultures and religions. The Kingdoms of Vale and Vacuo are located on opposite ends of the largest continent, Sanus. Anima, the second largest continent of Remnant is the home of the Kingdom of Mistral. The Kingdom of Atlas is found at Remnant's northern-most continent, Solitas. The four used to be at war with Vacuo and Vale against Mistral and Atlas back when it was originally called 'Mantle'. Each Kingdom isn't perfect, but it's still home to whoever lives there."
"There are also villages and other settlements that can appear as quickly as they are lost because of bandits and Grimm, but we'll get to them later," Nocturne added. "For now, we should focus on what you would like to inquire us about," she said to Twilight.
Twilight was awestruck by what she was seeing as a large display of a map showed four spots highlighting certain points. A green symbol in the center, a blue one to the right, a white emblem on the top of the map, and an orange mark to the left of the center area. With so many questions, Twilight decided to focus on the most important one that was in her thoughts. "Those monsters... Grimm? What are they?"
Vixen used her illusions to create a false Beowolf in the center of the gymnasium while Terracotta began to explain the Creatures of Grimm to Twilight. "As long as humanity has walked Remnant, they remember the destructive and ravenous Creatures of Grimm. They are dark and soulless abominations that are said to have been created by a God of Darkness in an attempt to upstage his older brother, the God of Light. At least, that's only the story and religion of the Deity Brothers," Terra explained. "However, we do know that Grimm take on multiple types of forms. From Beowolves and Lancers, to more sinister and enormous forms like dragons and elephant-like Goliaths. No matter what they look like, Grimm are attracted to negative emotions and will destroy anything."
"When killed, the bodies of dead Grimm will evaporate. That makes it hard for scientists to study them," Lapis mentioned. "Anyways, younger Grimm start out reckless and just rush into battle. This makes them easy to read and are perfect for beginning Huntsmen who are training to fight them. But when they get older, they get smarter, grow armor, and develop a sense of self-preservation. That just makes them harder to fight, but we can handle them."
"Huntsmen," Twilight asked as she adjusted her glasses.
"Huntsmen and Huntresses are the best warriors in Remnant that are ranked higher than police and even the military in terms of strength and skill," Terracotta said. "The occupation was formed after the Great War in hopes of helping to train elite fighters to battle against Grimm and protect civilians. Each Kingdom has a special school to train Huntsmen with Shade Academy in Vacuo, Atlas Academy in Atlas, Haven Academy in Mistral, and Beacon Academy in Vale where we all came from."
"Huntsmen and Huntresses have access to a manifestation of their souls called 'Aura' that allows them to last through intense battles by blocking attacks and healing wounds," Sunset Blaze continued. "With enough training or certain situations, a Huntsman's Aura can unlock into a unique ability called a 'Semblance'. Even animals have Aura and can be trained to use a Semblance like Dante's force fields," Blaze stated as she gestured to the dog being pet by Fluttershy. "However, Aura defenses have their limits and using a Semblance can use up your Aura as well."
"Everyone of us has a unique Semblance," Rua explained as she teleported around the gym with her own Semblance. "I can teleport, Azalea can turn invisible, our Sunset can read minds and a bunch of other cool stuff, Slate can manipulate luck, Lapis has a sonic scream, you're seeing Vixen's illusions, and we have friends that can move at super speed and increase their strength."
"Wow," Twilight said as she heard everything the others told her. "What about... 'Faunus', was it?"
"You see, Faunus are like humans except that they have a single animal trait such as monkey tails, cat ears, bull horns, or even a few different ones like lizard scales, fins on their arms and legs, or even wings," Ivy explained. "Biologically speaking, humans and Faunus are compatible together, meaning that children from Faunus relationships have some unique instances. If two Bovine Faunus such as me and my husband were to have children, they would be like us," Ivy said as she slunk next to Terracotta and place her hand on his chest while looking at Azalea. "If a human and a Faunus were to give birth, there's a chance that the baby might have traits similar to the Faunus parent. But two different Faunus types starting a family means that its all up to chance. A child born from Wolf Faunus and a Dove Faunus could have either be one of their parents are even some other type like a Chameleon Faunus."
"That's very confusing in terms of genetics," Twilight commented.
"So would naturally purple hair," Rua mentioned. "But we have several examples of that right in this room."
"Anyway, the main thing about the Faunus species in Remnant is that humanity doesn't really get along with them much," Terracotta said as he crossed his arms. "If you were walking through a dark forest and encountered somebody that looked like a regular person with fangs or claws, I'm pretty sure you would be as scared of anybody else. Faunus were and still are discriminated in Remnant, just not to the same extent as in the past. While Grimm attacks on villages that Faunus helped humans with and efforts during the Great War helped mankind see that the Faunus weren't all bad, people who were still wary continued to treat them like second-class citizens."
"Eventually, a civil rights group called the White Fang was formed and they tried to bring a new age of peace among Faunus and humanity," Silver explained to Twilight. "Not only that, but after the Faunus were given a new place to call home in Menagerie, they decided to turn the small areas that they could live into safe havens for any Faunus to live a peaceful life."
"This is all amazing," Twilight said as she listened to the lessons about Remnant she was told. "But, why are you all here then? How did you get here," she asked.
"To explain that, we need to talk about these girls," Azalea said as she pointed to the Rainbooms. "Most of them are from here, but Sunset Shimmer comes from another world separate from Remnant."
"What do you mean," Twilight asked as Sunset Shimmer stepped forward.
"You see, I'm not originally human," Shimmer explained. "I come from a realm called 'Equestria' that's inhabited by magical ponies."
Twilight just stared at Sunset like she was crazy and raised an eyebrow in suspicion. "Really?"
"Trust us. She's not lying," Celadon stated. "One, our Sunset's abilities allowed her to see her memories and confirm it. Two, we cannot make this up. And we come from a world where there are giant ravens that can shoot their feathers like darts at you."
Twilight decided to let Sunset Shimmer continue explaining despite her skepticism about it. "There are four different types of ponies that inhabit the main territories of Equestria. Earth Ponies that have magic that gives them increased strength and a connection to the land, Pegasus Ponies that can fly and manipulate the weather by moving clouds around physically, Unicorns that can use their magic in a variety of ways by casting spells from their horns, and Alicorns have traits of all three of the other ponies along with their own unique magic," Sunset Shimmer explained.
"If we were to go to Equestria, what kind of pony would we become," Lapis asked. "I bet that I would be a Unicorn."
"Same here," Celadon, Vinyl, Layla, and Cereza commented.
"I'd probably be a Unicorn or Pegasus," Sunset Blaze thought aloud.
"How would it affect Faunus," Rebecca asked as she looked at the the Holstein Family, Silver, and Vixen. The Faunus all just shrugged their shoulders in confusion as they couldn't answer.
Sunset Shimmer cleared her throat to get everyone's attention. "I was a Unicorn back in Equestria who studied under one of the Princesses as her personal student. During my lessons, I was getting impatient that I wasn't getting what I wanted and soon ran away through a magic mirror that acted as a portal to this world," Sunset explained. "After getting used to this world, I soon returned to Equestria to bring a powerful magic artifact here and ended up bringing magic to this world. However, it didn't work the way I wanted and everything went out of control. After another Princess from Equestria came here to retrieve the artifact, the six of us gained magic from Equestria that lets us transform."
"A while after that, the portal that brought the Princess here ended up doing the same for us and we had to help the Rainbooms deal with a magical threat that was banished to this world," Sunset Blaze explained. "When we helped battle them, we ended up getting enough magic from the fight to transport ourselves to and from this world. We came here for a visit when we heard about the Friendship Games and wanted to compete. However, the magic that lets the Rainbooms transform is acting up in ways that we don't understand yet."
"All I did was let Twilight hold Angel and then I ponied up," Fluttershy told her friends.
"This doesn't make sense," Sunset Shimmer said as she heard about Fluttershy's transformation. "Rarity's magic came out when she made us outfits. Pinkie's when she fixed the party and now Fluttershy," Shimmer listed as she was continuing to get stressed out over the answers she couldn't find.
"And then Twilight's pendant thingy just pulled the magic right out of me. I could barely stand up when those Grimm appeared," Fluttershy explained. "Good thing that Azalea and Dante were able to help."
"I felt weaker after I ponied up at the party," Pinkie Pie said as she recalled earlier.
"So did I just before we met with Twilight in the band room," Rarity mentioned as everyone turned to Twilight and her amulet.
"So, you're stealing magic," Sunset Shimmer asked Twilight as she looked at the pendant.
"I don't think so," Azalea said. "It kind of acted on its own when Fluttershy's magic was being drained. Sci-Twi didn't even touch it before it opened up."
"I have no clue why it's doing these things," Twilight said to everyone.
"This is just getting confusing," Silver stated as he scratched the back of his head. "Maybe if we take a break from it and come back later? Always helps with Oobleck's history class homework."
"Good idea," Terracotta voiced. "Besides, the next event is in a few minutes and you'll all need to get ready."
"What is it anyway," Rainbow Dash asked as she looked at Terracotta.
"I'm not going to give it away that easily," Terra said as Vixen used her illusions her to hide her tail and Terracotta's horns while the other Faunus hid their traits under their clothes. "I will tell you one thing though," Terracotta said as he opened the doors to the gym. "You'll be in here for it. So don't go. Come on, Dante," Terra said and the dog obeyed, following his master out of the gym.
Fragment Hunter, the Rainbooms, and Sci-Twi all waited in the gymnasium until they heard an announcement for the second event and students from Crystal Prep and Canterlot High soon gathered in the room. The members of Fragment Hunter who weren't competing moved off to the stands with the other students and just waited for the contest to be explained. Celestia, Luna, Cadance, and Cinch all entered the gym to see everybody waiting for the game to start. Cinch saw Twilight walking away from the Canterlot Wondercolts and the students from Beacon Academy, believing that her student was doing what she tasked her with. After the three teams with on different sides of the gym, Principal Celestia stepped forward with a microphone. "Hello, everyone. With the Academic Decathlon over, Crystal Prep has claimed the first victory of the Friendship Games," Celestia greeted everyone and reminded the teams of the score. Cinch and a majority of the Crystal Prep students all had smug smiles at the mention of their victory. "However, we have another team this year and a few instructors from their school accompanying them. I would like to allow one of them to introduce themselves and elaborate on the rules of our second event," the principal explained. "It's my pleasure to introduce Terracotta Gaia from Beacon Academy."
As soon as Principal Celestia finished her last sentence, Terracotta kicked open the doors to the gym and startled everyone but Fragment Hunter, Aurora, Nocturne, and Ivy. As he stepped inside the gym, Terra was pulling a cart that was concealed with a tarp. Walking up to Celestia, Terra was handed the microphone and he soon spoke to everyone. "Thank you, Principal Celestia. For the second event, we'll be playing a game that I'm sure all of you have done before. However, this one will have a few twists to make it more challenging for everyone. The second event for the Friendship Games will be Dodgeball," Terracotta told everyone as he removed the tarp to reveal the cart was filled with red rubber balls. Most of the students cheered at the game that was going to be played, but Rua was the most vocal out of everybody.
"Yeah! Dodgeball," Indigo Zap exclaimed as she rushed to grab a ball. "Can't wait to win this game," she said as she tossed a ball up and down in her hands. But Terracotta grabbed it away from her and one stoic look from him immediately told her to return back to her team. Taking the hint, Indigo walked back over to Twilight and the other Shadowbolts so that Terra could explain the rules.
"Now then, this version of Dodgeball is going to be different than the usual one you're all used to. Here are the rules of Beacon Dodgeball," Terra said before he started listing off instructions. "First, only shots to the chest and back will count as hits. Meaning that you can defend yourself with your arms, legs, and even head in any way you want. Second, you have a point system that works by slowly taking away points if you're hit. In other terms, you aren't knocked out when hit and catching a ball will not eliminate you from play. You'll have 100 points each, but depending on the way you were hit by the ball, you'll lose a certain amount. When you lose enough out of 100 points, you're out and have to support your team by returning balls to their side. Third, each member of their team has to throw or pass the ball at least once. Fourth and finally, after the time limit has passed and there are still members from at least two teams remaining, a tiebreaker round will be held. Any questions?"
"None here," Rainbow Dash said as she had a giant grin on her face, excited for the game to start.
"We're good," Fragment Hunter all stated simultaneously.
"It doesn't matter as we'll be victorious in this round as well," Sugarcoat said in her usual blunt tone.
"Very well. Let the game begin," Terracotta declared as he started tossing balls toward each team until the cart was empty. The Rainbooms and the Shadowbolts were caught off-guard by Terra starting the game immediately, but Fragment Hunter was used to training with Terracotta and went to collect some of the dodgeballs on their side. Working fast, Silver and Rua were the first to strike as they threw two balls at the Shadowbolts, managing to nail Indigo Zap and Sour Sweet in the shoulder and stomach respectively. The impact from the rubber balls pushed the two away and nearly knocked them to the floor before they recovered.
Except for Twilight, the Shadowbolts each grabbed a ball and threw them at Silver and Rua. The two just dodged out of the way and the five balls went flying toward Vinyl, Sunset Blaze, Azalea, and Lapis. Vinyl nimbly dodged the incoming projectiles by using movements similar to Capoeira and breakdancing, Lapis caught a ball that nearly hit her in the face, but Azalea and Blaze easily punched the balls out of their path to defend themselves. When the latter two did that, the balls were sent flying back in the direction of the Shadowbolts and they were forced to dodge. As they did that, Vinyl continued her dance-like movements and kicked a ball around to juggle it before kicking right at Lemon Zest. The music-loving Shadowbolt tried to dodge, but she got hit in the hip at the last second. "Is something like that even allowed," Twilight asked in curiosity.
"I never said that you only throw it with your hands," Terracotta said before the Rainbooms decided to get in on the action. Acting quick, Rainbow Dash used her soccer skills to kick a dodgeball toward Sunny Flare, who used the dodgeball she currently held as a shield to defend herself. However, the force knocked the ball out of her hands and she was left open to Lapis throwing a ball at her chest. Lemon Zest and Sugarcoat began to throw dodgeballs at the Rainbooms, but Pinkie was able to dodge them completely and even made a little dance out of it as she hummed a peppy tune. Fluttershy was left open as she gulped nervously when she saw Sour Sweet aiming a ball at her. When the Shadowbolt threw the ball, she wasn't expecting Applejack to catch it with one hand or Rainbow Dash to bicycle kick it back toward her when Applejack tossed it up in the air. Sour Sweet got hit in the ribs as Rainbow Dash returned the ball back to her and she could only snarl at the Rainbooms before she got hit in with another ball from Azalea.
Rarity saw a ball at her feet and quickly grabbed it before tossing it over to Sunset Shimmer, who threw it into the air above Fragment Hunter's side just as quickly. Lapis and Silver were ready to catch the ball, but Applejack managed to throw a ball that nailed Silver in his unarmored shoulder. As he stumbled back, he ended up getting hit in the chest with the ball Sunset Shimmer used as a distraction. "Nice one, girls," Silver complimented before grabbing the dodgeballs he was hit with and jumping into the air while spinning around to build momentum. Throwing them at Rarity and Applejack, Silver smirked as he made a three-point landing and watched the projectiles fly. Applejack managed to catch the ball aimed at her with ease while Rarity managed to dodge the attack on her with only her hair getting messed up. As Rarity tried to fix up her hair, she was hit by Sugarcoat and Sunny Flare, who only had smug smiles on their faces. Their expressions were soon replaced when Rua jumped off Azalea's back and threw a ball that bounced off both of them before it returned to Fragment Hunter's side of the gym.
Twilight kept trying to dodge any balls that went flying in her direction and eventually she saw Sunset Blaze hold a ball in her hands aimed right at herself. Blaze just smiled and placed the ball on the ground before nudging it in Sci-Twi's direction. "Go on. You still need to throw one," the Huntress said as she left herself open for Twilight try and hit her. Twilight was unsure why the team that was dominating the dodgeball game was giving her a chance, but decided to make sure she didn't get a penalty. Grabbing the ball and throwing it at Sunset Blaze, Twilight was able to get a hit in before Blaze caught the ball in her arms after it bounced off her shoulder. "Now you threw it. Try and last as long as you can. I'm sure that teams will start getting eliminated soon," Blaze said before throwing the ball back at Sci-Twi and hitting her in the hip.
Sure enough, Terracotta, Aurora, and Nocturne were all keeping track of the ways the students threw and got hit. They were about to start making judgement calls on defeated players when they saw Silver throwing a few dodgeballs at Rainbow Dash, scoring hits on her stomach and shoulder. Witnessing Sour Sweet getting hit in the chest and gut by Rua, Lapis, and Sunset Blaze, they announced the first player down. "Sour Sweet is eliminated," Terracotta declared.
"What," the Shadowbolt shouted as she turned to the judges. "I didn't even get hit that many times!"
"We judge eliminations based on how the others throw the ball," Nocturne said. To prove her point, Vinyl went with another one of her dance moves that lead to her kicking the ball and hitting Pinkie Pie in the back. "Now go support your team or you'll just end up being a target for everyone," Nocturne told the girl just before a dodgeball hit her in the back of the head and knocked her over.
"I'm not apologizing for that, Cranberry," Rua yelled as she dodged a ball thrown by Applejack, but got hit by Rainbow Dash and Sunset Shimmer. Soon, Vinyl did a handstand and started to spin around with her legs out to the sides. Seeing what she was doing, Fragment Hunter started to throw balls at her direction so that Vinyl could kick them at the other players with more force. The Rainbooms and Shadowbolts saw this, but they could barely react when dodgeballs went flying at each of them and hit all of them in the torso or in their backs.
"Fluttershy and Rarity; Out," Terracotta said to the Rainbooms before turning toward the Shadowbolts. "Sugarcoat and Lemon Zest; Eliminated." The four girls left the field as the rest kept playing. Indigo Zap and Sunny Flare tried to throw a few dodgeballs at Fragment Hunter, but Azalea and Rua punched them away toward the remaining Rainbooms. As the balls landed at their feet, Applejack and Rainbow Dash decided to kick them at both teams like soccer balls and strike at the players. It worked like they wanted to as they hit someone on each side. "Sunny Flare is defeated," Terracotta stated before turned to Fragment Hunter. "Lapis Ondine. You're out."
Lapis just shrugged and turned to her friends before heading over to the other members of Fragment Hunter. "We're doing great, guys! Keep moving forward," she said.
"We will," Azalea said as she picked up a ball and aimed for the Shadowbolts. "Sorry about this, Sci-Twi," she told the girl before chucking the ball hard in Twilight's direction. Twilight dodged the ball when she saw it coming at her, but it soon bounced off the wall behind her and hit her in the back.
"Twilight Sparkle, you're out," Aurora announced as she saw the shot. Twilight slowly walked away from the game and watched the rest of the second round isolated from the others. Crystal Prep only had Indigo Zap remaining on the field while the Rainbooms had Sunset Shimmer, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash. With only 10 players left, Fragment Hunter decided to kick it up a notch and grabbed every ball they could. With 10 dodgeballs aimed at her, Indigo Zap gulped before she was pummeled by a barrage of rubber and fell to the floor. "Indigo Zap is defeated and Crystal Prep has lost the second round," Aurora declared as Ivy helped Indigo to her feet.
"How's that humble pie," Rua asked Crystal Prep as she tossed a ball between her hands. "My guess is that it has a lingering rubber aftertaste," she taunted before spinning the dodgeball on her finger.
"Come on," Rainbow Dash said to Rua. "We're still up and it's four to five! Let's do this," she reminded before throwing a ball at Rua. Rua countered by throwing the ball she had and the two projectiles bounced off of each other. When they landed back on their respective sides, Rainbow kicked her ball at Silver and nailed him in the gut while Rua passed hers to Azalea. Azalea threw her ball at Applejack and forced her down even when she caught the ball. With Applejack down, Pinkie and Sunset Shimmer went to protect their friend while Fragment Hunter opened fire with more dodgeballs. After Applejack stood back up, she and Rainbow Dash joined in the counterattack.
Dodgeballs kept flying back and forth for the next few minutes until everyone heard a voice shout, "Time's up!" Dropping what they had, Fragment Hunter and the Rainbooms waited to hear who won the second round. "After checking the scores of each player, the winners of the second event of the Friendship Games are Beacon Academy," Principal Celestia said as she looked at the sheets from Terra, Aurora, and Nocturne. Fragment Hunter and all of Canterlot High cheered when they heard the news and each team congratulated the other for a good game. Crystal Prep just fumed at their loss to a new and unknown opponent before Principal Celestia spoke up again. "We'll be taking a short break for our competitors to rest up from this dodgeball game and to finish some last minute details to the third event's playing field."
The Rainbooms were walking through the halls with Fragment Hunter as they enjoyed their pause between games. "That was awesome, you guys," Rainbow Dash said to Fragment Hunter as she kept gushing over the second event earlier.
"We were taking it easy on you," Silver mentioned. "We could have easily broken you like a window with some extra force behind a regular throw."
"I doubt that," Rainbow dismissed.
"Even a food fight at Beacon can destroy the entire cafeteria," Azalea told the Rainbooms. "And that was with both Team RWBY and Team JNPR going at each other in a friendly duel. Those two teams are so crazy powerful that everyone started running away when they saw who started the food fight."
"Whoa. That's got to be rough," Applejack said when she heard that.
"Not to mention messy," Rarity added. "I wouldn't want to have my wardrobe ruined during something like that."
Everyone soon saw that Sunset Shimmer looked like she was worried about something. "Still worried about if Sci-Twi is still stealing magic," Celadon asked.
"Yeah," Sunset Shimmer admitted. "She had something to do with closing the portal earlier. If her pendant can pull in magic, maybe it stole the portal, too."
"How," Fluttershy asked as she soon saw Dante walk up to the two groups of friends.
"Maybe she stole the magic from the portal by accident," Vinyl surmised.
"I don't know. And the pony or person or princess who could help me figure this out is completely unreachable now," Shimmer said as she couldn't think of a reason for the portal shutting down and she couldn't reach Princess Twilight.
"Which is too bad, because Twilight knows everything about magic and portals and magical portals and portable magics," Pinkie mentioned as she popped around her friends, out of a locker, and even an air vent before opening the door that lead outside to the field and fell when she lost her balance.
"For now, let's just focus on beating the Shadowbolts," Rainbow Dash reminded everyone as she helped Pinkie to her feet. "And as long as this event puts me in a playing field, I don't think we've got anything to worry about," she said before Applejack and Fragment Hunter saw the field for the third event.
"Oh, it puts you on a playing field, alright," Applejack and Azalea mentioned as they pointed toward what used to be the soccer field of the school. Pinkie gasped loudly as she and the other Rainbooms saw that the soccer field had been converted into an obstacle course with archery targets, a makeshift roller rink that looped around that, and a motocross track with dirt mounds and wooden ramps that surrounded the rink.
As everyone was shocked and surprised at the field, Sunset Shimmer was the first to speak up. "Am I the only one who thinks this is overkill?"
"In Remnant, we have a giant flying arena called Amity Coliseum that can change its battlefields to a ruined urban environment, a forest, a swamp, volcanic landscape, an ice-covered tundra, a mountain with a lightning storm, a desert with an artificial sun, an ocean area with a pirate ship, a grassland, a field of active geysers, and a series of platforms that invert gravity," Sunset Blaze told the Rainbooms.
"This is not overkill for us," Slate said as he and Applejack approached a dirt mound and the latter kicked it with her boot.
Rarity soon decided to take a look for herself and walked between Slate and Applejack. "I don't suppose you made motocross outfits, Rarity," AJ said to her fashionista friend.
"Oh, don't be ridiculous," Rarity said before she became giddy like she did earlier. "Of course I did," she declared pulling out two motocross uniforms.
"Now that just leaves the rest of us figuring out what to do for which thing," Lapis said as she inspected the area. "Something tells me that this might not be like the dodgeball game we had."
After the Rainbooms and Fragment Hunter saw that the soccer field was converted into a motocross track, a roller rink, and an obstacle course with archery targets, the two teams began to choose who was going to compete in which part of the event. At the same time, Twilight and the Crystal Prep Shadowbolts were getting information about the event from Principal Cinch. "For this event, you will be racing in pairs against the other teams. Indigo Zap and Sugarcoat will handle the motocross segment," she told the Shadowbolts. Indigo Zap cheered as Cinch moved onto the other students. "Lemon Zest and Sunny Flare have requested the short track," she said as she passed the two girls and they high-fived each other. "Since archery is a standard requirement at our school, any of you should be able to do it," Cinch told Sour Sweet and Twilight. However, Twilight was feeling nervous as she mostly focused her school work on academics and barely managed to get by in physical education. "Twilight and Sour Sweet will start us off," Cinch stated to the Shadowbolts.
"Well, that's just marvelous," Sour Sweet said nicely before she changed to a harsh tone. "If you wanna lose before we even start!"
"Given that Twilight won the first event single-handedly, I have every confidence that she will be able to pull her weight here. Won't you," Cinch said to Twilight. Twilight only gave a nervous nod in reply before Cinch went to join the other judges in the announcer's booth.
While Cinch sat down next to Dean Cadance, Celestia and Luna were talking to each other as Terracotta was calmly waiting for the event to begin with Aurora and Nocturne on either side of him. The crowd was pumped for the next event as Crystal Prep and Fragment Hunter were both one game away from victory, but Canterlot High was close to victory twice already and the students of CHS believed that the third time was the charm for a win. Cadance soon stood up and adjusted the microphone next to her as she prepared to announce the event. "Welcome, everyone to the Friendship Games Tri-Cross Relay," Cadance announced and everyone in the stands cheered. "In this event, our qualifying competitors will face off in archery, speed skating, and finally, motocross."
As Cadance stated what each leg of the race was, each pair of competitors was ready to begin. Joining the Shadowbolts on each section of the race, Fluttershy and Applejack were participating in archery for the Wondercolts with Azalea and Rua representing Beacon Academy. For the skating portion, Rarity and Pinkie Pie were accompanied by Vinyl and Lapis while the Shadowbolts started to stretch. And for the last motocross segment, Sunset Shimmer and Rainbow Dash were revving their engines with Sunset Blaze and Silver ready to race for Fragment Hunter. "If the competitors are ready," Cadance said as Terracotta handed her an air horn. "Get set, GO," Cadance said as she used the air horn to signal the start of the relay. But since Cadance was so close to Cinch, the older woman had to cover her ears when the air horn blared.
At the sound of the horn, Sour Sweet, Fluttershy, and Rua all ran forward as Twilight, Azalea, and Applejack all stayed behind. "Each competitor must hit a bullseye on the moving targets before their teammates can start the next leg of the relay," Cadance told the audience as Sour Sweet and Rua jumped over hay bales that were used as hurdles for the obstacle course. Fluttershy opted to climb over the bales, but that slowed her down a little. When Sour Sweet and Rua reached the next obstacle, they saw quivers with arrows while the bows were on the other platform. Sour managed to swing across the rope and grab her bow as she tumbled onto the platform. At the same time, Fluttershy was climbing up the platform for the rope swing and Rua was judging the distance of the gap. Grabbing three arrows, Sour launched them all and each hit the target she was aiming for with one of the shots landing a bullseye. Applejack and Twilight were shocked to see the shot preformed, but Azalea rolled her eyes at what she saw. Soon, Applejack and Azalea looked at Twilight and signaled that it was time for her to continue the relay.
Smiling smugly about getting a head start, Sour Sweet's attention was caught when Rua called out to her. "Big deal, Cranberry! You shot three arrows. Any archer at my school can do that," Rua shouted as she jumped over the mud pit without grabbing onto the rope and landed safely on the second platform. "You managed to get a clean shot through sheer luck. Not always the best idea with what I deal with. It works for Slate, but even his luck can run out on him and it will for you, too," she said as she grabbed her bow and lined up a shot. Taking her time, Rua managed to hit a bullseye after a few tries that let Azalea begin her run. "Plus, this is a relay. Which means you have to work with your teammates."
As Azalea and Twilight began their turns on the obstacle course, Fluttershy was attempting to shoot an arrow and failed the first time as it was too weak in power. As Azalea vaulted over her makeshift hurdle, Sci-Twi ended up tripping over it when she jumped and landed on her face. "Ouch. Are you okay, Sci-Twi," Azalea asked as she turned to check up on the girl. As Azalea helped Twilight up, Sour Sweet was angry at the latter failing at the obstacle course like she was. She then realized that with Twilight's mistake, Canterlot High was going to catch up and she turned to see Fluttershy was still struggling with her bow. Luckily for Sour Sweet, Fluttershy's next arrow missed the target and Twilight was getting back in the race. When Sci-Twi tried to swing across the mud pit with the rope, she started to fall from the rope and barely caught onto the platform with her foot. Sour Sweet was so angry at Twilight's poor athletic skill that she looked like she was about to tear her face off. Rua could only laugh at Sour Sweet's expressions while Fluttershy managed to land a bullseye to let Applejack start the race and Azalea managed to clear the jump like Rua did before helping Twilight onto the podium. "Come on, Twilight," Azalea said with a friendly smile as Applejack easily cleared the obstacle course.
As Azalea, Applejack, and Twilight each grabbed their bows, they began to line up their shots. Applejack managed to hit the outer ring of her target while Azalea and Twilight missed their targets. Fluttershy and Rua were supportive of their friends, but Sour Sweet just growled at Twilight not being able to hit the target. Concentrating, Applejack and Azalea lined up their shots and each took a breath to calm themselves down. Releasing their arrows, both of them managed to hit their targets dead center and cleared the archery round. When the bullseyes were scored, Rarity, Pinkie, Vinyl, and Lapis all got the signal to begin their leg of the relay. The four girls took off from the starting line and left the Shadowbolts behind. "And Canterlot is off to an early lead with Beacon right behind them," Dean Cadance announced as the four skaters made it past the first turn.
Back at the archery platforms, Twilight kept firing shots only to keep missing the target. Her bad aim was making her even more nervous about what would happen if Crystal Prep lost. With her application on the line, she was afraid that she would never get into Everton and her legs started trembling. Launching another arrow, Twilight failed to hit her target as it moved away. Sour Sweet was getting even more impatient with Twilight and she saw the skating teams pass by. "Well, that's just fantastic," Sour Sweet angrily stated, unnerving Twilight even more.
"I'm sure glad that I don't go to Crystal Prep," Fluttershy said to the others as she saw Sour Sweet's behavior.
"You said it," Rua and Applejack agreed as Pinkie, Rarity, Lapis, and Vinyl all skated past the Shadowbolts and cleared two laps.
"If CPA can't hit another bullseye soon, they'll be out of this race," Cadance warned from the announcer's booth. Twilight was beginning to buckle from the pressure and when she reached for another arrow, it slipped away from her and she dropped it. Picking it back up, Twilight was starting to tear up as the stress was getting to her. She was getting too anxious and her hands began to tremble as she aimed.
"You're really bad at this," Sugarcoat called out from the motocross starting line. Indigo Zap was bored as she waited for Twilight to hit the target, but the other racers glared at Sugarcoat. Applejack, Azalea, and Rua were doing the same from the archery stage.
"How about you shut it before I throw you off this platform," Silver warned Sugarcoat with a growl in his voice.
"Ugh! I can't take anymore," Applejack exclaimed as she handed her bow to Fluttershy and walked toward Twilight.
"Same here, AJ," Azalea said as she and Rua joined her.
"Ya have to stop aiming at the target," Applejack said to Twilight as she, Azalea, and Rua joined Twilight on the Crystal Prep platform.
"Oh, that makes perfect sense! Don't aim at the target! Thanks so much," Sour Sweet said with so much falsely sweet sarcasm in her voice that it made Rua gag.
"It's a moving target, Twilight. It has a set path," Azalea advised.
"Exactly," Applejack said. "Ya have to stop aiming where the target is and aim where the target's going to be," she explained as she instructed Twilight.
"Yeah! Definitely take advice from the people you're competing against," Sour Sweet sarcastically said before harshly screaming the last three words.
Ticked off at the girl's attitude, Azalea grabbed at Sour Sweet by her shirt. "Listen here, you annoying little brat! The more you keep berating your teammate, the faster you'll lose this event! Your yelling isn't helping Twilight at all! She's already stressed from this and your team is just making it worse," Azalea ranted. "If you had any ounce of real kindness in you, you'd know when to actually help others and forget about a stupid competition!" As Azalea shouted at Sour Sweet, the latter was scared as Azalea was holding the Shadowbolt above her head with one hand, right above the mud pit.
"Do you want to hit a bullseye or not," Applejack asked Twilight. The latter wiped her eyes again and shyly nodded to answer Applejack. "Then trust me. Take a deep breath," Applejack said and Twilight did as instructed. Waiting for the target to reach a certain point, Applejack continued guiding Twilight as Azalea lowered Sour Sweet back down to the platform. "And let the arrow go... riiiiight.... now," Applejack told Twilight. At the word, Twilight let her arrow fly and time seemed to slow down as everyone watched Twilight fire her shot. Fragment Hunter, the students of Canterlot High, Crystal Prep, and even Principal Cinch moved forward to get a better view of what was happening. As the target approached, Twilight's arrow managed to hit dead center and she secured a bullseye for Sunny Flare and Lemon Zest to catch up with the other skaters.
The crowd cheered as Twilight managed to get past the archery round and Spike soon approached the platform. "Yeah! That's my girl," he said, not bothering about Sour Sweet nearby hearing him. In fact, she actually was freaking out about the puppy that could talk and ran off the platform thinking that her frustration with Twilight from earlier and Azalea holding her above the mud pit were causing her to hallucinate. Twilight hugged Spike as Sour Sweet backed away, but Applejack and Azalea saw the girl's panicked reaction and rolled their eyes while Rua just laughed more.
Twilight looked at Applejack and Azalea and the three smiled at each other. As Twilight stepped toward Applejack, the latter held out her hand for a high-five. However, Twilight was so grateful for Applejack's advice that she hugged the girl. Applejack smiled and started to hug Twilight back as she spoke to her, "See? I was tellin' ya the truth." When Applejack admitted that she was being honest about her instructions to Twilight, her body glowed with an orange aura as her ears and hair changed to show she was transforming. Twilight, Azalea, and Rua were all surprised by it, but the moment was ruined when Twilight noticed her pendant floating toward Applejack and opened up on its own. As Applejack's magic was getting drained out of her, she could only struggle as Twilight tried to pull her amulet back. "Eh... what... are... you... doing," Applejack asked as she slowly transformed back to normal.
"I don't know," Twilight said as she kept trying to reach her amulet. When Applejack's magic was drained enough to exhaust her, Twilight managed to shut her amulet before she fell off the platform. When she landed on her back, the device fell onto the skate track and released a shockwave of sorts when it opened up. As Fluttershy checked on Applejack, Twilight looked where the amulet landed with Rua and Azalea helping her up. The three soon saw the purple rifts slowly open up to reveal strange plants making their way through before they noticed the black, red, white, and yellow portals forming around the track. All three had looks of worry and fear on their faces as they saw the rifts opening up.
Soon, Rarity, Pinkie, Lapis, and Vinyl were getting serious as Lemon Zest and Sunny Flare began catching up to them. "Canterlot and Beacon only have two laps to go! But it looks like Crystal Prep is making up for lost time," Cadance announced as each team now made five laps around the track. As the six girls made it past where Twilight dropped the amulet, Lemon Zest accidentally knocked the device onto the other side of the track. As Twilight tried to reach for her amulet, a giant vine from one of the purple rifts stayed out of sight of the audience and blocked Twilight's path. With the plant slithering menacingly toward Twilight like a snake, it attacked her and she had to dodge.
As the Shadowbolts were confident with their regained lead, Vinyl sped ahead of Lapis, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie to catch up. "Come on, Pinkie," Rarity said to her friend. "I have an idea." Sticking her leg out for Pinkie to grab onto, Rarity whipped Pinkie forward like they were in a roller derby and the girl sped along the track. Lemon Zest and Sunny Flare were surprised to see Pinkie speed past them before Vinyl matched Pinkie's speed and all three teams crossed the finish line. As Canterlot scored eight laps first, Rainbow Dash and Sunset Shimmer were allowed to start the motocross race before Beacon Academy and Crystal Prep almost immediately followed.
As the motocross race started, Rua, Lapis, Vinyl, and Azalea soon saw that something was exiting the red portals. Stepping out of the portals were monsters that they knew all too well; the Creatures of Grimm. Beowolves, a few Boarbatusks, and even two other ones that they didn't see from earlier. The first type was a lizard-like Grimm that stood on two legs and resembled a dinosaur of sorts, but had inverted knees like some birds. The second was a large black-furred bear with bone-like spikes over its body that towered over the other Grimm. The monster bear stood up and roared loudly to catch the attention of everyone. Seeing that the Grimm have made themselves seen, Sunset Blaze decided that competing in the games was no longer an option. After making the next jump, Blaze turned around so that she could throw her bike at a group of the lizard-like Grimm that Fragment Hunter knew as 'Creeps'. With the bike thrown at the monsters, the impact from the crash killed about four of them as Blaze landed. "Fragment Hunter, battle stations! We've got threats to deal with," Blaze shouted as she stared down a large plant that emerged from a purple rift.
"Fragment Hunter, battle stations," Sunset Blaze called out after she threw her bike from the motocross race at a small group of Creeps. "We've got threats to deal with," she said as she stared down a large plant coming out of a purple rift that appeared next to her.
"What about our cover? If we fight, they'll know about us," Lapis asked through Blaze's Semblance.
"We only joined because we were trying to figure out what Twilight was up to," Blaze explained. "And with the Grimm here, I think that doing our job is more important than taking part in something we could've easily dealt with."
"I guess you're right," Silver stated as he stopped his bike and got ready to battle against any Grimm that attacked. At the same time, Rainbow Dash and Sunset Shimmer were still racing against Indigo Zap and Sugarcoat. They managed to speed past the Grimm that appeared along the track, but the plants that appeared through the rifts caused by Twilight's amulet were another story entirely. They began to emerge from the purple rifts and reveal mouths like flytraps. The racers were all shocked at the giant plants attacking and several of them had to swerve by the vines so that they could stay in the race. The spectators could only watch in shock as everything was happening around them.
Sunset Shimmer was soon gaining on Sugarcoat, but the two of them saw some Beowolves and one of the vines coming right at them. As Sugarcoat's bike was snatched by the vine, she held on while Sunset Shimmer fell off her bike. As that happened, Silver rushed in and started to battle the Beowolves when he revealed hidden blades in his boots and kicked away at the Grimm. Striking at them in areas that would have had vital organs, Silver was able to stop the Grimm near him from going after. At the same time, Indigo Zap saw the vine that held Sugarcoat's bike in its mouth and used it as a ramp in order to pass Rainbow Dash. When Rainbow saw Indigo pass her, she looked back to see that Sunset was dazed from her crash, Sugarcoat was captured by a monstrous vine, and Silver was too busy fighting off Grimm to help either of them. Determined to save her friend, Rainbow Dash turned her bike around and rushed to rescue Sunset Shimmer.
Throughout the race, Fragment Hunter was busy defending everyone from the Grimm and even some of the vines. Sunset Blaze activated her Aura and used it to activate the Fire Dust in the sleeves and back of her leather jacket. With her favorite article of clothing lighting up with an orange and red glow, Blaze began to launch fireballs at the plants that got too close to her or the audience. Some of the Grimm began to approach some of the Canterlot High students who ran off from the stands, such as Trixie and the Crusaders. Seeing them in trouble, Cereza and Azalea went to fend off the Grimm and get the girls to safety.
A small group of Beowolves managed to corner the Crusaders and the three girls began to shake in fear until Azalea came by with her weapon at the ready. "Leave them alone," she shouted at the Grimm before attacking them. Using her baton's Lightning Dust setting, she was able to smack the werewolf creatures around and stun them before kicking them to the ground. Changing the setting of her weapon, Azalea let out a primal scream as she slammed the baton to the ground and spires of rock impaled each of the Beowolves. When the Grimm began to dissolve, Azalea turned back to see the three girls looking at Azalea with wide eyes until a boy that Azalea recognized as Applejack's brother arrived. "Get them to safety," Azalea told Big Mac, who only nodded before carrying all three girls toward the school.
With Trixie, she was running away from the track before she tripped and the bear-like Grimm that Huntsmen knew as an Ursa stared her down. It roared loudly to scare the illusionist before it clawed at the ground like a bull that was about to charge. "The Great and Powerful Trixie doesn't want to get eaten by a demon bear," Trixie exclaimed as a call for help. The Ursa only roared again before it charged at Trixie, but it soon got thrown backward as Cereza showed herself.
"The 'Great and Powerful Cereza' believes that you should calm down," Cereza said to Trixie as she mocked Trixie's speaking habits. The Grimm roared before it tried to slash at Cerzea with its claws, only for the girl to dodge. "So close," Cereza taunted the Grimm as she activated her Semblance, Time Mirage. Slowing down time around herself for just a few moments, Cereza began to attack the Ursa and pummel it down with her bare fists as she channeled her Aura through her attacks. When the Time Mirage ended, the Ursa was thrown into the middle of the track and soon exploded. The blast sent the spikes that covered its body all around to impale Grimm and the vines nearby. Trixie could only stare in awe with her jaw dropped at what she witnessed before Cereza approached her again. "Cover your mouth, dear. You'll catch flies," Cereza teased before she brought Trixie inside the school and went off to help the others.
Back on the motocross track, Sunset Shimmer looked up at the vine that was eating Sugarcoat's bike. As the plant devoured the bike, Sugarcoat fell off and Silver saw her about to hit the ground. Rushing toward the girl, Silver jumped up and caught her before they landed safely on the ground. As Sugarcoat and Silver were safe, the former was looking mildly traumatized by what happened. "I suppose that I should thank you for saving me," Sugarcoat said as she caught her breath. "Even if I don't know what's going on." As the two were recovering, Rainbow Dash zoomed past them and headed right toward Sunset Shimmer when a vine monster was about to attack her.
Rainbow Dash held out her hand and saved Sunset Shimmer just in the nick of time when the plant creature tried to eat her. The monster only slammed its jaws into the dirt as Shimmer got on the back of Rainbow's bike. "Dash, you saved me," Sunset thanked her friend.
"Well, I wasn't about to let my friend become plant food," Rainbow said as her body began to glow with a blue aura. Stopping the bike, she removed her helmet to let her pony ears form and her blue feathered wings emerged soon after. In the announcer's booth, Cinch saw Rainbow Dash's transformation and Celestia only shrugged in response to feign innocence. "We can still win this," Rainbow Dash told Sunset as she gave her the bike. "I'll help the others hold off the plants and those Grimm. You go beat Crystal Prep!" Sunset nodded in reply and returned to the race while Rainbow Dash and Silver went to help the rest of Fragment Hunter.
The announcers booth could only comment about what was going on to each other. "What's going on? What are those things," Cadance asked as she saw Fragment Hunter fighting Grimm and vines.
"Whatever they are, we need to stop the race," Celestia said. Just as she was about to grab the microphone, a Beowolf leaped up toward the booth and knocked the stand over. The wolf-like creature snarled at the teachers and jumped at them, only for a large hand to reach forward and grab the monster by its throat.
Terracotta held the Beowolf away from the others and began to strangle the unholy beast with one hand. The monster could only flail about and try to claw at Terra's hand before he tightened his grip even further. With a loud crunching noise from the Grimm, the monster's body stopped moving and its arms became limp. The creature's corpse began to evaporate in Terracotta's hand while the principals and Dean Cadance just stared in shock at what happened. "We keep the students safe. Start taking them inside," Terracotta told the other women.
The regular teachers were still surprised as they just saw a man kill a monster literally single-handedly. "...Yeah, okay," Cadance managed to said as she still stared at Terracotta and processed what happened.
On the skate track, Twilight was trying to reach for her amulet so that she could turn it off and stop the rifts. However, a plant managed to grab at her ankle and began to pull her away from it. Rua heard Twilight's cry for help and teleported in front of the plant's 'face'. Kicking it aside, the plant only roared before it grabbed at Rua with a free tendril and captured her. Rua teleported free and continued to fight the plant with her martial arts skills as Twilight tried to free herself from the vine around her legs. When another vine was sneaking up on her, Spike began to protect his friend and bit down on the plant while Vixen used her illusion Semblance to distract any Grimm that approached Twilight.
Indigo Zap continued through the course, but a vine monster she approached managed to leave a crater just below the ramp she was heading down. Falling into the hole, Indigo was defenseless as the vine and a Boarbatusk approached her. When they saw her in trouble, Rainbow Dash flew by the plant to distract it while Silver used his Semblance to transform into a wolf and fought the Grimm like a wild animal. As Sunset Shimmer got back in the race, she sped past Indigo and Silver. Indigo was determined to win, so she continued to ride her bike and successfully got out of the hole she was in. As Sunset and Indigo sped down the track, they dodged Grimm and the members of Fragment Hunter that were fighting them. Sunset noticed that no matter how many Grimm that her friends from Remnant fought, more just showed up from the red and black rifts to replace them.
As the race continued, Rainbow Dash tackled a plant that was sneaking up on the girls racing and drove it into the dirt. As she stood on top of her defeat enemy with a victorious smile, she soon saw that Fragment Hunter was starting to become overwhelmed by the sheer number of Grimm that kept appearing. Sunset Blaze used her Semblance so that the Rainbooms and Fragment Hunter could communicate. "There's too many! We don't have all our gear," Layla exclaimed as she kept forcing Grimm back with her Dust jewelry and Telekinesis Semblance. "We're not going to make it!"
"We need backup," Silver said as he transformed back to his regular Wolf Faunus form. The Boarbatusk he fought was dissolving as he exited the hole he left the Grimm in. Soon, a silver rift with a rainbow border opened up above the field and a loud noise was heard that surprised everyone.
"Was that a sonic boom," Rainbow Dash asked as she floated above Silver.
"It's backup," Azalea told everyone with a smile on her face when she saw something coming out of the new portal. After the sound was heard, a gust of wind kicked up on the field and Grimm began to drop dead when a blur past by them. When enough Grimm were defeated, Fragment Hunter and Rainbow Dash saw what the blur was as it slowed down and floated to the ground. A man with with windswept spiky blonde hair wearing a pair of goggles landed in front of them. He wore a black t-shirt, a bomber jacket with armored shoulders, cargo pants, and black and silver fingerless gloves. He didn't wear any boots or shoes, which revealed that he actually had falcon talons instead of regular feet. On his legs, he wore a set of greaves that looked like they could fire something.
He soon removed his goggles to show his sky blue eyes and get a better look at his surroundings. Seeing where he was and who was in front of him, he turned to Azalea. "Azalea, where am I and what am I doing here? I just finished a mission," the man with falcon talons asked.
"No time to talk, Uncle Ven," Azalea said. "Grimm are here and we need help." The man only nodded and placed his goggles back over his eyes before he started to fly in the air and attacked any Grimm he saw. Pulling out a combat knife designed like a falcon, he cut down the monsters he got close to. He also managed to slash away at them with his talons every time he kicked at the Creatures of Grimm. With blinding speed, the man managed to kill off the Grimm that began to emerge from the rifts while Fragment Hunter continued to handle the ones that were still on the field.
The race kept going on as Fragment Hunter and their backup dealt with the Grimm. Indigo Zap and Sunset Shimmer were neck and neck as they approached the finish line, but Sunset managed to get ahead and crossed the finish line first. "Canterlot wins," Cadance announced as she managed to recover from Terracotta strangling the Beowolf. The Canterlot High students that stuck around for the race cheered for their victory against Crystal Prep while Cinch and CPA were upset at their second loss of the Friendship Games. "Everybody head into the gymnasium immediately," Cadance told the audience.
As Fragment Hunter kept a path safe for the students, Twilight finally managed to reach her amulet and slammed it shut. When it closed, every rift that opened up did the same. Every vine was severed and any Grimm that started to come out of the rifts were cut to pieces when the rifts closed on them. As the rifts disappeared, Twilight was concerned about everything because she was unintentionally stealing magic and creating these dimensional portals as a result. When Fragment Hunter made sure that the other students were safely inside and that the last of the Grimm they could find were killed, they met back up with the Rainbooms. "Is everybody all right," Applejack asked as Sunset Shimmer pulled up next to them.
"Exhausted, but we'll manage," Rua replied as she teleported next to Rarity.
"Better than all right," Rainbow Dash said as she landed between Applejack and Rua. "We won!"
"That's one way of looking at it," Celadon remarked.
"Yeah, we won, but somebody could've been seriously hurt or even killed," Sunset Shimmer stated as she removed her helmet. "The magic is going haywire, those Grimm keep showing up, and I have no idea how to fix anything," she exclaimed with increasing anger and frustration.
"This started when Twilight's pendant acted on its own," Azalea mentioned as she and the man with talons approached the group. "By the way, this is my uncle, Ventus Gaia. He's my dad's brother," she said introducing the man to the Rainbooms.
"Hey," Ventus greeted. "Azalea tried to tell me as much as she could about this whole thing."
"Um, excuse me," Twilight said as she approached everyone. "I didn't mean for any of this to happen. I just wanted to learn about the strange energy coming from your school. I didn't know that it was magic or... how it works," she apologized to the Rainbooms and explained why she had the amulet in the first place.
"That's okay," Rainbow Dash said as she walked up to Sci-Twi. "Neither do we."
"Dash, no," Rua and Azalea called out, but Twilight's amulet acted up again when Rainbow got too close. Floating toward the girl, the device opened up and began to drain Rainbow Dash of her magic.
"Oh, no! Oh, no no no! Not again," Twilight panicked as she tried to pull back on her amulet. Rainbow Dash felt her magic being forcibly taken from her and she transformed back to normal. Sunset Shimmer checked up on Rainbow when she saw her look fatigued from the magic drain. "I'm sorry! It just started absorbing energy on its own! But I'm not sure how," Twilight tried to explain.
"What do you mean you don't know how," Sunset questioned as she angrily confronted Twilight for hurting Rainbow Dash. As Twilight tried to close her amulet, it forced itself to stay open and it opened two more rifts. The first was a large purple rift that revealed a starry night sky above them while the second opened up a red and black rift right next to the group. The second rift soon cleared up enough so that everyone could see through it. Looking into the rift, everyone saw more Grimm that resembled centipedes.
"Ugh! What are those things," Rarity exclaimed as she cringed at the sight of the new Grimm.
"Night Crawlers," Celadon answered. "Nasty and poisonous insect Grimm that we had a trouble with when we first learned about them," she explained with a shudder.
"Cover your ears, everyone," Lapis said as she stepped in front of the rift. Inhaling deeply, Lapis used her Semblance to unleash a sonic scream that was so loud and powerful, it decimated the Grimm before they could exit the rift. When the Grimm were killed, the red and black rift closed on its own while everyone recovered from Lapis' scream. At the same time, Principal Cinch began to spy on the large group that Twilight was speaking with.
"My tracker also causes these corresponding rifts to appear! I don't know how that works either," Twilight said as she returned to the topic at hand.
"Is there anything you do know?! Like how to get our magic back?! Or how to fix the portal to Equestria," Sunset Shimmer angrily questioned.
"N-no," Twilight meekly answered as Sunset Shimmer wasn't calming down.
"You're supposed to be so smart, but did you ever think that you shouldn't be messing around with things you don't understand," Shimmer told Twilight as she closed the amulet and the purple rift above the group closed with it.
"But I want to understand," Twilight said.
"But you don't," Shimmer exploded with anger. "And worst of all, you put the lives of my friends in danger!"
Twilight was driven to tears at Sunset's outburst and she started to slowly back away. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to," Twilight said as her voice cracked. She soon turned and ran away from Sunset Shimmer with Azalea and Spike calling out for her as she sobbed. As the dog chased after his master and Shimmer seethed in anger, she soon realized who she was talking to and what she just did. Feeling guilty for making a lonely and curious girl run away crying, she just buried her face in her hands.
Out of sight from the Rainbooms, Fragment Hunter, and Ventus Gaia, Principal Cinch saw and heard everything. Smiling to herself, she realized that she could gain an advantage over Canterlot High in the final round. However, she was brought out of her sinister thoughts when the Principal Celestia and Ivy caught her attention. "You can't possibly call that a fair race," Cinch said as she referred to the chaos from earlier.
"Principal Cinch, we all saw what happened. You can't think CHS or Beacon Academy had some kind of advantage," Celestia stated.
"Can't I? Even without your trained attack plants and beasts, your students have wings," Cinch countered as she mentioned Rainbow Dash's transformation.
"Trained attack plants? Trained beasts," Ivy said with an annoyed and angry tone. "They came out of rifts in space and time! Same with those monsters! They were attacking everything! I think you're just being a sore loser because of the last two events," she said as she confronted Cinch and got in her face. Terracotta soon pulled his wife away from Principal Cinch so that Celestia could speak again.
"Well, the race certainly had some... extenuating circumstances," Principal Celestia mentioned. "Perhaps we should end the games now and declare a tie," she pondered aloud. "We don't want to risk anything else like this happening during the final event."
"A tie? Was this your strategy all along? To force us into accepting you as equals? I think not," Cinch said as she refused to stop the Friendship Games. "The games will continue and Crystal Prep will prevail despite your antics and whatever performance-enhancing regimen your students are on," she stated as she walked away from the other adults.
Ivy could only growl in anger as she glared at Cinch with enough fury to catch the attention of any stray Grimm. "How can you stand to work with her," Ivy asked Cadance.
"Sheer willpower," Cadance said with a deadpan tone. "And spending nights with Shining Armor," she added with a longing sigh before she and Vice Principal Luna went to check on the students.
"Obviously, winning all these years undefeated has built up an illusion in her head," Terracotta said as Fragment Hunter, Ventus, and the Rainbooms approached himself, Ivy, and Principal Celestia. "It will come crashing down today. I can tell," he added before he saw Ventus with the group that arrived. "Hey, little brother. When did you get here?"
"Long story," Ventus said as he cleaned off his goggles.
"I'm sorry that I couldn't stop all this from happening," Sunset Shimmer apologized to Principal Celestia.
"It's not your fault, Sunset," Celestia told the girl.
"Isn't it? I should know how to control the magic I brought here. But I don't. I let everyone down," Sunset stated. "And now Principal Cinch thinks we're cheating."
"It doesn't matter what that bitch thinks," Ivy and Rua said.
"But it does. The students here at CHS don't just wanna win. They wanna beat Crystal Prep. It isn't gonna count if the other side doesn't really think they lost. Crystal Prep is never gonna believe we won fair and square if there's magic around. And that magic is only around... because of me," Sunset Shimmer sadly explained.
"Those prep school pieces of Grimm bait can kiss my knuckles if they think you're cheating," Rua exclaimed. "If they believe that, then they're probably going to cheat back. And when that happens, I'll be ready for them," she said as she grinned. "We have one event left. Let's get it over with so that I can deal with those idiots."
Dark clouds covered the sky as all three schools got ready for the final event of the Friendship Games in the courtyard. The Wondercolts, Shadowbolts, and Fragment Hunter all prepared for the last round as Dean Cadance and Vice Principal Luna started to explain the rules. "Since the score's tied, the final event will determine the winner of the Friendship Games. We will be playing 'Capture The Flag'," Cadance told everyone.
"Somewhere on campus, a pennant from each school has been hidden. The first team to find their school's flag and bring it back wins," Vice Principal Luna explained as she held up three pennants with the logos of Canterlot High, Crystal Prep, and Beacon Academy.
"And as soon as our teams are ready, we'll begin," Cadance said.
However, most of the Rainbooms were feeling as gloomy as the current weather as Fragment Hunter all approached their friends. "I don't feel like playing these games anymore," Fluttershy stated as she looked uncomfortable. Azalea placed a hand on the girl's shoulder to try and give some silent support.
"But we have to play. This is the last event," Rainbow Dash said as tried to convince Fluttershy to continue.
"It's a little hard to focus with all the magic stealing and portal opening," Rarity countered with a scoff.
"Don't forget the Grimm," Cereza mentioned. "Honestly, this is all starting to become one big headache for each of us. Especially for our little doppelganger over at Crystal Prep," Cereza said as she looked in the direction of Twilight, who was making sure Spike stayed hidden in the bushes as she held onto her amulet.
"I feel awful about what I said to Twilight," Sunset Shimmer sadly stated.
"Especially since she obviously didn't mean to do all the stuff she did. She's actually really nice," Fluttershy reminded as she stood up for the girl. However, Sunset Shimmer buried her face in her hands again as she continued to feel guilty about making Sci-Twi upset.
Fragment Hunter and the other Rainbooms all stared at Fluttershy for her comments. They knew that Fluttershy didn't mean to be insensitive, but reminding everyone that Twilight wasn't doing anything involving magic on purpose wasn't helping. "Flutters, maybe you should go pet Dante," Azalea said as she pointed to the dog sitting next to Ivy and Ventus by the Canterlot High stands.
"Let's just get through this last event and prove we're not a bunch of cheaters. Then you can go over and apologize," Applejack suggested as she put a hand on Shimmer's shoulder. Hearing some sound advice from her friend made Sunset's mood improve a little bit as she smiled.
"And if we find Twilight during this round first, then you can apologize to her then," Sunset Blaze mentioned. The Rainbooms and Fragment Hunter all agreed to the suggestion as they got ready for the event.
Meanwhile, Principal Cinch was talking to the Shadowbolts about how the other teams seemed to have advantages over them. "I know I'm asking you to beat two teams that aren't playing fair, but Canterlot High must be made to understand that even with magic at their disposal, beating Crystal Prep is simply not an option," Cinch addressed her school's team.
"What if they grow wings again? Or if more of those monsters attack," Sugarcoat asked.
"Fair questions, Sugarcoat. Though I believe we can now fight fire with fire," Cinch replied as she approached Twilight. "I've seen what your device can do, Twilight. Containing magical energy is fine, but have you considered releasing it?"
"But I don't even understand how it works," Twilight said.
"But you'd like to," Cinch tried to appeal to Twilight's curious nature. "And since our opponents have already used it to stay competitive, I see no reason why we shouldn't do the same," she reminded Twilight of the events during the Tri-Cross Relay. "Unless, of course, you have no interest in Everton. Though, honestly, I think there's more knowledge packed in that little device than any independent study program could offer," she told Twilight, who only held her amulet with anxiety written all over her face.
"W-what do you mean," Twilight asked. Several members of Fragment Hunter had a bad feeling when they saw Twilight looking more nervous than before and they snuck over to the Crystal Prep stands using their abilities.
"I know that you've always been an outcast, Twilight," Cinch stated as she started to circle around Twilight. "Nobody appreciates your genius. Throughout my years as an educator, I've seen only a small handful of students with potential like yours. However, they always disappear before I can even blink," she said to Twilight as the other Shadowbolts stepped forward. "Now, I understand you have your reservations about this. But I must remind you about our arrangement from before about if we do not win the Games," Cinch reminded Twilight about the blackmail as the latter pushed her glasses back in place.
"If we lose, you're to blame," Sour Sweet said as she glared at Twilight.
"Yeah, unleash the magic in that thing," Indigo Zap told Twilight.
"They used magic earlier, so why don't we use it ourselves," Sunny Flare stated.
"Exactly," Sugarcoat and Lemon Zest agreed.
"Call it whatever you wish, Twilight," Principal Cinch said. "But if we lose, it will still be a tragedy for Crystal Prep and for yourself. Even if we lose because we didn't use magic ourselves, the more important loss will be the knowledge of what it could have done. Isn't a chance to discover and understand something new like this worth the risk? Because it will likely never happen again," Cinch stated to try and tempt Twilight's curiosity. Twilight's teammates soon surrounded her as they began to explain that none of them were friends and that they only want to beat Canterlot High. "What I'm suggesting is very simple and it's a win for all of Crystal Prep. You want to learn about the magic you've obtained and the rest of us will get what we deserve. The school will win once again and my legacy will endure for the years to come," Cinch told Twilight as she shoved Twilight toward the center of the courtyard.
As the Shadowbolts all urged Twilight to unleash the magic she stored up in the amulet, Fragment Hunter, Spike, and the Rainbooms all saw that Twilight was about to give into the peer pressure of her school. Twilight removed her necklace and looked at it as she talked to herself about what would happen if she listened to Principal Cinch and the Shadowbolts. "Imagine everything I could learn by opening this. Everyone wants me to win the Friendship Games. There are so many possibilities if I use what I have here. But all I want to see is what happens when I actually open this myself," Twilight said as her eyes briefly turned a light blue instead of their regular purple color.
"Twilight, no," Fragment Hunter, Sunset Shimmer, and Spike all called out as Twilight began to open the amulet.
When Twilight opened her amulet, the collected magic was shaped into a ball and began to surge as it was released from its containment device. Sparking like electricity as it was unleashed, the magic burst outward as it knocked off Twilight's glasses and her hair began to flow freely in the wind that blew around the courtyard. Soon, the magic started to surround Twilight before it collected into another ball that appeared in front of her and looked out of control. Everyone watching looked on in horror as they saw Twilight drop the amulet and was lifted into the air. Twilight herself was worried as she turned back to see Cinch and the Shadowbolts slowly backing away. The ball of magic in front of Twilight began to expand and it soon started to engulf her, leaving Spike horrified as the others were all worried about what was happening. Twilight felt the overwhelming power of the magic she unintentionally stole and it was painful. "Heeeeeeeeeelllllllp... meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee," she cried out as she reached for anyone from Crystal Prep.
"PUNK ROCK! UNDERGROUND," Sunset Blaze called out as Fragment Hunter all saw Twilight's team wasn't coming to her rescue. Azalea, Vinyl, and Rua all sprang into action as Vinyl used Rhythm Scratch to create hard light disks to use as platforms and a wall while Rua teleported herself and Azalea onto the closest platform.
Rua and Azalea grabbed at Twilight's extended arm and tried to pull her free from the sphere that was engulfing her. "Twilight! Hold on! We'll save you," Azalea called out as she and Rua each placed a foot on the hard light disk wall and tried to get better support, but they couldn't pull the girl free. Soon, the magic orb surged again and the force knocked the two Huntresses away, fully enveloping Twilight.
As Twilight and the sphere of magic floated above the courtyard, Twilight began to transform as the sphere surrounded her. When the magic orb disappeared, the newly transformed Twilight floated in its place. Her skin was a darker shade of purple and her uniform was replaced by a new strapless dress, a choker with a purple star, new boots, and a pair of long fingerless gloves. She sprouted ominous dark wings and magical energy gathered on her face to resemble a luminescent gnarled horn as well as a mask of magic flames that looked like a pair of glasses over her now cyan and mulberry eyes. The new Twilight terrified most of the crowd below her with Cinch and Spike as the most scared, but for different reasons. Cinch was horrified because Twilight now looked like a monster that could easily annihilate her, but Spike was scared because Twilight no longer looked like who he knew her as. Twilight began to laugh evilly before she turned to Sunset Shimmer below her. "You were right! I didn't understand magic before, but I do now," she declared as leered at Shimmer and her horn began to glow.
Twilight extended a hand toward the Wondercolt Statue and destroyed the stone horse with a beam of magic that caused it to explode. As the Rainbooms and Fragment Hunter shielded themselves from the wreckage of the statue, they saw a purple rift form where the blast occurred and saw a village with colorful ponies walking around. "Equestria," Sunset Shimmer said as she recognized the landscape from her original home.
Twilight had an evil grin on her face as she blasted open another rift, but this one was the same red and black portal that brought Grimm to Canterlot High. Fragment Hunter saw the rift reveal a forest full of red leaves and they were surprised at what they saw. "Remnant! That's the Forever Fall Forest," Layla exclaimed as she saw another Ursa make its way through the rift. As everyone watched Twilight begin to open up rifts to Equestria and Remnant, they saw that the portals created cracks that traveled on the ground. Crystal Prep and Canterlot High were shocked to see the alternate worlds, but Fragment Hunter and the other visitors from Remnant just stared down Twilight.
As the chaos went on, Sunny Flare and the Shadowbolts all saw Cinch sneaking away as Twilight continued to force open more rifts around the school. "Hey! Where are you going," Sunny Flare asked Principal Cinch as the latter was starting to flee.
"Anywhere to avoid that... monster," Cinch said. "And I suggest you do the same!"
"Which monster," Rua asked as she teleported in front of Cinch's path and blocked her exit with a scowl on her face. "I don't think you've noticed, but we've got more that just Twilight to handle," Rua said as she pointed to the various Grimm that Fragment Hunter began to fight as they emerged from the red and black portals. A few more Usra, some Creeps, a small number of Night Crawlers, a pack of Beowolves, and new Grimm began to show up. The first type was a large primate-like Grimm that resembled a gorilla with black skin and fur, bone-like plates of armor, and glowing red eyes that left a trail of light whenever they moved their heads. The second was a giant avian creature with black feathers, claws on its wings, and a crested bone-like headpiece that revealed two red eyes on each side of its head. The visitors from Remnant knew them as Beringels and Nevermore respectively. "If you think that you can just weasel your way out of here, you're going to be Grimm bait the moment you run away scared," Rua stated.
"This is all your fault anyways," Azalea stated as she approached Cinch with Gladion out and extended. "You knew Twilight was being bullied and did nothing! You only wanted her to try and secure a victory for your dumb prep school and your stupid reputation! You didn't think about the idea of Twilight not being able to do well in the physical events! And worst of all, YOU BLACKMAILED TWILIGHT INTO HELPING YOU BECAUSE YOU ARE SUCH A BITCH," Azalea ranted and screamed the last sentence as her eyes changed from their usual vibrant green to a bright ruby red.
"You WHAT," Cadance exclaimed angrily as she overheard the last part of Azalea's rant. Ventus was quick to slash away at any Grimm that approached Cadance in her current rage.
"You're not going anywhere," Azalea snarled as she set Gladion's Dust setting to Ice and swung it on the ground. As the baton hit the pavement, ice covered Cinch's feet and left her stuck in place. "Dante, defend," Azalea called out to her dog and the hound took a post near Cinch. "We heard you're allergic to dogs, so you better deal with the fact that you're being protected by one," Azalea said as she and Rua began to return to the main fight and Dante only growled at Cinch.
Twilight continued to open rifts to Equestria and Remnant as Sunset Shimmer tried to talk to her. "Twilight, you can't do this!"
"Why not?! There are whole other worlds right there, and they're just filled with magic," Twilight exclaimed as she powered up again and blasted a rift open in front of the entrance to CHS, forcing Luna and Cadance to flee. A red and black rift opened up and a Grimm poked its head through the rift. It resembled a large elephant with black skin, large tusks, a bone-like mask with red markings, and burning red eyes. The monster began to swing its trunk around to try and hit something, but everyone kept their distance from the Grimm.
"But you're destroying this world to get them," Sunset Blaze told Twilight. "And that Goliath is going to kill everyone if it can get through that rift!"
"So what? There's more magic there, and I want to understand it all," Twilight said as she gained more altitude and blasted the ground beneath her. The rift she opened created a portal to Equestria that began to crack away at the ground nearby, making it bigger as pieces of reality chipped away like falling stones. Sunset and the Rainbooms had to dodge as the blast and Shimmer slid toward where Twilight's amulet landed. Seeing the device, she grabbed it and wondered if she could do something to help Twilight in her current state.
Twilight soon blasted another rift open just by the street, but this one was rainbow-colored with a silver border. Slate kicked away a Creep that got too close to him and Terracotta soon punched it hard enough to kill it in one strike. They soon looked up at the new portal and saw what lied beyond it. The two men saw a statue of a pair of warriors standing victoriously on a rock outcropping with a Beowolf underneath. "Beacon," Slate said to himself before he got an idea. "Luck, don't fail me now," he said aloud as he pulled out his Scroll and put in a six-digit code just as one of the Nevermores began to swoop down on everyone. As the monstrous bird approached, something shot out of the rainbow-colored portal and struck at the Grimm. Everyone turned to see that a locker seemed to have hit the Creature of Grimm and Fragment Hunter realized what happened. Soon, they, Terracotta, Aurora, and Nocturne all took out their Scrolls and input their own codes as the Grimm bird began to get up.
More lockers shot through the rift and crashed into the Nevermore, forcing it back to the ground. Each locker opened up to reveal weaponry for each Huntsman and Huntress. The warriors all approached the lockers on the Grimm's back and collected their equipment. Armed with guns, swords, knives, spears, extra ammunition and all their other gear, the Huntsmen all prepared for battle. Vixen stopped her illusions on herself and Terracotta, Silver revealed his tail from under his jacket, and Azalea swiftly removed her bandanna to reveal her horns. As the Nevermore began to move, Terracotta stabbed the Grimm with his main weapon, a claymore with a hilt and crossguard that resembled a metallic bull skull that he called 'Sarangay'. With blinding speeds to everyone from Canterlot High and Crystal Prep watching, Terracotta easily injured the Nevermore through its armored mask and decapitated the beast just as fast. As the monster's corpse began to evaporate, Terracotta only said one thing to the other warriors without turning around. "Hunt's on, everyone!"
"Hunt's on, everyone," Terracotta told the other Huntsmen and Huntresses after he killed the giant Nevermore Grimm that the group of warriors pinned down with rocket lockers that held their weaponry and ammunition. At his command, everyone began to separate to fend off the Grimm that were attacking CHS and the Crystal Prep students. "Ven, you handle any fliers that might attack us from the sky," he told his brother and the Falcon Faunus only nodded before he shot into the air and started to slash away at other Nevermores that appeared through the portals. "Ivy, you take care of anyone that gets injured," Terra advised his wife.
"Right," Ivy said as she started to find a safe area to stay hidden from Grimm while taking a few injured students from CHS and CPA along with her.
"Fragment Hunter, you all help out your friends," Terra said before he heard a loud stomping sound. Looking toward the source, he saw a giant set of walking armor made entirely out of scrap iron. Unlike the previous Arma Gigas that Azalea and Vinyl fought, this one was bigger than Terracotta and had a large serrated sword that it seemed to fashion out of materials from a dump nearby. "I'll handle the piece of junkyard art," he said as he twirled his large claymore around and got ready for a fight. "Bring it, big guy!"
The Arma Gigas held its sword at the ready and swung it at Terracotta, but the Huntsman easily dodged out of the way and slashed at the monster's legs. Forced to its knees, the armored Grimm was left open to Terra's strikes and its armor began to chip away. Standing back up, the Arma Gigas swung its sword to try and force back Terracotta as he blocked the attack with Sarangay. Terra and the Gigas kept swinging their swords and blocking each strike, but the bystanders that watched the action began to notice something. As the duel dragged on, the Grimm's movements started to become sluggish and it struggled to lift its sword while Terracotta's motions became even faster. It was almost as if the large sword Terra wielded in battle seemed to become lighter while the makeshift armor that the Grimm possessed became even heavier.
As the fight continued, Terracotta soon jumped back and swung his blade with more power behind it while he let out a loud and deep bellow. The force of his swing seemed to cut the air itself into a bladed wave that sliced the monster's right arm clean off and disarmed it of the weapon it had. Pieces of scrap iron fell to the ground and scattered all across the battlefield as the Grimm stumbled back. Seeing that it needed a new arm, the Geist inside the armor summoned its real arm and began to possess the rubble from the Wondercolt Statue. With the monster acquiring a new stone arm, Terracotta soon put his sword away on his back and grabbed at the Arma Gigas' own weapon. "Did you want this back," he asked the Grimm rhetorically before he prepared to attack again. The Arma Gigas ran toward Terracotta to try and punch him with its new stone arm, but Terra threw the makeshift weapon back at the Grimm and the force behind the throw severed the armor in half.
With the 'corpse' of the monster falling to pieces, the Geist emerged from its shell and started to flee. However, Terracotta reached into his coat and pulled out a pistol that he acquired from the rocket locker he called. Aiming steadily, Terra fired the gun once and a bullet went flying into the Geist and killed it with a headshot. Gazing back at the battlefield, Terra moved on and continued to battle against the monsters and keep the other bystanders safe as he ran up behind a Beringel and suplexed the Grimm ape.
Applebloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were cowering in fear as a few Beowolves cornered them against a wall, but several gunshots sounded off and the monsters all fell dead to the ground. Slate held out his revolvers and kept aiming at any Grimm he saw before he turned back to the three girls. "Get out of here! Now," he told them as he kicked a Creep away that popped up next to him and executed it when it fell to the ground. The three listened to him and managed to sneak inside the school through an open window. At the same time, Sunset Blaze managed to climb onto the roof of the school and took a sniper's position to handle any Grimm from a distance. As she sniped the monsters, the de facto leader of Fragment Hunter looked down to see what was happening with the others.
The rift that Twilight opened when she blasted the ground began to crack the sidewalk more and some students from Canterlot High and Crystal Prep were starting to fall in, but the Rainbooms were quick to act and began to save them while the rest of Fragment Hunter dealt with any Grimm that would have taken a chance to attack the defenseless teens. While Applejack managed to pull up a Canterlot student that nearly fell into the rift to Equestria, Pinkie managed to save one of the Crystal Prep students. However as Rarity tried to rescue two students from Canterlot and Crystal Prep, she almost fell into the rift and had to grab at a ledge. "Hang on," Rainbow Dash called out as she tried to save another CHS student.
"Obviously," Rarity replied as she held onto both students with one hand. While she managed to hold onto them, her grip on the ledge was another issue. The Shadowbolts were all unsure of what to do, but Sour Sweet remembered what Azalea said before and the others soon agreed to help out. As Rarity's grip on the ledge was finally giving up on her, she nearly fell into the rift to Equestria. However, Indigo Zap and Lemon Zest managed to grab Rarity's arm and managed to pull all three teenagers to safety.
While Rainbow Dash managed to pull up her classmate, Sour Sweet managed to help Pinkie and Sunny Flare helped pull Fluttershy and Spike to safety as the ledge they were standing on began to give out on them. Sunset Shimmer watched the Shadowbolts put their competitive streak behind them and help out her friends. She, the Shadowbolts and the Rainbooms soon saw that the latter were glowing with their magic. Shimmer soon saw that Twilight's amulet began to react to the magic and pointed to Applejack, Pinkie, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy. As she thought of what everything meant, several members of Fragment Hunter were still fighting off Grimm.
"I really despise these Grimm," Celadon said as she and Vinyl faced off against some Night Crawlers. "We might as well deal with them now," she suggested as she pulled out her spear and Vinyl prepared some hard light clawed gauntlets. The two cut away at the centipede-like Grimm and managed to stab several of them in their eyes to kill them before taking care of the others at a distance. Holding out their hands, Celadon fired gem-like shards like a shotgun while Vinyl unleashed energy blasts from her palms. Each attack was tough enough to kill off the younger Night Crawlers but when the projectiles collided with each other, they created a larger explosion that destroyed the bigger monster centipedes instantly.
Nocturne and Aurora drew a partisan and an ornate rapier respectively as they faced off against a trio of Beringels. "Just like old times, Sister," Nocturne said as she spun her partisan around and it sparked with electricity. As she pointed the weapon at the demonic gorillas, lightning shot out from it and electrocuted one of the monsters. As it fell to the ground, Aurora managed to rush in and stabbed the monster in the eye with her blade before returning to Nocturne's side.
"I agree," Aurora replied as she began to stare down the monsters. The ape-like Grimm growled before they beat at their chests and leapt at the Huntress sisters. Dodging out of the way, Aurora's body began to glow and released a blinding light that distracted everyone watching her. As the Grimm recoiled from the light, Nocturne acted fast and tripped one of the Beringels before stabbing it where its heart would've been and electrocuting it. As the second gorilla monster began to evaporate into smoke, the last one roared before jumping back toward the remains of the Arma Gigas that Terracotta killed. Grabbing at the scraps of armor, the Beringel threw them at the Celeste sisters to deal with them from a distance.
Seeing what the Grimm was doing, Nocturne's black hair began to move like it was blown by an ethereal wind and it began to look like a starry night sky. At the same time, shadows around the area began to move around before they became tendrils that caught the iron scraps before they could hit anybody. With the monster's offense neutralized, Aurora used her own Semblance to create an orb of light that shot forward into a beam that pierced the Grimm's skull and killed it immediately. "Let's keep moving, Nocturne," Aurora said as they moved across the battlefield to take care of more Grimm and bring more injured students to Ivy for healing.
As Twilight laughed evilly from what she was doing, she soon heard Azalea calling out to her. Looking down, she saw Azalea and Rua standing below her with their weapons at the ready. Azalea had Gladion out and sparking with electricity while Rua transformed her shield into twin blades that she placed on her arms. "Twilight, you have to stop this! You're going to destroy three different worlds trying to find answers that you can't get. If you keep doing this, I'm going to have to treat you like the Grimm," Azalea warned.
Twilight only laughed at Azalea before speaking to the Cow Faunus. "Twilight was the name of a girl who was only just starting to explore the dark unknown that was magic," she said. "I think that 'Midnight Sparkle' is a more suitable name for me now!"
"I don't care if you're the Spring Maiden, I'm still going to kick your ass if you don't give us back our friend," Rua shouted at Midnight Sparkle with a burning and fierce glare in her eyes. "So you better flock off, feather-face! Otherwise, we're going to beat you out of Twilight," Rua exclaimed as she got into a fighting stance.
"They're not by themselves," a voice called out before Midnight turned toward the source. Seeing Sunset Blaze jump off of the roof, Midnight Sparkle saw that her sleeves were glowing and a stream of fire engulfed her before Blaze landed on Midnight's back and forced her to the ground in front of the Wondercolt Statue. Everyone nearby watched as Sunset Blaze, Azalea, Vinyl, Rua, and Celadon all grouped together to face off against the transformed Twilight as she used a small pulse of magic to get rid of the flames covering her.
Azalea reached into her pocket to pull out a second Multi-Action Dust Baton and combined her twin weapons into a staff that had one half sparking with electricity while the other half was covered in an icy mist. Rushing in, Rua and Azalea were the next of the current fighters to attack Midnight Sparkle as they struck the she-demon respectively with bladed punches and staff swings that were enhanced by electricity and ice. Midnight Sparkle attempted to defend herself from the attacks by creating a thin barrier around herself similar to how Fragment Hunter used Aura, but the damage was only minimized and she still felt the pain from each attack. Starting her counterattack, Midnight sent a blast of magic in Rua's direction and the latter had to quickly reform her shield to block the beam. As Rua defended herself, she used her Semblance to teleport above Midnight Sparkle and unfolded her shield into a giant shuriken to throw at the magically-overwhelmed she-demon.
Midnight Sparkle was quick to dodge the attack from Rua, but forgot about the others when Sunset Blaze called out a new order for the fighters. "Fantasia," Blaze exclaimed and signaled for Celadon and Vinyl to attack. The two blasted at Midnight Sparkle with their Semblances and made sure to aim their projectiles at the same spot to have them collide. With the gems exploding with the energy blasts hitting them, Midnight Sparkle's artificial Aura took major damage. "Fire Flower," Blaze shouted as she and Azalea got into position to use a team attack of their own. Changing her staff to twin batons and setting them to use Wind Dust, Azalea created a whirlwind under Midnight that Sunset Blaze set ablaze to create a burning tornado that engulfed their target. As Midnight was trapped by the spiral of flames, Blaze began to attack her with shots from her weapon's sniper rifle mode.
With a grunt, Midnight Sparkle flapped her wings to dispel the flames and fired more beams at the members of Fragment Hunter. Luckily for them, none of the shots opened up new portals as they only created small craters on the ground as the girls dodged. "Underground! Punk Rock," Sunset Blaze called out again to have Azalea, Rua, and Vinyl work together again. As Vinyl used her weapon to create platforms with her hard light disks, Rua and Azalea climbed up until Rua used her shield to launch Azalea toward Midnight Sparkle. Switching her batons to use Gravity Dust, Azalea managed to strike at Midnight and force her to the ground. "Now, guys," Blaze called out and everyone from Fragment Hunter began to attack Midnight Sparkle as she was pinned down. However, Midnight unleashed a pulse of magic that forced all of Fragment Hunter back and most of them briefly flashed with different colors to show that their Aura had been depleted.
After seeing most of Fragment Hunter get knocked around, Sunset Shimmer paid attention to the Rainbooms and Twilight's amulet again before she turned to Midnight Sparkle. "Twilight! This isn't the way," Shimmer called out to Twilight and the latter listened to her to see what she was going on about. "I know you feel powerful right now, like you can have everything you want! I've been where you are, I've made the same mistake you're making! I put on a crown and, just like you, I was overwhelmed by the magic it contained! I thought it could get me everything I wanted," Sunset explained as she shared her past about when she stole Princess Twilight's Element of Harmony.
"Oh, you're wrong," Midnight Sparkle told Sunset Shimmer. "Unlike you, I can have everything I want!"
"No, you can't," Azalea said as she stood back up and prepared to fight some more as her Aura was one of the few that didn't break. "Even with all that magic and power, you'll still be alone," she told Twilight/Midnight as she cleaned away some blood from her mouth.
"She's right," Sunset Shimmer stated. "True magic comes from honesty! Loyalty! Laughter! Generosity! Kindness," Sunset said as she held Twilight's amulet above her head. As she listed each characteristic, the rest of the Rainbooms began to glow and they seemed to offer their magic to Sunset Shimmer and the containment device. "I understand you, Twilight, and I want to show you the most important magic of all..." Sunset Shimmer began to float in the air as she said this and she soon threw Twilight's amulet onto the ground when enough magic from the others was collected. As the device shattered on the ground, another sphere of magic engulfed Sunset and began to transform her. Unlike Twilight's transformation, Sunset didn't cry out in pain and the magic didn't overwhelm her as her clothing changed. When Sunset's transformation ended, she now wore a dress that was pink, white, and gold in color, had short fingerless gloves, new shoes that had her own sun emblem and fiery wing designs, and a small number of accessories that bared her sun emblem. She also had a red line going across her eyes, a long straight horn made of magical energy, and shimmering wings made out of gold light. "...the Magic of Friendship," Sunset Shimmer told Twilight as she stared her down.
As Midnight Sparkle moved slightly back in fear, Fragment Hunter and the Rainbooms were amazed at Sunset's new form. "Wow... She's breathtaking," Celadon said. "If we didn't know any better, I'd say this was a dream."
"Daydream is more like it," Silver said before he stabbed another Beowolf in the chin with his bladed shoes.
"You know, 'Daydream Shimmer' has a nice ring to it," Pinkie mused loud enough for at least someone to hear.
As Sunset/Daydream and Twilight/Midnight floated above the battlefield, Shimmer held her arms in front of her before extending them toward each rift that Midnight Sparkle opened up. Firing golden blasts of magic, Sunset managed to close each of the rifts that lead to Equestria or Remnant. When Grimm were emerging from the red and black rifts as they closed, the soulless monsters were cut into pieces and the Goliath in front of the school was decapitated as it sounded off a death cry. As Midnight Sparkle watched her portals vanish in anger, Sunset blasted away at any Grimm that she saw below her and killed them all instantly as Ventus Gaia finished off the last of the Nevermores in the air. After the portals and Grimm were dealt with, Midnight Sparkle powered up and flew toward Daydream Shimmer with a fist covered in magic energy. The latter responded by charging ahead and using a magically-enhanced palm strike to counter it.
The two transformed girls collided in midair and a flash of light was released when their attacks met each other. Everyone watched the battle as Midnight and Daydream soon unleashed blasts of magic from their hands. As the beams of magic collided, they sent off another blinding flash. When the flash faded, both girls were trying to overpower the other with a beam struggle straight out of comics. Daydream began to slowly overpower Midnight, but the situation was soon reversed as Midnight gave a grunt of effort and channeled more magic into her attack. Sunset was fighting back to defend herself as Midnight Sparkle laughed over her approaching victory. Everyone watching was afraid of what would happen if Sunset Shimmer failed, but Fragment Hunter and their Huntsmen chaperones all had the same determined look on their faces as they prepared to attack Midnight Sparkle with what ranged capabilities they had. As they blasted Midnight with Dust attacks, gunfire, or any of their ranged Semblances, the raging she-demon barely felt it and just continued to attack Daydream.
As the battle raged on, Spike jumped out from Fluttershy's arms and landed on the ground. "Twilight," the dog called out to his friend and owner.
Hearing the dog, Midnight looked down and saw Spike looking up sadly at her. Seeing her beloved dog looking her like she was a monster, Twilight's eyes changed back to their normal violet color. "Spike," she whispered. Sunset Blaze, Daydream Shimmer, and Azalea saw that not only Midnight Sparkle was distracted, but that Twilight was still somewhere in Midnight's mind. Taking their chance, Daydream Shimmer took advantage and dominated the beam struggle while Azalea and Blaze jumped onto Midnight's back and grabbed at her wings. Seeing what was happening, Twilight's eyes turned back into Midnight Sparkle's cyan color and she failed to push the beam away. "Noooo," Midnight screamed in fear and panic as Daydream's blast engulfed her and Sunset Blaze's body began to glow a light red as a pillar of light appeared around the four girls.
When Twilight opened up her eyes, she saw that she still looked like Midnight Sparkle and was in a white void with Azalea and Sunset Blaze by her sides as Daydream Shimmer floated toward her. Flinching in fear, Twilight backed away and all three girls looked at her. "Twilight, we're not going to hurt you," Sunset Blaze told Twilight to calm her down.
"We're your friends. We were worried about you when you changed into this form," Azalea said. "It's time that you got back to Spike."
"Take my hand, Twilight," Daydream Shimmer said as she extended an open hand to a scared Twilight. "Let me show you there's another way... just like someone once did for me."
Twilight was hesitant about it, but she felt remorse over what she did because Spike saw her as a monster. Aside from her studies, she loved to read all kinds of books. She knew that Sunset Shimmer and Fragment Hunter were heroes like the fantasy stories she read, but she also saw herself as the monster that needed to be slain to save the day. As she looked back at the three girls in the void with her, she saw their kind faces and realized that they weren't there to end her life, but to save it from a horrible mistake instead. With tears in her violet eyes, Twilight took Daydream Shimmer's hand and she felt a warm flow of magic energy going up her arm. As she smiled with tears flowing down her face, Azalea and Sunset Blaze each placed a hand on Twilight's shoulders as the gnarled horn of magic began to fade away.
Everyone who saw the battle watched as the pillar of light and magic began to shrink down and fade away to reveal Sunset Shimmer and Twilight had transformed back to normal while Sunset Blaze and Azalea stood by their sides. All four had messy hair and Twilight still didn't have her glasses as she stood in front of Sunset Shimmer. "I am so sorry," Twilight began to tearfully apologize. "I didn't mean for any of this to happen..."
"We know. And going by my own experiences, they'll forgive you," Sunset Shimmer said as she took Twilight's hands and helped her feel better. As Twilight smiled, Spike barked and jumped into Twilight arms with her glasses in his mouth. Happy to see each other again, Twilight giggled as she hugged her dog tightly.
"Glad to see you two are happy," Azalea said before hearing Dante bark and run toward her. Hugging the dog, Azalea and both Sunsets began to pet the hunting animal as Principal Cinch was able to get out of the ice Azalea had trapped her in earlier. "Now for this problem," Azalea muttered as Dante growled and everyone saw Cinch walking up to Principal Celestia.
"Principal Celestia, on behalf of Crystal Prep, I demand that you forfeit the Friendship Games," Cinch angrily said to Celestia. "Clearly, CHS and your guests from Beacon Academy have had unfair advantage for quite some time! And it's certainly obvious that your students have been using magic for their own benefit!"
"I'd like to think that saving the world benefits us all," Celestia said with a smug smile on her face as she stared down Cinch.
"And we don't have magic," Cereza stated. "Our abilities are different."
"At least they didn't manipulate Twilight into releasing all the stolen magic and turning into a power-crazed magical creature that tried to rip the world apart just to win a game while bringing demonic beasts from another world that could have killed us all," Sugarcoat stated in her usual blunt tone as she glared at Cinch.
Everyone stared in silence before Pinkie spoke up. "Wow! That's a lot to take in when you say it all at once."
"You can say that again," Vinyl agreed as she placed her headphones around her neck.
"That's ridiculous," Cinch tried to argue.
"Nope, that's pretty much what happened," Spike and Silver said as the latter put away his chainsaw weapon.
"Actually, we're all to blame," Sour Sweet said sweetly before glaring at Cinch and speaking in a sour tone directed at the Principal. "Mostly it was her."
Cinch glared at Sour Sweet and the other Shadowbolts before she turned back to Principal Celestia. "Obviously my students have been infected with your magic, but I plan on taking all of this up with the school board!"
"Good. I'm sure they would be very interested in hearing all about the magical students with wings," Celestia said as she claimed plausible deniability.
"Oh, and the portals to different dimensions," Luna added.
"Let's not forget the horde of soulless demon animals," Nocturne added as she joined the other adults.
"Or about all the people with horns, tails, and talons," Ventus said as he landed next to Terracotta.
"Not to mention the teenagers that wield weapons that are also guns," Terracotta voiced as he crossed his arms and smirked.
"And the crystals that let them shoot streams of fire or the assortment of superpowers they have," Aurora said with a mischievous smile.
"And don't forget to tell them about the talking dog," Dean Cadance giggled.
Cinch began to get angry at the other adults before Spike and Ivy said the same thing with their own smug smiles. "Because that would never ruin your reputation." As Cinch looked around she saw that nobody was on her side as the adults, teenagers, and even the dogs all looked at her to see what her next move was. Cinch only seethed in anger before everyone heard something moved up from the ground. A Creep that avoided being killed in the fight earlier sensed Cinch's negative emotions and jumped out to eat her, but it was impaled by a spire of rock when Terracotta used Earth Dust that was in the pommel of his sword. Slate then moved in and pointed his revolver at the lizard-like Grimm and shot it point-blank to execute the monster. Twirling his gun and blowing out the smoke from it, Slate then returned to Azalea's side as he high-fived Terracotta.
After seeing everything that happened and knowing she was beaten, Cinch decided to compose herself and walked away from everyone. As the three schools watched Cinch leave, Principal Celestia spoke up to everyone. "Well, I know these Friendship Games haven't been what any of us expected, but given what we've all just been through, I think it's fair to declare us all winners." Everyone cheered loudly as Principal Celestia gave an official end to the Friendship Games competition.
After Principal Celestia declared the Friendship Games a tie when the battle against Midnight Sparkle and the Grimm ended, all three teams were given medals and they all began to get along with each other. While the Shadowbolts spoke to most of Fragment Hunter about what Remnant was like, Azalea, Sunset Blaze, and Vinyl all saw Twilight sitting on the front stairs of CHS while she was petting Spike in her lap. Glad to see her happy after everything that happened earlier, the three Huntresses approached Sci-Twi at the same time Dean Cadance went to speak with the girl. "I guess that was one way to finish up your time at Crystal Prep," Cadance remarked as she took a seat next to Twilight.
"Yeah. Discovering magic and fighting us when it took control of her," Azalea said as she kneeled down and scratched Spike's chin. "Not to mention Cinch blackmailing her into competing by implying she would deny Sci-Twi's application to that study program."
"Don't worry about it," Sunset Blaze told the others. "Between us and Twilight, I don't think that Cinch will stay as Principal at Crystal Prep for long when word gets out."
"Still, I'm pretty sure Cinch will be fast-tracking your application after all of that," Cadance said to Twilight.
"I've been thinking about it and... I'm not so sure now is the time for me to apply to Everton," Twilight told Cadance. "I may know about a lot of things, but friendship isn't really one of them. And I'm definitely not gonna learn more about it by being alone all the time."
"That's for sure," Blaze and Azalea both stated as they bumped fists, remembering their respective lonely pasts and how meeting Fragment Hunter at Beacon had improved them in multiple ways.
"So, you're staying at Crystal Prep," Cadance asked.
"Well, it seems the students here at CHS know an awful lot about the subject," Twilight noted as she, Cadance, and the three girls from Fragment Hunter watched a student from CHS hug her friend. "I don't suppose..."
"You could transfer to this school instead," Cadance and the Fragment Hunter trio said as they interrupted Twilight.
"Really," Twilight asked with an excited smile.
"You'd certainly be missed at Crystal Prep. But I think that's a great idea," Cadance said as she hugged Twilight. "I'll be sure to speak to Principal Celestia about it right away."
"Well, we better check on the others while you go chat with Celestia," Blaze said as she, Azalea, and Vinyl went off in the direction of the Wondercolt Statue to talk with their friends.
At the statue's portal base, the Rainbooms were hanging around while Sunset Shimmer held her magic journal close to her chest. "Still no word from Princess Twilight," Fluttershy asked as she pet Angel Bunny. As Sunset looked through her journal again, Fragment Hunter regrouped with the six girls in time to hear Shimmer's answer.
"Not yet. But I think I may have figured out how magic works in this world," Shimmer said as she turned to the others. "We pony up when we're showing the truest part of ourselves. I was so busy waiting for someone else to give me the answers that I gave up looking for them myself," she explained before stroking the cover of her journal. "I'm sure there will be more magical problems that pop up in this world, but like Applejack said, Princess Twilight has her own problems to worry about in Equestria. We can't expect her to always be around to help us."
"Yeah. Who knows when she isn't dealing with politics, magical problems, or just hanging out with her friends in Equestria to have enough time to come here," Rebecca said as she started to fiddle around with a few shuriken.
"But maybe I can be," Sci-Twi said as she approached the group with Spike in her arms and Principal Celestia behind her.
"There's still some other paperwork to handle, but it seems we have a new Wondercolt here at Canterlot High," Celestia said as told the others about Twilight's transfer.
"I'm not sure how much help I could be. But I'd like to try. If you would all give me a chance," Sci-Twi stated as she faced the Rainbooms.
The Rainbooms were all thrilled to have Sci-Twi transfer to CHS while Fragment Hunter all smiled at the news. "I'm sure I can count on you girls to help her feel at home," Celestia said to the Rainbooms.
"You sure can," Sunset Shimmer said as she wrapped her arm around Twilight's shoulder.
"Group hug," Pinkie called out with her usual chipper glee and brought the other Rainbooms in to welcome Twilight to Canterlot High School. "You too, guys," Pinkie said as she looked at Fragment Hunter. Smiling and shaking their heads at Pinkie's infectious happiness, the twelve warriors all joined in the embrace as the five adults from Remnant were glad to see everything was working out in the end.
A while after the Friendship Games ended and Sci-Twi's transfer was finalized, the Rainbooms were enjoying a picnic by the destroyed Wondercolt Statue with Fragment Hunter joining them. "It's been some time since you transferred, Sci-Twi. How's everything going," Lapis asked as she opened up a water bottle.
"Well, the girls invited me to join their band as a backup singer," Twilight said to start the list. "There's a trip to Camp Everfree coming up in a couple of weeks. Rarity's helping me with my wardrobe a bit. Oh, and I wanted to ask you about something I remember from the Friendship Games. What's a 'Spring Maiden'?"
"It's part of a fairy tale from Remnant called 'The Story of the Seasons'. It's also called 'The Four Maidens' at times," Slate told the Rainbooms.
"One of my family's favorites," Azalea said before she bit down on an apple.
"Same with everyone at my school before Beacon," Sunset Blaze stated.
"What's it about," Rarity asked. "If it has to deal with a young and beautiful girl, then I'd be happy to know more about it. Perhaps it could help inspire me to come up with some more designs."
"It goes like this," Vixen said as she used her illusions to create better visuals for the story as Fragment Hunter explained. "In the forests of Remnant, a wizard hermit lived near a river in an old house. He was a cold and frail man who rarely had visitors, but he soon saw something one day. He looked out his window and saw a young maiden sitting beneath his tree. She was meditating in absolute tranquility, but the wizard demanded an explanation from her as to why she was waiting around at his home. She said that her name was 'Winter' and that she was on a journey, waiting for her sisters."
Soon, Rebecca took over the story's narration. "She went back to her mediating and left the wizard alone, understanding his reclusive nature and sat in peaceful silence under his tree. The hermit thought that this girl was a fool for doing what she was doing, but seeing her in serenity, he was encouraged to rest and think about his isolation while he did his own meditation."
"When he opened his eyes, he saw that a second girl had joined the first one and carried a basket filled with fruits, flowers, and seeds," Azalea chimed in and told the story to the others. "Introducing herself as 'Spring', she told the wizard that she was on a journey and was waiting for her sisters. When the hermit reluctantly allowed Spring to wait alongside Winter, the new maiden decided to repay his hospitality by tending to his garden. The old man saw that the young girl had turned the pile of dirt next to his home into a bountiful garden that was full of life. Watching the girl continue fixing up his garden, the wizard soon heard somebody else at the tree in front of his home."
Layla began to tell the next part of the story as Azalea took another bite of her apple. "A third young woman arrived and the wizard asked who she was. Saying her name was 'Summer' and that she was waiting for the last sister to arrive, she laughed at the fact that the wizard kept staying inside his home when the front door was right next to him. Convincing the hermit to come outside and enjoy the nice day with them, Summer and her sisters soon warmed up the callous man's heart and he left his home to see that he wasn't feeling like himself anymore. He was feeling much better and soon joined the three sisters as they waited for the last arrival. Fixing up his home some more and taking in the beauty of nature, the guests soon prepared a feast when the day came to a close."
"That evening, the fourth and final maiden arrived beneath the wizard's tree and he only asked for her name as he beckoned her to join them," Silver said after he took a drink of soda. "Saying her name was 'Fall' and that she was the eldest sister, she soon asked who the wizard himself was. Explaining that he was just an old hermit that lived in the woods for centuries without anything to say about his story, he said that he didn't have anybody to care for and nothing to his name. Fall soon told him that he had a wonderful home in a peaceful location and that he should be thankful for what he had. The hermit was grateful for the help of the four sisters, but he still wondered why they helped him."
"The maidens explained that they only did it out of the kindness of their hearts and that they would have done it for anyone," Sunset Blaze continued. "The wizard was surprised at the fact and thought that the sisters deserved something as a gift. Summoning the magic he had, he gave the four girls the power to control the very elements of nature without the need for Dust and Aura. With their own magic, the sisters listened to the wizard as he said that they could now help others even more on their journey. As they left, they made a promise to the wizard that they would always come back each year and visit their dear friend."
"That's so beautiful," Fluttershy said as she wiped tears from her eyes.
"Yeah. It was," Sunset Shimmer and Sci-Twi agreed.
After a while, the portal activated and the others got out of the way as somebody came through it. "I'm so sorry I didn't get here sooner," a girl that the Rainbooms and Fragment Hunter recognized as Princess Twilight Sparkle apologized hastily. "I didn't get your messages until just now because I was caught in this time travel loop and, honestly, it was the strangest thing that's ever happened to me," she said before noticing the doppelganger of herself in front of her. Sci-Twi waved shyly to the Princess while Pinkie slurped her drink noisily. "Make that the second strangest."
"Sci-Twi, meet Princess Twilight Sparkle from Equestria. Princess, meet the human version of yourself," Rua said as she gestured to the girls.
"What about a time loop," Cereza asked as she fixed her glasses.
"I think we have a lot to talk about right now," Princess Twilight said as Pinkie handed her a drink.
"Get comfortable, Pony Princess," Rua said with a smirk. "We're going to be here for a while."
