Sunset Shimmer The Pony of Earth

by luckyboys121

First published

Now that Sunset Shimmer is able to be a pony whenever she wants she is excited to start her new life with her friends by her side. Now though she has to deal with how others will react and learn just how poorly she has thought this life choice out

After Sunset Shimmer comes clean to her friends about wanting to be a pony again and is overjoyed at how they accept her decision she is excited to start her new life as a pony on Earth. Unfortunately for her she hasn't really thought this change of life out as much as she thought and now she has to deal with all kinds of unforeseen reactions and consequences. Will she come to regret her choice or will she stand by it no matter what? Find out here

This is going to be a fun little anthology series that I will probably update only when I have free time so don't expect regular chapter releases. Also this story is probably never going to be complete as I want to leave things open for new ideas I think of and adding in any new characters the Equestria Girls episodes add in later

Picture created by katakiuchi4u check them out on DeviantArt and I would just like to thank them as the image gave me several more ideas for the story

Once again a thanks to my friend Tyler for inspiring me to write this in the first place and of course thank you to all the fans of the first story who encouraged me to write this sequel and I hope you all enjoy it

First Day Out

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Sunset Shimmer awoke this Monday morning bright and early, full of energy, and ready to start the school day. Usually Sunset like pretty much everyone else had the "Monday Blues" and would have lamented getting up but recent events had changed her point of view. She got out of bed and trotted over to her bathroom where she grabbed her tooth brush in her magic field and began her morning routine. She brushed her teeth and then grabbed her hair brush as she looked in the mirror to see how messy her mane looked.

"You know as much as I like being a pony again it's still gonna take some time before I get used to seeing myself in the mirror like this," she said right before she brushed her mane into her usual style. After that was done she exited her bathroom and sat on her couch and went over everything to herself, "OK first day of school as a pony let's see here backpack," she said as she grabbed her backpack in her magic field and struggled to slip her front hooves through the straps. "Hmpth just gottah hmm," she said as she worked and after a good five minutes she managed to get it on her back before saying, "Wuhh. Check but I should probably ask Rarity to make me a saddle bag sometime soon as I do not want to go through that every morning, anyway what else do I need... OK I already put on my street clothes before turning into a pony last night so if something happens where I need to turn back into a human I won't be standing there in my pajamas, and Princess Twilight already gave me some school supplies from Equestria so I will not have to deal with any unforeseen consequences about not having hands," she said as glanced down at her hooves. "Looks like I am ready to go now all I need to do is wait for Rainbow Dash to get here... it shouldn't take too long," she said before looking up at her clock and seeing that it was 5:55 am and Rainbow Dash had agreed to come over at 6:45 am.

"Well shoot. Guess my excitement woke me up earlier then I thought...Well I guess I can squeeze a quick game or two in before she gets here," she said as turned on her TV and grabbed her game controller in her magic field, "It's kinda funny that I found this fighting game with ponies it in on sale on the online store pretty much right after the girls left yesterday," she said as the game loaded and she selected her character, "Kind of wish there was a pony that looked like me in here but whatever...one weird coincidence is enough for now." She started the arcade mode with her character and made her way up the fighting ladder as she waited.

*50 minutes later*

Rainbow Dash using her super speed bursted through the door to Sunset's apartment and stopped herself by putting her hand on the ground in a somewhat dramatic superhero-esque pose. Sunset having already gotten used to her friend doing stuff like this calmly ended her game and turned to her friend before saying, "Thanks for coming over Rainbow, anyway you ready to go to school."

"Um yeah I am but I am still wondering why you wanted me to come over, I mean weren't you cool with being a pony at school and didn't care what anybody thought of you?" said Rainbow Dash.

"Well yeah I am but that doesn't mean I am not a little nervous. I mean this is like my first day of school all over again you know. It's like your excited but also scared at the same time...I'm sure Pinkie has some kind of special word for it but you get what I'm saying right?" said Sunset.

"Not really I've always been cool so the first day of school was no big deal for me," said Rainbow with a smug smile on her face.

Sunset then had a devious look cross her face as she said, "Really? Because I seem to remember Fluttershy telling me that on your first day of kindergarten you cried on the swings during recess and when she ran up to you and hugged you in an effort to try and calm you down you accidentally called her mommy and that's how you two met."

Rainbow then had a nervous blush cross her face as she awkwardly smiled and scratched the back of her head. "Whaaaattt? I don't know why Fluttershy would say that.... I mean maybe I was a little nervous but no way all that happened."

"Yeah sure. Anyway let's just get to school," said Sunset Shimmer.

Rainbow Dash snapped back to her normal self before saying, "Yeah sure but one more question. I mean it's not like I'm not honored that you chose me to take you to school and all but why me? No offense it just seems like out of all of us your closest to Twilight so I figured you'd pick her."

"Well I needed someone cool and confident to escort me in case I freak out....and well your the only one I know who can get to my apartment before school without having to get up earlier," said Sunset.

"Ahh super speed thing. I gotcha well then let's go already so you can see just how not bad it is and get through your "first day of school" just like I did," said Rainbow Dash as she confidently smiled and pointed at herself.

Sunset then quietly said under her breath, "I hope I get through this a little better then you did."

"What was that my good friend who seems to be forgetting I can still just leave and be back at my place in ten seconds flat," said Rainbow Dash who clearly had heard what Sunset said and was just trying to mess with her back.

"NOTHING I SAID NOTHING!" said Sunset with a nervous smile, "Let's just be on our way."

Rainbow and Sunset then exited the apartment and they started on there way to school.

"See Sunset nothing bad is gonna happen," said Rainbow Dash as they walked along.

"Yeah I guess your right.. you know even though we aren't even at the school yet I already feel like things are gonna be OK," said Sunset.

As they continued walking they saw a business man walking passed them who kept nervously glancing over at Sunset.

"Hi there nice day isn't it!" said Sunset talking to the man as she tried to break this bit of awkwardness.

Instead of responding the man simple screamed, waved his arms in the air, and ran away screaming, "AHHH TALKING DEMON HORSE!!!"

Rainbow Dash burst out laughing and tried to speak saying, "Hahahaha, I'm sorry Sunset but that freak out was just priceless. Hahaha."

"Welp it looks like I didn't think this through as well as I thought," said Sunset as she now wondered about what other reactions and situations she would run into that she had not considered.

To School We Go

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"BAHAHAHEHAHA," said Rainbow Dash as she rolled around on the sidewalk still laughing at the business man's reaction to seeing Sunset, "HAHA TALKING DEMON HORSE SERIOUSLY BAHAHAHA."

Sunset on the other hand, or hoof in her case, was feeling annoyed at the man for reacting how he did, at Rainbow for being insensitive right now, and finally at herself for not realizing that something like this might happen. "OK well that stunk.... I never thought about how the people outside of our school would react," said Sunset as she looked concerned.

"Well neither did any of us," said Rainbow Dash as she picked herself up from her laughing fit, "I mean seriously the people in this town are weird. I use my super speed in front of them and Twilight uses her telekinesis all the time in front of people and they don't react AT ALL! But something about talking animals whether it's you or Spike seems to really make them freak out."

"Yeah I guess so.... maybe I should turn human again... at least for the walk to school," said Sunset.

"WHAT! NO WAY! I am not missing out on any more of those hilarious reactions," said Rainbow Dash.

Sunset became even more annoyed at that statement before turning away from Rainbow Dash as she closed her eyes and had an angry look cross her face as she said, "I am not doing this for your entertainment Dash! I am doing this because I feel better about being a pony then I do about being a human!" She then opened her eyes only to see that there was now a mother and her child standing in front of her who both had shocked looks on there faces. Not wanting a repeat of what happened with the business man to happen with these people Sunset put on her most friendly and happy face, raised her front hoof in the air to wave, and said, "Hi there!"

Unfortunetly the mother and her child also freaked out and ran away screaming in unison, "AHHHHHH WEIRD HORNED TALKING DOG THING AHHH"

Rainbow Dash once again fell on the ground laughing saying, "HAHAHA SEIOUSLY? HORNED DOG THING? HAHAHAHAHA!"

Sunset Shimmer started to look discouraged as she turned her eyes to ground and had tears form in the corners of them. With pain in her heart she said, "Maybe I should just give up on this whole pony thing.... I wouldn't want to freak anyone else out like this." What Sunset didn't notice though was that Rainbow Dash had now stopped laughing and was looking at her friend concerned. Sunset let a tear fall to the ground as she began saying, "I want to be a," before she said the next part though Rainbow Dash used her super speed to run up to Sunset and scoop her up in her arms, "Rainbow? What are you?"

"Look Sunset I am not letting you turn your back on this. You said you wanted to be a pony today and I am not going to let you change your mind. You wanted me to encourage you when things got tough and I'm sorry I got so caught up in those peoples' reactions and forgot about that...but I'm here to support you now!" said Rainbow Dash as she got a better grip on Sunset and braced herself on the ground.

Sunset Shimmer smiled at her friends kind words before a confused look crossed her face as she said, "Well I am glad your here to help me Rainbow but.... why exactly are you holding me like this because if this is some kind of weird hug to try and cheer me up I'm flattered but I."

Before she could finish though Rainbow Dash said, "This isn't a hug. Look we need to get you to school and I need to make sure no one else sees you and has any weird reactions that shake your confidence so I am going to make sure no one sees you... now hold on tight!"

Before Sunset could respond Rainbow took off with her super speed towards the school. Sunset watched as all the buildings around them turned into a colorful blur as wind began stinging her face. She began to wonder how it is that Rainbow Dash was able to take running like this all the time when she suddenly stopped and Sunset realized they were now standing in front of the Wondercolts statue. "What the how?" said Sunset shocked at the sudden change of location even though she did understand how it happened.

"Looks like my super speed was useful for something besides getting to your place before school. Now come on let's head inside," said Rainbow with a cocky smile on her face.

Sunset then snapped out of her confusion before saying, "Yeah sure... Oh and Rainbow," she said looking at her friend thoughtfully, "Thanks for not letting me give up."

Rainbow simply had a cool but sincere smile cross her face as she said, "No problem that's what friends do now let's go inside."

"Yeah. I just hope everyone at school reacts better then those guys on the street did," said Sunset

Rainbow bent down and put her hand on Sunset's shoulder before saying, "They will." They then continued there walk into the school and as they passed by several students they saw that thanks to there experience with magic they did react better as most of them casually glanced at Sunset, had a brief moment of confusion cross there face before a moment of realization and then acceptance come to them, before they continued walking along.

"See Sunset I told you it wouldn't be so bad," said Rainbow Dash.

Sunset now beaming with a new sense of confidence at seeing theses peoples' reactions, or lack thereof, said, "You were right. After what we went through it feels so good to be accept- OWW," Sunset said as in her excitement she wasn't really looking forward and she bumped into someones leg. She then looked up to see who it was saying sorry as she saw that it was a very familiar face.

"It's cool..... Sunset is that you?" said Flash Sentry as he became confused at seeing this pony with the voice and general look of his former girlfriend and current good friend.

"Umm yeah... It's kind of a long story but basically I missed being a pony like back in Equestria and now I have a way to be a pony here," said Sunset as she had a somewhat embarrassed look cross her face as she was scared to see what Flash's reaction would be.

"Ohh that's cool," said Flash as he had a blush cross his face and looked around awkwardly, "I'm glad you found a way to be happy."

Sunset became concerned as she saw how uncomfortable he looked and said, "You know Flash I understand this is a big adjustment and if you feel uncomfortable around me you shouldn't be scared to say so."

Flash looked at her and said defensively as he waved his hands in front of himself, "Ohhh No No No! It's nothing like that."

"Then what is it," said Sunset as she tilted her head in confusion.

"Well it's just... I know you and Princess Twilight said how your both really magical ponies back home and I didn't think much about it...but now that I am actaully seeing that a girl I used to date really looks like this and realizing that a girl I wanted to date also looks like this right now.... I am now rethinking every life decision I have ever made," said Flash with with an introspective look on his face.

"Ohhh is that all," said Sunset as a relieved look came to her face.

"Well yeah. Wait that's not a big deal to you?" said Flash confused that his statement hadn't upset her even somewhat.

"Not really. I mean now you know how I felt when we first started dating.... no offense it's just when I was a little filly in Canterlot imagining the guy of my dreams he wasn't exactly some kind of weird hairless ape," said Sunset gesturing at Flash.

"Ouch. Well that's a pretty fair point," said Flash he scratched the back of his head with a nervous smile on his face, "Well anyway I'll catch you later Sunset." He then started walking down the hall way and turned a corner away.

"Well that wasn't so bad... I mean he was kind of awkward around me but at least it wasn't really my fault," said Sunset.

"Pffth. Just give him a few days and I bet he might try and get back together with you just like he did at Camp Everfree," said Rainbow with a sly smile on her face.

Before Sunset could respond to that though Flash then poked his head back from around the corner and said, "Ohh and by the way Sunset... you do actually look kind of cute like that," he said with a slight blush and smile on his face, "well gotta go again see yeah."

Sunset also had a blush and a slight smile come to her face as she said, "More like a few seconds." Rainbow was now rolling on the floor laughing once again as Sunset was recomposing herself and getting ready to face the day with a new bit of confidence.

Time For Class

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Sunset and Rainbow continued to walk through the hallway together and Sunset was feeling on top of the world. After all the hardships she faced on the street she was now not only being accepted by her classmates as a pony but her old boyfriend even tried to hit on her, granted she knew he was just trying to get over Princess Twilight and deep down even he knew they shouldn't get back together but that was a conversation for another day. Just as she was pondering all of this the bell signifying that class was about to start rang.

"Wuhh.... time for class already. It feels like we just got here," said Sunset Shimmer.

"Yeah well..... in all honesty since most of the time we are dealing with some sort of magic or social problem so often. I kind of forget this place is a school," said Rainbow Dash.

"Haha, seriously Rainbow?" said Sunset as she smiled and looked over at her friend.

"Well yeah!" said Rainbow as she threw her arms up, "I mean you can't expect me to remember I was just in some boring calculus class when I hear that some magical creature from another dimension is going to conquer the Earth!"

"Hmm I guess that makes sense. I'm just more used to it considering that I actually used to study creatures like that in Celestia's school. So I would go from the "boring,"" she said while raising her two front hooves in the air to make air quotes, "calculus class to a class on magic history that talks about creatures like the sirens, or Tirek all the time," said Sunset.

"Wait Tirek? The guy from that video game you like? I thought Equestria didn't have that kind of stuff," said Rainbow.

"Yeah.... that's abit of a long story... let's just say multiverse theory is weird for now and leave it at that.. we don't want to be late for class," said Sunset.

"Fine," said Rainbow as she drooped down bummed out over the fact that they had to change the subject from cool magic stuff to school again, "Let's go."

They both continued walking until they reached the door to their class and headed in. They both took their seats and saw that Ms. Cheerilee had her back turned to the students as she was writing today's lesson on the blackboard. "Good morning class now today we are going to be learning about the periodic table," said Cheerilee before turning towards the class and saying, "Now before we begin does anyone have any questiooonsss?" she trailed off as soon as she saw Sunset.

She stood there mouth agape in shock for a few seconds before recomposing herself with her trademark trying to keep it together smile and said, "Well if no one else has any questions I think I have a few. Sunset Shimmer why are you a pony today?"

Sunset then blushed somewhat as every member of her class turned to her with anticipated looks on there faces as they all wanted to know that as well but didn't want to ask. "Well basically I was missing how I used to be a pony and so my magic pendant here," she gestured to it with her hoof, "felt my desire and turned me into a pony again," said Sunset as she fidgeted in her desk beginning to feel nervous again.

Cheerilee still having the smile on her face looked over to Sunset and said, "I see. Well I'm glad you're happy with your new self image but... I need to be sure that this will not interrupt class."

Sunset instantly became relieved at hearing that this was an issue of the school work and not anything else, "Oh don't worry Ms. Cheerilee. I have plenty of school supplies from Equestria so I should be able to take notes and stuff just fine, as well as a couple other things. I'm pretty sure I've got everything taken care of," said Sunset with a hopeful smile on her face.

That smile was soon replaced with a look of fear though as Cheerilee approached her desk and her "keeping it together smile" suddenly contorted into a "holding back anger smile" as she said, "That's good to hear because yesterday I had to stay late after school to help clean up after the Canterlot Movie Club attempted to imitate something they saw in some animated Japanese movie they saw and somehow hurled some short of giant boomerang through not only my classroom's window but the windows of three classrooms next time to mine and even more logic defying two from the classrooms across the hall, and when I asked them what they were thinking they babbled something about training to rescue there brother from a demon and ran off. So as you can imagine I am in no mood for anymore problems today," she then locked eyes with Sunset as an icy chill ran down Sunset's spine, "Do I make myself clear?"

Sunset was so scared by these words that she suddenly felt like a little filly who had been caught trying to steal cookies from the royal baker again and without even thinking about it said the first thing that came to mind, "Yes princess," and then did a quick bow at her desk.

Cheerilee's eye slightly twitched at seeing such a response from Sunset but since it was one of respect and understanding she decided not to say anything and smiled saying, "Good." She then moved back to her desk and said, "Now class please take out your pencils and notebooks and start righting this down... now H Hydrogen, He Helium, Li Lith."

She was suddenly interrupted as one student said, "Woah. Cool how are you doing that Sunset?"

Cheerilee looked up to see that the horn on Sunset's head was now glowing a red color and her pencil was not only glowing the same color but floating in mid air. "Oh this," said Sunset moving the pencil higher up so everyone can see while she explained, "It's just a simple levitation spell. Since ponies don't have hands we have to find other ways to do things such as this."

Cheerilee's eye twitched again as she saw her students gawking at Sunset's abilities and she attempted to regain control of the class by saying, "Alright class I know this is interesting but."

Once again she was interrupted as another student spoke up saying, "What's that weird metal pencil you're using?"

Sunset once again moved the pencil into the air saying, "Oh it's nothing. This is just made of a special metal that channels magic really well so it's easy to pick up. Princess Twilight thought I might be a little rusty with my magic so she got me a bunch of beginners magic supplies like this," she said as a slight blush crossed her face as technically all of her school supplies were something you would see in a magic kindergarten rather then at a high school like the one she was in, but that bit of embarrassment quickly washed away as she once again herd to oohs and aahs of her fellow classmates.

Cheerilee's eyes twitched once more as she realized that she wasn't getting control of her students anytime soon so she decided to take the most sensible course of action and said, "Well it looks like Sunset's new state is more distracting then she or I thought," Sunset then had the nervous look return to her face as she was expecting Cheerilee to get mad but instead she continued saying, "However this is not Sunset's fault and it is of course only natural that you would all be curious about these new events... I am going to the teacher's lounge to get some coffee for a few minutes. Feel free to ask Sunset all the questions you have until I get back." She then walked away holding her smile on her face until she got out of the door. She then slumped over tired as she heard all of the students clamoring to be the first to ask their questions. She began walking to the lounge saying, "I swear to god it's one thing after another with these students."

What she failed to notice though was that standing next to the lockers by her class was a girl with puffy orange and yellow hair and wearing a mostly purple outfit that seemed to scream "look at me adore me" who then began walking out of the school with a sinister smile on her face saying, "So Sunset's got a magical pendant that can grant ones desires aye. Well that's good," she said glancing down at the black necklace around her neck with nothing on it but a broken hook and small bit of a red stone on it as a look of anger came to her face, "That's good because she owes me a new one." Her sinister smile once again returned to her face as she exited the school and walked towards two more girls eager to tell them the plan she was forming.

Questions and Clubs

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Unaware of the girls now plotting against her Sunset Shimmer was struggling to deal with her classmates crowding around her to get there questions answered. Feeling embarrassed and overwhelmed she meekly started to say, "Alright everyone one at a time," but it was to no avail as none of them listened to her. As she struggled to think of what exactly she should do, and considered even using a barrier or teleportation spell to get out of all this, an answer was provided for her as she heard a loud whistle come from her right and looked to see who it was.

"ALRIGHT EVERYBODY LISTEN UP!" said Rainbow Dash as she stood on her desk and the entire class looked at her, "SUNSET WILL BE HAPPY TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTIONS BUT YOU GOTTA DO IT ORDERLY," she then gestured to just in front of Sunset saying, "EVERYONE GET INTO A SINGLE FILE LINE IN FRONT OF SUNSET AND ONLY ONE QUESTION PER PERSON." She then looked over at her friend saying, "Is that cool with you Sunset?"

Sunset simply smiled at her friend for retaking control of the situation and she once again felt glad that she had chosen her to help her today. She looked at her and said, "Yeah that's fine. Thanks Rainbow."

Rainbow smiled back at her as she said, "No Prob." They then both looked forward and saw that their classmates had done exactly as Rainbow said and formed a line in front of Sunset. Rainbow then sat back down at her desk with a sly smile looked at everyone saying, "I'll just be here in case anybody does something they shouldn't." She then glared at the line of students as some of them flinched from her gaze before Rainbow just giggled somewhat as she was enjoying this little bit of authority she had.

Sunset chuckled at her friends antics before looking at the line of students in front of her as she gestured for the one in the front to approach her. She instantly recognized him as Snails, one of her former lackeys from when she was evil, as he approached and said scratching the back of his head, "Um well... how is it that you walk on all four so easily because whenever I try to race my dog on all fours he always beats me?"

Sunset was somewhat taken aback by the absurdity of this question but did her best to answer it with a smile saying, "Well Snails ponies naturally walk on all fours, just like your dog, so it's just what we do. In fact when I first turned human I had trouble walking on two legs for awhile, in the same you have trouble walking on all fours to race your dog.... which is apparently a thing you do." She then struggled to keep her smile on her face as the absurdity of what she just said hit her.

Snails didn't seem to notice any of that as he just smiled and said, "Oh cool. That must be why when me and Snips first met you, you fell on your face in the gym after you gave us that speech about how you were gonna take over the school." He then walked away as Sunset blushed and smiled as she didn't like thinking about her past, especially moments like that, and she looked towards the next student and gestured for him to come up and ask his question so she could take her mind off of this.

Several more questions were asked and Sunset answered them to the best of her ability. Most of them were straightforward questions about things like the other spells she could do or how she grooms her fur, all of which were pretty easy, until eventually a young man named Micro Chips approached her and asked, "Um excuse me but is your magic related directly to your nuero-electrical energy or is it a completely separate function?"

Sunset was stunned as she went from the incredibly weird question from Snails, to the simple questions of the others, and now all the way to the other end of the spectrum with this insanely well thought out and technical question that she had never considered herself. She began nervously fidgeting as she said, "Well....Umm Equestrian science isn't exactly on par with Earth science so I don't think they even know about nuero-electrical energy..... but I could be wrong because biology was never my strong suit and well...I'll have to get back to you." A nervous smile and blush then came to her face as she looked at Micro Chips and while he seemed a little disappointed he simply shrugged and exited the line which couldn't really be called a line as now the only person left in it was Fluttershy as she approached Sunset.

A little surprised to see her friend in the line Sunset looked at her and said, "Hey Fluttershy. You do know that you didn't need to stand in line right? I'm happy to answer questions from you or the other girls whenever."

"Umm well it's just that since you were taking questions now it seemed like a good time," said Fluttershy as she looked away from Sunset nervously.

"OK but even if you did want to ask a question now why did you wait in the back of the line? You could have easily just raised your hand when I was organizing everyone and I would have let you go first," said Rainbow Dash.

Fluttershy looked up at Rainbow Dash and said, "Oh goodness no. I would never ask to get special privilege for being anyone's friend and well," she paused and looked down nervous once again, "I sorta needed some time to hold myself back so I could talk to Sunset without running up to pet her again."

Both Rainbow and Sunset were stunned at that last part but quickly accepted it as they both know how much trouble Fluttershy was having with this. Sunset looked at her friend and with an understanding and reassuring smile said, "It's fine Fluttershy. Now what is your question?"

"Well it's kind of related to petting you...Um well the Canterlot Animal Lovers Club is meeting today after school and I know you get a little embarrassed when I pet you earlier but would you come and let them see you anyway? I promise that they'll stop petting you if you get uncomfortable and one of our members is also a member of the cosmetology club so we can give you a new mane and tail style if you want.... not that anything is wrong with the one you have now I just thought if you wanted a change of pace and well would you please come?" said Fluttershy as she nervously fidgeted and looked at Sunset.

"Well Fluttershy I-" said Sunset as she was preparing to turn down her offer but as soon as she saw Fluttershy's pleading eyes she forgot about that and without even thinking about it said, "-would love too," as a less then genuine smile formed on her face.

Fluttershy giddely smiled and said, "Ohhh thank you thank you thank you Sunset! I am so happy I could just hug you, but if I do I might end up breaking and petting you so I'll tell the club meeting. Still though thank you thank you thank you." She then skipped back to her desk with near Pinkie Pie level of excitement as Ms. Cheerilee finally returned from the lounge with a fresh cup of coffee in her hand.

"Now class has everyone gotten all their excitement and curiosity over Sunset's new change out of their systems?" sad Ms. Cheerilee as she approached her desk and she was greeted by a chorus of "Yes Ms. Cheerilee" from her students. "That's good to here now to get back to the lesson," she said as she sat down and reopened her notebook, "Now continue to copy these down Li Lithium Be Beryllium."

She continued on like this and while Sunset did copy down what she said she wasn't really paying attention to it as she was to busy thinking about what she agreed to. She thought to herself, "Well I guess it will not be so bad. I mean as much as I hate to admit it it felt kind of nice when Fluttershy pet me the other day and they are the Animal Lovers Club so I don't think they will laugh at any involuntary leg kicks or anything. I mean there are worse things that could have happened today."

Meanwhile just outside the school the Dazzlings where discussing there plan.

"So here's how it's gonna go girls. We wait tell is Sunset is alone in front of her apartment and then we lure her into the alley next to it where we take her pendant and use it's power to restore my beautiful voice and once again subjugate this world to our will," said Adagio with a confident grin on her face.

However one of her band-mates, Aria, seemed to disagree as a snide look appeared on her face and she said, "Pffth please why do you get to take the lead on this?"

"Because as we have discussed several times and you seem to never understand. I AM THE LEADER!" said Adagio as she got in Aria's face trying to intimidate her.

As usual though that didn't work as Aria simply blew her bangs out of her face and said, "Yeah the leader who got our pendants destroyed. If anyone should get this new one it should be me." She then crossed her arms smugly as she thought that was a good retort.

"OK Aria I'll bite if you get the pendant and your powers back what will you do with them?" said Adagio.

"Well duh. The problem last time was that as soon as you saw Equastrian magic in this world you dropped everything to get it and got us caught. First thing I'll do when I have my power back is use my voice to make Sunset forget that she ever saw us and then when she's going back to her friends saying "Boo Hoo I lost my pendant" we'll just leave this stupid little town behind and forget about the Rainbooms. With my powers back we'll be able to get whatever we want again and as long as we don't run in to them no one can stop us," said Aria as a satisfied grin began to form on her face.

"Please Aria. You seriously think we can just let them go after what they've done. They need to pay for what they did to us," said Adagio as her face became filled with rage. She then looked up at her band-mates and discovered that they now had looks of concern on there faces so she decided to say another piece of information she found out that she know would convince them to join her side. "Besides while I was looking in that classroom I saw two other Rainbooms in their and they had the same type of pendants on. If we can get to them we can all get our powers back," she said as a fake sympathetic smile came to her face.

"Uhh fine if we can all have our powers back this way than I guess it's the best," said Aria reluctantly.

"Good now let's go and wait for Sunset," said Adagio as she walked towards Sunset's apartment building.

As Aria began to follow behind her to third Dazzling Sonata finally spoke up and said, "Wait but what if Sunset has a club meeting or something and she doesn't come home right away?'

"Ohh please Sonata use your head. You know as well as I do that she isn't in any clubs. After all we've been watching her waiting for a chance to get revenge for months," said Adagio.

"Yeah out of all the ways Adagio's plan can go wrong I don't think it's gonna be that way," said Aria.

Sonata simply shrugged at these responses as they continued to their destination.

Animal Lovers and Unwanted Attention

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The rest of Sunset's classes passed by pretty uneventfully, at least compared to her first class, but she was glad for that as she used the time to mentally prepare herself for the club meeting she was on her way to. As she kept telling herself "It's fine, It's gonna be fine" over and over in her head as she struggled to believe it.

Rainbow Dash saw the distress on her friends face and said, "Come on Sunset it won't be that bad. I mean they're the Animal Lovers club so not only are they not gonna freak out at seeing you they are going to LOVE how you look, it's literally in their name."

"I know... but I'm just feeling a little weird about going into a room just to have people pet me and fawn over me like some kind of pampered poodle," said Sunset as she put extra emphasis on the last two words.

"I guess I understand that... it would be kind of weird to be treated like that but Fluttershy said all you had to do was tell her your uncomfortable and they'd stop whatever they were doing," said Rainbow as she smiled at Sunset trying to reassure her.

"Yeah... but you saw how I crumbled when Fluttershy asked me to come to this meeting and you know how happy this is going to make her. I'm not sure if I'm gonna have the heart to tell her or any of her club friends to stop and besides..." said Sunset as she trailed off and looked down at the ground embarrassed before finishing.

"Besides what?" said Rainbow looking at her friend confused.

"Well it's just," Sunset began saying as a blush overtook her face, "When Fluttershy was petting me in my apartment it did actually feel kind of nice before I noticed the whole leg kicking thing happened and I am just scared that I will enjoy the petting to much and not notice that I am kicking my leg, or twitching my ear, or any other embarrassing thing." Sunset then looked at Rainbow Dash for comfort only to see that she had a grin on her face and was stifling laughter. Sunset then sarcastically said, "I'm glad you understand how serious my problem is."

Rainbow Dash then gave up and let out a quick laugh saying, "BAHAHAHA, I'M SORRY BUT BAHAHAHA!" She then placed her hand on her knees and as she laughed and took a few deep breaths trying to compose herself before saying, "Hahahahe, sorry Sunset it's just the idea of you kicking your leg or something again is just hilarious....No offense."

Sunset simply shied and said, "None taken... I thought I was done saying that."

Rainbow Dash finally finished composing herself and stood up straight as she said, "Seriously though Sunset I'll be there to stop any embarrassing thing you don't notice and besides again they are the ANIMAL LOVERS CLUB! I doubt any of them are going to laugh at any weird thing you do while getting petted."

Sunset then flatly looked at her and said, "Great now all I have to worry about is you laughing and being to distracted to help me."

"Oh come on Sunset like I'm gonna uncontrollably laugh to the point where I don't help you," said Rainbow as she looked at Sunset and saw she still had the flat look on her face and remembered how she got caught up laughing on the street earlier that day, "OK I at least promise to do my best not to laugh this time."

Still maintaining the flat look on her face Sunset looked at her and said, "Pinkie Promise."

After a moment of reluctance Rainbow Dash said, "Fine. Cross my heart and hope to fly stick a cupcake in my eye."

It was only then that Sunset let her face relax and had a slight smile as she said, "Thanks. Seriously though Rainbow it means a lot to me that you're staying after school to help me here to."

Just as they both arrived in front of the door to the club Rainbow Dash said, "No problem. I've already helped you out all day today and this is just like another hour or so. I don't see how this can be any worse."

Just as she said this though the door to the club opened in front of them as a familiar face completely looked past Sunset towards Rainbow Dash as he said, "Hey Rainbows. You know you didn't have to come to this rinkeydink club meeting if you wanted to spend time with me."

Rainbow Dash sighed as she and Sunset walked into the club room and she begrudgingly said, "Hey Zephyr. I wouldn't expect you to be in the animal lovers club."

"Oh I'm not. You see it's a terrible terrible thing. My fungshway club was disbanded by Principal Celestia. Apparently it was too forward thinking and free spirited for her little in the box school activities list," said Zephyr Breeze as Fluttershy noticed that they had entered the club and walked over to them.

"Oh Rainbow Dash can I talk to you for a minute," said Fluttershy as she grabbed Rainbow Dash's hand and led her to the side before she started quietly saying, "I don't know what kind of lie Zephyr told you but the reason he is here is because no one wanted to join his club and I didn't think he should be alone. Can you do me a favor and spend some time with him while me and the other club members work with Sunset?"

"WHAT YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS-" Rainbow started saying before she looked over at Zephyr and saw that his fake confidence had melted away to a very depressed look for a few seconds and she said, "UHHH FINE. What is it with your family and doing those faces to get what you want."

Fluttershy simply smiled as she made her way over to Sunset and Rainbow begrudgingly walked over to Zephyr.

Fluttershy stood in front of Sunset and said, "Alright the club is ready for you. Follow me over to the grooming table where everyone else is waiting if you don't mind."

Sunset feigned a smile and said, "Yeah no problem." Meanwhile she was internally freaking out as now her buffer zone, Rainbow Dash, was setting on the sidelines and reading the latest Daring Do while pretending to listen to whatever the hay Zephyr was talking about. In her head she said to herself, "There is no way anyone is having a worse time right now."

Meanwhile though next to Sunset Shimmer's apartment three girls where crouching in alley waiting for her to show.

"Adaaagggio. I'm cold and hungry," said Sonata as she wined over there situation.

"We're always cold and hungry now that we don't have our powers to help us out," said Aria, annoyed as always.

"Will you two idiots shut up already and just sit quietly. Sunset could walk by any minute." said Adagio as her angry eyes remained fixed on the side walk in front of them.

"But it's been like twenty minutes.... are you sure she didn't join a club or anything?" said Sonata looking at Adagio.

"Yeah as much as I hate to admit it it seems like Sonata might have actually been right here," said Aria as she also turned her gaze to Adagio.

Adagio briefly turned her gaze from the sidewalk and glanced at her two partners saying, "Look I know we have had some bad luck since the Rainbooms beat us but I mean come on. What are the odds that she joins a club on the exact same day we plan to ambush her," she then turned her gaze back to the sidewalk as she said, "Trust me she is going to walk by here any minute."

The other two sirens sighed and turned their gaze to the sidewalk as well as they continued waiting for their prey to show up.

A Furry Pony and Sleepy Sirens

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Sunset continued walking with Fluttershy to the grooming table as she tried to calm herself and mentally prepare herself for what she was about to face. Once she got closer to the table she looked around and saw some of the other members of the Animal Lovers Club and while she did recognize some of them, Lotus Blossom, Bulk Biceps, and a few other people she had seen around school, none of her other close friends where their. "Well that's good. At least if this is bad I don't have to worry about any of the others giggling like they did at the apartment," thought Sunset.

It was at that point that she and Fluttershy finally arrived in front of the grooming table and Fluttershy looked around saying "Hello everyone," she then gestured towards Sunset as she continued saying, "This is Sunset Shimmer, the girl I told you about and she has graciously volunteered to be our animal to pet and pamper today and as such I expect you all to do whatever you can to make her comfortable do you understand?" They then all said, "Yes Fluttershy," as if she was a teacher or something as just as Sunset was wondering what exactly the innocent and quite Fluttershy did to command all of these people's respect Fluttershy turned to her and smiled saying, "Alright now if you don't mind could you please hop on the grooming table?"

"Um sure no problem," said Sunset as she bent down to prime her jump and noticed some of the club member awwing at her she looked like a dog getting ready to hop on a couch. She did her best to ignore them though as she hopped onto the table, but unfortunately it was more slippery then she thought and as soon as she landed she slipped off her hooves and involuntarily laid down on the table to which she was greeted by another chorus of "awwsss" and "so cutes." Already she could tell that this was going to be a bad time.

Meanwhile in the corner of the room

Rainbow Dash tried to read the latest Daring Do book in order to help her get through having to sit there while Zephyr blabbered his usual nonsense. Unfortunately it wasn't going well for her as Zephyr said, "You know no one in this school really gets me Rainbows, I mean they are all just so wrapped up in their in the box thinking that they don't see all the magic in the air."

"Ah ha," said Rainbow Dash disinterested.

"And I'm not talking about this weird horse or whatever magic you and my sister have, I'm talking the magic among people like what connects us all to each other and the things around us," said Zephyr

"Ah ha," said Rainbow Dash slightly aggitated as at this point she had run out of sympathy for Zephyr and was hoping he'd take the hint.

Unfortunately he didn't as he reached his hand up and moved her book down saying, "You know Rainbows I feel like their is a special magic between us right now and I wouldn't want some dusty old book getting in the way of that."

Rainbow stood up at this and with pure rage in her eyes simply looked at Zephyr saying, "You do realize that with my super speed I could go full Star Platinum and hit you in the face like fifty times in like three seconds flat right?"

Instead of the looking nervous or scared like Rainbow Dash expected though he just looked confused as he said, "Star who now? Is that one of Sunset's friends from the horse world or something?"

"It's someone from one those animated Japanese shows I watched abit of with Scootaloo and her friends, the point is though he is someone you do not want to mess with so if I were you I would just go back to letting me read while you say whatever you gota say," said Rainbow Dash as she attempted to raise the book back up to her face only to have Zephyr once again lower it.

"Now now Rainbows there is no need for these empty threats. If you want to touch my beautiful face all you have to do is say so," said Zephyr as he closed his eyes and a smug smile formed on his face.

Rainbow Dash simply put her hand on forehead in frustration as she said, "Good grief."

Meanwhile back at the grooming table

Sunset watched as one of the students reached his hand and began scratching behind her ear to once again produce the ohhs and awws from the others as she started to inch herself back. She looked at Fluttershy and started saying, "Fluttershy I ah-," but before she could finish Fluttershy picked up on the embarrassed tone of her voice and began rushing around the table and whispering to the other students.

She then looked at Sunset and said, "Now Sunset before you say anything let's get the official club stuff started first, then you can say whatever you have too. Now Bulk Biceps is our expert animal masseuse who knows exactly where to pet any kind of animal to relieve its stress."

Bulk Biceps then stepped forward, pulled a piece of paper out of one pocket, a pair of glasses which he then put on out of the pocket, and then he said looked at the paper, "Yeah so, Fluttershy told me about the whole leg kicking thing you just did so based on that I figured that your basic muscle and nerve structure is at least relatively similar to that of a dogs so I used that as my starting point, then when I saw you this morning I took note of your proportions and how you moved and used that to determine the exact position of certain muscles and nerves and how they differ from a dogs," he then put his paper in front of Sunset to show several highly detailed sketches of her with several muscle fibers and tissues overlaid over them. As Sunset was stunned by this he then continued saying, "I'm glad I did that because there are several differences in how your legs move and how you carry yourself relative to how a dog does so if I had done the usual dog massage you wouldn't get as much tension relief as you would have otherwise. If my calculations are correct the best place to start would be the base of your neck." He then began to reach for it

Sunset started saying, "That's is interesting buuuuuut." She trailed off as Bulk Biceps actually started petting her neck and she felt any cares or worries about this whole ordeal melt away as a warm smile overtook her face.

Fluttershy sensing this change in Sunset and wanting to capitalize on it said, "And since we usually have treats for the animals I bought some of your favorite snacks," she then pulled out a bowl of crackers with spray cheese on them and handed them to another club member saying, "and Roseluck here can feed them to you while you relax."

Roseluck then put one of them in front of Sunset as she laid down and ate it while Bulk continued the massage. Her eyes then closed as the smile on her face grow wider and she said, "Ah ha."

"Oh and Lotus Blossom here is the member of the cosmetology club I mentioned earlier. She can style your tail while Bulk pets your back. Is all that OK Sunset," said Fluttershy.

Sunset gave no response to any of this though as she simply laid on the table in a coma of pure contentment.

Fluttershy then squeed in excitement at how well this was going when she suddenly heard what sounded like someone going "ora ora ora" and she turned to see Zephyr rubbing a bruise on his face and Rainbow Dash walking up to the petting table agitated.

Rainbow then slammed her hands on the table and looked at Sunset saying, "Come on Sunset I think it's time to got."

Sunset's head barely moved as she said, "Five more minutes," and then touched one of her hooves to Rainbows nose as if it was some kind of snooze button.

It was only then that Rainbow actually looked around and saw all the treatments she was getting. She then thought, "Oh no. She's gone full on pampered poodle. Now she'll never want to leave!" She was about to speak up and try to snap Sunset out of it when she saw just how peaceful her face looked and just couldn't bring herself to ruin it. She then begrudgingly turned and walked back to Zephyr as he attempted to lean against the table and look cool while hiding the pain he was feeling.

"Thanks for the love tap Rainbows but I'm not sure if we should do stuff like that in front of my sister..... maybe we should go back to how it was before with you reading the book and me just talking about my fabulous life," said Zephyr as a brief bit of nervousness crossed his face and he waited for Rainbows answer.

Rainbow Dash was grateful that Zephyr seemed to understand what she wanted, even if she did have to beat it into him, as she said, "Yeah sure. I guess I can set and listen for a few more hours I mean it's not like anyone is waiting for me or Sunset."

Meanwhile in the alley by Sunset's apartment

Sonata laid on a pile of garbage fast asleep while Aria was sitting up on the garbage and Adagio remained in her initial spot to watch for Sunset.

"Alright Adagio I think this night has gone far enough. We've been waiting for over an hour, Sonata is fast asleep, and I'm not to far behind her. We should just go I mean we can always try this plan again another night," said Aria.

Adagio then turned to Aria and with bloodshot eyes, either from being tired or being angry or both Aria wasn't sure, said "Exactly we have been waiting for over an hour which means we've come to far and I am not giving up!" she then turned back to the street and said, "She'll be here and I'm not gonna miss it even if it takes another hour or two or ten I AM NOT GIVING UP!"

Unfortunately for Adagio Aria dozed off during her speech and never got to hear the end of it as Adagio kept muttering "She'll be here," over and over again to herself.

The Pranking Pony and A Siren Finally Sees Her Goal

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After several long hours of having to power through Zephyr's nonsense Rainbow Dash finished the Daring Do book as she stood up saying, "Oh my gosh that was so AWESOME! The way Daring Do tricked Caballeron and his men into triggering all the booby traps before she even set foot in the temple so she could just waltz in and take the idol without any trouble was just so cool. I mean just walking in and taking it like that is just so.... you know." She then turned to Zephyr with a huge smile on her face looking for confirmation.

Unfortunately she was looking at the wrong person as he scratched the back of his head in confusion and said, "Yeah that sounds neat Rainbows... her beating Cabalala or whatever."

Rainbow then frowned as she flatly said, "You've never read a single one of the books have you?"

Zephyr began saying, "They are on my list of books to read.... it's just every time I get ready to read one some new art gallery book comes out and I have to drop everything. You know Rainbows you could learn alot from the avant-garde works from around the-." He then stopped as he looked at Rainbow Dash and saw a look of pure rage on her face as he backed away and simply said, "Please don't do the ora ora thing again."

Rainbow Dash allowed her rage at Zephyr's pretentious comments to stew for a few more seconds before she just sighed and said, "No. Guess I'm just gonna have to wait until tomorrow to talk about the book with Twilight, anyway I'm gonna see how Sunset's doing."

Rainbow Dash started walking over to the grooming table as she started to notice that most of the other club members where now backed away from the table with proud smiles on their faces. She began saying, "So it looks like you guys are done so how was it Sunseeeeet-," she began to trail off as she looked at Sunset standing on the table as not only was her mane and tail now in a different style but they along with her coat were actually glowing with what appeared to be various sides of a gem stone all across her body.

Sunset then looked at Rainbow as a content smile came across her face and she said, "Ah Rainbow Dash. Well what do you think of my new look?"

"It is um... certainly shiny," said Rainbow Dash as she began looking at some of the beauty products on the table wondering to herself, "What the heck kind of shampoo did they use for this?"

Sunset didn't seem to notice any of Rainbow's confusion as she maintained her smile and said, "Indeed. I feel like a freshly polished gem, in fact I feel even better than that. I feel like a total princess."

Upon saying this a pair of large feathery wings folded outward from Sunset's back as she looked at Rainbow smiling even bigger.

Rainbow Dash simply stared mouth agape at this for a few seconds before she began to spin around confused and agitated saying, "WHAT! OK hold on Princess Twilight said you ponies can only become alicorns after doing some awesome feat to prove you're worthy and not that you haven't done some awesome things Sunset but how the heck do you suddenly sprout wings now of all times, not to mention this weird gemy crystaly thing you got going here with your coat it's almost like you're trying to shock me here." Suddenly Rainbow looked back at Sunset as she saw a snicker appear on her face and she began laughing.

"Hahaha! Shoot I was hoping to keep you going for at least a little longer," said Sunset.

"Wait seriously? This was a prank?" said Rainbow Dash.

"Yup," said Sunset with a smug grin on her face.

"But I thought you weren't really the pranking type?" said Rainbow.

"Yeah well I can't really take credit it was Fluttershy's idea," said Sunset Shimmer.

"Wait. Seriously?" said Rainbow looking at Fluttershy in confusion, "What the heck did I do to you?"

Fluttershy then had abit of an uncharacteristically stern look on her face as she said, "It's not what you did to me. It's what you did to Sunset. While we were grooming her she told us about her day today and I was just shocked at some of your behavior. She needed your help today and you spent half the time laughing at the hardships she faced and just enjoyed the commotion."

"But I apologized for that and spent the rest of the day helping her out.. I even stayed after school and hung out with your brother for her!" said Rainbow Dash as Zephyr briefly opened his mouth to protest at her last comment only to then close it again as he realized it wasn't a good idea to shift this argument towards him after what Rainbow did earlier.

"Yes but you still laughed at her and got distracted way to easily and besides," Fluttershy began saying before a unnerving and sadistic smile appeared on her face as she continued saying, "when someone laughs at you it's only natural for you to throw a little chaos into their lives to give yourself a good laugh and teach them a lesson."

Rainbow was a little shocked at this statement before she simply stared blankly at her before saying, "OK firstly you've been hanging out with that foreign exchange student way to much cause I think he's having abit of a negative effect on you."

Fluttershy then reverted back to her normal self as she looked down blushing and saying, "I guess Dissy's changed me a little but I've changed him as well to help bring out his sweet side. In fact the other day he actually tried to throw me a tea party and-"

Rainbow Dash then interrupted her as she said, "Yeah yeah. We heard enough about all that 'sweetheart on the inside' stuff when you first introduced him to us and he kept trying to mess with us but can we get back to the task at hand for a second here."

"Oh yeah. Sorry." said Fluttershy as her blush got more intense.

Rainbow ignored this and turned back to Sunset saying, "Secondly how the heck did you do this anyway?"

"Oh it's nothing really just a simple illusion spell... hang on I'll undo it now so you can actually see what the new style Lotus Blossom here gave me looks like," said Sunset as her horn glowed and she briefly surrounded herself with a red aura that soon dissipated revealing her true appearance.

"So what do you think?" asked Sunset.

Rainbow was tempted to make some sort of clever or caddy remark to get back at Sunset for the pranks but after thinking how Fluttershy might retaliate she decided to let it go said, "It looks nice, alot like your hair in human form."

"Yeah actually that's what I was going for since well as much as I love being a pony again I did kind of like the style the portal gave me when I turned human, though that does make me wonder what my hair will be like when I turn human but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. On the plus side though I also got my tail trimmed alittle shorter since it did feel alittle weird suddenly having that weight back there again. This way I get used to it while it’s lighter and then when it grows back I can decide to change it later if I feel like,” said Sunset as she looked back at her tail and smiled.

“Well it does look pretty cool. Anyway I guess now that all your treatments are done we can head out,” said Rainbow as she gestured to the door.

“Yeah sure. I feel plenty relaxed and it seems like the club has finished everything right Fluttershy?” said Sunset as she looked over to her friend for confirmation and noticed that several of the club members were looking disappointed at the fact she was leaving already.

Fluttershy saw this and said, “Now everyone we knew Sunset would have to leave eventually and we’ve already done all of our normal animal grooming and pampering activities so of course she can now leave,” everyone shied disappointed at this before Fluttershy continued saying, “However that doesn’t mean that Sunset might not come to anymore of our meeting if she feels like it. Would you be OK with that?” she asked looking at Sunset.

“Well while this was relaxing and way better than I thought it was gonna be I don’t think it should be a weekly thing,” said Sunset as she thought for a moment before saying, “Tell you what, how about I stop every month when my mane gets too long and you all can trim and groom it and whatever else you want… sort of like Rarity’s frequent spa trips.”

Everyone in the club cheered at this news as Fluttershy got excited too and said, “That would be just perfect,” before she ran up and hugged Sunset to her.

Sunset then hugged her back before Fluttershy started petting her back. After a few seconds of endulging her she said, “Um Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy then backed away embarassed as she said, “Oh sorry, I guess I haven’t gotten it all out of my system yet. Anyway you and Dash can take off now while the other club members and I start packing everything up.”

Rainbow Dash then stepped forward and said, “You know Fluttershy I could probably get all this stuff packed up for you in ten seconds flat.”

Rainbow Dash started to walk forward in order to demonstrate this before Fluttershy stopped her while waving her hands in protest and frantically saying, “OHNONONO DASH,” she then calmed down before she continued saying, “I’m sorry it’s just some of our grooming brushes are very fragile as they are ergonomically designed with specific animals in mind and well when you are rushing at things-”

Rainbow Dash then interrupted her as she said, “Say no more I get what you mean. So anyway see you tomorrow Fluttershy."

Rainbow and Sunset then started to make their way towards the door only for Zephyr to intercept them saying, "See you later Rainbows. You know maybe next time Sunset comes to the club meeting thing again you and me could hang out some more. You know you could read while I give you the run down about whats happening with me again."

Rainbow was about to shoot this idea down but when she looked at Zephyr she once again saw his confidence briefly break and reveal a sad look on his face and she mentally sighed and with a only somewhat fake smile said, "Sure why not."

Zephyr then had a brief excited look come to his face before he put his confident face back on and said, "Cool. Cool. So yeah see ya Rainbows."

"See ya," said Rainbow.

She and Sunset then both headed out the door to the club and walked through the halls until they came out the main exit of the school.

"Geez it's already dark out. What time is it anyway," said Sunset.

"I don't know, let me just check my phone and... oh man it's already seven fifty five if I don't hurry and get home soon, I'll miss the new episode of Power Ponies the Animated Series," she then turned to Sunset, "Look I know that i'm fast but not even I could make it to your apartment and then my house with enough time to get snacks and stuff ready before the episode starts at eight. Do you think you'll be cool walking home all by yourself?"

Sunset thought about this for a minute before she smiled at Rainbow and said, "Yeah I think I'll be fine. You've helped me out enough today and besides I don't think there is really gonna be anyone on the street to react negatively this late."

After that Rainbow appeared to turn into a blur as she said, "Cool thanks Sunset," and took off for her house.

Sunset smiled at her friends antics as she began walking back to her place. Just like she thought there was no one else walking around and before she knew it her apartment was in sight. As she walked by the alley near her apartment though she heard a very strained but familiar voice say, "I am here for it."

Sunset turned in the direction of the voice and saw the three sirens who had wreaked havoc at the Battle of the Bands. The two she remembered being named Aria Blaze and Sonata Dusk where both sleeping on the trash but the one named Adagio Dazzle was standing and staring at her with blood shot eyes. Sunset became alittle unnerved with there sudden appearance, and the crazed look on Adagio's face and said, "Adagio, what are you-"

Before she could finish though Adagio interrupted her and said, "Magic pendant. I need that magic pendant. Give it to me. The one you found. I need my power."

Upon hearing how Adagio was talking Sunset forget she was technically and enemy and said, "Are you OK."

Then even though they were fast asleep Adagio thought she heard Aria say, "I think your rage broke Adagio."

Adagio then turned to her and yelled "SHUT UP SLEEPY ARIA!"

"Um what was that!" said Susnet, her concern for the siren now mounting.

Adagio then turned back to Sunset and yelled, "I'M NOT CRAZY! YOU'RE CRAZY! ESPECIALLY YOU ARIA!"

Sunset then attempted to calm her down saying, "You do know she's asleep right?"

Adagio didn't seem to hear that though as she reached out her hand and, "Magic pendant hand now please."

Sunset then backed away now concerned for her own safety and said, "Yeah um I don't think it would actually work for you because it's basically an element of harmony so unless the link between me and it is severed by say me changing to no longer be worthy of it or it going to another dimension it should only work for me."

Upon hearing this Adagio's eyes turned pure red as if she had her rage magic back as she said, "No," and started moving towards Sunset who then backed away even further. "No!" she repeated before suddenly her eyes turned pure white and she collapsed on the ground from exhaustion.

Sunset then moved towards the passed out siren as she thought "OK what should I do about this? I mean she seemed insanely angry or maybe angrily insane? But then again I was like that at one point so maybe they can be reformed to, but then again I wasn't like that for over a thousand years... maybe I'll have to use it." She then looked at her backpack as she remembered something else in there that Princess Twilight had given her in case something like this happened. Before she could think further about this though Adagio moved in her sleep and her hand brushed against Sunset's hoof causing her power of empathy to activate as she saw Adagio's memories and emotions, and what she saw made tears begin to form in her eyes.

Not So Dazzling Beginnings and a Mysterious Stallion

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Over 1000 years ago

Adagio awoke to the usual sight of her partners Sonata and Aria still sleeping in the grassy field to which they had decided to spend the night. She referred to them as partners because simply put they had lived and been together for as long any of them could remember and the exact nature of their relationship was something none of them could recall. She didn't think they were truly blood related and yet they had a repartee with each other that was not unlike that of sisters. Lately however Adagio viewed them more as daughters then sisters as she felt she was the one who needed to look after them and keep them safe now that so much had changed.

Before she could dwell on these thoughts though Sonata opened her eyes and yawned before stretching her hooves and tail saying, "Morning girls, what's for breakfast?"

At hearing this Aria began waking up and stretching saying, "Probably just some stupid scraps again. We haven't been able to get anything good since those ponies showed up and started taking everything."

Sonata the ever innocent one sat up confused at this and said, "I still don't understand. We've been living here like forever and those ponies only showed up a few years and whenever we get near one they call us monsters and say we shouldn't be in "Equestria" whatever that means," she then looked up at Adagio as she became saddened and asked, "Are we monsters?"

Adagio instantly felt pain that Sonata would even think such a thing as she looked at her and said, "Of course we aren't monsters..... it's just that," she thought for a moment at what she could say to cheer her up before a reassuring smile came to face as she said, "some creatures like these ponies are just scared of things they haven't seen before and considering that me, you, and Aria are the only ones of our kind that WE remember ever seeing of course they haven't seen any of us before either, but we aren't monsters and I'm sure even those ponies will relieve that eventually. Who knows maybe the next group of ponies we meet will accept us and let us live with them."

"Really?" asked Sonata with a hopeful grin.

"Wait seriously?" said Aria as her normally bitter tone melted for a moment at hearing this declaration.

Adagio seeing a look of joy and hope on her partners faces that she hadn't seen in so long could say nothing other then, "Yes," as she saw their hopeful smiles grow wider while hoping that what she said was the truth.

The three began flying towards the horizon as Adagio thought, "Please let us find something good some fruit, fish, squirrels! Anything really. I mean seriously these ponies seem to eat exclusively plants so why do they insist on taking in animals anyway?"

Eventually they came to the top of a hill and as they looked over what they once remembered being a lush field good for hunting, unfortunately it was no longer how they remembered.

"Uhhh seriously! Why the heck do they need to build so many villages. Can't they leave us anything," said Aria exasperated as this was now an all to familiar change for them at this point.

Sonata looked at the annoyed Aria and then to Adagio who seemed to be worried about what they should do next. She decided that it was her turn to try and cheer everyone up as she said, "Maybe this village has ponies who will accept us like you said earlier, right Adagio?"

Adagio turned to Sonata wanting to explain that they should be cautious and avoid the village for now but when she looked at her she saw an innocent and hopeful face of a girl who was trying to help and without thinking she said, "Maybe. We should go and check it out."

Sonata gleefully clapped her hooves together as she began flying down towards the village while Aria followed after her with a look of doubt on her face but a glint of hope in her eyes. Finally Adagio gulped and she silently prayed that their hopes would not be crushed before flying to the lead of the group and down towards the village.

It didn't take them long to reach the village and it took even less time for Adagio to notice that any pony who saw gave them dirty and angry looks. She turned back to Sonata and Aria who hadn't seemed to notice this yet as she attempted to think of an excuse to get them to leave before any pony took action against them.

Unfortunately she was to late as her side was struck by rock and she turned to see a crowd of ponies each ready to throw more stones at them before a stallion spoke up saying, "YOU MONSTERS GET OUT OF HERE RIGHT NOW!"

Sonata moved forward saying, "We're not monsters... we're just trying to- OW."

She was interrupted by a rock hitting the side of her face before the mare who trough it said, "NICE TRY BUT WE WON'T FALL FOR YOUR TRICKERY!"

Aria grew angry and prepared to charge towards the crowd before Adagio put her hoof on her shoulder and said, "No. You'll just be proving them right," she then bent down and helped the dazed but thankfully not injured Sonata up before saying, "Come on let's just go."

They began flying towards the end of the town as the crowd threw more rocks at them and the head stallion said, "YEAH YOU BETTER RUN BEFORE THE PILLARS SHOW UP! THERE GONNA GET RID OF ALL YOU FREAKS!"

The three made it to just outside the village before they all collapsed on the ground. Sonata curled on the ground and began crying and Aria raised her head and opened her mouth to say something, only to then follow her lead and begin crying herself. Adagio looked at the ground as tears began to form in her eyes as well and she thought, "What can I say to make this better? I let them get their hopes up and now those stupid ponies crushed them! If only we could find just one pony who accepted us."

Those thoughts were soon interrupted as she heard a voice say, "My word! Are you ladies all right?"

Adagio looked up to see a tall gray stallion with a black mane and tail looking down at them with what appeared to be genuine concern on his face before saying, "Umm we're fine just a few scratches that's all."

"Now now no need to put on a brave face. I saw what those villagers did to you and I am simply appalled at their behavior. Three young ladies such as yourselves don't deserve such treatment," said the stallion as he began walking towards them and helping them up.

As she was being lifted up Sonata sniffled before saying, "Wait you don't think we are monsters?"

"Goodness no. I can assure I'm not as foalish as those ponies in the village and have no intention of treating you as badly as they did," said the stallion as a huge smile formed on Sonata's face at hearing this before he continued saying, "Now do you three have a safe place to go to and recover?"

As he helped Aria up she groaned and said, "I guess we will be sleeping in another field tonight and hope no pony finds us just like every night now."

"Oh my that simply can not do....listen I live a castle just north of here and my wife and son are currently visiting Canterlot so I'm all alone and there is plenty of space for you all. I would be more than happy to let you spend the night to make up for how those other ponies mistreated you," said the stallion.

Sonata clapped her hooves and smiled at this where as Aria looked somewhat excited before her stomach growled and she blankly looked at the stallion simply saying, "Do you got food for us at this castle to?"

"Why yes of course. I actually have imported several exotic foods from all across the land and you are welcome to try any you desire," said the stallion.

Aria had a content smile on her face as she said, "Sounds good to me. What about you girls?"

"It sounds amazing to me! This is exactly what we wanted right Adagio?" said Sonata.

Adagio simply stood there taking this all in. She began thinking, "This strange pony came out of no where and is the only one who has given us a chance so far, it seems to good to be true. It has to be to good to be true I need to keep them safe." After she finished that thought though she looked at them and saw how happy they looked and once again she melted as she thought, "As much I want to keep them safe I also want them to be happy and if this guy can help with that, than I should at least give him the benefit of the doubt."

Adagio then said, "Alright," she then bowed her head towards the stallion as she said, "We thank you for hospitality good sir and we would be eternally grateful for your service."

"No need to thank me, I'm just doing what is right," said the stallion as a smile formed on his face. He then turned and began walking away from the village before saying, "Follow me ladies."

The three then began following the stallion before Sonata spoke up saying, "OH! I just realized we never introduced ourselves I'm Sonata Dusk and it is so awesome to meet you! The purple girl in front of me is Aria Blaze."

Aria then let out a, "Sup," as Sonata gestured to her.

"Finally the yellow girl right behind you is Adagio Dazzle," said Sonata.

"It's very nice to meet you, and might I ask what your name is?" said Adagio.

"Oh forgive me for not introducing myself sooner. My name is Silvercoat Neighsay and I do say it is very nice to meet you as well," said Neighsay as a very wide smile formed on his face and he continued saying, "I can assure you this is a meeting neither of us will forget. "

A Nice Dinner...

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Adagio and her partners followed Silvercoat Neighsay as he lead the way and soon a large castle came into view.

"WOW! This place looks amazing! Are you really going to let us stay here Mr. Neighsay?" said an impressed Sonata.

"Indeed I am Ms. Dusk but please let us not be so formal, please feel free to call me Silvercoat and if you don't mind I shall call you and your acquaintances by your first names. If that is OK with each of you that is," said Silvercoat.

Sonata clapped her hooves in delight as she said, "That's definitely good with me."

Aria shrugged her shoulders and coolly smiled as she said, "Meh as long as you got good food at this place I don't care what you call me."

Adagio still feeling reluctant about all this but determined to put that aside for her partners happiness and not wanting to offend this seemingly nice pony respectfully nodded and said, "Of course its fine and once again we thank you for all of this Silvercoat."

"Ahh think nothing of it Adagio it is simply my duty as a gentlestallion, anyway it looks like this little conversation of ours has helped time pass rather quickly as we are here," said Silvercoat before the others looked up and saw they were now standing directly in front of the castles entrance.

Suddenly Silvercoat's horn began to glow as he said, "Just give me a second to undo the lock spell and...." as he paused the door began to glow as well and opened up, "There we are... now then allow me to lead you to dining room so we can get you fed and then perhaps I can hear something else from the lovely Aria besides talk of food," he said with a joking grin on his face.

Aria blushed at this while Sonata giggled and Adagio simply smiled as her doubt about Silvercoat was beggining to slowly fade away as to her it really looked like this guy was as good natured as he seemed.

As they all followed him through the grand halls of the castle they couldn't help but notice the various tapestries and decorative vases that lined them. Adagio was the first speak up as she said, "These are quite nice Silvercoat, where exactly did you get them?"

"Oh those, all over actually I acquired them in my travels to various lands over the years," said Silvercoat.

"That is so cool! Are you an explorer or something?" said Sonata.

"Something like that.... I prefer to think of myself more as a collector, gathering all kinds of trinkets and knowledge from across the world to benefit others," said Silvercoat before he paused to open a door and gestured for the three to enter saying, "and that includes recipes so how about you three make yourselves comfortable while I prepare a feast of some of the greatest foods I have ever encountered."

They all nodded at this as they flew into the dining room and he walked away, seemingly to the kitchen.

As they prepared to set down Aria's stomach once again growled and she flew back and poked her head back out the door saying, "Um not that the whole feast thing sounds bad or anything but how long do you think it will take cause if it's gonna be a while I'd rather just have whatever snacks you have laying around instead."

"Don't worry my dear it will all be ready in just a few minutes," said Silvercoat.

Aria smiled and said, "Cool," before flying back into her chosen seat where she noticed that once again Sonata was giggling before she looked at her and with an annoyed look said, "OK what's funny this time."

Sonata grinned at this and said, "Oh it's nothing.... my dear," before she began giggling again.

Aria blushed as she angrily said, "Yeah he called me dear.... so what!"

"Well between that and him calling you lovely earlier it seems like he has taken quite the liking to you," said Sonata.

"What?! Of course not you heard him earlier he has a wife and son who are away for the night... no way does he mean it like that!" said Aria.

"Well we haven't seen any evidence of that so far so for all we know he just lied so we wouldn't feel uncomfortable, you know a single guy inviting three girls to his place doesn't sound quite right," she then laid on the dining table with her hooves under her chin and her tail in the air in the typical gossipy teenager pose as she continued saying, "So do you think he's cute?"

Aria's blush deepened as she yelled, "I'M NOT COMMENTING ON SOMEONE ELSE'S GUY LIKE THAT!"

They continued bickering like this for sometime while Adagio warmly smiled at them thinking, "Wow! I didn't realize how much I missed there sisterly bickering like this... how long has it been since I last saw it?"

Before she could finish that thought though they heard the door opening and Sonata quickly floated back to her chair as Silvercoat reentered the room levitating several dishes onto the table as he said, "Thank you for your patience ladies, I'm sure you'll find that this food was well worth the wait," it was only then that he looked up at the three and upon seeing Aria's still blushing face and Sonata's failed attempt to hold back a grin he asked, "Is everything alright?"

Sonata let out a little giggle as Aria prepared to say something she would likely regret, as she probably didn't want to let it slip what they had been talking about, Adagio intervened saying, "Oh it's nothing... we were just trying to guess what kind of food you would bring us is all."

"Ah that makes sense," said Silvercoat, "Well wonder no longer ladies as the food is now here so please feel free try whatever you would like first."

Adagio noticed Aria turn to her and silently say, "Thank you," before she began digging into some kind of large pastry dish, while Sonata looked over the table amazed trying to figure out what to pick first. Adagio decided to simply grab what appeared to be a bowl consisting primarily of lettuce but with other fruits and veggies scattered throughout it.

As she ate she was thinking about whether or not she should complement their host now or wait until later when she could comment on multiple dishes but that train of thought was quickly broken as she heard Sonata yell, "OH MY GOSH THIS IS AMAZING!" as she munched on what appeared to be some kind of hard shell with meat, cheese, lettuce, and various things she didn't recognize inside of it before Sonata spoke up again saying, "What is this little peace of heaven?"

Silvercoat simply smiled as he said, "Firstly I'm glad you liked it so much, I wasn't sure what if you ate meat like griffins or strictly plants like us ponies so I decided to make several different dishes to be safe. Secondly that my dear Sonata is called a taco, it's a little dish I picked up the recipe for in a country called Mexicolt. Curios place as both griffins and ponies seem to live there in peace thus producing such foods that mix both diets, to bad more places can't be like that."

Sonata didn't fully listen as she looked down at her plate as a look pure contentment and realization came to her face as if she just found the meaning of life as she said, "Taco," over and over again.

Meanwhile Aria, who just finished devouring the pastry, was attempting to give Sonata a smug look trying to silently say, "Look who he's calling dear now."

Adagio chuckled at all this as she ate and any doubt she had left about this went away and she thought to herself, "This is just absolutely perfect, their is absolutely no way things can go wrong from here."

...And a Not So Nice Reception

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After Adagio finished what Silvercoat told her was a "salad", she decided to try one of these taco things that Sonata seemed to love so much only to discover that she had moved them all to her plate and when she attempted to reach for one she was greeted with an angry hiss that melted back to a look of pure joy as soon as she retracted her hoof and left her to her treasures.

Before she could think about what else to eat Silvercoat spoke up saying, "Well then, now that we have all been properly fed perhaps we should engage in a little dinner chit chat. If that is OK with you all that is?"

Sonata continued wolfing down the tacos thus leaving only Aria, who seemed satisfied after finishing what Silvercoat had called a cake, and Adagio to hear him.

Aria was the first to reply saying, "Yeah that sounds good. I kind of have something I've been wondering."

"Oh of course my dear, ask away," said Silvercoat before he smiled and said, "I'm excited to hear something from you besides talk of food."

Aria had somewhat of a nervous smile as she said, "Then it looks like you're going to have to wait a little longer because I was going to ask how it was that this cake thing filled me up so quickly when I felt like I could eat everything on the table.... and the table just a few minutes ago."

"Oh," said Silvercoat somewhat disappointed.

"You don't have to answer-" Aria began before Silvercoat raised his hoof to her.

"Now now don't worry of course I'll answer after all I went into quite the explanation about Sonata's dish didn't I. Actually your cake has quite the interesting story behind it as well, I actually learned the recipe from Queen Corona herself last time I visited Canterlot. Apparently her eldest daughter has quite the appetite for sweets so she came up with this special blend of sugars and fruit that not only satisfies her easily but is actually relatively healthy so that she will not have any negative side effects from scarfing it down in one sitting like you just did my lady," said Silvercoat as a playful smile came to his face at the last part of his comment.

A blush formed on Aria's face as she said, "That's quite interesting um... good sir."

Adagio smirked at this before deciding to get the idea Sonata had planted in her head cleared up by saying, "If I might ask you something Silvercoat, while your words are very respectful I am a little curios as to why you use such a tone that is so unlike the other ponies we have heard speak thus far."

"Oh that. Well as I said before I am rather close with the royal family and have, in my numerous visits to them in which I report my findings of all the lands I visit, picked up a formal dialect, just be glad I didn't pick up King Apogee's booming royal voice," he said with yet another playful grin on his face.

"Ah I see that makes sense," said Adagio as she gaze Aria a glance that silently said, "See you where right all along," and Aria's blush began to fade away as she resumed her normal cool and confident look.

"Indeed. Anyway since you both asked me questions and it seems like Sonata is well in dispose right now I believe it is my turn to ask you something. Now don't take this the wrong way but what exactly are you three and where do you come from?" said Silvercoat.

The girls looked a little taken aback by this before Adagio spoke up saying, "Well while that is a perfectly reasonable question Silvercoat... I'm afraid we simply do not have an answer for it."

Silvercoat looked confused at this as he asked, "What do you mean?"

Aria spoke up saying flatly, "The fact of the matter is we have never seen another member of our kind before that we remember. We don't remember anything about where any of us were born, any of our parents, or parent since we don't even know for sure if our species has males, or even how we met each other. The earliest memories any of us have are of each other hunting and living together."

Silvercoat looked shocked as he took all of that in for a few moments before saying, "My word... I can't even imagine what it would have been like to grow up so alone."

At this Sonata let a belch out as each of them looked towards her and saw that she had finished all the tacos before her before she smiled and said, "Well I wouldn't say we grew up alone since like Aria said we have always had each other."

Warm smiles formed on Aria and Adagio's faces at hearing such an innocent and kind statement as they both nodded in agreement before Adagio spoke up saying, "She's right. We have stuck by each other no matter what and as long as I have anything to say about it, we always will be together."

Silvercoat was taken aback by this before a smile came to his face as he said, "My my, that is quite the heartfelt statement and such an excellent outlook on life. Well then it appears as though all of you have finished your food so if you would like I can show you to your bed chambers now."

"Awesome," said Sonata as she was in the mood for a nap after all she had eaten. She got up before looking to the others saying, "Come on girls."

"Umm it's still kind of early I'm not sure if I can get to sleep," said Aria a little stunned at the sudden change of topic and potential change of venue.

Silvercoat was quick to remedy this as he defensively raised one of his hooves and said, "Oh but of course you don't have to actually go to sleep now. I just figured it would be good to show you to them now so that when each of you are ready you can go to them whenever you like."

"Oh that makes sense," said Aria as she got up, soon followed by Adagio who also found the sudden change odd but decided not to question it.

They all followed Silvercoat as he led the way down another hall which seemed much more sparsely decorated then the ones they saw earlier.

"How come there aren't as many neat pots and stuff down this way?" asked Sonata.

Silvercoat didn't even turn around as he continued walking and he said, "Oh I just don't like to put to many of my valuables in the guest section, you know how it is somepony walking to the bathroom late at night get's a little turned around and knocks something over."

"Oh I gotcha. You know one time me and Aria-" began Sonata before Silvercoat stopped for a moment before speaking.

He said, "That does sound like quite the lovely story and I do look forward to hearing it, however we are almost to the bed chambers and while Aria might not wish to retire yet I have had quite the long day and wish to do so as soon as I drop you off."

"Oh OK," said Sonata as she was disappointed that she didn't get to finish her story but soon perked up as she saw the hall end with a wooden door that must lead to where they were going to be sleeping.

Silvercoat then opened his door with his magic as he moved to the side and bowed saying, "Right this way my fair ladies."

The three then went through the door and down a small flight of stairs, upon which they noticed something was wrong. Firstly this "bed chambers" did not have a bed or furniture of any kind, secondly it was odd in general that they had to go down stairs to reach it when they had already been on the ground floor, finally and most prevalently the room was in absolute disrepair as several cracks and small wholes lined it's walls. Just as the they turned up the stairs to ask Silvercoat about this they saw the door slam shut and then glow with Silvercoat's magic before it turned into stone and completely blended into the wall.

Sonata flew up the stairs and started knocking where the door used to be and said, "Umm Silvercoat I think something is wrong with this room?"

For a few moments none of them heard a response but soon they heard a voice from above say, "Why off course there is something wrong... there are disgusting monsters in that room."

They all looked up to see Silvercoat's face was now being projected on a large crystal near to top of the rooms nearest wall, before Sonata came back down saying, "Monsters? But... Silvercoat I thought you said-"

But Sonata was interrupted as he once again spoke up saying, "Firstly now that the charade is over I request that you call me by my proper title of Lord Neighsay as it is the only way you creatures should refer to ponies."

"Wait Lord Neighsay?" said Aria as she was struggling to take in this sudden change in their "friends" personality.

"Correct, as in Lord of the village I met you three outside of," said Neighsay as a prideful look overtook his face.

"But what about all that talk about how deplorably the villagers actions where?" asked Adagio as she was now mentally kicking herself for letting go of her doubt over all this.

"Why their actions where deplorable. I mean throwing rocks and hurling insults at such deadly creatures, they are just lucky you were all smart enough not to attack any of them in broad daylight. Moreover they had no idea if you were just simply scouts and were leaving to get the rest of your group for an invasion. That is why I took the steps to learn all of this from you before imprisoning you down here," said Neighsay.

"Why you, WROTTEN JERK!" shouted Aria as she charged at the crystal with all her might only to be knocked back down instantly.

"Sorry ladies but I'm afraid there is no way out. You see this cavern was not actually built into my castle but discovered by the crew I hired to build it and the walls are made of some sort of odd stone none of us had seen before that seems to be resistant to both magic and physical force. Dare I say that not even the Great Starswirl could get out of such a place," said Neighsay with a pleased look on his face.

Sonata's eyes started to water at hearing all of this as she said, "But I thought you said we weren't monsters and that you were our friend."

Neighsay then had a look of disgust come to his face as he said, "And I hated every second of that I had to endure. But it is worth it to rid this land of you creatures so that it can make it a safer place, and one day my son shall do the same and his son and his and son until this land is free of all you monsters. Now if you don't mind I feel as though I have wasted enough time on you so good day to you all." At that his image disappeared and the crystal went blank.

A few seconds passed but to Adagio those seconds felt like an eternity as she saw the sweet and innocent Sonata curl on the floor crying and defeated while the cool but nice deep down Aria had a face filled with rage and eyes filled with sadness as she once again tried to attack the crystal Neighsay had spoken from to no avail. At seeing both of them suffer Adagio was filled with an anger beyond anything she ever felt as she said aloud, since she didn't care who heard her at this point, "Those stupid ponies! It's not bad enough that they take everything away from us and call us monsters but now they pretend to be nice to us for the soul purpose of imprisoning us! I swear girls if we ever get out here we will take them all down!"

At this Aria instantly nodded and Sonata sobbed for a few seconds more before nodding herself and soon after all that they heard a dark enigmatic voice laugh before it said, "Now now girls, why take them down when you can make them bow before you?"

They all turned in the direction the voice came from as they soon saw the farther most wall morph a large door in the middle of it which they reluctantly went through.

On the other they found a room that seemed to be much better maintained with several pillars along the side, a well in the center, and at the very back a mural depicting what appeared to be a dark and twisted pony with both wings and a horn ready to attack. Adagio wasn't really focused on the decor though as she said, "Alright whoever you are... as you can imagine I'm not in a very trusting mood so if you really can help us get back at those fools I suggest you show yourself now or else I'm just going to ignore your pleas."

"My my such a feisty one... very well then," said the voice before a pillar of what appeared to be pure darkness shot out of the well on the floor. Before any of them could comment on this a face formed on the front of the pillar or at least something close to a face as it's eyes and mouth where pure white. "Welcome to the Well of Shade and while I have had many names over the years you may simply call me The Darkness and trust me you do not want to ignore what I have to say."

The End Of The Story and Sunset's Response

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Aria and Sonata were unnerved by the sight of this strange creature calling himself "The Darkness" but after all they had been through Adagio refused to be intimidated by anything as she moved closer to him saying, "Alright Mr. Darkness what exactly do you mean when you say you can make those idiotic ponies bow before us?"

The Darkness then smiled as it said, "Ah good right to the point, I was worried this may take some time when I sensed fear emanating from those two but you... well you seem to be to overflowing with anger to have room for fear."

"Well I've had a rough day today so again, how can you make them bow before us?" said Adagio as her anger began to show on her face.

"Why girls it's simply really. I have power beyond any you have ever seen before, enough to change this entire world into a place where those pathetic creatures will be forced to serve the strong like us," said The Darkness.

Aria was the first of the two to get over her fear as she suddenly moved along side Adagio and started sarcastically saying, "If you're as powerful as that then why don't you just go up there and do it right now?"

"Unfortunately with my great power there comes limits, the main one being that I would be destroyed if I ever set hoof in the light.... unless," said The Darkness as it's began expanding its eyes as if it were trying to get a better look at them.

Sonata then overcame most of her fears as wearily floated forward and asked, "Unless what?"

"Unless I have a host with which to hold me together," said The Darkness.

"A host," repeated Adagio without letting any of her anger melt away.

"Yes a host. You see it's rather simple if one of you agrees to bound with me I will be able to go out there and as my way of saying thank you I shall allow you to use my power for whatever you so choose. Sounds fair to me especially considering that our goals are so similar," said The Darkness as a smirk formed on his face letting everyone know how confident he was that they would accept his deal.

As Aria and Sonata looked at each other trying to fully contemplate what this creature had said to them Adagio floated forward simply saying, "No deal."

The Darkness then looked at her and with a look of pure disbelief as he said, "Excuse me whaaaaat?"

"I said no deal. Look I've had enough of trusting me and my partners fates to others so there is no way I'm letting you possess any of us. I don't know how I'll do it but I'm going to make them bow to us with my own hooves and I don't need some little smoke cloud ordering me around," said Adagio as she turned to fly away from him as Aria and Sonata got ready to follow her.

The Darkness simply looked at her and said, "Of all the countless years I have existed and of all the creatures I met you are the first to ever speak to me in such a manner."

Adagio then looked back at him as she angrily said, "Yeah, so what?"

The Darkness then did something none of them could have expected as it smiled and said, "I like that. You are far more clever then I gave you credit for... I may not have a way to make them bow to you with your own hooves but how about... with your voices."

"Our voices," said Sonata in confusion.

The Darkness them formed some sort of tentacle like arm from his side and resting on said arm were three red gemstones. It then said, "These gemstones were created by disciples of mine many years ago in order for them to be able help me since only one of them could actually be my host."

"What do they do?" said Adagio as part of her anger turned to curiosity at this unexpected new offer.

"You simply attach them to your throats and they will allow to sing in a way that frees all the negative emotions any creatures who hear it have bottled up inside, and once you absorb enough of these negative emotions you will be able to sing in a way that allows you to completely bend these creatures to your will," said The Darkness.

"Wait seriously? Singing?" said Aria in annoyed disbelief.

"Yes singing. Turning a simple activity that even a child can do into a weapon of total supremacy. What could be better than that," said The Darkness as a look of joy overtook it.

"Can we feed the jewels anything besides negatively?" asked the innocent Sonata who, even despite what the ponies had done to them, didn't fully like the sound of this.

"Why would you ever want to? After all when one leads with fear and intimidation their subjects will never speak against them," said The Darkness.

Sonata and Aria then moved in front of Adagio as they could tell from her body language that she was on the verge of agreeing to this deal.

"Adagio I don't think this is right. I mean I know those ponies were mean to us but I'm not sure we should make them so angry like this guy is talking about," said Sonata.

"Yeah and I still think it's weird that this power he is offering comes from singing. I mean why singing?" said Aria.

At hearing this Adagio did something she had never done before and unleashed some of her anger at her partners as she simply said, "QUITE," before she turned to Sonata and said, "Look after what they did to us they deserve way more than what this guy is talking about," she then turned to Aria and said, "and I don't care if we have to spin around like ballerinas, if it means making those fools bow to us like he promises than I'd do it and you should to right," she then looked at them both as she said, "After all I think I know what's best for us right." It hurt her somewhat to speak to them in such a way but after what happened with Neighsay she realized that sometimes she's going to have to put their happiness aside for their safety.

Aria and Sonata where a little unnerved by this sudden change in Adagio's personality but they decided that despite how she said it she was right so they both nodded in agreement.

Adagio then looked at The Darkness as she said, "Hear that smokey we got a deal, there's just one more thing I want to ask before we do this."

"Oh and what would that be?" said The Darkness.

"Just so we are clear here I still don't trust you so I need to know what is that your gaining from giving us this power," said Adagio as she gazed flatly at him.

"Oh it's nothing you need to worry about really. It's just I sense someone up their who has a large amount of jealousy and anger hidden just beneath the surface and perhaps if you use these gemstones to give them a little push in the wrong direction-" began The Darkness before Adagio interrupted him.

"They'll become foolish enough to be your willing host right," said Adagio.

"Well... Yes," said The Darkness clearly annoyed that Adagio had not only interrupted his speech but had correctly guessed his plan.

"Well if that's all you want then I think we have a deal. Right girls," said Adagio looking back at her partners annoyed to which they then nodded.

The Darkness then smiled as he said, "Very well then." Just then the three gemstones rocketed to the girls as each one began borrowing into their necks. They all winched in pain before being blinded by a flash of light from the gems.

When they opened their eyes again they looked down to see that the gems where now attached to them and that the skin around them looked unhealthy with visible veins.

"Sorry about the little change in appearance. Dark magic tends to do that to organic matter. Now then," He then retreated back into the well before a hole opened in the ceiling above them revealing daylight, "Go forth and use your new gifts to make both your and my desires come true."

Adagio then looked at her partners before saying, "Follow my lead," as she flew up and they followed behind her.

When they emerged they found themselves on the hill overlooking Neighsay's village that this had all started at. Aria looked at Adagio as she said, " So we're supposed to sing right.. well I don't really know any songs and I don't think any of us are creative enough to come up with one on the spot."

Before Adagio could respond to this they all began hearing a tune and lyrics being whispered into their heads from the gemstones. Adagio then had a sadistic smile as she said, "Looks like we don't need to come up with any songs since these things will do it for us. Again follow my lead," she then flew down into the village as the others began following her.

It didn't take long for ponies to notice them as they once again formed into a mob as the lead stallion from before said, "HEY I THOUGHT WE TOLD YOU FREAKS TO GET OUT OF HERE!"

As the crowd got ready to once again pelt them with rocks the girls opened their mouths and began singing the song they heard

https://youtu.be/UVyMj6I1BU4

After their work was done Adagio grinned as she saw these ponies turn their rage, and their rocks, on each other. "Looks like it really does work," she said to her partners as she could feel the power of their rage seeping into her.

"Yeah on most of them anyway but look," said Aria who then pointed her hoof towards a skinny gray pony with blue hair and a brown cloak who was running out of town, "I don't know if that one's out of range or something but he doesn't seem to be affected right now."

Adagio simply shrugged this off as she looked at the other ponies who were making her more powerful by the second as she said, "Mhh who cares, what can that little runt do against us. Soon he and everyone else will bow to our absolutely dazzling new powers," she then thought for a moment before saying, "Hmm Dazzling I like the sound of that."


Just after the battle of the bands


Adagio, Sonata, and Aria walked down the street picking food off of themselves as they walked away in defeat.

"Uhhh I can't believe they beat us. It's all your fault Sonata you were late on the back up vocals," said Aria as she looked over at Sonata annoyed.

"My fault! What about you putting your angsty attitude in your voice the entire time. Were supposed to make them think we're amazing so they'll serve us, not that we're a bunch of teenagers trying to get back at our parents," said Sonata who was equally annoyed at Aria.

This bickering continued on for a few more minutes before Adagio interrupted yelling, "BOTH OF YOU SHUT UP! IT DOESN'T MATTER WHO'S FAULT THIS IS!" She then calmed herself as she gestured forward with her hand and said, "Look our favorite diner is right there. Let's just have some coffee and think this through alright... not that either of you is that good at thinking."

The three girls then walked into the diner in total silence before Adagio turned to the man at the counter and said, "Hey Joe, three usual's please, and hurry it up it's been a long night."

Joe then looked over at them annoyed as he said, "Yeah about that. I'm afraid I can't serve you three anymore."

"What but why?" said Aria as she ran up to the counter, clearly disappointed that she wouldn't be getting her coffee or as she called it her "tolerating you idiots juice."

"Look ladies I was looking at your tab and saw that you owe me over a thousand dollars for all the coffee and food I've served you over the years. Honestly I don't know why I haven't asked for it sooner but I can't serve you again until I get my money," said Joe as he gestured to a huge bill that the Dazzlings apparently had.

Adagio then looked annoyed as she said, "FINE! We'll just eat somewhere else then!" and then stormed out with Aria and Sonata following behind her.

"This isn't good Adagio. Our spell over Joe has been broken and he wasn't even at the battle of the bands. What if all of our spells have been broken," said Aria concerned.

"OH NO!" said Sonata in a panic before continuing saying, "That means it would be broken over the people at the Taco Shack too!"

Aria simply grunted as she said, "I don't know if I can deal with your nonsense without coffee."

Adagio then turned to them as she angrily said, "BE QUITE!" before calming herself once again and saying, "Look for all we know it was just coincidence that our spell over Joe wore off when it did. Let's just go back home and sleep this off alright."

Once again they walked to their destination in complete silence but once they got close to their building they say the land lord locking the door and putting up an eviction notice.

Adagio ran up to him and said, "Mr. Rich what's the heck are you doing?"

"I'm sorry ladies but I was looking at my papers and I just noticed that you haven't paid your rent once since moving in here," said Filthy Rich as he looked over at her.

"SO YOU'RE JUST THROWING US OUT ON THE STREETS!" yelled Adagio in front of him.

"Well normally their would be a one month grace period to give you time to make other arrangements but Spoiled was saying how much money we lost and how I need to start making it back so I didn't have much of a choice here ladies," said Filthy Rich.

"UHHH FINE!" said Adagio before turning and saying, "Come on girls let's go."

They then followed behind as Sonata said, "Um Adagio where are we going?"

But Adagio didn't answer because she honestly didn't know and all she could think was, "I already sacrificed their happiness once to that Darkness thing to keep them safe and now just when it looks like I might be able to make them truly happy again those pathetic Rainbooms step in and ruin it all. I swear no matter what it takes and no matter how long it takes they will pay!"


It was at that point that Sunset came back to herself as she wiped the tears from her eyes at seeing how horribly the Dazzlings where mistreated and at learning the aftermath of what she and her friends had done to them and thought to herself, "These poor girls all they needed was someone to be kind to them... just like what I needed." It was at that point that she realized what she had to do as she picked them all up in her magic field and carried them into her apartment.

Breakfast and Banishment

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Sunset carried the three girls through her living room and carefully laid them down, Adagio on the recliner and Aria and Sonata on the ends of the couch, extra carefully to ensure that they did not wake up. After they were settled she glanced at her clock and noticed it was somehow already four a.m. before she thought "What? But it was only eight when I first saw them in the alley?" She turned over this information in her head for abit before thinking, "I guess I was watching their memories for longer then I thought, I mean I know it usually takes a moment or two but that's when I look at a only a few memories. This was the first time I saw hours worth of events from over a thousand years in the past so it would make sense that it would take longer. Well thankfully I'm not tired so looking at memories must be at least comparable to sleep."

She then glanced over at the sirens still sleeping before she walked into her kitchen quietly saying, "Well if I'm gonna make a good first impression on them when they wake up I should probably prepare a few things for them. After all if what I've seen is any indication some good food and coffee should at least win over Aria." She then chuckled to herself a little as she started her coffee maker and said, "You know despite the sentiment behind it, "tolerating you idiots juice" is actually a pretty accurate name for coffee."

Sunset then got to work pouring pancake batter into a bowl as she quietly said, "OK so I make some food for when they wake up, I try to make them comfy and relaxed to let them know they can trust me, I let them know how I saw their memories and apologize to them for all the stuff we inadvertently put them through when we beat them, and all the bad stuff they went through in general, and I let them know that if they are willing to change I will be their friend and let them stay here.... It will be a little weird to all of a sudden have three roommates but I remember after I started to reform how hard it was coming back to my place alone every night, laying in bed and struggling to sleep as I think about all the terrible things I did and panic trying to make up for them. I always wished I could have Princess Twilight or one of my other friends there with me to reassure me during those times and I want to be there for them if I they'll let me." After that she levitated some pans out of her cabinets and poured the batter into them as she turned the stove up to temp and prepared to grab some bacon for them.

About thirty minutes passed as Sunset began humming to herself as she finished the pancakes, bacon, and coffee and began moving it all into the her living room and sitting it on the table for them. Sunset then walked back into the kitchen saying, "Maybe I should find some kind of garnish for this, after all Rarity always says the presentation of cuisine is almost as important as how it tastes."

It was at that moment that Aria's nose twitched as she began to smell the food in front of her. She opened her eyes and looked around the unfamiliar room before she noticed Sonata sleeping next to her and nudged her while whispering, "Yo Sonata wake up."

Sonata then sleepily stretched and yawned saying, "Hey Aria what's up."

Aria then whispered in her face, "Shhh, keep your voice down."

Sonata looked confused as she whispered, "Wait but why?" It was at that moment that she finally noticed her surrounding as she became scared and whispered, "Aria, where are we?"

"I don't know but I think we should lay low until we figure it oooouuut-" said Aria as she trailed off the second she caught sight of the cup of coffee in front of her. Without thinking she simply yelled, "COFFEE!" grabbed the mug, and began chugging it.

"Um Aria I thought you said we should be quite... and I don't think it's a good idea to drink that since we don't know who made it," said Sonata as she became concerned for her partner.

Aria didn't hear her though as she finished off her current mug and then grabbed the one next to it and began chugging it as well.

At this Sonata's concern started to be replaced with annoyance as she said, "Hey! I'm pretty sure that was my cup!"

Aria then gave Sonata a death stare as she said, "I've been dealing with your nonsense, Adagio's constant rage, and being freakin homeless for months without this stuff. I'll drink as much as I want."

Sonata then opened her mouth to reply but was soon interrupted as they both heard a familiar voice say, "Oh good your both awake."

They then both looked in the direction the voice had come from as they saw an orange pony with red and yellow hair and holding some small plant stuff in her magic field standing in the doorway as she said, "I thought I heard you but I wasn't sure if you were just talking in your sleep or what so I figured I should finish picking the garnish before I came in to check on you." They were both confused for a few seconds before they remembered what Adagio had said about her magic pendant and realized that this pony had to be Sunset Shimmer.

Sunset approached the table getting ready to put the garnish on before Aria and Sonata backed away as Aria angrily said, "Look Sunset, I don't care how much coffee you have you're not laying a hoof on either of us."

Then the clearly more scared Sonata said, "Yeah I mean you and the Rainbooms already took our magic away, what more could you want from us."

At this Sunset instantly dropped the garnish as she raised her front hooves in the air defensively and said, "OH NO NO NO. I'm not planning on doing anything to you."

Sunset then moved forward to try and comfort them resulting in Aria raising her fists in front of herself as she said, "Nice try but we've heard stuff like that before."

Upon seeing her partners confidence Sonata joined her side as she also raised her first and said, "Yeah we aren't gonna let you mess with us."

Sunset continued to move forward defensively as she said, "No please I'm not like Neighsay I'm not going to hurt you."

At hearing this Aria and Sonata stood there stunned for a few seconds as Sunset realized what was wrong with what she just said. Aria spoke up, her anger now melted away into fear and confusion as she said, "How do you know that name?"

Sunset then sighed as she said, "Well I was going to wait until you were all awake to tell you this but," she then glanced at the still sleeping Adagio before continuing saying, "Considering how hard she pushed herself last night I don't think she's going to be waking up any time soon so I'll just explain it now," she then moved onto the couch and gestured for Sonata and Aria to sit next to her and while they did hesitate, they also wanted answers so they obliged.

Sunset then sighed as she said, "OK so I'm not sure how much you know about my magic, other than the fact that it let me be a pony again."

Aria then glanced away as she sarcastically said, "Really I didn't notice."

Sunset had a flat look as she said, "Moving on, the main ability of my magic is that it allows me to see other peoples memories and emotions when I touch them and when I found you all passed out in the alley," she said as she decided to leave the details about Adagios breakdown out for now, "and was wondering what I should do Adagio's hand accidentally brushed against my hoof and I saw into all your pasts."

"Oh," said Aria as a strange combination of annoyance and disappointment appeared on her face.

Sonata on the other hand became a little curios as she said, "What exactly did you see?"

Sunset prepared to speak before Aria spoke up saying, "Isn't it obvious? She saw all the bad stuff we've done over the years and is either going to send us to some magical jail for all the mind control stuff we did or just a regular human jail for all the regular illegal stuff like stealing we've done too." She then slumped down with her arms crossed as she said, "Just go ahead and do it already, at least we'll be getting food and beds in jail."

"Actually after what I've seen I just wanted to say sorry," said Sunset.

Both girls now sat up and looked at her confused and simultaneously said, "What?"

Sunset looked at them with as much sympathy and sincerity as she could convey, as she felt they deserved it, as she said, "I'm sorry, for how you all lost your home and everything after me and my friends beat you at the battle of the bands and more than that I'm sorry for all the horrible stuff ponies like Neighsay did to you and how it made you feel like you needed to lash out against the whole world."

"Oh," said Sonata as she instantly looked touched by the statement as despite all they've been through deep down that is all she ever really wanted to hear.

Aria however got angry at hearing what to her sounded like a shallow empty statement as she stood up and looked at Sunset saying, "Oh so your sorry?! Well good for you, now you've got a clear conscience but I don't know how that helps us. I mean how do you expect to make up for all that has happened to us over the years."

Sunset looked down somberly as she said, "Well I don't expect to... I know no matter what I do I can never truly make up for everything that has happened to you," at this statement Aria crossed her arms smugly as to her it looked like Sunset was being just as shallow as she thought but that attitude soon changed as Sunset continued saying, "But what I can do is let you stay with me and help you be better, like how I know you want to be deep down."

Aria than backed up shocked by this as she said, "What?" While Sonata simply had a smile begin to form on her face as Sunset might as well have been reciting from her dream journal with all the sweet and sincere things she was saying.

Sunset then looked down again, this time in shame as she said, "Look I never told anyone this but when Princess Twilight and her friends first beat me and I was laying in that crater defeated I wanted to do exactly what you did. I wanted to run away and figure out some way to make them all pay for beating me... but that all changed when I heard some kind words and I saw a purple hand reach out to me in friendship. As I took that hand I realized that as much as I thought I wanted to dominate and destroy everything around me deep down what I really wanted was now holding onto me and that was a friend who could accept everything I had done and help bring out the real me, and now... if you'll let me I'd like to do the same for you," she said as she reached out to them before glancing down and letting out a small chuckle as she said, "Though of course with an orange hoof instead of purple hand."

Sonata, who had been sitting next to her the whole time, giggled slightly at this joke as a few tears of joy formed in the corners of her eyes and she reached out and took Sunset's hoof saying, "That's all I've ever wanted too."

Sunset smiled before they both looked up at Aria who looked somewhat reluctant before a smile formed on her face and, as tears filled her eyes as well, she grabbed Sunset's hoof and said, "OK there is no way someone would say something that cheesy and not mean it so... I guess I'm in too."

Sunset smiled at this but that smile was soon interrupted as she heard a voice say, "Oh please you idiots can't possibly be falling for this ridiculous drek or hers."

They all then looked over to see that Adagio, who had apparently been playing possum for an indeterminate amount of time, was now standing before them all with a look of unyielding rage on her face as she said, "Now you two grab her so I can steal her magic pendant and we can get the plan under way."

Aria and Sonata then looked back and forth between Sunset and Adagio as they were suddenly being torn between the person who they had listened to and trusted for almost their whole lives and someone who was giving them what they always wanted, however this moment of indecision only made Adagio angrier as she said, "What are you waiting for Aria, Sonata grab her now."

Then to everyone's shock the normally lighthearted Sonata stepped forward with determination on her face as she simply said, "No."

"What?" said Adagio as her anger now focused on Sonata specifically.

However this did nothing to shake her confidence as she said, "I said no. Look Adagio I don't know how much of what she said that you heard but she understands what we've been through and wants to help. She has seen every mean and nasty thing we have done and yet she is offering us the acceptance that we always wanted... that you told me we could have all those years ago."

Adagio just looked annoyed as she said, "Fhh you still believe all that. That was nothing more than a pipe dream I said to make you feel better... I never thought you'd be naive enough to believe it for this long." At hearing this statement Sonata broke down holding her chest as her eyes, previously filled with tears of joy, were now shedding tears of sorrow as Adagio turned to Aria and said, "Come on Aria I know this one here is dumb enough to fall for such things but you have to be thinking the same that I am, that the only way for us to be happy is to get our magic and get our revenge."

Aria then looked over at Sonata before placing her hand on her shoulder to comfort her and turning to Adagio and with an equal look of rage on her face saying, "You know what I think? I think that I don't like the way you've been talking to us. Ever since we met that Darkness chump and began this whole revenge mission you've changed and we've been facing one bad thing after another from being banished to this world, to the Rainbooms beating us, and to losing our home and if there is even a chance that Sunset here can really help us be like we were before any of this junk happened than I want to take it and I hope you will to."

Sonata then dried her eyes as she said, "Yeah. Can't we just have our old lives and the old nice Adagio back."

Adagio looked stunned at what the two of them were telling her before her anger returned and she said, "You.. YOU IDIOTS! HOW COULD YOU FALL FOR THIS AGAIN! SHE'S JUST LIEING TO US JUST LIKE NEIGHSAY DID!" She then locked her eyes on Sunset as she said, "If you fools won't help me take her down then I'll just do it myself."

She then began moving towards Sunset who backed into her couch in fear only to feel it bump against her backpack, which she had never bothered to take off, as she remembered what was in their and realized that she had no choice but to bring it out. As Adagio moved closer she levitated a scroll out of her backpack and unfurled it as she said, "Adagio listen this scroll is a one way portal spell that leads to Tartarus and if you don't calm down and listen to us I'll have no choice but to use it."

"What?" said Sonata with a look of hurt and confusion on her face.

"You had that the whole time?" said Aria who had the same look on her face.

"Yes but it's not what you think. Princess Twilight gave it to me because she knew that if any creatures who had been banished from Equestria saw me as a pony they would instantly want to take my magic. I swear it was a last resort that I never wanted to use against any of you," said Sunset as she looked back at Adagio hoping that the mere threat of this would be enough to talk her down.

Adagio however just looked at her partners with a renewed sense of rage as she said, "YOU SEE! DO YOU SEE! SHE IS JUST LIKE NEIGHSAY! Trying to lure us into a false sense of security so she can trap us," she then prepared herself to lounge at Sunset as she said, "AND I AM NOT LETTING THIS HAPPEN AGAIN," before she jumped to tackle her.

Without even thinking Aria and Sonata moved themselves in front of Sunset to protect her and both said, "SUNSET! USE IT!"

With tears in her eyes Sunset simply said,"I'm sorry," as she ignited the scroll causing a portal to open in front of them and the still airborne Adagio to fall through it.

An unknown amount of time passed as the three girls just stood there in total silence before Sunset said, "Girls I'm so sorry I-"

She was then interrupted as a very somber Aria said, "No... it's OK. You did what you had to do."

Sonata, looking down in sadness, said "Yeah and maybe some day after she's had time to cool down, Adagio will be willing to listen."

Sunset smiled at that statement as she said, "Yeah... I hope so to." Before they all joined in a group hug trying to comfort each other while they prepared to face the new road that lied ahead for all of them.

Awkward Morning and Off to School

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Sunset Shimmer, Aria Blaze, and Sonata Dusk sat around the living room table finishing the breakfast Sunset had made for them and attempting to slip food off the plate that was made for Adagio, since they all felt awkward looking at it and wanted to get rid of it ASAP.

As Sunset looked at Aria and Sonata she could tell that they were still upset, and she didn't blame them after what had just happened, as despite how they said they understood what she did it didn't make it any easier on any of them. She decided to speak saying, "Again I'm sorry for what happened-"

"No it's fine. Like we said before you did what you had to do," said Sonata trying to give Sunset a reassuring smile but with a little sadness still in her eyes.

"Yeah I know, but I just keep thinking what If I had used a paralysis spell or something to hold her still for a little longer? Maybe I could have talked some sense into her," said Sunset as she looked down in shame.

Aria then looked at her determined as she said, "Hey don't do that yourself. Trust us we've been with Adagio for longer than you can even imagine and in all those countless years we have never seen her this mad. I don't think a few extra minutes or even a few more hours would have been enough to talk her down from that... look we're sorry if we are making you feel bad but even though we agree with what you did, it's just still gonna be tough being without her for awhile."

Sonata then spoke up saying, "Yeah I mean even though she was being way meaner then she used to be that doesn't mean we're not going to miss her."

Sunset then looked up as she said, "I guess I can understand that, I mean I know what's it's like to have someone leave you like that, even if it's because they've changed."

"Really?" asked Sonata curiosity briefly overtaking the sadness in her eyes.

Aria on the other hand had her sadness melt to her usual sarcasm as she said, "Pffth, no offense Sunset but having your friends get their memory erased or tricked into turning against you by an online blog doesn't exactly count."

"Actually I was thinking about something that happened way back in Equestria," said Sunset as abit of sadness overtook her eyes as she thought of what she was about to say. "It was about a year after I first became Celestia's student. I got a letter saying my younger brother Sunburst had just gotten a magic cutie mark too and was on his way to take the admissions test. I was so happy to hear that I would get to see him again everyday and before I knew it there I was sitting next to our parents in the front row watching him. Me and my dad were grinning ear to ear super proud of him while my mom was just going over the calendar of stuff she had planned for Sunburst after this, you know thinking back it's kind of easy to see why they ended up getting divorced but that's beside the point. Anyway Sunburst was sitting in front of the dragon egg trying and failing to hatch it."

"I start panicking a little that he's not going to be able to do it while my dad, ever the optimist, leans over to me and says, "Don't worry sweetie I'm sure he's just kind of nervous. He'll get it any second now." So me being the little kid I was and wanting to help my brother without thinking of any consequences silently ignite my horn and hatch the egg for him. Everyone thought he had passed on his own and he was admitted to the school, the only one who know what really happened was Sunburst himself and all he did was hug me and whisper, "Thank you," before going off with the officials and our parents to get everything squared away for joining the school," said Sunset.

"Hmm, well so far so good, helped him out and he said thank you," said Aria who seemed enchanted by the story thus far.

"It was really nice of you to help your little brother like that," said Sonata as a slight grin formed on her face.

Sunset continued with a slight grin on her face and sadness still in her eyes as she said, "It was nice... but unfortunately it didn't last long. Pretty soon after he started his classes we started to realize that it wasn't just nerves that stopped him from passing the test. Plain and simple his cutie mark was in the study of magic and not the actual practice of it, so he could memorize every complex spell in the book but lacked the raw power to actually perform most of them. We could have easily just told the truth then and their and he would have just been transferred over to the general studies section of the school but he seemed so scared by the idea that I couldn't bear to let that happen so I just kept helping him anyway I could, doing his homework for him or slipping into the class when no one was looking to finish a project or two, whatever it took to keep him afloat. It didn't last though because pretty soon the teachers started thinking he was gifted and he has given an advancement test to see about him joining me in studying directly under Celestia."

"Well that's good," naively said Sonata.

Sunset then continued saying, "Yeah except for the fact that such advancement tests are taken in total solitude with ponies watching you from another room to ensure there is no cheating. Before I knew it I was being called into Celestia's office and as soon as I sit down ready to confess what we did he rails into me saying it's all my fault and claiming he had no idea that I had been helping him out."

"Ohh, not good" said Sonata as she glanced down.

"Wow. Jerk move," said Aria.

Sunset had a slight grin form her at her new friend's sympathy as she said, "Pftth yeah no kidding. Anyway I started to cry a little at what my brother had said as I tried to tell Celestia the truth. Thankfully I had spent almost every day with her for a year and so she knew what I looked like when I was lieing versus telling the truth and instantly believed me. She then sent Sunburst off to the general studies program and gave him several weeks of detention to punish him for lieing to her at my expense. She didn't punish me as she said that I was only trying to help my brother and while misguided it was still admirable but unfortunately I ended up punishing myself as that's when I started to turn bitter and selfish as I began to think that if I tried to help others they would only end up betraying me like he did."

"Wow, I guess you do have a little experience with this," said Aria as a reassuring smile to came to her face at the realization that the best person, or pony, to help her and Sonata get through this was standing right in front of them.

"Wait, but did you ever make up with Sunburst?" asked Sonata.

"Well no, between the fact that the general studies dorms were a decent ways away from the main part of the castle where I spent most of my time, and just us being angry at each other we hardly ever even talked after that. I don't even know where he lives now," said Sunset as she looked down saddened.

"Oh," said Sonata who looked somewhat deflated.

Sunset instantly caught on to what she was thinking as she said, "Oh but don't worry I know this situation with Adagio is not going to end up like it did with me and Sunburst."

"Really?" said Sonata with a renewed sense of hope forming on her face.

Aria slightly reluctantly said, "How do you know?"

"Because like I said before I saw into her mind and I know that beyond all that anger and hatred she still had both of your best interests at heart and I'm sure one day when she cools down all we'd have to do is show her that you're both OK and happy and she'll be willing to listen after that," said Sunset with a reassuring grin on her face.

"You really think so," said Sonata slightly excited.

"I know so," said Sunset as she placed a comforting hoof on her shoulder.

For a moment they all sat together in a content silence, but that moment was soon interrupted by Sunset's phone going off as she then glanced at it before saying, "Oh dang, I'm sorry girls but we have to leave now if we don't want to be late for school." She then trotted over to her front door before she glanced back and noticed that Aria and Sonata were still sitting on her couch.

A nervous smile formed on Sonata's face as she said, "Yeah, about that-"

"We're not actually enrolled in your school, or in school in general, we just hypnotized Principal Celestia and Vice Principle Luna into letting us in," said Aria flatly.

"Oh," said Sunset before a look of confusion came on her face as she said, "But wait if you don't go to my school then how have you been able to watch me and my friends as closely as you have?"

"Yeah well let's just say your school needs better security," said Aria with a slight grin on her face.

Sonata chuckled as she said, "Seriously, all we had to do was stop be Sugar Cube Corner in disguise to get one of your friend Pinkie Pie's, "Sorry You Can't Afford Cake, Hope Your Financial Situation Improves Soon," cakes and then just drop it off in front of the security office and then they'd be distracted for pretty much the rest of the day."

"Yeah and if we are seriously going to commit this whole being better people thing I don't think we should do that anymore," said Aria.

"Oh.... well if you have your education transcripts though I'm sure I can talk Principal Celestia into fast tracking your enrollment given the circumstances," said Sunset trying to figure something out.

Aria then shrugged and pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket and handed it to Sunset saying, "Knock your self out but I don't think it's really going to help."

Sunset started saying, "Come on it can't be that bad," before she glanced at the very worn paper that said, "Certificate of Completion Salem School House. This document states that on February 5th 1692 Aria Blaze has completed all the courses necessary to be a proper young lady fit for marriage."

"Yeah that's not gonna work, well maybe we can-" began Sunset before being interrupted by Aria.

Aria then said, "Look Sunset I get what you're trying to do but you've already done enough to make us feel better and I think we can handle a couple hours by ourselves."

Sonata said, "Yeah I mean we still have each other plus plenty of snacks and games," she then glanced down at the table before seeing the remote for Sunset's smart TV and getting excited as she said, "Ohhh, you got Hoofflix."

"Umm yeah, feel free to watch whatever you want and if you're sure that you two will really be OK on your own then I guess I'll see you later," said Sunset.

"See ya," they both said as they focused on the TV and while Sunset did notice some sadness still remaining in their eyes she knew there was nothing more she could do about that and that only time would help so she headed out the door.

She began walking to school with her head held low in thought, causing her to not notice some of the people who where freaked out by her appearance but thankfully since she wasn't talking so most of them just ended up thinking she was some kind of weird breed of dog and moved on, as she began to think, "OK so how exactly am I going to tell my friends about all this? I mean I doubt they are going to have any problems considering they wouldn't exactly be the first villains we've forgiven but what beyond that? Should I invite them over to say hi to Aria and Sonata or let those two have their space for abit. I should probably wait until the end of the day when we are free to talk about this and figure it out for as long as it takes, but how am I going to keep my mind off this for the whole day?"

Those thoughts were soon interrupted though as from seemingly no where a man wearing brown boots, a black track suit with light blue stripes, and a light blue scarf stepped in front of her saying, "My my my, it looks like a phantom put a very nasty curse on you, lucky you though you ran into me the god of fortune Yato." He then held a hand made business card in front of him that said the same thing before he continued saying, "That's right a genuine god here to fix this dreadful curse on you for nothing more than a five cent coin, that's right I'm that affordable-"

His bizarre sails pitch was then interrupted though as the CMC walked up and Sweetie Belle said, "No Yato she's not cursed that's just what she looks like."

"Yeah and besides you're not hear to fix curses, you're hear to give them to us," said Scootaloo slightly agitated at him.

"Yup we want to be just like Hiyori so we can see phantoms and fight them, that would be so cool," said Applebloom with excitement on her face.

Yato then looked serious as he turned to them and said, "Now girls, what kind of god of fortune would I be if I purposely gave humans curses?"

"We'll give you five dollars," said Sweetie Bell while giving him the puppy dog eyes.

Yato remained serious though as he said, "No amount of money or sympathy can sway me."

To that Scootaloo simply smiled and said, "Five dollars for each of us, so a total of fifteen dollars."

Yato then had his expression change to a smile as he excitedly said, "Three curses coming up follow me ladies," before he and the CMC walked away.

Sunset blinked a few times trying to decipher what just happened before she said, "Whelp, whatever that was it certainly helped me calm down abit," before she walked into the school ready to start her day.

Lunch Time and a Great and Powerful Offer

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Sunset walked into the school and went through the day as per usual. Thankfully the weirdness she saw with the CMC and that Yato guy, who she guessed was probably just some friend of theirs playing along with their anime games, helped take the vast majority of her mind off Aria and Sonata. Unfortunately though she could tell that the worries of what she was going to say to her friends and what they would do after school still weighed on the back of her mind and caused her to feel like she was acting somewhat off. As she entered the cafeteria and got her food she was hoping that she was just overthinking things before sitting down with her friends.

As she sat down she heard that they were already in the middle of a conversation as Rainbow Dash said, "No what I think will happen is that Mane-iac is only working with them so she can get her hands on Pharaoh Phetlock's Eye of Ra and use it to regain her full power."

Pinkie Pie seemed to take offense to this as she said, "WHAT! No way that'll happen. She's been on the Power Ponies side ever since she lost her power at the end of season one because it was her powers that drove her mad in the first place."

"Yeah but ever since they had to restore part of her power in the mid-season two finale, even though she claims it's not enough to overwhelm her, she has been acting off and sometimes letting her old evil cackle and stuff slip out again," retorted Rainbow Dash.

"Yes her powers do threaten to retake her every now and again but ever since she almost lost it in the season two finale and Masked Matterhorn revealed to her that she was her daughter she's been getting better and learning to control it more," said Pinkie Pie.

Fluttershy than meekly raised her hand and said, "Um girls, can't we please just watch the show and not argue about fan theories."

At this both Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash looked at her and said, "NO!"

Sunset slightly chuckled at seeing her friends bicker like this, which alerted everyone to her presence.

Rainbow Dash turned to her and said, "Oh hey Sunset how's it going? Sorry we didn't notice you earlier me and Pinks were just arguing over what's going to happen in the Power Ponies the Animated Series season three finale in two weeks."

Sunset smiled at this as she said, "I'm alright, just another day at school you know, and it's cool I know how heated you two can get after each new episode."

Applejack then spoke up saying, "Honestly I don't know why you two bicker about it so much, I mean yeah it's a good show but that don't mean yall gotta spend all day talking about it."

Pinkie and Rainbow both looked at Applejack as they defensively said, "YES IT DOES!"

Twilight then looked at them as she said, "Well I still don't like it that much, I mean they changed so much from the comic books because at this point-"

She was then interrupted by Rainbow placing her hand in front of her mouth and saying, "Woh woh. We agreed no spoilers from the comics ever since you let it slip that Mistress Mare-velous and Hum-Drum end up dating because it apparently happened later in the series than it did in the comics."

Twilight rolled her eyes at this and said, "Fine, but I still say you're missing out by not reading the comics, I mean the execution and build up is so much better."

Rarity finally spoke and with a simple grin said, "Well if you ask me darlings the best thing about this season is Mane-iac's new outfit," the others than looked at her confused but she seemed unfettered as she got more excited and continued saying, "I mean the way it conveys both subtlety and boldness at he same time, swapping out the gold bands along her limbs for simple gold trim on her black boots and gloves both conveying that she is more humble and symbolizing the mental chains she is imposing on herself to keep her tethered to reality and the main body switching from that awful plum purple to a soothing fuchsia implying how she's changed her wicked ways yet also being similar enough on the color wheel to imply that she is not completely out of the woods and does have the potential to fall to wickedness once again. Why I have been working on a replica of that outfit ever since it debuted in the season three premiere and I can't wait tell the Halloween Bash next week so I can finally show it off in it's finished glory," she then turned to Sunset as she said, "Speaking of which, Sunset you said you were going to tell me what you wanted to be this year so I can make you a costume, since well you can't exactly get a costume fit for ponies at the store."

Sunset then nervously looked at Rarity as she, "Oh, sorry Rarity I kind of forgot about it and I'm going to need a little more time to think on it."

Rarity blinked in surprise before saying, "Well I guess that's fine dear, but please do let me know within two days of the bash so I can have time to measure out my fabric for your shall we say "unique" body type."

Everyone seemed slightly concerned about this, and rightly so as one of the things Sunset had mentioned before they left her apartment on Sunday was that she was excited to be a pony on Halloween as it will be just like when she was a filly on Nightmare Night. She smiled nervously and levitated her hamburger to her muzzle hoping they wouldn't ask what distracted her. However upon taking a bite of it all thoughts disappeared as a look of disgust over took her face. Her friends then looked at her concerned as Twilight said, "Hey are you OK?" before Sunset spit it out back onto her plate.

She then looked agitated as she spit once more and said, "What the hay! Did they change the recipe or something."

Rainbow Dash then took a bite of her own burger before saying, "Tastes fine to me, maybe you just got a bad one or something,"

"I guess so," said Sunset.

"Well I'm sure if you go up to Granny Smith and explain that she'll give a new one," said Applejack.

"Yeah... you're right," said Sunset as she got up from the table and walked up to Granny Smith saying, "Hi Granny Smith, I hate to complain but my burger tasted kind of off and I was wondering if I could get a new one."

Granny Smith then looked down at her and said, "Why of course you can dearie," before handing Sunset a new burger as she said, "I'm sorry about that, my eyes aren't as good as they used to be and I think I might a accidentally put sugar instead of salt on a few of them."

Sunset then looked at her reassuringly as she said, "Oh, don't worry about it we all make mistakes. Thank you for the new burger though."

She then turned around and prepared to head back her friends as she took a bite, but unfortunately the horrendous taste once again greeted her and, not wanting to spit it up on the floor, she ran over to the nearest trash can. When she reached it though she realized that at present she was to short to reach to the top of it so, not currently possessing the focus necessary to levitate herself, she decided to turn back into a human. The transformation happened with it's usual flash of light and she then placed her newly acquired hands on the sides of the can ready to spit into it but to her surprise the burger now tasted just as good as it usually did. She chewed and swallowed it trying to figure out what just happened before the realization finally struck and she said, "Welp, I guess that's the difference between herbivore and omnivore taste buds."

As she turned to walk back to her friends another friend whom she wasn't expecting jumped in front of her saying, "That is just the trick that I, THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE, need for my new show."

Sunset then looked at her and smiled confused saying, "Oh, Hey Trix. What trick are you referring to exactly?"

"Why what you just did their of course, turning from your pony form, by the way heard about all that and it's great that you've found a way to live that makes you more happy and yatta yatta you've probably heard this a bunch of times already, back to your human in an instant like that," said Trixie.

"Oh that. Well firstly thank you for kind words, how ever brief they may have been, but secondly I'm not sure if I want to use this for some stage show," said Sunset.

Trixie then gave Sunset puppy dog eyes as she, "But Suunnnssseeet. Remember after the whole memory stone thing when we were talking you said you would want to help me out with a few tricks if you could."

"Well, yes I-" said Sunset before Trixie interrupted her.

"And you know I wouldn't normally ask you to use your real magic for the show, both because I respect you and because any magician worth their salt wouldn't need that kind of edge, but this is important. I just got a gig at this new Vegas style cafe this Saturday and they said that if I do good it can be a regular thing. Just think of all the praise and adjuration I will get, not to mention the money," said Trixie.

"Well Trixie," started Sunset before she suddenly remembered Aria and Sonata's debt to Doughnut Joe and how happy it would make them if they could suddenly eat there again before saying, "Money?"

"Well yes, this performance alone promises to pay five hundred dollars and if it becomes a regular thing I'll be getting that twice a month, not including the extra money I get from doing other gigs on the side," said Trixie smugly.

Sunset then smiled at this before saying, "OK I think I can do it but I'm going to need to get a cut of the money."

Trixie then looked at her and with a sarcastic tone said, "Wow. What a generous friend you are."

Sunset then took on a defensive stance as she said, "Oh no no no. It's not like that, I just have some debts I need to pay."

At this Trixie then looked at her and said, "Wait Sunset, are you.... shopaholic."

"Oh no Trixie I just," said Sunset.

Trixie then took on quite the dramatic pose as she said, "No Sunset, their is no need to lie to me. For even the Great and Powerful Trixie knows what it's like to fall to the temptation of credit cards."

"Um Trixie I," began Sunset.

But Trixie continued on saying, "Sure it starts off small, some cute boots or a nice jacket but the next thing you know you're wearing a magicians hat and cape made of the finest silk and sitting in your new magicians wagon made out of pure mahogany."

"Trixie," said Sunset once again trying to stop her.

But it did not work as she continued saying, "And not just any mahogany but mahogany from the long lost country of Malchior where the trees are three hundred feet tall and breath fire. From these trees my wagon was forged many years ago using ancient magic rituals of the Malchior people. This not only makes the wagon incredibly durable but gives it supernatural powers to increase my show's performance. Also it's just a very fine and expensive material."

"Trix I," tried Sunset again.

But once again it was to no avail as Trixie said, "And then you're forced to call your mom for a loan, and of course she gives it to you because she's always supported you in your endeavor to be star but you still feel bad anyway because she's already done so much and-"

Sunset was finally fed up with this as she yelled, "TRIXIE," which finally got her attention as Sunset calmed down and continued saying, "Firstly I think who ever sold you your wagon ripped you off because that doesn't make any sense, secondly it's not for me it's for a friend who needs a little help and I prefer not to go into detail about it right now."

Trixie then blushed and with a nervous smile said, "Oh," she then recomposed herself before saying, "Well if that's the case than I think I can give you roughly twenty percent from each show you help me with, I would give you fifty percent but as you can tell... I'm not exactly debt free myself."

Sunset smiled at this as she said, "Twenty percent is plenty, between that and what I can put away from my job at the Sushi Hut I should be able to pay them off in no time. So sure Trixie I'll help you with this show, and a few more later on."

To Sunset's surprise Trixie suddenly burst forward and hugged her saying, "Oh my gosh Sunset, thank you so much! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!"

Sunset let out a stifled, "Your welcome," as her lungs were being compressed by the ever tighter hug.

Then just as suddenly Trixie let her go before saying, "Now then I have to take my leave in order to figure out how to make this trick to as Great and Powerful as the rest of my act. Farewell Sunset Shimmer my Great and Powerful assistant and friend." Then she threw one of her smoke bombs on the ground and disappeared, though Sunset could see her slip out the door to the cafeteria."

After that Sunset rejoined her friends at the table and explained to them why she was in human form. Thankfully they had gotten used to her hanging out with Trixie so they didn't ask questions about it and she was able to finish her lunch in peace before turning back into pony form and heading off to her next class.

Talking to Friends

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The rest of Sunset's school day went off without a hitch and as she exited through the front door and saw her friends talking in front of the Wondercolt statue she began preparing herself for the conversation she was about to have as she moved towards them.

As she got closer Sunset said, "Hey girls I need to talk."

Rainbow Dash was the first to respond as she turned to her and said, "Oh hey Sunset, what you need me to super speed you home or something?"

Sunset shook her head as she said, "No that's fine... I figured out that as long as I don't talk most people won't freak out. I actually kind of have something bigger to talk about."

At this Twilight then had a look of concern as she said, "Oh my gosh Sunset, are you OK."

Sunset seeing her concern raised her hoof to reassure Twilight as she said, "Oh no no no. There is nothing wrong with me it's just... well do you girls remember the Dazzlings?"

At this Pinkie suddenly perked up as she said, "Pffth remember them... how could I forget them, I mean they come into Sugarcube Corner all the time to get one of my Sorry You Can't Afford Cake, Hope Your Financial Situation Improves Soon Cakes."

Sunset instantly looked bewildered as she said, "Wait, but they said they wore disguises when they did that?"

"Yeah... you should tell them that fake mustaches, while cool looking, aren't the best disguises," said Pinkie Pie.

Applejack then glanced at Pinkie Pie before saying, "Well ignoring the fact that Pinkie apparently knew where the girls who almost took over our world were this whole time," she then turned to Sunset as she said, "So you're talking to them huh?"

"Yeah," said Sunset unsure of where this conversation was going to end up.

"And since you didn't call us immediately I'm guessing they are most likely interested in reforming," said Rarity.

"Well Sonata and Aria are but Adagio," began Sunset before she launched into the full story of everything that happened from seeing Adagio's memories, to offering them friendship, to Adagio's banishment, and finally the two girls who are now crashing on her couch.

After it was all said and done the girls just stood for a moments before Fluttershy, of all people, spoke up simple saying, "Oh my."

"Yeah no kidding... that Adagio really needs to crank it down like twenty per-OWW," began Rainbow before Applejack flicked her on the back of the head to interrupt her.

Applejack looked at her before saying, "Hold on now sugarcube, now I'm not saying I condone what she did but I can at least understand her train of thought... I mean if someone tried to do something to Applebloom like what that Neighsay feller did to them I know I wouldn't want to trust her to anyone else for awhile, let alone someone who took away our home, and I'm sure you'd feel the same way with Scootaloo."

Rainbow had a brief moment of annoyance cross her face before she crossed her arms and reluctantly said, "Yeah I guess."

"More importantly darling... how are Aria and Sonata holding up after all this," said Rarity.

"Well doing about as good as they can, they're trying to move on but are still kind of torn up about it," said Sunset.

"Well that's to be expected... you just don't get over something like that overnight," said Applejack.

"Yeah," said Sunset flatly as she glanced down, once again feeling the guilt of what she did.

Twilight sensed this and said, "But I'm sure they'll get over it with time.... for now though is their anything we can do to help you or them out with all this?"

Pinkie Pie then burst forward and said, "Oh I can try and throw them a cheer up party. I mean I know they still have to go through the grieving process but distractions after the lose of a loved one, while not usually able to speed up that process, can help subjects relax for a time as the simple repetition of a daily routine leaves them to grieve as they go through the motions," before smiling.

Sunset blinked for a second at this unexpected psychoanalysis before saying, "Yeah, I'm not sure if that's the best idea... I think they might want some time to them selves for awhile but I'm not totally sure. What do you girls think?"

They all stood silent for a moment before Fluttershy spoke up saying, "Well I'm not sure if what we think matters," before they all turned to her in confusion and she continued saying, "I mean the best way to know if they want alone time or not is to just ask them right?"

After that all the others had a look collective realization, followed by self deprecation at not considering that, come to their faces. Sunset then looked concerned as she said, "That's a great idea Fluttershy... But I can't just ask them "Do you want to hang out with my friends?" because that kind of sounds like I'm pressuring them to get over all this before they are ready."

"Fair point, but why don't you just ask them without asking?" said Fluttershy.

"What do you mean?" asked Sunset.

"Well they are probably gonna ask how your day was. You should just tell them about how you spent the day with us and all the stuff we did together and plan on doing together in the near future to see if they want to join in," said Fluttershy.

Sunset instantly perked up at this as she said, "That's perfect. Thanks Fluttershy."

Rainbow Dash smiled at this as she said, "Hmm, between this and the prank last night it looks like Discord's manipulative skills are really starting to pay off for you."

Fluttershy blushed as she quietly said, "I wouldn't exactly call Dissy manipulative... he just knows how to get what he wants and I really admire that." At that last statement her blush increased but the others chose not to acknowledge it.

Sunset began to trot off as she said, "Well I better get back to them, I know they said they would be fine for a few hours but that doesn't give me the right to leave them alone all day." Before she got too far though she realized something was missing from this conversation before she turned around and said, "Wait none of you are reluctant to trust them or anything?"

At this Rainbow spoke up saying, "Well duh, I mean it's not like they are the first world conquering or world destroying villains we've forgiven before."

Sunset then smiled as she said, "Fair point." Before she once again turned and started trotting away but once again she did not get to far as this time Flash Sentry moved in front of her.

He then said, "Oh Sunset, I've been meaning to talk to you about the whole calling you cute thing yesterday."

Sunset then had a stern but friendly look come to her face as she prepared for another hard talk with him and she began saying, "Yeah about that I-"

Flash, however, interrupted her as she said, "Well I didn't mean it... but it's not that you're not cute or anything I just didn't mean it like that... well I guess I did but I didn't mean to mean it like that," and he continued stammering on like this nervously.

Sunset, having already been through a round about conversation like this today, cut right to chase and yelled, "FLASH," to get his attention before continuing saying, "Look, I get it you're still trying to get over Princess Twilight and you were tempted to get back together with me because that would be like resetting to how things were before you even met her... but you know that's a bad idea because even though we've both changed a lot since last time we still aren't right for each other like that."

Flash then glanced at the ground saddened as he said, "I know... it's just hard how suddenly it ended you know."

Sunset then walked up to him and placed a reassuring hoof on him as she said, "Yeah, believe it or not I'm dealing with something similar right now and while I'm sure Princess Twilight would be more than willing to talk to you again to try and get this all sorted out, you know she doesn't exactly have the free time jump to another universe whenever she feels like."

"Yeah I guess," said Flash still saddened.

Sunset not knowing anything to do simply gave him a reassuring smile and continued on her way home.

Flash then continued to look down as he said, "Uhh, I just wish I could talk to her again," before absentmindedly kicking a rock into the Wondercolts statue, only to have it go through portal. He then began thinking as he said to himself, "Hmm maybe a princess doesn't have time to cross to another universe whenever she feels like.... but your average high school student does."

A few moments later back at Sunset's apartment.

Sunset walked through the door and gave a cheerful, "Hi girls," in an effort to make sure they are comfortable with all this.

That turned out to be a moot point as both of them were still sitting on the couch watching TV and they just gave her a simple, "Hey."

Sunset smiled as she said, "Well it looks like you two found a show you liked."

Sonata smiled as she said, "Yup. It's this awesome cartoon about these Japanese girls in a band going around the world and getting into all kinds of crazy misadventures," she then glanced back at the TV saying, "Oh I just love that Ami and her cheerful upbeat attitude."

At this Aria shrugged as she said, "She's alright I guess but I prefer Yumi, her punk rock not taking anything from anyone attitude is awesome," she then glanced over at Sonata before continuing saying, "and the fact that she is willing to put that aside for Ami when she needs to is cool too."

Sonata then glanced at Aria before saying, "Yeah... and it is good how Ami can get tough when she needs to for Yumi."

They both smiled at each other before Aria turned her attention to Sunset and said, "Well enough about us, how was your day?"

Sunset smiled back as she said, "Oh nothing much, classes were the same as always and me and my friends just hung out and talked about stuff like the new Power Ponies episode and the Halloween Bash next week."

"Halloween Bash huh, that sounds fun," said Sonata.

"Yeah, especially since your friend Pinkie Pie is probably throwing it," said Aria.

"Actually she isn't. I mean she's setting up the food and decorations and stuff but she herself is going to be out trick or treating," said Sunset.

At this Sonata instantly stood up and with a huge smile on her face she said, "Trick or Treating!"

Sunset slightly surprised at this said, "Yeah, she goes every year with her usual group of kids, and Vice Principle Luna for some reason."

"OHHH! I've always wanted to go trick or treating," said Sonata as she giddily jumped up and down.

"Wait you've never been?" asked Sunset confused.

Sonata instantly drooped down a bit as she said, "No... it doesn't seem like it would be fun to go alone and Adagio always said if I wanted candy I should just sing a song to make people give me candy and Aria would always say that it was little kids stuff."

Aria just shrugged as she said, "Well I mean it kind of is."

At this, Sunset started to have an idea as she said, "I mean, it's kind of kiddie but not really; like I said, Pinkie Pie and Vice Principal Luna do it... Now that I think about it, I think I might ask to join them this year if you want to do the same."

Sonata instantly perked back up as she said, "Really!?"

"Well yeah, I mean the whole point of me being a pony on Halloween is to feel like a little filly on Nightmare Night again and what better way to do that then to actually go out like I did when I was a filly," said Sunset with a warm smile on her face.

"OH MY GOSH! THAT WOULD BE AMAZING!" said Sonata as her glee greatly increased.

"I don't know..." said Aria as she trailed off in thought.

Sunset instantly went to work trying to think of a way to get Aria to agree when she glanced at the TV and finally saw this "Ami and Yumi" they were talking about and how their outfits were actually pretty simple before she said, "You know I bet Rarity could make you two outfits for these characters you like."

Sonata's excitement somehow went even higher as she said, "OMG! I GET TO BE AMI FOR HALLOWEEN!"

Aria however simply shrugged and said, "I guess if I get to dress up as someone as cool as Yumi then I'll be cool with it."

Sunset smiled at this as she grabbed the remote and took a screen shot to send to Rarity later, but as she was scrolling through the options she saw her own favorite show and decided what she wanted to be as she took a screen shot of her favorite angry little slice of pie to also send to Rarity. At this she thought to herself, "To quote Rainbow Dash, 'This is going to be so AWESOME!'"

Magic Shows

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The rest of the week went by in a relatively normal routine for Sunset Shimmer as she went to school, talked with her friends, and hung out with Aria and Sonata. Now that the weekend was here though, that routine had gone out the window as she was presently in her human form, wearing a sparkly dress and cape, and sitting back stage in downtown Canterlot's brand new "Authentic Vegas Cafe."

She could hear the crowd cheering at Trixie's act as her nerves began to overtake her. In an effort to calm down she said to herself, "OK, just calm down Sunset. Remember all you have to do is wait for Trixie's cue, come on stage, say a few words and do a few gestures, get in the 'transformation box,' turn into a pony when Trixie says, and then burst out of the box and do a 'Great and Powerful Pose' as she called it."

Sunset glanced through the curtain and saw Trixie wearing a rhinestoned version of her typical blue dress, hat, and cape. Trixie gestured with a plastic wand and made a bouquet of flowers come out of it, which she then handed to a young couple in the front, causing them to blush and the audience to cheer.

Sunset then commented to herself, "Say what you will about Trixie's boasting but she sure knows how to work a crowd," she then glanced at the audience before saying, "Sure wish my other friends could be here. I mean I know this was last minute and I understood when they all said they already had plans but still."

Sunset didn't have much time to think about this though, as she heard Trixie say, "And for my next trick I will need the help of my Lovely and Charming assistant!"

Sunset then got up and stood in front of the opening of the curtain as Trixie continued saying, "Behold the one, the only, Sunset Shimmer!"

At this, Sunset burst through the curtain with a large smile on her face and approached Trixie who looked at her with a "don't worry you're doing great" smile on her face before she said, "Thank you for being here today, oh Lovely and Charming Sunset."

Sunset returned the smile as she said, "Happy to be here, oh Great and Powerful Trixie. Now tell me, what trick shall I be helping you with today?"

Trixie then turned to the audience as she said, "Why I'm glad you asked Sunset, for today I shall be using my Astonishing Transformation Chamber," she then gestured to a box which now had a spotlight go on above it before saying, "to turn you into an animal."

Sunset then walked up to the box and feigned disappointment as she said, "Oh that's all."

Trixie then feigned surprise as she looked at Sunset and said, "Why whatever do you mean, 'that's all?'"

Sunset then turned to the audience as she thought, "I'm actually starting to enjoy this," before she said, "Well no offense Trixie but that trick doesn't exactly stand up to your Great and Powerful standards."

Trixie then smiled as she looked at Sunset and said, "Oh is that all," before she turned back to the audience and said, "Well yes any third rate magician could turn their assistant to a bunny or a white tiger but only the Great and Powerful Trixie can turn her Lovely and Charming assistant into a creature of legend."

Sunset then got excited, for real as she was really getting into the show, before saying, "Mythical creature huh, I like the sound of that." She then hopped in the box as Trixie shut it and the audience cheered.

Trixie then turned to them as she said, "Now then. Ladies and Gentleman behold a creature you have only seen before in your wildest dreams and greatest fantasies. A legendary, mystical, and magical," she then paused for emphasis before saying loudly, "UNICORN!"

At that last word the box opened revealing the flash of light as Sunset started her transformation before she then hopped out of the box and landed in front of it on her back hooves, with her front hooves to her sides, and a huge smile to the audience on her face, just as they planned.

The audience clapped and cheered as both Trixie and Sunset basked in this adjuration, but unfortunately that didn't last long as a man stood up excitedly saying, "Do me next! I want to be a unicorn!"

Trixie and Sunset both looked at each other surprised as neither of them expected this to happen and it was only getting worse as more people started joining in.

"No me next! ME!" said one woman.

"Can you turn me into a Pegasus?" asked another man.

"How about doing a half and half and turning yourself into a centaur," said another woman as she looked directly at Trixie.

Sunset looked at Trixie, hoping the veteran performer would know what to do, but whether it was her nerves over this gig getting to her or just that she's never faced this kind of heckling she just stood there smiling as beads of sweat started to form on her forehead. Instinctively Sunset turned to the audience wanting something to save them, but having no idea what to expect. Even if she did though she probably wouldn't have expected what happened next as from seemingly out of nowhere Aria and Sonata jumped out of the crowd and onto the stage next to them.

Sonata looked at everyone and smiled saying, "We're sorry everyone but the Equestrian magic used to do such an astounding transformation needs time to recharge before anything else can be done," she then turned to Trixie and winked before saying, "Isn't that right oh Great and Powerful Trixie."

Trixie, ever the show woman, caught onto what was going on pretty quick as her confidence returned and she said, "That's right my enthusiastic little admirers. I'm afraid all of the pony magic within the Astonishing Transformation Chamber has been drained and will not be back for some time."

"How long exactly," said the first man who had started all this.

Trixie opened her mouth to try and answer this but was caught off guard as Aria walked over to the box and pulled a firecracker out of her pocket before showing it to Trixie and, ignoring her protest, lit it and slipped it into the box before giving Trixie a thumbs up.

Not wanting this to look any worse than it was about to Trixie said, "Unfortunately the only way to recharge it is to send it back to the magical land of Equestria from whence it came... BEHOLD!"

At that moment the firecracker went off shattering the box into a million tiny paces as the audience cheered. Trixie then smiled at them and took a bow, while trying to hold back the tears from seeing one of her beloved props be destroyed, before Sunset, Aria, and Sonata did the same.

After the audience calmed down abit they all walked backstage and Sunset turned to the newcomers as she said, "Aria, Sonata, what are you two doing here?"

Trixie on the other hand had an angry look on her face as she said, "Never mind why they're here. JUST WHY THE HECK DID YOU DECIDE TO DESTROY MY PROP!"

"Well it worked didn't it?" said Sonata innocently, as she didn't seem to realize that Trixie was upset before she continued saying, "I mean the audience seemed happy."

Trixie then became a little nervous at this genuinely helpful statement as she said, "Well I guess so but still."

Aria then spoke up saying, "Well you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs. I mean I thought you magicians were all about showmanship?"

Trixie became defensive as she said, "Of course I know about showmanship."

"Well then you're welcome," said Aria matter of factly while Sonata smiled next to her.

Trixie was rendered speechless by this argument that was somehow composed of genuine kindness, sarcastic smugness, and pure logic all at the same time. This allowed Aria and Sonata to turn their attention back to Sunset as Aria said, "Now to answer your question. We remembered you mentioning you were helping Trixie here today so we figured we'd check it out."

"And it's a good thing we did, otherwise we wouldn't have been able to help you like this," said Sonata.

"Well, I'm definitely happy to see you and thanks for the help, even if it wasn't quite the way Trixie would have wanted, but I didn't expect you to two to come. I mean you haven't even left my apartment since you started living there so I figured you just were not ready to talk to people yet and were trying to gear yourselves up to be ready in time for trick or treating in a few days."

"Admittedly, yeah for the first day or two we didn't leave solely because we were still kind of depressed and while yes there are moments where that can creep up on us again. Buuutttt-" said Aria before trailing off.

"After the first few days we did feel good enough to go out... but we didn't really have any money to do anything and we didn't want to ask you for any after what you've already done for us," said Sonata as she looked down embarrassed.

Sunset was about to explain how they were friends and that they shouldn't worry about asking for a few dollars here or there, but that thought was soon interrupted as they all heard the door open. They looked over and saw a man with a dark blue Mohawk, a nose ring, and muscles that would make Bulk Biceps jealous walk towards them.

Upon seeing him Trixie returned to her senses and began saying, "Mr. Will, I'm so sorry I-"

However he interrupted her and began saying, "Please call me Iron Will, after all that's what all my employees call me."

Trixie began saying, "Sorry, Iron Will I," before she paused as she figured out what had just happened and said, "Wait employees? So you mean I got the job!"

"Indeed you did little lady, Iron Will likes your act and Iron Will thinks that it is the perfect thing to help this cafe cement itself as another strong branch in the Iron Will franchise," said Iron Will as he smiled at her.

Trixie's excitement turned to confusion as she said, "But wait, that ending to the show wasn't what I told you wold happen though?"

"Yeah but who would have expected anything like that to happen. I mean seriously don't these people know that this is all sleight of hand and stuff, I swear it's like they think magic is real," said Iron Will resulting in several nervous laughs from the girls in front of him. He didn't seem to notice that though as he continued saying, "Overall your show was really good and I would defiantly love to see more of it. And you two," he said as he moved over to Sonata and Aria.

"I like how you handled that crowd out there, I mean saying the "magic box" needed to charge and then blowing it up was genius. I always say "when all else fails, blow something up" or at least I would say it if I could think of a rhyme for it; But regardless I need that kind of quick thinking around here. So how would you two like jobs here?" said Iron Will.

"Really!" said Sonata excitedly.

"What kind of job is it exactly?" asked Aria skeptically.

"Well officially you would be waitresses, bringing drinks and food to people while they watch the shows but in actuality what I want you to do is keep an eye on things and if you see another group of hecklers start to tear down a show like this, just step in and use some of those improvisational skills of yours to get things back on track," said Iron Will

"Well that sounds like fun, so I'm definitely in!" said Sonata beaming with excitement.

Aria thought for a moment before shrugging her shoulders and saying, "Ehh why not, this could definitely fix our money troubles. Who knows maybe we'll get enough to pay off our debt with Doughnut Joe," she turned to Sunset and continued saying, "No offense but his coffee is leaps and bounds better than yours, I mean he actually infuses mocha beans into the whip cream to give you an extra pick me up."

"Oh I almost forgot Sunset," said Iron Will as he glanced over to her before saying, "Be sure to tell her all this when you get her out of the trap door or where ever she is in." He then began walking away before saying, "Cute dog by the way, you seem to got it trained really well."

Trixie, Aria, and Sonata grimaced at that last comment while Sunset simply groaned and said, "Seriously, how many people are gonna think I'm a dog."

Meanwhile in the main room of the cafe.

A girl in a brown vest/poncho, a white shirt, and and jean shorts pulled out her phone and began saying, "Listen, I was just at this totes amazing magique show and I think I found the new theme for our theme park." She then started sending the pictures she took of the show as she said, "OK get on my snapgap and start posting these pictures with hashtag ponies, hashtag magique, hashtag magique ponies, and," she paused as she remembered the words those girls had used before saying, "hashtag Equistria Land."

Nightmare Night, What a Fright...

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Aria and Sonata were sitting on Sunset's couch wearing their costumes. Aria had a purple shirt with a skull on it, a black skirt, black boots, and a studded collar and bracelets. Sonata, on the other hand, wore a simple orange and yellow dress with white knee high boots.

Aria started to become a little annoyed with waiting as she looked over at the bathroom and said, "YO SUNSET! YOU READY YET!?"

They then heard Sunset's voice through the door say, "Just about."

Aria groaned before Sonata said, "Come on, Aria, just be patient. Sunset already told us she'd probably take awhile, given how tight her outfit is and the fact that she still hasn't gotten used to changing clothes as a pony again."

Aria said, "Yeah well then why can't she just put it on while she's a human and then turn into a pony," before a look of confusion overtook her as she said, "Wait, would that work? I mean, her casual clothes disappear and reappear when she transforms so it probably wouldn't."

Sonata then joined in saying, "But wait, what would happen if she put on this outfit as a pony and then turned into a human? I mean, would it disappear and reappear when she changes back or would it, like remain on top of her human clothes?"

They pondered these questions for a bit, but they were then interrupted as the bathroom door opened to reveal Sunset in her costume.

Sunset then looked over at the girls saying, " Well, what do you think?" before she took on a nasally tone as she said, "Not that I even have to ask what you clods think of the Great and Lovable Peridot."

Sonata looked a little hurt as she said, "Why would you call us clods like that?"

Aria then nodded as she said, "Yeah and lay off the Great and Lovable stuff; you're not on stage with Trixie right now."

Sunset then looked defensive as she approached them saying, "Oh no no no. It's nothing like that, girl; I was just acting like the character I was dressed as."

"Really?" said Sonata as a curious look overtook her face.

"Well yeah, part of the fun of Halloween, or Nightmare Night, is not just dressing like a monster or character, but acting like that monster or character too," said Sunset with a reassuring grin.

Sonata then jumped up and looked at Aria excitedly saying, "Oh Aria! We should act like Ami and Yumi and sing the opening theme song."

Aria flatly looked at her and said, "Firstly, we already kind of do act like Ami and Yumi—that's why we picked them in the first place—and secondly. I'm not sure about the singing."

Sunset then looked at them both as she said, "Wait, but I thought you couldn't sing without those pendants, and I know you still have those shards on your necks, but they don't, work do they?"

Aria then said, "No, they don't seem to work like this. And yeah after we first lost them, we couldn't sing at all, but that's only because we didn't know how. You see, these were like auto-tune and made our voices perfect without us even trying."

Sonata then spoke up excitedly saying, "Yeeessss, but we have been practicing the songs from the show in our spare time, which we have a lot of since our jobs don't start until next week, and I think we're getting pretty good."

Aria then spoke up saying, "We are getting good, yes, but I'm not sure if now is the time to showcase that."

Sonata looked at her with puppy dog eyes as she said, "Please."

Sunset then walked up saying, "I mean, it is part of your characters so I'd say it's a good time." She then tried to give a warm smile to Aria as well.

Aria glanced at them before groaning and saying , "Fine, but not first thing or anything. We'll hit a couple houses and then when I say the time is right, we'll do it."

Sonata jumped up in glee at this while Sunset smiled and grabbed her candy pail in her magic field before saying, "Well if you're both ready to go I say it's time we meet up with Pinkie Pie and the other trick or treaters."

Sonata and Aria both nodded before they grabbed their pails and they all headed out the door.

As they walked the street they soon saw Pinkie Pie who was dressed in puffy white shorts, black leggings, a black belt with a gold buckle that had an "M" symbol on it, yellow boots and gloves, a purple cape, a black undershirt, black vest with yellow trim, and finally she had her hair done up in a way that made it look like some kind of antenna or tendril pointed forward. She then turned and saw them approaching as she waved and said, "Hi girls. Come on let's get out there and get some candy before I have to turn you all into candy," before she giggled to herself.

Sonata then giggled at the apparent joke as she ran forward and said, "Thank you so much for having us, Pinkie Pie. I can't wait to do this!"

Pinkie matched her excitement as she said, "I know right! This is going to be so awesome."

Sunset then thought to herself, "Wow, I know Pinkie can make friends with pretty much anyone, but I figured there might have been at least a little awkwardness."

She then looked over to Aria, who briefly had an awkward look on her face before returning to her usual confidence as she said, "Nice to see you, Pinks."

"Nice to see you too, Aria and Sonata. By the way, Sunset told me about how you were moving along well in your grieving process, but I'm glad I could still provide you with a distraction to form positive memories in your post loss lives to recall when you're down," said Pinkie before a smile appeared on her face.

They were all briefly stunned by this psychoanalysis before Sunset, who was more used to this stuff from Pinkie at this point, said, "Um yeah. Hey Pinkie I thought this was going to be with your usual group of kids?"

Pinkie than pulled out her phone as she said, "Yeah well, the CMC had this whole act planned with Applejack and Rainbow Dash." She then showed them a picture with Apple Bloom having her hair spiked in a somewhat illogical pattern and wearing a black tank top, a blue cape that also appeared to be a jacket, blue pants and shoes, and some kind of large inverted pyramid shaped necklace with an eye on the front of it. Applejack was behind her wearing a large pointed purple hat with matching purple armor throughout her body and a blue cloak, while also holding some kind of green staff. Pinkie then scrolled over to a picture of Scootaloo with her hair done into a bowl cut and her wearing a large white trench coat with black sleeves, a blue belt with a logo that said "KC" on it, a necklace that appeared to be some kind of brown and black playing card, and black pants and boots. Rainbow Dash also stood behind her wearing large spiked white wings, a white jumpsuit with spikes all along it, fake claws on her hands and feet, and finally a smooth white helmet with a large open jaw and blue lenses over the eyes. Pinkie then continued saying, "And ever since they helped Diamond Tiara become a better person, the others in their grade have kind of been looking at them like idols."

Sonata then spoke up saying, "So does that mean it's just going to be the four of us then?"

Suddenly they heard a very regal and commanding voice say, "Not exactly."

They all turned to see a woman in a black jumpsuit with, dark blue eyeliner, a dark blue helmet, dark blue armored boots and gloves, a large dark blue necklace with a white crescent moon symbol on it, and finally having black wings and a black axe strapped to her back.

Sunset instantly backed away as even though the figure was human she still recognized her from all the years she spent studying, and all scary stories about her she heard this time of year, as she began stammering saying, "N-n-n-nightmare Moon."

Suddenly Nightmare turned to her and said, "Well, well. Someone who remembers me. In that case I have a very special gift for you." She then reached into her pocket as Sunset shrunk back in fear, suddenly feeling like a little filly again at seeing this living legend. All that was changed though as Nightmare pulled out a cassette tape and said, "Here you go. A greatest hits collection autographed by all the CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT!"

At that last part she took on a yelling tone but Sunset was too stunned by this new development to notice as she walked up and saw that on the cover of this cassette's case was a picture of Nightmare Moon holding a guitar, which she now noticed was the "axe" mounted on her back, and to her left a girl with a solid black complexion and blue hair wearing a green dress that seemed to be purposefully filled with holes, black boots with green accents, and what appeared to a very tiny crown on top of her head. On Nightmare's right was a man with a dark gray complexion, black hair, and wearing a large red cape with white puffy trim, an armored chest plate with matching gloves and boots, black pants, and a silver crown with a red horn protruding from the front of it. On top of this picture was three autographs from left to right reading "Queen Chrysalis, Nightmare Moon, and King Sombra.

Pinkie grinned as she said, "Yeah, Luna always dresses as her old band persona from back in the day."

Luna took offense to that as she said, "It wasn't that long ago Ms. Pie."

Meanwhile Sunset continued to stare in aw as her brain struggled to accept that the very creature she feared when she was little is not only her vice principal but apparently a former rock star.

Aria, however glanced at the tape before saying, "Wait, you used to be in a band?"

Luna's smile returned as she said, "Indeed I was. The Children of the Night and I played all over the country, but unfortunately Celestia thought that I was spending too much time out with them as she said, quote, 'Your life has become one nonstop night party' and while ,yes, our gigs did go pretty late I still maintain that, that was an overreaction. Anyway she sent me to my room for what felt like a thousand years, but in actuality was probably only a few weeks, and after that me and my band mates sort of just lost touch."

Luna then looked at the ground in introspection before saying, "Maybe I should look them up." A new level of excitement overtook her as she said, "Oh I know. I'll invite them to come with me to Cadance and Shining Armor's wedding next year. I mean, I doubt Sombra will come since he and Cadance never fully clicked but Chrysy should since she was always a sucker for love-"

She was then cut short as Pinkie burst forward saying, "WHAT!? CADANCE AND TWILIGHT'S BROTHER ARE GETTING MARRIED!?"

Luna then blushed as she said, "Oh yes, please don't tell Twilight about this. You see Shining proposed to her a few weeks ago and Cadance told me in confidence... but they aren't planning on telling their families until Christmas when everyone is together." She then turned as she hoped no one else mentioned the fact that she let a big secret slip before marching along and saying, "Come on girls, the night may last forever but the candy sure doesn't."

Sonata giddily jogged behind her with Aria following soon after. Pinkie Pie than turned to Sunset, who was still struggling to take everything that just happened in, before saying, "You gonna be OK Sunset?"

Sunset then shook her head, trying to clear it like an etch a sketch, before saying, "Yeah I'm good... anyway let's just get on with the night."

Pinkie Pie smiled and said, "Okie dokie lokie," before they both began running up to catch up with the rest of the group.

...Give Us Something Sweet To Bite

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Sunset walked with Pinkie, still struggling to get over everything that has happened but trying to role with it and move on, as they caught up to Luna, Sonata, and Aria.

Soon they all walked together as they approached the first house and Sonata wrung the door bell. The door opened and they all said, "TRICK OR TREAT."

On the other side of the door was a man with brown hair and a matching brown trench coat over a blue suit looked at them and said, "My word it's Halloween." He then pulled out a pair of glasses and a fob watch as he said, "I could have sworn it was Thanksgiving last week... looks like I might need to adjust the chronal matrix again."

Everyone seemed confused by this, except for Sonata who just looked antsy as she said, "Umm, sir. Our candy."

He then looked back at them and said, "Oh right sorry, just give me a second to grab something, allons-y." He then went back into his house as Sonata started pacing in place as she became more and more impatient.

Thankfully it didn't take long for him to return as he came back with a small blue box and reached in saying, "Sorry I don't have any proper candy but thankfully this cookie jar here, just like the thing it looks like, always has much more it than you'd think." He then placed a few chocolate cookies in each of their candy pales before reaching Sunset and saying, "Oh a unicorn marvelous and..." he then paused before pulling out a small silver rod with a blue light on the end it and pointed it directly at Sunset. He then with-drawled it to his face and said, "OK good, not a Zygon." He then placed a few cookies in Sunset's pail before they all said "Thank You," and walked away resulting in him saying, "It's no trouble ladies, I'll either see you later or see you earlier."

Sunset glanced at the others hoping they could make any sense of that but only saw Sonata holding one of the cookies in excitement as she squeed and said, "MY FIRST EVER HALLOWEEN TREAT!"

She then ate the whole cookie in one bite and prepared to grab some more but was stopped by Pinkie as she said, "Woah, I know you're excited but if you eat all your treats now you won't have any for later."

Sonata calmed herself as she said, "That makes sense," but then her excitement returned as she continued saying, "OH, but now I can't wait to get all my treats home to chow down!"

Aria then chimed in saying, "Hey, you better not eat it too fast, cause I don't want to have to deal with you getting another stomach ache after what happened last time."

Sonata then pouted as she said, "How was I supposed to know that it wasn't real steak?"

"Maybe because you got it for three dollars from a guy in a van," said Aria.

Sonata then beamed with pride as she said, "True, but I did learn my lesson and haven't gotten sick like that since then."

"Still doesn't change the fact that I had to throw away my favorite boots because you couldn't make it to a trash can in time," said Aria.

Wanting to change the subject Luna said, "Moving on girls, I think I see another house we can go to." She then pointed at one just ahead which they all approached and this time Luna rang the door bell.

When the door opened they were greeted by a girl with a dark purple complexion, a scar over one eye, and a red Mohawk who was wearing a black leotard with armor plating on it. Before they could say anything though she gasped and ran back into her house.

They all stood their dumbfounded for a moment as Aria said, "Now what?"

Before anyone could respond to that she returned caring a large stack of records as she said, "OH MY GOD NIGHTMARE MOON I AM YOUR BIGGEST FAN! I have every one of your albums from your band Children of the Night to the solo single you put out before retiring. Could you please sign some of them for me?"

Luna looked a little shocked at this as she said, "Well thank you and of course I will," she then glanced at the cover of the solo album entitled The Moon Rises before chuckling and saying, "I'm surprised you have this, we all made solo albums before splitting up and even I thought Chrysalis's song Feed Me With Your Heart was the best."

The girl chuckled at this as she said, "I mean it's pretty good, but I've always loved your sound. It's the primary influence for my band, Stormy Empire."

Luna continued signing the albums as she said, "So you have a band then, tell me what is your name young lady."

At hearing this she immediately took on a serious look as she flatly said, "Tempest Shadow."

Luna noticed this sudden change and said, "Is something the matter?"

The girl looked uncomfortable as she said, "No it's nothing, just that my real name is Fizzlepop Berrytwist."

"Oh that's a pretty name," said Luna.

PInkie then burst forward saying, "Pretty name? THAT IS THE BEST NAME EVER!"

Fizzlepop giggled at this as she said, "Thanks, unfortunately our leader 'The Storm King' as he likes to be called insists I always go by my stage name to complete the image."

Luna looked at her saying, "I can sense you don't really like this guy much."

"Well I mean, I feel like I do all the work writing the songs, setting up the instruments, and pretty much everything else and he takes all the credit, and well..." said Fizzlepop who trailed off as her hand touched the scar on her face.

Aria then spoke up saying, "Woah, he didn't give you that scar did he?"

Fizzlepop raised her hands defensively as she said, "Oh nothing like that, it's just when I first had the idea to form a band I actually wanted to be a cutesy soloist under the simplified name Fizzleberry."

Sonata smiled saying, "That sounds nice. Why aren't you doing it?"

"Well The Storm King said no one would want to see a cute idol with a scar like this and that I needed to change my sound," said Fizzlepop sadly. She then looked up and said, "But it's OK though just as long as I get to make music I'm happy."

Luna then walked closer to her as she said, "Fizzlepop; what do you see when you look at me?"

"Well duh, I see the awesomely confident and cool Nightmare Moon," said Fizzlepop.

At this Luna simply sighed before putting her hands together and opening her mouth as she began singing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waPvh7ehZ3Y

After it was over they all stared at Luna as they took in the hauntingly beautiful melody of it all.

Luna then glanced at Fizzlepop as she said, "Now what do you see?"

Fizzlepop wiped some tears from her eyes before saying, "I see a beautiful young girl full or regret and sadness."

Luna smiled at her as she said, "And yet I haven't changed my appearance at all. That's the thing about music; it doesn't matter what you look like because the song itself can convey who you truly are deep down."

"Wow, but wait what was that song? I've never heard it before and like I said, I have all your albums," said Fizzlepop.

"Actually it's one I wrote for my sister, that I unfortunately never performed because, like you, I was worried about ruining my image as a confident bad girl," said Luna before placing her hand on Fizzlepop's shoulder. She then said, "Please don't make the same mistake I did, you need to sing out all the feelings you want to before it's to late."

Fizzlepop smiled at this before a determined look came to her face as she said, "You're right. You know what, I'm calling The Storm King or should I say FRANCIS right now and quieting."

Aria chuckled as she said, "Pftth, Francis."

At this Fizzlepop became excited as she yelled out for all the world to here, "THAT'S RIGHT! THE HARD ROCKER STORM KING'S REAL NAME IS FRANCIS!" She then slammed the door shut and everyone walked away as they could heard her loudly chewing out Francis over the phone.

After a few steps Sonata spoke up saying, "Wait, shouldn't we have gotten candy?"

Luna looked at her and smiled saying, "Fear not young Sonata, for we just changed a young girls life for the better and in the end there is no sweeter treat then that."

Sonata pouted as she said, "I guess but I still want candy."

Sunset, wanting to cheer her friend up said, "No problem there is another house over there," she then paused before continuing saying, "Let me take the lead this time. I got something I want to do."

They all agreed as they approached the house and wrung the bell. When the door opened Sunset smiled and eagerly said, "Nightmare Night, what a fright, give us something sweet to bite."

The man on the other side of the door twitched a bit before calmly placing the bowl on the ground, closing the door, and yelling, "TAKE AS MUCH AS YOU WANT HALLOWEEN HORSE SPIRIT AND JUST LEAVE ME BE!"

Sunset stood there dumbfounded as Pinkie said, "SCORE!" and started dividing up the bowl into their pails.

Sunset thought to herself, "I just wanted to say the Nightmare Night chant like when I was a filly," before she glanced at everyone else and noticed how happy they looked as she thought, "But I guess at least this time a freak out worked out."

She then began grinning as they walked away with Sonata skipping with joy at seeing her now nearly full pail and Aria cracking a small smile as she said, "Alright, I'm feeling good so I think it's time."

Sonata glanced at her as she said, "You don't mean?"

"Yup," said Aria before glancing at Luna as she said, "Hey, you wouldn't happen to know how to play the opening to Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi on that guitar of yours would you?"

Luna pulled her guitar off her back smiling as she said, "Indeed I do. After all when you're an educator you have plenty of free time over the summer to binge watch shows on Hoofflix." She then tuned her guitar before saying, "Ready when you are girls."

Sonata and Aria stood next to each other as Pinkie and Sunset sat down on the grass to watch what was about to unfold.

Sonata and Aria breathed in deeply before they began

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsAVN9q9HfU

As both Pinkie and Sunset sat listening Sunset thought she saw a faint blue light coming from Aria and Sonata's necks before she noticed a large pink light next to her as Pinkie had apparently blown up a piece of candy corn she was about to toss into her mouth.

Sonata giggled at this as Aria said, "Geeze, from what we've seen I thought you had better control over your magic at this point."

Pinkie looked confused as she said, "I thought I did too." She then shrugged as she said, "Oh well. I was probably just a little too excited with all the awesome stuff that happened tonight and lost it for a moment. The important thing is that night is still young and there is still candy to be had."

She then stood back up and began walking to the next house with others following as Sunset thought about what just happened. In the end though she decided not to say anything that could spoil the night and, still not sure if she saw what she thought she did, decided to file it away in the back of her mind for later as they continued through the night.

Another Day, More Weirdness

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Sunset Shimmer awoke to the sound of her alarm as she groggily got out of bed. She made her way to the bathroom and brushed her teeth before heading to the living room while barely opening her eyes.

She began thinking, "Uhh. Why did I stay out so late last night," before she glanced at the couch and saw the still sleeping Aria and Sonata, the latter of which was smiling as she clutched her still pretty full pail of candy to her chest. Sunset then smiled as she thought, "Oh yeah, that's why."

She then went to make breakfast only for her tiredness to return with a vengeance as she decided to simply move a couple boxes of cereal and toaster pastries out in the open for Aria and Sonata as she grabbed her backpack, being sure to slip her wallet into it, and headed out the door to get breakfast from a cafe.

After a short walk she made it into the cafe and began walking to the counter, only for Doughnut Joe to turn to her and look angry as he said, "Hey! I thought I told you kids no dogs allowed in here!"

Sunset was too tired to take offense to this and began moving forward to talk with Joe about her order, only for someone to run forward and stop her saying, "Oh. I'm so sorry Joe she's mine... I'll just lead her outside."

Joe then turned to her curious as he said, "Ms. Sparkle? I thought you had that one purple dog?"

Twilight than turned back to him, somewhat nervous, as she said, "Yes well... Spike was getting lonely while I was at school so I picked her up from the shelter to keep him company. I guess she still hasn't gotten used to me leaving yet though and followed me here."

She then began leading Sunset out as Joe said, "Oh I gotcha. Hey I've been looking for a dog myself so if Spike and her have puppies let me know."

Twilight began blushing as she just said, "Well do," and led Sunset, who was thankfully too tired to process that sentence, out.

After a moment to calm herself Twilight looked at Sunset concerned as she said, "Are you OK? I mean I know you like walking around as a pony as much as possible but you haven't been this careless so far."

Sunset looked at her and simply said, "Too tired, didn't think it through, coffee now." She then levitated her wallet up to Twilight and said, "You get please."

Twilight was somewhat taken aback at how simple minded those statements where but she quickly got over it as after plenty of all night study sessions and lab experiments she knew how much it took to, well do anything when you were as tired as Sunset looked. She then smiled and said, "Sure thing, you want your usual caramel latte and poppy seed bagel?"

Sunset grunted and nodded at this as Twilight walked in and soon came out with her order as they headed down the street to school.

As they walked Sunset began eating the bagel and shipping her latte as tiredness began to melt away and she looked at Twilight saying, "Thanks for getting me breakfast."

Twilight looked at her smiling as she said, "No problem. It looked like you had quite the night."

Sunset smiled to herself as she said, "Yeah. Sonata just kept saying 'just one more house please' and before we knew it we had hit like twenty more and it was after midnight. Also it didn't help that some of the houses had something going on that we had to deal with before going, including but not limited to some guy talking about weird sci-fi stuff, a girl who was struggling with her self image related to her band persona, a guy who thought I was a Halloween Spirit, and some blonde girl in a red and white hoodie who just threw beans at us."

Twilight raised her eyebrows at this as she said,"Wow! It sounds like you girls did have a big night."

Sunset had another sip of coffee and smiled as she said, "Yeah, but it was still fun, for them and for me." She then glanced at Twilight as she said, "But enough about that, how was the Halloween Bash?"

Twilight then blushed at this as she said, "Oh it was good, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo did their skit with Applejack and Rainbow Dash and..."

Sunset recognized this blush as she teasingly grinned at Twilight and said, "Annnnddddd?"

Twilight blushed further as she nervously twirled her hair and said, "And I didn't see much else because I spent most of the night dancing and talking with Timber."

Sunset continued grinning as she said, "I kind of figured, so what did he dress as?"

Twilight then looked forward as she quickly said, "We actually did couples costumes, with me as Cinderella and him as Prince Charming," trying to brush past it like it wasn't a big deal.

Sunset wasn't having that though as she giggled and said, "Seriously?"

"Yes," said Twilight, once again trying to brush past this.

Sunset then burst out laughing before calming herself and saying, "So putting aside the fact that you two were wearing the cheesiest couples costumes ever, what did you two talk about?"

Twilight looked away as she said, "I'm not sure if I want to tell you now."

Sunset looked at her as she said, "I'm sorry, I was just poking a little fun." Twilight mood didn't appear to soften though so Sunset got serious as she said, "I didn't mean to offend you or anything, it's just what best friends do."

Twilight then looked back at her as she said, "I know, and it's not really what you did it's just..." she then trailed off before stopping and looking around. She then turned back to Sunset as she said, "OK, I'll tell you but you gotta promise not to tell any of our friends. I don't want them making a big deal out of it."

Sunset then sat in front of her and said, "Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye."

Twilight then took a calming breath before saying, "OK, so Timber and I were talking and he said how he's not sure what he's gonna do this Christmas since Gloriasa is gonna be busy teaching ice skating on the recently frozen over lake to the new winter campers, which he doesn't like doing because one year he accidentally broke through the ice and has been scared to do it again ever since, and my parents have been wanting to meet him lately so, after texting to make sure it's OK, we agreed that he would spend the holiday with my family this year."

Sunset looked at her and smiled saying, "Wow, that's quite the step in your relationship."

"Which is why I don't want you telling anyone else because Rainbow Dash will probably crack a few jokes about how 'sappy and romantic' it is, Rarity will start comparing it to some of her favorite romance novels, and Pinkie will view it as a que to start planning every party she can think of for us from a six month anniversary of us dating to probably even picking dates for a wedding and even a baby shower!" said Twilight as she became a little panicked at the end of all that.

Sunset then thought a minute before saying, "Yeah, I see your point. Don't worry though your secrets safe with me."

Twilight looked at her and smiled as she said, "Thanks."

They then continued on their way to the school before finally walking through the front door before someone bumped into Sunset before saying, "Sorry," and continuing along as the CMC followed after them.

It appeared to be Flash Sentry based on the lighting bolt and shield patches on the hoodie but the hood covered the face so Sunset wasn't entirely sure. Not only that but when he spoke his voice sounded higher then usual and his proportions looked somewhat more slender, though the hoodie was baggie so again she couldn't say for sure.

Nevertheless, the person who seemed to be Flash glanced back at CMC and said, "Look I already told you a hot spring didn't do this to me!" They then began to mumble to themselves saying, "Stupid Poison Joke, that's the last time I suggest a romantic picnic near that forest. That freakin zebra better finish making her cure soon."

The CMC didn't seem to hear this though as Sweetie Belle said, "Come on please tell us where the Jusenkyo springs are?"

"Yeah, I want to see if they have a spring of drowned eagle," said Scootaloo.

Thankfully for Flash this caused the other members of the Canterlot Movie Club to stop as Apple Bloom said, "Now why in the blooming apples would you want to be an eagle?"

"Duh, so I can fly," said Scootaloo.

"Yeah, but what if you get warm water splashed on you while your flying?" said Sweetie Belle.

"Hm, I didn't think about that," said Scootaloo as they continued talking while walking off in another direction.

Sunset glanced at Twilight as she said, "Do you know what any of that is about?"

Twilight then looked back at her as she said, "If you're talking about the CMC I think there playing another game based around an anime they saw, but if your asking about Flash, at least I think that was Flash, then I don't know. He's been acting kind of weird lately, like the other day he asked me what my favorite candy was and when I told him he said thanks and started running off where I think I hear him say, 'I hope she likes that candy too'."

Sunset chuckled at that and was ready to say something before the bell rang and she said, "Well, there will be plenty of time to try and figure out all the weird stuff that goes on around here later. For now let's just get to class."

"Yeah, though I doubt we could ever truly understand EVERYTHING that goes around here," said Twilight before they both chuckled and headed to class.

Flowery Lunch and Gym Time Secrets

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After a good laugh Twilight and Sunset both headed to their respective classes and went through what seemed like a normal day, to their surprise. Before she could realize it lunch rolled around and Sunset moved over to her usual table, where she noticed that Fluttershy was oddly absent, but that didn't seem to matter to anyone else as once again they were in a heated discussion.

"Come on Pinkie, just admit I'm right already," said Rainbow Dash with a smug smile.

Pinkie on the hand looked stern as she crossed her arms and said, "I admit nothing."

"Please, I mean Pharaoh Phetlock is taken down and his Eye of Ra is supposed to be in the villain weapon storage at the Power Ponies compound. Now everything seems wrapped up in a nice little bow right, but then when Mane-iac goes back to her room and it's revealed that she stole it and is keeping it in her drawer," said Rainbow Dash.

Pinkie then raised her hand as she said, "OK, I admit that does not look good and that she is probably at least thinking about using it to restore her full power, but no way is she going to go trough with it. I mean did you see the look on her face when she was holding it, she is fighting tooth and nail against her insanity to not use the Eye of Ra. I mean just look at the season finale promo that aired afterwords, it showed her having a relaxing day out with her daughter, a.k.a. Masked Matterhorn, which is clearly her way of fighting her disillusions and getting past this."

Rainbow's smug smile returned as she said, "You mean the same season finale promo that showed Mane-iac holding a glowing and clearly activated Eye of Ra?"

"Yes active, but not in use. For all we know that occurs before the relaxing day out and she changed her mind," said Pinkie Pie.

This continued on as Sunset giggled slightly before leaning over to Twilight and whispering, "Well at least this is something we can always count on."

Twilight giggled back before saying, "I know right, I just wish they would just go ahead and start reading the comics with me because you don't know how much it hurts to listen to their fan theories and know both of them are wrong, though one of them is kinda close."

Sunset once again giggled at that statement before they were interrupted as two familiar faces, one expected and one unexpected, approached the table.

"Oh good, you haven't gotten food yet," said Wallflower Blush as she and Fluttershy walked up to Sunset.

Sunset was confused at this odd greeting as she said, "Um, hi Wallflower. No I haven't had my lunch yet since I have to turn human to get a burger and I wanted to sit and relax for a while first. How have you been though, I haven't seen you in awhile?"

Wallflower smiled as she said, "Oh, I've been good. Allot more people have been joining the gardening club lately, probably because I'm not getting nervous and erasing their memories or me asking them to join before they can even answer, and I'm making allot more friends."

Sunset smiled as she said, "I'm glad to hear it."

Fluttershy then spoke up saying, "That's actually kind of why I brought her here, because well." She then reached into her backpack and pulled out a plastic bag containing a sandwich before gesturing it to Sunset and saying, "Just try this."

Sunset looked at all this oddly as she said, "OK," before grabbing the bag with her magic field, removing the sandwich and taking a bite. At which point her mouth was greeted with an explosion of flavor that was somehow both unique and different and without even thinking she then scarfed down the rest of the sandwich and declared, "OH MY CELESTIA THIS IS GOOD," which resulted in an odd and scared look from Principal Celestia as she slowly backed out of the cafeteria.

Fluttershy chuckled and said, "I knew you'd like it."

At this Sunset looked at her and said, "Like it? I love it, I mean it tastes just like a hamburger does when I'm human, but somehow even better."

Wallflower on the other hand looked surprised as she said, "Wow, first Fluttershy then you. I didn't think my Blush Bread sandwiches where that good."

Sunset looked at her as she said, "Wait, you made these?"

Wallflower looked at her as she got excited and said, "Yeah, me and some other members of the gardening club have been working on mixing and cross pollinating various flowers and fruits together and this is one of the things I came up with."

Sunset smiled at her as she said, "Well thanks for sharing some with me, I really enjoyed it. You said it's called Blush Bread?"

At this Wallflower, ironically, blushed as she said, "Well it's just the name the other members of the club came up with. I tried to tell them that naming it after me was a little unfair, and embarrassing, since it was Fluttershy's idea to try making food with our plants in the first place but since they all had named their own stuff after themselves they insisted."

Sunset saw her embarrassment and tried to reassure her saying, "Well you do deserve the credit for coming up with something this good," before turning to Fluttershy and saying, "So this was your idea?"

Fluttershy then looked down embarrassed as she said, "Well yeah, you see as much as I could never bring myself to eat a poor defenseless animal the vegetarian diet can get a little... predictable so I just suggested us trying it for a while and the rest of the club loved it."

"I admit it was a little weird having someone besides me suggest something for the club, since I had been it's only member for so long, but I'm really enjoying it. In fact I think next semester I might sign up for the culinary club too. I'd love to able to do more then just crush some plants into a patty and make a sandwich," said Wallflower.

Sunset once again smiled as she said, "That sounds awesome, if you do that though I wouldn't mind taste testing stuff before you turn it in."

Wallflower laughed as she said, "I'll keep that in mind."

Applejack then spoke up saying, "So Wallflower, would you like to join us for lunch?"

Before she could answer though a girl with pink skin and yellow hair yelled from the other side of the cafeteria, "YO WALLFLOWER, YOU COMING OR WHAT?"

Wallflower then yelled back, "JUST A SECOND LILLY," before turning back to Applejack saying, "Sorry but I really got to get over to the other Gardening Club members. We're starting to run out of places to plant in and we're debating whether we should ask Principal Celestia if we can expand our area or if we should start growing stuff at our homes and just bring pictures and stuff to school to show what we are working on. I'll catch you later though."

She then waved and started walking to Lilly as everyone wished her, and by extension Fluttershy who followed her over to weigh in on this unofficial meeting, goodbye.

Rainbow Dash then looked at Sunset saying, "Well it looks like you got one of the problems with being a pony all the time fixed."

Sunset smiled at this as she said, "Yeah, now all I need is for the townspeople to stop freaking out when I talk, to be able to help in Trixie's magic show without Aria and Sonata running crowd control, and probably a car I can drive with hooves and everything will be perfect."

At this everyone chuckled before they continued their lunches, while Sunset simply got a drink from the vending machine to wash down her Blush Bread sandwich. Pinkie and Rainbow went back to arguing over Power Ponies while Applejack simply shook her head at how silly that was, Rarity began absentmindedly sketching a dress on her napkin, and Twilight started cringing with every wrong prediction they made.

Thankfully though lunch soon ended and Sunset, Pinkie, and Rainbow headed into their shared gym class. As Pinkie and Rainbow went into the locker room to change Sunset sat on the floor and thought, "I wonder if maybe I should turn human and put my gym clothes on before turning back into a pony just to be safe. I mean the last thing I need is to have to turn human part way through class and get my street clothes all sweaty, but then I might forget I did that and have to turn human later and be wearing my gym clothes, which I guess isn't really bad but I'd still like to avoid it."

Before Sunset could think on this more though she heard some screams coming from the boys locker room before someone was pushed out the door.

Sunset walked over to see what happened and she saw that this person was who she thought, judging by the jacket, was Flash earlier but now that the jacket was unzipped and the hood was down she could clearly see that it wasn't.

It was a girl she had never seen before, though she did seem familiar, with long blue hair and orange skin who was wearing a white t-shirt under the jacket and jeans. Sunset walked up to her and said, "Got a little turned around on your first day huh?"

The girl then looked at her nervously as she said, "Um, yeah that's what happened."

Sunset noticed her uncomfortably as she said, "Hey no need to be embarrassed, I mean accidents happen." She then reached her front hoof out to the girl as she said, "Hi, I'm Sunset Shimmer and I would like to welcome you to Canterlot High, and if you don't mind me asking do you happen to know Flash Sentry because that looks a lot like his jacket?"

The girl then took Sunset's hoof and shook it as she said, "Um yeah, Flash is my cousin and I'm staying with him and his family while I'm at school here." She then looked up at the ceiling before saying, "My name's Bright Lights and it's nice to meet you."

After the hand to hoof shake ended Sunset smiled as she said, "So I'm guessing by the lack of surprise your cousin told you about me."

Bright looked confused as she said, "What do you mean?"

At this Sunset simply pointed her hoof at herself before Bright seemed to get it and said, "Oh yeah the pony thing... yeah Flash mentioned it."

Sunset noticing how nervous she seemed to be decided that it would just be best to stop the conversation for now as she pointed behind her and said, "Well the girls locker room is right there, you better hurry and change before Coach Spitfire comes in."

Bright seemed to blush as she said, "Oh um... I don't exactly have a girls gym uniform."

Sunset thought there was something off in the way she worded that but decided to chalk it up to her still being nervous before saying, "Well that's OK, you can borrow mine if you want because as you can see I don't exactly need it." Sunset then levitated a pen and paper in front of her before writing down her locker number and combination and moving it over to Bright Lights

She grabbed it and said, "Thanks," before moving over to the locker room door where she stopped and started blushing for some reason.

Sunset seeing this said, "There's no need to be nervous... after all were all girls in there right."

This only seemed to make Bright blush more as she nervously laughed and said, "Right, just girls," before taking a deep breath and charging into locker room, clearly intent on trying to get in and get out as quickly as possible.

Sunset began commenting to herself, "Wow, I've seen people get nervous in a new place before but not quite like that."

It didn't take long for everyone to come out, Bright of course being the first as she bolted back into main gym with her face even redder than before for some reason, and soon afterwards Spitfire walked through the gyms main doors as she whistled to get everyone's attention and said, "Alright maggots listen up, we need to test all of your stamina so today were doing The Pacer Test."

Everyone grumbled at this resulting in Spitfire lowering her sunglasses to let everyone know she was serious before saying, "Look I know what your thinking 'I'm young, of course of I got good stamina and don't need to do this' well we'll see how that works out when you can't run out of the way of an out of control car in time and end up in a FULL BODY ARM AND LEG CAST, DRINKING TROUGH A STRAW!"

Everyone ceased grumbling as they knew that as soon as Spitfire started talking about casts and straws there was no reasoning with her, resulting in her saying, "Excellent, now guys get on the line for the test, girls sit on the side lines until they finish."

Sunset followed the other girls and sat down next to Pinkie and Rainbow to talk while they wait before she heard Spitfire yell, "HEY NEW GIRL! I SAID GUYS FIRST!"

At this Sunset looked up and saw Bright standing in front of Spitfire saying, "Sorry, I guess I misheard."

"Well you better work on those listening skills; otherwise you won't hear when the out of control car is coming and you'll end up in a FULL BODY ARM AND LEG CAST, DRINKING THROUGH A STRAW!" said Spitfire.

Bright simply nodded as she ran over towards the other girls and sat down.

Rainbow looked over at this and said, "What's up with her?"

"Oh, she's Flash's cousin Bright Lights who just transferred here," said Sunset as she noticed that Bright was sitting alone before saying, "I think I'll go over and talk to her some more."

"That sounds cool, you want us to come with?" said Rainbow.

"No, I wouldn't want to overwhelm her. She seems really nervous even for a first day," said Sunset.

Rainbow then shrugged and said, "Alright," as Sunset began walking over to Bright.

"Oh hey," said Bright as she saw Sunset approach.

"Hi," said Sunset as she noticed that Bright still had a bit of a blush on her face and decided to make some small talk to try and relax her. She said, "So what school did you go to before this?"

That only seemed to worry Bright more though as she said, "Oh, it was this really expensive and elite private school like way on the other side of the country."

"Oh is that why you were so nervous about the locker room," asked Sunset. Bright looked confused before Sunset continued saying, "I heard some of those private school have like a dozen private changing rooms for each student to go in one at a time."

Bright seemed to perk up at as she said, "Yeah, sure that's why."

Sunset thought that was odd but decided to press on saying, "So what brings you to Canterlot High then?"

"Oh um... my parents thought it would be good to go to a public school for a little bit to get used to being around more people. Being at an elite private school means very few classmates, in fact my gym class had so few people in it that we were all able to change without even using all the private rooms," said Bright before nervously laughing at her possible exaggeration at the end.

"Oh, I gotcha," said Sunset as she thought to herself, "Oh that's what going on, she probably is just having some anxiety since she's not used to being around so many people."

Sunset then realized something as she said, "Wait, but why isn't Flash here helping you get used to this stuff?"

"Oh he's... sick and couldn't be here today. Yeah he accidentally stumbled into some Poison Jo-OAK, Poison Oak and he's just hanging at home while he's getting over the rash," said Bright as she once again laughed nervously.

Meanwhile Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie stood on the other side of the gym watching as Sunset and Bright talked.

"Dang, she wasn't kidding when she said Bright was nervous. She's blushing with almost every word," said Rainbow Dash before she turned to Pinkie Pie and said, "Is that why haven't blasted her with a confetti cannon and sung your welcome song for her yet."

Pinkie then giggled as she said, "Oh silly Dashie, I don't need to welcome her because she's-"

Before Pinkie could finish though she was interrupted as Spitfire blew her whistle again and said, "Alright good job guys, you've shown improvement since last time," before making a few notes on her clipboard and saying," Alright ladies, it's your turn."

They then got up and moved over to the start line as Spitfire moved over to the stereo and started up the voice that irritated every student who ever heard it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y82jDHRrswc&t=44s

After about twelve laps Sunset was already weaving as she failed her second lap and Spitfire yelled, "Sunset out, jease you think you'd be at least a little better with four legs instead of two," as Sunset groggily made her way over to the edge of the gym and sat down again.

She watched as slowly more and more girls where eliminated until lap sixty when all that remained was Pinkie and Rainbow, which was usual since Rainbow has always been athletic and Pinkie was well... Pinkie, and finally Bright, unexpectedly.

At about lap seventy Bright finally gave out and failed that lap and the next as Spitfire said, "Nice hustle new girl, but time to hit the floor."

Bright breathed heavily as she walked over to Sunset and she said, "Nice work, were you on the track team at your old school or something?"

Bright sat next to her panting as she said, "Soccer actually."

"Oh so just like your cousin, guess it runs in the family," said Sunset.

Before she could respond to that though Pinkie gave out and Rainbow Dash soon followed after her as Spitfire once again blew her whistle and said, "Alright nice work ladies, you all showed improvement as well. Now everyone sit, cool down, get some water, and I'll set up the mats for sit-ups. We go in about fifteen, and remember don't complain or you'll end up in-"

"A FULL BODY ARM AND LEG CAST DRINKING THROUGH A STRAW," responded the students before she could finish which resulted in her simply blushing as said, "Well yeah, I think you got it," before going to the supply closet to get the mats.

Rainbow walked up to Sunset and Bright as she said, "Nice work out there, you had a lot of good hustle."

"Thanks," said Bright.

"One question though, did you lose a lot weight recently or something?" said Rainbow.

Bright blushed, and this time Sunset didn't blame her as that was somewhat of personal question, before she said, "Why do you ask?"

"It's just that, at least at first, the way you were running, it was like you were used to a whole different center of gravity," said Rainbow.

Bright seemed to relax at that as she said, "Oh yeah... I started this new diet recently so I might have lost a few pounds."

"Well, you should probably work on that. I mean if you hadn't burned up so much energy running like that at the start you could have almost come close to what I did," said Rainbow as any desire to help melted into her usual cocky grin.

"I'll keep that in mind," said Bright.

Pinkie then skipped over, seemingly not tired at all, as she said, "I don't know, I think you did pretty good considering this recent change Flash."

Bright seemed to get nervous at that statement as Sunset simply looked confused and Rainbow looked offended as she said, "Woah woah Pinkie, if anyone deserves the nickname Flash it's me. I mean I'm the only one with real super speed here."

Pinkie then began saying, "I didn't mean it like that, it's just she-" before she was interrupted as Bright put her hand in front of her mouth before laughing nervously.

She then said, "Very funny, Pinkie was it? Can we talk over there for a minute?"

She then led Pinkie into a corner on the other side of the gym as Rainbow looked confused and said, "What was that about?"

Sunset looked over just as confused she said, "I don't know... I know Bright said she's not used to dealing with large groups of people so maybe she is telling Pinkie not to give her showy nicknames like that or anything that well make her stand out."

This explanation seemed to satisfy Rainbow as she shrugged her shoulders and said, "That makes sense."

Meanwhile Bright and Pinkie finished walking as she took her hand off Pinkie's mouth and said, "Alright, so you figured out it was me?"

Pinkie smiled at this and said, "Of course I did Flash, it takes more than one of friends suddenly turning into the opposite gender or a completely different species for me to not recognize them."

Flash then backed up as she said, "I would ask more about that, but considering you have now been through both those situations and several others I can't even imagine, and probably some stuff no one else can imagine, I'm just gonna accept that answer. So you're probably wondering how I ended up like this, you see-"

She was interrupted though as Pinkie spoke up saying, "You were missing Princess Twilight so you decided to go to Equestria and talk to her about where your relationship stood and after a bit you both agreed that it didn't make sense to give up on each other so quickly so you decided to start officially dating and see where it goes. So after a few dates you decided to invite her to an early picnic in the woods with the plan being to have it all set up by the time she got there, but since you didn't know much about the pony world you accidentally set it up on some magic plant that has weird effects on creatures and turned you into a girl. So Twilight told you not to worry because she has a friend who can fix up a cure, but before you could go with her to take it you realized it was time for school and, not wanting anyone to find out you and Princess Twilight were dating yet, you figured you could hide this and get through the day until Twilight's friend finished making the cure, but unfortunately that fell apart as you didn't think about the fact that you would have to change for gym"

After this was all said and done Flash stood there mouth agape before saying, "How did you know all that?"

Pinkie then shrugged before saying, "Ehh, just a hunch."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouULMb3BEjM

*

"Well congrats you got it right, but please don't tell anyone especially Sunset. She was the one who told me to get over Princess Twilight in the first place and I'm not sure how she'll react if she finds out I've been hopping back and forth like this to be with her," said Flash.

"Oh no problem. Cross my heart and hope to fly stick a cupcake in my eye," said Pinkie before pulling an actual cupcake out of her hair and sticking it in her eye.

"Thanks, and don't worry you shouldn't have to keep this secret for very long-" said Flash before she was interrupted by a vibrating and glowing from her pocket as she reached in and pulled out a rock with a keyboard and screen crudely painted on it.

"What's that?" said Pinkie Pie curiously.

"It's a communication stone Twilight gave me so we could still talk on days where she was too busy for me to actually come over. I tried to paint it to look like a phone so I at least wouldn't look completely insane when I held it up to my ear and talked into it, but I didn't do a very good job," said Flash as she lifted the stone to her ear. "Hey Twi, so what's going on with the cure... so what if she's sick she's a healer... what do you mean the only cure for Pony Pox is a week of bed rest... doesn't she have an assistant or someone who can finish the cure... she can't be that bad at making potions... it's Apple Bloom!... Yeah if she's anything like the Apple Bloom here than I see your point, I still remember when she was assisting the nurse and accidentally used liquid heat on my cut instead of disinfectant... we'll isn't there a gender swapping spell or something you could use to fix this... UH fine, we still on for that date tonight... you're right that would be awkward, I'll talk to you later," said Flash before putting the stone back in her pocket.*2

Pinkie looked at her eagerly as she said, "Soooo, what did she say?"

Flash groaned before saying, "Apparently her friend Zecora, who was supposed to make the cure, came down with a sudden case of Pony Pox and won't be able to work on the cure for a few days at least, and unfortunately while there is a book describing the cure the only other pony familiar with how Zecora's equipment works is Apple Bloom and she's not to good at it. Even worse Twilight can't fix it herself since apparently Poison Joke overrides almost all magic." Flash then sighed before saying, "It looks like Bright Lights is here to stay for awhile. Say you wouldn't happen to have a spare gym uniform I can use? I think Sunset might get suspicious if I keep borrowing hers."

At this Pinkie grinned and said, "Of course I do," before grabbing onto her saying, "In fact you should come over to my house tonight and try on a bunch of my old clothes since they might also get suspicious if you wear the same clothes every day." Flash was about to interrupt and say how almost everyone in the school wears the same thing everyday, but Pinkie continued saying, "Oh we'll have a dress up slumber party, question though, have you ever been curious about how skirts feel?"

As Pinkie continued asking other questions like that, which Flash was scared to answer as the answer to some of them was yes, she thought to herself, "This is going to be a long week."

Bright Days and Club Quotas

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As another day began at Canterlot High started, Pinkie Pie was skipping through the front door with her usual smile on her face, but that smile quickly disappeared as she looked behind herself and saw that the girl who was previously following behind her was now hiding by the door jam.

Pinkie Pie poked her head back out saying, "Come on Fla- I mean 'Bright Lights,' you said you liked this outfit. We even restyled your hair to go with it, and I dug up a pair of matching sneakers for you since you said high heels was a step too far."

Flash leaned by the door saying, "Yeah, I know. But wearing it over at your place and looking at myself in the mirror is one thing... but wearing it here at school."

"Well it's not like anyone here knows who really are," began Pinkie before she glanced at some of the students coming and said, "plus Sunset should be here any minute and you don't want her asking why you're just sitting by the door and not going in."

"Uhh, fine," said Flash before she stood up and walked through the door, revealing her new look to the whole school.

As Flash walked down the hall blushing Pinkie looked at her and said, "Oh come on, you look cute."

Flash nervously chuckled before saying, "Thanks, and I am at least OK with the majority of this outfit, due in no small part to the fact that it reminds me a certain holographic singer. It's the skirt that I'm still struggling with."

Pinkie slyly smiled as she said, "Didn't you say last night that you 'enjoyed the breezy freedom'?"

Flash blushed more as she said, "Admittedly, yeah I do a little, but I also feel kind of.... exposed."

At this Pinkie took on an uncharacteristically serious tone as she looked at Flash and said, "You aren't are you? Because I know I gave you some-"

Flash raised her hands defensively and blushed more severely before Pinkie could finish as she said, "Oh no no no, I didn't mean literal. In fact I'm even wearing shorts underneath here as well to be safe."

"Oh," said Pinkie before chuckling and saying, "Well between those and your knee socks, you might as well still be wearing pants."

"I guess... it still feels weird," said Flash as her blush deepened.

"Well, that makes sense. Not all girls are comfortable in skirts at first, and some never," began Pinkie before saying, "I'm surprised Dashie didn't switch to pants sooner."

"Wait, someone as confident as Dash was just as uncomfortable as I am?" said Flash.

"Yup, if not more so," said Pinkie.

At this Flash smiled before becoming confused as she said, "But wait, why would Dash wear a skirt for years if she didn't like them?"

"Well... it wasn't actually her idea. You see she used to just wear her black athletic shorts to school, but Rarity was all like 'My word Rainbow Dash, can't you have at least some femininity' and gave her a simple violet and white stripped skirt from her clearance bin to wear," said Pinkie.

"Huh, that explains why it didn't really match the colors of the rest of her outfit," said Flash.

'Yup, anyway Dash walked around feeling just as embarrassed as you are now, but in time she ended up getting used to it," said Pinkie who then leaned into Flash's ear saying, "and don't tell this to anyone but she actually ended up liking it more than pants."

Flash chuckled, not nervously this time, at that before saying, "But wait, if she's cool with it then why did she switch back to pants?"

"Oh, it's just so she can maintain her sporty girl image. But trust me, next time Rarity makes us clothes for some kind of event, she's either going to be wearing a skirt or a full on dress saying 'it's a special occasion'," said Pinkie before they both began chuckling at all this.

Flash, now with most of the blush gone from her face, said, "I guess I can get used to this then," before going into the bathroom only to be greeted by a screaming Bulk Biceps before rushing back and realizing that she had gone into the men's room, again.

"Looks like that's not the only thing you still have to get used to," said Pinkie Pie.

Meanwhile Sunset Shimmer observed this as she was trotting through the hall.

She thought to herself, "First the locker room and now the bathrooms? I guess her old school must have been all girls or something for her to keep making these mistakes. It looks like Pinkie's trying to help her out though which is good... but why Pinkie though? I mean of course she is willing to help anyone but me and Twilight are both on the welcome committee for new students so this is kind of what we do."

Before Sunset could go deeper in thought though she was interrupted as from seemingly nowhere, ironically one of her first fully successfully appearing acts, Trixie was now standing in front of Sunset with a panicked look on her face as she said, "Sunset, we've got a problem!"

Sunset immediately became concerned at seeing one of her most confident friends worried as she said, "Oh my gosh, what's wrong?!"

"The singing comedian who was supposed to go on before us in our magic show on Wednesday had to cancel because apparently his 'cheesie sense' as he called it had to take him somewhere else," said Trixie as she began freaking out.

Sunset on the other hand just looked confused as she said, "Oh um.... I don't understand what that means."

At this Trixie became slightly agitated as she said, "It MEANS! That Iron Will doesn't have enough talent scheduled for that day to make up for his drink to table ratio and is going to have to cancel next weeks show."

At this Sunset became somewhat relieved as she said, "Oh, that doesn't sound so bad."

"NOT SO BAD!" said Trixie.

"Well I mean, missing one show isn't gonna ruin your reputation or anything, and from what you've told me all your debts have been paid off, and I'm pretty close with mine and thankfully I don't have any time constraints," said Sunset trying to reassure her friend.

Trixie then blushed as she nervously laughed and said, "Yeah, about that..." before trailing off.

Sunset caught onto what she was trying to say as she said, "Trixieee?"

Trixie's blush then deepened as closed her eyes and belted out, "I GOT A NEW BILL!"

Several students glanced at the, louder than necessary, confession while Sunset face hoofed and said, "Darn it Trixie, I thought you said you were over this?"

Trixie raised her hands trying to defend herself as she said, "I am, it's just I felt I deserved a little treat after paying off my last bill, and I saw this absolutely adorable broach."

"Oh, Trix," said Sunset as had seen way to many reality shows, as spending a few years as a vindictive friendless manipulator had given her a lot of free time after school, and she knew that one little thing was all it took to fall back into an addiction like this.

Trixie seemed to take notice of Sunset's thought process though and continued saying, "But the broach is all I bought, and my normal paycheck would be more than enough to cover the bill."

"Oh," said Sunset pleasantly surprised at how her friends choice was no where as bad as she initially thought.

"But if I don't pay it off by next Friday the interest rate will DOUBLE!" said Trixie as she once again started freaking out.

Sunset, now on the same page, began freaking out a little too as she said, "Oh, man. What kind of place would have a rate that steep?!"

Trixie then looked even more embarrassed as she said, "The Flim Flam Brothers' Everything Under the Sun Emporium."

Sunset's expression briefly went flat as she quietly said, "Should have figured," before returning to her concern for Trixie as she said, "Well what can we do?"

"We have to find a new group to go on before us before Iron Will makes the schedule on Sunday," said Trixie before looking hopeful as she said, "Hey, can you and The Rainbooms could perform?"

"Unfortunately no, Pinkie's got a big catering thing with Mister and Misses Cake, Applejack has to help her family prepare for the Zap Apple harvest, and Fluttershy has her weekly tea with Discord that day and I mean I know she'd probably cancel it to help but I don't like taking advantage of her kindness like that. Plus with at least two band members down I'm not sure what we could do," said Sunset.

"Oh, I see," said Trixie before she began freaking out again saying, "What am I gonna do then?!"

Sunset, wanting to calm her friend down, came up with an idea as she said, "Well their are plenty of talented people at this school... I know, you go to theater class and I'll go the choir. I'm sure we can find a few people willing to perform with us after school."

Trixie instantly perked up as she said, "Of course, thanks Sunset," before her usual confidence returned as she said, "After all, who wouldn't want to perform with THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE... and her Lovely and Charming assistant."

Sunset smiled at this as Trixie threw a smoke bomb to the ground and vanished, to the end of the hall where Sunset could see her sprinting away. Sunset then began walking to the choir room but as she turned the corner she saw the CMC all sitting on the ground looking miserable as she said, "Hey girls, what's up?"

Applebloom looked up at her with sadness in her eyes as she said, "Oh it's just awful Sunset."

Scootaloo then chimed in saying, "It's plain terrible."

Finally Sweetie Belle added in, "It is the WORST POSSIBLE THING!" From there she pulled an extra long fainting couch from the door next to her and all three of them went from laying on the floor to laying on it.

Sunset thought to herself, "Looks like all that time learning how to sew their anime costumes from Rarity has impacted them more than expected." She maintained her concern though as she said, "Oh no, what is it?"

"Principal Celestia recently amended club requirements, and the new minimum for after school clubs is now five," said Applebloom.

"So if we don't get some new members by the end of the month she'll have to dissolve our club," said Scootaloo.

"And we already asked everyone in our grade and they either can't join or don't want too," said Sweetie Belle.

"What about Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon? I though you girls had been pretty close ever since you helped reform those two," said Sunset.

"Unfortunately they don't have the time," said Applebloom.

Scootaloo then became annoyed as she said, "Yeah, Diamond's stupid mom got wind that some big important couple in the city just go engaged and, even though she doesn't even know who the couple is, she is dead set on making Diamond take cotillion so she'll act 'proper' at the wedding and Silver is doing it so she doesn't have to do it alone."

"And as much as she might want an excuse to try and get out of, we could never try and force Silver to leave Diamond's side... she was her first friend after all," said Sweetie Belle.

"Oh, well I would be happy to join your club, and I'm sure your older sisters would want to do it too," said Sunset as she smiled trying to calm the girls down.

"I wish it was that easy, but unfortunately since we originally wanted this club to be just us we registered under the Freshman schedule to limit the amount of people we might have to turn away," said Scootaloo.

"Oh," said Sunset as she was now saddened by the fact that it looked like the CMC didn't have a way out of this.

"We did find one loophole to try, but unfortunately it didn't work out," said Sweetie Belle.

At this Sunset perked back up as she said, "What's the loophole?"

"Well, apparently people who aren't attending Canterlot High are allowed to sign up for any club regardless of grade," said Scootaloo.

"Wait really?" asked Sunset as that seemed like a very odd loophole.

Applebloom then reached into her bag and pulled out a school bylaw book as she said, "Yeah, apparently it was originally created so that students in middle school could join and get a little early experience in high school, or so people who recently graduated could go back to their old clubs to continue the fun and help out the younger kids if need be." She then held up the book to Sunset showcasing several picture of that, the most notable of which was one of a preteen Celestia staring with wide eyes and a huge grin at the culinary clubs latest cake, and then one of a twenty something Celestia doing the same thing. She then continued saying, "But there was never was any added rules stating that they had to have ever been enrolled at Canterlot High, so technically anyone can join."

"So we spent the past few days handing out fliers in front of Sugarcube Corner and Carousel Boutique trying to get people interested, but unfortunately we haven't had any takers," said Scootaloo.

Sunset thought on all this information for a bit before being interrupted as Sweetie Belle said, "If only we could have some sort of stage show after school to showcase our club to a whole bunch of people... I mean between all the moves and stuff we've practiced from shows I think we could come up with a good show in no time."

Applebloom then looked at Sweetie as she said, "Now how in the name of apples are we gonna get a stage show that fast?"

Sunset just smiled at this as she now saw a way to fix two problems at once and said, "I think I know how."

Games and Songs

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As another day at Canterlot High ended, Sunset made her way home and entered her apartment.

She put her keys in the bowl by the door and sat her backpack down next to it before she walked into the living room and was greeted by the usual sight of Aria and Sonata crashing on the couch.

"Welcome home Sunset," said Sonata cheerfully as she sat up and looked at her.

"What up?" asked Aria who continued resting her head on the couch.

"Nothing much," said Sunset before she continued saying, "School was usual, the only real big thing that happened was that, due to some cancellations and coincidences, the CMC will be performing with me and Trixie on Wednesday."

"Oh that's nice, and we'll get to see it too since me and Aria start working their then," said Sonata with a smile.

"Yeah, I just hope they've improved their act since the battle of the band. I mean those mismatched colored outfits and the lyrics that sound like they wrote them in a day, I'm surprised they made it as far as they did," said Aria who still laid her head on the couch.

"Well knowing them they probably did, but don't worry they've matured a lot since then and take things like this way more seriously. You should have seen them at the Canterlot Games opening ceremonies last year," said Sunset with a warm smile. She looked at Sonata who returned the smile, and then at Aria who just gave a thumbs up while still laying down. Sunset decided to finally address this as she asked, "So, what happened with you girls today?"

Aria finally sat up as she said, "We decided to give one of your video games a try and ended up playing for about five hours straight ."

Sunset then started to realize why Aria looked how she did, but decided to keep talking anyway as she said, "That sounds cool, what game did you pick?"

Sonata then sat up excitedly holding the game case as she said, "Dragon Ball FighterZ! It's really fun, though Aria got a head ache after awhile."

That confirmed Sunset's suspicions as she grinned at Aria and said, "Let me guess, while you were playing you didn't feel it too much, but as soon as you turned the game off you felt like a ton of bricks had been dropped on your head?"

"Yup," said Aria before laying back down.

Sunset then chuckled before saying, "Yup, I've been there too. All that electronic stimulation takes some getting used to."

"I tried to warn you, I mean remember when I came home just like this after that marathon DDR session at the arcade," said Sonata.

"Yeah, but that was over twenty years ago. I figured with all the revolutions in video games that people keep talking about that they would have fixed this stuff by now," said Aria.

Sunset giggled slightly before turning Sonata and saying, "So you were really into DDR?"

Sonata stood up excited as she said, "You know it! As soon as they put it in the arcade I got hooked and played every chance I got. I mean the bright light, the catchy music, and the fun dance moves... plus I totally cleared out on the ticket counter. I mean Adagio would always say 'you know you can just sing a song to make the cashier give you any prize you want' but you should have seen the look on her face when I gave her that golden spiked belt with the diamond buckle." Sonata then smiled as a few tears formed in her eyes from both the the joy and sorrow that came from thinking about the good times with Adagio.

Sunset thought about saying something, but wasn't sure given how she was remembering good times even if that did make her a little sad. Those thoughts were quickly interrupted though as Aria spoke up saying, "Oh by the way, I beat the gravity room thing and unlocked Super Saiyan Blue Vegeta for you."

At this Sunset grew serious before teleporting onto the table in front of Aria as she said, "YOU DID WHAT!"

Aria sat up confused at this as she started saying, "I beat the-"

Before she could finish though Sunset said, "I have been trying to beat that for weeks now, and you did it after one day?!"

Aria scratched the back of her head as she said, "Well I guess it was just beginners luck."

Sunset then looked over at Aria before lighting up her horn causing her to suddenly appear on the couch next to Aria and a controller to appear in her magic field and Aria's hands respectively. She then looked at Aria with a death glare as she said, "We're having a match right now to see if you really are better then me and spoiler alert, you're not."

Sunset then stared as the game loaded before she looked over and saw a look of concern on Sonata and Aria's faces as she snapped back to reality and said, "Oh girls, I'm sorry I got a little intense."

"I'd say that was more then just a little," said Aria sarcastically as she seemed to be getting over her headache and returning to normal.

"Yeah, what was that about?" said Sonata who still looked concerned.

"It's just... I've always been competitive when it comes to video games... or carnival games... or pretty much any game that doesn't involve physical activity as I already know that isn't my strong suit," said Sunset as she began blushing with embarrassment.

"Huh, any idea why?" said Aria.

"Well Pinkie thinks that since I took this hobby up after I first started reforming, that I have channeled all my old aggressive tendencies into it without realizing it," said Sunset as she became more embarrassed. She then continued saying, "And as much as I don't like to think that any part of the old me is still in here, I do think she's right."

Sunset then sat waiting for them to say something about how she should reign in her competitive behavior or something. What she got though was Sonata saying, "Oh that makes sense."

Aria then shrugged and said, "Yeah, that's cool." She then turned to the TV as she said, "So you want to go a few rounds then?"

Sunset was stunned as she said, "Well yeah, but wait neither or you are gonna ask me to calm down or anything?"

"Not really, I mean if you have a natural tendency to be aggressive it's not like you can just get rid of it. So you gotta get it all out somehow," said Aria. She then continuing saying, "Don't want it to build up so you end up snapping at people or anything."

"Yeah, isn't the point of hobbies like this to burn off excess emotion and help you relax anyway?" said Sonata with a helpful grin.

"Hmm, I guess I never thought of it like that," said Sunset. She then smiled at the two girls as she said, "Sure, let's play a bit and even if my competitive nature isn't necessarily bad I will try and keep it somewhat under control."

"Please, you're gonna need every ounce of that intensity if you want to stand a chance of beating me," said Aria trying to goat Sunset on. She then looked at the TV with a determined grin and began picking her fighters, them being Cell, Frieza, and Buu.

"Oh it is so on," said Sunset with a similar determined grin as she picked her team, it being Beerus, Vegeta Super Saiyan, as she refused to try out Blue until she earned it herself, and Goku Super Saiyan.

"OH, I CALL WINNER!" said Sonata with a grin as the match began.


Meanwhile back at Canterlot High

Bright Lights, a.k.a. Flash Sentry was sitting in the music room as she removed her communication stone from her pocket and placed it on the table as she activated the magical equivalent of speaker phone and sighed saying, "Hey Twi, so what's the word on Zecora's condition?"

The stone then started glowing as the voice of Princess Twilight came from it saying, "Unfortunately, her condition hasn't particularly improved. She is in good spirits though, when me and Fluttershy visited to make her soup she tried to start rhyming again."

Flash then sighed before saying, "Well, at least she's powering through."

"Oh come on it can't be that bad, I mean you said you got the human Pinkie Pie on your side helping you out now," said Twilight.

"Yeah, but that opens up a whole new can of worms. She somehow talked me into wearing a skirt and doing my hair up in pig tails today, which admittedly wasn't that bad. Now though she's talking about getting me to try out make up and who knows what else she might think of. That's why I'm here trying to put off our 'girls night slumber party' for another hour or two," said Flash.

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that," said Twilight as she stifled a laugh as the image of Flash in a skirt with a mascara popped into her head

Soon though the laugh came out as Flash sarcastically said, "Wow, glad that I have a girlfriend like you to get me through these tough times."

Twilight finished laughing as she said, "I'm sorry I'm sorry... hey I know. Didn't you say that singing always helps you relax and that's why you started your band in the first place."

"Well yeah," said Flash.

"Well I'd be happy to hear you sing now. I didn't want to say anything since you were freaking out but your voice sounds really good like this," said Twilight.

"Hmm... I mean there are a few songs that I wanted to try but couldn't since their lead singers are girls," said Flash. She then looked around the music room hoping to see a guitar, since she didn't think to bring her own to school today. Unfortunately there was none but she did notice an ukulele on the table as she picked it up and said, "OK this is a song from a show Sunset got me to watch recently and that I really enjoyed."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeZpsqNLRn8

"Wow," said Twilight awestruck.

"Wow," replied an equally awestruck Flash at finally hearing just how pleasant her voice was.

"That was AMAZING!" said Twilight.

"Yeah," said Flash before getting a new sense of confidence as she pulled out her phone to open up her karaoke app as she said, "If you think that's good wait until you hear me belt one out from the girl I'm dressed as."

Twilight then chuckled as she said, "Wait I thought the clothes were Pinkie's idea?"

"Well, technically yeah but I did have final say over which skirt, shirt, and hair combo and I picked this based off one of the girls who original sung this song here," said Flash as she pulled up the video and began singing to it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egxSBhfjcTU

Soon though Princess Twilight joined in, as apparently no matter if they've heard the song before or even if they speak the language Equestrian's could sing to anything.


Meanwhile in the hallway.

"I don't know Scoots, after last time I'm not sure if singing is a good idea," said Apple Bloom.

"Especially considering that we've made such complex choreography that I'm not sure if we can do it and sing at the same," said Sweetie Belle.

"Oh come on girls, I worked hard on these lyrics and I don't think we should just throw them out," said an exasperated Scootaloo as they all already agreed on choreography and outfits and she was waging a battle of a full lyrical song accompanying it versus the simple instrumental that Apple Bloom and Sweetie were advocating for.

"I agree that you're lyrics are good but you know what happens when we try to sing on stage," said Apple Bloom.

"That's still weird to me how we can sing with each other all the time but as soon as we get on a stage our voices get all weirdly pitched. I mean you can't even say it's stage fright since we sung that song to help Pipsqueak become class president, so it's more like the stage itself somehow affects us," said Sweetie Belle as she drifted into thought.

"Regardless of how it works, we can't sing on stage and all our older sisters and their friends are busy so they can't help. I mean It's not like we are gonna just stumble upon some amazing singer anytime soon," said Apple Bloom.

"Yeah, I guess your-" began Scootaloo before Sweetie Belle shushed her.

She then closed her eyes and asked, "Do you girls hear that?" She then took off towards a class room while the others followed her and soon began hearing what she was talking about as they all pressed their ears against the door to get a good listen at this angelic voice.


Inside the music room.

"Wow... that was," began Twilight.

"Beautiful," finished Flash. She then smiled and said, "So are you still sure we can't get together for a date tomorrow or so, I mean it's not like I'm gonna ask you to kiss me while I'm like this or anything."

"Well... I mean it is still you under there sooo," said Twilight in thought, but before she could finish though the door to the music room slammed open causing the communication stone to fall off the table hitting the "end call button."

Before Flash could protest at this sudden intrusion the CMC where now bearing down on her smiling as Sweetie Belle said, "OH MY GOSH FLASH! THAT WAS BEAUTIFUL!"

"YEAH IT WAS! CAN YOU PLEASE HELP US OUT WITH SOMETHING?!" said Apple Bloom.

"PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE! I DON'T WANT MY LYRICS TO GO TO WASTE!" said Scootaloo.

Flash simply backed away confused at this as she said, "Wait what?"

This resulted in the CMC calming down as they started explaining the situation to her.


Back at Sunset's apartment

Sunset, who after losing the first few rounds as a pony turned human again claiming she was better with hands, had sweat on her brow as she stared intently at the screen.

They had both already lost two characters leaving only Cell on Aria's side and Beerus on Sunset's. Cell was on low health but Aria then locked Sunset into a combo that put them on even level. Little did she know though that this was what Sunset wanted as those blows now gave her enough energy to do her favorite move as she soon heard Beerus say, "Hakai," and was greeted with the victory screen.

"YES! I DID IT! That's what happens you challenge the God of Destruction," said Sunset beaming a cocky smile at Aria.

"Yeah, and all it took you was changing into a different species and bumping it up to best 7 out of 13," said Aria with a smug grin of her own.

Before they could exchange further barbs though Sonata jumped on the couch saying, "My turn."

As Aria passed the controller to her and saw her pick the same team, except with Buu as the leader, she smiled to herself as something they failed to mention to Sunset is that while Aria had unlocked one new character for multiplayer Sonata had grinded on max difficulty in story mode to unlock all the characters possible for that. Aria then silently said to herself, "Oh, this will be fun to watch."


Back in the music room

"- and so that's why we need your help Flash," said Apple Bloom.

"So will you please do it?" said Sweetie Belle.

"Look girls I'm flattered, but I'm having a hard enough time walking to school like this. I don't think performing on a stage is a good idea," said Flash.

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle began sulking while Scootaloo had a mischievous grin come to her face as she said, "You know that really is a shame. You know what else would be a shame? If someone happened to mention your current situation to Sunset and her friends."

"You wouldn't dare," said Flash.

"And you know I'm not sure how well you thought that outcome through since while sure Sunset might be a little mad about you not listening to her about getting over Princess Twilight and Rainbow will laugh for a bit. But as soon as the easily embarrassed Fluttershy blushes and points out everything you've probably seen in the girls locker room and bathrooms, well I think Rainbow's gonna want to relieve her oldest friends embarrassment by skipping all the way past Star Platinum and going full on The World on you," said Scootaloo as her grin widened slightly.

Upon having that mental picture, and the phantom pain that came with it, Flash sighed and said, "Fine I'll do it."

The girls instantly perked up as Sweetie Belle reached into the bag and handed her a notebook saying, "Great, these are the costumes that we planned on wearing so I'm gonna have to take you to Rarity's to get you fitted for one."

Upon seeing the sketch Flash thought to herself, "I immediately regret this decision."


Meanwhile back at Sunset's

Sonata casually smiled as she said, "Guess I win again."

Meanwhile Sunset was fuming as she said, "BEST 26 OUT OF 51!"

Awkward Fitting and Sleepy Rampage

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Just before dawn, Flash Sentry, a.k.a. Bright Lights, was reluctantly entering Carousel Boutique and was greeted by the CMC.

"Thanks for coming so early Flash," said Apple Bloom with a warm welcoming smile.

She however, blushed at this statement as she said, "Not like I had much of a choice, anyway shouldn't you call me Bright? I mean Rarity is in the other room isn't she?"

Sweetie Belle then shook her hand dismissively as she said. "Pffftthh, don't worry about her. She's taking measurements for a wedding dress in back and when she's in the zone like this nothing will take her out of it."

Scootaloo chuckled as she said, "No kidding, one time me and Rainbow Dash were seeing if she could use her wings to lift me and my scooter up for a trick." She then paused as she got slightly embarrassed and said, "And well, I guess I was a little heavier than Dash thought because she accidentally lost her grip and I went flying right through the window here and knocked over some mannequins."

"Wow," said Flash surprised at all this before she continued saying, "You weren't hurt were you?"

"No, and pretty soon Rainbow slipped in to get me and we started sneaking out," said Scootaloo. She then paused before saying, "The thing is though, and we didn't notice this until we were almost out, Rarity was in the room THE ENTIRE TIME, just hemming a dress and she didn't notice any of this." She then chuckled before saying, "We were actually so fascinated by it that Rainbow ran over and got us popcorn and we just sat there and waited to see how long it would take for her to notice."

"Wait, but wouldn't that mean you'd be guaranteed to get caught?" said Flash as began chuckling too.

"Yeah, we ended up having to clean up everything and paying her back for the window, but in the end we would have done that anyway since it was the right thing to do and all," said Scootaloo.

"Dang," said Flash as she thought for a moment and said, "How long did it take?"

Scootaloo chuckled and said, "About a hour."

"Seriously," said Flash before laughing as well. Suddenly though she realized that this new information might be able to get her out of this situation as she said, "If that's the case then maybe I should go. I mean if she's in the zone I wouldn't want to have to wait too long and miss school."

Sweetie Belle then spoke up as she looked at her watch, "Oh don't worry about that. She has a scheduled break coming up innnnnn, now."

As if on queue Rarity walked in from the back room as she said, "Alright darling, that's enough for today. Feel free to get dressed and head out whenever you're ready."

"Did she just say get dressed?!" asked Flash with newfound embarrassment.

"Thanks for doing this for us Rarity," said Sweetie Belle smiling at her sister, and apparently ignoring Flash's concern.

But that didn't stop Flash from voicing her concerns as she said, "Yeah it's great and all, but what's this about having to GET UNDRESSED FOR FITTINGS!?"

"Oh it's not problem at all dearies," said Rarity before putting on her red rimmed glasses and grabbing her measuring tape as she said, "Alright Bright, let's get this started. We wouldn't want to be late for school now would we."

"No we would not, but you still haven't addressed my concerns about UNDRESSING FOR FITTINGS!" said Flash exasperated that no one seemed to be listening to her.

"Oh don't worry darling, you don't have to if you do not want to," said Rarity.

"Really?" said Flash with both relief and confusion on her face.

"But of course, while it is recommended that one take their measurements in their underwear to ensure a proper fit, it is only truly necessary to do so with something like the young lady in backs wedding dress that needs to fit flawlessly," said Rarity.

"Oh good," said Flash totally relieved as she stepped on Rarity's podium now ready to get this over with.

Rarity on the other hand looked deep in thought as she circled around Flash and said, "Although."

Instantly Flash's embarrassment came back as she blushed and said, "Although what?"

"Well, I do always try and get those kinds of measurements done on my friends so that I can have their measurements on file to make them the most perfect outfits for each occasion," said Rarity. She then looked at Flash as she said, "If you wouldn't mind I would like to get those measurements now if possible to not only make this costume for the girls show fit perfectly, but also make you a new everyday outfit."

"What's wrong with my current outfit?" said Flash.

Rarity looked somewhat nervous as she said, "Oh nothing darling, it's just... while yes the orange skirt does accent your skin tone and the blue shirt goes relatively well with your hair the overall ensemble just seems too bright."

"Excuse me," said Flash as her embarrassment melted into confusion at that statement.

Rarity then raised her hands defensively as she said, "Firstly that pun was unintentional, secondly I didn't mean that the looks was too smart for you or anything like that. I just mean that this combination of colors is very noticeable and given your personality I wouldn't think it would fit you."

"Oh," said Flash, "Well if I'm being honest, yes these aren't my usual clothes."

"I kind of figured," said Rarity before she chuckled slightly and said, "I mean such a colorful combination, it almost looks like you got it from the back of Pinkie Pie's closet or something."

Flash chuckled nervously over the fact that Rarity had actually guessed where she got the clothes from correctly before saying, "Well, I'm flattered that you would want to make outfits more fitting to my personality." She then paused as the blush returned her face and she said, "I'm not sure if I want to take those kinds of measurements today."

"Oh that's fine darling," began Rarity before she glanced down and said, "But I just realized something."

"What?" said Flash.

"Well, if you are shy about this kind of stuff then you really should have worn pants, because measuring ones inseam while they are wearing a skirt can be rather... awkward," said Rarity.

Flash blushed at the news that no matter how this goes down, she was in for some awkwardness and embarrassing. She weighed her options a bit before hopping down from the podium and sighing as she said, "Whelp, go big or go home I guess. Alright Rarity, lead the way for the more detailed measurements."

Rarity smiled as she began walking to one of the private rooms and said, "Wonderful, trust me you will not regret it as once you've had clothes that fit this well, you won't want to wear anything else."

"Great," said Flash as she smiled and tried to ignore her increasing blush. As they continued walking Flash thought to herself, "This can not get any worse."

That thought was proven wrong though as Rarity leaned over and whispered in her ear saying, "As long as you are 'going big' there are a few more measurements I could take to just get it over with now if you don't mind."

As Flash began kicking herself for tempting the universe with such a thought, she whispered, "And what would that be?"

"Well, while measuring a client in their underwear is the best way to make properly fitted outerwear... to make things like swim wear that one wouldn't have anything on underneath you would need to-" said Rarity as even she began blushing, despite probably having to do stuff like that for several clients before.

She was interrupted by Flash though as her face turned completely red and she yelled out, "I DIDN'T MEAN GOING THAT BIG!"

Meanwhile back at Sunset's apartment.

Sunset was fighting harder than ever as if she won this she would finally best Sonata. They where both down to their last characters, Sunset on Vegeta and Sonata on Buu, and the match was very close with either one able to take out the other with one big hit. She watched as Buu fired a candy beam and she had Vegeta dodge just in time to do his ultimate move, and she was greeted with the most beautiful sight she had seen that night

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWLnKtZjU60

"YES I DID IT! I FINALLY BESTED SONATAROT!" said Sunset while standing up triumphantly.

Aria, who had gone to sleep around round 60 and was now wide awake making breakfast, chuckled as Sunset had failed to notice that Sonata dozed off and had been pushing the buttons in her sleep for roughly an hour or so.

All the energy from her victory soon went away though as Sunset flopped onto couch and said, "Now to get a well deserved nap." Sunset then curled up and closed her eyes, for about three seconds before her alarm went off and she said, "Whelp, time for school."

As she got up she got down on all fours and began crawling over to her desk as Aria said, "Um, Sunset?"

Sunset then looked down at herself, accentuating the bags under her eyes, as she said, "Whoops, forgot about pony time." She then transformed into her pony form and continued to her desk before grabbing her backpack and trying to put it on back hooves first, only to fail of course. She then shrugged and unzipped part of the backpack before slipping it over her horn and saying, "I'm just gonna put this on my head."

At that Aria's concern for Sunset increased as she said, "Um, are you sure you're up for school today?"

"Of course Princessable Celestwiluna vice, I can make it to the Canterlot White Castle. I am Bat-Mare after all," said Sunset as she began wobbling to the door.

"Wait, what?" said Aria.

"See you later This Day Aria, those Cheerios won't eat themselves," said Sunset before tripping over herself and falling on the floor.

Aria instantly ran over and picked her friend up in concern as she said, "OK Sunset, I have no idea what you're trying to say but if it's coming out like this then you need to take a mental health day."

Sunset then looked up at Aria as she said, "But what about the Justice Stable attendance record?"

Aria paused at that statement before saying, "If you're trying to say you don't have an absence note from school don't worry. If you live for over a thousand years relying on your wits, and some magic, you learn how to forge a signature. What's your moms name... or whatever name you put as your legal guardian when you enrolled at Canterlot High?"

"Peanut Butter," said Sunset.

"Riiiigggghhhttt... you just get some rest and I'll ask you again later," said Aria.

"OK," said Sunset before curling up on Aria's lap like a cat and saying, "Thanks Emo Starlight."

Aria was taken aback by this nick name before she saw how content Sunset looked while she was sleeping and she simply smiled saying, "You're welcome Bacon Twilight."

As she began rubbing Sunset's hair she thought to herself, "Hm, with how long she's been awake I figured she'd be manic tired."

She regretted that though as Sunset soon burst back off her lap and yelled, "THIS IS FOR YOU KING GHIDORAH!" before she tried to jump over the table and fell flat on her face.

"Looks like this might be a long day," said Aria as she face palmed while watching Sunset try to wriggle off the table.

A Forced Day Out and Forced Rest

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As Bright Lights stood on the platform in her underwear, once again grateful that the portal had given her the appropriate attire for her new gender, Rarity pulled a role of measuring tape out of her pocket and began the fitting.

Bright's blush deepened as Rarity moved the tape across her arms and sweat began to form on her brow, however since Rarity seemed to be moving along rather quickly she allowed herself to think, "OK, maybe this will be over really quick and it won't get any worse."

That thought was quickly shattered though as Rarity measured her bust and with a sly smile she said, "My my my, with a figure like this you probably get quite allot of attention from boys."

Bright's blush deepened as she stammered out, "Um, not really," as the nervous sweat threatened to overtake her vision.

Rarity, perhaps sensing the fluster, said, "Oh sorry darling, I forgot your wardrobe is more quite and modest... since your current ensemble isn't either of those things... and would get you quite a lot of attention." She then let out a slight giggle as she continued the measurement.

Bright let out a nervous giggle as while her blush did deepen, the sweat thankfully calmed down at the joke.

"Forgive me for that bit of off color humor darling, it's just I've found that the best way to get through these types of fitting and calm a nervous client down is to, rather than avoid mentioning the situation like one would think, make it somewhat absurd by calling attention to it in such a manner," said Rarity as she looked at Bright and smiled saying, "I got a few more tricks like that if that one didn't work though."

For the first time in a while Bright's blush faded a bit as she let out a genuine laugh at her friend's efforts to relax her as she said, "No... I think that was enough for now."

"Excellent darling... now then, if you wouldn't mind us getting back to the previous topic, even if you don't revel in attention I'm sure you have a few stories to share about the various gentlemen callers you've had over the years," said Rarity as she measured Bright's waist.

The blush once again returned as Bright, not knowing how to respond, stammered out, "I, ummm."

Rarity simply brushed that off as she said," Oh come now darling, it's just a little harmless gossip to help pass the time... in fact I'll even go first."

Bright opened her mouth to object, but was soon cut off as Rarity went to measuring her thigh and continued saying,"One time I was on a blind date with a member of the Canterlot social elite by the name of Blueblood. Well the second he walked into the restaurant I knew it wasn't going to be good as he DEMANDED that I get out of my chair in order to pull his out for him."

Bright tried to comment on this but was once again interrupted as Rarity said, "From there it only got worse as he opened his mouth expecting me to feed the appetizer to him and at first I thought this would be a romantic back and forth but when I opened my mouth he just sat there not doing ANYTHING! All throughout the night I tried to tell him about myself and ask him questions, but each time he came forth with a new selfish demand."

Bright didn't even bother to speak as Rarity moved the measuring tape down to her ankle and said, "And then after it was all over I had to open to the door for him and as he's leaving, I think about what I told him and say to myself, 'well at the very least I got to tell a member of the social elite about my latest clothing line,' and just as I'm ready to write this off as networking and move on, he turns around and says, 'thank you for lovely evening miss Plainity.'" Rarity's anger began swelling as she said, "After all I had done for him that night,I find out that that jerk didn't listen to a WORD I SAID!"

As Rarity said all this she accidentally pulled the measuring tape a little too tight as Bright let out a yelp in pain, causing Rarity to return to herself as she blushed and said, "Ahem... sorry darling, I guess I got a little carried away there."

"It's fine," said Bright, hoping that her little outburst would cause Rarity to want to change subjects.

Unfortunately that wasn't the case as Rarity said, "So now that I have humiliated myself, both through the story and my reaction to it, I think you owe me at least one story."

"Well I," said Bright as the blush returned.

"Oh come now just one story. I understand if you've never been on a date that bad, as I don't know many girls who have, but just anything well do so I feel like we're even," said Rarity with pleading eyes.

"It's just I..." said Bright trying to think of something to say as any complex lie could back fire on her later on, and after a little thought Bright realized that the best way to get out of this was to do something she hadn't done in a while... tell the truth. She then looked at Rarity, feigning embarrassment, as she said, "I've never actually been on a date with a guy before."

Rarity's jaw dropped at this statement, but before she could say anything a new voice said, "WHAT!" It was then that a woman, who Bright recognized as being Principal Cadence from Crystal Prep Academy, burst through the door saying, "HOW COULD A GIRL OF YOUR AGE HAVE YET TO EXPERIENCE ANY OF THE JOYS OF LOVE!?"

Rarity and Bright both just stood there dumbfounded at the sudden intrusion and as Bright saw the CMC look in and begin giggling behind Cadence, she then remembered her current lack of attire as her blush returned to her and she moved her arms to cover herself, fist both in front of her waist, only to then remember her recent change as she moved one arm to her chest.

Cadence looked her up and down before realizing what she did as she closed the changing room curtain behind her and smiled saying, "Sorry for the intrusion, I just couldn't help but over hear what you where saying while I was getting dressed in the room next to this one and well.... I think you've missed out a bit as while yes, I know most girls aren't lucky enough to meet the man of their dream in high school like I did, that shouldn't stop you from trying."

Bright's blush deepened as tried to come up with something to get away from this new level of awkward as said, "I guess... but..." as she paused though she remembered a detail of a previous lie as she said, "I attended an all girl school before transferring to Canterlot High so I never really had the opportunity to learn how to flirt or anything."

Cadence simply smiled at this as she said, "Oh, well if that's all then I can change that no problem."

"What do you mean?" said Bright, scared too hear the answer.

Cadence then turned to Rarity as she said, "Rarity, get me Lyra's bride's maid dress prototype 1A."

Rarity then had a giddy smile come to her face as she said, "OHHHH! That is going to look positively smashing on her... how did you know that they have roughly the same proportions though?"

"Well with all the planning I've memorized every detail including dress proportions and," she said before glancing at Bright before looking back at Rarity and saying, "It's not exactly hard to get an idea of her proportions right now."

"Right then," said Rarity as she subtlety agreed before running out of the changing room.

Bright then looked at Cadence, her face now as red as an apple as she had officially gone to embarrassment and beyond, and said, "What exactly are you planning?"

In contrast Cadence looked at her with the biggest smile as she said, "Get ready.... what's your name?"

"Bright Lights," said Bright, stunned at the realization that Cadence was doing all this.... whatever she was doing without knowing her name.

"Bright Lights... get ready for a crash course in romance as I take you out on the town and teach you the tricks to land yourself the guy of your dreams," said Cadence.

"Oh um..." said Bright fumbling for an excuse, before once again remembering the truth as she said, "I can't because I have school today... and don't you need to be at Crystal Prep?"

"Please, I'm sure Vice Principal Skystar can handle things for a day... and as for you," said Cadence before pulling her cell phone out of her pocket, as she dialed a number and spoke into saying, "Hi Aunt Celie, it's Cadence... I've been good, how about you?... Glad to hear, anyway one of your students, a Miss Bright Lights, is interested in transferring over to Crystal Prep so I'd like to have her for the day to give her the tour and interviews and all... great, thanks and- hmm... Eh, don't worry about it, with all students you have mistakes like that are sure to happen.... anyway I'll see you and Aunt Luna this weekend, bye."

Cadence then hung up the phone and smiled at Bright saying, "Alright, we got the go ahead, though it was a little odd she couldn't find your name in the schools computer system to mark your absence, but I'm sure she'll figure out."

"Oh," said Bright both nervous about what was about to happen and the new fear that Celestia might figure out something up since she didn't have a student file.

Bright didn't have much time to dwell on these thoughts though as Rarity soon walked back carrying a very light pink dress, bordering on white, matching shoes, a thin pink ribbon that appeared to go around the waste, and a thicker pink ribbon that appeared to go around the wearers neck.

"Umm, I'm not sure if that's quite the right outfit for me," said Bright.

"Why whatever, do you mean daring? It has the soft non showy colors that we talked about before, but with just the subtlest touches to draw attention. It's perfect for your first foyer into dating," said Rarity excitedly.

Bright prepared to speak up, but was interrupted as Cadence had a sly smile form on her face as she said, "Now now Rarity, we shouldn't make her wear this if she doesn't want too. Let's just get something she might be more comfortable with." Unbenounced to Bright though, Cadence then gave Rarity a wink as she nodded in understanding placing the dress on a hook in the changing room as Cadence grabbed Bright's original outfit and they both ran out.

"HEY!" said Bright as she realized what just happened.

"You can either go out in the dress or as you are now, and I don't think you'd like the kind of attention you'd get like that," said Cadence.

Bright then looked around the changing room to make sure their wasn't any of her old outfit or another outfit Rarity had left in here by mistake, but had no luck. She then looked at the dress and sighed saying, "Whelp... final frontier," before she looked down at herself and realized that her undergarments, which she was embarrassed to be in, still covered more than your average swimsuit as she nervously said, "At least I hope it's the final frontier."


Meanwhile back at Sunset's apartment.

Sunset now stood on top of a fallen book shelf screaming, "I AM THE LIZARD QUEEN!" as Aria chased her with a blanket trying to catch her.

"Seriously Sunset, you need sleep," said Aria as she once again tried to reason with the pony.

"Do not dare tell your queen what she need purple salamander!" said Sunset, confirming once again that her sanity was on vacation.

Aria leaped to try and grab Sunset in the blanket, only to hit the floor as Sunset jumped over to the arm rest of the couch before running to a window saying, "I MUST FLY MY FOOL!"

"Sunset, wait-" said Aria, but it was too late as Sunset face planted on the closed window, for the fifth time that day, before falling flat on the ground.

At this, Sonata began stretching and yawning as she said, "What's with all the noise?" before opening her eyes and seeing just how messy their shared apartment had become.

"Finally you're awake," said Ara looking at Sonata, relieved that she now had a comrade in all this, "Sunset is on about twenty eight hours no sleep and her brains pretty much turned to pudding."

"Hey, did I ever tell you all about the time a giant pudding monster almost ate Twilight and her friends," said Sunset as she glanced at the two with a smile.

"See, she's not making any sense," said Aria agitated after having to hear all this stuff and chase her around for hours now.

"Wow, she's almost as bad as you where when you had a little too much punch at that party in Rome and went off about Caesar in front of those guys," said Sonata.

"I don't think I was this bad," said Aria as blush formed on her face.

"I don't think Caesar felt the same way," said Sonata with a flat look on her face.

"WHATEVER!" said Aria embarrassed as she said, "Just help me get her."

Meanwhile Sunset started flapping her front hooves saying, "I'm gonna go find the magic reindeer to thank them for saving everypony," before she started jumping to try and take off.

"OH! I know what to do," said Sonata excitedly as she ran up the the stairs.

"WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING!?" yelled Aria agitated that her new ally had abandoned her.

"JUST KEEP HER BUSY FOR ANOTHER MINUTE, I GOT THIS," yelled back Sonata.

As Aria reluctantly turned her attention back to Sunset she saw Sunset was still trying to fly with her front hooves as she said, "I am the fool, I am the one who flies."

Thankfully, Sonata then returned down the stairs as she said, "Alright," this should take care of it as she pulled out what appeared to be a pistol and pointed it at Sunset.

"Wait, what are-" said Aria in protest, but she was interrupted as Sonata pulled the trigger and they all heard a whistling noise as the shot whizzed through the air.

"Ow," said Sunset as she felt a slight pinch and glanced down see a dart embedded in her flank and as she felt it's effects taking hold she turned to the others saying, "Remember girls, their are a lot of ways to eat chocolate, but only one way to eat a chocolate bar." After she got out that bit of "important advice" she passed out onto the floor with a satisfied smile on her face.

Sonata then walked up to Sunset and grabbed her back hooves saying, "Well what are you waiting for, help me carry her to bed."

Aria stood there in disbelief for a few seconds before saying, "OK... a couple things. Firstly, thanks for helping me, that really saved time. Secondly, WHERE THE HECK DID YOU GET A TRANQUILIZER GUN!?"

Sonata then casually glanced at the weapon in her pocket saying, "Oh this, I found it in the bottom drawer of Sunset's dresser."

Aria stood there a moment before saying, "Whelp, that just raises more questions... but only Sunset can answer them and there is no way I'm waking her up after all that," she then glanced at the pool of drool now forming under Sunset's limp head as she said, "Even if I could wake he up."

Aria then walked over to them saying, "Alright, I've got her front hooves, you've got the back ones."

"You got it," said Sonata with a smile as they both got to work carrying her. As they made their way to the stairs Sonata struggled slightly as she said, "Geeze I think she might be eating too much of those of Blush Bread sandwiches."

"Just be glad she's a pony, imagine how hard this would be if she was human," said Aria.

She instantly regretted that though as Sunset mumbled, "Human," before the flash of light occurred and they where both greeted by a much heavier weight as their knees buckled and they "slowly" sat her down.

"SERIOUSLY!" said Aria annoyed.

"Come on Sunset, be a pony again," said Sonata gingerly as she slightly brushed her hair trying to goat her into it.

"Pony," mumbled Sunset before the flash of light happened again and turned her back.

They smiled in gratitude at the sleepy Sunset's cooperation, before Aria decided to take charge.

"OK! NOW WHATEVER WE DO, WE CAN'T SAY HUMAN!" said Aria, before realizing what she had done.

"Hum-" began Sunset before Sonata pulled out the gun and shot a dart into her belly, causing the worlds to devolve into a gurgling noise that thankfully didn't trigger the transformation.

"SONATA!" said Aria.

"I PANICKED ALRIGHT!" said Sonata as she gestured with the gun in a way that made Aria decide to pursue this matter no further.

Love Pie and Past Sunset

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"So then, we'll go the mall and walk around to stores and you'll just talk to a few guys, no big deal just talk and get you out there-" said Cadance as she droned on while leading Bright Lights along.

She on the other hand was wracking her brain trying to figure a way out of this as she thought. "OK guy... or girl? Whatever, now's not the time for mental semantics, the point is how do I get out of this flirting lesson, I mean I already told Cadence I've never been on a date with a guy before... I can't exactly change that because then she'll know I'll be lying to get out of this. Ehhh, I don't go want flirt with guys... wait a minute GUYS, THAT'S IT! I'll just tell her another partial truth, that being that I'm into girls and... wait no that would only change the target of this outing as then she'd be trying to teach me how to find the girl of my dreams. I would need to make her think I'm taken, but I can't exactly get my actual girlfriend to stop by for a number of reasons... wait a minute." She then paused as she pulled out her phone and smiled thinking, "Sweet she's in study hall now... she could slip away from that," Bright then began texting as she thought, "Alright, you said you'd help me through all this... time to see how much."


Back at Sunset's apartment

After "carefully" carrying her to the bed Aria and Sonata "gently" sat her down.

"Alright now that this is all taken of, we should probably straighten up everything before she wakes up," said Aria.

"Aww, can't we sit and watch her sleep for it, I mean she's just a cute sleepy pony," said Sonata as she stared at Sunset with a large smile on her face.

Sunset then let out a huge snore, starling Sonata as she once again grabbed the tranquilizer gun and took aim.

Thankfully Aria grabbed it out of her hand before she could pull the trigger flatly saying, "Seriously."

"She startled me," said Sonata defensively.

"She startled you?!" repeated Aria.

"SHE... STARTLED... ME," said Sonata slowly trying to make her point.

"Uhhh, whatever just put this back where you found it," said Aria as she was done with this situation and simply handed the gun back to Sonata.

"OK, geeze you act like I'm some kind of trigger happy lunatic," said Sonata as she walked over to the dresser.

She was interrupted though as she heard Sunset gurgle and unloaded a shot into her other flank as Aria yelled out, "YOU DO REALIZE WE WANT HER TO WAKE UP EVENTUALLY RIGHT!?"


Meanwhile at the mall

As Bright followed Cadence into the mall she kept her eyes peeled for her savior as she thought, "OK, just try and stall Cadence until you see her, then this will all be over."

Cadence led her forward as she said, "Alright, first things first, the guy you should talk to should share some of the same interests as you, so what stores around here do you like?"

"Oh um, I'm not actually sure right now," said Bright.

"You're not sure?" said Cadence in confusion.

"I'm trust having trouble thinking about it right now... maybe we should go to the food court and get a bite to eat before we do anything," said Bright with a hopeful smile.

"Ehhhhh, no. We can get lunch after, besides there's a cute guy over there looking at you," said Cadence as she pointed.

Flash looked to see one of his closest friends, Micro Chips, who had skipped school to pick up the latest game in his favorite series, was indeed taking more than friendly glances at her as he waited in line.

"Well go on talk to him," said Cadence as she tried to push her forward.

After taking one final look around, to no avail, she decided to execute the plan early as there was simply some stuff she didn't want know about her friends as she said, "Actually Cadence, I didn't want to tell you this because I'm still not fully comfortable telling people yet but... the reason I haven't dated a guy before is because I'm into girls."

Upon hearing this Cadence stopped pushing her forward as she simple said, "Oh... I'm sorry for doing this then."

Bright smiled as it looked like this plan might have worked even without help as she said, "It's fine, like I said I don't usually tell people so you had no way of knowing."

As Bright looked at Cadence's apologetic face she got ready to pull out her phone and text that the plan was off, only for Cadence to be filled with renewed energy as she said, "Well if that's the case then I can still help you, as not only will a lot of my tips and tricks still work for girls but I think I know a certain glasses wearing nerdy girl who could also use some dating experience."

At hearing that Bright realized that this has now backfired even worse than she thought it would as she nervously said, "But isn't Twilight dating that Timber Spruce guy?"

"Weeelll, she says that but neither me, her brother, or her parents have met him yet so Shining and I have a little bet going with me saying he's a cover for her being scared to tell people she like girls, like you, and him saying he's real," said Cadence before leaning into Bright's ear and whispering, "And between you and me, I think I got a good chance of winning as let's just say a few drawing and stories I found on Twilight's desk when I babysat her confirmed that Shining wasn't the only member of that family who had a crush on me."

As Bright heard this information she thought, "OK what do I do now?! I could say Twilight's just not my type... as weird as that is to say, but then I'd have to establish what my type is.... I wonder if my Twilight had a crush on her Cadence at one point.... FOCUS DARN IT!" Just as Bright was running out of ideas she finally spotted her peppy pink savoir approaching as she said, "I'm flattered, but I'm sort of already seeing someone," as she moved closer to Pinkie.

As soon as Pinkie saw her she, having already being made aware of the situation and her part to play in it, ran up to Bright and scooped her up in a big hug saying, "Bright baby! Did the mean old Cadie try and make you do something you didn't want too?"

"A little... but you came just in time to help me my little... love pie,"said Bright as she returned the hug and struggled to come up with a fake pet name for her.

"Oh... I'm sorry Pinkie I didn't know you and Bright where dating," said Cadence before a look of confusion overtook her as she said, "But wait why are you here? Shouldn't you still be at school right now?"

"Oh, I was worried about my Bright baby when she didn't show up for school and so I started asking around to find out if she was OK, when I asked the CMC they told me what was going so I rushed over before you made her do something she'd regret," said Pinkie as she moved to simply having her arm around Bright's shoulder.

"Oh... well again I'm sorry for assuming, I should have figured by the way Bright said she specifically hadn't dated a guy before," said Cadence apologetically.

"Oh it's no problem, I'm sure my scared little baby here just didn't tell you... again," Pinkie then turned to Bright as she said, "Alright, no if and or buts about it. As soon as we get back to school we're telling everybody about us."

"Oh I don't know," said Bright feigning nervousness as this was her plan.

"Oh come on, this way it would stop all these misunderstanding you keep putting yourself in. You're not ashamed of your little love pie are you?" said Pinkie fluttering her eye in mock sadness.

"Of course not babe... alright let's do it then," said Bright with a smile on her face.

"That's what I like to hear from my girl," said Pinkie as she put her arm back around her and kissed her on the cheek, causing a very real nervous blush and smile to form on her face as that wasn't originally part of the plan.

"Well I'll catch you later Cadie, I'm gonna go buy my girl here a little gift for finally agreeing to try and get over her fears," said Pinkie as she grabbed onto Bright's hand and they both walked off.

Cadence stood there for a moment before saying to her self, "Oh my gosh, THEY ARE SUCH A CUTE COUPLE! I mean the quite and reserved Bright and the bold outgoing Pinkie who just wants to help Bright come out of her shell so she can show the whole world why she loves her. OH I can't wait to tell Shining, its like something straight out of one my romance novels."

As they walked away Bright looked over at Pinkie saying, "Um, Pinkie. I'm grateful that you came for me like this, but don't you think you laid it on a little thick there with the romance stuff. I mean as far she knows I just started at Canterlot High a bit ago so at most we could have only been on like two dates."

"I know but I just couldn't help it, no ones ever asked me to be their fake girlfriend before and once I started it was just so much fun that I had to keep going," said Pinkie with a smile as she refused to let go of Bright's hand.

"Well... thanks again," said Bright a little unnerved by how enthusiastic Pinkie was about this before saying, "Anyway let's just get back to school so we can do our 'coming out' announcement and I don't have to worry about anyone trying to fix me up again," said Bright.

"We can't do that silly. First we got to get a bunch of coupley stuff like matching bracelet's and necklaces and Oh look, that place makes custom t-shirts!" said Pinkie excitedly pointing at a store before she continued saying, "I could wear one that says Bright's girl and you could wear one that says Pinkie's girl, or maybe have our pet names for each other instead so mine would say Bright baby's and yours would Love pie's."

"Um Pinkie... are you sure that's necessary?" said Bright.

"Well duh, I mean your pretending to be my girlfriend and I know that I would do stuff like this with my girlfriend, or boyfriend since I'm fine either way," said Pinkie with a smile.

Bright, who couldn't deny that statement given Pinkie's personality, decided to try and put this off saying, "OK, but couldn't we do all this at our sleepover tonight."

"Well we're already at the mall, and I don't think my parents are gonna let you sleep over after we announce this because well... they'd be worried that we aren't exactly 'sleeping' if you get what I'm saying," said Pinkie before her innocent smile returned to her face as she pulled Bright's hand towards the t shirt store.


Back at Sunset's apartment several hours later.

Sunset awoke to several confusing things as firstly she was on her bed even though she didn't remember going to it and secondly, and more importantly, there was a total of three darts embedded in her body and two embedded in her pillow indicating that someone tried to hit her with more, only to have their aim knocked off by something at the last minute. Not knowing what to make of this Sunset removed the darts from her body and readied her horn as she marched out of her room and down the stairs.

Thankfully though, rather than the home intruders she was expecting, Sunset was greeted by Aria and Sonata sweeping and picking up some books that had somehow fallen as she said, "Um, hey girls what's up?"

Aria turned to her before saying, "Oh dang, Sonata get the gun, the lizard queen is up again."

"Lizard what now?" said Sunset in confusion before teleporting down to them.

At seeing this amount of focus and lucidity Sonata perked up as she said, "Wait, Sunset are you... you?"

Sunset only became more confused as she said, "Um yeah... who else would I be."

Aria then smiled as she said, "You have no idea," before they hugged Sunset, glad to have her back.

"Um girls, not that I don't like this hug but you can explain what's going on here?" said Sunset.

This resulted in the girls going through details of this day, and some of last night as apparently she had been out of it for longer than they thought, but the game had helped her keep it together.

After hearing all this Sunset looked down in embarrassment as she said, "Oh my gosh, I'm sorry for all the trouble I caused you girls."

"Eh it's no big deal, once we used your tranq gun it was easy as pie," said Sonata with a smile.

"Speaking of which, why exactly do you have a tranquilizer gun anyway?" said Aria as she had been pondering that question for several hours now.

"Oh... um it's not exactly something I'm proud of," said Sunset timidly.

"And what, you only know the best of us," said Aria jokingly.

"Fair point," said Sunset as she giggled at the realization that she wasn't the only reformed villain in the room. "OK so it all started a few years back when I was running for Princess of the Spring Fling. Rarity was up against me and, with all her friends helping on her campaign, was threatening to beat me. So I did a little hacking work and sent a few fake emails and texts to break up their friendship."

"I still find it odd that they never followed up with each other after that," said Sonata confused.

"Meh, anger makes people act irrationally," said Aria as she wanted Sunset to continue.

"Anyway, I'm not sure if I did it too late or what but the night of the dance it still looked Rarity was going to win sooo," said Sunset as she trailed off.

"Sooo," said Aria as her curiosity was overtaking her.

"So, I picked up that gun from the sporting good store, shot Rarity with it when she went outside to take a breather during the dance, laid her down in a bush and placed a few empty bottles I had stolen from the recycling center around her so it looked like she had partied too hard, and then I called over Celestia saying how 'it's just awful that a potential princess would behave so disgracefully' getting her disqualified."

"Wow," said Sonata.

"Yup," said Sunset in slight shame.

"You must have done some serious apologizing to get her to forgive you for that," said Aria.

"Actually a simple apology was enough as the fall out of it wasn't nearly as bad as planned since, one everyone knew she wasn't much of a partier and that it must have been a misunderstanding, and two it was a high school party so she wasn't exactly the only passed out by the end of," said Sunset as she giggled at that last part.

This resulted in a slight chuckle from Aria.

"But wait, why did you keep it then?" asked Sonata.

"Well first I thought maybe I could use it again, in fact I thought about doing the same thing to Twilight during the Fall Formal but she had her guard up the whole time so I couldn't. After I started reforming though I decided to keep it as well as a few other things as I reminder of who I used to be so I'd never be that person again," said Sunset as she held her head down in sadness.

"Hey don't beat yourself up over what you did before," said Aria as she smiled before continuing saying, "After all, 'you're past does not define you, cause you're past is not today.'"

At hearing this Sunset laughed as she said, "You girls heard that... man you really have been spying on my for a while."

Sonata then giggled as she said, "Please, you sang that on a roof top in the middle of the night, I don't think there is anyone who didn't hear you."

They all then let out a giggle as they simply enjoyed this quaint moment together.

The Best Movie Club In The Universe

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Sunset once again found herself nervously pacing backstage at the Canterlot Vegas Style Cafe... except this time she wasn't nervous for herself as it was only five minutes until the CMC and Bright, whom she was still surprised she agreed to all this, where supposed to go on and they still weren't there yet.

Trixie on the other hand paced in anger as she said, "ARE THEY GONNA BE HERE SOON OR NOT!?"

Sunset levitated her phone to her face to check for another update, only to not see any as she said, "Last thing they texted was that they were on their way."

"THAT WAS TWENTY MINUTES AGO! Pinkie better not be distracting Bright again," remarked Trixie.

Sunset chuckled at that as she switched to her gallery and started scrolling through the mountain of pictures Pinkie had sent her of the the two of them in matching outfits, going to movies and dinner together, and just looking like the most adorable, albeit a little clingy, couple. She smiled as she thought to herself, "Hope it works out between them, Bright really needs someone to help her get over her nerves... still weird though how Pinkie didn't tell us about all this ahead of time. I mean, I get that given how awkward and shy Bright can be she wouldn't want to share this kind of romantic, and somewhat personal, stuff but you'd think that Pinkie would convince her to at lest tell us before they announced it to the whole school-"

Before Sunset could think further on this though, she heard the door open and Trixie say, "FINALLY YOU'RE HERE!"

"Sorry we're late yall, one of us was embarrassed about her outfit, even though where all wearing the same thing, and kept trying to duck behind cars and stuff whenever people walked by," said Applebloom as she looked back at the blue haired girl trying, and failing to hide behind Scootaloo who then pushed her forward.

"SERIOUSLY!" complained Trixie as she didn't think the outfits were too bad. They were wearing what appeared to be black one piece swimsuits with white boots and gloves and some kind of black chest armor with brown plates over the shoulders and thighs.

"I kind of agree with Trixie, but that might just be because I've actually seen the anime these outfits are from, but given Bright's personality it makes sense that it would still embarrass her," thought Sunset. Sunset then walked up to her and put her hoof on her saying, "Hey, are you sure you can do this."

Bright opened her mouth to speak only to be interrupted by Scootaloo saying, "Oh she's fine, just abit of stage fright. RIGHT BRIGHT?!" An even greater wave of nervousness briefly crossed her face as she realized that was Scootaloo's way of saying, "If you chicken out we're telling Sunset you're Flash right here and now."

She then turned to Sunset saying, "Yup, she's right, just abit of stage fright," before nervously laughing.

Sunset decided not to question this as she said, "Well OK... if it helps the first time I helped Trixie with her show I was nervous too, but once you get out there and start doing it, it's actually pretty fun."

Before anyone could comment further Trixie jumped in between them saying, "Yeah yeah that's all well and good but if you don't get out there right now, the Great and Powerful Trixie is gonna be in a great and powerful mountain of debt."

Applebloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie then excitedly ran on stage, with Bright reluctantly following them, as Sunset said, "Good luck." She then possitioned herself so she by the curtain to see them, before briefly glancing at Aria and Sonata as she they worked there first shifts as "waitresses" and she thought to herself, "As long as we have those two this can't go too bad.... can it?"

As the CMC stood with their backs to the audience Bright stepped forward to the microphone as she looked out the audience, who all went silent and began staring at her, as she said, "Um, hi everyone... my name is Bright Lights and I'm," she then paused reluctant to say the term Applebloom used to discribe her but, seeing no other way she continued saying, "the mascot of the Canterlot Movie Club and this is just a little act we put together to hopefully convince you all to join."

Immediately after she finished the music kicked in

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8T8ZD0FsR8

(lyrics start at about 0:15 seconds but it's not entirely in sync so don't worry to much about it)

Sweetie then forward and put her left knee in the air and both her arms at forty five degree upward as Bright sang, "Her name is Sweetie Belle. She's the one who's good with words. She'll memorize all her lines without even breaking a sweat."

Sweetie then pumped her fist in the air and gave an enthusiastic, "YEAH."

"With her emotional voice, she'll make you all feel the scene. She'll wipe the frowns off all your faces," sang Bright as slowly her nerves melted away and she slightly bobbed to the beat.

Scootaloo then stepped forward doing a mirror of Sweetie's pose with her right knee in the air but both arms still at a forty five degree angle as Bright sang, "Her name is Scootaloo, but we call her the orange furry woahoa, her rage at cliffhangers is can not be quenched."

Both Scootaloo then and Sweetie began dancing and sang, "YES WE ARE," before Bright sang, "We're here to say that we're the best movie club in the universe, we even have pizza at our meetings, we're the Canterlot Movie Club." Once again the two girls changted, "YES WE ARE," before Bright continued singing, "We recreate our favorite scenes and put our spins on them, you'll have the best time in the Canterlot Movie Club."

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle then began chanting, "CANTERLOT MOVIE CLUB, CANTERLOT MOVIE CLUB, CANTERLOT MOVIE CLUB, CANTERLOT MOVIE CLUB!"

After a few moments of just the instruments Bright, now actually enjoying this grabbed the Microphone from the stand and with a huge smile pointed at herself singing, "Hey everyone my name's Bright Lights. I'm the clubs mascot, I'm the one who does all the singing. Can I convince you to join the club, with my beautiful voice? If not what are you even doing here." She then gave a wink to the audience which elicited several claps and whistles and as she briefly thought, "Wait was that flirty, am I being flirty... ah screw it I'm loving this! This is the first time I've gotten to be on stage since the Poison Joke incident and this voice makes it even better."

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo once again chanted, "YES WE ARE!" as she sang, "We're here to say, that the best movie club in the universe, we want you to join the one and only Canterlot Anime Club."

"YES WE ARE!"

"We've made a deal that only who signs up get's a free smoothie today," sang Bright before adding in a monotone voice, "With purchase of a meal per Iron Will's request."

Once again Scootaloo and Sweetie chanted, "CANTERLOT MOVIE CLUB, CANTERLOT MOVIE CLUB, CANTERLOT MOVIE CLUB, CANTERLOT MOVIE CLUB!"

Finally Applebloom weirdly spread her legs and bent down looking at the audience through them before turning forward and bending at the right knee with her arms at downward forty five degree angles. Bright then sang, "Her name is Applebloom, the one and only club president. If you join her you shouldn't be scared to say what you like. It doesn't matter who you are, you're favorite movies will be given a chance," she then added in monotone voice again, "Per Principal Celestia's approval."

"YEAH," screamed Applebloom enthusiastically before Bright sang, "You know joining would be really fun, how about you think of a movie now, yeah, you know for sure we will watch it!"

All of them then chanted, "YES WE ARE!" before Bright sang, "We're here to say that we're the best movie club in the universe! I'm not even a member and I love it, it's that awesome."

"YES WE ARE!"

"We decide our next movie, in a turn based system, it's only fair. Fairness is what friends about, and if your a member your a friend."

Then all of them chanted, "CANTERLOT MOVIE CLUB, CANTERLOT MOVIE CLUB, CANTERLOT MOVIE CLUB, CANTERLOT MOVIE CLUB!"

They all, including Bright, danced around to the music abit before they all chanted, "YES WE ARE!" and Bright sang, "We're here to say that we're the best movie club in the universe! We even have pizza at our meetings, we're the Canterlot Movie Club!"

"YES WE ARE!"

"We recreate our favorite scenes and put our spins on them, you'll have the best time in the Canterlot Movie Club!"

Finally they all chanted, ""CANTERLOT MOVIE CLUB, CANTERLOT MOVIE CLUB, CANTERLOT MOVIE CLUB, CANTERLOT MOVIE CLUB," again before the music died down and they all lined up in poses.

Sweetie Belle had her back to audience with her left arm pointed slightly upward, her right arm bent at a ninety degree angle, and leaning on her left leg. Scootaloo was standing on her right leg with her left knee in the air and both arms to side. Bright had her left fist in the air with her right one to the side and she was leaning on her right knee. Finally Applebloom has kneeling on her right knee both her arms down at a forty five degree angle.

For a moment there was total silence as the audience took in this spectacul. That silence was swifty broken though as they all erupted into a series of cheers and applause. As the four girls bathed in this for abit and Sunset proudly smilled at them, Applebloom took the microphone saying, "Now do any of yall have any questons about our club."

Instantly several people raised their hands and Applebloom selected one close to the front who said, "Yes, are we allowed to date fellow club members of the club," he then looked at Bright saying, "specifically the mascot?"

It was at that point that Bright noticed that all those who raised their hands where men as she swiftly took the microphone and said, "I'm a lesbian." This resulted in them all putting their hands down, but before she could breathe a shy of relief several women raised their hands forcing Bright to add, "and I'm seeing someone," resulting in them putting their hands down too.

Applebloom then took the microphone back, nervous about what transpired, as she said, "So um... does anyone want to join our club?"

Unfortunately this was only greeted by several murmurs of people saying things like, "I have work most days, I don't want to watch kids movies, no Bright no club."

Aria and Sonata looked around nervously not knowing what to do as handling hecklers seemed easy enough, but a complete and utter lack of interest was a whole other matter.

Discouraged, Sweetie Belle grabbed the mike saying, "Um, please we only need two members."

Scootaloo then grabbed it saying, "Yeah, and pretty much all we do is eat Pizza and binge watch shows and movies on Hooflix and Sweetroll."

At hearing this Aria and Sonata both realized the solution as they simultaneously said, "I'm in," and began approaching the stage.

"Really!?" asked Applebloom excitedly.

Aria slyly smiled as she said, "Well yeah, free food, and watching awesome shows with new friend, who wouldn't want to join."

"Plus we'd basically just be doing the exact same thing at home anyway," said Sonata with her trademark innocent smile.

As the the girls reached the stage and CMC began hugging and greeting them in gratitude Sunset watched with a smile as she thought, "Wow, this is actually really good. Not only can the CMC's club stay together, but now Aria and Sonata can get out of the house more and make more friends... in all honesty I'm a little disappointed that I didn't think of this myself."

Poses and Power

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As the final bell rang Sunset levitated her saddle bag onto her back as she looked to Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy saying, "So, you girls ready to watch the show?"

"You know it," said Dash excitedly.

"Of course, I mean... as long as the anime they based it on isn't too violent or anything, I still have nightmares about that creepy animatronic they made that just kept moaning and saying Edward," said Fluttershy as she shuddered at the mental image.

"Don't worry Shy, I saw their costumes and this shouldn't be too bad.... probably," said Dash.

"PROBABLY!" said Fluttershy as her fear mounted.

"Well.... it really depends on what scene they do, but if it's the one I'm thinking it should be AWESOME!" said Dash.

As they all left and started walking down the hall Sunset said, "I still can't believe they've gotten an act together this fast, I mean Aria and Sonata just joined up a few days ago and here they are with a new act together."

"Well I can, the girls where already obsessed with this show, so day one of the new club meeting was just them making Aria and Sonata binge watch it. They probably had this planned for awhile and where just waiting on new singers," said Dash.

As they walked Fluttershy said, "Speaking of which... isn't it a little surreal that we're going to hear them sing willingly after the last time they put on a concert for the school," she then looked at the other girls defensively as she said, "Not that I haven't forgiven them or anything, it's just an odd situation."

"True," said Dash as she shrugged.

"Gotta agree with you there, but not only do I trust them completely but there powers are gone so they couldn't do anything even if they wanted too," said Sunset as the three entered the door and she briefly remembering the blue light she saw on Halloween before mumbling, "At least, I think it's gone."

Any thoughts like that where ceased though as they saw not only the other members of their group seated, but the CMC all decked out in outfits that made their previous ones look like the most bland clothes anyone could wear.

Apple Bloom wore reddish orange pants with black stripes, black boots, a midriff-baring blue sweater with a white grid pattern on it, and a reddish orange hat with a matching white grid on it. Sweetie Belle wore a lime green jacket and pair of pants, both of which were full of holes but due to the symmetry of them seemed to be there on purpose, a blue tie with pictures or a red green fruit on them, and blue shoes that also had pictures of said fruit on it. Finally Scootaloo wore green shoes, pink pants, a pink jacket with gold trim and a heart shaped hole just below the neck, and several broaches that looked like blue lady bugs on the middle and sides of the jacket.

"Oh you're just in time, our backup or should I say our STANDOS are just about ready," said Scootaloo excitedly.

"Oh... awesome," said Sunset, not sure how to respond that, as she awkwardly smiled and sat next to Twilight, who looked equally confused, as the others took their seats.

The confusion only increased as three girls walked from the back wearing full body outfits with the only indication of who's who being the holes in the helmet that allowed Sonata and Aria's above average sized hair to poke out, making the third Bright by the default. Aria wore what appeared to be an angular yellow muscle suit and a cone shaped helmet that had large white lenses for the eyes, a huge fake smile, and the number one written on the forehead. Sonata wore a jump suit with a purple and white checker board pattern along most of it, gold capsules on the knuckles, black plates on the shoulder and knees, a helmet that made it look like her mouth was sewn shut, and finally a very unnecessary looking visor over top said helmet. Bright wore a suit of various shades of gold, little wings on the shoulders, and purple and black lady bug pins throughout it.

"Are you sure we need to wear all this," said Bright.

"Yeah, I mean I know we look AMAZING, but I can't really see or hear much in this helmet," said Sonata.

"Well that's the price you gotta pay for show accuracy," said Scootaloo.

"Says the girl dressed as a character who wasn't even in this scene," said Aria flatly.

"HEY, YOU TRY FIGURING OUT HOW TO MAKE AN AEROSMITH COSTUME!" replied Scootaloo.

"It's not so bad yall, I mean we're doing the dance and all you girls have to do is sing," said Apple Bloom.

"Besides, like we said, you be the Stands for this act and we'll be them next time," said Sweetie Belle.

"Fine, but I better get to do the seven page muda," said Aria as she took her place on the left in front of the three girls stage.

"OH ME TOO!" said Sonata as she went to the right in front of the three girls.

Bright simply said nothing as she had a blush that could somehow be visible through helmet and took her place in the middle.

"Um, not that I'm complaining girls, but what exactly do you have planned?" asked Twilight.

"Indeed darlings, I mean I spent all this time making you these... unique outfits and you wouldn't even tell me what the're for," said Rarity as she looked at these mismatched, yet strangely compelling, ensembles she was asked to make.

Meanwhile Dash simply grinned ear to ear knowing what this was as Scootaloo walked up to a boom box saying, "Oh trust me, this may be considered a torture, but your going to love it anyway."

Once she pushed the button she instantly moved back and began dancing as Aria, Sonata, and Bright began singing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWsUqVhLOoQ

As the girls watched in aw, Sunset leaned to Twilight to say something only to be interrupted as someone said, "Meh, I feel like it still would have been better with Narancia."

Before Sunset could look to see who said it though she was suddenly flooded with more voices that made it impossible to distinguish who was who.

"Come on girls, don't mess up this next move."
"I hope Adagio is OK."
"I wonder if we've made enough money to pay off our debt with Joe yet?"
"I hate to say it since there both my friends, but a small part of me wishes Bright could stay with me and not go back to her."
"As much as I can't wait for things to go back to normal, I am gonna miss this voice.... and how close me and Pinkie are."

Just as Sunset realized that these voices weren't actually around her, but in her head she heard a slight scream and looked to the other girls seeing that they were having there own trouble. Twilight was suddenly flying the air along with the chair she was sitting in, Shy was trying to discourage birds who wear flying at the windows to get to her to go away, Pinkie was being juggled as she was stuck in a cycle of touching something like a pencil someone had dropped, blowing it up, and the blast knocking her into something else, Rarity kept trying to point the gems she wan involuntarily making away from everyone, and finally Applejack was trying to catch an out of control Dash and accidentally smashing several chairs with her now enhanced footfalls.

It was only then that Sunset realized what was going on as she saw the blue glows coming from Aria and Sonata once again as she yelled out, "GIRLS! YOU HAVE TO STOP SINGING!" but unfortunately their helmets prevented them from hearing or seeing what was going on and the mane CMC were too busy focusing on there dance moves to notice any of this, leaving them stuck trying to deal with hay wire magic until the song was over.

Once it was though and Aria, Sonata, and Bright took off there helmets as the six girls eagerly looked for a reaction... only to be greeted with the total chaos of almost every chair in the room either tossed to the side or outright broken as the girls shakily got to there feet, or hooves.

"Woah what happened to you girls?!" said Aria in concern.

"I don't know, our magic just suddenly went haywire, but that shouldn't have happened now that we all have rules in place about overusing them," said Twilight.

"Unless someone has been breaking them again," Applejack annoyed as she looked at Dash.

"Don't look at me, my magic was just as out of control as yours," she said before rubbing her legs, "I didn't even know I could still get a cramp from running too much."

"So then, what happend?" asked Fluttershy.

"I think I know... Aria, Sonata, can we see your pendants for a second?" said Sunset.

They both reached to the back of the neck to try and pull them out of their suits. "OK, but you know you can just have them if you want. It's not like they do anything for us anymore and-" said Aria who paused upon seeing her gem now looked very different as the shards had formed into a complete, albeit smaller, blue gem.

"What the?" said Sonata as she was greeted to the same sight.

As Sunset took them she levitated them in front of herself before saying, "I need to try something but I'm gonna need you girls to step back." As the girls did so Sunset levitated one of the gems in front of her horn and fired a low level beam into it, only to have a rather strong beam come out the other side and burn a poster off the wall.

"Woah.... AWESOME!" said Dash at the bit of destruction. "I didn't know you could shoot lasers from your head, hey do you think I could watch you do some target practice some-"

Dash was interrupted though as a concerned Sonata stepped forward saying, "So what does this mean?"

"I can't believe it, it's Amplification Magic," said Sunset as she turned over the gems with her horn.

"Amplifi- what magic?" asked Aria.

"Amplification Magic, Celestia told me about it. Magic that on it's own doesn't do anything, but makes all other magic around it stronger," said Sunset.

"Really?" asked Twilight, excited to learn about a new type of magic.

"Yeah.... but she said it was only theoretical, I mean with power like this you could pretty much be unstoppable," said Sunset.

As the girls marveled at this Aria stepped forward saying, "If that's the case you should definitely keep them then."

"What?" said Sunset in confusion.

"Look, we got these things because we wanted to take over the world and now that we don't want that anymore it only makes sense that we shouldn't have them anymore," said Aria.

"Yeah... I mean, I know you girls are so forgiving, but even you can't think it's a good idea to let us have magic again," said Sonata as she looked down saying, "It's not like we deserve to have it anyway."

The girls simple stood for a moment before Dash said, "Pfftth, yeah right."

"What?" said Aria in confusion.

"Look, I don't know what you girls think we think about you, but we trust you with anything, whether that be sleeping under the same roof as one of our best friends or with some new crazy kind of magic," said Applejack.

The other girls nodded as Sunset approached them saying, "When me and my friends got our geodes, we knew it was for some kind of reason, and while we still don't know what that reason is, beyond fighting random magic that pops up, I think that your pendants have developed this kind of magic for a reason too... maybe even the same reason."

She then placed them on Aria and Sonata's necks as she Aria said, "Woah, thanks I... don't what to say but... I hope you're right."

"And I know I'm right," said Sunset with a smile.

"Soooo, is there anything else we should know about our new powers?" asked Sonata.

"Well... like I said Amplification Magic is, or WAS, only theoretical, but I did read an article once that hypothesized that the reason people like Sombra or Tirek never spent time trying to figure it out was because it actually decreases dark magic and could even harm the dark magic user," said Sunset as she thought back to her studies.

As the girls thought on this for a moment Dash spoke up saying, "So I guess right now there's just one rule for your new powers.... don't sing while we're around."

The girls looked at this at Dash who just shrugged saying, "What, you got a better idea to not let all THIS happen again?" as she gestured towards the wrecked up room.

"That's fair," said Aria with a smile and a chuckle as Sonata had a similar smile and simply nodded, resulting in the other girls letting out a laugh of there own, not sure why but just feeling like the situation called for it.

Bright Ends and Cold Nights

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As everyone finished cleaning up after this little magical mishap, Rainbow Dash wiped sweat from her brow as she said, "Finally, it feels it's been months since we started cleaning."

"Um, it only took five minutes," said Applejack as she looked over at her friend flatly.

"Yeah well... it felt like longer," muttered Dash eliciting a giggle from those collected in the room.

Those giggles where interrupted though as they soon heard what sounded like someones phone going off. After checking their pockets, and saddle bag in the case of Sunset, the girls seemed stumped before a look of realization came to Bright's face as she pulled the glowing communication stone to her ear saying, "Hello," before a huge smile graced her face as she said, "I'll be right there!" She then prepared to dart out of the room before noticing the expectant looks from everyone, but namely one pink girl as she said, "Oh um, PInkie can we talk alone in the halls."

"Oh, sure Bright Baby," said Pinkie somewhat reluctantly as she followed her into the hall and a good distance away from the room.

Once they left the room an awkward silence threatened to take over as everyone was forming their own ideas and worries about what could be going on. That silence was broken though as Rainbow Dash said, "Is it just me or did it look like she was talking into a rock?"

Applebloom quickly spoke in defense as she said, "Oh um... that's just a phone case we made her for a Doppio costume we're working on."

This seemed to satisfy everyone in the room, apart from Sunset who simply decided to make a mental note on this and move on.


Out in the hall

"So um that call was-" began Bright.

"From Twilight, she told you that the cure is finished and you can come over and take it now," said Pinkie.

"Ye-yeah," said Bright scratching her heard nervously.

"So... do you want to take it?" asked Pinkie with a slight spark of hope in her eyes.

That spark faded as Bright said, "Well... yeah." Bright noticed this as she shied saying, "Look Pinkie, I'll admit I enjoyed getting to know you like this and if this had happened in any way then maybe."

Pinkie raised her hand to stop Bright before looking back up as she said, "I get it, you love Twilight."

"Well," said Bright embarrassed as between this awkward change and just not dating her for very long, she had yet to say the L-word to Twilight... but that didn't stop her from feeling it as she sighed saying, "Yeah, I do."

"And how do you feel about me?" asked Pinkie.

Bright paused for a moment before saying, "Well like I said I like hanging out with you like this but..."

"You don't feel the same way you feel for Twilight for me," finished Pinkie.

"Yeah.... how do you feel about me?" asked Bright.

"Well... I don't know exactly... close like you said but... this pretending to date thing is the closest I've come to ever actually being with someone so I don't know if it's love or just a crush or what," said Pinkie.

"Well if you don't know Pinkie then it's not love," said Bright. "I first started falling for Twilight the second I saw her, and since then I couldn't get her out of my head. Everything about her just makes my heart go crazy, and now that I've actually gotten to know her that feelings only grown stronger, to the point where I feel like if you mixed the two up I could tell the difference between her and our worlds Twilight in seconds."

"Oh... well I'm happy for you... and I hope I can find that with someone some day," said Pinkie as she glanced down at her shoes sadly.

She soon found herself wrapped in a hug from Bright who simply said, "You will," before running down the hall towards the portal.


Later that night

As Sunset suddenly woke up she noticed two things, firstly she felt like she was freezing, secondly and more concerning she heard a groaning noise from down stairs. Wearily she walked down and was greeted to the sight of Aria groaning as she tossed and turned on the couch as Sonata stroked her hair trying to comfort her.

Sunset carefully approached whispering, "What's going on?"

Sonata turned to her, never taking hand from the distressed Aria as she said, "Sometimes she gets night terrors on cold nights like this."

"Oh... sorry, the heater has been on the fritz lately, I guess it finally gave out," said Sunset as she worriedly approached the pair.

"It's OK... I just wish there was more I could do for her," said Sonata as she looked down at her basically sister hating the pained look on her face.

"Well.. is there anything I can do for her?" asked Sunset.

Sonata thought on this for a moment before moving over to the table to grab a pen and paper, she briefly stopped as Aria seemed to start groaning and thrashing worse once Sonata took her hand away, but she pressed on and quickly wrote something down before moving the paper over to Sunset saying, "You could sing this to her... I would but I don't want your Geode to go all weird again."

Sunset nodded at that before picking up the paper in her magic field and beginning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq78sNYsDHY

As Sunset continued she saw Aria begin to relax as her limbs laid down and her breathing became more slow and relaxed. Once she finished singing the two of briefly took in the sight of the now smiling and peaceful Aria before Sonata spoke up with tears in her eye and a smile on her face saying, "Adagio wrote that to calm her down... it works every time."

"She really is like a mom to both of you isn't she?" asked Sunset as she briefly thought about the memories she saw.

"Yeah... I wonder what she's doing right now," asked Sonata in thought.


Meanwhile in Tartarus.

As Adagio sat in her cage she sighed and stretched fins saying, "Well if there's one thing good in this mountain of bad things it's that I'm technically back in Equestria and have my old body back."

"That's right, always look on the bright side," said an annoyingly chipper voice to her right.

Adagio groaned as she said, "Speaking of the mountain of bad things."

The little Pegasus didn't seem to hear her or just didn't care about this comment as she smiled saying, "Speaking of the bright side, you want to try one of my cupcakes?"

"For the last time NO COZY! I do not want a cupcake!" said Adagio in anger.

This only caused a nearby centaur to sigh as he said, "Just go ahead and take one anyway, you know she's just going to keep offering until you do... besides, the're surprisingly good for just being smashed together from our rations."

"That's fine for you, but I am NEVER accepting anything from ponies... not after all they've taken from me," said Adagio as her rage melted to sadness and she laid down and closed her eyes thinking, "Taking away our happiness is one thing, but taking Aria and Sonata away from me and doing who knows what with them..." her anger soon returned at that thought though as she continued thinking, "Whatever it takes I am getting them back and crushing Sunset and her friends!"

Her anger was soon interrupted though as she heard a familiar dark voice say, "My my, a thousand years later and you're still the same."

She opened her eyes at that voice as she turned to the others saying, "WHICH ONE OF YOU SAID THAT!?"

This only elicited looks of surprise from Tirek and Cozy as they seemed to have no idea what she was talking about. "Oh dearest me, please tell me you haven't forgotten me after I gifted you with your powers," said a voice that Adagio now realized wasn't coming from around her... it was coming inside her head.

On instinct she closed her eyes and was greeted to the visage of the one she saw all the years ago as she said, "Of course I haven't forgotten you, you Darkness chump."

"Ah, it's nice to hear that spark of defiance again... even if it's to the only one who can help you out of this predicament," said the Darkness as he looked down on her.

Meanwhile a concerned Cozy Glow looked at her saying, "Who are you talking to you Ms. Adagio?"

Tirek simply groaned as he said, "Only a few weeks in here and already talking to herself, I hate to see what she'll be like after a few hundred years."

Adagio didn't hear this though as she said, "How exactly can you get me out of here?"

"Well, as you might have guessed by the fact that I am not ruling this world, the host I choose didn't really work out," said the Darkness.

Adagio chuckled at this saying, "I kind of figured when that pony princess showed up, not exactly somepony you'd want around. So where are you anyway?"

"Sadly due to my intense power they couldn't simple throw me in a cage like you, so instead they banished me to another world," said the Darkness.

This once again resulted in a chuckle from Adagio as she said, "Been there, done that."

"Yes I can see, I'm currently looking through your memories and they are very... interesting, especially this world without magic so... vulnerable. Unfortunately I was sent to Limbo, a world beyond time and space where nothing other then me exists," said the Darkness.

"Sounds like quite the predicament, so how are you going to save me if you can't even save yourself?" asked Adagio smugly.

This seemed to agitate the Darkness as he said, "Actually I was thinking of a way to save us both, for you see I am connected to you by the gem stone I gave you... or at least what's left of it, and through that connection I could instantly be brought to you and rip both your cage and this Sunset Shimmer apart in an instant... if you agree to be my new host that is."

Adagio opened her mouth to refuse... only to remember the last time she said no to this and everything that happened since then. Through gritted teeth she said, "Fine, but don't take me for a fool. I know you're only going to take out Sunset and her friends just because it's convenient for you, then you're going to do whatever it is that you're talking about in these emo speeches."

The Darkness briefly chuckled as he said, "Defiant to the end, but if you know my true intentions then why agree?"

"Because at this point I don't care about myself... I just want Aria and Sonata to be safe... promise me that much and you can use me for whatever you want," said Adagio as she looked towards the Darkness without a hint of fear on her face showing that she meant every word she said.

Once again the Darkness chuckled as he said, "Very well then, let it begin."

Upon hearing this Adagio felt intense pain as she opened her eyes and looked down to see the shards of her gemstone push themselves across her chest and form into one stone that began to shine pitch black. The pain soon began to subside as the Darkness said, "It will take some time for me to fully envelope you, I hope you don't mind waiting."

"Oh don't worry, I've waited for this for a while," said Adagio as she grinned, already beginning to feel this new power flow into her veins.