Equestria Girls: The Witching Hour

Twilight heard a voice as she felt Spike's paws shaking her in bed. "Twilight get up. Wakey, wakey, sleepy head. You forgot to set your alarm again last night."

Twilight groaned and shuffled underneath the covers. "Not again," She replied groggily. "and after Sunset reminded me last night too." She reached out and felt around her nightstand for her glasses. Upon finding the she sat up and put them on. "Ohhh, what time is it?" Asked Twilight seeing Spike standing on her bed.

"It's six 'o clock, so you're half an hour late." Said spike waving a paw. "I mean Sunset is outside." The points with his paw to the window.

"Oh I need to get going then..." Twilight then looked at Spike who was standing on her bed and suddenly realized that something was amiss. "Spike! Are you talking? Why are you talking? Dogs don't talk! No, no, no, no, no!" Twilight leapt from her bed and started to panic. "This is a dream, this has got to be dream!" she fumbled for her phone and shakily dialed Sunset's number forgetting she was outside. "Sunset I need you to get up here right now!" She shouted into the phone as soon as Sunset answered.

Outside Sunset answered her phone when it rang. "That's odd Twilight should know I'm here." She then held the phone back from her ear at Twilight's loud message. "What do you mean Spike is talking?" Asked Sunset getting silence and then she heard the the exchange between Twilight and Spike.

"Twilight she is right outside you know?" Said spike with a deadpan look.

"Spike is talking!?" Shouted Sunset upon hearing Spike.

"Yes!" Twilight said panting. "I need you up here right now Sunset!"

"Okay Sparky just stay stay put I'll be up in a moment." Sunset replied hanging while up and running to the front door and knocking on it.

"What's the big deal? You talked to me every day." Said Spike while scratching his ear.

"You're a dog Spike! Dogs don't talk like people, until now anyway." Twilight was shaking, to wake up to this was quite a shock.

Sunset burst through Twilight's bedroom door. "Okay so what's going on? Spike you can seriously talk now? How?" Sunset questioned looking at the little guy.

"I could always talk, now it's just clearer I guess? And Sunnybun your Sparky is having a anxiety attack, and no one has fed me yet either." Said Spike looking pointedly at Sunset.

"Okay we'll sort you out later Spike, oh and don't go talking like this around the rest of the family for the moment. We have no idea how they'll handle it." Sunset grabbed Twilight. "Twilight you have to calm down. Freaking out isn't going to help us deal with this." Twilight looked at Sunset. "That's right Sparky focus on me and just relax. Now what we're going to do right now is you're going to get ready while I take Spike downstairs and get him fed while you do that. Then we're going to have breakfast with your family and go to school and try to figure this out with Storm's help. Okay can you do that for me Sparky?"

Twilight nodded and visibly relaxed. "Sorry for freaking out like that Spike."

"Are you kidding? You have a freak out every other week over nothing." said Spike

"I do not!" Twilight shot back.

Sunset sighed "You are kind of high strung Sparky." Sunset then turned to Spike. "Come on Spike let's get you fed." She said bending down and scratching him behind the ears.

Twilight mumbled something before heading into the bathroom.

Spike let his tongue hang out. "Oh yeah right there, and food. Good morning!"

Sunset laughed "Good morning to you too Spike, now come on." Sunset replied before heading downstairs.

"Hey Sunset can I have some bacon?" Asked Spike as he followed.

Sunset laughed again. "Maybe later Spike, we've got a lot of strange things to try and make sense of all of the sudden. And with as worried about Twilight as I am I'm more worried about Brianna right now. Storm set out a group text with a picture Twilight and I last night and Megan and Brianna were the only ones that didn't respond. I hope nothing bad has happened." Sunset went to the cupboard and got the bag of dog food out and poured into the bowl. "Good Morning Mrs. Velvet." Said Sunset as Twilight's mother walked into the kitchen.

"Morning. How's my future daughter in law?" Said Twilight Velvet teasingly.

Sunset blushed "Fine, I just had to calm Twilight down because she freaked out over forgetting to set her alarm, again. I am a little worried about Brianna today too, we didn't hear from her yesterday so I'm a little concerned. And I think Spike wants some bacon too."

"No bacon for him. But there are some bacon flavored treats in the cabinet with his food toss two in with it." She said chuckling. "And you know those two she and Megan probably just got lost with each other out in the fields and their phones died. I swear you'd think your school is a couple factory, every day Twilight talks about you two or someone else hooking up. What was that new boy's name? Storm something he just asked out that Aria girl, Twilight said that after you dropped her off after the party." Said Velvet being the ever gossipy mother.

Sunset located the bag of doggy treats and got two of them out and put them in Spike's bowl. "Maybe," Sunset said "but I also remember Megan saying they were going to do some work in the stables yesterday. Even with as much experience as they have it's easy to get hurt around horses. That's why I'm worried about it. And yeah Storm did ask Aria to go to a dance club this Friday. I just hope he doesn't get Aria mad, she has a bit of a short temper."

Twilight came down the stairs. "Good morning mom." She said while still running a brush through her hair as she sat down at the table.

"Morning dear. So when are you and my future daughter in law going to go on an actual date and not just sit in the library and read?" Teased her mother with Shinning away that left her and her husband to focus on their daughter's life and being a good mother she would always pick at her daughter about her love life.

"Mom!" Twilight retorted "Sunset and I just went on a double date with Megan and Brianna and couple of weeks ago."

Sunset could no longer contain herself and burst out laughing. "Take it easy Sparky." Said Sunset after recovering. "She is just teasing you like she did Shining and Cadence."

Spike barked in agreement and wagged his tail.

Her mother giggled as she handed her breakfast with a Cheshire grin.

"Thanks mom." Twilight said as she began eating.

The message tone came from Sunset and Twilight's phones. "Code red. I got through to Brianna. Megan is in the hospital. Also the school's online roster updated. Look who's back. Linked photo of the girl Brianna and Megan talked about the other day. Brianna will need our help. Think the cattle prod is too much as self defense or should I just give her one of the prototype directed energy guns my brothers left laying around?" Storm texted

Sunset facepalmed "Oh crap." She said "It looks like my concern was right on the mark." Sunset looked at Velvet. "Well Megan got hurt, I'm guessing it happened while they were working in the stables. And Storm is getting a little ham fisted over Mary. This is going to be a bad week."

"Wow he must be feeling really off today, we already knew about that. And Megan getting hurt is bad. I wonder how long she'll be out for?" asked Twilight

Sunset's forehead hit the table next to her plate. She groaned lifted her head and texted. "Storm we already talked about Mary remember? As for the rest we'll discuss it at lunch and see what we can figure out. There is also a new development that we need to talk about then too, so we'll talk then." Sunset looked to Twilight. "It's going to be one of those weeks Sparky." She said as she hit send.

"Oh sorry, I just woke up. Not everything is in order. And the message from the Brianna was disorienting. You sure she wouldn't want a self defense tool?" texted Storm

"It's okay Storm, but no Brianna doesn't need a self defense tool. You can't bring them to school anyway, weapons aren't allowed. She doesn't need it anyway, she does study martial arts after all. This message regarding Megan does worry me though, we'll get the details from her at lunch I suppose. See you then." Sunset texted back.

"Confirmed I will keep my eye on Mary when I spot her now that I have her image facial recognition software is fun. Fyi school is in forty-five if you two are driving best leave now. Later Sunnybun lol." texted Storm

"We're on our way. And Storm if you know what's good for you you'll stop calling me that. Only Twilight gets that privilege." texted Sunset "Come on Sparky, we need to get going." Said Sunset to Twilight.

"Okay, just let me get my books." Twilight replied as she went back upstairs. She returned a moment later and she and Sunset were off to school arriving a little while later.

Later that day in the lunch room Brianna sat with her friends telling them about the reason Megan wasn't present at school and wouldn't be for a while yet. "So yeah Megan has got a broken leg and won't be here for a while." Brianna said

"But however did that happen darling?" Rarity replied

Brianna sighed "TJ kicked a bucket as a prank and that scared a filly that Megan's family is taking care of. She kicked Megan in the upper leg and broke it. Not really badly mind you, it's only a couple of deep fractures. But it is enough to keep Megan out of school for a while."

Applejack gave a low whistle. "Now that had to hurt something fierce sugarcube. Thankfully Megan is so tough or it would have been worse."

Brianna nodded in replied and was about to speak when an unwelcome voice broke in.

"I see Megan has finally abandoned you Brianna. I always knew she didn't have it in her to give you what you needed." Came the acidic tone came causing everyone to turn in the girl's direction. Mary stood there with a smug look on her face and a wicked smirk.

"I see you still have that selective hearing Mary." Brianna replied bitterly. "She has to stay home because of a broken leg. She did not and never will abandon me Mary, and I am not going to be another notch in your bed post either." Brianna turned to face the girl. "Now leave me alone or we'll take this to Vice Principal Luna and this time you'll get expelled for sure."

"They can't expel me Brianna, there are no grounds. It's your word against mine." Mary shot back.

"Do you really think that makes you look smart or something?" Aria shot back venomously. "I mean seriously learn to keep your panties on before you go and judge other people you stupid little bitch."

"And I suppose you think that rough language makes you look tough. You're just too stupid to be well thought of Aria, and if it weren't for your parents you'd probably be just drop out punk. Why are you even here anyway? School is for smart people not people like you." Mary spat out.

Aria laughed and leaned back. She had no intention of taking the other girl's bait. Storm on the other hand had a different approach in mind.

Storm was up before anyone saw him, then the loud echoing of the slap rang throughout the lunch room causing everyone to stop. He had just got up and actually slapped Mary off her her feet."No one insults Aria in front of me and I will give you another for harassing my friend Brianna. Stand up so I can smack you down again like the slut you are." Storm was scary right now, his voice had shown no anger despite his words. Just the cold neutrality of calculated machine like purpose. But in his eye one could see a raging sea of anger.

Marble and Fluttershy grabbed Storm and pulled him back with a surprising degree of strength. "She is not worth it Storm." Marble said quietly

"Just take it easy Storm, we don't need you getting into trouble like Rainbow would." said Fluttershy

Rainbow moved to stand in front of Mary getting between her and Storm. "You're lucky Mary, lucky that we're here to hold him back." Rainbow then leaned over Mary. "You leave Brianna alone or we're going to be having a little discussion in the park, and I won't hold the little guy back then." Rainbow snarled menacingly.

"Storm Surge Morgan!" Vice Principal Luna thundered catching everyone's attention. "See me in my office." She stated flatly before turning to Mary. "And when I am done with him I'll be starting with you Miss Allen. You have been warned more than once about harassing any other students, especially Brianna. If this behavior continues you will be subjected to whatever actions are appropriate." The vice principal looked at Storm. "Now Mister Morgan." Luna said leaving to return to her office.

"I have the video recording of the whole event from my view. She was harassing Brianna and Aria. I stand by my actions. I'll take any punishment that they warrant." Said Storm as he walked towards the VP.

They reached Vice Principal Luna's office and they both sat down. "I know that you have the recordings Storm and we will of course be needing copies to help verify what actually happened. But I can not simply allow to assault another student regardless of her reputation for causing trouble." She sighed "I still have to discipline you and set an example Storm. And given that you do not have a habit of attacking other students that will be a week's worth of detention. I would also ask you to not strike another student on school grounds again Storm. You are an exceptional student, this is true but we can't give you a free pass to act against school rules and policy." The vice principal's face then softened. "I do appreciate that you want to stand up for your friends, but next time use your words not you hands. Alright?"

"I understand and the recording is in the E-mail that school has listed for you now. Also based on empirical evidence and the testimony of the others from past encounters with Mary, I concluded that verbal persuasion was a wasted effort to try with her so I opted for a direct approach. I'll refrain from acting directly again unless I feel she is being a physical threat to my friends. In that case I will exercise my right to act in defense of other." Said Storm taking full responsibility for his actions but clearly not regretting them.

"I understand, but we have a strict no-violence policy here at C.H.S and can't allow you to use physical means again Storm. Bring the information to an authority figure within the school and let us handle it. Otherwise we shall have to get the police involved as we had to do with Gilda, and my sister and I do not wish to have to spend our afternoon filling out a police report again." said Luna

"Understood I will not conduct any physical retaliation on school grounds." Said Storm his flat almost cold demeanor was unnerving Luna now wished she and her sister never had to deal with Storm after he came to the school and his seeming lack of emotions was creeping her out.

"Very well Storm, you are dismissed. I think your video might make what I have to do next a little easier. I have given up on trying to reason with Ms. Allen's parents as they are beyond all reason." said Luna

"You're welcome." Said Storm as he got up and left. When he got out of the office he smiled at Mary before walking away without a word to her.
Mary shivered as she walked into Vice Principal Luna's office.

"Sit down." Luna said coldly. Mary sat and Luna turned her computer screen towards Mary. "In the past we have never has anything this solid to use to hold you accountable for your actions Ms. Allen." Luna played the video for a few moments and turned towards Mary. "Now that we can have this kind of evidence of your behavior we are no longer able to be limited in how we can deal with you. And before you say anything Storm's monocle records his classes for later review in addition to what's going on when he is involved to help law enforcement with any incidents he might have been a witness to, including this one." Luna paused before speaking again. "I'll be blunt Ms. Allen if you continue to harass anyone at C.H.S. like this it will become a matter for the police. You will have detention for two weeks and you are to leave Brianna and her friends alone. Am I clear?"

Mary visibly shuddered at the vice principal's icy tone. "Yes ma'am." She replied meekly.

"You are dismissed." Luna replied flatly.

Storm was on his way back to lunch as he still had time. His eye piece had actually done the job it was made for. His pride had him grinning like a fool when he got back to the girls. "So did I miss anything?" he asked

"I got a text from Megan. She said she'll be waiting for me at my place." Brianna laughed a little. "The ranch is not the best place to be with a broken leg after all."

"Sure isn't," Applejack replied "especially in this weather. I mean really snow already?"

"That's not really that weird AJ." Twilight broke in. "When I was woke up by Spike this morning he was talking! And I mean like a person and not a dog."

Sunset nodded "I wouldn't have believed myself if I hadn't been there, but it's true. Spike is now sapient and can speak like we do."

While the rest of the table was reacting with surprise Fluttershy had a different reaction. "Oh my gosh! I can wait to talk to the little guy and find about all of the wonderful things he can tell me about! This is just so wonderful I don't even know what to say!"

"Would a biopsy of his vocal chords be out of the question? Just asking as dogs have shown human intelligence and on rare occurrence but human speech is well beyond their physical possibility. At the vary least Fluttershy should see about borrowing use of the animal shelters CT scanner to get a look at his head and neck. Oh by the why I got of with a week's detention. And Mary is on notice with police on the V.P.'s speed dial from what I heard as I left." said Storm

Twilight took off her glasses and started to clean the lenses with a cloth. "I wouldn't say that dogs have displayed human levels of intelligence Storm, that is largely inaccurate. But some dogs are much smarter than others and like you said have shown to be ably to mimic human speech. Some cats have also shown this ability as well, but no one yet knows what to make of it. A C.T. scan might be a good idea though, if we can keep it a secret for now. People will probably go a little crazy if they find out about this."

Brianna shook her head sadly. "I always worried that she would get into real trouble one day. This is really sad."

Adagio looked at Brianna. "I don't get you Brianna, you clearly don't like this girl and yet you're worried about her. Why is that?"

"I'd rather not get into that right now Adagio, it's complicated." Brianna replied

"Brianna our whole social group is best described as complicated." said Adagio

"She's right, we have two of the top athletes, four of the best singers and three of the smartest students in the school in one group. And Pinko here has as much creepy Knowledge of everyone as I can look up. Oh that reminds me. AJ you, Pinkie, and I are cousins. My great grandmother and your great grandfather are brother and sister. And even more distantly we have relatives tied to Pinkie's family." Said Storm between bites as he tries to catch up on his lunch.

"I still don't want to talk about it Adagio, it's difficult for a lot of reasons. None of which I care to get into right now. Maybe later, I don't know you guys or Storm and Twilight well enough to talk about it yet. Sorry Adagio." Brianna replied

Adagio looked like she about to say something when Aria placed her hand on Adagio's shoulder and stopped her. "Let it go Adagio, if she doesn't want to talk about it right now then we don't push her, okay?" Adagio only nodded in reply.

"Why not me then?" Twilight queried

"It's a kind of a group thing." Sunset replied "We were all there for what happened and agreed not to talk about unless Brianna was okay with it. it's nothing against any of you, it's difficult like Brianna said."

Brianna nodded and the turned to Storm. "If you keep eating like that Storm you're going to get hiccups or start choking." Said Brianna sounding like she was cautioning a younger sibling. "And actually we have more than just four good singers in our group too." Brianna said "Pretty much all of us here are really good, though Megan, Fluttershy, and Sunset are the best that I've heard."

Aria laughed "That makes sense because you haven't heard us yet."

Brianna just nodded and giggled. "Eeyup." She said sounding a little like Big Mac.

"So during the next talent contest I'll set up the speakers and you girls blow the school away with your music." Said Storm before he started choking on his pizza.

Sonata stood up and moved behind and sharply struck Storm between the shoulders causing him to stop choking and start wondering just how strong she was.

"Brianna did try to warn you Storm." Sonata said sweetly. "Now slow down okay? It's not going anywhere and we've still got time."

"Thanks sis," Said Storm rubbing his neck "chewing helps too."

"No problem." Sonata giggled

Brianna raised an eyebrow. "Sis? Aren't you getting way ahead of yourself Storm? Aria agreed to go to a dance club with you not get married." Said Brianna causing the rest of the girls save Aria to laugh.

"It pays to be optimistic." said Storm "Besides she technically just saved my life."

Brianna scratched her cheek. "Well yes Sonata did just help you out, but being that optimistic is more of a stretch Storm. Megan and I have been dating for five years now, you and Aria don't even have one date under your belt yet."

"Yeah that is way to optimistic Storm. You might wanna temper your expectations a little." Pinkie said taking everyone by surprise. "What?" she said

"Trust me, it would take something pretty extraordinary to ruin the date I have planned." Said Storm giving Aria a confident smile.

Pinkie facepalmed "Never do you ever go and challenge the universe like that Stormy. It doesn't go well."

"Speaking of strange events I experienced another one last night..." Said Brianna causing her friends to look in her direction.

"Well?" said Rainbow "Are you gonna tell us or you gonna keep being all cryptic about it?"

Brianna's face reddened. "I feel kind of embarrassed okay!" Brianna shot back. "And it kind of feels like I cheated on Megan too." She finished hanging her head.

"How so darling?" asked Rarity

"When I was going to sleep I had a little trouble at first because Megan wasn't there, I mean I could feel her and even smell but someone else seems to have been there too. I really can't say this without it sounding really weird, so here it is. I think I spent last night with a pink unicorn." Brianna said meekly.

"Given our last set of dreams, you might have. The leading consensus Twilight, Sunset and I have reached was that the dreams are bleed through from some strong events in a parallel reality. So if you had the dream of sleeping with a pink unicorn. You either a have a counterpart with much more diverse sex and or private life, or without Megan your mind conjured the a surrogate to comfort you in your state of unrest." said Storm

"I think there is another me in that world. And she is with the unicorn mare that I, felt for the lack of a better word." Brianna replied "What's more I'm beginning to think that we all have a ties to the other world that aren't through just Megan. I think we might each have a counterpart in that world. It's the only thing I can come up with."

"It's possible, " said Sunset "it's also a fairly logical assertion on Brianna's part."

"Possible not guaranteed. Best analogy for multiverse is this. Flip a coin and it comes up tails, at that moment there is the another world it came up heads. Your born female here in another male. Red is go, and green means stop. We might not even be human or maybe had different names or even different lifestyles. As many stars in the sky is as many possible realities there are and that number times itself for possible variation." explains Storm

"Maybe," Brianna said "but in this case it seems that we are to some extent the same here and in this other world. I'm not sure how though, there are still a lot of missing pieces."

So Brianna, what did this unicorn look like? And do you know her name?" asked Twilight

Brianna nodded "She had a pale pink coat with a white mane and tail, both of which had a purple stripe running through them. She also had purple eyes and five purple stars on her flanks for some reason. Here is where it gets really weird though, her name is Twilight."

Everyone at the table went slack jawed.

"NOW you understand why seeing Megan in my dream was disconcerting for me. " said Storm

Brianna nodded "It is very uncomfortable alright. I'm still not sure what to make of it myself."

Twilight gave a nervous laugh. "So uh Brianna what was she like?"

"Her personality and yours aren't the same if that's what you're asking. She was sweet and affectionate while being more outgoing and yet still reserved. More like Fluttershy in some ways. She was not a big brained book worm type like you are." Brianna replied

"Why dose that sound like a insult? Even when I know it wasn't one." Said Storm teasing.

Brianna stuck her tongue out at Storm.

"It really didn't sound like one to me." Twilight replied "I'm honestly not surprised we're so different."

"You two aren't that different Sparky." said Sunset "You are sweet and affectionate, it's just that you keep it to your family and I. you don't really show it too much with our friends though."

"Yeah Twilight." Said Rainbow with a laugh. "You just tend to show off that big brain of yours."

"Joking aside Spike was talking and we are getting heavy snow reports in some places. So the big question that's been bothering me is this. What do we do when we find out what is going on. " said Storm

"That's been bothering me as well." Sunset replied "We have more pieces of the puzzle now and have a more of the picture, but that has left us with no real solution rather than giving us one."

"This is actually getting more and more unclear as we get more information." Adagio said getting nods of agreement. "I don't really see what we can do Storm, except just go on with our lives and be alert, that's all we have right now."

"Why dose that not make me feel better?" Said Aria with a wave of hand.

Everyone else at the table rolled their eyes. "Anyway," Brianna said "we need to be getting back to class now, it's that time after all. I'll see you guys later." She said getting up just as the bell rang. Brianna made her way through the rest of her day stopping by Principal Celestia's office on her way out to get Megan's classwork for her. Brianna stopped on her way through the halls when her phone gave a text alert.

It read "Meet me in the courtyard, I have your camera ready. She will never see it, the app is in the package. Your team tech God storm." Brianna smiled and met with Storm to get the amethyst colored broach and after thanking Storm she got into Wind Whister's car and went home. When Brianna finally arrived home she felt relieved to see Megan again, but it felt jarring to her to see Megan's leg in a cast.