Without the Magic of Friendship

Chapters

Prologue
Chapter 1: Revenge
Chapter 2: Enmity
Chapter 4: Sonata
Chapter 5: Aria
Chapter 6: Visitor
Chapter 3: Unguided

Prologue

What happens when somepony, or even someone crosses the portal? Well, apparently nothing serious. Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer have both crossed the portal on multiple occasions. It does beg the question however; what occurs when the two counterparts of the worlds, meet each other? It was a mystery to everyone and pony. Sunset Shimmer certainly didn’t have the answer herself, but she was worried to find out.

This is what kept her from allowing her friends to visit Equestria. She knew the pony versions of her friends were right in Ponyville; the same place the portal had been relocated. After Twilight had made the portal open at all times, her human friends had gotten intently curious. Her friends didn’t understand the risk involved by visiting Equestria. In fact, Sunset Shimmer had to continuously explain why they couldn’t go, every time one of them became curious enough to suggest a quick peek.

Sunset realized the absolute inconvenient spot the portal existed at too. It didn’t help that the portal was wide open, and right in front of the school the girls attended every day. Each morning and afternoon, the girls had to pass this portal to a magical land full of ponies, and they were expected to simply ignore it? It was simply torturous for their curiosity.

No one, however, was affected by this daunting responsibility more than Rainbow Dash. She couldn’t stand the fact that she only got wings when playing the guitar, but in Equestria; she would have wings all the time.

“I would be a Pegasus!” Rainbow would always say. “How can I go to lame Canterlot High School, knowing I’m one wall away from flying in a magical land?”

It bothered Rainbow the most out of her friends that they had to spend their day learning in school, rather than witnessing the awesome things in Equestria. However, she couldn’t go, because she and her friends promised not to.

At least now, Twilight realizes the issue of how anyone can simply cross the portal. But that is now. Before then, the portal was always open for everyone to visit, whether it be an accident or not . Twilight now keeps the portal closed unless she is visiting, but this only occurred after the event. An event, which had put the human girls in great danger. How it all started goes back right after the battle of the bands.

After the Dazzlings had lost the battle of the bands, they looked down in horror to find their pendants shattered in numerous pieces. Everything they have worked for: being so close to gaining total control. It had been all too familiar for the Dazzlings, being banished by Star Swirl the Bearded earlier. Only this time they had no second chances; they had no more magic.

Adagio picked up the broken pieces tightly in her hand as the three stood up. Attempting to sing, they figured their pendants were really the only thing keeping them in tune with each other; in this world at least. Before they could even linger on about that, mounds of food were hurled their way. It was very clear the spell had been broken, and that people were upset.

Usually when the sirens failed, they had a way to fix it all in just one spell, or to be more exact, a curse. The curse was meant for times like this; where people’s hatred for them could be swapped with unsuspecting victims. Thus, the sirens would receive the popularity their victims had, and the ponies; they often disappeared from society.

The issue was how great the curse worked. Not only did the ponies who hated the sirens then hate the victims, but everypony across the land did. What was worse was the exponential effect it had. At first the victim would get a distasteful glance from others, but as time continued, the hatred grew. That was the reason it was deemed a curse in old books. The sirens only used it in dire situations, for even they knew the curse was life ruining.

They couldn’t use it this time, even if they wanted to. They had no magic anymore. That night was the first time they were ever booed off stage. With little experience of this notion, they simply ran. The three sirens ran as fast and as far as they could, because that night they also faced another emotion long since felt: embarrassment.

People were discussing amongst each other about what just happened. The Rainbooms made it to the stage and investigated the aftermath.

Everyone seemed relieved; everyone but Trixie. The Great and Powerful Trixie stood, watching the rest. 'They all worship these girls by now' she thought. Though the Dazzlings were defeated, she still believed her performance was superior in every way.

Powered with hate she interrupted Twilight and Flash to spew her usual lines of revenge, and ran off. She felt embarrassed for some reason. Being out preformed by the Rainbooms made her just want to leave. Of course Pinkie Pie had noticed her climbing off the steps after she threw the smoke. Caught in more embarrassment, she let her self fall off.

“Trixie’s okay,” She yelled for everyone to hear. “Only it’s not okay,” she quietly followed. Rainbow dash and her friends had outshined Trixie on multiple occasions when it came to music. Music is quite a passion for her, other than fake magic of course.

“All music is for the Rainbrooms are another talent they can add to their collection,” She said to herself as she curled up into a ball behind a couple of bushes. “Why is Rainbow Dash good at everything?” Trixie started. “She’s good in academics, sports, singing, guitar, making friends. Seriously, she even stopped the forces of evil twice with her magical friends!” Trixie couldn’t understand why it was them. Why the Rainbooms were chosen by Twilight.

“Ugh, why couldn’t Twilight choose someone who at least knew a thing or to about magic like me?” Trixie asked herself, but knowing full well that human magic is faked.

All Trixie wanted to do was sit there. She couldn’t go back to her house. Not when she knew her parents were in the crowd. They witnessed the whole thing. The last thing she needed was for her parents to talk nonstop about how awesome the Rainbooms were for breaking the Dazzling’s spell.

“Wait,” she started, “what am I thinking! Being jealous of the Rainbooms? Ha, never. At least my band had no magical being from another world to help me cheat!” All she wanted to do was to relax. Too many emotions were messing with her train of thought. She felt drowsy because of it. She pulled out her phone to make fun of the Rainbooms for the countless time on her wall.

You call that a performance Rainbooms?

Doesn’t seven members in one band seem like a little too much?

Next time you girls decide to play on a hill, be sure to–

Her phone slowly slid out of her hand. Her eyes shut as her head tilted onto the stonewall she was leaned upon.

When the Dazzlings reached the well-known fast food diner they used to sing at, they stopped to catch their breath.

Adagio was the first to say a word since they were on stage. “You didn’t *huff* sing with enough passion Sonata, and where was your effort *gasp*, Aria? Were you girls even trying?”

“Well *huff* how could we, when you keep hogging the spotlight?” Aria refuted.

“You know perfectly well why I’m the leader,” Adagio said, with her breath caught up again. “Last time we followed your idea, we ended up in a vortex leading here. And why Sonata isn’t leader? Do I even need to say it?”

“I’ll say it,” Aria said. “She couldn’t possibly lead with her small brain.”

“Hey,” Sonata started, “I’ll have you know that… that you have a smaller brain!”

“Oh, ouch, you really got me this time Sonata” Aria sarcastically replied, with her hand placed on her chest where her heart was.

Sonata—not ever understanding sarcasm—felt as if she had won the small argument. “That’s right, I hope you’ve learned your–”

“Would you two please stop arguing about nonsense?” Adagio interrupted. “We have bigger problems on our hands.” It then dawned on them just how much trouble the absence of their pendants would give them.

The Dazzlings quietly walked home under the bright moonlight and cold air. Not a word was spoken. They all knew too well what’s going to happen now that they have lost their power. Everyone they had previously sang to, now out of their control again.

As the three sirens neared their apartment, Sonata only just realized the severity of the situation. “Does this mean we will get kicked out of our rooms?” she asked in a worried tone.

“I don’t know,” Adagio said, “we might have some time until the monthly payment.” Adagio tried to remember how long ago the last time they sang to the apartment manager.

They arrived at their apartment door. Adagio pulled out the keys, her hand shaking violently due to the cold, or maybe just due to the shock. As soon as they entered the safety of their own apartment, all silence was cut off.

“How will we get food now?" Adagio yelled. "Are any of us even capable of getting jobs?”

“Of course not Adagio!” Aria replies. “None of us have any real information or past experience at all. We came from Equestria, remember?” Aria said rhetorically, well aware of Adagio's knowledge of where they came from.

Still next to the front door stood Sonata, pondering at the realness of it all. She didn’t feel like her cheerful–confused self. She couldn’t at a time like this. She hated the constant arguing the Aria and Adagio always had. Only this time she wanted to chime in. She couldn’t simply act confused with the answer right under her nose.

“Hey, Aria?” Sonata asked, pushing her two index fingers together.

“What do you want, dweeb?” Aria said. Sonata almost held back what she wanted to say, for this time it wasn’t just playful comebacks. She decide to go through with it though, knowing this is a better time than any.

“I’ve come to realize something,” Sonata started. “All our problems are… are your fault!”

“What!?” Aria was surprised at the comment. This was Sonata who said it, right?

“Yeah, Adagio and I never get into arguments. You’re the root to every argument we have.” She boldly stated. Adagio was nodding in agreement with what Sonata said. Adagio decided to team up against Aria, and added insult to injury.

“If you didn’t always have to throw in your two cents about everything, we wouldn’t be in this mess.”

“Okay,” Aria said, “Obviously you two are too broken from the loss right now. Suggesting it’s all, my fault? What ever happened to your stupid remarks you always give, Sonata?” Aria was appalled for what Sonata had just said.

“I guess you just bring out the worst of me,” Sonata said, snickering to herself.

“Oh you think this is funny? Us not having any where to go; anything to eat. Keep laughing, Sonata, but I was the only one who saw this plan going south from a mile away.”

“You saw this plan failing?” Adagio asked. “Then why didn’t you say anything?”

“I did!” Aria yelled. "You two just always think I'm being sarcastic!"

“We know you aren't being sarcastic, it's that you always complain!" Adagio said. "Complaining isn’t the same as warning us!” Aria was clearly offended by Adagio's comment, for she stared at her for a second, then stormed off into the kitchen. Aria then opened the refrigerator to find the little amount of food they had left.

"This will only last us about three days," Aria mumbled, looking deep into the almost empty refrigerator. She grabbed a leftover sandwich and took a bite from it. She then noticed how quiet the living room got when she left.

'Is Sonata right? Is it really me?' Aria thought. 'The moment I left, no one was arguing anymore. Okay, so that may be my fault, but how we got into this mess wasn't.'

"Aria?" Sonata yelled from the living room. "We didn't mean to upset you."

"Oh, yes you did." Aria mumbled to herself, before walking back into the living room. Sonata and Adagio were now sitting on the couch; clearly exhausted from all the running.

“Oh, no—no, Sonata. It's fine, I see how it is,” Aria started, trying her best to act friendly.

"You do?" Sonata replied.

“Yes, you two just don’t want to admit when you messed up," Aria said.

Adagio realized how this argument got out of hand and she wanted to fix things now. “Look, Aria. Arguing is only going to drive us apart. We need you to stick together with us.”

“Stick together?" Aria wasn't too happy with the way Adagio kept placing the problem back on her. "You think I’m the one who wanted to leave? Ever since we arrived in this world, all you wanted to do was leave this group! But ohhh, the pendants and our little power was enough to convince you to deal with us. Now that we lost all that, you would ditch us in a heart beat for anything better,” Aria told Adagio. Aria fired all six cylinders with that one statement. By this point, she just wanted to see a strong reaction from Adagio.

“Now you have crossed the line, Aria, suggesting I would betray you both if given the chance.” Adagio said. Her approach to calm things down only made it worse.

“I have known you longer than yesterday,” Aria yelled, “You would do something like that. Well I’m not going to stay here to find out!”

“Are you saying you’re leaving us Aria?” Sonata asked, now wishing she could take back what she had said earlier.

“You can’t bail on us, where in Eques– I mean, on Earth would you go?” Adagio asked in a confident voice. She thought—no—she knew Aria was bluffing.

“Anywhere, I just need to get away from you two right now!” Aria stated. Aria stormed off with her keys in one hand and the sandwich in the other. She opened the front door and slammed it behind her.

“Aria?” Sonata said, her eyes becoming heavy from the tears forming around them.

“Don’t worry, she’s just going out to relieve her anger. She’ll be back.” Adagio assured Sonata.

It was late, and the two girls just needed to rest things off. They decided to go to sleep, rather than wait for Aria's return.

Sonata and Adagio were asleep when Aria quietly came back hours later. She had the look on her face showing she still held a grudge for everything that had happened that day.

Aria quietly went into her room, trying not to wake the other girls. She came out of the room with packed bags and a note she had written. She laid the note on a small table next to the front door, put her keys on top of the note and left the apartment.

The next morning Trixie woke up, being startled by the fact that she was still outside. “Wow, did I fall asleep here through the whole night?” Trixie said to herself as she grabbed her phone and stood up.

“Darn, no battery left, at least no one stole it.” She was surprised by the fact that being hidden by the bushes most likely saved her from night dwellers. “I better run home, mom and dad are probably worried sick for the Great and Powerful Trixie!”

As she walked home, she passed the left most side of Canterlot High School. That’s when she noticed all of them. Every single member of the Rainbooms including Sunset Shimmer, were grouped around the front of the Wondercolt statue. Trixie was still upset about last night and decided to hide behind a couple of bushes rather than walking by them. She didn’t want to get noticed by them. After all, she was still in her dress from last night, and it was covered in dirt.

Trixie simply waited, hoping they would leave soon. 'They couldn’t stay there for too long,' she thought. As she watched, she noticed that—for some reason—they were saying their goodbyes to Twilight. She thought nothing of it, until she remembered how Twilight isn’t from here. When she took another look through the bushes, she saw Twilight Sparkle suddenly disappear by walking though the base of the statue. Trixie’s eyes widened as she knelt behind the bushes again, surely not wanting to be caught after witnessing that.

“Is that it?” She thought. “Is that how Twilight and the Dazzlings got to this world?” she said quietly to herself, not knowing the true way the Dazzling got here. Trixie then understood the power she had, knowing the gateway to a magical world of Equestria. It was at that moment where Trixie knew how to take revenge on the Rainbooms.

Author's Note

This is the prologue. The next chapter will match with the description.

Chapter 1: Revenge

Dear Princess Twilight,

After you left, the most unexpected, yet completely expected thing occurred.
I’m no longer the most hated person in school. People are actually friendly with me now.
They seem to appreciate the way we took care of the Dazzlings. The school is a friendly
place now that the Dazzlings are gone.

I am having a great time being in the Rainbooms, even when Rainbow Dash can be a tad
bit of a showoff. I think she’s just trying to show everyone that she’s better at guitar than me.

I know I could easily come back to Equestria now that Princess Celestia will let me,
but I think I’ve grown too fond of this place. I couldn’t possibly leave my new friends behind–

“Come on Sunset,” Pinkie Pie yelled, “are you ready to go. You can write to Twilight later!”

Due to the unfortunate events of the battle of the bands, Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna decided to reinitiate a high school musical showcase as previously planed. Only this time, it wasn’t a competition and no one was under anyone’s control.

Sunset Shimmer grabbed her guitar and joined the Rainbooms on stage. The people in the crowd went silent in anticipation. Everyone in CHS loved the Rainbooms after what they had done. However, one wouldn’t suggest that it’s the only reason they like the Rainbooms. It was also slightly influenced by the fact that their songs sound like they can be packaged, and sent right off to a record company.

From what people heard in practices from the Rainbooms, it was rumored that they had a new song. Students at CHS haven’t heard a new song from them since the awful battle of the bands, so they were excited.

The Rainbooms did in fact have a new song. They preformed their latest song, Shine Like Rainbows. Everyone cheered as they finished. They had gotten the most applause out of every performance so far. So much so, that they kind of felt bad for who ever had to go after them.

“Next up, Snips and Snails… please don't drop the microphones this time” Principal Celestia announced. The girls didn’t feel bad anymore. Their new rap was going to stink either way. Just no one dared to say it.

As the Rainbooms walked off stage, a single applause was heard; one slow clap sounded after the next. The girls looked around for a second, trying to decipher where the clapping was coming from.

The clap stopped, but was followed by a voice from a distance. “You girls did great out there,” said a familiar voice. A girl then walked out from behind the exit stairwell, revealing her cyan blue skin, and nearly white hair.

“Trixie?” The Rainbooms all said in unison. This was a surprise for her to show up at a time like this. No one at school has seen Trixie for days. Only one could wonder what she was doing.

“Ah thought you’d ran away after the battle of the bands,” Applejack stated.

“That's no matter,” Trixie replied, “I’m here now, aren’t I? I just wish to preform.”

“Not here to ridicule us?” Rainbow asked. She was sure Trixie was lying, or hiding something.

“No, that’s all past me now. I was under the spell too, remember?” Trixie stated.

“So let me get this right, dear," Rarity said. "You disappear for days, only to come back to preform at the musical?” Rarity did have a point. Why would Trixie skip out on school; her academics; a ticket for her future? But then, she decided to show up for a musical?

“I’ve been practicing all that time.” Trixie replied. This wasn't such an acceptable answer for the girls, for it made little sense, but they let it pass them. Trixie was out of the spell, as she stated, so they didn't want to stir up any new trouble for questioning her answer.

Still, Trixie was all by herself. How can she preform if her band members aren't there? Rainbow was suspicious of Trixie, and decided to ask. “Where are your other band members, if you are going to preform?”

“Oh them?” Trixie started, “They started a new band without me. They thought I was too boastful.” Trixie knew exactly why she had confronted the Rainbooms, and she was intent on getting her message across. “However, I didn’t come here to do a solo act. This is why I came here to you girls.”

“What might you be suggestin’?” Applejack asked in a confused tone. Trixie smiled, stretched out her arm, and pointed her finger towards Rainbow Dash.

“Rainbow Dash!” Trixie yelled. “I challenge you to another shred off; in front of the whole school.” Trixie stated confidently.

Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but laugh at that. Trixie came all this way to challenge her to a rematch? “*snikker* *snikker*, Bwahahaha!” Rainbow couldn’t contain herself. “You can’t be serious Trixie. I beat you hands down in the instrument shop before, what gave you the sudden boost in confidence to challenge me again? In front of the whole school mind you.”

This was pretty much the reaction Trixie had expected, so she didn’t let it bother her. After all, she knew she could win this time. “So are you, or are you not?” Trixie replied.

“Yeah—yeah, I wouldn’t mind beating you a second time.” Rainbow Dash said, putting her guitar around her body again.

“Okay,” Trixie said, “Hope you’re ready, because we’re next.” Rainbow Dash was held an odd expression to that statement. Trixie waited until the last possible moment, to challenge her? What if she would have said no?

As Snips and Snails finished up their ‘rap’, the Principal announced the next band. “Next up we have, uh… Trixie vs. Rainbow Dash?” Somehow Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna both didn’t catch the change earlier. The paper had a name scratched out, and Trixie vs. Rainbow Dash written beside it. Principal Celestia wasn’t going to allow it.

Before either walked out, Rainbow quickly asked Trixie a question. “Hey, what if I had chosen to decline your offer? You’d look like a fool with my name written there too.”
“Oh, knowing you,” Trixie started, “I knew you wouldn’t pass up a public glorification of your ‘guitar skills’,” Trixie replied, air quoting with her fingers as she said it.

Rainbow Dash sarcastically thought in her head, ‘Oh good, that’s the Trixie I remember.’

The two walked up on stage to find a confused audience staring at them.

“She’s back?” one yelled. “Why is Rainbow Dash preforming again?” another one asked.

Principal Celestia certainly wasn’t having this either. “Now, I hate to stop this, but you two never properly sig–”

Before Principal Celestia could finish her sentence, Trixie started shredding a riff much like she did against Rainbow Dash in the music shop. Only, Rainbow Dash wasn’t messing around this time. She instantly broke into solo, which then caught everyone’s attention.

Trixie decided to continue playing it calm, but Rainbow was already in her zone. Her wings and ears started showing as everyone was cheering for her. They didn’t mind the pure metal vibe Rainbow was giving; even the loyal pop lovers were enjoying it. Rainbow Dash had great confidence. She already thought she had it in the bag.

Trixie then thought it was about time to show everyone her true talent. Instantly Trixie started playing what one might call, a break down; it out paced even the fastest guitar players. Her hands were moving fast as lightning. Each finger on her left hand made precise motions to hit the perfect notes: Almost as if a spider caught in its own web were moving about the frets, attempting to break free. Her other hand was strumming erratically, yet as a whole, the solo echoed melodically throughout the room.

Moving her left hand up and down the neck to the point of soreness, the solo finally ended when she accidentally stepped on the chord, pulling it out of the guitar. Trixie was still playing for a second or two after, but she stopped when a sudden silence in the crowd emerged. Trixie didn’t attempt to plug it back in; she just stood there, looking at the crowd.

Rainbow Dash’s mouth hung open in amazement as her hair, ears, and wings slowly receded. She couldn’t follow that performance. She lost to Trixie. Not only that, but the entire school witnessed it.

Rainbow Dash wasn’t the only one who was shocked, the whole crowd was silent. Not a word was spoken. Rainbow noticed the look on Trixie’s face, or rather, the lack of one. Trixie didn’t seem at all upset that she cut off her own solo. Instead Rainbow Dash noticed her trying to look for a reaction in the crowd. Trixie wasn’t confused like Rainbow was. She was actually smiling.

“Okay, what’s the deal?” Rainbow Dash yelled to the audience. “Everyone speechless that the best guitarist in the school lost?” No one spoke; not even crickets sounded.

Not knowing what else to do Rainbow Dash turned to her frowning friends offstage. “I lost,” she said sadly, “but more importantly, what happened to everyone?”

Rarity decided to speak up over the sad and confused girls. “Sorry Rainbow Dash, I guess she must have practiced a lot over the past few days.”

“No, that’s just not possible.” Rainbow just couldn’t believe it. Not that much improvement in just a few days.

Just as the girls were about to get on stage to get a better look at the silent–unmoving audience, the crowd resumed talking amongst each other.

Out of nowhere Principal Celestia finished her sentence too. “–signed up, so you two can’t play unless others are willing to give up their spot.” She seemed to continue where she left off before Trixie started playing. It was unnatural; almost as if she skipped time without realizing it.

“Wait, what?” Rainbow said in confusion.

“Oh that’s quite alright Principal Celestia, We won’t preform then” Trixie stated with a smile.

“Hold on,” Rainbow stated, “we just preformed. Do you not remember?”

Principal Celestia replied, but not in the way Rainbow Dash expected. “Yes, I remember the Rainboom’s attempt of a performance, but you can’t preform twice Rainbow Dash. Also Trixie never signed up.” Celestia argued. Rainbow Dash was slightly offended by Principal Celestia’s comment. What did she mean by ‘attempt of a preformance’, they received more acclaim than any other preforming group. But that was just one of her problems. How come no one remembered the battle?

“Okay I know I’d be the last to admit it,” Rainbow yelled at the crowd, “but Trixie had just beat me. Doesn’t anyone remember?” Rainbow Dash admitted to losing, something she wouldn’t normally do, but this was a time where she didn’t care. Trixie had just played the guitar of the highest standard—which was already strange—and not one person in the crowd remembers the past minute. Everyone in the crowd continued to be silent; no one knew what she was talking about. They all had expressions on their face, which put Rainbow at unease. Rainbow Dash didn’t even realize that Trixie had already left. There she stood in front of an audience staring at a girl with a ‘crazy’ claim.

Principal Celestia continued down the list, already moving on from Rainbow’s dilemma. “Next up, Derpy and the Muffins.”

Rainbow Dash walked off to her friends. “What just happened?” she asked them.

“I have no idea,” Sunset Shimmer replied, “it’s as if the shred off in-between Principal Celestia’s statement, never happened."

“That can’t be possible; we remembered the whole thing.” Rarity stated.

“Could it possibly be another spell?” Fluttershy asked. Everyone was so caught up in the confusion, that it hadn't occurred to them that it could be another spell from Equestria.

“That is likely,” Sunset said, “Were protected by the magic of friendship, so it explains why we remember, but how does that explain why Trixie wasn’t upset about not getting to play? Trixie doesn’t share the magic of friendship, so she couldn’t have remembered the shred off too.”

“She wouldn’t, unless,” Pinkie started, “she was the one casting the spell.” Everyone looked at Pinkie in a way that made Pinkie realize the absurdity of her comment. But this was Pinkie who said this. It wouldn’t be the first time one of her wacky theories were actually true.

“How's that possible?” Applejack asked. “Trixie's from this world.” They were all thinking the same thing. Trixie is a human, at least this Trixie was. She was playing guitar, and the Trixie from Equestria probably wouldn’t know a guitar from a cello.

It then so obviously hit them who they can ask. When magic comes their way, who better than to ask... “Twilight!” Rarity yelled.

“What about Twilight?” Applejack asked.

“She would probably know what this is.” Rarity said. The rest nodded and agreed to the good idea of asking Twilight for help; everyone except Sunset Shimmer. She knew that she was still new to the group, but couldn’t help but feel offended how the others forgot: she’s also from Equestria. She also was once a former student of Princess Celestia.

Though she couldn’t recognize what had just happened either, but that didn’t stop her from reminding the others. “You know, Twilight isn’t the only one who knows about magic.”

“Oh, sorry Sunset Shimmer,” Rarity started, “I forgot how you were also a student in Equestria. Do you know what this could be?” Sunset wished she had just kept quiet, for now she had to tell them that she had no clue either. Sunset Shimmer didn’t like how they always had to ask Twilight for help when something goes wrong. Sunset wanted to be a leader; the time just hasn’t come up yet.

“Well, um… I don’t, know what it is either,” Sunset spoke in a defeated tone. “*sigh* I’ll send a message to Twilight.”

The next day Sunset and her friends waited by the Wondercolt statue hoping Twilight would soon arrive. They spent all breaks and even hours after school hanging out by the statue. They started becoming worried that Twilight didn’t receive their message. It had surpassed the time it took Twilight to get to them last time. All it took was a little reading, and jumping through the portal. The thought the girls all had went from: when will she come, to, if she will come.

“Maybe she didn’t get our message.” Fluttershy spoke out.

“Ah don’t think so,” Applejack said. “Twilight knows this place gets into trouble often; she wouldn’t forget about our only way to reach her.” As the girls waited Sunset was trying to deduce the possible implications, which could cause Trixie to be able to cast a spell. It was puzzling, because so far, the only people to wield magic besides her friends were from Equestria, which this Trixie is not.

Rainbow Dash interrupted her thoughts however. She was too impatient to keep waiting after just one message. “Well then just send another message,” she said, “we can’t let Trixie cause any more trouble.” Rainbow Dash explained. As Rainbow Dash stated that, the girls looked around, but didn’t notice any hint of destruction.

“What did she do wrong though?” asked Applejack. “I’m not noticin’ any trouble yet.” The uncertainty made them weary, and more in a rush to get Twilight.

Pinkie Pie was already quick to the guessing game, before anyone could make a rational thought. “Maybe it wasn’t Trixie. It could have been Lyra, or Octavia, or maybe even–”

“I highly doubt it’s any of the girls you named.” Rainbow Dash said sarcastically, knowing Pinkie was just being herself. Pinkie did hold a valid point though. Trixie was their best guess, but they had little evidence.

After a long wait they all decided to return home and try again the next day. It was getting late and it wasn’t worth their worries. After all, Twilight couldn't possibly have forgotten about them.

The next day came, and the day after, then the day after that. Twilight Sparkle wasn’t making any effort of showing up at Canterlot High. A week passed by and the girls were starting to worry. Not only was Twilight staying in Equestria, but furthermore, people’s interaction with the six girls had started to decrease. No one gave them any acknowledgement, or complemented them in the halls anymore. When before, people complemented how well they sounded after music practice, they then acted as if they were never even playing. Sunset didn’t recall doing anything controversial earlier, so she wondered why people were avoiding her.

This was the question, which soon became a dilemma for magic fanatic: Sunset Shimmer. ‘It had to be a spell,’ she thought. ‘The Dazzlings left, but it sure seems like it would be them.’ Her best guess were the Dazzlings, but they haven't been present since the battle of the bands. However, Trixie wasn't the best assumption either. Someone could have used her; like a strategic trap for the Rainbooms. If so, it was working. Most of her friends were already set that it was Trixie.

It was all too much to ponder, but her mind kept racing back to this thought. It was before lunch and Sunset was struggling to focus in class. All she could think about was the temporary memory loss everyone experienced during the shred off. She didn’t want to think about it. But she couldn’t avoid it; the lack of interaction around her caused her to stay active by thinking.

It weren’t only the students who were ignoring her. Along with them, the teachers were also off their normality. In those past few days, Sunset was never called on once for raising her hand in class; even if she were the only one raising her hand.

When the bell rang Sunset quickly rushed to lunch to meet her friends. She was more excited than usual to see them, because all she needed was some interaction. She miraculously hoped the reason people acted this way around her was due to her demonic event of the past. Sadly, it wasn't the case. Her friends were also experiencing the same exact problem.

The girls walked with their trays in their hands and sat down at their usual lunch table. When they sat down, however, all the other students in the vicinity stood up and left the tables bordering six girls. It was the first time this had ever happened at CHS since the segregation the school had in the past.

It was odd how this could possibly happen then. The Wondercolts were so unified; why were people avoiding the ones who unified them? If Twilight not showing up wasn’t worrisome enough as it was, they had become the plague of the school.

“What’s everyone’s problem?” Rainbow Dash asked her friends.

Pinkie had a sad look on her face since the day before, and was the first to speak up. “I don’t know, but no one is laughing at my jokes in class anymore.” Pinkie Pie explained. It may not be such a huge deal for others, but for her, it was a serious deal. The other girls even noticed how Pinkie Pie’s hair was less poofy than normal.

“Yeah, my family is awfully quiet around me. Almost as if Ah don’t exist,” Applejack added.

“Well, um…” Fluttershy started, “I’m usually the type of person who likes less interaction with others, but it’s almost as if you girls are the only ones I can talk to without getting the cold shoulder.”

This may have seemed like a dark topic for the girls, but Sunset Shimmer was taking note of all her friends’ experiences. It was now all coming together for her now. There was no question; it had to be a spell. She knew she recognized the effects: Some how, what was casted, was causing everyone to not care about the six of them. She then remembered what it could be.

“I remember it now!” Sunset exclaimed out loud. She was practically jumping out of her seat with that yell. She wasn't embarrassed; it’s not as if anyone cared. Only her five friends paid any attention to her. She was just proud of herself for remembering this one particular spell out of thousands she had known about.

Sunset started explaining, “As a previous student of Princess Celestia, I learned about many spells just like Twilight Sparkle.”

“Well, what spell is everyone under?” Rainbow Dash interrupted. Rainbow was getting impatient, especially since the sports she played relied on teamwork. Going to soccer practice, and then never having the ball passed to her certainly wasn't fun.

Sunset let out a sigh, knowing the truth wasn’t what she or they would hope. “No one is under a spell.”

“What?” The other girls said.

“It isn’t a spell,” Sunset said, “it’s much, much worse.” Sunset paused; it scared her, because if she was right, they were in for a ride. “It’s a curse.” She said.

“A curse?” Fluttershy asked, now concerned for everyone’s sake. The girls knew a slight bit about Equestrian spells, after witnessing Sunset and the Dazzlings. But none of them had a clue what a curse did, or whether it really was worse than a spell. Being the usual impatient one from the group, Rainbow wanted to know about the rest of what Sunset had to say immediately.

“Your telling me that everyone around us is cursed, right now?” Rainbow said, attempting to get things straightened out.

Sunset was tired of stalling. She had to tell them, even if it were quite frightening, “They aren’t the ones who are cursed. We are.”

Chapter 2: Enmity

It was after lunch and the human six had little conversation about the whole deal of being cursed. Perhaps it was a result of them in shock, or maybe it was just because everyone besides Sunset knew so little about what a curse even was. Sunset Shimmer didn’t enjoy being the bearer of bad news, but she had to tell her friends that she and they were cursed.

The girls decided to check up on the portal once more to see if Twilight Sparkle returned. They didn’t mind missing school by that point; they had larger problems on their hands. It had been several days since Sunset Shimmer first notified Twilight about a growing suspicion they had. As the evidence got more and more clear of how people now ignored the six girls, Sunset would update Twilight about her suspicions and ask for her to come help use the magic of friendship.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t figure this out earlier,” Sunset apologized, “I just thought it was all a coincidence at first.”

“It’s not your fault Sunset,” Fluttershy said, “I didn’t know what it was either.”

Some how, that didn’t make Sunset feel any better. 'Perhaps due to the fact that Fluttershy had never taken magic school!' she thought. But she digressed, because this was no time to think sarcastically.

“I just don’t get it,” Applejack said. “What is a difference between a spell and curse?”

It was a question easy enough for Sunset Shimmer to answer. “A spell is what is used to cast a certain want or control. But a curse… a curse is used to single out certain objects or individuals, usually resulting in an unwanted effect, which can last forever. In our case, people seem to escape the fact that we even exist.” A long pause followed Sunset’s comment, as the girls needed time to decipher the difference between the two.

The silence, always had to come to an end, and Pinkie was the one to brighten up the mood unintentionally. “Are we in-vis-ible? she asked, stretching her arms out while staring at them intensely. It sounded like a joke, yet she was being sincere. After all, how would they know if everyone couldn't see them? Of course this was Pinkie Pie, so they just left their thoughts at that.

“We aren’t invisible Pinkie,” Rarity said. “Even if it may feel like that at times.” The rest of them nodded in agreement to Rarity's statement.

The girls waited for another hour by the statue, however, no sign of Twilight. The conversation had steered off track over the hour, but Rainbow brought it right back with a question she had been meaning to ask. “Hey, Sunset?” she asked. “I know you said we were cursed and all, but what's its back story?”

Sunset was glad to hear that question. Now she had the perfect chance to tell them about the curse, and impress them with her knowledge as well. She went on to tell them about the origins of the curse she had read, a book she remembered.

“How did the legend go? Oh right, centuries ago, two stallions—no, mares—wait no.” Sunset was having trouble remembering the story. After all, it has been a while since she read it, and she had only read it one time. “I can’t remember the details, but I know it was about two unicorns—one was jealous of the other—something about the ponies' popularity… One received more attention, so the other used a curse to cause everypony to neglect the acclaimed one.”

Pinkie Pie blurted out, “Just like with us and Trixie!”

“I guess that makes sense,” Sunset replied, “the jealous one used a curse with dark magic, and so it became the only one who wasn’t ignoring her.” It was how it worked; the caster would be the only one to not be affected by the curse. Thus, Trixie would be the only one who wouldn’t shun the girls.

“Trixie used it to split us up as friends,” Sunset said.

“Hold on a second!” Pinkie yelled. “If her intention was to split us apart, then why are we still here, talking with each other?”

“Pinkie, your right!” Applejack agreed. “Maybe the magic of friendship is still keeping us together, which in that case, we can still use it to defeat her.”

Sunset had an idea to find out if Trixie was the culprit or not. “We need to confront Trixie. If she were the one who casted the curse, she would likely talk to you girls, which will unintentionally give herself away!”

“But we need to wait here for Princess Twilight, darling.” Rarity said.

With a sigh, Applejack looked at the portal, and back to her friends. She didn’t have the same hope as the others, “Ah think we should face the truth, Twilight ain’t commin’. She’s either really busy, or something bad has happened to her.” The girls were shocked at first, but they soon understood where Applejack was coming from. Twilight would have been there by now if she truly were at her castle.

Sunset Shimmer knew what to do next. Perhaps it had been the best plan she had come up since the whole curse went down. She was going to visit Twilight herself, and find out herself what the issue over in Equestria was.

“I have a plan girls.” Sunset got the girls attention before continuing on. “You five should find Trixie before school ends and see if you can get her to confess.”

“And where will you go?” Fluttershy asked.

“I will go to Equestria, and find Twilight myself. Hopefully she’s okay.”

Rainbow wasn’t to keen on the idea. ‘It’s a perfect opportunity to visit Equestria, and she’s about to blow it by confronting Trixie?’, Rainbow thought. “Whoa—whoa—whoa, if anything, we should all stick together. I-I mean, it could be too dangerous for you to travel alone.” Sunset pulled a straight face to that remark. She knew what Rainbow was trying to do, and it wasn’t fooling her. It would be more dangerous for them to come along than not to.

“Sorry, Rainbow Dash,” Sunset said, “but you know exactly why I can’t let you do that.” Rainbow knew: It was worth a shot though. She wanted to visit Equestria badly, but knew safety was a priority at this point. She still wasn’t happy about it though.

“I won't be gone for long; Twilight told us how the portal was now in her castle,” Sunset stated.

Rainbow Dash eyed her. “Fine, but if you’re not back by the end of today, I’m going in after you.”

Sunset simply nodded to that statement to avoid farther argument. There was no way for her to stop Rainbow if she’s in Equestria, so why bother. After Sunset nodded, she said goodbye to her friends, and took a long look at the portal.

“It’s been a while since I came to Equestria with good intentions,” Sunset said.

As she was about to take a step, Pinkie whispered as loud as she could to get Sunset’s attention. “Wait!” Pinkie said. Sunset turned around to find Pinkie nudging her head in the direction of a woman who just walked out of the school. The woman had a walkie–talkie hanging out of her pocket, and appeared to be in a CHS uniform.

“Oh,” Rainbow said. “it’s just a faculty member, Pinkie. People ignore us anyway.”

Sunset still didn’t want to take the risk, she waited as the woman looked around. Then the unexpected happened; the woman gave a long stare at the girls and then gestured for them to come back into the school.

“Never mind, I guess?” Rainbow said in confusion. The faculty member did head back inside, but it didn’t ease the girls hesitation.
“But I thought…” Rarity stated. Rarity couldn’t finish her sentence; she was confused too; they all were. Why were they just recognized, when the curse clearly did the opposite earlier?

“We can’t worry about missing school right now,” Applejack said. “Sunset, you’d better get going before school ends, and everyone at CHS is out here.” Sunset agreed and faced the portal once more. She took a step forward into the portal, and with her next step she was completely gone.

“Well,” Applejack said, “Ah recon we find Trixie now.”

“Good timing too,” Rarity said, “School is about to end, and she will leave if we aren't fast enough; if of course she's still at this school.”
They did have a feeling she might have ran away after possibly casting the curse. Trixie did witness the loss of both Sunset Shimmer and the Dazzlings after all, so her running away would be a smart decision for her.

They entered the school, scouting the halls. None of them had any clue which room Trixie might have been in, and they didn’t have much time either. They peered into the door windows of each classroom, hoping that one of them will have Trixie on the other end of the glass pane. They had no luck, however.

The bell had rung and every door of every classroom had swung open. People flooded out of the rooms, turning the once empty halls into a sea of faces. The halls got too crowded; they couldn’t possibly find Trixie with all the students passing them. The girls quickly looked around, hoping they would miraculously spot Trixie; It was no use. Trying to find one person out of the entire school was near impossible.

Before they knew it students backed out of the way, causing the remaining five to run straight into a suspicious looking faculty member. They recognized her from earlier; she was the same lady who was gesturing for them to come back inside before Sunset had left. They were hoping she would simply ignore her like the rest, but this wasn’t their luckiest day.

“I see you girls enjoy cutting class,” the woman said. “All of you, to the principal’s office, now.” This was the worst time for an event such as this to happen to them. They needed to find Trixie, but had pulled away from their last opportunity that day.

The five girls all entered the office of Principal Celestia. There were only two empty seats, so they all decided to stay standing. Principal Celestia was sitting at her desk, staring at the five girls.

“Do you girls know why I have brought you in here?” Principal Celestia asked, lifting up one eyebrow.

Fluttershy was the first to speak up. “We’re sorry for skipping out after lunch today, but it was an emergency.” She knew it wasn’t exactly critical, but they needed a way to get out and find Trixie.

Celestia didn’t buy it, she was rather surprised how much they would lie. “And what about the other thirty absences, also emergencies?”
The girls were appalled by the statement. They hadn’t skipped out on thirty sessions; as far as they knew, this afternoon period was the only occurrence.

“Thirty!” Rarity exclaimed. “Why, I only remember this one period.”

“Well,” Celestia replied, “it says in your attendance, that none of you have shown up for a single class after the high school musical. I’m surprised you girls only show up after school is over.”

“B-but, that's not true,” Pinkie said, “I know I have gone to each and every class of mine.”

“Were being honest,” Applejack said, “I don’t know why the teachers would falsely mark us absent.”

“Now,” Celestia started, “I can’t hold you girls in after school, but you all are suspended from your classes until you have caught up with the work you have missed. Allowing you girls back in class after a week of missing it will not do; you are far too behind now.”

“W-We can prove it to you!” Rainbow Dash said. “I can take my test in history tomorrow, no problem.”

“I'm sorry girls,” Celestia replied,” You are going to spend tomorrow learning and catching up in the library. You may also tell your friend Sunset Shimmer, that the same goes for her.”

Pinkie Pie was particularly upset about this unfairness. “Can’t we just–”

“No, now goodbye,” Principal Celestia lastly said before going back to filing papers on her desk. The five left, mostly glad that they were in there for only a couple of minutes. Of course, that was enough time for Trixie to possibly leave campus.

“Trixie’s probably gone by now,” Pinkie Pie said in a disappointed voice. The girls were walking down the hallway, heads slightly down as the remaining people in the school were now staring intensely at them. How was it possible they all thought? The curse was meant for them to disregard the girls; now they were the center of attention in the hallway. This time though, they weren’t receiving any hi-fives or looks of approval. Instead they were getting bad glances, and side conversations of them. It almost felt as if they were hated; as if they were Sunset Shimmer after her mistake. But they had done nothing wrong. This curse was playing by its own rules.

They were getting close to the exit when their luck finally turned around for them. Across the hall, leaning against the lockers with two friends was Trixie. The first to notice her was Pinkie Pie. She quickly tapped Applejack’s shoulder, and when the two stopped, the other girls turned around as well to see what the deal was.

“It’s Trixie!” Rarity said. The day wasn’t a complete failure after all. They had found whom they were looking for.

“Do we just approach her?” Fluttershy asked.

“Ah say we get our information, and get out.” Applejack said. The girls approached Trixie, all staying together incase anything went wrong. After all, she possibly held dark magic at her fingertips for all they knew.

“Trixie!” Rainbow Dash yelled. At the sight of the girls, Trixie was surprised it took them this long to confront her. But she knew she was safe, for there was no Sunset, and no Twilight. Her friends quickly scattered at the sight of the girls, for they didn’t want anything to do with the Rainbooms.

“Oh hello, Rainbow Dash? I’m sorry if we didn’t get to compete against each other,” Trixie said.

“Hold on, you don't remember the battle?” Rainbow asked.

Trixie replied, “Of course not, Principal Celestia kicked us off stage.” Rainbow couldn’t see past Trixie’s lies, but a certain expert in that field knew Trixie wasn’t telling the truth.

“Cut the shenanigans Trixie. We know you have something to do with this, other wise you wouldn't be talking to us like everyone else.” Applejack said, which caught Trixie off guard.

“Oh fine!” Trixie reluctantly admitted. “You caught me. What’s that going to do? There’s no point in me hiding it because no one’s going to help you. Not even your magical friend.”

Rainbow Dash, being Trixie’s archenemy wasn’t going to take her insults any further. “That’s not true Trixie; Twilight’s probably just in trouble. She would never betray us by staying in Equestria for no reason!”

“Okaaay,” Trixie said, “but you’re going to be awfully disappointed when you find out it’s true.” Trixie could see the anger building up inside Rainbow Dash.

“It’s not going to happen,” Rarity stated, “because Sunset Shimmer is getting Twilight as we speak.”

“Well then,” Trixie said, “She’s going to get disappointed.”

“Trixie?” Fluttershy asked, trying a more soft approach.

“Yes?” Trixie responded.

“How exactly did you obtain… dark magic?” Fluttershy asked.

“Really?” Trixie responded. “Like I’m going to tell you girls.”

Applejack was expecting a response like that so she had another question. “Why did you put a curse on us, which causes everyone to ignore us? What did we do to deserve this?” Trixie wasn’t surprised at their bad assumption of what she cursed them with. They weren’t Equestrian after all.

There was more to it than the girls had originally thought, however. “Okay,” Trixie started, “first of all, you girls are wrong about the curse.”

“What?” They said in unison.

“People may ignore you now, but you’ll learn pretty soon that it's all about to change.”

“What did you put on us then!” Pinkie demanded.

“Again, I’m not telling!” Trixie replied. “This conversation serves no purpose anymore. For, get this… I don’t even know how to remove the curse. Haha, funny, right?” Trixie was awaiting the angriest response of her life, but to her surprise, they didn’t react how she thought they were.

“Yeah?” Rainbow Dash said. “We weren’t expecting you to remove it anyways. Come on, let’s go, we need to get back to 'you know what' anyway.”

“Hey,” Trixie said, “you girls aren’t the ones who are supposed to leave!” Trixie then threw down her smoke bomb and ran off.

“She’s gone!” Pinkie yelled. “Oh wait, there she… is actually gone. Wow she did it this time.”

“Uh nope, she’s just in the classroom next to us.” Applejack stated as she peered through the door window.

The five girls trekked back to the main hall of Canterlot High school. They went out the door to find an unreturned Sunset Shimmer. They then proceeded to do what they were used to; waiting by the statue.

Sunset Shimmer was lying in a brightly lit room. Books were stacked up to the celling on every wall she could see. She could only assume it was Twilight’s library. She looked down at her hooves, to see that she was a pony again. Sunset got up and approached one of the windows. “Wow we’re high up.” She had never seen Twilight’s castle before, but did expect for it to be semi–large. She was looking out into Ponyville, where she could see tiny figures of ponies moving about the town.

"It’s been a long time since I have been in Equestria,” she said, “I kind of miss it—Wait, no, I don’t have time to get nostalgic. I must find Twilight.”

“You know, you should be more observant of your surroundings.” A familiar voice said. Sunset Shimmer turned around from the window to find a lavender pony sitting, reading a book. She wash't so used to the sight of Twilight as a pony; most of their interactions were as humans.

“Twilight? Thank Celestia you’re okay,” Sunset said in relief.

“Why wouldn’t I be okay?” Twilight responded. “You know what, don’t answer that. Why are you here?”

“Oh, well—your human friends and I need your help, and we were wondering if you received any of the messages we sent?” Sunset asked. Twilight seemed to get upset at Sunset’s remark. She closed her book and stood up, facing Sunset Shimmer. There was some distance between the two, and Twilight made no attempt to greet her.

“Yes, I’ve read them.” Twilight stated. “All eighteen of them in fact. Didn’t you receive my message?”

“What message?” Sunset asked, confused. She never got any message from Twilight; as far as she knew.

“My unspoken message of how I don’t want to help you, because—I don’t know—I haven’t made any effort in returning!” Sunset was surprised at Twilight’s hostility at first, but it didn’t take long for her to understand: It’s not just humans who were effected, it’s all beings in Equestria too! Twilight was acting just as hostile as anyone or pony else would.

“Look Twilight Sparkle, I know this isn’t you. We have been cursed by Trixie and now everyone is ignoring us.”

“I know,” Twilight stated, “I said I’ve read your messages, and frankly, you couldn’t be more wrong,” Twilight stated.

“What do you mean?” Sunset asked.

“As I said earlier, you aren’t very observant,” Twilight said. “Think, Sunset; I'm talking to you right now.”

Sunset felt defeated; could she do anything right? If it wasn’t what she thought, then she was back to square one. One the other hoof, she did already suspect contradictions with the curse she thought they had. “That will explain why us girls can still talk amongst each other, but then what curse is it?” Sunset asked.

“Come on, Sunset,” twilight started. “Remember the curse a certain group of baddies obtained incase anything went wrong?”

“It would be a lot of help if you told me what it is,” Sunset stated.

“It’s no fun if I just tell you!” Twilight stated. “Find something out for yourself for a change.” Twilight proceeded to use her horn to pull out a book from one of the high shelves, and transported it in front of Sunset’s hooves. The book title read Curses of the Ancient. At first Sunset was slightly underwhelmed, for it was the exact same book she remembered the other curse was from: The one, which was apparently wrong.

Before Sunset was about to do a bundle of research, she realized how her friends were going to think she was in trouble if she stayed too long. She needed to get back as soon as possible; there was no time for her to do endless research. “Twilight, can you come back with me and help us?”

“You know, you won’t get far if you always have to rely on me to save the day.” Even though Sunset knew Twilight was too, affected by her curse, that statement did tick her off slightly. After all, they didn’t rely on her; it's only that they needed her to complete the magic of friendship.

“But we can’t use the magic of friendship without you.” Sunset exclaimed.

“The magic of friendship?” Twilight asked. “My friends are here in Equestria. Those girls through that portal are mere human replicas,” she said, as she pointed her hoof in the direction of the portal.

“How can you even say that?” Sunset yelled. She didn’t care that this wasn’t the true Twilight speaking; that statement was a dagger through her heart.

Twilight seemed to expect for Sunset to leave then, because she reopened her book and proceeded to look down at the page she had left off.
“Now I’m going to go back to my reading. You better go back through that portal, before you stir up any trouble. That curse you have is no laughing matter.”

Sunset mumbled to herself, "Why would anypony want to do any harm to me?" She figured it was about time to leave anyway; her friends were waiting and she didn’t want for Rainbow Dash to run through the portal at a time like this.

Twilight slightly rendered what Sunset had said, "Oh, the effects are gonna get much worse."

“Twiiiilight?” A loud yell came from down the hall. Sunset Shimmer recognized that voice as well. It was no other than this world’s Pinkie Pie. Normal Pinkie didn’t seem to represent a hint of animosity, but Sunset, being under the curse could cause unwanted Pinkie actions. She didn't want to stay and find out.

She picked up the book with her telekinesis, and headed back for the portal. She knew Twilight wouldn’t be too happy about her stealing the book, but she needed time to read it. She trotted back as fast as she could and jumped through the portal.

As Sunset jumped into the portal, the pink pony entered Twilight’s library. “Hey, Twilight! Who were you talking to?” Pinkie Pie asked.

Twilight Sparkle looked up from her book, “Nopony important.”

Sunset Shimmer returned to her concerned looking friends. She had also given hints of bad news, based on her appearance. She was breathing heavy, hands clenched tightly on the book she had stolen. The girls seemed to pay no attention to the book at first; they were more interested in why Sunset had returned without Twilight.

Sunset caught her breath quickly, since it was only a short sprint, but it was enough for the girls to understand that she was running from something.

“Is it dangerous there?” Fluttershy asked. Sunset simply shook her head side to side in response.

“Is Twilight in trouble?” Rainbow panicked.

“No, she was fine.” Sunset replied. The girls let out a great sigh of relief. Knowing that things in Equestria were still okay eased their concerns.
“But she isn’t coming,” Sunset said. This caused the girls to quickly regain the anxiety they had just breathed away. With eyes wide open, the girls were all ears for Twilight’s reasoning of why she couldn’t come.

“I was wrong about everything.” Sunset said. “The curse; the effects! Twilight was affected by our curse too, everyone is. Every human, pony, and pretty much any other intellectual being will treat us the same.” The other girls didn’t say anything, but they had also known. Trixie also told them that the their diagnosis was wrong.

Rainbow decided to speak up, angry how it was Twilight’s only reasoning. “Why, I’m gonna go there myself and convince Twilight to come then!”

“There’s no use,” Applejack stated. “It would be like asking the Dazzlings for help.” For some reason, that synopsis didn’t seem to far off from Sunset’s experiences with Twilight.

“Well I don’t care!” Rainbow yelled. She started to show her true annoyance of the whole situation. Being the sports fanatic she was, teamwork was very important for her, and the curse was putting all that in jeopardy. “All we ever do is wait here for Twilight; go to school; wait for Twilight; go to school, and nothing’s improving. I think it’s a better idea if we all go to talk to Twilight in Equestria, because we sure aren’t making any progress here!”

Sunset tried to remind her again, “You know why you can’t–”

“I know, Sunset, and I was cool with that until Trixie decided to cast a curse with her cheating guitar solo!”

“Ah know you’re all upset about losin’ to Trixie, but that the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard,” Applejack stated.

Only it wasn’t: Sunset was surprised no one figured it out earlier. “Wait, Rainbow; what did you say about Trixie?”

“That she casted the curse with her guitar solo?”

“Yes, and what did you say Applejack?”

“It the dumbest thing–”

“No, before that: About Twilight.”

“That asking her for help, would be like asking the Dazzlings?”

‘The Dazzlings; why of course’ Sunset thought. What Twilight had said earlier. ‘Remember the curse, a certain group of baddies obtained incase anything went wrong?’ The comment was echoing in her mind. It was quite a large hint after all. Trixie’s curse using music; group of baddies using a curse to escape threat; Twilight telling her how it's going to get worse. It all made sense to her. There was no circumventing around it; the only curse, which could match this description, was one she had read: One from the very book she had in her hand! It was a curse developed and used by the Dazzlings a long time ago.

Sunset looked down at the book in her hands, which she had recently stolen from Twilight. She sat down and leaned her back to the statue, placing the book on her lap. She quickly started flipping through the pages, looking for a hint of siren magic.

“You gonna tell us what you’re doin’?” Applejack asked.

“And why you have a book from Equestria?” Pinkie added.

It only took the amount of time for those two to speak for Sunset to find the section about the sirens. “It’s the Dazzlings,” Sunset said, still looking down at the book.

“*gasp* They did this to us?” Pinkie asked.

“No, but the curse has a lot to do with them,” Sunset replied, as she flipped to the page she was looking for. “I knew it! Here it is: Enmity Swap.”

“The what now? Applejack asked.

“All we need to know is on this page,” Sunset stated. Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie, Rainbow, and Rarity all huddled around Sunset to get their own look at the page.

“What Trixie casted on us was an old siren curse meant to get out of failed situations. Apparently it’s called Enmity Swap, and it must have been what Trixe used on us.” Sunset proceeded to read from the page. “Lets see, Enmity Swap was used by the Dazzlings to trade their reputation with others. It was essentially used as a back up plan, if ever their spell broke. All the hate the sirens received following a broken spell would be transferred over to the ponies.

“The curse came at a toll for the victims, however, for its effect was exponential; meaning at first, the ponies would notice receiving slight neglect from others. After a while, however, non affected ponies would start to become violent.”

Fluttershy interrupted, “Oh dear, people aren’t going to hurt us, are they?”

Sunset took it as a sign she should continue reading, “The sirens used the curse sparingly, and only on large groups of people, so their enmity can distribute between all of them, making the magnitude of their curse less severe.” Sunset paused after reading that. The Dazzling had always used it on large groups of people to lessen the effect of each pony. But in this case, Trixie had only casted it on the six of them.

“Come on, Sunset,” Rainbow urged, “keep reading.”

Sunset nodded and did so, “Though no evidence is proven, it is not to say that the curse is limited only to its creators. However, if they curse were used by a non siren caster, the swap will still only occur with the sirens, and not the one casting the curse.”

“Soooo,” Pinkie started, “Trixie is still just Trixie, but the Dazzlings are now super duper popular?”

“I guess so?” Sunset answered.

None of this information was making Rainbow feel any better. Knowing what the curse is, didn't change any fact that they have it. “Okay, great,” Rainbow started, “so we now know what the curse is, but how in any way does this help us?”

“Well,” Sunset started, “It’s a siren spell, and Trixie’s not a siren.”

“I don't think I follow you,” Rarity stated.

“Don’t you see girls,” Sunset started, “Somehow Trixie found a way to use the Dazzling’s curse. We can finally get answers. According to this book, the Dazzlings are immune to their own curse, so they probably won’t be hostile with us.”

“Hey now, are you suggestin’ that we ask the Dazzlings for help?” Applejack hesitantly said.

“Look, I was once bad too and you gave me a second chance, can’t we do the same for them.” Sunset Shimmer said.

“I don’t know about that,” Rarity said, “The Dazzlings must still be pretty upset for us ruining their chances. They wouldn’t act any differently than everyone else.”

“Well what other choice do we have?” Rainbow asked Rarity. “I’m all for visiting those sirens!” Rainbow Dash stepped up for Sunset’s idea; it wasn’t like they were going to listen to her idea of going to Equestria.

“If you're in, then I'm in,” Applejack said.

“Oh, why not,” Rarity added.

“Yaaaay,” said Fluttershy.

“Okie dokie lokie!” Pinkie Pie yelled.

Chapter 4: Sonata

Rainbow Dash was never so excited yet disappointed at the same time. She was about to go through the portal to quench her absolute curiosity, however now she didn’t have an excuse anymore: She had just found one of the three sirens! She couldn’t believe her eyes; there Sonata was. Sonata was looking quite anxious, but still she proceeded to walk out of the front door of the school.

When she completely emerged from behind the doors, Rainbow noticed Sonata wearing plastic gloves and held a big black trash bag in one hand. Sonata didn’t notice Rainbow Dash; she proceeded to pick up the trash and food left from the food fight just a few minutes prior. She wasn’t a janitor; the way she dress almost suggested she worked in the kitchen. She was wearing the apron, which was white but dirty, most likely from baking and cooking. Sonata must have been whom she slightly saw in the kitchen earlier! The hair in Flash’s salad was Sonata’s. 'Why hadn't Granny Smith told Applejack,' Rainbow thought.

“Oh boy, they are never going to believe me.” Rainbow said to herself. She was a little smug at that moment, for if she weren’t so curious, they would have never found Sonata. She was also ecstatic though, because she can surprise all her friends the next day with who she found.

Rainbow Dash yelled from a distance to catch Sonata’s attention. “Hey Sonata! It’s me Rainbow Dash.” That seemed to only get Sonata to pick up her speed, as if she wanted to get the task done before getting confronted by Dash.

Rainbow decided it was her duty to approach Sonata. “Sonata, how are you doing?”

“U—um—hey,” Sonata softly spoke. She didn’t know how to react to Rainbow’s unexpected greeting. She only ever talked to others with Aria and Adagio present, and they usually did all the talking; she was never often confronted alone.

“You’re not going to believe this,” Rainbow started, “but my friends and I need your help.” Rainbow decided to cut the story short and ask directly. She didn't want to possibly scare Sonata off by asking her about how life's going, and why she's working at Canterlot High School.

“M-my help?” Sonata had no idea why Rainbow Dash—a member of the Rainbooms—was asking for her help.

“Um, it’s a long story. We are… cursed, by Enmity Swap?” Rainbow hoped Sonata recognized the name of the spell, so things could move on from there.

“*Snicker* Swapping what now?” Sonata asked, on the verge of laughing from such nerdy terms, which had just left Rainbow’s mouth.

“Huh, I guess someone else named the curse,” Rainbow mumbled, “We are infected by one of your curses.”

“What! Did Adagio or Aria do something?” Sonata asked in a worried tone. For the first time since the curse was casted, someone other than Trixie or her friends was taking with her. The book did say that the sirens aren't affected by their own curse, so it made sense why Sonata was willing to talk with Rainbow.

“Well, you see… Trixie played some guitar solo a week ago, and now my friends and I have a curse where, pretty much everyone hates us.”

Sonata was a little doubtful about what Rainbow had said, “I pretty sure that’s not the reason, you can only cast that with—wait, no… That can’t be it. How’s that possible? She didn’t! She wouldn’t.”

“Yeah?” Rainbow Dash asked, excited she is actually in a conversation with someone new.

“That’s a curse which can only be casted with our pendants.” Sonata claimed. “Which means–”

“There she is!” a male student yelled. Sonata was cut off by a student who had just located Rainbow Dash. Soon after his yell, the mob of students came from behind a corner of CHS.

“Get her!” another yelled.

Rainbow wished she could have stayed longer, but she had to escape once again. This time, however, she decided to simply run home. She assumed that’s what all her friends did. She later confirmed her assumption by checking the group chat on her phone:

SunsetShimmer– Sorry everyone, had to run home. No way am I staying at school after that.
Fluttershy– It’s okay, I did the same.
SunsetShimmer– alright, hope the others did too.
Applejack– Yup, but I gotta stay away from my family.
Rarity– My dress! It's ruined :(
PinkiePie– Okie dokie lokie
Applejack– is that all you ever say?
PinkiePie– nope
SunsetShimmer– Rainbow Dash?
Applejack– She’s probably okay, faster than all of us after all.

Rainbow was safe at her house, so she then had the opportunity to text the others about how she had actually ran into Sonata.

You won’t believe it. I found Sonata, and she works in the kitchen at CHS! –You

It only took about ten second flat for her to get multiple replies:

Applejack– Really?
SunsetShimmer– you’re not joking are you?
Rarity– You went back to school after the food fight?
I’m honest, she works at CHS –You
Fluttershy– That’s great news!
I didn’t have enough time to talk to her. We should visit her tomorrow –You
SunsetShimmer– Good idea.

Rainbow Dash told them all she knew about what Sonata had said and acted. They agreed to visit school after the first bell to avoid any human contact, and find Sonata; hopefully in the kitchen if Rainbow was correct.

The next day Rainbow Dash and her friends met up by the statue after the first bell had rung. By this point, missing school was the least of their concern. When confronted about returning to CHS the day before, Rainbow tried her best to bend the story so they didn’t suspect her attempt to go to Equestria.

The six were so exited to know that someone could finally help them. Together they walked up the front stairs and into the school that morning.
They took the respective turns leading into the school kitchen. When they opened the door the first to appear in site was Granny Smith. But right beside her was Sonata. To all the girls surprise besides Rainbow Dash, but there Sonata was: helping Granny Smith prepare the lunch for the day. It wasn’t Tuesday, unfortunately.

“Sonata Dusk?” Sunset Shimmer asked. Sonata took one look at them, then simply kept preparing the food.

“Um, we’ll help you with that if you tell us how Trixie obtained magic.” There was still no response from Sonata.

“Maybe she’s too overwhelmed, it being all of us Rainboom’s,” Pinkie said to her friends.

Applejack then tried a different approach: Ask Sonata about herself, “Well then, you can then maybe tell us about your self. How you got to workin’ here and all?”

Apparently that was the trigger for Sonata Dusk to turn around. “You want to know about stupid–old me?" The six looked at each other, surprised that they caught her attention. They decided to go along with what ever was working.

“Of course we do, we want to know how you are,” Sunset Shimmer added.

“Wow, you girls aren’t going to insult me for working in a cafeteria? Or call me any names?” Sonata Dusk said. Her eyes slightly dilated too while she spoke. The six turned towards each other, then realized Sonata probably didn’t talk to many people other than the other sirens, and they were always teasing her when the Rainbooms watched.

“Can Ah help you folks?” Granny Smith asked as she pointed her wooden spoon towards Applejack.

“Granny, you know us?”

“Yeah well, ya’ll shouldn’t be here and I gotta finish the sauce and the sandwiches and…” Granny Smith's sentence trailed of as she walked away to the other side of the kitchen.

“Sonata, please tell us everything which happened since the battle of the bands,” Sunset said.

“Well,” Sonata started. “After the battle of the bands, we couldn’t use our powers to get things for free anymore. So I guess out of rage both Adagio and Aria left the apartment we were living in.” Sonata looked down to the ground, her eyes started dampening.

“Then our manager came and kicked me out of the apartment. I tried singing as a last attempt, but it didn’t work.”

“Where did you go?” Fluttershy asked.

Sonata looked back up at the Rainbooms. “With nowhere to go and no food to eat, I took my belongings and went to the only person who might help: Principal Celestia. Late at night I rang her doorbell and, well, asked for help.” She paused as if she was about to tell the embarrassing facts, but didn't. “Principal Celestia didn’t just want to leave me out on the streets, so she let me stay with her. Surprisingly she was in a great mood to see me, as if I were her best friend. I felt bad to live under her roof without helping though, so I suggested that I work to help pay for my cost. That’s how I ended up working as an assistant in the kitchen.”

“Well that’s really great to hear that you are safe.” Sunset Shimmer said.

“So, what are you here for?” Sonata asked, suddenly becoming interested in them.

“We’re here to ask for your help,” Rarity spoke up.

“My help, Rainbow Dash said the same thing; I thought it was maybe a joke?” Sonata replied.

Sunset Shimmer shook her head while closing her eyes, “Well as far as we know from Rainbow Dash, you couldn’t finish telling her what you knew about the curse.”

“Do you know how to destroy the curse?” Pinkie asked. She had cut to the chase pretty quickly.

“Well duh, of course I know how, I was a siren after all.”

“Great, can you get rid of it for us?” Rainbow asked excitingly.

“Well hello? Was a siren I said. I would need my pendant back or would need to be in Equestria to use magic. Also, Aria and Dagi need to be with me to even do it.”

“Where would we get a pendant,” Fluttershy asked.

“Duh, if Trixie is using siren spells, then of course she must have a pendant of some sort.” Pinkie Pie stated.

“Okay, enough with the ‘duhs’!” Rainbow yelled as she covered her ears. “I can only withstand one Pinkie Pie at a time.

Sonata continued, disregarding Rainbow statement; mostly likely because she didn’t understand how Rainbow was suggesting she was like Pinkie. “I’d like to help. Really I would, but without Dagi or Aria, I can’t do anything about the curse. I do really miss Dagi and Aria; though we do get into fights, we went through so much together.”

“Tell you what,” Sunset proposed, “if we find Aria and Adagio, then bring them back here, will you convince them to get rid of our curse?”

“If you do that, and also get me a pendant, Then sure.”

Rarity leaned over to Rainbow Dash and murmured, “We can’t fully trust her can we?”

“Well, do you want to stay like this forever?” Rainbow muttered back.

“We don’t even know where the other two are though?” Rarity quickly replied.

Sonata overheard the side conversation and had the perfect gift for them. “Well, Before Aria left, she did leave a note.” Sonata took a note out from her pocket and handed it to the girls. “Here, I kept it as a memento, but it will do more good for you than for me. That’s all I know but maybe Aria knows where Adagio is.” Sonata lastly stated before she turned back to the table to prepare the food.

The girls looked down at the paper. It read:

Dear Adagio and Sonata,

We had our good times in the past,
However, without our pendants there is no drive
any more. Recently we have only been arguing.
It hasn’t always been this way, but I don’t see a
change in the future. So I have decided to leave
and hope for a better one. When I left earlier, to
blow off some stream, I came across a group of
people in the forest who were also sentenced here
by Star Swirl the Bearded or other ponies. If you
ever need me, or find a way back to Equestria,
I’ll be located in the forest near town with the
other refugees.

-Aria Blaze

“Well, thank you Sonata Dusk, we really appreciate the help.” Sunset Shimmer said before they were about to leave the kitchen.

“Wait!” Sonata quickly yelled before they were out the door.

“If you girls are really serious about this, I do have one story, which may help.”

“Really?” Fluttershy asked.

“For realzies.” Sonata replied.

“Why didn’t you tell us earlier then?” Rainbow Dash asked suspiciously.

“I wanted to know if you girls were really being truthful, before I told anything which would put Adagio, in risk.” Sonata said, getting slower and quieter as she spoke.

Rainbow Dash now felt there was something Sonata was keeping a secret. “Risk? What is she talking abo–”

“We would love to know about it.” Sunset Shimmer stated.

Sonata started telling the girls about how Trixie came knocking on their door three weeks ago.

knock—knock—knock

“Who could that be?” Sonata asked. It had only been the day after the battle of the bands, and so they weren’t keen on leaving the apartment that day, as Aria did the night before.

“How would I know? I can’t see through doors!” Adagio replied. She got up off the couch she was sitting on to check the door. Sonata made no effort to stand up; she was much too comfortable to move a muscle from her slouch on the sofa.

“Sorry,” Sonata said in a sarcastic tone.

“Actually,” Adagio realized, “I know who it is. It’s probably Aria, wanting to come back and apologize. I knew she couldn’t even handle one night.”

Adagio got to the door. She was confident Aria was on the other side. She could rub it in Aria’s face how she was right. As Adagio opened the door, her smile quickly faded into a frown as she saw who it was in front of her. There stood Trixie, still in her dress from the night before. She reeked of plants and dirt, which Adagio slightly backed up after seeing the dirty condition Trixie was in.

“What do you want Trixie? I’m not in the mood today, okay?” Adagio said. She quickly understood by the smile on Trixie’s face that she was here for another reason. A grin that large didn’t simply suggest a ‘rant’ from Trixie.

“Hello, Adagio.” Trixie said in a menacing voice. “You may think I’m here to scold you for what you have done. No—no—no, I’m here because we both hate the Rainbooms.” Trixie quickly peered behind Adagio to find a slightly curious Sonata trying to listen in. Adagio noticed it too and decided to have the talk away from her. If it were something Trixie wanted them both to hear, she would have spoken up by then.

Adagio decided to make it less suspicious, “You must leave Trixie. Why don’t I show you out?” Adagio said as she winked at Trixie. Adagio gave a shove to Trixie and she then closed the door behind her, to leave Sonata alone in the apartment. Sonata didn’t think much of it until she started hearing faint noises through the wall. She decided to get up and press her ear against the door to listen in on the conversation.
At first she had little clue of what they were talking about, but when she gained her orientation in the conversation, she heard them semi clearly.

“What are you trying to tell me?” Adagio asked.

“Look, you have something I want, and I have something you want.” Trixie answered.

“What can you possibly have that I want.”

“Oh, I’m not telling until you first reassure me that you are willing to listen farther.” Trixie stated.

“Okay, what do I have that you want then?” Adagio asked.

“I saw you take your broken pendant after the battle of the bands.” Trixie relied.

“What? That’s what you want? What can you possibly do with it? It’s broken now. Yeah it is fixable but I don’t know how, and I certainly know you don’t either.” Adagio said, uneasy to the request of her broken pendant shards.

“What I do with the pendant is none of your concern, but I’m quite sure you will be giving it away after you hear what I just found out today.”

“Well, what is it?” Adagio said in a hurry, worrying Sonata might suspect things if she stayed too long. Trixie decided to whisper her reveal, making it incomprehensible for Sonata to understand.

“I happen … know … back to Eque… and I wouldn’t mind sharing its location for the shards you have.” Trixie said.

“You do?” Adagio asked. It was almost too good to be true. “You’re bluffing.”

“Oh, not at all. Why would I travel all this way if I was simply bluffing?” Trixie said.

“So you can steal my pendant shards!” Adagio answered.

“Now—now, you said yourself, the pendant wouldn’t do me any good broken. So why would I want them if I weren’t bluffing. However, If I were to take it to someone in Equ–”

Adagio interrupted. “And why would I let you do that?”

“Well okay then, have it your way.” Trixie said as she started to leave. Trixie was very strategic, and knew Adagio wouldn't let this offer pass.

“Wait! Okay, I’ll give the shards to you, but only after you show me how to get back.”

“One last thing,” Trixie announced.

“Yes?” Adagio asked.

“You go, only by yourself.”

“What? Never. I’m going to this… portal, to see if you are right. Then I will return for Sonata and Aria,” Adagio spoke.

"Alright, just come with me then," Trixie lastly stated, as far as Sonata could hear.

Adagio was quite ready to return to Equestria. She didn’t care what Trixie would do with the pendant; Trixie could rule this world for all she cared; She will be in Equestria. Sonata quickly ran back to the couch where she was sitting as Adagio entered the apartment again.

“What are you looking at?” Adagio asked.

“Nothing; the conversation.” Sonata slapped herself in the fore head after her dumb response. She didn’t know why she just hinted how she knew about the conversation, but Adagio didn’t seem to care.

Adagio went into the bedroom to grab her keys and a small box she kept the shards in, and returned to a curious looking Sonata. “I’ll be back by 6:00. Just got to do some… things.” Adagio said as she headed for the door.

“Where are you going?” Sonata asked with a worried look on her face.

“I’m… just going out for a walk.”

Sonata was sitting down in the kitchen with the girls. She stared at the floor before continuing on with the story. “She never did come back at 6:00.” Sonata said quietly.

“Are you saying she went back to Equestria, darling? Rarity asked.

“I don’t know, I didn’t even know there was a way back.” Sonata said, which made the girls relieved Adagio didn’t tell Sonata about the portal. Having only one siren back in Equestria was better than her and Sonata too.

“Well I better get back to work.” Sonata stated. “Just, please don’t harm either of them.”

“How can we? We don’t have any magic to use.” Applejack jokingly replied as they headed out the kitchen.

The girls left for real this time. Sonata was one to be cheerful, but without her fellow sirens, she was more down about things than usual. They had something more important on their minds, however. They couldn’t believe they actually had actually made a deal with an enemy. Though they weren’t so sure how they were going to do everything they promised Sonata. What they did know was where Aria and Adagio generally were.

“Ah can’t believe Adagio got back to Equestria! Some how Trixie must have found out about the portal.” Applejack said.

“So lets go find Adagio then!” Rainbow Dash excitingly said.

“Now hold on Rainbow Dash,” Sunset said, “I think it’s a better plan to do what we did last time. You girls look for Aria while I go find Adagio in Equestria.” Sunset suggested.

“Fine, you win again, Sunset.” Rainbow Dash said angrily.

The six agreed to the plan and Sunset Shimmer split off from the group to go find Adagio in Equestria, while the rest of the girls were about to see what the note Aria wrote was really about; if there were others like the Dazzlings who were banished here, this trip could yield some dangerous results.

Chapter 5: Aria

The five remaining girls watched as Sunset got further and further away, until she was standing in front of the statue once more. In a moments notice she walked through the portal and vanished, to a place of simply imagination for the human girls; that's all Equestria could be to them. Every part of Sunset Shimmer was then nowhere to be found in their entire world; she was in a completely different universe. It was a weird thought the girls once had the first time they said goodbye to Twilight, but each time after it made their heads hurt thinking about it. Dimensional travel wasn't really a class you could take in high school.

They decided it would be better to go sooner than later and find Aria, especially since it was the afternoon, and they needed all the time in the day to find her in a large forest. They all once again stepped into Rarity’s car and drove off to the outskirts of town and the end of the common road.

As they reached the edge of the forest they eased their fear of the darkness by looking out into the blue sky and bright white clouds. They forgot how dark and dense the forest was when they arrived; the last time they ever went there was on a camping trip a while back. But then, they were with maps, equipment, and counselors. This time they didn’t know what or who to expect.

“Well,” Rainbow spoke, “let’s not just stand here.” Rainbow then proceeded to run into the forest where she could be seen making precise hops, not to trip over the surfaced roots from trees. Applejack was the first to follow, but rather than Rainbow, she simply walked into the forest. There was plenty of day time left, and so she didn't see the need to waste energy now when they have a large travel ahead of them. Pinkie ran after Applejack, then Fluttershy, and finally, Rarity reluctantly stepped in behind them.

Rarity instantly regretted not wearing something less expensive, for the forest was quite damp and dirt trailed up after every step they took. “Oh, why I must say, this place is simply awful. Look at my dress,” She said.

“We got bigger worries on our hands than our clothes Rarity.” Applejack exclaimed.

“I’m starting to feel like you love discriminating against my passion for fashion,” Rarity argued back, putting a smile on her face after speaking an unintentional rhyme. Applejack was right though; they did have bigger problems, for they had just understood the immense size of the forest when they reached a hill: trees stretched for miles in every direction except where they came from. They could see the city and used it for a comparison for just how large the forest was. Finding one siren in here might be like catching a fish in a lake with a population of one.

The five girls trekked for hours and wished they had come up with a better plan than scouting around.

“How are we ever supposed to find Aria in this giant forest?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“If it makes you feel and better, we still have a little day time left.” Fluttershy said.

“Hey, why don’t we ask those nice looking people over there.” Pinkie Pie stated.

Rarity let out a sigh. “Pinkie, you know people are going to attack–”

Rarity stopped talking when she and the others looked to see a group of campers. Only they couldn’t be campers: there stood a cabin, just large enough to house the five people sitting down, facing away from the girls. The cabin wasn’t in the best shape; it almost looked as if it was an abandoned shelter the five girls had found after it was left for years.

Their eyes weren’t deceiving them; five people were sitting by the burnt out fire pit, one of them was unmistakably familiar. The purple hair with green streaks was only possessed by Aria herself. The star clip ons in her hair were also a dead give away.

The note they received from Sonata said it all. She was located in the forest as it said she would be, and she was with other people. They were likely to be the others banished here as the note had read. It appeared to be two other females, and two males, though the girls couldn't confirm.

There were three logs creating a half circle around the fire pit. Aria and the other four were sitting on the logs by the currently dried out and charcoaled heap surrounded by smooth rocks, blackened on the edges where they faced the pit. The cabin by them looked as if it was only one room: A couple windows here and there, and that was it. Everything imaginable to stay alive out in the forest, were piled next to the cabin. Canned food, blankets, wood for a fireplace, it was all there. One does assume how they got all these things; it wasn’t likely they’d stay out here if they had jobs.

These thoughts quickly escaped each girl’s minds as they were all so excited to finally find Aria. If this were really where Aria was staying, then it shouldn’t be too hard for the girls to convince her to come with them; the place did look very unwelcoming and the forest air was cold. They can assume the log cabin had no heat source, so colds night guaranteed.

Pinkie Pie's confidence and excitement led her quickly approaching Aria without any plan. “Hey Aria!” Pinkie happily yelled.

Aria was the only one to turn around to Pinkie's surprising visit. “What? The Rainbooms?” Aria Blaze yelled in surprise, as she identified each girl standing far behind her. “How much better can this get?” She said. At first the girls thought she was being sarcastic as the last time they saw her, but the tone in her voice was all too sincere.

“I beg your pardon?” Rarity asked.

“Are you girls really stupid enough to visit your enemy in a dark forest unarmed? That’s like walking into a dark alley at night.” Aria joked.

“Well—err, we don’t see you as an enemy… anymore, Aria,” Rarity said nervously. The four unfamiliar faces made uncertainty worse to what was about to occur. The four others remained sitting, but their choice to not turn around made the girls feel uncomfortably unwelcome.

“I can’t tell you the troubles and hardships you girls put me through!” Aria continued. “Did it occur to any of you that I might have nothing after losing my pendant!”

Seeing how this situation was going much worse than planned, Fluttershy decided to try the trick Applejack used to get Sonata’s attention earlier: Direct the conversation over to their interest.

Fluttershy changed the subject to Aria instead. “Who might your *gulp*, new friends be?” Fluttershy was certainly intimidated by the four who accompanied Aria. None said a word yet, which seemed slightly odd.

The Rainbooms knew Aria; she was sitting in the middle before they had showed up. The rest were unrecognizable. The Rainbooms first observation went to the one sitting on the far left. The reason was because he appeared very big, even while sitting down. Next to him sat a girl who had similar features to Twilight: light purple skin with smooth purple hair. But that's as far as the similarities went.

To the far right sat another girl; she couldn't seem to keep still all that well. It seemed as if it were a normal thing for her because no one else seemed to care except the Rainbooms, who were intrigued for why this white haired and yellow skinned girl kept twitching her head. Her hand also appeared to be doing something: she quickly hit her fingers on her palm repeatedly, but only her middle and ring finger.

In between the nervous looking girl and Aria sat a slender looking guy with slightly spiked up hair. The girls would say slightly because it was very short blond hair.

Aria noticed the curious faces held on the Rainbooms; her being with four new people they had never met would yield such intrigued facial expressions. None of the people next to Aria went to CHS, but then again, some of them looked way older than high schoolers.

“Well, if you must know who they are,” Aria started. “Firstly, they aren’t my friends; they are companions. We here don’t believe in friendship, all for different reasons. Hehe, I think you girls can guess what my reason is.

“We here are a group of people who have one thing in common; we were all banished here from Equestria. Some of us were ponies, and others weren’t, such as I. But we really don’t care about that, because little did Equestrians know that when we were banished here, our powers weren’t completely nullified.”

“So why haven’t the others tried taking over the world like you tried to?” Applejack asked in confusion.

“Aria might disagree, but the rest of us don’t hate humans.” The blond male next to Aria decided to speak, as he turned around to reveal his face. His face was slightly long and thin. His hair color was similar to Applejacks. His skin tone was slightly blue, but still maintained an average greyness to it. His name was Tamed Merak: the second part of his name was named after the star Merak, which is part of the constellation Ursa Major. He was great with animals much like how Fluttershy was, except he was much less shy; quite the opposite. However others thought his talent and cutie mark were lame and the Earth pony soon became an outcast. He became antisocial, except with animals.

His rash and outgoing attitude became an addiction for finding new animals to befriend. Over time Tamed Merak wanted larger and more threatening animals to keep his interest. Soon his obsession with taming animals and hatred towards other ponies combined, as he tamed great sized creatures just to attempt to destroy pony towns.

Tamed Merak was thrown in dungeons multiple times, and even sent to Tartarus once. But he always managed to have a back up plan by having a creature break him out of the dungeon.

“We want revenge on Equestria,” Tamed said. “The people here never did anything to us.”

It was confusing at first why Tamed Merak didn’t want power, but the girls realized why. He was empathetic with animals, but not with ponies. To him, everything was an animal except ponies. Therefore, he didn’t see humans as this world’s equivalent to ponies in Equestria.

“Yes—yes—yes—yes! Oh boy, I am excited that we actually get to m-m-meet, the Rainbooms!” said the girl next to Tamed.

“Shut up, Deranged Drift! I hate them, remember?” Aria reminded her, as she hated the fact that Deranged had enjoyed Aria's story of how she lost to the Rainbooms.

For some strange reason Deranged Drift liked the Rainbooms, while the rest felt disgusted by them based on Aria’s story.
Deranged Drift’s name wasn’t an accident. She was originally called Seasonal Drift. When she was a filly she got her cutie mark in weather control, which wasn’t odd for a pegasus to get. Nothing was wrong with her; she didn’t have any evil plan or what not. It was simply an accident for why she ended up here.

One day she was playing around with clouds on a stormy day. Being older, she didn’t listen to those who told everypony to go inside for the large storm. She didn’t see the danger in it, especially since her cutie mark was weather control. However, the storm did come and she under estimated it’s pure power. Deranged Drift was struck directly by a large voltage of lightning and she instantly lost all her memory. After that day, she wasn’t the same. Insanity got the best of her, and she started misusing the weather to cause havoc on others.

‘If I get struck by lightning, then they all deserve to!’ *insane laughter*.

The other ponies nicknamed her Deranged and the name stuck, since Deranged didn’t even remember her old name. Of course tormenting other ponies wasn’t enough for her, and she ended up making the large mistake of attempting to shock a princess. She decided to charge maximum capacity in the cloud until it was practically leaking electricity. When she attempted to get the princess, the princess deflected the massive shock and it headed straight towards Deranged; when it struck, the shock was apparently so powerful, that it opened her into a dimensional shift. The next thing she knew, she woke up in this world. How it exactly occurred was theorized to be a combination of the electricity and the power of the princess' magic.

“You may hate the Rainbooms, but! I— think—someone’s holding a grudge.” Deranged said. “I’ve been a *twitch* FAN, ever since you
t-told me about them.” Deranged creepily gave a blank stare and a large smile to the four girls standing in front of the banished. She almost looked attached to them. It didn’t make much sense due to the curse still being on the girls, but then again, Deranged didn’t seem like she was a fan of them; she seem like she was overly obsessed to the point of wanting to hurt them. Never did she look away from them the moment she turned around, even when she was addressed by Aria.

“For the last time! Why do you like them so much?” Aria asked.

“I—just—like their music.” Deranged replied. The girls felt very anxious with Deranged staring them off. She wasn’t blinking, which made it even creepier.

“You haven’t even heard their music,” Aria said. The two simply kept going back and forth about the Rainbooms, even though five of the seven members were standing just twenty feet from them.

“I’m I the only one who thinks this is weird?” Rainbow stated quietly, leaning over to the rest of the girls. The others acknowledged but didn’t speak, for Aria got back on topic.

“Now, what’s your reason for trekking this far in the forest or whatever?” Aria asked.

“We came here because Sonata wants the three of you back together,” Fluttershy said.

“She really does miss you two,” Rarity added.

“Wait, Adagio’s gone now too? Err… I mean, who cares. Sonata’s got to learn to deal with things herself.”

“Sonata has gotten back up on her feet and given time, she might be able to afford her own apartment.”

“Really? Wait no…” Aria didn't want to get caught up in her past; the Dazzlings were dead to her. “Why are you five helping Sonata?” Aria asked, knowing full well they wouldn’t simply tread the forest looking for her, with nothing in return. The girls looked at each other, waiting for one of them to give the signal to tell Aria about the curse as well.

Applejack decided she would be the one to speak up. “We have been cursed by Trixie, with, well… one of your spells.”

“A siren spell?” Aria asked. “Trixie? Adagio’s gone? Sonata has a job? Okay, now I’m lost.”

“Just like you were when we first met you.” The large man joked, sitting across from Aria. The reason Aria discovered this banished brotherhood was due to her getting lost in the forest after wanting to blow off some steam from a previous argument with the Dazzlings.

When the man stood up, he towered over the rest of them and the girls. He had quite a top-heavy figure, which resembled the diamond dogs from this world. He had deep–grey skin and golden–yellow eyes, as in the whites of his eyes were yellow. His hair was short because of how curled it was, but was as dark as his name was. The big intimidation of a man had a name just as ominous as his size—Abyss. He was a diamond dog in Equestria, against society. He despised the monarchist ways of the princesses having all the power. He tried violently revolting in Canterlot; naturally, this wasn’t taken too well, as he was banished to Tartarus, an underworld for misbehaved beings.

With his anarchist attitude, he often started uprisings in Tartarus with others sentenced there, but all failed. This is where he had first met Tamed Merak. When Merak was banished to Tartarus, he distracted Cerberus the tree headed dog, who protects the gates of Tartarus. It took quite some stamina and effort, but he did soon enough get Cerberus to run away. During Cerberus’ absence, Abyss led a revolution out of Tartarus and into cities. This didn’t go well for the ponies or the revolutionists, as royal help was requested, Abyss and Merak were together banished by the princesses banished to this world. The rest were sent back to Tartarus, because they had little to do with the whole catastrophe.

Abyss looked at Aria, who was slightly displeased with Abyss' teasing. “You were more scared than some ponies I’ve seen as they first enter Tartarus,” Abyss continued joking. The others started laughing as well.

“Yeah—yeah—yeah, very funny guys. I was angry that day,” Aria said.

“I wasn’t laughing Aria.” A soft voice came from next to Abyss. Next to him this girl who looked small, then again, so did everyone. The soft-spoken girl was named Blooming Illusion. Her light–purple skin, green eyes, and straight–dark purple hair made her seem sweet at first glance, but deep inside her inner demons got the best of her.

She was a normal unicorn like everypony else, however she got her cutie mark in creating illusions in peoples minds, sort of like forced dreams. It was quite a unique talent, and she became known for it around town. At first she used this to calm stressed ponies down by giving them wonderful sites: No, not a drug. But one day she wanted to prank somepony she disliked, so she created the scariest images she could imagine. The reaction was the funniest thing she ever witnessed, so she wanted to try it to more ponies. She soon started doing it on her friends and family too, but little did she realize the pure power she obtained. She started using it to bend people’s will; it was pretty much a form of torture. Of course when she tried it on an alicorn it didn’t end well.

“I don’t think its funny when someone's scared.” Blooming Illusion told Aria.

“Are you kidding me, Illusion?” Tamed Merak said. “That’s exactly the reason why you are here with the rest of us.” The five Rainbooms could see how their presence wasn’t at all stopping the banished from arguing. Aria sure was correct: They weren’t friends, just companions. The girls simply wanted a conversation with Aria, without getting interrupted by the others all the time.

“Aria, Sonata just wants the three of you together again.” Rarity said. “You want that don’t you?” Aria looked down at her feet. Though she didn’t want to admit it, she actually did miss the other sirens. But there was no way she would help the Rainbooms, not after what they had done to her. She was then getting sick of the Rainbooms presence.

“Why on Earth would I help you girls?” She angrily asked. “You know what, don’t answer that. I had enough of this.” She looked at the rest of the banished and nodded her head as to show a signal to them.

“If you girls don’t get out of this forest in the next five minutes, then these guys will show you just how threatening we are. Aria wishes she still had her power, but of course the pendant of hers was destroyed. But the others around her, they were just as intimidating as they were in Equestria.

“Pssst, Applejack, what do we do.” Fluttershy quietly asked.

“It’s okay, she ain’t hurting nobody, yet” Applejack replied. “Look, Aria, Ah know your mad, but we had to stop you. Can’t you see that why we did what we did?” Applejack explained. The looks on Aria and the other’s faces showed all too well how sincere Aria really was in getting her revenge.

“Clock is ticking, girls. Clock— is—ticking!” Deranged Drift cringed then smiled as she said that.

Rainbow Dash leaned over towards Applejack, who was standing next to her, “Perhaps we should dash out of here before the insane one does what ever she’s capable of doing.”

Due to the sheer fright and intimidation the five people living in the middle of the woods can give; the girls ran. They ran as fast as their legs could allow them. All the girls had left, except Pinkie Pie. She held her ground, and wouldn’t let some threat drive her away. It’s not that her friends were crazy for running away after a threat like that; it’s that they weren’t crazy enough to stay.

“I made a promise.” Pinkie started. “I made a pinkie promise, and I won’t return to Sonata until you come with me, Aria!” She boldly yelled.

“Oh, Pinkie Pie,” Aria started, “I honestly don’t know who’s dumber. You or Sonata.”

Pinkie wasn’t phased by the intentional insult. She had to keep her composure if she had the slightest chance in convincing Aria, even if she couldn’t think of how.

Tamed Merak decided to chime in, “Well, I see how much the Magic of Friendship Aria told us about is working. All your friends left you here to deal with us.”

Pinkie broke her still and serious act with that comment. It was quite difficult to understand Aria’s new companions, seeing how she had only just met them. She was so great at knowing everything about everyone around her; this was out of her comfort zone.

“No, they didn’t leave me. I chose to stay behind because I made a Pinkie Promise.” The rest were so amused at Pinkies persona that they couldn’t help but laugh and chime in.

“What did you just say?” Deranged Drift added. “A Pinkie Promise! Haha, that has to be the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard!”

“What do you expect, she’s pink!” Abyss laughed, which left everybody else in a snicker fest. Pinkie Pie did want to run away at that moment, but she knew that would be too easy.

“You should hear what Sonata says sometimes. ‘For realzies?’” Aria said, imitating Sonata’s voice. They were all laughing even harder now after Aria did her imitation.

Pinkie Pie wasn’t even scared anymore, for her fear turned into anger as she witnessed her new friend, Sonata, getting laughed at behind her back.

“Seriously, she was unbearably stupid.” Aria lastly got out before Pinkie Pie lost it.

“Hey!” Pinkie started boldly, walking over towards Aria, who was before about twenty feet from where Pinkie was standing.

“You may get away with making fun of me, but you will not get away with making fun of my friends!” Pinkie stated, now only being a few feet from Aria.

“Calm down, Pinkie Pie, I wasn’t even talking about your friends.” Aria stated, unaware of how quickly Pinkie deems others as friends such as Sonata.

“Sonata is my friend, and you shouldn’t be saying mean things like that after how much you two have been through together.” Pinkie wasn’t letting her neared distance to the banished scare her anymore than when she was farther. Aria was really surprised how much Pinkie would do just to defend her newly made friends. She knew Pinkie didn’t understand her new companions too much, but was baffled how little they intimidated Pinkie Pie.

“Well, Pinkie Pie. For a girl who’s pink and dresses very girly, you sure are bold to come all this way and not take no for an answer. But I do believe this is your downfall, for your friends are probably out by now, and here you are; right in front of who you should be running from.” Aria couldn’t let Pinkie Pie embarrass her in front of her companions who she desperately wanted to impress. She was the newest member of the group and still lied in the first impression territory.

“I’m not scared of you, or them. I’m much more scared to break a promise I made to a new friend.” Pinkie exclaimed.

Deranged Drift stared right into Pinkie’s eyes and set one thing straight. “You should be, because your time is up in three—two—one.”

The four remaining girls, Fluttershy, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack, all were keeping pace with each other but didn’t want to look back. Though they weren’t too afraid of the banished, they didn't want to stay and find out what they were going to do to them once the five minutes were up.

As they continued across the jagged terrain, Rainbow Dash, who was naturally up ahead saw light; it was orange, signaling the day was closing in on a sunset. “Hey, up ahead, the edge of the forest.”

They didn’t even care if it was to be an hour walk back around the forest to the car. They simply wanted to get out of there. When they reached the edge of the forest, they were panting and looking back into the dark trees. Once the four gained composure they realized how the worst thing which could happen, just did.

“Where’s Pinkie Pie?” Fluttershy asked. Their eyes grew wide to the sudden realization that; they left Pinkie Pie! The four stared at each other, almost as if they all wanted someone else to make the first daring move back into the forest. Rainbow Dash couldn’t just stand there she thought. When Rainbow made the first move towards the forest, the rest followed.

As the four ran their worry became less of self-concern and more concern for their friend, Pinkie Pie. They didn’t know how much time they had, if any at all. For all they knew the five minutes could be up by now and they would have walked straight into their own fate. The four girls reached a certain point to where they couldn’t trace their steps anymore. It all looked the same. For all they knew, they could be half way, or already past the cabin. They couldn’t keep going, for they didn’t know where they were headed.

“I thought *gasp* she was with you girls *huff* when we were running away,” Rainbow Dash said.

“No *gasp*, you didn’t think anything, but to run ahead without us.” Applejack angrily stated.

“Well sorry if I’m too fast for everyone,” Rainbow sarcastically apologized.

“Well now it’s too late,” Rarity started. “She could be out on another side or not at all!”

As the three started arguing, Fluttershy noticed four figures. They were all standing in the shadows; their faces blurred from the slight fog and darkness, which accompanied the forest. The trees blocked the view of full body exposure of the figures, but Fluttershy knew they were the banished, and they had the girls surrounded.

“Um, girls?” Fluttershy spoke softly.

“If we would have all stuck together, this would never have happened!” Applejack stated.

Fluttershy wanted to get their attention but they talked over her. “Hey, um, not to bother anyone but–”

“I can’t believe this, we’re all toast because we mindlessly ran back into the forest!” Rarity yelled.

“I think it was the right thing to do, we couldn’t simply leave Pinkie Pie,” Rainbow Dash said.

“Hey Rainbow Dash?” Fluttershy said as she tugged on Rainbow’s shirt.

“What, Fluttershy?” Rainbow impatiently responded.

“We, h–have visitors,” Fluttershy said as she hid behind Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow, Rarity, and Applejack looked straight into the fog from the forest. By then the sun had set, and now twilight was upon them. The figures simply stood, lucking in the shadows, staring directly at the four girls, waiting for them to make a move.

“Hey guys,” Applejack quietly whispered to her friends. “I think we can disorient them if we all split and make a run for it.”

“But what about Pinkie?” Rarity asked loudly. This caused the four figures to run straight at them.

“Get them!” Tamed Merak yelled.

They followed Applejack’s plan and split up to hopefully confuse the banished. The banished certainly weren’t as stupid as they looked, because there were four of the Rainbooms, and four of them.

“Wait,” Tamed Merak said, “we’ll give them a head start, no need to rush.”

“B–but, I—wants the shy one!” Deranged Drift said.

“I’ll take–” Merak started his sentenced, but stopped when he noticed Rainbow Dash, still standing; not moving a muscle.

“I am done with running; I am tired of being afraid,” Rainbow spoke to herself. “What’s the worst you guys can do?” Rainbow yelled at them from a distance away.

Tamed Merak looked to his left, and then his right, “You guys go after the others, I’ll take care of rainbow hair from here.”

“Will do,” Abyss said. Deranged Drift, Blooming Illusion, and Abyss left the vicinity to leave Tamed with Rainbow Dash.

Merak turned towards Rainbow Dash, “What’s the worse I can do you ask? Would you really like to find out?” Rainbow gave no response, but rather walked toward him. “Hmm, not scared like your cotton candy friend either? I’ll change that thought; *whistle*.” Tamed Merak whistled with his mouth to signal something over to him. Rustling noises from nearby bushes started, as Rainbow stopped to make sure it wasn’t her own footsteps. Her eyes grew wide open when she found out it wasn’t.

Glowing yellow eyes peered from within the bushes. The devilish look from the animal proved it wasn’t here to make friends with Rainbow.

“This can’t be happening,” Rainbow said.

“I wouldn’t move a muscle if I were you,” Tamed stated. “Bears in this forest get pretty fast when they are hungry.”

Rainbow listened and stood as still as she possibly could. “Bear?”

“Oh yes, turns out this world has them too. Now, I’m not here to get you killed; that’s not part of my plan.”

Rainbow Dash smiled, “shouldn’t have told me that.” She saw this assurance of her needing to be caught alive as an opportunity to make a run for it. Rainbow bolted away, but this time towards where she thought the cabin was at. If she had to run, might as well try to find Pinkie while she’s at it. The bear jumped out from the bushes and dashed after Rainbow.

“Oh good, she’s heading right where I want her anyway,” Tamed said to himself.

Fluttershy was walking slowly about the high rooted trees. The forest appeared shady. No, it was darker than shady; it was nearly black. The sun was long gone and the night was empty with a new moon. To make things worse, a sudden engulfment of fog rolled over the thick bushes and trees. It was heavy; almost like a cloud, and it made it impossible for her to see much. Fluttershy took carful steps, making sure she didn’t trip and fall; she was alone after all, and if she got hurt, no one was there to help her.

Crack

“Who’s there,” said Fluttershy, “hello?”

“Hehehehe—haha!”

“Um, can you help? I’m kinda lost,” Fluttershy spoke out.

“Mwahaha!”

“Oh, can you maybe… not laugh so manically? If you don’t mind,” Fluttershy said as she looked around into the fog and darkness.

“What’s the matter, don’t you mist me. Ahahaha!” Deranged Drift finally spoke.

“Can I say no?” Fluttershy responded.

“Fluttershy, that is your name, correct?” Deranged spoke. “D-d-do you like the fog? I didn’t even need a s-smoke machine to make it.” Deranged Drift walked close enough to Fluttershy to show her face. She shown a flashlight on her own face revealing her pale yellow skin and poofy white hair. Her hair resembled Pinkie Pie's, but cut to a shorter length.

“I know there’s kindness in you… maybe. Do you know where my friends are?” Fluttershy asked.

“Ohoho, I’ll gladly show you,” Deranged replied, taking steps towards Fluttershy. Fluttershy would have ran, but it was too dark and foggy; she instead backed up at the same rate Deranged walked towards her. All was well until the back of Fluttershy’s boot caught an uprooted branch, which caused her to fall backwards.

Applejack was still running; she was used to forests, since her family owned an apple farm. Just, this forest was much more dense than her farm, and it was during the night.

“No worries,” She said to herself, “Just got to find Pinkie… and Fluttershy… and Rainbow… Rarity… and then get out of here, *sigh*.”

Applejack looked behind her to see if anyone was following her. Upon turning her head back around, there Abyss stood; towering in front her.

“uh-oh,” Applejack murmured to herself.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Abyss asked, holding his hand out straight, which for Applejack was at her head level.

“About to beat you senseless if you don’t get out of my way,” Applejack boldly replied. She felt if she approached Abyss with power, then maybe he would back off. She didn't know anything about the guy, so it was worth a shot. Also, working at the farm for all her life, she certainly wasn’t weak; she was probably physically the strongest out of all her friends.

“Try me,” Abyss replied. Applejack charged her arm back, with her fist clenched tight. She trusted her right arm to drive hard enough to perhaps gain his respect. She jabbed her arm right into Abyss’ chest; he didn’t move an inch from her punch. He didn’t even flinch from it. Applejack looked up in fear, knowing Abyss wasn’t affected one bit.

“Not bad,” he said, “my turn.” Abyss didn’t attempt to hit a girl back, but he did pick her up with one arm and carried her over his broad shoulder.
“Put me down you freak!” Applejack said as he continued to carry her over towards the direction of the cabin.

“Hello?” Rarity yelled, hoping one of her friends was near by. “Uhhh, it’s no use. My friends are gone, I’m here in the forest at night, and my dress is completely ruined!” Rarity headed in a direction she didn’t trust, but she perused on because her logic was ‘if I keep walking straight, I’ll eventually reach an edge of the forest.’

Her idea wasn’t far off as she saw a hint of light far ahead of her. As she got closer she realized they were streetlights, which meant she was near the edge of the forest! Her excitement became doubled when she swear she saw a clean rack of clothing for some strange reason.

“Probably just my imagination,” she stated to herself.

As she closed in on them she found out that her eyes weren’t deceiving her. “Now why would there be perfectly good dresses out here in the forest?” When she reached out to grab one, the whole rack vanished in front of her eyes. “What’s going on,” she yelled, “I just got to get out of here!”

She ran for the streetlights; after all she was nearly there. Right before she reached the edge of the forest, a large blaze of fire appeared from nowhere and stretched across the edge of the forest as far as Rarity’s eyes could see. Rarity’s eyes dilated, as the flames glowed in her pupils. The heat wasn’t present from the fire, but she didn’t dare to run through it. She ran back the way she came, trying to get as far away from the fire as possible. She ran a few hundred feet before hiding behind a tree. She turned around to find every tree with deathly facial expressions; the trees were screaming at her. This couldn’t possibly be happening, but it was. Rarity screamed as she ran deeper into the forest.

From her left quickly came Rainbow Dash running from something.

“Rainbow Dash!” Rarity yelled, “We have to get out of here.”

“You tell me, ruuun!” Rainbow yelled as she ran past Rarity.

Rarity looked back just in time to find why Rainbow was running. “A bear! Rainbow, wait for meeee!” Rarity screamed. The bear wasn’t slowing down either, and because Rarity was slower than Rainbow, she fell behind as the bear was gaining on her.

Back from where the bear and Rainbow had ran from stood Tamed Merak. Blooming Illusion walked from behind the dense trees and greeted him.

“She nearly escaped,” Blooming Illusion stated, “but I made sure I would lead her right in the path of your bear.”

“Very good Illusion, you still got it in ya. We better get back to cabin before my bear gets them first.”

Rainbow Dash arrived at the cabin where they found Aria earlier to find that all their friends were already there. The previously charred fire pit was now fully blazed and was the only source of light throughout the whole forest.

“Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Applejack!” Rainbow yelled. The three of them were tied up in rope against the log cabin.

“Rainbow Dash!” Applejack yelled. “Get out of here and get help, they have us tied up.”

“I’m not leaving without you girls!” Rainbow replied.

“They’re here and they’re going to tie you up too!” Pinkie yelled.

Rarity made it to the banished site soon after Rainbow and had the same reaction as Rainbow Dash. “My goodness, we need to get them untied.”

Rooooaaar

“What was that?” Applejack asked frightened.

“That sounds like a… b–b–bear,” Fluttershy said.

The bear jumped out from the bushes where Rainbow and Rarity came from and ran straight towards the two of them.

“This is the end,” Rarity said to Rainbow as the hugged tightly.

“That’s enough!” came a voice from behind the trees. The bear halted from preceding the girls and turned around. Out from the shadows came Tamed Merak, who was followed by Blooming Illusion. “That’s a good girl,” Tamed spoke to the bear as he tossed a raw chunk of meat he took out from a bag tied around his waist. The bear caught it in mid air and chewed it down.

From inside the cabin came Aria, Abyss, and Deranged.

“Oh good, the final two are here,” Aria said.

“Tie them up.” Tamed Merak said. Rainbow noticed how Merak was the natural leader of the group. Before she could prolong on this thought, Abyss grabbed them both and pushed them next to the other girls against the wall of the cabin. Rainbow and Rarity were tied up just like the others.

“What do you guys want?” Rainbow yelled.

Deranged started speaking but was cut off by Tamed, “We want you to–”

“Quiet!” Tamed hissed at Deranged. “You see, it’s really simple.”

Applejack couldn’t help but see the irony. She looked at her friends, then at the ropes, which kept them seated on the ground. “Oh really?” she said sarcastically.

Tamed ignored Applejack's statement and continued, “Before Aria Blaze came here, we were just a group of people, stuck here for eternity; until we die of course. We would steal food and supplies from the city, and come back here to keep a low profile. You see, we’re pretty wanted around town for the theft crimes we committed.”

“When Aria came, we had new hope. She told us abut you girls and how you used magic to defeat her. Surely you five may be from here, but only and Equestrian being would allow you to wield magic. Then Aria told us how two of your friends are from Equestria.”

“What’s your point,” Rainbow asked rather impolitely.

“My point is, you girls know the way to Equestria.”

“Ohhh no, we are not going to tell you where it is! We aren’t going to put Equestria in danger,” Rarity said.

“Danger? Why, we promise we won’t cause any destruction,” Deranged said.

“Noo way, I don’t believe you,” Rainbow replied.

“She’s right though,” Aria stated.

“Huh?” The tied up girls said.

“What do you mean Aria?” Tamed asked.

Aria looked at each of them, “I’ve heard all your stories, and your opinions.”

“And?” Blooming Illusion quietly asked.

“Starting with you Blooming, you said how back in Equestria, you got sentenced here for finding fun in giving everypony nightmarish images; yet, I haven’t even seen you do it once to me, even when I was new and a fresh target.”

“Well, because I have grown quite tired of it,” Blooming replied.

“And you, Deranged,” Aria started, “you weren’t even such a bad pony; you were sent her by accident through the heavy charge of lightning. Sure you were mischievous, but you never actually caused any harm to anypony.

“Abyss, you may have had bad intentions, but based on what I heard from Blooming Illusion—being banish not too long ago—the royal system has changed to the point where you wouldn’t even hate it anymore."

“So, what do you say,” Tamed asked, “will you show us how to get back to Equestria?”

“No,” Applejack said.

“What?” Tamed asked.

“They may all have their reasons, but you and Aria will still just go back to evil.”

“*sigh* darn it,” Aria said to herself. She tried her best, but now she knew the way Tamed was going to take care of things was next.

“Very well,” Tamed stated, “I expected you to still say no; Abyss!” Simply by calling his name, Abyss proceeded to pick up the left most fugitive, which happened to be Pinkie Pie. He dragged Pinkie by the arms and stopped her right in front of the fire.

"Ahhhh!" Pinkie yelled, seeing what they were planning to do to her.

“We’ll have it my way,” Tamed said.

“Wait, you can’t kill any of us,” Rainbow started, “because you need to know where the portal is.”

“Ah, I can see why you have come to that conclusion, but I only need one of you to actually tell us where the portal is.” Abyss then held Pinkie right by the fire; she was leaned over it, only being held beck by Abyss holding her arms.

The girls knew they weren’t bluffing, and so Applejack was the one to tell them. “Wait! We’ll tell you guys.”

Tamed signaled Abyss to take Pinkie away from the burning fire.

“Good, looks like we have a deal.”

Chapter 6: Visitor

If a situation could get any worse, the five remaining Rainbooms would disagree. They were held hostage in the middle of a dense forest. The night air was cold and slight fog had rolled in from Deranged’s doing. They girls weren’t so much worried for their sake, as they were for Equestria’s sake. They had just been blackmailed into agreeing to reveal the location of the portal. They knew Twilight would be angry, but she would understand knowing the circumstances: The banished were about to set Pinkie Pie on fire.

It seemed like a lousy deal to the Rainbooms, but at least they were going to take Aria back to Sonata; though they hoped. If Aria would jump through the portal, it would mean that only Sonata would be left in this world. Adagio was already in Equestria; that’s what Sonata told them, but it was risky to show Aria the portal too.

The Rainbooms couldn’t help but feel this was their entire fault: They weren’t careful enough, and so Trixie found the portal. She told Adagio about it, and got a pendant in exchange. She most likely got it fixed in Equestria and then used it to curse them, but that could be speculating too much. Who would even agree to help Trixie?

The five of them were still in the forest, and were all tied up. They were sat against the broken cabin of the banished, which still amazed the girls how all five of them could live in it. Pinkie was still being held by Abyss near the fire, with her hands strapped behind her back.

“Untie them,” Tamed Merak ordered. The other banished listened as Abyss and Blooming Illusion proceeded to untie the girls. Once abyss ripped loose the ropes tied to Pinkie’s hands she ran over to her friends. The four were untied as well, and they all surrounded Pinkie and hugged her. They kept the hug for a good five seconds until Merak ordered them to stop.

“Alright girls, we don’t mean to rush but we don’t have… automobiles, so we’re walking.”

Already Merak assumed he knew what he was doing, even though the girls hadn’t shown them anything yet. How would he know if it was right in the forest, or across the land?

Fluttershy spoke as quietly as she could to her friends while they were still in a closed circle. “How are we going to get out of this one,” she whispered.

“Oh, you aren’t,” Tamed replied to the girls surprise. “Don’t think I can’t hear you. I know you girls are going to plan an escape again, which is why we aren’t going to leave you out of our site.”

“Merak, we better get going. We don’t know how far this portal is,” Illusion stated.

“You’re right,” Tamed replied, “it’s best if we travel by night.”

The ten of them walked away from the campsite. Tamed Merak and Blooming Illusion were walking in the front; they most likely knew the quickest way out of the forest and into town, because they had to do it often to steal the supplies they obtained. Walking in the rear were Deranged Drift and Abyss; they made sure the Rainbooms wouldn’t run off if they ever tried.

For some reason though, Aria was walking with the Rainbooms; she didn’t speak a word, but she wasn’t walking ahead with Tamed and Blooming, or behind with Abyss and Deranged. Perhaps the timing Aria left relative with the others happened to make her walk aside the girls, but then again, she could just speed up or slow down to walk with her companions. Though, the way Aria acted and talked with the others made it seem like she didn’t like being here.

The girls themselves were keeping very quiet. It was partly due to not wanting the banished to hear anything they had to say, but also due to what they could hear from the conversation in front of them. They could over hear what Tamed and Blooming were discussing. They were curious what is was about, so they all quietly listened.

“I can’t believe it,” Tamed said, “We get to leave. For years, I’ve been in this world. I’ve seen everything about this place. It’s actually much like Equestria, yet so different.”

“If these girls aren’t lying, then we're just about to see how much Equestria has changed since. I personally wasn’t banished too long ago, but you and Abyss were.”

“True, but Aria beats all of us: An entire thousand years ago she was banished.”

They went on for a while about this world and how they were exited to leave and return to Equestria. Though, where the conversation led wasn’t what the girls were expecting.”

“You know,” Tamed started, “I’ve been in this forest for long enough to understand one thing.”

“And that is?” Blooming replied.

“Whether we talk, stand on two legs, have fur or not, we’re all animals. Why would I have this double standard for animals and ponies to where I ended up causing havoc to towns; just because my foal school classmates made fun of me? Now I understand how dumb it all was, but I only realized after I was banished.”

“I feel ya,” Blooming replied. “I don’t even know why I ever tried tormenting others to get what I wanted. I mean heck, I was just as greedy as a dragon.”

“I tell you what," Tamed said, "If we actually get back to Equestria, I’m using my animal talent for good, or at least not evil. Besides, everypony I hated is probably dead by now, unless one of them became an alicorn.”

“Same,” Blooming curtly replied, agreeing to use her talent for good. “Anything’s better than living in a forest as a human.”

The Rainbooms would have continued listening, but unexpectedly, Aria started speaking to them. There was no context or anything to set her off; she just randomly decided to engage in conversation with them.

“Hey, I’m sorry about what happened back there. I tried my best to make sure plan B didn’t happen, but it’s done now.”

“Look, Aria,” Applejack started, “whether you hate us or not, holding Pinkie over the fire wasn’t the way you should get us to confess.”

“Equestria could be in danger if they all go back,” Rarity said. “Of course, you wouldn’t even understand, because you’d probably do the same.”

“And if you leave, there’s no way we're going to get rid of this curse. You're going back to Equestria with the rest of them. And I, I would have broken a Pinkie promise,” Pinkie stated, becoming sad to the thought of breaking her promise to Sonata.

Aria eyes stared down to the ground as she slowed down to stay a little behind the Rainbooms. She did understand their pain though. She herself has been defeated many times now; the feeling she witnessed from the Rainbooms was all too familiar for her. Aria almost saw herself in them at that point; she felt sorry for them. Aria may not like the Rainbooms much, but she was still a being who had empathy.

“You haven’t broken your promise yet,” Aria stated, which made all the girls turn around in place.

“Hey, keep moving,” Abyss told the girls.

They listened, but still kept their eyes on Aria. Was she about to tell them something they would love to hear?

“What do you mean?” Pinkie asked.

“I’ll admit it!” Aria yelled, “Okay, maybe I do miss Sonata a little. Though she got on my nerves sometimes you girls are right, we have been through a lot together.”

The girls could help but smile for they had finally broken through the wall blocking Aria’s feelings.

“Are you saying you’ll stay here? Rainbow asked.

Aria hesitated to the question and pondered it for a long time, “*sigh* yes, but be aware I’m not doing this for you girls.”

“That’s fine with us,” Applejack spoke in a slightly incoherent way because her muscles were smiling too hard while trying to speak.

“Ah, here we are,” Tamed said. Everyone else took a gander forward to find that they were nearing the edge of the dark forest. The streetlights were permeating through the think trees, giving enough light to be able to recognize distinct faces on each other.

When the ten of them exited the forest, the Rainbooms immediately noticed one thing. There stood Rarity’s car, parked right where they had left it! The five stared intently at the car, then at each other. They were all thinking the same thing: If we run, we can all get into the car and drive away before they catch us. But something was holding them all back. Perhaps it was the fact they had Aria word of staying in this world, or how the banished didn’t seem too threatening based on their conversations. But maybe it was just a trick; a trick to gain the trust of the Rainbooms, and as soon as they crossed the portal, they would go back to their old selves.

Despite their doubt, they continued past the car and down the sidewalk of the street they drove to get to the forest. The night was still dark, however, the streetlights were giving periods of dim–orange luminosity.

“Alright, we’re out of the forest,” Tamed spoke, “You girls now lead the way now.”

None of the girls spoke a word as they all passed Tamed and Blooming down the thin sidewalk. They walked on the street to pass them; it didn’t really matter, there were no cars driving on the road this late at night.

The long and silent walk seemed like an eternity for both the Rainbooms and banished. Canterlot High school certainly wasn’t close to where the forest was. The forest was near the bad side of town, and the city was separated by a small set of hills they had to walk across. However, even the longest journeys come to and end, and so the soon they neared CHS.

“How can we trust that they are taking us to the right place?” Blooming asked the rest of the banished, who were all farther behind the Rainbooms.

“We can’t,” Abyss replied.

“If t-they are though, I-I would really like to make it up—to them,” Deranged spoke, almost being borderline incoherent.

“How can we even make it up to them if we will be in Eque–, never mind,” Tamed said, not trying to stoop down to Deranged’ logic.

The ten of them arrived at Canterlot High school and the Rainbooms stopped in front of the statue. The five of them turned around, signaling that the portal was in fact the statue.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Aria said, “It was here the whole time? I must have passed this statue so many times by now.”

The five banished stared at the statue, then back at the Rainbooms. They couldn’t really help but believe they were pranking them.

“Do I look like a fool to you girls?” Tamed asked them. “It can’t possibly be in front of a public school.”

“Don’t ask us, we didn’t put it here,” Pinkie stated.

“You girls are telling me, that not one person has attempted to lean against this statue and fallen through?” Blooming asked.

“Apparently not,” Fluttershy responded.

Tamed took a step forward, then looked at the banished behind him. He knew none of them were going to move, so he decided he was going to test out if it was true or not. Tamed walked past the five girls and stared at the statue’s base. He reached out and placed his hand straight on the stonewall. His palm rested flat on the surface; he took his other hand and placed it on the wall as well. He felt around, but the wall was hard as stone.

Tamed Merak turned around and looked at the Rainbooms. “I knew it.”

What he didn’t know though, was he was testing the wrong side of the portal. “Um, sorry we didn’t tell you this, but the portal’s on this side,” Pinkie said as she pointed to the side, which was facing the school.

“This is your last chance,” Tamed said, “I will not be made a fool again.” Tamed approached the front side of the statue, where this time he decided to do it more deftly not to make him look as much as an idiot as before. Tamed brought back his right foot and attempted to tap the wall with his shoe, except instead of hearing a tap and a forceful sensation in his foot, his leg kept going forward as if there weren’t even a wall there.

He looked down in astonishment to find half his right leg submerged in the wall, and he saw that the wall was slightly translucent. He was seeing his foot on the other side, except it wasn’t his jeans and shoe he was seeing; it was his back hoof, as grey as he remembered it to be.

The rest of the banished also looked in amazement as Tamed started waving his leg around in the portal.

“There’s no way,” Tamed spoke, as he took his foot back out the portal. He and the rest were lost for words; it was actually true, the portal to Equestria. They didn’t even know if it actually existed, but there it was, right before their eyes.

The girls were still slightly scared, but for some reason smiles formed on all their faces; seeing the astonishment and appreciation from the banished made them feel happy. They were about to change the lives of four sad souls stuck in a world they didn’t belong to. Also seeing the pure joy on the faces of them, almost made them forget how just a couple hours ago these people were chasing them down.

“Well,” Tamed said to the others, “what do you say we finally get back to our home universe.” The rest nodded their heads except Aria, and approached the portal.

“I don’t even care what kind of ruling there is in Equestria,” Abyss said, “I’m just excited to get back.” Abyss took one last look around the place before walking though the portal.

“Who knows,” Blooming Illusion started, “maybe I haven’t been gone long enough for my family to still be alive.” She too walked in after Abyss.

“Hehe, I’m gonna miss you girls,” Deranged told the Rainbooms before she ran into the portal.

Tamed looked at the Rainbooms. He didn’t look so threatening at the moment; he had a smile on his face. “Hey, I know we got off on the wrong foot, but we do appreciate what you girls have done.”

“Just get out of here!” Rainbow yelled, still not over what he had done to Pinkie Pie.

“I wasn’t actually going to kill your pink haired friend; it was only a bluff,” Tamed said.

“Doesn’t justify what you did,” Rarity stated. However, what did they expect; it was most likely the curse doing the work. Perhaps the banished were actually really nice, but their curse brought the bad side of them.

With that final line from Rarity, Tamed walked through the portal like the rest. The girls may have just sent bad people back to Equestria, but then again, maybe not. As Aria had said earlier, they really weren’t that bad of people; some of them were sent her by accident.

“*Sigh* so where’s Sonata?” Aria said after a moment of watching all her companions leave to Equestria without her.

“Well,” Applejack started, “She works in the kitchen at this school, so we’ll find her here tomorrow.”

“Do you even have a place to stay?” Rarity asked.

“Uh… no,” Aria replied.

“She can stay at your place, Rarity,” Rainbow said, purposely trying to avoid Aria staying at hers.

“Well, err— I, have to pick up my car, and that’s going to take me a long time,” Rarity cleverly thought of.

“Phht,” Aria sounded, “I don’t need to st–”

“You can stay at my house!” Pinkie yelled, excited she could have a sleepover. The rest said nothing; they‘d let Pinkie be the team player. They all then looked at Aria, waiting for her to respond.

“I don’t need to go anywhere; I can just stay here,” Aria said. They girls knew what she was getting at and they would not leave her out of their site. If they left her here, she will enter the portal; they don’t trust her enough.

“No, I insist,” Pinkie said while taking a bow and lifting one arm in the air.

“Really though, I don’t–”

“You’re going to my house whether you like it or not,” Pinkie said, pointing her finger at Aria. Everyone was caught in surprise at the stern comment Pinkie just made, but it could just be that Pinkie was tired and still angry over the whole fire incident.

“*Sigh* whatever,” Aria reluctantly agreed.

“Hooray!” Pinkie yelled.

If Aria told her past self at the beginning of the day, that she would end up having a sleep over at Pinkie Pie’s house, she would have laughed. ‘Can’t believe I was dragged into trusting the Rainbooms,’ she thought. Maybe it was just time to accept their hospitality.

The next day rolled by and the girls met up in front of the statue. It was earlier than the start of school because they wanted to make sure they caught Sonata before they had to go anywhere near the inside of the school. They were all tired, but that was because they slept late and got up early.

“So *yawn*, how was your night, Aria," Applejack asked.

Aria started to speak but was cut off, “Well–”

“It was sooo much fun!” pinkie yelled. “We arrived at my house, set up a mattress for Aria, and immediately went to sleep. Then we woke up, got ready for school, and came here.”

“Seems like a lot of fun,” Rainbow said sarcastically.

“Anyway,” Aria started, “where’s Sonata?” It really didn't seem like Aria was too patient.

“She’ll probably be here some time around now to the start of school,” Fluttershy said.

A few early students from CHS were walking by them, still giving the Rainbooms harsh looks. At first, Aria thought these stares were directed towards her until the weirdest thing happened to her.

“Hey Aria,” one student spoke as he walked by, “loved your music, too bad you lost to these girls.”

“Excuse me?” Aria muttered to herself.

Aria knew about the curse and why people hated the Rainbooms, but she forgot how it was a swap; she gets the recognition the Rainbooms used to have.

“Yeah, you’re probably really popular at this school right now,” Rainbow Dash said.

“Hold on a second,” Aria requested, “How did you even get cursed? You mentioned Trixie did this, but that’s not possible.”

Fluttershy spoke, “Adagio gave Trixie her broken pendant in exchange for her revealing the location to this portal.”

“That backstabbing siren! I knew she would leave us if she had the chance!” Aria yelled.

“Now look, you don’t have to worry," Applejack assured. "Sunset Shimmer is getting Adagio in Equestria as we speak.”

‘She knew about the portal, and never told us,’ Aria thought to herself.

At that moment Principal Celestia dropped of Sonata at the curb in front of CHS, while the principal continued over to the parking lot. Fluttershy noticed first, and the smile on her face told the rest to look as well.

Aria was particularly surprised to find who was driving the car. “She’s with the principal?” Aria asked

“Yeeeaaah,” Pinkie slowly said.

Sonata turned around after waving goodbye to Principal Celestia. She immediately noticed Aria standing with the remaining five girls.

“*Gasp* Ari!” Sonata yelled as she ran over to Aria and gave her a tight hug.

“owf,” Aria released a puff of air as a result of Sonata’s tight squeezing. “Hey Sonata—a little, to tight,”

“I can’t believe they found you!” Sonata said, releasing her tight grip on Aria.

"You have no idea," Rainbow decided to let Sonata know.

“Why didn’t you come looking for me?” Aria immediately spoke after Rainbow.

Sonata was confused at the slight angry tone in Aria’s voice so soon after seeing each other. “Well, you didn’t want us to bother you.”

“Yeah, but I wrote in the note, that if you find a way back to Equestria, you come get me!” Aria yelled.

Sonata’s smile turned upside down as she witnessed Aria already getting mad at her. She didn’t even do anything wrong this time.

“But I didn’t know,” Sonata said.

“Yes you did,” Aria replied, “this very portal Adagio went through!” She pointed toward the statue, which immediately made the girls worried. This wasn’t part of the plan: Sonata wasn’t supposed to find out about this portal too.

“I didn’t know there was a portal here,” Sonata said.

“What, but Trixie told you,” Aria stated.

“No, she must have only told Adagio, and then Adagio left without us. I was never aware of the portal, Ari,” Sonata realized as she spoke. Her realization that Adagio had left them made her look at the statue in bare sadness.

“Are you kidding me, Adagio!” Aria indirectly cursed, while looking at the portal. Now both Sonata and Aria were staring at the wall of the statue.

“Okay now,” Applejack said, “Don’t worry about Adagio, she’ll be back with Sunset soon enough.

Aria gave Applejack a deep stare; she looked as if she were contemplating something.

“I have to teach Adagio a lesson,” Aria told Applejack and the others.

“Ari?” Sonata asked.

“What ever you’re thinking, don’t so it,” Applejack said. She saw it in Aria’s eyes; she was about to jump through the portal.

Aria gave one last look at the girls and smiled. “I’m doing you girls a favor.” Aria then jumped through the portal with one leap and was completely submerged in the wall.

All the girls looked at the portal in horror. She did it; she actually went back to Equestria.

“Where did she go,” Sonata said, breaking the silence. None of them said anything, all the chances they had; they were all gone now.

“I sensed she would do this, but not so soon,” Rarity said.

Rainbow Dash looked at her friends, then back at the portal. ‘Should I do it?’ she thought. Now she had an excuse; she should chase after Aria, she didn’t know how she’d catch her, but she didn’t know what else to do. Standing here in this world wasn’t going to solve anything if two of the three sirens were in Equestria.

Rainbow Dash put her best serious face on, and looked up at the colt statue.

“Rainbow Dash, are you okay?” Fluttershy asked her.

“Better than ever,” Rainbow replied, and she ran into the wall, braced herself for a possible impact, but no impact came.

“Rainbow Dash!” they all yelled, but it was too late; she was already through the portal.

“No, but,” Rarity started, “she can’t! We can’t go to Equestria! We shouldn’t go to Equestria! What can she possibly cause when she arrives!”

“Get a hold of yourself, Rarity!” Pinkie yelled while shaking Rarity by grabbing her at the shoulders.

“Rarity’s right though, Pinkie,” Applejack said, “Rainbow Dash wanted to go to Equestria more than any of us, but it’s too dangerous, especially because of our curse.”

“Then why don’t you girls go after her?” Sonata asked. They had forgotten that Sonata was still with them and witnessed the whole ordeal.

“We can’t,” Applejack said, “you know about the portal now Sonata. If we all leave then how can anyone make sure you don’t escape too.”

Sonata stared at Applejack blankly, not understanding what she meant. “I’m just saying, if you get Aria and Adagio yourselves, then we can break the curse.”

“Oh,” Applejack said. ‘Was Sonata really this clueless about the whole situation’ Applejack thought. ‘Whatever, better her be clueless than be like Aria.’

Rainbow Dash couldn’t believe it. She went right through the stonewall; she had never felt the odd sensation like that before. Twilight never told them how walking through the portal felt like walking through gelatin.

‘Amazing,’ she thought. Her field of view soon turned into a bombardment of pastel colors all pointing into a single white blur at the end of what looked like a tunnel. She had no idea what she was looking at, but it was definitely awesome. Sparkles were flying by her, while orange, pink, purple, cyan, and even light green streaks were rushing about as she herself was flung around the tunnel. It didn’t hurt; it just felt like she was being stretched.

Then next thing Rainbow Dash knew, she was on the floor of a room. The floor was a deep purple yet, not a carpet; it was an odd color for a floor to be. She looked around to find books stacked on shelves all the way up the celling, but there was no ladder to reach the books. ‘Telekinesis’ she thought.

There were also tables, however, these tables were much lower than tables you found back in her world. The windows looked opaque and were an emerald green, but what was more interesting was what were around the windows—crystal. It almost appeared as if the crystal was eating up the walls of this library, growing like a tree or vines up the walls. The crystal was a violet color and was the brightest gemstone she had ever seen if her life. The sheer size of it must make it worth millions back in her world.

Rainbow Dash felt different though. She knew Twilight said they were ponies in Equestria, but couldn’t ever really confirm until now. Rainbow looked down at her hooves. She got up and looked under her legs to see her tail.

“Yep, definitely a pony!” Rainbow yelled excitedly. All of Equestria was just speculation and guessing, but now she would be able to see everything herself.

Rainbow looked back at her closed wings. She knew this world’s version of her was a Pegasus, because she and Fluttershy were the only two to get wings after playing songs, besides Twilight. She was already a natural flyer with her human wings, but here there was a problem: She couldn’t seem to control the muscles in her pony wings. No matter how much she tried, she couldn’t open them.

“Ehh, I’ll figure it out.”

Rainbow looked back further than her wings to see the weird contraption making the portal work. There were wires and vacuum hoses, only they didn’t act the same. The wires were filled with a fuchsia substance, and two pistons were going up and down, but they were pushing out a weird pink fabric, which Rainbow couldn’t even describe.

“Whoa, I knew this world was different, but what is that even?

Funny enough, the entrance of the portal was the shape of a horseshoe, the same symbol at the front of Canterlot High school. ‘Maybe that’s why they’re linked,’ she thought. Rainbow Dash was done with standing around though; she needed to locate Aria, and perhaps she’ll run into Adagio or Sunset if she was “lucky”.

‘How is Sunset doing with Adagio by the way?’ Rainbow thought to herself, knowing Sunset must still be in Equestria.

As Rainbow started walking, she immediately stopped for two reasons. The first was because of how weird it felt to her. Being in a completely different body wasn’t what you experienced on a daily basis. The second reason was because of what she saw; one of the emerald colored windows was completely smashed through. Broken glass was on the purple floor, and she could see the blue sky in the background.

Rainbow walked over to the edge of the window, but trotted carefully not to injure herself with the glass. But when she started walking over it, the glass didn’t hurt at all. The hooves were much tougher than feet were on humans. She reached the broken window and looked down.

“Eeeeaaahh!” she yelled. She was at least 200 feet above the ground. That got her think about something else. ‘Does this world use the imperial system? What if I sound like a complete egghead to everyone with my human terms? Everyone, everyone—everypony?”

Rainbow got caught in her in her own worries that she didn’t even realize how far she was leaned out of the window. A shard of glass, still hanging at the top of the window fell and landed next to Rainbow causing her to jump from the noise. The scare caused a natural reflex, which caused Rainbow Dash’s wing to fly open. This time, however, she was having the opposite problem; now she couldn’t close her wings. When she took one hoof to try and force her wings down, the outside breeze picked of and blew on her spread out wings.

Rainbow Dash flew right out of the window and was falling to her doom. She couldn’t seem to get control of her positioning, but as soon as her body was right side up she was able to glide with her wings right before she hit the ground. Rainbow came in at a shallow angle, but still crashed head first into the dirt.

Rainbow was prepared for an extremely painful dirt burn; however, it didn’t hurt nearly as much as she thought it would. She was going about 40 miles an hour, yet she took the crash quite well. ‘Could ponies in this world take a much greater beating than humans?’ Rainbow thought. Maybe Pegasi specifically were like that due to their natural chance of crashing. Rainbow Dash was learning much from this world and she had only been here for a few minutes.

“Man that was a close one,” Rainbow said. She got up and wiped the dirt off her with her hooves; it was much less efficient than hands, but what can she really expect without the surface area from fingers. It was almost bothersome not to have fingers, almost like an OCD, but she had other things to focus on; like the massive castle that was towering over her. For some reason the castle was in the shape of a tree; a really—big tree. The whole entire trunk was made purely of crystal; violet at the bottom, and becoming more cyan as it went up. Amazingly there was little wear on the entire castle as far as Rainbow Dash could see. There stood the purple castle atop the crystal trunk; golden yellow roofing with a giant six-sided—possibly eight—sided crystal star at the very top. It looked familiar; it actually looked like the very star, which was on Twilight’s skirt she wore at CHS.

‘This must be Twilight’s castle!’ Rainbow thought. ‘But I shouldn’t look for her, Sunset told us how she shouldn’t be messed with at the moment.

Rainbow looked around and got her bearing of Equestria. Facing the castle, to her left was a still blue lake, nothing to peculiar. Straight ahead were the steepest mountains she had ever seen. Snowy tops; clouds overhead; Sun was just as bright as in the human world.

‘This really is a parallel world,’ she thought once more.

Rainbow turned toward the town, which was over to her right. ‘Twilight had mentioned the name of this place once,’ she thought, ‘what was it… Ponytown? No, Ponyville.’ She kind of thought the name was pretty generic. ‘It’s like if we call our city name, Humansville. Except that place actually exists, so that example was completely useless.’

Rainbow Dash noticed that her wings were still fully extended. She tried once more to force them down with her hooves. This time there was no high altitude breeze to stop her in the middle of folding them. They stayed down, but she hoped she could soon learn how to move the muscles.

She looked back at the town. All the houses were very similar to each other and none were any taller than the others. ‘All the roofs were made of hay, but that’s what horses eat, don’t they?’ Rainbow decided to leave logic from her world behind; this place was going to have many unexplainable things, so might as well stop questioning it now.

Now that she had her bearing, Rainbow Dash was ready to proceed with why she even came here, besides her utter curiosity of course.

“Oh right, Aria.”

Rainbow Dash looked around. She angled her face in odd ways to cope with the small blockage her muzzle gave within her field of view. Besides the window most likely being wrecked by Aria, she didn’t notice anything to suggest her previous presence here. Rainbow assumed Aria was the one to break the window for multiple reasons. The shattering was new, based on how there was still glass chipping away from the window. Also, Aria probably wouldn’t know the layout of the castle; she certainly wouldn’t want to get lost in Twilight’s castle.

That got Rainbow to think one thing though, ‘that would mean she has wings. Or maybe—in this world—she’s the horse–fish looking creature like at the battle.’ Rainbow Dash was learning more about the Dazzlings, even without one of her magic friend’s help. ‘They could all be pegasi, but then what were those creatures they transformed into at the battle of the bands?’

Rainbow came with the conclusion that she should be looking for giant pony–fish. She thought while she was at it, she could learn the actual name of what they’re called.

As always, Rainbow was out of luck. Aria could have gone in any direction, and Rainbow doesn’t know where to even start looking. She couldn’t just fly around and scout the land, because she still hasn’t learned the basics to controlling her wings yet.

Then Rainbow came up with a great plan, “witnesses! The towns folks must have seen Aria fly off; they can tell me which way she went and everything.” She set off into the city to ask ponies if they have seen Aria. Though, maybe caught up in her great idea, she forgot that she still had the enmity curse, and in this world, creatures were much more threatening.

Chapter 3: Unguided

After failing to get any wanted answers from Trixie or Twilight Sparkle, the human six decided it was their final option to ask the creators of the curse themselves; the Dazzlings. It may not end in all of them hugging and becoming best friends, but the girls could certainly kill two birds with one stone: Find out how they can get rid of the curse, and hopefully befriend the Dazzlings.

There was only one problem, however. During the time the Dazzlings were present, they were still a great threat; an average conversation with them didn't ever occur. None of them had a clue on their information. Where they lived; how old they were; if they were even friends with one another outside of school? The thought of asking any of those questions were off the table at the time.

Since the girls were still at school and by the statue, Sunset came up with a decent theory. “We should head back in the school and find a directory.” Sunset suggested. “Though they left school, they’re probably still in there.”

The six walked back inside the main hall of Canterlot High School and found a directory at the main office. Sunset proceeded to open it at the beginning, because it went by first name, and Adagio’s name was early in the alphabet.

Sunset Shimmer looked sown at the page, hoping that on one of the two sides lied a siren’s name, “They enrolled in the beginning of the school year, so Adagio should be… A—Ab—Ac—here. Adagio Dazzle.” The girls were somewhat happy they found her name, but it just reassured them what they were about to do.

“Hmm,"Pinkie mumbled, "looks like a room number. They must live in an apartment on this street.” she diagnosed, pointing to the address listed on the page.

Sunset Shimmer then checked Aria Blaze and Sonata Dusk. It confirmed that they all do in fact live in the same apartment.

“Well,” Rarity said, “I guess we should get going. We can take my car.”

Sunset placed the directory back where she had picked it up, and thanked the main office lady, which was followed by a simple "psshh" from the lady. The girls left the building and walked into the CHS parking lot. They compacted into one car and drove it to where the Dazzlings address was.

Along the way Rarity told Sunset Shimmer what had happened while she was in Equestria. “Unfortunately, there had been a misunderstanding with our teachers, and we have all apparently cut every single class since the musical.”

“Oh, well that doesn’t really surprise me,” Sunset responded. “So you didn’t get to talk with Trixie, I assume.”

“No, we still did!” Pinkie said, excited to share their experiences. “We were sent out of the principals office and Celestia was like ‘you have to spend your entire day in the library tomorrow.' So we left and, wouldn't you know it, Trixie was still at school and she was like ‘fine, I admit it,’ and ‘You got the wrong curse’. She didn’t say much else, and then threw smoke at the ground, yet again. I surprised she can do that without tripping the smoke alarm. I guess it’s magic, but it doesn’t make any sense because the smoke bombs aren’t from Eque–”

“I think Sunset Shimmer gets it now, Pinkie.” Rarity said, placing one hand over Pinkie Pie’s restless mouth, while keeping the wheel straight with the other. Rarity and Pinkie were the only two up front, so she endured most of Pinkie’s noise. Still Pinkie attempted to talk through Rarity’s hand, but all that sounded were mumbles.

In the middle were Fluttershy and Sunset Shimmer. Fluttershy seemed to be in her own reality; she was humming one of the Rainboom’s tunes while staring out of the car every time she saw an animal pass by, or when the dark forest became visible. Sunset had told the girls how the forest looked exactly like the Everfree forest back in Equestria, but they had no comparison the relate to Sunset’s comment.

With the four girls in front, this left Applejack stuck with Rainbow Dash in the back. Applejack clearly didn’t enjoy sitting next to Rainbow, because she was constantly tossing a fist-sized ball against the back windows of the car, and every time she threw it too hard, the ball would bounce back and hit Applejack.

The ride didn’t take too long, but it wasn’t as close as they thought. The Dazzlings home were over the hills; across the city. A few circles around some blocks later, led them to the apartment complex. It wasn’t a shabby complex but it wasn’t really in the best neighborhood either.

“Well, I guess you can’t expect to get too rich from singing everyone to do your bidding.” Rarity said as she looked around the neighborhood.

“Really? They could have lived the best lives ever with their powers. They pretty much had mind control.” Pinkie Pie stated in confusion.

“Stop poking holes, Pinkie Pie.” Rainbow Dash said.

The six walked up to an empty front desk at the base of the apartment building. The room was small, and didn’t have an essence of the classic hotel smell; instead the air was a little musty. The room was dimly lit, and it didn’t help that all the blinds looked like they wouldn’t even open if you wanted them. There was a waiting couch, but it looked like it came from the last century. The whole room appeared to have stopped in time, but that wasn’t the worry. There was still no one at the front desk, even after they waited a bit.

“It’s 5:10 in the afternoon, how can no one be at the front desk?” Pinkie Pie asked.

“Hello? Is anybody here?” Applejack asked.

“It’s closed!” Came a yell from the room behind the front desk.

“Now look, we know apartment manager offices don’t simply, well… close.” Rarity yelled back. A nicely dressed man with a red bowtie and fine shoes came from the other dimly lit room.

“Look, I hate to bother ya kiddos, but you’re bothering me.”

“How are we bothering you?” Rainbow Dash asked, but was ignored, because one of his residents entered the building.

“Why hello there Mrs. Megloclin. Anything you need from me today? The manager asked.

“Yes, I was able to get into my apartment, but the key seem to have gotten jammed and I can’t get it out.” Mrs. Megloclin stated.

“I’ll check on that right away Mrs. Megloclin.” The manager replied.

“Hey wait, we just wanted to ask you something.” Rainbow Dash said as she stood in the manager’s way from the door.

“Excuse me princess, but I have an actual client to help here.” The manager replied. ‘Princess?’ Rainbow thought. The only one who was a princess was Twilight, and she wasn’t with them.

“Look sir, we just need to ask you one question and well be off your back.” Sunset Shimmer said.

“Fine, what is it that’s so important for you girls.” The manager said.

“Were looking for three girls, called the Dazzlings: One with orange poofy hair, another with blue, and the last with purple. Do they live here?”

“Oh, those three.” Said the manager. “Their rent came up and they couldn’t pay it. It’s a shame I had to kick them out of their apartment. They were so great.” It seemed Sunset’s theory was correct; the manager whom they had never met was rude to them, but then says the Dazzlings were great. The Dazzlings had gotten their popularity.

“Only, when I came to do so, the blue haired one was the only girl who still lived there.” he finished.

‘Only Sonata?’ Sunset thought. ‘Where would the other two have gone?’

“Thank you, sir.” Sunset said.

“Now get out of here,” the manager said, “you six are crowding my lobby.”

The six left the lobby and entered the car with little hope left. They tried everything they could but there was never any progress. At least not the progress they wanted. They first tried messaging Princess Twilight, but she wouldn’t respond. Then Sunset Shimmer tried visiting Twilight, but Twilight was too repelled, due to the curse on Sunset Shimmer. They tried confronting Trixie herself, but she wouldn’t give any answers. Trixie didn’t want to, nor knew how to release the curse.

Their last hope was to ask the Dazzlings for help, since they would know the most about their own curse, but they had no idea where they were. They were too late, the Dazzlings left the apartment. Without their singing powers, they couldn’t afford to continue living in an apartment.

“Where could the Dazzling’s possibly be now?” Rarity asked.

“I know they were our enemy and all, but I’m actually worried about their safety.” Fluttershy stated.

“Well if we can’t find them then were doomed,” Rarity stated. She may have been giving up, but so were the rest. They didn’t have any options left, at least any which could still preserve the safety of their world. The car pulled up to a curb next to Canterlot High School. It was now 6:00 and everyone needed to get home for dinner.

“I’ll see you girls tomorrow in the library.” Sunset said before leaving. The rest followed, all heading off in their respective directions to their houses. Rainbow Dash took one last look at the portal. She was trying to get rid of her mischievous thoughts about going through the portal, but she knew she could hold out a little longer. She too, eventually went home.

The next day, the six girls followed the request of Principal Celestia: Spend the day in the library to catch up in school. The girls knew it was more of a nice term for detention. The rules certainly made it seem so: They can’t leave the library, unless for the bathroom, lunch, or emergencies. All six had to work in separate areas. They weren’t allowed to talk, listen to music, or even check their email.

Since the truth of the matter was they actually did go to class for the whole week, none of them had any work to do. Sunset, however, took advantage of this time to continue on her reading about Enmity Swap. She didn’t really learn anything she didn’t already suspect: The curse lasts until death, unless removed; the curse was created by the Dazzlings themselves; everyone affected by the curse won’t put any hatred on others affected.

‘Well, that’s all really obvious,’ Sunset thought. ‘Come on, like I haven’t noticed that already.' Sunset reached the point of boredom to where she just commented in her head anything obvious on the page.

‘Enmity Swap is a curse,’ she read in her head. “Oh really? Very interesting.”
‘At first, the ponies would notice receive slight neglect from others,’ “Wow, I never knew that,” she spoke sarcastically.
‘Even if curse is casted by another pony, the sirens can still remove it,’ Sunset read, “Oh wow—hey, wait a minute!” Sunset had not known that before. ‘The Dazzling can remove the curse?’

“What are you mumbling about?” Ms. Cheerlie asked Sunset. This caught Sunset by surprise. She nearly jumped out of her seat from Ms. Cheerlie startling her. Sunset quickly shoved the book under the table and turned around to face the librarian.

“Nothing!” Sunset quickly responded. “Just, figured out how to do this math problem.” Sunset pointed to her already finished math homework. It was there as a back up, incase any thing like this happened.

Sunset wasn’t worried that she would be caught reading a book from Equestria, because the whole school pretty much knew it existed, but she was worried the librarian would take it. Ms. Cheerlie was told to make sure the girls were doing, on task work.

After that close call, Sunset made sure to keep a look out for Ms. Cheerlie. It was a hassle for her to constantly hide the book, and pretend she was doing schoolwork every time Ms. Cheerlie walked by, but it was necessary.

After endless hours of boredom, the girls were free for the time being. The clock struck noon, which meant it was time for lunch. As the girls all saw each other emerge from their different corners of the library, they couldn't help but smile. Only a few hours passed by, but it felt like days for them. When they entered the halls, something had changed. Rather than glancing away, and ignoring the girls, everyone were giving them harsh looks. The next stage of the curse was starting, and it didn’t look to welcoming.

The six got into the lunch line and grabbed their trays. After sitting around for hours being bored out of their minds, they were glad they could finally converse with each other.

“Any update on our problem, Sunset?” Fluttershy asked.

“Yes, but it won’t matter if we can’t locate the Dazzlings,” Sunset responded.

“It’s alright sugar cube,” Applejack said, “We’ll find them.” Applejack’s line of motivation didn’t seem to help Sunset. ‘I’m not sure how though.’ She thought to herself.

Rainbow Dash was the last in line, until Flash Sentry came up behind her. He was looking straight ahead, not even batting an eye at the girls. Normally he would talk to the girls, mostly asking about Twilight of course. However, not even his interest in Twilight was enough to associate him with the girls.

As Rainbow Dash was grabbing a sandwich, she noticed something strange in the back of the kitchen. It was someone new working in the kitchen; she couldn’t get a good enough look though, and the sight of the person was lost as fast as it emerged. Looking past the doorway leading to the kitchen was awkward for Rainbow Dash, because her angle only allowed a tiny slit of vision past the doorway to reach her eyes.

She needed to get a better look. Impulse and curiosity got the better of her as she turned toward the opposite way the line was moving. Still looking into the kitchen, Rainbow crashed right into Flash Sentry; both their trays colliding into one another. Both of them wobbled a bit until they regained their bearing. Flash wasn’t looking at her before, but this made him stare right into Rainbow’s eyes.

“What is your problem!?” Flash yelled. Rainbow was out of words, she tried to speak, but all that came out were short–cutoff words.

“I—sorry—um, I just—er” Flash wasn’t so attentive to her, as he was suddenly relieved none of his food got on his shirt. But when he looked down at his food, he stared down at a light blue hair in his salad. Awkwardly, he pulled it out, holding it in front of his face.

“Is this your hair, Rainbow Dash?” Flash asked in a mean tone. Rainbow was also looking at it, but it certainly wasn’t hers.

“No way, that is too light to be my hair! It must be yours.”

“It’s way too long to be my hair, also, I have darker blue than this too!” Flash yelled back.

Rainbow Dash wasn’t in the mood for an argument. She looked at her friends surprised faces, who didn’t know what to say. Rainbow wanted to get out of the line; she can spare a little food for an argument. “I’ll be at the table,” Rainbow said to her friends as she rushed out of line and started toward one of the empty tables.

“Just gonna leave?” Flash yelled behind her.

As Rainbow neared an empty table, Lyra stuck her foot out. Rainbow Dash tripped over her purposely-extended foot, causing her, to tumble down onto the floor. The first of her that hit the ground were her elbows; soon after her tray and all its contents tumbled onto the floor. It did hurt, but Rainbow was used to taking blows due to sports.

Lyra laughed at Rainbow, and soon after, all the others at her table were laughing at Rainbow too. “Nice job, Rainbow Crash!” Bon Bon yelled for everyone to hear.

“Hey, what’s your deal Lyra?” Rainbow asked as she was getting up. Everyone was looking at her now. She didn’t care if this was the effect of the curse. How could anyone have any reason to trip her out of nowhere?

“What’s wrong, Rainbow Crash? Can’t keep your balance?” Lyra said, taunting Rainbow. It was no use; they weren’t going to acknowledge her question.

“You better clean up the mess you made,” Lyra continued.

“Shut up!” Rainbow yelled. Rainbow Dash wasn’t messing around anymore. She had her fist held up, ready to shut Lyra up for her.

“You aren’t really going to punch me, are you?” Lyra said, having confidence in her voice. “I have this whole table, ready to fight back.”

“Rainbow Dash!” Sunset yelled from across the cafeteria. Sunset proceeded to run over there. “Hey, why don’t we just get out of here?” Sunset asked Rainbow Dash, her hand on Rainbow’s shoulder. “Fighting isn’t going to make anything better.”

Rainbow Dash lowered her fist to Sunset’s request. She was right; they were already in trouble with Principal Celestia. A fight was only going to make things worse. Sunset walked Rainbow Dash to the rest of the girls.

“I could have totally won that fight.” Rainbow Dash said as she met up with the others. All eyes were still trained on her. They figured it wasn’t the optimal thing to get another tray for her.

“Come on,” Sunset said, “we should probably eat somewhere else.”

“I’ll give you some of my food, Rainbow Dash,” Rarity said.

“Yeah, we all will.” Applejack followed. The six walked out of the cafeteria and into the hallway. They didn’t care if they weren’t allowed to bring food outside the cafeteria. Things were getting too hostile, and it all had to do with the curse.

The girls walked as far as going outside the school. They all sat on a couple benches near the front of Canterlot High school. As Rarity promised, she gave Rainbow Dash her sandwich. The other girls handed them some of their food too, until Rainbow had the amount of a full meal.
“Thanks,” Rainbow said, “this curse is really getting out of hand.” Rainbow wasn’t in the best of moods. She was upset on many levels; how was she supposed to be captain of the soccer team, if everyone was just going to trip her like Lyra did?

“Is this how things are going to go from now on?” Fluttershy asked.

“NO!” Pinkie Pie yelled. “I will not stand here and–”

“Your sitting,” Applejack interrupted.

“I will not sit here and let my friends and I have to eat lunch out here, while Trixie gets to enjoy watching us suffer!” Pinkie exclaimed.

“Sorry Pinkie,” Rarity said, “but we can’t stop her.”

“Oh yes we can!” Sunset claimed, “We just need the Dazzling’s help.”

“But they’re gone. We have no other option,” Applejack stated.

“Um,” Rainbow started, “there is–”

“I swear, if this is about Equestria!” Applejack yelled.

“Well come up with an idea that won’t fail, and then I’ll shut up!” Rainbow retorted.

Their argument was short lasted, for out from the front doors of CHS came Trixie herself! The girls noticed she was running; she had a worried look on her face. Trixie was heading straight towards the girls, which made them have a bad feeling. Trixie stopped right in front of the girls, eying them with horror.

“I didn’t know, I didn’t know!” Trixie yelled.

Rainbow spoke first, “Whoa—whoa—whoa, what–”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”

“What didn’t you know?” Rainbow yelled, trying to calm Trixie down.

“*Inhale*, they… they–”

“What is it, Trixie?” Pinkie asked.

“Lyra got a riot starting in the cafeteria!” Trixie yelled. “It’s only a matter of time until they’re all out here!”

This surprised the girls a great deal. They knew the curse was exponential, but not that quick. Was everyone really starting a riot, or was Trixie just playing her games again?

“Ah don’t trust you, Trixie,” Applejack stated, “Why would you out of all people warn us?

“I’m sorry about the curse,” Trixie admitted, “I didn’t realize its true power; no book I ever read said it would get this bad.”

Sunset knew what Trixie was talking about. As she had read in Curses of the Ancient, the sirens always used the curse on large groups of people; this was done so the magnitude of the curse’s effect was minimal. Trixie didn’t know this, and casted the curse on only the six of them, thus dealing a stronger effect, which nopony has ever endured before.\

"What books?" Rainbow suspiciously asked.

“Look,” Trixie started, “I realize how I did wrong. I should have never cursed you in jealousy, in the first place, but you have to listen to me: I was in the cafeteria when out of nowhere, Lyra started yelling about how we should all team up against the Rainbooms. People listened; people followed, and they’re looking for you girls right now!”

Before they could ask Trixie any questions about whether she knew where the Dazzlings were, the doors from CHS flew open as everyone from the cafeteria rushed out. They were all carrying food in their hands from lunch too. The girls watched as everyone they knew flooded out and crowded around the front entrance.

“Alright everyone!” Lyra yelled. “It’s all of us, against the Rainbooms: FOODFIGHT!”
This wasn’t exactly what the girls had expected, but it still was a reason to run. As the first hunk of mash potatoes were thrown, the girls dispersed in all directions, trying to get away from the catastrophe, which was about to occur.

“After them!” Bon Bon yelled, as everyone at CHS split up and chased each of the Rainboom members. Some of the slower girls like Rarity and Fluttershy, struggled to avoid getting hit at least once. Rainbow Dash however, was out of there in no time; no one could catch up to her, so she was in the clear.

After two minutes of nonstop running, Rainbow decided to take a break; no one was even chasing her by that point anyway. This finally gave her time to reflect.

‘Why can’t I go to Equestria, after all this?’ she thought. It’s unfair: “The portal is right in Ponyville,” Rainbow mocked. “That’s where all your pony versions dwell. We don’t want it publicly known that this world exists.” She couldn’t help but feel Sunset was hiding something.

“What really happens if two of us meet?” Rainbow spoke to herself. “Is it really that bad? But it’s soooo tempting.” Rainbow was caught in a personal dilemma. She didn’t want to visit Equestria for curiosity, but also for getting help.

“No, I promised Sunset Shimmer I won’t.” At that moment an angel and devil version of Rainbow Dash appeared on her shoulders.

“Rainbow Dash,” the devil spoke, “listen to your friends. Don’t go though the portal.”

“Hey now,” said the angel, “that portal has all your desires.”

“Wait, shouldn’t you two be switching rolls?” Rainbow asked.

“Oh yeah,” said the deviled dash, “huh. I feel stupid now. Rainbow Dash, just take a peak. You’ll be back before any of your friends find out.”

“You will lose your loyalty and your friendship if they find out. Is that what you really need right now?”

“Yeah, I guess they are all I have right now, I can’t throw that away.” Rainbow agreed.

“Very good argument angel, but have you ever thought that Rainbow here can save the day by getting somepony from Equestria to fix this? She would be a hero. If she doesn’t go, they’re stuck like this.”

“You’re right!” Rainbow yelled. “I’m not doing this for temptation, I’m doing this to save my friends and I.”

“They are getting chased by an angry mob of student right now. Do you really want to ditch them at a time like this?”

“Now hold on,” the devil said, “what else are you going to do by this point?”

“Sorry angel, devil does bring up a good point.”

Rainbow Dash sprinted back to the CHS, which she hoped was absent of any students. Passing each and every house she can see the statue getting closer and closer. She didn’t notice anyone near the front. ‘I guess they didn’t just chase us out of Canterlot High,’ she thought.
Dash arrived at the front lawn of Canterlot High School. There was food all around the lawn and on the statue. Luckily there were no people around, but she did feel bad that it would be a hard day for the janitor.

She stared directly at where she knew the portal was. As far as she knew, Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer were the only two who went across the portal. She was about to be the third to venture across the unknown world.

Rainbow Dash took a deep breath and started walking towards the portal when suddenly she noticed someone in the corner of her eyes. She quickly turned around as if she wasn’t walking into the statue base. She didn’t want anyone witness her walking straight through a wall. When she turned around and looked at whom it was walking out of Canterlot High School, she couldn’t believe her eyes. She was a female, wearing dark blue jeans, but a white apron over her. A dark blue cap which possibly had the word 'Wondercolt' on it was slightly blocking her face. Rainbow recognized the hair, however: Light blue with medium blue streaks running out back down the ponytail. It was Sonata Dusk!