Mahou-Shoujo Sunsetta II: The Tome of Time

Sunset sat on her bed, staring at the writing on her wall. The red letters dripped ominously onto her fresh buy-one-room-get-two-free carpet. In her head, thoughts swirled like the embers from her fiery hair, contemplating the meaning of this message from her foes of old.

"Well, the wall's ruined. Buck."

Sunset slipped out of her studded leather jacket and into her studded leather nightgown. "I never get a break..."

The Next Day, At School

Sunset walked to school in the early morning mist. "*argh* I hope school isn't as weird as yesterday..." The Sword of One Thousand Swords stuck awkwardly out of her back pocket. "I'm prepared to battle evil, but I don't think I can handle having a fan club."

"Prepared to battle evil, you say?!"

Sunset snapped out of her deep thoughts and took a good, long look at Canterlot High.

Or, to be more specific, what was once Canterlot High.

The school name had been covered by a black banner proclaiming it to be "The Derp Star" in bright red letters, and most of its exterior had been spray-painted deep gray. The students were mostly in large groups that had been herded into the front lawn and tied together with rope. Anyone who wasn't a prisoner was wearing a strange white mask and catering to the figure sitting triumphantly on Principal Celestia's chair, which had been moved to the top of the front steps.

"Bow down to your new ruler!" shouted Derpy. "I am Derp Vader, and I have finally placed Canterlot High under my supreme muffin rule! All hail the muffin or perish!"

"You have got to be bucking me right now," said Sunset. "Alright, Trixie, where are you?"

"Trixie is here!" shouted Trixie from the bushes. "Trixie is hiding in the bushes to avoid being spotted by Derp Vader."

"Get your great and powerful plot out here," said Sunset. "Did you forget we can transform? Let's just take down Derp Vader right now. Probably won't even be late for homeroom."

"There is a small problem with that plan," said Trixie. "Do you really think Trixie did not already try that? It did not end pleasantly."

"Didn't you already take down Derp once before, though?" asked Sunset.

"Actually, no, that was Principal Celestia," said Trixie. "Trixie got her plot handed to her on a silver platter."

"...buck you, Trixie."

And, in the first third of the chapter, the Mahou Girls have been captured and locked in the girls' locker room. Derp Vader thought the locker room would be "a good place to lock people, 'cause of all the lockers."

She was later informed that "lockers" and "locks" are different things.

"You know," said Sunset, "When I woke up this morning, I didn't think I'd end up locked in the girls' locker room with a quack magician and a psychotic fashionista."

"At least we're not alone," said Trixie. "Although, to be honest, I forgot Photo Finish was also a Mahou Girl."

"I can completely underztand," said Photo. "I vas too busy wiv my photo shooting to be ov much service. Alzo, it vas not good for my image to be fighting all ze time. Makez my fans think I am violent and zcary."

"You don't have fans," said Sunset. "You're a high school girl with a camera and a dress that makes you look like a black-and-white photo of the Joker."

"You guys!" said Trixie.

"Now now, Trixie," spat Photo Finish. "Zis girl haz insulted my fashion sense! I'll have you know I am ze most fashionable person in zis school, vank you very much."

"Well, then, fashion must have died a horrible death," replied Sunset. "What did they do, photograph the Doppler Effect and print it onto your clothes?"

"Guys!" shouted Trixie. "The window's open."

"..."

"So, how do we defeat Derp Vader?" asked Sunset. "Apparently, she's more powerful than we expected. Any ideas?"

"We stop walking and sit down," said Trixie. "Trixie's legs don't know what it feels like to not be sore."

They stopped walking away from Canterlot High and sat down on a bench outside that cafe the Dazzlings always hung out in.

"By the way, how's the hand?" asked Trixie. "Trixie heard it got burned."

"It feels better now," said Sunset, holding it up. "Almost like it never got burn--WHERE DID THAT COME FROM?"

On the back of her hand was a golden tattoo in the shape of an old-timey compass.

"I don't remember getting a tattoo," said Sunset. "In fact, I don't remember looking at that hand until just now."

"Look again," said Photo Finish. "It'z moving. Zat's not normal."

"It's what?!"

Sunset moved her hand. Sure enough, the needle always pointed in the same direction.

"That'd be a real help if you ever got lost," said Trixie. "Trixie wants one."

"Mahou Girls of the Shimmering Sapphire!"

A blue orb of glowing light floated out of nowhere and hovered in front of them. "That is the Compass of Time. It will always point to the Tome of Time, no matter how far away it may be.You mist find the Tome before this time, one week from now, or Space will be encompassed in vast, unending darkness for about nine-twelfths of an eternity! Good luck, and try not to die. That's be a real pain to fill out the paperwork for."

"Vat...just happened?" asked Photo.

"We have a new quest," said Sunset. "Find the Tome of Time. I know this might sound weird, but I'm glad to be back. Life was getting weird."

"And this is normal?" asked Trixie. "We have weird lives, don't we?"

"So, let me get this straight," asked Celestia. The girls had decided to go to her house and crowd into her office. "You need to take an extended leave of absence in Space because an ancient book is going to destroy everything in a week?"

"Yes," said Sunset. "Also, we need a spaceship."

Celestia sighed. "This is going to be deducted from your final grade for the semester," she said. "Minus nine points for each of you."

"Fine with me," said Trixie. "Trixie isn't doing so hot anyway. At this point, subtracting points would probably bring my grades up."

"And as for the spaceship, I don't have one," said Celestia. "Neither does anyone within a hundred miles of here."

"I've got that covered!" Pinkie Pie climbed out of Celestia's filing cabinet.

"Were you in there all day?" asked Celestia.

"Yes," said Pinkie.

"...okay."

After school let out (which was when Derp Vader got bored and left to play Half-Life Four with Vice-Principal Luna), the girls decided to meet at Pinkie's place. "She'd better not be kidding about the spaceship thing," said Sunset. "Even if there is literally no way she has one."

"If Trixie knows one thing about that girl," said Trixie, "it's that you should never underestimate what weird buck she had stashed in her house. I once went there to get some chemistry notes from her, and she had an ocelot in her kitchen."

"If you say so..." Sunset walked up to Pinkie's door and knocked. It was opened a second later.

"Come on in!" said Pinkie. "The rocket's downstairs with Maud. She knows how to fly it, too."

"And now we're bringing her weird sister into this," said Sunset. "Lovely."

They followed Pinkie into the basement, where Maud was sitting, obviously asleep. Surrounding her were five vats of liquid sugar, each with about a dozen partially-grown rock candy crystals suspended inside.

"You know Celestia doesn't allow students to brew rock candy," said Sunset. "How has Maud not gotten detention yet?"

"We keep the business very hushy-quiet," said Pinkie. "Don't want to disappoint our paying customers."

She walked over to Maud.

"Wake up, Maud! We need to see the rocket!"

Maud opened one eye. "Whatever." She stood up, walked over to the wall, and head-butted the concrete with a sickening scrunch.

The concrete shattered and fell away, revealing a tunnel into the deep, dark abyss below Pinkie's house.

"We had to seal it away to keep the FBI out," said Maud. "Watch your step. The stairs might be slippery from the moss."

After about fifteen minutes of slowly walking in the dark, they arrived at a thick metal door. Maud typed a code into a panel on the wall, and the door slid away, revealing a huge, gold-and-silver ship.

"Why do you even have this?" asked Sunset.

"Won it," said Pinkie.

"How?"

"Not important," said Trixie. "We need to get this thing in motion before school starts tomorrow. Derp Vader mentioned something about running sweeps for absent students."

"Maud, do your thing!" said Pinkie. Maud climbed into the ship. A few seconds later, the engines lit up.

"Come on," said Maud. "If we don't leave soon, the moon will move too close to our position, and its gravity won't let us break out of the atmosphere."

Sunset looked at the other Mahou Girls. "I guess we're going to Space," she said. "Strangely, with all the weirdness in my life, this feels like a pretty average day."

Far away, at her house, Derp Vader watched the flash of gold-and-silver light take off into the sky. "You won't escape me that easily, Mahou-Shoujo Sunsetta..."

To Be Continued