The Battle of Canterlot High

Chapters

The Enemies Approach
Scouting the Defenses
Opening Moves
Probing the Defenses
The First Skirmish
Regrouping
The Beacon is Lit

The Enemies Approach

Sunset Shimmer stood in what had once been the cafeteria, the very place where Twilight and her friends had begun their ill-fated struggle against her. The tables had been covered with books and crudely drawn maps, and the walls lined with chalkboards pilfered from the classrooms. The school had enough food to last for a week or so, but Sunset would need to figure out someplace to get supplies. She hadn't planned on staying here this long.

Sunset Shimmer frowned as she examined the chalkboard in front of her, a piece of chalk held in a magical grip. The writing was embarrassingly sloppy as a result of being several years out of practice with telekinesis, but that wasn't the only thing bothering her.

Her invasion of Equestria had depended almost entirely upon surprise. With only one possible entry point, and a very narrow one at that, it had been crucial for her to clear the area and establish a strong hoofhold before the ponies could respond.

Now she knew for a fact that her one way in was watched and guarded. Any chance she might have had of tricking and manipulating her way into a position of power was gone for good too, thrown away in a moment of pride. She'd just had to brag about killing Twilight Sparkle.

Stupid!

Sunset shook her head angrily and brought herself back to the present. No element of surprise, and no chance at trickery, at least not from her. Maybe one of her minions? Sunset jotted down,

Trick ponies into allowing us in. Infiltrator?

Snips / Snails

They were the only ones with free will and intelligence, such as it was. Even so, she disgustedly drew a line through their names almost as soon as she'd written them. The two of them might have some low cunning, at least enough to carry out her orders, but they were totally unsuited to the sort of double-agent work that would be needed here. She needed someone more impressive, more confident, and most of all more intelligent.

Gilda, Sunset wrote, before scratching it out almost as quickly. Gilda was confident, sure, and even fairly smart, but she was also a total bitch. This job needed someone who could play the political game, at least for a little while. Someone better at lying. She needed an actor. She needed... a performer?

Trixie, Sunset added to the board. She'd need to win the obnoxious girl over to her side first, but that would be easy enough. A taste of real magic, and a promise of more to come, would have the wannabe magician tripping over her cloak to do Sunset's bidding. It was an option worth considering.

The other option, of course, was to simply punch through with so much force that the ponies couldn't stop her. That would mean empowering a lot more students the same way she'd done with Snips and Snails, and that meant figuring out who she could trust not to turn on her.

"Um, Sunset Shimmer?"

Snails' unexpected voice grated on her as if he'd dragged his claws down the chalkboard.

"What?!" He should know better than to bother her!

Snails cringed until he was practically bowing down before her. "Uhh, nothing. Never mind!" He scrambled to the far side of the room, leaving Sunset to sigh and shake her head in aggravation. She continued working for several more minutes, until flashing lights in the distance caught her eye. Sunset dropped the chalk from her magical grip and immediately flew to the window for a better look, and what she saw did not improve her mood.

The school, at least as much of it as she could see, was surrounded by police cars. They seemed to be setting up a perimeter. Sunset's hands clenched on the tile lip of the windowsill until it cracked beneath her fingers. She whirled to glare murderously at Snips and Snails.

"Why was I not told about this?!" Sunset demanded, her temper—and hair—flaring violently.

"I tried, but you yelled at me," Snails complained pitifully.

"I... yelled at..." Sunset sputtered. She reached out with her magic and lifted him into the air, applying just enough pressure to make him squirm. "I'm going to do a lot worse than yell the next time you keep something important from me!" With a huff of disgust, she released her magic and let Snails fall heavily to the ground.

Snails groaned and mumbled a vague apology as Sunset turned her attention back to the window.

What do they want?

Sunset's unvoiced question was answered soon enough, as a human with a megaphone stepped forward.

"This is the police," the man announced through his megaphone, the sound carrying easily across the short distance between the road and the school. "We have the building surrounded. Whoever is in there, please come out with your hands up."

Oh, I know this game, Sunset thought, faintly amused. They would threaten her. She, in turn, would threaten her hostages. They would try to negotiate the hostages' release before coming in for her. The neighborhood had been evacuated long ago, but the police still wouldn't dare to use any sort of force because they might hurt the children. She supposed that it had taken them this long to act because they had been planning their strategy.

Perhaps she could turn this to her advantage.

"Snips, Snails." Sunset snapped her fingers, then pointed to two of the mindless students. "Take those two and come with me. We're going to do some negotiating." Sunset reached out and took a third student for herself. She allowed herself a moment of amusement at the fact that it was Flash Sentry in her claws, then followed her underlings out into the hallway.

There was no door anymore—Sunset's first test of her new magic had seen to that—so the three of them stood exposed for the police to see and gawk at. Sunset wondered just how much the humans actually knew about what was happening here. She suspected that it wasn't much.

To his credit, the man with the megaphone recovered fairly quickly from seeing three demons emerge from the building. He evidently picked out Sunset as the leader, for he addressed his next statement to her, and rightfully so.

"Erm... Ma'am?" He seemed unsure whether that was even the correct way to address her. "Please release your prisoners, we're just here to talk."

"Is that right?" Sunset replied sardonically. Her magic easily carried her voice across the distance between them.

Sunset lifted herself up and hovered slightly above the ground, lounging in midair. It was only posturing, but anything that would unsettle the humans would be to her advantage. She held Flash Sentry in one enormous hand, her claw to his temple. "Then tell the others to leave," she ordered. "You don't need an army to talk."

"I'm afraid I can't do that, Ma'am," the man said in a soothing tone. "My name is Sun Warden, I'm with the Canterlot Police Department. May I ask your name?"

Sunset grudgingly admitted that this guy was pretty good. If he was rattled by her casual displays of magic, he didn't show it.

"Sunset Shimmer," she answered with pride.

"What is it that you want, Ms. Shimmer?" Sun Warden asked respectfully. "I'm sure we all want this to end peacefully."

"I want weapons," Sunset replied. She probed out with her magic as she spoke, looking for weak minds that she could capture as she'd captured the students of Canterlot High. Unfortunately, professionally trained adults were tougher to crack than high school students. She met with little success.

"I want weapons, supplies, and equipment," Sunset continued as if nothing had happened. "Enough for an invading force."

"Ms. Shimmer, you must realize that we can't do that," Sun Warden replied.

"Oh really?" Sunset dug her claw into Flash's head, just enough to draw a thin trickle of blood. "I think my hand might be slipping here."

"Ma'am, please don't hurt the boy," Sun Warden begged her. "We won't arm you just so that you can attack us, but I'm sure we can find some common ground."

Sunset scoffed. "Please. You think I'm interested in this sad little world?" she sneered. "It's not you that I'm going to attack."

For the first time, the policeman showed a bit of confusion. "Then what exactly are you after, Ms. Shimmer?" he asked.

"That's for me to know, and you to keep your nose out of," Sunset retorted. "All that you humans need to know is this: I have no interest in you or in this wretched place. I'm trapped here for thirty moons. If you leave me alone during that time, you'll have nothing to fear from me."

That wasn't exactly true. Sunset did have some plans for the human world, but it wasn't anything the police needed to know about.

"Is there some way the police can help you?" It seemed that Sun Warden hadn't given up. "We'd be willing to give what aid we can in exchange for the students' safety."

"Not unless one of you happens to be an expert in interdimensional magic," Sunset replied scathingly. "Find me one of those, and we can talk."

"I'm sorry Ma'am," Sun Warden answered, "I don't know what that is."

"Of course you don't!" Sunset shouted, her voice and magic flaring into something akin to the Royal Canterlot Voice. Her patience had run out. "Because this little chunk of Tartarus that you call a world doesn't have magic!" In her frustration, she dug her claw so hard into Flash Sentry's head that he winced in pain, in spite of her mind control.

"You humans can offer me nothing, absolutely nothing that I want," Sunset concluded. "This talk is over."

"Ms. Shimmer, please—" Sun Warden cut off whatever he was about to say as Sunset, Snips, and Snails retreated back into the school.

...

"Interesting..." Adagio murmured. The three sirens had snuck onto a nearby roof, and were observing the action around the school. Adagio hadn't been sure what to think after that impossible surge of magic, but whatever she'd expected, this wasn't it. Human police negotiating with creatures that looked like they were straight out of Tartarus? "We need to figure out what's going on down there."

"Does it matter?" Aria replied, glaring down at the school. "Those things are way too strong to put under our spell."

"Of course it matters!" Adagio snapped back at her sister. "There's magic down there. Real magic. One way or another, we're going to take it."

Adagio returned her attention to the building. Infiltrating a big public building like this normally took preparation. The three of them had to get fake identities, enchant the right people so they wouldn't ask questions, and figure out the current trends so that they could fit in. It could take months. Adagio had started making such plans, but now she threw them all away. This situation was much different.

"Look!" Sonata suddenly exclaimed, pointing downward.

Adagio blinked and her mind snapped back to the present. There were dozens—no, hundreds—of people pouring out of the ruined front of the building. As she watched, they lined up between the school and the police, forming a human barricade around the building.

"Are those the students?" Adagio questioned.

"Obviously," Aria snarked in reply. They were all young, pre-teens or teenagers, and some of them were wearing school sweaters or jackets.

"So they work for those demon-things?" Sonata asked.

"I doubt it," Adagio answered. "When's the last time you saw that many teenagers working together that well?" She gestured to the students' clean, organized battle lines. Now that they had taken their positions, they stood like statues. Not one of the children was moving a muscle.

"Uhh..." Sonata, literal as ever, tilted her head and held a finger to her lower lip as she tried to think of the answer.

"You haven't," Aria filled in for her.

"Oh."

The purple-haired siren then turned her attention to their leader. "So, what? Mind control?"

"Probably," Adagio replied. Her eyes lidded and a small smile spread across her face. "Hmm."

"We use our magic to break the spell and take the kids for ourselves?" Aria guessed what the other siren was thinking.

"Exactly," Adagio purred. "They'll be weak from trying to fight the magic, and they all hate those demon-things, even if they don't know it. Even as weak as we are now, turning them all against each other will be a cinch. All we need to do is get past the police."

"So we're just going to do what we always do?" Aria drawled. "Stir up some trouble and feed off the negative energy? Some plan, Adagio."

"It won't be the same as the times before!" Adagio argued. "There is Equestrian magic here. Their negative energy will give us the power we need to get this entire world to do our bidding." She exhaled in irritation. "Just follow my lead."

"Or my lead," Aria murmured with a smirk.

Adagio jabbed a finger into Aria's breastbone. "My. Lead."

The three turned their backs on the school and made for the stairs back down. All three moved with purpose. There was a war coming, and they were going to win it.

Author's Note

Sorry about the long wait on this one.

My laptop died last Friday, but I'm back in business.

Scouting the Defenses

"What in the world...?"

Twilight had suspected that something was wrong as she got closer to where the energy spike had originated. The streets had been closed off, forcing her to park almost a mile away and go in on foot. There were no other people around, which had made her wonder whether there was some sort of hazard she didn't know about. The readings she'd picked up hadn't matched nuclear energy, but it still could have been giving off radiation of some kind.

Now, however, she'd come within view of Canterlot High School, and was wondering just what she'd walked into. The police had set up barricades quite a ways back, but if she squinted she could just make out lines of people surrounding the building. Between the police and the ranks of people around the school was about a half mile of no-man's land, an empty stretch that would not allow anyone to approach or leave the school unseen. Twilight cautiously walked toward the barricade, with Spike padding along at her side.

"Sorry, Miss," a uniformed man said as she approached, "this area is off-limits. It's very dangerous here."

"I'm Twilight Sparkle from Crystal Prep High," she replied, trying her best to sound cool and confident. "I'm working with the Municipal Power Agency, R&D department, on an independent study. I picked up an energy surge coming from this area, and I need to investigate it." She dug into her bag for her ID and showed it.

"I don't know anything about that," the officer answered, "but I do know that we've got a very delicate situation, and we're not about to let civilians go poking around."

"Is there a some kind of hazard here?" Twilight questioned. She tried to look past the man to what was behind him, but saw nothing except police cars and uniformed officers. "What's all this about?"

"That's none of your business, and I can't let you in," the man insisted. "You'd be putting yourself and the students in danger."

"The students?" Twilight asked. "What exactly is going on?"

"Don't you watch the news?" the policeman asked exasperatedly.

"Um. No?" Twilight replied. She didn't even own a television, preferring to read in what little spare time she had.

"Well, I suggest you look it up online if you're curious. Now, I must insist that you leave."

Twilight folded her arms and looked at the cop coldly. On the one hand, he was just doing his job. On the other, he was most certainly in her way, and she didn't care for it.

"Is your captain here?" she asked.

"Shining Armor?" The policeman matched her stare, unimpressed. "He's at the station, and he's much too busy to deal with every person who thinks they've got a personal interest in this. Do you have any idea how many parents have demanded to see him since this started?"

"Oh, I think he'll make time for me," Twilight said with certainty.

"Suit yourself." The officer shrugged. "But don't say I didn't warn you."

"Thank you for the help, Officer." The slight emphasis on the word "help" made her actual thoughts clear. "Spike, heel."

Spike, who had been sniffing around curiously, trotted back over to Twilight's side. Together, the two of them walked away.

Sunset Shimmer floated in midair, arms tightly folded, brooding on her predicament. With the police surrounding the school her options had become severely limited. She was effectively blockaded from the rest of the world, and the food situation at Canterlot High would soon become dire. Even with her troops only eating the bare minimum needed to survive, the supplies were running low. Controlling minds would do her no good when their bodies gave out from malnutrition.

She could teleport herself out easily enough, but what then? Nobody would sell food to her like this, and certainly not in the quantities she needed. If she took off the crown and returned to her human form, she'd lose her magic and thus her control over the students. She could try controlling more people and forcing them to give her what she needed, but she was feeling spread thin as it was. Her utter lack of success at manipulating the police forces had made her wary of trying again, particularly in such a crucial moment as this.

What she really needed, Sunset had concluded several days ago, were allies. Not mind-controlled servants, but people on the outside who were willing to help her. The trouble with that, once again, was the police. They weren't letting anyone near the school, and all they wanted was for her to release the children. She could give up a few of them, but that was a dangerous slope. If she started trading hostages for food, pretty soon she wouldn't have any left.

No, she needed to play this situation the same way she'd worked her way up to becoming the queen bee of Canterlot High. It all started with one person. She just needed one person in the right position to help her. At CHS it had been Flash Sentry—dating one of the most popular boys at school had made her popular by association, strong enough to form her own clique. This would be no different.

A smile spread across her face and she gently touched down onto the floor. She had a plan. It would require some finely tuned magic and a bit of finesse, but that wouldn't be a problem. She just needed the right pawn, and she knew exactly who to use.

"Damn," Aria muttered, peeking around the corner. "There's cops everywhere."

"Of course there are," Adagio murmured. "Whoever's behind this isn't exactly being subtle." The three sirens had taken shelter in an alley near the police barricades. They hadn't been spotted yet, but they wouldn't be able to get any closer without being seen.

"So how do we get in?" Sonata asked. Aria shot her an annoyed glare.

"How do you think?" The purple-haired siren flicked her pendant with a finger.

"We've got enough power stored up to get past the police," Adagio agreed. "Then we just set the kids against each other and watch the show." She looked at the sirens on either side of her, then motioned them forward.

The three stepped out onto the road and walked side-by-side, stepping in sync, hips swaying as magical music filled the air. It had been centuries since they'd gone all-out like this. Even with their powers weakened to a fraction of what they should be, the feeling of magic filling them and flowing out into the world was incredible. The people ahead were putty in their hands.

"Hey, you three!" An officer stepped up to the barricade. "You can't—"

His eyes glazed over and his face went slack as the sirens' magic took hold of his heart. The effect rippled outward through the uniformed men and women as each came to see what was going on and got exposed to the spell. Within minutes, the three sirens were walking through a clear passage as the cops stepped aside to make room for them. When the spell faded the officers would not remember exactly why they had allowed the three girls in, only that it had absolutely seemed like the right thing to do. That feeling wouldn't hold up to any sort of careful scrutiny, but it would buy the sirens the time they needed.

They were through. They'd gotten past the police and to the empty span of grass and concrete that led up to the school. In front of them the students stood guard in perfect lines, three ranks deep. The sirens let their spell die out as they walked, conserving what little magic they had. It was risky, but if things went as planned, they would soon have all the magic they could want. They approached the rows of brainwashed children.

"Wow. Creepy," Sonata said, waving a hand in front of one of the students' unblinking eyes. "Hellooo? Anyone in there?"

"It's mind control alright," Adagio said to the others. She put a hand to a boy's chin and leaned in, examining him more closely. "Powerful but clumsy. They should have driven us off already, but these kids won't so much as breathe unless the one who cast it allows them to. They're probably just supposed to stop anyone from getting in."

"So what do we do?" Sonata asked.

"Find someone who's already fighting it," Adagio instructed. "We'll break them free, and pretty soon they'll be eating out of our hands. Spread out."

"What are we looking for?" Aria asked.

"Anyone who's acting like a person, not a mindless drone," Adagio explained. "Anyone showing emotion. Are you sirens or not? You should know how to find and exploit feelings. And be quick about it, sooner or later the police will start wondering why they let us in here."

"Alright already," Aria grumped. Stuffing her hands in her pockets, she stalked away to do Adagio's bidding.

The sirens walked past countless blank, staring faces, taking a moment to look at each in hopes of seeing something: a tightened jaw, a heavy breath. Any flicker of emotion could mean that the person was vulnerable.

"Ooh! 'Dagi, over here!" Sonata called from around the side of the building. She waited impatiently for Adagio to join her.

"Look!" Sonata pointed to three young girls standing next to each other, looking immensely proud of herself.

"Hmm." Adagio squatted down in front of the three and looked at them. Two of them—one with yellow skin and a large red bow in her hair, and the other a pale girl with colorful hair like cotton candy—had wetness glimmering in the corners of their eyes. The mind control was too strong to allow the tears to fall, but it couldn't completely restrain them either. The third, a tomboyish girl with a messy shock of purple hair, had her teeth clenched and one hand trembling at her side. It was subtle, but to Adagio's eye she was clearly ready to explode into violence. A slow smile spread across Adagio's face.

"Well, well," she said. "I think we have our starting point. Let's get to work."

Sunset Shimmer stood tall, gazing down imperiously at the one she had chosen to carry out this task. He was perfect for it—popular, charismatic, and just awkward enough to be endearing. The minor injuries to his face and the weight he'd lost only served to make him look more pitiable. Doing Sunset's bidding, he'd tug the heartstrings of the gullible humans of this city until they demanded that food be sent for their poor, suffering children.

Sunset slackened her control on the boy's mind. She did not release it all the way, just enough that he could think and speak for himself, but he would still be compelled to obey her.

"Flash Sentry," Sunset said, "I have a job for you."

The blue-haired boy gazed up at her. As he met her eyes, his own pupils suddenly snapped into focus. Flash's eyes narrowed and his teeth clenched, his body trembling with hatred as he fought to overthrow her control.

"Ah ah, none of that," Sunset waggled a finger and strengthened her magic slightly. When that did not have the desired effect, she did so again. Finally, Flash's face relaxed and his shaking stopped. Sunset could still feel his mind rioting against the magic, but he was under control. His eyes were slightly glazed from the spell, but hopefully the humans would put that down to shock. It would have to do.

"Now, Flash Sentry," she said, "are you listening?"

"Yes," Flash answered. His voice was almost normal, though a bit monotone. He sounded a little like that Pie girl, Maud. Again, it would have to do.

"Your job is to go out into the city and tell them all that their children are starving in here," Sunset explained. She'd had to return enough of his own self to him that she could no longer control him directly, mind-to-mind. "Get yourself noticed. Gain as much sympathy as possible. Do whatever it takes to get us food and supplies. Do you understand?"

"Yes," Flash repeated dully.

"Good."

With a snap of her fingers, she teleported the boy outside. A quick mental command ensured that the students outside would allow him to pass, and then all she had to do was wait. Soon enough everyone would be coming to her, begging for her to let them give her what she wanted.

As it should be.

Opening Moves

"Can I help you, Miss?" the young man behind the bulletproof glass asked.

"Yes," Twilight answered. "I need to speak with Shining Armor. Go and get him, please."

"The captain?" the officer replied skeptically. "He's very busy. What's this about?" "The situation at Canterlot High School," Twilight answered. "You won't be able to help me. Let me speak with Shining Armor," she insisted.

"I can't do that, Miss," the officer answered. "I'll be happy to take a statement, but it's not something that Shining Armor needs to deal with personally."

Twilight barely held back a sigh of irritation. "Look," she said, "you obviously don't know who I am, so just take my word for it. He'll want to speak to me himself."

The officer's eyes narrowed. "Look," he mimicked her, "I told you I can't do that. You can leave a message with me, or you can go. We've got more than enough to deal with right now."

Twilight massaged her temples to relieve a building headache. "Alright," she groused, "sure. Give Shining Armor this message: His little sister has some information about Canterlot High School, and she needs his permission to work with the officers there to investigate further."

The policeman typed on his computer as she spoke, copying down her words. A moment later he realized what he'd written. "The captain's sister?" He looked at Twilight. "You're...?"

"Yeah," Twilight answered flatly.

The officer cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Well," he said, "I can see if he's got a minute to talk."

"You do that," Twilight agreed.

The policeman, whose name Twilight hadn't bothered to learn, picked up a phone and dialed it. "Captain," he said, coming as close to attention as he could while sitting in a chair, "your sister is here. Yes, sir. She's asking to speak with you. What should I tell her? Yes, sir. Right away." He hung up and returned his attention to Twilight. "I'll take you to him," he told her begrudgingly.

"Thank you, officer," Twilight answered with a smug smile.

The young policeman stood up and opened the heavy wooden door next to the window. "Follow me, please," he said stiffly.

Twilight swept through the door and followed him into the station proper, past the curious looks of several other
officers, and down a hallway at the back. He came to a stop at another wooden door and rapped on it smartly.

"Come in," Shining Armor's voice called from inside the room.

The officer opened the door on a room that was half meticulousness and half clutter. The walls were lined with shelves and filing cabinets, with everything square and neatly arranged, but Shining Armor's desk was nearly buried under files and folders, as well as a bulky computer that was practically an antique—the city hadn't seen fit to upgrade the station's computers in years.

Shining Armor himself cut an impressive figure in his uniform. Tall and fit, with his hands folded on the desk in front of him and ice-blue eyes clear and cold as he studied a sheet of paper, he looked quite formidable. The effect was spoiled when he practically sprang out of his seat and enfolded Twilight in a hug.

Neither of them paid any mind as Twilight's escort exited and shut the door behind him.

"Hey Twily!" Shining Armor ruffled her hair in the way that she always complained about. "What brings you here?"

Twilight broke away from her older brother and fixed her glasses, then smoothed her hair. "Well," she began, "as you're no doubt aware, about six hours ago there was a massive energy surge centered on Canterlot High School."

"No kidding," Shining Armor groaned. "It's been a total mess over there ever since. Do you have any idea what it was?"

"No," Twilight answered, "but I know what it wasn't. It wasn't any kind of energy that I know of. It doesn't match up with electricity, heat, radiation, nothing."

"So what does that leave?" Shining Armor asked, confused.

"I have no idea," Twilight answered with a gleam in her eye. "But I want to find out, and that's why I need your help."

Shining Armor backed up a step. "Ohhhh no." He folded his arms. "I know where this is going, and it's out of the question."

"But—"

"Absolutely not," Shining Armor cut her off. He glared down at her. "I know you want to study this, but I'm not sure you understand just how bad things are over there. We're talking monsters, hostages, all kinds of crazy stuff."

"But I can help you!" Twilight protested. "If we understood what we were dealing with, we'd be better equipped to handle it."

"If you start poking around Canterlot High you'll be putting yourself and every student there in danger," Shining Armor answered sternly. "It's not happening."

Twilight groaned. She just had to study this phenomenon! She gasped as an idea blossomed.

"Hire me as a consultant!" Twilight exclaimed. "I'll be working for you, so I'll have to do what you say. You can keep me safe, and I can help you understand what's going on at that school!" Working directly for the police wouldn't be ideal, she'd rather have more freedom in her studies, but it would at least get her close to the action.

"A consultant?" Shining Armor's eyebrows drew together as he considered it. Finally, he sighed. "You're not going to take no for an answer, are you?"

"No," Twilight replied.

"Okay. Listen carefully," Shining Armor said. "If—and this is a big if—I do let you in on this, you have to do exactly as I say, when I say it. No debating, no complaining, no questions asked." Seeing the outraged look on her face, his voice softened a bit. "I know you're smart, Twily, but you're not trained for this kind of thing. We are. I need you to trust my and my officers' judgment while you're out there. Can you do that?"

Twilight took a breath and smiled. "Of course, BBBFF."

"Okay," Shining Armor nodded. "We'll give it a try. Starting today, you work as a consultant for this department. Don't make me regret this."

"I won't," Twilight promised. "Say," she said as a thought occurred to her, "does this mean you have to pay me?"

Shining Armor groaned.

On the other side of the school, the sirens' music floated hauntingly through the air. They couldn't hope to match this spell's raw power, not yet, but whoever had cast it was an amateur at mind control. They, on the other hand, had centuries of experience bending others to their will.

It was like these three girls' minds were wrapped in absurdly large chains, too big and clumsy to hold them tightly. The girls could slip out themselves, if they could only see how. A push here, a nudge there, a slight loosening of the spell and a strong suggestion of what to do, and the children were able to escape their bonds. Little did they know that much finer, more comfortable shackles had taken their place.

The last strains of music faded.

"Welcome back," Adagio purred. She put a finger under the orange one's chin, tilting her head up so their eyes met.

"Wha?" the girl mumbled. "What happened?" She seemed to be having trouble putting her thoughts back in order.

"Why don't you tell us?" Aria said.

"Um..." One of the other two, a girl with a large bow in her hair, put a hand to her head and rubbed it, trying to arrange her thoughts. "It was the Fall Formal. That new girl won."

"Twilight," the last of the three filled in. "Twilight won the crown, and Sunset Shimmer didn't like that."

"That's right," the girl with the bow said. "Sunset Shimmer stole it and... well, that's the last thing ah can remember."

The three sirens exchanged annoyed looks.

"A dance and a crown?" Aria asked skeptically. "How exactly does that lead to this?" She gestured around at all of the brainwashed students.

The purple-haired girl sniffled. "There was a fight," she said. Her voice was suddenly choked. "Rainbow Dash fought back, but..." she trailed off.

The girl with the bow in her hair flinched, while the other's face became, if possible, even paler.

"Oh, no," the white-faced girl whispered. "Rarity..."

"Applejack," the other one sobbed.

"Sonata!" Sonata chirped.

"Urgh. Focus!" Adagio snapped. "Who is Sunset Shimmer? What did she do?"

"What about the crown?" Sonata asked eagerly.

"The Fall Formal crown," the pale one said, her voice subdued. "It's like a golden tiara with a purple star on it."

The sirens looked at each other and shrugged.

"Sunset Shimmer is a monster!" the purple-haired girl burst out.

"A demon!" the girl with the bow agreed. "Sunset Satan!"

"She was always the worst, and now she's even worse!" The last of the three seemed to have gotten her energy back.

A faint green cloud rose off of the three furious girls, and the sirens greedily drew it into their gems. They would at least break even on these three, but they stood to gain a lot more energy than that.

"Well," Adagio said to the girls, "how would you like to help us ruin all of Sunset Shimmer's plans?" A slow smile spread across her face as the three girls, not even suspecting that they were in her thrall, eagerly agreed.

"Sheriff, look!"

Silverstar whipped around at the urgency in the younger officer's voice. Normally the high school was outside of his office's jurisdiction, but the mayor had called for all hands on deck. He peered into the crowd of kids, looking for what had caught his deputy's attention. After a moment he saw it: a young man with bright blue hair had apparently broken through the blockade and was walking slowly towards them.

"Should we go get him, sir?" the deputy asked.

"Hold tight," Silverstar ordered. "They don't look like they're stopping him, but who knows what the kids'll do if we get that close. Just be ready to grab him."

"Yes sir, Sheriff."

It was an agonizing wait as the boy picked his way across the no man's land between the ranks of students and the lines of police. He barely seemed aware of where he was walking, and more than once nearly turned his ankle on a rock or an animal burrow.

"Looks like he's in shock," Silverstar observed. "Fetch a medic."

After what seemed like an interminable length of time, the blue-haired boy finally reached the officers. He was almost immediately swept up and wrapped in a heavy blanket, and sat down in the back of an ambulance while a paramedic examined him. He hardly seemed to notice what was happening.

"Can he answer some questions?" Sheriff Silverstar asked the medic.

"Make it quick," she answered sternly. "He needs food and rest."

Silverstar nodded and sat down next to the boy. "What's your name, son?" he asked gently.

"Um." He blinked slowly. "Flash Sentry."

"Well it's mighty nice to meet you, Flash. I'm Silverstar, I'm a local sheriff." Silverstar nodded toward the school. "Can you tell me what's goin' on in there? What's with all of your classmates?"

"It's... it's not their fault. We need help," Flash muttered.

"That's why we're here," Silverstar reassured him, "but I need to know what happened."

Flash started to speak several times, but his eyes clouded and his jaw went slack each time. It was as if he couldn't hold the thoughts, or couldn't manage to turn them into words. Finally, Silverstar sighed in exasperation and shook his head.

"Ah, it's no good," Silverstar said to the medic. "You take care of him, you hear? And as soon as he's ready to talk, you get a message to Captain Shining Armor over at the police department. This boy could be our key to unraveling this whole mess."

The medic nodded. "Come on Flash," she said warmly, easing him onto his back. "We're going to get you to the hospital. You can rest up and talk to the officers when you're feeling better. How does that sound?"

Flash twitched his head in what might have been a nod.

The medic shook her own head. "Poor boy," she muttered to Silverstar. "He may not be ready to talk for quite a while. Lord knows what they did to him in there."

Silverstar grimly agreed. "Like I said, if and when he's able to help, let the captain know. He's overseeing this whole operation."

"I will." She stepped back and shut the ambulance's rear doors. A few seconds later, the vehicle swung around and drove away, carrying the boy with it.

In the cafeteria that now served as her base of operations, Sunset Shimmer smiled.

Probing the Defenses

"Uh, Sunset?" Snips's high-pitched, sniveling voice grated on her ears.

"What did you call me?" Sunset demanded.

"Uh, that is, Princess Sunset Shimmer, Your Majesty, uh, Ma'am!"

Sunset stared down at her servant through hooded eyes. "We'll work on it," she promised coolly. "Now what do you want?"

"Well, I think you oughta see this," Snips pointed out the window.

Sunset scoffed, but rose out of what remained of Principal Celestia's chair and floated over to see what he was pointing at. Her eyes widened.

"What?!" she roared, her hair and tail blazing up furiously around her. Snips cowered from her sudden fury. There were students out there doing... well, not what she had told them to! There were perhaps a dozen walking around, talking to the ones who still stood in their perfect rows. This was unacceptable. She would tear them all apart! She would—

Breathe, Sunset, she ordered herself. Blind rage wouldn't get her anywhere. There had to be an explanation for her magic's failure. She looked again, this time stretching out both her physical and magical senses. And there it is.

It was faint, but there was a green mist of some kind rising from those few students who were showing free will. Sunset folded her arms and frowned. She didn't recognize the spell, but it was definitely magic. How could that be? This pathetic world didn't have any magic.

Except, Sunset reminded herself, now it does. The physical embodiment of magic itself sat on her own head. Was someone else drawing on its power somehow? Sunset closed her eyes and turned her focus inward to examine the spell she'd cast.

Another force was gnawing at the edges of her spell. It was worming into the weakest points of her magic and chipping bits away to take for itself. It didn't feel like the power she was drawing from the Element of Magic, though; this was something else. Another being from Equestria, then, who had somehow kept his or her magic? Whoever it was, this newcomer didn't have nearly as much raw power as Sunset. However, she had to reluctantly admit that this other person was much more skilled with mind control.

Still, it was more of a curiosity than a threat. Dispelling such weak magic would be trivial. Sunset teleported outside to deal with it.

"Come on, wake up! Scootaloo shouted at yet another of her classmates, to no effect.

"That doesn't work," Sweetie Belle reminded her again. "You have to find someone who's already fighting it."

"They should all be fighting it!" Scootaloo cried. "Who would want to be that monster's slave?"

"Hey, ain't this Pinkie Pie's sister?" Apple Bloom called from a short distance away. "She's gotta be mad. Betcha we could break her out of it."

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo walked over to see.

"She doesn't look mad," Sweetie Belle said uncertainly.

"She doesn't look like much of anything," Scootaloo added.

Indeed, the gray-skinned girl's face held the same lack of expression as always.

"She's fightin' it," Apple Bloom insisted.

"How do you know?" Sweetie Belle demanded.

"She just is!" Apple Bloom shouted. "She's gotta be!"

"You don't know anything!" Scootaloo yelled back. "We've been doing this for an hour, and we're not getting anywhere!"

"Nuh-uh!" Apple Bloom retorted. "We snapped a buncha people out of it!"

"Nine people is not 'a bunch!'" Sweetie Belle snapped back. "There's hundreds of students here!"

Unseen by the arguing girls, a green mist rose up around them. Adagio noticed this, and walked over to soak up their negative energy with a satisfied smile.

"Step aside," she commanded once she'd finished her snack. Hardly noticing that they'd even been given an order, the three complied with it. Adagio stepped up to examine the blank-faced student they'd been arguing over. She held a finger under the girl's chin, turning her head this way and that. "Yes, she'll do," Adagio purred.

"Wait, so she is fighting it?" Sweetie Belle's voice squeaked in surprise.

"Ah told'ja so." Apple Bloom gloated.

"That's right," Adagio told them. "She's nearly broken the spell by herself." She was frankly shocked at the girl's mental strength, but her face remained smooth and confident with a hint of a smile. "Allow me."

Adagio began to sing. Her voice floated gently through the air; luring, tantalizing, promising everything to those who heard it even as it took away their freedom. The three younger girls were entranced, their eyes shining with the beauty of Adagio's song, their argument forgotten.

The gray-skinned girl blinked once.

"Hi," she said.

"Hello," Adagio answered. "Now what's got you so worked up, hmm?"

"Worked up?" Scootaloo whispered to the others. "She looks like she's watching paint dry."

"Hush," Adagio snapped. Scootaloo and her friends were instantly silent.

"Sunset Shimmer hurt Pinkie Pie," the girl replied, seemingly unaware of the interruption. Her tone suggested that she might have been discussing the weather. "I want to hurt Sunset Shimmer."

"Good," Adagio replied. "That's good. What's your name?"

The girl blinked again. "Maud."

"Well, Maud, I think we can make your wish come true. For now, you will join these girls in trying to break other people out of Sunset Shimmer's control."

Maud was silent for several long seconds, long enough that Adagio began to wonder if her magic was working.

"Okay."

"Good," Adagio smirked. "Now get back to work."

"This is as close as we can get, ma'am," the policeman driving Twilight informed her. They were perhaps half a mile from the police barricades, but the streets were clogged with bystanders and vehicles.

"Thank you," Twilight replied. Without another word she picked up her backpack from the floor of the passenger seat and stepped out of the squad car. Shading her eyes against the setting sun, she worked—and, when necessary, pushed—her way through the people gathered there. At least she didn't have to worry about Spike. Once she'd realized how long and complicated this was likely to become, she'd dropped him off at home for her parents to look after.

Well, she thought with a mixture of annoyance and excitement, it took much longer than I would have liked, but I've finally got a chance to study this. She reached the front of the crowd, where the police were working to hold back concerned family members, reporters, and rubberneckers. She found the nearest cop and held up the ID that Shining Armor had given her.

"Hello, Officer," she said with perhaps a hint of smugness. This wasn't the same person who had turned her away before, but it was still satisfying. "Your captain should have told you I'd be coming?"

The policeman nodded. "Yep, orders came down the grapevine. You'll be working with Sergeant Dare. Follow me." He raised the strip of caution tape to allow Twilight access. Other policemen quickly filled in the space he'd left.

"What do we know about this?" Twilight asked as they walked.

"Not much," the man replied. "Never seen anything like it. It's like they're all brainwashed or something."

"Brainwashing that many people would take a long time, and resources that shouldn't be available at a high school," Twilight pointed out.

The policeman shrugged. "Hey, you asked."

"I asked for information, not speculation," she retorted.

"Well, we don't know." His voice now held a bit of a bite. "That's why you're here, isn't it?"

"Yes," Twilight answered. "Yes it is."

"Hey Sarge," he said to another officer, "got that consultant the Captain told us about."

Sergeant Dare turned away from the school to look at the officer and Twilight, who was walking beside him. "Thanks," he said. "You get back to the line."

"Yes, sir." The officer turned and strode back the way they'd come.

The sergeant was a tall, broad-shouldered man who was built a bit like Twilight's brother. He had a somewhat craggier face than Shining Armor, however, which was not helped by a day's worth of stubble. His dirty-blond hair was cropped close to his head.

"Sergeant Ivory Dare," he introduced himself. He held out a hand, which Twilight shook gently.

"Twilight Sparkle," she replied.

If the sergeant recognized her name, he didn't show it. "Well Ms. Sparkle," he said, clasping his hands behind his back and turning to face the school, "I hope you can shed some light on all of this."

"I've been monitoring this anomaly as best I could from a distance," Twilight told him, "but I haven't been able to see the effect on the students and faculty in the school. What can you tell me about that?"

"See for yourself." Ivory Dare gestured to the motionless ranks of students. "They've been standing like that since last night. No food, water, or sleep."

"Would you say it looks deliberate?" Twilight asked. It certainly looked that way to her, but she didn't have the sergeant's worldly experience.

"Absolutely," Ivory Dare responded. "They're lined up like soldiers, and we think we know who—or rather, what—is giving them orders."

"That would have been good to lead with," Twilight snapped. "So who is it?"

"These three." Ivory brought up a photo on his phone and showed it to Twilight, who raised an eyebrow skeptically.

"What am I looking at?" Twilight asked. The picture showed three creatures that couldn't possibly exist. They looked like demons straight out of Dante's Inferno, and each holding a student captive. Scaling off of the students, the largest of the three must have been over ten feet tall.

"I wish we knew," Ivory Dare answered. "We sent in a negotiator earlier today, and these three came out to speak with him. The one in the middle seems to be the leader. It—she—called herself Sunset Shimmer."

Twilight folded her arms and frowned at the picture. "Sergeant," she said, "just because of all the impossible things that are already happening here, I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that picture is genuine." Her tone, however, said quite clearly that she doubted it. "What do we know about this so-called Sunset Shimmer?"

"There was a CHS student by that name," Dare replied. He didn't seem to blame Twilight for her skepticism. "A brilliant young lady by all accounts, top of every class. She had no criminal record and nothing in school either, not so much as a detention, though apparently she had a reputation among the students for being quite a bully."

"A high school bully?" Twilight asked. Her skepticism had not been assuaged. "Is there any reason to think this is the same person?"

"Sunset Shimmer isn't among the students outside," Dare added. "That plus the name makes it seem pretty likely that it's her."

Twilight folded her arms and frowned. A mysterious power that didn't match any known form of energy, which could control and, apparently, transform humans? What in the world are we dealing with here?

"Is there anything else?" Twilight asked.

"Two things, actually." Ivory Dare took his phone back and pocketed it. "A short while ago, a young man by the name of Flash Sentry escaped from the school. The students didn't do anything to stop him."

"They let him get away?" Twilight asked.

"That's right," Dare confirmed. "We suspect that he was let go on purpose, though we don't know why. A show of good faith, maybe—Sunset Shimmer insisted that she had no interest in us or this world."

"Is there a recording of the negotiations?" Twilight asked. "If I heard exactly what was said, I might be able to find a clue."

"I'll get you a copy," Dare promised.

"Good. And the other thing?"

"Some students seem to have broken free from whatever is controlling them," Dare explained. "Only a few so far, but from what we can tell they're trying to snap others out of it too."

"I see." Stranger and stranger. "So this so-called Sunset Shimmer is controlling the students, but one has been let go and a few have broken free themselves."

"Yes, but you have to realize that even the ones who broke free are still acting strangely. We would expect children in their circumstances to run away and get help, especially with so many police nearby. Instead, they're trying to fight back on their own."

Twilight adjusted her glasses and stared even more intently toward the school. She'd been hoping to get some idea of the nature of this energy by studying the effects it had on the students, but those effects were apparently widely varied and sometimes contradictory. She had a lot of work to do.

"Thank you for the information, Sergeant," she said. "I need to study this phenomenon more closely."

Ivory Dare nodded. "There are officers everywhere, but be careful. Don't go past the police lines, and if anything happens, call for help." They wouldn't let her past their barricades anyway, but it would be better for everyone if she didn't try.

"Understood," Twilight answered. She shouldered her backpack, which was weighed down with some of her more portable equipment, and set off to find someplace both close to the action and away from any onlookers.

Perhaps ten minutes later she found the perfect location, an alleyway near the edge of the police lines that gave her a clear view of the school. There was an officer standing guard nearby, but once Twilight had shown her consultant's ID he'd returned his attention to the school.

"Yes," she said out loud, "this should be perfect." She carefully set her backpack down and started rummaging around, only to be interrupted by the click of nails on asphalt. The faint smell of dog reached her nostrils.

"T... Twilight?"

The First Skirmish

"Twilight!" Spike ran toward her and jumped up, placing his front paws on her leg. "How did you get away?" he asked. He was practically dancing on his hind legs, his whole body trembling in excitement. "What are you doing back here? Why are you dressed like that? ...Uh, Twilight? Something wrong?"

For Twilight had screamed and pressed her back against the building beside her, trying to get away from him.

"Twilight?" Spike asked again. "What's the matter?"

Twilight's eyes were wide and wild. "Spike! You... here... talking!" she stammered. She was starting to hyperventilate and was on the verge of a panic attack.

Spike started to speak again, trying to calm her down, but this just caused her to scream again and press even harder against the wall. Finally, at the end of his considerable patience, Spike growled deep in his throat and burst out, "What is wrong with you?!"

"What's wrong with me?!" Twilight exclaimed, still not quite believing what she was seeing. "What's wrong with you? Why are you here? Why can you speak? What happened to your side?" She had belatedly noticed that Spike was injured, with a gash down one side of his body dripping blood into what little hair was left there. "And why am I talking to a dog?!" she shouted into the air. With that out of her system, she slowly slid down the wall she was leaning on until she was sitting on the ground. She began to focus on her breathing, trying to bring herself back under control.

Spike took a slow step backward and stood there, one paw hanging uncertainly in the air. His ears drooped. "You're..." he choked on a lump in his throat and had to start again. "You're not Twilight, are you?"

"What?" This made as little sense as anything else that was happening. "Yes, I'm Twilight. Twilight Sparkle."

"No," Spike shook his head in a strangely human gesture. "I meant the real Twilight," he said sadly, then corrected himself. "Well, I suppose you're real too, but I meant my Twilight."

"What does that mean?" She was still struggling to get a handle on the situation. "I'm Twilight Sparkle, and you're my pet dog Spike. Aren't you?"

Spike sighed heavily. "Never mind," he mumbled. "I guess I already knew. Twilight is... she's..." he started to pant more and more heavily, until his breath came in heaving gasps, then he threw his head back and let loose a long, mournful howl.

"Spike...?" Twilight hesitantly reached out toward him, only for the dog to turn and bolt the other way, out of the alley and away from the school.

"Wait!" Twilight stood up and ran after him, but by the time she reached the end of the alley he was already turning down another street. She had to know what was going on! A few police officers looked curiously after Spike, but made no move to stop him.

"Catch that dog!" Twilight yelled. When they didn't move, she shouted the first thing that came to mind. "He's mine! He got out!"

The two closest policemen exchanged glances, then one shrugged. "I'll get it," he offered, then walked off in no apparent hurry.

Twilight groaned in frustration. "Go!" she shouted at the other officer. "Catch him!"

The policeman frowned at her. "Thunder Flash will get him. You've got a job to do."

"I..." Twilight sighed. What could she tell him? That her dog, or a dog that looked just like him, had talked to her?

Twilight took off her glasses and pinched the bridge of her nose. She took a deep breath and centered her thoughts. Spike—or whatever that creature was—was too fast for her to catch. The police were after him. Much as it galled her, she'd have to trust the police to do their job and focus on her own. Without another word to the policeman in front of her, Twilight went back to her gear to continue setting up.

Adagio and her sisters watched the three girls work with mild amusement. Every student that they failed to awaken from the spell made them angrier - and more determined. They were driven by the desire to help their classmates and strike back at Sunset Shimmer, a desire that the Sirens' magic had fanned into obsession. They wouldn't stop until they collapsed. Then the sirens turned their attention back to their own task.

"Here's one," Aria announced. The boy's green dreadlocks, silly hat, and "recycle" pin announced him as a total hippie, but he was unusually big and burly for that crowd. More importantly, a tear glimmered in the corner of his eye. Sorrow wasn't as useful as anger, but it could still be leveraged to loosen this clumsy spell. Aria opened her mouth and channeled her power, only for her song to cut off in a strangled gasp as a massive hand closed around her body.

"Gotcha," a deep, feminine voice sneered.

Aria looked up with wide eyes into the face of a demon straight from Tartarus. Red skin, flaming hair, and jet black eyes were topped by an oddly pretty golden tiara. Who is she? Aria thought frantically, running through the female demons that she knew of. Lilitu, maybe? How did she get here?

"What have we here?" the demon mused aloud, bringing Aria up close to her face. "And here I thought I had the only magic in this sad little world."

Aria opened her mouth and screamed, hitting the demon from point-blank with a blast of sonic magic. The impact snapped the demon's head back and sent her tiara clattering to the ground. The thing clutched at its ears, dropping Aria in the process and allowing her to flee back to her sisters.

"What is that thing?" Aria gasped, still winded from her encounter.

"I don't know, but we need to run," Adagio commanded tersely. "Now."

"Where?" Sonata asked. "There's cops everywhere."

Aria looked around frantically. For once the dolt was right. No matter which way they went, they'd be running straight into the police. Getting past them again would drain what little magic they had left, and then they'd be stuck on the wrong side.

The demon had stopped clutching its ears and was now scrabbling frantically for the tiara. The massive creature was having trouble reaching around and through the frozen students all around her. The sirens were apparently forgotten, at least for the moment.

Aria was struck by sudden inspiration.

"Inside the school," she whispered to the other two.

"Are you nuts?" Sonata squeaked.

"No, she's right," Adagio murmured. "The students are all out here. There will be plenty of room for us to hide. Go! Now!"

The three crept around behind the demon's back, blending into the crowd of students. As soon as they were out of sight, they sprinted for what remained of the doors and disappeared into the school's hallways.

The last they saw of the demon, it had settled its tiara back on its head and started looking frantically for them. The last thing they heard was a monstrous roar of, "Where is she?!" and a thunderous crack as she smacked aside one of the very students she'd been so careful not to hurt while searching for her crown.

"Where is she?!" Sunset roared, her hair and tail flaming up around her. Her crown was safely back on her head, but the girl who'd blasted her was gone.

Sunset's mind-controlled servants did not answer, for she had not given them a command. With another cry of frustration, she delivered a crushing backhand blow to the nearest student. Sandalwood, some small part of her remembered. "Find her!"

Now that they had an order, her army sprang into action. Their careful lines scattered all over the school grounds as they searched for the strange girl who had blasted Sunset with... what, exactly? It wasn't any type of magic she'd ever seen—or rather, heard.

Sunset sank to the ground and cradled her head. She'd been nursing a headache all day, and that blast of piercing sound certainly hadn't done it any favors. She barely had the presence of mind to alter her orders slightly, adding a requirement that the students not let themselves be captured by the police while they searched. Once she was confident that her army would return to her, she closed her eyes to rest and think. She had only a short minute of peace.

"Freeze!" a loud male voice barked. "We have you surrounded!"

Hardly believing what she heard, Sunset slowly opened her eyes and found herself flanked by no less than five police officers with their guns drawn. She groaned. Of course, with the students out of formation the cops thought they had an opening.

"Look," Sunset said, "I'm really not in the mood for this."

"Get on your knees, hands on your head!" the man shouted at her.

She wondered briefly if it was even worth the effort to obliterate these insects. On the other hand, she mused, a show of force would help them know exactly where they stand. Plus, they'd dared to threaten her, and the one even had the nerve to bark orders at her.

Without moving from her spot, she raised a finger and shot a bolt of sickly green and black magic through the noisy policeman. He gave one wet gurgle, then slumped over dead.

The others took a moment to comprehend what had just happened, in which time Sunset raised a shield around herself. When the other cops finally started firing, their bullets fizzled harmlessly against her magic. When every gun gave the clicks of empty chambers, the officers all lowered their weapons and stared in shock.

"Got it?" Sunset sneered. "Good." She reached out and grabbed one policeman in each hand. A burst of magic from her palms snuffed them out in an instant. Forgoing magic entirely, she dispatched another with a brutal swipe of her claws. The last, who was fumbling for a new magazine for his pistol, she caught in a telekinetic field and raised to her face.

She hadn't even stood up.

The policeman raised his gun in trembling hands and aimed at Sunset's face. Before he could fire, she destroyed the weapon with a beam of magic from her eyes. The policeman dropped the suddenly burning-hot scrap metal and stared with wide eyes, waiting to die.

"You pathetic, magicless creatures can't defeat me," Sunset hissed. "Give this message to your superiors: Leave me alone and you have nothing to fear. Cross me, and you'll learn the meaning of power." She released her magic.

The cop fell the short distance to the ground. He seemed to briefly consider picking up what remained of his gun, but under Sunset's baleful stare he decided—wisely—to just slowly back away. Once he had some distance, he turned and sprinted for the police barricades and their relative safety.

Sunset groaned and massaged her aching head. Today was definitely not going as planned.

"Just great," Aria complained. "I have less magic now than when we got here."

The three had taken shelter in the girls' locker room inside Canterlot High. It was hardly glamorous, but the doors locked from the inside and that was good enough for now. Aria sat slumped against a wall, exhausted from her unexpected use of magic. Sonata uneasily stood nearby. Adagio sat on one of the several benches in the room, her natural grace and poise making it look like a throne.

"What was that thing?" Sonata asked.

"A demon," Aria answered her.

"I'm not so sure," Adagio chimed in. "We came here following Equestrian magic. If she's the source of it, then she's not from Tartarus."

"I could see coming to this world to escape from Tartarus, although it's really not much better," Aria said, "but why leave Equestria to come here?"

"Maybe she got banished like we did," Sonata suggested.

"That doesn't matter," Adagio said. "I'm more interested in how she kept her power in this world."

"It's not like she'd tell us if we asked nicely," Aria grumbled. "The real question is, what are we going to do about it?"

"Take it for ourselves, of course," Adagio answered. "With magic like that, we can restore our true power and bring this whole pathetic world to heel."

"That demon lady was awfully angry," Sonata said. "You think we can feed off of her?"

"She's way stronger than we are," Aria added. "If she catches us, we're done. We'll have to be careful."

"We'll have to be smart," Adagio replied.

"Uh-oh," Aria muttered, shooting a sly glance at Sonata.

"We've got a few people on our side now, and I don't think that creature knows it yet," Adagio continued as if she hadn't heard. "We need to get them here and find out what they know. Then we'll know how to get inside Sunset's head and take her magic for ourselves."

Aria stood and dusted off her pants. "Great," she drawled. "Except that I'm sure she has her little army searching all over for us by now."

"Leave that to me." Adagio stood and swaggered to the door that led back out into the hall. She peered through the crack and stayed there for quite some time, waiting for something.

At last, she got what she wanted: a crowd of students passed by, searching for them. One tried the door and, finding it locked, moved on. The others followed. As the last of the students passed by Adagio quickly unlocked the door, opened it, snatched the last straggler and dragged him into the locker room, then locked the door again. The boy immediately tried to call for the others, but Adagio muffled his cries with her hand. She dragged him bodily into the locker room and dumped him in front of the others.

"Eek!" Sonata shrieked. "There's a boy in here!"

"Oh, shut up," Adagio answered. "This boy is our get out of jail free card. Help me break the spell on him."

Regrouping

Flash Sentry awoke in a hospital bed and looked around groggily. He vaguely remembered... well, pretty much everything was vague. He'd been trying to explain that the students needed food and water. That it wasn't their fault this was happening. That they needed help. He must have been an especially bad patient, because the paramedic had dosed him with something that knocked him out.

Flash felt as if he had two voices arguing in his head. One was confident and supremely powerful, ordering him to make sure that Sunset's army lived long enough to fulfill its mission. The other was screaming that something was wrong, that he shouldn't just follow orders, that he needed to fight back. The second voice was strangely muted, however, as if it were speaking from the other side of a door.

I can't let the others starve.

I can't let Sunset Shimmer win.

I can't beat Sunset.

I can't just do what she says.

I can't do anything else.

He felt as if he had a splitting headache, but even that was distant and dull. Maybe it was the medicine numbing it, or maybe it was just that nothing mattered except Sunset Shimmer's voice in his head, telling him what to do.

Flash tried to sit up and realized that he couldn't move. He was restrained, strapped gently but inescapably to the bed, just as he was bound to Sunset's will. He had no idea how long he struggled against the restraints before the door finally opened and a woman in a white hospital uniform and nurse's cap entered.

"Nurse!" Flash called out. "Please, my friends at school—"

"Oh, brother," the woman cut him off. "They said you'd be trouble."

"But they're running out of food!" Flash cried. He was barely aware of what he was saying, he only knew that he had to say it.

"I don't want to hear a word about that school until we take care of you, understand?" The nurse consulted the chart at the foot of his bed as she spoke, finding that he was suffering from exhaustion and dehydration as well as possibly altered mental status. "So the quickest way to help your friends is for you to get better."

The nurse's logic appeared to satisfy whatever compulsion was driving Flash, allowing him to settle back into the bed. If fulfilling Sunset's command meant he first had to convince this nurse that he was healthy, then that's what he would do.

"Okay," he answered dully. "What do I have to do?"

"For now, rest," she ordered him. "We've got you on a saline drip, and we'll bring some food soon, if you're feeling up to it. You'll have to speak with a therapist too." Her businesslike demeanor softened for a moment. "I can't imagine what you've been through," she said gently. "We're not doing this to be mean, or because we don't care about your classmates. We just need to make sure you're healthy before dealing with anything else."

The nurse's instructions formed a checklist in Flash's mind so clear that he could practically see it:

-Rest
-Eat
-Get cleared by therapist

Whatever else she said faded to meaningless background noise.

Adagio threw the boy to the floor of the locker room in between the three sirens. It was quite a bit harder because this one wasn't already fighting Sunset Shimmer's spell, but working together the three of them managed to break her hold on his mind and replace it with their own.

Sonata leaned tiredly against the wall behind her, drained from using so much of her limited magic. Aria was in even worse shape, since she'd had to fight off Sunset Shimmer only a few minutes ago. She swayed on her feet, then sat heavily on the nearest bench to rest.

Adagio was as tired as either of them, but she would never show it. She sauntered forward and tilted the boy's chin up to look into his eyes.

"We were never here," Adagio murmured. "Got it?"

The boy, who was practically nose-to-nose with her, looked like he might melt from the attention. "Got it," he confirmed.

"You saw us going the other way, didn't you?"

"That's right," the boy, whose name she hadn't bothered to learn and never would, whispered back. "In fact, I'm sure I saw you three heading toward the library. I'll tell them that we can corner you in there."

Adagio smirked, though to her thrall it looked like the divine smile of a goddess. "Good boy," she said. "Go spread the word."

Once the boy was gone to do their bidding, the sirens sat and looked uneasily at one another.

"Well, this is a fine mess," Aria grouched. "We've got less magic than we had when we got here."

"True," Adagio admitted, "but look at what we got in return."

"A demon lady mad at us?" Sonata said.

"A small army of our own," Adagio countered. "An army that we can use to keep freeing other students until they all adore us, instead of this Sunset Shimmer. And soon, we'll have our true power back."

"But we don't even know where they are," Aria argued. "For all we know, they found the ones we freed and killed them already."

"Mmm, let's hope so," Adagio answered with a smile. "Imagine how much harder they'd all fight Sunset Shimmer's spell if she forced them to kill their classmates." She sighed. "But you do have a point. Our thralls won't do us much good out there, away from us. We need to gather our forces."

"How?" Sonata asked.

Aria lifted her head as an idea struck. "We know where all of Sunset Shimmer's slaves will be going," she said. "So anyone not going to the library must be one of ours."

"That's right!" Sonata exclaimed. "If we just avoid the library, we can find all of our new 'friends,' and we'll be safe doing it."

"Unless we run into Sunset Shimmer," Adagio replied. She had the brief satisfaction of seeing the other two's faces fall, but she had to admit that she didn't have a better idea. "So we'll just have to be careful," she continued. "Split up. Each of you find two or three of our thralls and bring them back here. That'll be enough to get us started."

"Get us started on what?" Sonata asked.

"Restoring our power, fighting back against Sunset Shimmer, and taking her magic for ourselves," Adagio answered. "Just for starters," she smirked.

"What do you mean?" Aria asked.

"Think about it," Adagio replied. "We came here following Equestrian magic. Something from Equestria got here somehow. Maybe we can use it to find a way back."

"But we came here from Equestria," Sonata retorted. "And we couldn't go back."

"True," Adagio said, "but Starswirl must be long dead by now, and his banishment spell with him. Maybe another unicorn sent Sunset Shimmer here, but I think there might be something here we can use."

Aria and Sonata shared a rare glance. Was it possible? Could the answer not just to restoring their power, but to getting back to Equestria be somewhere in this school? Suddenly, both were on their feet and eager to continue the mission.

"That's more like it," Adagio said approvingly. "Let's go."

Twilight kept trying to put the strange encounter out of her mind, but she couldn't. A talking dog would hardly be the strangest thing about this situation, but a talking dog that looked like Spike, answered to the name Spike, and called her by name, but said she wasn't "his" Twilight? What was that even supposed to mean? Did that mean there was another Twilight out there somewhere?

"Focus." Twilight growled to herself. There was no way she'd get any answers until that dog was caught, so the best use of her time now was to keep studying the strange energy coming from Canterlot High. To that end, she pulled a large, heavy necklace out of her bag and put it around her neck.

This necklace was both the lynch pin and the potential weak point of her mission here. She'd designed it based on the readings she'd taken of the strange energy, and it should—should—allow her to track, measure, and contain that energy, or at least a sample of it. Unfortunately, things had started moving very quickly, and she hadn't had enough time to perfect the design or to test it. Going into the field with a mere prototype was asking for trouble, but it was the best she could do with the time she had. Besides, containing the energy was the truly dangerous part, and it was unlikely that she'd get close enough to the school to try that.

She activated the device and was pleased to see it start blinking, indicating that the energy was coming from the school. She'd already known that, of course, but it was confirmation that her device worked. She set up her laptop and a couple of other instruments and began to record her findings, now supplementing them with observations of the school and the students around it. She was still baffled, but determined to solve the puzzle.

Twilight quickly got absorbed in her work and soon lost track of time. She'd likely have stayed in that same spot all day, but a commotion coming from the school finally broke through her hyperfocus. She blinked and rubbed her eyes, then looked to see what was going on.

The students, who had been standing in unbroken, unmoving rows, had all sprung into action at once. They were forming groups and running all over the school grounds. The formation was broken. The defenses, such as they were, were down. Twilight squinted at the activity and considered her options.

Running into that mess was hardly the logical choice. Or was it? She had no idea what had caused the students to start behaving this way, and she couldn't count on it lasting or happening again. This was her chance, possibly her only chance, to get a sample of the energy. On the other hand, who knew what they would do if they realized she didn't belong there. She could be risking her life. Was it worth it? To learn more about a completely new form of energy with mysterious, seemingly impossible properties? To learn how to capture it, harness it, maybe even to produce it? To make the greatest scientific discovery since nuclear fission?

"Miss?" One of the officers had the weird talking dog by the scruff of its neck. The dog had put up a hell of a fight at first, but now it seemed resigned to being carried. The policeman walked down the alley toward where Twilight had been working. Her backpack was leaning against one of the buildings, but there was no sign of the girl. "Huh. Where'd she get to?"

The officer's radio crackled.

Crap, the speaker said. Someone get Shining Armor on the horn. His sister jumped the barricade.

"What?" the dog exclaimed suddenly. "Twilight went in there?!"

"Shut it," the policeman grumbled. Twilight had jumped the barricade at the point that he was supposed to be guarding. There was going to be Tartarus to pay once the Captain found out. "This is your fault, you know."

"Put me down!" The dog started squirming harder than ever. When the policeman refused to let go, he twisted hard and sank has teeth into the man's arm.

The cop swore and dropped the dog, who immediately bolted for the school.

"Twilight!" he shouted as he ran. "Wait!"

The Beacon is Lit

Sunset Shimmer sat in a large rolling office chair, irritably drumming her fingers. The chair had once been Principal Celestia's. It was the closest thing to a throne in this wretched school, but it was far from what she deserved. Large though the chair was, it barely held her immense demonic form, and she still hadn't worked out how to properly sit back with her wings in the way. Her aggravated tapping had already worn deep gouges into the plastic arms.

She was supposed to be sitting on Princess Celestia's golden throne in the royal palace, not this pale human imitation. How had it all gone so wrong?

A few hours earlier...

The first of the brainwashed high schoolers trudged through the portal into Equestria. Sunset kept a close eye on the sky—she only had a short time to get her forces through before the portal closed for another thirty moons. She had wanted to send a smaller advance party to scout the area around the portal before going through herself, but Twilight's meddling had forced her hand.

Hoof, she reminded herself with a self-satisfied grin. I'll have hooves again.

When there was no apparent retaliation against the vanguard of her army, Sunset motioned with two fingers. Snips and Snails, the only ones loyal enough to entrust with power and free will—utterly sad as that was—flexed their talons and soared through over the heads of the mindless throng. Sunset again checked the position of the moon. She was cutting it closer than she liked, but there would be enough time. After another couple of minutes, by Sunset's reckoning, she finally flew through to join them.

She hadn't felt it in several years, but the warping, twisting feeling of having her entire body reshaped by the portal was unforgettable and just as unpleasant as she remembered. It only lasted a few moments, however, and then she was through. What she walked into was much more painful.

"Argh!" Sunset screamed as she was blasted by a searing ray of light. What was going on? Sunset hadn't even managed to get her hooves under her and she was already under attack! With a flash of black-tainted teal magic, Sunset teleported herself away from the blinding beam and into the air, supporting herself on leathery wings that made her look like some strange cross between a unicorn and a batpony. She used the momentary reprieve to blink the spots from her eyes and take in the situation.

She was in an unfamiliar room that seemed to be made entirely of crystal. Her advance forces, whom she'd been counting on to secure the area, were now in pony form and trapped behind along one wall behind a pink energy bubble. Snips and Snails, looking comically sheepish, were each trapped in a bubble of their own. One of those shields was being maintained by Cadence, of all ponies, and the other by a dusky alicorn whom Sunset had never seen before. A third alicorn, Celestia herself, stood in the center of the room glaring daggers at Sunset Shimmer. What in the darkest depths of Tartarus was all of this? Why were they here? Had they somehow known that there would be an attack?

"Sunset Shimmer," Celestia stated in the coldest voice her former student had ever heard from her. "That is you, is it not?"

Three alicorns and a squadron of guards stood between Sunset Shimmer and conquest. It was impossible odds, even empowered as she was by the Element of Magic. Instead of doing the logical thing and retreating, however, Sunset felt an insane rage rise up as she gazed once again upon the pony who had failed her. Who had abandoned her. Who had restrained and coddled her to the point that Sunset had no choice but to leave, to try to make her own way in a place where there was nopony to hold her back.

"Oh, it's me alright," Sunset growled. "I'm home, Celestia."

Sunset's claw broke through the arm of her chair with a sharp crack. The tip of the arm broke off, leaving behind jagged edges that dug uncomfortably into her skin. With a scream of absolute fury, Sunset picked up the entire chair and hurled it across the room, where it smashed to bits against the wall. How had everything gone so unspeakably wrong? No sooner had she stepped through the portal than she'd been attacked by three princesses, one of whom was supposed to be imprisoned in the moon! Sunset clenched her fists so tightly that her talons drew blood.

"Where is Twilight Sparkle?" Celestia demanded.

"Twilight Sparkle?" Sunset Shimmer feigned ignorance, relishing the moment. "Twilight Sparkle..."

"Princess Twilight Sparkle," Celestia barked. "The one who went to retrieve the stolen Element of Magic from you!"

"Oh!" Sunset exclaimed with a too-wide smile. "Yes, now I know who you mean." Still, she didn't answer, preferring to draw it out. It was some small revenge against the hated alicorn before her.

"Sunset Shimmer." Celestia's voice dropped until she was all but pleading with her former student. Her front hoof pawed the floor, a nervous tell that she normally never have let slip. "Tell me. Where is Twilight Sparkle?"

Sunset's eyes narrowed to slits, and her smile turned predatory.

"She's dead. I killed her."

A sudden silence fell over the room, shock and devastation spreading across the faces of the three alicorns in front of her. It would almost have been worth it all, just for that one moment. But this was not enough. Now, while they were distracted, she had an opening. Now she could—

The sudden attack blindsided her. It had come not from one of the princesses, but from the white unicorn who was even now holding her army prisoner behind his magic barrier. He was powerful—no match for her, but still shockingly strong—and he was very, very angry. With a bellow, he poured his all into another attack that sent the dazed Sunset Shimmer careening into the ceiling. Before she even had a chance to fall, Cadence joined the assault. The perfect pink pony princess screamed with grief and fury as she pummeled Sunset with blast after blast of magic.

Sunset hastily threw up a barrier, only to have it torn down by a masterful stroke of spellcraft from the unfamiliar dark gray alicorn. She wouldn't realize until later that this strange newcomer was Celestia's long-lost sister. For now, she was only another threat, and far too great a threat for comfort.

Snips and Snails, freed from their prisons as the ponies holding them channeled their magics toward attacking Sunset, tried to come to her aid but quickly found themselves trapped again, this time within a barrier erected by the uniformed white unicorn. He did so without dropping the spell holding the brainwashed ponies, and Sunset's estimation of this guard captain went up another notch.

Celestia stood trembling in the center of the room as the others vented their fury. She did nothing but watch as her loved ones assaulted her former student; the student who had killed another of her students, whom she had loved as her own daughter. Tears streamed freely down her muzzle.

One of the ponies tried to use their magic to lift the crown off of Sunset's head. Through her own rage and addictive rush of the Element of Magic's power, Sunset's logic finally reasserted itself. She knew when she was beaten. Immediately encountering three alicorns and a squad of guards, all of whom were prepared for her arrival, was something that she had not planned for. She sent a quick pulse through the mental link that bound her slaves, issuing the command to retreat. Using a final burst of magic to erect another shield, she used the scant moments it bought her to dive back through the portal and into the hated human world. Apparently the softhearted ponies on the other side decided to let her minions go, for most of them managed to rejoin her before the portal sealed again.

Sunset's anger exploded with the force of a bomb, blasting out the wall of Celestia's office and opening it to the hallway beyond. With her rage vented for the moment, she pinched the bridge of her nose between two claws to assuage her growing headache.

Get it together, Shimmer, she scolded herself. There's no setback you can't overcome. You've got thirty moons to make a new plan. Start planning.

...

"For realzies?"

Adagio and Aria, sitting at a small booth in a small diner in this wretchedly small city, both gritted their teeth at the ditzy expression.

"Because I think this place is the worst," Sonata continued, oblivious.

"I think you're the worst, Sonata," Aria sniped back.

"Oh yeah? Well I think you're—"

"Ughhhhh!" Adagio burst out. "I'll tell you one thing. Being stuck here with you two isn't making this world any more bearable." She forced out the last word through a clenched jaw.

A sudden flash outside caught Adagio's eye. She turned to look, her eyes widening as a pillar of light shot into the sky. None of the humans around her seemed to have noticed anything. That, combined with the resonance in the pendant she wore around her neck, made her all but certain that she was witnessing something impossible: Magic, in a world where there was none. Ignoring the odd looks the other patrons gave her, Adagio raced out of the diner for a better look.

The surge of magic had already faded by the time her sisters joined her. They stood staring for a long moment, waiting to see if anything else would happen. Nothing did, but there was no denying what had just happened. As if to confirm her thoughts, Adagio's pendant gleamed with an inner light that had nearly gone out in the thousand years they'd been trapped here.

"Did you feel that?" Adagio demanded. It was rhetorical, for she knew full well that the other sirens would have felt the same thing she had. "Do you know what that was?" She waited for a long moment, her disbelief rising as the others failed to catch her excitement. Sonata finally gave a clueless shrug, prompting Adagio to practically dive forward and seize Aria by the shoulders.

"It was Equestrian magic!" she exclaimed.

"But this world doesn't have Equestrian magic," Aria drawled in reply. Sure, she'd felt something, but Equestrian magic in this world? That was just stupid.

"It does now," Adagio purred. She didn't know how it was possible, but the pendant didn't lie. "And we're going to use it to make everyone in this pathetic little world adore us." Wherever that magic had come from, however it had come to be here, she would find it and make it her own.

Aria and Sonata exchanged a quick glance. Something had changed just now. Something had sparked inside, and Adagio was burning with long-forgotten energy and confidence. Even her old swagger had started to return, that almost-subconscious sway of her hips that enraptured those around her even before she used her magic.

In a moment of unspoken agreement, Aria and Sonata moved up to stand beside their leader. The sirens were back.

...

"What in the world was that?"

She leaned forward over her terminal, fingers flying as she tried to record the strange phenomenon that her computers had just picked up. Some sort of massive energy surge had just occurred near the center of the city. Her eyes flicked across the confusing, often contradictory data, and she allowed herself a slight hum of satisfaction. She'd been right.

A few days ago, while monitoring airwaves and energy supplies to see if the Mayor's plan of free city-wide wi-fi was at all feasible—part of an independent project she'd taken on for her studies—she'd picked up an anomaly near the middle of the residential district. It appeared to be a power source, not tied in to any of the city's infrastructure as far as she could see. More fascinating still, it didn't appear to match any kind of known energy: It wasn't electrical, not thermal, not even nuclear. Her teacher had shrugged off the impossible readings as a glitch and suggested that she ignore it, but her too-curious mind would not let her. For the past few days, she had been staying long after school hours to record and analyze everything she could about the strange power source.

She pinned one last note to the growing billboard of interconnected events and ideas that hung on the wall behind her computer, then stepped back and adjusted her glasses to get a better look at it. That energy spike just now had been even bigger than the last, and she knew it wasn't just her instruments acting up. She was going way outside the parameters of her independent study, but if this didn't vindicate her, then nothing would.

Speaking of spikes...

"No doubt about it, Spike," Twilight Sparkle said with confidence. "There's definitely something going on at that school."

Spike barked in reply and wagged his tail happily.