Her classmates chanted her on as she stepped forward to face Sunset Shimmer in the last challenge. Her pendant had been absorbing magic from girls of the other team all day as if with a mind of its own, and now she was being told to release and use it to ensure their victory.
“…unleash the magic, free the magic…”
So many things could happen from doing this. So many outcomes, impossible to predict. How fascinating…
“…unleash the magic…”
Sunset read the look on Twilight’s face, how she was staring at her pendant. She couldn’t be thinking… Sunset reached out and tried running to stop her.
“…free the magic—”
“Now!” called Luna and Cadance from the podium to start the final round.
Twilight shut her eyes and pulled the pendant open, bracing for—
Golden
—hissed a disembodied voice. Twilight paused. She glanced past her hands and gasped. Floating in front of the open pendant and slowly spinning was a 2-foot-wide glowing magenta energy apple, a golden-shining red ball in the center. Everyone else around her had stopped in surprise, also staring at the apple.
You wished to know more about this power, said a deep voice in her head.
“Huh?” she let out in surprise. In a flash, the energy apple disappeared into a collection of golden streams, snaking up into the air over her and reconnecting to form a large red metal apple shape with a golden open disk at the bottom.
Then observe, the voice continued, and behold it!
Golden Arms
The apple suddenly descended, Twilight frozen in shock. She dropped the pendant as the metal apple slipped down over her head, cutting off the light. A burst of red energy streams looped down as a white glow spread across her body, fading to reveal a body suit with a silver torso and black limbs with slim gold armor decorations.
Ōgon no Kajitsu (bwo-ong)
A burst of gold sparkles flew from the metal apple as its red surface split into four sections and it unfolded: the back surface flipped down onto her back to reveal a gold inside; the two side slivers folded down over her shoulders and bent back up into ‘V’ shapes, the outer points each bearing a tooth-like whitish spike; the front plate bent and folded down as well, its gold top half staying pointed vertical, bearing a pair of the whitish spikes; and revealed by this was the red-edged golden helmet with a pair of smaller spikes on the sides and pale eye covers. With another burst of gold sparkles, the armor plates latched into their new positions and in the glare of a golden shine a large red apple shield appeared in her left hand, a sword’s hilt sticking from the top like a stem. Around her waist was a black belt with a small knife on the side and padlock in the middle, the golden cover flipped down open.
Clad in this new armor, Twilight only stood there. People on both teams could only stare in shock. Though desperate for victory, the Shadowbolts were starting to doubt that this was part of any plan.
Twilight drew a growling deep breath, causing Sour Sweet to jump, before letting it out slowly.
Sunset took a cautious step forward. “T-Twilight…?”
“At last,” said a deep voice from the armor. It wasn’t Twilight. Gasps echoed through the crowd. “Twice defeated, I return again.”
The red and gold warrior jumped up to grab a glowing blue ball, but from it burst the projection of a blue and silver warrior who stabbed them with a spear. From behind this projection, a figure in silver armor with a red cape flew down at them with a kick.
“With this new power…magic…,” the voice continued to itself, the figure looking at its hand, “I am stronger than ever before.”
A figure in black, silver, and magenta armor used their sword to shove forward a large purple energy apple, but it was intercepted by a pair of armored figures flying in with kicks, pushing it back at them. As the figure prepared a slash to block their own attack, they glared at one of their two foes, a silver warrior with a red cape.
The figure clutched its hand into a fist. “And Kazuraba Kouta isn’t here to stop me this time.”
Murmurs of unrest grew among the students. Sunset grasped for answers with a meek, “What?”
The figure looked over to her. “Forget the human whose body I have taken,” they said. “I am Kougane, the Golden Fruit incarnate, and this world shall belong to the Forest.” Kougane grabbed the sword hilt at top of his shield. “Now…,” he said, pulling out the sword and raising it high, “fall to my power, like the Femushinmu before you!”
Kougane turned and slashed his sword down, sending an energy arc towards the Canterlot High horse statue. The arc hit and opened a long zipper across the statue’s surface, tangles of vines reaching out through and enveloping it. Upon these vines grew several round red fruits with blue and black tendrils draping down from the bottom.
The crowd of students entered panic mode, Crystal Prep students fleeing aimlessly as Canterlot High students tried to point them into the school building. Amidst this, Kougane sent several more slashes, these opening up zipper cracks in midair. A student looked into one of the cracks, catching a glimpse of an eerie forest before a shape obscured their view: a squat insectoid figure with blue legs, a hunched gray back, and large claws, an Elementary Inves. The student stumbled back as the Inves jumped out, followed by five more, including some with green legs and red legs.
Down from another crack jumped a blue and brown deer Shika Inves with spiky blue and orange antlers. A green dragon Seiryu Inves stepped out and turned to a group of students. Another group had been backed into a corner by a snarling light blue and black beetle Kamikiri Inves with long antennae trailing from its head. Through a vertical crack close to the ground, another group of Elementary Inves stalked closer.
As the chaos and commotion unfolded around her, Sunset’s mind was racing, trying to grasp what was happening and to think of what to do. It took a few seconds for her to realize that the commotion had suddenly fallen silent. She looked around to find herself standing alone in front of the school, with no sign of Kougane, the other students, the cracks, or the Inves. It was absolutely quiet.
“Huh?” she asked into the echoing silence. “W-where did every…?”
Suddenly, a blond girl in white robes was standing across from her in the courtyard. Sunset blinked to make sure she was seeing this right, and in a rainbowy blur, the girl slid backwards, and was now walking up from the sidelines to where she’d just been standing.
“This is not the end,” she said in an echoing voice that did not match the timing of her mouth moving.
Sunset watched as the girl reached down to grab something at her feet. In a rainbow blur, her vision jumped, and the girl was now walking towards her holding a silver object. Her vision jumped again, and the girl was back kneeling down to pick up what Sunset now saw as Twilight’s pendant. Her vision jumped, and the girl was walking to her again, closer now, and holding the purple pendant instead of the silver object.
“Free the Elements.”
Her vision jumped, and Sunset was holding the pendant before it jumped again, and the girl was standing in front of her, taking Sunset’s hand to put the pendant in it. As she touched the pendant, her vision jumped, and it was replaced by the silver object from before, which Sunset couldn’t make out the details of, but when the girl let go, her vision jumped yet again and she was now holding the pendant again. Sunset looked up at the girl, now seeing that her eyes were different colors.
“The power is still there,” the girl said, before Sunset’s vision jumped one last time and she vanished.
Sunset stared at the pendant, barely noticing as the surrounding commotion slowly returned, ignoring who the girl had been and instead thinking about what she’d meant. What power is still where?
There was a snarling in front of her, and she looked up as a red Lion Inves with long claws roared in her face. She barely had time to flinch as the Shika Inves crashed backwards into the Lion, sending it stumbling back. The Shika steadied itself and snorted, and was about to do something when the Lion growled and slashed it in the back. The Shika let out a grunt and turned around, putting its head down and charging the Lion with its antlers, snaring and shoving it away.
Sunset turned to where the Shika had come from and saw Rainbow Dash and Applejack standing there, AJ brushing her hands together.
“Always there for a pal,” Rainbow said (ding).
“Some new mess we’re in this time, ama’right?” commented Applejack (ding).
Kougane lifted his sword and stabbed it down into the ground, several zipper cracks opening outward in a lightly spiraling pattern. The slices of ground fell away like paper, all except the one Kougane stood upon, opening a massive view down upon a forest overgrowing a gathering of stone ruins. A red and gunmetal bat Komori Inves flew up out of it and began circling the courtyard.
Frozen in shock, a Crystal Prep student slipped as the ground folded out from under his feet, but Rarity and Fluttershy caught his arms, pulling him back up and away as the zippers opened further (ding) (ding). They directed him towards the school, where Pinkie was holding the door open (ding).
Then a realization hit Sunset. It was obvious. She ran up to the edge of the hole and shouted, “Kougane!” He tilted his gaze to her. “Whatever you’re doing, I’ll stop you. I will protect this world and free Twilight from you!” He simply looked at her for a few seconds.
“What is it you call this event?” Kougane asked, turning to look around. “The Friendship Games? There is anything but. I may have stolen magic to increase my power, but the Golden Fruit is nourished by the hatred in the hearts of humans, and it has never been nourished so much as here. Tell me, why is this world worth saving? My host has seen it, it is filled with those who will threaten or harm simply to do so…”
“Though I suppose I could also have it… denied,” Principal Cinch had suggested, sliding the folder away from Twilight. “What do you think I should do?” Perched out of view on top of the principal’s chair, a black grasshopper with teal legs jumped down to her.
“You turn on each other at the first sign of weakness…”
“That was a really bad speech,” Sugar Coat had said to Twilight on the bus, “you should consider not speaking in public.” Unseen, a black grasshopper landed on her shoulder.
“You use your words only to hurt…”
“You… are such a sweetie,” Sour Sweet had cooed to Twilight, before immediately hissing, “I am watching you.” As she’d turned and walked away, another unseen black grasshopper flew up and landed on her back.
“All of this spite…”
“You’re really bad at this!” Sugar Coat had called to Twilight during the motocross event. Clouds of black dust accumulated onto a padlock with a rusted apple-shaped cover reading “L.S.-GOLD”, slowly polishing it back to a shining gold.
“This is the inevitable nature of your kind—no…of their kind, you of another world. I have seen this before…”
A dark red and black figure swung their red sword gleefully, slashing through swarms of Inves at the heart of a forest, shouting arcane words of a forgotten language from a lost civilization they had thought would last forever.
“They are already on the same path as those fallen to the Forest. I am simply helping them along. Why would you block their destiny?”
“Because you’re wrong!” Sunset shouted back. {Lock On.} “Look around you, look at everyone. Does it look like they care about which stupid school they go to anymore? It’s true that sometimes people may hurt each other, and meaningless squabbles can be taken way too seriously, but when it really matters and the right things are on the line, then they can put aside their differences and work together to help each other. We may not always look like we’re united, but when we are, there’s nothing we can’t accomplish, because…” Was she really about to say this? “Because friendship is magic!”
“Your words…,” said Kougane, lifting his sword to look at it, “they are the same as those spoken by Kazuraba Kouta. Please accept…a portion of my vengeance against him!”
Kougane slashed his sword and sent an energy arc flying at Sunset. She held up her arms in defense, in the process holding up Twilight’s pendant. All on its own, the pendant flipped open, and when the energy slash hit it, the attack stopped; it began spinning around like a propeller as it bent and was sucked into the pendant like water down a drain.
“What?” Kougane said in surprise. Sunset was just as surprised as he and probably everyone else watching, but she was also encouraged.
“You may have stolen their magic for raw power,” she said, “but you couldn’t take it away from them completely because you don’t know how it works. It’s the connections between us that give us our strength, and as long as we’re connected, that strength will never be gone. And we are always connected, by friendship,” she held the pendant high in her left hand, “friendship that comes from: Honesty!”—an orange aura surrounded Applejack, and an orange beam shot from her into the pendant—“Loyalty!”—a light blue glow encompassed Rainbow Dash, a beam shooting into the pendant—“Laughter!”—a pink aura around Pinkie Pie and pink beam into the pendant—“Generosity!”—a purple aura and beam from Rarity—“And Kindness!”—and a yellow glow and beam from Fluttershy.
A purple aura seeped out of Kougane’s armor, being sucked over into the pendant as well. “What is this?” he accused. “What are you doing?”
A red aura flowed up from Sunset herself into the pendant, and it snapped shut. It glowed and its rim morphed out into a silver rectangle with a hoop on the top and a disk against the bottom; the original circular cover shrank and redecorated itself to now show six segments around a circle in the middle: the cutie mark symbols of the others, Twilight’s included, ringed around her own, on which was printed “L.S.-FiM”.
Looking over what she somehow knew was the silver object from that weird vision, Sunset found and pressed a button on the side, a thin tab jutting out from the disk base with the announcement of—
FriendsForever
{When we’ve obtained the ultimate power…}
A ring of six circular zippers opened in the sky over Sunset, the disks of sky dropping away as six large round metal objects resembling the others’ cutie marks descended from the space beyond the openings and slowly began circling her. In a flash, a black belt with a knife like Kougane’s appeared on her waist, but with a larger, square yellow padlock—a Lockseed, she now knew the name—sitting open on it, an orangish yellow much like her skin.
On instinct, Sunset clicked the silver Lockseed’s tab into the left side of the yellow one, a seventh circular zipper opening directly above her, revealing a metal object resembling her own cutie mark with a silver ring at the bottom as the others circled faster. She twisted the silver Lockseed forward, and it flipped open as another layer of the yellow Lockseed’s top section flipped down.
LockOpen
Sunset’s metal cutie mark object lowered out of the opening, Sunset knowing not to fear.
FriendshipArms
It dropped down onto her head, energy strands arcing out as a suit appeared over her. The metal assemblage began unfolding.
DaiDaiDaiDai
The six rapidly circling cutie mark objects suddenly stopped with Twilight’s at the front, then glowed and shot in at her, hitting and covering her with a blinding white light. Scraps of red and yellow armor flew away.
DaiMagic!
Her friends looked on past their raised hands as the glow faded, revealing Sunset standing in a gleaming silver suit of armor, a black cape with a red inside flapping in the wind. On her black chestplate was a collage of their cutie mark symbols surrounded by gold decorations; her visor featured a rainbow gradient comprised of their magic aura colors, her red at the center and the others layered radiating out; and at the front of her silver cone helmet was the upper half of a golden sun silhouette.
“Wow,” was all Rainbow could say.
“You go, Sunset!” called Pinkie.
Kougane glared at Sunset. “That form…,” he whispered.
Her transformation had also caught the attention of the rampaging Inves, who all turned and slowly began approaching. Sunset glanced around, assessing the situation. She clicked the handle of the silver Lockseed forward twice.
Rarigem Shard
A pair of floating light blue diamond gem trios condensed into midair, aiming themselves at the Inves below and raining down streams of small blue diamonds. The sprays strafed the crowd of Elementary Inves, the Inves screeching before exploding. The Kamikiri Inves’ eyes flashed blue and it swung its head, sending its antennae whipping out and swatting one of the diamonds. The diamond turned its ammunition to the Kamikiri. The other sprayed and destroyed the Lion and Shika, still engaged in combat with each other. They both shot at the Seiryu, but the diamonds clinked off of its plated skin. Then they shot forward themselves, the Seiryu breathing a burst of blue flame but failing to stop them as they crashed into and destroyed it.
Sunset ducked as the Komori flew by trying to slice her with a wrist blade. She clicked the Lockseed once.
Rainbolt Cloud
A white cloud condensed in midair in front of the Komori, shooting a rainbow lightning bolt at it. The Komori flipped out of the way and tried fleeing, but the cloud shot at it again, connecting on the third shot, zapping and destroying it.
The pests dealt with, Sunset turned her attention to the horse statue, raising her hand at it. The vines surrounding the statue let go and retracted back into the zipper crack, and it zipped closed again, vanishing into thin air. She raised her other hand towards the school, and all of the zipper cracks in midair closed, the last one sealing off the line of Elementary Inves before they could exit.
She raised her right hand again, and the spiral cracks began sealing, pulling the strips of ground back into place. As the center closed, she turned to Kougane, who had been glaring silently at her throughout all of this.
“Kieru…,” {Vanish…} he hissed.
Flames erupted on his armor, and he stepped back, the flames staying in place as a copy of him made of fire. Beside it, an army of flame clones rose, and Kougane turned and walked away. As the clones charged, Sunset clicked her Lockseed twice.
Twistar Spinner
Sunray Shield
In a pair of flashes, two spinning shapes appeared in midair, orbiting each other as they flew down and cut through several of the clones, who dispersed into clouds of fire, before flying over to Sunset. A purple and white star shield and a red and yellow sun shield, they pulled in and stacked sun on top of star onto Sunset’s left forearm. She clicked the Lockseed again—
Pin Apple
—and a trio of red apples appeared on the ground. She kicked the mass, and it shot into the crowd, bursting the clone it hit and splitting the three apples in separate directions, bouncing from clone to clone. Raising her shield, she ran into the crowd and slashed it through any clone that dared approach.
As the apple pinballs finished off the rest of the flame clones behind her, she saw Kougane standing at the edge of the school building. He raised his sword, and a swarm of black grasshoppers flew out of him before he slashed into the ground, the swarm seeping down into the slice and igniting. Sunset started over, but a burst of flame from the swarm erupted from the ground, a giant form rising with it. A stretch of ground cracked open towards her as a series of flaming spiked neck vertebrae broke free, the spear-horned skull bursting up in front of her with a screech, almost knocking her over. The fiery figure stood tall on four hooved legs as a fan of feathers opened up along its sides. Standing before her was a giant flaming skeletal alicorn, with the normal sized upper body of Kougane’s armor emerging from its back.
“If together you stand,” Kougane bellowed from his perch, “then together you shall fall!”
The fiery equine skull opened its jaws of jagged teeth and released a fireball hurtling at the front of the school. With a gasp, Sunset swung her shield, throwing the top sun layer up to intercept the fireball in midair, the shield getting destroyed in the process.
The skeletal steed unleashed a torrent of fireballs at the building, but the cloud weapon flew in front of the first, and Sunset tossed her shield’s inner star layer into the mix as she rapidly clicked her Lockseed, more star spinners, sun shields, diamonds, and clouds summoning themselves into the path of the fireballs. She summoned another apple cluster and kicked it at the monster, hitting it in the mouth and triggering a trio of small explosions inside its maw, stopping the onslaught. With a pained screech, the monster swayed and took a step back.
“Don’t think that thing’s as strong as it looks,” Sunset warned. She clicked the Lockseed three more times.
Balloobang Mine
Three large balloons condensed floating around the skeletal steed, a blue left of its feet, a yellow right of its body, and another blue left of its head. Kougane looked at them in confusion as Sunset clicked the Lockseed again.
Scatterfly Swarm
A large pink butterfly shape appeared in front of her, aiming at the steed. She threw her hand forward through it, and it burst into a stream of small butterfly projectiles that shot at the steed, flying into and through its chest, buffeting Kougane on their way out. The steed took a step back, moving the stream up to its neck, and it started flailing, accidentally kicking the blue balloon at its feet. The balloon went off like a floating mine, a shockwave and storm of confetti bursting out, kicking the steed over into the yellow balloon, whose detonation forced it back into the third balloon face-first.
As the steed careened back and forth to regain its footing, Kougane growled, “My power…how is yours so much greater?”
Sunset shook her head. “If I had a nickel…” She clicked the Lockseed twice.
Musou Saber
Hinawa Daidai DJ Ju
A black sword with a silver edge and a gun barrel at the front of the crossguard and a black and orange handheld cannon flew into her hands from the sides, and she twisted them to intersect above her head, the saber’s blade sliding into the cannon’s barrel as an extra section of blade jutted out from its handle, making a giant black blade with an orange edge. As the flaming steed steadied itself, Sunset grabbed the knife on her belt and sliced it down twice.
FriendshipAuLait
Holding the weapon by the saber’s hilt and another handle on the back of the blade, Sunset charged at the steed, which screeched and raised a hoof to stomp on her, but because giant things always seem to move slowly, she sliced it aside. Then she jumped up to the steed’s head, raising her blade as it began glowing red, purple, blue, orange, white, pink, and yellow, Kougane shouting at her as she brought it down into the flaming skull’s nose. As she fell back down, she dragged the blade on a glowing cleave that cut through the steed’s lower jaw, down its neck, and through its chest. The beast let out one last screech as it collapsed back, in an explosion breaking back apart into the swarm of black grasshoppers. The swarm flew back into Kougane as he rolled to a stop, quickly raising his apple shield to block an energy arrow that flew at him.
Sonic Arrow
Sunset pulled back on the red bow with blue blade edges to charge and fired again, but Kougane sliced the arrow aside. As he ran at her, she tossed the weapon aside and clicked her Lockseed again.
Musou Saber
Twistar Spinner
Sunray Shield
The two disks reformed her shield as she ran forward to meet him, the two swinging their swords to hit—suddenly everything was gone. All Sunset saw around her was a white void, no weapons or armor, and across from her was—and deflect. Sunset stood in confusion for a second back in front of the school. She had no idea what had just happened, but it was the beginning of a strategy.
Looking up, she raised her shield just soon enough to block Kougane’s sword—and she was back in the white void, but faced not by Kougane.
“Twilight!” she called at the girl whose arm was stretched out at her as if holding a sword, but though none was visible, she knew it was still there back in the—she ducked down past Kougane’s slash, spinning around to hit his shield with her sword—and return to the void. “Twilight, you’re being controlled! Come on, you’ve gotta fight it!”
“There is no Twilight,” Kougane’s voice replied, “only Kougane.” But Twilight’s mouth hadn’t moved, and her glasses were completely whited out by reflective glares. Her arm pushed out—and shoved Sunset’s sword away.
Kougane turned and slashed at her head, Sunset ducking out of the way. She rammed her shoulder into him, sending him to the ground, then slammed her shield down to hold his sword flat against the ground—as they returned to the void.
“He’s trying to say that all humans hate and want to destroy each other,” Sunset continued calmly despite the situation, “but that’s not true. There’s you, Twilight. Timid, a bit nervous, sure, but underneath all of that, I see a curious student who just wants to learn. That was me once, too, so I know. You don’t want to destroy, you want to create.”
Twilight’s foot swung up and hit her in the back, forcing her to stumble—off of the sword, and Kougane kicked her in the gut to send her back. Standing again, he sent an energy slash at her, but she jumped aside, tossing off her shield’s sun layer. It spun and flew at Kougane, grinding against his shield as she raced up again, the sun layer bouncing aside as she pushed her shield against his—
“I know you’re scared,” she said, “but it’s not too late to come back from this. I know that, too, because I’ve done it.”
Then there was a mumble. “Too…,” came Twilight’s voice, “weak…”
As Twilight’s arm shoved Sunset away again, she noticed one of the teal-legged black grasshoppers sitting on Twilight’s shoulder—and planted her foot, pushing herself back forward and ramming both her weapons into Kougane’s—
“You’re part of the power that’s letting me fight him!” she said. “You’re not weak, Twilight, you have strength. Now use it!”—
Kougane pushed her away again, dropping her onto her back.
“I’ll show you strength!” shouted Kougane as he raised his sword, swinging it down as Sunset held up her shield—bringing them again to the void.
“Resist as you will,” Kougane’s voice said, “this world will become one with the Forest.”
Twilight stood with her right arm out as if with a sword against Sunset’s arm held up as if with a shield, but on her left hand, a fist slowly clenched. As Sunset struggled to hold back Twilight’s unnatural strength, she noticed her left hand lifting, reaching up.
“Oh, Kougane,” Sunset said, shaking her head. “Have you not been paying attention to a word I’ve said?”
“Many worlds have resisted,” Kougane continued, “but all have fall—”
Twilight’s left hand grabbed the black grasshopper on her shoulder, squeezing it tightly. “Get out…,” Twilight hissed, “of my head!”
With a wrench of her am, Twilight tore the grasshopper off and flung it away—
Pinning Sunset to the ground, Kougane stopped, then suddenly jolted back, Sunset ducking as the storm of black grasshoppers flew out of him. The swarm flew off left and formed a swirling mass that condensed into a teal and black Grasshopper Monster with large red eyes, falling to the ground. The Grasshopper went into a spasm, sputtering gibberish hisses as the figure in gold armor dropped to their knees, gasping in a familiar voice. Sunset sat up.
“H-how…,” came Kougane’s voice from the Grasshopper Monster, molded from its hissing, “how is this possible?”
Sunset stood back up, pulling the now freed Twilight with her.
“I…,” Twilight stuttered.
“That’s the power of friendship,” Sunset said. “You’ve been proven wrong, Kougane, and Twilight’s by no means the only reason why. Now, let’s finish this.” She looked at Twilight. “Right?”
Twilight looked to the Grasshopper Monster, which was struggling to its feet, then back to Sunset, and nodded. As they turned to the monster, Sunset sliced her belt knife twice, Twilight following suit.
FriendshipAuLait
Golden Au Lait
They pulled back their swords as the blades began shimmering, Twilight’s golden and Sunset’s with her friends’ magic rainbow, and then swung them over forward, sending a pair of vertical energy slashes flying through the Grasshopper Monster as it stood, knocking it back a step with a pained hiss and leaving a pair of glowing lines down its middle. They sliced their belt knives once.
FriendshipSquash
Golden Squash
As they jumped into the air, their right feet glowing rainbow and golden, Kougane glared up at the approaching silver armor about to defeat him for the third time, feeling a rage he never knew was possible.
“Rrr—aaaaaaa!” he shouted, turning away as the figures shot down at him and reaching away, the monster’s fingers beginning to break into black grasshoppers—
The pair of kicks hit him from behind, the Grasshopper Monster blasting apart in an eruption of flames as Kougane’s last shout faded. It was over.
Sunset let out a long sigh as she reached to her back, Twilight dropping her shoulders with a whimper, making Sunset chuckle a bit. She patted Twilight’s shoulder. “Breathe,” she said.
Then their Lockseeds closed on their own, the pair’s armor glowing and melting away in a flash. Sunset’s belt glowed and faded, and she quickly caught the falling silver Lockseed on reflex. Twilight’s belt simply evaporated, but as her golden Lockseed fell, it rusted over again, cracking as it hit the ground. Twilight felt like not reaching down for it, but its front cover flew off in a sudden burst of sparks, shattering, and leaving the Lockseed as a smoking heap that was slowly turning to dust.
“I’d say it’s for the best,” Twilight sighed. “I…I’m sorry for causing all—”
“It doesn’t need to be said,” Sunset cut her off. “I know. I’m sure we all do.” After the battle had ended, students from both schools had begun coming out of the woodwork to look at the aftermath. Among them, Sunset’s friends waved at them.
As she waved back, the silver Lockseed glowed before expanding, reverting back to the purple pendant. Sunset offered it back to Twilight.
“No,” Twilight said, “you keep it. You use it better than me anyway.”
As the crowd gathered, pulling their attention away, however, neither of the girls noticed the ripples slowly fading out on the back surface of the horse statue’s pedestal. Something had just gone through.
Author's Note
This Henshin One-Shot is a double feature with my recent blog post, 24 Reasons Why "Friendship Games" and "Golden Fruits Cup" Are Almost The Same Movie.
