Talking is Magic: Equestria Girls

“Everything okay in there?” Rarity called, referring of course to Twilight Sparkle and her canine companion, Spike, who’d followed her. offered her moral support as she made her way through this strange yet familiar world if the faces of her Ponyville friends were any indication.

“Yes!” Twilight replied, a barely concealed note of panic in her voice. But to herself she admitted that everything was not fine. She was running out of time: she needed to get her crown back tonight or else she’d be stuck in this world for thirty moons!

Enter Spike: the voice of reason.

“Uh actually,” Spike started, smiling sheepishly. “Remember the fake crown Sunset Shimmer brought back to Equestria when she was trying to steal your crown?”

Twilight remembered the instance quite vividly. How could she not? A seemingly random unicorn had broken through what was supposed to be one of the most secure facilities in the Crystal Empire, and stole her crown! In hindsight, the alicorn turned human really should have kept the thing under lock and key. After all, the crown wasn’t just for show.

It doubled as a rare and powerful magical artifact, known as the Element of Magic, that served as the power source that allowed five other like artifacts, collectively known as the Elements of Harmony, to harness a magic so powerful that it could bring almost any adversary to their knees, and were often used as Equestria’s primary means of defense.

At least, when Spike wasn’t talking them out of their harebrained schemes that is.

“Yes, but what does that have to do with this?” Twilight asked curiously.

“Well remember the night that we spent in the library?” he asked. At her nod, he explained, “I slipped out of the library to Principal Celestia’s office to see if I couldn’t just get the crown back, seeing as no one was around. As it turns out, her door was unlocked, as was the drawer where the crown was being kept, so I was able to grab and get it back into your bag with no one being any the wiser.”

Twilight was conflicted after hearing his explanation. On the one hand, she should be proud of her assistant for managing all of this without any sort of assistance. However, the motherly part of her demanded that she at least admonish Spike for stealing the crown even if it was technically hers to begin with.

Having seemingly read her mind, Spike added, “I didn’t steal the crown. Remember the fake crown Sunset Shimmer tried to switch with yours?” Without waiting for any sort of response, he continued. “I had that with me when I went through the portal so it wasn’t so much me stealing anything as it was simply swapping the crowns back.”

Well at least the pressure is off of me to try to win the Fall Formal. Twilight thought. Then she remembered all the work she and the girls had put in to try to get the rest of the student body to vote for her. The more she thought about it, the more it seemed wrong to bail on her new friends after all the help they’d given her.

They gave this their all and it’d be wrong of me to pull out now. I’ve been a student of friendship for a long time. It’s time I show what I’ve learned to the students of Canterlot High. That thought solidified Twilight’s resolve.

Thanking Spike for recovering the element, Twilight stood up and opened the curtain to the dressing room where she’d been hiding. She and Spike had decided to tell their friends the truth about their origins. The main reason being that given all the help they’d provided, they deserved that much. Plus, as far as Twilight and Spike were concerned, it would make explaining things much easier with regards to just why they needed the crown back. After all, it seemed strange that a new transfer student was as invested in winning the Fall Formal as Twilight was, given the circumstances.

Besides, there was still the issue of Sunset’s rule over the school that Twilight had every intention of breaking. Canterlot High had been deprived of friendship for far too long and she was going to usher in what would amount to a new age of peace and love between students.

Noticing the five girls staring at them, Twilight explained everything. How the Fall Formal wasn’t happening that night. Apparently what had happened was that Sunset Shimmer had ordered Snips and Snails to ruin Pinkie’s decorations.

“WHAT?!”

“But the Fall Formal has to happen tonight,” Twilight was cut off when Pinkie had exclaimed once more. Or at least she would have had Applejack not covered the bubbly girl’s mouth.

Twilight had begun to explain the truth of her origins.

That was a lie.

Pinkie Pie had made a ridiculously good guess of their story. Her friends, Twilight and Spike included, had a hard time believing albeit for different reasons. The latter was more surprised that she had been able to guess that outright. Her school friends had simply thought that she had finally gone off the deep end.

Rainbow Dash was the first to recover. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure that isn’t the reason.”

“Nope,” Spike disagreed, speaking in front of the girls for the first time. “She’s pretty much spot on.”

There was a resounding silence as the five girls stared at him in shock. They had each collectively recovered and exclaimed.

“HE CAN TALK!?”

Spike seemed to enjoy the stunned expressions for he stepped forward and supplied his explanation. “Oh yeah! And back where I’m from, I’m not even a dog! I’m a ferocious fire breathing dragon!” Given the fact that he’d been able to stand on his hind legs and maintain perfect balance, none of the girls held any illusions that he could be lying. That said, Twilight knew that calling him ferocious was a bit of a stretch…

Elated could not even do justice to how happy Fluttershy was. After all, it wasn’t every day that she got to talk to animal who could talk back to her. She’d even gone so far as to push Rarity and Pinkie out of the way and crouch down to speak with him eye to eye. The response from the animal lover had caught Spike off guard as she stared eagerly at him while asking just what he was thinking at that moment.

Spike had admitted that he would have liked a scratch behind the old ears. Naturally, the soft spoken girl was only too happy to oblige as she went so far as to pick him up and hold him tightly as she did as he asked.

While she watched her soft spoken friend play with her canine companion, Twilight had asked Pinkie how she’d known their story.

“Just a hunch,” Pinkie replied brightly.

From there, the rest of the girls had sought to clarify what had just been conveyed. Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rarity had been amazed to learn that Twilight was, in fact, a talking pony, a princess, and from another world. Twilight’s confirmation nod had been enough to amaze Rainbow Dash and worked the rest of the girls into an excited chatter.

“Told ya’,” Spike grinned at smiling Twilight.

Returning to the gym, the seven of them made quick work of cleaning up the mess Snips and Snails made, complete with song and dance numbers! It helped that the rest of the student body had gotten involved and in practically no time at all, the gymnasium was clearly ready for the Fall Formal. It was here that the Celestia and Luna appeared, declaring that the Fall Formal would be moving ahead as scheduled.

“So you’d better get out of here and start getting ready. Oh, and don't forget to cast your ballots for the Fall Formal Princess on your way out!” Celestia called to the applause of the general student body.

The seven watched with renewed hope as each student promised to vote for Twilight as they deposited their ballot into the box Luna was holding as they made their way out of the gym.

“I can’t believe we pulled that off,” Fluttershy remarked back at the boutique.

“I can!” Rainbow replied eagerly. “We’re awesome!”

Spike could tell that Rainbow would have said more were it not for the fact that Rarity had spoken up and reminded them that they needed to get ready, and they absolutely needed to look fabulous.

One song later found the six girls adorned in clothing fit for a gala, much less a Fall Formal.

They ambled into the gym with Spike watching from afar, he was a dog after all. Shortly before entering the school, the six spotted a sleek black car pull up. Flash Sentry’s head emerged from the vehicle and approached Twilight to ask her for a single dance. While Spike enjoyed Twilight’s embarrassment at the invitation, he resolved to keep an eye on them.

Given what had already happened to them in this world, Spike wasn’t taking any chances.

* * *

“Anybody seen Sunset Shimmer?” Twilight asked, scanning the crowd for her competitor while they danced.

“Maybe she’s too embarrassed to show up!” Rainbow suggested. “She’s gotta know that you won by a landslide!”

“Maybe…” Twilight trailed off. If there was one thing she knew for certain about Sunset Shimmer, it was that she always had a contingency plan in the works in case something went wrong. She was certain that the redhead had another plan brewing and now it was just a question of what it was. She would have continued to think on it had she not spotted Principal Celestia and Vice Princess Luna step onto the stage to announce the winner.

“First off,” Principal Celestia began, “I want to say how wonderful everything looks tonight. You all did a magnificent job pulling things together after the unfortunate events of earlier,” she told them enthusiastically to a resounding applause from the student body. “And now, without further ado, I'd like to announce the winner of this year's Fall Formal crown. The Princess of this year's Fall Formal is…” she accepted the envelope that Luna had passed to her.

Opening it slowly as to build dramatic tension, everyone watched with bated breath as she pulled a small slip of paper from inside and read the name.

“Twilight Sparkle!”

With the sound and sight of students cheering as the backdrop, Twilight stepped onto the stage to accept the crown.

“Congratulations Twilight,” Celestia told her as she placed the crown on her head. Even if she’d already gotten back her element, it felt satisfying that she had been able to break the almost tyrannical grip that Sunset Shimmer had held on this school since the redhead arrived.

* * *

Spike was grinning from his perch in the bleachers. He was happy that Twilight had managed to, despite the odds being stacked against her, win the contest. It was even better since they’d managed to make a big change in the school in the scant few days that they’d been around.

It just goes to show that Twilight really had come a long way in her studies about friendship.

Twilight Sparkle. The Princess of Friendship. Spike mused, grinning at the thought. I like it.

He would have continued on his train of thought had he not noticed Snips and Snails sneak into the gym. His eyes narrowed. He wasn’t about to let anybody ruin this evening for his friends so he came up with a plan of sorts on the fly.

Namely, he snuck over to them and bit their ankles.

Both had let out yelps of pain before giving chase.

* * *

Spike grinned as he led them on a wild goose chase before pushing the door open. The mouth breathing and the sounds of vomiting nearby told him that they had given up trying to chase him. That certainly made things easier for him.

Unfortunately, his victory was fleeting for when he opened the front door, he soon found himself caught in the clutches of one Sunset Shimmer. At least her hands were soft, for what little that was worth.

“Now that I have you,” she grinned maliciously at him. “I can force Twilight to hand over her crown!”

That piqued Spike’s interest. He’d known that ever since Sunset Shimmer had stolen the crown, she wanted to do something with it. After all, one does not simply steal an ancient artifact simply for show.

“Why are you so fixated on this crown anyway?” Spike asked. “There’s no magic in this world so it would be useless to you here!”

“Oh I don’t want this puny high school,” Sunset licked her lips at the thought of all the power she’d be wielding with the Element of Magic at her beck and call. “I want Equestria.”

Spike stared as she wrapped her hands around his muzzle to keep him quiet. What she didn’t expect was a kick to the gut knocking the wind out of her. The kick had slackened her grip and allowed Spike a chance to escape.

As soon as he was a safe distance away from her, Spike turned around to find her back on her feet, glaring at him. Thankfully, she made no move to try to trap him again, still wary from that kick.

“So how would having the Element of Magic help you conquer Equestria?” Spike asked warily. Sunset took a few moments to compose herself before she explained.

“With the power of the Element of Magic at my disposal, I will be able to form my own army and storm Equestria!” Sunset was practically foaming at the mouth in her excitement. She could feel it; it was so close that she could practically taste victory.

Unbeknownst to her, Spike had the real Element of Magic in a small bag that he’d gotten. While Sunset was distracted by her fantasy, he silently slipped past her and hurled the element of magic through the portal.

* * *

Rarity was pacing back in an attempt to work off some of the nervous energy in her system and forth as she, the princesses, and the rest of their friends camped out in front of the mirror portal that Twilight and Spike had gone through to get Twilight’s element back.

They’d been gone for the better part of two days and with no means of communication, the eight mares were naturally getting worried for their friend’s safety. It certainly didn’t help that Twilight and Spike were in an entirely different world there would more than likely have some sort of learning curve that the duo would have to overcome before they could plan a means to get the artifact back.

The tension was broken when they noticed the glass of the mirror beginning to glow. They’d stood up to eagerly greet their wayward friends but what they got was something else entirely.

… Namely the Element of Magic flying out of the mirror and hitting Rarity right in the face. The speed with which it flew out knocked the alabaster unicorn over. The others rushed over to her aid and their eyes widened when they spotted the artifact lying on the ground next to her.

After making sure Rarity was okay, they all gathered around the newly returned element of harmony. Luna was the first to recover from the shock as she picked up the crown in her artifact and smiled at the portal.

“They did it,” she said simply. The others could only nod in agreement.

* * *

“You WHAT?!” Sunset shouted when Spike and Twilight told her what the former had done. The latter, safe in the knowledge that the element was in safe hands, was perfectly content to dance the night away until such time that they had to return. Unfortunately, that plan was thrown out the window when she’d learned of Snips and Snails attempted abduction of Spike. Thankfully, finding him had been easy, as the two boys had essentially spilled their guts least they incurred the six girls’ wrath.

“That’s right,” Spike nodded, “I threw the crown through the portal. You won’t be able to get it back without having to face the other five elements of harmony AND three princesses. Your chances aren’t looking too good.”

Sunset sighed as Spike laid it all down for her.

“Besides,” Spike added. “Your plan wouldn’t have worked anyway. After all, the portal can only handle so many people going through it. If you had your entire army go through the portal at once, wouldn’t they end up getting stuck in the mirror?”

For a few seconds, Sunset envisioned her army traveling through the portal all at once, only to get stuck on the other side. The mental image would have made her laugh were she not so furious with the turn of events. Recovering from Spike’s reckless move, Sunset responded. “No because they would have been going on in single file!”

“...and promptly being arrested by the Royal Guard for attempted treason.” Spike finished. “Besides, there’s still the problem of human to pony learning curve that they would have to deal with after the fact.” He gestured to himself awkwardly. “I can walk on two legs back in Equestria and learning how to run on four legs took more than a little practice so more than likely, your forces would have the same problem too.”

Sunset had refuted the claim stating that she’d had no problems adjusting between biped and equine when she stole Twilight’s crown. Spike argued back, stating that she was an equine and had the benefit of muscle memory to fall back on to help her adapt quickly.

“This also raises the question of how they would adjust to their powers in Equestria,” Spike continued without letting up the pressure. “Some of them will have magic, others will have wings, and the earth ponies will have better strength and endurance.”

“No because thanks to element of magic, I would have been able to use this power to instill within them the knowledge they need to use their horns and wings and attack Celestia so that I could rule Equestria all on my own!” Sunset declared, laughing maniacally. The six girls stared at their peer as though she’d lost her mind. In retrospect, that wouldn’t be that big of a stretch if her previous foaming at the mouth experience had been any indication.

“But let’s say that you, by some miracle, managed to beat Celestia,” Spike asked. “Where does that leave you?”

If reading comics had taught the young drake anything, it was that villains never thought their plans through very far past simply defeating their arch nemesis. Nor do they consider the ramifications of their actions on others.

Sunset rolled her eyes as such an obvious question. “Rule Equestria and reign in a new era of glory!”

“Even still,” Spike insisted. “Wouldn’t the ponies who live in Equestria either rebel or flee from you? With no subjects, all you’d have is land and no means to utilize it.”

Sunset blinked. It was clear to Spike that she had not considered that as a possibility.

“So that brings us back to the why,” Spike said. “If comics have taught me anything, it’s that anyone who wants power has something that they want to prove. Twilight and I both know that you were Princess Celestia’s personal student before you were dismissed.”

Sunset had admitted the endgame goal was to prove to Princess Celestia that she was ready for princesshood. That she was ready to be an alicorn.

“I suppose I should share with you how it all started…” Sunset began.

In the end, she had surprised them all with her response. Her endgame goal was to get Celestia’s love and affection by becoming an alicorn. As it had turned out, Sunset was not very close to her parents and had ended up running away once she was old enough to take care of herself. She’d learned of Princess Celestia’s school for Gifted Unicorns and easily passed the test to get in, impressing Princess Celestia enough to take her on as her personal student.

She had become addicted to the praise that the princess showered upon her. When the alabaster mare showed her a mirror and asked that when she looked into its infinite depths, what she saw. She had responded that she saw herself as an alicorn. When she demanded to be made a princess, Celestia had refused, stating that princesshood could only be earned not given at the drop of a hat.

That drove Sunset off the edge of her sanity as she continued to research the mirror behind Celestia’s back, her curiosity driving her forward. Unfortunately for the unicorn, she had been caught not long after she’d started researching into forbidden magic. That immediately resulted in her dismissal as Celestia’s pupil.

However, Sunset hadn’t been one to simply walk away quietly if her ambition had been any indication. As the guards moved to escort her out, she’d taken them by surprise and fled through the mirror.

Well if she was able to overwhelm the guards before, I can see why she might think that it would be easy to beat them again. Spike mused while staring at Sunset warily.

“So you’re telling me that you went through all this trouble just because you wanted to be a princess?” Spike stared. Sunset sighed and nodded. “You realize that ruling isn’t anywhere near as glamorous as they make it out to be. It’s not all balls and galas that novels make them out to be.”

“What do you mean?” Sunset asked.

“Think about it, Princess Celestia always has some kind of work to do. Day court, meetings, paperwork, ribbon cutting ceremonies among other menial tasks. If you took over Equestria, you would end up falling into the same problems that she has right now. Are you sure that you could handle all that paperwork or all those ponies coming to you with their problems?”

Sunset grimaced. She had not been a fan of the paperwork that she’d had to fill out to start attending classes at Canterlot High. For all her magical and mundane knowledge, she didn’t know just what the hay a social security number was or why it was so important. Plus there was also the paperwork that she’d had to fill out for her bike. That had been a nightmare…

Now that she thought about the paperwork that she’d be required to do, the royal advisors she’d be obligated to hire because there was no way that even with all the power in the world, that she’d be able to rule Equestria the way she wanted.

“That and there’s also the fact that ponies will be watching your every move, ready to strike if you slip up even a little, assuming that they hadn’t already run away.” Spike pointed out. “I don’t know how Princess Celestia does it but just one wrong mistake could have ponies demanding to have you overthrown.”

“Not if I have them arrested for sedition first,” Sunset pointed out quickly. “Then nopony would even think of trying to overthrow me if they knew the consequences…”

Spike then retaliated with the potential for a barren Equestria bereft of life: pony or otherwise. With no ponies, or any living beings for that matter, to rule, Sunset wouldn’t have been a ruler, she would just be an ordinary mare.

A mare with a lot of land, but a mare nonetheless.

Spike then questioned how she intended to bring in this new age of glory for Equestria. Sure, she may have had her inexperienced and brainwashed army to fight. However, their inexperience, assuming that they didn’t lose to the Royal Guard outright, would only end up with their inevitable defeat at the hands of another nation if they got the impression that Equestria was rallying up a stronger military.

“I…” It was clear that Sunset had not thought about that avenue at all.

“The other nations would be scared of Equestria building a military,” Spike pointed out. “They’ll be like: ‘are they planning an invasion?’ ‘Are they going to invade us?’. That’ll only cause them to build up a military and then they might attack us in fear, to prevent us from taking over their lands!” That’s what tended to happen in Spike’s comic books anyway albeit on a smaller scale.

“Besides, there would still be the problem of bringing about the day and the night,” Spike pointed out.

“You realize that unicorns, before the princess brought about day and night, were able to do it themselves,” Sunset retorted. However, Spike could tell that from the look on her face, she was grabbing at straws to keep her argument alive. They both knew the Hearth’s Warming tale: it was a team of unicorns that brought about day and night. It was only alicorns that were able to possess enough magic to usher in the day and night on their own.

“Yes,” Spike agreed, “but none of them know how to do that now. The element of magic is a lot of things but it doesn’t, as far as I know at least, give you the power to raise the sun and moon and you would have defeated the only ponies who know how to do that, rendering them unable to do it for you.”

Sunset grimaced as the final nail had been placed into the coffin that would house her plan for her domination of Equestria.

“Now that you’re mentioning all these things,” Sunset sighed, her muscles relaxing as she stared up at the stars. “Being a princess and doing all these things… it just doesn’t seem like it’s worth it. Especially if the surrounding nations try to attack us.”

“It really wouldn’t be worth it,” Spike agreed. “Besides, you would be missing out on so many other opportunities to try new things and make some new friends! Besides, you know what they say about hindsight: it’s twenty twenty.”

“True,” Sunset agreed, leaning back to look at the stars as she and Spike sat on the school steps. Twilight and her friends had since headed back to dance after multiple assurances that Spike would be just fine with Sunset. “Looking back, this idea for power and ruling Equestria doesn’t seem all that attractive anymore. I honestly don’t think it’s a life that I want to lead. If I try to take it by force, nobody would yield and then there'd be rebellions...” Spike could see the gears turning in her head. Since she was not an alicorn, she would eventually die anyway so she wouldn't be able to rule Equestria for its entire duration like she had wanted.

"I think I'd like to start over with a clean slate," said Sunset abruptly. "These decisions are going to haunt me and there's nothing meaningful for me to continue down this path."

“So you really want to turn your life around and genuinely regret the decisions you’ve made?” Spike asked, staring at the fiery haired girl next to him as they stood on the front steps to the school. “You realize that it won’t be easy and there will be those out there who will be mad at you for what you’ve done up to this point.”

“Yes,” Sunset nodded, “I know it’s really hard to believe given what I was like in the past, but now that you’ve mentioned all the ways my plan can go wrong.” She leaned back and let out a heavy sigh. “I just don’t think it’s worth the trouble. It’ll only make the gap in my relationship with Princess Celestia bigger and that’s assuming that she doesn’t hate me for running away or stealing Twilight’s crown.”

“For what it’s worth,” Spike spoke up. “When Princess Celestia first mentioned you, she seemed more concerned for your well being than anything else. She also told us that she had kept the mirror in the throne room in the hopes that you would return and that you two could reconcile.”

It took all of Sunset’s willpower not to break down right there and then.

Princess Celestia still cared about her.

Now she had to prove that she was worth the alabaster alicorn’s concern. She would have to make some big changes in herself before she could forgive herself for all of the things she’d done during her time in this world.

“And you won’t have to go through this alone,” Spike spoke up; the sound of footsteps drawing near, prompting Sunset Shimmer and Spike to turn around to find the six girls that had ended up besting her for the bid of the Fall Formal crown. “You’ll have some of the greatest friends there to help you along the way.”

The six girls appeared taken aback by the prospect and opened their mouths to protest when Spike shot them his adorable puppy dog eyes.

It was super effective!

But there was still one stipulation.

“I’ll still expect an apology for last spring’s debacle,” Rarity huffed, her hands on her hips. Sunset readily agreed as the five girls struck up a conversation with the now former bully. Twilight watched on before turning to her canine companion.

“I still can’t believe that you managed to persuade her not to go through with it,” Twilight told Spike while scratching his belly.

“Trust me Twilight, when you’ve read as many comic books as I have, you tend to pick up a thing or two about how villains think,” Spike replied, content in Twilight’s arms.

“Twilight,” Sunset addressed the purple princess for the first time. The girl in question, looked up to face the other girl. She was not looking at her rival-turned-friend but rather, she was staring up at the sky. More specifically, she was staring up at the moon. “If you want to return to Equestria, you’d better hurry. That portal will be closing any minute now.”

Twilight and Spike turned to stare up at the moon and realized that Sunset was right. She could see the shadow of the moon had since reduced to a sliver, a telltale sign that they were running out of time.They exchanged goodbyes with the six girls with Sunset Shimmer who promised that she would do the best she could to make amends and learn the magic of friendship alongside her peers. Twilight and Spike also promised to figure out a way to come and visit any time.

With those as their parting words, Spike and Twilight stepped through the portal, eager to return to their own friends back in Equestria.