Chapters Uni looked from his desk, which he had just recently had his eyes glued to, over to a window. He stared out at the clouds that were trying so desperately to block his view of the vast blue sky above his and all of his classmates heads. He smiled and thought to himself, 'What a beautiful day...'
He returned his gaze to the flat, wooden block that was his desk, and decided to take a nap. But before he could close his eyes and enter the land of dreams, he heard a voice calling his name.
"What's up, Uni?"
He turned his head toward her. He knew that voice anywhere. He would recognize it in a crowd and hear it over the loudest of winds if he could.
Sunset Shimmer.
The love of his life, in a way. He did feel something for her, but since he couldn't tell her back then, and she never noticed or told him how she felt, it was just kind of...up in the air.
"What's up, Shimmer?"
She smiled. "You're what's up, stupid." She joked. "Why are you sleeping in class?"
"Sleeping 'in between' class." He playfully corrected her.
"You really think you can take a nap in the ten minutes we have until class starts?" She asked.
"You'd be surprised."
Sunset's smile widened. "I bet I would. Get up you moron, and let's go to class."
"Yes ma'am!" Uni said, saluting her this was the army and she was his commanding officer. Come to think of it that wouldn't be a bad scenario...
"Come on , slowpoke!"
He was broken out of his daydreaming by another call from Sunset. He looked over to her. Her smile was now a full on grin. He loved seeing her like that. Happy and without a care in the world. To him, it was when she was at her most beautiful.
He made his way over to her and the tow of them made their way to class. This was the class sunset shared with her friends, and she had told him that she would tell him about them later. He assumed she wanted his meeting them to be a surprise, so he said nothing, and just went with it.
In fact, he kind of went with a lot of things when it came to Sunset. He trusted her. He knew that every time she had something planned, it could only be fun.
As the two walked into class, side by side, and sat in their seats, they were immediately bombarded with questions by none other than Rarity, the class tease and one of Sunset's six friends.
"Oh? And Who is this I see? Is our dearest Sunset Shimmer already climbing the steps to adulthood?"
Sunset blushed and smiled at Rarity, but she still yelled, "It's not like that at all! Uni and I are just friends."
"Ooooh. Already on a first name basis I see. How long have you two lovebirds known each other?"
"Around two years." Uni said, gaining a glare from Sunset Shimmer, as he had yet to see that he was just encouraging Rarity.
But he quickly realized his mistake when Rarity said, "Two years?! And you two haven't even been on a single date?! I must remedy that immediately!" She stood up.
Uni put out his hands to stop her. "N-no, no, it's fine. We're fine just being friends."
"Really, darling? Well, it's your loss. Sunset here's a sight to behold."
At that, Sunset blushed even harder and played in her hair, twirling a strand of it. "S-Stop it, Rarity. Please."
"Oh I'm just teasing darling. Nothing wrong with a little fun between friends, after all."
"I think you've had more than your fair share of 'fun', Rare." said a voice from nowhere. Uni looked up to see a girl in glasses. She had purple hair with pink and lavender highlights.
'So she was the girl who said that. I'm glad she did, otherwise i'd be in a 'very' bad situation. I have to thank her later.'
"Aww, but Twilight!" Rarity whined.
"No buts, Rarity! Now apologize."
She pouted, but looked at the two of them and said, "I'm sorry you two. I really didn't mean to make anyone uncomfortable."
Sunset spoke up, smiling at this and placing her arm around her friend's shoulder. "It's fine. Rare. I know you didn't mean it."
The two smiled at each other in what Uni thought was the single most adorable display of friendly affection in the world. He couldn't help but let out an involuntary "Aww."
The two, having heard this and looked at him, were now blushing furiously.
"Ahem. Girls, as touching as that little display was, I believe we still have a class to get through."
All eight pairs of eyes were the size of saucers as they slowly turned to see their teacher, Ms. Melody Grand, looking at them with the most stern glare the seven students had ever seen.
Uni however, did not know who she was, and had said as much.
"I am the teacher for this class, Mr. Uni. And I believe you are the new student that arrived this morning?"
At that, all the girls stared at Uni with surprised expressions.
"What?" He said, as he didn't know what they were staring at him for.
then, with a harmony to rival the best chorus in the world, they all said, "You're a student?!"
What followed that was the strangest, most unforeseen occurrence in all of Canterlot High's history. But that, is a story for another time.
After the surprising news with Uni, class continued on, ending without further incident and moving along smoothly.
Soon, class was followed by lunch, where the seven girls were enjoying lunch. Or at least they would be if Twilight wasn't currently taking her sweet time choosing a meal from the many options present on the line.
"Now let's see here..." Twilight said, pointing at each food on the line.
"Um...Excuse me, miss?" said the lunch lady with a nervous smile.
"Yes?" asked Twilight.
"You're...holding up the line."
Twilight looks behind her and sure enough, she sees a bunch of angry faces staring at her.
"Oh sorry. Ahahaha. I'll...just be a minute." twilight said, placing her hand behind her head nervously.
She quickly made her decision and made her way over to the table where her friends were. But, just before she made it to the table, she felt a force knock her over from the side. She fell over and hit the ground, followed closely by her lunch. Just as the thought crossed her mind that she was going to get splattered by the lunch she worked so hard to choose, it...didn't...happen?
She opened her eyes, which had been closed as she awaited what she thought was surely an unavoidable fate, and saw something that she thought shouldn't be possible.
Her tray was...floating. Floating in mid-air. Surrounded by a strange black aura.
And standing beside her prone form, smiling as if nothing at all was wrong, was Uni.
She got up and looked at him like he was some kind of new species, as she did with everything she knew nothing about.
"How are you doing that? Is it magic?"
"Yes."
She was floored. He had said it so bluntly that she was left speechless for many minutes before she finally made her way to her seat and sat in it, still looking at the kid who had become a phenomenon of epic proportions right before her eyes.
The rest of her friends were speechless too. They hadn't seen anyone do any magic for a while ever since Sunset's little freak out.They were in battle stances in an instant, but Uni just looked at them as if they were all doing some kind of spontaneous acting scene.
"Um...What's up, girls?"
"What's up is that you're using magic. And the only magic we know of to ever be here is Equestrian Magic." She whispered as she glared at the boy in front of her, who was now seated and was continuing his staring.
"Well, I am from Equestria after all. I don't see what the big deal is."
Everyone was immediately floored once more.
There it was again, his blunt statements. He was just so nonchalant. It was almost as if he had no sense of urgency at all.
"You're from Equestria?" Twilight whisper-yelled at him.
"That's what I just said."
"What is someone from Equestria doing here of all places?" Fluttershy asked.
"I was sent here a while ago and i've been here ever since."
"Sent here? By who?" Rainbow asked, still glaring.
"Yeah. I'd sure like ta have an answer ta that there question myself." Apple Jack said, adding her voice to the mix.
"I don't know...I just came here. That's all."
"yes, darling of course. We believe you." Came Rarity's voice.
Everyone looked at her "We do?"
"OF course we do. Now, we don't want to pester the poor boy do we? Let's eat. I'm sure our food has gotten cold by now anyway."
The rest of the day's classes went along nicely, and the eight friends sat with each other, talking and laughing.
Sunset went over to Uni, patting him on the back.
"Sorry about my friends." she said.
"It's fine. It's perfectly understandable that they would be suspicious of a guy with powers. I mean after all, I. Have. Powers."
"You do. And I'm kinda glad I taught you magic when I did, other wise you wouldn't have been able to save my friend when you did."
"That was nothing. Just being friendly I guess."
"Is that what you call it?" Sunset smiled at Uni.
"Yep."
Suddenly a voice could be heard over the chatter. It was close, and really sincere. Upon hearing it, both Uni and Sunset looked up to see none other than Twilight, standing in front of them with a sheepish look on her face.
"Thank you for helping me." She said, blushing and looking away.
"No problem. It's what friends do."
Twilight looked at him as thought she had just gotten hit in the face with a brick. A very emotional brick. And then...
She hugged him. She hugged him tight.
"Thank you so much!"
Uni looked at sunset.
"Help me...?"
"She hasn't had a friend outside of us since her own little magical incident."
"Oh really? what happened?"
"She doesn't like to talk about it."
"Oh I see-"
"Yo! Uni! What's up dude!"
All of a sudden, yet another voice cut through the sound of talking. Everyone looked over to see what it was, and there stood...someone Twilight never thought she'd see.
Uni knew the person as well, as soon they both said, "Lemon Zest!"
The two looked at each other, surprised that the other knew who it was.
They continued to talk in unison for a while.
"How did you-"
"Her-"
"She's my-"
They were both cut off by a simple. "Uni! How've ya been?! Hey Twilight, haven't seen you in a while."
Lemon Zest had come over to the two of them upon seeing them get up.
Twilight was the first to regain her senses from the shock she was feeling.
"Um...hello Lemon Zest. How are you?"
"I'm doin' great! Hey, Uni, wanna go hang out over there?" She pointed to some random direction and grabbed Uni's arm.
"Wait." Sunset said, shocking the three.
"What is it, Sunset?" Uni said.
"I understand how you know her twilight since you went to crystal prep, but how do you know her Uni?"
"Oh yeah right..." He pulled his arm away from Lemon for a moment to explain.
"See, I was here before you came Sunset."
"I know that. How do you know her?"
"I kinda...went to crystal prep before I came here. Like Twilight."
"What do you mean, like me. How could you possibly know that I went?"
"Um...I went there too. I saw you in the halls. Never got a name until now though."
"So, you wanna go hang out like we used to?" Interrupted Lemon.
"Sure. Let's go. I'll be off guys." He waved to the girls as he basically got dragged off by Lemon. He laughed. She was always enthusiastic.
The girls just took a moment to stare off at them as they moved further and further away.
Back with Uni and Lemon, the two were having a leisurely walk in the park.
Uni had no idea what Lemon considered 'hanging out", but he certainly didn't expect this.
"So? How are things?" He said nervously.
"Things are great. I've been having the time of my life at Crystal Prep. I miss you though."
"Really? We really didn't see each other much did we?"
"What are you saying?! We hung out like, all the time back then."
"Is this your definition of hanging out, Lemon?"
"Ah, well no. It's just that I felt like taking a walk with you. I mean, after all, we used to chill together too, ya know?"
"Ah, yes, now I remember." With that he stuck out his hand. Lemon knew exactly what he meant.
His hand was laid flat in the air, patiently awaiting her own as she slowly placed it upon his and they separated, followed by a rapid fire of the slapping of hands, and a fist bump.
"You remembered!" Lemon yelled, hugging Uni as he returned the gesture
"Yep, I remembered." He said.
'Yes, it is time for you to remember...' Came a voice from nowhere. Uni furrowed his brow in thought, earning a confused look from Lemon. Where had that sound come from?
'Remember!'
As soon as he realized that the voice had come from his own mind, something terrifying happened.
His eyes glowed, his body lifted into the air, and in a display of the most dangerous magic to ever exist, he exploded in psychic power, lifting everything around him off the ground and making it spin around him. Everything, including Lemon Zest.
As the park spun, nearly half of it being swept up in the psychic vortex created by Uni, who had now become it's epicenter, he could feel himself screaming.
Due to the constant presence of an ever echoing voice in his head that drowned out everything around him, he was basically being controlled.
He couldn't even hear his best friend's screaming as he mercilessly tossed her around and around in his little ball of magic.
Every muscle in his body hurt. He could tell it was being used to it's utmost limit, and the fact that his body was not his own at the moment didn't do much to help matters. His sense were being blocked out and overloaded at the same time, which caused unbearable pain.
He screamed and screamed as he felt the pain make it's way up his body and back down multiple times.
Back with the girls, they were blissfully unaware of the commotion occurring around them. Or at least they were. For now.
"I wonder what those two are doing." Sunset said as she looked back toward the direction they had walked off in.
"Oh? Are you possibly...jealous, my dear Sunset?" teased Rarity once again.
"You know that's not it!" Yelled Sunset.
"Uh, ya'll? That's nice and all but, I think there's somethin' ya'll should see."
With that, everyone looked at Apple Jack. She was pointing somewhere off in the distance.
They followed her pointing to the spot she had indicated, only to see a great ball of magic present there. It was tearing up the landscape and creating a vortex around itself.
"What is that?" said Twilight in wonder more than shock.
"I don't know, but it's awesome!" Rainbow Dash yelled in excitement.
"I think it's scary..." Fluttershy said, cowering behind her hair.
"Girls, we have to get there quick!"
"What do you mean? What's happening there?" Rainbow asked, confused.
"That's the direction those two went."
Everyone was shocked at that, having not realized the situation until now.
"What are you all doing? We have to go and see what's happening?"
With that they ran off in the direction of the clearing, following the sphere of magic they all saw.
Back with Uni, he was of course still destroying everything around him without hesitation, but he did not wish to. Some force was -and still is- controlling his mind and body.
'Oh come on, you simply have to remember by now! Oh well, even if you don't, you'll be enough to cause trouble here anyway.'
Suddenly, Uni heard a voice from beyond the sensory control on his mind.
"Uni! Uni, what are you doing?"
It was...Sunset? What is she doing here? When did she get here?
"Please Uni! You have to stop!"
Uni stood up in his mind, where his true self had been locked away for the past ten minutes.
"Sunset! Sunset, i'm here! Help me!"
"Uh-uh-uh..."
Uni froze.
"She can't hear you. So no matter how many times you call out to her, she won't be able to listen."
Uni closed his eyes and sat back down, too afraid that his efforts would be futile to try.
Sunset, on the other hadn, had other plans for her friend. She walked up to the sphere and looked at Uni before saying...
"Uni! Stop this now! What you're doing is wrong! You're hurting your friends!"
Sunset pointed out something that he had not noticed before, and he looked around and saw that it was true. Lemon Zest was floating in a circle around him, tossed up along with the rest in his psychic explosion. He frowned and looked back down at her, sighing.
'I'm sorry.' He thought. 'I can't stop myself.'
Then, Sunset had had enough.
"What about me? I'm your friend aren't I? If you keep this up, you'll hurt me, ya know?"
That woke him up a bit, as he began struggling once more. Even his sense rreturned for a moment, but sadly, all he felt, was pain.
"Aggh! Get out of my head!"
Sunset was shocked. She had gotten through to him somehow.But what was he saying? Get out of his head? She wasn't playing mind games. She was serious. Unless...
"Fight it, Uni! You have to try!"
"I...can't...too...powerful..."
Then something strangely unexpected happened. Sunset went up to the sphere, let it take her in it's vicious embrace, and as everything was brought toward him for a final release of power, she...hugged him?
She hugged him. And she didn't let go. Not until he was completely back to normal.
In the meantime, the force was very...very upset. "No! My precious destruction! All of it! Ruined!"
The two of them floated down on to the ground as the electricity dispersed.
Sunset looked down at Uni, who was now unconscious.
"It's alright now. Everything's fine."
What followed that was a nice period of rest for Uni and his friends. Uni needed to recover from using so much magic, as well as the strain it put on his body. It was all just too much for him.
Sunset and her friends sat near him as he rested in the hospital bed. After the incident with Sunset, Principal Celestia had told them to keep an eye on all magic things going on around school. she was the one to call an ambulance for him and even opted to go along with them.
"I'm the principal. I have to keep an eye on my students." she had said that time.
They were all now just waiting for Uni to awaken, which he soon did after two days, after which he was greeted with the most heartfelt thing he had ever seen.
Sunset almost kissed him, Rarity the same, but refused to get in between, 'the love birds' as she called the two of them.
Apple Jack tipped her hat and put a hand on his shoulder, offering him a sincere "We're all glad you're back, sugar cube." and Rainbow Dash nearly knocked the wind out of him with her 'pat' on the back.
Fluttershy simply smiled at him while Twilight tipped her glasses with another sheepish smile aimed in his direction.
Everything was back to normal, for now.
The few days after he had awakened, Uni was released from the hospital. Immediately there waiting patiently for him was Sunset.
She had been paying him a visit often enough to where he had even told her when they were releasing him. In fact, he had gotten so sick of her asking that question, he once made up a time just to get on her nerves which earned him a friendly slap on the back. One hard enough to knock the wind out of him, as with Rainbow Dash
The two of them were now sitting at his home, along with all of her friends. They had begged to come and see him after his recovery in order to make sure he was okay. Rarity of course, had her fun, teasing the two of them to death 'out of love' as she called it. But all was soon quieted by an angry and embarrassed Sunset, and Uni was left to rest while they all made themselves comfortable in his home. With his permission of course.
Out of the corner of her eye, Fluttershy spotted a black mass near his couch. Out of curiosity, she went over to it and petted it, only to be startled near to death when the mass moves and shifts under her, rising to reveal shiny black scales, wide green eyes, and...no teeth?
"Waaah!" She stepped back quickly and hid behind her hair just as Twilight came up to her to ask what was wrong.
She answered with, "D-d-d-d-d-d-dragon!"
Immediately everyone jumped up. However, considering what they just went through, they really weren't in the mood to fight, so they all tried to intimidate it. It didn't work.
The dragon simply growled and stared them down, being more intimidating than any of them could ever hope to be.
Uni saw this and stepped in between them, petting the thing on the head as if it were a pet to him.
"Woah there, Toothless. It's alright now. It's okay."
The girls couldn't believe what they had just heard. It had a name?
The others were either trying to be respectful and saving their questions or just outright avoiding asking them altogether, because they said nothing.
Rainbow Dash however, having no qualms about voicing her thoughts, made clear the one question on everyone's mind.
"That thing has a name?"
Toothless glared at her, and Uni looked like he had just been slapped.
"Toothless is not an 'it', Rainbow! He is my pet dragon, and I love him."
That statement floored them almost immediately. Either Uni was blind, or crazy or both, because that monster was no pet.
This time, Twilight spoke up. "That's the most ridiculous thing i've ever heard! How would you even care for a dragon?! In fact, how does one even exist?!"
Uni just looked at her like she was stupid. "Says the one who deals with magic on ALMOST A DAILY BASIS!"
She stopped. He had a point. They've had incident after incident after incident. Of course, they didn't now, but that was because she and her friends stopped them all. She had even become one herself.
"That may be true, but that brings me back to my second point. How do you care for a dragon?"
"Surprisingly, he eats fish just fine."
Everyone now stood, mouth agape in disbelief at what they just heard.
"He eats WHAT?!"
What followed after that was a lot of petting -mostly from Fluttershy- and a long talk about how he ended up meeting toothless. He told them about finding him in the Everfree as a baby dragon and raising it to be his pet. He eventually brought him along with him, but due to the no pets rule in Crystal Prep, he had to leave him at home and play with and take care of him there.
After that, everyone except Sunset left, wanting to spend more time with her long time friend.
"So, how are you feeling?" She asked as they sat down on his couch next to Toothless' now sleeping form.
"I'm fine, why do you ask?"
Sunset smiled, playfully punching him in the arm. "Not that. You know what I mean."
Unit thought about it, then said, "Oh. That."
Sunset could do nothing more than place a hand on his shoulder and another on his chest, as she always in her little pseudo-hug thing. The doubled attention always seemed to ease his frustrations, if even a little.
"You don't have to say if you don't want to, but i'll be here if you ever want to talk about it."
With that, she tried to get up and leave, only to be stopped by a hand holding her wrist. It was Uni.
"No wait. I...need to tell someone anyway, ya know? Get it off my chest?"
Sunset sat back down, giving him a soft smile and a look of pure empathy.
"Yes, I understand. Go ahead. Say what you have to. I'm here for you."
With that, he launched into the story of his pain.
"It was just...so painful, ya know?" He had to fight back tears and any sound of them in his voice as he looked down at the couch.
"It was...it was like I could see everything I was doing, but at the same time I couldn't. I could feel my hands moving, but they weren't 'my hands'." He balled his fist.
"I could feel every part of my body being slowly torn apart as I used my magic, and yet, I was still whole." He closed his eyes tight, Trying to shut out the world around him as best he could.
"And all the things I did. Poor Lemon. She was one of my best friends." Before he realized it, the tears were flowing freely from his face, despite all his attempts to stop them. Sunset, who had long since seen this and had gone to find a tissue for her crying friend, wiped his eyes lightly and placed a hand on his shoulder, further comforting his sadness.
"Lemon's not dead, Uni." Sunset said, trying to help her friend.
"I know that. But I probably am. To her."
Sunset tried to joke with her friend to cheer him up. "Do you really think that she would hate you for something you couldn't control?"
"Do she know that?" Uni snapped. "She probably thinks I went all crazy and tried to kill her on purpose. After all, she knows I have magic."
"That's right, I do know." Suddenly, Lemon's voice piped up from outside the door, and Sunset went over to the door, opening it for her.
She came in, enthusiasm, smile and all. But that doesn't mean I hate you for it."
Uni looked up, surprised to hear that his friend didn't hate him. "But I hurt you!"
"But you didn't do it on purpose, now did you?"
"No, but how would you know?"
"I heard everything through the door."
Sunset spoke up. "Were you spying on us?"
"Oh relax. It's not like I caught in any sort of indecent act, now did I?"
She turned back to Uni, smiling brightly. "I would never hate you for something you had no control over. I would never hate you at all. We're best friends remember? Have you forgotten what that means?"
With that, she hugged him tightly, joining Sunset in doing the same.
With that, Uni eventually felt better knowing that his friends didn't see him as some kind of out of control monster, and the three friends went their separate ways, Sunset and Lemon leaving Uni's house as he already lived there himself.
He himself went upstairs, immediately plopping onto his bed and pulling up the covers.
Today was a long and stressful day.
Uni woke up refreshed. It was a strange and unusual feeling, considering he usually wakes up tired and sleepy. He completed the daily routine, got himself ready for school, and grabbed something to eat from his house before heading off to school, where Sunset and her friends were waiting for him outside next to the school mascot.
He went over to them and greeted them, receiving the same in return.
He sat there with them, waiting for school to begin in full. They sat and talked with each other about random topics. How they were, did they sleep well, were they ready for the test that was coming up? Sunset even asked Uni if he was okay after what happened to him, but after multiple times of being told that he was perfectly fine, she gave up and decided to trust his decision. Wait. What was that last part?
"A test?!" Rainbow Dash cried. "I hate tests!"
"Is it because ya'll're failin' all of 'em?" Apple Jack teased.
"NO! It's because...well...yes." Rainbow Dash looked down, and sighed in defeat.
Everyone laughed at that, laughing at Rainbow's expense. The poor athlete blushed furiously at the teasing, looking back at Apple Jack.
"Hey!" Rainbow screamed. "I don't fail all of them you know!"
It was true. Rainbow Dash did not fail all of her tests. In fact, she passed quite a few of them. Granted, they were either physical tests, or literary ones. The rest, she barely managed to scrape by enough to keep going.
The group made their way to class a few minutes after school began, making sure not to be late. Just as Twilight had mentioned back at their usual hangout spot, there was indeed a test to be had in their first class. The test took so long, in fact, that by the time all of the students were finished. It was time for class to end.
During their down time between classes, the girls walked the halls and talked. Mostly about the test they just took, that being the thing most fresh in their minds. Rainbow Dash did not like it.
Rarity, one of the group who just so happened to be looking around at he time, spotted a poster on the wall to their left in the hallway. "Um, girls?" she said. "Please look at this."
She grabbed the poster form the wall and began reading it aloud to her friends, who were now crowding around her so that they may view it as well.
"Come to the Fall Formal...drinks, snacks, dancing, bring a friend. School event...etc, etc, etc. Here you are, girls, have a look."
The poster was passed around from person to person as it was read, in much more detail than with Rarity, by each of the eight friends present, one by one. The group looked up in full realization of what this was. With a collective gasp, they all said at once, in perfect harmony...
"The Fall Formal!"
Neither of them had been expecting it to be so soon. They knew it was coming at some point, but never this soon. Neither of them had been preparing, and no one knew who they would bring. The only one left out of this was Uni, who simply stared at the girls as if they'd suddenly had a collective stroke.
"What's going on?"
Everyone looked at him like he was crazy before Twilight stepped up to answer him. "That's right. You're new. You don't know yet. The Fall Formal is a gathering for all the students of Canterlot High. It's a time where students can bond with each other and meet new people while also having a lot of fun."
"It's also a place where I get to show off my awesome dance moves!" Rainbow Dash interrupted.
"You mean the moves that broke a speaker and caused the whole thing to be canceled? Yeah, 'that' was awesome." Susnset's voice spoke out over the chaos of the moment.
Everyone laughed again, and this time Rainbow blushed in embarrassment a little less than before.
"So, it's a dance that the whole school attends to celebrate the students?"
"Basically." said Twilight.
"Cool..." He said, his hand to his chin in thought as he tried to think of who he would take.
Upon learning about the Formal, The eight friends went about their days normally. School ended without incident, all was well, and the group decided to visit Apple Jack's farm for some Apple Pie desert that she offered.
Tis continued over several days as they all got ready for the formal and went about their days. Twilight read and hung out with Spike, AJ fed them desert when they came from school, Rarity made everyone's dresses, Rainbow killed her time with sports, Fluttershy spent time with her animals, and on the day before the Formal, Pinkie threw a pre-party to get everyone pumped up.
It was then that Uni realized, even after doing all these things to get ready, he still had no one to take to the dance with him.
Everyone was taken, and he couldn't ask Lemon, because they were in different schools, so he ended up going without a partner.
While making his way through the many party-goers as they danced and swayed and pumped their fists to various styles of music courtesy of Canterlot High's very own DJ, who Uni came to know as DJ-PON3, he spotted a figure off to the side, standing next to the wall.
Upon closer inspection, he saw that it was in fact Sunset Shimmer. Surprisingly, she was alone as well. He would've sworn she would have someone to go with before now.
He made his way over to her and stood next to her, gaining her attention.
"What's up Uni?"
He looked over to her and smiled nervously. "Not much. Just...here."
"Oh really? You didn't come with anyone?" she asked.
"Nope. I'm all alone. What about you? Why are you standing back here instead of dancing with the others?"
"Crowds...aren't really my thing." sunset said rubbing the back of her head.
"Me neither. I can't remember the last time I went to a party."
'Oh but you will remember...'
"What was that?" Unis said, looking at Sunset to see if she heard the voice as well.
"What was what, Uni?" She asked, confused.
"That sound."
"What sound?"
"That voice."
"Voice? Okay, I think you've had a little too much punch."
"No, i'm-"
And then, it happened again. His eyes glowed, he rose into the air, and a sphere of psychic magic surrounded him, ripping everything from it's proper place, including sunset shimmer herself.
He was locked in his cage again, only able to observe what he did from behind his shell of a body.
The cage was stronger this time, and he knew he wouldn't be able to escape. Even then, he still tried. No disembodied voice was going to beat him.
He struggled against the bars, gaining no ground, as he expected. He kept going and going until he heard the voice inside his head again. But it was different this time. A different voice from the one before. He had no idea who it belonged to.
The voice was speaking to the people around him as it said, "Hello pathetic humans! Everything goin' well? All your ducks in a row? What about your day? How's your day been? Good? No? Well, too bad! Because i'm about to make it worse. Much worse!"
The voice he spoke with was not his own. It was more deep and gravely than his, and had an air of malice to it that was evident everywhere in it.
His magic began to go wild, catching people inside and spinning them around himself along with the rest of the things at the party. Sunset saw this and decided to intervene. She grabbed his hand gently and tried to bring him back with a familiar touch. "Uni, come back to us!"
Inside his mind, Uni heard the sound of a girl's voice. It was Sunset shimmer, although it took him a while to figure that out given how mentally broken and depressed he was at having his body taken. He had retreated to his cage of his own free will this time, until he heard this voice calling to him.
"Uni...Uni, come back..."
He turned toward the voice, new hope filling him as he heard Sunset's voice through his blocked senses. That same hope died the moment he saw that she was caught up in his magic.
But, that same hope reignited once again as anger filled him. Anger at the possibility of hurting his friends again. Of being controlled again. He grabbed the bars of his cage and began struggling once more. He finally managed to get free, only to feel the pain of his magic as it went out of control once more.
He managed to control it by himself at that point, returning to normal. But now, the Formal was ruined.
The event was forced to close and all the students went home. All except for Uni and Sunset, who sat with each other and talked about the incident.
"Sunset I-"
"I know, Uni. I know... I just wish...that there was some way I could help you. Some way I could make all that pain inside go away."
Uni couldn't believe what he was hearing. What did this mean?
"You've gone through so much...you came here with no memory of who brought you here. Whether you have parents or not. And now here you are, constantly tortured by something that I can't even help with. It's just...so frustrating! I want to be there for you. I want to be the one to catch you when you fall, to be there when you need me, to help you through your problems. I want to... I want..."
She trailed off. She'd been talking for a while, and he hadn't said a thing. She must've been boring him. She laughed inwardly, thinking, 'Of course I would bore him. All I do is talk. I never actually do anything to help him. All I can do is beg him to come back to me like a selfish brat who can't do anything by themselves. I'm pathetic.'
She chanced a glance over in his direction, only to see him...crying? Why was he crying? Had she said something to offend him? What was she saying of course she did. All she's been doing was talking about herself and what she wanted, without even giving half a thought to how he felt or how much pain he was in. She should be rushing him to a hospital, but instead she's crying again.
She stared at him until he suddenly stood up, looking her right in the eyes. His tears were gone, and there was something about his posture and his stare. He had this look on his face that said, "Whatever I have to do, i'm doing it", or something like that. She felt like she was looking at a different person all of a sudden. What he said next, shocked her to the core.
"Sunset, I...I like you. A lot. Like, a whole lot."
She stood up to look him in the eyes, awestruck at what he was saying.
"What do you mean you're no help? You're the reason i'm back to normal right now!"
Huh? What did he mean? She was the reason? "Huh? What do you mean? There's no way someone like me could-"
"Someone like you? You mean someone smart, beautiful, and kind? Someone strong, dependable, and determined? Because that's what I see when I look at you!"
Sunset was at a loss for words.
"When I was trapped in my own head after being taken over by whatever it was that tried to control me, it was your voice that brought me back. Yours and no one else's! No help? Never say that again!"
Sunset looked at him. All this time, and she never noticed. All this time, all these feelings the both of them were hiding for so long. They were coming out now, in this moment.
Without a single word, she went up to him, held him, and kissed him. A kiss which he gladly returned.
"I like you too, Uni." She said with a blissful expression. She could never have been happier than she was right now. And now, she was sure he felt the same.
The two stayed like that in each other's arms for a while before heading to their respective homes. The two of them would never forget this day for as long as they lived. For it was the day, they fell in love.
After the incident happened, Sunset and Uni have been closer than ever before, especially now that they were going out. A fact not missed by the infamous tease queen Rarity, who was currently in the middle of mercilessly teasing the couple.
"Oh... So? How is it?"
"How is what?" Sunset asked.
"Oh don't play dumb with me, darling. You know exactly what I mean? How is it going out with our new friend there." She gestured to Uni, who was sitting in bed watching the scene unfold.
The two of them smiled, and Uni took the lead this time. "It's great, actually."
"Oh? So, yo're not denying your love for her anymore?" Rarity asked, genuinely curious on top of the teasing.
"Why would I? We're a couple now."
Sunset blushed at that word. Don't get her wrong. She was happy that he said that, but, that was just it. She was happy. When they shared that moment in the ruins of the Fall Formal, she was so happy that she could've died right then and there and had no regrets.
"Alright, girls." Sunset said. "It's time we all left Uni alone. He needs his rest."
"Really? Are you sure you don't just want to have him to yourself? Oh, you naughty girl!" Rarity teased some more, causing us to blush furiously and look at each other, seemingly confirming...no. They couldn't. He was still in the hospital. after all.
"Oh, what does that look mean?" Rarity teased some more, making us both yell, "Please just leave!"
With that the group left, leaving Uni and Sunset alone in his room. Th-e two looked at each other, blushed again, and smiled.
A few weeks after the incident occurred, Uni was discharged from the hospital. He was brought back to school long after the day began because he still had to rest.
He was brought to school during lunch time by Principal Celestia herself, and after receiving a loving hug and a "Be careful" from her, he sat down next to his friends.
Principal Celestia always did things like this for her students when it was needed, and she loved being a part of their lives and helping them out. She considered it a part of her job as an educator.
When Uni sat down at the table, all the girls looked at him with faces of pity.
"What is it, girls?" He asked, confused.
Neither girl responded. They only shook their heads and patted his shoulders.
He looked around expecting to get an answer that could satisfy his confusion, and the answer he found was not what he expected.
Everyone was glaring at him while eating, especially the other girls in the cafeteria.
He turned around, dejected.
Twilight tried to console him. "I'm sorry, Uni, I..."
He interrupted her and said, "It's fine, Twilight. I'm fine. It's to be expected after all. I did ruin the Fall Formal for everyone. It's only natural they would all hate me."
Twilight looked down, saddened by her friends suffering.
After the tense lunchtime event, the group went to class. It was very hard to focus given the situation with the students however, and Uni ended up falling asleep.
He found himself in his mind again, but this time he wasn't in a cage. He was free. But what awaited him there was not a voice. This...was a figure.
A triangle shaped figure with arms and legs. It was hidden in the shadow, so he could not see it's face. Nor did he know if it had one.
'So, are you awake now?'
Uni did not answer as he was trying to figure out who this was. 'I was already awake.'
'Is that so? Do you know who I am?'
'No I do not.'
'Oh really? Guess i'm not that popular. I am Bill Cypher! I am the one who took over your mind at the dance.'
'It was you!!'
Uni ran towards the shadow to attack it, but it disappeared, reappearing to the side of him.
'Whoa there, you! Watch what you're doing, ya know?' The figure stepped out of the shadows, revealing himself to be a one eyed triangular being, as Uni had thought in terms of his shape.
'I'm gonna make you regret using me for your own selfish gains.'
'I'm sorry, but no. I have much more important things to do than entertain a useless meat sack like you. I'm going to use your body to destroy this world and turn it into a perfect place for the weird and the crazy!'
'You monster!'
'I'm not a monster, i am a god!' With that he floated away, back into the shadow. 'I will over take you one day, and I will take over the world!'
With that he woke up and looked around, seeing his friends looking at him with sad faces once more.
The day went by with relative ease after that, but then something strange happened. When he met up with his friends near the mascot statue, they were all looking at the portal.
Sunset looked back to see him. She gestured for him to come over to her. When he did she said, "Twilight came up with a plan. You said you were from Equestria right? Twilight thinks we should go there to find out what's wrong."
He merely nodded in understanding.
"I already sent a letter to princess Celestia. Twilight thinks that since you and I know about the place, we should go and see if we can resolve the problem."
"Right."
With that, and a few words of farewell from their friends, the two went through the portal.
Once they were through, they found themselves in Twilight's library.
"Where are we?" they both said at the same time.
"You're in my library!" said a voice out of nowhere.
The two of them looked around, searching for the voice.
"I'm over here, Sunset."
Sunset looked in the direction of the voice and found Twilight Sparkle, walking up to them.
"Hi Sunset. How are you?" Twilight said as she trotted up to them.
"I'm good, Twilight. Did you get my letter?"
"Yes I did. There's only one person in all of Equestria who could cause this much havoc at once."
The two looked at each other and said in perfect unison, "Discord."
At the mention of this "Discord's" name, Uni collapsed in pain as a headache overtook him.
Sunset and Twilight nearly jumped out of their skin when they saw this, and went to his side immediately.
"Are you alright?" Twilight said.
"Uni! No!" Sunset screamed worriedly.
Soon, Uni returned to normal, gaining a smile from both mares.
It was when he sat up that he realized that something was...off, about his body. He felt...different.
He opened his eyes to see that he had paws and claws instead of hands, and he felt horns on his head and a tail.
Twilight and Sunset had seen him as well, and were now on the defensive.
"Discord! We thought it was you!"
Uni had no idea what they were talking about. Who was this discord? And why did he apparently look like him?
"No! Wait! I'm not Discord! I don't even know who that is!" He tried to plead with them.
"Yeah, right! We can see you, you know?" Twilight said.
"Wait no, please! I swear I don't know who that is!"
Sunset put a hoof to her chin in thought, and suddenly had a thought.
"Wait...Twilight. I think he's telling the truth."
"What? How could you possibly believe him? It's Discord!"
"Are you sure it's him? Couldn't he just be another Draconequus?"
"Discord is the only Draconequus in Equestria!"
"Do we know that for sure?"
Twilight stopped. Sunset had a point. "Okay, I understand." She looked at Uni. "Sorry for not trusting you."
"It's fine. I did just transform into the person you were saying hurt you. kinda."
With that, the two made their way through Ponyville, looking for Discord. When they didn't find him there, they expanded their search and looked in the everfree, where they found him looking at his reflection in a lake.
Twilight spoke up. "Discord!"
Discord's ears shot up at the sound and he turned around. "Ah, Twilight. How wonderful! Have you come to bask in my beauty as well?"
"No! I've come to get you to stop causing trouble in the human world!"
Discord stood up straight and could now see all the others who were with Twilight.
He looked at Sunset. "Well, if it isn't Sunset Shimmer. I haven't seen you since you left Equestria. Why the sudden return?"
Sunset glared at him. "I've had a change of heart. Twilight helped me to see the error of our ways."
Discord smiled. "Really? That's just great. Although I did love the commotion you caused when you stole her crown."
He looked at Uni "And what about you, son? Are you doing okay?"
"Don't ignore me!" Twilight yelled, gaining the attention of everyone present. "Stop your evil ways! And did you just say, 'son'? "
"I assure you Twilight. I haven't done anything that could be considered 'evil' since I was reformed. And yes, I did say son. That draconequus there," He pointed to Uni. "Is my son."
Everyone simply stared at Uni with surprised expressions.
"You're his son!" Twilight and Sunset said in unison.
"Well, technically he's just a clone of myself, but I love him none the less."
"Explain yourself, Discord!" yelled Twilight.
"Very well, if you insist. But sit down, this might get long." He conjured up a movie chair and projector to which Twilgiht simply rolled her eyes and waited.
"It all started when..."
"Just tell us what happened!" Twilight cut him off.
The movie items disappeared. "Okay, Okay fine. Though to be fair you did say to explain 'myself'."
"I meant the reason behind this."
"Yes, yes, I know. I simply wanted to make it dramatic is all."
The two mares rolled their eyes at him together and waited for the story. The 'real' story.
"A few months ago, I was walking in he everfree. Just taking a walk you know. When out of nowhere I found the mirror pool. All of a sudden an absolutely devious plot came to mind. I thought, 'What if I made a clone of myself? Then ther e would be even more chaos!' So i stepped into the pool and cloned myself once. But then something happened."
Everyone had been listening. And Twilight admittedly, was interested in the story.
My clone was defective. It must have been due to my chaos powers, but when the clone came out, it may have been an exact copy of me physically, but it had it's own personality. I brought it to the human world to see how much chaos it could cause there, but I never expected it to get this out of hand."
"Wait. So you 'knew' about him?" cried Sunset, who was literally crying when she heard that.
"I am a god, Sunset Shimmer. it is child's play for me to observe other worlds."
Sunset shimmer nearly buckled over she was crying so hard. Uni knelt beside her to comfort her.
"Wait. You said you never expected this to get out of hand. Does that meant that you didn't cause the incidents?"
"I only caused the first one. But even then I did not mean for it to go out of control like that."
"So, someone else caused the magic explosions?"
Suddenly a different voice could be heard. Everypony turned to look towards the sound, only to find a triangular figure floating above their heads.
"What is that?" said Sunset Shimmer.
"Um...I think you mean 'who' is that. I, am Bill Cypher. I'm a god, just like you." He pointed to Discord.
Discord glared at him. "You interfered with my chaos."
Bill laughed. "Chaos? Chaos? You wouldn't know chaos if it bit you in the tail." Once he said that, a beast came over and bit off Discord's tail causing him to scream and regrow his tail using his magic.
"What are you, you monster?" shouted Twilight.
"Boy this ones not very bright is she?" he poked her nose. "I already told you, I'm a god. And i'm here to spread 'real' chaos to this world, not some silly practical jokes."
Discord was not amused. His chaos skills were being mocked and he didn't like it.
"Excuse me? And what can you do?"
"Here, i'll give you a demonstration. Hold onto something!"
The four equestrians were puzzled at the statement, but did as he said. Then they watched as he snapped his fingers, only for nothing to happen.
Discord scoffed and said, "My, how 'chaotic'."
But Bill wasn't done. "Oh it's there. Look below you."
Everpony did as he said, and what they saw, terrified them. The grass of the forest had become a giant gaping mouth that was waiting patiently for them to let go of their anchors so that it could swallow them up in it's huge gaping maw.
Just as quickly as it had appeared, it disappeared and everyone looked back up at him as he said, "Get it now? Now, Unfortunately for you, you idiots stopped my plan just a bit, so now I have to do all the dirty work myself."
He snapped his fingers, and in seconds, Equestria was flipped upside down, the Everfree came to life, the earth cracked and crumbled, the sky turned red, and a portal opened up in the sky, releasing thousands upon thousands upon thousands of monsters.
What followed this was of course a battle, and after a few words form each of the Equestrians, the fight began, Twilight using her alicorn magic, Sunset using her friendship magc, and Discord using his chaos magic.
At the finale of said battle, Bill was eventually driven away by the unlikely team, and Equestria returned to normal. Bill left with a single message, saying,
"Remember, reality is a lie, the universe is a hologram, bye world bye!"
The group looked at each other with confused expressions as they contemplated his words.
Sunset spoke up first. "Um...what was that?"
Twilight was next to speak. "I have no idea."
Next, was Uni. "I don't either, and I don't think I want to."
Lastly it was Discord's turn. "Indeed."
What followed that was a few jokes and pranks, and a lot of farewells as Sunset and Uni returned to their friends.
Once they were there they confirmed that the mission was complete, and all of them went their separate ways, as it had gotten late on the other side.
This was a happy ending for all. But a sinister force still lurked somewhere in Uni's mind, waiting for the day when it could rise again.
'Ahahahaha! Ahahahahahaha!'
