The Friendship Games

Aldon caught up to Sunset as both of them headed outside. Sunset brought her book and looked into it, seeing blank pages.

“Still no reply. Maybe there's another way I could reach her.” she places her hand on the statue when it took hold of it and started taking her magic. “Hey, let go!” Aldon grabbed Sunset’s arm and tried pulling but couldn’t get it off of the statue. After a short time, the statue stopped and let her go as both of them fell to the ground. Sunset looked around the statue, seeing Twilight on the ground also. She stood up before questioning her.

“What did you do?!”

“Twilight, you have to check in with the others.” Dean Cadance said as Twilight ran from the two while Aldon was about to chase after her when Sunset was worried about something that stopped him from doing so. She felt the wall of the statue and wasn’t able to go through to Equestria.

“Where's the portal? Where's the portal?!” Aldon ran to Sunset as he placed his hand on the statue as it glowed and his hand passed through a small bit. He pulled back his arm as looked at Sunset.

“We need to get to the others. Come on.” they ran back to the school, needing to tell their friends what happen with Sunset, Twilight, and the portal as soon as possible. They found them back at the music room, changed into different dresses and suits to head to the gym for a meeting with CHS and Crystal Prep. Aldon and Sunset grabbed the clothes Rarity got for them and went to go change in the restroom. After they were done, they told them what happened earlier with Sunset and the portal.

“What do ya mean the portal's gone?”

“I mean it's gone. It's closed. It's not there anymore!”

“How'd that happen?”

“I don't know. But it has something to do with that Twilight.” she pointed at Twilight as was looking at her device then bumping into a balloon.

“What in tarnation is she up to?” Twilight then bumped into a Crystal Prep student with blue hair and orange goggles, making her drop her drink.

“Leave this to me.” Sunset walked to Twilight as Aldon was about to follow when Danto put his hand on his arm and shook his head. “Twilight, what have you been up to?”

“Me? Oh, I was just, uh—”

“Who wants to know?!”

“Um, we do.”

“All right, everyone. Let's not get too competitive before the games even start.”

“The games aren't really competitive since we've never lost.”

“That's not a very nice thing to say.”

“Sorry, dearie, but these games aren't about being nice.”

“Well, you might use a little tact.”
“Okay, I can see why you didn’t want me to go with her this time.”

“Yeah. It’s good you’re with her but sometimes she has to handle this herself with a bit of help from her friends.” Twilight was backing away from the conflict when she bumped into Pinkie.

“Hi, I'm Pinkie Pie!” she extended her hand to Twilight.

“Oh, hi. I'm Twilight.” as she grabbed Pinkie’s hand, she shook it violently making her hair tie and glass loose.

“I know. You look just like my friend. Her name is Twilight too.”

“That's... heh, weird.” Twilight then fixed her hair and her glasses while Pinkie noticed the small device she had around her neck.

“What's that?”

“It's sort of a spectrometer. I built it to track EM frequencies, but it can also contain anomalies.” Pinkie looked at her with a smile as Twilight crossed her arms and smiles, “It measures things.”

“Like the party?” she points at the ‘party,’ seeing everyone not really conversing and getting to know one another.

“Yeah, though it doesn't look like much of a party to me.”

“I know. Something is definitely missing. Come on!” she grabbed Twilight’s hand and ran off with her to get some things to make the party better.

“Hello, everyone! I'd like to take this opportunity to greet all of our visitors from Crystal Prep Academy and welcome them to CHS.” While Celestia was talking, Pinkie and Twilight were pushing two large presents that were apparently heavy and a bit difficult to move.

“What in the world is in these?”

“Party cannons, of course!”

“And lastly, I would like to recognize the twelve students that CHS has elected to compete. I don't think we could have chosen a better group to represent the excellence, sportsmanship, and friendship the games stand for.” Pinkie started putting her plan into action by replacing the food set on the tables with snacks and desserts, turning off the lights and activating the disco ball, and giving Vinyl a CD as she put in her set and started playing it. This was making the students of both schools to talk and even dance with each other. Pinkie took the party cannons out of the boxes and grabbed the strings, getting ready to pull.

“Um, are you sure this is a good idea?”

“Absolutely!” she yanked on both strings as both cannons fired confetti into the air and rained down on the party. While the party continued, Pinkie then ponied up as she started levitating similar to when Rarity ponied up before. “Ooh, floaty!” Twilight’s device scanned and started taking the magic that Pinkie had from ponying up as well as making her feel tired and weak. “Aw! Oh. I am party pooped.” The device then shot out a small bolt of lightning under the bleachers as Twilight looked through, seeing a portal open to a forest. She reacted in shock then closing the device as the portal went away and her device powered down.

As the party was still going, Principal Cinch tapped on the microphone causing a loud noise of feedback that stopped everything.

“I'd like to thank Principal Celestia for her unconventional welcome. It's been four years since the last Friendship Games, but it feels as though nothing has changed. Canterlot High continues to pick its competitors in a popularity contest and Crystal Prep continues to field its top twelve students. It is a comfort to know that even after so many years of losses, your school remains committed to its ideals, however misguided they may be. I wish you all the best of luck, regardless of the inevitable outcome.” As she finished talking, the students in the room separated from CHS and Crystal Prep as they did before the party started. Sunset and her friends regroup as Pinkie was trying to recover from earlier with her walking to the group with her hand on her head.

“Oh.”

“I'm sorry, Pinkie. I thought your party additions were really swell.”

“They definitely broke the ice.”

“Yes. If only that Principal Cinch hadn't frozen it again.”

“Yeah, she's awful.”

“Not to mention she separated the students from Crystal and CHS as if the party wasn’t even there.” El said as he was snacking on a cookie.

“Wow, Pinkie, what happened to you?”

“I don't know. Everyone started having fun after Twilight and I fired the party cannons and I ponied up.”

“Of course you did.”

“But then the magic just drained right out of me.”

“Wait, what do you mean "drained out of you"?”

“Hey. Where is that other Twilight?"

“Oh. She's right... Uh, well, she was right here.”

“Well, we’ll worry about that later. The Games are going to start tomorrow so let’s call in for today. The sooner and more we get sleep, the better we can try and see what that Twilight is planning.”

“Good idea. We’ll see you all later.” they all left the gym and went home for the day, in need of sleep to prepare for the Friendship Games tomorrow.