The sun was just setting, casting a warm hue even through the stained glass windows of Canterlot Castle as Sunset Shimmer and Princess Celestia walked together through the long hallways. Sunset didn't know where they were going, but she naturally assumed that the Princess was taking her someplace relevant to her studies.

"Sunset Shimmer..."

Oh no. The princess was using THAT tone. The faux-motherly tone that always served as the prelude to some irrelevant distraction that Celestia thought was important.

"I have heard that you're not getting along well with the other students. We've talked about the fact that personal relationships-"

Ah, the hangups of a lifelong politician. Princess Celestia was always worried more about how others saw her than she was with almost anything else. She refused to focus on herself enough to maximize her results, always too worried about what others felt or thought. While she was Equestria's ruler, Sunset was convinced that, on the level of magical potential, she'd hobbled herself over the years.

"Personal relationships?" Sunset scoffed. "Who needs anypony? The most important thing in life is to be the best."

"We've talked about friendship and its importance before, and we've discussed that you need to start opening yourself up to new friends." Celestia raised a dignified eyebrow as the slightest tinge of annoyance crept into her voice. "And remember that talk we had about humility?"

Sunset wasn't worried about her mentor's frustration. She was smart enough to recognize irrelevant information when she heard it and block it out, even if Celestia's ancient mind was too caught up in her own ego to see it.

"I remember how boring it was."

For a moment, however, Sunset felt like something was... wrong. Like a cold icicle slipping its way into her blazing confidence, Sunset was struck with the overwhelming sense that she shouldn't have said that.

Princess Celestia bit back whatever remark she was going to retort with as her horn lit up with her golden aura, and a pair of doors to their right clicked loudly with the sound of shuffling tumblers. A moment later, they swung open almost of their own accord (probably just off-kilter and unbalanced, this castle was almost as ancient at Celestia, herself) to reveal a small, dingy-looking room. There were framed paintings along every wall depicting some of the strangest scenes that Sunset had ever seen. Creatures the likes of which she'd never seen or even read about in Equestria, alien biomes and foreign skies in every color and shape...

It was the kind of gaudy display she would usually expect from an elementary school reading fair, rather than some deep treasure of Canterlot Castle.

What is this, some kind of new lecture? Sunset huffed to herself as she stepped up to one of the larger paintings. It depicted what looked like a musty old mansion, long abandoned, with paint peeling and covered in cobwebs. She rolled her eyes. If it was meant to be foreboding, it was drawing up well short of its goal. It looked more like a half-completed Nightmare Night decoration. Just as she turned to walk away, however, a familiar voice cried out in her mind.

Sunset, WAIT!

Sunset's head snapped back to look at the painting, ears perking up high in alarm... but there was nothing.

Not even the painting.

The space on the wall was blank, just... just as it had always been. Sunset couldn't even remember why she'd been looking at it.

I guess the intricacies of wallpaper are more interesting than Princess Celestia's socializing requirements.

Turning away once more, Sunset found herself drawn to the back of the room, where the princess was waiting for her. Next to her was a tall mirror, oval in shape and sitting atop its own two-stepped pedestal. There was a thick border of painted wood around its edges and a halo of wrought-iron filigree. Its surface, however, was what caught Sunset's attention. While it DID show her reflection, it had the slightest wobble to it, as if she were staring into the surface of still water instead of metal-backed glass.

"Look into this mirror and tell me what you see," Celestia instructed.

Sunset studied her reflection for a moment before smirking with satisfaction. As usual, even as she effortlessly maintained her place at the pinnacle of Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, she managed her grooming and appearance with equal ease.

"A beautiful pony who has nothing but power and potential," she declared as she gave her reflection a playful wink.

This evidently hadn't been the answer the princess was looking for, as she rolled her eyes and grimaced. "Care to try that again with our talk about humility taken into account?"

Sunset's smirk declined into a dissatisfied frown. Obviously, Celestia wasn't going to let this go. Maybe she just ran out of spells to teach me today. With a deep sigh, Sunset looked deeper into the mirror. It wasn't just her own reflection she looked at, however. As her eyes wandered across the entire room, they lingered on her mentor for a few seconds. Celestia's lithe figure, her billowing mane, her meticulously maintained horn, her neatly folded wings... her wings.

Sunset's focus turned back to herself, her focus lingering on the same place on her own back, utterly blank and devoid of anything but her own orange fur.

She sat at the pinnacle of the school, certainly, but there were still higher heights to reach. The surface of the mirror began to ripple.

"I see... a pony who isn't powerful enough."

The mirror continued to shiver, warping her reflection like a carnival funhouse. As the image shifted and warped, Sunset could make out what almost looked like blazing golden wings rising up off of her back. The warping made her horn look longer, too. The warping even tugged her magical aura upwards, into something that resembled the same kind of tiara her mentor wore.

"A pony who could be great, powerful... Somepony who-

"could rule Equestria," were going to be the next words out of her mouth, but just as she went to speak them that icy feeling returned, three times as strong. The overwhelming instinct that she should NOT speak the insolent words.

STOP! You're making a mistake!

Sunset gasped as the image in the mirror flickered. With speed like lightning, she saw something else in there. A figure of the deepest crimson rushed across the reflection. Sunset couldn't quite make them out, but she could tell it wasn't a pony. They were tall, lanky, and ran by on only two legs, but that was all that she could make out in the split second. That and what looked like a shining sword gripped in their hand.

And then everything was back to as it should have been. Her reflection was just her reflection, the same face she would have seen in the bathroom mirror if she walked a little further down the hall. She blinked, feeling as if she was coming out of some kind of trance.

"S-Somepony who still has a lot to learn about magic." She huffed and looked up at Princess Celestia. "What does this mirror have to do with my studies, again?"

Celestia gave Sunset an uncertain glance. "Are you alright, Sunset? You seemed as if you were going to say something else for a second, there."

Sunset gave the mirror one last sideways glance. She wasn't sure why or how, but... something about that crimson figure that shattered her daydream of grandeur had been unsettling. She had been so sure that she was seeing a vision of her rightful future, but now all of her confidence had been replaced with a deep sense of trepidation that refused to leave.

Something... something about this was wrong. She was making a mistake, but she didn't know WHAT. And somewhere, deep in her heart, the fear outweighed her ego. Fear potent enough to make her look back to her mentor.

"I- I just thought I saw something else, for a moment. Something that frightened me. Enough to second-guess myself."

Princess Celestia pondered the mirror for a few seconds, but her posture was to regard it at hoof's length, as if there was something she knew about the oversized furniture that Sunset didn't. "Something like what?"

Sunset looked back, feeling slightly comforted to have Celestia standing beside her in the reflection.

"I don't know. But it felt strong... stronger than me."

Celestia pondered for a few more moments, and Sunset would have given just about anything to know what was going through the princess's mind in those seconds.

"Oh, it was probably just a trick of the light." She turned back towards the door, and her significant size inadvertently pushed Sunset in the same direction. As the two of them returned to the hallway and the doors swung shut behind them, Sunset felt the sense of dread in the pit of her stomach relent, replaced by... relief? She tried her best to mull over the feeling. As best as she could tell, she felt like she'd just dodged an arrow of some kind, but she couldn't put her hoof on what it was.

"For tomorrow, I want you to reflect on the discussion we just had." Celestia instructed. "When we stand alone, we can often wind up falling short of our aspirations, no matter how clearly we can see them in our minds. Friendship can broaden your horizons, giving you a more complete picture than what you might be able to see from your own narrow perspective."

"Hmm." Sunset absentmindedly hummed her agreement. She wanted to simply blow off Celestia's instructions, but she was just shaken enough to consider that perhaps the princess had a point.

"I'll... think about it."

Salem was beginning to get frustrated.

The creature, something called a "nyctomorph," was a shapeshifter, but that was hardly its most dangerous trait. It had lost at least three quarters of its body mass to her initial attacks. Most rational creatures would have had the decency to curl up and die after such injury, but this monster had only used it as an excuse to change tactics. It had gone from trying to overwhelm and consume Penn in an amorphous blob to skittering around like some kind of overgrown insect across the room, using the loss of mass to become almost too fast for her eye to track. That speed, combined with its ability to blend in perfectly with any shadows in the area, had made fending off its attacks more a matter of reflex than tactic.

If Penn wasn't here and in need of her protection, she would have simply let loose an attack with a wide area of effect. Her opponent couldn't hide if there were no more dark corners left to hide in.

But as it stood, the fool had gotten himself nearly killed because he didn't have the good sense to doubt his eyes, and now she was left trying to protect him, which was a strategy she was... rusty... in.

The next time she saw the nyctomorph shuffling across the tile, she tried to ambush it with a red rune, but the grimm tendrils closed around empty air. She cursed as the thing suddenly shifted directions, darting towards the place Penn was laying on the ground. With as much restraint as she could muster, she conjured a line of fire to spring up behind her, cutting it off. As the mass of black tendrils drew up short, she curled her fingers inward, pulling the fire into a ring around herself and the creature in an attempt to lock it in place. To her irritation, the mass of the monster pulled itself into a new shape, stretching out into a pair of feathery wings and taking to the air. Unable or unwilling to fly through the flames, it zipped its way towards the ceiling. Salem responded with a blast of pure magical energy from her hand, and she smirked as she struck her mark, knocking it away from the air vent through which it had been trying to make its escape. It squealed and flew into the countertop, causing a cacophony of various utensils and dishes to be thrown in all directions.

"Okay, okay, okayokayokayOKAYOKAYOKAY OKAY!" Penn babbled from behind her. Before Salem could turn around, he was already pushing his way past her and towards the central table. "We are good, we are GREAT, we are WIRED!"

Salem could tell at a glance that he was clearly under the influence of some kind of substance, but it was possible to turn that to their advantage. From their first meeting, he'd been a quick thinker. Mild mania seemed to be his optimal state. She kept one eye on where the nyctomorph had landed and the other on Penn as he reached for his second gauntlet. His unshielded arm was still hanging limp by his side, meaning he had to fumble with his gloved hand to work the mechanisms, but he eventually managed to eject the dust cartridge. It left a large gap in the weapon, and with a flick of his shield-bearing wrist, the empty cartridge in his still-worn gauntlet was sent sailing with a satisfying pinging sound.

He limply gestured back and forth with the fresh cartridge for a few seconds, clearly unable to reach the slot for it. After a moment's preponderance, he tossed the dust magazine into the air and slammed his shield into it, managing to somehow land it perfectly in its place.

"WHEW! Okayokayokay!" He hopped up and down in place like a child on a sugar high. "Reloaded revolutions resurrections! What's next where to go what to do?"

Salem felt a twitch of annoyance building. This fast-paced rambling was getting on her nerves more and more with every word.

"Focus," she commanded.

Penn instantly straightened up, pivoting on his heel to face her with a click of his heels. "Jawohl!"

Salem knew he was being sarcastic, but she decided to take the victory she could get. "That thing is still here. Do you know how to kill it?"

"Kill it? Do we have to?" Penn tilted his head slightly, giving her a clear view of his mile-wide pupils. "What if we catch it?"

"How?" Salem hissed. The longer that she stared at the completely-still pile of kitchen implements, the more she got the sinking feeling that she had lost sight of it.

"Iunno!"

Salem ground her teeth as she restrained herself from grabbing him by the throat. With a wave of her hand, a gust of flames rushed into the corner of the room, incinerating the countertop and all of its contents in an instant... completely silently. Aside from the crackling of flames, there was no squealing, no cries of pain, no sound to indicate she'd hit her target.

With a snarl, she stepped up to Penn and grabbed him by his collar, pulling him close. "Listen! If you don't start showing some initiative, I'm going to start thinking that you're on that thing's side! This is no time for sentimentality!"

Just as she was about to give him a further scolding, she recognized the look in his eyes again: total fear. The same fear she'd been trying to get him to overcome. She was going backwards.

She took a long, deep breath, forcing herself to calm down.

"Listen. Whatever you may feel towards that creature, it does not return your emotion. I and all the rest of the people here need you alive. Make the choice: this world or this nyctomorph. Kill or be killed." She released her grip on his collar. "I need you. Sharp."

There was a long pause as the two of them stood there, staring each other in the eyes. In her mind, Salem found herself recalling the first time she'd seen this boy. He was naive, hot-tempered, and short-sighted, easy to rile into a fervor by threatening his allies. But there had always been a glimmer of intelligence behind those eyes, of rapid, but focused thought. He'd certainly been put through his paces since then, lost some portion of that naivete, and the substances fueling him to be up on his feet were also clouding his mind, but her words had been calculated to cut through the haze, down to those ironclad bones of his character. She'd appealed to that instinctive protector. Twice. Even if saying she needed him wasn't strictly true, it was the best chance to draw out the tactician.

And when the glimmer of intelligent thought returned to his eyes, Salem knew that she'd been correct. He stepped back away from her before pivoting on his heel, glancing around the room with new alertness.

"If we lost sight of it, it's probably trying to camouflage itself as some kind of ordinary object in here."

"So it can regroup and try again."

Penn groaned softly and rubbed at his limp arm. "Blasted thing's taking a page out of the Typhon's book."

"As in the Typhon of Prey?" Salem scanned over the room, noting a frankly terrifying number of loose miscellaneous objects. "It would be easier to spot duplicate items if there weren't about five meals' worth of mise-en-place laid out across the kitchen."

"Yeah, well, I don't like stopping once the stove's on and-" Penn froze for a moment before turning and giving her an incredulous look. "Wait, did you just get my video game reference?"

Salem rolled her eyes. "Did you forget I ripped half your knowledge out of your brain before I even got close to the answers I wanted? But that's hardly important right now!"

"R-right!" Penn put his hand to his chin as he slowly turned in a circle. The silence that fell was eerie, made only more intense by the knowledge that they could be attacked at any moment. It was only after about ten seconds that he stopped, freezing in place. He pointed his gauntlet-covered hand at an object near the counter.

"My twelve o'clock. There's a mug that matches one at your three."

Salem gave a quick glance in his direction, then in the direction he'd indicated for her. To her surprise, he was correct. It was a green mug with a chip taken out of the lip to expose tan-colored ceramic underneath. She would have been dubious about the likelihood that he could have recognized it that quickly, but the damaged portions matched perfectly. With a small upward motion, flames sprung up from the floor, instantly engulfing the mug. To her disappointment, there was no reaction except for the green paint to begin charring and turn black.

With one potential target eliminated, Penn kept his blade pointed at the other, coated in an almost-invisible layer of flames as he advanced on the countertop.

"Last chance, little guy. I can still take you alive."

Salem rolled her eyes. Somehow, despite not even being here, Shimmer's influence was still blocking him from rational thinking. She stepped up behind him, slinking her way up until she could speak straight into his ear. "Your friends are still under attack. Can you afford to waste time like this?" she murmured.

The way that his eyes widened made it clear that the facts of this two-pronged attack had slipped his mind.

Three things happened at once.

First, the mug transformed back into a fluttering black mass that launched itself at Penn.

Second, Penn lunged forward, flaming blade at the ready.

Third, Salem noticed a flaw in his form. He was either hesitating to kill it, or his body was just failing him. With more than a twinge of exasperation, she gestured with one finger, giving his arm the necessary nudge to align with his target.

With a final screech, the nyctomorph was impaled on his blade. A fraction of a second later, it had burst into flames. There were only about three seconds of screeching and thrashing before it had been completely reduced to ashes and dissolved away to nothing.

"Well done."

"It... doesn't feel like it." Penn murmured. Salem could hear grief and regret creeping into his voice.

"What, just because you made it, you feel bad for killing it?" Salem scoffed. "This is WAR, boy. You hardly showed this kind of regret for killing MY subordinates."

The way he instantly turned on her, eyes wide with horror and shock, almost made her laugh. "You KNOW I wrote-"

"Sunset and Missy are still in danger." Salem cut him off. "Those drugs must be affecting your ability to focus."

Penn's jaw hung open for a few seconds, and his eyes darted between her and the door, clearly trying to decide what was more important. He took a lunge towards the exit, only to stop with an ear-piercing squeak between his shoe and the tile floor and turn back to her.

"You need to get downstairs!"

"Why-" The word had scarcely left Salem's tongue before, for once, it was HER turn to catch up. "Oh. I see. Yes, I'll take care of it."

With a nod, Penn took off again, now in a dead sprint for the dormitories. As he vanished into the darkness, Salem took a second to ponder to herself.

"I was right. We DO make fine allies."

The thought of the mirror wouldn't leave Sunset alone. The mystery of why Celestia had taken her to see it AND the mystery of the visions she'd had when she looked deep into it.

Princess Celestia seemed to have picked up on Sunset's new obsession and was doing her best to smother it under a heavy cover of obstinate obfuscation.

"About that mirror..."

"No, you aren't ready to know about the mirror."

Day after day, Sunset asked.

"So... that mirror."

"No."

Day after day, Celestia rebuffed her efforts for answers.

"You know what's fascinating? Mirrors... about that one in-"

"Sunset Shimmer. We have been over this. We will get to the mirror and many other lessons in due time... when you're ready."

Something about the complete reversal in Celestia's intentions made Sunset feel as if she'd failed some kind of test when Celestia had taken her to the mirror before. She wasn't sure WHAT Celestia could have been testing her on, but if she'd failed to earn her way to direct answers, there were other ways to get information.

And so, one quiet night, Sunset made her way to the Royal Archives. She passed volume after volume of books well below her reading level, filled with information she already knew until she'd reached the entrance to the Restricted Section. Celestia thought that she was the only one who knew about this royal secret, but Sunset had managed to find it on her own one day when she was browsing for SOME kind of challenging reading. She'd found a pair of books with no titles, only a sigil of the sun and the moon on each of their spines. When she'd tried to pull them loose, she'd activated a hidden lever that opened the secret stairwell.

This time, however, when she went to open the passageway, she noticed another unnamed book beside the first two. It was pitch-black, but there were tiny sparkling gemstones embedded in the binding that made it look more what she might see through one of the observatory telescopes. Curious, she pulled it off of the shelf and gave it a quick glance.

On the Nature of Overlay Matrices and Modern Summoning, by Mischief Maker... Weird. How did I miss this?

Sunset felt a strong urge to sit down with the book and start reading, but she was a mare on a mission. Still, she tucked the book into her saddlebag for later before tugging on the hidden lever. As the shelves swung aside to reveal the hidden path, however, a familiar voice called out.

OH, COME ON!

Sunset snapped to attention, swiveling her head from side to side in alarm. If somepony caught sight of her opening this passage, she could actually get in trouble.

But the coast was clear.

She rubbed at her ears before making her way inside, swiftly shutting the door behind her with a click. Whoever was shouting in the library would almost certainly be getting an earful right now from the Head Librarian. While it had almost given her a heart attack, it had been a perfect distraction.

Once again confident that she would be undisturbed, Sunset stepped up to the mechanical catalog, deftly typing in her desired topic. A plethora of specialized topics about mirror magic, mimicry magic, and magical artifacts masquerading as mirrors came up, enough to keep her occupied for AGES before she found what she was looking for. With a long sigh, she turned to the most generalized source of information: a mention of a magical mirror in Canterlot Castle: A History, Part 2.

A magic mirror in the castle? Sounds about right...

It only took a few minutes for her to track down the volume and find the section in particular she was looking for. Her breath hitched in her throat as she could scarcely believe her eyes.

This artifact dated back centuries, and had been the focus of a series of experiments conducted by Starswirl and Celestia, themselves! The two of them had used it as a focus point for magical excursions into worlds... beyond Equestria! They had catalogued hundreds of other universes, decades of intensive study, though the details were sparse in this particular book. (Sunset couldn't help balking slightly at the mention of their first discovery, that being a world filled with cutie-mark-bearing DINOSAURS.) As she read, she found herself growing more uncomfortable, as if she was drawing closer and closer to something dangerous, but she forced herself to swallow it. She DESERVED this information. Celestia had shown her the mirror, let her catch a glimpse into infinite possibility before sealing it away again!

Her eyes widened as she happened upon a passing comment from Celestia's perspective, saying that there was a chance they may be able to construct a mirror capable of transporting a pony to the Astral Plane, the source of magical energy that every caster drew from at unconscious level.

This had resulted in a return comment from Star Swirl that made Sunset's head spin.

If a pony skilled in the mass manipulation of mana were to be steeped in these primordial energies, it is possible that their natural mana reserves could expand in exponential fashion. This mass influx of magic could possible even force the evolution of a unicorn into an...

"...alicorn." Sunset whispered the last word aloud.

While this alone poses a threat to upend the natural order of Equestria, the threat is a thousand times more potent if a pony were to find a way to take this mana to one of the many magic-devoid worlds we have discovered in our travels. The effects of this could be disastrous, possibly resulting a cascade of effects that could result in world-rending consequences!

If Sunset hadn't been so gobsmacked at the first revelation, she would have laughed at Starswirl's overreaction. Something about crying the end of other theoretical worlds felt like a tired old argument of a chronic overreactor.

She felt her hopes fall as she read about these experiments coming to a close after Starswirl's disappearance. Celestia had held on to a few of the more stable mirror portals, including one in particular she kept close at hoof. Its effects were reduced, but never completely disappeared.

"The crystal mirror... every thirty moons, a portal will open to another world?" she murmured.

"That's not really for you to know, now is it?" a stern voice asked, forcing Sunset to jump to her hooves and scramble in surprise. Her eyes widened as she watched Princess Celestia step out of the shadows and into the reading area, head held high and wings spread out in a way that made her look even more towering and imposing.

Sunset had been caught, and she knew it. She was red-hoofed and elbow deep into the cookie jar. But as she stared into the stern eyes of her mentor, the fear began to burn away, replaced by blazing rage. What she'd seen in the mirror, that had been her future! The one she deserved! She was meant to be a ruler, a princess!

How DARE SHE keep this kind of magic from me! Sunset thought the words before she spoke them. But as she opened her mouth to speak the words, unbidden thoughts ripped through her mind in a flash.

Rebuke. Accusation. Theft. Exile. Revenge. Failure. Failure. FAILURE.

And the crimson figure, the one who had shattered her vision of the future, was at the center of it all, a presence screaming at her in a language of dread and knowledge from a painful history.

DON'T SAY IT! LISTEN!

LISTEN! DON'T MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE!

FOR CELESTIA'S SAKE, LISTEN!

The sheer force of the emotions, the visions of her soon-to-be future from memories she didn't remember having, forced Sunset Shimmer to her knees.

And there on her knees, in the midst of the greatest mistake of her life, Sunset Shimmer swallowed her pride... and did what she ought to have done.

"I-I'm sorry, Princess... I couldn't stand not knowing after getting a taste of the truth. It's consumed my mind from the inside out, and I couldn't find any other way. But that's no excuse for circumventing your judgement. I'm prepared to accept punishment for my actions."

There was a long pause.

"Go to your room. Now. I will decide on your punishment later. Consider yourself on suspension until further notice." Princess Celestia's tone was cold and as hard as iron, which made Sunset flinch. Celestia was NEVER cold, no matter how much she pushed the envelope.

"Y-yes, Princess."

As she walked away with her tail between her legs, Sunset couldn't help but ponder the fact that she had that feeling again, that sense of a narrowly-avoided threat. She didn't know WHAT kind of voice of reason had spoken to her in that moment, but if just going behind Celestia's back like this had been enough to make her completely break character...

What would have happened if I hadn't listened?

"Look out!"

Ruby stumbled back, barely managing to avoid a net of webbing strands falling from above. She slashed with her scythe, sending an arc of fire sailing through the air towards the web wall.

"Did they get you?" Pyrrha asked as she came up alongside Ruby.

"Thanks to your warning, no." Ruby watched the fiery attack disperse just before it struck the dense webbing, blocked by a dark figure. "But we're not making any headway!"

"I know." Pyrrrha muttered. The two of them could only grimace as Jaune stepped forward out of the shadows. His eyes were glazed over and he had a vacant smile on his face that sent shivers down Ruby's spine. "These things are more coordinated and have faster reaction times than us. I've never seen Jaune fight like this."

The mind-controlled Jaune came to a stop at the midway point between them and the web wall, eyes locked on the two of them. "The lights are on, but nobody's home," as Yang would say...

"I couldn't sneak around, either. I think the web is sharing all their senses..." Pyrrha glanced at the black shapes crawling up and down the walls. "And I don't think they targeted Jaune by accident. He has the most aura out of us all, he could keep blocking our way all night, if he had to."

"But why are they just... staying there?" Ruby mused to herself. "It's like they're waiting for someth-"

FSSSH!

Both of their hearts skipped a beat as red light filtered through the many layers of web behind Jaune, making it obvious what the source of the sound was.

"SUNSET! BACK HERE!" Ruby shouted, waving her hand high to try and signal to her teammate behind the wall. "We're on our way to get you out of- OOF!"

Her shouting was cut off as Pyrrha seized her arm and pulled it down hard. Time felt like it slowed down as the red light of Sunset's saber intensified, then came flying out of the web on its own. It flew as if of its own accord, staying perfectly horizontal as it sailed towards them. It was only Pyrrha's quick reaction that pulled her head down below the humming blade as it passed them. In the moment she was forced to take her eyes off of the deadly projectile, Ruby's eyes widened at the sight of dozens of flickering black insectoids rushing towards them from below.

When the sound of rushing footsteps reached her ears, she knew that Jaune was pressing the attack, as well. She could see it in her mind's eye, the same shield-forward rush that he clumsily used as his opening move.

They were being attacked from above, below, and at the midpoint between the two, all at once... and Ruby panicked.

She grabbed hold of Pyrrha and activated her semblance. It felt like pulling a ton of bricks along behind her to carry someone else along with her, but the two of them were whisked away in a blur of red and rose petals, speeding away from the attack and back down the hallway. She didn't hesitate when she saw a wall of web stands spring up in her way. Together, the two of them slipped their way through the spaces in the trap, barely slipping through before Ruby felt her strength finally break, and the two of them tumbled onto the tile floor in a heap.

As fast as she could get her bearings again, Ruby was on her feet again, Crescent Rose's gun barrel pointed to intercept any pressing attacks. Jaune's smile seemed to be wider as the new web wall parted for him. Beside him as he took up a defensive stance was Sunset's saber, simply hovering in the air as it revolved lazily in place.

"R-Ruby..." Pyrrha stammered.

Her call for attention went unnoticed, however, as Ruby watched another figure step out of the webs.

Sunset was wearing a similar grin as the spiders made a path for her to pass through. She held out her hand and the saber flew into her palm. She gave it an expert twirl before settling into a ready stance. It wasn't the stance that Weiss had taught her, but something completely different. She held the handle of the saber with both hands and had a wide stance, with her shoulders almost perpendicular to Ruby and Pyrrha.

"Ruby!"

She's holding it almost like a baseball bat... do these spiders not know how to use a-

"RUBY!"

For the first time, Pyrrha's voice broke through the haze of Ruby's thinking, and her head snapped to look at the other girl.

Pyrhha was just managing to stagger to her feet, stabbing one end of her spear into the floor to support herself. Her left leg was hanging limp, forcing her to put all of her weight on her right one.

"I'm afraid one of them got a little too close... It bit right through the leather of my boot," she gave Ruby a bitter smile. "I-I'm sorry. I can't feel my leg, and it's spreading."

This, on top of everything else, brought Ruby to only one conclusion.

"We need to get out of here..." she muttered, turning her attention to the brainwashed duo. "Sunset, Jaune, I swear I'll come ba-"

She didn't even have a chance to get the words of apology out of her mouth before they were on the offensive. Sunset's expression didn't change one iota as she swept the blade out towards them. The movement barely registered before Ruby felt a burning sensation rip across her skin as the blade landed on her shoulder. She was only able to barely process that her aura had absorbed the attack before the sensation sprung back up on her back, forcing a cry of pain from her lips as she stumbled forward... into a strike across her stomach.

She's- so FAST!

In the corner of her eye, she could see the way that Sunset was seemingly everywhere: she was using her speed to leap onto and back off of the walls, spinning and leaping in ways that mirrored Pyrrha at her most focused. By combining her constant movement with the fluid motions of her saber, Sunset could strike from any angle at any moment... resulting in an absolute hailstorm of heavy, painful blows. By the time she could get her concentration back enough to track Sunset's movement, she was already out of sight. Ruby could feel her aura running thin, the burning was getting more intense and refusing to fade. The world was a haze of flowing red lights and pain.

Finally, one heavy blow came to her stomach as Sunset planted her fist into the younger girl's abdomen, Sending Ruby sprawling backwards until she fell onto her butt with a groan of pain. Her aura was completely shattered, leaving her exposed. Beside her, Pyrrha came crashing into the tile floor, Jaune's knee pressed to the center of her chest in a pinning move.

"Jaune, please don't do this..." Pyrrha whispered, one last plea to the boy she loved.

Jaune and Sunset still seemed deaf to their pleas as the spiders advanced on all sides. Ruby tried to sit up, only to find the shining tip of Sunset's blade held at her throat.

"Sunset... you have to be in there somewhere, right?" she whispered. "You're stronger than these things, I KNOW you are- YEEP!" She couldn't stop herself from squealing slightly at the feeling of long, insectoid legs climbing up her leg.

Sunset leaned down, giving Ruby an empty stare as she spoke for the first time.

"Don't you want to go back and fix it, too, Ruby?"

Ruby's eyes widened. "F-Fix what?"

"All the bad things. The mistakes we made. The people who leftus. The painful memories." She reached down, stroking a hand over Ruby's cheek in a loving gesture. "If counter-entopy could turn back the clock, isn't there one night you'd want to change? Go back and wake up just in time on a lost Summer's night?"

Despite the burning feeling she'd been steeped in only seconds before, Ruby felt a thick frost creep over her insides. "H-How do you know about-"

"Shhh. Just hold on... We're so close!" Sunset's expression was creeping into gleeful mania. "Just a few more days and we'll turn the whole world back, and then we can fix everything!"

In spite of everything happening around her, Ruby bit back her tears. "Y-You're NOT Sunset. The Sunset I know- She keeps moving forward! She's made mistakes and she regrets them, but she learned from them! She let the past make her BETTER, not weigh her down like this!"

"Why overcome the weight..." Sunset spread her arms wide, "When we can let it go?"

Just as Ruby felt the sharp legs of one of the spiders creeping up the back of her neck, a voice she didn't expect roared down the hall from behind them: Penn's.

"ISIIIIIIS! BURY THE LIGHT!"

Sunset and Jaune's heads both snapped up. They jumped to their feet, easing the pressure on Ruby and Pyrrha. Jaune slipped into a ready stance behind his shield, and Sunset settled back into her original ready stance with her saber. Ruby took advantage of the distraction to reach up and snatch the spider crawling up her neck, flinging it with all her strength back into the webbing before it could bite her.

FSSSHT!

With a sound that mimicked its activation, Sunset's saber switched itself off. At the same time, the intruder that had interrupted her victory crashed headfirst into her, sending her flying back into the webbing. She immediately became stuck in place, struggling to free herself. Jaune moved to advance on Penn, only to find himself staring down the barrel of a cannon larger than his own forearm. In a moment of shock, Jaune froze, which gave Penn enough time to widen his stance, press the opening of the barrel to the shield, and pull the trigger.

FWOOOSH!

A beam of red-hot light and gas erupted from the cannon. The force of it pushed Penn back down the hallway, his sneakers squealing in protest, but the force seemed much more potent with Jaune, who was thrown through the second wall of webbing entirely, tearing it off of its mountings. In a giant ball of flames and web, Jaune crashed into the original web wall, causing all of the spiders around them to shriek and skitter away. The flash of light nearly blinded Ruby, forcing her to turn away and grimace from the heat.

Penn, for his part, had held up much better dealing with the recoil, coming to a stop just between Ruby and Pyrrha. The cannon on his arm dropped to the ground with a heavy clang, making it clear that the attack had been a one-time use.

"Y-you girls... okay?" he heaved.

"Sunset Shimmer. You deliberately disobeyed me and unlawfully accessed the Restricted Section of the Canterlot Archives." Celestia stood with her head held high, looking down on Sunset in a high-and-mighty way that normally would have set her temper ablaze.

But for some reason, ever since their confrontation in the library, Sunset had been making a habit of putting her pride aside. She didn't know why, but something about it felt... better. Like it was what she ought to do.

"I know, Princess. I am sorry, but I don't have a good excuse."

"Ordinarily, actions such as these would be grounds for expulsion from my school, let alone from your role as my direct pupil. The knowledge in those deep archives is restricted for a REASON. Dangerous and even dark magics are recorded there, kept stored away so that, should we happen upon them again we will be able to recognize them as threats. Contained therein are secrets of our world that could cause total havoc!"

"I know, Princess."

"And still you recklessly let your thirst for knowledge override your common sense and decency."

"Yes."

"Are you prepared for the consequences of your actions?"

Sunset took a deep, shuddering breath, trying to choke back the tears at the shame. She'd been the most promising student under the most incredible teacher that Equestria had to offer. And she had blown it for the sake of curiosity. Everything Celestia had said so far had been true, she couldn't argue with the facts.

"I am prepared, Princess."

There was a long, gut-wrenching silence, heavy with tension as Celestia let Sunset stew in her guilt.

"In spite of all of this... I am willing to acknowledge my hoof in events." Celestia finally broke the silence. "I showed you the mirror and then denied you answers, even when I saw that it had deeply troubled you. I ignored your obvious feelings and offered no balm. As my student, I have always encouraged you to seek answers to your questions, only to go back on my word in this crucial instance." Celestia's tone softened ever-so-slightly, only enough for those who knew her well to hear it. "And I can see that, while the knowledge you found was neither malicious nor cursed in nature, you were still shaken enough by what you found that you've become open to new ideas. Our lesson in humility seems to have taken root, and deeply so. So, rather than expulsion or exile, your punishment is to be served by a drastic change in curriculum."

Sunset resisted the urge to snap her head up and gawk at her teacher, but the floor tiles in the grand hall were gifted to a full view of her wide eyes and gaping mouth.

"You will leave the school to study abroad. The merits of cooperation and collaboration in magic. Interpersonal relations will be your new field of study until further notice."

Sunset could only gape.

"Pack your bags. You will be leaving in the morning." Celestia stamped her hoof twice, signaling the end of the trial.

As Sunset trudged her way out of the Grand Hall, she couldn't help but think that, in spite of getting off "easy," she had been humiliated in lieu of being expelled.

"I'm going to be cut off from my magical studies and high-level academic resources..." she mumbled as she made her way up the stairs. "And I STILL don't see the point of studying 'interpersonal relationships!' This is so stupid..."

Still, she had no way to argue. Celestia's ruling was final. For a brief moment, the thought had crossed her mind to use the mirror to run to another world, but without the assurance that this other world would have magic, there was a good chance she'd wind up someplace where her magical knowledge would be as useless as... well, interpersonal studies.

As the thought passed from her mind, she was interrupted by a loud knock on her door. It was loud enough and angry-sounding enough to make her jump in place. Knowing that there was no way that kind of knocking could portend good news, Sunset made her way to the door of her dormitory. When she flung it open, however, instead of an angry alicorn or even a burly guard, she found herself staring into the sky-blue eyes of a young filly. Her coat was a faded pink color and her wings were a strange mottling of black and white feathers. Feathers that almost reminded Sunset of the keys of a piano. She was wearing a fluffy, lacey black dress, topped by a top hat MUCH too small for her head. Her cutie mark looked like a trio of playing cards with warped backing patterns.

Sunset could scarcely believe that this little filly had managed to raise such a racket, but the angry scowl on her face made it clear that the young girl was the culprit.

"WHAT are you DOING here?" she shouted.

"How's it any of YOUR business?" Sunset scowled back. "I'm still packing, and I'm not supposed to leave until the morning, anyway!"

"Not HERE!" She pointed past Sunset into the dorm, then gestured to the general area around them. "HERE!"

Sunset blinked, caught off-guard by the unclear clarification. "What, Canterlot?"

"No, HERE!" The little filly stamped her hoof. "In this-"

Three years later...

"Hey, Sunset! Over here!"

Sunset grinned as her attention was pulled back to Rainbow Dash. The blue-furred pegasus was tearing her way through the sky, clearing every last scrap of the cloud cover in a matter of seconds. When the skies were clear, she came back down to earth and slid to a stop, just barely missing the two unicorns waiting for her on the ground.

"So? How's it look?" She puffed out her chest in anticipation of inevitable praise.

"Well, I wouldn't have saved it for the last second like that... but things look good up there!" Sunset declared before turning to her companion. "Whaddya say, Twilight?"

"Hm..." Twilight was clearly scouring the sky with a finer eye for detail than Sunset had cared to. "It's good, but good isn't always good enough! This is the one THOUSANDTH Summer Sun Celebration! Everything has to be PERFECT!"

"Hey, I wouldn't leave Ponyville hanging!" Rainbow waved off Twilight's fears with a nonchalant grin. "Plus this is Sunset's big chance to get back on Princess Celestia's good side! I'd never let this go wrong!"

"Mhmm. I guess we can check this item off the list. Next stop: Town Hall to inspect the decorations!" Twilight made an exaggerated motion with her quill before turning to Sunset. "Lead the way, Senior Princess Protege!"

"Twilight, just because I have seniority doesn't mean you have to call me that," Sunset groaned. Twilight Sparkle was the filly that Celestia had taken under her wing once Sunset had set off on her... extended sabbatical. She was a good young unicorn with a smart head on her shoulders and plenty of raw talent, but she clearly didn't have any kind of interest in socializing or making friends.

And after three years of traveling across Equestria and sending weekly reports about the lessons she'd learned from ponies far and wide, Sunset didn't think that it was a coincidence that Princess Celestia had sent Twilight to the same town she'd chosen to finally settle down for the long-term. Twilight reminded Sunset of herself before she'd learned about the magic of friendship, if perhaps a little less ambitious and a little more... nerdy.

"Come on, the Town Hall is this way. The pony in charge of decorations is a good friend of mine, too! She's going to LOVE you."

"You really took Princess Celestia's advice about making friends to heart, didn't you?" Twilight rolled her eyes.

"Well, after I almost destroyed my life trying to make it to the top of the world on my own, I realized that I had a lot of perspective to gain." Sunset waved farewell to Rainbow Dash as the two of them made their way towards the town's center. "It took a while to learn to listen to other ponies, and even LONGER to learn how to open up, but in the end it really helped me see solutions to my problems that I never considered."

"Hm..."

"You know, sometimes you really have to let the walls crumble before you get that whole extra dimension to your thinking." She smirked and tapped Twilight on the side of her skull. "There's beauty in the breakdown, you know!"

"Uh-huh. And is there beauty in the Town Hall?" Twilight countered with a deadpan look.

"Oh, absolutely, darling."

"Darling?"

"You'll get it in a second." Sunset snickered. Just as the two of them were about to enter the hall, however, the doors flung open to reveal... an angry-looking pink filly.

"SUNSET! WAKE U-"

36 Hours Later...

"Princess Luna..."

The smaller alicorn who had once been Nightmare Moon was shaken out of her reverie by Celestia's voice.

"It has been a thousand years since I have seen you like this. Time to put our differences behind us." Celestia dropped to her knees, meeting the younger alicorn closer to her eye level. "We were meant to rule TOGETHER, little sister!"

"Sister?" Sunset gasped alongside the rest of the newly-christened Element Bearers. Even if she hadn't received one of the Elements of Harmony, she had made the harrowing journey alongside Twilight and the rest of her friends, and was now getting to witness the reunion of the two royal sisters.

"Will you accept my friendship?"

Luna looked down, tears brimming in her eyes as she seemed to grapple with her own shame. The tension in the room reached a fever pitch as everypony present waited for her answer, but deep down Sunset already knew all too well what Luna was going through. Finally, her love won out over her shame, and Luna rushed to her sister, pressing up against her chest as rivers of tears sprung out.

"I'm so sorry! I missed you so much, big sister!"

For the first time in her life, Sunset saw Celestia shedding joyful tears of her own. "I- I've missed you, too..."

This, of course, was the final straw that caused Pinkie Pie to break into outright sobs.

A few minutes later, the group was back in Ponyville, courtesy of the Princess's teleportation skills. As everyone crowded around, Sunset quietly began to walk towards home. This was Twilight and the others' victory. She didn't need to-

"Sunset Shimmer!"

Sunset perked up at the sound of Princess Celestia calling her name. A beckoning motion with her wing was enough to bring Sunset back through the crowd, eventually winding up kneeling in front of her mentor for the first time in three years.

"You called, Princess?"

"Twilight was kind enough to tell me about how you helped guide her." A gentle hoof under her chin guided Sunset back up to her hooves. Celestia's gaze and smile were both soft, softer than Sunset ever remembered seeing them. "And I'm very proud of you."

"I just showed her around town..." Sunset pawed at the ground.

"No, you did much more than that!" Twilight interjected. "Without your advice, your help, I never would have realized the truth about the magic of friendship! We wouldn't have even made it through the Everfree Forest without you!"

"When you left Canterlot, I worried that your selfishness and pride had already carried you too far down paths I couldn't steer you away from." Celestia's hoof moved to Sunset's chest, poking at the spot above her heart. "But today? I see a pony who is open, humble, and much, much wiser than when she left. You let yourself be open to new ideas, and because of that, you played a vital role in helping save Equestria and reunite me with my beloved sister."

"It was only thanks to your teaching. I definitely needed a little tough love back then." Sunset chuckled to herself at the thought of the pony she'd once been.

"And, because it's so clear you've learned the lessons that I'd hoped you would, I want to extend you an invitation." Celestia turned to Twilight, giving her a knowing nod. "Twilight Sparkle is planning to stay in Ponyville, to study both the Elements of Harmony AND the magic of friendship. I'd very much like it if you would come back to Canterlot, instead."

Sunset's eyes widened as she realized what was happening. "Y-you mean-"

"I think that you're well and ready to continue your studies in academic magic... including a certain relic that we discussed shortly before you left." Celestia turned to nod at the guard-drawn chariot that had come to pick up her and her sister. "Will you come rejoin me as my protege?"

Tears welled up in Sunset's eyes. Before she could give her answer, she was cut off by Rainbow Dash practically tackling her from behind.

"HA! Of COURSE she will! We all know that's where she belongs, doing all that egghead stuff in the castle!"

As Sunset looked around, she could see that it wasn't just Dash. All of her Ponyville friends were giving her happy smiles, ready to celebrate with her. In that moment, she knew exactly what to do. She reached out and grabbed Rainbow Dash and Applejack in a hug, and the rest of the girls all followed suit in a massive group hug.

"Thank you... I promise, you'll always be my very best friends, and I'll never forget what I learned from all of you."

"Y-Yeah, well, don't keep the princesses waitin'! You'd best skedaddle!"

"But you'd better come back to visit! Don't let it go to your head, that's MY job!"

"Darling, we've all wanted this for you for so long!"

"I'M GONNA THROW A 'Welcome back to Canterlot' PARTY!"

"I'll miss you..."

Sunset nodded and gave each of her friends a long hug before turning back to Twilight.

"Take care of them, okay?"

Twilight gave her a smirk. "You might be Senior Protege, but I'm not going to let you get TOO FAR ahead of me! We'll see you soon."

"Oh, you're going to be playing catchup for a LONG time!" Sunset smirked. "Don't think an Element of Harmony is going to change that!"

The two of them giggled for a moment, hugged farewell, and Sunset clambered up into the chariot alongside Princess Celestia. The whole town cheered for them, but Sunset breathed a long, melancholy sigh.

"You know, I looked forward to this for ages, but now that it's happening... I think I'm going to miss Ponyville more than I expected. It's not like my friendships are ENDING, but I'm going to probably be visiting a LOT. I ALREADY miss my friends!"

"I wouldn't have it any other way, my faithful student," Celestia assured her. "Ready to go?"

Sunset took a moment to give the town one more look-over. She saw the Town Hall, Sugarcube Corner, Carousel Boutique, and the homes of hundreds of happy memories. Even a nearby birdhouse she'd helped Fluttershy build brought a happy tear to her eye.

I miss my friends...

A birdhouse.

I miss my friends...

A birdhouse that she KNEW was occupied.

I miss my friends...

For some reason, she stayed fixated on that one longer than most.

"H-hold on. I think I'm... forgetting something?"

"Well, you can stay if you'd like to pack your things, but I thought we could just send for them later." Celestia tilted her head slightly, as if she didn't understand Sunset. "I would like to get my sister home, though."

"Uh, this- this'll just take a second." Sunset hopped back down off of the chariot, trotting over to the small oak tree that the birdhouse was hanging from. With a thought, she lifted it up off of the branch and down to eye level. It felt... heavier than it should have. Unsure why she was even doing it, Sunset opened the latch on the side and swung the front face of the wooden box open.

"FINALLY!"

Before she could react, a pair of hands lunged out of the box, grabbing her face by the cheeks before pulling her inside the birdhouse face-first.

and everything went black.

Ruby pushed herself to her feet, inspecting herself quickly for any hiding spiders in her clothes. "I-I think so, but Pyrrha got bitten!"

"I'm sorry..." Pyrrha mumbled from the floor.

"Okay... Do you think you can get her out of here?" he mumbled. He was standing oddly still, not looking directly at either of them.

Ruby rushed over to Pyrrha, who was still laying completely still on the ground. She gave Pyrrha's arm a short lift, only to see it drop completely limp to the ground. "I don't know... I'm not exactly that strong. Can you help me carry her?"

"N-No. I can't."

His curt response finally prompted Ruby to take a closer look at him. She gasped as she realized why he hadn't moved since his initial attack.

One of his arms was hanging limp by his side, charred and blackened almost up to his elbow. His shirt was torn open around his midsection to reveal what looked like a huge puncture wound leaking a constant flow of black ichor onto the floor. He was heaving for breath and his knees were shaking, as if he could barely stand, and he was covered in other, smaller wounds, many of which seemed to have left trails of darkened material under his skin, just like when Yang had been attacked by that thing before.

"Are- what happened to you?"

"N-Nothing I c-can't handle..." he mumbled. "J-Just need another juice box."

"Don't joke like that!" Ruby shouted. "We all need to fall back and-"

"Do you hear that?"

Ruby wanted to get angry at him for cutting her off, but curiosity and worry got the better of her.

Fssh! Fsst! Fszzle...

The hissing of recently-extinguished fires. Down the hallway, the fire Penn had lit was dwindling as puddles of loose webbing were thrown onto the flames to smother them. From all angles of the hallway, the spiders were shooting fresh webbing into the flames. They weren't just retreating, they were rushing to put it out!

"If we don't stop them here, not only are we never going to see our friends again, but they're never going to let us get this close again." He mumbled. "With subtlety thrown out the window, this'll become a full-blown infestation. Hostile takeover."

Ruby shuddered at the thought of an army of these creatures descending on the rest of her classmates. With a deep breath, she picked up Crescent Rose off the ground and pulled herself into a ready stance.

"Then we'll stop it right here, right now! What's the plan?"

Penn snickered to himself as he raised up his only usable hand in an approximation of a boxer's stance. "What makes you think I have a plan? Surprise attacks only work once." He craned his neck from side to side, giving a series of loud popping noises. "Even then, I think they were just gobsmacked I got away alive from the OTHER guy."

Ruby smirked. "You know these things inside out, right? And Sunset always said you were the plan guy. In the matter of shoes, defer to the cobbler."

With a short hum to himself, Penn stroked his fingers over his chin. "We need to either free Sunset or get her saber. It's the perfect weapon to sever the main web brain back there. Isis installed an emergency cutoff, but all it'll take is a word from me and it'll be back on." He snapped his fingers. "I've got it!" He eagerly waved Ruby closer as he limped his way to Pyrrha's side. As he walked, one of his legs dragged behind him, leaving a trail of black smeared on the tiles. "We NEED Aurelia, Dash's messenger dragon. She'd be fast enough to get these things off them before they could react."

"Okay, but we have no idea where she- what are you doing?"

Penn didn't answer, simply grabbing Ruby by the shoulders and steering her until she was stood practically on top of Pyrrha.

In the distance, Ruby could see Sunset and Jaune finally disentangling themselves from the webs, covered in singe marks and light burns. Their auras had both clearly been broken in Penn's entrance, but they were still both practically as fresh as daisies compared to the two of them, and they had protecting Pyrrha to worry about, lest it become a three-on-one.

"Keep Pyrrha safe back here. I'll take Sunset. Pin Jaune down with sniper fire."

"What?" Ruby's eyes widened. "You're not in any condition to fight!"

"Without the saber, Sunset's a mildly fit teenager with little muscle mass. I think I can take her, even with one arm." Penn snickered.

"But-"

He bushed off Ruby's continued opposition by turning his back on her and lumbering back down the hallway. Left with no choice, Ruby groaned and expanded Crescent Rose into its full form. She planted the tip of the blade in the floor and wrapped her finger around the trigger. In less than a second, she took aim and fired, planting her shot firmly in the center of Jaune's shield. Without aura, the force of the impact was enough to knock him back several steps.

"This better work..." she grumbled as she lined up her next shot. Without the momentum of running forward, the second impact was enough to knock Jaune completely off of his feet and onto his back. When black shapes began crawling towards her on the walls and ceiling, it only took reducing a few of them to greasy stains on the wall for the rest to hesitate and fall back. "You're not getting close enough to get me now!"

Of course, in the back of her mind, Ruby was counting her shots. She only had two extra magazines in Crescent Rose's place on the back of her belt. That was a total of 24 extra shots, half of which were modified with fire dust charges.

Penn, meanwhile, met Sunset head-on, making a lunge for her wrist. Instead of whatever intended effect he had in mind for his attack, however, Penn found his strategy inverted as Sunset grabbed his arm with one hand. With a smile, she used her grip to yank him forward with arm and used the other to plant an uppercut in his stomach, close enough to his still-bleeding stomach wound to make Ruby wince. Penn did much more than wince, instantly collapsing. Sunset caught him on her arm, tutting quietly as he hung off of her. The "fight" had been over in less than three seconds.

"Looks like someone forgot about my black belt in the heat of the moment, didn't he?" Penn could only cough and wheeze in response as Sunset shook her head in disappointment. "You wanted to keep Ruby and Pyrrha on the back lines until you figured out a better plan, didn't you?"

Ruby retrained her aim when Jaune clambered back to his feet, but he'd tossed his shield aside and left her no safe place to shoot. She tried placing a shot just past his ear, but he didn't so much as flinch as he turned her way. She placed shot after shot near him, but the thing guiding him seemed to know she wouldn't hurt him.

"But even YOUR mind can't work a way out of this in time."

Ruby's mind was racing, trying to figure out what to do. Her only options to stop them now involved inevitably maiming or even killing her friends, but doing nothing could doom the whole world!

What do I do? WHAT DO I DO?

"GAAH!" Sunset gasped. She was in an unfamiliar building, a long hallway lined with lockers and wooden doors. Her body was... different. Tall, lanky, two-legged and sporting a pair of arms that ended in dexterous-looking hands and-

Wait. Wait no... This IS me!

Like waking up from a dream, the rest of her memories, painful memories, came rushing back to her. She hadn't known better. She hadn't swallowed her pride. She'd practically spit in the eye of her loving mentor and-

"O-Oh... yeah."

She pushed herself against the wall and pulled her legs up against her chest as all the years came flooding back to her. It was like a ten-ton weight had been thrown back onto her heart after being lifted for the first time in forever, forcing her to bear the weight with a newfound appreciation for its enormity.

"Sunny? You okay?"

Sunset glanced up at the voice, finding herself face-to-face with Missy, now back in her normal angelic shape.

"I- I'm not sure. I was... I felt..." Sunset buried her face in her knees. "That seemed really REAL."

"Yeah, I know... but it wasn't." Missy reached out, putting her hand on Sunset's knee and giving it a squeeze. "It was a dream. Do you remember where we were when we got knocked out?"

"K-Kinda? It's fuzzy..." Sunset mumbled. The truth was that she was still caught up in the shock of being pulled out of her fantasy. "We were saving Blake, right?"

"Yeah, but then we got sneak-attacked." Missy sat on the floor next to her. "The last thing I did when I realized you were gonna be knocked out was vanish myself back to the duel spirit world so those creepy-crawlies couldn't get a hold of my magic." She breathed a long, deep sigh. "But the downside is, of course, that I couldn't save YOU from getting sucked into this."

"And what's 'this?'" Sunset muttered, letting more than a little bitterness creep into her voice.

"As near as I can tell from what I saw and what Penn told us... Baalchion's sales pitch." She sighed and stretched herself out. "The chance to go back and fix every mistake, every turn of bad luck, all the worst things that ever happened to you."

Sunset gripped a little tighter. "Good sales pitch."

"Eh, I think it's a little short-sighted. I mean, if we fixed all the bad things that happened to us, we would never have made it where we are now, right?" She motioned to the school around them. "You never would have even GONE to CHS! Let alone met your real friends, been thrown across the multiverse, or met me, Penn, or Isis!"

Sunset tried to hold back the tears. Missy was right, as usual, even when Sunset didn't want her to be. Her heart was still aching, yearning to go back to that world where she'd fixed her mistakes, earned back Celestia's favor without having to feel the sting of holding a grudge for years.

Missy seemed to pick up on Sunset's feelings, breathing another sigh and leaning against her.

"I... don't get what you're going through. I really don't have much experience with regrets. For me, I always live in the moment, and the moment is almost always phrased in terms of how much longer until Halloween!" She took a deep breath. "But... I know PENN has a lot of knowledge about regrets. If you asked, he could probably help."

Sunset knew that she couldn't just shut herself off, no matter how terrible she felt.

"How? Sharing his recipe book?"

Despite the bitterness baked into the joke, Missy still giggled.

"Everybody's got their ways of coping, right?"

The two of them sat in silence for a few more seconds before a thought occurred to Sunset.

"Wait... if we're in here and I got knocked out in the middle of the nest of mind-controlling spiders..."

"Yeeeeeah. The situation is EXACTLY what you think it is."

Sunset took another long breath before forcing herself to her feet. She looked up and down the hallway, seeing no sign of an end on either side. "Then there's no time to lose, right? How do we get back into the driver's seat?"

"That's the spirit!" Missy cheered, taking to the air again. "As far as I can tell, this control's neurological, so in THEORY, willpower shouldn't be enough, buuuuuuut... not everyone's willpower is tied into mind-altering magic!"

Sunset shuddered, trying not to think about the idea of one of those spiders crawling on her in real-life. "So if we can jump-start my magic, maybe we can kick it out?"

"That's the theor- That's the IDEA!"

Sunset cracked her knuckles with a smile. "In that case, I know JUST the door for us to open!"

"Which one?" Missy had a mischievous grin on her face as she floated up into the air beside Sunset.

Sunset turned to a nearby door, finding it to be exactly the one she wanted, labeled 'Battle of the Bands.' "Well, you KNOW this isn't my first time going up against mind control!"

What do I DO?

Ruby could feel herself freezing up as Jaune advanced on her. She couldn't shoot him to push him back, and the same went for Sunset, who was carrying Penn towards the swiftly-mending wall of webbing.

If I rush in to save Penn, I leave Pyrrha exposed! If I stay here, Penn's gonna get spidered or worse! She moved her non-trigger hand around to her back. I could switch to my fire dust charges, but that would just make the spiders all rush me again!

With a groan, she yanked the tip of Crescent Rose out of the floor and took up a melee stance.

"Jaune, I don't want to hurt you! But even if I use the blunt side, you're still gonna get pretty beat up!"

This didn't deter Jaune at all, who brandished his sword with an expert twirl. Ruby winced at the thought of what that sword could do to her without the protection of her aura, but tried her best to gather up her courage.

"Sorry, Pyrrha, looks like I've gotta beat up your boyfriend."

"I understand..." came a depressed moan from below. "Just... try not to be too rough, if you can?"

Ruby lunged forward, leading with the blunt side of her scythe, only to find her blow deflected by the flat of Jaune's sword. It was only her honed reflexes that let her dodge around the blade as he slipped under her attack and into her reach (and, consequently, into the range of the sharp edge of the blade), lunging to stab at her stomach. Ruby flicked a switch on the side of the handle, causing the blade to swing out straight and flip around. With a grunt, she swung the heavy weapon around and batted Jaune into the wall.

"I don't think I can make any promises, Pyrrha!"

Meanwhile, for Penn, everything was a haze of throbbing pain. Sunset, or the THING controlling her, had gone straight for his weak spot.

Granted, she was right. He HAD forgotten that she was a black belt, and at the worst possible time. His head felt like a complete mess, disorganized and hard to navigate through a deep fog.

Okay... a hero always finds a way for justice to be served, right? I gotta push past my limits! He tried to plant his foot on the ground to get out of Sunset's grip, but his body refused to listen to his commands.

"You can't just willpower your way out of this! Why, WHY did you just rush in without a plan? You should have taken the time to fall back and regroup!"

There wasn't time! If we don't stop these guys now, they'll keep multiplying until they can take over the whole school!

"Bullcrap! You rushed in because it was SUNSET in trouble!"

Penn tried again to get his feet under him, but they just slid fruitlessly across the tile.

"And now, because you couldn't stop yourself from bumbling in headfirst after her, you're going to LOSE!"

"Are you going to keep claiming doom and gloom?" Penn couldn't help grumbling the words out loud, this time. "Because I THOUGHT you said you were going to help me protect them after what happened with Salem..."

"What am I supposed to DO? It's not like I can just swap places with you, or I WOULD!"

Just as he could count the inches between himself and the webbing, however, Sunset... stopped.

Penn waited for the cocky declaration, the announcement of victory or whatever it was that she had stopped for, but she just stood there... in silence.

Until her foot began to tap against the floor.

And her voice began to hum at a low volume. And as Penn recognized the tune, he felt his hopes beginning to rise again.

You're never gonna bring me down... you're never gonna break this part of me...

With a grunt of effort, Sunset lifted him back up and gently pushed him back, setting him on his feet. When his knees threatened to buckle under his weight, he forced himself to stand straight enough to lock them rigid. What was about to happen, he didn't want to miss.

"We're here to let you know... that we won't let it go..." he tried his best to keep in key as he stared Sunset in the eyes. "Our music is a bomb and it's about to blow!"

The gemstone around Sunset's neck was starting to glow, brighter and brighter by the second.

"Wha- What's happening?"

When Penn turned back, he saw all three of the huntsmen-in-training staring back at them, even Jaune. He smirked and pointed his thumb at Sunset.

"Oh, you know, just my best friend being awesome." Penn chuckled.

The light from the geode was filling the entire hallway, sending the thoughtweavers skittering back to the shadows to hide. With a screech, the shriveled shape of a dead spider tumbled from Sunset's hair, smoking and smoldering in the aftermath of her magic. Now completely free, Sunset's body was engulfed in a moment of shimmering light. Though he'd never seen it in-person before, Penn knew 'ponying up' when he saw it. In less than a second, the transformation was complete, with equine ears and a ponytail long enough to almost touch the ground. She smiled at him, that warm and familiar smile that assured him everything was going to be all right.

"And you can try to fight..."

"But we have got the light!"

The two of them pressed their foreheads together, Penn barely being able to hold back a giddy laugh as his pain washed away.

"Of friendship on our siiiide!"

With that, a wave of shimmering red energy pulsed out from Sunset's body. As it passed over them Ruby and Pyrrha were unaffected, but Jaune went stiff and stood ramrod straight. Just like Sunset, the creature on his neck screamed its tiny scream before falling to the ground, freeing him from its control. Once again free, Jaune instantly fell to his knees, grasping at his head.

"What... happened?"

"Jaune!"

While Pyrrha and Ruby both were caught up in the moment of getting their friend back, Penn turned back to Sunset, who was already returning to her normal human form. Whatever magic she had used, it had clearly taken what was left of her strength, causing her to immediately collapse to her knees... and accidentally pull Penn with her when she tried to hold on to him for support.

As the two of them crashed into the tile, all of Penn's pain returned at once, forcing him to grit his teeth and hold his breath to avoid screaming right into her face. After several seconds of holding back a Hoover Dam's worth of curses, he finally let out his breath and looked Sunset in the eyes again.

"Did... didit work?" she mumbled, now bleary-eyed and slightly slurring her words.

"Y-yeah... it worked." Penn forced himself to smile through the pain.

"Ohgood..." she mumbled. "Can we go home now?"

"Yeah, I think... we... can." As Penn glanced around, however, reality told a very different story.

The spiders were still all around them, scrambling and disorganized. The web wall that served as their hive mind had a huge hole blown through the center, showing an unconscious Blake embedded halfway through the floor on the other side.

But they were already beginning to regroup. Sunset had managed to break their mind control and free their slaves, but the ones that had run and hid from the light were all returning. He couldn't be sure, but it seemed as if their numbers HAD dwindled to about half of what they'd originally been, but even just a few of these creatures were still enough to be plenty dangerous. They're like roaches! For every ten you kill, ten more are hiding in the walls! If they tried to run, they'd be swarmed. If they stayed, they would only be able to fend the swarm off for a few seconds before they were right back where they started.

And none of them were in any condition to fight. He looked back at Sunset, who was still dazed and confused from breaking their control.

"Just... give me a minute, Sunny. It's my turn to do something cool."

Trying to ignore the pain, he pushed himself back onto his feet. He gritted his teeth and turned back to the main web wall, where new strands were already beginning to criss-cross the empty space in the center.

"I have one more idea to wipe out the last of these pests." He looked down at his hand, trembling and barely able to hold itself up. With a deep breath, he turned his focus inward. "You mean what you said earlier, partner?"

"Whaddya mean?"

Penn reared back and before he could give himself a chance to second-guess himself, plunged his hand into the fresh strands, grabbing as many as he could and wrapping them around his arm. Even as he felt his conscious thoughts slipping away and he ripped a half-dozen of the creatures away from the wall like an improvised flail, one word forced its way out of his mouth.

"SWAP!"

Sunset felt terrible.

It was like the feeling of a nap cut short WAY too early, but multiplied by ten. She could barely comprehend where she was or what was happening around her. She knew she'd been using her magic, she could FEEL that, but her head was more cloudy than Pinkie's yearly cotton candy supply.

It was only when Penn's voice, heavy and hoarse with desperation, rang out that she was able to muster up enough coherence to start blinking away the confusion.

"SWAP!"

When she turned to look at him, a surge of fear further served to push away the fog in her mind.

Penn was half-torn to shreds, his body shivering and shaking as if he were seizing. He was bloodied and bruised, one arm looking as if it had been thrust into a bonfire and left there for an hour and multiple wounds of various sizes weeping with ichor. When she noticed the web strands wrapped around his arm, upon which several of the mind-controlling spiders were ascending, her blood ran cold and the memory of where they were finally slammed into her with full force.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Ruby screamed, yanking Sunset's attention in the opposite direction. She was standing in front of Jaune, who was kneeling beside what looked like an unconscious Pyrrha. "Get OUT of there!"

Sunset wanted to do as she said, but her legs felt like jelly. Every muscle in her body was burning and sapped of its strength, as if she'd just finished an hour of Rainbow's "high-intensity" training. She couldn't move if she wanted to.

"Heh heh heh..."

There was a chorus of screeches followed by a wet-sounding crunch behind her. Sunset turned back to look at Penn, and realized that the sound had been him bringing his foot down on top of the spiders that had been trying to climb up to his hand. His eyes were wide and wild, with a manic grin completely dominating his features. Her first instinct was to assume that Bendy had taken over again, but the glowing light behind his eyes soon corrected her assumption.

"HA HA HA HA HAAAA!" he roared to the ceiling with laughter, the kind that made throats go hoarse and bellies ache. He grabbed at the side of his face, cradling it in his own palm as his mania reached new heights. "OH, YOU MAD GENIUS! You PURPOSELY suppressed your conscious mind!"

Sunset felt a new kind of dread creeping up as a second, more feminine voice began to overlap with his, speaking in perfect sync. His injured arm raised away from his side for the first time, shaking off the seared flesh as if it were trying to shake off a sprinkling of water. Blackened sludge and ink droplets sprayed everywhere, including splashing across Sunset's face. As the inky flesh shed, a limb of sickly yellow light was revealed, giving the silhouette of a scaly forearm and human-like hand with wicked claws. With a painful-sounding popping sound, his head craned to the side far enough to make Sunset worry that he'd broken his own neck. Before she could object, "Penn" had reached down and grabbed her by her shirt. Hoisting her up onto her feet, Sunset was forced to stare into his eyes. One was shining with cyan light, but the other was a familiar malicious shade of blood red.

"Well, looks like it's your lucky day..." As Penn spoke, the motion seemed to stretch and pull at his face like a mask over a face too tall and narrow for it. "I already promised I was going to protect you."

"Y-you're- You're-"

"My what?" The thing pretending to be Penn smiled wider before swinging Sunset around, her feet now barely touching the floor. Penn was strong, but not strong enough to lift Sunset with ONE HAND like this, it- SHE- was obviously making him stronger. "Come on, Shimmer, speak up! I don't have all night!"

"You're Missy's sister."

Using Penn's other hand, she reached behind Sunset's head, treating her to an up-close version of the sound of a spider being squashed.

"Ding ding ding!" She tilted Penn's back in the other direction, resulting in another loud pop. This time, the red eye had switched sides, and the other one was a yellow-ish orange color. "And do you know what THAT means?"

Sunset forced herself to swallow her fear. "Y-you're going to get payback on the people who hurt him?"

"No, it means I get to activate my trap card!" With hardly so much as a heave, Sunset was lifted completely off of her feet and over Penn's shoulder. "Compulsory Evacuation Device!"

"Compulsory wha- WAAAAAAUGH!" Sunset didn't get the chance to ask for clarification before she was thrown overhand down the hallway. The world tumbled head-over-heels around her until she had a hard landing on the floor, sliding to a stop just beside Pyrrha. It was a hard and painful landing.

"Sunset! Are you okay?" Ruby asked, rushing to her side.

Sunset gave herself a quick once-over, affirming that she didn't have any broken bones. "J-Just exhausted and pretty sore."

"That's a relief... but what happened to Penn?" Pyrrha asked. A quick glance revealed that she wasn't unconscious, just seemingly paralyzed, laying flat on the floor.

Before Sunset could respond, their answer came in the form of another round on maniacal laughter. When she turned back to look, Penn had changed even more. his arms and legs seemed too long for his body, and a rustling under his back made it look like a pair of wings were trying to break free. He'd turned to the main wall of web. With more of "Big Sis"'s insane laughter, he plunged both of his hands into the web. With hardly any effort, he tore it all down at once, ripping it away from the walls.

"How- How is he DOING that?" Jaune whispered. When his head snapped back to look at them over his shoulder, they all flinched back but the smile was still on Penn's face. The spiders were desperately trying to stop him as he balled the whole mass up between his hands, crushing it into a bundle about the size of a soccer ball. The spiders were swarming all across his body, biting at him and trying to wrap him up in their thought-stifling webs, but all of it seemed like nothing more than a light breeze.

"How, Jauney-boy? That's easy!" Not-Penn tilted his head back again, returning to the blue-and-red pairing. "They. Can't. Hurt. Me!" With one final push to compress the ball in his hands, it burst into lilac-colored flames. The fire didn't stop there, though, spreading to the strands that had been fruitlessly wound around Penn's body.

"They're getting away!" Ruby shouted, taking aim with her rifle and opening fire. True to her word, the spiders, having realized they were beaten, were all beginning to skitter back into the shadows they'd come from, but "Penn" seemed unperturbed, reaching into his pocket.

"Not to worry, Rubes! I'll activate my field spell: Savage Colosseum!"

By magic, the area around Penn began to change. Arches opened up in the walls, which were converted to age-worn stone. The ground under his feet dissolved into coarse dirt. And, most importantly, all of the spiders that had retreated into the walls came pouring back out. They desperately scrambled and crawled up the walls, trying to slip back inside, but they were cut off by iron fencing that had descended after them. "Penn" held his hands open wide.

"Kill or be killed, kiddies! Come get some!"

The spiders all froze for a moment, clearly confused and disorganized without their minds all connected to one another. A few of them tried moving towards Susnet and the others, only to be greeted with a row of arches rising up out of the floor, cutting them off.

"Nuh-uh-uh! This is OUR fight!" With one foot raised into the air, not-Penn stamped the floor, sending a wave of purple flames racing across the floor. In a heartbeat, most of the spiders were reduced to ashes. Only one was left, seemingly on purpose, judging by the fact that "Penn" bent down and used his glowing energy hand to scoop it up in his palm. It continued trying to attack, fruitlessly biting at the hand over and over until it had tired itself out.

With that glowing red eye, the spirit of Missy's older sister stared deeply at it, taking in every ounce of its fear and suffering and relishing in it.

"Do you want to know a secret?" she faux-whispered to the tiny creature. "The secret is... Your god doesn't like you. He thinks your whole species is an under-designed, cringeworthy mistake."

After giving a second for her words to sink in, the spider began trembling. Sunset shuddered to think what kind of thoughts must be going through the little one's mind. Soon after that, Penn's hand closed around the creature, crushing it in a fiery mess.

When the last of their enemies was dead, the magical colosseum melted away, returning the hallway to what it once was. Wiping the last embers of the spider from Penn's hand, "Big Sis" walked up to the trio of teenagers. As she walked closer, it became obvious that Sunset hadn't just been imagining things. She was wearing Penn's body like a suit, and it was poorly-fitted, but underneath, there was something that moved with coordination and skill. She stopped only a few steps away, placing one hand on "her" hip and taking up a posture that somehow reminded Sunset of Rarity in her more confident moments. It it hadn't been coming from some kind of twisted, possessed, half-dead looking version of him, Sunset almost would have laughed at Penn striking the diva-esque pose.

"You're WELCOME."

There was a long pause as everyone stared, agape at the new intruder.

"Who... Are you still Penn?" Jaune asked.

Not-Penn rolled her eyes.

"I'll make this easy for you. Call me UB."

"You... be? You be what?" Ruby tilted her head in confusion.

"The letters, U and B." She tilted her head back again, flashing the orange eye at Ruby. "Stands for Ultra Beast."

Sunset couldn't help but roll her eyes. It sounded like something Rainbow Dash would make up as her edgy alter ego. "You STILL don't want to tell me your name?"

"Well, I was thinking about Garnet, but there's enough precious stones in the room." UB replied. With a brief shake, the glow on Penn's arm finally faded away, revealing fresh, unblemished skin. "Now, who needs help getting back to their dorm room?"

There was a long pause as everyone simply stared, completely agape.

"Wait... could you have done that this WHOLE TIME?" Jaune cried.

"Oh, don't mistake how easily I won with how easily PENN could have swapped with me." UB leaned down to Jaune, playfully patting the top of his head. "We've been trying to figure out how to pull this off without being on the verge of death! No dice! This was a last-ditch desperation play." She reached up and rubbed at Penn's temple. "Honestly? This even took ME by surprise!"

"Well... thank you." Ruby picked herself up enough to offer UB her hand. "There were so many of them, I wasn't sure how we were gonna make it out of here!"

"Ah, don't mention it." UB gave Ruby a smile, this time much less manic and almost... genuine? "These little guys were nothing compared to some of the monsters Penn and I have gone up against in our duels!"

Sunset narrowed her eyes. "Wait... you're being nice."

UB gave Sunset a glance, her red eye sparking slightly. "Yes. And?"

"That doesn't seem right."

"And how would YOU know what's right, Shimmer?" She reached over and flicked Sunset in the forehead. "I'm a VERY nice person. I just don't like YOU." While Sunset rubbed at the stinging spot, UB reached down to Pyrrha, taking her hand and lifting her up into a sitting position. "Okay, Achilles, we're giving you a lift back to bed! Ready? One, two, three!"

It seemed to take almost no effort for her to lift Pyrrha up off of the ground, sweeping her into a princess carry in Penn's arms.

"O-Oh my goodness!"

UB glanced over the remaining three of them. "Anybody else who can't walk?"

"I'm fine..." Ruby muttered as she pushed herself to her feet.

"I think I'll be okay, too." Jaune added as he did the same.

Sunset tried to rise, but her legs felt like jelly, and were about as strong. "Uh- I need some-"

"Good. Jauney-boy, you wanna carry your girlfriend?" UB gave Pyrrha a light toss up and down, only for Jaune to shake his head.

"I can walk, but whatever that spider did to me really drained me."

"What about Sunset?" Ruby asked, offering Sunset an open hand. Sunset took it with a smile, using Ruby's help to get her up on her feet and place her arm around her shoulders.

"What about her?" UB muttered. "I protected her, she's safe. My job's done. I don't think I'm forgetting any- OH!" She turned and strode back down the hall, taking Pyrrha with her. As they reached the end of the hall, UB grunted and began lifting Pyrrha up until she was slung belly-down over Penn's shoulder. "Apologies, Pyrrha, but I gotta free up an arm." Sunset worried for a second, until she saw UB reach down and grab Blake by the back of her shirt, lifting her up out of the physics-defying hole in the floor. With only a small grunt, the unconscious faunus was slung over Penn's other shoulder in an identical manner. Now carrying one of the disabled girls over each shoulder, UB walked back with a proud smile.

"So, let's get everybody back where they belo-"

"Attention. Incoming transmission for Penn."

Sunset blinked, realizing that Isis's voice was coming from her pocket.

"Uh- Penn's not-"

"Ahem!" UB cleared her throat. When she spoke again, it was perfectly in Penn's voice. "Go ahead, Isis, I can take it."

All eyes locked on UB, many wide with surprise, but she simply pressed her finger to her lips.

"Director Bakersfield? This is General Ironwood. We have a situation at the forge, I've been trying to get a hold of you."

"Sorry, I've been dealing with a situation of my own upstairs. What are we dealing with?"

"It appears that Chirac's ambassador disapproved of your plan so vehemently, she attempted to sabotage it. I've disabled her, but the forge was damaged."

Sunset's jaw dropped. She couldn't believe her ears. "There's no way that Dash would-"

"I'll be down there in fifteen. We have injured up here that I have to get to safety. Is that all right?" UB cut her off with her Penn impression.

"I can wait that long, though I would ask that you hurry. This is urgent."

"Right away, General."

As the call came to an end, UB shook her head with disappointment. "Well, at least we know Chirac's taking us seriously as competition..."

"There's NO WAY-"

"HUP-UP-UP!" UB cut Sunset off with a glare, back to having her feminine voice overlapping with Penn's. "You wanna go find out the truth, or do you want to stand around and argue with the general?" When Sunset stayed quiet, UB nodded. "Good girl."

Sunset's jaw dropped in shock at the condescending comment, but UB was already pushing past her with the others.

"Come on, kids! It's been a long day!"

There was a pause as Sunset and Ruby glanced at each other.

"She... really doesn't like you, does she?"

"No, she doesn't."

Sunset felt herself lightened as Jaune came along her other side, helping Ruby support her together. "What did you do to make her angry?"

Sunset took a long, deep breath as they hurried to catch up to UB. "As near as I can tell, she blames ME for roping Penn into all the trouble we get into."

"Ah... I guess I can understand that, in a way..." Jaune murmured. "I mean, Penn CHOOSES to go along with it, but you ARE the one giving the directions."

"But it's not MY fault we keep getting into trouble!"

"I know! I know." Jaune nodded. "But it makes you an easy target for the blame."

As they came up alongside UB, Ruby's focus was more on their new "friend" than Sunset.

"So... you're a card spirit? Like Missy?"

"Yup!"

"Then why are you possessing Penn instead of being summoned like her?"

"That's... complicated. To simplify it, I'm too big to cross over properly. Not physically, but in terms of power."

"Huh... fascinating..." Ruby murmured. "So, if Missy was here, wouldn't she summon some of her friends to help carry people? Why are you doing it all by yourself?"

"Well, Missy has what we call an archetype."

"What's an archetype?"

"It's a bunch of cards designed to support each other. They all share a name or mention each other in their effects." UB sighed in a melancholy manner. "I do not have an archetype. What I have is a team of mismatched cards that manage to operate in something resembling a functional deck through intelligent design and sheer will."

"Why don't you have an archetype?"

"Not all cards do. I don't play well with others, so I never got one."

"Well, I can attest to that..." Sunset mumbled.

"I could TRY summoning some of the other spirits from my deck, but it would be up to them whether or not they showed up or listened to me once they got here." She shrugged. "Plus I'd have to be properly summoned over HERE before I could call anybody else over."

"Ooooh...."

"If you don't have an archetype," Pyrrha chirped up from her place on UB's shoulder, "How did you get so powerful?"

"Well, when a boy and a trading card love each other very much..." she trailed off before she started snickering. "I know it sounds like I'm joking, but duel spirits get stronger as our bond with the people who play us grows. Penn was a fan of my card effects from the start, so he was pretty enthusiastic. From there, we just kept getting closer."

Sunset wanted to interrupt, but she kept her mouth shut. This was the most information she'd ever gotten about Missy's big sister since they;d first crossed paths.

"Sounds kind of... romantic," Jaune commented. "You get stronger the more you care about each other."

"Romantic? Please." UB scoffed. "This runs much deeper than that. The bond between a duel spirit and their partner is like being two parts of the same soul, like the left and right sides of the brain. Even if we can work independently, we're really at our best together."

"So... what kind of monster are you? Are you an angel, like Missy?" Ruby asked.

"Oh, I'm the complete opposite." UB smirked. "I'm an absolute demon."

With that, the group came to a stop, cutting off any further questions. "Aaaand here we are! Team RWBY on the right, Team JNPR on the left. All a-bed who's going a-bed!"

As Jaune carefully took Pyrrha from UB's care, Ruby and Sunset shared a look.

"You gonna be okay alone with her?"

Sunset took a deep breath. "Yeah. She might not like me, but from what she said, it sounds like she promised Penn that she'd protect me. I'll be safe."

"If you say so..." Ruby nodded as she leaned Sunset up against the wall. "I wish I could go with you to check on Rainbow Dash, but-"

"Blake needs you here, I get it." Sunset did her best to give Ruby a smile. "I'll be back as soon as we clear things up with the general. I'm sure this is all a big misunderstanding."

"We'll be waiting."

With UB's help, Ruby got Blake into their dorm room, and soon it was just her and Sunset alone in the hallway. UB folded her arms and struck that hip-cocked pose again.

"So, you coming with me downstairs?"

"Of course I am."

"You walking?"

"You know I can't."

"Then you're not coming."

"I am."

"I'm not carrying you any more than I already have today."

Sunset folded her arms, trying to mock her pose while still having to lean against the wall to keep standing. "Then leave. Penn can take over from here."

"HA!" UB barked. "You think it's that simple?"

"You swapped in, can't you swap back?" Sunset didn't let her nerves show on her face, but something about the matter-of-fact way that UB had responded made her worry.

"Do you have... ANY IDEA... how much pain and worry he's been dealing with BEFORE he got attacked?" UB leaned closer. "What did you THINK he was spending all day and night in the kitchen and the garage about? And now, when he got beaten within an inch of his life and had to throw himself, an insectiphobe, into a web of thought-suppressing spiders to clear the way for ME to bail the two of you out?" She tilted Penn's head, this time closing one of her eyes so that Sunset was forced to look into that glowing red orb of malice.

"If you think he's coming back in the immediate future, you REALLY underestimate how long it's going to take to pull himself back together!"

Sunset blinked as the sheer level of problem that was now in her hands finally struck her.

"Oh, Celestia, I'm stuck with you."

"At least until Penn pulls himself together enough to take back over his life, yeah." UB sighed. "We're wasting time. I need to go find out how much damage Dash did."

As she tried to turn away, Sunset reached out and grabbed at her, hoisting herself onto Penn's back by his shirt.

"If Rainbow Dash is involved, then I'm coming!"

The two of them stayed frozen like that for a second before UB let out a long, tired sigh.

"Screw it. I might need a translator who's fluent in Stupid if Rainbow opens her mouth."

By the time that the two of them had made their way all the way down to the basement, Sunset had gotten enough of her strength back to walk on her own again. As they grew closer to Penn's workshop, UB began clapping her hands against her cheeks repeatedly and shaking her whole body.

"What are you doing?"

"Trying to get in the mindset for my best Penn impression. Muscle memory is a big help."

Sunset narrowed her eyes. "Wait, this isn't the first time you'd had to pretend to be Penn?"

For a second, UB's grin was enough to send chills through Sunset's entire body.

"Wouldn't YOU like to know?"

"Yes, that's why I asked!"

When the two of them entered the workshop, most of the "uncanny" aspects of the possession had been suppressed, including her eye color.

The workshop was an absolute mess, but it was hard for her to differentiate it from the usual mess that Penn had made of it. The biggest differences were that General Ironwood was sitting on the trunk of Penn's unfinished car and Salem, still in her disguise, was leaning against the forge that was extracting the netherite. To Sunset's dismay, the forge had fallen silent, and the controls were covered in scorch marks, as if they'd been struck by lightning.

"Sorry for the delay, General." UB gave a short bow. Once again, Sunset was thrown for a loop by the fact that UB was able to switch between her own voice and Penn's so flawlessly.

"It's alright, tending to the wounded comes first." Ironwood declared, stepping down from the bumper and quickly closing the distance between them. His eyes widened as he looked Penn over, "Are you sure you shouldn't be in the infirmary, yourself?"

"Afraid the Director doesn't have time to bleed." UB chuckled before placing a ginger hand over Penn's stomach wound. "I'll be going straight to bed rest as soon as we resolve things here, though, believe you me."

"Then I'll make this quick." Ironwood put a hand around UB's shoulders and guided her over to the forge. "Rainbow Dash is of the opinion that the Chiracian Treaty is our only means to survival. In an effort to force our hand, she was ordered to disable the forge so that we wouldn't be able to produce more netherite. I had come here as soon as I heard that we were under attack, and she arrived soon after. We clashed, and in the chaos she managed to land a blow to the control panel of the forge, disabling it."

"Wait, you two FOUGHT?" Sunset gasped.

"Not for long." Ironwood shook his head and began leading them back towards the unfinished car. As they walked, he gestured to a long, oily streak on the ground. "Soon after that, she slipped in what appeared to be a puddle of motor oil while moving at high speed. Her momentum carried her towards the car, where she fell inside. Her dragon companion followed her inside, and... well, I shut the lid on them." He turned and let his hand rest on top of the trunk lid.

"Wait, RD is TRAPPED in there?" Sunset rushed forward, only to be yanked back by UB by the back of her shirt.

"Chill, Sunny. It's bigger on the inside, we've been playing with the internal dimensions." UB smirked. "The trunk has more square footage than the house I was living in when we met and plenty of air."

"But-"

"I'm prepared to take her into custody, but considering her powers and abilities, I wanted to consult with you before we attempted to move her." Ironwood leaned back again against the car. "Not to mention the fact that most parts for this forge have been discontinued. We'd have to have them delivered to make repairs."

UB pressed her hands together in front of her mouth, closing her eyes for a few seconds in deep thought. Sunset wondered what was going through her mind in that moment, but it wasn't long before some type of plan had managed to formulate.

"Well, I'm glad you called me, General. Mostly because I owe you an apology."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Well, first things first, we can let Rainbow Dash out." UB sighed and reached into Penn's pocket, retrieving his keys. "She was acting under my orders."

Ironwood moved to block "Penn" from the trunk of the car, giving a critical stare that rivaled even Celestia's disappointed look in Sunset's dream. "How?"

"This-" UB pointed to the titanic forge, "is NOT where the netherite is being harvested. THIS is a decoy. While it IS harvesting netherite, this is excess. The mission-critical production is being handled by Isis in another BUCKLER location."

Ironwood raised an eyebrow. "Why wasn't I informed of this?"

"I had intended to speak with you about it tonight, I didn't think our enemies would make it past our defenses quite so quickly." "Penn" bowed his head. "In case our enemies attacked Beacon, I asked Rainbow Dash to come and 'attack' the decoy in order to draw attention to it. Her 'mission' was a smokescreen for all of our sakes."

Ironwood took a long, hard look at UB, inspecting for any sign of falsehood. It seemed as if UB was completely immune to his intimidating aura, however, as Penn's face didn't budge a single inch.

"Alright. And how do I know that you're not just acting to cover for Rainbow Dash?"

"Because if someone ACTUALLY cost us our netherite production and was willing to put the whole world in jeopardy, I wouldn't put my interests above millions of lives. To do so would betray my own organization and be completely unforgivable. I am NOT a monster." UB leaned forward, as if daring General Ironwood to counter her statement.

There was a long pause before relenting and stepping aside to let UB unlock the trunk. With a twist of the key, the door popped open, revealing a black abyss where Sunset would have expected the usually-crammed-full storage space.

"How you feeling down there, Dashie? Awesome as you wanna be?"

A far-away voice echoed back to them, barely recognizable as Rainbow Dash. "Oh, ha ha ha! SCREW YOU!"

"Hang on down there, we'll send somebody down to get you in a minute!" UB turned back to Ironwood and shrugged. "She'll be fine."

There was a pause before Ironwood heaved a sigh.

"I expect a full and ACCURATE report."

"I'll have Isis draft one up for you."

With a respectful nod, Ironwood walked away, leaving Sunset, UB, and Salem alone with a very angry car trunk. With a smirk, Salem strode over to the two of them.

"So, how much of that was made up on the spot, you monster?"

"One hundred percent." UB dropped the attempt to look or sound like Penn completely once Ironwood was out of sight. She rubbed at the bridge of her nose, which Sunset noted must have been carried over from Penn's mannerisms. "This is our only source of netherite and Dash just RUINED IT."

"Lovely."

"Um hellooooooo?" Rainbow's voice carried up from the bottom of the trunk, "Is somebody gonna help me get out of here?"

UB glanced at the trunk lid, then the broken forge, and finally down at the hole Rainbow Dash had fallen into.

"Why don't you just pony up and FLY out?"

"I dunno! Something's wrong, I can't pony up!"

There was another long pause before, without a word, UB placed her hand on the trunk lid and tipped it over, letting it slam shut.

"Whoops."

"UB!"

"Fine, fine... I'll find a ladder."

Author's Note

Hello, everyone!

I want to apologize. This "hiatus" wound up stretching WAY farther than I ever intended. The truth is that I was in a very unhealthy living situation, and the only way out was to put my nose to the grindstone so hard that I never had the combination of time and energy left to be creative.

But now I've put a thousand miles between that myself and that whole mess of unfortunate circumstances! Literally!

I'm back on the road, this time more prepared and more self-aware than ever. And as the miles have passed, my creative flow has been pumping again like a long-dead heartbeat! Things clearly aren't going to be ideal until I find a place to live, but I can handle road life again for now!

Obviously, I'm not going to be at 100% until I've managed to settle and find a job again, but I'm not waiting for that before I start writing again! Updates will still be slow while I'm carbound, but I promise I'm going to give it my all to get back into a healthy rhythm!

Thank you all for being so patient with me, words can't express how much weight it takes off my shoulders to have you all, even when things are too bad for me to write. And to those who I disappointed with this long wait, I want to apologize. I've had to do a lot of self-improving and soul-searching these last couple years, and writing had to take a backseat to my well-being.

So, for the first time in the last two and a half years, let's have ourselves some happy adventures again, huh??

See you again (hopefully) soon!