A Queen's Perspective - Awakening
Applejack was a busy girl. Between her friends, her family, her work for school and her chores on the farm she was rarely idle and left without anything to do. Still, like nearly any teenager, she was no stranger to boredom.
And right now, she was bored.
Her friends were busy, her chores and school work were done for the day, Big Mac was on his way to give Apple Bloom a ride back home after her CMC sleepover at Rarity's place (The mess they’d made was the reason Rarity was busy) and Granny Smith was taking her afternoon nap.
She lay on her bed, idly checking her MyStable page. Now that she and her friends could simply talk to one another in their minds, it had become a lot more empty, the hivemind was simply so much more convenient.
Suddenly, her phone vibrated and a message popped up on its screen. She was excited for a split second before she read it. 'Warning, battery low. (19%) Please connect to charger.' She rolled her eyes and continued on for a few more minutes.
'Warning, battery critically low. (3%) Please connect to charger immediately.'
Mumbling under her breath she looked to her bedside table where she expected her charger to be. It wasn't there. She turned and could see it lying across the room on her desk. Normally she'd just get up and fetch it. But her bed was so comfortable. She stretched out her hand towards the desk, willing the charger to her.
The charger shuddered, then flew across the room into her hand.
The hay? Did Ah just magic that thing to me? Alarmed, she pinged Sunset.
Sunset could feel her friend's mounting panic.
Sunset had been busy catching up on some schoolwork, it wasn't strictly necessary, but while she wasn't as ambitious as Twilight, Sunset did enjoy being ahead of the curve.
But that could wait. Applejack had just given her something new to think about. If she suddenly developed a new kind of magic, why not the rest of them? Turning around in her desk chair, she looked towards her bedside table where her own phone lay. She focused on it and willed it towards her.
The device shuddered, then flew towards her. She caught it safely in her hand. It hadn't felt like using magic, not like back in Equestria, nor like when she powered up at the Fall Formal and the Friendship Games, both had been very distinctive and different from each other, but neither one matched this even remotely. Even during a normal 'pony-up' she didn't feel like this. It almost felt like she wasn't using magic at all. But she had to be.
Right?
Once more she focused on the phone. It lifted up and started floating before her, gently spinning in mid-air. Regardless how close she looked, the distinctive glow of magic was missing. Then she noticed the air close to the phone warping slightly, as if bending the nearby light itself. She had seen this before. This was the kind of telekinesis Queen Twilight had used. Not magical, but psychic in nature.
Okay. I can do it. AJ can do it. Can the others? Better find out.
She had created the hivemind equivalent of a conference call.
Sunset forestalled any further questions with a ping that was the equivalent of raising a hand to indicate that they weren't going to get any answers if they kept peppering her with questions.
It was Twilight who answered.
Fluttershy sounded vaguely intrigued.
After a short moment it was once more Twilight who spoke.
Applejack's characteristic laugh could be heard through the link.
Fluttershy confirmed, quiet as always.
Sunset groaned under her breath, but made sure none of her exasperation could be felt through the link.
After various noises of vague agreement, Sunset left her friends to their business and turned to her backpack. With a sly smile she focused on the zipper and soon managed to move it – and only it – and open the bag. Soon, however, she realized a flaw in her plan, how would she focus on the journal in the bag if she couldn't see it? The obvious idea would have been to simply move the bag so she could look inside, or to simply move it to her, but Sunset had another idea in mind. Closing her eyes she focused on the feeling of her new powers and projected them outwards. After a short moment she could once more see the room around her. It was a very strange sensation as she could even see things she normally wouldn't have line-of-sight to.
She could see the desk behind her back, the boxes beneath her bed and, of course, the journal in her backpack. However she couldn't see color or brightness, in fact all she could see was the shape and texture of objects, as if she had stretched out her tactile senses.
After taking a moment to process this thoroughly strange sensory input, she focused on the journal and let it float out of her bag. At the same time she picked up a pen from behind her back and floated it next to the book. Re-opening her eyes she cracked open the book to the latest message, flipped to the next blank page, and began to write, the book and pen still floating before her and her arms crossed before her chest.
Dear Twilight,
we (well AJ mostly) made a bit of a discovery today. I assume you remember that psychic telekinesis thing you do when you're here? Turns out we can do that too now. I also just learned that I can use psychic powers to look around corners and I'm currently writing this hands-free. (So please apologize the bad hornwriting (mindwriting? is that a thing now?) I'm a bit out of practice.)
If you have any ideas of what else we may be able to do or anything we should watch out not to do, let me know.
Hoping you are well,
Sunset.
Having finished her writing she turned around and let the book and pen fall to the desk, before lifting her hands to rub her temples. That was a lot more exhausting than I thought it would be.
Sunset rolled her eyes.
Laying down on her bed, Sunset went to rest her mind, waiting for the journal to react.
Fluttershy had just finished some work at the animal shelter and returned home when she saw her mother sitting in the living room. She greeted her with a friendly wave that was promptly reciprocated. She put her bag down and went into the kitchen.
"Fluttershy dear, could you get me a glass of water while you're at it?"
"Sure thing."
A moment later Fluttershy came into the living room, softly humming with two glasses of water floating before her. Soon enough the glasses floated ahead of her and landed on the table, one of them directly before her mother. As Fluttershy sat down before the other glass, she released her focus and noticed her mother's baffled expression.
"How did you do that?"
"Uhh, it looks like the girls and I got some new powers. We only discovered them earlier today."
"Okay dear, what else can you do?"
"Uhh, I don't really know yet. We're still trying to figure that out."
"Well ... okay dear, just be careful with that, okay?"
"Of course mom."
"Rarity, I finished cleaning my room."
As Sweetie Belle entered the living room she was stunned to see several sponges cleaning various stains on the floor and furniture while Rarity was standing in the center of the room closely observing them, an expression of complete focus on her face.
As she watched in bafflement, the sponges returned to a bucket at Rarity's feet and a towel began flitting around the room drying the furniture, letting the floors dry on their own. After a few moments it flew back to Rarity who caught it in one hand before relaxing her posture. She then looked around the room as if seeing it for the first time. Then her eyes widened as she saw her sister.
"Oh, Sweetie Belle, there you are. Sorry I didn't notice you sooner, doing this takes quite a lot of focus."
"Uhh, exactly what were you doing?"
"Well, cleaning obviously."
Sweetie rolled her eyes. "Yeah I can see that, but ... How?"
"Well Sunset and Applejack discovered that the girls and I seem to have gained some psychic abilities, you know, like what Queen Twilight can do when she's here. It's quite convenient actually. Makes cleaning so much easier. Speaking of which ..."
A number of objects she had previously moved out of the way floated over to orbit around Rarity before quickly returning to their correct places.
Sweetie Belle just watched, stunned and slightly jealous.
Applejack had gotten out of bed by now, leaving her phone to charge on her bedside table. She knew Apple Bloom and Big Mac would be back soon and Granny Smith would soon get up from her nap as well. It was growing late do she chose to begin making dinner for the four of them.
Only a few minutes later, the telltale sound of the family's small truck could be heard approaching. Soon enough Big Mac and Apple Bloom entered the house.
"Hey Sis, had a nice day?"
"Ah sure did, Bloom. An ah heard o' the shenanigans you and the others got up to at Rarity's"
"Ah you and yer cheaty mind link. Uhh ... What're you doin'?"
Turning, Applejack saw her younger sister's gaze lingering on the floating plate before her. "Makin' dinner, why?"
"An' dinner involves floatin' plates, huh?" Applejack turned around at the voice of the eldest member of the household."
"Does now, granny." AJ turned to see her grandmothers gaze on the floating pie-tin to her right. "Is this really so strange after all the stuff the girls and me have gott'n up to?"
"Nope!" Big Mac had taken a seat at the table, resigned to simply observing what his sister and her friends would do next.
Alone in her small apartment, Sunset was keeping herself busy. After resting for a while she had gone on to experiment with her new powers, she had already found out that she now shared the same passive empathy Queen Twilight had spoken of. She had also learned that she could intentionally strengthen that empathy, extending its range. Detecting all the emotions in the house and on the streets below had been an odd experience.
She was standing in her small kitchen, using a bit of water in the sink to try using psychic shields, to moderate success thus far, when a quiet hum from her bedroom caught her attention. Her practice session before made it much easier to reach out with her mind and feel her way around the bedroom, quickly finding the vibrating journal and floating it back to her, all without leaving the kitchen. She then quickly took a seat, rubbing her temples until the numb feeling behind them went away. Note to self: don't use telekinesis on things that are vibrating.
Once she had recovered, she opened the journal, stopping its alarm in the process.
Dear Sunset,
okay, that was unexpected. I'll admit that, given what you seven could do in the mindscapes, it makes sense in retrospect.
The main ways of using psychic powers are, of course, mind affecting, the most direct form being mind control, but with training, more subtle ways of affecting the mind are possible. Manipulating perception is one of the major ones, then of course there is mental communication, very easy within the hivemind, extremely difficult outside of it. That goes both for sending and for receiving. There is psychic spatial awareness, but it sounds like you already figured that one out. It works especially well when combined with other techniques.
Controlling someone's mind takes active effort, so you needn't worry about doing that by accident. That being said, simple psychic suggestion can sometimes happen subconsciously, so I recommend warning the girls of that.
Beyond that, as I said, the queens rarely train their psychic potential. The most I've heard off are tales of simplistic psychic constructs, like blades or cutting ribbons and, of course, shields. But I guess you'll soon know more about it than I do.
Take care and give my greetings to the girls,
Twilight.
It was clear Rarity had already come to enjoy their new powers.
Rainbow took that moment to jump into the conversation.
The girls chatted a few minutes longer before going back to their duties and occupations.
Her work at the cakes' shop finished for the day, Pinkie Pie returned home in her usual bouncy fashion.
"Hey Maud, how are you?"
"As usual." Others might have had difficulty reading Maud, but to Pinkie, her pleasant smile was obvious. "How was yours?"
"Oh, you know. Had a fun day at school, went to help out at the cakes' shop, discovered the girls and I have gained some new type of powers, had a nice chat with a few customers, the usual."
"Discovering new powers is usual?"
"Ehh … at this point ..."
"Hm. Point taken. What power did you discover. New magic?"
"No. Psychic this time. Look." With a wave of her hand, Pinkie pulled a cupcake from her hair. A few twists and spins of her finger later and the cupcake had broken in two, the paper had deposited itself in the garbage can and the halves had come to a stop hovering before the two girls. "Want some?"
"Sure. Neat trick." Grabbing the half floating before her she sampled a bite and gave her sister the smallest hint of a smile. "Mango. New recipe?"
"Yup. Used a special kind of rock salt, thought you might like it."
Maud took another bite, carefully sampling the taste. "The calcium impurities add to the aroma. Good choice."
"I have another one, in case Mom and Dad want to try." With another wave of her hand, Pinkie drew another one of the cupcakes from her hair and deposited it on the kitchen counter. "Have fun here you two."
Leaving Maud to turn back to the small piece of the cupcake she had placed next to her pet rock, Pinkie made for the stairs. Arriving on the upper floor she happily bounced along the corridor waving into the room opposite hers. "Hi Marble. Cupcake?"
"Mhm."
"Here." Pulling a third cupcake from her hair, she sent it to float over to her younger twin. Marble didn't show any sign that a floating cupcake was in any way strange, she had long since grown used to the fact that her and her sisters sometimes did things that couldn't be explained. Even on the few occasions when she did it herself, she found it best to simply not question it.
With a smile and a wave, Pinkie turned around and walked into her room.
After several hours of work in her little garage laboratory, Twilight closed the door behind her and Spike, using a quick flick of her wrist to guide her telekinesis into floating a small key from her pocket and locking her lab behind her. She was using psychic perception to do so and walk back to the house while giving her eyes a rest. She found that even after adjusting the screens of her various gadgets and devices to a lower brightness her eyes tired faster than they used to.
The key pulled out of the lock and flew back towards her. She stopped and raised her right arm, catching it between two fingers right above her shoulder. With a satisfied smile she reopened her eyes. They might tire faster but they also recovered faster, and thanks to her newfound night vision she saw clear as day, despite the fact that it was only half an hour to sundown.
"You've been enjoying this, haven't you?"
Looking down, she saw Spike giving her an amused grin. "Yes, I have. These new abilities are only the latest in a series of events that have made my life so much more interesting. Thinking about it, the first major change was actually you talking." Despite his surprised protests she flicked her wrist and lifted him off the ground and into her arms. "Come, time for dinner. Cadence is coming."
Her favourite babysitter was a longstanding friend of her family. She had been extremely helpful in explaining the exact events of the Friendship Games to her parents and brother. Unfortunately she didn't know any more about Twilight's new found abilities than the other three. Looks like I'll have to explain this one alone. Then again their reactions should be quite amusing.
Having both hands full she sent her psychic abilities through the door lock to move the handle on the inside. She smiled as the door clicked open.
"Woah, how'd you do that?"
"The others explained what my counterpart said about how this works. I just applied it. The lock was just wide enough to be a channel to move the handle."
"So wait, if you could do that, could you also pick the lock?"
"With some practice, probably. Of course, this door was already unlocked, so it was easier to just reach inside and use the handle."
"Oh, Twilight, hello."
A wide smile spread on the girl's face as she recognized the voice. She turned around to greet the newcomer. "Cadence, I was wondering when you'd arrive."
The two came together in a hug before entering the house proper.
Several minutes later, they sat at the table with Twilight's family, enjoying dinner. Shining Armor was the first to speak up. "So how are things going at CPA? How did Cinch take the whole Friendship Games thing?"
"Well the school itself is fine, the students have already started being more friendly. Looks like CHS really made an impression on them." Cadence gave Twilight a quick smile. "As for Principal Cinch, well ... Abacus is in a bit of hot water, despite our warnings, she apparently thought going to the school board about matters of magic was a good idea. Add to that the fact that she is already well past the normal retirement age and it's pretty clear where this is going ..."
"Well, can't say we didn't warn her." Spike pointed out from his place on the couch next to Twilight.
"True. We did tell her no one would believe her." Cadence took a bite of her food before turning to Twilight. "And how are you doing at CHS? Having fun?"
"Absolutely. The girls are great and everyone else is really nice too. Though the school does seem to be a bit of a magnet for strange events."
"Well. That may have to do with the portal to another dimension sitting in front of it." Night Light pointed out in between bites.
"True. The girls and I actually discovered some new powers just today."
"Oh dear, what can you do now?" Velvet gave her daughter a worried glance.
"Let me show you." With that Twilight closed her eyes and placed her hands on the table, but continued to eat her food regardless, the cutlery floating before her.
Taking in the surprise around her, Twilight leaned back, an amused smile playing across her lips. "I suspected you might react this way."
Having seen plenty of weirdness lately, Cadence was the first to recover. "Oh, so you have telekinesis now? Why am I even surprised at this point?"
"Well not just telekinesis, we basically all have the same psychic abilities as my counterpart."
Night Light scratched his head. "I'm still trying to get over the whole dimensional counterparts business."
His wife gave him a pointed look. "At least your counterpart isn't a psychotic terrorist."
Shining Armor knew his sister well enough to easily see that that particular topic was making her uncomfortable. He gave her a concerned look and decided that it was high time to steer the conversation in a different direction. "Leaving that whole mess aside, what exactly can you do with these powers Twiley?"
Twilight shot him a thankful glance, his concern having been trivial to pick up on, before sitting up straight. Everyone at the table recognized that as her going into 'lecture-mode'. "Well I've already shown you telekinesis and psychic perception. Beyond that there are a number of psychic force projections: shields, cutting ribbons and the like and then of course there are the things affecting the mind. Mind control would be the most obvious one but there are far more subtle methods. Beyond that we have passive psychic empathy, allowing us to pick up on emotions around us."
She looked around the table, seeing the stunned expressions of her family.
"Well if there is anyone I'd trust not to abuse mind control, it's you Twilight."
Twilight gave Cadence a grateful smile while the rest of her family recovered.
"And you can do all that?"
"Well not yet Shiny, but I can learn to do that, and who knows what else, even the queendoms rarely use this power."
"Okay, my sister can learn mind control ... Just gonna pretend that that isn't worrying. Do you actually plan to learn that?"
"Mind control? Well given that what happened at the Games was the third time the girls had to save the world, we figured it might be good to have the option. As a backup plan, just in case. I don't really like the idea, but is suppose I'll have to deal with it."
"I guess that's a good point. Just be carefull, sis."
"I always am, Shiny."
"Yes. Yes you are. You're right Cadence. If there's anyone I'd trust with this power, it's Twiley."
Twilight gave a well hidden smile, sensing the love between Cadence and her brother.
The morning after, the seven girls met up at the now vacant pedestal that served as the portal terminus, as they so often did. The sky was overcast but the early morning sun managed to peek underneath the clouds. There was a faint energy in the air. Most of the girls had seen the weather report, but even those who hadn't knew there was a storm coming.
Rainbow Dash took a deep breath, tasting the air with an approving hum. "I always love a good summer storm, just hope it waits 'till we're inside."
"Don't worry about that, Dash. I've done a bit of practicing. Look." Crossing her arms before her chest, her hands touching her shoulders, Sunset closed her eyes. For a moment the girls looked confused, they could feel the energy emanating from Sunset, but nothing seemed to be happening. Then the air seemed to warp around them. It took them a moment to realize what had happened, but they soon managed to see the faint, almost invisible, dome around them all.
It was hard to really see, unlike a magical shield it didn't emit light. The only way to know it was there was that it was breaking the light, almost like a perfect, unscrathed glass dome, only without any reflections. After another short moment they managed to hear it, a quiet and deep, almost subsonic, hum that was emanating from the dome.
Sunset reopened her eyes, looking around at her stunned friends. "Neat huh? It's pretty weak, can't take much, but it's enough to hold off a bit of rain and wind."
At that exact moment, the hum momentarily grew slightly louder, coming from directly above them. Looking up, the girls watched in awe as a single drop of water flowed off the shield and to the ground.
It would not remain alone.
Soon enough the girls watched numerous students run past them, books or other makeshift shields above their heads, others walked by at a more leisurely pace, the ones who had thought to bring an umbrella and those who were not afraid to get a little wet. The seven girls stood there watching the students trickle in as the rain gradually grew stronger, looking at her phone Rarity sighed. "Impressive though that may be, we should probably get inside. Classes will start in a few minutes."
After a few nods of agreement they started moving forward, careful to remain within the shield. After they had arrived under the roof before the school's glass doors, Sunset waited a few seconds for the rest of the water to run off the shield, before visibly relaxing, a wavering of the air around them was the only sign that the shield had vanished. With a satisfied smile, Sunset turned to her friends.
After a few seconds of trying different approaches, Sunset managed to gift her friends the basic concept of shields.
Closing her eyes to focus, Rainbow held the thumb and index finger of both her hands together, then moved the four fingers apart, a faint, almost invisible membrane of energy spanning the square space between them. After another second of focus she took her hands away from the shield, leaving it to float in midair before her. She timidly reached out a finger and gently pressed against it, then recoiled backwards, moving her other hand to her temple.
<Woah! I could feel that. This is really trippy. Carefully she reached out towards the small shield once more, pressing her finger against it, gently pushing. It didn't move. Finally with a look of apprehension she snipped a finger against the small barrier.
With a quiet popping sound, the barrier vanished.
Rainbow winced.
Sunset gave her a pat on the back and a sympathetic smile.
The ringing of a bell reminded the girls of where they were and what they were supposed to be doing. Within moments the seven split up into smaller groups and rushed off to their various classes.
For the seven girls, the morning lessons passed quickly, more or less. Regardless, soon enough they found themselves at a table for lunch. They were talking amongst themselves about the lessons they had just had and those that were yet to come, when they heard someone clearing their throat beside their table.
"Mind if I join you for a moment?"
Only now did the girls pick up on the nervous worry coming from beside their table, the prevalent emotional background din of the school having masked it before. They were quite surprised by whom it was coming from.
"Miss Cheerilee? Sure, go ahead. What brings you here?"
The teacher looked around, making sure the other students weren't paying too much attention, then sat down next to Fluttershy.
"The Principal saw you doing ... whatever it was you were doing at the statue this morning, she just wanted me to check if there is another crisis we should know of."
"None that we know of." Sunset gave the teacher a calming smile. "I can only assume that it's an aftereffect of what happened a few weeks ago. But if there is another crisis, we'll be more than ready for it. If you want we can come to the principal later and explain everything to her, it might be best if the faculty knows what's going on."
"Okay, you do that, I'll head off now before the students get suspicious. They're lovely kids, but they do have a tendency for gossip. I'm sure the principal will explain things to me later. Have a nice day girls." To various greetings from the gathered girls, she stood up and left the cafeteria.
The afternoon classes had just ended and the seven were now approaching Celestia's office. As Sunset knocked, the two rather localized signatures of impatient curiosity gave them a pretty clear picture of what to expect.
"Come in."
Unsurprisingly, Celestia wasn't alone. The principal was sat behind her desk, her sister leaning against the wall behind her. Both women wore carefully constructed, stoic expressions, rendered entirely pointless by the girls' newfound empathy. Their curiosity was tinged with apprehension and worry, giving the girls a good idea what was going through their minds.
"Welcome. You seven have something you wish to explain?"
After a quick mental exchange Sunset was chosen to be the speaker of the group. "We do. Until yesterday we didn't consider it important enough to mention, but things changed."
Celestia shared a worried expression with Luna who had by now stalked over and sat down on the edge of her desk. Sunset easily picked up on their worry but continued nonetheless. "It started right after the Friendship Games. We discovered that we could sense each other's emotions, like the empathic abilities Queen Twilight has. The next day she visited and discovered that we had formed a kind of pseudo-hivemind, one transmitting emotions only."
The sisters' worry had been pushed aside, now curiosity was clearly the only thing on their minds.
"When she studied this new kind of hivemind she accidentally activated it and integrated me into her hivemind proper. After that, it seemed the best option to integrate the others as well. Now we are connected among one another, and connected to her whenever she opens the portal. She does keep us cordoned off from her hive mind at large though. Apparently once you're in a hivemind, leaving it can cause some pretty intense withdrawal effects."
"A reasonable course of action, I suppose." Celestia had her hands folded on her desk listening attentively.
"Quite, yes. For a while that was all, until yesterday, that is. Then we discovered that we were gaining further powers."
Luna seemed sceptical. "Powers like what?"
"Powers like that."
With a grand gesture, like a showmaster clearing the stage for the main act, Sunset stepped aside, closely watching the principals' reaction.
The two, previously entirely focused on Sunset, now looked to the rest of her friends. Immediately, their jaws dropped and they seemed to have serious trouble picking them back off the floor, much to Sunset's amusement.
Rainbow stood at the far left of the group, drinking an energy drink from a nearly invisible, floating cup. Rarity was leaning against the back wall, focused on a few pieces of fabric that would likely become part of some accessoire and a needle and string that were stitching them together, needless to mention that they were also floating in midair. Faintly glowing outlines of impossible shapes were floating before Pinkie, giving the sisters headaches just from looking at them. An invisible blade seemed to be cutting up an Apple floating before Applejack, before the singular slices floated over to all six of her friends and, after a sly smirk from their sender, into the still open mouths of the principals who absentmindedly began chewing them. It helped their burgeoning migraines. Twilight was floating to the right if the group, a few centimeters off the ground, her eyes closed, her hands folded behind her back and her hair waving in a localized wind.
It took Celestia and Luna nearly half a minute to take it all in and gather their senses, and a few more seconds for Celestia to notice someone was missing. "Wait. Where is Fluttershy?"
"What do you mean sister? She's right there." Following her sister's gaze, Celstia only saw thin air, then Fluttershy faded into view. "Wait, now she disappeared."
Looking at the girl whose sudden appearance she utterly failed to comprehend, Celestia was barely able to formulate a coherent response. "Buh ... But, she's right there."
A quiet giggle escaped Fluttershy and she opened her eyes. Luna was baffled. "Wait, now she's back, but ... HOW?!"
Suppressing a chuckle, Sunset stepped up to the two speechless women. "Allow me to explain: We seem to have gained psychic powers of sorts, I'll explain in detail. Rarity and Twilight were exclusively using telekinesis, Rarity on her sewing supplies and Twilight on herself and the air around her. Applejack was using telekinesis as well, but combined with a small cutting ribbon, like a barely visible knife. Rainbow and Pinkie were both using psychic force projection in some form or another. Pinkie was creating small luminescent constructs in rather much impossible shapes. We've been in a hivemind with her, take it from us, compared to some of the other things her mind cooks up that's tame."
Pinkie had the decency to blush.
"Rainbow's construct was more of a shield, strong enough to work as a cup to drink from. Now Fluttershy was the only one to actually use a mind altering technique, she used a form of selective perception blocking. You could both still see her the entire time, she simply convinced your respective subconscious that she wasn't relevant enough to inform your conscious mind about."
"And all of you can do all of that?" Celestia was still trying hard not to get a headache.
"That's the basic idea, yeah."
"Is that why you told Cheerilee you'd be ready for any more potential crises?" Luna wasn't doing much better than her sister.
"It is."
"Can you affect the mind in other ways as well?"
"If you're asking about mind control, then yes, we can do that as well. We plan to practice that but only as a last resort option."
Trying hard to process this new information, Celestia grasped onto the first thing she noticed. "Say Sunset, is there a reason you're the only one who has been speaking so far?"
"Well, our minds are linked, I simply spoke for them. What they were doing and preparing to do takes a lot of focus to pull off. One thing we don't seem to have is Queen Twilight's multitasking ability."
"Well, thank you for informing us about this ... development. With all that's been happening it's good to know we have a supernatural force protecting the school for a change. That being said we might need to find a way to work around this hivemind of yours when exam time comes around. But until then, I think we'll be fine."
"Queen Twilight might have a solution for that, I think she mentioned something like that once. I'll ask her."
Looking at the desk she located a pen. "May I?" At the principal's nod, the pen flew from the table and into her hand. At the same time her backpack opened and a large, leather bound tome floated from it, opening up and coming to a stop, floating in midair before her.
The pen uncapped itself and the principals watched it scrawl out a short message, then the cap reattached itself to the pen which floated back to its original position on the table while the book fell shut and floated back into Sunset's backpack which then zipped itself back up.
"I'll let you know once she answers. Is there anything else you'd want to know?"
After exchanging glances with her sister, Celestia gave the seven girls a deadpan stare. "We'll think on it. Have a nice evening, see you tomorrow."
Once the friends had filtered out of the office and the door had closed behind them, completely on its own, of course, Celestia looked to her sister.
"Well, normal is officially dead."
Luna stared at her sister skeptically. "I'm pretty sure normal died when the flying demoness from a world of magical, talking ponies blew up the front of our school."
"Fair enough."
A gentle humming roused Sunset from her sleep. She blearily opened her eyes and soon noticed the magenta glow coming from beside her. Reaching out with her mind she flicked on the lamp on her bedside table and pulled the glowing and vibrating book over to her.
The letter was relatively simple, a fact she was thankful for at this late hour. The basic gist was that Queen Twilight could take them to the other side to take the test in a chamber that would isolate them from the link. She was fairly certain that she could prevent a panic within her own hive.
Making a mental note to read the message again in the morning and answer, Sunset deposited the journal back where it had come from and flicked the light back off.
Over the last few weeks she had found that few things were as calming as immersing herself in their small hivemind. It may have only been a hivemind of seven, but the other six were her friends. On the few occasions she had been awake late at night and had done this, she had found that doing so while her friends were dreaming was always a very special experience.
Her friends' emotions were at their purest then and she could feel their presence around her, despite the fact that they were scattered throughout the city. She could feel Rarity's dedication to her work, Applejack's love for her family, Fluttershy's care for her animals, Rainbow's newly discovered enjoyment of flying, even if it was just imaginary, and Pinkie's general joy at everything around her. Then she felt something else.
Fear.
Confused, she focused on that emotion and followed it to a dream.
Well, a dreamscape can't be too different from a linkscape, can it?
A moment ago her friends had been around her, the world had been at peace and she had been happy and safe. Now she was in a chaotic vortex of energy, her friends were gone and She was here. Twilight fearfully looked at her dark alter-ego, laughing maniacally and tearing sparking holes into reality with her claw-like fingers. The ominous buzz of her membranous wings really didn't help.
She was about to call out in fear when something caught her eye. All of the sparks coming of the holes vanished shortly after. All except for one. A single spark had started glowing and was slowly growing brighter. Other sparks started swarming around it in a small spiral.
At this point Midnight Sparkle, as the students of CHS had taken to calling her, noticed the errant spark as well. She looked at it, just as confused as Twilight was. With a snap of her claws she closed the holes and cut of the influx of sparks. Twilight assumed that she hoped to stop whatever this was from gathering more power.
But it was too late, as soon as the last of the holes had closed, the spark burst into a rather familiar golden flame. The flame grew until there was a glowing golden fireball floating in the void between Twilight and Midnight. Then it burst apart in a radiant light.
Floating in between them was the familiar form of Sunset's angelic alter-ego, Daydream Shimmer as the students called her. She looked herself over. "Huh, I guess entering a dreamscape is different after all."
Of course! This is a dream. How did I manage to think this place could be real? Twilight took a moment to understand the situation. She was dreaming, that much was obvious to her now. But why was Sunset here?
"Sunset! What are you doing here?"
Sunset glanced over her shoulder before once more leveling her gaze at Midnight. "I could be all Princess Luna and say that I'm here because you need me to be, but let's just say I felt that you were afraid and came by to see if I could help."
"Can you then? Do you have enough power to defeat me?"
"I don't know. But I know that Twilight does." Once more she turned to her friend. "This is your dream, we’re in your mind and she is only a small, inconsequential part of who YOU are. You hold all the cards. I'm just here to remind you of that." With a soft smile she turned back to face Midnight once more.
"My mind, eh? Okay then, here goes." Twilight closed her eyes for a moment. When she reopened them, she had phased to float next to Sunset. She had found that in a realm without gravity, having wings was rather much optional.
She snapped her fingers and the nightmarish vortex gave way to a sunny meadow and all three of them landed on the grass, Sunset and herself landed softly, Midnight wasn't as graceful, given that Twilight had rendered her wings useless.
When Midnight got up, she found Twilight standing before her, a bead of magenta light at the center of her forehead. With a determined gaze, Twilight held her right hand out in front of her, placing two fingers right at the point where midnight's shoulder blades met.
"What are you-"
Midnight suddenly exploded into thousands of glowing fragments, swirling around Twilight, who then closed her eyes. The bead of light on her forehead pulsed and all the fragments dissolved into a glowing magenta mist. After a few seconds the bead pulsed again and the mist started flowing towards it. It only took about one second for the entirety of the mist to be absorbed, with a final pulse the bead blinked out of existence.
"What did you do? Where is she?"
"In my mind, where she belongs. Though I don't know how long I can keep her there. Thanks for your help."
"No problem, Twi. I'm happy to help." A snap of her fingers and a flash of light later Sunset had resumed her normal form. A lazy wave of her arm later she had summoned a large oak tree and layed down in a hammock hanging from one of its lower branches. "Do you have nightmares like this often?"
"Ever since the games, yes."
"You're still afraid you might become her again?"
"Yes."
"I get it. I had the same feeling once." With a sad smile she phased down next to Twilight, standing between the massive roots of the tree.
Twilight carefully studied the girl's face. "You have your own demon form, don't you?"
"I'll show you." Drawing upon her own memories and those of her friends Sunset recreated the scenes of that night. The courtyard before CHS, the portal, Queen Twilight and her friends, the fight for the crown, Sunset's transformation and finally her defeat with magical rainbows, Twilight watched all of it.
"And here I thought the games were a special case. Are duels with magic from alternate dimensions always this flashy?"
"They tend to be more flashy over here actually."
"So this is what your demon form looked like, huh?"
"Yeah. The others like to make up names for these alternate forms." Sunset waved her hand, returning them to the shade of the large tree, and conjuring up a slightly smaller than life image of her demonic form. "They called this one 'Sunset Infernal'. I can't decide what to think of that name."
"Does she talk to you?"
"She used to, a lot. Lately she's been talking less and less. But I can feel her presence. She's a part of me, and likely always will be, but I'm the one in control." She gave Twilight a companionable smile. "Does Midnight talk to you?"
"Occasionally. I usually try to ignore her, but sometimes she actually does give helpful advice."
"Yeah, I know the feeling. It actually got even more confusing after the games, when Daydream started talking to me as well. I really hope I don't get another magical alter-ego, this is starting to feel like a mental condition. And if there's one thing I know, it's that magic and unstable minds don't go together, that never ends well."
"Wait. You actually have a little shoulder angel and a little shoulder demon like in a kid's cartoon?"
"Well they don't visually appear, but otherwise, yes, I suppose so. They usually don't see eye to eye."
"It sounds like they're literally the opposite extremes of your personality, so that's not surprising. Though it would be interesting to find situations where they do agree."
"Well, we'll leave that question for another day. It's getting late and I'm technically awake right now. Just remember, it's your mind, you are in charge. The only power Midnight has over you is your fear of her. Don't fear her, that fear is the only power she has, all the rest is just what she steals from you."
"Thanks Sunset, and sorry for keeping you up this long."
"Oh it's fine, I was actually awake anyway, blame your counterpart."
The following morning, Sunset was rather abruptly awoken by the blaring of her alarm clock. Her semi-conscious mind barely had time to register that it was unusually bright given she hadn't opened her eyes yet. Then she did open her eyes ... and immediately closed them again, furiously rubbing them to try getting rid of the image burned into her retinas.
Taking care to turn away from the window first, she carefully opened her eyes once more. It was still bright, but bearable and her eyes were already adjusting. She got up, still careful not to look at the sun just yet, and made for the bathroom, she had a good idea of what was going on and she was going to get to the bottom of this.
A quick glance in the bathroom mirror proved her suspicion correct. She looked into her reflection's eyes, they were the same teal color they'd always been, well except that one time at the Fall Formal, but the slitted pupils were definitely new.
Already having some suspicions of what else might have changed, Sunset opened her mouth to take a look at her teeth. Sure enough, she found her canines having grown noticeably longer and more pointy, not fangs per se, but enough to be easily recognizable if one knew what to look for.
The others needed to know this.
And I need to know if it's happening to them as well. Carefully reaching her mind out over the link she tried to sense who among her friends was already awake. She wasn't surprised to find that Applejack was wide awake and Rainbow was still sound asleep, more surprising was the fact that Pinkie was the only other one of her friends who was still asleep.
Reaching out to all but the latter two, Sunset sent a ping.
A smile played across Sunset's lips.
Twilight was quiet for a moment. Thinking probably.
The conversation carried on along those lines for a while longer, a testament to how used the girls had gotten to being able to communicate in any situation while also being spread across town. Soon enough they had established that all seven of them had now gained the same mini-fangs and more sensitive eyes with slitted pupils Twilight had had since the Friendship Games.
They went about their school day as normal, having gotten used to adapting to new powers over the last week. Once school was out Sunset visited the Principal in her office, this time Luna wasn't there.
"Ah Sunset, come in." Taking in the girl's smile, Celestia gave on of her own. "I take it Queen Twilight had a suggestion?"
"She did. She suggested we could simply take the test over in Phoenix's Roost, they have special rooms that can mute the link."
"I see. But what about the portal's more ... transformative properties?"
Sunset scratched the back of her head. "We're working on a solution for that, a way for us to retain our current shape while traveling to Equestria."
"And technically the rules require that a member of faculty oversee the exams."
"Once we figure out a working way to get us over there unchanged, that won't be a problem. We can just bring a member of faculty along, too. The drones would probably be happy to give them a tour of the hive as well."
"If you can work out a way to do that, I believe that should work for our purposes. Thank you."
"Nothing to thank me for, the Queen just happened to have a solution to our problem lying around. I'm just helping her modify a spell, nothing major really."
Celestia had to make a serious effort not to raise a sceptical eyebrow at that statement. Of course Sunset could easily pick up on her emotions anyway.
"Okay, so maybe it is complicated, still, nothing we can't handle. We're both magical prodigies, we won't be that easily beaten by an experimental spell."
"If you say so. Regardless, thank you. Have a good evening, Sunset."
As Sunset left the building the other six were waiting by the portal.
"So, only a weekend and then it's off to Camp Everfree." The link only made Rainbow's enthusiasm more infectious.
"Somehow ah got a feelin' this trip aint gonna be a normal trip to a summer camp neither."
"With our track record? Why perish the thought darling. Still we’re well prepared. May come what will, we can handle it."
Sunset only smiled as Pinkie engulfed all of them in a group hug, as she had a tendency to do.
Camp Everfree, here we come!
Author's Note
Well, this one took a lot longer than I anticipated, in retrospec I probably could have easily split it into several parts. Still I do prefer keeping it as a oneshot.
Now then, to Camp Everfree and beyond!