Love’s a Witch (and a She-Demon, Too)

Chapters

Locker//Door
Guitar//Solo
Siren//Song
Party//Crashers
Broken//Up

Locker//Door

“Who would do something like this?”

Sunset Shimmer, standing next to Twilight and Vice Principal Luna in the hallway, could only echo Twilight’s sentiment as they gazed in mortified awe at the crater that had once been the other girl’s locker

It was just after fourth period. Normally, the hall would have been filled with students heading to their next class, but given present circumstances the hall had been cordoned off by the janitors with cones at either end, which made the whole thing feel just a little bit too much like a crime scene. The onlookers on both ends of the hall, craning their necks to get a good view of the carnage, did not help matters.

Carnage was an appropriate word. Another appropriate word would have been savaged. Twilight’s locker had been savaged, the metal walls bent and pulled out of shape, its contents spread all over the floor, and most of it in pieces. This was to say nothing of the door, which itself was quite mangled, but this was far less interesting than the fact that it was quite literally embedded into the front of a locker on the other side of the hall. It stuck out from the wall like some kind of demented street sign.

The padlock that was supposed to have prevented this sort of thing from happening lay on the ground by Sunset’s foot. The U-shaped steel bar that bridged the two sides of it now more resembled an S.

Messing with people’s lockers was a high school tradition—one she’d even participated in, on occasion, back when she’d ruled the school’s social pyramid with an iron fist—but this was way out of her league. If this was supposed to be a prank, Sunset thought with a scowl, it had been taken way, way too far.

“To be entirely honest, we were hoping you had some idea,” Vice Principal Luna said. “Destruction of school property is a serious breach of the Code of Conduct, not to mention an unneeded strain on the school’s budget—as I believe you are both well aware.”

The statement was accompanied by a very brief (and very familiar) glare at the both of them.

“You don’t have any idea who might have wanted to break into your locker?” Luna continued.

“I… N-no, not really,” Twilight stammered, shaking her head. “I don’t know why anyone would want to get into my locker in the first place. I don’t even keep anything valuable in there.”

“That was going to be my next question,” Luna said. “Nothing it all? No electronics, jewelry, cash…?”

Twilight shook her head again. “No. About the most valuable thing I had in there were my physics notes—” She gasped. “My physics notes! We have a test tomorrow! I needed those to study!”

Ah, there it was: a classic Twilight Sparkle freak-out coming on. Sunset smiled knowingly and put her arm over Twilight’s shoulders. “Relax. I’m pretty sure you could teach that class if you wanted to.”

She turned to the Vice Principal. “Doesn’t the school have security cameras? Have you checked those?”

Luna pointed behind them. The two girls turned their heads around and looked up at the ceiling where the vice-principal had indicated. Sticking out of one of the ceiling tiles was a dome-covered surveillance camera. Or, well, what had until recently been a dome-covered surveillance camera. There was now significantly less of both the dome and the camera.

“Oh,” Sunset said.

As she turned her head back, she caught a brief whiff of something. Her eyebrows furled. Smoke?

“Now, I shouldn’t have to remind you,” Luna said, derailing that particular train of thought, “but the Fall Formal is on Monday, and given your track record with school events over the last several years—” another glare at the both of them “—I will request that if this is the start of another ‘incident’, that you deal with it quickly and outside of school. Understood?”

“Yes, Vice-Principal Luna.”

“Clear as crystal.”

“Good.”

Just then, the overhead bell rang out, signaling the start of the new period.

Luna sighed. “Go on to class, you two,” she said. “I’ll get the janitors to clean this mess up, and you may pick up what remains of your locker’s contents from my office later.” She pulled a pad of paper out of her back pocket and scribbled a note on it, then tore the sheet off and handed it to Twilight. “Here’s a late pass.”

She turned sharply to the peanut gallery at the end of the hall. “The rest of you don’t have an excuse! Get to class before I give you all detention!”

The crowd scurried off like a bunch of rats caught in the pantry. Sunset and Twilight shared a chuckle, then headed off themselves after Sunset took the chance to snap a picture of the carnage with her phone, her arm still around Twilight’s shoulders.

The two had been dating for almost three months, now. Since mid-August. Which was kind of crazy to think about, Sunset often reflected, because it simultaneously felt to her like no time at all and like they’d been together forever.

It had started out surprisingly casually. The two of them had been watching a movie at Sunset’s apartment, some cheesy sci-fi thing Sunset had only really been half paying attention to. Partly because it was boring, and partly because Twilight was sitting very, very close to her on the sofa. She’d had her hair down, and it had just framed her face so perfectly, the formless, multi-coloured projection of the TV washing over her cheeks, those soft and intelligent eyes focused so intently on the screen.

So, on impulse, she’d reached over and put her arm around the smaller girl’s shoulders, much like she was doing now.

Twilight had started, but after a moment of each of them staring blankly at the other (a very long moment, from Sunset’s perspective) she’d given her a small smile and a blush, and leaned into it. The sudden warmth had made Sunset’s heart flutter.

And that was how it had started. Not with a bang, not with a heartfelt confession or an impromptu musical number, but with a simple gesture of affection on a whim. When they’d told their friends, not a single one of them had been surprised.

And it was perfect.

Absolutely perfect.

Twilight Sparkle didn’t feel perfect. She didn’t feel anywhere close to perfect. She felt like a bunch of worms had taken up residence in her stomach and were now beginning to set up a colony.

“Freaky!” Pinkie Pie said, a sentiment the rest of the girls seemed to agree with. It was lunch time; the general bustle of the cafeteria droned on in the background, but the group’s attention was focused on the picture on Sunset’s phone.

“Yes, ‘freaky’ is certainly one word I’d use to describe that,” Rarity said, relaxing back into her seat. “Are you alright, darling?”

“I’m fine,” Twilight said, even as her left hand twisted in her lap. Her right busied itself with her fork, spearing a piece of broccoli. “Really.”

She looked up. “I just don’t get why anyone would want to do this to my locker. Everyone around here is so nice!”

“Some people are good at hidin’ their true colours,” Applejack said. “Can’t say I can think of anyone who’d do somethin’ like this from around here, though. What about one of your old friends at Crystal Prep?”

Twilight shook her head. “Wanton destruction isn’t exactly the Crystal Prep style. Besides, that was almost a year ago! Why wait until now?”

No one seemed to have an answer to that. She sighed. “I just hope I haven’t hurt someone without knowing it. Whoever did this must be really upset…”

“Hey,” Sunset said. Sitting beside her, the sudden gruff assertion almost made her jump. Sunset’s expression was fierce, but the hand that slipped into her own under the table was warm and firm. “This isn’t your fault.”

Twilight could feel her cheeks colouring slightly.

“Yeah!” Pinkie chirped from across the table. Wresting her eyes from Sunset’s face, Twilight could see she’d at some point begun constructing an (actually quite impressive, she had to admit) edible model of the Eiffel Tower out of carrot sticks. “This is just some meanie being a meanie.”

“And we’re gonna make ‘em pay!”

Rainbow punctuated the statement by slapping her fist into her palm like something out of a Saturday morning cartoon. The others nodded their approval (though a little warily, perhaps not in support of something quite as violent as Rainbow might have been suggesting).

A smile snuck its way onto Twilight’s face. “Thanks, girls.”

It slipped a little a moment later. “But Vice-Principal Luna didn’t sound very confident about catching whoever did this in the hallway.”

Sunset’s grip on her hand grew a little tighter.

“Then we’ll just have to catch whatever ruffian is behind this ourselves,” Rarity declared. “I’m sure that, between the seven of us, we can discover something the administration cannot. Someone at this school must have seen something.”

“I think all those crime novels she’s been reading have gone to her head!” Pinkie mock-whispered to Rainbow, who nodded knowingly.

“I am going to pretend I did not hear that, darlings!”

“Well, I appreciate it,” Twilight said. The worms that had been crawling in her stomach finally began to dissipate. Some of them, anyway. “All of you.”

“Don’t sweat it!” Rainbow said.

“That’s what friends are for,” Fluttershy added.

“Now,” Rarity said. “Besides the locker, was there anything else that was out of the ordinary? Anything at all?”

Twilight couldn’t think of anything, but Sunset’s brow furrowed after a moment.

“Well, there was one thing,” she said. “When we were about to leave—I could have sworn I smelled smoke.”

“What, like cigarette smoke?” Rainbow asked.

“No, more like… like a charcoal-y smell. Like a wood fire.”

“Weird.”

“Maybe it was an animal,” Fluttershy said. “Some of those gashes look a little like claw marks.”

Sunset’s mouth turned sideways. “I dunno… It would have had to have been a pretty big animal to do that kind of damage. Like a bear or something.”

“Bears sneak into schools sometimes,” Fluttershy said, idly twirling her fork. “They smell the lunches and just can’t help themselves. Poor things.”

“I’m pretty sure someone would have spotted a bear running around the school by now,” Rainbow said. “That would be kinda hard to miss.”

“Maybe it was a teddy bear,” Pinkie suggested.

“Yeeeeaaaah, I don’t think so.”

“Hey,” Sunset said. “Around here? Stranger things have happened.”

“Speaking of stranger things,” Applejack said. “Have you written to Princess Twilight about any of this?”

Twilight stiffened. She felt Sunset’s grip tighten, just for a moment.

“You think this might be Equestrian?” Sunset said, frowning.

“Well, that is where most of the, uh, ‘freaky’ things that have happened to us have come from.”

Sunset’s other hand went to the back of her neck. She sucked in her lips and said, “I don’t know if this is really the sort of thing we should bother the princess about. Not until we have some evidence that it’s magic-related, at least.”

Applejack raised an eyebrow at her. “Considerin’ it’s us? I don’t think we can rule magic out. Besides, since when do you need a reason to write to the Princess?”

Sunset shrugged. “She’s a busy mare. I haven’t talked to her in a while.”

A group of assorted students walked past, chattering loudly. Those around the lunch table quieted down for a moment. Magic wasn’t something you talked about openly at Canterlot High.

“Well, I think it might be a good idea,” Rarity said. “Just in case. In the meantime, the rest of us can ask around on our own.”

Sunset nodded. “Yeah. And who knows? Maybe Vice-Principal Luna will come out ahead of us for once.”

This earned a snort from Rainbow. “Yeah, that’ll be the day!”

They all laughed at that. It wasn’t even that funny, but it dissolved the tension in the air like sugar.

The conversation drifted onto lighter topics from there. School. Work. A particularly unruly new dog at the animal shelter where Fluttershy worked. Pinkie topped her carrot Eiffel Tower with a tiny carrot flag.

The bell rang. There went the lunch period.

As the others said their goodbyes and melted into the crowd, Sunset kissed Twilight lightly on the forehead.

“See you later,” she said. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

Twilight’s smile lasted just long enough for Sunset to get out of view.

Sunset inserted her key into the lock on her apartment door and paused.

The rest of the day had passed without incident; she’d seen Twilight off once school had ended and then headed straight home herself, to her one-room apartment in one of the less well-kept neighborhoods of the town. But what had happened at Twilight’s locker earlier had been pulling at the back of her mind, and now, so was something else.

Leaving the key unturned in the lock, she ran her fingers over the red-painted door. It looked newer than the rest of the doors in the hallway, and for good reason: it had a fresh coat of paint over every other apartment in the building. And the reason for that was what was bothering her now.

Almost a week ago, she’d come back from school, much as she had today, to find that someone had vandalized her door.

It wasn’t anything major; the lock hadn’t been tampered with, nor had the door been broken off of its hinges. No one had gotten into her apartment, and there were no signs that anyone had attempted to, either, which made it all the more unnerving.

What had been done to it was that someone had scratched into its surface, just below the peephole in bold, angular letters, a single word:

‘LIAR’.

Of course, she’d brushed this off; one of her crazy neighbors, obviously. Celestia knew she had plenty. The landlord had taken care of it before the day was over. She hadn’t bothered telling the girls or even Twilight about it, either. Why worry them over nothing?

But now, with what had happened…

…and that smell that had been in the air…

Brow furled, she shook her head. Her hand returned to the key in the lock, and she let herself into her apartment.

As the door closed behind her, a few flecks of paint peeled off and fell to the wooden floor below.

The next day passed relatively peacefully. It wasn’t until the day after—Friday—that the next two incidents occurred.

“So then Rainbow Dash says, ‘The Fourth of July!’” Sunset said, as they made their way down the hall, threading their way through the crowds of other students that congested the arteries of the school like blood clots. “Like that’s even close to the right answer.”

Twilight giggled. It was heading towards the last period of the day; she and Sunset had calculus together. Unlike most of the other students at the school, it was actually a class she looked forward to, and only about half of that was because it was one of the only classes she had with her girlfriend.

“So,” Sunset said, switching topics entirely. “How’d you do on that physics test?”

Twilight stiffened. The good feelings went away, replaced once more by the wriggling in the pit of her stomach.

“Fine,” she said, just a little too quickly. She shifted the strap of her bag on her shoulder. “A+, same as always. How about you?”

“B-,” Sunset said. She let loose an annoyed snort. “Even after all these years, I still can’t get used to the physics in this world. Your constants are all wrong.”

They hooked a right into the classroom.

“I could tutor you… you know, if you wanted to—”

The words died in her throat.

Sunset and Twilight sat next to each other in this class, at a pair of adjacent desks in the front row. Twilight had just noticed something that sent her nerves right back to the edge.

“S-Sunset!” Twilight gasped. “Your desk!”

“Hm?”

Sunset, perplexed, looked down and immediately saw what Twilight had been talking about.

A single word had been carved across the desk’s surface in deep gouges, and underlined by further scratches.

‘LIAR.’

Sunset took in a sharp intake of breath.

“Alright!” she declared, whirling around. “Which one of you creeps thought this was—”

But they were the first ones into the classroom.

They were alone.

That was the first incident of the day. The second occurred much later.

The final bell rang, signaling the end of school and the start of the weekend. Everywhere, books went into bags, binders went into lockers, and plans went into brains as the promise of a night and two days away from school enticed the student body’s imaginations. And there was the Fall Formal to look forward to.

Sunset and Twilight, of course, already had after-school plans, as they always did on Fridays. Friday after-school meant band practice.

Joining a band had not really been something Twilight had ever seen herself doing before coming to Canterlot High. Particularly not singing in one—she’d never really considered herself to be a great singer. So the invitation to join the band had come a bit out of the blue, but with some convincing, she’d promised to do her best.

It was only later that she’d discovered that the reason they’d asked her was because of her Equestrian counterpart, but by that point the deed had already been done.

Of course, at the moment, there were bigger things on her mind, so she shoved the thought aside.

“Why ‘liar’, do you think?” she asked, as they made their way through the rapidly emptying halls of the school.

“I don’t know,” Sunset said. “I can’t think of anyone who’d want to call me that.”

As with Twilight’s locker, no one had actually seen anything—or, at least, no one had admitted to seeing anything. The Vice-Principal hadn’t had anything new to add, either.

“Do you think it was the same person who broke into my locker?” Twilight asked. “Two points of data aren’t a good basis for a scientific conclusion, but…”

“It has to be,” Sunset said. “There’s no way this is just a coincidence. Besides, there’s the smell.”

“Wood smoke.” Twilight said. She’d caught a whiff of it too, this time. She frowned. “Why wood smoke?”

“Beats me.”

After a few more moments of walking, Sunset abruptly grabbed Twilight by the arm and stopped in the middle of the hall. They were completely alone, now.

“You know what this means, though, right?” she said. Twilight glanced down at Sunset’s hand on her forearm, then back to the girl’s face. She had a stern look about her. Like a mother lion.

“It means someone’s got something against us. Specifically,” Sunset said.

In some odd, twisted way that she wouldn’t want to admit, Twilight was glad it wasn’t just her.

She nodded.

After a moment more, Sunset released her arm and they resumed their walk. As they neared their destination, Twilight began to hear something odd: a sort of crashing thump, every few seconds, getting louder with each step they took.

“What’s that banging sound?” Sunset said. She’d heard it too, evidently.

“I don’t know,” Twilight said. “We’d better hurry.”

They quickened their pace. As they turned the corner, the source of the noise became apparent.

Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie had beaten them to the practice room. This was not unusual. What was unusual was the fact that Rainbow Dash was currently trying to break down the door.

Rainbow rammed her shoulder once more into the door and bounced off, her efforts ineffective. She swore loudly, then readied to repeat the maneuver.

Sharing a quick glance, Sunset and Twilight hurried forwards. “What’s going on?” Sunset called out.

“Someone’s in there!” Rainbow said.

“And they don’t sound like they’re making music!” Pinkie shrieked.

This was accompanied by a muffled crash from inside the room.

“Son of a—” Rainbow rammed the door again. “Whoever you are, you’re gonna get it!”

Sunset grabbed her by the shoulder before she could try again. “I’ll get it open, hang on.” She fumbled in her pocket for the key.

The key had originally been given to Rainbow Dash, as leader of the band, but after her fifth time losing it (she’d only left it in her other pair of jeans, as it turned out, but the point had been made), ownership had been transferred to Sunset. As the school’s somewhat-semi-officially-endorsed band, they’d been given a spare room to practice in and store their instruments, and a spare key. As it turned out, being involved in saving the student body from enslavement on multiple occasions came with some perks.

She pulled the key out and, grabbing the handle tight, fitted it to the lock. It turned with a click and she threw open the door, revealing—

“Our instruments!”

—the utter devastation that awaited them.

The practice room had been completely trashed. Shelves had been knocked over. Books and papers lay scattered across the floor.

That wasn’t what had the girls staring, however. That was Applejack’s bass, broken into two pieces connected tenuously by its strings. That was Rarity’s keytar, now conspicuously key-less, the black and white pieces spread across the floor with the rest of the detritus. That was Pinkie Pie’s drum set, sticks jabbed through the snare, hi-hat stand toppled over and bent in half, their band’s horseshoe logo split with the skin of the bass drum. That was Rainbow’s electric guitar, sticking out of the bass drum.

That was Sunset’s guitar, sitting in a pile in the middle of the floor, neck broken to splinters, strings cut, body snapped in half, loose wires off the pickups hanging out like intestines in some grim horror film, but this was very much real.

Twilight looked over the carnage with her hand to her mouth. The one observation that came to mind from this quick survey was that whoever had done this had been methodical, thorough, and very, very angry.

Who that someone was would remain a mystery, it seemed. While the room contained plenty of debris, it was conspicuously devoid of culprits.

Rainbow was the first to break from the trance they’d all fallen under, barging into the room without much care for what might be underfoot. She whirled around, looking in each corner as if expecting someone to pop out from the shadows, but there was no one. The others followed her lead almost in a daze.

“Ugh… what’s that smell?” Rainbow asked, her nose wrinkling.

“Ozone,” Twilight was quick to reply. “O3. It forms from O2 when exposed to UV light, or if there’s a large electrical discharge, like a bolt of lightning.”

She hung back by the door, not really sure what to do. Sunset, on the other hand, went straight to what remained of her guitar. She knelt down by the wreckage, picked up part of the neck and examined it for a moment before letting it drop back down to the pile. Her face was turned away from Twilight, but she could imagine the expression she had to be making.

Footsteps, in the hall outside. “Sorry we’re late!” came Rarity’s voice from the doorway. “Applejack needed help explaining to Mr. Doodle that not all students have the luxury of…”

Her words died off. Fluttershy’s hands went to her mouth with a gasp. Applejack, the last in, narrowed her eyes, as if she was having trouble processing what she was seeing.

“What…”

“Someone broke into the practice room!” Rainbow exclaimed.

“And then they kept breaking!” Pinkie added, standing behind her ruined drum set. Her hand traced the ridge of a broken snare.

“Broke in?” Rarity said. “How? Wasn’t the door locked?”

“It was locked when we got here,” Sunset replied, standing up. “They must have come in through the window.”

Applejack strode across the room to the glass panes in question. She peered out, apparently saw nothing of note, and then noticed something far more interesting when she pulled her head back.

“That ain’t possible. The window’s latched shut,” she said, pointing to the lock. “From the inside.”

Sunset stared at her. Twilight’s mind reeled.

“My tambourine survived,” Fluttershy said, smiling and hugging the instrument to her chest. “Thank goodness.”

“We can’t go on stage at the Fall Formal with just a tambourine!” Rainbow said, throwing her hands into the air. She fell back and sat down on the edge of the raised half of the room that Pinkie’s drums sat on, putting an arm out to steady herself. “It’s official! We’re ruined!”

The other band members shared a glance. Playing the Fall Formal had been a big deal, especially to Rainbow.

“Could you borrow someone else’s instruments?” Twilight suggested.

“Darling, we’re usually the ones other people come to when they need to borrow instruments,” Rarity said. “And while I can certainly afford another keytar, they aren’t exactly the type of instrument you’ll find at your local music shop. I’d have to order it over the internet, and it most definitely wouldn’t be here in time for the dance.”

“I can’t afford another guitar right now,” Rainbow said. “I’m broke.”

“Ditto,” Pinkie said. “Party supplies are expensive!”

Applejack sighed. “Looks like the Rainbooms are going to be out of action for a little while.”

This earned her a groan from Rainbow. “This sucks! If I find out who did this…”

“Probably the same person who trashed Twilight’s locker,” Sunset said. “And who vandalized my desk today.”

This caught their attention. She relayed what had happened earlier—and threw in the story about her door, too.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Twilight asked, when she was done.

Sunset shrugged. “It didn’t seem important.”

“I reckon you were pretty far off on that,” Applejack said.

“Well, you know what they say about hindsight.”

“We need to tell Vice-Principal Luna about this,” Rainbow said, standing up. “The school’s gotta be able to do something, right? Security cameras, or something!”

Twilight shook her head. “They were careful enough to break the cameras last time, I doubt they’d be any more careless now.”

“Hey, they might have slipped up,” Sunset said. “Especially on their way out—however they managed that. Rainbow was literally breaking the door down, they would have been panicking.”

“Either way, darlings, we still need to report this,” Rarity said. “Shall we head down to the office?”

“Some of us should stay here,” Applejack said. “Just in case the crook comes back.”

“Agreed,” Sunset said. “Rainbow, Rarity and I will go face Luna’s wrath. The rest of you stay here.”

Everyone nodded, and so off they went.

“I just don’t understand it,” Twilight heard Fluttershy say, as Sunset and Rainbow headed for the door. “Who would want to do something like this to us?”

Guitar//Solo

Who would want to do something to them? Sunset could think of three people. It was a long shot, she knew it, but… well, she didn’t have many other ideas.

It had taken a while to find them; she’d had to ask around. Everyone knew they were still in Canterlot, but precious few seemed to have any idea of where.

Thank Celestia for the internet, then. She’d put a post up on MyStable that night; by noon the next day, she’d gotten a sighting.

And so it was that Sunset found herself skulking around the mall at noon on a Saturday, alone, with the collar of her jacket pulled up. Her eyes shifted from side to side, scanning the passers-by.

It being a Saturday, the place was packed with people. She had to bob and weave through the small crowds, their conversations and the rustling of cheap plastic bags fading into white noise as she passed. Eventually, after about fifteen minutes of searching, she ended up in the food court, which was where she finally found who she was looking for.

Well, two thirds of them, anyway. Good enough. Her hands curled into fists in the pockets of her jacket, and she let a little bit of that old, pre-Fall Formal Sunset slip back into her stride.

“Hey. You two,” she said, coming up to their table and slapping her hand down on the edge of it. “We need to talk.”

Sonata blinked, a french-fry dipped in Celestia-knew-what halfway to her mouth. Aria looked similarly startled… for a second, before her expression twisted into a scowl.

“Sunset Shimmer.”

Sunset grabbed a chair and pulled it over, steel legs squealing against the floor. She sat down, putting her elbows on the table and folding her hands in front of her face.

She and Aria glared at one another for a while. Sonata slowly put the french-fry in her mouth.

“Well?” Aria eventually said. “What do you want?” She snorted. “Did you come here to apologize for ruining our lives or something? Because it’s not accepted.”

“No,” Sunset said. “I came here to find out what you’re up to.”

“Oh, that’s easy!” Sonata chirped. “We’re up to being homeless.”

Aria shot her a glare. “Sonata!”

“What? We are!”

“O… kay,” Sunset said. Her glare wavered a little. “Not the answer I was expecting. You’re homeless? Like actually homeless.”

“Yeah!” Sonata picked up another fry and gestured with it. “Since Friday. Adagio kicked us out of the apartment again.”

Sunset’s glare must have wavered a little too much, because Aria rolled her eyes.

“Don’t get the bleeding heart routine going,” she said, waving a hand. “This happens all the time. She’ll let us back in once she gets tired of Chinese food. I’m the one who shops, and Sonata’s the only one who knows how to cook.”

“That’s… still,” Sunset said. “Have you at least got somewhere to sleep?”

Sonata started to say something, but Aria cut her off with a glare.

“We’ve got a place,” she said, in a manner that made it clear that the conversation was ending there. “So no. We’re not ‘up to’ anything.”

She kicked her feet up on the table. She and Sonata shared a glance. She rolled her eyes.

“But, y’know, if we were up to something—”

“Which we aren’t!” Sonata hastily added. “But—”

“—what do you think we’d be up to, exactly?”

Sunset glanced at the pair of them, weary.

“Why do you want to know?” she asked.

“Because we’re bored.”

“Very bored.”

“And your suffering amuses us.”

“Because you’re the worst.”

They both nodded in agreement.

This time it was Sunset’s turn to roll her eyes. She sighed.

“Someone smashed our band’s instruments yesterday. The Fall Formal’s in two days, and we were supposed to play, but there’s no way that’s happening now. A couple days before that, they wrecked Twilight’s locker. And before that, they vandalized my apartment’s door, and they messed up my desk the same way.”

Aria snorted. “That’s it? Give us some credit, Sunset. We’re sirens. Random acts of petty vandalism aren't our style.”

“Yeah!” Sonata said. “We’re, like, nature’s egotists!”

“When we get our revenge against you and your stupid friends,” Aria continued, “you’ll know.”

Sunset let out a huff. “I’ll be sure to keep that in mind.”

“You’d better.”

A few moments of tense silence followed.

“So someone smashed the things you used to make music, huh?” Aria said. “I can’t imagine what that must feel like.”

Sunset’s palm ran down her face. “This was a waste of time. Aria, give me your arm.”

“Why?”

“Just do it.”

Sonata and Aria glanced at one another. They shrugged. Aria stuck her arm towards Sunset.

Sunset gently—but forcefully—wrapped her hand around Aria’s wrist, while her other hand went to the pendant at her neck. Her eyes flashed white for a split second.

Aria raised an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything. Sunset released her wrist, apparently satisfied (though giving her an odd look in the process) and turned to Sonata.

“Your turn.”

The procedure was repeated. (“Ooh! Tingly!” was Sonata’s reaction.)

“Well, that settles that,” Sunset said, once she was done. She stood up, the legs of her chair complaining as they scraped across the floor. “Thanks. See you around.”

“Yeah, sure, whatever,” Aria replied, waving a hand. “Don’t let us keep you.”

Aria watched as Sunset beat her retreat. Her eyes narrowed.

“…Something’s up with her,” Aria said, after she’d faded from view. “You could feel it, right? Her, not the arm thing.”

“Well, duh,” Sonata replied. “D’you think we should tell Adagio?”

Aria mulled it over for a moment.

“Nah,” she said, eventually. “Screw her.”

A silence descended over their table.

It was short-lived.

“Hey Aaaariaaaaa…”

Aria pinched her eyes shut and sighed. “What is it, Sonata.”

Sonata had a shark-like gleam in her eyes. She’d smelled blood.

“You know what school dances have?”

“…Free food?”

“Free food.”

“Sweet! Free food!”

Spike the dog bounded across the floor of Twilight’s bedroom and scooped up the potato chip in his mouth just before Twilight could pick it up. He scampered away just as quickly with his prize, curling up on his bed on the other side of the room.

Twilight looked down at her canine companion, amused. “Spike, all your food is free.”

“Yeah, but this was liberated from the control of my human overlords. So it’s, like, twice as free!”

She rolled her eyes, but she was smiling. “You shouldn’t eat those, you know. They’re not good for you.”

“Yeah, I know,” he said, his speech slightly muffled by the bit of chip still in his mouth. He swallowed. “But potato chips taste way better than kibble.”

Well, she couldn’t argue with him there.

It was a Saturday in the Sparkle household, and for Twilight, that meant she would spend most of the day doing her homework. She liked getting it done at the beginning of the weekend; it meant she wouldn’t have anything hanging over her head for the rest of it, and that always felt good.

She had a lot of it this week, though, and it felt like it was taking twice as long as it normally did. She glanced at the clock to discover that, yes, it was only the afternoon.

She sighed. It didn’t help that she had more on her mind than just homework.

“Hey, Spike. Should I wear my white blouse tonight, or my red one?”

“What’s the occasion?”

“Sunset’s coming over for dinner,” Twilight said.

Long shot number two was easier to track down. If Trixie was anything, it was easy to find.

She’d been advertising a show in the park for the past week, which was where Sunset found her: a portable stage set on the grass just inside the park entrance, attended by five rows of folding chairs, with Trixie herself quickly adding a sixth. Sunset was in luck; she was still getting set up.

“Hey! Trixie!” she called out as she jogged over.

Trixie looked up with a start, then composed herself. By the time Sunset made it over, she was standing tall: her usual, cock-sure self.

“Sunset!” she declared. “What a pleasant surprise! You came for Trixie’s show! …But you’re early.”

“Not here for the show, sorry,” Sunset apologized. “I’ve got plans.”

“Oh.”

Trixie seemed to deflate a bit. She turned back to her chairs.

“So,” she said, unfolding one with a jerk. “What do you want, then?”

“I just need to talk to you for a minute.”

“Trixie does not appreciate the interruption.”

“It’ll be quick, I promise.”

Trixie sighed. “Fine. Go ahead.”

Sunset ran through what had been happening. By the time she had finished, Trixie’s attention was no longer on her work.

“How awful!” she said. “And you really have no idea who could be behind it?”

“No,” Sunset said. “But that’s kind of why I’m here…”

Trixie’s tone turned flat. “Why does Trixie get the feeling you didn’t come here to ask for help investigating.”

“I don’t want you to get the wrong idea—”

“You would dare accuse the Great and Powerful Trixie of such a vile act!? After all we’ve been through together?”

“I’m not accusing you of anything,” Sunset said, holding her hands up in an appeasing gesture. “I really don’t think this was you. I just want to use my magic to make absolutely sure.”

Trixie glared at her. “Trixie is hurt.”

“I’ll make it up to you at some point. Please?”

“Fine. Use your freaky mind-powers on Trixie. Trixie has nothing to hide.”

“Alright. Give me your arm.”

A moment later, and Sunset’s eyes faded back to normal. She let Trixie’s arm drop; the girl cradled it against her chest.

“Satisfied?”

Sunset nodded. “Completely. Thanks, Trixie.”

Trixie frowned, but didn’t say anything else to object. Sunset turned to go… but then smiled.

“Hey,” she said. “You know, with the Rainbooms out of commission, I bet the school is scrambling to find a replacement act…”

“Ah. Should’ve guessed,” Spike said. “Red one. Definitely.”

“Thanks.” She went back to her work, then paused. “Do you think Rarity would disown me if she knew I took fashion advice from a dog?”

“Not from me. I’m her favourite canine.”

“Fair enough.”

That minor dilemma solved, she went back to her work. Another hour passed.

Scratching off the last of her answers, Twilight set her pencil down (it clicked against the desk in an extremely satisfying manner) and stood up. She raised her arms into the air and stretched, then headed over to her wardrobe.

It was an older thing. Walnut. Her room was technically in the attic, you see, and so it didn’t have a closet. She made do, though.

She pulled the wardrobe’s door open, so that it formed a partition between her and Spike, and began to change.

“Hey, Spike?” she asked, after a few moments.

He’d been resting his head on the plush fabric of his bed. Now, he looked up. “Yeah?”

“You’re okay with this, right? Me and Sunset, I mean.”

“What, that you’re dating?”

“Yeah.”

“Why are you asking me now?”

“No reason. Just popped into my head.”

Spike scratched at his ear with his hind leg.

“Well, you two are pretty much perfect for each other. I mean, you’re both super smart, you’re both nice, you both give really great ear rubs…”

“Spike…”

“No, but really,” Spike said. “As long as she makes you happy, I’m cool with it.”

He paused.

“She does make you happy, right?”

Twilight’s answer was immediate and affirmative.

“Then what’s there to not be okay about?”

When there was no response, Spike tilted his head to the side.

“Uh… Twi? You okay?”

“You know what? You’re right,” she said. “Thanks, Spike.”

Spike tilted his head the other way.

“For what?”

Well, Trixie had been a bust. On to the next, and this one really was a long-shot. It was also her last-ditch effort.

They also hadn’t been hard to find. Sunset made a mental note to freak out about how easy it was to hunt people down using the internet later. This was getting ridiculous.

The arcade was loud, in spite of its few patrons. Machines buzzed and beeped and clamoured for her attention in the dim light. People had been saying the place would go out of business every year for the last decade, but it hadn’t yet. Maybe it never would.

And, over in the corner, crouched over a pinball table and surrounded by a weak but still respectable crowd, were Snips and Snails.

Sunset walked over and joined the back of the crowd. Snails was playing, and—Sunset wasn’t really familiar with pinball, but from the reactions of his audience and the huge number on the points display, she guessed he was doing well.

That, and Snips’ cheering. The kid had lungs, she’d give him that.

“What’s going on?” Sunset whispered to the person next to her, a teen she didn’t recognize.

“The orange kid’s going for the high score,” he whispered back. “They say it hasn’t been beaten in over five years.”

Sunset’s eyebrows raised. “Huh.” A glance at her phone told her she had plenty of time, so she stood back and watched.

As it turned out, she didn’t have to wait long. With a loud buzz, the ball dropped through the hole at the bottom of the machine, and “GAME OVER” flashed on the display.

There was a disappointed groan from the audience, and from Snips himself. Snails just shrugged.

“You were so close!” Snips said. “C’mon, one more go, I know you’ll get it!”

“Can’t,” Snails replied. He turned his pocket out. “I’m all out of quarters.”

“Aw.”

As the crowd dispersed, Sunset spoke up.

“Hey. You two.”

They turned. Something gleamed in Sunset’s fingers—a quarter.

“We need to talk.”

The metallic light reflected in their eyes.

“W-whadda want to know, Sunset?” Snips stammered.

She filled them in, watching their reactions.

“Your instruments got smashed?” Snails said, in his normal, slow, methodical way. He sounded genuinely astonished.

“I’m guessing that’s a ‘no’, then.”

“Of course!” Snips said. “Why would we do something like that? We love your band!”

“Come on. You two are the entire school’s go-to underlings. You used to be my go-to underlings.”

“We prefer the term ‘henchmen’.” Snails said.

“Of course you do. Look, I don’t think it was you, but I need to be sure. Just give me your arms.”

“…Is this the part where you give us a crazy telepathic brain-scan to see if we’re telling the truth?”

“Well, it’s not really telepathy, it’s…”

Sunset sighed. She’d forgotten who she was dealing with for a moment, there.

“Yes. This is the part where I do the magical brain scan.”

“Cool!”

Twilight stepped out from behind the closet door.

“How do I look?”

“You look great,” Spike said. “If I had thumbs, they’d be up right now.”

Twilight chuckled.

Downstairs, the doorbell rang.

“Oh!” Twilight jumped. “That must be Sunset.”

“Go get her, tiger!” Spike said, as Twilight hurried to her door. Once she was gone, and the sound of her footsteps had made it safely down to the first floor of the house, Spike turned towards her desk.

“Alright, so something’s bothering her,” Spike said to himself. “Never fear. Detective Spike is on the case!”

He trotted across the room, his close-trimmed claws clicking against the floorboards, until he reached Twilight’s backpack. Getting up on his hindlegs, he grabbed the handle in his teeth and pulled it over.

“Let’s see what we’re dealing with…”

He unzipped the bag and began rifling through its contents. As he got deeper into it, more and more of his head slipped inside the bag.

It was almost nostalgic. Twilight didn’t take him with her to school as much anymore.

His little doggy legs twitched. He’d found something.

Backing out, he laid the piece of paper on the floor and smoothed it out with his paws. It was a physics test, by the looks of things.

“Oof. Yeah. That’d do it,” Spike said, looking at the big “C” written in red at the top of the exam paper. “That settles it. Someone’s getting extra snuggles tonight.”

“Sunset!”

“Sorry I’m late,” Sunset said, standing in the doorway. “I was doing some asking around.”

“About—” Twilight glanced over her shoulder and lowered her voice. “About the vandal?”

“What’s with the subterfuge?” Sunset asked. “You haven’t told your parents?”

“Of course I haven’t told my parents!” Twilight hissed. “Are you nuts? My mom would march straight to the school and demand I get police protection!”

Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Really? Your mom always struck me as pretty easy-going.”

“Not when it comes to me! I tried to tell her about what happened at the Friendship Games when I transferred and she was halfway to phoning our lawyer before I convinced her not to sue both of our schools for negligence! I don’t even want to think about what she would have done if I’d told her about the whole demon-witch thing!”

“Okay.” Sunset nodded. “Point taken.”

Twilight sighed. “Right. So, did you learn anything?

“Nada. Although I might have inadvertently solved the problem of who’s going to be replacing the Rainbooms at the Fall Formal, so that’s something.”

Twilight sighed. “I guess we’re still at square one.”

“Yeah…”

Crickets chirped.

“Hey, soooo,” Sunset began, her eyes looking up and to the left, then down and to the left, as if tracking some nonexistant bird. “Since we can’t play at the Fall Formal…”

She grinned. “You want to go?”

Twilight snorted, and grinned back. “Of course I’ll go to the Fall Formal with you, Sunset. I mean, who else would I go with? Rarity?”

“I mean, I wouldn’t blame you. Have you seen those hips?”

They shared a laugh. She had, in fact, seen those hips.

Sunset clasped Twilight’s hand.

“This is going to be great. I promise.”

And then her eyes began to glow white.

Twilight’s eyes widened for a moment, and a split second later she jerked her arm out of Sunset’s grasp, her elbow hitting the side of the doorframe with a crack. She cried out.

The light in Sunset’s eyes faded, replaced by one of surprise and concern.

“Crap—are you okay?” She started forwards, but Twilight shrunk back. Unsure of what to do, she froze.

“I don’t—I don’t know how that happened. I’ve been using it all day, I must have just activated it automatically… Did—did I make you…?”

“I’m sorry,” Twilight gasped. “I didn’t mean to… you just surprised me. You just surprised me, that’s all.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” she said. “Yeah, I’m fine. Sorry.”

“No, it’s my fault. I don’t know what happened.”

“It’s fine, Sunset.”

They stood out on the porch for a while longer, neither of them really sure what to do or say to the other. The worms came back.

But, after what felt to them like an hour, but was really less than a minute, Twilight was the one to break the silence, relaxing her posture a bit.

“C’mon.” She flashed Sunset a smile. “Let’s go eat.”

Sunset smiled back.

“Sounds good.”

Siren//Song

Sunset hopped off the bus and walked the remaining block to her apartment in silence.

Dinner had gone well. If tonight had been a test from Twilight’s parents, she was fairly confident she’d passed with flying colours.

No, it wasn’t the dinner that had her furrowing her brow as she passed under the streetlamp that stood resolutely outside the entrance to her apartment complex. It was what had happened before it.

Why had Twilight reacted so violently? Sure, it might have been startling, but that was an overreaction; she’d literally wrenched her arm away. Why?

And why did it bother her so much?

Sunset continued to replay the event in her mind as she climbed up the building’s steps. She let herself in and went to the stairs. Her floor was the third; as she stepped into her hallway, her attention went to her pocket as she fished for her key. It was a little silver thing. She hadn’t bothered to put it on a ring or a strap or anything; she only had the one.

She looked up.

She nearly dropped the key right there.

Suddenly breaking into a cold sweat, she sprinted down the hall. Her boots squealed as she ground them to a stop on the wooden floor, just outside of her apartment. Her eyes were wide, her breathing heavy.

Her door was missing.

It wasn’t open. It wasn’t broken. It hadn’t been knocked off of its hinges. It was just gone.

The lights were off in the apartment. She crept forward, steadying herself on the doorframe, and listened. Nothing inside the apartment, not that she could detect. Still, she steeled herself as she reached for the lightswitch.

She had to blink as it came on and her eyes adjusted. When she opened them, she saw two things.

The first was that no one was here, or, at least, not that she could immediately see. As far as she could tell, she was alone.

The second…

Her fingers curled into a fist around her key.

The second was that her apartment had been trashed.

She stepped forward, suddenly numb. Her belongings lay strewn out all over the floor. Her couch had been knocked onto its back. Her TV lay in a cracked heap in the opposite corner. The fairy-lights which had decorated and lit her loft now lay strewn across the floor, pulled from their fastenings. She had to tread carefully, lest she break something.

That same sharp, metallic stench from the practice room hung in the air, burning her nostrils.

And then she spotted it, lying in the middle of a bare patch of floor, as if the detritus of her life had parted to allow this one, singular object.

She knelt down and picked up the journal, dusting off the cover with her free hand.

It was immaculate.

“What!?”

It was the next day, Sunset had just arrived at the Carousel Boutique, and Twilight and Rarity were looking at her like she’d just told them that her house had sprouted wings and flown away.

Which, while somewhat backwards, actually wasn’t that far from the truth, metaphorically speaking.

“It’s pretty bad, yeah.”

“Pretty bad? Sunset, this is insane!”

“That’s certainly a step—no, several steps farther than what our mysterious vandal has done previously,” Rarity said. “Breaking into your apartment—Darling, you need to contact the police!”

“Already done,” she said. “I spent half the night waiting for them to let me back into the apartment so I could pack a suitcase. I spent the other half at the hotel on Whinny street.”

“On Whinny street? Dreadful!” Rarity said. “You should have called me, darling, I would have gladly let you sleep on my couch.”

“Or mine,” Twilight hastily added.

“It was late,” Sunset explained. “I didn’t want to bother anyone. Besides, the Whinny’s not that bad. I’ve slept in worse conditions.”

“Darling, it’s the principle of the matter.”

“Did they take anything this time?” Twilight asked.

“No. Just trashed the place.” Sunset let out a sigh. “And ruined all my good clothes, including the dress I was going to wear for Fall Formal, so…”

“Say no more!” Rarity declared. “Now I see why you wanted to meet here. Let me see what we have in the back room.”

She disappeared through a door behind the counter, leaving the two of them alone in the storefront.

Sunset leaned up against the counter, setting her weight on it.

“Are you sure you still want to do this?” Twilight asked.

“What, the Fall Formal?”

Twilight nodded.

“Of course!” Sunset furrowed her brow. “There’s no way I’m going to miss out on tomorrow night just because some loser has nothing better to do with their time than to try and make us miserable. That would mean letting the vandal win.”

“You don’t think it could be dangerous?” Twilight said. “Whoever’s behind this is obviously escalating. What if they try something?”

“Well, they’ve always acted where no one could see them up until now, right?” Sunset said. “But Fall Formal’s going to be packed. There’s no way they’ll do anything with all those people around.”

“I don’t know…”

Rarity reappeared through the door to the back room, wheeling a rack of clothing in front of her.

“Go ahead; take your pick,” she said, coming to a stop before them. “I’d say it was on the house, but, well…” She laughed. “Not my store.”

Sunset could have sworn she heard the girl whisper a “yet” under her breath.

“I can get you a discount, though.”

“Thanks, Rarity.”

Sunset began flipping through the dresses on their hangers, the metal rattling and the fabric making little swish-swish sounds as they rubbed against each other. A packed mess of oranges, reds, and blacks.

“Hey, Rarity,” Twilight suddenly spoke up. “You haven’t had anything suspicious happen to you since the instruments, have you?”

“No, not at all,” Rarity said. “Not unless you count Sweetie Belle stealing half of my design materials for one of her and her friends’ ‘projects’.” She coughed. “Again.”

“Neither has anyone else,” Twilight said. “Maybe we were wrong. What if this is just happening to Sunset and me?”

“But darling, that makes even less sense. What could anyone possibly have against the two of you?”

“Maybe… someone doesn’t like us being together?”

“That seems a bit silly,” Sunset said. She was about halfway through the rack, now.

“Perhaps one of you has an admirer,” Rarity suggested. “Of the ‘jealous’ variety.”

Sunset shuddered at the idea, but that didn’t mean she agreed. “I don’t know. Doesn't this seem a bit extreme for teen romance?”

“Love works in mysterious, and sometimes terrifying, ways, darling.”

“Either way, we still have no idea who it is,” Twilight said.

That was one thing they could all agree on.

In the silence that followed, Sunset finished going through the rack.

“I don’t know, Rarity,” Sunset said, putting back the last of the dresses. “I know I’m not really in a position to be choosey right now, but none of these are really speaking to me.”

“I completely understand,” Rarity said. “If I had the time, I’d make something for you myself, but…”

Rarity took a step back. She sized Sunset up with her eyes, looking her up and down. Sunset got the distinct feeling that she’d been placed under a microscope.

“…Darling,” Rarity said, finally. “I’ve had an idea. It may be a bit cliche, at this point, but… have you ever considered wearing a suit?”

“How is this thing even supposed to work?” Sunset grunted, fumbling with her tie. The infernal thing of red cloth kept slipping through her fingers as she attempted to knot it into place.

“Here, let me do it.”

Twilight grasped the two ends of the cloth snake, straightened them, and began weaving them together. Sunset looked at her work like it was witchcraft.

“You’re good at this.”

“I used to have to do this for my brother,” Twilight explained. “He could never figure it out, either. It’s not actually that hard, though, once you know what you’re doing.”

Twilight was already wearing her outfit for the night, a dress of pink and lavender fabrics that dropped past her knees. She felt good wearing it.

Regal, whispered a voice in the back of her head.

She slipped the end through the knot and pulled it tight.

“Ta-da.”

She looked up.

Twilight flushed. She only just seemed to have realized how close they were to each other. Their bodies were almost touching, and she could feel Sunset’s breath brushing lightly against her forehead.

Sunset smiled down at her. She reached up and brushed a few stray lavender hairs out of Twilight’s face.

“You look good with your hair down,” she said.

“You look good in a suit.”

Sunset leaned in and kissed her, and oh! There went all the strength in Twilight’s knees.

God, Sunset’s lips felt good.

They kept at it for another half a minute, after which Sunset pulled away.

“Come on,” she said. “We’d better get going if we don’t want to be late.”

“Oh,” Twilight said. “Okay.”

A banner had been hung over the entrance to the school, yelling out “Fall Formal” in bright red letters to anyone who happened to pass by. A bundle of balloons had been tied around the barrel of the wondercolt statue. And, off to the side, someone had set up a spotlight. It traced strange circles in the night’s sky.

It was always weird, Sunset reflected, to see the school all lit up like this in the evening.

As she and Twilight stepped out of the back of Twilight’s dad’s car (he’d insisted, and boy hadn’t that been the most awkward car ride of her life), she felt a pang of unease in her chest that she couldn’t quite explain. She brushed it off just as quickly as it came. The autumn night air was cold against her face.

Night Light waved, and drove off. Sunset waited for him to get far enough away, then put her arm around Twilight’s waist.

“Shall we?” she asked, sweeping a hand towards the doors. Twilight giggled, rolled her eyes, and started forwards.

Vice-Principal Luna was on ticket duty, it seemed; she kept her eyes on them like a hawk as they handed her theirs and headed inside. Sunset could swear she could still feel the woman’s piercing gaze even after they were inside.

The hallway to the gym had been done up in balloons and streamers as well. Small groups of students gathered and chattered amongst themselves every few feet, but Sunset could hear the majority of them up ahead. Even from here, the gym throbbed. There was music playing, but nothing live yet, just a simple pop-y tune. The live music would come later, when it mattered. This was just to fill the quiet while things got going.

“You ready?” Sunset asked, looking over at Twilight as they stood before the doors. She nodded.

The light inside the gym was low, and flashed between different colours every few seconds. In true school dance fashion, there was also a disco ball spinning up there somewhere, sending glittering patterns of light around the room.

Sunset could feel a few odd stares on her as they walked in. Her left hand adjusted her tie. She had to admit: she kind of liked it.

Together, they mingled their way into the crowd. After a little while, they found where the rest of their friends had gathered and stuck there for a while, chatting and laughing while the dance started up around them.

The night had begun.

“I’m going to go get some punch,” Sunset declared. “You want anything?”

“I’ll come too, actually,” Twilight replied.

“Suit yourself.”

“Don’t be long!” Pinkie called after them. “The dancing’s gonna start soon!”

“Yeah, yeah. We’ll be back in a minute.”

They weaved their way through the crowd together, towards the left wall, where Sunset had caught a brief glimpse of a refreshment table earlier.

They’d really gone all out this year—well, as all-out as a school dance typically could, anyway. Three crystal pitchers of various flavours of punch (and, Sunset knew from experience, the requisite ingredients needed to spike it if one desired wouldn’t be too far away), surrounded by plates and bowls of your typical faire. There was even a small chocolate fountain.

And off to the side…

Sunset groaned. Twilight cast her an odd look, but she ignored it and instead marched to the far end of the table, where two familiar—and unwanted—faces lay.

Aria leaned against the wall, munching on something. Sonata was sitting on the edge of the table, which was earning her no end of disapproving stares, but it seemed no one really had the guts to tell her to get off. They both looked up as she approached.

“What are you two doing here?” Sunset demanded.

“Free food!”

“What’s it to you?” Aria said, at the same time, glaring. Sunset glared back.

“Um…” Twilight looked back and forth between Sunset and Aria. “Who is this?”

The two sirens gave her an odd look. Sunset sighed.

“Sorry. We told you about the sirens, right?”

“These are the sirens?” Twilight asked, taking a half step back.

“Two of them.”

“She doesn’t remember us?” Aria asked, jerking a thumb at Twilight.

“That was the Equestrian Twilight. This is the human Twilight.”

“There’s a human Twilight?” Sonata asked.

“Yeah. I was surprised, too.”

“Huh.” Sonata turned to Aria. “Hey, how come there aren’t human versions of us here? I want to meet myself!”

“I don’t think the universe would survive two of you.”

“How did you even get in here?” Sunset asked them. “They were collecting tickets at the door.”

Aria grinned. “Easy. We’re the entertainment.”

“…What.”

“Well, since the main band had to cancel at the last minute…”

“Principal Celestia totally bought our whole ‘we’re reformed now’ sob story, too!” Sonata added.

“Seriously, she’ll let anyone walk in here.”

“Especially if they’ll work for free!”

Sunset’s eyes darted between the two.

“…It probably didn’t hurt that the elements were going to be here too, huh,” she said.

“That may have also come up,” Aria said, waving her hand dismissively. “Briefly.”

“Riiiight. I thought Trixie and her band were playing tonight?”

“They’re our follow-up act.”

“You mean you’re their warm-up act.”

“I know what I said.”

“Shouldn’t you be going on stage soon, then?” Twilight asked, glancing at the clock.

“Relax. We’ve got, like, fifteen minutes. Plenty of time.”

Aria took a drink from her red plastic solo cup. Sunset was left to wonder what percentage of what she was drinking was actually punch

“So,” she said, pointing her cup hand at Twilight, then at Sunset. “You two are together?”

“…Yes?” Twilight said, immediately followed up by a “What’s it to you?” from Sunset.

Aria and Sonata shared a glance. Sonata raised an eyebrow. Aria groaned.

Standing up, in one smooth motion, she slipped behind Sunset and put her hands on her shoulders.

“Could we steal your girlfriend for a minute?” she said to Twilight.

Sunset squinted at her.

“Relax,” Aria said, giving her shoulder a pat. “This is a friendly kidnapping.”

“Um…”

“I’ll be alright, Twilight,” Sunset said. “This’ll only take a second.”

This was accompanied by a glare over her shoulder.

“Oh… okay,” Twilight said, hesitant. “I’ll just… go get some punch.”

“You do that,” Aria said.

She steered Sunset away from the refreshments, Sonata hopping off the end of the table and following them (but not before grabbing another cookie and shoving it into her mouth). Sunset cast an apologetic glance over her shoulder at the suddenly very lost-looking Twilight, before she was swallowed by the crowd.

They came to a stop by the back wall, in a small pocket of empty space. Sunset loosed herself from Aria’s grip and looked at the two of them expectantly.

Aria sighed.

“Look,” she said. “I’m only telling you this because you got us this gig, alright?”

“What’s this about?” Sunset asked.

“You,” Sonata said.

Aria nodded. “Yeah. You know how we used to feed on negative emotions? Conflict, self-loathing, guilt, that sort of thing?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, we can still sense them,” she said. “Like, uh…”

She waved her hand around in a formless gesture.

“Like we can smell them,” Sonata supplied. Aria snapped her fingers.

“Right. Exactly. We can smell your emotions.”

“Okay,” Sunset said, now looking very uncertain. “So…?”

Aria sighed.

“Sunset, you smell like a three-course meal of denial, guilt, and frustration.”

She reached out and put her hand on Sunset’s shoulder.

“I dunno what’s up with you, and I really don’t care. But whatever it is, it’s messing you up inside.”

“Seriously,” Sonata said. “You’re making me hungry just standing here.”

“It’s really hard to ignore.”

“Really hard.”

Sunset just stared at them for a moment. Sonata and Aria exchanged a glance.

“So, uh…”

“If you could just sort that out…”

Sunset abruptly knocked Aria’s hand away.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she growled. “I’m fine.”

Sonata tensed up.

“Look, we’ve gotta get on stage,” Aria said. “Accept it or don’t, whatever. I don’t care.”

She stepped closer and jabbed her finger against Sunset’s lapel.

“But don’t say we didn’t warn you, you got that? This is us trying to be nice.”

She stepped back again.

“Come on, Sonata. Let’s go.”

Sonata cast one last look at Sunset, then waved goodbye and followed Aria into the crowd.

Slipping through the groups of students, Sunset stumbled her way back to her friends. Twilight was there already; she called out as she approached.

“What was all that about?” she asked, once Sunset was close enough to hear over the noise of the crowd. The music had been muted, in preparation for the night’s main event.

“Nothing important,” Sunset said, her voice low. Then she sighed, and when she looked up again, she was smiling. “Sorry.”

At that moment, a microphone squealed with feedback, and the crowd grew quiet.

They turned their attentions to the stage, where Sonata and Aria now stood. The crowd murmured as Aria took the front microphone from its stand.

“Uh… hi.”

Someone booed.

“Yeah, yeah,” Aria said. She flipped the bird in their direction. “Man, I hate this school. Let’s get this over with.”

A nod off to the side of the stage, and music began to play, a low, simple electronic rhythm. Their voices joined it a few measures later.

Slowly, the tension in the air dissolved, and people began to fill the empty area of the gym that had been arbitrarily designated the ‘dance floor’. Say what you would about the sirens; the quality of their singing was not up for debate. Even without magic, even with just the two of them, their voices were hypnotic.

Twilight and Sunset were content to stand on the sidelines for the first song, but then they moved on to the second of their set. It was a slower song. Deeper vocals.

Suddenly, they both became aware that the rest of their group were looking at them expectantly.

“Uh…”

“Go dance!” Pinkie all-but-shrieked.

“I don’t know,” Twilight said. “I’m not—Shouldn’t we—”

But the Pink Terror, mad on party fever, had already shoved them both towards the dance floor.

They stumbled out, into the midst of the dancing couples. It was a small miracle they didn’t run into anyone.

It took a moment for them to catch their bearings, but once they did, well, why not? Sunset put her hands on Twilight’s waist, and Twilight put her hands on Sunset’s shoulders, and they began to step and sway to the music.

For one magical moment, everything else seemed to fade away, until it was just them, alone, on the dance floor.

Twilight’s senses seemed suddenly to sharpen, and the world took on a slightly surreal tint. She became acutely aware of her own breathing, of the beating of her heart as she moved, of the sensation of Sunset’s hands around her waist, guiding her. But most of all, she could feel the warmth of the other girl, could feel her breathing, they were so close.

It was like something out of a fairy-tale.

“I love you,” she whispered, wanting nothing more than to fall into Sunset’s embrace, to get lost in her arms and in her eyes and her lips.

“I love you too,” Sunset said, and the words made her heart ache.

And that was the precise moment that the inhuman shriek split the auditorium.

Party//Crashers

Twilight came crashing back into the real world as the harpy’s cry echoed across the gymnasium. The sirens stopped singing their vocals, leaving just the backing music, but it seemed almost parodical compared to the abrupt and jarring silence that had forced itself onto the room. Dancers looked around in confusion, their eyes darting about.

But the silence only lasted a moment.

Then the screams started.

Sunset released her, taking a step back. Around them, students began to mutter and murmur in confusion. Twilight turned in the direction of the screams, scanned the crowd. It was hard to see in the dark, and the flashing colours didn’t help matters. There were gasps and more shouts as something… took to the air?

For a moment, she couldn’t process what she was seeing.

It was human, in shape, though only barely. It rose on tattered wings, with skin the colour of clay and talons like knives. It turned its head to the ceiling and its fangs flashed as it shrieked again, a piercing, animalistic thing.

She took a step back, just on instinct, as more screams rang out around them. The demon—for it could be nothing else—looked down at her then, its eyes like pitch fixing directly on her.

No. Not at her.

Twilight looked to her side, and saw Sunset, staring slack-jawed at the thing, her eyes wide and her pupils like pinpricks. She murmured something—Twilight couldn’t make out what.

The demon’s lips peeled back, revealing its teeth in a fearsome grimace.

“Sunset…?” Twilight said, voice on the verge of panic.

No response.

Instead:

“What the heck is that thing!?” Aria said from on stage, her voice, intentionally or not, being broadcast across the gym by her mic. The demon’s head snapped up.

“Ah crap—”

With a beat of its massive wings, it tore across the room, snarling. It was upon the stage in an instant.

Aria was already running, Sonata not far behind. “I hate this school!” she shouted, before tossing the mic behind her. They joined the throng of people rushing for the exits, pushing and shoving their way into the crowd.

The microphone bounced and rolled across the stage, stopping just by the demon’s foot. With a single stomp, it was reduced to scrap.

The demon had no mind for the fleeing students. Its attention was focused on the equipment. Talons tore into the closest speaker and it was ripped off of its stand in a shower of sparks, then tossed across the room like it was made of paper. Twilight shouted and ducked, throwing her arms up for protection as it sailed over them and cratered into the wooden floor, sending splinters flying. More crashes followed as the demon began to tear into the sound system, at last killing the music with an ear-splitting screech of feedback.

Twilight staggered back to her feet. She looked up; Sunset was still standing, staring, motionless. She grabbed her by the shoulders.

“Sunset, what’s happening!?” Twilight all-but-shrieked, shaking her. “What is that thing?”

Sunset blinked, seeming to finally have come out of her trance.

“I—It’s—it’s me!” she stammered. “It’s me!”

“What?”

“It’s me!” she repeated, stammering. “Back before I met you, before I was friends with the girls—when I stole the Equestrian Element of Magic, it turned me into that!”

She flung her hand out, pointing in the direction of the stage. “That’s my demon!”

Twilight followed her gesture. That was Sunset? She could see the resemblance, but—

“How?”

“I have no idea! But we need to—to—oh Celestia no.”

Sunset cut off. At the same time, and just as abruptly, the demon’s path of destruction stopped. It turned around slowly, and snarled at something behind Twilight that she couldn’t see, the same thing that Sunset was now staring at.

Twilight turned around, slowly.

Her eyes grew wide.

“No…”

“Nononononono…”

She floated there, over the heads of those few students who hadn’t already made it out of the gym. Her hair swayed and twisted in an otherworldly wind. A pair of raven’s wings stretched from her back, and her eyes and palms glowed with electric-blue fire.

For the first time, Twilight Sparkle came face-to-face with her own doppelgänger. Oh, she’d seen the photos, and the videos; it had seemed, at the time, that there had been no end to them. But this was different.

This was very different.

“M-Midnight,” she whispered, voice suddenly hoarse.

Midnight Sparkle seemed to pay her counterpart no heed; her gaze was like steel, and it was focused solely on the demon perched on the stage.

Sunset’s demon shrieked. Midnight’s palms grew brighter. Ozone and woodsmoke mingled in the air. Above them, the lights popped and burst, sending shards of glass falling down like rain. It was a small miracle that no one was near enough to get hurt.

The world seemed to hold still for a moment.

And then…

And then all hell broke loose.

Midnight flew forwards, with a single beat of her wings. Sunset’s demon leapt up to meet her, snarling, talons outstretched, and they met in midair. There was a brief clash, and then Midnight was thrown into the stage, skidding into the still-sparking electrical equipment. The demon wasn’t far behind, and its claws tore through the stage like paper.

It was at this point that the other girls appeared behind Sunset and Twilight.

“I think we found your vandals!” Pinkie shouted, as a crash sounded from the direction of the stage.

“Midnight and demon Sunset!?” Rainbow said. Even she looked worried. “What the heck is going on?”

“I—I have no idea!” Sunset stammered.

“How can they be here if you’re both here?”

“I don’t know!”

Rarity, meanwhile, had gone to Twilight. “Darling, are you okay?”

“No,” Twilight said. Her heart felt like it was going to burst, it was hammering so hard in her chest. “I don’t—”

“Look out!” Fluttershy shrieked, ducking behind her hands. Twilight’s gaze darted to her right, just in time to see the spotlight that was sailing towards her head. She screamed, but—

It bounced harmlessly off of one of Rarity’s diamond constructs. Rarity herself let her hand drop from her pendant and let out a sigh of relief as the shield dissipated. A second slower…

“Alright,” Applejack said. “Sunset, Twilight, I don’t know why your evil sides are back, but we can’t let ‘em keep tearing apart the school!”

“AJ’s right!” Rainbow said. “Let’s blast ‘em!”

“Right!”

One by one, they joined hands. Sunset’s wrapped around Twilight’s left, a little tighter than Rarity’s on her right.

She felt a now-familiar calm flow through her, and she reached deep down inside herself for that little pocket of magic she’d discovered at Camp Everfree. The one she’d secretly wondered if it had always been there, or if it had only shown up after she’d met Sunset. Her pendant began to glow, as did Sunset’s, as did Rarity’s, and, as they lifted into the air, she was filled with the overwhelming sensation that everything was going to be alright.

And then that little pocket of magic flickered.

And it sputtered.

And it died.

Twilight’s eyes flew open as her feet touched the ground once more. She glanced to her sides, and saw the others were just as confused as she was.

“What!?” Sunset was the first to speak. “No!”

“The Elements have never done that before!” Pinkie said. “What gives, Sunset!?”

“I—I don’t—”

“I don’t think she liked that!” Applejack shouted.

Twilight looked behind her—and froze, as she locked eyes with her counterpart.

She looked furious.

She was also flying this way.

“Crap!” Rainbow shouted. “Scatter!”

This time, it was Twilight who grabbed Sunset’s hand and pulled her away as Midnight approached, her palms beginning once more to glow—before Sunset’s demon flew into her, tackling her from behind and sending both of them skidding across the gym’s floor.

Twilight only spared a glance over her shoulder at this. She was too busy running, making a mad dash for the gym doors—until her feet lifted off the ground.

“What—”

It wasn’t just her. Everything in the gym that wasn’t nailed down—and a few things that should have been—had begun to levitate several meters into the air under Midnight’s power.

The doors out of the gym slammed shut.

“Twilight!” Sunset shouted. “Your pendant!”

It took her just a second to understand what Sunset meant. Her hand went to the crystal at her neck, and she willed the magic inside to push them back to the ground. At least that worked; she and her friends dropped safely, just before they would have hit the ceiling. Just in time, too, as the demon raked its claws over Midnight’s chest, sending everything in the gym crashing back to the ground. Glass shattered, metal twisted, and Twilight kept running.

“There!”

Sunset was pointing towards the upturned refreshments table, which had fallen on its side in the confusion, sending its contents spilling across the floor.

They hooked left and ducked behind the upturned table like runners sliding home. Safe!

…ish.

Sunset gasped for breath, Twilight right there with her, pressing her back against their makeshift shield. The sounds of the fight raged on out of view behind them.

Twilight peeked out around the side of the table. From here, it looked like everyone was okay—the others had split into two groups, one taking cover behind more of Rarity’s constructs, the others trying to get the far doors open. It didn’t look like they were having much success.

She ducked back quickly, just fast enough for a string of lights to whip through where her head had been and smash into the wall across from them. On the plus side, she now had conclusive evidence that the phrase ‘her life flashed before her eyes’ was complete crock, as it most assuredly would have just then.

“Why didn’t our elements work?” Sunset was saying. “The elements always work! …Except against the Sirens. But—”

“Why didn’t they work against the Sirens?” Twilight asked.

“Because we needed music, and because I wasn’t… there…” Her eyes widened. “Maybe… maybe if we weren’t all in sync…”

And then it all clicked.

“It’s us,” Twilight gasped. “Sunset, it’s us!”

“What do you mean it’s us?”

“We’re the ones who are out of sync!” She nodded towards the table. “And them! That’s us, too! It’s all been us, this whole time!”

“What are you talking about?” Sunset asked. “How can it be us?”

Twilight grit her teeth.

Her hands curled into fists.

“Sunset,” she said, slowly, forcing the words out. They hurt to have to say.

“We need to talk about our relationship.”

Broken//Up

Sunset seemed momentarily dumbfounded.

“Our…” She blinked. “Twilight, I don’t think now is really a good time—”

Twilight shook her head. “No. We need to stop this. Now. Before someone gets hurt because of us.”

She got to her feet. She felt strangely calm, all of a sudden. But she supposed there always was a calm before a storm.

“Twilight, what are you doing?” Sunset hissed. “Get down!”

“Sunset,” she began, ignoring her warning. “I need you to be honest. Do you love me?”

“Of course I love you!” Sunset said, her voice raising. “But now’s not—”

“Stop lying, Sunset.”

The words were like sharpened steel; they seemed to cut through both the air and the moment.

“W-what are you…”

“Sunset, I have a confession to make,” she said. “My grades have been slipping. For months.”

“That’s—!”

Twilight held a hand up, cutting her off.

“My grades have been slipping. I’ve been losing weight. I feel sick, I have trouble sleeping, and now…” she gestured behind the table, not noticing that the sounds of destruction had begun to quiet.”Now this. I can’t keep doing this, Sunset.”

“Doing what?” Sunset said. “Doing what?”

“Pretending that we’re okay!”

And there was the storm.

She let out a breath.

“Sunset, I read your journal.”

The blood drained from Sunset’s face.

It had been a mistake. That’s what she wanted to convince herself, that she could have been happy if she hadn’t found out. But she knew that wouldn’t have been true, one way or another.

It had been a simple thing. They’d been at Sunset’s apartment, on the three-week anniversary of their relationship. Sunset had excused herself to use the bathroom, leaving Twilight alone on her couch. When she’d heard the buzzing, she’d initially assumed it was Sunset’s phone, but when she looked at where Sunset had left it, it was inactive. So she looked around a bit more, and eventually, she realized it was coming from Sunset’s desk drawer.

She shouldn’t have opened it. She knew, at the time, even, that she shouldn’t have opened it. She’d felt the unease settle in her stomach.

But she’d opened the drawer anyway, and inside she’d found the journal.

It was a simple message, that had arrived on the journal’s pages. Not even a full line:

Sunset—I know I hurt you, and I’m sorry. Can we talk? Please?

And after reading it, feeling the worms start to nest in her stomach for the first time, she’d gone back, flipping the page just once.

And that was all it had taken.

When Sunset had come back out of the bathroom, she’d found Twilight on the couch where she’d left her. And she’d seemed fine, but the date had ended earlier than they’d planned.

She hadn’t been fine. She hadn’t been fine at all.

“Then…” Sunset said. “Then you saw…”

Twilight nodded.

Sunset squeezed her eyes shut. Her head hung.

“I wasn’t mad,” Twilight said. She looked to the side, cradling one arm in the other across her chest. “I wanted to be mad, but I was just… I don’t know. Miserable and frustrated.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Sunset asked.

“I didn’t want to,” Twilight said. “Being with you still made me happy. I still loved you, Sunset. I still do. So I pretended. I pretended that everything was fine.”

She sighed. “But I guess you can’t do that forever. It was tearing me up inside. Midnight… Midnight might have been my subconscious’ last resort. Lashing out in desperation to get me to admit it.”

But then she smiled, just a little one. “And I guess the demon was the same for you.”

Sunset let out a sigh, and got to her own feet, slowly, needing to steady herself. She looked at Twilight, but her head was bowed.

“Twilight,” she said. “I— I never wanted to hurt you. I want you to know that.”

“I know.”

She breathed, deeply. In… out.

“Twilight… the other Twilight… she saved my life,” Sunset began. “You never met me, before. I wasn’t… I wasn’t a good person, Twilight. I did a lot of horrible things. That demon over there was one of them.”

Twilight crossed her arms.

“But she saved me from myself,” Sunset said. “She showed me a better way. Meeting her, it was—she was the first person, or pony, to show me any real kindness in a long, long time.”

She rubbed at her eye. The gym had grown deathly quiet.

“And you’re amazing!” Sunset said. “Don’t think I’m saying otherwise. You’re smart, and you’re funny, and I love being with you—I could have fallen in love with you, I do love you, but—”

“But I’m not her.”

“But you’re not her,” Sunset echoed. She seemed to deflate, her gaze falling to the floor. “And I shouldn’t have tried to pretend you were. That night, with the movie—I was weak. And afterwards, I knew what I’d done, but you were so happy, and…”

A weight fell on her shoulder. Sunset glanced to her left. Her demon had landed beside her, its massive clawed hand now resting on her shoulder.

She raised her head and looked at Twilight. Midnight had taken up perch behind her, her raven’s wings wrapped protectively around Twilight’s waist.

“I just wanted you to be happy,” Sunset said, looking into Midnight’s eyes only because she couldn’t bear to look at Twilight’s right now. “I just wanted both of us to be happy.”

“I don’t think either of us were happy. Not really.”

Sunset let out a breath.

“No, I guess not.”

“I love you, Sunset,” Twilight said. “I really do. The first few weeks—they were amazing. But I won’t be your consolation prize, Sunset.”

“You shouldn’t have to be.” She wiped her eye with a palm. “I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”

“I forgive you,” Twilight said. She gently placed her hand on Sunset’s shoulder, over the demon’s. “But this needs to stop. Tonight.”

Sunset nodded.

And that was how it ended. With a bit of a bang, and with one very heartfelt confession.

Thankfully, the impromptu musical number was still nowhere in sight.

“Sweep, sweep, sweep, sweep…”

Twilight’s broom brushed across the floor, picking up bits of paper and confetti in its bristles. She muttered the mantra under her breath with each push.

“Sweep, sweep, sweep, sweep…”

Across the room, Sunset was doing much the same thing. Minus the song, of course.

It hadn’t been long after their tearful confessions that the cavalry had arrived, in the form of an absolutely furious Vice-Principal Luna. Needless to say, their apologies had fallen on deaf ears.

The planning committee would have been thrilled not to have to clean up the mess themselves, if the trade-off hadn’t been months of hard work down the drain. Such was just how things always went at Canterlot High, it seemed.

Today was the second day of after-school cleanup, with Luna dozing in a chair in the corner, ‘supervising’. Neither Midnight nor Sunset’s demon had appeared since that night. Sunset wasn’t sure how to feel about that.

Really, she wasn’t sure how to feel at all. On the one hand, it… hurt. It hurt a lot.

On the other… well, as the cliche went, it felt like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

She glanced up at the other girl on clean-up duty. Their brooms were fast approaching each other, pushing dirt, confetti, splinters, and bits of broken glass along with them.

Should she say something? Probably. They hadn’t spoken much yesterday.

Twilight beat her to it.

“So, who do you think the prince and princess would have been?”

Sunset blinked. “What?”

“Of the Fall Formal,” Twilight explained. She came to a stop and leaned on her broom. “Who do you think it would have been, if we hadn’t crashed the party?”

“Oh.” Sunset gave it some thought, leaning up on her own broom. “Um… Probably Ditzy and Flash, honestly.”

“You think?”

“Yeah,” Sunset said. “I know they say they’re just friends, but I think we all know that’s not true. They make a cute couple.”

Twilight giggled, and Sunset felt a little bit of her own smile come back.

“Yeah,” Twilight said. “I could see it.”

“Y'know what’s funny?” Sunset said. “I wasn’t even thinking about that. The whole ‘Princess of the Fall Formal’ thing.”

“What’s so funny about that?”

“Well, it, uh…” She bit the inside of her lip. “It seemed a lot more important a year ago. Now it’s just… a thing.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow at her. She just shrugged.

They were both silent for a bit. Sunset glanced across the gym. There was still a lot of mess to clean up.

Before she got up the nerve to go back to it, though, Twilight spoke up.

“You should go talk to her.”

Sunset turned back to her. “Talk to who?”

“The princess.”

“…Celestia?”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “No. Twilight. The other Twilight. I think you should go talk to her.”

Sunset was dumbfounded.

“What, you mean like… like go and talk to her?”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Like go to magical horse world and talk to her magical horse face.”

“Magical pony face,” Sunset corrected.

“Whatever.”

Sunset rubbed the back of her neck. “That would feel kind of awkward, given… present… circumstances.”

“Well, not, like, tomorrow,” Twilight said, grinding the toe of her shoe into the floor. “But, you know… at some point. Before you lose your chance. It’s what I would have wanted, if I was in her position.”

“I…” Sunset swallowed. “Yeah. Yeah, okay. I can do that. …Do you think…?”

“Yes.”

“Really?”

“Yep.”

“And you’re okay with—”

“Just do it, Sunset.”

“Huh.” Sunset smiled. A small one. “Well, alright then.”

“Back to work, you two!” a voice growled sleepily from behind them, making them both jump. “Before I change my mind about giving you both detention for the rest of the year.”

Their grips tightened on their brooms.

“Yes, Vice-Principal Luna!”