Spring was starting to set in, you could see it everywhere. It was getting warmer, to the point that people did not need their thickest and heaviest mantles and coats to stay warm anymore. There were still days when one had to mind chilly winds coursing through the streets, and it would be like this for some time, but people were accustomed to that. And many were welcoming the change in season by going outside and happily greeting others.

None more so than an extremely energetic and enthusiastic girl, standing before a finely made marble statue. She was humming a joyful tune to herself, bouncing up and down though her feet did not leave the ground. She was waiting for someone.

Finally, the surface of the stone pedestal, that the equine-shaped statue was residing on, started to ripple and contort. A light glow began to spread across its surface and moved strangely. The girl did not seem perturbed by this at all. Instead, she took one step closer to the statue and spread her arms wide, smiling brightly as she did.

Then, the stone surface twisted and turned. From it something emerged, a mass of light detaching itself from the solid marble. It became bipedal, humanoid, took on form and detail, and finally assumed colour. All this happened in only a miniscule fraction of a second, and by the end of it, a relatively-normal looking human stumbled from the statue and straight into the waiting girl’s arms.

“HIIIIIII Twilight!” Pinkie squealed happily, holding the newly arrived equestrian tightly, both because she had missed her and was genuinely happy to see her, and to prevent her falling to the ground.

Afformentioned Twilight had to take a moment to let the sudden change in body and orientation sense that always came with a portal trip take its course. “Hello Pinkie. Thank you for the catch.” She mumbled, carefully setting her feet firmly upon terra firma and straightening her back and getting on eye-level with the pink party planner.

“It’s good that you visit us again.” Pinkie said, though it was more subdued than her typical overly happy tone.

I am here because of the sirens. That was what Twilight almost told her, but she held it back. It was too hurtful to tell Pinkie, that she was here only for business and had no want to visit them, even if it might be true and the other girl already knew it. The fact was simply, Twilight did not know how to re-establish her friendship with this world’s version of her closest friends. She had been avoiding the question, and them, for some time now, distracting herself with other projects and problems.

The sudden message that one of the sirens wanted a parlay was too great to ignore however. She briefly entertained the notion of not going, citing for excuse the likelyhood of it being a trap. But in the end, she had simply given an affirmation and when she would have enough free time to cross the portal.

They were to meet in the Crystal Emporium at a certain spot. Somewhere where they could talk in privacy but still public enough to force them to keep it peaceful. Pinkie was to drive her there and take her back after the meeting had ended, during which she would stay at a respectful distance.

Having Pinkie Pie as her only backup was not the best choice, but in her mind, it still outweighed meeting the rest of the group and getting them into all this. Maybe this was a stupid idea and maybe she should overcome her irrational and petty urge to keep them away, but right now Twilight did not care about that.

The drive was silent. Which was unusual considering who the driver was, but understandable if one knew of the circumstances. Upon entering the Emporium, Pinkie guided her to the spot. Two benches facing eachother in a small alcove, a place where customers could rest and enjoy a short break from the ever-moving mass of people.

As they slowly approached, they could already make out two figures. Both had hoods over their head, sitting in the alcove, acting like they were quietly talking to themselves. Looking at them, Twilight’s stomach turned. Something was suspicious here. The note that she had received had only mentioned one of the sirens, Aria Blaze. Of course, it would have been stupid to expect deceitful creatures like them to keep to their word and come alone to this meeting. However, it would have made more sense for all three to arrive, not just the one who had contacted her. Yet only two were here.

Granted, all kinds of possibilities would explain such. The most concerning being that the third member was either setting an ambush here or using the meeting as a cover to do something bad somewhere else. Unluckily for them, Twilight had prepared as well. There were guards posted at her side of the mirror, among them Starlight Glimmer, all of whom had protocols designed by her to counter everything she knew about the sirens. If they tried to escape this world or steal from her, it would most likely fail.

Twilight pulled at the thick gloves covering her hands to straighten them out. Beneath them, she could feel the smooth metal and the small gems adorning them. She had enchanted the metal gloves herself, a hybrid in their design. It would store additional energy and provide several chosen spell matrixes for her to use, which would make them faster and cheaper to cast. These ones held about a dozen spells she had chosen for if the wielder would get into trouble and had to defend themselves. In Equestria, these would be a useful boon to any caster. Here, in a world devoid of magic, where creatures such as herself could rely only on their own reserves without many means to replenish, the only thing she lacked was actual combat experience.

The young princess frowned grimly as she neared the meeting place, chipper party planer behind her, and saw the two figures standing up. As she got closer, one of them pulled back their hood. She would have recognized her anywhere, as all three sirens were ingrained in her mind.

“I’m surprised, Sparkles. I would have thought that you would bring your entire brigade instead.” Aria spoke, her voice laced with her usual mix of sarcasm and anoyance. “Of course, I also thought you wouldn’t come at all.”

“Well, I am here now. You wanted to talk, we can do that.” Twilight responded curtly. Angling her right hand to be partially concealed behind her back while also looking casual, she made a few quick hand motions. As expected, the two figures that had waited for her went alight to her activated thaumatic-sensing spell, although she noted that their magical signiatures were completely different to eachother. Something to note for later. More importantly, there were no other pings in her reach, which would encompass most of the mall and surrounding city. The third one was not here.

Aria chuckled. Suddenly, Twilight felt like a big animal had exhaled it’s warm breath over her whole body. Her forehead, her hands and her veins tingled for a moment before it all passed after not even a second. Not so powerless after all. She cursed in her head. Her scan was too obvious; does she think she can threaten me like this?

“Would you look at that. The princess of friendship, coming to a peaceful conversation armed for a fight.” Aria said smugly. Then she raised her open hands in a placating gesture as the princess in front of her lowered her head in a scowl. “Not meant to offend you, your highness. Honestly, I would have been disappointend if you didn’t arrive prepared, much less armed to the teeth. Not that you are going to need any of that today, of course.”

“And you expect me to trust you, siren? If you really want a peaceful talk, then how about you tell me where your other sister is first!” Behind Twilight, Pinkie audibly took in a deep breath, face contorting as if she’d just realized she had brought the completely wrong party present. The other hooded figure now also stood up. Stepping beside the siren she placed a hand on Aria’s shoulder, who however just brushed it off.

“You’re right, you cannot trust me. As for my sisters…” The fuchsia girl’s calm was strained, yet she managed to keep her voice level. Stopping in the middle of the sentence, she seemed to think for a moment before her partner whispered something to her. Nodding, she redirected her eyes back to Twilight, a gleam of crimson visible for just a moment. “…don’t worry about them. They can’t make themselves any real problem to you. As for talking, you will do that with her.”

Twilight looked on in surprise as Aria Blaze passed beside her, motioning to Pinkie to follow. The two walked away from the small aclove towards a nearby food court, close enough to oversee the meeting yet far enough to be out of eavesdrop-range. The princess was still looking after them as the other person removed her hood. Turning around towards her, Twilight was greeted with a young woman with cardinal red skin and hair that combined red and streaks of…

“Who are you?” Her stance was tensed, her hands almost curled into fists. “Do we know eachother?”

Her opponent dwelled on that question for a few seconds before linking eyes with Twilight, showing her clear cyan irises. So similar…

“I actually don’t know if we could say that, Princess. My name is Dawn Fire.” She bowed forward. “I’m the actual reason for why you have been called here. Apologies for the little trick Aria and I pulled and lying about why you were needed here, we just wanted to make it a little surprise.”

Dawm gestured for the princess to sit down in the alcove, taking her own seat on the opposite side again. Twilight hesitated, looking the other girl up and down, over and over again. Eventually, she sat down.

There was silence between them, as the purple girl’s face furrowed more and more, subconsciously her body was leaning forward until she was almost in Dawn’s face.

Then, suddenly, Twilight’s eyes widened as she recoiled. Slowly, her eyes roamed once more over Dawn, her face going slack and her mouth hanging slightly open. It felt like a wound in her heart suddenly ripped itself open. The way this girl spoke, like they knew eachother, her hair, her eyes… It was nonsensical, surely someone would have noticed before her, even if not, she had been confirmed dead. But, there was always a chance…

“S-sun-set?” She whispered, almost choked out, with lips trembling and the first tear already starting to form, yet her voice held absolute certainty.

“H-hey Twilight. Sorry it had to be this way. I’m he-“ Dawn was stopped right then and there as the other girl pretty much tackled her, wrapping her arms around the admittedly larger girl, and burying her head in the cardinal, red-skinned shoulder. It was all that Dawn could do by holding the princess, who was pressing them together with all her strength as if fearing her old friend to suddenly disappear. She had anticipated a reaction like this, the only question was how long Twilight would need to compose herself again. Thankfully, they would have more than enough time, Aria and Pinkie would make sure of that as well as their privacy.

“I… I am sorry for the whole mess. It must have been awful when you heard about it. Did… did you tell m-Celestia?” Dawn more or less mumbled into Twilight’s ear. Strangely enough this seemed to rattle the princess, as she ended the hug to apoint her friend presumed-dead with a serious glare.

“I want to know what happened.” She said sternly, whiping away her tears and putting a strength into her voice to hide the fear and desperation in her eyes. Dawn could understand. She herself would’ve been even more paranoid if a long-lost friend suddenly turned up again, changed and by the side of one of her enemies. Twilight feared what this could mean, what forces were responsible for bringing her back from death. Considering everything, she was absolutely right.

Dawn almost wanted to lie, change the truth even for a few things; she wanted to spare Twilight some more worries, she thought about glossing over her violent re-awakaning, most of all she did not want to retell how Aria had somewhat guided and used her to test her own theories.

But she knew how dangerous it was to keep secrets. She didn’t want her reunification with Twilight Sparkle be sullied by lies and hidden truths. She wanted, no she needed her trust, now maybe more than ever before. Which was why she laid it all out, thankful that she had already gone over all the events several times in her mind before the meeting, when she was undecided on what to tell and what not. Thusly, she was ably to mostly bring a clean line of events.

How everything started with the disaster at school. The whole incident she, mercifully, had only to bring a short version of her own. Princess Twilight knew enough, and neither wanted to think more than necessary about the whole mess.

There were few words from the purple girl as Dawn explained the cause of her violent change, all the details and influences that had contributed to it. No words, but a few nods as no doubt the princess’ intellectual mind was verifying her accounts and thinking about its possibility. There was a sour expression when Twilight learned how her own element, and the combined force of harmony, had caused a substantial part of the damage.

Quickly, Dawn went over to recalling the time after she had drifted ashore from the river, mind empty of memory and completely new to the world. She explained the daze of her first hours in an attempt to, atleast temporarily, distract Twilight from thinking about her element’s and her friend’s fault in all this. She didn’t want her to be angry on anyone.

It seemed to work, for now, as Twilight was listening very intently to Dawn’s account of her meeting with Aria. However, the red girl slowly grew concerned as she observed obvious signs of her opposite’s dislike of what she was hearing. Most notably when Dawn went on explaining about Aria’s subtle tests. Which was partly why she tried to hurry and get over that part. However, she also had to talk about the culmunation of it, and thus the part she probably hated the most.

Dawn still had not forgiven herself for almost killing Aria, not completely anyway and maybe she would always have that tiny part of guilt inside of her heart. One could of course say that it caused her to try and stay away from revenge and violence, a good thing obviously, but that did not mean that she had to forget what could have been one of her gravest mistakes in life. Killing the one person who had been her friend in the last weeks…

She told Twilight this too, eyes drifting downwards unintentionally. Was she ashamed to confess this to the Princess who had tried to redeem her? Who knew. It felt good though, to finally share her actions and the subsequent guilt with someone who could maybe understand.

And it appeared the princess was not angry with her, as a lavender hand gently grasped her’s.

“Are you alright?” Twilight asked carefully.

Dawn did not reply immediately, instead she pressed her eyes shut, forcingly clearing her head from all those thoughts and snippets of shame and guilt. Looking up again she gave a smile, although it was somewhat tainted by a slight sadness she could not suppress.

“I am fine now. Just don’t like thinking about it a lot, that is all. We were lucky that it did not go too far, when I imagine how things could have ended…” Dawn shuddered before righting herself again. “Thankfully, there hasn’t been much interesting happening since then, except maybe that we found someone rather interesting.”

Telling someone that you met their counterpart of another dimension sure was a good distraction and way to change the subject in a conversation. Twilight very quickly put any thoughts regarding the almost-tragic-murderer in front of her aside in favor of getting any information about her own human doppelganger, asking about a dozen things in the span of a couple of minutes.

Dawn oblieged as best as she could keep up with the princess, quickly reassuring her that the human Twilight was not yet keen on too many details about magic and Equestria, as far as they knew. A status that both knew could not be maintained for long. It took the princess a bit to come to terms with the fact that close knowledge had escaped out of her control, yet she had to accept it for now. For better or worse, this earth’s Twilight Sparkle was the charge of Dawn and Aria. The best the princess was able to do, without interfering directly and thus triggering a cascade of unwanted discovery and questions, was giving her opinion on the matter.

In the end, they agreed on letting the human Twilight access to the true knowledge about Equestria and the nature of its two denizens currently residing in this city. However, this would be a gradual process, and princess Twilight made sure to stress how careful they had to be. Give the human too much too fast and she might run off and experiement in mad curiosity and lust for scientific discovery. So, habituation process it was.

“There is one more thing that I would like to do.” Twilight said as she slowly peeled off one of her gloves.

Dawn gave the enchanted metal glove an appraising look, nodding her head as she did. “Beautiful work, your’s I assume?”

“Indeed.” Twilight said, not able to prevent a slight blush from grazing her cheeks. “T-these act as energy storages as well as holding spell matrices for easy use. If you’re okay with it, I would like to use them to make a few scans on you.”

“Your body must have changed when you reanimated; from all you told me it sounds like they were significant too. I just want to check and make sure there are no problems.” She added as the red girl made an unsure frown.

Dawn thought for a moment, before taking of her coat and forcibly relaxing herself. “Alright, fine. No help in putting that off I suppose.”

Taking off her other glove as well, after quickly checking that their privacy was still maintained by Pinkie and Aria, Twilight leaned forward so that she was only a handslength away from Dawn. Muttering under her breath, she let her will activate the gauntlets. Immediately she was overcome by the, extremely satisfying, sensation of the power of magic.

Keeping herself composed, her mind swiftly went through all the spells ingraved in the gauntlets, picking out those she needed and combining them with practised ease. The stored energy and her own wellspring were more than enough to run a thorough scan of Dawn’s entire body for multiple separate factors and other important things.

Staring intendly in concentration, the princess let her magical energy flow into her spellcraft until everything was ready, before setting it all on the person sitting right in front of. Dawn’s body shuddered as the web of scans and thaumatic waves flowed around and through her. It was hard to describe the feeling; a mixture of vibrations and the feeling of fresh air blown at her, and in her. A sensation so strange that, even though she tried her best to sit still, her body suddenly began to twitch or stiffen up in some places.

It was because of those efforts to keep her own body in place that Dawn did not pay much attention to the princess opposite of her. Said princess, who almost slipped up with her concentration.

Though in her defense, who would have exptected to see their opposite’s skin moving on its own?

She could spot small ripples moving across Dawn’s arms and necks, her mind confirming that these waves were caused by her own magic. No not caused, the skin was reacting to it. Focusing on all of her spells and their output, a picture began to slowly form in Twilight’s mind.

On a base level, Dawn seemed to be in perfect health. No injuries or diseases, more importantly there were also no malformations or mutations as far as the princess could discern. Everything seemed to be normal. Seemed to be, unless one looked closer.

Letting her magic dissipate, Twilight leaned back and released a breath she had unconsciously been holding. Opposite her, Dawn shook her head a couple of times before blinking, feeling her body’s odd behaviour abating again.

“Is that, whatever that was, normal?” She asked the princess, rubbing her neck where it felt itchy.

“No, normally it is not. But I think, I know what it means… atleast I have some ideas.” Twilight put her hands together before her mouth, pondering and thinking for almost a full minute.

“Now, I am not a hundred percent sure about this, I don’t have any reference material here. I would say it to be very likely, but not completely certain.” Carefully she took one of Dawn’s red hands in her own. “Princess Celestia has recently giving me access to old books from before the War of the Night, speaking about old and esoteric arcane practices and disciplines. One of them in particular described a specific form of biomancy, that is magic performed with and through biological matter. There are some sub-disciplines, but I think the one closest to your current situation would be…”

Placing a finger single finger on Dawn’s palm, Twilight let her magic flow once again. This time however, it was a completely different spell, or rather an impromptu combination of several spell matrices and theories from both the gauntlet and her own mind.

It was supposed to be a mixture of illusion with a small part transmutation magic, if successful it would let her hand appear slightly bigger, with longer fingernails and skin the shade of azure blue. The transmutation part was standard practice if you wanted the illusion to feel like the real thing, though an experienced person could tell the difference with ease. There were two important parts about this cast, however. For one, Twilight made the, admittedly small, effort to let the matrix appear above her own hand. A thin circle of vibrant light, crossed through with lines and countless runes, all for Dawn to see and recognize, which she easily did. Then there was the most important thing about this spell: Twilight had expanded just enough energy to create the matrix and let it be displayed, and just enough to direct it through her finger into Dawn’s hand. She had not expanded any energy for the spell to actually happen.

It was a test, the answer of which could all but completely confirm her suspicion. And as it seems, she was right, for the hand began to change. Dawn starred at her own hand in confusion as it began to cribble just under her skin, skin that was starting to grow darker and darker in tone. She could feel her muscles beginning to swell, her finger nails pressing outwards from her fingers. Slowly, her hand was growing, the skin brightening out from the dark purple it had assumed to a more pleasant shade of azure blue.

“…Seems I was correct. Carnemancy, flesh magic.” Princess Twilight said with a glint in her eyes.

“F-flesh magic?!” Dawn held her transformed before herself. She had read the matrix of course, which made this even crazier! This was supposed to be an illusion, yet it was not. Her hand had physically changed, she had felt it, felt how it had changed in colour.

She herself had never made it so far to actually read about Carnemancy, only catching the term in a few volumes about other topics, including one ancient account. This particular one she remembered as she saw her transformed appendage. There had only been a couple paragraphs about this kind of magic and their wielders, painting a picture of shamans transforming their bodies at a whim, healing lethal wounds on themselves or even others with ease or sprouting scaley hides, claws and viscious teeth for combat.

Another book sprung up in her mind, this one more recent than the others, as she had read through it not long before her falling out with her mentor. A book that had detailed about restricted and forbidden arts of magic, and flesh magic was listed in it. Obviously, not much about the actual magic theory was in that volume, however it had stated very clearly why Carnemancy was restricted. Detailing in few words the ability of the caster to have total control over their own and others very body, thusly able to twist them at will or even rip them apart from the inside out.

And now, apparently, this kind of magic was a part of her. Wordlessly she sunk back into her seat, staring at Twilight.

“T-that… that is bad, right?” She all but whispered. “That is illegal magic, right? Which means, I’m-“

At this point the princess interrupted her, putting one hand on Dawn’s shoulder and another on the transformed one. “Calm down. You’re not in trouble, I can assure that. Technically speaking, you yourself didn’t use it, so you could not even be convicted over it. Also, Carnemancy is classified as Confidentally Restricted Magic . That means you are allowed to study it under certain parameters and official oversight.”

“Alright, that is… good to know I guess.” Dawn said, sighing in relief. Then she held her now blue hand in front of her eyes again, feeling the grown muscle. “B-but, what does that mean? I mean, what is this?”

“Your body, for lack of an official name, it has changed its anatomy so to be more influenceable by magic. You noticed what happened when I made the scans, your body reacted to them. I think it is because you do not have total control over it, and so it can be formed by whatever magic comes in contact with you.” Taking the blue hand in her own, Twilight channeled her magic to revert her changes. They both watched as the hand was shrinking in on itself, the skin slowly darkening before taking on its original, cardinal red hue. “Like this. I think when you learn more about it, your body will only change itself at your will.”

Dawn stared at her hands for a moment more, before burying her face in them and rubbing her eyes. Eventually she sighed and looked the princess sitting across her directly in the eyes.

“This… this is a lot. But thank you.”

Twilight allowed herself to smile. This had all been very sudden for her too. She had found out that one of her friends had died, but now had been reincarnated. So much had changed, and yet Dawn might even have it worse, finding out her body had changed irreversibly in a way reminiscend of old and restricted magic.

“Hey. You can make it through this all. I know it.” She said comfortingly. Dawn smiled at that. Moving forward, both of them embraced in a hug.

It was certainly a strange thing to do. Most people were lucky for them to never have to do this. Then again, maybe they could be considered unlucky for that? Who knew. It was probably not even important. It just felt weirdly… sentimental, to stare at one’s very own gravestone.

In her mind, Dawn wondered how Twilight must be feeling. Afterall, the princess was now standing before a grave she had established for someone she had thought dead, and now she was here with the person the grave had been intended for. That must be a strange situation too.

Dawn breathed deeply. It was very quiet here, she didn’t mind. She found it quite enjoyable, strangeness nonwithstanding, to stand here with the Princess. It felt good, to have been reunited with probably her first actual friend again.

Speaking of; she turned her back to the gravestone, letting her eyes wonder aimlessly as she adressed the girl beside her. “So, what are you going to do now?”

“Get back to Equestria and start searching the royal library for any books about flesh magic. Now that we have an actual case, we need every bit of information we can get, and there has to be something in the castle about it.” Came back the dry answer of the princess of Magic. “The question is, what are you going to do?”

Dawn just shrugged. She would probably start to try and figure out her own body. Maybe get help from Aria… but that was not what Twilight was leading to, she realized. She held back a grimace on her face, there were not many other prospects that Twilight could want to talk about.

“You know that, at some point, you should return.” The princess told her friend sternly, turning to face Dawn directly. “She needs to know. She deserves to. If you want, I could-”

“No, please not. I’ll tell her myself. I just don’t know when.” Dawn interrupted her. Her hands balled up into fists before she managed to relax them again. A sight escaped her lips.

“It sounds stupid but… I am still afraid of it. Of her.” She confessed warily.

“Dawn, you… she was devastated when she had received the news. I mean, I have a close relationship with Celestia but… I think to her, you were like a daughter.”

There was a heavy pause between them.

“Some time, Twilight.” Dawn eventually told her quietly. “I will try and make up my mind. Just, not now, I’m still too unsure about it. But I promise, I will.”

Twilight gave it a quick nod, “Well, I am not going to force you to anything. Pinkie still has your journal, if you want it back-“

“No, no. Let her keep it. If I need to, I will find a way to contact you.”

Twilight did not know how to formulate an answer to that, atleast one that would not sound like her mistrusting her friend. A notion not too unfounded, since she was not aware of any other means of communication then the journal.

In truth, Dawn had also no idea. She had just reacted out of instinct. Keeping the journal would be the beginning of her reconnecting with her past life, and therefore with Celestia. She wasn’t ready for that yet. She was also hoping that things would just keep calm for now.

“Thank you, Twilight. It took me a while until I convinced myself to finally contact you. I was uncertain how you would react, with… well, everything that has happened to me. But, I think I made the right decision.” She confessed. “And it is good to see you again.”

“And you cannot imagine how happy I am to know that you are alive. In a way.” Twilight replied genuinely.

They maintained eye contact for almost a full minute. Eventually however, it was time to leave and so they slowly made their way to the exit of the graveyard.

Almost there, Dawn could already see Pinkie waiting for them, and waving, of course. Waving back, her train of thought was interrupted by Twilight asking her something. “By the way, you really want to take the name Dawn Fire?”

“Yes. This is a fresh start.” She sheepishly rubbed her neck, thinking about all the changes she had encountered since first stepping foot into this world. “By now it should be my third one. For now, for now I am going to keep it. Though, if I have to be honest, I wondered before if I could even call myself the same person as before all this.”

Twilight nodded thoughtfully, thinking about the question. It was almost philosophical, especially in the difficulty of getting a sensible answer. “And what do you think now?”

“In the end I just stopped thinking about it all the time.” Dawn replied with a shrug she hoped would look casual. “Maybe that is how other people feel when they take on a new name, move to where nobody knows them, and start their live from the ground up. I still remember everything from… before and I still feel like that is me. But this, this is also me.”

They walked past the gate leading into the graveyard. Close by, Pinkie was waiting for them, to pick Twilight up and bring her back. She and Dawn gave eachother a short hug. Upon seperating, Twilight nervously tucked a strand of her behind her ear. “And you are sure that you want to keep everything away from Celestia?”

“Yes. This has to be done personally. I have to tell her, about all of this, myself.” Dawn replied somnenly. “And I still need to do a lot of apologizing to her.”

“Well, I hope she will receive that apology soon.” Twilight sighed.

“Thank you, Twilight.” The two Equestrians embraced eachother again, before Twilight entered Pinkie’s car and they drove back to CHS and the portal. Dawn stood there and winked after them until the vehicle had disappeared around a corner and out of her sight.

Taking a deep breath, she began to walk home. Aria had wandered off to somewhere, right now Dawn had too much on her own mind to think about what the Siren was doing.

Which was why she didn’t look back to the graveyard, where she could have seen her friend following a young, alabaster girl who had laid down flowers on the grave of Sunset Shimmer.

And it would have definitely peaked her suspicion, how Aria was standing directly behind the girl, only an armslength away. If Dawn would have been close enough, she might even have felt the magic in the air, subtle as it was.

Maybe she would have recognized it, realized that Aria was using the girl’s emotional weakness in this very moment to use her siren’s magic to bring her to talk. About what happened before Christmas; about Anon-A-Miss, who that was and why they had done it.

But none of that happened. And so, Dawn remained blissfully aware of how her friend was manipulating a child to get her answers. Just as Dawn remained unaware of the truth that Aria now held.

A truth about the motive that spawned all these actions that had resulted in the death of Sunset Shimmer and her reincarnation as Dawn Fire.

“Run.” Sweetie turned around in surprise, unknowingly being released from the subtle charm, hearing a snarling voice out of the sudden. A low growl reached her ears as she stared into two crimson orbs piercing into her soul. Fear gripped her heart as the shape loomed over her, sounding like wolf growling. Slowly, almost instinctively, she backed away. The shape in turn took a few steps forward.

Sweetie turned and ran as fast she could. She was soon past the entrance to the graveyard and took a random direction to sprint towards. Without even checking if she was actually followed, she let her fear drive her.

‘Jealousy? Petty JEALOUSY?!’ Aria screamed in her own head as she watched the girl running away, clenching her fists to prevent herself from giving chase. Instead, she stomped between the graves while her thoughts raged on. ‘They dared to put her through all this because they were jealous of not getting enough time with their dear sisters? How dare they!? My revenge for this will be hell in comparison to whatever they caused. I can tear down their entire school.’

She stopped. Her feet had carried her without needing a command, bringing her in front of the graves of her sisters. Lowering herself, Aria angrily brushed their headstones clean of any dust and other dirt. ‘I will make you two proud. What they have done, I can so much worse! I will show them what happens when you act in such a way against the mine, all for such… petty… envy…’

Her thoughts began to slow down as her anger started to fade.

‘Worse in comparison to them… we did so much worse. Started wars, caused strife and bloodshed; so often did we plunge entire nations into chaos. How… how many times did we act out of utter spite, or envy? Especially against eachother?’ There was no thought in her mind, only a cascade of memory snippets flashing before her. With a long exhale she sat down in front of her sister’s graves. ‘All the shit we did against another out of pure jealousy. They could not even fathom it.’

Already she felt her anger subside completely, but as soon as this realization struck she tried to heat it back up. She wanted to stay angry… ‘No! That is different to this! We are sirens, it is in our nature to bicker and argue! Whenever one was under threat we held together and struck back. If this would have happened to one of us back in the day, we would have let those pesky students tear eachother apart!’… only to have her own mind argue back against her.

But now is not then. Dawn is not even a siren.

‘Does it matter!?’ She practically yelled at herself in her head. ‘We… she… she is the closest thing I have to a sister at this point. And she deserves to have her revenge, it is her right, she just hasn’t acted upon it yet!’

There was no counterargument from her rationality, or whatever part of her mind tried to dissuade her. There was, however, a familiar voice. A memory.

“This is my fresh start and I… I know where this can lead. I just want figure out how things are now and move on from there.”

It was Dawn, when they had argued. Argued about the very same thing she was contemplating right now. The very thing that Aria had already set herself towards, even though she had promised her friend not to. The thing that Dawn had warned her about, reminding her how it had affected her when she had still carried the name Sunset Shimmer.

Revenge.

‘Does she think I am unaware of the possible problems? I am not new to failure, we were not new. No matter what, we always bounced back and found another way.’ Aria thought stubbornly.

Until we didn’t. And now they are dead.

‘Well, that won’t happen again. We are not against actual magic users, what should even happen?’

She might leave.

That thought. It brought a shiver across her back that Aria could not stop. ‘Why… why would she even do that?’ Why was she so worried about it? Why did it bother her… no, why was she afraid of that?

“Promise me you won’t go against them, ok? Please.”

“Don’t worry, Dawny. I promise.”

She had said that. She had made the promise to let it all be bygone. And even while promising, she had already planned to break it. Aria’s hands were trembling as she stared at her sisters’ gravestone.

She felt unsure, precariously balanced on a knife’s edge where before she had stood steadfast.

Logically thinking, Dawn would not just up and leave her because of it, she knew that. She hoped that. Where else would she go? She had almost no possessions or money to start off with, besides Aria the only people she knew here thought she was dead and would not recognize her now. There was nobody else to go to…

There was the Princess. The Princess who had, as of today, learned that she was alive again. What would stop Dawn from simply going back to Equestria? Especially since it was highly likely that Aria would not be allowed to go back, leaving her stranded in this world again. Alone, again. Her hands gripped her knees tightly.

Or… what would happen if Dawn intended to fight her?

Aria shot upwards, scaring a girl with light green skin and messy deep green hair that had been standing opposite her on the other side of the gravestone lines. The siren did not notice the girl as she stared almost through her sisters’ graves. That thought, the simple prospect of it, it was unbearable to even think about. She could not let that happen.

Absentmindetly, she began to walk towards the exit, her eyes only barely watching where she was going. Her mind was thinking in circles, always drifting back towards some horrible outcome, usually including Dawn either leaving or actively opposing her directly.

Her phone pinged, snapping her back to reality. Quickly she grasped it, not noticing her shaking hand, to distract her from her own thoughts. But what she saw was even worse.

//NerdTwilightDG: I’ve decided. They deserve to feel how I felt. All of them.//

She almost dropped her phone. There was no mistaken, no matter how many times she read it. Twilight Sparkle of Earth had chosen to exact revenge against those who had tormented her. Because Aria had pushed her towards it

And now she was asking for Aria’s help. Because Aria had promised her a favor.

A favor, for getting Aria information on Anon-A-Miss.

Which Aria had wanted to exact vengeance upon them. For hurting Dawn.

Against Dawn’s will.

Time and space was outside of Aria’s perception as she stood there, maybe it had all just stopped and she didn’t notice. She didn’t know what to do. If she called it all off now, Twilight would be furious. The message had been too direct, too serious to just be an act of impulse from the timid student. Aria knew what the case was here, she had observed such developments countless times and more often than not she had been the source, like now. Twilight was out for blood, she had decided only after much consideration where her mind had been spiralling down this hole, pushed by the siren herself. If suddenly told no, Twilight would, eventually, get out of control and go beserk on her targets.

Would she tell Dawn? Tell her how Aria had broken not one but two promises, betraying both their trusts? She could not allow that. But could she pursue all of this, see it through till the bitter end?

Even as her thoughts ran rampart, her fingers moved. Sluggishly they tipped an answer, in agonizing slowness, until it was sent. It was difficult to say for Aria if she had actually intended to say what she had now.

//Meet tomorrow at museum. We plan.//

Sliding her phone back into a pocket, Aria stared ahead blankly. A raindrop feel near her onto the ground. A second one hit a bench nearby. Then one splashed right on her head. Looking up, Aria’s eyes stared into the darkening sky as rain fell down all around her. People were hurrying inside or packing themselves in as the intensity quickly build into a storm. Yet Aria still stood there, a single thought ringing through her mind.

‘What have I done?’

Author's Note

This is Aria winning the jackpot in the lottery, after realizing that money cannot make her happy. Indeed, it might just doom her.

Soooo, I have underestimated how much I still have to write for the finale. I may have to split it into two chapters, one next end of month and the one after as soon as it is done (and then there is the epilogue of course).
Sorry if I got anyone's hope up only to squash them now.

Anyway, I hope this chapter made it out ok. Until next time.