Sugarcoat walked down the corridors of Crystal Prepatory Academy at her usual brisk pace. Lessons were boring, as usual. Her classmates were annoying her, as usual. The debate club meeting had been cancelled for today because the club room was ‘under renovation’. She didn’t know why, it had never needed it, but she also did not care enough to complain about it.

Reaching her locker, she started to store her school books, then reached to take her other bag that held the more personal things she typically had use for in breaks and free times at the school.

Or atleast, it would hold these things, if it were there at all. Sugarcoat paused, annoyed more than anything. She had taken that bag out of her locker today already, however, she was completely sure that she had also put it back in her locker again.

Sugarcoat exhaled in a very frustrated fashion. Now she would have to spent valuable time tracking her belongings down. And getting her hands on the person that had stolen them.

As luck would have it, Twilight was slowly walking by her, frowning as though lost in thought. She didn’t notice the taller girl stepped in front of her until Sugarcoat snapped her fingers right in front of the purple girl’s face, causing the bookworm to stop with a start.

“Do you know where my bag is?” She asked sharply and directly. Twilight however just blinked at her confused.

“What?” She stammered.

“My personal bag. Do you know. Where it is?” Sugarcoat refrained from getting too confrontational, instead spelling it out for the girl in front of her. One should not push Twilight too much lest one wanted a sobbing and madly babbling wreck of a girl. She had seen, and done, that too often by now.

Still, she was tapping her foot on the ground as the girl in front of her visibly strained to remember something. It came to her surprise when she finally received an answer.

“Uhm-Actually… yes! I-I think I do. You left it in your c-club room.” She managed to get out.

“The club room has been closed for today. Are you really sure your brain is correct today?” Sugarcoat asked in her usual blunt and deadpan expression.

Twilight winced at that. “W-well, it was open again when I saw it. Maybe they are done with renovating.”

She sighed. Most likely, someone had placed her bag in there after it to make fun of her or some other stupid reason. “And you are sure of it.” She asked Twilight, even as she began walking to the club room.

“Yes! I just saw it there.” Twilight affirmed.

The rest of the quick walk passed, mercifully, in silence. Sugarcoat was already annoyed and having the nerd next to her babble on would the last straw. If Twilight was right, it might just be fair to not critizice her for a moment. And sure enough, the door to the club room was open, even though it seemed someone had closed the blinds, plunging the room into darkness. Not wanting to waste anymore of her own time, Sugarcoat stepped in.

The thought came to late to her. In hindsight, the boring normality of the day was partially to blame for her not being aware more. She really should have noticed.

“Twilight couldn’t have seen the bag in the darkness, not unless…”

That was when the door slammed shut behind her. Before she could have even attempted to reoriantate herself in the sudden darkness, she could hear metal on metal. The door was locked.

Outside, Twilight smirked. Giving a quick glance over her shoulder, she made a quick nod to Aria leaning in a corner. She was wearing Shadowbolt uniform to attract less attention. Getting a small remote out of her pocket, Twilight pressed a couple of buttons.

She could see the light coming from under the door and the starting of her present to Sugarcoat, the girl who would always belittle her, point out her flaws and lackings with harsh bluntness and who always looked down upon her. Well, she was now getting what she deserved.

It felt great, even though she could not linger for long. Sugarcoat was only the first. Giving one look at the new note pasted to the door, Film reviewal, do not disturb!, she started to walk away.

Inside the room Sugarcoat was kneeling on the floor, roughly in the middle of the room. The room where almost every bit of wall was written on in bright and easy-to-read paint. Insults. All pointed at her, some she was even called nowadays. They were everywhere, even on the tables that were arranged to box her in and give little space to move.

And then there was the sound. Dozens if not hundreds of voices, many low and snarking, otherwise louder and sharper in tone. They too were hurling insults at her.

Stuck Up! Bitch!

Know-it-All!

Give up already! Accept you’re a failure!

It was the sheer volume of it. She was surrounded without escape, door and windows locked tight, she had tried fruitlessly to open them. It soon become too much for her. Even though she held her ears closed, she could still hear it. Even though she pressed her eyes shut, she could still see it.

First, she had tried to ingore it.

Then, she had started to crack.

Now she was breaking apart slowly.

Sugarcoat had quickly lost any sense of time, she didn’t know how long she had been in here already. In truth, she had already lost a lot of her senses. Rocking back and forth she just wished it to end. Atleast at some point her tears would run out.

A satisfied sigh escaped Dawn’s lips as she finished her stretching. Settling back into her sitting position, she started to comb her hair back with her fingers, listening to the soothing tunes coming from her phone.

Meditating every day just after she had woken up was maybe a bit much. But she had grown to like it through the couple of days since her reunion with Princess Twilight.

It had started because she wanted to try and ‘connect’ more with her body, start shaping it herself or maybe even just get a better feel for it. A longshot to be sure, but it didn’t hurt to try. If anything, it helped to focus her mind and calm her for the day.

She had also sometimes tried to actively channel the magic inside of herself. Aria had attempted to guide her in that, finding her own wellspring and gently pulling on it. The keyword laid in ‘attempt’, as the siren seemed to have some trouble concentrating on their lessons. She always acted strange, not looking directly at Dawn and lacking some of her usual confidence. Nevertheless, they had managed to make some progress.

The feeling was a bit fuzzy, but she had already reached the point of directing the energy through her body. Nothing more than that however, it was really the pure basis of what she hoped to be complete body control, and it wouldn’t really bring her much besides maybe providing a better starting point for future things and lessons. Those could wait on, she had no time constraints.

Finally deciding it was time to get going for the day, Dawn got dressed and went downstairs to the kitchen.

She only noticed it after she had made herself a small breakfast already. The house was quiet, too quiet for Aria to be here. That was strange, as Aria normally wasn’t out at this time, atleast not without telling her first.

Dawn found the note quickly enough, though she had to admonish herself for not noticing the paper early. It had been placed in a more than open space too, though this also worried her. Dawn was no stranger to the siren placing notes for her, the worry came in how they were placed.

Aria was typically pragmatic with these things, she would only leave letters where they would be seen quickly, assuming Dawn followed her own routine on time. Thus, notes were normally hung onto the fridge for the morning.

However, this letter had been placed on the dinner table with only a vase half standing on it. It was done haphazardly, indecisive. Aria was not usually indecisive. If she had wanted to hide the letter, she would not have done this, she would have actually thought about where to place it and how to hide it properly.

Taking the letter, her eyes briefly skimmed over the words it held, her mind already processing the information.

Sorry Dawn,

I am helping Twilight with something at school. It will take a while to do.

If her red flags had been raised before, now they were in overdrive. Aria never apologized for being away in the mornings, because she didn’t have to, and Aria never started adressing her. She only gave short explanations what she was doing, where she was and sometimes where they could meet afterwards, because that was all that was needed.

Dawn slowly set the note back down onto the table. Then she ran upstairs to get ready. Perhaps she was wrong, hopefully she was. But she couldn’t afford not to go.

Aria had not apologized for going away so early, she had directly apologized to Dawn. For going and helping Twilight at Crystal Prep. What were they doing? That was the question. But it could not be something good, not when Aria hid the note only halfheartedly. As if she tried to delay her, yet wanted for Dawn to find it early and follow her. Was it because of guilt?

Whatever the reason was, whatever Aria was doing right now, Dawn had to be there and stop it if it got out of hand.

The hysteric yells echoed loudly through the hallways, attracting some attention from remaining students. Those nearby the source watched as the boy and girl went through their respective lockers in different states of anguish, she losing her mind over the burned books and notes and he holding remains of photos and a personal journal. They did not pay attention to the ashes staining their fine clothes, so caught up were they.

No one spared even a glance to Twilight Sparkle quickly walking away with an unknown student.

The bookworm was just fine with that, she did not need any more distraction. Her heart was beating hard and quick, and her mind was burning with thoughts of relish and vengeance.

Her fuchsia-skinned partner was also just fine with it, however for a greatly different reason. Aria felt neither satisfaction nor any sort of happiness, and she was worried about that. Because, by all means, she should feel great. This was exactly the kind of things she and her sisters had loved to do: corrupt mortals to do bad things for selfish reasons.

And yet… she felt empty.

No, not empty. Wrong, guilty.

She should not feel like this.

But they were on a schedule. The next target should be in her usual spot right now. She desperately hoped that she could distract herself, to forget this feeling. Yet, her heart, or whatever rotten equivalent was inside her, felt like it was tearing itself apart.

“There she is, like every other day. So predictable.” Twilight sneered. She was peering out of a window downwards towards their next target.

Indigo Zap was unaware of them, standing between a couple of bushes with a cigarette in her hand while looking bored at the phone in her other hand. If only she could feel the glare drilling itself in her head from the purple student a couple of levels above her.

Twilight’s hand clenched around the sack in her hands. She was getting more and more angry as the day wore on, even though her plans were going off wonderfully. Probably because now, she could finally vent all her repressed emotions freely. And since it didn’t take away her satisfaction, she didn’t care. If anything, having the fury fill her veins in the build up made the conclusion just all the sweeter.

Today, she would pay back years of bullying and being used by her classmates in kind. Sugarcoat was already receiving a copious taste of her own medicine. Those who had forced her to do their homework and assignements had found their lockers filled with ashes and remnants of their own school notes. As it served them right.

The students who had tried to steal her things, when Aria had saved her, were probably still trying to find their own bags and purses in the school. It would take them a while to find them, if at all. And when found; well, it had been a lot for Twilight already to throw them into the kitchen dumpsters. Getting them out would be a whole other matter.

She had even broken Lemon Zest’s stupid boombox alongside a pair of headphones. True, that one had been more improvised, but the girl had it coming. All those times were she had been blarring loud, horrible music when Twilight was nearby, or even directly at her. It would teach her a lesson.

And now Indigo Zap. The girl who was constantly teasing her because of their physical difference. Boasting loudly with all the awards and prizes and trophies she had won, while always pointing out Twilight’s weak and meek body.

It was true, Twilight did not have the physical prowess as the other girl. It still hurt.

The trophies clanged in the sack next to her. It had been somewhat nerve-wrecking to steal them, even with Aria somehow getting the appropriate keys from the janitor. But when they had smashed them in the gym with heavy blunt tools, it had been better than she could ever have imagined.

A real surprise to the bookish Twilight, how good it felt to dent and otherwise damage all these invaluable wastes of metal. But that was only part one.

Now to part two.

“Is he coming.” She asked quietly, so as to not alert her prey. Aria was looking out another window close to her, squinting her eyes into the distance. She just nodded. If Twilight had paid more attention to her, she might have seen the fuchsia girl’s unsure expression.

But Twilight was solely focused on her prey. How infuriated she was, watching the cocky student below her light up another cigarette. She dragged the sack closer to herself.

“Alright he is close enough.” Aria said, turning away from the window. This would require good timing. Running down nearby stairs she quickly made her way outside to intercept the teacher.

It was easy to distract him, acting like a new student trying to ask for directions, acting all friendly and nice. To his credit the older man gave her actually useful advice, had she needed it. The important thing was that he was close enough so he could hear-

The loud mess of metal clanging let both their head snapp to the direction it came from.

The teacher immediately rushed towards it, as did Aria. This was how it was supposed to go. She and Twilight also had of course planned for Indigo to shout in surprise, and how to counter it to keep the blame squarely on her.

Aria’s heart felt like ice. She had accounted for a scream of surprise, not a scream of pain.

They found her on the grassy ground. The cigarettes, meant to further bring the girl into trouble, were irrelevant. Immediately the teacher got on his knees in front of Indigo, not caring as his fine trousers were stained with some splatters of her blood. Aria just stared unbelieving.

It was easy to see. The metal trophies lying all around her, the bloody hammer. Luckily Indigo was still breathing and screaming in agony, clutching her head. There were multiple signs of blunt trauma on her exposed skin, blood leaking from cuts made by sharp edges or broken skin, most notably a head wound.

Aria ran. She didn’t really know if the teacher had ordered her to get help or if she had said it herself.

This was a mistake. She is going to far. She will only get worse. She thought feverishly. They had meant to frame Indigo for damaging some trophies, not a hospital. Was Twilight even aware of how bad she could have hurt another student?

Yes… she most likely was. She had done this willingly, lead by the desire to exact vengeance. And she would not stop now.

Oh sisters, what have I started?

Twilight returned the look of contempt with equal, if not stronger, hatred smoldering in her eyes. Her boots ground against the concrete beneath them, as she stared at her opposition. Her fingers clenched into fists. She had not planned for an actual fist fight right behind the gym, but the prospect was getting more and more appealing for her.

The young woman stood opposite her; the only way out now blocked by an untypically angry nerd. She had been told that someone wanted to meet her here to talk about important things, the important things being blackmail of course. Someone had found records of Principal Cinch getting her hands dirty in matters she should have left them out of, such as procuring extra funds, bribery, and favoring certain students while using blackmail and coercion tactics against other students to further her own goals. Not a lot of evidence, but surely enough to suggest this mysterious party had even more then they let on, and even this small amount would be troubling.

And they had used it to get her, Sunny Flare, daughter of the Principal of Crystal Prep, to meet at a dead-end alley behind the school gym. She had been prepared to bargain and negotiate with her opponent. Of course, her mother had not told her any of this, but Sunny would have been a rather naïve and unobservant daughter to not notice and suspect unsavory dealings. Afterall, she had been raised to an extent with such tactics and learned how to use them herself. Not on the level of her dear mother but she was anything but innocent.

Prime example: the girl in front of her. She had never stooped so low as to get Twilight to do her homework, she was not lazy. But, getting her to join scientific competitions to secure victories for the school, compelling her into providing access to science supplies or computers. This sort of thing she was definitely guilty of. And now, Twilight had decided to take vengeance. It seemed very unlikely that Sunny Flare would be able to talk her way out of this, though the idea of Twilight getting physical was too surreal to really accept.

“Alright, Sparkle. What do you want?” Sunny said, making sure to sound disinterested.

Her opponent just glared at her with fire in her eyes. The unusual intensity actually succeeded in making Sunny Flare extremely uncomfortable. She could not properly read Twilight and she did not like that at all.

“I’ve had enough from you, Flare!” The purple nerd pretty much growled like a wolf; a meek, scrawny one, but a wolf nonetheless. “You, everyone else, this entire stupid school; I have had enough of it all!”

“So what, you’re gonna release all my mom’s dirty little secrets? Go ahead, I don’t care.” That was not entirely honest, Sunny Flare did care, even if only a smallest bit. But this was about playing her opposition. If Twilight wanted to control her with blackmail, then she would refute that. Show no interest, tell her to do it. Take away her satisfaction of controlling you and mock her with it. She thought to herself. Judging by how Twilight seemed to get even more pissed, her tactic was showing success.

Only problem was, it didn’t help her here, cornered, with Twilight blocking the only way out.

“Youuu… prissy, little piece of waste!” Unceremoniously, Twilight let her school back drop to the ground, pulling from it a small object as others clampered to the ground. The young scientist did not care however, as she removed the covering from the stainless, cold steel and gripped it with obvious experience.

If Sunny Flare had been uncomfortable before, now she felt an actual shiver down her back. She swallowed hard, tensing her muscles and making herself ready, as Twilight was now pointing a scalpel at her.

Twilight rolled her wrist, letting the small but sharp blade swirl through their air. She made a sudden step forward and to the left, grinning as she saw her prey immediately jump backwards in correpsondance. Just for her own amusement, she repeated the move, revelling in the look of fear on the usually oh-so-prissy-perfect-looking girl.

Sunny Flare on her part could feel sweat starting to accumulate all over her, as the true danger of her situation was realized. The innocent, weak Twilight had gone fully mad, and she actually believed that the bookworm would go through with attacking her with a sharp blade. Feverishly her mind tried to find a way out of this predicament.

Obiously, trying to overpower Twilight was a bad idea, since Sunny was certain her opponent was fast and experienced enough with wielding such a delicate blade to get atleast a couple of hits in. In contrast however, the scalpel had a very short range.

It was then that the would-be-scientist’s bag fell into Sunny’s eyes. Among the scattered pencils, notebooks, and other irrelevant stuff she could spot some sort of metal device, round, and purple in colour, and very complicated looking. An idea sprung up in her mind. If this was by chance one of Sparkle’s own creations, then maybe she would be hesitant to put it in danger. Sunny could use it to gain a head start and then run away towards safety. Fortunately for her, Twilight had unknowingly moved away from her bag, giving her a small opening to make a mad dash for it.

It was a longshot, but right now her only hope.

“Alright, enough fun. Now it’s your turn!” Twilight snarled and prepared to lunge at her opponent.

“Stop!” Both girls immediately froze and turned towards the new arrival, who was running at them, coming to a halt directly behind Twilight “Stop it, right now! You’ve gone too far Twilight, this ends here!”

“Are you kidding me, Aria!? We just started it and you want it to stop already!” Twilight turned fully away from the cornered Sunny Flare towards the siren, spreading her arms wide with an almost manic smile. “This is so far the best day of my life! Finally, I can make them pay, after years they all get what they deserved!”

“Do you even realize what you did to Indigo?! Twilight you could have killed her!” Aria yelled back.

At this the purple-skinned girl scowled heavily, her hands clenching to a pair of trembling fists. “Oh, don’t you suddenly go high morals, you suggested this to me in the first place! Only now you want to chicken out of it. And do you think I didn’t have a clue why you wanted all that information? You want to take your own revenge against that stupid account, so you needed to know where they life.”

Sunny Flare listened to the argument with wide eyes. Indigo is hurt? What are they talking about, an account? What the fuck is wrong with them?! If it weren’t for her self-preservation, she would have been frozen by fear, this was getting too serious for her. But since they were not paying much attention to her and this new woman had turned Twilight completely away from her, she could perhaps get to Twilight’s stuff and use it as leverage. Slowly she began to inch towards it, praying that they would ignore her.

“Twilight, I was wrong, and I am sorry, but you have to come to your senses! You’re n-“ Aria flinched back as Twilight practically screeched into her face. She was also now very aware of the sharp metal object held tightly by purple fingers, and also pointed directly at her.

“Coming to my senses!? Stop fucking talking down to me! You’re just like everyone else, Aria! Always using me, manipulating me, thinking you can play with me all you like and then when you don’t want to anymore, I have to listen and obey! ALWAYS!” Angrily she made a step forward. “Not today, not ever again! I am sick and tired of all this bullshit!”

“Twilight, you’re out of control!” Aria shouted back, spreading her legs into a combat-ready stance, and raising her arms ever-so-slightly in preparation. She would not be blindsided by a raging girl with a sharp balde again. This time, she would not be able to bounce back like she had. “Think! We had plans, then you abandoded them out of impulse and threw the-“

They were interrupted as Sunny Flare snatched the complicated-looking device from Twilight’s bag, immediately taking several steps back and holding it high above her head. The young scientist actually noticed her and turned.

“Let me go or your fancy project gets smashed!” Sunny yelled with as much determination as she could put behind her voice, hoping desperately that she had gotten something valuable.

Twilight’s reaction surprised her completely, however. “YOU BITCH!” the young student screamed and lunged at her. Sunny had no chance to react as the other girl slammed into her. Aria also ran towards them, trying to break up the impromptu wrestling match and drag Twilight away forcefully.

She had almost reached them, when the device was activated, by whom, it did not matter in the end.

It was a particular invention that Twilight had invented without the knowing of her new friends but had yet the chance to test properly. When she had found the first signs of some new sort of energy, she had of course wanted to study it. For that to be possible, storage capabilities needed to exist, so she could have a supply of testing material to work with.

The device was one such a storage unit, tweaked from Twilight’s first designs. After her first actual encounters with traces of this energy, she had come up with a design that could not only store but collect such energy. She had wanted to try and filter future exposure places of the remnant energy. Now she found out how effective her inventions truly were.

In a surprising show of functionality, the device immediately made out the nearest and strongest source of the energy it was calibrated to. Then, as designed, it started to collect it. Aria was stopped dead in her tracks, as her body went alight in pain.

She could feel it. Her magic, her life essence, was sucked out of her. She had of course experienced before to have her magic siphoned, but even the more aggressive times were not like this. It was uncontrolled and amateurish, and it was painful.

She fell to her knees, one hand clawing at her gem in a vain effort to keep her magic inside of herself, her strength leaving frightingly quickly. Turn it off! she tried to shout, but it came out choked and without air. By the sea, she couldn’t breathe.

Seeing what was happening, Twilight finally managed to wrench the device from Sunny Flare, who had been looking with wide eyes as something was pouring straight off the young woman in front of her and into the small metal device. She barely reacted as Twilight pushed her away and ran towards Aria.

“No, Aria! I am so sorry, I am so sorry!” The would-be scientist cried frantically, fingering her contraption as she tried to find the correct dial, the one with which she could regulate output.

“I’ll fix this, I promise!” She hastily said before turning the dial. Aria tried desperately to say something, but even if she had been able to, it was too late. In her panic, Twilight set the output to maximum.

Immediately, the energy all rushed out of its confinement, whirling around her in strands of all colours, an everchanging rainbow. Twilight was frozen as her mind tried to comprehend it all, mainly that she had just comitted a grave error. Opening the floodgate had successfully stopped the device from absorbing any more energy from Aria, but now this energy was unleashed without any direction.

And in this, Twilight learned one of her first and most important lessons about magic. It was, as possible as it is for pure energy, alive, and always seeking a purpose, be it a spell or a vessel.

Instead of returning back to Aria, as she had hoped, all the accumulated energy instead went straight into the nearest viable vessel.

Namely her.

Her body seemed to tear at itself, arms feeling like they were pulling away while also wanting to split themselves open. Her legs collapsed like twigs, twitching as she was sent sprawling. Every single organ seemed to develop its own sudden urge to leave its place and get to somewhere else, all simultaniously. Her blood was boiling hot then ice cold in a second, then in another she had electricity coursing through her veins, then only gas. Pain and horror overloaded her brain, then they were mixed with confusion, then pleasure, then saddness, then happiness.

Twilight wasn’t even aware that she was screaming, or was she even screaming? She was talking, trying to say something, or was she even making a sound? Up became down and down became up; she felt like she could not breath air anymore, not through her lunges. The only thing that was certain, even with her mind and her body paralyzed in this state, she was dying.

Her skin started to glow, or more precisely the veins under it began to emit deep purple light as the last of the swirling energy seeped into her. Twilight could feel her heart stop beating; was it a minute, or a second?

And then air rushed into her chest, expanding it painfully but also spreading a pleasant, warmth throughout her body. The glow inside of her diminished.All the contradicting and tormenting things and feelings she just had experienced seemed to meld together rapidly, settling down to something bearable. No, not bearable. Enjoyable.

Twilight could feel something inside of herself. It was everywhere, her limbs, her blood, her organs, her heart, her head; she was filled with it. It felt wonderful, it energized her, not just in body, in her mind as well. New ideas and theories rushed through her in the blink of an eye, her imagination subconsciously adapting to this new source of energy. Yes, Twilight could feel this energy inside her body.

She was able to feel the power.

She turned to Aria who was struggling to keep herself off the ground with shaky arms, not even bothering to look at Sunny Flare backing further into the corner.

“You… you had this? All the time?” Twilight felt pure amazement at the new power in her veins, as well as rapidly growing contempt and anger. “You had this and all you did was nothing?!”

Experiemently, she reached a hand into the thin air, for seconds unsure of what to do, what to try first. Quickly however, she concentrated, thinking about the first laws of energy that she had learned in kindergarten.

At first, it seemed to resist. But it was hers, and so it would do as she wanted. And once this thought entered her mind, embedding itself deep inside it, this new energy source readibly submitted to her will. There was only a small spark at first, then more, before bigger and bigger arcs of lighting were visible, jumping between and around her fingers.

It was all Twilight could do to contain her excitement, the rush of success and the prospect of even more things that she could do almost overwhelming her. The lightning hit the open palm of her hand which lit up in a flame. Its bright, flickering light reflected in her eyes as she moved the hand this way and that. She relished in the feeling the flame in her hand, fire that was not burning her because it was at her beck and call.

The bright orange flames then turned blue as she increased its heat and strength more and more, soon resembling a blowtorch. And then, with a simple, clenched fist, she extinguished it all.

Sunny Flare winced, burrowing herself deep into the corner as the harsh laughter of the girl the whole school looked down upon hit her ears. Right now, she desperatley wanted to sink into the ground never to be seen again or wake up in her bed to realize it was all a horrible nightmare.

“All this power, at your fingertips, and what did you do?” Twilight snapped Aria. One purple hand lifted up, veins once again lighting up like neon lights under transparent skin. A light poll was suddenly torn from the ground, taking a chunk of concrete with it, floating in the air for a few seconds before falling down again with a low crash.

“You could have… you… I can… all these things…” There were so many words, too many things for her to express. Her tongue tripped over itself in the attempt of voicing all of them.

She was interrupted as something ran past her. Turning she saw as Sunny Flare was sprinting as fast as she could. Her mind immediately focused, as Twilight’s hate and anger boiled up again to the full, seizing control of her priorities again.

One hand snapped up towards the fleeing student. There was barely any thought of what to do, only the impulse. Sunny could not even react as the ground beneath her suddenly errupted upwards. She disappeared in an explosion of stone, the only thing in the place she had just stood in was a big cloud of smoke, dust, and pulverized concrete.

Twilight just stared at what she had done. Then, a smile slowly formed on her lips, as she slowly turned to Aria once more.

Her mouth worked silently, before letting out laughter, which soon rose to a cackle. “W-why?!” She barely managed to bring out between her cries of joy. “Why did you not use this?! Why did you even need me, with all the awesome things you were capable of?”

Her laughter finally abated, morphing into disgust at the being in front of her that had trouble even lifting her head to maintain eye contact. Aria struggled to say something, only for a pathetic croaking whisper to come past her lips. But Twilight did not need her to talk.

“You are so arrogant! Power like this and yet you lounge around, not even thinking that you could use it. Imagine all the advancements we could make if we understand this new energy, imagine what could be done once it is harnessable! You could have been a hero, and yet you think only of yourself?!” Her voice rose higher and higher with her anger. Bu then, suddenly, a new thought entered her mind. At first, she tried to push it away, wanting to concentrate on the unfairness before her.

“Those people you wanted me to find, you want to take revenge on them for something, right? Why, what did they do to you? They made that mystable account, did they hurt someone close to you? Is that why you helped me?” Aria strained her face, attempting her best at giving an answer, only for more croaking to leave her mouth.

“Answer me!” The siren was suddenly grabbed at her collar and pulled up face to face with Twilight. Subconsciously she noted that the purple girl’s arms were glowing, likely giving her the strength for the act.

”T-t-hey h-urt, da-awn…” Aria was barely able to say. Only after her words had already left her mouth, when she saw Twilight’s eyes narrow dangerously, did she realize that she should not have said it.

With a dull thud she was thrown back to the ground, coughing harshly as dust entered her throat.

Twilight paid her no attention anymore, turning away with an expression of hate on her face. Dawn had been the first person to actually be nice to her, outside of her own family. She had always treated her like an equal person, not someone to be bullied or used. And as much as Aria’s misuse of this wonderful power for her goals angered her, she felt herself agree that those who had hurt the kind, red girl could not go unpunished.

She felt a tugging on her left boot. Glancing down, she saw the pained expression of the woman who had offered her revenge in the first place, then given her this amazing gift.

”P-lea-se… d-on’t-“

“No, you are wrong.” There was a coldness in her voice that might have once surprised Twilight herself. “You are too weak to go through with the plan, as you have shown me already today. But now, I have the tools to do it myself. And so, I shall. Nobody hurts my friend and gets away with it. I’ll find them, and if I have to burn their stupid farm to the ground.”

Wrenching her foot free she marched forward, past the still smoking crater she had left. It was quite a way to the farm and the spot where all the posts had come from, which she figured must be a meeting spot of sorts.

Her thoughts darkened at the prospect of taking a bus or anything similar public, before she realized the power inherint inside her now. Immediately, an idea formed inside her head. It might be dangerous to attempt something so complex already. However, she knew she could pull it off somehow.

Twilight slowed her breath and concrentrated. Her eyes stared forwards before closing. She could feel the energy coursing through her rapidly, as she urged her imagination to do its work.

Open a hole, connect A to B and-

If this was how getting sucked through vacuum was like, then Twilight would never go to space in her remaining lifetime. However, as she carefully opened her eyes and looked first down herself and then around, the unsettling feeling was soon forgotten.

There she was, several paces away from where she had just stood. She had teleported.

Twilight grinned from ear to ear, looking into the direction where she knew the farm was.

Then, she disappeared.

Slowly, painfully, Aria was dragging herself forward. Concrete fragments was digging itself into her skin, leaving scrapes and small gashes, but still she endured against the pain. It was a useless endeavor, she knew it. Twilight had already, somehow, figured out how to teleport herself. She would never catch up to her. She would not be able to stop her from making even more mistakes.

Tears plopped to the ground, as Aria weakly dragged herself another bit. She didn’t even know why she was doing this.

Suddenly she felt a hand grabbing her shoulders and pulling her upwards off the ground. Aria tried her best to push herself off with her own feet to help, but she just barely managed to avoid her feet losing their halt on the concrete. On of her arms was draped over a shoulder as a foreign one held her other side.

Turning her heavy head to the side, Aria stared into the dirty and scraped face of Sunny Flare. There was a determined yet deeply haunted look in the Crystal Prep Student. Her entire uniform was dusty, with several ripps and tears exposing some bleeding gashes from the stone shrapnell.

She seemed battered and unstable, but she was alive. Wether that was because of pure luck or because Twilight had not intentionally tried for her life, neither of them knew or really cared about.

Progress was still slow as Sunny now dragged Aria towards the parking lots, but it was way faster than before. Neither made any sound other than pained groans or heavy panting.

In her mind, clouded by the sudden drain of her magic, Aria was cursing herself for leaving her phone in her bike-compartment. She had not wanted to face the moment when Dawn found out what she was doing and either sent her messages or outright called her. She had not been sure she could have get going with the plan if that had happened.

Of course, now those things were mostly irrelivant. Now she just needed to call-

“ARIA!” It was almost unreal. To see her hurrying towards them, like a red angel. Even when her face was contorted in worry, it was beautiful. The siren could not help herself but smile, just a little bit, as her only friend stopped right in front of them.

Sunny Flare tried to explain herself, but wether from the shock or the abnormality of what she had witnessed, she could only bring out the barest of context. Dawn didn’t even really listen to her. As her hands tried to bring up Aria’s head, so she could see her friends face, she already felt it. The siren was almost completely sucked dry of her magic.”

“No no no!” She cursed under her breath, pressing her own forehead against Aria’s to hold her friend’s head up and free her own hands. “Come on Aria, take from me! You did it once already, please, you need it!” She pleaded desperately.

Even in her current state, Aria’s base instincts were still functional. And here was a being willingly offering some of her own magic to her. All she had to do was to grab it.

On her part, there was only so much that Dawn could mentally preprare herself for, as she felt the siren’s hand hold onto her head. Then, just like the first time, pain surged through her as her energy was siphoned away. This time however, she only let it take some of her energy, before denying any more and fighting it off.

The change was noticeable almost immediately. Aria let go of Sunny Flare, who backed away with wide eyes. The siren’s mind was no longer clouded by the lack of energy and her body, while still weak, was able to support itself once more.

Yet still, she could not bring herself to meet the eyes of her friend. Shame and guilt were ever so present in her.

“Dawn, I… I-“ She stuttered, at a total loss of words, before the red girl interrupted her.

“Aria, what happened?” The words were still laced with worry, but they were stern. Dawn did not hide the fact that she was hurt by her friend going behind her back. But more important things were on the line.

“Twilight, she… she has something that took all my magic away.”

“And where is she now?”

“She… the farm. Sweet Apple Acres. She wants to finish what I planned to.” Finally, Aria locked eyes with her only friend. “Dawn, she has absorbed magic. She… she has lost control of herself.”

There was no outburst of emotion, no angry words, and somehow that made it all worse. They both knew who was at fault for all this, it did not need to be said out loud. When Dawn took one fuchsia hand into her own, Aria flinched back reflexively, but a hand grasping the back of her neck forced her to look in the face of her friend.

“Listen to me.” Dawn said, controlled and determined. “We are going to stop her, by any means, do you understand? Otherwise, she is going to hurt someone. And even if those she hurts are responsible for what happened to me, we are going to save them!” Aria just nodded numbly.

Dawn was about to turn when another voice pipped up behind them.

“I’m coming with you!” Sunny Flare declared, even as her hands were still shaking and small lines of blood marred her face.

Dawn looked at her, conflicted. She did not want to drag another person into this mess, much less someone who had no dealings with equestrian magic before. However, from the looks of it, this student had already witness enough. Then there was the small voice in the back of her head that told her, if this girl had been targeted by Twilight, then there would likely be a good reason for it. But, the fact that she was still willing to risk her life in this, despite the obvious fear she felt, gave Dawn a pause.

“Can you drive a car?” She asked.

Sunny Flare nodded rapidly. “Enough to bring us to where she is going, I hope. I might have to uh, borrow the keys from someone else, but…”

“Then come on, we don’t have a lot of time.” Dawn interrupted her.

Better they get in trouble for a stolen car than letting someone with magic run rampant.

She could only hope they’d make it in time.

Author's Note

What, you thought I would actually kill someone here?
Guys, guys, reeelax. It's only half time.

We go into the finale! I'm sure it will go greeaat.
*Anxious Breathing*

Okay, serious now. As uncertain as I am about how well the last (two, kinda) chapter(s) will go, it still is a good feeling to slowly bring this story to a close. I am still amazed how well this has shaped up to. Now, I just want to bring it to a close that will hopefully be satisfying.
Next chapter already has the first half, though the second one might be a bit hardy to figure out how to write correctly. I'm hoping to not take more then two weeks to finish it.
That said, next chapter will also be featuring the forth and final sequence in this story were blood and violence will be strongly featured, though nowhere as brutal as the nightmare. In trade, it will be a more proper fight.

So until next time. Stay safe and...

Game. Set. Match.