Pandemonium came on the heels of Sunset Shimmer screaming, of the Crystal Prep Team Captain going up in blood-red flames. On the stage, the Rainbooms jumped into action the moment their leader collapsed, with Rainbow Dash spewing a stream of profanities that ran together as a single endless word as she led the charge across the stage. Blonde hair in a thick braid swung as a counterweight to the movement of broad shoulders and punching fists that left more than one figure of twisted magic doubled over and gasping, and shimmering barriers sprang in and out of existence to deflect violence aimed at them in turn.

The Great and Powerful Trixie scanned the stage with Father’s Mage-Sight spell, saw Rarity trying to protect the other members of the Defense Command Team, even as they sought to get away from the melee. Principal Celestia was moving, crossing the stage with a purpose, and Sunset Shimmer was a thrashing heap, multiple forms of powerful magic at war inside her. Then her eyes turned to the crowd around her, to the way the seething mass of Crystal Prep students were trying to encircle her classmates like wolves around prey. So many of them matched the figures on the stage, but more still bore the streaked and shadowed auras of possession victims. If her fellow students did not act soon, they would be trapped.

Unless….

An idea came to The Great and Powerful Trixie, a stroke of pure genius that she would brag about later when Sunset Shimmer asked, Trixie decided. Two of the silvery marbles Trixie’s father had crafted found their way into her hands, and the young mage grabbed for the magic that she could see floating around her as a faint mist of color. Willing it to move, she directed it with increasing speed into the marbles, making them shine brighter in the lights. The power would increase the spell, but she had to time it just right to use it before it broke down. The Great and Powerful Trixie desired an explosive overload, and there would only be one shot for her. The timing was tighter than any performance and she would get no do-overs.

They began to vibrate in her grip, and she activated her headset, hitting the emergency broadcast switch that would tie her into the PA system. “Code: Rainbow is a go!” Trixie snapped, remembering the instructions Bon-Bon had laid out for the different plans. This was the contingency for if something took out the Rainbooms--even if they were still fighting, this was more than five could handle with their most powerful member out of commission. “This is not a drill!”

The marbles were ready, shrieking with the energy packed tight into them, on the verge of going critical. “The Grrrrreat and Powerful Trrrrixie has something for you, monsters! Courtesy of the Lulamoons!” Trixie called out loudly, before hurling the spheres to the Crystal Prep crowd on either side of her.

CRACK!!

Trixie canceled her Mage-Sight a split second before the marbles triggered, but even without it, she could see how the magic ballooned outward, much farther than the initial radius her father had made then for. The CPA students she had marked as magical entities that were closest to the epicenters…just stopped existing, their clothes hanging frozen in the air for a heartbeat before gravity brought them to the ground. All the rest were bowled over, howling, gibbering black masses erupting from their bodies and boiling away like water turning to steam. It was quite effective, and seemed to have cleared the majority of the CPA students off the threat list.

“Snips! Snails!” she called out, reaching down to grab the closest pair of disoriented Crystal Prep students and pull them up to their feet. “Trixie commands you to each grab some of the fallen CPA students and bring them with us!” She raised her voice so it would be picked up over the headset. “Most of them were possessed! The freed ones are innocent! Take them with you!” She clicked it off as the team leaders around her began to act like they’d practiced, some rounding up as many of the younger and freed students as they could and making a break for the doors, and nudged the pair she had righted in that same direction. “Come along, quickly. The Great and Powerful Trixie has only bought us so much time with her genius.”

“The who-whuh now?” the tall senior boy asked, confused. Bright blue eyes were dazed and confused, and his legs moved unsteadily. Trixie was unsure if that was a side effect of the possession or if it was due to the prosthetic leg she had gotten a glimpse of when she’d helped him up.

“The Great and Powerful Trixie,” Snips offered helpfully, guiding a pretty girl with white skin and hair. “She freed you guys with her magic marbles!”

Beside him, Snails wheezed, “Uh…yeah…like…cuz your school is evil and junk, and now the Rainbooms are gonna kick butt…”

Trixie pushed them through the door into one of the halls, and split them off from the bulk of the groups—she had to regroup and get her things from Command’s hiding place. “There will be time for explanations when we are safe. For now, I am Trixie, and these are Snips and Snails. Trixie’s Most Useful Assistant Helper People.”

“Miles Vignette,” said the girl Trixie had pulled along, rubbing at a scar that marred her creamy yellow skin. “That’s my brother, Gael.”

“Fleur De Lis,” the pale girl offered. “How am I here? I…remember arriving at school…and then it was a blur—like a nightmare—before I woke up on the floor of your gym.”

“Same,” echoed the two girls following Snails.

Sighing, Trixie found the small storage room that the Command team had taken over. “Possession. Trixie determined that most of the Crystal Prep students present today are victims of possession by some type of magic or entity.” She listened briefly to the chatter over the headset, and clicked in. “The Great and Powerful is at Command Headquarters. Teams Check in in five.” She snapped her fingers at Snips once they were safely inside and the door shut. “Timer. Five minutes.”

She turned to the disbelieving Crystal Prep students sharing the space with Trixie and her Assistant Helper People. “Trixie is happy to answer your questions while she gets her equipment sorted for the main event.”

Everything had gone to Hell in a handbasket so quickly, that Celestia was left momentarily taken aback by the all out brawl that descended on the stage. Rainbow Dash, wings out and a steady supply of detention-worthy invectives falling from her lips at Mach speed, was a blur that zipped around to lash out at several enemies at once, while Pinkie Pie was…impossibly in six places at once, wearing different outfits. One of the Pinkies was even a medium sized pony that was somehow using a…brightly painted…cannon? She paused to wave at Celestia enthusiastically, before firing…some kind of pie? Into the face of her opponent. Applejack was using a vicious haymaker to send figures staggering back as she stood over Sunset’s collapsed and spasming body…

Celestia looked for the two figures she knew Sunset would want rescued the most. The first, Twilight Sparkle, was far too firmly held by what had to be Abacus Cinch—they were wearing Abacus’s clothes, for all they resembled a messed up elf with shark teeth and black marbles for eyes—silent and sobbing at the sight of Sunset on the floor, and Celestia offered a silent apology before looking for the other innocent in this. There she was, hollering profanities in Spanish and English, trying to rip free of the arms holding her, one eye already swelling shut and bearing a bruise.

Striding through the fracas, she zeroed in on the figure holding the girl, a hulking mass with crooked teeth and blue hued skin that looked like it should be living under a bridge somewhere, eating goats. “Let go of her!” she snapped, feeling months of helplessness and fear crystallizing into rage. She would be damned if she was going to sit by this time.

It turned, blinking its eyes stupidly at her, one hand letting go of the girl to fend Celestia off. The woman didn't give it any time to get its bearings—she closed the distance rapidly, before shifting her weight and planting her foot with all her weight and force solidly into where the solar plexus would be on a human.

The creature staggered under the unexpected kick, two steps backward…and found its foot over empty air. It let go of the girl to try and recover its balance, but the girl seized the opportunity to use both hands and give it a hard shove. “¡Come mierda, cabrón!”

Celestia felt more than a little satisfaction as it crashed to the ground off the stage, and turned to the girl. “Come with me. We need to get out of here.”

She shook her head. “No way, lady. I gotta get to Twilight! I promised to stick with her!” Her feet turned to wade into the fray, but Celestia grabbed her. “Let me go!”

“Listen to me—whatever you promised, Sunset Shimmer wanted me to get you to safety.” Celestia was firm, pulling her charge away from the fight. Invoking Sunset’s name seemed to get her attention, even if her eyes still cut to the sobbing form of Twilight Sparkle. She let Celestia lead her away with much less resistance. “I am not saying that we cannot help, but neither you nor I are truly equipped right now to handle magic and monsters using it.”

The girl froze. “You know it’s magic? You know about what's going on?” Then, “You have a way to fight it?”

“For months now—and I understand. You want to help your friend. However, jumping in right now is not the way—you will put yourself in more danger. Sunset and her friends cannot truly focus on this fight if you're in the way.”

There was less resistance now. “But you have a way we can fight?” the blue haired girl asked, almost desperate. “Please—tell me you have something? I can't abandon Twilight! She’s my friend, plus I promised Sunset I’d stick with her and watch her back…” She hesitated. “If I fail at it…do I lose my soul?”

What?

Turning now that they were off the stage, Celestia placed both hands on the teen’s shoulders in concern. The woman wasn’t quite certain what the girl was referring to, but it definitely sounded serious enough to warrant being addressed with some measure of immediacy. “Your soul? What do you mean?”

She glanced at the stage again. “…to the badass in black leather bitch boots. I promised I’d watch Twilight’s back when she wasn't there…she knew my whole name, even though I didn't tell her. And…we saw her—in the video and under the stage…all red and with the glowing eyes and wings and stuff…like a demon. That's what happens when you make a deal with a demon right? Break the deal, lose your soul?”

Ah. Suddenly it all came together. Somehow, this girl had seen what Sunset had become at the formal--someone had leaked a video, which was worrying, but it was something that could wait until they were not in the middle of a crisis to address. The worries about her soul being sold to what might be a demon, however, needed to be nipped in the bud quickly before it affected her further. Celestia gave her a reassuring smile and made sure her voice was gentle. “No, you did not sell your soul…Sunset is not what you are thinking—what you saw was an effect from an artifact when she was in a very bad place emotionally. She is a person, just like you or me, albeit one with a unique history and magical powers.”

“Oh. Sparkle was right then? She’s…not some kind of monster? I…didn't sell my soul to the Devil with huge knockers?”

While it was an uncomfortable and crude description of her extradimensional student, Celestia managed to avoid chastising the girl for her phrasing. She could understand the worry, if the girl had somehow been shown the events of the Fall Formal with little to no context. “I can say, with confidence, that whatever promise you made, she more than believes you kept it—that's why she asked me to help you, and she has no interest in taking possession of your soul.”

Digesting that, the girl straightened. “Okay…right…” She exhaled, shaking herself as if to rid herself of lingering worry. “...weapons. You…said you have weapons?” It was more a demand than a question, and at the tone Celestia arched an eyebrow pointedly. As intense and agitating as the situation was, it did not call for the girl to address an adult with quite so much…peer-like familiarity. That seemed to have the intended effect, as pale cheeks flushed and with an awkward pause she stuttered out, “Um…sorry…..I’m just…I don't want t just abandon Twilight. She’s already having a shit week…and our principal is a monster trying to do something to her…” Another, somewhat awkward pause, and she finally added, “I’m…Indigo…”

“Principal Celestia,” she returned, ushering a stream of students out the door into the halls and watching the way her Wondercolts grabbed any bystander who was clearly not part of the opposing forces, and pulled them along to get to safety. They were doing just as she had stressed—saving people from harm. Pride swelled in her chest despite the danger, pride in her students for showing the best of humanity in a terrible crisis.

Indigo blinked. “…mierda. Not the kind of first impression I wanted to make with the school I’m transferring to if we survive this…gonna guess this is going to affect whether or not there’s room on your basketball team for me, isn't it?”

“I am certain we can find a spot,” she told her with a soft laugh. “Hurry now. I think they are regrouping.” She and Indigo were the last two out the door, leaving behind the nearly empty gym and a pitched battle of magic and mayhem. Celestia gripped the rosary in her pocket and prayed that Sunset and her friends would be alright.

Flash ducked as a silver barrier sprang between himself and one of the CPA teachers that had a blade made of…brass? Bronze? Probably bronze—there was an age for that back in history, right? They made swords, if he remembered right. The sword crashed into the barrier and bounced, saving him from a nasty haircut. “Thanks, Rarity!” he called out.

“Think nothing of it, darling! Now go! I cannot hold them off forever and Trixie needs you three to help coordinate everyone else!” The fashionista was struggling to maintain half a dozen different shields against different opponents, and it showed in the sweat beading on her forehead.

He wanted to protest, seeing Sunset sprawled on the hard floor, her body convulsing violently as Applejack kept anyone from getting too close…but he remembered the look in her eyes during their last Defense meeting. She had stressed, over and over, that their priority was getting the other kids to safety, especially the middle schoolers, and blue-green eyes had been filled with relief that she could entrust that task to someone she believed she could count on.

Him.

Their relationship had been a sham, her place once at his side a calculated deception…and he had failed to act in a way he was proud of when the sirens had come calling…but she was one of his closest friends now. Sunset had admitted more than once that she trusted him, and then shown it. She had trusted him with the secret of her girlfriend’s identity, trusted him even when she had trusted no one to be a good person and respect her as a person…and now…she was trusting him to protect their classmates.

Blue eyes closed briefly and he whispered a soft apology to her, before straightening his shoulders. “You girls take care of each other,” he said somberly to Rarity. “You let us worry about the rest of the kids.” He could hear Trixie’s voice amplified over the PA system, setting everything into motion as something burst in the audience with a shrill shriek.

Then he grabbed Bon-Bon and Lyra, and ran for the edge of the stage. “Let’s go! We have places to be!” He could see Lyra already had her earpiece in, tapping into their communications, and Bon-Bon was already mentally calculating as their sneakers squeaked across the floor. They trio joined the surprisingly orderly exodus through the various sets of doors in the gym, their peers moving like a well oiled machine.

“Looks like all the drills paid off, Bonny!” Lyra chirped. “And they're getting the CPA kids out too!”

Bon-Bon nodded. “We need to meet up with Trixie. She called Code Rainbow, rather than Code Colt, and I want to know why.”

Flash took a breath. “I agree with her. Whatever her reasons are…I think it was the right call. Did you see them? That wasn’t a few bad guys--they brought an army. We get the kids to safety…and then we help. Wondercolts stand together.”

Curly Winds adjusted his grip on the metal baseball bat in his hands as he peered warily into the hall that led to the main office. It had been trashed when their team had arrived but whatever fight had occurred had been over and there was no way to know who had won. It left him on edge as his boyfriend and the other two tech-minded boys—Microchips, and a recent transfer from elsewhere in the state…he thought his name mighta been Toggle?—sat themselves down in the tiny security office, and began working their own brand of magic with both the school installed security cameras and the ones they had spent the last two months covering the school with.

The trio chattered rapidly as they set up their equipment, three laptops wired into the system through a clever setup that Curly was fairly certain Miss Luna had no knowledge about and would freak if she knew. He only listened with half an ear, still searching for trouble, and felt relief when he saw Teddy and Crimson coming back from sweeping the office rooms.

“It's empty, mostly. Nurse’s office is jam packed with sixth graders and a couple of CPA girls—one of them’s the one Sunset wrecked earlier. She won’t stop crying.” Teddy frowned. “Did…Sunset maybe rainbow blast her a bit? Cuz I didn't think telling her she was a bitch was all that world ending, ya know?”

He shrugged in response. “Couldn't tell you—I was too far back in the crowd. Did you see any rainbows?”

“Only Rainbow I saw was Dash,” Crimson grinned at his joke.

They all chuckled, before turning somber once again. “…you think Sunset’s okay?” Teddy broke the silence again, frowning. “Whatever that bitch did…it sounded bad.”

Curly looked down at his bat. “…She didn't even scream like that at the formal,” he admitted, “when she put on the crown and turned into the she-demon.”

His pals looked at him. “How do you know that?”

Fingers tapped restlessly against his weapon. “Snuck out the side door for a smoke,” he said. “Heard the arguing, went to watch by the curb. Saw the whole thing—they never realized I was there. She didn't scream—it looked like transforming hurt, but there wasn't screaming like that. Even when they rainbow blasted her…she didn't sound like that.”

More silence, before Crimson said, “It sounded like she was dying. It's…it's not right. Why are we hiding? Instead of helping?”

“We are helping,” Wiz Kid said from behind them in the room. “We’re making sure all the little kids get to safety, and then we’re taking the fight to the monsters—and our security cameras and programs are going to make sure we can tell you exactly where the enemies are on the map.”

“And then we’ll waste them?” Teddy asked.

Microchips gave a nervous, staccato laugh. “That is the plan gentlemen. They will stand as much chance as a room full of imps against the BFG.”

Curly decided he could live with that.

Posted just outside the gym, Team Bravo was waiting when the eerily silent Crystal Prep kids came through the doors, providing cover for the last of the middle schoolers fleeing towards the safe zones. Nickel Vision took aim with a Super-soaker loaded with holy water at one of them even as her teammates launched a pair of coffee filter pepper grenades at the faces of the two inhuman things wearing uniforms. A squeeze of the trigger sent a stream of water in a sweeping line across the chests of the lead students.

They froze in unison, and then began to gibber and hiss in voices that sounded like boiling tar and sharp claws dragged down a sheet of slate, words that were in no language she could recognize, but managed to send icy fingers down her spine. Black, sulfurous smelling smoke began to leak from their skin, eyes, and mouths…

“Fuuuuuck,” Flitter said from her right. “That's nasty. What language even is that?”

Thunderbass snorted as he took aim with his own water gun at the back row of CPA kids in the group. “Are we sure it's even one? Sounds like a Halloween background track for some kind of haunted maze to me.”

“It's a language,” Nickel said, adjusting her backpack full of supplies. “It's got the right patterns of syllables and cadence to be more than babbling. I have no idea which one though.”

A low whistle came from the athlete. “A language you don't know at first hear? That's got to be obscure—could it be a dead language, like Latin?”

Nickel shook her head, hitting the now wavering students again with a stream from her weapon. “It's not Latin. Latin is recognizable—that's what that Sour Sweet girl was using earlier when Sunset started screaming. I guess it could be a lost language, like that of the Minoans or some of the native peoples from this continent who went extinct…or it could be something really obscure where it's mostly read rather than spoken, like ancient Sumerian…”

With a hellish shriek that reminded her far too much of the Fall Formal, the lead student collapsed as some kind of amorphous black mass burst from his body, caterwauling in that horrible language before it exploded into a nasty goop that splattered everyone and everything in a fifteen foot radius. This was followed by similar shrieks and grotesque popping black things from the other two she’d hosed down.

Thunder spat on the ground. “Gross. Some of it got in my mouth. Tastes like spoiled mess-hall eggs from a cheap summer camp. Are we sure they aren't speaking like…Eredun? Trixie did say they were possessed.”

“Not everything is World of Warcraft,” his brother, Lightning, pointed out.

“You're just jealous that I got the roll on that sweet chestpiece in Mogu’shan and you lost your trinket to a hunter that bought his account from Ebay.” At the glower from his sibling, he huffed, “I stand by it maybe being demon speak.”

Nickel elbowed him. “Pay attention! We need to move, before reinforcements show up!”

Thunder blinked. “Yeah, okay!” He touched his earpiece. “This is Bravo Leader. Gym is cleared of good guys. Holy water seems to take out the possessions—Hey, is demonic a thing, Trixie?” While waiting for an answer, he motioned for them to beat a retreat to the first fallback position, pausing to heave a skinny CPA boy over his shoulder in a fireman's carry, rather than leave the boy to the mercy of the monsters who might just possess him again. They couldn't take all of the students, but they would take as many as they could.

Sunset had emphasized that no one was to be left behind if they could help it, and they weren't about to let her down.

Cherry Crash grabbed Sandalwood by the arm as he hurried along the youngest of the middle schoolers during the big escape from the gym. Team Lima was headed for the nurse’s office, where they would meet up with November, who was responsible for clearing the Special Ed kids and bringing them to safety. The intention was to put the vulnerable kids in the room where the cots were, and set up a defense in the main part of the nurse’s office. He paused just long enough to see what she wanted, the nasty cut on his face from his escape off the stage still oozing blood. “Yeah?”

“…what about them?” Cherry pointed to the lockers, where Suri Polomare still huddled, looking like a shell shocked war veteran more than a high schooler.

One of her friends still remained with her, a girl with orange skin and hair in two shades of blonde. Said girl looked up, confused and frightened. “What…what’s going on? Why is everyone running?”

Sandalwood frowned. “They come with us, but they each get one of Trixie’s cleansers—not gonna risk the kids if they’re puppets. She was pretty nasty about Sunset earlier, and she was with the chick who is now an ashy smear.”

Cherry nodded. “Right, up ya go then.” She moved to haul Suri up. “Bit of a situation, luvs. Short bit, your school’s run by monsters, and they're tryin’ to stage a bit of a coup. Magic’s real, an’ things’re a little dicey right now, so we’re gettin’ the little ones to safety. And you, since Sunset made it clear we save people if we can. Come on now. I’m Cherry. We know Suri after earlier. You got a name, luv?”

Suri offered little resistance as she was pulled to her feet and guided down the hall. The other girl followed, looking lost and out of her depth. “…I’m Kiki,” she said. “Kiki Marmalade. What do you mean magic is real and our school is run by monsters? That…that doesn’t make any sense!”

Applebloom snorted from the middle school crowd, her friends helping to corral the sixth graders. “Yeah, yer gonna hafta get over that quick. Ya can put boots in the oven, but that don't make them biscuits. Magic’s real, alright, and mah sister’s got it now.”

“Mine too!” Sweetie piped up.

Cherry’s friend, Mystery Mint, rolled her eyes. “Kid’s right, Kiki. We’ve been dealing with magic for months—pretending it's not real just makes you a target. It's not all bad though. It made Sunset into a better person.”

“Still not sure if that was magic or a miracle,” Cherry snarked.

Sandalwood shrugged, his eyes still scanning the hallway as he and Ringo took point, each one armed with a metal bat. “Does it matter? Sunset’s changed for the better, and she's fighting for us now.”

The girls from Crystal Prep were silent for a while, as they made their way to the nurse’s office, where Nurse Redheart greeted them with her no-nonsense expression. “There was trouble in the office a little bit ago, but Vice-Principal Luna handled it,” she told Sandalwood. “And they never came to my office. Bring everyone in. We have baskets of juice boxes and snacks in case anyone feels hungry. And then I’ll see to your face, young man. Is anyone else hurt?”

“Autumn twisted her ankle,” Ringo pointed out.

Nodding, the nurse motioned for Autumn to sit, even as the group began directing the young students into the back room in neat rows. This was where Cherry took both Crystal Prep girls, sitting them next to the door against the wall. “Here you go, luvs. Each of you needs to drink one of these. If there's any of that nasty magic in you, it’ll take care of it right quick.” She handed each one a small medicine cup she’d filled with some of Trixie’s purge…potion…drink…medicine…thing. Potion sounded good. Like a Hogwarts thing but without the slimy git for a teacher.

“…who is Sunset?”

It was the first thing Suri Polomare had said since she had cracked under Sunset’s cool disassembly of her character, and her hand trembled as she downed the potion without complaint.

Before Cherry could answer, Applebloom and her friends sat down around the CPA girls. “We got this,” Scootaloo said firmly.

There was a moment of hesitation, but the three were joined by a fourth girl, someone who had been on the edge of their friend group for months, and she smiled at Cherry. “I believe we four shall be enough—we know to call if things get rough.” Her ebon skinned hand touched the older girl’s shoulder. “You have children to oversee, leave this one to them and me.”

“Right…but even a hint of trouble and you yell, understand, Nyota?” she said, before stepping away to organize sixth graders into neat rows and break up a squabble. She kept her ear tuned to the conversation all the same.

It was Sweetie Belle who answered the question, as she handed each of their visitors a box of apple juice. “Sunset used to be the biggest bully in school. She ran everything, and made it so nobody could be friends with anyone who was too different. Then she stole this magic crown thingie from the princess, and brought it here, and the princess followed her to get it back!” She paused. “That was scary, at the Fall Formal. Sunset lost, but she got her hands on the crown, and when she put it on she turned into a really scary monster because the magic didn't like how mean she was.”

Dark fingers brushed a bit of striped hair away from where it had fallen in front of her face, and Nyota added her thoughts. “A demon she may have become, but with the help of a rainbow, it was undone.”

Scootaloo shrugged. “Not undone, but fixed. Ever since then, Sunset has been nice, and she’s helpful and cool too.”

“She’s also the girl you decided ta pick a fight with,” Applebloom said quietly. “Dunno why ya thought that was a good idea, not since ya mentioned Princess Twilight.” Then her brows furrowed. “Actually…that don't make much sense. How'd ya know about the princess?”

Confused, Suri mumbled, “Twilight has gone to my school for years….Princess Twilight was what we called her because it upset her…” She looked at her toes in shame.

Understanding dawned on all four middle schoolers. “Though separating them will be a pain, there is much this does explain.” Nyota pushed her hair back again before folding long, coltish legs under her to sit on the floor.

Privately, Cherry agreed. It explained the terrified Twilight Sparkle with glasses, alright—she must be the one from Canterlot, while the princess was from…wherever Sunset and the magic came from. She personally had money on ‘other dimension,’ but Mystery preferred the ‘time travel’ theory, and Valhallen was betting on ‘alien’…for reasons known only to him. Cherry chalked that one up to how many edibles Hal went through in a week—it was amazing he had any brain cells left.

The youngest Apple nodded at Suri. “Well, it wasn't the best choice, if ya ask me. Sunset knows bullies, cuz she used ta be one. Now she stands up to them, like she did ta you.” Her expression softened. “She sure took you apart in the hall, didn't she?”

Sniffling, Suri nodded. “…I…she said all that stuff…and it just…I could see it. All the things I’ve done…all the people I was mean to…all the times I stole other people’s work or cheated on tests…and I just feel…like I want to be sick.” She was crying now.

A look was exchanged between the younger girls. “There is a question now before you,” Nyota said, squeezing one of Suri’s hands. “A choice that only you can choose—what will you do?”

“What do you mean?”

Sweetie bit her lip. “Sunset didn't call you out to be mean. She wanted you to learn the same thing she did—that what you were doing was wrong…and it didn't make you happy. Now you know that…and you can be better. You can change and be a good person and not a bully….if…if you want to.”

Silence fell as Suri retreated back into herself. It was several long minutes before Kiki spoke up again. “…what I don't understand…is why you're all being so nice to us. Our school is evil, some of our classmates are monsters, and our Vice Principal attacked this Sunset and her friends…so why…?”

Smiling faces were turned her way. “Because it's what Sunset and Princess Twilight would do. What our sisters would do.” Sweetie Belle shrugged as if it were just that simple. “Friendship is magic, but someone has to be friendly first.”

Curly ducked his head back into the security office. “We clear again?”

“Yeah,” his boyfriend said, shooting him a smile. “The next closest ones are in B-hall. I think Chips is sending Bravo Team to handle them—those Supersoakers were a genius idea. They're racking up the biggest kill count for exploding tar balls.”

His eyes moved from Wiz to the screens. “How’re the Rainbooms doing?”

“Pretty good, actually.” Microchips pointed to one of the larger screens. “See for yourself.”

Sure enough, the monsters on the stage—most of which had been CPA teachers and a few students, had been thinned out, a number of them sprawled out and unconscious or with injuries that put them out of the fight. Applejack was still standing over Sunset, and the sight of the former bully on camera made Curly Winds shudder. Her body twitched occasionally, but her eyes were wide and staring. It made her look an awful lot like a zombie trying to reanimate. The rest of the group had formed a defensive perimeter, keeping the enemy back and slowly making headway. It seemed like the tide was turning in their favor.

“…dude. Why are there four Pinkies and three chubby pink horses with Pinkie’s hair?”

Wiz Kid shrugged. “No one can figure that out. I think it's her power? They appear and disappear and sometimes trade places with her.”

Next to him, Toggle added his thoughts. “I think it's some kind of Spooky Action on a macro scale.”

“Uhhhh….”

A hand squeezed his arm. “Weird stuff usually reserved for electrons being in two places at once. Stuff like that. We’re not questioning it too much—magic is kind of strange as it is.”

Curly ran a hand through his hair. He needed a trim, but he’d been a little busy lately. Maybe over break. “They look like they're winning though?”

“Indeed,” Microchips responded. “They seem to have the upper hand, though Principal Cinch still possesses a hostage and has yet to join the fight. We cannot ascertain her power level until she does, and we do not know if they can summon the rainbow laser attack without Sunset or Princess Twilight both being present. Given what we’ve observed, the hostage is likely the local variant of Twilight Sparkle, while Princess Twilight is a traveler from another reality where magic is common.” He then turned back to his work, letting one of the teams know what was headed their way.

It certainly looked like they were winning, Curly decided. Maybe this could be wrapped up before lunch—hitting discount horror monsters with a bat was hungry work. It was hard to tell though, because the video feed was acting up—the view was getting darker. “Is…it supposed to do that?”

As several sets of eyes followed his pointing finger, the harsh shadows all across the stage came alive with terrifying suddenness, thick coiling appendages that launched a surprise attack from all sides at once. Two of the Pinkies vanished in a puff of confetti when they were speared by the blackness, and Applejack was picked up and slammed down into the stage with enough force to shatter the wooden boards to splinters.

Rarity screamed—they could not hear it, since the cameras had no sound—and threw up more of those sparkling shields to fend off a dozen shadow arms at once, until Rainbow Dash was slammed into her at high speed, trailing a line of broken and torn feathers from a wing that looked now like a dog had gotten at it. The pair went rolling across the stage, only for those black ropes to wrap around wrists, ankles, wings, and throats to pin them down. The star athlete spewed what must’ve been a slew of curses, struggling against her bonds, desperate to get to the now unprotected Sunset Shimmer. The masses holding her stretched and twisted like taffy, before snapping back into place, keeping her from going far. They were soon joined by the only Pinkie who hadn’t burst into streamers or confetti or balloons or sparklers, and by an Applejack who was fighting to right herself against the pull of the shadows—and almost succeeded.

The last hold out was Fluttershy, whose form shrank and grew, darted and twisted in a nauseating vision of parts morphing and reshaping over and over through a dozen different animals, before she stood over Sunset as the horrific cross between a crocodile, a bear, and a rhino, tearing at the shadows until claws and fangs dripped black tar. From the center of the stage the wounded shadows pooled, growing somehow darker in defiance of the light, until they towered almost to the lights overhead as a single massive figure. That shadow opened glowing, evil eyes and the black flame erupted, covering Fluttershy and causing her to falter in pain, before the shadows around reformed and dogpiled her, bringing her to the ground and wrapping her shrinking form up until she resembled a bug in a spider’s web.”

“Oh fuck me,” Teddy said at Curly’s elbow. “I think the big boss just tapped in.”

The figure tossed the wounded Fluttershy with the others, and flicked a hand. All of the Crystal Prep people and monsters other than Principal Cinch fell to their knees. Seemingly satisfied, it stared down at Sunset Shimmer, and those eyes were filled with…hate and…contempt? Disgust maybe? Black talons reached down and picked her up by the shirtfront, lifting her up to look her over the way a person might inspect a strange bug.

Applejack was roaring and snorting, struggling against the bonds to step his way, and she wasn't alone. All the Rainbooms were fighting their shadow chains and yelling angrily, even Rarity. The figure glanced at them and gestured mockingly to Sunset.

Then that shadowy monster hucked her across the gym like a shot put. Her body flew off of one camera and through the view of two more before it slammed with bone crushing force into the bleachers collapsed against the wall.

Shaking its hand like it was cleaning it of something dirty, the figure bent to stare eye to eye with the devastated face of the glasses wearing Twilight, dragging a talon down her cheek in a way that made Curly’s skin crawl.

Microchips was shaking as he stared at the camera feed of Sunset’s current resting place, her wide, staring, eyes looking vacantly up towards the rafters. “C-command,” he stuttered into the microphone on his headset as the feeds to the whole gym went dark, “…we have a problem.”

Author's Note

Right.

So....

It seems like things are going...well.

Unless your name is Sunset.

But really, we all anticipated that. Even Sunny did. Something about a letter from the universe saying "Dear Sunset, We still hate you. Sincerely, Reality."

So first round of some audience submitted cameos--nothing huge. Most of them will have minor roles with only a little dialogue. One or two end up in a position to showcase a bit more, but that's more a case of random chance than deliberate action. Tried to tuck them where they'd make sense, and blend in with the Background or minor characters.

(On a side note, i'm not sure why people complain about writing for Zecora so much. Rhyming is easy. Or maybe that's just the part of me that grew up on Dr. Seuss talking.)

This chapter does touch a bit on how human magic works, with Trixie. To explain it in very basic terms without giving anything much away, the difference is pretty simple. Ponies like Sunset have large internal mana pools that they use to cast spells. Their power source is internal. They can manipulate or draw on the energy around them, but thats a secondary thing to their own power. This is why they have a secondary, modified nervous system that has evolved to carry thaumic energy safely, without cooking their nerves.

Humans dont have that, nor do they have the internal setup to carry magic through their bodies. Instead, humans with magical powers have a small internal amount of magic...just enough to act like an electromagnet on the ambient magic in the world around them. If you've ever seen what you can do to ferrofluids with an electromagnet, that's a fair analogy to how Trixie's magic works. The biggest downside, of course, is that human magi have to be in an area that HAS magic enough to manipulate.

Also, yes. Trixie's internal narrative refers to herself as "The Great and Powerful." Mostly because I thought it was funny.

Next week, we get a little peek at what is going through Cinch's head at all of this. Things are not going the way the sidhe thought they would.