The Witchblade EqG: The 13 Artifacts

Tempest Shadow sat in her living room, dressed in nothing than some boy shorts and a muscle shirt as she went over a report that was filed by the police. Thanks to Shining Armor, he was able to make sure she was informed about the incident at Crystal Prep. Tempest was thankful that Twilight was able to make it through that horrible situation, as well as her assailant getting they deserved. Tempest finished getting together all the information about the incidents at Crystal Prep that date back during the entirety of Abacus Cinch’s tenure at the school. Once she forwarded him the information, she wished him good luck in taking down the bitch and asked to let her know when they were going to arrest her, she wanted to see her face when she was put in the back of their car.

The OSOD agent took a swig of the beer bottle she had on the table in front of her, kicking back and relaxing. She had submitted her report about the incident at Equestria Land, she omitted the part about Sunset taking the Sirens back to their home world, and covered it up by saying that Sunset, as Witchblade, destroyed all three of them during the battle. Tempest had to admit, after what Sunset told her about what happened back in her home world, she was glad she made the call to let her handle it, even she felt bad for those sisters.

The way things were going, Tempest figured that the brass was going to assign her permanently to Canterlot City, if for nothing else than to monitor Sunset and her friends. Which, admittedly, she didn’t mind. She had been wanting to take a vacation and watching over that kid and her friends was as close to one as she was going to get. So, Tempest decided to make the best of it.

Just then, she got a call on her cellphone, her work cellphone. Tempest swiped the “answer” button and said, “This is Agent Shadow, what’s up?”

{Agent Tempest, we’ve reviewed your report on the Equestria Land Incident, and I must say, the brass is impressed by your work with handling that situation.}

“Tch, not like I did much, Witchblade and her crew did all the work. I just wish I was there sooner…anyway, please tell me the Manehattan guys are getting their asses chewed out for this. I mean, how the hell do you miss something like Pandora’s – fucking – Box just lying around in some damn pawn shop?!” Tempest asked.

{Believe me, Agent Tempest, we’re definitely going to be having a word with the branch commander in Manehattan. But now command has another mission for you.}

Tempest sighed dejectedly. “Fine, what godforsaken jungle, desert, tundra, or warzone are you going to send me to this time?”

{Actually, Agent, your mission will take place where you are.}

“Oh, that’s convenient, what is it?” Tempest asked as she took a swig of her beer.

{Your mission directive is as follows: Agent Tempest Shadow is hereby tasked with the elimination of Witchblade, aka Sunset Shimmer.}

Tempest’s eyes flew wide open as she spat out the beer she had in her mouth, she looked at the bottle and then put back on the table. “Okay, either I’m drunker than I thought, or I just heard you say some crazy shit.”

{You did not, Agent Tempest. Your mission is to eliminate Sunset Shimmer and retrieve her Artifact, the Witchblade.}

Tempest shot to her feat as a scowl formed on her face. “Uh, did command completely ignore the part of my reports that said that Sunset Shimmer, as Witchblade, has saved this city – the WORLD in fact – twice?! In fact, I remember concluding my report as saying, ‘After extensive research and monitoring of the subject, I have determined Sunset Shimmer to not be a threat to human life and has expressed a direct desire to protect human life, and I recommend a future admission of Sunset Shimmer to the OSOD’!”

{Yes, they have read that as have I. But command believes that she’s too dangerous. They’ve noticed, as I’m sure you have, that she has gotten increasingly more powerful. Not only that, she is from parallel world, her allegiance to us might be her current mindset, but there is the possibility that her homeland might call on her to forgo her oath of protection and begin conquering Earth. With the power of the Witchblade she has no one that is her equal, to that end, command would like you to take care of Sunset Shimmer before her threat level escalates higher than it already is.}

“So that’s it?! Just like that?! You want me to go and kill Sunset and take the Witchblade from her! Just because you guys are afraid that she’ll turn on all of us?! That’s bullshit, I’ve talked to the kid, I’ve looked into her eyes! You didn’t see how devastated she was after losing her friend! That’s not the kind of thing you can fake!”

{Are you refusing to take on this mission, Agent Tempest?}

Tempest rolled her eyes at the question, “Gee, what do you think?!”

{Agent Tempest, you have an alternative. If she is willing to give up the Witchblade then command is willing to rescind the kill order.}

The mohawked woman chuckled dryly at the ultimatum. “So that’s what this is all about, you want the Witchblade?”

{Command believes it can be an asset in our mission to keep the supernatural world under control. A weapon that can not only harm humans, but mystical creatures, angels, demons, and spirits, that’s practically what we deal with every day. If we had a weapon that could effectively eliminate or subdue the more dangerous threats of those categories, then it would secure the safety of many innocent civilians.}

“Then why not just let her join the OSOD?! I can personally supervise her!”

{She is too much of a wildcard, an unknown. Plus, as I have stated, who knows if her loyalties truly lie with us, or with her immortal rulers of this magical world she’s from. Sure, she could fight for us now, but what would happen if that other world decided to invade us and sought Sunset Shimmer as their vanguard? We don’t have anything that can stop her.}

Tempest growled as she punched the wall of her apartment. “This is such bullshit!”

{There is another part to that directive. OSOD brass is willing to give an ultimatum, if Sunset Shimmer wants to side with us, we will need her to disclose the location or locations of the other Artifacts, as well as the containment vessels for the Angelus and the Darkness. If we at least have those, we’ll have weapons that can counter Witchblade and help us in defending humanity. This not negotiable, Agent Tempest.}

Tempest wanted to tell her off, but if she could convince Sunset to give up the other Artifacts, then maybe she could avoid a battle she really didn’t want to get into. “How long do I have?”

{Your timeframe is one month, after that, the OSOD brass will initiate a search and seizure protocol. We won’t be asking then, we’ll be demanding.}

Tempest scoffed. “One month? Sounds generous.”

{They believe that you’ve developed a rapport with Sunset Shimmer, so she may trust you. Plus, it’ll give us time to develop effective countermeasures against her should she refuse.}

“Lovely, Tempest out!” Tempest hung up the phone. She plopped down back onto the couch and took a swig of her beer. “Goddammit, that just killed my buzz…”

Twilight laid awake in Sunset’s bed, it was Sunday night, and the two girls had returned home after date they had a few hours ago. Twilight treated Sunset to a little strip show before taking her lover roughly again, much to the redhead’s delight. She didn’t think it would be this addicting, taking Sunset in such a way, feeling dominant over her, making Sunset squeal and scream like a bitch in heat. It was extremely intoxicating. However, Twilight never let her main goal out of her sight. After leaving Sunset a bloated mess, Twilight exited the room, but not after giving her lover a kiss on the forehead.

Once she left, Twilight headed back to her room and sat on the edge of her bed. Her eyes shifted once again as Twilight tapped into her newly obtained psionic abilities. Streams of light became visible to her, but these weren’t any mere light streams, these were the unseen streams of digital data that freely flowed through the open air. Data was essentially electrons and protons, and thanks to the wonders of Wi-Fi and mobile networks, that data was floating everywhere, moving between places.

Twilight reached out and tapped the streams of light, pulling at them, manipulating them. She started to form an image in her mind, that of a display monitor and a keyboard. The streams of light began to coalesce and formed a twenty-three-inch rectangle, another formed below it and became a hard-light keyboard. Twilight began typing on the keyboard, infiltrating a particular computer far away with ease, and the best part of this was, she wasn’t using an actual computer, no IP address meant no tracing, this was all generated through her electrokinetic abilities.

The computer she was hacking was that of her big brother, Shining Armor. Cadence told her that she and Shining Armor were going to handle Principal Cinch, but Twilight wanted to know exactly what they had in mind. On the hard-light screen was an exact recreation of her brother’s laptop wallpaper, complete with the scattered shortcuts.

Ugh, Shiny, you really need to organize your desktop better, thought Twilight.

After sifting through his files, Twilight was able to find a file labeled “CPA”, hidden away in multiple dummy file folders that would lead to more empty folders. If nothing else, Twilight was proud of her big brother taking her advice to heart about creating a maze of folders to keep anyone who hacked or got into his computer from finding his more important files. Unfortunately, with her abilities, Twilight was able to see the maze, each pathway branched out, some leading to dead ends and others branched off into others leading to more dead ends. However, there was only one path that had something at the very end, and Twilight followed that path. Folder after folder opened at the speed of thought, and then she came to the file she was looking for, but it seemed her big brother did some more security work on his computer, he added a password protection program to allow access to it.

“Shiny, I really am impressed, you’ve been taking my advice to heart and more. Sorry, though, but I need to see what you have.”

Twilight’s eyes shined a little brighter as she worked the electrons like tentacles, like an octopus trying to figure out its way out of a confined space. In less than a nanosecond, Twilight managed to work her way around the security and entered the file. There she saw what exactly Shining Armor had on Principal Cinch, and…it was a lot, a whole lot. Her eyes widened at that vast amount of information that Shining Armor managed to gather on Principal Cinch and her dealings at Crystal Prep.

“My god…Shining…wait, this…he didn’t get all of this.” Twilight didn’t doubt her brother’s detective skills, he was a very good police detective, but the amount of detail that was in these files was far beyond what a normal police agency’s resources would be able to gather or even be allowed to gather. Twilight scanned the information and found that the files originated from another source, something that was heavily encrypted and trying to hide its true origin. “Strange…Shiny, where – or should I say who – did you get these files from?”

It was a thought for another day, her main objective was taking down Crystal Prep by the end of the week, and she was not going to be deterred. Twilight opened one of the files and read it over, it was about a past student named “Rose Light”, she was hazed terribly by the girls of CPA about ten years ago. According to the file, Principal Cinch managed to sweep it all under the rug through some help from the “Ark” family, a family who still has a lot of influence in the criminal justice legislature of the city.

Another incident was that of a football quarterback named “Thunder Struck”, he was an all-star and looking to be scouted by a lot of universities that were known for producing strong and promising athletes that went on to become national players. Thunder apparently, through his own actions, brought about the death of one of his teammates. Thunder was never prosecuted as it seems that evidence was planted to show that Thunder’s teammate died of an overdose by his own hand instead of Thunder forcing it down his throat.

One after the other, one vile thing after the other was hidden or disappeared. With each reading Twilight’s ire was raised more and more, but it peaked when she saw the name of a girl that appeared to have gone through the exact same thing she did. This girl’s name was “Aurora Night”, she was apparently a brilliant girl, a close equal to Twilight at the time. She was touted as Crystal Prep’s golden girl, the resident genius.

She was Crystal Prep’s whipping girl, but she had more of a spine than Twilight did, as far as she was concerned. Aurora constantly reported the abuse she was suffering at Crystal Prep. At first it was to the faculty at Crystal Prep, even bringing it up to Principal Cinch herself. But then that’s when she took her complaints to the police department. However, that went nowhere.

Follow up reports showed that Aurora went on to university, far, far away from Canterlot City. Twilight was in a bit of a paradox moment, she couldn’t believe it, and at the same time, she did believe it. Cinch was repeating her tactics because she saw that they worked, during the time Aurora was at Crystal Prep, the school became even more renowned in the city as Twilight crosschecked this with news articles along with an influx of donations and applications to the school. As a matter of fact, a good majority of the incidents coincided with a boom in Crystal Prep’s popularity.

“I see, Abacus Cinch, it worked a while back. So, you thought you could do it again when you saw someone who was better and smarter than the last person you put through hell. And even if I leave the school, you’ll just start this again when you see another promising student who can bolster the school’s reputation.”

Without her knowing, Twilight’s purple skin became a darker shade in response to her anger, becoming violet. “I won’t allow you to continue this cycle, nor will I allow any these ‘students’ to go out and cause more pain and suffering to others and think they can get away with it.”

Twilight shifted her gaze towards her bag, a violet aura shined from inside it and out floated a USB drive. She opened her hand and took a hold of it, with her opposite hand, Twilight managed to use her electrokinetic powers to pull out the files and condense them into a small ball of materialized digital energy. Twilight pressed the drive against the ball in her hand, and in no time the data was absorbed into the USB drive, safely stored away. With a wave of her hand, Twilight logged out of her big brother’s computer and began her next hack. Everything would come together when the week ended.

Twilight woke up early, well, she was up before anyone, sleep was optional at this point, her body was constantly regenerating itself, keeping things like fatigue and tiredness from ever touching her. The effects of sleep deprivation were nothing to worry about, since her powers kept the chemicals that were normally associated with the degeneration of mental capacity nonexistent.

Twilight made her way downstairs and entered the living room, but when she did, she noticed that Sunset, the pony one, was sitting on the couch staring at her cellphone with a melancholy look on her face. Feeling concerned, Twilight walked over to her and asked, “Sunset, are you okay?”

Sunset was snapped out of her thoughts and looked up at Twilight. “Oh…morning Twilight, you’re up early.”

“I had a really good night’s sleep,” said Twilight with a bright smile.

Sunset smirked, noting the familiar glow about her. “I’ll bet. Don’t think I haven’t noticed you and Sun getting it on a bit more lately.”

Twilight blushed as she rubbed the back of her head. “Uh…well…I guess I’ve just decided to be more open to my sexual urges…I’ve devoted most of my time to studying and science so things like…tending to my needs were put to the wayside.” Twilight’s smiled dipped a little. “Although…that might have something to do with Indigo’s constant molestation of me, my needs – although the contact was unwanted – were being fulfilled in a roundabout way.”

Sunset winced. “Sorry, didn’t mean to bring that up.”

“It’s fine,” Twilight waved of the concern. “But, enough about me, you looked sad a moment ago. What’s wrong?”

Sunset sighed as she turned the phone around. “Big Mac, AJ’s brother, texted all of us the date for Applejack’s funeral. He asked me if I wanted to be a pallbearer, along with Dash and the rest of the girls…”

“Oh…” Twilight took a seat next to Sunset as she patted her shoulder. “Are you going to accept?”

“I’m…I don’t know. It just makes it more real, y’know. Feeling the weight of my friend as I carry her to her final resting place…” Tears began to well up in Sunset’s eyes. “I’m just not sure I can watch them put her in the ground like that…”

Twilight hesitated a little, she wore the same face as her lover, had the same voice and mannerisms, but what they’ve both experienced in life was far different from each other that it made them different people, and yet the same. It hurt Twilight to see even her lover’s double be in this much pain. Throwing caution to the wind, Twilight wrapped her arms around Sunset, bringing her into a hug. There was a brief hitch in Sunset’s voice, but then she began to cry into Twilight’s shoulder. This was yet another thing that Twilight attributed to her weakness, had she been stronger, perhaps she could’ve aided in saving Applejack’s life.

A minute passed before Sunset gently broke the hug and wiped her eyes. “Thank you, Twi, I needed that.”

“It’s no problem, I know this is a sad time for you…” Twilight hung her head in shame. “I just wish I felt as sad as you and the others, I want to feel that way, and I do miss Applejack. I get sad just think about her not being here anymore, but…I know it’s not the same intensity as you and the rest of the girls.”

“Twi, you don’t have to be sorry. You’ve only just met them, but they do leave a lasting impression. The fact that you feel sad about her passing is enough. You don’t have to come to the funeral if you don’t want to, no one’s pushing you to come after what you’ve been through,” Sunset assured.

“No, I want to. I want to pay my respects to Applejack. I may not have known her as a long as you and the others, but I want to show how much I appreciate what she made me feel.” Twilight smiled. “I felt safe, just like I feel with you and Sun.”

“Okay, just run it by your folks first.” Sunset got up and stretched a bit. “I think I’ll accept Big Mac’s offer, it’s the least I can do for Applejack. Thanks for talking with me, Twi. I’ll head out now, later.”

“Later,” Twilight replied.

The teen genius watched as her lover’s big sister exited through the door to the garage. A few seconds later, she heard the garage door open and the sound of a motorcycle revving up and taking off.

Twilight took out her cellphone and smiled when she noticed the time. “Guess it’s time to get started.”

Sunset and Twilight arrived at Crystal Prep and were shocked at what they saw, well, at least Sunset was anyway. On the school grounds were spray painted words as “Cinch is a Cunt!” and “Cinch the Bitch!” and “Crystal Prep Hell!”, and a slew of other things that weren’t exactly PG rated. The two teens exited the car, Sunset still staring with mouth agape at the graffiti that had been plastered on the pristine structure that was Crystal Prep Academy, and she laughed.

“Oh, holy shit! I can’t believe it! Someone – hahahahhaha – they – haha – oh my god my sides!” Sunset laughed.

“It would seem that someone else feels a certain way about Principal Cinch,” said Twilight with a knowing smile.

The janitors and grounds keepers were busy trying to get rid of the graffiti, but it seemed that it wasn’t coming off as easily as they were hoping. Twilight did feel bad for them, but they wouldn’t have to put up with this for much longer. As they walked, Twilight could tell that the rest of the students were just as shocked at what they saw, but if she was right, there was more to be shocked about inside.

Once they entered through the doors, Twilight saw that the trophy case was smashed, along with all the trophies and awards that Crystal Prep had won, at least the ones that were won during Principal Cinch’s time in office. There was additional graffiti written inside the halls as well, but these were less aimed at Principal Cinch and more at the student body and school. Such things as “Trash Students = Trash People!”, “You Make the World Worse!”, “Money and Influence Downfall!”

Twilight was pleased to see that it had worked. During that day when Cinch had sent Hoops, Score, and Dumbbell to harm her, Twilight used her power to do a little “reprogramming” of their minds. They were essentially slaves to her, wither they knew it or not, and they didn’t. She erased their encounter and fed a false memory into their minds of them completing their task so that Principal Cinch would think she was successful, but then that Sunday she used her electrokinetic powers to manipulate the school’s security systems, she had “hacked” the three captains’ minds and to do all the graffiti on and inside the school. Once they were done, she edited the footage to show a gap, one minute there was nothing, and then the next there was a bunch of graffiti.

“Oh god, Cinch must be having an aneurysm right about now,” Sunset commented.

“I guess we’re not the only ones who are tired of Principal Cinch’s scheming,” said Twilight.

“It had to happen sometime, better late than never.” Sunset and Twilight turned around and saw Sugarcoat walking up towards them. “I’m only disappointed that I didn’t do it. I have my own choice words to spray paint as well.”

The rest of the school day was spent with people whispering about who could’ve done the graffiti, that was the only real question, no one bothered to ask the why. Twilight had no doubts that there were others in this school who were subjected to the cruelties of Crystal Prep, but all of Crystal Prep Academy was guilty. Those who suffered also made her suffer because they could, because it made their suffering less painful if they could make someone hurt more than them.

Around early afternoon, Twilight decided to pay Principal Cinch another visit. She strode to the door without waiting for the secretary to announce her, and the moment she entered the doorway, Principal Cinch eyes widened with shock.

“M-Ms. Sparkle?!”

“Surprised to see me, Principal Cinch?” Twilight asked in a playful tone.

“I…I…” Cinch stammered.

Twilight closed the door when she got inside and smiled superiorly at the older woman. “You what, thought that I would’ve been too injured to attend school? Too traumatized? Or maybe you were counting on Sunset finding the ones responsible and killing them? Believe me, I saved them a gruesome end, but it would’ve been no less than they deserved.”

The teen genius sat in the chair in front of Principal Cinch’s desk, crossing her legs as she rested her chin atop her right knuckles, smiling the whole time.

“You tried to have the captains of three different sports teams assault me, in a desperate attempt at what…? Having Sunset get them back? I have to say, Abacus Cinch, that was – how does the saying go? Oh yes, weak sauce. I mean, seriously, you’re already under investigation, the last thing you need is another one,” said Twilight.

“Young lady, I will not–!”

“No, you will be silent!” Twilight interrupted in a curt tone, causing Principal Cinch to flinch. “For years you’ve gotten your way, you’ve built up this school on the sweat, blood, pain, and suffering of others. But eventually, all things come to an end. Call it karma, balancing the cosmic scales, divine retribution, in the end, Principal Cinch, you reap what you sow, and no one will weep for you.” Twilight got up from the chair and added, “That’s all I came to tell you. Well, that, and don’t ever try that again.”

Twilight left the office, with Principal Cinch still stunned and flabbergasted at what Twilight said.

Twilight had Crystal Prep in the palm of her hands for the last four days. Her powers of were getting stronger the more she used her mental abilities, she was able to control Hoops, Score, and Dumbbell remotely, all she had to do was think about them and they came under her control like drones. With them, she was able to continue the graffitiing of Crystal Prep, while also erasing any trace that it was them, she didn’t want anyone to know it was them, not yet at least.

But that wasn’t the only thing she had done; Twilight was also fiddling around with their computer systems. Changing grades, revoking college applications, funding, and even presentations. For a kick, she flooded the school computers with an insane amount of pornographic material. The boys seemed to get a kick out of it, but overall, it wasn’t well liked. Twilight did feel bad about making Cadence’s job harder, she tried to avoid causing trouble where it would affect her directly and indirectly, but unfortunately most of her “attacks” crossed over and impacted her work. She made sure to clear it up for her as quickly as she could.

At the same time, she had been leaking the information from the file she took from Shining Armor’s computer. Twilight made sure to keep Cinch’s name hidden, at least for the time being, both to use a major reveal later, and to see if the news reporters could figure it out. The whole time Twilight was enjoying watching this from the sidelines, what made this better was that Cinch probably had an idea that it was Twilight’s doing, but had no justifiable way, or any other way, to prove that it was, or frame it like it was her doing. Cinch was completely at her mercy.

Now it was time for the finale, and Twilight needed to make sure everything was setup. Forutnately, Principal Cinch decided to provide that setup for her. On Thursday, Principal Cinch had declared that there would be an assembly in the auditorium on Friday addressing all the mishaps that were happening at Crystal Prep. Twilight was intrigued at what kind of story Cinch was going to spin, but thankfully, everything was ready. She just needed to make sure three people weren’t going to be there when it happened.

That morning Twilight used her electrokinetic power to setup a few text messages to be sent. The first set was sent at around ten in the morning, Twilight sent a text to Shining Armor under the guise of Cadence that requested that they meet ASAP at a private location and that Cadence had got her hands on some information that was guaranteed to bury Cinch, but they had to meet now as they might be able to do something immediately if they could confirm it. Oppositely, Twilight sent Cadence the same message but with slightly different wording. A quick hack of security cameras and traffic cameras allowed Twilight to see both her big brother and future sister-in-law on their way to the meeting place.

The next text was to Sugarcoat, requesting that her friend headed over to her parents’ place of work as there was something they needed to discuss. Twilight tracked the GPS of Sugarcoat’s car and verified that it was there, and after Twilight got through with some of the traffic lights, Sugarcoat would be stuck in traffic for a good while. Last was Sunset, she knew that Sunset, despite the multiple offers to burn down the school, wasn’t going to burn it down with everyone inside. So, she needed her lover to go. Twilight had sent a message pretending to be the pony Sunset, telling her that there was a possible Artifact user spotted on the other side of town, and that she was there and needed her help.

“Babe, I gotta go, Sis will need my help,” said Sunset as she and Twilight stood behind the bleachers of the football field.

“I know, don’t worry, I’ll be okay. You just go and help your sister, and you don’t have to hurry back, I’m sure it’s going to be a lackluster assembly anyway,” said Twilight.

“Heh, well do.” Sunset transformed into her flame armor and saluted to Twilight. “See ya in a minute, babe!”

Twilight watched as Sunset took off into the air, it was ten-fifty-five. The assembly was in five minutes, hopefully she could make this quick, but not too quick. She wanted to enjoy this at least a little bit. Twilight headed back inside and watched as the students moved en masse towards the auditorium, Principal Cinch had made this mandatory for faculty and students alike, no one was exempt. You’re making this far easier than you realize, Abacus Cinch.

The teen genius made sure she was the last to enter, the whole room was filled to the brim with students and faculty members, aside from the janitors that is. Once inside, Twilight went to work with her last preparations. You see, another power she unlocked with her mental abilities was the ability to manipulate matter on a subatomic level. The more she used her powers the stronger they got, and she had been using them a lot recently, it was as if they were evolving, or furthering her evolution. Either way, it only helped. Twilight mentally scanned the entire Crystal Prep campus, searching for any signs of life that were not at the assembly, and as she expected, there were a couple of students not in attendance. One pair of students who were making out in an empty classroom, and another small group of four that was hanging out in the library.

Typical, Twilight thought.

Twilight’s hands glowed as she made a few gestures, sending a discrete wave of magenta light over the building. She watched as all the exits to the outside were removed, creating a solid wall as if someone had forgotten to build a door. The windows, along with the skylights, were erased and replaced with a normal ceiling. She locked the doors to the library and the classroom where she noted the couple and group from earlier. Twilight noticed that Principal Cinch was coming on stage and waited until everyone’s attention was on her before she took care of the other part.

The older woman walked across the stage and stood center stage, she adjusted the microphone and looked out into the sea of teens and faculty. “Good morning, everyone. I have called this assembly to address that goings on here at the school. The graffiti, the cyber hacks, and the assassination attempts on my character and the school’s, it’s all part of a scheme, and I have uncovered the culprits behind them all.”

Twilight rolled her eyes, knowing full well Abacus Cinch did not know who was responsible, but it did manage to get the entire room murmuring and whispering.

“The culprit is none other than Canterlot High School!” Principal Cinch announced.

As expected, the entire student body gasped, while Twilight just sighed in annoyance.

“Some of you may be asking why they would resort to such tactics? Well, beyond the obvious, I am aware of the ‘tradition’ that some of you and past classes have taken up of defacing their Wondercolt statue, and of course turnabout is fair play.” It was here that Principal Cinch’s face contorted into anger. “But this has gone too far! They can’t win against us, so they’re resorting to lowbrow methods to win the upcoming Friendship Games by assaulting us on a psychological level. Well, I will not stand for it! Rest assured, I will be speaking to the Principals of CHS, but I will not cancel the Games. Doing so will only show that they’ve won, well, I say we defeat them in the Games and prove to them that no matter what they do, Crystal Prep is – and always will be – their betters.”

Twilight watched as the room erupted into cheers, it was irritating, they swallowed Principal Cinch’s lie so easily that Twilight wasn’t sure if they genuinely believed it or were just placating her absurd explanation. It was time to put an end to this farce. Twilight got up and clapped as she walked down the aisle and towards the stage. Principal Cinch waved at the students to request that they quiet down, however, all but one student did as requested. The teen genius continued her walk, still clapping, at this point mockingly so, drawing all eyes onto her. Once she reached the foot of the stage, Twilight stopped and looked up at Principal Cinch.

“Wow, I have to hand it to you, this was kind of brilliant. Using all the incidents to galvanize the school against Canterlot High School, that is good. However, I feel that I must correct you, Principal Cinch, because we both know who the real culprit is,” said Twilight in a calm tone.

“Miss Sparkle, I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I will ask you to return to your seat,” Principal Cinch instructed.

Twilight chuckled a little, and in a mocking tone. Suddenly, Twilight jumped straight up and landed on the stage flawlessly, making everyone gasp. It was well known that Twilight was not an athletic person by any means, and the stage itself was at least a good seven feet off the ground, and Twilight just did a standing jump and that only the more athletic students would be able to do.

“No, Abacus, I will not. In fact,” Twilight took the microphone off the stand and spoke into it so that everyone could hear her, “I am the one responsible for everything that’s been happening at CPA over the past week. The graffiti was done courtesy of Hoops, Score, and Dumbbell, you know, the three boys you had ordered to physically assault me last week.”

On cue, the three boys in question rose from their seats and shouted.

“THAT BITCH IS LYING!” Dumbbell shouted.

“WE NEVER TOUCHED HER!” Score yelled.

“YEAH, WE NEVER DID NOTHIN’ TO HER!” Hoops added.

“QUIET!” Cinch admonished the three boys, and then turned to Twilight. “Miss Sparkle, I understand that you’ve been through a lot, but you cannot go accusing your classmates of assault, especially those who have passed away.”

“Oh, you do NOT get to deny my pain!” Twilight stated as she stomped her foot on the stage. “For the last four years, I’ve been hazed, teased, pranked, everything! By almost every single student in this school! I learned that I wasn’t the only one you’ve blackmailed or put into this same position!” Twilight glared at the assembled faculty now. “And none of you are innocent either, I’m sure you’ve heard of what’s happened to me, either in passing or otherwise, and yet not one of you tried to reach out to me! Perhaps if I felt that there was someone willing to help me, to listen to me, things would’ve been different! But we have long since passed the point of no return!”

Principal Cinch looked nervous now. “Miss Sparkle…what have you done?”

Twilight smirked as she placed her left hand on her hip. “Oh, don’t worry, Abacus Cinch. I haven’t planted a bomb or anything cliché like that. Someone with my intellect is above such a thing, no, I’m not going to use a bomb to get my revenge. I will be doing it myself, personally. Every single person will die by my hand!”

“I KNEW SHE WAS CRAZY!” a student shouted.

“Possibly, but then, you only have yourselves to blame, don’t you?” Twilight questioned. “I was a perfectly content teenage girl, I didn’t think I was better than anyone, I didn’t come here to make anyone feel inferior to me, I came to learn and, possibly, maybe, make a friend or two. But someone,” at this Twilight shifted her glare back to Cinch, “decided to change all that and bring such a plan to its inevitable conclusion!”

Cinch went from nervous to incredulous, especially after hearing that Twilight hadn’t setup any kind of explosive device, she figured she wouldn’t, Twilight was too smart for something like that, and she clearly didn’t have a weapon on her, an assault rifle would be clearly visible, and her uniform didn’t leave much area to cover a handgun. She could be hiding a knife, possibly aiming to stab Cinch to death, a fitting irony to how Twilight nearly died. But Twilight had said that she was planning on exacting revenge on everyone in the school, how could she do that?

“Okay then, Miss Sparkle, we’ve indulged your little temper tantrum for long enough!”

“You’re right, no more talking.” Twilight stretched out her right hand and dropped the mic. “I don’t have much time, so I’ll get to work.”

Twilight’s eyes shifted to the colors of azure blue and magenta, her hair took on a darker shade, almost becoming full black. Her skin became a darker shade a of violet and raven-colored wings burst forth from her back, ripping two holes in her uniform. Twilight faced the masses of students and faculty, taking note of their shocked and horrified faces, as they should be, this was the form of a girl who was pushed too far and never given a chance. This was what they created; they created the monster that now stood before them.

“If you wish to run, you can, but you won’t escape. I’ve blocked all communications, coming in or going out. Cellular, land lines, internet, all of it is gone. No one will know what happens in here,”

Twilight turned towards the faculty members, gathering energy into her right hand, she swiped the air horizontally creating a crescent blade made of protons and electrons. The crackling energy blade whizzed right for Cinch and the faculty, but at the last second, a gap opened, allowing it to miss Principal Cinch altogether while the rest of the blade continued and cut down all the faculty members, at least the ones that were on stage. Their bodies were severed from their top halves, cauterized by the intense heat from the blade, and all at once seven thuds resounded as the top halves hit the stage.

Screams were released as the students all began to run in a panic, Twilight smiled as she released a pulse of her matter manipulating energy, causing the chairs to snap on some of the students, crushing them where they sat, others released metal spikes that skewered them, raising their bodies into the air in homage to the Romanian warlord famous for such impalements. A good majority of the student body managed to escape into the halls along with some of the faculty who were valiantly trying to get their students to safety.

Twilight walked across the stage until she was floating in midair, controlling the graviton particles so that she was light enough that she didn’t fall, while also using them as a propelling force to float forwards. She stopped, noticing that Cinch was about to scurry away, but Twilight’s energy washed over the stage, causing parts of the wooden stage to transmute into robes that wrapped around Cinch like snakes, tying her down so that she could not escape.

“You’re not going anywhere, Abacus Cinch.”

“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?! DO YOU REALIZE WHAT YOU’RE DOING?!” Cinch shouted.

“I do, and the blood that is spelt here today is all on your hands.” Twilight snapped her fingers, and multiple screens made of hard-light appeared above them. Each of the screens was tapped into the security cameras in the school, allowing Abacus to witness the horrors that awaited her students. “You will watch this, all of it. Watch everything you built up comes crashing down all around you, without mercy, without remorse.”

Abacus watched as a group of students were running down a hallway, lockers began to rattle and shake, and then the lockers began to jettison bits of metal shrapnel. The students that were caught in the crossfire had their bodies shredded as the metal shards pierced through their flesh and bone, splashing blood in every direction. The barrage continued until their bodies were completely torn apart, their pieces scattered about on the floor, and their blood painting the walls and floor. Abacus threw up when it was over, but her disgust would linger as another screen showed a new horror.

Some students had made it to where an exit was supposed to be, some were pounding on the wall as if believing brute force was going to make it appear. Twilight smirked as she snapped her fingers, sending a wave of energy towards that location that caused the gravity in that area to double, forcing the students to their knees. Some tried to fight against it or tried to crawl away. Twilight rewarded their efforts by doubling it again. The sudden increase snapped their shin and ankle bones of those who managed to stand, forcing them to the ground as they cried out in pain. Their bones pierced through the skin, creating a bloody mess. Twilight tripled the gravity, pressing the students to the ground and gradually forcing the air out of their lungs She continued to increase the gravity, doubling it every second as she watched them get crushed by the invisible force. Twilight clenched her right fist and increased the gravity a hundred-fold, all at once the ten students were crushed, turned into paste upon the floor. She released the gravity filed and switched to another group.

“Oh, I’ve been wondering where she got off to,” Twilight commented as she stared at the screen that showed two students hiding in science lab. “Upper Crust and Jet Set, a power couple favorite here in the school.” Twilight turned to Cinch and smirked. “If I recall, their families donated a generous amount of money to CPA, and if I read right, which I always do, you managed to sweep an incident where Upper Crust and Jet Set harassed a boy into committing suicide. Isn’t that right?”

“T-Twilight, please let me explain!” Cinch pleaded.

“Hmm, nope. Time for you to lose some of your assets.”

Twilight waved her hand, sending an energy pulse to that location. The chemicals that were stored in the metal cabinet mixed, creating a toxic gas that Twilight manipulated. She made it rush towards the couple, noticing it too late as the plume of purple smoke surrounded them. Cinch watched as Jet Set and Upper Crust began cough violently, to the point that blood was being spat out. Their skin began to blister as puss filled boils formed, along with their hair falling out.

“I created a mixture that would slowly kill them, their skin will burn, their lungs will burn, and every nerve ending in their body will be wracked with unimaginable pain, not enough to kill them quickly, but they’ll either try and end the pain themselves or just suffer until it takes them.”

The couple thrashed about the room, trying to escape the horrible suffering, but every movement, every breath was pure agony. Upper Crust pulled on a drawer and threw it to the floor, scattering multiple dissection tools. She fell to her knees and grabbed a scalpel, without even hesitating, she slashed her wrist left wrist, but the blood wasn’t flowing out like it should.

“Oh, that’s right, I forgot to mention that the chemicals also cause the blood to coagulate faster, so it’ll be hard for her to bleed out. No easy way for her,” said Twilight.

Upper Crust frantically tried to figure out a way to end the pain, to make it all stop. That’s when she figured out a way, she brought the scalpel level with her right eye, and again, without hesitation, she stabbed the scalpel right into her eye, more pain coursed through her body, but with the last bit of sanity she had, Upper Crust ran straight for the wall face first, ramming the scalpel the rest of the way through, penetrating her brain. The rich girl’s body fell to the floor, convulsing as her neurons fired off, trying to connect, like a stalled-out car sputtering before it finally gave out. Jet Set wasn’t in any better shape, he decided to smash his head against the edge of a table again and again, for as long as he was able until the side of his caved in on the tenth strike.

More and more hard-light windows opened and showed more horrors, students getting impaled slowly, ensuring they felt the maximum amount of pain. Others were getting torn apart limb by limp, electrocuted, set on fire, hanged, dissected, and a myriad of other things that Twilight imagined, drawing most of her inspiration from slasher and supernatural horror films. All the while Cinch was trying to look away, but when Twilight noticed, she swiftly appeared behind Abacus and forced her eyes open.

“No, you have to watch this! You aren’t allowed to look away! Keep watching as the institute you built up is stained in blood! This is your legacy!” Twilight stated.

“W-Why…Why…?!”

“I told you why, you just don’t seem to listen. Perhaps I need to make myself even clearer?!” Twilight snapped her fingers, sending another wave of telekinetic energy that surged through the school until it locked onto the ones she was searching for. That same force dragged the individuals all the way back into the auditorium, dropping them onto the stage. “Hello Sour Sweet, Sunny Flare.”

Indeed, it was them, Abacus’ daughter and her friend. Both had the same terrified looks on their faces as Cinch did, but the two girls were hugging each other, as if trying to seek protection in their closeness.

“T-Twilight, please, don’t!” Sunny Flare pleaded.

Twilight walked towards, them hands behind her back. She stopped a foot away from them before bending down to look them in the eye. “Hmm, that sounds awfully familiar, don’t you think? I believe those were my words to you, right? Except I was the one pleading for you to stop. Stop, taking my clothes.” Twilight snapped her fingers and Sunny’s uniform was shredded, leaving her only in her underwear and forcing Sour Sweet to break her hold from the shock. “Stop berating me!”

A kinetic pulse struck Sunny across her face, essentially getting slapped. Another hit her, and then another, with the last one throwing her to the floor. Sour Sweet huddled over Sunny and cried out, “SPARKLE, STOP, PLEASE STOP HURTING HER!”

“You’re not any better, tell me why I should?! Give me one good reason why I should spare either of you?!” Twilight demanded.

“I LOVE HER!!!” Sour Sweet declared.

Twilight blinked as she stood straight up. “You love her? You two are together?”

Sunny Flare looked from Twilight, and then to her mother, and then back to Twilight again. “Yes, after what happened to Sour, we…we became a couple! I realized I like her as more than a friend! Sparkle, you have every right to be pissed at us, at this whole damn school! But it was my Mother’s fault from the start! She wanted me to get the school onboard with making you its punching bag! I wanted to leave you alone, I honestly didn’t even care about you! But SHE wanted me to do make all this happen!”

Twilight huffed. “I figured as much already. But it’s nice to have it confirmed.”

“Twilight, please……kill her!” Sunny Flare asked.

Both Cinch and Twilight paused when they heard that request.

“Sorry, did you just ask me to kill your own mother?” Twilight quired.

Sour helped Sunny to her feet, where she then began to glare at her mother. “Yes! You have no idea what I’ve gone through! You’re the lucky one here, Twilight Sparkle! At least when you go home, it’s to – I assume –a family who loves you unconditionally, without expecting anything from you in return, your safe place! I don’t get that! She’s the same at home as she is here, no, she’s worse! Because at least here, she has to focus on hundreds of other kids, but when we’re home, I’M the focus of her attention!”

“I see,” Twilight thought aloud.

Abacus stared incredulously at her daughter, her teeth gritting with anger as she listened to her daughter. “YOU LITTLE SLUT! I RAISED YOU, CLOTHED YOU, FED YOU! GAVE YOU THE BEST EDUCATION! AND THIS IS HOW YOU REPAY ME?! BY WISHING ME DEAD!!!”

Sunny scoffed. “Oh yes, that’s all good. But I can’t remember once when you ever just gave me a hug just because, or ever said ‘I love you’! Whenever I got a low grade, you beat me and said I could do better! And even when I did it was always ‘Why should I praise you for something that is expected?’, and of course, the first time I expressed a slight interest in girls, you whipped me with a belt and told me to never think like that again!”

Sour Sweet was shocked upon hearing this. “What?! You never told me about that!”

“Yeah, pretty messed up, huh?! She said that my future depended upon marrying the right MAN and bearing children who will grow up to be even better, and that I couldn’t do that if I was with a woman! Do you deny it?!” Sunny dared.

Cinch looked down, growling in fury. “Do not think you are the only one who had to make a sacrifice like that! We ALL must make sacrifices to get what we want in our lives! If it’s for our ambitions and goals, then you have to be ruthless and smart to get it!”

Sunny ignored her mother and turned her attention to Twilight. “Twilight, I’m sorry, we’re sorry! If I had it my way, I would’ve ignored you and left you be! It’s all my Mother’s fault! We’re just as much the victims of her bullshit as you are! I won’t ask you to spare everyone, but please, spare us!”

Twilight rubbed her chin as she contemplated Sunny’s request. “You do realize that I really can’t let you live, right? What’s stopping you two from reporting what I did to the police if I do?”

“Our gratitude for freeing us from this place, and that bitch over there!” Sour answered. “I swear, Sunny and I won’t say a damn thing about what happened in here! Hell, we’ll disappear, fuck off to someplace on the other side of the world where you won’t have to see us ever again, right Sunny?!”

Sunny Flare nodded vigorously. “Exactly! We’ll go to Europe, go to college there, live there! We’ll even tell you where we are so that if we do blab, you know exactly where to find us!”

Twilight shook her head. “That wouldn’t be necessary. I could easily locate you anywhere in the world.”

“Y-Yeah, that’s right, because you’re that smart!” Sunny Flare complimented. “Please, we’re begging you, just kill my Mom and let us go!”

“YOU UNGRATEFUL WRETCH!!!” Cinch shouted at them.

Twilight thought about their offer, she could see why Sunny Flare was the way she was. With a mother like Abacus, how could you not be like that? And if Abacus Cinch hadn’t put her daughter up to it, Twilight’s school life at Crystal Prep would’ve been a normal one, with no harassment of any kind, perhaps from the occasional bully, but nothing like what she was getting from the entire school.

“I will acknowledge that you have been through a lot, Sunny Flare. You’re right, while most of us get to go home and leave this viper pit until the next day, you were living it twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. You never get a break from Crystal Prep, and in a way you’re a prisoner.” Twilight walked over to the two girls and placed her hand on Sunny’s shoulder. “I can sympathize with that.”

“T-Thank you,” said Sunny as she began to cry.

“However…” Twilight’s grip on Sunny Flare’s shoulder tightened. “You also had multiple chances to break the cycle, to speak up to Cadence, to anyone. Sure, it might not go anywhere, not on your own. But with your popularity, you could’ve brought the school together and united us against your mother’s cruelty. Or, conversely, you could’ve reached out to me, become my friend, and told me why I was suffering!”

Twilight released Sunny Flare and stepped back from her and Sour Sweet, both girls had a look of worry on their faces.

“So I can’t forgive you for all that you’ve done to me. However, I won’t cause you pain, or Sour Sweet, you’ll both die swiftly and painlessly, together.”

Before either of the girls could protest, Twilight released a psychic pulse straight into their bodies. Shutting down their minds completely until they collapsed on the floor, dead. They weren’t breathing, they weren’t’ moving, they were simply dead, a quick and painless death as she promised. Twilight used her telekinesis to position them lying on their backs with Sour’s left hand intertwined with Sunny’s right. Twilight looked up at the monitors she created and saw that all the students in the school, along with the faculty, were dead. She mentally scanned the building, making sure that she and Cinch were the only two life signs left in the building. They were.

“It’s done,” said Twilight as she walked towards Cinch. “This is the end of Crystal Prep Academy, Principal Cinch. The end of your career.”

“How…How could this all have gone so wrong…?” Cinch whispered.

“Just so you know, the moment this all started, I leaked everything about your dirty dealings here at the school and off campus. The whole world will know what kind of person you are, no one will say a kind word about you, when someone speaks your name, it’ll be as a curse.” Twilight brought both her hands to Cinch’s head, making the older woman gasp. “But before your end, I want to see how you became this person.”

Twilight ran her neuro electricity through Cinch’s mind and probed her memories.

She watched as a young teen girl went to this school a long time ago, being in awe of its architecture, its facilities, the teachers, and the students. It was then she decided that she wanted to be a teacher, and she wanted to teach here. She spent all her time devoted to that ideal, until the day she became the Principal of Crystal Prep Academy, taking over during the first Friendship Games with Canterlot High. Twilight sensed genuine love for the school, and, from what else she sensed, an infatuation with Principal Celestia. Years went by, and things got harder, running a school as top tier as Crystal Prep came with more stress than what she believed possible, funding, scholarships, answering to the influential parents of her students, it was all piling onto her. She had achieved her dream, but found it was a nightmare.

That’s when she decided to turn the nightmare into her weapon. She found out that the parents of her students were willing to pay whatever price she stipulated if it meant their child would graduate, a diploma from Crystal Prep setup any student for whatever university they wanted to go to. Cinch expanded her connections, branching into politics and law enforcement. Which came in handy when some of her students did a few things that were not exactly in keeping with the law. It continued like that, she met a man who bore her a daughter, but Cinch only used the man to expand her connections and get more money. Twilight sensed no maternal love for Sunny Flare, which only made her pity her former bully even more. Somewhere between the scheming and the ambition, Twilight sensed that Abacus Cinch lost sight of herself, and became the woman that stood before her today.

Twilight released Abacus Cinch and looked down upon her with judgmental eyes. “It’s time to pay the price for everything you’ve done, Abacus Cinch.”

“In what horrifying manner are you going to kill me?!” Cinch asked.

“A slow death, one that will allow you to see everything precious to you fall.” Twilight waved her hands, swinging them wide as sparks were lit over every surface except in a ring around them. Fire ignited over everything, scorching, intense flames engulfed the area, spreading throughout the entire school and not leaving any nook or cranny unscathed. “You’ll burn with everything, and you will watch it all as you burn too.”

“NO, NO!!! PLEASE JUST KILL ME! NOT LIKE THIS! NOT LIKE THIS!!!” Cinch pleaded.

Twilight had no more words, she turned her back on Cinch and floated down to the aisle, where she proceeded to walk as the flames parted for her. When she was halfway down the aisle, the safe area around Cinch left and the flames rushed onto her. The ropes that held her down were released as Cinch began running around, trying to gain refuge from the blaze and the flames that were burning her alive. She ran until she fell of the stage and onto her back. Her screams echoed in the chamber of the auditorium, filling Twilight’s ears as she stopped in the doorway and took one last look over her shoulder. Cinch was frantically running about, but then found the aisle and ran towards the doorway, however, she succumbed to the flames as she fell to her knees and then onto her front, her screams were no more.

Twilight turned her head away and began walking down the hallway, watching as the halls she was so familiar with begin to crumble, burning in hellfire of her own creation. These flames would not stop until everything was gone, until this building was ash, and even longer until the ash itself was gone. The bodies that littered the halls were already charring, whatever identifying marks they had were now gone. Twilight allowed herself to take in this moment, to take it all in. It was over, Crystal Prep Academy had fallen, the evils of this school were being erased in cleansing fire, ushering in a new beginning. If this school were to rise again, it will be like the phoenix, but better than it once was. Yes, that was the solution, that was what needed to happen.

“I’m…I’m finally free!” Twilight declared happily. “I’m not afraid anymore!”