Jinx Charm

The sun was shining down on Jinx as she lingered at the designated smoking area outside Canterlot General Hospital. A cigarette hung from her lips as she sat on a bench, lost in thought. This entire trip was pretty much a waste of time. As if it wasn't bad enough that she had been drugged, violated, and had her reputation preemptively shattered, she had to deal with crabby nurses harping on her for waiting so long and showering—as if that second bit even mattered given that whoever brought her home had cleaned her up before leaving. The only plus was that if they found Rohypnol traces in her urine sample, she might be able to make a case—without mentioning any names—with police to pull her phone records and text messages, and start an investigation.

Pretty big fucking if, though; the way the nurses were speaking, they didn't expect to find anything.

Even the fresh cigarette, the bill for her visit in her hoodie pocket, and the admonishments of nurses echoing in her head couldn't take her mind off what she'd heard over the radio, both in class and on her way to the hospital. Even if Crystal Prep was her school's rival, it was awful thinking about just how many parents might be finding out they'll never see their sons or daughters again. Pompous rich kids or not, nobody deserved that... I still remember when...

From the way the guy on the radio was talking, things were super bad at the academy. It was obvious that there had to have been at least some deaths, but was it really an animal attack? Or was it just phrased that way to not give any attention to a school shooter? It'd certainly cut down on rumours and not stroke someone's ego if that were the case.

They might've gotten more information out if an exec for the company owning the station didn't put the kibosh to the broadcast, citing a request from the Canterlot Police Department. Jinx didn't like it, but it was only fair. If someone's kids had been killed, the radio should be the last place they heard about it. Leave that to the police or something.

As she sat there, ambulance sirens filled the air. It was hard to tell, but it sounded like maybe two or three. Are they finally dragging out casualties? she wondered as she looked to the road. The smoking area was a perfect vantage point to see the emergency room entrance and the road, so she imagined she wouldn't have long to find out.

Sure enough, not too long after she first heard the sirens, a pair of ambulances screamed in to the E.R. bay, quickly followed by a pair of police cruisers. The ambulance crews and hospital staff were like a well-oiled machine, quickly offloading a woman who had to have been a member of Crystal Prep staff based on the emblem on her sleeve. Although she looked conscious, she was in pretty bad shape from what Jinx could see—covered in scratches and bruises that could be seen from this far away, and a piece of rebar piercing through her abdomen.

The other ambulance carried a girl of pale mulberry complexion who couldn't have been more than sixteen, wearing a bloodstained Crystal Prep uniform. She looked to be unconscious, and based on the way her indigo hair looked near black going down one side, she probably had quite a head wound. Unlike the woman in the first ambulance they'd drawn a sheet up to cover her lower body, but there was no disguising the grievous wound that even now seemed to be bleeding through.

As Jinx watched them unload the unconscious girl, she noticed something peculiar. Some wild trick of the light made the girl's shadow seem darker than all the shadows around her. It was a blink-and-you'll-miss-it sort of thing, but it left the CHS student feeling uneasy—cold even—as if someone somewhere had just walked over her grave.

All the while, police officers exited both cars, but if anything, it seemed like three of them were trying to keep the fourth one from following the medical staff inside. Even from the distance of her vantage point, she could hear everything and clear as day; it was hard not to when the one restrained man screamed at his compatriots, "You can't stop me! That's my fiance and my sister they just took in there!"

It was patently not true that they couldn't stop him; no sooner had those words exited his mouth when a woman from the other car, with a sergeants stripes on her shoulder no less, smacked him in the back of his head. "I know you're worried about Cadance and Twilight," she growled, pointing him over in the direction of the smoking area, "I would be too, in your situation... but you need to go cool your head before you do something stupid. We'll keep you updated, but you being in there right now isn't gonna help anything."

The man's posture changed, and he nodded numbly as his fellow officers released him, and went inside. She felt nothing but sympathy for him. Having lost her parents to complications from an accident involving a drunk driver, she knew how helpless it felt to just sit in a waiting room, hoping for good news that might never come. For a quick moment, he actually looked like he might run inside after all, but he ultimately chose to listen to his sergeant.

Dazedly, he walked towards the smoking area. It wasn't until he was practically on top of her that he actually paid her presence any mind, and immediately she could see him narrow his eyes. "You look kind of young to be smoking," he commented in a tired voice. "I'm gonna need to see your identification."

Pain in the ass though it was, she didn't fault him for doing his job. "Of course, Officer—" She glanced at the nameplate on his uniform. "—Armour." Knowing the way some police interactions went, especially in high stress situations like the officer was going through, she glanced at his body camera before slowly putting her hands where he could see them. "I'm just going to reach into my purse for my wallet. Nice and slow."

He nodded and fixed his eyes on her left hand as it slowly reached down to the purse sitting beside her on the bench. Jinx took extra care to make sure that only her index and middle finger dipped into the purse to make it clear that she wasn't about to pull a gun or something. When her hand came out with a purse between her fingers, she slowly opened it and removed her driver's license and passed it to him.

Officer Armour held up her ID to the sun as he checked its legitimacy. She could see his eyes looking at the subtle markings illuminated as light bled through the card, as well as his gaze looking at all the dates and such. Finally, he passed the card back to her with an apologetic look. "Sorry about the hassle," he commented, taking a seat to her right. "Rules are rules, and all."

She just nodded, returning the card to her wallet and putting it back in her purse. When she brought her hand back out, it held her pack of cigarettes and the lighter tucked within. She held the package up in front of him, and said, "You look like you could use one."

Honestly, she sort of expected the man to refuse. He certainly seemed like the sort of straight-laced guy who was above that sort of thing. Instead, to her surprise, the officer took the pack, fished out a cigarette and the lighter, and lit up. It amused her the way he winced as he took a drag, but she didn't comment. Instead, she just looked back to the front of the hospital and took another long drag of her own.

"Just how bad is it over there?" she found herself asking without thinking. "The guy on the radio made it sound like there was some kind of wild animal loose in the school, but..."

Officer Armour let out a long, shaky breath, filling the air in front of him with smoke as he leaned back on the bench to look up at the sky. "It's really bad. My..." His voice cracked as he seemed to struggle for something he could actually say. "My fiance and my sister were in a room converted to a small lab when a wall collapsed on them. That seemed to protect them from whatever was loose in there."

Turning her gaze to the man, she gave him an unsure look. "What was in there, anyway?"

He shook his head. "I really shouldn't be telling you this, but we don't know," was his quiet answer. "Special Weapons and Tactics swept through the entire building several times, and couldn't find anything. Nothing could've gotten in or out of that school, but there was no trace of whoever or whatever butchered all those kids and staff."

Somehow, Jinx didn't think he was supposed to say that last part out loud. She also knew better than to pry and risk upsetting him more. He was likely thankful that his loved ones were still alive, and she didn't want to risk him getting in trouble. Instead, she watched the front of the hospital as she finished her cigarette.

Even if I can get evidence that I was drugged and raped, I doubt the police'll put any resources on investigating when that just happened, she thought bitterly. There's no justice in the world. As she thought those words, she felt another chill... like someone was watching her. Not for people like me, and not for people like that girl.

Sunset Shimmer

Lacking any meaningful homework on the first day of school, Sunset sat at the coffee table in her living room. Spread across the surface were a few open folders, each with pages that had been removed from her little black book in the past. After noticing how out of date her entry on Jinx Charm had been, she resolved to go through her notes, and make sure she removed those who had graduated last year, or those who'd transferred out.

It was a fairly basic system of organisation—at least as far as the human world was concerned. One folder was labelled Graduates (Observation Subjects), while another set aside was labelled Graduates (Other). The final folder was simply labelled Transfers, which was made up of a few students she felt worth observing, but had been forced to transfer out for one reason or another. Once she was finished, she'd lock the folders back up in her safe, along with her research notes.

In the past, not very many pages ended up in the folder for the graduating subjects. Early on in the project, her position in the school hierarchy had not yet been cemented, and it was more of what humans called the 'Wild West'. Only a few students stood out during her middle school years, and she hadn't had the reach to get much concrete information on them. They mostly just served as legacy data points for comparison once the project went into full swing.

Luckily, very few of her subjects ended up transferring out. That said, there was something worth noting that gave her grounds for concern. Last year, six girls had transferred to other schools. The year before that, it was only four, and when she was in ninth grade, only two. Compared to the boys, whose numbers stayed even at about three per year since she began, it was an unusual trend.

I might need to pay Chips a visit, she thought, glancing at the safe hidden within the ottoman where she still had a good number of Equestrian bits stored. I don't want to leap to conclusions, and his deep dives haven't led me astray in the past. She shut her little black book, and started gathering up the folders. If it turns out that I need to intervene, I'm gonna have to get Snips and Snails to start getting info on the new students, too. She was loathe to rely on them that much, but she'd rather her hooves—or rather, her hands—be free to act.

As she set the documents beside the perfect starter-hoard for a baby dragon inside her safe, she frowned. Paper records were the norm back in Equestria, but she couldn't deny that—compared to the digital databases of this world—it was a much more inefficient system. It'd be so much easier to sort and standardise her records if she could keep them all in a database, and she wouldn't even need to do things like cut pages out of her notebook to store records for references. That said, things like data architecture were more of a college/university level computer science course, and Sunset wasn't entirely convinced that she wanted to go that route.

It wasn't exactly like she could pay someone to build a database for her, either; even Micro Chips, who she regularly paid to find information online, would baulk the moment he saw she wanted fields labelled Blackmail Potential and Threat Rating in her database outline. The kid was practically a genius when it came to computers, and since she knew that he sometimes got into things like police records for her, she knew she'd have to keep everything entirely offline, lest some other nosy hacker get into her notes and started asking questions. Or using my blackmail information themselves.

Once she closed up her safe and retreated to her sofa, she clicked on the TV. Immediately, the dinnertime news began to play. Unsurprisingly, they were running what appeared to be around-the-clock coverage of the incident at Crystal Prep. Currently, the hosts were discussing theories as to what had happened over footage of shell-shocked police officers and paramedics hauling sheet-covered stretchers onto the waiting ambulances.

The ticker at the bottom of the screen declared it a mass casualty event affecting nearly 100% of the school's occupants. Casualty encompasses injuries and deaths, but they're being very careful to avoid mentioning mortality rates, she noted. Sombrely, she imagined that there wouldn't be any Friendship Games at all this school year. What does this mean for the other schools in the district, like CHS, though?

"Hold on, we've just received footage allegedly shot from inside the school during the incident," one of the talking heads suddenly announced. "Our team has done its best to clean up the video while respecting the privacy of the victims' families, but this video is nonetheless horrific. Those squeamish or with small children are advised to change the channel for the next five minutes."

Hold on, they're not really going to...

Without further warning, the TV cut to a black and white video taken in portrait format. It looked to be from someone's cell phone, and depicted several students hiding in a library behind some overturned tables. All of their faces and voices were blurred or distorted.

"What do you think's going on?" warbled one voice, whom Sunset suspected was the one recording the video. "What's with all the screaming and the lock-down?"

"It can't be a shooting," a deeper, distorted voice responded as what appeared to be a male student peered over the top of his overturned table. "You'd be able to hear shots clear across the—"

Whatever the boy was about to say was cut off as he threw himself to the floor. Something censored with a mosaic blur flew through the space his head had just occupied, and when the girl with the camera turned her perspective, she let out a strangled scream. Due to the extreme level of censorship, it was hard to tell what she was looking at, but if Sunset squinted her eyes, she thought she could make out a torso and half-severed arm...

The screen quickly panned away to the door of the library, but the sound of vomiting could still be heard. It looked as though the shadow of something had just ducked behind a nearby bookshelf, but something seemed off to the former unicorn. The lighting should have been overhead, rather than from an angle to project a long diagonal shadow across the floor. Plus, it was way too indistinct to be that of a person or an animal.

Then, all at once, it seemed as though the shadow rose up from the floor. It rushed towards the girl holding the camera, smashing through what must've been a solid oak table. The camera, or rather, the phone, crashed to the ground, facing the ceiling just in time to show a girl stepping out of frame clutching a bloody stump as both she and the young man screamed. Moments later, a distorted black mass speckled with white surged over the camera, and then the screams stopped. The video didn't end immediately, however... Instead, the tearing of flesh and the sound of something eating could be heard.

As the feed switched back to a pale-faced newscaster who was quickly hiding a paper bag, Sunset frowned. Something about the way that thing had moved didn't seem right. It almost reminded her of a video of an octopus moving inside a cloud of ink, except this was quite clearly on land, and there seemed to be way too many tendrils. "That can't possibly be real," she murmured. "At least, I hope not..."

Using the built-in DVR feature on her cable box, she rewound to the point the creature surged past the screen and then paused, hoping she could get a better look. It wasn't easy, given both the original video quality, and the compression used to put it online. The specks of white across the creature's body almost appeared to be eyes and teeth. That's not something native to this world, she thought as she leaned closer to the screen. For a split second, she thought she saw one of the frozen eye-shapes twitch, directing a blood-red iris at her, but when she blinked, nothing seemed more out-of-place than usual on the image.

When she returned to the live news feed, one of the news anchors seemed to be admonishing someone off camera. "That's irresponsible and sick!" she was yelling. "How dare you give us a student's little film project when we're covering such a serious event? You better hope your union rep thinks you're worth fighting for, or you'll never work in this industry again!"

Shaking her head, Sunset shut the TV off. There were other things that needed doing—things that wouldn't get done if she just sat there, watching television. First, she needed to drop her rent money off with her landlord, and then figure out what to have for dinner. Not only that, but she needed to start making plans for the coming weeks.

If she intended to appropriate a magical artefact for use in her experiment, it would likely mean an extended trip to Equestria. Depending on whether her adoptive mother had moved Starswirl's mirror, she might not even have enough time to locate some viable artefacts, or if she did, she might find her timeline extremely tight. The last thing she wanted was to get stuck in Equestria for however long it'd take for the portal to once again open on Equestria's side; a trip through the last time it had been open had revealed anomalies in the flow of time, after all. Around ten years had passed during the time the portals were closed, although it seemed to synchronise up while the portals were open.

Mentally, she began reviewing artefacts that might be of use. Although it was known for its corrupting influence, the Alicorn Amulet was locked away in a Royal Guard evidence locker when she left Equestria. There was also word of the Staff of Sacanas having resurfaced. Even if she couldn't get her hooves on either of those, most of Mage Meadowbrook's eight magical items were locked away in the Canterlot archive, and breaking in was trifling when she was a filly.

As she plotted, however, her mind drifted back to the video. The newscaster had dismissed it as some sort of mix-up or joke in poor taste, but that eye—even if it was a hallucination stuck with her. It felt like she'd been being watched in that specific moment. Not only that, but it reminded her of what she'd seen and felt during that fainting spell that morning.

Sunset stood proud in the centre of the bedlam, staring up at the source of it all. Where once stood a meek Crystal Prep geek now floated what could only be described as a harbinger of doom—a fallen angel, if she were so inclined to use this world's analogies. Like some twisted mockery of an alicorn, raven-black wings jutted from the back of the young woman, and a jagged teal spike of crystalised magic stood at the centre of her forehead.

Even as the foolish human used her newfound magic to create tears between universes, she fixed Sunset with a malevolent look, magic flickering like flames where once her glasses stood. "You were right!" the girl purred, as she tore at the fabric of reality like a kitten with a ball of yarn. "I didn't understand magic before, but I do now!"

The grounds in front of CHS began to crackle and flake away as more and more rips in space and time were created. Crystal Prep Academy and Canterlot High School students fled and struggled to help one another as the gaps threatened to consume them all. "Equestria!" Sunset cried as, through the massive tear in the ground, she sighted the town of Ponyville. She returned her gaze to the villain responsible for all of the havoc. "Twilight, you can't do this!"

The mocking smile that the magic-infused Twilight fixed her with would have been a challenge to her past self. Once upon a time, she'd never allow anyone to have such an expression of smug superiority. It made her want to wipe it off her face. "Why not?" crooned Twilight, gesturing at the otherworldly apertures. "There's a whole other world right there, and it's just filled with magic!"

A curious sensation washed over Sunset. Fear. There was genuine fear of what this girl could do, not just to her former home, but her new one as well. My new home? But I plan on returning to Mom when I've done what I set out to do... There was also an intense desire to protect that home. No, not just this place... all these people. "But you're destroying this world to get it!"

"So what? There's more magic there, and I want to understand it all!" she exclaimed with manic glee.

The scene shifted, and Sunset was holding a strange technological construct in her hands. It was humming and glowing slightly. Despite her fear, she stepped forward. "This isn't the way!" she pleaded. All around her, students watched her with worry and... hope? Where's all my pride and self-assuredness? Why is my tone so full of... empathy? "I know you feel powerful right now, like you can have everything you want! I've been where you are, I've made the same mistake you're making! I put on a crown and, just like you, I was overwhelmed by the magic it contained! I thought it could get me everything I wanted!"

She was so confused. Where were all of these words coming from? How had so much time passed without her knowing? Why did she feel so guilty for the one who was trying to destroy everything she'd rebuilt? Rebuilt? But I... She wanted to clutch her head in confusion, but it was like she had no control of her own body.

Again, the world shifted. Despite the bright white void that surrounded herself and the power-drunk human, there was no fear now. She felt so warm and safe—so powerful. She could feel herself brimming with magic. Not even in Equestria had she felt so energised.

The same could not be said for the dark one, who practically curled in on herself. Cowering in the all-consuming light, it almost seemed as though this place was causing her immense pain. It made a strange sort of sense; creatures of darkness often fled the light, and if the magic that Twilight had stolen was reacting with the darkness in her heart, why wouldn't she cringe away?

Reaching out a gloved hand—Since when do I wear gloves?—to the human, she said with a sympathetic voice, "Take my hand, Twilight. Let me show you there's another way... just like someone once did for me." It sounded strange to her ears, as though it were somehow older—almost motherly in a way that reminded her of Princess Celestia.

The manic look was gone from Twilight's eyes when she looked to Sunset. Rather than the eyes of someone who wanted to tear down reality itself to see how it worked, and the consequences be damned, these were the eyes of what she really was deep down inside: a scared little girl who had never known the warmth of friendship. She eyed Sunset's offered hand with suspicion, but when she sensed no deceit in her gaze, she reluctantly accepted it.

An orange, purifying flame washed up Twilight's arm when the two touched. Her fear bled away, and it no longer looked like the mere act of existence caused her pain. Her pitch-black wings and the crystalline horn burned away into flecks of darkness.

All light faded and gave way to darkness, and she could no longer see her own limbs. She wasn't even entirely sure she was still herself. There was just a sense of nothingness—of being alone—and yet there was also some sort of pressure bearing down on her. She was now sure that it was a dream of some sort... so why wasn't she waking up? Wasn't that how things worked? Didn't dreams usually end when you became aware that you were dreaming?

"No! I will not accept this!" It was such a quiet voice that she barely even noticed it. Then, it noticed her. All around her in the darkness, she could see countless eyes staring at her. "If I can't have her, maybe you will do instead." More than that, though, it felt like something was reaching for her... grasping at her very being with icy tendrils.

As the cold pierced her body and began to spread, Sunset felt a wave of helplessness rush through her. It was all she could do to not writhe in agony and impotent rage. All sorts of unfamiliar thoughts and feelings clashed inside her head as she mentally pushed back against the invading presence—two distinct tracks of thought. One insisted on seizing power enacting her darkest desires upon the world, that if she should just seize power for herself and force all mankind under her hoof. The other had that familiar and yet out-of-character tone, pleading with her to protect her friends and peers. It insisted that there was good in this world, and should she succumb to this darkness, there would be nothing left to save.

Perhaps it was hearing her own voice in that second train of thought, Sunset found her strength. Warm amber flames surrounded her, pushing back the darkness. It almost reminded her of her own magic, yet it struck her as more akin to what she'd seen purify Twilight. It gave her hope that she would not become like that crystal prep student.

"Get out of my head!" she bellowed with such force that the force that had been pressing in on her body and mind retreated. Greedy for the extra space, the flames surged out to keep the void at bay. "Get out of my dreams!"

"It is no matter," the voice in the darkness whispered her ears. Even as the pitch black void faded away to reveal her foalhood bedroom, she could yet feel its presence. "Humans are full of dark desires just waiting to be unleashed. They may not be as powerful as you, but even they can make for useful hosts."

Sunset stood there, still entirely human, with her hands balled up into fists as she scanned the ornate bedroom for any sign of the darkness. While there were plenty of photos of her and adoptive mother, and knickknacks only a foal would value everywhere, there was zero indication that it lingered. In fact, as soon as she could no longer feel the presence, that protective flame died away.

The touch of a hand on her shoulder nearly startled her awake. What she saw when she turned shocked her nearly as much as everything she'd gone through thus far. Standing before her was a copy of herself. It was not exact, and it looked as though it was more of an image projected onto a cloud. The copy's hair flowed as if caught by breeze, just as her mother's did, and a glowing white spire of energy jutted from her forehead like a horn. Her outfit consisted of a pink and white dress, gold armlets bearing her cutie mark, and familiar white gloves. Weirder still was the pair of ethereal wings fanned out behind her.

"It's not too late, you know, " her doppelganger said with a tired look. "There's still time to do the right thing, Sunset... and Mom might not approve of our methods, but if you fix our mess and tell her you're sorry, she'll forgive you." As soon as the words left her mouth, her copy began to break into tiny motes of life. "I've done all I can to protect you... Everything is in your hands now."

Sunset Shimmer awoke in a cold sweat. If not for the fact that her body seemed completely paralysed, she probably would have screamed. Probably for the best that she couldn't; Nurse Redheart tolerated a lot, but waking up to Sunset having a nightmare might convince the school nurse to reassess their arrangement. She certainly didn't relish the thought of getting a new apartment at the start of the school year.

Instead, she simply lay there, puzzling over everything she'd experienced. If not for the fact that she rarely ever had dreams that vivid, she could easily dismiss it as just that—a vivid dream, or perhaps a nightmare. So what in the world was that? A vision of things to come? A warning?

Slowly, as the sleep paralysis wore off, she sat up in bed and shook her head, as though that action could somehow free her mind of the intrusive emotions and thoughts. Why do I need to do any of that? My research is starting to bear fruit, and the conclusion of phase one is nearly at hand.

That's what she wanted to believe, but whatever it was that had just happened, it stirred something inside her that she hadn't felt in a long time—guilt. Maybe it was her copycat's words, or the way the Canterlot High students were looking at her in that dream, but it made her question if she was doing the right thing. What would people even say if they read my research notes, the project outline, my hypothesis, and all the data I've gathered? It stung, because she knew exactly what people would do. They would compare her to monsters like Mengele or Wirths.

None would see what she was truly trying to achieve, and any attempt to explain it would likely land her in an asylum. Humans believed magic to be mere folklore and the subject of fantasy, and they didn't have the concepts or the belief needed to comprehend cutie marks. Their value and the benefit they could have for mankind was lost on them without some sort of proof, and the last thing she wanted to do was expose Equestria to this world before its people were ready for it. It would just turn into one of the bloodiest resource grabs in human or Equestrian history.

When a glance at her alarm clock revealed it to only be quarter to three in the morning, she decided to lie back down and return to her sleep. She didn't know what to think about that dream/vision/whatever, as she didn't personally believe in that sort of thing. Sunset would have loved to have just dismissed it as nothing, but something about it felt important somehow.

Rolling onto her side and nuzzling her pillow, she murmured, "Luckily I have someone into occultism and fortune telling whose brain I can pick."

Author's Note

Don't worry. There are more survivors than the 100% casualty rate might make you believe.