That night, students gathered back to school for the Fall Formal. They were dressed in their best attire. The girls and Spike took a limousine, courtesy of Rachael. After they exited and made their way to the entrance, Flynn made his way to Twilight.

“Flynn!” Twilight said once she saw him. “I wanted to say thank you for your help earlier today, but, I was so worried that the Fall Formal wasn’t going to happen tonight that I ran off without thinking.”

“I’m glad to help and don’t worry about it,” Flynn said. “Would you like to dance with me tonight?”

Twilight found herself tongue-tied. After she had a moment of clarity, she cleared her throat and said, “Yes.”

Flynn grinned. The girls all giggled and began to whisper to one another.

Inside the Fall Formal, students were dancing happily. Though, Twilight couldn’t help but wonder and worry about Susan.

“Has anybody seen Susan?” she asked Roxy, trying to make her voice heard over the loud music.

“Maybe she’s too embarrassed to show,” Roxy answered. “Since you’re the only one in the running now, she figured why bother?”

“Yeah, maybe,” Twilight said, biting her lip. She wished she felt as confident about winning as Roxy.

A short time later, Principal Celeste took the stage and spoke into a microphone. The music was lowered so her voice could be heard.

“I want to thank all of you for coming to this year’s Fall Formal,” she announced. “All of you have done such an incredible job fixing things up in here after the disastrous incident that occurred earlier. Now, it is my great honor to announce this year’s Princess of the Fall Formal. Your Fall Formal Princess is… Twilight Sparkle!”

The students cheered loudly. Twilight smiled modestly as she walked onto the stage. Vice Principal Luna opened a storage box and Principal Celeste took the crown out of it. She then placed it on Twilight’s head and it shimmered brilliantly. The second it touched her hair, Twilight felt an instant wave of relief wash over her. Everypony was going to be safe now. She would go back through the portal tonight and home to Equestria as planned. Harmony would be restored. But, the good feelings didn’t last for long.

“Help!” Spike cried.

Twilight turned her attention to Spike’s voice. She could see the dog being wrangled by Skip and Sheldon, who, for the Fall Formal, were dressed in a t-shirt with a tuxedo print, blue jeans, and sneakers and a bowtie over his shirt respectively. Seeing Spike being taken away against his will caused her maternal instincts to kick in.

“They got Spike!” Twilight yelled, running off of the stage to catch up to Skip and Sheldon. Twilight’s human friends sensed the distress and followed after her. Once in the hallway, Twilight’s motherly protectiveness over Spike caused her to blurt out the first thing that came to her head. “Get your hands off my son!”

“What did she say?” Sheldon asked.

“Just keep running!” Skip commanded. “She’s trying to confuse us!”

“Well, it’s working,” Sheldon said.

Skip and Sheldon kept running until they met up with Susan. She was waiting for them and Twilight with a sledgehammer.

“That’s close enough, bitch,” Susan said.

Twilight looked to Spike, seeing him look more scared than she’d ever seen him.

“Mama!” Spike cried out.

“Don’t hurt him!” Twilight ordered Susan.

“Oh, I wouldn’t dream of it, Twilight,” Susan said. “I’m not a monster.”

“That’s a matter of perspective, Susan,” called a familiar voice. All the girls directed their attention to see the owner of the voice, who was holding Spike in her arms with the human boys unconscious on the ground. It was none other than Sunset Shimmer.

“Sunset!” Twilight called with a smile. “Oh, thank you! You’re a lifesaver!”

“What the f*ck?!” Susan exclaimed. “But, how?! I thought I gave you the Essence of Lavender in your tea this morning!”

“That’s the thing,” Sunset said. “You did. I’ve gained an immunity to it.”

“WHAT?!” Susan exclaimed.

“It’s called the tolerance effect,” Sunset explained as she took Spike to Twilight. “If doses aren't taken at least a week apart from each other, the consumer steadily builds a tolerance to it. You’ve been giving me a dose every morning for a whole year.”

Susan stammered with ever growing frustration. But, she then took a deep breath and spoke to Twilight. “This changes nothing. You don’t belong here, Twilight. Neither do you, Sunset. Give me the crown and you can go back to Equestria tonight. Or, you can keep it and never go home.”

Sunset faced Susan defiantly. “If I had known you would use my research in such a way, I would have destroyed it myself!”

“Choose your next words carefully, Sunset,” Susan taunted. “You see what I’m about to do, don’t you?”

“You’re bluffing, Susan,” Sunset said, reaching for a nearby rock. “If you tried with the portal still open, it would just enter Equestria.” To prove her point, Sunset threw the rock at the portal as hard as she could. The rock disappeared, but, the wall on the statue base had no visible damage.

“It went right through!” Rachael said.

Meanwhile, in Equestria, Rainbow was pacing in front of the Crystal Mirror when suddenly, the rock Sunset through flew out and hit her in the side of the head.*

“Ow!” Rainbow yelped. “Who threw that?!”

Back in the human world, Sunset looked determined.

“So, you better back off!” she snapped at Susan.

Susan grunted in anger. “At this point it doesn’t matter if you fall for my bluff or not! In less than an hour, the portal will close on its own!” In her anger, she tried to attack them with the hammer. However, Sunset used the extendable golf club she was carrying in her jacket’s inner pocket to block the strike. “What the hell are you doing?!” Susan demanded.

“Something I should have done a long time ago!” Sunset answered. “Standing up to you!”**

With a single swing of her golf club, Sunset managed to disarm Susan of her sledgehammer.

“You are never going to get this crown, Susan,” Twilight said sternly. “It rightfully belongs to me and my friends and I will ensure that it stays on my head. You captured my son and let me tell you, I’m this close to F*CKING YOU!!!”

That outburst caused all but Pinkie (who cocked an eyebrow with a smug grin) to look at her with expressions that said, “What did she just say?”

“Well…” said a flustered Rachael. “This got somewhat interesting.”

“Uh, Twi,” Roxy whispered to Twilight. “You’re supposed to add an ‘up’ to the end of that.”

“Why would that make a difference?” Twilight asked. Roxy whispered the explanation in Twilight’s ear, leaving the purple girl to blush. “Oh…”***

Out of everything I was expecting to happen, Susan thought to herself. That wasn’t on the list.

“You’ve lost, Susan,” Sunset said.

“Like hell!” Susan said before tackling Twilight to the ground.

“Oof!” Twilight interjected.

Sunset managed to kick Susan off Twilight while Spike ran off with the crown in his teeth. At that point, Skip and Sheldon regained consciousness.

“Don’t listen to her, brothers,” Tyler said.

“Tyler!” Skip exclaimed. “We were just doing this for you!”

“Yeah!” Sheldon exclaimed. “She was saying that your grades were going to get lower!”

“I’ve been onto her from the start,” Tyler said. “I’ve been working behind the scenes to get you out of her service.”

“Get the damn dog, you idiots!” Susan shouted.

“Oh, no, you don’t!” Roxy yelled. “Pass it to me, Spike!”

Spike did so just as he saw Susan’s shadow creeping over him.

“Don’t worry, Twi!” Roxy called. “I’ll get this back to you!”

“Not if we have anything to say about it!” Skip said, intercepting Roxy.

“Uh, what do we have to say about it?” Sheldon asked obliviously.

“Fauna, catch!” Roxy called, seeing Fauna. She tossed the crown to her and Fauna caught it.

Fauna began shaking timidly as she saw Susan coming straight for her. However, Ashleigh pulled a lasso out of her dress pocket and twirled it, snagging the crown out of Fauna’s hands. Pinkie quickly caught it. As Skip and Sheldon charged after her, Phoebe flew in circles around them until they bumped into each other. Susan took notice.

“Ugh!” she groaned. “I hate that damn bird!” She spotted another small stone. She grinned before picking it up and throwing it a Phoebe. “Eat sh*t, you glorified pigeon!”

Phoebe saw the rock coming and caught it with her talons before throwing it safely to the side. She then divebombed towards Susan, causing the human to jump out of the way.

“Good girl, Phoebe!” Sunset praised the red bird.

After what was essentially an elaborate game of keep away, the crown ended up in Susan’s hands.

“I’ll take that!” she declared.

“Susan, don’t!” Sunset pleaded. “You don't know what it'll do!”

Susan gave a deranged grin. “That's rich coming from you! You came to this world to avoid the consequences of your failures in making your own Elements of Harmony.”

“I've come to realize I was wrong,” Sunset responded. “I've been running for the last three years. That ends tonight!” She charged at Susan, but, was too late to stop her from donning the crown. Upon doing so, Sunset was blown back by a burst of energy that erupted from Susan. “Dark magic!” she gasped as Susan screamed in sheer agony.

The dark magic pulled Susan up by a pillar of light as dark rings swirled around her. Susan was overwhelmed by the power of the magic as a strange metamorphosis overcame her. When the pillar of light died down, the sight that remained was terrifying.

Author's Note

Here's the next chapter.

*

**Amphibia reference FTW!

***Hazbin Hotel reference.

Comments? Questions? Thoughts? You know where to leave them.