Ch. 6: Welcome, Crystal Prep

Later in the gym, the Wondercolts were throwing a "Welcome Back" party for the visiting Crystal Prep students, but if you could see it for yourself, you'd know it didn't really look much like a party. The students of the two schools were on separate sides of the gym eyeing each other distrustfully. In the hall, the team was talking about what happened outside.

"What do you mean the portal's gone?" asked Knuckles.

"We mean it's gone!" said Sunset.

"It sealed itself up somehow," said Shadow as he opened the door to the gym.

"How'd that happen?" asked Sonic.

"I dunno, but it has something to do with that Twilight." said Sunset, pointing at the girl in question across the gym, who was trying to get another reading out of her amulet.

"What in tarnation is she up to?" asked Applejack.

"I don't know, but I'm gonna find out," said Sunset. She was about to go over to her but Shadow stopped her.

"Leave this to me. I can squeeze a confession out of highly trained military operatives. This is nothing." he said and walked up behind her. "Twilight. What have you been up to?"

"Me? Oh, I was just, uh-" she said.

"Who wants to know?" asked Indigo Zap, getting in Shadow's face.

"The guy with a gun strapped to his leg," said Rainbow, as Shadow held his hand over the handle of his M1911.

"Yeah right. That thing's totally fake," said Indigo. Shadow quickly drew it from the holster and fired it into the ceiling, leaving a sizable bullet hole. "I stand corrected."

"All right everyone," said Applejack. "Let's not get too competitive before the games even start."

"The games aren't really competitive since we've never lost." said Sugarcoat.

"Who asked you?" asked Sonic.

"That's not a very nice thing to say," said Fluttershy.

"Yeah well, I'm not really very nice around competition of any sort." said Sonic.

"Besides, these games aren't about being nice," said Sunny.

"Kinda defeats the purpose of the name," said Silver.

"Well, you might use a little tact," said Rarity. Twilight tried backing away from everything but then bumped into Pinkie Pie.

"Hi! I'm Pinkie Pie," she said, extending a hand.

"Oh. Hi. I'm Twilight." she said accepting. Then when Pinkie shook it, she messed up Twilight's hair and threw her glasses out of skew.

"I know. You look just like my friend. Her name is Twilight too." said Pinkie.

"That's… weird," said Twilight, fixing herself.

"Uh, Pinkie? Little too much info," said Manic. Then he looked and saw Twilight's amulet. "What the heck's that?"

"It's sort of a spectrometer. I built it to track EM frequencies, but it can also contain anomalies." Pinkie just smiled and blinked at her and Manic was… Well, he may be a mechanic, but he never worked with this sort of tech before.

"I have no idea what you just said," he said.

"It measures things," said Twilight.

"Oh see, there we go." said Manic.

"Like the party?" asked Pinkie.

"Pfft. Call this a party? I've seen cooler stuff at a bus stop in Cincinnati. But that's a story for another time." said Manic.

"Yeah, it doesn't really look like much of a party to me." said Twilight.

"I know. Something is defiantly missing. Come on!" said Pinkie as she grabbed Twilight and zipped away. Manic quickly followed.

"Yo bro! Where ya goin'?" asked Sonic.

"Pinkie's got an idea to liven things up. Back in a minute," said Manic as he ran after her.

"Hello, everyone. I'd like to take this opportunity to greet all of our visitors from Crystal Prep Academy and welcome them to CHS," said Celestia from the stage. Meanwhile, Manic Pinkie and Twilight were straining to push in giant wrapped boxes.

"Jesus Christ, these things are heavy." said Manic.

"What in the world is in these?" asked Twilight.

"Party cannons, of course!" said Pinkie.

"I thought you said you didn't have any two years ago," said Manic.

"Yeah. I lied," said Pinkie.

"Why am I not surprised?" asked Manic.

"And lastly, I would like to recognize the twelve students that CHS has elected to compete," continued Celestia. "I don't think we could've chosen a better group to represent excellence, sportsmanship, and friendship the games stand for." Meanwhile, Pinkie was changing up the layout for the buffet, adding some serious sugar and turning on a disco ball. Then Manic slipped over to Vinyl.

"Yo sweetheart, spin this, will ya?" he asked, passing her a CD.

"Sure thing, man." said Vinyl as she loaded it.

"Let's get this party started right!" shouted Manic as Vinyl turned on a funkalicious dance beat that everyone quickly got hip to as Pinkie returned to the cannons and grabbed the firing ropes.

"Um, are you sure this is a good idea?" asked Twilight.

"Absolutely!" said Pinkie and she fired the cannons into the air, making the dreary gathering of winners and losers into a full-blown Party Central.

"Yeah, now this is what I'm talkin' bout!" said Manic as he and the team started grooving in the middle of the gym.

"Man, hope wood shop is one of the events, then we can enter my Persian birdhouse," said Shadow, holding up a sweet birdhouse modeled after a Persian villa with a fountain out front. Then a parakeet stuck his head out.

"Hey! Tweet, tweet," it said in a Persian accent, pointing to the fountain. "Check out my expensive fountain!"

"Dude, that is awesome! When did you make this?" asked Sonic.

"Last week. Rouge insisted on it," said Shadow. Then he saw Pinkie gain her ears and tail and give off a bright pink sparkling aura before she started hovering.

"Oooh! Floaty!" she said. Manic just stared at her in shock. Then Twilight's amulet opened and siphoned in Pinkie's power, dropping her to the ground as she powered down.

"Awww," said Pinkie as she ran out of energy and leaned against the wall.

"You all right?" asked Manic.

"I am party-pooped." Pinkie groaned. Then a stray bolt of white lightning shot out of the amulet and went under the bleacher, revealing an opening to Equestria. Quickly, Twilight shut her amulet, thus closing the vortex. Silver sensed it and gripped his head.

"AAH!" he groaned.

"You all right, Silver?" asked Rarity. He was about to answer but his headache disappeared.

"I sensed something. I'm sure of it," he said. Then Principal Cinch tapped the microphone causing a bit of feedback as the lights went back up and the music stopped.

"OW!" shouted Sonic, gripping his ears. "Buzzkill!"

"I'd like to thank Principal Celestia for her unconventional welcome," she said, cleaning her glasses. "It's been four years since the last Friendship Games, but it feels as though nothing has changed."

"Oh, aren't you in for a surprise?" Sonia asked herself.

"Canterlot High continues to pick its competitors in a popularity contest and Crystal Prep continues to field its top twelve students," said Cinch. "It is a comfort to know that, even after so many years of losses, your school remains committed to its ideals, however misguided they may be."

"Oh yeah? Well, we'll see who's gonna be pickin' up the silver medal this time," said Sonic as Shadow gave him a leg-up onto the stage.

"Indeed, young man," said Cinch. "I suppose we will. I wish you all the best of luck, regardless of the inevitable outcome."

"Oh believe me. Your winning streak's break is completely evitable," said Sonic.

"Is that even a word?" whispered Silver. Shadow just shrugged. Once Cinch left, Sonic backflipped off the stage right to the others where Manic was helping Pinkie Pie back to the others.

"Sorry, Pinkie," said Applejack. "I thought your party additions were really swell."

"They defiantly broke the ice." said Fluttershy.

"Yeah. Too bad that Cinch had to go all liquid nitrogen and refreeze it," said Silver.

"Yeah. She's awful," said Pinkie.

"Jeez. Pinkie, what happened to you?" asked Sunset.

"I don't know. Everyone started having fun after Twilight and I fired the party cannons and I ponied-up…" said Pinkie.

"Of course you did," said Shadow, rolling his eyes.

"But then the magic just drained right out of me," said Pinkie, catching Sunset's attention.

"Wait. What do you mean it drained out of you?" she asked.

"More importantly, where's that other Twilight?" asked Knuckles.

"Oh, she's right…" said Pinkie pointing over to where she was, but she was gone. "Uh, well, she was right here."

"Where'd she go?" asked Sonic.