Adagio Dazzle had no idea what King Discord was up to, but she wasn't taking any chances and prepared to attack him. But before she could land a blow, Discord simply raised his hand. The siren suddenly stopped, unable to take a step closer no matter how hard she tried. Before she could ask herself what was going on, she was pressed against the wall; Adagio tried to move, but it was like she was completely paralyzed from the neck down. Sonata tried to help Adagio while Aria rushed toward him - both were also thrown against the same wall, unable to move like their bodies were glued to it.

Once Discord was done dealing with the three girls, his body began to change: an antler horn and a blue, twisted horn sprouted from his head, the sclera of his eyes turned yellow, his nails grew longer and sharper, as well as his right canine, and he grew a red snake tail with a tuft of white hair on the tip.

"Remember when I said the relic Sombrero and I were after was gone? Well, I may have found it before him and shoved it inside my pocket." he approached Sunset Shimmer and raised his hand again, but this time to show off the jewelry on his finger. "After all, he already had so many of these artifacts, why not have one of my own? And I couldn't have asked for anything better; once I put this on I feel so young, so energetic, so..." he took a deep breath. "...powerful!"

"You look hideous, though." Sunset said.

"Hmph! A little price to pay. Besides, it's not permanent. I just need to take this off and I'll be handsome again!"

"Then take it off."

"Nice try, little girl, but no!" he turned to look at the Dazzlings. "I still have unfinished business."

A soft clink noise was heard, followed by a muttered "Crap!" Discord raised an eyebrow and walked toward Trixie - he noticed that the thick rope around her wrists had been partially cut. The king squatted and grabbed a tiny scalpel that was lying on the floor behind her.

"Well, well, well. Trying to go somewhere, dear?" he got up and pressed the blade to Trixie's throat. "A clever plan, to use my moment of distraction to cut your binds. Too bad you're clumsy and your plan failed!"

"You're wrong, actually." Trixie said with a smug grin. "The plan wasn't for me to free myself while you were distracted. The plan was for me to distract you!"

Sunset Shimmer grabbed King Discord's shoulder, turned him around and punched him in the face.

"You better believe, I got tricks up my sleeve~!" Sunset Shimmer sang as she proudly twirled her own scalpel between her index and middle fingers.

"That's copyright infringement." Trixie said with a frown.

"You call that a punch?" Discord asked as he got up again, dusting his clothes.

"Well, you fell down!" Sunset pointed out.

"I just lost balance, that's all. You're not that big a deal!"

"Then the next punch is gonna knock you out for sure!" Sunset clenched her fist and prepared to attack him again, but Discord simply raised his hand. It felt like she was running against the strongest gust of wind ever created - so strong that she could barely move. The king grinned evilly.

"There's nothing you can do, Maiden Do Well." he said. "This battle was decided the moment I put the ring on." Sunset Shimmer wiped the grin off his face by taking a step forward. It was the second hardest step she had ever taken in her life - the first being her first step as a human being - but she did it. Discord groaned, then increased the power. Sunset was pushed a few feet away from him, but she was still standing strong and far away from the wall, unlike the still trapped Dazzlings.

"You call this magic?" she said with a smirk. "My magic was stronger than that when I was in magic kindergarten!"

Discord kept trying harder to push Sunset Shimmer away, but she just kept getting closer, one step at a time. When she was finally close enough, she reached her hand and grabbed his ring, which began to glow brighter. Discord laughed.

"Fool!" he said with an evil smile. "You feel for my trap! When the ring is activated, whoever touches it besides the person who is wearing it dies immediately!"

The red glow of the ring turned golden, which confused King Discord. The golden glow then surrounded Sunset Shimmer's body completely.

"This... This has never happened before! What is going on?"

Sunset's body absorbed the golden energy coming out of the ring, which caused changes to her body, similar to Discord's, though not quite the same: she grew a pair of pony ears and a tail, but unlike when she transformed during the Battle Of The Bands, her tail wasn't an extension of her hair, but an actual tail sprouting from her lower back, sticking out from under her black leather jacket. Another major change to happen to her body was the unicorn horn protruding from her forehead.

She raised her hand to touch her horn with the tips of her fingers. She closed her eyes and sighed in happiness when she felt magic flowing through it once again since the last time she visited Equestria.

"I missed you a lot!" she said, her eyes still closed.

"Wh-What is the meaning of this?" Discord yelled. "Normal humans die when they touch my ring! You're supposed to be dead!"

"Let me tell you a secret, Your Highness." she said, opening her eyes as her horn started to glow green. "I am not a normal human!" the same green glow surrounded King Discord's body as Sunset lifted him from the ground with her magic.

"And you were right, you know? This battle really was decided the moment you put the ring on. You might have had a chance against me if you were using your sword or your gun. A small chance, but a chance nonetheless. But now that I can use my magic in this world? You no longer stand a chance! I was Princess Celestia's personal student, the strongest unicorn of my generation. You're just an old geezer who stumbled across some nice jewelry!"

"You talk too much." Discord said as he assumed a fighting stance. "Now face me!"

"In mortal combat." Sunset added as she assumed a fighting stance as well.

Since Trixie, Aria, Sonata, Adagio and Cheerilee were all still trapped, they could do nothing but watch as their ally fought their enemy. Physically, their capabilities were equal; each one of King Discord's strikes were blocked and countered by Sunset Shimmer, and vice versa, but their magical capabilities had yet to be compared.

"You may have had more years than me to practice, but your harness your magic like a weapon." Sunset said. "But my magic is a part of me. My magic is who I am! And you cannot beat me."

"That we shall see!" Discord tried to punch her one more time, but Sunset held his fist in place with her magic. She pulled him closer to try and kick him away, but he used his magic to erect a barrier between her foot and his stomach, then used his free hand to punch her in the stomach.

"Knowledge is good, but experience is always better!" he tried to hit her again, but Sunset pushed him away with her magic. Using this opportunity, she charged an offensive spell: she shot a beam of green energy from her horn, which Discord countered with a beam of red energy from his ring. The two beams clashed in the middle, each trying to overpower the other. Sunset struggled, but Discord smiled, unfazed.

"What's the matter, Maiden?" he asked. "Can't keep up? I thought my experience was no match for your raw talent! But what's this? You try your hardest, yet I still have the upper hand!"

Sunset Shimmer chuckled. "Your magic may be powerful, but I have something far more powerful than it; something that you lack."

"Oh, really? And what is that?"

Sonata jumped on his back while Aria and Adagio immobilized both his arms.

"She has us!" Sonata said with her usual upbeat tone.

"She means friendship." Adagio corrected.

"You were trapped! All of you! How did you escape?"

"Like I said, your magic is powerful; but you lack finesse." Sunset explained. "You were so focused on defeating me that you lost focus on them. I was wrong. You can beat me. But I'm sure as heck this time: you cannot beat us!"

"How many wars have you won?" Aria asked. "You should know by now that true strenght lies in numbers!"

"I will not be defeated by a bunch of high schoolers!" using his magic, Discord floated a few inches above the ground and started to spin around at a high speed, forcing the sirens to let go of him. By the time was done gyrating, Sunset had already freed Trixie and both cut the ropes that tied Cheerilee to the chair.

"Take her to somewhere safe." Sunset instructed. "Things will get ugly here!"

Trixie, though saddened that she was being left out of the action, complied and ran out of the warehouse with their teacher.

"And where do you think you're going, Trixie Lulamoon?" Discord asked. "I have unfinished business with you as well!"

He tried to prevent their escape, but Sunset Shimmer prevented that by erecting a wall of flames between him and them.

"Get ready, Discord! I'm more used to channeling magic through this body, I can use my more advanced spells already!"

"Like a toddler learning how to stand!" Discord said. He then raised his hand, a movement that extinguished the flames. "But still no match for an adult like me."

"Adagio! Aria! Sonata! I need you to keep him busy for a moment."

"Got it!" Adagio said.

Together, Sonata and Aria tried to punch him at the same time, so Discord grabbed both their fists. Using that moment of distraction, Adagio tried to kick him, but Discord blocked her foot with his own. While they fought, Sunset channeled one of her most powerful spells, which she was unable to complete since Discord used Aria as a projectile, throwing her against the horned girl and breaking her concentration. He did the same to Adagio, but this time using Sonata as a weapon.

The girls weren't about to give up, though, so they kept attacking Discord; Aria and Adagio from the front, fighting his arms and legs, and Sonata from behind, trying to get past his always vigilant tail. Sunset restarted charging that spell while Discord fought his way toward her.

"Give up, Sunset Shimmer. You are merely buying yourself a few more moments in the land of the living. Your effort is worthless. Sooner or later, you will die by my hand!"

"Don't be so sure, your majesty!" Discord pushed all three girls aside and reached for Sunset Shimmer. He was about to grab her by the neck, but a vortex of flames protected her body. "Spell's done! Too bad! For you."

Sunset Shimmer emerged from the vortex. Her eyes glowed yellow and her hair and tail had completely turned into flames, but she didn't look to be in pain - in fact, she was smiling.

"Princess Celestia taught me this spell." she said. "She said she felt I was mature enough to learn it. Sadly, at the time, she was wrong. But I am ready now! And you're about to feel it. Girls, I'm thankful for your assistance but I really think you should leave."

"Leave? Why? And why now?" Aria asked, a little indignant but mostly confused.

"This spell is too powerful. I don't think this warehouse will be still standing after I'm done, and I don't want any of you to get hurt. Or worse!"

Adagio looked at Aria and Sonata. They all nodded and headed for the exit.

"Kick his sorry butt, Sunny!" Sonata cheered before leaving the building.

"All pointless, if you ask me." King Discord said while stroking his beard. "Once I am done with you and Ms. Lulamoon, I am most definitely going after them as well. But don't worry, my attention is all yours right now!"

Sunset cracked her knuckles. "Good! I wouldn't want you to miss a second of it."

Sunset pointed her horn at Discord, then cast a fireball barrage spell. Discord managed to avoid some and stopped others in place with his magic, but some of them landed on her target; the flames tore holes in his coat and scorched his skin, but the pain wasn't enough to slow Discord down, so he used his magic to merge all the fireballs he had collected, creating one massive fireball.

"Here's your change!" Discord said as he shot the fireball back at Sunset, who smiled as her fiery hair absorbed Discord's counterattack.

"Thank you, sir, may I have another?" Sunset asked with a cocky smile as the flames on her hair and tail grew larger.

Adagio, Trixie, Sonata, Cheerilee, Aria and Discord's driver were watching the warehouse from around 100m away, with Tirek and Chrysalis still unconscious and tied up next to them.

"What are you even doing here with us, anyway?" Aria asked the girl with the propeller hat. "Aren't you on their side?"

"I was feeling lonely inside that big, empty car!" she said with a smile.

"I think something is--" Adagio wasn't able to finish her sentence because flames erupted from all the exits of the warehouse; windows, doors, even the wooden roof was burned to the ground.

"Whoa, she wasn't kidding." Sonata said. "That was one mean spell!"

"Is... Is she...?" Trixie asked with a shaky voice.

"Nah, she wouldn't die on us like that." Aria said with a smile, pointing at the door of the warehouse.

Sunset Shimmer, who was using her magic to protect her and the man she was dragging by the cape from the flames, exited the building with a smile on her face. Trixie let out a sigh of relief. They all ran to meet her halfway.

"I don't think he'll be bothering us anytime soon." she said.

"So, do these come off?" Sonata asked, pointing at Sunset's horn and tail.

"Only one way to find out!" Sunset kneeled and removed King Discord's ring. Immediately, Discord's horns and tail disappeared, and so did Sunset Shimmer's, as well as her pony ears. "I guess that's a yes."

"Yeah, you look much better without those, anyway!" Adagio said and Sunset Shimmer giggled.

"You girls are... Are... You..." Miss Cheerilee said.

"Yes. We are!" Aria said, glaring at Miss Cheerilee and shaking her fist in a very menacing way. "And you better keep your mouth shut, or else--"

"Or else nothing, Aria!" Sunset said while lowering her friend's fist. "But we would really appreciate if you didn't told anyone, Miss Cheerilee! Things would get very complicated if our secret identities were exposed. The police would want to ask questions, the bad guys would go after not only us but our loved ones as well, and I don't even know Trixie's parents, neither how they would react!"

"More like 'overreact'." Trixie added.

"Uh..." before Cheerilee could give them a reply, they heard sirens of firetrucks and police cruisers approaching.

"Time to bounce!" Sonata said.

"Agreed." Adagio said, then each of the five girls ran in a different direction, leaving a confused teacher and the driver behind.

"And what do we do now?" Cheerilee asked.

"Do you even ask? We run!" the propeller hat girl grabbed Cheerilee's wrist and giggled as she skipped away with her.

All five girls regrouped in the apartment shared by the three Dazzlings, where they spent the night. The next day, they sat in front of the TV, waiting to hear news about the outcome of their last mission and what happened to King Discord and his lackeys.

"Yesterday was craaaaazy, huh?" Sonata said as she opened a soda can.

"Let's just hope it never happens again, ok?" Trixie said.

"Shhhhh, quiet, you! They're talking about it!" Adagio said, pointing at the TV screen.

The screen showed a woman next to a police car in front of the warehouse. It was no longer burning, but the scars from last night's incident were still there.

"The police has no leads on who caused the fire or what started it, but they believe that it has something related to another crime that took place here."

"Another crime?" Aria asked as she looked at Sunset, who just shrugged.

The image of the reporter was replaced with a mugshot of the mercenary Tirek.

"Last night, a murder ocurred in this same port. The victim has been identified a Tirek, a hitman and ex-marine wanted in dozens of countries for several different kinds of violent crimes, including kidnapping, torture and murder. The investigators believe that the possibility of the killer's identity also being the arsonist's identity is very high."

"He's dead?" Aria said, surprised.

"They didn't said anything about the spy lady or the king dude." Sonata pointed out. "Do you think they did it then skedaddled?"

"Oh, horseapples." Sunset said. "I knew I should have tied King Discord up before leaving!"

"What do you think he's planning to do?" Trixie asked.

"Probably planning on getting this back." Sunset said as she reached into her pocket and grabbed the magic ring that Discord had. "But now he knows that there's more than two Maidens, so all of you must not lower your guard. At any time!"

"I'm not sitting here and doing nothing." Adagio said as she got up. "I'm going back to Sunset's, to check if he was caught on camera."

"Wait, I'm going with you!" Sunset got up, then turned to face the other three girls. "We don't know who, when or where we might get attacked, so I don't want anyone going anywhere on their own, alright?"

They all nodded, accepting the new rule, so Adagio and Sunset left.

A few miles away from there, thousands of feet above the ocean, King Discord sat in his private plane, looking through the window.

"Those meddling kids will pay for getting in the way of my revenge." he grumbled. "Just you wait, Maidens. Next time, I'll come back with more than two poor excuses of a hitman and get the job done right." Discord raised an eyebrow when he noticed that his plane was losing altitute, and fast. "Hey! Screwball! We're flying too low, you clumsy fool."

The person wearing the pilot's uniform was not Screwball; it was the person he was sure he had shot a bullet through the heart: Agent Chrysalis.

"You?! Bu-But how?! I-I shot you!"

"I guess your hand was pretty shaky, because you missed my heart by a mile. Advice: next time, aim for the head. Except for the part that there won't be a 'next time'!"

"You... You..." Discord reached for his holster, but it was empty.

"Looking for something?" she asked as she dangled his gun in front of her face.

"Screwball, assistance, please!" he called, but no reply came. "Screwball, that's an order!"

"Don't waste your breath, she is not here. We left her in Canterlot Town. It's just you and me in here! Which makes things much easier." she opened the luggage compartment and removed two items from it: a parachute and a suitcase.

"Do you remember the contract you signed? The one that said that if my client betrayed the complete trust I was placing on him or her, said client would become my next target? Well, you paid me in advance so, as a thanks, I'll give you a chance: you have a few minutes before this thing lands in the ocean. Now is the best time to learn how to pilot an aircraft!" Chrysalis opened the door and waved at him before jumping out.

"CHRYSALIIIIIIIIIIS!" he yelled.

Agent Chrysalis fell with a smile on her face. No matter how many times she jumped out of aircrafts, the sensation of flying without the help of machines was always a pleasant sensation. She took her time to deploy the parachute, then gently landed on the surface of the water. Inside the suitcase, there was an inflatable boat, a lifesaver vest and a 3-piece oar. Once she was done setting the boat, she sat there and watched as Discord's personal plane plunged to the depths of the blue ocean, destroying all the evidence about her connection with King Discord and his little scheme.

"As entertaining as that was, I now have to row." she said as she checked her GPS. "Not that far from the main land. If I row on a steady pace - and if the weather remains clear..." she did some calculations in her head. "Yes, I can make it!" Agent Chrysalis then started to row as she hummed the row, row, row your boat song. "Should have brought a snack."

Author's Notes:

In case you're wondering, yes, King Discord raising his hand to use his power is another Quercus Alba reference!

Have I mentioned that I like Ace Attorney?
And Sunsagio, as you can see by the eety beety teeny tiny Sunsagio hint I added. I am such a helpless shipper!
So, what do you think of this sequel? Definitely not my best job, but not even close to being the worst. Leave your opinion down there! I love reading comments!