The next day at CHS, the sun was shining, making for another glorious day. Even so, the former Shadowbolts, Indigo, Lemon, Sunny, Sour, and Sugarcoat were all very nervous. Today was their first official day at CHS and they were hoping to make amends with everyone. They didn’t expect it to be easy, but they’d be damned if they didn’t try.

One immediate perk to attending CHS verses Crystal Prep was not having to wear those uniforms. Now they could dress in anything as long as it was within the school dress code.

Indigo now wore a pink t-shirt with an indigo cloud firing a lightning bolt on it, blue jeans, running boots, her signature goggles on her forehead, and the piercings on her ears.

Lemon now wore a pink shirt with a graphic of a lemon slice with flowers on it, yellow short shorts, and sneakers. Her hair was styled differently, still long, but now looking more punkish and spiked.

Sugarcoat wore a yellow button up shirt, with black jeans. Her belt had an emblem of a colorful stick of dynamite. She also had a bandage over her left knee due to the changeling bite from her fight in Equestria.

Sunny Flare now wore a short black jacket with the sleeves tucked up, a purple shirt with a sort of pink “partly cloudy” graphic, a pink skirt, and blue boots.

Sour Sweet wore a pink tank top, a skirt with a heart and diamond graphic on it, and green boots.

The five girls only hoped that how mean they’ve been to CHS in the past wouldn’t ruin their chances of making friends here. Hopefully it wouldn’t be an impossible endeavor.

“I’m a little nervous. You sure this will be okay?” Sunny asked.

“We’ll be fine. Besides we helped save Equest… er… something,” Indigo stammered. “Look we promised Tox we’d go through with his final wish, so I say we can do it.”

With a collective deep breath, the girls entered into the school and stood near the entrance doors to wait for their tour guide. Eventually, they showed up, and to their surprise, it was Adagio, one of their friends and allies from the war in Equestria.

“Hello there, former Shadowbolts. I take it you’re all prepared for your first day?” Adagio asked.

The five of them smiled and nodded. Adagio then led them through the school, leading them to each of the major locations.

“So Adagio, have you been to this school before?” Sunny asked.

“That’s kind of a dumb question Sunny. Clearly she has if she knows her way around here.” Sugarcoat responded.

“Well to answer that question, Flare, yes I have,” Adagio said. “Two years ago, we actually attended this school for a couple of days to try and obtain our power back to rule again. It didn’t go so well, but those were the old days for my sisters and I. We’re not into that kind of thing anymore”

Soon, they came around a corner, and heard music playing inside one of the practice rooms. Sunny took a peek inside of the room, and saw the Rainbooms… and someone else that made her face go completely white.

“Oh no…” Sunny said.

“What, what is it?” Indigo asked.

“Look…” Sunny said, looking like she’d seen a ghost.

Indigo, Lemon, Sour, and Sugar all took a quick look, and their faces turned to similar, but less severe versions of Sunny’s face.

“Coppermane’s in there? Isn’t he the dude who jumped Neon Lights?” Lemon asked.

“That’s him,” Indigo said. “Oh yeah… he used to have a huge crush on you, didn’t he?” Indigo asked.

“Yeah… he did.” Sunny said, biting her lip.

“Oh, I remember,” Sugarcoat said. “He confessed one day, and then Indigo gave him a fake phone number, and when he tried to talk to you, you shot him down in front of everyone. He brought you flowers and everything. Didn’t you slap him in the face with them?”

“Don’t remind me…” Sunny said, covering her face.

“I mean…” Sour said, “We’re all guilty of bullying him (it was mostly Sunny though).”

“We have to talk to him, don’t we?” Sunny said.

Indigo grunted. “It’s going to be like Toxigo all over again.”

“Well at least we didn’t run him over with a car… or made him deaf… or stab one of his eyes out.” Lemon replied.

“And he is a little nicer than Toxigo. He might actually talk instead of holding us in a trapped room while pointing a weapon at us.” Sugarcoat said.

“You saw what he did to Neon, right?” Indigo said. “What if he’s got stored up frustrations with us as well?”

“At least you girls might have a chance for him to forgive you,” Sunny said. “He’ll probably never forgive me.”

“Doesn’t he have a girlfriend now?” Lemon asked.

“Yes and I influenced Neon to try and sabotage their relationship.” Sunny replied.

“Why?” Indigo asked. “Did you become jealous?”

“What? No!” Sunny said. “I never liked him like that. I just… ugh… I don’t know. I just wasn’t thinking.”

“Wow… we were really horrible to him, weren’t we?” Sour said.

“What are we going to do?” Sunny said.

“I think I might have an idea,” Adagio interjected.

“What?” the girls asked.

“Buck up,” Adagio replied bluntly.

“That’s all you have to say?” Sunny asked. “Seriously?”

“I used to be a giant sea siren that fed off of everyone’s hatred and anger to grow powerful. I’ve been here longer than any of you have, and I’ve had to apologize to everyone before we were ever allowed to attend CHS again. Now it's your turn.” Adagio replied. “You’ll have to do it at some point, so why not now? Besides, there are others in there, and they’re already your friends. If you want to apologize to him, now is the best time.”

The girls were silent, pondering amongst themselves. As much as they didn’t want to admit it, the former siren was right. If there was ever a time to make amends with their former enemy, it was now.

Sunny sighed. “Alright, let's just get it over with.”

Adagio smiled. “Good. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go check up on my sisters. Good luck. Maybe it won’t be as bad as you think?”

“No, it’ll be rough,” Sugarcoat said.

“Wow… thanks, Sugar,” Sour said. “(Why are you so blunt?)”

“He probably won’t forgive us right away,” Indigo said, “But we can at least try, right?”

Sunny sighed. At least they could get this over with. Adagio walked away, leaving the five girls alone in front of the practice room.

With a collective deep breath, Sunny knocked on the door. It took a moment, but eventually the door opened, and they were greeted by Rarity.

“Oh! It’s you five!” Rarity said. “I forgot it was your first day. Come on in!”

Indigo, Lemon, Sugar, Sunny, and Sour entered into the room, and were greeted by the rest of the Rainbooms, who couldn’t help but notice how nervous the five ex-Shadowbolts looked.

“Um… are you okay, girls?” Twilight asked.

The Rainbooms noticed Sunny’s gaze fixated on something. They followed her eyes and saw Coppermane staring back at her, mirroring Sunny’s face.

“Coppermane… um… hey. It's been a while…” Sunny said, playing with her fingers.

“Sunny Flare…” Coppermane said. His eyebrows furled slightly. “What are you girls doing here?”

“Oh… well… we’re Wondercolts now,” Indigo said.

“Yeah,” Lemon said. “We heard such… great things about this place… and…”

“Oh, quit beating around the bush” Sugarcoat interrupted, then faced Coppermane in the dead eye, “We’re attending because we made a promise to attend for the guy that’s now dead. I believe you know who we’re talking about.”

“No... I do.” Coppermane replied, gritting his teeth.

“Wait, you’ve met before?” Sunset asked.

“Yeah… we have.” Coppermane replied.

“Sunny humiliated him in front of a crowd of people because he had a crush on her back in Crystal Prep.” Sugarcoat said.

Sunny froze after Sugarcoat blabbed, giving her a nasty glare. “There’s no beating around the bush with you, is there, Sugarcoat?”

Sugarcoat simply shook her head no, completely oblivious to Sunny’s snarling.

“This is pretty awkward....” Pinkie rubbed her hand on the back of her head.

“It doesn’t matter Sugarcoat. Yes, I used to have a crush on Sunny before, but now I don’t anymore. It's long gone.” Coppermane replied with a sneer, then looking at Flare. “Very… gone.”

Sunny didn’t say a word. Coppermane’s gaze was piercing…

“So…. how have you been doing over here at CHS?” Lemon asked trying to lighten the mood.

Coppermane didn’t say a word, but instead just gave them an icy look. The ex-Shadowbolts just bit their lip. Looks like today was going to be rougher than they thought.

Later that day, the girls were on their way to cafeteria to get lunch, but the minute they stepped in the cafeteria they could tell they weren’t liked among CHS. Everyone was giving them cold stares. They just tried to ignore them, and found an empty table to sit at.

“I’m uncomfortable.” Lemon said.

“(Well, duh.)” replied Sour Sweet as she took a sip of her drink.

“How were classes?” Sunny asked.

“I could barely make it,” Indigo said. “All of the kids in gym kept giving me nasty stares and they kept reminding me of what a jerk I was. I don’t think they’re going to forget everything we did for a long time.”

“We were pretty awful.” Sugarcoat replied.

“But all of that stuff was last year. Shouldn’t that be old news?” Indigo asked.

“Sometimes things from the past can work their way into the present.” Flare replied as she saw death eyes from another student walking past them.

Sunny spotted another student out of her peripheral vision with a blue jacket and sparkling skirt walking on by. Maybe she could try and make a friend?

“Excuse me?” Sunny called out. The girl looked in her direction. “Um… hi. What’s your name?”

“The Great and Powerful Trixie doesn’t talk to those who abused us in the past.” Trixie sneered.

“What? What are you talking about?” Sunny asked.

“You know exactly what I’m talking about,” Trixie snapped. “Everyone knows about all the things you have done to us in the past, everyone knows about what you Shadowbolts did to Coppermane, and nobody is giving you any sympathy for what you did to Toxigo Paralysis either.”

“I agree,” said a voice off to the side. Sunny looked to see Octavia glaring at them, along with her friends Lyra, Bon Bon, and Vinyl Scratch.

“I can’t believe what you did to them,” Lyra said.

“I can’t believe you even have the guts to show your faces here,” Bon Bon said.

Sunny slowly walked back to her table, biting her lip as other students shouted at them.

“Go back to Crystal Prep!”

“You don’t belong here!”

“Get lost, Shadowbolt!”

“You are the worst people ever!”

Sunny’s shoulders drooped and she sat back at her table with the rest of her friends, still getting angry looks and comments from the other students.

“It was over before it even started,” Sunny said, burying her face in her palms.

Indigo sighed, pushing her tray of food away. The hateful atmosphere made her lose her appetite.

“Let’s face it. We deserve this,” Indigo said.

Nobody at the table said another word. It hurt, but it was true. How could they ever recover?

Over at CPA, Neon was getting his backpack and school supplies from his locker to go home for the day, but when he opened up the locker, an envelope with his name appeared.

Neon Lights,

I may have something you’d be interested to hear. Meet me over at one of the tables near the front of CPA. Don’t worry, your friends will have gotten the same letter like this from me. Just meet them near the front.

Signed,
A friend

A little later, he met up where the letter said to, and was shocked to discover he wasn’t alone when he arrived. In fact, all his friends were there.

“Wait, you all got letters too?” Neon asked.

“Yeah.” Royal replied.

“But… why?” Jet asked.

At that moment, a hooded figure walked up towards them, and spoke.

“I believe you all are wondering why you were called here?”

Everyone nodded and gasped when the figure took their hood off, and revealed long red, and yellow hair.

“Sunset Shimmer?” Neon said, earning a nod and a grin from her. “What are you doing here? Don’t you have magic you should be wielding?”

“I would if I was actually from the same world as that other Sunset Shimmer.”

Everyone looked at each other questionably. They didn’t understand a single thing she was talking about, but soon they all came to realization that if they kept asking about another Twilight, then surely there…

“So, wait… you’re…”

“I’m like all of you guys, and I know you’re all interested in all of the magic over at Canterlot High.” Sunset said. “May I sit?”

“Oh, please darling, have a seat.” Fleur replied.

Sunset took kindly to Fleur’s generosity and took a seat at the table.

“So, I understand you all want to deal with the magic over at Canterlot High, is that correct?”

The group gave a nod.

“Well, what if I told you the magic has existed a little longer than you all think?” Sunset asked.

“What are you talking about?” Suri asked.

Sunset pulled out her phone, and started a video. All six of them leaned in a little closer to see, and they could see video footage of the other Sunset Shimmer turning into a raging she-demon.

“I took this video back in 2013. I immediately knew the strange anomalies I picked up couldn’t be fake.”

She then changed the video over to the final round at the Battle of the Bands, showing the Dazzlings all turning into the sea monster hybrids.

“I got that, back in 2014, along with this, interesting video.”

The video changed again this time showing Coppermane standing up to Hoops and Score, and they all gasped at the sight of him being protected by the magical barrier. And then of him levitating while kissing his girlfriend.

“That bastard has magic!?” Neon yelled.

“How does he, have magic!?” Royal angrily replied.

“There’s more than that, Royal Pin.” Sunset replied.

Royal was taken aback. The fact this girl knew his name gave him a shock, but then again, she knew all of their names.

She then changed the video again this time showing evidence of Tox using his magic against the Dazzlings on the night he tried to save Applebloom.

“There’s two things you forgot here.” Suri stated. “One, there was the Friendship Games, and two, that last video you showed, he’s dead.”

“Wait, you mean the kid with the--”

“Synthetic arm, eyepatch and the synthetic ears?” Neon interrupted. “Yeah, he’s dead. So that’s one less person we won’t have to deal with.”

Sunset gave a devious smile after hearing that.

“Perfect….anyways, I wanted to see if maybe we could form somewhat of an… alliance. I want to get rid of that other Sunset Shimmer from this world, and all of you want to get even with those kids at CHS. It's a perfect reason to team up. Interested?”

All looked at one another thinking this over. Working with this Sunset Shimmer could get them even with the girls and boys that ‘started’ this whole mess in the first place.

“I think you just made a deal.” Neon then shook hands with the other Sunset Shimmer.

“Perfect,” Sunset said. “Now that we’re all on board with one another, do any of you want to see some of the progress I’ve made in this? I’ve been waiting to unveil what I’ve got in store.”

“Well, what is it, Sunset?” Upper asked.

“Come with me over to my house, and I’ll show you.”

The seven of them all walked over to human Sunset Shimmer’s mansion, and as they entered inside, they were all quite impressed. The entrance was looking something out of a rich and grand millionaire’s house.

“Feel free to take off your coats and put them anywhere.” Sunset said.

“How did you get this decor?” Fleur asked. “This is absolutely fantastic.”

“Well when you’re rich and alone, you basically can choose what you want.” Sunset replied.

The Crystal Prep kids were surprised. She was rich?

“Well if you’re rich, then how come you don’t attend Crystal Prep? I’m sure you’d be perfect for that school.” Upper Crust asked.

“I would, but based on all of the conspiracy surrounding the school, it kind of made me not want to attend. Plus, based on all the things I heard about the students that attend Crystal Prep would kind of make me not really feel welcome.”

“Nonsense, darling. You’d be perfect. Besides you’re helping us, there’s not a reason we wouldn’t not make you feel welcome.” Jet replied.

Sunset stopped after hearing that. “You… you really think so?”

“Of course. We both share a same goal, you’re rich, and you have just as much interest in the magic as we do.” Neon said placing an arm around her shoulder. “I believe you would be perfect at CPA. Better than that… ugh… Twilight Sparkle.”

“Well, I don’t know… but I’ll think about it. In the meantime, you want to see the latest project I’ve been working on?” Sunset asked.

They nodded their heads responding to ‘yes’, and they walked downstairs with her into the basement.

There they could see lots of lab equipment. Jars, beakers, chemicals, cryogenic fridge, computer screens, you name it, and she would have it.

“Whoa, someone’s been busy.” Royal replied looking in awe at the sight of all of the equipment.

Their heads turned to a board and saw a bunch of pictures of the magical anomalies at CHS, along with several amounts of strings liking pictures together. Clearly she had been watching them for a long time. Many of the photos were old memories of CHS from the last year, but they were also familiar things to the Crystal Prep students. Some photos showed Coppermane ponying up during his speech standing up to Hoops and Score, another including a photo of the machine set up in the gym as Tox, Echo, Flash and the former Shadowbolts were all getting sucked in through the portal, and another included Midnight Sparkle’s reign during the Friendship Games.

“How long have you been working on this?”

“I’ve had many years to work on it, since I didn’t have much to do outside of my online school, I just kept on searching for more magical anomalies, and soon they would keep coming.” Sunset replied. “In fact, one of them landed in my front lawn and I--”

*loud growl*

Sunset nearly jumped back in fright from hearing the snarl, but then sighed in relief knowing what it is. She turned her head to face the darkness and yelled “Shut up!”

The Crystal Prep kids were now a little terrified as to what she had been keeping in the darkness.

“What are you keeping in there?” Royal asked with fear.

“Oh, um… Okay, I should probably tell you. I have no idea. Something came and crashed onto the path of my mansion, and I don’t know what it is. It was completely covered by a silhouette and I haven’t been able to identify it. I used a scanner to identify it and I found out it had magic, just like that other Sunset. So I stole his magic, and have been keeping it in this.”

Sunset showed the 6 of them a giant machine connected to a collection tank where green magic kept spiraling around in the tank, bouncing off the glass.

“After I stole the magic, I tried to talk to him, or it. I think it's a person, and I tried to help him because one of his arms was missing. So I injected some green goo from the pod after discovering it was regenerative goo. But he kept resisting like if something was bad with it. And he tried to attack me, so I’ve been keeping him locked up in here. So far nothing bad has happened.”

All of them looked a little closer, but even they could identify it. It was covered in darkness, and they only thing that was noticeable were the green, menacing eyes glowing, but concealed by the darkness.

Royal tried to lean in closer but got a snarl from it.

“Did that thing just snarl at me?” Royal asked.

“Yeah… that thing’s kind of an asshole.”

“Well why not release this absolutely terrifying creature?” Upper Crust asked.

“Because, Crust, if I do then he’s gonna be tracked, and if they find out who experimented on it, it will lead to me, and they’ll discover everything I’ve worked so hard to build on, and if they find that out, it will destroy any chance of getting rid of those CHS students because they’ll think we’re crazy. Okay?”

All of them nodded in understandment. But all flinched at the thing growling some more.

“Say, uh, anyone want a chocolate chip cookie? I could go for a snack. I don’t think I can stay in here anymore.” Sunset offered.

Everyone said yes, and they followed her upstairs. Well, almost everyone.

Neon Lights looked down one more time to see the green eyes staring into his soul, and he shuddered at the sight of it, right before closing the door letting his eyes glow in the darkness.

“Just you wait Crystal Prep….. Soon I’ll be free, and you’ll have a new problem on your hands….” Came from a demonic, and very distorted voice in the darkness.

And in one moment, a snapping of a metal chain was heard.