It was near midnight at the police station. Flash, Jack, and Moonchaser were playing cards while waiting for a call to come in. At the moment Moonchaser was winning, Flash was about to go all in and Jack always the smart one, had already folded.

“Well Moonchaser, what do you got?” Flash questioned.

“Full House.”

At that, Flash slammed his cards, “Damn it.”

“I told you,” Jack took a drink from his coffee mug. "Hmm, I wonder how long is it going to take for the DNA test to come back on the blood from Moonchaser's knife."

Suddenly Detective Leod Quartz ran into the police station. "Flash and Jack, you need to head to the college. NOW!”

Not questioning his words Flash and Jack got up and grabbed their stuff and ran to the car. Moonchaser grabbed his winnings and his stuff, and then followed after them. Once they were outside they got into their cars and headed for the college, as smoke began to rise from it.

******

Down at the bottom floor of the tower, deep underground, the fine gentleman was taking a few extra notes on the machine before going home for the night. He looked at his silver watch. “Hmm, it’s getting late. I better get home.” Suddenly an alarm went off. “Wait a minute,” he walked over to a viewing stream and flipped it on. His eyes widened, “Shit.”

Meanwhile above ground on campus, in one of the dorm rooms, a cell phone rang. The girl with red hair answered it. “What is it now, old man?”

“Where are you?!” the Fine Gentleman yelled on the other side of the line.

“Sleeping in my room, like any normal human. Why?” She was annoyed. But, though she had never met the Fine Gentleman in person, she was willing to serve.

“Look outside your window. NOW!”

Hearing him yell louder she got up and headed toward the window. After she opened it, her eyes widened in horror. The building next door, the one Sunset was in was on fire. “Shit.” Closing the window she quickly ran to the door.

“Careful out there, you don’t want to be seen,” the Fine Gentleman continued. “I’ll be up soon, get in there without her knowing it's you.”

At that, she looked around and found her teal and orange biker helmet. Smiling she grabbed it and her right half yellow gem necklace. Putting both on she ran back to the window, opened it and jumped out. Climbing down the outer wall she made her way down. Once on the ground she ran toward the building that Sunset was in.

Meanwhile, in the front of the building, some of Sunset's friends, like Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Applejack were helping students get out of the building. Rainbow Dash was still over at Soarin’s and Twilight was still out with her fiance.

The girl in the red hair ran behind them, hearing how Sunset was still inside. Knowing that she ran over to the back of the building. Going to a broken window that was covered in flames, she held one hand to the flames and another to the right half yellow gem necklace as it glowed brightly. Suddenly the fire began to part way, giving her a path through the burning building.

Taking the pathway she ran through, going upstairs to the third floor where Sunset’s room was at, she soon arrived at the room. She kicked the door down and ran inside. Sunset was on her bed, still asleep. The flames were around her, yet nor the fire or smoke was touching her.

The girl with red hair facepalmed, “Why am I not surprised. Of course, this mare is fire proof.” She walked over, picked her up and put her over her shoulder. She looked around for a moment, “Damn it where is that diary of her's?” Suddenly she noticed a pile of ash in the shape of the book. “Well, that explains it.”

After seeing the ashes, she turned towards the doorway and ran out of the room. She ran down the hallway to the stairs when she began to hear screams from other students in the opposite direction. She stopped at that. She looked to the direction of the screams and back to the stairs. She knew she had to get Sunset to safety, but…..

“Oh damn my big heart.” She ran away from the stairs and went towards the screams. They were coming from the far side of the hallway. She got there only to find another stairway, but this one was on fire, and the screams were clearly coming from the floor above. Not questioning why the ones upstairs couldn’t take the other stairway, she grabbed the right half yellow gem necklace and held it up to the flames.

She yelled to everybody above her, “Stand clear.” Hoping they heard her words she concentrated. Suddenly the flames on the stairs were pulled towards the gem and were absorbed into it. The girl winced in pain as the heat from the gem burned her hand.

Soon the flame was out and the people upstairs ran down the charred stairway. Meanwhile, the girl tried to join them however the floor under her caved in and both her and Sunset fell through.

Falling through two stories, the girl winced in more pain as she found herself and Sunset on the first floor, surrounded by flames. Too much for her to absorb into the gem like before. And things got worse as she sat up, she felt incredible agony in her left arm, that she had the right half yellow gem necklace in. She looked, only for her eyes to widened in horror as a sharp piece of metal pipe had stabbed its way into her arm. Grabbing the pipe, she tried to cover her scream as she forced the pipe out of her arm.

Afterward, she looked to see that Sunset was still out cold. At that moment she noticed the right half yellow gem necklace was glowing. “Having a vision, are we? You damn mare,” she crawled over to her. “I’m going to need your help on this one, so don’t wake up.” On that, she placed the right half yellow gem necklace in Sunset’s opened hand, and it's glow intensified. Now it was nearly bright as the Sun.

All the flames in the entire building began to die out on their own, or at least that what it seemed to everybody outside. But the fine middle age gentleman and the girl with the red hair knew better. They knew it was the work of the gem and Sunset.

Seeing flames gone the girl had no more strength left and fell unconscious, as the sounds of fire trucks could be heard.

******

<Sunset’s POV>

As the fires engulfed the room, Sunset began to dream as she slept. In the dream, she could hear what sounded like a strange static in the background. She found herself in a crystal castle. Looking forward she could see a table with a map on it. Sitting around it in six thrones were Twilight and her friends. The ponies were all looking at her. She looked at herself only to see herself back in pony form.

This was a little shocking, to say the least. She looked at all of them. Seeing that they all had happy faces she smiled and walked over to them. Soon Twilight spoke, “Sunset it’s good to see you. Is something wrong?”

“I can’t remember,” she nodded. Without even realizing it, she found herself on top of the table.

“What do you mean, darling?” Rarity questioned. “You mean you don’t remember the Moon being ripped apart?”

Sunset waved her head back and forth for a moment. “What?”

“Or how about that moment when Jack was working with Starlight?” Applejack questioned.

“What?” she waved her head again, still confused to what was going on.

“Or how about the time when the stallion with the tall gray top hat stabbed you in the chest and your blood splattered everywhere?”

What?” This was very weird. How were they getting everything so spot on? And why were they almost cheerful about it? About her in pain, her in confusion. This didn’t sound like them at all. What was going on here?!

Finally, they all went silent as Twilight stood up, “Isn’t somepony missing?” she spoke out to all of them. “Or should I say somedragon?”

Sunset looked around and finally noticed the obvious, “Wait where is Spike?”

“Indeed!” Suddenly Twilight's voice changed. Sunset’s eyes widened at the change. They all began laughing at her. Yet they all had the same voice. This only confused Sunset more and more.

“What is going on? That voice, you’re not Twilight.”

“No, we aren’t.” At that moment they all spoke in unison. In fact, it sounded more like one voice, coming from multiple directions.

“What is going on here? Who are you?” Sunset became angry that somepony was trying to deceive her. Especially how poorly it was.

“I’m sorry, I had no time to wait. So I gave you the obvious hint of this vision.” Suddenly all the mares except for Sunset tackled onto Twilight. They became like ooze and united as one. Finally, they took a solid form.

Sunset’s eyes widened as they took the form of Nightmare Moon. At that moment she realized she was dreaming. “What is going on here Nightmare Moon? How are you here? Twilight told me she defeated you.”

“Defeated, doesn’t mean killed. Besides Twilight is a little busy right now.” At that, the sound of the static got louder and began to sound more like fighting and clashing weapons. “Anyway, I came to warn you of things to come from these visions.”

Well, that had explained some things, but not all things. “So you know about these visions?” Sunset questioned. “Why should I trust you? You're evil.”

“Exactly why you should trust me. You have seen the dangers of these visions. Tell me why I need to lie about warning you?”

Seeing the reasoning in her words, Sunset decided to listen but was going to a take every word with a grain of salt. “Alright talk. What do you know about these visions?”

“Each one has its reality and each one has a symbolism in them. I already gave you three answers for three of the visions and now this one. Where is Spike the dragon?”

This only confused her. “What does Spike have to do with all this? And that wasn't all the visions.”

“Oh, you are mistaken, he is only a piece of your puzzle. More will come from his mate.” Suddenly the static stopped and everything went silent. Nightmare’s eyes widened in horror, “Damn it, Starlight was supposed to keep the battle on a little lon--”

Sunset’s own eyes widened in horror as a strange-looking chain blade stabbed through Nightmare Moon’s chest. Blood spattered as Nightmare Moon fell. She turned her head, “She here.”

“Oh poor Aunty Nightmare, I told you long ago who rule this world and all worlds,” a mare’s voice spoke. Suddenly several chain blades shot outward from all direction and stabbed all her limbs. Nightmare Moon’s screamed in agony as they pulled and strung her up.

“Nightmare Moon!!” Sunset shouted in sorrow.

“I must send you away before she finds you.” Her horn began to glow. It shot magic onto Sunset, covering her completely. Soon Sunset began to fade away. “But before you go, I must warn of an ally she has in that world you live in.”

“What?! Who?! Tell me!”

“His name is--” However no more could be said as several chain blades wrapped all around tightly over her flesh, completely covering her. Suddenly the chain blades pulled back at high speed, ripping all of her flesh off.

“Nightmare Moon!!” Sunset shouted as the vision began to clear. All she could hear as the vision was clearing though was the same unknown mare laughing aloud.

******

Sunset woke up in a hospital. She looked to see all her friends around her including Twilight, Timber, and Flash. She looked to Flash, seeing him hold her hand rather tightly. “Are you okay?” he questioned.

“Yeah, I’m okay,” she smiled at him, not having a single clue as to what was going on.

Twilight meanwhile was nearly in tears, "Sunset I'm sorry I left.”

Sunset was confused to what had happened. Why did everyone have a sad, or concerned look? "What do you mean?" Sunset questioned.

"Of course, she doesn't remember," Applejack pointed out.

"What do you mean? What don't I remember?"

Suddenly a slurring voice spoke up. "That building B went up in flames yesterday night."

"Wait what?!" Sunset jumped up. She looked around for the familiar voice, "Who said that?"

Her friends moved aside a little bit and let the man that spoke be seen. It was Dr. Pr. Halo. The beeping of his life support could be heard as he rode up to Sunset's bedside. "You were in the ashes of the building when the paramedics found you."

"Really," she looked over herself. There were no burns anywhere. "That can't be. I'm just fine."

"Exactly. But according to reports you were in the hottest part of the flames, and yet you're fine. Look I know you are a magic affected. The files say that you're a telepath, but I think it might be something more."

"More?" she questioned. In truth, that was as much as she would let the world know. No one outside of her close friends even knew that she was from another world. Principal Celestia thought it would be best that way, and they all had agreed. So she had only told the college that she was a magic affected, not that she was a pony from another world.

"Look, just come by my office later this week. Please." He grabbed her hand in a gesture of friendship.

"Okay, fine."

"Thank you. I will leave you to your friends." On that, he took his leave. As Sunset and her friends visited, Dr. Pr. Halo rode through the door. On the other side of the doorway was Starlight Glimmer. "You're late."

"Look I'm sorry sir. I'll try to be on time, next time."

"No matter Starlight, I manage to get a nurse to help me while I was in there."

On that, Starlight walked behind him with him and began pushing him to his room. In truth though Starlight was there as a student, she was also Dr. Pr. Halo's new assistant. She was mostly doing it for extra credit, and to make ends meet. She couldn't always rely on stealing wallets all the time.

******

In another room far from the room Sunset was in, laid the girl that had saved her. She raised her left arm as she slowly awoke. She jumped upon seeing her wound was seemingly gone. She seemed completely healed. The burn was even gone too.

"Don't strain yourself girl."

She turned at that voice. Her eyes widened at who she saw. Beside her bed was Dean Golden Williams in his classic bronze business suit.

"Wait, were you the one who saved me?" she questioned.

"Why, of course."

"Wait a minute, where is it?” She checked her neck over and over.

“Wait, are you saying you lost it?” Golden Williams’ hand tightened into a fist but kept his face calm.

The girl turned her head towards Golden Williams and suddenly, he was gone. “Where did the Dean go?” She looked to a nurse and called to her, “Hey, did you see where the Dean went?”

The nurse looked at her with confusion. Looking left and right she answered, “Little girl, the Dean was never in here.”

This made no sense. He was in here. Where did he? Why was he even there? Or was the nurse telling the truth, was he ever there? The girl couldn’t worry about these things, she had to find her necklace, now!

******

Days later, Sunset arrived at the office of Dr. Pr. Halo. She knocked on the door. A moment passed and the door open. Sunset was surprised to see Starlight on the other side of the door. They waved at each other as Starlight walked outside and Sunset walked in.

Dr. Pr. Halo looked with surprise upon seeing their reaction. “Well Sunset, I see you and my granddaughter have already met.”

Sunset looked with even more surprise as she walked to a chair. “Wait, she is your granddaughter?” Sunset looked in shock, while Starlight closed the door and went to her classes.

“Well, yes. Where else to keep an eye on her?” He looked at Sunset, “After all, she is a magic affected.”

“Really? I had no idea.”

He chuckled, “Well, then you might want to check your pockets as she has the ability to become translucent, and she is quite the pickpocketer.”

Sunset jumped at that and checked her pockets. Luckily, everything was still there. After taking a sigh of relief, she sat back down and questioned, “Sir, you said that you wanted to talk to me?”

“Why yes, but first, have you found a new room?”

“No, actually my friend Pinkie Pie offered up a few spare rooms in the building she has down the street.”

“Oh good. On to what I wanted to talk about.” His hand slowly reached over to a keyboard. Pressing a button, the screen of the computer showed an image of the college. Pressing another button, the image changed to show a sort of x-ray of the college. No, it wasn’t x-ray, it was something else. He turned the screen to where Sunset could see it. “You see Sunset, when Golden William had this school built, he put in special scanners that can sense large amounts of magic. It is there as a sort of protection because once a certain threshold is sensed, a shield will go over the school.”

This news did seem to concern Sunset a little. She had no idea that Golden William had taken such measures when building the school four years ago. Though she was mostly concerned on why Dr. Pr. Halo was telling her this. “Sir, is there a reason you are telling me this?”

“Yes. You see, the night of the fire, there was a massive surge of magic. The source was the very spot the firemen found you.”

Her eyes widened at this. This was disheartening. She had no choice now, she had to tell him something. “Sir, the truth is I have been having visions lately.” She tried her best to say it without seeming like she was leaving something out.

“Hmm, interesting. There hasn’t been a case of visions. Tell me, what are these visions about?”

And so she tried her best to describe them without giving away the details about her pony form or the world of Equestria. After explaining them, he took a moment to think. This was certainly unusual, to say the least. The visions seem to puzzle him as he slowly stroked his beard, lost in thought.

Soon he spoke, “So you're saying these visions stopped after the fire?”

“Yes,” she confirmed.

“These are certainly unusual, yet they don’t explain why the flames suddenly disappeared. Do you have any ideas on that?”

Truthfully, she was at a loss to that. The most she could figure was that the flames came from her book. Where they disappeared to was a different question.

Without warning, his eyes widened as an idea filled his head. He turned his monitor around and began typing ever so slowly. Once finished, he pulled out an USB drive, turned toward Sunset, moved out from behind his desk, and rolled over to the door. “I might need to take this intel to the committee in Cloudsdale.”

“Committee?” She questioned as she got up realizing he was leaving.

“Yes, they have it every few weeks. I know it’s still just the first week of school, but I must go tell them about this development in person.” As he got the door open, he turned towards Sunset. “I’m sorry for this, but could you walk me to my car? I don’t want to bug my granddaughter a second time today.”

“Sure,” she walked over behind him and took a grip of his wheelchair. Once they were past the door, she flicked off the light, and he handed her the keys. After locking the door, they walked through the hallway until they reached the end. Once they got outside, they were greeted by a tall, pale, white man with long, blonde hair, in a refine, gray blazer with a green dress shirt and gray pants with a pair of yellow dress shoes.

“Oh son, you got my message,” Dr. Pr. Halo spoke.

“Hello, father.”

“Sunset, this is Starlight’s father, Grand Halo. He will be taking over from here.”

Sunset greeted the man and walked away from the wheelchair. Afterward, Grand Halo walked up and took over pushing. “I guess I’ll head back to class, but Sir, how long will you be gone?”

“About a month. I’m sure you will be fine. I need to get this intel to the committee in person.” On that, they were off to find his car. Sunset walked back to the door and went inside. Halfway through the hallway, she realized that she still had his keys in her hand. Running back outside she tried to find them but realized it was too late. They were gone.

She looked at the keys, noticing there was quite a few of them. Though the one that confused her the most was a strange looking bolt key. Suddenly. her cell phone rang. She pulled it out and put away the keys into her pocket.

Once she put the keys away, she answered the cellphone. As she talked on the cellphone, someone else was watching from the top floor of the tower. He looked closely through his blinds as he had his own cellphone by his face as he was talking to someone else. Nothing much could be seen of the room he was in as it was very dark.

“Dr. Pr. Halo has left the college.”

“Good. While that old fool is out of the way, we continue with Project Doppel uninterrupted,” said the one on the other side of the line.

“What about the Project S.G.?”

“No. With the other half the gem now missing, we will have a harder time making the magical connection with Sunset. Just remain at your post until the right half has been found.”

******

Author's Notes:

Well, something is certainly going on. But who is the true villain? The Fine Gentleman or this unknown mare. Plus we got to see the power of the gem and we got some possible hints on what is really going on. The next chapter will be posted on Feb. 2nd.