The night skyline of Canterlot was a sight to see in the luminous dark. Towering skyscrapers soared up like spears of engineering and innovation lit by the tiny sparks of life that moved inside of them. Below, in the streets, was the endless and unsleeping noise and bustle of the city’s nightlife. Hundreds of people were moving between clubs and bars, sharing laughter and memories that would last a lifetime assuming they weren’t blackout drunk at the time.

Zee preferred it up above. From high up the world looked different. It looked cleaner and more hopeful. From high up, she couldn’t see the grease and grime that coated the alleyways of the capital.

The air crackled and spat around her like an angry cat. Electricity snapped and crawled across the concrete roof she was floating above.

Zee took a deep breath of the cool, evening air as she flexed her muscles under her loose tank top. Blue-white arcs of energy slithered across her skin, drawing traceries across her tattoos while her hair stood in a high, wild mohawk kept up by static charge.

The metal across her body, from her lip piercings to the manifold buckles she wore over her waist tying up her surplus army pants and down along her knee-high shit-kickers faintly glowed with electrical energy.

A cold wind blew from the north and Zee flinched as her entire left side tightened up painfully. The scar tissue was only slightly faded, and without a skin graft it would never fully fade, leaving the whole left upper half of her body looking mottled and rough. Twilight had taken the time to impress upon her how lucky she was that she hadn’t lost her eye to the damage as well.

Raising her arms, Zee stared down at the gauntlets she wore. The articulated plates stretched from her fingers up to her shoulders, and she could feel the restless hum of power that left them practically vibrating.

She hated it.

It was like an ugly, constant hunger gnawing at her insides and it left her itchy and restless no matter what she did.

“Sod it all,” Zee muttered angrily. “Can’t sleep… can’t sit… can’t do nowt but pace like a fuckin’ animal.”

She hadn’t even been able to do that much until recently. Zee had hated this past month more than almost any stretch of time she’d ever experienced. For the first half of the month she was little more than an invalid; barely able to even feed herself or move around the house. Using something as complex as a computer was right out.

For a while it had felt like she was never going to get any better but, achingly slowly, she had healed. The path had been agonizing, literally, because when she did finally get her strength back suddenly every movement caused her searing pain. Zee had gotten the impression that her Pops knew why it was happening but he wasn’t exactly forthcoming.

Either way, ever since the meadow something had gone wrong inside her.

Zee felt sick: like she had pounded back a half dozen energy drinks chased with too much gin. Her bones were rattling, her eyes burned, and her stomach churned. Something was wrong with her, she could feel it all the way down.

And it wasn’t just her.

Behind her there was a faint sound of wind and a popping noise that tasted faintly purple, although Zee wasn’t entirely certain how that worked, followed by the sound of flapping wings.

“Zee?”

“Aye?” Zee replied, not turning around. “Sorry I vanished from bed, our lass… I needed a mo’, savvy?”

“It’s okay,” Twilight replied gently. “It’s quite a view.”

“Arh, tha’s as it is,” Zee remarked tonelessly. “Not really seein’ it if’m honest, though… just came out ‘ere t’think.”

Zee felt the familiar touch of Twilight’s fingers lacing into hers as she moved to Zee’s right side, giving her hand a squeeze, and the reassuring, insistent act brought a measure of soothing calm to Zee’s rattling soul. Usually, Twilight’s touch could always bring Zee down from wherever her mind had taken her, but this time was different.

“What about?” Twilight asked.

Closing her eyes, Zee sighed. Slowly, she turned and in her mind's eye, she could see Twilight as she had been when they’d first met in person. She could see the nervous, awkward, gawky girl who had run into her outside of the Crystal Emporium: all pale, and stammering with apologies and flop sweat.

Then Zee opened her eyes.

There was little of that girl left after enduring Storm’s tutelage, and the Twilight Sparkle that was with her on the rooftop could hardly have been more different.

Her hair was down and waved slightly in the wind, and Twilight’s eyes glowed an almost radioactive shade of teal surrounding sharp, mulberry pupils. Her skin had taken on a darker pallor and her nerdy, slightly nebbish glasses were gone, left behind since she her eyesight had been sharpened with magic.

Most obvious, though, were the appendages that sprouted from her back. A pair of graceful, pitch-black raven’s wings, one of which curled around to drape reassuringly over Zee’s shoulder.

“You’re beautiful, our lass,” Zee said finally, with a small smile.

Twilight blushed and giggled, kicking idly at the grit of the roof with her foot and awkwardly slapping her hand into Zee’s shoulder as she looked away.

At least that much hadn’t changed.

“Well… you’re not so bad looking yourself,” Twilight flirted back awkwardly.

Zee’s smile slowly faded as she turned to stare back out over the cityscape, and tightened her grip on Twilight’s hand. So much had changed so quickly, and a part of Zee desperately wanted to go back to the days when it was just her and Twilight on their little private chat server talking about science and engineering, or sharing their gaming guild’s Eris server for organizing their next raid. Things were easier then, back when everything that was happening in the here and now was just a distant plan, so far away and so huge that it hardly seemed possible.

Zee didn’t regret coming out and meeting Twilight. She didn’t regret the time they’d spent together or the days and nights spent curled around one another.

Her only real regret was that things couldn’t have been different. That they couldn’t have been… normal.

“Zee?” Twilight gently prodded her girlfriend with her left primary.

“Eh?” Zee blinked in surprise, realizing she had been caught in her mental wanderings. “Sorry, pet… got a lot on my mind, I’ll ‘appen.”

“I can see that,” Twilight replied with a touch of concern. “Are… are you okay?”

Zee opened her mouth to reassure Twilight that she was, in fact, just fine. That she was just feeling thoughtful, or cooped up, or any other number of excuses that Zee knew Twilight would accept.

They all turned to ash in her mouth the moment she opened it, and instead what came out was:

“I’m scared, our lass.”

Twilight furrowed her brow and stared concernedly up at Zee. “Scared? Why?”

“Why ain’t you, pet?!” Zee bit out. “Look at ye, our lass! You’re fuckin’ glowing’ and not in the naked fun way!”

Twilight flushed faintly at the crude comparison. “I’m more powerful than ever!” Twilight replied heatedly. “So what if I look a little… weird… so do you! And so did she!”

“I’ll ‘appen tha’s all true,” Zee conceded. “But it ain’t all the time, pet, I can put me glitz away, and Gilda’s redheaded slag looked fine’n normal til…”

Zee bit her tongue. According to her Pops, Gilda was still alive. She had survived but barely and minus an arm. Something that had, somehow, been rectified, but he hadn’t gone into that much detail. Zee wanted to be furious that her traitorous sister had survived their confrontation. She wanted to be fuming over it and champing at the bit to bring her down again.

Instead, she was… relieved.

The thought of avenging herself on her sister had been intoxicating. The idea of putting Gilda down as callously as she herself had been abandoned had kept her going past everything else and in the moment it had been glorious.

Now she just felt sick.

“I’ve seen ye, our lass,” Zee said after a long pause. “Sleepin’ in our arms like ye do and ye look just the same as now, nowt is different but that ye put yer wings away.”

“S-so what?!” Twilight snapped. “I’m ascended! I’m so much more than just human now! Why shouldn’t I look different?!”

Zee grimaced. “Ascended? Tha’s a load of shite, our lass. Ye been listenin’ t’Pops go on ‘aven’t ye?”

“And why shouldn’t I be?!” Twilight shot back. “Your dad, Pops, the things he knows! The things he can do! He’s incredible!”

Arh cocka,” Zee replied, turning away and frowning as she did so, “I ‘appen he’s somethin’ like that.”

“What’s your problem, Zee?” Twilight asked, her voice take on a slightly nervous edge. “A few months ago you would have torn the sky apart to save your dad. It’s like you’re a completely different person.”

“Maybe I’ve just got more t’lose now, pet,” Zee said quietly, looking down at her hands as energy sparked from them. “Months ago, a year ago, fuck, since this ‘ole mess started, I’ve only ‘ad m’self and Pops… an’ idiot fuckin’ kid I am I allus figured tha’s all it’d be, savvy?” Zee clenched her eyes shut, her hands curling into fists. “An’ now… that ain’t ‘ow it is anymore and…”

Slowly, Zee turned back to Twilight, stepping away and she gestured around the both of them.

“Look’t us, our lass,” Zee said in a low, almost shocked voice. “What kinda mad fuckin’ plan puts this kinda power in the ‘ands of a sixteen year old girl?” She asked angrily, raising her gauntleted hands as she did. “What kinda plan turns a sweet’eart like ye into… into that!?” Zee gestured at Twilight who scowled a little. “Somethin’s fuckin’ wrong, our lass, somethin’ is right outta sorts. Pops… he’s plannin’ somethin’ more’n just walkin’ worlds, oreyt?! I fuckin’ know it and he’s draggin’ us on with’im!”

“And what if I want to be dragged along?!” Twilight snapped desperately, and Zee stepped back with a startled look on her face. “What if I’m sick and tired of this boring, useless, worthless planet with all of it’s boring, useless, worthless people!”

“Arh… pet,” Zee said, feeling a chill in her heart. “You… y’don’t mean tha’.”

“Don’t I?” Twilight almost growled. “All I’ve ever seen of it, of the entire human race, has been… ugly. This world is insane and not in a good way. We kill each other for money we’re never going to spend,” Twilight raised a hand, ticking off fingers as she counted down, “hurt people who have done nothing wrong, punish the very concept of intelligence unless it fits some arbitrary, specific, narrow mold, and all for WHAT?!”

Twilight shrieked the last word, her breath coming in heaves and gasps as tremors ran through her body. Blindingly bright teal energy leaked from her eyes in a way that almost mimicked glasses, or a mask, and Twilight’s hair was becoming less and less solid, wavering in the wind as it rose, and glowing with an eldritch light.

“What makes this world so great?” Twilight hissed. “You got to sit in a dark room all your life and play God from behind a computer screen,” she said bitterly, pointing a finger at Zee who flinched back, “while I had to walk around getting bullied and mocked by everyone whose tiny, insignificant mind I threatened just by being myself.”

Zee swallowed dryly, tasting the odd flavor of magic in the air as Twilight slowly lost her temper. Not for the first time, Zee felt a sliver of fear in her as she stared at the burning eyes of the girl she loved.

Taking a deep breath, Zee released the gauntlets’ magic, letting the electrical surge around her die out as the metal plates ratcheted back into place as armbands and she herself lowered to the ground. Slowly, she reached out and took Twilight’s hands and pulled her down to join her, squeezing them softly as she did, and after a few moments the fire in Twilight’s gaze started to fade.

“I love ye, our lass,” Zee said quietly, stepping closer to Twilight, “like I ain’t loved nothin’ or no one else.”

“I know,” Twilight replied in a choked, tearful voice. “I love you too.”

“But-”

“And I know I scare you!” Twilight cut Zee off suddenly as she bit the words out, clenching her eyes shut as tears began slipping down her cheeks. “I… I know you never say it, and I know you think I don’t notice… but I do… I know I scare you.”

“Pet… s’not like tha’,” Zee started, but Twilight just shook her head angrily.

“It is like that, Zee,” Twilight said despondently. “It’s very much like that… I know I scare you because… because look at me!” she gestured down to herself, and Zee grimaced a little. “I’m… I’m terrifying, I know, but I also know I… I scared you even before I changed, back when we used to fight a lot, and… we’d sometimes hurt each other.”

“We ‘aven’t ‘ad a row in ages, love,” Zee replied softly, bringing a hand up to stroke Twilight’s cheek. “We’re gettin’ better, I’ll ‘appen.”

“Maybe we are,” Twilight replied quietly, “but I still scare you.”

Silence stretched between the two girls for several moments as zee fought for something to say. She wanted to reassure Twilight that she wasn’t scared of her but that would be a lie, and a poor one at that. Zee was a little scared of Twilight, a fact that had been the case for some time, actually. When they got into fights, when Zee lost her temper, it was always Twilight who ended it.

Usually painfully.

Zee knew Twilight could keep her under control, even at her worst, but the guilt that would eat at her after the fact was atrocious. Zee hated that she would hurt Twilight, but at the same time Twilight never showed any fear of her. She never shied away from the fight when Zee’s temper would start to fray and, after a few times, Zee began to realise why.

Twilight wanted to fight.

Maybe she hadn’t been certain the first time, or even the second time, but after a while it became obvious. Twilight wasn’t an idiot, and Zee knew that the girl could de-escalate a fight, she even knew how to soften up Zee herself. Zee knew full well that her temper was little more than a blind, angry bull and she hated how little control she had over it, but she was no fool either.

Zee knew that, sometimes, she would go blind with rage and hurt Twilight and that thought killed her every time she considered it. But at the same time… everytime they had fought, Twilight always won. Twilight always won because she knew what was going to happen and was prepared for it.

She was ready to be hurt and to hurt back.

“I’m angry, Zee,” Twilight said quietly, her limbs shaking perceptibly. “I’m so angry, all the time… I hate this world so much, Zee… I don’t want to be here anymore, I don’t want to live in a place like this.” Letting out a body-wracking sob, Twilight leaned forward and rested her face against Zee’s chest. “I don’t want to hurt you anymore, Zee… I don’t want to be angry anymore, but I… I don’t know if I can do that here, and I love you so much that I will do anything… anything to be good for you.”

Zee worked her jaw for a few moments, badly wrong-footed as she found herself in the awkward position of comforting Twilight for many of the same reasons Twilight had been forced to comfort her.

“I love ye too, our lass,” Zee repeated in a stronger voice. “But Pops… I think he’s just usin’ us both.”

“I know,” Twilight said quietly, “and I don’t care.”

Zee pulled away, looking down at Twilight concern.

“I meant what I said, Zee,” Twilight said firmly, “I will do anything to be good for you, even if it means tearing open a portal to a new reality because this one isn’t good enough.”

“Tha’s…” Zee stared down at Twilight in shock for several moments before shaking her head, “tha’s fuckin’ mental, our lass.”

“Fucking barmy,” Twilight agreed a little wearily. “But I’ll do it… whatever it takes, I’ll do it… because I’m never going to lose you, Zee.”

“Yeah,” Zee agreed quietly, “tha’s as it is, innit? You’n me, oreyt?”

Twilight leaned up and pressed her lips to Zee’s, smiling faintly into the touch as Zee curled her arms around Twilight’s slender waist and pulled her in until their bodies were pressed warmly together. Zee hummed in satisfaction at having her woman so close to her, and all the fear melted away into the gentle, insistent kiss they shared.

A snap of displaced air, followed by the sound of rubber soles screeching on concrete from a few meters away, distracted the girls from their kiss, and they both looked over to see Rainbow Dash setting down a slightly windblown-looking Lightning Dust.

“Ugh… remind me to- urp -invest in some dramamine, Rainbabe,” Dust said as she staggered slightly, her head swimming with vertigo. “Dunno how you manage going horizontal to vertical and back again all the time like that.”

“Hey, running up buildings is awesome,” Rainbow shot back with a smirk. “And if ya want, we can always get horizontal later and stay that way for a while.”

Lightning Dust blushed furiously as Rainbow waggled her eyebrows at her. “Smooth, Dash… real classy.”

As Lightning found her feet again and straightened out, her form blurred slightly. It was a constant effect, a faint afterimage of her movement that was ever-present so long as she wasn’t suppressing it. After weeks of practice with Dash her powers had grown exponentially, and she was able to control more of her clones than ever.

“Somethin’ ye needed, loves?” Zee asked, slightly annoyed at the interruption.

Rainbow shrugged. “Just noticed you were up here being all broody, so we decided to come hang out and brood with ya.”

“I’m not sure that’s how brooding works, Dash,” Twilight replied, but couldn’t help smiling as the girl’s humor infected her. “We’re fine, though.”

“Eh, doesn’t matter, really,” Rainbow replied with a shrug, glancing back at Lightning who gave her girlfriend an encouraging nod and smile. “There’s no reason to brood or any of that crap… it just makes things worse, alright? You’ve got us now, and since we’re linked literally all the time, we’ll know when you’re feeling like crap.”

Lightning nodded, stepping up and leaning against Dash, and taking her hand as the cold wind nipped at her. “Dash’s right, you two… you don’t have to just, y’know, be all dark and moody all the time anymore. I get if you need time to yourselves, but… trust me, don’t dwell on it, it doesn’t do anyone any good.”

“We’ll never leave you two hanging,” Dash finished with a wide smirk.

Zee and Twilight both chuckled lightly as they turned, arm in arm, to face their friends. “Aye… friends t’the end, is it?”

“Come hell or high water,” Rainbow said with a grin, gripping Lightning’s hand tighter and bring their clasped hands up between them and the other pair of girls.

“Lame as fuck, this is,” Zee said with a small laugh, but her hand was tightening around Twilight’s all the same as they raised their hands to meet Rainbow and Lightning’s.

“Pssh,” Lightning scoffed. “It’s only lame if you can’t live up to it, right?”

“Right!” Rainbow said with a grin and a nod. “In a month we’ll change the world, right?”

“Right,” Twilight said firmly, matching Rainbow’s smile. “One month and everything will be better… so… friends? To whatever end?”

Zee, Rainbow, Lightning, and Twilight glanced between one another, nodding as they did and after a moment they all spoke in unison as their grips on each others hands closed more firmly.

“Friends to the end.”

“I’ve been dreaming a lot lately.”

Wind tore soundlessly around the fog-filled landscape. A part of me can feel the wind but only in the sense of awareness, it’s like I’m in a sturdy stone building in the midst of a tornado. In point of fact, I’m sitting in a comfortable, cushioned chair at a small circular table, and as usual I’m not alone.

I never am in my dreams anymore.

“So I hear.”

I frown at the playful tone my companion is taking with me and try to focus on the girl, the woman, the… person, that’s sitting across from me but I just can’t. There’s a haze made of headaches that surrounds them, and instead I settle for looking down at my hands where I have them folded on the table, like always.

“Who are you?” I ask quietly, my voice echoing strangely in the fog.

A chuckle sounds from the other side of the table, it’s familiar but I can’t place it.

“Where even are we?” I ask more insistently. “Why do you keep… I dunno… haunting me?”

“I’m not haunting,” she says idly, and with a faint tone of sadness to her voice, “I’m waiting.”

“For what?!” I snap, and the windstorm around us stills for a moment before going back to silently roaring in the background.

There was no answer forthcoming. There never is, though, and I grumpily settle back into my chair. Rather than pursue the useless line of questioning as to my companion’s nature, I turn to my attention to our surroundings.

“Where are we this time?” I ask after a few moments of silence.

“I suppose that’s mostly up to you, isn’t it?”

“Is it?” I grumble. “Why can’t you just tell me? Why won’t you tell me who you are?!”

“Because there are things that can’t be told.”

I let out a slow, even breath. For a moment I close my eyes and imagine I can smell engine oil, ash, and leather. It calms me down more than anything, just like it always did.

Just like she always did.

After a few moments, I open my eyes again.

The howling winds were further away and, rather than sitting amidst a foggy realm of pale nothingness like before, I realise suddenly that I know precisely where we are.

“Is… is this the cafeteria at CHS?” I ask with no small amount of incredulity as I look around at the familiar stained floors and tables.

It’s eerie, how quiet it is. I’m more used to the cafeteria being filled with the hubbub of life that came with being the central gathering point for hundreds of hungry teenagers.

That and I can still feel the howling wind outside.

“The cafeteria?” She asks, then laughs softly. “I guess that’s appropriate.”

I turn back to my companion only to flinch as pain pierces my brain forcing me to look back down.

“Why is that?” I ask, gently massaging my temples. “Is this dream just here to tell me I’m about to wake up craving the mystery meat special?”

“It’s appropriate because this is where you would have been,” she says, and I get the distinct impression I’m being pointed at, “instead of with Gilda on that fateful day.”

I stop at that and stare around at the empty, echoing chamber, and feel a cold chill settle in my gut. It had been so long since I’d imagined a day without Gilda in my life but being here I realise my companion is right.

This is where it would have happened.

Assuming Anon-A-Miss had never happened, of course.

Right here in this innocuous and completely normal place filled with people whom I liked and who probably liked me, surrounded by the six girls I cared about most in the world, I would have missed the moment where I would meet the love of my life.

The entire world shudders as a feeling of sickness fills my mouth with bile.

“It’s a future that will never be,” she says, and I hear the seat she’s sitting in scrape in that familiar plastic manner as she stands. “In another place, another world, you stayed with your friends… you pursued the meaning of friendship, befriended many others, and together put down many dark forces.”

“Are you saying I won’t?” I ask, breathing hard as I try to get control of my rebelling gut. “Also, side-question, can you vomit in a dream?”

“In no particular order: yes, and I can’t really say.”

I take a deep breath and cover my face with my hands. “Which of those answers belonged to which of my questions?”

“Who knows?”

“AAAAAAAAGGHHH I HATE YOU!”

The air fills with the sound of her laughter, and it’s achingly familiar. It always is and I can’t place it which just serves to infuriate me further.

“You’re definitely haunting me,” I groan as raise my head, careful to direct my gaze away from her.

I’ve had this dream enough times that I’ve stopped trying to identify her by sight. Even when I try to catch a glimpse of her in my periphery where the light isn’t so blinding my brain still takes that moment to do its best impression of a full Coltic Riverdance troupe in steel clogs in my skull. A small part of me toyed with the idea that I was just going crazy, but the images and scenes I’d seen in my dreams were too true to life for me to buy that.

“And how can I even still see things like this without magic?” I ask with a touch of bitterness entering my voice. “And what’s even the point?”

“Because nothing can truly take your magic away, Sunset,” she said in a sorrowful voice.

“I beg to differ,” I snap back.

She sighs and I hear heels click against the tile as she walks away from me towards the windows and stares out of them. I don’t know how I know that’s what she’s doing, I just do… it’s like an instinct or a feeling… I know what she’s doing no matter what, almost as if it’s me doing it.

Of course, given that it’s my dream that might be truer than not.

And right now she’s waiting for me to join her.

Suddenly I'm in my wheelchair instead off the comfortable cushioned one is been sitting in moments prior. Specifically my old chair, the one that was currently sitting in a slagged mass of metal somewhere in the meadow outside the Everfree.

Sighing, I take a hold of my wheels and roll away from the table and towards the windows, studiously keeping my eyes away from her directly and angled forward at the window.

“Why do you do that here?” she asks, not looking away from the window.

I crook an eyebrow. “Do what?”

“Use your wheelchair.”

Glancing down at it, I start to rebuff her except… this is a dream. I could get up if I wanted to, I could just will myself to my feet and walk over to the window and join her. No fuss, no muss, I could just have my legs back for a bit, even if it is just a dream. Sure it wouldn’t be real, but nothing here is real in the first place, right?

So why should it matter?

“I… I don’t know,” I say quietly, staring down at my chair, “I guess I never thought about it… I wonder why, even in my dreams, I’m in this chair.”

“Because being forgiven isn’t enough.”

I blink in confusion for a moment before looking up at her, which was a mistake as usual but the reflex happened anyway. I clench my eyes shut against the blinding headache, hissing out a curse as I rub at my eyes.

“What’s that even supposed to mean?” I ask waspishly. “Given everything I’ve done I…” I bite my tongue and stop, “whatever, we don’t need to rehash this conversation… why am I over here?”

“Look outside,” she said, and her tone of voice sent a chill my spine.

I obey, turning to look out the window. The front of the school is spread out in front of me. The sidewalks and the bus drop-off’s were all where they were supposed to be, the trees were whipping and snapping in the silent storm outside, but they were still there. The statue of the Canterlot Wondercolt stood resplendent on its plinth in the faded light, covering in black ribbons and chains that ground noisomely together and-

“W-what is…” my mouth drops open as I stare at the statue.

“You have to go outside to know for sure,” she says grimly.

I grimace. “In that storm? Are you joking?”

“You’ve been there before.”

“I haven’t-” I begin, but then stop.

She’s right… I have been there before.

In the midst of a terrible storm with the wind ripping the sky apart around me and apocalyptic thunderheads darkening the sky for miles. The nightmare that haunted my dreams for so long that I resorted to rune magic to stave off sleep just to avoid seeing the visions I was being plagued by.

“B-But… it already happened,” I say hollowly. “The storm… the fight… the vision already came true.”

“Did it?” she asked. “I wonder…”

I feel my breath catch in my throat and the world seems to spin around me. How much of this is a vision and how much is it just a nightmare? I can’t know…

“Then why haven’t I seen it since then?” I snap at her, and I hear her sigh from beside me.

“Because,” she answers slowly, “in here you’re safe.”

In here I’m safe. I feel a weight press down on me as I realise what she’s saying. I remember the dreams prior to this one, too. All of the rumbling and shaking that happened on the outside or around me, all of the silent howling winds as if armageddon was happening a few feet away, but someone had left it on mute.

“You’ve been protecting me?” I ask weakly.

“You’ve been hiding,” she replies evenly. “But you have to face it eventually, especially now that that’s there.”

I feel her point at the statue and I swallow dryly.

“Do I have to?”

I feel her shrug. “I can’t make you do anything, but if it helps… whether or not you have to, I think you that ought to, and regardless of what I think… I know that you will.”

“Why?”

I hear her sigh. “Because Sunset Shimmer doesn’t run away.”

“-ake up!” Gilda’s voice snapped through the torrent of sensation and sound that was filling Sunset’s head. “Sunny, c'mon, wake up!”

Gilda shook her girlfriend gently as Sunset thrashed in her sleep. Sweat poured from the redhead and her eyes were clenched painfully shut as she twisted in the sheets. Gilda felt her chest tighten in panic as she shook Sunset again. It didn’t usually take this long to wake her up. Usually Sunset would snap awake in a few seconds but now it was as if she were stuck.

“C’mon, Sunshine, y’scarin’ me here,” Gilda said in a tight voice. “Please… please wake u-”

Sunset gasped, her back arching as she snapped awake and her eyes flew wide open. Teal orbs stared up at the ceiling as she collapsed back to the mattress, her chest heaving in gulps of cool air as she shivered and shook.

“Fuck sake,” Gilda groaned, collapsing to the bed alongside Sunset. “What th’fuck, Sunflower? Y’ain’t been that bad in months.”

“I’m sorry,” Sunset said, shuddering as she pushed herself up to a sitting position. “I… I had to stay dreaming for a while… there was something I needed to see.”

“S-Stay dreamin’?” Gilda asked, raising an eyebrow. “Th’fuck’s that supposed to mean?”

Sunset looked down at herself, frowning as she did. “I… I’ll explain later, but I need to contact Twilight… now.”

“Hold up,” Gilda said, narrowing her eyes. “I ain’t just lettin’ this go, a’right? What the hell d’ya mean ‘stay-”

“Gilda please!” Sunset snapped, and Gilda flinched back at the fear in Sunset’s voice. “P-Please… please get me my journal so I can contact Twilight.”

For a moment Sunset thought Gilda was going to fight her on the matter, but after a second of silence the taller girl blew out a low, irritated breath, and nodded.

“Fine, but we ain’t done here, Sunshine,” Gilda said firmly as she moved from the bed to start fishing around on the messy floor for the journal.

Sunset let out a sigh of relief. “I know… and I promise I’ll explain, but I just… I really need to contact Twilight, I wouldn’t be asking like this if it weren’t an emergency, Gil.”

“Savvy, I trust ya, Sunflower,” Gilda said quietly without looking up from her search. “I’m just worried about ya, a’right?”

“I know,” Sunset replied, “but… I’m alright, I promise.”

Gilda sighed and nodded wordlessly as she stood up with the journal clutched in her hand, and she walked over to the bed and sat down beside Sunset, laying the journal down between them.

“Can you get ready to go quickly?” Sunset asked as she picked up the journal and flipped it open to a clean page. “We need to get to CHS yesterday.”

Gilda frowned but nodded, hearing the urgency in Sunset’s voice and began going about getting dressed, picking up a little as she did so. Despite her direction, Gilda kept finding her gaze pulling back to Sunset who was writing furiously into the journal. Things were heating up and all of them could feel it; all six of them. Training sessions in the warehouse were becoming more and more intense with even the normally sanguine Penny getting serious about it.

Part of that was due to Sunset not having minced words about the threat they were facing, which Gilda had appreciated. The two of them had agreed that there was no reason to be miserly on the details at this point. There was too much at stake with so much power floating around, and even more problematic was that all six of them needed to be on guard.

Gilda sighed. Sunset had stressed that an attack could come at them if they weren’t careful. It wasn’t likely, but it was certainly possible and it was possible because of one very aggravating, rainbow-headed reason.

No one among their enemies should even know about the Elements of Harmony much less who they were attuned to. It should have been their best advantage over Storm King and whatever chaos he was planning.

Except for Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow had been an Element, and she’d been there when Sunset had revealed the new bearers, and furthermore… she had taken it very poorly.

Gilda could only pray that Rainbow still had enough loyalty left in her not to rat out the people that Gilda cared about, and as frustrating as it was to imagine, Gilda did truly believe that Rainbow Dash wouldn’t do that.

If only she weren’t so goddamn stupid.

Sighing, Gilda pulled on her prosthetic and winced as it snapped into place. Every time she put it back on the pain was a little more bearable, but Gilda honestly wasn’t certain if that was because it was really getting to be less painful or if she was just getting used to it. She followed her arm with a fitted shirt, jeans, and a belt, and swept her bomber jacket off of the rack last.

Before she slung it onto herself, Gilda stopped and held onto it for a moment, staring down at the sleeve. She hadn’t even noticed it at first, because the hand that had repaired it was just that good.

Back in the meadow when Zee had nearly killed her, the entire arm of her jacket had been scorched as well. She hadn’t noticed because she’d been busy dying, obviously, but it seemed obvious in retrospect. Apparently, though, when she’d been in the hospital Applejack had taken the jacket from her, adamantly refusing to let the doctors cut it off. From there she and Rarity had worked together to patch it back up until it looked as good as new, with a brand new sleeve attached perfectly, and even a few nicks, dings, and rips that she had long since stopped noticing buffed out or stitched up.

Even the fringe felt like it used to.

They hadn’t said anything or asked for anything. The jacket had been left for her in her room when she woke up and that was that. It wasn’t even until the thought of why her own jacket was still intact, when Sunset’s hadn’t been, had occurred to her that Gilda had even asked about it, which was when the truth had come out.

“Friends, huh?” Gilda muttered quietly to herself as she sighed and pulled the jacket on. “Helluva thing, I guess.”

Adagio probably would have offered to buy a new one for her, and Octavia too. Vinyl would’ve helped her antique it so it looked like an old school jacket, but it wouldn’t have been the same. So, in the end, it was Applejack who proved to understand best what it meant to have something that had belonged to her father, her real father, to Grendel Grimfeather, and had practically moved heaven and earth to make sure it happened.

Gilda still hadn’t thanked her. She wasn’t entirely sure how.

“Gil, you ready?” Sunset’s voice broke through Gilda’s thoughts.

Turning, Gilda saw Sunset sitting in her chair fully dressed, clutching her journal, and staring back up at Gilda with concern in her eyes.

“Are you okay?” Sunset asked in a quieter voice. “You were spacing out for like, five minutes.”

“Was I?” Gilda blinked and glanced at the clock. “Huh… sorry ‘bout that, Sunflower… just got a lot on my mind, I guess.”

“I think we all do, lately,” Sunset said with a sad smile. “But we’ve got to do everything we can while we’ve got the chance… right now I think I may have found something… something big.”

“Ain’t good, is it?” Gilda asked with a wan grin.

Sunset mirrored the grin and shook her head. “If it’s what I think it is? Then no, and more importantly it means they’re onto us. At least a little bit.”

Nodding, Gilda stepped over to the window and looked out, grimacing at the heavy rainfall that was coming down. The harsh winter was warming but all that meant was that instead of sheets of snow they got torrents of rain; something Gilda was even less keen on since the night in the meadow.

At least there was no thunder and lightning this time.

“Taking the bus?” Sunset said more than asked.

“Yeah,” Gilda replied as she reached out and picked up a pair of gloves that Adagio had gifted her, fine leather riding gloves that, combined with her jacket, served to mask her prosthetic when she went out. “It’s way too dangerous to ride.”

“Twilight still hasn’t responded yet so we’re not in an immediate hurry,” Sunset said, “but I want to be there the moment she does.”

“Savvy, let’s head out then,” Gilda agreed, nodding.

Sunset gripped her wheels and rolled out of the flat, pausing only for Gilda to turn and lock it up. The rain fell in a light scatter around them as they moved through the parking lot towards the bus stop, and Gilda glanced down every so often to see Sunset looking more and more pensive. The expression on Sunset’s face was tight and a little strained, and Gilda would catch Sunset muttering to herself every now and again as they waited for the bus to arrive.

A part of Gilda was torn, because she wanted to ask what was wrong, but she got the impression that even Sunset wasn’t entirely certain of that, which was probably one of the things that was driving the redhead up the wall.

“Gilda, what do you think about forgiveness?” Sunset asked suddenly.

Gilda furrowed her brow in confusion for a moment, but was saved from having to answer immediately by the arrival of the bus. As Gilda went about the now-familiar act of securing the locking straps to Sunset’s chair before taking her own seat, she mulled over her girlfriend’s question.

Sighing, Gilda settled back into the seat and glanced over at Sunset who was staring up at her patiently.

“I dunno, Sunshine,” Gilda replied finally, shrugging. “Ain’t ever been somethin’ I thought about too hard, y’know? I’m the kinda gal who, if I did somethin’ shitty enough that I need t’be forgiven then I ain’t got the right t’ask for it, and if I figure I did the right thing, then I don’t need t’be forgiven even if they hate me over it.”

“But what about Tempest?” Sunset asked, seeming almost desperate. “You forgave her!”

“F’somethin’ I didn’t even have a right t’hold over her,” Gilda replied with a scowl. “I was holdin’ a grudge because… fuck… dunno, maybe because it was the only way’a holdin’ onto Zee I had left, savvy?” Leaning back, Gilda ran her hand over her face and groaned. “I fuckin’ gripped that hate hard, Sunflower, and all it got me was cuttin’ me off from folks who care, y’know? Tempest’n Summer? They were my real family, and they loved me, and I just…”

Gilda clammed up and ran a hand through her hair as she leaned forward, bracing her elbows on her knees as she stared at the rumbling floor of the moving bus.

“Why ya askin’?” Gilda asked, breaking her silence after a few moments. “Seems like y’got this forgiveness thing on lock, Sunshine.”

Sunset sighed, burying her face in her hands. “I just don’t think its enough.”

Gilda raised an eyebrow at that. “What’s enough? Ain’t like anyone’s askin’ more of ya are they? What else d’they fuckin’ want from ya?”

“Not from me,” Sunset said bitterly, lowering her hands and scowling down at them, “for me.”

“I ain’t followin’, Sunny,” Gilda said as the bus kicked and rocked underneath her. “What ain’t enough? You got nothin’ t’be ashamed of!”

“I have my entire life up until these past few months to be ashamed of, Gil!” Sunset hissed. “I… I know it wasn’t as obvious to you, but that’s because you never got in my way! I was a monster, both literally and figuratively.” Sighing, she sagged in her chair. “I don’t just get a free pass because I sang a few pretty songs and made some friends! That’s not how it works! I still… I…”

Gilda reached out and curled her arms around Sunset, who leaned into Gilda’s embrace and pressed her face against Gilda’s chest. Shuddering, Sunset took a deep breath, tightened her grip, letting out a quiet sob.

“It hurts, Gil,” Sunset cried. “It feels like I’ll never be clean… like I’ll never be rid of this… this rot in my heart so I just have to keep struggling and keep fighting and keep… just… hating myself until I’ve burned it all out!”

“What can I do, babe?” Gilda asked gently, pulling Sunset closer, her arms practically swallowing the smaller girl. “I ain’t good at this shit, Sunshine, I don’t know what to do.”

Sunset shook her head. “I wish there was something you could do, babe, but there isn’t. A part of me wonders if I’m just… just going to be like this for the rest of my life and the thought of it is suffocating.”

“We’ll figure it out, a’right?” Gilda said quietly. “You’n me, savvy? Together.”

Sunset nodded, sighing, and forcing herself to relax into Gilda’s arms. “I hate this, Gil… I hate that I’m always trying to distract myself from how I feel… from the things I’ve done…”

“We’ll get ya better, Sunflower, a’right?” Gilda assured her in a soft voice, inasmuch as her natural rasp could create. “An’ I’ll be right there with ya.”

“I know,” Sunset replied, lifting herself up slightly to nestle against Gilda’s neck. “You’ll always be there for me.”

Gilda leaned back, relaxing as Sunset dozed against her in the cold. The city of Canterlot drifted uneasily past the pair of them, its image distorted by the raindrops staining the glass windows.

The world seemed so much more complicated than it had several months ago, back when her primary concerns had been eating, sleeping, and smoking. Gilda felt a wry grin tug at the edges of her mouth as she mused on that; things were so different now that it felt like a lifetime ago. Sure, things were always kinda weird at Canterlot High, but this was a brand new scale of weird. There was magic and mayhem, storms and near-death experiences… and Zee.

Gilda closed her eyes and thought back to the meadow where they had fought. Zee and her armored gauntlets, her lightning… her rage. And the titanic shadow that had clung to her, towering over everything like the specter of death.

“Arabus,” Gilda muttered.

“What did you say?” Sunset asked in a low voice.

“Huh?” Gilda glanced down at Sunset to see the redhead staring worriedly at her. “I… I was just sayin’ that name you said back at the meadow… right? Ara-”

“Don’t,” Sunset hissed, and Gilda glued her mouth shut at the harshness of Sunset’s tone. “Don’t… don’t say his name so casually, please.”

“I uh… okay, yeah,” Gilda replied quietly. “Mind me askin’ why?”

Sunset scowled and tried to go back to relaxing against Gilda’s chest. It was significantly harder now, though.

“Because names have great power,” Sunset answered finally, “especially when they belong to demons.”

Gilda scoffed. “Demons? C’mon… that’s kinda…”

The words died in Gilda’s mouth as she looked down at Sunset who was staring off into space with a worried expression. Magic, mayhem, and… demons? Gilda felt a cold stone settle in her gut at the thought.

“Sunshine?”

“They’re rare,” Sunset said quietly. “Almost extinct, really… the time of the old gods, the dark faiths, the cults, is over, thank the Quill,” sitting up, Sunset pulled out her journal to check and see if Twilight had responded as she continued. “My mother led over a dozen Solar Inquisitions to root out practitioners of dark magic, diabolists, and demonologists… over a thousand years of decades long hunts to put down such people; ponies, minotaurs, griffons, whoever would invoke them, but even then… at least according to my mother, the demons were minor. Insanely dangerous, of course, but by demonic standards… minor.”

“So what’s ‘not-minor’ look like?” Gilda asked, not certain she wanted the answer.

“There are only stories,” Sunset replied uneasily. “The old greater demons were banished or defeated in ancient times. The demon Arabus was one of them, and you saw how powerful he was.”

“What do you mean?”

“The storm, Gil,” Sunset explained.

“He made the storm?” Gilda asked, and a shiver went down her spine.

That storm had been enormous, and insanely dangerous. It was just the wrong side of a supercell and if it had kept going it could have caused major damage. It was a natural disaster on par with an earthquake or a tsunami.

Sunset shook her head. “He was the storm, Gil, it was the manifestation of his presence… demons like him leave behind calamities like we leave footprints; him just being awake and present in the area is what made that storm. That wasn't him conjuring, was just him flexing.”

Gilda stared for a few moments before leaning back, eyes wide as she digested that little tidbit of information. After a few moments she took a deep breath and raised her hands to her face, and Sunset grimaced as she felt Gilda shudder a little in her arms.

“Gil?

Blowing out a breath, Gilda lowered her hands as she stared outward, her eyes fixed on nothing in particular. “Sorry babe I just… guess that kinda freaked me out, savvy?”

“If it makes you feel better,” Sunset started, “I don’t think he’s got his full strength, or even most of it… if he did then, believe me, we’d know it.”

“What’s that mean for…”

“For Zee?” Sunset asked quietly, and Gilda nodded. “I don’t know really… she’s not possessed, strictly speaking… if I had to guess I’d say it was those gauntlets she was wearing.” The moment she said it, Sunset knew she’d hit the mark. “They’re like remains, or a totem… the demon who owned the name ‘Arabus’ was supposedly annihilated ages ago, so I’d bet my bottom bit those gauntlets contain the last fragment of his essence! Not even a whole mind just… hunger.”

The high school came into view around the corner as Sunset spoke, and Gilda pulled the cord signaling a stop, then sat up to start unbuckling Sunset as she continued to talk her way through it, drawing a few odd glances from the other passengers while the bus ground to a creaking halt.

“No that makes perfect sense!” Sunset exclaimed as Gilda sheepishly pushed Sunset onto the lift. “Arabus was destroyed but he’s a greater demon so he can’t be killed entirely! But rather than haunting Equestria he somehow ended up on this side, blown through a portal! But there’s no magic here so the fragment took a shape of something that would act as a vessel, and since legends say Arabus could snatch your shadow his form took on the shape of a pair of hands!”

“Video game stuff, sorry,” Gilda said with a weak chuckle, waving at the other bus riders as she went out the door and met Sunset outside, pulling her jacket up against the rain and took Sunset’s handles. “So what’s it doin’ t’Zee?”

“I couldn’t even guess,” Sunset replied worriedly. “Dark magic is passively influential, and a bad time all around trust me… but it’s not malevolent, necessarily speaking. It’s like giving a loudspeaker to your shoulder-devil, savvy?” Leaning back, Sunset tapped her finger on her chin thoughtfully. “This isn’t just dark magic though, it’s a crude sapience… a demon of gluttony… give me some time to think on it and I’ll get back to you, alright babe? This is complicated.”

“Fair enough, Sunflower,” Gilda replied. “Half’a this shit goes way over my head… but Zee… she’s still my sister, y’know? Even if she hates me, even if she’s tryin’ t’kill me, I still gotta protect’er.”

“I know,” Sunset said quietly as they approached the statue.

They had hardly made it to the stone plinth before Sunset’s Journal suddenly began loudly buzzing, and Sunset grinned as she pulled it free of her bag, hunching over it to protect its pages from the rainfall.

“Right on time, Twi,” Sunset whispered as she cracked the book open and read the lines.

Sunset,

Sorry I missed your message, I was a little tied up. I’ll head to the mirror right away but I have to ask: what’s wrong?

Twilight

Sighing, Sunset pulled out her pen and began writing.

Twi,

I think someone did something the statue on this end, to the portal, I need you to test it safely. Try and send something through or something… I just need to know what happened. I had a dream, a vision, I saw the statue wrapped in black chains and ribbons, like it was locked up, and that cannot be good.

Your Suspicious Friend,

Sunset Shimmer

Twilight’s affirmative came seconds later and Sunset snapped the book shut to glare up at the portal with concern.

“And now we wait,” Sunset muttered.

The wait was all of a few moments. Sunset’s head snapped up in a distinctly feline manner, despite there not having been any sound beyond the pattering of the rain and gentle breeze that chilled the air.

“Can you feel that?” Sunset hissed as she stared up at the plinth.

Gilda furrowed her brow. She could feel… something, but she wasn’t sure what. Like a tingle at the tips of her extremities or a faint flavor in the back of her mouth she couldn’t identify properly. Moving away from Sunset, Gilda approached the plinth of the statue with wide eyes.

“Don’t touch it!” Sunset cried.

“I ain’t gonna,” Gilda replied evenly as she got closer.

Gilda could taste the spoiled air around the statue. Something had gone wrong with it, she knew it now just as sharply as Sunset did. It was an ugly taste but it was also… familiar.

Before Gilda could catch the errant thought that was flitting through her mind, there was an pulse of acrid air and a flash of light from the statue, and Gilda staggered back with a shout of alarm.

“What the hell was that?!” Gilda snarled.

Foul-smelling wisps of smoke were curling off of the smooth plane of stone that both of them knew made up a portal to another dimension, and Sunset wheeled herself forward to examine it critically while her journal began to buzz and rattle.

“It’s a seal,” Sunset said darkly as she opened up her journal. “A powerful one, too… strong enough to interfere with a portal created by one of the foremost arcane minds in the last ten centuries.”

Someone has disabled the portal, Sunset! I tried to send through a statuette and the machine started sparking and hissing and a minute later it spat it back out IN PIECES!

Sunset grimaced. “I was afraid of that.”

“Afraid’a what?” Gilda asked.

Scowling at the statue, Sunset muttered a curse under her breath and wrote a quick reply to Twilight relaying what the effect had looked like on their end.

“They found the portal,” Sunset said as she wrote. “And worse… they’ve cut us off from any Equestrian aid for the time being. Twilight is going to contact Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, as well as the few experts on dark magic in the Kingdom, but says not expect any help anytime soon… they just don’t know enough about how the portal was built to mess with it too much.”

“So we’re on our own, huh?” Gilda said sternly, staring at the portal with a displeased twist to her mouth. “Bastards.”

“We’re never on our own, Gil,” Sunset said evenly, snapping her journal shut. “We’ve got each other, we’ve got the girls… we’ve got all the help we need.”

Gilda sighed and nodded. “Yeah… yeah I guess we do.”

“Call the girls up, Gil,” Sunset said firmly, “from now on we practice anytime we’ve got a minute, because now it’s up to us.”

Gilda smirked and pulled out her phone, “you’da made a good Princess y’self, Sunshine,” she said as she started sending out messages to their group chat, “that sounded like a royal order.”

“I’m no Princess,” Sunset said quietly, her gaze hardening as she stared at the now-defunct statue portal. “But I’ll be a General if I have to.”

“You wanted to see me, Dean Cadence?”

Cadence looked up and instantly her lips pressed to a thin line of concern. The door opened quietly and inside stepped the girl that Cadence had watched grow from a child to a young woman. From an inquisitive toddler to a brilliant polymath. And from a good-hearted person to someone who came off lately as almost vindictive.

Twilight Sparkle stepped into the office, shutting the door behind her as she approached to a respectful distance. There was no familiar greeting, no hugs, and no song or dance.

“I did,” Cadence said crisply, trying to push down the pain in her heart, “an hour ago.”

An hour.

Last year Twilight would have been in paroxysms of anxiety at the idea of walking into an office a full hour after she was called by not only a teacher but the Dean of Students. Now, she looked merely… bored.

“My apologies,” Twilight said tonelessly, “I got caught up in what I was doing and lost track of time.”

“I’m sure you did,” Cadence replied before gesturing to the chair in front of her desk. “Twilight… please sit down.”

“If it’s all the same to you, Dean Cadence, I’ll stand,” Twilight said after glancing down at the chair for a moment. “Will this take long? I really need to get back to the team.”

Cadence narrowed her eyes. Twilight was many things and, admittedly, not all of them were positive, but rude was never among them. This new Twilight displayed traits Cadence had never imagined she would see in the young woman. She was always polite, sometimes to a fault, and always well-behaved.

A part of Cadence wondered if this was something that had truly changed about her little Twily or if it was always there: buried under a decade of bullying and social neglect.

Taking a deep breath, Cadence fixed her gaze on Twilight evenly.

“I was wonder if you could answer my question as to why you’re going to be leading the Friendship Games team this year,” Cadence began.

“It was my condition for joining,” Twilight replied.

Cadence raised an eyebrow at the bald-faced admission. “So you bargained? That’s a little…”

“I didn’t break any rules, Dean Cadence,” Twilight said tersely, nudging her glasses up with a finger. “I just told Principal Cinch that, given my grades, I didn’t think it would be worthwhile if I weren’t in the lead position, and she agreed.”

“I see,” Cadence replied, feeling that same faint unease she got lately whenever she was around Twilight. “Twilight, you’ve never been competitive, and you’ve never shown any interest in displaying your work, so why now?”

“I decided I wanted to, that’s all,” Twilight answered, her eyes narrowing.

“But why?” Cadence pressed, leaning forward as she did.

Twilight scowled, the first real show of emotion on her face since she’d come in.

“I don’t think that’s relevant, Dean Cadence,” Twilight replied in a tight voice, “now may I please get back to my team? We have a lot more to cover.”

“Is it because of Zee?” Cadence asked, her own voice darkening. “Or is it Storm?”

There it was.

A flicker of fear and panic snapped like a lightning bolt across Twilight’s features, and was gone just as quickly as she schooled her face to a cool, even expression.

“I’m afraid I don’t know any Storm,” Twilight replied.

Cadence had to admit she was a little impressed. The Twilight Sparkle she had helped raise hadn’t been able to lie worth a damn but the one in front of her had looked her straight in the eyes and done just that. If it weren’t for the fact that she knew for certain, thanks to Sunset, precisely who Twilight was involved with she might have even believed her.

There were other signs though; a tightness around her jaw and neck, a faint sheen of sweat on her brow, and other small ticks that told Cadence that Twilight wasn’t speaking honestly.

“Twilight, please,” Cadence pleaded. “You don’t know what you’ve gotten yourself into! I want to help you, please just let me!”

“I’m not a child, Ca- Dean Cadence,” Twilight said, her voice dangerously low, and that faint burn of illumination lit behind her eyes again. “I don’t know what you think you know or what you think is happening, but I’m doing just fine and would appreciate it if you kept yourself out of my personal business unless you want me to file a harassment complaint against you.”

Cadence looked taken aback. The cold shoulder was one thing but threats were new.

“Twilight I’m trying to help you,” Cadence said softly, holding out her hands across the desk. “I know things have gotten out of control, I know you don’t trust us anymore, but I am begging you, please let me in… I swear to you all I want for you is your happiness.”

Twilight stared across the desk at Cadence, her hands tucked neatly behind her as she kept her features dispassionate.

“We know, Twilight,” Cadence continued, “we know everything… Shining and I, I mean… we know what kind of powers you’re toying with.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Twilight said through gritted teeth.

Cadence sighed and withdrew her hands. She couldn’t force Twilight to cross the gap to her and let her help, and Twilight wasn’t willing to cross the distance and meet her halfway on her own.

“I see,” Cadence said quietly. “May I field another question I found concerning?”

Twilight’s jaw tightened slightly, but her dedication to playing the role of the dutiful student kept her anchored in place. “Of course.”

“Your address on your new forms,” Cadence began, “I visited out of concern to ensure you were keeping up to standard health and safety, given your lack of parental supervision.”

“Did you now?” Twilight replied, her voice returning to its toneless state. “Were you satisfied?”

“The small studio apartment you claim to live in was almost sterile,” Cadence said, “almost as if no one had ever lived there.”

“I spend a lot of time in the lab and at Zee’s,” Twilight said. “I don’t go home often.”

Cadence sighed. She was getting tired of these word games and dancing around the issue. If she could just catch Twilight in an inconsistency… if she could just get the girl to unravel then maybe, maybe, she could make some progress.

“I see,” Cadence said, her patience was wearing thin but she kept it off of her face. “I have to ask, too, out of concern, how is it you’re affording such a home? The stipend for an emancipated minor isn’t nearly enough for such a nice apartment, and subsidized housing for the program uses low-income locations. Furthermore, how exactly did you pay for the tuition after your parents were pro-rated? I’m sure you’re aware that after-school jobs are prohibited by Crystal Prep.”

“You know I don’t have to tell you any of my personal financial information,” Twilight said firmly.

“I do, but-”

“But I will, if it helps you sleep at night,” Twilight continued, giving Cadence a saccharine smile that put a shiver down her back. “The answer is simple: Zee is paying for everything. We weren’t lying at dinner that night, she makes six figures with her job and doesn’t buy much, so this is barely even an expense.” The smile remained set on her face like it had been plastered there as she spoke. “I agreed to balance her books and clean up her finances since she’d previously been doing it herself, it’s not an official job and I’m aware it’s a little grey, but I’m well within my rights since I’m not on any kind of payroll. I’m just… doing my girlfriend a favor.”

Cadence bit the inside of her cheek, forcing herself to keep her expression neutral. Twilight had very neatly tied up a lot of loose strings that Cadence had been hoping to tug on and the result left her with a perfectly whole tapestry that she knew consisted almost entirely of lies but had no actual means of proving the fact.

“I’d like to have Zee’s confirmation on that, then,” Cadence said, playing what she knew might be her last gambit.

Twilight’s eyes narrowed, spoiling the smile on her face. “Zee is a private person, and not a student, so you have no authority over her,” she said before quickly adding, “Dean Cadence.”

“But my husband is a police officer,” Cadence replied thinly.

Twilight smirked, a twisted, odd expression that did something unpleasant to her cupid’s-bow lips. “Then get a warrant or I’ll see you in court.”

Cadence’s nails scraped dully against the cool, wooden grain of her desk, and she nodded carefully to Twilight.

“So,” Cadence said quietly, meeting Twilight’s eyes. The younger girl didn’t look away and Cadence shuddered at the chill she saw there. “That’s it then? That’s how it is?”

“Yes, Dean Cadence,” Twilight answered in a polite, neutral voice. “That’s how it is.”

Closing her eyes slowly, Cadence let out a slow breath and nodded. “I see… then you’re dismissed, Miss Sparkle, and good luck with your team.”

“Luck is for people who can’t stack a deck,” Twilight replied, the edge of her lips quirking up in an odd smirk.

Cadence blinked in surprise at the quip as Twilight turned on her heel and quietly let herself out of the room. That hadn’t sounded like Twilight at all. That reply had been sharp, barbed even, and just… tasted wrong coming from Twilight, and after a moment another shiver went down Cadence’s spine as it occurred to her that she might not have been hearing Twilight in that moment at all.

She strongly suspected that the voice she had just heard belonged to Storm.

Twilight swept out of Cadence’s office in a foul temper. Her former sister-in-law was as nosy and insistent as ever, and still just didn’t get it. Storm had been right, as it turned out. He had warned her some time ago that eventually her family would try to pry in to her new life, to use her to get at Zee and likely himself. He had warned her that they couldn’t be trusted and that all they wanted was to have their brilliant ‘daughter’ back under their thumb, and that they would come at her from any angle possible to accomplish that.

And he had been right.

Cadence’s had made a jab at everything of Twilight’s that she could reach: her emotions, her connections, her finances, even going so far as threatening Zee with a police response. The thought made Twilight’s blood boil as she stalked down the stairs and towards the basement level where her team’s conference room was and braced herself for that fiasco.

Whatever she had said to Cadence, Twilight was floundering when it came to roping the rest of the Crystal Prep team into something resembling cohesion.

Not a single one of them seemed to respect her, despite the fact that she was clearly smarter than most of them combined. She had heard the whispers too, about her sudden departure from her family, about the police report, and all other manner of rumors including no small amount of slander aimed at her and her girlfriend.

Thug, ruffian, dyke, and every other slur in the book was spoken in whispers just low enough that everyone involved could keep a straight face while they lied to her. If it had been just her Twilight could have borne it, but dragging Zee into it was too far.

And Twilight knew precisely who to blame for the onslaught of rumor mongering that had cropped up: Sunny Flare.

She had been quiet since Zee had threatened her, and maybe for a time she had even actually been cowed. But like every bully in the history of ever, she’d found her spine again and had started taking swings at the people who had humiliated her. More than just the threat at the mall, having the prestigious leadership of the Friendship Games team swept out of her hands had probably stung.

Twilight permitted herself a small, vindictive smile at that thought.

But it was biting her now. Sunny was popular where Twilight was not, Sunny had a pedigree that Twilight did not, and whatever loss of face she had suffered for having been passed over for the teams captaincy, her mother was still the principal.

Stopping outside the door to the room, Twilight took a slow, even breath.

“I… can I do this?” Twilight hated how small her voice felt. She hated how weak she sounded. “I can… I… I… dammit!” she swore under breath and swallowed hard. “Pops will know what to do.”

Stepping away from the door and trotting several paces down the hall, she pulled out her phone and hit the speed dial. It only rang twice before it was answered, and a darkly humorous voice spoke.

//Aye? Thee’oreyt, lass?//

Twilight felt the tension in her shoulder relax at Storm’s easy tone. He would know how to take care of things, he always did.

“Yeah, I’m okay… I need help, Pops,” Twilight said, keeping her voice low, “the team… they don’t listen to me… I know we need to make sure the games go off and I’m trying… but they won’t listen! They treat me like I’m not even there!”

//Mmm,// he grumbled thoughtfully, //I’ll ‘appen ye pissed one of’em off, tha’reyt?//

Twilight grimaced. “Y-yeah, her name is Sunny and she’s the principal's daughter. She bullied me for a long time and-”

//And now ye’re her boss an’ she ain’t takin’ it too graceful-like?//

“She’s sabotaging me, Pops,” Twilight hissed, “she’s turning the team against me, making sure they don’t respect me or listen to me!”

//We need the distraction of those games, lass,// Storm said sternly. //If tha’ team gets rolled over we may not ‘ave the time to set all the sigils. S’gonna be tight on time as it is.//

“Do we have to do it during the games?” Twilight asked quietly. “Can’t we just… go in at night or something? Why do we need these… other people?!”

//We need more magic, lass// Storm replied in a calm, even tone. //And there’s not enough wif us, savvy? We’ve got t’be dead certain that all, or at least most, of the channellers in the city’re in one place if this conjurin’s gonna ‘ave half a chance of firin’ off. And they’ll all be at the games and they’ll be distracted. The perfect setup… but only if we can manage our part.//

“How do I make them listen, then?” Twilight pleaded quietly, pressing her back to the basement wall and sliding down it as she tried not to cry in frustration. “I can’t deal with people… I don’t know how!”

//Tha’s not as it is, lass// Storm replied with an airy laugh. //Ye’ve got all th’fire in ye belly ye need, oreyt? You’ve fought n’clawed n’spit in the face of any who tried t’make ye owt but what ye wanna be! Ye’ve got the strength, lass, I’ve seen it… now use it t’make tha’ Sunny slag see things your way.//

“My way?” Twilight considered Storm’s words carefully, and a slow, uneasy smile filtered over her face. “What do I do?”

//I’ve got a rule f’that, lass,// Storm said with in an almost cheeky voice. //There’s quick learners n’slow learners, savvy? Folks learn things natural-like at different speeds, see? You’n me learn quick, Sunny learns slow.//

“Okay,” Twilight said, nodding along with his words.

//But there’s a trick to it,// Storm continued, his voice rich with dark humor. //Us humans’re just animals, and every animal learns fast s’long as ye hit’em hard enough… s’long as ye scare’m bad enough… savvy?//

Twilight’s grip tightened on the phone as images of Sunny flickered through her mind. Anger and hate billowed up from her gut and she smiled, a weak crackle of laughter escaping her lips.

“Savvy, Pops,” Twilight replied, her limbs trembling as an idea formed in her mind. “I know what I’ll do.”

//Tha’s a good lass,// Storm said, and Twilight felt a surge of warmth at the pride in his voice. //I’ll leave ye to it then, go’n make me proud.//

Twilight smiled widely as she stood up and tucked her phone away into her skirt pocket. Smoothing out the rumpled lines of her uniform, Twilight gently wiped at her eyes, took a deep breath, and turned on her heel to walk back over to the conference room door.

She opened it, not quietly, but imperiously. Sweeping the door wide and moving through with a sharp clicking of the heels of her uniform’s shoes against the marble stone floors.

The team sat talking, wasting time and chatting, around the large table, and Twilight scowled.

There was Jet Set and his girlfriend Upper Crust, averagely intelligent but amongst the wealthiest of the students. Trenderhoof, who was genuinely sharp and incisive as the president of the Crystal Prep Journal ought to be. Hoity and Suri who had helped design the newest iteration of the schools uniform that she was wearing, and Neon Light who had led the Modern Advanced Musical Theory Club.

They were the low rung. The second string of the twelve mostly brought in to appease wealthy parents despite those clearly purchased grades.

The last ones were the true stars. The broad, academic backs that would carry the team.

Indigo Zap, an athletic prodigy who could act as the Ace of almost any teams roster regardless of the sport. Sour Sweet who, despite her contradictory and occasionally vicious personality, could solve multiple linear equation systems in her head when she could be forced to concentrate, and was a almost to Indigo's level in athletic ability, though less in sports and more in triathlon and biathlon activities.

And then there was Twilight’s bane. Sugarcoat, Lemon Zest, and Sunny Flare. All brilliant academics among other things. Lemon was a musical genius, Sugarcoat was, Twilight grudgingly admitted, nearly as intelligent as herself, and Sunny was, for all of her other faults, unfailingly precise, politically-minded, and intellectually formidable. Although her intellect seemed to fail her when it came to not messing with Twilight and her new family.

“But everyone learns fast when you hit them hard enough,” Twilight muttered under her breath, before raising it so the whole room could hear her. “Sunny!”

Sunny Flare looked up, one eyebrow cocked skyward. “Uh… yeah? What do you want Captain?”

Twilight let a small smirk quirk her lips up. A small part of her had started to consider her plan, and genuinely felt bad about it.

At least it did right up until that word came out dripping with sarcastic venom.

“I need to speak with you privately, please,” Twilight kept her voice as nonchalant and pleasant as possible as she opened the door back up, then put a bit more iron in her tone. “Now.”

The others looked genuinely surprised, ten other pairs of eyes settling in Twilight as she and Sunny stared one another down, evaluating her, calculating her.

She let them.

Sunny smirked back and stood up. “Y’know what? Sure, let’s talk.”

Twilight stepped out of the room first and beckoned for Sunny to follow her, which she did, her sharp cerise eyes fixed on Twilight.

Neither girl spoke as Sunny followed Twilight down the hall towards the computer room, and the further they went the stranger Sunny found it.

“Is there a reason we’re going to that comp-sci crap hole you spend all your time in?” Sunny said acidly. “You’re not going to put the moves on me out here are you, Dykle?”

Twilight’s mouth twisted in distaste. If she’d had any reservations at all about what she was about to do they vanished then and there.

“No, Sunny, I’m not going to put any ‘moves’ on you,” Twilight hissed as she came to a stop and glanced over her shoulder. “Just because I like girls doesn’t mean I find your rancid personality remotely attractive. I didn’t bring you hear to flirt, or to talk, savvy?”

“Then why-”

Twilight didn’t let her finish. Magic was already curling through the veins of her arms like electric serpents, sinking their fangs into her muscles and injecting pure power into them. Her eyes blazed to life with cyan fire as she whipped around, closing a hand around Sunny’s throat and lifting her bodily into the air with a single arm before turning and slamming her against the wall.

“I brought you her so no one would hear me teach you a little respect,” Twilight snarled, “you arrogant, bitchy, ugly little insect!”

Sunny kicked uselessly, her thin legs knocking against the wall and she croaked as she fought for breath around Twilight’s suddenly implacable steel grip.

Giggling, Twilight felt a smile curl over her face as she pressed Sunny harder against the wall.

“Oh wow, I don’t know why I was reluctant to try this,” Twilight chortled as she gave Sunny a little shake. “God, you really are so pathetic when someone actually calls you on your bullshit, Sunny.”

“P-ple-”

Twilight scowled and tightened her grip around Sunny’s throat a little, choking off the words.

“P-p-p-please?” Twilight said mockingly, sputtering the word as she grinned around teeth that felt much sharper than before. “How many times did I ask you to stop hurting me, Sunny? How many times did I beg you to ‘please stop’, huh?”

Sunny Flare didn’t respond. She had passed out and hung limp in Twilight’s grasp. Glancing down, Twilight wrinkled her nose in disgust as she realised Sunny had actually wet herself in terror.

“Gross,” Twilight grumbled before giving Sunny a solid shake. “Hey, wake up.”

She didn’t, and Twilight sighed. Her body was still rattling with coursing magic and she wasn’t quite done tormenting Sunny, nor had she gotten what she needed yet.

Lowering her slightly, Twilight brought her other hand up and pressed the tip of her finger to Sunny’s forehead.

“Wake… UP!” Twilight snapped, and sent a jolt through the meat of her brain.

Sunny’s eyes snapped wide open as she gasped a deep breath of air and spasmed in place. Twilight dropped her to the ground as she grinned.

“Welcome back to the waking world, Sunny,” Twilight said in a sugar-sweet voice. “How’d you like that little adrenal cocktail? A double shot of norepinephrine, some serotonin, and a little good old fashioned epinephrine is a helluva wake up call, right?”

Sunny made a sharp intake of air that told Twilight she was about to scream. Narrowing her eyes in annoyance, Twilight snapped her fingers, pushing her will out into the air and hardening it.

Sunny screamed, shrieked really. For several seconds she threw her all into screaming for help while Twilight watched dispassionately. After a few moments she wore herself out and sagged against the wall looking nervous, terrified, and triumphant.

“Done?” Twilight asked with a quirked eyebrow.

“You’re finished, Dykle,” Sunny spat. “The whole school must’ve heard that! You’re a freak and they’ll burn you alive!”

“They might,” Twilight agreed as a slow and nasty grin split her face. “If anyone had heard you, that is.”

Triumph turned to confusion on Sunny’s face as Twilight smiled down at her.

“I hardened a small bubble of air around us so it wouldn’t carry sound,” Twilight explained with an easy grin. “But you’re welcome to give it another try if you want.”

No response was forthcoming, and Twilight’s smile turned calm and deadly along with her voice.

“Now… I know you’ve been talking behind my back, Flare,” Twilight said in a measured tone. “I know you’ve been making my life harder because you’re a selfish, petty, bitch.”

Sunny flinched but didn’t deny any of Twilight’s accusations.

“God you’re a disgusting,” Twilight snarled. “Why do people like you even exist? What do you contribute? Why are you even alive?” Twilight’s face twisted into a rictus of anger and irritation. “Do you think you’re strong? That you’ve got some kind of power just because you can lie and leverage your mom’s stupid job to get people to do what you want?”

Sunny Flare sobbed piteously through her bruised throat. Twilight stood up to her full height, seeming to tower over Sunny.

“Let me show you what the world really has in store for you,” Twilight said, spreading her arms wide as if to embrace Sunny.

At first there was nothing, just the faint crackle of electricity around them a strange, unpleasant flavor in the air. Then Sunny’s eyes widened as Twilight began to change. Her skin darkened to a deeper, more sinister shade of lavender, and her hair began to dance like violet flames around her shoulders. Her eyes burned bright with that startling shade of cyan, fixing themselves on Sunny Flare with predatory intent.

And from her back a pair dark, black, feathered wings gracefully extended before curling down and around a stunned Sunny, lifting her up in their embrace.

For a few moments Sunny Flare just gibbered wordlessly; weak mewling sobs escaping her lips now and again as Twilight gazed down at her with quasi-divine weight.

It felt so good to be like this, to wear what was feeling more and more like her real skin. Her wings felt cramped, as if they’d been crammed under a jacket all day, and a tightness around her neck was finally loosening up.

And more than that there was the power. The pure and undiluted power that was vibrating through every inch of her, waiting to brought to bear on whatever she deemed necessary.

“What are you?” Sunny whimpered finally, before a broken sob escaped her lips.

“I’m everything humanity could’ve become if they weren’t all just like you,” Twilight answered calmly. “I am power and perfection! The day of this world, as you know it, is coming to an end and I will be its darkest hours, its own personal Midnight.”

Sunny sniffled and sobbed again. “Am… am I gonna die?”

Twilight chuckled darkly. “No, because you’re going to help me get those pea-brained idiots back in that room to finally get serious, because I have a plan that’s going to take me somewhere far from here where I can finally be who I truly am, you see?” Twilight reached out and gently ran a finger under Sunny’s chin, and the girl shuddered violently at Twilight’s touch. “And it has to happen at the games, and that means that you are seriously cramping my style with your petty rumors and backtalk.”

As Twilight pulled her finger away from Sunny, she grinned as she saw Sunny lean forward briefly, as if trying to keep the contact for even a second longer.

On whim, Twilight swung her senses out towards Sunny Flare, letting her consciousness worm its way into Sunny’s mind through her fear-riddled hindbrain.

What she found there made her smirk viciously.

“Oh Sunny,” Twilight simpered. “If you’d just told me you thought I was cute from the get-go that might have actually worked.”

Sunny Flare’s breath pulled in sharply as her eyes widened. “I… I don’t-”

“Seriously though, wow, beating me up because you like me? That is really cliche,” Twilight continued savagely. “You know, I used to wonder why you would never leave me alone, why you’d always slap me around… y’know, before I just let myself get numb to your abuse,” Twilight leaned down as ran the back of her fingers across Sunny’s cheek. “But you couldn’t say anything, could you? Couldn’t do what you wanted to do, huh? Mommy’s perfect little angel couldn’t be a filthy pervert who dreamed of kissing other girls, could she?”

Sunny Flare sobbed, curling in on herself. “It’s not true, s-shut up! P-please just s-shut up! I’m normal! I’M NORMAL!”

Twilight felt something then.

A hitch caught itself right in the back of her throat. A bilious feeling like nausea welled up inside her as she stared down at the bitterly sobbing, weeping form of Sunny Flare curled up on the cold stone of the hall.

Guilt settled into her gut like a black, cancerous mass, and Twilight’s face fell.

For a moment she just stared, watching and listening as the proud, belligerent Sunny Flare mentally and emotionally fell apart into tiny, unrecognizable pieces in front of her. Then she looked down at her own hands, her form, and for the first time Twilight felt a twinge of disgust at herself.

“W-What am I doing,” Twilight whispered softly. “Why… why am I…”

Looking back up at Sunny, Twilight felt her heart go out to the girl. Was she a bully? Sure she was. And had she made Twilight’s life a living hell for three years?

Yes. Yes, she had.

But her own life had probably been hell long before that. Growing up under Cinch’s unforgiving and ever-judging gaze couldn’t have possibly been fun. Twilight, by comparison, realised she had been relatively fortunate to have grown up with parents who didn’t care who she was so long as she was…

So long as she was happy.

Tears trickled down Twilight’s cheeks as images of her mother and father flickered through her mind.

Another broken sob pulled Twilight’s attention back to the here and now, and she looked down at Sunny.

The girl was an absolute wreck. Her mascara was running, her face was splotchy and red, and she was curled up in the fetal position shaking. She stank and, on a whim, Twilight waved her hand, isolating the compounds of her terror and whisking them away into the sewer underneath them, cleaning Sunny up a little before kneeling and wrapping her wings around the girl more gently and pulling the sobbing Sunny Flare into her arms.

“Ssh, it’s okay,” Twilight cooed softly as she pet Sunny’s head in reassuring strokes. “I’m sorry I hurt you… I’m sorry I said those things… I didn’t…” Twilight sighed and clenched her jaw.

She had been about to say ‘I didn’t mean them’ but Twilight knew that would have been a poor lie.

Twilight had meant them. She had meant every single mean-spirited word of them when she had been spitting them like poison barbs into Sunny’s heart.

“It’s okay, Sunny,” Twilight continued, keeping her voice low and kind and as tender as possible, “I promise I won’t ever hurt you again, alright? No one will ever hurt you again. Not your mom, or anyone else, okay? I won’t let them.”

Sunny buried her face in Twilight shoulder and let out a bitter, wailing cry as tears flooded out of her. She clung to Twilight in a pitiful state, her whole body shaking as she rode out her despair. Twilight found herself desperately thankful that she had raised the dome of silence around them for no other reason than so they could be alone. To, at the very least, preserve a modicum of Sunny’s dignity with the others, even if she had none left with Twilight.

They sat that way for nearly twenty minutes as Sunny sobbed her way through the pain and anguish of years. The blockades of repression, forced behaviour, and expectations that had been cracked and swept carelessly away by Twilight’s mental intrusion had left behind a ruin of wounds in Sunny’s mind, and Twilight, more kindly this time, let her own consciousness trickle into Sunny’s, lending her a extra buffer of mental support as she pulled herself together bit by bit.

“I’m sorry,” Sunny whispered finally, in a tiny, shattered voice that was raw from tears and mucus. “I didn’t want to hurt you, the first time I saw you I w-wanted to kiss you… and do things with you… b-but every time I saw you I got so angry at… at myself, for wanting those things, and at you for making me feel them and…”

“It’s alright,” Twilight muttered, her wings brushing soft feathers against Sunny’s arms and pulling her closer. “I forgive you.”

Sunny Flare sniffled and nodded, “my mother is going to kill me.”

“I would kill her first,” Twilight hissed, her eyes blazing furiously as she wrapped around Sunny more firmly. “I’ll keep you safe, Sunny, I promise.”

Sunny sighed softly and sank into Twilight’s arms. Twilight felt a pang of guilt as she pulled away a little.

“S-Sunny… you know I’m… I’m not-” Twilight started.

“I know,” Sunny said quietly. “I just… I wanted to… to pretend for a little while.”

“I love Zee,” Twilight said firmly. “She’s… she’s everything to me. She keeps me sane, she keeps me grounded… she protects me.”

“She protected you from me,” Sunny agreed quietly, and a rattling breath that might have been a choked back sob escaped her lips. “I’m sorry… I know I don’t have any right to ask but… can I stay here for a little bit longer?” Sunny leaned in tentatively, as if expecting to be pushed away, but Twilight nodded and let Sunny rest against her shoulder. “I don’t want to go back to the way I was right away,” she muttered, “I want to pretend for a little bit longer.”

Twilight nodded and let Sunny relax against her as she absentmindedly went back to petting Sunny’s hair.

Several moments passed and Sunny eventually stirred.

“You need my help, right?” Sunny asked without looking up. “With your plan?”

“They listen to you,” Twilight said quietly. “They don’t respect me… not yet… and I don’t know if I have time to make them. I can’t do to all of them what I did here…”

“I’ll help you,” Sunny said finally, and after a moment she looked up and met Twilight’s eyes.

There was an almost fanatical glint gleaming her wide cerise orbs. Something slightly unhinged that made Twilight wonder if maybe she’d inflicted more damage on Sunny with her intrusion than she’d thought. Or maybe it was just the damage of denying who she was for more than a decade under the unyielding thumb of her ruthless, slave-driving mother.

“I’ll do anything you want,” Sunny swore as she clung desperately to Twilight. “I promise, I’ll do anything at all for you, Twilight, no, Midnight… my Midnight… anything, just ask.”

Twilight nodded, feeling guilt wash through her and that twinge of self-hatred settle into the back of her throat. What she had done to Sunny was horrible, Twilight had broken her clean in half without even realising how brittle she really was.

But they needed Sunny, they needed her mind and her wit, they needed her connections and her leverage.

Storm had told her, hadn’t he? Hit them hard enough and they learn.

Twilight just hadn’t reckoned on precisely how much damage hitting someone that hard really inflicted until the moment she did it. She felt sick to her stomach at her ignorance.

This had been Storm’s intent. This was how he had controlled a gang of belligerent bangers in the rough streets of Las Pegasus; with a velvet glove wrapped around an iron fist.

Doubt slithered into the back of Twilight’s mind and, as she nodded to Sunny and they began discussing how they would mold the team, she couldn’t help but wonder for the first time: was this all going to be worth it?