“Incorrect!”

Principal Cinch’s voice was tight with controlled anger, and a hush fell over the auditorium broken only by the harsh snap of a stick of chalk. The fractured half fell to Twilight’s feet as she shook in disbelief, all while staring at her calculations and at her answer.

Thirty degrees.

Glancing over at Sunset’s she saw an almost identical set of calculations but at the bottom, her answer was twenty. Twenty degrees… how had she-?

Her eyes spotted the subtle differences in their respective boards, the altered variables in Sunset’s equations, and suddenly it was blindingly obvious.

Twilight clenched her eyes shut, the sound of brass bells wouldn’t shut up in her head and while they normally made things easier for her, clearing away extraneous thoughts and emotions, trying to do advanced mathematics with them in the background was like trying to take a calculus exam in the middle of a windstorm.

Canterlot High’s team was cheering uproariously, with Gilda’s voice at the top of the heap. Twilight felt her cheeks burning with shame and fury… it had been years since Crystal Prep had lost the Academic Decathlon Elimination round to Canterlot High… years! And while intellectually Twilight knew that the competition didn’t matter, that it was just a smokescreen and a delaying tactic for Storm King’s ritual, the fact that she had actually lost to Sunset Shimmer at a test of main intellectual force stung badly.

It was humiliating.

For Sunset’s part, she tossed her own stick of chalk into the air and let out a whooping cheer of victory before rolling over to the edge of the stage. For a second Twilight felt her breath catch as Sunset tipped completely over, and that odd, primal panic of seeing a disaster occurring as Sunset tipped from her chair struck Twilight in the chest like a hammer,

It passed in an instant as Gilda snatched her out of the air in a fluid motion and held her tight, laughing brightly as the redhead clung to Gilda’s shoulders while the taller girl smothered her in kisses. Gilda’s arms slid under Sunset’s rear, propping up her dangling legs so she seemed to be sitting, relaxed, in the crook of Gilda’s arms.

Most irritatingly, they were settled against each other in a manner suggesting this was regular for them. With Sunset’s head nestled against the hollow of Gila’s neck, and Gilda resting her own head lightly on Sunset’s.

“Ya nailed it Sunshine,” Gilda crowed, smiling in her wide, toothy grin. “Knew you had’er on the ropes the whole time!”

“It was a math problem, Gils,” Sunset replied with a roll of her eyes. “I was actually kind of expecting another tie on that one.”

“I wouldn’t have been surprised,” Principal Celestia said with a small smile as she approached the two girls. “I believe the longest record was eighteen consecutive equations before one of the contenders failed.”

“Wow,” Sunset said grimly. “We only got through four before their Captain choked.”

“That’s kinda savage, Cap’,” Rainbow said, frowning. “She did her best.”

Sunset opened her mouth to snipe back, then stopped herself, grimaced, and nodded.

“Yeah, fair enough…” Sunset replied.

Leaning against Gilda, Sunset took in a deep breath and let her senses fall away for a moment so she could drown herself in that familiar scent of leather, engine oil, and smoke. Without a word she curled inward, wrapping herself as much around Gilda as she could, her arms clinging tightly to the larger girl as she relaxed.

The ACADECA had been unforgiving, and as much as she knew in her mind that winning or losing the Games was irrelevant, Sunset couldn’t help but invest herself.

The decathlon had opened with a series of workshop style competitions, followed by an elimination round, and then ending in a one-on-one final.

The final test had been one that had made Sunset grin when it was announced.

Calculus.

Each school had been given the opportunity to choose certain tests from a preset list.

As the visiting school, Crystal Prep chose first, selecting Chemistry, then CHS had picked woodshop which they had traditionally dominated, with Gilda’s handiwork keeping CHS in a strong position. CHS has kept up their lead in Crystal Preps Home Ec choice because not even a school full of hyper-competitive geniuses could predict Pinkie Pie, and thanks to Sunset’s rigorous regimen of study they had fared reasonably well in the spelling bee elimination.

The final selection, made by Crystal Prep, had been Calculus. The highly cerebral test was one that the advanced private school rarely, if ever, lost mostly thanks to its vicious curriculum and it was the test that Crystal Prep always selected as the final round when they had the choice because it was one they practically knew they would win, regardless of how the rest of the decathlon fared.

This time, however, they had been hampered by two things.

One: Sunset Shimmer, who had not only a background in advanced mathematical placement but also a firm grounding in metaphysical mathematics, some of which literally didn’t even exist on the human world.

Two: their maths ace, Twilight, was impaired. Dark magic did not play well with the orderly and geometrical thinking required of traditional maths, and Sunset had known it.

Thinking in equations while your brain is pickling in Dark magic was the mental equivalent of swimming against high tide. Twilight hadn’t realized it but her brain had been fighting her the entire time.

Nonetheless, the competition had been fierce. Sunset breathed in and out slowly as she let the tension bleed from her shoulders and neck.

“You a’right, Sunflower?” Gilda asked quietly.

“I always am with you,” Sunset replied softly, her voice low enough that only Gilda could hear it. “Just… hold me for a second, okay?”

“Sure thing,” Gilda replied, brushing her lips over Sunset’s cheek.

A scoff from the other side of the room drew Gilda’s eye, and she saw one of the Shadowbolts, Sour Sweet, Gilda thought her name was, staring over at the pair of them with a condescending smirk.

“Aww, how sweet,” she chirped, then her voice twisted into an ugly rasp, “how about you get a room ya carpet-munching dy-”

Sour never finished her sentence as Sunny Flare whipped around with a furious snarl and slammed her fist directly between the pink-haired girl’s eyes before she could voice the final slur.

Sour Sweet staggered, her eyes crossed, and then she crumpled to floor.

“Sunny!” Principal Cinch cried out, horrified.

Sunny flinched at the sound of her mother’s voice before staring down at her bruised knuckles in horror and then glancing up to meet Cinch’s furiously burning gaze. Sunny began to shake as her mother stalked towards her, hands folded primly at her front, but Celestia stepped between them before Cinch could reach her daughter.

“As much as I abhor and condemn violence,” Celestia said sternly, “CHS has absolutely zero tolerance for the kind of hateful and disgusting language Miss Sweet was using,” then she turned to Sunny with a slightly sad expression. “Miss Flare, I appreciate your ardor in standing up to that kind of venom, and I will overlook it this time, but please restrain yourself from physical violence in the future. Enforcing punishment is not your job in these halls, it is mine and my staffs’, are we clear?”

“Y-Yes,” Sunny said weakly, retreated slightly to Twilight’s side.

“Is that sufficient, Abacus?” Celestia asked quietly, turning her gaze to the Principal of Crystal Prep.

Principal Cinch stared coldly at her counterpart for several moments, before nodding.

“Of course,” Cinch replied stiffly, “since this is your school you may handle things as you will.” She glanced over Celestia’s shoulder, though, and met Sunny’s eyes. “I will have words with my daughter in private tonight concerning maintaining proper decorum, however.”

Celestia’s mouth twisted momentarily in disgust, but she said nothing. There was nothing she could say to that.

Behind Celestia, Sunny had begun to shake as she turned away from her mother and towards Twilight, whose face had turned serene.

“Don’t worry,” Twilight whispered softly to Sunny, putting a gentle hand on the girl’s cheek. “I promised, remember? She’ll never touch you again.”

Sunny gave a shaky nod as she glanced back at her mother for a moment, then let out a slow breath.

Down where Sour had fallen, Indigo Zap and Sugarcoat were tentatively helping the stunned girl back up to a sitting position, and Lemon Zest was staring incredulously at Sunny Flare as she pulled her headphones from her ears.

“What the shit was that about?” Lemon said in disbelief, staring at Sunny Flare. “Since when did you go social justice warrior, Sunny? You’re the one who called Twilight a-”

“Say it and I break you,” Sunny hissed, her eyes blazing.

Lemon took an involuntary step backward at the intensity of her voice.

“Sunny, take five,” Twilight said quietly as she stepped past her to face Indigo, Sugarcoat, and Lemon.

Sunny Flare bowed her head at Twilight’s word and stepped back, moving past Sour Sweet who was still getting her bearings.

“I’m curious as to what is between you and Sunny,” Sugarcoat said, her voice toneless but her eyes sharp and concerned.

Twilight flicked her gaze over to meet Sugarcoat’s and normally expressionless girl’s eyes widened as a dark, cyan flame rippled across Twilight’s eyes.

“No, you’re not,” Twilight said in a low and deadly voice. “You want to know what I have over her, and more importantly whether or not the same could happen to you, right?”

Sugarcoat swallowed thickly.

Twilight gave her a small, enigmatic smile. “What a very good question, Sugarcoat… let me know if any of you think of an answer.”

Turning on her heel, Twilight stalked away from them and Lemon Zest leaned over to Sugarcoat, licking suddenly dry as she did.

“Am I the only one here experiencing a sudden wave of regret at having screwed with Sparks all through high school?” Lemon asked weakly.

Sugarcoat adjusted her glasses nervously. “No, Lemon, you are not.”

Over at the CHS side of the auditorium, the team was huddled together, having watched most of the exchange from a distance. Under normal circumstances, most of the conversation wouldn’t have been caught, but normal circumstances rarely included magical influence.

“What was all that about, Blue?” Gilda asked, turning to Vinyl as Sunset shooed away the rest of the team, sending them off to get drinks and snacks.

Vinyl Scratch had her headphones on, and the cord trailed down and into her hoodie pocket, this wasn’t an abnormal sight of course but unbeknownst to most of the team and the whole crowd of spectators, the cord wasn’t plugged into anything. The cord was being gripped in Vinyl’s hand… a hand that had a faint, electrical glow around it that gave off a subsonic thumping beat.

Octavia had lingered behind with Vinyl as Vinyl turned her eyes shaded gaze up to Sunset and Gilda.

“They’re arguing,” Vinyl signed. “Nothing useful, though.”

“Are you sure?” Sunset asked pointedly. “Sunny and Twilight seemed… close.”

Vinyl cocked her head and then tapped her headphones before glancing around to make sure no one was looking. Everyone was distracted with the fiasco over at the Crystal Prep end of the auditorium, and she slowly withdrew her glowing hand, spread her fingers, and an instant later a spinning disc of white energy that was going blue at the edges appeared under her palm.

Thrusting her middle finger down, Vinyl caught the disk on her finger and a soft record scratch noise sounded. Slowly, Vinyl turned the disk back the opposite direction it had been spinning. It took her a few moments but, eventually, she stopped and took off her headset and then handed it off to Sunset.

Donning her friend’s trademark gear, Sunset listened closely as Vinyl released the pressure of her finger on the disk.

//Don’t worry// Twilight’s voice said, the quality was odd and had an electronic quality to it. //I promised, remember? She’ll never touch you again.//

Sunset grit her teeth hard and let out a harsh snarl before passing the headphones back to Vinyl.

“Looks like I was right,” Sunset said grimly, “Twilight has herself a disciple, Sunny Flare… and better yet it sounds like Sunny’s mom is borderline abusive, if not all the way.”

All three other girls narrowed their eyes at that, each tossing a glare at the back of the Crystal Prep Principal.

“For what it’s worth, I was right about something else,” Sunset continued, her features softening.

“What’s that, Sunflower?” Gilda asked quietly, and Sunset sighed as leaned back against Gilda.

“That there really is still a good heart left in this world’s Twilight Sparkle,” Sunset said in a sad voice. “She’s marinating in dark power that are orders of magnitude worse than what I got into, and has been for far longer, but despite that… she’s still in there.”

“What does that mean in the practical?” Octavia asked quietly.

Sunset sighed.

“Nothing,” she said bitterly. “We can’t let them pull off whatever it is they’re doing… it’s just…”

“You couldn’t lie to us,” Octavia said, her voice still soft. “Thank you for that, Sunset… for not just pretending she was a lost cause.”

“You all deserve to know what you’re doing,” Sunset said in a quavering voice. “And maybe… maybe we can save her, but… we can’t make that a priority.” Sunset wrapped her arms around herself, and Gilda felt a tremor run through her. “Canterlot can’t afford for us to.”

“And if we can’t save her,” Octavia continued, “then may we all carry that sin equally.”

Sunset let out a small, tired laugh. “You should’ve been born a princess, Tavi, you’ve got the better mindset for it, I think.”

Octavia blushed, the expression coloring her gray skin prettily.

“Now what?” Gilda asked l, her brow furrowed. “Just go back t’plan A?”

“Pretty much,” Sunset replied, nudging Gilda and nodding over at her chair.

The larger girl took a few long strides to the auditorium stage, set Sunset on the lip of it, and carefully lifted and lowered the chair to the ground before picking Sunset back up and settling her into the seat.

“Thanks,” Sunset said softly, taking a grip on her wheels. “We’ve still got the next event to deal with, and we’re deep enough into the day that whatever they’re doing could coming swinging in at any time.”

“We’ll swing right back at’em, then,” Gilda said, her voice brash and confident.

Just then Sunset’s phone let out a soft chime. Pulling it loose, she scanned the message, smiled, then glanced up and over the crowd of high schoolers who had come out to see the games, and spied familiar head of blue hair among the crowd. The figure waved excitedly before settling back down into the seat as Gilda raised an eyebrow.

“All accounted for then?” Gilda asked quietly.

“Yup, the gangs all here,” Sunset confirmed. “All of the Elements in one place, now I just have to hope this all doesn’t go pear-shaped right away.”

“Nah, we got this,” Gilda said, clapping a hand on Sunset’s shoulder. “Like ya said, Sunshine, you’re a genius, you’ll keep us in the running.”

“Speaking of running,” Sunset grumbled. “The next competition is the tri-cross relay…” she glared down at her legs and sighed. “Which is gonna suck ass for me.”

Gilda furrowed her brow as Octavia and Vinyl stepped in. “How’s it gonna work?”

“We select six members from our team, then put them in teams of two,” Sunset explained, “and unfortunately I’ll have to sit this one out because I can’t really participate in them. We’ve got an archery obstacle course, then speed-skating, then motocross.”

Gilda grinned broadly at that last one.

“Yeah,” Sunset chuckled, “you’re our Ace for the last challenge, Gil.”

“Damn right,” Gilda replied, baring her teeth.

“What’s our layout for the other challenges?” Octavia asked, stepping closer. “I’m afraid I’m not much good at either of those.”

“Don’t worry about it, I’ve already got out teams in mind,” Sunset said with a smile. “Legs I may not have, but I learned tactics and troop deployment from a literal war hero at the age of ten.” That got a round of raised eyebrows from the three girls, but Sunset just continued speaking. “Fluttershy and Applejack are our Archery squad, Applejack is aces at it, and Fluttershy is pretty good when she gets past her performance anxiety.” Sunset glanced over at the room where the rest of the team vanished. “Pinkie Pie and Lightning Dust are our Speed-Skaters, Lightning has better control than Rainbow, after all.”

“Why Pinkie?” Octavia asked, cocking her head in confusion.

Sunset just smiled. “We may not have been very good friends, but we were friends remember? Pinkie does roller derby.”

“Oo~h,” Octavia got a broad grin on her face. “Dollars to donuts those Crystal Prep blowhards have never even heard of a sport that leaves more bruises than football.”

“Just my thought,” Sunset replied.

Gilda frowned. “That leaves me on Motocross along with… ugh, lemme guess.”

“Yeah, sorry Gil,” Sunset said quietly. “Rainbow Dash is the only other one who knows her way around a dirtbike so it’s gotta be you and her, and believe me I’m not any happier about it than you are.”

“Nah, it’s cool,” Gilda said, waving a hand back and forth. “It’ll be fine, she and I can get by…”

“What about the real purpose of the Games,” Octavia pressed, glancing around as she spoke to make sure there wasn’t anyone else listening in. “He must be here by now, right?”

“Savvy, he must be,” Sunset replied. “By this point in the day, he must be in the building somewhere.”

“Pops ain’t gonna be seen unless he wants to,” Gilda said darkly. “Trust me on that one, he’s a slippery old bastard.”

“Should we go looking for him then?” Octavia asked worriedly. “Ideally we stop him before whatever he’s doing goes off.”

“Sonata is eyeballing practically the entire school,” Sunset said firmly, “and Aria is standing guard over her to make sure Storm doesn’t hurt her, but we can’t go looking for him.”

Vinyl signed a question mark.

Sunset sighed. “Because that’s playing his game… look, the school is huge so if we go looking for him that means we have two choices, right?” Sunset held up two fingers. “One, we scour the school with numbers, but that means tipping our hand and, honestly, my bet is that if that happened Twilight would just get him out from under us,” the three other girls nodded at that. “Or two, we use the few people we have which means splitting up and looking for a known murderer in a bunch of hallways.”

Vinyl, Octavia, and Gilda all grimaced at that.

“See our problem?” Sunset asked dryly. “We’re stalemated right now, we can’t let him rabbit… all we can do is pray that Sonata gets eyes on him, but if not we’ll have to be ready to stop him the hard way.”

Octavia let out a wry little chuckle. “You know, it’s times like this I’m relieved that you’re the one in charge, Sunset,” she admitted, wrapping her arms around herself and leaning against Vinyl. “I can’t imagine trying to outthink someone like this… I’d be lost.”

“It’s all I can do,” Sunset said quietly. “He’s got experience, I’ve got brains… we’ll see who comes out on top, I guess.”

At that moment, Sunset flinched as she felt a sudden discharge of magical energy, and she whipped her head around searching for the source. It was sharp and without warning, and then… gone just as quickly

“Sunflower?” Gilda stared down hard at Sunset as the redhead swiveled her gaze around. “Babe what’s wrong?”

“I… I don’t know,” Sunset said quietly. “Someone just worked something big, not huge… but… it was strong, whatever it was.”

“Is it…” Octavia trailed off, and Sunset shook her head.

“No,” she replied, letting out a slow breath. “No, it was a one-and-done sort of deal, a single casting and nowhere near strong enough to be anything major, but it was well-executed… Storm is definitely behind it.”

“Where’d it come from?” Gilda asked, her eyes narrowing dangerously.

Sunset clenched her eyes shut, concentrating, then swore under her breath.

“I can’t tell,” she replied. “It was too fast and there’s too much ambient magic in Canterlot High, I’m sorry.”

“No sweat, Sunshine,” Gilda said, patting her shoulder. “We’ve still got this.”

“I hope so…” Sunset said quietly. “I really, really hope so.”

Zee paced restlessly on the rooftop of the high school, her fingers twitching and flexing with every moment that passed. It as almost noon and she had been idle for almost five hours straight, unable to act until she heard from Storm, and alone with her thoughts which were becoming dangerously infuriating after the talk with her sister that morning.

Everything was spiraling out of control and Zee didn’t know if she could fix it, or if she even should given that doing so would meaning moving against her father. For the first time in her life, Zee was plagued by the insistent feeling that she was doing the wrong thing, though.

Considering her upbringing, Zee wasn’t someone who particularly subscribed to the idea of morality. Everyone had a price they were willing to sell themselves for; every single person who claimed a moral high ground had a pricetag on that pedestal they were standing on, and they were happy to hop off it so long as someone was willing to shell out the green. Zee had seen plenty of people sacrifice morality to satisfy things that they could later justify away in their own minds and it had left her with little more than disdain for what the human race called their ‘sense of right and wrong’.

And yet…

Zee grit her teeth. Her heart was pounding, her mind was burning, and every inch of her instincts was telling her that something was wrong.

‘Arabus~’

A voice slithered out of the air around Zee and she snapped her head up, looking around for its source.

‘Arabus!’

The voice was louder now, and Zee felt the strangest sensation of something pulling on her. Not physically but mentally, or even spiritually. There was a sense that she needed to be elsewhere, and that-

‘Thrice I name thee and appear! ARABUS!’

There was no warning; Zee’s back arched as electricity cascaded through her, her mouth snapped out in a silent scream, and her senses exploded out of her body as she was suddenly dragged downwards. Hearing, sight, touch, taste, and scent were all violently divorced from her physical body as the insides of the high school raced past her in a cascade of brickwork masonry and concrete foundations.

The falling sensation halted suddenly with something akin to a hard impact, but without the pain.

Shakily, Zee got to her feet, or something approximating it. The air around her appeared smoky and indistinct, and the ground beneath her had lines seemingly seared into it with an arc-welder. The symbols engraved into the stone seemed almost blinding, and they were encased in a circle that rippled and coursed with power.

“Relax, sprog,” a familiar voice said from beyond the smoke and fire. “S’just me… don’t ‘ave a fit.”

From the shadows at the edge of the circle the form of Storm King appeared, smiling in that easy, nonchalant manner that always seemed to rest on his features.

“Thee’oreyt?” Storm asked with a faint chuckle.

“W-What… t’fuck’d you do t’me, pops?” Zee stammered as she looked around.

Her body was faintly translucent as if it were composed of ash and dust, and she couldn‘t approach to more than a foot from the edge of the circle without feeling terrible heat.

“Summon’d ye is what I did,” Storm said, still laughing a little. “Well, technically I summoned Arabus, the demon ye’re bonded to outta them gauntlets there,” he pointed to Zee’s armbands, “but Arabus can’t be separated from ye wifout ye say-so or ye death, so when I called’im up he brought ye along f’the ride… sorry ‘bout the rough travel, coach is a bitch, innit?”

Zee stared down at her gauntlets for a few moments before looking back up at her father. “P-Pops… I ain’t so sure’a this anymore… somethin’ feels wrong ‘bout this ‘ole mess.”

Storm’s eyes narrowed for a moment, then he relaxed and shrugged.

“Suppose tha’s fair enough,” he replied easily. “I ain’t told ye much ‘bout wot I’m doin’, only natural ye’ll question it a bit… I raised ye arter all.”

For a few seconds Zee stood tense, she’d been expecting him to grow angry with her, or slap her down, but when he didn’t she let out a slow, relieved breath, and continued.

“Well, go on then,” Storm said, waving a hand, “won’t ‘ave much time arter all this and we’ve got a mo’, so ask ye questions, sprog, I ain’t gonna bite.”

“Our lass… there’s somethin’ wrong wif ‘er, Pops,” Zee said, her voice cracking a little. “She’s gotten worse… nasteh and mean…. gettin’ right fuckin’ wicked, really.”

Storm sighed quietly. “Aye, well, in my defense I did warn ye not t’use that bell,” he said, planting his fists on his hips and shaking his head. “S’not the sorta thing an amateur oughta be usin’, savvy?”

Zee felt a faint pang of guilt at Storm’s words. He wasn’t wrong, he had told them they wouldn’t need it and not to use it. Of course, they had ended up needing it but Zee wasn’t certain if that was because her father had been wrong or simply because she had failed to use the gauntlets themselves correctly. It had been Zee’s decision to retrieve the bell and let Twilight examine and experiment with it, and that meant that whatever side effects they were having… those were her fault too.

“What is it?” Zee asked quietly.

Almost a minute passed as Storm looked pensive, as if he were listening to something in the distance, or lost in thought. Finally, though, he met Zee’s eyes and let out another sigh.

“S’a family heirloom’s what it is, sprog,” Storm replied. “M’great-granddad bought it off some old Saddle Arabian dealer some hundred or more years back, aye? Been in the family ever since, passed from father t’son.” Storm began pacing around the circle on the floor. “Inside it is… arh… m’dad called it a ‘tutelary spirit’, tha’s sort of like a fairy godmother ‘cept it ain’t so nice, aye? It’s a source’uv instruction an’ learnin’ but it’s wicked powerful and unless ye know ‘ow t’use the power it’ll start takin’ its toll on ye mind.”

“Our lass’s got some spirit in’er?” Zee asked, worried. “Why ain’t she mentioned-”

Storm slashed a hand, cutting Zee off as he shook his head. “Nah, she ain’t got nuffink but a bell wif a load’a power in it, aye? Storm correct. “The spirit’s wif me, allus has been… but its allus been real quiet-like, aye? Whispers ‘ere and there… teachin’ bits of real magic and the like, but s’allus like it’s comin’ from awful far off.”

“But somethin’ changed, aye?” Zee asked, her brow furrowing, and Storm nodded.

“A bit more’n five and a half years back the spirit got riled up,” Storm said quietly. “It was a bit louder, a touch stronger, and the pair’uv us could actually talk from time t’time, aye? Tha’s when it told me ‘ow t’find the Hands of Arabus,” he gestured to Zee’s gauntlets again. “Tha’s when it told me ‘bout the gate.”

“Five years back?” Zee asked quietly. “Y’mean… the gang war? All’a that shite in Las Pegasus?”

“Aye,” Storm said, nodding. “Don’t ‘ave time t’explain the why’a that, sprog, but I’ll ‘appen you’re more interested in knowin’ ‘bout the bell an’ your lass, aye?”

Zee swallowed thickly. She wanted to keep asking about the war but her father was right, it wasn’t what she needed to know. It was past and done, while Twilight was still in danger from the bell.

“What’s that bell doin’ to our lass, Pops?”

Storm shook his head. “S’like a kinda corrosion, sprog… like running power through a live wire that ain’t got no insulation, aye?”

“Why t’fuck’re ya lettin’ her do it then?!” Zee barked, rage coiling up from inside her. “Why ain’t ye stopped’er?”

“Because it ain’t gonna kill’er, lass,” Storm said tiredly, waving a hand, “and we can undo the damage, see? S’long as we get this rite done and kick the doors of the gate down, I’ll ‘ave all the power I need t’reverse the effects and sever her from the bell, aye?”

“Sever her?” Zee asked, worry flashing across her features.

“Aye,” Storm said grimly. “She’s bonded to it, relies on it too much for’er magic, but she’s got power in’er without it, see? All I gotta do is cut’er off from it and she’ll go back t’normal, given enough time that is.”

“But… only if this rite goes off wifout a hitch, aye?” Zee asked quietly. “Tha’s… the only way?”

Storm shrugged. “If’m honest? May not be the only way, but it’s the only way I know’ve so that’ll ‘ave to do… time ain’t exactly on our side, sprog.”

Zee sagged a little but nodded. Her father had a point, there probably was another way around whatever was happening to Twilight but it was irrelevant. Her lass was on borrowed time if Storm was telling the truth and, at least in this case, Zee didn’t have any reason to doubt that he was. She had been watching Twilight come apart at the metaphorical seams for the past month and half or so, and it had been killing her, and Storm’s explanation held plenty of water.

“That it, lass?” Storm asked, raising an eyebrow. “We got work t’do if so.”

“Aye, Pops,” Zee replied wearily. “I’ll ‘appen tha’s all I got… let’s get this done, then, savvy?”

“Savvy,” Storm said, his smile growing. “When I let this binding I’ve got ye in go, I want ye to give it ‘bout a thirty count, then let the gauntlets out and start bleedin’ power like no tomorrow.”

Zee’s eyes widened. “Pops… that’ll… that’ll make the storm I made over th’Everfree look like a stray gust’a wind! That was me ‘oldin’ it back!” She stared down at her hands and felt sick to her stomach. “If I jus’ let it go like tha’, it could wipe ‘alf’a Canterlot off the bloody map! We’re talkin’ ‘Day After T’morrow’ shite here, Pops!”

“Arh, cocka,” Storm said, his grin never fading. “Tha’s precisely why I need ye to do this… we need power, luv, and lots of it.” Storm gestured around to the basement. “I’ve set up the ‘ole of this place to suck down power like a vortex, aye? You call up ye storm, and the art I’ve worked inta this place’ll pull it down to power the rite, aye?” Nodding down at the gauntlets, Storm smirked. “Them gauntlets bleed power out wild-like, aye? Since the power ain’t got nowhere t’go it makes a storm, but if I give it a place t’go then it won’t be causin’ trouble outside more’n a small area… savvy?”

Zee looked down at her hands with worry, feeling the old, angry, crackle of power inside of them. She didn’t trust these gauntlets as far as she could throw them, and they were currently stapled to her arms for all intents and purposes.

‘Ye sure?” Zee asked in a small voice. “I ain’t knockin’ over a city, Pops… tha’s not what I bloody signed up for.”

“I ain’t plannin’ on it either, sprog,” Storm said with a calming smile. “I’ve got this planned to the ‘t’, oreyt? You giz uz the gas, I’ll feed it to the engine. Then we’ll save ye lass.”

Zee closed her eyes and let out a slow breath. Gilda had been right, she didn’t trust her father, not anymore… he’d done too many dark things, taken too many risks, and told too many lies… but he wasn’t lying now.

“Aye, Pops,” Zee said finally. “For our lass, we’ll crack the sky open for ye… jus’... please, no more killin’.”

“S’long as ye keep’em occupied while the rite charges, sprog,” Storm agreed. “Can’t ‘ave’em trompin’ down ‘ere lookin’ for me, savvy?”

“Won’t need t’worry ‘bout that,” Zee said stiffly as she stood up straight. “We’ll give’m such a brayin’ as they won’t know what hit’em.”

“Tha’s my Zee,” Storm said fondly. “Now giz uz thirty arter we let ye off, then call it up… be safe, sprog.”

“Aye… you too, Pops,” Zee replied.

Storm waved a hand, and as he did he scuffed a shoe over the searing circle of light, shattering it. Despite bracing herself this time, there was still the sensation of being seized somewhere near the middle of her chest by an enormous fist and being dragged, upwards this time, through the concrete and masonry until she was catapulted out of the school and back into her body.

Zee gasped and heaved in gulps of air as she staggered to her feet from where her physical body had fallen to the ground. Her vision swam and her whole body tingled with pins and needles, but nonetheless she began the count to thirty as she staggered over to the roof’s edge.

Beneath her she saw the students gathered and engaged in the next challenge. She saw Lightning-Dust and the pink-haired girl rocket across the finish line, the final time, with their opponents hot on their heels. The instant they were past the line the air filled with the sound of an engine being gunned and Zee looked over to the outer ring and saw Gilda take off in a roar of dust and exhaust with Rainbow Dash right beside her, and seconds later the team from Crystal Prep did the same.

“...twenty-six, twenty-seven, twenty-eight,” Zee counted softly, staring down at her sister as she rode, “twenty-nine… thirty…” Zee clenched her eyes shut and sighed quietly. “Sorry, Gils… this is ‘ow it has t’be.”

Snapping her arms out wide, Zee backed up as she released the seals on her gauntlets and they ratcheted out to sheathe her arms up to her shoulders in dark metal. Bolts of lightning struck out from them, scoring the concrete roof with blackened marks as Zee began ascending slowly into the air, buffeted on a concentrated cushion of humid wind.

Above the school, the sky had begun to boil with black clouds that were forming into massive thunderheads with alarming and abnormal speed. Within moments the first booms of thunder and flashes of lightning carved through the darkening sky as wind that stank of ozone and unspent rain began blowing hard throughout the whole area around Canterlot High School.

Bolts of lightning struck the ceiling of the school over and over, leaving black patches, but Zee was almost relieved to see the electricity seem to sink into the stone as if it were a sponge.

Her father had been telling the truth… the school was acting as a giant magical lightning rod.

Zee’s mind was filled with a deafening, booming laughter as a shadow peeled out from her and a pair of hands carved from pure shadow emerged from her back along with arcs of electricity that snapped and coiled around her like a mockery of wings.

Her instinct was to press against that alien mind, the presence that was whispering and laughing and hungering inside her. Every instinct in her body told her this thing was a monster but she had made her father a promise, and more than that… they needed power. She couldn’t afford to hold back if she was going to save Twilight.

Zee let go.

It was not unlike the feeling of taking a long, deep breath as the world exploded around her in an endless cascade of thunder and lightning. In the span of that one breath the storm that had been forming over the school nearly doubled in size, the black clouds spiraling out from the school and Zee heard glass shattering from windows as far out as the city proper as the air was displaced.

The laughter that filled the air became a scream of pain and defiance as the fragmented spirit of a demon that spanned ages truly stirred for the first time in millennia.

Beneath Zee, on the grounds of the second challenge of the games, Gilda came skidding to a halt on her bike as she stared up with wide eyes at the impossible storm. She snapped her eyes back to Rainbow who had stopped beside her and pulled her helmet off with a grim look of determination on her face.

“Sorry Gilda,” Rainbow said quietly as she glanced over at her one-time friend, “I’ll try not to hit you too hard when it starts.”

Rainbow’s body blurred and suddenly she was gone, her bike clattering to the ground now divested of its rider.

“Shit,” GIlda swore, and she gunned the engine as the Crystal Prep students came to a halt as well, looking up worriedly

Gilda turned the bike and roared towards the sidelines where her team was waiting. Sunset was already staring up at the storm in horror.

“Sunshine!” Gilda called, “What the hell is happenin’?”

“I don’t know!” Sunset called over the quickly growing winds. “This is insane! This kind of storm could all but demolish the whole city!”

From the crowd of spectators, Penny came sprinting out with her bass guitar strapped to her back and look of worry on her face. Adagio stepped out from the under some of the bleachers where she had been quietly watching the event to stop at Sunset’s side where Octavia and Vinyl had already taken up their positions.

Sunset pulled out her phone and dialed out to Shining.

“No time!” she roared into the phone before Shining could get his greeting out. “Get in here! All of your people right now! It’s starting and we haven’t got time to talk, just evacuate everyone!”

The sound of high, mad laughter filled the air around the challenge course and Sunset looked over to see Twilight striding over it with impunity, flanked at either side by Rainbow and Lightning Dust. Her eyes were lit with a mad fervor as dark magic crackled around her body.

“You had your fun at my expense, Sunset,” Twilight said in a cracked and furious voice. “Now it’s my turn to get my licks in!”

Twilight Sparkle ascended slowly and gracefully from the windblown grass, and she tore the ribbon from her hair to let it whip and blow wildly in the winds as she pulled a brass bell on a corded necklace out from under her blouse, then stretched her arms wide and raised her face to the sky.

Sunset’s eyes widened as Twilight’s skin darkened to a deep, light-devouring shade of violet and her eyes erupted in cyan flame and brilliant mulberry. Her hair went from snapping uncontrollably in the storm winds to wavering like living flame, and from her back a pair of beautiful, terrible black wings grew out to flare wide and catch the winds to keep her aloft.

“MIDNIGHT!” A voice screamed in almost ecstatic glee, and all eyes turned down to see Sunny Flare with her arms thrown up, stretching as if to reach for Twilight, and her tear-stained eyes wide with something like madness as she slowly sank to her knees. “MY MIDNIGHT! THE MIDNIGHT OF EVERYTHING! YOU’RE SO BEAUTIFUL!”

“What have you done you worthless child?!” Cinch snarled as she glared at her daughter, “how dare you have any part of this… this…”

Abacus Cinch raised a hand high as she stood over Sunny, the back of her hand poised to come down in a vicious blow. The blow never landed as a beam of pure, violet energy lanced out and slammed into her side like a piledriver and sent the principal of Crystal Prep Academy flying to the side, ragdolling limply across the grass.

Twilight… no, Midnight Sparkle was glaring over her shoulder at the prone form of Abacus Cinch with one finger pointed at her that sparked with dark magic and a look of pure disgust on her face.

“She is mine, and you will never raise a hand against her again,” Midnight snarled before turning away and then looking up at the darkening sky.

Midnight’s smile turned from a rictus of strain and hate to one of almost peaceful pleasure. Slowly she raised her hands to the sky and began laughing.

“Let’s get this started, baby!” Midnight crowed. “Get down here!”

A bolt of lightning slammed into the ground between Sunset and her team and the approaching group that stood with Midnight. Gilda snapped her arms down, releasing Huracán from its compact form and spreading her wings, calling up her armored talon as she threw her jacket to the side, revealing her prosthetic to the world, now out from under its illusion.

“Damn it, Zee,” Gilda breathed as she stared at the figure that slowly stood up from inside the smoke.

A torrent of wind blew the smoke clear and what stood in the middle barely resembled the girl that Gilda had seen that morning. Her hair stood on end in a wild warhawk that crackled with electricity, but ended in a smoky blackness, making it look like a stormcloud. The gauntlets had grown to cover her chest from her collar down to her waist and she wore armored boots that curled up and rose to her knees as well. Her eyes with a dull white, pupiless and terrible, and a grin of pure hatred stretched her lips into an ugly smile.

“Gil…” Sunset said quietly. “That’s… that’s not-”

“Yeah,” Gilda said through gritted teeth. “Dunno how much of that is really Zee anymore…”

“We’ll try to save her, Gil… I swear it,” Sunset said gravely before raising her voice to the rest of the group. “Alright everyone,” Sunset said grimly as she gripped her wheels. “Put your game faces on.”

Vinyl pulled her hoodie off and threw it to the ground. Spreading her hands wide, twin disks of pure white energy edged with blue began spinning between her fingers as her hair sparked and crackled, lengthening into a long tail as a pair of white ears perked up from her hair. The whole area around her thrummed and trembled with a semi-constant bass note that settled deep into the bones of everyone around and left them feeling stronger and more hale than before.

Beside her girlfriend, Octavia held out a hand to Adagio who let out a trilling tune, calling the cello that she had been keeping an eye on under the bleachers and sending it flying to Octavia’s hand along with the bow. Planting the instrument firmly in front of her, Octavia ran the bow along the strings, releasing a deep, thrumming tune as her hair coiled out to a tail limned in grey light and a pair of grey pony ears slipped out from beneath her long dark hair to match as planes of pure force blossomed around the group of students to shield them.

Penny had come to a skidding halt beside Sunset just as the fields of force appeared and turned, whipping her bass off of her back and letting it hang from its strap in front of her as she pulled a pick from her pocket and slammed it down across the strings. The whole stadium rang with a single clarion note that seemed to banish the darkness away, making the whole area a little bit brighter. Wings stretched from Penny’s back as her ears perked up and her ponytail lengthened and curled down to a spiraling tip near her knees.

“Time to teach these mortals a lesson in real magic,” Adagio laughed as she spread her hands and sang out a clear, rolling melody.

Scaled fin-like wings coiled out from her back and a pair of frilled unfurled from under her hair as her skin took on a texture of delicate scales. Goldenrod light suffused Adagio’s body as she floated into the air and took her position beside Sunset and the gem at her throat glowed with a brilliant lambent orange light.

Midnight scowled at the display in front of her, then glanced around to Rainbow, Lightning, and Zee. The former two looked less than thrilled at what they were faced with, and fair enough. That was quite a lot of magic that was on display.

“Real magic?” Midnight said mockingly. “I’ll show you real magic!”

Arching out her fingers to either side of her, Midnight, pure energy snapped out of her hands to strike Rainbow and Lightning in the backs of their heads. They jerked for a moment and then began to shiver and quake as veins of power trailed down from their spines through their bodies, over their faces, arms, and legs, before sinking in deeper and fading.

Rainbow grinned wildly over at Lightning. “Hey, Dusty… looks like we’re outnumbered.”

“Looks that way, Rainbabe,” Lightning Dust said with a smirk. “Whadya think we should do about that?”

“Give’m a taste of their own medicine, maybe?” Rainbow suggested with a shrug of her shoulders.

“I’ll write the prescription,” Dust replied.

Lightning Dust’s whole body flexed for a moment, and then copies of her made of living lightning began stepping calmly out of her until there were more than a dozen arrayed against the other girls.

“Uh… since when could she do that?” Penny asked, her voice concerned.

“Good question,” Octavia replied dryly before looking over to Vinyl. “I suppose this was never going to be easy, was it darling?”

Vinyl glanced over her shoulder at the dozen or so students who were cowering behind them and the barricade of grey light that Octavia had erected, then turned back to Octavia and just shook her head.

“Thought not,” Octavia replied with a sigh. “Would you be a dear and give me an amp, my love?”

Grinning, Vinyl snapped her right hand to the side and stream of light spiraled out from it to connect to the base of Octavia’s cello. Settling the bow again against the strings again, Octavia struck another chord, and Vinyl pulsed her fingers over the disk of light, multiplying the strength of the sound, and the planes of grey light suddenly bloomed in size, becoming streaked with lines of dim purple and interlocking until they formed a dome around both the Elements and the small body of students nearby.

There weren’t many, thankfully. When the lightshow had begun Sunset had watched Celestia, Luna, and Cadence all surreptitiously scatter with decisive motion and sure enough, by the time the real threats had appeared, most of the spectators and students had been hurried off of the grounds. The sound of police sirens in the background could be heard in a constant whine of background noise, and briefly Sunset considered trying to send the rest of the students with them away.

Except… she wasn’t sure they’d make it. Glancing back, Sunset surveyed the small team, plus a few hangers-on. Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie, and Fluttershy were all huddled together. Nearby was Microchips and Bulk, as well as Dumbbell, Hoops and Score, who were friends with Bulk and had come out to cheer him on. Sunset grimaced at that… they had just slipped in to give their friend encouragement and now…

Sunset wished she were more confident that, if she sent them out, they wouldn’t get hurt or taken hostage, but she’d seen Twilight, or rather Midnight’s, lack of control.

No, better to keep them in arms reach where Octavia’s dome shield could protect them.

Midnight Sparkle descended from above to float between her warriors, dark magic crackling around her like a corona. Rainbow, Zee, and Lightning all looked to her and she grinned maliciously.

“You know the plan,” Midnight said, gesturing towards the faintly opaque barrier that hid their targets. “Break their backs.”

The air cracked and boomed as Rainbow vanished, leaving behind a scorched trail. The grey dome shield shuddered as Rainbow slammed a fist into it, the plane of light she impacted cracking violently. Crackling prismatic energy surrounded Rainbow’s entire body as she cocked her arm back again, her eyes sparking with unpleasant light, and slammed her fist into the cracked barrier once more.

As Rainbow attacked, Zee soared into the sky trailing lightning, and Sunset’s eyes traced her arc until she stopped above the dome. Sunset’s eyes widened and she pointed upwards.

“Gilda! Don’t let her hit us!” Sunset cried. “She’ll come down right on the dome’s central axis!”

Gilda snapped her head up and let out a snarled oath before flaring her wings and rocketing into the sky with a thunderous report, leaving the pavement under her cracked and smoking.

“I’ll deal with miss split-personality, how about?” Adagio said as she floated outwards from the barrier, the dust under her feet coiling around her as she glided delicately towards the army of Lightning’s and Midnight herself.

“Do it,” Sunset snapped, “Penny, Octy, give her supporting fire, keep that witch off of Adagio! Vinyl, amp Penny and keep Octavia’s barrier up for as long as you can!”

“Will do,” Penny replied, and her fingers began dancing across the strings of her guitar.

Vinyl nodded and snapped a cord of light out from her left-hand disk to attach to Penny’s bass. Then she twisted the fingers of her right hand around and set the right disk on a repeated line of cello notes that pulsed outwards, and the cracks that Rainbow had inflicted on the plan began to seal up before their eyes.

Rainbow scowled, then smirked. “Fine, I’ll just hit it harder… be right back.”

Her body blurred, another boom erupted across the field, and then she vanished.

“Ooh, I have a have a really bad feeling about that one,” Sunset muttered quietly before glancing skyward. “Give’m hell babe… and I hope I’m not fucking this up.”

Gilda barreled upwards, her body covered in coruscating light as she called up the magic and the training she had been put through over the past months. Above her, Zee’s form was pulling in bolt after bolt of electrical energy, she looked like a lightning rod being held up in the middle of a hurricane.

“Sorry Zee,” Gilda snarled as she gave her wings a solid flap and sped up. “Gotta lay you out before you hurt anyone.”

Zee’s features twisted into a nasty grin as Gilda sped directly towards her. Zee began raising her arms, her fingers crackling with barely-restrained power. At this range there was no way that Gilda could dodge and-

Without warning, Gilda vanished. Her body seemingly melting out of existence, and Zee’s eyes flew wide. She spun wildly to the left as the tip of Gilda’s spear thrust downwards where she had been an instant earlier and let off a bolt of twisting white lightning with a roar of defiance.

“Not right, Sis,” Gilda snarled as she spun the Huracán and caught the bolt on it’s tip only to send it spiraling back at Zee, catching her full in the chest and throwing her across the sky.

“Hah!” Zee barked as she righted herself, the air around her whining with electrical current. “That’s more like it, Gils,” she hissed.

Zee surged forwards, her arms blurring as she sped up, and it became immediately obvious that neither Zee nor Gilda were the same as they had been that night in the meadow. Gilda’s movements were quick and precise, catching Zee’s fists and turning them to the side on the flat of Huracán’s blade, there was barely any wasted movement as Gilda kept her eyes fixed firmly on Zee’s body, reading every movement as her hyperkine senses sped up and fed her information faster than any normal human could process.

“Sorry Zee,” Gilda spat as she spun Huracán and spoiled another thrust of Zee’s fist, turning the momentum into a full kick, catching Zee in the gut with her shin and sending her spinning down. “But I gotta end this.”

Gilda exploded forward, Huracán thrust downward in a killing stroke aimed at Zee’s heart. Zee spat a curse and slammed her hands together, catching the blade as it reached her and bracing her shoulders to absorb the force of the strike.

It didn’t come.

Releasing her tensed grip on the Huracán she lanced her prosthetic fist straight between Zee’s eyes and there was a sound like a thunderclap as her cloudsteel arm released its pent up energy point-blank into Zee’s face.

The impact struck so hard that from an outside view Zee all but vanished from where she’d been falling only for a detonation of earth and mud to bloom beneath Gilda. Flapping her wings, Gilda scowled as she flexed her fingers, her flint-black eyes scanning the mess of ground beneath her for her sister.

“GILDA!” Zee’s screamed, her voice lit with mindless rage.

Gilda’s eyes widened for a moment before a blinding stroke of lightning slammed through her from above to meet Zee’s raised fist from where she lay supine on the ground. Gilda screamed as the power overwhelmed her natural defenses, both those granted by Huracán as well as from her own arm.

Stunned, Gilda tumbled from the sky, her dark form smoking as she dropped like a rock to the ground,.

Zee staggered out of the crater she had made, baked mud falling from her body in clumps as Gilda shakily got to her feet, leaning heavily on Huracán as she did.

More of that noisome smoke began pouring off of Zee and she started laughing as she stood up straighter, and Gilda rolled her eyes as she watched Zee shake off the damage she had taken from her blow.

“Of fuckin’ course,” Gilda groaned as she straightened out.

Zee launched herself into the sky, cackling madly as she did, and Gilda erupted upwards hot on her heels.

“C’mon Gils!” Zee crowed from ahead of her. “Catch me if ye can!”

On the grounds below the sisters, Adagio floated almost carelessly around as clone after clone sprinted towards her, each one lunging out with a punch or a kick, some even leaping at her trying to drag her to the ground. Adagio laughed airily as she avoided them, her weightless form drifting between the furiously sparking figures as they threw themselves, literally, at her.

“You’ll have to do better than that, my dear,” Adagio taunted as she flicking past one that had thrown itself towards her, only for it careen past and slam into another that was coming up from behind. “Your multitasking skills leave something to be desired.”

A coil of sickly energy bloomed behind Adagio and she spun about, singing out a high, keening note that unraveled the bolt of coruscating dark energy before it even reached her, leaving only a shower of faintly unpleasant-smelling sparks to fall past her.

“And you are the magical equivalent of a bulldozer, Miss Sparkle,” Adagio remarked as she pirouetted to side, dodging another clone’s attack.

“What are you?!” Midnight spat as she followed Adagio, gripping a sparking orb of dark energy in her fist. “Are you like her? Like Sunset? From beyond the gate?”

“I am,” Adagio confirmed as she spiraled in place for a moment, flicking a finger and singing out another stanza that sent a charging clone flailing into the sky as it suddenly lost connection with gravity and went sailing comically over Adagio’s head. “Although I’d appreciate you not comparing me to Sunset… I love the dear but that’s like comparing a Political Theory undergrad to Trotsky.”

Midnight couldn’t help but agree. Sunset’s magic had been terrifying in its intensity and complexity, but what this Adagio was doing was neither powerful nor particularly complex.

It was… graceful.

Sunset and Midnight, for all their differences, treated magic fundamentally the same; as a study in forces of power. In terms of energy input and output, in throughput and the control of such forms of energy to be used and shaped into physically impossible effects.

Adagio, on the other hand, simply nullified gravity around her and made such perfect, minute adjustments to the spell on the fly that it made her seem as though she was some kind of unearthly faerie, casually denying gravity its hold on her. Spells unraveled around her as if they were little more than a ball of yarn as she simply sang them into nonexistence.

In short, if Sunset and Midnight knew magic, then Adagio was magic.

“Well, like Pops says…” Midnight said, scowling. “All you’ve gotta do is hit’em hard enough.”

The air all around Lightning, Adagio, and Midnight turned cold with dark magic as Midnight took in a deep breath, gathering power to her in an unassailable surge, and her body crackled and glowed with power as she pulled more and more in until she was a lantern in the night.

Adagio grimaced; not even her countersong could unravel that much power without some serious blowback and even then she doubted she would destroy the spellcraft completely.

Fortunately, unlike these buffoons, she was not fighting alone.

Midnight let out a riotous scream and lashed her arms out just as the dozen clones of Lightning collapsed back and threw themselves over Lightning herself like mobile cover. A surge tide of rippling black magic erupted from Midnight’s arms, annihilating the earth around her and rotting the grass where it had grown.

“Da~rli~ng!” Adagio crooned, then struck a mid-air pose with one hand raised to the sky while she reclined on her side as if on a chaise lounge directly in the path of the oncoming wave.

It was mere feet from her when a veritable bulwark of grey light slammed into existence around her, each one reinforced with buttresses of purple energy and heralded by the stroke of cello strings. The tide of magic flowed around the walls, barely even cracking them but destroying nearly all of Lightning’s protective coating of clones.

As the wave faded, Adagio held her pose, floating idly in place with a self-satisfied smirk crossing her features as her raised hand came slowly down to rest on her forehead.

With her finger and thumb in the shape of an ‘L’.

“I’LL KILL YOU!” Midnight shrieked furiously, then whirled on the dome of protective magic where Sunset and the others hunkered down and held out a hand. “Starting with all of you!”

A pulsating beam of dark light shot from Midnight’s hand to strike dome like a hammer on a church bell, and Octavia flinched as she turned her attention back to the dome to reinforce it. Sunset flinched from the lightshow as the beam struck almost directly in front of her, and Penny swore colorfully as she continued to play, her magic was the only thing keeping the people under the dome from freaking out and running in all directions.

Adagio turned to unravel Midnight’s spell but her countersong was spoiled by a sudden onslaught from a half dozen clones of Lightning Dust being thrown her way, sometimes literally, and she was forced to dodge, bob, and weave away from Midnight.

“Stay focused!” Sunset called, “Vinyl, keep amping Octavia, we can outlast her!”

“RAINBOW NOW!” Midnight cried.

“Oh shit,” Sunset barely got the word out before she heard multiple approaching sonic booms coming from the direction of Canterlot City.

A streak of rainbow light ripped through the streets, shattering windows on cars and buildings as Rainbow Dash built up speed and momentum, drawing on the reserve of magic that Midnight had infused her with to wrap her own body in dampening magic.

She was about to hit something really hard after all.

Rainbow Dash tore past what looked like every cop in the city who were busy evacuating students and teachers alike, and she had a brief moment of appreciation for the fact that Sunset had probably set that up ahead of time, before turning her attention back to the quickly looming dome in front of her.

She ran parallel to the beam of light and Octavia barely had a moment to react, striking a single cord and refocusing as much of her magic on the small area being attacked as possible before Rainbow struck it.

The dome shattered violently as the combined force of Midnight’s beam and Rainbow’s strike overloaded Octavia’s defensive magic. Rainbow’s fist was wrapped in a shining prismatic corona of light and, for a moment, time seemed to slow as she careened towards Sunset.

Only for the sound of cello's cry to create an angled hexagonal grey shield that snapped into existence between the two of them, and Rainbow crashed against it.

“Ow…” Rainbow groaned as she looked up, pushing herself up slightly from the plane of light that hovered at a forty-five degree angle in midair.

Beneath her was a shocked-looking Sunset Shimmer, her eyes wide and panicked, and behind Sunset-

Vinyl Scratch glared furiously at Rainbow over Sunset’s shoulder, her head tipped down so her eyes, burning nearly red with rage, could meet Rainbow’s over her omnipresent shades as she angled both of her hands, their twin glowing disks of white energy pulsing in tune to that barely-heard beat, towards Rainbow’s face.

“Uh… heh… oops?” Rainbow laughed weakly.

Vinyl tightened her grip on both disks, there was the sound of a deafening bass drop, and Rainbow Dash was sent rocketing into the sky by a fist of pure sonic force. Her brain rattled in her skull and her skeleton felt like it was trying to vibrate out of her skin as she spun ass over teakettle through the stormy skies.

Rainbow had no grasp on where she was, where the ground was, or how close she was to hitting said ground as the world spun around her, but before she could gain her bearings something whipped past her and gripped her hand, pulling her out of her spin and dragging her behind them. Rainbow looked up to see a faintly smoking and wildly smiling Zee gripping her hand as she flew along.

“Aye up, Rainbow!” Zee crowed as she put on a burst of speed. “Give our sister our love, aye?”

Rainbow laughed as Zee spun in midair, whirling Rainbow about like a pair of bolos. The former Element of Loyalty accelerated her body, letting it crackle with prismatic force as Zee let Rainbow fly bodily towards the pursuing Gilda.

“Hey, Gil! HEADS UP!” Rainbow cried, and she got a brief look at the shocked expression of Gilda’s face before she planted her knee in the larger girl’s gut.

The heavy blow knocked the wind from Gilda and sent her spinning through the sky as Rainbow barreled past and back down towards the ground. Rainbow got a brief glimpse of Zee reclaiming momentum and rocketing after Gilda, a fistful of lightning in hand, before she managed to right herself and turn towards the rapidly approaching earth.

Suddenly, a glowing yellow figure leapt in front of Rainbow’s vision and she got a glimpse of Lightning Dust’s features before it tried to catch her, but the speed Rainbow was moving at ripped the clone apart. Another clone got in way, grabbing on and slowing Rainbow down even more before it too fell apart. Finally, a third clone leapt up and caught Rainbow in its arms, wrapping itself around her and absorbing the impact of the pair of them hitting the ground, then disintegrating as Rainbow scrambled back to her feet.

Rainbow Dash stood up, dusting herself off as Lightning Dust, the real one, stepped up beside her, holding a fist up. Rainbow knocked her knuckles against Lightning’s and smirked as Midnight came floating down behind them.

There was a deafening report and a crash of thunder and lightning, and Gilda came spinning down from the sky.

Sunset had a brief moment of terrible panic, remembering the moment in the meadow, but this time Gilda managed to right herself at the last moment, landing with her legs bent and her wings flared to hit the ground with something approaching grace several yards from the group. Her whole body was smoking though, and Gilda staggered as she made her way back to the main group, her legs wobbling and the main force of her weight balanced heavily on her spear.

“Penny! Help Gilda!” Sunset barked.

Penny nodded sharply and sprinted over to Gilda. Once she was a few feet away, she brought her guitar and started play, a deep thrumming tune in a four-four beat. Gilda’s breath came in sharp as she gave a start, then took a deep breath, and stood up, shaking her head as if to clear her mind.

As she did, some of the burn marks began to vanish, or at least lessen in intensity, and Gilda’s aura of magical power flared.

“Thanks,” Gilda said quietly, nodding to Penny.

“It’s not going to last,” Penny said quietly. “It’s just a shot of energy, you’re gonna feel it in the morning.”

“I’ll take it,” Gilda replied with a smirk, “if I ain’t in top form, there may not be another morning, savvy?”

Penny grimaced but nodded at that.

From the center, Adagio came floating back, her eyes glowing but a faint sheen of sweat on her brow. Her magical reserves were not inconsiderable, but they were nothing like Midnight’s or even Octavia’s. She was efficient not just by desire but by necessity. She dropped to the ground less gracefully then she might have liked, her feet stumbling a little as her vision swam from the exertion of spending so much magical energy at once.

The four-four beat reached her ears a moment later, and Adagio took a deep breath, feeling her heartbeat align to it, and a grin crept over her face as she felt some of her reserves refill.

“Laughter really is the best medicine, my dear,” Adagio said, smiling faintly.

“Feeling better?” Sunset asked grimly, and Adagio nodded as Octavia, Vinyl, Gilda, and Penny moved to flank them. “Good, because this isn’t over.”

While Sunset’s party regrouped around the students they were protecting, Zee struck the ground next to Midnight like a hammer before standing and dusting herself off with a smirk as she walked up beside her girlfriend.

“Want to know something, babe?” Midnight said quietly as Zee reached her side.

“Aye? Wuzzat, our lass?” Zee asked, flicking her eyes over to Midnight.

Midnight was staring out across at the group of Element Bearers suspiciously.

“I think… I think Miss Shimmer might have been bullshitting me,” Midnight said angrily. “She didn’t even try to stop Rainbow… at first I thought she was holding back so she didn’t waste her magic, forcing me to expend power while she remained fresh but now…”

“That night in the meadow, though,” Zee murmured, “she was burnin’ like th’sun, aye?”

“I know, and I think it might’ve burnt her out,” Midnight said playfully, a wicked smile curving her lips upward. “Only one way to find out…” she glanced over at the other two girls. “Lightning, Rainbow… buy Zee a shot at Sunset, I’d like to test a theory.”

A look of concern crossed Rainbow’s features and she glanced over at Lightning Dust who furrowed her brow.

“At… at Sunset?” Rainbow asked quietly. “But-”

“Just do it!” Midnight snapped angrily.

Rainbow Dash flinched but nodded and stepped back circling around to get a better position as Lightning began deploying her clones again.

“H-Hey, lass,” Zee said, her voice tinged with uncertainty. “If Gils’ witch ain’t got’er magic, and I take my swing at her she’ll…”

Midnight looked over to see Zee’s face twisted into a grimace of concentration, as though she were fighting through something in her mind. Her eyes were drifting unsteadily between smoky gray and sharp gold, and Midnight narrowed her gaze to a glare. She didn’t need this, not right now.

“I’m sorry, babe,” Midnight muttered, her mouth curling into a scowl. “This’ll be over soon, okay?.”

Midnight reached out and trailed a finger down the back of Zee’s neck where her spine and skull met and a spark of brackish, unwholesome power leapt from her finger and into Zee.

The white-haired girl spasmed for a moment, then shook her head and grinned vacantly, her eyes milky white.

“Arh, cocka… let’s do this,” Zee said in a hollow voice.

Midnight flinched. She hadn’t wanted to do that, had she? Zee hadn’t wanted to hurt Sunset, but… did she? Did Midnight want to either?

Did Twilight?

Snarling, Midnight shook her head to clear away the thoughts and focused on the clangor of bells in her mind, gripping the brass bell that hung from her neck as she did. No more questioning, no more reasoning; Sunset had humiliated her and now Sunset and her entire posse of glowing idiots were standing between her and apotheosis. She had to be put down, for the greater good, for progress… Sunset was standing in the way of everything!

Yes… Sunset had brought this on herself.

As Midnight and Zee conferred, Lightning moved alongside Rainbow Dash.

“Hey, Rainbabe,” Lightning said quietly as they eyed Sunset and her friends. “I’m… I’m starting to have some thoughts about this…”

“Yeah,” Rainbow replied uneasily. “Yeah, me too.”

“I uh, I think we might be the baddies,” Lightning said with a weak, empty laugh.

“I’m starting to think you’re right,” Rainbow agreed, and she clenched her eyes shut in anger. “Dammit… she tried to tell me but I was just so… fucking concentrated on not leaving Zee and Twilight behind.”

“Is there even anything left of Twilight in that thing?” Lightning asked in a low voice, shooting a glare at Midnight. “I mean… seriously, look at her! The Twilight we met months ago was never like this!”

“I know,” Rainbow said in a cold voice. “It’s just like what happened to Sunset… she went all dark-magic-badass and suddenly she was insane… remember?” Lightning nodded, and Rainbow sighed heavily. “We’ve gotten in way too deep, I’m not doing this… I’m not gonna back this up anymore, okay? Friends… friends gotta know when to say ‘no’.”

Lightning nodded again, turning to Midnight. “I’m with ya Rainbabe.”

“This is probably gonna hurt, y’know?” Rainbow said with a low chuckle.

“Yeah,” Lightning replied, rolling her eyes and cracking her neck. “But Gran always says doin’ the right thing usually does.”

Both of them turned as one, both set on putting a stop to Midnight’s intentions. Rainbow’s body crackled with pent-up power, ready to accelerate her body to supersonic speeds, while Lightning’s small army of clones waited in the back of her mind, their limbs matching with hers.

Neither of them were prepared to see Midnight mere inches from them as they turned.

“Going somewhere?” Midnight asked dryly.

Before either of them could think to move, an aura of black, sparking magic slammed around each of them. Bands of iron-hard force coiled around Rainbow and Lightning’s arms and legs, keeping them from moving, and the whole mass of energy seemed to writhe around them.

“Everyone keeps turning against me,” Midnight hissed, her voice raw and furious. “But you’ll see… I just need to finish this… this great working. Pops will make sure it happens… he won’t betray me like you.”

“We’re trying to help you!” Rainbow’s voice came out in a high crackle as the bands of energy tightened around her chest. “You’re s-sick, Twi’, there’s something wrong with you! We want to help you!”

“I’m not sick!” Midnight shrieked. “I am perfect!”

Midnight reached out and gripped Lightning and Rainbow’s heads, one in each hand, and energy lashed around their minds.

“But you were right about one thing,” Midnight continued, her voice going low and deadly. “You will help me.”

Lightning Dust’s eyes widened and she tried to turn to face Rainbow, but Midnight kept her head from moving at all, the best she could do was look to the side, trying to meet Rainbow’s gaze. Rainbow Dash was doing the same and both of them could see the fear and terror reflected in both of their eyes.

“It’s okay, Dusty,” Rainbow said in a soft voice. “I’m right here.”

“I’m scared,” Lightning’s voice came out a cracking sob.

“I know,” Rainbow replied, “me too, I’m sorry I dragged you into this, Dusty, I’m sorry! I’m so-”

“SHUT UP!” Midnight screamed, and power snapped down her arms and into Rainbow and Lightning’s heads.

Neither girl even had time to scream. They both went slack, the barriers of their minds battered down by main force as Midnight imprinted her will into them. They were nothing to her, nothing! They were tools, they were pawns, they were…

Tears trickled down Midnight’s cheeks as she let Rainbow and Lightning fall from her grip.

They were her friends.

Both girls shook their heads, their eyes misty and gray, then they looked up at Midnight and gave eerily synchronised nods before moving into position.

“I’ll fix them,” Midnight muttered quietly as they all moved away from her, “I… I promise, I’ll put it all right, okay?” None of them could hear her, and even if they could she wasn’t entirely certain they would understand her. “I promise… after all this is done it can all go back to the way it was… to the way we were, I’ll fix it all.”

“What have you done?!” Sunset’s voice bellowed from across the field, and Midnight turned to face her. “What did you do to them?!”

Midnight scowled viciously.

“You did this!” she screamed back, her voice high and tinged with something unpleasantly unhinged. “You made me do this! Why couldn’t you just back down?! WHY?!”

Sunset looked around, feeling a dark chill in her stomach at the blank faces of Zee, Rainbow, and Lightning. This wasn’t just dark magic… this was damn near the very blackest of arts: Slave magic.

Somehow, without even realising it, the Twilight Sparkle of this world had managed to replicate the spellcraft of the old slave legions of King Sombra. Sunset knew this magic only by reputation, but seeing it first-hand was spine chilling. Twilight wasn’t just a powerhouse or a monster… this Twilight was every bit the genius her counterpart was sans absolutely any moral compass.

“You’ve gone too far, Twilight!” Sunset roared.

Midnight didn’t respond; instead she lashed a hand out sent a wild volley of black, smoking bolts of energy at the gathered group, and only a hum of cello strings carrying reinforced plates of magical energy on their heels intercepted them.

“DO IT!” Midnight roared.

Without warning, dozens of clones erupted from Lightning, turning an empty open area of grass into an onrushing army of glowing, pale-yellow figures. They thundered towards the shielded group in a blind rush.

Gilda spat an oath, leapt in front of the group, and snapped Huracán around in a wide arc in front of her, lightning spitting from its tip in a stream of coruscating power. Swathes of clones vanished in crackling pops but where one vanished, two more took its place, and Sunset reached out to drag Gilda back into the safety of the dome as they all leapt at it, crawling over it like ants until the group within was blinded by the glow and press of bodies.

“Penny! Reverse Amp!” Sunset shouted, before pointing at Vinyl. “Vinyl, clear the air!”

Vinyl gave a sharp nod, and the white cord that had trailed from her spinning disks to Penny’s bass suddenly turned a blindingly bright shade of electric blue.

“Here goes nothing, Vee!” Penny shouted, “give’em the bass cannon!”

Penny slammed her pick across the strings of her guitar, and this time instead of the reinforcing energy radiating out in a wave, every iota of it was launched directly into Vinyl like an injection.

For a brief second Vinyl Scratch’s entire body effervesced with blinding power, her back arched as the strain of containing the output of two Elements at once, even for a moment, overwhelmed her.

A moment later Vinyl gave the power its outlet.

Dozens of disks of light like the ones in Vinyl’s hands appeared, each one pressed to one of Octavia’s grey planes of defensive solid light.

The sound that followed it was felt more than heard. Every single one of Lightning’s clones shattered with a sound like breaking glass as they were annihilated by the wave pure sonic energy, and Lightning Dust let out an odd, strangled hiccup as the psychic backlash of all of her clones immediately and violently dying sent her eyes rolling back into her skull as she toppled over.

The clones had vanished just in time to see Rainbow descending from the sky like a prismatic rocket to slam her light-clad fist into the apex of Octavia’s defensive dome.

Everything after that happened in the space of a few breaths.

Octavia screamed as her power lashed back on her, the strain of keeping the barrier up through that sudden punishing impact becoming too much for her. Her bow and cello tumbled from her hands as she collapsed bonelessly to the ground in a dead faint.

Snapping her spear around, Gilda caught Rainbow at the gut with the haft of Huracán, knocking the air from her and sending her sprawling before she could follow through. Penny was sagging in place, barely supporting a delirious Vinyl.

A serpent of black energy lanced towards the group from Midnight’s hands, sparking wildly as it snapped and writhed like a living creature. Adagio ascended again, wheeling her arms and gathering the latent magic in the air to supplement her own vastly depleted reserves, and just as the conjured entity struck.

With a long, soprano wail, Adagio caught the striking conjuration with needles of goldenrod light, each one neatly pinning it to the ground and unraveling it.

Midnight smirked as she dropped to the ground to reveal Zee behind her clutching a fistful of lightning that fired out like a spear of white directly at Sunset Shimmer.

Time seemed to slow for Sunset and Gilda both.

The wheelchair-bound girl’s eyes widened as she realised what their plan had been. They had gone all in for one, single, deadly strike at the most vulnerable member of their opponent's team: Her. She hadn’t even realised she’d been made, but in retrospect it seemed obvious. It had to have been when Rainbow had made her attack, it had to have been painfully obvious that Sunset hadn’t just not defended herself, but had been unable to defend herself.

Gilda tried to speed up, but she was off-center, her body still bearing the weight of Rainbow’s limp form, and Hyperkine magic wasn’t made for constant speed like Rainbow’s power, it was all just bursts of instinctual movement, and she was moving the wrong direction to have any leverage.

They both had only a split second to realise that Sunset was going to die.

“SUNSET NO!”

Sunset was struck hard, and she was sent sprawling to the ground from her wheelchair onto her stomach, the smell of cooked flesh scorched her nose as she gasped for air. There was a weight on her, and she flailed wildly for a moment, trying to see where she’d been hit, expecting the searing pain to come at her at any moment.

It never did.

Struggling to right herself, Sunset turned with some effort and felt her heart all but stop at what she saw.

Laying across her was a prone form, his arms curled protectively around her and his shirt burnt away to reveal the horribly scorched skin beneath from where Zee’s blast had struck him full on. His head of messy black hair obscured most of his face, but his breathing came in harsh, ragged, faltering gasps as he shook like a soaked kitten.

“S-Score?” Sunset stammered, her eyes wide in horror as she pulled herself out from under him. “What… what did you do? WHAT DID YOU DO?!”

“Ah shit…” Gilda swore as she threw Rainbow’s unconscious form to the ground as safely as she could. “Ah… fuck… that’s…”

“Oh… child,” Adagio said weakly as she stared down at the boy, her eyes filling with tears.

Pulling herself up so she was sitting, her legs coiled uselessly under her, Sunset dragged Score up so his head was rest haphazardly on her lap. He was stocky and a little short, but he had broad shoulders and looked like he would have been pretty strong.

Normally, anyway.

Now he was just shaking, his jaw held in a rictus of pain.

“W-What…” Zee’s voice came from nearby as she stared at the fallen student and at Sunset, she shook her head as the horrifying result of her attack managed to break through the cloud of Arabus’s insensate rage. “What did I… why did I-”

Zee turned to Midnight who was staring in horror at what had happened.

“I didn’t mean to,” Midnight said in a small voice that sounded more like Twilight than she had for the entirety of the games. “I swear… I didn’t mean for that to happen!”

“You made me do that,” Zee said in a voice of patent disbelief. “Why’d ye do that, lass?! WHY!?”

The storm above them reach its zenith before Midnight could answer and a deafening crack of thunder split the sky. Zee’s vision suddenly swam violently and her stomach lurched, and she had just enough of her wits about her to catch herself as she dropped to her knees on the ground. There was a clicking sound from below her and a feeling like a weight being lifted off of her shoulders, and Zee stared down at her hands and arms.

And at the armbands laying unlocked and open on the ground under her, their luster gone and all trace of the immense power vanished. Before her eyes, the armbands began to crumble.

Glancing over, Zee saw Midnight in nearly the same state, her power bleeding off of her in waves as she dropped to the ground like a lead weight, her wings disintegrating into the air and her magic hemorrhaging out of her.

Over among the Elements, Gilda spat a curse as Huracán snapped back into its compact form against her will, then she stumbled and dropped to the ground, and she saw Vinyl and Penny do the same, their faces pale. Power was coming off of them like smoke into the air and, all around her, there was laughter. Adagio let out a strangled cry and dropped to the grass, her body limp and her face ghostly and drawn.

“Ye ask why she did it, sprog?” A rich and darkly familiar voice asked, and it was filled with dark humor as it echoed strangely around them. “She only did what ‘ad t’be done, savvy?”

Between the two groups, a tall wolf-lean man stood. He was rain-soaked, and his thick linen shirt clung to a limber, muscular form, and his steel-grey hair clung to his pale skin as he laughed again.

Storm King.

“Ye’ve done well, lass!” Storm howled as he raised his arms to the sky. “Better’n I’d ever bloody imagined!”

“Why… what did you do to me?!” Twilight gasped, her power gone and her body returned to its human state as Storm walked over to her.

“I funneled all the magic in the area into one place, ye dozy wazzock,” Storm said with a laugh, “including all the magic in all th’channelers here, you… them… anyone wif power, aye?” Storm explained before reaching down and ripping the bell roughly from Twilight’s neck. “An’ I’ll be ‘avin’ that back, thank ye.”

“Why, Pops?” Twilight sobbed. “You said-”

“I lied,” Storm sneered, before lancing a kick into Twilight’s stomach. “I allus say: gimme a smart mark o’er a dumb one any day, oreyt? At least dumbshite idiots know they’re idiots, savvy? Smarties like ye think they know everything.”

He fixed the cord around his neck and let out a sigh of relief.

‘Good,’ the deep, basso growl in his mind said, ‘that went better than expected.’

“Aye it did, old goat,” Storm replied. “Now, ‘ows about we actually use some of this power, ‘ey?”

‘My thoughts precisely, old friend,’ the voice said in a laughing tone. ‘How about a more suitable form, first, though?’

Black veins grew along Storm King’s body, trickling across his skin like droplets of paint leaving trails of stains, and Storm grunted and twitched and his body contorted and shifted. Curling rams horns sprouted from each side of his head, and his shoes ripped as heavy, cloven hooves tore free from them. His skin darkened to a deep, smoky blue, and his eyes burned red with infernal flames.

Sunset stared up at the growing horror in front of her, tears tracking down her cheeks as she watched helplessly on. A cough from below her brought her back to herself, and she looked down to see Score shivering, his eyes hazy with pain and shock.

“Why?” Sunset whispered quietly, brushing a lock of Score’s hair from his face. “Why did you do that? That was supposed to be me.”

Score gave a weak laugh that turned into a flinching cough.

“D-Dunno…” he said in a reedy voice. “I saw it happening… saw no one could do anything, and I just… I dunno… moved.”

“You don’t have any magic,” Sunset sobbed. “You’re just… human… Score, you’re… you’re gonna-”

“Y-yeah, I know,” Score said, coughing again, “b-but I had to do somethin’ y’know? It was eating me alive… knowing what I did to you.”

“I forgave you, dumbass,” Sunset cried. “It wasn’t your fault!”

“Yeah but…” Score shivered again and coughed. “I couldn’t look myself in the mirror or… or look my dad in the eyes anymore… I had to do somethin’, right? Somethin’ to… fuck, I dunno, redeem myself, I guess, I had to… I just… I…”

Score’s voice began to weaken, then it slowed, then it trailed off completely, and his eyes closed. Sunset’s eyes widened a little as she stared down at Score, and time felt like it stopped in that instant.

And so did the rain, and the thunder, and the lightning, and the wind, and warm glow like the break of dawn spilled over Sunset’s back.