In the city of Canterlot, as the moon slowly began to rise over the horizon, a lone figure crept from house to house. Dressed in a dark purple sweatshirt and ripped jeans, this figure managed to avoid being seen by keeping low to the ground. With every window it saw, it would crawl under them. Whenever there was a bush or large tree, the figure would use it for whatever camouflage it could provide. At the sound of an opening door, the figure would halt suddenly in its tracks so that movement would not be caught by the eyes of those around. The figure had been doing this for some time now, probably longer than was needed. In fact, had the figure only started doing this a block or so away from its destination it would have been a much shorter trip!

Eventually the figure saw its target across the street. With eyes hidden under its hood, the figure saw that a few lights were on in the dark purple house. One was in something like a spire on the floor above the doorway with the dark silhouette of a girl with a long ponytail dancing about like a moron. The other two were on the main floor with the lights glow crossing the yard. The figure focused on trying to detect the sounds of a dog barking nearby, but all of those sounds were far off in the distance.

The figure shook its head as it crossed the street in a mad dash with its eyes glued towards the garage. The information provided by its benefactor told that Twilight Sparkle kept all of her science equipment there. Her parents had banned her from doing any research or experiments inside the house. Something about an explosion that caused an odor…or something like that. The figure had zoned out doing that part. All that mattered to them was that all of her information on magic would be there. Ripe for the taking!

As she neared the door, the figure came to a complete stop. On the door was a hand scanner! How the hell did a high school girl get her hands on something like that? Why would a high school girl need something like that? Why hadn’t anybody told the figure about this? The figure had wasted so much time already!

Letting out an annoyed sigh, the figure slowly approached the door in the hopes that it was a fake. Something to scare off would be thieves. But, just as the figure was about to touch the door, the sounds of muffled voices could be heard. People were in there. Two in fact. One was the voice of Twilight Sparkle while the other was Sunset Shimmer. Clenching both fists at the thought of the girl, the figure turned and ran away.

-x-

“I can’t believe this!” stated Twilight Sparkle, her back turned to Sunset who sat on a counter. “Your cards are acting up as well! And they spoke to you? This is amazing!”

“Well it’s only happened once,” replied Sunset as she watched her friend work. Twilight was in her lab coat, several scorch marks and black soot stains dotting various spots on it. Her hair was tied into a bun so it would not accidently obstruct her vision yet there were several stray stands. Both of her hands were concealed by thick black rubber gloves as she worked on one of her latest projects. What it was, Sunset could see it and Twilight wasn’t talking. Apparently it was a secret of some kind. Yet the number of sparks that were flying about made Sunset all the more curious.

“Back at Camp Everfree after we dueled Cinch and Well-To-Do,” Sunset continued as she leaned back and stared at the ceiling. “Prominence just appeared in front of me right after you left. He said something about more battles were coming and that he wanted me to help them get stronger so that they can help. Then he was gone.” At that point, Sunset had put her hand on her forehead. “I didn’t tell you girls about it back then because, well, I thought I was just seeing things. That maybe I wanted to have my cards act like yours so much and after such an intense duel my mind just sort of showed me what I wanted to see. But lately I’ve been having these dreams…”

“Dreams?” asked Twilight before setting down her tools. Sunset sat upright again just in time to see Twilight turning around. Her friend was wearing thick, black goggles that were supposed to help protect her eyes. They did that, but they also gave her the appearance of some sort of big eyed bug that was somewhat distracting. What wasn’t distracting, however, was the clear look of concern that the rest of her face showed.

Sunset nodded. “I’ve…been dreaming about the end of the world,” she admitted. “The ground crumbling away under our feet as trees sort of float overhead. Tentacle vines gripping everything in sight. Mass destruction everywhere you look. And there are several people there, I don’t know who they are but they’re at the center of it all. With all that going on, you’d think I’d be afraid but I’m not. We’re all there. Me, you, Rainbow, Applejack, Pinkie, Rarity, Fluttershy, and even Sonata. We’re running towards this head on while riding our monsters like mounts and battling beside them.”

For a moment there was complete silence in the room. Sunset watched as Twilight brought a hand to rest under her chin so that she took on a thinking pose. Seeing that, Sunset looked away as she began to wonder what her friend was thinking about her. Not that Sunset didn’t have plenty of good guesses herself. To be honest, Sunset feared that she might be starting to crack given everything that had been going on with them this school year. They had gone from a relatively quiet school into the center of magical chaos in a short time. Her turning into a she-demon before being zapped by magic, the Sirens, the Friendship Games, both times at Camp Everfree. The list just seemed to go on. Their lives had been turned upside down ever since she had brought magic into a world that had none. Maybe all of this was just finally getting to her.

“It couldn’t be,” muttered Twilight, snapping Sunset out of her own thoughts.

“What?” she asked.

“I’ve been having similar dreams,” said Twilight as she looked up. As Sunset’s jaw dropped at this new information, Twilight lifted her goggles off of her face and set them on the desk behind her. “I’ve had them a few times over the last couple of nights, but since it looked so similar to the damage I caused when I became Midnight Sparkle I dismissed them as lingering guilt. I remember riding on the back of Axel several times while you flew on the back of-”

“Lavalval Dragun!” finished Sunset as she hopped off the counter, both girls now wide eyed. “We’re both having the same dream!”

“The odds of that happening are very unlikely,” began Twilight as she looked over to a corner where Spike was somehow still snoozing in a little doggy bed. “But, as I once told a good friend, stranger things have happened. Now we just need to figure out why.”

“Back when I was living in Equestria, dream magic wasn’t a very well studied field,” admitted Sunset. “Part of the reason was because of the legend of Nightmare Moon. For so long, nopony wanted to look into the field because of her. Those that did study it could never provide any real results or were just inconsistent. But back when I was her student Princess Celestia mentioned that there are rare times when a dream can show images of a possible future. Sort of a prophecy given to very few ponies.”

“So,” said Twilight as she pulled out her locket and held it up. “You think because we have magic that we were able to see this?”

Now it was Sunset’s turn to place a hand under her chin. “Maybe,” she said. “This only happened after I connected with my cards. We still don’t fully understand what is going on with them. Perhaps that’s the key to figuring out what is going on. They could be the ones showing us this.” She then let out a sigh followed by a half smile. “As if we don’t have enough to worry about. Cinch is still out there trying to steal magic. Never a dull moment.”

“I know,” said Twilight ruefully while shaking her head. “She’s only able to do that because of the technology I left behind at Crystal Prep.”

“Oh, right,” said Sunset as she looked around sheepishly. While Twilight hadn’t said anything, Sunset knew that her purple skinned friend still was taking this pretty hard. It had been her device that had stolen both Applejack and Rainbow’s magic for a short time, preventing them from getting help back at Camp Everfree. While it had been resorted thanks to hers and Twilight’s efforts, Sunset guessed that Twilight was thinking that none of it would have happened had she never made the machine in the first place. Much like how she blamed herself from time to time whenever magic hurt her friends.

“Well, I’m not going to let her get away with that,” stated Twilight more firmly. As she picked up her goggles, the scientist gave her friend a smile before putting them on with a snap that made the former unicorn wince. “The only reason Cinch is able to locate and steal magic is because of the technology I created. Meaning I know how it works far better than her. Ever since we got back, I’ve been working on a way to protect our magic as well as locate magic on a larger scale.”

Sunset tilted her head at that. “Why would you need to locate magic?” she asked.

“Because we knew Cinch is looking for it,” replied Twilight simply. “Using my old device, she was able to locate and steal magic from something or someone we didn’t know about. This might mean that more Equestrian magic is flowing into our world. Or perhaps there is magic in this world that we were never aware of before. Beyond Cinch, we know how magic can sometimes corrupt those it comes into contact with. I’m hoping that with this we can remain one step ahead of Cinch while also preventing magical disasters before they get out of control.”

Sunset let out a hum as she closed her eyes. What Twilight was saying made a great deal of sense to her. The last thing they wanted was for someone like Cinch to use magic to hurt people again. Just thinking about their duel with her, how she used the magic to make her attacks real, was something that she could never forget. Her first victims, the siblings who ran Camp Everfree, were still in the hospital. As for herself, Sunset could forget the deafening sounds of the cannons that fired on her as she was flung up into the air followed by a fall which she landed on her back. The fear she had felt as she believed that she might actually die in that duel.

Then there were all the other crazy things people could do with magic if given the chance. Commanding an entire forest to do their will. Stealing away memories at a whim. Sucking people into mirrors. Transporting people into a white room while creating holographic versions of those people. Even if they couldn’t tell who had the magic, just knowing it was around so that they could be on the lookout a bit better would probably help them avoid a lot of their past mistakes. Maybe even being able to help those people who had already come into contact with it before they transformed into demons.

“Good point,” said Sunset after a moment. “So, how’s the work going?” In response, Twilight hung her head down low before jerking a thumb towards a corner. The former unicorn turned her head…and then winced. In a darkened corner of the room was a pile of burnt out machines the size of Principal Celestia, stacked on top of each other ungracefully. Some of them were still giving off tendrils of smoke that slowly lifted towards the ceiling.

“…It’s a work in progress,” said Twilight nervously.

-x-

Elsewhere, the figure moved through a small wooded area on the outside of Canterlot close to where Crystal Prep stood. The area had a mix of dried leaves on the ground as well as various trash that had been dumped there over the years. The figure passed by trees as well as piles of steel drums, the stench of rotting junk mixed with the air that should have been at its freshest. There were probably a bunch of kids out there, doing things the figure really didn’t a shit about. All she cared for was that they did not disturb them.

After a good ten minute walk, the figure saw her destination in sight. It was an old Victorian style house standing in the middle of a clearing. On its paint-chipped walls were various graffiti tags going all the way up to the third story. Shingles were clearly missing on the roof, visible even with the current lack of light. As for the windows, well, they were all boarded up so that it was impossible for anyone to see the inside. All in all, it looked like an abandoned house just left to sit in the middle of nowhere until it finally collapsed.

Pulling an old key out of her pocket, the figure approached the door and opened it. Now entering the family or sitting room (whichever someone wanted to call it) were filing cabinets and boxes. All of them left there to collect dust until the end of time itself. The floors creaked with every step the figure walked along a trail that had not a speck of dust leading all the way towards something that shouldn’t be in an old house like this: an elevator. Pressing the button to go down, Aria took off her hood before the door opened and walked inside.

Less than thirty seconds later the doors opened again to reveal something far different than what had been upstairs. The walls of this place were made of cold, uncaring metal that looked nicely polished. Several computer terminals looked like they had been built into the walls with fancy chairs in front of them bearing the logo of Crystal Prep. In the middle of the room were several workstations that looked like they belonged in a lab with all sorts of tools that Aria had no clue what they were. Nor did she care. She just walked forward towards the two figures sitting in two of the nice chair, neither one looking like they have moved from their spots since she had left.

“Ah, good,” said Cinch as she turned her chair to face Aria in a villainous manner. “I take it you were able to sneak into Miss Sparkle’s lab?”

“Ah, try no,” said Aria as she crossed her arms while Cinch frowned. “The purple brain child was in there along with Sunset. I had no of knowing when they’d be finally be done talking about their hair or whatever it was they were talking about. And the longer I stayed there the more likely I’d be caught. Plus, you never said she had a palm reader lock on her door.”

At that, Cinch frowned more deeply. “When Shining Armor first mentioned her lab to me, he left that detail out,” she said with a heavy sigh. “Well, there is nothing to be done. We’ll have to keep monitoring her lab for the time being until we have a way of getting in. They we can uncover all of the information she has already gathered about magic in this world. Perhaps even looking at a few of her other creations. I’m sure some will prove to be very helpful.”

“I don’t know why you’re bothering with her,” said Adagio as she leaned back in her chain. “If you have any questions about magic, you could just ask us.”

“It’s important to know what our enemies know,” said Cinch stiffly, causing the other two girls to roll their eyes. Cinch seemed to ignore this as she gestured to Adagio. “Thanks to the information you have provided, there are two possibilities for the disaster at Camp Everfree. One is very simple: I captured too much magic at once. All that power overloaded the systems and failsafe protocols I installed. This is a simple matter to fix. Work is already being made on a special containment unit to store all the magic that we capture. We’ll just have to be careful how much magic we steal at once. As for the other possibility, the magic hadn’t submitted to me.”

“Ah, what?” asked Aria as she raised an eyebrow to that.

Adagio groaned. “Don’t you remember anything?” she said while folding her arms across her chest. A look of superiority that Aria hated so much crossed the speaker’s face as she continued to talk. “Back before those dumb ponies created Equestria, unicorns were always trying to increase their magical power even to the point where they were willing to steal the magic from other. As I recall, the magic they stole often didn’t obey they properly. Even I don’t know how it happened, but eventually they figured out a spell to help them. After the spell was cast two unicorns would challenge each other in magical duels and the loser would have his now somewhat weakened magic drained. Sure the spell to do that was banned when they made their sickening country and the knowledge to do it has probably been lost to time, but it does make some sense. That magic is running around, wild in free like some stupid animal. All we have to do is beat it into submission so it will see us as its new owner.”

“But this is still all simply conjecture at this point,” said Cinch as she stood up, arms behind her back as she moved towards one of the work stations. “We will proceed as if both are true until we have all the information. I have already been in contact with one of my former pupils who works for Kaiba Corp. He has agreed to make the new capture disks based on the designs. Once they are finished, we can duel those bothersome girls and steal their magic. Them and anyone else who has even an inkling of power that we find.”

“That sounds risky,” said Aria with a frown as she gestured to Cinch. “You are a wanted woman. What’s to stop him from turning you over to the police?”

Cinch gave her a cold smile. “Let’s just say I have some dirt on him. Something so destructive that it would eliminate his chances on taking down the new CEO of Kaiba Corp and taking the position for his own. In exchange for his help I will turn over all the evidence for his foul play.” Cinch then shook her head slightly. “Besides, we don’t really have much of a choice now do we? I may be skilled in the sciences, but the amount of work needed to be done is a bit outside my reach and I can’t really be seen ordering too much online. This location will make for a perfect hiding place. Its technically owned by Crystal Prep and was used as an off campus storage location that not many people know about. You can be sure I never told that traitorous witch Cadence about this so the odds of Miss Sparkle finding me will be low.”

“Well then, since we have some free time, I think we’d better add to our numbers,” said Adagio as she too stood. “The more fools we have helping us, the faster we can gather magic. People with skill and hatred of those goodie goodies will make excellent minions.”

“Great, surrounded by even more people I can’t stand,” said Aria with a shrug.

“Hey, if it means we can get our gems and powers back to full while getting some payback it’ll be worth it,” said Adagio as she gave her sister Siren a cold look. “And as a bonus, we get to stay here rent free while Cinch here pays for your smartphone plan. So drop the attitude.”

Aria clenched her fists tightly. She knew the situation they were in. Without their stupid jobs they could neither eat or pay rent. The last thing she wanted for herself was to end up on the streets like they left Sonata, homeless beggars without any even the comfort of their smartphones to give them joy. However, this seemed like more trouble than it was worth to the ancient teenager. While they had the remains of their gems, there was no guarantee this would work.

The moody girl then looked at Cinch, a woman she did not trust at all. When Cinch had first approached them, Aria thought her a complete idiot. She had seen and met plenty of people in the past who had done exactly what she was doing right now: breaking all sorts of laws in order to get petty revenge. For a woman who had supposed to have run a school for a number of years, Aria would have thought she should have at least heard at least a few of the more famous cases and learned something: it never ended well. However, Cinch had bigger plans beyond that. Once she got her revenge and was able to harness magic she would begin selling it the highest bidders as a new source of power. She could make a fortune turning it into a fuel source consumed by the masses all the way to weapons for the military. Cinch was even toying with the idea of ripping open portals to Equestria, something she had seen her former student doing at some stupid event called the Friendship Games. A world where human rights did not apply to that she could strip bare of its natural resources as well as its magic. All she needed to do was find a way to keep people from turning into those colorful freaks. With that kind of power behind her, she could buy her way out of the law.

If everything worked out well, they would all profit. Both she and Adagio could do whatever they wanted. They could be back on the stage as a singing duo, living forever again and having a real meal again. Or they could become partners with Cinch, destroying the world that had kicked them out and left them to rot in this dump. Aria was all in it. But Adagio, the risks seemed too big. If they messed up they could all go to jail for a long time and she didn’t really feel like wasting whatever time she had left in this world by sitting in a cell. Or being on the run, stuck with this morons who kept thinking about how to get revenge.

On the other hand, she was just so hungry for a real meal. Just one more like at the Battle of the Bands. Just one more bite.

“Whatever,” said Aria as she turned around and began to head to her room. She would need a long rest to prepare for what was about to happen.

Author's Notes:

Hello everyone. Thanks for reading. I have the next several ideas for duels all planned out, but I will be willing to listen to suggestions.

I decided that in this box I should explain why I gave the characters the decks that I did one at a time. Some you may get and others you will try to burn me at the stake for what little sense they make. This way I can at least defend myself!

Lets start with Cinch. For those of you who have read my previous story will know that I gave her a Monarch deck with a pinch of Wicked cards. To be honest, I had thought about Fabled or Darklords to give her a 'Fall from Grace' them. Maybe even Evilswarm. In the end, I figured this would be the best. Its an old school method of playing the game and, with the right cards, it can hurt your opponent. It also symbolizes her well, willing to sacrifice others for her own ends and to achieve more power. As for the other two Sirens with her? Well you'll just have to read and find out!