For the thirtieth time in the last twenty minutes, Sunset’s phone buzzed. The previous messages had all been the group chat with the girls, who were worried because Sunset had failed to appear at lunch. It had taken some time for her to convince them that things were…not better…but settling. That she’d had to deal with something extremely personal—if magic related—and that Vice Principal Luna had given her a ride to ensure her safety. She promised to talk to them the next day.

Sunset wasn't looking forward to that talk.

Or the one she now owed Miss Luna and Principal Celestia.

“You sure are popular,” Indigo joked. “Friends again?”

The redhead flicked her thumb across the screen to bring it up, fully expecting another offer from Pinkie to bring her cupcakes at home…which worried her, because Pinkie had no way to know where she lived…and yet, some part of her knew that was not a deterrent to a determined Pinkie Pie. It wasn't her friends though. It was Velvet.

-We just arrived at Crystal Prep. Are you still here, sweetheart?-

“Twilight’s mom,” she mumbled, texting as rapidly as she could with one hand. -With Twilight @nurse office. Meds helped. Shes Zzzzz.-

-We’ll be there in just a minute. Parking the cars.-

They would be entering this pit of dark magic. “Ponyfeathers…” she muttered. She wasn't about to leave Twilight vulnerable, but she needed to keep the ambient darkness that she could feel boiling and seething just beyond her presence from trying to get their hooks into the rest of the family. “I need to meet them in the main office, and Twilight’s out, and I refuse to leave her alone here…” Looking down at her sleeping best friend, Sunset made a decision. It would mean even more questions from her principals later, but she wasn't sure the cat hadn’t already been let out of that bag already.

Standing up was an awkward experience that required her to twist in a few ways that made her thankful for the gymnastics routine she’d taken up practicing again in her attic. Soon though, the redhead was standing with Twilight carried in her arms, face still tucked against her collarbone. She flicked her eyes to the quietly watching Indigo…dragon droppings…that was another conversation she was not sure about. “You…mind carrying her bag for me? My hands are a little full.”

“Sure thing.” A pause. “…and ummm…?”

Sunset arched a brow questioningly.

“Your secret’s safe with me. I won’t tell anyone about…” One hand made a gesture towards Sunset. “...you know...your feelings and stuff. Not my business or theirs. That’s between you and Twilight.” The girl slung her own backpack on, before picking Twilight’s up by the strap.

“Uhhh…” That…was unexpected…but she wasn’t about to correct the girl’s assumption—it wasn’t a hundred percent wrong, after all. “…thanks, Indigo. You’re a good person and I know I appreciate what you did today.”

“Twilight’s my friend. She didn't have to be, but…she wanted to be friends, and I don’t have so many of those these days. I stick by my friends…and my promises.”

There was something heavy in the air again, this time from Sunset’s magic, and she felt along it, trying to decipher the odd tug on her soul, like a nudge from her mark. It…was….she pushed more power into the instinct, and sensed her magic settle lightly over Indigo, creating a faint shimmering barrier around her invisible to the human eye. Almost like a ward, or a form of protection spell, Sunset realized, but one that didn't feel entirely like Sunset herself. A closer study, and threaded into the fiery energy she associated with herself were faint strands that felt like her friends and the Element magic they wielded.

Indigo preceded her out the room, and to her perceptions, the thin barrier rebuffed questing tendrils of darkness from the teen…

Fascinating…

Yet when Sunset tried to repeat the gesture over Twilight, she couldn't seem to call up the energy to do what she wanted. Growling under her breath, she held her girlfriend tighter and followed Indigo out to the main office.

There she saw the proud form of her own Vice Principal staring down an older middle aged woman and the cringing nurse. From the severe bun and lined scowl, coupled with the professional attire, she was fairly certain this woman was the infamous Abacus Cinch, Principal and Headmistress of Crystal Prep. She also looked like she sucked on lemons as a hobby to perfect her scowl.

Sunset was not impressed.

Her magical senses still open, she scanned the Principal…like everyone else here, darkness coated her, but in her case it was so thick and choking, it was like the woman had been soaking in a pool of tar. Though…if she remembered correctly, Night had mentioned her being principal when he was in school…which meant a great many decades of living on the property, given its status as a boarding school as well as one that accepted local day students. Pulling her senses back away from the nauseating darkness, Sunset gave a mental sigh. There was nothing she could do at the moment—it was taking all she had to push the dark magic away from herself and Twilight, and after nearly an hour, she was struggling. Even she wasn't a bottomless font of magical energy.

Their presence was noticed, and both administrators turned in the direction of the three teens. Sunset saw the moment Luna’s eyes widened in recognition of just who was in Sunset’s arms. Yeeeah, that was going to be an awkward talk later. The reaction that surprised her more, however, was Cinch. She went pale, eyes widening behind the tiny gold rimmed spectacles that sat perched on her nose, and Sunset felt a queer twist in her gut as she realized that something about the three of them standing there together scared the woman. It rolled off her, sending the warped, twisted energy around her into a near frenzy.

Sunset’s own eyes narrowed, and she fixed the woman with a defiant, furious glare of her own. This sour woman was the reason her Twilight was stressed and tying herself up in mental and emotional knots. She let her own fury and protectiveness of the girl in her arms rise to the surface, and just a touch of her magic, and felt extremely satisfied when Abacus Cinch flinched and looked away first. Then she turned to her own Vice Principal. “Miss Luna? I just got a message from Twilight’s mom. They're here.”

Luna gave her a smile that had a touch of visceral smugness. “Thank you for letting us know. Is…Twilight…alright?”

She caught the hidden question in the words. “She’s…exhausted from it, but I got her meds into her before it got too bad. It…took a while to calm her down.”

“No thanks to Nurse Ratchet over there,” Indigo muttered sarcastically.

Humming in her throat, Vice Principal Luna commented, “Indeed…but with great thanks to you, I surmise.”

Running her free hand through her hair, the athletic teen shrugged. “Just doing the right thing, ma’am.”

“Perhaps, but—”

Hurrying steps and a blur of pink cut Luna off by colliding with her at top speed. It caught everyone by such surprise that for a second, Sunset almost thought the girls had found her and was about to be the second one receiving a Pinkie-missile…only for her brain to catch up to what her eyes were seeing.

“Lu!” Cady said as she hugged the dark skinned vice principal in a bear hug. “Thank you so much! You are the absolute best best friend in the whole wide world!”

And promptly derail completely, careening off the tracks to slam into a rock wall at full speed, exploding violently into pure confusion.

This was only added to when Luna returned the hug with genuine warmth. “Cady,” she said, “I would never have said no. We have been friends for far too long for me to not help you in an emergency.” She gave the pink skinned woman a playful wink, and a nudge. “And later, we can talk all about the venues you did get to see.”

Anything else exchanged between the two women was lost when Velvet and Night saw Sunset standing there with their youngest child. They hurried over, and Sunset couldn't help but feel relief—the dark magic had left them alone so far…and now they were inside her bubble. “Mrs. Velvet,” she started to say.

The woman didn't wait. She just hugged her and Twilight both, tight enough that Sunset couldn't quite get a full breath, but…it was kind of nice, and something about the gesture made her feel less tired, more energized. Her flagging magic flared, and she saw over Velvet’s shoulder the nauseated look on the principal’s face. A satisfied feeling crept over her—while some of the woman’s problem might have been the dark magic, Sunset still couldn't shake the sense that she was responsible for a lot of Twilight’s troubles in the last few months, if not years. So if the open affection and short term exposure to Sunset’s magic made her uncomfortable, she hoped the woman spent the night with a stomach ache.

As Velvet released her, Sunset realized Indigo was standing there awkwardly, still holding Twilight’s bag. The former unicorn cleared her throat, interrupting Velvet’s fussing over Twilight, who whined in her sleep and clutched Sunset tighter. “Mr. Night, Mrs. Velvet, this is Indigo. She is Twilight’s friend who messaged my phone to tell me something had happened. She also took pictures of all the damaged stuff in Twilight’s bag, and stayed with her the whole time.”

Her girlfriend’s parents studied Indigo a moment, before Night offered the teen a warm smile. “We owe you a thanks then, Indigo. You went above and beyond for Twilight today.”

Principal Abacus Cinch decided at that moment to interject, as if she wanted to recover some control over a situation that had been taken out of her hands. “Noble as Miss Zap’s intentions may have been, she has skipped almost two full class periods and deliberately refused to follow the order of a member of staff…there will be consequences for that—rules are not to be broken lightly.”

Sunset frowned, remembering when Rainbow Dash had been punished for skipping over the MyStable page. That had made some measure of sense—the situation had not been an immediate emergency, and had Dash waited to do it the next evening or a day later not much would have been different for Sunset—nor had Principal Celestia done it for personal reasons. The principal had clearly done it as a gesture of fairness, which allowed her to also punish the people who had been involved with the webpage. Yet as blue-green eyes watched the stern visage of Cinch, she became acutely aware that this had nothing to do with fairness or the rules. This was about power and control; the dark satisfaction in the woman’s seemingly soulless eyes was at being able to wrest control back over at least one of her students and punish them for their part in the day’s events.

That made Sunset angry, angry enough to challenge the woman on her own turf. “Indigo Zap did exactly what I asked her to do,” she declared hotly, shoulders back and head high, every inch the mare who had been raised by a princess--a goddess, a part of her mind added--and had grown up interacting with creatures belonging to a social strata that this private school principal could only dream about meeting. “She gave me her word to stay with Twilight until her family arrived, because everything I’ve heard and seen about this place makes me trust the staff here less than I would a starving lion not to eat me.”

Silence fell, so total a person could have heard a pin drop.

Then Cinch focused on Sunset, a faint flicker of a grimace crossing her features before it was schooled into an expression she was used to seeing on sycophants trying to suck up to their betters. “…I…am afraid my hands are somewhat tied,” she murmured. “There is a need to maintain discipline in my school, and rules are rules, no matter the circumstances. I am certain you can respect and understand my position, Miss…?”

The former unicorn met her gaze unflinchingly, and her lips twitched into a frown…but she did not offer this woman the courtesy of her name. It was…perhaps…a bit petty, but it was a calculated insult. A way of showing both mistrust…plus, she didn't want her name coming out of Abacus Cinch’s mouth—something about the very idea of it made her feel the kind of primal revulsion that made her want to shower in scalding water and scrub her skin red and raw.

At her unspoken refusal, those eyes darted to Luna, who stood next to Cadence—the pink skinned woman had one arm looped through Luna’s and the other through Shining Armor’s—as though hoping Luna would give her what Sunset would not. The dark haired woman’s eyes narrowed and her lips twisted into a stern frown; Abacus Cinch would gain no help from that quarter.

Cinch moved her attention again, to Velvet and Night, but Velvet was, at present, ignoring her pointedly to take Twilight’s bag from Indigo with loud thanks. And Night Light? He turned on the principal with a thunderous anger on his face.

“Respect? Discipline? Are you really going to stand here and try to hide behind that, Abacus? Particularly when my daughter has cried herself to sleep from anxiety and stress, while the very girl you're talking about disciplining had to do the job of the insensitive and callous subordinate you just claimed you were placing on suspension pending an actual investigation into her negligence of her duties—not to mention an egregious violation of the Hippocratic oath—all because she had the mental aptitude and foresight to realize before you did that said subordinate was in the wrong?” His voice was stern and scathing. “More than that, you are now trying to brow beat a teenager who isn't one of your students because she called attention to your failures as an educator, all while my wife is collecting a bag of destroyed property—an act that was perpetrated by your students. Where is the disciplinary action against those who committed an active crime? You’d best hope that the value of property destroyed is less than the total required for it to graduate from misdemeanor to felony, Abacus Cinch, because I can't imagine that police investigation being good for your schools…reputation.”

Clearing her throat, the principal backpedaled, trying to assuage Night’s fury and Sunset’s icy stare both. “Of course not, but I was just trying to be fair all the way around. I would hate for anyone to cry favoritism during any investigations that might…affect the outcome of guilty parties being punished for their actions.” Her eyes flicked to the pale and cowering nurse, who looked like she wanted to throw up. “But…since the young lady seems willing to vouch for Miss Zap’s actions, I suppose I can…allow leniency in this case. Perhaps…a few detentions after school?”

A low growl threatened to burble up from Sunset’s throat, and Night pressed a warning hand to her shoulder to keep her from telling the woman what she thought of the idea.

Night turned towards Indigo. “Indigo, do you happen to know if your parents are available? I’d like to speak to them on a personal matter—and to relay the truth of today’s events to them. I feel it will come better from an adult to counter whatever narrative the faculty here decides will best serve their reputation.”

Indigo, who had been watching the exchange with a mixture of emotions, held up her phone. “Actually, I was just about to call my dad. He works from home—it's easier on his bum leg. I’ll talk to him and then pass it over.” She punched in a number, put the phone to her ear. “…hey, Pops…no…not exactly. Some shit went down, and I need to come home early.” She listened to the person on the other end. “…it's too much to explain, Pops…no, less Devil Bounce, ‘92, and more like Red Runner and ‘76… yeah.” More talking from the other side, Indigo listening patiently and scowling. “No…yes…yes…my friend, Twilight? Her parents are here to get her. Yes, she was involved. Her dad was hoping to talk to you. Yeah. Okay, one sec.” The teen offered the man the phone. “Pops wants to talk to you.”

Twilight’s father took the phone and stepped into a nearby alcove to talk quietly to Indigo’s father. It wasn't a long call, and he was turned in such a way that his words were muffled. Sunset watched the rest of the room warily, pushing her magic out as far as possible to fill the office, stripping a layer of darkness off Cinch and the nurse in the process. The clear discomfort and way the nurse grabbed a nearby trash can to vomit into did a lot to run interference for Night and she couldn't help the smile that crossed her face.

It wasn't more than a few minutes and Night was holding the phone back out to Indigo. She spoke to her father again, mostly nodding and looking pretty grim faced. “Sure thing, Pops. I’ll see you in a bit.” She hung up after that.

Not more than thirty seconds later, the office phone rang, and the secretary slowly reached for it as though she were half afraid it would transform into a venomous snake and bite her. “Hello, Crystal Prep Academy, how may I help you?” A pause, and her eyes darted towards Indigo, before she pressed a button. “Would you repeat that for record purposes, sir? Yes sir, it's school policy.” Silence. “Yes sir. I’ll inform your daughter right away, sir. Have a nice day, sir.” She set the phone back in its cradle, paling when Principal Cinch glanced at her….though she addressed Indigo instead. “Indigo Zap? That was your father…you are being picked up and taken home by Mr. Night Light and Detective Armor of the CCPD…”

“Which would be me,” Shining said, finally speaking up. “Do I need to show you my badge again, Principal Cinch?” The words were almost a challenge.

Looking for all the world like she wanted to say anything but what came out of her mouth, the principal swallowed her pride. “No, Detective. I am well acquainted with both your identity and…integrity.” Cinch smoothed some wrinkles from her shirt. “And since this is all well in hand, if there is nothing else, I have…an investigation or two of my own to start as a result of today’s events. There are still those in need of a firm hand and some unpleasant reminders that certain standards are held for those here, and that today’s…events were…unacceptable.” Hard eyes turned to the nurse. “Nurse Cherry, my office.” With that, the woman swept away, and with her, a portion of the darkness in the room.

Sunset exhaled. “Bitter, pinch faced daughter of harpy and a three legged yak…” she muttered, making Velvet and Indigo both laugh.

Shining stepped over to her, holding out his arms. “Did you want me to carry Twilight? She must be getting heavy.”

Panic edged her brain from her very soul, and Sunset recoiled from him, feeling her grip tightening on the girl in her arms. As she did, Twilight whined and shifted until the redhead felt a hand scrabbling for purchase under her shirt, fingers finally curling around part of her bra. “No!” The word was loud, and harsh, practically snarled, and Shining backed off immediately, raising both hands placatingly. Forcing herself to calm—with her magic running so hot underneath her skin here a surge would be devastating—Sunset shook her head. “Sorry…no. I've got her, and…she's kind of got me in a death grip. It's okay. She’s not heavy.” It was a poor explanation for the near primal fear that coursed through her at the idea of anyone taking Twilight away from her in this dark, tainted place, as if relinquishing her hold physically meant removing the magic that protected her sleeping girlfriend. That was irrational, Sunset knew, but still she held Twilight possessively tight, unwilling to even entertain the chance.

He nodded. “Okay…let me at least walk down the stairs ahead of you just in case though. That way, if you trip, you won't break both your necks.”

The group of adults surrounded the three teens after Night signed a sheet on a clipboard for the two girls he was responsible for getting home. Sunset caught her vice principal’s eyes and she nodded carefully; this was acceptable to her because it kept the whole group inside the bubble created by her magic pushing out. Despite the way she felt revitalized, Sunset was leery of having to stretch her magic any further…she could feel the pressure on her, the strain and struggle from the dark magic that surrounded her in this place that still wanted to crush in and flood her with that addictive, hungry, choking void. The mere thought made her stomach churn and her head throb, and she gritted her teeth.

Just a few more minutes, Shimmer, she told herself. And then you’ll be out of this place.

The journey down the hall was arduous—Twilight was not quite as light right now as Sunset had pretended, not after standing and holding her for a while and with a lot of her focus and energy going to her magic…and the stairs were a nightmare of pain in her back and fire in her bones, each trembling step half blind because she had to lean back to compensate for Twilight’s weight at her front. By the time she reached the bottom, she was sweating and shaking, still refusing to give up her grip on the girl in her arms even after Night, Shining, and even Luna offered to take her.

“No,” Sunset growled out each time. “I’ve got her. I promised.”

As if sensing her weakness, the shadowy essence that permeated the building to its very foundation—what horrifying atrocity of ancient magic had happened here to corrupt it?—renewed its attack, until Sunset’s every breath was labored and her head felt like it was being squeezed in a vice. Several times, her magic faltered, like a sun fighting gravity but running low on nuclear fuel…each time, she stopped, taking a breath, and then forced herself to keep going, gritting her teeth and pushing her magic out with sheer willpower.

She was Sunset Shimmer, Magus of Equestria and Former Student of the Princess of the Sun, and she would not allow something like this to win. She would not fail Twilight, and she would not fail her family.

A hissing noise at the edge of her hearing made her jolt, which turned into a stagger that ended when her shoulder came into contact with one of the small alcoves along the wall.

Pain.

Oh bright moonlight, the pain.

It was unlike anything she could ever describe—not her first trip through the portal, not her demonic transformation at the formal, not the way this place’s wards had attacked her…not even how her own soul had felt like it had gone through a cheese grater after she ate the Rainbow of Light could compare to the information bombarding her brain. Sunset’s soul felt like it was being choked and squeezed by a boa constrictor, turned inside out and upside down in the process, and she pushed back against the awful sensation, against lightning agony that burned the surface of her again and again, every nerve ending and neuron registering utter agony that seemed endless… She struggled through the haze of sheer mind numbing agony until she could see it, on the wall, some kind of spell matrix…a ward or a ritual or something foul…and then she found the dangling end, a piece of it that she could grab and pull with the magic inside her…

If the formless and metaphysical could be equated to a physical thing, the act of undoing the magic she’d come into contact with was best compared to that moment when one popped a huge, horribly painful and infected abscess, where there was both a wet rupturing sound and the feel of pure relief as the core and a stream of pus and blood shot like a rocket out to splatter nearby surfaces. Something burst, and Sunset felt the pain abruptly stop—it wasn't her pain she had been feeling all along, some part of her supplied—and something soft, featherlight, wounded and timid, brushed against her awareness with a moment of such gratitude and relief that the teen had to blink back tears.

And then whatever it was was gone, whisked away somewhere she could not see or follow, fading with a burst of joy and bright energy that soothed the lingering tremors in Sunset’s limbs.

As she straightened upright, the hand that steadied her was Vice Principal Luna’s, and a voice murmured, “I trust this is where we walk quickly and do not look back, Miss Shimmer? Even I felt…whatever that was.”

Sunset exhaled, and cast her somewhat tender senses wide, surprised by what she found. The whole area felt…lighter. Not cleansed by any stretch of the imagination, but it was as if whatever Sunset had done had scrubbed a sizable portion of the darkness away in the building, and made what was left retreat away from the group. “Yeah, Miss Luna, I’m okay,” she said, loud enough to reassure the rest of the family. “Got a muscle cramp in my back from carrying Twilight down the stairs.”

“Are you sure you don't want me to carry her the rest of the way?” Shining asked again.

Stubbornly, the redhead shook her head. “No, it's not much further. I’ll manage. She’s…not going to want to let go anyway…”

Cadence leaned over and studied her for a moment. “I’m not sure she’d want anyone’s hands reaching to untangle where Twily has a grip anyway.” She made a face. “That’s going to leave a bruise.”

The woman wasn't wrong, Sunset decided with a wince. Twilight might have had one hand death gripping her bra, but the other was now clenched tight on one breast. “It’s a best-friend merit badge,” she quipped with a wince, quoting a line Applejack had said to Dash once when one of her shoulder punches had been a little too hard.

“Is it now?” Cady glanced over at Luna. “How come we never got that one?”

It was hard to say who felt more embarrassed in that moment: Luna, whose face had darkened to a near midnight shade at the obvious implication in front of one of her students, or Sunset, who really, really, really did not want to focus on the knowledge that Cadence had let slip before, or think too deeply on what her assistant principal might have drunkenly done in college with her girlfriend’s sister-figure…or maybe Shining, who had just clued in on what Cadence was talking about, and refused to look anyone in the eye.

Stiffly, Luna said, “This is not the place or time for that, Cadenza. Particularly in front of one of my students, whom I must keep at least a semi-professional relationship with. I am sure that learning I am the best friend of her best friend’s sister is already a little more personal than she expected to be with the same person that gives her detention.” She grimaced. “Not to mention I still have to return to work and finish doing my job for the day, now that I have done my due diligence for an emergency.”

Cadence flinched, as if realizing that maybe she’d overstepped. Sunset decided to lighten the mood by snorting. “Yeah…the whole pink hug missile caught me by surprise. I thought I was the only one with a friend like that.”

It did the trick in softening the dark skinned woman’s tense expression into something more neutral, and she patted Cadence’s shoulder lightly as the group stepped into the fresh air. “Yes, well, I suppose you could say my time rooming with a certain someone prepared me for what I would face at CHS in a few years.”

Sunset stared at her. “Nothing prepares you for that,” she deadpanned.

Her vice principal considered that. “Perhaps not entirely, no.”

Once they passed beyond the wardline, Sunset felt like she could breathe easier, and she said, “…thanks for everything today, Miss Luna. I…couldn't have done this without you.”

“Of course.” Luna took a deep breath. “I must return to work, and I assume you are taking the rest of the day.” She glanced at her watch. “I shall endeavor to tell your friends that you are home safe, as they will undoubtedly be haunting the front desk when I return. Come by my office in the morning early, and I will give you a pass to show your teachers so you do not get punished for disappearing before lunch.”

She could read between the lines readily enough. The woman would run interference for her friends, and Sunset would have to come clean in the morning to both her and the principal.

Sunset was not looking forward to that conversation.

*sits smugly, like a satisfied cat*

So. Some things happened.

This was a couple of chapters that were extremely satisfying to write, but I also had to do some research. (By research, I mostly mean "question my mother on public school administrative procedures.") While Private schools have slightly different individual rules, some things are standardized for any accredited and recognized educational institution involving minors, and schools can get in BIG trouble if they mess up in the wrong way.

Fun fact about theft and vandalism graduating from a misdemeanor to a felony: the monetary value is nowhere near as high as one might think. In some states its as low as $500. You cant even buy a shitty laptop for less than that these days. Not something a lot of stupid teens know.

Seems like Sunset really doesnt like what she's seen of Cinch. Shame, that.

With the weird magic at the end, I went with abscess rather than pimple, because as my team reminded me, Sunset is probably more familiar with the first over the latter. She doesn't eat the kind of fatty diet that contributes to bad acne, nor does she help clog pores with makeup, lotions, etc, which also contribute to an acne problem. However, horses can and will get abscesses on their legs and hooves--part of horse care is checking for things like that, laminitis, and thrush, because you want to make sure such things are treated quickly and effectively to prevent it from getting bad. I imagine for Equestrian ponies, it can be an issue just like for regular horses, especially for young or busy ones who dont take as much care with injury or hygiene the way the more mature ones do.

Next week will be an interlude. You'll all get to find out what the villains thought of this...event.

*cackles evilly*