“…That’s when Long Shot was up my ass about who was picking you up after school, and I told him in no uncertain terms to get wrecked, because it's none of his business. It's not my business either, but I’m not gonna go running my mouth on something you didn't seem to want people to know about.”

Twilight observed Indigo for a long minute. The athlete was flopped into one of the chairs, leaning back slightly and seemingly relaxed, despite her complaints about the student population. “…thank you. The rumors are already bad enough, and all because Sunny picked me up two days in a row.”

Indigo snorted. “I don't see what the big deal is. People get picked up by strangers all the time—family, friends, that boyfriend they dont want daddy to know about because he's from the wrong side of the tracks—so why they care so much is stupid, and probably just because Suri is looking for dirt. She’s the one behind the bulk of the rumors if I had to guess.”

Sighing, Twilight loosened a screw on her last failure of an energy detector. That particular iteration had actually been a few steps backwards in her efforts, since it had been defective, going off crazily whenever she turned it on, but never pointing her in a particular direction, no matter where she was. “I wouldn't be surprised. Suri has made it her personal mission to make my school life here as miserable as possible. This is just the latest round in three years worth of attacks.”

“Why’s she got such a hate-on for you anyway? It's like it's personal with her.”

The dark haired girl made a face. “It shouldn’t be…according to Wallflower, it was because of my math midterm freshman year. I aced the test and beat the next highest scorer by seventeen points. It blew the bell curve and the teacher decided that because I aced it, the test wasn't the problem, the students were. So she blames me for her not passing the class that year.”

Her friend rolled her eyes and munched on a protein bar. “What’s her excuse for every other class and every other year? She’s about to age out if she doesn't pass this year. Ugh. She’s such a petty bitch. Is it okay if I say I hate her?”

There was such a disgusted honesty in the question that Twilight couldn't help but smile. “I certainly won't stop you,” she responded. “I can say with absolute confidence that I dislike Suri a great deal, and would be extremely happy to never have to see her again.”

Laughing, Indigo tossed her food wrapper in a nearby trash can. “All the more reason to finish this weird project of yours and get us both out of here, Sparkle. Anything I can do to help? I'm no genius, but I can follow instructions pretty well.”

“Not at the moment, unfortunately. I’ve run into a roadblock with my tracking devices that are meant to detect this anomalous energy that seems to crop up in the area, and all I can do is test different iterations until one seems to work.” She gestured to the disassembled device in front of her. “It sounds insane, but at this point it almost feels like the energy doesn't want to be found and studied.”

The other girl frowned. “Not crazy…have you considered that maybe there's a reason for that though? That maybe if it's gone unseen for so long, that maybe looking into it is something you shouldn't do?”

Twilight hesitated, before sighing. “Several times, but at this point I’m committed to this project. I can't back out or change it, and this is the only thing keeping me in this school. As soon as I’m done and I get a project grade, my parents are pulling me out of here.”

With a roll of her eyes, Indigo pointed out, “That can't happen soon enough. Can you…I dunno, fudge something for the project? Pretend you’ve got answers or provide some conclusions that are vague enough that you can just use it for the grade and get out?”

Could she? It would be lying…but not much more than she already was, since she’d deliberately kept the bulk of her findings solely on Artemis in her home lab, and only very superficial data on her official project. That itching, nagging compulsion to keep her real data from Principal Cinch had only grown stronger as weeks passed. She was already doctoring her project to allow her to pass without giving any real information away…was it much of a step to falsify a conclusion?

It bothered her, the idea of lying in the face of real science…but what would the Principal of CPA do with the knowledge of such a truly powerful energy source?

Foreboding stole over Twilight, a certainty that welled up from her core that said she would not like the answer to that question one bit. That it would be something completely opposite her own ethics and morality. —Don’t give it to them…it will be Our undoing…—

She jolted, barely able to keep from looking for the voice of her inner thoughts, one that for once, wasn't the mental facsimile of her girlfriend she’d conjured so often, but rather a whisper that sounded like herself at her most emotionally detached, heard through a recording underwater.

“I…” she looked at Indigo, biting her lip. “I wouldn't normally. Science is about a hunt for answers…for truth…”

“But…?” Indigo pressed. “I can hear the ‘but’ in there.”

Her shoulders slumped. “Some feeling I can't explain is telling me your suggestion has more merit than I would consider under any other circumstance.”

Indigo sighed, looking almost relieved. “You feel it too then. I thought I was the one losing it, Twilight.”

Twilight looked around, lowering her voice, “…the sense of disquiet here? Like there is a game afoot of which we are only peripherally aware? ….yes. It is something I have…become more cognizant of in recent weeks.”

“That…and the way some things just feel wrong. People. Parts of the school. Even just the way the windows look or the way shadows fall. Ever since…” Indigo hesitated. “…ever since your friend talked to me, I can't unsee it. It's happening right now. I don't even want to say her name, like…like if someone hears it, they’ll do something bad with that information.”

Humming an agreement in her throat, Twilight mulled over the information being presented. When it was just her, she could dismiss it as stress or an overactive or overtired mind, or even a touch of paranoia…but Indigo had none of those reasons to be pointing to the exact same sensation, which lent credence to it not being some kind of product of Twilight’s mind. “…I believe I would like to discuss this at length with you, Indigo, but not here, not now. Perhaps one day after school this week, you and I could—”

SLAM! SLAM!!

Both teens jumped out of their seats in surprise and more than a touch of fright, turning to see a seething form of green that had slammed the door to the lab twice, once upon entrance and then again upon getting fully inside. It did nothing to hide the short bit of mean-spirited laughter from the hallway outside that made it into the room in the short span between slamming sounds.

“Wallflower?” Twilight ventured. “Are you alright? What happened?”

The green skinned girl was soaked to the skin, by what appeared to be muddy water…except the odor that clung to her suggested some manner of…animal based fertilizer…had been mixed into whatever had been slung on her. “Do I look alright, Twilight?” came the bitter response.

Indigo jumped to her defense. “Whoa, relax. She didn't mean anything by it. It's a standard question. So is asking what happened.”

Wallflower glared at Indigo and then turned her expression on Twilight. “What happened is exactly what I warned you would happen, Twilight!” she hissed, dropping her backpack—the one part of her not dripping mud and manure—onto a clean section of countertop. “You couldn't keep your head down and your mouth shut for just another year and a half, could you?”

Twilight had been concerned, but her back stiffened at the blatant accusation in Wallflower’s voice. She narrowed her eyes and asked in a frosty tone of her own, “And what, exactly, is that supposed to mean, Wallflower?” It was a thin, vain hope that it wasn’t intended as she perceived it, but judging by the fact that Indigo also looked incensed, that hope was about to be left broken on the floor like a dropped beaker.

“Exactly what I said,” Wallflower retorted. “You’ve been mouthing off to Suri for months, you were absolutely stupid enough to beat up a senior instead of running away or screaming for help, and now you’ve been having the biggest bitch of CHS pick you up on that tacky piece of noisy junkyard trash she drives in front of the whole school!” She gestured wildly. “And your friends are suffering for it!”

“You, you mean,” Indigo cut in. “You're finally having to put up with a small taste of what your so-called friend has been putting up with for years.”

Brown eyes cut to the lean athlete. “This doesn't concern you. Why don't you go chase a ball or something?”

Indigo Zap slid fully from her half standing pose in her chair, meeting Wallflower’s gaze steadily. “I think it does. See, I’ve watched and listened to you for a while now, Blush. You talk a big game here, behind a closed door, about being Twilight’s great friend, but out there?” She pointed to the door. “Out there, where your support would matter a helluva lot more, you’re invisible.”

The green haired girl went completely rigid, fists clenching in what could only be fury. “How dare you—”

“Because I’m not a spoiled coward like you, Blush,” Indigo shot back. “I’ve seen it. You watch and smirk at what they say about Twilight, listen to the awful rumors, and you’ve not once stood up for the person you claim to be friends with. You're only saying something now because it's inconveniencing your life.” She pointed at her. “Youre a shitty fucking friend at best, and a toxic, two-faced, lying, stuck-up rich bitch no different from Suri Polomare at worst.”

Wallflower looked like she’d swallowed something foul. “And like you're any better? A meathead like you? You’ve been in this school all along, and you’ve never stopped Suri before this year. Not only that, what could you possibly have in common with Twilight? I highly doubt the two of you can share intelligent conversation—so what's your sudden interest all about? A passing grade? Or are you hoping for a pity date?”

Rolling her eyes with a laugh, Indigo shook her head. “Wow, do you just repeat whatever you hear in the halls, Blush? Congratulations, you're aware of the ‘Zap’s a dyke’ rumors, but you're about two years too late for me to give a shit about those. I study and work for my grades—have every other year…but I guess if anyone in this school would know about riding the coattails of Sparkle’s lab coat it’d be you, so I’ll bow to you on that.” She indicated the side of the room that Wallflower had overtaken without ever bothering to ask Twilight.

It was getting out of hand, and Twilight stood up herself, holding out her hands. “Okay, stop! Both of you!” She rubbed her temples, feeling her own anxiety starting to rear its head. “This arguing is getting us nowhere.”

That drew Wallflower’s ire from Indigo to Twilight. “Isn't it? I don't exactly hear you disagreeing with the jock, Twilight.”

Taking a deep breath like Dr. Soft-Spoken had taught her, Twilight responded as levelly as she could, “I have yet to voice an opinion on the matter one way or the other, Wallflower…and while I can understand you have just gone through an extremely stressful and unexpected situation, taking it out on Indigo and myself is not a healthy or appropriate reaction. I recommend cleaning up and taking a few minutes to calm down before we continue this discussion.”

It didn't help. “Not everyone can turn themselves into a robot at the drop of a hat,” she sneered back. “I think I have every right to be pissed off at you for painting a target on my back and at your new minion for talking shit to me.”

“It's not shit if it's true,” Indigo murmured quietly, arms crossed over her chest. Wallflower either didn't hear her or chose not to react, but Twilight did…

And she didn't entirely disagree with the sentiment.

“I am not a robot, nor do I turn myself into one. I only seek to prevent emotional over responses by relying on logic and rational thought. Rational thought which, for the record, tells me you are out of line blaming me for the actions of others. I am allowed to defend myself, and I have every right to refuse to be a whipping girl, emotional punching bag, or doormat to the rest of the school just because I’m smart…” She paused for a moment to let that sink in, before adding, “That includes you, Wallflower. Friends don't treat each other the way you're treating me right now.”

Wallflower stared at her, expression twisting incomprehensibly as she went through a myriad of unidentifiable emotions. “So you do agree with her,” she bit out, pointing at Indigo. “You think I’m a bad friend because I don't want to pay the price for you challenging people who can make all of us miserable for the rest of our high school careers.”

“That is not what I said, Wallflower.”

“Isn't it?” Expression angry and her voice low and terse, Wallflower reached into the pocket of her backpack, retrieving something in a plastic ziplock bag. “But answer me this: if I’m such an awful friend, Twilight, why do I care so much that you might be being used by a public school bully who is likely some kind of gang member? Why would I spend the last month tracking down information and trying to make sure you're safe? Do you have any idea some of the places I’ve had to go, the gutters I’ve had to crawl through, and the people I’ve had to talk to in the slummiest parts of this city to make sure you're not being set up?”

Not this again. Twilight bristled, an icy fury building. “I am not disparaging your concern, but I am tired of your persecution of someone who has never done anything to you. I already told you that I acknowledged your words, was aware of her past, and that I was choosing to pursue my friendship based on my own personal observations. I also told you that this was a boundary I would have respected. Stalking someone to dig up dirt on them and harassing the people they go to school with is not what I would call respecting my boundaries.”

Wallflower glared. “Because I knew something fishy was going on, and guess what, Princess Sparkle? I was right. You sit there on your high and mighty horse, talking about how you know your carpet-munching ‘BFF’ so well…and she’s been lying to you as easily as breathing from the moment you met! And I can prove it!”

Indigo snorted derisively at the green skinned teen. “Turning into one of those crazy overprotective stalkers is not helping your case, Blush. Not to mention, anyone can fake ‘proof’ with good editing software, some pics or video and a bit of cash.”

“No one asked you,” the other teen countered, then stared hard at Twilight, holding up a USB drive. “You think you know her, that you can trust her. Maybe you should think about asking her about this energy that you're so fixated on, that's all over her school…and why she’s not given you the answers about it you've wasted time hunting for. I wonder what your super best pal ‘Sunny’ would have to say about where this energy comes from.”

Something about Sunset’s nickname coming from someone else’s mouth made that icy anger deepen, and having it twisted with such disgust by someone who had been her friend made Twilight snap. “You don't get to call her that name,” she practically snarled. “That’s my name for her, and you don't get to turn something precious into something hateful. Which is what this is all about—it's not about you really caring about me as a friend, or being concerned I might get hurt. It's about the fact that you cannot let go of your preconceived notions of who my best friend ought to be based on third and fourth hand information. It’s about you being petty, homophobic, and spiteful, and doing anything you can to ruin a relationship that is important to me because you don't like that I’m not the same neurotic, anxious, fearful little girl you’ve known for the last few years.”

Straightening her shoulders and trying to draw on everything Sunset had taught her, Twilight met that angry gaze with her own. “I warned you once, Wallflower, in the interest of our friendship, that I had boundaries you would respect. Boundaries that weren't even that complex or severe. You have broken both of them here several times, all in the name of some petty crusade to make me choose you over Sunny.” She crossed her arms over her chest defiantly as she prepared to put the final nail into the coffin of what had been a friendship.

“Well guess what? You half succeeded. You’ve pushed me to choose, and I’m choosing. The problem for you is that I’m not choosing you. Now get out. I have work to do and you're interfering with my lab space.”

Wallflower had gone from angry to stunned. “You can't be serious.”

“Deadly so,” Twilight said tightly. “Take your things and go. I have nothing further to say to you—besides ‘leave my botanical samples behind.’ My project materials are not for your personal use.”

It took a minute to truly sink in, but when it did, Wallflower was back to cutting and spiteful in a way she had never seen before, making Twilight wonder if this was the Wallflower that Sunset had seen. Wallflower hurled the USB at her, only to look even more upset when Indigo caught it before it hit Twilight in the face. “Fine! But don't come crying to me when you learn just how wrong you are, and that you're nothing but a bed warmer for a psycho who isn't quite bored of you yet!”

Then she swept up her things and stalked out with all the air of a scalded cat, leaving Twilight and Indigo in awkward silence.

After a minute, Indigo cleared her throat. “No offense, Twilight, but where did you find someone like that? That girl needs some serious therapy. Mierda...”

Twilight sank back into the chair in front of her new laptop. “She didn’t used to be like this. She was always cynical and sarcastic,” she acknowledged, “but never hostile and cruel.”

Indigo looked down at the thumb drive in her hand. “…think we should see what's on this? It sounds like she dug up blackmail material, if it's not all just fake.”

She nodded at her friend and held out a hand. “I want to scan it first, make sure it's not loaded with malware or a virus.” Once the small storage drive was in her hand, she plugged it into the computer via a device of her own design, one that immediately quarantined the drive and put it through several layers of antivirus scans, including one of her own design. It came up clean, and Twilight worked up the courage to open the lonely file folder that was on it.

It contained only three files, all videos.

“You know, for attempted blackmail, these are either so damning that Blush didn't need anything else, super fake, or as deluded as she is. Which one should we check first?”

Purple eyes read the filenames, and deduced the dates from the string of numbers at the end. “Probably this one. It's the first in the chronology.” She double clicked it.

Immediately a low fidelity video taken from some kind of shaky cell phone with a scratched lens began to play. A raspy girl’s voice could be heard a bit tinny and touched by mic feedback. “Move it, losers. If there's a fight going on, I want front row seats. People will pay good cash to see Shimmer get into a throw down with the new golden girl…” The video shook worse as the holder of the phone jogged and pushed through a crowd of fancy dressed teens in a hallway full of lockers towards an open rotunda…

Then everything went screwy as the entire front section of the school was ripped open in a screech of tearing rebar, breaking glass, and crushed concrete…

…to admit a figure Twilight had only ever seen before in her most intimate of dreams…or at least, very like her. It was supposed to be Sunset, she could tell instantly. The fiery—in this case quite literally—hair in shades of red and gold, glowing blue-green eyes, and the way the figure carried herself as she hovered with lazy wing-flaps in the air…it was all her Sunset, even hidden behind fangs and wings and red-amber skin that looked burned, and buried under a voice full of mocking.

“And you WILL be loyal to ME.”

Screaming and more running jostled the camera, and then a turquoise light that made the video go to static, before the phone fell and landed camera down on the floor, the screen going black. The screaming slowly died, replaced by groaning sounds, and a muffled voice commanding sharply, “Round them up and bring them to the portal.” Then there was about a minute of blackness, muffled sounds, groaning, and incoherent yelling before the video ended.

“Um…” Indigo glanced at Twilight. “What the hell did we just watch?”

The dark haired teen shook her head. “…I…am uncertain…it…seemed like an amateur movie project.” Thinking hard, she pieced it together with things Sunset had made reference to. “…I think that might have been an…alternative interpretation of the events of Canterlot High’s Fall Formal. It was a pretty defining moment for Sunny…changed her life, according to her.”

That didn't explain how the Sunset in the video appeared with something close to her sexy and alluring transformation from Twilight’s dreams. She had told no one of those dreams, not even the girl who starred in them. Something wasn’t adding up and her stomach twisted in agitation.

Indigo shook her head. “Right. Try the next one and hope it's not another movie project?”

She considered it, then decided that was probably a safe course of action. She clicked and braced herself for the worst.

However, the second video was…disappointing, at best. It showed a distant view of the local amphitheater, with two groups of teens on the stage, before one of the teens from the smaller group did something that opened the trapdoor in the floor, dumping the larger group and their equipment into the black pit beneath their feet. A cocky voice off to the side sneered, “See? I told you someone would give them a shove.”

It was answered by someone who sounded…like they were more than a bit ditzy. “She didn't shove them though. She pulled a lever.”

A third voice deadpanned, “Ugh. Go back to sleep, Sonata. So this is your great plan, Adagio? Trap them under the stage and hope that it's enough to be able to drain them? And what happens when it doesn't work? We won't have enough power to control more than a stupid high school.”

Growling, and a scuffle made the camera point towards three new teenage females, one of them watching the other two have some kind of…grappling match…that the mustard colored one seemed to win. “They are already on the verge of cracking. Didn't you see Sunset Shimmer? She’s so miserable that it's coming off her in waves, and it's absolutely delicious. I can't wait to feed on the rest, if just one of them tastes that good when full of despair.” She was practically salivating, and Twilight frowned. It was creepy and disgusting, considering this ‘Adagio’ was talking about her girlfriend like she was a menu item.

“Ugh. Fine. Whatever. Let’s just hope this doesn't blow up like all your other plans, Adagio. I want to have a real meal.”

“It will. And you! Turn off that stupid camera and carry this stuff!”

The video ended, leaving them even more lost. “Okay… don't know how it's supposed to be blackmail if the person Blush wants to blackmail is barely in the video.” Indigo shook her head. “Did she maybe give us the wrong drive?”

“…I don’t…” Twilight shook her head, frowning. As much as she wanted to decry these videos as nonsense like Indigo, something about them felt…important. Like there was more truth to them than she wanted to admit… “Maybe we should watch the last one before making a final judgment?” It sounded weak and tremulous to her ears, but the other girl nodded.

“Alright. Play the last one. Maybe it’ll make this all make sense.”

Biting her lip, Twilight clicked the last video, trying to avoid holding her breath. The video was the longest of them all, lasting almost a good ten minutes, and it opened up on the very stage of the amphitheater they had just seen in the previous clip from a distance. The mustard colored girl with the frizzy hair—Adagio, she reminded herself, able to at last put a face to a name Sunset had mentioned a few times when talking about the mayhem from December that had brought her to Twilight’s doorstep looking like death warmed over and allowed to congeal—was front and center, dressed and made up to look like a punk rocker from another decade. “Make sure you’re recording this,” she snapped tersely. “I want to be able to watch my victory in the future.”

“You got it, Boss-Lady,” came the raspy voice from the first video. “Not like Shimmer and the Sunshine Patrol don’t deserve what's coming.”

“Exactly…” Adagio was looking right at the camera, and her eyes were catlike, the pupils narrowed to bare slits, and Indigo let out a yelp when some kind of…inner eyelid blinked over the inhuman orbs.

“Okay, that's freaky! What the hell was that?! What is wrong with that chick’s eyes?”

Twilight frowned as the blinking happened a second time. “It's an inner eyelid…like some animals have. You see it like that in crocodilians, actually.” There was an unpleasant itching between her shoulder blades. “For an amateur movie project, they have exceptionally good quality make-up effects.”

Several sharp orders later and the camera woman was in a position to see the whole of the stage while also being able to pan the view towards the audience. The feed went a little green and staticky along the bottom, but what caught her attention was the trio of girls and their reactions. They all breathed deeply, hands resting against large, identical gemstone pendants that seemed to be…the focus of a faint glow and misty distortion.

“Feel that, girls?” Adagio said smugly, her sharklike smile even more unsettling than the eyes had been. “Do you know what this is?”

The one with the blue ponytail tilted her head. “Uh…magic?”

“Dinner,” the dry voiced girl suggested. “Duh.”

“No, you idiots!” Adagio snapped. “It's the taste of victory and my plan coming together. Their magic is ours now, and with it, this whole world will soon bow down to us…” Fingers caressed the gemstone resting at her throat with all the intimacy a normal person might show a lover. “It's so powerful too…like no magic I’ve ever tasted before….who knew the Elements could be used like this? By us?”

The air around the trio shimmered, and the glowing, mistiness became gossamer wing…fin…protrusions… and animal ears—horse ears, her mind noted, somehow still able to categorize such things regardless of how ludicrous this situation was becoming. “Come on, girls. We have a show to do, and we wouldn't want to disappoint our fans.”

As they took center stage and the music began, Twilight realized that…somehow, there were no instruments. This group was either using some kind of background track that was pre-recorded…or the strange harmony was being done a cappella…an impressive feat if it was the second. Twilight assumed the pre-recorded track was more likely.

Indigo pulled up a chair, sprawling in it. “Okay. So the music is catchy. Like…hypnotic catchy, but…what does this have to do with—” she started, then broke off as a strange red light began to emanate from the singers, and the cheering crowd suddenly went still, as if they were statues of people, rather than a rowdy crowd of teenagers. “…that's…freaky, right?”

“…it is certainly unusual, and seems to cast these three girls as the villains in…whatever this is.”

“…feel the wave of sound as it crashes down…”

It was also familiar. Weirdly so.

It wasn't until they were interrupted by a drumbeat and a strummed chord that made the camera holder pivot towards the crowd, and a voice rang out over an amplified sound system. Twilight knew this song…had sung it just recently with Sunset in the privacy of her bedroom…

“Don't need to hear a crowd cheering out my name.

I didn't come here seeking infamy or fame…”

They jolted in shock as Twilight’s own voice came pouring out of the laptop speakers, slightly distorted by the fact that it was a second hand recording of a concert performance, but still recognizable as her. It drew the dark haired girl’s attention to the intruding group on the hill, lit up by mobile spotlights. It was too far away to make out any real fine details at first, but she picked out the familiar red-and-gold-and-black of her girlfriend’s signature appearance, standing a bit away from the group as the song swelled through the first verse and into the chorus.

“Just so we’re clear and I'm sure I’m not hallucinating, that's you singing, right? Is that you in the video?”

That got her to look away from Sunset’s image. “What? Where?”

“Front and center, Twilight. Man, I wish the camera would zoom in some.”

Twilight followed the description, and saw a person that looked…vaguely like her. If Twilight was Glamour’s age and about six inches taller. And a bit more physically developed. At least, if Sunset was a proper metric here to measure the girl against. “That did sound like me, but…no, that is not me. She’s too tall, and…” She made vague motions about her chest.

“Her tits are too big.”

“…yes. That.”

“But that's definitely—”

“Yes, I’d know Sunny anywhere. And I think these are her friends from school. She’s mentioned them a few times.” She frowned, watching as the camera finally zoomed in, following a wave of static that made the audience come to life again and the camera shake briefly, and tried to put names to faces. Pinkie was probably the girl at the drums—the frizzy, manic hair matched Sunset’s descriptions too well to be anyone else in the group, and she was willing to hazard a guess that the amazonian blonde girl with the cowboy hat was the “AJ” who lived on a farm. Likewise, the very colorful girl was most likely “Rainbow,” but of the other two she wasn't sure which was the shy girl who liked animals and which one was “Rarity,” aka “Coffee House Romance Girl.”

She wasn't including the girl who looked like a cousin to herself.

Then the video took another turn for the bizarre, as the six girls performing began to glow, each one a in a different shade of brilliant luminescent color, a transformation overcoming them. Ears found perches on the tops of their heads, fluffy and definitely equine, hair grew long and free, while some grew wings or a spiraled horn, and all were awash with color and power that even a grainy cell phone video couldn't hide.

She noticed the one that looked like her had acquired both wings and a horn. For some reason that she couldn't explain, that bothered her. A lot.

“So the Rainbooms want to turn this into a real Battle of the Bands?” Adagio sneered, her voice popping over the loud volume of the mic. “Then let’s battle!”

Twilight shivered. It was ominous…threatening…and so familiar…where had she heard…?

The amphitheater. The view was a bit to the left but…she had seen it before. When she was hunting for readings and her detector had been adamant that the location was a massive hit for the energy readings…but she had fled because she had heard…voices…

…and music.

This music.

These voices.

On screen, now flying, glowing hippocampi—that explained the fish fin-wings and the horse ears, she supposed—were having some kind of epic battle against stars and butterflies, crystals and rainbows, set to conflicting pop-punk rock music. It was like watching someone bring to life the album art from an 1980s rock band.

“If this is what being on drugs is like, I think I’ll skip the ‘experimenting in college’ phase and go right to being old and boring,” Indigo said from beside her.

Twilight nodded, focused on what was playing out before her eyes, as the hippocampi seemed about to claim victory, sending the band of six sprawling with a screech of feedback. Her eyes were riveted on Sunset as the redhead bent down to pick up the microphone that landed at her feet, anticipating the cry from her memory, of hearing her own voice filled with desperation.

“Sunset Shimmer!”

There it was. Exactly as she remembered it. Her voice, but not from her throat.

“We need you!”

And Sunset stepped up, tossing her jacket to the side and staring defiantly at the stage, even as she swayed. Which made sense, if this was the musical event from December. Sunset had come to her that night, about to collapse from stress, hunger, and exhaustion.

Her voice rang out strong and clear though, as she gripped the mic in her hands like a lifeline, finding strength once she started. She helped the lookalike to her feet, and with voices rising in harmony, created a rainbow that washed over the crowd.

It was something else to watch.

Especially when Sunset began to glow too, a rippling, pulsing crimson light that undulated like flames, carrying her into the air and transforming her the way it had the others: equine ears, a spiraled horn that belonged on a creature of myth, and even longer waves of fiery hair that was barely contained by a hair-tie as it reached the backs of her knees. Her eyes were practically glowing themselves when she opened them with a smile on her face that made Twilight’s heart ache with joy.

And from deep within, as the group of seven girls hovered in the air, creating a glowing rainbow of brilliance, a little voice inside, one that was her and not her whispered, Oh…There You are. It was like a heartfelt sigh, one that carried away stress and worry to leave behind a sense of contentment that was not unlike how she felt waking up in Sunset’s arms.

The feeling distracted her for a minute as she tried to place it, but couldn't quite pin it down. In the end she attributed it to some part of her subconscious, and resolved to study it more later.

“…you know, if this was an anime, I think I’d want to see more,” the girl sitting beside her said with a laugh. “Flying fish horses? Magical animal girl transformations? Musical numbers to save the world? Giant glowing winged unicorns made of stars and rainbows? Sign me up! It's like Sailor Moon on steroids and less shrill voiced crying.”

The glowing unicorn…pegasus…fusion was impressive, she had to admit. Apparently, Adagio thought so too, because the video picked up her fearful whisper of “…Grogar’s Bane…” right before the beam of light encased her and her fellow singers, causing the poor camera to lose its ability to compensate for the scintillating energy.

When the flash faded, the singers were in shock, their voices warbling out of key. They fled from the jeers of the crowd and the approach of a fully human group of teen girls. The camera operator had shied back, half hidden behind the curtains, but still kept the footage rolling.

Sunset led the group, squatting down to pick up something left behind on the floor of the stage. “Huh. Guess that explains why these were so special to them…” she mused, turning towards the lookalike. The object in her hand sparkled in the lights as she let it fall back to the ground with a sound similar but different to broken glass.

“Without those pendants,” Twilight’s double spoke excitedly, “and the magic you brought here from Equestria, they're just three harmless teenage girls.”

“Rainbooms rule!”

A blur of blue hair and golden skin practically tackling her lookalike in a big hug, coupled with a voice Twilight knew as belonging to Sunset’s friend Flash suddenly galvanized the camera operator to flee, and the video ended on about twenty seconds of them not realizing their camera was still on as they booked it for the parking lot.

Silence fell over the lab, as both teens processed what they had seen. Finally Indigo sat back in her chair. “Just to make sure, at no point in that video was that you. Just some girl who looks and sounds just like you.”

“Correct. I do believe I would have recalled participating in such a public fiasco, but while the song was familiar, the only place I have done any singing is in the privacy of a home. Mostly my own.” She sure would have remembered an amazing public duet with her gorgeous girlfriend that…summoned magical rainbow unicorns?

Her friend shook her head. “Riiight. So…what the hell was Blush running her mouth about?” She frowned. “…because she talked about two things: you being lied to, and your research project. And unless she really expects you to believe that what you’re researching is magic—which, gonna be honest, is total bullshit, Twilight—then it's got to be about lying.”

Twilight let out a laugh that sounded forced to her own ears. “Magic?” she said incredulously. “I will admit that the energy anomaly is unusual, but that's a bit…presumptuous, I would think. With all the people over the centuries out there who have wanted magic and ghosts and gods to be real, who have actively searched for it, if there was anything considerable that even approximated magic in the world, someone would have found it by now.” Even as she said it, the teen realized she didn't quite believe her own words…and was at a loss for why. The videos were clearly the product of clever and talented video editing—impressive, but a technological answer all the same. So why was she not as eager to dismiss the possibility as Indigo?

Because you wished for magic once, a traitorous corner of her mind reminded her. Which…she had, as a little girl. A little girl who saw the world with curiosity and had wished for unicorns and dragons and faeries to exist, because maybe then she wouldn't feel like such an outsider.

Shaking her head, Twilight sighed. Those had been the irrational dreams of a six year old girl who had been unable to make friends her own age, eaten up with loneliness and frustration at the things that made her different. She wasn’t that girl anymore…hadn't been that little girl for a very long time.

Indigo flicked a bit of string with a finger. “Not to mention, look how many people were there. No way that many people keep that a secret. There would be other videos and they’d be all over youtube. Someone would blab. Even if no one believed them, someone would still talk.” She tilted her head back to look at the ceiling tiles. “So that brings us back to her trying to show you that you're being lied to…but about what?”

She puzzled over that herself, musing aloud, “From the first time I mentioned having made another friend, Wallflower was very demanding about who it was and how we met, and if I could trust Sunny. It got worse when she realized who my friend was, because a mutual friend of ours who had to transfer after ninth grade, had been complaining about a bully from her new school…and…” Twilight found herself pulling the key on its lanyard from under her shirt to toy with it. “…Sunny was that bully. I know about all that though. I have from the beginning, and I’ve never hidden from Wallflower that I knew what she used to be like.”

“But she’s harped on the whole bullying thing?”

Skin warmed metal had familiar ridges under her fingertips that soothed her agitation as she let herself turn it over and around again and again. “Excessively. Wallflower is under the perception that I need some kind of minder because I completely lack the ability to properly judge someone’s character…which is untrue. I can judge someone’s actions just fine, but I prefer to base my thoughts on what I have personally seen and witnessed, not second or third hand data, and I believe in giving people a chance.” Twilight found herself smiling faintly. “My mom taught me that.”

The other girl nodded, running a hand through short blue hair. “Maybe Wallflower is trying to prove she’s lying about being a bully still?” Then she shook her head. “…no, that's too basic and doesn't mesh with the videos…unless…” Something seemed to click for her.

“Unless…?”

Indigo looked her dead in the eyes. “I’m going to ask a question first, Twilight, and please don't freak out on me, okay? I know this is not the way it's normally done, but…just know I’m not as dim as people think. I remember the hickey, I was in the nurse’s office that day, and Wallflower wasn't exactly subtle a few minutes ago. Who all knows that ‘best friend’ is code for ‘secret girlfriend?’ Does Wallflower know for sure, or was that a shot in the dark?”

Twilight went still, fingers freezing on the key. Her eyes searched Indigo’s face, as she struggled to process what she had said. Dismay coiled in her guts, along with the petulant, frustrated question of if she would ever be allowed to come out to someone in her life on her terms. At least Indigo seemed to be handling it better than Wallflower had…at least, if the relaxed way she lounged in the chair was anything to go on. “I-I…” she stammered, trying to form words.

Indigo grinned and leaned over to slug her lightly in the shoulder. “Relax, Twilight. It doesn’t really matter to me who you date—if you guys are happy together, good for you. Just because I don't swing that way doesn’t mean you can't…besides, I’ve got more important things to worry about than talking about boys or girls or whatever with you.” Then she sobered. “The reason I’m asking is because I’m trying to figure out Wallflower’s angle here. So just tell me…does she know for certain or was that just her taking a shot in the dark?”

“…she knows,” came the half whispered response. “…I didn’t mean to tell her, but I thought she had guessed. I was wrong. She thought Sunny was my drug dealer.”

Honey colored eyes stared blankly at her. “She thought what?”

“That I was smoking marijuana.”

The other girl rolled her eyes. “Wallflower is an idiot. Ignoring that though, is it possible she's trying to imply your girlfriend is cheating on you? Or that you're some kind of stand in for the girl that looks like you?”

It was a probable explanation—the law of parsimony did state, “‘Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem,’” after all.

“What?” Indigo asked. “I don't speak Latin, only kitchen-Spanish. Which, honestly, is mostly dirty words and talk about food.”

Twilight realized she had spoken aloud. “Sorry. Just thinking aloud. You would know it better as ‘the simplest solution is most likely correct,’ though that's an inaccurate paraphrasing of the actual rule. And that would be a fairly likely answer to her actions…” She frowned. Something about it didn't sit well with her—sure it was more likely than any convoluted connection to the anomalous energy, Twilight couldn't shake the sense that the energy was connected to this whole mess.

There was no reason she couldn't entertain the thought experiment however. “It is definitely a possibility. A silly one, considering that I am fairly certain the girl from the last video who looks like me is the same girl who challenged Sunny at their Fall Formal. The resemblance is perhaps a bit more startling and severe than I realized, and I may owe her an apology for not quite grasping that when she tried to explain it, but her existence and her current status as a friend who has since moved away is not a secret from me. More to the point, I have already settled my insecurities in regards to her with my best friend, and I feel no threat to my position from her.”

Her friend’s mouth twisted into a smirk. “Duh. Of course you have,” she laughed. “You have more intelligence in your left pinky that Blush has in her whole skull. Where did she even get her ideas, anyway? One of those trashy teen movies where everyone is a walking cliche that’s been smacked in the head with the idiot stick because no one working on it had any idea how actual people function?”

A snort escaped Twilight before she could stop it. “Maybe they were a CPA graduate. I've read a few books like that, and they easily could have changed the school’s name to Crystal Prep and been on point.”

The pair of girls dissolved into laughter, discussing the finer points of how an entire genre of media was a gross disappointment and barely concealed disaster, but even as they ripped into the plot for the latest popular teen vampire romance series, Twilight’s mind was elsewhere. She couldn't shake her desire to verify that the energy was uninvolved, and made plans to go to the amphitheater later in the week…

Maybe seeing for herself that it was ludicrous would put the uncertainty to rest.

So...yeah.

Lot to unpack here.

A LOT.

A lot of you were asking about Indigo and Wallflower, and other things about Cinch trying to get Sunset's name, and places she could try for it.

We've got Indigo in this chapter being awesome. Rainbow Dash would approve. I swear, those two, once they really meet, are totally going to end up as "drinking buddies."

At the same time, things with Wallflower come to a bit of a head, as we see she has not let up on her anti-Sunset crusade. It also raises the question of who she got the footage from, doesnt it?

And now some of the cat is out of the bag.

Sorta.

Twilight's not quite inclined to believe its magic, not yet. She's also not out of the proverbial woods yet. still two in universe weeks until the games.

I also want to thank Indigo for being a real MVP--using her to bounce off Twilight in these chapters is amazing, and she's turning into quite the comedian too. She's made the chapters she's in come to life in ways they were definitely lacking in before we included her as a secondary character.

She's also not keen on stuck up rich brats. Probably because her family isnt old money.

Careful Indigo. Wallflower will remember what you said. And she carries a grudge.

Twilight is on the scent now though. She knows something is up. Looks like we're going back to the amphitheater...

*thunder rumbles ominously in the distance*