It didn't take much to slip through the gap someone had cut in the fence around the amphitheater, though getting her backpack with all its books and equipment through was a touch more challenging for Twilight. Behind her, Indigo was shaking her head.

“You realize this is probably illegal. Fences are usually meant as a sign to ‘keep out.’”

She glanced back. “It's a public facility,” she reminded her friend, “owned by the city. If it was illegal, there would be posted signs. As long as we don't perform any acts of vandalism or destruction of property, we’re not breaking any laws. At best, if we get caught, we’ll be asked to leave because it is getting late.”

Indigo snorted. “Were you a lawyer in another life, Twilight?” Not waiting for an answer, the athlete looked around. “Well, they definitely filmed those videos here. Your girlfriend and her pals were on the hill right over there. So what are we here looking for again?”

Twilight retrieved her latest iteration of the detector and fiddled with it. “Some kind of answers. You said it yourself—something is weird at CPA, and Principal Cinch in the meeting this week was far too invested in CHS and Sunset in regards to the project. Plus…those videos, even though they are silly, fanciful…I have this nagging…feeling, I suppose…that there's more to what we saw than some silly project for a video production course.”

The other girl was silent for a long minute as they climbed the hill to where Sunset had been in the video. Twilight’s detector was beeping at a low volume with increasing intensity and speed. Finally Indigo said, “You…aren’t suggesting that those videos weren’t fake? That…what? Magic exists and it's being used by teenagers in some kind of rock’n’roll battle? That your girlfriend turned into some kind of pissed off she-demon?”

Sunset’s voice came to her from a memory, a flippant remark in passing about her struggles at school what seemed like ages ago. “…I figured they deserved the chance to get back at the Demon Queen of CHS for everything I put them through…so I didn't say anything. As far as I was concerned, I deserved it.”

Shivering, she dropped her eyes to the device in her hand and made note of how high the ambient readings were spiking in the location. “…I don't know,” she answered in a weak voice. “I just know that there is something big I’m missing. Something key about this energy and why my discovery and research is making waves like it is. Sunset has been cagey about it, trying to dissuade me from digging into it, Principal Cinch seems almost hungry for more information on it, and …”

Indigo encouraged her to continue. “And what, Twilight?”

Her shoulders sagged. “…and I’ve run into hints that a third party is covering up anything involving it. Traffic cams and local city surveillance in times and places around the events have been deliberately wiped, and then someone puts looped footage in place of the missing sections. Then Wallflower brings us these weird videos…”

“And you're still digging into this? Sparkle, are you insane?!” Indigo grabbed her arm, forcing Twilight to look up at her. “You could get hurt! This is turning into some freaky X-files grade bullshit!”

Tears sprang to her eyes, and she pulled back, hunching in on herself. “I know!” she bit out, feeling her stress start to overflow. “I know…but Sunny’s involved somehow…and…” How could she explain something she didn't quite understand herself? “I have to see this through, Indigo. I need to know. It's like…like something inside me needs to do this—I don't know why that is, but I’ve tried to stop, and I can't. It won’t leave me alone and it's like part of me is being torn out if I try.” Twilight wiped furiously at her eyes, trying not to remember the nightmares, or the terrible, wrenching feeling in her chest, the nausea and shakes from borderline panic attacks whenever she contemplated destroying her research, and this awful feeling that she was abandoning Sunset if she went through with it.

The other teen watched her for a long time, before squeezing her shoulders. “…Okay. Then let's get you some answers.” Letting go, Indigo began to search the area, squatting down to run her hands over the early spring grass. “There’s tire tracks back here, from a vehicle. Pretty heavy one, considering the tires aren't that big…”

Twilight sniffled. “…just like that?” came the hoarse question before she could stop it.

“Just like that. You're my friend, Sparkle, and I promised Sunset I’d watch your back. The first would be enough, but…” she made a face. “…she didn't know me and she trusted me to really be your friend. Just…just like that. No one’s ever just…trusted me without proof like that.”

The dark haired girl felt her lips turn up into a watery smile, warmth filling her. “…Sunny’s…she’s got this way of reading people…but also talking to people. She doesn't see it, but she’s incredible.”

Laughing, Indigo leaned closer to inspect something in the grass, retrieving a grimy guitar pick. “Explains why you're so gone on her,” she joked. “Y’know, besides the whole ‘sexy badass in leather’ thing.”

Heat rushed to her cheeks and she fiddled with her detector, trying not to notice the sly smile sent her way. “…can it be both?”

“Absolutely. I don't have to swing that way to say she’s got that whole sex-on-legs strut down, and she has so much personality she dominates a room without trying. You should have seen her send the nurse packing with a look and a threat. Bitch almost shit herself in fear.” Indigo chuckled. “And then Cinch tried that manipulative word game nonsense, and she just put her in her place. It was like she’d been slapped with an oversized trout.”

That earned some satisfied giggles, but before she could respond, she stepped forward and felt a distinct tingle go up her spine, and wind carried a familiar whispery voice to her ears. “She’s right, horn-head. They need you, and without you, they fail. They fail, and this world falls into the hands of those things…and so does everyone in it. Not just the school, everyone. Including Sparky. It won't matter if your friends survive and are immune. No one else is.”

Twilight shook off the voice, but asked, “Indigo? Do you…feel that?”

The girl was up in an instant, moving closer. “Feel what—mierda!” She shuddered. “That’s…freaky. Like tingling? Up my spine, but not bad?”

She nodded. “Yes. And listen. Do you hear anything else?” Twilight could, if she focused, hear music at the edge of her senses, her own voice crying out for Sunset Shimmer, again and again.

“…no…” Indigo said, after a minute. “…but I can definitely feel the tingling.”

Looking down at the detector in her hands, Twilight knew she was standing on top of one of the events. “This spot…one of the Type A events happened right here.” She rubbed her face. “It can't be a coincidence that this is the exact space where Sunset and her friends were in that video. Either they chose it for the same reason or…”

“…or the video wasn't a movie project,” Indigo finished. “Which…raises some questions. Like, what are you going to do if it turns out magic is real? How…how do we even handle something like that?”

A heavy sigh escaped her. “I…don't know…but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.” Twilight took notes on the detector’s readings and snapped some photos of the spot with her phone. “Did you find anything else?”

“Just a guitar pick and some discolored paper fragments. No telling how long the paper was here though. Not with all the rain and snow we had this winter. It's basically just a mess.” Indigo shrugged. “Where to next?”

Twilight turned to the stage. “Up there. I tried it once before, but I heard…voices. Music. And ended up having a panic attack. I ran to find Sunset, and have not been back since.” She hadn't wanted to come back until now. The feelings that had hit her on the stage had rattled her badly, and she’d gone out of her way to avoid a repeat from that soul crushing longing that bordered on pain.

The other girl studied the stage, before nudging her. “You aren’t alone this time. If there's voices, we’ll find them, and if you need your girlfriend, I’ll call her. Now, c’mon. Let's find those answers.”

They picked their way down the aisle, the detector informing them of a lower but still present amount of energy. “This whole place was affected by the event, but the hill back there was definitely a point of some of the highest concentration of said energy.”

Indigo climbed up on the stage, casting a look around. “Well, in the video, they created that magic rainbow and unicorn thing made out of stars on that hill like some kind of Sailor Moon super attack, so…gonna guess being ground zero is the reason it's higher there?” She began checking the equipment and behind the curtains. “There’s no one here but us, I think, and nothing is plugged or on. Come on up.”

Finding the stairs, Twilight joined her friend, and they began searching in earnest, running the detector over consoles and equipment, along the floor and curtains, narrowing down their search…which led them right to the center of the stage. The sharp tingling had returned, stronger this time, and Twilight felt like her hair was standing on end. “Here,” she whispered, kneeling on the floor, running her hand over the faint seam. Her detector was practically overheating in her hand, registering the energy so strongly in all directions on that spot that she was forced to shut it down.

“The air feels…electrified,” Indigo commented, rubbing her arms. “Like standing too close to high voltage power lines. I still don't hear any voices or music though.”

She hummed in response, her eyes slipping shut. Here, amidst the residue of the energy that had been dominating her life for months with its elusiveness and mystery, she could feel something just out of reach, like a memory that should be there, but somehow wasn't—a first for her, Twilight had to admit.

“The Great and Powerful Trrrrrixie is the most talented girl at Canterlot High,” she heard an unknown voice proclaim, rolling the r’s dramatically. “It is I who deserve to be in the finals…and I will not be denied!”

Distressed cries made her shake, followed by sounds of pain and impact. Twilight looked around sharply. “Tell me you heard that?” she whispered frantically to Indigo, only for the athlete to shake her head in a negative. “…I’m not going crazy…” Twilight focused on the sounds again, straining to hear more, anything to lend credence to her senses.

“…’S darker than the inside of a coal miner’s lunchbox…” an accented voice echoed.

And then, familiar and grounding, came Sunset talking, her voice rough from exhaustion and stress. “I’m looking for a light, hang on.”

She clung to that, missing half a raspy response and Sunset talking once more. “—not hoarse, and honestly, I have no idea, Dash—I couldn't see this well in the dark as—”

“Twilight?” Indigo asked, worried.

She got up, hearing the last bit of Sunset’s voice as she shook her head.

“…worry about the freaky night vision later, Shimmer. Find a light and a way out of here now…Grogar take it…we’re locked in…”

Purple eyes stared down at the seam in the floor, and she remembered the video…the evil singing girls had dropped broken necklace pieces here. Was it possible that some had ended up below? That would be evidence she could prove…

They needed to explore below, in the room under the stage. She barely heard Indigo calling after her, as she bolted, leaping off the stage rather than taking the stairs. “Grab something to prop a door open!” she managed, as she began searching for the entrance, finally locating it around back.

Indigo met her as she was getting it open with a heavy duty chair from backstage. “Why…what did you hear?”

“In the videos…” Twilight grasped the door and pulled it open with a few fierce tugs. “Sunset was dropped below the stage…and those evil girls…they dropped what was left of those necklaces right over the trap door. If there's evidence…it's here. I can…” She stopped, unable to complete the ludicrous statement.

As her voice trailed off, the girl behind her wedged the door open. “You can feel it. That's what you were gonna say. It's part of what you were talking about earlier.”

“…yes.”

The athlete gave the chair a good shove, making sure it was wedged good and the door wouldn't close on them. “Plus you want something tangible to take to Sunset.”

Twilight blinked, marveling at the fact that she had a friend besides Sunset who could follow her logic without being led, even if it was mired in other ridiculous notions and impossibilities. “…I…yes…how…?”

Her friend gave another laconic shrug. “It's not hard to figure out. It's what you do—it's why you looked at Wallflower’s thumb drive in the first place. You find proof to support your theories before you do anything, and this is a lot bigger than thinking mold grows on bread in the dark or different acids besides vinegar making a cooler science volcano. You need something that either debunks or supports the videos, and that's what you’ll take to Sunset, so you can ask her about it, and get her side of it.”

She breathed out a shaky breath. “…you think…she would? She…has been pretty vague about answers now that I think about it, and I know she didn't like me investigating the energy to begin with. She…warned me that it might be dangerous. If I bring this to her, you…think she’ll…” Her voice wavered and she hated the feelings of doubt creeping up inside her.

“Tell you the truth? I do,” Indigo said firmly. “I saw her when she came to get you. She didn't care about anything but you—she was ready to throw hands if the nurse got in her way, and to hell with the consequences. She wouldn't let go of you once she had you, not even to your brother, not when she looked ready to collapse.” She ran a hand through her spiky hair. “I think if you bring her whatever we find, plus the videos, and ask directly, she’ll tell you the truth. Especially if the worst of the weird is true, and this is some super messed up anime-is-real and our lives are now a comic book, and Cinch is secretly like some kind of evil supervillain.”

Twilight couldn't help but laugh at that, even if it was with rising unease in her gut. “You really think our principal has an evil lair somewhere and what? Runs around in a spandex bodysuit on weekends kicking puppies, masterminding jewelry stores robberies, and designing a ray gun to suck the heat out of the sun to power a doomsday weapon?”

The other teen shuddered and made a gagging sound. “Nope. Nope nope nope nope. All aboard the nope train to ‘Fuck-this-shit-ville,’” she asserted. “Please don't, Twilight. I never want that image in my head ever again.” She nudged her through the door. “Let’s see what's in here. You know, besides about thirty generations of cobwebs in the corners, and advertisements for shows from the seventies…yikes.” One hand picked up a yellowed, ancient piece of paper that announced a live performance from before her parents were old enough to drive. “Seriously? Nineteen seventy one? Do they never clean under here? I suppose if what happened left anything behind it would be in here.” She nudged a bit of debris with a toe. “Nasty.”

Unsure if her detector could be trusted, Twilight began surveying the room. Looking up, she could see a bare sliver of light from the edge of the trapdoor, dim but enough to allow her to follow it to where she would be right below the spot on the stage from before. “This is the right area…”

It had to be. The charged, tingling had become a buzzing under her skin like a million insects humming in concert against her nerve endings, and that driving, almost compulsion had led her here without further direction. Her eyes scanned the room in dim reddish-purple lighting.

“…Twilight…I… don't mean to be an alarmist…but…you're glowing.”

What?

Twilight stared at the faint magenta light that seemed to be clinging to her. It encapsulated her hands and disappeared under her sleeves, and seemed to do the same on the exposed portion of her legs. And further down, on the floor…

The source of the red light, in scattered fragments of crystal that pulsed softly, a faint and weak heartbeat that seemed to grow stronger as she squatted down. “…this has to be them. The gems those girls were wearing,” she breathed.

Indigo let out a sound and tried to pull her back. “Are we not going to talk about the fact that now you are glowing, Twilight? I think that's a lot more important—what if this is radioactive or something?!”

Shaking off the hand, Twilight checked one of her many instruments. “It's not radioactive—my Geiger counter isn't going off.”

“Yeah, but last I checked, people aren’t supposed to glow either.”

Part of her agreed with Indigo. She should be freaking out right about now. But it was a small part, buried under an inexplicable Need to inspect those crystal fragments. They held something important, answers that she needed desperately, more than she had ever needed answers before. It wasn't just the answers to the energy, but the answers to all the holes in the story of the girl Twilight loved, and answers to some aching mystery in the depths of her soul. It was a connection to something she was missing, and she wasn't about to stop when it was within her grasp. “I need to know, Indigo,” she rasped out, voice thick with emotion she didn't have a name for.

Lavender fingers closed around the broken shards at long last.

And then there was light, a flash of white that rippled with the colors of a rainbow and left spots across her vision. She yelped and dropped the crystal bits as Indigo pulled her backwards almost to the door.

“This is getting scary, Twilight,” Indigo told her. “I think we need to get out of here. It's not worth it—we can just ask Sunset directly. Forget the stones or whatever.”

But Twilight was focused on the spot she’d been standing in, as red and magenta twisted into something else…forming images in the air, images of people. Teenage girls, just like them, as different from each other as people could be. Tall and short, rail thin, buxom, muscular, exceptionally pink, all colors of the rainbow, all standing around and clearly very agitated, as though it was in the midst of some kind of argument. “Indigo…look. Please tell me you can see this?”

“…uh…yeah.” Indigo was shaky and pale as she stared at the forming images of the same girls who had been with Sunset in the video clips. “This…this is unreal…”

“O’course it woulda worked, Twilight.” The amazon in the cowboy hat suddenly had a voice, the same drawl Twilight had heard above. “Assumin’ a certain band member didn’ try ta hog the spotlight the whole time we were tryin’ ta play it!” Green eyes cut in a harsh glare to the only girl who was probably shorter than Twilight herself.

“Hey!” the colorful girl responded in a raspy tone—that had been the one with the sewer mouth from before—retorted. “If you wanna tell Twilight she’s getting a little too caught up in trying to be the new leader for this band, you don’t have to be all cryptic about it.”

Miss Prim-and-Proper stalked up, hands on hips. “She was talking about you, Rainbow Dash!”

“Me!? I’m just trying to make sure my band rocks as hard as it needs to!”

Four other voices thundered furiously at her. “OUR band!”

Indigo swallowed audibly. “I know that one. Rainbow Dash. She's a mega sports star at Canterlot. You wouldn't think a girl that short would be good at basketball, but she's a whole other level, and it's not even her sport. Shes set to take CHS’s girl’s varsity soccer to states and maybe nationals this year.”

“She’s one of Sunset’s friends…” Purple eyes flitted across the arguing group, spotting the dark haired lookalike in the back against the wall, looking like she was having a meltdown. Twilight could faintly hear her own voice, one that had the same faint accent she recognized in Sunset, mumbling to herself about failure. She was staring blankly, shaking and seemingly unresponsive to everything around…despite the loud and furious argument going on in front of her. Not even the prissy girl and the amazon getting in each other’s faces and screaming seemed to register.

But where was Sunset? Twilight wondered, and spotted her girlfriend, looking washed out and exhausted, exactly as she had looked when she had shown up on Twilight’s door after the supposed Musical Showcase events. She was staring at the goings on with bewildered confusion and concern, like she wanted to say something but was afraid to.

“Horn-head!” A voice like Sunset’s, but dry and sarcastic and more than a little biting rang out from everywhere and nowhere. “Look! The magic!”

A flash of red light made Twilight and Indigo flinch, and everything about the illusion before them changed. The room was suddenly filled with black, bloated tendrils that extended down from the crack in the trap door above like the roots of a rotten tree, hanging down and creeping down walls and across the floor. They stroked terrible, fetid feelers across whatever parts of the girls they could reach, sinking into them like parasites, allowing blackened veins to start creeping up under their skin. Colorful smoke—like a miasma—was drawn off them and back along the blackness, leaching them of some of their vibrancy.

“Sweet Mother of Discord…” Sunset whispered in horror, and that sarcastic tone echoed out again in reply.

“It's doubtful the draconequus has anything to do with it, him or his nightmarish Mother.”

“Oh holy shit,” Indigo whispered next to her. “You know I was really joking about your girlfriend being a demon. I’m never skipping church again…”

Her eyes were drawn to Sunset, and she sucked in a sharp breath, fighting a strange mix of arousal and shock. Sunset was there, but she flickered like a bad video, uneven and distorted, like multiple versions of her occupied the same spot. Flashes of red-amber skin, of glowing eyes with blackened sclera, and black claws competed with a pony-eared teen with a spiral horn rising from her forehead, faint cracks in her skin like cracks in glass, and both gave way to the human girl she knew and loved.

Skin flashed red when one of the putrid root tendrils touched her and she flinched back, and Twilight watched as scarlet flames burned the offending bit of darkness to nothing. Those eyes raked the room, disbelieving and searching for answers in each of her friends, finally glancing briefly towards the dark haired doppelgänger on the floor. Her frown deepened, and she looked away…

Right into Twilight’s eyes.

Time seemed to freeze, and it felt like in that moment, the demonic looking, glowing eyed version of Sunset from her dreams was staring right at her through time as well as space. She heard her own voice, knew what she needed to say, even as she choked on the maelstrom of emotion inside her at that moment. “...you don’t have anything to prove to me—I’ll always be your friend no matter what you choose to do. Friendship isn’t based on conditions or a price. It's freely given or it's not real.”

Those eyes went even wider in some kind of realization, and faintly, she felt the whisper against her skin like a caress. “Sparky…”

Then the moment was broken by Indigo shaking her and hissing her name in her ear. She blinked, feeling time restart with a jolt. “I…I’m okay…” she said, voice distant to her own ears. Her eyes were still only for the image of Sunset, especially when, as her face took on a determined glower as she stared at the strange blackness, the flickering nature of her form fell away, and Twilight was left looking at the same Sunset that had been invading her dreams. Blackened eyes glowed and red flame raced along that dangerous looking horn and claw tipped fingers, tail lashing behind her savagely and wings of shadow and fire flaring in a display of threat and anger.

Something twisted in the deepest places of her heart and soul, wrenching her awareness painfully with a strange mix of confusion, desire, hurt, and betrayal as Sunset yelled in a voice that thrummed and echoed with power behind it, “Stop! You have to stop!” The blood colored fire exploded outwards in a rush, blinding and bright and so intense Twilight expected to feel real heat. It drove her and Indigo back, her friend pushing her back against the wall and shielding Twilight with her body.

When they risked lifting their heads, the room was dark once more, lit only by a very weak, flickering bulb on its last legs. The images or illusions or memories or whatever they were were gone, and the strange glow had left the broken bits of crystal.

Indigo let out a breath and a bit of a laugh that was bordering on hysterical. “…that…that just happened, right?”

Her mind was nothing but noise as thoughts and feelings vied for supremacy. Magic was nothing but fantasy, yet here she was, at a loss to explain what she herself had witnessed as anything else…especially with the parts that involved her. How had she seen Sunset in another form in her dreams? Was it Sunset’s doing, somehow? It couldn't be, could it? Sunset had been so nervous and awkward and focused on Twilight’s consent and her own readiness to venture into physical intimacies beyond kissing and snuggling; there was no way she would have knowingly done something as bold as inserting herself into dreams to engage in the very activities that she was not ready to commit to in the flesh…

Another thought occurred to her then. Mental-Sunset. That had been far too real sometimes—it had worried her despite the comfort it brought on, manifesting in those moments when she needed Sunset’s support most. Like when she was struggling against the harassment at school…

Or when Polaris had attacked her, she recalled. There had been a second before her own brain had overloaded and gone to autopilot, where she had heard that mental figure scream in rage and anger against the shadows…

Shadows that had been wrong, in a hallway that had felt distorted and warped. Like the school had sometimes seemed wrong, warped, twisted somehow…or how the shadows in her Principal’s office sometimes felt like they moved on their own.

But if all that was true…why had Sunset kept that from her? If she knew, why didn't she say anything? Why had she left Twilight in the dark? Did she not trust her? Did she not expect Twilight to believe her? It was ludicrous, but…with proof, she would like to believe she would have. And…if that strange, monstrous looking version of her girlfriend was real…then…what was it? Had it been caused by whatever had really happened at the fall dance? Sunset had alluded to a fall from grace, but…had it all been a lot more literal than first assumed? The doppelgänger had mentioned Sunset bringing magic from somewhere else…Equestria? What was Equestria? Some secret kingdom like in one of her urban fantasy novels? Another world like the realm of the Fae in folklore? Some extradimensional place like Asgard in the Thor movie?

…she was definitely not as freaked out by the fanged visage as Indigo was, that was certain. All other reactions to the situation aside, she found the form even more enticing in the waking world than in her dreams…

Okay. That was a thought she did not need to be chasing while huddled with a friend on a grimy floor in some filthy storage room while wearing a skirt.

It was all too much, and Twilight hunched in on herself as she stewed in anxiety, confusion, betrayal, and the side helping of arousal. She couldn't deal with this right now. Not in an exposed area with only Indigo present, in a place rife with the energy she had been chasing. Twilight needed to be home, safe, in her lab, where she could tear apart every bit of research data she had accumulated and go through her private journals as well, to dredge up and analyze everything Sunset had ever said with this new knowledge. That meant compartmentalizing for the moment, and the dark haired girl took several deep breaths as she squashed the emotions into a box and locked it tight in the back of her mind to unpack in a few hours instead of sleeping.

Clarity made her run Indigo’s words over in her head again. “I believe it did, though exactly what we have witnessed and what it ultimately means is still up in the air at the present moment. I…need to take this new data that I have recorded, along with the recording from my earlier meeting with the Principal, and analyze them, before going back over previous information. Once I have done that, I can decide how best to bring this to Sunset, in order to hear what she has to say.”

Honey colored eyes stared at her. “You're not freaking out, and I am. Why aren't you more freaked out by this, Twilight? Magic is real, your girlfriend is a transforming magical girl who moonlights as Satan, and our principal is probably some magical chaos monster from the moons of Saturn or inside a mirror or whatever…” Indigo trembled, her eyes wide and starting to show the signs of emotional shock. “Oh man…she asked me for a favor…did I end up selling my soul? Ah, madre de Dios…Hice un trato con una diabla...Abuelita se enojará…Es la chancla para mi! ….Estoy tan muerta…”

It degenerated into babbling in a mix of Spanish and English, and Twilight frowned. “Indigo?” No response. “Indigo? You need to stop and breathe.” When she continued to be ignored—even shaking her friend didn't work—and she gauged that her friend was not going to stop, she did something she told herself she would apologize for after.

SLAP!

Indigo’s face rocked to one side, but the blow had the desired effect as she registered the sting of pain and Twilight. “Ow! What the hell, Twilight?!”

“I do apologize, Indigo, but I didn't know how else to get through to you.” Twilight took a breath. “First, I am frazzled, yes, but I am trying to be logical. I can have a breakdown when I am home. Secondly, while I know Sunset’s other form was…somewhat feral…I do not believe she is someone to fear. You said it yourself: she trusted you, and she has only ever protected me, at a cost to herself. Whatever we saw, I cannot believe it’s in any way like the monsters in myth it resembles. If anything, I would propose that evidence suggests that it may be like a gargoyle or grotesque, a monstrous figure that wards off evil.”

The other teen listened, nodding slowly. “She did seem to ward off the nurse and principal pretty good…” Her breath left her in a shuddering sigh. “Okay…I…I think I’m okay, Twilight.” She picked herself up off the floor and offered a hand up to Twilight. “…can we still get the hell outta here? This place is giving me the creeps now.”

Twilight grabbed a sample bag from her bag once she was upright. “One second…I don't want to leave those shards behind, even if they seem depowered.” She hastily used the bag to scoop them up, noting that they seemed entirely inert now. “I can keep them in my home lab, in a sealed container. That way, any other lingering energy is not where random people can stumble on it.”

Eyeing the bag with more than a little trepidation as Twilight stored it in her backpack, Indigo shifted her weight restlessly. “Yeah…that's probably smart,” she acknowledged. “…are you sure it's dead now?”

“Mostly? They seem inert—no more glowing or indication of active energy. It should be safe to transport.” Twilight gave the room one last look, and finding nothing further, started for the door. “Come on. We still have to catch the bus before it gets too late. I’m not really interested in walking several miles home, even if it's not as cold anymore.”

Leaving the amphitheater was faster than getting in, though they did have to dodge a pack of teenagers on the sidewalk in Canterlot High sports uniforms on the way to the bus stop. Including a familiar prismatic colored girl that they had just witnessed in the magical playback. For a second, as Twilight and Indigo hid behind a tree amidst a thick collection of bushes, the dark haired teen thought they would get caught by the group—never a good thing when the two of them were in CPA uniforms…except Rainbow Dash’s eyes only lingered on the bushes for a half second before she turned her back and pointed at something across the street, drawing the group’s attention. It gave the two girls a chance to slip away and board the bus that had just stopped a dozen yards away without incident.

“That…was close,” Indigo breathed. “Lucky for us they got distracted.”

“…yeah…” Twilight laughed weakly. “…lucky.” Except she could have sworn that the colorful girl had seen her right before creating a deliberate distraction. Why, she didn't know. Had Sunset told her friends about her? Last she knew, Sunset had been keeping the details of their friendship as much a secret as their romance, partially because of the school rivalry, and partially because of her own sordid past. Had that changed in the last few weeks? More questions she had no answers to—it was starting to get infuriating.

The bus rumbled along its route, stopping numerous times to pick up and disgorge passengers…but about twenty minutes later, Indigo stiffened. “Canterlot High,” she whispered. “…and…you are not gonna believe this. Look.”

Twilight did, and found herself staring at the approaching Wondercolt statue, where her girlfriend stood, talking to Twilight’s doppelgänger…who had a familiar looking dog sitting at her side. As the bus got closer, Sunset shook her head, and smiling, allowed herself to be pulled into a tight, warm hug by the girl who was an inch or so taller than the redhead.

“…she’s definitely a lot taller than you, so not an evil twin,” her friend joked.

She made a face. “Evil twin? Really, Indigo?” Her eyes remained glued to the scene as the bus trundled by the statue, blocking the girl from sight until it had moved past it.

Except when Sunset came into view again, she was alone, hand resting with a sort of fond sadness on the marble plinth of the statue.

The girl who looked like Twilight and had an identical dog was gone, vanished into thin air without a trace.

*hunkers down in a bunker, waiting for the inevitable comment explosion.*

Soooo...Yeah. That happened. Loooooots of important stuff in this chapter, folks. Including the entire reason I didnt gloss over the Rainbow Rocks stuff.

*sips milkshake*

For those in the audience who do speak Spanish, I do apologize for my use of Google Translate--I took three years, and I can remember enough to parse basic text and a lot of vocabulary, but complex sentences are beyond me, and it would have always been textbook anyway, which I know from my own Italian heritage is sooooo far from how people actually talk its hilarious. At the least, I hope the message gets across.

(For those who dont speak it, Indigo is babbling about making a deal with the devil and how her grandma is gonna be so mad, she's gonna have a go at her with the flip-flop.
(fear the mamas and grannies with the flip-flops, people. they're dangerous. ))

Something's going on with Twilight.

Well...more than the fixated on studying magic thing.

Twilight is not having a good week.

Next week will be an interlude...

From the OTHER Twilight's Point of View.

Fun times.