“I can’t believe they got to Principal Celestia and Vice-Principal Luna too…” Fluttershy commented sadly, all of them arranged around the Wondercolt statue outside. They weren’t even bothering to go to class—whatever the dark magic was that the “Dazzlings” had used in the lunchroom was hanging over the whole school as a haze, and the teachers were not even bothering to try and hold classes. Everyone was simply encouraged to prepare for the “Battle of the Bands” instead. It was chaos, and the six of them had retreated to the statue to be able to hear themselves think.

The soft words only served to bring to mind the way the administrators had looked at Sunset, fighting against the magic dominating their wills, locked inside their own bodies and minds, aware and powerless to stop what they were doing. Knowing that hurt far worse than the nasty words the magic had made them hurl her way—especially because she had been guilty of doing the same thing to them only a few months prior. She had to help the girls stop this, to free them from the ensorcellment holding them prisoner.

—Pretty ironic, don’t you think? You, of all ponies, being so concerned about others and how they feel. And about a bunch of small minded, nasty apes who hate you? What are you becoming, Sunset Shimmer?— Stupid Little Voice mocked her, but its question came off as more curious than anything.

Somepony better, she bit back at the dark corner of her mind, trying to push away the self-loathing nipping at her hocks. Somepony that deserves the friends I have now. The pony or person that Sparky sees me as. The pony she had been was a terrible wretched thing, and she had no desire to go back. The voice knew that as well as she did. That pony hadn’t cared who she hurt, because better to hurt someone else before they had a chance to hurt her—that attitude horrified her now, made her insides squirm uncomfortably. Seeing how those same type of actions from another party twisted and hurt individuals that she respected and liked sparked something in her chest, a resolve to set things right, and to do anything she had to in order to stop what was happening.

Not that that determination was doing much good at that moment. Sunset was leaning against the side of the statue that held the closed gateway, taking some measure of comfort from the dim, dormant sense of the connection to her homeland, while wracking her brain for any sort of information she may have read from the archives that could have helped them understand what they were facing. Unfortunately, most of the detailed stuff on dark magic and even the texts on magic that fell within the spheres and schools that affected the mind, memory, or emotions were located in the Restricted Section, and she’d only snuck in there for a month or two before the Princess had caught her. It was hardly enough time to have researched anything useful, especially because her goal at the time had been Ascension, not mind powers.

Even with her education as both CSGU’s top student and as Celestia’s protege, she could not remember any concrete historical account of a pony with strong skills in mind based magics, nor had she known anypony capable of those magics other than perhaps Princess Celestia herself and maybe Princess Cadenza….who supposedly had the ability to generate or encourage positive emotions in others. Though how much of that was magic and how much was just the Cadenza’s personality, Sunset wondered. The human-born Cadence had no alicorn level magic at her disposal, and she was completely capable of spreading joy and positivity—she did it at the Sparkle house among friends and family just as much as she did it on the radio and on her social media.

An angry sigh escaped Sunset. She hated feeling so useless—she was the magical genius, the prodigy protege of an immortal goddess, who had, in her time, been one of the most powerful unicorns in the world…and she was at a loss. Sunset had nothing helpful she could offer her friends to save their classmates, their school, from the twisted energies that had taken over and seemed to be growing stronger. Right now, it seemed like the six of them were the only ones unaffected by the mental manipulation.

As if reading her mind, Rainbow complained, “They’ve gotten to everybody…”

Pinkie hung off the edge of the plinth, her hair bouncing with every movement. “Noooot everybody!” she pointed out cheerfully.

Applejack frowned, rubbing her chin in thought. “Pinkie Pie’s right,” she mused. “We were there when the Dazzlin’s were singin’ an’ we weren’t affected. It's like we were protected somehow…”

Sunset opened her mouth to explain just how powerful the Elements of Harmony were. The humans didn’t have any kind of equivalent in their own histories or stories as far as she’d found, but she knew that the Elements were the most powerful artifacts ever discovered or used in all of Equestria’s history. Even gods like Discord had no chance against them. The fact that the girls had all channeled their power and still had some lingering traces in their systems put them head and shoulders above any magic their world could muster to throw against them. As powerful as these Dazzlings were, they were nothing compared to even a single Element from the Elements of Harmony, let alone a nearly complete set. It was like comparing a half dead flashlight to the majesty of the sun.

Rainbow Dash bounced a soccer ball on her head, interrupting the former bully before she could get a word out. “So let’s take them down!” Her expression grew cocky and savage. “It's not like we haven’t tangled with dark magic before and totally whooped its sorry butt!” She caught the ball at the same time she furrowed her brows and glanced Sunset’s way. “Uh…No offense.”

Irritation flared, and a bit of her old bitchiness crept into Sunset’s response, her expression twisting into a grimace. “None taken. Again.” It was really starting to get old, the constant potshots at her, even if they were accidental. She was starting to get tired of everyone other than her girlfriend rubbing her nose in her past like one might a puppy’s nose on a wet spot on the carpet. She settled for glaring at the ground like it had personally wronged her.

Fluttershy spoke up, probably the loudest she’d been in a while. “But that was when Twilight was here,” she pointed out, and Sunset leaned around the statue to look at her, trying to ignore the way her hand itched to pull out her phone and see if the nerdy girl by the same name had responded to her earlier message. Meanwhile, the animal lover looked at a ladybug crawling on her finger. “There may be some kind of magic inside us, but it only comes out when we play music. I sure don’t know how to use it to…whoop anyone’s butt…” She watched the ladybug fly off.

Rarity frowned, carefully applying polish to one manicured fingernail. “If only we could get a message to Twilight. Maybe she could tell us how to break the spell the Dazzlings have cast on our friends…”

Rainbow scowled, bouncing her ball off the marble plinth above Rarity’s head, making the designer jolt and smear polish down her arm. “Well that’s not going to happen. The portal’s closed.”

One more sign that she was proving to be useless in the one area she should be able to help. Sunset winced, leaning back against the marble. The Princess probably would have been a better choice; if she was anything like Sparky, she probably had all kinds of obscure magical texts and facts memorized, and could name even the most inane factoids from the most ancient legends. The girls needed Princess Twilight Sparkle. What they had to work with was Sunset Shimmer.

Then Rainbow made a comment that gave her an idea.

“And I get the feeling they don’t exactly have cell phones where she’s from.”

She furrowed her brows, scratching at her cheek. That would have been a useful thing, interdimensional phones that could communicate regardless of the distance in space and time, or in this case, the difference in multi-spatial dimensions through the fabric of a potential multiverse with a serious case of time distortion on one end. Although, in Equestria, it probably wouldn’t have taken the form of a phone. Ponies sent messages long distance via quill and parchm—

Her eyes lit up as she suddenly smiled. “I may have an idea how we can get in touch with Princess Twilight!” she exclaimed, excitement in her tone. It was an idea so crazy, it just might work.

The group crowded around Sunset’s locker while she dug frantically through a box in the bottom of it. She knew she had brought it with her—of all her possessions, it had been one of the things that she’d cherished the most, even when she and the Princess had been fighting bitterly. There were so many memories tied up in its pages. Her fingers brushed the leather of the cover, and she pulled it free, feeling the familiar weight as she did. The smell of home reached her nostrils, of ink and old parchment and the lingering odors of events…the faint scent of hayfries from the time she’d dripped oil on the pages, the scent of herbs from her alchemical training, the lingering touch of her own shampoos and soaps.

She stood with the thick tome in hand, turning towards her friends. “When I was Princess Celestia’s student back in Equestria, she gave me this.” One amber skinned hand wiped the thick layer of dust from the soft, high quality leather cover, the inlaid metal impression of her cutie mark’s eight rayed sun warm to the touch. Sunset tried to keep the emotion from over taking her voice, fighting the bittersweet ache in her heart that cried out to talk to the only mother she’d ever known, to at least apologize. “Even after I abandoned my studies, I held onto it…” The former unicorn hugged the book as if it would serve as a substitute for the mother-figure she didn’t want to admit she still missed. “Deep down…I guess I always knew I was making a big mistake, and I still wanted to have a way to reach out to her...” She flipped it open, leafing through the pages until she came to the first blank page in the journal. “Maybe it still works.” The feeling of magic thrummed softly in the pages, filling her with hope as she laid her palm on the smooth parchment.

“That’s a book, darling,” Rarity’s voice broke into her thoughts, causing her to look up. The designer waved a hand. “What do you mean ‘maybe it still works?’”

It took her a second to realize that she would have to fully explain, since humans had no frame of reference. She smiled, still filled with the bittersweet joy in her heart. “It used to be that if I wrote something here, it would appear in the pages of a book back in Princess Celestia’s library.” Her eyes dropped to the pages again. “If I get a message to her, then she can get a message to Princess Twilight.”

“So what’re you waiting for?” Rainbow cried, dangling a pen before her. “Get to writing!”

She stared at the pen for a long moment, suddenly more nervous than she’d been in a long time. What if Celestia had thrown away the book? What if she didn’t answer? What would she say to the mare who’d raised her, to whom her last words had been ones of hate and spite? Would Celestia even listen to what she had to say? Her fingers closed around the pen, and she looked down at the book, sighing heavily. She had to at least try, not for herself…but for her friends. “….Been a long time since I’ve written these words…” Starting was the hardest thing she’d ever had to do, but once the pen touched paper, the words began to flow, almost of their own accord.

‘Dear Princess Celestia…’

‘I know I have no right to contact you at all, let alone ask you for anything. I was nothing more than an arrogant, power hungry student who thought I deserved far more than I ever earned, and in the end, I ruined everything and blamed others for it. I know better now, and I’m sorry for everything I said and did to you. You were right, all along, but I was too blind and foolish to see it.

‘But I’m not writing for myself. I don’t deserve mercy or kindness or any form of clemency and consideration from you. I’m writing on behalf of my friends…and they really are my friends, even after everything I did…I need to get in contact with Princess Twilight Sparkle for them, because something has shown up here, in this world, magic that shouldn’t be here, and I’ve tried, but I don’t know who or what these three girls are or how to stop them…and if we don’t find answers, they’re going to hurt my friends.’

‘I don’t care how angry you are at me, or what happens to me in the end…I deserve any punishment I get for everything I did before I left…but please, don’t punish my friends because of me. Pass my message onto Princess Twilight. Tell her that there are three females here, in possession of powerful dark magic that can warp the minds and emotions of others using their voices in song, and that they seem to draw off energy from those they affect. It's powerful enough that it's affected the whole school other than myself and the girls, and it’s getting stronger. I’ve never encountered this kind of magic before…but…it’s dark, very dark, and it doesn’t seem to have an upward limit on how many they can effect at once. It’s not a type of magic I know, but there is something about it that reminds me of Equestria, I just can’t place what. Without a horn, I have no way to use anything other than innate senses, and human materials cannot be used to build any decent kind of thaumometer to help either.’

‘Sunset Shimmer.’

When she lifted the pen, she looked at the others, her eyes damp. “We…we have to wait, now. I don’t know if it’ll work, but in theory…” She wiped her eyes. “In theory, the magic is still active in the book, and even closed the connection between the two worlds still exists where the portal should be. I can sense that much when I’m near the statue.”

Warm hands touched her shoulders, arms, and back, solidarity and support from the five girls. She gave them a half smile, sniffling. “I’m sorry. It’s just…I didn’t part with her on the best terms. It was…difficult to write that letter.”

“Darling, we understand…” Rarity reached over and tipped her chin up so blue eyes could meet hers. “…and we thank you. You did this for us.”

Wiping the last of the moisture from her eyes, she tucked the book into her bag. “I need to go check something…I’ll meet you girls out front in just a bit?” She needed to breathe and get away, plus there was something important she needed to do that she couldn’t with all of them present.

“O’course, Sunset. We’ll be out by the statue when yer done. C’mon, y’all.” With a tip of her hat, Applejack rounded the others up and urged them towards the exit.

Fifteen minutes and a trip to the restroom later, and Sunset locked the door to her secret study room in the library. It was the only place on the whole grounds where she was sure she wouldn’t be overheard, and she was going to take advantage of it. One hand retrieved her phone from her jacket pocket, and she scrolled to the most important contact in her list. The girls might be desperate to hear from the Princess, but there was only one Twilight she wanted to hear from right now. A glance at the clock told her that her girlfriend should be firmly ensconced in her own private lab at her school, working during a free period on her ‘independent projects.’

It rang three times before there was a click and that wonderful voice reached her ears. “Sunny? You never call me this early. Are you okay?”

“Sparky…” she exhaled, letting the voice wash over her. “…I’m fine…well…not fine fine, but I’m not hurt. Nothing’s happened to me.” She rubbed her face. “It’s…hard to explain.”

The rustling of papers came through in the background, along with the creak of a chair. “I’m listening…”

“It's…something’s come up. It's something I can’t really talk about right now, but it’s an emergency, and I need to be here. The girls and I...we’re all…kind of banding together on this because it’s not something that can or should be handled alone. After how they’ve…stood up for me, been my friends despite everything awful I did to them in the past, I feel like I need to be here to do everything I can to help them. I'm not sure how quickly it can be resolved either, so it means I might have to miss our weekend plans…” She felt terrible for the pseudo-lie and the prospect of being denied Friday night dinner and the warmth of the smaller form tucked to hers in bed was just one more layer of misery heaped on her head.

“Oh wow. I’m sorry to hear that something bad has happened…but Sunset? I’m proud of you. You’re being a good friend by being there with them. That’s what real friends do…” Twilight’s beaming smile was evident in her voice. “…remember that when you doubt yourself, okay?”

Twilight was proud of her—those words filled her with happiness and warmth like nothing else could, and if the girl had been in the room with her instead of across town, Sunset would have kissed her until her knees gave out. “…I…I will, Sparky…Thank you…for understanding…and for being you. It…means more than you know, to hear you tell me that.” She sank shakily to a beanbag. “And I’m sorry if I have to miss out Friday. Tell your family that, please?”

“Of course I will, and…if it's appropriate, give your friends hugs for me too? Something that sounds as serious as you’re making it out to be is something that tells me they’re going to need all the hugs and support and friends they can get.” There was a pause, like Twilight thought about saying something else, but she continued after with, “If you need me, to recharge, or talk or clear your head, call me, okay? I won’t leave my best-friend-slash-girlfriend without support of her own.”

Sunset blinked back sudden tears. “You are so much more than I deserve, Sparky.”

“I still disagree. You deserve far more than you realize, Sunset Shimmer, and I won’t let you talk badly about yourself where I can hear you. You’re doing everything right, and you’ve come a long way from who you used to be, in such a short time. You should be proud of yourself too.”

“I wouldn’t have made it this far without you,” she rasped around the lump forming in her throat. “I wouldn’t know how to even be a friend at all if you hadn’t shown me what one was.”

Laughter, happy and bright, filled her ears. “I told you that I’d show you. Next time maybe you’ll believe me?”

“Don’t get a big head about it, nerd,” she snarked back, using the sarcasm to get her emotions under control. “I know where you’re ticklish.” Then she sighed. “I’ve got to go. They’re waiting for me, but I snuck off to call you. I…needed to hear your voice. With everything, it's been a rough day, worse than normal.”

“Okay, Sunny. Remember what I said? I can text it to you as a reminder if you need it.”

“I will. I’ll talk to you soon, Sparky.”

“Bye!”

She lowered the phone, slumping in a form of relief and allowing that to sink in for several minutes before she got up, collected her things, and went to rejoin the girls by the statue.

They’d been sitting by the statue for hours, waiting, thinking, and talking. Rarity was now taking the chance to do Fluttershy’s nails, applying polish after some deft use of a nail file, while Applejack sat atop the plinth with Pinkie, engaged in a rather intense round of poker. Rainbow had been practicing her soccer, but even she had given up on that after a while, and sat with her back to the marble not far from Sunset.

As for the redhead, she’d been drawn into idly flipping back through the book, reading over the old correspondence between herself and the Princess, of the hours and hours of conversations on her lessons, as well as her personal life. It brought back a lot of memories, and with her anger and hate washed away, Sunset could look back on them and remember the good parts…could remember why she’d wanted so badly to be the Daughter of the Sun, how much she’d loved Princess Celestia, and how, in the best times, she had truly believed that the Princess might just love her back. It filled her heart with a bittersweet ache and nostalgic longing, a desire to feel those glorious white wings around her in a soft, pillowy hug just once more, just like when she was small and confronted with something beyond her ken.

Rainbow Dash let out a sound of frustration. “I’m starting to think she’s not coming…”

The correction—that they were waiting for her to contact them, that a visit was likely too much to hope for—died on Sunset’s tongue before she could speak. The portal within the marble sang against her senses, open and alive and letting Equestrian energy fill the immediate vicinity. She jolted to her feet as something burst through the barrier and landed hard a short distance away, moving towards it with the other girls.

Purple skin and dark hair met her gaze, and instinct and subconscious association filled her heart with warmth and joy, enough that she found her own voice crying out in stereo with the other girls, though she was the only one whose heart meant a different person. “Twilight!” Her body moved without conscious direction, carrying her to the side of the form that was recovering on hands and knees, her face breaking into a full smile when the figure spoke.

“Oof….I’m back…” Twilight told them sheepishly, before she noticed the amber-skinned hand being held out to her.

Sunset smiled down at her, hand held out in offering, her brain still not entirely caught up to the reality of the situation. Familiar purple eyes met hers, eyes that she knew better than any others, narrowing in wary mistrust, hand hesitating to take hers. The bubble broke, and it took everything Sunset had not to flinch, to not show how much it had stung to have that face look at her like that, even as her brain reminded her that this was Princess Twilight, not Sparky. The affection and excitement in her died away, and her smile dropped away to a hurt frown before she could even try to school it into a neutral mask.

The princess looked back and forth between Sunset’s face, her hand, and the other girls several times, like she wasn’t entirely sure if it was safe, and was looking to them for some sort of cue. It brought Sunset’s old friends guilt and shame back to the surface, and she struggled to hold on to the words Sparky had uttered in her ear mere hours before. Eventually, a lavender hand took hers, allowing her the opportunity to help the alicorn-girl to her feet, trying to offer her a hesitant smile and dispel her worries.

Dusting herself off, Princess Twilight looked Sunset Shimmer over, eyes studying her intently, searching her face for something the redhead couldn’t identify. She seemed to be satisfied with whatever she saw, the edges of her lips quirking upwards. Sunset found herself rubbing the back of her head, not sure how to break the ice with someone wearing her girlfriend’s face…especially since the last time she’d been around her, she’d been doing her level best to murder the princess.

It ended up being a moot point, as five other bodies came hurtling forward to practically tackle the new arrival in a massive hug. Sunset took two steps back to avoid at least one flying leg and three flailing arms, and in that moment, looking upon the group of six, she felt extremely awkward and more unsure of her place than ever. The girls had told her she was one of them, but was there really a place for her, or was she just filling the Princess’ spot when Princess Twilight couldn’t be there? In the privacy of her own thoughts, riddled by guilt and anxiousness, she freely admitted that the princess knew as much or more about magic than she did, and she’d been their friend first—and it was very clear that this Twilight Sparkle didn’t trust her very much. Sunset wanted desperately to help…but what could she do that a demigoddess couldn’t?

So. Couple of things here, just for a bit of clarification.

Mind Magic: An observation I made early in the show that seems to hold fairly steady through most of it is that not a lot of ponies are capable of magic that fucks with mind/thought/emotions, and the ones we do see doing it either are extremely powerful, alicorns, or using some sort of artifact to boost their power because EEEVIL. Examples, by the time the first Equestria girls movie happens pretty much consist of Princess Cadence (who has the ability to project positive emotions and transform negative ones into positive ones, seen both on-screen and in her comic backstory), Luna (Dreamwalking is a form of mental magic that involves invading the minds of others), Celestia/Sombra/Twilight (the weird crystal manipulation in the Crystal Empire requires manipulating what you're feeling and the emotions you project), and lastly, Sunset herself, when she puts on the Crown (she mind controls the student body, and amusingly, later in canon develops Empathy/Telepathy, suggesting she had the potential all along.) Its just not a sphere of magic you see ponies messing with a lot, and even minor spells that affect such things (Lesson Zero, anyone?), are over powered and a bit disastrous. Ergo, I just sort of followed the idea that its not terribly common because it requires a certain threshold of power to be met, and because from a cultural standpoint, manipulating the minds and emotions of others with magic is probably highly frowned on.

Power Escalation/Power Creep: Something I'm not a huge fan of in shows/books/movies is a DBZ style power escalation. So I'm putting the power ceiling out from the get go. The Elements of Harmony are god-tier artifacts, in and of themselves, capable of dealing with threats like a Chaos God, and giant magic sucking centaur-devils. We know this. We also know how they work/what they require to work, on a basic level. Fantastic. But it'll be used here through the filter of a group of teenage girls, and I've already got their powers and magical limitations mapped out. There won't so much be "power creep" as the girls learning to use what they have practically, effectively, and as a team. Their power levels won't go up or down much, once what is going on stabilizes--the difficulties will derive from mastery, application, and...pardon the pun, harmony.

Temporal Discrepancy: It gets mentioned here, but to clarify, yes, there's a time distortion between the two worlds, and yes, I've developed a backstory as to why that is too. I have plans, you see. Big plans.

Also, Sunset's emotional roller coaster really begins! Gotta be really weird to have someone you used to hate walking around with your girlfriend's face. (There's a Xena quote this reminds me of, amusingly.)