Sunset adjusted her backpack as she slipped out of her math class. The more she saw of the atmosphere in the school, the more agitated she was becoming. Her math teacher—who had, even in her worst bullying days, treated her amicably—practically cowered away from her, refusing to meet her eyes and studiously ignored her during the entire lesson, and she’d seen one of the chemistry teachers jump in fright when someone banged loudly on a locker in the halls. Even her earlier attempt to find out how Principal Celestia was doing had proved fruitless and frustrating.

Raven shook her head again at the student. “I’m sorry, Sunset, but the principals are busy in a meeting. I’ll be happy to let them know you stopped by.”

She bit her lip, thinking, even as her ears picked up the rise and fall of voices on the other side of Celestia’s office door. She couldn’t make out what was being said, but it sounded like an argument. “...and you’re sure they won’t be finished any time soon?” Sunset asked the secretary.

“Not with any free time, I’m sorry to say,” the bespectacled older woman admitted. “Things are...a bit hectic right now. A lot of bureaucratic red tape and forms to process.”

Her shoulders slumped. “Because of the Sirens and the magic. I’m sorry.”

Raven arched one eyebrow. “You are not responsible for the choices of others, especially adults.”

The redhead looked at Raven, comparing the serious woman to the mare she had known in her youth. “...so what I heard is true then. A bunch of teachers have quit because of what happened last week, haven’t they?”

Brown eyes met hers with a sort of grim seriousness. “I am...not at liberty to discuss the finer details with a student, but it is likely that there will be some schedule shuffling required for the next semester. Unfortunately, not everyone handles unpleasant events in life as well as they should.”

Sunset warred with herself about the words that were on the tip of her tongue, before deciding to take the chance. “Principal Celestia is one of the ones not handling what happened so well, isn’t she?” the former unicorn asked in a soft voice.

The secretary’s expression remained the same, but Sunset saw confirmation in her eyes, heard it in what she didn’t say. “Principal Celestia has an extremely full plate, which carries its own weight and challenges.”

“That isn’t a no, Miss Raven. Please...I just want the truth. If you can tell me she is handling it just the same as she would any other school-wide crisis, I’ll leave it alone. But I don’t think that’s the case this time. The Celestia I know would do everything she could to make sure those under her care and supervision saw her, knew she was trying to help them, not spend the days hiding in her office.”

The silence stretched between them, before the secretary looked away. “I think we both know you already have the answer you are looking for. I’ll tell Luna you stopped in to check on things. You should get to class before you’re late.”

She shook her head, snorting irritably. She had yet to hear anything from the vice-principal either, and it was getting close to lunch. Sunset was already weighing whether or not she should try to catch either of the sisters after school, or if she should put it off until tomorrow morning. Since she’d agreed to stay the next few nights at Twilight’s house, she needed to do some laundry and snag some clean clothes to bring back with her.

“There she is! Just go ask her!”

Sunset looked up, a gathering of junior high students blocking her path, all looking worried and inquisitive. At the back of the group were Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle. “Um...what’s up?” she asked, shifting her weight to her back foot to give herself a little more space.

The group started looking to each other awkwardly, before Sweetie Belle sighed in exasperation. “They wanna know if the Dazzlings are gone for good.”

“Yeah!” Scootaloo piped up. “We tried to tell them that you guys blasted them good and broke the things they were using to make people do what they wanted, cuz that’s what Rainbow Dash told us!” Then she crossed her arms over her chest, pouting. “They just don’t believe us...”

“Is it true, Sunset Shimmer?” a pale skinned boy with messy brown hair asked. “Are they gone for good?” His lip quivered. “They hurt my favorite teacher, super bad and now she’s gone.” There was a murmur of agreement, and the air was thick with anxious tension.

Sunset took a deep breath, trying to settle her own nerves and push back the sensation of fear prickling at her. Then she offered them what she hoped looked like a friendly smile and not the awkward grimace it felt like. “They can’t use magic like that to hurt anyone anymore,” she confirmed. “When the girls and I fought them, we broke their magic necklaces. Without those, they were no different than a normal kid. So even if you see them, they can’t affect you.”

Another one of the younger children, this one a girl with frizzy hair, reached out and grabbed her wrist. “Can I tell my English teacher that? She was crying yesterday when I got to class, and she looked so scared, like when my baby sister has a nightmare or thinks there’s a monster under her bed.” The girl looked ready to cry herself. “Please? Can I tell her? She’s so nice and fun, and I don’t want her to leave too...and if she hears that it's safe and they can't come back because you made sure to break their magic...maybe it will help?”

Sunset’s heart gave a painful twist, and without stopping to think, she placed a hand on the younger girl’s shoulder and squeezed lightly. “You can tell her. They can’t hurt anyone like that ever again. I promise.” The vaguest sense of magic fluttered around her and the younger children, heavy but…liberating, in a strange way, as if her words had triggered a spell she wasn’t aware she was casting.

The former unicorn swore she could feel the tension seep out of the air like water going down a drain. The brown haired boy smiled up at her. “Thanks so much, Sunset Shimmer! I know I feel better now! I was afraid they’d come back!”

“Um...guys...” Sweetie started, only to be interrupted by the bell.

“Crap! We’re late! If I get another tardy, I’m so grounded!” one of the boys yelped. The pack of junior high students scattered, leaving Sunset alone once more in the halls.

The exchange lingered in her thoughts as she climbed the stairs, lost in thought. So many of the teachers she’d seen today had been out of sorts in one fashion or another, with some jumping at shadows, while others had been short on patience and temper, snapping at the slightest provocation from the students, and still more looked at her—and her friends—like they were either the epitome of evil or much the way she had seen some humans look upon their religious icons. The severity of the difference in reaction between the students and the staff at the school left a bad taste in her mouth—but also a growing sense of determination. This couldn’t happen again…this was Equestria’s fault, and that made it her responsibility to fix what she, her kind, and her homeworld had done to this world and its denizens.

Sunset paused with her hand on the music room door, looking in through the window to see her friends already gathered. They looked relaxed, carefree, with Pinkie already well into devouring her lunch early and Rainbow having an arm wrestling match with Applejack. It made her wonder how much of what she had pointed out to them had really sunk in, or if the magic and mayhem was still mostly a ‘great adventure’ in their minds. She couldn’t do this without them, but she wasn’t sure it was a good idea to let them continue to think of this all as some sort of game.

That in mind, the redhead pushed open the door. “Hey girls,” she said, interrupting their various activities. “Sorry for bailing on you earlier, but I wanted to see what was going on with the principals for myself.”

“Perfectly understandable, darling,” Rarity assured. “What did you manage to learn?”

Shaking her head, Sunset took a seat on the piano bench. “…Things are worse than I thought. The students are mostly okay—the ones that aren’t I suspect will be back to normal by the end of Winter Break, but…I don’t like the way this has affected the teachers. I…I think that the Sirens were a lot more cruel and sadistic with them, and…” she rubbed her neck. “I think it was like what I saw with the principals. It wasn’t the subtler emotional manipulation they used on the students. I think they used active mind-control…and…that they might’ve tortured them.”

Applejack narrowed her eyes. “Whaddya mean, ‘tortured?’” Her hands clenched into tight fists, her shoulders tense and rigid. Rarity set her own lunch aside to reach out and curl pale digits around the blonde’s wrist, slowly getting that fist to relax so she could thread their fingers together and squeeze lightly.

Sunset rubbed her face. “I can’t say for certain exactly what they did—I was with you girls most of the time, and when I wasn’t, I was running interference for you. What I can go by is two things: the reactions of the adults here at the school after the fact, including Principal Celestia’s hiding in her office, and…something similar from Equestria’s history.” Sitting straighter, she took a breath and forged onward. “A long, long time ago…thousands and thousands of years, before even Princess Celestia, ponies were divided. Each tribe: unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies, tended their own territories and looked out for themselves. There was, in the beginning, a sort of tenuous peace. Each tribe needed the others to survive, and they all knew it. Unicorns were responsible for raising and lowering the sun and moon, pegasi managed the weather, and without earth ponies to tend the land, there would not be enough food for everypony. It was a form of Harmony, but a forced one.” This was the beginning of every foal’s first introduction to the Hearth’s Warming Tale, and Sunset could feel herself falling into the familiar cadence of the retelling that was older than she was. “That peace did not last forever. The pegasi and unicorn nations demanded a portion of earth pony crops as payment for the rain and sun that helped those crops grow, and were not unwilling to threaten the other nations with the withholding of those vital parts of life if they didn’t get what they wanted.”

The girls were listening now, watching her with confused interest and trying to figure out where this story was headed that related back to the Sirens. The former unicorn rubbed her forehead and sighed. “Now, if this was just me relating to you the Tale of the first Hearth’s Warming Eve, that’s as horrific as the tale would get….but the fact is, most ponies don’t know the whole story. They never read the first-hoof accounts written from the Warring Tribes Era, because those documents are kept in the palace library--access to them by the general populace is obviously restricted, since not just anypony can wander around the bulk of Canterlot Palace.”

A shudder rippled through Sunset, just the memories enough to make her stomach churn with nausea. “I have read those accounts, and I fully understand why Princess Celestia keeps them restricted to dedicated scholars and those with royal permission, instead of teaching the full truth to the ponies of Equestria. Earlier…when I talked about how…ponies don’t get angry and violent like I do…that wasn’t an exaggeration or a misdirection. So take that into account when I say that the reality of those accounts of the Warring Tribes Era…is not unlike humanity’s ‘World Wars.’ Violence, hatred, torture, atrocity—it was an extremely dark and horrible time in pony history, and there are places in my world that still bear the scars of what ponykind’s ancestors did to each other in their hate and hubris.”

Fluttershy shivered. “What could make them do all that?” she asked.

“Creatures like the Sirens,” Sunset answered firmly. “Powerful, twisted monsters called Windigos, icy beings of air and cold that fed on anger and hate and brought eternal winter and ice in return. Every depiction I’ve ever seen, including the ones from those horrible accounts, described them in ways that were almost identical to those flying hippocampi avatars the Sirens used against us, except less fish scales and they were white and gray and blue, like clouds and snow and ice. They almost destroyed Equestria and all of ponykind, and the lesson we learned there completely changed how our society worked. It was only by accident that we stopped them. You see, the tribes fled the eternal winter and the death that came with it, and all three groups stumbled across the same beautiful, warm, green land…only for the winter to follow when the hatreds and old anger overtook them again. It was in their most desperate and final hour, when the ice had trapped the refugees in a cave, that those who were tired of the fighting came together to spend their last few hours not as enemies, but as friends, that—”

“Wait, wait…” Dash interrupted her. “I know Twilight spouted a lot of stuff about the ‘Magic of Friendship’ and that that’s the source of our superpowers, but…you can’t be serious, Sunset? Do ponies really believe that ‘hugging it out’ fixes everything?”

“Rainbow!” AJ hissed.

“No…it’s okay, Applejack. I can understand where Dash is coming from,” the redhead said, shaking her head in good humor. “I felt that way myself until recently, remember? I asked the same kind of thing from Princess Celestia when I first learned all this. The truth is, Rainbow, yes. A lot of pony response to problems is the friendlier, more diplomatic solutions first, on both big and small levels. Ponies prefer to talk out problems, come to compromises, or if the need arises, use competitions to settle disputes. And a big part of that is because of the Windigos, because when those last ponies spent time as friends instead of enemies, laughing and talking and singing instead of trying to hurt each other or argue, it affected their magic, and that magic lit a fire in their hearts that drove the Windigos away, ending the eternal winter and beginning the era of a unified Equestria, where all three tribes came together to support each other instead of use each other. Ponies commemorate it every year as a mid-winter celebration, to remind us why we ‘hug things out.’ The memory of the way we almost destroyed ourselves went a long way to reshaping our society forever, because even if nopony alive has ever seen a Windigo, in a world of magic and wild monsters, we all know they are extremely possible. There’s an intrinsic link in Equestria between magic and emotion that is well documented, after all.”

Sunset considered it, then elaborated on an earlier point. “In point of fact, the link is so strong that it's why there are still places in Equestria scarred from the Warring Tribes Era. That kind of dark magic seeps into the very earth, poisoning it for hundreds of generations if it’s strong enough…” She searched for a comparison, and muddled through the disasters and atrocities that had overwhelmed her more than once in history class. “…I suppose an apt comparison would be nuclear materials and the radiation they leave behind if they exist in a high enough concentration…Like…um…the power plant that failed in…Russia? The one they went over in world history last year.”

Applejack arched a brow. “Chernobyl?” she drawled.

Right. The one that sounded like something from an essay on the linguistics of obscure ancient yak dialects. “…I think so. Anyway. Point is, dark magic does more than cause immediate danger, and yes, pony culture encourages diplomacy and cooperation over aggression and hostility.” She shrugged. “As you can imagine, I didn’t understand or appreciate Hearth’s Warming before I left Equestria...”

“Okay. So…ponies hug out all their problems. Great. What does that have to do with the Sirens?” The rainbow haired athlete crossed her arms over her chest.

“Ah think she’s talkin’ about how them Windigos were responsible for ponies doin’ terrible, horrible things ta each other, Dash. If they were like those sea-devils, then they twisted their feelin’s up, too. Am Ah right, Sunset?” Applejack had stepped closer to Rarity, more worried now than angry.

“That’s it exactly, Applejack. Windigos at their most powerful could make ponies go against their very natures and torture or kill each other in terrible, horrific ways. The Sirens may have fed on misery and strife instead of hate, but the idea is the same. They fed on negative emotions, and their magic exacerbated and twisted those negative emotions…and they could very clearly control people once they had enough power—that’s what they were doing to the principals, and they made a warped game of it, using it while I was watching to try and hurt me.”

Rarity’s blue eyes were diamond hard as she put the pieces together. “You think they used that mind control on the teachers to make them hurt each other against their will, to make them feel more of those negative feelings that the Sirens dined on.”

Sunset nodded firmly. “That’s exactly what I think.”

“That’s barbaric!” the designer responded, her hand moving to grip Applejack’s arm for support.

Silence fell over the room as the revelation sunk in. Even Rainbow Dash looked like she felt sick, sitting down heavily next to Fluttershy, whose brows were pinched with deep thoughts even as she rubbed Rainbow’s back soothingly. Pinkie’s hair had wilted until the strands were almost perfectly straight, her cupcake half eaten and forgotten on its napkin.

In the end, it was Fluttershy who broke the silence. “…We can’t let this happen again, can we, Sunset? That’s why you’re telling us this—that the things that could come at us here, using magic, they’re horrible and dangerous, and they can hurt people badly if we don’t stop them.”

“But we will stop them!” Dash straightened and punched her fist against her other palm. “We’re going to learn how to use these powers we have, so we can kick the ass of anything that tries this stuff again!”

Running her fingers through her hair, Sunset stood up and faced them all, completely serious. “You aren’t wrong, Fluttershy. I…might be trained in magic, and I can recite hundreds of spells, draw magic diagrams, teach complex magical theory at a level on par with even the best professors at CSGU, and even fill a bestiary with every major magical creature in Equestria, but…I don’t know this magic here, and I can’t do this without you girls. For better or worse, the Elements of Harmony, and whatever magic I’ve managed to access here? They’re a package deal—all or none. We either all stand and defend this world from magical threats, or none of us do.” As Rainbow started to open her mouth, the redhead held up a hand to forestall her commentary. “Let me finish, please. I can’t do it without you girls, but…I don’t want you all going into this with a false sense of what it is we are doing, what we could be up against. This…isn’t a video game, or a movie, or some kind of story. This is real. It’s dangerous. People can get hurt, and if we lose, we could die.” It hurt to bring up, but she addressed it. “I almost killed you all at the Fall Formal. I honestly thought I had, until the smoke cleared. …I was trying to kill Princess Twilight with that fireball—that wasn’t an accident. It was deliberate, and I didn’t care about the collateral damage. That’s the kind of thing we could be facing, at any time.”

“And it won’t be just us in danger. Our friends, our families, the people and places and things you love will be just as at risk from magical threats, because evil like the Sirens? Evil like…like the demon I was at the formal? Those don’t care who gets hurt or how. There are no do-overs, no extra lives, no continues. I need to know you all understand that before you decide whether you’re willing to do this…or if you want to walk away now.”

Five sets of eyes watched her as her speech ended, five girls who mattered to her, five teens with powers they had never asked for being asked to make a choice that the adults of their kind would never believe them ready to make. Sunset felt the tingling of magic building in her soul as she stood before her friends, waiting for the answers they would give.

It was Applejack who stepped forward first, extending a hand. “Yer honesty is appreciated, Sunset…but fact is, life’s not all sunshine and rainbows. Life’s hard work, sweat, blood, and tears, an’ ya get back what ya put in. More’n that, if we don’t fight ta protect our homes an’ our kinfolk, who will? Ain’t seen no one else comin’ down with a case o’ magical powers like us.” She met Sunset’s eyes stubbornly. “Ah’m in. Come Hell ‘r high-water—Apples don’ run scared from what needs doin’.”

Rarity followed half a heartbeat behind her, resting a white skinned hand delicately atop AJ’s. “Applejack is right, darling. We have these abilities that mean we can do something that others cannot, and life isn’t always easy, any more than love or friendship is always easy. If we can give others peace of mind and a chance to live life free from monsters like the Sirens, then I say we have a responsibility to do our best, to fight for those who cannot.”

“More than that…” Fluttershy’s soft spoken tones broke the air. “…it may not always be about fighting. If some of those are like you used to be, Sunset, then…maybe all they need is someone to help them, to show them that there is always a better way... And if they aren’t able to be helped…” she sighed. “…if they are that far gone, and all they want to do is cause pain and suffering to everyone, then it’s kinder to stop them before they hurt more people.”

Rainbow strutted forward, extending a hand alongside the others. “You know I’m in if any of you are. I’m not going to leave my pals hanging…and it’s like I said before, Sunset—Loyalty is about standing up for what you believe in, even if it costs you everything. Live or die, I’m with you guys against whatever darkness that comes our way, and I’m willing to give everything I have to stop it. That’s what heroes do.” Despite the cocky swagger, her face was serious, her eyes lacking the arrogance and bravado she normally projected. “Besides, we’re a team—if we’re going to be doing this, there’s no one I’d rather have with me to do it than you guys! And nothing will change that.”

With each one of her friends that stepped forward, Sunset could sense the magic in the room growing, and blue-green eyes sought out an uncharacteristically quiet and serious looking Pinkie Pie. Bright summer-sky eyes fixed on Sunset in return. “Do you know what the most important thing is?”

The intensity in her voice was startling, and Sunset found herself shaking her head. “...No...?”

Abruptly, Pinkie was inside her personal space bubble—something she seemed wont to do at the weirdest times. “Smiles, Sunset Shimmer! Smiles are more important than anything. They make the world so much better—look at how seeing smiles makes others happy! A baby’s laugh, the smiles when you throw someone a party, the happiness from a random act of kindness to a friend—they make the world brighter! It’s why I try to make others laugh and smile...”

The pink party girl bounced back so she was with the group again, still incredibly serious. “How could I live with myself if I said no? If I didn’t help you girls, then...I’d be the reason there were fewer smiles in the world, the reason it would be darker, filled with a little less good feeling, a little less light. I couldn’t live with myself if I did that.” She stretched out her hand, placing it atop her friends, her hair springing back to its normal frizzy state. “Besides...you girls are my super bestest friends in the whole wide world! No way are we not going to do something this big together!”

Sunset found herself smiling, magic surging through her veins as she stepped forward to join the circle, joining her hand with the rest. When she did, there was light, an aurora of colors that shimmered in the air around them with blinding brightness before dimming to something tolerable. Her ears twitched back in surprise at the sudden display, and she couldn’t stop the snort that escaped her nostrils at the same time. All around them, magic had manifested into the visible spectrum, putting the group of girls at the heart of an ever shifting rainbow and drifting motes of light.

“Whoooa...” Rainbow stared at the colorful display, unconsciously flaring her wings. “This...is new.”

“It’s pretty though,” Fluttershy murmured, tracing her free hand through the light.

“Pretty? It’s simply stunning.” Rarity was awestruck. “It’s also inspiring!”

Sunset studied the magic for a breath longer, before old instincts kicked in and she focused on the energy in her core, trying to channel it into her horn. There was part of her hoping she could use a diagnostic spell, but at this point, she’d settle for even a foal’s shaky levitation as proof of concept. It was hard—her magical reserves were still dangerously low, and on top of the worrying magical exhaustion, her head ached with the strain of trying to channel magic through an alien body, but she could feel it suffusing her horn, generating more light in the process.

“Sunset?” Applejack’s voice broke the silence. “Are ya alright? Ya look...like yer in pai—uh...is yer horn s’posed ta do that?”

She could feel five sets of eyes on her, but she didn’t dare break her focus to open her eyes yet. “I’m...trying to use my magic...it’s...this body doesn’t...have the pathways like a unicorn does...so it’s...harder...” Her pulse pounded in her ears. “I...don’t think I’ve got enough in me right now...to even levitate a pencil...but...what’s my horn doing?”

“Uh..it’s got this red glow around it?” Fluttershy offered timidly.

Air moved close to her face, and Sunset jolted back, losing her concentration as her eyes snapped open, finding Pinkie’s hand inches from her face, reaching towards her forehead. The magic in her horn fizzled out, and she grimaced at the beginnings of a headache. Twisting further away from Pinkie’s inquisitive hand, ears flattening to her skull, she felt her face grow hot from embarrassment. “Pinkie...please don’t touch my horn...”

“Awww...but I just wanted to see what the glowy magic felt like...”

Rarity stepped in as the magic in the air faded away, leaving them all as ordinary teenagers again. “Pinkie, Sunset explained this before. Manhandling that part of her anatomy is inappropriate where she’s from and it makes her uncomfortable.”

Rainbow Dash snickered. “Are you seriously telling that unicorn horns are like a guy’s—”

“Rainbow!” Applejack chastised.

It didn’t stop the athlete from howling with laughter until tears were streaming down her face. “Do...do unicorns compare horn sizes too?” she managed between giggles.

Sunset wanted to sink into the floor. “It’s...it’s not like that! It's complicated, and only a unicorn really understands it!” Her face was burning all the way to the tips of her ears—now human shaped once more—humiliation and mocking laughter echoing in her mind from long ago taunts. How could she explain that her horn had been just one more way for the other foals to measure and find her wanting, pointing to everything about it that made it hers as ‘one more sign’ that she wasn’t worthy of even being Celestia’s student, let alone anything else? She couldn’t even think of an appropriate comparison that humans would really get—it wasn’t like teasing someone about their height or weight. It was something that called into question a unicorn’s very identity as a unicorn, even if it was unfounded and based entirely on prejudice and arrogance, rather than any arcano-biological facts.

“Sunset?” The soft tones interrupted her train of thought. “You...wanted to know what it looked like, right? Here. I...took a picture for you.” Fluttershy held out her phone to the redhead, and Sunset got her first real look at herself ‘Ponied-up.’

“It’s red. Why...my magic isn’t red—it’s never been red,” she realized with confusion.

“Whatever do you mean, darling? Red seems like a very appropriate color for you if you ask me. It fits your fiery coloring and passionate personality.” A white skinned hand touched her arm in concern. “Does red magic mean something bad for you?”

The former unicorn shook her head. “Color doesn’t really mean anything...but...every unicorn’s magic is its own color, and that doesn’t change. Mine was never red. It was always sort of a...turquoise? Somewhere between blue and green…very close to the color of my eyes, now that I think about it.” She rubbed her temples. “I should write to Princess Twilight...See what she can find on the subject...and tell her what I’ve learned.”

She settled onto the piano bench again. “It was hard, but I think with a little practice, I might be able to do some of the most basic spells: minor telekinesis, a light spell, maybe something as complex as a basic diagnostic spell. Simple stuff, though probably with an extremely inhibited range—I’m not sure the human brain can handle pushing the power out that far…but that could just be the fact that I’m still recovering. Still, it does suggest that the physical manifestations of pony traits are more than just for show—we already know Dash and Fluttershy can fly with their wings. I’d like to find out what else carries over.”

“We also ponied up without music,” Applejack pointed out. “An’ Ah dunno ‘bout anyone else, but it felt different ta me this time.”

“It did? That’s...important. It might’ve been because you guys were lacking Princess Twilight... which...makes me wonder how you can pony up at all without her here. She is the Bearer of Magic, and you need Magic for the Elements...or whatever power they left in you guys...to work.”

“Maybe it’s you, Sunset!” Pinkie suggested. “Maybe you represent some super secret magic that means we can pony-up even without Twilight! You did wear her magic crown thingy for a while, even if that was when you were all ‘grrrrrr! Curse you Twilight Sparkle!’”

Wincing, Sunset sighed. “I doubt that, Pinkie. As far as I’ve ever heard, there were only ever six Elements of Harmony, and I’m not a bearer for any of them. I’m not even sure why I pony-up at all.”

“Who cares if you represent some magical element in pony land?!” Rainbow dropped next to her and threw an arm around her shoulders. “Obviously, the magic here in ‘human land’ thinks you belong with us, and that’s all I need. We’re a team, Sunset, all six of us! And we’re gonna figure out how to make this magic work!” Rainbow’s stomach chose that moment to add its two cents, making it the soccer star’s turn to blush. “Uh...after lunch, that is.”

Laughter filled the music room.

Posting this a bit early because you guys might be getting a double update this week. This chapter, the one before, and the Interlude coming up are...kinda all meant to be one block of events, so I'm thinking about putting up the interlude too if I can finish the editing.