Diamond Tiara leaned forward on the drum stool and rested her front hooves against the drumheads in front of her. After their little fiasco in the gym, some guards from the palace had taken her and Pipsqueak down to the school’s music room and Sweetie Belle up to the principal’s office.

Pipsqueak himself was nearby, leaning against a stack of amps still in their boxes and plucking idly at a guitar he had picked up. It was bright blue with a rounded head and nice, thick strings that he fiddled with.

“How do you play that thing with hooves?” Diamond Tiara asked.

Pipsqueak plucked a few of the strings, playing a little melody. “You love doing something enough and you figure out how to make it happen.”

“Sure.” Diamond Tiara sighed and took her signature tiara off her head, letting her mane fall down in an unorganized mess. “When did you learn to play that thing, anyway? You didn’t play it back in Ponyville.”

“So you say,” Pipsqueak said, “but maybe the bully just wasn’t paying attention?”

Diamond Tiara looked away. “I said I was sorry, okay?”

Pipsqueak grinned and strummed the guitar. “Profusely, in fact. It’s just fun to see you blush.” He stuck his tongue out the corner of his mouth and went back to tuning a guitar he had found.

“I am not blushing!” Diamond Tiara lied.

“But no, I didn’t know it back in Ponyville,” Pipsqueak said. “When we moved back to Manehattan, though, I started to pick it up. The other kids there didn’t like me much, so I just kind of used it to escape. I guess I got pretty good at it, so I auditioned for this school. Rest is history.”

Diamond Tiara shrugged. “Better than my story, at least. Daddy wants me to learn violin and be in a more ‘constructive’ environment, so here I am.”

“Can’t be all bad,” Pipsqueak said. “I mean, you’ve got me and Sweetie Belle here. We’re almost a band now . . . sort of.”

Diamond Tiara picked up a pair of drumsticks and beat them against the snare in a slow rhythm. She let her eyes close a little and the beat settle her mind. “I guess we’re all friends, kind of, but don’t you think we’ve been getting in a whole lot of trouble compared to the average student here? I mean, Sweetie Belle’s practically on trial for that black magic stuff!”

“Oh yeah, well, she’s one of us,” Pipsqueak said.

“Is she?” Diamond Tiara snapped back. “She brought the entire school down on her because of that forbidden magic stuff and now she’s dragged us in too.”

Pipsqueak sighed. “That may be, but the black magic doesn’t stop at her.”

“What do you mean?”

“A big surge like tonight doesn’t just happen out of nowhere. If what we saw was true, she’s been bottling up that dark magic for a while now, and we’ve been playing with her the whole time.”

Diamond Tiara gulped. “So?”

“Hold out your hoof,” Pipsqueak said. “Just trust me.”

The pink filly looked at him for a moment, but did as he said. She held her hoof out until it was almost touching the young colt’s. He smiled and nodded.

“You want to see why we should be worried too?” he asked.

Without waiting for an answer, he closed his eyes and stretched out his own hoof to meet Diamond Tiara’s. There was a moment of silence as Pipsqueak shut his eyes and wrinkled his nose, but then Diamond Tiara’s attention was drawn to her own hoof.

Dancing across the pink appendage, and with a match on Pipsqueak’s hoof, was a small bolt of black magic. It whirled and sparked in the air around her hoof and she could feel it push against her. It felt as if she were holding onto a live wire, the way the sensation spread to her heart and brain.

Instead of letting go, however, Pipsqueak closed the gap between the hooves, grabbing on to her. Diamond Tiara yelped as the electric sensation sparked and built higher inside of her.

She watched, fascinated, as the ends of her hooves almost seemed to distort. A small field of magic surrounded them like water moving through air, coursing and moving in an unnatural way. Yet, to her, it felt as if she was holding . . . drumsticks?

“Wh-What’s going on?” she stammered.

“I found this out the night after we played with Sweetie Belle down here,” Pipsqueak said. “It’s a . . . side effect, I guess.”

“What’s it doing to my hooves?”

Pipsqueak nodded to the guitar that sat beside him, which was glowing as well. “I tried it out and I think . . . it amplifies our music somehow. But it’s stronger when all the instruments are connected instead of separate.”

Diamond Tiara grinned. “So us holding hooves makes us stronger?”

“Well, uh, maybe, I don’t know.” Pipsqueak coughed. “Could you repeat the question?”

The two stared at each other before yanking their hooves away and trying not to look the other in the eye. Diamond Tiara, instead, stared at her hoof and tapped it against the nearby snare drum. It made the same sound as ever.

“So what does this mean for us?” she asked.

“It means,” Pipsqueak began, picking up his new guitar, “that’s we’re stuck with Sweetie Belle, for better or worse. We either go with her or we’ll get tried for treason too, and neither of us is related to anypony famous.”

The doors at the back of the music hall burst open and two stallions from the Royal Guard marched in. They scanned the room until they saw the two teenagers, then motioned for them to come over.

“The two of you have been cleared and free to go,” one guard said.

“What’s going to happen to Sweetie Belle?” Diamond Tiara asked, walking up to the two.

“She will be taken back to Ponyville at the Princesses’ discretion,” he said. “I can give you no further information.” He turned to Pipsqueak. “Hey, did you have that guitar when you came in here?”

Pipsqueak gulped. “Uh . . . yes?”

Before the guards could say anything else, a couple more yelled from down the hall about them needing to move out. The two gave the teenagers one last look before galloping to catch up with their cohorts.

Diamond Tiara and Pipsqueak made their own way out and emerged from the school’s back entrance near Canterlot Castle just in time to see a transport take off from the CMMA and head down toward the valley.

“They’re gone. So what now?” Diamond Tiara asked.

Pipsqueak put a hoof to his chin. “Whatever reason they’re taking Sweetie Belle to Ponyville for, it can’t be good. And from the look of it, she can’t handle her black magic very well. If she gets worse, they won’t hesitate to . . . well, you know.”

Diamond Tiara’s eyes widened. “They wouldn’t!”

“The Princesses are very paranoid and Sweetie Belle doesn’t know how to control herself.”

“But does anypony know how to control the black magic?” Diamond Tiara asked.

“There . . . used to be a student that went here,” Pipsqueak said. “His brother got caught using it and was exterminated, so he dropped out. There was a rumor that he knew black magic too, but was good at hiding it.”

“What was his name?”

“Rumble, and I might just know where to find him.”

The bus soared over the valley between Canterlot and Ponyville. An entire platoon of guards flew alongside the bus for extra security. Sweetie Belle wasn’t sure if it was because Celestia wanted to keep her safe, or if they were there to keep everypony else safe from her. Her hooves were unchained for the moment, though she felt afraid to move so much as a muscle with the way the guards looked at her.

Sweetie Belle’s keyboard sat on her lap, and its weight felt heavier than it had before. It was the weight of the responsibility that had been heaped so suddenly upon her, the kind that tugged her heart into the pit of her stomach. She gulped.

She knew that, far below in the Everfree Forest, whatever nameless terror that had created that black shield was waiting for her, and it would be up to her and her alone to fight it. Her hooves began to tap against the keyboard, and she bit her lip.

Sweetie Belle had never been in a real fight before, not one where anypony truly got hurt. Twilight and the others hadn’t specifically said what she was supposed to do with whoever was inside the shield, but she could guess. She wondered how exactly they expected a teenage filly to do that, especially when her magic seemed to consist of making shields.

A flock of birds flew past the bus, screeching and looking curious as to what a big hunk of metal was doing in the sky. Sweetie Belle envied them. They were free. She was being forced to fight some unknown horror or face death or exile if she didn’t comply. It wasn’t hard to wish she had wings that she could use to just jump out of the bus and fly away on.

There was a loud groan as the bus descended toward the Everfree Forest. The wind above the wild trees wasn’t tamed by any Pegasi, so the path was difficult and unpredictable. The guards grunted and strained to keep the bus upright, and the platoon flying alongside was getting thrown all over the place.

The air seemed to fester with dark thoughts and feelings, like a haze that hung over the forest. Sweetie Belle scrunched up her nose and wondered if it was always that way, or if whatever she was going to fight was causing it. She shivered.

As suddenly as it had come, the winds stopped and the bus circled around its landing zone: a small patch of grass beside the entrance to the forest. Sweetie Belle could see several ponies standing down below, waiting for her.

They stared up at her as the bus landed with a dull thump and the pegasi guards formed up outside the door. With a heavy sigh, Sweetie Belle got up and walked to the front of the bus, then stepped out onto the grass. The blue sky above and warm fall weather felt strange to her, hardly like the grim looks on all the ponies around her.

Besides the pegasi, the ponies were mostly who she expected: Twilight Sparkle, Octavia, and her sister, Rarity, all stood near the entrance to Everfree Forest, waiting for her. Oddly, though, Lyra Heartstrings was with them as well, somepony who she had seen around Ponyville a few times, but hadn’t expected to see gathered with others. Even stranger, she was dressed in a dark hoodie and was carrying a microphone.

Rarity ran over to Sweetie Belle, worry knitting wrinkles onto her face. “Oh, Sweetie Belle, you’re here!”

“Yeah, unfortunately,” Sweetie Belle said while being squeezed into a tight hug. Rarity at least seemed to be self-aware, and released her shortly after. “What is everypony else doing here?”

“We’re your backup,” Twilight said.

“For what?”

“In case you, well . . .”

Lyra stepped forward. “In case you don’t come back.” Rarity glared at her, but she just shrugged.

“Is that what everypony thinks?” Sweetie Belle looked at all three of them. “THat I won’t make it?”

“No, of course not, Sweetie Belle,” Rarity said. “It’s just a precaution. Besides, things are not as bad as we thought. Lyra, tell her.”

The mint green unicorn stood on two legs and puffed out her chest. “I already hit him good for you, Sweetie Belle. I think he limped backed to Zecora’s to recover. If you get on him now, you can knock him flat like it’s nothing.”

“You fought him?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“Heck yeah, I did!” Lyra said. “What do you think I do when I’m not around Ponyville? Octavia here contracts me out to find baddies and mess them up.”

Octavia, who up to that point had remained silent, nodded and spoke up. “She weakened him for you, yes, but the pony inside that shield is gathering power. If you do not attack him now, he will be too powerful for you to defeat, and with that black magic he can spread all across the Everfree Forest, corrupting everything in his path.”

Sweetie Belle nodded. “I understand.”

“Then go. We will be behind you, ready to help how we can.”

A cold wind whipped out from inside the forest, and Sweetie Belle shivered. She took a deep breath, slung her keyboard over one shoulder, and took a step forward. Putting one hoof in front of the other, consciously fighting the urge to run away, Sweetie Belle walked into the forest.

The path through Canterlot had been winding and confusing for Diamond Tiara to follow, but Pipsqueak had seemed to know where he was going, so she kept close to him and tried to to stray too far. The Equestrian capital wasn’t much like how her father had described Los Pegasus and Manehattan—cities that apparently never slept—but instead had pretty much shut down by nighttime. Only a few ponies roamed the streets, and they weren’t the kind that Diamond Tiara would have wanted to find herself alone in an alley with.

They kept walking further and further down the mountain, and the smooth cobblestone path got steeper as they went. Diamond Tiara wondered how Pipsqueak managed to stay balanced with the guitar on his back. All she had were her pair of drumsticks, but she still had trouble keeping up.

Eventually, though, the street smoothed out as it wound around the mountain. The buildings of Canterlot were behind them, and the only thing in front of them was a road lit by a few magic lampposts.

“Are you sure this is where we should be going?” she asked. “I mean, how do you know for sure that Rumble is even still here?”

“This is the only place he’d be,” Pipsqueak said.

“How sure are you?”

“Pretty sure?”

“And if you’re not right?”

He shrugged. “Then we hope for the best.”

Diamond Tiara didn’t know how to respond to that besides following him further down, so she did just that. They at least didn’t have much farther to walk. There was a large outcropping that jutted out of the mountain to the side of the path, and Pipsqueak jumped onto it.

It wasn’t far down, but it took Diamond Tiara a few seconds to gather the courage to follow him. Once she was down, though, she could see a cave that had been dug out below the road, and was currently lit by a small fire on the inside. Sitting around that fire, she could see, was a blue-gray pegasus.

He looked up once he noticed the two of them there, but didn’t show any surprise or fear. He simply stoked his fire and watched them walk into his little cave. “I don’t remember inviting you, Pipsqueak,” he said.

“This is a special occasion,” Pipsqueak said.

“I thought you’d be smart enough to stay away. You’re lucky I even let you know where I am. It was only because of . . . Thunderlane . . . and I don’t want you to hurt that trust.” He glared at Diamond Tiara. “Which you seem to have already broken by bringing her here.”

“Hey, we’re only here because we need your help!” Diamond Tiara said, trotting forward. “We’re not even doing this for ourselves anyway, so you can drop the act.”

Rumble chuckled. “Oh? And who exactly are you here for?”

“Sweetie Belle.”

Like a switch had been flipped, his expression both soured and softened at the same time. He kicked dust and gravel over the fire until it had been put out and stood up. He walked past Diamond Tiara and Pipsqueak until he was outside the cave, standing on the ledge of the outcropping. A cool night wind blew past them, and he looked down into the valley below.

“What’s wrong with her?” he asked.

“Both of the princesses know about her black magic,” Pipsqueak said. “I don’t know what they’re doing, but I heard them talk about sending her to Ponyville for something. Whatever it is, it can’t be good.”

He shook his head. “So you came to me?”

“You’re the only pony around that knows anything at all about black magic. We’re desperate, alright?”

“I can see that.”

Diamond Tiara glared at him. “So will you help us or not? Because if we don’t figure this whole black magic thing out, it’s not just Sweetie Belle that’s in danger.”

She glared at him when, to her surprise, he started to laugh. Rumble he kept looking at them and bending over, laughing like a hyena. “You . . . you two played with her, didn’t you? Got the black magic touch, right?”

“Yeah, we did, but I don’t see what’s so funny about it,” Pipsqueak said.

“Oh, no, no, I guess it’s not, but . . .” Rumble calmed down a little. “Just the two of you have absolutely no idea what you’re doing, and it’s been so long since I’ve met anypony new to black magic that it’s just ridiculous.”

“So will you help us or not?”

He smiled. “That depends.”

“Depends on what?”

“On what I get out of it. Sweetie Belle is a nice girl, but if she’s managed to attract the attention of the princesses there’s only so much I can do. If I help you all, I’m going to be sticking my neck very far out, and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to put it back again.”

“She might die,” Diamond Tiara said, surprising herself in how much her voice cracked. “We can’t let that happen. I haven’t done things that I’ve liked in the past either, but this matters.”

Rumble sighed and paced around the edge of the outcropping. His mouth turned down, then up again. Finally, he gave them a simple nod. “Alright, but I’m going to need an instrument. Just in case this whole thing turns into a fight.”

“And that means . . . we have to walk back,” Diamond Tiara said with a sigh.

“I’ll fly you to the school. Come on.”

The Everfree Forest was, at night, a much creepier place than Sweetie Belle had thought. She had never been dumb enough to venture in so late before, and for good reason. Branches stuck out at odd angles to snatch her up, and malicious shadows hid themselves in the bushes. It was all she could do to not run back.

Sweetie Belle looked behind her, and could no longer see Ocatvia and the rest. She sighed and kept going, more aware than ever of how alone she was. She wished she had taken the time to learn some sort of light spell from Twilight so her horn wouldn’t just sit there and do nothing.

A full moon overhead lit the path in front of her enough so she could see. Not that she quite needed it, anyway. She knew the way to Zecora’s hut like the back of her hoof. Then again, she was glad for a little light to chase away the night.

Sweetie Belle noticed that the closer she got to the hut, the colder the air became. That same feeling she had had when flying over the forest returned, and got stronger the farther she went. Her stomach felt awful and she had to bend over and dry retch into a bush before she could go on.

Still, she kept going. Every time she wanted to turn back, all she could see was the look on Rarity’s face when her sister was banished . . . or worse. Sweetie Belle shook her head and hummed a few chords under her breath.

To her surprise and joy, her horn lit up with pink light, the same as her shield. The darkness on the path scurried away, and even the feeling in her stomach subsided. With a smile, Sweetie Belle kept humming, letting the glow from her horn grow brighter until the trees around her were bathed in pink light.

Just as she was beginning to almost forget about what awaited her, Sweetie Belle rounded the bend to Zecora’s house. She looked at it and gasped. The entire hut and a vast amount of the clearing around it was covered in a large dome even darker than the night. It was pitch black, and she could feel herself almost drawn toward what she knew was black magic.

The air, for a moment, grew still. Her heart started to race, and she knew what lay inside was going to change her. She didn’t know how, and she didn’t know what would happen after, but she knew that she had to face it.

Before Octavia and the rest could catch up to her to stop her, Sweetie Belle took a deep breath and stepped forward. Her body was encased inside black magic for a moment, then she disappeared inside.