//------------------------------// // Chapter 20 (Edited by: Moonriseoversunset) // Story: You Will Never Be Alone // by Leo Luce //------------------------------// "There you are," Rarity said when they exited the school in search of Sunset. Sunset was sitting on the staircase with Snowdrop, looking at the road. Sunset looked up and saw the girls. "So, what happened? Did you make it?" Sunset asked, already knowing the answer. "Actually, we passed," Applejack said. "Wait, really?" "Yes, isn't that awesome?" Rainbow said. "See, we can still make it. So don't worry," Fluttershy said, sitting next to Sunset while she gave the fire-haired girl a hug. Sunset smiled at her as a blush slowly spread across her face. "She's right. Let's go practice before the final round," Rainbow suggested. "You guys go on ahead. I'm waiting for someone," Sunset said. "Who are ya waiting for, sug?" Applejack asked what was on everyone's mind. Before Sunset could answer, the guttural sounds of an engine caught the attention of the girls. A black Mustang Shelby gt500 rolled up in front of the school and parked. The roaring engine cut off, and the door opened to reveal a woman. The woman had turquoise hair and green eyes that were predatorial and seemed to glow even the midday sun. Her glare became all smiles when she saw the group of girls. Sunset quickly got up with Snowdrop and moved forward with Fluttershy walking behind her. "Hey Chrys, glad you came," Sunset said, smiling. "Hey, Sunset, Cutie Pie," Chrysalis said, greeting Sunset and Fluttershy. Fluttershy blushed and hid behind her hair while Sunset and Chrysalis giggled like schoolgirls. All the girls looked at them dumbfounded. Except- "CHRYSALIS!!" They heard Twilight shout as she ran forward and pulled Sunset and Snowdrop back, while Spike growled from behind them. "Get away from her." "T-Twilight?" "Whoa whoa, what's up with you?" Chrysalis asked. "What's up with me? What did you do to Sunset? Are you working with the sirens?" "What? No. I'm just here to take Snowdrop." "And what are you going to do with her, huh? I'm-" "Twilight! Calm down." Sunset said, pulling Twilight back. "What's going on?" "'What's going on?', do you even know who she is?" "Yeah, I know. She's very close with Luna and Celestia. Why does that- Wait, do you know her counterpart?" "Yes, I do. Her name is Queen Chrysalis of the changelings. She tried to sabotage my brother's wedding and take over Equestria." "Wait, wait, you are telling me my counterpart is a villain? A usurper?" Chrysalis asked, confused. "Yes, so I know you too are a bad person," "Hey, wait, Twilight. You can't decide. You don't even know her, aren't you leaping too fast. Look, I understand what you're feeling, ex-student of a princess whose counterpart is my mother. How do you think I felt when I ran and was met with a human version of Celestia? Listen, I don't know anything about Queen Chrysalis back in Equestria, but I can guarantee that she is not a bad guy," Sunset said. "How do you know?" "Because she's been a longtime friend of Mom and Aunt Luna. She's also the one that did my paperwork so mom can adopt me. She's the reason that I'm a person in this world." Sunset said. "Also, I'm a special agent," Chrysalis said, showing her badge to Twilight. "Oh…" Twilight said, embarrassed. "Twilight, from what I've seen, things are not completely parallel between our worlds," Sunset said. And Twilight noted a tiny little detail that everyone missed in that sentence. Sunset said, our worlds. "I'm so sorry about that, Chrysalis," Sunset said, looking back at Chrysalis. "It's okay. So, Twilight is the Princess you told me about." "Yeah," Sunset said. She then looked back and held Snowdrop's hand, and guided her forward. "Snowdrop, remember back at the party, Luna was waiting for someone?" Snowdrop nodded. "This is her, Chrysalis," Sunset said, introducing Chrysalis. "Hey kid, Snowdrop, right? Sorry I wasn't able to join the party. I had a lot of work to do," She explained. "I- It's okay," Snowdrop said. "Snowdrop, I'm going to leave you with her, okay? I don't want you anywhere near when the final round takes place." "But-" "No buts," Sunset said, placing her finger on Snowdrop's mouth. "I don't want anything to happen to you. Chrysalis is a good person. She'll protect you for me," Sunset said before getting closer to Snowdrop's ear and muttered with a smile, "She's also Luna's special someone." Snowdrop smiled with her. "What did you say?" Chrysalis asked. "Oh, nothing," Sunset said with a knowing smile when she looked at Chrysalis before pulling Snowdrop closer to Chrysalis. "Snowdrop, don't worry. I will bring them back okay. One way or another," Sunset said with determination. Snowdrop responded by hugging Sunset. After leaving Snowdrop with Chrysalis, the girls all went to have one final practice before the final round. The girls got their instruments and began to set everything up. "Um… Sunset?" Sunset heard Rainbow call to her. "Yeah, Dash?" "Look, uh… sorry for what happened earlier. You know, blowing up on you like that," Rainbow said, rubbing the back of her neck. "No, it's okay." "But it's not. We should have known how much this was affecting you too." "Yeah, though I probably could have handled it better. This is exactly why we need to stop them," Sunset said as she and Rainbow joined the other girls. "Now that I think about it, it doesn't make sense. We were awful back there. Doesn't anyone else think this is strange?" Fluttershy asked, tuning her tambourine. "Very strange," They heard Trixie saying from behind. Turning around, they saw Trixie with her bandmates. "What are you doing here, Trixie? Pretty sure losers are supposed to be up there in the cheap seats." Rainbow said, trying to irritate Trixie, and nobody noticed the one with the pink hair sneak towards a lever. "The great and powerful Trixie is the most talented girl in CHS. It is I who deserve to be in the finals." Trixie said, snapping her fingers at the end. This caused her bandmate with the pink hair to pull the lever, giving the girls no chance to react. The floor beneath them gave way when a trap door opened. "See you never…" Trixie said when the trap door was slowly closing. It had been hours since Trixie trapped them beneath the stage. Rainbow kept trying to open the door by force, which only gave her a sore arm. "Give it up, Rainbow. It's not gonna open. You've been trying this for hours." Applejack said, stopping Rainbow. "Maybe it doesn't matter if we are trapped down here. I don't think the counterspell would have worked anyway," Twilight said with a resigned look on her face. "'Course it would've worked Twilight. Assuming a certain band member didn't try to hog the spotlight, the whole time we were trying to play it." Applejack said, accusing Rainbow. Thus, the girls began to argue with each other. Twilight slipped into the back of the room and slumped down in defeat. Sunset watched all this happening in front of her as she felt the dark magic swirl around them. It kept gathering and slowly filled the room. When suddenly, it clicked. "STOP! Please stop!" Sunset shouted over the voices, quickly silencing them. "This is what they've been after all along. They are feeding off the magic inside you." "How can they feed off the magic? It's the magic of friendship," Applejack said. "Can't you see, there's no friendship here? Ever since you started this band, you've been letting little things get to you," Sunset began to explain. "I never said anything because I didn't feel like it was my place. Not when I was new to this whole friendship thing. I still have a lot to learn. But I know that if you don't work out even the smallest problem right at the start, the magic of friendship can turn into something else," Sunset said as all the girls looked aside, contemplating what she said. "I can't believe all this tension was happening right under my nose, and I didn't realize it. All I've done since I got here is let you down. I'm supposed to be the one with all the answers," Twilight said sadly. "No one is supposed to have all the answers," Sunset said, holding Twilight's shoulder. "But you can count on your friends to help you find them." 'maybe… you don't have to do this… alone?' "I think you already have," Twilight said. "Come on. First, we need to get out of here." "Great. I don't think pushing the door is going to help any further. We need something else," Sunset said. "Alohomora…" They heard Pinkie say, pointing a stick towards the door. Suddenly, the door opened. "How did you-" Sunset stopped when she saw Spike walking in with Vinyl Scratch behind him. "Sorry I took so long. I had to find someone who wasn't under the sirens spell," Spike said, pointing to Vinyl Scratch, better known by her stage name DJPon3. "Why isn't she under their spell?" "Never takes off her headphone?" Spike said. Once getting out, the girls quickly got ready and went to a good spot to sing their song, which happened to be a hilltop in front of the amphitheater. Though the problem is without any amplifiers, it was just a little too far despite being a good spot to cast the spell. "How are we supposed to play over them from up here?" Rainbow asked, but her question got answered as DJpon3 honking from inside her car. Which turned into a DJ booth, and it left many questions to be answered. With everything in place, the girls began to sing the counterspell, and to the joy of Fluttershy, the counterspell was one of her songs. Everyone was able to witness a true battle of the band. In the beginning, the battle was going great for the Rainbooms. They transformed into their pony forms quickly with spectacular colors. To counter their attempt, the Dazzlings used their power to make spectral sirens of themselves and attacked the Rainbooms with the power of their voice and magic. Rarity and Fluttershy were able to use their magic to stop Aria and Sonata's sirens. But when Twilight tried to attack Adagio, she reacted quickly and countered Twilight. Then the remaining sirens joined the attack. The joint spell was powerful enough to knock the Rainbooms down, and Twilight lost grip of the microphone, which dropped next to Sunset. "No… why isn't it working... why don't we have enough power… is this because I don't have my crown…?" Twilight thought. Then she looked at Sunset, who picked up the mic. "No… that's not it," "Sunset! We need you!" Twilight shouted. Sunset looked at the microphone in her hand. Then she looked towards where her parents are taking a seat in front of the crowd. Determination to save her family filled her heart. She walked up to the girls and took off her jacket, readying to stop the Dazzlings. Vinyl started the music. And then she sang. She didn't know how she knew the lyrics, but she did. The girls quickly joined her. And then it happened. Sunset was suddenly lifted off the ground. She felt magic slowly engulfing her before transforming into her pony form, like the girls. Her human ears turned into pony ears, her hair grew in length, and a familiar horn grew on her forehead. Once her transformation was complete, the girls joined her up in the air, and they all began to glow in white light. A pillar of rainbow erupted from behind them, and a seventh color, red, joined it. Sunset looked in disbelief before her vision suddenly turned white. Sunset brought her hand to cover her eyes from the bright light. Once the light died down to a comfortable level, she removed her hands and looked ahead. What greeted her was not what she expected. Instead of defeated sirens, she saw a tree. With six jewels, a bright crystalline tree, five on branches and one in the middle, embedded in it. The tree of harmony. Looking around, she saw that she was back in the void. "What?" She said in confusion. "Why am I here?" No answer. Sunset looked back at the tree. She tried to walk towards it. This time, to her surprise, she was actually getting closer. A few more steps and she was right in front of it. "The tree of harmony?" She said, inspecting the tree. Recognizing it from a book, Sunset read about the elements of harmony. The elements in the tree suddenly began to glow, and Sunset jumped back, startled. "What's happening?" Sunset gaped in fear and wonder. The elements in the branches began to glow brighter before a magical light shot from each of them. The lights struck the element in the middle, which Sunset recalled as the element of magic. Sunset backed away from the tree, sensing danger. But she wasn't fast enough as a blinding light shot from the element of magic and hit her. "Ahhhhhh!!" Sunset screamed as she saw she was burning. The fire erupted from her hands, and her hair also caught in the fire. Sunset quickly waved her arms and tried to put out the fire, to no avail. "Oh no, oh no, what is happening? Did I do something wrong? Are the elements going to-" and then her panic slowed when she realized something. She wasn't feeling any pain. In fact, she wasn't feeling a burning presence at all. Unlike when she was transformed into a demon, she was feeling warm. It felt nice. She looked one last time at the tree before her vision again filled with white light. When the light went out, Sunset fell, and before she hit the ground, Twilight caught her. "Oh, Sunset, you okay?" She asked. "Uh… what?" Sunset asked, confused, holding Twilight for support. "Are you okay?" Twilight repeated as Fluttershy came to help Sunset stand. "Uh, yeah yeah… I'm fine…" Sunset said, still wondering what had happened. The girls quickly got on Vinyl's car and arrived at the amphitheater. Apparently, despite what happened to Sunset, it only took a few seconds, just like last time. Which meant no one knew what happened to her. Once they arrived at the amphitheater, they saw that everyone was freed from the siren's spell and the sirens are nowhere to be found. Twilight saw something shimmering on the stage and went to see it's a part of the gem that the Dazzlings were wearing. "So this is how they used magic." She said, picking up the gem. They then heard someone running towards them. When she looked in the direction the sound was coming, she saw Principal Celestia running towards Sunset and hugging her. "Sunset! I'm sorry," She said, hugging the girl tight. "Mom, why are you apologizing for?" Sunset asked, hugging her mom back. "I… I couldn't do anything. I-I'm your mom, and I wasn't able to protect you," "Mom, it's not your fault. It was the sirens," Sunset said. "Wait- where's Snowdrop?" she asked, panicking. "Right over here," They heard Chrysalis saying. They looked at the side and saw Chrysalis with Snowdrop. Snowdrop quickly took off and ran towards Celestia. "Mom!!" She shouted. Sunset and Celestia both caught her as she hugged both of them tighter. "You're back…" She said with tears in her eyes. "Yes, Snowdrop, I'm back," Celestia said. "Hey Chrysi," Luna said, walking up to Chrysalis. "Oh, Lulu." "Listen, I'm sorry for earlier, I was-" Luna was intercepted by a finger on her mouth. She looked up to see Chrysalis placing a finger over her mouth, silencing her. "I know, Lulu, it's not your fault. There's nothing you need to be forgiven for. Though, if you're feeling guilty, I wouldn't oppose a romantic dinner, movie, and some alone time together," Chrysalis said, hugging Luna with a giant smirk on her face. Luna returned the hug with quiet giggles. Breaking from the hug, they looked at Sunset, Snowdrop, and Celestia, who was still hugging each other. They couldn't blame them, the kids had almost lost someone they couldn't live without, and the same could be said for Celestia. So everyone basked in the moment, allowing themselves to forget about everything else—even Sunset and her vision that happened minutes before.