While the girls were in the midst of their host's dangerous game, Twilight was none the wiser as she sat at a small outdoor cafe with Starlight Glimmer. "Here you are ladies. Enjoy." The waiter set down their plates of food and excused himself as the two girls dug in.

"Thanks for paying, Starlight. I owe you." Twilight said as she picked up her utensils.

"You don't owe me anything, Twilight. It was my pleasure." Starlight paused for a moment before she spoke again. "You know, maybe you could meet a friend of mine. She's a little weird but I think you'd like her."

"Hmm, maybe. I should probably get back to my friends first."

"You really think that's a good idea after what they did?" Starlight saw Twilight hesitate and sighed as she decided to hammer her point home. "Let me tell you a little story: I once had a friend, Sunburst. We used to spend all of our time together. Carnivals, parties. Heck, sometimes we'd just sit and see who could solve the most math problems in the shortest amount of time. His idea. What a dork." She chuckled as she thought about the past only for her expression to change to one of sadness as she continue. "Then one day he got a scholarship to go to one of those premier schools out of state. Of course he took it. I mean, why wouldn't he. So many opportunities to be had."

"I can relate," Twilight commented. "I once thought about applying to Everton."

"Wow, you're even smarter than I thought." Starlight sat back after taking a sip of her drink and continued. "After he left we wrote and called each other every so often. Of course, he was always getting busier and busier. One day I called him and we ended up in this big argument about him being so busy. He told me that his studies came first. I haven't talked to him since. That taught me an important lesson: Friends, no matter how much they may have meant to you, are just people like everyone else. They can be selfish and self serving the same as anyone."

"I'm sorry that happened to you, Starlight. I suppose I can understand where Sunburst was coming from, though."

Starlight looked a bit surprised. "You can?"

"When I went to Crystal Prep, all there was was studying. If you didn't put 110% in you were going to fall behind. I can only imagine what kind of pressure Sunburst was under to stay competitive with the other students, let alone get ahead."

"So you're saying maybe he lashed out at me because he was under a lot of stress from school? Maybe I should have thought about that before I just...cut him out."

"Perhaps you're right about one thing, Starlight. Our friends are just like everyone else. We all make mistakes and make each other angry, but we have a bond, something that we've developed over our time together that's special. Despite what they did today, they're still my friends and I know they had the best of intentions, no matter how misguided they may have been." She pulled out her phone to call anyone of them but was stopped as Starlight grabbed her by her wrist.

Starlight lingered for a moment before she looked Twilight in the eyes. "You-you can't. You'll never reach them with that."

"Starlight?"

"I'm sorry." She handed Twilight a piece of paper as she looked away dejectedly. "I thought she could give me what I wanted but you're too good a person for me to do that to you. The information on there should lead you to your friends."

"I-I don't understand."

"Just hurry. They need you." Starlight watched as Twilight rushed out the door and she turned her face down toward the meal in front of her. "Good luck."

Meanwhile

"Oh if only I could have seen the look on her face at the end." Sunset's twisted copy laughed joyously as the original and Spike looked at her in disgust as she had gotten at least one of the cameras back online to see that Dash had completed her part. She also made sure to siphon off any excess magic the girl had from her rampage. "Oh, why the angry eyes, Sunset? You'll be reunited with your friends soon. Well, most of them anyway. And just when everyone was starting to get along."

At this point Sunset had had enough and rushed over and grabbed her doppelganger by the collar of her tattered jacket. "What is wrong with you?" She is almost immediately thrown against a wall as the other her used her siren acquired sonic scream on her. The concussive blast rendered her unconscious as Spike ran over to her.

"What did I say about touching!? You know, I could have just fused myself with you again, but I didn't. We could have had so much power. And you decided to throw it all away for...friendship. You don't deserve to be a part of what I'm about to achieve. "

"Sunset?" The dog licked her hand in an attempt to wake her as noise came from the tunnels on the other side of the room.

Down in the tunnels, the girls made their way forward until they had finally met up at the very end of the labyrinth into the huge room. "Indy!" Lemon Zest ran over and wrapped her friend in a tight hug. "I thought I'd never see any of you girls again. This place has been crazy."

"Lemon, stop. No more hugging. Fluttershy nearly snapped me in half earlier." The green haired girl immediately released her as the others greeted each other. "Besides, me and Flutters almost got trampled by a raging bull."

"I doubt it compares to almost drowning in a room full of water before you reach a button through a tiny hole." Pinkie chimed in as she leaned on Sour Sweet.

"A room with a wild animal in it and a room filling with water hardly compare to the almost nonexistent room that Rarity and I faced.

"What's really important is that we're all safe now." Rarity said as the others nodded.

The conversation was interrupted by a slow clapping that came from above them as the group looked to their left to see someone walking across the elevated scaffolding. "Bravo, ladies. Bravo indeed."

"Sunset?" Applejack looked shocked as they saw what looked like their friend, albeit with some very drastic changes in appearance.

"Not quite. I've actually been thinking of a name change once this whole thing is over. Something regal. Solar Radiance has a nice ring to it." She descended the stairwell to the ground floor and approached them. "Yes, that will do nicely. But I feel we're getting off topic."

"Where's Twilight?" Pinkie demanded. "We finished your fun and scary challenges, now hand her over."

"Ms. Sparkle will be along shortly, though I doubt she'll be departing with any of you. Still congratulations are in order for making it through. Especially you, Rainbow Dash. You deserve a special commendation for going that extra mile."

"Dash?" Fluttershy turned to the girl who stood behind the rest of the group.

"Hey, where's Sunny Flare?" Indigo pointed out as a downtrodden Dash looked to the ground.

Solar Radiance chuckled as she did a little spin. "Go ahead Dashy. Tell them. Tell them all how you did it."

The others looked confused as Dash tensed up even more. Fluttershy was the first to speak up and question her friend. "What is she talking about?"

Indigo got between them and grabbed Dash by the front of her shirt. "What did you do to Sunny?"

Tears began to stream down Dash's face as the pain of having to admit it made it near impossible to speak. "I-I didn't mean it, I was just...so angry and..."

"And you stomped on her like the pathetic little ant she was." Radiance chimed in.

"It ain't true!"

"You're lying!"

"She'd never do that!"

"How could you?"

"She didn't deserve that!"

Fluttershy pried Dash away from Indigo as the rainbow haired girl dropped to her knees."It's not true. Tell them it isn't true, Dash. Please."

The girl lingered for a long time before her quivering lips finally settled enough for her to respond. She looked her friend in the eyes as Fluttershy had knelt down to her. "I...didn't...mean to..." Rainbow broke down in tears again as her friend allowed her to cry into her shoulder.

"It'll be okay, Dash."

"How?" Sour shouted. "You can't bring her back, even with all your sparkly power up stuff." The group soon broke into arguing again as the Canterlot girls tried to defend Dash while the Crystal Prep crew tried to peg the blame on her for what had happened to Sunny. All the while, Radiance soaked all the disharmony in.

"Nothing like a good fight to get the old batteries charged."

"Girls?" Everyone froze as they heard the all too familiar voice echo through the halls. "Girls are you down here?" Twilight Sparkle emerged from one of the halls on the catwalk above them.

"Twilight!" many of them shouted to there joy and Radiance's displeasure upon not seeing Starlight accompanying her.

"Oh, thank goodness you're all okay. What's going on down here?" Before she could receive and answer, the monstrous Sunset doppelganger propelled herself up to Twilight with as much strength as she could generate with her single wing and grabbed her from behind. She place her clawed hand around the girl's neck.

"Twi!" Lemon and Pinkie said in unison as they and the others could only look on.

"This is not how it was supposed to be. That little traitor will pay for this once I have my new body."

"Let me go!" Twilight struggled to free herself only for the grip of her captor to tighten. "What are you?"

"Oh Twilly, I'm hurt. You don't recognize the better half of your old friend, Sunset? Don't worry though, we'll have plenty of time to get acquainted."

Radiance looked at the group below her as they seemed ready to jump to their friend's aid. "Oh no you don't. Geodes off or else." After a few tense seconds, the girls reluctantly complied and removed the stones. "Now toss them over to the stairs." They followed the second order, same as the first. "Good. Now, Twilight, despite my plans not going exactly as I intended, you are going to fuse with me and make me more powerful than I could have imagined. So say goodbye to your so called friends."

"They are my friends," Twilight rebuked, "No matter what they did, they cared about me enough to come after me and try to make things right."

"Ugh, sentiment." Radiance rolled her eyes with contempt. "Well take a good look, because this is the last time you'll ever see them again. Once we're one, I'll finally be whole again with a brand new body to boot." Her hands began to glow as Twilight felt a searing pain travel through her body. "Oh and this will only hurt a lot."

"Stop!"

"Twilight!"

"We need to do something."

Everyone took notice as Rainbow Dash walked to the stairs. "Don't do this. Take me instead."

"Rainbow Dash, what on Earth are you doing?" Rarity inquired as the other girls were likewise surprised.

"If anyone is going to get fused with that thing, it might as well be me."

Radiance was slightly amused and halted the absorption process for the time being. "And why, pray tell, would I do that?"

"You want a new body, why not take the most athletic one? Twilight has friends and family, people who will miss her if she's gone. After what I did to Sunny Flare...no one will miss me."

"Dash, don't say that." Applejack spoke up. "You can't do this." She was instantly silenced as Radiance threw a fireball at her that knocked the cowgirl off her feet.

"Quiet. Thinking. You got yourself a deal, Dashie. Just come on up and I'll release Twilight." She watched with wicked glee as Dash made her way up the stairs, her head held low as she grew closer.

"Oh boy, that took forever to get here." A voice said which caused Solar Radiance to look around in confusion as none of the girls had said a thing.

"Well, hurry up, Dash. We don't have all day." her words made the sullen Dash moved a bit faster but not by much.

"Should be around here somewhere." the voice said again as Radiance looked again but brushed it off as Dash stood in front of her.

"Excellent. Now then." She threw Twilight away and grabbed Dash by the arm. "Your power and body are mine now."

"Oh, that's what it looks like up close. Well better get too it." This was the last time Radiance heard the voice before a deafening ringing echoed through her head and she found herself on the ground and clutching her left ear. The other girls looked in astonishment as Dash raced back down the stairs with Twilight.

Rainbow immediately hugged Twilight as the others ran to them. "You okay, Twilight?"

"I think so but, how did you do that?"

Dash smirked as she looked up to the still debilitated Sunset look a like. "That would be the MVP of the team." They looked over as a coin sized orb of purple light escaped from Radiance's ear and flew down to them. It soon expanded and grew into a recognizable form with a blue stone around her neck.

"Sunny!" the girls shouted in unison as they gathered around her.

"You're okay!" Lemon shouted joyously.

"Yeah, I'm okay."

Seeing the girls celebrating, Radiance struggled to her feet. "But...how?"

"You see, after you made Dash lose control I thought I was a goner," Sunny began to explain as she turned to her. "but after she busted up your cameras..."

"Sunny here managed to get through to me." Dash put Flare in a playful headlock as she continued. "Got to give her props for getting the message through my thick skull. After that it was all a matter of tricking you into thinking you'd won. A little acting, making sure we got close enough to neutralize you and here we are."

"The geode..."

Sunny looked at the stone on the ground as the others retrieved theirs. "That? That's just one of my earrings. Not a perfect copy but it fooled you, didn't it?"

Dash leaned on Sunny as the two looked to Radiance with wide smirks. "Face it, you lost, we win. Five round clean sweep, unanimous decision."

"You! You think this is over?" Radiance could feel the powers she had stolen already beginning to leave her as she stared down at the girls. "I will not lose to you pathetic humans. AHH!" She clutched her chest as flames began to generate from it and engulfed her. When the fire finally died down, the group was faced with a figure that was all too familiar to the Rainbooms. She'd now taken on the appearance of Sunset's twisted form from the fall formal.

"It's the she-demon!" Pinkie exclaimed. "Everybody run!"

"We can take this cheap Halloween prop down, no problem. Especially after what she put us through." Indigo chimed in.

"Well if you're up for it." Applejack looked at her geode. "I've got an idea. Y'all remember at Camp Everfree? We don't have to wear the geodes, we just need to be close to them." She handed hers to Lemon as the other Rainbooms did the same for the Shadowbolts.

Twilight stepped up as well. "Let's do this girls."

"I'll fry you all!" Radiance brought her arms up and created a giant fireball that she hurls at them. The group quickly separated as the projectile slammed into the ground. Fluttershy, with her lack of combat abilities, ran for cover but lost her footing from the blast and fell to the ground. "Flutter bye bye." She hurled another ball of fire at the girl who put her hands up and closed her eyes.

"Fluttershy!" Dash sped toward her only to be surprised when a green blur flew pass and grabbed the animal loving girl. It soon bounced to a halt as Lemon Zest sat her down.

"You better get somewhere safe. We got this."

"Thank you." Fluttershy rushed off to find a safe spot to take cover. Rainbow gave Lemon a thumbs up as the girl reciprocated the gesture with a military salute.

As the other girls spread out, Rarity noticed that Indigo hadn't gotten far as she was clutching her side. Radiance took note as well and hurled a torrent of fire at the girl who responded by activating her elemental powers and combating the attack with flames of her own. Pain overcame her and her attack faded as the monster girl's flames almost engulfed her if not for Rarity's shield protecting them both. "No need to worry, my dear. I have this well in hand." Unfortunately for Rarity, the shield soon gave way as Radiance brought all of her weight down on the gem shield and smashed it to pieces, the resulting shock knocking the girl back.

"You were saying?" Indigo shot back as the two were at the mercy of the winged creature looming over them. Suddenly something stuck to on the forehead of the beast as she raised a finger to it and tasted it.

"Butter cream frosting?" She thought for a moment before realizing all too late and the confection, courtesy of Pinkie Pie, exploded. The blast knocked her across the room only for her to rise a few moments later.

Rainbow zipped passed her several times and kept her off balance before being seized in her claws. "Um...time out?"

"Permanently." Her attempt to finish Dash was cut short as she found herself lifted and thrown by Applejack, dropping the rainbow haired girl in the process.

"Don't worry, you'll beat us," She looked to her left to find Sour perched on her shoulder. "when pigs fly." She teleported to the other shoulder and around her as Radiance failed each time to get her.

"I'd stop getting distracted if I were you." She looked up, only to find almost three dozen Sugarcoat clones raining down and smothering her.

Pinkie joined in, happily hopping on top of the pile. "Dog pile on the bad guy! Dog pile on the bad guy!"

Things took a turn for the worst as a bright glow escaped the mosh pit of Sugarcoats as Radiance unleashed a torrent of energy that knocked them all away. "Get off!" She was even less amused as Pinkie continued to bounce on her head.

"Dog pile on the bad guy!"

"Enough!" She unleashed an even larger wave that knocked all of the girls away. "I am done with this nonsense!" One of the few that remained standing was Twilight who attempted to use her powers to hold Radiance in place. It did little good as the she-demon merely shrugged it off and advanced on her. "You will fuse with me, whether you want to or not."

"No she isn't." The two turned as Sunset Shimmer appeared on the catwalk. "Time to end this the way it started." Sunset clutched her geode as the glow from it began to activate the others. Soon a beam shot from each of them and joined together to create the familiar rainbow harmony beam.

Radiance began to back away. "No, not again!" She formed the largest ball of fire she could muster and hurled it at her counterpart. The beam easily dissipated the projectile and, same as the Fall Formal, encased the she-demon in it's power which ultimately resulted in an explosion. Twilight and the others shielded their eyes as the smoke cleared, with a significantly smaller crater than before left in the center of the room with smoke emanating from it.

"Wow." Lemon said as the girls got to their feet. "Now that was crazy."

"Twilight, girls! Are you okay?" Sunset ran down the stairs to meet with the others as they came together for a group hug.

"I'm fine, really." Twilight assured as the group separated. Indigo immediately grabbed her and squeezed her even tighter.

"We were so worried about you. Don't you ever scare me like that again." She stopped as she noticed the others looking at her and stepped back. "I uh...glad you're okay, nerdling." Indigo was surprised as Fluttershy of all people gave her a playful punch in the arm.

"Is she, though?" Sunny Flare pointed to the crater as the smoke dispersed and everyone made their way over to inspect it. Everyone was shocked as they stared down into the hole. "Oh my goodness...It's so cute!"

Sitting at the bottom was a small yellow furred pony, it's major characteristics being it's fiery gold and orange mane and the fact that it had a horn on it's forehead. It sat there until it shook it's head and crawled out of the hole before looking at them and then back to itself. Soon it began panicking as if surprised by it's own form.

Dash was the first to speak up. "Is that really her?"

"Looks that way," Sunset responded. "Not sure how that worked, but I doubt she'll be hurting anyone ever again."

The now pony Radiance opened her mouth to speak, only for whinnies to sound instead of coherent words and she covered her muzzle with the discovery. The girls, confident that the threat had ended, gathered around the small unicorn. She huddled up defensively with all the chatter around her.

"What do we do with her?" Twilight asked.

"She's adorable. Do you want to come home and be my little pony?" Sunny Flare inquired.

"Well I do have a farm. Reckon I could put her up in a stable." said Applejack.

"I say we ship her straight to the factory and get a few bottles of glue for all our trouble." Sour Sweet chimed in with an angered look.

Fluttershy forced her way through the group and moved the others back. "Everyone, just give her some room." She cautiously approached the unicorn, knelt down in front of her and used her geode to communicate. "It's okay, sweetie. We're not going to hurt you."

Radiance responded with a few short whinnies that to Fluttershy translated: "No, but I'm going to hurt you." She lunged at Fluttershy and tried to snap her hand with her teeth which caused the girl to fall backwards as the unicorn went on a rampage. Immediately after she tackled Sunny Flare who did her best to hold off the miniature horse until Rarity tried to pull her away. This resulted in Radiance spinning around and clamping onto the fashionista's hair.

"She's got my hair! She's got my hair!" she screamed as she was forced to the ground by the yanking animal.

"Don't worry Rarity. I got it." Indigo grabbed the unicorn by the tail and tried to pull her away only to be bucked in the stomach and released her. "Right...I'll just...leave you alone." She laid her head against the floor and held her stomach in pain.

In desperation, Rarity threw another diamond shield that flung the unicorn back and away fro the group. She got up and noticed that Twilight had been knocked down in the confusion and charged straight for her. "Look out!" In the blink of an eye, Sunset had leaped between them and the two Sunsets collided in a ball of light that engulfed both.

Sunset opened her eyes and found herself in a black void. Across from her was the only other entity that resided in this mysterious place. "Look what you've done!" Radiance shouted as the two floated through the emptiness. "You ruined everything! Now I'm stuck with you again!"

"Where are we?" Sunset inquired.

"You moron! We are in your mind. Thanks to you I'm trapped in your body forever. But it's not a total loss." A red aura surrounded Radiance as she flew forward and wrapped her hands around Sunset's neck. "I'll make full use of this opportunity. It's apparent we can't coexist. So I'm going to bury you, like you tried to bury me."

"I...didn't..." Sunset managed to choke out as she did her best to fight back.

"Shut up! After that night you thought I would just go away. Like all the bad things you did never happened. Well you can't pretend they didn't because if that were true, I wouldn't be here." Sunset could feel herself fading, not just strength-wise either. Her body was physically fading away into the darkness. "Once I'm done, you won't remember any of your stupid friends, and I'll be free to take back the life you threw away. Might take some time, but I will be a princess. No, a queen. All you'll be is a nagging feeling in the back of my head."

Sunset slowly began to close her eyes as the power overtook her. "Sunset." She couldn't imagine what this thing would do to her friends once it took over. "Sunset!" There it was again. It was a different this time and soon they came one after another. Her eyes opened as a portal opened above her and Radiance where her friends could be seen standing around the orb that had encased the duo's body. "Sunset, can you here us?"

Suddenly a similar gold glow emanated from Sunset and her body began to reappear. This terrified Radiance who tried even harder to end things. "No! No! This can't happen!" She was soon faced with Daydream Shimmer who looked in no mood for anymore of this and blasted her with one good attack that drained her of all her power. Shimmer floated over her and merely looked down at her. "What? I suppose now you're going to try to show me the...magic of friendship and redeem me?"

"No. And you're right. I can't just act like you and the things I've done don't exist. They are always going to be a part of me. But they are my past, and my past is not today."

Radiance rolled her eyes. "Catchy, you should think about making that into a song." Suddenly a set of chains flew out of the void and shackled her legs. "What is this?"

"I can't allow you to harm my friends ever again. So I'm locking you away in my memories. You'll be...what was that you said? Oh yeah, a nagging feeling in the back of my head." Shimmer turned away and began to fly toward the portal.

"I know what you're doing. Just trying to make me sweat it out until I give in. Is that it?" She watched Sunset drift farther and farther away as the chains began to pull at her legs. "I'm-I'm sure if you just think about this rationally we could...work something out." Another set of chains shackled her wrists then one around her neck and she was dragged into the darkness with even greater speed as her voice became more panicked by the second. "Sunset, don't do this, please."

"Good bye." Were the last words from Sunset's lips as she began to fade from view.

"I'll-I'll get out of this Sunset! You'll see! No matter how long it takes, I will get out of this! Even if takes me to the final moments of your pathetic human life. And with the last of our breath, you'll now! You'll know that Queen Solar Radiance won in the end! Do you hear me, Sunset Shimmer!?" She looked around as Sunset was now well and truly gone and fully fell into her despair. "Sunset? I don't want to be left alone."

The other girls stood around the orb with baited breaths as the orb vanished in a flash of light and Sunset sat on the ground, dazed but okay. "Sunset, what happened? Where is that other you?" Twilight asked as the others rained down a seemingly endless flow of questions themselves. The fiery haired girl put up a hand to halt the questions and stood up slowly.

"It's alright girls. Like I said before. She won't be hurting anyone ever again. Now let's all go home."