SEE CHAPTER ONE FOR PRETTY-CURE DISCLAIMER

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic belongs to Hasbro

-CHAPTER START-

The past couple of days after Black Diamond's defeat had been relatively peaceful. Sunset had given a bit more detail about her past, including the 'Anon-A-Miss Incident' that had turned her friends and everyone else in the school against her, breaking her spirit and leading her to abandon that area and move way out here. After a little more prodding from the girls ("It's too far-fetched and fanciful, you'd never believe me" "Uh, we're magical girls; your argument is invalid"), she'd told them the whole story about who and what she was. The fact that Sunset was literally a magical talking unicorn pony from another dimension honestly didn't surprise the other Cures as much as it should have…

Right now, the sextet was at the park, discussing strategy ideas in-between more idle talks. However, they were about to be in for a big and unwelcome surprise…

"Holy crap… Sunset?!"

The sextet turned in the direction of the surprise voice, and Sunset's blood can cold. Staring at her with shock and guilt were five certain girls, five ghosts from her past that she'd dearly hoped would stay buried.

"It… It's really you…" Fluttershy murmured, shocked. "W-We were so…"

Sunset's surprise gave way to anger, and she snarled as she got to her feet. "You people?! What the hell are you doing here?! Did you come to hunt me down?!"

"RD's uncle lives around these parts" Applejack hastily defended. "He invited us to come. We had no idea this was where y'all had run off to!"

Before Sunset could say anything else, Pinkie blurted out: "It was the Crusaders!"

"…What?" While still angry, Sunset was left confused by that sudden outburst.

"Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle were jealous of you 'stealing' their sisters, so they… started the whole Anon-A-Miss thing to try and drive us away from you so they'd 'get their sisters back'. And then some people started submitting more things for them to post, everything snowballed, and …"

"You mean to tell me," Selena spoke up, as she and the other Cure girls took position around Sunset, all glaring at the 'Human Five', "that because of three little girls being unwilling to share their siblings, our friend's life was ruined?!"

"We know how you were the first ones to turn on her," Amelia declared angrily, "how you turned your backs on her right when she needed you most!"

"You betrayed her!" Vicky shouted at them. "You almost-permanently destroyed her ability to trust anyone ever again!"

The newcomers looked horribly guilty and broken, a few of them starting to quietly cry.

"…You abandoned me" Sunset ground out, fighting back her own tears. "You dumped me the second you got the chance. You never really trusted or believed in me. Everyone abandoned and turned on me – my so-called 'friends', the school, the Princess-"

"Twilight didn't abandon you" Rainbow interjected. "At least, not intentionally. It turns out that… well, things got really damn crazy back on Equestria at about the same time the Anon-A-Miss Incident was going on here on Earth. First, she accidentally forgot her communication journal when she went to the royal sisters' castle for a few days. Then, before she could get to it again, some kinda big nasty broke free of containment – some demon-guy called Tirek."

At that, Sunset's hot anger was temporarily doused in cold dread. "T… T-Tirek? The… The Dark Lord Tirek from the old stories? The magic-eating demon lord?"

"Eeyup" Applejack nodded. "And apparently, in his & Twilight's final battle, Twi's house got blown to smithereens. The journal was safe in the basement, but the basement got buried under all the rubble. Between dealin' with Tirek and the cleanup afterwards, she didn't get a chance to look at the journal and yer messages again 'til… 'til it was way too late…"

Slowly, cautiously, Rainbow Dash approached while pulling a familiar journal out of her backpack. Paula took it and then brought it to Sunset, who clutched it close. Twilight hadn't abandoned her after all; she'd just been up to her flanks in grave trouble at home…

"Everyone back at Canterlot High is really beating themselves up over… over how we all treated you…" Pinkie said. "…Principal Celestia had to expel a few people who tried to seriously hurt the Crusaders in the aftermath, and she managed to track down everyone who deliberately submitted secrets for Anon-A-Miss and punish them as well. A-And… we've discovered that the five of us… can't access the powers of the Elements of Harmony anymore… Just like we turned our backs on you, the Elements have abandoned us; we're not… not worthy of them anymore…"

"As soon as she realized what had happened," Rarity chimed in, "Twilight crossed over and… I've never seen anyone so angry. She denounced us, denounced the entire school, and… said that if any magical threat ever comes for our school again, she will not help us. We'll be left to fend for ourselves…"

"Sunset, we… we're so sorry!" Rainbow Dash cried out, tears falling. "We screwed up! T-The way we treated you was-"

"Was unforgivable!" Sunset snapped, interrupting. "I thought I could believe in you girls, but you threw me aside the second things looked bad! The entire school did! I had nothing, no-one! I wanted to die! If I try to give you girls another chance, the moment I so much as say the wrong word you'll turn on me again! I can't go through that a second time! I can't trust you, because you never trusted me! So thanks for the book, but get out of my sight! I never want to see or hear from any of you again! Get out! Of my! Life!-!"

With tears in her eyes full of pained rage, she pointed her palm at them, and an orb of seething teal-hued magic formed, ready to release. Heartbroken and fearing for their safety, the 'Humane Five' turned and fled. Betty came up to Sunset just as the girl burst into tears, holding her close, the other four coming in close to help comfort her however they could. It was like the wound that had been slowly healing had been ripped open again… Betty, Vicky, Amelia, Paula, and Selena did what they could to comfort their friend, doing what her old 'friends' didn't…

-SCENE BREAK-

As they made their way back towards Dash's uncle's place, the five girls were devastated; Pinkie and Fluttershy still couldn't stop quietly sobbing, Rarity and Dash had something of a lifeless, haunted look in their eyes, and Applejack had long since stopped trying to hide her tears with the brim of her hat. Their slim hope of reconciliation had been dashed; Sunset had declared their actions beyond any pardon or forgiveness, had rejected them utterly, had even threatened to attack them with a magic blast if they didn't get out of her sight.

And then, the dark, solemn mood received a sudden and very unexpected interruption. A giant monster (well, about 15 feet tall) came flying in, still soaked from the Water-style attack that had sent it airborne, landing with a ground-shaking thud nearby and promptly getting back on its feet. As the quintet ran for cover, six girls in different-colored matching frilly outfits leapt in, brimming with magical power that they were already resuming firing at the monster. Cure Gale called out her Tearing Twister, but the Vish crossed its arms and anchored its feet, withstanding the wind blast with only surface damage. The 'Humane Five' felt like Gale's voice had sounded somehow familiar…

…And then Cure Solar called out her attack, and the five girls instantly recognized her voice, her body type and face… Somehow, Sunset and her new friends were superhero magical girls.

"It's another of the tougher ones" Cure Volt remarked. "…So, who wants to make a combo attack to finish things this time?"

Cure Gale stepped up beside Cure Solar, and the two girls shared a confident grin as they began to meld their magical energies. The other four kept the Vish busy as the duo charged up, a whirling mass of Wind and Fire magic forming between Cure Gale's outstretched right hand and Cure Solar's left. Finally, the team's newest combo attack was ready, and they let it fly:

"PreCure: Blaze Tornado!-!"

The blast of mixed magic shot out, and when it impacted the Vish it detonated into a huge swirling vortex of intense flames supercharged by the slicing wind, like a whirling tornado of flames and razors. The monster let out a fading roar as it was quickly eroded away and destroyed by the powerful combination attack, leaving nothing but particles of Darkness that quickly winked out.

As the six Cures congratulated each other, the hidden five knew that Sunset truly had no need of them anymore, that they would never again have a place in her life.

-BREAK-

In the aftermath of the latest battle, Sunset decided to bite the bullet and try to contact Princess Twilight. Opening the journal, and finding Twilight's desperate apologies and pleas for a reply from when she finally found her rubble-buried copy of the journal and learned – too late – what had transpired in the human world, Sunset sighed and wrote in a fairly long message informing Twilight of what had happened with her: her leaving human-world Canterlot far, far behind and coming to a new city, closing herself off from everyone only to meet five girls who understood and accepted her, getting involved in "a major magical incident with no connection to Equestria-style magic; could use some help with this one, Princess", and learning from her former friends about the Tirek Incident. After taking a deep, slow breath, Sunset sent the message, and waited for the inevitable reply.

In about 30 seconds, she got a reply that she never would've expected, as with a flash of light Twilight teleported into the room a few feet from her. How had Twilight figured out how to keep her magic when she crossed over? The purple-haired girl then all but tackled Sunset in a crushing hug, nearly in tears and frantically blurting out apologies for not being there to help or defend her.

"Twilight, Twilight!" Sunset interrupted, peeling the girl off. "It's okay! I learned about the whole 'Tirek' thing; I know now it wasn't your fault, that you didn't help me because you couldn't help me, being busy handling a rampaging demon-lord and all that."

"Still, I… I should have been able to help you… I should have been there to stop things from deteriorating so badly…"

Sunset shook her head. "There's nothing you could have done. Their minds were set on seeing me guilty, and they probably would have turned on you if you tried too hard to defend me before the truth came out."

Unable to think of anything to say in response, Twilight just sighed. "So… What's this new magical incident you're involved in?"

"Come on; I'll introduce you to the other girls who are in this with me, as well as the little fairy who explained it to us."

About 20 minutes later, Pixee and the Cures had more or less finished explaining everything to the human-form princess – the prophecy of the legendary warriors, what little they knew of their evil enemies, the nature of the Pretty Cures' abilities and powers…

"Okay…" Twilight rubbed at her temples. "This is quite a bit bigger than I expected. I'm going to take this information to the other Princesses, see if they have any insight. In the meantime…"

Twilight pulled out some sort of small amulet, with a magenta-hued gemstone. She charged it with a bit of her magic, then handed it to Sunset.

"What's this?" Sunset asked.

"Think of it as a beacon. Long story short, I'll be able to detect you and teleport right to you as needed, instead of having to follow the journal's signal which I did earlier, since that takes longer and if you're in a life-or-death situation, 8 to 10 seconds can mean a big difference. I'll ask Celestia about setting up a new trans-dimensional portal closer to here, too."

She stood up, straightening her skirt. "I'd better get going. The Princesses need to know about this whole mess you girls have gotten tangled into. I promise I'll come back, though, and you still have the journal if you need to contact me."

"Right" Betty nodded. "Thank you for the help, Princess Twilight."

-CHAPTER END-