"Since the score is tied, the final event will determine the winner of the Friendship Games."
"Somewhere on campus, a pennant from each school has been hidden. The first team to find their school's flag and bring it back wins."
"And as soon as our teams are ready, we'll begin."
Time heals all wounds.
That's how the saying goes.
It seems time can reopen old wounds as well.
I feel worse than I did when Olivia moved away.
I can't believe I actually fell in love with that -
"Cloudflare?" I look up. It's Applejack. "Can we talk for a minute?"
I sigh. I move over, giving her room to sit.
"Look, I know you're upset."
"She said she changed. She Pinkie Promised."
"She has changed. She just got worked up when she and her friends were put in danger. Do ya really think she'd flirt with ya if she was still her old self?"
"Sure she would. Ask Flash."
"Just give her another chance. You know she's not like that anymore."
Element of Honesty...
I sigh again. "I'll think about it."
She stands up. "That's what I was hopin' to hear." She walks back to her friends.
...
AJ doesn't lie. Sunset isn't how she was before. Maybe I did overreact.
I feel like such an ass...
I look at the Crystal Prep side. A few students are circling around someone, while Principal Cinch watches. Is that some kind of pre-game ritual?
A moment later, Twilight is led toward the center of the area by Cinch.
"Twilight! Don't do it!"
...Olivia?
The other students seem to be holding someone back.
Sunset steps forward.
"If both teams are ready..."
It looks like Twilight's saying something. From her mouth movement, I think she's... singing? The other Shadowbolts are as well.
"You're making a mistake! Please listen to me!"
A mistake...? What is she...
"The last event of the Friendship Games begins..."
But the magic's what I really want to see
She's holding her magic-draining device in front of her. Is she actually gonna...
She starts to open it.
Crap! I have to warn Sunset.
"Sunset! Stop her!"
"Twilight!" Someone emerges from behind the other Crystal Prep students and falls over.
Olivia!
"Now!"
There's a bright flash of white, then a purple glow surrounds the contained magic. As the ball of magic gets bigger, she starts levitating.
I should probably get outta here. Or at least out of the stands.
I look to my left. Well, it's a quick exit. I duck underneath the railing and sit on the edge. Looks like it's about a ten-foot drop. I grab the top of the railing, stand up, and leap off. I land with a roll.
"Help... me!"
I look up, and the ball of magic completely engulfs Twilight. There's another bright flash.
Crap...
That's still Twilight. Only she looks... evil. Her clothes have changed into a dark violet dress, with the back of it being much longer, making it look like she has a tail. Her hair looks like a flame of purple, magenta, and black. She's grown large, dark violet wings and a long, light blue horn. Two light blue flames are around her eyes, resembling glasses.
When I said I'd have to take on the next evil entity that threatens the school... I wasn't being serious.
She laughs evilly. "You were right! I didn't understand magic before, but now I do!"
She hits the statue with a magic blast, destroying the top part of it and opening another rift. A crack forms along the sidewalk and moves toward my friends, who manage to get out of the way of Twilight's blast. Another rift opens where they were standing.
Rift after rift opens, as the students scatter.
"Twilight, you can't do this!" Sunset...
"Why not?! There's a whole other world right there, and it's just filled with magic!" She opens another.
"But you're destroying this world to get it!"
"So what?! There's more magic there, and I want to understand it all!"
Geez, why does every villain do this? "If you want that world's magic," I yell, "why are you opening a bunch of small rifts?! It'd be more efficient to just open one big rift!"
"You're not helping!" Rainbow yells.
"You idiot!"
...I did it again.
"That's a great idea!" She aims a magic blast at Sunset, who jumps out of the way. The ground starts to break away and reveals another portal.
As the hole widens, a few students struggle to get out of danger. Applejack has caught one of them who wasn't so lucky.
On the Shadowbolts side, two of their students have fallen in. One is being held up by Pinkie, and the other is hanging onto the edge.
"Olivia!"
I run as quickly as I can to where she's hanging on, keeping my eyes on her.
The part of the ground her left hand is holding onto breaks apart.
S***! Move faster, legs!
I make it to her and kneel down.
"Grab my wrist!" I hold my arm out for her.
She hesitates for a moment. "Come on!" She grabs it with her free hand, and I grab hers. "Can you pull yourself up with the other?!"
"I can try!"
I start to pull her up and out of the hole.
Suddenly, the part of the ground she's still holding onto breaks away, and she yelps in fear. I barely manage to hang onto her without falling in as well.
"I've got you!"
"Quick! Pull me up!"
I try pulling her up, but I can feel her slipping from my grasp.
No no no no!
She has a look of panic on her face. "Hurry!"
"I'm trying!"
My grip slips to clinging to her fingers.
"Cloudflare!"
My fingers are quickly going numb. I can't pull her up now. I just have to hold on and hope for a miracle.
...
A second set of hands appear and grab her hand and wrist.
I look to my right.
Cloudchaser?
"Grab her other hand!" she says to me.
Olivia holds her right hand up, and I do just that.
"On three," I say to C.C. "One... two... three!"
We finally pull her back onto the ground. She's breathing heavily.
As she stands up, I see she's only standing on her left leg. "You okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Something's wrong with my prosthetic, though. If I put any weight on it, I lose my balance."
"At least you're safe."
She hugs me. "Thanks a lot. If it weren't for you..."
"I couldn't have done it if C.C. didn't help out."
We separate and Olivia looks at her. "Thanks to you, too."
"It was nothing," she says. "I couldn't leave an old friend and his former GF hanging. We should get away from the hole."
"Good idea."
As we move toward the sidewalk, I notice Olivia's hopping on her left leg. "Need any help?"
"Nah, I got it."
"This isn't the way!" Sunset says to Twilight. "I know you feel powerful right now, like you can have everything you want! I've been where you are. I've made the same mistake you're making. I put on a crown, and just like you, I was overwhelmed by the magic it contained. I thought it could get me everything I wanted."
"Oh, you're wrong. Unlike you, I can have everything I want!"
"No you can't. Even with all that magic and power, you'll still be alone!" She hold the magic-draining device up. "True magic comes from honesty..." The other girls are glowing, and an orange beam of magic shoots up from AJ. "Loyalty..." The same happens to the other girls. "Laughter... generosity... kindness."
Hey, she finally figured it out!
The magic flows into the device, and Sunset starts hovering.. "I understand you, Twilight, and I want to show you the most important magic of all..." She closes the device, then throws it on the ground. The ball of magic engulfs her. When the light clears, she's wearing a pink dress with a skirt that looks like the bottom of her normal shirt. The back of the dress goes past her feet, resembling a tail. Her boots are now orange with her sun insignia on them. She also has a horn and glowing yellow wings. "...the Magic of Friendship!"
I think I'm in love all over again!
"This... is the same Sunset Shimmer who ruined our lives, right?" Olivia asks me.
"As I said, she's nice now. Would she be trying to save this world if she was still a jerk?"
Sunset uses her own magic to close the rifts.
"I guess not..."
"And would I have fallen in love with her..." I mutter.
She and Twilight charge at each other, and they meet in the middle, resulting in a bright flash of light. When it clears, they fire a magic blast at each other, and the two beams collide.
Twilight starts pushing Sunset's back.
Come on, Sunny... I know you can do this. You helped defeat the sirens. You've got this...
"Twilight!"
I keep forgetting about Spike.
Sunset pushes Twilight's magic attack back at her.
"NOOOOOOOO!"
...
...
The light fades, and Sunset and Twilight float to the ground, both back to normal. The giant hole is gone, too.
"Is this a regular thing?" Olivia asks me. "None of the CHS students look phased by all this."
"When evil magic threatens the school for the third time in the same school year, you get used to it."
I walk toward them, and I hear Olivia hopping behind me.
"Principal Celestia," Principal Cinch says, "on behalf of Crystal Prep, I demand that you forfeit the Friendship Games! Clearly, CHS has had an unfair advantage for quite some time! And it's obvious that your students have been using magic for their own benefit!"
I hear Olivia growling.
"I'd like to think that saving the world benefits us all," Celestia says.
"At least they didn't manipulate Twilight into releasing all the stolen magic and turning into a power-crazed magical creature that tried to rip the world apart just to win a game," one of the Crystal Prep students says.
Wow... "And I thought Pinkie was loquacious."
"Stick to small words," she says to me. "You're not a sesquipedalian just because you can spell."
"That's ridiculous!" Cinch says.
"Nope, that's pretty much what happened." So talking Spike is permanent? I'm okay with that.
"Actually," another student says, "we're all to blame. Mostly it was her!" That was... quite the attitude shift.
"Obviously my students have been infected with your magic, but -"
"You b****!" Olivia?! "Ever since I came to Crystal Prep, you've treated me like s***!" She hops up to Cinch. "I've had to go up and down 240 stairs every day for the past seven months, even after I gave you a doctor's note that says I can't! Two days ago, you forced me to compete in these games when you knew my history with CHS! Then I found out I had to make three jumps in a row for the second round, and I told you my prosthetic isn't designed to absorb that much impact! You said to suck it up! And now it's damaged! I can't even put my weight on it! And finally, you blackmail me when I try to prevent all that magic from getting out of control! You've hated me since the day I arrived, and I'm -"
"Young lady, that is -"
"Go ahead! Suspend me!" She removes her prosthetic. "Tell everybody about my missing leg! I don't care anymore! I'm done with your piece-of-crap school!"
Half a year of frustration finally boiling over...
"I'll deal with your insubordination after I take all of this up with the school board!" Cinch says.
"Good," Celestia says. "I'm sure they would be very interested in hearing all about the magical students with wings."
"And the portals to another dimension," Luna says.
"Don't forget about the talking dog," Cadance says with a giggle.
"'Cause that would never ruin your reputation," Spike says.
She nervously looks around, then straightens her shirt and walks away.
"I know these Friendship Games haven't been what any of us expected," Celestia says, "but given what we've all just been through, I think it's fair to declare us all winners."
The students cheer.
"I'm just glad this whole thing's over," Olivia says.
"Um... Cloudflare?" Sunset walks up to me. "I... I want to apologize for how I acted earlier. When I found out Twilight was behind those magic pop-ups, I lost my cool."
"I know. When you did that, I thought you went back to your old ways. I felt heartbroken. After AJ talked to me about it, I realized I overreacted. Everyone flips out over something once in a while."
"And Olivia... I'm so sorry for how I treated you. I can't change what I've done, but maybe we can start over."
Olivia sighs. "I'm not entirely convinced you've changed."
"I know you're hesitant," I say, "and I was the same way. If you give her a chance, you'll see she's a completely different person. Pinkie Promise." I do the motions.
She closes her eyes as she thinks it over.
...
"Okay." She opens her eyes. "One chance."
They shake hands.
"If you're wrong," she says to me, "I won't hesitate to kick your butt."
"I'd be in enough trouble for breaking a Pinkie Promise. You have nothing to worry about."