"How is this even possible? Who are you?" Sunset said as she carefully backed away from the young woman that was a nightmare version of herself.

"I'm you, dummy." She stopped in her tracks as Spike got between them and began growling at her. "Let's put a lid on that shall we." With a snap of her fingers a stream of fire emanated from her hand and took the form of a cage which surrounded the dog. "Now where were we? Oh yes. You remember the night of the Fall Formal when Princess Twilight and her friends blasted you with those pesky elements?"

"Of course."

The disfigured clone put threw up her hands and put on a smile. "That's where I come in. You see when they blasted you all that energy has to go somewhere. It's one of the basic laws of physics, right? Anyway, I managed to reform in...this body. The only thing is I can't stay solid for long. I need magic to survive."

"The fall formal was months ago. How could you possibly have..." Sunset paused as she came to the realization. "The Battle of the Bands, the Friendship Games. You've been feeding off the energy from all the magical events."

The other girl pointed a finger at her. "Sharp as always. Unfortunately it wasn't enough. Eventually I had to come topside to find new sources."

"The Dazzlings. You were the one that drained their magic."

"Only temporarily. If it comes from someone else I can't contain it. I'm like the water cycle; eventually it's going to go back from where it came. But I can hold it long enough for my plan to finish."

"Which is?"

"Once I absorb enough magic I'll have enough power to fuse with a being of my choice to create a new body for myself. That's where Twilight comes in. She may not be the princess but she has enough latent potential to suffice. And once my ally is done working her over, she'll be easy pickings. Shouldn't be too hard after the way her so called friends acted."

"So Twilight isn't even here?" She received an evil smirk as a response. "Then why have them do all these challenges?"

"Eh, mostly for fun, really. I also wanted to see them tear each other apart with their fighting, but so far it's been a real snooze fest. Let's get back to the action and hope we haven't missed anything." The doppelganger turned away as an angered Sunset reached out and grabbed her by the wrist.

"Hold it!" The moment they made skin to skin contact a bright light shone between them and pain seemed to travel up Sunset's arm and into her entire body. The cage of fire that trapped Spike dissipated and he ran for cover. A second later the other her slapped Sunset away.

Both girls took heavy breaths after what had just happened, before the winged girl got to her feet and stood over Sunset, hate filling her eyes. "Don't. Ever. Do. That. Again!" A scream comes from one of the monitors. The demeanor of the monster girl changed from anger to childlike excitement as she turned to the screen. "Ooh, let's see what we've got." Sunset looked over to Spike who was hiding under a pipe before she got up and slowly rejoined the other girl.

In the next challenge room, Applejack and Lemon Zest had just entered as their host got back on the mic. "Okay ladies the game is simple: All you have to do is hit that." They looked over to see a punching machine with the punch force meter over the top.

"Well that don't seem all that hard." Applejack responded as she fixed her hat.

"The door will open once you hit a psi of..." Both girls drooped down as the number flashed across the screen.

"Are you out of your mind, dude? No one can hit like that." Lemon waved her hands at the wall mounted camera.

"Well I guess you'll just have to figure it out. And do it fast. I don't think that gas is going to do you any good." They looked up and saw vents running across the ceiling. The sound of the gas pumping in began to fill the room as AJ and Lemon went to work on the machine, each trying there hardest to match the numbers. Without her geode, the task proved impossible for the strong farm girl as she punched it several times, her hand bruising from the effort.

"Tick tock, ladies."

AJ prepared to strike it again, only to stop as she heard a rushing sound behind her. "Booya-ka-sha!" the CPA girl yelled as she drop kicked the meter. The action was met with little success as it still didn't come remotely near to the amount of force needed to unlock the door. All the while the gas was beginning to fill the room.

"Girl, what's wrong with you? A little heads up would have been nice."

"Sorry," Lemon responded sarcastically. "I thought if I surprised it I'd have a better chance." The comment caused Applejack to put a palm to her face. "Well do you have a better idea?"

Thinking for a moment, AJ snapped her fingers. "It's a long shot, but maybe if we combine our efforts and come at it full force together..." A nod from the neon haired girl secured the idea as both positioned themselves a good distance away and charged at the machine before colliding with the cushioned pad. The force was enough to knock both girls to the ground as Applejack yelped out in pain, gripping her left shoulder.

"I think I messed up my shoulder."

"Look." The Crystal Prep girl pointed out as the numbers tallied up. Both looked on hopefully only to be extremely disappointed as the results, though nothing to sneeze at were still far short of the goal.

"Really? You really thought that would work?" The voice mocked as both girls began to cough from the gas venting in.

"Apple girl, cover your mouth." Lemon instructed as the other girl did so with her hat. For her part the CPA girl tore off a piece of her shirt and used it as a makeshift handkerchief. It did neither of them much good as they started to become lightheaded. "Get low to the ground. It might buy us some time." Time for what she had no idea as they still needed a plan to get the door open and couldn't risk getting disqualified for Twilight's sake. Despite their best efforts, it soon became too much for the duo and they fell to their knees as the gas overtook them. AJ was the first to succumb as Lemon did her best to control her breathing to make what little breathable air last as long as possible.

"Oh, so close girls. I'd say better luck next time, but...well, you know." The mocking was the final thing Lemon heard as she reached out toward Applejack, the other girl seemingly reciprocating the gesture. Suddenly she felt an intense surge of energy jump into her as she found herself flung across the room. She struck her back against the wall but for some reason she felt no pain from it. The impact lasted but a second as she was instantly propelled off the wall yet again and soon realized she was bouncing off every surface she came into contact with. Looking down she noticed a glow emanating from her right hand, the hand she'd reached out to Applejack with. It held the geode that granted the blonde girl her supernatural strength.

"Oh no!" she uttered, realizing she'd just broken the rules before looking at Applejack who was sprawled out on the floor. "Doesn't matter. Cheat or no cheat I gotta get her out of here. Oooh, idea." She also realized that though she was going at extreme speeds, she was able to comprehend the world around her as if she was standing still. Lemon began angling herself to increase her velocity even further and ricocheted off the walls, floor and ceiling until she was where she wanted to be and crashed into the sensor paid of the punching machine. She continued to bounce until the machine recognized the number and the gas gradually began to vanish as a series of vents sucked it up.

Lemon eventually bounced to a stop, touching down a few feet from where Applejack lay. Though they may have lost the challenge, she hoped she'd at least managed to save the other girl's life. Suddenly and unexpectedly, the door to the next area opened to them. "Yes! We did it. Let's go!" She stopped as she noticed that the farm girl was no longer moving. "Apple girl? Come on." The green haired girl nudged her several times but she never roused. "Come on, stop...stop playing around. Oh no." She rolled the girl onto her back and knelt down over her, placing an ear to her chest.

"Don't you die on me trooper." Holding Applejack's nose shut she pressed her lips against hers and began performing CPR. She did it several times but got no seeming response. "You gotta get up. Twilight...she's waiting for us...for all of us." Lemon leans down dejectedly as her forehead rests on Applejack's chest. She is shocked as, a few seconds later the other girl begins coughing heavily and sat up quickly, accidentally knocking the rocker girl backwards.

"Hoo wee! What just happened?"

"Dude, you're alive." She wrapped her arms around AJ as the other girl looked a bit confused. "Come on, door's open." Lemon offered her a hand up before she threw still shaky Applejack over her shoulders and carried her like a newborn calf as they continued onward. "Twilight, here we come."

As she casually jogged down the hall, making good time as if not carrying anyone at all, the passenger decided to comment. "So...Army Cadet Corps? Forgive me for saying but I would have never pegged you for the discipline type."

"Yeah, I guess you wouldn't be able to tell by seeing me now. But you should have seen me a few years back. My dad is career military and it didn't take too long for me to want to be just like him. Growing up, I was like the model soldier. You point, I shoot. You say jump, I say how high. He decided I should sign up for the cadets and I took to it, maybe a little too well."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, when you give orders you need to make sure everyone understands you and more importantly, hears you. There was a lot of yelling involved. I got so good at it I didn't even notice how loud I was."

"I can see where that would be a problem."

"Right? Anyway, after I got to Crystal Prep, I thought I could make friends super easy but turns out not everyone was a fan of my choice of speech."

Four Years Ago

Lemon hopped out of her fathers SUV as he gave her instructions. "Report back to this spot at 01600 hours, understood soldier?" She responded with a salute.

"Sir, yes sir." she shouted in return as he pulled off and she turned toward the school with a bright smile. She walked up to two of the other girls who were standing outside. "Hello, my name is Lemon Zest. What are your names." her booming voice caused both girls to cringe before they walked off, leaving the other girl a bit confused. Walking a short distance she spotted a girl with glasses and purple hair trying to talk to some other girls as they ignored her and walked off. The dejected girl was soon joined by Lemon.

"Those girls sure aren't social, are they?" Lemon blasted into the girls ear.

"Um, maybe it was your approach." the other said meekly.

"My approach?"

"Perhaps you could lower the volume."

"But this is how I always talk."

"Uh, I mean, that's not exactly how everyone communicates. Maybe if you toned it down a bit..."

Lemon looked at her for a moment before she cleared her throat several times and hummed to as she adjusted her voice. "How's..ahem...How's this?" Her voice, although still raspy, was now noticeably softer than before.

"I think that's much better."

The green haired girl spotted someone a blue haired girl and ran over to give her new voice a try. The spectacle wearing girl watched as the two shared a conversation and Lemon came running back afterward. "It worked! I can't believe it. I made my first friend. And she wants to...hang out, whatever that is. Thank you so much!"

"No problem." the girl squeaked out as Lemon gave her a death hug.

"Sorry. Well I better get going before class starts. Say, what's your name?"

"Twilight, Twilight Sparkle."

"Hope to see you around, Ms. Sparkle." She made her way into the school as Twilight began her walk toward the building as well.

Present

"It still took me a bit to get out of a lot of my cadet habits and more like the Lemon we all know and love. I owe it all to Twilight and anything I can do to pay her back, I'll do without hesitation."

"I can respect that, sugar cube."

"Sugar cube? Does that mean we're friends now?"

"I'd be lying if I said we weren't and I don't lie."

"Cool."

"And uh, you can let me down now.

"Oh yeah." Lemon set her down and then handed her the geode. "Before I forget, this is yours."

"Thanks. I just hope the others fared better than we did."

Meanwhile

"Will you please, HURRY UP!" Sour Sweet chastised Pinkie Pie as she tried her best to stick her arm through and extremely small hole in the wall as part of their challenge which seemed on paper, so simple: reach and press the button in the adjacent room before the room they were in flooded with water. In fact, the task was much harder than it sounded as the other room was blocked by a brick wall with only a small hole that was barely big enough for Pinkie to fit her fist inside.

"I'm trying," Pinkie responded as she attempted to pull her hand back out. "Hmm, maybe I could blow it open." She pulled out a jar of sprinkles and prepared to hurl them before Sour tackled her.

"No! What is wrong with you?" She snatched the jar from the other girl. "Were you even paying attention? She clearly said you can't use your freaky stones to help you."

Pinkie bopped herself on the head in her realization. "Duh, my bad."

"Your bad? Your bad? Of all the incompetent one track minds on the planet I doubt I'll ever meet anyone with a more singular track than you. I mean I can't believe this."

While Sour was busy in her tirade and the water was up to their knees already, Pinkie began to mull over something in her brain. She looked down at her geode then back up to Sour Sweet who was still ranting and raving. Finally, something clicked in Pinkie's brain and she put two and two together, taking the stone and placing it in Sour's palm as she continued to talk.

"and it's all because we can't get into that stupid room!" As she gestured to the wall she immediately vanished in a flash of light and found herself in the sealed off room, free of the water and right next to the button. "Huh? Who? What?"

"Press the button!" Pinkie shouted from the other side and Sour complied as the water ceased pumping into the room and began to drain out through the now open floor grates.

"Now that that's over...get me out of here!" Sour shouted as she found herself trapped on the other side of the wall.

Pinkie responded with a chuckle. "Silly. You can get yourself back out. All you have to do is use the geode." Sour turned her attention to the stone that was in her hand, not having noticed it until now. She noted that it was glowing brightly as she squeezed it in her palm and stared at the wall before almost instantly being teleported back to Pinkie's side.

"Ugh, I am never going to understand this magic junk."

"That's okay. We hardly understand it ourselves." Pinkie said in an upbeat tone.

"Well that's just peachy," Sour responded before a large frown ran across her face. "Nice to know you have no idea what you're doing since we just lost the game for using magic." Her expression changed to one of surprise as the two saw the door open on the other side of the room. She promptly walked off as Pinkie followed closely behind, bouncing all the while. An already annoyed Sour took note of each bounce, her muscles tensing up with each added spring. "Do you have to do that?"

"Do what."

"Being so darn happy! If you hadn't noticed, we are in a sewer system rigged with death traps and Twilight, who we got into this mess, I might add, may be in even more danger. To top that off our respective friends may never be seen or heard from again."

"Oh, because I know everything will work out."

"And how, pray tell, do you know that?"

"Because I realize that even if things are pretty sad right now, they can only get better. I know we all hurt Twilight with our fighting and I'm super sorry about that, but the fact that we are here and we got through that puzzle proves that she means a lot to us, enough for us to put aside our differences and do what's best for her."

Sour stopped dead in her tracks as she turned to Pinkie, who sported a huge, toothy grin. "Wow, never knew under that candy coated exterior was someone so profound."

"Eh, I have my moments." Pinkie shrugged as the two continued on.

Back at the observation room, the other Sunset was having a fit as yet another team had conquered her challenge. "How is this possible? They aren't supposed to work together!"

"It's the one thing you failed to factor in...the same thing I didn't factor, friendship." Sunset's statement caused the monster girl to turn to her.

"Shut up!" she threw the chair that she was sitting on at a group of monitors. The screens shattered as shards of glass sprayed across the room. Sunset shielded herself and Spike from the incoming fragments as the other her thrashed about in a rage. She finally halted as she gripped one of the still active screens and began to stare at it, returning her mind to some semblance of clarity. "That's it. That's what I'll do." Chuckling to herself, she headed back over to the microphone.

Meanwhile

"Get the lead out, we don't have time to waste." Rainbow Dash called out as Sunny Flare lagged behind her.

Sunny groaned as Dash tapped her foot impatiently. "I'm coming. Give me a break. Not everyone is like you, jungle girl." She stopped, seeing just how much longer they had to walk. "Ugh, this is torture."

"Tell me about it. If I didn't have to worry about you, I would have been there already."

"And if you would have used that tacky rock around your neck, the whole walk would have been for nothing. Now let's go, Rainbow Crash."

As if on instinct, Dash seized Sunny by the front of her blouse. "Don't you ever call me that, got it?!" she released her before moving on ahead.

"What's your deal?"

"My deal is you and your sudden interest in being Twilight's friends. I know your type."

"And what does that mean?"

"It means that I know how this go. That I know what it's like to have a friend and then suddenly lose them because the people they start hanging out with influence them." She paused for a good, long time, seemingly wiping something from her face as she was still turned away from Sunny. "They change, they become someone else. Then you realize just how little you really meant to them. That's how things turned out before and I'll be darned if I let it happen again."

Sunny had no words to answer with and only managed to open her mouth with some sort of response before Dash Shot her down. "Let's just get this over with."

They finally made it to the large chamber where their challenge awaited only to find two chairs sitting on either side of a lock box. "Welcome ladies to the next round." The voice called. "You're the final two and..."

"Cut it with the chatter and let's end this!" Dash shouted.

"Rude. As I was saying, what you see before you was your challenge, but after witnessing some rather interesting interactions, I've decided to do something very special."

Standing nearby, Sunset and Spike watched as the magical doppelganger began to glow with a red energy. "What are you doing?"

"Something interesting. You see, Sunset, you have the ability to see people's thoughts and emotions. With the sirens powers, I can do that and a little extra. I can take those feelings and bring them out."

Inside the challenge room, Dash and Sunny waited for instructions. Before long, the former began to glow as a red aura surrounded her before the voice came back. "Your new challenge, Rainbow Dash: Destroy Sunny Flare!"

"Really?" Sunny responded with a raised eyebrow and her hands on her hips. "That's your big challenge? We don't like each other but..." she paused as Rainbow Dash began to moan, her hands placed on her head and eyes clenched shut as if someone was burrowing into her brain. "Um...are you alright?"

Dash seemed to strain to stay on her feet as something was clearly wrong. "You're not...taking her...from us." Soon after, her skin color changed to a darker shade of blue, her hair became spiked and her clothing began to change.

Sunny began to back away nervously as Rainbow continued her transformation. "Dash. Rainbow, you need to calm down. She's using you to..." Before she could finish her sentence, a blinding light obscured them both. A sinister sounding laughter filled the air as Sunny's vision returned and she was greeted with Dash's completed form, which now sported a set of wings that matched her darker tone.

"Isn't she just lovely?" the intercom asked humorously. "Say hello to Nightmare Prisma. Now Prisma, about that destroying. Do that and these girls won't hurt Twilight again."

Prisma slowly turned toward Sunny, a vengeful expression on her face. As she placed her palms together, a ball of rainbow energy began to form between them. It didn't take Sunny long to figure out what was next and she decided to run. To where? It didn't matter, she just needed to vacate the immediate area.

"Here comes a fastball!" Prisma laughed as she hurled the projectile at the CPA girl. Sunny managed to dive out of the way as the orb collided with the wall, which shook the entire room and reverberated throughout the various tunnels, alerting the other girls who double timed it to their destination.

Although she'd avoided the attack, Sunny soon found herself in the clutches of Prisma. "First round knockout."

Sunny, for the first time in a long time, decided to forego rational thinking and headbutted Prisma between the eyes. The blow caused both to recoil in pain as Sunny was dropped to the ground. "Why would I use a headbutt? Ow." She felt something in her hand and found the stone that Dash wore around her neck. "Stay back, Dash. I don't want to have to use this."

"Hurry it up, will you?" the announcer said. "The game isn't over until one of you is gone."

Nightmare Prisma grew ever closer to the girl as she charged another blast. "Fine. Don't say I didn't warn you, Dash." She squeezed the stone tight in her hand as a bright light once again temporarily covered the room. Not being able to see, Prisma's blast missed completely. When she couldn't find Sunny anywhere, she unleashed a torrent of blasts that flew randomly, which ended up destroying the cameras and speaker in the room.

"Where are you!" Prisma screamed before she noticed something out of the corner of her eye, a spec that was slowly, almost unnoticed, moving across the floor. She strained her eyes to get a closer look to find an insect sized Sunny Flare rushing as fast as she could across the room.

"Shrinking," Sunny lamented. "Out of all the powers in the universe, why did I have to get shrinking?" Her thoughts were put on hold as a colossal shadow engulfed her. She looked up to find Prisma standing over her.

"Looks like you could use a hand, tiny." She raised her left boot over Sunny. "Or maybe a foot."