Ponyville
As the residents of the small community go about their daily business, Adagio flies in over head. As she comes into the castle, she is greeted by Twilight Sparkle. After explaining the situation, the two head towards the portal. "Sunset's letter reached me just yesterday. As surprising as it might seem, Discord was telling the truth. Are you certain you don't need any help?"
"I appreciate the offer but I couldn't ask you to do that. You've got a lot on your plate as a princess here. It wouldn't be fair for us to keep asking to help fix our problems every time. I'll just pop over and see what exactly is going on. Don't worry, if we do need any help, you're just a page away."
"Good luck." Twilight says as the two share a brief hug and Adagio walks through the portal.
Human World
"It's about time you got here." Twilight says as Trixie and The Illusions arrive in her car. "Hurry and load her in before someone sees."
"Woah, wait a minute. We are not helping you kidnap someone." Lavender Lace protests as Trixie backs the car into the alley.
"You're well within your rights to leave if you wish, but Trixie and I have an arrangement. Or, we can end our dealings here and now and I can simply take my gifts back and go our separate ways."
"Yes." Lavender and Fuchsia say swiftly.
"No!" Trixie says abruptly as she exits her car. "The Great and Powerful Trixie still has need of her services. We had an agreement and we are going to see this out to the end."
"Will you listen to yourself? Something is wrong with this whole deal. I didn't think of anything at first but that thing is messing with your head. It's just like the Dazzlings. You have to stop." Lavender says, taking a stand against her band leader.
"How dare you command me. Without Trixie you would still be working that lame standup night comedy routine. This is our chance to really be great and we are going to do this, with or without you."
Lavender stops for a moment, lowering her head as Fuchsia looks on. "No, I'm still in."
"Lave, you can't be serious." Fuchsia pleads as Lavender takes her to the side.
"If you don't want to be a part of this than scram. Once we're done there will be plenty of people lined up to be in this band." Lavender turns the two away and whispers something into her ear. "Now beat it!" She forces Fuchsia away, who runs off. "Looks like we will be needing to do some auditioning. Are we all set?"
"It seems so. Now let's go." Twilight says as the three get into Trixie's car, having already loaded Sonata in the back and drive off.
Canterlot High School
"Woah Aria, you have to take it easy. You took some serious hits." Curly Winds says as Aria attempts to shake him and Wiz Kid off as she leaves the nurses office on shaky legs.
"He's right. You need to take some time to rest."
"I'm fine. I have to talk to Sonata. Are you going to give me a ride or not?" She asks with a pair of sunglasses covering her swollen left eye.
"Alright, if you're that determined. We can take my truck." Curly says.
"When did you get a truck?" Asks Wiz Kid.
"Don't mean to brag but I got a job as the personal trainer of Sapphire Shores." He says confidently whirling the key ring around his finger.
"Dude, nice." As they prepare to head to the parking lot, Adagio surprises them as she emerges from the portal. "Aria, there you are." She says as she hugs her. "Are you alright? What's going on?"
"I'm fine Adagio, really?" She says, annoyed by her sister's concern.
She stops, removing Aria's sunglasses, taking a look at her left eye as the purple haired girl turns her head to avoid looking at her. "No you're not. That looks awful. Where's Sonata?"
"She's at Pinkie Pie's house. What are you doing here Adagio? I thought you were going to be gone the rest of the week."
"A...friend told me something was wrong so I rushed back here." Before anything else can be said, Aria's ferret rushes up to her, a piece of cloth in his mouth.
"Ticki? What are you doing here?"
"What is it?" Curly asks out of curiosity at the creature.
"It's a ferret. Kind of like a weasel you can keep as a pet." Wiz Kid explains.
"I left him with Sonata. He was with her after...after..." Aria pauses as Adagio can tell something is wrong. "Never mind. Ticki where's Sonata?" The ferret leaps down and begins to tug on her pants leg, attempting to lead her. "Alright, lead the way."
"Hey, can we come too?" Curly asks. "We do have a ride."
"Thanks. Hopefully it turns out to be nothing." Adagio says. The four then head for Curly's truck and head out as Ticki sits on the dash board.
"If we're gonna find Sonata we'll need some help. Stop by Applejack's." Aria says. Just as they leave, Fuchsia Blush arrives, running to the rear of the building. She rushes over to where Sunset and the others are seated. "You...help...big trouble...Trixie...science...craziness...tired." She says out of breath as she falls backwards from exhaustion. As the group stand over the girl, Rainbow Dash sighs before spraying Fuchsia with her water bottle. This instantly shocks her awake as she jumps up and runs her mouth a thousand miles a minute, leaving everyone confused. "Do you understand now?"
"So Trixie got into contact with some girl that looks almost identical to Twilight Sparkle, most likely the version from this world and gave her some strange gifts that somehow allowed her to manipulate people's emotions and she used them to try to break up our group so she could be on top. Then you decided to team up with the creepy janitor so he could get his own revenge. But you realized all too late that something more sinister was going down but by then it was too late and now our world's Twilight has Sonata and is on her way with Trixie to do who knows what with her and it's made even worse because Trixie has some kind of gem that's slowly turning her into some sort of evil tyrant." Pinkie says casually, leaving everyone else stunned. "What?"
"Wait, Sketchy was in on this?" Sunset asks.
"Um, yes." Fuchsia says nervously.
"The creepy school janitor is in on it? Why am I not surprised?" Dash says.
"We need to talk to him, now. If he has something to do with this, than it's even worse than we think." The group plus Fuchsia find the janitor cleaning the cafeteria. He looks over his shoulder and sees the girls approaching. "Hey boys, cover for me?" He says to Cut Off and his friends as they jump up and begin doing his job. Sketchy walks with them to one of the back hallways and takes a look over at Fuchsia, who turns her gaze away. "Alright, I take it we all know what this is about, so let me save us all the trouble and get right down to the bottom line. Yes I helped her with the whole deal and fooled Trixie and her friends into doing most of the leg work and no, I'm not going to help you." As he turns to leave, Sunset rushes behind him, hugging him from behind.
"Sketchy, I know you're angry with me, but please, don't take it out on someone else. You were my only friend and I was wrong for what I did to you. I've wronged so many people in the past and it took me a long time to realize the pain I was causing. I'm trying to make up for the mistakes I made and make it right with everyone. But if you can't forgive me then...I don't know if I can ever really forgive myself for what I've done to you." As tears roll down Sunset's face, Sketchy is doing his best to hold it in, as the others are tearing up. Through his forced voice, he manages to speak.
"Zecora's Commodities. I met her at Zecora's on the other side of town. I gave her a fragment of the gems that were left over after the battle of the bands. She only contacted me from then on. Go to the shop. She might be able to help you from there." He says with his back still turned.
"Thank you." Sunset says as the others walk up behind her.
"We should get going if we're going to save Sonata." Applejack says as they rush outside.
"And Trixie right?" Fuchsia adds.
Rainbow Dash lets out a sigh. "Please don't make us say that."
"Sunset Shimmer." Sketchy calls out as she stops. "Good luck." She nods in acknowledgment as she rejoins the others. He turns around to see a none too pleased Vice Principal Luna staring him down, the three students in front of her. "I'm fired aren't I?"
Twilight's Lab
"Oh wow, I had the weirdest dream. Aria was mad at me and I got all sad and locked myself up in my room. Then I saved some girl who knocked me out and..." Sonata looks around as she finds herself strapped to a cold metal board that is in a slanted angle, her hands and feet bound by chains. "Oh, I guess it wasn't a dream. My bad. Hey Trixie." Trixie rolls her eyes as Sonata smiles.
"So what's next Twilight?" She asks as the girl looks over her notepad.
"First I'll need your bracelet." She says calmly as Trixie begins to back away.
"You are not taking this from me." As she says this her eyes begin to glow red again.
"Calm yourself Miss Lulamoon. I only need it for a moment to extract the energy you've been gathering."
"What energy?"
"While you were going around with your little plan, you were also helping me. This little gem collects the negative energies of anyone around it and that, in conjunction with the dust I gave you, which was also made from the gem, has surely collected more than I can imagine. Now if you will I'll simply extract the excess energy and it's all yours to do what you will."
"And what happens to her?" Lavender asks, looking over at Sonata.
"Does it honestly matter to you?"
"Yeah, it kind of does." She says to the purple haired girl with her arms folded. "Trixie, we can't really be thinking about doing this are we?"
Trixie begins to massage her head, seemingly struggling to decide as the bracelet begins to glow again. She surprises Lavender Lace, grabbing her and lifting her off her feet. "Don't tell me you're wimping out too. We agreed we'd take down the Rainbooms, no matter what."
"Okay, okay." Lavender says as she tries to free herself. Trixie releases her as she gets back to her feet and brushes herself off.
"Here." Trixie removes the bracelet and hands it to Twilight, who turns to a table that contains a few of her work tools.
"Hey that's part of our old pendent." Sonata says as she looks over. Unknown to Trixie, Twilight switches the bracelet with a duplicate. She turns back to her, having hidden the real one under some papers. "There you are Miss Lulamoon, as promised. And I believe this concludes our business. Make good use out of it." Trixie places the bracelet on her wrist as she and Lavender exit. "While it lasts." Twilight then turns her attention back to Sonata who is playfully bobbing her head.
"Hey, do you have any food? All I've had to eat today was cake."
Zecora's Over Sea's Commodities
The group quickly enters the store as Zecora greets them. "Welcome, welcome my young friends to my store of wonders that never ends."
"Hey Zecora." Fuchsia says as she takes the lead. "This are my new friends. They were looking for an old friend, a girl who may come in here from time to time. Thick pair of glasses, purple hair, kind of a nerd."
"Hm, let me see if I can tell you who this might be." The woman says as she thinks to herself. "Ah, I know of the girl of which you speak. Twilight Sparkle is the one you seek. Yes she would come here quite often to purchase many things along with her good friend, Lyra Heartstrings."
"Lyra?" Rarity says I shock.
"You know her?" Fuchsia asks.
"Yes, she's the only girl in school with more energy than Pinkie Pie."
"Hey!" Pinkie says as she pops up behind her.
"Do you know where she is now?"
"She's usually on the edge of town working on one of her kooky ideas."
"Let's get over there. Hopefully she might have some answers. Thanks Zecora." Fuchsia says as they all head out. Rainbow Dash reenters the store briefly. "Hey are you related to a girl by the name of Rope-a-Dope?"
"Ah, a resemblance you see. Yes she is a niece to me."
"Thought so." Dash then abruptly exits again.
Apple Family Farm
"Here we are." Aria says as Curly pulls his truck up to the front of the home. She then jumps out and heads to the front, where Granny Smith is sitting on the porch in her rocking chair.
"Land sakes child, where have you been?" She says.
"Sorry I haven't been here to do my chores Granny but it's kind of an emergency and I really really need to borrow Winona. I promise I'll do all the chores for a month."
"Well, alright. But be back her tonight, nine o'clock sharp, understand?"
"Thank you so much." Aria says joyously as she runs back to the truck. She whistles sharply. "Here Winona, here girl." She dog rushes from the back of the house and tackles her to the ground, licking her face. "Alright, alright. It's good to see you too. Now come on girl, I need you to find Sonata." She holds up the cloth that she got from Ticki to her nose.
"You think there's enough scent on it for her to get a lead?" Adagio asks.
"We'll find out soon enough." Aria says as she hooks up Winona to a leash. "Okay girl let's go...!" Aria is pulled quickly as the dog sniffs the ground and darts off with her I tow.
"Follow that dog. Where she goes, we go." Adagio says as the other three follow in Curly Winds' truck.