Equestria Girls / Rainbow Rocks / The Mane Event

by Perdita Finn

  Immediately, she began running toward the school lot where her car was parked. The other girls followed quickly behind her, wondering what she could be up to. Sunset Shimmer had opened her trunk and was rummaging around inside, looking for something.

  “When I was Princess Celestia’s student back in Equestria,” she explained, “she gave me… THIS!” She held up a book. On the cover was Princess Celestia’s cutie mark.

  The other girls looked at it with wonder, not sure what this meant, but Sunset Shimmer was bubbling with excitement. “Even after I abandoned my studies, I held on to it. Deep down I guess I knew I was making a big mistake and wanted to still have a way to reach out to her.”

  Sunset flipped open the book, revealing several pages of elaborate cursive writing. She stopped at an empty page. She beamed at the other girls, her eyes wide. “Maybe it still works!”

  “It’s a book, darling,” said Rarity as sweetly as she could. “What do you mean ‘Maybe it still works’?”

  “It used to be that if I wrote something in here, it would appear in the pages of a book back in Princess Celestia’s library.” She took a big breath. She could barely contain her anticipation. “I get a message to her, then she can get a message to Princess Twilight.”

  The girls exploded with squeals! There was a way to get in touch with Twilight Sparkle after all.

  “So what are you waiting for?” demanded Rainbow Dash. “Get to writing!” She pulled a pen out of her pocket and handed it to Sunset Shimmer.

  The girls crowded around as Sunset stared at the empty page of the book. The girls at Canterlot had forgiven her, but she wasn’t sure that Twilight Sparkle had. The girls were smiling at her, and it gave her confidence. “Been a long time since I’ve written these words,” she gulped. “‘Dear Princess Celestia…’”

  As Sunset Shimmer continued writing, white light began to flash and a swirl of sparkling rainbows erupted from the book.

  In the Key of Princess

  Far away in Equestria, Twilight Sparkle was moving into a castle befitting her new status as a princess. All her favorite pony friends were helping her get settled. Even now, they still reminded her of their teenage counterparts in the human world. She had told them all so many stories about her adventures at Canterlot High.

  Her thoughts were interrupted by Rarity. “Why, Twilight, it must be quite overwhelming, moving from a one-bedroom loft to such an expansive home. You will give me a chance to help decorate the place, won’t you?”

  Princess Twilight teased her friend. “I’ll think about it.” But Rarity was so instantly devastated that the royalty rushed to reassure her. “I’m kidding. Of course you can.”

  Applejack was laughing. “Who-ee! You shoulda seen your face, Rarity!”

  Princess Twilight threw open the heavy doors to the throne room. Her assistant, Spike the dragon, had dragged a huge canvas mailbag across the room and was dumping it out next to an already enormous pile of letters. “More mail for the Princess of Friendship,” the dragon explained.

  Pinkie Pie squealed, took a flying leap, and dived into the letters like it was a pile of leaves. She emerged a moment later, enthusiastically reading some of the return addresses on Princess Twilight’s fan mail. “From Maretonia, Appleloosa, Vanhoover…”

  “Gosh,” exclaimed Fluttershy. “Who knew there were so many ponies in need of your services?”

  Rainbow Dash whinnied in agreement. “Seriously, is there anypony in Equestria who isn’t looking for you to solve their problems?”

  Princess Twilight suddenly looked very serious. “I am the Princess of Friendship now, and it is my job to have the answers. And I’ve already got Spike categorizing the issues according to urgency.” Her friends were going to have to understand that being princess wasn’t just about balls and tiaras—it was a lot of responsibility.

  Applejack understood that. “Course you do.”

  Spike ripped open one of the letters. “Here’s a good one. Somepony in Manehattan says he bought a big salad for a friend and another friend took credit for it. Wants to know what to do.”

  Rarity laughed. “I’d say that one can go in the not-so-urgent pile.”

  A delivery pony knocked politely on the open door. He was carrying a large box. “Excuse me, Princess, where do you want all these books from Princess Celestia?”

  “The library,” answered Princess Twilight. She gestured to a door that led out of the throne room. “It’s down that hallway.”

  “Should I bring them all there? Even this one that’s glowin’ and vibratin’?”

  Princess Twilight raised her eyebrows, intrigued. With a delicate wave of magic, she summoned the mysterious book from the box. On the cover was emblazoned Sunset Shimmer’s cutie mark! How surprising! What could this mean?

  She opened the book carefully and watched as cursive lettering began to magically appear on the pages.

  “What is it?” asked Fluttershy, leaning in for a better look.

  Twilight Sparkle could barely speak, she was so amazed. “It looks like… a message to Princess Celestia… from my friends at Canterlot High.”

  The other ponies crowded around to examine the words.

  Rarity shook her head. Twilight Sparkle had explained to them that the portal to the other world was closed forever. “How is that even possible?”

  “I have no idea,” answered Twilight Sparkle, mystified. “But…” And she took a deep breath filled with grave concern for her human friends. “It sounds like they need my help!”

  Her pony friends watched as she studied the message for a long time and then galloped down the hallway to the library. They followed and discovered her pulling books off the shelves and out of boxes. “The way Sunset Shimmer describes them, I think these new girls sound an awful lot like the Sirens.”

  “Not the Sirens!” gasped Pinkie Pie. She whispered to the other ponies, “I don’t actually know who that is.”

  Twilight Sparkle found the book she was looking for and placed it, open, on the table. “The Sirens were three beautiful but dangerous creatures who had the power to charm ponies with their music,” she explained. She showed the other ponies a detailed drawing of three beautiful spiritlike creatures with wings on their backs and talons where their hooves should be. Their mouths were open, and they were clearly singing. Around their necks, they each wore a pendant with a scarlet jewel.

  “‘To maintain this power, they fed on the negativity and distrust of others. The more of this negative energy they consumed, the stronger their voices became and the farther they could spread their dark magic,’” Twilight read. She turned the page.

  There was a picture of the Sirens levitating over a group of arguing ponies. Their mouths were open, and their pendants glowed. The ponies in the picture looked angry and unhappy, and the Sirens looked triumphant.

  Fluttershy shivered. “I don’t think I like this story very much.”

  “‘If the Sirens had gotten their way, they would have divided and conquered all of Equestria,’” explained Twilight Sparkle, reading more. “‘But a certain Star Swirl the Bearded wasn’t having it.’”

  Twilight grinned as she held the book up to show the ponies a picture of Star Swirl the Bearded. “‘Rumor has it, he found a way to banish them to another world. One where he believed their magical power would be lost forever.’”

  The smile vanished from Twilight Sparkle’s face as she realized exactly what world that was. “That world must have been the one where my Canterlot High friends live.”

  “But Star Swirl must’ve sent them there moons ago. How come they’re just surfacin’ now?” asked Applejack, rubbing her head.

  “I don’t know,” answered Twilight, but she was very worried. “If my hunch is right and it is the Sirens who’ve come to Canterlot High, this spell they’ve cast is just the beginning.” Twilight was resolved. Being a princess meant helping others, and this was certainly more important than settling a fight about salads. “My friends need me. I have to g
et back to them.”

  “Hate to burst your bubble, Twilight,” said Rainbow Dash. “But the mirror you used to get to Canterlot High doesn’t work anymore. The connection between their world and Equestria has been totally cut off for another thirty moons.”

  “Okay,” said Pinkie Pie, interrupting. “First of all, if there was bubble blowing going on, why wasn’t I told about it? And second, if the connection is totally cut off, how was Sunset Shimmer able to get that message to Twilight?” With her usual slapdash excitement, Pinkie Pie had hit the nail on the head!

  “Pinkie Pie, you’re a genius!” Twilight gave her a hug.

  “Yeah. I get that a lot.” Pinkie Pie grinned, trying to be nonchalant. “Now about those bubbles…”

  Rainbow Road Trip

  Princess Twilight Sparkle had been very busy assembling a complicated contraption that connected Princess Celestia’s book at one end to the no-longer-working portal mirror on the other end. She was trying to explain it to her friends, who were looking on in amazement. “… and the interval between the two points is defined as the square root of the sum of the squares of the separation between the points along the three spatial dimensions.”

  Spike shook his head. “Say what now?”

  “Duh,” said Pinkie Pie, who didn’t understand what was so confusing. She pointed at the book. “She’s gonna take the magic in here and put it in there.” With a flourish, she gestured to the mirror. “That will make the portal open up so that whenever she wants to, she can go from here to there. There to here. Here to there. There to here. Here to there. There to—”

  “We get the idea,” interrupted Applejack.

  “Now to see if it actually works!” Twilight pulled a lever and sparks immediately burst from the book and sent an electrical charge into the machine that slowly began making its way toward the mirror.

  “Ooooh!”

  “Ahhh!”

  “Wow!”

  The portal mirror was beginning to shimmer and glow!

  Carefully, Twilight approached the mirror to test it. She placed her hoof on its reflective surface—and her hoof disappeared! She pulled it back. The machine was going to work!

  “Don’t suppose we could join you this time around?” asked Applejack.

  Twilight Sparkle shook her head. “Better not. It could make things confusing in Canterlot High if all of a sudden there were two of all of you.”

  The ponies nodded in understanding.

  “But I still get to go, right?” piped up Spike. “There isn’t another one of me at Canterlot High. And you never know when you might need your trusty assistant.”

  Twilight smiled at her friend and held out her hand. Spike pumped his fist before taking it. “We won’t be gone long,” she said.

  The girls hugged one another, and each of the ponies whispered special words of encouragement to the princess. They hoped she was up to defeating the Sirens. It was scary having her leave their world again.

  “Ready, Spike?” asked Twilight Sparkle at last.

  “Ready!”

  The two stepped into the mirror together. Almost instantly, there was a flash of blinding white light. Streaks of rainbow colors blazed in all directions as Twilight and Spike were stretched and squashed and bent and transformed into another dimension. Sparks glittered in the throne room in Equestria. At the marble base of the Wondercolt statue, tiny, almost imperceptible rainbows began to emerge.

  The human girls had been waiting and waiting since Sunset Shimmer sent her message. They were beginning to lose hope. Rainbow Dash kept wishing they would see something, anything. She studied the statue one last time and was about to suggest they give up when Twilight Sparkle, the teenage girl, and Spike, her pet dog, flew out of the portal and hit the ground with an enormous thud!

  “Twilight!” shouted all the girls, rushing to their long-lost friend. There were hugs and squeals and tears.

  Twilight was wobbly and a little bruised. “I’m back!” She dusted herself off. It wasn’t quite the entrance she had imagined making. Still, she’d made it, and that’s what mattered. “I’ve got some bad news about those new girls,” she said, almost at once. She noticed the worried glances her friends were exchanging. She hoped that it wasn’t too late.

  Reunion Rhythms

  There was so much to catch up on, and the best place to do that was at the Sweet Shoppe. Pinkie Pie brought Twilight Sparkle a giant hot chocolate with lots of whipped cream.

  Everyone was talking all at once.

  Rarity wished that they could all just chat about fun things. “Oh, I do so hate that you’ve had to return in a time of crisis. We have so much to tell you!”

  “For starters, a certain blue-haired guitar player was just asking about you,” announced Applejack forthrightly.

  A giddy smile lit up Twilight’s face. “Flash Sentry was asking about me?” Immediately, she tried to play it cool. She blew on her hot chocolate to hide her excitement. “Isn’t that nice.”

  “Perhaps you could give us just the slightest bit of gossip from your world,” said Rarity.

  “She’s got an official title now,” whispered Spike. He had to make sure no one else heard the talking dog and got alarmed. “She’s the Princess of Friendship!” He mimed blowing a royal trumpet.

  “Wow! That’s really impressive,” said Sunset Shimmer with absolute sincerity. “Guess you really were Princess Celestia’s prized pupil.”

  “She even got her own castle,” bragged Spike.

  Rarity hugged Twilight with excitement. “A castle?! You have your own castle!” In her excitement, she spilled the hot chocolate. Rarity grabbed a napkin and began mopping at her friend’s shirt. “How lovely,” she said, trying to behave more coolly. Still, it wasn’t every day you find out your friend has her very own castle!

  “What’s new here?” asked Twilight. “I mean, besides your school becoming the target of dangerous magical creatures from Equestria.”

  Rainbow Dash exchanged a worried glance with the other girls. They all nodded their heads. They wanted her to tell Twilight.

  “Yeah,” began Rainbow Dash. “So that isn’t exactly the first strange thing that’s happened since you left.” She took out her cell phone and showed Twilight Sparkle videos of each of the girls playing music—and ponying up. “Pretty sweet, huh? Happens to all of us when we play.”

  Twilight took the phone from Rainbow Dash and studied the videos. This explained a lot. In fact, it explained everything about the Sirens—and what to do about them. “My crown was returned to Equestria, but some of its magic must have remained here at Canterlot High. Now that we’re all back together, we can use that magic on the Sirens. Just like we were able to use it on Sunset Shimmer when she turned into that horrifyingly awful winged monster.” Twilight Sparkle clapped her hand over her mouth. She remembered too late that Sunset was sitting with them. “No offense,” she apologized.

  “None taken.” Sunset sighed. “I’m used to it.”

  “They’ll never even know what hit ’em,” said Rainbow Dash, returning to the topic of the Sirens. She executed some bold karate moves.

  Applejack leaned back, more relaxed than she’d been since the Sirens started singing. “We’ve got nothin’ to worry about now that Twilight’s back.”

  “Oh, I’m pretty sure I could find something to worry about,” said Fluttershy, suddenly overwhelmed by a hundred and one different things. But then she looked at Twilight Sparkle’s confident face. “But it won’t be the Sirens,” she added brightly.

  Twilight Sparkle knew the girls were counting on her. “The sooner we do this the better. Any idea where the Sirens might be?” she asked.

  “There’s a big party tonight at the gym for all the bands who signed up to be in the showcase,” gushed Pinkie Pie, who always knew where every party was. “That would include the Dazzlings, the band the Sirens have formed.”

  “Looks like we’ve got a party to crash,” resolved Twilight Sparkle grimly. The girls would have to
finish getting caught up later—when Canterlot High was no longer in danger.

  The girls gulped down their drinks, piled into Sunset Shimmer’s car, and headed to the gym. The moment they entered, however, they could tell that something was the matter. Something serious. This was no party.

  Small groups of kids were huddled together, whispering among one another. They were shooting competitive stares at others in the group. The energy in the room was tense, unhappy, and mean.

  Flash Sentry, looking grim and miserable, broke away from his bandmates and was just heading to get more punch when he ran right into Twilight Sparkle. She nearly toppled over with surprise, but he expertly wrapped his arm around her and pulled her back up, like it was a move in a dance.

  Twilight was blushing. “Bumped. Into. Always. Doing…” She could barely talk.

  “Twilight?!” exclaimed Flash Sentry. “What are you doing here? You came back for the big competition, right? I knew you would!”

  Twilight smiled up at him. He was even handsomer than she remembered. “Something like that.”

  Flash looked determined. “Not that there’s going to be any real competition. No one here wants this as bad as my band does.”

  His competitiveness alarmed Twilight Sparkle, and just at that moment, she spotted three girls with sneers on their pretty faces entering the gym. Those were the Sirens. She was sure of it.

  “Can you excuse me for just a minute?” she said to Flash. She motioned to her friends to follow her.

  Adagio Dazzle was looking around the gym at the students divided into tight little cliques. “Oh no!” she said with mock sincerity. “No one’s mingling. It’s like there’s some kind of underlying tension that could bubble to the surface at any minute.” She laughed wickedly.

  “It’s the fruit punch, isn’t it? I knew I used too much grape juice.” Sonata Dusk held up an empty juice bottle.

  Adagio gave an exasperated sigh. “It’s not the fruit punch. It’s us,” she explained.