Nuzlocke: Hearts of Gold and Souls of Silver

“I have found myself in my worst nightmare, but it can't be that bad. All I need to do is keep going, right?”

I have found myself staring at this doors once again, “should I go in, or should I hide?” the thought flashed into my mind

My life at this school so far haven't been the best, of all the past memories I can think of from this school, most of them aren't the best, I always have been teased by a group of students who likes to go around messing with other ponies,I would like to go up to princess Celestia and tell what they are doing, but there is nothing she can do, all of them have rich enough famalies to put them back into this school even if they were banished from it

“I don't want to skip any classes,” I thought. “even if it is the last day of school before summer. And after this, I won't have to come to school anymore, I have just finished this, and I'll be finally be able to live my own life without the worries of school”

As I walked inside I could the ponies grabbing their material for the upcoming classes from their lockers, to my right I could see through the laboratory's window a bunch of unicorns performing magic on 3 chemicals to take notes on the results. As I kept walking,I could see part of the red tail of one of the gang members of Freddie's gang, they were probably teasing someone,but if they were not, they would come after me, some why they love to tease me and bully me, I'm the top priority on their list. I began to trot a little to fast by them, as I was passing, I could see that they were up to bully Blackburn, a pegasus, a colt as old as me,around the age of 19, he had a blue coat, and black hair with a style just like Spitfire from the Wonderbolts, with a cross hair as a cutie mark, I never understood why he had that as a cutie mark,but I usually don't question it.

“What do you think you are doing Atlas,” Said one of the ponies of Freddie's gang, directing to me. “doesn't you have anything better to do before we come after you?”

I froze, trying to decide to help or just run away, I don't want to go home hurt from a fight.

Before I could do anything,one of the hall monitors came hurrying to stop the gang from trying to buck Blackburn right in the face. Blackburn got up from the ground and started picking up his papers, While the gang started trotting away before getting in trouble with the hall monitor, and as always, Freddie leading the way, shaking his red mane, with his yellow coat and a black jacket that had the name of the gang stamped on it. The Starsaws. whatever that meant was beyond my understanding.

After the moment had passed, I wrapped some of Blackburn's paper in order to help him out. he was still mad after they went after him.

“I'd have done something to defend myself,” He told me. “but they always come in groups,I could take one or maybe two, but not four, that is just unfair!”

I nodded. “So they have been going after you too mate?” I asked my friend

“I'm probably the second on their list,right after you” He told me. “This was the third time they threatened me this week.”

“I see what you mean, I usually get threatened by them at least four times a week” I told Blackburn, as he looked at me. “I know what you go through,but look, me and you won't have to pass through this anymore, school is just going to be on holiday for three months now!”

“True,” he told me. “But it's not like they are gonna vanish from Canterlot for that period of time, but maybe we can.”

“What? How?” I asked, not getting his message. “What do you mean by 'but we can' ?”

“The Nuzlocke Challenge competition is gonna be on town doing a tournament,” He smiled at me. “last pony standing wins. Better part, it is the official tournament!”

“Been a while since I have done any of this in years... I'm not sure I could handle any losses.” I told him,getting a little worried of 'our' plan for the holiday.

“Chill out Atlas, I'm gonna be by your side the whole thing, we going in together.” He gave my horn a little hit. “You don't have to worry a little bit of your horn since we are doing this as a team.”

“Alright, you got me in,” I finally stopped worrying and agreed. “]can't be worse than being in Canterlot, hiding from those freaks.”

“I knew you would agree,” He smiled at me giving me his trust. “All you got to do is subscribe us in the tournament up in the tea shops near the Royal Castle, I will send my info to you by a letter so you can put my name with yours in order to get us both in”

“Very well,” I levitated my bag to my back again so I could go to my classes before I got late. “But when does it start?”

“next week,” He had set his backpack under his wings. “about 3 days from now, should be enough to get us ready, anyway, I got to hurry up to my classes,see you later Atlas”

“See you Blackburn,until later” I turned my back to my friend and started slowly trotting to my music class course, as for Blackburn flew fast as a bullet to his class

After arriving home and collecting all the documents I needed to subscribe Blackburn and me on the tournament, I headed straight to the tea shops near the Royal Castle and turned to the stadium searching for the register papers. when I found then I went right ahead and put my name and and Blackburn's name on it and be done by then. That was until I finished to write on the paper and heard someone yelling my name not so far behind me. I froze as I started to turn back. There,standing in front of me,staring directly to me, was Freddie and other three of his gang members.

“Look at who it is” Freddie stared and me with a malicious smile,this wasn't going to end well for me. “Atlas, my favorite play toy,what a surprise to see my favorite grey coated, blue and red haired 'friend' around here.” He described me with a strange, evil-ish voice. “You still going with that 'Music is my special talent' bullshit and not 'I'm a weak and easy to fool pony as for a talent'? Man, you are such a dumb pony,just because you got a random musical note as a cutie mark doesn't mean anything!”

“For your information, that is a G flat major, not that it will make you any smarter” I replied his comment about me

“You forgot with who you're talking to?” he asked me with a threatening voice as he slowly started walking to me. “I'm the number 1# student in the whole college,and you even try to call me 'dumb' when I'm around with my boys?” he got closer as he was looking to me in the eyes, the earth pony in front of me tried to give me a warning,my inner me didn't listen. “Do you forgot with who you're messing with, or does I have to remember you?”

“I'm tired of your bullshit Freddie, everypony in school is!” I told him as I stand alone against him,everyone that was around was too distracted with the environment to notice us or to even care

Looking into his eyes, I could notice he had focused on something on the wall behind me,the wall of the stadium. looking back to me he stepped back.

“Get him gang!” He yelled and the two pegasus, one of them a female, red coated with a blonde long hair, and the other a male with a yellow coat and a messy pink hair, and a unicorn whose coat was black and had a white hair.

I started to run,trying to focus enough to teleport, but I was in panic and couldn't do it, I always had problems using magic in panic. I turned into a even deserted street as the two pegasi got closer to me, and finally  hitting me with the speed of a bullet and throwing me in the ground, after this moment, the unicorn caught up with us.

"back off I'm gonna finish this fool up” he told the pegasi.

His horn glowing green, he shot 2 bolts of energy at me,one of them missing and the other hitting right up in my left front hoof. Trying to get up, I was feeling the pain (or was the effect of the magic) travelling through my body, making me fall down again.

Before the unicorn could shoot another bolt or even a killing blow (I wasn't sure they wanted to kill me since they liked to go after me anyway), Freddie ran in telling the unicorn to stop

“Poison Strike, stop, I got a better idea of how to mess this fool's holiday than incapacitating him for months” He threw an malicious smile at me. “see you at the tournament Atlas” he directed to me as he start to laugh. he suddenly stopped and told Poison Strike- “your shot was too loud, we better get out of here before any guards come checking.”

The other three ponies nodded and they all galloped away in a hurry. a few moments later I could see guards coming near. I was still weak enough to get up after being stroke by a bolt of unknown magic.

“Halt! Who goes there?” one of the two guards directed at me. “It's is a civilian, he looks to be in pain”

One of the guards was a unicorn and wrapped me in magic to be transported to the nearby hospital for medical assistance.

After getting helped by the doctors at the hospital, it appears that nothing too bad happened to me,they gave me a medication and let me go,so after telling the guards what happened I went home and it was late,the next day I had to meet Blackburn to give more details and try to figure out what Freddie meant by 'see you at the tournament Atlas!'. Did he mean that he was going to participate just to mess with me, or make me incapable of even going to the tournament, but that would break his older statement saying that he had better plan than incapacitating me. So many questions to be answered.

I gave myself a break and went to sleep, I was very tired of the afternoon I had and I still had a lot to go through before the tournament. As I started to dream, negative thoughts started filling my mind and turning my dream into a nightmare, I could see everyone laughing at me and Freddie saying “I told you you'd fail”, I could see me never getting good at music even through my cutie mark told me different, I could see losing the tournament because I was too dumb.

Suddenly, all those thought vanished from my dream and my vision was clear again, I looked up and saw a night sky filled with stars with a full moon on it, and getting out of it I could see princess Luna getting out of the moon. She had stopped my nightmare, and I was so glad she did.

“Behold my fellow subject Atlas Bluetone, what does compose your struggles?” she directed at me

kneeing to princess of the night I answered “I'm afraid I cannot overcome my fears,your highness.”

“I have known about your fight of today's afternoon, fellow guards informed me of the fight you'd been through” she informed me. “You fear you cannot overcome the bulling you go through,and that also crushes your dreams and outnumbers you?”

My mind filling with sadness with the flying thoughts through it. I felt like crying. Laying in the ground and trying to hide in my own body,crying I answered “I fear that I cannot change the way it is and had been through for years now”

“Is... Is that what you think?” She questioned me. “Everything is impossible until somepony does it. You have been trough a emotional struggle that maybe I can help you to overcome the fear you have over the ones that fill you with negative emotions.” She told me, she really wanted to help me.

“How do you think you can help me?” I asked her. trying not to have my words be covered by my tears.

“I see that the one that goes after you likes to be the better at everything, and show it in the faces of the ponies around. I also heard that you already gone through this tournament he plans to outrun you.may be you can outrun him, and show that what he does it's wrong.” Luna explained to me the plan that she had in mind

“That is impossible,no one can outrun Freddie in anything” I replied to the idea

“Like I said before, It's only impossible, until somepony does it” She argumented against my bad developed reply. “It may be impossible if you keep getting blocked by such negative ideas that block your path. If you accept my assistance, for the course of the three days ahead of you, I may help you to overcome such thoughts.”

“How do you know such things?” I questioned her way of trying to help me.

She looked deep in her mind, giving a sad face she looked down, between my lying body and her standing body. I had gone too far,making her think of her past to remember such situation,I realized i had made her go through the time she had been possessed by the powers of darkness and became Nightmare Moon.

“Luna.... I'm sorry,I didn't mean to make you-”  I tried to apologize,but he interrupted me

“Believe me when I say, I have been gone through similar situations in my eternal past, situations one should go through or even think about...” Luna told me as she sat down in the ground of my dreams,a soft and comfortable grass landscape in the night sky

Finally after analyzing what she had told me, I told her- “I accept your help, Princess Luna. I'm sorry for having you thinking of your past.”

“Very well then, let's us begin the fight against what struggles you.” Luna got up and started controlling my dreams “Also, your pardon is accepted.”

For the past 2 days and a half I have been training with Blackburn for the tournament tomorrow, with the assistance of Luna to prevent emotional struggles during the tournament. After the half part of this day I have re-learned everything I forgot about the pokemon games so I didn't go blind on the tournament tomorrow, they announced that we will be playing the Nuzlocke version the the game Heart Gold/Soul Silver because they are apparently the biggest,involving two leagues.

Went to sleep to have my last class with Luna before the big day. When I got in my dream, I already could see Luna standing, looking at a similar landscape of the first dream we had together. I walked to her side and saw her re-watching her first experience.

“Princess Luna, is anything wrong?” I asked, worried for her.

She stood there in silence. A few moments she answered- “You're prepared...but I'm not”

“What do you mean,your highness?”

“I can not overcome my past,and the creature I had become” Luna started changing the landscape to the day she had turned into Nightmare Moon. “...After my transformation-” Luna explained while the memory played “-I have realized the mistake I had made into accepting the dark powers consume me... even though I couldn't hear, I could see my sister refusing to fight me,and when she finally banished me, I imagined she had created hatred over me” - Luna changed the memory to when she had been recovered from Nightmare Moon back to her old self,but this time,powerless. - “As you can see, I had been wiped from all my power, with my sister standing right in front of me, I had imagined she was going to finish me off or banish me once again. I had not imagined my sister stood up and waited a thousand years to be together with me. I had created fear over my sister until that moment,but I still cannot get over the shame of letting such transformation change my ideals.”

“Luna, for the past 3 days I have created and developed a very open and healthy friendship between us, If you let me,our time is running low and I will have to be gone for some days,but I promise you that after I come back, I will help you.” I comforted Luna with my words. “Just try not to think about it until I come back so I can do what you did to me.”

“You...you consider me a friend?” Luna asked me, surprised

“Absolutely, and after you helped me overcome, I will not let a friend down, well, not like past experiences.” I shot a smile at Luna. She shot one back.

“Very well, I promise, and I will also make sure to go and watch the tournament.” She told me

“I will be good to have you over watching me to try to outrun one of my biggest obstacles.” I gave a trusty look to Luna as I told her that. “It appears that our time together tonight is over, now if you excuse-me, I will have to leave, farewell Luna”

The dream started to break as Luna had gone away and I started to wake up. “it's now or never, you can do this Atlas!” I thought. I was finally ready to do this

I had encountered with Blackburn a little before the begin of the tournament, we prepared ourselves to do this since we had discovered the intentions of Freddie and his gang, they were going to eliminate us and after that try to win, or leave us for dessert.

As we were entering the main room in the stadium, where there were pods to connect us into the world of the game, we were going in the realist one, feeling it from the inside, up in the region of Johto, and later Kanto.

“Mares and gentlecolts, today we would like to present the tournament for the Nuzlocke challenge of the game Pokemon: Hearth Gold MMO, but this tournament had became even more special, this is not only the first tournament of Atlas, and old participant that had never won, 8 years later, now, he is finally back!” The Announcer yelled at the microphone with emotion. “Not only that but there is one important person watching the tournaments of this week, that is no one less than Princess Luna, we seem to have interested a lot of people into this challenge!”

I looked over to the ponies watching, on a very special seat, I could see Luna watching the screen on her balcony, there she could see the perspective of a certain participant of choice.

Finally after our long short journey of preparations, all the dozens of participants choose a started and named them. I saw Blackburn picking a Charmander and naming it Parker.

I chose an Eevee, and named it Pulse, this was my first tournament with an Eevee, and I thought it could be an interesting experience

After a while, we all got into our pods and wore the Vitual Reality (VR) Helmet and went inside, into the depths of a new land to explore with either friends or in my case, enemies and friends.