Conduit, Not Monster

“Hey Cole! Wake up!”

Twilight’s voice pierced my eardrums like a knife. I was sprawled out on the rooftop couch in a haze. I remembered that last night’s escapade of taking down a major Reaper stronghold was celebrated by all the friends that I had made so far with partying, music, dancing, and of course, booze. I think I can remember Rarity and Zeke getting a little frisky in the middle of it. Heh. I guess even though I’m considered to be a Conduit (what people started to call us) I can still get hangovers. I tried to open my eyes several times, but the morning sun kept beating me. Twilight must have seen that I was struggling and telepathically put some sunglasses on my face. When I could finally open my eyes, I saw that Twilight looked as good as she did last night. Her hair was neatly primed, her eyes were wide-open, and her speech wasn’t slurring.

“Come on Cole! It’s 10:00 in the morning and we’ve got work to do!” she said louder than she should have.

“How are you not hung-over from last night?” I asked her weakly.

“I guess part of it was because I didn’t drink at the party and never will at ANY party,” she said with a little sarcasm. “There’s way too much work to be done to be fooling around like that during the end of human society!”

I finally managed to get up off the couch and go over to the power box. I sucked up all the electricity in it, and my hangover was instantly cured. Yep, everything’s better when you have powers. Now with that out of the way, I was back to my old self. “All work and no play makes Twilight a dull girl,” I said sitting back on my make-shift bed. “And speaking of fooling around, what happened to Rarity and Zeke?” I could see that Twilight was trying her hardest to keep from laughing at the sound of those two names.

“Well, when Rarity woke up this morning, Zeke was laying right beside her. Just so you know nothing happened between the two of them. But Rarity was so pissed off that she picked up Zeke while he was still asleep-” she suddenly stopped while trying even harder not to laugh. “And Zeke woke up on top of the Staton Building!” We both burst into laughter. For those of you that don’t know, the Staton Building has got to be THE tallest building that’s still standing after the blast. Personally, I think he deserved it. We kept laughing until our sides hurt. Speak of the devil and he’s sure to arrive because Rarity and Zeke just got on the rooftop when we stopped.

“I take it you were talking about that little incident that I caused this morning”, Rarity said with a bit of regret in her voice.

Zeke patted her on the shoulder in an attempt to not make her feel guilty. “If anyone’s to blame, it should be me Ms. Rarity. I shouldn’t have tried to take advantage of you like that. And I promise that it’ll never happen again.” Since when had Zeke become so gentlemanly? He even managed to get a smile out of Rarity!! Here’s hoping that it wouldn’t last because Zeke was starting to freak me out a little. Their little moment was interrupted by an explosion not far away from where we were.

Twilight was scared out of her mind. “What the hell is that?” she cried.

I went over to her and patted her on the back. “Whatever it is, it can’t be good. We’ve got to get over there and fast before someone gets killed.” We all set out to the location of the explosion, but Zeke stayed behind as usual. I was beginning to feel sorry for that guy.

“I knew you’re around here, McGrath!!” I shouted at the top of my lungs. “And I’m coming for you! So quit hiding like a pussy and let me kill you!!” Applejack and Rainbow Dash were standing a few feet away from me with fear in their eyes. But, I didn’t care about what they thought of me. All I wanted was to sink my blade into McGrath’s skull. Lucky for me, I would get my wish. A man jumped off of one of the rooftops and landed about 10 yards away from me. Two girls teleported beside him and it looked like they had powers to. “I’m guessing you’re Cole McGrath?”

“And what if I am?” he asked.

“Then that means you’re the one who gonna feel my hand on your spine!!” I shouted. “Applejack! Rainbow Dash! Get your asses ready!”

Rainbow Dash just stopped all of a sudden. “Whoa whoa whoa whoa there big guy! We said we would help you find McGrath not help you kill him.”

“She’s right,” Applejack replied. “And even if we wanted to, those girls with him were there when we got our powers. We ain’t gonna fight our fellow Conduits.” This caught me and the girls with McGrath by surprise.

“Fine”, I said through my teeth. “Just don’t get in my way.” I readied myself to charge at McGrath and finish this.

McGrath stepped forward. “I’ll take care of this myself. I don’t want you girls to get hurt.” He readied himself like me and we both charged each other. We both sent punches flying and they managed to connect to each of our faces, knocking us both back. I knew then that this was gonna be a little tougher than I thought.

We were all watching from a dark alleyway as everything was unfolding. We all were doing double-takes to see if this was real.

“Wowie zowie!” Pinkie Pie said. “This is gonna be amazing! Are you excited? Cause I’m excited! I’ve never been more excited! Well, except for the time that-” I cut her off by putting my hand over her mouth.

“Thank you, Spike”, Fluttershy said quietly. “But, it is surprising. I never thought I would live to see the day that someone would be in Empire with as much power as the Demon!”

“You’re telling me”, I responded. “I have no idea who this other guy is or what kind of powers he’s got, but he is one strange Conduit.” As I said this, the other guy turned one of his arms into a giant blade and lunged at McGrath. The blade was coming close to his head, but McGrath managed to dodge each swipe. Then, when the blade became stuck in the ground, McGrath unleashed a storm of electricity. It actually seemed to do some damage to the other guy, but he still managed to turn his hand into a giant fist and send McGrath flying with a punch to the gut.

As we kept watching, we saw that they were both getting pretty tired and the town was getting even more torn up. There weren’t any people around, which was a good thing or else McGrath would be holding back and this other guy would’ve finished him instantly. It was starting to get pretty intense. McGrath was trying to shoot down the other guy, but he picked up a car and started running up the walls. Literally! He threw the car at McGrath, but he deflected with an electric shock wave. We knew that if this lasted longer, then we wouldn’t have any hope of rebuilding the city.

“Do your thing Pinkie Pie”, I instructed her.

She nodded and performed her weird but useful power. She got in front of McGrath and the other guy just as they were about to charge into each other again, and turned into a clear wall about twelve feet thick. When they hit it, they were knocked to the ground and were almost rendered unconscious. For extra assurance, the two halves of Pinkie went up to the two, turned into frying pans, and knocked them both out. She put herself back together and beamed at her accomplishment. “Thank you Looney Tunes!” she shouted proudly.

I was the next to step out of the shadows. “I think you may have overdone it a little Pinkie Pie.” I then surrounded the two with bands of green fire around their arms, waists, and ankles. The others looked like they were about to beat me to a pulp. “Don’t worry”, I assured them. “Those fires aren’t meant to burn them. They’re just meant to hold them down. That’s the good thing about pyrokinesis. We had no choice. If we didn’t step in, then they would have done even more damage than they’ve already done.” All the others thought for a minute and finally nodded their heads in agreement.

The girl with the pink-striped purple hair said, “What are we gonna do about them? We can’t take them to the hospital or we’ll risk the safety of others if they wake up.”

Finally, Fluttershy stepped out of the shadows, but wouldn’t look at anyone in the eyes. “I can help”, she said quietly. “I have healing powers that can be used on anything whether they’re an animal, a human, or even a Conduit. But, we have to find a safe spot in case the Reapers come.” We all agreed and the beautiful girl in the white dress instructed us to gather around her and the pink-stripe girl. They put their hands on each other’s shoulders and teleported us all out of there.

Author's Notes

Just so y'all know, this chapter will be the last one in 1st Person format. I find it a little too challenging to be writing in two different points-of-view. Well, three points-of-view in this chapter. Anyway, I'm switching from 1st Person to 3rd Person right about...now. Also, I CAN'T BELIEVE I WROTE TWO CHAPTERS IN JUST ONE DAY!!!