Midnight Brawler
An Equestria Girl's Tale
Chapter 1
Adagio looked at the figure standing over the monster that had tried to... She shuttered as she thought of what almost happened. The figure standing there had been fast, really fast, and he had taken out that horrible man.
She could see the figure breathing hard, its body trembling, and the long black rain poncho slick with water. She stood up. He looked toward her.
"Are you alright?"
She nodded.
"Good, call the police. They'll finish taking care of him."
With that he started to run, and she followed him. She saw him disappear behind a building and when she went behind it, he was gone. She checked the time and saw it was midnight. in a way that was funny, it was Midnight and she had been saved by a Brawler. No, she had been saved by the Midnight Brawler.
Above her, still trembling, Fury was thinking about what had happened. Earlier today was different. Earlier today he'd been a regular kid, and then tonight... Tonight something changed. Something became real, and what he read, he looked at his watch, yesterday actually was real to him, and for him.
(Seven AM, Yesterday Morning)
"There's truth to every single legend, and Comic Books are simply the most modern way of continueing those legends."
He re-read those words again. Mr. Glass, the famous comic book author that was the writer behind the Power Pownies!(tm) was his favorite comic book author. Maybe he was right, maybe it was true that those legends were real.
He sighed as he walked home. It wasn't like he was really anything special. Sure, he'd taken Aikido since he was six, and he had progressed to the point of being a master, but that was different. It was a different kind of fighting. It wasn't meant for taking down bank robbers, rapists, or anything like that.
He walked down the street, looking at his new school. Last year, his mom and dad divorced, and Mom got custody. He wanted to go with his Dad, really wanted to go with him, but his mom's lawyers were better.
The judge did say that they'd revisit it in a few months and see if it would be viable for him to be with his father. Oh, that pissed his Mom off, and in a way he was glad. It was her fault.
He hated thinking like that, but it was. She was sleeping with Blueballs, or Blue Blood rather, and his dad caught them. Of course she screamed that it was his fault. He was spending too much time at work, spending too much time away from her, spending too much time with his son, and not giving her everything she wanted.
He didn't even get to say what he wanted to in court. His mom had told him the wrong time for the case. He groaned and walked toward Canterlot High.
Maybe it wouldn't be bad, but then again, he doubted it. He'd been a Crystal Prep kid for a while now. He walked through the front doors, toward the principal's office, and into what would be his new school for the time being.
Two hours later he found himself walking to class. It made sense that his mother hadn't filled out the paperwork. She hadn't even offered to drop him off, told him that he was on his own for dinner, and then took off again.
Principal Celestia tried calling her, multiple times, and when she finally got her on the phone his mom was screaming about how it wasn't her problem. When she hung up he saw the look he hated. She was pitying him for being with that woman.
So, he ended up filling out his paperwork, he ended up enrolling himself, and then Principal Celestia handed him a form. She explained that students that were able to hold a job, care for themselves, and prove that they didn't need parental guidance could get emancipated from his parent or legal guardian.
She then showed him that the school needed an evening janitor. Realizing that she was actually trying to help, and not just pity him, he filled out the paper, accepted the job, and learned that he would be working about twenty-nine hours a week.
Maybe this would end up being a good day after all. He found the class room, took a seat, and listened to the teacher as she began talking about modern literature.
The class flew by, and soon so did the day. That night he started his job, and he walked alongside Hayseed Turnuptruck. Hayseed showed him the ropes, explained that for the most part everything was really cleaned by the day janitor, and the night janitor just went through and got the last bits of what the day janitor missed.
"It's purty easy. Ya jest do a little taking out the trash, and the such, and that's it. Nothin' ta it at all."
"Thanks," he replied.
"No problem. Now, Ah gotta get home, got me a new show Ah wanna watch real bad, but here's the spare keys, you'll be gettin' yer keys tomorry, and then yer gonna be set. Say, ya got a way home?"
"Ummm... Sure, yeah I do," he replied.
"Well okay, have a good un!"
With that Hayseed left and he went to work. His first circle of the school was exactly what Hayseed had said it would be. He found a few trashcans that needed to be emptied, but there wasn’t any massive cleaning that needed to be done. In truth, the school most likely didn’t even need a night janitor, but this was a chance for him to get out of his house. Maybe it was wrong to want away from his mom, but it didn’t feel like it was. She was barely there, and when she was she constantly ran his dad down. When she had her boyfriend, or boyfriends, over he was locked out of the house and more often than not he was sleeping in the backseat of his neighbor’s car. It would have been awkward to explain, so he tried to be sure to be up, and out, before his neighbor got up for the day.
After cleaning, he sat down at a small table in the employee lounge, and pulled out his homework. He glanced at the clock a few times, realizing that his homework was done, his job finished, and he still had an hour to kill, he made his way to the library, opened it, and found a large collection of graphic novels. He sat down, and began reading, making sure to treat them with the same care as the ones he had at home. After he finished the small stack he had found in the library he checked the time and saw it was about fifteen minutes to midnight.
Not really taking a lunch, and realizing that he had basically worked eight hours, he put the graphic novels on the counter for the librarian, walked out of the library, locked the doors, and proceeded to do the same for the school. He looked ahead as he walked. Another night, alone, in a small house, or locked outside of it and sleeping in the neighbor’s car. That’s when he heard the scream.
He rushed toward it, turned the corner, and saw her. He’d barely seen her earlier, at lunch, and she was with two other girls. The guy that her cornered was bigger, much bigger, than she was. He could see the glint of a blade, and he could see where her top was being clutched together. Something inside of him clicked, and he ran. Everything he’d learned in Aikido kicked in, and soon the biker wannabe was on the ground.
He stood there, not noticing the rain, not noticing that the thick black poncho he borrowed from the school sounded like a thick tarp being rained on, but all he could see, all he could do was focus on what had happened. It was so quick. The would be attacker turned on him, slashed at him, and his hand caught his wrist. When he did he rolled it backward, causing strain, his fist launched out, striking the elbow and causing it to rupture and then causing bone to split out of the skin. He then kicked the left knee of the attacker hard, causing it to bend inward and break. The man went down, groaning, crying, and he delivered another solid hit to the man’s temple, knowing that if he would have been a bit harder, a bit more power in that punch, it would have killed. Instead the man was out cold.
He looked at the girl before him, her hair now weighed down by the water, “Are you alright?”
She nodded.
He tried to sound neutral, to sound confident, "Good, call the police. They'll finish taking care of him."
With that he ran, and he ran hard. He turned at an old closed down convenience store, jumped on the mostly full trash dumpster, and then jumped up to the ledge of the roof, grabbed on, and climbed over. He moved toward the center of the roof, standing there, shaking, feeling the power in his hands. He’d saved someone. What Mr. Glass had said was right, it was true, legends had truth in them, they were based on truth, and for him, he realized it was a real truth. This was what he was meant to do. He looked around the roof of the convenience store, found an old roof access panel, opened it, and climbed down inside of the store. He could smell the stale air, but it was clean, it was empty, and for the most part, he could sleep here without worrying about being locked out, or sleeping in his neighbor’s car.
Whatever came tomorrow, he’d deal with it. But for now, he found the manager’s office, an old cot, and laid down. For the moment, Fury Tempest had found himself, and that was a great first step.
