- VIII -

'No, I give it up,' Alice replied: 'what's the answer?'

“Alright everybody, stand down!”

Punk pointed his rifle towards Zero as Evelyn stood before Vinyl, the latter still shaken from what just happened. If it wasn’t for Evelyn’s meta, Vinyl would have died on the spot.

“You know, we had that.” Zero said to Punk.

“And do you mind telling me who you are?” Punk asked.

“GOOD QUESTION! THE NAME IS-“

“IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT YOUR NAME IS!”

Zero had his mouth open and looked at Punk with disbelief. He was once again disappointed at how he wasn’t able to properly introduce himself.

Evelyn extended her hand to Vinyl and offered her hand. However, Vinyl refused and performed a kick up. She patted her buttocks and arms, after which she gave a thumbs up to Evelyn.

“…Right, care to explain what happened here?” Evelyn raised a brow.

“Look, I was seconds away from unleashing my fist on this guy until you decided to interrupt me,” Vinyl answered while clenching her fist. “But… thanks I guess?”

“That still doesn’t explain anything.”

“These two bozos decided to sneak attack me with their gigantic robot!”

“It’s because you destroyed one of our fine piece of art!” the twin reasoned.

“Which was a load of horse crap!” Vinyl replied angrily as she grabbed the twin by the collar. “Do you want me to beat you to a bloody pulp?!”

Evelyn separated the panicking twin and Vinyl. Using her meta, she froze the twin’s mouth and Vinyl’s gauntlets, angering the latter.

“Hey! What’s the big idea?!” Vinyl exclaimed.

“Miss, I’m going to have to take you in for questioning,” Evelyn said. She pressed her ear piece. “All available units proceed to my location.”

“Look, lady, that won’t be necessary.” Vinyl shook her head. “How about you call Clyde and tell him that it’s his old pal Vinyl, m’kay?”

Evelyn raised her brow and glanced at Punk. He tilted his head and prompted Evelyn, who in turn took out electrical cuffs and immediately placed it on Vinyl’s hands.

“What the he-“

The cuffs began to give out a winding sound, then shot out blue bolts of energy, electrocuting Vinyl. She fell unconscious as multiple peacekeepers approached the area, seizing Vinyl, Zero and the twins.

A few hours later, Vinyl and Zero found themselves inside the Palace. It was the prison area where they imprisoned criminals and troublemakers. Their cell wasn’t the usual one they used in prison; it was more secure. Instead of bars, it had a barrier that could melt skin if touched and the walls were made out of solid steel.

Zero was lying on the ground staring at the ceiling out of boredom. He hadn’t expected jail time when he first came to Neo Canterlot, nor had he expected to fight a giant robot. Vinyl, on the other hand was busy punching the walls, making small dents and banging noises that echoed throughout the prison.

“You know, this could be those guys if Snow White didn’t interrupt me!” Vinyl exclaimed sarcastically while continuing to punch the walls.

“You were seconds away from getting your head blown off,” Zero pointed out.

“I could have used my meta to do finish their mustaches!”

“You froze in place after seeing the gun.”

“Excuse me, but who are you again and why should I care?” Vinyl raised a brow at Zero.

“What- We met a few days ago at a bar!” Zero said in surprise.

“Nope, doesn’t seem to ring a bell.” Vinyl shrugged.

“Very well then, I shall reintroduce myself!” Zero stood up covering half of his face with his hand and smiling. “I was the first born child of my mother White Star, and my father-“

“Oh right, you’re that Zero guy.”

“…Yes.”

Zero sat and crossed his arms, once again disappointed that he couldn’t properly introduce himself.

“I presume that the incident earlier was practice for the upcoming tournament?” Zero asked.

“Tournament? You mean the Meta-Games? Why would I join such a childish contest?” Vinyl chuckled as she sat across from Zero.

“Oh my God, you’re more hopeless than my sister Solar Wind.” Zero face-palmed. “I’m talking about the Nightmare Games.”

“Sounds like some type of amusement park ride.” Vinyl crossed her arms. “Explain what you mean.”

“Have you been living under a rock?” Zero groaned.

“Nope, too busy chilling on rooftops.”

“Figures.”

Zero sighed once again as he pinched the bridge of his nose. Vinyl tilted her head and raised her brow, getting even more confused than before.

“Look; what I’m saying is that Nightmare Moon’s back and she’s more imposing than ever,” Zero explained, lifting both of his hands as Vinyl looked at him with a surprised look. “A few hours ago, a large explosion triggered and opened up a portal for Nightmare Moon to enter. Now she freely roams the city and has commandeered the arena all for herself.”

“So what? Celestia could just do what she did a few years back and take her ass back to the moon,” Vinyl replied with a smirk as she lied on her back and crossed her feet. “There’s a reason why they call her ‘Daybreaker’ back in the day.”

“Shouldn’t your noble president be flying on her chariot to battle then?” Zero asked while raising a brow. “As far as the rumors go, she’s thrown the towel and is done fighting. Why do you think she started the peacekeeper program?”

“Then why does Nightmare Moon need to host a tournament?” Vinyl asked while placing her finger on her chin.

“I guess beating her powerless sister and ultimately humiliating her wasn’t enough, she probably wants to showcase her power. Hell, some say she’ far more superior than Sunset Shimmer.”

“If that’s what she wants, then she’ll get a beating!” the determined Vinyl exclaimed while standing up and clenching her fist. “About freaking time some fun arrived!”

All of a sudden, the barriers to the cell were deactivated. Vinyl sighed in delight as she stretched both of her hands and prepared to leave, but was stopped as soon as the peacekeeper Clyde walked in front of the two with a serious look.

“Finally! About time you showed up! You knocked some sense into Snow White, didn’t ya?” Vinyl asked.

Clyde did not respond to the girl. He crossed both of his hands and nodded, prompting a familiar face to come to the scene. It was none other than Rainbow Dash, who had a furious expression.

“Jeez, stop staring daggers at me,” Vinyl chuckled with half a smile.

Dash glared. “Outside. Now.”

After parting ways with Zero(who was miraculously let out but was charged and sentenced to a week of community service), Dash and her group of free runners did their usual thing and hopped around the buildings. Vinyl followed while still looking at Dash. She felt uneasy, knowing that Dash will drown her with sermon again.

After passing by a few buildings, the group stopped. Dash stood near the edge of the building and looked at the sky. Vinyl froze at the center and the group looked directly at her, including Treble who was amongst the crowd.

“What did I tell you before?” Dash asked.

“To not get into trouble,” Vinyl answered.

“And what did you do?”

“Destroyed someone’s stand, got put into jail and basically, disobeying what you told me.”

“Will you do it again?”

“I won’t. I PROMISE.”

There was a long silence afterwards. Not even the other members of the group spoke a word.

Vinyl looked at every single one of them, but could not make a single one speak out. Not even Treble, who was looking away while Dash was asking questions towards Vinyl. The atmosphere started to get tense. This wasn’t the normal Rainbow Dash sermon that Vinyl had hoped for.

Dash let out a sigh and slowly turned to where Vinyl was. Her expression wasn’t the usual furious expression that Vinyl would usually face.

“What are you trying to prove, Vinyl?” Dash asked while she sat on the edge. “What is it that you are so desperately trying to prove to me?”

“What? I’m not trying to prove you anything,” Vinyl said. “Seriously though, I won’t do it again, I swea-“

Suddenly, Dash ran towards Vinyl at lightning speed, leaving a trail of electric bluish aura. She got close to Vinyl’s face, with the latter noticing how much Dash’s blood was boiling.

“How many times have you told me that you won’t do it again?” Dash asked while clenching her fist. “How many times will you use the same dumb excuse over and over?”

Intimidated, Vinyl did not respond.

“How can a meta-less child survive in this God forsaken world? How are you still acting like a tough ass?” Dash asked once more.

“Is that supposed to intimidate me?!” Vinyl lashed out while clenching her fist.“I don’t care if I don’t have a meta or not, I can still kick anyone’s ass… yours included!”

“Oh? Then prove it; fight me.”

“What?”

“You’ve always wanted to punch me in the face, right?” Dash replied as she backed away and prepared to fight. “Then hit me with your strongest punch… NOW.”

Indeed she wanted to punch Dash in the face for all the torment she had endured throughout the years. She was a massive wall that hindered Vinyl ever since she joined their group.As she remembered all the times that Dash looked down to her, anger started to build up.

“I remember when I let you join our group; you were like a lost duckling that couldn’t find her mother,” Dash pointed out after noticing Vinyl’s angry expression. “A weakling that couldn’t do anything.”

All of a sudden, Vinyl launched her fist towards Dash, but was quickly avoided because of her immense speed. Dash began to run around the area, leaving a rainbow trail at her end.

Vinyl had finally snapped. She started chasing and punching where Dash was supposed to be at, but kept on missing every hit.

“Go on, show me how much of a badass you are!” Dash exclaimed to Vinyl.

This irritated Vinyl even more. This resulted to her using her gauntlets at Dash. She began to shoot sound waves towards her; however, it was still worthless to Dash’s incredible speed. Instead, the waves hit the members of the group, which sent them flying in the air. Due to their parkour background, they easily landed on their feet with their acrobatics.

This went on for a few minutes, and eventually Vinyl’s gauntlets began to overheat and shut down. Seeing the opportunity, Dash lunged towards Vinyl and gave a strong punch to the guts.

This instantly brought Vinyl to her knees as she began to cough blood. From the strike that Vinyl received from Dash, she was unable to breath and can only feel the pain she just endured.

“Just stay down Vinyl!” Treble called out as he stepped out of the crowd. “I mean she won’t kill you… but yeah! Stay down!”

“Shut your mouth!” Vinyl replied as she staggered to her feet.

Once more, Vinyl punched towards Dash, but to no avail; she once again evaded it by crouching. Dash grabbed a hold of Vinyl’s arm and tossed her to the ground. She then proceeded to put her in a crossface lock and applied pressure to Vinyl, who tried to punch Dash in retaliation.

“YIELD!” Dash shouted.

“Never!” Vinyl replied.

This made Dash apply even more pressure to Vinyl, who was still helpless and tried to get out of the lock, but to no avail once more. Her body began to weaken as her fist slowly opened up and started to slowly descend to the ground.

Seeing this, Dash immediately let Vinyl go. The latter started to catch her breath and got to her knees. She lifted up both of her fist, still continuing to fight.

Dash shook her head and gave Vinyl a roundhouse kick, knocking Vinyl to the ground. Getting back up, a noticeable cut was left on Vinyl’s left eye.

Vinyl staggered to her feet, but once more she fell to her knees. Dash approached her and knelt to her, giving her another glare that stared daggers to her eyes. Exhausted, disappointed, and weakened, she looked down at the ground, refusing to look at Dash.

“I’ll ask it once more; what is a meta-less girl trying to prove in a world filled with magic and danger combined?” Dash asked as she shook her head in disapproval.

Vinyl did not respond.

“I hope you learned a valuable lesson today. You may not agree with me, but I’m doing the right thing,” Dash finished as she stood up and extended her hand to Vinyl. “Come on, I’ll patch you up when we get back to our place.”

Little did Dash know, Vinyl finally snapped. No longer could she handle how Dash belittled her, she slapped Dash’s hand away, with the latter in complete shock.

Vinyl got to his feet and stared at Dash with rage. She’s had enough; no longer had she wanted to stand behind Dash’s shadow.

“I am sick and tired of you being a constant pain in the ass! You talk about doing the right thing but all you’ve done is hold me back like a dog!” Vinyl raged as she held out her hand. “I can be strong! You just don’t believe in me!”

“Enough with this non-sense! You’re still weak and-“

“YOU SHUT YOUR MOUTH! JUST FOR ONCE, SET YOUR EGO ASIDE AND LISTEN TO ME!” Vinyl shouted, interrupting Dash and rendering her speechless. “I can be a someone, but you’re making me an absolute no one! You think that’s fair?”

“Vinyl, I-“

“No! I’m done! Screw you and this group, I’m quitting!” Vinyl proclaimed.

“Oh, then what the hell are you going to do out there?” Dash exclaimed back. “You won’t last a day! Hell, after a few hours, you’ll probably come back asking to join back!”

“See? This is the problem!” Vinyl replied. “You know what, I’LL PROVE IT TO YOU. I’LL FINALLY PROVE IT TO YOU BY KICKING NIGHTMARE MOON’S ASS!”

“Yo, that’s suicide!” Treble said in shock as his mouth went wide open.

“Then I’ll die trying! I’m going to enter that tournament and prove it to Dash- No, EVERYONE HERE, that I am not powerless,” Vinyl proclaimed.

After her proclamation, Vinyl turned her back and began to leave. All Dash did was stare at her, not being able to do anything.

“Dash? Aren’t you going to stop her?” Treble asked.

“Just let her be, I’m done bickering with a child.” Dash crossed her hands.

Vinyl extended her middle finger to her while still not facing Dash.

Having accepted her fate, Vinyl jumped down to an alley and walked away. She was ready for a challenge, and that challenge waited at the arena. She knew that she needed to do everything to prove Dash wrong, prioritizing it as a mission of some sort.

Unknown to her, her eyes started to glow a faint light blue aura.

She had to wait a week, along with the people who wanted to risk themselves and fight Nightmare Moon as well. At this point, there was no turning back.

She could not escape from crossing fate.

Author's Note

- LOG 008 -
Normally, a person's meta will appear in their adolescent or adult years. However, some will not develop their meta unless they meet a certain criteria.

Sorry for another late chapter guys. Been busy with finals. What could the aura be?