Chapters I - A Shadow in the Moonlight
- I -
In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.
The surroundings were noisy. She could hear it from every direction: the voices of the rustling crowds, the music from the bars, footsteps of her own, and the shouts her pursuers cried.
She turned around and saw the three, armored peacekeepers chasing after her. She grinned and continued on running. From rooftop to rooftop they jumped; she was giving the three a hard time chasing after her. She would front flip with every jump, and judging from the way their shouts morphed into curses, she was making them more irritated all throughout.
The lights from the buildings and the shattered moon gleamed through her purple sunglasses. It was an admirable view; it would have been better if there weren’t three cops chasing her.
Soon enough, she ran out of buildings to jump on as the one she was currently on was extremely high. The peacekeepers cornered her, firearms raised and pointed. She casually turned to them while patting her purple skirt and arranging her jacket in place.
“Miss, stay where you are,” one of the peacekeepers said to her. “You are under arrest for entering a restricted area.”
The woman chuckled at this.“Come on now, Clyde. I was just trying to get a better view of the moon,” the woman said while flicking her blue and light blue striped hair.
“You entered President Celestia’s office!” the other peacekeeper exclaimed.
“…I mean, if you had better security, you could have prevented me from doing that.” The woman pouted. “Besides, I was just at the balcony looking at the moon! Don’t you think the moon is beautiful tonight?”
The peacekeepers ignored her and kept their guns fixated on the woman. She sighed at this and shook her head.
The woman started raising her hands and revealed two purple gauntlets. This prompted the peacekeepers to approach and attempt to neutralize her. However, instead of fixating her hands up, she slowly reached around her neck for her light-blue headphones.
She placed them both on her ears; she could hear the beats of the electronic dance music she was listening to. She began pressing a few buttons on her gauntlets; this made the peacekeepers even more suspicious.
The woman raised both of her fists, ready to fight.
“Shoot to stun,” one of the peacekeepers whispered.
Without hesitation, the peacekeeper in the middle pulled the trigger. A yellow bolt of lightning shot towards the woman. She easily moved out of the way and charged towards the men. One of them stepped up in front of the two and started shooting aimlessly at her. His aim was sloppy, she dodged each shot. She got close enough and launched her fist towards his chest. She did land her fist but instead of punching him back, she triggered her gauntlet to shoot out a devastating sound wave that launched the man to one of the edges of the building.
One of the peacekeepers decided to help his fellow comrade while the other faced the woman. He dropped his gun and took out a stun baton.
“I’m going to say this once, surrender now or you’ll get hurt,” he said to her.
“Uh, shouldn’t I be the one saying that?” the woman joked.
The peacekeeper groaned at this and charged at the woman, knowing that she wouldn’t go out without a fight. He swung the baton, but missed as the woman rolled and flipped around in an unpredictable manner. She gained an opening and launched her fist once more, blowing the man back with her gauntlet.
The other two soon regained their composure and took out their batons. Both charged at her together, only for the woman to leap above them. Once more, she blew one of them away with her fist.
The woman looked around her and saw that all three men were down on the ground. She began to hop around to the beats of her music while letting out a cheeky smile.
“Wow, I didn’t even break a sweat!” the woman exclaimed, “I could go for another round if you-“
The woman was completely unaware of one of the peacekeepers pointing his gun at her and was suddenly shot with a bolt of lightning from her side, paralyzing her to the ground. The woman tried to move, but she was completely immobilized. All she could move was her middle finger, which she conveniently pointed to one of the peacekeepers.
The three men sighed in relief as they gathered around the woman. One of them removed his helmet, revealing his black hair and gray skin.
“Rivet, call Rainbow Dash.” he instructed to one of his comrades.
“Roger that.”
At the center of Neo Canterlot, a gigantic technologically advanced fortress known as the Palace stood. It was none other than the office of President Celestia, which also served as the headquarters for the Royal Guard and Peace Keepers.
Originally, Canterlot was a small city on a plain land. Due to past events, the new city was built on a nearby mountain while remnants of the old city remained below it. Walls were erected around the city as defense towards the creatures that now roamed the world. With the many changes of the world, Neo Canterlot had become one of the central hubs of the world along with a few other cities, Tokyo Dome and Manehattan included. The other cities were either eradicated or inhabited by unknown creatures or yet, bandits.
At the topmost part of the Palace, a woman wearing a blazer stood near a glass window and watched the shattered moon in the sky as it shined through the window. She took a sip of the cup of coffee she was holding and placed it down on her table nearby. She pinched the bridge of her nose and let out a worried groan.
The door to her office opened; entering the room was a girl who had light blue hair that had bangs on her sides and was tied into a pony tail and fair white skin. She wore a blue and white tunic, white fingerless gloves and silver armor on her legs and arms.
“Has the princess entered her room?” the woman asked.
“Yes, President Celestia,” the girl replied.
“Was the trespasser dealt with?”
“Yes, she has been apprehended.”
The girl approached Celestia and noticed her watching the moon. She raised a brow at this and grew confused.
“Is something the matter, Madam?” the girl asked. “Also, you said you needed me so I quickly rushed here.”
Celestia did not speak. She continued on watching the moon and soon turned to the girl with a worried look.
“Do you feel it too, Evelyn?” Celestia asked the girl, “Do you feel the lunar magic slowly getting stronger as it approaches?”
“Lunar magic? I’m afraid I can’t, Madam.”
Celestia sighed once more as she turned to Evelyn.
“Why now? Why does she have to return during festivity?” Celestia asked.
“Is someone threatening to sabotage the Fall Festival?” Evelyn asked.
“No, it’s much worse than that,” Celestia answered. “Evelyn, I need you to gather all the men you can get and report to me immediately.”
“Understood, Madam.”
Evelyn left immediately and leaving Celestia alone in her office. The latter continued on to watch the moon, growing even more restless as she felt the magic getting stronger, and the return of a dangerous adversary.
“Luna must not know the existence of the princess,” Celestia uttered.
Back at the rooftops, the three peacekeepers stood patiently and guarded the captive woman, who sat on the side while playing with her handcuffs and beat boxing.
The peacekeepers grew irritated from the noise she was making. The helmet-less one karate chopped her in the head, immediately stopping her.
“What the hell, Clyde?” she groaned.
“Stop making unnecessary noise,” the helmet-less one named Clyde said.
“Vinyl, you heard the man. Be quiet before you piss him off even more,” one of the peacekeepers added.
The woman named Vinyl looked at the peacekeeper and confidently smirked at him.
“Rivet, is that you? Haven’t seen you since… You know… Our last encounter together,” Vinyl said.
“Wait, how many times have you detained this person?” the last unknown peacekeeper asked in curiosity.
“And who’s the new recruit if I may ask?”
The one named Rivet placed his hand on the oblivious peacekeeper. The latter turned to Rivet, who was shaking his head in disapproval.
“This is Swift Justice, he’s filling in for Tyrone,” Clyde explained.“You know, the one you injured.”
“It was an accident!” Vinyl explained.
“…How is kicking him off a two-story building an accident?” Clyde asked. “You’re lucky that he landed safely on a garbage bin! Otherwise you should be behind bars right now.”
“Whatever man, you’re all a bunch of killjoys.”
Suddenly, a group of hooded figures began to ascend the building where they were located. The group stood before the peacekeepers. The leader of the group was the only one not wearing a hood but instead wore goggles and a scarf that covered her mouth. Her rainbow colored hair was heavily exposed as well as a rainbow and cloud emblem at the side of her shoulder.
The leader came forward and stood face to face with Clyde. She simply nodded which prompted Clyde to immediately remove Vinyl’s restraints.
“Final warning, alright? The next time you get into trouble, I’ll arrest her and your group gets on my watch list,” Clyde warned.
The leader nodded once again and walked up to Vinyl. The latter simply let out half a smile as the leader grabbed her by the hand and pulled her to her group.
“Let me say this again; this will be the last time I’m letting you off the hook,” Clyde repeated.
“Jeez we get it, Clyde!” Vinyl joked.
The leader immediately chopped Vinyl on the head, much to her annoyance. With that finished, the group along with Vinyl departed from the building, hopping through rooftop to rooftop once more.
After a brief run, the group halted at a rooftop. The leader took off her goggles and her scarf, revealing it to be a furious Rainbow Dash. Vinyl immediately froze as Rainbow Dash stomped towards her and got into her face.
“W-What’s up, Dash?” Vinyl greeted.
Dash did not say a word and continued glaring at Vinyl. The other members remained silent as Dash began to circle around Vinyl.
“When are you gonna grow up?!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, “This is the fourth time you got into trouble! I could let you off the hook if you weren’t caught!”
“Look, I’m sorry-“
“What you are doing is putting our group on the lookout list!” Rainbow Dash continued, interrupting Vinyl. “We’re supposed to be a free spirited guild, not some law breaking hoodlums!”
“What’s so free spirited about following the law? Besides, I won’t do it again.”
“And that’s the fourth time you’ve said that!” Rainbow Dash replied, losing her cool. “I took you in because you had talent, not because you don’t have a meta. I took you in because I wanted to mold you into something better - but what do you do? You constantly get into trouble because you’re an immature punk who can’t even follow simple rules.”
“Yeah, yeah. Are we done lecturing? Gonna go get wasted at Mise’s place,” Vinyl said, completely ignoring Dash’s lecture. “Heh, Mise’s place… And his name is Misen Place.”
“Are you even listening to me?!”
Vinyl simply yawned at this. She did not listen to any word that Dash said nor follow any of her commands. She placed both of her hands behind her neck and casually started walking away, getting on Dash’s nerves even more. The latter decided not to waste more energy on the girl, knowing she won’t persuade her with her words.
Vinyl dropped down to a nearby alley and walked away from the group, much to Rainbow Dash’s annoyance. The latter pinched the bridge of her nose and began to pace around, with her colleagues watching on in confusion. She then snapped out of her trance and looked around her group.
“Is Treble around?” she asked them.
“Right here!”
Standing in the middle of the group was young man raising his hand. The young man named Treble went forward and revealed himself. He fixed his spiky hair back up and let out a grin.
Unlike the other members, he didn’t have a hood on. Instead, he was wearingblack sunglasses that concealed his blue eyes and complimented his goofy state. He had a blue unbuttoned polo shirt that had red stripes on the sides, a black shirt that had a white treble clef in the center, gray pants and red mechanical boots that had thrusters below it.
“What’s up, captain?” Treble asked.
“Follow Vinyl,” Dash ordered. “Make sure she doesn’t get into trouble.”
“…Can I say she’s fired if she does?”
“No.”
“Okie dokie, squad leader!”
Treble saluted to Dash and left without a word. He quickly leaped off the building in a suicidal manner. Close to the ground, his boots shot out explosives and seemingly stopped him from his fast descend. He safely landed on the ground and started to walk to where Vinyl was heading. He soon disappeared in a corner, but his awkward singing was still heard from the rooftop.
“Huh, where’d I find these kind of people?” Dash asked herself.
Meanwhile somewhere at a vacant alley, a bluish mist began to materialize. A sinister laugh began to echo through the alley, getting louder as the mist begins to get larger and larger.
Author's Note
- LOG 001 - While they are so called the strongest armed unit in the city, some Peacekeepers do not have Metas. The Meta-less individuals are placed in a lower rank, while the ones with Metas are placed in a special rank, such Evelyn.
A PomE story with a twist... Who doesn't like twists? Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the first chapter! I'll try to update this regularly since I over hyped this shit.
- II -
"I like the Walrus best," said Alice: "because you see he was a LITTLE sorry for the poor oysters."
Even at the dead of the night, people still roamed the streets of the City. The crowd varied from travelers, shopkeepers, bystanders and more. It was loud, like a buzzing hive while music played through the many bars and establishments.
This didn’t stop Vinyl from going to her destination, or fail to notice the one trailing her from behind. She attempted to lose him, but failed to do so due to the latter being unpredictable in many ways.
Vinyl knew he wasn’t going to stop, so she halted and waited for the boy to come to her.
The boy who was instructed by Rainbow Dash to follow her walked up to her with a big smile, however Vinyl wasn’t happy to see the person before her.
“Treble, why are you following me and who sent you?” Vinyl asked impatiently while her arms were crossed.
“Who else but Dash? Plus she told me I could be in front the next time we go jumping around every roof like dumbasses.” Treble smiled.
“Figures,” Vinyl sighed while performing a facepalm, “Look, just leave me alone. I’m just heading to Mise’s place for a drink, that’s all.”
“Are you sure? Because the last time you said such thing was when we were on top of the wall,” Treble explained, “And instead of going to his place, you went to a Peacekeeper stronghold and started havoc again.”
“No, I’m going to Mise’s place for real this time.” Vinyl groaned, “Just… stop bothering me and go back to Dash or something.”
“I mean, I could buy you a drink before I go?”
“…No.”
Vinyl departed without another word and left Treble standing in the middle of the crowd. Treble adjusted his sunglasses and continued following her, much to Vinyl’s annoyance.
“We used to date, you know.” Treble whispered to himself.
At an underground laboratory of the Palace, President Celestia paced around tirelessly as light coming from a large screen radiated on her. Several scientists and military personnel including Evelyn stood by and watched the screen.
The screen showed several surveillance cameras focusing on the alley that had the mist, which was now materializing into a portal of some sort. An electric fence was erected around it and multiple peacekeepers had their guns pointed at it.
Most of them had confused looks on what they were watching, others including Celestia had uneasy looks. Evelyn looked on to Celestia and grew worried for her, oblivious of the impending danger coming ahead.
“Status report.” Celestia commanded.
“Unidentified anomaly is thirty four percent complete, Madam.” one of the scientist replied.
“How long do we have?”
“Approximately forty two more hours, Madam,” the scientist replied, “However, it seems like it is getting bigger every second. The transmitter is showing that the magic is getting stronger.”
Celestia covered her mouth with her hand. Her anxious look turned into fear while Evelyn looked on as the latter approached Celestia.
“Please continue on surveying the portal and keep it contained,” Celestia commanded, “If it gets breached, do what it takes to contain the danger and evacuate the surrounding areas.”
Everyone excluding Evelyn nodded as they went on with their work. The military personnel left the room, leaving their superior Evelyn in the room.
“Is there anything that I could do to help, Madam?” Evelyn asked.
“Evelyn, I want you to station yourself and your team near the site,” Celestia instructed, “We need all man-power to stop my sister.”
Sister? Evelyn raised a brow and grew confused at this. Nonetheless, she nodded and left the room, but still wondered by what Celestia meant by “Sister”.
Vinyl was still walking on the streets and soon descended some stairs by the side. She came across a door and knocked on it four times, prompting it to open.
She soon found herself in a pub. It wasn’t very modern; it kept the traditional look that was from Ireland. The place wasn’t crowded, but Vinyl could still hear the loud and boisterous murmurs coming from one of the tables. The other tables had a good number of people in it, with one having a group of men with the same type of clothing of red and green, almost like a uniform of some sort.
Vinyl walked across to the bartender, walking pass a couple of men playing darts and a guy flirting with one of the waitresses. A couple of people were eyeing her, but she didn’t mind. She was more worried about Treble following her, who she thought wasn’t far behind.
Behind the bar was a ginger haired man with a mustache that nearly reached both of his ears and had white skin. His hair was slicked back and wore a steampunk style uniform. His left arm was covered by belts with pouches that carried bullets and his right arm was reinforced bionic arm.
The man smiled as he leaned on the bar. Vinyl sat near him and raised a finger, prompting the man to get glass and pour a drink from his ale. He then slid the drink to Vinyl, which the latter instantly grabbed and drink.
“What’s good, Mise?” Vinyl asked the man.
“Nothing much, there was a bar fight earlier.” Mise replied.
“Was it rowdy?”
“Fist fight, nothing special.”
After that, the two remained silent, with Mise having suspicions towards Vinyl. Mise leaned once more to Vinyl with a smirk.
“You got in trouble again, didn’t you?” Mise asked.
“I did not!” Vinyl replied.
“Oh really, lad? Because everytime you come in here and ask the same exact thing, you’re always back from trouble.” Mise chuckled.
“Shut up, It’s been a rough day.”
Vinyl took another sip of her drink while Mise continued to look on.
“You know, you could just join the Peacekeepers,” Mise suggested while wiping one of his glasses, “It’s worth a shot if you crave the action and adrenaline rush so much.”
“I do crave such adrenaline rush,” Vinyl complained, “But what’s the fun in being in armor and listening to orders? You have to take orders from a bossy weirdo that is the total opposite of the meaning of fun.”
“If you look at it, you wouldn’t even last a day. They’d probably kick you out in an instant.”
“Exactly.”
The two were soon interrupted when a hooded male sat beside Vinyl. The boy had blue and black hood and a black scarf that covered his mouth. The only noticeable features were his dark blue skin and silver hair that a light blue highlight. Behind his back were black quiver and a modified compound bow.
“Water.” he said.
Mise went to his ale and poured one of his best drinks into a glass. He slid it to the newcomer and smirked at him.
“On the house,” Mise said, “Now tell me lad, what’s your business?”
“…I’m looking for the Empress of Tomorrow. I heard you were an associate. ”
Vinyl raised a brow as she remembered such name. The Empress is one of the brilliant minds that have invented the weapons that every soul that could fight. Although having heard of her name, Vinyl has yet to see the Empress in person.
“Why ask?” Mise asked.
“I heard that she’s a professional when it comes to upgrading and repairing weapons,” the hooded male said, “My bow needs to be… updated.”
“Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but, she’s in Tokyo Dome… where her main station is at,” Mise explained while rubbing the back of his head, “Plus, I’m not really one of hers anymore… I resigned to start my own business here… business being a pub and a weapon shop.”
“Then can you take a look at my bow?”
“Right now? No can do,” Mise declined, “I’ll meet you in the morning, yeah? I got a business to take care of as you can see.”
The hooded boy nodded and proceeded to leave without a word. He stopped momentarily and somewhat glared at a table which contained the men with red and green clothing. He continued walking once more and was clenching his fist. As he headed for the door, he passed by another boy with black hair and gray skin. He had a black coat that had chains around it and covered most of his top, bandages that covered his hands, khaki pants, and black boots. Behind him was a rectangular Zweihander that Vinyl presumed was his weapon.
The boy had a smirk on his face and proceeded to sit where the hooded boy sat.
“…Who the hell are you supposed to be?” Vinyl chuckled.
The boy simply smiled and placed his hand on one of his eyes as he prepared to speak.
“I was the first born child of my mother White Star, and my father Sound Barrier. From the moment I was born, I was destined for greatness. My first cry shook the heavens themselves and then I was approached by the masters of awesomeness. When I was-“
“The young lady asked for your name, not a filibuster.” Mise groaned.
“Fine, I shall make this quick; my name is Zero Gravity,” The boy known as Zero introduced, “A vagabond traveler who’s searching for a worthy opponent!”
While Mise entertained the newcomer, Vinyl became bored and decided to leave. She went ahead and headed towards the exit, where she met Treble who just arrived at the place. Thankfully, the boy stayed at the bar for a drink and followed Vinyl no longer.
Vinyl found herself outside of the bar with a crowd of people. Even at the dead of night, the streets were still flooded with restless souls. She felt uneasy with all the people around her, and decided to head to a nearby alley. With a set of boxes and a couple of scaffolding, she easily reached the rooftops.
From there, she could see the moon and its shattered pieces hovering around it. She did not know what exactly happened during the time the moon broke, and only saw it shatter from the ground a few years back. Nonetheless, it didn’t seem to affect the course of the world. The moon shined normally like it was still intact.
Vinyl stretched her arms and legs as she prepared for another run. She looked around her area and saw a few tall buildings, one of which she noticed was new in the distance. It was a newly erected Peacekeeper Surveillance towers that was seemingly pointing its spotlight at something on the ground, which Vinyl couldn’t see. She felt an urge to see what it was due to her curiosity, but decided not to do so, knowing that Rainbow Dash would boot her out of the guild if she did something reckless and stupid again.
Instead of running aimlessly, she sat on the edge of the building instead. Her mind drifted into nothingness, after which she remembered a scene in the past; the awakening.
Author's Note
- LOG 002 - Magic existed in the world prior to the incident concerning Sunset Shimmer. It was kept in secrecy until it was introduced in that certain incident. The first known discovery was founded by the wizard Star Swirl the Bearded during ancient times. From generation to generation, it was kept from public by wizards to scientists.
Flashback chapter is next. ORIGIN STORY TIME.
- III -
"He ate more than the Carpenter, though," said Tweedledee.
The bright colored lights radiated through Vinyl’s eyes as upbeat music played through the speakers. She kept on jumping and banging her head with the adrenaline she was feeling. She faced her turntable and started scratching the discs. In front of her were many students dancing in their prom outfits.
She did not mind not having a dance for the prom, as she was enjoying entertaining the students with her tunes. Considering it was her last prom of her high school days, she’d promised herself that it would be the best time of her life. She wished the night could last forever, but something else was lurking inside the gym.
As Vinyl looked through the songs she was going to play, she caught a glimpse of two boys wearing top hats. One had light gray skin and orange hair and the other had amber skin and blue hair. The first was holding a sack while the other had a purple dog. The two quickly placed the dog inside the sack and made their way out of the gym.
Vinyl easily recognized the two as Snip and Snails, lackeys for the former self proclaimed school queen, Sunset Shimmer. She knew something was up but could not do anything since she was still at her turntable and could not leave the post unmanned. She then saw a few girls run after the boys, one of whom was the owner of the dog. She let out a deep breath and continued on.
“I’m sure they can handle it,” she said to herself. “I mean, one of them is a magical horse princess from another universe. What could go wrong?”
Indeed, it was a princess from another universe where their counterparts were equines. The Princess of Friendship known as Twilight Sparkle came to their world after Sunset Shimmer stole her crown; a crown which held a powerful force of magic.
The adrenaline rushing inside Vinyl could last forever, but something else was happening outside the school.
Vinyl saw multiple students running towards the exit. Though confused, she ignored this and decided to continue on, but more students went out of the gym and after a while, it was empty. Not a soul was there, not even the faculty. All that was left was Vinyl.
The gym went suddenly dark; the power had seemingly gone out. Vinyl turned on her flashlight app and went for the exit. As she passed through the doors, she could hear screaming echoing in the hallways.
“It’s gotta be Sunset, right? I mean it could be a prank of some sort,” Vinyl said.
She wanted to believe it was just a small harmless prank; then she heard even more screams echoing throughout.
She travelled through the halls as the screams grew louder, and eventually halted. Vinyl heard no soul as she got closer to the main entrance of the school. She got to a corner and took a peek; from there she saw a nightmarish, fiery-red-and-yellow monster towering over the students—it was Sunset Shimmer, or what had once been her. The entrance to the school was busted open and she could see six girls including Twilight Sparkle near the Wondercolt Statue.
Vinyl noticed the glowing opal eyes of the students. They weren’t right. Something had happened to them.She still couldn’t believe what was happening in front of her eyes. She also saw that Sunset was wearing the Fall Formal crown, which she presumed was Twilight’s crown.
A demon , she thought. That’s what she is !
The demon smiled as she looked around her surroundings. Two other demons soon joined her; a bit smaller than her which Vinyl assumed was her lackeys.
“Round them up and bring them to the portal!” the red Demon commanded.
The voice was all too familiar for Vinyl. It was none other than Sunset Shimmer, and her two lackeys being Snips and Snails.
The demon Sunset walked over to the front of the zombie-like students and cackled at Twilight and her friends.
“Spoiler alert; I was bluffing when I said I was going to destroy the portal. I don't want to rule this pathetic little high school; I want Equestria!” Sunset laughed. “And with my own little teenage army behind me, I am going to get it!”
For a second, Vinyl thought of jumping in and just punching Sunset on the face, but dealing with a horde of mind controlled army and two other demons was a bit overkill for her. Thinking about it, she also thought Sunset could destroy her in an instance.
“No, you're not!” Twilight exclaimed.
Annoyed at Twilight’s will to fight, Sunset hovered to her and gave her a wicked smile.
“Oh, please! What exactly do you think you're going to do to stop me? I have magic, and you have nothing!” Sunset growled at her.
However, this did not faze Twilight or her friends, who stepped beside her to confront Sunset without fear.
“She has us!” shouted the one with rainbow colored hair.
“Gee, the gang really is all back together again,” Sunset said sarcastically as she began to cackle; her eyes, crown and claw began to glow an eerie shade of opal, “Now step aside! Twilight has tried to interfere with my plans one too many times already! She needs to be dealt with!”
The glow from Sunset’s hands intensified; it then generated into a red magical orb. The magic was extremely strong, the grounds and wind began to get aggressive. Vinyl struggled to keep her clutch on one of the lockers as the blast began to pull her even more. The students were seemingly unaffected by the pull.
The orb grew and became increasingly bright, with Sunset laughing victoriously. Without any hesitation, she launched the orb towards Twilight and her friends, engulfing them with the orb and igniting a magical explosion in the yard.
There was smoke all over the area. Vinyl could not see if the girls had survived. She could only hear the evil laugh of Sunset. She knew that if Twilight was indeed defeated, dealing with a zombie army and three demons would be an extremely big problem.
However, she noticed a pile of boxes nearby. She quietly walked towards the boxes while avoiding the attention of Sunset and her army. She slowly opened one of the boxes and revealed what was inside; a large speaker. She opened the other boxes and found a few other speakers and an amplifier. This sparked an idea in Vinyl’s head, which was most likely a stupid plan that could fail, considering that she was facing a demon. Nonetheless, she didn’t want Twilight and her friends hog the glory of defeating Sunset Shimmer.
Vinyl started taking out the equipment and assembling them.
Meanwhile, Sunset was still laughing boisterously at her victory. The smoke began to disperse as the latter continued to laugh. Suddenly, a purple glow began to emit through the smoke. As the smoke dispersed, Sunset was shocked to see what was left of the destruction she caused.
Twilight and her friends managed to survive the initial blast with a large purple sphere that shielded them. The girls were all huddled together while holding their hands, thinking it was their last. The girls soon realized that they were still alive and noticed the sphere that covered them.
Twilight stepped forward and pointed at Sunset, who was dumbfounded by the survival of the girls.
“The magic contained in my element was able to unite with those that helped create it!” Twilight exclaimed.
Suddenly, her crown began to glow and a magical beam fired into Twilight and her friends. Every second, she could feel her magic slowly draining.
Twilight and her friends began to hover, ascending higher than Sunset. Each of them began to grow equine ears and tails and two pairs having horns and wings respectively. The circle of friends started to glow in different colors; each signifying the traits that they have; Honesty, Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Loyalty and Magic.
“Together with a crown, they create a power beyond anything you could imagine, but it is a power you don't have the ability to control!” Twilight proclaimed as she grabbed a hold of her friends. “The crown may be upon your head, Sunset Shimmer, but you cannot wield it, because you do not possess the most powerful magic of all: the magic of Friendship!”
The group formed a heart. A vibrant rainbow colored beam appeared before them and shot through the clouds. Soon enough, the large prismatic beam descended to Sunset’s direction, engulfing the latter.
Sunset began to scream in defeat as the beam turned into a tornado, which shot multiple tiny beams to the students, rendering them free from the captivity of Sunset. The beams also hit Snips and Snails, turning them back to normal.
Flash Sentry, one of the students, quickly regained his consciousness. As he began to recover, he saw a large set up in front of him with Vinyl fidgeting with it. Still confused and clouded in the head from his hypnosis, he could only gaze dumbly at the girl, at a loss for words. The other students began to regain themselves, with the same reaction towards Vinyl and her speaker set up.
Vinyl, completely oblivious of what was happening at the yard, plugged a cord to her phone and scrolled through her playlist.
“Here and in Equestria, it is the only magic that can truly unite us all!” Twilight shouted as she fired one last beam to Sunset.
The final attack spawned a bright light, blinding everyone including Twilight and her friends. Following that was silence; no soul was heard as the blowing wind was the only sound made. Twilight along with her friends and the students began to regain their vision. The group of friends found themselves at the ground beside the Wondercolt statue. A large crater was in the middle of the yard.
Twilight stood up and slowly approached the crater. Once she got to the edge, she peeked below to see what could have happen to Sunset. Was she saved? Or was she vaporized? The latter option was too extreme, but it was for the best for this world and Equestria.
However, things weren’t what she expected. Twilight’s eyes shrank as she began to shrivel in fear. Below the crater, she saw Sunset still in her demon form, seemingly unaffected by the blast.
Sunset, who was shielding herself like it was her last ride in the world, began to realize that she wasn’t unaffected by Twilight’s attack. She examined her whole body if she was hurt, and found that she was still in top shape. Slowly, she let out an evil grin as she ascended to the sky once more.
The horrified Twilight began to step backwards, as she was powerless against the demon.
“Wait, was that your ultimate attack?! Was that your last resort?!” Sunset cackled at Twilight. “PATHETIC! AND YOU CALL YOURSELF THE PRINCESS OF FRIENDSHIP!”
“W-Why didn’t it work?! The magic of Friendship is the strongest magic there is!” Twilight exclaimed as she stood in horror.
Suddenly, Sunset dropped in front of Twilight. The demon towered over her as Twilight fell to the ground. Sunset extended his right hand above Twilight and let out an evil smirk.
“No, Twilight, you don’t understand how this works,” Sunset explained. “You see, it’s not that the magic isn’t powerful... you’re just too weak to handle its power.”
Sunset grabbed a hold of Twilight’s head. Her hand began to glow a bright red aura, and soon Twilight too was glowing. Twilight started to scream as her screaming became distorted. Every second, she grew brighter and brighter and her screams became even more inaudible.
All of a sudden, Twilight grew quiet as Sunset let her go. Twilight, weak and disfigured, slowly looked at her friends and extended her right arm to them. She tried to speak, but due to her state, she struggled to do so.
“…D-Don’t… l-let… her… win,” she stuttered softly. “P-Please…”
As soon as she said those words, she began to fade like dust. Her friends watched in horror as Twilight disappeared from their sights. Soon, they realized that they were doomed; Sunset had won. Their will to fight vanished and the students lost hope, except for one student.
What was left of Twilight was a purple orb, which hovered above the yard.
“What an anti-climatic goodbye.” Sunset laughed victoriously as she started to circle around the orb.
“What you’ve done to Twilight is unforgivable!” cried Rarity, one of her friends.
“You can’t win, Sunset!” another one of her friends, Applejack, exclaimed to Sunset.
“I can’t win? LOOK at what your position is right now. LOOK at what happened to your precious Princess Twilight,” Sunset retaliated,.“You copycat doppelgangers think you can defeat me? YOU ARE NOTHING TO ME!”
Sunset grabbed the orb and started to drain its energy. She started to become an even more powerful and terrifying demon as she absorbed the orb.
“Forget Equestria, I AM THE LORD OF CALAMITY! I’LL RULE THIS WORLD AND ALL OF YOU WILL BOW DOWN TO-“
All of a sudden, an extremely loud and distorted electronic music started playing. This interrupted Sunset as she covered her ears resulting to her letting go of the orb. The ground began to shake and the windows of the school began to break. The soundwaves slowly pushed back Sunset as she turned to where it was coming from.
Sunset turned to the destroyed front of the school and saw a large sound system set up with Vinyl operating it, with the latter enjoying herself.
“EAT DUBSTEP, YOU FREAK!” Vinyl shouted.
Vinyl cranked the volume louder, becoming even more destructive. Multiple cracks began to appear on the concrete of the school and the cars nearby began to shake. This angered the demon even more, prompting her to pounce at Vinyl’s location.
“YOU ANNOYING RAT!” Sunset screamed.
“WHAT? YOU WANT ME TO MAKE IT LOUDER AS YOU COME CLOSER? SURE THING!” Vinyl exclaimed.
Vinyl turned the volume to its maximum, literally making everything rumble violently. Sunset flew back as she was stunned in place due to the loud music.
Initially, Vinyl’s plan was to daze Sunset for Twilight to get a second wind. However due to Twilight’s disappearance, she was left with no other plan. All that’s left was to stun Sunset until the authority gets to them, or better yet, the military.
The music continued to stun Sunset in place while it still continued to destroy the surrounding areas. Little did Vinyl know, the area wasn’t the only thing that was beginning to give in.
The orb that Twilight left started to show cracks. Soundwave after soundwave, the cracks began to become increasingly big with every hit, until it finally broke. The orb became unstable and started to spark. A spark then shot out of the orb, which headed for Vinyl. Unfortunately, it was too late to dodge and she was struck by it. Vinyl fell to the ground became unconscious in the process.
The orb became even more violent, and eventually triggered a large explosion. Everyone in the vicinity was engulfed by the explosion and only saw one thing; a bright light.
A female voice was speaking to Vinyl. She slowly opened her eyes and found herself floating in a white space filled with nothing. The voice became louder and louder.
Vinyl looked around and saw the same spark that hit her earlier on. It was closing in and struck Vinyl once more.
She started having visions; first one involving a black lance and a woman in armor. The second was another woman that she was familiar with. She was standing on top of her. The third one was a demonic man standing in front of a castle in ruins. The fourth one was six colors slowly approaching her. And the final one, she only saw one single image: a mask.
“Awaken… The… Trailblazer…” the voice said to her.
She woke up once more and found herself in what appears to be a tent. A medic was beside her along with beds with other students. She could her murmurs of soldiers and choppers flying by outside.
“Are you okay, Miss?” the medic said as he looked at the other medics. “We have a live one here!”
Vinyl didn’t speak as she was confused on what was going on. She slowly got up while the medic insisted that she rest for a while.
“Miss, I suggest you lie on the bed for now. It’s dangerous outside.”
Vinyl refused as she forced herself outside. As she got out, she saw multiple tents and soldiers camped outside. The sky was dark red and the clouds rippled. Surely enough, she wasn’t at Canterlot High. Her eyes then caught something from the distance.
A large opal tornado-like portal that reached the sky was present in the distance. Vinyl got to a better view and saw the whole thing. Below it was a now destroyed city of Canterlot, with the surrounding areas filled with the military battling out what appears to be large wolves that are made out of wood. The wolves were seemingly coming out of the portal, along with a few other creatures. A few seconds later, an even bigger creature came out which terrified every soul that was watching the battle.
It was none other than a dragon, a mythical creature from the old age. The creature spewed out fire from its mouth and flew around the military. It started to wreck havoc around the area which resulted to multiple casualties.
Vinyl knelt in disbelief while blankly staring at the portal, knowing nothing of what was going on.Somehow, she knew that the world had forever changed.
Author's Note
- LOG 003 - The explosion engulfed the whole earth, affecting every population.
The portal was active for a few days, resulting of unknown creatures spreading through the world, ranging from dragons to timberwolves. The portal stopped and became dormant, prompting the armed forces of the world for a counterattack. However, they were overwhelmed by the sheer power of the creatures and ultimately losing a portion of the world to them. Cities were easily destroyed and humanity was forced to retreat to other safer cities.
Protection was built around the cities, from walls to domes, but this wasn’t enough to repel the danger. As the world was about to lose hope, a discovery was made. Some individuals could wield magical abilities. This was the start for humanity to fight back. The magic wasn’t enough, so the production of weapons was established. Humanity started to win, reducing the population of the creatures and the remaining to retreat to the wildlife and wastelands that they caused, but this didn’t stop the danger that lurked the earth.
With the presence of magic, technology skyrocketed. New governance was established and everything changed. Some used magic for good, some used it for evil.
Sunset Shimmer vanished, never to be seen again. Some say she died, some say she exiled herself, some say she’ll return for a second coming.
Hope you like the first three chapters! On the next chapter, the Nightmare debuts.
IV - Enter Nightmare Moon
IV
"Oh, you can't help that," said the Cat: "we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad."
Days had passed since the mysterious portal started manifesting. Security and surveillance had been maximized and the surrounding areas were evacuated. The Royal Guard decided not to disclose such information to the public in order to avoid panic, leading to them thinking it was only an experiment for a new weapon.
The portal was surrounded by a more reinforced fence with even more peacekeepers keeping guard. Tents, scientists, and equipmentgathered in great droves.
Evelyn Frost, as instructed by President Celestia,guarded the menacing anomaly. Along with her subordinates, she neither refused to look away from the portal nor let go of her spear that she wielded. She was tired of the sleepless nights she had to endure, but containing and guarding the threat was her first priority.
“Lieutenant Frost? Is there something bothering you?” a peacekeeper asked.
“It’s nothing, I’m just anxious,” Evelyn replied.
“Anxious? Why would you be anxious?” another peacekeeper asked. “There’s like fifty guards stationed in this area and another fifty in the surrounding areas.”
“As far as I know, we have the whole thing secured,” another peacekeeper added.
“But… this is Nightmare Moon we’re dealing with,” Evelyn said with angst. “President Celestia said she’s an even bigger threat than Sunset Shimmer was!”
“So what? Sunset Shimmer was powerful, but where is she now? Gone,” the peacekeeper proclaimed.
“There’s no confirmation if she was eliminated during the CHS incident,” Evelyn replied. “She could still be alive.”
The peacekeeper walked up to Evelyn and removed his helmet, revealing it to be Clyde. He placed his hand on Evelyn’s shoulder and gave her a smile.
“Now, do I look like I’m worried? I mean, do they sound like they’re worried?” Clyde asked as he pointed to the peacekeepers around him, “Look, you’re just exhausted. Maybe you should go for a walk and make sure everything around isn’t shady?”
Evelyn tried to refuse, but decided not to. She let out a sigh and nodded to Clyde as she placed her spear on her back. She saluted to Clyde with the latter doing the same as well. She then left the area, but remained anxious.
She passed by every empty block of the area and finally found herself on a busy street. It was already the dead of night and she was surprised at how crowded it was still. It was an unusual sight for her, due to her rarely leaving the Palace and spending most of her time in the library.
She could feel her head aching and her vision starting to fade. Exhausted and dehydrated, she headed towards a stand that sold juice. She got herself a drink and sat by a nearby fountain.
Evelyn took a sip of her drink and gazed at the sky. The whole horizon was clear and the shattered moon was visible. From such sight, she could remember the day it was destroyed by the same threat that is Nightmare Moon. She wished she could take a long break, but her duty was a priority.
“Evie?”
A familiar adolescent voice called out to her. She looked around her to see who it was, but couldn’t find him. Thinking she was hearing things, she decided to ignore it.
“Evie, down here.”
The voice called out to her again. She then looked down and saw a baby dragon holding bags of grocery.
“Spike? What are you doing here?” Evelyn asked to the dragon. “Shouldn’t you be with the princess?”
“President Celestia instructed me to buy her groceries,” Spike replied. “Besides, I should be the one asking you that. Shouldn’t you be at your station?”
“I’m scouting the area for strange occurrences. I’ve been guarding the portal for days now.” Evelyn chuckled as she rubbed the back of her head.
“I could tell, since you look like an exhausted cow.”
“Hey!”
Spike laughed as he sat next to Evelyn. The baby dragon reached in one of the bags and took out a sandwich, which he began to eat.
“How’s the princess?” Evelyn asked.
“Still locked in her room while ten guards her door,” Spike replied. “In other words: perfectly safe.”
“And the President?”
“Still hysteric and pacing around her office like it’s the end of the world.”
Evelyn sighed as she placed the now empty cup beside her.
“There are so many things happening at the same time. I’m drowning in angst,” Evelyn said softly.
“Do you need a back massage?” Spike suggested as his cheeks turned red.
“Hmm, I guess?” Evelyn raised a brow. “My back does feel like it’s about to give.”
“Leave it to me,” Spike proclaimed as he cracked both of knuckles.
Spike gave a perverted grin as Evelyn turned her back to him. He slowly placed both of his hands on her shoulder. The dragon could feel the girl’s soft skin through her tunic.
“IS THAT A DRAGON?!”
A boy wearing sunglasses suddenly appeared next to Spike, making the latter jump in surprise and hid behind Evelyn. It was none other than Treble Mix, whose face was close to the dragon.
“What the?!”Spike exclaimed.
“OH AND IT TALKS! Oh can you understand what I’m saying? Can you breathe fire? Does your tail grow back if I cut it? CAN I STICK THE TIP IN?” the strange boy asked obnoxiously.
“Evie, do you know this person?” Spike asked as Evelyn, who shook her head in confusion.
Treble noticed a certain symbol on Evelyn’s gloves; a Sun. The boy was soon delighted even more as he let out a fan boyish shriek.
“HOLY SKAGFUCK! You’re part of the peacekeepers!” Treble exclaimed in glee. “Can I have your autograph?! What’s it like living in the palace? CAN I HOLD YOUR SPEAR?!”
“Not right now, it’s not bad, and no, you cannot hold my spear,” Evelyn answered in one go. “Also, refrain from using such language.”
“You want me to put it in old English so it can penetrate your wizards cap? Alright… thou art-”
Suddenly, Treble was interrupted mid sentence when a bandaged hand was raised in front of him. Treble, Spike and Evelyn looked to their side and saw Zero Gravity, who once again had a confident smirk.
“My man, I’m going to ask you to stop bothering this poor lady,” Zero requested. “She looks like she had a rough day.”
“…And who is this?” Spike asked once more with a brow raised.
Evelyn groaned.“I have no clue.”
“Who am I, you ask? Very well, I shall tell you who the fine gentleman standing before you is!” Zero said.
Evelyn began to zone out from her current situation, ignoring everything. Her eyes then caught something from the ensuing crowd around her. A girl who was wearing a black and gray cat suit and had green hair that was tied into a curl and had peach skin. On her face was a black metallic mask that had a single, neon-pink lining glowing on her eye level. Behind her was a sheath that carried a katana. The mask covered everything except her mouth, making it hard for Evelyn to see who the person underneath it was.
The girl suspiciously looked around, and headed towards the direction where the portal was.
Zero clapped both of his hands and let out a big cough.
“I was the first born child of my mother White Star, and my father-”
He was then interrupted as Evelyn abruptly departed from the fountain, leaving Spike with Treble and a disappointed Zero.
“...Just the name would be fine…” Spike said to Zero.
“Fine… It’s Zero Gravity.”
Back at the palace, three girls including Rainbow Dash sat around a round table inside the office of President Celestia. One girl had pink hair, a brighter pink skin, and was wearing pink and light blue dress and small pink hat. The other girl had purple hair, white fair skin, and a fashionable black dress.
The purple haired girl looked over Dash and became disgusted at what she was wearing.
“What now, Rarity? Did I fart on you or something?” Dash said in annoyance while glaring at the girl named Rarity.
“Uh! Good heavens, that is disgusting!” Rarity complained. “I was referring to your clothing.”
“Oh you mean these? Awesome, right?” Dash said as she gestured her clothing and goggles.
“Totally!” the pink haired girl added.
“See? Even Pinkie Pie agrees,” Dash said as she pointed to the girl named Pinkie Pie. “Besides, have you imagined what it’s like to do parkour while wearing a dress?”
“Parkour? I’d rather stay here where I’m safe.” Rarity pouted as she crossed her hands.
“I’m the royal baker and party planner of the Palace!” Pinkie added.
“Whatever, I’m having fun myself as a matter of fact,” Dash said as she placed both of her feet on top of the table. “Living a free life outside where no one bosses you around, and what do you guys have? Small rooms guarded by fifty guards? Where’s the fun?”
“Say all you want, I feel absolutely fine living inside the walls of the Palace,” Rarity replied while flicking her hair.
Dash turned to Pinkie with a brow raised.
“And how about you, Pinkie? Are you always stuck in here along with her?” Dash said to her.
“Technically I am the party planner of the whole entire city,” Pinkie replied. “And yeah, I can go out of the palace… with three guards accompanying me.”
“Yuck.”
The doors to the room opened and walking in was Celestia along with a high ranking Peacekeeper. She walked up to the center seat and sat on it. She pressed a button on the table, which displayed a holographic panel. She pressed another button and was directed to a map that displayed a butterfly and apple symbol.
“Codename Honesty is currently secure but refused to leave her farm, while Kindness’s location is unknown,” the peacekeeper said.
“As long as my sister thinks all of the Elements are within the Palace, it will be fine,” Celestia replied.
The peacekeeper nodded and left the room. Celestia stood up and walked up to her glass window. She examined the shattered moon as it stabbed through the glass.
“Okay, why’d you bring me here?” Dash asked directly.
“I’ve gathered all of you here today for an important matter regarding the Elements and the impending doom,” Celestia said to the girls. “Tell me, do you know what power they possess?”
“The ability to spawn beautiful diamonds?”
“The ability to party whenever I please?”
“The ability to be AWESOME!”
“…Quite,” Celestia groaned. “Each one of you has a unique Meta corresponding to your Element. For example, you have inhuman speed, Rainbow Dash.”
“That’s my name, don’t wear it out.”
“But, that’s not all; Kindness, Honesty, Laughter, Generosity, Loyalty and Magic are simply names, call signs, or flashy names that you kids refer to nowadays,” Celestia explained. “They weren’t originally called the Elements of Harmony.”
“So you’re saying that, our abilities aren’t part of our Elements?” Rarity asked.
“Correct,” Celestia replied. “During the dark ages, six individuals known as the Pillars of the Old knew of the existence of magic. The six of them were the ones that balanced magic in our world, and successfully sealed it with their powers. You remember the Wondercolt Statue right?”
“Oh yeah, the statue that started it all,” Dash groaned.
“That statue was the source of all magic and was kept hidden for hundreds of years, but was eventually breached by Sunset Shimmer, who then extremely exposed magic to the whole world,” Celestia continued as she looked at Dash. “Now, the power you are holding are the Pillars; Pinkie Pie having the pillar of Hope, Rarity having the pillar of Beauty, and you having the pillar of Bravery.”
Pinkie giggled.“That sounds similar to me.”
“They are reflections of your own elements, all of which hold hidden powers… powers that you have yet to uncover.”
“Great, now what’s this about an impending doom?” Dash asked.
“From here on out, you are to remain inside the Palace until further notice,” Celestia commanded as she headed towards the door. “You three will be kept inside a room where you will be safe.”
“WHAT?! Are you kidding me?!”Dash complained. “You can’t lock me up!”
“I’m sorry, but I need you to be safe for the mean time,” Celestia sighed. “I wish I could say the same thing to Applejack and Fluttershy.”
“Safe? Safe from what?”
Evelyn discreetly followed the girl, keeping distance in order for her not to raise any suspicions. No doubt, the girl was heading for the portal. Evelyn kept on following her until the girl turned to an empty alley.
Evelyn hid in a corner and peeked over the alley. There, she saw the girl unsheathe the katana, revealing several Japanese markings engraved on the blade. The girl leaped unto a dumpster then jumped to a wall, using her sword to scale it. She soon disappeared on the rooftops, prompting Evelyn to reveal herself.
Evelyn smirked.Piece of cake.
Evelyn took out her spear and touched the ground with it. A bluish circle glow began to manifest on the ground and a cold mist started to surround her. Soon, ice began to appear on the circle and turning into a tower, elevating Evelyn to the roofs.
As the icy maiden step foot on the roof, she saw the masked girl in the distance near to where the portal was. Evelyn slowly paced towards the masked girl, with the latter examining the area of the portal.
“Miss, you’re under arrest for trespassing,” Evelyn commanded as she got near her. “Put your weapon down, or I will resort to violence.”
The masked girl slowly turned to Evelyn and simply glanced at her. The girl started speaking Japanese as she positioned herself into a battle stance. Evelyn simply sighed as she too did the same.
“…Violence it is,” Evelyn whispered.
The masked girl let out a battle scream and charged at Evelyn with her katana. She swung her katana to Evelyn, with the latter moving out of the way in time.
“This is Lieutenant Frost; we have a Code Red! We have an intruder on the rooftops! Guard the portal at all cost!” Evelyn shouted into her earpiece. “I repeat! Code Red!”
Evelyn swung her spear to the girl, but was easily blocked by her. The girl gave a counter attack and hit Evelyn on the left arm, wounding her in the process and rendering her left arm useless. The girl continued to attack Evelyn as she struggled to block every single strike.
Evelyn started shooting out ice projectiles towards the girl, but was easily blocked as she was slashing them. She looked behind her and saw that she was near the edge. The girl continued her barrage once more on Evelyn. She managed to dodge this and pointed her hand to the girl. Ice came out of her hands and hit the girl on her feet, immobilizing her.
Evelyn stood, breathing heavily. The other girl struggled within her icy prison while Evelyn glared at her.
“Lieutenant, are you hurt?” a voice came from her earpiece.
“J-Just a minor scratch,” Evelyn groaned in pain as she tended to her wound. “I have neutralized the intruder.”
“Copy that, sending reinforcements.”
A few seconds later, a number of peacekeepers surrounded the girl as the latter sheathed her katana. The peacekeepers aimed their guns towards her, prompting her to raise both of her hands.
“You have the right… to remain silent,” Evelyn said as she slowly walked towards the girl while still holding unto her wound.
The masked girl looked at her side. She let out a smile as she lowered her hands.
“Yeah… smile all you want,” one of the peacekeeper said. “Enjoy your last few seconds outside. You’ll be sleeping behind bars from now on.”
“Hakai,” the girl whispered.
Suddenly, a circular purple aura appeared below the girl, which the latter fell into. Out of their sights, the Peacekeepers began to look for the girl, only to find her with another girl that had pinkish skin on another rooftop.
The other girl wore a black hood that had holes that were keeping out her purple and light blue pigtails, a cloth mask that covered her eyes, a purple dudou, and black pants, and had wraps around her feet and hands.
The hooded girl began to do a circular motion with both of her hands.
Evelyn could see the girl chanting and looking straight at the portal, raising panic towards herself.
“QUICKLY, GET TO THE PORTAL!” Evelyn commanded.
“YES MA’AM!” the Peacekeepers said in unison.
Evelyn wasted no time and rushed towards the two intruders. She pointed her hand at them and began to shoot ice projectiles towards them. The projectiles were blocked by a force field that was being projected by the hooded girl.
Evelyn soon reached the two and began to strike the force field with her spear. Strike after strike, the spear bounced off of it and remained unscathed.
“Rise from your slumber; awaken Nightmare Moon once more,” the hooded girl chanted as she flicked her hand towards the portal.
A purple beam shot from the hooded girl’s hand. The beam headed towards the portal, overloading it as the glow of the portal began to intensify. Second after second, the glow grew brighter and eventually caused an explosion, damaging the equipment and destroying the fences that surrounded it.
After one final strike, Evelyn finally destroyed the force field. As she was about to strike the two girls, the hooded girl opened up another portal and disappeared from Evelyn’s sight.
“Bollocks,” Evelyn cursed.
Evelyn sighed as she slowly went to the edge to see what happened to the portal. She decided to deal with the two intruders later on, having the portal as her first priority.
As she stared from above, her expression turned into shock. Her eyes shrank and began to sweat in fear. Black mist shrouded the whole area, but the figure in the center was visible, laughing victoriously as the mist began to disperse. She had black armor that had moon insignias and dual blades that had an eerie blue aura.
“REJOICE! Your queen has finally returned!” Nightmare Moon proclaimed.
No doubt, it was who Evelyn feared it was: the dreaded Nightmare Moon.
Author's Note
- LOG 004 - Evelyn's meta is the ability to generate ice at her will. This ability could also be used with her spear, enhancing it even further.
Treble's meta is forecast. He can predict incoming attacks or occurrences and successfully avoiding them. This works well with his unpredictable nature.
Time to start the first arc! Sorry for the long wait, school's being an absolute bitch.
- VII -
'Have you guessed the riddle yet?' the Hatter said, turning to Alice again.
In a certain part of Neo Canterlot was a large stadium. With the Summer Sun celebration coming, all efforts were focused on the festivities. The stadium was top priority, as most of the activities would be held there.
Inside the stadium, a couple of workers, a film crew, and the notorious actor known as Blueblood were all on the circular center stage. Blueblood was in his seat, waiting for the cameras to start rolling. He looked impatient and irritated, mostly because the film crew wasn’t done preparing everything.
A director approached Blueblood.“Sir Blueblood, I’m deeply sorry for the wait.”
“Hmph, I expected a better crew,” Blueblood angrily replied. “Can you tell your pawns to work faster?”
“U-Understood, Sir.”
After a while, the film crew finished the setting up along with the workers finished preparing the stadium. The set had a podium where Blueblood was assigned to stand on, with the latter heading to it.
“Okay, are you ready?” the director asked.
“I stand here all pretty, the roof opens and exposes the sun, thenI announce the celebration has started?” Blueblood replied.
“Yes.”
“Easy.”
“Alright then, we’re going live in three… two… one…”
The director prompted his crew to start rolling. All of the cameras were pointed towards the man as he closed his eyes and raised both of his hands up. This signaled the workers to open the roof.
The roof slowly opened, but no sunlight radiated. The director called out to the cameramen to stop recording. Much to their surprise, the moon was present and not the sun. The director looked at his watch and was shocked to see it was still ten in the morning.
Slowly, Blueblood opened his eyes and was about to say his speech, but stopped as he saw the cameras pointed at the sky.
“WHAT IN GOD’S NAME ARE YOU DOING?! WHAT IN THE SKY IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN-“
Blueblood immediately stopped tattling as he saw the blue and eerie moon.
“I say, does the sun look weird today?” he asked.
Suddenly, a portal began to manifest from the roof. Coming out was none other than Nightmare Moon, who flew towards the stage in a rapid speed. The film crew and the workers fled, but Blueblood didn’t.
Blueblood stood before Nightmare Moon and took out his rapier from itsscabbard.
“Well, if it isn’t my nephew,” Nightmare Moon said.
“Aunt Luna, it’s been a while,” the brave Blueblood said to her. “I’m up for reunions, but I’m going to ask you to lea-“
Nightmare Moon unsheathed one of her blades and launched herself towards Blueblood. With her closing in on him, Blueblood immediately dropped his rapier and began to whimper in fear. However, Nightmare Moon quickly stopped herself and her blade from slicing Blueblood’s neck.
Blueblood began to sweat as he slowly backed away from the blade that was close to his neck.
“I don’t recall my nephew being a fool and a coward. Who let you out of the Palace?” Nightmare Moon grinned.
“I’M SO SORRY AUNT LUNA! PLEASE DON’T KILL ME!” Blueblood cried as he kneeled in front of her.
“Why would I waste my time on a weakling like you?”
Nightmare Moon slowly turned to one of the cameramen, who was pointing his camera at her.
“YOU THERE! Is the camera still rolling?” Nightmare Moon smiled.
“Y-Y-Yes Ma’am,” the frightened cameraman replied.
“Good. Make sure to get everything I say… or else your head will be on a pike once I’m done.”
Cameraman nodded in fear as Nightmare Moon took the center stage along with a fearful Blueblood still immobilized.
“Citizens of Neo Canterlot!REJOICE! Your rightful ruler has returned!” Nightmare Moon proclaimed with an evil grin. “FEAR NOT!My very presence will not cancel the festivities that will be held! I AM MERELY IMPROVING IT!”
The cameraman kept on rolling, knowing that his life was on the line if he stopped. Nightmare Moon stepped on Blueblood as the latter whimpered.
“At the time the moon shines the brightest, I will be holding a tournament to see whose brave enough to face me and to showcase what I’m capable of,” Nightmare Moon continued. “The rules are simple; you have one week to prepare yourselves, and when you’re brave enough, you may find me here at the arena waiting. The battle will be a one on one duel; if the participant gives up or is knocked off the ring, it is a loss, and if the participant is killed? Well…”
Nightmare Moon licked her lips and maliciously stared at the camera.
“…The participant is disqualified.” Nightmare Moon smirked. “After a participant loses, a new one may follow and resume the fighting. That is all; you may enjoy your last days of joy as the dawn of Nightmare Moon will begin after a week!”
With that said Nightmare Moon took out her blades and lunged at the camera. She slashed it to bits while laughing maniacally and immediately cutting the broadcast. The frightened Blueblood, the camera crew, and the workers watched on in horror, wondering what she had in store for them.
Various parts of the city began to cause uproar after hearing the announcement.
On the more political and rich side, the people wanted to launch a full scale attack on Nightmare Moon to prevent destruction. To take action, Celestia immediately called up the Senate, which was comprised of the following: the leader of the Peacekeepers Shining Armor, his wife Vice President Cadence, Senator Cinch, and martial arts Master Scorpan.
At Palace’s undergrounds, Celestia and the Senate sat at a large table and discussed the recent events caused by Nightmare Moon.
“I think we should just launch a full scale attack on Nightmare Moon and end this nonsense!” Cinch suggested.
“And risk the lives of the Peacekeepers? We should consider devising a more proper plan instead!” Shining Amor retorted.
“And have her roam Neo Canterlot freely? What good will that do, Shining Armor?”
“We could just evacuate the city,” Cadence suggested as she rubbed her chin.
“Where would the people go, Miss Cadence? Outside the walls are infested with bandits and criminals!” Cinch whined.
“She has a point; I think it’s safer for them to stay in the city rather than running off to bandit country,” Shining Armor added.
The three remained silent as they turned to Celestia. She lied back on her chair and pinched the bridge of her nose, still currently stressed out from the current events. She remained in this position for a long period of time as her colleagues began to become impatient.
All of a sudden, the elderly Scorpan stood up and walked towards the exit.
“If you’re not going to do something about it, I will,” Scorpan proclaimed. “I will discipline your sister and restore peace.”
Even for an old man himself, Scorpan had a muscular build. As a master of martial arts and having him taught numerous students, it was no surprise for the Senate to see him step up to Nightmare Moon.
“Shining Armor, if you wish to join; gather your strongest soldiers,” Scorpan said while he exiting the room. “You may also join Celestia… if you can handle the risk of ‘letting loose’.”
With the four only remaining in the room, Senator Cinch was the second one to stand and leave.
“If you cannot control the situation, President Celestia, then I shall take action myself,” she said as she left the room.
“I’m sorry Aunt Celestia, she’s right; we need to take action instead of sitting around,” Cadence added as she too left the room along with Shining Armor.
The distraught Celestia was left alone in the room, questioning if she was doing her job or not and if she should awaken her power once more.
At some parts of the city, some of the citizens were at joy upon hearing the tournament. It was either because they wanted to let loose or just wanted to beat Nightmare Moon senseless. Some disagreed to this, and were opted to just be regular bystanders and wait for someone to step up to her.
On her way to Mise’sbar, Vinyl was suddenly ambushed at as busy street by a hulking mech that was piloted by the Flim and Flam twins from before. The two brothers were crammed inside the pilot seat, but could still control the mech without any sort of problems.
No words were exchanged, because neither cared to give either side a moment to relax.
The mech began to launch missiles towards Vinyl, which she easily evaded by jumping around.
“You’re even worse than shoplifters!” Flim cried as he threw the Mech to the side.
“That was destruction of private property!” Flam shouted. “We ought to sue you for defamation of character!”
“That’s desecration, brother!”
“She still metaphorically shitted on our goods!”
The torments only annoyed Vinyl and began to go on an offensive. She hit the mech’s leg with her right, causing it to step back for a bit from Vinyl’s sound wave gauntlets. The mech raised its hand and dropped it towards Vinyl, which she once again dodged just in time.
“Can’t you sit still for just one second?” Flim exclaimed. “You’re jumpier than a virgin at a prison rodeo!”
“Or a rattlesnake in a pickle barrel!”
“I believe we’re both right, brother!”
“And you’re pissing me off!” Vinyl shouted, once more striking the mech’s leg with her left and right.
To no avail, the mech did not budge and landed its heavy fist towards her, which she evaded once again. With rubble and debris around the area, it was getting hard for Vinyl to move around and evade the offensive strikes of the mech.
She found herself cornered as chunks of rubble were around her and there was nowhere to run. She adjusted her stance and prepared to defend herself as the mech slowly marched towards her and the twins began to laugh.
“Oh, does the little girl think she can stand a chance against our Mega-Mech 3000?” Flim shouted. He raised one arm of the mech in a mock gasping gesture. “Perish the thought! We might not stand a chance if she throws glitter at us!”
“Very funny!” Vinyl shouted sarcastically. “How ‘bout you get off that mech and fight me face to face!”
The mech clenched its fist and prepared to lunge at Vinyl, with the latter adjusting her gauntlet’s level to maximum.
Vinyl sighed.“I guess that’s a no.”
She fearlessly held her ground as the mech raised both of its fist and started to drop it towards Vinyl. She retaliated with a fist of her own. She closed her eyes, knowing she might be knocked out.
However, nothing happened. There wasn’t a metal fist touching her own fist. She opened her eyes slowly and saw that the mech’s fist was being held back by multiple gold chains.
“What the devil?!”Flim cursed.
Standing on a pile of rubble behind the mech was none other than Zero Gravity, who used his chain Meta to hold back the mech.
“Now that’s not how you treat a lady,” Zero joked. “You strike her in the heart, not the face.”
“And who are you supposed to be?!” Flam asked.
“Hmph! You ask what my name is? VERY WELL!” Zero exclaimed, “I was the first born child of my mother White Star, and my father Sound Barrier. From the moment I was born, I was destined for greatness-“
Once again, Zero was rudely interrupted when the mech freed itself and lunged towards the boy.
Zero glared at the robot and rolled his eyes. He jumped out of the way just in time and stood side by side with Vinyl. Disappointed that he couldn’t properly introduce himself to his foe, he took his large rectangular Zweihänder and prepared to fight.
Vinyl chuckled.“Fancy seeing you here, oh mighty great one known as Zero .”
“Indeed I am great,” Zero smirked.“But not these two. They are not worthy for the great one to purge!”
“Shut your trap and do your chain-thing again.”
“Got it.”
Zero quickly spawned a few chains and quickly immobilized the mech. He ran towards the mech and swung his weapon at his legs, crippling the mech in the process. The cockpit was now vulnerable; the two brothers began to scream in fear.
“If you may?” Zero grinned at Vinyl.
“Gladly.” Vinyl grinned as well.
Vinyl sprinted towards the cockpit and hit it with everything she had. The cockpit broke open and revealed the twins. Vinyl grabbed a hold of one of them by the neck, which prompted the other twin to make a run for it. Not for long, though; he was quickly caught by Zero’s chains.
Vinyl was distracted by this, and did not see the twin she was holding take out a flintlock from his back. He pointed it towards Vinyl’s forehead. Vinyl immediately froze up.
“Oh no, young lady, I still have a few tricks up my sleeve.”
“Use your meta!” Zero shouted to Vinyl.
“… M-My meta?” Vinyl shriveled in fear. “I-I don’t need m-my meta.”
Suddenly, the whole ground began to become covered in ice. The twin was also frozen up to his upper body, who was inches away on pulling the trigger. Relieved, Vinyl fell to her buttocks and grabbed a hold of her chest. She could feel her racing heartbeat as sweat came from her head.
“What kind of sorcery is th-“
The twin was interrupted when a stun bullet hit his chest, rendering him unconscious. Vinyl turned to her left and saw Evelyn and Punk standing before them.
“Stand.Down.” Evelyn commanded as she approached the aftermath of the battle.
Author's Note
- LOG 007 - Straight Edge's meta is the ability to regenerate his wounds, which helps him last in battle longer. However, the regeneration depends on the wound. If it is minor, it would take a few seconds or minutes. If its a limb cut off, it would take a day.
Zero is one of the rare individuals to have two metas. First one being the ability to spawn and control chains that he can use in battle. The second being gravity manipulation, meaning he can easily lift objects as he can control its gravity.
Special thanks to Jarvy for helping out on the Flim and Flam dialogue!
VIII - Can't Escape From Crossing Fate
- 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?
V
'How do you know I'm mad?' said Alice.
In some other part of Neo Canterlot, Vinyl was heading to Mise’s pub. She had been blessed with the disease known as “boredom.” She wasn’t allowed to run with her group due to the incident she had with the Peacekeepers, and now was under surveillance by Treble, under Dash’s instruction.
Luckily, though, Vinyl managed to avoid and distract Treble with the baby dragon they saw earlier. She decided that Mise’s pub was the best place to spend her night. She knew that Treble would find her eventually, but decided to still go. She’d be wasted by the time Treble reached her since the boy was on the other side of the city.
Vinyl found herself in the weapon district, which was also the location of the city’s pubs. A few stands and weapon racks congregated in the area. Their stocks ranged from melee, ranged, old school, high tech, ammo, fuel, and many more. She wasn’t interested in the weapons as she was already madly in love with her gauntlets, which were the preferred instrument for the former DJ.
However, her eyes then caught something at her side: a table containing what appeared to be an upgraded version of her weapon sat idly as it sparkled in her vision. Her jaw fell wide open. Slowly she walked towards the gem. She was completely mesmerized, completely taken hostage by the tech she was looking at.
The vendors were nearly identical to each other. Both of them wore the same matching barbershop-esque clothing. The only difference was one of them had a mustache while the other had shaved it off.
“Well, well! Looks like we have found quite the lucky lady, dear brother!”
“Indeed we have, dear brother!”
The first twin bared his teeth. “Step right up, dear lady, and prepare to be amazed by our stupendous wares!”
The second twin nodded. “Quite all right! We assure you, everything here is one-hundred percent worth the money you spend!”
“We’ve got upgrades!”
“Downgrades!”
“Highs!”
“Lows!”
“Metal monsters!”
“Metal behemoths!”
“And they all come with working stereo!”
Vinyl caressed the weapon on the table like it was a delicate flower, still completely taken away by how good it looked. She wondered how it performed in battle: was it beyond average or beyond godlike?
“Well young lady, you can own this bad boy for one hundred zeons!”
“Tax free! Right, brother of mine?”
“Indeed!”
Vinyl reached out to her pockets and looked for spare money. She felt a few bills in her pockets and took them out. As soon as she looked at the money, she found out that she was lacking a good amount.
“Oh maaaan, I shouldn’t have gotten crunked so hard last night!” Vinyl cursed to herself. “Sorry, wonder twins, got no money on me at the moment.”
The twins began to look at each other with mischievous smiles. Both of them nodded together as they proceeded to stare at Vinyl’s gauntlets.
“Well, young lady, maybe we could work up a deal?”
“A trade, perhaps? Weapon for weapon?”
At first, Vinyl hesitated since she was already content with what she had. However, looking at the newer weapon made her think twice. Stunned and still gazing at it, she was horribly tempted to swap out her current weapon.
“This is only a one time opportunity, young lady!”
“Take it or leave it!”
With no other choice, Vinyl began to take off her gauntlets and prepared to swap them to the twins. Just as she was about to hand her gauntlets, a hand stopped her midway through.
Vinyl looked to her side and saw group of men smiling at her. They were the same men, who wore the green and red uniforms she saw inside Mise’s bar. All of them had the same symbol on their shoulders: a sword pointing down and was shattered in the middle, forming a hawk.
Two particular men caught her eye: the one that stopped her had dark navy blue hair with red streaks, light gray skin and red eyes. He wore red goggles that were strapped on his forehead, a gray top that had red linings, black fingerless gloves, a thigh bag, combat pants, and tactical boots. His weapons were strapped on his back: two chain sickles.
The other man whom Vinyl presumed to be the leader had long brown head and facial hair, pale green skin, and red eyes. He had a very muscular build, towering Vinyl and the other men. He wore a green-and-red armless trench coat that had a chest guard underneath, khaki pants, and black combat boots. Just like his companion, he had his weapon held on his back, which was a gigantic futuristic axe.
“May I help you, sir?” one of the twins asked in annoyance.
“Not much really, I just need to verify a few things,” the one with the chain sickles said. “First off, are these even legit?”
“Crafted by only the finest blacksmith,” the other twin explained.
The person grabbed a hold of the gauntlets, inspecting them thoroughly. He looked underneath it and saw a loose panel, which he proceeded to open and revealed two normal sized batteries that suited a clock rather than a weapon.
The twins simultaneously dropped their jaws as Vinyl looked on in shock.
The boy then disassembled a few other parts and revealed it to be only made in plastic rather than metal. Vinyl slowly turned to the twins and glared at them. They were sweating silver-tongued bullets.
“It looked like a fake just from the distance. Plus, the paint gave it away; you didn’t use a primer,” the boy explained. “Also, you do realize that newer weapons use crystals to power them, right?”
“My word! Will you look at that! We’ve been scammed!”the first one said, bringing a hand to his gasping mouth and feigning shock.
“We need to call our supplier, dear brother!” the other one said.
More excuses poured out of them, growing more and more extravagant. Vinyl frowned, as did the two next to her.
“Hey, Chief, can I beat the crap out of them?” the boy asked his leader.
“No, Daemon, you cannot,” the leader answered. “Besides, we have more important things to do.”
The leader nodded to his men and signaled them to leave along with the disappointed Daemon. With the group of men disappearing from their sights and Vinyl looking on, the twins began to discreetly pack their things up and prepared to leave. She coughed, getting their attention.
“Oh! Have you decided to buy our unique product?” a twin asked.
Vinyl clenched her fist and powered up her gauntlet. The twins covered themselves in fear as she raised her fist and struck it down to the table, wrecking it and the fake weapon. She chuckled as she pointed her middle finger towards the twins, and soon left the area.
She continued on heading to Mise’s bar, which was close by. She had fun destroying some con artists’ product, but nothing was more enjoyable than brawling with Peacekeepers. All she needed to do to complete her day was to have a sip of cider at Mise’s place—
BOOM!
In the distance rose a dark plume of purple smoke, choking the very air that it invaded. All eyes turned towards it. She frowned, wondering what was going on, whether it was just an experiment of the Palace or something else was going on.
“Oh, my beloved subjects! It's been so long since I've seen your precious little sun-loving faces!”
Nightmare Moon stood before fallen Peacekeepers and scientists caught within the blast. One struggled to get away from her, only to get stomped on by the dreaded woman.
The standing Peacekeepers began to mobilize towards Nightmare Moon, all pointing their guns towards her. At this sight, Nightmare Moon became irritated.
“Why, am I not royal enough for you?” she said to the Peacekeepers. “Don't you know who I am?”
“Stand down, or we will open fire!” a Peacekeeper warned.
“LAUGHABLE! I ACCEPT!”
Nightmare Moon disappeared and left a trail of smoke, making the Peacekeepers hysteric. All of them began to look around until suddenly smoke appeared beside one of them. A hand appeared and grabbed a Peacekeeper. The poor soul was thrown into a wall while the others looked on in horror.
Nightmare Moon appeared once more, this time taking out her. She directed a murderous expression towards the Peacekeepers.
“I’ll only say this once… Kneel.” Nightmare Moon smiled.
“OPEN FIRE!” a Peacekeeper commanded.
Soon enough, the whole entire area began to light up. Loud gunfire echoed in the murky haze, the bullets casting desperate and little beams of light.
The fiendish woman wasted no time evading every bullet that blazed towards her. She headed towards one of the Peacekeepers, slashing them with her while still dodging the bullets. Even if the bullets hit her, the armor she wore shielded her from them.
Nightmare Moon continued her carnage, wounding every single one of the Peacekeepers simultaneously until every single onewas down on the ground.
Soon enough, she found herself standing before fallen bodies. The scientists fled in fear as she sheathed back her swords and laughed maniacally.
Evelyn, who watched the whole thing from above, jumped down and came face to face with Nightmare Moon. She drew out her spear and prepared herself.
“Vice President Luna.” Evelyn called out to her.
“Well, well, well. Somebody who remembers me.” Nightmare Moon smiled. “Then you also know why I'm here.”
“You were banished because you were corrupted by the lunar magic, and you wanted not only Canterlot, but the whole world for yourself.”
“Close, but you forgot one more thing.” Nightmare Moon laughed. “Didn’t my foolish sister tell you about the elements of Harmony?”
“The what?”
All of a sudden, Nightmare Moon charged towards Evelyn, who successfully blocked both of her blades with her spear.
“Foolish child, you have much more to learn!” Nightmare Moon exclaimed.
A duel ensued between the two, simultaneously striking each other with their weapons. Each clash of their weapons resulted to loud bangs and thunderous impacts that shook the ground.
“You must be one of my sister’s top soldiers!” Nightmare Moon smile as she swung her swords at Evelyn. “Yet, she doesn’t tell you such knowledge?”
Nightmare Moon continued her barrage once more, striking Evelyn with powerful swings as the latter struggled to block every single hit. As Nightmare Moon struck once more, Evelyn successfully evaded it and created a space between them.
Evelyn pointed her hand to the fiendish foe and let out a breeze of ice towards her opponent’s feet. As the ice froze Nightmare Moon’s feet, the tired Evelyn placed back her spear and took a breather. However, Nightmare Moon was unfazed by the frozen trap that she erected.
“Oh? An Ice meta? Interesting,” Nightmare Moon said as she rubbed her chin. “Regardless, it’s still powerless against me.”
“You have the right to remain silent,” Evelyn warned as she clicked her earpiece. “This is Lieutenant Evelyn. I have secured Vice President Luna. Sending the coordinates to you now.”
Tired, Evelyn closed her eyes for a minute. As she opened her eyes, she saw that Nightmare Moon was gone from her frozen state, only leaving ice on the ground. Evelyn looked around and saw nothing but her other Peacekeepers still lying on the ground motionless.
Soon enough, she felt someone was behind her all of a sudden. A mist of smoke that came from behind her began to shroud her, prompting her to turn around. The unlucky girl soon met the eerie glowing eyes of Nightmare Moon staring at her very soul.
“Come on now, child; rest your eyes and enter your dreams,” Nightmare Moon whispered.
Evelyn tried to scream, but her whole body started to shut down. Her vision became blurry and started to fall into a slumber. The last thing she saw was Nightmare Moon laughing at her as she fell unconscious.
Nightmare Moon watched as the girl started to shriek in her sleep. Her spell had worked. She turned her head and looked into the distance and saw the Palace towering over everything below it. Her expression turned into anger as hatred began to build up inside her.
She heard footsteps heading to her direction, prompting her to teleport away from the area and leaving a trail of smoke once more.
At the Palace, Celestia stood alone in the dark as the moon illuminated through her glass windows. Like all of her subordinates in the Palace, she was restless, unable to catch a breather because of what was happening.
She could sense the impending energy closing in, knowing that it was her sister approaching. The energy became stronger and stronger, and eventually she felt a strong presence in the room.
Coming out of the shadow was her sister, Nightmare Moon. She had a malicious grin and an evil intent. Celestia was unfazed by this, refusing to turn and face her sister.
“I’m home, sister.”
“You are not welcome here,” Celestia retorted.
“Aw, is that how you should treat your younger sister? Especially during a long-awaited reunion?” Nightmare Moon purred.But her expression slowly turned serious. “Where are the Elements of Harmony?”
“That is none of your concern.”
“Hmph, you could just tell me. Besides, the Element of Magic is already lost.”
Nightmare Moon began to pace around Celestia, who was still unfazed.
“Dozens of armed Peacekeepers will barge in through that door any second now,”Celestia warned. “You have the choice to surrender or perish.”
“As if they could put me down,” Nightmare Moon laughed. “I already took out a few when I got here, including that ice spewing girl.”
“What did you do with Evelyn?!”
“I simply put her in a slumber. Besides, I could see how tired she was. Have you been working her too hard? She needed a beauty sleep with a DREADFUL dream.”
Nightmare Moon chuckled as she walked towards Celestia’s table. There, she saw a pamphlet advertising the Summer Sun Celebration, and a tournament being held on the final day. She slowly let out a smile and looked back to Celestia once more.
“You know, even without those precious elements, I could still cause chaos to this world,” Nightmare Moon proposed.
“You cannot win,”Celestia replied. “You know this.”
“Oh no, I’ve already won. I could just kill you right now and take your place,” Nightmare Moon said. “But first, I want to join the festivities. I want to face a worthy opponent before I take over the whole world.”
“What are you planning, Luna?”
A chill ran down Celestia’s back as her former sister bared her teeth.
“…A Tournament.”
Author's Note
- LOG 004 - Daemon's meta is the ability to blend in with the shadows, making him a great asset in stealth.
Warhawk's meta is harden. With this, he can become a formidable tank along with his strength.
Special thanks to my editor Jarvy Jared for helping me on the Flim and Flam part and as always for his wonderful editing.
Sorry for the long wait for the chapter!
VI
'You must be,' said the Cat, 'or you wouldn't have come here.'
Celestia stood in shock as Nightmare Moon, also known as her sister Luna, gave her a devilish smile. A bluish aura began to emit from Nightmare Moon, making her more intimidating.
“Well? Are you not entertained, sister?” Nightmare Moon asked. “Or are you stunned at how I look like? Well, what do you think of this color? Is it not beautiful?”
“Tournament? There will be no such thing!” Celestia exclaimed. “I will not let you disrupt the festivities!”
“Disrupt? HA! I have already started MY festivities!” Nightmare Moon answered as she gestured towards the glass windows. “Why don’t you see for yourself?”
Celestia did not know what her sister was talking about. Nightmare Moon was still insisting on having her sister take a peek outside, with the latter curious on what she has done.
Slowly, Celestia took a step and walked towards the glass window. She walked to the point that the entire city of Neo Canterlotand the dark sky were visible. She scanned the whole horizon, but did not see anything out of the ordinary.
Nightmare Moon approached Celestia and placed her hand on her sister’s shoulder. She then leaned towards Celestia’s ear while still wearing a devious smile.
“Your precious city is fine. It’s still a modern marvel,” Nightmare Moon whispered. “But I think the eternal moon makes everything much more lively.”
Upon hearing this, Celestia quickly looked at the moon. Her eyes shrank and she stood there in shock; the moon shone an eerie bluish glow. The floating broken pieces began to move around the moon, almost as if the moon was alive.
“You see that, sister? I could say I’ve already won, but this is only the beginning,” Nightmare Moon said to Celestia. “I wouldn’t want an easy victory now would I?”
“You’ve gone mad, Luna!” Celestia replied.
“AND WHOSE FAULT IS IT?! WHO WAS IT THAT SENT ME TO THE MOON?!” Nightmare Moon yelled angrily as she took out one of her blades and hacked Celestia’s table.“Which one of us REFUSED to accept such power?!A limitless power that God had bestowed upon us!”
Celestia stood in fear as she slowly backed away from her sister. Nightmare Moon took a deep breath and sheathed her blade back. She turned her back on Celestia and headed towards the windows.
“I could kill you right now, foolish sister of mine,” Nightmare Moon said. “But I need you to be alive. I need you to see everything you’ve built get burned to the ground.”
“It’s not too late, Luna,” Celestia exclaimed, “You can still be the sister I know and love.”
“…The love was lost once you sent me to the moon,” Nightmare Moon glared at her sister. “You have a week to find your champions, you wouldn’t mind if I borrowed the arena, right? Until then, the entire world will be shrouded in darkness.”
With that said, Nightmare Moon broke one of the windows with her fist. She made her way outside and began to dematerialize into a smoke. As she was about to disappear, Nightmare Moon once more turned to her sister.
“Oh, I’d be fascinated if you entered the tournament… Daybreaker,” Nightmare Moon grinned. “Someday, you’ll realize how wrong you were… and how right I was.”
Nightmare Moon disappeared in Celestia’s sight, but her evil cackles were still heard. It began to become faint, leaving Celestia in dead silence. Suddenly, multiple peacekeepers stormed in the room, but were already too late since Nightmare Moon had already left.
Celestia’s angst grew. She wouldn’t sleep for weeks once again.
Standing alone in a dark room, Evelyn was tied up on a chair at the center. Her body was bruised and her clothes were all tattered including her underwear. Even with her whole body tied up, she could not feel her limbs. She was parched, not able to speak and her eye sight was blurry.
Suddenly, a large man appeared from the shadows wielding a large machete. Evelyn’s sight began to work properly, and seeing the man horrified her. She tried to scream for her life, but not a single sound came from her wind pipe. At last, the man raised his machete and hacked towards Evelyn.
Evie, wake up!
Evelyn instantly opened her eyes and found herself surrounded by medics and a man that had slicked black hair and a goatee. He had a white t-shirt underneath aflak vest, gray pants, a holster, knee-pads and black combat boots. He also had a few tattoos on both of his arms, wrist tape that had an X symbol on both of his hands, and multiple guns around his body, one of which was a sniper rifle behind him.
Evelyn quickly stood up and looked around her. Still shook and sweating, she was still unable to speak due to her fright from her dream. Around her were multiple medics tending to the wounded peacekeepers.
“WHERE IS NIGHTMARE MOON?!” she screamed to the man.
“Easy, easy! She’s long gone now,” the man replied. “You’ve been out for a few hours.”
Evelyn stood in silence and took a deep breath. She pinched the bridge of her nose and walked towards a crate which she sat on. The man followed on and sat beside her.
“Straight Edge, what time is it?” she asked.
“First off, call me Punk,” the man known as Straight Edge or Punk replied as he slapped his knee twice. “And it’s already nine in the morning.”
Evelyn looked in shock as she quickly gazed at the sky. The night sky and bright stars were still visible. The moon shined the bluish aura from earlier and the debris was still hovering around it.
“What… is happening?” Evelyn asked as she covered her mouth.
“From the looks of it, its Nightmare Moon’s doing,” Punk theorized. “She either froze the moon in place or the time. Either way, looks like we won’t be seeing the Sun for a while.”
“…This is all my fault; I let her get away,” Evelyn cried as tears came down from her eyes. “I’ve failed President Celestia.”
“This isn’t over, Evelyn,” Punk said as he placed his hand on Evelyn’s shoulder. “We can still prevent ragnarok and save the mighty sun god known as Celestia!”
Evelyn rubbed the tears out of her eyes and took a deep breath. Punk let out a goofy grin and gave her a thumbs up, earning him a fist to the shoulder.
“Idiot, that goofy smile won’t help us capture Nightmare Moon.” Evelyn rolled her eyes.
“But did it capture your heart again?” Punk joked.
“Shut up… and please, call me Lieutenant… Private Straight Edge. ”
The two began to chat as Evelyn recovered and the man known as Punk tended to her, trying to make her calm after recent events. However, the job wasn’t still done as Nightmare Moon still roamed the city.
Suddenly, an explosion occurred at a nearby street that was near Evelyn and Punk’s area. The two and the standing peacekeepers became full alert and started to mobilize towards it. However, Evelyn raised her hand and stopped the peacekeepers.
“We will take care of this,” Evelyn commanded as she gestured herself and Punk. “You have done enough for today. You all need some rest.”
With that said, Evelyn and Punk headed towards the explosion, wondering what was happening at a time like this.
Author's Note
- LOG 006 - Having no official permanent army to handle threats, multiple armed forces were organized. Two examples are Neo Canterlot's peacekeepers and Tokyo Dome's Akeboshi Rockets.
However, some of these forces are not mandated by the Government.
Another one bites the dust!
