Canterlot High Ends With You

Chapters

Prologue
Questions Without Answers (Part 2)
Answers To Questions
Fighting in Sync
The Second Day
Sirena Canor
Questions Without Answers (Part 1)

Prologue

“I understand you, Twilight, and I want to show you the most important magic of all…” Sunset said as she smashes Twilight’s device and undergoes a transformation similar to the latter's, but more akin to the light, “...The Magic of Friendship.”

Twilight, now transformed Midnight, witnessed this in fear while Sunset’s friends watched in confidence as she used her powers to seal the portals Midnight opened up, frustrating her. In the anger, she attacked Sunset as the latter charged forward to block. Midnight pushed back and got ready to charge her magic to blast Sunset, and Sunset did the same, hoping to collide in the middle.

But it didn't.

The magic attacks flew past each other and blasted Sunset and Midnight out of the sky in a flash of light. When it died down, Sunset and Twilight, both reverted back to normal, lay on the ground, unmoving. Applejack slowly walked over and checked their pulses, and what she said shocked everyone to their core.

“No pulse...they're dead.”

Some of the students began to cry, most of them hung their heads in mourning, but Cadence, she outright bawled her eyes out, saddened by this turn of events. Principal Cinch came out of hiding, saw the corpses, and proceeded to sneak away, only to be caught be Vice Principal Luna.

“And just where do you think you're going?” she asked.

“Well, um…” Cinch tried, but Luna was having none of it.

“Don't bother. I could hear the singing a mile away. You and your students convinced Twilight Sparkle to unleash the magic...and the blood is on your hands.” Luna faced the Crystal Prep student body, “The blood is on ALL of your hands.”

Everyone from CPA hung their heads, not in mourning, but in shame for basically bringing about their fellow classmate’s murder.

“You’ll be taking full responsibility for everything that happened here.”

“And if I don't?” Cinch challenged.

Luna glared at her in pure hatred, “...Then I'll call the police, and tell them that you OD’d these two with pain killers.”

Cinch paled and swiftly nodded in rapid succession. Celestia and Luna picked up Sunset and Twilight respectively and carried them bridal style into the school to prepare them for their funeral…

...And something else.

They stopped in the middle of the hallway and Celestia turned to Luna.

“Lulu. It's time...for the ‘Game’.”

“Are you sure, Tia?”

“I'm positive. Sunset has just regained the trust of the student body and our world’s Twilight has yet to experience the Magic of Friendship, and I'm not going to lose either of them because of a demented principal from Crystal Prep.”

Luna nodded, and reached into her pants pocket, pulling out a black pin marked with a white skull. Celestia did so as well and pulled out the exact same pin, and they attached them both to the beautiful corpses. They stared at each other in uncertainty and continued to the nurse’s office.

They had a funeral to plan.

PROLOGUE
CHAPTER CLOSED

Author's Note

The World Ends With You belongs to SQUARE ENIX and JUPITER

My Little Pony: Equestria Girls belongs to Hasbro Studios and DHX Media

Golden Flare and Wayward Shadow presents...

Canterlot High Ends With You

Questions Without Answers (Part 2)

In the middle of an intersection a few blocks away from Crystal Prep Academy, Twilight awoke with confusion etched onto her features.

‘Where am I?’ She thought as she stood up and got a better look at her surroundings, ‘Oh, I know intersection, this is part of the route the bus takes on its way to—’ Her thought process came to a screeching halt as she remembered what just happened.

She had unleashed the magic, just as her entire school wanted her to, became an all-powerful monster, fought Sunset’s transformed state, and then...nothing.

‘But that doesn't make any sense! If I blacked out, I should be in the nurse’s office, not in the middle of the street!’ Her mind reasoned.

She checked her pockets to make sure nobody robbed her while she was unconscious, then she felt a foreign object. She pulled it out and saw that it was a black pin marked with a strange looking white skull.

‘Where did this come from?’ Twilight thought as she twirled it in the hand.

When she stopped it, her head was flooded with several voices from out of nowhere.

“Ugh! Going to school is sooooo boring!”

“Can’t believe what Cinch did, she got innocent lives killed!”

“I think I’m gonna stop by Mr. and Mrs. Cake’s café after school today.”

“Is he ever gonna make a pass at me?”

“Wonder what the story is about the Friendship Games? I love some juicy gossip!”

Twilight dropped the weird pin, believing it was the source of all that chaos, and lo and behold, the voices stopped.

‘What WAS that?! Was I...reading people's minds?!’

Suddenly, her cell phone chimed as mail appeared in her inbox, “Okay, after I see what this notification is, I’m calling my parents to come pick me up.”

Reach the Canterlot Clock Tower.
You have 60 minutes.
Fail, and face erasure.
—The Reapers

‘Is this some kind of joke?! I don't have time for this!’ She went to delete the offending message, but it still remains. ‘What…? What's going on?’ “OWW!” Twilight felt a sharp pain in the palm of her hand, “Did something bite me?!” She looked to see the damage, but there was none, just a timer counting down.

59:58
59:57
59:56

‘Wait, TIMER?!?’ Twilight stared at it for a bit when she realized something, “...This is the exact same time as the one on that message. What kind of sick game is this?”

“The Reaper’s Game,” answered two voices.

“Who's there?!”

From atop a building, two men jumped down and glided to the ground with black skeletal wing, they appeared to be siblings with red hair, pale yellow skin, and they look like they belong in a barbershop quartet, but one difference between them was that one of them had a mustache.

“Why, I’m Flim.” Answered one man.

“I’m Flam.” Answered the other.

Then they both spoke at the same time, “And we're the world famous Flim Flam Brothers!”

“Okay…?” Twilight said.

“And YOU’RE in the Reaper’s Game!” Flim, the one without the mustache, declared.

“But what is the Reaper’s Game?!”

“Doesn’t matter,” replied Flam, the one with the mustache, “Once you’re erased, you won’t have to worry about it.”

The two men snapped their fingers and several red symbols appeared and surrounded Twilight.

“What the?! What is this?!” Twilight exclaimed.

Then, the symbols took form of weird looking rattlesnakes; they were three feet long, and their bottom jaws and the tips of their tails had an unnatural, ethereal appearance. They started snapping their sharp fangs at Twilight, forcing her to back away, only to be stopped by more of the strange snakes behind her.

“No! I don't wanna die like this! I'm afraid of snakes!” She blurted out.

Suddenly, the sound of wheels on a skateboard filled the air as a teenage kid dressed in a white tank top, cargo shorts, black and red sneakers, a cap with a skull on it, and way too many chains rode onto the scene, looking ready for a fight.

“Yo! Jump!” He called to her.

She was surprised at first, but she was willing to do anything to get away from her worst fear, so she jumped. The boy kick-flipped in the air and caught her, and as he landed, gravel from the pavement sprayed at the Flim Flam Brothers.

“You alright?” He asked, to which she nodded. “Good! Le’s make a pact, before Stache and No-Stache get us.”

“Hey! I take offense to that!” Flim said.

“A pact? Why?” Twilight asked the boy.

“There ain’t time to explain! Forge a pact with me, Yo!”

“Okay! I guess I have no choice but to trust you! I accept.”

Twilight’s vision was suddenly filled with green light while the boy shimmered in a purple light. When it died down, the boy sneered at the brothers.

“Aight! Time for a beat down, Yo!”

“How?! You're just a kid!”

The boy chuckled, “Really? Check this out!”

He moved toward the snakes while on his skateboard and started doing 180’s and 360’s, backflips, kick-flips, even jumping in midair and ramming into them, damaging the snakes and causing them to vanish into static. Twilight was stunned by this, she was expecting the snakes to be run over and killed, not turned into static, it was impossible! Flim and Flam were shocked, they never thought that any Player would've figured out how to defeat Noise this quickly.

“Uh, brother? Perhaps we should make like a banana and split.” Flim said.

“Well said, brother.” Flam agreed.

The two spread their creepy wings and took off into the air.

“Hey! Get back here! I ain't done with you yet!” The boy yelled.

“Wait!” Twilight stopped him, “We're safe now, so there's no reason to keep picking a fight!”

“Grr...fine. But you owe me.”

“I do. You saved my life...um, I never got your name.”

“Beat. Jus’ call me Beat.”

“Thank you, Beat. I'm Twilight Sparkle.”

“Heh, nice to meet cha! Now c’mon! We gotta get to the Clock Tower!”

“Huh? Why?”

“Didn't chu get the mission mail, Yo?”

“Mission mail? You mean that junk mail that wouldn't delete?”

“Girl, you trippin’! That ain't no junk mail! All Players get a mission on their phones, and if they don't complete it, they get erased!”

“Huh—I don't—what?! What you're saying doesn't make any sense!”

“There's no time for sense! We gotta move! My friend, Phones, and I will explain later! Besides, he's prob’ly on his way to complete the mission by now! Le's bounce!”

Beat ran in a random direction until Twilight called out to him, “But the Canterlot Clock Tower is the other way!”

Beat immediately changed gears and went towards the way Twilight pointed out, “I knew that, Yo!”

Twilight quickly joined him in running, heading for the clock tower and hoping for her questions to be answered.

QUESTIONS WITHOUT ANSWERS (PART 2)
CHAPTER CLOSED

Answers To Questions

Sunset and Neku arrived at the Stampeding Grounds, but Sunset hesitated in going forward.

“Why’d you stop?” He asked.

“Well, I tried heading to the Clock Tower earlier, but something was blocking my path,” Sunset said, “It was almost like…”

“A wall separating you from your goal,” Neku finished.

“Yes! How did you know?”

“I speak from experience,” was his reply. He checked his hand, it showing 15:26, and carefully “examined” the barrier. “All we need to do is find the Reaper in charge of the wall.”

“Huh?”

“Like I said, I'll explain later,” he said looking for said Reaper. After a few seconds of searching, he moved to a young man wearing a blue and yellow hoodie. “How do we get past the wall?”

Sunset facepalmed. “Neku, we're invisible. I don't think…”

“You want past this barrier?” The young man asked, shocking Sunset. Neku nodded to the question. “I'd tell you the requirements, but you've already got it done.” The man pulled out three pins. One he placed on the wall before saying, “Wall clear.” He gave Neku the other two pins.

“I...but...wha...how…?”

“You Americans break easily,” Neku commented.

“Seeing her break when she does impossible things on almost a daily basis is actually hilarious,” the Reaper added.

“Huh? What do you mean?” Neku asked.

“Spoilers. I'm not at liberty to say,” he said, nonchalantly, “Just ask her, she may or may not answer. You won't learn what you don't seek.” The Reaper the walked off, vanishing into the crowd.

Neku turned to Sunset. “Wall’s down we can move on now.”

Sunset shook herself from her shock. “Alright, let's go. It should be a 5 minute walk from here to the Clock Tower.”

Roughly five minutes later, they arrived at the Clock Tower. Sunset checked her hand and saw that the timer was gone.

“Mission Complete,” Neku said, looking at his hand as well. “Now we just have to wait for Beat and his partner to get here.”

“They'll be in for quite a show when they arrive,” a voice called out. Neku seemed spooked, and looked around frantically, until he spied a girl with bluish skin, extremely pale blue hair, was wearing blue magician clothing and has a pair of black skeletal wings.

“A Reaper!/Trixie!?” Neku and Sunset shouted out. They looked at each other in confusion. “You know her?!/What did you call her!?” They both then growled in frustration.

The Reaper, Trixie, giggled evilly at the scene. “The Great and Powerful Trixie is enjoying the simpleton squabbling. Very entertaining.”

“Just who are you?” Neku asked.

“I am...The Great and Powerful Trixie!” She proclaimed loudly with a flourish. When she didn't see Neku be “wowed”, she raised an eyebrow in confusion. “Haven't you heard of Trixie in the RG?”

“The Great and Powerful Trixie?” He asked, to which she nodded. “Can’t say that I have. Does ‘The Great and Powerful Windbag’ count? It may not have been you the rumors talked about though.”

“GRRAARRGG! You will pay for that insult!” She then raised her hands in the sky. “Come my pet! Show this Naysayer my power!”

A large red symbol then appeared and morphed into a larger version of the wolves they fought earlier. Neku’s arms became enveloped in energy and Sunset pulled out her Pyrokinesis pin.

The giant wolf charged to pounce on Sunset, but she dodged its attack and lit it's tail on fire. As it yelped and chased its tail, Neku charged in with a Vulcan Uppercut, knocking it back. It recovered and tried to knock him away, but Sunset enveloped it in flames with Neku attacking with Shockwave combos.

When the wolf was defeated, Trixie yelled out in anger and frustration. “You will pay, Sunset Shimmer! Every wrong will be righted!” She then extended her wings and flew away.

“She’s worse than Uzuki Yashiro,” Neku commented.

“Who's that?”

“OCD workaholic...friend back in Shibuya.”

“You're from Shibuya?” A different person asked, “No wonder you know so much about the Game!”

Neku and Sunset turned to the voice, seeing a young man in a blue and black hoodie and had black skeletal wings. “Another Reaper?!”

The Reaper held his hands up, backing up a bit. “Whoa there buddy! Don't go crazy on me. I've already used up all my Noise for today and just wanted to talk a bit.”

Neku relaxed a bit, but remained on guard. “Why? You like playing with your ‘food’?”

Sunset jumped at that. “These Reapers EAT us!?”

“Not technically,” Neku began.

“No,” the Reaper finished. “It's our way of life. We have to erase Players to survive. If we don't erase Players, we slowly fade.”

“So you kill people for sport?”

“We are, in a sense, their food. You can't fault them for trying to survive,” Neku defended.

“Who’s side are you on?” The Reaper and Sunset asked.

“I'm just saying that the Reapers can't be faulted for doing what they do to survive,” he explained, “However, if a Reaper is out for blood, then you can guilt trip them.”

The Reaper laughed at his explanation. “You’re a good guy. I don't know why I thought you would be a problem.” He pulled a few things out of his pocket. “Here, the blank pins are for Sunset and Beat’s partner, and I found this somewhere.” He handed Neku two blank pins and a strange device that looked like a pendant.

“Thanks.”

“No problem.” He began to walk away, but stopped. “Oh! Before I forget, you konk out at 6pm. See you tomorrow.” He flew away.

Before long, running footsteps were heard behind them.

“Yo! Phones!” Yelled a punk-ish young man.

“Beat!” Neku ran to the young man and the two grabbed each other's left arm, fist bumped with their right, and the pulled each other into a brief hug.

“Hey, where’s your partner?”

“Oh, she's right…” He stopped when he saw that where he was gesturing had no one there. “BWAAAH!!! Where'd she go!?”

Sunset was barely paying attention to the boys’ conversation. Her attention was on someone a half a block away, having problems with her phone.

Twilight Sparkle.

“Yo! Redhead!” Beat shouted to Sunset, “Get chu head on straight, we gotta find Twilink Sprinkle or whatever her name was. Aight!”

“She’s just over there,” she retorted, pointing to where Twilight was standing.

“Yo! Egghead!” He shouted. Twilight looked in the group's direction. “Get over here! You don't wanna get caught on your own or you're Reaper chow!”

Twilight fixed him a light scowl and pointed to her phone, indicating that she was busy.

Neku sighed, “Come on, let's go talk to her.”

The three of them walked to Twilight. Neku opened his mouth to speak but, Twilight turned on him with a harder scowl.

“What is your problem!?” She practically shrieked at him, “Can't you see that I’m trying to call home and get this stupid mess figured out!?”

“Calm down,” Beat tried saying, but Twilight was on a roll.

“I've just seen nearly a few dozen impossible things happen in the past hour AND YOU WANT ME TO CALM DOWN!!!” She took a deep breath and continued. “To put things simply for your brick-composed brain, I'M GOING HOME!!!”

After the shock of the rant wore off, Neku composed himself. “Good luck with that.”

Twilight blinked in confusion. “What?”

“You're not in the Canterlot City you know,” he said, trying to keep his own temper in check. “You're in what is called the UG or Underground. It's like a separate zone of existence where you have to fight to survive.”

“What?” Both Sunset and Twilight asked.

Neku sighed...again. “Let’s talk in a more comfortable environment.” His stomach then growled in complaint. “Perhaps somewhere where there's food available.”

*****

Sunset guided them all to her’s and her friends’ usual hangout, Sugarcube Café. When they got there, there was a strange decal on the side of the door; a skull and an “X” below it.

“What is that?” Sunset asked.

“Probably vandalism,” Twilight speculated.

“That's a Reaper Decal.” Beat answered.

Sunset bent down to get a closer look at it. “What purpose does it serve? Because I've been here several times and never saw it before.”

“Remember what I said about the UG being a separate zone?” The girls nodded. “You may have noticed that people in the RG, or Real Ground, can't see or physically interact with us.” He pointed to the Decal. “This Decal allows whatever store, shop, and restaurant that has it on for us to interact with RG people.”

As Sunset and Twilight mentally digested that, Beat turned to Neku. “I hope you got cash, because I ain’t able to pay.”

Neku nodded and pulled out what pins he had in his pocket. Two blank pins, an orange pin with what looked like a fireball on it and a gold pin with $100 stamped on the front. He smirked and tossed the $100 pin in a nearby trash bin.

“Do now. Let's eat.”

They go inside and make their way to the counter, where a woman with pink swirled hair and blue skin stood.

“What can I get’cha?” She asked.

Neku ordered a mocha frappé with a glazed donut for him (“Not bad.”), a chocolate éclair for Beat (“That hit the spot!”), a raspberry smoothie for Twilight (“It’ll do.”), and a strawberry milkshake and a powdered donut for Sunset (“This is really good.”). They all took their sweets and went to the nearest table, more specifically, the one Sunset and her friends used to sit at.

‘Speaking of my friends, where are they?’ She thought.

“Now that we've gotten food and feeling a bit more calm, you can question us in an orderly fashion,” Neku said.

“Okay, so then,” Twilight began, “What is this ‘Reaper’s Game’?”

“How do I begin?” Neku said. “The Reaper’s Game is like a test of worth, if you can think of it that way.”

“A test of worth? Worth for what?”

“A second chance.”

“What do you mean by that?” Sunset asked.

“Well…” Neku began.

“Quit sugarcoatin’ Phones! It was bad enough when I first played to see my sister the way she was,” Beat reprimanded.

“Your sister?” Twilight asked. “Wait, never mind that, what sugarcoating?”

“What Beat is trying to say is that I should straight up tell you; you both are dead.” The room seemed to chill 20 degrees to Sunset and Twilight.

“...What?” The two timidly asked.

“Like I said, and I'm not joking. You both died and got lucky to attract the attention of the Reapers for them to admit you into the Game,” Neku answered.

“So...let me see if I got this right,” Sunset began, “We somehow died and now we’re in some kind of Game to win back our lives?” Neku nodded, “There has to be some kind of catch. No one would just do that.”

“Well, you're right about the catch,” Beat said.

“When someone is admitted into the Game, that someone has to give up what they cherish most as an entry fee,” Neku explained, “If you win, you get your entry fee back.”

“And…” Twilight gulped, “If we lose?”

“You lose your entry fee…” He paused to take a shaky breath, “And your right to live.”

“But, if what you're saying is true...what was our entry fees?” Sunset asked.

“I can't say, mostly because I don't know,” Neku answered, “But it can be crippling in one way or another.”

“What we cherish most…” Twilight pondered, “Well, other than my family, what I cherish is knowledge.”

“And what I cherish most would be—” Sunset suddenly went pale, “...My friends.”

“Those could be good guesses,” he commented, “When I first played, my fee was my memories.”

“And mine was my sister's memories of me,” Beat added.

“That must've been terrible, running around with no memories.” Sunset said.

“It was. It made me a complete snot with almost no regard for others...but after I nearly erased my partner, and Rhyme was erased, my tune changed rather quickly.”

“We’ll ask about those later,” Twilight said, “How do we win this Reaper’s Game?”

“Survive the week and then give the GM a beat down on day seven,” Beat boasted.

“GM?”

“The Game Master. The one who sends us the missions,” Neku said, holding up his phone.

“They ain't pushovers,” Beat commented, “When they fight, they go all out.”

“I remember you saying something about ‘mission mail’, is that what you meant about the GM sending us missions?” Sunset asked.

“Yep.”

“So what's stopping the Reapers from outright erasing us?” Twilight asked, “I mean, two of them tried to hurt me.”

“Rules, regulations, and severe punishments for breaking those,” he said, “The rules keep them from erasing you directly and immediately, that's why they use Noise.”

“Noise? Sound isn't going to do anything but hurt someone's ears.” Twilight interrupted.

“No, not ‘noise’ as in sound waves, ‘Noise’ as in strange looking animals that want to kill you.”

“You mean those snakes those Flim Flam Brothers tried to hurt me with?” Twilight asked.

“Or that wolf Trixie tried to sic on us?” Sunset asked.

Neku nodded. “Yes, and personally, I think those that survive their first Game develop fears of what animal said Noise resembled.”

“Well...I may have had a bad experience with snakes once.” Twilight said, sheepishly.

“Wait,” Sunset began, “Something just came to me, how does one become a Reaper? I knew Trixie back in school before…” Sunset stopped herself.

“Well, when you win the Game, it's not a guarantee that you'll come back to life,” Neku said.

“If you win but don't pass, there are three options,” Beat continued, “Replay, become a Reaper, or get erased.”

“I see…” Sunset hung her head low as a tear glided down her face, “...Trixie's a Reaper because of me.”

“Huh?”

“I wasn't always a good girl,” Sunset began to explain, “I was a bully, ruling Canterlot High with an iron fist, I was so bad that I blackmailed people to keep them in line, I destroyed so many friendships...but when I was reformed...the guilt of it all got to me...especially when…” Sunset choked up, “My blackmailing caused Trixie...to commit suicide.”

She couldn't take it anymore and broke down crying. She wasn’t the only one, as Beat also had some free falling tears as well. “You ain't the only one to cause someone else to die.”

Sunset sniffled, “Huh?”

“I wasn’t in a very good standin’ with my folks,” he said, clenching his fists. “They kept trying to get me to achieve what I wasn’t aimin’ for. They practically hated me for it.” He then sniffled. “Despite all of my underachieving, my sister just stayed by my side, defending me. But I was too prideful for the support. I tried pushing her away, but she never left me.”

“After one bad spat with my parents, I tried running away. Rhyme followed me without me knowing. When I did notice her, a car was screaming down the street towards us. I tried pushing her out of the way, but…” Beat lowered his head to the table, “I may be strong, but not strong enough to stop a speeding car. That was our ticket to the UG.”

“I...am so sorry, Beat.” Sunset said.

“That wasn't the worst of it,” he said, “It was day 4 and I got careless. A Noise snuck up on me and nearly had me, but Rhyme saved me when I couldn't.” He shuddered, “Losing her once was bad...but seeing her go again…I...she…”

“Whoa…” Twilight said. “I don't think I could live with myself if something like that happened with my brother and I.”

While Beat silently cried, Neku took over, “Beat was lucky. When a partner in a pact gets erased, the survivor has seven minutes before they fade. Luckily, a guy named Sanae Hanekoma was able to bind what remained of her soul to a pin.” He pulled out the fake version of the pin for them to see. “Beat was able to make a pact with the pin to stay alive. When the week was over, he became a Reaper in the hopes of bringing Rhyme back...but he could only succeed in summoning a squirrel Noise.”

“You...became a Reaper?” Sunset asked.

“Phones said it,” Beat answered, “But I wasn’t really into the job as much as the others. When he was going through his third week, they tricked him, taking all other players as his entry fee. When I saw him cornered by Pinky and Lollipop, I couldn’t stand it and I became his partner.”

“Now that's true friendship.” Sunset said.

“Wait, ‘Pinky and Lollipop’?” Twilight asked.

“He means Uzuki Yashiro and Koki Kariya,” Neku said, “Two Reapers back in Shibuya. She hates my guts and he doesn't care either way.”

“But what's the story with the Flim Flam Brothers? I've never met them.” Twilight asked.

“Scam deal went wrong,” a voice behind them said. They turned and saw another young man in a blue and yellow hoodie. After he saw them staring at him, he seemed to shrink away. “Don't mind me, just a Support Reaper being stupid.”

“Riiight, so anyway,” Sunset began, “What about these pins? Do they have some kind of magic?”

“In a sense, yes. They're called Psychs.”

“Sometimes a psych could be other things, like my board,” Beat said.

“That explains how you fought those snakes.” Twilight said.

“And how Neku fought that wolf thing.” Sunset said. “But what about us? What can we fight with?”

“Well, you did pretty well with the Pyrokinesis pin I gave you, so you must use pins similarly to me.”

“But how am I supposed to fight?” Twilight asked.

Neku thought for a moment then pulled out the device pendant. “Think you can make sense out of this?”

“My spectrometer!” Twilight snatched it out of his hand, “How’d you get this?”

“Yeah, I thought it was destroyed back during the Friendship Games.” Sunset said.

Neku raised his eyebrows in surprise but didn't pry. “A random Harrier Reaper that seemed more friendly than most I've met gave it to us, as well as these Harmonizer pins.” He pulled out the two blank pins for them to see.

“Harmonizer pins? What do they do?” Sunset asked.

“If we fight in sync, they charge up,” Neku said.

“When fully charged, you can pull off a sick mega-attack,” Beat finished.

“Mega-attack? This Game is weird.” Twilight said.

“Technically, it's called a Fusion Attack,” the Support Reaper said, “And if you want weird, try eating ramen while playing Tin Pin upside-down.” The group gave him a weird look. “Don't look at me like that, I was trying to impress the Flim Flam Brothers into giving me a new pin. It doesn't matter though, it doesn't work for me.” He tossed said pin onto their table. It was neon yellow and had a strange looking pink heart on it.

Neku picked up the pin and examined it. “Huh. I haven't seen one of these since Traverse Town.”

“Traverse Town? I've never heard of that place.” Twilight said.

“I'm not surprised by that. That town is like it's a completely different world,” he said, “As for this pin, it allows a player to summon a Spirit Dream Eater.” With the pin in his hand, he closed his eyes and an alien-like cat appeared.

“Whoa! What is that?!” Twilight asked in surprise.

“A Dream Eater...Necho Cat specifically.”

“Would you mind taking your cat outside,” said the woman at the counter, “Or at least put it in it’s kennel.”

“You should probably put it back wherever you got it.” Sunset suggested.

Neku nodded, dismissing the Dream Eater. “Probably for the best. Why don't you keep it?” He offered the pin to her.

“Really? Are you sure?”

“You never know when you need it,” Beat said, “Besides, I still got mine. What ‘bout you, Phones?”

Neku pulled out the same exact pin from his pocket, showing it to the girls.

“How many pins do you have?” Twilight asked.

“Six or so, mostly out of habit,” he answered.

“Anyway, do you have any more questions, Twilight?” Sunset asked.

“Just one more, how do I use these ‘Psychs’ to defend myself?”

“Uhh, I ain’t much of the teachin’ type,” Beat said.

“To properly answer that, the only way to learn how is to get put under a form of pressure, combined with trial and error,” Neku said, “Let’s head outside and get that out of the way.”

“Alright, I’ve been meaning to look more into these psychs.” Sunset said.

“Aight! Grab those Harmony pin things and le’s bounce!” Beat shouted out. The group did just that.

“Have a good day, Dearies!” The front woman called.

ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS
CHAPTER CLOSED

Fighting in Sync

The group got outside and Neku stood at the front. “Let's start with scanning and imprinting.”

“Huh?” The two girls asked.

“Your player pins,” he said, showing them the skull pin. “They can allow you to scan, imprint, and can prevent those from happening to you.”

“Interesting…” Twilight said.

“How do we do it?” Sunset asked.

“It's a combination of handling the pin and concentration,” he answered, “Now doubt, when you first scanned, you felt as if you were hearing everyone's thoughts. The trick with scanning is isolating one voice to listen to.”

“As for imprintin’,” Beat continued, “You can put simple thoughts into someone's brain with the pin.”

“But you have to be careful when doing both,” Neku added, “Noise can interfere with both and attack.”

“So, should we try it now?” Sunset asked. Neku nodded. “But on who?”

“ARGH!” Someone shouted from one of the outdoor tables of Sugarcube Café. Turning to the person, they found a nerdy teen in glasses that looked like he was racking his brain.

“Try it on Glasses there,” Beat suggested.

“Okay, who should go first, me or Sunset?” Twilight asked.

“How about you do it,” Neku said, “Besides, if my suspicions are correct, you may have to fight.”

“And we can get two stones with one bird. You'll learn how to fight and work with your pin,” Beat said.

“First of all, it's two birds with one stone—”

“It's fine, Twilight,” Sunset interrupted, “I know what he meant.” She takes a deep breath, “Okay, here goes nothing…”

Sunset focused her thoughts on the nerdy teen and found his thoughts a scrambled mess with a weird yellow symbol swirling around his head.

“His thought process...it's a mess. I think that mark over his head has something to do with it.” Sunset speculated.

Neku scanned him. “You're right! That Noise is possessing him! We need to erase it to clear his thoughts.”

“How? I don't know how to make contact with Noise.” Sunset said.

“Focus on the Noise and it'll manifest,” he said.

“Okay, I'll try.”

Sunset scanned the teen again and focused solely on the Noise symbol. It moved towards her and it felt like the world around her began to warp. Soon, she and Neku found themselves against the Noise, two wolves and two snakes. Out of nowhere, a strange voice spoke, “Are you ready?”

“You're good as gone!” Neku responded, and jumped into action, striking with a Vulcan Uppercut at one of the wolves. Sunset quickly lit that wolf on fire. When she did, the Harmonizer pin lit up a bit. She then pulled out the Dream pin and focused on the snakes as Neku charged up a Massive Hit.

A strange bat suddenly appeared and attacked the snakes just as Neku’s attack struck. The Harmonizer pin then glowed brightly and showed a star wreathed in flames on it. “Activate the pin!” Neku called out.

Sunset focused on the pin and felt a connection with Neku. Her hands then lit on fire.

“Let’s go!” Neku shouted.

“You got it!” She responded.

Immediately, they rushed to and fro, slashing and stabbing at the Noise with energy blades and fire. When they stopped, the Noise looked unaffected at first, then suddenly burst into static.

One of the snakes dropped what looked like a bronze medal when it was erased. It floated to her and arrived with a *BLING!*

“Wow, that was actually kinda fun!” Sunset said.

As reality seemed to warp back, Sunset checked her pockets and found another pin. It had an image of a shield with flames on it.

“What pin is this?” Sunset asked.

Neku looked at the pin. “Fire barrier psych,” he commented, “Used one like that for a while back in Shibuya.”

“Sounds like it could useful.” She said.

“Yep.”

Once reality was back, they saw Beat on the ground in fetal position, with Twilight noting something on a notepad.

“What happened to Beat?” Sunset asked Twilight.

“I don't know,” she said, “I was confused about your brief disappearance and started talking. When I turned around, he was like that.”

“She fried my brain with analistical mumbo jumbo,” Beat muttered.

“...Anyway,” Sunset turned to Neku, “What happens now that we beat the Noise possessing that guy?”

“Give it a sec.” The nerdy guy shook his head a few times.

“Okay. Calm down Micro Chips,” he said to himself, “No need to pressure yourself because of unexpected changes in D&D Dungeon Masters. You just gotta come up with something...but what?”

“Now what do we do?” Sunset asked Neku.

“Well, we imprint him with a fresh idea, or a meme.”

“And how exactly do we do that?” Twilight questioned.

“Usually, memes arrive on our phones when they are needed for mission specific imprinting purposes. However, if those are lacking, players can get creative and imprint “custom” ideas or thoughts,” he explained, “To imprint, first scan the subject, then think of a word or phrase you want to imprint.”

“Okay.” Sunset said.

She scanned the teen once more, then she remembered he said something about dungeon masters, so she kept it simple and imprinted the word, “dice”.

Micro Chips lifted his head in surprise, “Dice? I'm pretty sure that we've got dice for our D&D session.”

Sunset stopped scanning him and turned to Neku, “How was that?”

Neku lightly smiled in amusement. “Not bad. You got the thought in, but he isn't much closer to his goal.”

“Why don't you try, Egghead,” Beat said.

“Okay, but I don't know how I can help. I mean, I don't even play games like that.” Twilight said.

Despite her words, she scanned him and tried to think of a word or phrase to help him, but came up with nothing and chose to wing it by imprinting, “spicy tuna roll”.

Micro Chips lifted his head in surprise again. “Spicy tuna roll? OF COURSE! Our characters can face off against Killer Mutant Food! I gotta text the others!”

Twilight halted her scan and looked at the others with a sheepish smile and chuckled nervously.

“Huh. Never woulda thought that one of my least favorite foods could do that,” Beat commented.

“Nice job, Twilight!” Sunset congratulated, “You did better than me, that's for sure.”

“Really?” Twilight asked in surprise, “Thank you.”

“And when did you start hating spicy tuna rolls,” Neku asked, “Cause last I saw, it was your favorite right next to curry ramen.”

“Ken Doi and his experiments. Happened a few days after the Slam Off,” he explained.

“‘Slam Off’? What's that?” Sunset asked.

“Tin Pin Slammer,” Neku said, “I'm not much of a bragger, but I'm pretty good at it.”

“What kind of things do you guys do for fun?” Beat asked.

“Well, for the most part, I study, spend time with my family and my dog, Spike.” Twilight answered.

“Same as me, except I spend time with my friends, either at Sugarcube Café or at one of Pinkie’s slumber parties.” Sunset added.

“WHA?!” Beat shouted in surprise, his face taking on a shocked yet goofy look before showing disappointment. “Aw man. So stale, Yo.”

“Beat, don't expect too much from others,” Neku said, “They all have different likes, dislikes, and ways of entertainment.”

“Yeah, well, it's still seems stale to me.”

“You know, Joshua was right,” he said, sarcasm thick in his words, “You're such a fast 'learner', you're practically a sponge.”

“Me!? I'm not a sponge. I'm just...me.”

“You mean Daisukenojo Bito.”

“BWAAAH!!!” Beat suddenly shouted out, flailing back a bit comically. “I fell for it again!”

“So he's Daisuken—”

“BWAAAH!!! Not you too!”

Sunset just giggled at his reaction, “You're right, Neku, that IS a weird name.”

Twilight giggled along with Sunset. The laughter became contagious and soon, Neku was laughing a bit as well as Beat.

“And to think that I thought I could do without friends,” Neku said.

“You sound like the old me.” Sunset commented. “Well...minus the bullying.”

“Well, even with friends to connect with, you'll find that you won't understand people.”

“Never have, never will.”

FIGHTING IN SYNC
CHAPTER CLOSED

The Second Day

Sunset woke up on the front lawn of Canterlot High.

‘How'd I get here? Did I fall asleep?’

She took a look around and saw Twilight watching Neku and Beat doing something with red and blue gauntlet things, respectively.

She walked over to them and spoke, “What are you guys doing?”

“They're playing Tin Pin,” Twilight answered, “But before you ask, I already did. They just zoned out my questions. We'll just have to wait.”

Sunset sat near the statue and watched the game unfold; Neku and Beat each had a pin on the board and both were trying to knock each other off of it, the pins somehow summoned spinning hammers, spikes, and they also jumped and slammed into the board, aiming for each other. Sunset was surprised that a simple game could have a kind of magic to it.

‘Or could it be those “psychs” again?’ She thought.

The round ended when Neku’s pin knocked Beat’s off. “Oh COME ON!” He shouted, “That was my best pin!”

“And mine was the worst ever,” Neku simply said, a smug grin on his face as he picked up the game.

“Just like, how does that make sense!?” Beat complained.

“I'm just that good.”

“Okay, now that you guys got that out of your systems, did the mission show up yet?” Sunset asked.

Everyone's phones then chimed. Beat busted out laughing, “Speak of the Reaper…”

“And he shall appear,” Neku finished, pulling out his phone and checking the mission. He read it out loud for the group to hear.

Free the Academy from the Siren’s Curse.
You have 120 minutes.
Fail, and face erasure.
—The Reapers

Once he read that, everyone felt a sharp pain on their right hands and the timers began counting down.

1:59:58
1:59:57
1:59:56

“There's our mission,” Neku reported, “Any ideas?”

“Well…” Sunset began to ponder, “There was this group of three girls who sung everyone in Canterlot High under their rule. Maybe they could be up to their old tricks again?” Sunset asked, deliberately leaving out the fact that they really were sirens.

“Well, that would be impossible.” Twilight began her lecture, “If what I read is correct, we have to free the academy from the siren’s curse. Obviously it's some kind of metaphor, since sirens live in the ocean, they are beautiful half human, half aquatic creatures, who led sailors to their deaths by charming them with their hypnotizing music and bewitching beauty—”

“BWAAAH!!! Make it stop!” Beat shouted out, covering his ears.

“...What?” Twilight asked, not understanding why Beat freaked out.

“Let’s see what we can think of concerning the ‘Academy’ part,” Neku interrupted for Beat’s sake. “A school perhaps?”

“It can’t be Canterlot High School,” Sunset said, “It's more of a public school than an academy, maybe it's Crystal Prep?”

“Of course! Crystal Prep Academy! It's the only academy in Canterlot!” Twilight exclaimed.

“Then le’s Bounce!” Beat exclaimed, “We can figure out the rest when we get there, Yo!”

Beat started running in a random direction when Twilight called out to him, “But Crystal Prep is in the city!”

“Which is the other way!” Sunset yelled.

Beat stopped and ran in the direction the girls pointed out, “I knew that!” As he ran, he didn't notice a nearby Support Reaper and ended up running face first into a wall.

The Support Reaper busted up laughing, “That was hilarious. But still, you want this wall down, you gotta erase this Noise.” He snapped his finger and a red symbol appeared.

“Okay then, who should take this one?” Sunset asked.

“I think Beat and Twilight should; after all, she still needs to learn how to fight,” Neku pointed out.

“Think you can handle it, Twilight?” Sunset asked her.

“I think so,” she answered.

“THEN BRING IT ON!!!” Beat bellowed.

The Reaper then cast the symbol at the two and reality began to warp. After the disorientation, they were up against some Noise, five snakes and two cockatrices. The cockatrices were roughly six inches tall and three feet long. Their heads, feet, and their wings were ethereal.

Out of nowhere, a strange voice said, “Are you ready?”

Beat responded by shouting, “Ready for a Beat down!?”

Beat jumped into action, performing his usual stunts and going directly for the snakes. Twilight hesitated, not knowing what to do. One of the cockatrices charged her, with the intention of biting her. She saw it and was barely able to dodge it. Out of reflex, she backhanded it. Just before her hand made connection, it glowed a purple color and when her hand did hit, the cockatrice was sent flying.

Twilight got a bit more confident from that hit. She managed to recall how she cast the dimensional rifts and tried thinking of how to do something similarly. She pointed her hands at the cockatrices and several energy bullets fired out at them, erasing them. When one of them vanished into static, a bronze medal floated to her with a *BLING!*

“What the Heck!” She turned to where Beat was fighting and saw that somehow, one of the snakes had tripped him up. She charged in and backhanded it away. Beat got back onto his feet and was once again skating through them. Twilight added energy bullets into the mix and the Harmonizer pin began to glow. Soon it had a skateboard with a starburst on the bottom of it.

“Do it!” Beat called out. Twilight concentrated on the pin and she felt a connection with him.

“C’mon, Egghead!” He shouted.

“Alright!” She called back.

Beat began “slashing” with his board and Twilight began slapping and backhanding with energy hands. The Noise was erased quickly as a result.

“That was amazing!” Twilight said.

She checked her pockets as reality returned. There she found a silver pin that had $50 etched on it.

When they were back in front of the wall with the Support Reaper, he simply said, “Objective met. Wall clear.” He then placed a pin on it and it vanished. “Oh, and here. Give this to the Support Reaper at the next wall. He dropped it at breakfast.” He handed Beat a pin with a key image on it.

“A Keypin? Dude, he’s careless if he drops this,” Beat said.

“Take it a step further and he’s clueless,” the Reaper added. He then walked off.

“Shall we go?” Twilight asked.

“Heck, yeah!” Beat shouted.

********

The group traveled a good distance until they came to another wall. However, two other players were talking with the Reaper in charge of the wall.

“I don’t care who you are, you aren’t getting special treatment!” He shouted at the girl of the partnership. “Unless you meet the objective, this route is closed!”

“RRRAAAGGGHHH!!!” The girl shouted, “Just open the stupid wall!”

“Adagio!” The guy shouted, “Just calm down and accept defeat! Getting stressed won’t help!”

“NO!” She shouted back, “Ever since the Battle of the Bands, my life has been defeat after defeat after defeat! I’m not going to stop until I get at least one victory!”

“Wait, Adagio?!” Sunset shouted in shock.

“Who’s Adagio?” Neku asked.

“She's one of the ones who took control of the school!”

Neku took an analytical look towards the siren. “She doesn’t look like much.”

“If anything, she’s about as hot headed as Pinky,” Beat observed.

“Well, after the Battle of the Bands, she and the other two became harmless teenage girls.” Sunset explained.

“What were they before?” Neku asked, raising an eyebrow, having caught Sunset’s last bit.

“You won't believe me, but...they used to be sirens who fed off of the negative energy of people.”

Neku gave her a deadpan stare. “It’s not that hard to believe,” he said.

“It isn't? I thought you would think I was crazy.”

“I thought Shiki was crazy when I first met her...then I remembered being attacked by frogs and using the Pyrokinesis pin you now have,” he said, “It’s not hard to...wait. What did you say about sirens in that first comment?”

“That they used to feed on negativity?”

“...Do you think you could have mentioned that earlier!”

“Why? What’s wrong?”

“It was so simple,” he began, “Remember the Noise that was messing with that guy’s head?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Negative Noise feeds on and encourages negative emotions,” he explained, “If what I’m thinking is right, we may have to deal with some of that kind of Noise when we get to the academy.”

“Okay then, let's keep moving.”

The group approached the argument. When they got close, Adagio saw Sunset and Twilight and gave them a murderous glare. “YOU!!!” She charged Twilight in a tackle, knocking her and Beat down. A brawl started up between the three and dust was kicked up badly.

“DANGIT, ADAGIO!!!” The guy shouted out as he jumped into the brawl. After a few seconds, he had restrained Adagio and pulled her away from Twilight, who had lost her glasses in the fight, and Beat, who had a black eye.

“What the hay was that all about?!” Sunset asked in anger.

“You Keep Quiet!” Adagio shouted, “And Wayward...LET GO OF ME!”

“Can’t you go five seconds without blowing your top?” Wayward asked.

“Yep, just like Pinky,” Beat commented, nursing his eye.

“Don’t compare me to that pink human!” She snapped.

“He was talking about someone else,” Neku said.

“JUST SHUT UP!!!” Adagio shouted so loudly, that a nearby car windshield cracked.

“Will you cool it?! It's bad enough we have to fight for our lives without people like you and your cronies making it worse!” Sunset said.

“It’s not my fault!” She shouted, “If you want to blame someone, I can list several names. Starswirl the Bearded, for one. Then there’s Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends. And then there’s you. If you hadn’t of helped them when we had all but crushed them, we would have gathered enough energy to return to Equestria!”

“And from there, then what?” Wayward questioned, “You should realize that if you weren’t defeated here, you would have been defeated there.”

“Wait, ‘Princess’?” Twilight questioned.

“Never mind that for now,” Sunset interjected, “How did you, of all people, end up in the Reaper’s Game?”

“She was mugged and left for dead,” Wayward said nonchalantly.

Sunset went pale, “Do you...know who did it?”

“The only thing she told me was that the perpetrator had blonde hair and seemed too well dressed for a mugger.”

“Hmm...doesn't sound like anyone I know. Do you, Neku? Beat? Twilight?”

“Doesn’t sound familiar,” Beat said.

“No, I only knew my family, and none of them fit that description.” Twilight said.

“What was his weapon?” Neku asked.

“A modernized, pepperbox revolver.”

“...I might have an idea, but it’s too early to say,” Neku said.

“Why?” Sunset asked.

“Any accusation you could throw at him would just bounce off of him like...uh...help me out here Beat.”

“Bullets off’a Superman...guy...guy,” Beat said.

“Thanks...like that, so it would be pointless to set him up as a target.”

After finding and replacing her glasses on her face, Twilight spoke, “How about we see how we can get past this wall before we run out of time?”

“THANK YOU!” The Support Reaper shouted, “At least one of you have a good head on their shoulders. I just need my Keypin and the wall will be down in a jiffy.”

“You mean this?” Beat asked and tossed the Keypin to him.

“Thank you. Now I won’t face any problematic punishments. Wall clear.” The Reaper opened the wall, tossed Beat a $100 pin, and walked off.

“AIGHT!” Beat shouted, “Puffy, Wayguy, we can all work together to finish the mission.”

“No thank you!” Adagio said, “And my name is Adagio, NOT Puffy.”

“Adagio, is it so hard to accept help?” Wayward asked.

“Let’s just let these losers do the dirty work. I’m exhausted and I need to rest.”

“Jeeze, don’t be so stiff,” Beat said.

“Let's keep going, it's obvious she's not going to be of any help.” Sunset said, continuing down the opened path.

THE SECOND DAY
CHAPTER CLOSED

Sirena Canor

As the group approached Crystal Prep, Neku voiced a thought, “While she may be sore about this ‘Battle of the Bands’, if you think about it, she may just be ticked off at the irony of the mission.”

“Maybe so, since she WAS a siren once, but either way, I don't trust her, especially not with the lives of whoever else is playing this twisted game.” Sunset said.

“While I don't have a pretty good opinion of her after she tried to clobber me, I think we should at least try to give her a chance,” Twilight suggested, “Her life is on the line just as much as ours is, so she's gonna have to swallow whatever pride she has at some point if she wants to live.”

“But I wonder what happened to the other two? Aria Blaze and Sonata Dusk?” Sunset pondered.

“What’s their relationship with her?” Neku asked.

“I don't know,” Sunset said, “All I know is that they were her accomplices in the whole ordeal.”

Neku looked thoughtful as Beat spoke, “She may have done some things and now hates your guts, but I think this could eventually be a turning point for her. Besides, that Wayward guy she's partners with seems much like Lollipop. More cool headed and relaxed, and could help her change.”

“Did you actually say something intelligent, Beat?” Neku asked.

Beat looked at him weird. “I didn't say nothing like that. I just talked.”

“Whatever,” he said, stopping and looking at the large building, “This it?”

“Yup.” Twilight proudly said, “I was the best student here with all of my grades, though I never bragged about it to my fellow students.”

“You seem like Shiki in that regard,” Neku commented.

“I don't know if that was a compliment or an insult.”

“We’ll worry about that later,” Sunset said, “Let's just get inside and figure out how to break this, ‘Siren’s Curse’.”

“Let’s do a quick scan first,” Neku suggested.

“Good idea.”

Sunset scans the school grounds and find a large, unending amount of Negative Noise.

“WHOA! There are like at least hundreds of Noise here!”

“I wouldn't be surprised,” Everyone turned to Twilight, “The whole school is negative about everything, even the teachers, they just...care about only themselves.”

“Hmm…” Beat thought out loud.

“Something on your mind, Beat?” Sunset asked.

“Wha? Oh, right,” Beat stammered before talking clearly, “I ain’t the analistical type, but I don't think we can clear all this Noise with what time we have.” He pointed to his hand, it showing roughly an hour and fifteen minutes left.

“Um...maybe if we can find whoever or whatever is drawing them, we can thin them out and finish them...I think that's how it works?” Twilight suggested.

“That could work,” Neku complimented, “You know the school's layout, lead us to the highest concentration of students and we can start there.”

“The only places that have most of the students is either the gymnasium, the cafeteria, or the assembly room. I just hope this school doesn't have that graffiti symbol like the one back at the café, or this might get awkward.”

“No need to worry, the Decal is primarily for shops, stores, and food places,” Neku said, easing Twilight’s fears. “Let’s try the cafeteria first.”

“Okay, let’s go, follow me.” Twilight lead them through the school.

When they arrived, Neku pulled out his phone, checking an app that beeped like a metal detector.

“What's that, Neku?” Sunset asked him.

“Yeah, it sounds like a type of scanner…well, other than your Player Pin.” Twilight guessed.

“An upgrade that Mr. H put on my UG phone to track heavy signals of one kind or another.”

“Amazing!” Twilight said in awe, “I never knew anyone could have technology like that, it looks like it could put my spectrometer to shame!”

“Sounds interesting,” Neku said, “This room holds a signal, but it's not the strongest.”

“Okay then, we’ll try the gym next.”

As Twilight led them to the gym, Neku stopped the group, “Hold up!”

“What's wrong? Did you find something?” Sunset asked.

“No, the signal’s getting weaker. Let’s try the other room you mentioned.”

“The assembly room it is, then.” Twilight said.

When they arrived, Beat started looking around more frantically than usual.

“What's up with Beat?” Twilight asked.

“I think this place reminds him of A-East back in Shibuya.”

“I read about that once for a multi-cultural assignment,” Sunset began, “It's a huge concert hall, right?”

“Yep. The hangout of three Reapers as well. 777, BJ, and Tenho.”

“Wow, are they in a band?”

“Was. 777 was erased by a GM for lending us a Keypin,” Beat said, shamefully.

“Reapers...can erase each other?” Sunset asked in shock, “But, they're on the same side! Why would they do that?!”

“Shibuya was put on Emergency Call when Beat saved me from being Reaper chow,” Neku explained, “777 tried to erase us, but after giving him a sound beating, he felt that we would be what would save the Shibuya UG. So he gave us a Keypin, but then the GM erased him for acts of treason.”

“We tried finding her where he was erased, but we was ambushed by a giant bat Noise,” Beat added.

“And if I recall, when it attacked, you--” Neku began to tease.

“BWAAAH!!!”

Sunset began to giggle, “What happened?”

“What do you think?” Neku answered. He checked the tracker, “The signal’s strongest here. Scan the area, both physically and with your pins.”

The group began to search the room, but their search turned up empty. They searched for a whole hour before they got back together.

“No Noise? At all? That's strange.” Sunset said.

Neku checked the tracker again, “I just hope it didn't go glitchy on me.”

“Maybe it's tracking something other than Noise.” Twilight suggested.

“I was,” he answered.

“Why don't you try the other one,” Beat suggested.

“What other one?” Sunset asked.

“The other upgrade,” Neku said, “The camera function can take pictures of the past.”

“No way!” Twilight said, “T-That's impossible!”

“Did you do anything on this stage in the recent past?”

“W-Well, no, not really.”

“Okay...just set the time to an hour ago...and…” He snapped a picture of the room’s entrance, showing them as they just walked in. He showed it to her and she took it as well as expected.

“WOW! THAT’S AMAZING! I CAN’T BELIEVE THAT THERE’S TECHNOLOGY THAT CAN TAKE PICTURES OF THE PAST!!” Twilight screamed before she squealed in excitement.

“Not so loud,” Beat said, while cleaning his hurt ears.

“And I hate to disappoint you, but it only works in the UG,” Neku said.

“Still!” Twilight argued, “That kind of technology should be beyond our reach!”

“But not for a fallen angel,” Neku muttered to himself.

“Did you say something, Neku?” Sunset asked.

“BOYAH!” Beat shouted, holding his phone up. “Managed to score something good with this!”

“What was that about me being too loud?” Twilight quipped.

“Never mind her,” Sunset dismissed, “What did you find, Beat?”

“Check it out,” he said, showing her a picture of two Reapers in the middle of the stage just before the time they received the mission. “I think Stache and No-Stache may have been here, Yo!”

“Those Fan Film Brothers?” Twilight asked.

“Flim Flam Brothers,” Sunset corrected, “Applejack told me about them; how they nearly scammed her out of her bass guitar.”

“Now why would they be here?” Beat asked.

“Where were they standing in the pic?”

“They was…” Beat looked at his phone and walked to a spot on the exact center of the stage, “Right here.”

“Hmm,” Twilight hummed, “I remember this area had a hidden trapdoor; it was used in magic acts for talent shows, but Principal Cinch stopped having them and now uses the bottom of the stage to run wires for lights and microphones for our weekly assemblies.”

“I get the feeling that this will be similar to the bat scenario back at A-East.”

“A bat type Noise?” Sunset asked, “How bad could that be?”

A loud screech accompanied by the lights going off answered her. Neku used his phone for a light. “Something’s chewing on UG wires. Beat, Twilight, check the room and keep the Noise off the wires!”

“You can count on us!” Twilight said.

Beat and Twilight managed to find the trapdoor and get past it. Once inside, Beat saw the Noise chewing on the lighting and mic wires. He then said, “That's it. No more sushi for a month for me.”

“Now's not the time for jokes!” Twilight chastised, “Let's just get rid of these things!”

Beat wasted no time and started using his board like a club, while Twilight began firing energy blasts to back him up.

Back on stage, when the lights lit back up, they were greeted with a large fish-like horse Noise.

“A siren?!” Sunset shouted in surprise, “I thought we got rid of them in the Battle of the Bands!”

“I don't think it's any of the three you mentioned, but we've gotta take it down!” Neku rushed forward, then teleported above it, aiming down with an energy blade. It glanced off of an invisible shield, knocking him off. The siren then hit him away, skidding across the stage.

“Neku!” Sunset ran to him, “Are you okay?”

“How did you defeat the Sirens at the Battle of the Bands? And summarize please.”

“We had to use a musical counter spell against them, and it took me and all my friends together.”

“I guess music may be what we need to take down its shields.”

“Do you have any music pins?”

“I've got two,” he answered, pulling out two pins, “One I can use, and the other I think you should try.”

“Okay, let's do it!”

Neku tossed a pin to Sunset. She concentrated on it and her guitar manifested in her hand. Neku did the same with his pin, summoning a set of large speakers and DJ turntables. He quickly hooked up his headphones and MP3 player to the system. As the music started up, Sunset began to almost instinctively play and sing along.

Grab the key let's go out and have some fun
Have you ever seen such a perfect day?
What's in your mind? Let's do it one by one
Have you ever thought such a day would come?

Time's up! Forget the theory
Start up the brand new story
Straight up and put it shortly
This is the way my life goes

Someone said I am such a foolish girl
Who cares? It's better than without a light
Sometimes I need someone to hold me tight
Explain to me what is justice what is right?

"Wait a minute, it's all been done before"
How long it takes to do it all over again
What's in your hand? Now drop them one by one
Have you ever thought such a day would come?

Shut up! You're so wordy
Forget about all those worries
"Show me your smile, how charming"
Go home and kiss your mommy

Somehow I hate to see you lie and lie
I know how dumb I am but so are you
Sometimes I want to laugh and cry at once
Explain to me what is justice what is right?

As they played, the siren’s shield began to falter and fall, and it held its ears to try and block out the song. Neku moved to try and attack it, but when he stepped away from the turntables, it screeched at him and he had to get the music back up.

“What do we do? It's not giving us an inch!” Sunset exclaimed.

“Looks like you losers need our help,” said the voice of Adagio.

The siren’s shadow suddenly wrapped itself around its muzzle and fore hooves, immobilizing it. Adagio suddenly rushed from behind Neku and drove a musically themed scythe into the siren’s skull, defeating it in an extremely bright flash of static.

“Whoa! When were you able to do that?!” Sunset asked in surprise.

“Who’re asking?” Wayward said as he stepped out of the shadows.

“Both of you! The shadow thing, and that weird looking scythe!”

“The shadows are my psych while Dagie’s scythe is hers.”

“It’s ADAGIO!” She corrected as she stared at the spot where she erased the siren.

“Something wrong?” Sunset asked her.

“Those Reapers went too far with that mission!” Adagio shouted, “Siren’s Curse, my left foot! They just wanted to rile me up!”

“And they succeeded thus far,” Wayward commented.

“But what about the other two that were with you?” Sunset asked Adagio.

“What do you think! They're my entry fee,” Adagio began crying as she said that.

Sunset could sympathize with Adagio, for all she knew, her own friends could be her entry fee. She knew the only way out of this madness was to win this crooked Game.

She decided to change the subject, “So...how did you and Wayward meet?”

“Her ‘What in all things Green and Holy!’ kind of tantrum drew me and a bunch of Noise to her,” Wayward said, “I gave her the crash course, and we've been partnered since.”

“Wow,” Sunset said, “Wait, what about Twilight and Beat?”

As if in response, a loud, “YOUCH!” was heard from beneath the trapdoor and Beat burst out of it, with a fish Noise attached to each of his hands, his head, and his rear end.

“GET ‘EM OFF!!! GET ‘EM OFF!!!” He bellowed while running around the stage like a chicken with it’s head cut off.

Sunset began to giggle, “I-I’m s-sorry, I k-know I shouldn't b-be laughing, b-but that—” She couldn't hold it back anymore and burst out into full blown laughter.

Neku, Wayward, and Adagio joined in the laughter. Neku calmed down first and pulled out one of his other Pyrokinesis pins and engulfed Beat and the Noise in fire. When the fire died down, Beat was devoid of Noise, but he himself was charred...Medium well. The laugher doubled.

Twilight climbed out of the trapdoor after Beat jumped out of it, “Beat, are you o—” She noticed everyone was laughing, “What's everybody laughing ab—” She then set her sights on the soot covered Beat, “Oh my gosh, Beat!” She ran over to him, “Are you alright?!”

He groaned an octave higher than he would normally be comfortable with and fell face first on the stage. The soot came off on impact.

“Hey!” Twilight shouted, turning to the others, “I don't see anything funny about this! Beat’s hurt!”

“He’ll be fine,” Neku said, “The only thing that could take him six feet under is Pi-Face’s arithmetical language.”

“This isn't a joke, Neku Sakuraba!” Twilight chastised, “Beat is all burned up, and you're just laughing?!”

“Yeesh! What's got your undies in a bundle,” Wayward asked as he commanded Beat’s shadow to heal him and get him on his feet. “If we weren't being friendly and friends, then you can accuse us of sadism.”

“Don't you get it?! Our LIVES are on the line, and you're treating it all as some kind of joke!”

“Relax, Twilight,” Sunset tried to calm her down, “We know what's at stake, but if we take it too seriously and not joke around a bit, we’ll all be too tightly wound up.”

Twilight wanted to argue more, tell her that she was the joke, but logic ruled out her anger and she eased her nerves, “You’re right. I’m sorry.”

“Don't worry,” Beat said, rolling his shoulder, “We'll win this, no sweat. We just need to not think too hard, Yo!”

“Beat’s right, and look!” Sunset showed her palm to the others, no timer was found, “We cleared the mission!”

“BOYAH!” Beat exclaimed in victory, “Who’s up for curry!” (Beat: “It's a party in my mouth!” Neku: “It's edible.” Sunset: “This is really good.” Twilight: “It’ll do.”)

SIRENA CANOR
CHAPTER CLOSED

Questions Without Answers (Part 1)

The intersection of Mane St. and Express Way is sometimes called the Stampeding Grounds. At any given day and time, there are usually around twenty to fifty people per corner waiting for traffic to lessen so they can cross, stampede style.

It's here, as people began to cross, that a fiery haired girl, Sunset Shimmer woke up suddenly, with confusion written on her face.

‘What happened?’ She thought as she stood up, ‘I can remember fighting Princess Twilight’s human counterpart. I sealed the Dimensional rifts, she attacked me, I fought back, then…’ She growled and shook her head in frustration. ‘Grr! Things aren't adding up! If I fell unconscious at the now ruined Friendship Games, I should have woken up in a hospital, or at least the nurse’s office, and not in the middle of the Stampeding Grounds.’

She went to take a step but her foot bumped up against something. Looking down, she saw a black pin with a strange skull marking on it.

‘Huh? A pin?’ She bent down to examine it. ‘Why am I wondering over a pin?’ She picked it up and rubbed her thumb over it. As soon as she did, her field of vision turned blue and her ears were assaulted with voices.

“I wonder what happened at the Friendship Games?”

“Why am I suddenly craving ramen?”

“I hope I can gather the courage to ask him out.”

“My friends are talking about me behind my back, I know it!”

“Ahh, nothing beats Mrs. Cake’s frappés at the café!”

Sunset lost her grip on the pin and covered her ears in fright. The voices ended and her vision returned to normal as soon as the pin left her hand. ‘What in Celestia's name just happened? Was I reading people's minds?’

Before she could contemplate further, her phone notified her of a message. ‘My phone! Of course! After I check that message I'll...what?’

Head for the Canterlot Clock Tower.
You have 60 minutes.
Fail, and face erasure.
—The Reapers

Sunset looked at the message as if it was a joke. ‘Pinkie must have gotten a program to help her seamlessly do prank texts. Sorry Pinkie, but now’s not the time for jokes.’ She pressed the delete button on the screen, only to receive a notification that the message was unable to be deleted.

“DANGIT PINKIE! Why are you—OOWW!!!” Sunset suddenly felt a sharp pain on her right hand, causing her to drop her phone next to the strange pin. When she checked her hand, she was shocked to see a timer counting down.

59:57
59:56
59:55
59:54

Her shaken mind couldn’t understand what was happening. Was this magic or something else? Her mind was thrown further into Chaos when some strange red symbols suddenly surrounded her and morphed into strange looking wolves. They were small (roughly 1 foot tall and 2 feet long), and looked to be made out of wood, but their jaws seemed to be more ethereal and bone shaped.

Two of them jumped at Sunset, one aiming for her chest and the other for her legs. She fell backwards trying to avoid the first one, but the second one managed to snap onto her leg. The pain from the bite gave her enough clarity to shake off the wolf and try to keep from being bitten.

As she worked to keep herself from being bitten, she noticed that the people around her seemed to not notice. ‘Why aren't these people panicking and running or doing something about these animals?’ She dodged another bite and ran into the crowd, hoping to both lose the wolves and get everyone's attention. “Hey! Why hasn't anyone called animal control!?” She shouted, but no one heard her. She walked up to a random person and tried to grab him, but her hand went through him.

“Yah! Why did...I'm invisible and intangible?” She questioned out loud. She heard growling and saw that the wolves were upon her again. ‘I don't know why these wolves are attacking me, and I shouldn't stick around to find out.’ She dodged past another bite, scooped up her phone and the strange pin and began running towards the Canterlot Clock Tower...only to hit what seemed like an invisible wall.

Forgetting that she was slowly losing her sanity, Sunset chose a different way to run and just ran.

Back at the wall, a young man in a blue and yellow hoodie was laughing to himself at Sunset’s confusion. “I think this week will be the best week of my career.”

*****

After running for what felt like hours (which, in reality, was only twenty minutes), Sunset found herself at the ruined statue in front of Canterlot High. She was winded and exhausted, but she was able to outrun the wolves.

*huff puff* ‘It's a good thing I'm in shape or I'd be in trouble.’ As if Fate decided to be cruel, more red symbols appeared.

“OH, COME ON!” Sunset shouted out in frustration, as the symbols morphed into more of the strange wolves. She looked around in desperation, trying to see any clear path of escape, but saw she was trapped. The wolves jumped, ready to finish her.

Sunset was ready to accept death, but just as the wolves would have torn her to shreds, she felt something orange and purple tackle her away from danger. Both her and her rescuer landed a short distance away on the school lawn.

“You okay,” said someone with a light Japanese accent. Looking up, she saw a boy with orange spiky hair, purple headphones, purple jacket, tan cargo shorts, and purple sneakers. He had one eye on the wolf pack and one eye on her, waiting for her response.

“Yeah, I'm okay,” she responded, getting off the ground and brushing the grass off of herself.

“Good! We need to make a pact,” he said, as the wolves surrounded them.

“What? A pact?”

“Pact now! Questions later!” The boy shouted.

“Okay! Alright! I accept.” When those words left her mouth, she saw her vision briefly blink turquoise and the boy had an orange aura around him.

“Whoa! What was that!?” Sunset didn't receive an answer, but the boy tossed something at her. She caught it, and found that it was another pin, but it was red and had an orange flame on it.

“Use this and fight!” The boy’s arms then lit up with turquoise energy and he began slashing wildly at the wolves. Most of them went to fight him, but three wolves kept their attention on Sunset.

‘How's he doing that? And how do I…’ “YAH!!!” Sunset barely managed to dodge a wolf’s tackle. The wolf turned around to charge again. Sunset didn't know what to do but fear for her life and wish the wolf was on fire… ‘Wait, WHAT!?’

Just as the wolf went to tackle her, it was caught in a flash of spontaneous fire, causing it to fall short of hitting her. Once the fire died down, the wolf dissolved into static. Sunset looked at the other wolves and they were acting more cautious, as their prey now had a means to fight back. She immediately thought of fire again and both of the wolves burst into flames and dissolved into static.

“Out of my FACE!” She heard the boy shout. She turned just in time to see an energy blade hit and vanquish the last of the wolves into static.

As the adrenaline left her system, she had one pressing question, “What just happened!?”

The boy turned to her and answered, “We forged a pact and we fought off the Noise.” He held up his hand, stopping any questions she had. “I'd love to do a game of 20 questions, but let's get to this ‘Canterlot Clock Tower’ first.”

“Why?”

The boy slapped his face in frustration. “You Americans and your obliviousness! Didn’t you get the mission mail?”

“What?”

“Grr! Never mind!” He shouted out, “Let's just get there and then we'll talk! Lead the way.”

“Wait, I'm confused.”

“As most Americans usually are,” he muttered to himself.

“What's going on? What was with those wolves? Why…” Her mouth was suddenly shut as the boy's hand glowed turquoise.

“You'll get your answers once we get to where we need to go!” He shouted, “Now you need to lead us there, since I am, or was, on vacation from Japan and don't know the area like you do. Capiche?” Sunset nodded and her lips were released.

She was about to walk on, but she stopped. “Can I at least get your name?”

He sighed in defeat and said, “Neku. Neku Sakuraba.”

She scrunched her face in confusion, “That's a weird name?”

Neku rolled his eyes. “Not as weird as Daisukenojo Bito.”

*****

In a different part of Canterlot City, a young man dressed like a punk suddenly shouted, “BWAAAH!!!”

*****

As Sunset giggled at the name, Neku asked, “What about your name?”

“Sunset Shimmer,” she answered, while still giggling a bit. She stopped when she noticed that he was chuckling a bit. “What?”

“You thought my name was weird?” He asked, “I think yours is, if you look past how well it matches you.”

“You think so?”

“I reserve the right to answer later,” Neku answered as he checked his hand. “CRAP!!! We've only got 35 minutes! Book it!”

Sunset didn't question his urgency. She just began running back to the Stampeding Grounds.

Across the street from where Neku and Sunset had their conversation, a young man in a black and blue hoodie and had black wings shook his head. “That guy knew more about the Game than most players do,” he said to himself, “I've got a bad feeling about him. I better keep an eye on him.” He extended his wings and took off towards the Canterlot Clock Tower.

QUESTIONS WITHOUT ANSWERS (PART 1)
CHAPTER CLOSED