The Coming Firestorm

Woods Near Canterlot City

A 17-year old boy stirred. He had sleek black hair and wore a black leather trench coat with a quantum splicer embedded in it, black pants, and black formal shoes. When his eyes opened, however, they were pure white. His name was Rex Edwards.

Ugh… what the Hell happened last night? thought Rex as he pulled himself off he ground. Looking down at himself, he quickly realized that the clothes he was wearing were not his own.

Then, unbidden, a second voice spoke within Rex’s mind, causing to jump with fright.”That’s what I’d like to know,” it said.

Rex recognized that voice. It had been the last one he heard before he blacked out. “You! What did you do to me?!” Rex demanded.

”What I MEANT to do was give you the powers of Firestorm, and allow you to become the hero you’ve always wanted to be, all for the low price of $60. However, it seems the enchanted F.I.R.E.S.T.O.R.M. Matrix replica I sold you had been… tampered with,” explained the voice.

“‘Tampered with?’”

”Yes, tampered with. Only another Displacer could have done it. The results of their meddling has caused us to merge into one being, in true Firestorm fashion, no less.”

“Displacer? You mean the stories were true?” asked Rex.

”Yes. Now, we should get moving. We need to get to Canterlot High School and put a stop to Sunset Shimmer’s shenanigans. You may even make a few new friends and allies in the process, and that is essential. Now, go!” demanded the voice.

“All right, all right,” said Rex, just before his head and hands burst into flame. Despite this, however, Rex was completely unharmed by the flames. In fact, they felt quite cozy. With a mighty push of his mind and hands, Rex, or Firestorm, rather, took to the skies. He closed his eyes as he felt the cool wind on his face. There was something to be said about flying under your own power, with no airplane or helicopter supporting you. And Firestorm was loving every moment of it. He let out an exhilarated whoop as he continued to soar into the sky, tilting his body to help steer as he gazed down at the streets and performed simple aerial tricks like loop-de-loops and barrel rolls.

“So, who do I have the pleasure of sharing a body with?” asked Rex.

”My name is Kilroy DeRemurr. A pleasure to meet you, Rex Edwards,” said Kilroy.

“I’d ask how you know my name, but seeing as you’ve merged with me and are stuck in my head, I think that’d be a bit of a stupid question. Now, where’s this high school supposed to be?” asked Firestorm.

...

Canterlot High School-Gymnasium.

It was 11:00 on Friday night at Canterlot High School and everybody was jamming out to music provided by DJ-PON3, aka Vinyl Scratch, and the Thunderbolts, a garage rock band leg by Flash Sentry, who was a nice guy, but wasn't very popular for some reason. Among those on the dance floor was a teenage girl with lavender skin, blue hair with a pink highlight, and purple eyes. This was Twilight Sparkle, and she was in actuality a pony princess from the alternate world of Equestria on a mission to reclaim her crown, which had been stolen from her by the devious Sunset Shimmer, who would stop at what seemed like nothing to make sure she was the one who won the crown, which had been mistaken as the crown given to the Princess of the Fall Formal.

Unfortunately for Miss Shimmer, however, Twilight had managed to overcome the odds and win over the school. In the minds of most of the students, it was merely a formality that kept Twilight from her well-deserved crown.

But, that didn't keep Twilight from worrying. Not once had she seen Sunset or her flunkies, Snips and Snails, that night.

"Has anybody seen Sunset Shimmer?" asked Twilight.

Nearby, a girl around the same age with cyan blue skin and a rainbow colored hairdo and rose-colored eyes wearing a dress that matched her hair named Rainbow Dash boogied over to Twilight. "Maybe she was too embarrassed to show! She's gotta know you won by a landslide!" she said.

Twilight frowned. "Yeah... maybe," she muttered.

As Flash and his band wound down their music, Principal Celestia, a woman with chalk white skin, yellow eyes, and long hair colored bright blue, pink, and green wearing a cream colored jacket, a purple bodysuit, and high heels took the stage.

"First off, I want to say how wonderful everything looks tonight. You all did a magnificent job pulling things together after the unfortunate events of earlier," said Celestia. "And now, without further ado, I'd like to announce the winner of this year's Fall Formal Crown," she continued as her sister, Vice Principal Luna, who had blue skin and shimmering blue hair and wore a crescent moon necklace, a purple shirt, blue jeans, and black dress shoes as she carried a chest onto the stage that contained a golden tiara that had a pink star-shaped gem embedded in the top along with an envelope.

"The Princess of this year's Fall Formal is..." said Principal Celestia as she opened the envelope amid tension thick enough for a knife to cut through.

"Twilight Sparkle!"

And the whole school went nuts as Twilight took the stage to receive her crown.

"Congratulations, Twilight," said Celestia, placing the crown upon Twilight's head.

But, it would be a short-lived moment of glory as the next moment, a voice screamed.

"TWILIGHT! HELP!"

"Spike?" said Twilight, looking through the crowd until she spotted her purple and green dragon turned purple and green dog getting stolen by Snips and Snails, despite the little pup's attempts to fight back. "They've got Spike!" yelled Twilight as she jumped off the stage and took off after the dognappers, crashing into a locker as they rounded a corner.

Right behind Twilight were her friends, Rainbow Dash, a cowgirl with tan skin and blonde hair named Applejack, a beautiful fashionista with chalk white skin and curly purple hair named Rarity, a pink skinned party animal with bushy pink hair named Pinkie Pie, and a yellow skinned nature lover with light pink hair named Fluttershy. Together, the six teenagers chased Snips and Snails past Trixie Lulamoon as she got peanut butter crackers out of a vending machine and out of a side entrance and around to the front of the school where a large statue of a horse was.

"That's close enough!" barked a cruel sounding voice.

That voice belonged to Sunset Shimmer, who, like Twilight, was a pony from Equestria posing as a teenage girl with fiery red and yellow hair, orange skin, and light blue eyes wearing a black leather jacket, a purple blouse, an orange, purple and yellow skirt, and black and purple knee-length leather boots, and in her hands was a sledgehammer, poised to smash the statue, which actually doubled as a portal back to the world both Twilight and Sunset were from.

Twilight and her friends stopped dead in their tracks as Sunset got ready to swing her hammer. "Not another move, or I'll smash it!" threatened Sunset.

"Twilight-" said Spike, before Snails clamped the dog's muzzle shut.

"Don't hurt him!" said Twilight.

"Oh, I wouldn't dream of it," said Sunset, a smug look on her face. "I'm not a monster, Twilight. Let him go," Sunset ordered Snips and Snails, who gave her a confused look before letting the puppy go, right into the kneeling Twilight's arms.

"You don't belong here, Twilight. Give me the crown and you can go home tonight," said Sunset. "Or you can keep it, and never go home!"

Twilight and her friends gasped in horror at this ultimatum, for each option led to a devastating conclusion: if Twilight gave Sunset the crown, this world would be helpless to stop Sunset from taking over. If she refused, Equestria might not last against potentially devastating threats.

"Tick tock, Twilight. You don't have much time. The portal will be closing on its own in less than an hour," warned Sunset, jerking her head towards the slowly rising full moon in the inky blue sky.

Twilight removed the crown from her head as she tried to find the best possible solution to this problem, her eyes watering before she finally uttered one word.

"No!"

"What?!" yelled Sunset in shock. "Equestria,your friends! Lost to you, forever! Don't you see what I'm about to do to the portal?!"

"Yes, and I've also seen what you've been able to do here WITHOUT magic. Equestria will find a way to survive without my Element of Harmony. This place might not if I allow it to fall into your hands. So, go ahead, destroy the portal! You are not getting this crown!" said Twilight as she stood up and firmly placed the Element on her head.

Sunset glared at Twilight, before she dropped the sledgehammer. "Fine. You win," she said as if she couldn't care less, almost crushing Snails’ foot in the process.

Twilight smiled as her friends surrounded her cheering for her victory.

"You're so awesome!" squealed Rainbow.

"Ah can't believe you were gonna do that fer us," said Applejack with a southern drawl.

"It's no wonder you're a real live princess," said Rarity with an accent that one would expect to find amongst a group of high society people.

Unbeknownst to the group of girls, each bit of praise they gave Twilight drove Sunset closer and closer to blowing her top, until finally, with Rarity's comment, Sunset finally snapped. "OH, YES, SHE'S SO VERY SPECIAL! NOW GIMME THAT CROWN!" she spat before she lunged at Twilight, knocking her to the ground and causing the crown to fall off her head.

The crown bounced once, twice, three times before it landed away from them. As Twilight held onto Sunset Shimmer in an attempt to keep her from grabbing the crown, Spike leapt in and grabbed it.

Sunset Shimmer growled in rage. "Grab him, you fools!" she snarled at Snips and Snails.

On their boss' command, Snips and Snails took off after Spike, only to be out ran by Sunset herself as she chased the purple and green puppy to the front doors of the school.

"Spike! Spike!"

Hearing Rainbow's call, Spike tossed the crown to her, thus beginning one big game of keep away. Rainbow used some fancy footwork to avoid Snips and Snails from grabbing the crown from her, before tossing it to Fluttershy, off of whom it bounced off into her hands. Upon seeing the crowd of people heading towards her, Fluttershy was immobilized by fear. A quick-thinking Applejack used a lasso, albeit one used with rope from who-knew-where, and pulled Fluttershy out of the way of the mob, but also causing her to drop the Element, which was then picked up by Snips, only for it to be snatched by Pinkie Pie, who then passed it along to Applejack, who passed it to Rarity, who passed it to Twilight, who threw it directly over her head.

"I'll take that!" said Sunset as she caught the crown out of the air. Giggling like a crazed lunatic, Sunset grinned as she looked at the crown in her hands. "At last... more power than I could ever imagine!"

With that, Sunset Shimmer placed the crown upon her head. Almost instantly, powerful waves of magical energy came roaring through Sunset's body as she held onto the crown for dear life, before a powerful blast of black and blue magical energy lifted her into the air, transforming her orange skin into a blood red color as a tail emerged from the base of her spine and demonic black and red wings grew painfully out of her back as her hands turned into razor-sharp claws. Hearing the noise, the whole school emerged from the gym to watch the spectacle before them.

When the smoke cleared, Sunset Shimmer had drastically changed. Where only a moment before stood a beautiful teenage girl now hovered a raging she-demon.

As Sunset looked over her new form, she let out a demonic laugh, before using her new powers to transform Snips and Snails into demons themselves.

"This is gonna be SO cool!" giggled Snips as Snails hissed at the girls, who slowly backed up, ready to fight them off if they had to.

Meanwhile, Sunset Shimmer had turned her attention to the frightened students and faculty who were watching from the school entrance. "I've had to jump through so many hoops tonight, just to get my hands on this crown, when it really should've been mine all along!” said Sunset Shimmer, now Sunset Satan, with her dark and demonic voice. "But let's let bygones be bygones. I am your princess now! And you will be loyal... to ME!"

On her last word, Sunset used her dark magic to tear a gaping hole in the front of the school entrance causing the gathered students to panic and flee in terror. Nobody got very far however, before Sunset placed two talons on both of her temples and turned her eyes into hypnotic swirls, sending forth waves of energy that turned the faculty and students into Sunset Satan’s mindless drones.

"Round them up and bring them to the portal," Sunset ordered Snips and Snails, who saluted and left to do Sunset's bidding. Sunset, meanwhile, attended to the teenage girls and dog outside. "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! And with my own little teenage army behind me, I'm going to get it!"

Twilight gave a small gasp of shock when she spotted Flash Sentry among the zombified crowd, before she regained her firm stance. "No. You're not!" she said.

"Oh, please! What exactly are you going to do to stop me?! I have magic, and you have NOTHING!" snarled Sunset, her hair momentarily turning into a tuft of actual fire.

"She has us!" said Rainbow Dash as she and the others ran up to stand behind Twilight, who looked back behind her and smiled.

Sunset glared at the ensemble before laughing. "Gee, the gang really is all back together again!" she chuckled, wiping a tear from her eye, before charging up a massive ball of fire. "Now, step aside! Twilight has tried to interfere with my plans one too many times already! She needs to be dealt with!"

With that, Sunset launched the fireball at Twilight, her friends tried to shield her from the attack only for the fireball to increase in size, but before it could hit them, a second fireball came out of seemingly nowhere and intercepted it, causing an explosion that sent the she-demon falling to the ground and knocked the girls off their feet.

As the smoke cleared, Sunset pulled herself off the ground. She wasn’t entirely sure what had just happened, but whatever it was had stopped her from destroying Twilight. Not that it mattered, in the end.

The six girls were lying on ground before Sunset, all of them looking worse for wear. As Sunset slowly approached Twilight, who looked up at her with tears of pain in her eyes as Sunset’s claws crackled with dark magic, ready to put an end to this little upstart who’d taken what should’ve been hers.

A voice whistled from behind Sunset. She turned around to see a young man around her age standing behind her. He had sleek black hair, although for some reason, his eyes seemed to be pure white. He wore a black leather trench coat with some kind of harness or device embedded into it, black pants, and black formal shoes.

“How about you try me on for size?” the teen said, confidence in his voice.

Sunset Satan chuckled. ”Oh? and what makes you think you can possibly face me, now that I have the power of the Element of Magic at my command? Snips, Snails! Deal with him while I finish Twilight!” she commanded.

“Yes, ma’am!” said Snails as he and Snips landed in front of Rex and got ready to pounce.

Rex heaved a sigh and ignited his head and hands once more, causing Sunset to stop and look back at him with an interested look on her face while Snips and Snails seemed to falter a little.

“You two sure about this?” asked Firestorm.

Snips and Snails looked at each other, looks of fear on their faces. Before, finally, they charged at him. Firestorm fired a blast of flame at Snails, rendering him out of commission, before delivering a strong elbow to the upper part of Snips’ back, right between his wings.

”Impressive… most impressive… you will make a fine personal bodyguard for me once I claim my new kingdom!” said Sunset before she used her powers to try to brainwash Firestorm.

The Burning Man was brought to his knees as both he and and Kilroy worked together to resist the call to become Sunset’s slave with everything they had. Slowly, very slowly, Kilroy and Rex were able to overcome the spell, and Firestorm staggered to his feet.

”Well, that’s unexpected. I’d really hoped I’d be able to make you my servant, but I guess you can’t have everything you want. After I’ve destroyed you, I’ll destroy these six pathetic little fools, and all of Equestria will bow before its new Princess!” said Sunset before she fired a blast of magical energy at Firestorm, who used his flight powers to evade the attack and hover in the air.

A moment was spent as the two enemies glared at each other, before they charged at each other, colliding in midair as the they traded physical blows and energy blasts with each other as they flew around the school campus.

”Kneel before Sunset!” the she-demon yelled before firing a blast of dark magic at Firestorm, who swiftly evaded the attack and retaliated with a blast of flame that struck Sunset in the midsection, causing the she-demon to hiss and snarl with pain and agony.

“The crown, Rex! Go for the crown! Without the Element’s power, she can’t use her magic!” said Kilroy from within Firestorm’s mind. But, before he could do much of anything about it, Sunset fired a powerful blast of dark magic that hit Firestorm full in the face, knocking him out of the sky and causing him to crash land on the front lawn of the school once more.

Sunset landed in front of Firestorm, a triumphant look on her face.”You’re good. Real good. But, not good enough I’m afraid,” she said as she made ready to end Firestorm. Only to find her magic wasn’t working. ”What the- I don’t understand! What’s going on here?!” demanded Sunset Shimmer.

“We’re what’s going on!”

Sunset Shimmer turned around to find that Twilight Sparkle and her friends were floating in the air thanks to a beam of pure magical energy that was coming from the crown on Sunset’s head. On top of that, the six girls had become more… pony-like somehow. Sunset struggled to break the beam, but it was no use.

“You may be wearing that crown upon your head, Sunset Shimmer! But, you cannot wield its true power. Because you do not have the most important magic of all!” said Twilight Sparkle.

On that note, the magical energy that had been gathering around the girls reached its peak, and the fired a magical rainbow laser that began to spin around Sunset like a tornado, before exploding in a blast of multicolored light.

When the smoke cleared, there was a large crater right where Sunset had been standing, and inside it was a very battered looking Sunset, who was a teenage girl once more. More importantly, the Mind Control spell that had been casted on everyone had been dispelled. Twilight and her friends approached the crater, stern looks on their faces.

“You will never rule in Equestria. Any power you may have had in this world is gone. Tonight, you’ve shown everyone who you really are. You’ve shown them what is in your heart!” said Twilight.

Sunset looked up at Twilight and the school people who were surrounding the crater she was in, tears of pain, both physical and emotional, running down her face like water ran down Niagara Falls “I… I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I didn’t know there was another way,” she sobbed.

“Wait, wait, wait, wait a minute,” said Firestorm as he made his way through the crowd to look down at Sunset. “I may have just gotten to this world, but I’m pretty sure there were several hundred other ways you could’ve gone about… this. You seem like a pretty smart girl, and yet you decided to take some magical artifact from some museum-”

“Actually, the crown belongs to me,” said Twilight, before she explained what had happened prior to the recently-transpired events.

“Well, it’s comforting to know that I’m not the only one from another world here,” said Firestorm with a small smile. “I’ll explain what that’s all about once you’ve finished up with this.”

“As I was saying,” said Twilight, returning her attention to the battered-looking Sunset. “The magic of friendship doesn’t just exist in Equestria, Sunset. It’s everywhere. You can seek it out. Or you can forever be alone. The choice is yours.”

Sunset began to climb her way out of the crater, wincing in pain as she did so. “But, all I’ve ever done since being her is drive everyone apart. I don’t know the first thing about friendship,” she sobbed.

Twilight walked over and took ahold of Sunset’s hand. “I bet they can teach you,” she said, gesturing over to her friends.

“Those are my girls! Whoo-hoo!” said Spike, getting up on his hind legs and clapping with his front paws.

“Did that dog just talk?” said a random bystander.

“Seriously? The talking dog… is the weird thing about all this? Not the she-demon, or the rainbow lasers, or the big ass crater, or the guy who ‘s head and hands were on fire, and who just revealed he was from another world?” said Firestorm as he deadpanned and put a hand on his forehead. “Y’all are stupid,” he muttered under his breath as Rarity picked up Spike.

“I for one, think you’re adorable,” Rarity told Spike as she scratched him behind the ears.

“I believe this belongs to you,” said Principal Celestia, who had Twilight’s crown, the owner of which kneeled down before her. “A true princess in any world leads not by forcing others to bow before her, but by inspiring others to stand with her,” she said as she placed Twilight’s crown upon her head. “We’ve all seen that you are capable of just that, Princess Twilight. I hope you do too.”

Twilight looked up at the doppelganger of her mentor back home and smiled. “I do,” she said as she stood up, causing the crown to let out a loud cheer.

“Would now be a completely awkward time to ask you for that dance?” asked a male voice from behind Twilight, who turned around to see that it was Flash Sentry, who had an embarrassed look on his face as he held out his hand.

Twilight gave an embarrassed chuckle.

…

A short time later, while the rest of the school partied on, Firestorm was explaining how he came to this world to Celestia and Luna.

“So, you bought enchanted comic book merchandise that had been sabotaged, causing you and the guy who sold it to you to merge into one entity, complete with the superpowers of the character the merchandise was inspired by?” said Luna, an interested look on her face.

“Yep,” said Firestorm.

“And you have no idea who sabotaged the item?” asked Celestia, a look not dissimilar to her sister’s.

“Nope.”

“Can you separate into two beings again?” asked Luna.

“I can, but I don’t think doing it here is a good idea. See, the separation process generates a lot of heat, and I wouldn’t want to ruin this Fall Formal of yours by setting off the fire alarms,” said Firestorm. “Say, what’s the enrollment process here?”

“Enrollment process?” asked Celestia.

“Well, yeah. I’m only seventeen, and I see no reason I shouldn’t continue my education, no matter what world I’m from. Only thing I really have to do right now is try to find a place to hole up for as long as I’m here,” said Firestorm.

“I’d be willing to help out with that.”

Firestorm turned around to find Sunset Shimmer standing there, looking embarrassed.

“I was here to ask Principal Celestia if she had anymore cement anywhere when I overheard. If I’m going to give this whole friendship thing a try, then I figured I’d help by giving you a place to stay… if you’re willing that is,” said Sunset.

Firestorm smiled. “What’s the address?” he asked Sunset, who returned the smile.

…

A lone figured crept along the dark streets of Canterlot City, having heard what sounded like several explosions and had decided to investigate. As she passed underneath a streetlight, it was revealed that the figure was the exact double of Twilight Sparkle, the only real differences being that she was wearing pajamas, black glasses befitting of a nerd, and had several devices with her.

Twilight Jean Sparkle, or “Sci-Twi” as her classmates at Crystal Prep called her, let out a gasp when her Geiger counter started going off. Pulling the device from the makeshift belt she’d fashioned, she looked down at the device and found that the radiation readings were steadily increasing, quickly reaching maximum, before the device abruptly turned off, causing Twilight’s anxiety to drastically increase.

“Oh, please tell me the batteries just died,” muttered Sci-Twi nervously as she attempted to turn the Geiger counter back on, before what sounded like a missile exhaust sounded overhead. Panicked, Sci-Twi took cover in a nearby alleyway in the duck-and-cover position. Working up the nerve to peek out, Sci-Twi saw what looked like three missile exhausts, but there was something off about them. She pulled out her night-vision goggles and zoomed in on the missiles.

She let out a gasp of shock when she realized that the missiles weren’t missiles, but rather, it seemed to be a… man!

Sci-Twi pulled out her cell phone and dialed the number of the one person she knew that could help her figure out what was going on.

Pick up, pick up, Sci-Twi mentally prayed.

A dreary male voice answered on the other end. “Twily? What are you doing up at this time of night? Go back to bed! I’m sleepy,” said a male voice on the other end, who sounded not, sleepy, but rather out of breath, as though he’d been exerting himself, making it seem as though he’d been doing something else entirely.

“Shining, this is urgent… I heard an explosion, then my Geiger counter started going off before it turned off on its own!” said Sci-Twi in a panicked rush.

Shining’s tone quickly turned more serious. ”All right, Twily, I’ll come down and look into it in the morning, but for now, just go back to bed!”