Author's Note

One day I was looking through DeviantArt and found this awesome guy named peterku and his amazing weapon designs. Now I had very specific ideas for what the purifiers used as weapons and how they looked, but after writing about them all in a word doc I found that placing even one detailed description in a chapter would hurt the flow of the story. So imagine how ecstatic I was to find this guy and see that his designs were not only detailed but incredibly similar to what I envisioned the Purifier weapons looked like. So after asking for permission, he has allowed me to use his designs to replace the almost 100-word long descriptions each weapon had. Now they weren’t exactly like my ideas, so I'll add little details the designs didn’t have to ensure I’m not just stealing their design, but they’ll be brief. I’ll be doing the same for armor, though I couldn’t find a single person that made all the kinds of designs I wanted. Though I will still leave links to the original artists unless I can’t find them.

Also yay! World building!

Things best left forgotten

In the abandoned warehouse district

Sunset Shimmer couldn’t help but feel uneasy as she stood before one of the many abandoned warehouses. It felt like she was being watched by some unknown force, causing her to constantly look over her shoulder. The area was abandoned long before Sunset had ever come to this world, making her feel even more uneasy when she swore she saw something out of the corner of her eye. Snowfall Frost told her before leaving her yesterday to meet him today at 10:45 AM specifically in warehouse number twenty-five. She still didn’t, and most likely never would trust him, seeing as how he somehow knew about her equestrian past when she did well to keep it a secret here. It was this lack of trust that made her “coax” the schools local gun enthusiast, Colt Winchester jr, into “borrowing” one of his father’s firearms. She had watched plenty of movies that had guns in them in this world and didn’t seem to be too complicated. It was like a camera, she just had to aim and shoot.

“Well, Scales... you ready for this?” She asked her arm, her body glowing red seemingly in confirmation. She smiled for a moment before making her best intimidating face and grabbing her gun, which was apparently called a “Walther PPK 7.65”, a strange name for a weapon but she didn’t care. “That makes one of us at least...”. With a finger on the trigger, not realizing the gun was both out of ammo and on safety, she slowly opened the warehouse door and poked her head inside. The room was actually very well lit, allowing her to see what seemed to be some strange suit of armor in the middle of it. She took a couple of steps inside before carefully closing the door, trying to make as little noise as possible. She then walked over to the suit, trying to be as stealthy as possible, curiosity taking her over. “Where is he?” She asked aloud. Her question was answered when a, sadly, familiar voice right behind her broke the silence.

“Right behind you.”

Sunset yelped out in fright as she haphazardly fired her gun at the general direction of the voice. Now Sunset expected explosions, bright flashes of light, maybe even some unnecessary foreign propaganda, but she got none of that. Instead, she got awkward silence as the trigger refused to move despite how hard she tried. “You lied to me Michal Bay!”

Snowfall Frost, who was indeed behind her, snickered as she tried in vain to shoot him. “Having troubles with your pea shooter Sunny?” He asked, booping her on the nose. Sunset growled as she threw the gun in anger at Snowfall, who simply grabbed it before it could hit him. He examined it for a moment before crushing it with his hands. “You hurt me deeply kid if you think that thing could actually hurt me.”.

The pair was unaware that what Frostbite had destroyed was the very gun Adolf Hitler used to end his life, a priceless artifact that Colt Winchester Sr spent his entire life searching for. The man had lost his left foot from fighting sharks in the North Sea to find a treasure map in a sunken German U-boat to give to a mafia mob boss in exchange for a key to open a safe in South Africa that held a key that opened a door in Ukraine that...I think you get the point...

He dramatically held his hand over where his heart would be, assuming he had one in the first place. “Why I might reconsider offering to train you!”

Sunset took a couple of deep breaths (and steps back) to calm herself before responding. “About that...I already know how to summon and command Scales, so what exactly do you have to teach me?”. To prove her point, Sunset stretched her hand out and closed her eyes. A moment later her body glowed bright red and out of her hand shot out her spectral dragon, who flew around the warehouse for a moment before landing on her shoulder liked a trained hawk. She couldn’t help but feel proud as she opened her eyes and saw her little dragon, but she then felt confused and annoyed when “Snowfall Frost” chuckled at the sight of Scales. “What?”

Snowfall’s chuckle devolved into stifled laughter. “That’s...pfft...cute, kid. But I’m talking about a REAL summon. Let me show you what a real one looks like.. Just as he had done before, Snowfall reeled his left hand back and his body started to glow bright blue. “Oh, and you might want to duck.”. Sunset barely managed to duck as what looked like a bolt of lightning shot out of his hand and over her head, flying a good two or three meters behind her. When Sunset turned around she was shocked at what she saw before her.

The creature Snowfall summoned dwarfed Sunset, at least being three meters tall and two meters long (or 9 ft tall and 6 feet long for nonmetric users), overshadowing any of her summoning feats easily. It looked like a wolf, that is if the wolf had hind legs and back hooves like a horse, a tail with a spike at the end somewhat like a scorpion, two long exposed fangs like a snake, and a mane like a lion. Now unlike Scales, who was more akin to a spectral ghost than anything else, this creature’s entire body seemed to be composed of raw electricity, with stray bolts shooting out of its body on occasion. Its eyes were pitch black, something Sunset got to see too clearly as the creature approached her, a low growl coming through its knarled teeth.

”THIS is a true epser summon! THIS is what I intend to teach you!” Snowfall proclaimed in the most overexaggerated voice Sunset had heard in a while. “Now, shall we begin?”.

Sunset found it hard to respond to him since she was too focused on getting as far as possible from the giant wolf monster in front of her. Scales, on the other hand, had no problem jumping off her shoulder onto the ground in front of her and angrily yipping at the comparably massive creature. It only took one look at the seemingly oblivious tiny dragon and without warning, gave off a loud, deep, terrifying roar that echoed through the warehouse. Its mouth was on full display, showing the rows and rows of daggers this thing called teeth, like something out of a nightmare. Yet despite that, Scales kept on yipping at the clearly superior creature. Sunset felt a need to step back as she recalled her esper back to her, ready to run if she felt the creature would actually attack her. But thankfully moments later, the creature disappeared back into Snowfall’s body, much to her relief. “What in the name of Tartarus was that?!”

“Oh right that's what you horses call hell there. That was my esper Varis! I’d say he wouldn’t hurt a fly...buutttt that would be a lie.”

“This is going to be a long day isn’t it?. Well, where do we start?”.

He made a half-hearted chuckle before answering her question. “I'm half tempted to say we start now, but I can’t exactly train a corpse now can I? So we need to get you into the right attire.” . Snowfall pointed to the armor that was still in the middle of the room. “I cannot begin to tell you how hard it was to steal this armor. I wouldn’t think the suit of a “dead man” would be so heavily guarded, but that shows what I know.”.

Sunset did her best to ignore his comment about a “dead man” as she approached the armor. It was colored dark grey with red highlights, as though it wanted to be black and red but realized that the color scheme was done to death, so it had to choose the next best thing. Its helmet was visually similar to the helmet of the Spartan, an ancient warrior of this world she had learned about during one of her classes, albeit with a futuristic update. On the shoulder pads, it had the symbol of a dragon, the same one as one on her arm and on the knife Snowfall used to threaten her before to be exact. She rested her hand on its breastplate, shocked to find that it had the unmistakable feel of leather, something she knew all too well due to her past life. “What is this suit made of?” she coldly asked, taking her hand off the suit.

“The primary material used to make these suits is a metal like leather harvested from the Terrahacha (Tear-ah-ka), basically a giant rhino with skin tougher than some of the strongest materials on earth. It has all the strength of a metal with all the mobility of leather, but it comes with the tradeoff of a less than stellar resistance to heat.” Snowfall explained, his tone not unlike that of a teacher answering a student’s question. “Why do you ask? Oh, wait...right...you were a, you know.”.

Sunset sighed as she took another look at the armor. It was obviously a little big for her, so she didn’t know how she would put it on. But as though Snowfall really could read her mind, Sunset heard something drop from behind her. “Oh right. You got to put this on first. It will allow the suit to interface and adjust to your body.”. When she turned around, Sunset felt her cheeks heat up like a blazing fire. Laying in front of her was a skin-tight jumpsuit that almost looked as though it was made of hexagons. She looked up at Snowfall with a blush on her face, unsure of whether or not this was a joke or not.

It presumably took a moment for Snowfall to realize why Sunset looked so embarrassed. “Oh come on! We’re both adults here! What, do I have to turn around every time you want to change?”

”YES!!!” Sunset shouted back, her face not needing an esper to glow bright red. Once he finally turned around, Sunset gathered her courage and picked up the jumpsuit. Her blush only grew brighter looking at it up close, but she knew at this point there was no going back.

After changing into the jumpsuit, Sunset was pleasantly surprised to find that it was very comfortable to wear and easy to move around in. What just flat out surprised her was when she turned around, the suit of armor had shrunken down to her size, somehow not making a sound while doing so. “Ok, I really need to stop staring in awe at everything new I see or I’ll never get anything done.” She thought to herself as she took another deep breath and walked over to the armor.

As she approached it, Sunset felt her heart skip a beat as the suit gave off a loud hiss as though it was containing steam before falling apart onto the floor. The warehouse echoed the sound of the multiple armor pieces falling to the floor, making Sunset cover her ears for a moment until it passed. Listening to her own advice, Sunset just assumed this was part of the process and proceded to put each piece of armor on one by one. The pieces snapped together as she put the armor on like building blocks, although they were just a bit heavier than those little toys.

“These “training sessions” are going to hurt a lot aren’t they?” Sunset asked rhetorically.

“I would answer, but that would be spoiling the surprise now wouldn’t it?”

“Celestia kill me now...”

Once she finally finished putting all the pieces on, Sunset heard what she could only describe as the worlds most advanced supercomputer turning on as her eyes were bombarded with bright lights, forcing her to close her eyes. Once the bright lights started to dim down, Sunset opened her eyes and saw the warehouse, but it was all in a red tint. She tried to turn her head, but she found that she was unable to move even a muscle as though she was a statue. Before Sunset could even call out to Frostbite, she felt something slightly hot go up and down the back of her neck for a couple of seconds, then followed by an out of nowhere robotic female voice.

“UNABLE TO DETECT NEURAL OUTLET. INITIATING PROTOCOL TWO THREE FIVE- SUBSECTION TWELVE.” The voice announced in a language Sunset thought she shouldn’t understand, yet she somehow understood it as well if not better than Equish or English. “OR FOR THOSE WHO COULDN’T BE BOTHERED TO READ THE MANUAL, THIS UNIT WILL BE DRILLING INTO YOUR NECK TO CONNECT TO YOUR BRAIN AND SPINE.”. Sunset’s eyes widen as she stood there, helpless to stop something sharp and very hot drilled into her neck, which was as painful it sounded. Sunset’s body trembled as something grabbed her neck bone and pierced it with what felt like a needle. That was then followed by what felt like a cold liquid entering her spine, causing her entire body to go completely numb, with even her brain starting to feel unresponsive. Sunset looked around frantically as her vision was slowly being consumed by blackness, her eyes moving slower and slower with each second.

Sunset found herself standing in what seemed like a black room, how she got here she didn’t know, and in front of her was a much better looking Snowfall Frost. In fact, that was almost all she could see at the moment, as though she was tunnel visioning him, the only other thing she could see was her own body. In her hand was a spear, the insignia of a dragon was inscribed onto its shaft, the spear tip glowing bright red. Sunset didn’t know when she woke up, or how she got here, but she wanted answers, and fast.

“Where are we?!” Is what Sunset wanted to ask, but what came out of her mouth was nothing like what she imagined.

“Fifty...fifty lives all lost...and for what? Vengeance? ” A much deeper and synthesized voice asked angrily.

“Is that how we’re gonna start things?” A younger and more natural sounding Snowfall asked in return, “No jibs, no jabs? Not even a tore damn joke at your own expense?”. Behind him stood was what she assumed was Varis, but it looked so much more normal. It had no black eyes, back hooves, snake-like teeth, or a scorpion tail, and aside from the lion's mane, it seemed to just be an average looking wolf. That is...as far as giant wolves made out of lightning can be considered “average looking”.

“They were our BROTHERS AND SISTERS, FROSTBITE!!! WE WERE A FAMILY!!! AND NOW THEY’RE ALL GONE. So excuse me if I skip my usual smartass behavior so I CAN KNOW WHY YOU KILLED ALL OF THEM?!”. The raw emotion in his words would have made Sunset take several steps back if she wasn’t apparently looking through his eyes. It was so intense that Sunset didn’t even care that apparently “Snowfall” was lying about his name this whole time.

“Fine. You want to know why I did it, Tamer?” Frostbite then drew his sword from his sheath, holding it in two hands much like how a knight would hold one in the middle ages. It had the insignia of “Varis” was inscribed onto the blade, although it also didn’t look as monstrous as Varis she had just seen. “It was to avenge the lives your incompetence snuffed out at Haven, and to save the rest of Terran from anything similar.”

“Tamer’s” hands trembled ever so slightly, his eyes uncontrollably darting around the area, breaking the tunnel vision and allowing Sunset to see what was around her. They seemed to be on top of a mountain that overlooked a grassland, with what seemed like a forest looming just at the edge of their vision. In the middle of the grassland was what looked like a large set of derelict buildings, it’s poor condition easily seen even from this high up. An odd detail Sunset noticed was that the grassland was completely void of life, with not even a single bird in the sky. The mountain they were on was unlike any mountain Sunset had seen before in their life. Instead of having a dirt or rock surface, this mountain’s surface was shiny and white, almost as though it was made of marble.

“Is this “Terran”?” Sunset wondered, “Must be. Where else would this be?!

“What about the... Tamer paused for a moment, seemingly collecting his thoughts. ...Twelve or so thousand lives you ended at Beacon city?!

“I did no such thing! Is that another one of their lies? Or did one of the voices in your head tell you I did that?”

“I’ve heard enough. We’re in the middle of a civil war, the abominations have gained more ground in two years than they did in twenty years, Diamond and Deadeye are in critical condition, and it’s all YOUR fault. YOU WILL PAY!!!”. Tamer held his spear tightly as he pointed it at Frostbite, all while Sunset was seeing this through Tamer’s eyes. She could feel his heart beating practically out of his chest, going at a rate that shouldn’t have been physically possible. Sunset could even feel what seemed to be a few tears run down his face. It was as though he was scared yet heartbroken at the same time, but for what reason Sunset had no idea.

“I must be blind because I hear you say that yet I can’t see your wife nearby to save your sorry hide when I beat you!”

“I don’t need my wife to kill you. I’ll take you on all on my own!”. And with that, Tamer charged at Frostbite, leaping high in the air with incredible speed. But right as Tamer was about to fall onto Frostbite, spear aimed straight at his head, everything started to become black again.

“No! I need to know what’s going on!!!” Sunset pleaded in her mind, neither party backing down as the darkness began to consume her vision again.

“AND I DON’T NEED YOUR WIFE TO PUT DOWN YOUR BROKEN MIND!” Frostbite screamed back, his blade poised to meet Tamer’s spear. Sunset could hear the sound of blades crashing and thundering roars, as though Tarturus had opened up and all its prisoners were fighting to escape. The last thing Sunset heard before blacking out was the sound of a blade meeting flesh, followed by a blood-curdling cry of pain.

Sunset awoke gasping; her eyes darting all over the room. Her body was aching all over while her mind was rapidly trying to comprehend what had just happened. Above her stood Frostbite, who crouching and tapping her screen annoyingly. He leaned his head to the side like some curious animal as he poked her again. “Helloooo? You dead kid? Please be alive because it's kinda impossible to take off this kind of armor from the outside, and that would be such a pain.”.

Sunset took no time to answer back, her heart still racing from what she just saw. “Yep! I’m alive... I think.” She groaned, the pain just starting to subside.

“Ok good, but what the hell happened?!” he asked as he poked her again. “I know the process hurts like hell but it’s never done THAT before!”.

“What do you mean “it’s never done that before?”?! And can you stop poking me already?!”. Sunset’s patience was less than paper thin at this point as her confusion and subsequently, her anger was quickly growing.

“hmmm...na. This is actually kinda fun.”. Right as he went to tap her again, Sunset’s hand sprung up with lightning speed and grabbed Frostbite’s arm before he could touch her again. It didn’t even matter to Sunset that her arm had moved quite literally faster than her eyes could see, she was too pissed to care anymore.

“Now,... Frostbite..., I want us to be extra clear before moving on. You better be one hundred percent honest with me after this, no lies, no b.s! Think you can do that?!”. Sunset was fully fed up with all this confusion and secrecy. She had just seen what she figured was the memories of the man she “banished” to her homeworld, she was in a suit of armor straight out of a comic book, and her “mentor” was poking her like a kid pokes a dead body with a stick. She needed answers, and she needed them now.

Frostbite, or at least Sunset imagined, looked shocked at her calling him his real name. “how...wher-where did you learn that name?!”. For the first time, Sunset felt as though she held the winning card in her hands. For once she had something over her all too vague “teacher”, something to make him start asking questions.

Under that helmet of hers, Sunset held a smug look on her face. She knew his real name, and from the tone of his voice, she saw something Frostbite did not intend to see, both being things she could use against him. It may not have been much, but Sunset had gotten more with less. After all, she destroyed one of the strongest bonds of friendship she had ever seen with nothing but a couple of rumors, some phone numbers, and a few email addresses. “That would be spoiling the surprise now wouldn’t it?” She asked smugly, managing to get off of the floor on her own.

As she got up, Sunset realized that she was looking through a vision limiting helmet as she expected, in fact, it was more like looking through a see-through glass pane with a slight red tint, like some of the “video games” she had played in her free time. In fact, Sunset noticed that on the bottom left-hand corner of the screen was an image of her body with several monitors above it. It indicated she had some minor bruising and a... broken rib. Where and how she got that, Sunset had no idea.

And on the bottom right-hand corner of the screen was another body, a male body this time, yet something was very wrong about it. The screen was showing the body had fifth degree burns all over its body, the face even having sixth degree burns. It also showed the body had twelve broken ribs, a collapsed lung, and even some broken vertebrae! By all accounts, he should have been dead thirty times over yet here he was acting like he was as fit as a fiddle. More info she would have over him Sunset supposed.

“Where did you learn that name?!” For once Frostbite’s voice had a hint of fear in it. Mind you it was only a hint of fear, but Sunset had to take back some ground in this fight so she savored every inch she got.

“I would tell...but that would be ruining the surprise now wouldn’t it?”.

Frostbite didn’t say a word after that for a solid thirty seconds, a tell-tell sign he was backing up a bit. Then after sighing and responding. “Best get comfy kid. We’re going to be here for a while.”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way.”