Author's Note

How ‘Bout Another?

(This chapter along with others is to be properly edited mid-late 2021)

Friendship Games - The Endearment Arc (TBE)

Noah hesitantly yet strenuously opened his eyes as his head fell to his side. The air and wind of the stratosphere to the mesosphere left him in a painful daze as he struggled to catch what little breath he had.

He tried to move around as he rose ever so slowly but quickly realized his right arm was broken, the back of his head and back was pouring with pure black blood, and his entire body was covered in shards of glass.

What the hell is going on?

As Noah's ascension finally came to a halt, he turned his head with the little amount of strength he had to find his left arm was being pulled upwards. Someone had him in their grasp, and their grip was crushing Noah's wrist.

"It'd be a shame, really. Such a fucking shame that I had to go through all that work, only for you to repeat the same thing you said to me the other five-six times."

Noah couldn't recognize the voice, but he knew that he'd heard it before. Like a returning relative from Thanksgiving, but barely even remembering them being there, yet you know they were.

The voice gripped Noah's throat with its other hand, raised him above themselves, and let Noah float limply. He didn't fight against the voice, but his struggles, grunts, and chokes did more than enough to make themselves known that this wasn't a position Noah wanted to be in. Ever.

Noah didn't have the strength to face his attacker, but he could see and feel that their hand was enveloped in a purple glow. A magical purple glow. Noah mentally slapped himself, Another magical enemy? How did this happen?

"I'll ask you one more time," the voice began. Fury in its voice as it's grip tightened. "Give me the amulet, or die."

Noah's eyes' watered at the sight of the setting sun to his side. So high above the clouds, you could see it clear as day in all it's glory. And everything came to him like that.

"For the last time you hellspawn, kiss, my, ass."

Noah chuckled as the grip on his throat intensified, "Fine... you... you fucking cunt. To hell with you. After I finish everything here, I'll go farther. I'll destroy everything, and you can watch from heaven all of your stupid piece of shit friends get their fucking spines ripped out you worthless fuck." The voice extended it's arm, holding Noah out and far away from itself.

Noah closed his eyes, and before he knew it, the voice dropped him and watched as he plunged towards the inevitable ground. Noah didn't even try to land safely, he just let gravity do it's thing.

And as Noah reached the clouds, his vision went black. It was over. All, over.

FIFTY-SEVEN HOURS EARLIER
FIVE MONTHS AFTER THE RAINBOW ROCKS EVENT

”You know what’s weird?”

”What?”

”You’re Black, but you act so white sometimes. Almost half the time, actually.”

”Nigga, what?!”

”Think about it. You have an interest in weaponry, you drive a black truck, and-”

”Sunset, One: shut up. Two: I have a fascination with weaponry because I play a lot of modern shooters games. Three: That’s not my truck, it's Manex’s. Four: Don’t break character, dipshit, we're in the middle of a fanfic written by some black guy.”

Noah and Sunset exited the driveway of the morning donuts and coffee store and began down the road while a song Noah had somehow gotten Sunset to favorite played quietly, just enough for them to hear each other.

It had nearly been half a year since that fateful day. When the world's ultimate monsters' revealed themselves, out of the shadows, and Noah, Sunset, and the Rainbooms brought the inevitable hammer of justice and consequence down on their heads with a passion.

Since then, life's been good. Noah and Sunset have become the best of friends, Sonata, the siren that got away, has been dealt with by being banished, Noah and Sunset believe that Rarity and Applejack are more than just friends, and life has just been, well, good.

At the moment, Noah and Sunset were on their way to school for the third-to-last day of the school week, but not before making a quick stop at their local gun store.

"You know, If you've been getting a single magazine every Wednesday for years at this point, doesn't that mean you're stocked to the brim with them?" Noah shrugged, "Uh... maybe? I-I use them for good reason, so it's all good."

"Oh really?"

"Yep."

"And what reason would that be?"

"..."

Noah dug all around inside his head for an excuse, "...It's not shooting disgusting watermelons in my backyard, that's for sure." Sunset gasped, "You don't like watermelons?"

"You do?!" Sunset giggled, "Yes, it's delicious! How do you not like watermelon?" Noah scoffed, "How can you!? It's like taking a bite of an apple made of water! It baffles me that people enjoy that garbage!"

"You're kidding!"

"No, I am the heck not! It's disgustingly tasteless!"

"That doesn't make any sense."

"You don't make any sense!"

Sunset's face fell flat as she stared at Noah like he was a mental patient from Siberia. "Listen, watermelon, is nasty. Case closed. Besides, grapes are the best fruit anyway."

"You like grapes!?"

"Are you fuckin' kidding me?!"

Before they could go at each other again, Noah stopped instantly as he heard his phone go off. He had received a text. "Hold on, hold on. Let me get this real quick," Noah told Sunset as he sat back into his seat and she rolled her eyes.

Noah read the text and found it was from Rainbow Dash. Noah read it aloud, "'Come to school immediately! It's an emergency! Code red! Code flipping red!' What the? What is she talking about?"

"If she says it's an emergency, she could be in danger. We should hurry over there." Noah tried to reason with Sunset, "But, what about the bullets? What if today's the day something really happens?"

"Noah, that's not important right now! We need to get to her!" Noah groaned, "Fine! Dang it..." Noah stepped harder on the gas pedal as the light ahead of them turned green. The car began slowly before taking off so fast, a middle-aged mom walking down the street barely had enough time to get off the road before getting hit.

Noah pulled into the driveway of CHS and found Applejack and Rainbow Dash standing at the steps. Only, there wasn't a global or even a local destruction event occurring, perplexing Sunset and Noah. Sunset stepped out of the passenger seat as Noah turned off the car and stepped out himself.

"We got your text Rainbow Dash, did something come through the portal?" Sunset asked as she shut the passenger door closed. "Is Equestrian magic on the loose? Did Twilight come back with a problem that only we can solve?"

"You brought us here for something stupid, didn't you?"

Rainbow Dash opened a guitar case in front of her and stood up, "Uh, not exactly." Noah's face fell flat while Sunset raised an eyebrow. "Uh... so what did you text us for?"

Rainbow Dash turned around with a guitar Noah recognized. He had bought it a week before their Christmas party. It had a loose string, and Noah's eye twitched.

"Well Sunset, Ah was just tellin' Rainbow Dash here that a broken guitar string doesn't really qualify as an emergency." Noah made a fist, "You called us to this stupid school a half-hour early, for a guitar string?"

"W-Well, it totally does qualify!" Noah's eye twitched, "You called us to this stupid school a half-hour early, for a guitar string?" Rarity entered the picture, it turned out that everyone had received Rainbow's text.

"Really Rainbow Dash? I was in the middle of sowing a very complex applique on my latest frock." Fluttershy also entered said picture, "And I was just about to tuck everyone in for the night at the shelter. Now we'll have to start stories all over again."

"You called us to this stupid school a half-hour early, for a guitar string?"

"I agree, why would you send all of us an emergency text for a guitar string?" Rainbow Dash pointed behind her at three freshman girls, "Well, I was going to pony-up and show our fans some awesome guitar licks, but I kinda need all six strings to do it. Got any spares?"

"You called us to this stupid school a half-hour early, for a guitar string?!"

"Yeah, that's already been established. So, ya got a spare?" Noah chuckled as his eye twitched uncontrollably, "Yeah, yeah I got a spare." Noah walked over to Rainbow and gestured for the guitar. She handed it to him and Noah took a deep breath. "How much would you say this cost?"

"Uh, about, four... no, five hundred dollars. And it was on a Christmas sale, so technically it was a grand. The perfect steal!" Noah nodded, "Nice, nice... such a shame too."

"Wha-"

Before Rainbow Dash could finish, Noah brought the guitar over his head and smashed it against the concrete path, a fire in his eyes so hot it could cook a pig in seconds. He ran over to his car, swung open the driver's door, placed the guitar in between the door and the car, and shut the door several times, completely severing the body of it.

He then ripped what was left of the body out of the car door, gripped the neck like it was a lance, and rushed towards the CHS statue/portal, and crushed the neck of the guitar until it looked like an overly sharpened pencil from a nerdy fourth grader.

Noah took multiple deep breaths before slowly returning to Rainbow Dash and shoving it into her grip. "I'll buy you a new one," he slightly shouted as he began up the steps of the school, swung open the door, and slammed it behind him. Giving the main entrance door five new cracks.

Everyone on the school entrance was left in utter shock as no words could find a way out of each others' mouths. "Well... I guess that's why you don't mess with a super element," Applejack spoke up. Rainbow Dash gawked at the torn-to-shreds mess of a guitar and dropped it before moving another muscle.

"So, uh... see you guys in class?" Rarity spoke up, receiving multiple signs and sayings of approval from her friends. They all awkwardly began inside, along with the freshmen girls following behind, except Rainbow and Sunset.

"Uh... if it makes you feel any better, he said he'll buy you another? A-And who knows, it could be much better than that one, and more expensive! S-So technically, i-it's a win-win, right?" Rainbow didn't respond; she just turned around, began inside, and erased the memory from her head.

TWENTY MINUTES LATER

-Dear Princess Twilight...

How's life treating you in Equestria? Any cool new magic spells? It's been pretty quiet the last five months here at CHS since the Battle of the Bands. We still pony-up when we play music, which Rainbow Dash just loves to show off. But I still can't quite grasp what it's all about. I would love to hear what you think about it when you get the chance.

-Your Friend, Sunset Shimmer

Sunset closed the book as a metro bus pulled up to the school. An odd figure wearing jeans, purple sneakers, a baggy cadet blue hoodie, and oddly glinting black glasses stepped off of it. They pulled a strange device, which didn't look physically possible, out of their hoodie pocket, and fidgeted with it. Like they were trying to get it set up for something.

They wandered towards the portal while turning a dial back and forth like they were attempting to receive or catch a signal of some sort. As they stood before it, they raised it to scan the entire statue, like they knew something was inside or mysterious about it.

They came around the other side, entering Sunset's vision, and proceeded to scan the front as they did the back. They placed a hand on the statue's portal, and their touch lit up the portal in the spot they interacted with.

The sound the portal emitted from the figure's touch promptly got Sunset's attention as she perked up. The figure continued to touch the portal in all of its corners before turning another dial. Sunset called out, "Hey!" And the figure instantly realized they weren't alone.

"What are you doing?!" The figure turned to run, startled and fearful. Sunset stood up off the stairs and began after her. "Wait!" She cried, confused. As the figure reached the street, with Sunset on her tail, they dashed forward as fast as they could to avoid an oncoming car, that Sunset was unfortunate to find stopping her from pursuing.

The same bus from before pulled up on the other side of the street, and the figure quickly boarded it, slipping as it's doors opened. The bus drove off as Sunset tried to stop it, leaving a dust cloud behind.

"Who was that?" Sunset asked as she scratched her head. "Who was what?"

"Ah! Noah?!"

"Sup."

"Don't do that! You nearly gave me a heart attack!"

"Oh really? That's horrible! I apologize miss Shimmer, I shall be oh so careful next time I approach you."

"Shut up."

Noah stood next to Sunset and stared in the same direction she did. "So, who was what?" Sunset took a deep breath, "Someone came up and started messing with the portal with some strange device. It looked too advanced for them judging by their figure, so I'm completely lost. Why are you out here?"

"I remembered I left my bookbag out here, and the fact that I have to park my car in an actual parking lot. What were you doing here?" Sunset shrugged, "Just, writing to Twilight. It's been a minute since we last saw her."

"True, true... Breakfast is still open, you wanna head in? I'll pay if you want." Sunset blushed, "Oh, uh, yeah sure, b-but I can pay." Noah put his hands in his pockets, "A'ight, if you insist nigga."

Noah nudged Sunset and started back towards the school. Sunset stared at the open road before eventually joining him. "So, what do they have for breakfast this morning?"

"I didn't check, but Lyra told me it was pancakes. But then her girlfriend told me it was waffles. And then they had a stupid fight in the middle of the lockers like a fuckin'-"

"Noah, come on now. What did we say about swearing?" Noah groaned, "Like a friggin' middle-aged married couple. Better for you, princess?"

"Much better."