A Guardian's Rise

Sonic held his hands up defensively looking towards Rainbow Dash who began moving towards him slowly, "Ah shit... Yo, Rainbow! C'mon, snap out of it! What's up with you? Is this about what Cloud did? There's no way this is all on him! You know Sunset's just pulling strings like she always does-- Whoa!" He shouted as he leapt to the side, the sudden rainbow streak shooting past him with Sonic going into a roll and skidding across the ground to avoid her. Jumping back up to his feet, he shook off the shock and looked over at her with a nervous glance, "Oookay, talking isn't on the table! Got it, noted, no more talki-- I'm still talking, aren't I?" he groaned before leaping over her in a quick somersault and landing behind her in a crouch. "Huh... That one felt familiar-- Ow!" he shouted being suddenly kicked in the back and sent careening across the open area of the park.

He groaned and shouted upon each impact with the ground before doing his best to launch off with a handspring into a flip, managing to skid and spin out of control but regardless ending up on his feet. Between spins and slowing down gradually, he saw her charging towards him again. 'Crap, oh crap, oh crap! How am I supposed to dodge that!?' he panicked mentally as he shut his eyes and braced for impact. When it came, he realized the blow was softer than he expected. Although the slam against the tree a few meters back was about what he'd expected.

After groaning and opening his eyes to see what'd happened, he saw one large, blue wing arched around in front of him. He blinked and stared at it before chuckling in awe and turning to growing excited laughter as he stood up against the tree, "Oh yeah, that's cool... Now we're talkin'!" he called out as he got into a running stance. "Alright, Dash... You wanna fight? Well I'm done holding back!" He called out as he grew a wide smile, his emerald eyes sparking with life as he dashed towards her with a burst of wind following behind as Rainbow Dash charged him back. The two streaks flew towards one another with fists drawn back, Sonic's wide smile only growing while Rainbow's fuchsia eyes held little to no response before they collided.

Cloud and Script continued to stare in shock at their friend hovering in front of their school as snow twisted and raged around him. They looked at one another and then over towards Sunset and the girls with an irritated groan, "Ah shit..." Sunset, shaking off her own shock, swiftly turned and took on her demonic form once more before pointing towards the two ahead of them. "Yo, Gamer! Whatever your new abilities do, learn 'em quick and get ready cause they're coming!" He said as he pocketed his hands and took a slow breath.

'Aether.'

'Sup?'

'I know what we can do now, right? What're the chances that--'

'If we don't fuck her day, Comet will. Trust.'

'Noted.' He thought as his eyes shot open and took a bright glow rising his hands up to his sides, "Hey, Sunset? I would say I'm sorry for what's about to happen... But the cowgirl next to you giving me the death eyes told me not to lie a while back, so I'm gonna trust her on that!" He called out as she roared the order to charge, the five girls rushing at them with malicious intent, making Aether pause in thought, "... Oh right, there's two of us and five of the-- Wait... Where's Rainbow Dash?" he said in confusion before he looked off to their side and saw a large royal blue and rainbow hurricane burst out a few miles off.

"Does that answer our question?"

'I'd say so, yeah. Also, angry cowgirl at 12 o'clock.'

"Noted." Aether stated as he quickly turned to face Applejack's fist mere nanometers from his face before she seemed to phase and fly through him. He smirked and turned to watch her lunge forward into a roll, carried further than she expected from the momentum. "Damn, I almost felt the wind there, Crabapple. Wanna try again? I'll stand extra still this time." He said, the enraged farmhand growling and turning to rush him again, "Oh boy, here we go." he said as she continued swinging at him, standing perfectly still and casually phasing through her strikes chuckling at her growing frustration, "Yeah, keep going. I'm sure you'll land one sometime... Maybe." he said snickering a little harder as he continued floating there.

"Whoa... Dude, you're busted!" Script called out laughing before looking over and seeing the other three girls rushing towards him, "... Ah... Crap baskets..." He said with a noticeable groan in his voice before he flew upwards on his board, the girls narrowly missing their haphazard attacks though one of Pinkie's plastic spatulas made purchase just barely causing him to spin out. Once he gained control again, he gave a relieved sigh before seeing Rarity float up in front of him atop a diamond platform, "Oh come on, it had to be you?! Why couldn't it have been--" He paused and looked down looking between his choices below, "... Uh... Huh... Well, that sucks." He said before being punched by the usually dainty hand of Rarity and spiraling away holding his cheek with a groan, "Ow... Could Rarity always hit like that? Man, she's stronger than I thought... Both physically and in mental fortitude." He said losing track of himself in his minor daydream before being struck again with a strike to his chin, he and the board being sent into a flip.

Halfway through the flip, his feet lost their grip of the latches to keep him in place, leaving him in a momentary free-fall before just barely catching the edge of the floating board and climbing back on with some difficulty. Once his feet were secured, he looked back on Rarity seeing her glazed over eyes and her face blank of emotion save for anger as she rushed towards him. With a sharp inhale, he launched off to the side out of her way only for her to immediately give chase. With a panicked look over his shoulder he could see her gaining on him as he dove down and began flying over the snowy terrain in a sharp movement, hoping to throw her off his trail at least a little before looking back in front and being met with the dead eyes of Pinkie Pie. Her hair was straight and her face empty, just like Rarity, which only caused Gamer to panic more as he screeched to a halt as she pulled out and held a straight baking knife out in front of her and narrowly stopping just in front of her with his hands raised, "Whoa! P-Pinkie?! Pinks, c'mon, it's me! Gamer Script?" He said in hope she'd snap out of it with his announcement.

Instead, she only flipped the dull icing blade upside down and moved to stab him which he quickly jumped back from and fell into the snow, the board taking the hit and vanishing in a flurry of pixels. His eyes flashed with shock and fear as the pixels began flowing back to him and into his horn as he quickly stood and backed away from her, the feeling of something soft against his back. Turning quickly to look, he saw Fluttershy facing the ground, relief taking his startled gaze, "Oh thank God, Fluttershy! Y'gotta help me out here! Something's up with Rare and Pinks and I don't-- ... Fluttershy?" He said cautiously, realizing her unresponsiveness to all this before his hand was taken into hers and risen up slowly. She looked up at him, her eyes also glazed over and tears falling freely from them as she swiftly turned and threw him over her shoulder and onto his back. Knocking the wind from his lungs upon colliding with the snowed over cement as he went wide-eyed and mouth agape in shock.

He laid there for a moment as Rarity floated to the ground and made her way towards him, putting a foot to his chest as Fluttershy came over and did the same, pressing her boot to his neck while Pinkie lumbered over with the dulled weapon risen up, crouching down over him and holding his horn to keep his head still, 'Shit, right, of course Shy's possessed or something too. Dammit! I can't fight them! I could never hurt Pinkie or Flutters! I definitely couldn't hurt...' He wandered as he looked towards Rarity's cold glare, his aquamarine orbs meeting those of cloudy sapphires. He slowly closed his eyes with pained tears pricking and threatening to fall from them as he held their legs to try and keep them from stomping on his chest any harder, 'Please... Don't make me fight them! I don't want to fight them! But I don't wanna die to them either! I'd never forgive myself if they actually got hurt cause of me! Why?! Why the hell's this all happening!?' he mentally begged and pleaded to no one.

'Under the heel of your enemy and still you beg for mercy from yourself. Pathetic. I refuse to believe such a weakling is my equal, let alone another me. An angry, growling voice said with disgust within Script's mind.

'S-Shut up... They're my friends! I could never--'

'As I've heard. You're helpless and hopeless. Do you wish to die here? To your so-called 'friends'? The voice challenged once more.

'Of course I don't, but does it have to be them or me!? Do I have to put myself on the line or one of them just to get outta this!?' He pleaded as he could feel the air escaping him, his sight wavering as did his grip as Pinkie leaned down with the knife risen back.

The voice within only growled and seethed with heavy huffs of anger, fire burning in his heart and mind as they began to close, Your prattling is annoying, boy. If you won't do it, then I will!' The voice echoed as Script gasped and his eyes shot open, slowly gaining a lime green shade. His hair growing and turning a crimson red to amber orange into a golden shade splaying around him. His skin darkening from a lighter gray to a shade better resembling smoke, his teeth growing sharper as he visibly began to grow beneath the boots of the girls. Seeing this, Pinkie went to stab down at his head only for her wrist to be grabbed, a glow flaring from his palm as she screamed and stumbled back holding her wrist and seeing a blackened burn along it. Taking notice of the sudden shout, Everyone else turned to see what was going on as Rarity and Fluttershy's legs were grabbed roughly as they were tossed off to either side of him, Fluttershy falling into a roll away towards where the statue once was whole and Rarity up to the steps where Comet continued floating, his stance unwavering at the display.

Aether watched the two go flying and at the burned, groaning Pinkie Pie as the now blazing behemoth rose up from the ground, his horn now curved upwards as he cracked his knuckles and neck to the side taking a deep breath and glaring with burning lime green eyes around at the slowly recovering girls around him. "Only three of you? This won't take long." He seethed as he took a stance with his hands risen up in front of him with his hands curved like claws, awaiting the girls to make the first move. Seeing him take his stance, the girls each looked at one another before Pinkie Pie took up a rubber spatula and the icing knife as she raced towards him with the knife arched backwards, leaping up and moving to stab him with it. He quickly turned leaving a scorching mark in the ground where his foot slid across the ground and grabbed Pinkie's knife arm in hand, yanking her down into his knee as she made a squeak of pain and was sent back rolling towards the adjacent wall, sliding into a pile of snow.

Aether whistled in surprise as he had another punch swung through his head, "You done? Seriously, you're just wasting energy on me at this point." He said as he pointed over to the man ahead of them, "You want a fight, go try him. He's kinda bodying your friends." He said with a bored expression as he looked past her and towards Fluttershy who held her ankle seeing a burn mark on it just like what had happened to Pinkie Pie, his boredom wavering for a moment seeing her hurt. He shifted his glance back to Applejack who looked between the two and growled before deciding to rush at the blazing beast with a battle cry leaving Aether alone. Now free of Applejack's attention, his eyes ceased their glow looking back towards where the large multi-toned whirlwind continued to rage, "I'm gonna guess that's Sonic too... Damn, and I thought we just called him a whirlwind cause of his room."

Holding Rarity up in his left hand, Gamer rose his hand back balled into a smoking fist before hearing Applejack rush at him from behind shouting out and deciding to let his hand fall as he turned and flung the fashionista at the farmgirl, both being sent back a solid few feet with Applejack skidding back from catching her and placing her on her feet though she wobbled and fell to her knees. Applejack growled and continued on her warpath as she tackled into his abdomen only to be grabbed around her waist and flipped upside-down. Stubborn as she was, Applejack refused to let him go as he wrapped his left arm around her waist and kept her legs up as he thrust his free fist into her stomach as if beating a bongo with fierce, repeated hits and making her grunt and groan from the strikes. Even with all the punishment she was taking she refused to let him go, though he seemed only annoyed that she would not release him as his strikes audibly connected harder and harder until she heard a crack, making her scream out as she finally let him go. Now being free of her hold, he spun and threw her alongside Pinkie who was just recovering only to have her more toned friend fly into her as they both ended up in a snowdrift.

As the other girls dealt with or were dealt with by Gamer, or whoever he'd become, Sunset's razor sharp teeth only clenched with anger. 'How in the name of Tartarus are they being held back so damned easily!? What did I expect from a bunch of idiot high school girls! Fine then,' she thought glaring over towards Cloud who was watching the tornado in the background, 'I'll just get rid of that idiot myse--' As Sunset moved to charge towards Cloud, a pillar of ice shot up from beneath her and sent her screaming skyward before she forced her claws and a burst of her tainted magic through it, shattering it twenty feet up. She roared in anger looking around before seeing the ice retreat back to it's source: The cold-eyed form of Comet glaring up at her. She smirked and charged back to the ground in a crouch before moving towards him slowly, a sway to her as she spoke. "Comet? Why do you turn your anger towards me, huh? I'm not the one who killed Sparkle, that was--" She was once again interrupted as another pillar shot out from her right side beneath her and sent her into the side of the school with a crash.

Aether, the burning Script and the girls all looked up to see what'd happened as she once again erupted the pillar and coughed from the strike, her wings flaring out as she growled at Comet who adjusted his glasses. The snow around them creating a bright light that made them seem to shimmer as he spoke, "Do not try to sway me as you did them. I am not so easily tricked. What you did to her... Did to my Twily," he said as the snow raged around them, the light quickly being blocked out by the ever darkening snow clouds above, showing his empty, emotionless eyes, "Shall be repaid a quintillion fold and beyond, fallen student of Celestia."

Sunset's eyes widened as she gasped, 'He... He knows!?'

'Did he just say 'Twily'?

"Oh right... That's Twilight's cousin-in-law where I'm from. Name's Comet. Also, he's supposedly Princess Luna's student. Found some books she wrote in before she was banished to the moon. Some were written by her alter ego, Nightmare Moon before she was released or something, I can't remember and neither can the writer."

'Of the books?'

"... Sure, we'll go with that for now." He said with a shrug before Sunset suddenly flew up into their face, "Oh shit, right. Her." He stared at her for a moment before another hefty pillar was summoned just inches in front of them which, once again, threw Sunset into the air before it shattered. Before she could recover from the previous strike, another pillar materialized above her and dropped down, Aether leaping out of the way as Sunset screamed in pain and shock being sent into the ground with a crash, "Yikes... That's gonna be a helluva construction bill."

"Good, she's being taken care of," The man that was once Script said as he looked ahead, the straight haired Pinkie Pie rushing towards him as she leaped up with dark intent in her eye ready for a kick before he grabbed her outstretched leg and spun her, throwing her back into Applejack who tried to catch her and was sent into the snow once more. Rarity moved towards him swiftly with a crystal rapier in hand as he used his greater reach to send a swift jab her way and landing a shot to her nose making her fumble back before she spun and lunged towards him hoping to land a strike. Having seemed to learn from the first time, she dodged past his incoming jab only for a quick sideswipe to her lower abdomen to strike her with his free hand as another burn mark appeared in the spot he'd hit before booting her away and into the newly risen Pinkie and Applejack, "And would you brats stay down? It's just annoying at this point watching you try!" He roared at them as he looked towards Fluttershy who'd been keeping away from the conflict.
He slowly turned and moved towards her with hands smoking, the area around him melting and evaporating the snow, Fluttershy's empty eyes continuing to flood with tears as he neared her. Seeing this, Aether vanished from sight before reappearing and hovering in front of him with arms outstretched. "Hey, Big fella! We're not trying to kill them, just stop whatever's going on in their heads, capiche?" He said as the hot head scoffed out a small puff of fire, "I'll take that as an 'understood'. By the way, your name. What is it?" He inquired as he crossed one leg over the other floating in between he and Fluttershy.

"Not that it'll matter once everything in this odd world is done, but it's--" Before he could finish, Sunset burst free from the frozen pillar, breaking it into large chunks as a couple of relatively heavy chunks flew towards the three of them. Script roared and punched the ice into semi-melted pieces while Aether quickly turned and wrapped his arms around Fluttershy, the debris simply phasing through the two of them, "This one doesn't stay down long..."

After making sure the debris was past, he sighed and let her go looking towards Sunset, "Pretty sure it's that dumb tiara on her head. Belonged to Twilight in our world. If we can get it off'a her then we-- Whoa..." Aether said with a swoon as his eyes began to dull and stop glowing, landing onto the ground on his back with a groan. Shaking his head, he looked up towards Script and Fluttershy, then to Sunset, "W-What just... Aether?"

'Whoa... O-Okay, minor miscalculation... I can't hold it in that long around here. Seems like five minutes is about my limit. Until I'm juiced up again... You're on your own. Sorry.' Hearing this, Cloud's eyes widened as he slowly rose up to his feet with a bit of a dizzied sway.

"But... Then what about the--" Before the words could leave his mouth, Applejack and the others pulled their way out of the snow, holding their injured areas and stepping out glaring at him, "... Shit... Hey, at least I've still got--" He stopped once more as he looked over at the sound of gasping and collapsing to the ground as a panting, slightly shivering Script was back at his side, the rage and heat from before gone in an instant.

"Nope, sorry dude... Big guy's down for the count." He said standing up and leaning on him for a bit extra support, "Hey, things can't get worse though, right? Sonic's still out there giving Rainbow a fight!" he said with an optimistic pat on his shoulder.

"I get the feeling you're about to be proven horribly wrong..."

"Why'dya say tha-- Is that screaming?" he said as they both looked up seeing a blue and rainbow trail leading from the park as there was, in fact, screaming coming from it, the rainbow suddenly separating from the blue as Rainbow Dash hovered above them, Sonic falling and rolling up next to them with a groan as he looked up in a daze.

"Oh, hey guys! When'd you get to Antarctica? ... Oh, hello twinkly stars." He said before falling face first into the snow.

As the two looked down at their friend and then around them at the slowly approaching girls, Cloud just sighed and looked up at Script, "If we live through this, do me a favor."

"Whazzat?"

"Never say 'Things can't get worse' ever-- and I mean E V E R -- Again in your life." He said pulling Sonic onto his feet stumbling as he rose his fists up like an old-timey boxer as the girls began closing in.