My Pony Hero Academia: New Generation

by Autum Breeze

Chapters

Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 10
Chapter 9

Prologue

Pony Hero Academia: New Generation

Prologue

___________________________________________________________

I cry out in pain as my head slams into something, hard.

Groaning, I push myself up, looking around blearily.

What the heck just happened? One moment, I’m lying in bed watching the Ranma ½ episode Am I Pretty? Ranma’s Declaration of Womanhood after finally getting season 3 on DVD and now… I’m in a field of trees.

Um… what?

Pushing myself up, I frown as I notice my hands. Why in the world am I wearing white gloves?

Again, wasn’t I lying in bed in my pyjamas just a few seconds ago?

Standing up, I look around, frowning.

Wherever I am, I didn’t get here of my own accord. Something odd’s going on.

I glance down to see what in the world I’m wearing. I can tell it’s not my pyjamas, this is full body suit and my PJs are just an old shirt and boxer shorts. The more disturbing questions that brings up (who undressed me and put whatever I’m wearing now on and why), I’ll save for later.

I feel… perplexed at what I’m seeing.

Best I can make out, I’m wearing the main Hero outfit Izuku Midoriya wears in season four and onwards of My Hero Academia?

Why the heck am I…? Oh, no. Please don’t tell me I’ve somehow been turned into Deku and sent into the MHA world for some reason?

Glancing around quickly, I frown as I notice all the trees around me have pears on them.

Am I in some kind of pear orchard? Why?

Not only that, as I move my head, my hair comes into view. It’s the same green colour, but it’s seriously long. Why’d Deku let it get this long before I somehow found myself in his body?

“Deku’s body feels weird for some reason, too,” I think out loud, stretching my arms against each other… and frown. “Um… that’s not Deku’s voice. I sound like Rimuru Tempest from That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime. Huh? Why do I sound like him?”

The hell? That doesn’t even begin to make sense.

Quickly feeling myself over, wondering if I’m maybe actually Rimuru (and ignoring how the only explanation for looking like Deku would mean Rimuru somehow ended up in the MHA anime and ate Deku, because that’s really disturbing) I push, my hands on my chest... the response far squishier than expected.

My eyes slowly move down to where my hands are, which are stretching out more than they should for being on Deku’s chest and I give a small squeeze.

Instantly, a flurry of sensations run through my brain that don’t add up to Deku or in general.

Moving my hands away from my chest, I slowly lower one down where something else should be.

When I feel nothing, my blood goes cold and I drop to my knees.

“Hey, Diddle Diddle, there is no fiddle,” I murmur dejectedly.

What the flying fuck is going on here?

Why am I Deku? Why do I sound like Rimuru Tempest? And WHY THE FLYING FUCK AM I A GIRL?!

___________________________________________________________

“Okay, okay. Calm now? Keep it that way,” I firmly tell myself.

I’ve just spent I’d guess over an hour freaking the fuck out about my current situation.

Thankfully, running around like an idiot chicken with its head cut off and yelling at the top of my lungs somehow calmed me down.

Either that or the adrenaline just ran out.

Regardless, I’ve managed to calm down, so I can at least take stock of the situation.

“So, you’re somehow Deku, you sound like Rimaru and you’re a girl,” I tell myself. “Well, at least the being a girl part explains the long hair. And, I guess, if MHA is involved, it could’ve been worse or weirder.”

Folding my arms, flinching as I end up squeezing my new breasts, I sigh.

“This literally makes no sense. Did Deku get hit with some kind of Quirk that changed his gender and this is how Deku sounds as a girl? I do remember a fan comic about that kind of Quirk, but I never looked too much into it and seriously doubt that something similar would be a real part of the show for more than a quick gag, like that Zombie Slave Quirk.”

Talking to myself might seem odd, but it was a way I kept my thoughts organized in my old life and it could also help keep me calm in uncomfortable or worrying situations.

And, suddenly finding yourself somewhere that is not your home, in a gender flipped version of a My Hero Academia character, is definitely what I’d qualify as a worrying situation.

Question is, where do I go from here?

I’ve no clue where I am and appearing in front of anyone as Deku could cause a multitude of problems.

Plus, there’s no telling how much distance I’ll need to travel before finding anyone to talk to.

Sure, I’m in a field of pear trees, so I’m likely in someone’s orchard, but how big is said orchard and how long would it take me to go through it on foot?

Blinking, I look down at my hands and flex them.

Wait. If I’m Deku, a girl version or not, could that mean…?

Closing my eyes, I remember what Deku said to Gran Torino in season two, thinking about power moving through my body.

At once, my body feels hot. Opening my eyes, I blink in confusion as I see blue electricity crackling around me.

Wasn’t that supposed to be green?

Shaking it off, I try to see if I can lower the temperature of the heat moving through my body, focusing on that thought alone.

It works at once, as I feel an immense decrease in the heat until it feels just above lukewarm.

Okay. If I’m right, I’m now channelling 1% of Deku’s Quirk, One For All.

Even if this body is Deku’s, I don’t want to risk injuring myself too much using his… urm, her (?) Quirk until I know more.

Looking ahead, I brace my legs, take a deep breath, then move forward.

It’s instant. I suddenly find myself flying just above the ground, propelled by the power of, well, I guess, my Quirk.

I see a tree coming towards me and find myself able to move my body to turn away from it easily, landing against another tree and rebounding off of it.

Man, this feels kinda cool, actually.

I keep it up for a few minutes, before finding myself coming out of the trees onto a dirt road, where what I see shocks me so much I lose focus and my Quirk stops, causing me to flop forward, skidding in the dirt for several moments, before coming to a halt.

Pushing myself up, I find myself torn between being excited and wanting to deadpan.

Ahead of me, not too far into the distance, is the old rustic looking town of none other than Ponyville. Even if there’s no sign of the Castle of Eyesore, as some in the fandom like to put it, anyone who’s watched FiM til at least season four can recognise that town.

I right myself, sitting down, one knee propped up, just staring in bewilderment.

“I’m in a situation like one of those stories where a random person gets sent to Equestria as a character from another franchise? Seriously?”

I blink.

“Wait. Is that how I got here?”

Closing my eyes and frowning, I shake my head.

“Hmm, no. I don’t remember anything about some being talking to me before finding myself slamming into that tree. Nor running into the fabled Merchant. And I know I didn’t have any papers or anything explaining why I’m Deku, if a female version. What’s going on here?”

And that’s definitely a good thing. At least I don’t have to worry about whether or not I ticked off some being who wanted me to fight for them in some kind of battle, only for me to turn them down because they changed me beforehand.

After a few moments of sitting in the road, thinking, I decide to through caution to the wind.

A human randomly walking into town would draw a lot of attention, but, hey, the quicker I get Princess Twilight’s attention, the better, I guess.

...

Provided Twilight IS a princess. For all I know, this Equestria could be pre-Equestria Girls or even pre-Magical Mystery Cure.

Glancing behind me out of curiously, I see Sweet Apple Acres not too far off, along with the fields of pear trees I just came out of.

Those must be from the Pear’s farm, what’s left after the family itself left, anyway. Doubt it will be getting any TLC until Grand Pear comes back. Was Granny secretly doing her best to keep it going all this time, in memory of Pear Butter?

Deciding to forgo One For All this time, I get up and make my way into town.

As expected, the moment I walk through the boarder, pony heads turn in my direction.

I just wave and call out “hi” or “hello”, even throwing in a few “How’s it hangin’”s in there too, for good measure.

Either I’m at a point in the series where the ponies don’t care anymore, or it works, because they slowly go back to what they’re doing.

It seems, despite being Deku, I arrived in an ordinary version of Equestria.

The ponies look like, well, just ponies.

The pegasi are flying overhead. Earth Ponies are tending to flowers or doing some manual labour. Unicorns levitating stuff as they go about their day to day lives.

Nothing really out of the ordinary aside from myself.

As I’m walking along, pretending like it’s just an ordinary day for myself, my blood runs cold as I suddenly remember something. More specifically, somepony.

I silently start praying to whatever deities are out there that I do not run into the mint green unicorn known to be obsessed with humans.

“Hi, there!”

I scream in fright... suddenly finding myself several feet in the air.

Blinking in confusion, I look down to see gravity is quickly reasserting its hold on me and I brace myself for the impact… but don’t feel it.

Opening my eyes, I look down to see I’m… floating? My face is maybe an inch from the ground. Huh?

Soon as I’ve notice it, it’s like whatever force was holding me up vanishes and I flop to the ground.

“Wow! That was so amazing! How’d you jump that high? What are you? What’s your name? Where do you come from? Do you like chocolate cake? Would you like that at your Welcome Party?”

I deadpan into the dirt.

Okay. I know I don’t need to fear Lyra Heartstrings having found me, because that voice and rapid fire questions could only be coming from one pony.

Pushing myself up and standing, dusting myself off, I look down to the pink Party Pony with balloons for a Cutie Mark that is none other than Pinkie Pie herself.

“Hello, Pinkie Pie,” I say, finishing dusting myself off. “And, in order, used my Quirk out of fear, human, I suppose Deku will do for now, Earth, yes and I suppose.”

If my way on answering her confused the pink pony, she doesn’t show it. She simply salutes. “You got it, Nana. See you later, after your talk with Twilight.”

With that, she bounces off, a bouncing sound effect happening each time she lifts from the ground.

I watch her go… more puzzled than anything else.

Did she just call me Nana? Huh? I just told her to call me Deku.

Sighing in slight frustration, I head off towards where I can tell Golden Oak Library is, since the top of a tree is just barely visible above a building nearby.

A few minutes later, I’m standing outside the sadly fated to be destroyed old tree and knock on the door.

“Coming,” Cathy Wesluck’s voice calls from the other side.

A few moments later, the door opens to reveal a little purple dragon with a green stomach and spikes on his back.

“Hey, Spike,” I wave, not able to hide the grin that forms at the dragon’s open mouthed stare. “Is Twilight home? I kinda need to talk with her about something.”

Spike slowly shakes his head. “She’s… not in right now. She’s helping Applejack over at Sweet Apple Acres.”

I blink, before deadpanning. “Seriously? I just came from there. You’re telling me I missed her by moving away from where she was?” I facepalm. “Well, isn’t that irony for ya?”

Spike lets me in and we move into the kitchen, where he makes us both a cup of coffee, myself adding a lot of milk to cool it down quickly, as I prefer my coffee cold.

“So… why’re you dressed like some character out of a comic book? Your costume kinda looks like Mistress Marevellous, but her outfit isn’t green, ” Spike asks, before blinking and smiles sheepishly. “Oh, right. Uh, what’s your name? You know mine, but I don’t seem to know yours.”

I frown down into my mug. “Well, I’ve turned into a female version of the character called Deku, but, for some reason, Pinkie Pie called me Nana.”

Spike raises an eyebrow. “That is odd. Pinkie doesn’t ignore somepony’s name and give them her own. Well, unless you count Nightmare Moon the day we first got here, but that’s not the same.”

I nod, putting my hands together and resting my chin on them. “It does feel weird for Pinkie Pie to do. I mean, Nana was the name of the person who had Deku’s Quirk before the guy who gave it to Deku, but that doesn’t explain why Pinkie would call me that when I’m clearly Deku, if a female version of him, for whatever reason.”

To the odd look Spike gives me, I answer with a brief summary of My Hero Academia, some of the characters and the basics of Quirks and how they work. And how One For All works.

He frowns, rubbing his chin. “So, is this Deku person still in that body with you?”

I shake my head. I’ve definitely tried to hear if Deku was in my body. I even tried mentally calling out to the Vestiges of One For All, thinking they might help me figure this out a little, even though I had no clue how to actually do that, but there was nothing.

Spike hums, rubbing his chin. “Rats. That could’ve helped a little. Hmm. So, you’re not from the human world Twilight and I went to, but a totally different one?”

I nod.

“And this body is from another different human world from yours, where everyone has some power called a Quirk?”

I shake my head. “Like I said, not everyone. It’s rare, but, sometimes, someone will be born without a Quirk and never develop one throughout their whole life. Deku was such a person, so was All Might. The guy who had Deku’s Quirk before he did. ”

“So… is it possible, before you somehow ended up in his body, this Deku guy ended up effected by some Quirk that switched him from a boy into a girl?”

I shrug. “That was my best guess. But, in truth? I’m clueless on this, Spike.”

Twilight arrives back at the library a few hours later.

To say she was stunned to see a human in Equestria is an understatement. She was flabbergasted. Since Rainbow Rocks has not happened yet, the idea of a human somehow being in Equestria is understandably shocking for her.

We spent most of what was left of the day going over what we could, explaining the character I’d become, Quirks, pretty much anything we could think of to try and figure out WHY I became Deku at all.

I also used that time to secretly see if I could figure out where in the MLP timeline I ended up. Twilight being an Alicorn already confirming at least after season three and her knowing what a human is meaning after Equestria Girls.

Thanks to an offhand comment from Spike about the Flim Flam brother’s fake miracle cure tonic that almost got Granny Smith killed, I’m able to figure out that I arrived in an Equestria just after the events of that episode, but before the finale with Tirek.

We get interrupted not long after I pieced that together in my head by Pinkie Pie bringing us to my Welcome to Ponyville Party and weren’t really able to keep talking during said party, myself being occupied with meeting other ponies and constantly having to explain who I was, what I was and whatever else I was asked that I could actually answer.

At one point, I did run into the dreaded mint green unicorn, but her secret agent future wife thankfully kept her restrained, though I fear it is a temporary relief.

The party lasts into the night, at which point, Twilight offers to let me stay at the library, informing me she’ll send a letter to Celestia in the morning and we can properly start trying to figure things out.

Unfortunately, due to Rarity not having known about me beforehand and having no time after the party, I have no nightwear, so find myself embarrassed as I sleep in the nude, being sure to keep the covers over every inch of my body that I can.

I do have a sports bra and panties, but I don’t like the idea of sleeping in anything I was wearing all day if they’re not my pyjamas on a day where I spent the whole day relaxing in bed.

It takes a while, but, I eventually fall asleep.

___________________________________________________________

I’m facing some kind of blue… thing.

Best I can describe is it looks a tear of blue in the middle of the air before me, with multiple machines of some kinds of varying sizes. There’s a woman kneeling over a projector-like device in front of the blue... thing, seeming to be working on something within the mechanics of the device.

It takes a second for me to realize it’s an adult Hatsume, clearly in her forties or early fifties.

“Do you understand, Nana? This is a one way trip.”

[I feel myself nodding.

I’m not in control of my body, someone else is. What the hell?

Wait. Did she just call my Nana, just like Pinkie Pie did?

“Your father and mother would be proud of you in they weren’t buying us as much time as possible. Your siblings sure were angry at the idea,” Hatsume goes on, sounding genuinely sad as she continues to work on the device. “Too bad you had no time to pratice with that Quirk that was forced onto you.”

“But, what about grandpa?” I find my mouth asking. “He said I should be okay learning it on my own. No ill side effects have happened with the other victims so long as they were compatible. Dunno how I was, though. Did they find out anything?”

Hatsume nods. “Yeah... and no. You likely will suffer no ill effects... but we can’t be sure, since we will lose all contact with you after this. Sorry your family couldn’t see you off. A kid should never be forced to leave without being able to say one final goodye.”

I feel myself frown in annoyance and fold my arms. “But, I wanted to follow in grandpa footsteps.”

Hatsume chuckles, pausing in her work and standing up, putting hand on my head and ruffling my hair. “Yeah, yeah, I know. You’re so much like your grandfather was at your age. And, if not for the League of Villains traveling through that warp, I’m sure Izuku would’ve been glad to have you succeed him. As it is…”

I feel myself sigh dejectedly. “I know, I know. I just wish grandpa could’ve seen me off, if no one else.”

“If it weren’t for the massive mess those damn bastards left, I guarantee you he would,” she grins. “It will take a while, but we can get back to the peace from before. With the League’s main heads gone, we can end this new League well before it gets to what happened when your grandparents and I were your age.” I can see a crease in her brow. “Now, once you pass through the warp, it’ll close for good, understand? The League were determined to not be followed, so us getting this one chance is a miracle in and of itself.”

I nod. “Got it. This is what I’ve been training for.”

Wait a sec. New League? So, this isn’t the same League of villains? And what was that earlier about Nana having a Quirk forced upon her? They can’t have meant One For All, so... does Nana have a different Quirk? It doesn’t sound like she had it prior. Did she get it before she got One For All?

“We don’t know what kind of world you’ll end up in, so be on your guard,” she returns to working on the device. “With all those stolen Quirks at their disposal, the damage they could do to a world without Quirks is incalculable, even if the number of Quirks they have is limited.”

My body nods again, while my brain’s going a billion miles a minute.

Hold up, hold up, HOLD UP!

The way my body and this figure are talking, they’re making it sound like Deku is a grandfather now and… that he’s my body’s grandfather?

Did I somehow end up in the body of Deku granddaughter? What the flying fuck? I thought the Manga was still ongoing and was still in a war arc? What the actual hell?!

Suddenly, a massive explosion goes off nearby.

My body turns to face where the explosion came from. A bunch of people who look deformed, before I realize it’s just how their Quirks must’ve manifested, coming our way.

“Damnit! What the hell’s keeping you?!” Hatsume yells, several devices sprouting from the ground and firing lasers, missles and bullets towards the people coming towards us. “Move it, kid!” she yells at me, her eyes obscured by her goggles as she glares at me for a second. “I don’t know how much longer my babies can keep this up!”

My head nods and I feel One For All briefly passing through my body, before I propel forward, heading for what I now realize is a portal.

“Not so fast, little Midoriya,” a familiar, if deeper voice says.

My body glancing to my right, I can see a rocky wall and someone moving out from within it.

It’s Monoma from class 1-B at UA, but older. What the hell?

He starts rushing towards me, his hand outstretched, a manic grin spreading across his face.

My eyes would widen if I were in control of my body as it dawns on me.

He’s trying to stop, they keep calling me Nana, so I’m guessing Nana, from getting through that portal and Hatsume just said Nana needs to go through it to stop the League of Villains.

Monoma is a villain?! I called it. I fucking knew he’d turn to the dark side. No one with an attitude as despicable, condescending and projecting like that could be a hero.

I just knew, after the way he spoke with Shinso in season five, that he would eventually stop pretending to be a hero and would go villain.

Why was he not the UA traitor instead of Aoyama again?

Judging by the way he came out of that rock, he must’ve copied Lemillion’s Quirk or one very similar. But, how’s he going to use that to stop Nana?

“It’s a good thing I copied this before those pesky heroes killed her!” he yells, a large white, translucent tendril flying from his mouth, aimed right at Nana.

My body speeds up and I lose sight of Monama as he ends up behind me.

I watch helplessly from within as the tendril slams through Nana’s chest, a translucent image of a girl who looks just like Deku with longer hair seeming to be pushed out of my body, before vanishing.

Next thing I know my vision goes blue as my now Nanaless body continues with the momentum it had built up and falls through the portal and into the void.

___________________________________________________________

I gasp, collapsing to the ground, my breathing heavy.

“I have seen some truly disturbing dreams in my long lifetime, but never to that extent.”

My head snaps up to see a blue equine with deep blue fur , piercing blue eyes and a mane and tail that look and move like the night sky itself phase into being before me. Princess Luna.

Glancing around, I realize I’m… not in a field of stars. I’m on some kind of… open rocky field in a world of darkness?

“Correct,” Luna says, as if reading my thoughts. “This is a dream, but not a dream. It would seem this scape was created by both yourself and another.”

“Nana’s soul,” I lift my hands, looking down at them as they shake before me. “That image of her I saw leaving her body… it was her soul. Monama copied a Quirk that allowed him to literally force her soul out of her body?!”

Luna nods, her expression grim, before glancing around. “I am unclear how long I can be here. This is not the Dream Realm. I do not think I am welcome here. However, know this, Nana Midoriya; you must not blame yourself for somehow finding yourself in possession of her body. It could be that, when her soul was forced out, another was needed to fill the void and the universe chose you.”

I look around, wondering if the Vestiges will be angry at my being here.

Luna scowls. “Do not pretend I did not just speak, human. Until we meet in the waking world.”

With that, the Alicorn of the Night fades away and I briefly catch a glimpse of a girl's figure, before everything goes dark.

Author's Note

Don't you freaking hate it when the writing bug suddenly bites and you HAVE to deal with it before it gets too annoying?

I literally came up with this idea while relistening to Might+U today.

seriously don't know why. the idea just suddenly popped into my head after i finished listening to it it and i was like "Whelp, that's gonna keep annoying me all week until i write down at least a prologue", so, here we are.

i promise, i have no clue why this showed up in my head like it did, including the part about Nana's name, but it happened.

honestly don't know how well this works. if it goes badly, i'll ditch it, but i needed to at least get this out of my head once it nawed it's way in there.

hope you could at least somewhat enjoy it and it doesn't suck too much.

will try to update it again before August, but don't hold me to that. i'm honestly unsure with this one.

~~as a little help for those not too familiar with MHA, here's a list of the Quirks within One For All Nana Midoriya has waiting in the wings, what with her being the 11th(?) holder.~~

~~Nana Midoriya’s (Known in the Anime and Manga as of 12/10/2022) All For One Quirks:~~

~~1. Transference – allows the user to pass their quirk to another through willing consumption of the user's DNA.~~
~~2. One For All - basically the energy push throughout the body. a stockpiling quirk that gathers energy over time, which in turn feeds into all the other quirks within it, making them more powerful than they were originally.~~
~~3. Float - allows the user to levitate and suspend themselves in mid-air. With the added enhances of the stockpiled energy from One For All, Float becomes drastically more powerful, allowing the user to fly at high speeds.~~
~~4. Blackwhip - Energy ropes burst forth from the user, they can use these energy outputs to not only assault opponents with, but also trap them within their insanely strong vice and can come from literally any part of the body.~~
~~5. Fa Jin - allows its holder to build up kinetic energy within their body by repeating motions over and over and release it all from any part of the body they wish or even through other quirks (combining One For All 45% it can result in speed and strength on par with One For All 100%, minus the backlash 100% would normal cause) in an instant or in spurts. When used, it dramatically increases the user's speed and power, but, once Fa Jin's energy is used up, the energy will need to be restocked in order to be used again.~~
~~6. Smokescreen - Originally used by En, it Allows the user to generate large amounts of smoke in an area to obscure the vision of their opponents and catch them by surprise or make a quick getaway.~~ ~~(As of the most recent chapter, as of 25th February 2024, this Quirk is no longer part of One For All., so likely will not exist in this story moving forward and any previous hints of it have been removed for the time being)~~
~~7. Danger Sense - The Quirk wielded by the fourth user, Hikage Shinomori. This Quirk allows the user to detect nearby threats or even simple actions with malicous intent behind them. However, if intents by those with no malicious thoughts are deadly, they cannot be sensed.~~ ~~(As of the most recent chapter, as of 24th December 2023, this Quirk is no longer part of One For All., so likely will not exist in this story moving forward and any previous hints of it have been removed for the time being).~~
~~8. Gear Shift – Originally the Quirk of the 2nd User of One For All, the user can shift the speed of themselves anything they touch by a max of quintuple speed and, when switching back to a lower speed (Low Gear), the user's body can ignore the force of inertia. It has a time limit of 5 minutes, however as the backlash is so severe it is a last resort only.~~ (As of the most recent chapter, as of 26th January 2024, this Quirk is no longer part of One For All., so likely will not exist in this story moving forward and any previous hints of it have been removed for the time being)
~~9. Cell Activation – Nana’s father’s Quirk, activates cells to increase the regeneration of the body's cells and healing. can be used on the user themself as well as others. With a boost from One For All, this Quirk can heal almost any injury or ailment and can subconsciously heal the user~~

MAJOR REWRITE HERE!

So, since Deku literally does not possess One For All by the end of the war, only Embers, Nana's actual Quirk in this story is going to be changed too.

It will be similar enough, just missing basically everything that was waiting in the wings.

Nana's Quirk is called One For All: Flying Embers.

This means she has dual layered Quirk, due to genetics, a stockpiled Crystallization of power thanks to Deku, raw energy.

One For All Embers - basically the energy push throughout the body. a stockpiling quirk that gathers energy over time, which in turn feeds into all quirks within it, making them more powerful than they were originally.
Levitate - an evolution of a Quirk from earlier in the user's bloodline, allows the user to levitate and suspend themselves in mid-air. With the added enhances of the stockpiled energy from One For All, flight is achievable through subconsciously manipulating of the air around the body.
Cell Activation – The Quirk forced upon Nan, further explained later on in the story, activates cells to increase the regeneration of the body's cells and healing. can be used on the user themself as well as others. With a boost from One For All, this Quirk can heal almost any injury or ailment and can subconsciously heal the user

Chapter 1

___________________________________________________________

My eyes snap open and I jolt up in bed, breathing heavily, my body in a cold sweat.

Holy freaking heck. That was intense.

Suddenly, my body apparently remembers I just woke up, so I go from being wide awake to feeling groggy as one does when suffering jetlag.

Yawning, I slip out of bed and make my way downstairs to the kitchen, where I find Spike and Twilight setting the table for breakfast.

There’s two plates, a cup of coffee in front of each, with what looks like French toast and a glass of apple juice in front of a plate with rubies.

“Morning, Deku,” Spike says, looking to me as he moves to sit down, before pausing, his expression seeming puzzled.

I yawn loudly, saying “Morning,” as I do.

Twilight pauses where she is, several jars of spreads held in her magic. “Um… don’t your species prefer to be wearing clothing, even if only a little bit of clothing?”

I look at her in confusion. “Yeah. Your point?”

She indicates down my body with her eyes.

Confused, I look down… so see my boobs… in clear view... along with the rest of me... completely naked.

There’s a long pause, before my face goes bright red and I rush back to the bedroom, hastily grabbing my Hero Costume, before looking down at myself.

Sniffing, I winch, deciding to head for the bathroom for a shower.

With how exhausted I’d been after Pinkie’s Welcome Party, I’d been too tired to shower and just gone to bed.

Odd that I was tired, yet being naked in bed was enough to make it harder to sleep. Why didn’t I just shower anyway?

Shaking my head, I call out to Twilight that I’m just taking a quick shower, before stepping under the water.

The warm water immediately makes my body release tension I hadn’t even realized I was feeling.

It takes a bit of courage, but I eventually get to cleaning myself.

Washing my hair isn’t too tricky, almost second nature. Did I let my hair grow long normally back home?

It’s hard to remember. Ever since I found myself in Deku’s granddaughter’s body, recalling my own memories has been… spotty, at best.

I can vaguely remember things, but very vaguely, almost like they were I dream I have to struggle to remember.

Either way, the hair isn’t what I have to use courage for… it’s the rest of me.

Washing my breasts makes me feel incredibly self-conscious.

Not only is it such a different sensation from washing yourself as a man, but I can’t ignore the fact this is the body of Deku’s granddaughter, not mine.

I keep feeling like I’m doing something illegal here, even if I’m the one physically in control of the body.

Once I’ve finished, I get out, steam filling the room.

As I dry myself off, it’s impossible not to notice myself in the full length mirror on the wall.

I look… good. Like, really good.

I didn’t really give my body a good look when I went to bed and I’d been wearing the Hero Costume all day, so never actually seen the body itself, the costume actually kinda hiding how my body really looks, a lot like most of Izuku’s clothes did in the show.

Now, though, I’m getting a clear view, and it’s impressive.

Sure, there’s the thing any guy interested in girls would notice, the boob size, they look about as big as Uraraka’s do in the anime.

But, that’s not what draws my attention the most.

For a girl, Deku’s granddaughter is pretty jacked.

She’s nowhere near the level of, say, Gran Torino in his prime, but, damn, she’s buff.

If I had to make a comparison, looking at the muscles on this body is like looking at a mini Nana Shimura’s, if a tiny bit more muscular.

I try flexing, looking my reflection over.

I smirk. “Damn. Not bad.”

After a few moments, I realize what I’m doing, blush and rush to the bedroom, hurriedly putting my sports bra, panties and Hero Costume back on.

As I do, however, I notice something I hadn’t before, back when I thought I was just a female version of Deku. My costume isn’t the same as his from season five onwards.

It’s similar, but I can tell there isn’t as much of a focus on the legs as Deku’s was after season three, where he started using shoot style.

The gloves aren’t even designed for the wind pressure attacks he developed. They look the same as before he made Shoot Style. And the cape/scarf from the war arc is not included.

I guess Nana wanted to mixed the two types of fighting styles Deku used together to make her own?

I walk back into the kitchen a few minutes later, one arm wrapped around the other, my face still red with embarrassment.

We all sit down and have breakfast, not saying anything at first.

After a while, though, Twilight speaks up. “I hope you don’t mind, but, Princess Celestia got back to us this morning.”

I glance to her, toast still hanging in my mouth.

“She wants you to come with us to Canterlot today, immediately,” Twilight continues.

I break off my bite of toast and chew, nodding. Makes sense.

Luna probably informed her a bit in on what happened last night, so Celestia would understandably be concerned.

We finish breakfast, wash up and then catch the first train to Canterlot.

Less than two hours later, we’re walking through Canterlot Castle towards the throne room.

The guards escorting us keep glancing at me, their eyes filled with mixtures of trepidation, interest and bewilderment.

We walk into the throne room, the guards leaving.

Princess Celestia is sitting atop her throne, Luna standing beside her, the former… with a none too pleased look.

I got a bad feeling about this.

We walk up to the throne, the three of us bowing.

“Your Highness,” Spike and Twilight say with respectful tones.

“Princess Celestia,” I say, keeping my tone just as respectful, doing my best to hide the worry her expression fills me with.

Celestia and Luna share a glance, before the elder sister speaks. “My sister has informed me your name is Nana Midoriya, correct?”

I nod, lifting my head. “But, if you would be so kind, Your Highness, please call me Deku. Being referred to as Nana feels… weird.”

The white Alicorn just watches me for a few moments, before nodding. “Very well, Deku, if you would prefer. I wish to know why you are here, in my kingdom.”

I can’t help feeling confused. Didn’t Princess Luna explain that bit?

Clearly my throat, I decide to answer anyway.

“To start, Princess, I am not truly Nana Midoriya. This body is indeed hers,” I hold my arms out for emphasis, “but my spirit is not. I’m… afraid I cannot say who I once was, as my memories have become… fractured, I guess is the best word for it, since I found myself in Nana’s body.”

Celestia looks to her sister as if in answer to something, nodding, before returning her gaze to me.

Was she making sure I didn’t contradict what Luna had told her? Was she simply testing me?

“I have also been told you possess an incredible power called a... Quirk, if I am right?” she cocks an eyebrow at me. “Just how powerful are you? What is the extent of that power? And for what do you plan to do with it?”

I think about her questions very carefully, before being just as delicate with my answers.

“In truth, Princess Celestia, I do not know the extent of how powerful I am,” I put a hand over my chest. “This body is not my own, so I do not know how far in her training Nana was before she meant to come to Equestria. My only information about her, well, my Quirk now is what I know from her grandfather, Izuku Midoriya, the first Deku.”

“And the extent of his power?” Celestia asks, her tone firmly.

I gulp. One For All or not, if she gets pissed off enough, I don’t think one million percent would even be enough to save me from her wrath.

Taking a deep breath, I go over what I can remember from MHA in my head.

“Last time I checked, her grandfather could only handle a maximum of 20% of One For All’s power output. He also had awakened one of the Quirks within One For All, Blackwhip.”

“And Blackwhip is…?” her tone keeps setting off my flight or fight response, neither of which I know would help me in this situation if it comes down to it.

I gulp. “W-w-w-well,” I stutter, fiddling with my fingers, “B-B-Blackwhip is basically a catching and ensnaring Quirk. It produces energy tendrils from any part of the body and the user can command them at will. It can also be used to manoeuvre in a confined space. It’s a Quirk that, i-if I remember correctly, is powered by emotions, primarily anger, meaning the greater the anger, the stronger the Quirk becomes.”

Celestia’s eyes narrow, causing my blood to chill. “So, if you were to get angry enough, that Blackwhip would be a danger to my ponies?”

Shit! Shit, shit, shit, SHIT!

I wave my arms frantically. “I-I-I-I swear, I’d never intend to harm any of your subjects, in any sense, Princess! I-I don’t even known if Nana has awakened that Quirk yet. It could even be possible only Deku was able to pull it off. Once One For All was passed to Nana’s father and then her, it could very well have just gone back to being an energy stockpiling Quirk and nothing more!”

Celestia stands up, causing me to wince and Twilight and Spike to look nervous.

The white Alicorn’s horn glows with a golden light and a dome of the same colour forms around me.

As I glance around, scared shitless as to what’s about to happen, Celestia speaks, her tone cold. “Use your power.”

I look to her, confused. What?

“Use your Quirk, Nana Midoriya,” she orders, her eyes fixed firmly on me. “Show me you can control this power you claim to have. If you cannot, or will not, I must view you as an immediate threat to my country and my subjects.”

“Princess, this is going to far!” Twilight cries out, but her calls fall on deaf ears as Celestia doesn’t break her gaze.

I shudder. “B-but, I don’t know how strong this body really is. I don’t know if Nana even trained enough for more than 8%. Just because my last knowledge of Deku was 20%, it doesn’t mean Nana is at the same level!”

Celestia’s horn glows a bit brighter… and the dome starts to shrink!

Looking around frantically, I glance down… and realize the dome isn’t under me. Celestia only limited it to the air around me, not below my feet.

I have no idea if I could break a magical barrier, even at 100%, but a marble floor?

Even 1% could probably do that.

Doing my best to calm my breathing, I do my best to remember what I did back when I first got to Equestria.

At once, I feel that warmth moving through my body again, hearing small sparking sounds. However, I decide to make it a little hotter than last time, just in case.

“Okay,” I say firmly, pulling a fist back and swing at the floor. “One For All: Full Cowling, 5%!”

The energy output is instant. I feel the force of my punch quickly pass through the marble, the backwind almost sending me flying backwards into the dome.

The floor cracks instantly, crumbling away like wet tissue paper, a hole rapidly expanding the area within the dome.

The spark of joy I feel is short lived, though, as a golden glow quickly covers the hole, stopping me from falling through.

Looking up frantically, I see Celestia is now scowling.

Now I’m slightly pissed. What’s this even for? Why’s Celestia putting me through this?

Looking around at the ever shrinking dome, I decide, since she cut off the only opening it could give myself, I’m going to have to break the barrier.

I try again, this time letting the heat increase further. I do so until I suddenly feel a slight strain.

That’s my limit. Just wish I knew what percentage it was. I’d guessed 5%, mostly saying it in hopes it could make Celestia stop when she saw what merely 5% could do, but I don’t know for sure.

Since it’s my limit, I’m going to guess 20%, since that’s Deku’s max by the first half of season five.

“Alright, Princess!” I shout, glaring at her, blue electricity crackling around me. “You wanna see my power? You got it. One For All: Full Cowling, 20%!”

I thrust my arm forward. The wind pressure immediately rush outward, bouncing around with immense force throughout the dome.

It’s a struggle just to stay standing in what I bet standing in a hurricane would feel like, but I do my best.

The dome doesn’t break, however and continues to shrink, the amount of room left less than a few feet.

My survival instincts are going off like mad. If this doesn’t stop soon, this dome will crush me.

But, I can’t risk using any more power than 20%. The slight pain I felt proves that’s my body’s limit. Going any higher now would be too risky, especially since Recovery Girl doesn’t exist in this universe and I doubt healing magic would do us good a job.

“Princess, please, stop!” Twilight’s voice yells from somewhere, but I’m too focused on my approaching death to care.

After another minute, the dome barely giving me any room to move, I make up my mind.

Screw it. It’s go for broke. Either I use 100%, or I’ll be crushed to death.

I want to believe Celestia would stop this before that happens, this being Celestia, but I don’t know how much I can truly trust that. The way she’s been looking at me isn’t a look she often wore in the show and, the few times she did, it didn’t end well.

I clench my fists, getting into a stance and focus.

I imagine One For All like a pot at the most highest boiling point on the stove. Up til now, I’d been slightly lifting the lid, letting small amounts of heat out.

Now, I’m just taking the lid off all together, releasing all that pent up heat in one moment.

At once, my body is wracked with pain. It feels like every cell in my body is literally on fire.

The wind pressure around me is beyond intense. I can’t even think of a word to describe it.

Struggling to keep my eyes open through the pain surging throughout my entire being, I look to Celestia through the dome. Her expression has changed. She looks worried.

Suddenly, a thought just appears in my head. I don’t know where it comes from, but I trust it.

Pulling back my fist, I scream from the top of my lungs, “SMASH!”

What happens next is honestly a blur.

I hear the sound of a massive explosion, screams of fear and confusion, feeling something warm held tightly in my arms… then everything goes black.

___________________________________________________________

As consciousness returns to me, I’m aware of a soft, comfortable mattress beneath me.

Was… was all of that… just a dream?

A quick shift of my body causing my naked breasts to rub against the cover, sending a jolt through my body and getting rid of any grogginess.

Nope. Definitely not a dream.

Sitting up, making sure to keep the covers over my body, I look around.

I’ve been in hospital a few times, so I know a hospital wing when I see one.

Why am I…?

Suddenly, I remember.

The magical dome, going 100% and… nothing.

I must’ve blacked out after using One For All at full power.

Letting the covers fall, I quickly look myself over… only to feel confused.

I don’t feel… anything. Not one bit of pain, nor do I see any sign of scaring. Even my legs, where I’d assume most of my power went, since the Shot Style legs of my outfit is near identical to Deku’s, aren’t even scared.

Did… I actually go 100% or just imagine that part? Did I subconsciously stop myself going all out, even when I’d decided to do so?

The sound of a door opening makes me look up to see a unicorn stallion walk in. his fur’s grey, his mane and tail brown and his eyes, behind rimmed spectacles, are blue.

I can’t make out his Cutie Mark due to his coat covering it just enough to obscure it from view.

He seems to notice me staring and smiles, looking behind him. “Nurse, inform the princesses she’s awake.” He turns back to me, before looking away, a slight blush forming. “Miss Deku, even if you’re proud of your child, please cover your teats.”

Confused by his words, I glance down to realize my chest has been bare for probably a while now.

At once, my face goes red and I pull the covers over my chest, glaring at him. “I’m not pregnant, you jerk! This is just how big they are naturally! And I would cover them if I had my bra! Why the hell am I nude?!”

Not long after (once a nurse provides me with at least my sports-bra), Celestia, Luna, Twilight and Spike arrive.

The solar monarch immediately starts apologizing, explaining how she’d wanted to test how I’d react. Given the power she told I held, she’d worried I’d just try and destroy the castle to get away after my first attempts to get out of the dome failed.

And, by going 100%, I did indeed destroy a good amount of the castle, mostly just the throne room and nearby corridors.

However, I’d apparently blacked out by that point, but didn’t actually pass out completely.

Understandably, with a part of the castle just suddenly collapsing, many ponies couldn’t get away and had started falling.

As if on instinct, I’d apparently used Shoot Style, judging by the way they describe it, and saved literally everypony in the castle, getting them all to safety.

It was only once everypony was safe and outside the collapsed area of the castle that I’d passed out, hissing in pain despite no longer being conscious.

As the doctors and nurses had removed my costume to treat my wounds… something odd happened, though.

When they’d removed my clothing, my arms and legs were in a bad state. They were red raw, with no skin seemingly left on them.

However, just as they’d started to attempt to treat my injuries, my whole body had glowed with a yellow light.

Worried, they hadn’t done anything and just watched on. As they did so, slowly, my skin grew back and my injuries healed. It took almost a whole day, but, once the light faded, I looked like I hadn’t been injured at all.

“That… doesn’t make sense,” I say once everything’s been explained. “One For All doesn’t heal the user’s body. That’s not part of it.”

“Regardless, it is what happened,” Luna says, a small smirk on her lips. “It would seem you have more to learn about your Quirk than you thought, Deku.”

I nod, looking down to my left hand and clenching it. It would appear I do.

“Again, I must apologize, Deku,” Celestia says, her expression practically pleading. “After Luna explained what she could gathered about the League of Villains, I feared you could’ve been part of them, pretending to be a good soul in Nana Midoriya’s body.”

I cock an eyebrow. “Come again?”

“Despite my assurances, my sister was worried there may have been more to that soul removing Quirk we observed in your dream memory,” Luna says. “She thought, if a soul had replaced Nana Midoriya’s not long after her soul was removed, could it have been a Quirk that transfers a soul? One that kicks the soul out of one body to take its place?”

I shudder. Actually, that’s a disturbingly possible idea. I know about Quirks that feed off others’ life energy, so a Soul Replacing Quirks isn’t too unbelievable.

Heck, isn’t that kind of what All For One’s Quirk did to Shigaraki, letting All For One essentially take over Shigaraki’s body?

“I feared, after what my sister said, you could’ve been that Mo-na-ma person, now in control of that body,” Celestia continues, her having to sound out Monama’s name in order to say it properly. “However, when the area of the castle started collapsing, your instinct to save everypony told me you couldn’t just be putting on an act. You are a good soul.”

I nod, before frowning. Something just mentioned is nagging at my brain.

It takes a moment, before my eyes widen as it dawns on me and I look to the four of them, my eyes wide with fear. “The League of Villains! They’re here, in Equestria!”

Luna holds up a hoof. “Yes, Deku. We are aware.”

I pause in my panic, looking to her in confusion. “And, you’re not worried because…?”

“Oh, we’re worried,” Luna says bluntly. “Absolutely fucking petrified.”

I blank. Okay. Did not expected that exact sentence to come out of Luna’s mouth.

Celestia gives her sister a disapproving look, before turning back to me. “It’s true. Luna has already told me about the League of Villains. We have scout teams already out looking for them and messages are being sent across the land. If anypony or creature notices beings of a similar appearance to yourself, they are to inform us immediately and maintain their distance. We don’t know what Quirks the League will have at their disposal or how many.”

“I… don’t suppose you could help clear that up a bit?” Twilight asks hopefully.

I just shake my head. “I have no clue who this League of Villains is. Since Midoriya was old enough to have a grandchild, chances are, this is a completely different League of Villains from the one I know. There’s no telling what personalities and Quirks they have. I don’t even know how long they’ve been in Equestria. The memory I have of Nana’s last moments suggests a bit of time had passed since the League went through the warp Nana tried to go through, so they could’ve been here for a whole year for all I know.”

They all sigh dejectedly, before Twilight smiles at me. “Well, in the meantime, Princess Celestia has suggested you stay in Ponyville. There, you’ll have plenty of open spaces to practice improving your Quirk until we need it. I’m pretty sure you intended to fight the League if we find them, no matter if we tried to stop you or not.”

I nod. “You’re damn right. This wasn’t my fight, but the League made it mine when their actions put me in this body. I wasn’t one to back down from bullies before, so why would I now? And… wait,” I blink. “How do I remember that?”

My eyes widen as I suddenly realize, I can remember my past.

I mean, not entirely. Like, I don’t remember my old name, exactly how old I was, names or faces from my past, but I can remember other things, like places I’d been, things I’d done, the people I knew even without names or faces.

This is weird.

“From what I’ve gathered, using 100% of your power so suddenly may have triggered something within you,” Twilight says, though sounding a little bit unsure. “I’m not completely sure, but, maybe One For All, as you call it, helped link some synapses in your brain after you overused it.”

“Like how you can find pieces of food floating in dirty pots after filling them with too much water too fast,” Spike interjects.

Thanks for the not so pleasant example, there, my scaly friend.

“Anyway, if you wish to test your progress during your time here, I believe Zecora could use help keeping the monsters of the Everfree from running too wild,” Luna adds. “Not long ago she sent a warning to the courts, saying the monsters are getting a bit more restless since the Elements were returned to the Tree of Harmony. We’d been trying to figure out the best way to handle such a situation… and now one seems to have just plopped itself in front of us,” she indicates to me.

I grin. Fighting the monsters of the Everfree to improve my abilities? Sounds fun.

Not long after, they leave so I can get some more rest, Twilight saying she has a surprise for me tomorrow, should the doctor say I’m free to leave.

As I lay down, trying to get some sleep… I can’t help being worried.

The League of Villains have been hiding in Equestria for I have no idea how long. There’s no telling what they could be planning in a world full of magic. Not to mention…

I lift a hand, frowning at it. Why did my body seemingly heal itself? My Quirk shouldn’t be able to do that.

I’m worried what this could mean for One For All.

Could it be something to do with Equestria itself? Was the magic of this world changing One For All? Or is it that Quirk Hatsume said was forced on Nana?

___________________________________________________________

A biped figure stood in the shadows of the trees of the Everfree Forest, looking out towards Ponyville, smirking.

It would be so easy to make these worthless creatures suffer… but this wasn’t the time.

Now that they’d found the portal to the human mirror world, they could put their plans into motion, building their names and changing the world to meet their design.

And, this time, there were no heroes to stop them.

Author's Note

Strange how some days can just make you wanna write.

Maybe i just wanted to have Deku set up for living in Equestria, maybe i wanted to plant some early hints i couldn't let chapter.

regardless, i ended up spending most of my birthday writing this, so i hope it turned out alright.

I guess, one reason i wanted to write this was to establish how the MC was going to be addressed in the future, as well as a few other things here and there, along with dropping a few hints for future revelations.

also hope my righting of Celestia didn't feel too OOC. Considering it isn't too far off from when the Changeling Invasion happened, i'd think Celestia cautiousness would make sense, but i could be wrong and it could just ocme off OOC.

i really just don't know.

Anyway, it's after 3pm and i'd like to get this published so i can try to really enjoy the rest of my birthday.

Hope this chapter was satisfactory and, til next time, stay safe, stay clean and see you later everybody.

Chapter 2

___________________________________________________________

“Mareberra… Smash!” I yell, landing a sidekick against the body of a hydra.

It goes soaring through the forest, crashing through several trees, before landing with a mighty thud in a small ravine.

I land, cricking my neck, giving the four headed creature a dissatisfied look. “Dude, I didn’t even get passed 2%, and you thought you could become a dominant creature? That’s just sad.”

I turning around, I look up at the sky through the trees.

“Okay, Zecora,” I call out loudly, “hydra’s been dealt with. Bag and tag and transport.”

Still wonder how she does that.

Stretching, I head along the path back towards Ponyville.

It’s been a few weeks since I arrived in Equestria as Deku’s granddaughter.

In that time, everything aside from the finale’s events have played out pretty much as you’d expect. My presence didn’t really change anything.

Only significant change was my making sure Spike didn’t chock when he meant to light the torch at the Equestria Games, thus preventing Twilight from unintentionally making things worse.

Spike still saved the day there, since his feeling worthless during the original events didn’t happen, so he was already there and ready to help.

Unlike in the original events, though, I was the one to get him up to the frozen cloud to melt it with his fire breath.

Now, I’m just waiting for the finale’s events to happen. Can’t lie, I’ve been looking forward to testing my metal against Tirek… though feigning ignorance hasn’t been easy.

I mean, I know I need to let events mostly play out so Twilight can get her key, open the chest, unlock Rainbow Power, beat Tirek and get her castle… but it doesn’t feel very hero like to just let that happen.

A hero with prior knowledge should use it to keep everyone safe, but… I know these events have to play out, for Equestria’s future safety.

The finale should already be in motion, since Twilight and the other’s left yesterday for the Crystal Empire to meet the Duke and Duchess of Maretonia, though how long until Tirek comes to Ponyville is unclear.

Thankfully, since my Quirk isn’t based on magic, Tirek can’t take it away… which is definitely a good thing.

The idea of Tirek with One For All is downright terrifying.

As for how I’ve been fitting in all this time, I’ve been living with Twilight and Spike.

It has been a bit crowded, but I know, once Twilight gets her castle, living arrangements will be a lot easier.

While I’m wearing my Hero Costume, it isn’t my only clothing now.

The surprise Twilight had for me after I got out of the infirmary was a visit to Rarity’s boutique once we got back to Ponyville, where I learned Rarity had made me several outfits.

However, they were specially designed for me.

By that I mean, if I ever have to go overboard using my Quirk while not in my Hero Costume, they won’t just tear right away.

She designed them using a special type of thread made from my mana… which Twilight had taken while I’d been out cold, explaining why I’d been out for so long.

By using different gemstones, Twilight had extracted different colours of thread, thus allowing Rarity to make a variety of different clothes, including extra versions of my Hero Costume, should mine get too damaged.

Each colour also represents a different level to which my clothes should be able to last against my Quirk’s power, though she was unclear on what each one’s level was.

As for the names of my attacks, thanks to some of my memories returning, while where I lived exactly is still unclear, I know I lived somehwere in Australia, so decided to name my attacks after places in its Equestria counterpart, Austailia.

Ponyville adapted to my presence pretty quickly.

Of course, it helped that I was willing to do a lot of heavy lifting around the town, something I could do pretty well, even without my Quirk to some degree.

Like All Might said in MHA’s second episode, “Heroes were those who helped the community, even if it was boring”.

Plus, the more physical labour I do around town, the less I have to excise to help my body get stronger so I can handle more of One For All’s power.

I stop by a café and order a sandwich. Thankfully, they do have options that aren’t pony food, such as sandwiches with spreads, like peanut butter, jam and so on.

“Hey, Deku!” I turn from the bite I’ve just taken out of my hazelnut spread sandwich as the CMC come over, their eyes promising questions.

I swallow and smile. “What’s up, my little ponies?”

I’m inwardly smirking.

Scootaloo looks to her friends, then me. “How come you didn’t go to the Crystal Empire with Rainbow Dash and the others?”

“Yeah. Ah’d o’ thought they’d wan’ a hero around, in case the Empire were attacked or sumthin’,” Apple Bloom adds.

I shake my head, smiling. “Trust me, the Empire’s totally safe.” Well, from Tirek, at any rate. He never once went there during the finale.

Suddenly, a loud screech rings out, causing us to look around.

What the heck? That sounded like the Roc from the episode where Spike gets his wings… but that doesn’t make any sense. Why is it here now? Spike’s got at least three years before he starts his Molt, plus, he’s all the way in the Empire, so why would it be looking for him here.

Scanning the sky, I eventually notice a dot in the distance. That must be the Roc. It’s hovering around White Tail Woods for some reason.

“You three, stay here,” I say, standing up, scarfing my sandwich and channeling 10%. “I’ll see why that Roc’s here early.”

“Early?” Sweetie asks.

I blanch, losing my hold on my Quirk. Crap.

I wave it off, then charge up again and dash off, my speed way too fast for the three of them to follow (and, a quick check makes me relieved to see they didn’t pull an Izuku and grab my legs, getting pulled along for the ride).

Within less than a minute I’m at White Tail Woods.

I hide behind a tree as the Roc flies over. It’s definitely looking for something.

But, if it’s not Spike, the only other logical guess would be another adolescent dragon going through their Molt.

Though… who?

I wait until the giant bird has moved farther away, it still looking for its prey, before coming from behind the tree.

I look around, scanning the area for anything that looks like a dragon.

It takes a while, but I eventually notice a small bit of purple sticking out from a bush not too far from where the Roc was looking.

Carefully, I make my way over to the bush, being sure to keep my eye on the sky and hidden from view in case the Roc happens to look back in this direction as it searches.

I reach the bush and lean down.

“It’s safe. It’s gone.”

At once, a voice yelps and a figure tumbles out of the bushes.

For a split second, I think it’s Scootaloo and I’m about to scold her, before I realize who it is.

She’s not meant to show up til season eight, so the idea I could meet her sooner never even crossed my mind.

Sitting on her butt, rubbing her head, is none other than Smolder.

She’s a little pudgier than her first appearance in season eight and she has red scales dotting around her normally purely orange form. Plus, she’s missing her wings.

“Smolder?” I say without thinking.

At once, her head shoot to me and our eyes meet… and I’m shocked by the fear I see in them… and the bags under them. When was the last time she got any sleep?

“Wh-wh-what are you?!” she stutters, quickly backing away.

I realise just how scared she is and I give her a warm smile. “What am I? Here to help, Smolder.”

“H-how do you know my name?” she demands in what was clearly supposed to be an intimidating tone, but she’s clearly too tired and too scared to make it work.

I blink. Crap. Hadn’t thought of that.

After a moment, I just shake my head. “Lucky guess. You’re a dragon, so I assumed your name had to have something to do with fire.”

She deadpans at me. “Well, that’s not rude to assume at all.”

I see what she must be thinking, but decide not to correct her right now.

I stand up, holding out a hand. “You’re Molting, right? That Roc’s gonna be back. Would be best to get you to safety.”

She scowls at me, though the effect is lost with that tired look in her eyes. “I don’t need help from any puny… puny… whatever you are.”

She clearly noticed I’m towering over her as she spoke, making her the puny one, but didn’t know how else to finish that intended insult.

It also didn’t help that her voice went quiet due to the effects of the Molt.

I don’t say anything and just indicate for her to follow.

“I said,” she growls, her voice still quiet, “I don’t. Need. HELP!”

A sudden screech follows her voice rising unexpectedly.

Turning around, I see the Roc is heading back our way.

“No!” Smolder cries, turning to run, but trips on her tail and flops on her stomach.

I glance at her, before turning and glaring up at the approaching giant bird.

I aim my hand up at the Roc, reading to flick. “Smolder, hold on to my leg as tightly as you can!”

“What are you talking about?” she yells at me as she hurries to stand, looking at me like I’m crazy. “What’s flicking at that thing going to do? It eats dragons!”

“Just do it!” I demand.

She must be too tired to fight back the notion, because she grabs onto my leg, digging her claws in as hard as possible.

I wince at the pain, but ignore it, focusing on the Roc.

“Beat it, ya buzzard!” I yell, reading my fingers. “Hobarn… Smash!”

I flick, sending an immediate gust of wind shooting forward, the force billowing all around us, myself having to focus to keep my footing, Smolder’s claws keeping their hold in my leg.

The Roc is sent flying back through the air, barely righting itself.

It turns, glaring at me.

“So, 10% not enough, huh?” I ask, grinning. “Let’s try 20% then. Hobarn… SMASH!”

I flick again, the blowback even harder this time, two trees nearby literally being ripped out of the ground and sent flying into several others, causing them to fall too.

Smolder is still barely holding on through the force of the gale being created by my smash. I can actually feel her claws moving slightly as she starts losing her grip.

Thankfully, 20% was more than enough.

The Roc is sent flying off Team Rocket style, literally going on out sight.

Once the winds have died down, I relax, noticing I don’t feel pain in my leg.

Looking down, I see Smolder is gone.

Scanning the area, I see her walking off, heading into the woods.

I’m about to call out to her, before I stop myself.

She’s a dragon. She probably doesn’t understand I had come to save her, not simply defending myself against the Roc.

Shaking my head, I zip over, stopping in front of her.

My sudden appearance startles her and she falls back.

I smirk, folding my arms. “Smolder, I can tell you haven’t had a good sleep in a while. You need a rest. C’mon. I know a cave where you can safely rest.”

“Why… why should I trust you?” she asks grogilly. Clearly the adrenaline rush keeping her going while trying to avoid the Roc is fading fast. She’ll be out in a few moments.

I smile warmly. “Well, I did just save you from that Roc. Plus, you felt how easily your claws pierced my skin. If I tried anything shifty, you could easily slice into me.”

She just stares blearily at me.

Chuckling, I lean down, picking her arm and holding her under one arm.

She feebly struggles under my arm, but I can tell her heart isn’t in it. She’s too tired.

Using my Quirk to increase my speed, I take her to the cave under the Castle of the Two Sisters.

Soon as we are standing in front of the Tree of Harmony, I feel Smolder go limp in my arm, followed by a loud snoring sound.

Shaking my head, I lower her gently onto the ground and lean against the cave wall, watching her sleep.

I glance to the Tree. “I wonder how much her falling asleep just then was her exhaustion and how much was your calming presence?”

The Tree makes no response and I just smirk, turning to watch the cave entrance.

___________________________________________________________

Smolder slowly opens her eyes and looks around blearily.

Her eyes fall on me resting against the cave wall, smiling at her.

She leaps up, glaring up me. “What’re you doing here? Um… where… is here?”

She looks around, her jaw falling open when she sees the Tree of Harmony.

“Well, seems like some dragon had a good night’s sleep,” I chuckle, stand up and stretching.

The Scootaloo coloured dragon closes her jaw and turns to me, confused. “Good night’s sleep?” She looks around and sees the cave entrance. “But… it’s daylight.”

I nod, stretching my arms against each other. “Eeyup. You slept right through the rest of yesterday til afternoon today. You must’ve been awake a seriously long time trying to avoid that Roc.”

She narrows her eyes at me, folding her arms. “What’s your game?”

I fold my own arms, cocking my head. “Game?”

She puts her fists to her sides. “Why would a… whatever you are, help a dragon?”

I shrug. “Do I need a reason to want to help a kid in danger?”

She folds her arms again. “Where I’m from, nobody does anything for anybody without wanting something back.” She then glances at the Tree, cocking an eyebrow. “And what’s that?”

“You’ll find out soon enough,” I give a warm smile.

She just looks more confused.

“So,” I say, heading towards the entrance, “you planning on heading back to the Dragon Lands on your own or would you like an escort until you can somewhat get those winds under control?”

She opens her mouth to retort, before pausing. “Wings?”

She glances to either side, only now seeming to notice the flapping limbs that weren’t on her back when she fell asleep.

She’d finished her Molt while she’d been sleeping, but I chose to let her rest and wake up on her own.

I’d gone into town before nightfall and gotten some things, going back into town this morning and returning after.

Upon seeming to acknowledge the new appendages are indeed attached to her, Smolder’s wings stop flapping and she flops to the ground.

“I know dragons don’t like getting help from us non scaly creatures, but I think you could put your pride aside for a little while so I can make sure you get home safely,” I say, stopping at the cave entrance and turning around to face her. “And I’ll only stay with you until we reach the Draogn Lands so no dragon sees you with me, okay. Pinkie Promise. Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” I finish, doing the motions as I say them.

Smolder gives me a very perplexed look as she gets up, dusting herself off. “What in the world was that?”

I smile, holding up a finger. “A Pinkie Promise. Only the most insane being who is weary of life would even dare think of breaking one.”

She gives me a sideways look. “Why? What happens if you do?”

Unbidden, every dark and twisted theory about Pinkie Pie passing through my mind, making me visibly shudder. “You don’t wanna know.”

Apparently the look I give her is enough to convince her because, while still stand offish, she immedietly hurries over. “Alright, alright. But only as far as the Dragon Lands. Last thing I need is any dragon seeing me with a pink… Seriously, what are you, anyway?”

Inwardly, I’m suddenly curious. Dragons are the longest living species in Equestria next to Discord, what with Dragon Lord Torch being the same size in Gauntlet of Fire as he was back in the time The Royal Legion, so… could her species have any knowledge of humans?

I mean, it’s been a theory for quite a while that, before the ponies became the dominant species, humans could’ve existed in Equestria… though the chances of that theory being true became weaker and weaker as each season progressed, but still…

I look to Smolder as we start walking up the stairs out of the area. “Do you know anything about a species called human beings?”

No words are needed. The blank stare she gives me is proof enough.

She doesn’t know jack.

I shake my head. “Yeah, figured. Guess I’m the first human any dragon’s ever seen.” I snicker. “I guess that is kind of an honour… or dishonour, considering our species.”

Smolder gives me an odd look, but says nothing as we make our way through the Everfree, her using her nose to smell our way to the Dragon Lands.

It takes about a day and a half on foot, but we do eventually get to the boarder between Equestria and the Dragon Lands, though not without running into several monsters along the way, including a hydra, a different Roc than the one from before and a Tasilworm.

Smolder clearly still had a lingering scent of the smell that attracts the predators of fledgling dragons, though I don’t think it’s very strong.

She was certainly impressed watching me dispatch the monsters with relative ease. Unlike that first Roc, I didn’t even have to go past 10%, though I did have to go 12% against the Tasilworm.

“Are all hee-you-mans like you?” Smolder asks as we stand at the border. “Because, if they are, your kind are pretty cool. I bet our races would get along.”

It’s kinda sad how both wrong and right she is there.

I shake my head. “Nope. Not normally.”

Well, I guess in the world my body came from they are, but that’s not what Smolder means.

She shrugs. “Aw well. You’re cool at least.” She holds out a fist and I bump it. “You’re not bad for not being a dragon, Deku. See you around?”

I nod, grinning. “Count on it.”

Granted, not likely for a couple years, but that’s beside the point.

She salutes, flaps her wings and flies over the border, likely heading back home to her family.

Smiling, I turn back to face Equestria, my expression hardening and charge up One For All until I feel the strain that indicates my limit… though it oddly feels further away than before.

I mean, I know I’ve been training a lot in the weeks since I arrived in Equestria, but I feel like I’m further along than I actually should be. Even with all the training I’ve done, I shouldn’t have done more than make 20% as painless as anything less, but, if I had to guess, I can at least go to 22% now before feeling a strain… and that feels like too much progression.

I haven’t had to max out my Quirk in all this time since most monsters I came up against in the Everfree pushed me to need to go to 16% at the most. In fact, the Roc and other dragon predators are the first monsters I actually had to put up a fight for… aside from the hydras. Man, they’re piss weak.

Something is definitely going on with One For All, but I’ll have to worry about that later.

On our way to the border, Smolder had questioned why the sun and moon had acted weird and I’d just brushed it off as the princesses having gotten a bit drunk… but, inwardly, I knew that meant Twilight now has all the Alicorn Magic currently in Equestria inside her, meaning Tirek will be in Ponyville very soon.

“Time to see how much distance I can cover,” I say, bracing myself and then running full tilt, my body charged with 22%.

I’m determined to make it back to Ponyville before Tirek.

___________________________________________________________

A figure in a black hoodie walked into the post office, bumping into a blonde with grey skin.

“Sorry,” she said, before rushing out the door.

The figure ignored her, walking up to the front desk.

“A package for Smart Mouth?” a male voice asked from under the hoodie.

The woman behind the counter typed something into her computer, then smiled and nodded, going into the back, coming out with a small box.

The figure side with relief, taking the package and thanking her, before walking hurriedly out of the building and down the street.

That was too close. It was a good thing he’d realized where the package was going and called ahead.

If the box and its contents had ended up in the hands of anyone else, there was no telling how bad things could’ve gotten, not just for the moronic sap who go the package, but him.

He shuddered at the thought of the boss using his Quirk on him.

They needed to keep a close eye on the Quirks they’d already dispersed and that was tricky enough in a world where they had to keep the concept of Quirks secret to not spoil the boss’s plans.

A bunch of random Quirks getting lost in the mail would be an absolute nightmare.

Author's Note

Wasn't originally planning on uploading today, but here we are.

Okay, i ended up working on this chapter today because, last night, i found out there's either a problem with my DVD player or its remote, because the remote stopping responding whenever i pressed any buttons (and, no, it isn't a battery power issue, i switched to new batteries and it didn't change anything).

This kinda depressed me as, unless i can get a new remote for it, my choices for what i can watch on my DVD player have now become rather limited.

granted, it seems i can use the play button on the player itself similar to the enter button on the remote, so i can at least watch most DVDs on it, even Disney shouldn't be too much of an issue if the play button can work like the remote's enter button when selecting the language when the DVD first boots up, since most of my DVD's have Fast Play, so the movie will play automatically, along with a few selected special features.

still, it really bummed me out, so i decided to try taking my mind off it it by writing a new chapter to this.

at first, i wanted to write the fight with Tirek immediately, before i realize i was a little too bummed out for that.

i struggled at first what to do with this chapter with it being before the fight with Tirek and Rainbow Rocks, before i thought about Deku just flicking something out of the sky with a lazy smash.

that then turned into the idea of her saving someone from the thing in the sky, but couldn't think of who... then the Roc came to mind.

of course, with Spike still several years away from his Molt, it wouldn't make sense... unless it was another young dragon that it would make sense for, which is when i realised Smolder would fit well.

She's still pretty close to Spike's size when we meet her and there's several years between season 4 to 8, marked easily enough thanks to the Hearth's Warming episodes, so her Molting several seasons before him makes a lot of sense.

Originally i planned on finishing the chapter with the fight against Tirek, but i'm pretty drained right now, so it wouldn't be very good.

plus, it probably will work better being nearer the beginning of next chapter before transitioning into EQG for the events of Rainbow Rocks.

Hmm. Who might that blonde grey girl have been who bumped into that obvious member of the League of Villains? He have been too late?

anyway, i'm tired, so i'll stop here before i start rambling.

hope you all are having a good day, night, whatever.

hope you enjoyed the chapter and, til next time, stay safe, stay clean and see you later everybody

Chapter 3

___________________________________________________________

Twilight rose and squinted through the light the explosion from her and Tirek’s magical blasts had caused.

A roar made her eyes widen as a massive red hand filled her vision.

She was lifted into the air, then slammed to the ground, hard.

She gasped in pain, blood spurting from her mouth.

She lay on the ground, struggling to breathe, the action so sudden she hadn’t the thought to enact a barrier around herself, the impacted having winded her.

Damnit. I think he broke one of my ribs, Twilight thought, blood trailing down the right side of her mouth.

“Impressive show, I must say. But, now,” an orange a black sphere glowed between Tirek’s horns, “I’ll shall take what is rightfully mine.”

“Sydneigh…” shouted another voice unfamiliar to Tirek.

“What?” Tirek glanced up in confusion.

“SMASH!”

Twilight watched from her place as Deku seemed to come out of nowhere, landing a hard kick in Tirek’s chest, sending him hurtling back and smashing into a pile of rocks.

___________________________________________________________

I wince as I land, before hurrying over to the downed Alicorn and helping her up.

“Deku,” Twilight says, her voice slightly raspy. “Where have you been?”

“Sorry I’m so late,” I say, glancing in the direction where Tirek is buried under rubble, suddenly recognizing the scene. “Had to help a dragon in her Molt get home. I’ll explain later,” I add to her questioning look.

She closes her mouth, nodding, then winces.

Shit. This wasn’t in the show. Twilight can’t do anything in this state. Tirek will easily take advantage on this kind of injury. Her breathing will make it impossible for her to fight.

If only I could heal her like I had a healing Quirk instead! I grit my teeth. Then I could at least… Wait, what the hell?

A blue light is shining where my hand is placed on Twilight’s chest.

Within maybe a minute, Twilight gasps, sitting up quickly, looking to me is disbelief.

“The pain,” she says, awe in her voice. “The pain in my chest is all gone. Deku… how did you do that?”

I look down at my hand. “I… I have no idea.”

The sound of movement turns our attention to where Tirek crashed as he rises from the rubble.

“Interesting,” he says, looking at me. “That didn’t hurt too much, but for such a weak looking creature to hit me that hard… you must have quite powerful magic indeed.”

“It’s over, Tirek!” Twilight gets into a defensive stances, glaring, her horn glowing.

Tirek looks at the Alicorn in confusion, clearly wondering why she doesn’t seem to be in pain, then glances to me, seeming to mule something over.

“It seems we are at an impasse,” her smirks, snapping his fingers. “How about a trade, Princess Twilight?”

Soon as he snaps his fingers, bubbles holding the rest of the Mane 6, Spike and Discord appear, floating in the air above him.

Tirek clenches a fist in front of himself. “Their release for all the Alicorn Magic in Equestria!”

Twilight gasps and the others, save the depressed Discord, plead with her not to give up her magic.

Tirek chuckles. “What’s it going to be, Princess?”

“Don’t do it, Twilight!” Dash yells.

“We’re not worth it,” Fluttershy adds.

Discord starts his heartfelt words about learning friendship, while Twilight glances to me.

“Deku,” she says, her expression pleading, “you’re from a world of heroes. What should I do?”

“Enough!” Tirek slams his front hooves on the ground, not even giving me a chance to correct Twilight that it’s only my body that came from that world. “I want an answer and I want it now! And you,” he points at me, “interfere at all and I will end them right here and now!”

I snarl, but say nothing.

Damnit. Not only do I know he means that, but, he has Discord’s magic right now. Granted, he barely seems to be thinking about it, but, with all the magic inside of him, if he actually focused, I bet he could somewhat use it.

The only reason he was against the idea later is because he didn’t… have it?

I cock an eyebrow. The heck was that train of thought about? Did Tirek come back at some point in the show?

Damn, these fragmented memories!

I have to watch as Twilight agrees to give up her magic in exchange for everyone, including Discord’s, release, followed by her magic being drained.

The moment she falls to the ground, Tirek starts growing immensely.

Suddenly, I remember all the destruction he caused in that form and the fact things could go differently.

Twilight didn’t break a rib in her fight with Tirek in the show, so Tirek might actually not ignore the ponies and outright attack them.

Though, with the magic of four Alicorns, Discord and the countless other ponies he’s drained, my maximum of 22% won’t be nearly enough.

Heck, I had to go beyond that to 30% just to get here in time to save Twilight.

If Tirek could tank a Smash at 30% before he had all the current Alicorn Magic in Equestria, now that he’s got it, that would be likely no more than a fly hitting him.

I look to the others. “You all help Twilight!” I yell, charging up to 70%, wincing through the pain. “I’ll hold Tirek back as long as I can!”

I propel myself upwards, leaving the others to tend to the fallen Alicorn.

Tirek’s still basking in the power flowing through him, so hasn’t noticed me yet.

“Saddlelaide Smash!” I yell, landing a left-handed punch just as he’s turning around.

He yells as his face is knocked back.

Suddenly, something weird happens.

For a split second, Tirek’s face is replaced with a similar looking one, though human.

The hell?

Tirek’s face returns to normal, a black bruise on his cheek and he glares at me.

“Aw crap— YAH!” I cry out as he wheels around, his fist coming down on me.

I don’t even want to think about what will happen if that fist is still making contact with me when I hit the ground.

Thinking fast, I grab the fist and climb over it, running up Tirek’s arm.

“What?!” he yells in shock.

“Since 70% didn’t do it, let’s go all out!” I yell, my body feeling like every cell is on fire. “One For All: Full Cowling: 100%!”

“Full what?” Tirek shouts, trying to swat at me with his other hand, but I dodge around it, my aim focused, aiming punches along his shoulder as I go, making it hard for him to focus through what should be at least some kind of pain.

Whatever happens, I have to keep his attention on me.

Not just so he doesn’t go after Twilight and the others before they can open the crystal box, but because I need to prevent him from remembering he has Discord’s power.

He only used Discord’s magic for brief teleportation and bubbles before, but, bolstered by the magic of so many ponies, along with that of four Alicorns, there’s no telling just how bad things would get if he really tried to use it now.

I need to keep him focused on brute strength. As long as he doesn’t try using magic, he’s less likely to try Discord’s magic again.

“You’ve never heard these words before, Tirek, but I’ll teach you what they really mean!” I yell, reaching his shoulder and leaping up, aiming for his chest, my right fist pulled back, surging with so much power blue electricity is flaring off it. “Go beyond: Plus ULTRA! AUSTAILIA SMASH!”

My fist collides with his chest and he’s sent backward, the wind push back almost throwing me away, but my forward momentum is enough to keep me in place.

I’m in so much pain. Was this how it felt before I passed out back in Canterlot? Fuck, I’ve never hurt so much in my life!

My eyes I shut from the pain, but I can tell the force of my Smash was strong enough to crack the ground beneath us, since I felt Tirek move down a second of two after my fist my contact.

It takes a few seconds for me to realize it through the pain, but… something’s wrong.

Struggling to open my eyes, Tirek looks a little winded… but he’s not down.

He’s wincing, but only a little.

His eyes whirls to look me and he snarls.

He moves too fast for me to react, too distracted by the pain surging through me, grabbing me in his right-hand and pulls me up so his face is in mine.

“That was not pleasant, small creature!” he hisses.

I just glare back at him, though I know the impact of it is weakened by the pain no doubt on my face, and the fact my right-eye is closed from said pain.

Tirek smirks. “Though your power wasn’t too much, it is interesting. I think I’ll take your magic as well.”

He opens his mouth, using the spell… but nothing happens. It’s the exact same result as when he tried to take the princesses’ magic, only to learn they had none to take.

Tirek’s eyes widen. “What?! Why can’t I take your magic?!”

I manage a sneer through my pain. “I don’t have magic, Tirek. I’ve a Quirk.”

Inside though, I’m so confused.

I thought magic was altering One For All, that’s why I was somehow able to heal myself while I was unconscious and Twilight just a little while ago.

If that were the case, Tirek would’ve gotten some kind of magic out of me just now… but he didn’t.

If magic isn’t the reason healing has somehow become part of my Quirk… what is?

A bright light comes from nearby and Tirek throws me away, likely in shock.

It takes literally all my focus to move my body and try pushing One For All through me, barely making 1% flow.

It’s barely anything, but it’s enough to help me move enough to not crash into the ground, though I do tumble, rolling away until I stop, my body refusing to move.

From my position, I watch as Twilight and the others come out in their Rainbow Power forms and blast Tirek, removing all the magic from him and sending him back to Tartarus… which I suddenly can’t help finding amusement in, since that’s the name of the maximum prison in MHA.

I think I blacked out for a bit, because, next thing I know, I’m standing alongside Twilight and the others as they stare up in awe at Twilight’s new castle… and I feel fine.

I look myself over frantically, beyond perplexed.

This can’t be. I used 100% and could barely move, but that had to be less than a few minutes ago. How am I completely fine now?

___________________________________________________________

“Need a hand?” I ask Fluttershy and Applejack, lifting the box they’d been struggling to push up over my head.

Applejack gives me a frown. “You sure you were injured t’ the point ya couldn’t move a few hours ago?”

I walk over to the other side of the room and put down the box, dusting my hands and turning to look at the pair. “Yes. Trust me, AJ, I’d like to know what’s going on myself.”

It’s been about three hours since Tirek was defeated and Twilight got her castle and took the title of Princess of Friendship.

After the initial shock of everypony seeing the castle, we all set about getting Twilight and Spike’s things (I didn’t really have much aside from clothes) from the charred remains of the Golden Oak Library and have been moving everything into the castle.

Despite how much we all could’ve really used a break after the fight with Tirek, if Twilight, Spike and I want to sleep tonight without having to bum at somepony else’s place, we need to get this all done.

“We already agreed, darling,” Rarity says from her throne as she polishing one of the arms, “the Elements are what healed dear Deku. It only makes sense, since their magic was spreading all across Equestria to return magic to all those who’d had it taken from them.”

“Sorry, Rarity, but I’ll have to agree with AJ on this one,” I say, folding my arms. “Sure, I guess we could excuse my being healed by the Elements, but that’s not the only odd thing here.”

“You’re referring to how you managed to heal me,” Twilight says from her place in the centre of the thrones.

I nod. “I can’t heal, Twilight. That’s not one of the powers One For All provides its user. If it were, All Might would never have needed to give his Quirk to the previous Deku, because he’d have been able to heal himself.”

“What about One For All’s users before him?” Rarity asks. “Couldn’t one of them have had a healing Quirk that merged with One For All and now is yours?”

I shake my head, lifting another box and moving it to join the one from before. “If that were true, there would’ve been some kind of hint. Plus, I’ve a gut instinct none of them had a healing Quirk. None of One For All’s users before Deku and All Might could use healing Quirks.”

“What about after?”

We all turn to Pinkie as she pulls one of the balloons off her Cutie Mark.

…

Nope. I am not going to question what I just saw. I would like to keep my sanity, thank you very much.

Twilgiht cocks an eyebrow. “Pinkie, what are you talking about?”

“Nana said that guy in her dream mentioned her dad gave her her Quirk, right?” Pinkie glances around at us.

We nod slowly. Where is she going with this?

Pinkie shrugs. “Well, if her dad had the Quirk before her, maybe he had a healing Quirk too.”

I blink, before glancing to Twilight.

That… would actually make sense. I’d totally forgotten that the only reason my body has One For All was because Nana Midoriya’s dad died in a car crash, giving her One For All just before he died to ensure it didn’t die with him… but what kind of healing Quirk could he possibly have possessed?

“My healing didn’t seem the work of any regeneration based Quirk,” I say, looking at my hands. “I know those kinds of Quirks do exist, but I don’t really recall anyone close to Deku’s family… wait.” My eyes widen. “Katsuma? Katsuma was Nana’s dad?”

To the confused looks from the ponies and dragon, I give a brief summary of the Heroes Rising movie, specifically Katsuma Shimano, a little boy Deku inspires to be a hero… and his Quirk: Cell Activation.

“Does how ya’ll got healed feel like that Cell Activation?” Applejack asks, cocking an eyebrow. “Ah mean, ya healed fr’m sum pretty nasty injuries that first time. From what ya told us, that Quirk couldn’t possibly have healed ya that well and that fast,”

I shake my head. “I… I don’t know. I don’t have any of Nana’s memories of if her dad ever used it on her before he got One For All.” Assuming he actually was the one Deku passed his Quirk onto at all and it wasn’t just some other healing based Quirk user. “As for the strength of my healing, remember, if I do have Katsuma’s Cell Activation Quirk, it’s power is now being magnified by One For All.”

“If One For All is increasing Cell Activation’s power, when it normally activates cells to increase the regeneration of the body's cells and healing… it could be possible that it would heal much better and faster,” Twilight rubs her chin in thought. “Of course, we can’t really know, since Deku here is the only one with a Quirk we know of in Equestria.”

Sadly, she’s more right than I’d like to admit.

There hasn’t been hide nor hair of The League of Villains in all the time I’ve been in Equestria.

True, Equestria’s big, but surely some creature would’ve noticed something.

Celestia even reached out to the other nations, even those yet to become allies with Equestria to warn than of the League and even they haven’t noticed anything to suggest The League is anywhere.

It’s as if that just vanished from the world altogether.

I blink. Wait a minute. The world?

“Excuse me, Princess?” a voice pulls all our attention to the scruffy Earth Pony who was part of the moving service we were using. “Where do you want all these books from Princess Celestia?”

At once, my eyes widen as several things click at once.

First, I can see the glowing and vibrating book that links to Sunset’s, meaning the events of Rainbow Rocks have already started.

Second, that means Rainbow Rocks happens literally after the season four finale, not even giving a few days between them.

Third, we’re going to have to go into those events without even a good night’s sleep… though that would explain Twilight’s lack of thinking at the beginning of the movie.

However, fourth, and most terrifying of all, I’d completely forgotten about the second portal to the EQG world and The League of Villains must be over there!

I wait as patiently as I can for Twilight to build the portal device so she and Spike can go through the mirror.

When they insist the others stay behind so things don’t get too confusing with two pairs of them at CHS, I point blank say I’m going.

“Uh, are you sure that’s wise, Deku?” Spike asks. “I mean, what if you run into the you from there?”

I fold my arms, deadpanning. “Spike, I come from another world. Think about it.”

He opens his mouth to argue, pauses, thinks it over, then nods. “Fair point.”

“Besides,” I say, my grim tone causing them all to realize something’s up, “I’ve figured out why we’ve not heard from The League of Villains. They’re not in Equestria.”

“They’re in the other world!” Applejack cries in alarm.

I nod, bitting my lip. “And, since I’ve no idea how long they’ve been there, there’s no telling what could be happening over there. The Sirens could just be the opening act for something far worse.”

Twilight smiles. “In that case, Hero Deku, I request you join us.”

I nod, clenching my fists. “Just gimme a second.” I charge up 10% and zip to my room, grabbing some casual clothes. “Can’t go walking around in my Hero Uniform all the time if the League’s around.”

Twilight and Spike nod, we say goodbye to the others and run through the portal.

Look out, League of Villains. I’m coming for you.

Author's Note

I'm kinda torn.

I knew i couldn't just have Deku fighting Tirek be all this chapter had, especially since, if Deku could go toe to toe with Tirek after he'd absorbed the magic of four Alicorns, it would make her struggling at all in the fturue against far weaker opponents feel like a cop out, but i feel like the battle was also too short.

I realized the fight with Tirek taking too long would undermine where i'm going with this story, so had to find a way to cut it short, while still making it feel reasonable enough.

I hope I did okay there.

Anyway, I don't know when i'll upload the next chapter, though it will be obviously taking place in Rainbow Rocks, with some interesting differences here and there.

As for what i plan on updating next?

Well, actually, it's a fic i've been meaning to continue, but couldn't figure out how due to not being able to figure out how to get to where i wanted that story to go... until i was rereading this fic for inspiration for this chapter and got to the Soul Replacement Quirk part and it hit me.

As for which fic i'm returning to (and will hopefully upload an update to next week), i'll give a hint: A cute pair of sisters.

i leave you to guess what that means.

Til then, i hope you enjoyed this chapter and, til next, stay safe, stay clean and see you later everybody

Chapter 4

___________________________________________________________

Twilight is being helped up by Sunset Shimmer as I arrive through the portal, not flying forward like she did because I actually stopped just before entering the portal and simply walked through.

It’s only after Twilight mentions to the girls she has bad news about the Sirens that the girls seem to notice me.

The portal either has a sense of humour, or was trying to be helpful, as I’m now holding my hero uniform with some of the other clothes.

I’m now wearing a simple white t-shirt with some Japanese writing on it I can’t read, a pleather skirt and sneaker with some white socks.

“Hi, there,” I grin, before getting a shit-eating grin even bigger. “Nice to meet you. I’m not a bad slime, slurp.”

Confused or suspicious looks are the only reactions.

I sigh, shaking my head. “Some in jokes are just totally wasted.”

Twilight decides to end the awkwardness. “This is Deku. She comes from a world like yours, but different too.”

That gets curious looks aimed at Twilight, before they’re redirected at me.

I nod. “Twilight speaks the truth. I’m from another human world. However, I think it better we find somewhere else we can talk about this. We have to deal with both the Sirens and the main reason I’m here.”

We’re about to move, when suddenly a loud beeping causes us all to look around frantically, before one of the white patches on the shoulders of my uniform, the left side, flies up into the air and shifts into a cube shape.

An image appears before me, like a hologram. It takes a second before I recognize it as the older Hatsume I saw in Nana’s memory.

“Why, hello there, little Nana,” she gives a huge warm smile. “I’m sure you’ve a lot of questions, huh?”

My face is blank.

Um, fuck yeah, I’ve a lot of questions! Like, how the fuck are you communicating with me now and why haven’t you before this point?!

“I’m just a hologram, so if you have questions, I can’t answer them directly,” Hatsume continues on. “You see, your grandfather was aware you’re kinda going in blind. We don’t know how many stolen Quirks the League of Villains have or how many members made it to that other world. So, I invented my lovely new baby: The Present Mic Quirk Analyser! Or, as I like to call it, the Mini Present Mic Analyser, or MMPA, for really short!”

I glance to the others to see them giving me questioning looks, to which I just shake my head. I’m just as clueless.

“The way it works is pretty simple, really,” Hastume goes on, an image of the box appearing next to her, it projecting a hologram of Present Mic’s head. “Anytime you’re within three feet of someone with a Quirk, active or dormant, that the Analyser hasn’t scanned before, it’ll activate and tell you all the details. The Quirk User’s name and whether they’re a villain or hero, their Quirk and what that Quirk does, etc. It only works once for each new person though, so be careful you never miss whatever it says, okay? It won’t repeat it a second time, got it?”

Well, thank you Hatsume, but why exactly am I only learning about this now?

“Good luck against the League, Nana,” Hatsume winks, before blowing me a kiss. “We all believe in you.”

The hologram of Hatsume disappears, but, instead of the cube changing back into a patch and returning to my uniform, a beam flies in a wide arch to my right, near some kind of bush.

“New Quirk user detected,” Present Mic’s voice says, the beam returning to the cube and a hologram of Present Mic’s head appearing above the box, another hologram appearing in front of it, this one being… Wallflower Blush? The fuck?

I look to the others, just as baffled, before Present Mic starts talking again.

“Wallflower Blush. Quirk: Invisibility. She can turn herself invisible at will, BUT, it doesn’t affect her clothes. She can only stay invisible for a limited amount of time, however, before she has to go back to being visible.”

The hologram of Wallflower also has stats about her written next to her, including name, age, weight, height and so on.

Seconds after Mini Present Mic finishes explaining how the Quirk works, both holograms vanish, the cube shifts back into a patch and returns to my uniform, looking like it had never left.

There’s a very long pause.

“Um, what in the world was all that about?” Rainbow Dash asks. “Who was that lady? Why was there a floating head? And what’s this about invisibility and a League of Villains?”

I stare at the patch, an eyebrow raised, before looking to Dash. “Well, like Hatsume said, this thing can detect new Quirks so I know what I’m up against. It’s a long story and I’m going to tell you later. I’m guessing it took Wallflower’s Quirk being active and close by to first get it working and…”

I stop, my eyes widening as it registers what I just said.

“WALLFLOWER BLUSH HAS A QUIRK?!”

My head immediately darts in the direction the beam had scanned, tossing my clothes aside and frantically looking through the bushes.

According to the MMPA, I should see clothes just floating in the air like whenever Toru Hagakure was on screen in the anime.

How? HOW does Wallflower Blush, of all people, have a Quirk?

And, talk about poetic irony. The girl who was always so quiet no one noticed her in the background, essentially making her invisible and sings a song about being invisible, gains a Quirk that makes her turn invisible?

After several moments of not finding anything, I walk back to the others, who’re all giving me confused and worried looks.

I sigh, rubbing my face. “Let’s just go talk. It’ll make more sense once I explain.”

___________________________________________________________

“This is so awesome!” Dash practically squees as we make our way towards the school, specifically where, if memory serves me right, the Dazzlings should be before the big party they plan on having for everyone taking part in the Battle of the Bands. “We’ve a real life superhero and she’s here to fight real super villains!”

“Awesome is not the word Ah’d use,” Applejack says, arms folded. “Dash, Deku’s made it clear we don’t know what, urm, Quirks this League o’ Villains have, it could be really dangerous. She’s one hero, while there’s no tellin’ how many o’ them.”

I’d sarcastically thank her for the lack of confidence, but, I’ve had similar concerns.

I may have One For All, but I can only use 22% max right now and, as pointed out, I’m just one hero against the entire League.

Not to mention I now need to find out how and why Wallflower ended up with a Quirk.

“So what?” Dash shrugs. “We’ve used our magic to kick dark magic’s evil butt. I don’t see why we can’t use it to kick this league of Villains’ butts.”

We all hush as Spike sniffs, before nodding his head towards a corner of the school.

We head in that direction, a trio of voices becoming clearer as we near the building.

“… worth setting all that stuff up, Adagio?” an simultaneously annoyed and bored Aria’s voice is saying.

“It will be worth it if we can use this party to not only gain more power, but weed out the ones with the most magic in this pathetic school,” Adagio’s voice replies.

“Yeah, that’s not happening,” I say as we round the corner, causing the three Sirens turned human to jump, their expressions showing they genuinely didn’t expect anyone to come by.

Adagio looks us over, her eyes pausing on Twilight and myself, the former with a weird look of recognition.

Will have to remember that. It suggests she’s at least seen Sci-Twi, so I might have to watch out for her til Friendship Games is over.

Adagio gains a smirk, folding her arms, her fellow Sirens mimicking her. “Oh, really? And just what are you going to do about it?”

I aim my fingers at a nearby tree and flick.

The tailwind alone throws them and the other girls off, back when the top of the tree pretty much explodes, their faces immediately pale and they slowly look towards me.

I hold my fingers up. “That was a power I have that doesn’t use magic and that wasn’t even 2% of my power. Now, you’re going to do this Battle of the Bands fair and square. No tricks. No spells. No nothing. Try to pull anything and, well…” I nod towards the tree.

With that, we walk off to where the party is going to be. We need to find Wallflower and find out just how she got her Quirk. It could give us a clue to find the League of Villains.

___________________________________________________________

“Yer sure she’ll be there?” Applejack asks as we walk down the hall the next day.

Thanks to Twilight not making the dumb mistake of confronting the Sirens at the party and failing to activate the girls’ magic, there was less hostility (though still the amount caused by the Sirens’ earlier work), making it a little easier to navigate the party to try and find her, since I know she was there.

However, either she didn’t go or knew we’d be looking for her and was using her Quirk the whole time, because we never found her.

That’s not to say it was a total bust, of course… though not for the reasons we’d intended.

Turns out, Wallflower isn’t the only person at CHS who miraculously has a Quirk.

Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon and Derpy also have Quirks.

However, we weren’t able to talk to any of them or actually learn what their Quirks were due to having drawn too much attention to ourselves.

Present Mic’s holographic head suddenly appearing and pretty much yelling three Quirks off one after the other wasn’t exactly subtle and we’d had to hightail it out of there like the group had in the movie after all, just for totally different reasons.

With the Find Wallflower Plan a bust and no chance of chatting with our other three surprise Quirk users at the time, we’d gone out to the steps and discussed how to stop the Sirens completely, resulting in Twilight joining the Rainbooms and myself suggesting the Counter Spell Song could be just about anything as long as their hearts were in it… though Twilight decided that would be a fall-back plan, thinking a song specifically written for the spell would be better.

We’d then gone to Pinkie’s house for the slumber party and that went about as you’d expect.

Now we’re on our way to the room where the Year Book Committee works, myself knowing Wallflower will most likely show up there.

As for the other three, I convinced Sunset to dust of her skills to send texts to the three while making them think someone else was texting them instead, like she pulled off with the Humane 5 before Twilight arrived in the first movie.

We get there and, at first, it looks like Wallflower isn’t there.

However, aware of just how her Quirk works, I take the time to scan the room more thoroughly and spot a pair of shoes that seem like they’re just laying by a corner of the table, but their position is a little too forced.

Walking around the table, I fold my arms as I look at the pair of jeans and brown sweater laying there, seemingly filled with air.

“Wallflower, I know you’re there,” I say flatly. “I know your Quirk is invisibility and you know we all know.”

There’s a pause, before Wallflower becomes visible and gets up, watching us all wearily.

“I don’t know why this is happening, okay?!” she says, sounding both scared and angry. “It just started happening! I’m not a freak!”

Sunset holds up her hands quickly. “Whoa, whoa. No one is calling you a freak.”

Wallflower just scowls at her. “Not yet, but I know you will.”

“Hey, Sunset’s not like that anymore!” Dash shouts, getting in Wallflower’s face, right before it disappears.

I sigh, rubbing my head. “Dash, we’re not going to get anywhere if you scare her like this.”

“She insulted my friend!” Dash rounds on me.

I nod. “And I’m not saying she isn’t wrong for doing that, but, like most of the school, Wallflower wouldn’t expect Sunset has fully changed after such a short time. It’ll take a while. But you lashing out at her isn’t going to make her come around any faster.”

“What’re you doing here?” Diamond Tiara’s voice says from outside the door to the room.

“I got a text from Principal Celestia to come here,” Derpy’s voice says.

I nod to AJ, who goes over and opens the door, startling the three standing there.

“In,” she says flatly, it apparently being intimidating enough to make them do so without question.

Once instead and the door’s closed, they notice me, Diamond’s eyes narrowing.

“Hey, aren’t you that girl who had the giant head with you?”

I nod, folding my arms. “That was my MMPA. It let’s me know when a new Quirk User is nearby.”

“Quirk?’ Silver Spoon asks sceptically.

I look to Wallflower and nod.

She hesitates, before nodding herself and turns insivble.

The other three cry out in alarm, making Wallflower quickly stop.

“A Quirk is a special power,” I say, easily noticing the look of recognition in their eyes, but continue on. “I’m here because a group of criminals came to your world from another human world. They have Quirks and, somehow, you three and Wallflower here ended up getting some of those Quirks. How, I have no idea, but that’s what I’m trying to find out. Now, tell/show us your Quirks.”

There’s a long pause, before Diamond scowls at me. “What? you expect us to do tricks, like your own personal circus animals.”

Annoyed, I grab a stapler and throw it at her.

She cries out in alarm and her skin suddenly changes, looking more like diamond that skin. Well, it wasn’t just her skin, her eyes and hair too. The stapler just bounces off it. Phew, good thing it didn't break on impact. I would rather not be responsible for destroying school property just to make a point.

I nod. “Thought so. Didn’t quite here the MMPA, but I heard it say something about your skin, so I had a hunch something like that might happen.”

Like Wallflower, Diamond Tiara’s Quirk has a bit of irony to it. She can turn her skin hard as diamonds, like Kirishima’s Hardening and Tetsutestu’s Steel Quirks allowed them to harden his body like rock and turn his skin to steel respectively.

“You could’ve hit me with that!” Diamond shouts, still in what I guess I’ll call her Diamond Form.

“Diamond, you have a Quirk! That could make you a target of the League!” I growl, not wanting to beat around the bush and very aware of her pony counterpart’s personality prior to season five and having no time to deal with that shit. “I don’t know how you got a Quirk, but the fact you did means the League of Villains could be planning on using you!”

Diamond pauses. “The League of… what?”

Sighing, I explain everything within my ability to tell them, including how I’ve no clue how long the League’s been in this world or what exactly they could be planning.

As I explain, fear enters their eyes as it properly starts to sink in what them having Quirks and likely being given them by the League without them realizing it means.

After all, Aoyama was forced to be a spy for All For One in exchange for his Quirk, so there was no telling what the League had planned for the four of them.

The fact the League gave them their Quirks without them realizing only making the matter more disturbing.

It’s why, aside from briefly returning to help Twilight deal with Starlight, I plan on sticking around here for a long while.

Mostly, I’ll just be commuting from Equestria, but most of my time will be spent here, trying to help the four of them get a better grasp on their Quirks as well as figure out how they got them to begin with and where I can find the League to plan their downfall.

Once I’ve finished explaining, Silver Spoon and Derpy show us their Quirks.

Silver Spoon can absorb matter around her, forming a type of armour, like Kevin Levin in the Ben 10 Alien Force and onwards series. She can also enlarge parts of her body or form them depending on the matter, like Kevin could after season four of Alien Force.

Derpy’s Quirk allows her to fire beams of bubbles from either her mouth or hands. The bubbles don’t really have much going for them, but, Bubble Girl was able to make her similar Quirk useful for hero work, so it’s not something to knock.

I assure them I’m going to help them figure out their Quirks more and do my best to keep them safe.

I won’t let the League of Villains use these girls for their own ends. I’m going to make them regret giving the four of them their Quirks.

The four of them stick with myself, Sunset and Spike throughout the rest of the Battle of the Bands, where, like they’d said, the Sirens didn’t try anything tricky.

I mean, they still tried to gain more power throughout the contest, something my fellow Quirk users realized as they stayed with me, far enough away not to be effected and actually see it playing out.

As happened in the movie, the other students try to sabotage The Rainbooms, but this is where I decided to test my new team.

Well, Derpy and Wallflower, anyway.

I have Derpy blow a beam of bubbles up at Photo Finish and her group, distracting them and keeping them from messing with Rarity and I have Wallflower go invisible and stop Snips and Snails from messing with Fluttershy by pantsing them right before they tried, then spooking them when they saw just some clothes floating there, furthering throwing off Photo Finish’s plans.

Granted, the performance still had issues caused by the Rainbooms themselves, namely Pinkie’s party canon’s confetti getting in Twilight’s throat, but it still goes way better than it did in the movie and so there’s no reason for Sunset to run on stage to stop Rainbow Ponying Up or cause more animosity from the other students due to it making more sense that the Rainbooms win.

However, we aren’t able to go with the girls later when they’re sent falling under the stage by Trixie.

Why?

A villain.

It’s as we’re walking out of the school an hour or so after the girls leave to set up.

Diamond’s asking me what exactly my Quirk is, since I haven’t shown it yet, when a familiar beeping makes me stop and glance to my shoulder.

The patch morphs into the cube and a beams flies forward, scanning a guy who’s just crossed the street to the school side.

He has short blue hair and brown eyes. He’s wearing a brown shirt, pants and a grey jacket, the latter having a speech bubble

Present Mic’s head appears. “Steel Forge. Villain Name: Infusion. Quirk: Meld: He can fuse objects together at an atomic level, although he needs to be touching both objects in order to fuse them.”

Huh. That sounds similar to the Quirk of that guy from Class 1B. Can’t remember his name, though.

The man named Steel Forge looks at us, before turning tail, clearly intending to run.

“Get him!” I yell, charging up 15% and rushing forward, quickly moving around and blocking his path.

He turns to run, only for the other three to surround him, Silver Spoon absorbing the concrete and enlarging her hands, Diamond going Diamond and Derpy holding her hands out.

I can tell from the look of recognition in his eyes that this Steel Forge has figured out that, while Derpy’s stance looks the least intimidating at first glance, it means her Quirk can come from her hands and he has no clue what her Quirk actually can do.

“Alright, Steel Forge,” I say, pointing at him. “Time to be smart. Tell us where the League of Villains is and why they gave these four girls Quirks? Are they planning to force them to be moles for the League? Who’s in charge of the League? I know it’s not All For One or Shigaraki, so tell us who it is, or else.”

“I can bet being hit by a fist made of diamond, even from a little girl, can be pretty painful,” Diamond says, punching a fist into her palm, catching on to my plan to intimidate to get answers.

“And a giant concrete hand would be pretty painful, too,” Silver Spoon clenches a giant steel fist.

Derpy and Wallflower glance at each other, before both saying, “And you don’t even wanna know what we can do to you.”

The guy looks between the five of us.

“Five of you?” he whimpers, before shaking his head. “I lost five Quirks already? I’m dead no matter what I do. Damnit, Smart Mouth.”

Wait, lost? And who’s Smart Mouth?

“Hold on, you didn’t know these girls had Quirks?” I ask, taking a step forward.

He reaches into his pocket, pulling something out. “Stay back! I’m a dead man now anyway! I swear, I’ll do it!”

It takes a second to realize he’s holding some kind of metal tube… and second later to realize it’s a bomb!

“Everyone, get back!” I yell, charging up to my max. “Dude’s got a bomb!”

The others cry out in panic, quickly backing away.

“Steel Forge,” he looks to me, his eyes frantic and I hold up my hands in a calming gesture. “Listen, I don’t know what your situation is, but, if you put down the bomb, we can work things out —”

“No, you can’t!” he yells, cutting me off. “No one can! If that dumbass Smart Mouth hadn’t lost those Quirks, I wouldn’t have had to come here. But five of your already have some. The rest must already be with other Heroes. There weren’t supposed to be Heroes in my world!”

“Dude, you have to chill,” This is too dangerous. I don’t know how far the range of that bomb is and this guy’s lost it.

“If I’m going down, I’m taking at least some of your Heroes with me!” he yells, shoving the bomb at his chest, it taking a second to realize what he’s doing.

“Dude, you have to chill,” This is too dangerous. I don’t know how far the range of that bomb is and this guy’s lost it.

“If I’m going down, I’m taking at least some of your Heroes with me!” he yells, shoving the bomb at his chest, it taking a second to realize what he’s doing.

I rush forward, flicking the bomb out of his hand.

I use his moment of confusion and land a Smash into his chest, knocking the wind out of him.

His eyes roll into the back of his head and he goes limb.

A loud beeping turns my attention to the bomb.

I barely have time to act.

Diamond Tiara rushes forward and jumps onto the bomb, covering it with her whole body.

“Diamond, no!” Silver Spoon and I cry out in unison, before the bomb goes off.

To our relief, while an orange light flares from under her and she winces, Diamond doesn’t vanish from our sight.

She gets up a few seconds later, dusting soot off her as she turns off her Quirk, revealing nothing. Her Diamond Form was just strong enough to contain the blast. Although, the front of her clothes are shredded.

Silver Spoon hugs her friend, while the rest of us try to ease our breathing.

Once we have, Diamond looks in disgust to the prone form on the ground. “What do we do with this sick fuck?”

I look down at him. “I’ll take him back to Equestria. I know somewhere his Quirk won’t be dangerous and he can be held there until we can make a plan.”

By the time we make it to the Battle of the Bands, it’s in time to see the Rainbooms beat the Dazzlings with the Rainbow Alicorn Spirit Bomb. The Sirens clearly thought, since they hadn’t seen me for a while, they could get away with it.

As the saying goes: Karma’s a bitch.

Once everything’s done, we inform Twilight and she and I return to Equestria to put this villain in a prison he won’t be able to use his Quirk to escape from until can figure out what to do with him.

Tomorrow, I’ll return to the EQG world.

We need to start training the girls to better control their Quirks and start figuring out where the League of Villains are and what they’re planning.

The good thing for now is, we know from what Forge said, he hadn’t known about the girls’ Quirks, nor did he realize my Quirk wasn’t from the ones the League brought with them.

Somehow, the League lost several of the Quirks they’d had and, by sheer luck, Wallflower, Derpy, Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara got them.

At least that’s good news.

Author's Note

PHEW! Almsot didn't get this done today.

i'd originally intended to start writing after getting lunch, but, while i was boiling noddles, i lost my grip on the pot and the water spilled all over the counter and the floor, leaving me to have to clean it all up, made all the more nerve wracking because some of it went under the microwave, so i had to turn off the powerpoints to make sure a short circut didn't happen.

took way longer to wipe it all up than i'd like to admit. hopefully i got it all.

Anyway, interesting development, no?

Four CHS students have Quirks, but the League didn't give them to them.

How'd they get them? Are there more? Will Deku and her new team find them before others get mixed up in the chaos?

With the Humane 7 get Quirks? And, if so, what would they be?

You'll have to wait and see, because it's already after 6pm, i need to eat and i wanted to finish Supergirl Season 1 tonight so i can start season 4 of Flash tomorrow.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter and, til next time, stay safe, stay clean and see you later everybody

Chapter 5

___________________________________________________________

I pass through the portal to find Diamond, Silver, Wallflower and Derpy waiting for me on the other side.

Neither Diamond Tiara nor Silver Spoon are wearing their usual clothes. Instead, Diamond is wearing a simple black shirt over grey shorts, while Silver Spoon is wearing a clearly not often wore purple shirt that’s clearly seen better days and brown shorts.

“Took you long enough,” Diamond frowns, folding her arms. “What took you so long that…? Deku, is everything okay?” her face turns to worry.

I shake my head to clear it, looking around to each other them, still stunned by what I’ve learned.

“Monama’s not the reason I ended up this way.”

After the Sirens had been defeated and Twilight and I brought the villain with us back to Equestria, we’d gotten a surprise, in that he didn’t turn into a pony when he passed to the other side.

He became a Diamond Dog.

Finding a place to hold him had also proven quite the challenge.

With his Meld Quirk, his prison needed to be one he couldn’t touch anything in, or else he could’ve used his Quirk to escape.

In the end, Celestia and Luna came up with a bubble like prison made of magic that would keep him suspended in the centre, where he couldn’t touch anything.

The bubble prision was then taken to Tartarus, where he will now be staying.

The irony that his prison in inside Tartarus when the name of the maximum security prision in MHA was called Tartarus is not lost on me, either.

Information hadn’t been easy to get out of him though.

He’d refused to talk and, as if somehow knowing Luna could dream walk, he refused to fall asleep for almost a week.

That being the case, The Map formed and I’d gone with Twilight and the others to Starlight’s village, determined to prevent Starlight from creating those alternate timelines as well as make her see reason sooner.

It hadn’t been hard to do, either. When Starlight stole the others’ Cutie Marks, she’d tried to steal my Quirk, clearly assuming that, while a human, being in Equestria meant I HAD to have a Cutie Mark… only for her spell not to work.

I then made a point about how it wasn’t at all equal that pegasi and unicorns in the village could still fly and use their magic, while Earth Ponies were still bound to the ground.

If the village were about making EVERYPONY equal, pegasi and unicorns needed to give up their wings and horns.

Where Starlight called me stark raving mad and barbaric for the idea, I simply pointed out that I was merely speaking from the most logical point of her equal philosophy.

For all ponies in the village to be completely equal, since the Earth Ponies couldn’t use their Earth Pony magic, removing wings and horns from pegasi and unicorns would be the only way to truly be equal.

This… sent Starlight into a mental breakdown as the core concept of her belief in how she was making equality couldn’t work, since she needed to use to her magic to make others equal, but couldn’t ever be equal to them without giving up a core part of herself that would cripple her and make it impossible for anypony else to be equal.

After all, even if she managed to equalize every single pony with a Cutie Mark in Equestria, newborn foals would eventually gain Cutie Marks themselves and, with no more magic to remove them, equality like she’d wanted couldn’t continue and would slowly fade away into nothingness.

She’s now living with Twilight, the latter trying to help her through the trauma she already had on top of the new trauma of how she’d devoted years to an ideal that was literally impossible to achieve.

…

Yeah… something tells me I won’t have to worry about the alternate timelines now.

Anyway, it was after we’d returned from Starlight’s village, where I helped them all get their Cutie Marks back by using One For All to Smash the vault open, we’d gotten word from Luna that the Diamond Dog villain had finally fallen asleep, allowing her to sift through his dreams for some information about the League and given us the shocking news.

He hadn’t known too much, he was just a low ranking thug, so the League’s full plans were unknown to him, but the League did have a large number of Quirks they could give to others whom join their cause, himself obviously being one of them.

He knew the Leagues numbers had grown and that the League had apparently been in the EQG world for about three years now, so they’d arrived shortly before Sunset had gone there, though he didn’t know how many had come over from the MHA world originally.

However, he had known something I hadn’t even considered.

While I’d thought I’d seen Monama being a villain in the memory of Nana’s when he hit her with the Soul Removal Quirk, I’d hadn’t actually been him at all.

In fact, in MHA, Monama is basically an anti-hero, like Deadpool only not… well, like Deadpool.

The person I’d seen was a villain with a Quirk similar to Toga’s Quirk, where she can drink someone’s blood, turn into them and even use whatever Quirk that person may have.

A villain who’d clearly taken on Monama’s form so to use more Quirks in quick succession, since Monama’s copy allows him to hold up to... well, actually, I don’t know.

I can remember something about him being able to hold up to four Quirks for ten minutes by the beginning of season five, but, since the MHA my body came from is clearly far into the future, there’s no telling how much stronger his Quirk became, both in the number of copied Quirks he could hold onto or for how long.

Either way, it means, despite my having been hating Monana all this time, thinking he’d been the one to rip Nana’s soul from her body and slamming me in to replace it by accident, he was innocent. He hadn’t been the villain, because he isn’t one.

“Yeesh,” Diamond looks uneasy. “That is a lot to take in. You’d been hating on the guy all this time, when he had nothing to do with what happened to you in the first place? That’s rough.”

I sigh, rubbing my face. “Tell me about it. Anyway, anything happen on this end while I was gone? Any signs the League noticed one of their members isn’t in this world anymore?”

The four shake their heads.

“Not a thing,” Silver Spoon says. “We even tried looking it up on line. Wherever this League of Villains is, they’re doing a pretty good job hiding.”

I sigh, folding my arms. “Well, I guess that can’t be helped. It’ll take time for us to find them, let alone figure out their plans and a way to stop them. In the meantime,” I grin to the four of them, “we’d best get started training you all on the use of your Quirks properly. Plus, a little general training to improve your physical strength wouldn’t go unwanted either.”

We head for the woods, close to where Wallflower would’ve found the Memory Stone after the events of Friendship Games.

I know Wallflower will want to make her garden in that spot and, since she now has no reason to use it, if she finds the Memory Stone, I don’t have to fear her using it.

Once we’re far enough into the woods, we start the training.

Diamond and Silver Spoon I have spare with me. With One For All, my strength is a good way to improve their Quirks the more hits they take from me.

Derpy and Wallflower train together, though Wallflower is thoroughly embarrassed that, in order to train her Quirk properly, she has got go around naked.

Granted, the girl with the invisibility Quirk in MHA had to go nude too, but I’ve already requested Rarity to make clothing and Hero Costumes for the girls too.

After all, Diamond and Silver’s clothes don’t work with their Quirks either. It’ll be easy for them to use their Quirks if they don’t have to worry about ending up naked because their clothes aren’t part of their Quirks.

Of course, to do that, she will need fabrics with threads made from the girls’ mana woven through them, just like she did for me.

That’ll be tricky without the girls coming with me to Equestria, which itself could cause issues if the pony Silver Spoon, Diamond Tiara and Derpy spot their human counterparts.

After a morning of training, during which our sparing happens to unearth the Memory Stone by accident, as we all sit down for the picnic lunch Derpy and Wallflower packed, I broach the idea to the four of them.

“Go to another world?” Wallflower looks to Derpy, who has an equally unsure look.

“Would it be safe for us?” Silver Spoon asks.

Ah… that’s a loaded question.

Technically, so long as we stayed in Twilight’s castle and don’t run into the girls’ doubles (I don’t even know where Wallflower’s double lives or even she even has a pony double), we should be safe.

In Equestria itself, however?

Honestly, I don’t know if this world is safer with the League of Villains than Equestria is on the daily with its regular stuff.

“I guess it would be for the best,” Diamond looks at her torn shirt and shorts. “Mother isn’t hard pressed on money, but I doubt she’d be happy with even my least nice clothes getting torn every time I fought a villain and my clothes were the only things ruined.”

“At least you can still use your Quirk effectively while wearing your regular clothes,” Wallflower says, blushing despite wearing her clothes. “Running around naked is very… well…”

“Now I feel guilty,” Derpy wraps her arms around her knees. “My Quirk doesn’t work like any of yours, so I don’t have that hassle.”

“It’s not like we’re going to hold it against you, Derpy,” Silver Spoon reassures her. “None of us knew we’d get these Quirks. It’s not like we could’ve controlled how they work.”

“So, what’ll it be, girls?” I ask, looking around at them. “Are you going to come with me to Equestria so the pony Rarity can make you clothes made from mana? We’ll need to stop by this world’s Rarity’s so she can give us the measurements, since you’ll be turned into ponies the moment you pass through the portal and I honestly don’t know what’ll happen if you come back here wearing pony fitted clothing. Twilight’s Fall Formal dress vanished when she came back, replaced with her default clothes, so I think it would be better safe than sorry.”

After a bit more chatting, we all agree.

The girls will go arrange things with their parents to let them know they’ll be gone for a while and we get the needed measurements and, thanks to it being the weekend tomorrow, as long as Rarity can finish at least their main uniforms before Monday, we shouldn’t have to worry about the school questioning the absence of the four girls.

Once the girls are ready, we pass through the portal.

___________________________________________________________

“Thank goodness!” Diamond sighs, slouching as we step back out of the portal.

Rarity really outdid herself.

It had taken several hours just to get enough mana thread from the girls before she could get started even planning their new clothes, but, even though I’d insisted she didn’t need to rush or do too much, she went beyond.

It took her almost the entire next day, but she’d managed to create five identical set of clothes for each of the girls, along with a new look Wallflower was trying at Derpy’s suggestion, along with the two of each of their Hero Costumes.

During the time I’d been gone, the four had clearly been thinking about what they wanted their costumes.

Diamond’s is like a figure skating dress, with an added skirt. The top has golden sequins surrounding a pink aesthetic, while the skirt is pure white.

Her chosen Hero Name: Zirconia.

Quite clever, really. It hides the truth about her Quirk while still hinting at the truth, thus allowing her to take advantage should her enemy not put as much effort trying to break through, unaware they’re really fighting against pure diamond.

Silver Spoon’s is a simple white leotard with some black trimmings around the edges of her hips and a crystal visor in place of her glasses.

The Hero Name she chose: Osmosian.

I’d tried to come up with something that wouldn’t feel like we were just naming her after Kevin Levin’s species when she already has powers identical to his without having to be half Osmosian herself, but, no matter how much we brainstormed, we couldn’t think of anything.

Wallflower’s outfit is also a leotard, hers green, with trails of red down the legs and arms.

When it came to her Hero Name, we couldn’t really get around it, Invisible Girl was too obvious, but also too perfect not to go with.

Derpy was the more interesting idea. Since she hadn’t needed mana based clothing like the other three, she’d had more freedom in the materials.

Surprisingly, she pretty much chose a design that matches Bubble Girl from MHA.

I swear, I didn’t even suggest anything, she just ended up choosing a design that was identical to Bubble Girl… though I obviously asked Rarity to make the top go a lot lower, stopping shortly after reaching her waist.

Last thing I need is, when Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna do find out about the girls’ Quirks and their outfits, for them to accuse me of making Derpy dress like a slut when she’s not even an adult.

As for her Hero Name, thankfully, though her outfit is near identical, Derpy did not choose to go by Bubble Girl, but Bubble Shot.

Sure, it’s a single word change, but a single small change like that can do a lot.

Of course, getting their Hero Costumes wasn’t all that happened while we were in Equestria.

The girls had all been very confused by the pony forms they took, especially Diamond and Silver. Neither had expected to turn into foal.

One time, while we’d been in the castle, Diamond had asked about her mother.

That… hadn’t been the best talk.

She’d been stunned and disgusted when she learned the roles were reversed, her father being kind and caring, while her mother was the abusive monster who’d tried to use her own daughter as merely a means to an end instead of her own flesh and blood.

Though, she did admit, it made her slightly jealous of her pony self, since she’d always wondered what it was like to have a loving father, to which I’d pointed out, if pony Diamond knew the difference, she’d say the same about having a loving mother.

Diamond had wanted to go out and clock her mother’s horrid pony counterpart, but I’d made sure they all stayed in the castle until it was time to return, so Diamond was grateful when it was time to go, since she found it incredibly taxing not to go out and deal with pony Spoiled.

Besides, I know things will blow up in that stuck up mare’s face pretty soon anyway.

With their new Hero Costumes, the girls ask me to go harder on them with training this time, so I do.

With Derpy and Wallflower, I make sure the former learns how to better switch between the bubbles from her hands and her mouth. I don’t know if it’s her eyes, but, even when they seem off aim, her bubbles always seem to hit close to wherever she was clearly aiming.

Wallflower is much more confident with her Quirk now, as her Hero Costume turns invisible with her, having been made from her own mana, so her stealth is much improved.

As for Diamond and Silver, I’m training with them personally.

With how we’re doing it, the more hits Diamond’s Diamond Form and any form Silver’s in after absorbing matter take, the stronger they become and the longer the two can hold their forms before having to stop.

At one point, they even tried two timing me by Diamond having Silver absorb her Diamond Form.

This… had slightly backfired, with Diamond getting very winded due to how Silver’s Quirk works so much like Kevin’s Osmosian powers, but, after a while, we start being able to use this method more regularly.

By early evening, we agree to meet up during lunch the next day to continue their training.

“Deku, I’m so, so, so sorry!” Silver pleads as we’re leaving the woods near dinner time.

“Sil, chill,” I say, before chuckling, then coughing and looking at her more seriously. “I’ve been meaning to get a bit of a cut anyway,” I finish by patting the back of my head, where some of my hair is now missing.

Shortly after Silver and Diamond had tried their first attempt at Silver aborbing Diamond’s Diamond Form, Silver had gotten a little too eager to try a technique where she made blade with her arms.

In the heat of the moment, she lost her footing and, in my attempt to reach her, her arm had gone in an upward swing, narrowly missing my head, but not missing the back of my hair.

Silver looks really uncertain. “You’re sure?”

I wave a hand. “I’m sure, Sil. Besides, shorter hair is not only easier for me to wash, it’s much less difficult when I’m moving fast as I use my Quirk. You girls can probably work with it, but it’s not the best for me.”

On top of that, now I look a little more like Izuku, only with bangs. On the offhand chance one of the League members from MHA know what he looked like as a kid, it might just spook them enough to give us an edge should we run into them by accident.

I say goodbye to the girls and head for the portal.

I’m just about to pass through, when I hear a very familiar, overly dramatic cry and deadpan.

This… will not end well.

“Darling, whatever happened to your coiffure?!”

I feel a hand on my shoulder, before I’m whirled around to face Rarity, who’s looking at me more like I was just diagnosed with a fatal disease than having a rough haircut.

“It’s nothing, Rarity,” I try to start. “Silver just accidentally slice off some of my hair during training practice. It’s not a big deal.”

I regret that last part as soon as it started leaving my lips, remembering just who I’m talking too.

Rarity looks horrified. “Not a big deal? Not a big deal?! It is most certainly a big deal, darling! You are coming with me at once and we are sorting this out before it gets any worse!”

“No, Rarity, you really don’t have to— hey!”

Somehow, Rarity starts dragging me down the street and it’s like I can’t fight back.

She has some kind of death grip on my arm and I really don’t want to use One For All against her.

So, instead, I’m forced to watch as she brings me down the path, to a fate I am unclear on.

Guess Twilight will have to wait til later for me to return.

Hope she doesn’t get worried.

Author's Note

Okay... figuring out how to work all that in prior to Friendship Games was a little tricker than i'd originally thought it would.

Coming up with ideas for how to describe the girl's costumes was also more challenging than i'd expected.

i mean, i knew what i wanted them to look like, but actually saying it proved really tough and i'm not even sure i did that very well.

Anyway, next chapter... not really sure, to be honest.

I mostly needed to at least set up the girls for the times they and Deku will start looking more into the League prior to Friendship Games, since it clearly will be a while before Equestria is caught up timewise so the timing of when the Season 5 finale would normally be happening take place.

Either way, Deku is slowly getting the girls ready to be heroes, or at least have the skills to defend themselves should the League come for them.

although... who's to say only the four of them or the CHS students with Quirks? might there be another? :trollestia:

And can Deku survive whatever Rarity has planned?

you'll have to wait and see.

til next time, stay safe, stay clean and see you later everybody

Chapter 6

___________________________________________________________

“Uh… Deku? Are you alright?”

I raise my head from the table I’d been resting it against, Derpy’s worried expression now in my line of sight instead of the blue-painted wood.

Our group are currently sitting at a picnic table outside Canterlot High, around the back.

We’re all dressed in winter casuals, since we didn’t do any training today because I’m too exhausted and we are now in the months of winter.

Wallflower’s wearing her usual look, while Diamond didn’t have to change her look to much, just wearing black trouser and Silver Spoon is pretty similar, only she’s wearing a purple sweater and pink trousers instead of her usual skirt.

Derpy is wearing the outfits shown in the Rarity music video Life is a Runway. Apparently, it’s really warm.

I sigh, gingerly straightening myself and yawning loudly. “’m just tired, Derpy. Nothing t’ worry about.”

Wallflower gives me a firm look. “If it were nothing to worry about, you wouldn’t look like that.”

As if they’d rehearsed it, Silver Spoon pulls a compact mirror out of her bag and holds it up to my face.

What I see staring blearily back at me would startle me if I wasn’t so tired.

My face is a bit more gaunt than usual and I’ve massive bags under my eyes.

“Nana, we’re worried about you,” Diamond Tiara says firmly, giving me a “we are having this talk” kind of stare, the kind your parents give you as a kid when they are imposing how serious something is.

“You’ve been going back and forth from Equestria to here to help us train for months now,” Wallflower nods. “Nana, you need to take a break.”

“I’m… fine,” I say, my head nodding forward for a moment. “Wallflower, could the three of you stop moving around. It’s hard to focus on the middle one when you all keep moving like that.”

The girls all share a look, before Diamond glares at me. “Okay, no. This is serious, Deku!” She slams her hands on the table. “You’re beyond exhausted. Are you really that determined to get us ready to defend ourselves against the League of Villains and become our world’s Symbol of Peace so quickly?”

I blink at Diamond for several minutes. “Me, this world’s Symbol of Peace? Naw, man. That’s a flawed ideal. That’d do more harm than good in the long run.”

That causes confused looks.

I sighing, I smack myself several times to wake myself more, before explaining. “It’s true, Allmight became the Symbol of Peace for his world and it did work, for a very long time, but, there in lay the problem. Being the Symbol of Peace means taking on more burdens than any human is physically and emotionally cable of. Plus, once Allmight’s time started heading for its final days, the loss of the Symbol of Peace almost broke the whole world, not just his home country of Japan.”

The girls all look stunned.

I nod, holding up a finger. “Allmight had the right idea, instilling a sense of justice and joy into the world, so people weren’t always cowering in fear at the idea of a villain attack, but, by placing all that on himself, society itself started to falter. People who weren’t villains but looked it started getting treated as such. Certain heroes started caring only about their public image instead of protecting people since they thought Allmight would be able to do that for them. Those who felt ostracised grew up hating the world and came together due to their likeminded views and wanted to cause nothing but harm. Hero Society only works when everyone is doing their part. One person being the Symbol of Peace will work for a short term, granted, a very long time, but, still only short term and, once it ends, it’ll be followed by chaos for a long while.”

“Then, what’re you doing?” Wallflower asks. “If you’re not trying to become our world’s Symbol of Peace, why do you keep trying to help?”

I smile. “Because it’s just the right thing to do.”

There’s silence as the girls process everything I’ve said.

It’s Diamond, five minutes later, who finally breaks the silence.

“So, if you’re not trying to become the next Symbol of Peace, why’re you so exhausted?”

I blink, before chuckling. “Oh, nothing. Just had to deal with one of the most chaotic weddings in Equestria’s history after Cadance and Shining Armour’s happening long after it was originally supposed to.”

Their eyes widen, so I explain about Cranky and Matilda’s wedding, plus everything else that’s been going on in Equestria lately, including how I’d been asked to Appleloosa with AJ and the CMC to help deal with Troubleshoes.

Things there went much easier since, in my role of hero, I was able to “apprehend” Troubleshoes shortly after the CMC talked with him, without the rest of the ponies getting involved and convince everypony he wasn’t malicious and the CMC still took that important step in getting their Cutie Marks by helping Troubleshoes understand the true meaning of his.

Not to mention the fact that the wedding happened out of order from what I was expecting threw me off.

The CMC got their Cutie Marks before the wedding in the version of Equestria I ended up in.

Learned that the embarrassing way when, after noticing the events of Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep? and Brother Hooves Social happened before the wedding, went to ask Matilda directly, only for Cranky to overhear me and chew my ears out for several minutes for not bothering to read the date on the invite… before Matilda pointed out they hadn’t given me one yet, what with my spending most days in the EQG world.

Two days after, the CMC got their marks and Spoiled was arrested for embezzling school funds on a statue in commemoration of something that didn’t even happen.

Three days after that, the wedding happened and… it was even more chaotic than the episode described, not helped by the fact Twilight and the others refused my help in fighting the Bugbear, even though it would’ve saved a lot of time and caused far less damage.

A simple flick at 5% and it would’ve gone down easily, but, they insisted, not wanting to have to start relying on me when the EQG world (or Sunset’s world, as Twilight put it) needs my help more due to the League of Villains, even though the League hasn’t made a peep in months, their lacky locked up in Tartarus being the only indicator of their presence in this world.

Though it takes me a bit to realize that, instead of what’s going on in Equestria, they’re more interested in hearing about Cadance and Shining Armour, my having briefly forgotten the only version they’d know are form Crystal Prep.

They’re certainly shocked as we head instead when I mention Cadance is pregnant (another episode who’s events annoyingly happened out of order, coming before the CMC got their marks), since they’re pretty sure Cadance isn’t pregnant in this world, though they are aware she and Twilight’s brother are married.

It’s as Diamond mentions Shining and I slip, saying Twilight’s happy that she’s going to become an aunt, Wallflower says something that, if I weren’t so exhausted, maybe I would’ve been able to handle better.

“Wait, if Princess Twilight is going to be the aunt of Cadance’s baby in Equestria… doesn’t that mean our world has a Twilight who’s would be our world’s Cadance’s baby’s aunt?”

There’s a long pause, before all the girl’s heads slowly turn back towards me.

I sigh, and am about to explain how their world’s Twilight has a very different life from her pony counterpart, but I’m cut off by someone calling out, “Hey, Piggly Wiggly.”

I stop, glancing around in confusion.

“Nana, what’s wrong?” Wallflower asks.

I don’t answer, due to notice Applejack and the others close by, said farm girl looking around too.

I frown, rubbing my eyes. “You girls are right. I really do need some rest. I can’t think straight.”

I’ve a nagging feeling that loud “Piggly Wiggly” and Applejack looking around are connected, but I’m too tired to think of why.

“Sis! Sis!” all our attentions are now on Applejack and co as her little sister runs up to her, looking worried, holding up her phone.

““Did you guys know when AJ was a kid she loved playing with her pigs. OMG! She sat in the mud for hours! Her whole family calls her “Piggly Wiggly” cause she loves them so much! What a PIG!”?” Applejack takes her sister’s phone, reading it out loud.

I blink, frowning. This is sounding way too familiar. I wince, holding my head. I really need some rest so I can think clearly.

“Who’s this Anon-A-Miss?” Sunset asks.

Alright, that’s it!

“Deku, what’re you—?” Derpy starts to ask as I shove my backpack into her hands.

I clench my fists and charge up. One For All: Full Cowling: 28%!

Thanks to the months of training with the girls, I’ve actually managed to push my limits of One For All to 24%. I’m going 4% my limit because that’ll hurt.

It does the trick, if only for a short time.

The pain wakes me up more and I shake my head, focusing on current events.

Quickly, everything falls into place and I walk up to the girls, arms folded, a disapproving frown on my face.

“Oh, hey, Deku, what’s up?” Sunset asks, before noticing my gaze and whom it’s aimed at.

“Uh, Miss Deku?” Apple Bloom asks nervously.

During my months here, I have interacted with the girls and stayed on friendly terms with them, though probably not as often or as close as I’d really have liked, though that was mostly because I want to wait until Sci-Twi joins the group and they get their magic from Everfree before really getting involved.

After all, until they get that magic, there’s no chance they’ll be able to defend themselves if the League targets them.

With my mind clear, however, I can see what’s going on and I intend to put a stop to it before it even begins.

“Care to explain?” I point to the phone in AJ’s hands.

“Huh?” is all seven’s response.

“What’s going on?’ Wallflower whispers to Diamond.

“Beats me,” Diamond whispers back, opening her phone, clearly trying to understand and snickers a little.

I tap my foot, staring down at Apple Bloom. “As the little sister of this world’s Element of Honesty, it would be pretty shameful to continue down this road, Apple Bloom.”

“R-road?” Apple Bloom laughs nervously. “Wh-what road? Ah can’t even drive.”

Now the others are looks to the yellow girl with a raised eyebrow.

“I’m not going to out you here, Apple Bloom,” I say, my voice full of disapproval, “however, there’s a thing called trust. Breaking someone’s trust, especially someone close, is a very cruel thing to do. And trust like that, once broken, can take a long time to fix. Just food for thought.”

With that, I walk off to re-join my group, hearing Rainbow saying “What was that all about?” as I leave with them.

It’s true, I’m not a student here, but, having informed Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna about the situation months ago, they’ve agreed to let me stay in the school as a kind of transfer student… though I do worry about the paper trail.

I’m unsure how many members of the League were actually aware of Deku’s granddaughter before they came to this world, so whether they’ll recognize the name Nana Midoriya should they stumble upon the school records somehow.

After all, the name Midoriya alone would not only stand out to them, but, it would stand out anywhere in this world.

So, instead, I asked them to go with the translation, Green Valley.

It’s not exactly a name I’d like to go by, but it’s technically not lying either. At least, if the League does notice my name, even if they’re Japanese, it shouldn’t click in their heads.

Later, after class, Diamond shows the girl’s the Anon-A-Miss page and, while there is snickering at first, one look from me makes them stop.

“Ya know,” Diamond frowns at her phone, “this Anon-A-Miss’s profile picture is the same colours as Sunset Shimmer’s hair. Is possible that…?”

I give Diamond a firm look. “Diamond. In all these months, has Sunset in any way made it seem like she’d willingly post something like that? I’m not talking about the old Sunset. The current Sunset, the one you’ve seen ever since the Fall Formal. Does that Sunset seem like she’d do that, especially to those she cares about?”

There’s a long pause, before the girls all sigh, shaking their heads.

I nod, glancing to Sunset and the others as snickers and murmurs of “Piggly Wiggly” happen around us and find myself having to stop 1% of my Quirk charging through me out of frustration, not helped by the lack of sleep.

I mostly stop it, but not before a few sparks of blue electricity crackle around me, causing several students to look my way in annoyance, before looking away nervously at the glare they receive in turn.

Apple Bloom, my words better have reached you.

That night, I choose to stay in the EQG world, knowing full well what should happen tomorrow, should they not.

I get permission to sleep in the infirmary, as I don’t want to inconvenience anyone and so I’m here early in the morning.

Come morning, I wait in the hallway. I see Sunset and the others come in together… slowly followed by a frowning Sweetie Belle.

As Rarity’s sister splits from the older kids, I watch her go. Wallflower is standing nearby and I nod.

She nods back and, after making sure no one’s watching, goes invisible and follows after the white girl, her mana-infused clothes disappearing with her.

I follow Sunset’s group, splitting off when Sunset goes to a different class than the others, staying by the main group.

My presence doesn’t go unnoticed.

“De— um, Valley?” Rarity asks, causing the rest of the girls to stop before splitting off themselves. “Why’re you following us?”

“I’ve chosen to go to your class today,” I say simply.

With how my being in the school is structured, I don’t have to follow the same class schedules as everyone else. I can go to whichever class I want, in whichever grade (within reason, of course), so long as I do the tasks assigned to me during those classes.

With a good night’s sleep under my belt, I know how thing should play out if Apple Bloom didn’t heed my warning and, in the event of events playing out like normal, I intend to be there to derail that train as soon as possible.

The girls seem uncertain, but choose to accept my reasoning and I join them in class.

As class is ending, Applejack gets a notification on her phone and, upon looking at it, her expression tells me to step in.

“I’ve a pretty good idea what’s wrong, AJ,” I say as she shows her phone to the others. “However, I ask you wait until we hear back from Wallflower. She had a free period, so I sent her on a reconnaissance mission,” I add to the questioning looks.

As Sunset meets the girls in the hall, I give AJ a look so she understands.

She reveals the photos to Sunset and asks about it, with Sunset insisting she didn’t post the photos and not understand how Anon-A-Miss got them.

However, due to my intervention, the girls don’t accuse her, though still seem unsure, which is understandable, I guess, given the circumstances.

After a few minutes, Wallflower appears next to me, startling the girls.

“Well, Wallflower?” I ask, indicating to the girls. “We’re we right?”

Wallflower sighs, looking apologetically at Applejack and Rarity. “Your sisters are Anon-A-Miss.”

The two look aghast, then enraged.

“Before you two bite her head off,” I interject, looking firmly at them, “I told you I sent Wallflower to spy on your sisters.”

“No you didn’t!” Rainbow snaps, pointing at me. “You simply told us to wait for Wallflower to return from a… reconnaissance… mission?”

I watch as dawning enters all their expressions.

“I’m not going to outright call out your sisters,” I say, arms folded, “but, I recommend you three put them in a position where they’re unintentionally call themselves out. Suggest how you think Anon-A-Miss got the info she has so far. Say it the right way and they’ll trip themselves up.”

Dash folds her arms. “Couldn’t you just use your Quirk to do that?”

I frown at the rainbow-haired girl. “My Quirk doesn’t do that, Dash. None of our Quirks do.”

Dash snorts. “Typical. Why couldn’t someone have gotten a mind reading Quirk.”

I can’t help glancing at Sunset and inwardly smirking.

It may not be a Quirk, but, give it time, Dash. Give it time.

Suddenly, a thought occurs to me I hadn’t before.

“Sunset?”

“Yeah,” she asks, still seeming anxious.

“Where did you live in Equestria? Before Celestia took you on as her student, I mean,” I add to the odd looks.

Sunset looks confused, before folding her arms and looking up at the ceiling. “Nowhere, really. Just this little place called Sire’s Hollow. From what Twilight’s described, it makes Ponyville seem like Manehatten.”

I conitue looking at her for several moments, before smiling and nodding.

Wallflower and I head off down the hall, myself intending to help the girls train a little before heading straight back to Equestria for a bit.

I’ll return after Hearth’s Warming for the Friendship Games, possibly with some news.

Author's Note

Not gonna lie... this is not the chapter I expected to be posting today.

Yesterday, i wasn't able to do any writing because we had my grandfather on my mum's side funeral.

So, with that in mind, i kept my mind as far away from this story or any other for the day, focusing on the day's events only.

However, it was as i was laying in bed trying to go to sleep this morning that, it occured to me, i had no idea where this story was in the season 5 timeline anymore because of how many chapters i'd done in EQG.

as such, i looked up the episode list for season 5 and, while going over it and putting yearly seasons into the calculations thanks to Hearthbreakers, i remembered that, for Legend of Everfree to happen during Summer (since it wouldn't make sense Fall could've lasted all four movies), that, since Fall was the start, Winter needed to happen before then and Anon-A-Miss came to mind and i realized how i could work with that.

After all, as a hero, or a good person in general, for Deku to know the events of Anon-A-Miss were happening but not do anything about it, knowing full well how it goes, it would be pretty villain like.

and, i'd unintentionally set up Wallflower with the perfect Quirk to derail events before they got out of hand.

So, next chapter, we finally get to Friendship Games, with Deku planning on making sure Sci-Twi doesn't end up with the emotional scars of Midnight Sparkle.

i was originally also going to introduce the other current Quirk User at CHS, but then realized it would clog up the chapter and also require forcing reasons said user didn't interfere sooner, so she remain Quirkless... for now.

shortly after Legend of Everfree, however? :trollestia:

hoping in the next couple weeks, most likely sometime in november, to maybe update a few other fics, including A Love Bug's Life, as, i promise you, that fic is not dead yet, but we'll see how it goes.

I'm really eager to get to a specific part in this fic after Legend of Everfree, since it... Nope. on second thought, saying anymore on that would be spoilers.

So, Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter and, til next time, stay safe, stay clean and see you later everybody

Chapter 7

___________________________________________________________

Twilight starts as I come through the portal, herself and Starlight clearly have been in some kind of conversation… though not looking too good.

Their rubbing their heads and have a distant look in their eyes, like you get when you’ve a massive headache, have to push through it.

“Did… I miss something?” I ask, looking between the two of them.

“What… was that?” Starlight groans, rubbing her head.

“That was some intense magic,” Twilight murmurs back. “I’ve… I’ve never felt anything like that before.”

I frown, looking around. Nothing seems out of the ordinary.

“Deku… would you mind going out and seeing if anything’s up?” Twilight says, from the table, still rubbing her forehead. “That level of intense magic… It can’t have been nothing. Ow.”

Shrugging, I nod and head outside, charging up 18% and hurrying off, scanning Ponyville for anything that looks like it shouldn’t be happening, but see nothing aside from every unicorn in town acting the same way Twilight and Starlight had.

Nothing seems odd, per say, but the fact it happened to every unicorn, while no other ponies or creatures seem effected is definitely something to be concerned about.

I keep searching for several hours, before heading back to the castle to, having found nothing aside from other unicorns having the same weird headache from sensing whatever magic it was Starlight and Twilight sensed.

Twilight is concerned, so has Spike send a message to Celestia, but, with no real evidence to go on, it’s clear we’ll have to wait to see if anything else happens before being able to follow up on whatever it was.

In the meantime, I ask Twilight to give me some directions for Sire’s Hollow.

When she asks why, I say it’s to test a theory of mine. It’s not an answer she likes, but she goes along with it, knowing she can trust me.

Once I have the directions, I take the train. It has to make a stop on the way, however due to engine trouble, so I head the rest of the way on foot.

Granted, traveling through the snow isn’t the best idea, but, thanks to One For All, I’m able to keep myself warm as I run through the snow across the hills and valleys leading to where Sire’s Hollow should be.

As I run up a hill that should overlook the village, I pause, looking around.

Did I just… hear something?

I could’ve sworn I just heard a murmur of some kind.

“Hello?” I call out, looking every which way. “Is somepony there?”

There’s silence for a few moments, before I hear it again.

It’s faint, but it’s a sharp breath, the kind you make when you’ve been in the cold for a really long time and are trying to just bear with it.

Looking a little closer at my surroundings, I notice what I thought was just some snow by a tree. It seems… misshapen.

Moving over, I start trying to move the snow, before my eyes widen and I start furiously digging.

There’s somepony under there.

Faster than you can say “freezing”, I’m pulling the pony out of the snow, the fact it’s a young pony making me even more nervous.

Judging by their size and weight, I’d say a young teenager or a preteen.

Once I’ve pulled them out, however, my brain blanks for a moment, confused.

It’s… it’s Sunset. But, she’s younger than she should be. Best guess, she looks like she’s maybe three years younger than the Sunset I know.

The hell is going on here?

Suddenly, the fact Sunset looks bluer than usual and the fact she’s faintly shivering pulls me back to reality.

I scoop her up in my arms and charge down the hill towards Sire’s Hollow.

I notice the fence Sunburst’s mother put that “Welcome to Sire’s Hollow” audio to, but simply leap over it, running to the nearest house and pounding on the door (making sure to stop using my Quirk, of course).

The door’s opened and I start to talk, before I realize who it is. “Firelight?”

He shows confusion. “Um, yes? That’s my name. Who’re you—?”

“No time!” I cut him off, holding up Sunset.

Firelight’s eyes widen, before he’s ushering me inside.

He leads me to a fireplace, where I lay Sunset down.

Firelight light’s the fire as quickly as possible. “Stay close to help keep her warm. I’ll go get some blankets.”

He hurries off somewhere else in the house, while I curl around Sunset, trying my best to keep her warm as the fire further heats her scarily cold body.

Firelight comes back a few minutes later with several blankets, which I quickly swaddle Sunset in.

We watch for several moments, worried, before she starts shivering, then calms down, her breathing normal.

We both sigh with relief, before the stallion looks to me with a confused frown. “So, who or… what are you and how did you find Stellar Flare’s daughter? And how’s she so young?”

I blink at him. Well, that answered several questions all at once, while opening up others.

I look back to the young yellow unicorn, frowning.

So, Sunset is Sunburst’s older sister. However, Sunset just being here in Equestria without explanation and younger isn’t something so easy to explain away, not in the same sense, anyway.

Sunset is definitely still in the EQG. Twilight didn’t mention anything about the unicorn coming through the portal while I was searching Ponyville, so this can’t be the Sunset I know.

That leaves only one other option: She’s Sunset’s human counterpart from EQG.

However, that does not explain why she’s here in Equestria or why she looks younger than Sunset did in the first move.

Something isn’t adding up here and I don’t understand what it is.

Of course, we can’t know anything unless we ask Sunset herself. She can maybe explain something about this. Til then, we’ll have to wait.

Firelight makes us some hot milk, since he’s out of coffee and we sit and chat, making sure to keep an eye on Sunset to make sure nothing goes wrong.

Sire’s Hollow does apparently have a hospital, but it’s small, basically just a clinic, and closed due to repairs, so we couldn’t take her there and have to make due.

As we chat, I tell Firelight about myself, what I do and how I found Sunset (making sure not to mention EQG or the fact I’m sure this is their Sunset and not the one from here).

He agrees that it doesn’t make sense she was just there on that hill in the snow, nor why she’s three years younger than she logically should be.

When I ask where Stellar Flare is (making sure to have Firelight mention her name in context to being Sunset’s mother) to let her know about Sunset, Firelight explain that Stellar Flare is currently visiting family for the holidays.

I inwardly frown, wondering if she’s looking for Sunset or maybe Sunburst, as I do remember the latter not liking all the letters his mother sent to him on the regular.

___________________________________________________________

Sunset stirs, lifting her head and looking around in confusion.

“A… house?” she mumbles sleepily. “Was… was that all a…? No, I’m still… What’s going on?”

“Was kinda hoping you could clear that up yourself there, Sunset?”

The unicorn’s head whirls around, her eyes landing on me leaning on the couch.

Her eyes go wide. “A… another human?! Please, you gotta help me!”

She scrambles to get up, before wincing, laying back on her side.

“Whoa, easy there, girl,” I hold up my hands, getting off the couch. “Your body’s still recovering. Firelight had a doctor come by while you were asleep. He said you’d barely avoided getting hypothermia. Even though you dodged it, your body is still going to need time, with how long you were out in the cold.”

“You’re a human. I need your help. I dunno why, but I’ve turned into a pony and…wait. Firelight?” Sunset blinks, before recognition enters her eyes. “Wait. Wasn’t that the name of my little brother’s best friend’s dad? He’s here?”

I smile, cocking my head to the side. “Well, this is his house.”

Her eyes widen. “I’m back in Sire’s Hollow?”

“How’s our little patient doing?” Firelight’s voice calls from the kitchen.

“Seems okay to me,” I call back, walking over and kneeling down to Sunset, helping her get more confortable.

Sunset blinks, something only now seeming to dawn on her. “Hang on. Firelight’s seen me, like this?”

I nod.

“And he’s not freaked out?!” she asks incredulously.

I cock an eyebrow. “Why would he?”

It’s at this moment the other unicorn comes in, a tray of warm drinks and a bowl of oatmeal levitating in his magic.

Sunset just stares at him in confusion, before her eyes go wide. “Your turned into a unicorn too?!”

The stallion pauses, glancing at me in confusion.

I sigh. “I think I know what’s going on here, actually. Sunset, can you tell us where you come from?”

I’d had time to think about it last night as I lay on the couch, trying to go to sleep and I think I figured a few things out, but confirmation from Sunset herself would be best before moving forward.

As she talks, my theory is proven correct.

This is Sunset from the EQG world.

Apparently, she’d ran away from home one day and, after some time, somehow found herself on a boat that got caught in a storm, herself being thrown overboard.

When she’d come to, she was on an island that, as she’s describing it, sounds awfully familiar, further confirmed when she mentions a giant Venus flytrap plant that tried to eat her, causing her to fall into quicksand, only to wake up later in an underground cave.

After finding her way out of the cave, she’d wandered around a forest, until she bumped into a tree, causing a yellow flower to fall and burst on her face.

After that, she’d started to get sick. She hadn’t been sure what she had, but she’d felt worse than any other time she’d gotten sick.

She’d managed to find her way out of the forest and just wandered around aimlessly, too sick to really think straight.

“Then I felt a pain I never had before and… then I was laying in the middle of a snowy field. No explanation, I was just in a field and not feeling sick at all anymore,” Sunset finishes. “After that, I tried to keep going, hoping to find some familiar landmark. I thought the area looked similar to some fields outside Sire’s Hollow, but… I don’t remember much after that. I was too tired and cold to really think properly.”

I sit there, rubbing my chin. There’s something familiar about the sickness Sunset mwentioned she’d had. Something that’s ringing a bell, but I can’t quite put my finger on it.

“But… I’m confused,” Sunset looks to the stallion. “You’re a pony now too, Mr. Firelight. Why is that?”

I shake my head. “Sunset, this is going to sound crazy, but you’re in another universe.”

She deadpans at me. “Please, take this seriously?”

I shake my head. “I am, Sunset. You’re in a world parallel to your own. In your world, humans are the dominant species. In this one, it’s animals, namely ponies or other equines.”

She just frowns at me, pointing to Firelight. “And I suppose Mr. Firelight ended up in this pony world too?”

It’s Firelight’s turn to shake his head. “Nope. I’ve lived here my whole life, just like you, Sunset… unless I’m wrong?” he glances at me and I shake my head.

“This isn’t the Firelight you know, Sunset,” I indicate to the stallion. “This Firelight was born a unicorn in this universe. The one you’re thinking of is back in your universe.”

Sunset frowns at me. “And I travelled from one universe to another how, exactly?”

I fold my arms. “You found the natural portal in your world that leads to this one. Frankly, it sounds like a good thing too. you somehow avoided the League, if they were still there to begin with.”

“League?” Sunset frowns.

I shake my head, holding up a hand. “Matters for another time. Anyway, there’s something we need to discuss, but we’ll need both version of your parents here for that.”

“That… might be a problem,” Firelight remarks nervously. “Sunspot left not long after Sunset was reported missing. He originally went looking for her, but nopony’s heard from him in years.”

I frown. “Well, that’s a problem. Still, both versions of her mother should be here for this. The way things are now, I think we need to work something else out that will be better suited for all involved.”

“What did you have in mind?” Firelight asks.

___________________________________________________________

Sunset looked around at all those gathered in the Apple Family’s living room, the festive mood of the holidays strong, filling her heart with warmth.

In all honesty, she hadn’t been sure she’d ever feel this kind of warmth ever again.

She hadn’t told the girl’s, or anyone, for that matter, about her family back in Equestria. It wasn’t a subject she wanted to bring up. The guilt was too much.

Now, though. She felt the warmth she used to get with her family, back before her ambitions took over and she’d ignored her family.

Anon-a-Miss had indeed been as Wallflower and Deku had told them, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo.

It wasn’t until the third post that they’d decided to confront the trio. Thankfully, Deku’s warning had prevented Sunset from being suspected and she’d not lost her friends, even for a short time.

Thankfully, since they’d confronted the CMC after the third post, nothing more came of it. They’d originally just been using what they knew from their own perspectives.

Sunset shuddered to think the damage that could’ve been done had the three kept going. Apparently, people had started sending emails to anonymously to the account not long after the third post, some of the stuff said being quite nasty.

After getting the girls to come clean, they’d gotten them to report themselves to Principal Celestia, who made them take down the account and they had three months detention, one for each post.

With the account gone, so too were all the other secrets and horrible things others had wanted Anon-A-Miss to post about.

The CMC, Sunset and Applejack were the only ones who had any clue what those were and they’d agreed they’d never speak a word of them.

With that behind them, Sunset had spent the rest of the week as the girls had originally planned and now, with the final night, she felt at peace.

Though, seeing Apple Bloom hugging her parents just now, she couldn’t say she wasn’t a little bit jealous and homesick for her own parents.

Suddenly, there was a loud knock on the front door, startling everyone.

“Alright, alright, we hear ya,” Granny Smith called, before looking to the man who looked like a male adult version of Apple Bloom. “Bright Mac, can you get that?”

“Sure, Ma,” the man nodded, walking out the living room.

Everyone heard the door opening, hearing him say “Ah, Deku, Miss Tiara and Mrs Rich. Wonderful you could it,” before a cry of confusion left them just as confused. “Wait. Sunset Shimmer? What? How? How’re you out here? And… who’re these folks? Are they all twins?”

Confused looks were shared around by all, which turned to shock as Deku came in, followed by Diamond Tiara and her mother, along with three other people.

It was Sunset’s shout that provided the most shock, however.

“MOM?!”

Standing before them were two women, who looked completely identical, both with deep orange skin and even darker orange hair and green eyes. Both were wearing the same outfit, a blue button up shirt, a navy-blue long skirt, white stockings, black loafers and a blue scarf around their neck.

Before Sunset’s shout, however, the girl standing between them had caused the shock, due to her looking like someone else too, the one who’d shouted, in fact.

Standing in front of the woman on the right was a girl who looked like a younger version of Sunset, maybe a year or two older than the CMC, with her hair tied back in a ponytail.

“Wha…? But… HOW?” was all Applejack could manage to stutter.

Deku smiled, looking to Sunset. “That’s a bit of a long story. However, it’s one I think everyone, especially Sunset, should hear.”

Author's Note

GARH! This was WAY harder to write than i'd expected.

Trying to tie the last two chapters together so i can establish the future family settings for Sunset NEEDED to happen for later in the story, but figuring out the HOW was SO FREAKING FRUSTRATING! :flutterrage:

I struggled not to make it all tell and not show. i think maybe i managed to make it only half all tell, but i'm uncertain.

:ajsleepy:

Anyway, i hope it fits well enough.

So, Sunset's EQG self has now been found and both versions of her mother have come face to face with her in the EQG, or Christmas Night, no less.

Not exactly the holiday surprise Sunset was expecting.

So, what does this mean for Sunset going forward? Will she live with her mother in Equestria and commute to school through the portal? Will her EQG self live with her as a younger twin sister?

you'll have to wait and see.

As the beginning of the AN might've clued you in, this took FOREVER to finish.

it started it this morning, then kept having to take breaks because i just couldn't figure out how to continue each part of the chapter i finished without just making everything tell and no show, so sporadically was start and finishing this all day.

was almost certain i'd have to wait til tomorrow to finish it, before a burst of drive hit me and i decided to suck it up and finish it tonight.

So, now that it's after 9:30pm and i'm posting this, i'll wrap up here so i can actually post this and not end up rambling here in the AN to the point my words make no sense.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter for what it is and, til next time, stay safe, stay clean and goodnight everybody

Chapter 8

___________________________________________________________

I walk down the street, not really looking at anything in particular, crossing the road and rounding a corner on the footpath.

It’s spring now.

After the winter holidays Sunset and her counterpart have made an arrangement.

The Sunset I know is staying in the human would as the resident Sunset, while the younger one is staying in Equestria as its resident Sunset, currently living with the pony Stellar Flare in Sire’s Hollow, with it agreed the families will take turns visiting each other, alternating between Equestria and the human world.

Essentially, Sunset’s family simply doubled in size, with each side seeing the other as direct family in a sense.

I spent the rest of winter in Equestria, partly to make sure Sunset’s younger self was settling in alright, but also due to slight nerves.

I’m aware the Friendship Games are coming up, meaning the timeline in Equestria is getting dangerously close to the season five finale’s time.

With Starlight already no longer a villain, however, that left what would actually happen up in the air.

Thankfully, through quiet observation, aided by Wallflower and her Quirk, I was able to confirm Starlight has no clue about Star Swirl’s time travel spell, so won’t be doing anything too risky.

I wasn’t worried she’d repeat the events of the finale, obviously, but, knowing Starlight and how hard she’d taken it upon realizing how flawed her mindset had been back in her town, the idea she might try to go back in time to stop herself was also a concern.

Granted, I’m not entirely sure what the damage to the timeline would be if she did that, as Starlight deciding to make her town was not a focal point in Equestria’s history like the Rainboom connecting Twilight and the others, but I still preferred not finding out what such an alteration to the timeline could cause.

As a certain professor once said, time travel is for immortals and fools.

Still, since it seemed Starlight was not about to cause the space time continuum to start joking on its own blood in a foolish attempt to fix the mistakes of her literal past, I felt confident that I could leave Equestria alone for at least a few days without risk of events getting as bad as season five’s finale’s.

“Hey! Stop!” a familiar yet unexpected voice cries out.

Focusing ahead, I see a guy with blue skin and grey hair, wearing a leather jacket and jeans running towards me, seeming to be holding something under his arm as if trying to keep it hidden.

Glancing behind him, I immediately recognize the lavender girl and, as the guy is getting closer, put to and two together.

I act like I’m stepping aside to simply let him pass, but stick my leg out at the last minute.

He trips, falling flat on his face, skidding along the pavement, what he’d been holding going flying through the air, revealing a familiar looking backpack.

Charging up 1%, I leap into the air, catching the backpack and landing firmly on the ground, raising a foot and stomping it down in time to catch the guy, stopping his skidding and pinning him down.

“Spike!” Sci-Twi yells, hurrying over.

It’s only now I realize the bag is move and unzip it to reveal the green and purple pup.

He licks my cheek happily, before I hand him to the girl as she stops in front of me.

“Thank you,” she says, taking the bag and cuddling Spike close to her.

“No problem,” I say, before pressing my foot down a little harder on the guy. “Stealing a girl’s backpack? Seriously, dude? That’s beyond pathetic. Got a phone?”

It takes a second for Sci-Twi to realize I’m addressing her now.

“Oh, the police. Right,” she says, fumbling with her bag and getting her phone out and putting it to her ear. “Shining? Yeah, hi. Um… don’t react badly but, someone just tried to rob me.”

A loud unintelligible yelling came from the phone, which she quickly moves away from her ear.

“I’m alright, BBBFF, really,” she says once the yelling has stopped. “Someone else was nearby and stopped him. She’s holding him down. Okay.” She hangs up and looks to me. “My older brother’s an officer in the local police. He’ll be here shortly.”

“That’s good,” I say jovially, dropping down and sitting on the guy under my foot, causing him to give a loud grunt. “Happy to help out, though standing on this guy all day certainly wasn’t how I planned on spending my day.”

Sci-Twi gives a light giggle, while Spike pants.

I hold out my hand. “Name’s— Valley,” I catch myself. “Green Valley.”

“T-Twilight Sparkle,” she responds shyly, returning the handshake a little uncertainly.

“Pleasure to meet you, Twilight Sparkle.”

It only take ten minutes before a cop car shows up and Shining and some guy I don’t recognize with grey skin arrest the guy, putting him in the back of the car.

“You’re the girl who helped my little sister?” Shining asks once the guy’s in the car. He holds out a hand and I shake it. “Thanks a lot.”

I shrug. “Any good person would do the same, sir.”

He nods, before getting in his car and drives off.

“So,” I turn to the lavender girl, “any plans for the day after this?”

“Oh, well,” she fiddles with her glasses, trying to close her bag and I notice several electronic parts in there… that seem familiar. “I was just doing some shopping for some parts to an experiment. Nothing really important.”

I’m inwardly smirking, but outwardly give a kind smile. “Okay. You ever wanna hang out, you can find me near CHS.”

Mentioning the school causes her eyes to widen. “You’re a student at CHS?”

I shrug. “Kinda. My situation is little different from your average student. Anyway, see you around, Twilight Sparkle.”

“Oh, um, okay,” she says, waving to me. “See you around… um, Valley, was it?”

I laugh, nodding and wave as I head down the street.

Turning away, I grin. I know exactly what those parts in her bag were for. She’s going to be building both the scanner Sunset sees her with, possibly this afternoon even, then the device she used to absorb magic unintentionally.

I pause, before frowning. That reminds me…

___________________________________________________________

When Sci-Twi’s pendant opens the portals at the end of round two, we act quickly.

Derpy fires a mass of bubbles that form into a wall, surrounding the stands full of students, just as the plants lunge. When they make contact they scream and shrivel up, her having made the bubbles full of weed killer, apparently.

I charge up to 20% and, grabbing Silver’s hand after she absorbed the metal of the stands, shoot forward, Silver turning her arm into a blade and slicing through the head of a plant that was aiming for Sugarcoat, while Dash follows after Sunset, before moving to save Indigo Zap, myself hitting the plant’s the head with a Maneberra Smash, causing it to pop like a zit.

It had taken a few minutes, but the plants eventually went back through the portals as they close, indicating Sci-Twi closed her pendant.

Not waiting, Silver, Diamond and I hurry over to her.

“Valley?” the nerdy girl asks, surprised. “What was all that?”

“Just a sec,” I say, grabbing the pendant and tossing it to Silver. “Absorb Diamond and seal it.”

Diamond goes Diamond and Silver absorbs it, before moving all the diamond on her body over the pendant, sealing it tightly.

“I… but… huh?” is all the lavender girl can respond with.

The Wonderbolts are declared the winners, with Dean Cadance then calling everyone to the gym, Derpy’s bubble wall popping to let everyone go.

“Is everybody alright?” Applejack asks as the rest of the group comes over, before noticing me. “Deku? What’s going on?”

“Deku?” Sci-Twi looks to me in confusion. “I thought your name was Valley.”

“Well, Deku’s kind of a nickname. We can explain later, if you’d like.”

She gives me an odd look, but nods.

Sunset steps forward, glancing at me, before to Sci-Twi. “Twilight, do you have any idea how we can remove my friends’ magic from your pendant and give it back to them?”

I’d informed the girls what was going on before.

Silver holds out the now diamond covered pendant.

She blinks, before looking down, ashamed. “No. I… I’m sorry. I had no idea that energy was magic, that my device would absorb it… or how it all works together.”

Dash puts an arm around her shoulder. “That’s okay. Neither do we.”

She looks from Dash to the rest of us. “Why aren’t you all angry at me? I took something from you without asking, even after Valley or Deku, or whatever she wants to be called helped me two days ago. Even if I didn’t mean to, I still did wrong by all of you… but you’ve all been nice to me.”

“That’s because, here at CHS, we like being nice to others,” Dash thumps her on the shoulder.

“I… I don’t fully understand…” Sci-Twi says, before looking firmly at us. “But I wanna understand!”

Sunset smiles, holding out a hand. “Leave out all the magic stealing, and we’d be happy to help you.”

Sci-Twi looks to it, before giving a small smile and takes it, nodding as I give the girl a shoulder hug.

“What are you doing, Twilight?”

At once, the girl goes ridged and we all turn to see Cinch walking towards us, a very displeased look on her face.

I step in front of the scared girl, arms folded, Diamond, Silver, Derpy and Wallflower forming a wall around her. “She’s talking with her friends. What’s it matter to you, lady?”

At once, Cinch freezes in place, before her mouth pulls back in anger. “What was that, you little urchin?”

I smirk. “What, are you deaf, as well as stupid?”

I hear Dash, AJ, Diamond, Silver and Sunset have to try holding back snickers from behind me as Cinch’s eye twitches.

“My students are of no concern to you!” she says firmly, trying to step forward, only for Diamond and Silver to make it perfectly clear they won’t let her pass.

“And who Twilight becomes friends with is none of yours, either!” Wallflower says with a strong tone.

Cinch looks like she’s about to pop a blood vessel.

A clearing of a throat causes all of us to look and see Principal Celestia, Vice Principal Luna and Dean Cadance coming over, their eyebrows raised.

Cinch seems to put our insults aside, before pointing at Dash and myself. “You can’t possibly call that a fair race.”

Principal Celestia just gives Cinch a “really, bitch?” look. “Principal Cinch, we all saw what happened. You can’t think CHS had some kind of advantage.”

Cinch looks offended. “Can’t I? Even without your trained attack plants, your students have wings and can do… whatever it is those ones did,” she indicates to myself, Diamond, Silver and Derpy.

“What we did was save your students!” I cut in glaring. “In case you missed it, when Rainbow sprouted her wings, she stopped being in the race. Sunset is the one who crossed the finish line, not Dash. Why? Because she, I and the others were saving your students’ asses! Hell, it was one of your students who, admittedly accidentally, unleashed those plants on the field, not ours! If anyone had the unfair advantage, it was your school, Cinch!”

“Well, the race certainly had some... extenuating circumstances,” Celestia puts a hand on my shoulder, getting me to stop, clearly wanting to keep things from escalating. “Perhaps we should end the games now and declare a tie.”

Cinch scoffs. “A tie? Was this your strategy all along? To force us into accepting you as equals? I think not. The games will continue and Crystal Prep will prevail despite your antics and whatever performance-enhancing regimen your students are on.”

She looks like she’s about to demand Sci-Twi go with her, but a glare from all of us and my team forming a tighter circle around her, seems to make her think otherwise and she walks off.

Sunset sighs. “I’m sorry I couldn’t stop all this from happening.”

Principal Celestia shakes her head, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. “It’s not your fault, Sunset.”

Sunset pulls away. “Isn’t it? I should know how to control the magic I brought here. But I don’t. I let everyone down. And now Principal Cinch thinks we’re cheating.”

Principal Celestia’s expression becomes stern. “It doesn’t matter what Principal Cinch thinks.”

Sunset shakes her head. “But it does. The students here at CHS don’t just wanna win. They wanna beat Crystal Prep. It isn’t gonna count if the other side doesn’t really think they lost. Crystal Prep is never gonna believe we won fair and square if there’s magic around. And that magic is only around... because of me.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, Sunset,” I say firmly, turning to her. “Magic is has always been around because of the portal. All you did was help it manifest, which is not a bad thing.”

“I wish I didn’t have to keep competing against you all in the next round,” Sci-Twi looks to us all. “I never really wanted to be in these games and now I want to even less. I just want them to end.”

We all nod.

“Things should be fine, Twi,” I say, indicating to the diamond covered device. “Magic won’t be interfering next round at all, not since Cinch can’t force you to use the magic you already accidentally stole, while having no idea how to use it or what it would do. After all, even if she got her hands on your device, she can’t break through solid diamond, can she?”

“Would she seriously do that?” Rarity asks, aghast.

“It sure sounds like something she’d do,” Sci-Twi says sadly, before smiling and coming out from my team, hugging me. “Guess I really owe you more thanks than I thought... um, do you want me to call you Valley or Deku?”

“I’ll explain later.” I look to the others. “Til then, we’ve a few hours before the final round. How about we hang with Twilight for a bit. Let her get to know us and us her more.”

She gives me a look, before a small smile comes to her face. “I’d like that a lot.” She then looks around at the others nervously. “If… if you’re all okay with it, that is?”

They all smile, Sunset putting a hand on her shoulder. “Sure, Twi.”

We all head off, myself patting myself on the back for averting so much disaster. Should be smooth sailing til the end of the games now.

___________________________________________________________

From across the street, a pair of eyes watched the girls, wide at the sight they’d just seen.

“I found them at last,” a voice murmured, filled with worried anger. “But, it looks like several of the Quirks got out. Damnit. The boss is gonna hate this. Maybe I can at least get the rest back, though.”

___________________________________________________________

“You sure Diamond, Silver and Derpy are good on their own?” Wallflower asks as we sneak around the Crystal Prep building’s exterior.

After spending an hour with Sci-Twi and the girls, I realized we needed to head for the Princess of Friendship’s counterpart’s school to retrieve something we placed there the day Crystal Prep went to CHS for the start of the games.

I intend to give Sci-Twi the chance she needs to get out from under Cinch’s thumb without the former needing to become Midnight Sparkle to do it.

We’re wearing our Hero Costumes. If we get caught, I intend to lie and say we’re part of the drama club.

I nod. “Twilight’s device is encased in solid diamond. It would take a while for even Diamond herself to crack it open. We need to… hold up!”

I hold a hand up quickly, making Wallflower pause.

As we rounded the corner, I spotted someone doing what we’re doing, sneaking around, acting like they don’t want to be seen.

Glancing back around the corner, I blink in surprise, realizing it’s the same guy who tried to steal Sci-Twi’s bag several days ago.

I snort. “Guess prison cells aren’t all that good in this town.”

The guy’s moving in our direction, but clearly only because it’s the way to the nearest door.

I’m wondering what he’s doing as he moves towards a clearly locked door, when, to my alarm, the MMPA activates, Present Mic’s head appearing around the corner as a beam scans the guy.

“New Quirk user detected,” Present Mic’s voice says. “Name: Lockpick. Villain Name: Lockpick. Quirk: Master Key Finger. He can turn his right index finger into any type of key. It’s only that one finger, however and he can only match the shape of the lock after the fact, not before.”

The guy named Lockpick stares at Present Mic’s holographic head, before it vanishes. Sadly, seeing the head’s light goes back towards me, it alerts him of our location.

He blinks for a moment, before his eyes widen in recognition and anger.

“You!” he snarls, charging forward, reaching into his jacket and pulling out a knife. “You’re the little bitch who got me arrested before.”

I indicate Wallflower to go invisible before he can see her and stand my ground.

“Dude, picking a fight with me won’t end well.”

“Like hell it won’t!” he yells, lunging at me, swinging the knife. “You got the drop of me last time, girly. You won’t be so lucky this—”

“Mareberra… Smash,” I say lazily, flicking, being sure to keep my power at 0.5%.

Lockpick gets caught off guard and sent flying backward, his knife being tossed out of his hand.

He thumps to the ground and I turn to where Wallflower was, about to tell her it’s fine, when Lockpick lets out a loud, pain filled scream.

Looking back, he’s holding his hand, blood seeping through his fingers.

I scan the ground and feel myself want to throw up a little. By sheer dumb luck, when he landed, his knife had come down and cut off one of his fingers, his right index finger, to be exact.

I tell Wallflower not to look and to head inside to retrieve what we came for, while I’ll take him to a hospital and call the authorities.

Wallflower does as instructed, then I walk over and pick up Lockpick, punching him in the gut to knock him out cold and sling him over my shoulder.

I want to ask him where he got his Quirk, but I need to get him to a hospital and patched up before he bleeds to death.

I move to grab his finger, when a barking causes me to glance to my right.

A wild dog, a Jack Russell Terrier, I realize, is running towards me.

At first, I don’t know why, before it grabs Lockpick’s severed finger and runs off with it.

“Hey, wait—” I start, before stopping and sigh.

Well, it’s not how I’d have like it to happen, but at least Lockpick’s Quirk won’t be a problem now.

It was centred on that finger. With it gone, he may as well be Quirkless, since he can’t even use his Quirk now.

Shaking my head, knowing, even if I try running after the Terrier, it’s probably already swallowed the finger, so would be pointless and just head for the hospital instead, using my Quirk to get there quickly, remembering to put my mask on before actually arriving.

I hand Lockpick to the doctors and nurses, as well as inform them to call the cops, since he’d been attempting a breaking and entering and attempted assault/attempted murder on two minors.

Wallflower calls me as I’m leaving the hospital, informing me she got what we went to Crystal Prep for and that she was on her way back to the school.

I thank her and tell her I’m on my way too, but that we shouldn’t have to worry.

With the magic sealed in diamond, what’s the worst that could’ve happened while we were gone?

Author's Note

Well, i dunno if this is all that good, but it's definetely better than what i wrote yesterday.

See, i originally tried writing this chapter yesterday but i tried including more of Friendship Games, trying to fit Deku and her team throughout the majority of the movie's events leading up to the end of the second round, using two other fics of mine for ideas of how to work them... before i realized, i'd essentially just quoted everything from those two fics and the movie, with nothing else.

SO, i scrapped it and worked with the original start of the chapter and this is the result, but... I dunno. is it still good, or a flop?

I didn't want to just go straight from the second round to third, which is why Wallflower and Deku went to Crystal Prep before the third round begins.

Hope it's good enough, since it was the only way i could feel i could logically work towards what comes next without just jumping the gun and thus making most of Legend of Everfree feel moot.

So, what exactly were Wallflower and Deku at Crystal Prep for? And another villain? Well, at least he was minor enough that he wouldn't have been too much of a problem and has already been dealt with.

still, who gave him his quirk? And who was that monitoring the girls at the end of the second round and what are they planning?

And has Deku pretty much guaranteed shit is about to hit the fan?

you'll find out next week.

as for the future of this fic, i intend to do a few more chapters before leaving this one on the backburner for a while. I REALLY wanna get back to my WITCH fic.

anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter, since it's WAY better than the original draft, so i hope it didn't suck as bad as that one would've and, til next time, stay safe, stay clean and see you later everybody

Chapter 10

___________________________________________________________

I pass through the portal, sighing.

This… this is so wrong. I knew the League of Villains were evil, I knew they had no qualms with using genetic manipulation, but… this is just so vile.

“Deku?” the monotone voice catches me off guard and I focus to see Maud Pie standing not too far away.

She looks like she’d been doing something with a small pile of rocks nearby… and I choose to ignore whatever it was.

Reading either version of Maud was impossible in the show and EQG, so I’ll probably never understand her in person.

We stare for a moment, before I look away.

A beeping sound makes me look back at her to see she’s using her phone.

“Um, what’re you doing?” I ask.

“Everyone wants answers,” Maud says simply, pocketing her phone. “Especially about the Quirks my sister and her friends gained while at Camp Everfree.”

It takes a second for what she said to properly process, before I shake my head. “Maud, they did not gain Quirks, they gained magic. Big difference.

“Oh, yes we did~”

“YAH!” I cry out in alarm, Pinkie Pie just suddenly being there behind me.

Goddamnit, I’m never going to understand how any Pinkie Pie is… well, Pinkie Pie.

Before I even open my mouth to talk, however, the MMPA activates, scanning… Pinkie Pie?!

“New Quirk user detected,” Present Mic’s head appears. “Name: Pinkie Pie. Quirk: Sugar Sweat. She secretes as sugar like sweat with a similar consistency of corn syrup and sugar. Her body’s water contents are also higher in order to properly handle the exess water usage, so she doesn’t get dehydrated easier than your average person.”

I just stare, wide eyed as my brain tries to process the idea of Pinkie Pie having a Quirk… before what her Quirk means properly sifts through the brain and I find myself deadpanning and facepalming, while also feeling utter terror.

With that Quirk, combined with the power her magic gives her, Pinkie’s basically a happy go lucky, fourth wall breaking version of Bakugo.

We are all so fucked.

___________________________________________________________

I try not to meet the multiple sets of eyes watching me as I approach the table in Sugar Cube Corner.

Sitting there are all the rest of the Humane Seven, Vinyl, Octavia, Diamond, Silver, Wallflower and Derpy.

I walk slowly towards them, dreading this meeting for multiple reasons. One, the idea the girls all somehow have Quirks and not knowing how I feel that I’ve failed to keep Quirks from randomly spreading to this point, and two… because of what I learned, about both Nana and myself.

“Deku, it’s been three weeks!” Diamond says loudly as we near, standing up and slamming her hands on the table. “Three weeks without a word from you! Do you realize how worried we were, especially after what happened at the Friendship Games?!”

I’m thankfully saved from answering, for a little while, at least, by the MMPA activating, though that just makes me more anxious, honestly.

Thankfully, the café is empty, save Mr. and Mrs Cake, so I have that small comfort as the device scans the remaining six girls, Present Mic’s head appearing and giving off the stats.

“Multiple Quirk users detected,” he says, each wall of stats showing up as he directs to each girl in question.

Pinkie squeals. “I’m so nervouscited!”

“Name: Sunset Shimmer. Quirk: Thought Projection. She can project her thoughts onto anyone within a fifty mile radius. She can even target specific beings to be the only ones hearing her thoughts. In addition, if she focuses hard enough, she can project images into their minds too.”

“Huh. With my magic, that makes an interesting complimentary combo,” Sunset remarks, rubbing her chin in thought.

“Name: Fluttershy. Quirk: Sonic Shriek. She can create ultrasonic vibrations whenever she screams, allowing her to severely damage both organic and inorganic objects.”

Wait, so, like Black Canary?

“Name: Applejack. Quirk: Air Steps. When she walks on air she creates a tile of solid air wherever her feet go. Each tile only last for thirty seconds though, so she can’t just stand in the air all the time without moving.”

“Huh. So that’s what happened when Ah fell off the dock last time, but didn’t fall in the water,” Applejack remarks.

“Name: Rainbow Dash. Quirk: GPS. If she knows of a location, all she has to do is think of it and she has a mental map inside her head that will lead her right there, without any chance of getting lost. She can also focus on the locations of specific people or objects in order to find them.”

“That’s… cool, I guess?” Dash looks confused. “Is that good? Sounds kinda lame, right?”

“Name: Rarity. Quirk: Eagle Eye: She can see in detail as clearly and far away as an eagle, allowing her to see eight times as far as a human can, being able to see as far away two miles, as well as being able to extend into both the infrared and ultraviolet bands, like the Australian Wedge Tailed Eagle.”

“I always did have a keen eye,” Rarity flourishes her hair.

“Name: Twilight Sparkle. Quirk: Hyper IQ. After she drinks one hundred millilitres of apple juice, her IQ multiplies between factors of one to ten times its normal number. The number her IQ rises varies depending of the breed and quality of apple.”

The glasses wearing girl frowns. “That’s an… odd thing to call a superpower, isn’t it?”

I look around at them all, sighing.

“So, Pinkie was right after all,” Applejack says, looking from the pink girl to the others. “We all thought those were just part of our magic, since they started up around the same time after we got to Everfree, but…”

“But we all somehow gained Quirks while Deku was away in Equestria,” Sunset murmurs, rubbing her chin. “But… how?”

“Um… I may have an idea,” We all turn to the one person in our gathered group without a Quirk at all, Octavia. “Sunset, since your magic lets you see others’ memories, maybe that could help you put the pieces together.”

There’s a pause as we all look at her, before looking around at each other.

“That… would actually work quite well,” Sci-Twi ponders, before looking between myself, Sunset and Wallflower. “If Sunset looks at Deku and Wallflower’s memories, she could probably put the pieces all together.”

Sunset nods, looking to the two of us. “The two of you were the first ones to show any signs of Quirks. We should probably look into Diamond or Silver Spoon and Maud and Vinyl’s memories on their Quirks too. They might have pieces the others are missing.”

So, Sunset goes around, holding the wrist of each of the other girls mentioned, before coming to me.

“I’ll… just, don’t think too differently of me when you find out the truth about Nana,” my words cause the others to look at me with concern.

Sunset takes my wrist, her eyes glowing white for three seconds, before she pulls away, rubbing her head, before gasping, staring at me with wide eyes.

I nod solemnly, looking away.

“What did you see?” Silver Spoon asks anxiously.

“Gimme a minute,” Sunset says, closing her eyes, frowning.

We wait for several minutes, before a sad expression comes over her face.

“That bad?” Dash asks, shocked.

Sunset nods, then shakes her head.

“Um, can you make sense?” Diamond folds her arms.

Sunset nods. “It’ll make sense once I show you all.”

Her eyes glow white and the world soon follows.

Equestria

Canterlot Castle

THREE WEEKS, FOUR DAYS AGO

“Princess Luna!” I slam the doors of the throne room aside, startling all those present, that being several guards, Ink Well and both Alicorn sisters.

“I am here, Deku,” the night Alicorn steps forward, giving me a firm but in inquisitive look. “I feel this is not a social call.”

I nod, my expression firm. “I need you to look through my memories in the dream realm.”

Luna cocks an eyebrow. “I… fail to understand what such an action would do to benefit you, I must admit.”

“I need to speak with the Vestiges of One For All!” I say, clenching my fists. “I’ve just come back from a fight with a villain from the League, one who came to this world from theirs. He called me something, something that gave me a bad feeling. Only the Vestiges will be able to tell me, and the only way I know I’ll get their attention, is if you’re with me in the Dream Realm.”

Luna watches me for a few moments, before her expression firms. “You must understand, Deku, this could be dangerous, even for you. We do not know what the Vestiges will do upon sensing my presence in that plain with you. They may very well view you as much of an outside threat as they would myself.”

I nod. “I know, but we need answers and they’re the only ones have can give us any.”

Luna and I keep eye contact for several minutes, before she sighs, looking to her fellow princess. “Sister, I shall be gone. I do not know how long.”

Celestia nods. “I understand, Luna.” Her expression worries slightly. “Be careful, my sister. We are just as unclear as Deku on these matters. You must use the utmost caution.”

Luna hugs her sister and she walks down, meeting me and we head for her personal quarters.

THREE WEEKS, TWO DAYS LATER

“This isn’t working,” I growl, sitting down on Luna’s bed.

I’ve been staying all the time with Luna since I got back to Equestria.

Every day, while she’s been sleeping, I’ve done what I can to help around the castle to pass the time.

Then, every night, Luna focused all her Dream Realm time on helping me try to get into the Plain of the Vestiges, as I’ve come to call it.

Every night… it’s been the same result. We hit some kind of a wall, as if we’re being blocked from passing into the PV. Even when I tried entering on my own, it did nothing.

“We shall make it, Deku,” Luna says, using her magic to lift the blanket up, myself reluctantly laying down letting her drape it over me. “I understand your frustration. However, we must keep trying. As you said, we must find out the truth.”

My confidence is not as strong. How Luna can keep hopeful about this, I don’t have a clue.

Luna lights her horn and I feel sleep take me.

___________________________________________________________

I blink, looking around in shock.

I’m standing in the Plain of the Vestiges.

“Luna, you did it!” I call out, punching the air.

A pained gasp makes me look behind me and causes my eyes to widen.

Luna is bent over, one knee on the ground, her expression a mixture of strained and exhausted.

“That was… harder that I had hoped,” she says with raspy gasps as I hurry over and try to help her up.

“I should be angry,” my voice causes my head to snap up and I find myself face to face with…

My eyes widen. “Nana?!”

She nods, smiling, before it becomes sad. “Hello, Nana Midoriya.”

Anything I was about to ask gets halted. She called me by her name? What?

She nods. “Things aren’t quite what you think they are. I am not the eleventh wielder of One For All and you are not the twelfth despite being a new soul in this body.”

Twelfth? Okay, filing that under You Better Explain, Girl, for later.

At once, a wave of guilt washes over me and I fall to my knees, hands in front of me.

“I’m so sorry about your body, Nana! I… I promise, if I could change things, I would. I-I just—”

I feel a hand on my shoulder and look up quickly… only to see her smiling warmly. “I know, Nana. I know. No one blames you for what happened to me. It’s not a subject you have to fear bringing up.”

I pause, before I’m reminded of our original reason for coming here in the first place.

I frown slightly. “Nana… what do you know about the term Subject DC52?”

She looks at me for several long moments, before standing, her eyes on Luna.

I quickly get up and stand in front of the pony. “Luna is not our enemy. She has as much right to know the truth as I do. It is her world the League originally invaded.”

Nana stares at Luna for several moments, the dark Alicorn meeting her gaze, before she eventually sighs. “Very well. I suppose I can’t change your mind, so I won’t try.”

The black clouds of the Plain of Vestiges swirls around us for a moment, before parting to reveal… some kind of medical centre?

The room is full of countless tube-like tanks filled with some kind of odd green liquid.

“What is this place?” Luna asks what I am thinking.

Nana merely points to one of the tanks.

I move a little closer, before I scream in shock.

It… it’s Nana! Nana is floating in the tank, some kind of mask over her mouth. Her eyes are closed, so I guess she’s asleep?

She looks like she’s about five, maybe six?

“But, I worked so hard on these last twenty,” a nasally male voice whines and I look around to see an old man with a hunched back, wearing a lab coat talking to a guy in a suit.

“Doesn’t matter,” the man says, his face hidden in shadow. “The boss has seen the results. The entire DC project has been deemed a failure and is to be cancelled immediately.”

“Just because the first twenty lost One For All before the two year mark, it doesn’t mean all of them will,” Lab coat guy says, sounding quite frustrated. “Do you realize how much of a waste it will be to just terminate them all? We captured her for a reason! How many resources and how much time we’ll have spent for nothing?”

“Those are the boss’s orders!” the suited man says sternly.

Lab coat huffs, folding his arms. “I don’t suppose they’ve sighted a reason for their all being deemed failure before the last twenty have even gotten to the first year stage?”

“Thanks to looking over Doctor Shiga’s notes, yes,” the suit man says, folding him arms. “The problem was the DNA. With the passing of the generations, we can’t cultivate that Quirk like we can others.”

Lab Coat looks at him for several moments, before his eyes widen and he scowls. “That explains everything. Damnit! So they all really are completely worthless. We can’t even use them as test subjects!”

“Since you’re going to be terminating them all, I am a little curious,” the suit man walks into a position where he can clearly get a good look at the tanks closer to us, specifically the one with Nana. “Why did you keep this one alive?”

Lab coat guy scoffs. “The early results suggested we could cultivate just the stockpiling aspect.” He walks up to the tanks with the girl and snarls. “Her Quirk hadn’t manifested, but was proven through tests to be like her grandfather’s. I hoped, perhaps, that could fix the issue we’ve been having with all the male clones, but, if you’re right about the DNA, Subject DC52 is going to end up just as useless like the rest.”

My eyes widen and I whirl to look at the tank.

Nana’s Subject DC52? They were using her to… recreate One For All?

The suit man nods. “Then, I leave you to it, doctor. And think, the DC project may have failed, but the others are doing just fine.”

The doctor grumbles something as the suit man walks out of sight, the sound of an automatic door opening and closing.

The doctor walks over to a tank on the far end of the room and presses several buttons.

The liquid in the tank drains out, leaving the infant inside, which I now realize looks like a baby Izuku, hanging by several wires and starts making sounds of discomfort.

“To think, we wasted all these years on DNA we couldn’t use because it had multiple Quirk factors,” the doctor growls, pressing several more buttons.

To mine and, judging by the loud gasp, Luna’s horror, the tank is immediately filled with flames and, while we can’t hear it, I can easily imagine the screams of the infant as it’s literally burned alive.

We watch in disgusted horror as he keeps doing this for several minutes, the man showing no emotion, the silent screams of the dying babies ringing in my ears, making me want to hurl.

Nana says she’s speeding things up, but can’t stop us still seeing the sickening sight before us… though it’s likely because she’s remembering things from a first person perspective.

After the fourth infant was incinerated, Nana had woken in her tank and, seeing what was happening, panicked, pounding against the glass with everything she had.

As the doctor reaches the last tank after what feels like hours of torture, Young Nana looks more frantic than ever.

“Farewell, worthless stock,” the doctor says, reaching forward to press the button that would’ve incinerated Subject DC52 like all the rest.

At once, Nana’s eyes glow blue and I can somehow hear her scream through the glass and mask over her face.

Her fists come down on the glass and there’s a huge explosion.

When the dust settles, Young Nana is stumbling across the room.

The doctor is lying, I believe unconscious, though I wouldn’t be sad if he’s dead, against the wall on the far side of the room.

As Nana reaches the door, explosions can be heard outside it.

She quickly backs away as the door to the room is ripped off its hinges.

Standing where the door used to be is a being who looks like a man made of pure darkness. His completely white eyes look stunned for a moment, before he puts a finger to his ear. “Teams A, B, D, G and Q, I’ve found the lab with the clones and the man responsible for them. The clones are… he eliminated all of them. But we’ve found the captured Midoriya.”

He kneels down, holding out a hand as Nana backs away, looking scared.

“It’s alright, little one. I’m a hero. Your family misses you and will be happy to know you’re okay.”

The black smoke returns and we’re back in the PV.

“Was… was that when you first...?” I look to Nana.

She nods with a sad smile. “The first time my Quirk activated after months of them trying to clone it out of me. It’s also where I got my Cell Activation Quirk, forced upon me to see if they could make it stronger through my Quirk. You pretty much know the rest.”

I look down, not sure how to feel.

“Where are the other Vestiges?” Luna’s question makes me start and I look at her, before looking to Nana, confused.

That… was something I had been thinking about in the back of my mind. Why is Nana the only Vestige speaking with us? I somehow awakened a flying Quirk during the fight with Spikes, so shouldn’t their Vestige be here with her too?

Nana looks uncertain. “Things... aren’t what you think. I don’t have One For All, like my grandfather. He had to give it up to stop All For One in the end.”

Excuse me, what?

Nana continues though. “My Quirk is different, but similar. Even after he gave up One For All in the final battle against All For One, grandfather still had the embers. Those embers were part of him, in his DNA. DNA he passed on to his children and they theirs.”

She chuckles, grinning.

“My Quirk and now yours, Deku is officially called One For All: Flying Embers.” She points at me. “Those two worlds need you now, Deku. Your Quirk and the aid of your allies could be all that will keep them from suffering whatever plan the League of Villains truly have.”

I look to Luna, then back to Nana and nod.

Nana gives a two-fingered salute as the world starts to fade away.

“This is your story now. Make it a good one, Hero.”

___________________________________________________________

We all gasp as Sugar Cube Corner comes back into view.

We’re all silent for several moments, before Fluttershy starts crying, Rainbow holding her, letting her sob into the athlete’s shoulder.

“I… I knew the League were evil but… but…” Diamond is staring at nothing, her eyes wide.

“That was… horrible,” Derpy looks to me. “And that’s what you were learning while you were in Equestria?”

I nod, not meeting any of their gazes. “Luna’s been helping me the last couple days, and she can help you all too if you come to Equestria… but, even though Nana made those parts silent… I can swear I still hear the screams.”

There’s a very, very long pause, the only sounds being Fluttershy’s sobbing.

After while feels like an hour, Fluttershy manages to calm herself down and Sunset’s eyes glow.

“I realize we’ve all seen a lot already,” she says, “but now I know why we all got Quirks.”

Canterlot High

Year Book Committee Room

TWO DAYS BEFORE DEKU WOULD FIRST CROSSOVER FROM EQUESTRIA

“Mail call,” Derpy chirped as she entered the room.

Wallflower started, before smiling. “Oh, thanks. Just put them in the cupboard.” She waved to a cupboard next to the desk the computer she was using was on.

Derpy nodded, walking over, opening the cupboard and pulling out a box from the mailbag she was carrying.

“Wait. This isn’t right. These aren’t erasers.”

Wallflower turned from the screen to see Derpy holding a now open box.

She got up and leaned over to see what was inside… and felt very confused.

There were a bunch of small glass-like capsules, about twenty-two in total.

Wallflower picked one up, studying it between her fingers. “What are these?”

They all seemed to be filled with a golden… Wallflower wanted to say liquid?

It was weird. Whatever was in the small pod acted like liquid… but also didn’t?

Suddenly, loud music blasted from nearby, startling the two girls.

Several of the pods fell to the floor.

Wallflower made a dive for them, Derpy hastily putting the box on a shelf in the cupboard and diving too.

However, Derpy tripped on a of piece chalk that was on the floor, slamming into Wallflower.

The two hit the floor, the sound of breaking glass following suit, along with multiple cries of shock and confusion and both girls feeling a strange warmth passing through their bodies.

___________________________________________________________

Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were walking down the corridor.

They’d just seen Derpy walking into a room up ahead, but it wasn’t their concern.

As they neared the same door, however, loud music began playing from the next room over, followed by the sound of a commotion from inside the room Derpy had entered, causing them to turn their heads.

They weren’t sure what happened next, as the sound of breaking glass followed the feeling of something crushing under their feet and a warm feeling rushing through their bodies.

___________________________________________________________

“I’m tellin’ ya, Octi, these could be my best beats yet,” Vinyl grinned at her girlfriend as she stood over her DJ equipment.

Octavia, sitting on one of the desks in the room, just rolled her eyes, but smiled.

Maud Pie was in the room too, writing some kind of paper. Pinkie had mentioned something about her sister applying for study in a specific program at the local museum.

The girl sure loved her rocks.

Vinyl started playing her music, the loud beats not startling Octavia. She was used to them.

Maud’s lack of a reaction surprised her, though.

Octavia frowned, thinking she heard something, telling Vinyl to stop for a moment.

Begrudgingly, Vinyl stopped the music and Octavia opened the door of the room to see what was going on outside.

She gasped in shock when she saw Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon laying on the floor, groaning and could see Derpy and another girl in the next room, in similar positions.

“Whoa!” Vinyl’s yell caused Octavia to look back, only for her eyes to widen in shock and horror.

Vinyl and Maud were also glowing, both vibrating as if in an earthquake.

When the light faded, the two collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

Canterlot High

Year Book Committee Room

NINE DAYS AGO

“I’m really worried about Deku,” Twilight said as the girls were gathered around the table. “I want to thank her for her help and… well, something happened.”

“I know,” Fluttershy sighed, stroking Angel Bunny’s head. “After that villain called her something, her emotions changed.”

“And the way she shoved Cinch against the wall like that?” Dash shakes her head. “I actually was worried she’d use her Quirk on her or something.”

“You should have more faith in Deku,” Wallflower said as she finished packing her bag and moved to leave. “She doesn’t understand everything that’s been happening and that villain clearly knew something she didn’t.”

“I… don’t suppose Princess Twilight was able to give any clues?” Rarity asked Sunset.

The red and yellow haired girl shook her head. “Deku didn’t tell her much. She just told Twilight she was going to see Princess Luna and that’s the last she’s heard from her.”

“It’s been over two weeks,” Applejack says incredulously. “How long could it take fer her and Princess Luna t’ sort whatever it is Deku’s needs sortin’?”

Wallflower shook her head. “Whatever the case, Deku will be back when she has what she needs. Til then, we have to wait. Lock up when you’re done in here, okay?”

Dash smirked. “You and your team going out to do more Hero Work?”

Wallflower blushed, but nodded, her expression firm. “We need to get the police trusting us so they’ll let Deku speak with that Lockpick villain. The more we help out as our Hero Names and tell them Deku’s our leader, it should sway their opinion enough. Later.”

The girls all called out their goodbyes to Wallflower as she went out the door.

“At least we’ve been able to distract ourselves with raising the money to go to Camp Everfree,” Fluttershy murmured, Angel batting her hand away and hopping off the table and towards the door.

“It’s probably why we’re startin’ prep work on the yearbook too,” Applejack said, lazily waving a piece of chalk in front of her face. “Keeps us fr’m worrying, ya know.”

“Hey, what’re these?”

They all looked to Pinkie Pie, who was moving away from the cupboard near Wallflower’s computer.

In her hands, Pinkie was holding eight strange glass pods with something yellow glowing inside them.

“Are they… magic?” Fluttershy asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“I… don’t think so,” Sunset took one from Pinkie, examining it closely. “It’s not magic, but… I don’t know what else it could be.”

“Well, well, well. Imagine finding all of you here.” Groaning, they all looked to the door to see Trixie walking in. “Working early on the yearbook, huh? Might I make a suggestion?”

“Whoopsie!”

The cheery cry made them all turn to see Pinkie tripping on an errant piece of paper on the floor, the glass pods in her hands flying into the air.

Sunset didn’t think. She tossed the pod she’d been holding and dived to catch Pinkie.

As she caught her, the pods hit the ground, all shattering.

A bright light blinded them all, along with feelings of warmth rushing up all their bodies.

___________________________________________________________

“Oh, yeah,” Dash says as the café comes back into view and we’re all shaking our heads. “We all woke up in the infirmary wondering what had happened.”

“And Principal Celestia said they thought it was an electrical surge and would have someone look into it, with us lucky we weren’t badly injured,” Rarity adds.

Sunset looks to me. “Those pods were in all our memories. I think those pods were holding Quirks. Somehow, before the League of Villains left their world to go to Equestria and then come to this one, they must’ve found a way to turn the Quirks they’d stolen into a form of energy and lock them into those pods.”

“And, if my calculations are correct, there’s still at least seven left,” Sci-Twi nods. “We need to get that box and Deku should take it to Equestria, where it’ll be safer than… Deku?”

Her question makes everyone look to me.

I’m frowning, thinking.

“What’s up, Deku?” Diamond asks, before her eyes widen in fear. “Oh no. you noticed something in those memories we haven’t didn’t you?”

“Trixie.”

“Huh?” is all their responses.

I look firmly at them. “Trixie was in the room with you when the seven of you,” I point to the Humane Seven, “got your Quirks. There were eight pod that shattered. If you all got Quirks at that time…”

Their eyes all widen, before the MMPA beeping halts any talk.

We all watch as the cube forms, then turn to see where it’s scanning, to see Trixie having just stepped in, her pausing as the beam scans her, Present Mic’s head appearing with her stats.

“New Quirk user detected. Name: Trixie Lulamoon. Hero Name: The Great and Powerful Trixie. Quirk: Misdirection. When she focuses, she can slightly misdirect the attention of anyone she wants to a maximum of fifty people at one time. It comes in really handy for magic tricks.”

There’s silence as we all just stare at Trixie and she stares right back like a deer in headlights.

Author's Note

PHEW!

That was a big one.

Wanted to get this chapter done before next week so it wouldn't be floating around nagging me all throughout work next week like last chapter was for me this week.

I bet nobody saw ANY of those twists coming.

~~Deku's actually a clone of Izuka, not his biology granddaughter at all and the Nana we've been following is actually counted as the 12th user of One For All.~~

Deku IS Izuku's granddaughter, but has her own, Quirk, not just One For All passed onto her. AND has Cell Acticvation due to the villains forcing it onto her five-year-old, pre-awakened Quirk body.

Plus, now the Humane 7 have not just their magic, but Quirks too.

Funny thing is, i struggled to figure out some of their Quirks for quite a while especially Dash's and, keep in mind, my plan was to give them Quirks since the prologue, so I've been sitting on what Quirks to give each of them for a quite a while now.

Sunset, Fluttershy, Pinkie and Sci-Twi's Quirks I'd figured out very early on, but the others took a little longer. Rarity I figured out by the time I'd posted chapter 6, with Applejack being figured out by chapter 7, but Rainbow?

Man, she was WAY harder to figure out than I like to admit.

one thing i wanted was for each of the Humane Seven to be able to have Airborne combat abilities to use in conjunction with their Quirks and their magic. Sci-Twi, Fluttershy and Dash already had flight covered with their wings, Sunset, though not getting to keep the wings of her Daydream Shimmer form, does still have flight if you pay attention, and Rarity can ride atop her gems like the Silver Surfer if she wants.

and Pinkie Pie?

It's Pinkie Pie, don't question it.

that just left AJ as the only ground bound of the seven, so I was struggling to figure out what kind of Quirk aside from outright flight, could work to help her in airborne combat, when the idea for Air Steps hit me Monday morning.

and Dash's Quirk? It finally came to me Tuesday afternoon.

after all, i wanted to give them useful Quirks, but not ones that would make them overpowered, because then it's no fun.

But, all in all, i think i made the right choices with who got what Quirk out of the seven.

and Trixie gets a Quirk too?

Eeyup.

She's the one i mentioned i was originally going to have it revealed to already have a Quirk in a previous chapter, before realizing the original Quirk i'd planned for her, Magic Trick was TOO OP and i'm sure you can figure why from the name alone, especially if you've watched the Misfits special short set right before season 3.

So, i was racking my brain Thursday and yesterday while i was out just enjoying exploring a shopping centre i hadn't been to before (managed to score the Slugterra Return of the Elements Movie on DVD for just $5, which is SWEET) and Misdirection came up as i was pondering Trixie, trying to figure what Quirk i could give her that was still related to her magic tricks, without making her OP and Misdirection was born.

Seriously hope you all enjoyed this and are looking forward to what comes next when i get back to this.

as i mentioned in a previous chapter, i want to take some time of this fic and get back to my WITCH fanfic instead. i've been really eager to work on that one again, especially since i recently won an auction on Ebay to get boxset of WITCH, including both seasons one and two.

So, look forward to WITCH making a comeback soon and i'm going to end this here because i haven't had lunch yet and i'm seriously hungry.

Hope you all enjoyed this chapter and, til next time, stay safe, stay clean and see your later everybody

Chapter 9

___________________________________________________________

“Crap! Oh, crap! Oh, crap! Oh, CRAP!” I mutter as I shoot down the road towards Canterlot High.

I dunno what’s going on, but, as soon as I ended the call with Wallflower, I got a text from Diamond that filled me with this overwhelming feeling of dread, that Canterlot High was in immediate danger.

The Text? HELP!

As I round the corner, CHS coming into view, a huge explosion of light erupts.

Shit! How? How did someone open Twilight’s device and why? Please don’t tell me someone, likely Cinch, somehow forced Twilight into becoming Midnight Sparkle after all.

It hurts, but I push myself to 30% Full Cowling, rocketing down the street.

As I do, I see a form starting to rise… but it’s not Midnight Sparkle.

Best I can make out, it’s a man with tanned skin and black hair, long and waving around like tentacles.

Four spikes it takes me a few seconds to realize are bone are sticking out of his body, two from his chest, two his back and, from those bone spikes, massive purple tendrils are lashing around, four for each bone spike.

I reach the school grounds as one tendril smashes into the Wondercolts statue, destroying it and opening a hole through the dimensions to Equestria, just like Midnight Sparkle does in the movie.

Looking around, I can see students from both schools are running scared, doing their best to avoid the tendrils of what I now realize are magic.

I managed to arrive in time to see both Diamond and Silver breaking the hold two tendrils have on some students, Diamond’s being from CHS while the one Silver saves is Crystal Prep.

“Bubble Wall!”

I look around to see Derpy firing a barrage of bubbles as she runs in a circle around the being.

I hurry over as Diamond and Silver are sending the students they recused away. “What the hell happened while Wallflower and I were gone?!”

Diamond doesn’t even bother to acknowledge my return and explains.

“It was right before the final round started. We’d been sticking close to Twilight to make sure Cinch didn’t go after her. Then that guy,” she points to man as he keeps lashing around, opening tears to Equestria over and over, “ran onto the field and stole the pendant from Twilight.”

I blink, pointing at Diamond. “Didn’t I give it to you?”

She nods. “But, we wanted to show her we trust her, so I gave it back.”

“Cinch did try to convince Twilight, with us standing right there, I remind you, to open it,” Silver shook her head. “Then she got super pissy because Twilight pointed out she couldn’t physically open it because of it being encased in Diamond.”

I point to the madman. “And how did he open it?”

Diamond shakes her head. “He had a vial of some kind. I think it had a type of super strong acid in it. It ate right through my diamond casing.”

“But, it also ate through the pendant,” Silver points out, us leaping out of the way as a stray tendril nearly hits us as the man keep trying to destroy the bubble wall Derpy’s creating around him. “He looked shocked for a moment before the explosion of magic consumed him and he became… that.”

We would keep chatting, but, as we rush past him to help Derpy, the MMPA activates, startling us.

As the box moves into the air and scans the tentacle man, I grab it and run, Present Mic’s head following behind us in, if it were any other circumstance, would probably be quite comedic a way, still playing out the activation.

“Ryoma Sakaguchi. Villain Name: Spikes. Quirk: Spikes. He can extend four bone like spikes from within his spine out of his body, two from his chest and two from his back.”

“That’s a lame sounding Quirk,” Silver Spoon points out. “Are all evil people just really bad at coming up with creative names, just having their villain name the same as their Quirk?”

But I don’t answer, having stopped in my tracks, turning to face the man, my eyes wide.

That name. It isn’t from this world. This guy’s Japanese. He came from the MHA world!

Spikes is looking around too, him must have managed to hear Present Mic’s voice.

He scans the area, his purple glowing eyes suddenly locking with mine.

When they do, his widen in… recognition? Does he know Nana?

“Subject DC52? How’re you even in this world?!”

…

WHAT?!

___________________________________________________________

“I will finish this, once and for all!” Spikes yelled, whirling all his tendrils around and aiming them at Deku, who had frozen in place, her eyes wide.

“Deku, move it!” Diamond Tiara yelled, before she shoved Deku as she and Silver dived, the tendrils slamming into the ground, opening another massive hole leading into Equestria.

“It’s high time the last of you failures was ended,” Spikes snarled, snapping his head in the trio’s direction as Diamond tried to snap Deku out of whatever was happening to her.

After the obvious League of Villains stooge has called her a subject number, Deku had completely frozen up, as if her mind had just vanished.

“I genuinely thought those lost Quirks were in that pendant, you know,” Diamond whirled her head to see Spikes looking directly at her. “I thought it was how you got that Quirk of yours. I didn’t even recognize Subject DC52 because she’d been so far away before. How you got her, I’d also like to know.”

His tendrils lashed out, wrapping around Diamond and Silver’s wrists, lifting them into the air.

“Now, you’re going to explain everything to me. If you do, I’ll make sure your ends will be painless.”

“No, you won’t.” The three glanced to their right to see Sunset standing firm, staring up at him, the others of her group and their world’s Twilight around her. Wait, was she holding the busted pendant from earlier? “You won’t make their ends painless, because we’re not letting you end them, period!”

Spikes just cackled. “And what can you do, little girl?” he clenched a fist. “I am all powerful and you are just a simple, Quirkless child.”

Sunset’s expression hardened. “You may have magic, but it’s tainted by your cruel heart. That’s not true magic. True magic comes from honesty!” Applejack glowed with orange light, “Loyalty!” Dash with cyan, “Laughter!” Pinkie with pink, “Generosity!” Rarity with purple, “Kindness!” Fluttershy with yellow energy. “They make most important magic of all...”

“And while I’ve only known these girls for a short time, I’m not letting you hurt my friends,” Twilight stepped forward, herself glowing with lavender light. This seems to catch her off guard as much it did Diamond, Silver and Spikes and she looked at herself frantically, though Sunset didn’t seem to notice, herself glowing with red energy.

Spikes looked both annoyed and confused. “And just what is this most important magic?” he asked mockingly.

The girls all looked to each other, nodded and shouted in unison, “The Magic of Friendship!”

At once, they all glowed brighter, the light temporarily blinding them all.

___________________________________________________________

A flash of light shocks me out of my stupor and all I see is Diamond and Silver being held in Spikes’s tendrils.

The anger I feel at seeing them in such a position boils up, and a flash of blue obscures my vision.

I blink, looking around in confusion.

I’m suddenly standing in the field the Vestiges show up in.

“You have to focus,” I hearmy own voice say?

Suddenly, I’m back at CHS and Spikes lashing out with his tendrils… and they’re missing me?!

I glance down at myself, seeing my body is moving as if on its own, dodging and weaving around each tendril Spikes is throwing at me.

What the hell is going on?!

A flash of light from my left makes me glance over, to see the girls all Ponied Up, even Sci-Twi, though she has Alicorn wings already somehow?

They’re hovering in the air, but it looks like they can’t get close enough.

Is it because of Spikes is focusing on me, but I’m not distracting him enough? And how in the world am I floating over the ground? Since when can Deku float?

Suddenly, without any explanation, the bones coming out of Spikes’ chest sink back into him, not that I have much time to ponder that as whatever was keeping me floating also stops and I start falling towards the ground, which I’m only now realizing is a huge way down.

“Time to amp up the base!”

My brain bluescreens for a moment. Why the flying fuck did I just hear Nowaking’s voice?

Before I can even begin to process it, my fall is halted.

I’m now floating on some kind of pulsating field of... is this air or something else?

Glancing around, I see Vinyl Scratch standing a few feet away… a blue holographic looking DJ turntable and speakers floating in front of her.

Um… what the fuck?

There’s a blinding flash and I turn, barely having time to see Spikes being consumed by the Rainbow Laser of Death.

Just before the rainbow light consumes my vision, however, I notice Maud Pie standing with a group of students… just pointing her finger where Spikes was, not blinking.

The light fades, revealing a beaten and broken but normal looking human where the monstrous form had been mere minutes ago.

“Deku!” I turn as Diamond, Silver, Derpy and, clearly just having arrived, Wallflower, run up to me, looks of concern on their faces.

“What was that?” Derpy asks, pointing at my now shredded gloves. “You’ve never flown before.”

“It’s one of the several Quirks I told you reside in One For All?” I say absentmindedly. “The original Deku had unlocked Blackwhip and others were hinted at being in there too. Didn’t know flight was among them.”

“But, why’d you suddenly stop using it in the middle of that tentacles battle with that loser?” Diamond points to the prone form of Spikes.

That snaps me out of my thoughts for a moment and I look around, pointing at Vinyl and Maud. “You two, we need to talk. Now!”

Maud’s expression doesn’t change, while Vinyl grins and the two walk over.

As they get close, the MMPA beeps, the cube forming and scanning the both of them, Present Mic’s head appearing.

“Multiple Quirk users detected. Name: Maudileena Daisy Pie. Quirk: Cancelation. All she has to do is point at someone and not blink and it will cancel out their Quirk. Depending on her emotions, their Quirks can be cancelled from ten minutes to ten days.”

Holy crap! Pinkie Pie’s sister has a Quirk and it’s basically like Eraser Head’s Quirk, only better?

“Name: Vinyl Scratch. Hero Name: DJ Pon-3. Quirk: DJ. She can make a holographic-like DJ deck and speakers appear before her and blast sick beats, which can also be used as sonic weapons or to crate walls of sound to block objects.”

“Wait,” Silver whirls on Vinyl. “You not only have a Quirk, but you already chose a hero name?”

Vinyl grins, pointing a thumb at herself. “Why not, huh? Doesn’t need to be a subject of debate if I chose one, does it?”

My eyes widen at her words and I put the question of how they both got Quirks away for later, my eyes fixating on the prone form of Spikes… or, rather, Ryoma Sakaguchi.

I rush over, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt, snarling. “What did you mean?!”

The Humane Seven and everyone else looks at me in confusion, but my snarl deepens and I shake the man violently.

“Why did you call me Subject DC52 instead of Nana Midoriya?! Answer me, you fucking asshole!”

He stirs, slowly opening his eyes. When they meet mine, he scowls.

“I knew your survival would put everything at risk. You should’ve been eradicated with the rest of the reject stock.”

I growl. “Even without my Quirk, however long Maud accidentally cancelled it in cancelling yours too, I can still beat the hell out of you. Now, talk!”

He chuckles, in a superior, and somehow defeated sounding way. “Seems we’ll be found out after all.” He reaches into his pocket and pulls out what looks like… a pen? “Just a shame I can’t pass on the intel. I finally become of use, for it to be useless.”

He presses down on the pen and I quickly let go, not knowing what to expect.

Everyone else tenses, those with Quirks and the Humane Seven readying to fight.

A light passes from the pen-like device all over Sakaguchi’s body, before his body seemingly disintegrates in front of our very eyes, turning to dust that blows away on the wind.

“No!” I rush forward, grabbing at the dust helplessly.

He knew something, something important.

When the last of him has blown away, I drop to my knees, slamming my fist into the ground.

“Principal Celestia,” an angry voice says loudly, “on behalf of Crystal Prep, I demand that you forfeit the Friendship Games! Clearly, CHS has had unfair advantage for quite some time! And it’s certainly obvious that your students have been using magic for their own benefit!

I honestly don’t know what happened next.

One second, I’m kneeling on the ground, the next second, I’ve got Cinch pinned against the wall of the school, held up by her collar.

“Are you honestly, after everything you done, going to blame outside interference of a fucking super villain on CHS as if they’d planned it?! What the flying fucking hell is wrong with you, you miserable, empty old sack of shit?!”

Cinch is staring back, her eyes wide with genuine fear.

I glare at her for several long moments, the air so thick you could cut it with a knife.

After what feels like an eternity, I drop her, turning to leave.

“I’ll report you for assault, your ruffian!”

My heads snaps back and I glare at Cinch, who flinches in fear.

“I sincerely doubt the police will trust anything you say after the blackmail charges are brought up.”

She cocks her eyebrow in confusion. “What?”

I look to Wallflower and nod to Twilight. “You and the others go with her to the police. Her brother will understand.”

I don’t say anything to anyone else. I just walk to the portal and pass through.

I need answers and, with Sakaguchi gone, there’s only one being who can help me find them.

Author's Note

THis... isn't as long as i'd have hoped, but i hope it's enough.

I originally planned on Deku's following up on her questions to be in this chapter too, but i've kinda lost the drive to write for the rest of the day, so you'll all have to wait til next week for answers, answers i'm surprised haven't been figured out already.

perhaps the few clues in this chapter will help the truth be realized before i get to outright say it.

interested to see if anyone will connect the dots before then.

next chapter, we skip time a bit, with Dance Magic's events being spoken of and then the girls returning from Camp Everfree... with a few surprises for Deku when they return.

What are those surprises?

and why did Spikes refer to Deku as Subject DC52?

You'll have to wait and see.

So, did you enjoy this chapter. DId Vinyl and Maud having Quirks and what they were take you by suprise?

Lemme know in the comments.

hope this chapter's better than i think it is and, til next time, stay safe, stay clean and see you later everybody