Chapter 9

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“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?!

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“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.

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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