Prologue: It All Began with a Song...
The Equestrian Prime: Rainbow Rocks
Prologue: It All Started with a Song…
The diner around them was continuously arguing, fighting the animosity of the group in the small building reaching near physical levels of violence. The one thing that was keeping it to arguments only was the fact that the negative energy was being drained off into three pendants from a group of hooded but obviously female figures in the corner and booth.
"I'm tired of fast food Adagio, I want some real magic!" One of them suddenly said as they drained off as much negative energy as they could take at the time.
"Aria you know we've searched for equestrian artifacts for centuries and only found a few none of which we could drain the magic of considering they were inanimate objects still I'm glad that we got them so that no one here could use them do you imagine how much competition we would have had to deal with!" The leader named Adagio Dazzle said as she took off her Hood revealing her incredibly poofy orange hair and drop-dead gorgeous face in response to her younger sister's words. The other two followed suit as they all exited the diner revealing the one who Adagio had spoken to Aria Blaze had purple and green twin pigtails and a face just as beautiful as Adagio's.
"You know we really should at least try to find where these artifacts were coming from considering some of the ones here were dated after we showed up in this world meaning Starswirled wasn't the one who banished them here as far as I can tell!" The two-toned blue-haired girl wearing a ponytail said in response to adagio's mentioning of equestrian artifacts.
"I've told you before Sonata wild portals open every now and again and I'm pretty sure most of the artifacts came from those. There's no set portal unless someone forces One open!" Adagio said right before a burst of rainbow light appeared in the sky and a pulse of energy swept over the town.
"Well, what do you know?! Either this time someone actually went through a portal or that's pure equestrian magic coming through!" Aria said, recognizing the energy. "Either way we should look into that and if they are a person, help them adjust to this world, after all, we've been here for over a thousand years we know enough about this world to help them and in turn will get paid by actually feeding off their equestrian magic!"
"You make a good point sis but maybe we should do some recon first you know check to see if any new or suspicious people have arrived in the last few years," Adagio said as the three walked home which coincidentally happened to be in the direction of the rainbow light which had by now faded from the sky. "This isn't the first time we've detected a surge but nothing on this magnitude!"
"You got a point still that was almost definitely something like Starswirl's magic I could feel his presence in that energy!" Sonata said before playing with her ponytail. "Once we get home I'm going to message Pinkie. She knows a lot of people in this town and might have news on anyone new showing up!"
"Please you just want to message her so you can do a 5-hour baking session again and then go get tacos!" Aria remarked, teasing Sonata about her semi-friendship with the very pink girl. "I still don't get why you work. We could get all the money we want just by singing even without a record label!"
"I get bored sitting around the house doing nothing all day and the Cakes give me free food!" Sonata replied that starting up a discussion that both she and Aria has had many times over ever since they moved back into canterlot City when they first detected the surges of equestrian energy centered around the school nearby. "I mean they know about all of our songs and record deals but they recognize that just because I have the money to live comfortably doesn't mean I'd like being bored when we're on break!"
"Let Sonata have her hobbies. She's the one that cooks for us when we don't eat negative energy so you know she likes to practice!" Adagio said as they finally reached the front door of their two-story home, paid off around the time it was built 50 years ago. "After all, you do frequent gaming sessions with Fluttershy and Dash and I miss having card sessions with Sunset but ever since she got so focused on being popular well…"
"Yeah, that girl definitely changed a few weeks after moving into the neighborhood." Aria said, "I still can't believe a 12-year-old was so good at poker though almost like she did it professionally for a few years at that point." Aria commented as the three shed their hoodies and sweatpants, revealing that they would walk around nude in their house since they put blackout curtains on the first floor to avoid anyone looking in and seeing them without their clothes on.
"Kind of sad that we're the only things that have been keeping them together for so long. Pinkie and Applejack still bake together thanks to me but they only do it because of me." Sonata said heading towards the stairs. "It's not like we're all going to become one friend group again because someone new just suddenly showed up whether being alien or a pony!"
At the dance observing the magical standoff were two unique teenagers, a girl with prosthetic arms and her childhood friend, a boy that was born with an extremely detailed tattoo-like birthmark between his shoulder blades. As the energy from Sunset's confrontation with Princess Twilight and the human elements of Harmony washed over the area both of these people began to experience something different about themselves. Earlier both of them had avoided being hypnotized by Sunset since they had stood behind the Wondercolts statue.
"So this is where we're going to be transferring?" The girl said, flexing the mechanical fingers on her right hand as the energy washed over them. "Kind of cool to see that those things your father was talking about were right, magic does exist!" The prosthetic-wearing girl watched as princess Twilight approached sunset before quickly following suit, surprising the alicorn in human form as she and the girl extended their hands to Sunset Shimmer. "Come on Shimmy you got your ass kicked so maybe you should help others for once." Astra's voice and coloration were a near-dead match for the princess beside her. Her skin tone only being a few shades darker and the same with her hair.
"Of course you'd be here, Astra," Sunset said as she took the two girls' hands letting herself be pulled back up out of the crater she was in, tears still visible on her face. "You're the only one who's ever tried to reach out to me before and seeing me as you so eloquently put it, 'get my ass kicked' probably was a joy."
"Nah Shimmy, I didn't take any actual joy from it. I'm just glad that someone knocked some sense into you." Astra said with a serious expression on her face before switching up to a smile, "Maybe now we can be friends for real?"
"Wait a minute you've tried to be friends with Sunset before?!" Twilight said surprised. "From what I saw earlier she didn't have any friends, just Snips and Snails as subordinates."
"We met a long time ago. Back when I guess she first came to this world Artemis and I, the boy over there-" Astra pointed to the red-skinned and blue-haired young man who was still leaning against the side of the Wondercolts statue. "We used to hold some poker matches with a few friends of ours and a trio of nice ladies. My dad would always cook up a bunch of food for us whenever we held these little games. Shimmy over there stumbled in one day when we were playing, having smelt the food there that my father was cooking she pretty much begged for some food and when my father asked if her parents knew where she was she mentioned that she was pretty much alone and didn't have any way of actually getting food. She then began to cry," Astra had an amused chuckle remembering just how her father reacted to the noise. "My father hates the sound of crying and honestly hates seeing children cry so he invited her to stay for dinner since we'd already be making a whole bunch of extra just to have during the game. Once Shimmy had calmed down she quickly picked up that we were playing poker and pretty much joined in herself. She left after eating saying that she did have a place just that her parents had left it to her after their passing, from then on for the next few months that she kept on showing up at my house and we would feed her play some poker and then she'd go. I wanted to be friends with her at the time but she said that she saw me more as a rival in poker than anything else and then she left. We lost contact with her. I'm just glad that I know where she ended up even if I didn't know how she came to meet us."
“My mentor sensed what was going on before all of this began happening, so I’ve been training to be prepared for when it did happen,” Artemis said, a low slightly rumbling tone to his voice. He then got off of the Wondercolts statue, walking over to Sunset. She looked up to his face, which held a fierce gaze, making her quiver slightly in fear.
“Sunset Shimmer, what you did here tonight was inexcusable,” Artemis said, his fierce gaze still on Sunset with a frown. She looked down in shame as she began to cry. But then she looked up at Artemis, having felt his hand on her shoulder, his face having a smile on it this time. “However, I’d be lying if I said that there wasn’t a chance for you to change who you were into who I believe you could become. One thing my mentor, who was like a father to me after my parents died, taught me is that everyone deserves a second chance and that everyone in this world has the capacity for change. But he also taught me that freedom is everyone’s right. Only you alone can make that decision to change. Just know I’m speaking to you not as your enemy, Sunset Shimmer, but as your friend.” Both Sunset and Twilight’s eyes widened as they both had never heard the most wise of words from someone so young.
"That's the Primes for you," Astra said with a chuckle. "And don't sell him short Artie, Optimus is your dad! After your parents died he became your father, don't just call him your mentor! I told you multiple times!" The girl was slightly annoyed at the relationship they had, considering she saw them in a similar light to her and her father. "Don't make me sic dad on you! He is your sensei after all!"
“Old habits are hard to break for me, Astra, you know that. And if you do that, I’ll destroy you the next time we’re teamed up against each other in Halo Infinite!” Artemis said, chuckling darkly. “You know I can destroy you too, considering how many times I’ve sniped you and popped your shields and melee’d you and you tried to do the same to me… and failed horribly. I have the better Kill-Death ratio out of the two of us after all.”
"Wait, are you TillAllAreOne86?!" Sunset and Fluttershy asked as the rest of the human Elements of Harmony approached, surprised at the mention of Halo Infinite.
"No wonder I recognized your voice!" The bacon-haired former unicorn said. "You're worse than a jackal on Legendary!"
“Would it surprise you that I am so good that I was invited to the Canterlot City National E-Sports team but turned them down?” Artemis said, smiling. “I don’t play for fame or money. I just play for fun. Those guys that play for fame and money can go and shove their invitations right up their asses. I do it strictly for fun, even if Astra is the worst between the two of us. Besides, it would ruin the rivalry she and I have built over the years. Plus some of the scandals that I’ve read online where people who stream on Twitch and were using hacks, or people on E-Sports teams exploit bugs in the game just turned that off for me. So I will never join an E-Sports team. If I do anything like that, I would stream on Twitch, but I play fair and square, I’ve never once used cheats. Just ask Astra. She watched me play an entire playthrough of Halo 3 on Legendary, and I didn’t die. Not. One. Time.” Artemis said, emphasizing the last three words before he laughed.
"As interesting as all this is, I do need to get back home soon. The portal will close in a few hours at best and I want to be sure that Sunset here will be supported. If I brought her back to Equestria right now she would be locked in the dungeons for the rest of her life for stealing regalia." Princess Twilight commented revealing to Sunset that she had actually stolen part of Twilight's official regalia, not just a weapon that she carried around since it was bonded to her.
"Heh heh!" Sunset chuckled nervously. "So that was actually your official tiara and not the weapon I thought it was?! Crapbaskets I'm so screwed!"
“Huh, so she says that too. Heh.” Artemis said, chuckling.
"We'll take care of her Twi!" Applejack said in response to that. "Now that she's been served a decent helping of humble pie-"
"PIE?! WHERE?!" Pinkie interrupted
"Not that kind of pie, Pinkie!" Artemis said, shaking his head and chuckling at her antics.
"As Ah was saying sugarcube, now that Sunset here has been served a slice of humble pie, we can all actually get along, after we sort out the mess she caused with our friendships!" AJ grumbled
"Wait, you thought that your friendships fell apart because of me?" Sunset said, confused. "Not that it wasn't a part of my plan but I never executed what I was planning to do after I heard that you all broke up because of a whole bunch of emails, texts and all that I figured it was just a happy coincidence."
“I highly doubt Sunset had the know-how at the time to do that with a phone and a computer, considering where she’s from without our level of technology.” Artemis said, his head down, rubbing his chin in thought. “She wouldn’t know how to manipulate all of that to ruin your friendships, at least at first. I have the feeling that someone was manipulating the strings from behind the scenes and made Sunset take the fall on that one. But the rest… well… we know how that ended. No offense, Sunset.”
“None taken.” Sunset said, sighing while looking down in shame.
"Well that's a mystery that you all will have to solve together as friends." Twilight said as the whole group went back into the auditorium where Astra and Artemis had been observing The dance before Sunset interrupted it. The unhypnotized teenagers followed suit going back to dancing for the most part.
"Since that's over and done with, can we have that dance Princess?"Flash Sentryasked holding his hand out to Twilight who graciously took it along with the rest of the girls who while still having their pony features noticed Astra and Artemis physically glowing as if they both had reacted to the magic as well.
"Excuse me Miss but why are your arms metal?" A young voice asked, causing Astra to turn, seeing a group of three younger girls from the middle school section of the party.
"Well little ones, my dad and I… we were in a bad car accident when I was younger, one that involved fire. We were lucky enough to be on the side of the car that wasn't hit so we were both able to pull my sister and Mom out of the car but Dad and I we got burned in the process to the point where we have to wear these special metal coverings to reduce the pain and allow us to move our arms with less effort due to nerve damage.” Astra said, looking down at her arms. Even though the accident had happened years ago, Astra and her father still regretted not being able to save her mother Durga and sister Mithra. "Still, it makes it far easier for me to choose Halloween costumes. This year I'm going to be Genos!"
“I’m going as someone you won’t expect, as he is considered fictional.” Artemis chuckled. “But the reason I’m choosing him is because of something I was born with, a birth mark which looks like a tattoo between my shoulder blades.” Artemis said, lifting the back of his shirt and showing his tattoo-like birth mark to the assembled group. “I made the costume myself. I have my own 3D printer to craft the pieces. I’m going as Optimus Prime from the G1 Transformers cartoon, with the Ion Blaster like the one he used plus the Star Saber, modeled after my tattoo-like birthmark. I just wish Dad was here this time. He’s usually with me on Halloween, but he was called on a job for his trucking business before he had to cancel our Halloween get-together.” Artemis sighed sadly.
"There you go, finally calling him dad again!" Astra said, punching Artemis in the shoulder lightly due to the little known fact that the prosthetics she and her father both wore actually somewhat enhanced their strength due to its working on a "making it easier to move" basis. "I swear you keep on going through phases where you decide to call him your mentor. I mean yeah you respect your biological parents and all. I understand that but the man has raised you for quite a while so at the very least he's a father figure. The term dad would be out of respect in this case."
“It’s because of what he taught me growing up that I call him my mentor.” Artemis said, sighing. “I know he’s my dad now, but it’s old habits that are hard to break for me, you know that, Astra. Especially with… what happened back then.”
As the dance finally went down the humane 5 Sunset Shimmer, Astra, Artemis, Spike and Twilight all stood around the portal the humane 5 still sporting their pony features although if anyone looks close enough both Astra and Artemis would still be glowing especially Astra's arms which gave off a noticeable golden hue in the seams.
"Don't worry princess we'll keep an eye on her and the others, me and Artemis we're going to be transferring soon anyways so that might be why you got in so easily since she looks so much like me." Astra said, clearing up a small question that the rest of the girls had. "As long as we can keep up our poker games like the old days. Hopefully maybe sometime within the next year and a half you'll figure out how to get here without that time limit you mentioned."
“And I think I see something in her myself that my dad saw in me while he was raising me.” Artemis said, standing to Sunset’s right with his left hand on her shoulder. “I might just take her under my wing. But she’s gonna need to change her name and get used to it, like I did when my dad took me in, considering my dad’s lineage. So I’ll let you rest for now, Elita One.” Artemis said, looking at Sunset, who now had the name Elita One. “But a week from now, you’re going to be training under me. I just hope you’re ready, as the training I’ll put you through is the same training that I went through, which is more grueling than the Navy SEALS and the Marines combined. But with the lessons I’ll teach you during the training, you’ll understand. It’s a mixture of not only military tactics and training, but philosophical lessons and words of wisdom like my dad taught me.”
"I will not change my name!" Sunset said brushing Artemis off before slapping him in the face! "Don't ever suggest changing my name again!!"
"I think we found one of her triggers, Arty," Astra said. "don't you get that changing her name is the biggest thing that would remove her from her old life?"
"Well other than that little disagreement I best be going," Princess Twilight said. "I don't want to be stuck here for another two and a half years without any way of contacting anyone."
"Go on, we'll talk to Artemis and Sunset about all this sis." Astra said, causing Twilight to stumble right before entering the portal with Spike. With a genuine smile and a few tears in her eyes the two equestrians entered the portal and seconds later the magic that had engulfed the whole group disappeared as the portal closed knocking Rainbow Dash to the ground on her ass.
"You're also going to be getting physical combat training for me in the traditional arts of fisticuffs and sword play, the stuff my father Asura taught me." Astra mentioned causing Rainbow Dash to get right back up and stare at her jaw dropped.
"Your father is the 10 time MMA winner Asura?!" She exclaimed realizing that Astra was the daughter of one of her idols, the one that got her into karate in the first place after meeting him at his last match, a fact she told Astra herself. "Why did he leave the scene so abruptly?!"
"It's the reason he and I have these in the first place." Astra said gesturing to the prosthetic shells around her arms, the movement being just enough to cause the metal to creak. "That match was supposed to be rigged. My father was supposed to lose. After he won, the assholes who tried to rig the match followed us and rammed into the passenger side of our car before jumping out and setting both vehicles on fire and running away. Luckily my father and I were outside the reach of the blaze but my little sister and mother weren't so lucky, both my father and I pulled them out of the fire. At first we thought that they would survive with severe burns but they passed on the way to the hospital. My father and I had suffered 3rd degree burns all over our arms from pulling them out, burns so bad they damaged some of the nerves in our arms. You can imagine losing some functionality in his arms would cause his career to plummet, but both he and I can live a normal life thanks to the human version of Princess Twilight."
"Oh I know her! she's the girl that lives a bit farther out from the rest of us sans Applejack and most likely goes to Crystal prep based on the uniform I saw her walking around in." Pinkie said with enthusiasm "I told Princess Twilight about her a little while ago before the dance. She called that version of her her sister and I guess you have the similar situation Astra. She helped you and your father so much that she's considered part of the family?"
"How very insightful of you Pinkie!" Rarity commented as Astra nodded in response before continuing her explanation, figuring she should get the whole story out of how she met the human version of Twilight and how she now has bionic arms.
"That's exactly the case now as I was saying I meant the human version is Twilight when I was young only a couple of months after the accident. My father and I were both getting skin grafts and physical therapy to save what function we had in our arms and so that they looked somewhat normal again." As they said this the group moved back into the gymnasium where the dance was being held so that Astra could finish her explanation and relative comfort in case any of them needed drink from the still partially full punch bowl. Sunset looked a bit grumpy but intrigued since she had only known Astra after she got the basic versions of her now completely encased arms.
"You probably don't know this and it's probably the same with Princess Twilight but the human version of Twilight has some anxiety problems and minor autism, most likely Asperger's from what I observed since I was diagnosed with it myself." Astra said now sipping on a cup of punch to keep her throat wet. "One time when I was going for my own therapy both physical and mental to deal with the trauma of losing my mother and sister I met up with the human version of Twilight who surprisingly had the same therapist in fact we were doing a group therapy session with me being the worst off of the two the show how legit debilitating problems can still be overcome a bit of shock therapy if I may. After a little while talking to our therapist together Twily as I'll call her now since she and I know each other very well she declared that she would figure out a way for both me and my father to use our arms to their fullest again even if it means that she'd have to build robot arms for us and rebuild them as I grew. It turns out she read some fullmetal alchemist so she had an idea of what automail was."
The reference to a famous manga and anime visibly caught Fluttershy's, Sunset's, and Rainbow Dash's interests while Pinkie nodded showing that she did know what Astra was talking about, but Applejack and Rarity were a little lost so Astra took a bit to explain. "In the story that I mentioned, Fullmetal alchemist automail is an advanced form of prosthetics. Typically made with steel but can be made winterized with weather resistant material. The big thing about it is that it literally works as if you'd have your own arm or leg as it attaches to the remaining nerves in the amputated stump, something that Twiliy is still trying to figure out but has made great progress towards considering my own coverings and my dad's do work on a far less sophisticated version of that same idea. The first prototype was basically just a slightly advanced version of a military exoskeleton that she made from her own materials around the garage. It didn't really work beyond the idea that it helped to assist movement but it was a prototype. Next came the version that Sunset saw and the reason why I started playing poker with those ladies in the first place. While it didn't have the fancy metal plating this version has the ideas behind my arms had advanced rather quickly and it now had a whole bunch of exposed wiring and all that, enough to allow Dad to cook normally and for me to start getting used to delicate finger maneuvers again hence playing poker as a way to practice my hand eye coordination and motor functions while using the prototype. That prototype lasted for a few months until I actually grew out of it which was around the time that Sunset left. Over the years Twily made improvements on my prosthetics getting to the point they are at now, basically taking the electrical signals for my arms remaining nerves and using them in a similar way to have the body would to assist my movements. The metal plating is more to protect the inner workings and to shield my scarred arms from weather." To prove a point Astrid tapped on her right bicep with one of her knuckles on her left hand hearing the thunk of metal against metal. "It's made with a titanium outer layer with a… well as you can tell bronzed finish. Dad got the same improvements but only after they were tested with me since I'm the one that's going to be yet having to go through multiple iterations time after time considering I'm still growing. Normally you wouldn't make your main priority patient either test subject as well but in my case it was kind of necessitated as I would have to be fed by my father whenever I got used to a new version. And after the first few times I would do the same for him when he got used to the update. Nowadays he's pretty much set with what he wears, a similar set of arms with a non bronzed titanium layer." Finishing her drink Astra threw the cup in the trash as the final people from the dance exited along with the rest of their group. "Any questions?"
Artemis was quiet for the entire time he was hearing how Astra and her father were in the car accident, a grim look on his face, since she never said how she got into the accident, or the reason for why it happened. He made a mental note to bring this up to his dad, Optimus, who worked with the military and the police when he was younger. Astra and her dad were the only other people that he considered family besides Optimus after his parents died, and he was not one to let things like this slide, but he went about it the right way. And he wasn't going to rest until those fuckers were in prison for what they did. Astra and Asura were family to him, even though they were adoptive family, they were still family. And no one hurts his family.
