BANG! BANG!

A man got woken up by the sound of gunshots, not very uncommon in this place. He looked to the ceiling for a couple of seconds, it was made of dark wood, but now it's all rotten, and eaten by termites, that gave it this strange white hue. He got out of bed, which was basically a carpet with a jacket as a pillow, went to the bathroom, and looked into the broken mirror. What he saw was a young man, not much older than 20, with black shaved hair, dark brown eyes, light brown skin, and a large scar that ran from bellow his left ear to the end of his shoulder, wearing a yellow sleeveless shirt, black shorts and sandals. The youth turned on the foset, and washed his face. I've looked worse. He thought, while making his way to the exit. The man came to a stop when he saw a small portrait on a cabinet. He got the portrait and examined it. There were two boys in the picture, they looked almost identical, only difference was that one had a large scar, from his left ear to his shoulder.

He left his small house and went down a very dirty and narrow street, one of the thousands that exist in Rio De Janeiro. It was filled with trash and cigar buts, there were a few puddles at the side of the street, it rained just a few hours ago. He looked to the nearby hill, that marked the landscape. On top of that hill was a statue of Christ. He was facing the opposite direction, his arms were apparently hugging the other side of town. It was like he was saying "This part is mine, the other part needs to deal with themselves."

The man walked through the dirty roads, several people passed by him, some had plastic bags with groceries, others had guns and suitcases filled with drugs. He just sighed and moved forward. The boy stopped in front of a small bar, there were a couple of men drinking and laughing, a couple of dealers selling their 'products', two prostitutes on the corner, and gunmen on the roofs. In this place there is no law, The people are animals, not giving a single fuck if you're living or dead. Death was at every corner, either by a stray bullet or HIV. Anything can happen.

"Hey! Marcelo!" a man wearing a tuxedo called the boy. The man was very clean and neat. He looked a lot like Marcelo, only difference was that he seemed a little older and cleaner. His hair was short and his beard was shaved. He didn’t seem biologically older, but tired, he seemed like he didn’t sleep in the last couple of days. The strange man caught the attention of some of the gunmen and bystanders. A man wearing a suit was very uncommon in these parts. The only people with enough money to get a suit like that were either drug dealers or the drug producers. They were the kings of the slums. They sent people to kill others because they looked at them funny. It was basically the Brazilian mafia, if you get involved with them, things won't be very pretty. They ruled everything, from the police to the marketplace. There wasn’t a piece of Rio that wasn’t influenced by the dealers.

"Juan! It's been so long." Marcelo said hugging his friend. "How have you been in the USA?" Juan got a job in the USA, he worked as supervisor for of one of the richest companies in the world, NWT incorporation. The NWT inc is a company that revolves around technology as the name already clarifies, New World Technology. The industry is revolved in building a new and better future for humanity. Live a better future with NWT inc. That's their slogan. But in reality, NWT works with 'dangerous' people. They were able to get where they are today by doing some, not so legal deeds. Espionage, sabotage, war, death. That's what they are really good at.

"It's been great! But I'm still trying to improve my English. The language is a lot harder than I though." Juan said scratching the back of his head.

Marcelo put a hand on his shoulder "It's not that hard. All you need is a little practice. Now…Why have you come back to the favela?"

"Why do you ask? Can't I come back to see my twin brother?"

"No-no. I meant nothing by it, it's just that you…" Marcelo was cut off when Juan put a hand on his shoulder and laughed.

"Don't worry brother, I was kidding. I got this new job that pays really well, they even gave me two tickets to go to anywhere I want in the entire world. But I need someone to accompany me, and you, brother, are the perfect person. I will need some help with my English and you need to get out of this dump." That last comment got the attention of some bystanders. But they just shrugged it off.

"Man I'd love to go with you! Where are we going?"

"Remember when we were kids and you used to play with those puzzles from the places of Earth. What was your favorite one?" Juan asked his smiling friend.

"My favorite one was the Big Ben one." When Marcelo said that, something clicked in his head. "Are we going to London?"

"Yes we are." Marcelo opened his mouth and looked at his best friend.

"Man, if I was gay, I'd totally kiss you right now." Both of them laughed and went to the bar to get some drinks.

The bar was dirty, cigar butts scattered around, the horrid smell of death and rotten fish, broken glass on the floor and a bartender that looked like he hasn’t bathed in the last 10 years. Marcelo was already used to it though, but Juan….

"My god. Did something vomit then die in here?" Juan asked fanning the air in front of him.

"If you don’t like it, that's your problem." The bartender said while cleaning a cup, it didn’t seem to be working, because the towel he was using was dirtier than the cup already was. Both boys sat down.

"So how have you been?" Juan asked.

"It's been nice, not much different from when you left really." Marcelo said taking a sip of beer. "Only thing special is that the police managed to take over Morro da Rocinha."

"Really?! Wow. That's the last place I expected them to take over."

"I know right? It took them 3 days, 600 cops, 5 helicopter, 10 tanks and a bombing squad."

"Wow. How did they get all this armament?"

"NWT. They funded everything."

"How many were killed?"

"1200. 200 cops, 900 from the militia, and 100 civilians. One of the bombs didn’t hit the target. It hit a small refuge on the other side of the hill. Most killed were women and children. I personally think they meant to do that. Strike fear in the opponent. It was brilliant, horrible, but brilliant."

"Sometimes I never get your point of view brother." Juan took a large sip, he got used to the taste pretty quick. He looked at his brother.

"I see that scars healing up pretty well huh?"

"Oh, this?" Marcelo pointed to the wound bellow his ear. "Yea it's been healing pretty good. But what really frightens me is that sometimes I can feel it hurting. It's been over 10 years and I still get woken up from it."

"Really?" Juan looked at the wound. "It doesn’t seem to hurt."

"Oh but it does. A lot. Sometimes I can barely move from the pain." Marcelo put a hand on the scar. "I guess that's what stray bullets do to you huh?" Actually, Marcelo didn’t know what hit him that night. There was this very loud sound, like a plane, then his ear began to bleed. So he just guessed it was just some stray bullet, the only thing that didn’t match was the angle of the wound. Marcelo never really cared for what happened that night, but sometimes, late at night, he wondered what really happened.

"I guess so." Juan lifted up his cup. "To health and prosperity. Saúde!" They toasted and laughed.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

500,000 feet up, -47 Celsius. A unreachable place. Or is it? A young man looked into the distance from his small capsule. He could see the entire North American continent, every city, lighten up by all the lights of the cars and houses. The East seemed a lot brighter than the epicenter of the continent. "Only when you're so high that you realize you're so small." He whispered to himself while putting his helmet.

"Alright Duncan, you reached the designated height. Everything is a go, you can proceed to jump." A older man talked through the radio of the capsule.

"Copy that. Okay…let's see…. Suit pressurization is stable…capsule GPS is running accordingly… helmet oxygen releaser is at 100%.... Fuck. Wa diz thes happen tae me now?" Duncan said in a slight accent and pressed the side of his helmet, turning on the radio.

"What's up?" Felix responded.

"The capsule's tractor beam magnet isn't working. The station won't be able to retrieve it."

"OK….let me think…. I'll tell Moon Base to sent a drone to come and pick it up, after you jump, the capsule will stay in the 0 gravity area for about 10 hours or so, that will give us enough time."

"It damn well be! I wasted 8 million in this thing!"

"I wouldn't call it wasted but…"

"Alright. Enough talk. I need to do this."

"Good luck. I'll contact with you before you break the barrier alright?"

"Cool. See you at the bottom." Duncan released his hand from the helmet and the radio got turned off. He breathed heavily in and out.

Duncan was wearing a tight black and white spandex that covered all of his body, and a black helmet. He pressed a button and the door of the capsule opened, releasing all the air inside and pushed everything inside. Duncan held on to the capsule until the vacuum had consumed all the air. When there was no more suction, he walked to the small platform the capsule made with the door. He took a quick look around and saw the vast universe. He could see the sun hiding behind the Earth, and the moon at his side. He closed his eyes and extended his right leg, and let himself go. He entered free fall.

The air passing through his suit made a faint whistle. Duncan could see the world bellow him getting closer, and closer. "Ok. Duncan, your 200 feet of breaking the barrier, just hold on!"

Duncan reached the speed of 750 m/hr. Boom! That is all there was to hear. He had sped up about four times after the boom. The new champion had just done it, broke the barrier. His vision became blurred and he felt a sharp pain coming from his right shoulder. He looked to it and saw a cut in the suit and blood squirting out of the wound. The suit began to rip. Best of NASA my ass! He was now at the speed of 2500 m/hr. The suit couldn’t hold on much longer. If he didn’t open the parachute soon, there would be no story to tell. (I know that in real life that doesn’t happen but this is a fictional story after all. Don’t hate. It's bad. Now…back to the story!)

His specially designed parachute opened, it was the one NASA used to stop the space buses. But in a smaller scale. The champion slowly fell to safety on the landing pad at the airport. "Good job kid." Felix said through the radio. His feet touched the ground and he took a deep breath.

"Oh man, Duncan! That was awesome!" A chubby guy with light blonde hair said as Duncan took off his helmet. Duncan was a very buff young man, he had black hair in the shape of a Mohawk. His eyes were a very light brown, his beard was shaved, but was still present. Duncan took a quick look at his shoulder. The cut was not very deep, but it would leave one nasty scar. It went from the middle of his shoulder to the middle of his back. At least the bleeding stopped.

In an instant tons of reporters and photographers of all types crowded him. Mr. Price, how did you do it? And What did you fell as you broke the barrier? These were the type of questions the celebrity had to answer. But he didn’t. Duncan was too busy with his own thoughts to answer to any of them. Most of the time he just ignored them and moved forward. Did you feel fear? That question has haunted him for all the years of his career. Fear, a word that brought what its definition dictates to him. A word that never seemed to leave his mind. That question, he had to answer.

He grabbed the microphone from the reporter, looked into the camera and said: "I didn’t fell scared, not even for a moment, I am pure courage." Duncan smiled and gave the microphone back.

He made his way to the agent standing beside a black limousine. The limo had a white stripe surrounding it. Just like Duncan's helmet.

"Where next?" the champion asked the small women holding a clipboard.

"London Eye. You're going to jump into the Thames." She answered looking at him for a couple of moments.

"Sounds nice." Duncan smiled and entered the car. The limousine was empty, only Duncan, his agent and the driver. He put his helmet on the seat in front of him. That black screen on it seemed to be looking directly into Duncan's eyes. It looked like there was still a head inside. "Whit ur ye lookin' at!?" Duncan said to the helmet, with an accent.

The seats were white and there was some Champaign on the corner. If only I had someone to share this with. He thought while opening the bottle and drinking directly from it. The limo began to move and Duncan put his head against the glass. He saw all the fans and reporters look as he moved away. There were plains in the distance, he looked at the clouds and the birds. Saw them dive in the air and spin. They seemed so free, so carefree. "I do feel scared." He said quietly to himself, he closed his eyes and fell into a deep slumber.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

"The question is: What is the name of the occasion in which two stars orbit each other?" A senior gentleman announced to the tables of students to his right and left, facing a crown of thousands sitting down on a theater.

*BEEP*

"River Wood?" He asked for the answer.

"Binary stars." A boy answered, he was wearing a yellow vest and small glasses, his face was so filled with freckles that made his skin look orange.

"Correct!" A point was added to the billboard on top of the announcer. "The game is now tied. This is the final question, whoever gets the correct answer get the 1 million dollar grand prize, as well as a trip to New York City! The question is: Give out the first ten digits of the..." He made a dramatic pause, making the competitors move forward. "…..square root of…." They were all sweating, "2!" He said quickly.

BEEP

"Los Angeles?"

"The square root of 2 is 1.414… um what is it?" A girl stood up and faced the crowd, she hit her own head gently a couple times.

"Come on Hillary! You have to know this if you want to win the knowledge bowl!" someone whispered to the girl standing up.

"I…don’t know." Beep.

"The winners of the 2025 annual knowledge bowl are the school of River Wood!" the announcer said to the crowd of 8000 people at the theater. A loud cheer came from the audience, but many people didn’t react. Hillary frowned and looked at the ground. She knew it was all her fault that her school lost.

Her teammates looked at the girl with the purple glasses and sweatshirt, with angry faces and left the stage as the other school was cheering.

"Wait!" the announcer told the losing school. "There is a consolation prize for second place. A all paid trip to London!" that got Hillary's attention, she had dreamed of going to London for quite some time now. She smiled with glee when she realized that her dream would become reality. Different from her teammates who were crying because most had already gone to London. They wanted to go to New York and get the 100000 dollar prize and sleep in the suites of the most prestigious hotel in the world.

But Hillary wasn’t liked the others. For one she was a lot prettier, if she wanted to she could join the cheerleader's ranks, easy. Her black hair went to the middle of her back, her breasts weren't very large, but that didn’t stop some guys from looking at them. She had the most perfect skin of anyone in the entire school. But what stopped her from being popular was the fact that she's an introvert. Rarely talked and never to boys. She is the only one in her class that hasn’t kissed someone yet, and has absolutely no friends. Another thing was that she wasn’t a spoiled brat like the others in her school. She knew the cost of things and how they affect people. But that made her a easy target for bullies. Every day, always the same type of mockery. You're fat, you're ugly, four eyes, blank flank. She didn’t quite get that last one, but it was a mockery either way. Well, maybe things can change over in London.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

"Vinyl! Wake up!" A woman screamed at the door of a locked room. The door was a deep black, there were about 10 signs saying: DON'T ENTER IF YOU WANT TO LIVE!

There was no answer.

"VINYL!" she screamed again.

"Be right there mom." A girl shouted from inside the room. The door was unlocked and from inside came a girl with black hair with blue lines traces on them, blue eyes and piercings on her nose and ears. She was wearing a white shirt and no pants. "Shit mom, why do you have to wake me up so early." She rubbed her eye.

"Watch the language young lady! We have a plane to catch, where going to London remember?" The lady said looking into her daughter's room. It was messy and very dark. The curtains and bed sheets were the same color, a deep blood red. So was the counter and the floor. "So I want you to get ready, put on some decent clothes and we'll go, okay?" The woman noticed Vinyl wasn’t listening. The girl was in another world entirely. "OKAY?"

"OKAY!" the teen retorted and slammed the door. Vinyl then looked out the window of her room and said: "If only someone, somewhere could listen to me and understand me." She whispered to no one. No one listened to her. No one cared she said that. No one saw the tear escape her eye and fall on the scarlet carpet.

Vinyl grabbed her phone and listened to a random song. When the song began to play, Vinyl felt something, like that song was foreshadowing something big in her life, something great. When it ended she realized that her life was missing something, someone that understood her and felt her pain, the pain of being an outcast of society.

"You know you don’t have to deal with her all the time right?" A male voice whispered to Vinyl.

"I know, but she's my step mom, what can I do?"

"Vinyl…" A blond man with violet eyes appeared in a chair near the window. He just appeared out of thin air. "…You're 21 years old. You can leave. Nothing is stopping you."

"I know Cantus, it's just that…she's all I have left….after dad died, I lost everything."

Cantus walked over to Vinyl and gave her a hug. "You haven't lost me."

"I know…thank you Cantus." Some tears escaped her eye. "I wish you were real."

"Me too." Cantus seemed unsure when he said that.

"VINYL!" A women shouted. Vinyl broke the hug, put on some pants, got her bag and opened the door. Cantus didn’t move a muscle since she broke the hug.

"Aren't you coming?"

"I won't go with you. But I will always be within you. You'll see me when you arrive. Don't worry." And then Cantus just disappeared, the same way he appeared, out of thin air. Vinyl sighed and walked out of the house.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

"One and Two and Three…" a song began to play and a couple of girls began to jump and do flips, they shook their pom-poms and did a very interesting choreography. In the end, they did a human pyramid. "Okay Okay stop, stop!" the music was cut by the voice of a old lady. "Linda what happened? You seemed to be having a pretty hard time there."

"It's just that the people I have to hold are too heavy and my arms hurt. But I swear I'll do better next time."

"So you have gotten weaker. Okay, break times over! Do it again!" and they did the same thing 12 more times. At the end of practice, everyone except Linda and two of her friends stayed over at the showers.

Linda looked at the mirror. Her blond hair was messy because of practice, her makeup got a bit ruined but still looked good on her. Anything looked good her. Her breasts were large for her age, and she didn't use any silicon. Linda is the prettiest girl in school, having all the curves in the right places. That was the main reason why she got chosen as cheerleading captain.

"What are you going to do during the weekend Holly?" A white blond girl asked an Asian sitting on the bench.

"Nothing planned. You?"

"Nothing as well." She said with a frown

"Well. I'm going to London. So goodbye girls." They hugged and gave their goodbyes. "See you in two weeks girls. Bye!" Linda got in her red Lamborghini and rode off to her mansion.

She got to home and gave her bag to the butler waiting next to the car. He was an very old man, but seemed very strong. He has already carried bags and furniture enough to last a couple of lifetimes.

Linda walked to her room and untied her hair. She entered the room and took a quick glance around. The wall were this very bright pink with white stripes separating the vibrant color. There were a few old teddy bears on her pink king size bed. The computer was the newest Apple Mac book. It didn’t even reach stores yet. But her father knows some people.

Linda sighed and walked to a door, right next to the bed. It seemed very hidden, if someone wasn’t warned about it, they would just be completely oblivious, even if it was right in front of them.

The room was small compared to the rest of the mansion. The walls were black, so was the floor. Everything was black.

Linda got a chair and sat down in front of a wall. She opened a container in the chair and pressed a large red button. Suddenly a huge TV lit up, it covered the entire wall. Linda got a pair of glasses and put them on. She then got a Play station controller and turned on the console. PS4, that was what covered the TV. There was a title screen, COD Modern Warfare 8.

Linda got her microphone and turned it on. "Okay guys, sorry I'm late, cheerleading practice was a bitch today."

"Hey Death Eater." A male voice responded. "Been a while since you played."

"I know right? My father doesn't like it when I play these games, but then I say 'F U dad, I do what I want' then he just lets me." Linda raised her middle finger and stuck her tongue out.

"Really?"

"No." Both of them laughed. "Hey AKnight I can only play for a couple hours okay?"

"That's fine."

Two hours later

"I have to go Eater." Aknight said.

"Why? I still have a couple more minutes."

"My show is going to air this morning and I can't miss it."

"What show?"

"You know… my show."

"What show?" Linda repeated.

"It's confidential."

"But…"

"Ok bye…" Aknight, not wanting to continue the conversation, turned off his console.

"That bastard." Linda said under her breath, turning her PS4 off too. She stood up and grabbed a bag, and started packing. Tomorrow she would go to the city of royalty, like herself.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
30th of August 2025

"My little pony, My little pony, ah ah ah…" someone sang in the morning when the sun had just come up in the horizon.

"Aaron! Come down!" a man shouted from the kitchen.

"It's Sunday dad!" Aaron said back to the man.

"It doesn’t matter, you still have to do your shores." The man shouted.

"Fine." The boy stopped the video he was watching and went downstairs. As you can clearly depicture, Aaron is a brony, one of the last. He had been since he was 12, today he's 23. Most people think bronies are just fat pedophiles that still live with their mothers. Aaron was the exact opposite, except the part of living with his mother. He did parkour ever since he was 14, so his build was pretty good. Some women dreamed of being with him, his short black hair, perfect figure and good build, he was the perfect guy. The only thing that stopped them from getting him in their pants, was that they expected Aaron to go and talk with them, but he never would, why? Because he's not really a straight forward guy. He always tries to keep away from crowds and new people. And the MLP tee shirts didn’t help either.

"Good morning Spike." Aaron said petting his dog, who seemed happy to see his master. He was an adult golden retriever that Aaron found when he went to a brony meet up. It was dark, and he tripped on something, when he looked again, he saw a starving puppy. Aaron decided to adopt him. And had to name him, so he chose the name Spike, for his very favorite dragon.

Aaron got the trash bag and brought it outside. His house was in the middle of a small street in London near the Big Ben. If you looked through the trees you might be able to catch a glimpse of the clock tower. His house wasn’t huge, but it was large enough for Aaron's family.

He came back to his family that was sitting in the dinner table eating a classic British breakfast. Aaron was the youngest of the family, he has 3 sisters that never show up. Aaron's father, Richard, he was an blue eyed, blond man. He seemed old from all the years he worked so hard for what he has now. Aaron's mother looked like Aaron, just in a different gender. She too, looked old for all these years working. Now that Aaron had graduated and was going to get his own place, they could rest in peace. But there was only one thing that worried them. It has for the past 11 years.

"Son, we have to talk." Aaron's father said putting down his mug.

"Sure. What do you want to talk about?" Aaron sat with the chair backwards.

"It's about that weird obsession of yours. That show that you’ve been hooked on for the past few years."

"MLP?"

"Yes son." His mother joined the conversation. "You have been acting strange these past years, buying those girl toys and getting tee shirt and…. Ah I don’t even know what else. You have been getting more and more distant. And I fear that now you are… too distant?"

"Distant? Distant from what?"

"Distant from the world son." His father said. "You used to love going to that park and seeing the Big Ben, the museums used to make you so happy. But after you got hooked up on that show, everything around you meant nothing. Now all you care about are those strange colored horse…"

"Pony dad, pony." Aaron corrected his father.

"…pony. You have over 70 ponies in that shelf of yours."

"74 and a half. Spike ripped one of them in half. Poor Trixie." Aaron remembered the day it happened. After he saw the mutilated body of his most precious part of the collection, he nearly killed his dog. It was a one in a kind Trixie model the size of a small cup, she was wearing the red outfit she used in season 6 episode 10. And Spike thought it was a piece of steak.

"It doesn’t matter how many you have son. What matters is that you have alienated yourself from the world. So your mother and I have planned a family day, were going to the London Eye."

"uhhhh!" Aaron imitated his favorite character, Twilight in episode 3 of the second season. It has been so long since he last saw that episode, but for all these years it's been his favorite.

Aaron left the dining room and went to his room and buried his head on the pillow. Aaron turned around and took a look in his room. Am I really this obsessed. He grabbed a small Twilight Sparkle model. I guess it is time to change, I have been away for a while now, yes. It is time. He placed the model on the shelf and sighed. Aaron grabbed a trash can nearby and sat down on the bed. He took one more quick look at the model. And frowned. He grabbed it once more and held it on top of the trash can. Do it. His fingers didn’t respond. DO IT! He nearly let go, the model was almost falling. His hand began to shake. Aaron! It's been 11 years! You need to let go! His mind screamed at him. But his hand wouldn’t let go. He felt the tears coming up.

"AARON!" His father shouted from downstairs.
Thanks dad. Aaron put the model to his side. When I come back. I will do it. Aaron promised to himself. But there was uncertainty in his voice.

Author's Note

This Story happens sometime in the near future, so futuristic equipments are present in the story.