Guilty Gear X2: Equestrian Festival

Berry Punch was having her usual day. Get up, run the local tavern, come home and eat breakfast with her sister Cherilee. Now, being the owner/bartender entails the usual duties one would come to expect. Mix drinks, keep the peace, listen to patrons when they're sad and offer advice. There was the occasional scuffle, but nothing ever too bad that she can't handle.

She was getting ready to close up for the morning so she could go eat breakfast. Unfortunately, she forgot to lock the door, letting a group of stallions in that were acting rather rowdy. Berry Punch sighed in annoyance, cursing herself for forgetting to lock the door, and turned to the stallions, "Sorry, we're closed." She said dryly.

The stallions shouted in anger, "What!? We want a drink though!"

Berry rolled her eyes in response, "Last time I checked I spoke Equestrian. We're closed." They didn't like her response, and glared menacingly at her, "What? I'm hungry, so what do you want?" She asked, feeling a slight unease, but refused to show it.

"I don't like your attitude." The biggest one growled. The other, smaller stallions nodded in agreement, "I say we teach you a lesson."

'Oh here we go.' Berry thought, slightly afraid for herself. It was three to one, there's no way she'd be able to fend them all off. Two maybe, but not three.

There were about to charge her, but the door opened again. They all looked to whoever the intruder was, and stopped cold.

Standing at the door, was some sort of strange creature in black. It wore a black hat with a skull insignia attached to it, a black coat over its tan skin, black pants, brown boots, and sunglasses hiding its eyes. "Hm... I wonder where I am?" It said in a lazy and relaxed voice.

"W-what are you, you freak!?" One of the stallions. Berry's thoughts ran along the same train of thought, but was more interested at the fact that it seemed to carry some sort of long brown stick with it. And the fact that the stallions were afraid of it.

The creature responded, eyebrow raised past its sunglasses , "Well, that's rather rude. My sexy looks could be considered freaky by some, but to be called a freak kind of hurts." Berry figured that it was a stallion, since it had a rather deep voice.

(???? Theme)

"Whatever! We'll bust this dumb mare's place up after we bust you up!" One of the small stallions charged at the creature. but in a flash of movement from the creature, it appeared behind the stallion, holding his cane in front of him.

"Jack Hound." The creature smiled as the stallion fell to the ground, unconscious. One of the other stallions, a light grey pegasus, flew into the air and divebombed after him. The creature jumped high to meet him, and threw a bottle of some substance into his face and pulled a sword from his stick, smacking it into the stallion "Ensenga!" The stallions was put on fire for a brief moment, but it quickly went out, leaving a few patches of fur gone and him unconscious.

The creature landed on the ground like nothing, and its smile widened and he beckoned the other stallion over, "Hey." he taunted mockingly. The large stallion growled and let out a puff of smoke from his nose as he charge at the creature. The creature got into some sort of stance, its claw hovering over an end of its stick. The stallion stopped in front of him, spun on its forehooves, and tried to buck the creature. However, to Berry's amazement, the creature seemed to have teleported back a few inches, completely avoiding the blow, and brought out its sword and smacked it into the stallions forehooves, knocking him down, "Mist Finer." The creature said. the stallion tripped and landed on his head, knocking himself out with his own weight.

Berry was speechless from she just witnessed. She just saw the fastest, easiest beat-down ever known. The creature looked at her breifly, "Hm. A pony, how strange. I guess I'm in another world, since I haven't heard of gears like these. Maybe I-no is responsible for me being here." It mumbled to himself.

Berry was nervous. How does one approach an Alien to Equestria and thank it? She had to trust her gut, and took a deep breath and said, "Uh... thank you for that." the creature turned to her with a questioning frown.

"It can talk to? Well, today just gets stranger." It said, growing a smile again, "Could I know the name of the lady I helped, if it's quite alright?" To her surprise, it didn't sound demanding at all, just a polite question. Smiling slightly, she replied.

"Berry Punch."

"A nice name for a mare such as yourself." She blushed slightly, waving a hoof.

"Yeah yeah... what about you? Do you have a name?" She asked.

The creature held out one of its claws, "Johnny Sfondi. A pleasure to meet you Ms. Punch."

Berry smiled further and placed her hoof in its... his claw, "Same here big guy."

Johnny looked around, "So, why did these stallions want to gang up on you?" She could barely hear the slight hint of venom in his voice. She figured maybe he's one of those chivalry types.

She shrugged, "I was closing my bar for the morning so I could go eat breakfast. They didn't like how I answered, so they got angry."

Johnny sighed, "I see." Johnny went around, picking up the stallions and throwing them over his shoulder, "Allow me to take out the trash." He said and went to the back. She heard a door open, and a loud crash. She winced, he must have thrown them into the dumpster in the back. He came back, patting his hands on his pants and wiping them together, "That takes care of that." he smiled and moved towards the exit, "Now I'll take my leave so I can figure out how to get back home."

Berry then shouted, "Wait!"

Johnny turned to her with a raised eyebrow, "Yes?"

"Do you... um... have a place to stay? You mentioned that you're from some other world, and... I have the room for a roommate. I'd feel a little bad if I just let you wander about without a place to stay." She said, shuffling her hoofs. She honestly didn't understand why she offered an alien a place to stay, but it felt right to her. Like she'd feel horrible for doing otherwise.

Johnny paused in thought, his hand on his chin, "Hm. Well, I hate imposing. But if you're offering, I'd be more than happy to accept." He smiled. He gestured to the door, "Lead the way Ms.Punch." He said.

Berry snorted with laughter, "Dude, you don't have to call me that. Just Berry is fine." Johnny nodded, his smile widening.

What will the future hold? What sort of dark times are upon this world that it would bring such fighters into a peaceful world? Time will only tell now.