//------------------------------// // Game 3: Thunder Island: Bonbon vs. Lyra // Story: Pony Strikers Charged // by ZeroChill //------------------------------// Lyra stood on the cliff arena of a brown mountain at the sea. The clouds were black and stormy rather than the standard hazy yellow atmosphere. She saw tornadoes off at the distance at the sea. She can practically feel the razor winds coming from the storm. She stood in awe on how wild the location was. There wasn’t any form of an electric fence around the arena, which would lead towards a long drop down to the ocean. Off at the distance, a set of blue stand-style seats materialized in smoke. It was suspended in the air. Discord and all of the other ponies save for Vinyl Scratch, Octavia, Lyra and Bonbon were warped onto the stands. The howling winds whispered in each individual’s ears. Twilight looked to her right and saw that a large tornado hurdling towards the seats. Twilight dropped to the seats and moved back in desperation of getting away from the dreaded natural disaster. Rainbow Dash looked in awe of the magnificent force of nature and didn’t bother moving away. Just as it neared, the tornado moved to the right, which caused it to miss the floating bleachers. Discord looked to his left with a smug face on him. He saw that Twilight’s heart raced. She tried to catch her breath, but ultimately failed. “Twilight, is this how you would approach a natural disaster? You would be absolutely terrible in the disaster recovery department.” Discord guffawed at the fearful reaction of Twilight. He pounded on the bleachers with his lion’s paw in the middle of his laughter. Nopony on the stands were amused. Discord wiped a stray tear of laughter from his eyes. He snapped his griffon talons and spawned a bag of popcorn in front of him. He laid back on the bleacher behind him and put his hands behind his head and started eating at the popcorn. “Anyways everypony, I welcome you all to Thunder Island. Thunder Island is a location far off into the ocean. This island is famous in the universe for always being surrounded by dangerous natural disasters and winds. The arena here is on the cliff of the mountain as you can see, and weird objects are brought hurdling into the wind here for some reason.” Fluttershy was almost too quiet since she witnessed the violence level of the game. However, she felt the need to speak out. “Is there a good chance that ponies here can die?” Fluttershy whispered. Discord turned his head towards Fluttershy and smiled. “I would like to say no, but this arena has been proven many times to be more dangerous than the previous arena we visited. If a pony falls down there, there really isn’t any guarantee that they will be alive. But, if for some reason that a pony’s body isn’t dashed against the stalagmites of the roaring ocean below, they somehow float back up onto the platform.” He stated honestly, but with a goofy grin. Fluttershy slowly looked back to the stadium and slightly whimpered. Lyra and her team of a Toad, a Koopa Troopa, and a Hammer Bro looked towards Bonbon’s Koopa Troopa, Boo and Monty Mole. Bonbon’s team backed up slightly in fear. Yet, as soon as they looked up in the sky, they became excited and pointed towards the sky. Bonbon was in a nosedive as she fell from the black horizon. As she came near the ground, she positioned her body into a five-point position. Afterwards, she fell down onto the ground in a three-point position. She looked at Lyra with an intense stare. Lyra’s face scrunched into a scowl and intensified. No words were spoken. At the beginning of the five-minute mark, the two ponies pushed towards the ball. However, Bonbon’s bulky status as a Power player slowed her down. On the contrary, Lyra’s status as a Playmaker player only allowed her to speed towards the ball. Predictably, Lyra grabbed the ball first. Lyra stood up on her hind legs and allowed her hind cleats to form into durable movement hands. Bonbon, with her face shocked in surprise, went directly towards Lyra. As Bonbon was ready to tackle her, Lyra performed a cartwheel with the hoofball surprisingly maintained between her legs. She jumped above Bonbon and, while in the air, kicked the ball towards her Hammer Bro, who was being chased by a Boo. When the Boo neared towards the Hammer Bro, the Hammer Bro jumped into the air and pulled out a giant hammer. He smashed the ground and sent the Boo flying out of the arena. He screamed through his fangs for his afterlife as he plummeted downwards towards the choppy ocean. The Hammer Bro charged the ball up for a bit. Just as he was ready to perform his skill shot, a Monty Mole rammed himself into the Hammer Bro and sent him flying near the edge. The Hammer Bro’s heart beat uneasily as he saw the steep drop from the cliff. He swallowed the air in his throat and looked back to see that the Monty Mole has the ball. He became livid with anger and started chasing him with an annoying chatter. The Monty Mole moved down towards Lyra’s side of the field. When Lyra’s Koopa Troopa got near him, the Monty Mole dug into the hard earth. The Koopa Troopa looked down into the hole before his eyes met with the increasing brightness of a mole rocketing through the hole. The Koopa Troopa flew upwards from the collision of the Monty Mole. He saw that a Toad approached him. He laughed before he dug into the ground again. The Toad did not fall for this trick and instead moved past the hole. When Monty Mole popped out of the ground, he was surprised to feel nothing brushed against his bulk. When he turned to his left, he saw a Toad that moved more quickly than the time limit he had to react. The Toad performed a slide and charged into the Monty Mole and grabbed the ball in the process. As he had the ball, he ran towards Bonbon’s Kritter, who wore a teal mask and uniform. The Toad performed a flip jump. When the Kritter smashed his claw into the Toad, the ball flew across the goalie box and near Lyra’s Koopa Troopa. Seeing that he had no distractions around him, he held out his foot as it charged with a blue aura. When he finished charging his kick, he unleashed all of the energy in his foot into the ball, transforming it into a shiny white shell with black lines separating the tiles. The tank-sized shell smashed into the Kritter. The impact left the Kritter dazed. The ball flew from the storm of fragments and into the front of Lyra. She went down on all fours and kicked the ball with her forehoof. Because the Kritter was paralyzed, the ball went into the goal unhindered. A lower-pitched horn, different from the one at The Vice, blared, which confirmed the point. Lyra smiled and stood on her hind legs. She looked at her forehooves and moved her ‘fingers’. Looking back at Bonbon, she made an obscene gesture involving her middle finger. Bonbon looked confused at the display before she shrugged it off angrily. At the stands, all of the ponies save for Celestia, Luna and Discord, all looked at each other confused. Celestia and Luna gasped at the barbaric behavior while Discord fell onto the stand laughing. “Discord, that isn’t funny. That gesture is unbelievably rude!” Celestia stated in disgust. “Aww come on Celly, it’s hilarious! There’s nothing funnier than offending a person without the target knowing that they are offended!” Bonbon and Lyra both approached the field. Lyra had a devious smirk on her face, but the fierce fire of competition burned brightly within Bonbon’s eyes. As the ball spawned underneath the hoof of Bonbon, she charged forward immediately. Lyra ran towards Bonbon in an attempt to slide into her. However, Bonbon jumped into the air and landed on the ground using her abdomen. The impact from the splash left a sizeable crater and squashed Lyra. Bonbon kicked the ball over to her Boo. The ball passed over slowly, but it was capable of out speeding Lyra’s Hammer Bro. The pass was successful. The Boo then passed it backwards towards Bonbon’s Koopa Troopa. Lyra’s Koopa Troopa ran towards Bonbon’s Koopa Troopa. The two turtles stood at a face-off. Lyra’s Koopa closed the distance between them, but Bonbon’s Koopa fled into his shell and maneuvered it out of the collision path. The Koopa then kicked the ball into the air and passed it over to Bonbon. She jumped into the air and grabbed it. Lyra just recovered from her injury and saw Bonbon near the goalie’s box. Lyra ran towards her with the intent to take the ball back from her by force. However, the vicious winds stirred and a series of flying debris flooded the field. Lyra heard a very distinct moo and turned to her right. What she saw was something that she had not prepared for: a giant cow that was eating grass was carried over by the wind and heading straight towards her. Her eyes opened as wide as possible, and then some more. She screamed in a high-pitch as the cow smashed into her and took her along into the wind. Lyra then fell out of the course and down the cliff. Bonbon smirked and performed a charge shot. Since the distance was close to the box, she was able to kick the ball into the goal without much interference. The ball zipped past the Kritter before he could have registered the ball’s movement. The horn blared and confirmed the score. Bonbon cheered loudly and approached Lyra’s Koopa Troopa. The Koopa looked a bit suspicious of this action. Unfortunately for him, Bonbon punched him across the face with her forehoof so hard that he was sent flying. Bonbon cheered loudly once again as she savored in the earned score. Lyra was picked up by the wind currents. She gently floated down onto the cliff. She suffered no damage from the fall, but was still shaken by it. She saw that Bonbon managed to score against her, which caused some slight frustration with her. She shrugged it off and walked towards the center of the field. Bonbon had a dreamy expression on her face. Lyra stared into Bonbon’s eyes and wanted to rip that smirk look off of her face. As the ball materialized underneath Lyra’s hoof, the clock began to countdown from three minutes and twenty seconds. Lyra made her first move with a hard kick on the ball, which was passed to her Hammer Bro. She then ran towards the center of Bonbon’s side of the field and became bipedal. As the Hammer Bro kicked the ball to her, Lyra suddenly heard a high-pitched whistling noise, which was proceeded by a giant bob-omb, which fell from the sky and landed on her. The bomb exploded which scorched Lyra over several areas on her body and sent her flying. She landed right inside of Bonbon’s Kritter’s box. As she stood up, she was face to face with the huge goalie. She nervously giggled and sheepishly smiled. “So… you knew what that finger expression was I did earlier, don’t you?” The Kritter threateningly nodded before smacking Lyra across the face. Bonbon’s Boo grabbed the ball and disappeared for a moment. He then reappeared several feet from where he last stood. He passed the ball over to Bonbon, who ran towards Lyra’s side of the field. Lyra’s Koopa Troopa ran towards her. Bonbon made the educated guess of kicking the ball over to her Monty Mole. The Monty Mole shot the ball towards the goal, but the Kritter goalie bounced the ball off of his claws. The ball went straight towards Bonbon. She jumped into the air and kicked it in the attempt to score. Unfortunately for her, the Kritter blocked the ball again and grabbed it. Meanwhile, Lyra’s Toad tackled into Bonbon after she kicked the ball. Bonbon was thrown down to the ground, angry at the Toad who tackled her. She looked to see that she had her Captain’s ability in the item slot. She smiled in an intimidating way. “Well, I don’t know what it is, but fun things happen when these are in play.” After the Kritter kicked the ball into the air to pass it over to Lyra’s Hammer Bro, Bonbon immediately activated her Captain’s ability. Suddenly, a giant, chocolate, luscious Bonbon with the perfect coating of crushed almonds started rolling down the path of the ball. The Hammer Bro couldn’t help but have his mouth water at how sweet the candy looked. Unfortunately for him, it was rolling down his way. He wanted to move, but found that the desire for the delicious sweet only dragged him in closer to the chocolate. He jumped into the slow-moving candy and screamed in delight. He found himself in a sticky situation as the candy was adhesive, but he didn’t care. He was nibbling at the tasty sweet as if it was the first thing in a long time he had to eat. Soon enough, Lyra’s Koopa Troopa and Toad started chasing after the ball of sweet goodness. Lyra saw that her teammates were being distracted and went after them to stop them. When the ball hit the edge of the arena, it exploded into brown goo that was sticky, but tasty. All of Lyra’s team was all caught in the explosion and couldn’t move out. “Well, that takes care of that!” Bonbon stated with a grin. She charged up her kick to the point where she kicked the ball into the air and jumped into the air along with it. Bonbon’s double-hued hair became a straight purple, and her cream coat illuminated. Her uniformed bulked up considerably. She performed a spin kick on the ball, which turned it into five different balls wrapped in baby blue wrappings. The candy-wrapped balls fired down onto the field. The Kritter opened his arms wide. The balls came raining down, but with less speed than maximum. The Kritter punched ball after ball. When the last one came down towards him, he miscalculated his punch and let the ball score. Bonbon’s team scored one goal from the megastrike. The chocolate mess dissipated, and Lyra’s team was covered in a coat of dripping chocolate. Lyra wanted to be mad, but she fell into a more positive mood after she licked the chocolate. “This tastes like Bonbon’s chocolates back home. That chocolate is good!” Lyra skipped over to the center of the field as she dripped in chocolate. Each of her teammates shrugged their shoulders and followed her. Bonbon fell down towards the center of the field and landed in a three-point star pose. The ground shook under her power. Bonbon began to look more feral: her snarl is more beastly and her stare raged with primitive power. Lyra backed up a bit, but held her ground. She returned the snarl. When the hoofball spawned underneath Lyra’s hoof and the clock began the countdown from two minutes and forty seconds, she immediately charged her hoof for a kick. Bonbon stared at Lyra in anger and rushed towards Lyra. Lyra kicked the ball, but it knocked into Bonbon. The force of the strike knocked Bonbon back a good distance. The ball rebounded back to Lyra. She now gained her captain’s ability. Thinking rationally, she zigzagged her way over near the goalie box, where Bonbon’s Kritter resided within. As the Kritter came close, Lyra stood in a bipedal form and cartwheeled over the Kritter. While she was in the air, she kicked the ball over to her Hammer Bro, who fired the ball into the goal with his hammer. The horn blared and both teams are tied with 2-2. Lyra managed to score in five seconds. “That was some strategy that Lyra used to score.” Discord remarked. Celestia looked towards him with a look of curiosity on her face. “It doesn’t look as impressive as anything else I have seen in this game.” She admitted. Discord guffawed a bit before he spoke. “Oh Celly, don’t you know anything? In all of the games so far, each of you ponies were practically killing each other and not caring about the game. But, I understand that it is an after-effect of the chaos. You have the freedom to do whatever you want after all.” Discord said with a grin. “Please cut to the chase Discord. What makes Lyra’s move more impressive?” Celestia stated impatiently. “Oh right. Anyways, despite the fact that chaos is running inside of her veins, she is actually managing to keep her thoughts in check. This is in contrast to her opponent, who is already letting chaos affect her better judgment. Don’t you find it weird at all? I’m a master of weird things, and that is weird by my standards.” Discord sincerely stated. Celestia looked carefully at Lyra and saw that her demeanor is retained. She isn’t exerting unhealthy levels of aggression, and she honestly seems to be enjoying every moment. “I see what you mean now. What do you think is causing this?” “Well Celly, it’s time for the ironic injection of theorizing provided by your friendly neighborhood spirit of chaos. I’ve noticed that Lyra seems much happier after her uniform gave her ‘hands’ so to speak. She keeps going on and on about hands and humans as if it was her life dream. To be working alongside a humanoid alien and hands have probably fulfilled Lyra’s wish.” Celestia curiously looked back at Discord after he said this. “What do you mean by her wish?” Celestia said investigatively. “Well Celly, now it is time to reveal to you the one true bane of chaos that anypony can use: hope. Chaotic energy has no effect on a pony that has strong enough hope. After a pony gains wish fulfillment, then they are filled to the brim with hope. Honestly, it was the biggest reason that I targeted the Elements of Harmony, because they are the ultimate bringers of hope for harmony. It’s why I’m the Dracoequus that sits before you today. All of your hope and faith overpowered my chaotic evil, and I feel like I can use this hope as well.” Discord said almost too seriously. The information added up in Celestia’s head before previous information gathered from this universe hit her hard. “I’m starting to see what you mean now Discord. The reason why me and Luna were fighting so ferverously was because we felt helpless by the laws of this universe. We were all stripped of our power and could do nothing more than to play your game. It felt horrible, and I took my frustration out on my sister. That, in turn, caused her to attack me in retribution. It was just like a mean-spirited prank war. Then, when we came down to see that… other horrible incident that happened recently, each pony practically invited despair into their lives. They played as if they knew they would die. The worst part is that they only regained their hope just as one of them died. The more I think about all this information, the more I’m sure that this place was created to remove any form of hope from ponies.” Celestia stated as she exposed her thoughts. She remained silent for the rest of the game. Meanwhile, the ball spawned underneath Bonbon’s hoof. Lyra had a slight smile on her face as Bonbon charged straight for her. Lyra moved to her right as she let Bonbon go to her Kritter. Her teammates followed in the strategy and let her move unhindered. Bonbon has a large smile on her face as she was going to score. However, a sudden powerful gust picked up on the field. Bonbon was slowly moving to the side. Then, out of nowhere, a dark red tractor was taken by the wind and was plowed into Bonbon. The hard metal smashed against her armor. She screamed in despair as she was taken off of the edge by the foreign object. Lyra shamelessly trotted up to the ball and passed it over to the Hammer Bro. The Hammer Bro took the ball greedily and walked over to the other side of the field. Bonbon’s Koopa Troopa got near the Hammer Bro. At that moment, Lyra activated her captain’s ability. A thousand golden bright notes swarmed the field from Lyra’s horn and locked onto all of the other team around the vicinity of the ball. Each note formed into large hands and gripped the Koopa Troopa. The Koopa Troopa struggled and grunted in order to get out of the hand. The Hammer Bro laughed at the Koopa Troopa and made his way over to the Kritter. He charged his shot and jumped into the air. He threw a barrage of hammers at the Kritter and shot the ball. Bonbon’s Kritter was assaulted by the storm of hammers and couldn’t do anything to stop the ball from going in. The Kritter made an unintelligent grunt due to his frustration. The horn blared and confirmed the score. Lyra was ahead by a point. As Bonbon came back onto the arena by the wind, her anger only intensified as she saw that Lyra had outperformed her so far. “Lyra! I won’t let you win!” Bonbon stated in a harshening voice. Lyra looked towards her with a smile on her face. “You know Bonbon, I’m afraid I won’t let you win. You will lose, and you shall be my aide in studying humans!” Lyra’s reasoning for winning caused the audience to deadpan their facial expressions. Nevertheless, the ball spawned underneath Bonbon’s hoof. Her eyes were filled with murderous rage. As the clock counted down from three minutes, Bonbon jetted towards Lyra with the intent to maim. Lyra stood up on her hind legs and ran towards Bonbon. Bonbon jumped into the air so that she can land on Lyra. Unfortunately for her, Lyra patiently waited for a few seconds. After Bonbon fell down to the ground, Lyra unceremoniously slid into Bonbon and grabbed the ball. Bonbon stared daggers at Lyra as she ran away towards the goal. She could run, but she knew it was hopeless. She was too slow to reach Lyra now. Her Boo ran after Lyra in her place. Even though he wasn’t a hitter like Bonbon or even Koopa Troopa was, he is the fastest character on the team. Lyra looked back and looked displeased at seeing the undead creature tail her. Then, her Toad came out of nowhere and tackled into the Boo. Lyra smiled as she felt unhindered by pressure. Just as she was about to kick the ball, she heard a thunderous roar shaking up the field. She looked back, only to come across a familiar boulder of chocolate that headed towards her. She earnestly wanted to resist it, but she felt radiant warmth emanating from the succulent candy. She jumped into it and took a bite of the candy. Instead of the sweet taste of nostalgia, Lyra’s taste buds were met with the bitter flavor of misery. She wanted to vomit. Then, she realized that she was stuck onto the ball. She couldn’t do anything to move out of it. Ultimately, she ended up stuck in a gooey explosion of the bitter chocolate. The ball flew all the way over towards Bonbon, who had a large evil smirk on her face. “Better luck next time Lyra.” She stated snarkily. She was nearby Lyra’s Kritter. Rather than just shoot, she passed the ball over to her Monty Mole, who then passed it over to the Boo. The Boo charged his shot by keeping the ball in his mouth. He was a fair distance from the goalie. When he shot, he turned invisible and was launched alongside the ball. The goalie tried to grasp the ball, but the ball was ethereal. He couldn’t touch it, and the Boo scored for Bonbon’s team. Lyra began to taste the bitter chocolate that seeped into her mouth. It tasted of a root of a rough, foul herb. Just the flavor made Lyra begin to cry. “How could something that was so sweet now taste so bitter? It’s foul, it’s nasty. This isn’t the same Bonbon I know…” In the midst of her tears, her teammates flocked towards her and hugged her as they sensed her distress. Lyra was surprised by the actions of her teammates. Computer-coded programs that had the capacity for empathy struck Lyra in her heart. They weren’t just comrades, but they were a part of her. She was comforted by the care of her teammates and stood back up on her hooves/feet/hands. She now knew what she must do. She had a serious look on her face as she walked towards the center of the stadium. Bonbon still had the face that most ponies would consider abominable: her eyes were opened in a way that an obviously evil stereotypical anime villain would look. She had the most frightening smile on her face. Worst of all was that her mane was frizzled with strands of hair out of place. This didn’t intimidate Lyra. Lyra’s eyes were filled with a certain magical index of determination that most ponies wish they can have. Bonbon laughed. “Did you enjoy the chocolate I gave you? It was made from my emotions. Taste the bitterness of them as you wallow in the same despair as I did!” Bonbon yelled out. Lyra was unfazed by her voice. “You aren’t the Bonbon I know. The real Bonbon would laugh at me when I am down. The real Bonbon would still tolerate me and my passion for anthropology even if she gets angry. But most importantly, the real Bonbon would craft the tastiest chocolates unimaginable.” Lyra pointed to Bonbon with a powerful energy and a resolved glint in her eyes. “The real Bonbon would never mix her work with her feelings. I will save you from what you have become, even if I have to beat you down to a pulp just to do it.” Bonbon broke down in crazed laughter. “You really think that you can stop me so easily Lyra? You’ll be beaten down to a pulp when I am through with you!” Bonbon hysterically said. The ball spawned underneath Lyra’s hoof. The clock ticked down from the one minute mark. As she moved into position, Bon Bon charged at her like a rampaging rabies-infested dog. Lyra knew that she couldn’t dodge it this time because she would’ve expected that. So, she waited. She waited until the front force of the impact would collide with her. “Come on Lyra, I thought you wanted to win! I thought you wanted to save me! You can’t do either of those if you let me hit you like the way you are doing now!” Bonbon mocked. Lyra stood on her hind legs again and kicked the ball towards her Toad. The Toad caught the ball successfully. Bonbon still charged forward and tackled Lyra with everything. A few cracks were audible and Lyra fell into a surge of pain. She was sent flying back a bit and landed on the ground face-first. She would have to sit the next few seconds out, but she trusted her Toad with performing what she couldn’t. The Toad ran towards the corner of Bonbon’s side of the field and charged his foot with blue energy. Bonbon and Monty Mole chased after the Toad. They were too late when the Toad fired a fireball in the form of the hoofball, which collided with the Kritter. When the Kritter blocked it, his hands were caught on fire. He bounced the ball back from his burning hands. Bonbon’s Boo got a hold of the ball and ran straight towards Lyra’s side of the field. Lyra struggled to get up and successfully stood on all fours. She ran towards the Boo as she knew that he would prove to be confounding variable in saving Bonbon. She got near the Boo and tackled right into him and knocked him off of the stadium for extra measure. She spit out a tooth and a small amount of blood from her mouth. She ran forwards as Bonbon tackled into her again. The impact caused the crack from before to become more audible. After Bonbon took the ball from Lyra’s possession, she was suddenly tripped over by a red shell. Lyra exerted all of her force and moved towards the ball. She successfully got ahold of the ball and passed it over to her Hammer Bro. Everything became bullet time as the ball got near the Hammer Bro. When he shot it with his hammer, the ball looked like it would have gone in. Unfortunately, Bonbon’s Kritter blocked the ball in his fiery frenzy. The ball was bounced off from his hands and was thrown towards Lyra’s Koopa Troopa. The Koopa Troopa charged the ball a bit with his energy before he kicked towards the Kritter. The Kritter’s episode of intense heat was over and he caught it without much of a problem. He threw it over to Bonbon’s Koopa Troopa. Just as the ball was in his possession, he found himself suddenly surrounded by an ensemble of musical notes that came from Lyra’s horn. The Koopa panic as he knew what would happen. He was grabbed by the hand of music and had the life squeezed out of him. Lyra grabbed the ball and began to charge it. Bonbon, her Monty Mole and her Boo all ran towards Lyra. Unfortunately for them, Lyra’s Koopa Troopa, Toad and Hammer Bro came in time and knocked them off of the cliff. Lyra smiled and kicked the ball into the air. She jumped into the air and rocketed towards the ball. As she made her zenith over the ball, she was filled with a radiant energy that changed her appearance slightly. She looked like a shining humanoid and was dressed in her uniform. Her eyes gave off a divine glow. She kicked the ball to its side using her long leg. The ball was split into six balls firing at rapid speed. The balls took the form of golden musical notes. The Kritter was distressed by this. As a result, he was unprepared for how strange they moved. He caught one ball, but the five other balls made it passed him. The horn blared and confirmed the megastrike kick for Lyra. There were only twenty seconds left in the game. As Lyra looked around for Bonbon, she heard a series of screams coming from outside the cliff. She limped over to the edge and found that Bonbon had completely missed the wind current that would have kept her alive. Bonbon was in free fall as she screamed out of fear. Lyra panicked. She knew that there were only jagged rocks down this island. She wanted to jump down and be with Bonbon. She was her best friend, and the only one that had the tolerance to stay around her, even with her obsession with humans. Lyra shrugged off the despair of death and ran over the cliff. She jumped down the cliff. She saw that her uniform and Bonbon’s uniform began to dissipate. She could see the yellow energy from each of their bodies leave in a wisp. Lyra performed a nosedive and skipped the safety current. All the ponies in the audience gasped in fear. “What is Lyra doing!?” Doctor Whooves screamed. “She knows that she couldn’t survive that fall! Discord, do something!!!” Discord was busy using a wooden pick to remove any stray grains of popcorn from his teeth. Lyra made it down to Bonbon, who wasn’t able to do anything. Lyra wrapped her hooves around her body. Bonbon was surprised by this seemingly suicidal act. She stopped screaming. “Lyra… why did you jump off? I was a terrible friend to you. I practically insulted you! You should’ve just let me die and be revived again!” Bonbon reasoned. Lyra closed her eyes and shook her head. “I said that I would save you from yourself, even if I have to plummet through the maws of death just to do so.” Bonbon sighed in a strange combination of comfort and fear. “Please Bonbon, close your eyes. If we die together, then I should be the one to see how we die. I don’t want to give you the burden of seeing yourself die.” Lyra humbly stated. Bonbon cried as she realized just how much Lyra cared for her. “No Lyra. I don’t want you to take it all for yourself. I’ll open my eyes. If we die, then we die as equals and best friends.” Lyra knew that Bonbon would stay with her decision, so she let her open her eyes. She saw that the stormy seas and stalagmites were breathtakingly beautiful. The howling winds sounded like beautiful music. They accepted their fates. Just as they fell down towards the stalagmites, they disappeared. ___________________________________________________________________________________ Within the infirmary, Octavia spoon fed a disgruntled Vinyl Scratch a bowl of orange soup. Vinyl Scratch laid on the bed with tubes inside of her body. “Tavi, I’m fine. Stop treating me like a baby!” Vinyl Scratch stated. Octavia gently continued feeding her. “Vinyl Scratch, you had difficulty moving your forehooves. You don’t have your magic to levitate whatever you want to eat towards your mouth. To top it all off, you still are seriously injured from our match. Now, I don’t want you to do anything you would regret doing to yourself. Trust me, I’ve seen ponies who have accidently ended their lives just because they did a basic action horribly.” Vinyl Scratch huffed and opened her mouth. She didn’t want to disagree with her best friend about this. Just as she was being fed, two separate flashes appeared in the air. One flash dropped Lyra onto a bed and the other flash dropped Bonbon into a seat. Vinyl Scratch spit out her soup in surprise and covered Octavia in foodstuff. “Charming Vinyl, just charming.” Octavia took out a napkin and wiped the soup off of her face. As she looked around, she was surprised to see that Lyra and Bonbon were there. “Hey Lyra, Bonbon, I saw the match!” Vinyl Scratch happily stated. When Lyra stirred a bit, she looked towards Vinyl Scratch and Octavia. “That was some sick stuff you did back there. I can’t believe that you jumped off!” Lyra and Bonbon were confused. Neither of them saw Vinyl Scratch or Octavia in the floating stands. “How did you see our match?” Lyra stated curiously. Octavia grabbed a remote from nowhere and pressed the red button on it. It revealed a hologram of Thunder Island. It was so vividly detailed that one could possibly feel the rain on the hologram. “I and Vinyl watched your game through this service in the infirmary. It was the next best thing, considering the fact that Vinyl Scratch can’t move much.” Octavia stated. “I would’ve gone out there and enjoyed the sights. Man, those wind storms looked awesome!” Vinyl Scratch stated. She moaned in disappointment and threw her hooves into the air. A pain reflex triggered in her forelegs and caused Vinyl Scratch to wince. It was visible to all the ponies because she didn’t have her sunglasses on. Octavia smiled and went over to where she was previously bedded in. She pulled out a pair of sunglasses with purple frames and put them over Vinyl’s eyes. “You held onto these glasses?” Octavia nodded. “I wouldn’t want you to leave your favorite pair of sunglasses out in the open. As we went to the teleporting tiles, I looked back and grabbed them. It would’ve been a shame to have them thrown away like that.” Vinyl Scratch hugged Octavia with a sheer amount of force. “Thank you Tavi! Thanks for holding onto them! I wouldn’t know what I would’ve done without my favorite set of shades!” Vinyl Scratch said. “Umm, Vinyl, you’re crushing me again!” Octavia said in bated breath. Vinyl Scratch’s grip lightened up before she sheepishly smiled. Bonbon looked around the infirmary and looked confused. “Wait, nopony told us how we even got in here! We were plummeting to our deaths and now we are here in the infirmary. Why!?” She screamed. “Why, it’s because I moved you here out of harm’s way!” A disembodied voice stated. Discord teleported into the room with smoke effects. “Oh great, him again.” Bonbon said with no enthusiasm. Discord slithered near her and stood up. “Why Bonbon, is that what you say to the spirit that saved your life?” He said. “If it were up to me, I would’ve let the two of you fall down those stalagmites. Unfortunately, that really wouldn’t look good on my part. So, I brought you here instead.” He said with an unnerving honestly. “Wait, you were just going to let us fall!?” Bonbon screamed in anger. Discord turned to Lyra and ignored Bonbon. “What you did was completely random and could’ve gotten you killed!” He scolded as he pointed his finger towards Lyra. She looked at him with fearful eyes. “I like that in a pony. Nice job!” Discord gave two thumbs up while fireworks that had a thumb flashed in yellow powder. Lyra smiled at Discord’s approval. “Now, did your hands lead to the fact that you weren’t corrupted by chaotic power?” Lyra had a confused expression. “Huh?” “I mean, when compared to Bonbon’s monstrous change in attitude, you still retained your thoughts. Why?” Discord seriously stated. “Well, it was because I finally got to play with Bonbon. We finally got to do something we both enjoyed. It didn’t take long before everything went horribly. But, would I give up? No, I felt that there was a chance to save Bonbon, and I won’t leave her to suffer a terrible fate.” Discord nodded as he understood what Lyra said to him. He warped out of the room without anything being said. Bonbon was still somewhat angry with him. “Geez, he first tells us that he saves us, and then tells us that he would rather let us die, then he gets information out of you and he just leaves? What kind of monster would do that!? What can possibly go wrong now!” She stated. Lyra smirked. “You know Bonbon, I technically got five points with a megastrike before the game ended. I remember that you told me you would be my aide in researching humans.” Bonbon’s eye twitched. She hoped that Lyra wouldn’t remember. Lyra laughed before she felt a sharp pain in her ribs and coughed. “Easy there Lyra. I hit you really hard, remember? You should take it easy now.” Bonbon said as she rushed over to Lyra’s side. She pulled the sheet from underneath the bed and draped it over Lyra’s body. Then, she smiled. “You got to get your rest if want to continue being Equestria’s best anthropologist. And what good is the best anthropologist if she doesn’t have her own aide to help her?” She stated almost enthusiastically. Lyra grinned and gave Bonbon a tight hug. “I have a feeling that I will sooner or later regret saying this.” Bonbon deadpanned. Octavia and Vinyl Scratch giggled at the rather adorable hug. The engine room of the ship was as dark as it can be. The only light to be seen was from the electricity the occasionally crackled. From this engine room, a dark electronic voice was heard. “I cannot believe that Discord would dare save those two. If I ever want to be restored, then I have to make sure that the next time ponies play, it ends up in a death.”