The True Ending
Pierce Network slowly walked up to the back door of Canterlot High. The sun was still halfway behind the horizon, the golden sphere inching its way up into the sky.
He wheezed as he stretched his arm to his coat pocket to retrieve his newly constructed phone, unlocking the screen to get to his hacks. His other hand was tucked into his coat, where it rested on the grip of the pistol he had hidden in there. While he did not expect to meet any kind of threat on the way, as he had not announced his return in any way at all, it was safer to be prepared for anything.
Though, if it did come to a fight, he wasn’t likely to get out of it alive. He was still recovering from his injuries and he still had quite the difficulty in breathing. Still, he managed to slip into the school without incident. It was far too early for students to be here, so he would have uninterrupted access to his computer. The files he needed to upload were all on his phone, and he would have liked to get them online sooner, but there was no internet connection at his hideout due to it being over a decade of disrepair, and he didn’t trust any other connection. His school computer was the only system he would feel safe uploading anything on, after his home one had been trashed.
He hoped to make his work quick, wanting to disappear before the first students arrived, or worse, Mirror Match or Ebony Wings. He began mapping out his plan in his head as he walked down the hall, a hand already going to his chest as he breathed.
Get in, upload the data, get out before anyone could see him.
Over the last few weeks, he had gathered a lot of information about the two women. Some of it was disturbing enough to give him nightmares. And he didn’t dream.
If everything he had found about these monsters was true, then he had a lot more to worry about if they found out what he was about to do.
He knew the only options left to him. If he uploaded this information, he would have nowhere left to go. They were going to hunt him down for the rest of his life either until they found him, or until someone else were to find them.
Pierce had heard stories of monster hunters all across different myths and folklore. Ebony Wings and Mirror Match, if the stories held out, had faced such hunters before. If they were still around today, there was always the chance that monster hunters still roamed the world in search of such prey.
However, regardless if they still existed or not, he had already prepared himself for the worst, deleting any information he had to anyone, including Morning Blade and Keila. No one else was going to die because of his actions. Not again.
What mattered now was getting to his computer and uploading his data as quickly as he could.
He hurried as fast as he could down the empty hallways, until he saw the familiar sight that was his classroom door.
He was about to turn the handle when he noticed something through the small window that was set in the door.
There was someone already inside, sitting on one of the swivel chairs and idly spinning themselves around like it was the first time they were ever sitting in one.
He didn’t think any student would be this early, and he didn’t even recognize this one. She was wearing a white jacket over a dark colored t-shirt with a smiley face on it and a short green skirt. Her curly blue hair was tied into a low ponytail, and she continued to spin on the chair, paying no attention to Pierce. Maybe it was because her eyes were closed.
He checked his watch to make sure it was right. It read 5 AM, too early for a student to be here. Much too early.
Sighing, he took his hand off the his pistol and straightened his coat. It was just a kid; there was no need to be so highly strung. There was no way Ebony Wings or Mirror Match would be able to shrink themselves, even with all their powers.
Pushing open the door with his shoulder, Pierce entered his classroom. The teenager’s eyes snapped open and she got off the chair, standing up, one hand holding an unreasonably large tote bag and the other straightening her skirt.
“Oh, Mr. Pierce!” the girl chirped in a high, musical voice. “You’re back!”
“Right… Just for a little bit.” Pierce stalked in and placed a hand on his desk to steady himself as he took some time to breathe. “And who might you be?”
“I’m new,” the girl said impishly. “And there were rumors you’d be coming back today, so the whole class got together and got you some presents. Look!”
“Uh huh…” Pierce raised an eyebrow and pulled up his chair closer. He had told no one that he was coming here today and he had only planned to be here to upload his data, then leave.
Pierce’s eyes ventured down to his desk, where a sparkling new keyboard was connected to his computer and next to it was a box of the caramel sticky candies he liked to buy from the vending machine.
“How, uh… thoughtful…” Pierce looked back at the new girl. Something about all this wasn’t feeling right. And he never thought his homeroom class would be so kind as to buy him a new keyboard. Things weren’t adding up too well.
“We had a bit of a fundraiser while you were gone, so we replaced that worn out keyboard of yours and got you a little something sweet. Do you like it?” the girl leaned closer to him, near enough for him to smell her designer perfume.
Pierce surveyed the gifts. While he wasn’t exactly happy that the class had gone and replaced his keyboard with his permission, he decided that in the end their good intentions meant more to him than a pet peeve, although, he still found this all very weird.
Booting up his computer, Pierce opened the box of candy and discreetly booted up an app on his phone. Pushing aside the last few scraps of paper, he turned back to the girl, who was watching him expectantly, both hands immersed in her tote bag. The app he had opened was one he had designed himself, which was capable of scanning for chemicals of a high toxicity rate, an example being poison. The girl and everything about her didn’t seem right and Pierce wanted to be sure he wasn’t just being paranoid.
An thin blue beam shone out of his phone’s camera lens, bathing the open box of candy in its light. Moments later, his phone beeped once. It was clean.
Looks clear. Maybe I’m just off my engines and I’ve overthought all this.
“Why are you even… this early, kid?” Pierce sat down on his chair and grunted as one of his muscles seemed to punch him in the chest.
The girl shrugged, but still had the smile on her face. “Couldn’t wait to see you, Mr. Pierce.”
“Uh huh.”
While he waited for his computer to get to the login screen, the girl curtseyed and waltzed out of his classroom with her tote bag, leaving him alone. He sighed and reached for his phone, syncing it up with his computer. Pierce didn’t know how much more time he would have. No one was supposed to know he had returned to school. Whoever the girl was, news was going to spread that he had returned and it was only a matter of time before it reached the monsters. However, at least they would be too late. By tomorrow, they would realize their mistake, but it would be too late to stop him. No one could stop the internet.
As he watched his computer screen shift to his login screen, he looked around the classroom. This would likely be his last time in here. He would miss the place, with its windowless walls and its high speed internet connection, the payment courtesy of Principal Celestia. He still wanted to check on her, to see if she had gotten out alright and unharmed, like Mirror Match had said, but first, he had a job to do.
As he waited, there was a faint sound from outside his room, the door of which was still slightly ajar from the girl’s departure. It sounded like a snick of metal sliding across metal. It reminded Pierce of his Assassin days, of a blade leaving its sheath. But then he caught sight of a yellow eye and blue hair peeking at him through the crack. Then she noticed him looking and disappeared.
“Hmph.”
Pierce logged in to his account, and began to pull up a plethora of social media sites. MyStable, Ewetube, even YourSpace. He was just about to start signing in when he felt his stomach growl.
Right… I didn’t eat breakfast.
He had been up all night compiling his data and he hadn’t had dinner either. Seeing as the candy wasn’t poisoned, Pierce decided to give it a try, keeping an eye on the door at the same time. To his surprise, the candy was even tastier than the ones he got from the vending machine. He set his phone to sync with the computer and began to eat the caramel treats.
Pierce had reached the bottom of the box by the time his phone finished connecting to his computer. He cracked his knuckles deviously. It was almost time. He was halfway through typing his username when he realized that his fingers were still coated with a thin layer of caramel from his little binge. Oddly, the keyboard remained as pristine as ever.
“Must be nonstick,” Pierce grunted with glad surprise. “Just means no more cleaning up for me.” He licked his fingers clean and continued to type in his username, ‘VigilanteFox1337”.
But the moment his fingertips brushed the ‘3’ key, Pierce’s chest gave a great, sharp throb of pain. The computer teacher gasped, clasping at his ribs frantically. At first, he thought it was his lungs acting up again, but the pain did not go away, rather, it worsened with every beat of his heart. Pierce gasped for breath, his phone and computer forgotten. He had to upload the files. Fast.
Reaching for the keyboard again, he typed in the last ‘3’, followed by the ‘7’, but his fingers failed him as he went to type in the password, the digits shaking too much to pick out individual keys anymore.
“N-No… Not yet…”
There was the sound of his classroom door opening, and with great difficulty Pierce turned to see who it was. It was the girl again, from before. He knew there was something off about her, but he hadn’t taken the right precautions it seems.
“Well, well, well,” she said softly, turning around and locking the door, pulling down the blind to the window for good measure. “Seems you weren’t as smart as they say.”
“What… who are you?” Pierce clutched his chest, feeling it was harder and harder to breathe. “What did you do… to me?”
A razor thin smile crept across her face as she stepped over Pierce, making straight for his computer instead. She reached into her tote bag and snapped on a pair of latex gloves before inserting a silver memory card into his PC. Through the haze of pain, Pierce could only watch with horror as whatever program that girl had loaded began to erase every last speck of data on the hard drive. The screen flashed several times, its death throes casting eerie shadows on the wall before it finally reverted back to its original, unused state.
“No…” He couldn’t keep his head up anymore, resting it on the cool tiled floor. He hit himself mentally for not turning around and leaving when he saw the girl in his room. He should’ve known he couldn’t risk it now this late in the game.
“You know,” the girl said, turning to face him as she unplugged the memory card and put it back into her bag. “I was really hoping you’d take the bait. It would have been a lot messier if I’d had to stab you.” She pulled a long silver knife from her bag and licked the blade. As she opened her mouth, Pierce could see a pair of fangs protruding from her gums.
His eyes widened in recognition. She was one of them. One of those monsters. He should’ve realized there could be more of them. Now, it was too late and his plans had failed completely. At least he had erased his phone’s data. That way, no one else was going to die. One was more than enough.
The girl hummed to herself as she methodically searched his desk, cabinets, and finally, the teacher himself, taking his thumb drives, memory cards, phones, and even his watch, wallet, and earpiece. All these she put into her tote bag, finally ending with his gun.
“Poor Pierce Network,” the girl cooed sinisterly as she reached behind a desk and retrieved his old keyboard. “So paranoid, so untrusting of even his own class, but never once suspecting that with every keystroke you were bringing your own end closer.” She tutted and swapped out the new keyboard for his old one. “You really shouldn’t lick your fingers while using a computer.
“Now, as much as I would like to watch the poison twist you, I have places to be today.” The girl wagged a finger at Pierce and blew him a kiss. “The queen and her kin send their regards.”
With her work done, the girl slipped the replacement keyboard into her bag and made for the door. In the fading cone of darkness, Pierce heard the door unlock, open, and close. He couldn’t feel his body anymore. Only the sound of his own, labored breathing rang strong in his ears. No… there was one other sound. That of a female singing in the distance. The girl.
“This day has been just perfect,
The kind of day of which I’ve dreamed since I was small,
The queen’s enemies will fall,
At her feet they will all crawl,
Just before we execute them all!”
And then Pierce closed his eyes and never opened them again.
The girl stepped into the hall with a skip in her step. She had done it. The recusant had been all taken care of, and not a single drop of blood had been spilt. Not like she had wanted any to spill. This was one of the few times she had been allowed to roam free on her own, with the other times being the same thing as today, just that her target had never shown up and she had wasted her time waiting.
Perhaps she should’ve sat down on one of those spinning chairs before today. It would’ve certainly done its job of entertaining all the times she had come to this place for nothing.
The plan hadn’t been perfect and there were likely going to be plenty of questions from other people, but at least she had followed it as she had been ordered. Plus, being out on her own was exciting enough.
There were still so many new things to see on the way out, including a poster of some kind of game coming up. It looked like it was painted and it looked fun.
Exiting the building, she saw the long black car she had come in, waiting by the pavement, its tinted windows absorbing the morning sun’s light. Looking around carefully to make sure no one else was watching, the girl opened the door and slipped inside.
It was cool and dark inside the limo, just like how she knew her mother liked it.
“Is it done?” a female voice came from the darkness, the opposite side of where the girl was seated.
“Yes, mother,” she answered as she buckled herself in. “You won’t have to worry about that man again.”
“And what of the evidence?” the female voice asked.
“All taken care of,” the girl replied, holding up her bag. “It’s all in here. Every last bit that I could find. Oh and the keyboard too, if you still want it. I thought I’d take it so no one else gets poisoned accidentally.”
“Excellent thinking,” the female voice said, leaning forward and looming out of the shadows to reveal a charcoal black face framed by teal hair. Her green, slit-pupiled eyes sparkled like emeralds.
“You’ve done me very proud today, my little changeling,” Queen Chrysalis crooned, sitting back again and suffusing the inside of the car with love.
And the girl soaked it in, feeling immeasurably happy.
Just perfect indeed.
~The End~
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I knew it wasn't over! Damn... that was dark though. Chrysalis and her family got Pierce in the end, huh? Are you going to do a story on what happens next? I'd be super interested to see that! Excellent story!
Been a while so i don't quite remember everything, but vaguely. But noooooooooo
Who's going to teach computer now?? I hope Twilight and the girls teach them a good lesson for Pierce !!! Hehe might not be the best of guys but he's still a teacher ther
I hope whatever's next is goood too!!
I didn't like Pierce very much, but in the end, he had nothing. He failed, he lost, and then he lost, and then he lost again. There was no dawn after the dark, just more and more dark, and that's why I've changed my thumbs from up to down. I do hope to see more in this universe, having followed it since it was first branched from ARBW, but this particular story took the interest and any possibility of satisfaction away with that ending.
8387340
You know, normally I'd be put out by a downvote, but you had the decency and honesty to explain why, and I like that. Thanks for reading my story anyway, even if it wasn't to your tastes.
If I'm not asking too much, maybe you can check out my other story, Leap of Faith. It's not nearly as dark as this one.
8387360
I already read it - and upvoted it - before this one came out.
Aww, a happy ending.
Chryssie wins!
Poor Pierce, he lost before he even entered the game.
Are there any other stories of yours featuring changelings? Especially the best bughorse, I mean bughuman Chryssie?
8387777
Bit of a spoiler, but there are mentions and appearances of Chrysalis and her family in all of my stories. You just need to look hard enough.
9189963
Well, not much, really. This is, in all honesty, not possibly the best laid plan there is. It's just the first one that came to mind and she's too desperate to try a longer, more intricate plan that might have a higher success rate.
This story is definately an interesting tale.
It's more of an in-betweem plot for what's to come. Interesting but it comes with a whole set of problems.
Pierce wasn't that interesting to me. He was just the guy that does tech and betrayed the Assasins. We didn't get the chance to see what made him tick. Only that he wanted to save his skin and Principal Celestia and stop Mirror. There isn't even a scene where he saves others and redeems himself like what Frigid did. His death at the end didn't feel that impactful to me in the process. I do hope A Long Way To Fall does his character justice. Only the introduction of Chrysalis's daughter caught my attention at the end and that makes me look forward to the sequel.
Also, Principal Celestia kind of got sidelined near the end after the reunion with the Dazzlings and Mirror. Strange considering the whole entire story started with her kidnapping. At least show her reuniting with Luna!
But there are some good parts here as well.
I love the character interactions of Mirror and Celestia. With Celestia giving her advice to Mirror. Very interesting diversion from all the evil happenings between chapters. Whether good or bad would come what Celestia imparted to Mirror... Time would tell.
And one thing I found most interesting was the lesson learnt here. Going at it alone can only lead you so far. Pierce isolated himself from everyone and only started contacting his old acquaintances out of desperation with the threat of death looming over him. Mirror from both A Leap of Faith and here, tried to sew the seeds of chaos all by her lonesome and failed again and again despite seemingly having all the cards. Only one of the two characters learnt their lesson and it's not the "good" guy.
While normally an ending where the villain wins always piss me off. Not so much here surprisingly and that's saying something coming from me.
Now I wonder which I should read next... "Age of Kings?", "A Long Way To Fall?", "Servant of the Queen?" or
"A Rift Between Worlds?"
Maybe I should take leap of faith and see what story I'll read next.
This story def lived up to my expectations, and while I wish more had been done with the whole Celestia kidnapping stuff, I'm still happy with what we got.
Good work.
10437210
Glad you enjoyed our work! Feel free to read and comment on the rest of the Continuity!
Double trolled. Kind of a waste, Pierce is interesting.
Another one down. Aside from my disappointment over the ending, this story has been bloody fantastic. I was left wanting more Celestia and Mirror Match interactions, but I think what we got was acceptable.
The action was well written and thrilling, despite the power of Mirror Match, it never felt like they stood no chance.
This whole story was fantastic and so much fun to read, I wish I had more to say but I don’t. It was good, I don’t know what else to say.
Don’t know what I’m going to read next, but I decided I am going to read Servant of the Queen since I’ve been told the NSFW material is marked by chapter. Hoping those chapters are non-essential or there’s a recap after the fact. It won’t be next though, I’ll figure out what to read next tonight.
Tomorrow or sometime this week, starting this one. I have very pleasant memories of this fic, so I'm extremely excited. Soon™️ 👀
Poor Pierce. I'll give my thoughts later, after I do it for Rift Between Worlds. Soon™️ I promise
I really enjoyed this one, but I did notice a few more flaws this time. I think the weakest part of the story are the interactions between the imposter and Celestia. It never really.. reads like Celestia to me, it just feels like it's own character with Celestia's name attached. Psithyra also feels really different in personality in this fic and I'm not talking about her transformation into a queen. There's something off about it, I think she's just missing some of that edge, but maybe that was an intentional choice to go along with the story.
Despite that though, this story is great. I'm still upset that Pierce dies because he's such a great character. I've even developed my own voice for him in my head as a disgruntled old man. He's a typical boomer through and through and he's really fun to read, and especially someone to lead a story. The little action we got was very well written, and the overall pacing and development over the plot was pretty perfect if you would ask me.
I still very much highly recommend this story.
This story made zero sense to me even after reading the other stories......