Sometimes They Call Me Super

by KorenCZ11

Kaiju I - Sachiel - The Day the Goddess Rested (part 1)

Applejack

---

“AAH!” My scream carried through the nightmare as Ah sat straight up in bed.

“What, what, what!?” followed it and suddenly Goose was standin’ over me like some kinda cat protectin’ it’s kittens. Oddly enough, there was a weird, upward runnin’ spine or somethin’ along his back, and his eyes looked like somethin’ out of a dinosaur monster movie. It was… intimidatin’. Ah started ta breathe, and after a few moments, Goose’s body returned ta normal and he got off the bed.

“What are ya doin’ in here?” Ah asked, too tired ta make sure Ah sounded irritated. He ran a hoof down his back and then looked at me. Honestly, he looked just as tired as Ah did.

“I was concerned. Yesterday kinda ended on a bad note and I just wanted to make sure you were okay. Judging by the screaming though, I’d say you’re not. Was it a nightmare?” Ah took in a deep breath and tried ta rub some of the sand outta my eyes. Yeah, one hell of a nightmare. It was all so clear. Every detail, every second that passed by… Ah wonder… was it really a nightmare and not… some kinda vision...

“Goose, what time is it?” Ah asked as Ah checked the color of the castle walls. After bein’ here so often lately, if ya pay attention, ya can tell the time dependin’ on how close ta dark violet the castle is. At the moment, it was somewhere around the indigo range, and this far down in the castle that meant it was still early in the mornin’ at least.

“Uh… seven forty five. What happened?” he asked as he put my phone back on the end table. Why? Why are ya so concerned about me? Every time Ah look at ya, Ah always feel like Ah’m forgettin’ somethin’, and it’s just drivin’ me crazy. Ah shook my head and scratched at my temples. Whatever, that’s not important now. We need ta figure out how ta get the city evacuated. Ah will not let a bloodbath like that happen in my lifetime.

“Ah’ll give ya the details later, but the short of it is that Ah think Ah’ve had a vision or somethin’. Go wake every pony up and uh… talk ta Rarity fer me… We need ta figure out how ta evacuate the city before noon.” He stared at me fer what felt like an hour until finally he started toward the door. He made it right ta the knob and then turned back around and sat back by the bed.

“I can’t do that. Before we do anything, and I mean anything at all, I need you to tell me what your deal is. You’ve been a little more than a slave driver all week, you nearly killed your friends on two occasions, and would have had I not been there, and you won’t talk to anypony about it. I get that you’ve been through some rough shit, I’m pretty sure we all have, but this whole ‘lone wolf’ thing has got to stop. Let me in. Or if not me, then at least one of them. Tell somepony what the problem is or we’ll never really be a team. We can’t help you if you don’t trust us.” Goddess damn it, do ya really have ta do this now? Ah let out a breath. Maybe Ah should just tell him. What changes if he knows, really? Would he think any less of me? Would they think any less of me? How would Ah know before hoof? Ah can predict what they’ll do in a fight, but Ah don’t know how they think. How could Ah if Ah never talk ta any of 'em? Dream, vision, future ta come or whatever, Fluttershy was right. Ah don’t know them, and Ah act like they’re baggage… Liabilities…

“Ah… Ah’ve always had these… horrible nightmares. They started when Ah was real young, probably a little after my mom died, but my family used ta sleep together, so when Ah was around them, the nightmares would go away. But… ever since then, or the day Ah watched my dad die, night after night, Ah’d watch that scene play out over and over again. Each time it’d be more detailed and clear, the noise always louder and louder ta the point that Ah’d wake up screamin’. The depression and the fear that it might happen again ta somepony else close ta me drove me toward suicide, but Ah could never get the job done. It went on like this fer months until my uncle caught me and had me sent away in an attempt ta get over it. Fer a while there it worked, and when Ah came home, the nightmares were few and far between. But more recently, they’ve gotten worse and closer ta real. The nightmare about dad keeps comin’ back, but ta add ta that, Ah’m startin’ ta have these dreams where Ah watch the rest of my family and y’all die in horrific ways.

Ah… Ah don’t think it would be so bad if… if it weren’t so real, ya know? After that thin’ with Synchro, it’s always been the same story. A mirror shows up, a monster follows, and it turns out that we can’t stop it. And then… it kills everypony. Ripped apart in claws, eaten alive and cut in half by teeth, blasted by some kinda energy and left as nothin’ more than a shadow on the wall. And… and every time, all Ah can do is watch. The worst ones are always when the monster talks because… the thin’s they say, they’re always what Ah’m most afraid of. ‘If you were stronger, this wouldn’t have happened.’ ‘You couldn’t save your friends from me, how could you save anypony?’ ‘If it were your father, he wouldn’t have lost.’ ‘What a shame. To watch a hero fall when everything was riding on her.’

Ah always get so close, there’s always a feelin’ like there’s still hope right before somethin’ happens and Ah’m incapacitated and made ta watch. The faceless ponies in the background always leave rivers of blood, and if Ah make it far enough, sometimes Ah’ll get burnt away in the Princesses’ light. The nightmares they… they just never stop…” Ah could feel that Ah was shakin’ just from rememberin’ it all, every horrible nightmare, every death that has me wake up in a cold sweat. Goose sighed and shook his head.

“You idiot. Everypony has those fears. The only reason we make it through the night is because have somepony to rely on and share those fears with. Bottling it all up and keeping to yourself only makes it worse. I hate to be a broken record, but how could we ever help you though this if you didn’t tell us what the problem was in the first place? Maybe this is a new concept for you, even though it shouldn’t be, but you have friends. If we didn’t care about you as much as you seem to care about us, do you really think Rarity would have gotten as angry as she did yesterday?” Ah must’ve lost a tear or somethin’ while Ah was talkin’ because he wiped somethin’ wet off my cheek and gave me a hug. “If nothing else, I will never leave your side again.” He let go and headed toward the door. “I’m going to go wake up the others. You should call Rarity.” And then he shut the door behind him.

Why…? Why does this all feel so familiar?

---

Within two hours, we managed ta get in touch with Celestia and then the emergency weather system activated. Ever since the great hurricane of 1990, Manehattan has had a series of sirens installed throughout the city that override all the radio and television channels, tellin’ everypony ta get the hell out. It’s only ever been used once, when the mirror incident happened and the Trade Center fell. Considerin’ how high the death toll was then, the current generation of adult ponies don’t make light of it. However, if my prediction doesn’t hold water, Ah’ll lose just about all credibility at the expense of Princess Celestia havin’ ta save face.

On the other side of thin’s, Rarity never answered my calls. It woulda made sense that she might not’ve heard the ringer the first time, but ta miss four calls and two after she’s normally up is weird. Well, not weird, but definitely a sign that she’s still mad about yesterday. Eventually Twilight got a hold of her and last we heard she was on her way here twenty minutes ago.

“So, when she gets here, you know what you need to do right?” Goose asked. Ah rolled my eyes.

“Of course Ah know what Ah need ta do. It’s just… actually doin’ it that’s the problem. Ah don’t know how she’s gonna react, Ah don’t know how any of ‘em are gonna react. Ah… Ah’m not the ‘emotional’ type, and Ah never have been. Ah don’t talk about my feelin’s with others and Ah usually don’t ask either. Ah mean, Ah can usually read the mood pretty well, but it’s not like… Gah, Ah don’t know.” Ah pacin' my room tryin' ta think of a way out of this and so far, Ah'd come up with nothin'. True ta his word though, Goose was barely not around me fer the rest of the day. But it was still botherin’ me. When Ah’m around the girls, they just feel like ponies Ah know. The same way it does when Ah’m with Star. A pony Ah know who knows me at least a little more than somepony like a teacher or professor. A friend, Ah guess, even if the word tastes weird in my mouth.

Goose is… different. He knows me better than he should, and Ah feel like Ah should know him better than Ah do. He kinda gives off the same vibe that my uncle does. He clearly knows somethin’, somethin’ that Ah never told him about me but somethin’ that’s important ta both of us. That’s it, he knows how Ah work better than he should. Why? This and the fact that there’s a memory Ah can’t place that keeps tryin’ ta poke outta my brain when Ah look at him makes me think he knew me before this point, but if he did, Ah couldn’t say from when.

“Yeah, no, you’re pretty much the definition of a tomboy so that doesn’t surprise me much. You were always like that if my memory serves me correctly. Look, they’re your friends, I think they’ll get it. Everypony gets scared and nopony reacts to fear the same way. You just happen to be one of those angry types on top of having crazy strength. Probably not the greatest combination in the world, but I’ve seen you put it to good use at least once, and so has everypony else.” He shrugged. Ah paused. You’ve always been that way. Ah sat down and stared at him with a hoof on my chin.

“Uh, do I have something on my face? I know I haven’t been able to shave in a while, but I don’t think it looks too bad yet…” He rambled. Ah shook my head.

“Do… Do Ah know ya?” He frowned and raised an eyebrow.

“Well, yeah, I would hope so. It’s been a couple of weeks after all.” Ah shook my head again and started ta circle him.

“No, no, Ah mean… did we used ta know each other? It’s been botherin’ me more lately, but even though Ah should feel like ya were a stranger ta me two weeks ago, Ah’ve never felt like y’all were completely unknown ta me. Ah think that’s part of the reason Ah accepted yer terms a while back. Ah knew ya’d keep yer word beforehoof.” He looked a little nervous now. Those spines on his back had risen, if only slightly. Now that Ah knew they were there, Ah started ta pay attention and they were almost a tell as ta how he was feelin’.

“Uh…” he began, but then Twilight interrupted.

“Rarity is here and we’re all at the table. Are you ready?” Shit. No, Ah’m not ready, and Ah never will be.

“Yeah, Ah guess. Let’s get this over with.” Ah turned back ta Goose and stared him down. “Provided we make it though today, we will have this discussion later.”

“Uh, yeah, sure…” He lazily followed me out of my room, the usual pep in his step lost. Ah exited the hallway inta the livin’ room, and there they all were, starin’ at me with varyin’ degrees of concern and one in particular with a good amount of resentment. Goose and Ah sat down, and Ah took a breath tryin’ ta figure out what exactly Ah was gonna say.

“Well? Let’s hear it. I believe you owe me a few words,” Rarity said, hooves crossed, glarin’ at me from her seat. Ah tried my hardest and failed ta not roll my eyes and glare back. Ah was about ta open my mouth, but Goose stopped me before Ah could put my hoof in it.

“Hey, let’s not start this off with a fight, please?” he asked. Ah pulled away and took a deep breath. “Oh, goddess help me,” Ah whispered ta the ceilin’. Sometimes Ah felt it strange ta pray since Ah haven't believed in years now, but sometimes, it just comes out anyways. Old habits die hard.

“Alright, so… Ta start this off, Ah just wanna say that y’all are the only real friends Ah’ve ever had. Ya know that Ah’ve had a pretty rough life, and between takin’ care of my family and work and school, Ah didn’t have time fer other ponies. On top of that, Ah don’t really spend a whole lot of time with my own family anymore and we’re probably not as close as a unit as we used ta be so… Ah uh… dealin’ with this kinda stuff is… well, new ta me, really.

Ah mean… the closest relationship Ah have outside of y’all is my sister, but she knows me better than Ah know myself sometimes so she tends ta just ‘get it’ more often than not. Or, at least she used ta. Anyways, Ah think of y’all in the same way, really. You're like a second family ta me, and Ah can’t really stand the thought that Ah might lose one of ya in a fight in the near future. Uh… Ah…” Ah swallowed. “Ah’ve never really told anypony this before, but, Ah’m uh… real prone ta n-nightmares. If Ah sleep fer more than six hours, then it’s a miracle. Ever since Ah was real little, it’s been like this. My mom diein’ was probably the catalyst, but it wasn’t so bad while dad was still around because he could help me sleep. But… when he didn’t come home… it became relentless.

A month of ‘em and Ah started tryin’ ta kill myself, and y’all know how that story goes from there. These days though, it’s startin’ ta become like it used ta be. The more we fight, the more Ah watch y’all get hurt, the more real and intense the nightmares get, but none more real than the one from last night. Just within’ this week, Ah’ve probably seen y’all die in horrible ways at least six times so far, and it’s drivin’ me crazy. The threats from before and the anxiousness of what’s ta come today have me scared ta death that Ah’m gonna lose another family member and fall back inta that despair, and Ah never wanna feel like that again.

Ah know Ah’ve been a real hard ass this week, and Ah’ve lost my temper more than once, but Ah just thought that if Ah could keep ya alive, Ah wouldn’t have ta feel like that again, and Ah would do anythin’ ta keep it that way.” Ah turned ta Rarity next. Lookin’ at her now, she’d lost just about all of her edge and was probably a few words from breakin’ inta tears herself.

“Ah’m sorry about what Ah said yesterday. You're right, Ah did treat y’all like baggage. But only because Ah’d rather try ta fight alone than watch anypony Ah care about so much die in front of me again.” And with that, she broke and rushed over to give me some kind of hug while tryin’ ta punch me at the same time.

“You lumbering idiot, why wouldn’t you say something if you’ve been feeling like that all this time!? Maybe I overreacted yesterday, and I shouldn’t have provoked you, but you not telling us all that and shouldering it alone just to fester is like leaving a wound untreated!” she half cried and half yelled. Ah pulled her in ta stop her from punchin’ me and just let the hug run it’s course. Ah never realized how soft she was. She eventually let go and cleaned herself up before she started to speak again. “I suppose it was terrible of me to provoke you yesterday, knowing all that I do about you. Besides, you’re more of a stallion then you are a mare most of the time, and Celestia knows that they’re just as bad at talking about their feelings. Well save for Goose. If only you were cute, then you could probably pass for a trap.” He put a hoof on his chest and reared his head back.

“Oww, rude. Where did that come from? Look, I’m just a stallion who knows his mares. I’ve been down this road once or twice before. Sixteen times to be exact.” He held that statement with pride. Rarity rolled her eyes as did everypony else.

“Whatever, ass hat. So, that heart to heart thing was great and all, and I appreciate that you care so much, but I thought we were gonna talk about your vision/nightmare thing from this morning? We kind of already got the city evacuated, so I expected something to show up by now, ya know?” Pinkie said. Ah nodded and took a deep breath.

“You’re right. So, this last nightmare was… real different in comparison ta the ones before it. In the same way that the nightmare about my dad is actually an embellished memory, this one was a hell of a lot like that. Everythin’ was real clear, even the sensations that Ah felt, almost like it was a memory instead of a dream. This monster wasn’t nothin’ like anythin’ we’ve seen before, and Ah don’t think Ah’ve ever seen anythin’ like it either. Ah’m not really the creative type, so Ah don’t usually make shit up like this. The fact that there were ponies Ah don’t think Ah’ve ever seen before and… well, actually, let me test a theory. Pinkie, is there somethin’ wrong with yer body?” She made a few side glances across the room and lowered her brows.

“Like… what? I mean, yeah, but… are you talking about something specific, or do you want me to list off all of my weird bodily functions here? I mean, I can, but I really don’t think everypony wants to hear about… most of that.” Ah shook my head. Ah should’ve known.

“No, ya have a potassium deficiency right?” She raised her snout.

“I do. But I don’t know how you would know that unless somepony else told you or you were looking through my medical records upstairs.” Well shit, this does not bode well.

“And… Fluttershy is allergic ta strawberries right?” Ah asked the relatively silent pegasus through a sigh. Her eyes went wide and she quickly looked away.

“W-well, I mean… I-I am but… b-but I never told anypony about it…”

“You’re allergic to strawberries!? Oh my goddess, That explains so much! Why wouldn’t you tell me that!? So much fruit gone to waste because I always ordered for three,” Twilight exclaimed. Fluttershy rolled her eyes.

“I-it’s not like you ever asked… b-but that still doesn’t explain how Applejack knows t-that at all, unless she s-somehow ran into my family, whom I-I haven’t seen in years.” She brought her hoof to her chin in thought and now Ah was concerned. Okay, that about prooves it.

“Right, and it’s not like Ah would know who yer family is anyways if Ah did run inta ‘em. So with that said, Ah think that it was really a vision and we’re gonna be dealin’ with some major shit by the time noon rolls around.”

“How major are we talking about here? You said… you watched us all die…” Goose trailed off. Ah nodded.

“It wasn’t pretty. The monster was a giant biped that looked nothin’ like a pony. Its limbs were all real spindly and covered in this clear black skin like jelly that had shock absorbin’ properties. It was almost shaped like a diamond dog without a neck and its head was level with its shoulders. On its shoulders were these big caps of bone, and at its elbows and ribs, there were bones juttin’ out that coulda passed fer razorblades as sharp as they looked. Its head, or at least where its eyes were, there was some kinda mask lookin’ thin’, almost like a doctor’s beak from way back in the day. That was made of the same bone that everythin’ else was but uh… after it uh... killed Fluttershy and Pinkie, Ah managed ta break it and the mirror was right under the mask’s center just below its eyes.” Fluttershy put her hooves ta her mouth.

“T-there’s no way…” she said then quickly flew over the table ta her room. She came back with one of her backwards comic books and flipped through pages until she stopped on one and flattened it in front of me. “Is this what it looked like?” She asked. The title of the book was When the Goddess is in her heaven, All is right with the world and the artwork in front of me was damn near identical ta what Ah saw in my dream.

“What the hell!? Why is that in a book!? Twilight, magnify this, so everypony can see it.” She took the book in her magic and then a screen appeared above the table with the page magnified.

“So… this is what we’re gonna fight?” Pinkie asked.

“Sort of, it doesn’t look quite the same, but it’s damn close. Does this thin’ regenerate and move real fast?” Fluttershy frowned.

“W-well, yes and no. The m-monster does regenerate, but it isn’t v-very fast. Guns and b-bombs don’t work on it, a-and the way the characters defeat it is b-by using a giant robot thing. W-was it really that big too? I-I mean… i-if we have to fight t-this…” Ah shook my head.

“Thankfully, Ah was able ta damage it since the muscle underneath didn’t regenerate, and neither did the mask, but mine was fast. Real fast. When it went after us, ya didn’t react fast enough, and Pinkie was caught tryin’ ta save some ponies… It broke all the bones in my body with one attack, and it cut through Goose like a hot knife and butter… if this turns out that fast… Ah don’t know what we’re gonna do…” Rarity lowered her brows.

“Well, was I in the dream too?” Ah shook my head.

“Sort of, but not in the fight. In my dream, we ended up havin’ a shoutin’ match and ya left before it showed up. Ah wouldn’t know if ya died gettin’ out, but the monster showed up near the center of town…” Ah shivered, suddenly feelin’ cold. All that blood. There was just so much…

“I see… but, I think we do have a way to slow it down if we really need to, don’t we Twilight?" Rarity said. We all looked at her, then everypony looked at Twilight.

“I uh… well, um…” she stuttered, clickin’ the tips of her hooves together. Rarity rolled her eyes.

“Thanks to your ‘intensive’ training recently, Twilight has been looking to try and make a new spell. This spell allows one to ‘slow down’ time in a localized area and is based off of my powers. Since they are directly tied to my magic and are part of the reason I am so limited in performing like a normal unicorn, Twilight and I have started looking into a way to reproduce the effects. We’ve had very little success, but success all the same.

The way my powers work is unique to magic in the sense that the energy required to do it is much less than equal to the power it puts out, or at least that’s what we thought in the beginning. After Applejack’s little mishap with the sharing spell, the idea that I might be able to produce a spell circle for my power came to mind and I’ve started to attempt to do that. However, I can’t seem to get everything right, or I’m missing an understanding to the laws that the circle, or circles, I should say, that govern its properties. Twilight, please draw up what we have if you would.” Twilight nodded and in her violet magic, the circle started to appear, and it was huge, complex, and way different than anythin’ Ah’ve ever seen in school.

Typically, magic consists of one circle, and then a pattern inside it that. When combined with runes that give it instructions, a circle can be passed energy ta manipulate the physical world with. These circles can become very large and complex, but a rule that they all follow is that nothing can exist beyond the runic boundary of the circle, and circles cannot intersect with each other. The one on the table however was breakin' both of those rules at the same time, and probably more based on the number of them.

“This is the best recreation we can get of Rarity’s circle. It consists of six different arrays laid upon each other with six arrays that break the runic boundary within each circle, on top of having a unique array in each center of each circle. Please note that this is without any runes because we have yet to figure out just what rune system this magic uses at all. The runes we’ve found that do work are very archaic and don’t quite cooperate with the circle as intended, nor are the same language as the ones Rarity uses. If I’m being honest here, this circle violates every rule of magic I know and runs on a system entirely unto itself. However, when flattened and given a few runes in mother’s tongue along the edge as instructions, one can pass it a little energy and…”

The gigantic circle, or set of circles that tiered the table like a cake, collapsed in on each other ta form a unified shape that looked like an even bigger mess of lines than Celestia’s circle (or Luna’s fer accuracy). The violet magic flashed once, and then in the center of the circle, a strange gray dome appeared. Ah got up from my chair and leaned over the table ta look through the odd lookin’ thin. Everythin’ inside the space was gray fer a few seconds and then it was colored like everythin’ else. Twilight then popped a strawberry out of thin air over the still strange space in the center of the table and dropped it. Once it hit the area that the strange space was in, it began ta slow and fall at half the rate.

“What in the world did Ah just watch?” Ah asked.

“You just watched light travel at half the normal speed, and a strawberry fall at nineteen meters per second.” Twilight said with a smug smile. A smile that was quickly ripped off her face and replaced with a very pained look until her horn stopped glowing and the magic all disappeared.

“And that would be one of the side effects we don’t know how to fix. In essence, the circle I use cannot be recreated simply because it runs on a language unique to myself that even I can’t read. However, using the basic matrix structure and runes that translate accordingly to what I believe the circle says based on what we know now, we’ve managed to make this work at about half the effectiveness of my powers. Oddly enough, if I don’t use my own circle, I can’t actually cast the spell myself, and based on the strain it puts on Twilight, I assume only a unicorn of high caliber can actually use this. However, it causes immense strain on the user after only a few seconds, and as you can see, freezes anything caught inside the field.” Lookin’ back ta the strawberry now, it was a solid piece of red ice instead of the bright red fruit it used ta be. Rubbin’ her head, Twilight took over.

“I can’t use it for very long, but as it turns out, the area in which the spell slows is up to my imagination, which leads me to believe that the amount of time it’s cast is the factor that determines the strain on the user, and not the effect of the spell itself. And then there’s the energy thing. Since it freezes whatever enters it, be it organic or not, we believe that it takes heat away from everything around it to power itself, much like trump card does when Rarity uses that, albeit I have yet to recreate that spell since Rarity hasn’t used it enough times to figure out what the complete circle looks like thanks to the archaic nature of that magic.” Rarity clapped her hooves and pointed at me.

“Speaking of, you didn’t say whether or not you’d unlocked yourself during that fight with your nightmare. You did, didn’t you? I assume you would be a bit more than angry…” Ah nodded.

“Yeah, that was definitely a factor. But only when Ah broke the thin’s mask. When Ah hit it, the skin itself came off surprisin’ly easy. The muscle took much more force ta rupture, but not so much that Ah would need trump card ta do it. The bone however Ah wouldn’t have been able ta break without and that’s where our target is. Provided my dream is accurate though, we need ta stay as far away from it as we can. Somethin’ that big and powerful along with speed that can beat Fluttershy’s reaction time isn’t somethin’ Ah’m lookin’ forward ta dealin’ with…” Another shiver. The images would never leave my head.

“Then we have nothing to worry about. Twilight will join us in this endeavor and since we have fore knowledge of our foe, we can simply take it down as soon as it shows up,” Rarity said, almost as if the fight had already been decided.

“You know, while that would be great, I get the feeling that it’s not gonna be that easy. I mean, think about it, when has anything just gone our way?” Goose asked. Ah let out a breath.

“Ah hate ta say it, but Ah agree with him. Thin’s in real life are already different than in the dream, and if multiverse theory is ta be proven true, then we could end up with an entirely different monster.” Rarity raised a hoof, opened her mouth, closed it and then sat back down in thought.

“Multiverse theory is true, mother proved that thirty years ago…” Twilight said. We all became quiet and everypony was in their thinkin’ position.

“You know, maybe it will be that monster, and maybe it will be something else entirely, but all the same, I think today is gonna okay. Maybe she was a little off her rocker yesterday, but Applejack was right. We’re gonna come home and wake up tomorrow, all of us. But really… I don’t think that’s enough. I think, we’re gonna trash whatever monster shows up, and we’ll get out without getting hurt. Maybe that’s a lofty goal, but damn it, I think we can do it! Come on guys, who’s with me!?” Pinkie said. The others raised their hooves and yelled ‘yeah!’ in unison, but Ah just sat there and stared at her wide eyed.

“Why…? Why would ya say that? How could ya say that!? That’s the same thin’ ya said before we all died! Twilight, what time is it!?”

“Eleven o’clock!” Ah held out my hoof ta silence everypony and we waited. Nothin’ came. Ah tapped my wrist and nodded ta Twilight, who then pulled up a digital clock with her magic. The minute changed and nothin’ happened.

“Ah want everypony ta get suited up right now. Twilight, if ya got that extra suit of armor like Ah asked, put it on, Ah don’t care if it fits. As long as y’all don’t get stabbed or crushed by this thin, the blunt attacks the armor can take. As soon as we’re all ready, we’re gonna go ta the center of the city, and we’re gonna wait. Nopony will die today, but Ah’ll be damned if we don’t handle this with as much care as a bomb technician. Ah want y’all ready ta go in the next five minutes, got it?” In a strange silence, they all nodded and moved to their respective rooms ta get ready, as did Ah. By eleven o’ five, we had reconvened at the livin’ room table, everypony was in their usual suits, save fer Blur, who’d painted her new armor pink, just like in the dream. She opened her mouth and Ah stopped her right there.

“No, we will not call ya ‘Crazy Diamond.’ Now let’s move.”