//------------------------------//
// Questions Without Answers (Part 1) 
// Story: Canterlot High Ends With You 
// by Golden Flare 
//------------------------------//

The intersection of Mane St. and Express Way is sometimes called the Stampeding Grounds. At any given day and time, there are usually around twenty to fifty people per corner waiting for traffic to lessen so they can cross, stampede style.

It's here, as people began to cross, that a fiery haired girl, Sunset Shimmer woke up suddenly, with confusion written on her face.

‘What happened?’ She thought as she stood up, ‘I can remember fighting Princess Twilight’s human counterpart. I sealed the Dimensional rifts, she attacked me, I fought back, then…’ She growled and shook her head in frustration. ‘Grr! Things aren't adding up! If I fell unconscious at the now ruined Friendship Games, I should have woken up in a hospital, or at least the nurse’s office, and not in the middle of the Stampeding Grounds.’

She went to take a step but her foot bumped up against something. Looking down, she saw a black pin with a strange skull marking on it.

‘Huh? A pin?’ She bent down to examine it. ‘Why am I wondering over a pin?’ She picked it up and rubbed her thumb over it. As soon as she did, her field of vision turned blue and her ears were assaulted with voices.

“I wonder what happened at the Friendship Games?”

“Why am I suddenly craving ramen?”

“I hope I can gather the courage to ask him out.”

“My friends are talking about me behind my back, I know it!”

“Ahh, nothing beats Mrs. Cake’s frappés at the café!”

Sunset lost her grip on the pin and covered her ears in fright. The voices ended and her vision returned to normal as soon as the pin left her hand. ‘What in Celestia's name just happened? Was I reading people's minds?’

Before she could contemplate further, her phone notified her of a message. ‘My phone! Of course! After I check that message I'll...what?’


Head for the Canterlot Clock Tower.
You have 60 minutes.
Fail, and face erasure.
—The Reapers


Sunset looked at the message as if it was a joke. ‘Pinkie must have gotten a program to help her seamlessly do prank texts. Sorry Pinkie, but now’s not the time for jokes.’ She pressed the delete button on the screen, only to receive a notification that the message was unable to be deleted.

“DANGIT PINKIE! Why are you—OOWW!!!” Sunset suddenly felt a sharp pain on her right hand, causing her to drop her phone next to the strange pin. When she checked her hand, she was shocked to see a timer counting down.

59:57
59:56
59:55
59:54

Her shaken mind couldn’t understand what was happening. Was this magic or something else? Her mind was thrown further into Chaos when some strange red symbols suddenly surrounded her and morphed into strange looking wolves. They were small (roughly 1 foot tall and 2 feet long), and looked to be made out of wood, but their jaws seemed to be more ethereal and bone shaped.

Two of them jumped at Sunset, one aiming for her chest and the other for her legs. She fell backwards trying to avoid the first one, but the second one managed to snap onto her leg. The pain from the bite gave her enough clarity to shake off the wolf and try to keep from being bitten.

As she worked to keep herself from being bitten, she noticed that the people around her seemed to not notice. ‘Why aren't these people panicking and running or doing something about these animals?’ She dodged another bite and ran into the crowd, hoping to both lose the wolves and get everyone's attention. “Hey! Why hasn't anyone called animal control!?” She shouted, but no one heard her. She walked up to a random person and tried to grab him, but her hand went through him.

“Yah! Why did...I'm invisible and intangible?” She questioned out loud. She heard growling and saw that the wolves were upon her again. ‘I don't know why these wolves are attacking me, and I shouldn't stick around to find out.’ She dodged past another bite, scooped up her phone and the strange pin and began running towards the Canterlot Clock Tower...only to hit what seemed like an invisible wall.

Forgetting that she was slowly losing her sanity, Sunset chose a different way to run and just ran.

Back at the wall, a young man in a blue and yellow hoodie was laughing to himself at Sunset’s confusion. “I think this week will be the best week of my career.”


*****


After running for what felt like hours (which, in reality, was only twenty minutes), Sunset found herself at the ruined statue in front of Canterlot High. She was winded and exhausted, but she was able to outrun the wolves.

*huff puff* ‘It's a good thing I'm in shape or I'd be in trouble.’ As if Fate decided to be cruel, more red symbols appeared.

“OH, COME ON!” Sunset shouted out in frustration, as the symbols morphed into more of the strange wolves. She looked around in desperation, trying to see any clear path of escape, but saw she was trapped. The wolves jumped, ready to finish her.

Sunset was ready to accept death, but just as the wolves would have torn her to shreds, she felt something orange and purple tackle her away from danger. Both her and her rescuer landed a short distance away on the school lawn.

“You okay,” said someone with a light Japanese accent. Looking up, she saw a boy with orange spiky hair, purple headphones, purple jacket, tan cargo shorts, and purple sneakers. He had one eye on the wolf pack and one eye on her, waiting for her response.

“Yeah, I'm okay,” she responded, getting off the ground and brushing the grass off of herself.

“Good! We need to make a pact,” he said, as the wolves surrounded them.

“What? A pact?”

“Pact now! Questions later!” The boy shouted.

“Okay! Alright! I accept.” When those words left her mouth, she saw her vision briefly blink turquoise and the boy had an orange aura around him.

“Whoa! What was that!?” Sunset didn't receive an answer, but the boy tossed something at her. She caught it, and found that it was another pin, but it was red and had an orange flame on it.

“Use this and fight!” The boy’s arms then lit up with turquoise energy and he began slashing wildly at the wolves. Most of them went to fight him, but three wolves kept their attention on Sunset.

‘How's he doing that? And how do I…’ “YAH!!!” Sunset barely managed to dodge a wolf’s tackle. The wolf turned around to charge again. Sunset didn't know what to do but fear for her life and wish the wolf was on fire… ‘Wait, WHAT!?’

Just as the wolf went to tackle her, it was caught in a flash of spontaneous fire, causing it to fall short of hitting her. Once the fire died down, the wolf dissolved into static. Sunset looked at the other wolves and they were acting more cautious, as their prey now had a means to fight back. She immediately thought of fire again and both of the wolves burst into flames and dissolved into static. 

“Out of my FACE!” She heard the boy shout. She turned just in time to see an energy blade hit and vanquish the last of the wolves into static.

As the adrenaline left her system, she had one pressing question, “What just happened!?”

The boy turned to her and answered, “We forged a pact and we fought off the Noise.” He held up his hand, stopping any questions she had. “I'd love to do a game of 20 questions, but let's get to this ‘Canterlot Clock Tower’ first.”

“Why?”

The boy slapped his face in frustration. “You Americans and your obliviousness! Didn’t you get the mission mail?”

“What?”

“Grr! Never mind!” He shouted out, “Let's just get there and then we'll talk! Lead the way.”

“Wait, I'm confused.”

“As most Americans usually are,” he muttered to himself.

“What's going on? What was with those wolves? Why…” Her mouth was suddenly shut as the boy's hand glowed turquoise.

“You'll get your answers once we get to where we need to go!” He shouted, “Now you need to lead us there, since I am, or was, on vacation from Japan and don't know the area like you do. Capiche?” Sunset nodded and her lips were released.

She was about to walk on, but she stopped. “Can I at least get your name?”

He sighed in defeat and said, “Neku. Neku Sakuraba.”

She scrunched her face in confusion, “That's a weird name?”

Neku rolled his eyes. “Not as weird as Daisukenojo Bito.”


*****


In a different part of Canterlot City, a young man dressed like a punk suddenly shouted, “BWAAAH!!!”


*****


As Sunset giggled at the name, Neku asked, “What about your name?”

“Sunset Shimmer,” she answered, while still giggling a bit. She stopped when she noticed that he was chuckling a bit. “What?”

“You thought my name was weird?” He asked, “I think yours is, if you look past how well it matches you.”

“You think so?”

“I reserve the right to answer later,” Neku answered as he checked his hand. “CRAP!!! We've only got 35 minutes! Book it!”

Sunset didn't question his urgency. She just began running back to the Stampeding Grounds.

Across the street from where Neku and Sunset had their conversation, a young man in a black and blue hoodie and had black wings shook his head. “That guy knew more about the Game than most players do,” he said to himself, “I've got a bad feeling about him. I better keep an eye on him.” He extended his wings and took off towards the Canterlot Clock Tower.

QUESTIONS WITHOUT ANSWERS (PART 1)
CHAPTER CLOSED