//------------------------------//
// Answers To Questions 
// Story: Canterlot High Ends With You 
// by Golden Flare 
//------------------------------//

Sunset and Neku arrived at the Stampeding Grounds, but Sunset hesitated in going forward.

“Why’d you stop?” He asked.

“Well, I tried heading to the Clock Tower earlier, but something was blocking my path,” Sunset said, “It was almost like…”

“A wall separating you from your goal,” Neku finished. 

“Yes! How did you know?”

“I speak from experience,” was his reply. He checked his hand, it showing 15:26, and carefully “examined” the barrier. “All we need to do is find the Reaper in charge of the wall.”

“Huh?”

“Like I said, I'll explain later,” he said looking for said Reaper. After a few seconds of searching, he moved to a young man wearing a blue and yellow hoodie. “How do we get past the wall?”

Sunset facepalmed. “Neku, we're invisible. I don't think…”

“You want past this barrier?” The young man asked, shocking Sunset. Neku nodded to the question. “I'd tell you the requirements, but you've already got it done.” The man pulled out three pins. One he placed on the wall before saying, “Wall clear.” He gave Neku the other two pins.

“I...but...wha...how…?”

“You Americans break easily,” Neku commented.

“Seeing her break when she does impossible things on almost a daily basis is actually hilarious,” the Reaper added.

“Huh? What do you mean?” Neku asked.

“Spoilers. I'm not at liberty to say,” he said, nonchalantly, “Just ask her, she may or may not answer. You won't learn what you don't seek.” The Reaper the walked off, vanishing into the crowd.

Neku turned to Sunset. “Wall’s down we can move on now.”

Sunset shook herself from her shock. “Alright, let's go. It should be a 5 minute walk from here to the Clock Tower.”

Roughly five minutes later, they arrived at the Clock Tower. Sunset checked her hand and saw that the timer was gone.

“Mission Complete,” Neku said, looking at his hand as well. “Now we just have to wait for Beat and his partner to get here.”

“They'll be in for quite a show when they arrive,” a voice called out. Neku seemed spooked, and looked around frantically, until he spied a girl with bluish skin, extremely pale blue hair, was wearing blue magician clothing and has a pair of black skeletal wings.

“A Reaper!/Trixie!?” Neku and Sunset shouted out. They looked at each other in confusion. “You know her?!/What did you call her!?” They both then growled in frustration.

The Reaper, Trixie, giggled evilly at the scene. “The Great and Powerful Trixie is enjoying the simpleton squabbling. Very entertaining.”

“Just who are you?” Neku asked.

“I am...The Great and Powerful Trixie!” She proclaimed loudly with a flourish. When she didn't see Neku be “wowed”, she raised an eyebrow in confusion. “Haven't you heard of Trixie in the RG?”

“The Great and Powerful Trixie?” He asked, to which she nodded. “Can’t say that I have. Does ‘The Great and Powerful Windbag’ count? It may not have been you the rumors talked about though.”

“GRRAARRGG! You will pay for that insult!” She then raised her hands in the sky. “Come my pet! Show this Naysayer my power!”

A large red symbol then appeared and morphed into a larger version of the wolves they fought earlier. Neku’s arms became enveloped in energy and Sunset pulled out her Pyrokinesis pin.

The giant wolf charged to pounce on Sunset, but she dodged its attack and lit it's tail on fire. As it yelped and chased its tail, Neku charged in with a Vulcan Uppercut, knocking it back. It recovered and tried to knock him away, but Sunset enveloped it in flames with Neku attacking with Shockwave combos.

When the wolf was defeated, Trixie yelled out in anger and frustration. “You will pay, Sunset Shimmer! Every wrong will be righted!” She then extended her wings and flew away.

“She’s worse than Uzuki Yashiro,” Neku commented.

“Who's that?”

“OCD workaholic...friend back in Shibuya.”

“You're from Shibuya?” A different person asked, “No wonder you know so much about the Game!”

Neku and Sunset turned to the voice, seeing a young man in a blue and black hoodie and had black skeletal wings. “Another Reaper?!”

The Reaper held his hands up, backing up a bit. “Whoa there buddy! Don't go crazy on me. I've already used up all my Noise for today and just wanted to talk a bit.”

Neku relaxed a bit, but remained on guard. “Why? You like playing with your ‘food’?”

Sunset jumped at that. “These Reapers EAT us!?”

“Not technically,” Neku began.

“No,” the Reaper finished. “It's our way of life. We have to erase Players to survive. If we don't erase Players, we slowly fade.”

“So you kill people for sport?”

“We are, in a sense, their food. You can't fault them for trying to survive,” Neku defended.

“Who’s side are you on?” The Reaper and Sunset asked.

“I'm just saying that the Reapers can't be faulted for doing what they do to survive,” he explained, “However, if a Reaper is out for blood, then you can guilt trip them.”

The Reaper laughed at his explanation. “You’re a good guy. I don't know why I thought you would be a problem.” He pulled a few things out of his pocket. “Here, the blank pins are for Sunset and Beat’s partner, and I found this somewhere.” He handed Neku two blank pins and a strange device that looked like a pendant.

“Thanks.”

“No problem.” He began to walk away, but stopped. “Oh! Before I forget, you konk out at 6pm. See you tomorrow.” He flew away.

Before long, running footsteps were heard behind them.

“Yo! Phones!” Yelled a punk-ish young man.

“Beat!” Neku ran to the young man and the two grabbed each other's left arm, fist bumped with their right, and the pulled each other into a brief hug.

“Hey, where’s your partner?”

“Oh, she's right…” He stopped when he saw that where he was gesturing had no one there. “BWAAAH!!! Where'd she go!?”

Sunset was barely paying attention to the boys’ conversation. Her attention was on someone a half a block away, having problems with her phone.

Twilight Sparkle.

“Yo! Redhead!” Beat shouted to Sunset, “Get chu head on straight, we gotta find Twilink Sprinkle or whatever her name was. Aight!”

“She’s just over there,” she retorted, pointing to where Twilight was standing.

“Yo! Egghead!” He shouted. Twilight looked in the group's direction. “Get over here! You don't wanna get caught on your own or you're Reaper chow!”

Twilight fixed him a light scowl and pointed to her phone, indicating that she was busy.

Neku sighed, “Come on, let's go talk to her.”

The three of them walked to Twilight. Neku opened his mouth to speak but, Twilight turned on him with a harder scowl.

“What is your problem!?” She practically shrieked at him, “Can't you see that I’m trying to call home and get this stupid mess figured out!?”

“Calm down,” Beat tried saying, but Twilight was on a roll.

“I've just seen nearly a few dozen impossible things happen in the past hour AND YOU WANT ME TO CALM DOWN!!!” She took a deep breath and continued. “To put things simply for your brick-composed brain, I'M GOING HOME!!!”

After the shock of the rant wore off, Neku composed himself. “Good luck with that.”

Twilight blinked in confusion. “What?”

“You're not in the Canterlot City you know,” he said, trying to keep his own temper in check. “You're in what is called the UG or Underground. It's like a separate zone of existence where you have to fight to survive.”

“What?” Both Sunset and Twilight asked.

Neku sighed...again. “Let’s talk in a more comfortable environment.” His stomach then growled in complaint. “Perhaps somewhere where there's food available.”


*****


Sunset guided them all to her’s and her friends’ usual hangout, Sugarcube Café. When they got there, there was a strange decal on the side of the door; a skull and an “X” below it.

“What is that?” Sunset asked.

“Probably vandalism,” Twilight speculated.

“That's a Reaper Decal.” Beat answered.

Sunset bent down to get a closer look at it. “What purpose does it serve? Because I've been here several times and never saw it before.”

“Remember what I said about the UG being a separate zone?” The girls nodded. “You may have noticed that people in the RG, or Real Ground, can't see or physically interact with us.” He pointed to the Decal. “This Decal allows whatever store, shop, and restaurant that has it on for us to interact with RG people.”

As Sunset and Twilight mentally digested that, Beat turned to Neku. “I hope you got cash, because I ain’t able to pay.”

Neku nodded and pulled out what pins he had in his pocket. Two blank pins, an orange pin with what looked like a fireball on it and a gold pin with $100 stamped on the front. He smirked and tossed the $100 pin in a nearby trash bin.

“Do now. Let's eat.”

They go inside and make their way to the counter, where a woman with pink swirled hair and blue skin stood.

“What can I get’cha?” She asked.

Neku ordered a mocha frappé with a glazed donut for him (“Not bad.”), a chocolate éclair for Beat (“That hit the spot!”), a raspberry smoothie for Twilight (“It’ll do.”), and a strawberry milkshake and a powdered donut for Sunset (“This is really good.”). They all took their sweets and went to the nearest table, more specifically, the one Sunset and her friends used to sit at.

‘Speaking of my friends, where are they?’ She thought.

“Now that we've gotten food and feeling a bit more calm, you can question us in an orderly fashion,” Neku said.

“Okay, so then,” Twilight began, “What is this ‘Reaper’s Game’?”

“How do I begin?” Neku said. “The Reaper’s Game is like a test of worth, if you can think of it that way.”

“A test of worth? Worth for what?”

“A second chance.”

“What do you mean by that?” Sunset asked.

“Well…” Neku began.

“Quit sugarcoatin’ Phones! It was bad enough when I first played to see my sister the way she was,” Beat reprimanded.

“Your sister?” Twilight asked. “Wait, never mind that, what sugarcoating?”

“What Beat is trying to say is that I should straight up tell you; you both are dead.” The room seemed to chill 20 degrees to Sunset and Twilight.

“...What?” The two timidly asked.

“Like I said, and I'm not joking. You both died and got lucky to attract the attention of the Reapers for them to admit you into the Game,” Neku answered.

“So...let me see if I got this right,” Sunset began, “We somehow died and now we’re in some kind of Game to win back our lives?” Neku nodded, “There has to be some kind of catch. No one would just do that.”

“Well, you're right about the catch,” Beat said.

“When someone is admitted into the Game, that someone has to give up what they cherish most as an entry fee,” Neku explained, “If you win, you get your entry fee back.”

“And…” Twilight gulped, “If we lose?”

“You lose your entry fee…” He paused to take a shaky breath, “And your right to live.”

“But, if what you're saying is true...what was our entry fees?” Sunset asked.

“I can't say, mostly because I don't know,” Neku answered, “But it can be crippling in one way or another.”

“What we cherish most…” Twilight pondered, “Well, other than my family, what I cherish is knowledge.”

“And what I cherish most would be—” Sunset suddenly went pale, “...My friends.”

“Those could be good guesses,” he commented, “When I first played, my fee was my memories.”

“And mine was my sister's memories of me,” Beat added.

“That must've been terrible, running around with no memories.” Sunset said.

“It was. It made me a complete snot with almost no regard for others...but after I nearly erased my partner, and Rhyme was erased, my tune changed rather quickly.”

“We’ll ask about those later,” Twilight said, “How do we win this Reaper’s Game?”

“Survive the week and then give the GM a beat down on day seven,” Beat boasted.

“GM?”

“The Game Master. The one who sends us the missions,” Neku said, holding up his phone.

“They ain't pushovers,” Beat commented, “When they fight, they go all out.”

“I remember you saying something about ‘mission mail’, is that what you meant about the GM sending us missions?” Sunset asked.

“Yep.”

“So what's stopping the Reapers from outright erasing us?” Twilight asked, “I mean, two of them tried to hurt me.”

“Rules, regulations, and severe punishments for breaking those,” he said, “The rules keep them from erasing you directly and immediately, that's why they use Noise.”

“Noise? Sound isn't going to do anything but hurt someone's ears.” Twilight interrupted.

“No, not ‘noise’ as in sound waves, ‘Noise’ as in strange looking animals that want to kill you.”

“You mean those snakes those Flim Flam Brothers tried to hurt me with?” Twilight asked.

“Or that wolf Trixie tried to sic on us?” Sunset asked.

Neku nodded. “Yes, and personally, I think those that survive their first Game develop fears of what animal said Noise resembled.”

“Well...I may have had a bad experience with snakes once.” Twilight said, sheepishly.

“Wait,” Sunset began, “Something just came to me, how does one become a Reaper? I knew Trixie back in school before…” Sunset stopped herself.

“Well, when you win the Game, it's not a guarantee that you'll come back to life,” Neku said.

“If you win but don't pass, there are three options,” Beat continued, “Replay, become a Reaper, or get erased.”

“I see…” Sunset hung her head low as a tear glided down her face, “...Trixie's a Reaper because of me.”

“Huh?”

“I wasn't always a good girl,” Sunset began to explain, “I was a bully, ruling Canterlot High with an iron fist, I was so bad that I blackmailed people to keep them in line, I destroyed so many friendships...but when I was reformed...the guilt of it all got to me...especially when…” Sunset choked up, “My blackmailing caused Trixie...to commit suicide.”

She couldn't take it anymore and broke down crying. She wasn’t the only one, as Beat also had some free falling tears as well. “You ain't the only one to cause someone else to die.”

Sunset sniffled, “Huh?”

“I wasn’t in a very good standin’ with my folks,” he said, clenching his fists. “They kept trying to get me to achieve what I wasn’t aimin’ for. They practically hated me for it.” He then sniffled. “Despite all of my underachieving, my sister just stayed by my side, defending me. But I was too prideful for the support. I tried pushing her away, but she never left me.”

“After one bad spat with my parents, I tried running away. Rhyme followed me without me knowing. When I did notice her, a car was screaming down the street towards us. I tried pushing her out of the way, but…” Beat lowered his head to the table, “I may be strong, but not strong enough to stop a speeding car. That was our ticket to the UG.”

“I...am so sorry, Beat.” Sunset said.

“That wasn't the worst of it,” he said, “It was day 4 and I got careless. A Noise snuck up on me and nearly had me, but Rhyme saved me when I couldn't.” He shuddered, “Losing her once was bad...but seeing her go again…I...she…”

“Whoa…” Twilight said. “I don't think I could live with myself if something like that happened with my brother and I.”

While Beat silently cried, Neku took over, “Beat was lucky. When a partner in a pact gets erased, the survivor has seven minutes before they fade. Luckily, a guy named Sanae Hanekoma was able to bind what remained of her soul to a pin.” He pulled out the fake version of the pin for them to see. “Beat was able to make a pact with the pin to stay alive. When the week was over, he became a Reaper in the hopes of bringing Rhyme back...but he could only succeed in summoning a squirrel Noise.”

“You...became a Reaper?” Sunset asked.

“Phones said it,” Beat answered, “But I wasn’t really into the job as much as the others. When he was going through his third week, they tricked him, taking all other players as his entry fee. When I saw him cornered by Pinky and Lollipop, I couldn’t stand it and I became his partner.”

“Now that's true friendship.” Sunset said.

“Wait, ‘Pinky and Lollipop’?” Twilight asked.

“He means Uzuki Yashiro and Koki Kariya,” Neku said, “Two Reapers back in Shibuya. She hates my guts and he doesn't care either way.”

“But what's the story with the Flim Flam Brothers? I've never met them.” Twilight asked.

“Scam deal went wrong,” a voice behind them said. They turned and saw another young man in a blue and yellow hoodie. After he saw them staring at him, he seemed to shrink away. “Don't mind me, just a Support Reaper being stupid.”

“Riiight, so anyway,” Sunset began, “What about these pins? Do they have some kind of magic?”

“In a sense, yes. They're called Psychs.”

“Sometimes a psych could be other things, like my board,” Beat said.

“That explains how you fought those snakes.” Twilight said.

“And how Neku fought that wolf thing.” Sunset said. “But what about us? What can we fight with?”

“Well, you did pretty well with the Pyrokinesis pin I gave you, so you must use pins similarly to me.”

“But how am I supposed to fight?” Twilight asked.

Neku thought for a moment then pulled out the device pendant. “Think you can make sense out of this?”

“My spectrometer!” Twilight snatched it out of his hand, “How’d you get this?”

“Yeah, I thought it was destroyed back during the Friendship Games.” Sunset said.

Neku raised his eyebrows in surprise but didn't pry. “A random Harrier Reaper that seemed more friendly than most I've met gave it to us, as well as these Harmonizer pins.” He pulled out the two blank pins for them to see.

“Harmonizer pins? What do they do?” Sunset asked.

“If we fight in sync, they charge up,” Neku said.

“When fully charged, you can pull off a sick mega-attack,” Beat finished.

“Mega-attack? This Game is weird.” Twilight said.

“Technically, it's called a Fusion Attack,” the Support Reaper said, “And if you want weird, try eating ramen while playing Tin Pin upside-down.” The group gave him a weird look. “Don't look at me like that, I was trying to impress the Flim Flam Brothers into giving me a new pin. It doesn't matter though, it doesn't work for me.” He tossed said pin onto their table. It was neon yellow and had a strange looking pink heart on it.

Neku picked up the pin and examined it. “Huh. I haven't seen one of these since Traverse Town.”

“Traverse Town? I've never heard of that place.” Twilight said.

“I'm not surprised by that. That town is like it's a completely different world,” he said, “As for this pin, it allows a player to summon a Spirit Dream Eater.” With the pin in his hand, he closed his eyes and an alien-like cat appeared.

“Whoa! What is that?!” Twilight asked in surprise.

“A Dream Eater...Necho Cat specifically.”

“Would you mind taking your cat outside,” said the woman at the counter, “Or at least put it in it’s kennel.”

“You should probably put it back wherever you got it.” Sunset suggested.

Neku nodded, dismissing the Dream Eater. “Probably for the best. Why don't you keep it?” He offered the pin to her.

“Really? Are you sure?”

“You never know when you need it,” Beat said, “Besides, I still got mine. What ‘bout you, Phones?”

Neku pulled out the same exact pin from his pocket, showing it to the girls.

“How many pins do you have?” Twilight asked.

“Six or so, mostly out of habit,” he answered.

“Anyway, do you have any more questions, Twilight?” Sunset asked.

“Just one more, how do I use these ‘Psychs’ to defend myself?”

“Uhh, I ain’t much of the teachin’ type,” Beat said.

“To properly answer that, the only way to learn how is to get put under a form of pressure, combined with trial and error,” Neku said, “Let’s head outside and get that out of the way.”

“Alright, I’ve been meaning to look more into these psychs.” Sunset said.

“Aight! Grab those Harmony pin things and le’s bounce!” Beat shouted out. The group did just that.

“Have a good day, Dearies!” The front woman called.

ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS
CHAPTER CLOSED