//------------------------------// // The Second Day // Story: Canterlot High Ends With You // by Golden Flare //------------------------------// Sunset woke up on the front lawn of Canterlot High. ‘How'd I get here? Did I fall asleep?’ She took a look around and saw Twilight watching Neku and Beat doing something with red and blue gauntlet things, respectively. She walked over to them and spoke, “What are you guys doing?” “They're playing Tin Pin,” Twilight answered, “But before you ask, I already did. They just zoned out my questions. We'll just have to wait.” Sunset sat near the statue and watched the game unfold; Neku and Beat each had a pin on the board and both were trying to knock each other off of it, the pins somehow summoned spinning hammers, spikes, and they also jumped and slammed into the board, aiming for each other. Sunset was surprised that a simple game could have a kind of magic to it. ‘Or could it be those “psychs” again?’ She thought. The round ended when Neku’s pin knocked Beat’s off. “Oh COME ON!” He shouted, “That was my best pin!” “And mine was the worst ever,” Neku simply said, a smug grin on his face as he picked up the game. “Just like, how does that make sense!?” Beat complained. “I'm just that good.” “Okay, now that you guys got that out of your systems, did the mission show up yet?” Sunset asked. Everyone's phones then chimed. Beat busted out laughing, “Speak of the Reaper…” “And he shall appear,” Neku finished, pulling out his phone and checking the mission. He read it out loud for the group to hear. Free the Academy from the Siren’s Curse. You have 120 minutes. Fail, and face erasure. —The Reapers Once he read that, everyone felt a sharp pain on their right hands and the timers began counting down. 1:59:58 1:59:57 1:59:56 “There's our mission,” Neku reported, “Any ideas?” “Well…” Sunset began to ponder, “There was this group of three girls who sung everyone in Canterlot High under their rule. Maybe they could be up to their old tricks again?” Sunset asked, deliberately leaving out the fact that they really were sirens. “Well, that would be impossible.” Twilight began her lecture, “If what I read is correct, we have to free the academy from the siren’s curse. Obviously it's some kind of metaphor, since sirens live in the ocean, they are beautiful half human, half aquatic creatures, who led sailors to their deaths by charming them with their hypnotizing music and bewitching beauty—” “BWAAAH!!! Make it stop!” Beat shouted out, covering his ears. “...What?” Twilight asked, not understanding why Beat freaked out. “Let’s see what we can think of concerning the ‘Academy’ part,” Neku interrupted for Beat’s sake. “A school perhaps?” “It can’t be Canterlot High School,” Sunset said, “It's more of a public school than an academy, maybe it's Crystal Prep?” “Of course! Crystal Prep Academy! It's the only academy in Canterlot!” Twilight exclaimed. “Then le’s Bounce!” Beat exclaimed, “We can figure out the rest when we get there, Yo!” Beat started running in a random direction when Twilight called out to him, “But Crystal Prep is in the city!” “Which is the other way!” Sunset yelled. Beat stopped and ran in the direction the girls pointed out, “I knew that!” As he ran, he didn't notice a nearby Support Reaper and ended up running face first into a wall. The Support Reaper busted up laughing, “That was hilarious. But still, you want this wall down, you gotta erase this Noise.” He snapped his finger and a red symbol appeared. “Okay then, who should take this one?” Sunset asked. “I think Beat and Twilight should; after all, she still needs to learn how to fight,” Neku pointed out. “Think you can handle it, Twilight?” Sunset asked her. “I think so,” she answered. “THEN BRING IT ON!!!” Beat bellowed. The Reaper then cast the symbol at the two and reality began to warp. After the disorientation, they were up against some Noise, five snakes and two cockatrices. The cockatrices were roughly six inches tall and three feet long. Their heads, feet, and their wings were ethereal. Out of nowhere, a strange voice said, “Are you ready?” Beat responded by shouting, “Ready for a Beat down!?” Beat jumped into action, performing his usual stunts and going directly for the snakes. Twilight hesitated, not knowing what to do. One of the cockatrices charged her, with the intention of biting her. She saw it and was barely able to dodge it. Out of reflex, she backhanded it. Just before her hand made connection, it glowed a purple color and when her hand did hit, the cockatrice was sent flying. Twilight got a bit more confident from that hit. She managed to recall how she cast the dimensional rifts and tried thinking of how to do something similarly. She pointed her hands at the cockatrices and several energy bullets fired out at them, erasing them. When one of them vanished into static, a bronze medal floated to her with a *BLING!* “What the Heck!” She turned to where Beat was fighting and saw that somehow, one of the snakes had tripped him up. She charged in and backhanded it away. Beat got back onto his feet and was once again skating through them. Twilight added energy bullets into the mix and the Harmonizer pin began to glow. Soon it had a skateboard with a starburst on the bottom of it. “Do it!” Beat called out. Twilight concentrated on the pin and she felt a connection with him. “C’mon, Egghead!” He shouted. “Alright!” She called back. Beat began “slashing” with his board and Twilight began slapping and backhanding with energy hands. The Noise was erased quickly as a result. “That was amazing!” Twilight said. She checked her pockets as reality returned. There she found a silver pin that had $50 etched on it. When they were back in front of the wall with the Support Reaper, he simply said, “Objective met. Wall clear.” He then placed a pin on it and it vanished. “Oh, and here. Give this to the Support Reaper at the next wall. He dropped it at breakfast.” He handed Beat a pin with a key image on it. “A Keypin? Dude, he’s careless if he drops this,” Beat said. “Take it a step further and he’s clueless,” the Reaper added. He then walked off. “Shall we go?” Twilight asked. “Heck, yeah!” Beat shouted. ******** The group traveled a good distance until they came to another wall. However, two other players were talking with the Reaper in charge of the wall. “I don’t care who you are, you aren’t getting special treatment!” He shouted at the girl of the partnership. “Unless you meet the objective, this route is closed!” “RRRAAAGGGHHH!!!” The girl shouted, “Just open the stupid wall!” “Adagio!” The guy shouted, “Just calm down and accept defeat! Getting stressed won’t help!” “NO!” She shouted back, “Ever since the Battle of the Bands, my life has been defeat after defeat after defeat! I’m not going to stop until I get at least one victory!” “Wait, Adagio?!” Sunset shouted in shock. “Who’s Adagio?” Neku asked. “She's one of the ones who took control of the school!” Neku took an analytical look towards the siren. “She doesn’t look like much.” “If anything, she’s about as hot headed as Pinky,” Beat observed. “Well, after the Battle of the Bands, she and the other two became harmless teenage girls.” Sunset explained. “What were they before?” Neku asked, raising an eyebrow, having caught Sunset’s last bit. “You won't believe me, but...they used to be sirens who fed off of the negative energy of people.” Neku gave her a deadpan stare. “It’s not that hard to believe,” he said. “It isn't? I thought you would think I was crazy.” “I thought Shiki was crazy when I first met her...then I remembered being attacked by frogs and using the Pyrokinesis pin you now have,” he said, “It’s not hard to...wait. What did you say about sirens in that first comment?” “That they used to feed on negativity?” “...Do you think you could have mentioned that earlier!” “Why? What’s wrong?” “It was so simple,” he began, “Remember the Noise that was messing with that guy’s head?” “Yeah, why?” “Negative Noise feeds on and encourages negative emotions,” he explained, “If what I’m thinking is right, we may have to deal with some of that kind of Noise when we get to the academy.” “Okay then, let's keep moving.” The group approached the argument. When they got close, Adagio saw Sunset and Twilight and gave them a murderous glare. “YOU!!!” She charged Twilight in a tackle, knocking her and Beat down. A brawl started up between the three and dust was kicked up badly. “DANGIT, ADAGIO!!!” The guy shouted out as he jumped into the brawl. After a few seconds, he had restrained Adagio and pulled her away from Twilight, who had lost her glasses in the fight, and Beat, who had a black eye. “What the hay was that all about?!” Sunset asked in anger. “You Keep Quiet!” Adagio shouted, “And Wayward...LET GO OF ME!” “Can’t you go five seconds without blowing your top?” Wayward asked. “Yep, just like Pinky,” Beat commented, nursing his eye. “Don’t compare me to that pink human!” She snapped. “He was talking about someone else,” Neku said. “JUST SHUT UP!!!” Adagio shouted so loudly, that a nearby car windshield cracked. “Will you cool it?! It's bad enough we have to fight for our lives without people like you and your cronies making it worse!” Sunset said. “It’s not my fault!” She shouted, “If you want to blame someone, I can list several names. Starswirl the Bearded, for one. Then there’s Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends. And then there’s you. If you hadn’t of helped them when we had all but crushed them, we would have gathered enough energy to return to Equestria!” “And from there, then what?” Wayward questioned, “You should realize that if you weren’t defeated here, you would have been defeated there.” “Wait, ‘Princess’?” Twilight questioned. “Never mind that for now,” Sunset interjected, “How did you, of all people, end up in the Reaper’s Game?” “She was mugged and left for dead,” Wayward said nonchalantly. Sunset went pale, “Do you...know who did it?” “The only thing she told me was that the perpetrator had blonde hair and seemed too well dressed for a mugger.” “Hmm...doesn't sound like anyone I know. Do you, Neku? Beat? Twilight?” “Doesn’t sound familiar,” Beat said. “No, I only knew my family, and none of them fit that description.” Twilight said. “What was his weapon?” Neku asked. “A modernized, pepperbox revolver.” “...I might have an idea, but it’s too early to say,” Neku said. “Why?” Sunset asked. “Any accusation you could throw at him would just bounce off of him like...uh...help me out here Beat.” “Bullets off’a Superman...guy...guy,” Beat said. “Thanks...like that, so it would be pointless to set him up as a target.” After finding and replacing her glasses on her face, Twilight spoke, “How about we see how we can get past this wall before we run out of time?” “THANK YOU!” The Support Reaper shouted, “At least one of you have a good head on their shoulders. I just need my Keypin and the wall will be down in a jiffy.” “You mean this?” Beat asked and tossed the Keypin to him. “Thank you. Now I won’t face any problematic punishments. Wall clear.” The Reaper opened the wall, tossed Beat a $100 pin, and walked off. “AIGHT!” Beat shouted, “Puffy, Wayguy, we can all work together to finish the mission.” “No thank you!” Adagio said, “And my name is Adagio, NOT Puffy.” “Adagio, is it so hard to accept help?” Wayward asked. “Let’s just let these losers do the dirty work. I’m exhausted and I need to rest.” “Jeeze, don’t be so stiff,” Beat said. “Let's keep going, it's obvious she's not going to be of any help.” Sunset said, continuing down the opened path. THE SECOND DAY CHAPTER CLOSED