//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: Sketched to life // by Bookpony579 //------------------------------// "WHAT THE HECK IS THAT!?" Rainbow shouted. Luna quickly closed the door and addressed the girls. "We don't know. Several students were spending their lunch break outdoors and claimed that it came from the forest." Luna looked at the girls with a serious expression on her face. "We need you girls to go out there and try and see if you can deal with it." "U-Us...?" Fluttershy asked, trembling. Celestia walked over once the other students were under control. "Yes. As much as I hate the idea of sending you girls out there, we need to be here to keep the other students safe. Plus, you girls are very powerful mages. So I trust you can take care of this yourselves." She looked at them, worry written on her face. "You can count on us." Twilight said, determined. "As out duty as defenders of this land, it's our job to take care of stuff like this, right girls?" The other girls agreed (some more eager than others). "Alright then. Luna and I will stay here and put up a protection barrier to keep it from getting in. Good luck and be careful" She watched with worry as the other girls went out to the field. Luna put a hand on her shoulder reassuringly. "They will be fine sister. This isn't the first time they've handled monsters before, remember." Luna said, recalling Sunset and the sirens. This did little to put Celestia at ease. "I still hate the idea of sending children out to handle this stuff." "They are no ordinary children. Now, we can discuss this later, right now we have to do our job. Are you ready?" Celestia looked out to see the girls approaching the creature and sighed. "I'm ready." Twilight and the others slowly and cautiously approached the creature, who had stopped moving when it saw them and continued to watch them approach. "So, do we actually have a plan for this?" Applejack whispered. "Um..." Twilight said. In all honesty, this was probably the only time she didn't have a plan. For all her studying she didn't even know what this creature was, the only place having seen it was Sunset's drawing. "Let's try and see if we can trap or contain it. Maybe then we can study it to find out what it is and where it came from." The girls stopped when they were a few feet from the creature. It narrowed it's eyes at them, as though waiting for them to make the first move. Fluttershy stepped forward, maybe this was just some kind of animal she could handle. "Um..hello there. We were just wondering what..." Before Fluttershy could continue, the creature jumped at her, pinning her to the ground. "FLUTTERSHY!" The girls cried out in alarm. The creature roared at Fluttershy. The poor girl was so scared that, without thinking, she screamed and created a burst of pink magic, sending it flying off her. The creature landed a few feet away but immediately got up and roared at them. Rainbow stepped forward. "Alright you freak! If you want a fight..."her hand began to glow red with magic."...then I'll give you a fight!" Rainbow sent a blast of magic towards it. But when it hit, it immediately evaporated. The creature roared again, apparently not affected at all. "W-What..!?" Rainbow stuttered. The creature than charged towards Rarity, but was cut off when Applejack puched it in the jaw, sending it stumbling. "NOBODY hurts mah friends, ya hear!?" She shouted. See than magic couldn't affect it directly, Twilight focused her magic, and a magenta cage formed around it. The creature bashed against the bars, putting a strain on Twilight. "I can't keep this up..." She sputtered after a moment."Girls run!" They followed her command and a few seconds later, the creature broke through it's magical confines and Twilight fell to her knees, exhausted by the strain of trying to contain it. The creature roared yet again before running back into the woods. The girls rushed up to Twilight and AJ and Rainbow helped her up. "Are ya'll alright sugarcube?" Aj asked. "Yeah. Was anyone else hurt?" She looked at Fluttershy in particular. "Oh, I'm fine. Just...a little frazzled." Fluttershy shuddered, remembering the creatures cold eyes right above her. "It wasn't like any animal I've ever seen before." "I know." Twilight sighed. "Let's just get back and warn Celestia and Luna about this. The others full-heartidly agreed. On there way back Pinkie spoke up. "Hey did anyone else notice that thing looked like Sunny's drawing?" The girls could only look at each other with worry. Was Sunset somehow responsible for that thing? "This is serious." Luna said. All of them were now in Celestia's office going over what just happened. "If this thing is really as immune to magic as you say, we might have a real problem on our hands." "Exactly. I'll inform the mayor of this and hopefully she'll issue a warning for everyone to watch their back, especially near the woods. I'm also canceling all after-school activities until we can sort this out." Celestia looked at the girls. "I also want you girls to be extra careful. The creature might remember you and try to attack again." The girls agreed to this and were just leaving to head to class when Celestia called out. "Twilight, can I speak with you for a minute?" After the other girls left, Twilight looked at her. "What is it?" "It's about Sunset." Celestia sighed. "I've noticed that she seemed to be upset yesterday and today too. I was just wondering if something happened that could've caused it." Twilight folded her hands nervously. "Well....we were just talking when the subject of Sunset's parents came up." Luna rolled her eyes. "Of course." She muttered. "Luna!" Celestia scolded her younger sister. "Oh please, we've all met them. We know what they're like! Of course Sunset would be upset talking about them." she reasoned. Celestia just sighed. "Thank you Twilight, I just wanted to make sure everything was alright." Twilight nodded and left. Luna looked at Celestia knowingly. "You still care about her, don't you?" she asked. "I care about all of my students." Celestia tried to defend herself, but even she knew that didn't stop her from caring about Sunset a little more than the others. "Of course..." Luna said, still knowing Celestia's feelings on the matter. She went to return to her own duties, leaving Celestia with her thoughts. While all this was going on, Sunset was still in the music room, drawing like mad, until she heard someone else enter. She looked to see Flash Sentry. "Sunset! Did you hear!?" Flash asked worriedly. "Hear about what?" Sunset asked, confused. "About the big lizard thing some others spotted outside!" Sunset's eyes went wide at that. "What!?" "Yeah! Twilight and the others went to deal with it, but it ran off into the woods!" Flash gave a sigh. "They're alright, thank the stars, but that thing is still out there somewhere. I hope it doesn't hurt anybody.." "Yeah..." Sunset said, deep in though about the creature. Flash, seeing her worry, decided they needed a change of topic. That's when he spotted the sketchbook in Sunset's lap. "What's that?" He pointed to Sunset's latest creation, which looked like some sort of mud monster. "It's pretty good, did you make it?" "Oh. It's just a hobby to work out some things..." Sunset shifted nervously. Flash caught on to this. "Are you ok? You've been acting upset lately." "Oh! It's nothing!" Sunset said, trying to get him off her back. "C'mon Sunset we used to date, I know when something's bothering you." Flash insisted. But before Sunset could come up with anything, the speaker came to life. "Will Sunset Shimmer please report to my office please?" Celestia's voice rang out. Sunset took this opportunity to escape. "Welp! She's calling me! See ya later!" She left as fast as she could before Flash could say anything. He sighed. Maybe Twilight knew something...? Sunset entered Celestia's office and found her alone behind her desk. She looked up from her work. "Please, sit." Celestia said gently. Sunset obliged before speaking. "Is there something wrong?" She asked worriedly. Had that teacher caught her drawing in class after all? Did someone accuse her of something? "No, I just wanted to speak to you for a few minutes." Celestia continued to speak gently. "I've been noticing that you seem be upset about something. Do you want to talk about it?" Sunset diverted her eyes as she tried to evade the question. "Well, you know us teenagers with our hormones and mood-swings and stuff..." Celestia sighed, decided to hit the nail on the head. "Sunset, Twilight told me you've been having problems with your parents lately. I could call them down and we could talk about this if it'll help..." Celestia was cut off when Sunset jumped out of her seat. "What!?" Sunet's face was red with anger now. "First Twilight, then Flash...and now YOU! What is it with everyone sticking their noses into my personal life!?" "Sunset, please, we just want to help.." Celestia tried to calm her down but Sunset cut her off again. "Well I don't want your help! So just do yourselves a favor and just LEAVE ME ALONE!" Sunset then stormed out of the office, slamming the door behind her and leaving Celestia to stunned to process what just happened. Sunset returned home, still furious after the events of the day. She deliberately avoided her friends whenever she could and rushed out before they had a chance to talk to her. She pulled out her sketchbook and got to work, drawing more monsters as a means of getting everything out.