On the outskirts of campus was a two story house with a few vehicles parked in front, including a u-hall truck. A red car pulled up to the house, which four guys got out of. Blaze was coming out of the driver’s side, wearing his black shirt with a red lion’s head on it, blue jeans, and black shoes on. Steel came out of the passenger’s side, wearing his black shirt with a green bull’s head on it, black knee-length shorts, and white tennis shoes. Rocky, wearing his red shirt with a ram on it, gray pants, and black tennis shoes, and Needle, wearing his white shirt, black leather jacket, dark blue jeans, and gray shoes, were coming out from the back seat. They looked around to see the back of the u-hall still open with some big furniture in it.
Rocky looked at the furniture and complained. “Do not tell me that we have to bring that inside for her.”
“Hey! If you expect me to do it all by myself, then forget it!”
They looked up to see a white lady with long blonde hair, wearing her white blouse and gray pants and shoes.
“Hey Silver! Any word on Sea and Crab?” Blaze asked.
“They’re still on their way. Aria and Sonata are on the lookout for them when they arrive. Now can you at least get the heavy stuff in here?”
Rocky looked at the furniture, then back to Silver. “How come Gem and Centaur can’t do it for you?”
“Because they already worked on getting the bed mattress up here. Right now, their helping Soul and Daisy unpack and set up.” Silver then pointed at him and yelled, “And don’t think you can walk out of it that easy. Now move it!” She started to walk back inside.
Needle patted Rocky’s shoulder and said, “She’s already on you now.”
“Shut up!”
As they went to grab the heavy furniture from the u-hall and up the stairs, Silver went to join Gem and Daisy in the kitchen.
“Already giving Rocky a hard time?” Gem asked as she was putting dishes in the cabinets.
“Someone has to keep him in line,” Silver replied.
“No more than that girl that went all out on Applejack,” Gem said.
“You mean Sour Sweet?” Daisy replied. “I think it has to do with that bipolar condition she has. Very rare from what her friends have told me.”
“She’s not going to be a problem like last time, is she,” Silver asked.
“Well I did hear that she’s into archery,” Daisy explained.
“So is Applejack,” Gem added. “And her family runs the biggest apple farm out there.”
“You’re not thinking of hooking those two up, are you?” Silver asked.
“I would,” Gem replied. “But I’m in no rush to do so. I’m sure she’ll do it herself. In time, of course.”
“Let’s just focus on what’s in front of us right now,” Daisy replied.
“I have to agree.”
The ladies looked to see Blaze in the doorway, nearly out of breath.
“Furniture is unloaded and in the house. I hope this place was worth it.”
Silver went to get a glass and fill it with cold water. “We have a good view from up here. And once Centaur and Soul get the system set up, we should be good to go.” She handed the water to Blaze.
“Good,” Blaze said, then took a sip of water. “I’m getting tired of Rocky complaining.”
“Hey! Came we get some water here?” Rocky yelled from the living room.
“Hold your horses, buddy.” Gem went to grab a glass and filed it with cold water, then walked towards the living room.
“Is isn’t going to end well,” Silver said.
**SPLASH**
“WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT FOR?”
“THAT’S WHAT YOU GET FOR BITCHING AND COMPLAINING! HAPPY NOW?”
Blaze looked at Silver and asked, “You want to diffuse this, or should I?”
Silver just raised her hand in agreement and made her way to the living room, with Blaze and Daisy behind her. “All right, that’s enough. Both of you.”
“But she-”
“I said THAT’S ENOUGH!” Silver took a deep breath and regained her composure. “Listen. This isn’t just my new house, but it’s going to be our base of operations from here on out.”
“She’s right. And I expect everyone here to understand that.” The group looked at the main entrance to see River Song staring at them with Adagio behind her. “We have every team member on campus, and some special students that we need to keep an eye on if we plan to get the job done this time.”
Rocky, who was still wet, wanted to get a better idea on the ones that they were talking about. “If you don’t mind me asking, what makes them special?”
Adagio walked forward to answer. “They possess Equestrian magic. Not just from within, but also from the pendants they wear that gives them skills suited to each one of them. And I hope they become the key piece we need to deal with this threat that you all have been facing.”
“I hope you’re right about that.” A young lady with light purple skin and shoulder length purple hair, wearing a purple dress and purple heels, came out of another room nearby. “Everything’s connected and just about ready. Centaur is now booting up the computer for a quick test run.”
“That’s good to hear, Soul.” River Song looked over to Silver and asked. “Any word on Sea Spray?”
“Nothing yet. But Aria and Sonata are on the lookout for them when they check in.”
“Once he gets here, I want him on the computer and make sure we have access to every resource we need.”
“Do we even know what happened to them?” Gem asked.
“All I know is that they had to take a detour and came across one during that route,” Silver explained. “They’re OK, but I don’t feel so sure from the sound of his voice when he contacted me.”
“If they came across one, then I’m sure they can handle it by themselves,” Gem explained.
Centaur showed himself from the same room that Soul came from. “Everything’s working fine. Just need Sea Spray to look it over and add the final touches, and we should be in full operation.”
“Nice to see that you’re still in one piece, mentally,” Adagio said. “Came across any girls that caught your eye?” A smirk came across her face.
“Now don’t get him started,” Gem responded. “We already had one girl that’s going to be trouble for him earlier.”
“You’re just saying that because you want to hook him up with that farm girl you just met,” Daisy responded.
“Well, she’s better suited for him than that crazy chick.”
“She’s not crazy. And she has the same guidance councilor that Centaur has to see for therapy.”
“So somehow, they plan to cross paths again?” Gem crossed her arms. “I really don’t want the same thing happening again like last time.”
Centaur placed his hand in front of his face before he could respond. “You two are not helping here.”
Gem looked at him and said, “Centaur, you decided to let out your frustration by using copies of those two girls for target practice. If you plan to use new targets, it better not be Applejack, you hear.”
“And I don’t want Sour Sweet to be one as well,” Daisy added. “I’m sure you’ll understand her better once you get to know her. She’s even into archery.”
“Same goes for Applejack.”
“HEY! No one’s going to be targets here,” Adagio replied. “We’re dealing with special girls, remember?”
“Adagio, we all know that AJ is one of the girls with magic,” Gem responded. “But this other girl is just some average teenager from some other school, right?”
“She’s actually from Crystal Prep, along with a few others that’s living in that dorm,” Daisy replied.
“We just met two other girls on the track earlier,” Needle said. “Both of them were athletes from CPA and CHS.”
“So you met Indigo Zap?” Silver asked, to which Needle nodded.
“We did,” Blaze added. “And we had to keep the guys in line in the process.”
“You make sure you do that,” Silver replied. “Or I’m going to slap some on them, if you know what I mean.”
“Excuse me,” Rocky explained. “Last I checked, you and Steel were trying to chat one up with those two beauties after practice.”
“Actually, it was the girls who started it,” Needle corrected.
“Two beauties? Would one of them be Rarity?” Daisy asked, to which Blaze nodded. “Was the other one Fluttershy?”
“She had shorter darker hair than Rarity,” Steel answered.
“That would be Sunny Flare, another student from CPA,” Adagio explained. “She’s the one trying to keep Sour Sweet in line. But there was something different about those five girls from CPA.”
Silver had a curious look on her face. “What makes you say that?”
River Song was about to answer when they heard a loud car horn from outside.
“That must be them.” Gem started to make her way outside. But when she got outside, she saw a campus truck parked next to the other cars.
Gears got out of the truck and yelled, “GET DOWN HERE, FAST!!!”
Blaze, Silver, and River Song went outside to see Gears and Sonata go to the back seat of the truck. They puled out a guy with dark blue skin and short dark green hair, wearing a green shirt with waves on the front, blue pants, and black shoes.
“What happen to Sea Spray?” Blaze yelled.
“He’s been exposed,” Gears replied.
“So is Crab Hammer,” Sonata added.
Blaze when back in to get Steel, and both of them went down to the truck and pulled out another guy with red skin and orange hair, wearing an orange button-up shirt, blue jeans, and brown boots. All four of them got the two guys inside. Rocky decided to get up and let the two guys sit down to recover.
River Song went over to look at them. “What happened?”
Gears explained. “Aria was helping them check in while getting an update on what they encountered, and by the time they finished unloaded, they almost fainted.”
“There was a strange reaction coming from their left hands,” Sonata added.
River Song took a moment to look at Sea Spray’s hand and could see what looked like green electricity surrounding it. She took out a mechanical wand and started to scan his hand. Then she looked at it and was stunned at what she saw. “Adagio? Time to go to work.”
Adagio nodded and went up to them, exposing their left hands in front of her. She went into her blouse and pulled out a green gem-like pedant that she had on her. Holding onto both their hands, she started to hum a melody, but not like the style that she used to sing. This was more of a calm hum. Her gem started to glow and started to absorb the energy that was emitting from their hands until it was all gone. When she stopped humming, the two guys started to come through.
“Sea Spray? What the heck happened to you and Crabby?” Gem asked.
Sea Spray took a moment to gather his thoughts. “Well, we were on our way here when traffic started to back up. So we took a detour to get here.”
“Told you to leave sooner,” Gem said.
“There’s more. During our detour, we started to detect a nearby rift and went to check it out. The… monsters that we faced were easy at first. But when I went to close the rift, it backfired in the process. That was when more monsters came out. They were a bit stronger than before, but we were able to take them out. Crab went to close the rift himself, but experienced the same result I did. We… had to react quickly before more came out, so we combine our powers and were able to close the rift. But…”
“You were exposed to the rift’s side effects, right?” Daisy asked.
“That’s right. We thought we could handle it like our first time. But somehow… well, you can see what just happened to us.”
“That’s impossible. It shouldn’t take two people to close a rift,” Rocky explained.
“Easy there, Rocky.” Blaze looked to River Song and asked, “What was the reading?”
“Level three.”
“Level three? That can’t be possible,” Rocky responded.
“That’s what it said,” River Song explained.
Blaze looked at Centaur and said, “You said you encountered a category three. Can you explain what happened.”
Daisy looked at them and said, “It happened while you were at football camp.”
The small town was being attacked by imps and skeletons coming from a big green tear in the air. Humans were running away from them in a panic. One guy tripped and fell in the process, allowing a skeleton to come up to him. As it was about to strike, a golden boomerang came across and struck it in the next before it disappeared and became a streak of light, going back into the tear. The guy looked back and saw a small lady in full golden armor grab the boomerang in the air.
“Are you ok?” she asked and she ran up to the guy.
“Who… who are you?”
“No time to explain. You need to get out of here, now!”
As he started to get up, they heard a little girl scream as an imp was running up to her. She was about to throw her boomerang when the imp was hit by an arrow, sending the imp back into the tear. They looked to see a young man in golden armor, similar to hers.
“Capricorn, you ok?”
“I’m fine, Sagittarius.” She ran up and scooped up the girl and brought her up to the guy, hand her to him. “Here. Take her and get out of here. We’ll deal with this.”
The guy quickly nodded and ran off with the girl in tow. The two armored knights looked at the tear and the monsters surrounding it. The man named Sagittarius took his bow and grabbed arrows that appeared from his backside, shooting at each monster that was there. The woman named Capricorn took her boomerang and threw it at each monster, striking each one in the process. Each monster they struck was sent back into the tear behind them until none were left. That was when they saw a change in the tear. Capricorn extended her left hand, which started to glow green, and created an electric chain with the tear. She started to pull her hand back, trying to destroy the tear. But just then, a bright flash happened, throwing the two knights back, severing the connection. They looked to see the tear still there.
“No. It should be closed by now,” Capricorn said.
Before they could react, green bolts started to strike the ground, causing more monsters to appear. But these ones were different than before.
“Goblins… and Orcs? Not good.” Sagittarius collapsed his bow and placed it on his back. Then he pulled out a golden saber from his belt. “Can you still fight?”
She got back up and had her boomerang in hand. “Until every one of them are gone.”
They went on and engaged the group of monsters. But because they were stronger than before, they had to strike up close than before. They went on, cutting off their heads or finding their weak points in order to send them back into the tear until they were eliminated. Capricorn started to stretch out her hand again, but was too weak to do so.
“Sagittarius! You’re going to have to do it for me.”
Sagittarius nodded and extended his hand, creating the same effect that Capricorn did before. But it created the same backlash like before, throwing them farther back.
“Damn it! Something’s not right about this,” Sagittarius said.
“We need to close it,” Capricorn explained. “We can’t take on another round of those things.”
The tear started to create another reaction, sending more monsters to their world. With little time left, Sagittarius dropped his saber and grabbed his bow and one arrow from his back. He quickly aimed the arrow towards the tear and started to summon all the energy around him into the tip of the arrow until it was bright. “ARROW… SHOCK… WAVE!!!!” In one quick motion, he released the arrow, striking the tear and causing a large blast of light to appear. Once the light faded, the tear in front of him was gone.
Tired, he grabbed his saber, and went to help Capricorn up and went over to a dumpster in an alleyway to hide. Once hidden, he touched the back of his left hand that displayed the symbol of the Zodiac Sagittarius, causing his armor to disappear. Capricorn did the same with her Zodiac symbol on the back of her left hand.
“Centaur. What just happened there? We never had this problem before.”
“I don’t know, Daisy. But if I had to take a guess, that was a category three rift we just faced.”
“You mean-”
“I believe so.” Centaur went to help Daisy up. “We better get back and make sure we haven’t been exposed to it.”
As they were walking out of the alleyway, a guy noticed them coming out.
“HEY! I FOUND SOME SURVIVORS!” He ran up to them. “You two alright?”
“I believe so,” Centaur replied.
“Did you see what happened?”
“I’m… not sure. I was too busy helping my friend while it was all taking place. If you don’t mind, I want to make sure she’s fine.”
“There should be an ambulance coming this way.”
“That’s ok. I can take her in my truck. You check if anyone else is hurt.”
“Sure.” The guy ran off to look for anyone else, allowing the two to walk away.
“That was close,” Daisy said.
“So. It seems that all of Aria’s training has finally paid off,” Adagio said.
“Maybe so,” Daisy said. “But it would have been a lot worse if we did what Sea Spray and Crab Hammer did today.”
“We were lucky to avoid being exposed to the rift’s energy,” Centaur explained.
Silver asked, “But if that was a category three, then-”
“Then our mission just got more challenging,” Blaze finished.
Just then, Gears’ cell phone started to ring. He went to answer it before hanging up and turning to the others. “That was Aria. She needs me over at one of the dorms… again.”
“Go on ahead,” Silver requested. “We should be fine for now.”
As Gears and Sonata were starting to walk out, Sonata looked back at the two on the couch and said, “You come by later on so that I can fix you some good food to help you get your strength back.”
“No problem,” Sea Spray said while displaying a thumbs up.
“Better make it extra,” Silver said. “We’ve done a lot of work getting this place set up.”
Sonata nodded and displayed a smile before leaving with Gears.
Steel looked at Blaze and asked, “So, what do we do now?”
“Good question.” Blaze placed his hand on his chin and started to think. “Even if we were to take on every rift that appeared, Centaur would be the only one who could close it safely.”
“What about Gem’s power shot,” Daisy asked. “It’s also a ranged attack.”
“I’m not sure it would have the same effect,” Soul explained. “She can aim just like Centaur, but she would be using a gun instead of a bow and arrow. Collecting the energy with be a different process.”
“She’s right,” Sea Spray said. “It won’t be the same as Arrow Shockwave. But, if we’re dealing with category three rifts, then we need to find others ways to close them. We can’t rely this task to Centaur alone.”
“There may be another option,” Gem said. “I was talking to Moon Dancer and her old friend, Twilight Sparkle, and they believe that the bracelet that Moon Dancer has could contain some kind of magic that could help us.”
“Do you know what kind?” Sea Spray asked.
Gem started to scratch the back of her head. “I couldn’t understand the mumbo jumbo that they were talking about. But I did ask that you should look into what they discovered about it and see if you can make some sense about it.”
“Whenever she’s ready to show me what’s she’s learned, then I’ll be happy to look into it.”
“Well, you can make sure the systems are ready to go,” Centaur said. “I got it booted. Just need you to finish up the remaining bits and pieces so that we can stay alert for more rifts… and other problems that would come our way.”
“Agreed,” River Song said. “We need to be ready for anything.”
“And what about those girls with the magic that they posses,” Rocky asked.
“I recommend you get to know them better when you meet them,” Adagio said. “Including the ones from CPA.”
“Why? Just to make sure they don’t become a problem with Centaur?” Gem explained.
“Not really.” A look of concern came across Adagio’s face. “Somehow, I could sense… something from them.”
“Equestria magic?” Blaze asked.
“I’m not sure. There was a… mixture of something coming from them. Something that I don’t think Sunset Shimmer could even detect.”
“Speaking of which, you think she could close these rift herself, like what we heard from these… Friendship Games that happened back then?” Blaze asked.
“That would be a good question,” Adagio said. “But we won’t know until it happens. I think it would be best that Centaur, Gem, and Daisy work on gaining their trust, since they would be in the center of all this. River Song knows about their magic, but they want to keep it a secret from others. And since we’re trying to keep your secret about being the Zodiac Knights from them, then-”
“We should wait until they come across one before confronting them about who we really are,” Blaze explained. “Centaur, Gem, Daisy. I’m leaving that task to you three for now. The rest of us will help out with these girls, but only for certain reasons.”
“Don’t forget. Sunset can read your minds with just a touch,” Adagio explained. “I do your best to avoid contact unless you can block out her powers.”
“Let’s not forget about Applejack,” Gem said. “Sunset did say that she knows when someone’s lying in front of her.”
“Could be the tone of the person’s voice,” Soul explained. “That would be a dead giveaway. I would like to meet her if that’s possible.”
Blaze looked around the room. “If that’s all, then we stick to our usual business for now. Knight’s Honor!
“KNIGHT’S HONOR!”