//------------------------------// // One Heck of a Greeting // Story: Equestria Girls: X.A.N.A Strikes Back // by Israel Yabuki //------------------------------// It seemed like a very busy day in Canterlot City. Throughout those times, a lot has changed. One such change was Sunset and her friends going their seperate ways some time after high school. Twilight had gotten enrolled into Canterlot University in order to further her education. She has yet to decide on her career, but she might take up on becoming a scientist or maybe a librarian. She's moved out of her parents' house and now lives in a dorm at the university. Twilight still keeps in touch with the others for friendly chats. Applejack stayed at Sweet Apple Acres with the rest of her family, harvesting and delivering apples to the markets, despite being short-staffed. At least for a while, anyways. At one point during the harvest season, Applejack's parents Bright Mac and Pear Butter had returned. From what everyone else heard, Pear Butter's father, Grand Pear, was looking for them after he had cooled down. He found them on the far outskirts of the city in a small town, hungry and tired from their travels. Now home, safe and sound, the family was finally together again and business has never been better. Rarity also devoted the rest of her time taking over Carousel Boutique. Every day, Rarity's orders pile up and she works her mittens off, designing new ensembles for her loyal customers. She also happens to be the owner of the shop while her parents got other jobs. Cookie Crumbles got a job at a nice hair salon and Hando Flanks works at a lake, renting out fishing boats to people who want to catch some big fish. Needless to say, both are doing moderately well, so is their daughter. As for Rarity's little sister, Sweetie Belle, her high school days are soon coming to an end and his planning on learning how to make dresses like Rarity. Fluttershy continues to work for the animal shelter. And now that she's devoted to working full-time, she was able to use the extra money to expand the shelter, adding some more space for the animals to roam and even added a backyard for them to run around in. Fluttershy has also been able to give many of her sweet animals some brand new homes. She's even rescued some animals off the streets. Rainbow Dash applied for a job at a public gym as a trainer. Every day, she gets requests from a couple of people who are trying to get in better shape. A few wanted to shape up for a triathalon, others just need to lose some body fat and increase their stamina. Whatever the reason they had for training, she's helping them get into tip top physical shape, bragging about one day turning them into champions. True, she hasn't changed personality wise, but she's still loved by her co-workers and her friends. Pinkie Pie continues to help the Cakes at Sugar Cube Corner, baking and selling delicious goodies and babysitting the Cake twins whenever it's lunchtime or closing time. Sometimes, she would take time off to go and visit her sisters and parents just to catch up on some family time. As for Sunset Shimmer, she works at a store in the mall, booking appointments for kids, teens and young adults to come and play some VR games. It's been an exhausting experience, but she found her job to also have a fun side to it, being that anytime she's on lunch break, she'll have her quick lunches and join in on some of the gaming actions with other players. The other gamers didn't mind Sunset. And even her boss finds it relieving that their clients enjoy her company. However, today has been rather slow. It's Monday and most of the kids and teens were at school and not many clients have been showing up. With her boss out of town, Sunset was in charge of the shop. There were no appointments today, but if nothing happens later on after her lunch, she can close up shop early and head back home and be able to relax. Sunset didn't know what else to do, other than listen to some music on her phone or read a magazine, but she couldn't go and play some VR games because who knows if the place'll get a phone call or if someone walks in and asks to schedule a time they can come in and play games. Sunset was bored out of her mind, standing near the entrance behind the desk. With a sigh, she strolled through her songs to see what she could listen to, just anything at all to pass the time. About 10 minutes before her lunchbreak, something strange happened. One minute, all of the TV screens were on, then suddenly, they all turned off. Same happened with the lights. And not just the ones in the gaming corner, but all around the mall, which was bizarre. "What the? What's going on?" Sunset asked. She the front desk to check the TV screens. Suddenly, the TVs turned back on and a strange logo appeared on the screen. It wasn't like any other logo she's seen, but something about it told her this was something very bad. Her hunch was right. The wires from inside the wall suddenly burst out and try to grab Sunset. She jumps back. They try and grab her again and she jumps to the side, then they start to chase after her, but she runs out of the shop. Panic rang throughout the mall. People were screaming and running from what looked like lightning strikes from certain mall stores. Sunset ran through the mall and headed towards the exit. Everywhere she looked, the same logo appeared on every electronic screen. Sunset finally made it outside the mall and thought it was safe to call her friends. She dialed Twilight's number, then waited for her to pick up. The more she waited, the more anxious she was getting. "Come on Twilight, answer the phone, this is an emergency, for crying out loud!" she said. Finally, she heard her friend's voice. "Sunset?" Twilight asked over the phone. "Twilight listen to me, something's wrong! Everyone in the mall is being attacked! I don't know what it is, but I need you here right away! Can you meet me at town square?" Sunset asked. "If by something wrong, do you mean that there are crazy bulky wires trying to electocute you? Because that's exactly what happened to me and some of my classmates!" Twilight replied. "Did all of this start happening this weird logo appeared on your screen?" Sunset asked "Yeah, it appeared on my laptop!" she confirmed. "Alright, tell the other girls to meet me in town square and we'll figure out a way to stop this! And whatever you do, stay away from any kind of electronic building! Be careful," With that beind said, Sunset hung up, running as fast as she can to her destination. Now that her attention is brought back to her surroundings, she's left speechless cracks in the ground begin to form. Traffic lights were blinking, cars were scattered in the streets while crashed into some lamp posts and a few fire hydrants. "What is going on around here?" Sunset asks, still running. Taking out her phone, she wastes no time in calling the rest of her friends. Finally arriving at Town Square, the whole gang shows up and all of them seemed pretty shaken up. "Okay girls, we all know why we're here," Sunset said. "You bet I know why. Everything's gone haywire! What's up with the street lights and the buildings? That freaky logo on the screens are everywhere!" Rainbow added. "It just doesn't make sense. It's like the moment that logo showed up, everything electronic in the city went haywire and is now completely hostile. We have to find out what's going on and soon, otherwise everyone'll get hurt, or maybe worse," Twilight said. "Yes, I understand, darling. But how are we going to find the source?" Rarity asks. "Why don't we try and track it down using some sort of virus detector?" Fluttershy asks. "Well, we could try to use my laptop, but I don't know if it's still operational," Twilight said, reaching into her backpack and pulling out her laptop. "Here goes nothing." Twilight soon opened up her laptop and upon turning it on, nothing happened. The logo didn't appear on the screen like it did before. "Alright! Now let's track it down!" Rainbow said. "Not yet, first I have to install a program that'll prevent that logo from appearing again," Twilight said. She sat down on the bench and got to work on her anti-viral protection program. It took merely a few minutes to finally get it up and running, but she did it. Now she focused on tracking down the source by installing an advanced tracking app on her laptop. Within a few more minutes, she picked up a signal. "Okay girls, I got a hit! Now I just gotta type in the address in my phone and we should be good to go," Twlight said, doing just that. "Alright! Way to go, Twilight!" Pinkie exclaimed. However, Pinkie's cheering was soon cut short when the ground started to rumble more violently. Danger was drawing near and the girls all had to act fast. Once Twilight had copied the address onto her phone, she followed the trail with the others close behind. Cars beeped and street lights were shattering and the ground continued to rumble. It didn't take long until the ground started to crack and bolts of lightning shot out. The girls ran as fast as they could while avoiding any contact with the lightning. 10 minutes went by and finally, they reach where the source is coming from. They all stare in bewilderment as the source was coming from an abandoned factory on the outskirts of Canterlot City. Twilight double-checked to see if her phone isn't on the fritz or if there was a glitch in it. "This looks like the place," Twilight said. "Are you sure? It doesn't look like it's been used for years," Fluttershy said. "Not to mention it might collapse at any second," Rarity said. "No, the factory may be old, but it's not old enough to erode and fall to the ground. Judging by the structure, it should be able to stay in tact for a long time. Now, let's head inside and check the place out, but we gotta hurry, Canterlot City won't last much longer," Twilight explained. "Alright. Come on, girls. Stay close and don't get separated," Sunset said. The gang crossed the bridge and headed inside the factory. As expected, the place looked deserted and not a single person was in sight. Suddenly, "Twi, Sunset, look down there, quick!" Applejack said, pointing at something down on the bottom floor with her eyes wide. "What's wrong, Applejack?" Sunset asked, running up to her. Sunset looks down at the direction of where she's pointing and looked just as surprised as her. It seemed that AJ spotted an elevator. "Girls, Applejack spotted an elevator, maybe the thing still works!" "We won't know unless we find out for ourselves, but how do we get down there?" Twilight asks. "Easy, just do this!" Rainbow runs over to the ledge and then jumps off. The girls got scared and tried to stop her, but she ended up grabbing onto a rope and swung down safely. "Ta-da!" "Rainbow Dash, have you lost your marbles?! What if you didn't grab it like you planned! Don't you ever scare us like that ever again!" Rarity scolded. "So-rry, jeez, I was just having some fun," Rainbow shrugged. "Here, I'll get us down there safe and sound," Rarity said. Placing her hand on her geode, she conjures up diamonds under her friends' feet, including herself and levitates everyone down to the bottom. "Thanks, Rarity," Sunset said. "Anytime, darling," she replied with curtsy. "Alright, time to get to the bottom of this! TALLY-HO!!!!!" Pinkie hollered, running into the elevator. The others all ran inside and Twilight pushed the button. The elevator doors closed and everyone descended down into what Twilight to be the heart of the entire factory. The elevator comes to a stop and the doors open up. Twilight blinks in surprise. Somehow, much to everyone's surprise, the factory wasn't completely abandoned. Right before their very eyes, a group of people, probably around the girls' ages had arrived at the factory before them. The group standing before them seemed to be just as surprised as they were. "Uh... wh-what's going on here?" Twilight asked. "We should be asking you girls the same thing. How'd you find this place?" the pink-haired girl asked. "Um, we tracked the signal from that logo that keeps popping up everywhere in the city, duh!" Rainbow said, making the other girls facepalm. "Rainbow, this is no time for jokes! I'm sorry for the intrusion, but we arrived here in order to put a stop to whatever was causing trouble around the city," Sunset added. "Well, you're here now, so we might as well give you the rundown," said the pink-haired girl. "But first, you have to promise us that you can keep a secret. We don't want anyone else outside the group know what we do here," said the blonde guy with glasses. The girls nod. "Alright..."