A Siren’s Requiem! Sunset Shimmer Vs. Aria Blaze!
“What’s wrong?” Aria Blaze remarked with an almost Cheshire Cat-like grin on her face. “You all look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
Indeed, a deafening silence had fallen over the gymnasium as nearly every Canterlot High student stared in disbelief at the return of one of the Dazzlings, having experienced first hand the power of their siren song during the Battle of the Bands. Many of the Crystal Prep students were also staring in confusion, largely because none of them could remember having seen this girl until today, despite her apparently being a Crystal Prep student too.
They weren’t the only ones to notice something was off, as Luna glanced at Cinch from where they were seated. “What is she doing here?”
“Oh? I was unaware you were all acquainted with her,” Cinch remarked, seemingly undeterred by this sudden turn of events. “Regardless, I fail to see any problem here.”
“Don’t lie!” Luna hissed at her, standing up from her seat and looming over Cinch. “You know full well she’s not a Crystal Prep stud–”
“Oh, but she is,” Cinch replied with a smirk that caused Luna’s hand to instinctively clench into a fist. “Or would you prefer I pull up her acceptance forms just to prove it?”
Luna growled, reluctantly sitting back down as she realized fighting with Cinch at this juncture would only be a waste of time.
Celestia, however, was not about to let Cinch have the last word so easily. “Abacus, if you try and pull any kind of tricks again like you did during the Friendship Games–”
“Oh, perish the thought!” Cinch replied with a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.
“It’s been a while,” Sunset finally said after a moment. “Last time anyone saw you was when you ran off after the Battle of the Bands.”
“And whose fault was that?!” Aria snarled, slamming her hand against the top of the projector. “Everything was going perfect for us, but you and your friends just had to mess it all up! Do you have any idea how hard it’s been since you shattered our gems? We actually had to live like… like humans!”
Sunset raised an eyebrow. “I fail to see how that’s a bad thing…”
“We had power! Now we actually had to get jobs and work to keep from going hungry! Adagio and that airheaded Sonata may be fine with it, but I won’t rest until I get you back for what you did to us, Sunset Shimmer! And if thrashing you in this silly little game will help me do that, then fine by me!”
“Um…” Twilight looked around at her friends, each of them with a stern look on their faces. “Anybody want to tell me what’s going on? Who is that girl?”
“Nothin’ but trouble, that’s what,” Applejack replied. “Last time she and her buddies showed their faces, they tried to use their wicked magic to turn the school against itself.”
“And they might very well have succeeded, were it not for some much-needed help from Sunset and Princess Twilight,” Rarity added. “After we managed to stop them, they all ran off and haven’t been seen since… till now that is.”
“Knew that Cinch was a real rotten piece of work, but to call in one of them to do her dirty work for her…” Rainbow said, clenching her fists tightly and looking like she was just barely restraining herself from going down there and dealing with the Siren herself.
[Gunpla Battle, Combat Mode, Startup.]
As the projector dispersed a cloud of particles, it formed into an island surrounded on all sides by a crystal clear ocean.
[Field 12, Island. Please Set Your Gunpla.]
Docking her Unicorn Nova Gundam onto the base, Sunset gripped both controllers tightly as she waited for the signal to begin.
[Battle Start!]
“Unicorn Nova Gundam! Launching!”
Launching into the field, Sunset quickly came up on the island in the center of the arena, setting down within a small forest of trees near the coast as she braced herself behind a row of trees as she scanned her surroundings in search of her opponent. The trees swayed in the breeze, the calming sounds of waves crashing up against the shore as several seconds slowly ticked by without so much as a twig snapping underfoot.
I don’t like this… Why hasn’t she attacked me yet? Slowly inching herself forward, Sunset would pause every few steps to peer through her rifle’s sight. Her senses were on high alert as she moved across the island, her muscles coiled like a snake ready to strike as she prepared for her opponent to announce themselves.
Suddenly, a beam of orange plasma lanced through the treeline, forcing Sunset to quickly dive to the side to avoid being blasted. Spinning around, Sunset pointed her rifle in the direction the beam had come from and fired off a return shot. The beam cut through the treeline like a knife through butter, scorching a section of beach as the shot slammed into the ocean and blasted a tower of water into the air.
Before Sunset could even stop to catch her breath, another orange beam shot towards her from a completely different angle, just barely crazing the Unicorn Nova’s shoulder. Yet another beam quickly followed, forcing Sunset to duck and roll to avoid the attack. Breaking out into a run, Sunset returned fire again and again as trees exploded around her, any cover she could find slowly dwindling with each passing second.
She’s herding me out into the open, but unless I can figure out where she’s firing from I’m a sitting duck either way!
Skidding to a halt on the beach, Sunset jerked her rifle to the left before sweeping it around to the right, posed to fire off a shot the second she saw even the slightest of movement. “Come out already, you coward!”
“Careful what you wish for…”
With the speed of a viper, a thick cable shot out of the water and wrapped itself around the Unicorn Nova’s left ankle. Before Sunset could make a move to blast the cable, several more lanced out of the water and wrapped themselves around her Gunpla’s other ankle, both arms, waist, and neck, holding them in place as the Unicorn Nova was slowly dragged it towards the open water.
“The water!” Grunting, Sunset struggled desperately against her binds, digging her Gunpla’s heels into the sand to try and keep from being pulled below. Chancing a glance towards the ocean, she saw a small break in the calm waters as a dark green armored head rose up, a small slit across its black visor flashing with a green light. Fighting with her controls, Sunset managed to raise her Gunpla’s arm enough to aim her rifle at the exposed Mobile Suit, the targeting reticles flitting across her screen as she tried to line up a shot.
The second the reticles aligned, a blast of crimson plasma barreled through the air from Sunset’s rifle, only for the opposing Gunpla to swiftly duck back under the waters, the shot slamming into the water and blasting up another spray of water up into the air.
“Shoot, missed!” Sunset hissed through clenched teeth as she continued to fight against the cables pulling her ever closer and closer towards the ocean.
“Struggle all you want…” Aria taunted through the commlinks. “... It only makes the hunt that much more interesting.”
Already the Unicorn Nova was beginning to tread water, both feet desperately trying to regain traction as the water rose higher and higher up its legs. No matter how much she struggled though, the Unicorn Nova was held fast by the thick cables wrapped around its limbs until with one last pull, the Gunpla was yanked into the water with a large splash and vanished beneath the surface.
“Where’d she go?” Rainbow asked. As if hearing her inquiry, the scene changed from a view of the island to an underwater camera, focusing on the Unicorn Nova as it continued to struggle against its binds.
“This is bad... “ Twilight muttered as she bit her nails with worry. “Despite being designed primarily for space, most Mobile Suits are at a severe disadvantage when in the water. Especially if her opponent’s Gunpla has been designed for underwater combat like I suspect it has…”
As Sunset continued to sink deeper and deeper into the dark depths, she finally got her first glimpse of Aria’s Gunpla as it finally emerged from the shadows to loom over its captured prey.
The Gunpla was a large and imposing figure, covered in thick armor that made it look almost bestial in nature. Five glowing jewels were arranged in a star-like pattern on the Gunpla’s chest, and at the end of its armored hands it possessed large, yellow claws. Sunset could just barely make out a tail armed with a beam rifle behind it, as the thick cables extending out from the Gunpla’s wrists continued to constrict around the Unicorn Nova. The armored head that had briefly poked up out of the water now stared down at her, lacking any visible eyes save for the thin line that glowed across its visor.
“Like it? I call it the Baqto Siren.” Aria smirked as she continued to tighten her hold on her prey. “That stuck-up Starlight made it for me specifically to crush you and your stupid friends and so far it seems to be doing its job quite well, wouldn’t you agree?”
Warning lights flashed all around Sunset as her Gunpla began to succumb to both its rapidly tightening binds and the sudden increase in water pressure around it, its joints and armor beginning to creak and bend under the pressure. Struggling against the cables, Sunset tried to reach for a beam saber, only for her entire Gunpla to be jerked around as Aria took off even deeper down into the ocean. With each passing second, the Unicorn Nova’s armor was beginning to buckle and crack more and more.
I gotta figure out a way out of this fast before she crushes me like a tin can!
Trying to raise her rifle despite her rapid descent, she tried to fire off a shot when Aria’s Gunpla suddenly jerked around and changed direction. Swimming up to the Unicorn Nova, Aria easily swiped the rifle out its hands, snapping it in half like it was made out of tissue paper and letting it sink to the bottom of the ocean.
“Can’t have that now, can we? You’re in my domain now, and I haven’t finished having my fun!”
She’s right, while in the water I’m completely at her mercy. I have to get back on dry land if I want a fighting chance! Bringing up her side console, Sunset hurriedly began to type, ignoring the warning signals going off around her eyes scanned through her Gunpla’s system outputs as fast as they could.
Reconnect the neural linkage network… Renew Meta-Active Field… Adjust Plavisky Particle transmission speed by 0.64 percent… Redirect power from the lower systems to backpack thrusters… Overwrite failsafe recoils... Initiate power overflow…
“What’s wrong?” Aria said with a smirk as the Unicorn Nova stopped struggling, swimming up to its face and leaning in closer. “Giving up already?”
Here goes nothing! “Destroy Mode, engage!”
Within the darkened depths, a bright radiance momentarily blinded Aria as the Baqto Siren recoiled back. Despite the crushing force of its bonds, the Unicorn Nova was still able to fully engage its Destroy Mode as the Psycho-Frame within its body activated and poured reserved strength into its systems. Without waiting a moment, Sunset gunned the Unicorn Nova’s thrusters, jets of blue plasma shooting out that caused the water all around the two combatants to bubble and boil as the Unicorn Nova rapidly began to ascend back towards the surface.
“Oh no, you don’t!” Gunning her own Gunpla’s thrusters, Aria was able to slow her upward momentum enough to allow her a moment to pull down on the binds still wrapped around Sunset’s Gunpla, halting both Gunpla in place as they engaged in a power struggle between Sunset desperate attempt to escape the cold depths and Aria’s own attempts to drag her back down into them, knowing that if she managed to do that her opponent would once more be at her mercy.
Pushing her thrusters to their absolute breaking point, Sunset inevitably won the tug-o-war between them, shooting up towards the surface with Aria helplessly dragging behind her. As the Unicorn Nova breached the surface with Aria in tow, it was able to travel several feet into the air before its thrusters finally gave out, sending the pair hurtling back down towards the island to crashland onto the sandy beach and fill the air with a cloud of kicked up sand.
As the sand cloud began to clear, the audience was finally able to see what had become of the two Gunpla, both Mobile Suits standing opposite one another like something out of a western movie. Thanks to a momentary slack in her bonds, Sunset had quickly used the opportunity to tear the cables from her Gunpla, finally freeing itself. However, it was not without a cost, as smoke poured from the Unicorn Nova’s vertical thrusters.
Unfortunately, Aria’s Gunpla was anything but a fish out of water, as it had remained largely undamaged from the crash and giving it the advantage.
Despite it all, however, Sunset was still smiling. She had an ace up her sleeve for just such an occasion. Switching to an option on her dash, the paneling that had risen up to reveal the Unicorn Nova’s Psycho-Frame System slid back into place as the Gunpla reverted back to its one-horned form. However, the glow of the Psycho-Frames could still barely be seen shining through the panels of the Gunpla, as if a great power was begging to be released.
“Whatever is Sunset doing?” Rarity asked.
“Bringing out her trump card,” Twilight replied with a smirk. “While we were designing the Unicorn Nova, Sunset made it very clear that she wanted a means to improve her Gunpla’s Unicorn Mode to be able to keep up with an enemy Gunpla without worrying of draining her systems dry through Destroy Mode. It’s called…”
“Daydream Mode!” Reaching up and grabbing one of the beam sabers attached to its backpack, one of the Unicorn Nova’s shields attached itself to the Gunpla’s left forearm as Sunset took up a battle-ready stance, preparing for Aria to react.
Growling, Aria glared at the Unicorn Nova through her monitors. “Fine, you want to do this the hard way, we can do this the hard way!” Moving with speed unbefitting its large stature, the Baqto Siren bored down on the Unicorn Nova, its large claws itching to tear the Gunpla limb from limb.
However, the Unicorn Nova too moved with unparalleled speed as it dodged a swipe from the Baqto Siren’s claws and slammed its shield into the bestial Gunpla, causing it to stumble back a step as Sunset brought her beam saber down to sever one of the opposing Gunpla’s arms. Raising its arm to block, a deep gash ran across the Baqto Siren’s forearm as it held the beam saber in place. With the attack blocked for now, the Gunpla’s tail flipped up and into its shoulder, the barrel of the beam rifle glowing yellow as it fired off an almost point-blank shot at Sunset.
Twisting its head to let the shot sail over its shoulder, Sunset deactivated her beam saber for a moment as she pulled her arm back and punched the Baqto Siren square in its non-existent jaw with a loud metallic clang. Jumping back to put some space between it and the Baqto Siren, the gun barrels on the sides of the Unicorn Nova’s shield extended as Sunset raised her shield and fired a barrage of plasma at the opposing Gunpla.
Each shot slammed into the Baqto Aria’s armor with enough force to drive it back, cracks slowly beginning to form in the thick armor. Steadying itself before the assault, the five crystals in the Gunpla’s chest glowed bright yellow before firing off a series of beams that coalesced into a singular blast that swallowed up the smaller blasts and hurtled towards Sunset, who was able to raise her shield in time to block most of the beam, though it still pushed her back a ways and left a smoking blast mark on her shield.
Raising its arms, the tips of the Baqto Siren’s fingers opened up to reveal small blaster ports that went to work launching off a quick barrage of blasts that rained down onto the beach towards the Unicorn Nova.
With another burst of speed, the Unicorn Nova swerved left and right as it avoided the oncoming barrage, moving with the fluidity and grace comparable to that of an experienced ice skater gliding effortlessly across the ice.
“Wowee, look at her go!” Rainbow Dash remarked with clear amazement across her face.
“Yep. While the power boost Daydream Mode gives isn’t even half of that given by Destroy Mode, the uptick in speed and reduced power drain more than makes up for it, making it almost comparable to Trans-Am in many ways. However, like Trans-Am it isn’t infinite, so Sunset still needs to figure out a way to end this fight, and fast…”
“Grrr… Sit still and let me destroy you already!” Aria spat out at Sunset as her attempts to hit the Gunpla proved futile. “I swear I’ll get you back for what you did to me!”
“And then what?” Sunset called out as she continued to dodge the blanket of blasts. “Defeating me won’t solve anything!”
“It’ll make me feel better! And maybe prove to Adagio and Sonata that I was right after all!” Powering up her chest blaster, Aria fired off everything she had in one large blast that slammed into the Unicorn Nova with a pronounced explosion that left a cloud of smoke clouding the area. “Got ya!”
Her joy was short-lived, however, as the Unicorn Nova, having now discarded its shield in favor of wielding a beam saber in both hands, leaped out of the smoke and into the air, its shadow looming over the Baqto Siren.
“This ends now!” With beam sabers in hand, Sunset plummeted down and slammed both of them down onto the top of the Baqto Siren’s head, the beams of hot plasma slicing through it like a hot knife through butter as gravity helped drive the attack downward until Sunset landed back on her feet on the beach, the beams of her sabers cutting out as the Baqto Siren stood perfectly still for a moment before an orange glow appeared straight down the length of the Gunpla, the two bisected halves topping over before sparking and exploding.
[Battle Ended! Winner: Unicorn Nova!]
Thunderous applause erupted from the stands as the match came to a glorious end, securing yet another win for Canterlot High. As the projector shut down and the image of battle faded away, Sunset breathed a long sigh of relief at having come out on top once more. Picking up her Gunpla, she smiled down at her partner. “Good work out there, Nova.” Her smile vanished, however, as she glanced over at Aria Blaze, the former siren looking like she was seconds away from a complete meltdown.
“Damn it!” Aria swore as she slammed both fists against the projector, breathing through clenched teeth as her shoulders shook with barely restrained rage. “Why do I always lose? Just once can’t things go my way, is that too much to ask!?” A choked sob escaped the girl as it took her everything she had to not start crying right there and now.
Despite everything that Aria had put Sunset and her friends through… she couldn’t help but feel sorry for the poor girl. Walking up to her, Sunset put her hand on the trembling girl’s shoulder. “Hey, Aria–”
“What do you want?!” Aria snapped back, whipping her head up to glare at Sunset. “Come to gloat?”
“No, I…” Sunset didn’t know what she could possibly say to Aria to make up for everything, but still she said, “I… I just want you to know that you put up a good fight back there. If you ever want to Gunpla Battle again, or… or even just need to talk, you know where to find me, okay?”
Aria looked genuinely confused for a moment, opening her mouth as if to respond, only to close it again and look away. “Whatever…” With that, Aria turned around and walked towards the exit.
As Sunset watched Aria leave, she still didn’t know if she had done the right thing. In the end, she had offered Aria the chance to come to her if or when she needed to, and the fact that Aria hadn’t loudly refused her offer outright meant there might have still been hope for her. In the end, it would all come down to Aria to make that decision to take the first step, just like Sunset had taken that same step all those months ago.
During all this, no one seemed to notice as Starlight Glimmer suddenly stepped out from the shadows. Walking up to the projector, she picked up the bisected remains of the Baqto Siren and seemed to analyze it for a moment, before casting her gaze over at Sunset.
“Sunset Shimmer… will you be the one who can offer me a worthy challenge?”
Next Time: The Quarterfinals Begin!