//------------------------------//
// Chapter 9: Forging Bonds 
// Story: A Rift Between Worlds 
// by Cinders of War 
//------------------------------//

Home Run slowly cycled to school, still sore from what happened yesterday. As he approached the magnificent school building, he got off his bike, walking it towards the bike rack. In only two days, he had already been through so much, that he felt like he’d been around for a few years. He saw the suits yesterday, fighting off the Grineer. He remembered them down in Princess Celestia’s secret room when he was last there. She’d somehow found a way to reactivate them.

Maybe I should pay her another visit. There has to be something I can do.

“Hey, Home Run!” he heard someone call behind him.

The blue-skinned boy turned to see Sunset Shimmer walking up to join him.

“Hi, Sunset,” he greeted as he locked his bike to the rack. “What’s up?”

“Just wondering…” she started to ask. “Did you… see anything strange yesterday?”

Home Run tensed for a second, but regained his cool. “Umm… no. No. Didn’t see anything strange yesterday. Yep. Nothing. Just a usual average day.”

“Good,” Sunset muttered as they headed for class.

“Good?” Home Run asked. Something else was going on.

Sunset suddenly widened her eyes, but when she turned back to him, she put on a smile. “Well… I heard there were… police here yesterday. Yeah. So I was wondering if you saw anything going on?”

“Oh,” Home Run understood. “Well, no then. I didn’t.”

“Good he doesn’t know…” Sunset thought in her head.

“Good, she doesn’t know,” Home Run said to himself as they entered the school building.

“Home Run,” she started as they continued. “Sorry about the questions I’ve asked. It’s just that… you can never be too sure what a new student hides these days.”

Home Run found that weird. “Why? Did something happen with new students recently?”

Sunset took a second before giving him an answer. “Let’s just say… every new student before you hasn’t exactly been normal.”

Sunset blushed at that comment, but Home Run decided not to ask her about it.

The rest of the school day passed rather uneventfully. Home Run took notes and watched Jetstream and Lightning Rain argue as usual, comparing who had the best streak without missing, then he had lunch, but this time sitting out for PE because of his injuries. He had finished the first few classes with a minimal amount of homework from them. History class was also quite average. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary at all, save that Rarity hadn’t come to school. When he asked, Applejack simply told him she had ‘the flu’. Why she deemed it necessary to scrunch up her face and look around when she said it though, he had no idea. Maybe she was getting sick too.

“All right. Before I let you go, here’s your homework for the night,” Mr. Loregiver droned as he wrote down some page numbers and questions on the board. “Answer the questions and read these pages. There’ll be a quiz tomorrow about your reading. Once you’ve written it down, you may go. Have a good rest of the day, kids.”

There was a collective groan from the class when the word ‘quiz’ was said. After writing down the questions and pages, the students packed their things and started to leave.

“A quiz on the first week of school?” Rainbow complained once they were out of the classroom. “Why not Friday? Or never?”

“Well, ya gotta do what a teacher tells ya to do,” Applejack reminded her friend. “Even if it’s Mr. Pierce or Mr. Loregiver giving you the work.”

Rainbow sighed, but knew Applejack was right. If she wanted to complete the class, she’d have to finish the homework and be in class, no matter how boring a teacher was. She was lucky she didn’t have Mr. Pierce this semester at least. One boring teacher was enough.

There was a small ‘oof’ as Pinkie Pie bumped into Home Run, who grimaced and rubbed his upper arm. 

“Hey, watch it,” he told her, holding his arm.

“Sorry, Homey,” she apologized. “But I don’t think I hit you too hard.”

“Yeah!” Rainbow said. “If you wanna join my team, you can’t be crying over every single bump or scrape.”

Jetstream swaggered over, noticing the affray. “What’s up, boss?”

 “Oh, nothing. Just make sure you tell Home Run here to toughen up because our games, aren’t a game.”

“I thought they were…?” Home Run asked no one in particular.

Jetstream smiled, noticing Home Run holding his arm. “Ah, don’t worry about it, boss. He just got a bit knocked about yesterday, when this thing came out of the sky, and he ran right into it - ow!”

He turned to Lightning Rain after the white-skinned boy slapped his across the arm. “Ran right into a baseball. Jetstream hit it way too high. Yeah.”

“I hit it way too high? Now look here, water boy, if there’s anyone who hits too high, it’s you!”

“Oh yeah, windbag?” Lightning Rain said, closing the distance between them. “Why don’t you and me step outside and settle this like old times? I’ll show you just how high I can hit.”

“I would love to!” Jetstream replied with an eager grin.

Suddenly, Sundown’s hands came down on both boys’ collars and forcibly pulled them apart. “Cool it, you two. Got enough to worry ‘bout without you two beatin’ each other senseless on the street now.”

Heavy Wind’s sister smirked. “Yeah, you better play it careful. Especially since you two got owned by one old man with a stick.” She teased. “If it happens again I promised my brother I’d take pictures for that website of his.”

Heavy Wind twirled his fingers and held up his phone. “Yes, but please. Continue. This is good enough. You guys would become stars on Neighgag!”

“Stop that!” Sundown barked, snatching at the phone but he was too slow to stop Heavy Wind from snapping a picture. “Put that down!”

Home Run watched the others argue for a moment before shrugging and tiptoeing off before it escalated into a brawl. Hopefully they’d come to the baseball field after they had all let off some steam. Not before.


The Rainbooms had quietly sneaked off as the Winds’ argument started boiling up. They made their way towards the mirror to wait for Twilight to call them over.

“Shouldn’t we have stopped them?” Fluttershy quietly asked. “What if they hurt themselves?”

“Nah, it’s like this everytime,” Rainbow waved a hand. “It’ll either cool down on its own, or Sundown will stop them. Or one of the teachers.”

“As long as it isn’t Mr. Pierce who… stops them,” Fluttershy said meekly.

“Jetstream said Home Run ran into something…” Sunset said, thinking about it since the start of the conversation. “They said it was a baseball, but you don’t think…?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Rainbow said offhandedly. “We got bigger, more awesome things to do! Ready, Zephyr?”

She activated her Warframe as Zephyr’s voice came on. “Ready when you are, Rainbow Dash.”

“Rainbow!” Sunset warned. “Doing that in front of the school? What if someone sees you?”

Rainbow looked around, making sure no one else was nearby. “No one else is here.”

Sunset rolled her eyes, but continued to the statue. Sitting down, she pulled out her book from her bag and began writing to Twilight.

“This is going to be great!” Pinkie shouted in excitement. “We’re going to get to shoot things! And party with my clones! Woohoo!”

The girls waited for Twilight while Rainbow practiced her gliding. Soon, their lavender friend popped through the portal, along with another friend to bring them in. “Hi, girls.”

“Hello!” Spike greeted as he got up, scratching his ear with his hind leg.

“Spike!” they called in unison, glad to see the purple dog.

“The field’s set up, so you can come in now,” Spike counted their heads. ‘Where’s Rarity?”

"Oh, umm... She caught a cold from yesterday," Sunset admitted, putting her hands behind her back. "My fault."

“Oh…” Spike said, sounding disappointed. “That’s too bad.”

“I guess she did better than us yesterday, so one day to rest wouldn't hurt," Twilight supposed. She turned back to the portal and beckoned her friends. "Shall we? I'm ready to get back to training. Except for Nyx..."

The Rainbooms followed Twilight and Spike through the mirror once more, going through the rainbow tunnel again, emerging on the other side in a new landscape. It was a grey and blue place, with small white lights lining several pathways to the front and sides, split about with gaps that dropped into unknown darkness. There was also a small section of target boards on the right, and not too far away there was an indented circular platform, like a miniature arena.

"Are we in the right place?" Pinkie asked, not finding any vibrant colours at all. “This place is so dull!"

"It looks k-kinda scary..." Fluttershy whimpered.

"Princess Celestia calls this an obstacle course," Twilight explained. "She requested that I move the mirror here for the time being, so that we can practice our movement and aim."

The girls nodded and joined Rainbow Dash, calling out the Warframes. The suits activated and folded around them.

"Ah... glad to be back," Rhino said in Applejack's head.

“Woohoo! Who’s getting shot today?” cheered Mirage.

“Well, here we are. Another day,” Nyx sighed. “A new day to put up with your bad performance, Twilight Sparkle. Try not to fail too hard.”

Twilight let out a huge, long sigh. “Yes, Nyx. Whatever you say…”

Rainbow Dash and Applejack headed to the first obstacle. It consisted of a single gap after a raised horizontal block.

“Uhh…” Applejack muttered, calculating if she could perform that or not.

“You can’t fly, Applejack,” Rhino reminded. “Just do it like how you’re supposed to do it. Go under the block and jump over to the next platform.”

“What happens if ah fall?” she gulped, looking down into the abyss.

“Don’t worry. There’s magic down there. If you fall, you’ll just teleport back to this platform.”

“Sounds easy enough…”

Applejack took a running stance before setting off towards the raised block. As she neared it, she crouched down and walked through it, arriving at the gap.

“You were supposed to slide under it,” Rhino told her. “But alright. Everyone has to start somewhere.”

Applejack took a deep breath before attempting the leap. She almost made it, but she didn’t achieve enough speed, sending her plunging down into the dark. “Aaaah!”

Before she knew it, she was back up where she had started. She checked for her hat, glad that it was still on her head, or helmet.

“Phew!” she whistled. “This’a lot tougher than it looks.”

As she tried again, Rainbow had already moved to the fourth obstacle, which was a bunch of moving platforms. “Ha! Looks puny!”

With another leap, she dashed across the obstacle, arriving safely on the other side with a slide.

“Nicely done, Rainbow Dash! I must say, you’re quite good at the movement.”

“Of course!” she smiled. “Who do you think I am?”


Nyx had insultingly suggested Twilight take up target practice, so she headed over to the targets and took out her sybaris. Taking aim, Twilight pointed her gun at the targets, shaped like little bullseye rings on a square backing. Spike followed her, ready to see what kind of marksman she was.

“If you can hit the first one, Twilight Sparkle… I’d be very impressed.”

Twilight took a few slow breaths to steady herself. She looked down the barrel, trying to align it to the target.

 “You can do it, Twilight!” Spike assured.

The purple-haired girl pulled the trigger, firing a two-burst shot at the target. Both bullets missed.

“You fail to impress me yet again, Twilight Sparkle. Oh, what I’d do if I didn’t have you.”

“If you didn’t have me?” Twilight argued. “If I didn’t have you, I’d be having a much better time!”

“Your… friend still giving you trouble, Twilight?” Spike asked, watching the conversation from his point.

“Yes,” Twilight replied, aiming at the target again. “Nyx. Could you just… stop being a jerk for five minutes?”

She found it strange when her Tenno didn’t reply, because Nyx usually rebuffed her with something else. A small timer appeared at the bottom of Twilight’s HUD, counting down from 05:00. 

"...what?" Twilight said, confused. She shrugged it off and continued trying to hit the target.

"It's all in your head, Twilight," Spike told her. "If you think you can do it, then you can do it!"

Twilight silently thanked her friend for the encouragement and took aim again. She held the gun more firmly, squeezing the trigger again. She fought the recoil harder this time, her bullets going only a little over the target.

"Almost there, Twilight!" Spike cheered. "Just a little lower."

Twilight checked the timer on her HUD before returning to her practice. It now read 03:26.


Rainbow had completed the obstacle course in record time, stepping back to the start with a smug grin on her unhelmeted face. “I’m awesome!”

“Very good, Rainbow Dash. Thirty seconds… now that’s one way of doing things, and I like it.”

Sunset moved on to the obstacle course, quickly arriving at Applejack’s position as the cowgirl tried to do a wallrun. Ember taught her the steps to it as she got over the first gap. 

“How the hay do ya do these?” Applejack muttered as she fell again, teleporting back to the start of the obstacle.

“It’s supposedly all in the grip!” Sunset told her friend. She got ready and jumped to the wall, using speed and timing to get herself across. “Woah! I did it!”

“That’s right, Sunset Shimmer,” Ember congratulated.  “Well done. Perhaps one day you’ll achieve our standards.”

Sunset moved to the next obstacle while Applejack fell again.

“Dagnabbit!” Applejack shot as she returned to the start.

At the start of the room, Pinkie was still trying to drag Fluttershy over to the shooting gallery. “C’mon, Fluttershy! At least watch me practice! Maybe you’ll learn something!”

“I-I’d rather not, if it’s okay with you,” Fluttershy said softly, doing her best to weigh herself down.

“Fluttershy…” Trinity started. “Remember, I said you’ve got to stand up more. If you don’t do anything, then the Grineer win. If they win, everyone gets hurt. You can’t allow that.”

“Oh, but… I just can’t handle violence,” Fluttershy shook. “I mean… maybe I can use the healing abilities, but I… I just can’t bear to hit someone else.”

“Alright, then how about at least learning how to block with that weapon of yours?”

“Block?” she asked Trinity. “As in block bullets, or block people?”

“Yes, Fluttershy. Bullets. If you don’t do anything, you’re going to be a good target for the Grineer. You’d want to at least protect yourself.”

“Here, Fluttershy! I’ll show you how to block!” Pinkie interrupted. Without warning, the pink girl jumped towards her. “Block me!”

Pinkie started throwing slow punches towards the shy girl, trying to get her to lift her bo.

"Eep!" Fluttershy gasped, instinctively bringing up her staff.

She managed to block a punch, surprising herself and her Tenno.

“Good job, Fluttershy!” Trinity congratulated. “Keep this up, and you’ll be blocking bullets in no time!”

“Nice one, Fluttershy!” said the puffy haired girl. “Let’s try a few more!”

Pinkie spawned a second clone and both aimed their hands at the yellow skinned girl. Fluttershy tried her best, lifting the bo accordingly, stopping Pinkie’s hands from touching her. She managed to block most of the attacks, but some got through, Pinkie earning a squeal from Fluttershy each time.

“I’m sorry, Pinkie!” Fluttershy apologized with each block. “I hope I’m not hurting you…”

“No worries!” Pinkie said to her friend. “I think Mirage kind of likes getting hit, to be honest.”

“Hey, you’re better than I thought, Fluttershy,” Trinity praised. “With more training, maybe you won’t have to hide in a corner anymore.”

"As long as I don't need to hit someone else..." Fluttershy said hopefully. "Healing and blocking doesn't seem so bad."


Twilight was doing better as well, starting to hit the targets with her gun. She still couldn’t hit the center, but at least she didn’t miss the board completely. She checked her HUD again, watching the timer countdown from five.

“Good to see you can hit the targets,” Nyx said as the timer hit zero. “But I’ve still seen birds that can hit passersby better than you from a distance.”

“Great,” Twilight sighed. “You’re back. Well, at least I can hit things now!”

“I’d like to see you try on a moving target!”

“Yeah?” Twilight challenged. “Well… I… Uh…”

“I know. Why don’t you try moving your head and shooting yourself. I bet you can hit that target.”

After trying a few more times, Twilight stopped and moved over to a corner to rest. Having held her gun up for the last half an hour, her arms were tired.

“Okay, Nyx,” Twilight retracted her helmet and looked at her own face as though she could see Nyx in the polished metal. “I know you don’t like me. That’s fine. But I do want to know why you hate me so much. Aren’t we meant to be partners?”

“My opinions are of no importance to you, Twilight Sparkle.”

“I agree, but I still want to hear your reasons.”

Nyx seemed to ponder this for a moment. “First reason. You stink at combat. A rookie guard from the Lotus’ ranks would have been infinitely better than you.” 

Twilight had heard the same thing over and over again from her Tenno partner. She lowered her eyelids halfway, annoyed at the same comment.

“Second, you have no idea just what kind of power you wield. The other Tenno, they are perhaps willing to share ancient secrets and lore with you, but if you are to fight at my side, knowledge like this must be earned. You haven’t done anything to prove that you’re worth using this power, or being my partner.”

“What does that have to do with why we can’t get along?” Twilight asked, confused at her partner’s lengthy description.

“Really? Then let me put it in shorter, more simple words for your primitive mind to comprehend. The Warframe is a very old, very powerful weapon. To use it to its full power, you need to know what you are doing. You do not know what you are doing. Get it? And after how well I took care of my Warframe before we all went into cryosleep, I refuse to allow a by the book, low level incompetent like yourself handle it.”

Twilight had nothing to say. Nyx had a sort of good reason to explain all that. If she had lent someone a book she cared for well, and they ruined it, she wouldn't be too pleased herself.

“Now, get back to the firing range. This changes nothing.”

Twilight slumped in defeat, but determined to prove Nyx wrong. "Alright, Nyx. I'll show you what I can do."

“I look forward to it,” Nyx said sarcastically. "Show me what you've got, Twilight Sparkle!"


Sunset had climbed up the flat walls, learning the basic skills of wallrunning. She'd easily scaled up the walls, her feet almost sticking to the surface as she ran up.

"Surprisingly good, Sunset Shimmer! You're on fire!" Ember praised. "You must have done this kind of thing before."

"Well..." Sunset thought back. "I kinda did have some practice during the winter break..."

Sunset moved to the edge of her current platform, which was a high drop down to the next one below. It was a sheer drop, with nothing to climb on or to cushion her fall. 

“Go on,” Ember seemed impatient. “Jump.”

“Are you crazy?” Sunset hissed back. “I’ll break my legs!”

“No, you won’t. My Warframe is far too durable for that. Though now that you mentioned it... I’m not sure about your legs…”

The pair gazed down at the next platform. It seemed to get smaller the more Sunset looked at it. 

“All right. I have an idea.”

“Yeah? What is it?”

“When you jump down, throw a fireball down there then shoot it with the glaxion before you land. That should help cushion your fall.”

Sunset was skeptical. “Won’t that just burn and freeze us as well as break my legs?” When Ember didn’t respond, the girl just sighed and braced herself.

If I do break my legs, you’re paying the hospital bill, Twilight.

The fall was exhilarating, the platform rushing up to meet her. Somehow managing to keep herself from panicking, Sunset dipped into Ember’s energy pool and flung a roaring fireball down at where she was going to land, then whipped out her weapon and sprayed the flame with ice. Right on cue, a blast of hot air expanded out from where hot and cold made contact. The shockwave caught Sunset mid fall, propelling her upward and sending her skidding along the shiny floor, her armor scratching grooves into the ground and throwing up sparks.

Sunset was winded. “Oohh…” she groaned. 

“Sunset Shimmer? Are you all right?” 

“I-I think so...” Sunset rolled over and sat up, lowering her helmet and checking her legs. “Hey, it worked!”

“Of course it did. Now let’s do it again.”

"Again...?" Sunset gaped. "I could use a short break."

"Guess I shouldn't burn you out," Ember replied. "Let's take five, then."

Sunset stayed sitting down, looking over the rest of the obstacle course. She could still hear Applejack, shouting to herself as she struggled to get past the wallrunning obstacles. 

“So, what do you like to do when you’re not fighting?” Sunset asked, curious of what the Tenno enjoyed doing in their free time.

“I’m not sure I understand the question...” 

Sunset thought about it for a while before answering. "You know... other things you do besides killing Grineer? Things you like doing?"

“Oh, I get it. We like to kill Corpus. And Infested, but those two were taken care of already.”

Sunset had no idea what a Corpus or Infested was, but continued her question. "That's not what I meant. I mean, besides killing. What else do you do to have fun?"

“Target practice, sparring, and studying our enemies to determine the best ways to kill them. My favorite is immolation.”

"Of course it is... so, you don't do things like cooking, or shopping, or playing games?"

Ember seemed to pause, trying to find the right way to word it. “Sunset Shimmer, we are Tenno. Warriors of gun and blade. For us, battle is all there is. Those things you list… hold little meaning to us. Perhaps that is why the Lotus never openly announced our presence to Equestria. We just don’t fit in, I guess.”

Sunset thought that was a little sad. “You’ve really never just gone and done something fun for the sake of it? Not, you know, to protect people or ponies?” She asked quietly. 

“You sound upset. Cheer up! I promise you, there is joy in battle like you’ve never felt before.”

Sunset Shimmer wasn’t sure about that at all, but she kept that to herself.


Pinkie stood to the side, quite excited that her timid friend had learnt how to protect herself. Although, she should still learn how to deal some damage. 

"You're a good friend to have, Pinkie Pie," Mirage seemed pleased with their progress. "That really means something. Especially to your Fluttershy friend."

“That’s what friends do, Mirage!” Pinkie responded, lowering her helmet. “We help each other out!”

“That’s news to me,” Mirage replied.

“So what is it that you do, Mirage?” Pinkie asked her companion. “Are you the… party planner or something?”

Mirage thought about it for a bit. “Yes… I guess you could say that…”

That made Pinkie excited. “Really? What kinds of parties do you plan? Welcome parties? Birthday parties?”

“Raiding parties, actually.”

“I’ve never heard of a raiding party,” Pinkie admitted, the word foreign to her. “What do you do in a raiding party?”

“Oh, that’s an easy one, Pinkie Pie. We strike at the heart of a crucial enemy facility and destroy everything and everyone in it. It’s pretty rad if you ask me.”

"Oh, that's... something. I mean a party party, though. Like... without killing. Where everyone has fun!"

"But everyone has fun! We have fun killing them, and they have fun trying to kill us, but fail!"

“That’s not fun,” Pinkie stared at her armored hands with a mixed expression of disappointment and surprise. “That’s not what fun is at all! Fun is seeing all your friends smile while you do something you enjoy.”

"But all the Tenno enjoy fighting. It's what we're meant to do. If we had mouths, you can be sure there are smiles on them."

Pinkie’s frown deepened. She had grown up with the belief that everyone, no matter who, were good at heart. And Princess Celestia was the good-est of the good! Mirage was just joking with her... right?

“Hey, Fluttershy,” Pinkie Pie began, motioning to her friend. “Can you ask Trinity what she likes to do? Mirage is telling me some things that are a little, uh,” she searched for the right word. “Creepy.”

"If you want to know..." she whispered back. "Umm... Trinity? What things do you... enjoy doing?"

Trinity considered the question very carefully. “Mirage is in many ways correct. The Tenno are not designed to have fun in ways that you do. Our sense of satisfaction and enjoyment is closely tied to our combative skills, or in my case, healing. But that does not mean I cannot appreciate moments of peace and meditation.”

"Pinkie? Trinity says combat is what they were made to enjoy. Although, she did mention she appreciates peace and meditation from time to time."

“How about a meditation party then? We can do all kinds of meditating and peaceful things!” Pinkie suggested, enthused by the idea of being able to bond with Mirage without violence.

"Well unlike Trinity, I personally prefer to party in the blood of my enemies. And their tears." added Mirage. There was a distant yell as Applejack fell into the chasm again.

“Mmm… maybe we can use cherry jello or something. Blood gets really messy. And icky.”

"As long as something comes out of the enemy's wounds, I don't care what you use."

"Yeesh." The more time Pinkie spent with the Warframe on, the more she became unsure of her choice. Oh well. It was too late to change now, but something would have to be done about Mirage’s attitude. Maybe a Grineer shaped pinata would do the trick.