//------------------------------// // What I Left Behind // Story: Demon's of Metal And Lightning // by Brony Parasite //------------------------------// {Third PoV}         “Later Violet!” Yelled Faith as a brunette girl stepped on a school bus. Her eyes were hazel, she wore a red zip-up hoodie that was exposed to show a black shirt with an MLaaTR XJ9 icon, grey jeans, and black sneakers. Her expression was negative, and she turned to look at a younger blonde girl in blue PJ’s.         “See ya Faith!” Violet called, barely audible. Faith waved, and Violet stepped into the nearly crowded bus. She sped walked to the second-to-last seat, which was unoccupied. She sat down, and slouched.         It took about thirty minutes to arrive at the school. She was the last to get, and she was pretty far away. The orphanage didn’t want to drop her off, so they paid extra. The bus driver was taking every chance he had to speed, and Violet was almost sick.         After the bus stopped (violently) all the others tried to get off as fast as they could, but Violet waited. She didn’t want to get trampled.         Once there was an opening, Violet dashed off as fast as she could. She jumped the last few steps, and sauntered towards the school. She had a feeling that the other kids would pick on her because she was an orphan (and the oldest of them).         Suddenly, a football came out of nowhere and hit her face… hard. She fell over and her bags contents spilled due to it being open for some reason. ‘Oh damn it!’         She looked up to see one of the jocks of the school walking over. He was a typical bully, but a major pain to all that he targeted. He cockily smirked as he approached. “Hey look it’s one of my uncle’s pet orphans! Sorry ‘bout that, I was aiming to knock the wind out of you too. My bad.”         Violet mentally sighed, she had enough from the caretakers, and now, one of their nephews is doing it. She heard another guys voice yell out. “Hey, what’s your problem ya jerk!” She saw someone walk up and get between her and the jock, one that she hadn’t met as it was her first day at this school. She’d met the jock before though at the orphanage once or twice. The jock glared at the newcomer. “My problem is that freaking loser so get out of my face!” “Oh goodness, look everyone LOOK! A guy who picks on new kids just cuz’ they’ve got problems! He’s so cool amiright!?” “Well guy I got multiple problems here, Number One: Yo face! Number Two: Your attitude! Number Three: YER A JACKASS!” The Jock and him glared at each other and as they went back and forth someone walked over to Violet. She was a girl about the same age as Violet, with a cyan backpack. She knelt down and started helping to gather Violet’s belongings and to help her up. “Hey there, my name’s Jenny! Well I go by Jen but still. What’s your name?” Violet stuttered, “I- I’m Violet… I guess y-you can c-call me Vive…” She then proceeded to smile. She rubbed her left arm arm up and down shyly. “Nice to meet you! Oh hey!” She seemed to glance at Violet’s shirt. “You’re a fan of MLAATR? I’m one too!” She flipped her backpack around and showed that she had a patch of the show’s emblem stitched on. Violet almost laughed. A girl named Jenny who was a fan of a show whose main character’s name was also Jenny. She suppressed the urge to grin and instead, smiled brightly. She didn’t know how to respond, and it seemed she wouldn’t be able to anyway, as the boys continued verbal fight seemed to intensify. “Who you callin’ a jackass you fucktard!?” “Well I don’t see anyone else who probably has shrunken dildo disorder around so it must be you! You know, the jerk who’s inappropriately using ‘retarded’ as an insult!” “YOU WANT A PIECE OF ME!?” “NO, I want two but there’s not enough of you there for even ONE!” “THAT’S IT!” The jock lunged only to be caught by the collar by an older student. He glared at the jock. “Now then I think that we can all agree that this should stop now before the teacher who’s watching across the yard comes over and get everyone in trouble on the FIRST day of school! Capische?” The jock glared and moved his shoulder out of the older student’s grip and slunk away, muttering. The older student turned to the other guy. “Cousin, why did I just find you at odd with someone right before school?” The kid crossed his arms. “What? He was being a jackass!” The older student grinned at him. “Just as I taught you to handle bullies then?” “You know it.” The older student smirked and the two turned to Violet. The older student was blond and slightly tan, with a pair of light brown (almost yellow) eyes. The one who’d been fighting the jock had a pair of mossy green eyes and similar blond hair. He wore a simple dark green jacket with a symbol of what seemed to be Cthulhu’s head on the front in black coloring. Jen nudged Violet. “That’s my friend Joseph, but everyone calls him Kyth since he’s a fan of Cthulhu and stuff! The guy with him is his cousin Calvin.” The two walked up. ‘Kyth’ waved. “Hey there. So, I take it you two’ve met while I was dealing with that jerk?” Violet nodded, “I’m Violet… But you can, umm... call me Vive if you're into nicknames…” “Cool, my name’s Josep- Uh. Kyth. According to Jen and our other friends my name is now to be ‘Kyth.” Violet giggled a bit, “Thanks for that. I don’t know what I would have done.” ‘Maybe kick his ass… But I’d rather stay in this school...’ She thought. Her eyes widened, “We’re gonna be late for class!” Both of their eyes widened and Kyth flung his hands onto either side of his head. “SHIT! C’MON VIVE AND JEN LET’S GET GOIN!” He grabbed both of their hands and started pulling them as they struggled to run beside him. Calvin smirked as they left. “Good luck you three, see ya later!” After they left he sighed. “And thus they began sixth grade. Ah well, time for me to get to the start of junior year myself.” He put his hands into his pockets as he walked off, in no big rush. {Vive’s PoV}         After that, Kyth took me and Jen to his place. He told me if the jock ever bothered me again, he’d take care of ‘em. And he did. Over time, we became close friends, and I started looking after myself AND them. The jock (whose name was Greg) started becoming violent, and even tried killing Kyth with a knife. Luckily no one was hurt, and Greg was arrested. After that, I think we became even closer. Kyth even started dating Jen! I was happy for them (Even if things got awkward with me as the third wheel).         The old orphanage was torn down, and I lived in a better one currently. I heard my phone ring, and checked who it was. It was Jen. “Hey Vive are you free this saturday? Kyth and I are going to this convention in cosplay, me as XJ9 and him as Cthulhu the knight, it’s gonna be awesome! I actually heard from Kyth that his cousin’s even going out dressed as Golden Freddy and my brother Jack’s going dressed as a necromorph, so we might meet up with them to hang out. You interested?”         I sighed. “Sorry. I’d love to go, but I don’t even have a costume. I have been saving money, but it isn’t enough. I think my friends at the orphanage are going though. Cory’s gonna be The Hero of Kvatch/Sheogorath from Oblivion, and I think Faith is going as… Lumen or something… I’ve got some stuff for a Chaos Jenny costume, though I doubt I could get it ready in time.” “Aw dang! Oh well, maybe next time?” “Pinkie promise. And you two be careful.” I smirked, “And don’t enjoy being without me too much.” I teased. “Heheh no problems there. And thanks. Hey, maybe I can grab you a souvenir or something while we’re there.” “Of course! Gotta love them free stuff!” I laughed. “You know what I like. Robot stuff, or inFAMOUS stuff.” I sighed. “Sure thing! Well Jack says we gotta go, apparently my parents are getting paranoid about all of that war talk. Seriously, have you heard all the crazy rumors about us going to war? Personally I don’t buy it but still my parents are freaked out.” I cough, “I think they might be on to something. I mean, look at how countries react to things. I don’t think it’ll be soon though… God… let’s not talk about this, I’m having a bad time here as it is…” I look over the children of the orphanage. I was the oldest there, and I had given up on adoption. I also seemed to have developed a coughing habit. “Take that charm I made you. I know I’m being sappy, but the whole ‘I’ll be with you’ thing. Don’t laugh…” I made it out of metal’s I had around and gave it to them as a ‘you two are cute together’ gift when they started dating. It had their favorite colors, with phrases they liked on it. It looked kinda like dog tags, but I didn’t have anything else, and making something was always cool. “Heh sure thing Vive. I’ll talk to you later, kay?” “Sure thing. Later Jen!” ...I didn’t realize that’d be the last time I would speak to her. That weekend both Kyth, Jen...Even Jen’s brother, Faith, Cory, and Calvin… All of them became the latest in a long line of people in cosplay going missing at conventions. All of them dropped off the grid and nobody could find a single clue as to what happened to any of them. At first, I thought they abandoned me, but they didn’t come to school, and their parents didn’t seem to know either, though Kyth’s uncle who took care of him was a drunk so that was expected. Jen’s parents were freaking out though, and as a police officer he was fiercely involved with the investigation. I stopped going to school, and got expelled. I didn’t care. The only people I loved like family, gone. I felt worse when Comic-Con came back in town. I Pinkie promised… I earned enough money to build a costume (with the help of Jen’s designs on her own costume) that looked similar, but the paint was red instead of blue, and some parts were more sharp. I dressed as Chaos Jenny, like I said. I’d go, buy some things, and see if I could figure out what happened to them all. I looked in the mirror, and it seemed to fit me, what with my paler skin. I picked up my backpack with a plushie of Robotboy and Protoboy. I walked to the Comic-Con, and my life got even worse… I was walking down the street, on my way to the convention in full costume. I heard some people talking as I walked down the street, about the latest news about the possibility of war. Things had gotten a bit more heated between different countries in the world, and it seemed like a real possibility that things could erupt at any time. Then I heard it. The sound of a massive blast in the distance. I saw my shadow seemed to erupt into length as light came from behind me. I slowly turned around and saw it… A mushroom cloud. Oh god...They’d actually dropped one… I stood, frozen in place as the shockwave erupted towards me. I turned and started trying to run, only to trip. I turned my head as it approached, obliterating everything in its wake. I clenched my eyes shut and looked away, prepared for the burning end… One that didn’t come. I lay where I had tripped, shaking in fear. I heard an odd voice speak. “And thus another world bites the dust. But then, they all do eventually and this isn’t the true end for this place. Now then, stand up child. I’d like to speak with you.” I opened my eyes and saw that the entire world around me had seemingly halted. Everything other than myself was in shades of black and white, and I turned to face where the blast had been. Even it was frozen, and got a full view of all the damage. Then I saw him. Standing about ten feet away from me, directly between me and the blast. He stood at a height I estimated to be about eight feet, with pale gray skin. He didn’t look sick however, just...gray. His eyes looked feline, with slitted pupils and yellow irises. I glimpsed his mouth and saw his mouth to be full of sharp teeth. He wore a pair of black jeans and sneakers, and a white tank top. On his shoulders I saw glowing blue emblems of scarabs, and in his hand was a black Khopesh, held out to the side. He had hair that looked white, though muddled with gray dust, covering his left eye. “There you are then, Violet I believe?” I simply nodded, with no idea what was happening. “Good. As for myself you can call me Messenger. But simple introductions are not why I am here. I am hear to offer you an… Opportunity, let’s call it.” I didn’t say a word. He seemed to understand and kept going. “I can give you a way out. A way to one day find all those you have lost, not your parents though. I believe you know who I mean?” “M-My friends?” He smiled and nodded. “Indeed. You will have a chance to find them, and you will be away from all of this. Completely free. The only costs are thus: You will be placed into the form of your current garb and you might never see this world again...What do you say, kid?” He held out a hand to me, and I noticed then that both of his hands had odd black shackles on the wrists, though without chains. They seemed important but I shook such thoughts from my head. I responded, finally. “I never liked this world. I hated everyone in it. The way I see it, I’ll either see my friends, get super cool powers, and never have to deal with caretakers again. Or die on a world I hate. So, my answer is: to hell with this world.” I reached out and took his hand, and the world faded to black and my mind to unconsciousness… The last thing I saw was the world unpausing around me.         The last thing I heard was Messenger's voice.         “Heheheh...Good luck kid. And here’s hoping you can do what’s needed…”         I growled. All feeling had been expunged years ago, so all I felt was cold. I couldn’t cry, couldn’t dream, couldn’t eat, couldn’t breathe… oh how I wanted to breathe… Power replaced all that, and in a land of ponies, that isn’t acceptable. I became a demon in their eyes. He lied when he said I’d see my friends again… I scanned. Nothing. The only things I had were Robotboy and Protoboy, who turned real upon my arrival.         “I’m a Metal Demon. Nothing can ever love that…”