//------------------------------// // Sunset's Nightmare // Story: Let Them Wonder // by Onomonopia //------------------------------// "Yes, yes. I know that all of you are excited. But this would go a lot easier if you all sat down and SHUT UP!" Sombra bellowed at the students on the bus, but to his increasing frustration not one of them listened to him. Instead the students continued to throw things around, talk amongst themselves and completely ignore their teacher. "I swear I do not get paid enough for this." "From the way the students listen to you, it's amazing that you've managed to hold onto your job for this long," Diana said from the seats across from Sombra, a laugh escaping her lips at the sinister glare that she found hilarious. "Let them be kids, Sombra. Today is a day for laughter." "They won't be laughing when they find out that they'll have to write a paper on everything they learn here," Sombra cackled while rubbing his hands together, getting Diana to roll her eyes while she gazed over her shoulder at the students. Most of them were talking excitedly amongst their friends about what they were going to see at the museum, including Sunset and her friends. 'It makes me wonder though, will the school be safe from the creatures that plague it with four of their seven away?' Diana found herself thinking as she too gazed out at the window, knowing that they were almost there. 'Athena may be there to keep an eye on things, but I do not wish to fly back to Canterlot High to fight a monster and leave these students without any supervision.' "Excuse me, Miss, but the students are getting a bit too wild for my liking," the bus driver said to Diana, snapping her out of her thoughts. "Would ya mind trying to calm them down before we get there? Especially since the other teacher seems to have zero control over them." Diana nodded to the bus driver, then she stood up and placed her index finger upon her thumb, before pushing them together. The resulting snap made nearly all of the students jump out of their seats, each of them rubbing their ears from the soundwave. After a stern look from Diana, they all sat in their seats and didn't move, though they did resume talking again after a few moments. "And that is how you quiet a bus full of students," Diana said with a laugh to Sombra, who shook his head with amazement. "You terrify me, woman, you know that?" "I do." A few minutes later the bus came skidding to a halt outside of the museum, joining up with the three other buses that were also carrying students. Diana ushered the students off of her bus, while Sombra roared over all the talking, ordering them to stay in their groups and not separate, which nearly all of them did immediately. "I will end all of you!" Sombra bellowed as he started to chase after some of the students while Diana waited by the bus until a certain red-headed student walked off of it. Diana smiled at her, but the smile fell as Sunset walked right past the teacher without a second glance. "Hold on a moment, young lady," Diana called out as she reached out and grabbed hold of the back of Sunset's jacket, bringing her to a dead stop. "Did you forget that you're stuck with me today?" "Come on Diana, is it really necessary?" Sunset asked with a laugh, but the look that Diana gave the girl informed her that the topic was not up for debate. "Sorry guys, but I'll have to catch up with you later. Apparently I'm the teacher's pet today." "Welp, have fun," Rainbow Dash said with a laugh as she raced off towards the museum. The other students followed suit while Sunset sat on a concrete sign, kicking her feet back and forth as she waited for Diana to finish helping out the students. "You know, I was really looking forward to this. Just me and my friends getting to spend the day exploring a museum while trying to avoid getting into trouble," Sunset pouted slightly as Diana wrote down the attendance on her clipboard, noticing that Sentry was missing from the class. Ten more minutes passed as Diana got everything in order before she finally glanced back at the girl laying on her back and staring at the sky. "Sunset, I'm sorry if this annoys you, but I believe it to be best if you stick with me for today," Diana said as she waved to the bus driver as he and the others pulled out of the area, her words getting a huff out of Sunset before she hopped off the sign. "Now come on, there's a lot to look at and I know that I'm curious to see the history here." Diana and Sunset walked into the front of the museum after Diana talked to the women behind the counters for a minute. The first place they stopped at was the map of the place, giving Diana an idea of where to go while Sunset stared at the ceiling. 'Sunset.' Sunset nearly leapt out of her skin when she heard the voice in her head, gazing around to see where it had come from. Yet aside from Diana and the two women behind the counters, there was no one else in the entrance with them. "What's the matter, Sunset?" Diana asked Sunset. "Did you hear a voice just now?" Sunset asked Diana. "No, I cannot say that I did...perhaps it is the voice from the movie in the other room," Diana replied while shaking her head. Sunset gazed around her once more before shrugging her shoulders, figuring that it was just her imagination. 'Sunset.' Sunset whipped her head around and stared out the window towards where numerous trees were, narrowing her eyes as she spied something within the trees. It was tall and stood upon four legs, yet from the distance she could not make it out. But she knew that shape better than any other person in Canterlot high. Because it was how she used to look. "A pony," Sunset whispered to herself as realization dawned on her. She then shot a worried glance at Diana, who was in an argument with a guard who stood next to her with a metal detector. 'Do I tell her? No, Equestria magic and beings that come here are my responsibility. Sorry Diana, but I have to handle this.' "And for the last time, these are not weapons! They were gifted to me by my mother!" Diana roared at the security guard as he stalked off with a snarl upon his lips, a look that was on Diana's face as well. "I swear some people just can't take a hint Sunset...Sunset?" Diana asked as she glanced around the entrance to find the student gone. "Sunset?" -wWw- Sunset panted heavily as she raced through the forest, pushing branches out of her way while she glanced around in every direction for where the pony had gotten to. She let out a growl as a branch tore through her jacket before gazing around to find herself surrounded by trees. "Hello? Is there somepony there?!" Sunset called into the trees, only for the silence of the forest to answer her. "If you're a pony, I know that you're lost and that you need help! Don't worry, I can help you! If you're not a pony, you might want to just walk away because this might all seem crazy to you..." Sunset chuckled slightly at her joke before it turned into a sigh as she glanced around, knowing exactly where she was. She was lost. 'Well Sunset, you wanted to get away from the museum and you did. So at least that worked out for you. But now I've got to try and get-' A blow that could have felled a tree struck Sunset in the arm, ripping the girl from the ground and hurling her into the side of a tree. She cried out in pain as she folded against the bark before collapsing to the forest floor, tears filling her eyes while pain flooded through her body. She grunted as she placed both her hands on the ground to push herself back up, but with another cry she realized that her left arm was in agonizing pain. "That's definitely broken," she muttered while she forced herself back up, leaning against the tree for support as she glared through the pain to see what had hit her. Her eyes focused to see a figure standing across from her, a figure that made her eyes shrink down while her heart plummeted into her stomach. He wore a brownish cloak that covered most of his body, but through tears and worn cloth Sunset could see metal limbs sticking out from beneath. "No..." she whispered with horror, all of the pain leaving her as the soul-crushing dread of what she was staring at took its place. "No, you can't be here! You're not real! You were nothing more than a nightmare that I had! You can't be real!" "I am more than real, girl. I am here. And I am annoyed," the creature replied in a voice that sounded older than the very stones that Sunset stood upon. He then began to slowly advanced towards her, reaching out with one hand for the girl. Sunset forced down her fear and turned to sprint away from the creature, but in a flash of motion it was upon her. Metal fingers wrapped around her throat and hoisted her into the air, where she gagged while the fingers tightened around her throat. Sunset struck at the creature's arm with her good hand, but all she felt was pain as her fist struck metal. "W-what do you want from me?" Sunset stammered out as tears streaked down her face. "You just wouldn't die, would you?" the creature asked Sunset, who could only whimper in reply. "I prefer not to get my hands dirty when changing a world. If anything, I prefer not to interfere in any way whatsoever. But you had to be stubborn. Resilient. Foolish. Even after I attacked your mind to show you what a failure you are, even after I set numerous things in that school of yours to kill you, you refused to die. And so you have left me to dirty my hands with your demise." "That...was all you?" Sunset choked out. "Do you not listen? Of course I did it all. I just said that. Now please remain quiet," the being said as the free hand began to glow with a power that seemed to tear space and time around it. "Because I always hate to hear a being scream as it dies." In the face of certain death Sunset managed to repress her fear, giving her just enough sense to summon the magic within her. A blast of red light erupted from her as ears grew on the top of her head and her hair grew into a long ponytail. The creature seemed to pause at her transformation before Sunset pointed her hand right in the creature's face. "I beat you once! I can do it again!" she roared before unleashing a blast of red magic into the creature's hooded face. But as Sunset ceased her attack after a few moments, she knew that it had done nothing. The creature's grip upon her throat was still as tight as ever and it hadn't even flinched from the blow. Horror wrapped around her heart like a snake as the smoke cleared away from its face, to reveal that not only had she failed to kill it, but also that it only seemed annoyed by the attack. "Are you finished? Then die." Sunset closed her eyes as the creature brought back its hand, not wanting to watch as it tore her heart from her- CRACK! Sunset heard the sound of something being snapped as the creature's hand left her throat. She had just begun to fall before she felt a pair of arms catch her, arms that made her crack open her eyes to find herself staring up at a teacher that she knew well. "Diana?" Sunset weakly asked as she tried to move, but then pain coursed through her arm and she feebly cried out. "Do not move. Your arm is broken and the rest of you isn't doing much better," Diana said in a soothing voice while she gently laid Sunset at the base of a tree. She then rose back up with her eyes flashing with enough rage and lightning to put Zeus to shame. "And as for you," she began as she turned her full attention to the cloaked figure, who was rubbing his jaw from where he had been hit. "You must be that piece of minotaur dung that has been giving Sunset nightmares. Finally decided to stop hiding in the darkness, did you?" "It doesn't matter who I am. Because soon the both of you will be dead," the creature replied as it lifted an arm and pointed it at the two of them, the strange energy that seemed to look like shattered glass ripping apart the area around its hand. "And before I kill you. End you. Destroy you I have one question. How did you manage to find us in such a short time?" "It doesn't matter how I found you," Diana spat back with a smirk upon her face as she cracked her knuckles. "Because soon you're going to be breathing out of a straw." "Diana...get out of here," Sunset warned Diana as she struggled to move. "His power...is far greater than anything I've ever seen. You need...to run!" "Sunset, what did I say to all of you on the first day of class?" Diana asked Sunset, who stared up at the teacher with bafflement as to why she would pick now to bring that up. "I told you that you were my students and that I would not fail any of you. Rest Sunset, and let me deal with this." "You should have run. Because then you would have lasted perhaps a minute longer," the creature spoke before unleashing its shattered magic straight for Diana, who dug her heels into the ground before crossing her arms in front of her. A massive explosion of energy tore apart the surrounding area, causing trees to fade away while everything else was splintered and shattered. Yet as the explosion died down, the creature found that for the first time in as long as he could remember, he was confused. For despite everything around them being destroyed by his power, the teacher remained standing with only the sleeves of her jacket destroyed--revealing two silver bracelets beneath. "What in the worlds-" the creature began to ask before a right hook that could have collapsed Olympus drove itself into the side of his head, snapping his skull to the side while the force hurled the creature backwards into a boulder. Stone shattered beneath the creature as it was imbedded into the rock, trying to make sense of what had happened. "Wait a moment..." the creature began to piece together as he gazed at her arms. "Those bracelets..." "Diana?" Sunset whispered with awe as Diana turned back to face her, holding out a hand to the girl. "Sunset, would you mind giving me back my lasso for a moment? This won't take long." Sunset did as Diana asked and with her lasso in hand once more, Diana began to twirl the rope of golden light around herself. As the light enveloped Diana her suit was replaced by another suit, one that was red and blue and had silver lining along most of it. Red boots replaced Diana's heels and a tiara of pure silver crowned Diana's head, but what truly made Sunset's eyes widened was the sword and shield that appeared on Diana's back. "Diana? What...are you?" Sunset asked with amazement at her teacher, who smiled down at her student before glaring back at the cloaked creature. "I see. Now I recognize who you are," the creature snarled as it pulled itself out of what remained of the boulder, glaring down at the woman who clipped the lasso to her side before advancing towards him. "You are that infernal Spirit of Truth. One of the Trinity. You are the Princess. The Amazon." "Wonder Woman."