//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: On the City Streets // Story: Blood of the Sunstrikers // by Clacker Volley //------------------------------// I can't keep still~ On the verge of something that no one has seen~ A dangerous nightmare is unfurling here, yeah~ “Weren’t you supposed to be with Spike? Why are you here?!” “I’m not just going to leave my wife to die here. You need to get out of here.” “I stayed to save you! You need to protect Twilight…” Her tears muffled her words. “And now I’m saving you.” The crashes were heard throughout the castle, as crystals started to fall from the walls due to the shockwaves. “Spike has what we went to get. He’s getting the book to Twilight. There’s a passage I made in the hallway behind you to get here. Close it when you pass through it.” “I’m not just going to leave you here!” She was starting to taste the salt from the tears falling from her mouth. She was pushed away towards the hallway doors. “I’m going to at least give you enough time to get away. Goodbye, Cadence.” “Shining, please!” She was stopped by his magic barrier, one of the strongest ones that she has ever felt in her life, showing his determination to do this. “Going by what that book said, don’t worry, this Tartarus isn’t going to last much longer…just wait until your next knight in shining armor appears.” Voices and steps could be hear coming towards the throne room. “Go! Don’t let everything we’ve worked for be in vain! Survive, Cadence!” The barrier exploded in her face, and she was thrown down the hallway. As she could hear Shining’s battlecry, she started running down the passage that Shining Armor had already made in the crystals, making sure to collapse it as she ran, ran from the love of her life. “Everything we worked for is already gone…” Cadence walked through the abandoned back streets of Manehattan. At this time of night, it was dead cold in the city, and the rags that Cadence was wearing did little to protect against the cold. And she had lost her crystal sheen a long time ago, with no way of getting it back as long as she had no control of the Crystal Empire. Ever since the day Shining had died, Cadence had been replaying her last moments with him in vivid detail, as the memory would never stop haunting her. Spotting a vending machine ahead of her, Cadence hoped that she could finally get her first clean drink in a few days. Unfortunately, the lack of glass in the machine had already notified her that the entire supply was likely gone at that point. However, there was something unnatural about the glass shards around. Too many of them were outside of the machine, and if it weren’t for the fact that there were still plenty inside the machine, it could’ve seemed like it was broken from the inside. The placement of the shards seemed almost like the glass had exploded in both directions. Despite the entire situation being odd, it was at this point Cadence realized how meaningless her thought process was, it’s not like the glass was anything important. When she woke from her thoughts however, was when Cadence could hear the distant sound of sobbing. While Cadence could easily go towards the source, it was likely that whoever was crying was likely already doomed. Cadence contemplated for a moment, and decided to at the very least fly over the rooftops towards the source to see if it was even possible for her to help. “Wait until your next knight in shining armor appears.” ‘There’s never going to be another, Shining…’ Cadence thought. As she flew, Cadence secretly hoped that she might at the very least, be able to become another’s. “Oh, how the mighty have fallen.” A mare approached, sporting a dark blue coat, and a lettuce purple mane. Her yellow pupils pierced through the darkness, to the point where it would intimidate her own subordinates. “Be careful, General Cold Blood! It may have sssome tricks up its sssleeves!” A changeling approached from behind his superior. We shall refer to him as Insignificant Changeling A. Cold Blood chuckled, “What could she do? Trapped like a rat?” Her chuckle quickly evolved into a hearty laugh. The daunting pony even pointed to the mare down the alley, as her eyes narrowed to slits. “The Element of Kindness is easily the least threatening! And I’m sure that the higher-ups wouldn’t mind a bruised product.” Fluttershy had nowhere else to go, she was caught. And that means her friends had saved her life to no avail. As Cold Blood approached, Fluttershy came to a realization. She didn’t want to fight anymore. “Oh, but I do love a two-for-one deal, wouldn’t you say?” Cold Blood asked, malice dripping from her voice. “Wouldn’t you say so, Princess Cadence?” Cold Blood shot a dark bolt straight into the sky, colliding with Cadence, who was flying down towards Cold Blood. As Cadence took the bolt, she crashed straight into the ground, narrowly missing a clothesline, between Cold Blood and Fluttershy, writhing in pain, both as the bolt quickly coursed throughout her body and from the hard impact onto concrete. “Oh I’m sorry, you aren’t exactly a princess anymore, are you? And aren’t you lucky, you didn’t hang on that clothesline like a sad piñata.” Cold Blood taunted. “Cadence?!” Fluttershy cried, as she rushed to her friend’s side. “What are you doing here?” Before Cadence could speak, Cold Blood answered, “Probably some stupid reason, like pony bonds of friendships and lovey-dovey crap.” Cold Blood smiled a grin so thick, her teeth could almost be pointed, and asked, “Oh, that reminds, where’s the mister, missus fallen princess?” “Bastard!” Cadence beamed in anger at the mention of her husband, and tried charging at Cold Blood. But instead, was knocked back to the ground with a heavy hoof. Cold Blood pouted, “How sad is it that a princess can be beaten so easily, why didn’t I decide to rebel sooner?” Cadence thought to herself, ‘You wouldn’t have done anything back then… but something changed… and I still don’t know what that is… and I don’t think I will.’ Cadence winced as Cold Blood kicked her again, causing her to cough out blood. “Oh, I’m going to enjoy this. Do you fellas want in on this?” Cold Blood turned to call to her two changelings subordinates. When she finished speaking, Cold Blood noticed that the changelings’ ears twitched. Realizing what that meant, Cold Blood turned back but the only movements that her playthings took was Fluttershy trying to help Cadence back to her hooves. “Oh, ew! What the crap?! Giant bugs! Shoo!” A male voice came from behind her. Cold Blood turned her head, swearing she would a neck cramp at this rate, to see a massive creature standing at the entrance to the alley, his shadow against the street lamp engulfing her surbordinates. He stood upon two legs, with his spiky brown hair slightly parted towards his right. Concerning his apparel, his green and yellow scarf was tucked neatly over his olive green shirt and scarlet jacket. And his navy blue pants was covering most of his brown sneakers, with the tips of his jeans slightly coated in mud. “Ssstay where-“ Insignificant Changeling A stated. “Oh my god! It spoke! The bug spoke?! But why the heck are you hissing?! You’re not a snake! You’re a bug! Did you get you species mixed up? I don’t think bugs hiss.” The creature assaulted the poor Insignificant Changeling A with words. “The creature is annoying me. Hiss.” Insignificant Changeling B spoke, ending with a hiss. Yes, there are two of them. “I'm the creature?! Take a look in the mirror, moron. Oh, and you do hiss. Wait, I feel like you did that on purpose. Do you hiss?” The creature pointed an appendage at Insignificant Changeling A. “Hiss.” “Okay, I get that you hiss, Bug Number 1. But I was clearly pointing at Bug Number 2.” “Why am I Bug Number 2? I spoke to you firssst.” “Bug Number 1 is Bug Number 1 because he talked to me first. She?” The creature looked to Insignificant Changeling B for confirmation. Getting a nod, the creature continued, “She talked to me first, you just yelled at me.” “But-“ Insignificant Changeling A started. “Enough! Just attack him!” Cold Blood ordered. The duo of Insignificant Changelings looked at one another before preparing for battle. “Oh, but I felt like I actually bonded with bugs! And I really wouldn’t do that if I were you. I really wouldn’t.” The creature pointed an appendage next to his chest upwards as he talked. Ignoring the creature’s advice, both of the Insignificant Changelings lunged at him. “Rawr!” battle-cried Insignificant Changeling B as she pounced. “My name is Apollo!” said Insignificant Changeling A as he pounced. “Well, I did warn you.” The creature spoke, as Insignificant Changeling A and B both simultaneously hit something that seemed invisible. But instead of slumping to the ground, the changelings were entangle in mid-air. “Didn’t you see the string? It was there the entire time.” The creature’s smile turned into a more serious expression as he started audibly breathing. “Kooooh.” The creature then launched one of its legs straight into Insignificant Changeling B, angled so he would also carry Insignificant Changeling A with her. The force of the kick launched them straight across the Manehattan street, as they both hit a lamppost with enough force to bend it. “I’m still calling you Bug Number 2!” The creature called out as the two Insignificant Changelings flew. General Cold Blood sighed, “Can’t even handle a lower priority target…what’s the point in underlings?” The creature pointed straight at Cold Blood, “Did you seriously just call low priority? Seriously?!” The creature cracked his knuckles, trying to look menacingly as he proceeded to crack his wrists as well, “I’ll show you low priority, dammit!” “Oh, I was hoping-GAH!” Cold Blood flinched as a rubber band rebounded off of her face. “Did you just shoot a rubber band at me?!” “No.” The creature answered, although his hands were still in the position for doing just so. “I flung it at you. There’s a difference, Queen Horsington.” “What did you just call me.” Cold Blood’s eye twitched in anger. “Queen Horsington, y’know? Because you look like something a little girl would think up. But little girls would think of being princesses and you clearly seem a bit older so I went with queen. And the Horsington is just there to sound demeaning.” The creature rambled. Cold Blood could feel one of her veins pop at that absolutely pointless explanation. Cold Blood closed her eyes to use her hoof to pinch her forehead, before preparing to speak. “The next thing you’re going to say is, “This is exactly why you’re low priority.” Isn’t that right?” “This is exactly why you’re low priority. Huh?!” Cold Blood’s eyes shot open, just to see a metal trash can flying towards her, with the inside hole facing towards her. When the trash can covered her head, Cold Blood could feel the creature knocking on both sides of the container. Oddly enough, as he did so, the interior of the trash can seemed to light up for whatever reason. “Ding Dong, Low Priority is at the door! Shall we open the royal gates for him, Queen Horsington?!” Cold Blood had never been quite so mocked in her life, so naturally, this caused her to fly into a rage. She levitated the trash can using her magic, smirking as the creature jumped back with two of his hand plastered on his face in surprise. “Oh, you’ve never seen magic before? I guess this will be your first and last!” Cold Blood threw the trash can back at the creature. Unfortunately for her, the creature smiled back, and quickly uppercutted the trash can straight upwards. “You know, I just realized how oddly devoid of trash that thing was, do you horsies not have any trash around?” “We’re ponies.” Cold Blood simply stated before throwing out several arcs of dark magic bolts. The creature couldn’t move quick enough to dodge all of them, and grunted as he took the impact from one of the bolts he couldn’t dodge. Yet, he still stood perfectly fine as if the direct hit was merely a graze. “So ponies are really clean or something? So why do you have clothesline around? Not only can I not picture you in clothes but someone, like you, might really get hurt.” Cold Blood looked upwards to see what he meant, guarding her front in case it was a feint. That guard was quickly gone as her jaw dropped as the trash can from earlier completed its final rotation around the clothesline, losing the last bit of energy it had. And it plopped its interior right onto Cold Blood. Cold Blood could feel the creature knocking at both sides of the trash can again, creating the curious lighting phenomenon again. “Ding Dong! Have you ever had that sense of de ja vu?” As Cold Blood enveloped the trash can with magic again, the instant she did so, the creature said, “And Queen Horsington, when you take out the trash…” Cold Blood lifted the trash can off her head again, only to see the creature holding a trash can lid. That was coming straight for her face. “…you need to put a lid on it!” The collision from the lid knocked back Cold Blood. However, the rate at which she regained her stance astounded even the creature. And in his surprise, Cold Blood lunged and knocked him to the ground. Cold Blood hit him twice in his smug face, while taunting, “Not so smart when you’re on the floor, huh?!” But the creature stopped the third strike, and held the pony street fighter’s hoof from coming down again using his left hand. The creature proceeded to point his right hand’s wrist towards Cold Blood’s face. “Not to mention, I’ve always got an ace up my sleeve!” Cold Blood quickly took a hold of the creature’s arm and pointed it straight to his giant chest. “The next thing you’re going to say is, “Go ahead and try it, idiot!” “Go ahead and try it, idiot! WHAT?!” Cold Blood exclaimed as she got read again. “I wasn’t talking about that sleeve, dumbass! Classic misdirect!” The creature pointed his left wrist at Cold Blood’s face, putting the mare off-balance as he was still holding her right hoof. In the next moment, a bunch of cards sprouted from his wrists with enough force to knock away Cold Blood. Before she could retaliate, the creature quickly grabbed a card out of the air, and somehow connected it to three other cards in the air he touched with the initial card, creating a small stick with the four cards. As Cold Blood leaped to knock him back to the ground, the creature swung the card-sword at her. Since Cold Blood thought the playing cards couldn’t do enough to stop her, despite her street-fighting prowess, she only minimally braced for impact. Which turned out to be a mistake. The charged cards slammed straight into her side, launching her straight into the wall of the narrow alleyway. Before she lost consciousness, the creature kneeled in front of her to show the four cards that he used to hit her. Which pissed her off even more. There were four damn aces. “In fact, I’ve got four!” The creature remarked before Cold Blood lost all consciousness. “Jeez, what an idiot. How hot-blooded can you be? I'm glad I had put those cards in earlier, but there goes the anniversary surprise.” The creature sighed as he stood back up. All of a sudden, a look of realization came upon is face. He quickly looked back to the bent lamppost, only to find that the two Insignificant Changelings had already retreated. “Oh no! I forgot to ask for directions!” Looking around, so that he didn’t seem like a completely oblivious protagonist, the creature noticed Cadence and Fluttershy, hurt but somewhat enjoying the spectacle. Like how it feels good when the bullies get in trouble for bullying. “Umm, do you know where I am? It looks like New York, but all the doors are too damn small, and all the taxis look like carriages.” The creature approached the mares, clearly knowing that the two weren’t with Bug Numbers 1 and 2 or Queen Horseything…or was it Van Horsing? Crap, he didn’t remember his demeaning nickname. Thinking that Cadence wasn’t in much condition to be talking, Fluttershy attempted to say something to their savior, emphasis on attempted. “Uhhhh….M-m-m-m” “Manehattan, Fourth District.” Cadence coughed out. “Manehattan? Don’t you mean Manhattan?” Looking at the confused faces of Cadence and Fluttershy, the creature held his hands against the sides of his head in exasperation. “What the heck then?! Wait… oh goddammit! It’s a stupid horse pun! Did the people who come up with it too lazy to think of something original?!” The creature blinked twice. “I just realized you two were here the entire time…” He looked back towards the unconscious body of Queen Horsington Cold Blood, and looked back at the injured forms of Cadence and Fluttershy. “Is this like colorist attacks or something? I don’t really get what’s going here. But…uhh…oh, I got these drinks in a vending machine that I bro- bought from!” The creature took out a couple of canned sodas, before saying, “I think it’s soda, but they’re in cans instead of bottles…which is unfortunate for my bottlecap collection, I bet they can become worth a lot in the future!” Handing over two sodas to the ponies, the creature was about to open his before stating, “I really wish I knew what the hell was going right about-GRBRLGRBRL!” He was interrupted as the soda sprayed all over his face and chest, soaking his clothes. “Ohh, that’s cold!” Taking precautions with their own, Cadence and Fluttershy opened the sodas, and began drinking, relaxing at one of the few breaks they’ve had over the past couple of days. “Uhh, I’ll just wait over there…I want to do something.” Taking out a permanent marker, the creature walked over the unconscious body of Cold Blood. He then proceeded to draw all over her face. “Oh, my name is Cadence, by the way, and this is-“ Cadence stopped before realizing it might be kind of rude to give somepony else’s name to a mysterious stranger. Fluttershy smiled and quietly continued the introductions, “Fluttershy.” “My name is Joseph Joestar. But my friends call me Jojo. And I think we’re friends now, I think.” Joseph scratched the back of his head in confusion, before cracking a toothy grin towards the two mares. The lamppost at the other end of the street started flickering, prompting Joseph to turn and look, and as the light bounced off of his wet clothing, Cadence noticed something. His clothes were shining.