Chapter 30

“Friendship Games Part 2”

“Rival Arrival”

Sunset had left the school after the amazing rally that had been held by the school and Rainbow Dash. It had been nice, and they were feeling a little more confident, however, there had been a conspicuous absence from the gym. Sunset drove to the Dazzlings’ house, going to the door, hoping that Adagio was okay.

In the weeks since the Dazzlings went from villains to friends, the house actually started to look less like a temporary shelter and more like an actual home. The place had an almost seaside theme to it all. Pictures of the ocean, actual painted walls, and furniture that didn’t have three inches of dust on them. As Sunset walked in however, she heard Adagio’s voice coming from the master bedroom, where the Siren slept.

“Two...four...six…” Adagio’s voice said nervously as Sunset walked up the stairs and peeked inside the room. Standing in the middle of the room, dressed in the blue and yellow of Canterlot High was Adagio. The short blue skirt with yellow stripes around the waist and hem came down to mid-thigh, and was pleated like all cheerleading uniform skirts were. The sleeveless blue shirt had the Canterlot winged C emblazoned across the chest in yellow with yellow bands at the arm-holes, and hem. The whole outfit hugged the Siren’s body in a way that was incredibly sexy, at least to Sunset.

“Uggh, I just can’t get the stupid rhythm riiiii…” Adagio’s eyes bugged out upon seeing Sunset in the doorway.

“Well hello,” Sunset said leaning on the door, smirking at the startled Adagio. “I drop by because you weren’t at the pep rally, and I find you totally rocking a cheerleading uniform… Are you trying out?”

“Sunny!” Adagio yelped, dropping the pom poms she had been using. “I didn’t I..you weren’t supposed to see me yet!”

“Aw, was it supposed to be a surprise? Well I am surprised, of course. You never showed an interest in participating, before,” Sunset said coming in, and smiling warmly at Adagio. “What changed?”

Adagio sighed, hugging herself. “Principal Celestia’s idea. She said we should do more at school. Sonata is working concessions, Aria is gonna hand out fliers for the events tomorrow. And well...I wanted an excuse to get a front row seat when I heard you would be participating in the games. So, Lyra ambushed me and said there were openings on the cheerleading squad and...well...here I am wearing... this.”

“Oh, Dagi,” Sunset said smiling warmly at her girlfriend, and hugging her. “You wanted to be right there, front-and-center, lending your support? You’re the best, you know that? As for wearing that? Babe, you’re rocking it. You look incredibly sexy in that uniform.”

Adagio blushed, looking away in a cute manner. “Shut up, I don’t look that sexy.”

“I nearly pounced you mid cheer, I swear!” Sunset asserted. “You look that good.”

Adagio smiled, and hugged her girlfriend close. “Just focus on bringing home a big win Sunny, and try not to get too distracted. It would be a shame if I caused you to lose on account of ‘distracted by the sexy’.”

“I’ll do my best, Dagi,” Sunset said nuzzling Adagio, before kissing her sweetly. “I still like that you’re going to be there cheering me on. You’re awesome, babe.” With that declaration, Sunset lovingly kissed Adagio again.

Adagio returned it, suddenly much less nervous about Sunset seeing her cheering her on…
____________________________________________________

Meanwhile at Crystal Prep, the students were boarding the jet black with purple and gold trip busses to make the trip across town. Another Friendship Games another victory for Crystal Prep. Thrilling. No. Really. It’s an honor to… Yeah you get the idea. Most students would be enthused about getting to get out of class, and indeed some of the younger ones were, however, the majority were just looking bored as they took their seats, their luggage in hand to stay at the nearest swanky hotel the school could afford while over there.

As Spera was heading towards the buses, his phone vibrated, he looked down and saw his sister, Scarlet’s picture in the Caller ID. He smiled a little and answered it. “Hey Scar, the finally let you use a phone again?”

“Well big brother, apparently they didn’t much like how I acted last time..that poor wrong number guy.” Scarlet’s rather slow and soft voice said over the phone. “I don’t think Mr. Flim Flam industries much liked how I threatened to hurt him…”

“Yeah, well, I’m sure he’s attached to that certain...body part,” Spera said, trying to sound as jovial as ever for her. “Are you doing better in other areas? Any episodes?”

“No Big Brother, I promised I wouldn’t. No more attacking, no more hurting, no more hair stealing...it was smart of them to take the sharp pointy things away.”

“Just promise me you will attend the meetings? I want you to get better Scar, I miss not having you around the house,” Spera said sadly.

“I know Scar, she’s the next project I promise.” Spera said, “Look, Big Brother has to go, he has to visit the other school? You remember, Canterlot High?”

“We’ve been over this Scar, I can’t ask for locks of hair, no matter how much you like them.”

Spera chuckled at Scarlet’s immature response. “I’ll see you soon alright? I promised to visit next week.”

“Love you too Scar…” Spera said, and hung up the phone, sighing longingly. It was one of those days where he was glad Scarlet wasn’t all there. It meant he didn’t have to explain their situation. As selfish as that sounded, he just wanted to keep Scarlet happy and safe...certainly better than the alternative.

Spera turned and saw her as he pocketed his phone. “Oh, Sunny, I had no idea you were standing there.”

“That… that was your sister?” Sunny asked, as she held her hands behind her back. She still had trouble talking to him, of course, but this… this added a whole new complication to her planning.

Sunny smiled and said, “Yeah, she said she really liked my hair. She seemed like a sweetheart.”

Sunny then tried to change the subject. “So um, I see the bag, I thought you weren’t going this year?”

Spera sighed, running a hand through his hair. “Well, something came up, and turns out I’m going after all. Gotta support my school right?”

“I guess. Though… honestly I’m glad you’re coming. It’ll be good to have you along for a change,” Sunny said smiling at him.

“Still feel kinda redundant, I’m not exactly the greatest athlete in the world, and you could outsmart any CHS student any old day.” Spera said self deprecatingly.

“Oh yeah?” Spera said crossing his arms. “Then if that’s the case you wouldn’t know how Eye Corp. is doing financially and how they can improve?”

“Well they have seen an marginal upturn in profits, this quarter, but if they were to lay off approximately fifteen percent of their employees, and invest in more automation, they could see significant rise in profits in the next year,” Sunny said automatically.

He chuckled, “Nothing, let’s just head for the bus.” He started to head there, when Sunny suddenly took his sleeve in her hand. “Sunny?”

“Um...before you take off, there’s something I’ve been…” Sunny said, blushing. “Been meaning to tell you for just the longest time.”

“WE’RE GONNA WIN!!!” Indigo yelled, suddenly appearing between them. “Oh hey guys! Spera I’m so glad you changed your mind! We’re totally going to stomp those Wonderlosers now!”

“THANK you, Indigo, for the heart attack,” Sunny griped, glaring at the blue-haired girl.

“You totally ruined her moment to tell Spera that they should date, and eventually marry and have five children, all for the benefit of their companies, of course,” Sugarcoat said as she came up, bag in hand.

“C’mon! Let’s get on the bus!” Indigo yelled, shoving Spera towards the bus. “Let’s go before you change your mind again!”

“Why Spera! How wonderful to see you!” Soursweet said smiling then her expression changed to a scowl as they came up to the bus. “Why didn’t you get here, sooner?! The busses are just about to leave!”

“I’m...sorry?” Spera said, before he was grabbed by Soursweet and shoved inside the bus.

“See you when we get to the hotel, sweetie.” Soursweet said, back in her sweet tone.

“Starting to think maybe I should invest in body armor, what with the strange women in my life.” Spera said as he wandered the aisles of the bus, eventually taking a seat in the back where Lemon Zest was sitting, well, sitting and jamming to the music in her headphones.

“Whoa… Spera?” Lemon asked, turning down her music. “They dragged you along, too?”

“More or less,” Spera said, sighing as he sank into the seat. “I’m starting to wonder if maybe running across the state line is an impossibility…”

“If you do, leave your school ID somewhere. Thing’s chipped,” Lemon said nodding sagely.

“If you say so,” Spera said, “Just am getting a little tired of getting dragged around is all.” He casually set his hand on his bag after he set it off to the side..only for a weird feeling to come over him.

The tome? When I had that thought I...well, maybe this trip will lead to some leads after all…
___________________________________________________

In front of Canterlot High, the welcoming committee was setting up to welcome their visitors. They weren’t happy about it, but still it was something that had to be done. The sidewalks were swept, the front of the school was tidied up, and the statue was given a bit of a polish. All in all it was to try and make a good impression on people who were impossible to make a good impression with.

As this was going on however, the Rainbooms were casually practicing in the bandroom, when Rainbow got into playing the guitar again and groaned after seeing her wings and ears appear. “NOT AGAIN!” She moaned, flapping her wings in annoyance.

“Don’t ask me why that happens,” Twilight said as she took readings with various instruments she had brought upon hearing about the “special effects” still appearing when they played or sang. “I’m trying to figure it out.”

“Well we’d better get a handle on it fast,” Aj said, putting down her bass. “Them Crystal Preppers are gonna show up soon and if we don’t get a handle on this, who knows what’ll happen.”

“That lousy Cinch would use it as an excuse to disqualify us!” Rainbow yelled.

“More like we’d all end up in a government facility and be experimented upon because we have powers.” Private said, sighing. “I don’t know about you, but Area 51 does not seem like the perfect vacation spot.”

“As low of a prospect that is darling,” Rarity said, casually measuring Fluttershy. “We still have the actual games to think about, it wouldn’t do us well to sit out of the games while we try to ensure our own anonymity.”

“C’mon, these games will be cake, you got a super athlete like me taking part.” Rainbow said confidently.

“Yeppperuni!’ Pinkie said, laying on the piano. “There’s academics, home ec, science, math, and all sorts of other challenges.”

“Thankfully we get to pick what event we get to take part in.” Fluttershy added.

“Course we also have to move onto the second round no matter what event we win.” Rainbow said. “But Celestia is keeping what it is under lock and key. I knew I should’ve tried that cake bribe Professor Voidera said always works.”

“Yes Rainbow, instead of getting us disqualified for using magic, get us disqualified for bribing our principal.” Sunset snarked.

“Well I’m out,” Private said, “I gotta go find our mystery student, can’t exactly do that while competing.”

“Same ere,” Aj said, “Let’s just say us Apples have a long history here at CHS, and we’d like to have dem Preppers get knocked down a peg.”

“No way am I not joining! Rarity and I are going own Home Ec!” Pinkie said excitedly.

“I... guess I should help too, so long as none of the events are too crowded…” Fluttershy added.

“And with me you get the best of both worlds,” Sunset said with a smile. “I’m pretty athletic, and I can rock the academics side of things.”

“But Twilight, you’re practically a genius at all the academic stuff.” Private aided.

“If it’s about slots,” Sunset said, quickly. “You can always take my-”

“No! It’s not about that. It’s about the fact that I only just transferred in, this year. Never mind one important thing… Just how many of you would choose me for an athletic team? Be brutally honest,” Twilight retorted.

“I gotta agree with Twi, remember the time she tried to play soccer?” Aj said.

“Not exactly MLS material there,” Pinkie said, twirling a soccer ball...that she acquired somehow.

“See? While I would rock the academics as hard as Sunset, here, I’d bring you down during the athletics,” Twilight asserted. “Never mind that Cinch woman would use my being a part of the team as an excuse to try and find some way to hamstring the CHS team.”

“I’m positive. Also, I can help Private find our mystery student, so I won’t be just sitting on the sidelines,” Twilight said nodding firmly.

“So, what are we waiting for?” Rainbow said, smirking. “Let’s get ready to kick some Shadowbolt tail!”

The Shadowbolts filed off the busses lining up in front of Canterlot High School, gazing at the facade. They were mostly disdainful of the place, it being a mere public school, but some looked on with curiosity, and maybe some envy. Principal Cinch was the first to get off, adjusted her glasses and walked towards where Celestia and Luna were standing, putting on smiles for the visiting principal.

“Ah, Principal Cinch. Welcome back to Canterlot High School. Would you like a tour before we go to the welcoming ceremony? You’ll find we’ve made quite a few changes since your last visit,” Celestia offered.

“I’m sure you have,” Cinch uttered drolly, as the principals walked off. Luna, meanwhile, held a clipboard, and started to check everyone in. “A vice principal, a new Chemistry teacher, that’s only the staff. I also heard you happen to, acquire a certain new student.”

“Oh? You mean Twilight? Actually I have been tutoring her for a number of years.” Celestia explained as they walked through the school. “Bright and eager to learn, if a bit awkward at social graces at first.”

“Hemph. So naturally you were able to influence her parents to send her to your school, instead of someplace where she could truly excel,” Cinch uttered, glaring at Celestia. “I’m sure you’ll be trotting her out for the Games.”

“Actually, she insisted on staying out of the games this year,” Celestia said, keeping her smile. “Something about wanting to support her friends and not wishing there to be any doubt of a Wondercolt Victory…”

Now, Celestia was not a petty person in the least bit. So there wouldn’t be, in her head, a chibi version of herself cheering, dancing, and shaking marakas whilst singing “I got Twi-Light! I got Twi-Light! Yoo-ou su-uck!”

“Really?” Principal Cinch said looking surprised. “That’s… quite surprising. I’m amazed you allowed her to do that.”

Outside, Private and Twilight peeked out of the bushes to look at the gathered Shadowbolts. The students were largely milling around in front of the school, awaiting Cinch to let them in. Private raised an eyebrow and shook his head, “Uggh, uniforms, never much cared for them.”

Private turned a little pink at that and said, “That-that’s a different thing…” He then shook his head and went back to peering among the students. “It’s gonna make finding our mystery student a little harder though. I at least managed to see it was a guy.”

“That only narrows it down to approximately half the students there…” Twilight quipped with a sigh. “And he being our age, he doesn’t have height to differentiate him.”

Private blinked at her. “Ya know, we could like, totally solve crimes together.”

“We could?” Twilight asked. “I mean I’m good at observation, and making connections, but you really think we could solve, like, real crimes?”

“Well if the monsters weren’t a bigger priority.” Private said as he scanned the students. His eyes eventually fell on Spera as he moved quietly through the crowd. “Hold on, that guy looks a bit familiar.”

“I could’ve sworn I saw him in the papers one time, something about that guy being some CEO’s kid. Granted that doesn’t exactly mean a lot considering Crystal Prep’s usual attendees, but I heard he managed to land a few academic awards. Must be a big hitter they’ve…” He stopped when he saw Spera moving towards the statue, before looking out at the crowd. Satisfied that everybody else was distracted by conversation or phones, Spera reached into his bag, looked at something out of sight, and then...touched the statue’s base. He tensed up for a minute, drawing his hand away like it was suddenly burned, before going back into the crowd.

“I was about to say that was was awfully suspicious,” Twilight said, looking at Private. “I guess we should head to the reception in the gym. We may be able to find out who he is.”

The gym was its usual self, with just a few additions. A snack table, Vinyl’s deejay booth, some chairs so the students could sit down. However the atmosphere was incredibly chilly with the Canterlot High students on one side, and the students from Crystal Prep on the other. Soursweet crunched a cup, then stomped it underfoot, glaring at the Canterlotters, and she received some glares in return.

The other guardians filed into the building to see the rather cold atmosphere only seem to get worse by the second. Private and Twilight had just sent a photo of Spera to them. “So this guy touched the statue and got all tense? What’s that all about?” Rainbow asked as they came in.

“I don’t know, honestly,” Twilight said as she walked with them. “There seems to be something about the statue but I don’t know what it could possibly be.”

Sunset tapped her chin with a finger. “Well, I kinda sort of recall between times when I was ignoring her ‘because I knew everything’,” She quoted herself, imitating her former mean attitude. “But I don’t ever recall her mentioning anything about the statue.”

“We should probably ask her after all this is over,” Aj said, “Till then, we gotta watch out fer that feller.” She pointed at Spera who was looking around the area, occasionally looking in his bag.

“I got this…” Private said, stepping over and walking towards the student. Private however, got the attention of some Crystal Preppers as he approached. “Excuse me?”

Spera tensed up and turned around, looking a touch nervous. “Um, I’m sorry do you need me for something?”

“Yes, I’d like to ask you a few questions,” Private said, crossing his arms and going into interrogator mode. “Like what’s in the bag…”

“It’s, actually-” Spera began but suddenly Indigo Zap got between them, glaring up at Private.

“Who wants to know? You, loser? That’s none of your business what he’s got on the bag!” Indigo yelled.

“Uh, it is our business if he’s been snooping around our school.” Rainbow said, suddenly pushing Private aside to glare at Indigo.

“Oh, why would any of us come here?” Soursweet said in her sickeningly sweet tone, then the switch flipped. “Normally none of us would be caught dead slumming at this dump!”

“Now now y’all,” Aj said, coming in between the two athletes and pushing them apart, “Let’s not go around killin’ each other before the competition even starts.”

“It isn’t really a competition, because we’ve never lost,” Sugarcoat observed in her usual deadpan manner.

“That’s not a really nice thing to say,” Fluttershy said as she observed the proceedings. “Isn’t the point of these games for us to all get along?”

“Maybe in fairytale land, deary,” Sunny Flare said mockingly as she came up. “But here, these games are all about us taking victory.”

“And here I thought you all would take the high ground and be a touch civil.” Rarity said, crossing her arms. “But I suppose the legendary arrogance of Crystal Prep was vastly understated.”

Meanwhile Pinkie was standing by Spera, the poor guy tried to walk out of the conversation, only to bump into said party girl. “Oh, I’m terribly sorry.” Spera said quickly.

“Hiya. I’m Pinkie Pie. Welcome to Canterlot High! What’s your name?” Pinkie said with a kind smile and an extended hand.

“Uh, Char-I mean...Spera, Spera Imperictus.” Spera said, before taking Pinkie’s hand, Pinkie did her usual deal of shaking Spera’s hand so violently his hair got a touch disheveled.

“Nice to meetcha Spera! You seem like a nice guy, not like your classmates,” Pinkie said still keeping her happy smile.

“Well, I’m not exactly as fired up about this competition as my, companions are.” Spera explained. “And it doesn’t seem like anybody else is fired up about actually wanting to meet people.” The pair observed the sorry state of the reception. Students milling around, a couple lazing in chairs, and even the normally peppy Vinyl was looking bored. “I honestly expected a bit more excitement with such a big event like this.”

“Yeah.. It’s definitely missing something…” Pinkie said thoughtfully, then she looked like she got an idea. “C’mon!” she yelled, yoinking Spera out of the gym to help her.

As the pair dove away, Celestia took the stage, “Hello everyone, I’d like to extend a truly special welcome to our guests from Crystal Prep Academy!”

Coming out of the hallway door was Spera and Pinkie pushing very heavy, comically large presents. “What’s in these things?” Spera asked while straining to push his. “Bricks?!”

“Party Can-are you certified to handle heavy artillery?” Spera asked warily.

“We would also like to extend a thank you to the twelve students from CHS who gladly chose to represent their school.” Celestia said, as the various students chosen all waved at her. “As well as the hopes of strengthening our bonds as members of both schools for which the games stand for!”

“I’ll be right back!” Pinkie declared, then quickly zipped away much to Spera’s amazement. The next he saw her, she had suddenly appeared by the snack table, taking away the boring snacks, and replacing it with a three-tiered cupcake tray. Then, suddenly, she was… upside down in the deejay booth handing the girl, there, a record. Next thing Spera knew the lights suddenly went out, and a disco ball was sending little points of light all over, and colored lights were flashing on and off. Vinyl put on the new CD, and the music was much more lively and party-like, as was the atmosphere. The Canterlotters and Crystal Preppers began to warm up, and actually talk to each other, rather than just glare at each other. Pinkie appeared beside Spera again, throwing off the present disguises revealing the baby pink cannons on their yellow spangled stands.

“Again, I have to ask, are you sure this is a good idea?” Spera said, watching Pinkie grab the firing cords, getting ready to set them off.

“Absolutely!” Pinkie said, yanking the cords, firing the cannons and sending a shower of confetti and streamers into the air to fall on the party, much to everyone’s delight. Pinkie looked positively energized from the change in mood, and from people actually being happy. In fact she started to glow. She gained pony ears, and her hair grew a long ponytail, and began to float in the air. “Ooooh, floaty!” she cheered happily.

Spera’s bag suddenly began to glow at this point and he grabbed his head as it started throbbing.

“What’s going-” Spera said, and then saw his hand suddenly glow a sickly acid green...he then looked to Pinkie. “What in the world?” He said as he saw the ears and ponytail. “But that’s not possible…”

He then looked to his hand, and then Pinkie...and then...reached out and touched the party girl with his glowing hand. Suddenly Spera felt like he was force fed a whole buffet of food at once. Pinkie let out a yelp, and suddenly felt like she ran a marathon in under a second..she drooped a little, the ears and ponytail beginning to disappear. “I’m...party...pooped…”

“What’s going on?!” Spera said, looking as the pink light covering Pinkie’s body just seemed to be getting..absorbed into his hand. The voice in his head crying out for him to feed on her more. But he grabbed the glowing hand with his other hand, and with a great heave, managed to pull it off. Spera fell back against the door and fell into the hallway, out of sight from the tired party girl.

Private looked over at Pinkie as she was slumped on the floor and came running over to her. “Pinkie are you alright?” He asked, helping her to her feet.

“Yeah… I’m alright… Just… suddenly feeling really drained,” Pinkie said leaning against Private a bit.

Private then looked up and saw Spera running away down the hall. He set Pinkie on the bleachers. “Stay here and tell the others what happened.” He said before taking off down the hallway.

Just as he left however, the lights suddenly came on and the music stopped. There came the sound of tapping on the microphone, and a burst of feedback that caused all frivoloties to just… stop.

“I would like to thank Principal Celestia for her… unconventional welcome,” Principal Cinch said once the feedback had died down. “It’s been four years since the last Friendship Games, but it feels as though nothing has changed. Canterlot High continues to pick its competitors in a popularity contest and Crystal Prep continues to field it’s top twelve students. It is a comfort to know that even after so many years of losses your school remains committed to its ideals, however misguided they may be. I wish you all the best of luck, regardless of the inevitable outcome.”

And just like that, with that gloriously catty “you suck” speech, the ice that Pinkie had broken was frozen even harder.

Private chased Spera down the halls of the school, Spera doing his best to try and elude the aspiring detective despite not knowing where he was going. Private meanwhile was relentless, it was one thing for this kid to go poking around at a statue, it was another thing entirely when he knew that this Spera kid did something to his friend. Private wasn’t going to let him get away with it.

Eventually, Spera managed to find the front doors and shoved them open Private, however,reached into his trench coat and pulled out a police baton, extending it. “Let’s just hope I remember this trick,” He said, and chucked it at Spera’s legs. The baton got caught on Spera’s legs, tangling them up and causing the boy to come crashing down onto the sidewalk.

Spera groaned as Private came up to him, flipped him over and grabbed Spera by the scruff of his shirt. “What the hell did you do to Pinkie!?”

“You don’t know!? She was on her knees when I found her! You must’ve done something!” Private yelled.

“I, she was glowing, then my hand glowed and...I touched her…” Spera said, bewildered at being in this situation.

Private then pulled the bag up, and reached inside. He slowly pulled out the tome, and it glowed brighter as Private touched it. Private chucked it aside. “I can’t believe it…” He said, recognizing that eery green glow.

“I-I found it at my home, it survived the fire…” Spera blubbered, trying to make heads or tails of this situation.

“And you have no idea what it is and you just go poking around?” Private demanded.

“Forget it,” Private said, letting go of Spera and heading towards the tome, putting on a pair of gloves. “I’m taking this.”

“Trust me, it’s for your own good.” Private said, about to touch the tome when…

It was not as obvious where Spera and Private was, but the girls in the gym had heard the bongs, too, while the reception had turned frigid after Cinch’s speech, now everybody froze in their various positions as time slowed to a stop, and a Witching Hour started. Suddenly a portal opened in the middle of the gym, and out came a trio of massive wasps, buzzing angrily.

“Why do these Witching Hours have the suckiest timing?” Rainbow asked, summoning her blades.

“I haven’t a clue, honestly,” Twilight said calling forth her staff. The Guardians were going to be busy.

Spera slowly began to stand up as well...and looked around at the frozen cars in the streets. “What... what is happening?” He said, bewildered at what he saw.

“Not you,” Private said, taking aim...and blasting the large wasp behind Spera, the creature buzzed back, clicking angrily as it looked down at it’s prey. “Big yellowjacket there.”

Spera looked on the creature, stunned. “What, but, this is impossible...how could, why…”

“Now I know how Sunset felt…” Private said, grabbing Spera’s arm and pulling him away to take cover behind the Wondercolt Statue as the wasp tried to buzz by and impale them with it’s massive stinger.

“What’s going on!? Why is time stopped?!” Spera said, looking at Private as the guardian took shots at the monster.

“Short version, this is the Witching Hour, monsters come out during it. They want to get at people and eat them but can’t due to the spell. So us Guardians have to make sure they die before the hour is up.” Private explained quickly, ducking as the Wasp buzzed by, nicking his trench coat with its stinger. Private rubbed the cut, feeling no bleeding he continued. “The fact that you’re moving means you’re a guardian too.”

“I’m starting to believe I hit my head on the sidewalk, it seems far more plausible…” Spera said, still looking at the massive monster.

“You aren’t the only one,” Private said, then looked at him. “Look, I know it’s freaky, scary even. But if we don’t kill that thing, it’s going to head inside the school and make lunch out of everyone there. If you care about your classmates, even a little, you’ll wise up and listen.”
Spera blinked, and then the logical part of his brain started working. He knew that if this creature got loose inside, everyone would get hurt...Sunny would get hurt...funny that he thought of her first…

“For now, let me handle Mr. Angry Bee. You stay in cover and concentrate, if my first time as a guardian is any indication, you’ll know how to fight this thing just by concentrating,” Private explained, summoning his sword in turn.

Spera watched as Private bravely dove into combat with the creature. Private dodged and weaved around the creature’s stinger, managing to slash at the bug’s legs, severing a couple. The creature hissed in pain, before diving to attack Private with even more fury.
Spera looked at his hands, “Concentrate...right...on what?” Spera said to himself, but then closed his eyes and then...he just, knew…

“Scimitars of Tenacity!” Spera suddenly shouted, and out of his hand formed an elegant set of curved blades, silver in color with black handles. He looked at the weapons. “I...I did it…”

“Spera look out!” Private yelled as the wasp decided it had enough with fighting Private and started to buzz towards the supposedly weaker pray. Spera instinctively crouched into a fighting stance, and swung at the creature wildly. The creature, shocked at Spera’s sudden movements, tried to fly away, only for Spera to slash at the stinger, the scimitars slicing the stinger’s point clear off.

The boys looked on as the creature flew back, and then dropped out it’s stinger and suddenly a new one appeared.

“That’s...anatomically impossible for a wasp…” Spera said, staring at the creature.

“We aren’t going to take it down with it flying like that.” Spera said, looking up as the wasp was readying to swoop down again.

“Luckily, there’s another way for us to hurt this thing…” Private said, aiming his gun at the creature as it came down upon them. It tried to roll out of the way as Private aimed at it. “Guardian Beast! Unicorn!” He then fired a shot, and Private’s silver unicorn came out, flying towards the creature and managing to pierce it’s horn through the wasp’s wings. The bug came crashing down to earth, coming up onto its legs and hissing angrily at the pair.

“Well, not specifically…” Private said, “But you probably know how to bring out your own too…”

Spera looked at his blades again, and then sighed. “Right…” he then looked on the wasp, and then crossed the blades together. On instinct he shouted. “GUARDIAN BEAST! LEO!”

Out of a silver summoning circle came a huge lion with silver fur and a long black mane. It was easily the size of Private’s unicorn, with massive teeth and claws. The lion then rushed towards the wasp, claws extended as it began shredding the wasp.

Private then watched the lion, and..something seemed off. Spera began yelling, cheering for the lion to eviscerate the wasp. But the lion seemed to be..enjoying hurting the creature. Most guardians got riled up during a fight sure, but this one...it seemed to be almost happy with the screams of pain the wasp was making.

“Why? It’s killing it.” Spera said, looking over at Private questioningly.

“No it’s not, it’s just hurting it.” Private said, pointing to the lion.

“But it’s a monster right? It was going to hurt everyone inside!” Spera yelled at Private, as he did the lion only continued to hurt the wasp. “Doesn’t it deserve punishment?!”

“That’s not how we do things!” Private yelled back. “We just fight off the monsters and end it as quickly as possible! We don’t take time to make them suffer!”

“It won’t, and I’m stopping this right now!” Private yelled, and his unicorn went over and knocked the lion off the wasp, which was now almost pitifully twitching, it’s limbs severed, it’s eyes clawed out, it’s wings in tatters…

Private walked up to the creature, and held his sword up to the wasp. “I’m sorry…” Private said, before stabbing the creature cleanly in the head.

The wasp twitched a little, let out one last click and hiss...before dying on the ground, turning into dust like all the monsters before him. Private sighed, and looked to see Spera was gone and the tome was gone with him.

“What? Where’d he...damnit…” Private swore, kicking a rock in frustration.

“Private! Are you okay? Did you get giant bugs out here?” Twilight said running up to him. “Where’s that guy you were chasing?” The others except for Pinkie and Fluttershy came running up soon after, gathering around Private and his unicorn.

“Pinkie seems to have been knocked out by the Witching Hour,” Rarity said as she came up to the statue. “She just slumped to the side, and started snoring.”

“No idea,” Private said, slumping against the statute and going to sit on the ground. “I did find out one thing though, that Spera kid? He’s a guardian.”

“A guardian? Well that’s one mystery down,” Twilight observed then looked at Private closely. “You seem really troubled, though.”

“We fought one of those bugs, and I walked him through guardian 101.” Private explained. “But when he attacked the wasp, he just...you know how we try to kill the monsters as cleanly and efficiently as possible? Well, when Spera had this wasp he...he made his guardian beast torture the monster, hurting it without killing it.”

“Oh…” Twilight said frowning. “He’s like Flash. A guardian, but not suited to be one. We need to tell Professor Celestia as soon as possible. Then his powers can be removed and memories erased.”

“He’s a pretty smart one by the looks of him,” Private said. “I doubt he’s going to go anywhere alone for us to snag him. He’s probably going to spend the rest of the weekend surrounded by Crystal Prep students.”

“And of course if we go up to him, Old Miss ray of sunshine is gonna accuse us of harassing him or trying to cheat.” Rainbow grumbled.

“I just wonder what kind of life the darling could be leading to make the monster suffer like that?” Rarity said thoughtfully.

“Also, I found this book in his bag,” Private explained. “It was glowing with dark magic. I’m thinking that’s how he might’ve drained Pinkie’s magic.”

“The more I hear about this guy the more I wanna stomp him!” Rainbow said, smacking her fist into her hand. “You don’t go screwing with one of us like that!”

“Forget it, by the time we search the school up and down, he’ll have found a hiding spot.” Private said, “Probably planning to wait out the hour. Not much we can do except clean up the mess.”

“Yeah,” Twilight sighed. “Just because we’ve found a bad guardian doesn’t mean we can just abandon our usual post monster clean-up. We’ve still got to keep our cover… No matter how much Pinkie keeps wanting to blow it to smithereens.”

Time resumed back in the gym, and Sunny Flare suddenly found Spera standing next to her...funny, he wasn’t there before.

“Well… The party kind of got good… Principal Cinch had to remind us that we’re here to win, not make friends, though,” Sunny observed. “Kind of… sad in a way. Some of the Canterlot High folks are not bad…”

“So uh, how was your...dozing?” Sunny asked nervously, trying to hold a conversation with Spera.

Equestria Guardians

by Jacoboby1

Chapter 30 "Friendship Games Part 2"