Chapter 2: A Talk With Nitro
Sunset was walking through a field that was a good distance away from Beacon. "When I obtain more power, I'll show Celestia what it means to rule Equestria," Sunset thought with a devious smirk on her face. It was the that she heard fighting in the distance through the trees. "Fighting, not something I heard often in Equestria, but this is a new world. Might as well see some of the inhabitants of this world," Sunset thought as she walked through the field towards the source of the fighting.
As she got closer, she heard the fighting grow closer and more ferocious. "The sounds like animals fighting and whatever they are, I should probably be careful," Sunset thought as she walked slower. She soon got close to the fighting and saw someone and a strange creature fighting. The person fighting the creature was a women in a red dress wielding what looked like to be dual swords. The creature was unlike any back on Equestria, it looked like a massive bear, but with a completely black coat of fur and an odd white mask.
Sunset hid in a bush nearby to watch what was going on. "What is that creature? It is unlike anything I've ever seen before," Sunset thought in amazement.
"This Grimm is harder than what they told me," the woman said as she combined the blades into a bow and shot arrows at the Grimm.
"Grimm? So that's what those creatures are," Sunset thought as she watched the battle.
The Grimm charged at the woman, who swiftly dodged out of the way. The woman then fired more arrows, only this time Sunset noticed that the arrows had something around them. Before they could reach the Grimm, it picked up a nearby tree and threw it at the arrows. The arrows then seemed to break apart and come back together, completely missing the tree. The continued and hit the Grimm on the side.
"Was that magic just now?" Sunset said to herself.
The woman dashed up to the Grimm and slid under it, firing arrows into its underside. The Grimm, still standing after all that, tried to bite the woman. In response, the woman threw a bottle in its mouth and ran. The Grimm's mouth then exploded into fire, causing the Grimm to slump over and die. To Sunset's surprise, the Grimm disintegrated instead of the body being left there.
"Well, that was an interesting experience," Sunset thought as she slowly left the area.
Sunset woke up and slowly got out of bed. "That memory again, it's been a while since I've had it," Sunset said silently to herself. She got up, showered brushed her teeth and got dressed. When she headed downstairs, she saw Storm sitting on the couch. "Morning Storm," Sunset called.
Storm turned around and saw Sunset walking to the living room. "Morning Sunset, how is going?" Storm asked as Sunset sat down.
"It's going good, I don't know what to do today though," Sunset told Storm as she thought about various things.
"Well, why don't you go out on the town by yourself?" Storm suggested.
"By myself, isn't that a little too risky?" Sunset asked in response.
"Admittedly, yes it is a little risky, but it's better than staying at home all day," Storm told Sunset. After thinking about it for a little, Sunset had reached a decision.
"Sure, I don't have anything else to do," Sunset said.
"Great, come on, let's get some food in you," Storm said. Storm headed into the kitchen and prepared some food for the two of them. "Oh, by the way, you have a Scroll?" Storm asked,
"I actually do, you want my number so we can communicate?" Sunset asked as she got out her Scroll.
"I would like that," Storm said. The two exchanged information and resumed eating breakfast. After finishing their food, Sunset told Storm goodbye and left to explore Vale.
"Well, since Storm showed Dust Haven yesterday and I didn't see much of it yesterday, I might as well look around," Sunset thought as she walked into the store. Since Storm only showed her the lobby of Dust Haven, she decided to walk around and look at the Dust they had on display. Before she walked off, she felt a chill run down her spine. Turning around to see who was behind her, she saw no one standing there.
"What was that feeling?" she thought. She shrugged the feeling off and walked away, not noticing a girl in a purple jacket and a boy in gray shirt watching her from the second floor.
"So, she's the one I feel that power from. We should probably keep an eye on her," the girl said.
"As much as I find you irritating this is one thing I'll agree with you on," the boy told her.
"Even if you don't want to keep an eye on her, I see something in her that interests me," the girl explained.
"Jennifer, I don't know what you sense in this girl, she looks normal," the boy said, referring to the girl by her name.
"She may look normal, but so do I Chris," Jennifer said, showing him the scar on her left forearm. Chris said nothing in response. "Besides, there's another reason I want to watch over her," Jennifer said, her tone becoming more serious.
"What would that be?" Chris asked curiously.
"I can sense an Earthbound Ancient dwelling within her," Jennifer told Chris. Chris was surprised at what he heard. "And before you ask, I'm positive it's one of the Ancients. I would recognize that power from a mile away," Jennifer said, clenching her right fist.
"I believe you, but what do you mean by you can feel it dwelling inside her?" Chris asked. Jennifer said nothing and showed him a familiar item.
"She's like me," Jennifer told him. Chris was about to ask what he meant, but then he understood as the pieces clicked in his mind.
"Wait, so you mean that she's...! ?" Chris asked out of surprise, leaving the question hanging.
"She is," Jennifer said imply.
"Well then, I'll leave her up to you, good luck," Chris said as he walked away, leaving Jennifer alone.
"It might seem like I'm a little bit of a stalker, but what she doesn't see won't hurt her," Jennifer said as she walked towards the stairs.
"Wow, they have so many different types of Dust, it's not even funny," Sunset said as she walked through the aisles of Dust. She was so entranced by the Dust she accidentally bumped into someone. "Sorry," she said instinctively.
"Sunset, is that you?" a familiar voice asked. Sunset looked at who she bumped into and saw that it was Nitro.
"Oh, Nitro, what are you doing here?" Sunset asked.
"Well, I don't think I told you this yesterday, but I actually do work here?" Nitro explained.
"Really, you work in this huge store?" Sunset questioned out of disbelief.
"Not the store itself, I work at the cafe," Nitro explained.
"Really? Do you mind if we hang out in that case?" Sunset asked.
"Sure, it's my day off and I don't have anything better to do," Nitro told her.
"In that case, would you like to show me around the store? Storm only told me what this store holds and I want to see it for myself," Sunset told Nitro.
"Well, I would be happy to show you around," Nitro said.
"Thank you and you won't mind if I ask about some things that are related to Vale," Sunset asked.
"I don't mind at all, what were you curious about?" Nitro responded.
"Well, I was curious as to why this store has so many types of Dust," Sunset said.
"That's actually because a lot of different people come here, so we wanted to keep a good stock of Dust just in case," Nitro explained.
"Is that the only reason?" Sunset questioned curiously.
"Not exactly, you see, another reason we have so much Dust is because of the amount of Hunters and Huntresses that come here. Not only do we offer weapon fixes, but this place also has something unique," Nitro explained to Sunset.
"Really, well can we go to this place you're talking about?" Sunset asked Nitro.
"I was planning on it, follow me," Nitro said as he walked ahead of Sunset. Sunset walked after Nitro and followed him to the store he was talking about.
After a few minutes of walking, Nitro and Sunset arrived in front of an odd looking store. "What is this place Nitro?" Sunset asked.
"This is a place called The Haven Forgery. As for what it offers, well, com on inside and see," Nitro told Sunset. The two of them headed inside and Sunset was amazed by what she saw. The store held what looked like a forge for making weapons, an anvil for molding weapons along with various tools, and an enchanting area with Dust around it.
"Who, this place is amazing," Sunset said as he looked around the forge.
"I figured you would like it," Nitro said as he walked up to the counter. Behind the counter, there was a Faunus male who looked unlike anything Sunset had ever seen before, parts of his face being covered in scales, cleaning a pair of twin swords. "Hey Draco, how's it going?" Nitro asked the Faunus.
"Oh, hey Nitro, it's been a little slow, but I can live. What brings you here?" Draco told Nitro.
"Not much, just showing a new person in Vale the forge," Nitro explained.
"Really, may I meet this person?" Draco asked.
"Sure," Nitro said as he motioned for Sunset to come closer. Sunset slowly walked up to the counter.
"Hello there, name's Draco, I own and run this forge," he said, extending his hand.
"My name is Sunset, pleased to meet you Draco," Sunset said as he shook his hand.
"Nice to see someone new in town," Draco said calmly.
"Mind if I ask what this place is? I mean, I heard that this place is unique to Vale from Nitro, but what is it?" Sunset asked curiously.
"Well, this place, if you couldn't tell, is a forge. What makes this place special is that enchantment area over there," Draco told Sunset.
"An enchantment area? What is its function?" Sunset inquired.
"It's easier to show you rather than explain," Nitro told Sunset. Draco walked over to the enchanting station, which exposed his lower body which had been behind the counter. When Sunset saw Draco's lower body, she immediately noticed the dragon tail.
"Draco, if you don't mind me asked, what kind of Faunus are you?" Sunset asked in astonishment.
"I'm a rare breed of Faunus known as a Dragon Faunus," Draco said, a hint of intimidation in his voice. Sunset heart skipped a beat when she heard the word dragon.
"So, you're impressed I take it?" Nitro asked them.
"That's an understatement. I'll admit, I've never seen a Dragon Faunus before," Sunset said.
"Well, that's because very few of us actually leave our home continent the Dragon Isle," Draco explained.
"Dragon Isle, where is that?" Sunset asked curiously. It was at that point that Nitro pulled out his Scroll and showed Sunset a map of Remnant.
"The Dragon Isle is this landmass to the northwest of Vale," Nitro said as he pointed to the island shaped like a dragon. Sunset was amazed at the island. "Have you never noticed it before?" Nitro asked curiously.
"Now that I think about it, not at all," Sunset said as she thought back.
"That's actually normal response because of the fact that it is actually not that special," Draco explained.
"What do you mean by that?" Sunset asked.
"Well, I'll explain later, but for now, what do you say I show you the enchanting area," Draco said.
"That's fine," Sunset said.
Sunset walked towards the enchanting station and noticed a few things about it. The first was that it was split into two areas. One area held an anvil that was surrounded by various types of bottled up Dust. The other are looked like a spell circle with several Dust Crystals insider and around the circle.
"Impressed?" Draco asked simply.
"It's amazing, but what do you do here?" Sunset asked in amazement.
"Well, I won't go too much into the details, but what I can say is that the anvil is for infusing weapons with different types of Dust and the enchantment circle is used to connect a Hunter's or Huntress' Semblance to their weapon," Draco explained.
"So, say someone has a Semblance for illusions. You could enchant their weapon to make illusions?" Sunset asked.
"See that's the thing, only certain semblances are able to be attached to weapons. But, in your example, illusions would be one of the ones that will work," Draco explained.
"What is your weapon by the way?" Nitro asked Sunset. Sunset said nothing and took off her backpack. She unzipped it, reached inside, and got out a small emblem that had her cutie mark on it. Nitro looked confused, until the shield expanded in size and became a bow.
"Well, what do you think?" Sunset asked.
"That's your weapon?" Nitro asked simply. Sunset nodded in response and said nothing. "I like it, but does it become something else?" Nitro asked curiously.
"It can become a pair of dual blades and a sword & shield," Sunset explained. Nitro simply said nothing more, but Sunset noticed Draco looking at the weapon curiously. "You want to look at it?" Sunset asked Draco, handing him the weapon.
"Yes, and I want to ask something of you Sunset," Draco replied.
"What would that be?" Sunset inquired.
"Could I borrow this for a two days?" Draco asked.
"I don't mind, but why do you need my weapon?" Sunset asked.
"Well, it looks like it could use a tune up. Don't worry, we'll talk about payment later," Draco said.
"In that case, I actually don't mind," Sunset said. Sunset gave her weapon to Draco who took it behind the counter.
"Now, don't worry about you're weapon, I'll take care of it," Draco told Sunset.
"Ok, I'll trust you," Sunset said.
"Well, we got to get going, I'm going to show Sunset around the place a little more," Nitro said.
"Ok then, well, I'll see you two later," Draco said as the two of them left the forge. When the two of them were outside, Sunset noticed she was very tense.
"You were nervous?" Nitro asked as they stood outside.
"I guess I was," Sunset said.
"Well, that's how most people are after first meeting Draco," Nitro told Sunset.
"I don't see why that would be at all," Sunset said in a sarcastic tone.
"Well, maybe it's because of the Dragon part of his nature," Nitro said in a equally sarcastic tone. The two of them laughed at that.
"Anyway, where do you want to go next?" Nitro asked.
"Well, why don't we go to the place you work?" Sunset questioned.
"I don't see why not, come on," Nitro said as he walked towards the stairs. Sunset started to follow him when she felt a sense of death wash over her. She quickly turned around and looked around cautiously.
"What was that? It felt different than the one I felt at the entrance," Sunset thought as she cautiously rushed to follow Nitro. If she had looked up, she would have noticed an ever so familiar figure on the edge of next floor.
"So, that's what is going on, this is going to be interesting," the figure said before disappearing into thin air.
After getting to Nitro's work, which was called the Dust Cafe, Sunset sat at a table and waited for Nitro to bring some drinks. While she waited, Sunset thought about the feelings she had at the mall. "What were those feelings? I've never felt anything like them before, even when I was in Equestria," Sunset thought as she recalled when she got the feelings.
"The first one I felt was shortly after I entered the mall. That one didn't feel too weird, just like a feeling that someone is watching me. The second one that I felt after leaving the Haven Forgery is the one that I'm interested in. It felt like there was death right next to me, touching me. It seems weird, but I feel like I've felt that before."
Her train of thought was broken when she heard the chair in front of her. She looked up and saw Nitro place her drink in front of her. "I didn't know what you wanted, so I got you my favorite drink," Nitro told her.
"What is it?" Sunset asked curiously as she picked up her drink.
"It's a coffee with a special blend that I'm not allowed to say what it is," Nitro said as Sunset took a sip of her drink. Sunset's reaction to the taste was what Nitro had expected. "Is it good?" he asked, a smile forming on his face. In response, Sunset simply sipped the drink again.
"It's very good," Sunset said simply.
"I knew you would like it," Nitro said as he smiled.
"You know, that reminds me, how exactly did you come to live in Vale?" Sunset asked.
"Well, it's a bit of a complicated story, so do you mind listening to me ramble?" Nitro asked.
"Not at all," Sunset said as she took another sip of her drink.
"Well, before I came to Vale, I was originally from the city from Haven. I wasn't anything special, I worked at a coffee shop like this one. About two years ago, I was asked by a friend of mine to move to Vale in order to help with some things. My family did disagree with me wanting to go, but I left anyway. Before I left, I wanted to make amends with my aunt. At the time she was married and had two kids."
"The night I went to visit her however, I found out that something happened. When I got to their home, I saw that it was wrecked on the inside. After some searching, I found a hidden room with my aunt's kids in there. They were crying and looked like they were rushed in there. They told me that something come in and started wrecking their house. My sister and her husband put them in the room and told them not to come out. After looking for them, I found that they were killed."
"I don't know all the details on how they died, but I do know that an odd Grimm attacked the house. Her kids were going to go to the orphanage, but I asked if I could take them with me to Vale. They did agree to that and we set out to Haven after my aunt's funeral. After a few days of travel, we arrived in Vale and I almost immediately went to my friend's house. I explained the situation to her and asked if she could take care of my aunt's kids. She agreed and also asked if I could live with her. Since I didn't have anywhere else to go, I ended up agreeing."
After Nitro finished telling his story, he stayed silent and waited for Sunset's reaction. "Wow, I feel sorry for you," Sunset said eventually.
"I appreciate the support Sunset, it means a lot to me," Nitro said. The two stayed quiet as they finished their drinks. "So, do you have a crush on Nova?" Nitro asked as Sunset was finishing her drink. This caused Sunset to nearly spit out her drink.
"Wait, you could tell?" Sunset asked as she breathed in and out.
"No, but you're reaction told me all I need to know," Nitro said. Sunset then immediately covered her face out of embarrassment.
"I can't believe you did that," Sunset said.
"Hey, can't friends play jokes on each other?" Nitro asked.
"You have a point there," Sunset said.
"But seriously, do you actually have a crush on him?" Nitro asked in a friendly tone.
"In all honesty, I do have a bit of a crush on him," Sunset said as she turned away and blushed out of embarrassment.
"I figured because of the way you looked at him," Nitro told her.
"So, can I ask you a favor regarding Nova?" Sunset questioned.
"Yes, I'll put in a good word for you," Nitro said without Sunset having asked what she wanted.
"How did you know?" Sunset asked.
"Well, it's one of the advantages of my semblance," Nitro told her in a whisper. It was at that point that Sunset became very interested.
"What exactly is you're semblance?" Sunset asked.
"Well, it's a unique one, I'll say that much," Nitro said.
"What is it?" Sunset asked.
"Well, I'm not able to show you today, but maybe at a later date," Nitro told her.
"That's fair," Sunset said.
"Hey, now that I think about it, Nova does work today," Nitro said.
"Really?" Sunset asked.
"Well, I might be able to tell him that a girl I met wants to date him," Nitro said as he got out his Scroll.
"I wouldn't mind that and that actually reminds me, do you mind if I get you number?" Sunset asked as she got her Scroll out.
"Sure," Nitro said. The two of them exchanged numbers and Sunset put her Scroll away.
"So, I'll see you later in that case?" Sunset asked.
"I think that is the case," Nitro said. Sunset said goodbye to Nitro and left the coffee shop.
"I can't believe that I'm going to talk to Nova," Sunset thought as she blushed slightly out of embarrassment. As she left the coffee shop, she ran into a girl that was standing outside.
"Oh, sorry about that," Sunset said.
"Its fine, you looked distracted, so I don't blame you," the girl said.
"I guess I was," Sunset told herself.
"Where were you going, by the way?" the girl asked. It was at that moment that Sunset realized she didn't know where she was going.
"I don't exactly know, but maybe you could help me," Sunset said as she rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment.
"Sure, where or who are you looking for?" the girl asked.
"I'm looking for a man named Nova, I know he works here, but I don't know where," Sunset explained.
"Oh, I know Nova, he's working right now, but I don't think he minds seeing a friend of his," the girl said.
"Could you take me to where he works?" Sunset asked, a hint of excitement in her voice.
"Sure, just follow me," the girl told Sunset.
"Thank you so much, Miss…?" Sunset said.
"Jennifer, Jennifer Natsuki," the girl said.
"Name's Sunset Shimmer, Sunset told Jennifer. With that, the two went towards Nova's work.