//------------------------------// // Gather the girls together - RESURGENCE_part_one // Story: A Certain Magical Friendship – Context_SHIFT // by Sora2455 //------------------------------// <...so that’s what happened.> It was true that hypnotism made one more likely to follow suggestions, but there was a big gap between that and firing deadly attacks at your friends. <...and yet, at the time, I remember...> Kuroko could move 80 meters in one teleport, which took her one second to perform. Averaged out, that gave her a maximum speed of about 288km/h. (To the American girls, that would be ‪179 mph.) Even though she was carrying Misaka along with her, Kuroko had no trouble zooming through the skyline of Academy City at speeds even a car couldn’t match. (So, yes, they were having to shout a bit to hear each other in those second-long increments of falling.) With Kuroko’s arms wrapped tightly around her middle – and keeping a suspicious eye on them to make sure that was where they stayed – Misaka pulled her flip phone out of her pocket. Kuroko made a face at it's appearance – the overly cutesy cover was a constant reminder of how unrefined her Sissy could be. She deposited the two of them on the roof of a nearby skyscraper. Unlike Kuroko, Misaka didn't have a headset that let her hold a phone conversation over the high-speed wind. Misaka flipped her phone open. Kuroko glanced up at the sky. The sun was still nowhere to be seen. Kuroko was not easily worried, but the absence of such a fundamental fact as sunlight had her biting her bottom lip. Misaka ended her call, flipping her phone closed again. She frowned. Kuroko’s eyes flicked back down to Misaka. Her eyebrows slowly drew together, and her mouth opened in an uncertain ‘o’. Misaka turned around to talk to her roommate, but stopped when she saw her face. Kuroko closed her eyes and nervously rubbed the back of her neck. Misaka’s mouth worked up and down as she tried and failed to find words. Eventually, she managed a flat Kuroko started twirling her two index fingers around each other, eyes on her shoes. Misaka groaned into her hands. Kuroko froze, a terrible thought occurring to her. Misaka hesitated. As much as she’d liked to have immediately shot down the idea, the only other Level 5 she’d ever actually met was Misaki, the #5. She didn’t know what the others looked like, or even how old they were. Eventually though, she shook her head. Kuroko’s eyes lit up in realization. It was true that some kinds of smoke were partially made of water, but Misaka’s microwaves would have vaporized all the water in that smoke. If that had been her only point of control, Nightmare Moon would have been unable to control her ‘Shadowbolts’ beyond that point. Then she frowned. Kuroko had briefly entertained the idea that Nightmare Moon had somehow put them all to sleep until the next sundown, but Uiharu’s outsider perspective had disproven that pretty quick. Misaka pointed up. There was a well-know theory which said that long ago, an enormous asteroid had collided with the Earth. Huge clouds of dust would have been kicked up into the atmosphere, hiding the sun from view. According to that theory, it was this massive disruption of sunlight that caused a mass extinction event and wiped out the dinosaurs. Huge clouds of dust. And they were fighting someone who could control such things. Kuroko saw Misaka’s logic in one terrifying moment of clarity. …but while that was definitely less ridiculous than extinguishing a G-type main-sequence star with a snap of the fingers, one person covering the sky in dust clouds was still well into the realm of the absurd. Kuroko looked up at the sky again. Had Nightmare Moon extinguished the sun and plunged the world into Eternal Night, or had she ‘merely’ put a barrier of night in front of the sun? The moon wouldn't be visible either way, with no sunlight to reflect. Still, the word ‘extinction’ reverberated inside Kuroko’s mind. She wondered what the upper levels of Academy City were doing right now – was there a plan in the works somewhere to independently bring back the day? Some backup plan to continue without sunlight? Or were the grown-ups just in a blind panic right now? Kuroko said Any esper capable of filling the atmosphere with dust would be capable of cleaning it again. That said… Or value their own life, Kuroko didn’t say. To someone who had condemned the world to a slow, cold death, mere pain might not be enough to force them to act. Misaka clicked her tongue. Wait, are things really heading in that direction? But if Sissy owes that kind of favor to another girl, who knows what kind of depraved things she might be forced into! No! I won’t allow it! Sissy can only do those sorts of things with me! Kuroko was spared from being fried black by the ringing of Misaka’s mobile. Still glaring at her perverted roommate, Misaka answered the call. She ended the call. Kuroko’s head full of steam deflated, the seriousness of the situation forcing her daydreams to the side. Misaka said, steeling herself for another flight with Kuroko. It was a good plan. It was logical, and it’s scientific basis was sound. It was a pity they were dealing with the ridiculous power called magic, which enjoyed spitting in the face of such things. “S-stab me?!” Fluttershy's voice screeched out. “Of course.” Index looked confused that Fluttershy was even asking. “I can't just go around trusting strange magicians.” “But – ” Fluttershy was literally scrambling for words “ – but I wouldn't hurt you!” “But would you say the same thing if you knew who I was?” Index smiled. It was not a happy smile. “I'm not the sort of person who can grant the benefit of the doubt to anyone from the Magic Side.” W-what? That… Something clicked in Fluttershy's head. That was so sad. “Anyway, it's true that in the Brothers Grimm version of Sleeping Beauty, the princess was in danger from a spinning needle. But the story they heard was originally published by a French author, who based it on the works of an Italian poet. And in that story, the princess was actually under threat from a splinter of flax. Linen, of course, is made from flax – ” Index's show with the pointed cloth, Fluttershy realised, was actually very familiar. She'd seen it over and over again, back home. The first time she'd met Harry the Bear, he'd growled at her and bared his teeth. Fluttershy was no match for a fully grown Brown Bear, but Harry hadn't been certain that she wasn't going to hurt him (she had been trying to treat his broken paw). That uncertainty had turned to fear. And that fear had led Harry to try and scare off someone who didn't mean him any harm. In Fluttershy's head, Index's lecture was starting to blur into unintelligible growling. Her white habit was overladen with bear fur. The knife in her hand was just her outstretched claw. “ – you really shouldn't have copied the legend completely, that – are you listening to me?” Fluttershy abruptly stopped edging backwards, and pitched forwards instead. Index had been gesturing off to one side with the hand holding the knife, and so was caught off guard (she had been watching for Mana activity, not physical movement). Index frantically tried to move her cloth-knife in-between her and Fluttershy. She was too slow. Off-balance, Index felt the other girls arms wrap strongly around her torso, pinning her arms in place. Index immediately began to struggle. No, no no! She had been careless! She had been caught off-guard by this weak-seeming opponent, and now she was… huh? She was… being hugged tightly? “It's okay.” Fluttershy, the girl who had been sitting terrified and alone in the park just moments ago, was holding the smaller girl tightly, speaking soothing words into her ear. “It's okay.” She repeated. “I'm not going to hurt you. You were just scared, weren't you? Just like I was. But it's okay. You don't have to be afraid of me.” “Get off me.” “Not until you relax.” Index was in the highly unusual position of being annoyed that somebody wasn't trying to hurt her. The nun moved her head around Fluttershy's so that her head wasn't touching the other girl's. “I can still stab you.” “That's true.” Fluttershy admitted, softly. “But I don't think you will.” Index rolled her eyes. “I'm not a stray cat you just picked off the street, you know.” “I know.” “I'm not going to suddenly be your friend just because you hugged me. I don't have the luxury of being that trusting.” “Because of who you are? But you aren’t anyone to me.” Index sighed. For a moment, she allowed herself to enjoy the embrace. She couldn't remember ever being held like this before. Then she stiffened. “Let go of me, right now.” “No.” Fluttershy frowned. Neither girl was particularly strong, but Fluttershy had more years of growth on her, so Index wouldn't be breaking out of the hug anytime soon. “If you don't want to be dragged down into hell,” Fluttershy started at the strong language “you will let go of me right now.” “What is going on here?” Fluttershy tried to swallow, but found herself unable to. Her throat had tightened up. She turned her head toward the voice that had just spoken. Her pupils dilated. Nightmare Moon was slowly floating back into the park. It was actually a Shadowbolt pretending to be its master, but Fluttershy did not know that. Even if she had, she would be no more suited to fighting it – not with the cloud of Nightmare Mist following it. “Who is this?” Nightmare Moon cooed. “I don't believe we have met.” Index stared intently at Nightmare Moon over Fluttershy's shoulder. “You are not using Idol Theory.” Nightmare Moon blinked at the non sequitur. “My, aren't you perceptive.” Index's eyelids were opening and closing like the shutters of a camera, her pupils quickly and thoroughly tracing over Nightmare Moon’s outline. “That kind of magic hasn't been used since the end of the Arthurian era.” “Hah.” Nightmare Moon smiled. “So I did outlive those fools after all.” Index looked up into the eyes of Nightmare Moon. “You are the one who removed the sun from the sky.” “I am.” “You know that by doing this, you will be inviting the whole world to destroy you?” “Let them try, in what precious hours they have left.” Index's eyes narrowed. “Let go of me, Fluttershy.” Fluttershy let go. Index stepped around her so she could face Nightmare Moon unobstructed. Index opened her mouth, ready to continue talking, but surprise forced it closed again. Her eyes widened, then narrowed. “Fluttershy, get out of my way.” “I can't.” Fluttershy said quietly. She had moved back between Index and Nightmare Moon. “She'll hurt you.” “Little girl.” Nightmare Moon said. “Are you the one who returned the sun to the sky?” Index's eyes jumped between Fluttershy and Nightmare Moon. She wanted to tell Fluttershy that she was more worried about being captured than she was of being hurt. She wanted to demand this new magician explain what she meant. 'Returned the sun to the sky'? How could someone have returned the sun to a sky it was still missing from? The trouble is, she couldn't do both at once. “Time's up, little girl.” Nightmare Mist spread out through the park, completely enclosing it. There was nowhere for Index or Fluttershy to run now. Fluttershy stepped forwards, once again wrapping her arms tightly around Index. It wasn't much, but she was going to give Index as much protection as her body could provide. Index sighed. Then, as the Nightmare Mist flew in towards then, she stabbed Fluttershy. Meanwhile, Rarity was busy jumping off a bridge. Nightmare Moon let out a wordless yell of anger. Really, she should have seen this coming. By sealing off both ends of the bridge, the only place for her target to run had been off the bridge and into the water. Funnily enough, the last thought through Rarity's head as she plunged into the water was: And I had my hair done up just right for this morning, too! -Splash!- Opening her eyes, Rarity squinted through the river-water. Unfortunately, she couldn't see a thing – no light, natural or artificial, was illuminating the river. Also unfortunately, she wasn't the sort of magician who could keep her head underwater forever. As gracefully as she could manage, Rarity spread her arms and legs and swam upwards. Her head broke the surface, and she spat out the mouthful of water that had gotten in. Her hair now wet and stuck to her head, Rarity glared up at Nightmare Moon. “Just so you know, that dress clashes horribly with that armour of yours!” Nightmare Mist surged out from the ends of the bridge and down towards Rarity. Rarity managed a strangled “Eep!” Ducking her head down, she kicked out with the current. The Nightmare Mist missed her by a hair's breadth, instead entering the river's surface without so much as a ripple. Rarity was at a serious disadvantage. She couldn't block the Nightmare Mist, and her mobility was severely restricted in the water. Desperately, she thrust her right hand upwards, casting the simplest attack spell she could think off. Nightmare Moon's dress rustled as the fabric rewove itself to constrict her legs. But rather than fall over as Rarity had hoped, Nightmare Moon floated off the ground, her legs stuck together. The way she didn't react, taking it in her stride, made it feel as though she had planned to do that from the beginning. Rarity hated her for it. Nightmare Moon gestured down at Rarity with her hand, and Rarity spotted lights shining faintly under the surface. The Nightmare Mist, though diluted through the body of the river, was coming around for another attack. Rarity could see that she wouldn't be able to dodge to the side this time. Still, she had one other option. She hadn't dressed for a swim (obviously), as so was wearing the entirely wrong clothing for this sort of thing. Specifically, her dress grew heavy when it got wet. So she pinched her nose shut, gave her clothing a little magical assistance, and sunk like a stone. The cold water pressed in around her. She couldn't have moved more than a few yards (or metres) underwater, but all light had been completely suppressed. Her eyes were closed, but she still felt the Nightmare Mist pass closely overhead. Right. She thought, a plan being frantically thrown together in her head. Now if I swim to the side a bit, hopefully she won't notice if I – A rumbling noise reverberated throughout the entire river, booming loud and deep in Rarity's ears. The pressure of the water overhead felt like it was lifting – but at the same time it felt like she herself was falling. Her legs, previously floating in the water, suddenly had solid ground under them again. The acoustics of the liquid environment were suddenly removed, her hearing returning to normal. Rarity opened her eyes. It was a scene straight out of the Old Testament. The river had parted. A huge vortex of water spun around Rarity, who was now standing on the riverbed. At the edges of this impossible phenomenon Nightmare Mist swirled, forming a barrier that separated water and air. High above, Nightmare Moon floated. She stared directly at Rarity, who had nowhere to run to or hide now. Rarity's mouth opened and closed. “Ah.” She said. Nightmare Moon brought her hand up, fingers ready to snap – In the span between one eye-blink and the next, a flowing orange line traced itself through space, neatly intersecting Nightmare Moon's torso. -BOOM!- The sound, as much as anything else, seemed to blow clean though the sorceress's chest. Like a pencil stabbed through a piece of paper, Nightmare Moon's bosom was blown out forwards, a gaping hole torn in her body. Amazingly, Nightmare Moon merely growled. The edges of her wound were not bloody, they were blurry – after all, they were made of mist. Mist which was quickly pulling itself back into shape. -BOOM!- “Hi there~!” Misaka Mikoto sang, having just launched a second of her namesake railguns through Nightmare Moon. She was standing next to the railing of the bridge both Rarity and Nightmare Moon had originally been standing on. In one hand, she tossed a group of small metal coins up and down. “You – !” Nightmare Moon gasped, her partially-regenerated chest blown apart again. “Me.” Misaka confirmed. “Could you do me a favour and stop regenerating? The arcade gets annoyed with me if I swipe too many of their tokens.” “I will not – !“ -BOOM!- The cloud of mist that was Nightmare Moon gave up on completely regenerating, and just floated in the air in a vaguely humanoid shape. The Nightmare Mist surrounding Rarity abandoned its duty to attend its mistress's side, causing Rarity to panic just a tad as the water rushed back to where she stood with force. Nightmare Moon's voice boomed out from her cloud-form, 'speaking' even though she lacked a solid mouth. “Did you miss being under my control so badly that you would embrace it again?” -BOOM!- -BOOM!- -BOOM!- One did not become the most powerful Electromaster in the world without learning something of electromagnetism. Long ago, Misaka had learned how to use her electrical powers to create powerful magnetic fields. Fields like, say, the ones found in the high-tech battleship weapon called a railgun. In turn, each of the three arcade tokens passed through Nightmare Moon at three times the speed of sound. The friction of the token against the air superheated that air into plasma as it moved, creating the glowing orange 'beam' that characterised Misaka's railgun attack. “Just try it.” Misaka snarled. “Oh, and by the way? Don't think I've forgotten about this.” She raised her right hand to point its palm at Nightmare Moon. Just in time, the Nightmare Mist flew in-front of its mistress, intercepting the invisible microwaves Misaka fired at her. Misaka's eyes narrowed, and sparks jumped between her fingers as she increased the power of her attack. Rarity's head resurfaced, and she took a great big gulp of air. Lifting a hand out of the river, she wiped the water out of her eyes. She let out a cry of surprise as, several yards (metres!) away, a spot on the river starting spouting a great torrent of water up into the air. That water turned into mist as it rose, and then to Nightmare Mist, and flew to replace the mist the mist Misaka was vaporising. The two torrents – one of invisible energy, one of magical water – continued to annihilate each other, balanced for the moment. The hiss and the heat of steam permeated the area. Hearing a -splash- behind her, Rarity spun around. Kuroko had dropped down into the water behind her. (Most likely, she had teleported to just above the surface and let herself fall.) “Come on!” Kuroko cried. She reached out a hand towards Rarity, who blinked and took it. Rarity had experienced Kuroko's Ability already when she had been teleported out of the sewer, but the pressure of the water suddenly disappearing around her was a new sensation. Kuroko disappeared again, leaving Rarity to drip-dry about halfway down the bridge from where Misaka was. Now protected by an upside-down waterfall of mist, Nightmare Moon completely reformed into a solid body. She made a gesture towards Misaka, but her face twisted in confusion and anger when nothing happened. Misaka picked up on it immediently. “I bet you're wondering right now why I'm not dancing on your strings again, aren't you?” “How?” The Tantabus was inside her head right this moment, Nightmare Moon was sure of it! “You try, but you're nowhere near as good at mind control as the other queen I know. Kuroko explained to me what I missed. She said I was blasting at enemies that weren't there. That's funny – I remember enemies being there, but when I look back now the details are all fuzzy. It’s almost like that part of the fight was a dream.” “YOU – ” “I don't know how you did it through my electro-barrier, but you put me to sleep, didn't you? That's what you meant about 'dealing with your Tantabus'. You put me to sleep and somehow controlled my dreams, inducing something like sleepwalking. But what if I couldn't fall asleep?” The first sign that a human was waking up was increased electrical activity in the brain, starting in the Thalamus and spreading outwards. Theoretically, if one could control their own brain's electrical activity, then they could force themselves to stay awake. “My electro-barrier already works by amping up the electrical power of my neurons, so it's not that big a jump to continuously stimulate 'waking up'. There's a risk I'll burn out my nerves or put myself in a coma, but if I did I wouldn't have any right to call myself the #3.” What Misaka was doing was analogous to preventing a computer from shutting down by attaching jumper cables to the CPU. It was ridiculously dangerous – the slightest hint of a mistake would fry the entire motherboard – and to work, it required ludicrous amounts of delicacy and precision. Misaka did it without thinking. That was the kind of monster a Level 5 esper was. Nightmare Moon scowled. This girl was looking down on her. Her! The Queen of Eternal Night! She would regret that, Nightmare Moon decided, even as the Nightmare Mist and Misaka's microwaves continued their battle for dominance. She was suitably surprised when Kuroko teleported onto her shoulders. Nightmare Moon fell slightly to the side at the unexpected weight, before her flight smoothed out. Kuroko used those seconds to run her hands through Nightmare Moon’s flowing hair, scowling as they came up empty. She teleported out again as Nightmare Moon reached around in an attempt to grab her. Rarity patted herself down. She knew she had – ah ha! She reached into an inside pocket and pulled out a small, but nonetheless flawless gemstone. For a moment, she allowed herself a longing, regretful look at the brilliant blue gem. Then she sighed, hardened her expression, and hurled it at Nightmare Moon as hard as she could manage. Nightmare Moon didn’t even notice the attempt; the Nightmare Mist automatically intercepted the projectile, stopping it in midair and breaking it apart into powder. At the same time, Kuroko reappeared below Nightmare Moon. She materialized reaching upwards, grabbing onto Nightmare Moon’s ankles with one hand. Even as Nightmare Moon swiped an arm down at her unwanted passenger, Kuroko reached up and teleported Nightmare Moon’s dress off. A scream, equal parts surprise and fury, echoed out over the river. The three girls watching only received a brief glimpse of Nightmare Moon’s underclothes before she dissolved into mist again. Kuroko yelped as the Nightmare Mist that used to be a leg flowed out and enveloped her hand. The mist swung around, releasing Kuroko so as to fling her at the bridge. Misaka panicked slightly as Kuroko flew towards the field of deadly microwaves, but Kuroko vanished in another teleport. She reappeared crouching next to Misaka. “Sorry, Sissy.” Kuroko panted. “No luck. I couldn’t see anything that looked like a sensor.” “Be more careful, you idiot!” Misaka turned to glare at Kuroko. “Finding the puppet-master is pointless if it gets you killed!” “Oh, are you looking for a puppet-master?” Nightmare Moon growled. “You found one.” Misaka's eyes snapped back to Nightmare Moon. “You, shut up.” “Don't you dare hurt my Sissy!” Kuroko cried, pulling several nails out from where they were strapped to her thighs. Misaka blinked. That was a weird thing for Kuroko to say right – Then she screamed in pain, as several metal nails suddenly appeared inside her arms and legs. She pitched backwards onto the sidewalk, landing painfully on the concrete. Kuroko's eyes were completely glazed over, staring at a point slightly above where Misaka's head would have been if she were still standing. Misaka’s torrent of microwaves had been cut off at the source, and so the torrent of Nightmare Mist slowed and stopped as well. A tendril of mist whipped through the air and threaded itself through Nightmare Moon’s discarded dress, still floating down. The vague outline of Nightmare Moon consolidated until she became a normal-looking person person once more, dress in place. “Finish her.” She commanded, floating away from the bridge with her engorged cloud of Nightmare Mist. “She has wasted enough of my time tonight.” Kuroko reached down to retrieve more of her nails. For a startled moment, Misaka stood in absolute shook. Even if her brain wasn't still trying to process the sudden turn of events, she had no means of blocking Kuroko's teleportation attack. For one terrifying moment, Misaka started up at Kuroko, not knowing if she would survive the next few seconds. Her fear ablated somewhat when Kuroko tugged fruitlessly at her skirt, unable to lift underneath it. It had somehow become sewn onto the belts underneath. Kuroko made to step forward, but threads extended out from both her socks and into the other respective sock. The threads drew tight with a -snap-, effectively tying her socks together and pulling her feet in. She pitched forward, slamming into the ground head-first. “Please, dear.” Rarity stepped forward, wringing water from her hair. “Do take care you don't forget that I'm here.” Kuroko growled something unintelligible. Her fingers brushed against her skirt, and it disappeared, reappearing next to her. Left behind, her remaining nails clattered to the ground. She reached for them – – and Misaka grunted, managing to reach out with her foot to touch Kuroko. The smell of ozone filled the air as Kuroko spasmed, high-voltage current spreading throughout her body, then she lay still. “Don't show your panties in public.” Misaka gasped, as blood started seeping into her uniform. “Pervert.” “Don't move.” Rarity dashed forward, giving her dress only a brief distressed look before starting to tear strips off the bottom of it. As Rarity leaned over her, cloth strips in hand, Misaka winced in pain. Moving her leg had been like being stabbed anew in the places where Kuroko's nails had displaced the existing flesh. “Can I borrow one of those strips, please?” “Of course, but why do you – what are you doing?!” Misaka had gingerly placed the strip in her mouth and bitten down hard. Her cries of pain were therefore suitably muffled as she called on her Ability and pulled each of the nails in her body out. Rarity made a strangled noise, before frantically bandaging the injuries, which had started bleeding much more heavily. “Those nails were plugging your wounds!” “Yeah,” Misaka agreed, wincing as Rarity tied one bandage particularly tightly. “but there was no way I was moving around with those still in me.” “You are far too injured to keep going.” Misaka said nothing else until Rarity was done tying. Then, she tried her best to rest back onto the ground without making any pain-provoking movements. She turned her head to look at her roommate. “Stupid Kuroko. You weren’t supposed to be seen.” “Well, no point worrying about it now.” Misaka sighed. Bracing herself, she stood up, despite Rarity's cry of “I said don't move!”. It hurt, but she could do it, so her muscles still worked in a broad sense. “I’m calling an ambulance for both of you, right now.” Rarity said, frantically fumbling a smartphone out of a dress pocket. “Don't have time.” Misaka gasped. “However that woman has blocked the sunlight, it needs to be fixed quickly, and she's too powerful to leave to Judgement and Anti-Skill.” “You think she's blocking…? Nevermind.” Rarity opened the call app on her phone, only to stare in dismay when she realised that she didn’t know the number for Academy City’s emergency services. “I mean what I said. Letting you continue on now would be manslaughter! Please, be rational!” “Rational…? Okay.” Misaka started staggering to one end of the bridge, past Rarity. “Can you block her dream-control?” “No, but – ” “Can you get past her mist-barrier?” “Darling, please – ” “She needs to be stopped.” Misaka halted, having drawn even with Rarity. She was still focused on the other end of the bridge, but Rarity was certain she was being watched out of the corner of the other girl’s eye. “You can’t stop her. I can.” “You don’t have to fight her alone.” Misaka actually turned her head, looking Rarity in the eye. Then her gaze moved down, and following her eyes Rarity saw Kuroko, lying unconscious on the pavement. “Actually,” Misaka said. “I do.” She extended out one arm, and sparks jumped between her fingers. Kuroko’s earpiece phone pulled itself off it’s owner’s ear before flying through the air into Misaka’s hand. Then, she extended out her other arm. Her entire body lifted off the ground and zoomed off into the air, seeming to be dragged by her arm. She must have been using her powers to magnetically pull herself toward metal elsewhere in the city. Within moments, she was gone, leaving Rarity alone on the bridge with Kuroko. “Yes.” Rarity seethed. “Because that worked so well when I tried it.” “Sissy?” Rarity started, before turning and kneeling next to the source of the weak voice that had just spoken. “Are you alright?” “Sissy?” Kuroko groaned again, her voice a little stronger. “…what happened?” “Now, it wasn’t your fault.” Rarity said, a little too quickly. “…the way you say that makes me think it was my fault.” Rarity cringed as Kuroko sat up. Fortunately, Kuroko had only been stunned and was unhurt, even though her skirt was lying on the ground next to her and her socks had been stitched together. “Where’s Sissy?” Kuroko asked. Rarity didn’t know if Kuroko just wasn’t feeling the cold of sitting on cold concrete with only her underwear to insulate her hindquarters, or if she was just ignoring it. “She’s… gone off on her own.” Rarity hedged. Kuroko groaned. “Sissy…” She lifted a hand to her ear, only to draw it back suddenly. “My phone is gone.” “Yes, she took that with her.” Rarity discreetly used her magic to undo the stitching tying Kuroko’s socks together. “Great.” Kuroko gingerly got to her feet. “So we can’t follow her.” Rarity stared at Kuroko, who seemed to have finally realised that she was missing her skirt. (Still, she didn’t seem that bothered as she went to got put it back on.) Kuroko’s face was conveying dismay, outrage, resignation, and another half-dozen subtle emotions that shifted rapidly across her features. It was plain to Rarity that Kuroko didn’t want to let Misaka go off on her own, but she didn’t think she could stop her. Misaka had deliberately left them behind. Kuroko wanted to help, but Misaka didn’t want her to try. Rarity bit her bottom lip as she weighed up the dilemma. Well, actually the solution was easy. After all, she wanted to help as well. “Well, that’s not quite true.” Kuroko’s head snapped up to stare at Rarity. “We can’t follow her, but I can track her target.” “You can?! How?!” “Did you know that if you crush it finely enough, you can dissolve a gemstone in water?” Fluttershy slowly blinked awake. “Eh?” It was so cold, and her bed felt so hard, and why was everything wet? … A spark of realisation jumped through her brain, and she sat up frantically. In doing so, her forehead collided with Index's, who had been kneeling down, leaning over her. -Bonk!- Both girls cried out in pain, clutching their heads. Fluttershy squinted, but the smell of blood filled her nostrils and her eyes opened wide despite how much it hurt to do so. She let out a shriek. “Shush!” Index shushed her. “That magician might hear you!” “But but but!” Fluttershy was now screaming at a normal volume for her, which was subdued talking for everyone else. “You're covered in blood!” “I'm fine. This is your blood anyway.” “WHAT?!” “Weren't you paying attention? My linen knife exploited a vulnerability in your magic, created by older versions of the story. Using that, my 'splinter of flax' could activate 'the death curse of the evil fairy', despite the fact that neither appeared in the same tale.” “But, but…!” Fluttershy was not in the right state of mind for magical academics, but Index ploughed ahead anyway. “But your magic was focused on copying the blessings of the fairies. So while you may have copied the curse of the evil fairy, you also copied the blessing of the last fairy, who changed the curse so that you would not die, but instead fall into a deep sleep.” Fluttershy raised her hands. They were shaking, and covered in blood. “I was planning to put you to sleep if you were trouble, but it also provided a convenient way to save your life. After all, when I stabbed you, the curse said you would not die.” It was a question of semantics. Obviously, in the legend the good fairy had meant 'would not die from the curse'. But high-end magic deliberately ignored implied restrictions and limitations like that. Simply by selectively paying attention to different parts of the spell, Index had swapped out 'death by Nightmare Mist' with 'a sleep so complete to seem like death' – all without casting a spell of her own. Fluttershy breathed in, and breathed out. And in, and out. Feeling slightly calmer, she slowly patted herself down. Every bit of her was covered in wet, sticky blood, but the skin underneath felt whole and healthy. “I'm… not… hurt…?” Index nodded. “In both legends, the sleep is used as a way to not die while still seeming to. It is only natural that the spell faked your death.” Fluttershy breathed in and out a few more times. In, out. In, out. In, out. Then she pitched forward and vomited onto the dirt. Index rolled her eyes as the smell of bile mixed with the existing stench of blood. She glanced toward the park entrance, and weighed up her chances of escaping. Unfortunately, like Fluttershy her Walking Church (her habit) was soaked in blood. It wasn't just a matter of washing it – after something like this, she would have to have it purified and blessed again before she could really rely on it. All sorts of curses had begun from something like this. The last thing she wanted was to become involved in a huge commotion like this. Even if, by divine providence, these new magicians didn't recognise her, the ones already on her tail would be drawn to this like flies to a corpse. Her best option was to run while this event served as a distraction. She turned to go. “…thank you…” Index turned her head back to Fluttershy. The other girl was shakily pulling herself to her feet. “Thank you.” She managed. “For saving my life.” Index hesitated a moment longer. She hadn't needed the help of this stranger. Her Walking Church would have kept her safe from that magician long enough for her to get away. ...but, by that same token, she hadn't needed to save Fluttershy either, had she? The Calico kitten from before trotted into view. It looked at both of them, scrunching up it's face at the blood as if to say Ew, gross. Index absently picked it up with the hand that wasn't covered in blood, depositing it on top of her head, under her (also-bloodless) hood. She sighed. “Come on.” Index said. “That magician went this way, and given the Mana in that direction, other magicians are fighting there.” A multitude of emotions chased each other across Fluttershy’s face. Fear, concern, outrage, fear again. She’d been thinking about herself and her situation so much that she’d forgotten that the other girls would be facing down the same opponent she just had. Twilight, she’d only met today. Most of the others, she knew but not all that well. But even if that hadn’t been enough, her mind conjured an image of Rainbow: scowling fiercely up at Nightmare Moon even as her doom closed in. None of them would have an Index to unexpectedly save them. How could she just sit here and sulk? Rainbow Dash put up a great struggle, but the mechanical arms were too strong. She was held tight in place while something rubbery was forced over her head. That done, the arms released her; and Rainbow immediately rolled forward. She regretted the manoeuvre imminently, as she had to bite back a scream when her injuries flared in pain. Rather than the graceful escape she had been attempting, Rainbow just ended up flopping on her back, head pointed the way she came. “Sponge Dust!” The robot(?) cried. … …huh? “In air!” A fat metal finger pointed skyward. “Sponge Dust!” Rainbow looked, and realised that she could look: the thing on her face had eye-holes. She gingerly raised her hands and patted her face. The thing the robot(?) had struggled to force over her head was a breathing mask. “React with water to make… to make… to make not-water!” The Anti-Skill lady’s inexperience with the English language was showing. “You breathe, very bad!” Rainbow very, very carefully propped herself up on her elbows, sitting up in place and swivelling around so that she faced the robot(?). The oil-drum shaped head betrayed no emotion, but the thing’s metal arms moved forward almost tenderly. “Here is not safe. You hurt! You need make sure no Dust in body! I get you away.” For half a second, Rainbow was tempted to agree with the ferrous figure. She was awesome, but she also hurt. A lot. Would it really be so bad if she sat this one out? You were useless in that last battle. Twilight’s voice echoed in her head. Rainbow’s mouth twisted into a scowl. Yeah right. Like she was going to bail just ‘cause of a little pain. Her wings were plastic, so even though they were a little broken moving them didn’t hurt. The girl who could barely walk instead began to fly, hovering just off the ground. Good thing my wings are just part of my spell. If I was being lifted by them, and not by magic, this would hurt really bad! Her back twinged at the mere thought of supporting her weight. “Hey!” The Anti-Skill lady’s voice had gained a harsh, commanding tone. “Girl! Is not safe! You leave, now!” “Why?” Rainbow countered floating slowly back and up, away from the robot(?). “Are you gonna be leaving too?” “We are in remote-control powered suits!” Well, that settled the question of whether they were robots or not. “Is standard when fighting water-controller! You is actually present, water-controller could control you!” Rainbow wasn’t an expert on magic, but she was pretty certain the logic of ‘I control mist → I control water → I control blood’ was something only the Science Side could pull off. From a magical standpoint, mist and blood had nothing to do with each other. Besides, the only thing Rainbow had seen Nightmare Moon do with normal water was to turn it into Nightmare Mist. … A vision of her body exploding from the inside out, mist leaking from innumerable burst blood vessels, flashed across her mind. Great. Now she’d have that image in the back of her mind for the rest of the night. Further thought was rendered moot when one of the other powered suits soared though the air, slamming into the buildings opposite hard enough to crack the concrete. The suit made a jumbled mess of sounds that made Rainbow strongly suspect that it wouldn’t be getting back up. Rainbow shot a look over her shoulder. Nightmare Moon was walking back though the hole in the wall created by the earlier attack against her, cold fury plain on her face. She snapped her fingers, and Nightmare Mist swirled around her like a twister. The powered suit next to Rainbow barked out a command in Japanese, and the two powered suits with hoses sprayed out great streams of Sponge Dust. Nightmare Moon’s face twisted, looking like she had been made to suck a lemon. In the blink of an eye, she was smoke once more. Before the chemically-engineered powder could reach her, she had already scattered in all directions, her Nightmare Mist doing the same. Because she had not been completely through the wall when she did so, her scattering put the wall between her and the Sponge Dust, giving her cover. “I am hating that trick.” The Anti-Skill lady grumbled. (What did she say her name was? Yoshi-cat-what? Rainbow was regretting not paying more attention when she introduced herself.) The arms of the powered suit reached around to its back, when its own grenade-launcher-like weapon was attached. Drawing the weapon smoothly, she fired at the building Nightmare Moon had ducked inside, blowing the remains of the wall away. With several loud creaking and groaning sounds, the two-story building collapsed in the direction of its missing wall. Rubble spilled out onto the street. Rainbow slowly turned back to face the powered suit, her mouth hanging open. “What?” The Anti-Skill lady said. “She will being fine.” Rainbow rotated back to the rubble that used to be a building. Nothing moved. The powered suit made sounds of slight movement. “Strange. Should not have worked so – ” There was a loud cracking noise from the side of where they were looking. Muscles natural and artificial moved in unison, staring at the vehicle Rainbow had seen coming in – the one that looked like a fire truck. The two suits manning the hoses hooked up to it also turned, confusion evident in their movements. The obvious conclusion reached them the exact second the truck exploded. The suit next to Rainbow, already tense, was in a position to jump in the way of the metal shrapnel that flew out in all directions. The squeal of metal stabbing into metal rang out as the powered suit was riddled with the remains of the truck. Fortunately, being much bulkier than a human, the suit easily hid Rainbow from the hail of shrapnel. The two suits hooked up to it had it worse – the force of the fragments blew them off their mechanical feet like they were bowling pins. The remaining suit didn’t get off easy either, also getting peppered with jagged metal pieces. Rainbow, whose view had been blocked by the suit jumped in her way, flew up over the powered suit. With the outside of the truck destroyed, Rainbow could now see its inside. The largest component of the truck appeared to be a tank filled with dark powder, scattering now that its container was broken. That was where the suits had been drawing Sponge Dust from, Rainbow realised. “My, that certainly was energetic. I don’t think I crushed it that hard, did I?” A wave of smoke started flowing out of the storm drain behind the truck, forming into Nightmare Moon once it was far enough in the air. The two powered suits that were still attached to the truck scrambled off the ground, pointing their hoses at her dramatically. Unfortunately, nothing came out of their nozzles. The truck, the source of the Sponge Dust, would be supplying them with it no more. Nightmare Moon -humph-’d, and swiped her arm across. The Nightmare Mist followed the path of her hand, moving through the air in a thin blade-like shape. The thick armour of the powered suits didn’t slow it down in the slightest, and both suits collapsed to the ground, bisected. In a building halfway across Academy City, two Anti-Skill officers yelled in dismay as their remote-piloting pods displayed ‘Connection lost’. “Run!” The suit defending Rainbow yelled, opening fire with its weapon. But Nightmare Moon was expecting it now, and the Nightmare Mist spread itself in front of her as a screen, blocking the explosive force. “No way.” Rainbow snarled. She wanted to rush Nightmare Moon so badly it felt like a magnetic attraction. But she couldn’t get to her with her shield of mist was in the way. She needed a way to get through it. What could do that? The esper girl back in the park had just gestured at it, and the robot-suit-things had - Rainbow’s eyes darted down, seeing the broken truck full of Sponge Dust as if for the first time. The other of the two remaining suits – the one next to the hole in the wall – darted around to the slide, sliding as if on ice. It opened fire with it’s own weapon, but the Nightmare Mist smoothly extended around to cover its mistress from that side as well. Nightmare Moon flicked her wrists at both suits, and thin tendrils shot out from her mist like spears, penetrating straight through the weapons of both suits. Both officers tried to fire anyway. The one in front of Rainbow pulled the trigger fruitlessly, the weapon making an alarming grinding noise. The other suit’s weapon just exploded, blowing the hands of the suit clean off. The first suit dropped its now useless weapon. “Kid! Now! Run!” “I already told you, no way!” Rainbow’s wings had been flapping as she hovered in mid-air, paying basic lip-service to the laws of flight they were otherwise ignoring. But then Rainbow inhaled mightily, and her wings halted in the outstretched position, shaking like they were under strain. Rainbow let her breath out as a wordless yell, her wings swooping down like the birds they imitated. The very air around them seemed to be gripped and shoved forwards, a great gust of wind springing up from behind her. The wind raced forwards, past Rainbow, past the powered suit, over and around the broken truck, scooping great bunches of Sponge Dust along with it as it went. Nightmare Moon’s eyes went wide and she reflexively called her mist back to her, realising her mistake just a moment too late. The wind-borne Sponge Dust collided with the Nightmare Mist, and the chemical weapon of Science began destroying the elemental weapon of Magic. Rainbow Dash smirked and made like her name, rushing forward in a rainbow-coloured blur. Nightmare Moon scowled. A half-second’s worth of instinct caused Rainbow to swerve to the side, as water suddenly sprouted up from the ground behind the truck near Nightmare Moon. Rainbow blinked, wondering where that had suddenly come from. She zoomed up and around, ending up at the building skyline almost directly above Nightmare Moon. From here, she could see that another tendril of Nightmare Mist had stabbed into the ground where the water was now erupting from. Did she bust a water main? Why would she do that? The Sponge Dust will – The Sponge Dust reacted with water to form something that wasn’t water. Wherever it touched the Nightmare Mist (magical, but still water), the two substances were destroyed, rendering Nightmare Moon’s main weapon unusable. But, didn't that mean that if she sprayed water at it, she could use all the Sponge Dust up without it touching her precious Nightmare Mist? The realisation that Nightmare Moon was literally washing her trump card down the drain nearly caused Rainbow to miss the clump of mist that shot up to attack her. She darted to the side, but the Nightmare Mist split into a half-dozen tennis-ball sized clumps and spread out like shotgun pellets. That said, pellets didn't normally home in on their target. A fast-paced aerial dance of sorts followed, with the mist attacking and Rainbow trying to get past. She knew that if she were in top shape there was no way these lame balls of over-hyped water would even get near her, but in top shape she wasn't. A moment's distraction saw a clump of mist hit her right in one of her busted ribs, the flare of pain allowing the others to collide with her and pin her to the concrete of the building next to her. “Kid!” The powered suit cried, and it and its partner both bent their powerful hydraulic legs, jumping high into the air at Nightmare Moon. Nightmare Moon looked down her nose at the two incoming suits. The Sponge Dust had eaten away most of her Nightmare Mist, but not all of it. The clump holding Rainbow released her and flew down in front of the sorceress, spreading out to form a thin shell that completely surrounded her. Though the shield of mist couldn’t be more than a finger-width’s thick, the two powered suits and the falling form of Rainbow slammed into it as though it was a metre of concrete. Yard. Whatever. It hurt. Somewhere in her pain Rainbow heard the sound of the glass jar in her skirt shattering, and the buzzing of the lightning bolt inside being released. She bounced off the shell of mist, screaming in pain as her injuries from the night so far were exacerbated and added to. She fell to the ground, facing upright, and lay there for a second. It felt like white-hot wires were being pulled though her spine. When she had enough strength to gasp for breath, she forced her eyes open. The two powered suits were lying on the far side of the mist shell, their front faces looking like paper run partway through a paper-shredder. Rainbow couldn’t even image how badly she’d be hurt if her magic didn’t protect her from weather-based damage. The lightning bolt that Misaka had thrown, and that Rainbow had caught, was buzzing around inside the barrier of Nightmare Mist, a trace of white jagged marks zooming across the surface. Oh, right. Rainbow managed to think. She’d seen this earlier tonight. Nightmare Moon could have her mist block lightning by having it act like a thundercloud, trapping the electricity inside. Trapping it inside… like a thundercloud. Nightmare Moon floated over to Rainbow’s downed form, the shell of mist deforming into a cloud once more. She made sure not to let the mist touch her flesh, and as the mist bunched up the lightning inside seemed to race around even faster. She raised her arm, the Nightmare Mist rising in preparation… And as she brought her hand down, Rainbow kicked out, her foot impacting the descending ball of mist. Nightmare Moon screamed, her face suddenly twisting unnaturally as the lightning bolt was forced out of the cloud and into the air on the other side – straight into her body. Her spasms of pain lasted for several seconds, and her form twisted and blurred as her limbs bent and straightened unnaturally, the edges turning to smoke but not fast enough. Then her face relaxed completely. Her body fell bonelessly to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut. The Nightmare Mist dissolved into the air, immediately loosing its black colour and resuming a more normal appearance. One last breath escaped Nightmare Moon's lips, and she dissolved into ash. A moment of panic on Rainbow's part faded as she realised that the ash wasn't moving - it just sat there on the concrete. The night was quiet again, save for the pained breathing of Rainbow Dash.