Friendship Games: Another Story

by ArcanaMaverick7

Portals, Parties, and Problems

After meeting their world's version of Twilight Sparkle, the Rainbooms all changed back into their regular clothes and walked down the hall with Fragment Hunter. "I can't believe our world's Twilight goes to Crystal Prep," Rarity bemoaned.

"You're saying that Twilight's gonna play against us," Rainbow Dash questioned. "She'd never do that!"

"Our Twilight wouldn't," Fluttershy said.

"Our Twilight is a princess in Equestria and an expert in friendship magic! And if she was here, we'd have already figured out why magic is randomly popping up during pep rallies and costume changes," Sunset Shimmer stated angrily. She soon paused when she saw her friends were surprised by her outburst.

"You seem really stressed about this, Shimmer," Layla said with concern.

Sunset Shimmer took a deep breath and sighed heavily before speaking again. "Sorry. I'm just frustrated that I haven't heard back from her," she apologized.

"She's a princess in Equestria. She's probably got problems of her own to deal with," Applejack reminded.

"If she had to deal with magical threats similar to the Dazzlings or that 'Discord' being she told us about before, then I'm sure that her absence is justified," Rebecca surmised.

"Either that or boring meetings that even Professor Ozpin has to sit through," Silver suggested.

"We certainly can't expect her to drop everything and pop through the portal whenever like Fragment Hunter can," Rarity reminded. "Especially if it's to deal with something as minor as a few random pony-ups."

"But they aren't minor! Magic came into this world when I stole Twilight's crown. It's taken a lot for me to earn everyone's trust. Especially after what I was like before Twilight came after it," Sunset Shimmer reminded as she slumped against a locker and looked like she was losing her confidence. "If we have to forfeit the games because I can't think of a way to keep it under control..."

"Oh, Sunset, I'm sure you'll be able to figure things out," Fluttershy said as she tried to cheer up her friend by showing her faith.

"You're the one who helped us understand what was goin' on with the sirens. Remember," Applejack reminded.

"Yeah. Without you, we wouldn't have been able to beat the Dazzlings down," Rua explained.

"I guess. But Twilight was the one who really figured out what we needed to defeat them," Shimmer mentioned.

"But don't you remember, darling? What we needed to defeat them was you," Rarity told Sunset Shimmer.

"Yeah. With you helping, we were able to keep fighting and that giant rainbow alicorn was able to finish the Dazzlings off," Sunset Blaze said.

As her friends from Canterlot High and Remnant all continued to lift her spirits, Sunset Shimmer was beginning to feel reassured. "All right," Shimmer replied and her friends cheered.

"Come on, guys! Let's see if we can find any info about the events and come up with a strategy," Rainbow Dash said as she and the Rainbooms continued down the hall. Most of Fragment Hunter followed along, but the ones that stayed behind were Sunset Shimmer, Rua, and Sunset Blaze. Shimmer was biting her thumb in thought while Rua and Blaze saw this before the other members of Fragment Hunter left. "You girls coming," Rainbow asked as she saw the three still standing around.

"I'll... catch up with you guys in a bit," Shimmer told Rainbow Dash. Dash just gave a thumbs-up and headed back to find out some information. Sunset Blaze and Rua looked at Sunset Shimmer as the latter pondered over something. Soon, she got an idea and began to make her way toward her locker as Blaze and Rua followed her.

---

Back outside with Crystal Prep, Twilight was feeling unsure about even participating in the Friendship Games. She was soon snapped out of her thoughts when she heard music playing loudly next to her. Thinking it was probably Lemon Zest, she was soon proven wrong when Azalea stepped into the girl's view. "Hey, Sci-Twi! I want you to meet my friend, Vinyl Aurum," Azalea greeted and introduced her music loving friend to Twilight.

"...Hello there," Twilight waved to Vinyl with slight hesitation. Vinyl waved back and continued to enjoy her music as she danced in place to the beat. "C-can she even hear me," Twilight asked Azalea.

"She's a girl of few words who likes to listen to her headphones. She can also read lips, so she can keep track of conversations," Azalea said. "Comes in pretty useful for classes at Beacon Academy with Professor Port, who goes on these long stories about his youth between lectures, and with our history teacher, Doctor Oobleck. Given that he's always zooming around the classroom while talking fast and drinking his coffee, it's pretty interesting to see Vinyl keep track of the lectures." Twilight listened to Azalea and adjusted her glasses before the latter continued talking. "Anyways, Vinyl was the first of my friends that I met when I started at Beacon. I was actually pretty shy back then, so Vinyl decided to be my friend by sharing her music with me," Azalea told Twilight about her first meeting with the dancer.

While Azalea and Twilight continued to talk, Sunset Shimmer walked out the front doors with her journal in hand with Sunset Blaze and Rua following behind her. "What's up, Shimmer," Sunset Blaze asked as her doppelganger opened up the magic journal used to write to Princess Twilight.

Sunset Shimmer sighed as she checked the pages past where she wrote to her friend and saw that they were still blank. "I'm still not getting a reply in my journal," Shimmer told the two girls. "But, maybe I can reach the Twilight we know another way," she said as she saw the base of the Wondercolt Statue.

"You're willing to return to Equestria just to ask your friend for advice? It takes a big person to do something like that," Rua stated as Sunset Shimmer walked toward the portal.

At the same time, Twilight's amulet began to light up and hum again as it detected more of the energy signature that she was tracking. Following it, Sci-Twi stopped in front of the Wondercolt Statue and examined it in confusion while her glasses began to slip. Readjusted them, Twilight was soon surprised when her amulet popped open again. As Sunset Shimmer was in front, she spoke to Blaze and Rua before entering the portal. "If I'm not back soon, Blaze can take my place on the Wondercolts team and I'm sure that you can go back to Remnant and get somebody else for your team." Rua and Sunset Blaze nodded as Shimmer placed her hand on the portal, but something was wrong when she did. Instead of going through the portal with a ripple, Sunset Shimmer's hand was stuck to the portal as a fiery aura circled it. "Hey, let go," Shimmer exclaimed as she tried to pull her hand free. Rua and Blaze were quick to act as they immediately went to help pull there friend free.

On the other side of the portal, Twilight was shocked to see her amulet acting up like it was and beginning to contain a red stream of energy coming through the portal. As it continued, an additional purplish-red stream of energy flowed alongside the regular red one and flowed into Twilight's containment device. Azalea and Vinyl soon saw Twilight's amulet device acting up and they reacted as soon as they saw it. Helping Twilight close the amulet, the three managed to make sure the device was slammed shut. When it was closed, Twilight, Sunset Shimmer, and the four girls of Fragment Hunter all fell over backwards onto the ground. As they all began to recover from their respective dazes, Twilight's tracker began to give off an electrical discharge that nobody noticed.

When Sunset Shimmer managed to get up first, she saw Twilight on the ground as Azalea and Vinyl began to get up themselves. "What did you do," Sunset asked as she realized something happened to the Wondercolt Statue. Twilight was feeling scared and put on the spot as she stood up, but Dean Cadance called for her to check in with the rest of Crystal Prep. Taking the chance, Twilight clutched her tracker and ran away as soon as she could. Sunset Shimmer and the members of Fragment Hunter only watched as the girl left in a panic. Turning her focus to the statue, Sunset Shimmer soon made an unsettling discovery about what just happened. "Where's the portal," she asked as she kept pushing her hands against the base of the statue and kept failing to go through it. "Where's the portal?!"

"Shimmer, what's going on," Azalea asked as she placed a hand on the girl's shoulder.

"The portal's not working! Something happened and I can't go to Equestria to ask Princess Twilight for help," Shimmer said with increasing panic and concern in her voice.

"Calm down," Vinyl told Sunset Shimmer as she placed her headphones over the girl's head and began to play a song to help her relax. "Better," Vinyl asked as the song played for a bit.

"Slightly," Shimmer said as she returned the headphones to Vinyl.

"If we visited Equestria before, we would take you there with the magic we were given during the Battle of the Bands," Rua stated.

Shimmer only sighed as she and the others headed inside. "Come on. We have a welcome party to get to," she said. "It's not like things will get worse." However, when the courtyard was empty, something appeared next to the Wondercolt Statue. A small red and black rift in space with a white border that had yellow spots appeared and released something before vanishing. A black figure with bone-like spikes on its back, exposed ribs on its upper body, no lower body, and black skeletal arms with sharp fingernails came through the rift and looked around its new location. Its face was only a mask-like bone plate with red markings and had a single red and yellow eye.

It resembled a ghost of sorts and even moved around like one as it left a black smoke trail when it left where it came from. The creature sensed something it was drawn toward inside the school building and it phased through a window to get inside. When it entered the school, the creature found the metal shop and saw a collection of scrap metal around the room. Flying toward one item, the monster phased into the object and its mask-like face appeared on the scrap metal. Soon, red glyphs that resembled its face appeared on the sides and the creatures skeletal arms emerged before grabbing more metal. As the monster began to form an armored shell of sorts, it found a piece of old metal that resembled a knight's helmet and placed it on its body to act as a new head. With the helmet on, the new face had a menacing red and yellow glow in its 'eyes' that turned to the direction of what it sensed.

---

In the CHS gymnasium, the two schools were at a party meant to be a welcome to the competitors and spectators. While Flash Sentry, Sweetie Drops, and Lyra Heartstrings tried to be friendly to Crystal Prep, Sour Sweet smiled back before she snarled at them and crushed her drink cup in her hand before dropping it to the ground and stomping on it. Because of Sour Sweet's attitude, the three Canterlot students had bitter expressions as they glared back at her and Crystal Prep. Aurora and Nocture Celeste saw the behavior from Crystal Prep and could only give disapproving looks as they waited for Fragment Hunter to arrive.

In the hall leading to the gym, the Rainbooms were all dressed up in new outfits courteous of Rarity. While the fashionista made some last minute adjustments to Fluttershy's outfit, Fragment Hunter all joined them and everyone was informed about what happened with the portal to Equestria. "What do ya mean the portal's gone," Applejack questioned.

"I mean it's gone. It's closed. It's not there anymore," Sunset Shimmer explained with a slightly irritated tone.

"How did that happen," Rainbow Dash and Cereza asked as the large group of teenagers entered the gym for the party.

"I don't know. But, it has something to do with that Twilight," Sunset Shimmer said as she pointed out the girl from Crystal Prep. While the party was going on, Twilight Sparkle was continuing to track what she was looking for, but ended up bumping into some balloons as she was focusing too much on her amulet and was using it like a compass.

"What in tarnation is she up to," Applejack asked as she and the others saw Twilight bump into Indigo Zap and spill her drink near another Crystal Prep student. The girl just growled and snarled at Twilight for not paying attention where she was going and making her drop her cup.

"Leave this to me," Sunset Shimmer told Fragment Hunter and the Rainbooms as she went to talk with Sci-Twi. As the girl kept looking for signs of the energy she was looking for, she flinched when she heard Sunset Shimmer call for her. "Twilight, what have you been up to?" Twilight tried to act innocent, but was failing under Sunset's glare. To the surprise of not only Twilight, but also Fragment Hunter and Sunset Shimmer, Indigo Zap got in Shimmer's face and began to argue with her.

"Who wants to know," Indigo asked as she pointed at Sunset Shimmer.

"Um, we do," Rainbow Dash and Silver said as they got in Indigo's face to get her to back off of Sunset.

"All right, everyone. Let's not get too competitive before the games even start," Applejack told the three teams in order to calm them down.

"The games aren't really competitive since we've never lost," Sugarcoat bluntly stated.

"Wow. You really don't live up to your name," Cereza said as she cleaned off her glasses.

"That's not a very nice thing to say," Fluttershy said as she tried her best to not get involved in the conflict.

"Sorry, dearie, but these games aren't about being nice," Sunny Flare stated. "They're for Crystal Prep to win."

"Well, you might use a little tact," Rarity and Celadon told Sunny Flare.

Twilight was feeling nervous about the three teams confronting each other because of something she did and tried to back out of the potential fight. Soon, Pinkie stood next to the Crystal Prep Twilight and greeted her with Azalea and Slate standing off to the side. "Hi, I'm Pinkie Pie!"

"Oh, hi. I'm Twilight," Sci-Twi replied as she started to shake Pinkie's hand.

"I know. You look just like my friend. Her name is Twilight too," Pinkie said as she enthusiastically and violently shook Sci-Twi's hand. After the energetic girl stopped, Twilight's glasses started to fall off her face and her hair was shaken loose from its bun. As Twilight's hair fell down, Azalea and Slate saw that she looked just like Princess Twilight when she came to Canterlot High and quickly took pictures with their Scrolls as they snickered.

Twilight soon fixed her hair and glasses as she stared at Pinkie. "Um... right. Azalea said that too," Twilight replied as she made sure her glasses were on straight.

"What's that," Pinkie asked as she pointed at Twilight's amulet.

"It's sort of a spectrometer," Twilight began to explain. "I built it to track EM frequencies, but it can also contain anomalies," she said as Pinkie had a blissful smile on her face that didn't change a bit as Twilight spoke. Feeling that her explanation went over the girl's head, Twilight decided to give Pinkie the layman's terms. "It measures things."

"Like the party," Pinkie asked as she, Twilight, Slate, and Azalea looked around the gym. The four saw that everyone who wasn't getting in each other's faces over the Friendship Games were bored out of their minds.

"It doesn't look like much of a party to me," Slate bluntly said as he saw a few students falling asleep.

"I know. Something is definitely missing," Pinkie mentioned as she began to think of what to do. Figuring something out, she grabbed Twilight and Slate to get their help. "Come on!" As the three left in a blur, Azalea went to get some punch.

After she grabbed her drink, Azalea walked toward her friends in Fragment Hunter when she saw them. Unfortunately, she wasn't paying attention to the people around her and bumped into somebody and spilled her cup near their feet. "Oh, I'm so sorry about that," Azalea apologized.

"Oh, it's no problem," Azalea heard a familiar voice say in a sweet tone before it changed to a more harsh and sour one. "Unless you're a dumb dairy cow," Sour Sweet snarled. Just as she said the last two words, the room was deathly quiet as DJ Pon-3 stopped the music and the only sounds were some empty cups dropping to the floor. Everyone from CHS heard what was said and they all slowly stepped back in fear of what was coming next.

Sour Sweet and the rest of Crystal Prep were confused by what was happening until the other eleven members of Fragment Hunter all surrounded the girl who insulted Azalea. "WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL HER," all of them shouted as they glared at Sour Sweet.

"What does it mean to you guys," Indigo Zap said as she approached the group and tried to help her teammate. However, Silver turned around and he gave off a ferocious snarling growl like a real wolf that made Indigo back away in fear. "N-n-never mind."

"I'm not going near them right now," Sugarcoat stated as she began to walk away from Fragment Hunter for her own safety.

"What's going on here," a deep masculine voice said as they approached the group. Fragment Hunter and Sour Sweet saw that Terracotta Gaia was walking toward them, but Vixen was using her illusion Semblance to conceal his horns. Even without them, his physique was still enough to unnerve Sour Sweet and the other Shadowbolts that looked in his direction. Terracotta saw Fragment Hunter surrounding one of the Crystal Prep students and shook his head before speaking in a calm and professional manner. "We're here as guests. I shouldn't have to remind you that just like at Beacon, any physical confrontation before a contest is looked down upon and will be severely punished."

"Sir, she called your daughter 'Dairy Cow'," Slate told Terra.

Without changing the tone in his voice or showing any sign of emotion, Terracotta only said three words to Fragment Hunter. "Kick her ass."

Before anything could be done though, loud footsteps were heard approaching the gym and the doors burst open to reveal something that startled everyone. A large being made of scrap metal stomped into the gym and searched the room for something. The creature looked like a large suit of knight's armor, but most of it was made out of scrap metal. Fragment Hunter saw what it was and they were all shocked to see it in this world. "A Grimm?! What's it doing here," Lapis exclaimed telepathically.

"I don't know, but we have to do something," Sunset Blaze told the others. "Azalea. Vinyl. We didn't bring our weapons because we thought this was just going to be a friendly visit, but you two never leave without your gear. You guys handle the junk heap of an Arma Gigas while we keep everyone here safe," she instructed.

"On it," Azalea said while Vinyl just gave a thumbs-up. The two girls rushed the Grimm and pushed it out the door to get the monster outside. When the three were in a more open area, they prepared to battle. "I'll distract it. Get ready to cut or blast it," Azalea told Vinyl. Vinyl nodded as they prepared their weapons. Azalea pulled out her Multi-Action Dust Baton called 'Gladion' while Vinyl made sure that her Hard Light Projection Braces aka 'Rhythm Scratch' were functional. Azalea turned to the Arma Gigas and stared it down. "Let's go, you scrap heap," she called out to the Grimm.

The Grimm started to attack Azalea by going in for a punch, but the Faunus was quick to dodge and counterattacked by smacking the suit of rusted armor with her baton. When she did hit the monster, ice built up on it in large chunks that weighed it down. The Grimm tried to grab at Azalea again, but she smacked the monster's hand away with Gladion and froze it even further. Following up, Azalea changed the Dust setting on Gladion to Gravity and struck away at the Grimm. With the monster weighed down even further, Vinyl jumped forward with her hard light katana glowing a gold color and she slashed the monster in half. As the 'corpse' of the monster fell apart, the ghost-like Grimm flew out of the shell it previously used and tried to flee. Vinyl and Azalea only smirked at each other before the former held her hand up and fired an energy blast from her palm with her Semblance, nailing the Geist in the face as it looked back to see what the sound it heard was. With a clean hit, the Creature of Grimm died and its body dissolved in a cloud of smoke. "Well, that's that," Vinyl said.

"But why was there a Geist here in the first place," Azalea asked. Vinyl only shrugged as she was just as clueless as Azalea and probably the rest of Fragment Hunter. Azalea only sighed before Terracotta opened the door to signal to the two girls. "We should get back inside. I'm wondering what everyone's going to say about seeing that Grimm."

---

After everyone calmed down after seeing the monster, Crystal Prep just believed it to be a prank set up by somebody in the CHS Robotics Club. Soon, Principal Celestia stepped onto the stage and addressed the three teams participating in the events. "Hello, everyone! I'd like to take this opportunity to greet all of our visitors from Crystal Prep Academy as well as Beacon Academy and welcome them to CHS."

While Celestia spoke, Pinkie Pie had Slate and Twilight help her with improving the party. She mostly needed their help pushing some large boxes into place. "What in the world are in these," Twilight asked as she struggled to assist Pinkie move one box while Slate was handling the second by himself.

"Party cannons, of course," Pinkie said excitedly.

"Party what now," Slate asked with concern as his hat began to fall off his head.

"And lastly, I would like to recognize the twelve students that CHS has elected to compete," Principal Celestia said as she gestured to the members of the Wondercolts team. When Fragment Hunter looked around, they saw that the team consisted of the Rainbooms, Flash Sentry, Lyra, Bon Bon, Derpy, and two other boys named Micro Chips and Sandalwood. "I don't think we could have chosen a better group to represent the excellence, sportsmanship, and friendship the games stand for." While Celestia spoke, Pinkie was quick to work on improving the party by switching out the snack platters for her own personally made cupcakes, lowering a disco ball, and giving DJ Pon-3 a new CD to play for the music. As the music changed, students from both Canterlot High and Crystal Prep began to start friendly conversations with each other.

When Pinkie revealed her party cannons, Slate and Twilight backed away slightly and asked the same question. "Um, are you sure this is a good idea?"

Pinkie only said one word for her reply as she had a fiery and determined look on her face when she held the cords for her cannons. "Absolutely!" When Pinkie fired the party cannons, they gave off a fun-sounding squeak and confetti flew everywhere. As soon as she did that, everyone got into the spirit of the party and were either talking with each other or were out on the dance floor enjoying themselves. When Slate and Twilight saw the raining confetti, they were amazed at what Pinkie was able to do. Pinkie herself was excited that she managed to make everyone happy when she improved the party's mood and her body began to glow with a pink aura. Her ears changed and her hair grew longer to show that she had ponied up, which confused Slate and Twilight when they saw her floating in the air after her transformation. "Ooh, floaty," Pinkie said as she noticed her transformation.

As Twilight and Slate saw this, Twilight's amulet floated in Pinkie's direction and opened up on its own. Twilight was confused about what was happening and her amulet began to drain Pinkie of her magic. When this happened, Slate saw Pinkie lose her figuratively unlimited energy as she lowered back to the ground and transformed back to normal. "I'm feeling party pooped," Pinkie groaned. As Slate went off to find Ivy so that she could restore Pinkie's health to normal, Twilight saw a bright light from behind bleachers she stood next to. Investigating what it was, she saw some kind of dimensional rift with a purple border open and reveal a dark forest. Twilight was surprised at what she saw and stepped back before shutting her amulet. When she did, the purple rift closed itself while a second one just nearby it with the same colors as the one that brought the Geist briefly opened before closing with the purple rift. The second red and black rift released another Geist, but this one seemed to be bigger and have more bones along its body. The Geist left the gym as it phased through the floor and began to bide its time until the chance to strike.

While Twilight was wondering about what her spectrometer just did, the party was continuing and the students from CHS and CPA were happily mingling. Unfortunately, a tapping noise on a microphone caused some feedback that startled everyone to catch their attention. Stopping the music, everyone turned to see what Prinicpal Cinch had to talk about. "I'd like to thank Principal Celestia for her unconventional welcome," she began as she cleaned off her glasses. "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 its 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," Cinch stated and offended the principals of CHS while the students separated to opposing sides of the gym. "I wish you all the best of luck, regardless of the inevitable outcome."

"Yeah, well fuck you too, you hag," Rua shouted as Cinch's speech ended. Everyone not from Remnant gasped at Rua's behavior as she spoke to Principal Cinch. "You think you're better than anyone else because of the accomplishments of others? That just says a lot about yourself. Canterlot has been improving pretty well, so you can't underestimate them. And don't forget that you're dealing with me and my friends this year, so things are going to be different," Rua said as she punched her palm and cracked her knuckles. "You better be prepared to give up that winning streak of yours because one way or another, you and these Crystal Prep pieces of crap are going to lose to somebody."

Principal Cinch only glared at Rua before fixing her glasses. "I don't believe that some undisciplined punk such as yourself will be of any threat to Crystal Prep Academy's reputation in the Friendship Games. But by all means, go ahead and do your best while the conclusion of the events will be the same as always," Cinch said as she dismissed Rua's words and walked away. With that, none of Crystal Prep took Rua seriously and they just returned to acting smug toward the others.

After Rua's speech was dismissed by Crystal Prep, she returned to Fragment Hunter as they regrouped with the Rainbooms and saw an exhausted Pinkie Pie. "I'm sorry, Pinkie. I thought the party additions were really swell," Applejack said to the girl as Slate showed up with Ivy to help Pinkie.

"They definitely broke the ice," Fluttershy told Pinkie.

"Yes. If only that Principal Cinch hadn't frozen it again," Rarity mentioned. "And even if Rua's methods were... crass, she did her best to try and put Crystal Prep in their place. Even though Cinch is still an ice queen."

"That's an insult to our friend, Weiss," Rua told Rarity. "That Cinch bitch is way worse."

"Yeah, she's awful," Pinkie said as Ivy used her Semblance to restore Pinkie's energy.

"Pinkie, what happened to you," Sunset Shimmer asked with concern as she barely saw Pinkie without her usual excessive pep.

"I don't know," Pinkie told the others. "Everyone started having fun after Twilight, Slate, and I fired the party cannons and I ponied up."

"Of course you did," both Sunset's said as they crossed their arms and rolled their eyes. However, Shimmer was a little more concerned because of another transformation that she didn't have the answer to.

"But then the magic just drained right out of me," Pinkie told everyone when Ivy finished healing her.

"Wait, what do you mean 'drained out of you'," Sunset Shimmer asked in confusion.

"Hey. Where is that other Twilight," Applejack questioned as she didn't see the Crystal Prep Twilight anywhere.

As Fragment Hunter and the Rainbooms looked around, they saw that Twilight Sparkle had vanished. "I think you'll see her eventually," Ivy stated. "For now, just get ready for the first event. You'll need to be prepared for it."

Author's Note:

First main action scene down, next up is the Academic Decathlon. Just like my last attempt, I won't be going with the song. Instead, I'll use the scenes to have fun instances of dialogue between the characters and make small mentions to both RWBY and the Equestria Girls franchise.

Comments

[Zapper Frost]

The main thing I'm hoping for throughout this series is for both pinkies to meet (RWBY and EQG)