Straight Shot: Expanding the World!

by WozWuzHere

Chapter 2 - Point and Shoot

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When we last left off, I was being telekinetically dragged somewhere by a purple pony-girl and her assistant...some sort of bipedal salamander...

"Hey, I"m a DRAGON!"

"Right...dragon. Sorry about that."

The purple one undid her field of dragging when we got inside her destination, a tree that contained a library. She plopped me down on a nearby chair and took her dragon upstairs, then came started pacing around.

"...is something wrong?" I asked innocently.

"Besides the fact that you're COMPLETELY INSANE, yes!" She barked back.

"I get that a lot, to be fair. What's going on exactly? Is it something to do with Miss Tall, Dark and Bitchy from before?"

As I said that, I heard a high-pitched giggle from behind me. I turned around to find its source, but nothing was there. As I turned back, there was a pink pony-girl standing in front of me staring into my soul.

"WHA!?" I fell backwards out of the chair.

"Hi Mr. Alien!" The pink one cheerily greeted me.

"...that was a surprise I wasn't expecting today, and considering everything that's saying something..." I muttered, rubbing my head on the spot where it collided with the floor.

The purple one, though slightly confused by the pink one's antics, started going through the shelves of the library.

"We won't be able to defeat Nightmare Moon without the Elements of Harmony!"

Elements of Harmony...? Those were the things Phoenix was talking about! Is this girl connected somehow...?

Unfortunately, my musings were cut off when a prismatic streak flew up to me and grabbed me by the shirt collar. Said streak being a blue furred pony girl with a rainbow mane and tail, and a serious tomboy look to her.

"And what are these Elements of Harmony huh? And how did YOU know about Nightmare Moon? Are you spies!?" The rainbow one attempted to interrogate both the purple girl and myself.

"If I was working for her, WHY would I have attacked her!?" I loudly retorted. The rainbow one pieced together the logic and put me back down.

"Okay but that still doesn't explain you!" She pointed to the purple girl, still dismantling the bookshelves.

"Simmer down, Rainbow. They ain't spies." Another pony girl, an orange one with a definite cowgirl thing going on, down to the accent, stated to soothe her rainbow-maned friend. "But she sure knows what's going on, don't you, Twilight?"

Well, that's one name down...the purple one was Twilight. That still left the pink, rainbow and orange ones though.

I started musing to myself as Twilight started talking about the Elements of Harmony, and how they were needed to defeat Nightmare Moon. This all seems like a really weird coincidence...

"Hey, are you listening?" Twilight asked me.

"...ah sorry, was trying to figure something out. What's up?"

Twilight sighed and approached me.

"I don't know who you are, or really WHAT you are, or even why you elected to try to jump in like that. But you should know, Nightmare Moon is dangerous."

"I already figured that."

"Then why did you attack?" She queried.

"Because you and everyone else looked like you were in danger. Do I need a reason to help people...er...ponies?"

Each of the girls gave me a look that seemed to be a mix of awe and concern.

I sighed. "Look, like it or not, I'm already part of this. So I may as well see it through to the end. So, if I gathered everything correctly, we find those Elements and they do...whatever it is they do and Nightmare Moon is done, yeah?"

"Yeah, but the elements are within the..."

-----
"EVERFREE FOREST!" All of the others yelled loudly. We were standing in front of the forest I had emerged from, the one where those wooden wolf things tried to snack on me.

The pink one, who I had learned was named Pinkie Pie, though right now I call her Needs-To-Take-A-Chill-Pill, was jumping up and down eagerly.

"Whee! Let's go!"

However, Twilight was not very keen on the idea of all of us following her. To be fair, I'd have gone in myself- wood wolves or no. But the orange one, apparently her name was Applejack (I am gonna have fun with that later), still insisted on following us, as did the others.

Besides Twilight, Pinkie and Applejack, the rainbow tomboy from earlier, named Rainbow Dash, as well as the yellow pegasus-girl I saw earlier, who was apparently named Fluttershy, and a white unicorn-lady with a blue mane and tail named Rarity, were apparently joining us.

I decided to ask, for the sake of it, why this forest was considered so terrifying.

"Because nopony who went in, has ever come OUT!"

"...besides me you mean?" Everyone raised their eyes at that.

"Why were you in the Everfree to begin with, Claus?" I heard asked.

"Beats me, I ended up waking up there after I got warped out of my house." I shrugged, not ready to reveal Phoenix's job for me yet. That didn't seem to sit well with the orange one, as she stared at me with a begrudging look.

As we were walking in, I did explain how after waking up I suddenly had a lot more physical strength and speed than I did before I left, as well as getting a primer on the different ponies. Apparently there were "earth ponies", like Pinkie and Applejack, who could control land and were stronger physically, as well as pegasi like Rainbow and Fluttershy, who could fly and manipulate weather, and lastly unicorns, who could use magic abilities via their horns.

"That explains what happened earlier, I guess."

As we walked, I started feeling a sense of malice around us. It felt like something was watching us. At that point, the ground beneath us started to shake, and Twilight fell, with Applejack barely catching her outstretched limb.
"Applejack! What do I do!?" Twilight yelled in fear.

"Just let go!" Wait... What?!

"WHAT!?" That's what I said!

Applejack gave a reassuring look to Twilight's worried one. "I promise you'll be safe!"

Twilight, frightened, decided to trust the cowgirl, and released her grip, only for Fluttershy to swoop in and grab her.

I was relieved to see that they were all okay, but... Was that someone near the bottom of the cliff? "...Hm.... I'm probably just seeing things. "
-----

As we traveled the path, strange obstacles kept popping up, with each of the other pony girls stepping in somehow.

Fluttershy tended to a wounded manticore that was about to attack us, convincing it to let us pass.

Pinkie helped us laugh off some sort of illusion, though I did wonder how they all had such good on the fly dance choreography. Oh well, questions for later.

Rarity sacrificed her tail(Not as bad as it sounds, I swear!) to repair a campy dragon's mustache...at least we got a lift out of it.

We were drawing closer to the target, the old castle of the two sisters, a collapsing monolith of stones and mason work. At that point, I started seeing the shadow more and more, near every obstacle we encountered... Were we being followed?

After patching the bridge to the castle, and Rainbow overcoming a tempting illusion, we were about to enter, but a strange voice called out to us.

"I cannot allow you to pass!" A strange black armored figure materialized before us, blocking the path.

"Who are you!?" Rainbow yelled, spooked. He chuckled a bit at that.

"Heh, the gay pride pony has some bite, I see." Rainbow sputtered in rage for a moment before Rarity barked out, "How dare you!"

He gave her what must have been a deadpan from under his helmet. "Oh trust me, calling you out on your sexual orientation is the LEAST of what I'm gonna be doing." He threatened, un-sheathing a very large sword.

Crap...this guy means business. Nothing for it, I guess.

"You girls go on ahead!" I ordered. "I can take on horror movie here!"

"Claus!? Are you nuts!?" Twilight exclaimed in disbelief and concern.

"We've been over that, yes, but right now the important thing is you need to grab those elements and put an end to Nightmare Moon's emo trip!" I said, angling towards the dark knight.

"You mean ego trip?"

"I meant what I said, now go!" After a moment of hesitation, the 6 made their way into the castle while I threw myself in front of the aggressive black figure, blocking him from following.

"Well, it seems you are a LOT braver and a LOT dumber than I anticipated. But, sadly, this is where it ends." He drew himself up, looking even more intimidating then before.

I wasn't gonna die here... I couldn't let this Round Table reject win! But... I don't exactly have a weapon to fight with...

"Don't worry." I heard Phoenix's voice from somewhere.

"Phoenix!?"

"This is where I come in. You do remember what I said earlier, right Claus? About fire?"

"That fire brings heat AND light..."

I felt something tickling the inside of my balled fist. When I released my grip, a small flickering flame appeared, flaring and reforming into what looked like a gun of sorts.

"That's the Element Gun you are able to use, Phoenix BRS-S. Keep your aim steady!" He said Cheerily.

I smiled, knowing I had a fighting chance now. Take that, gun laws!

"Aw, that's not supposed to happen!" The black armored fellow whined. "Well, whatever. I'm sure Moonbutt is done dealing with your candy-colored harem by now, anyway."

Wait... Did he mean...? Ignoring the insults, I ran back from the figure and into the castle, intent on finding the others.

"...This'll be fun."

-----

I made it inside, and saw that Twilight was struggling with a group of jewels.

"But where's the spark!?"

Sparks? Never mind, back to the big bad. On the other side of the room, smug as could possibly be, Nightmare Moon was gloating over the girls' failure.

But this time, I was gonna ACTUALLY help them. I drew my Element Gun up and fired a shot at her, which to my surprise, ignited halfway through it's light, turning into a fireball. SO much better than throwing rocks.

"Hey, emo trip! Round 2!" I ran at Nightmare, brandishing my shiny new Element Gun for all to see.

"Claus!?"

"That's my name, don't wear it out!" I focused back on the goth chick. "I'll buy you some time, you figure out how to get those things to work!"

"INSOLENT WHELP! TASTE THE POWER OF THE NIGHT!" Nightmare yelled before firing a few beams at me, which I countered with a few fireball shots. This went on, back and forth, for a few minutes before I glanced back at Twilight.

"What's the holdup, Twilight!?"

"There's no spark!" Spark...? Wait a minute.

I started thinking about all the hazards we'd been encountering. They all seemed to correspond to a trait mentioned in that spiel about the Elements, and our friends had embodied those traits. Each of them had that Spark.

"I think I get it! They aren't talking about the elements themselves! They're talking about the six of you!"

"Huh?" Should I repeat that? "...Wait, that's right!" There we go!

So she got it. Applejack was honest, Fluttershy was kind, Pinkie gave laughter, Rarity was generous, and Rainbow was loyal. That connection is what activates the elements.

"When you're ready, I'll get Miss Emo Universe into position, and you finish this!" I yelled. I didn't look to see her explain things to the others. Tall, dark and goth was taking up my attention,

"YOU...!" Nightmare grew frustrated, eyes burning with rage as she kept missing me.

I managed to lure her in a bit with a well placed, "NEENER, NEENER!" and shot her at an angle, launching her up into the air.

"NOW TWILIGHT!"

I watched an aura of what I could only describe as pure light emanate out of the girls, blanketing the shadowy bitch... And a smaller pony girl emerged out of it.

"...Who...?" Uhhh... Does miss bitch wear elevator shoes?

This smaller girl seemed to look a lot like a less aggressive Nightmare, thankfully.

But, seriously, who was this girl...?

I turned to the girls, now un-glowy again, and noticed that they were joined by a larger, white pony lady with wavy hair(Literally, waving) and a very angelic aura.

"Who...?" This was becoming a pattern...

As the larger lady approached the smaller one, I had overheard the names as they spoke. The larger white one was Celestia, Princess of the Sun, and the one released from Nightmare's body was Luna, her sister and Princess of the Moon. Apparently the Moon Princess had been corrupted and was banished to the moon until recently... For some reason.

It seemed like things were picking up. Villain defeated, quest of the day complete... But then I heard slow clapping. Uh-oh...

"Aw, what a heartwarming scene this is!" A dark voice cried out mockingly, heralding the armor nut striding onto the scene.

"You again!" I barked out.

The white princess took a stance in front of her recently released sister. "Who are you!?"

"Oh, you wound me, Sunbutt...you don't remember your old friend Nether?" Aaaaand, add that to the edgy names list...

The look on her face turned from defensive to shock and fear.

"N-Nether!?"

"The one and only. I am a bit bummed out that you managed to undo all my hard work making Nightmare Moon happen though."

Wait, what?

"What? Thoust were the one who caused this!?" The lunar princess exclaimed in 'Ye-olden-day' speech.

"Ha, you did all the heavy lifting! You were dripping with envy over your sister, all I did was introduce a little bit of suffering energy and BAM! Instant night demon."

We were all glaring at the arrogant figure. He had been behind Nightmare Moon, and now he was monolouging about it.

"You know, I don't think she got enough playtime." Nether held up a small blackish crystal. Black smoke started to enter the crystal, drifting from the shadows of the room.

"Well, it may not be enough for a full resurrection, but it should be entertaining to watch." Nether threw the crystal up and it exploded into a big ball of darkness, which the figure of Nightmare Moon stepped out from.

"Grrrr....Night..." It seemed this Nightmare Moon was much less well spoken than before.

"Play nice, kids! Hahaha!" And with that laugh, Nether sped away, Nightmare Moon firmly in-between him and us.

"Wait, you!"

I was about to run after him, but, unfortunately, everyone else seemed to be in no shape to fight, and the big bad witch lady just came back to life. I had to do something.

I raised my Element Gun and started firing, but after the third shot... I ran out of ammo.

"Crap... This is NOT good... I need to do something...!" I slowly backed up a little as Moon leveled a glare on me.

"Oh don't worry Claus... There's still our ace in the hole!" Phoenix's voice rang out.

I noticed another flame flickering on the Element Gun's side that burned bright and fierce as it reformed into a small add on.

"This Side Arm Machine should do it. Blast her to bits!" Point and shoot, got it!

I gripped the firing lever on the side machine and took aim at the dark princess before me.

My voice mixed with Phoenix's for a moment as power flared into the gun. "I'll burn you away, you disgusting phantom!"

I pulled the lever and... BANG! Everything went white for a few moments as an explosion lit up the goth chick's body. The remains of Nightmare Moon were engulfed in flames, the demon's dying screams ringing in my ears as she faded to nothing. I lowered my weapon and turned to the others...

"I got 'er... You're all okay...? Good..." I muttered as my body fell to the ground. The last thing I saw was the ground as my consciousness faded.

-----

"You did good, Claus. Nightmare Moon was born from Princess Luna's jealousy, and Nether was trying to take advantage of that evil. However, Nether is still out there. We've got our work cut out for us. But for now... Rest."

-----

I heard a faint beeping as I slowly roused from my sleep. It appeared that after that last shot, I must have passed out from exhaustion. I guess they brought me to a hospital. Man, this bed's comfy...

"Ugh..." I felt like I had been thrown through a brick wall and ended up plastered along another wall behind that one.

Sitting up, I grabbed my head in my hand, attempting to process what exactly happened to me. I used the Element Gun Phoenix gave me... Wait... The Element Gun! Where'd it go?

I frantically looked around the room, not seeing it anywhere. "Where is it?"

A nurse walked in as I was starting to panic, so I quickly pressed it down to match her calm smile. i can look for the gun later.

"Good, you're awake. You've been out for about a day now..." She said, looking at a clipboard with what I assume was my medical sheet on it.

"...What happened?" I queried.

"After that fight in the castle, Princess Celestia and her student brought you here. They said you'd done something incredible. It must have been to impress the Princess."

Incredible, huh... "Where are they now?"

"They're right outside, I'll go get them." That's convenient... Hope they're here for me and not because they actually need the hospital.

After a few minutes of waiting, the two Princesses walked in, closely followed by Twilight.

"Hey... Are you all okay?" I asked, worried for their safety. (Hero complex, can't help it!)

"We should be asking you that!" Twilight yelped. "You hit your head when you fainted and got a concussion! As it is, you're lucky you remember how to speak!" Wait... Concussion?

"Don't be too hard on him, my student." Celestia said to her student. I was still wrapping my mind around 'concussion.' "He's perfectly fine, considering he fought Nightmare Moon herself. Even better, considering he helped you rid the world of her."

Right... Nightmare Moon. Speaking of which...

"I hope I didn't hurt you, Princess Luna..."

Luna looked confused by the statement.

"If anything, we should be hoping we didn't hurt thine self, Sir Claus."

I smiled. "Don't worry about that, I'm made of pretty tough stuff." What concussion? I feel fine!

There was an audible silence as they just awkwardly stood there for a moment.

"...You want an explanation, don't you?" I asked.

"Yeah, that would be nice." Twilight piped out.

Just then, the Element Gun appeared on my bedside table. It teleports... Nifty.

"Allow me to explain." Phoenix's voice reverberated out from it. (Surround sound too, yay!)

"And you are...?" Twilight asked the... Gun. Gonna need to check my sanity later...

"Ah, well, I'm Phoenix. I'm the Abstract Spirit of flame, and your Magic element happens to be my younger sister."

I winced from the loud, "...What!?" that came out of everyone besides me and Phoenix. Inside voices, please.

"I needed to find someone who could channel my powers to fight Nether, since... You see... He's been doing some really horrible things to reality here, and my little sister was in danger. That's why I brought Claus here." Phoenix the gun summed up, gaining confused looks from all the pony-ple in the room.

"So that means that you're from another set of Elements, Mr. Phoenix?" The sun princess asked the gun.

"...I guess you could say that. Basically though, Nether isn't done- not by a long shot. I'm not letting him lay a finger on my sister..." He said with an underlying anger in his voice.

Spoken like a true overprotective big brother, alright... But given how much of an absolute asshat Nether was, I'd say it's warranted.

"I understand, Phoenix. If Nether were to do that to Luna again..." Aaaand, overprotective sister, too.

"Twilight, as you are the wielder of the Element of Magic, in addition to you staying here in Ponyville, I would request that Claus and Phoenix stay with you to protect it."

I saw Twilight's cheeks turn a bright red as she stuttered out, "I-I dunno... This is kinda sudden."

...Oh great, she's crushing on me isn't she? That's gonna get reeeaaally awkward, at minimum. But whatever. I'm staying, cooties or no cooties.

"I don't mind, Twilight. And Phoenix wants to protect his little sister, so I figure I'll be around to protect you too." At that point, it seemed like the poor girl's face was as red as Phoenix's.

"This is gonna be a LONG adventure, isn't it?"

-----

MEANWHILE

"Huh...so Phoenix finally found someone to act for him. I knew the bird was tenacious, but really? This guy?"

Nether turned the page on the calendar next to him, a picture of Sombra on the top flap.

"Right then, let's see... 3 days from now... apple harvesting season... Heh, this'll be fun."

Author's Note:

The second part of the first episode. Do note that thanks to the existence of these other characters, there will be a drift from canon.

Comments

[MaxTV1234]

I like where this is going. So when will the other humans arrive, because now I'm more curious to learn about this Nether guy.

[WozWuzHere]

Oh you're gonna enjoy the next part then.

[nightshroud96]

Wished Spike got to see all of this.
Too bad he got left out..

I wonder if it will be touched on how Luna feels about how it turns out some villain actually corrupted her? Would she feel anger and pain that she lost a 1000 years of her life(and was forgotten by Equestria for so long) due to what this villain had done to her?
Would the actual issues that led NMM to happen be resolved too? Since sadly the show seems to went with "Luna gets forcibly purified and that's it. She just accepts she's in Celestia's shadow good".
Kind of a shame that is just it for Nightmare Moon. Just killed off while being just a near-mindless being there.
Just seems disappointing how things went for her there..