Family Begins With You

by Jmaster49

Arc XII Episode IX: Rushing Into Battle

“Twilight?” Sunset asked, turning her head in her direction, “I thought you left with--”

“I’m not gonna stand by and watch my old friends get trampled by some heffalump beast,” the plucky scientist of a girl said coldly, “But with that being said, I’d like it if Professor Aidoneous would come along with us.”

Aidon looked at her with a confused frown. “...Are you certain? There’s a distinct possibility that my…abilities can make things worse.”

“That’s just it,” Twilight pulled out her tablet again, “From what my satellite is telling me, this particular demon is immune to magic carried by non-Equestrians. There’s nothing my friends and I can do about it…”

Sunset put a hand on Twilight’s shoulder and continued speaking on her behalf. “That’s why we need you guys’ help. The Sirens have already agreed to help us, and I got Keiji on board--”

“Yeah can we hurry this up?” the boy casually mouthed off, “There’s ass out there that needs to be kicked and we can’t wait around for Teach forever.”

“Ahem,” Sunset cleared her throat in response to his snide comment and went on, “Of course…we won’t force you to join us, sir. The choice is yours.”

Aidon weighed his options. “The problem is that whatever’s causing this anomaly is far stronger than what we’ve dealt with thus far. If I’m involved, I fear I may cause more harm than good. However…” He looked up at Twilight, noting the distraught sense of terror on her face as she bit her lip. “...I can’t abandon them. I won’t. These are my students. And they need me.”

The professor stood up from his seat, and adjusted the cuffs on his suit. “Alright, tetragrams. If we’re gonna get there fast, we’re gonna need wheels.”

“...Eh?” Twilight muttered.

Sunset snickered and pointed at the car key that Aidon was holding. “He’s gonna give us a ride, I think. Totally makes things smoother.”

“Ugh, finally,” Keiji muttered as he started running towards the nearest exit to the parking lot. “Sāikō! Sāikō! Hurry the hell up!”

“He’s right,” Aidon added as he led the girls out, “Let’s meet up with the others and get going. There’s no telling what sort of destruction that thing has caused by now.”

Twilight breathed a sigh of relief as she hugged upon Sunset. “Thank you. And thank you, Professor…”

Sunset struggled in the embrace as she felt the wind leave her body. “Okay--okay--let’s--rrgh! Demons first, hugs later!”

“Oh, right--” Twilight let go with a faint blush on her cheeks and began to follow her teacher. “Let’s get going.”

---

Meanwhile, at Crystal Prep…

After being slammed into the lockers, Sugarcoat had fallen to the floor. By the time she came to, she realized that her glasses were missing and that her vision was blurred. “Shit. Shit. Where are they…?”

“STOP! STOPPIT! PLEAAAASE!!”

“Your soul is mine!” Sour embellished against the cries of her victims.

Soon enough, Sugarcoat would finally find her spectacles and put them on--only to be met with a rather horrific sight. “...Oh. My. God.”

Sour Sweet had the three girls pinned to the nearby wall and a pink magical mist was forcefully entering their heads against their will as tears ran down their faces.

“Yeah? Yeah! How does it feel?!” Sour screamed at them with her voice fully corrupted by a demonic reverb, “Feast upon the hatred you once bestowed upon me. Let it fester and mold your feeble minds until your souls leave their bodies!”

Even though it was her friend, she couldn’t believe what she was witnessing. However, Sugarcoat had to stow her personal biases and do what she could to free her friend from the elephant’s curse.

That’s when the magical aura started to flare up around her body once more. The next time Sugarcoat flexed one of her hands, she watched as her fist was coated and enhanced by a layer of crystalline material.

“What the…” Sugar looked down at her hand, but ultimately decided that now wasn’t the time for questioning something when there was a pachydemon possessing her friend. “Hey, asshole!” she finally rose her voice, screaming to get its attention.

“...!” Sour’s actual mental state took over for a moment--hearing her friend swear was…it was unprecedented from the usually-emotionless Sugarcoat. “...Sugar…gaaagh!” While she was forced to stop infecting the girls with her magic, the elephant demon took over even further. Its pink aura surrounded Sour’s body as her eyes changed to…a solid black color. “Do not interf--!”

PWOOSH!

With a quick leap forward, Sugarcoat threw a hefty punch at the elephant’s head, knocking it through the invisible barrier, and subsequently? The wall.

CRASH!

The bricks clattered to the ground outside from the gaping hole in the wall. Sugarcoat turned her attention to the trio of girls that were affected by its magic. “...Are you okay? Can you respond?”

“...”

None. Sugarcoat would have to perform a rescue all by herself.

Eventually, after getting them all downstairs and out of the building…

Sugarcoat would look around the front of the campus, only to find that the pachydemon had climbed to the top of the academy building and was holding onto something…or rather, someone.

“Take another step, and your beloved leader dies,” it called out to her from above. The elephant demon had now taken a more…anthropomorphic appearance. It stood on two legs--standing just above the average height of a human and now had hands--one of which was wrapped tightly around Dean Cadence’s neck. “Surrender your bodies to me.”

“No…I can’t…I can’t let this happen…” Sugarcoat muttered as both of her fists were now covered in blue crystals. “I made a promise…this is my burden to bear!”

As it began to fuse with Sour Sweet, the demon started to inherit more of her personality traits. Namely? The Sour parts.

“Oh please!” it called out in a rather feminine tone. “You can’t reasonably expect to save me with words! You’ve spent too long trying to act cool and collected when you’re just as flappable as everyone else! You really think you have what it takes to save your friend?”

“Yes, I do, bitch!” Sugarcoat screamed with obscenities as she slowly began to break down--sobbing in between her words, “You don’t even know me! I act this way because I fell on my head when I was--!”

HOOOOONK!

With a loud toot from her trunk, the elephant demon blew with enough force to send Sugarcoat flying across the street…

“WAAAAAAAGGGHHH!”

THUD!

…until she came in contact with a tree, knocking her out cold.

Meanwhile, about two blocks away…

“That’s it! It’s over there!” Twilight called out, as she pointed out of Aidon’s front window. “Sugarcoat!!”

The shadowman prepared to slam his foot on the gas. “Hold onto your asses, tetragrams…”