So, I've been going around and I have found that character reactions are thoroughly lacking, at least in writing and especially from this character set. I love epic scenes from movies and TV shows, and I love watching reactions, and I love writing this character set, so I'm more or less marrying my three favorite fanfic aspects here. This is going to be a series of one-offs that I'll be doing exclusively of one another as I find scenarios that fit it. No plot between chapters, just reactions by the Princesses to whatever you guys request (within reason, please) or whatever I find for them. Enjoy!
Celestia strolled down the castle hall, humming lightly to herself. Ever since the defeat of Tirek, the land had enjoyed a span of peace for almost a full year. There were no threats now with four Alicorns and Discord constantly patrolling the corners of the kingdom, and she had plenty of time to get her own affairs in order. As she stepped through the gigantic doorway into the garden, her head began to spin. "Oh, no. Speaking of which..." She spun about, rushing back down the hall to her chambers. As the door slammed open, Luna met her face to face.
"Are you seeing this as well, sister?" Celestia nodded. She stepped through the door and they both sat down together against the nearest wall.
And suddenly they were in a small, metal room with a group of bipedal beings. The whole group yelled back and forth to one another, obviously panicked.
"What the hell just happened?!" This came from a male sitting in a chair a few feet away from her. On the other side of the room, a female sat up from what looked to be a very uncomfortable bed.
"An agent. You have to send me back." Luna muttered to herself.
"I've gotten reports from Cadence...She's seen visions of these agents as well. Bad news, the lot of them." The male spoke again, despair in his voice.
"I can't." The whole group of bipeds, or humans as the princesses had begun referring to them ever since these visions started, gathered around a group of screens with seemingly random numbers flashing down them. Celestia focused on the numbers and suddenly she received a second dose of the unique spinning sensation she got whenever she had a vision. Now she was in a room with train tracks running through one side of it, but she couldn't feel any solar energy. An underground train station, perhaps? A man wearing a pair of highly unnecessary sunglasses stepped forward and spoke to the other occupant of the room, calling him by name. "Mr. Anderson." Celestia became aware of Luna's presence once again as she shied away, pressing herself against the back wall.
When the first female spoke, she realized that her presence was now in both rooms, as sometimes occurred during her visions when her mind felt it necessary to view two things at once. The lady spoke presumably to one of the occupants of the train station, hopefully to the one Celestia could actually feel a life force from. The other one simply radiated power, with no indication toward good or evil. "Run, Neo. Run." The man refused to follow these simple instructions, turning about and facing the other occupant. Something strange seemed to overtake Celestia, and she realized that she desperately wanted this young man to be victorious. She lifted herself to her feet and moved over to his side of the train station, eager for a better look at him.
"What is he doing?"
Now the eldest of the group in the smaller room spoke for the first time. Even though Celestia couldn't have hoped to fully comprehend the meaning of his words, they had power that she could understand. She flashed back to Twilight's first day under her tutelage. Oddly enough, she received the same feeling from Neo that she had from the young unicorn back then. "He's beginning to believe." Celestia turned her head back to Luna, not enough to take her eyes off the scene before her.
"Luna, who are these...agents?" Her sister stepped forward warily.
"They are beings of immense power, not unlike Changelings. They survive off of energy from humans, and can move back and forth between bodies if one is destroyed. In this world they exist purely as a superior fighting force to eliminate any unruly humans."
Even though she was incapable of being physically harmed here, Celestia backed into a corner. Luna's description of the agents had sounded frighteningly similar to a few of Discord's creations, back when the sisters had both been trapped in his reign. She forced these thoughts out of her head just in time to see the action starting.
Both occupants flexed their right hands, each putting off his own specific brand of murderous vibe. A newspaper swished up between them, further dramatizing the situation before finally they both drew a weapon from their sides and began rushing toward one another, firing all the way. Celestia slipped further into the corner as bullets scarred the concrete inches before her face. Fear of weapons was something she had learned to understand very quickly from her previous experiences with similar visions. Those blue faced humans...she shook herself, trying desperately to forget the cruelty that had been shown to hundreds of her kind that day. (major points if you get that reference.)
Both fighters leapt into the air, grappling one another's arms and trying to get their weapon properly aimed at their opponent's face. They fell to the ground, each gun pressed to it's enemy's temple. The strange man with no life force nodded at Neo. "You're empty." Celestia's heart stopped. She could understand the tone of voice, even though the words had no meaning to her.
"So are you." There was a pause as they all registered the information. Finally Neo tore his arm from the other man's grasp and flipped through the air, landing in a fighting stance. The other man took his sweet time, tossing his weapon aside. Celestia began breathing heavily without even noticing. This man was far too confident for anyone's good. All too much like Discord's creations...
Neo stood up, doing just the same. The taller man dusted off his sports jacket, turning his neck to one side until it cracked eerily. Neo wasted no time, rushing forward into the battle.
They traded blows faster than Celestia could follow, with Neo seeming to attack faster but with not enough power to even phase the agent. Neo fell back under a rain of attacks, stopping himself against a huge pole. The agent rushed up to him, smashing one fist into the pole and demolishing the entire half of it he had struck. Luna was forced to duck to avoid getting pelted by shrapnel from the pole. "'Tia! Are you sure you're alright?" It was only now that the princess realized she had been swaying along to Neo's movements, following them subconsciously with her own.
"I-I'm fine. Watch!" They both turned their attention to the fight once more.
Neo used the recovery time from the huge punch to his advantage, coming under the agent's arm and throwing a series of kicks at him, one to the chest, one to the face, and then a roundhouse kick to the temple. The agent fell back against another pole, his glasses now broken. He grimaced as he tore them off his face and threw them down. "I'm going to enjoy watching you die, Mr. Anderson." He charged Neo, smashing one blow after another into the smaller man's defenses. Celestia cringed as the wind from the attacks brushed her mane back. The last time she'd seen a fight that had even resembled this one was when Twilight had fought Tirek, and she remembered how that had ended.
The agent tripped Neo, leaving him open in the air, and smashed him straight into the back wall of the station, cracking the solid concrete with his body. He jerked his head back around, pushing himself up with both arms and more or less bucking into the agent's stomach. He leapt to his feet, rushing the larger man once again and attacking his chest now. He drove punch after punch into the man's shoulders and sternum, but even these rapid blows simply didn't seem to phase him. Neo swung one arm around to attack the agent's ribs, but it was caught under his arm. He attempted it again on the opposite side to meet the same result. With this newfound grip, the agent jerked Neo down into a headbutt, finally releasing him when Neo pushed off with one knee. As Neo fell back, the agent grabbed him by the shoulder and smashed a fist into his gut.
As Neo stumbled back, the agent continued to rush him, swinging wild punches to his left and right. Finally Neo had time to attack, but his arm was caught again and the agent pulled him to the side and pummeled his ribs with three jerking punches. He then proceeded to pull Neo forward and swing a leg all the way up into his face. Despite herself, Luna chuckled. Celestia looked at her in surprise, almost anger. "And what's so funny?"
"Just how volatile these humans are. No matter what the situation, they can usually get out of it using a technique that's physically impossible for our own people. I guess it's more envy than humor."
The younger man panted for breath, but got right back in the fight, blocking the agent's next attack and swinging his leg all the way around both their arms into his opponent's face. He used his new leverage to throw a series of chops to the agent's stomach and then to pull him into a full power kick. He tried to press his advantage by charging and attacking straight to the agent's face, but he was soon shown the error of his ways. The agent deflected all three of his punches and gripped him under the arm, delivering a crushing blow that sent Neo flying across the station. Both princesses gasped. There were ponies who had never dreamed that someone could hit that hard. They had both measured the force of the strike, and both had found it comparable to that of a dragon. Luna shook her head in amazement.
"How is he still alive? That attack should have folded him in half, and yet he doesn't even seem to...oh."
In both of Celestia's vision worlds, Neo jerked about, coughing up blood from the incredible force of the blow. The young female in the metal room tore a piece of fabric from her shirt and used it to wipe the man's mouth. "He's killing him." Celestia knew that tone. Sheer panic disguised as fact.
Meanwhile, the Neo in the fight had worked his way to his feet while Celestia couldn't help but feel a sense of exaltation at the look of utter rage, frustration, and confusion on the agent's face. Neo slung the blood from his mouth with one hand and jerked his arms out to the side, dust flying off of his body. He lowered himself into a fighting stance once again, taunting the agent. The rage returned to his face and he charged.
There was a different tone to the fight now. The agent swung repeatedly at Neo, but to no avail. Celestia even found herself chuckling at one point when Neo caught both of the agent's arms and used the same headbutting technique the agent had mere moments ago. He slung the larger man backwards and leapt into the air, delivering kicks all the way up his body. As the agent started to recover and managed to catch one of Neo's punches, the smaller man's fingers extended and smashed against his windpipe. Neo broke out of the weakened hold and drove a kick into the agent's side, which was also caught. Neo used his new stability to smash a fist into the agent's head, once, twice, but not a third time. This time the agent caught it, and used his double grabbing points to throw Neo back into the wall, breaking a new spot in the concrete. Both of the princesses' jaws gaped open.
"It took the strength of four Alicorns to take a hit like that..."
"Yes, Luna. I noticed."
Now the agent was serious. He smashed a fist into Neo's stomach and the rest just kept coming at speeds even Celestia couldn't follow. Neo jerked about under the hail of punches, and even the Neo in the metal room thrashed about in his bed. It was only after about twenty solid seconds of pummeling that the agent halted, tore Neo from the wall, and smashed him once again through a phone booth a few meters away with another gargantuan punch.
A shadow of a grin passed over the agent's face as a squeaking sound echoed through the room. Both Celestia's and Luna's eyes bulged. "He can't possibly be thinking what I think he is." Celestia said nothing, but simply turned away. Just like Twilight, she had developed a connection to Neo instantly, and now she was stuck here in this accursed vision as he died.
The strolled over to Neo, picking him up by one leg and throwing him into the concrete on the other side of the tracks, smashing it once again. He leapt down onto the tracks with the smaller man, putting him in a headlock. As the train came around the bend, he whispered into Neo's ear. "Do you hear that, Mr. Anderson? That is the sound of inevitability. It is the sound of your death. Goodbye, Mr. Anderson." The young man grabbed at the agent's arm, getting a firm grip before finally uttering a few simple words.
"My name...is...NEO!" Both princesses gasped at the power of the words. A huge triumphant grin lit up Celestia's face. He leapt straight upward, smashing the agent into the ceiling and breaking the headlock. Just as the train pulled into the station, he backflipped away from the agent and off the tracks, struggling to stick the landing and not have his face scraped off by the still moving train. Finally he regained his balance and Celestia caught her breath. He stumbled away, looking back as the train squeaked to a halt. Her eyes bulged as one door slid open and there stood none other than the agent.
"I-Impossible...RUN, NEO!"
"Princess!" She was jerked from her vision by the sound of a voice. She turned about and there was a pair of royal guards bowing behind her. "Are you alright, milady?" She blinked a few times.
"Y-yes. Thank you."
"Are you sure, madam? We can summon the royal physician if you feel ill." She shook her head again, feeling a bit more stable now.
"I'm sure. But thank you just the same." She glanced back to Luna, who was obviously fighting to hold back tears. They both knew the end result of their vision, whether or not they had been allowed to complete it. She sighed. Too many of them ended like this recently.
Troll guard is serious troll. But anyway, please suggest some other things for the Princesses to react to. And it doesn't have to just be Celestia or Luna. There are four of them, remember? Anyway, I eagerly await your suggestions, and for now I'll say goodbye.
