The true Defenders

Her strange dreams

New York

My was it busy.

Twilight dodged multiple crowds as Nellie led her through the bustling streets. She had to keep a tight grip on her hand, otherwise she'd be swept away by the carefree people.

"How do you manage to- oof!"

A passing business woman elbowed Twilight in her side as she passed, making her stop a second.

"..Survive these streets?"

Nellie didn't turn her head back when she responded. She kept her head facing forward.

"You'll learn to soon enough Star. Believe me, you'll get the hang of it after a week or so."

Spike would've commented on that, but there were too many strangers around. Luckily, his owner replied with the exact same words he would've said.

"Easy for you to say Nel. You've lived here for five years."

Nellie turned around and smiled at her, managing to not run into anyone as she tugged her nerdy friend through the busy streets. Twilight couldn't help but smile too. She knew Nellie wasn't going to let anything happen to her, Nellie was like a protective mother figure, and Twilight wouldn't want it any other way. She'd been her best friend since middle school, and was always there for her when she needed help. The two got along so great, it was a weird chemistry no one understood back then.

You'll understand why later, Nellie, she's... full of surprises.

Twilight kept lingering on the thought of how long the two had known each other. She noticed how the chestnut skinned girl kept careful to not lose her grip on Twilight, to keep her close and out of harms way. Anyone who eyed them with a disapproving glance, she'd glare and they'd turn away immediately. She noticed how Nellie smiled to herself, a sense of pride maybe, something like that, Twilight couldn't tell.

They walked on for quite some time, for at least an hour and they still hadn't made it to the subway station. It got to the point it was so loud she couldn't hear what Nellie was saying. So she resorted to looking at her surroundings. Spike would bark at multiple groups of pigeons that waltzed by and they'd flutter away in fear. Her dog grinned to himself and continued to bark like a lunatic. She rolled her eyes and looked around. They were around a cafe now, no, a bakery, a small one to be exact. But the line for it was at least a mile long.

'Is everything that long here?'

She looked around, sure enough, the other lines were equally as long. She got tired of looking at so many people, and looked up at the skyscrapers above her. Her eyes caught sight of the channel six building, where a it looked to be a construction site, looked like an explosion happened up there. The six was mangled and wires were tangled everywhere. But to her surprise, no one was up there, or so she thought, when she squinted, she saw what looked like a man... swinging from a rope of some sort? What?

'What in the lord..?'

When she looked again, he had swung around the building at least three times, before swinging on top of the mangled six. And she could've sworn he was wearing a costume, a red and blue one. It puzzled her to see someone doing that.

"Hey Nellie, are there... vigilantes around here?"

Nellie turned around to respond, her charcoal hair swung to the side in her ponytail.

"Why would you say something like that?"

Twilight pointed up to the channel six building, but by the time Nellie looked in that direction, the mysterious figure was gone.