AnimeNation Adventures: The Solstice Awards (Part 1)

((Once again, special thanks to Nutmeg for starting up for me. Hopefully I'll prove not to disappoint in the upcoming AN Solstice Awards, even if Prons will likely kick my *** in all categories.))

Nutmeg stared at the TV in disbelief. "Are you freaking kidding me?" The door opened behind her. "Did you know about this?"

"Relax, Nutmeg," ADS said as he turned off the TV. "Everything will be okay."

"How can you say that? Ryuuji just got himself banned from the ceremony location."

"I know. It will be fine. We're going along with everything as planned," ADS smirked at her.

"You can't do that. We need to find someone to fill his place."

"You could say, I already have someone."

"Fine."

"Did my DVD arrive?"

"The one from Miko's bachelor party? I have it right here." She handed him the DVD. "What are you planning on doing with it?"

ADS smirked. "All in good time."

"Nice suit. I see you didn't wear the pink heels."

ADS had donned his white 'Kimblee' suit for the Awards show. "They didn't really go." Nutmeg gave him a smirk of her own and added the finishing touches to her outfit. She wore a long black dress and a choker. "Is that Shuuhei's choker?"

"ADS, we're hosting an awards show for AnimeNation. Is there a reason I can't wear a choker that looks like the same one from an anime?"

"No armbands?"

"They didn't go with my dress. And I didn't have time to make them."

They made their way out to the stage.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the First Annual Mid-Year Solstice Awards Pre-show. I'm your host, A Dead Spy, and with me tonight is Nutmeg."

As the standard applause started up, two figures sitting up front— Melion and Superplough, each dressed respectively in blue and pink— paid their attention elsewhere. Plough, in lack of a better description, looked none too thrilled.

"I still don't see why I have to be Pinkie Pie this time," he complained to Melion. "I know we take our roles in turns and all, but isn't an all-pink suit going a little overboard?"

"Silence," Melion responded quietly. "You'll ruin the whole show; besides, you were prepared for this the moment he roped you in, weren't you? Don't worry, after our performance at Miko's party, how could we possibly embarrass ourselves?"

Before he could go any further, Melion felt a strong vibration coming from his patented "uTap-uDie" secured iPhone. Knowing immediately who was calling him, he picked up.

"Applejack, this is Rainbow Dash," he answered. "I take it our star just arrived?"

Meanwhile, on the other end of the line, Recent Midget leaned himself against the emergency exit back door outside, Leader Desslock and Animegirl not far from him. Noting Desslock's odd choice for a lavender Jedi robe and AG's cute yellow lolita dress, he took out a cigarette from his orange coat pocket and cursed to himself for forgetting his lighter.

"Applejack, do you read me?"

Cursing to himself yet again, Midget picked his phone back up, trying desperately not to let his anger born of absent-mindedness show.

"Rainbow Dash, this is Applejack," he responded hastily. "I'm with Rarity and Fluttershy; we just found our way here, but Twilight has yet to rendezvous with us at the moment. Did the show start already?"

"Yes," Melion answered solemnly, "Celestia and Luna are on stage right now; they're already a couple minutes in."

Midget cursed even louder, prompting Desslock to restrain his mouth while AG continued to keep watch.

"We can't let the mods know we're here," Desslock calmly reminded. "If they see us-"

"I know... I know," Midget breathed right after Desslock released him. "I just wish I had my goddamned lighter, is all."

"You smoke?" Desslock queried. "Silly Applejack, ponies shouldn't smoke."

"For your information, this is my first cigarette, and I figured it would be a fitting time to start up. Don't believe me? Kiss my-"

Before a fourth swear could come out of Midget's mouth, AG ran right toward the other two, a dark purple rainbow-tinted truck not far behind.

"He's here! He's here!" AG yelled as softly as she could, the truck parking right in the middle of three handicapped spaces and one fire lane, none of which had even existed before its arrival. Coming out of the truck came Ryuuji himself, his skintight purple flight suit accompanied by a rainbow-winged headset ripped straight off of a Vocaloid design.

"Yo," Ryuuji greeted, prompting Midget to call Melion back in excitement.

"Rainbow Dash, this is Applejack. Twilight Sparkle is in the house. I repeat, Twilight Sparkle is-"

Midget forcibly stopped himself once an arrow flew toward Ryuuji, knocking his phone straight out of his hand. Another arrow shot had narrowly missed Ryuuji, prompting a mix of panic and alertness for the other three. Ryuuji, however, simply stood motionless, a cool glare in his eyes which showed not a hint of fear.

"This is bad," Midget whimpered, he and the others turning to face Holy Knight standing with Shroiyuki and Hisoka, each of them summoning their banhammers from the netherworld.

"Ryuuji..." Holy Knight scolded coldly. "I should have known you'd try to come back. Shiro! Hisoka! Send the lot of those four to Banned Land at once!"

"YES, MY LORD," they responded, each of them charging toward the group with their hammers held high.

(TO BE CONTINUED)