(Displaced) A young dragonslayer and water wizard find themselves in a familiar (the former) and unfamiliar (the latter) world.
Ok, so you know all those stories about people disappearing when they go to a convention? Well, I thought I'd be safe if I just avoided them all together, but some scatter brain decided to prove me wrong. Now I'm in a familiar world, in the body of a girl from an anime I used to watch. I think her name was Wendy Marvell of Fairy Tail. Anyway, at least it's a world I know about, so it could be worse. And hey, got magic now, so that's a plus......probably shouldn't mention it's called Dragon Slayer magic to the locals.
And I'm Zoey, no I'm not calling myself Juvia. Anyway, I'm the one that originally bought the outfit that Wendy got, thanks to the prick that sent us here. Pros: I got the power to create and control water. Cons: When I'm angry and/or sad to an extreme, it starts to rain and no one can stop it for long, if at all. I'm sure that's not going to cause problems with a species that views anything that's slightly out of their norm as a mortal sin. Thankfully it’ll take a lot more than simple jealousy for that to happen, if my memory is correct.
Edit: I'm editing the earlier chapters, please keep this in mind when reading, this massage will disappear when I'm done.
I wake up to the sound of my phone buzzing, letting me know of it’s most recent notification. Taking a moment to check it, I see it’s about a recent scandal the news people are wasting their time with. Immediately deeming it unimportant, I ignore it and get up. Starting my normal morning routine, I go make breakfast. After I'm finished, I head back to my room when I see the mirror in my peripheral vision. My short dark brown hair (dark enough to easily be mistaken for black) is a little messy. My light tan skin looks a little dry and my hazel eyes are a little tired looking. My unkempt mustache and small goatee could use a little trimming.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK
I was brought out of my musings by a knock on the door. Opening it, I find some purple dude with spiky green hair and matching eyes, he’s also holding a box.
Handing me a box, the guy says, "Hello, I've got a package for a Ms. Zoey Smith." I look at the package, before what he said clicked.
I tried correcting him with, "Sorry, but there's no one here...named...." I trailed off as I realized the man had left. Deadpanning, I shrug and decide to check what he gave me. After a moment, I realize that there’s nothing that shows what company it came from. Since I didn’t know what company to contact, I couldn't return it or find out where it was supposed to go.
My eyebrows twitch as I sigh, "Great."
Well, might as well see what's inside. Opening the box, I find a strangely familiar dress and dark red ankle tied sandals. The dress was sleeveless with a triangular pattern near the top with the top one being light blue, the middle being light green and the bottom being light yellow with a white lining. It also had a dark green crossing pattern around the rest of the dress, which resembled scales. The dress also had a small yellow ring at the top were the neck would go. The back top was also left exposed.
Well this is a surprise, this looks high quality. I feel bad for whoever ordered this, but it’s not like there’s any way to return it. Well…I might as well try it on, not like there’s anyone else around. But only the arm bands and sandals. I put on the shoes, then the arm bands. They fit pretty good so it led me to believe that this “Zoey” was probably around my age or build. I look back to the dress, it looks like it would fit. As a joke and to satisfy my curiosity as I’ve never cosplayed before, I decided to put it on just for a moment. Going to a mirror, save for my hair, eyes and skin, it looked pretty good.
I muttered, “Huh, not baaaaaaa-“. Everything went black, though I could have sworn I heard someone burst through my door.
(?????) POV
5 minutes earlier
After handing Zoey’s....brother(?) the package, I quickly teleported away when he wasn't looking, a few blocks away to be exact. Deciding to take a walk before going back to work, I can’t help but notice sounds of some people arguing.
Suddenly some girl yelled, “I DON’T CARE WHAT THAT PRICK HAS TO SAY MOM, I’M GOING!” It was a blond girl, and she looked ready to punch someone. I couldn’t help but find it amusing, wonder what pissed her off.
Some lady yelled back, “ZOEY SMITH! IF YOU DON’T COME BACK HERE THIS INSTANT, YOUR GROUNDED FOR A MONTH!” I then froze as what the lady said fully registered.....and then preceded to teleport back to the house I left the package.
Appearing at the front door, I noticed the door was slightly open. He left the door open? Looks like I won’t have to...repair....it....I could only sigh as a see “his” body on the ground, before it vanished.......Oh well, mistakes happen. I shrug before thinking about what to do next. After all, there’s still one more requirement that needs to be met, rules are rules. Now, how to go about this?
As I slowly regain consciousness, I can't help but notice the sound and feeling of rushing wind. What the, what's going on? As I open my eyes I take notice of all the blue. Noticing that the wind was coming from behind me, I turn my head and noticed a sea of white. After a few moments, I broke through it to see what looks like a...town maybe? I then realized how high I am.
I scream at the top of my lungs, too scared to notice a glaring difference. As I get closer and closer to the ground, my life flashes before my eyes. After all the memories were finished, I noticed I was maybe 10, maybe 15 feet from the ground. Just then, a blur rammed into me. After a few more moments I noticed someone talking, but I was too out of it to understand what was being said. After taking a few minutes to calm down, I looked towards whoever was talking.
A blue girl asked, "Hey kid, you alright?" She had rainbow hair, big magenta eyes and pony ears...and a rainbow tail...and...wings.
Well that's interesting, cosplayer maybe? I've seen pictures of people who paint their skin to look more like who they've dressed as. I was apparently too deep in thought to notice her growing agitation.
The cosplayer called in an annoyed tone, "Hey! Equestra to filly, do you hear me?" This snapped me out of my head. Filly? Equestra? I’m a little confused, but assumed she was one of those people that took the whole cosplay thing a little too seriously.
I started to ask, "Uh miss, what did you-" I then noticed something wrong with my voice. Why do I sound like a little girl? I'll worry about that later. I say with my new weird voice, "Sorry, I didn't catch that."
She said, slightly annoyed, "I said are you alright?" It was most likely because I wasn't listening.
I’m tired of calling her “the cosplayer”, and I wanna calm her down. I decided introductions would kill to birds with one stone, "Uh yeah sorry, who are you?" Gaining a cocky smirk she replies
She answered, her voice sounding exactly like Dash's, "Rainbow Dash, maybe you've heard of me?"
Must be a big fan, I’ll play along. Before I could answer her, she suddenly gains a stern look.
She asked in the 'adult scolding child' voice that always agitated me, "Care to explain why you were falling from the sky and how you even got that high?"
I explain, trying to keep my annoyance out of my voice, "Look, I have no idea how I got up there. One moment I was in my house trying on some clothes I got. Then the next I blackout, but not before I hear my door burst open. Then I wake up to find I'm falling from the sky." That was easy enough, since it's more of a stacking pet peeve.
She stares at me for a moment, most likely reading my face to see if I'm lying. When she comes to the conclusion that I'm not, her face softens. She says, "Alright well, just try to stay outta trouble, ok?" Not feeling like arguing, I simply nod. She gives me a glance over, asking, "You sure you're ok?" After I nod she flys around me a couple of times to make sure......Oh my god she's flying! I just stand there, completely dumbfounded as I stare at her. She asked, "What's with that look, something on my face?" She then started checking to see if there was.
I brushed it off, "N-no, it's...not important, were you the one that saved me?" Guess she's not just a cosplayer. She gained a cocky smirk.
She says, "Yep, no need to thank me, just doing my job. Well, see ya at the Summer Sun Celebration next week. I hear the princess is going to be there." She then shoots over to a nearby town.
I take a moment to process what I just saw and heard. If that was Rainbow Dash, then that must be Ponyville. Wait, the Summer Sun Celebration is next week? And she just said “Princess”, as in singular. That means Twilight isn't here yet. As I was musing, I noticed some...pony, I guess, pulling a carriage. Whoever it was must have been in a hurry, because they didn't notice a mirror falling out when that hit a bump. Running towards the mirror I try to get their attention, but I guess they were already too far to hear me. Sighing I glanced at the mirror. Well I might as well bring it to town, who knows, maybe who ever dropped it will come back for it. Picking up the mirror my entire body freezes at what I see, or rather, WHO I see in my place.
She just stood there, taking in what she saw. The dress, armbands and shoes looked the same, but smaller and more detailed. Her hair was now long and a nice shade of dark blue. Her eyes were now big and brown with an odd white circle at the top. Her skin now a little paler than before, and the two biggest changes, she was a girl and much younger. Also strangely enough, she had a blue fairy tail emblem on her right shoulder. Overall, she looked cute as hell!
As she was deep in thought, she didn't notice a purple skinned man with green spiky hair and eyes in casual clothes, sneaking up behind her. Nor did she notice the sound of him dropping a book, or the dozen paper balls hitting her in the head, she did feel a rock hit her on the back of her head though.
"OW! HEY, WHO THREW THAT!?!" She shouts lividly before looking down. She looked at all the paper balls, the book, and a piece of paper on top of it with a shocked expression. She also saw a blue cylinder with a white stripe that looks to be an opening point to the left of the book. The book was black with the title "Fairy Tail" of it written in silver, in the usual writing from the show, with the tan colored logo on the cover. Raising an eyebrow, she picked up the paper to find it was a letter. Shrugging she sat down and read it.
Dear Wendy
I'll explain why 'Wendy' in a moment. As I'm sure you've realized, your not in your home world any more, and no longer have your original body. First things first, I would like to apologize, as you were not the intended individual who would have came here. There was a mixup with the address, the package was supposed to go to a Zoey Smith, but you got it instead. Ordinarily, I wouldn't have bothered offering an explanation or...well we will get to that in a bit. But since I made the mistake, it's only fair that I make up for it. 1. Sorry to tell you this, but this is a one way trip. No I'm not holding you here against your will, there is literally no way for me to send you back. Since it’s the multiverse we're talking about, I would need to have a way point for me to distinguish your home universe from the infinite others. Which I don't as I was sure I got the right person. 2. Your name is Wendy now, you can try to call yourself by your old name all you want, but it isn't going to work. That's just how your particular transition works, a friend of mine helped make the clothes and spell, and they insisted that be a feature. 3. You have her magic now, check the book for more info. Btw, as a safety measure as the intended person was a BAD tempered girl, your magic's 'faucet' so to speak was shut pretty tight. Though if you focus and try to use it with a calm mind, it should loosen as that was the requirement. Don't worry it's a one time thing, afterwards have at it. Finally ,and I can't stress this enough, READ.THAT.BOOK! Trust me you'll NEED too, anything else you'll find out in your own time.
Sincerely, J
She didn't appear to be phased by the letter. Suddenly another one popped into existence, reading it caused her to deadpan.
PS. On account of the mixup, unless you find someone more powerful and proficient in magic then the royal sisters, you won't be able to change genders. Age shouldn't be a problem as that would have happened regardless of who got the clothes.
She closed her eyes for a few moments, before opening them. She then decided to pick up the book to see why it was so important. She gained a confused look when she checked the Table of Contents.
Chapter 1: Sky dragon slayer magic. Chapter 2: Normal Wind magic. Chapter 3: Medical care. Chapter 4: Advanced medical care. (NOTE: More chapters will be made when deemed necessary.)
Shaking her head, she gained a focused look. Grabbing the blue object, she noticed a tag that read 'Air shatter cannon'. Picking up the paper-balls, she heads towards town. She didn't make it far before her foot hit something. Looking down, she noticed a fairly simple looking blue backpack, with a tag that had her new name on it. After putting her stuff in it, and not caring enough to check what was already in there, she continued on.
Once Wendy reached Ponyville, she looked at her surroundings in wonder. As she was looking around, she bumped into a women. She had yellow hair, grey skin and gold eyes, one of which was lazy. She had on a simple blue shirt, a white skirt, and tennis shoes.
"Sorry miss, wasn't paying attention." Wendy apologized, slightly embarrassed. The woman seemed to not mind.
"It's no problem, usually I'm the one bumping into somepony. Hey, I’ve never seen somepony like you before. I'm Derpy, nice to meet you." Derpy says holding out a hand.
"Oh, well nice to meet you too, I'm Wendy." Wendy says before frowning. "sigh Looks like it's true. I guess I'll just have to deal with it. Hey, do you know where town hall is?" Wendy asked after muttering the previous sentence. Derpy stared at her for a moment, curious about why Wendy suddenly got upset. At the end she decided to not press into the issue, much to Wendy's relief.
"Yep! Just go towards the biggest building in town, you can't miss it." She says, pointing towards, sure enough, the biggest one.
"Thanks!" Wendy says before rushing to it.
After reaching the town hall, she looks inside to find 2 ladies at a desk, talking. One has white hair and tan skin, and was wearing a business suit and glasses. The other one had short black hair and her skin was peach. She had a simple black short sleeve shirt, dark blue jeans and tennis shoes. She had a strange air about her, but Wendy shrugged it off. Putting the mirror down, she made herself known.
"Excuse me, hello?" She asked, gaining the attention of the lady in the suit, and making the other one tense up.
"Oh, hello young filly. I'm Mayor Mare, what can I help you with?" She asked, walking towards Wendy with a smile, while the other lady sneaks away.
Unable to find the right words, Wendy looks to where the other lady was, only to find her gone without a trace. The Mayor took notice of Wendy's confused look, and guessed who she was looking for. After a moment, something clicks in her head, and she gives Wendy a knowing look.
"Oh! You must be Wendy, your mother told me about you. Were you checking on her? Don't worry, everything is fine, she already sorted all the paperwork for your new home. Welcome to Ponyville! I hope you enjoy your time in our lovely little town." She said, handing the blue haired girl directions and a key. "She must have been in a hurry to leave so suddenly, she's apparently a busy mare." She said with a giggle. Maybe it was a trick of the light, but her eyes seemed...off, though Wendy didn't ask.
Thanking her, Wendy made her way outside, completely forgetting about the mirror. She just stands there and absorbs the sites. She sees the ponies walking by without a care in the world. Looking at the directions, she only finds two words, instead of an address.
Look up.
That's all she saw, she even checked the back thinking there would be more, there wasn't. She shrugged and looked around for a moment. She then noticed some clouds spinning in a circle above a house. Rolling her eyes, she sprints to the house.
As she approached the house, the clouds just vanished. Shrugging, she takes a look at what will be her new home, which is a 2 story house. The roof was made of hay but looked stronger then it should, which made sense since It needed to be strong enough to stop the elements. The walls were brownish white with dark brown wood all over it, acting as both supporters and decorations. The door and windows were different shades of purple. There was pink here and there, even on the decorative heart on the roof. There was a patch of grass with yellow flowers around the house, save for the way in. There were shrubs around and plant decorations on the house.
Taking the key, she decided to go in and have a look. Entering, she sees that the place was already furnished. She preceded to head upstairs. Reaching the top, she finds another note on one of the doors.
Dear Ms. Marvell
Welcome to your new home. First of all this is merely a, how to put it, helping hand as it were. While me and my friend are covering the financial side of things, I want to be clear on two things. 1. We are only covering the base necessities. 2. And I can't stress this enough, this is a temporary arrangement. While you may currently be in the body of a minor, and have no income, that can and will change in the future. I'm not having you stunt your growth by babying you.
Best regards, U
Shrugging, Wendy takes a look inside. The walls were light blue, and the floors were black, as were the bed sheets and dresser. She closes the door and curtains, then laid on the bed. Finally she experienced a full mental breakdown, as everything finally caught up to her like a train wreck.
I wake up to the sound of Mom calling me, saying it’s time for breakfast. With a sigh, I get up and get situated, going through the motions. Take shower, get dressed, brush teeth, the norm. After that’s done, I head down stairs and see my mom, and the little gremlin.
“Yo." I say, still a little tired and a bit hungover. So I had a few too many drinks, sue me.
“Hey sweetie, when did you get home last night?” Mom says in an obviously fake calm tone, which told me all I needed to know that this isn’t going to end well. She was wearing a button up purple shirt (her and my favorite color), light blue jeans (I was never one for fashion, but I think it clashed with each other) and black flip flops. I was about to answer, but the brat beats me to the punch.
“1:30 in the morning. I was going to the bathroom, and saw her come in." He says with that annoyingly sweet tone. I was already agitated, so that was the tipping point.
“YOU PEACE OF SH-!” I started to yell, before reeling back in pain as the loud noise makes my head hurt. Mom takes notice and drops the act.
“Are you hungover?” She seethes. I was about to deny it, but then remembered that she likes to test it by slamming the cabinets shut until either I break, or she’s convinced I’m telling the truth. And she’s pretty stubborn about these things, so I nod. As she lectures me (which takes about half an hour), I notice the brats smirks, most likely imagining the 'fun' he can do. After she’s done lecturing me about something to do with drinking (I’ve honestly stopped paying attention at this point), my 'sweet little brother’, as mom calls him, decided to see how far he could push me.
“HEY ZOEY!” He screams, much to my agony.
“What?” I asked with the glare I knew always sent a shiver down his spine. He powered through and continued.
“How’s your boyfriend?” He asked in a fake curious tone, he knew about my break up with that pig.
“We aren’t dating anymore, remember? I’ve got better things to do then deal with that jerk.” I say in a forcefully calm voice. Give him an inch, and he’ll take a mile.
“That’s a shame, but HEY, at least you don’t have to deal with him anymore.” He says with a smirk. ‘Did he really have to yell 'hey' like that?'
“Can you not yell? Kinda have a migraine here.” I groan, nursing my head.
“Well maybe that'll teach you not to drink. God knows how much trouble you’ve gotten into because of it.” Mom says with a frown. It took all my will power not to smirk at that. According to the guy that was hitting on me, I’ve got a great right hook.
"Well I’m sure you’ll find someone else to enter your temple.”....I know what he’s setting up, and if I don’t leave right now, Mom is going to have to explain to the police why her hungover daughter put her younger brother in the hospital.
“You know what? Fuck you, you little gremlin! I’m leaving.” I say, going to the front door.
“And where do you think your going, missy?” Mom asked, just as upset as she was earlier.
“Out, that brat can eat a dick.” I answered, not stopping.
“Jees , sor-“ I interrupted him with a “shut up”, and go out the door.
After a bit of time, I managed to calm down and realize I forgot to eat. Not wanting to go home yet, I go to the nearest food stop to grab a bite, and some water to hopefully get rid of the hangover (at least, I think it helps,never actually tried it before).
As I was looking, I stumbled on someone arguing on the phone. I go to investigate, no, I mean eavesdrop on him. What? I’m going to call it how it is.
“-Ok fine, I screwed up, big deal. I have a spare costume, so I’ll just try again, won’t be too hard...yes...yes I know but...listen it was my first attempt, you can hardly blame an amateur for messing up.” An aggravated voice says. When I’m close enough, I could make out a tall man in a brown mailer (I think that's what it's called) suit, though I have no clue what company he’s from. He takes notice of me and sighs. Before I could apologize, he takes out a clipboard.
“Zoey Smith I presume?” He asked, I nod. I did order a costume from my favorite anime, so I guess I didn’t see the red flags. ”Yeah sorry, but there was a mixup, and your package was delivered to someone else. But I did bring another costume just to see if I could sell it. Since there was a mixup, I’ll give it to you, with your silence as payment."
Taking a look inside I’m surprised at the quality. It was a knee-high black dress coat with four symmetrically placed gold buttons on the chest area. The coat has fur trimmings around the sleeve cuffs and neck. There was a matching Black Russian-style hat with a gold butterfly clip to match the buttons attached to the fur trimming on the hat. A dark brown belt that looks nice with the outfit. To complete the look, there are dark brown, thigh-high boots. It was Juvia Lockser's outfit around the Grand Magic Games.
"All right, just let me try it on. If it doesn't fit I could probably just give it to one of my friends." Looking around, I spot a public bathroom I could change in. A few moments later, I come back out feeling a bit off, but ignore it. "Ok it fits. So how do I look?"
"You tell me." He says, pride clear in his voice, as he brought out a body sized mirror out of…I don't fuckin know.
"Where the hell-wait, when did my hair turn blue? It's supposed to be blonde." I asked, wondering if I'm somehow still drunk.
Before I could think of an explanation, everything goes black.
POV Wendy
After finally calming down, I hear it raining outside. Going over to the window, I take a peek outside. After a few moments, I spot someone laying down in my yard. Rushing outside, I take the poor thing inside and started the fire place (which I apparently have). Making a mental note to actually check the house out later, I turn toward my new guest, who seems to have woken up.
"......"
"......"
"Morning." I decided to break the awkward silence.
"Wendy!?!" She asked, before jumping and putting a hand on her throat.
"Sup Juvia, yeah the voice thing takes a bit to get used to. At least that's what I've been telling myself. Why don't we get to know each other, and figure out where to go from there." You know, I probably should have handled that better. When I think about, her reaction was justified.
"Just call me John. Real name can't really be spelled with your universe's alphabet as you can see."
POV John....I guess
I was playing on a computer I had recently 'liberated' from a prick when he wasn't looking. Asshole thought it was funny mine got ruined when he spilled his drink all over it by accident. Glad I did, this thing is MUCH better than the one I had. Anyway, after a few moments I get a call from my best buddy.
"Sup dude, how's it going? We should hang out sometime." I say with as much enthusiasm as possible.
"No way in hell man, we only got out of trouble last time because the owner of that shop's son liked you for some reason. Do you comprehend how lucky we got?" He said in an exasperated tone. While pretty rude, he does have a point.
"What can I say, kids love me, besides my drink was spiked, apparently the hostess saw me and gave me the drink I spiked. And hey I know you had a good time. You can't deny it, right?"
"Fine whatever just don't pull anything this time.....at least not when it's possible I'll get in trouble, if it's just yourself or someone who isn't me, have at it. So you fix your screw up yet?" My eye twitches as I contemplate ways to wipe that smirk I know he has off his face, but decide not to because that would mean he wins.
"Yes don't worry." I sigh
"Good, glad you remembered to seal her magic, especially considering who she was displace as. That could've ended horribly." With relief dripping from his voice. I freeze as I realized I forgot to do that exact thing.
"Yep good thing, though, what do you mean by that?" I ask hoping he buys it, which he does.
"Look up her character, you'll see what I'm talking about. Anyway gotta go, bye." He hangs up
I do as he suggested and what I find is worrying. 'I'm sure it will be fine, I mean I just displace them. How much trouble can two newbies cause?
POV Wendy
I dodged another attack, our talk didn't go well but I did learn some things. One: she's the bad tempered girl that guy was talking about. Two: While she didn't have many things to miss in our home world, she's really attached to her friends back home. Three and this was currently in my opinion, the most important part all things considered: She thought I was in league with the guy who sent her here. My Calm attitude while explaining didn't help my case....no scratch that, the most important detail was that my magic is still sealed while her's isn't.
Talking proved useless, and I couldn't run because there was nowhere to run save for outside. Unfortunately it's still raining thanks to her, and I knew she'd get a power boost while in the rain. My only option was to outsmart her, my backpack is still down here thanks to my forgetfulness. Meaning the book and ASC (air shatter canon) is in reach, and I have a plan. I just needed to get to them.
"Water Slicer!" Zoey yells as a single wave of multiple blades that resemble scythes rush toward me. I barely dodge in time as the blades cut through the wall. Sprinting as quickly and as quietly as possible I managed to hide in the dark, the fireplace being extinguished because of her first attack. She tried to simply push me into the fire with a burst of water, which I easily dodged. With my sharper senses I managed to finally navigate the dark without drawing her attention much to her agitation.
"You can't hide forever, especially in this house!" She says, and she's right. Thankfully I reached my backpack, problem was if I opened it the sound of the zipper would tell her where I am. Guess I'll have to Solid Snake my way upstairs, she's too angry to think straight so maybe I could distract her somehow. After about 2 minutes of sneaking and searching I find a piece of the long since destroyed table. Positioning Myself to have a clear shot at the stairs, I wait until she's facing the right way. Then I chuck the thing behind her and it hit the other side of the house catching her attention. While she's distracted I rush up the stairs as quickly and quietly as possible, thankful that they didn't creak.
Once I reach my room i quietly go in, taking a moment to see if she heard me. Hearing her curse up a storm downstairs and hearing words I didn't know were curses, I open the backpack to discover some changes. The book was now sky blue, the words had changed to 'Wind Magic' and the chapters for medical care had vanished. In their place two new chapters written in a language I didn't know, In fact it kinda hurts to read them. Checking the backpack I saw another book, it was red with a white plus sign on it. Ignoring the medical book, I put everything except the blue book up and read.
The process is actually pretty simple on account that the original Wendy used Magic often, so the body already knew how to access and use it. The only real problem I'll have is control and mental fortitude, basically I'm gonna have to straighten my mind through meditation or other mental exercises. I'll also have to train my body on account of Dragon Slayer magic being pretty physical based. Assuming my body would guide me through the process, I closed my eyes and relaxed. After a few moments I could feel my core, as the book called it, stir and 'stretch' like someone who had been asleep for a while. My 'faucet' began to open but at a slow pace, deciding the I could take the time to learn some spells I read chapter 1 "Sky DragonSlayer magic". Though I made a note to at least learn flying from chapter 2 so I could have better mobility, plus I've always wanted to fly.
3rd POV
Zoey was getting tired of their game of hide and seek and she made it known. Kicking a chair she muttered a curse, and walked around until she heard a faint noise at the edge of her hearing, unfortunately the rain made it hard to pinpoint. Wendy was practicing flying, she had made good progress but clearly had a ways to go before she could brag about it. When Wendy felt confident enough she snuck back down to where Zoey was and waited for the perfect moment or at least planed to until Zoey decided to egg her on.
"So not only do you look like a little girl, your as cowardly as one too. I bet your just a stupid widdle baby that couldn't ev-." She started to taunt before Wendy shut her up. Talking down to her is a pretty big trigger.
"Sky Dragon's Roar!" Wendy shouted as she blows a hurricane-like blast at Zoey. Having zero time to react, the attack hits and sends Zoey flying through the wall and landing hard outside. Berating her self for making such a stupid mistake, Wendy chases after her. With a growl the water wizard gets up and glares angrily at Wendy and vice versa. Wanting to end this as quickly as possible before Zoey becomes a problem, she gathers wind magic in her fists and rushed to her.
'I finally made that 'brat' come out, if she's working with my kidnapper then she's probably older than she looks. Oh she's rushing me head on? Fine by me.' Zoey think with a smirk, covering her fist in water and condensing it she throws a Water punch to counter Wendy. 'I have two advantages: one, I know everything about Juvia and Wendy as I'm a big fan of Fairy Tail and two, the kid knows barely anything about Juvia. She probably has Wendy's memories like I have Juvia's but if she does, why isn't she using Dragon Force to try to beat me quickly?' I think in confusion
'DAMIT WHY ARE ALL OF MY MEMORIES OF WENDY IN JAPANESE!?!' Wendy thinks aggravated, she had no idea how someone could have memories in a language you don't understand.
'Probably thinks that she doesn't need it, why that arrogant little-no, not important right now. I can ask her later once I beat her.' Zoey thinks, even more motivated to win. Their fists meet and Zoey is slightly pushed back. 'Maybe ticking her off was a bad call, in for a penny in for a pound I guess.' They go on like that for a bit before They realize that their fighting styles are different their my normal ones and Wendy's attacks are losing power, after Wendy realized it she put a lot of distance between the two of them and landed on the roof.
"You know, you're quite the fighter. But there's something I'd like to ask you." She states, giving her an intrigued look. Zoey decided giving a response wouldn't hurt.
"Water Lock!" She yells, what? I didn't say it would be a response she would like.
Her eyes go wide as she takes a deep breath before water completely covered her, and out comes another roar, shattering the spell. 'Guess I can't be surprised that I'm not as good as the original...wait IT'S COMING RIGHT FOR ME!' This time She dodged out of the way, last time really hurt so she'd rather not get hit by it again.
"Yeah should have seen that coming, worth a shot....bitch." She mutters the last part but Zoey still heard it. She then shot towards the woman like a bullet and hits her square in the face but not before she could spam Water Slicer, getting a lot of hits in but they don't slow her in the slightest.
POV Wendy
'Ok you know what? Screw this, my magic is refilling too slow right now and she actually knows what she's doing. I'm ending this now.' I take a moment to take out the Air Shatter Canon. I take another moment to wonder how the hell I did that. This dress has no pockets and I left all my stuff in the living room so even by cartoon logic I shouldn't have it. It would make some sense if I put it in some sorta hammer space but I know I didn't nor did I reach behind myself which seems to be the trigger all the time for that.
I then rush at her at top speed surprising her, when I reached her I latched on to her and had us go as far from any buildings as possible. When we were far enough I stopped us and opened the ASC with both of us in the blast radius then booked it before it completely went off. Her screams of rage were soon replaced with screams of pure terror as a giant tornado spawned from where I left. After a few moments it stops and Zoey falls to the ground but I managed to catch her before she could become a stain on the ground, she's slipping in and out of consciousness but I knew that since anime (specifically fairy tail) and cartoon (specifically MLP:FIM) logic now applied to us she would be fine. After I land us on the ground I could hear her mumbling something.
"Huh?" I ask now looking at her.
"*Mumble*"
"What? I can't understand you." Kinda worried and slightly curious.
"W**** B***"
"Can you please speak more clearly? I can't exactly make out what you're saying." I stated, more annoyed then curious now. She smirks for some reason.
"I said Water Beam!" She places both of her hands together and jets a high-pressured beam of water point blank in my face. Sending me flying a several feet away, when I get back up I give her an "Are you serious" look. She chuckles softly but doesn't get up. I walk to her in as least threatening as possible before offering a hand to help her up, to my surprise she takes it and gets up. Before I could say a word she beats me to it.
"Before anything else, sorry about the cheap shot. Now why did you and that man bring me here and can you take me back?" She looks at me expectingly, I just sigh.
"If we were working together, do you seriously think I would have had to run away when you attacked me? If my 'partner' gave you Juvia's powers, you'd think I would have been prepared to handle you at the start. Instead I had to sneak around until I managed to learn the three spells I used against you." I state more then a little tired from the fight.
"Wait you only know three? What about all of Wendy's other spells and abilities like Enchantments or Dragon Force? I mean you should have your character's memories like me." She asked in bewilderment, I shake my head.
"Yes I only know three and as for her memories, their all in Japanese. I'm assuming you know something about that since I took your place according to OUR kidnaper." I say put as much emphasis on the word "our" as possible.
"If that's true then that makes sense, I grew up in Japan until I was 16 then I moved to America, so it's easier for me to process then English. The first year was pretty difficult since your language is so complicated and my Schoolmates at the time were jerks. Sorry I attacked you like that, I promise I'm pretty nice to hang out with if you get to know me. I'd like to have a chat with whoever sent us here."
"Ok sure." Said the man in question....I think, pretty sure he wasn't purple when we met. He had a soda, popcorn, an umbrella and a grin on his face. "Call me John"
POV John
'Man if looks could kill, I'd beat Kenny easily with the look Zoey was and still is giving me. Kinda funny when you think about it.' After finishing the explanation about their situation I judged their reactions. Wendy just looked annoyed, most likely already had her episode. Zoey looked like her counterpart when some 'rival' was spending time with Grey. Though she looked guilty when I said that one: Wendy wasn't in league with me and two: she had attacked her with no proof that she even was. It probably didn't help that she wasn't holding it against her, when asked why she just stated it be better to make friends then enemies since they're going to be stuck here and she'd have gotten a different reaction back home. Plus it's better that she's not pretending to be fine and bottling it up, that reminds me.
"Wendy First of all, the whole free falling thing was an accident. Well not really accident since that wasn't my fault. That's just where you popped in this reality, you two are going to have to get used to that." I clarified.
"Why?" The both asked
"Anyway I'd like to see that book, there was info in there that your not supposed to see." I ignore their question and get to the point.
"Oh, and what info would that be?" Zoey asked me, I guess she's not feeling helpful at the moment.
"Look I'll explain later, right now I need that book." When I got here they were already fighting so I legitimately need them to cooperate. Zoey was about to go on another round of yelling, but Wendy decided to take control of the conversation.
"I take it that whatever is in it must be really important if someone like you is putting a lot of interest in it. How about a compromise?" I raised a brow but motioned for her to continue. "Well since we can't go home I was thinking you could do some things for us." 'I mean, considering our power difference, I could just force them. But, why not humor her. She seems smart enough to recognize their positions so I doubt it will be much.'
"Alright shoot" I say, already knowing what they would 'demand'.
"One: make it to where the rain is optional and not simply a curse." 'Easy and predictable, though I don't want her using it recklessly.'
"Two: make me the same age I was before coming here." 'Even more predictable and easy, seemed to be in the early 20s.'
"And finally for me, three: translate all the memories I have from Wendy into English." 'Oh yeah forgot about that, wish I could've seen the look on her face. Wait finally? Did she forget about her gender?'
"Ok sure. Was going to do the first one anyway but it'll still happen on its own if she's upset to an extreme. If she wants to use it of her own will, she'll need to use her magic. And you Zoey?" 'Here we go'
"Does this place have alcohol?" I nod. "Ok.....can you fix the damage we caused to her-" "our" Wendy cut in. "-our house and what not?" She finished, looking surprised at her new housemate. 'Wendy's only been here for for around 2 hours and Zoey has only been here for 10 minutes. How do they already have their own home?' I question because I sure as hell had nothing to do with it.
"Sure, with how weak you both currently are its not really that much. By weak I mean you both have no idea how to property use your magic." My hand glowed and the few broken furniture and single wall started to repair itself. It doesn't stop raining because Of her current mood but her problem with rain was somewhat gone. The loli wasn't a loli anymore (now 20) and I fixed the translation for her memories. "Ok now where is the book?"
"In the house in the living room, I dropped it when I attacked Zoey." I just stare at her with a blank expression before rolling my eyes, then quickly get the book. A few seconds later I return with the item in my hand. "Can I ask you a question?" I nod. "Did you send anyone else here?"
"Good question. Anyway good luck with your new lives. Oh and here's another book but I wouldn't recommend reading it until you've got the Dragon slayer magic down pat. Not that you'll be able to open it until then anyway." I take my leave, handing Wendy the book and Zoey a slip of paper with instructions about the whole rain thing. Truthfully, I genuinely don't know if there are others here. If I accidentally sent one person here, then it's possible there are others. I can't think of any though because I only had the two outfits.
Time Skip
Things settled down after that meeting. In the week before the show started Zoey and Wendy got to know each other. They helped each other get used to their new bodies and magic, though Wendy struggled with her body and Zoey felt like a lot of her magic was locked. They weren't masters but they had the basics down. They surprisingly made good friends, despite having really different personalities. The atmosphere in Ponyville had changed from when Wendy arrived a little after Pinkie found them and had a 'Welcome to Ponyville' party. Like there was a fog in their minds that was lifted. They notice that they looked different then them. They didn't have the same ears or any sort of tail. They weren't as bulky as adult earth ponies are. The didn't have wings or a horn but could use magic and their faces were flat.
The duo were worried that their fight would have earned the locals' ire and fear but none of them remembered anything, not even the sudden rain or tornado. So all they had to worry about was the natural Xenophobia they had. There were some incidents that confused them, Zoey more so as she's never seen the show. They notice that both cartoon and anime logic applies to this world. Some Pegasus stallion was running like his life depended on it while an earth pony mare was chasing him with a frying pan and yelling for the poor guy to stop running so she could hit him. They later found out the lady misunderstood whatever the guy did and they made her apologize before the two made up and went there separate ways.
After that they came across two friends that were having a random musical number about some problem they were having. It was about not knowing what to get the other for their, and I quote 'Friendshipiversary'. After commenting about how both the name and problem was stupid much to their anger, Zoey eloquently told them "shut up, your friend would like anything you got them as long as it came from the heart if they really care about you". They seemed to forget her rude comment and thanked her for her help much to her confusion. Solving problems, be it because of anime logic or cartoon logic, was how they spent most of their down time. Thankfully common sense seemed to exist here too, with how much work they did around Ponyville the ponies seemed to have warmed up to them for the most part.
They took jobs here and there then practiced their abilities in some of their free time. Zoey figured out how to turn her body into water (allowing her to fly) and learned water-make sword and water-make arrow. Wendy learned Vernier (which increases the target's speed), Deus Eques (which increases the target's physical capabilities) and the Sky dragon Slayer healing spell (doesn't restore health but cures ailments). Granted their bodies remember doing those spells so Wendy has made no progress with the ones her body isn't use to and Zoey can't make that much progress thanks to whatever is locking most of her power.
Finally the day had come, the start of season 1 episode 1. Wendy was excited to see the mane 6 live in action and meet Twilight and Spike. She had made it top priority to befriend the rest of the gang and while her and especially Zoey's relationship with Rainbow Dash was shaky, she had succeeded. So all that was left was the meeting with a prodigy and her assistant.
It's a beautiful day outside, birds are singing, flowers are blooming. On days like these, ponies like me, can't help but go down memory lane. My name is Mike and if you haven't figured it out yet, I like references as long as there relevant to what's going on. I'm a pretty average looking Pegasus, at least I think so. My skin is light brown, my eyes are hazel and my mane and tail are black. I used to be human until a fateful day. I was just on my computer goofing around when the power goes out, and it wasn't normal ether. All the light bulbs in my house literally exploded, my curiosity turned into panic as the 'earthquake' starts. When I looked outside I noticed that my house is the only one being affected by it. As if some higher being wanted to screw with me, what I now know was a portal, opened up. It sucked me and some of my possessions, including my laptop, in it before closing.
After experiencing what I can only describe as a drug trip, I land on hard floor feeling different. For one I was lighter, kinda hard to miss. I also had a tail, easier to miss but not too much. And 'shockingly' my two new appendages on my lower back were the most eye catching out of everything, well that and I was 5 again. My clothes were shredded almost completely save for a few saving graces, so I was as decent as someone wearing a loincloth. Hearing a woman laughing hysterically I turn to the source to find three people. One was sickly pale, in fact she was the actual color white. Her hair was blue, green, purplish, pink, and so was her tail. Her eyes were darkish pink, and had absurdly large wings and a horn. She had a simple yellow dress with orange trimmings, a crown, and a necklace around her neck. She looked like she was a mixed of angry, sad, and concerned.
The one laughing and the one next to her were wearing purple cloaks and white masks. The one not laughing was shaking and her hands were balled, apparently the age thing was a sore spot for her. Honestly save for the laughing, they were quite intimidating. The white one must have noticed because she dismissed them, once they were gone she explained what happened. Apparently her student had run away into some kind of mirror portal and she was trying to get her back. She couldn't go after her because it only stays open for three days and if she didn't make it back in time Equestra would be doomed. She controls the sun and moon, so if she was trapped in another world, well I'm sure you can figure out the consequences. Plus she's the princess so she couldn't disappear for to long and the mirror was a national secret.
So she attempted a summoning spell using the mirror with the help of those cloaked people, but she over shot it getting me instead. Unfortunately she had no idea how to send me back so I was pretty much stuck. Luckily I was allowed to stay at the castle, in fact the two cloaked people specifically requested that I do. One of them said their names were Jenny (the one who was laughing) and Sam. After that meeting we got to know each other. I was still kinda afraid of them even to this day which I could tell saddened them, but I feel it's justified. One noble said something racist to them and they released so much magic pressure that everyone around them was knocked unconscious, myself included. Another time their light sparring caused on earthquake which affected me the most. And those weren't the only instances, but for some reason they were very adamant about befriending me. They've made a lot of progress, they're not actually bad when you get to know them.
I'll admit I was shocked when they offered to train me to be a better flyer but eagerly excepted. Unfortunately I didn't win the young flyers but I did come close, I even made friends with somepony named Rainbow Dash and a griffin named Gilda though we didn't always hang out. I also learned how to fight from the guard, specifically Sam's division. It was difficult at first but I got the hang of it. Eventually I met the princess's new prodigy Twilight and her little brother Spike, their older brother was a rookie for the guard. His name was Shining Armor, and for some reason Sam and Jenny had great interest in him and personally oversaw his training. Because of this we spent a lot of time together training and getting to know each other. Dude was head over heels for some foulsitter but didn't have the guts to confess, when Jenny found out she giggled psychopathically and ran off. Turned out that she had a plan to hook them up but needed a pawn wingstallion for her plan so she picked me, what followed after were the single most confusing and ridiculous events of my life so far. After everything was said and done, after both Sam and I had apologized for Jenny's craziness, they became a couple.
The years go by and now I'm 20, it was an insane road up till now. I have to go to a town called Ponyville with Twi and spike. While they have to oversee celebration preparations, I had two oversee two 'strange creatures' that had suddenly popped up there. After I complete all my business in Canterlot, I go to Twi's library tower (because of course she has something like that) then knocked on her door and waited for an answer.
Exposition Ends
3rd POV
The door opens to show Spike, same purple scales and same green spikes. They had become friends over the years surprisingly enough. Mike was wearing a black shirt and blue jacket, he also had blue jeans and white shoes.
"Hey man, where's your sister? There's something important I need to tell her." Mike said. He shrugs.
"I don't know, you know her, she rushed out to do her normal thing and left me to clean her mess. Come on in, there's some soda in the mini fridge if you want." The pegasus smiled, it took a lot of convincing for Twilight to let drinks in the library but Mike made a good enough point.
Flashback
"Look it would be a nice idea, I mean having a drink while reading a good book sounds great if you ask me. It makes a lot of sense to me." Mike argues.
"Ha, I can't believe what I'm hearing. In what world does it make sense to have drinks in a library?" She demanded, appalled he would even say something like that.
"It makes more sense then a grown A-" (there is a child present, Twilight would literally kill him if he actually cursed in front of him) "-magic user having a baby dragon clean a ,God knows how many stories, tower by himself." He says, now frustrated by her refusal.
"He's a baby DRAGON, it's not that dangerous." She defends.
"So explain that cavity that was knocked out of his mouth when he fell, and that sucker wasn't loose ether so don't even try that."
"A cavity means the tooth is damaged, i.e weakened so it makes sense it would be knocked out."
"Is that what Colgat said or are you assuming? Because I know you don't have any dental books."
"I'm making an educated guess based on the facts presented to me and what I've learned about physics and the breaking point of varies weakened objects with similar properties to a tooth."
".........So your assuming."
"Sweet Celestia, you two sure do argue like an old married couple." Spike comments, he breaks into a cold sweat as the other two glare at him. "Sorry sorry please continue." He chuckles nervously.
"Look you have a fire breathing dragon taking care of the books and you make a mess anyway. Are you telling me there isn't a spell to protect the books from liquids and/or sticky substances? Plus save for the few times outside of school that you actually leave, you spend all your time here anyway. Wouldn't having drinks nearby be beneficial? I mean save for the books you borrow, all of them should be covered." She thinks it over for a moment then eventually concedes.
"Fine but if anything happens to any of these books because of this, I'm gonna fucking kill you." She leans close to him so Spike doesn't hear her cursing, Mike laughs. "Why are you laughing? I'm not joking."
Flashback Ends
While he was slightly intimidated, he did have a contingency plan if he ever needed to fight a Unicorn. After a while the Unicorn in question comes barging in.
"Spike? SPIKE!? I need you to-oh hey Mike, what are you doing here?" She looks at him confused.
"Needed to talk with you about something important but I'll wait until your finished with whatever you were doing first." She gives an appreciative look before going back to her original activity. A few moments later after sending her warning to the princess and getting the response, she walks to the Pegasus expectingly. Having his full attention now he took a look at her.
She was wearing a blue buttoned up short sleeve shirt with a dark pink bow tie. She had a striped purple skirt with a starburst surrounded by little white stars. Purple socks with dark pink cuffs, they had some diamond design on them. She had on boot like black shoes with purple trim, there were starbursts on them too. But the most prominent feature about her was the fact that she was missing something. Normally unicorns would have a horn but recently that was not the case. Some unicorns are born without a horn, though it's extremely rare. A name for this type of pony has not been made yet for two reasons. One: their so rare they could hardly be considered a separate race, two: this doesn't exclusively happen to unicorns but I degrees. She could still use magic with her hands, and she was a force to be reckoned with.
"Oh your done? Good! We need to get packed, apparently we have business in a town called Ponyville." He says.
"I'm aware, I just got a letter detailing our jobs. Why didn't you tell me from the moment I got in?" She demanded.
"Not to be rude or anything but, trying to get you to pay attention to something when you're in the middle of something you feel is important is like banging your head repeatedly in a wall and expecting that to heal it." He stated, she imitates a fish before shooting a glare but not disagreeing with him.
"Well where is your stuff?" She asked
"Already taken care of, just came by to tell you and give you a hand. Since we're taking the same ride and going the same place." He states, she sighs and smiles before going up stairs to make a checklist.
POV Mike
'I don't understand why I need to ride this slow thing. In the time it's taking to get there I could have laped between the village and that snob infested city.' He was not one to take rides, not ever since achieving his dream of flying. He thought he knew what freedom meant before coming to this world but he was proven immeasurably wrong. In his mind nothing beat flying, well maybe some things but he'd never admit it. Looking at his companions he noticed Twilight is still fussing about the princess and some prophesy. He was about to share some 'words of wisdom' with her before Spike said that they finally reached their destination.
"Come on just give it a chance, try talking to that pony." Spike suggested, pointing (rude) at the pony in question. The pink mare had on a light blue opened jacket and underneath a white shirt with 3 balloons on it. Had a matching light blue skirt with balloons on it too. And light blue shoes with white trimming and pink socks.
"Um...h-hello" Twi starts.
"Gasp!!!!" What's-her-face jumps in the air while doing that impressively long gasp before shooting away...while she was in the air, even though she's an earth pony. Before I can question my sanity I hear something heading for us.
3rd POV
Wendy had been anxiously waiting for this day, she was eager to meet Twilight and Spike. Spike because he was her favorite character from the show, and Twilight because once the whole "friends aren't important" BS was over she would be an awesome friend. She was surprised to see this new guy, he certainly wasn't in the show. Mike was just as shocked, he "knew" exactly who she was. 'Oh my god, she's even cuter in person!' He thought.
"Hello there, nice to meet you. I'm Mike, these are my friends~" he motions for them to finish his sentence.
"My name is Twilight Sparkle" she says with a smile.
"Hi I'm Spike! And you are?" He asked.
"Call me Wendy, welcome to Ponyville." She then pretends to be checking out the Pegasus much to his embarrassment, when in reality she's trying to figure him out. She could hear metal clinking in his jacket thanks to her sharper hearing, she made a note to be careful with him. On the other hand Mike was no fool, noticing her body language change to a more cautious position made him suspicious. But having no reason to be hostile, he pushed that to the back of his mind for the moment.
She was wearing a red and white striped short sleeved shirt, black shorts and red sandals. Her hair was cut short in a boyish kinda way, she was almost as tall as Twilight if a little shorter. It didn't take him long to figure out that she was one of the "strange creatures" he was sent to check.
"Well anyway we have a schedule to keep so if you don't mind, I'd like to move to the first destination on our list." Twilight said already walking away, much to Wendy's dismay. Noticing this, Spike try's to lift her spirits.
"Hey Wendy was it? Why don't you tag along? Having a guide would help us get around faster." He suggests.
"There's directions on this list, I don't think we'll need help" Twilight said.
"Do you really want to stop and argue, and risk going behind schedule?" Mike asks.
"Fine but she better not slow us down." She concedes. Wendy actually laughed at that.
"Sweetheart with all due respect, I could lap you even with your magic and without my knowledge of the area." She claims.
"My magic? But I don't have a horn, how did you know I could use magic?" She asks, now suspicious.
'Wait she doesn't have a horn!? Quick, think of something' Wendy thinks. "Earth ponies can use their magic to increase their physical prowess, it's as basic of a skill as telekinesis is for unicorns. How could you possibly not know something that common?" She asked. Twilight then gains an embarrassed look. Deciding to spare her the embarrassment, Mike steps in much to her relief.
"That's not important, what is important is doing the assignment the Princess and my teachers assigned us. Could we please get moving? We got a lot to cover."
"Sure, where to first?" Wendy asked, mentally berating herself for that screw up. 'I gotta be more careful, God knows how they'll react if I have to tell them about the show. Should try to learn more about this Mike guy. Wait....isn't that a human name?' She thinks, now curious about him more then before.
"What?" I asked, putting on my backpack. I had a project I've been working on and I don't want the coming bookworm sticking her nose in it.
"I'm heading out, going to practice my flying and acrobatics until Twilight and Spike get here." He stated. While skittles was suspicious of both of us, she respected Wendy's love of flying and offered to help him get better. Something about knowing how Wendy felt, apparently skittles was a type of Pegasus that lives for speed. All in all I could see why Wendy liked to hangout with her, she'd be ok in my book if not for one thing. Her damn obsession of spying and getting in other people's business, I could understand if it was because of people who have so little of a life that they ganged up on your friend and got mad when you butted in. Trash like that shouldn't be allowed to go into public, but we've both been pretty good...when I'm sober but can you blame me?
According to my roommate, she's quick to accuse people of being spys. I don't want her getting the wrong idea and wrecking everything. Thankfully she not that book smart so my plan should work. Grabbing my 'official document' I head out to the Golden Oaks Library. With my water body spell I reached there in no time at all, and surprise surprise, it was unlocked. Stepping inside I took out a check list, it was organized to show the more important tasks on the top and less important tasks on the bottom. Task one: make sure nobody ever learns that I made a check list, obviously the most important one. Task two: get my project and all relevant notes, not as important as one but still pretty important. And finally task three: take any and all books that interest me, not like she'll ever know! Jumping into gear I quickly but carefully finish task two and take my time with task three. I'm thankful for the enchantment on my backpack, I could take everything in this library as long as it fits in the opening but I didn't need that many things. I then exit the library after everything was done.
"And just what were you doing in there?" A certain Pegasus asked.
"Oh my god you're actually awake, hell must've froze over. So what do you want to talk about? Let me guess, stallion troubles?" She sputters for a few moments before shaking it off and glares at me.
"You know exactly why I'm here! I'll admit, Wendy's pretty awesome, not as awesome as me of course but still pretty awesome." I'm not sure why, but my eyebrow twitched hearing her say that. "But that doesn't mean you two aren't up to something, and I'm going to find out what it is. So what were you doing in there?" She asked impatient as always.
"What, can't a girl just tidy up a library in the goodness of her heart without being interrogated like some criminal?" I asked. She gave me a disbelieving look.
"Really? So explain those other times I saw you go in there. You don't exactly scream "upstanding citizen" to anyone, let alone me." She says. Crossing her arms.
"Well if you must know, I was given a job to keep it clean for the time being. Here, I even have the document to prove it." I say, handing the paper to her. In truth, it was just a bunch of random big words from a dictionary that I doubt she knows. She's not an "egghead" after all, so I'm in the clear.
"Uhh...what does all this mean?" She asked, confused as hell. I give her an "are you serious" look, bingo.
"You're joking right? This is all basic stuff, I mean even I understand it. It's pretty uncool if you're being serious right now." I give her a disappointed look, her eyes widen.
"O-Obviously I'm joking! I mean how could someone as awesome as me not know something as simple as this?"....God she's a terrible liar, then again by cartoon and anime standards it's pretty good. Either way it works in my favor, now to end this conversation before she catches on.
"Well if you'll excuse me, I've got other things I need to get done. And so do you, aren't you in charge of the weather?" I asked, She scoffs.
"I can handle that in ten seconds flat." She brags and she's right, I've seen her practice with Wendy so I know she can. 'She'd be fast friends with Alex...now's not the time to think about that.'
"True but what are the chances you'll be too late just because you decided to stick with me? Plus Wendy is practicing her flying, maybe you'd like to join her?" She thinks about it then nods.
"Alright, but I've got my eye on you!" She says, I nod.
"Makes sense, I am quite the eye candy." I wink at her.
"THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEANT AND YOU KNOW IT!" She shouts before blasting off. I chuckle before heading to the Everfree forest.
I reach the 'unnatural' forest, still can't believe their reason for being scared of this place. Don't get me wrong, it's incredibly dangerous. But being scared of it because the plants grow, the clouds move and the animals take care of themselves all on their own? It's probably because me and Wendy came from a world that works like that, but it's just ridiculous to me. I was here to get ingredients for medical treatments and different types of potions, Wendy never bothered to check his entire bag so it wasn't until I found a book on potion making in it that we started preparations. I told him about my project, apparently in pony legends a familiar trident was used in a war long ago. Of course neither of us are stupid enough to go for it as we are now. So until we have a good enough handle on our powers, we'll just keep preparing for the journey ahead.
Right now I'm looking for Corkbulb Root and Marshmerrow for a health potion. Also Hackle-Lo Leaf and Kwama Cuttle for Water Breathing, I can breathe underwater but Wendy can't and his healing spell only takes care of poisoning and stamina. 'The more I think about it, these ingredients actually sound familiar.' I muse to myself.
The forest itself was kinda creepy I guess, though it’s not terrifying. The creatures on the other hand were kinda interesting, Wendy tried finding a book about the forest but couldn’t much to her dismay. First there were the cockatrice, some of them tried to turn me to stone. Wendy told me about them, as long as you don’t look into their eyes they can’t do crap. After them there were the animals, most of them ran when I approached them. I found a Cragadile in a lake I was exploring, I used water body to try and quickly search the water for any of the 4 plants. It was an odd experience to say the least, I’m pretty sure I know how slimes feel now.
Then the forest started getting thicker and more annoying. First there was the torso high plants that got in my way, but I did get to practice water-make sword on them so it wasn’t all bad. Then the vines, not as annoying but still annoying. I used water-make arrow on them for practicing precision. “I’m definitely not making this an often activity. What’s that smell? It smells like something died, I’m gonna be sick!”
After searching around for about 30 minutes, I've managed to find a fairly decent amount of all four of them. A pack timberwolves, as Wendy called them, tried to have me for a meal. Wanting to be a cheeky bitch, I simply used water body until they gave up. I could have sworn one of them actually call me a bitch, but chalked it up to my brain just trying to entertain me and succeeding too! "Well that should do for now, off to Sweet Apple....where's my bag? I was just wearing it, where the hell is it!?" I'm getting really angry as I realized the gravity of my situation. 'Not only did that bag have all the ingredients I spent 30 minutes finding, it also had the week's worth of all the work I've done in it. The money, the books, my project, Wendy's A.S.C,.....Wendy.'
"Oh shit...ohshitohshitohshit! He's gonna kill me when he finds out about this, I was borrowing so many of his things. Not to mention I told him I wouldn't come here alone to make sure this very thing didn't happen. Calm down girl, just retrace your steps. Ok-oook. I had found the last Hackle-Lo Leaf I needed, then the bushes rustled. Out comes a pact of 5 Timberwolves, I casted water body the same way I've been doing it. They attacked and I just stood there mocking them, I feel an odd ripple as one shoots behind me and missing me completely. Wait now that I think about it." 'Didn't the one who I thought I heard call me a bitch, have something in it's mouth.....?' My entire body freezes, then I shake in unholy rage. "you!"
Utilizing water body's flying perk and the fact that I won’t have to worry about turning, I shoot in the direction I say them go. In all the times I've practiced this spell, I've always done it with only my clothes on. Since I hadn't practiced with my backpack on, it must have remained solid when they attacked. "Guess it wanted to give a 'fuck you' before bailing, guess I can relate to that feeling. Doesn't mean I'm going to lighten up on them, I'm going to wreck them. Starting with that thief, COME OUT COME OUT WHEREVER YOU ARE!" It wasn't long before I started catching up to them. When they noticed me they did the second cruelest thing they could have done to my target, they scattered in an attempt to shake me. It became obvious to them who I was after, the one who still had my bag in it's mouth. Then by some sort of divine intervention, it managed to have a thought smart enough for save itself. Without warning it through my bag to me and sprinted as fast as it could, hoping I would give up the chase. Luckily for it I did, but not before glaring at it. Looking it over I noticed that there were no damages, much to my relief. As long as there were no tears, nothing on the inside would be damaged. "Gotta love enchantments, now to bail before something else happens."
3rd POV Present
As they were walking towards our their stop, Mike and Wendy decided to strike a conversation. 'I guess I can't be to upset with him, I mean he is going to spend a lot of time with her and someone named Zoey so he might as well get to know them. Hope he can handle his job correctly, knuckle head almost forgot his luggage. Not that it really affects me or anything, his mentors and by proxy the Princess are counting on him to do his assignment properly. I'm not letting him disappoint them just because he lost his stuff, I'm not going to be here long so I got to make sure he's prepared.' Twilight thought, slightly annoyed with him.
When they arrived Twilight notices a woman shouting and running towards a tree, when she reached it she spun around, put her hands on the ground and thrusts her feet at the base of said tree. It shook for a moment then a bunch of Apples fell and landed in a bucket, along with a weird flower star thingy and an oval shaped necklace with a strange eye in the center where the hole is. For some reason they gained both Mike and Wendy's attention.
Pausing her conversation with Mike, Wendy goes over to the bucket. As She got closer she figures out that the star looks exactly like that charm from Kingdom Hearts, picking it up she hears a girl's voice in her head. “This is my heart, my strength, full of color, full of life. If I am who you seek, speak 'light,' and I shall come. However, if your intent is evil... ash to ash, dust to dust, fade to black.”
The necklace looks like it’s straight out of the Legend of Zelda, specifically those things that play songs as a game mechanic. When she picked it up, she hears Zelda’s Lullaby.
"Huh.....so this is how Natsu felt when Hibiki Lates used telepathy on him. Should probably wait until Zoey is with me before I test these out." She says, slightly on edge. She notices Mike deep in thought. 'What's up with him? Could he be....no, no way he could be in the same boat as us...right? If he is, why isn't he a Fairy Tail character?' She ponders. 'I know I've seen those things before, well at least the star. The necklace is familiar but not as much as the other object.' He thinks, before noticing Wendy giving him a look.
"What's y'all got there?" AJ asked.
"Oh these? Just something from games back home, nothing you need to worry about right now." Wendy says, trying to act casual.
"Right now?" AJ asked giving her a look.
"I'd rather hear Zoey's thoughts before I do anything, but I don't think it's bad. You mind if I keep it?"
"I don't mind sugar cube, and Zoey got here earlier when she heard what we're doing. So why are y'all here anyway?" She asked.
"We're here for the banquet preparations" Spike answered.
"Well why didn't you say so?" She asked. She then rang the triangle instrument thingy while shouting "Soups on". Suddenly a bunch of ponies and Zoey came running, Zoey running the same way people do in anime when they run intensely. Wendy flys up above to avoid the stampede and leave the others to deal with it like the "good" guide She is. Nothing of note happens until Twilight mentions leaving. After foolishly trying to resist AppleBloom's puppy dog eyes, she inevitably agrees to stay for a bit.
'I don't get why Wendy is interested in this chick, she's kind of a bitch. I may be a bitch too but at least I try to be entertaining, her way is pretty boring and annoying.' Zoey thinks, more than a little frustrated. Earlier She was trying to start a conversation with Twilight and she flat out brushed her off. When She asked Wendy, she said Twilight doesn't interact with other people until after Nightmare Moon was taken care of. They were talking in Japanese of course, John went the Konosuba route and just dumped the knowledge of the language in Wendy's head. She was unconscious for the rest of the day after he left, the sudden changes to the brain and suddenly gaining a lot of knowledge were too much for her.
“Hey, whatcha got there?” She asked Wendy.
“Some weird necklace, it played some song in my head.” She answered.
“Let me see it.” She hands her it and she hears a fun and playful but dark tone. Before she could start humming, Mike walks over.
He reaches the two in moments, and takes the time to actually take in Zoey's appearance. She was wearing the outfit she wore her first day in Ponyville, she saw what he was doing and smirked playfully. Wendy had summarized her personality to him earlier so he knew where this would go if he didn’t stop her.
“If you don’t mind, I’d like to see what the fuss is about.” Zoey shrugs and tosses some necklace at him. Catching it with ease he hears some song play, it sounds relaxed and laid back. It sounds so nice he unknowingly started to hum along
A melody rang out all around them, sounding like a string of piano keys being struck in quick succession. All was eerily silent before it was suddenly broken by a long wolfish howl.
“What the hell!?” Zoey asked, on edge by the howl.
“There aren’t supposed to be any wolves in this area, right Twi?” He asks in confusion, to which she nods.
“Maybe it’s Fluttershy’s, she has all sorts of animals.” Wendy chuckles nervously.
A swirling amount of green energy began to gather through the stone’'s eye, it spun faster and faster until it gathered in a centerpoint of the hole. Suddenly, something leapt out form within the hole and landed in front of the group, Slowly, it turned around until its blue eyes gazed upon group. It did not look like a normal wolf, it was glowing like some sort of spectral. What made it even more odd were its colors being mostly red down his back and onto his tail, it had some shades of green below it before fading to grey and white, it’s chest has a discolored star-shaped pattern. On its forehead was some sort of symbol looking like a fiery wind. Other than its colors, the group could tell it’s been in quite a number of fights due to the claw markings on its muzzle.
“....” they all look at the wolf in silence, then Zoey blinks.
“Did those farmers drug us?” She asked, as blunt as ever.
“ZOEY!” Wendy shouts, upset Zoey would even think that, but not surprised.
“Well considering that weirdly colored wolf just appeared outta nowhere, it’s the most likely reason.” Twilight states, Wendy tried to counter that but couldn’t.
The wolf’s eyes quickly darted over to Mike, and suddenly without warning; leapt toward his head. Before the boy could react or defend himself, the world around him became a blur of white, the next thing he knew, he woke up to beheld an unexpected sight; Mike was high above the clouds, he was able to see all of equestria at this height. When Mike looked around, he found the same wolf from before sitting there no longer looking like some sort of ghost.
“So...are you possessing me? Because if you are, it won’t take long for Twilight to get my mentors. Then again, Jenny will probably take this opportunity to screw with me, so it’s kind of a lose lose situation for me. Please tell me you can talk and I’m not just being an idiot.” Mike says, hoping this won’t be a repeat of the last time he was possessed.
The wolf let out a gentle howl as his body was consumed by light, and with a flash the wolf changed forms, now looking like man taller than Mike, He stood there with a red cloak covering his upper body and a hood keeping his face hidden. “Nothing of the sort.” The man said. As Mike’s eyes looked down, he spotted something very familiar; a green tunic below the cloak but couldn’t remember where he’s seen it before.
“Oh thank god you can talk. So who are you and where are we? Also how am I floating without flapping my wings and how are you floating without any wings at all?” Mike asked, trying to think of an explanation. ‘Maybe the wolf bit me and I’m unconscious, bleeding out.’
“You may call me Jeff, or for the sake of the non-displaced, you may call me Link. As for where we are, we’re in the mindscape; a place created by linking our minds together, so no, you were not bitten by the wolf.” Link explained, surprising me that he heard my thoughts. Link reaches up and lowers his red hood, revealing a face with many scars across it.
“Ok one: it’s only fair I give you my name. I’m Mike, nice to meet ya. Two: how did you know what I was thinking. And three: our mindscape? Also, non-displaced, what’s a displaced?” He asked, confused as hell. Considering how he got to his current world, it’s been a long time since he was this weirded out.
Link let out a gentle sigh. “So i’m your first then. Well, to put it bluntly, we are displaced; people torn from our world, thrown into a different body with powers, and into another world for whatever purpose the merchant wants us to do regardless if we wanted it or not.” Link explained as he raised his leather gauntlet covered hand, causing a copy of the necklace that was found before. “And this, is known as a token, just one of many across the multiverse that lets you summon others who have suffered the same fate, said token can also help you traverse the void safety. You’re not alone here.” Link said as the token vanished in a burst of black particles.
Something clicked when he said void, a memory Mike could barely remember.
Fifteen Years ago
“I’m terribly sorry for your situation, my name is Princess Celestia. You see, I was attempting to bring my student back via summoning. She had fled to another world and I couldn’t follow her because of my position as princess. Friends of mine, the two that just left, have experience in universe hopping. With my magic and their ‘void energy’ as they call it, we used a special mirror as a focal point. Unfortunately it didn’t go as planned, I think it was because of their...strange magic.”
Present
This was something he needed time to think about. Shaking his head, he brought his attention back to Link.
“The merchant?” He asked, trying not to think about his mentors.
“Didn’t you buy anything from someone?” Link asked curiously.
“No. You remember my mentors I mentioned earlier? They with the help of Princess Celestia, were trying to bring said princess’ student back from another world but messed up and brought me here instead. They, my mentors, did use something called void energy though. And I did become a Pegasus after I was sucked in a portal. Have you met anyone who went through that before?”
“..No, I haven’t. Most of their explanations was that they bought an item from him, then poof, they end up somewhere completely different.” Link said as he rubbed the back of his head. “While I ended up the way I am due to opening up a treasure chest containing the Triforce Of Courage that was left at my doorstep.” Link explained to Mike.
“Triforce of Courage? What’s that? And before you ask I was turned into a five year old and lived here for fifteen years, I barely even remember anything about my old world.” Mike says, it sounded familiar but he was drawing blanks.
Link raised his right hand as a gentle glowing triangle symbol appeared on the back of his glove. “This is the triforce courage, one of the three relics created by the goddesses of hyrule, although this is just a void copy that can do the same thing as the original.” Link explained, then lowered his hand.
Mike was going to ask more about it but figured it was time for them to get back on track.
“More on that later. So why are we here?” He asked, feeling more at ease.
“I made the token allow me to assume a spirituel wolf so that I may leap into your mind to speak with your privately so I can see if you’re trustworthy. Most Displaced would either go mad from what they became, or they’d use their powers for their own selfish needs, I wanted to make sure you weren’t one of those people.” Link explained with a nod. “You haven’t attacked me yet and your words have been truthful.”
“Hell of an evaluation test.” Mike muttered. “So anyway, if that’s all we should probably take this back to the real world. God knows how Twilight, Spike and those girls are reacting to this.” Mike says, knowing how Twi’s magic reacts when she’s panicking.
“...Yea, especially the stunt I just pulled..” Link said with a chuckle. “Right, you’ve passed the test.” Link said as everything got brighter to Mike’s eyes. Mike finds himself back where he was before, still standing instead of laying on the ground.
Knowing it was already too late to stop her, Mike braced himself as Twilight tackles him and teleports both of them five feet back. Spike flat out screams bloody murder, and the remaining girls just watch the train wreck unfold. As Mike was trying to call the two messes down, Wendy and Zoey decided to take a look at the new addition that jumped Mike.
“Sorry about that.” Link said as he was now standing a few feet back after he had left Mike’s mind.
Both of them just stare at Link as they chose to ignore Mike’s pleas for their help in getting Twilight off him.
“I’ll give you points for entrance but could you tell us who you are and what that was about? I mean unless I’ve missed something, that kinda came outta left field.” Zoey asked, still ignoring what was happening with Mike. Link explained the same thing he explained to Mike, how he just appeared through the use of the token due to Mike humming the tone that radiant from Link’s token who he calls his Howling Stone.
“Any questions? I know you guys have a lot, especially you, Twilight. And before you ask, if you understand the Multiverse theory, then you’ll know why I know your name. ” Link explained, he sounded like he has been through this before. Twilight paused her one-sided conversation with Mike at the mention of questions and looks to Link. She then teleports to him and begins the Q&A.
“What kind of magic is the triforce? What does the triforce of courage do? What are the others? What do they do? How did you turn into a wolf? How did you go into Mike’s mind despite all the wards Jenny put on him without his permission?” She fired off, but not before Mike could get a word in.
“She WHAT!? So that’s how she’s been doing those pranks!” Mike fummed. At Zoey and Wendy’s confused looks, Mike explained. “If you cast those types of wards in a certain way, you can affect someone’s dreams and actions. As long as it’s something they would do themselves and the target is both calm and familiar with the caster, it’ll work.”
“The Triforce isn’t exactly magic, well except the Triforce of Wisdom but others such as Power and Courage boost the wielder of whoever possesses a piece. The Triforce Of Courage, despite being a void copy, contains Farore’s essence and is associated with helping the wielder become more brave. Their names pretty much explain what they do. As for how I turn into a wolf.” Link said as he reached up to grab hold of the original copy of his howling stone. “It contains Twilight magic I’ve recreated from the void to allow me to assume the form of a wolf and thus allowing me to leap into Mike’s mind and fuse his with mine. I suppose due to it being of void nature, it bypassed the wards really easily.” Link said, managing to answer all of Twilight’s questions.
“Someone actually managed to keep up with Twi, good thing it’s past the ten year time limit or I would have owed Shining so much money.” Spike says, relief dripping from his voice.
“Twilight magic?” Twilight asked, wondering what she had to do with turning people into wolves, plants sure, but wolves?
“Not to be confused with your name, of course. Twilight is..well, another realm all together outside of this universe, I don’t know where though since I haven’t met a Twili Displaced yet.” Link said as he stroked along his blond goatee. Twilight chose to ignore the fact the her brother’s nickname for her is the same as a name for a species in another universe.
“So you, Zoey, Wendy and Mike are Displaced, I know Mike’s reason for coming to this world but why so many others? Why specifically Equestria?” Spike asked, his voice a little sore from the screaming.
“The multiverse is pretty huge, and for some reason this merchant characters want us to help that multiverse, but that’s about it of what I've learned from other Displaced.” Link said with a shrug. “Those three have a purpose, possibly against someone or something the-” Link stopped in mid-sentence as he leaned toward the three Displaced, he covers the right side of his mouth and whispered. “What happened before I arrived here? Asking now so I don’t end up revealing future events.” Link asked.
“Season one episode one, we just finished checking the banquet preparations.” Wendy whispered back, making sure spike wasn’t able to hear with his dragon hearing incase he had sharper hearing.
“Then we’re quite a ways back.” Link said, nodding to Wendy before redirecting his attention to Twilight. “Basically, certain worlds need help when they can’t solve it alone. Something in this world is going to happen that will require those three to solve it or help out.” Link said as he pointed at the three with a thumb.
“Ok. I have no idea what you guys are talking about but this place seems like it’s some girl paradise, I don’t know what the big deal is.” Zoey says, looking at Wendy and Link in confusion.
“Or so it seems until a certain Nightmare appears or something we never expected.” Link said as he glanced toward the sky. Zoey just keeps staring at him in confusion.
“Zoey’s never seen the show, as far as she knows, your just staring into the sky for no reason.” Wendy whispers to Link.
Meanwhile Spike and Twilight are a little away from them.
“Any idea what they're talking about?” Spike asked Twilight.
“No, but apparently it’s something displaced have to deal with. Let’s just let them be, I’m just going to lay down and let my stomach settle.” Twilight dismisses.
Back to the displaced group.
“Well, I don’t say much though as I don’t want to change fate. Let’s just say you need to be prepared for when it does happen.” Link explained to the three. “..But I can give you new items or powers incase you need to combat something Twilight and her friends can’t handle.”
“That sounds good but what could be so bad that they couldn’t handle it? Not that I wouldn’t help them, but save for a certain magic gluten, a shapeshifter, and a friendship obsessed girl, what could be so bad?” Wendy asked.
“...A Lot of things can be far worse. Someone or something that can destroy equestria? Beings or creatures more powerful than you that wants to kill everyone you know and love? Or someone who wields powers that go beyond that you wield?” Link said as he listed good example.
“...other then someone who can cause odd things to happen, I’m not sure who in Equestria could do that.” Wendy says, she knows that none of the villains besides Discord could do something that big.
“Oook ...I'm even more lost than before but if fangirl over here isn’t worried then I don’t see the problem. I mean she’s the more rational of the two of us, so that kinda has a lot of weight to it.” Zoey says, now wishing she had made the effort to watch the show. Those two might as well have been speaking in another language.
“However, this is not the same as the show, have you not seen any differences besides you and I?” Link asked with a raised eyebrow. Zoey looks to Wendy as she as given up on keeping up.
“I’ll admit there are differences, like the ponies being anthro and Twilight being able to use magic even though unicorns here still need a horn. Not to mention the weird phenomenon with Earth ponies and Pegasi, and everyone forgetting the unnatural rain storm, me and Zoey’s fight and the sudden small hurricane that spawned near our home. Also no one noticed how different we look until after Pinkie’s party. The plants look weirdly familiar too. But I don’t see the big deal, none of that stuff screams dangerous.” Wendy explains. Though as much as she tried to hide it, there was a little worry in her voice.
“At least not yet. You’re only seeing ponyville in its current timeline, plus you may end up facing something that isn’t from Equestria. For example, back in my world, I have to face a daily threat of monsters from the legend of Zelda series that fight differently and more intelligently than their video game counterparts.” Link explained to the three. They were silent for a moment before Zoey got an idea.
“Hey, we’ve been standing around here talking but haven’t really done much. Me and Wendy need to get used to our powers and abilities if we’re going to face whoever you guys are talking about.” Zoey states, in actuality she was just bored.
“Well, you guys have fun with that, me and Twi have to finish her tasks, catch up with us when you’re done. Come on spike, let’s get her and go.” Mike says, already walking towards her. Zoey looks at Link expectantly with a grin.
“...Something on your mind?” Link asked curiously.
“Oh...couldn’t we have waited a little longer? My stomach hurts from all the food.” Twilight complains.
“So you’re saying you want to be behind schedule?” Mike asked with a teasing grin, said grin is immediately wiped off by Twilight’s look.
“You shut your whore mouth!” She says in seething rage, Mike frantically nods.
“Up next is weather, the pony in charge of that is someone named Rainbow Dash.” Spike says.
“Wait did you say Rainbow Dash?” Mike asked, a smile on his face. Spike nods.
“Well unless it’s scheduled for mostly cloudy, I’d say she isn’t doing a good job.” Twilight says, finally getting over the stomach ache. Just then a rainbow blur slams into her, and they landed in mud.
“Hehehe, uh sorry didn’t see you there. One second.”’ Dash says, she washed her with a rain cloud then dried her off by spinning around her. After she and Spike laughed at the end result, Rainbow notices Mike.
“Hey, long time no see! Why didn’t you tell me you were coming? Would have welcomed you to Ponyvill.” She asked, excited to see him.
“It was a sudden decision, mentors sent me here to keep an eye on two strange creatures.” He says. She frowned at the mention of the strange creatures, then smiled.
“Good to hear that! Was worried I was the only one suspicious of them.” She sighs in relief.
“I’m just here to watch and learn about them, no need to be hostile yet. Innocent until proven guilty you know.” He states. She rolls her eyes but smiles nonetheless.
“I don’t suppose you would be Rainbow Dash would you?” Twilight asked, irritation clear in her voice.
“The one and only, I take it you’ve heard of me?” She poses.
“Yes, from Mike actually. He’s told me a lot about you, including how active you are. With how many clouds are still in the sky, I find that hard to believe.” Twilight says in a matter of fact tone.
“Pttt, I’ll handle that after I’m done practicing.” She says before flying on a cloud to rest.
“Practicing? For what, slacking off?” Twilight asked. RD rolls her eyes.
“No, For the Wonderbolts! The greatest group of flyers in Equestria!” She smirks.
“And why would they recruit someone who can’t keep the sky clear for just one measly day?” Twilight asked, striking a nerve.
“HEY, I can take care of this in ten.seconds.flat.” She says. Twilight motions for her to show her, summoning a stopwatch. Low and behold, exactly ten seconds later the sky is clear. “What do ya think?” She says with pride.
“I think you should have made a bet before providing it, this filly’s loaded.” Mike says, slightly disappointed in her.
“Ugh you’re right, oh well. That look on her face is rewarding enough on its own though. Can’t wait to hangout with her again.” She says before flying off.
“Mike! What the hell!?” Twilight asked, miffed by what he said.
“Relax, it was a joke! Rainbow isn’t that type of pony! Besides, you were being kind of a bitch.” He states, she rolled her eyes but nods.
“Yeah I guess I should have expected that, I mean I was imitating you after all.” She says with a laugh. Mike shakes his head and laughs himself.
“Come on. Wendy gave me a map to the town, next is decorations.” Mike said, already walking away.
Walking in, the group is greeted by all sorts of eye-catching fabrics and the sort. Mannequins here, a fabric roll over there. Basically a clothes makers paradise. ‘Kinda gives the same vibe as the ones back in Canterlot.’ Mike thinks, remembering Prince Blueblood’s trips there that Mike had to escort him too.
“So beautiful~” Spike says, somehow getting hearts literally in his eyes.
“Yeah, glad to see that so far only Rainbow Dash was slacking in her job.” Twilight snarks.
“One: get over that, she already proved it wasn’t a problem. Two: not that, her!” Spike says, pointing to the owner.
They see a woman in a solid ruched full foldover collar tunic top blouse top, it was purple with big white stripes. She was wearing gray jeans and black and slightly elevated heeled sandals.
“Dial it back dude, she’s hot sure but I’m pretty sure she’ll throw you out if you not careful.” Mike says, before Twilight get a word in, the lady notices them.
“Sorry but I can’t take any-oh Celestia!” She started before looking at Twilight.
“Hi, sorry to bother you but we’re here to check on the decor. It looks good-great even but don’t mind us, we’ll get out of your hair.” Twilight says. But before they can leave, the lady stops them.
“Where are my manners? I’m Rarity, owner of this fine establishment. But why are you worried about my hair? Yours is a mess!” She says with a frown. Before Twilight can get a word in, Rarity pulls her behind a privacy wall and fixed her hair. She also was wearing a new dress and holding her original outfit in her hands.
“How much does that cost?” Mike asked, wanting to speed this up.
“Oh don’t worry about that darling, consider it on the house.” She says with a smile.
“Nice! Wish they were that generous by in Canterlot!” Mike said, happy this didn’t take long.
“Think nothing of-wait did you say Canterlot?” She asked, a smile growing on her face. He nods. “I had no idea that I was dealing with such high standing ponies, that outfit simply won’t do!” Before any of them could decline, they hear a click at the door.
“Did you just lock us in here?” Mike asked,now creeped out. Before she could respond, Twilight teleports her and Spike out. By the time that Twilight came back, Mike was in a tuxedo holding his normal clothes and running to her with Rarity chasing him. When he got close enough, Twilight teleported them both to where Spike was left.
“Sorry!” She said, with a nervous chuckle. Twilight had the decency to at least look apologetic so Mike let it go.
“It ok I guess, next is music.” He says, agitation dripping in his voice.
Back to when the Canterlot group left them
“Considering that I was talking about our powers and abilities, I’d say fighting’s on my mind. So how about it? The best way to prove your point is to show us. Plus I’m bored of the back and forth between you two.” Zoey answered.
“Is that really necessary? I’m pretty sure someone more experienced than us would win pretty easily.” Wendy said, already seeing the flaw in Zoey’s logic. Zoey waves her off, and looks at Link.
“She does have a point though.” Link pointed out, agreeing with Wendy’s wise choice. She shrugs.
“Regardless of that being true, you gotta admit it would get your point across. Besides it’s just a friendly match, what’s the harm?” She asked.
“You mean other than the harm a fight causes?” Wendy asked, it was her turn to be completely confused by the direction the conversation had taken.
“Alright, but let’s take it away from the road.” Link suggested as he walked off of the mentioned road. Link reaches back to the sheath that held his sword, but instead pulling out what the group saw at his hip, it was a wooden sword with odd symbols, its handle wrapped with bandages.
“Why would we-“ Zoey starts before Wendy interrupted her.
“*cough* Granny Smith *cough*.” Wendy said. Zoey goes pale and nods.
“Yeah, that’s probably for the best! Any suggestions? Also what’s with that sword, the symbols I mean?” She asked. “It’s a wooden sword meant for sparring and training.” Link explained as he held it at the readdy. “It won’t cut you nor leave any bruise, unless I swing it hard enough.”
“So who goes first?” Zoey asked.
“Well you’re the one who asked for this but we can decide with Rock Paper Scissors.” Wendy says. After a quick game, Wendy wins. “…well I guess I’m up, though we should actually go somewhere more open. My magic would cause to much damage, I know a place not to far. It’s where I go to practice my spells and just think.” Wendy says, looking around in concern.
“Sounds reasonable, plus you could learn a few new things from me.” Link said with a nod to Wendy. She smiles and leads the way. As they walk Zoey looks to Link.
“So what’s the mindscape like?” She asked suddenly.
“Depending on the location, you’ll always see it as you being at the highest peak to see all of equestria, it is a place that allows you to do whatever you want through a form of mental training. Time tends to flow a lot more slower there as well.” Link explained as he walked alongside the other two. Zoey commits to memory, could prove useful in the future.
“Well here we are, just the way I left it.” Wendy says. The area was a flat piece of land, there was a pond a little away from them with a big flat topped rock in the middle. There were no trees and no animals. There were however, signs of use, what with all the small craters and red spots.
“Learning how to fly without wings is hard, ok!?” Wendy says, a little embarrassed. She chose not to mention the acrobatics, she’s glad she removed evidence of those failures. Her face was glowing red with embarrassment.
“Every Displaced has to start somewhere, don’t reflect it as failure, but reflect it as a learning experience.” Link said as he thought way back.
“I guess.” Wendy sighs, still upset but not as much as before. “So I guess we should start.” She hovers an inch in the air.
“Wanna sword? I can make you one if you want.” Zoey offered Wendy but she shook her head.
“It wouldn’t do any good with how little I know about using it.” She states before reading her fists.
“Would it be more fair if I play on your ground rules?” Link suggested as he put away the sword. “I can use magic too.”
“That’d be a relief actually, I regretted telling Zoey to fight with her swords that one time.” She says, feeling a little more confident about the first.
“HEY! Don’t make me out as a lunatic! I warned you it was a bad idea!” Zoey shouts, Wendy nods apologetically at her. Link softly chuckled at that before resting his arms at his sides.
“Your move first.” Link suggest as his eyes took on a gentle gleam. Link had just used Wide Angle to scan Wendy.
Name: [Error] Displaced as: Wendy. Status: Very Healthy Source: Big Weaknesses: Poison.
Link blinked on minor confusion at how different his Wide Angle displayed the information differently this time. Wendy takes a deep breath and then a hurricane like blast shoots at Link. “Sky Dragon’s Roar!” She shouts, still not sure how that works.
Link’s eyes widen at the size of the attack, forcing him to pull out his Hookshot, aim at the nearest tree, and zip out of the projectile’s path. Link, aiming his hands toward wendy, started to gather up a swirling glitter of blue energy. Quickly thrusting them out, Link sent a flurry of cold wind at Wendy. She just stands there and takes it. Being a Sky Dragonslayer not only does a normal wind spell not hurt her, it actually straightens her as she eats it. It does make her shiver, she makes a mental note to ask about that later.
Link held his arms out as fire gathered into his palms before quickly crossing them over each other. A spark flies out of his hands as a fiery snake coils around him protectively, its flames doing no harm to Link. Link quickly runs toward Wendy, closing the gap between him and her. Despite the snake being of flames, they appear to do no damage to the surrounding area, telling Wendy it was a snake created through magical fire instead of normal fire that can be controlled to burn or not.
“Nope.” She says, she wants nothing to do with whatever that is. She flys a bit away and observes his next move. Link skids to a halt as she flew back, the snake hisses in reaction to this. Quickly pointing a finger out, the snake uncoiled from Link and flew straight at Wendy. Wanting to get closer to Link, Wendy casts wind armor then sprints at him.
“Fast wind that run the heaven...vernier!” Wendy says, increasing her speed significantly. She crossed her arms and attempted to ram through the snake, hoping the armor would be enough help. When the fiery serpent got close to her, she slammed into it, however it quickly coiled around, attempting to burn through the wind that cloaked her form.
After it fades, the wind armor does become somewhat unstable but stays. Wendy continues running to Link, when she gets close enough she punches him with condensed spinning wind around her fist. Link learning that she would be alot stronger than she should, reached back to pull out his Hyrule Shield, he raises it up just in time to take the full assault of her attack. However, Link is sent skidding backwards
Wendy blinks, surprised she actually hit his shield. Shaking her head, she takes a moment to get rid of her armor. She flys at him in an attempt to get another hit in.
Link waits patiently, but once she got closer, he thrusts his shield out, tempting to bash her out of the away. Given her inexperience in flying not only does it work, it also causes her to crash into the ground. Wendy gets back up, a little dazed but overall fine. She smiles and motions for him to attack.
Link reaches into his small pouch and pulls out a small boomerang whose edges appear to look like wings, the boomerang suddenly grows to its original size. Link pulls his arm back, then throws the boomerang, it spins around again until it’s managed to create a small tornado spinning toward her.
Wendy looks at for a moment before running towards it. She grabbed it but was surprised by it struggling. She ignored that and ran at Link with the intent to hit him with it.
Link quickly took out some kind of nut, then tossed it down to create a bright flash, blinding wendy in the progress. While she was blinded, Link yanked the boomerang out of her hand, then kicked at her chest.
“Oof..Physical ability rise” She said, casting Deus Eques. She then faked a left hook then kicked at him with her right leg. Wendy was successful in the fake out as the leg caused him to tumble to the right.
“Alright, let’s change it up a bit.” Link suggested as he pulled out some sort of mask, and upon placing it onto his face, it quickly tighten around, causing veins to spread out as the wooden mask became flesh. With a flash, Link was no longer a hylian, but some sort of strange scaly creature known as a Zora. With a flick of his arms, fin-like blades sprout out along his arm, he leaps a short distance forward before delivering a straight kick to her jaw. She saw stars for a moment when she hit the ground but got back, albeit a little off balance for a bit.
“One: ow, two: awesome, and three: are you ok? That looked painful.” She asked in worry.
“Just a transformation mask.” Link said in a strange voice like he was underwater, but a lot more clear in quality. “Now, if I was new to using that mask, I would have screamed.” Link explained to Wendy, he glances over at Zoey curiously.
She has a first-aid kit halfway out of her bag before stopping when he said that. She then slowly looks at him then slowly puts it back in. She then coughs and waves sheepishly. Link softly chuckled. “You’ll be seeing all sorts of weird things happen with each Displaced you meet, there is no end to the possibilities of what they can become.” Link explained as he looked back to Wendy.
“So…does that mean there might be a Danganronpa displace?” Wendy asked, ignoring Zoey’s “seriously?” look.
“A Danga-what? It’s times like this I wish I had access to the internet just so I can google up who that is.” Link said with a shake of his head.
“It’s a game and I personally feel like it’s a good thing you don’t know about that. The pink blood was pretty weird though” Wendy says with a shrug, then got back into a fighting stance.
“Still want to continue, huh?” Link asked in that odd voice of his, he thought by now after showing some things, she’d lose interest. Link gets back into a fight stance as well, reminding Wendy of a certain kick-boxing.
“You went through the trouble of using that weird mask, it’d be pretty rude of me to not at least give it a chance.” She says.
“Just be sure to stay on your toes.” Link suggested as he ran toward, went, he goes for an overhead swing of his fist, only to suddenly around Wendy to try and hit her with an uppercut. She moves just enough out of the way for it to miss.
“Sky Dragon’s roar!” She said with a grin. Pouring most of the little magic she had left in it, firing point blank in his chest. Link was sent flying and spinning out of control through the air, he flails his arms in minor panic trying to set himself correctly, only to fail. Wendy can hear the sounds of tree branches being broken as he flies out of sight.
“Ohmygodohmygodohmygod!” Wendy sucks in air to get her magic back and flies full speed in the direction he flew in, Zoey right behind her.
“Link? LINK!?” They both called, worried about him. Their attention was drawn by some kind of humming sound. Following the sound, they managed to find Link in his normal form as he’s healing up his wounds using some kind of blue spell.
“Oh my god, Link I’m so sorry! I didn’t think it would be that strong, at most I thought you would just be pushed back a few feet.” Wendy says, feeling guilty.
Link waved his hand. “Not the worse i’ve suffered.” Link remarked as his wounds slowly close up by a blue glow in his hand. Wendy still looks guilty so Zoey decided to take control of the conversation.
“So…where’d you learn how to do magic and how? Zoey asked.
“Discovery and practicing, I never knew I could do that until I performed the same arm movements as the Link from Ocarina Of Time casted his spells, afterwards throughout the years I learned to manipulate the spells and changed them into another. What I’m casting is Nayru’s care; a variation of Nayru’s love.” Link explained as he got up and off the ground.
“I think I’m done fighting for the moment, Zoey can go.” Wendy sighs in relief.
“Alright,” Link said as he flexed his neck around, causing it to pop a few times. Wendy flys a decent amount away as Zoey got ready.
“Water-Make Sword.” Zoey says as a sword made completely out of water spawned in her right hand. The sword was simple looking with a decently long but blunt blade. “So…whenever you’re ready.” She said, pretty confident but cautious.
Link took the wooden sword out and a simple hylian, readying them both. “I’ll be changing accordingly depending on how you fight.” Link warned.
“Aren’t you supposed to in a fight, real or not?” Zoey asked, a little thrown off by his warning.
“I meant to see how capable you are so I can adapt and remain above your level just to give you a challenge.” Link explained to Zoey.
“Fair enough.” She says with a nod, she gets into a stance and charges forward.
Link suddenly leapt high into the air, surprising the azure mage. Link comes back down with an overhead swing of his wooden sword over Zoey. From sheer shock Zoey used water body, making her body like water but keeping her colors. His attack goes right through her like water.
Taking the opportunity, she swings her sword at Link. The hylian quickly raises his sword to block hers; the dull wooden blade’s edge suddenly coating itself in blue sparkling energy, Zoey’s watery sword suddenly freezes up into a block of ice.
“Useful move there, but I can see it as a problem if you were ever hit by an ice spell.” Link said with a smirk. She shrugs at that, he just made her sword harder. She swings at him again, more to judge his reaction than to hit him. Link raised his hylian shield to block the attack, unphased that she was still going to use it as a weapon.
She then put the hilt in her mouth and spawned another sword, she then grabbed the frozen sword and charged him again.
Link leaped forward to her right, rolling out of the way of her charge. Link sheathed his sword for just a moment as he aimed his hand toward Zoey. A small fireball exploded out of his palm, coming straight for her. She puts the frozen sword back in her mouth and shoots a basic water blast from her hand to stop the attack, both attacks collide on impact, created a burst of steam to fill the air. Zoey was unable to see what was going on, until a wave of electricity traveling along the ground came straight at her.
Completely forgetting Link’s earlier warning, utilizes water body’s flying aspect and shoots into the sky and dropping the swords.
With a flick of his arm, Link sent his boomerang at Zoey; the fairy within empowering it to form a small tornado, allowing it to fly toward Zoey.
“Water-Make Arrow.” She says, as a bow made of water spawned then an arrow made of water. She then proceeded to fire arrow after arrow at both Link and the boomerang. The boomerang sucked in some of the water arrows, however it has to quickly turn around when it couldn’t hold anymore. Upon returning to Link, the arrows were dropped at his feet, only to turn into a puddle of nothing.
Link sped off, moving faster than usual to the surprise of Zoey. If she were to pay attention, she’d noticed there were golden wings that were now part of his leather boots. Link puts away his sword and shield and decides to return off with his own bow and arrows. Pulling them out and getting the arrow readdy, their tip is suddenly ignited. Quickly taking aim at Zoey, he begins shooting arrows that were now on fire.
Zoey zigzags towards Link, shooting basic water blasts at any arrow that got too close. The whole field was now littered with water and arrows, each one that hit would cancel each other. Fire Arrows and Water Arrows, polar opposites that can dry up or put out the other.
Link quickly took aim at the sky as the tip of the arrow took on a bright yellow. Link releases the arrow into the air, suddenly it split into many smaller light arrows over Zoey, quickly raining down a volley of holy light. Though since Zoey is using water body to fly and isn’t an unholy creature, it passes harmlessly through her.
Having used the Shining Shot as a distraction, Link lines up a shot, letting a weak powered Ice Arrow loose toward her in an attempt to freeze her. Turning solid again she grabs her golden butterfly clip in from her hat and ripping it off, she throws it at the arrow, it’s ice spell freezing the clip solid.
“I think that’s enough for now, if I fight anymore serious than that, I'm going to end up drawing a lot of unwanted attention. “ Link said as he sheathed the wooden sword, it quickly vanishes back into his inventory. Zoey lands with a thud as Wendy walks over to Link.
“You’re still worried about that? I thought you stopped caring about that when you made all those bright arrows come down on Zoey.” She states, giving him a confused look.
“I meant more than I really wanted,” Link said as he glanced around the area with his hand in one of his pouches. “If anyone or anypony comes running to check up here, I’ll just tell them it's an experimental spell for the Sunset Celebration.” Link said as he pulled out a mask that looks like like a unicorn’s face.
As he said that a rainbow blur shoots towards their location, it was Rainbow Dash. As she got closer she focused in on Zoey and Wendy, she crossed her arms and looked at them expectantly.
“Alright, what did you two do!? What was with the light show? She asked.
“I’m only capable of using water spells and Wendy can only use wind. How in the hell could we have possibly done that?” Zoey asked, Rainbow glared at her.
“She’s right, I mean we haven’t really done anything bad. Baring Zoey when she’s drunk, nothing we’ve done should make you suspicious of us.” Wendy says, her glare lessened when she looked at Wendy.
“Sorry about that.” A new voice spoke up, causing Zoey and Wendy to see a red skinned unicorn with green hair wearing a darker red cloak and clothes. His cutie mark being a sword crossing over a shield. “I was testing out a new spell I plan to cast tonight at the Sunset Celebration.” The unicorn said.
“And you are?” She asked, wondering why she didn’t notice him before.
“Protective Shield.” Shield answered simply.
“So Protective, why does this place look tra-“ she stops and looks to Wendy who is glowing red, she’s well aware of what Dash is thinking. “-er, never mind.” She says rubbing the back of her head sheepishly.
“No worries.” Shield said as he gave Dash a friendly salute. Wendy sighs, Zoey rubs her back in comfort.
“So anyway, how are things coming with the preparations?” Wendy asked, wanting to change the subject.
“Fine.” Rainbow says, keeping what Mike told her to herself. “How’s your head?” She asked.
“I-it’s fine.” Wendy says, her mood sour.
“Hey, you’ll get there. I was just like you when I started and look at me now!” She encouraged/boasts. Wendy smiles as she remembers how fast Dash is in the future.
“Hey, gotta start somewhere, I doubt there is a single unicorn who has casted their first spell without it exploding in their face.” Shield said half jokingly. Rainbow smirks, she notices something dark blue in the corner of her eye but when she looked, nothing was there. She shrugs it off.
“Well I gotta go. Try not to cause to much of a commotion, everyone’s already on edge because of the celebration.” She says.
“It should go well considering that one purple unicorn doing check ups.” Shield pointed out.
“Oh yeah, I’m confident it’ll be more awesome than the one Canterlot did, but it’ll be awesomer if no one is worried about something other then the celebration.” She says, with a carefree smile.
‘Welp, she’s in for a big surprise..’ Shield said mentally to himself. “Hopefully everyone won’t be worn out afterwards, they do need to stay up for the party tonight.” She nods.
“Well we should catch up with Twilight and the others.” Zoey says, picking up the frozen clip. She looks to Shield as Dash flies off. “I don’t suppose you could thaw this, could you?” She asked.
Shield was quiet for a few moments as he wanted to make sure Dash was well out of hearing range. “Yea, just a gentle Din’s fire will help.” Shield sad as he reached up to pull at his face, it stretches out before coming off with a flash, revealing Link in his place. Link holds his hand aloft over the clip, giving it a soft glow of din’s fire to help thaw it off. Neither of them responded for a moment, then Wendy gagged.
“Well I’ll be seeing that in my nightmares.” Zoey states calmly. “Thanks for thawing that though.” She said, grabbing the clip and sticking it back in her hat.
“Hey, I did freeze it, so it was only right to thaw it out.” Link said as he tugged on his leather gauntlet. “Right, remember when I said I can give you some new things?” Link asked.
“Ye-“ Wendy starts before the sound of flapping interrupted her, she turned to find that Mike was flying towards them with a concerned expression. In his arms were Twilight and Spike. It didn’t take them long to get there, one explanation later they all were looking at Link. The hylian frowned when he saw Twilight here.
“...Right. I can give you guys new spells, items, one or two transformation masks, or perhaps something like ammo such as Bombs, Arrows, Deku Nuts, perhaps some archery and swordsmanship.” Link explained from the top of his head. “And before you say anything about those magic spells, it’ll be up to those three if they want to teach you them afterwards.”
“Why?” Twilight asked, Spike nodding in agreement with her.
“Because them doing so will affect the present and the future of your life, Twilight.” Link said as he looked at her knowingly.
‘Why does everything have to be so vague and complicated with old beings?! Why can’t things just be simple with them for once?!’ Twilight thinks to herself, aggravated.
“Anyway, I’m pretty confident about my combat skills, wish I could deal with magic types better though. Got anything for that?” Mike asked.
“I can teach or give you Nayru’s love, a diamond shaped barrier that will prevent your body from being damaged, but you’ll still be knocked around. The shield will protect you for three minutes, more or less depending on a number of factors.” Link explained to Mike.
“That’s nice but I was thinking more of something to fight on even footing. Though I guess that’s a little too much, it’s not like a Pegasus can use magic the same way they can.” Mike states.
Link snapped his fingers. “There is something I can give you. Here, just take my hand.” Link said as he extended his arm out. Mike stares at him for a moment and shrugs.
“Eh, I’ve done weirder.” He says, he then grabs Link’s with no hesitation whatsoever. Along Link’s arm something energy-like traveled along his arm, glowing in the colors of gold, only to change to purple as it was leaving him. The same colors travels along the pegasus’s arm until he felt something grow within him.
“You can now use magic.” Link said, looking a little exhausted. Wendy sucks in air and transferred the energy she got from it to Link unaware of how pointless that was.
“…You wanna run that by me again?” Both Twilight and Mike asked simultaneously.
“You can use magic.” Link repeated. “Not sure if the same method can work for you like it did for me, but just close your eyes, think of energy that’s like water inside of a pipe, now direct that energy through your magic.” Link explained as he raised his hand as fire traveled along his fingers. “It’s all about mental control and focusing on your thoughts.
Mike did as he was instructed, it felt weird to him but in a way, normal. After a moment his hands felt tingling. When he looked, he saw that his hands were glowing grass green. But before he could celebrate in a way that definitely would have embarrassed himself, Twilight spoke her mind.
“HOW THE FU-“ she stopped and looked at spike. “-reak did you do that?! That’s not something a Pegasus should be able to do.” She finished, looking frizzled.
“You saw me appear out of thin air as a wolf spirit, Displaced aren’t meant to make sense.” Link explained to Twilight. “You’re going to be seeing ALOT of this as long as those three find other Displaced tokens.” As he says this, Twilight sees Mike sticking his hand through Zoey who was using water body. Her eye twitches as she lets out a deep sigh.
“Tokens? You mentioned those before, how do we make them?” Wendy asked.
“And what are they?” Spike asked.
“Tokens come in many shapes and sizes, they’re used to communicate with Displaced from across the Multiverse or to summon. There are millions of them out there and any of their tokens could have arrived here, however It’s a good thing my Token got here first, otherwise one of those three could have summoned someone bad. Worse case scenario, it could have been someone like…” Link paused to think of a character. “Like Goku, except with the mind of someone who would use his powers for their own gain.” Link explained.
“Ok…could someone tell me what a “Goku” is?” Spike asked.
“Think of a much more powerful version of an alicorn, now imagine said being existing for the sole purpose of getting stronger and having a good fight. Thankfully the original is a good guy, obsessed with fighting but good.” Zoey says, then looks to Wendy. “…wanna make a token?” She asked, Wendy thinks about it.
“Sure, after the celebration though.” She says, then turns to Link. “Back to our earlier conversation. What else is there that you could teach us? As long as fresh air is around, I can take care of any exhaustion you might get.” Wendy says with a smile.
“I’m not exhausted from what I just did, I’m exhausted as I just transferred void energy. Doing such a thing can be dangerous in large amounts.” Link explained as he stretched his arms behind his head. “As for what else I can teach you.” Link said as he went through the list such as archery, swordsmanship, magic, transformation masks, channel Twili energy via the howling stone to assume the form of a wolf. “I suggest I create the mask later once the void energy is restored.” Link said.
“Wolf? Like you did when you jumpscared me?” Mike asked.
“Jumpscared?” Link asked and snorted in amusement. “I didn’t leap through the void that fast, did I?”
“I’m pretty sure abruptly appearing from thin air then pouncing on someone counts as a jumpscare, especially with Twilight and Spike’s reaction.” Wendy points out.
“...True, since they’ve never seen anything like me before. Anywho, yes, just like the wolf I was before.” Link explained as he reached up to grasp his Howling Stone necklace. A swirl of black particles consuming his body, quickly shrinking him down to the form again, except it wasn’t ghostial anymore. Right there sat a somewhat normal wolf, except for the colors as they were the same green, red, and grey colors as before.
“…thank god Fluttershy isn’t here, it’d be hours before she would leave you alone.” Wendy says.
“Speaking of Fluttershy, she’s who we have to see next. Can you show me how to do that before we go?” Mike asked.
Wolf Link let out a wolfish snort at the remark. The black particles surrounded him again, allowing him to return to what he was before. “Just grab it, give it a squeeze and the Twili magic will react.” Link explained to Mike.
Mike did so and was surrounded by the same black particles. His size had shrunk to 4.6 feet turned white with stripes the same color as Rainbow’s skin. His eyes changed to a brighter shade of brown. Looking at the group, he smiles.
“In this form, you’re able to speak to animals, see spirits, picking up a scent and follow said scent like a misty trail, move faster than hu-... I mean pony, and lastly if you focus hard enough, you’ll see things buried underground as a patch of dark sparkles.” Link explained from memory of all the times he was in wolf form.
“How do I look?” Mike tried to say, but all that came out were barking sounds.
“You won’t be able to speak the common language in that form.” Link pointed out, Mike nods. He then gestured to his body that in a “how do I look?” Way.
“You look like a wolf… Come to think of it other than Timberwolves, are there other wolves in this world?” Link asked curious as he looked at Twilight. “He might stick out a bit.”
“Yes there are others, but he will stick out by being an arctic wolf in Ponyville.” Twilight says, looking at Mike.
“I like it, looks like a white tiger but you know, a wolf instead of a tiger.” Wendy says, rubbing his fur a little bit. He snorts but doesn’t make a move to stop her. He grabbed the necklace again and gave a squeeze, turning back to normal.
“Well thanks for the magic and wolf form. Me, Twi and Spike have one more task to finish, see you guys later.” Mike says, about to leave.
“So I don’t remember much from the game but I do remember the magic songs. Could you teach us some? I have a flute I got as a gift and Zoey’s been teaching me how to play.” Wendy says, as Zoey takes hers out.
“School couldn’t afford to drop me from band, music was one of the only things my school was known for. Not many knew how to play the flute and most of the ones that did, the staff pissed off one way or another.” Zoey said with a chuckle.
“I can teach you some songs except for the Song Of Time. Time traveling can be a little dangerous.” Link said as he shuffled through his pouch. Link finds it and proceeds to pull out a blue ocarina that gleamed in the sunlight.
“It’s bullshit is what it is.” Zoey muttered under her breath. Time travel always confused her, which in turn, agitated her.
“So what songs can you teach us? Got any suggestions?” Wendy asked, mentally agreeing with Zoey.
Link glanced over at Twilight for a moment in curiously. So far, this version Twilight has been the most tame compared to the others, others would just have a mental breakdown or be in denial. Link redirections his attention to the group. “I believe I’ll start by giving you three songs. All you need is repeat after me.” Link explained as he placed the mouthpiece to his lip. He repeated the first three notes of the Song Of Healing to see if she’d be able to do the same.
Zoey was able to to get it pretty quickly, having had experience from playing in band. Wendy on the other hand, struggled a little at first but got the hang of it. Link nodded before proceeding to play the rest of the song. Those who were listening would feel their emotions be calmed, soothed, and healed by the song’s magic, like their past regrets were melting away. Magic was now in the air as the three played, the harmonics of Equestria guiding them. When Zoey and Wendy looked at their instruments, they would see they were now glittering.
“You have learned the song of healing. This song can help heal wounds, cleanse curses and hexes, soothes troubled spirits and get rid of regrets. Now, there may be times that a spirit refuses to pass onto the afterlife and there is still a lot for them to do, the song will turn them into masks that will allow you to transform into that person except for their clothes. The song can also turn the curse into a mask if its a form someone was forced into. “ Link explained as he looked at the others for their reactions, especially Spike and Twilight.
Spike looks at his scales and sees the few cracked ones were healed. Twilight looks content rather than simply resigned to dealing with what’s going on. Wendy looks to be calmer, no longer upset about her earlier stunt from the fight. Zoey seems happier, her smile looks more genuine and not forced. She could’ve sworn she felt something loosen, but whatever it was locked back into place. There was a bright flash around Mike, then it vanished. He looks around in confusion, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
“...Huh, seems you had a curse on you.” Link said as he stroked his chin in curiosity.
“WHAT?!” Twilight and Spike asked/shouted. Twilight’s hair had frizzled, the effects of the song now gone. Link softly cringed at their shout. Wendy is in a similar state, her dragon hearing making it worse.
“…how do you curse someone so close to the royal family?” Spike asked, saying what Twilight was thinking.
Link shrugged. “He might have been cursed by another Displaced, or his Displacer.” Link guessed as he looked at Mike. “But the question is, what did the curse do?”
“…vampires maybe?” Spike suggests. Twilight gives him a look.
“Alright I’ll accept the whole ‘Displace’ thing, but I refuse to believe that Vampires exist! I’m putting my foot down on that!” She says with smoke coming from her hair.
“Also wouldn’t my mentors be my displacers? With how powerful they are, I don’t see why they would need to curse me.” Mike says with heavy doubts.
Link softly chuckled at Twilight. “No, they do exist either across the void, or under a different name, like Vamponys.” Link said to her as he looked at Mike. “I don’t know then, you may need to find someone to help trace the curse back to their origins through magic.” Twilight gives a look that screams “I don’t believe you”.
“Well sucks to be that prick, now what’s the next song?” Zoey asked, off put by this whole curse thing.
“...Just take it into consideration.” Link warned before going onto the next subject. “Now, this next song will help you fly, or at least sprout wings to help you fly.” Link explained. Like before, he played the first three notes of the next song known as the Song Of Soaring. The two followed suit, Zoey needing to help Wendy with finger positions. They were able to get it down well enough. The moment they played the last note, they suddenly sprouted wide angelic wings while those who already have wings, will noticed their wings were glowing.. “Those wings will allow you to fly, however when it comes to teleporting to a location you’ve been to before, their magic will be spent in the progress, thus you’ll need to play the song again to get the wings back. There may be times the golden feathers will be left over from the previous pair, so put them to good use for whichever, maybe give them to a certain tailor.” Link explained.
“Why did my wings glow?” Mike asked.
“They’ve been fueled by magic in order to use the song’s teleportation, except yours will just lose the glow rather than your wings. You can dispel them if you relax.” Link explained just as his wings slowly faded away.
“Nice! Now I won’t need water body to fly anymore!” Zoey says.
“And teleporting will be pretty useful.” Wendy says, Twilight smirked at that.
“To use it, just picture the location in your mind, then wrap your wings around your body. Make sure its not far away, you do need to make a return trip after all.” Link explained to Wendy.
“Return trip?” She asked.
“Yea, I did mention the wings vanish when you teleport and you’ll need to replay the song just to get your wings back. “ Link said as he raised an eyebrow. “Were you not listening?” Link asked.
“I was, just couldn’t think of a reason why I would make one. Wouldn’t you stay where you are if you needed to get somewhere fast and teleported there?” She asked.
“I mean if you were to leave right now and needed to get back, there are songs I still need to teach you among other things after all.” Link explained as he looked at Twilight. “I don’t want to take up too much of your time considering you guys have that celebration to set up.” Twilight doesn’t react immediately, then she grabs Spike and jumps on Mike.
“WE'RE GOING TO BE BEHIND SCHEDULE, TELEPORT NOW!” She shouts, and like that they’re gone.
“And there they go.” Link said as golden feathers scattered where Mike was standing. Link looks toward Wendy. “This next song is called Saria’s song, but i’ve changed it’s magic a bit so that you can speak to anyone you know instead of Saria herself. The song is a little catchy though.” Link explained as he played the first three note. The song was a little bit faster than the other two songs. Zoey followed suit just as well as the others. Wendy had a harder time but eventually got it down. “Similar to the song of soaring, instead of picturing the location in your mind, you need to picture who you want to talk to.” Link explained.
“Do you need to talk out loud or does it work like telepathy, meaning you can just think it?” Zoey asked.
“Either or is fine depending if you’re alone or not.” Link explained as he took a moment to think over the songs. Link lists them off and explains their uses, but each one he told, they declined.
“God knows I don’t need a song to make it rain.” Zoey says.
“Well let’s take a break for now, wanna stop by Sugar Cube Corner?” Wendy asked the two. Link’s pointed ears perked up at the mention of Sugar Cube Corner.
“...That reminds me I'm surprised a certain pink pony didn’t just… you know, zip out of nowhere to say hello. I guess her Pinkie Sense works differently here.” Link said with a shrug. “Sure, but not in this form. While Twilight reacted well to me, I’m not sure if the rest of Ponyville is ready to acknowledge that there are more Displaced.” Link said as he shuffled through his pouch to pull out the unicorn mask.
“You never stepped foot in Ponyville, she only does that when someone new actually enters town.” Wendy points out.
“The Pinkie in my universe would pop out regardless of where I am.” Link said as he turned around, not wanting to sicken Wendy again. Upon putting the mask on and becoming Protective Shield again, he was now ready to go into ponyville.
“…Thank you.” Wendy says.
“Alright come on” Zoey says, dispelling her wings as does Wendy. They lead the way with Link, now as protective shield, followed behind. It doesn’t take them long to reach Ponyville but the single millisecond Shield stepped into town a pink blur homes in on him, reaching him in seconds.
Shield quickly raised his hand. “Yes, I’m new to ponyville, no I don’t plan to live here.” he quickly answered before the hyperactive Pinkster could ask any questions. “I’m just here to take in apart of the Sunset Celebration.”
“Hmm…okie dokie lokie! Hope you enjoy your stay in this universe, crossovers are always interesting.” She says with a smile. She then hops away but not before bumping into Zoey. “Sorry!” She giggles and bounces away.
“…As God as my witness, I will figure out what she’s on and take some of it for myself.” Zoey vows with determination in her eyes.
“She’s always like this, no doubt she’s extra bouncey if she eats too many sugary treats.” Shield said jokingly with a grin. They continue on until they reach their destination, they then headed inside.
POV Twilight
We had arrived at the location we were at when Link made that light show. Afterwards we walk to our next task, check on the one in charge of the music. We followed the song of birds and found a woman named Fluttershy, she’s her namesake for certain. She had taken an interest in Spike and decided to have a conversation with him while we walked home. With the other two distracted I was left to my own thoughts.
‘I’ve always wondered why Mike, Jenny and Sam were so different. Granted, Mike told me upfront that he was from another world but for it to actually be true. The more I think about it, the more everything makes sense. For once in my life I actually understand them.’ I think, feeling a smile came to my face.
Looking at Mike for a moment, my mind goes to the curse on him. ‘Could his displacers really have done that? But his displacers are Sam and Jenny. They may be crazy, especially Jenny, but they’d never do something like that! They helped the Princess with the summoning spell for Celestia’s sake, literally for her sake! If they had malicious intent they would have overthrown her, they have the power to do so.’
No matter how many times I think about it, it doesn’t make sense…so basically the norm when they’re involved.
“I’m sorry if this comes off as mean, but that’s a little hard to believe. Please don’t be upset.” Fluttershy said, she has been listening to Mike talk about the Nightmare Night incident two years ago, it still makes me shiver. ‘So.much.cheese.’
“Yeah but you gotta admit it’s pretty funny.” Spike said.
“No, not at all.” I correct him, I still haven’t gotten over it. ‘If they intentionally brought him here for an important reason, why de-age him? He would have been more useful as an adult then a child. Hmm…maybe I’m forgetting something.’ I cast a spell that allows my body to move and react on its own, then think back to an earlier time.
Ten years ago
I was at home playing with Smartypants when Dad knocked on my door.
“Sweetheart, there’s someone here to see you~!” He says in a sing song voice. Going down stairs I see the Princess, two people in cloaks and a boy.
“Hello my little pony! It’s nice to see you again! Remember when I told you that I wanted you to meet some very special people?” I nod. “These are the ones I was talking about. This is Sam, Jenny and Mike.” She says pointing to them in that order.
“You look familiar, have we met before?” Mike asked me, I shake my head.
“We’re his new caretakers, we messed up a spell and now he’s stuck here.” Sam says, I blink.
“So you two kidnapped him?” I asked, confused.
“Twilight Sparkle!” Mom says, as Sam tries to respond.
“N-no, we simply got the spell wrong and now he can’t return home.” She says.
“…so you two kidnapped him.” I say again, much to my parents dismay.
“…I like you!” Jenny says with a laugh. “Glad you’re our version and not that nut case.” Jenny says, Sam then faces her head away from me and lifts her mask off in Jenny’s direction. Jenny shrinks and holds up her gloved hands. “Sorry!” She says in a regretful tone.
“It’s fine.” Sam says with a sigh. She sees my confused look but waved it off. “Don’t worry about that, we actually came here to introduce you to Mike here.” She says with a smile.
“Nice to meet ya, your brother told me a lot about you but never showed me what you look like.” Mike says offering me a hand, I raised on eyebrow but take his hand.
“He’s told me a bunch about you too, nice to meet you too I guess.” I say half heartedly, not seeing the point in this meeting.
Present
I chuckled at the memory, never would have thought he would turn out to be such a close friend. ‘I think I missed something important, something in that specific moment.’ I think and think but draw blanks. ‘Whatever it is I’ll have to figure it out later.’ Just then I bump into someone without the spell triggering.
“Oh sorry about that, wasn’t paying attention.” I say sheepishly, the person in question was a blonde Pegasus woman with gray skin and golden eyes.
“It’s fine. Special delivery for Twilight Sparkle! Here ya go!” The mystery woman says. Now that I look at her, she is wearing a mailwoman uniform.
“Oh…well thank you.” She nods and walks away after handing me a small yellow box. I decided to open it later, pocketing it, I continue on. I finally reached the library with the others In front of it, after getting the lady to leave us alone we headed inside.
3rd POV
When they stepped in, everything was dark. Wendy could smell the scent of the entire town in here, it was still jarring how much stronger her senses were to her. And just as Wendy’s eyes had adjusted to the darkness, the lights suddenly came on much to her discomfort.
“SURPRISE!” Everyone shouted, and sure enough everyone was here. There was a banner that read: “Welcome to Ponyville Twilight, Spike, Mike and enjoy your stay, Shield!”,it surprisingly fit all that. At that moment, the pony-disguised-hylian blinked in surprise at how they knew.
“...Right, Pinkies always like that; knowing things she shouldn’t know..” Shield said as he glanced around for the pink pony herself.
“That woman is honestly terrifying when you first meet her, as a brony I was aware of her habits but it didn’t prepare me at all. Zoey had an even worse reaction to her.” Wendy says as Zoey shutters.
“She even got my guilty pleasure food right, and not even my closest friends could find that out back home. And we were here for only two days.” Zoey mutters.
“Right.” Shield said with a nod, then silently hoped that Pinkie Pie wasn’t expecting him to go make friends, especially when he’ll be returning back to his world once he’s done here, it would long distance friendship that would be way too far away to make work. Speaking of the party girl, she’s bouncing towards them.
“Were you guys surprised?! Were you were you were you?!” She asked with a Pinkie smile.
“Only mildly.” Shield answered with a smile of his own.
“But you still were, so mission accomplished!” She goes over to Twi and company, and starts her spill while they walk to the food table. There was all sorts of things, including Chocolate mint ice-cream. Zoey gives a sheepish grin at Shield as she takes out her flute and shakes it slightly.
“Oh, right, you asked those questions, but I didn’t expect you’d tell Pinkie.” Shield said with a shake of his head.
“Well I thought that my friend should be well informed so she can properly make a party.” Zoey said with a strange look.
“Pinkie is an amazing cook and the easiest and most effective way to get Zoey to do something, is to have her by the stomach.” Wendy bluntly says with an innocent smile, Zoey glares at her.
Shield chuckled at that. “And knowing Pinkie, she does love to see smiles.” Shield said as he helped himself to a few servings of chocolate chip ice cream. Twilight’s hair and tail suddenly caught on fire, she then ran upstairs. Pinkie goes straight to Zoey and hands her a fairly large box.
“Here ya go, I even throw in a couple extra on the house.” Pinkie says.
“Thanks! Let me know if you need anything else!” Zoey says with enthusiasm before putting the box into her bag. Pinkie rejoined the party, Wendy looks at Shield.
“Is it possible for us to give you some of our abilities? Having water body or the ability to fly would be helpful, or even wind armor.” She asked.
Shield waved his hand. “Yes, but considering how much I already have? I won’t be needing them.” Shield said. They looked at each other then nod.
“If you say so. Though now that I think about it, we should probably actually learn how to properly use our original displace powers and such before we offer it to someone else.” Zoey says.
“Wise choice.” Shield complimented with a nod.
“Hey Wendy, wanna Practice your wind armor? I need to practice water beam and water Slicer.” Zoey asked her.
“Alright but I need to work on my Dragonslayer magic.” Wendy says, She looks to Link. “We’ll be outback, come get us if anything happens or if Pinkie needs Zoey, If ya don’t mind. We’d appreciate it.”
“Hey, it’s no problem, I'll be enjoying my bowl over there in peace till you’re ready to send me back.” Shield said before heading over to the chair in questioning. They chuckle and leave, unaware of the glowing red eyes watching them from the window.
After explaining why they were leaving the party early to Pinkie, they began practicing their magic. Wendy used wind armor and Zoey alternated between water beam and water slicer. They had been making good progress when they decided to take a break and stare up to the twilight sky.
“So…how are you adjusting? You know, to being a girl.” Zoey asked with a rarely seen concerned look.
“It’s been…an experience to say the least. Not like I can really talk to anyone about it. Don’t get me wrong, talking to you about it helps. But save for being in a different body, we aren’t really…” Wendy trails off.
“In the same boat?” Zoey asked. Wendy flinches and looks away. “I’m not upset, it’s perfectly understandable that you feel that way. I got to keep both my gender and name while you didn’t. And talking to Link only helped one of those.” She puts her hand on Wendy’s shoulder and smiles, then grins. “I can’t believe you were up front about it, most guys would have kept it a secret.”
“I was honestly worried you’d tease me about it. Glad I was wrong.” Wendy says with a sigh. Zoey smiled and playfully punched her arm.
“Relax, I can be a massive bitch sometimes but I’d never go that far.” Zoey says in a firm tone. “So…anyone back home you miss?” She asked.
“Family of course, and friends. I had a crush but I blew that long before I came here, it’s pretty stupid though.” Wendy answered with a shrug. “My mind has been elsewhere so I haven’t really thought about it to be honest.” Zoey nods and looks at the moon on the horizon.
‘Huh…didn’t Wendy say that the silhouette would stay there until after that moon chick showed up? Well it was the first episode of the series, mayb he remembered it wrong.’ Zoey thought and shrugs it off…mostly. ‘I've got a real bad feeling, well Juvia had a good sixth sense…so I guess I might have one now to.’
“What are you thinking about?” Wendy asked. Zoey just waved her off. “Well we should probably head back inside, it’s almost time for the celebration.” Zoey nods and they head back inside. She doesn’t know why, but a weird chill went down her spine.
They head to where they last saw the disguised hero, they find him with no problem. “Had fun?” Shield asked.
“Yeah, it’s nice to get away from the noise every now and then. You wanna go to the celebration or do you just wanna go home? I’m pretty sure you’ve went through this too many times to count.” Zoey says.
“Just head on home, I’m sure the mane six can take care of it just fine with some of your help, but of course the multiverse can be a bitch and just alter what happens.” Shield said with a shrug. “But before you utter the words. Is there anything else you’ll need?” Shield asked.
“Actually yes, two things if you don’t mind. One: can you tell us how to make a token? And two: as…unsettling as they are, a mask would help. Have anything that can be used for two people?” Zoey asked, Wendy gives her a look.
“I’d actually feel more confident if we had something like what Goku and Vegeta had, you know, those earring things. If a villain like Irene Belserion is here, I doubt even the Elements could stop her.” Wendy says, Irene’s fight with the original Wendy fresh in her mind. Shield blinked a couple of times, he lowered his head and stroked his chin in thought.
“Possibly, I just need to keep a clear focus on how those potara earrings work.. Heh, surprised I still remember what they’re called. Alright, there were two ways I can do this. Either I fill two masks with void energy while keeping focus of their functionality, or two, I create it from scratch based on how you want it to look.” Shield explained in a quieter voice, not wanting to attract anyone's attention. “Now, if you can help me out and channel your energy as well, it will be less tasking on me.” They look at each other then back to him.
“Well yeah.” Zoey states bluntly.
“We are the ones asking you for this, why wouldn’t we help out? So…how do you channel void energy? Our displacer-“ Zoey twitches in unadulterated rage “-never really explained that to us, or even told us about it.” Wendy says, taking a few steps away from Zoey.
“It is something that’s deep within you. As much as I've learned, it is like the very core of your Displaced body, you just need to close your eyes and reach deep within you, you’ll feel it as something that is a paradoxical chaos, it makes sense and makes no sense.” Shield explained as he took out the ocarina of time. “Once you’ve reached deep and pulled that void energy out, you need to focus it at the center point of the object you wish to create, i’ll be infusing the mask with the Song Of Healing in order to give it it’s transformation properties.” Shield explained.
They did as instructed, and closed their eyes. It took a moment but they felt something more…personal than their regular magic stir, it was on odd experience. They tried to focus solely on the object but for some reason, they couldn’t stop thinking about each other. As silly as it sounds, they had formed a genuine friendship over the small time they spent together, though something felt…off. While they thought about the mask, they couldn’t help but think of themselves acting as one. Two pieces of the same cloth, making something better then they were separate. Shield started to play the Song Of Healing, causing all those memories and thoughts to replay itself, causing the two to relive them as a vivid dream, they felt themselves melt away with the song as it came close to the end, soon they felt their vision softly blur.
Clank-clank
Two things made of metal landed at their feet, causing the two to open their eyes and look down. They see two pieces of a complete mask on the ground that looked Like a split ID mask from Ben 10. But the eyes were blue with one dark blue and one sky blue, the face was also white. A Fairy Tail emblem was in the middle of the forehead, the inside of the emblem was white and the outline was sky blue. The split was evenly zigzagged in the middle. With how calming the song was, no one paid any attention to them and left.
“Huh…is it going to hurt when we put this on, and if so, for how long?” Zoey asked, wondering why it felt lighter than metal should feel.
“It’ll work exactly like the earrings, you put them on, you’ll suddenly start sliding toward each other, there’ll be a flash and you won’t feel a thing. It’ll feel slightly awkward for the first minute or so since you’re a whole different being, you’ll have each others knowledge, powers, emotions, everything. It was either this method, or how Gems fused in steven universe using some kind of dance that’s in rhythm with each other.” Shield whispered to the two. He raised a hand up as a thought acquired to him. “I suggest you try it out alone somewhere in the forest.”
“…our…memories?” They both ask, there is a moment of silence. Suddenly Zoey bursts out laughing while Wendy isn’t sure whether to blush in embarrassment or bang her head on the wall for not seeing this coming, she contemplating doing both.
“Well that’s going to be more awkward than you think. Though I promised Wendy I wouldn’t tell anyone so I can’t really tell you why.” Zoey says, smirking at the girl in question.
“You know I have a great idea, let’s talk about something else! How about making a token, that’s much more important and interesting than whatever Zoey’s talking about!” Wend insists while giving Zoey a warning look. Shield looked between the two, then shrugged as it was none of his business.
“Making the token is the same as before, however you’ll be thinking of what message it plays when it arrives at the other end, the token’s method of summoning, and perhaps a safety trigger incase the summoner turns out to be a bad person, much like when I made my token to allow me to leap into anyone’s mind to speak with them privately.” Shield explained to the dio.
“Well…how about the Air Shatter Cannon? I mean I was supposed to be Wendy before…he screwed up and got you.” Zoey says to Wendy. “So in a way, it kinda represents both of us.” Wendy thinks about it then nods. They go through the steps again, using the one they had as a base. It flashes and then it’s done. It looks the same save for one side being a lighter blue and having a black outline of the fairy tail emblem.
“Ok now for the message, uh…Wendy, you start. Alright, we are Wendy and Zoey. If you want to summon us and you’re not a prick, turn both sides in opposite directions. It doesn’t matter what direction they go as long as it’s opposite. But we can leave whenever we want, and the token will vanish if we want it to.” They say in tandem, Zoey speaking first.
“So…now what?” Zoey asked, kinda light headed. Wendy in a similar state. At the moment, a tear in the fabric of reality opened up, quickly pulling the token in. It closed just as quickly as it opened.
“Your token will replicate itself and spread across the multiverse seeking out other Displaced.” Shield explained just as the original token returned to the duo.
“…huh…well that’s convenient, so how do we send you back?” Zoey asked.
“All you have to do is say ‘Your contract is complete’ and i’ll be well on my way.” Shield explained as he turned around, reached up, and pulled his face, returning back to Link after a brief flash. “Just a small warning. The one who summoned the Displaced, is the only one who can send them back, not unless it was multiple people who summoned said displaced at the same time together.” Wendy nods and gets Mike from across the room. After explaining everything Link told them about the void and displace, Mike looked at Link.
“Your contract is complete. Later dude, thanks for the Magic and all that.” Mike says, understanding a little more about how Twilight has felt for years. With those words ushered, Link’s whole body slowly faded to black, then particle by particle, he was slowly being pulled into what appeared to some twirling black and green portal. They stood there for a second before Zoey broke the silence.
“Could you imagine how the townspeople would have reacted to that? Would’ve been funny as hell.” She says, unaware that Wendy was more focused on the mask than at her. Mike chuckles at Zoey, just as unaware as her.
"A-CHOO!" Wendy sneezed with a shiver, the after effects of the fight catching up.
"Bless you. You alright?" Mike asked, giving her a concerned look. She nods and smiles.
"Yeah thanks, it's just a sneeze. Nothing to worry about." She says, though her off sounding voice betrayed her. Before Zoey could say anything, Twilight came down with a panicked expression.
"ITS GONE!" She yells. Everyone looks at her in confusion, even Spike who came down with her.
"Wha?" Everyone including Spike asked, Twilight's left eye twitches.
"The silhouette on the moon is gone! It's not supposed to be gone until it reaches midnight and it's only 11:54pm!" Twilight explained. She was expecting concerned and terrified reactions, she was severely disappointed.
"Well it was a pretty *cough* old prophecy, it's highly possible that the one who made it was slightly off. Could you blame them? I doubt they had a lot of resources to work with, so it's pretty impressive that it was that close." Wendy reasoned. Twilight sighs and rubs her face.
"I guess you're right. When you think about it, it's actually pretty logical that it was slightly off." She says in an aggravated tone, she then looked at Mike. "Come on, let's get going. Here's some "magic for fouls" books I want you to read, the sooner you get the basics down the sooner I can teach you what I know. We'll also have to sign you up for classes on magic, maybe your mentors could help too." She says in an "I'm NOT taking no for an answer!" tone, handing him said books.
"Alright gees, I'll read them!" Mike said exasperated! She was basically shoving them into his chest, but was only doing it because she cared. "Well we'll see you girls at the celebration. And Wendy, make sure you tell Zoey about what we talked about!" And with that, Mike, Twilight and Spike leave. Zoey gives Wendy a questionable look.
"By order of the Princess, Mike is to stay at our house until we prove not to be a threat." Wendy says. Noticing Zoey's upset look, Wendy continues. "Don't worry, everything will be fine. There's laws in place for this type of situation, as long as we follow the law until we prove ourselves, he has to treat us like any other pony. He can stay in our home but if he does anything that's immoral to us or our possessions, he'll be removed permanently from our home. He also has to pull his weight, he showed me an up to date law book when I gave him the same look you gave me." She explained.
"I guess that's reassuring, come on." Zoey says with a groan, missing Wendy's coughing fit.
At the celebration everything was set, Mike was reassuring Twilight about the prophesy while the mayor was rapping up her speech.
"And without further ado, it is my highest honor to introduce, Princess Celestia!" The mayor announced as the curtains to reveal…someone who wasn't Celestia or Nightmare Moon, she was a grey unicorn. Her hair was shoulder length with bangs, it was bright yellow with white streaks spread out through it. Her eyes were as yellow as her hair, though it looked like it was red close to the pupils but it was hard to tell. She was wearing a red vest with a white shirt underneath. She had black jeans and white tennis shoes.
"Sorry to disappoint you, but the Princess seems to have not arrived yet. Please wait calmly and patiently for her arrival, thank you for your corporation." The lady says before turning to leave.
"Wait!" Rainbow yelled. Wendy could hear the lady mutter something in a language she didn't know. But from the sound of her voice, it wasn't pleasant. She turned to address Dash with slight annoyance.
"Yes Rainbow haired girl, what do you need from me." She said with a forced smile, Zoey could relate to that.
"It's Rainbow Dash and don't you forget it!" RD says with a smirk. The lady, AJ, Mike, Twilight and Zoey all rolled their eyes.
"Yes Ms 'Dash', what is it?" The lady asked again, reminding Mike of his former School teacher when his caretakers, the guards and the princess was busy.
"What do you mean she's not here!?" Rainbow clarified with agitation, she just gives Rainbow a stupefied look.
"........what do you THINK I mean by that!? She.Isn't.he-" before she can finish, blue smoke fills the area. It then condenses on the balcony to form Nightmare Moon. She was wearing a bipedal version of the armor she wore in the show. But it covered more vital areas then the other version and was silver instead of blue. It also had a purple cloth hanging from the bottom half of the chest plate. There were crescent moons on the top and bottom of the chest plate. In her hand was a scythe, the blade looks like a crescent moon complete with craters. It gave off a moon like glow, it looked kinda beautiful actually.
"Apologies, art we int'rrupting thee two?" she says, grinning at them. Dash gives her a confused look.
"Art? We? Thee? Why are you talking like Shakespeare!?" Dash asked, surprising Wendy and Zoey that Shakespeare exists here.
"Silence thee issue! doth thee knoweth who is't we art!?" Nightmare Moon asked enraged, confusing Dash even more.
"She said "silence you child. Do you know who we are?" Twilight explained, before looking at the woman in question. "I don't suppose you know how to speak modern English?" Nightmare Moon thinks for a moment.
"We…do…know a little,…though we prefer the other way." She says with difficulty.
"Alright just talk how you were before, I'll translate what you say." Twilight says, Nightmare moon nods.
"I don't give a flying buck who you are! I wanna know what's going on with the Princess! So spill it, what's the deal?" Dash said before looking at the lady from before. She on the other hand, was more interested in listening to her music with her headphones then acknowledging what was going on around her. Before the Alicorn could strangle her, Twilight steps in.
"You're the lady in the moon, Nightmare Moon!.…Though I don't remember the book saying you had a scythe and talked like that." She says in mild confusion.
"(That is correct child, I guess some of you actually were raised well enough to have basic manners after all)." Twilight translates for Nightmare Moon, while the woman in question glared at Dash in disdain. Dash faces away from the crowd so the children don't see her flipping NM the bird, then continued trying to get that lady's attention and failing miserably.
"Hey! Either find a private room and kiss or get on with it! I have better things to do then watch an old moon chick and a young rainbow haired prick arguing!" Zoey shouted, earning their attention.
"OLD!?" Nightmare Moon asked/shouted, her gaze turning murderous. "At least we can claimeth our looks art actually ours, unlike thee, wench!" After Twilight whispered what "wench" ment, Zoey glared at Nightmare Moon. "(Enough with this, the night will last forever!)" Twilight translated for Nightmare Moon before the woman in question flew off.
"Wait, what did she just say?" Rainbow asked, now paying attention.
"Pretty sure she just declared that she's keeping it night." Mike said, before noticing a weird lack of purple. "…Twilight? Spike?"
"If you're looking for the girl and that scaled creature, the ran out of here the moment the Alicorn left. They left in a hurry, the girl looked like she would tear all her hair out at any moment for some reason." The lady from before said.
"I was talking about her comment on Zoey's looks but that to I guess." Rainbow says, making Zoey and Wendy go wide eyed in realization at that. "Come on! I got some questions for her, and maybe the kid too."
"No. No! NO! where is it!?" Twilight ranted as she looks around the library, she was searching the library for the book on about the Elements. After coming across a book titled "Helements of Armory", she just screamed in frustration and threw it as hard as she could. She took a few moments to get over the lightheadedness she felt after the scream, she then continued searching. Mike suddenly came bursting in while brandishing a knife, giving a concerned look.
"TWILIGHT! ARE YOU OK!? WHATS GOING ON!?" He yelled, looking for any threats around.
"I'm fine, calm down you goof ball." Twilight said making a "calm down" gesture with her hands.
"Good, so you can answer my questions. What's going on? Are you with that Alicorn pony that showed up? Nightmare Moon was it?" Rainbow says/asked in suspicion.
"An ancient enemy of Equestra has came back from her thousand year banishment to the moon, don't ask me how she could have survived something like that because I don't know. No, you literally saw me casually walking in town with our childhood friend who was sent here with me. Yes that's her name, she's from a well known legend by the way." Twilight answers without missing a beat. "Now can you help me? I'm trying to find a book on the Elements of Harmony."
"Found it~! It had tape over it reading "Helements of Armory" on it. It blended really well with the cover, this is the third book in here that has hard to see tape on them." Pinkie suddenly says with a smile. Rainbow sneaks a glance at Zoey who chuckles at her, Rainbow chuckles as well and smirks at Zoey for the first time since they met.
"…when I find out who did that, I'm gonna strangle them!" Twilight vows with rage. "In any case, it looks like their in the castle of the two sisters.…that's oddly convenient considering how close we are. You all can go about your night, I can handle this on my own." She says, already walking outside. Everyone save for Zoey, Wendy and Mike chased after her.
"…aren't you going after her? You looked pretty concerned for her well being earlier." Zoey questioned Mike who chuckles.
"Relax, Spike went with them. He may not look it, but he's pretty tough when it matters. And if he isn't enough, Dash and Twilight will be." He says with confidence in his eyes before they hardened. "I'm more worried about our missing Princess. You girls can go after Twilight if you want, but I'm checking on the princess!"
"Pretty sure if it's something that can stop someone who can move the sun, then a single Pegasus who just got magic isn't going to be enough. We should come too, you can use that song Link taught us to get there." Zoey says. Wendy agrees, still not totally convinced something will go wrong. And with that, they vanished in a flurry of golden feathers.
They appeared outside the castle entrance, the girls are stunned at the scenery while Mike smerks at them. He then frowns as an "important" pony make himself known.
"What are those creatures doing here? You, Pegasus boy! What are those things doing here?" A gaudy pony asked in disgust.
"First of all his name is Mike, second of all-" Zoey starts before getting waved off by the pony, though Zoey did earn a appreciative smile from Mike.
"Second of all-" Mike continued with a glare. "They aren't things, they're humans! Now what do you need? I'm a very busy stallion."
"What I need is for those ruffians to be thrown out of this fine city and back to whatever dump they came from!" The gaudy pony said with a huff.
"No." Mike bluntly said before addressing the girls. "Come on, right this way." He says. He completely ignored the gaudy pony and walked away, the two right behind him much to that pony's fury. Zoey subtly drenched the pony in ice cold water before they left, earning a grin from Mike and Wendy and a shrike in surprise from the gaudy pony.
"-so that's basically all you need to know, I'll take my leave now." Someone with a familiar voice says. When the three got close enough, they saw that lady that was fussing at Dash earlier. Mike clears his throat, gaining her attention. "Oh, you must be that Mike fellow ponies keep mentioning. My name is Storm Bringer, I manage the weather here in Canterlot." She says, offering a hand, Mike takes it and gives it a shake. 'When she's not angry, she's actually pretty cute.' Mike thinks, his heart skipping a beat.
"Nice to officially meet you, I was at the celebration. You were oddly aggressive towards that Rainbow haired women, could you please explain why? Also I know teleportation is a thing but normally teleporting this far is only possible for ponies with a special talent for magic or are much older. You appear to be almost the same age as me and if your special talent was magic, you would have worked in a job that focuses more on magic then anything else." Mike asked. Storm made a pretty unladylike laugh before getting herself under control.
"Forgive me, but I am much older than I look." She says with a grin, Mike gives her a disbelieving look. "Also I could ask you the same thing, how did you get here so quickly?"
"A friend who calls himself Protective Shield helped with that, he's from out of town. He told that Dash pony he was going to help with the celebration but he had to go back home." Mike truthfully says.
"Huh, I'll have to look into him later. Well as I've said, I'm much older than I look, though I doubt you believe me from that look you're giving me. I teleported here after you all left after that purple pony. As for my aggression, I've been having trouble with my anger and lack of patience since a certain accident open my eyes long ago. I'd appreciate if the next time you see her, you'd apologize for me. I'd do it myself but I'm a busy-." She says before hearing a sneeze, she turns to the sound and sees Wendy and Zoey then stiffens.
"Bless you." Mike says before looking at Storm and notices barely visible sparks around her horn.
"…w-what are you two-!?" Before she can finish, Mike jumps in.
"Calm down miss, they're with me." He says with a calming smile. Wendy made calming gestures.
"Yeah, what h-*cough*- he said. We mean you no harm, maybe we can be friends! I'm Wendy, and this is Zoey." Zoey waves, smiling. "We just wanted to check on the princess, under Mike's supervision of course!" Wendy explained.
"…alright." Storm says slowly before shaking her head. "Right, my deepest apologies. Someone of my standings shouldn't jump to conclusions like that and judge others I…just met. Forgive me, I wasn't thinking." She says still a little tense but no longer generating electricity, they wave it off.
"Well if you don't mind, we need to get going. Feel free to tag along if you want, the more the merrier." Mike says. Storm smiles and follows them.
One step forwards, two steps back, three steps forwards.
'You know in retrospect, I probably should have seen this coming.' I think, long since over my rage.
"Twilight?" AppleJack asked, unnerved by how long I've been silent. She is met with more silence.
'Everything was going well, too well. I'm actually a little embarrassed about my earlier shock.' I continued thinking, devoid of anything but acceptance of the situation.
"Twi?" This time Spike asked in a concerned tone since normally the only times I act this calm when something goes wrong, are when Mike and/or his caretakers are involved.
'Princess Celestia, Shiny, Sam and Jenny of all told me numerous times that when a mission is going bizarrely well (especially if it's a really important one), that almost always means something is going to go horribly wrong.'
"D-darling please say something, or at least make a face!" Rarity pleads since my face is completely blank of any expression and/or emotion. I ignore her and look down at the floor completely covered in spikes, we were in a magic nullifying cage suspended in the air.
'Plus I never considered that an ancient national enemy would have taken our attempt in account. Mike's going to laugh when he finds out I didn't take all the information I had into account. Actually no he won't, but he'd be completely justified in doing that. Hell as weird as it sounds I'm hoping he does, would definitely make me remember the stupid error I made in my arrogance.' Pinkie's trying to get me to respond to anything, from telling jokes to trying slap stick. Fluttershy is acting like a doctor and trying to find some sorta injury that explains what's going on with me. That was the case with that manticore so I don't blame her for trying. Rainbow then comes close enough that I can just see her in my peripheral vision.
"Alright Twilight. I know we didn't start off on the right foot, but hear me out. I know this looks hopeless, but we can't just-" she starts to say before my finger is placed on her lips in a shushing manner.
"Shhhhhhhhhhh~." I shush her before taking a pause, I then looked down to the bound and now formally gagged rainbow haired women. Out of all of us she put up the most fight when we woke up, so I honestly had more respect for her then I did when we first met. "Do you know why I'm acting the way I am? Do any of you know? Anyone at all?" I asked in a monotone voice, they shake their heads.
"To be honest, some parts are kinda fuzzy." Applejack says, the others nod.
"Well let's go over it, feel free to let me know if I missed something." I suggest, they all agree.
"…sooo…I'm just going to assume you all didn't hear me or that I stuttered, so I'll repeat myself. Go home, I'll handle this myself." I said, confident that I took care of what was obviously a misunderstanding between us. They did not agree apparently.
"Oh no we heard you and you didn't stutter, we just don't care." Rainbow Dash said in the same matter of fact tone I'm normally the one to use. 'So this is how it feels to have someone talk to you like that. If I had known that, I would have used it a lot more growing up.' I think.
"Plus we heard you say where the elements are, so you really can't stop us from going. You can either have us tag along and take us into account for whatever plan you come up with, or have six unknown variables that might unintentionally throw a wrench into whatever plan you make. What's it going to be?" Spike says with a smug grin, I gave him a look that's both livid and proud.
"…fine." I groaned. "Wait six? What about the other three?" I asked in confusion, now noticing the absence of the three "Displace" as Link called them.
"They probably went to check on the princess. I mean, the sun princess didn't show up at an event centered around her, and at the time and place an ancient evil who hates the day is the one to actually show up. Looking for her makes a lot more sense then looking for artifacts we don't really know how to use, to stop someone powerful enough to stop Princess Celestia." Spike reasoned.
"You…actually have a point there, glad he's got that covered." I say, relieved at that. I then made my way into the forest, everyone else following behind me.
"It took you that long to come to that conclusion?" Asked the women herself in bewilderment, Princess Celestia. She was in a different cage but still in view. "I don't mean to be rude but still! I'm feeling a little forgotten here."
"D-Don't feel upset p-p-princess. I my not have been there *pant* *pant* but I heard that a weird spike of power appeared i-in…Ponyville, so her mind might not have totally been there." Sam said, severely injured. She had waist length black hair, and peach skin which was pretty pale due to blood loss. Her eyes were covered by her hair, so I couldn't see them. Jenny was right next to her in a similar state. She had yellow hair just as long as Sam's and had peach colored skin, but I couldn't see her eyes due to her laying down facing the opposite direction of me.
"What happened to you two? Mike made you two out to be unbeatable but you two are barely clinging onto life." Rainbow asked in concern......in her own special way.
"Gee thanks." Sam said sarcastically. Seeing Rainbow's guilty look, she decided not to hold a grudge. After repositioning herself so she could talk without straining herself, she gave Rainbow a warm smile. "It's quite alright child, I took no real offense to it. Mike told us quite a bit about you, so I know you mean well. Just think about what you're going to say before you say it, alright?" She said in a tone normally used when a mother is scolding her child. And sure enough, Rainbow nods in the same way said child would after a scolding.
"Well…what happened? If you don't mind that is." Fluttershy asked, her concern for their health overpowering her shyness for the moment.
"I don't mind at all." Sam stated, surprising everyone save for Twilight, Spike, Celestia and Jenny that she could actually hear Fluttershy. "Basically the princess went missing a little after Twilight, Spike and Mike left for Ponyville. Me and Jenny went out looking for her and found her unconscious in front of two people. One was Nightmare moon and the other was someone from an old forgotten land. This being was and still is a very powerful lightning Dragonslayer, powerful enough to almost have taken Celestia's magic and take control of the sun and moon even with me and Jenny there."
"I'm sorry, a what-slayer?" Spike asked, going wide eyed.
"Uhh…dragon." Sam says slowly and cautiously. Spike then gets into a fetal position and hyperventilates. "Calm down, you have nothing to fear." Spike stops and slowly turns his head to her, and gives her an "You can't be serious" look.
""Nothing to fear"!? I'm not sure if you've noticed, but I am a dragon!" Spike yells. Sam just stares at him.
"…I've noticed, kinda hard to miss you know." she says, before clearing her throat. "What I mean is, they went through the trouble of containing you. It would be kinda redundant to kill you now, especially since you're not that powerful. Now carry on with the story, if you would be so kind." Noticing Me glaring at her, Sam sighs in acknowledgment. "I'm sorry for being rude. I was brushing off your justified concern and was acting immature. Will you forgive me?" She said and asked genuinely. Spike smiles and nods before looking at me, though everyone could tell he was still panicking on the inside.
"We had cleared all the hurdles in our way and entered the ruined castle." I said.
"Finally! Took us ages to get here!" Rainbow exclaimed, everyone else groans in agreement.
"At least you didn't have to walk, my feet are killing me!" I exclaimed in pain, taking a moment to messog my feet.
"Darling I don't mean to be rude, but should you really be doing that when we're still on a mission to save Equestra?" Rarity asked.
"…fine, how are your feet not hurting?" I asked, noticing her calm expression.
"Oh please darling! When you're in the fashion business, you learn to ignore feet pain. Trust me when I say, I'm used to it." Rarity said, brushing her hair with a smile.
"Uh girls, the elements?" Applejack reminds us.
"You forgot about them?" Jenny asked in confusion. She is met with silence before I continue, ignoring her complaints.
I had just sent everyone else away so I could preform the "ritual" and give the elements the spark. I was three quarters of the way done with the embarrassing dance and song when I heard laughter worthy of pinkie pie.
"This ritual is complete and total bull, isn't it?" I ask without opening my eyes.
"We art afraid so issue, well, ev'rything saveth f'r the "spark"" Nightmare Moon says with a chuckle, putting away her phone with a camera.
"You have a phone? And you know how to use it!?" I asked in shock.
"Aye i doth. Though the "texting" and "emojis" thee all useth art quite confusing. What doest this sayeth?" Nightmare Moon asked.
"Let me see here. "Sup NM 🙂! Just finished my end, find me when U R done on your end. Also we might have a problem 😅. Wrap your job up quickly but make sure the job is actually done before leaving 😠. And for the love of whatever deity you worship, make sure no one reads the texts I send you😒". Well someone is gonna be in trouble." I read while translating what all that ment before smirking at a blushing Nightmare Moon. She then gave me a look.
"…Thee doth realizeth we art going to killeth thee to saveth ourselves, right?" Nightmare Moon asked bluntly. I raised a finger like I was going to answer, then booked it without saying a word. "Halt!" She screamed in fury before giving chase.
I was met with silence before one by one, everyone started laughing at me.
"Well I guess now we know why you were screaming like Applebloom when she broke the oven. Girl had enough energy to run to the other side of Ponyville from the farm, and her screaming made it easy to chase her with a belt." Applejack said, cracking up at the memory.
"Oh, I remember that! You were as red as Big Mac, and Applebloom was as pale as Rarity!" Pinkie said with a giggle.
"Then we came running and found you fighting her, and a bunch of shards on the floor." Spike said, bringing the conversation back on track.
I teleported behind Nightmare Moon and shot three sharp magic beams at her. She gracefully dodges all of them before brandishing her scythe, she then shoots towards me. She must have been toying with me because I managed to dodge her attack, albeit barely. Wanting to put some distance between us, I let loose a magical flash to blind her. In her confusion I managed to put a magic nullifying ring on her horn, high grade earth pony restraints around her ankles and steal her scythe. When she comes to her senses she grins at the ring and restraints like an adult would grin at a little kid's novice art project. She sees me with her scythe and laughs before before casually walking forward and breaking the restraints (which by the way cost 200 bits) with ease. She then snaps the ring (which cost 400 bits) in half like it was a tooth pick before the scythe started glowing, the last thing I heard before everything went dark was her laughing and you all shouting my name.
"And that's all I remember. So *clap* what happened while I was sleeping?" I asked with a fake smile, everyone grinning in an embarrassed way.
"I charged straight at her at full speed in blind rage, but she used telekinesis to stop me. Then everything went dark." Rainbow said, avoiding eye contact.
"She teleported right in front of me and I fainted." Fluttershy muttered, hiding behind her hair.
"I tried to lasso her but she caught it and yanked it, flinging me into Rarity." Applejack said, making her hat cover her face.
"And that knocked both of us out, though it seems she was willing to heal the damage to our skulls." Rarity continued, rubbing what I assumed was the area she got hit.
"I shot a fire beam at her but she put up a shield, then I tried attacking her with my claws. While I did land a few hits, they didn't do much. She then used a sleeping spell on me, though it took a little longer because of my magic resistance." Spike said, holding up his claws.
"While everyone else was fighting that meanie pants, I saw some weird but shiny rocks on the floor. I picked them up and stuffed them in my hair! I ran over to Dashie to try to wake her up but she went all glowy and I felt reeaally sleepy all of a sudden, so I took a nap." Pinkie said while giggling before taking some of the rocks out. The "rocks" turned out to be the fragments of the elements. Before I had the chance to decide whether I wanted to hug her or strangle her, I hear the sound of a door opening.
Mike's POV-moments before the mane 6 and spike reached the forest
We had walked a good distance in the castle, during the walk, Zoey had brought up her, Wendy and my situation as displaced. Among other things, like how she and Wendy met.
"So all three of you are stuck here with no way to go home?" Storm asked with a frown on her face.
"Yep." Wendy and Zoey said at the same time.
"I don't even remember much of my old home, it's been awhile since I've been there." I say with a shrug. It may seem a little cold hearted, but I didn't see the point in getting sad about not being able to return to a place I don't really remember.
"And that women you saw, did she seem strange in any way? I know you didn't see her face, but surely something caught your attention." Storm asked Wendy who shrugged.
"No, nothing out of the ordinary, in fact, she felt like she belonged there. That being said, I didn’t even realize she was gone until I looked, and I have super sharp hearing and sense of smell. So maybe there's something I missed. I mean, Ponyville is like a magnet for odd things, so I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case.” Wendy explained with a shrug.
"…How do you know that, about the town being a magnet for odd things? According to you, you two have only been there a week. Not to mention that nothing of note really happens in that town. The celebration and that evil Alicorn are the first strange things to happen in that town since its founding, if the history books are anything to go by." Storm asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Huh?" Wendy asked with a surprised look on her face. 'She must've forgotten the point in time we're in, guess Ponyville gets really exciting in the future. Gonna have to drill her for info, I mean, we're both in the same situation so we should be on the same page.' I think before stopping in front of Celestia's door, and the two guards currently stationed here.
"What do you mean "huh"? There's a blatant contradiction in your st-OH! Looks like we're here. Sorry Mike, I wasn't paying attention." Storm apologized after bumping into me.
"It's fine, I should have said something ahead of time." I reassure her with a smile, I then looked to the unicorns guarding the princess' bedroom door.
"What business do you have with the princess? If you're unaware, she's currently attending a celebration in the town called Ponyville." The guard on the right said with authority.
"If you're here to get into her room, I'm afraid you'll have to leave this area of the castle. You may be the adopted son of…those two…but that does not give you clearance to restricted areas, like the princess' chamber." The guard on the left said with the same level of authority. 'I recognize those voices, as if these two could actually stop me.' I mentally chuckle, using all my will power to not grin.
"'Those two'?" Zoey asked, probably curious about who he meant. The guards stiffened when she said that, before the guy on the right gave them a look.
"…I am always here, but I never stop running. Try as you might, you can never get me back. Though I'll never truly leave your side, I can be cruel or kind as I run by. What am I?" He says.
"Uh." Wendy says in confusion.
"I am often used as a symbol of harmony between the three races. What am I?" The guy on the left asked.
"The fu-?" Zoey started before the guy on the right interrupted her.
"I am the fruit of two forces made one. I come when they are not enough. What is my name, what do I represent?" He said.
"What in Tartarus are you on about?" Storm asked, Wendy, Zoey and I nodding in agreement.
"Don't worry about it." The one on the left said.
"In any case, what business do you all have?" The one on the right asked.
"The princess never showed, and an Alicorn who hates the day crashed the show. Here's a picture one of the photographers took." I said, handing righty the picture.
"…Ma'am, are you just sitting there and arguing with some rainbow haired Pegasus while a hostile Alicorn was threatening everyone present, including you?" Righty asked Storm in bewilderment, actually braking from his military attitude. Lefty is in a similar state, looking back and forth between the picture and the woman in question.
"No." Storm answers bluntly, causing them to sigh in relief. "I was ignoring her and everything else entirely. Look, it even shows me with headphones on while I listen to music." She said, pointing at herself in the picture. Righty's left eye twitches while lefty rubs the bridge of his nose.
"In any case-." Lefty said, clearly annoyed with Storm's lack of concern for what was clearly a national threat. "-given the circumstances, we'll check in the princess' chamber to see if she really is missing." He said before motioning righty to look inside, he walks in shortly after righty's gesture. A few moments later, righty returns with a concerned and scared look.
"She's not there, but she left a letter for…those two. I didn't read it, but it's probably a note telling them an important assignment. I for one nominate Mike to give it to them." He said, trying to hide his fear. His partner nods in agreement.
"Excellent idea, he'd definitely know where to look with how much time he's spent with them! Mike, Equestra might depend on…them…receiving this letter, make your country proud son!" Lefty said with a firm nod, they both salute to me. I returned the salute with a mental sigh. 'Given Jenny's insanity and the fact that Sam can actually handle Jenny's insanity with a loving smile, I honestly can't blame them for wanting no part in this. Especially with how powerful they are and how on-edge they've been lately.' I motion for my group to follow me as I walk away from those clowns and head for a quiet area with a window.
"What do you think that was about, you know, those riddles?" Zoey asked the rest of us.
"No idea, the middle one sounded like an Alicorn, but I'm not sure about the other two." Storm answered with a shrug. "In any case, where to Mike?" She asked me, but not without stealing glances at Wendy, most likely because of her earlier contradiction. I think for a moment before giving them my thoughts on the matter.
I would have asked Wendy or Zoey to play that teleporting wings song that Link taught them, but Storm was here. Sam and Jenny both drilled it into my head to not show my full hand to anyone unless they're my other half, whatever that means. Storm seemed trustworthy, but I can't judge a book by its cover. So I decided that we should fly there, everyone agreed. Since neither Wendy nor Zoey were good enough flyer yet and Zoey's flying would drench Storm, I had to pick her up and fly her to the destination. It would have been no big deal if not for one thing, it was incredibly awkward. Don't get me wrong, I've done this for countless other women (I don't mean it like that, he's not that type of guy). The problem was her specifically, and how she talked.
"Wow this view is amazing, a girl could mistake this as a date attempt. Hey Mike, you're not trying to make a move on me, are you?" Storm asked with a grin, causing me to blush. 'Why is she like this!?' I think with a mental moan.
"No I'm not." I say, trying to suppress my blush.
"Oh really? Then why are you blushing? And your pulse tells me your heart is racing, care to explain that?" She asked with a teasing smile.
"Yes really. I'm blushing because of both all the comments you've made this entire flight, and all the gestures and signs Zoey has been making for a while. My quick pulse is because of the situation with the princess and how quickly I'm flying." I answered with a grunt.
"*Giggle* If you say so~" Storm says with a grin. I roll my eyes but keep my mouth shut, after a few more minutes Wendy grabs my attention.
"Uh dude, is that the place?" She asked in confusion while pointing to the area she was talking about. I follow were her finger is pointing, and my heart drops. Due to Sam and Jenny's…unique qualities…they have a secluded area outside of Canterlot, right now it looked trashed. Those two might go crazy every now and then with their training, but they always put a self repair spell in place, in case they go overboard. Giving a quick warning to Storm, I sped down to what was formally a house. After I safely put storm down, I flew to my childhood home. The damage was even worse up close, and I felt cold at the sight of it. There were scorch marks everywhere, from the destroyed house to the wrecked yard. The ground was soaked as if a tsunami came through, and the trees looked like a hurricane came through. I noticed glittering objects scattered everywhere, a closer look told me they were fragments of the gems enchanted with the self repair spell. Whoever or whatever attacked them, was powerful enough to overpower the enchantments.
I continue looking around to find new boulders lodged into the ground, I'm not even sure how many boulders were there. I noticed that all the boulders have the same scorch marks on them, the scorch marks themselves are in the shape of a hand. I'm so rapped up in my head, I failed to notice Wendy approaching me until she put her hand on me.
"Listen I know this is bad, but we need to focus on finding your folks. Let's check the house, maybe there's something in there that can tell us what happened and where those two might of gone." She says in a comforting voice, I shakily nod. 'Whoever caused this is going to pay!'
"Come on, let's check the house." I say before walking towards the house in question, I hear them following from behind.
Once I reach the house, I quickly walk through the now doorless doorway. With the light from the moon, I'm able to make out all the damages. The living room sofa was overturned and one side was bashed into the floor, the kitchen table was broken in half, as if someone fell on it hard. I checked their room, surprisingly it's intact. I checked my room, it's intact, it even looks cleaner then I left it. As I look, I noticed my old drawer is slightly open. Looking inside, I see a bag and a horribly written note that smells like alcohol.
swup bitches? miyke, if oyu readiang this, dnoq't tocuh this bag! it's mifne! it's la special ahammerspace baag thmat ctan store a carp ton of stuvff. i'm nolt sayilng what's in itr, because of about to pass out. and if itl's kyou sweetie, forget uoy saw i,t plealse! i'll meake it worth it if you doj.
"I have absolutely no idea what this note says. Oh well, if it's in my room then it must be for me." I concluded with a shrug and grabbed the bag. I sigh before coming out of my room, but not before grabbing a piece of paper and pencil. Quickly writing down a note, I grasp Link's token and change into my wolf form. Grabbing the note with my mouth, I head downstairs. 'This paper tastes terrible, glad I have snacks in my coat pocket to get rid of the taste. Man it's so great that ponies without magic don't have to use their mouths to do things, that'd really suck.' I think, snorting at such an absurd concept.
"-You should have seen it, the dude made it rain bright arrows! I've gotta see if I can replicate that, it'd look so cool!" I hear Zoey say. 'Is she talking about Link? Well I guess there's no point in hiding this.' I mentally sigh before changing back, I then use a very basic fire spell to burn the note. Twilight had wanted to see where I was in terms of magic power, so she had me practice some spells during the walk to the celebration. As it turns out, I have a strong affinity for fire, most likely from the princess. I say that because every time I attempt this spell, my magic aura gains a flicker of yellow in it.
"Hey." I say, gaining there attention.
"Look who's back, I see you've calmed down a bit. Zoey was telling me about Shield, and about the lightshow that happened earlier today. She also told me about the songs he taught you all. Tell me, why didn't you use that to get here quicker?" Storm asked, giving me a suspicious look.
"Simple, he taught them the song, not me. I don't know why they didn't use it, ask them. Also I don't have authority over them, so I can't really order them to do anything." I honestly answer. I may have wanted to keep it a secret, but I never told Wendy and Zoey that. They could have easily suggested we use the song of soaring to get here, they just decided to go with my plan to fly.
"He's right, plus I think you need to physically learn the song from someone else before you can actually use it on your own. Mike never bothered to actually ask Shield to teach him. I actually forgot we could do that to be honest." Wendy said with a shrug.
"Oh." Storm said, it was her turn to blush.
"Well anyway, did you find any clues?" Wendy asked. I shake my head. "Well I'd love to help, but all the water and fire is making it impossible to smell their scent. I can only smell us here…let's read the letter. If there's nothing helpful on it, I could at least use it to track the princess' scent." Seeing my shocked expression, she explained. "People like me can track people by smell, and the princess was the one who wrote that note. The note should still have her scent, so hurry and open the letter." She says, I smile. 'Good, looks like I can keep that card a secret. Gonna have to ask those two what they told that unicorn.' I open the letter and we all read it.
Dear Sam and Jenny
How have you two been? I hope you're adjusting well to this era. I know the stasis spell has left you two with…mental scars, especially since you were aware of the passage of time. If either or both of you ever want to talk about it, my door is always opened. I hope you two are well enough to attend the celebration, you two really need to socialize with my little ponies. That being said, I won't force you two if you're not ready yet. I know the nobles (or as Jenny put it, 'adult brats') have repeatedly tried you girls' patience, but you shouldn't let a few bad apples spoil the batch. Just give it some thought, if you won't do it for yourselves, then do it for me.
Your friend, Celestia
P.s. I've been hearing rumors of some shady deals happening in Canterlot, I'm worried it might be more serious then the average troublemaker we have to deal with every now and then. I'd be extremely grateful if you both could keep an eye and ear out for anything out of the ordinary. Mike is going with Twilight and Spike, so he can let us know if anything happens in Ponyville. Be sure to inform him of this development as soon as you can. I would do it myself, but I can't get him alone without the reporters causing a scandal. Sometimes I wish I had been stricter when concerning them, but I know that would have led to a scandal.
"Huh…so looks like I'll have three jobs in Ponyville." Mike said with a concerned look. Noticing the others' confused looks, he explained. "Job one: watch Wendy and Zoey. Job two: report anything out of the ordinary to the princess and/or my folks. Job three: make sure Ponyville is safe from any threat while I'm here. Alright Wendy, lead the way." He said, handing her the letter. Taking it, she got a wiff of the scent and followed the trail, everyone else following behind.
About 30 minuets later, we see what looked like a camp site in the distance. After Wendy confirmed the scent was in that direction, we quickly flew towards it. When we got close enough, we hid in some bushes that were a decently far from it and hid. Storm must’ve noticed my expression, because she put a sound barrier around us.
"You know how to preform a sound barrier?" I asked Storm, she nods.
"During my time off, and my breaks, I like to have peace and quiet while I wind down or have a hangover after drinking with friends and colleagues. Trust me, having a sound barrier on hand is a God sent during a hangover, especially after the days ponies I deal with at work all decide to be idiots and I have to fix their messes! You don't know how hard it is to not snap and just punch them, I honestly come close to doing that every now and then." She groans, rubbing her temples.
“Preach.” Zoey said, with a knowing look.
“Anyway, we need to scout out the camp, we don’t know if they’ll be hostile or not. Zoey, while talking with Applejack, I learned you can turn your body into water. I need you to do so now and sneak towards the camp, if it’s no trouble that is.” I say, she agreed with a shrug. “Storm, Wendy, I have some scrolls enchanted with invisibility. We can use those to get close and scope them out, they'll last until we attack, use magic or interact with anything.”
“I can cast invisibility on myself, so no thank you.” Storm says with a wave.
“Why do you have scrolls of invisibility?” Wendy asked me.
“Found them, among other things, in a bag I found in my room dresser." I answered. 'Half of the stuff in this bag would've landed even the most influential person with a death penalty. I'm definitely going to have to ask those two about this, starting with Jenny, given the alcoholic smelling note. Not even they could get out of punishment for something this bad.' I think with a worried look. "Come on." I say before handing Wendy a scroll, and both used them. Storm flares her horn and vanished while Zoey turned into water, moving closely and thinly to the ground. I'm not sure what they all do, but I make a beeline for the came. Reaching it in moments, I noticed it was a fairly standard camp site. I took a look around to see if I could spot any of the girls, after all, they weren't trained for…this kind of…stuff. My entire body freezes at that.
…
…
…
'Did I just take three untrained, ordinary citizens into a mission to find two of the highest ranking officers in Equestra's military.? Two people who, despite being the most powerful beings in Equestra's military, were beaten and missing. Oh, oh no, nonononono! This could end with a battle against something more powerful then those two, and I brought three untrained civilians into this! Two of them I was assigned to keep out of trouble! God knows what my punishment's gonna be when the Princess finds out!' I think, now panicking. 'I can't make Wendy and Zoey go home because one: I was told specifically to keep an eye on them, and I'm not prepared enough to make a unicorn do anything yet...also she could press charges on me if I try to force her to go. And two: I'm technically a civilian myself, so I have no authority over them. Just going to have to look for an opening to lose…wait, Wendy can track me via scent. DAMIT! Well…I'm dead when this is over.' I think with a sigh before getting back to the task at hand.
Thankfully I'm unable to see any of them, that means they are at least good enough at sneaking to not get caught. With that out of the way, I focused on the camp site itself, along with the occupants. The dark green tents were scattered across the area in a fairly standard fashion. The camp was surrounded by a decently sized wooden fence with spikes at the top. There were four structures, that kinda looked like watchtowers, on every corner of the fence. The occupants black and grey with bat wings, slited yellow eyes and weirdly fuzzy ears. They were also armed with various weapons and wearing armor that strangely looked like it was designed by that black Alicorn with the stary hair....'Are they with Nightmare Moon?' I questioned before feeling a sharp object pressed up against the back of my neck, breaking the invisibility spell.
"Well what do we ha-?" I cut of whatever she was about to say by grabbing her wrist. Before she can react, I move my head out of the way and yank her forwards. She recovers before she can fall and yanks back. Using her momentum and the fact that she's clearly wearing heavy armor to my advantage, I wrapped one of my legs around her's and shot backwards, causing her to fall this time. While she was momentarily dazed, I quickly take off her helmet and put her in a sleeper hold until she goes limp. Thankfully I've been taught how to tell if someone's faking, a quick check off the pupils told me she was. A punch to the side of the head fixed that. After hiding her unconscious body, I make my way to the camp. Reaching it fairly quickly, I hop over the fence after distracting the look out by throwing a bit to the opposite side of the watchtower. As I snuck in, I couldn't help but think about the girls. 'Please, please don't do anything stupid! I'm really counting on you three, please don't get caught!' I think, genuinely worried about what they'll do.
POV Wendy
I'm able to sneak in with no trouble, being able to fly around without having to flap wings sure is helpful when sneaking! Unfortunately, the cold I apparently have, is not. I can barely stop myself from coughing up a lung or sneezing, which get really bad if I breathe to quickly or deeply. As I walk around, I tried looking for anything that could be helpful. I can't use my sense of smell because of my stuffy nose. Only reason I was able to lead us here was because I was able to constantly blow my nose since we were in safe areas. Here, if I do that, I'm dead. Some tents I checked were useful, I was able get some medicine to help lessen the agitation in my throat. Other tents were not, I walked in on a man rubbing up against a giant picture of Nightmare Moon like a dog would rub themselves against the ground. Thankfully I haven't seen anyone else here do that, so I'm not too worried about it.
I had a few close calls, definitely going to have to be more careful if I ever have to do this again. I sneezed suddenly before I could stop it and nearly got beheaded by a guard who I was trying to sneak past! Thankfully the guard turned out to be a private, so I managed to lose him without him seeing me. I had forgotten the requirements for staying invisible, which includes not touching anything. When I had taken the medicine, I unintentionally broke the spell. So here I was, trying to sneak by these trained soldiers without the invisibility advantage. Unfortunately for me, I had just ran out of luck if the hand around my throat was anything to go by. I had bumped into one of Nightmare Moon's soldiers at a bad time, and she looked pissed. She then leaned in closer for intimidation, making me notice a fresh bruise on the side of her head.
"If you don't mind me asking, how'd you get that bruise on your face?" I asked, trying to stall for time, so I can think of a way out of this. I could tell by the look on her face, that I shouldn't have asked that.
"…I'm not exactly sure. I remember finding someone near this camp, like you." She started, squeezing my neck tighter. "But that's all, before things go black. Next thing I know, I wake up in a bush and laying in mud. You wouldn't happen to know why, would you?" She says, glaring daggers at me. 'Wow, smart move dumbass! Talking about the wound the girl choking you has! What's next? Telling her about the others?' I mentally berate myself. Before I could answer her, water suddenly envelopes her. As she thrashes around, I noticed the water form a familiar face over the soldier. Zoey smirked at me and held up a syringe in her hand. When the soldier finally managed to get her top half out, Zoey plunged the syringe into the soldier's shoulder and pushed the…thingy down. A few moments later, she's out like a light.
"So…why are you not invisible?" Zoey asked me, as she put the soldier into bed and covered her up. She then put her hands on her hips while looking at me, and I chuckle nervously.
Storm had been sneaking around the camp site when she noticed Wendy popping into view, in her hand was a small bottle. Storm didn't care enough to read what was in it, she was more focused on trying not to laugh at Wendy's realization.
"Damit! I forgot about that! I really hope I'm not the first to screw up!" Wendy whispered in panic. Mike, who Storm was following, flinched at that. Storm had found Mike right after he hopped the fence and decided to tag along. Right now they were covered by a an illusion spell that made them invisible and silent to anyone else. It's a spell Storm picked up from a traveling show women who kept talking in third person.
"Do I want to know what that was about?" Storm asked with a raised brow. Mike was silent for a moment, deep in thought if his expression was anything to go by, then he spoke.
"I might've run into a bit of trouble earlier, nothing I couldn't handle." He waved her concerns off before gaining a concerned look. "Come on, let follow her."
"'Follow'? Wouldn't it be better to go and conceal her with the spell I'm using." She asked with an unsure look. Mike gives a deep sigh before looking at Storm.
"As much as I want to do that, I'm gonna have to say no." He said with a frown. Seeing Storm's shocked look, he explained. "I was sent to Ponyville for one purpose, and one purpose alone. I'm supposed to keep an eye on them and see if they're a threat to Equestra. At the beginning, when I first met them, I was fully prepared to just write them off as no threat since I thought I knew who they were. As it turns out, those aren't their original……looks. As much as it makes me feel like scum to say, I need to verify their characters. That means I have to observe how they handle certain situations. Do they have a taste for blood shed? Are they manipulative? Do they unnecessarily get hostile towards things that upset them? I know this is wrong of me to say but, they could actually be a threat. Especially since both of them have confirmed how aggressive Zoey is. And if they have all the powers of their lookalikes, then I need to see where they stand."
“‘Lookalikes’? What are you going on about!? You know what, now’s not the time for this! Are you absolutely sure about this?” She asked, feeling a mind-grain starting to form. He nods.
“Unfortunately yes, I just…I just gotta make sure. This is the safety of my home, family and friends I’m talking about. We can make sure she’s not captured, but I gotta make sure, for my friends and family’s sake, and my own piece of mind.” He finished with a sigh.
“Ok Protag-Kun.” Storm says with an eye roll.
“Wha?” He asked in confusion.
“Just a joke a…friend of mine used a while back. I don’t really know what it means, but for some strange reason, I feel like it fits here.” She explained before motioning towards Wendy. They then proceeded to run interference for Wendy, unaware of a strange, now hot, puddle of water following them. Along the way, Mike was able to piece together something about Wendy fairly quickly.
“Well…at least I won’t have to worry about her sneaking into vital areas in the kingdom.” Mike deadpans as he hides the 12th guard to find Wendy in the past 4 minuets, most of which were privets.
“No kidding, I actually feel bad for not using this spell on her.” Storm says with a frown, Mike nodded in agreement.
Zoey's POV - present
"I'm a little sick, so I grabbed some medicine that's supposed to help with that. I forgot about the whole 'no touching' rule." Wendy said with an embarrassed look, before turning towards the entrance. "You guys can come out now, there's no one else here." After he said that, those fuckers came into view, both having shocked looks.
"How did you know we were here?" Storm asked.
"I have a strong sense of smell." Wendy answered simply before gaining a confused look. "How come you two were sneakily following me?" He asked. Their attention was on Wendy, so they didn't see my glare.
"Yeah, it's a little strange." I asked, forcing my face to show only confusion and not rage when they looked at me. 'Not that I need to hear it again.' I thought with venom.
"There were multiple factors to consider, rest assured, it's nothing you need to worry about." He said simply. 'So the prick knows how to tell a good lie.' I think.
"Oh, alright. I guess I can understand." Wendy waves it off.
"Mmmhhh." I "agreed" with a nod.
"By the way, Zoey?" Wendy called. I look at him. "Where did you get that syringe from?" He asked.
"I got it from one of the tents, specifically the tent those two were in when you were attacked." I answered. Already knowing what they were going to ask, I filled them in. "How did I know you were in there? Why, because I've been following you two since Wendy became visible. I also heard some very interesting things." I explained, openly glaring at them, specifically Mike.
"…What all did you hear?" He asked, now cautious. I repeat their conversation to everyone present.
"While I can't deny that, I can honestly say that we did run interference." He said, trying, and failing, to calm my rage. Before I can yell at him, four darts hit us all in the neck, Mike is the first to go down. Turning towards the direction they came from, I see that bat winged chick holding that thing used with blow darts, she's grinning as if she won the lottery.
"Surprised? Part of my training involved gaining an immunity, or at least resistance, to as many known drugs as possible. Her highness was always much more thorough then her sister. Praise her beautiful night, may it last forever!" She says maliciously. As we loose consciousness I hear her whisper. "I finally got to say the line! Her highness will be so proud of me!" She says like a total fan girl.
"Can you at least wait until we're completely unconscious or leave the room before you start sucking off her nonexistent d-?" I started to ask before I see her foot race towards my face, then I feel a spike of pain before everything goes dark.
3rd POV
After a few moments, Zoey, Wendy and Mike found themselves in a strange arena. Looking around, Zoey and (through the original's memories) Wendy knew that it was a perfect replica of the Grand Magic Games arena. Seeing that the other two looked a lot bigger, Wendy pieced together that she was a little kid again.
"Ok but why tho?" She asked in slight annoyance.
"'Why' what?" She heard someone with her voice ask behind her. Turning around, they saw two duplicates of Zoey and Wendy, along with a grinning John. The other Wendy noticed Zoey angrily looking at John. "Juvia-chan, why are you looking at him like you want to murder him?"
"First of all, it's Zoey. Second of all, because I do! But before that, I gotta finish talking to featherbrain here!" Zoey answered before glaring at Mike.
"The hell? How did you get here? I only ment to bring the girls! On that note, who the hell are you?" John asked the pony.
"Uh, I'm not sure how I got here. I didn't intend to come here. And my name is Mike, just Mike." He answered before looking at Zoey. "Look I understand that your upset-" Zoey flips him off. "-but you gotta understand-."
"I don't have to do shit, you basic beta-bitch! You can take you excuses and shove them up your-!" Zoey started before (Displaced) Wendy interrupted her.
"Zoey, you have every right to be upset, I am too. But he was sent to Ponyville to watch us, it certainly doesn't help our case that we came here so close to this mess. He's just doing what he was told to do by the ones in charge, he did it to make sure his home would be safe with us here. Plus, he did make sure nothing happened to me." She says.
"If that's the case, then I want to know something. How do you even know what we're capable of? You said you can't remember much from our world." Zoey asked Mike.
“My laptop came with me when I was brought here, and it’s somehow connected to our old world’s internet. That’s how things like phones and non-magic electricity came to be in this world. While I was on it, I found out about anime and watched some of it in my down time.” He says with a shrug.
“Anime?” Juvia and the other Wendy asked in confusion.
“Don’t worry about that.” John waved it off before continuing. “Wendy, you’ve been turned into a child again to make this easier. To be blunt, I brought you all (not including Mike) here as a sort of test. Basically you two will be fighting in teams of two, I already cleared it with them. Mike on the other hand…I guess I can think of something you can do, just follow me. As for you four, whenever you’re ready, just keep in mind how new those two are to magic.” He says the last part to the originals before taking Mike and leaving. He pops back to quickly say: "Also I'm temporarily lifting the restraints on your magic to get on accurate test result from you two, have fun! Oh, and don't worry about time, dreams can seem to last for ages on the dreamer's end before you wake up." Then leave the four to themselves.
Twilight's POV - Cell room - Present
Nightmare Moon along with some guards, those humans, Mike, and some familiar unicorn came walking in, all in chains. I noticed that Zoey seemed to be trembling, it doesn't take them long to shed a tiny bit of light on the reason why.
"I know this is Juvia we're talking about, but wasn't that a bit much?" Zoey asked Wendy who just deadpans.
"Considering what you said, and how it involved Grey, are you truly surprised she reacted that way?" Wendy asked with a huff. "Just be glad John agreed to wipe what you said from her memory, if only to continue his weird project." 'John? Gray?' I thought in confusion.
"…Thanks for the help by the way." Zoey said with a smile.
"No problem, just be glad the other Wendy decided to help us instead of Juvia." Wendy said with a sigh. 'Other Wendy?' I thought, even more confused.
"Enough, both of you, do not forget your current situation." Nightmare Moon snarled, she had been practicing common lingo with my help, if only so I didn't have to keep translating for her.
"I wouldn't be so cocky if I were you." I shouted with conviction, seeing her raise an eyebrow, I continued. "We have the Elements!" I reveal with a smile, showing her the shards.
"………"
"………"
"……She was the best you can find!?" Nightmare Moon asked/shouted at Celestia, seeing my confusion, she explained. "The Elements were shattered! Those are completely useless!"
"…You do realize these are artifacts, right? Sure they were shattered, but the shards still contain their powers. What, did you think just shattering them would strip them of all their powers? Even though they gain their powers from ideas instead of tangible objects?" I deadpan at her, she then starts to sweat as she realized I was right. I then precede to explain how all my new friends and I just so happened to represent those ideas. "Oh and by the way, thanks for practically gift wrapping our victory to us, I would have never come to this conclusion by myself. I really appreciate the help!" I say condescendingly with a smile to match it as the harmony magic swirled around us, braking all the cages and chains present.
"If I am remembering this correctly from my time back here: As the kids would say, 'yeah-no'." Nightmare moon said as she took out a clear gem. She then castes what look like two, maybe three, spells. Magic envelops both the gem and her and a portal opens up right behind her, though it doesn't show where it leads. She then spins around and throws the now cloudy gem into the portal before the portal closes. It may have been a trick of the light, but her eyes seemed to go blank as soon as the gem left her hand. That's all I can make out before the harmony magic slammed into her.
Once the light dies down, I noticed two things. One: in Nightmare moon's place was a small blue child with darker blue hair. She was wearing a plane black dress with a crescent moon in the middle, she also had blue shoes on (the kind you'd see kids wearing at a formal gathering). She was also an Alicorn, and that's all I needed to figure out she was the same woman I just tried to blast to Oblivion. Two: after a few moments, gravity remembered that it was gravity, and decided to launch us at the spikes below us.
"Fuck." Spike said with a frown while we were falling.
"SPIKE!" I yell in anger, he gives a small "sorry" as we meet our deaths.
3rd POV
As Twilight was berating Spike, everyone else got to work. Wendy flew and caught Rainbow while Zoey caught Fluttershy (who was too scared to fly on her own) and Rarity, Applejack grabbed Pinkie and lassoed Wendy who was flying full speed towards the safe area of the floor. Celestia flew and caught Twilight and Spike, and finally, Mike flew and caught Sam and Jenny while using the small amount of telekinesis he could use to try to make it easier on their injured body. The guards from before went to check on the child, as it was pretty obvious who she was.
After everyone was safe, everyone but Wendy walked over to the child. She noticed that Nightmare Moon's armor and scythe survived the blast, curious, she decided to check them out. Picking up the scythe, she marveled at how light it felt. While she was debating on whether or not it had to do with some enchantment, she failed to notice the armor turning into blue smoke and flying towards the scythe. She did however, see said scythe poof into blue smoke and obscure her vision. In that moment, the smoke from the armor fused with the smoke from the scythe. It then seeps into her skin, unknown to her. Once she can see again, she noticed that both the scythe and armor are gone.
'That's weird, I didn't think there would be a delayed reaction to being hit by the rainbow laser. Then again it's not like the armor and scythe were evil……that only confirms that they shouldn't have been destroyed.…well they were, so I guess that's a good sign.' She thinks with a shrug before joining the others.
Meeting the ruler of the country and her lost sister
As I make my way to the group, Zoey and Mike met me halfway.
“So those rocks can turn people into kids? Lots of people back home would literally kill for something like that, just saying.” Zoey says with a smile.
“As odd as that is, we should really rejoin the group.” Mike points out, Zoey frowns and glares at him a little, obviously still angry at him.
“Whatever.” She grumbled before walking to my side.
‘Why is she so angry at him? Sure it’s kinda hurtful that he’d do something like that, but he was only doing what he thought was best for his home.’ I think with a slight frown. We continue walking for a bit when suddenly, all I can make out was pink.
“Heeeey~” Pinkie says, having apparently brought me into a hug.
“Hey Pinkie. How’d it go on your end? None of you are hurt, are you?” I ask her as she let me go and came closer to the group.
“Oh nothing much. I got the others to laugh at ghosties, Twilight nearly fell to her death-“ She’s interrupted by Mike saying ‘what’. “-We also ran into some weird cultists that wanted to sacrifice Rainbow to some Pegasus device-.“ she’s interrupted again by all of of asking ‘what’. “-and for some reason Dashie got extremely mad when she heard ‘Pegasus device’, and asked us to give her a moment as she took them and flew off. She got back not long after, saying that they were taken care of.” It looked like she wanted to say more, but we reach the group before she could continue.
“So what have you all been doing?" Rainbow asked, as she glared at Zoey and me, though the one directed at me was softer then the one directed at Zoey.
"Before that, Pinkie said you ran into some cultists." I say, a little nervous. 'I really hope I'm just jumping the gun!' I think in worry. Rainbow just groans.
"Some idiot extremists who don't seem to get the flaw in killing 'failure Pegasi' who fail the flight test. They apparently kill them for their pigment, which in on itself is stupid! First of all, that's not how rainbows are made. But what do I know about making rainbows, it's not like I'm the freaking manager of cloudsdale's weather factory or anything! You just mix the correct chemicals together in the correct order, to get the correct colors, that's it! And if we really had to use already existing pigments, we could achieve the same result by taking it from everyday objects, like the grass or a bunch of apples. And even if we had to take it from ponies, we could've simply set up a partnership with barbers who cut willing ponies pigment filled manes and tails."* she finished fussing with a huff.
“So you two are those humans I’ve been hearing about.” Celestia said, gaining everyone's attention.
"Who are you? And why are you so big?" Zoey asked her.
"ZOEY!" Twilight yelled in disapproval.
"Yo." Zoey said back, not at all caring about Twilight being mad at her.
"She's the princess of this country!" Twilight yells a little quieter. Zoey nods like she understood, then looked at Celestia. 'Why do I feel like I know she's not gonna take this seriously?' I think to myself.
"Nice to meet you 'the princess of this country'". Zoey said, causing Twilight to groan and Celestia to chuckle. "Why are you so big?" She asked, causing Twilight to groan even louder and Celestia to roll her eyes.
"My name is Celestia, though my title is 'princess', so you should be sure to add that as well." The woman clarified, Zoey nods, this time it was obvious that she was taking this seriously. "As for my height, Alicorns just grow more then the other pony races."
"Well thank you for actually answering my question." Zoey said before turning to Twilight. "You should really learn from her example, I'm positive she'd make a great teacher for you."
"She is my teacher." Twilight growls in agitation.
"Then why do you suck at introducing her?" Zoey asked. "You'd think a student of the princess of this country would want to accurately introduced the princess to foreigners like me." She finished with a huff in mock agitation.
"…I'm going to kill you…I know I'll face so many charges and serve a lot of time in jail…but I'm gonna kill you, and I'll enjoy it so much!" Twilight seethes while lighting up her hands with volatile magic. Zoey smiles, which tells me she's not gonna defuse the situation. Mike looked at me with a pleading look, most likely because he knows that if he gets involved, Zoey will make it worse just to spite him. With a sigh, I get in between them. I then take Zoey to the side while Mike stops Twilight from following…somehow.
After taking a few moments to explain to Zoey why antagonizing the student of the ruler of the country was abad idea, especially since we can be kicked out of this country at any time, she agreed to chill with her smartass attitude for the moment. Walking back to the group, we catch the tail end of what Mike was saying.
"-If it hadn't been for the fact the dude was smuggling contraband like blood gems or those sacrificial books to that cult, you either would have been banished, or worse. You gotta stop letting your emotions get the better of you!" Mike apparently finished lecturing Twilight.
"I know…you've made your point, I'll apologize." She sighed before looking at us, I didn't know what to tackle first, Zoey did though.
"Did you just say sacrificial book!? And how many cults are running around this country!?" She asked in shock. "Because you two are treating this like you're discussing the whether!" She finished before looking at me.
"Don't look at me! This wasn't something I knew about, I'm just as shocked as you." I say in mild panic. 'What the fuck…WHAT THE FUCK!?' I think before noticing everyone save for Mike, Twilight, Spike and Celestia giving us weird looks.
"Umm, I don't mean to be mean but, how could you not know about Grogar's cult. It's a pretty well known cult." Fluttershy asked as if it was common knowledge…wait.
"Is this common knowledge?" I asked, only to receive nods all around.
"…I'm gonna hurt John the next time I see him." Zoey says with a growl. Suddenly a piece of paper appeared in her hands with a flash. She reads it aloud.
Don't look at me, I had no idea about the cults. In fact when I looked at the codes and programs for this universe a few moments ago, I found multiple unknown programs and what not. You might wanna kick your training into the next gear, because when I managed to figure out what some of those programs were, well I'll just say they aren't pretty. I'll try to see if I can't fix it somehow, but you should prepare for the worst.
"As…concerning as that is, we should focus on the here and now. Now then." Celestia (wrongfully) states before walking to the blue Alicorn. As shocking as it might have been, her two guards weren't exactly thrilled about that, but it's not like they could beet a completely healthy Alicorn both unprepared and with just the two of them. With no better alternative, they watch with baited breath as Celestia kneels down to the blue Alicorn. Since I already know what's gonna happen, I tuned them out. I'm more interested in the fucking cults in Equestra, that's kinda more important then what's happening at the moment. I'm brought out of my thoughts by Luna.
"Um…nice to officially meet you." Luna says with a smile.
-Mom, why is other mom so small? And why is she blue? Shouldn't she be pitch black?- I hear some child ask, looking around, I can't see anyone else but us.
'That's odd, wonder who said that. Whoever did must have not seen what happened, otherwise they'd know that Luna was hit by the elements of harmony, and turn into what she is now.' I think in curiosity.
-Oh.- Said the same child from before. I'm getting worried, I really hope some kid didn't wonder here.
"Nice to meet you too, officially, I mean." I say while shaking her hand. I then give her a concerned look. "Hey I heard some kid asking questions, we should find them and get them home."
"A child? We heard no child." Luna said, her modern speech seeming to have improved slightly.
"Yeah what she said." Zoey says before turning to Luna and…gives a deep bow? "Sorry about the 'old' comment, I don't have much of a filter. I regretted it moments after I said it, I hope you can forgive me." She apologized with sincerity I hadn't heard since she apologized for attacking me unprovoked a week ago. Luna just stares at Zoey in contemplation, Zoey makes no attempt to end her deep bow until Luna says something.
"We forgive thee, most young like thee would not realize their 'rr'r until it was pointed out to them. As long as thee learned from this, i seeth nay reason to not f'rgive thee, thee may rise." Luna said with a smile, Zoey does so with a relieved smile. "Though we art surprised that you bowed, we didn't think we were still considered royalty."
"I didn't bow because you're royalty, I don't really care about royalty. I bowed because in my home country, it's expected for one to bow when apologizing. And just to clarify, me and Wendy didn't grow up in the same country, so I doubt she'll feel the same way." Zoey clarified.
"I'll only bow if I have to, I feel no obligation to." I say with a shrug. Luna hums in acceptance.
"Lets continue this back in Ponyville." Celestia said with a smile, having walked to us after seeing Zoey bow. She turned towards Mike. "Also Mike, Jenny and Sam need to have a word with you." Mike frowned.
"Yeah, I have some things I need to talk to them about, starting with the whole 'displacer' thing, and a certain bag I found." Mike says as he walked towards the two in question.
"Fascinating, I'm very interested in what that was about." Zoey sarcastically says before looking at Luna. "Come on, Pinkie disappeared from the room after we started talking to skittles, so there's probably a party already set up for us winning. Well, for Twilight and her friends winning that is." Luna nods and we all head for Ponyville, though the lunar guards are still keeping an eye on Luna, in case any of us 'try anything'.
The group had reached Ponyville much quicker then they left, apparently Nightmare moon had put the group in an 'endless loop' spell, hoping that they'd get too tired in the forest to continue. And sure enough, when they reached town, a party was waiting for them. At some point during the party, with the help of Pinkie and Wendy, Mike had managed to convince Zoey to at least hear him out. Zoey agreed (reluctantly) on the terms that he be completely upfront with her, no saying that something was 'classified' or saying he didn't have a choice, Mike agreed.
"Start, and remember, no bullshit." She said angrily, Mike nods.
"As you know, I was assigned to watch you two until it was deemed safe for you to stay. Apparently my mentors, the two I was talking too earlier, had set up your house. They had told me this before I left Canterlot. When I asked them why they did, they said it would be for the best that you two specifically should have your own place to stay, that it was necessary for future events. This had been a red flag for me, those two never get involved unless it's something really serious, in fact it's considered a war crime for Equestra to have them fight in times of war due to how destructive they are." Mike started.
"As bizarre as that is, what does that have to do with this?" Zoey questioned.
"I'm getting to that. Anyway, you two are considered important enough for them to get involved. So that was flag one. Flag two popped up when we first got to Ponyville, I noticed that Wendy seemed to know who Twilight was, but she was assigned to help with the celebration, so I didn't question it. Though I was a little suspicious when she suddenly tensed when looking me over. The real instance was when she knew that Twilight could use magic without a horn, and instead of saying that she assumed that Twilight could because she herself could, she went with the excuse that she thought Twilight was an earth pony with the magic trait that increases physical abilities. As you can see, all earth ponies have bulkier arms and legs then unicorns do, I wouldn't have suspected anything if she had said Pegasus. Walking through town, I heard how aggressive you’ve been in only a week, which is much more then Juvia would be unless Grey was involved. Then came the moment started to make me doubt you two. 'Shield' mentioned how displaces come here. And the one who brought you here was some scatter brain who did this on a wim, so for all I know, you two could be serial killers just waiting to go on a rampage using the powers of Juvia and the original Wendy. And then there's the biggest red flag…." Mike said before trailing off.
"Which is…?" She said with an almost convinced look.
"…Traces of a very large and potent perception and memory altering spell was discovered to be covering the entire town." Mike answered before giving her a look, said look actually shot a chill down her spine. "Care to guess how long ago the spells was discovered to have been placed, and who the spells were focused on?" He asked her, she sputtered for a moment.
"WE HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THAT, WE DIDN'T EVEN KNOW ABOUT IT!" She yelled in panic, Mike raised a hand.
"I know that now, that's what my mentors wanted to tell me, among other things that I'll share after we get to your house." He assured. "So know do you understand why I did what I did?" He asked hopefully, Zoey gives a long sigh.
"Yeah…considering how much concrete evidence you had against us, I can see why you pulled that stunt." She relented. Mike holds out a hand.
"So can we start over?" He asked. "I'd like for us to be friends." He added with a smile. She stared at him for a moment, then a small smile breaks out on her face. And with a little chuckle, she grabbed his hand.
"Sure. Just don't pull anything like that with us again." She says with a shake, he nods, fully accepting her condition.
"I'm glad you two made up." Wendy said, causing the two to look in her direction, only to find Wendy and Luna hugging. For some reason, this slightly agitated Zoey, but she didn't show it.
"Why are you two hugging?" Zoey asked, Mike nods in agreement. Wendy and Luna shared a look before answering.
"I / We don't know". They said at the same time.
"For some reason, I just had the urge to hug her." Wendy said with a shrug.
"As did we, as if some unknown power demanded it, though we can't think of a reason as to why." Luna said, rubbing Wendy's back.
-Cuddles~-. Wendy heard someone say, and this time, Luna heard it as well. They looked around, only to find no one but Mike and Zoey.
"Ok?" Mike asked in confusion and a raised brow. "Well feel free to join us at the party when you're done." Mike says with a shrug before walking off.
After that, Luna, Wendy and Zoey walked back to the party, with Luna walking to Celestia’s side. After a while, the party started to slow down. At the end, the Royal sisters said their farewells, and went back to Canterlot (though Wendy felt an unexplainable sadness at seeing Luna fly away in the chariot). Twilight, who had chosen to stay in Ponyville, had made cleaning up much quicker than it normally would have been. Once that was settled, the Displaced trio had went to Wendy and Zoey’s house, where Mike filled them in on what his mentors had told him.
Preparing for the future and a lesson about prejudging others
Once the 'trio' had entered the house, Mike spent the next 30 minutes explaining what he knew in detail, leaving nothing out, as per Zoey and his agreement.
"Pretty much." Mike responded with a nod, having gotten used to how Zoey talks.
"And the curse?" Wendy asked. Mike shook his head.
"All they said was that someone had been seen sneaking around the capital where I was jogging awhile back, but I have a feeling they weren't being upfront with me. And no Zoey, it isn't so fun when it's happening to me." Mike said, seeing Zoey's look.
"Killjoy." Zoey muttered.
"Is this going to devolve into another fight?" Wendy asked, frustration clear in her voice. The pegasus and water wizard shook their heads.
"I have no desire to go back to square one." Mike said.
"If I say I'm gonna give someone another shot, that's what's going to happen, no ifs ands or buts about it." Zoey stated firmly. Wendy smiles in relief. "But I'm still confused about some things." Zoey stated, earning the others attention.
"What?" Mike asked.
"One: While we were getting our asses handed to us, John had taken you away. Care to tell us where and why?" She asked. Mike scratched his head.
"Well from what I remember, he needed to use me as an anchor to and from somewhere. But once I touched the portal he had opened using me, everything goes fuzzy. Then I come to, right in front of the portal, having apparently blacked out. I go towards the portal again, but it fizzled out suddenly. John had tried to reestablish the connection, and in the failed attempts, I had gained an ability called 'Void Copy'." He explained.
"What's that?" Zoey asked.
"I'll show you, but I need something to use as an example, could one of you use one of your abilities?" Mike asked. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, Zoey summoned a water-make sword. Mike concentrated on the sword for a moment, then suddenly he lost both his wings. Before the two could voice their concerns, two exact replicas of Zoey's sword appeared in his hands. After a few moments, the swords went back into him and he regained his wings. "I can copy things at the cost of the void energy that makes up my body. Though only basic things like plane swords, plane shield or whatnot. At my current level I can use those swords again with needing an example, but I can't do more complicated things at all, let alone without an example." He explained. "Now what else?" He asked.
"After the 'League Of Friendship' rainbowed the moon chick into submission, what happened to her armor and scythe?" Zoey asked. Wendy waved her hand to get their attention.
"I went to check them out when the scythe suddenly exploded into blue smoke, by the time I got my vision back, both the armor and scythe were gone." Wendy informed before looking directly at Zoey. "Also, 'the League Of Friendship', really?" She asked. Zoey shrugged.
"Hey, at least it's not an insult." Zoey defended herself.
"Listen." Mike said suddenly with an oddly serious tone, earning the others attention immediately. "I know you might not like it, but you should buckle down on training your powers and skills. While Zoey was able to follow me undetected, I was distracted with protecting Wendy. And yes Wendy, you were found more times then I care to count, Storm and I just intersected everyone who spotted you." He said.
"So what? You got any ideas Protag-Kun?" Zoey asked Mike.
"Well we could head back to my folks' house, they have a gateway to a special guards training room that their guards use, it's in case of emergencies." Mike said. Wendy raised an eyebrow.
"Why can't we use that song?" She asked. Mike thinks about it.
"I don't see a reason, but we should teleport outside of the castle gates, protocols." Mike said. Hearing them agree, Mike asked for one of them to play the song, then they vanished in a flurry of feathers.
Canterlot castle gates
Zoey's POV
Not even a minute after we appear in front of the castle gate, my sixth sense tells me that a racist fucker is approaching us. With a groan, I turn towards him and fold my arms.
"What do you want?" I say in a annoyed tone. As he's recovering from that, I take a good look at him. He looked pretty familiar, from his gaudy clothes, to…ok so everything looked gaudy. It was actually kinda hard to make out anything else about him.
"How did you know I was walking to you?" He asked, which was fair since I didn't even look behind myself.
"My sixth sense tells me whenever a racist is planning to interact with me. Your brand of stupidity gives off a certain idiotic type of waves that it can detect, it's hereditary." I explained truthfully. That's actually true, for some reason everyone in my family has a strong sixth sense. While it isn't perfect, it does have a 90% accuracy on everyday things like someone stealing your phone or someone having bad intentions for you. Though it only has a 20% accuracy if we're really angry at something or someone, 10% if we're under the weather. "Now who are you?" I asked.
"Gaud Lily, charmed, I'm sure." He says while sticking his nose up in the air. I actually don't laugh at that, I prefer not going for low hanging fruit.
"Oh my god." I hear Wendy groan, causing me to accidentally snort, much to my embarrassment.
"What's so funny?" Gaud asked in confusion.
"Don't worry about it." I waved off. "So what do you do? Make clothes?" I asked, trying to change the subject.
"Yes actually, I own a clothing store called 'Gaud Lily Tastes'! The most extravagan clothing store in Canterlot, anything you buy there will out shine anything you'd find elsewhere!" He finished his spill, I say nothing as I watch the low hanging fruit hit the ground.
"I…have no words." Wendy says bluntly. Mike thinks for a moment before he snaps his fingers in realization.
"I've heard of you, you won the fashion show that Sapphire Shores hosted a month ago!" Mike said in shock, he then proceeded to look at Gaud's outfit. "You…didn't use that outfit though, in fact this isn't anything like what you showed, even the stitching looks like it was done by someone else." He points out. I raised a brow at Mike, but noticed Gaud start to sweat a little.
"I was escorting Prince Blueblood awhile back, and he gave me this jacket as a gift, it's from the winning line from the fashion show." He added, while Wendy looks shock for some reason, I take a closer look at Mike's jacket and Gaud's outfit. I may not know anything about clothe making, but even I could see the difference. The quality was like comparing a wall made of concrete to a wall made of cheap wood.
"Ah yes, I thought I recognized it, glad to see it's in good hands. While this conversation has been invigorating, I simply MUST be going now.” Gaud says, walking away oddly fast.
“Hold up.” Mike says, causing the pony to stop and turn around. “I wanted to ask about your sudden disappearance after the show, according to your fans, no one has seen you since that show. You worried a lot of ponies you know, I’d hate to think that one of Canterlot’s best would be having trouble.” He added. Gaud’s worried look was replaced with an arrogant smirk.
“Ah…forgive me, it seems I failed to think about my invaluable supporters and fans. Well you see, one of my…pets ran away, and I had to track her down you see. She’s a very stubborn girl, always trying to wander away from me and into places she shouldn’t be.” Gaud said with a sigh.
“Well that’s a shame, I have a card for a local pet training center, here.” Mike says, handing him the card. Gaud looks at it for a moment, he makes a suspicious look as the card glows, showing that he’s a Unicorn (it’s really hard to focus on anything but his outfit, can’t believe he actually goes in public wearing it). He loses the suspicious look and smiled after a few moments.
“Well thank you for your generosity, I’ll be taking my leave now.” He says with a smile. He shoots me and Wendy one last disgusted look before walking away.
"Blueblood is nice here?" Wendy asked in confusion, Mike raised a brow.
"Yeah? Why? Is he a jerk in the show?" Mike asked.
"Well, he was a jerk to Rarity during the Grand Galloping Gala." Wendy said. Mike folded his arms.
"Was Rarity following him around assuming he'd be head over heels for her, and that the prince of Equestra would want to date some random pony he's never seen before just because she was wearing a great outfit?" Mike says with a frown.
"Yeah." Wendy says, causing Mike to deadpan and me to facepalm.
"Did he do anything else in the show?" Mike asked. Wendy shook her head.
"Don't know about the comics, but in the show he's never seen again." Wendy says.
"The show that only shows the POV of Twilight and her friends?" Mike asked. Wendy nods hesitantly. "And I take it that image of him comes from the fans and not the actual show?" Mike asked. Wendy nods again. "I swear. I can't speak for show Blueblood, but this Blueblood would only do that because ponies like her would try to date him just because of his title." Mike says with a groan before raising a brow. "Or did Rarity have a noble reason for dating him?" He asked, but he (and I) already knew the answer.
"No. Her part of a musical number was about how she'd look so good that 'Prince Charming' would want to marry her, even though they've never even interacted before. She was upset because he didn't take off his coat so she could walk over a puddle of water, didn't open the door for her, and used her body as a shield for a cake that was flying towards them." Wendy says.
"Ok FIRST of all, he's the prince, she's a commoner. At the end of the day, it's expected of Royalty to keep up an appearance, he can't do something like that for someone he's never even met. That would signify that Rarity was above him, and besides, she could have easily went around the puddle. Second of all, again, it's expected of others to open doors for royalty. That's just common knowledge. Third of all, I'll admit the whole body shield was a dick move, but it was gonna hit her either way. She has the right to be upset at that, but since she'd be hit by it regardless, it's not that big of a deal." Mike points out.
"Ah, I see your point." Wendy relents. Mike puts his hand on Wendy's shoulder.
"I understand that that show is a big influence on you, but please think of everyone's view points before condemning them, and don't use that show as how things should be. The fact that you, me and Zoey are here should be enough proof that things work differently here then on the show." Mike says. Wendy nods and I smile at that.
"Yeah, basing your entire view on media and what you see on TV, and not making the effort to get to know someone is a scummy thing to do. Our home world would be a lot better if people would actually make the effort to get to know someone rather then just listening to what other people say about them." I added.
"Alright alright, you've both made your points, I'll try to keep an open mind from now on." Wendy concedes. Satisfied with that, we continue our walk.
After the “trio” had reached the guards training room, Mike had went and gotten his old training instructors. One was a pegasus mare. She had light blue skin, and short white hair. Her eyes were grass green. She was wearing black shorts and a white short sleeve shirt, she was also wearing white tennis shoes. She gave a welcoming look, but there seemed to be a dark undertone to it. The other was a unicorn mare. Her skin was dark blue, and her hair and eyes were teal. Her outfit matched the pegasus' outfit. She had a carefree look, but there was a touch of seriousness in them.
"Alright, Zoey, Wendy. These two have volunteered to help you train and hone your skills, though I'm still confused about their looks…." Mike said, giving the two a confused look.
"Don't pay that any mind you two." The pegasus says in a tone that left no room for argument. "We are Roaring Winds and Rising Tides. Call me Roaring or Ring for short. The unicorn likes going by Tide." Roaring finished, Tide confirming what Roaring said with a nod.
"We heard you two can only use water and wind magic respectively." Tide says, causing Zoey, Wendy and even Mike to go wide eyed.
"How do you know that?" Mike asked.
"That girl who stalked you all boot camp told us." Ring said, causing Mike to pale. "Don't worry, we've…come to an agreement. We'll take you to see her to further discuss it after today's training session, and rest assured, you'll have the ultimate say on what happens. All we ask is that you at least hear her out, and make your decision with more logic then emotion." She finishes with an apologetic look, the dark undertone temporarily vanishing. With a deep sigh, Mike speaks his mind.
"You two are going to drive me to drink when I'm old enough. You know that, right?" He asked them while deadpanning, they chuckled bashfully. "…Fine." He agreed before quickly saying. "But if she try's ANYTHING, I swear to GOD…."
"Don't worry, we've made that very clear to her, she won't try anything if she values her life and afterlife." Tide says with a mad grin. Before they could continue, what Ring said clicked in Mike's head.
"Wait…has she been following me around this whole time!?" Mike asked/shouted.
"It would appear so. Apparently she saw you working with 'some grey succubus tramp trying to steal your soul', and were attacked by 'some filthy degenerate', before 'some kinda water monkey fussed at you'. All the while making you out to be some fearless superhero who bravely and courageously protected 'some clumsy airhead'. When she got to the part when you were captured, she started foaming at the mouth." Ring finished explaining.
"Well…I guess she's technically not wrong about the water monkey comment, though I wouldn't exactly call Wendy an airhead, more like she wasn't at her best. Speaking of which, didn't you have a cold?" Zoey asked Wendy, who shrugged.
"I did, but it went away after the scythe turned to smoke, in fact I feel better then ever!" She said with a smile.
“Well from what we gathered, it was a cold that stemmed from magic. Everyone knows about magic deprivation, which is when you’ve depleted your magic past the safe area, and have gone into the critical (lethal) percentage. You on the other hand, experienced something called magic overstimulation. Everyone, no matter how experienced or powerful, has a set limit to how much magic they can handle, be it type or shear power. This Link fellow used magic your body was not accustomed to. The fact that it had a wind aspect to it, lessened the damage and postponed the after affects, but didn’t neutralize it. You would have felt progressively worse as time went on. The only way to recover from it would be to have it slowly siphoned out, or let it leave you naturally. I’m not sure how the smoke helped you, frankly that should have sent you over the edge, and put you in magic overload.” Ring explained. Wendy and Zoey gave a completely lost look.
“Boom.” Tide simplified.
“Oh.” They say in shock.
"Alright! Enough chitchat. For the next few hours, you two are our bitches. When were done with you two, you'll be planning a way to murder us! Mike can confirm this!" Tide says with a grin.
"While I wouldn’t say I was trying to kill them, I will say that they have a talent for getting on someone’s nerves. That being said, remember, you promised not to go past a certain line." Mike said, giving them a look. They nod in agreement, and with that, the training began.
Mike’s POV
I decided to leave the four to their training, and head to Twilight's library tower, after leaving some gems enchanted to both follow them and record what happens. Don't get me wrong, I trust those two with my very life. That being said, they had a habit of going overboard, even if they try not too. It doesn't take me long to reach my destination. Taking out a key, I unlocked the door and head in, but not without locking the door behind me. Twilight had lent me her Key to this place on the off chance I decided to visit it, saying that the books here would be much better for someone as new to magic as I was. She also took the liberty of making a list for me with two columns. One was the types of magic I'd be able to learn the easiest, the other was what order I should learn them. She also gave me another list, this one had tips on using and learning magic, and of course safety rules.
Spell types you'd have the most progress in:
Fire: Thanks to how similar your magic is to Princess Celestia's, your magic has an affinity for fire. This should have come as no surprise, since you have a surprisingly long track-record of burning things out of nowhere. Most none magic users assume that fire magic runs on anger or hate alone for power, this is a big misconception. Fire is passion, plain and simple. While yes it does sometimes use anger or hate, it utilizes other emotions as well. Love, determination, hope, the heart burns with powerful emotions, and through magic we can give those emotions a physical form. Fire magic is your passion given form, it's important to remember this whenever you use this magic, otherwise you'll be swallowed up by a sea of rage filled fire.
Solar: The Princess once said this to me when describing Solar magic. "The sun helps life grow, but it can also take that life away. Get too close, and you'll get hurt. Get too far, and you'll wither away. While most of my little ponies assume that the sun is pure good because I'm the one who raises and lowers it, this is not the case, which they don't seem to understand no matter how many times I say it. When using this magic, you're taking in solar energy like a plant would. After taking in only what is required, you then shape it to your desired form, then release it. When doing this, it's important to take two things into account. One: How much you absorb. The mortal body can only take but so much Solar energy before they risk developing health problems, and to drive this point home, many casters have lost their lives because they didn't practice caution. Two: What affects would the intended amount of Solar energy have on your target, targets and/or whatever or whoever is near the blast zone. Some (like albinos, ice type creatures or certain supernatural creatures) are sensitive to the point of serious injuries (or even death) from a low level spell from this category. They could also have some unknown condition that could replicate this outcome, that you aren't aware of. Use this magic as you deem necessary, but please consider the consequences of it before using it." Given how your body was made, it's safe to say that you might have a bigger tolerance for this magic, and would have bigger repercussions as a result.
The order you should work in.
Telekinesis
Basic beam attacks
Shields (be sure to ask Shinny for pointers the next time you see him).
Teleportation (Your going to be a guard anyway, might as well learn this as soon as safely possible).
Fire spells (be sure to practice this AWAY from my tower when I’m not there. Given how strange your body is, I don’t wanna risk you burning through the fire immunity spells. As one of my closest childhood friends, I hope you take this to heart.)
Solar spells (start out small, gain solar energy through a small window).
The two took to the air, with Wendy rising slowly and shakily. After a few moments, wind wrapped around Wendy's fists. Seeing that, Ring covered her fists in wind as well, surprising Wendy since she hadn’t seen any other pegasus do the same. Though something about it felt both different, and familiar, though Wendy chose to ignore it for the moment. With that out of the way, the two rushed at each other and threw punch after punch. It went on like that for a bit before they broke apart. After taking a moment to take in a breath, Wendy unleashed a sky dragon roar. Instead of dodging, Ring corkscrewed towards the blast, spinning in the opposite rotation of the hurricane fast enough to cancel it out. Ring quickly reached Wendy and brought her leg up. Before Wendy could react, Ring slammed her foot down on Wendy’s head, knocking Wendy down to the ground, hard. With how often she's crashed into the ground before this point, it didn't take her long to get back into the fight. Casting enchantments to increase her physical abilities and speed, Wendy rush at Ring. But as she got close, Ring did the flying equivalent of side stepping, allowing Wendy to crash into the ceiling due to her poor flying skills.
"You know I'm down here, right?" Ring asked. "Maybe I put too much power into that kick, you did hit your head pretty hard." She added with a mocking grin, ticking Wendy off.
Wendy then fired another roar, Ring just did the same thing as she did before. But before she reached her, Wendy threw a right hook, which Ring easily blocked. Wendy tried to kick her, but she blocked that too. Ring threw a left hook, which hit, but Wendy grabbed on it. Feeling confident, Wendy poured a good chunk of magic into a third roar, hitting Ring point blank. Unfortunately for Wendy, it didn’t even make a scratch. Ring gives a sweet smile as Wendy feels a sinking feeling in her stomach. Now much less confident, Wendy casts wind armor on herself, which had gotten slightly better since the last time she had used it. Before Wendy could react, Ring throws a strong punch to her stomach, easily breaking the armor. As Wendy doubles over, she lost her concentration on her flying spell, and fell to the ground…again. Ring preceded to chuckle as she flew to Wendy and landed beside her.
“Ow….” Wendy groaned.
“Not bad, given how short of a time you’ve had these abilities.” Ring says, trying to soften the blow of defeat. She offered Wendy a hand.
“Thanks.” Wendy says, grasping Ring’s hand. Ring just sighs.
“Remember what Tide said earlier about training?” Ring asked, tightening her grip to the point that Wendy felt was off.
“She said that at the end of this we’d want to murder you two, and that this would last for the next few hours….” Wendy trails off as her eyes turn into pinpricks. She looked at her hand that’s being almost painfully grabbed, then back to Ring. Ring’s apologetic look was all the confirmation she needed for her unasked question.
“W-wait! Let’s talk about thi-Ahhhh!” Wendy starts to say before Ring grabbed her forearm and yanked her up, before slamming her back to the ground on her other side. This was repeated 5 times before Ring span Wendy around for five seconds with incredible speed and ease. She then proceeded to let go and launch Wendy to a wall 20 feet away, which caused cracks to form in the wall where she landed. Ring quickly flew over to Wendy. Seeing her approach, Wendy ate some air (which she still wasn’t used to), and cast wind armor again.
“That’s fair.” Ring said, as Wendy got back up. Though if the armor hadn’t hid everything except Wendy’s silhouette, she would have noticed the changes on Wendy. Wendy’s eyes had turned to slits. The white in her eyes had gained a blue tint, while her brown eye color had turned a slightly darker blue. Her skin turned grey, and her hair had turned purple, and gained the same flowing and smoky look Nightmare Moon had. Her teeth had become sharper then they already were. Her outfit had changed to resemble Nightmare Moon’s armor. Though there were three things Ring could tell. One: Wendy’s magic felt very different. Two: Wendy was much taller. Three: Wendy now had wings. The wind armor then vanished, allowing Ring to see her new look.
“LEAVE MY MOMMY ALONE!” 'Wendy' yelled in rage, though her voice sounds like someone else was speaking, someone much younger.
"Well I guess that answers how you recovered from your illness." She said with a shrug. 'Wendy’ launched towards Ring as a scythe spawned in her hand. Before 'Wendy' could even reach 10ft, Ring suddenly appeared in front of her, then thrusts a hand to her forehead. 'Wendy' felt a pulse go through her. She fell to her knees, before turning back to normal, confused as hell.
"What?" Wendy asked, receiving no answer. "What!?" She asked again, still receiving no answer. "I have so many questions!!" She nearly shouted.
"I'd be happy to help you answer those questions, after we're done with training and some business with Mike's stalker." Ring said, offering a hand.
"Thanks!" Wendy said cheerfully before grabbing Ring's hand. After Ring's grip tighten again, Wendy realized her mistake.
"I expected better from you." Ring says with a frown, disappointment clear in her voice, which hurt Wendy much more then any attack could've. She just lowers her head in shame, and Ring preceded to do the exact same thing she did last time.
After they reached the 2 hour mark, Ring mercifully said they could take a break from fighting. One trip to the infirmary and a quick clean up later, they headed to a location far from the training area, with a lollipop in Wendy's hand and a small bag of potato chips in Ring's. The area they were in looked…peaceful, from the calming pond filled with various fish, to the sound of the crickets in the background. It was…nice, to put it simply. After the two were done with their respective snacks, with Ring telling Wendy she'll have to burn that off (with Wendy accusing Ring of planning that, and Ring wholeheartedly confirming that), the two sat down.
"So…now what?" Wendy asked.
"You remember the mindscape Link mentioned? We'll use that to help you learn your abilities quicker." Ring said, much to Wendy's confusion.
"How do you know about that?" Wendy asked.
"Oh, well you know Mike's stalker? She informed us that Link told you three about it when you walked to that lake together." Ring said with a chuckle. Wendy raised a suspicious brow, but said nothing.
"How'd she react when Zoey called Mike a basic beta-bitch and featherbrain?" Wendy asked curiously.
"Oh she was pissed, she wanted to strangle her so badly." Ring said with a chuckle. Again, Wendy said nothing.
"Well, let's go ahead and start." Wendy says. Ring nodded, and began to instruct Wendy in the proper way to enter a shared mindscape, in a way that Wendy wouldn't have to worry about people reading her thoughts.
Mindscape
With a bit (lot) of help from Ring, Wendy found Ring and herself on a mountaintop, which was honestly one of the best places to practice wind related spells.
"Alright, let's start with basics. I want you to make an F1 tornado. Focuse on your magic, shape it to where it resembles the wind your accustomed too. Then rotate it in a circle, as time goes on, increase the speed by tiny amounts." Ring instructed loud and clear. "I know you (or at least your body) are already accustomed to advanced wind spells, but since you didn't actually work to get to that level, you don't have a proper grasp on it. Throughout our fight, I noticed you using MUCH more magic then was required. If you fight someone as you are now, you might go overboard and accidentally cause more damage than you intended." She finished. Wendy was about to complain about starting from square one, but remembered what happened with Link. Link easily survived that because he was both much stronger then her, and he could heal. If she accidentally did the same to a normal everyday person, it would have definitely killed said person. With more then a little guilt, she nodded and did as she was told, unaware of the blue slited eyes observing her.
…
It took a bit, but Wendy managed to make a fairly decent F1 tornado. After looking it over, Ring nods in approval.
"Alright, now we'll focus on power. I'll attack it, and you try to keep it going. I'll send weak wind blades at it. If your tornado can take the hit without dispersing, we can go to the next step. Keep in mind that we're still on training wheels, you're currently not having to deal with obstacles like natural wind currents or raising and lowering temperatures. Nor are you dealing with normal physics, so you don't have to worry about being blown away or affecting unintended targets like allies or property. Once you get it down here, we'll have to go over all of this in the real world, with actual obstacles and consequences." Ring instructed. Nodding, Wendy got to work, focusing on keeping her tornado strong.
Much to both of there disappointment (not that Ring actually showed it), it was effortlessly taken out by a wind blade. So Wendy tried again, and it was dispersed again. Over and over, disperse after disperse, both were getting bored of seeing it so many times. After the 15th time, Ring decided to point out a flaw she kept seeing.
"Uh dude? Why are you letting it stop after the hit? This would go by a lot quicker if you tried correcting it when it starts to get undone after each hit. There's more to power then just brute force, you know that right?" She says in confusion. Wendy contemplates what she said, then nods and focused on the tornado. Ring fires another wind blade, hitting the tornado and causing it to destabilize. But before it could completely disperse, Wendy managed to catch it in time, and restabilize it. With smiles on both of their faces, the two continue the exercise, with Wendy improving with each attempt.
…
After a seemingly long time, Wendy had got both rotation and power down pat, as far as mental training goes anyway. Now all that was left was control.
"Ok, you've done well so far, granted its been about a week or so." Ring said nonchalantly.
"Wait WHAT!?!" Wendy screamed in panic, which turned into agitation when she heard laughing.
"Hahahahaha, you should have seen your face! Priceless! No it hasn't been that long, it's actually been about 10 minutes, give or take a few minutes or so." Ring says while chuckling.
"……So you're absolutely sure that you can't hear my thoughts right now?" Wendy asked, not at all amused by Ring's little prank.
"I don't need to hear your thoughts to know what you're thinking, your face says it all." Ring says with a shit-eating grin.
"Just start the lesson." Wendy grumbled.
"Fine fine. Anywho, I'm gonna place a weak barrier around your tornado. You're going to try to to control your tornado while using the previous steps, but you have to do it without breaking the barrier, got it?" Ring explained then asked. Wendy nods and the two began. Since this was a pretty straight forward thing, Wendy didn't need help in finding flaws, especially since the flaw and solution from the previous step applied to this step as well. That being said, it was definitely the most hardest of the steps. By the time that Wendy got it down pat, she had already gotten sick of the sound of shattering glass. And with that, she had a better understanding of her powers.
Finally done with the mental training, they preceded to practice in the real world, for about 30 minutes. While not as good as the mental training, Wendy did gain a firmer grasp on wind manipulation, now all that was left was the flying. Needless to say, Wendy wasn't mentally prepared for this part, but knew she couldn't skip it. Well Ring had said she actually could, since this part and the last one had the exact same methods to preform the spell properly, but Wendy herself couldn't bring herself to skip it.
"Again, you don't have to do this now. We've technically already been over the necessary steps. It's literally just power, rotation and control, like the tornado. The only difference between that and this, is that you're applying it to yourself." Ring groans in exasperation.
"I do have to do this!" Wendy says stubbornly. "Rainbow Dash told me that if I ever wanted to get better at flying, I needed to practice everyday! She's the greatest flyer I know, so if she says I need to do it everyday, then that's what I'll do!" Wendy finished with conviction. Ring just deadpans.
"Considering how you've just gotten the basics roughly down, you sure that's not just desperation talking?" Ring asked flatly.
"Sh-shut up!" Wendy yelled in embarrassment, both confirming what Ring had said, and reminding Wendy of her original version's more embarrassing moments. Like when the original first introduced herself to the assembled wizards from other guilds.
"Calm down. Go ahead and give it a shot, if it's really that important to you." Ring says with a soft chuckle before taking out a strange looking tablet, which she preceded to fiddle with for a moment. Wendy smiles as Ring does this, which turned into shock as many different flying exercise equipments started to appear, and some strange wheel. The wheel had a green base, with a purple spiral in it. There was a gear in the center of the wheel, and that gear was linked to another one on the inner edge of the wheels via belt, this one was bigger then the first one. The bigger one had what looked like a strap on it. The wheel itself was being held up by three wooden beams. Though the strangest thing about it was, there was a weird portal near it.
“Whoops! Didn’t mean to bring that wheel out.” Ring said, blushing in minor embarrassment. “Just ignore it for now. For now, just go through the flyers training course.” She instructed. With a nod, Wendy takes a shot at the course.
The two just looked at each other in silence, not really sure how to kick the fight off.
"So…Rock Paper Scissors? Winner gets the first hit?" Zoey asked.
"Sure." Tide agreed. After a quick game, Tide won the first hit by doing rock, which she then proceeded to slam into Zoey's face before she could react. The punch was strong enough to send her flying.
"BITCH!" Zoey yelled while getting back up and holding her face. She used water body, then shot towards Tide, who gave a cheeky grin. Zoey threw a right hook, but missed. Tide's horn started glowing, and suddenly, Zoey was forced out of her watery state. Tide then punched Zoey's gut, causing her to double over. Then Tide shot her knee up, and hit Zoey square in the face. Zoey fired several water slicers at Tide, who fired stronger water slicers right back at her, easily cutting through Zoey's attacks. Seeing the slicers heading right for her, Zoey tried using water body, but couldn't for some reason. Not having enough time to dodge, she was forced to take the attack head on.
"I'll give you a pointer, free of charge! When an attack is heading towards you, you should probably dodge. Trust me, it's much better then taking it to the face." Tide says with a smug grin. Instead of getting angry like Tide expected, Zoey nods her head.
"I'll take your word for it. After all, you're probably the most experienced in taking it to the face, you've probably been attacked more times then I can count." Zoey said in a respectful tone, though it was obvious what she meant.
"Well considering the type of things you teens look up to the point of obsession, it's no wonder you'd be able to tell that someone has experience in that field." Tide said sagely.
"Well at least I haven't went out of my way to practice it." Zoey says with a shrug.
"Well yeah, someone has to actually want to do something like that to you, luckily I doubt anyone ever will in this lifetime." Tide says with a smile.
"Well it doesn't help my chances with you taking all the ones who feel stressed enough to do it. Can't experience something that another girl is so dead set on hogging to herself, I wouldn't be surprised if I wasn't the only girl who can only watch as you take on anyone who's willing." Zoey says while folding her arms.
"Well if it's really that bad, I'd be more then happy to help you experience what you've been missing. You know what, I think I'll just go ahead and show you." Tide says, as her eyes glow with a blinding white light, and a vein mark appeared on the side of her forehead. She then fired a beam just slightly under the line Mike mentioned, which Zoey was barely able to dodge. The beam hits the ground, creating a big smoke cloud. Suddenly a song starts to play. After waiting a few moments, the smoke clears, showing that Zoey wasn't there anymore. Feeling an urge to look up, Tide dodged as multiple arrows made of water flew at her. Looking at the direction they came from, she saw no one there. Hearing a whizzing sound, Tide's arm shot up, and grabbed Zoey's wrist. Zoey had attempted to catch Tide by surprise by distracting her, falling from the ceiling, and punch her with a condensed water covered fist. With a flick of the wrist Tide sent her flying and crashing into the ground.
"That would have been smart if not for two things. One: ponies have great hearing, so moving quickly isn't a good idea unless you're faster then the target, or you can do so quietly. Two: Even if those arrows had hit me, they're nowhere near strong or sharp enough to do any meaningful damage." Tide tsked.
Zoey then fired a water beam at Tide, who blocked it with a shield spell. Tide then teleports behind Zoey and throws a punch, Zoey quickly turned around and blocked the punch with her forearms, which were covered in condensed water to soften the blow. Tide smiled at that, but said nothing. Zoey then moved the water, that was around her forearms, onto Tide. She then wrapped it around Tide's shoulders, then slid it down to her wrists, then tightened it to the point where she "couldn't" move them. Thinking she had the upper hand, she goes in for a punch.
Before she could land a hit, she's kicked in the side of the head, and falls to the ground. Sitting up, she sees Tide with an agitating grin. Tide then preceded to make Zoey stand up via magic, showing Zoey that she could have used magic to get out of the restraints (or could have prevented it in the first place), and was choosing not too.
"What? You think I need arms to kick your fat ass? Maybe if you didn't use that water body spell so much, you'd be able to lose weight, then I'd actually need my arms." Tide says with a grin, pissing Zoey off for a moment, before what she said fully clicked.
She hasn't been able to use that spell since the first time she used it, and she was kicked out of it right after Tide's horn glowed. How did Tide already have a spell to cancel out the water body spell? Something like that would take at least a month to be developed by someone who had first hand experience in that specific spell. Zoey didn't say anything as she kept fighting, but made sure to keep an eye and ear out for anything else strange.
After 2 hours of training (and brutally insulting each other), Tide called for a brake.
So now what?" Zoey asked, who now has a swollen eye and nail scratches down her cheeks, along with many other injuries and some hair missing.
"First the infirmary, then mental training." Tide answered, who was rubbing her previously strangled neck. Some of her hair was missing as well. And drops of blood dropped from the tips of her nails. Her horn glowed for a moment, then as Zoey felt a shiver, the glow died down. "Come on." Tide says, as they walked to the infirmary.
After checking in the infirmary, the two went to a peaceful looking place, with Zoey getting a lollipop (which looked strangely like the Fairy Tail guild emblem) after the visit. The place they went to, reminded Zoey of the Everfree Forest, but much more pleasant. They were surrounded by thick trees, which blocked out the sun. There were glowing fungi littered around the place, which illuminated the place. Bushes and a log filled a lot of the area. The sound of crickets doing that weird cricket sound filled the background. All in all, it felt nice being here.
"Nice place ya got here. So, how do we do this?" Zoey asked.
"Well normally I'd have you calm your mind, meditate, and have our minds synced in a way that we wouldn't hear the other's thoughts. But since we don't have twelve years for you to get in the right mental state, I'll just painlessly knock you out." Tide answered.
"Wha-." Before Zoey could finish, Tide blasted her with a sleep spell, knocking her out instantly.
"…Was that really necessary?" Zoey asked as the two appeared in a dojo. The two were now wearing protective gear and holding bamboo swords.
"Did it hurt?" Tide asked.
"No." Zoey answered.
"Then yes." Tide says with a smile. "Anyway. I know from Mike that you're able to summon swords made of water, so you must have some experience with them." Zoey makes a so-so gesture. "Better then nothing. Show me what you know." Tide instructed. Zoey nods and goes through the different techniques Juvia knew, and what Link taught her. After a little bit, she stopped, having gone through them all.
"And that's all I know." She says with a shrug.
"Well you seem to have sword fighting down pretty well, save for some of it." Tide says. Seeing Zoey's confused look, she elaborated. "Your moves looked robotic, they lacked any flexibility, and they started to look predictable. That's not including seven of those moves, which looked like you've never really practiced them before." She critiqued.
"Sounds about right, most of those move were just from memory and muscle memory, and Link only showed me those seven moves recently." Zoey says. Tide nods before tossing Zoey a gem.
"Place this on your forehead, and focus on your memory of Link, and what he showed you. It'll record what you saw, and whenever you place it back on your forehead, it'll show you an illusion of him that only you can see. In your spare time, I want you to practice those moves, since I haven't done them, I can't exactly give any pointers for it." Tide instructs. Zoey does so, and after a little while, the gem pings, before falling into Zoey's hands. Pocketing it, she turned to Tide.
"Isn't it just imaginary?" She asked.
"It'll appear in your pocket in the real world, I don't really understand it, but it works. Now let's get back to training. We'll have a little mock fight, so you can get better equipped with sword fighting. So get ready, because I fully intend to beat your ass until it's as blue as your hair." Tide says with a grin, Zoey returns the grin with her own, though that wouldn't last long.
…
"Aaaah!" The two screamed as their bamboo swords slammed together. After a few seconds of trying to overpower the other (Tide could easily do so, but didn't since this was a training exercise for Zoey), the two broke apart. They then preceded to circle each other, sizing the other up.
"You definitely have a talent for sword fighting, I'll give you that." Tide says with a nod.
"Did you really have to hit that same area so many times?" Zoey questioned, flinching as she feels a phantom pain on her rump.
"Hey, You're the one who told me to put my bits where my mouth was." Tide says with a shrug, knowing that what Tide said was true, Zoey just grumbled in defeat. She then rushed at Tide with a yell, Tide just got in a defensive stance and waited.
…
"Ha! How do YOU like it?" Zoey asked as she returned the favor. "I finally got you back!"
"That you did." Tide conceded as she nursed her rump with a shrug.
…
"Hey, I've been curious about something." Zoey says, as she takes another strike.
"Your leg is off, you're gonna wanna bring it out a bit more, otherwise it'll be too easy to knock you off balance." Tide points out. Zoey does so. "So what're you curious about?" Tide asked as she thrusts the sword into Zoey's chest, causing her to stagger back.
"Do you know anything about Twilight?" Zoey asked as she did a diagonal strike upwards, which Tide dodged, and returned in kind.
"Be mindful of how much power you put into each strike, it can give your opponent an opening if you're not careful." Tide points out. "What do you wanna know?" Tide asked, before adding "Keep in mind that there's some things I can’t tell you".
“How is she friends with Mike?” Zoey asked. “One’s a bookworm, and the other is your typical isekai blank slate protagonist. They don’t really have much in common, as far as I’m aware anyway.”
"I can-you're too tense, loosen up a bit, or your movements will be restricted-anyway, I can see why you think that. When he was younger, due to circumstances beyond his control, he didn't have any friends, so he'd normally spend his free time watching anime and what not. While watching it, he noticed that the protagonists, despite being complete outcasts, had gained many friends. So he tried to emulate what the protagonists did. Join a group that has fighting in it, train, and having a hero type attitude. It worked for the protagonists, so he didn't see why it wouldn't work for him. And the bittersweet part about it is, it actually did, people actually started to like him outside of his guardians (who were the ones that screwed him over in the first place). Having his theory proven right (in his eyes), he buckled down on that persona he made, even to this very day." Tide says, throwing some fake attacks in the mix, tripping Zoey up a bit. Zoey frowned, but not because of being tricked.
"And Twilight?" Zoey asked, feeling bad about how she treated him.
"She's the princess' prized studen, her brother is the captain of the Royal guard, and she's from a pretty well known Noble house. She has a lot of power (as far as an outsider looking in could tell), and when she became the princess' student, many ponies suddenly wanted to become her bestest friend." Tide says, no longer attacking. Zoey goes wide eyed.
"No…" Zoey muttered, no longer attacking.
"Yep." Tide muttered with a scowl. "And to make matters worse, given what type of unicorn she was, she was normally ridiculed for her lack of a horn. It didn't help that she was born with more magic then the average unicorn either. Both of those made her a prime target for bullying. So when so many ponies wanted to be her friend, she was ecstatic. She didn't really care about friendship, but it was much better then being bullied. Of course with her being much smarter then many adults, and kids her age not being able to hide things that well, it didn't take her long to realize what was actually happening."
"They didn't actually stop bullying her, they just changed tactics, right?" Zoey asked.
"Yep. They'd pull mean spirited pranks on her behind her back, then comfort her when she was frustrated by it, saying that they'll get whoever keeps pranking her. It kept going on like that until Twilight grew suspicious, and managed to trick them into confessing. One thing led to another, and Twilight snapped at them. They then decided to try a more aggressive approach to get what they wanted, unfortunately for them, they forgot three things. One, Twilight's type of unicorn are naturally three times as powerful as a normal unicorn. Two, Twilight's special talent was magic itself. And three, Twilight was as smart as some adults, so she had a lot of know how to pull from. The one sided beating she gave them deterred anyone else from trying her. It was at that time that Mike's guardians decided to introduce him to Twilight, with Celestia's help of course. Twilight, of course, was suspicious from the get go." Tide continued.
"Not surprised, given how many fake friends she's had." Zoey says.
"Bingo. After a long enough time past without Mike pulling any tricks, Twilight decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. Mike thought she was just being a tsundere, what with how often she'd call him a dummy, so he just rolled with it. It went on like this until one day, the two felt comfortable enough to take off their masks. With Twilight accepting him for who he actually was, and Mike proven to be a real friend, the two formed a strong bond. Twilight even managed to give Mike the courage to show his other friends the real him, though (outside of Rainbow Dash) he didn't show them much. Of course, they've had fights. A particular one had to due with the unfortunate circumstances surrounding Mike. Twilight had called off their friendship, which I don't blame her for, considering what happened to her when she got in the crossfire. Of course, she'd come to regret it. Life without him gave her a hollow feeling, she was so down, she didn't even feel like reading, practicing magic or even reporting to Celestia when Celestia sent her a message to come to her for an important situation. Mike meanwhile, was having a complete emotional meltdown, Twilight was the first person to hangout with the real him, who didn't feel obligated to. For her to be taken away by the very same thing that gave him grief in the past, it was too much for him to handle. Twilight, thankfully, came back to him, and rekindled their friendship." Tide says with a smile.
"So they're each other's rock." Zoey simplified. Tide nods. They got back into fighting stances, but Zoey was more focused on Mike and Twilight. Which caused her to not notice Tide swinging her bamboo sword, or where she was aiming...
*SMACK*
“Nantekotta!” Zoey screamed in both surprise, and pain. “You’ve made your point! Would you please stop hitting me there!?” She yelled in rage.
“Alright, alright. I’ve had my fun, I’ll stop.” Tide says, holding her hands up. And true to her word, she stopped hitting Zoey there, even when they took the fight into the real world. Of course, neither Zoey, nor Tide, said anything about the face. Though that in on itself lead to a shocking development in Zoey’s control over her powers, one that allowed her to get much desired payback, in full.
So I knew that Twilight had a method to her madness, what I didn't know, was what that method was. Instead of using the normal sorting method literally every other library in Equestra uses, she would sort her books however she wanted. And that wouldn't be so bad, if the times she decided to change that order wasn't seemingly random. I looked at the last place I saw "Pyromancy for beginners", and instead found "The female form: How to prepare for strange changes". I look at the area where she had kept her collection of Starswirl related books, and found "A Gardeners guide for rose maintenance". Why a magic obsessed girl has a book about gardening, I will never know. I even tried looking in her room (which was unlocked for some reason), and I couldn't find anything pertaining to a fire based magic book, just some ominous feeling black book.
Rubbing my face in agitation, I walk out of the room, and close the door. A few moments after, I heard someone at the door trying to get in, but can't, probably due to an enchantment. Due to past problems, like the "Nobles" trying to pull a fast one, this tower was reinforced with many countermeasures. This tower is quite literally one of the safest places in Equestra, baring certain…instances.
"Ugh!" I heard someone groan on the other side of the door. "What the hell!? This is the 10th magic lock pick that's broken! What's this lock made of? Anti magic!?" I heard the same person speak.
"Don't be ridiculous, as if a no-horn like her could get her hands on something like that." Another one said with a scoff.
I just ignore them and get back to searching.
"Hey, what's it doing?" I hear the first guy ask as I take a break from searching, cut on the security camera crystal, and take out a can of soda from the mini fridge.
"W-w-whoa! It's got my wrist!" I heard the same guy yell. I opened the can of soda as the screen finally showed what was happening outside. For some reason, tentacles have been Twi's go to when it came to deterrents lately. I take a sip as the tentacles grap the two's remaining limbs. I struggle not to chock from laughing as I watched boxing gloves appear out of thin air, and then preceding to hit the two in the stomach. Having finished my can of soda, I crack out another one as I enjoy the show.
Alas all good things must come to an end. I couldn't just sit there and watch those two idiots get hurt, I had magic to practice after all. So with a heavy heart, I cut off the security crystal screen, and ignored their crys for help as I continued my search for a fire related spell book. I wonder if I should have told them that it gets worse everytime they say "no-horn" or "fake (wannabe) unicorn"…eh, I'm sure they'll figure it out. Honestly, I've been possessed by ghosts and demons, faced otherworldly abominations due to technically being a living portal, and dealt with the insanity that is my caretakers. But none of that is even remotely as terrifying as that mare.
…
…
…
'Why is there a mutilated body on a workbench in her basement lab? Why are runes written everywhere in this room? I gotta-' I feel something jabbed in my neck, and I lose consciousness.
…
…
"Mike?Mike? Mike?" I'm woken up by a familiar voice.
"Twilight?" I asked in confusion. Then everything comes rushing back. "Twilight! What the heck was going on in your basement!?"
"My basement? There's nothing in my basement." She says with a confused look.
"What?" I asked in confusion.
"There's nothing in my basement." She repeated. "You can check if you want." She said with a shrug. Taking her offer, I rushed to her basement, only to find it empty.
"I don't…" I'm at a loss for words. A quick look at my watch showed that only five minutes past. A unicorn with a horn would have needed 30 minutes at the least to clean a room this thoroughly and precisely, a unicorn like Twilight would take twice as long, and I've only been unconscious for 5 minutes.
"I got an alert that someone was (rather poorly) trying to break into the tower, so I rushed over here as fast as I could. And when I got here, you were unconscious." She explained, then gave a glare that sent a shiver down my spine. "You had me worried you know."
"Oh." I say, a feeling of guilt rising up. "I'm sorry." I say, genuinely regretful. For the first time in a long time, I see her flinch.
"H-hey! There's no need to be that upset about it. All that matters is that you're ok." She says with a big smile. Though something was off. Her smile wasn't a normal happy-go-lucky smile, it was one I've seen on those hiding something, something baaaad. Also why was I unconscious? The two from earlier couldn't get in, and even if they did, they'd be too hurt to be an actual threat to me. "So why were you concerned about my basement?"
"Well I had checked it (or at least I thought I did) to see if I could find any fire related spell books, and I saw something unpleasant to say the least." I answered.
"OH! Duh, of course you'd have no idea where it is." She says, slapping her forehead and muttering something I couldn't make out. She then summoned a bunch of books pertaining to fire magic. "Well since I idiotically didn't tell you where these books where, it's only fair that I stay right here with you, to personally make sure nothing goes wrong."
"You don't have to." I say raising my hand.
"Oh believe me Mike." She says with a chuckle. "Yes, I very much do." Something about the way she said that sent a red flag off in my head, but I chose not to question it.
'Huh…what's that weird taste in my mouth?' I think in confusion, it seemed familiar, in a bad way.
Twilight had said that before we could actually start practicing spells, I had to isolate my magic (the magic Link gave me) from the magic I…inherited(?) from Princess Celestia. According to Twi, I now had a magic network that was actually functioning properly. Since the one I had from my 'displacement' was so bad (Twilight even went so far as to say that if a plumber had to fix pipes as bad as my old magic network, they'd quit their job), the magic from the princess was starting to redirect itself from my old network, to my new one. And that wouldn't be so bad, if my new network was actually strong enough to handle the strain, which it wasn't. So I had to learn how to only use my magic, without accidentally using the princess'. Simple enough…
…
Yeah, no. It…it wasn't actually. In fact, it was incredibly hard, to say the least.
"Ok, don't get too upset, most beginners take months to do what you're trying to do. Just try one more time, then we can take a break." Twilight said with a patient smile, then frowned. "Celestia she's good." I heard her mutter.
"Who's good?" I asked in confusion.
"Don't worry about it. Just focus on your magic." She said with a chuckle. I nod and zone out, completely focusing on my magic.
Twilight's POV
I quietly sigh as a take in the sight in front of me. Specifically Mike, and his stalker.
She was an earth pony with peach skin, pink hair (done in a pony tail), and blue eyes. She was wearing a red dress (not fancy enough to draw attention, but cute enough to make a stallion's heart skip a beat), and white shoes. Though this was only a glamour spell, she can't afford to show what she actually looks like, do to her past crimes. She was actually a unicorn with black hair, grey eyes (which sometimes glowed red), and white skin. She also had runes tattooed all over her body, which Mike would have seen if he had been able to investigate her unconscious body, when she was in the basement. I would have told him about it, but he wouldn't have approved, even if I told him his mentors green lit this. The runes had many different functions, which I told the mare most of, just to be safe. One of the runes prevented her from using magic, which is a good thing, since her magic power rivals mine.
…Huh
It's just occurred to me that I've never learned her name.
Knock
Knock
Knock
With a sigh, I summoned a piece of paper, and left Mike a note. Then I fix the mare a death glare, and wrote a message in the air out of magic, the white in my eyes turning bluish and my skin turning darker.
If you ever want to see another sun rise, let alone Mike, you won't do anything stupid. Got it?
Instead of getting scared like most ponies, she just nods, that same agitating smile still on her face. Taking a few more moments to glare at her, I walk downstairs, making sure to add some more commands to the tower's protocol systems.
I had a bad feeling about this, so I'm not taking any chances.
Reaching the front door, I open it to see what looked like a 13 year old human girl. She had a white cat tail and ears, (the inside of her ears being pink), and a pink bow near the end of her tail. She has shoulder length white hair with the cat ears on top, even though she had a set of human ears on the side of her head as well. Her top consists of a mustard yellow and pink top with a pink bow tie. She's wearing a pink skirt with this top. And finally, she was wearing plain white shoes, which look to be enchanted to absorb a great amount of shock and kinetic energy, and redistribute according to the situation. Not hard to do by itself (that's actually how Shining's favorite shield spell works), the only difficult part is storage, the amount of storage in the enchantment dictates the limit of shock and kinetic energy it can store at once. Any unicorn my level could make out that enchantment, since it wasn't that impressive considering how outdated it was.
'This must be Carl, guess she's got transformation magic down.' I think, remembering her little adventure with one of Mike's incidents.
"Can I help you?" I say with a raised brow.
"Hello Twilight." Carla greets with a nervous chuckle. "Can I-er-WE come in?" I’m silent for a moment, taking time to look at the assembled creatures. A light green unicorn stallion with blue eye, and black mane. He was wearing a white shirt, light brown pants, and flip flops. And two humans, one was a young looking male teenager, and the other was a young adult looking woman. Both of them had crimson red straight hair, with the teenager having short hair, while the woman’s hair went all the way down to her waist. Both had light blue eyes. The woman was wearing a purple sleeveless shirt, while the teen was wearing a green short sleeve shirt. The woman was wearing a long black skirt, while the teen was wearing black jeans, both had white tennis shoes on.
‘Two humans, a pony, and Carla. Eh…why not?’ I think, not that interested.
"Sure, just don't go upstairs, Mike needs to focus on something." I say, letting them pass, while keeping on eye on the enchanted gem above them. Suddenly everyone, save for me, got light headed.
"I see you still have THAT feature." Carla says, the affects wearing off after 10 seconds.
"Better safe then sorry." Twilight shrugs. It wasn’t something big, just something to scan their intent. If it was bad (which would make the gem glow red), the tower’s defense system would be on high alert, but not aggressive until they did something they shouldn’t do. If their intent was good or neutral (which would make the gem glow green or yellow respectively), the defense system would be calm. I’m still working out the bug that makes people light headed. "So, to get back on topic, can I help you?"
Carla preceded to explain situation with the humans (named Jack and Nicole apparently), while I just sit there and listens quietly. After Carla finishes, I speak my mind.
"Well…there might be a problem." I started to say, only to see Carla raise her hand to stop me.
"Let me guess, since they're not citizens, we can't legally help them until they're processed. Right?" She guessed.
'For a girl who has foresight, albeit fuzzy, you sure are shortsighted.' I think with a mental deadpan and sweat drop. 'It's way to convenient for them to just appear out of nowhere, and find something like a gang leader's HQ on day one. Plus they could be lying about who they are; they could be cult members for all we know. And all of that isn't including their strange aura.'
"Twilight?" Carla called, braking me out of my thoughts.
"Sorry, was deep in thought." I say with a chuckle. 'Better play along; for now at least. Though I should warn Mike about this.' I think with a mental frown. "And that's right. Thanks to how dangerous it's been lately, we can't afford to use government resources to help noncitizens. I'll try to help as best as I can, without the government's help, but that's all I can do."
"The fact that you're helping us at all is more then enough, Ms.Twilight." Nicole (according to Carla) said with a grateful smile.
"Glad to hear that." I say with a small smile. 'Well she's either being genuine, or she's a good enough actress to fool me. Let's see which it is.'
.