//------------------------------// // Intrusive Thoughts // Story: Fate is a Funny Old Thing // by Steventheman //------------------------------// Flandre opened her eyes slowly. The first thing she noticed was the pain in her left arm. And her right hand. And her stomach. Rolling up her sleeves, she noticed the bright red marks of a recent healed injury on her pale white skin. On one side of her left forearm, the redness was the size of a large coin. On the other, the exit wound was easily the size of her fist. She had been shot before, but the wounds were never that big. They were always smaller than her thumbnail. Flandre shivered at the idea of how much firearms had advanced since the 17th Century - The last time she was allowed to leave the mansion. Flandre did not connect the dots that maybe the fact that people had to shoot at her was the reason why she was confined to the basement. It once took many minutes to fire one inaccurate ball, but the people she was playing with last night were firing hundreds of bullets in a short amount of time. Sighing, she undid the buttons on the bottom of her dress and looked at her abdomen. There was another red mark the size of her fist. She looked around the bedroom. There was a recently used bed, and various books on the floor. The window was covered by a curtain. Flandre looked at the books, and at the books on the shelf next to her. There was only one thing she could do with those books. "Marisa, can you at least try and eat like a human being?!" Reimu complained, slamming her spoon on the breakfast table. "I'm finding it really hard to enjoy my cereal." "Mhm?" Marisa grunted, putting her second bowl on top of her first bowl. "I can't help it. I'm really liking this stuff." "You're supposed to use this!" Reimu admonished, holding her spoon in front of Marisa. "Thanks!" Marisa smiled, taking Reimu's used spoon, much to her horror, and putting it into her third bowl of chocolate flavored cereal. Rarity and Sweetie Belle stared at Marisa as she quickly devoured her third bowl of cereal. "So you really like Captain Choc?" Sweetie Belle asked slowly. "Reimu, we gotta find a way to get this stuff once we go home," Marisa said, grinning like a maniac. "No." "Aww." "So, what happened to that guy?" Reimu asked. "Thunderlane?" Rarity replied. "He left in the early morning to return to Hoofton Air Force Base, and left his number here. We're going on a date tomorrow night." "Huh. Good job Rarity," Marisa praised, slowly moving the box of Captain Choc under the table. "How is Flandre doing?" Rarity asked, not noticing Marisa's daring theft of the chocolate cereal. "Well, she was still asleep when I left," Reimu answered. "She's going to be scared of me for a while, I reckon." "That was one Hell of a manovuer, Reimu," Marisa said, fist-bumping with Reimu with her free hand. "I mean, I'd have never thought of that." "Of course you wouldn't. You just shoot things until they stop moving." "Worked before," Marisa shrugged, putting a handful of cereal puffs into her mouth, and grimacing. "These taste much better with milk." "So Flandre is no longer a threat, then?" Rarity questioned, giving an odd look to the witch. "I ask, because Thunderlane is still shaken up by the whole horrid affair." "I told her that if she misbehaves, I'll use my magic shrine maiden powers to summon her sister," Reimu explained. "It should keep her nice." "Her sister?" "Yeah. Her name's Remilia Scarlet. She's the lady of the Scarlet Devil Mansion," Reimu explained. "Flandre will do anything her sister tells her to." "Why?" "It's not out of fear, and it's not out of love," Marisa answered. "I don't know what it is." "Say, where's Mobius One?" Reimu asked. "The living room," Rarity answered. She turned to her sister. "Come on, Sweetie Belle. You have to go to school now." "Aww..." Sweetie sighed. She turned to the two humans. "See you guys!" "See you, kid!" "Bye." Rarity picked up Sweetie's school bag with her mouth and dropped it gently onto the filly, who then skipped merrily out of the house. "I'm going to be busy today," Rarity said, walking out the kitchen and passing Mobius One. "I'll see you all later." "See ya!" Marisa called out, before sitting next to Reimu. "What are gonna do about Flandre now?" "Like I said, use Remilia to keep her in line," Reimu answered. "What about Mobius?" "Mobius can look after himself," Marisa replied, pouring a fourth bowl of Captain Choc. "Alright," Reimu sighed, before she heard giggling from the guest bedroom. "Flandre's awake. I'm going to check on her. Don't eat all the cereal." "I wasn't going to!" Marisa complained, her mouth full. Reimu peeked around the corner of the doorframe. Only one of Flandre's wings was visible, and the room was darkened completely, save for a single beam of light. Reimu's felt around the wall, and turned the light switch on, before walking inside. Mobius One was sitting in a structure made entirely of books, with Flandre sitting on his lap. There was a flashlight on the bookcase behind him, and his hands were arranged to cast a shadow puppet onto the opposite wall. "Halt!" Flandre yelled. "Who dares approach Fort Flandre?" "Me," Reimu stated flatly. "Mobius, what are you doing?" Mobius shrugged. "Well...you're not really hurting anyone, I guess..." Reimu admitted, before flipping the light switch off, turning around and walking back to Marisa. "The kid doing okay?" "Mobius is showing her shadow puppets," Reimu replied. "So Mobius is babysitting Flandre, and we're free to do what we want, really," Marisa smiled. "Nobody in the town is going to care about us because we saved them last night." "I'm in the mood for staying in and waiting," Reimu answered, picking up and attempting to decipher a pony newspaper. "Have fun, I guess." "Alright, fine," Marisa shrugged, picking up Rarity's mop. "I'm going for a fly." Reimu waved at Marisa as the witch advanced outside and took a deep breath, before mounting the mop. She ascended into the air and held onto her hat. Flying against the bitter Autumn winds, she admired the town in daylight. She looked over the area of the battle last night - There was a destroyed section of road where Flandre had thrown a pair of heatseekers to the ground, and there was still a pool of blood where one pegasi crashed. Marisa noticed a large wooden board where a window would be, and thought to herself about the pegasi who most likely crashed through that window. "What a crazy night..." Marisa whispered to herself. She stopped for a while and simply hovered in the air, before putting her hand to her chin - She had been in this strange world for one uncomfortable night now. What if she was here for a long time? Not only was Gensokyo in serious danger unless the other shrine maiden Reimu knew stepped up, but they would be forgotten eventually. Marisa grimaced at the idea of being forgotten. Would anyone remember me? Sakuya? Patchouli, that gate guard...What about Mima, wherever she is...or what about Alice? Would they remember me? "No..." Marisa growled to herself. "I will not be forgotten. I have worked too damn hard. I will either get back to my home or die trying." Marisa shook her head to clear the bad thoughts of the possibility of not returning, and sped against the cold wind as fast as she could. The cold air sliced into her exposed skin, making her forget about the terrible thoughts. "More tea, Mr. Mobius?" Flandre asked sweetly, pouring invisible tea into a cup in front of Mobius One. The hero of the Usean Continential War stared blankly at the imaginary tea, before lifting the cup to his mask, and pretending to drink it. "So, as I was saying - I was talking to my sister, and she was trying to explain how knees don't bend a certain way. Of course, my mind was occupied on other matters, like the cookies Sakuya had promised me." Mobius nodded, and adjusted the cardboard top hat on his helmet. "Eventually, my sister had realised my distraction, and so asked me a question. I responded with 'chocolate chip!'" Flandre laughed, slapping her knee. "It had a bad ending though - I wasn't allowed to watch any cartoons for the day. Which sucked." Mobius rubbed his chin in thought, before noticing Reimu standing in the corridor leading to the kitchen. She stared at the scene, before slowly backing away into the living room. The fighter pilot turned back to the young vampire, and wondered how she was such a fearsome foe in combat. Here, she was acting like any other little girl - Holding a tea party, and generally being the image of innocence. Her smile betrayed her vampiric side and her eyes betrayed her demonic nature however. "So, Mr. Mobius, do you have any stories?" Flandre asked, eating a small biscuit. Mobius nodded. I've got a good story. "Do tell," Flandre said, trying her best to impersonate her sister's 'proper' accent. It was my first mission with the ISAF, and I was scrambled from my aircraft carrier to stop six TU-95 Bear bombers from destroying an air base and various targets in North Point. "What happened?" Flandre asked, now dropping the act and becoming actually interested in the story. I took off, and we met the bombers at Newfield Island. I shot two missiles. Mobius made a gun shape with his fingers, and mimed firing. Shot down one Bear. Saw the next one, and shot him down too. Then we met the escort fighters. "Escort fighters?" Bunch of F-5E's. Simple enough. Locked on, fired, and missed, so I fired two more and shot down a fighter. Then I got the third bomber. Mobius thought for a second about how Flandre would never remember this conversation, but continued anyway. I shot down another fighter, and I saw they brought MiGs out as well. Mobius paused to let Flandre ask a question, but when she stayed silent, he continued. This pilot was real good. Fired missile after missile at him, but he kept avoiding me. So I disengaged, and started flying for the bombers again. Flandre was on the edge of her seat now. One of them got to Allenfort Air Base and got the runway. I hit him with a missile, but it didn't put him down. So I used my gun, and then fired two more missiles and finally shot him down. "Was it just you fighting?" Flandre asked. I had other pilots helping, but they were tied up with the escort fighters. Then my AWACS - My boss, basically. - told me that the last bomber was shot down by the other pilots. So we returned to base, and people were cheering for me - I was the 'new kid' to them...Can I tell you a secret, Flandre? "You can tell me, Mobius." I can't remember a time where I'm not flying. And I've always been flying I kept looking to the skies as everything in the world changed. I saw nations rise and fall. I saw propellers turn to jet engines. And I've flown them all. Every time the wars I were involved in ended, people seemed to forget I was alive. I just became a legend whom nobody saw. "Wow..." Flandre gasped. "Are you a Youkai?" I doubt it. I'm just...something else entirely. Flandre remained silent and waited for the pilot to continue. I started hearing thoughts of other pilots - other people who flew. Eventually, I was able to send my thoughts to them. But they would never remember me doing this... "Will I remember this, Mobius?" Flandre choked. You don't remember what I told you last night, do you? Flandre tried to remember any point where Mobius had communicated with her. She could only remember talking to herself after being defeated, and something about playing cards. "I can't remember anything..." I thought so. I've tried for years. Lifetimes, even. Nothing has ever worked. But I want to see if you can remember the tone of this conversation. Mobius advanced forward and hugged Flandre. In a few minutes, Flandre was trying to pinpoint the exact tone of voice Mobius was using. In the next minute, she could only remember hearing a voice. Mobius broke the hug. "I heard some strange voice when we were hugging then..." Flandre wondered. "Eh, it's probably nothing. I'm gonna go talk to Reimu!" Mobius watched as the girl skipped away happily. He audibly sighed, and held his head in his hands. "Rarity, did you hear about the battle last night?" Fluttershy asked, locking the door to her cottage. "I'm a really heavy sleeper, and it even woke me up." "I did," Rarity replied, walking side-by-side with the yellow pegasus, unaware of the alien eyes watching them. "I heard the Air Force took heavy losses." "Heh...back when I was a filly, that would have never happened." Fluttershy stated. "I remember when ponies actually respected the Royal Guard." "The spending cuts really hit them hard." Rarity replied. "That's not the point. Ten years ago, ponies saw combat pegasi as ponies to be respected..." Fluttershy said sadly. "Overnight, hearts of steel were replaced by hearts of cowardice. Rainbow Dash is one of the few exceptions I've seen..." "It's a sad state of a affairs..." "It is. There's a reason I don't mention being in the Air Defence Force any more..." Fluttershy laughed. "Everypony knows I did National Service, but not in the Air Defence Force." "Why don't you tell anypony?" "Because I know they'll make fun of me." "They won't make fun of you, dear..." Rarity promised, still mindful of the fact that Flandre, a child by human standards, had defeated four heavily-armed pegasi. "Hopefully..." Rarity and Fluttershy continued on their way to their spa appointment. "She's finally gone," the ice fairy whispered to herself, before jumping up and headbutting her way through the cottage window. "Here's Cirno!" she shouted while face down on the floor, before getting up and looking around. "Oh yeah...she left." Cirno turned around and stared at the refrigerator in Fluttershy's kitchen. Using all of her fairy strength, she opened the fridge door, unwittingly breaking one of the hinges. Inside, there was the usual assortment of fridge goodies - Milk, baby bottles, and a large plate of red gelatin. Cirno then noticed a single metal cylinder. It looked similar to the drink that Cirno had once seen that red-headed gate guard drinking, except it was a different color, size and it was in this fridge. She picked it up with both hands, and turned it around. "Ponyville Impish? No, Imperial Brewery...beer," Cirno read the label out loud. "Four percent...Four percent what?" Cirno shrugged and opened the can, before lifting it up and drinking a mouthful of beer. Which is not a lot, as fairies are quite small. Cirno grimaced at the taste, before drinking more anyway.