“Sweet”
*Sproing*
“Got Dangit…..”
*Sproing*
*Excited Gasp*
While the others expressed their excitement or unexcitement over the incoming figure, Twilight sat there face in hand, silently fuming. She yelled out in hopes that her voice would reach the pink haired girl. “I told you not to bring out that thing, it’s too dangerous”
“He’s not a thing twilight” Pinkie yelled back as she sproinged closer. “He’s a …..how do you spell your name again?” She asked down to the giant figure that she sat upon, sproinging ever closer to the group.
“Why little lady you spell it T-I-Double-Guh-Er, and that spells-”
“TIGGER” screamed shy as she flew at RD speeds to towering tiger named Tigger. Bouncing the final distance to meet her group He stood at the size of a 3 story building, his orange body colored with so many black stripes. He continued to bounce in place on his tail like a Pogo stick, his hands holding onto his feet.
“That's right, and you remember, the wonderful thing about Tiggers-” he began in a singsong.
“Is that you're the only one!” Pinkie and Shy finished, completing the tune for him. They both particularly enjoyed his company. Shy because he was an interesting sentient animal that could talk, and came from a peaceful world of other peaceful sentient animals. She viewed it to be something out of a children's book, and she would give anything to visit their world. Pinkie loved him because he was fun and silly and he bounced just like her. She considered him to be her favorite animal summon.
Pinkies keyblade gave her strange powers that not even Twilight could explain very well. At best, all she could figure was that Pinkie had the ability to make contracts with and summon strange beings from other worlds to assist her. It drove Twilight mad for 3 days trying to understand it. On the upside, it drove her to create 3 new spells during that time.
“Hey there Shy, how are you” Tigger asked after shy had reached, and sat down on, his nose.
“Oh i’m fine, thank you” the normally shy girl started. “How are Pooh bear and the others doing in the Hundred Acre Wood.”
` “Oh, same old same old, Poohs stuck in rabbits tree hole, and rabbits grouchy, about it.”
“Oh my, i hope he’s alright” she replied with genuine concern.
“Don't you worry your pretty pink hair about it, it happens almost once a week anyway. Roo’s coming along as a great little bouncer. Why, I bet he’s out and bouncin’ around right now.”
Shy gave Tigger a warm smile at her tiger friends big brother like relationship with the younger kangaroo. She always wished that she had a sister of her own. “The sounds wonderful, good for him.”
“Wait….!” Pinkie interjected as she narrowed her eyes, staring up at them from his shoulder. “Is he a better bouncer than me?” she asked in all seriousness.
Both Tigger and shy took a moments to give a gentle laugh at Pinkie;'s question, (Tigger’s was more of a guffaw though) although pinkies expression never changed, seriously waiting for an answer.
“No, you're still one of the best in my book Pinkie.” Tigger answered after his laugh had died down.
Pinkies expression faded into her usual candy coated smile, accepting that answer. “Good, because-”
“HEY LISTEN!!” Dash yelled as she flew up, close to Tiggers ear, making him wince.
Rubbing his sore eardrum Tigger looked over at Dash with a sour expression. “Hey that wasn't nice, you hurt my ear.”
“Yes that wasn't very nice Rainbow” Shy agreed.
“Yeah!”
“Whatever, I've been yelling for you guys for the past 5 minutes!” She said, seriously angry. She pointed down at Tiggers still bouncing tail “YOUR CRUSHING OUR FRIENDS!!!”
Both Pinkie and Shy looked down at the ground below Tigger's tail, they noted a small Purple glow that they recognized as Twilight barrier and realized that he’d been bouncing on them the whole time and only her barrier had been keeping them safe.
“So that’s what that was…...I thought i was bouncing on a pebble or something.” Tigger said, offering a sorry smile to ease the tension. Before Dash could lunge at him he shrunk himself down to his normal height of about 3 feet. Feet hitting the ground, Pinkie looked over to see all of her friends inside Twilight's severely cracked shield, and the caster herself panting in exhaustion. All of them wearing expressions of fear and anger, and all of them directed at her and her summon.
Twilight dismissed her partially cracked barrier and stomped over to scold Pinkie.”Pinkamena Diane Pie” Pinkie twitched at hearing her full name. “How many times have i told you not to summon him just to traverse long distances. His bounces could cause earthquakes, not to mention you and Shy keep getting distracted, making idle conversation while those of us who can't fly out of the way, get bounced on!”
“Why didn't you just blink your way out?” Pinkie asked curiously, referring to Twi’s short distance teleport spell.
Twilight gestured to her friends that were dusting themselves off. “Because without my spell they would be crushed!” She pointed toward the still bouncing tiger. “And You! Do you HAVE to be that big when you come here, I know you do that on purpose.” Referring to the fact that whatever Pinkie summons gains one extra power of some sort. Tigger's is size adjustment.
“Well I get more of a bounce if i'm taller” He answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world
“Yeah Twilight” she added in the same way.
Twi stood there, looking like she was about to burst into flame, she knew that when these two were together, they were both beyond reprimandation. Though it still made her angry enough to attempt to see if you could forcible banish the stuffed tiger back to where he came.
Pinkie apparently got the message and decided to save Twi the trouble. She turned back to Tigger, “Tigger I think you have to go back now OK BYE!” she said as she banished him back without waiting for a response, scared that anything that he would say would set of the bomb that was currently Twilight Sparkle.
“Sorry Twilight” Pinkie said in genuine feeling. Twis anger seemed to deflate a little at this. AJ sensing that it was safe to enter the conversation stepped over and put her arm around Twilight to lean on her, much to her annoyance.
“Shucks Twi, don’ let it bother ya none. She’s just training her powers like the rest of us, whatever they are."
“Yes, relax darling we are all fine, and i must admit, that Tigger is quite a nice tiger”
“Indeed Twilight Sparkle, twas just harmless fun”
Any anger that had, until then, evaporated from Twi, returned in full voice as she went back on her rant. “Harmless fun, she nearly crushed us AGAIN!” she all but screamed until she realized who that last voice belonged to. She turned around to see a tall winged woman, with an almost blue tint to her skin. She stood in front of her wearing her usual outfit complete with hair that seemed to flow in the breeze.
“Master Luna!!” Twilight exclaimed as she fell to one knee as did the others, except for Pinkie as she had to be pulled down on one knee by AJ.
“Please there is no need for formalities, on this most joyous of days.” She signaled for them to rise to their feet before she continued. “Today you all take the Mark of Mastery exams, 'tis a day for celebration, and we have seen that you all have already partaken in a feast. We must commend the chef,” she said, gesturing over to Pinkie who beamed in response.
Dash quickly caught on to what she had implied. “Wait, did you eat the rest of the food?”
“Indeed we have.” Luna answered, glad that someone had reacted.
Dash began to tear up as she floated into the air absentmindedly. “Even the Zap Apple waffles?”
“Those were the most scrumptious.”
Dash fell back down to the ground in despair as Shy worked to comfort her.
After silently chuckling at the prismatic fliers plight, Luna turned back to the rest of the group. “So anyway. Art thou all ready for thy trip? She questioned.
AJ chose to take this moment to ask something that had been on her mind for awhile. “Ah have a question, how exactly do we travel from one world to the other?” This stopped everyone in their tracks, as no one have even questioned this possibility.
“Yeah are we gonna get awesome armor and cool bikes?” exclaimed dash as she leapt into the air and did a loop.
“Umm... no”
Disheartened once more Dash fell back to the ground “This day sucks” she muttered.
“However, we believe that our dear friend Pinkie may have a method.” She said motioning to the girl that everyone had realized had been pretty quiet. They realized why, she had her hands cupped over her mouth and had been vibrating furiously in place for the past few minutes. She looked like she was gonna burst.
“Hekz yea” she yelled as she bolted with Pinkie brand speed over to a random section of the area that they had been in.
To EVERYONE'S confusion Pinkie had reached out with both hands and had started to pull on thin air. to everyone's great fear and bafflement, the trees in front of her began to bend and sway in her direction. To their relief and further confusion they realized that she was pulling on a giant cloaking device like cover, hiding something even more implausible.
A large green ship that had been painted and designed to look like a toothless alligator.
Deadpanning, Rarity decided to ask what had been on everyone's mind.
“Diane, darling, what in the world is that thing?” she asked stepping forward.
“It’s a ship, made for travel between worlds. I made it to look my old pet” She answered, referring to the toothless pet alligator that she had as a child. “I call it the Gummy ship!” she exclaimed with a wide grin.
Rarity gave no response aside from her previous deadpan stare “Riiiiigggghhttt, next question then-
Suddenly Twilight appeared next to rarity and shoved her aside like a rag doll.“HOW DID YOU EVEN BUILD THAT!” Twilight all but screamed.
“Well whenever we snuck out to explore-” Luna gave a suddenly very nervous Twilight a hard glare at this. “-I would find these blocky things, and this guy named Cid, who ran the doughnut shop with Joe, told me that they were parts to a ship! My eyes went all big and i gave a huge gasp like this: GAAAASSSSSPPPPP.” As pinkie so generously demonstrated for the group. “So i started collecting them, because I just knew that it would come in hand. So I asked Luna for help and she provided the magic for some parts of the ship. I kept it a secret because i wanted to surprise you all like right now so Surprise!” Pinkie finished, never stopping for a single breath nor missing a beat.
Complete silence was her only companion at this particular moment, not even the telltale sound of a facepalm or chirping cricket wanted to break this sweet silence.
Eventually Twilight chose to commit the sin first. “Huh, so that's where you keep disappearing to.” as if realizing the truth to some great mystery, which for her, it was.
“I left this morning to bring it here”
“Wait what!? How could you have known that we’d come here, and that we wouldn't accidentally hit it?” Twilight almost yelled.
Pinkie just shrugged off Twilights tone and answered as if it had been obvious from the beginning. “Pullleeaasee Twi I've known you all well enough that I know that” She began gesturing to each of her friends in turn. “Rarity would want to work off the pounds, AJ would want to train partially for the same reason, Dash’s always up for a fight, Shy loves coming here, and you love hanging out with us. So for one reason or another I knew you’d all come here at some point if you all ate what I made.” she replied in quick succession.
Twi stood dumbfounded at this revelation of exactly how well Pinkie knew her friends. The others looked on, impressed as well.
“Well she’s got me pegged like a wrangled cow” AJ admitted.
“She does have a point” Rarity offered, now feeling a little self conscious of her weight...was she that noticeable?
“No denying it here”
Shy nodded silently
Luna nodded sagely ”'Tis an amazing feat to know thy friends so well, should come in handy if thy should face the shape changers in thy journey” she said, almost to herself.
“The what?-” Twilight started before being interrupted once more, this time by AJ
“So that leaves the question, if Pinks didn't make that ship, how would we have traveled?” This one took Luna by surprise as she noticeably tensed up. Even Twi seemed interested in this hypothetical. Growing more watched Luna flashback to this conversation that she had with her sister.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4 Years Ago
Celestia Eclipse peacefully sat on the balcony table in her castle along with her younger sister Luna Eclipse, both calmly drank their tea as they made small talk about what each other had been up to. Both sisters had decided to take on students of their own to teach the way of the keyblade. After Luna found her students first Tia had left her sister to her own methods, leaving for a new world to train her own proteges.
“So, how are they coming along Lulu?” Tia began the new topic after explaining why their other friend couldn't make this meeting.
“Oh wonderful, they progress exponentially, Twilight is very innovative, if a bit high strung. The one named ‘Pinkie Pie’ would be the opposite, silly but sharp, doing things in her own unique way.”
Tia took a sip of her tea before responding with a small but sad smile. “Sounds a lot like him”
Luna shared her sisters feelings but continued regardless. “The one named Jacqueline holds incredible physical strength, even by earthan standards. The same could be said for young Rainbow Dash, speed beyond normal avian measure. In fact they are all extremely special, the pink haired shy one even granted the gift of thought in a small animal. We see great things for them Tia, soon they will face other worlds, and we pray that they are ready.”
“I must admit” Tia started, wearing a full on smirk. “I was slightly worried that having teenage students, much less 6 of them, would be a bit too much of a challenge for you. I even made a bet with him on weather you’d come to one of us for help.” She teased, suppressing a small snicker at her sisters currently dumbfounded face and bright red cheeks.
Quickly composing herself, Luna cocked her gun and proceeded to return fire. Calmly sipping her tea she responded with the same smirk that her sister had.”Well that just shows that we art a much better caretaker than thou. Not needing to go looking for already semi grown students.
“Well played Luna” Celestia thought. “So when the time does come how do you plan on setting them off?”
“Ill come up with something, we may just teach the warp spell to young Twilight” Luna answered nonchalantly.
Tia seemed surprised at this, “Lulu do you even remember that spell, you haven't used it in years. You use your night and shadow powers to go everywhere now” Tia asked with a light hearted smile
Luna seemed to be offended, she stood up and spread her wings in defiance. “So says thou! We can use the spell as easily as the day we learned it! Behold...” Luna exclaimed as she summoned her keyblade and concentrated. Hard.
“WARP: LUNAR MOUNTAIN!” She called out as she released her built up energy.
…...and nothing happened. Luna continued to call out the warp spells for the next few hours, oblivious to her sisters increasing laughter.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Back to the present the master of the lunar keyblade found herself at the end of 6 piercing gazes. “Think of something masterly…...Quickly!” she thought to herself.
Quickly before anyone present could react, she held out her right hand. In a wave of dark night sky energy, her keyblade appeared in her grasp. A long dark, two toned sky blue/dark blue keyblade. Pictures of the different phases of the moon going around the night blue half of the the guard, and swirls covering the other half. Both coming up the shaft to meet the crescent moon that acted as the blades teeth. The crescent moon keychain swung freely from the end. Luna rarely summoned her keyblade, all questions forgotten everyone quickly knelt down in respect.
Crescent Night pulsed with lunar power as she began:
“Pinkamena Diane Pie!” once again twitching at the mention of her full name.
“Shia Flutter” Shy noticeably hid behind her hair as per usual.
“Rarity Anne Bell” She curtsied in response.
“Jacqueline Apple!” She tipped her hat to her master.
“Rachelle Dash” Dash looked as if she was about to say something but stopped herself.
“-and finally Twilight Sparkle!” Twilight bowed. “Its time now for a new change to come, you’ve grown up, from those small children wandering the void between worlds, to the proud Keyblade wielders that you are now. I’ve watched you all from that very first day, to see what you might do, to see how you might grow, to see how you would all make me proud of you.”
“It’s time now for you all to create your own paths, find new worlds, meet friends both new and old, and seek out the ones who have wronged you and your world. Along the way you may meet those that may become powerful allies, or dangerous foes, but you must never forget this one truth: You have each other, believe in yourselves and the power of your friends and you will never be lost. For they, are your greatest assets. Your test is this: Locate the ones who have wronged you, and seek closure. Find Spike and save him, both from the darkness, or himself.” She banished her keyblade as she sat her arm back at her side “Go now, have fun and be safe.”
“Well that worked…smooth”
She looked out to all of her students who appeared to be filled with pride, some even had tears in their eyes, though Dash would later call them “Liquid Awesomeness”
“HAH, take that Tia” Luna thought with an inner smirk.
Twilight rose first to respond, she had been the most teary eyed of the group. “Thank you master” she said from the heart.
“Come on guys let’s go see Pinkies ship ”AJ urged the rest of the girls. As soon as they started to walk move, Luna called out for Twilight to hang back.
“Twilight, one last thing. We've heard from a friend that strange occurrences have been occurring on different worlds. If he thinks they are strange then we should be wary.” Seeing Twis confused expression, she continued. “What we mean is this: weird things are happening, and the one that you search for may be connected to it somehow. I fear for your safety, therefore i offer to you this:” Luna held out her keyblade and in a flash, a small glowing cube appeared, it glowed brilliantly with prismatic lights and darks of all colors, never staying the same for any period of time. It floated gently into Twilight's outstretched palm.
Twilight looked at in in wonder, millions of questions floating in her head as she examined it from all angles. Eventually she settle one one: “What is this?”
Luna smiled softly as she responded. “A gift from a friend, please keep it safe, it wasn't easy to get this so only use it in a dire situation. It is an extremely powerful artifact, if you can get him to cooperate he will do you a favor.” She explained.
“Yes my dear, this cube is sentient and alive, he can judge your request as well, or dare we say, better than we can. I call it a D.E.M, keep it safe.”
“Y-yes of course master!” Twi exclaimed as she held the wondrous object up to her face and stared at what kind of magic or mystics that could be contained within. Luna looked on at her student, wearing the exact same scholarly face that she had worn all those years ago when she first saw a keyblade, then again when she cast her first spell, and so many times since. Luna felt a sort of maternal pride at the young woman that she raised. Only one thing remained.
“Twilight listen I want you to know-” This caught Twilight's attention like as fish, as she heard her teacher drop her usual way of speaking that she thought was cool. “-that you and the other girls will always have a place here, for this will ALWAYS be your home, your haven for when things look rough out there. I will also be here if you ever need my assistance for anything-” Luna couldn't finish as she had suddenly been grabbed in a teary eyed hug. After a few seconds, she decided to return the embrace.
Muffled Twilight spoke “Thank you,....Luna
