Crackpots and Schemers
"Two, four, six, eight, who do we really hate?" Veronica blared into a megaphone while doing a cheerleader practice.
"Timmy! Timmy!" Everyone cheered, holding up pictures of Timmy with red Xs drawn over his face.
"They used their magic on a bunch of little kiddies," Pinkie exclaimed with an unusual amount of fury in her voice.
"They even turned his friends against them too," Sunset observed with furious tone, watching as even Chester, AJ, Sanjay, and Elmer were waving those horrible signs around.
"When I get mah hands on them," Applejack grumbled. The angry expressions on the other Rainboom's faces showed they were equally enraged by the depths the Dazzlings sunk too for power.
"Should we'try and lift the spell on everyone else?" Fluttershy asked with concern, horrified by the sheer amount of hatred these children held for Timmy.
"Later," Princess Twilight said. "Finding Cosmo and Wanda and coming up with a way to defeat the Dazzlings should be our first priority."
The Rainbooms followed Rainbow as she led them to Crocker's classroom.
"OK Dash," Sunset said. "What's your plan?"
"Timmy said Crockpot's got some secret stash, right?" Rainbow asked.
"Yeah," Applejack said.
"I figured out where it is," Rainbow Dash concluded. "It's got to be here, in Crocker's room."
The Rainbooms looked at Rainbow like she was nuts.
"Why would you assume that?" Twilight asked in confusion.
"The guy is one of these loony villains gloating about world domination," Rainbow said with a roll of their eyes. "What do all these loony villains love to do?"
"Have cool mustaches?" Pinkie asked, suddenly sporting a fake one under her lips.
"Tying damsels in distress to railroad tracks," Rarity said ,"so that a dashing young man can save her and carry her off into the...sunset," she added with a blush.
"Yeah," Sunset answered.
"Nothing," Rarity said with some embarassment.
"Cackling maniacally," Sunset offered.
"Yeah, you always loved doing that whenever you shoved me into my locker," Fluttershy said with an oddly wistful smile.
"Well yeah," Rainbow said reluctnantly. "But they're all idiots who always leave their junk where the hero can find them," Rainbow said with some disgust. "If he's got a stash, he would definitely put it in the most obvious place, which is where TIMMY could find it. How else would the kid know about Crockpot's weapons" She started looking snooping around Crocker's desk. "He's got to have some kind of secret passageway to where he keeps his tech."
"Rainbow, this isn't some Saturday mornin' cartoon," Applejack said in an unimpressed tone.
"Yeah," Sunset added. "Crockpot's a nutjob, but he isn't that stupid."
Just as Sunset said that, Rainbow found a red button in one of Crocker's drawers. She pushed it. Suddenly the room started shaking.
The Rainbooms, in a panic, all scattered to the edge.
A massive square-shaped hole opened up in the middle of the room room. Suddenly, a series of stairs protruded out of the wall. Finally a massive sign burst out of the ground.
It was an arrow-shaped sign with Crocker on it that read "Crocker Cave."
"Welcome to the Crocker Cave," the digital recording of the man's voice greeted. "Where dreams of world domination can come true," in a tone that one would use to welcome someone to an amusement park.
"Oh Crocker, you never fail to make me think even less of you," Sunset said with a sarcastic frown. The rest of the Rainbooms looked equally disgusted, while Rainbow smiled smugly at being proven right.
The Rainbooms all shuffled down the hidden stairwell and found themselves in a massive underground laboratory.
"This guy has a underground lair too," Sunset said with distate, "I thought the guy was out of his mind, but this is really crazy!"
"He also doesn't seem to understand the concept of hygiene!" Rarity shrieked. "Look, everything is here is a horrid mess!"
The Rainbooms began to notice that the whole place seemed trashed beyond repair. The cool monitors and blinking lights were cracked, the monitoring equipment and controlling was ripped out of the walls and totaled. More importantly, there was what looked like a lot of fairy hunting weapons.
But a lot of them were in too much disrepair to be useful. Based off all the destruction, it was obvious that all this was an act of malice.
"Who did all this?" Fluttershy asked, frightened by the massive amount of destruction..
"Forget about that," Twilight said in a stern voice. "We need to find something that can help us find the Dazzlings, find Cosmo and Wanda, and/or fight the sirens."
The Rainbooms looked through the rubble, trying to find something useful, but they only came across more junk.
"Look at this," Sunset said with an odd smile and looking at a wall.
Sunset, in her days as a thieving bully, learned you can tell a lot about a person by what was in their personal space. A simple glance at their living arrangements, possessions, and surroundings could tell you all you needed to know.
A wall labeled "Wall of Enemies," spoke of a man who was consumed by hatred and obsession. The wall had pictures of various figures of enmity, along with a quick explanation for that hatred
"Let's see," Sunset muttered. There was the picture of an old man in a suit with a caption that read "Hoyt Robertson: The Chairman of New Baltimore Community College," underneath. Beneath that picture was a Baltimore newspaper from around ten years ago.
"Nutjob Replaced At New Baltimore Community College for Using Funds to Build a Trap for Fairy Godparents," the headline read.
There was another picture of another old man with the caption "Filmar Odish: Chairman of Dimmsdale University."
Underneath was a Dimmsdale University newspaper from twenty years ago that read "Crazed Senior Student Denzel Crocker Derided for Claiming the Existence of Fictional Magical Creatures in School Assembly." That made Sunset smile a bit. She was as magical as any creature could be and she certainly wasn't fictional.
Most people put up pictures of loved ones. This man seemed to cherish his hatreds more than the people he loved, if he could love anyone of course. More specifically, his hatred of those who denied him the ability to gain control of magic and take over the world.
She was wholly unsurprised to see Timmy's photo on the wall. The boy had probably beaten back Crocker's attempts to steal his fairies countless times.
Then she saw...
A picture of herself on the wall. Underneath was a Dimmsdale Dossier paper with the headline "Crazy Teacher Suspended for Using Student Safety Seminar to Torment Student."
The picture in the paper showed Crocker lying on a hospital bed with a cast around his leg, obviously from Sunset sending him tumbling to the ground. The bandages that covered the rest of his body were due to merciless beating Gilda had given him.
"Aww, Crockpot's been thinking about me," Sunset said with a mixture of sarcasm and amusement. It was obvious the hunchbacked man despised her for also getting in the way of his precious world domination. The former unicorn regarded being in the man's blackbooks as a badge of honor.
The wall showed not only hatred, but a man who was a complete failure. For decades, he tried to steal a fairy, and he failed time and time again.
After a few moments of looking, the Rainbooms gathered all of the equipment. But all of it was only barely salvageable at best.
"The best looking thing I could find is this tracker," Rainbow said with some annoyance. She held up a purple rectangular looking device. It was clearly broken. "Can you fix it Princess?" Rainbow asked the pony princess.
Twilight frowned with some annoyance at her atheltic friend. "What makes you think I can fix that?"
"You're an egghead," Rainbow uttered, as if that explained anything.
"I'm from a pony world where candles and quils are still in use," Twilight muttered. "I don't know a thing about human electronics."
"Then what do we-," Sunset began.
"Guys," Fluttershy said with a nervous tone. "Look what I found." Fluttershy followed them to what looked like some kind of hidden security monitor. The footage showed...
"That's them!" Sunset yelled with hatred. The security footage revealed the Dazzlings were the ones who looted the lab. That explained where they got the equipment that disabled their magic and trapped them in that concrete. They must've taken all they could from the lab. And to keep Crocker from getting in their way, they trashed it beyond repair.
Sunset had to acknowledge it was a brilliant, if ruthless, move. Adagio was an awful creature, but she was an intelligent and cunning one.
"But look at this," Fluttershy said, pulling back some green curtain revealing another security monitor. It showed what looked like one of the most dilapidated homes Sunset had ever seen. There was footage being shown on a loop. Someone was emerging from...
"That's Timmy!" Pinkie said. Sunset and the others immediately got in front of the monitor. It was their charge. The buck teeth and hair cut were all too familiar to them. He seemed to be carrying something, but the footage was too poor to make out what it was.
"Fluttershy can you enhance it?" Twilight asked the pink-hair wallflower.
Fluttershy found some red switch and pushed it. Timmy was....
They saw Timmy was proudly carrying what looked like magic weapons in his backpack.
"So Timmy's stealing Crocker's weapons," Sunset observed with a frown.
"Why would he need them-," Rainbow frowned in realization. "Unless he wants to...fight the Dazzlings himself?!" The idea made everyone's blood go cold. While Timmy was smart the Dazzlings, had over a thousand years of experience on them, were utterly merciless, magically endowed with mind-bending magic, and were physically stronger than a skinny ten year old.
Odds are, Timmy was walking into a slaughter house.
Sunset's face fell into her hands out of sheer frustration. "What do we do?!"
"Maybe we can go to Crocker's house," Rainbow offered, "and steal his junk."
'We can't," Twilight said with some regret. "Crocker may be an idiot, but he's dangerous. If he has footage of Timmy stealing from him, he's going to be guarding his stuff like a hawk. If we go near him, he could blast us with the stuff the Dazzlings used."
"And Crockpot won't exactly be thrilled to see me," Sunset muttered in a futile attempt at lightening the dire situation.
"Ah have an idea," Applejack said, picking up the broken scanner."Ah know some people at school who might be able to fix this stuff."
"Really?" Sunset asked hopefully.
"Eeyup," Applejack said, pulling out her phone. "I'm gonna make a call." She picked up the scanner and other objects and began carrying them on her broad shoulders. "Let's giddy up, y'all." The Rainbooms all began to file out of the Crocker Cave only for Twilight to stop them.
"Wait," Twilight said, "we need to delete the footage of Timmy sneaking into Crocker's house. He could use that against him."
"I'm on it," Rainbow said happily, holding up a bag that read "Video Erasing Equipment." "You guys go, I'll take care of it."
Her friends smiled happily at her, and then they piled out of the Crocker Cave. When they were gone, Rainbow eagerly reached into her bag and pulled out the latest in footage erasing.
A red brick.
"Go mighty brick of justice!" Rainbow lobbed it at the surveillance monitor. The brick...
Lightly bounced off the screen.
And then the whole thing exploded with a shower of sparks and flames.
"Works every time," Rainbow said proudly.
Amanda pulled her car into Canterlot's biggest public park. It was a beautiful day, but since it was still just 3 o'clock, the park was still mostly empty, except for an old lady sitting on the bench feeding the birds.
"Are you sure you don't need my help?" Amanda asked Timmy with a serious tone, reluctant to leave an unaccompanied minor in the middle of Canterlot.
"I'm sure," Timmy said. Timmy didn't want Amanda or Georgie involved. They could end up in the crossfire of whatever battle he may end up having with the Dazzlings. He also didn't want them in a position to learn his secrets. Just as Timmy got out of the car, Georgie began yelping.
"Timmy, wait!" The kindergartener said.
"What?" To Timmy's shock, Georgie handed him something. It was a rock.
"What's this?" Timmy asked
"A present?" Georgie replied happily.
It wasn't a new V-Cube, but Timmy decided to humor the boy. "Thanks, I-," as soon as Timmy put the rock into direct sunlight, it immediately let out a bright light.
"Isn't it pretty," Georgie babbled.
"My eyes," Timmy shrieked, the light blinding him. He rubbed his eyes in frustration, but then he saw Georgie smiling at him. "I mean, thanks Georgie, this is really nice."
"Do you want to play with me again?" Georgie pleaded. Timmy thought it over, but then he saw Georgie's puppy-dog eyes and Amanda's silent pleading .
"Sure," Timmy said with an honest smile. "I'd love to play with the coolest kid in Dimmsdale."
"Yay," Georgie said while clapping excitedly. The sight of that little boy looking at Timmy with joy warmed the ten-year-old's heart.
"It was nice hanging out with you Timmy," Amanda said with a smile. "And good luck with your project."
"Thanks," Timmy said. "And Amanda," he said with a serious talk. "Thank you for everything."
"Don't mention it," Amanda uttered with an appreciative smile. With that, Timmy got out of the car, his backpack on his back and his bag of snickerdoodles in his hand, and Amanda drove away.
With them gone, Timmy pulled out his fairy scanner. This thing was hard to use. It had to read through other magical signals, including the energies of other fairies. This process was gonna take a few minutes.
Timmy was so focused on his scanner that he wasn't paying attention as he walked along the dirt path of the park. He ended up bumping into someone.
"Sorry-," Timmy began, only to feel his backpack being ripped off his body and his scanner being ripped out of his hand.
"Hey, give me that-," Timmy paused as he realized his currently-suspended evil teacher was glaring down at him.
"Crocker," Timmy said with a fake smile, "how are-,"
"Save the plesantries Turner," the hunchbacked man said with cold fury. "Tey won't spare you from the torment about to inflict on you for breaking into my home, stealing my equipment, and cleaning my room!"
Timmy was confused. "How is that a bad thing?"
"Normally it wouldn't be. In fact, I would've thanked you and offered you a truce," Crocker said evenly. "But because of you, my mother expects me to actually do housework from now on," he hissed. "And that is....UNFORGIVABLE!" Crocker pulled out a green laser beam and furiously pointed it at Timmy. "I'll destroy you, defeat those ungrateful sea witches, and capture your...FAIRY GODPARENTS!"
Timmy pulled out a snickerdoodle. "Can I offer you a-,"
Crocker fired a blast at Timmy. He barely ducked out of the way. "I guess that's a no." Timmy started running away, jumping several times to avoid Crocker's blasts and letting out a yell. He looked at an old lady feeding pigeons. He then looked as he saw a flight of stairs that led down a hill. Timmy smiled as an idea came to him. Timmy reached into the bag and pulled out some crumbs. "Hey Crockpot, think fast!" Timmy threw the crumbs at Crocker. They covered his face, eyes, and clothes.
The hunchbacked man was not all that impressed. was not at all impressed. "Oh, food particles," Crocker replied sarcastically. "I am so-," Crocker heard bird song and looked up.
Pigeons gathered all around him, looking at him with an especially hungry look.
"Uh, greetings," Crocker muttered.
With a loud squeak, the pigeons dive-bombed and began furiously pecking the crazy teacher. "Curse you bird conservation!" Crocker yelled. He ran away with a screech from the birds chasing after him, dropping Timmy's backpack and the scanner he had tried to steal back. In a panic, he ran toward the stairs.
Covering his eyes, Timmy put Georgie's stone into direct sunlight. The light blinded Crocker. "I can't see!" Crocker screeched, covering his eyes out of sheer agony. In a panic from being blinded and pecked, he tripped and painfully tumbled down the stairs.
"Cool," Timmy said. He collected the dropped backpack and the scanner. He opened the bag, and too his joy, the weapons were still there. Timmy thought about how easy it was for his only way to defend himself to be stolen, and had an idea.
After walking for a half hour, Timmy finally was able to hone in his fairies' magical singature. He was walking for a few miles when he was approached by four police officers.
"Excuse me young man," one of the officers, a blond man, said.
"Yes," Timmy said with a smile.
"Do you know this man?" one of them, an African-American man, asked. He held up a picture of Crocker.
"Yeah," Timmy said.
"We think this man is violating public safety and with your word against him," a tall redhead said with a smile, "you can have him put away for good."
Timmy was taken aback. Crocker had always been a pain and a jerk. The chance of him being put away for good was an absolute dream for Timmy. Da Rules against unlawful detention meant he couldn't wish him away. So to see four police officers who could get him sent away, Timmy jumped at the opportunity.
"OK sure," Timmy said happily. "What do you need me to do?"
"Just follow us to that car, and we'll let you know what to do," a balding man with grey hair said, gesturing to a police car in the distance.
"Of course," Timmy smiled, "you all seem like perfectly trustworthy adults." He followed them to the car. "OK, now-,"
A painful surge of electricity went through Timmy's body. The pain caused Timmy to collapse. When Timmy regained his bearings, he realized he had been tazed.
Before he could do anything, Timmy felt himself lifted by his grey sweatshirt. The cops bundled him into the car, taking his backpack off his body and throwing it to the floor. Timmy's terror grew when he saw who was sitting in the passenger's seat.
"End of the line, Turner," Doombringer said with a nasty hiss as she turned to look at him. The grey-haired woman was clad in a police uniform and glared at him with utter hatred. Timmy was so scared, he didn't notice the police officers pinning his hands behind his back and cuffing them.
"And this time, you won't be going anywhere," Doombringer warned. She activated the childproof locks. Three of the officers held him down while one of them drove off.
"Where are you taking me?" Timmy choked out to the white haired woman with a whimper. He was so scared and confused? How did Doombringer get out of prison? Why were the police helping her capture him.
"I suppose you want me to tell you," Doombringer said in a voice laden with contempt, "as well as all my other secret plans to you? And how you can get out of the cuffs? And how you can escape this police car?"
"Yes," Timmy said with a forced smile, "that would be really polite."
With a disgusted snort, Doombringer turned away from him and slammed the plastic window seperating the police officer from the suspect. Timmy tried to move, but his tiny ten year old body wasn't strong enough to beat back three grown men, let alone with cuffs around his hands. After some struggling, Timmy gave up. There was nothing he could do.
After about ten minutes of driving, done in eerie silence, the police car stopped near some old factory. Doombringer got out of the car, taking his backpack. The four officers got out, following the grey-haired woman and dragging Timmy along with them.
When they got to some courtyard, Timmy saw three figures standing outside in front of what looked like the main building. "Oh no," Timmy whimpered, cold sweat running down his face when he realized who was there.
"Timmy, buddy," Adagio greeted with a falsely kind tone and the smile Vicky used when she prepared to torment him. "How've you been?" The other two Dazzlings also looked at him with equally nasty grins.
Timmy never felt more scared in his life as Doombringer and the-he now realized-brainwashed police officers dragged him to the clutches of the sirens. He whimpered when he realized his two enemies had joined forces. And that he couldn't escape.
"We have a lot of," Adagio's eyes narrowed slightly and her grin got nastier, "catching up to do."
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Very not good.
10572393
I want to agree but since they're from another dimension, Jorgen will say they have no jurisdiction to lock them up but might threat Twilight to take them back since Starswirl is responsible for banishing them
Wouldn’t Crocker still have digital evidence of the footage, I know he’s an idiot in pretty much every other field but he does know his tech
Again I say, someone call Jorgen so he can scramble the fairies!
Damn it, Timmy rebounded too hard. He went from not trusting at all, to too trusting.
I loved that bit in the Crocker cave.
"Oh Crocker, you never fail to make me think even less of you,“
The Rock might be the wishing stone
[/spoilers]
I'm amazed that I still laugh at this gag.
10573276
What good will that do?
"I LIKE to scramble the fairies!"
10573139
That's kind of what I was going for.
A lot of people commented, in the early chapters, that the Rainbooms were going to clean up Dimmsdale and solve all the friendship problems everyone there faced. But that was something I specfically did not WANT to write.
I find crossovers like that, where one side is always good and the other is bad, are really insipid and annoying things to read. I also think that veers toward the "Manic Dream Pixie Girl" , which is another trope I really don't like.
A lot of my edits and rewrites were partly because someone commented I was making some characters into that.
The Rainbooms making mistakes is more line with MLP and its message of growing and learning then simply having them as pure heroes who will redeem Timmy of all his sins.
And I felt Sunset's flaws make her a compelling character in this regard: because, more so than any other MLP protagonist, she has had a lot of baggage to overcome. to become accepted as a hero. That to me is the one thing that unites all of EG: Sunset's growth into the hero the human world deserves. And making mistakes with Timmy is part of her growth into becoming a more loving person.
I felt this made Timmy and Sunset have good chemistry as potential surrogate siblings. Because both of them are flawed individuals who've have to overcome obstacles, both personal and external, to become better people.
And THAT is the kind of story I wanted to write and publish. And my hope is that I have.
10573536
I felt FOP was the king of employing running gags for comedy.
They even had a LITERAL running gag at one point.
My hope is to emulate that grand tradition.
10573537
Well, Starlight had a lot of baggage, too, but her handling was... let's say different and avoid too much controversy.
Once again spectacular work, and eager for more. :)
10573553
What I disliked most about Starlight is what they did with her character:
She went from being "pony ideologue/cultist" to "vengeful jerk for a petty reason."
I really wanted to see more of the former.
10574250
I've gone into some depth but I really should just make a video to link people to.
I THINK that there was a deeper idea behind Starlight's reason that most see as petty. However, my hypothesis is that whoever came up with it either left for the Movie with McCarthy or they assumed the public at large would have had a similar enough experience to 'fill in the blanks'. The latter smacks of inexperienced writing, the former yet another problem that shift caused.
Why would I not be surprised if it turns out the way to defeat the sirens is to throw bricks at them?
10574308
It is really depressing how a lot of good work has been derailed by the departure, firing, replacement, or death of a writer.
The departure of Steve Marmel is what killed Danny Phantom in it final season.
Monty Oum's early death is what condemned RWBY to its post-season 3 malaise.
only hope now is that the others can get there in time to save timmy,
that said, i really liked these recent chapters, getting both of them to realize where they went wrong and back to the point where they can come together again the moment they see each other.
10575202
Well it certainly affected S4, second half and half (intermixed) of S9. People left halfway through both of those and the structure suffered.
I still tend to lean toward the 'inexperienced writing' explanation, but that may not be a rational response but one based on my initial reaction. The first time I saw "The Cutie Re-mark" I thought the motivation made sense, albeit a lot else was done poorly. I didn't think this at the time but now I think it would have been a good 'jumping off' point to explore her motivations in the next season. Anyway, after going online I saw a lot thinking they made little to no sense, and realized that it made sense to me because I'd had similar enough experiences to 'fill in the blanks'. Again I need to do a video on this, but the short version is that when a chain of similar failures plague someone, there's a temptation to blame it all on the first domino to fall. When maybe the problem was the fact that the dominos were set up too close in the first place. I mixed my metaphors there but hopefully you get the idea. It's the mark of an inexperienced writer to assume personal experiences are universal. There can also be problems conveying the intended through-line but they did not, in fact, try to continue that line in S5, going a totally different direction.
Fly might brick fly. Seriously rainbows the best.
She do know that video stored not on monitor
How unfortunate.
we try*
said,*
weapons!" She*
middle of the room. Suddenly,*
Seems like she was right after all!
everything in here*
Yep!
pleading.*
"They won't spare*
a-"*
man was not all impressed. "Oh,*
heard a bird song*
That's gotta hurt.
Shit!