Cloud Strife finds himself face-to-face with the truth about his past - both the lies and his own failures. In what can only be a surreal dream fueled by the Lifestream and his Mako Poisoning, he allows himself to be pulled away deep into the Lifestream's green glow. What he isn't counting on, though, is being dropped into a world of odd, pastel quadrupeds the likes of which he's never seen before, his memories shattered and missing.
(Final Fantasy VII x My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.)
NOTES:
*Takes place between Seasons 2 and 3, as that's when I initially began writing this piece.
*Alternate Universe tag is present because this story invalidates all Trixie-related episodes except Boast Busters.
*Gore tag is present mainly for one scene with minimal description that may still push a boundary or two. This is not a Gore-centric story.
pretty good so far.
1311628
Thanks. I was a bit worried on this one at first, not gonna lie. I feel I've a good plot to work with overall. but I didn't know how well it'd translate from the schizophrenic way I organize ideas in my head onto paper. I've become quite happy with how it's panned out so far, though.
...While the plot arc this will be following definitely will be 'Tragedy', I'm wondering if I should also flag this as 'Comedy' for how many of these opening Chapters and probably others will progress. I vastly underestimated how the first-person perspective of an anti-social, snarky, sarcastic asshat like Cloud (Remember, this is before his big revealing arc and his EU material turn him into Mr. Brood) whose slain dragons but never even seen a pony before would pan out. It's... fairly beautiful.
Yeah I need to point out a small flaw. This is something I see in a lot of fics. Fluttershy is not really that squeamish about creatures eating meat. In one episode where she is taking care of all the animals around her cottage she even provides fish for the badgers nesting under her bridge. My guess is that they have long since come to terms with the fact that there are meat eaters but sadly they don't often have to provide for them. That and Cloud can just eat fish.
1335898
I remember that. I'm using the 'red meat' interpretation of vegetarianism where fish is okay to eat but other kinds aren't, and it was meant to be implied to be her fainting over him wanting to eat that. I should've played that scene out a bit longer to bring up the fish thing before she keels over, so that the point is clearer. The intent is that Fluttershy's fainting over a clearly sentient creature wanting to eat what (in Equestria) are also sentient creatures that just can't vocalize the way ponies can, and the whole thing got lost in translation and it didn't occur to me to fix it when I was proofreading. Like I mention in the Author's Notes, I had lots of issues with this chapter at first because I kept trying to force the story to move too fast and I ended up rewriting starting just before that point quite a few times.
I've rewritten that scene a tiny bit now, though. Hopefully it's at least a bit more clear now while still retaining the comedic value. Thank you for pointing this out to me. I'm a bit of a perfectionist and I'm happy to get it fixed right off. Execution on it can probably be a bit better still, but I don't want to take too much time away from writing Chapter 4.
1336085
I like the changes, and yes that fits the scenario much better. I feel you when it comes to those little things you just pass over in proofreading. You don't notice them because of that mental block of "I have written it, and I have read it, how can it be wrong?"
Saddly it is and I get that pointed out to me by my friends who read my stuff. Fortunately I have an official editor now, YAY!
I do enjoy the story so keep up the good work.
First!
Now that the troll is out of the way. Good Chapter. They are short so obviously it will take a few days for me to feel the flow of the story but I am still interested in this. Keep going.
1340501
Heh. Right now the story totals around 20 pages or so in OpenOffice, give or take depending whether you push each Chapter break onto a new page or not. I know the start is slow, but what I'd call the 'intro episode' Chapters are meant to be more introspective to Cloud trying in vain to understand what's going on here - since I'm not going to force in any kind of realism to cut him a break. Welcome to Equestria, you're playing by their rules now, boy. As Cloud's stake in the story becomes much larger things will obviously become more serious and move a bit faster - but it's still a My Little Pony tale, seen from the completely wrong perspective.
The next couple Chapters will wrap up this 'intro episode' (that is, what I'd consider enough material to make up a typical episode of the show), and the following 'episodes' will turn more toward dealing with Cloud's appearance more directly. For now, though, buckle in and enjoy the ride! Someone has to, because Cloud definitely isn't.
I actually booted up an old copy of Final Fantasy VII after reading this and you sir have Cloud down pat to the point that it's scary. Though this was obviously the version of him that was broken and cynical after Aerith died at the end of Disk 1 but, before he started to open up again to Tifa during the Lifestream incident which rolled it into the closing portion of Disc 2 (If it wasn't obvious.) I'm guessing the two Materia he has on his bangle from the colors and the use of the Stop spell on multiple enemies is Time and All which would allow for multi-targeting spells.
Really hope that he can either find new Materia, or somehow the effects change, or his current Materia sprout new ones para-sprite style due to the sheer ambient magic running rampant through Equestria.
Oh... and Cloud's Buster Sword or some other sword needs to show up man. He just isn't cloud without it.
When I saw this, I turned on the FFVII OST and starting reading!
Cloud is being such an ass, like always.
Keep going!
Spike! Ca nyou get us
1. Accidental spacing.
>to get to a specific plot point
but then Cloud done gone and scolded his brain for that
If you know what I mean
i feel bad for cloud in this fic.
he had all this crap in gaia, and now celestia and luna are on his case.
Quite a few of them have their sites set on me
bucking down the wolves nearest us
once everything seemed save
1. Sights.
2. Bucking down the wolves nearest to us.
3. Safe.
Genova tentacle
4476163
I'm sure he'll SOLDIER on just fine. He's dealt with worse than being threatened by magical Not-A-Chocobos.
4479071
Gracias on the typo catches. That's the kind of stuff that would drive me insane if I were reading but somehow can never seem to catch when proofing my own stuff.
Hmm... last I remember, it was only stolen... once actually. If it was a lot more then it would possibly be your Gil for all those... bills you had to 'pay'.
Forgot your opening quotation mark.
I believe you meant remember.
I'm kinda curious, what level would the Materia be and if (by heavily chance IF) he has a summon... Tartarus will break loose, even more appropriate if he summoned Ifrit. Kinda sad you could only summon them as many times as the level they're at, even if I never used them unless it was an emergency or some such. Dangit... whoever that stole the Materia, why did you have to make that one fight much more annoying than it should be?
4500057
There's one primary instance of getting your Materia stolen in Wutai during a sidequest, but Yuffie's attempts to steal them, claim ownership of them, etc. are common throughout the game, and failed attempts at recruiting her will also result in her temporarily stealing things from the party.
As for what Materia he's packing... well...
(Rest of the post is a classified CIA document for people who don't want any further FFVII-related clarification on our hero's Materia options or magical prowess as of Chapter 8: (Not) Interesting Gemstone Feng-Shui. Nothing below is anything someone versed in FFVII wouldn't know or couldn't figure out for themselves but I'm spoilering it since I know some people would prefer to have no out-of-fic info when perusing Chapter comments.)
Green - Magic Materia
Yellow - Command Materia
Blue - Support Materia
Purple - Independent Materia
Red - Summon Materia
And right now, he's packing 7 / 3 / 4 / 0 / 2, though since he has no weapon he can only equip half of them at any given time. (He lacks Independent Materia mainly because they're very RPG-y and usually involve statistical buffs or other oddities you can't adequately portray in a medium like fanfiction.) Also, Chapter 1 depicts the timeframe of this Cloud's entry into Equestria being the same time Tifa is pulling him from his Mako Poisoned state inside the Lifestream, directly after Mideel's destruction... so these are high-level Materia. You can technically even guess which armor he has equipped based on what's been presented so far if you were so inclined.
4500126 Yeah, I played the game as well but didn't finish it. Like 8. And 9. And 10... 10-2 I finished though. 11 no. Holy crap I can't finish much.
I can't remember the armor because it was so long ago and I was hoping he wouldn't have any max materia just for the sake of another just popping out after max mastery
I have to admit, after the rough starting chapters, the story has really grown on me. I believe that having our 'hero' leave Ponyville and the Mane 6 behind was a really good idea. I see him and his new traveling partner as a better foil for each other.
That and Trixie is best pony, in my honest opinion.
I am curious as to what the red material has in store for us in the future. Will be keeping track of this story, keep up the good work.
4500473
I'll be the first to admit the Chapters from 2012 are a lot weaker than what they could be. The jokes and screenplay were good enough to get me working on this again but they suffer a lot from slight rushing and me trying to direct the story over letting the story direct me. You can expect those to be rewritten... eventually, but my writing time is actually a lot less 'available' than my current update schedule will lead you to believe, so I'm focusing on 'onwards and forwards' until the inspiration for giving those Chapters the facelift they need smacks me in the face.
Gracias for sticking around to get to the good bits and enjoy the ride!
EDIT: For those in the GLORIOUS FUTURE OF JULY 2014+, I did eventually rewrite the 2012 Chapters along with pretty much every other Chapter before this one. Hopefully they suck less now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmopvrhPvs0
the badassness never ends.
The story is even going well, the audience is sat and looking up at the sky
1. Oh the mixed tenses. I believe you actually meant; The audience was sitting down and looked up at the sky.
Diamond dogs, least they don't know how to use Materia
I still would like to see the chaos that could be induced by stray materia
4517931
1. Nope. "Is sat" is colloquially used modernly as a grammatically incorrect alternative to "is sitting". It's not so much tense confusion as much as me reading chapters out loud to be sure they're more or less correct, and not noticing the error because I'm also guilty of using "is sat" instead of "is sitting" when speaking. I've corrected it, though, so thanks for pointing it out. This story is always told in present tense unless our hero is actually recollecting something from the past, ie a memory or a timeskip, since its told as-it-happens. (This is why some of his observations about Equestria may seem incomplete or demonstrably wrong, yet are still presented as 'fact'.)
2. Well, you fired that secondary comment one Chapter too soon. Welp.
4523355 Welp, figures I did fire that second one too early. Bio is an annoying spell, even more so when portrayed as... an Acid Gun. Maybe the smell of said acid also got Trixie to think acid thoughts (yes, bad pun. you may proceed to kill me now) about those dogs.
Welp, this confirms it then. All beings can use Materia. They are so screwed if it ever multiplies
Also no, I am not giving up the idea of Materia multiplying in Equestria
Honestly, this chapter works very well within the context, not to mention I think there's a bit of truth to Cloud/Dusk's distrust of Celestia with how quickly she said not to look for him.
Though this makes me wonder why exactly Luna is so interested in him though, perhaps she knows of a connection between his appearance and the darkness sweeping over the night?
Not to mention that with a red materia there's the possibility of a SUMMON! It's should probably be Choco/Mog just because of how funny that'd be not to mention that he'd likely commendear it's chocobo or something, like the summon materia can summon them but, can't dispel them anymore.
That last bit was just an idea and wasn't really necessary so I spoiler barred it.
Welp, Cloud just gave Trixie Materia. This will not end well. She would most likely use it during the duel and... but wait, we don't know which Materia is it except that it possibly couldn't be offense since it didn't exactly work in or outside of a fight. Might be a supportive Materia like Cure or something...
which she them replaces on her head
1. Then.
not if you keep splurging like that you won't
Good thing that Cloud is handling the money right? Least it ain't Barrett handling it...
A million bits saying that they'll fight monsters from Final Fantasy. Now all we need are those adorable Chocobos
In regards to this Chapter, I've reread it and noticed the ending portion is a bit rushed despite it being so short. Blame trying to get the Chapter out before work on almost no sleep. I'll probably edit it a tiny bit when posting up the next Chapter to correct this. (Working on that right now, really.)
4552129
Well, if Cloud has a Transform Materia among all those sparkly green gems, he could just turn Trixie into a Chocobo. I'm sure she wouldn't mind that.
"the one with the strange dreams. We are familiar with him."
Any thought I can give
thatgets quickly snatched away though1. You don't need this word here, unless you actually meant to put something else to accompany it or somehow editing just derped that moment.
I'm starting to wonder if those were Genova celled Chupacabras... What am I saying? Of course they are
We still need a summon in here just for the heck of it
It may just be me, but the entire chapter is in bold.
4568227
Oops! I changed the Chapter naming scheme when I posted Chapter 15 to include the Chapter numbers on the main page and had to shorten this Chapter's title. When I edited the in-Chapter title to match I accidentally deleted the closing bold tag.
Fixed.
Wow this is an awesome story so far. I love the Cloud/Dusk and Trixie partnership/friendship going on. I cannot wait to see what happens next!
Cloud: "Actually I consider her a pet. Better than a cat when it comes to ego and she can make pancakes"
I can't wait for one of the flower trio to say to him "Would you like to buy a flower? They're only one bit." Poor Cloud would probably have an aneurysm.
4569739 Oh god, that's brilliant.
Woohoo for updates! I cannot wait to read more. And why am I suddenly imagining Aeris/Aerith as a Pony (unicorn)
4570443
I do updates three times a week on weekdays, usually, so your waits shouldn't be long. The next Chapter may not be up until after the weekend though because I'm currently working on the rewrite of the first five Chapters that I mention in the Author's Note of Chapter 15.
4569480
4569739
These both put me in stitches for their own reasons. Though I think Cloud is going to be put through enough aneurisms in the next few Chapters considering a return to Ponyville means interacting with his favorite pone some more.
you will not be lead astray by anything
1. Led.
Too bad we don't have any curing magic from Cloud... or do we? Check your sword Cloud
Also another question, if I remember corectly, if you pair the Magic Materia with the All Materia, it doesn't increase the cost of casting right? It just extends the effect to everything else in battle. Just trying to check
4572273
Well, the risk of testing for healing magic (should he realize that's even a possibility) is the whole risk of crushing himself with a gravity spell or lighting himself on fire. I think it's fair to forgive him that one.
As for Materia-All, my memory is iffy on this particular quirk, but I don't think it does in-game. For story purposes I'm playing it as if he does pay the "MP Cost" (ie fatigue) for each individual casting regardless, because otherwise Cloud could just Stop-All every action-based encounter that's not immune and that would be as boring to read as it would be to write.
(The following is spoiler'd for a reason, though it doesn't directly relate to the fic's main plot lines.)
If you haven't figured it out, his Equipment combination is the Enhancer and the Wizard Bangle, and his Materia setup so far has been rather mage-oriented. I did that on purpose both because that's how I usually run Cloud when I play through FFVII (not sure why, it's not optimal by any means) and because I find it makes far more interesting encounters than 'Cloud used a Status-All then stabbed everything a whole lot'. I'm not particularly loading the story with action scenes (we're up to 3.5 in 16 Chapters), so I want the ones that do appear to actually be interesting.
4572392 Well to reply to your own covered dialogue;
I also do run Cloud and basically everyone else with a near identical build but tend to have the weakness of assigning one or two damage dealing materia on them (except for stuff like cure and life, those are a god send for my plan) so it would be near like, one member has fire, another has ice and maybe the third has lightning and bio. But I also try to equip them with one summon and one enemy skill if I can. If not, I disregard them in reverse order.
PS. Yuffie is greedy.
4500126 Wizard bracelet seeing as its the only one that has 8 slot and that many number of linked slots
I'm mostly just interested in what 2 summons he has
I bet Clouds summons are Shiva and Bahamut. Shiva because it was a gift to Cloud from a little girl he rescued. Bahamut because it's recieved towards the end of the Temple of the Ancients, and Cloud keeps it around as a memento of how badly he screwed up.
4573653
I hope for Knights of Time To Make a Sandwich.
4577014 But you can't even breed chocobos at the time Cloud got yanked. It'd be a little early for Cloud to have that summon.
Applejack clearly doesn't like Trixie. Spike clearly doesn't like Trixie. and suddenly a certain quip
and begins eating them at a far slower pace than is really necessary in failed attempt to save face
1. Might want to change your first fullstop into a comma and remove the second one completely.
2. In a failed attempt to save face.
I kind of wonder now if the pancakes are shaped like ponies. Make you also wonder if Pinkie might consider them cannibals since they're eating something that is pony shaped.
We need Ultima magic in here
Still crossing my fingers for Chocobo summoon
And yes, I'll be saying this every chapter until said summon or another shows up