Spell 23 - L I
There was a lot to Fluttershy’s job that not many ponies knew about, being Ponyville’s animal caretaker was a difficult profession. Learning about the many needs and conditions for a wide variety of wild life was difficult enough, but being able to provide the necessary dietary needs for said animals would be enough to bankrupt any sort of normal pony within a week.
Thankfully for the young yellow mare, that concern wasn’t an issue.
Long before Fluttershy had taken the unique job in Ponyville, the wildlife had often eaten the town’s crops and even had broken into many hard working ponies’ stands at the market in order to survive. So it was decreed that any pony who took the position as animal caretaker in the town would receive proper funding in order to not only ensure that the animals were well-fed, but so that the caretaker would also be able to provide for themselves.
Well, so long as the animal caretaker was still capable of performing their job.
And thus, on this early morning, Fluttershy pulled a large cart filled with several bags of feed and food. The sun hadn’t even risen as the young mare pulled the cart through the emptied streets of Ponyville, humming small tune. Ponyville was slowly waking up for the day ahead, as Fluttershy could see that a number of the shops were still closed.
In fact, the only noises that Fluttershy heard were the chirps of the morning doves, the creak of the tires on her cart against the dirt road near a number of trees and even…
*GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWLLLLLL!*
Fluttershy froze in place, so suddenly that she forced the cart to shake and forced an apple from one of the bags to bounce from the cart. The apple rolled over to one of the nearby trees’ shadows, where a pair of green eyes glowed from the darkness and eyed the small morsel.
A second growl echoed through the air before a single talon erupted from the darkness and scooped up the apple. “Mmm!”
Within a few seconds, the apple was tossed into the darkness and was followed with a loud crunch sound. The green eyes slowly turned towards Fluttershy, who just stood there to look at the green eyes. The two stared at each other, the morning sun slowly crept over the horizon, and as it did, Fluttershy’s face slowly curled up into a gentle smile.
“Neato?”
“Flutters?”
TTTTTT
Spell 23
L I
TTTTTTT
The sun finally rose over the land, and Ponyville was having another calm morning…
“YOU WERE ARRESTED!!”
“I don’t see the big deal about it…”
“A-RRES-TED!!!”
Haru winced and he nearly dropped his guitar from his lap - The violet, narrowed eyes made the red dragon lean back and almost over the edge of the library’s upper outer balcony. Twilight had asked Haru about his trip with Spike to Canterlot during the previous week – and nonchalantly, Haru explained about how he spent time with Shining Armor, Spike, the pegasus Kai, how he got arrested, and about Joe’s donut shop.
What the dragon didn’t count on was that Twilight was able to pick up on him whispering his arrest.
“It was just for domestic disturbance,” Haru defended with a nervous smile on his face. “And destroying public property… And, uh, breaking a cabbage cart. Hehehe…”
That glare that Twilight was shooting the young dragon was almost on par with the Stare that Fluttershy gave Phoenix. “You were still arrested! My word! You’re lucky that it was only one night and you got pardoned!”
“R-Right,” Haru coughed out as Twilight pulled back from him.
It had been a day since Haru and Spike had returned from Canterlot, and thus Twilight had waited until now to ask about the trip since the two dragons returned at night. Of course, now that she learned what had happened in Canterlot, Twilight would've asked earlier.
Clearing his throat, Haru lifted up his guitar again and strummed a few notes. “Although, I was kind of surprised you had a brother – You never talked about him.”
“W-Well,” Twilight replied as she looked away from the dragon. “You never asked.”
Haru’s eyes went flat, “Twilight, from any other pony I’d accept that excuse – But you’re not that kind of pony. You’re rather on top of these sorts of things, and I would think you’d at least talk about your family a little bit.
“Cause I kinda doubt that Spike would be your only family.”
“Well, there wasn’t a good time to bring up Shining,” Twilight answered before she laid down on the wooden floor next to her book. “There’s been a lot going on – Moving to Ponyville, the Phantoms, you appearing out of nowhere…”
“Touché,” Haru replied with smirk. “You kinda just bombarded me with questions ever since we met so you could learn about my magic.”
“Well, we could change that,” Twilight offered. “It’s a beautiful day – Nothing’s going on, and it might…”
A loud burp sound echoed through the air which stopped Twilight. A moment later, Spike’s head popped up through the doorway that led to the balcony with a scroll held tightly in his claws. “Twilight! Twilight! It’s a letter from the Princess!”
A familiar violet aura wrapped around the scroll and gently pulled it from the baby dragon’s claws. “Thank you Spike, let’s see what the Princess has to say…”
Haru stopped strumming on his guitar and watched as Twilight began to read the letter in her head. He took note that as the mare studied the scroll’s contents, her pupils began to shrink drastically and for some odd reason, a single hair stuck up from her mane. “Uh, Twilight? Are you alright?”
The scroll just fell to the wooden floor of the balcony, and Twilight’s pupils were extremely small. Slowly, and with a loud creak sound, Twilight turned her head towards the two dragons before her. “Spike. Haru. We need to clean and prepare.”
“Prepare what?” Haru questioned with his head tilted.
“And what for, Twilight?” Spike asked with a nervous smile on his face.
“Prepare all of Ponyville,” Twilight stated as she jumped to her hooves. “Princess Celestia is coming to the town!”
TTTTTTTT
Meanwhile, deep in the Everfree Forest at a familiar clearing…
“Ah, nothing like a nice vacation to get rid of that stress.”
“Speak for yourself, Harpie – We went to the beach. THE BEACH! I’m a fire based Phantom!”
“So am I, but I had a good time… I even got my coloring back.”
Still in their pony forms, Harpie, Hellhound and even Minotaur trotted into the clearing – Harpie had a pair of sunglasses balanced on her nose while Minotaur and Hellhound carried several saddlebags, so many that a number of them were dragged against the ground. Hellhound’s normal fur seemed to be a bit redder than usual, “Yeah, good for you, ya big lug! You didn’t get sunburned!”
“I’m a bit confused how that happened with you,” Minotaur sighed loudly as he fell to the ground and unloaded all of the bags. “But you can’t deny it’s good to get away and recharge. I feel like I’m ready to tackle the Gates in the town again!”
“Indeed, once we meet up with Dryad,” Harpie replied as she used one of her front hooves to pull the sunglasses off. “We’ll get a report of what’s been happening, and get right back to work in the morning. Dryad! We’re back!”
The only sound that replied was Hellhound collapsing onto the ground with the saddlebags. Harpie looked about the clearing and tilted her head, “Dryad? Are you here?”
“Did she go into town?” Minotaur asked as he trotted up next to Harpie. “She doesn’t usually hang around the clearing here anyway – She’s usually exploring and stuff.”
“I don’t know,” Harpie muttered.
“… I was wondering when you three would return,” A voice as slick as oil cackled. “You took your time getting back.”
Both Harpie and Minotaur gazed about to find the source of the voice, Hellhound would’ve looked as well, but he was still stuck under the luggage. Harpie and Minotaur’s bodies slowly engulfed into green and blue flames…
“No need for such hostility,” The voice sounded out once more as the bushes rustled about. “I shall appear right now.”
From the bushes behind the trio, a tall figure stepped out from the darkened forest and into the light. The two unbounded Phantoms turned to see that now at the forest’s edge was another Phantom. This one looked to be an insect – With large, segmented green eyes with mandibles and antennae on its head, a white furred collar, bronze armor that had a number of insect-like legs out of the shoulder pads. White and bronze colored fur poured out from the gaps in the armor and the Phantom’s arms ended with paws that resembled that of a lion’s.
The odd Phantom bowed towards the two before he lifted his head up, “The elusive Harpie, the bratty Hellhound, and the failure Minotaur, a pleasure to meet you all.”
“HEY!” Minotaur and Hellhound protested.
However, Harpie lifted up one of her hooves up to silence the two, “You are… Manticore, correct?”
The buggy Phantom nodded as he wagged one of his claws. “Excellent memory, Miss Harpie. It’s too bad that the fates didn’t allow our meeting to happen earlier. Otherwise I would’ve included you three in my plan.”
“Plan? What plan?” Harpie questioned with a quizzical look shot towards Manticore.
Manticore chuckled to himself before he dropped to the ground with his legs crossed. The phantom brought his paw-like hands and waved them about slightly before he clapped them together, “Answers are what you seek, then I shall provide quite easily. But in order to do so, I believe a visual aid is in order.”
When Manticore pulled his hands away from each other, in both of his hands was a pile of long cards that had a blue border to them. The Phantom immediately tossed the cards up into the air and they slowly floated down around him, oddly enough, the cards all seemed to land face down on the dirt. “Twenty-one cards, countless ways to see your past, present and future. Let’s test to see what fate has in stored for you and your little group, Harpie.”
Within a few seconds, Manticore gathered the cards into a pile and immediately threw his hand over the top of the deck. Three cards gracefully slipped off and were neatly placed in front of the bug eyed Phantom, “A general reading should suffice, so let’s start with the past, shall we?”
With his fingers on the leftmost card, Manticore flipped the card up to reveal a tall, tower on it, “Ah, The Tower in the upright position – This card signifies that some situations are no longer possible for you at this point, I wonder why that is…”
Harpie narrowed her eyes as Manticore flipped the second card up, which revealed a gray unicorn pony with a long beard with a blue cloak and hat that were adorned with bells and imprinted with stars and moons. The card itself was upside down. “And wouldn’t you know it? It looks like the present tells all – The Magician reversed. Normally this would represent doubt that would cause problems, but considering what I’ve heard, I can say that there’s a deeper meaning.
“I’ve heard of the Ring Mage around these parts – A mage who is on par with even Lord Phoenix. Normal tactics won’t work against him anymore, as strong arm tactics have resulted in the demise of a number of Phantoms.”
“Manticore, what is the point of this?” Harpie asked as her eyes flashed green slightly. “I don’t particularly care for what you’re going on about.”
“Ah, but there is a point, my dear Harpie,” Manticore chuckled as he lifted his hand atop of the last card. “Just allow me to reveal the future.”
Manticore quickly revealed the last card – A sad stallion that had a noose wrapped around his neck. The card was also upside down and Manticore tapped his fingers against each other. “Hehehe, the Hanged Stallion reversed, what an interesting card to have as the future – Time to let go of outdated ideals and to try something new.
“Since you just got back here – You were unable to learn that just over two hours ago, the Mayor of Ponyville had made an interesting announcement and all the residents are preparing for tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow? What’s happening tomorrow?” Harpie questioned as Manticore gathered his cards once more and clapped his hands together to make the tarot cards disappear.
“Let’s just say a special guest is coming,” Manticore chuckled as he pushed himself off the ground. “My original orders were to track a certain Gate down, but when I managed to learn that he was here in Ponyville, I was given additional orders.
“Thankfully, I am more than capable of fulfilling both orders. Especially since I was able to enlist the aid of your Dryad.”
“And what exactly are your orders, Manticore?” Harpie demanded as she stomped up towards the fellow Phantom. “I don’t care for anypony who messes with my family and…”
“You need not worry,” Manticore interrupted as he walked past Harpie. “The order was to awaken the Gate that you lot failed to awaken – And my plan has already begun, and unlike your brutish tactics, I don’t need to use violence against that Gate. Research on the citizens here is all that is needed in order to find how to awaken the Phantom, and with current events withstanding…
“I’ll be able to awaken the Gate.”
“Wait, what?!” Harpie yelped while Minotaur and Hellhound looked to each other with worried looks.
“Don’t sound so surprised,” Manticore huffed as he stopped at the edge of the clearing and looked over his shoulder. “The lot of you have failed time and time again – A number of Phantoms were destroyed, including Master Phoenix. It’s time for a change in tactics when we’re dealing with this ring mage.
“Now if you excuse me, I need to go perform my own part of the plan so the Ring Mage won’t be an issue. When I succeed, you need not worry, I’ll be sure to let the higher ups know that you fulfilled your own roles expectantly – You didn’t get in the way.”
And just like that, Manticore disappeared into the Everfree Woods, leaving the remaining three Phantoms in the woods to stare at each other in disbelief.
TTT-TTT
“I still can’t believe this! It’s amazing!”
Fluttershy smiled brightly. The young mare did have a busy schedule for the day (especially with the announcement that was spread across Ponyville that Princess Celestia was to visit tomorrow) so she really couldn’t spend time at a cafe, but this was an exception. “I know, I-I didn’t know you were Ponyville, Neato.”
Seated across from Fluttershy at the café’s table was a rather odd Griffon – A tall example of his species with the feathers atop his head styled up and curled back slightly with red feathers around his eyes. The griffon had a single pendant tied around his neck and his upper body was covered with a red jacket that had a yellow, furred hood that rested on his shoulders. And at the moment, his beak was curled up into a pleasant smile as he leaned his arm against the large backpack he dragged with him.
As Fluttershy affectionately called him, Neato began to speak again, “Well, I was just passing through here a couple weeks ago, Flutters. I set up a little shop for a few days to earn some scratch for the road, so I wasn’t expecting to stay here for a while.
“But then I found out something awesome – This town has some really good meals around here!”
“Oh, yes, I guess the food is good,” Fluttershy admitted as she tapped her hoof against her chin a couple times. “But if you were in town, why didn’t you visit?”
Neato rubbed the back of his head nervously as the feathers around his cheeks seemed to turn red for a few seconds, “W-Well, to be honest, I kinda forgot that you moved here after you left Cloudsdale. M-My bad!”
“Oh, don’t worry about it Neato,” Fluttershy replied with a warm smile. “I’m sure you have a good reason.”
The griffon lifted his right talon up and wagged one of his claws, “That’s still no excuse – But since I’ll be staying in town for a while, we should really get a chance to catch up on stuff! I barely recognized you Flutters! You were a real cutie, but now you’re a real beauty!”
Now it was Fluttershy’s turn to blush slightly at the griffon’s comments, “Um, well, I don’t know about that.”
“Nah, nah, nah! Don’t sell yourself short!” Neato chuckled with a wave of his claws. “I’m betting ya got Stallions beating down on your door everyday just to spend time with ya! I should consider myself lucky that you’d wanna hang out with a ragged griffon like me.”
“N-Neato! You’re my friend!” Fluttershy retorted as she looked away bashfully. “Y-You don’t need to feel like that.”
Neato smiled again as he lifted up a glass of water to his beak, “Swell to hear.”
As the griffon began to sip from his water, Fluttershy came to a realization and tapped her hoof on the table a couple of times to garner her friend’s attention. “Also, if you’re interested, Rainbow Dash is living in Ponyville too.”
Neato’s green eyes widened before he turned to the side and spat out the water that had gathered in his beak.
“ACK!”
“S-Sorry miss!” Neato promptly apologized to the completely soaked mare who was leering daggers at him. The griffon nervously turned back towards a slightly oblivious Fluttershy, “W-Wait, D-Dashie’s here? In town? As in right here, right now?!”
“Yes, and I’m sure she’d be glad to see you too, Neato,” Fluttershy said with a blissful smile with her eyes closed. “We should all get together some time and…”
“Here’s your order! Thanks for waiting!”
Both Fluttershy and Neato turned just in time to see the unicorn waiter levitate a large plate down to the table’s center. Tossing his fears over his shoulder, Neato licked his chops at the platter before him, “Oho! Fried potato skins! Excellent!!”
Fluttershy giggled under her breath as Neato’s eyes gleamed brightly at the large plate of food, “Still the same Neato… Um, d-do you still…”
“Would you like some ketchup? Sour Cream?” The waiter asked as he levitated a few bottles of condiments up.
“Tsk, tsk,” Neato scolded as he wagged a talon at the waiter. Then with a simple smile, Neato reached into his jacket and pulled out a bottle that spun in front of his talons until he grasped onto the bottle. “No need!”
The griffon lifted the bottle up high into the air, and the plastic bottle gleamed in the sunlight, both Fluttershy and the waiter looked to see the odd bottle until they both stammered out, “M-Mayonnaise?”
Neato had a huge grin plastered on his face before he opened the bottle and began to pour the contents on the potatoes – nearly drowning the food with the creamy white condiment. The waiter gagged to himself as he watched Neato stab one of his talons into a piece of potato and placed the mayonnaise drowned piece into his beak. “MMMM! Delicious!”
“Uh, if you’ll excuse me,” the waiter coughed out, with his tongue now stuck out of his mouth.
“Um, you s-still put mayonnaise on everything, Neato?” Fluttershy asked as the goofy griffon swallowed the large piece of potato in his mouth.
“Why wouldn’t I?” Neato asked with a bright smile on his face as he reached for more of the potatoes. “Mayonnaise is the best food in the world! It can make anything taste better! Care for some, Flutters?”
The young yellow mare lifted her front hooves up with a nervous smile on her face, “Um, t-that’s very kind of you, Neato, b-but, I really should be g-going. I have a lot of chores that I need to do before tomorrow and…”
“Say no more,” Neato replied as he lifted up talons and lifted them up to Fluttershy. “I completely understand Flutters! I’ll be in this town for a while, so, I’m sure we’ll see each other some time later.”
Fluttershy smiled brightly before she pushed herself from the table and slowly trotted past Neato, “R-Right, next time, I’ll make you some tea.”
“Ooh, that’ll be sweet!” Neato cooed with a goofy grin. ‘Me in a pretty mare’s house as she serves me tea – That’s how life should be!’
“Do I have sugar for tea?” Fluttershy questioned before she waved at Neato. “I’ll stop by Sugar Cube Corner to make sure I have some.”
“You’re the best, Flutters!” Neato chuckled before he lifted up another piece of mayonnaise drowned potato up into the air. “Take it easy!”
Fluttershy nodded calmly before Neato chucked the piece of potato into his opened beak. The young mare trotted to where she had placed her cart, and smiled to herself, ‘It was really good to see Neato – I hope he’s in town for a while…’
“E-Excuse me, are you Flutterby?”
The young mare jumped at the new voice that called out her name (incorrectly one may add), and spun around to see that another pony was right behind her. This mare was a simple earth pony who had an earthly green coat with a rose red mane that covered up most of her upper face and only allowed half of her right, purple eye to peek through her mane. Her cutie mark was that of a number of different colored flowers with thorns around them.
Fluttershy shrunk back slightly before she nodded.
The odd mare shook slightly as she gulped audibly, “I… I’m sorry, I d-didn’t mean to scare y-you. I… I just needed a moment of your time.”
“Um, o-okay,” Fluttershy stated.
The green mare shook her head, and from her mane popped out a small blue, sphere-like creature with large green eyes, two pairs of bug wings and four stringy legs. The creature buzzed about for a few seconds before it flew in front of Fluttershy. The yellow pegasus’ face lit up brightly as she lifted a hoof up for the little critter to land on her, “Aw, why hello there little guy. I’ve never seen anything like you before…”
“I… I’m sorry,” The odd green pony muttered as she looked away. “I… I understood that you were good w-with animals, and this l-little guy followed me home this morning and I… I don’t know how to take care of animals s-so…”
“T-There’s no need to w-worry,” Fluttershy replied as she brought the little bug to her pink mane, and allowed it to nestle into the locks of hair. “I can take care of him, I’m sure I can do so.”
“T-That’s good,” The green mare replied with a nod. “I… I just fed the little guy an apple, so, at l-least he eats fruit…”
“I’ll take good care of him, you don’t have to worry,” Fluttershy reassured as she latched herself to her cart. “Thank you so much for bringing him to my attention.”
“Y-You’re welcome,” The mare muttered as she watched Fluttershy pull the cart away.
When the pegasus was out of ear shot, a familiar shadowed figure stepped out of a nearby alleyway and knelt next to the green mare. “Good show, very good show – I’m very impressed, Dryad.”
The young mare shriveled slightly as a pair of paw-like hands gripped her shoulders, “Now then, you’re welcome to head back to your camp – The Parasprite has been given, and now it’s time to deal with the Ring Mage.”
Several growls hissed behind the shadowed figure, and said figure stood up from the mare. “The cards have shown me the way – Soon, new Phantoms shall be born into the world!”
Back at the café…
“Oi waiter!” Neato called out as he used his knife and fork to hold up a good portion of the mayonnaise covered potatoes. “Can I get seconds here?”
“Sir, there’s no need to yell out,” the waiter sighed loudly as he trotted up from behind the griffon, which made Neato crane his head back to face the waiter. “I’m more than capable of coming over to serve you… You… YOU… YAAAAAAHHH!”
It was then that the waiter and all of the other customers (aside from Neato) ran off from the café. The griffon raised an eyebrow at the weird actions, but didn’t notice that from his front were a number of Ghouls stalked towards him with Manticore in tow. It wasn’t until one of the Ghoul loomed over his table that the Griffon finally took notice of what was happening. “Huh?”
The Ghoul reached for Neato, but before the stony hand could make a grab for him, a large bottle of dust cleaner slammed into the Ghoul’s head. The Ghoul staggered about before it crashed into the table and along with it, the potatoes and mayonnaise smashed into its head. Neato’s eyes widened and he dropped the silverware he had in his talons, “GARGH! MY LUNCH!”
It was then that Haru ran alongside the café with his WizardSwordGun atop his shoulder, the red dragon sighed loudly, “Yeesh, I get away from cleaning to pick up some cleaning materials, and I come across a Phantom. Just my luck. Hey, griffon, you okay?”
“Okay? OKAY?!” Neato questioned as he fell to his knees and brought his talons to the mess of food with tears in his eyes. “My food will never be alright!”
“… Okay, I’m going to ignore you for a little bit,” Haru stated as he turned his attention towards the Ghouls and Manticore. “You really picked a bad time to appear, Phantom.”
Neato’s head perked up slightly. “Phantom?”
“On the contrary,” Manticore chuckled as he lifted his hands up, to show off the cards in his hands. “I think I’ve drawn the perfect hand – After all, a wild Ring Mage appeared.”
Once again, Neato’s head perked up as Haru lifted up his left claw up to reveal the ring on his black claws. “Mage?”
“Whatever you want to say,” Haru retorted before he threw his left claw over his belt. “Henshin!”
“FLAME – PLEASE!”
Haru threw his left arm to the side and the red runic appeared to crawl over his body. “Hii Hii HiiHiiHii!”
“Ghouls, get him,” Manticore chuckled as he shuffled the tarot cards in his hands. The Ghouls began to charge forward.
The circle faded over Haru’s body as the red jeweled Wizard suit appeared over his red skin. “Its showti…”
“WAIT!”
Neato leapt onto Wizard and tackled the dragon to the ground with a loud thud. Manticore and the Ghouls reeled back at the sudden assault, with the Ghouls looking to their Phantom master for advice, but Manticore just rubbed the back of his head in confusion. “Uh…”
“EH?! What the Tartarus are you doing?!” Wizard yelped as he used his free claw and tail to pull Neato’s claws from his collar.
“Don’t give me that!” Neato snarled as he pointed towards the fallen potatoes and mayonnaise. “How are you going to fix this?! This is my meal!”
“Look,” Wizard groaned as he leapt back to his feet and readied his sword. “I’ll treat you to a buffet later! Just get out of here!
"It's showtime!"
The Ghouls shrugged their shoulders before they charged towards the magical dragon, the first Ghoul however received a powerful diagonal slash from Wizard’s sword and sent it through the air with flames about it’s body.
Another Ghoul brought its lance down on Wizard, but the dragon’s tail caught the weapon and allowed Wizard to spin around and stab his blade into the Ghoul’s chest.
Neato barred his teeth before he ran to his large, bulky backpack. “Damn it! The one time I’m not wearing it!”
The goofy griffon dug into his backpack, with random items tossed through the air, all the while, Wizard kept his fight with the Ghouls going. Eventually though, Wizard, the Ghouls and even Manticore fought their ways away from the café.
“Ah-Ha! FOUND IT!”
Neato popped out of the backpack with a large silver buckle lifted over his head that was in the shape of a gate. A large goofy smile was plastered over his face before he brought the buckle to his waist, “Alright, you tasty morsels – It’s time to… HEY! Where’d everyone go?!
“DAMN IT! THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE MY BIG ENTRANCE!”
TTT – TTT
“LAND – PEEASE!”
“Dododo dodoDon! Don DodoDon!”
The round rubies over Wizard’s armor transformed into the square topazes as a yellow runic circle faded from over the masked dragon’s body. With the power of the earth behind him, Wizard spun around, slammed his tail into a Ghoul’s head and sent the stony monster to the ground.
Wizard had managed to lead the small platoon of Ghouls, and surprisingly Manticore as well, to continue the battle in the back alleyways of Ponyville. This was of course to make sure no pony would get caught up in the onslaught.
Which at this moment included to perform a dynamic suplex to one poor Ghoul right into the ground.
When Wizard got back to his feet, he lifted his right claw up to catch the spear of another Ghoul and pulled the golem towards him. That’s when Wizard clotheslined the Ghoul’s neck with his arm and used the momentum to throw it into the other Ghouls. The force must’ve been too much because the Ghouls shattered into millions of pebbles.
“You’re all that’s left,” Wizard stated as he lifted his right claw to point at the Phantom, who only observed the fight, never got involved.
Until now.
Manticore lifted up his hands to reveal that he had several tarot cards between his fingers, “That’s all that’s needed – Ring Mage. The cards have spoken your fate!”
The Phantom tossed the cards up into the air and began to wave his arms, immediately the cards began to encircle Manticore’s body and spun faster with each passing second. Wizard perked his head up as he quickly changed the rings on his right claw and threw it before his belt buckle.
“DEFEND – PLEASE!”
Manticore threw his hands forward and the cards flew quickly through the air, but just before they made contact with the masked dragon, a large stone tablet erupted from the ground and caught all of the cards. Manticore reeled back as Wizard then charged right through the stone shield and ran towards the Phantom.
When Wizard closed the gap between him and Manticore, the masked dragon leapt to the air and spun to deliver a powerful kick. But the Phantom was a little faster and managed to duck down to dodge.
With his opponent’s back turned, Manticore threw his claws towards the back of Wizard’s head. At the last second though, Wizard dipped to the left and had Manticore’s claws barely scratch the side of his helmet.
It was all the opening that Wizard needed.
In a matter of seconds, Wizard grabbed Manticore’s arm and spun to be right behind the Phantom. Manticore’s bright green eyes flashed for second when he realized that Wizard locked his right hand around his neck and pulled tightly on the Phantom’s left arm. To make matters worse, the masked dragon had kicked the back of Manticore’s leg and forced the Phantom to kneel to the ground in pain. “GARGH! So… The rumors are true! This is the power that defeated Master Phoenix?!”
“Sorry, but that’s how it is,” Wizard stated before he flexed his biceps.
And with a slight grunt, Wizard lifted Manticore off of the ground and propped the surprised Phantom atop his right shoulder. Wizard spun around before fell back and slammed Manticore into the ground – Hard.
The Phantom bounced against the ground a few times before he pushed himself off of the dirt and leered at Wizard with his segmented eyes. “Well, at this point, the cards say…
“RUN!”
“Eh?” Wizard questioned before Manticore stumbled to get to his feet and dash off through the alleyway. “HEY! WAIT!”
Wizard began to give chase to the bug-like Phantom, but just a few steps in, Manticore stopped and a hidden tail shot from his back. Wizard tried to dodge, but the stinger on the tail’s tip stabbed right through the topaz chest plate and into Wizard’s stomach. “URK!”
As the masked dragon fell to his knees, Manticore stroked one of the mandibles around his mouth and cackled loudly. “I told you before – The cards have spoken your fate.”
With his claws to his chest, Wizard fell face first into the ground as his armor faded away and forced Haru’s face into the dirt. “W-What the…?”
“I have to say, I’m surprised,” Manticore stated as he sauntered over to the fallen dragon. “You didn’t die right on the spot from my venom.”
“V-Venom!?” Haru wheezed as he slowly lifted his upper body up, pain racked through his body. “W-What are you…”
Manticore then knelt down in front of Haru, the Phantom’s body exuded a dark green aura. “Since we’ve have the opportunity, and you’ve been such a wonderful host…”
The aura transformed Manticore’s body into a purple unicorn who was draped with fancy black robes and a few pieces of jewelry. The unicorn stallion’s mane was black, but it was definitely starting to recede, and it wasn’t any mystery why – He was an older stallion. “Please allow me to divine how much longer you have to live. A last courtesy if you will.”
The unicorn’s horn glowed a bright purple before a single card floated down from the sky. The older stallion lifted his hoof up and caught the card, and the older stallion winced, “Ooh, a grim reaper – Too bad!”
The older stallion slapped the card against Haru’s head with the card a few times, “Your hope has just faded away.”
The card fell to the front of Haru’s face as the pony disguised Phantom slowly totted away. “Have a nice day.”
“D-Damn it,” Haru wheezed before his head fell back to the ground. ‘Eyesight – Blurry. Throat, dry… Thoughts, thinking like this. Not good. Not good at all…’
“Oh my gosh!”
The red dragon lifted his head up to see who had spoken, but his vision was blurred and all he could see was a gray and yellow blur in front of him. He tried to focus his eyes, but there was no use. The burning pain he could feel coursed through his veins.
“Are you okay?” The blur asked. “Hey! Stay awake!”
Haru’s eyes closed and the world began to fade to darkness…
“Oh no, oh no! I… I… Do…or!”
TBC
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That should be beard, I believe.
Other then that, not bad. Stand by for my thoughts on it.
So Fluttershy and Neato are old friends, and he apparently also knows Rainbow Dash and is scared of her for some reason. I wonder if he also knows Gilda?
Just like in canon, Twilight is freaking out because Princess Celestia is coming to visit Ponyville.
Hellhound, Minotaur, and Harpie were apparently at the beach while Haru was in Canterlot and Applejack and Rarity were sleeping over at the library. Now, Manticore has basically told them to stay out of his way.
Here, Fluttershy got the first parasprite because Dryad
planted it on herasked her to take care of it, instead of finding it while she was taking care of her animals.Manticore and a bunch of Ghouls crashed the place where Neato was still eating his lunch, and they ruined his meal. And when Wizard showed up to fight them, Neato had a case of Rummage Fail as he searched his backpack for the Beast Driver, because he apparently had decided not to wear it at the time. And by the time he found it, the fight had moved to a different area of Ponyville.
When it looked like Wizard had the advantage, with all of the Ghouls defeated and him having slammed Manticore into the ground hard, Manticore acted like he was going to run away. But when Wizard tried to chase him, he learned the hard way about the trope that makes manticores dangerous: Beware My Stinger Tail. Luckily, someone found him, but we have no idea who it was, because all he could see was a gray and yellow blur.
Can't wait to see how this goes! Have some badges!
fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/345/0/9/fluttershy_approved_by_ambris-d4ivleb.png
fc08.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/282/e/5/twilight_sparkle_approved_by_ambris-d4c255h.png
furstar.net/spike_approved1.png
And while I couldn't find it on Youtube for some reason, in spite of them having the full version of Missing Piece, I looked around a little on Facebook and was able to find Beastbite.after a little bit of searching over there. And I also found a pretty good music video of it.
Later!
Always enjoying your work MangaKamen.
also this is just me nitpicking but it's spelled Nito. Not Neato. I apologize if this is being rude. part of my habits and aspergers. X3 But anyways. amazing work as ever dude.
As always, a good chapter. I'm liking how you're doing Harpy's family and this whole thing is pretty cool as far as chapters go.
I like how you introduced Nitoh, he's pretty funny and like Haruto, is his own unique character while still being a good adaptation of the show's version.
So I watched Wizard's finale. (Don't care what anyone says, Episode 51 is the real ending). Nice to know such great characters live on here.
Oh, Mayo, don't ever change.
3219251
I'm well aware, but there's a difference between actual name a nickname.
3219526 ah got it. alright then.
3219510 Ep 51 is the actual ending. But only for the story-line and characters. the next two are specials but they are both the endings to the series of Wizard. so you are right.
3219510 3219636 It's not the end of the road for Nitoh. The trailer for episode 52 indicates that he's going to be successful in finding Chimera, because Beast can be seen with the other Riders.
3219877 52 and 53 are specials. not real episodes for the storyline.
L I O N... LION! Okay so I'll admit, this seems a tad different for this point in the series, but it also seems to be following the same course. HOWEVER, this is a good thing. I'm assuming that for whatever reason Wiseman isn't going to be revealed until around the Grand Galloping Gala, and I am also going to assume that Legion is still going to be involved(Though I won't spoil anything and ruin this adaptational crossover.). Keep up the good work, and am looking forward to seeing how this turns out.
ok, let me see if i understand, OOO Style:
friend, and has a crush with 
. and he's still obsesed with mayonaisse. and is still a coockoolander.
appeared to save Haru. and she is going to see a Doctor... who i hope has a blue box.
1.Nitoh is
2.Dryad is who started the Parasprite invasion this time. however, she looks scared of Manticore, who, as in Canon, stabbed Haru with his venom, and is a fortune teller.
3.
next Chapter must have the Parasprite infestation full effect, or Nitoh turning Beast and saving Flutters. anyway, you can count that Haru will try to stop Manticore, even sick, as in Canon.
but i can't remember something. has Eji left Ponyville/Everfree, or he is still there?
3219885 images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080826215447/aceattorney/images/7/75/Objection.gif
If they were specials, they would be called specials in the trailers.
images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080902204437/aceattorney/images/3/3e/Takethat.gif
But the trailer for the first of those episodes, The Kamen Rider Rings, quite clearly labels it as episode 52. Therefore, it is an actual episode, not just a special!
3247484
Take That comes first, when presenting evidence outside of cross-examination. Objection is when a witness is testifying, and you've found a contradiction.
3248150 You're sure I'm not allowed to use Objection to let him know of a contradiction, then use Take That when pointing out the evidence?
The contradiction was him calling episode 52 of Wizard a special that wouldn't be canon. And the evidence I used was a look at the preview, which clearly labeled it as episode 52.
3247484 Yes I know that it's labeled ep 52 and the next one is 53. But the director stated the last two are specials to the series. Unless it states and shows it's been months later or something after ep 51 they're specials just to the story but they still count as series episodes.
3248423 Yeah, we'll see.
By the way, what do you think of Gaim? Personally, I'm dubious. After all, the screenwriter is none other then Gen Urobuchi, also known as Urobutcher.
Did you know Puella Magi Madoka Magica was the closest he was able to come to a happy ending since he had a Creator Breakdown on Fate/Zero? That's right, the brutal Deconstruction of the concept of selflessness was the first time he managed to get a Bittersweet Ending as opposed to his usual Downer Ending. You can see why I'm nervous about Gaim.
3248542 As a lot of riders that came before when I first heard about them since Decade I'm always going to be skeptical about it until I see the first episode. But it sounds interesting. Plus when I saw it I thought he was a tech rider at first. But nope. He's a natural rider. Now I'm really interested in it. Plus this link here's says the last two are specials. http://www.jefusion.com/2013/08/kamen-rider-wizard-to-end-at-episode-53.html
3248569 For the Wizard part, all I have to say is, "I know, say no more!" Or to put it differently, "Stop! Don't say it!"
And for the Gaim part, you're totally missing the point I'm trying to make. Urobuchi is considered as the Spiritual Successor to Yoshiyuki Tomino, who was the Trope Namer of the trope Kill 'em All. Hence why I'm kind of dubious about Gaim.
3249670 I know that. I'm saying I'm just surpirsed about Gaim's Rider power. I thought it looked tech but since he got it from the Helheim Forest it shows he's a natural rider. But again I'm going to be skeptical about his series for now just like the past 5 riders.
3250007 You know, there's a GIF that totally sums up my initial reaction to hearing that Urobuchi is on Gaim. It shows some guys in an office, and they're all miraculously finding ways out of there. I don't know where to find it anymore,
but it perfectly sums up my reaction to hearing that the heir of Kill 'em All is working on the next Rider.
3250108 True. I'm really interested in how the rider will pay off since no more two parters for the story.
3250209 How do you know there won't be any more two-parters?
Also, I just saw part one of the special, and it's quite clearly after the final battle against Gremlin. The proof is that Haruto had the Hope Ring, which was created from the Philosopher's Stone.
Of course, Nitoh was apparently sucked into that alternate world where time is all messed up from a time before he lost his powers. But he's able to use Beast Hyper, which he got after meeting Haruto and the gang, and I don't think he was ever away from the gang long enough to have been caught up in these events. Then again, Timey-Wimey Ball.
3252349 Well thanks to a few people and sites the director of Gaim stated he wanted the episodes to be more like it was in the past before all the episodes became two parters. And I'm just going to say why don't we just forget about the Wizard episodes? I really don't want to start anything and lead it to something worst. Agreed?
wow i did not expet beast to be a grifon
"Lungs: burning... Vision: Blurring... Brain! Status report!"
Brain: ....D'uhhhhhhh...
"...That's not good..."
Wait, what just happened?!
Dammit Manga!
I'm now stuck hearing the voice of Igor from Persona 4: Golden for Manticore starting from the Tarot reading! XD
through the emptied streets of Ponyville, humming small tune
the air with flames about it’s body
1. Humming a small tune.
2. Its.
This is definitely a... Neato entrance for our new hero.