//------------------------------// // Come on and Smile // Story: "Lots Of Things..." // by WezzaHD //------------------------------// Daring sighed as she kept trotting. She rubbed her torso, which still hurt from the fight with Cipher. “An odd guy. He claims he’s the owner of that stuff but it looks lost to time, and he didn’t seen that old. Then again, he was an alicorn… But that could’ve just been an illusion to intimidate me. It wouldn’t be the first time someone pretended to be an alicorn to get ponies to follow them… Ugh, I need to figure him out, that won’t be the last time I see him for sure.” She thought, but she couldn’t worry about that right now. Though, that wasn't entirely true. Before the notes she'd looked at had been taken, she had saw something mentioned about the south. As she trotted on the outskirts of Clopshire, she checked every nook and cranny she could for something even resembling a hidden door. The key around her neck shook slightly as she trotted through the forest. She'd heard a bit about this place already. It was close to the border of Equestria, near to the minotaur kingdom; Labyrinthia. The place was mostly populated by ponies but had a few minotaurs there as well. “Well well, who’s this?” She stopped and turned around, looking at the figure who called out her name. It was bipedal, but too small to be a minotaur… Far too small... In fact… It appeared to be a diamond dog. “Pony shouldn’t be trespassing in this forest.” “And who exactly are you?” Daring raised a brow. “Tch. Stupid pony shouldn’t have come here.” He scoffed. “Oh?” She raised a brow. “And why not?” The dog laughed. “Because this is our territory! The territory of the Devil Gang!” He pounced at Daring, who jumped up in the air and got out her whip, grabbing the canine’s arm and throwing him into a tree “Ow!” He yelped as his head hit the trunk. “Stupid pony doesn’t know when to quit!” He got up and tried running at the pony again, but with the same result. Suddenly, a whip coiled around the dog’s leg and was thrown around into another trunk. “So you gonna leave me alone or should I keep going?” Daring asked. “Or are you stalling for backup or something like that?” “Heh…” The dog got up, laughing. “Don’t need backup for stupid weak pony.” “You dazed or something? I’ve been doing nothing but throwing you around and you call me weak?” “I admit, pony is not as weak as most, but pony is still pony.” The diamond dog suddenly started to change. “What the..?” Daring thought as she watched his fur brighten slightly, the fur around his head becoming crimson. Her eyes widened as the dog grew in front of her. Not only that, but a pair of wings sprouted on his back. “I see stupid pony is having second thoughts.” The dog, if she could even call it that anymore, grinned at her. “Never thought anything good could come from a cat, but I was proved wrong.” Her hoof reached inside her bag for one of the power- ups, but before she could, the dog flew forward, slamming its fist into her body, knocking her away. She shook her head before she hit a tree herself, instead landing on it with her hooves and flying back at the transformed canine, who highly resembled a manticore now. “I’ll beat your flank, and then you’ll tell me what you are!” Daring declared, whilst the canine manticore hybrid just laughed. She flew under him, wrapping her whip round his neck and pulling him into the ground. “Ugh…” The dazed hybrid shook his head, getting up and trying to pull the whip off of himself, but whilst he was distracted, his leg was bucked and he fell back to the ground. “A tip; stay down and your body will stop hurting.” Daring said. He growled at this, turning into a Manticore fully and roaring, flying up whilst grabbing onto the whip, pulling Daring up with him. After her surprise subsided, she let go of the whip, causing him to stop midair and fly down, trying to punch her, but she dodged all of them. “Stand still!” He roared, as she kept avoiding his attacks with a light chuckle. However, a stinger was rammed into her side, her only barely seeing it coming. Wincing, she fell from the sky, only barely regaining herself. “Forgot about the tail…” She grunted as the manticore pulled the whip off of his neck and threw it to the ground. “Didn’t want to use them sparingly but…” She pulled out a feather and suddenly found a cape adorned on her back like before. She shot at the Manticore with a blinding speed, kicking him in the face, causing the Manticore to howl as it was knocked away. He growled, trying to impale her with his stinger again, but she grabbed it and threw him to the ground. She flew down, trying to deliver the final blow, but felt her power wearing off, weakened by the manticore venom, but she wouldn’t feel its effects anymore. With this in mind, she ceased her attack, but grabbed her whip and tied him up. She had to figure out just what happened. A Diamond Dog had somehow just turned into a Manticore, but now it was back to being a canine, albeit a dazed one. “Ugh…” The Diamond Dog groaned. “Hey! What this?!” He turned back into a manticore but found himself out of breath as the whip didn’t snap, but only gave him less breath and turned back into a dog with a groan, the whip being too tight and durable, coupled with being out of energy to begin with. “I should be asking you that.” Daring asked as the canine started to struggle. “Eh?” “You’re a Diamond Dog. I just saw you turn into a Manticore. How?” “Oh, that.” The canine laughed. “That’s not something the pony needs to know.” Daring glared at the dog. “What’s your name?” “Hmph, Max.” The dog grunted. “Well Max, if you’re not going to tell me anything I’ll just give you to the nearest authorities.” She said, pulling him along, him writhing along the way, but not having enough energy do much. He “You don’t know who you’re dealing with.” “Well if you enlightened me, maybe I’d be more weary. If not, shut up whilst we go to town.” She said, not slowing down for a second, until she heard something, it was… “You really want to go to town? Hah, we own the town!” He laughed. “Your lifespan will halt if you don’t let me go right now!” She rolled her eyes and ignored his threats and reached the town. From what she heard, it was on the border between Equestria and the Minotaur kingdom, meaning it was populated by both ponies and Minotaurs. It was a pretty decent place. Houses were impressive, since Minotaurs were known for their construction skills. Although, it was empty for such a well- built place. “Where is everyone?” Daring frowned, looking around. “It’s too new to be abandoned, the place clearly isn’t cleaned out… Well not cleaned out enough anyway. No… Maybe they’re-” She suddenly heard yelling. “Heh heh heh… You might have to repeat that again. I could’ve sworn you said you didn’t have the bits necessary, and I’m gonna guess you don’t have anything else to compensate either!” The voice snarled. There was a pause. “Gonna take a wild guess… Buddy?” As she spoke, she heard destruction occur. “Got that right. He’s probably collecting tax. Someone couldn’t pay so he’s wrecking the place, maybe a street.” “I didn’t think so.” The voice said after the pause and destruction could be heard. "Yeah... Not letting that happen." Daring said. If anything, maybe this idiot gang of theirs knew something about the bunkers. “You idiot, you’re gonna die~.” He laughed. “Oh great, he’s crazy.” Daring sighed, but was on guard as she heard another roar. She immediately flew up with Max to see what the commotion was. She frowned at what she saw. Two… what she could only describe as monsters clashing, growling at each other. One had Diamond dog features, such as the fangs, the muzzle and the floppy ears, hints of fur dirty from digging, but there were also sludge appearing on his body, along with various colours flashing all over him like some sort of vomit- inducing rainbow. The Minotaur, on the other hand wore a shirt and thick gloves was had powerful winds radiating off of him, and she didn’t think sure Minotaurs were capable of air or any kind of weather or elemental magic. Then again, she also didn’t think dogs could become part Manticore but she was learning a lot today. The dog laughed and pushed against the Minotaur. Getting a more clear view of the Minotaur, she could see scales on his arms, along with what appeared to be claws poking out of the gloves. “Damn dog...” Storm grunted. “Oh you really want to do this again? Hah, go ahead and try!” “Grr… Wind Dragon’s Roar!” Storm took a breath and a powerful tornado burst out of his mouth, enveloping the entire street. Daring quickly took to the ground when this happened, grabbing onto something. When the wind cleared, she saw the entire street was obliterated. The pavement was a mess, some lights were bent. Storm growled at this. He’d been too excessive. One thing that wasn’t caught up in the obliteration of a street, however, was the damn mutt he was aiming for in the first place. He growled and looked around, before his gaze turned to a drain his wind had broken open. His eyes widened and he jumped up, the sludge dog bursting out of the ground below him. But it looked less like a dog as this point. It was now fully a blob of rainbow sludge with arms, bags under its eyes and more crystals covering his body. He smiled as his teeth glowed purple, jumping at Storm, who punched him to the side with a cyclone in his hand. He landed with a splat on the wall, before picking himself up and glowering at Storm. “Guess you got pretty strong.” Buddy’s canine features returned through the sludge, showing a snarl that soon turned to a smile, before jumping at the minotaur, who readied an attack. “Wind Dragon’s..!” “Poison..!” “Cyclone Horns!” “Fang!” Purple canine teeth collided mini- tornadoes on both of the minotaur’s horns. They both struggled, one gaining an advantage one second, before the edge was given to the other a second after. Soon Storm pushed forward with a grunt. It was then, that the sludge- dog smiled, and a box slid under the minotaur from behind. It was bright pink with green polka dots and wrapped in a velvet ribbon. Storm’s eyes widened and the box exploded, knocking him up and obliterating the nearby walls. He panted, coughing and getting up. “You don’t look so good there.” Buddy laughed. Storm on the other hand, got up, panting. “Craft..!” He muttered under his breath. The minotaur looked around, at which Buddy ran at the minotaur with his claws active. Upon Daring’s inspection, the claws looked a lot like the crystals as well and whatever they were, something was bad about them as the minotaur was doing everything he could to avoid them even through the poison, but it didn’t seem like he was doing very well, barely stepping out of the way of the slashes, knocking Buddy away with a cyclone roar before another present was flung at him, letting out an explosion that covered the street. Daring’s eyes widened as the wind- user fell to one knee. She shook her head, done watching. As the sludge dog jumped again, she flew inbetween the two, grabbing the first power- up she could get. Soon, cool air came out of her mouth, and her body was a light cyan. As she landed, the moment the dog touched her, he was frozen in a block of ice. However, she wasn’t without harm either, panting as her entire body hurt. “What the..?” She thought. “I have ice powers which is helpful but… Why does everything hurt? What in the-” “-Gods are you doing here?!” Storm got up, yelling at her, grunting as he did. “It’s dangerous here!” “And you were about to die.” She retorted. “Now what is this place? Is he part of this gang I’m hearing about?” “Well… Yes.” He leaned against a wall. “Well fine. Thanks. Now we need to get out of here. We’ve slowed down his rampage a bit.” “What? We need to give him to the local police.” “...There are no police.” “...What?” She frowned. “How-” “I can’t explain it right now. If you insist on staying then fine. Just make sure you can defend yourself.” “Fine…” She sighed. “But you will need to tell me what’s going on here and what’s happening.” “Very well.” He said as another present landed fairly close to the ice. “And get ready.” The ice slid back and was coated in fires. It began to melt and crack until it broke, showing the canine shivering. He roared, shaking himself off and running at them. They jumped out of the way and he hit a wall, cracking it. He then removed one of the crystals covering his body, before putting it on his fist. He did the same with other crystals until it seemed like he had spike brass knuckles, but made out of crystal. “Be careful.” Storm warned. “Even one of those crystals is poisonous enough to kill. And they come off easily.” “Got it.” She panted and ran at Buddy, her power wavering thanks to the poison. She froze the path under him, causing him to slip. “Wind Dragon’s Roar!” Then Storm let loose another tornado from his mouth, knocking Buddy back. The dog got up and his cheeks swelled, before shooting a large ball of sludge at them. They both dived to the side and Daring turned to shoot ice balls at him. He grunted at parts of his body getting frozen but broke out and ran at her, his teeth glowing. She froze the floor, causing him to slip into a wall. As he tried to get up, Storm summoned a tornado in his hand and punched Buddy through the wall with it. As he grunted, they ran at him, but he jumped at Daring, his fangs glowing once again, but Storm blocked with another tornado, causing the two to collide. A present slid under Storm as he pushed, but it was promptly frozen by Daring and bucked away before it let out another large explosion. “I saw where that was thrown! You gonna be okay?” She asked. “Yeah just find a pony wrapping presents! That’d be Happy Craft!” Storm said. Daring nodded and flew into the sky. Daring did her best work alone so splitting up was fine with her. She saw an Earth Pony, his coat a bright grey with a messy yellow mane and a moustache, green safety goggles covering his eyes. The stallion carried a bag filled with small presents. Daring gave a chuckle at his appearance until he threw one of his presents at her and she darted to the side. Behind her, the present let out a powerful explosion. “Quick one eh?” He chuckled. “Then again, Pegasi usually are.” He got out another present and threw it at Daring, who easily flew to the side and avoided it. However, the earth pony still smiled, causing Daring to frown. She turned around but it was too late, and a barrage of arrows from above hit her. They were quick, light and sharp. The work of an expert. She fell from the sky as various parts of her body bled out. Her ice powers disappeared and she grunted. She struggled, pulling the arrows out and just stopping herself from falling. She took back to the skies, only for another exploding present to hit her. She fell to the floor and the Earth pony trotted towards her, his moustache ruffling as he frowned. He noticed that she seemed to be holding onto a few things under her. One was a bag, whilst the other item appeared to be… green. A green mushroom. She bit down on the mushroom quickly and stood up, her injuries healing. Before Craft could react, he was punched into a wall by the pegasus’s hoof. She then bucked his bag away. “Don’t think you’ve one just yet..!” Craft gritted his teeth. “You had no business coming here and you’ll be crushed if you stay.” “Ugh, you sound like Max.” Daring rolled her eyes. “You don’t like advice do you?” He sighs. “If you’re just going to ignore your own safety then I guess I have no choice. I can contain anything inside a present and enhance it. Whether it be weapons, attacks...” He quickly reached behind him, getting another present out and immediately lobbing it at Daring, who dived to the side as out from the present emerged one of her ice balls, only once it hit a wall behind her, it froze the entire thing at once along with a good chunk of the ground, its power having doubled from before. Using that time, Craft jumped away from Daring before a large box materialised around him, covered in wrapping paper and done up with a ribbon. “...Or ponies.” She realised what he was trying to do and attempted to fly at him, only to fall. She just noticed how cold she felt. Though, being next to the large patch of ice meant it was a given, but she felt it particularly in her hoof, which turned out to be stuck to the ice. She struggled for a moment and eventually pulled her hind hoof out after a few moments. However, as she did the present began to unwrap. Out of it came the same earth Pony, except with some differences. His eyes were red and bloodshot. His body was more refined and muscled, with veins all over his body. He charges at Daring, who flies out of the way as he then hits the wall, breaking through it like paper. Daring rummaged through her bag and found a familiar face; the fire flower. She took its power and flames coursed through her body. She shot a fireball at Craft, who jumped straight through it, ignoring the burns he received and socked Daring in the face, making her momentarily dizzy before she was grabbed and thrown onto a roof. “Do you really think the new me would bother with those lukewarm flames?” He sneered as he dropped, before jumping up to the roof for another punch, but Daring flew out of the way. “I’m not playing around, little filly.” Daring glared at the stallion, flying far behind him. “Neither am I.” As he turned around, she flew at him, generating fire in her forehooves, and blasting more flames out of her hind hooves. He turned around, smiling as he saw her charge and raised a hoof to block, not bothering to attack. She hit Craft, pushing him back significantly. The stallion in question grit his teeth at the heat and impact of the colliding hooves. He brought up his other hoof to block as he was knocked into a wall that instantly cracked upon impact. Daring generated more flames around him, blinding his view and allowing her to sock him in the face, several times. Craft groaned. His goggles broke in two and he fell limp. Daring stopped and flew back, taking a breath before she saw a familiar diamond dog get knocked through a wall. “Whoa!” Daring watched with wide eyes before looking back to Storm. She was about to congratulate him when she found he was on the floor. “Hey are you okay?” “Yeah… Don’t worry… I can handle poison…” He grunted. “Just… Be my support for a bit…” Daring nodded and helped the minotaur up. “Take me home… I’ll show you where to go…” Daring grunted as she supported the large minotaur, though it was difficult whilst also having to drag two diamond dogs and an earth pony, all frozen in blocks of ice and held together by the whip. He walked as best he could, whilst also putting a free hand over his upper body, which glowed. They made their way to a clearing far out from the town. The two found themselves at the bottom of a large ledge, covered with vines and overgrowth. “Come on! Let go already! “Move those…” He said, standing more upright. The two of them moved some vines out of the way and found themselves in a dark cave. Storm picked up a match and candles at the mouth, lighting the candle and stepping through. “Okay thanks.” They reached a table with a single seat. “Sorry I don’t usually have company.” “Hey don’t worry.” She reassured him. “I’ll take a guess and assume you don’t know what’s going on right?” The Minotaur asked. Daring nodded. He began to reminisce. “A gang rules this town, with powers you couldn’t imagine, a gang that I used to be a part of.” He chuckled emptily. “You know, a year ago, we found a cave where we got these phenomenal powers. It was a lot different from this one though.” “A cave?” Daring asked. “Um… What did this cave look like?” “The mouth had a large door in front of it, practically covered with overgrowth like this one. I don’t know how long that door had been there, but it was on its last legs when we found it. We were just a group of friends who happened to be in the right place at the right time. The door’s foundations were weak. With some effort with toppled it to the ground and decided to explore. We found a lot of weird buildings, kinda like those traps kept in temples in adventure books.” Daring chuckled at that. “Most of the stuff in there was rundown and broken but we still hoped we could find something cool and sell it, so we were pretty surprised by what we found instead.” “And what did you find?” Daring asked, very interested in the story. “Fruit.” He said. “Fruit?” She frowned. “Yeah we were pretty surprised and pretty disappointed. Oddly enough they were the only things intact. No sign of mould or anything, but that must’ve just been the skin because the fruit tasted like shit. They all did, but we were hungry and didn’t question it much. Besides we figured there were more. After that we felt different; weird. It wasn’t until later we found them out.” “So your’s gave you the ability to use elemental magic?” “Well yes and no.” He removed his glove showing his hand, which turned into a draconic claw. “The fruit I ate was called the Dragon Dragon fruit, Model: Wind. It gives me the power of a wind dragon, who were not only good at controlling the winds, but apparently pretty good at healing magic too.” “And Max transforms into a Manticore, right?” “Yeah.” Storm nodded. “Hey what about the other guy? Buddy?” “Well… I don’t quite know… He apparently can turn into a creature, but not one I’ve seen.” “Huh…” “There are others too. You saw Happy Craft. He has something called the Gift Gift Fruit. He put bombs in his presents. A friend/ cohort of mine, Molly has one too, she uses the Garden Garden fruit. Plants sprout up on her body, making her like a living forest. She should be meeting up with us later.” He brought out some paper. “There’s also others there but no one’s eaten them. We don’t know much about who made them or why.” There’s some notes here but I can’t make sense of them. The only ones I did understand were a list of techniques that helped me learn about the fruit.” He didn't say but he found it fun to call out the names of his attacks as well. “Hmm… Maybe I can. Hoof them here.” Daring smiled. Storm did so and she read through them. Entry 12 Welp, that was Yoshi Island. Ah, good time. After those power- ups I was thinking. Maybe I should try something like that again, but more… permanent. Then I realised. There is something like that! The good old Devil Fruits. I combined them with my old Dragon Lacrima research. We’ll see how it goes. Daring read this and thought. So he went here and put all this into play after the island she was on. These fruits were more advanced, more permanent versions of the power- ups. It was worrying to think that they had stronger versions of her powers but she hadn’t backed down before so why start now? The mare continued to read. Entry 20 Finally! Did some. I started with the easy ones; Zoan Types. I guess these are technically the Smile fruits since they’re artificial but eh. I converted the lacrimas into the Fruits, which should make the actual process of gaining powers less painful. Paramecia was a little more difficult. I did have to dabble a little in magic to make those happen. Ugh, I don’t like relying on it so much. With how easily things can be solved with magic, I feel like it takes away from the accomplishment of the research. Or maybe I’m just avoiding the simple solution for pride’s sake… I don’t know… Ugh I’ll just keep going with these. She didn't understand any of this. Lacrimas, paramacias. She most she got from this one was that the fruits were more different more advanced versions of other powers. And that he wasn't fond of magic? But that wouldn't make any sense if the alicorn really was the owner he claimed to be. In this entry, he spoke more like an Earth Pony than an Alicorn. She kept reading. Entry 25 Well I’ve gotten a good few Zoans and a number of paramecias down. A lot of work but hey, I have a lot of time now. Gotta occupy it. Hell, I even managed to implement some of my scrapped Pokemon research on it. Fun. Gotta thank Pine for the idea. Good to have him around. Combining science with magic can have its benefits, but is mostly trial and error. But hey, that's what a lot of science is like. That gives me an idea, I should get Beardo in on this too! “Poke… What?” She thought to herself. She felt like storm, not knowing what to make of this. The best she could gather was that he had many other research points like this one and the island. So there could be more instances like this one, where the projects of this crazy alicorn could have gone loose. That being said, it meant that she at least had more to go on, not to mention another name to search for. She was interrupted from her thoughts as she heard the tapping of paws. She put the notes down and snapped to the mouth of the cave, flaring her wings out. Into the light of the candle, came a diamond dog. Her fur was brown, thick and laced with dirt. She looked more bush than canine in many respects. “Don’t worry it’s just Molly.” The dog in question went up and punched the minotaur. “Idiot!” She yelled as Storm stumbled back, rubbing his cheek. “What was that for?!” “For not sucking it up and being patient!” She growled before sighing. “Oh Fenrir why…” “Uh… Do you guys need to solve this?” Daring asked and Molly frowned for a moment, turning to Daring. “Oh. Sorry, didn’t see you there… I’m guessing you’re roped into this now?” “Yes and no I guess. I’m choosing to stick around for now. There’s more of those notes in this hideout right?” “That’s right.” Molly nodded. “Hope you’re ready, because now we have to move fast. Jake has probably already caught wind of what happened.” Daring nodded. She wasn’t really one for working with others but she at least wanted to press them for information before heading off to the hideout they were talking about. “I’m guessing this Jake guy is their boss or something?” “Yep.” Molly said. “Okay, what do I expect from him? Can he do anything?” This earned a light chuckle from the dog. “Yeah. He’s got a power. It’s kinda funny, at first glance it’s pretty underwhelming but…” She sighed. Back in the town, the citizens, had very mixed reactions to what had just happened. Some were frantically cleaning up. They didn’t believe this outburst of rebellion would help in the slightest. They believed that, if anything, it would make it worse. So they tried to clean and fix everything in hopes of appeasing their oppressors and minimising and further damage. Meanwhile, others gather different equipment, kitchen, garden, anything that could pass off as a weapon. They stood on the edge of town, determined to take this opportunity to take back their town. On the edge of town, a dog stepped out. He was the average size for a dog, not too big or small. His fur was a dull yellow and his ears pointed up. He wore nothing aside from a red sleeveless shirt. “Hey.” He waved at the ponies and minotaurs who glared at him. “Leave!” One said. “You know, I heard something happened whilst I was gone. And three of my good friends haven’t come back yet, so, you know, I got wo-” He fell backwards as a minotaur socked him in the face. “...I got worried.” The citizens all crowded around him and pointed weapons at him. “Quiet!” An earth pony glared at him. “This is it for you! We’re done with your rule!” “Nah.” He said plainly. The ponies near his legs fell to the ground, having tripped up. Behind them, was an outstretched hindleg. No, to call it outstretched would be an understatement when it was literally stretched out. The leg snapped back to him and he threw himself up into the air whilst the townsfolk were distracted by their friends falling. He stretched his arms out to them and shot out a barrage of punches, knocking the crowd away into walls. He landed and looked to them with a frown. “So none of you know where my enforcers went? Geez, this is gonna be difficult. Eh, I can just leave it to Ribbon.” He shrugged and left, rubbing his muzzle in annoyance.