//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: Mizuki // by ocalhoun //------------------------------// Honestly, I had expected more of a reaction from the locals when I finally made my way into their town. Quite a few of them looked at me, sure, but not all of them did, and there was no outcry ... nor any great show of welcome. They just seemed to accept me as another oddity, then go along with their lives as usual. Which was decidedly unusual, if what Fluttershy and her friends had said was true: that they had never seen anyone like me before. I was beginning to get a better idea of the inhabitants. Some had wings, some had horns, some had neither ... apparently having both was very rare. All of them came in a slightly nauseating array of bright colors, and they seemed to all live peacefully enough. Or was that just a show, put on for my benefit? I wasn't totally sure I could trust them yet. Not even Fluttershy. If I had expected anything outlandish in their village, I was mistaken. Sure, their choices in decoration were odd, with an overabundance of hearts and flowers and ... horseshoes, of all things. But there was nothing here that would look terribly out of place in a small, if strangely ethnic, village from my world. I'd seen dozens just like it ... though perhaps not so clean and so idealized. And, of course, no village in my world would dare house this many people without at least a palisade to protect them. How could these people be so trusting? Did they have no enemies out in the wilds? “This is the town square, the center of Ponyville,” Fluttershy said, still leading me by the hand. She didn't need to do that. Even with the limited supply of ki I'd been able to scrounge access to, I'd been able to heal more than she could guess. The cast on my leg already felt unnecessary. Still, I was grateful to have a guide, and since I didn't quite trust these 'ponies', it would be good to have at least one secret from them. Being healthier than they thought I was could end up being a decisive advantage in a pinch. “There's the Joke Shop, and the Spa, and the Mane Salon, and of course the Town Hall right in the middle.” Fluttershy went on with her tour even though I was only half paying attention to it. I probably did need to know where things were, but I doubted that a salon or a joke shop would be what I needed to find. She pointed up over the thatched rooftops. “That way is where the Library used to be before Tirek blew it up ... and off behind it is the Friendship Castle – that's where Twilight lives now.” Wait, so someone named Tirek blew up their library? So they did face threats here ... and yet they couldn't put up so much as a fence around their village? What was wrong with these people? “Just a little further down the lane, and we'll get to Sugarcube Corner. I have a friend there, and I'm sure she'll want to meet you. Her name is—” “Pinkie!” A pink woman jumped out of nowhere right in front of me. I darted – or stumbled, rather – backward, reflexively grabbing for the hilt of a sword that wasn't there. I wasn't even wearing my sword belt. How had I left without it? I hit the ground hard, reawakening injuries I had thought were healed, and Fluttershy's efforts to keep me standing accomplished little more than wrenching my sore shoulder. “Pinkie!” my yellow friend scolded. “You can't just jump out at her like that. She's in a very fragile state!” Slowly, I picked myself up. This pink one wasn't a threat apparently. She had just startled me. Perhaps it was for the best that I wasn't fully healed, that I didn't have my sword at hand ... I may have done something I would later regret. Pinkie paid her no mind. “Are you the new, um... wolf thing? I've never met a wolf thing, and I've never met you, and...” Her eyes went wide, and she gasped. “Ohmigosh! You're in Ponyville a whole two weeks earlier than Fluttershy said you'd be, and I haven't even started getting your welcome-and-get-well-soon party set up!” She jumped up onto the rim of a nearby fountain and shouted at the top of her lungs, “Everybody stop everything!” Surprisingly, they did stop, every single one of them. “Emergency party plan epsilon! Go! Go right now!” Pinkie darted off in a blur. Everyone else in the town square spent a moment longer staring at where Pinkie had been, then they went back to their business as usual, ignoring whatever orders Pinkie had just given out. I had seen one other like her in my time, back in my world. He had been a manic buffoon, but a well-meaning one, and ultimately turned out to be quite useful when our forces engaged with the Demon King's honor guard in the high passes of the Herakon rift, but that's a story for a different day. For the time being, I had an overprotective Fluttershy to deal with. “Are you okay?” she asked, holding me both at the elbow and across the shoulders. “Did you get hurt in the fall? We can go home now if you want. I know Pinkie can be very frightening sometimes – she even scares me pretty often, and I'm one of her best friends.” “No, no. I'm fine. Go on with the tour.” I needed to scout the territory, after all. I'd been disoriented and helpless for too long already. She looked at me with heartbreaking levels of concern. “Are you sure? We could finish it tomorrow. You should probably come back home and rest.” Ah, wouldn't that be nice? To be back home, resting. Not her home... Mine. Not that I'd ever had a time in my life I'd call particularly restful there, but I did find myself with a strange longing for my war tent and my comrades. Before that fateful day in Genko's tower, I would have been happy to curse them all to eat their own guts in the deepest level of the Demon Realm, but now...? Now I missed those feckless bastards more than I'd ever thought I could. “Mizuki?” I'd been standing still and staring off into space for too long, apparently. Rather than responding to her, I began walking again. She hastened to match my steps. “Okay, now we're headed toward the west side of town. Rarity lives over there. How about we drop in to visit her? She's been pestering me to let her design a new wardrobe for you.” I took the next turn to the left. “Or... maybe not then.” * * * I grumbled about it when Fluttershy led me back to her cottage, but to be honest with myself, I was more than a little grateful for her insistence. The walk through town had been tiring, more exhausting than any other trek I'd ever made, despite how short and easy it should have seemed. I was disgusted with my own weakness, determined to force myself beyond these feeble limits that bound me ... and it was only because of Fluttershy that I was able to return and rest. I had her to thank for that. Only, when she opened the door for me, what I found inside wasn't restful at all. “Su-prise!” Pinkie yelled, right into my face as soon as the door opened. An explosion of confetti followed a moment later, coating me with colorful – and itchy – glitter. When she backed up a little and let us inside, there turned out to be dozens of others already inside, with bright decorations strewn all over the place and a loud machine beginning to play recorded music. The pink woman bounced, yes ... literally bounced into the middle of the room, then spread her arms wide. “Welcome to your welcome-and-get-well-soon party, um...” Everything froze for a moment as Pinkie's face went blank. “...Whoever you are!” “Mizuki Tanaka,” I provided for her. “Gesundheit!” She darted up to me and pulled a plate out of her hair – out of her hair! – and held it up to me. “Want some cake?” Even though I couldn’t see any curly pink hairs in the cake's frosting, the whole idea of eating hair-cake grossed me out. I backed away slightly. “Come on... it's gooood...” She held it up to my face again. “No!” I shouted, too forcefully for the situation, again making everyone there pause and look. After deliberately allowing for an awkward pause, Pinkie shrugged. “Okie-dokie!” She then proceeded to swallow the whole thing in one go. I fought back a gag. “Well, my goodness...” Fluttershy stuck close to me, thankfully. “I wasn't expecting a party, but since we're here, you might as well meet my friends. There's Applejack, her big brother and their little sister. You already know Twilight and Rarity, right?” I glared at Twilight suspiciously. Thankfully, her back was turned, and she didn't seem to sense my gaze on her. “Yeah.” “Well Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash are—” Pinkie grabbed me by the arm and hauled me bodily into the middle of the room. “How about a dance, huh, wolfie? You look like you'd be dangerous on the dance floor!” Fluttershy caught up before I could reply. “Oh no, she couldn’t. She's much too weak. And she's certainly not dangerous, not even a little. You shouldn't say that about sapient predators – it's insensitive.” “I'm not weak,” I said, tearing my arms away from both Pinkie's clutches and Fluttershy's possessively returning grip. Insensitive, she said? Ha! I considered myself extremely dangerous – she was the one insulting me! “Alright!” Pinkie yelled. “Dance time! Gimme a beat!” The music changed, got louder, but I hardly noticed. I took one shambling step forward, muttered “Oh shit... F-fuck all of you” under my breath, and then collapsed. A moment later, I was passed out cold in the middle of the improvised dance floor. * * * When I woke, everyone was gone and the music was silenced, but the decorations were still strewn everywhere. I was back on the same couch I'd been practically tethered to since I arrived, and for once, I was glad to be there. It gave me a moment to think, not that I wanted to. Instead of thinking about what happened, I focused on orienting the constant little trickle of healing ki back into my body. I needed all the strength I could muster. I lost track of time, but it didn't seem like very long before Fluttershy came in to check on me. “Oh good, you're awake. You had me worried!” She rushed over to my side. “It's all my fault! I should have known Pinkie would do something like this, and I should have stopped her before she gathered everyone here. She can be so thoughtless sometimes.” Letting a deep sigh escape, I looked up at her. “I think she means well, but she's just...” “Weird?” “I was going to say ... a little too much for me to handle right now.” She smiled. “Oh my. You're so polite now.” The smile faded. “I'm afraid you didn't make quite as good an impression on the party guests, though...” “Well, they didn't make a very good impression on me, either.” Fluttershy stared down at me until I fidgeted. “I don't care. Who needs them? Good riddance.” When she simply got up and walked away without a single word... Now that really hurt. Well fuck her, and fuck her friends, too! I didn't need any of them. What I needed to do was simple: find Genko, kill Genko, go home. I didn't need her or her friends for that. I just needed to recover a little more, and then I'd take care of everything myself, just as I always had. There was never anyone else I could really count on, not when it came down to it, so why would I need anyone now? Sure I needed her help getting better – I could admit that much at least. But all she'd really provided was a few bandages and a couch to lie on. It was the least she could do for an injured warrior. I didn't owe her a damn thing. And I hadn't forgotten about that mind-raping purple one either. If she was representative of Fluttershy's friends, then I wanted nothing to do with any of them. No sooner had I settled into a good angry stew over their treatment of me, though, than a new presence was in the room. I hadn't heard him come in or sensed his approach in any way, but then there he was. He was tall, very tall, and that was accentuated by the mismatched horns extending from his head. Every limb seemed to be different. He wore a hideous off-brown suit and held a cane in one clawed hand. As he looked down at me, his bushy white mustache and goatee twitched. “You're in my spot.” The most important thing, though... I could feel his ki! Its energy was sick and twisted beyond all recognition, but I could feel it! The power of it beat on me like the high summer sun. This was a being more powerful than any I'd ever seen. This being of godlike power ... he cleared his throat and poked me with the tip of his cane. How could someone so powerful be so petty? I was beyond caring. “Fuck you,” I said, swatting the cane away. “For Fluttershy's sake, I'm going to ask nicely, but I need you to move. That's my couch you're lying on, and I want it.” “Girlfriend trouble?” It was a shot in the dark, but... His eye twitched. “What goes on between me and Celestia is none of your petty mortal concern. Now move!” “Can't. Too weak.” That was true enough, though it pained me to use it as an excuse like that. “Ugh, fine!” He snapped his lion-paw fingers, and ... and I was healed! Hot damn, I was healed, completely healed! The pain was gone, and in its absence I suddenly felt invincible, mightier than a mountain! I was sure I could run with strides a hundred leagues long and jump to each of the five moons and back. “Ahem.” He poked me with his cane again. This time, awestruck, I was glad to give up my seat, glad to walk again, free from the constraints of my injuries. I moved to thank him, but by the time I thought to do so, he was curled up on the couch, apparently fast asleep. As the giddy euphoria slipped by, it occurred to me that this was the perfect opportunity. I had no idea who or what that man was, but this was my ticket out of this too-colorful and ki-poor shithole. With Fluttershy still thinking I was bed-ridden and all of her friends off their guard, this was the ideal time for me to escape. Not that I truly thought they would try to prevent me from leaving ... but that was a possibility. With this new-found strength and health, though, I'd be able to slip out right under their noses, and they'd never know a thing. Now was the time. I could slip on my armor, grab my sword, and track down the tendril of ki I'd been feeling from wherever Genko was hiding. I grabbed the armor first. Underneath it was my bra. Well, I should wear it ... my armor would fit better, and it would keep things in place during a fight. But I'd have to take my top off in order to put on the bra. I glanced over at the man sleeping on the couch, and I caught the glint of his eye watching me through half-closed lids. Men. They never change. I held the bra up, dangling from one finger. “A little privacy please?” “To think I would stoop to such a level! You wound me,” he muttered. I didn't move. “Oh, have it your way.” He snapped his fingers again, and suddenly the bra was on me, fitted perfectly, though I hadn't moved at all. I gasped. “Hey!” “Hey? Hey what? You want me to take it off again?” I clutched my arms protectively over my chest. “No.” “Well then you're welcome.” I stood there with arms crossed a moment longer, then let them fall. “Um, thanks, I guess.” There were no further disturbances as I gathered my well-worn armor and strapped it on, not even as I settled the sword belt over my hips. “Going somewhere?” he murmured. I drew the sword – its ki-channeling power would help me locate Genko more easily. “Yeah. I've got an old friend to meet.” With that, I slipped silently out through the door.