//------------------------------// // Birth of a new Cardcaptor // Story: Cardcaptor Twilight // by Yukito //------------------------------// “Thank you, Derpy,” Twilight said as she bowed respectfully to the grey Pegasus. She took the crate into her magic and levitated it inside the library. “No problem, Miss Sparkle!” Derpy exclaimed cheerfully as she saluted and fluttered her wings to rise off the ground. “Have a good day!” Twilight waved goodbye to Derpy as she flew off towards her next destination. Once Derpy was out of sight, she closed the door of her library and approached her delivery. “Finally, it’s here!” Twilight let out a small squeal of excitement as she used her magic to open the crate. Sure enough, it was filled with the books that she had been waiting for. About two weeks ago, grave news reached Twilight regarding her uncle’s passing. Although she never knew this particular uncle very well, as he was an archaeologist who spent most of his time travelling and excavating, she was still sad to hear that he had died. As part of his will, he left all of his books to Twilight, who he knew was very much into reading. Twilight already had most of the books that he had, but there were still quite a few that she didn’t, and some of which she had never seen before. Because there were too many to carry back all at once, Twilight’s parents told her that they would mail her the books that she wanted. Finally, they had arrived. She looked at them with stars in her eyes. So much knowledge sitting in front of her, just waiting, begging to be read. And best of all, Spike was called to Canterlot for Royal business, so she had the next three days all to herself. She already knew what she was going to do: she would close the library, stock up on sweets and high-energy snacks and coffee, and lock herself in her room with her new collection of books, and enjoy some nice, peaceful time off as she read each book and savoured their words. She picked up the first book and read the title. ““Book of the Clow”, huh?” she asked as she opened it up. She stopped for a second when a strange feeling passed through her body, but then shook it off and looked at the first page. Although, there was a problem. There was no first page. “What? What’s this?” She examined the contents of the book, and saw what appeared a card inside a hollowed out section. She levitated it up with her magic, and saw another card beneath it. A deck, maybe? She examined the card that she was holding up, and saw a word at the bottom of it. It was written in old pony tongue, but she was able to translate it fairly easily. “Win…Wind…Windy?” Upon reading the word written on the card, the card lit up and escaped Twilight magical grasp, starling her for a second. Before she could question what was going on, the floor beneath her started to light up, and from out of nowhere, a strange, glowing circle appeared, with her in the centre. A sudden gust of wind shot up, spiralling around the confused librarian, and the next thing she knew, the cards from within the book, as well as many of the books around her, were flying up into the air. A bright light filled the room, and shot up through the ceiling of the library. When Twilight was able to see again, she noticed the book lying on the ground, along with practically every other book in her library. She groaned at the mess, but didn’t have time to do anything more, as the book began to light up. A golden glow shot out of the book, and with it, something started to emerge. Twilight moved back and raised her hooves, ready to defend herself. From out of the book came…Twilight wasn’t sure. It looked like a plush toy she once had when she was a filly, only shaped more…Weird. Was it a bear? Twilight noticed the tail poking out from its behind, and noticed that it resembled a lion’s tail. “Hi-hi-ho!” the strange creature shouted, the glow around it subsiding. Twilight was startled by the creature suddenly speaking, and apparently, the creature took offence to her screaming and retreating back a few steps. “Hey! I know I’m cool looking, but ya don’t have ta be so startled, y’know!?” “Y-Y-Y-Y-Y-You…” Twilight struggled to find her voice, and took a few deep, calming breaths to collect herself. She tried again. “Um…Who, or what are you?” The creature ignored her question, instead just stretching its limbs and wings. Twilight took note of the wings, now even more confused. A lion with wings? Such a thing has never existed, as far as she was aware. “Man, it feels so nice to get out and stretch, y’know?” The creature turned to Twilight, and jumped down from the book. He held it up with some magic, and put on a proud face, placing a leg to his chest as if ready to boast some great feat. “My name’s Keroberos! Nice ta meetcha!” “K-Kero?” Twilight asked, unsure of just what to make of this strange thing. At the very least, it didn’t seem to be an enemy. “Keroberos! I’m a cool guy, and deserve to be called by my cool name!” Kero turned his attention to the book from earlier, once housed the deck of cards that were no more. “I’m the guardian of this here book! Lots of magic in here, so my master, Clow Reed, put me in charge of it, ta make sure none the magic inside escaped!” he explained, his face beaming with pride, before he noticed the lack of cards in the book. His expression suddenly stated to turn into one of worry, and then panic, as he lifted up the book and checked under it, in it, on it, around it, and practically everywhere in the library. “W-What gives!? Where are they!? Where are the Clow Cards!?” Twilight noticed the card from earlier, which had the word “Windy” written on it, and passed it to Kero. “Um…Is this what you’re looking for?” Twilight asked, feeling a little calmer now, thanks partially to seeing this creature running around panic and confused, which brought out the side of her that just wanted to help others with their problems. Kero turned to the card, and his face lit up and her grabbed it and hugged it tightly. “Yes! The Windy card! Oh, thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!” He cleared his throat, and put the card aside, turning his attention back to the purple Unicorn. “Now, where are the others?” “Uh, well, you see…” Twilight explained what had happened earlier, about how she read the word that was written on the card, and then how a sudden gust of wind swept the other cards away, and that now, she had no idea where they were. Kero didn’t take this news very well, practically exploding when she mentioned that she had no idea where the rest of the cards were located. Yuko Ichihara’s head had never hurt so much in all her life. Not even when she hangovers after going out drinking with her old drinking buddies. Her entire focus was on the board in front of her. This was the most important game of her entire life. No. To her, it wasn’t a game. There was too much riding on this. She had to win, no matter what! Otherwise, her entire life would be ruined! “It’s over, Yuko,” said the slim, teenage boy sitting next to her. Yuko ignored her assistant, or she as liked to think of him, her errand boy, and continued trying to think of a way out of this situation. “Just face it. Mokona wins.” Mokona jumped up and down in his seat opposite to Yuko, holding up two fans which bore the symbol of the Japanese flag. “Yay! Mokona wins! Mokona wins!” he started singing, partly to taunt Yuko, partly out of sheer innocence. “There’s no way out of this, Yuko,” Watanuki said, getting up and walking away. “You lost, which means no more drinking for a month.” “Now hang on a minute! I can still reverse this!” Yuko insisted, although she knew it was hopeless. She had two Pawns, a Rook, and her King, whereas Mokona had two Queens, his King, three Pawns, and a Bishop. Not to mention Yuko’s Rook was useless. She couldn’t move it, or it would die. It was only a matter of time before she was placed in Checkmate. She turned to her errand boy and begged for mercy. “Please! You can’t do this to me! No saké for a whole month!? I can’t last that long! This is too cruel, even for you!” Watanuki’s face remained neutral, but inside, he was taking great pleasure in Yuko’s suffering. Finally, after all the horrible things she had put him through, like making him look after Mokona whenever he was sent on an errand, or forcing him to spend time with Doumeki, the biggest jerk on the planet, and many, many other things that he just couldn’t forgive, he had his revenge. “Sorry, Yuko. A deal’s a deal,” he said, trying not to let his enjoyment show in his voice, but failing. Yuko was about to complain further, when a sudden “mekyo!” from Mokona filled the room. Yuko turned to Mokona with a look of surprise, a look she hadn’t worn for many, many years. She wasn’t expecting anybody to be calling her, and her divinations didn’t reveal anything exceptional happening today. To date, the only one who had ever managed to completely go against her divinations, and was always able to surprise her, was Clow Reed. She narrowed her eyes at the wide-eyed Mokona, and followed the light emitting form the jewel embedded into its forehead. “My, now that’s certainly a surprise. So, the old fool is still able to cause trouble, even in death.” She let out a soft chuckle, and then rose to her feet. “Watanuki, I need you to prepare some items for me.” Watanuki sighed and turned towards his tyrant boss, his fears of her punishing him for taking away her alcohol apparently coming true. “And what you like me to get you? Please tell me I don’t have to go to some sort of demon world this time.” Yuko rose her pipe to her lips, and then took it away, breathing out smoke towards Watanuki. Watanuki wafted it away, and looked at her disapprovingly, but by now, he was used to it enough that he didn’t react too much to it. “Don’t worry. You won’t have to travel far.” Watanuki sighed a sigh of relief, but it was short-lived. “You can find everything we’ll be needing in Hong Kong.” “That’s still too far!” Watanuki shouted, flailing his arms about as he usually did whenever someone annoyed him. “And just how am I supposed to get there, huh!? I don’t have a passport, y’know!?” “Don’t worry. I have a backdoor that will take you there.” Yuko pointed to a wall panel, which slided away to reveal a swirling purple portal of some kind. “You can be there in a jiffy. If you survive, I’d like the items on this list.” “IF I SURVIVE!?” Watanuki screamed, fear suddenly appearing on his face. Yuko handed him a list that she had just written out, and started to push him towards the portal, with a demonic grin on her face. “Uh, wait! If this is about the alcohol, maybe we can work something out?” Yuko pushed Watanuki into the portal, his screams of fear fading away slowly as he fell further in, and eventually being silence. Yuko turned to face the chess set that she was using not too long ago, and her grin turned into a disgusted frown. “Clow Reed…Those accursed items of yours…I’ll make sure to take them from you this time.” The sun was starting to set in Equestria, and Twilight a Kero had finally managed to calm down and properly introduce themselves. Kero told Twilight that he was the guardian of the Book of the Clow, and that he was responsible for making sure that nopony could open it. “But then, how could I open it?” Twilight asked, to which Kero responded that she must have extraordinary magical capabilities. “Ok, then why didn’t you step in sooner to stop the cards from being blown away?” Kero was a little more reluctant to answer this one, but eventually, he realised that she wasn’t going to give up without an answer. He turned away from her and answered: “I was sleeping.” Twilight looked at him dumbfounded. “You…Were sleeping?” “D’you have any idea how long I’d been guarding that thing!? Even Guardian Beasts get tired, y’know!?” Kero cleared his throat, and turned back towards Twilight. “Anyway, thanks to you, the Clow Cards have been scattered across all of Equestria.” “Clow Cards?” Twilight asked, looking over at the Windy card on her desk. “Yes. Each card has a living being inside of it. If left on their own, a great disaster will befall this world. Which is why…” Kero motioned with his limb for Twilight to move back, which she reluctantly did. Kero closed his eyes and began focusing, and soon, a magical circle appeared beneath Twilight. “W-What are you doing?” she asked, but received no answer. “Key of the seal. There is a mare wishing to form a contract with you. Her name: Twilight Sparkle.” A small white orb flew out of the front of the book, and floated over towards Twilight, stopping just short of her face. “Oh key, grant her your power: RELEASE!” The orb let out a blinding white light, and when Twilight could see once more, a staff of some kind was floating in front of her. It was a pink staff with a wing pattern on the end of it. The magic circle faded away, and the staff dropped to the ground. “Success! Cardcaptor Twilight is born!”