//------------------------------// // 10 - The Chariot Flies // Story: Displaced: Human In Equestria but the Human becomes Twilight Sparkle only more, also Pokemon are there // by SilverStarApple //------------------------------// Rainbow Dash groaned in exasperation at the tangled bundle of limbs on the ground, lowering in the sky to hover above it. “Come on, are you even trying?” “Yes!” The Alicorn insisted. “Then why can’t you fly?” Dash asked. “Hey, I don’t even know how to use the bathroom yet!” Dawn snapped. “You’re on your own there,” She said in disgust. Dawn Skystar groaned, straightening her limbs on the floor, closing her eyes, and slamming her head face-first into the loamy and grassy soil. “This is hopeless,” Her muffled voice quietly whimpered, on the verge of tears. Rainbow Dash felt bad for this loser. “Can’t you just remember how Twilight flies?” She asked hopefully. “I don’t have any memories where she’s flying... Yet.” She grumbled. “Can’t we just wait until I remember how to fly? Come on, then you can teach me some cool tricks!” “I guess we could do that, but... Don’t you want to learn on your own?” Rainbow Dash asked in confusion. She couldn’t imagine asking some Unicorn doctor to just beam a working knowledge of flight into her brain, like some lame Pegasi sometimes had to do, and this seemed like the same thing. “The first time I ever flew felt great.” “How’d it go?” “My dad hopped onto someone’s house, picked me up, and threw me like a basketball.” Dawn’s head whipped up. “That’s horrible!” “Don’t worry, he threw me above some clouds. So if I wasn’t ready to fly yet, I’d be fine. And he jumped off the house before anypony said anything. But the wind rushing past me, and the speed... It wasn’t much, but it was enough to... call to me. And my instincts. I just... spread my wings, without even thinking about it, and suddenly, I was flying, and I knew how to land.” Dawn frowned. “I wish my instincts gave me useful stuff like that,” She muttered. “Huh?” The Pegasus asked. “Nevermind.” Dawn dismissed. “No, for real. What do your instincts say to do?” Rainbow asked. “To try and fly without moving my wings,” Dawn said in that strange manner one did when even the speaker knew nonsense was being said, but the nonsense wasn't worth the effort it would take to lie about. “Weird. Everypony knows you need wings to fly and turn and catch thermals and stuff. But don’t worry, you’ll be as good as Twilight soon enough.” “I want to be better than Twilight.” Dawn muttered. That caught her attention. “You do?” Rainbow asked. “Yeah. I don’t just want to be her less-good knockoff bootleg copy... Faker,” She said, looking down. Then, she realized what she said. “I mean, all ponies with relatives feel this way at some point, right?” She asked with a big and fake smile, hoping the pony would consider her normal. “Makes sense,” Rainbow Dash said, deciding not to mention how she already knew Dawn was some kind of clone. “I don’t want ponies to just look at me and think, ‘Hey, there goes Twilight Sparkle’s less-cool and less-interesting cousin’. I want to be my own mare with my own interesting and positive traits. Like being really good at flying, or magic, or Pokemon battling.” “There’s more to being special than what you’re good at.” Rainbow Dash noted. “Like how you treat other ponies.” “Yeah, but your fanclub loves you because you’re really fast in the air.” Dawn grumbled jealously. “And because I've saved Equestria dozens of times, and they know I’ll always have their back.” Rainbow noted. "It took a lot of hard work to get this fast. A lot of sweat, long nights, and hard exercise. Are you sure you want to go through that, too?" "Definitely. And you'll be there every step of the way... right?" "Yeah." Some tense, slightly ominous music started to play in Dawn’s head, and the world paused. “Thou art I, and I am thou...” What sounded like Chamomile’s serene and detached voice echoed in Dawn’s ears. “Whaaat?” Dawn shouted like an old lady, looking around, hoping to see her hiding behind a tree while shouting into a big coffee cup with a hole in it, connected to another cup near her with a string, or something. That’d be hilarious. But unfortunately, she didn’t see anything, and that lack of humor made this even scarier for her. “Thou hast established a new bond. It shall become the sword and shield that shall stand with you on your day of judgement.” Chamomile’s voice continued to echo. “With the birth of the Chariot Persona, you have obtained the winds of blessing that shall lead to victory and new power.” Dawn’s world was consumed with blank pages flying in from all sides, and time stopped. From the middle, white pages burned black, inky tendrils of flame spreading out before filling with rainbow colour, as a black and ash-white Chariot card formed in the fire’s center. The monochromatic card bore its name, “The Chariot”, the number VII, seven, and an unsubtly wrong image. It was a monochromatic image of a young blank-faced Pegasus foal with underdeveloped wings and a massive sharklike smile gleefully throwing her forehooves in the air as she sat in a cardboard box, the box’s front tied with thin cord to two lifeless tiny toy dogs with black beady eyes that sat on their chests and stared at the viewer, gold medals with red ribbon around their necks. Those medals, those splashes of colour on an otherwise completely-monochromatic image really popped out. A white page with blue lines and black text that slowly wrote itself filled Dawn’s vision. Social Link: Rainbow Dash Arcana: Chariot Rank 1 Progress: You’ve unlocked the Chariot confidant! New Ability: Grace Under Faster – Gain an additional 10% Critical Hit Chance when your Pokemon outspeeds his or her targeted foe. The pages, the flames, the boxes and new information all swept themselves out of her vision as time resumed, leaving her alone and confused in a world that now seemed even more unfamiliar. “The Chariot?” Dawn asked in confusion. “What?” Rainbow Dash asked. “What Chariot?” Oh, right, Rainbow Dash was still here. Rainbow Dash was here, and... She wasn’t sure why, but that thought was starting to fill her with confidence. Her new best friend was right here, for her, and would always have her back. As she thought of her new bond with Rainbow Dash, she felt a strange power in her heart strengthening. She recalled words she didn’t remember hearing Igor speak, and she could almost see that lidless-eyed Vulture in front of her, talking to her. “The Persona ability is the power to control one’s own heart... And the heart is strengthened through bonds. As you form bonds by becoming involved with others, your own Social Links will gradually develop. The power of these Social Links is what will determine your Persona’s abilities. They will also aid you in Pokemon Battles. “Social Links...” Dawn said aloud, looking dramatically at the sky. “Is this bond with Rainbow Dash what Igor was talking about?” “Igor? Like the guy who helped Doctor Build-A-Bear?” Rainbow Dash asked. “No, a different Igor.” Dawn explained, and paused when the latter half of that sentence had fully registered in her mind. “Huh?” “You know, that old book where a pony builds a bear out of stuffed parts and brings it to life using lightning,” She explained. “You really are an egghead,” Dawn smirked. “No I’m not!” Rainbow Dash pouted cutely, and Dawn saw strange smiling rainbow music-note marks fly away from the Pegasus and into her own heart. Was that visible friendship seeping into her? “Twilight just started giving me a bunch of old books to read.” “That’s nice of her.” Dawn said. “Yeah,” Rainbow said, and more visible music notes of friendship flew from Rainbow Dash’s heart to Dawn Skystar’s. “Some are good, but some are really... weird. And long. She really wants me to read them all, so we can talk about them, but...” She leaned in close. ”Don’t tell her this, but I don’t think I could get through all of these on my own.” “I’d love to read them with you,” Dawn offered. “You’d do that for me?” Rainbow asked, surprised. “But what about your Pokemon adventure?” “It’s not much of an adventure if six of the eight Gym Leaders hang around in one town and I can teleport anywhere I want, whenever I want. Fluttershy knows where all the best Pokemon habitats are, and Twilight probably knows a lot about Pokemon-“ “Twilight knows everything there is to know about Pokemon,” Rainbow Dash clarified. “The thing is, if I asked her to help me find books that say where the super-rare best Pokemon ever are, she’d be able to tell me.” “We already know where a ton of the Legendaries are, since we team up to save the world with them every few weeks.” Dawn’s jaw dropped. “Really?” “Yeah! I remember that time Fluttershy rode around on Lugia’s back while Twilight fought Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres at the same time like it was yesterday.” “You guys are so cool.” Dawn said, and visible friendship flew from Rainbow’s heart to Dawn’s as she blushed at the compliment. “So, same time next week?” “Huh?” Rainbow Dash asked. “Next week, and the next week after that, and every week from now on, let’s get together for an hour. We can practice flying, and when we’re done, we can read those old books from Twilight together.” “That sounds awesome!” Rainbow Dash said. “Well, I’d better get going. Those Pokemon in the Everfree aren’t going to catch themselves!” Dawn said happily, teleporting away in a flash of white light.