//------------------------------// // With Zoey and Tide // Story: Roaring Winds and Rising Tides // by vortex123 //------------------------------// The two just looked at each other in silence, not really sure how to kick the fight off. "So…Rock Paper Scissors? Winner gets the first hit?" Zoey asked. "Sure." Tide agreed. After a quick game, Tide won the first hit by doing rock, which she then proceeded to slam into Zoey's face before she could react. The punch was strong enough to send her flying. "BITCH!" Zoey yelled while getting back up and holding her face. She used water body, then shot towards Tide, who gave a cheeky grin. Zoey threw a right hook, but missed. Tide's horn started glowing, and suddenly, Zoey was forced out of her watery state. Tide then punched Zoey's gut, causing her to double over. Then Tide shot her knee up, and hit Zoey square in the face. Zoey fired several water slicers at Tide, who fired stronger water slicers right back at her, easily cutting through Zoey's attacks. Seeing the slicers heading right for her, Zoey tried using water body, but couldn't for some reason. Not having enough time to dodge, she was forced to take the attack head on. "I'll give you a pointer, free of charge! When an attack is heading towards you, you should probably dodge. Trust me, it's much better then taking it to the face." Tide says with a smug grin. Instead of getting angry like Tide expected, Zoey nods her head. "I'll take your word for it. After all, you're probably the most experienced in taking it to the face, you've probably been attacked more times then I can count." Zoey said in a respectful tone, though it was obvious what she meant. "Well considering the type of things you teens look up to the point of obsession, it's no wonder you'd be able to tell that someone has experience in that field." Tide said sagely. "Well at least I haven't went out of my way to practice it." Zoey says with a shrug. "Well yeah, someone has to actually want to do something like that to you, luckily I doubt anyone ever will in this lifetime." Tide says with a smile. "Well it doesn't help my chances with you taking all the ones who feel stressed enough to do it. Can't experience something that another girl is so dead set on hogging to herself, I wouldn't be surprised if I wasn't the only girl who can only watch as you take on anyone who's willing." Zoey says while folding her arms. "Well if it's really that bad, I'd be more then happy to help you experience what you've been missing. You know what, I think I'll just go ahead and show you." Tide says, as her eyes glow with a blinding white light, and a vein mark appeared on the side of her forehead. She then fired a beam just slightly under the line Mike mentioned, which Zoey was barely able to dodge. The beam hits the ground, creating a big smoke cloud. Suddenly a song starts to play. After waiting a few moments, the smoke clears, showing that Zoey wasn't there anymore. Feeling an urge to look up, Tide dodged as multiple arrows made of water flew at her. Looking at the direction they came from, she saw no one there. Hearing a whizzing sound, Tide's arm shot up, and grabbed Zoey's wrist. Zoey had attempted to catch Tide by surprise by distracting her, falling from the ceiling, and punch her with a condensed water covered fist. With a flick of the wrist Tide sent her flying and crashing into the ground. "That would have been smart if not for two things. One: ponies have great hearing, so moving quickly isn't a good idea unless you're faster then the target, or you can do so quietly. Two: Even if those arrows had hit me, they're nowhere near strong or sharp enough to do any meaningful damage." Tide tsked. Zoey then fired a water beam at Tide, who blocked it with a shield spell. Tide then teleports behind Zoey and throws a punch, Zoey quickly turned around and blocked the punch with her forearms, which were covered in condensed water to soften the blow. Tide smiled at that, but said nothing. Zoey then moved the water, that was around her forearms, onto Tide. She then wrapped it around Tide's shoulders, then slid it down to her wrists, then tightened it to the point where she "couldn't" move them. Thinking she had the upper hand, she goes in for a punch. Before she could land a hit, she's kicked in the side of the head, and falls to the ground. Sitting up, she sees Tide with an agitating grin. Tide then preceded to make Zoey stand up via magic, showing Zoey that she could have used magic to get out of the restraints (or could have prevented it in the first place), and was choosing not too. "What? You think I need arms to kick your fat ass? Maybe if you didn't use that water body spell so much, you'd be able to lose weight, then I'd actually need my arms." Tide says with a grin, pissing Zoey off for a moment, before what she said fully clicked. She hasn't been able to use that spell since the first time she used it, and she was kicked out of it right after Tide's horn glowed. How did Tide already have a spell to cancel out the water body spell? Something like that would take at least a month to be developed by someone who had first hand experience in that specific spell. Zoey didn't say anything as she kept fighting, but made sure to keep an eye and ear out for anything else strange. After 2 hours of training (and brutally insulting each other), Tide called for a brake. So now what?" Zoey asked, who now has a swollen eye and nail scratches down her cheeks, along with many other injuries and some hair missing. "First the infirmary, then mental training." Tide answered, who was rubbing her previously strangled neck. Some of her hair was missing as well. And drops of blood dropped from the tips of her nails. Her horn glowed for a moment, then as Zoey felt a shiver, the glow died down. "Come on." Tide says, as they walked to the infirmary. After checking in the infirmary, the two went to a peaceful looking place, with Zoey getting a lollipop (which looked strangely like the Fairy Tail guild emblem) after the visit. The place they went to, reminded Zoey of the Everfree Forest, but much more pleasant. They were surrounded by thick trees, which blocked out the sun. There were glowing fungi littered around the place, which illuminated the place. Bushes and a log filled a lot of the area. The sound of crickets doing that weird cricket sound filled the background. All in all, it felt nice being here. "Nice place ya got here. So, how do we do this?" Zoey asked. "Well normally I'd have you calm your mind, meditate, and have our minds synced in a way that we wouldn't hear the other's thoughts. But since we don't have twelve years for you to get in the right mental state, I'll just painlessly knock you out." Tide answered. "Wha-." Before Zoey could finish, Tide blasted her with a sleep spell, knocking her out instantly. "…Was that really necessary?" Zoey asked as the two appeared in a dojo. The two were now wearing protective gear and holding bamboo swords. "Did it hurt?" Tide asked. "No." Zoey answered. "Then yes." Tide says with a smile. "Anyway. I know from Mike that you're able to summon swords made of water, so you must have some experience with them." Zoey makes a so-so gesture. "Better then nothing. Show me what you know." Tide instructed. Zoey nods and goes through the different techniques Juvia knew, and what Link taught her. After a little bit, she stopped, having gone through them all. "And that's all I know." She says with a shrug. "Well you seem to have sword fighting down pretty well, save for some of it." Tide says. Seeing Zoey's confused look, she elaborated. "Your moves looked robotic, they lacked any flexibility, and they started to look predictable. That's not including seven of those moves, which looked like you've never really practiced them before." She critiqued. "Sounds about right, most of those move were just from memory and muscle memory, and Link only showed me those seven moves recently." Zoey says. Tide nods before tossing Zoey a gem. "Place this on your forehead, and focus on your memory of Link, and what he showed you. It'll record what you saw, and whenever you place it back on your forehead, it'll show you an illusion of him that only you can see. In your spare time, I want you to practice those moves, since I haven't done them, I can't exactly give any pointers for it." Tide instructs. Zoey does so, and after a little while, the gem pings, before falling into Zoey's hands. Pocketing it, she turned to Tide. "Isn't it just imaginary?" She asked. "It'll appear in your pocket in the real world, I don't really understand it, but it works. Now let's get back to training. We'll have a little mock fight, so you can get better equipped with sword fighting. So get ready, because I fully intend to beat your ass until it's as blue as your hair." Tide says with a grin, Zoey returns the grin with her own, though that wouldn't last long. … "Aaaah!" The two screamed as their bamboo swords slammed together. After a few seconds of trying to overpower the other (Tide could easily do so, but didn't since this was a training exercise for Zoey), the two broke apart. They then preceded to circle each other, sizing the other up. "You definitely have a talent for sword fighting, I'll give you that." Tide says with a nod. "Did you really have to hit that same area so many times?" Zoey questioned, flinching as she feels a phantom pain on her rump. "Hey, You're the one who told me to put my bits where my mouth was." Tide says with a shrug, knowing that what Tide said was true, Zoey just grumbled in defeat. She then rushed at Tide with a yell, Tide just got in a defensive stance and waited. … "Ha! How do YOU like it?" Zoey asked as she returned the favor. "I finally got you back!" "That you did." Tide conceded as she nursed her rump with a shrug. … "Hey, I've been curious about something." Zoey says, as she takes another strike. "Your leg is off, you're gonna wanna bring it out a bit more, otherwise it'll be too easy to knock you off balance." Tide points out. Zoey does so. "So what're you curious about?" Tide asked as she thrusts the sword into Zoey's chest, causing her to stagger back. "Do you know anything about Twilight?" Zoey asked as she did a diagonal strike upwards, which Tide dodged, and returned in kind. "Be mindful of how much power you put into each strike, it can give your opponent an opening if you're not careful." Tide points out. "What do you wanna know?" Tide asked, before adding "Keep in mind that there's some things I can’t tell you". “How is she friends with Mike?” Zoey asked. “One’s a bookworm, and the other is your typical isekai blank slate protagonist. They don’t really have much in common, as far as I’m aware anyway.” "I can-you're too tense, loosen up a bit, or your movements will be restricted-anyway, I can see why you think that. When he was younger, due to circumstances beyond his control, he didn't have any friends, so he'd normally spend his free time watching anime and what not. While watching it, he noticed that the protagonists, despite being complete outcasts, had gained many friends. So he tried to emulate what the protagonists did. Join a group that has fighting in it, train, and having a hero type attitude. It worked for the protagonists, so he didn't see why it wouldn't work for him. And the bittersweet part about it is, it actually did, people actually started to like him outside of his guardians (who were the ones that screwed him over in the first place). Having his theory proven right (in his eyes), he buckled down on that persona he made, even to this very day." Tide says, throwing some fake attacks in the mix, tripping Zoey up a bit. Zoey frowned, but not because of being tricked. "And Twilight?" Zoey asked, feeling bad about how she treated him. "She's the princess' prized studen, her brother is the captain of the Royal guard, and she's from a pretty well known Noble house. She has a lot of power (as far as an outsider looking in could tell), and when she became the princess' student, many ponies suddenly wanted to become her bestest friend." Tide says, no longer attacking. Zoey goes wide eyed. "No…" Zoey muttered, no longer attacking. "Yep." Tide muttered with a scowl. "And to make matters worse, given what type of unicorn she was, she was normally ridiculed for her lack of a horn. It didn't help that she was born with more magic then the average unicorn either. Both of those made her a prime target for bullying. So when so many ponies wanted to be her friend, she was ecstatic. She didn't really care about friendship, but it was much better then being bullied. Of course with her being much smarter then many adults, and kids her age not being able to hide things that well, it didn't take her long to realize what was actually happening." "They didn't actually stop bullying her, they just changed tactics, right?" Zoey asked. "Yep. They'd pull mean spirited pranks on her behind her back, then comfort her when she was frustrated by it, saying that they'll get whoever keeps pranking her. It kept going on like that until Twilight grew suspicious, and managed to trick them into confessing. One thing led to another, and Twilight snapped at them. They then decided to try a more aggressive approach to get what they wanted, unfortunately for them, they forgot three things. One, Twilight's type of unicorn are naturally three times as powerful as a normal unicorn. Two, Twilight's special talent was magic itself. And three, Twilight was as smart as some adults, so she had a lot of know how to pull from. The one sided beating she gave them deterred anyone else from trying her. It was at that time that Mike's guardians decided to introduce him to Twilight, with Celestia's help of course. Twilight, of course, was suspicious from the get go." Tide continued. "Not surprised, given how many fake friends she's had." Zoey says. "Bingo. After a long enough time past without Mike pulling any tricks, Twilight decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. Mike thought she was just being a tsundere, what with how often she'd call him a dummy, so he just rolled with it. It went on like this until one day, the two felt comfortable enough to take off their masks. With Twilight accepting him for who he actually was, and Mike proven to be a real friend, the two formed a strong bond. Twilight even managed to give Mike the courage to show his other friends the real him, though (outside of Rainbow Dash) he didn't show them much. Of course, they've had fights. A particular one had to due with the unfortunate circumstances surrounding Mike. Twilight had called off their friendship, which I don't blame her for, considering what happened to her when she got in the crossfire. Of course, she'd come to regret it. Life without him gave her a hollow feeling, she was so down, she didn't even feel like reading, practicing magic or even reporting to Celestia when Celestia sent her a message to come to her for an important situation. Mike meanwhile, was having a complete emotional meltdown, Twilight was the first person to hangout with the real him, who didn't feel obligated to. For her to be taken away by the very same thing that gave him grief in the past, it was too much for him to handle. Twilight, thankfully, came back to him, and rekindled their friendship." Tide says with a smile. "So they're each other's rock." Zoey simplified. Tide nods. They got back into fighting stances, but Zoey was more focused on Mike and Twilight. Which caused her to not notice Tide swinging her bamboo sword, or where she was aiming... *SMACK* “Nantekotta!” Zoey screamed in both surprise, and pain. “You’ve made your point! Would you please stop hitting me there!?” She yelled in rage. “Alright, alright. I’ve had my fun, I’ll stop.” Tide says, holding her hands up. And true to her word, she stopped hitting Zoey there, even when they took the fight into the real world. Of course, neither Zoey, nor Tide, said anything about the face. Though that in on itself lead to a shocking development in Zoey’s control over her powers, one that allowed her to get much desired payback, in full.