//------------------------------// // Final Fantasy IX Part 2 // Story: Equestria Girls Final Fantasy Adventures // by GuardianDemonsWriter //------------------------------// This was turning out to be a weird day. First, Flash fell into some painting thanks to Pinkie, and now he was standing in front of Zidane Tribal. Who, last he checked, was a character in a video game, not a real person. Then again, there was an entire world filled with ponies that he had visited. Not for very long sure, and it was a long day for him and everyone else, but he got to at least see it. So being in a world where video game characters came to life wouldn’t be that impossible. “Uh, Flash are you all right?” Zidane asked, breaking Flash out of his thoughts. “Huh?” Flash sputtered. “Oh, um…yes! I’m fine!” “Well then stop standing there! We have to go meet up with the others,” Zidane said, leading Flash to a side room. When they entered it, it was pitch dark inside. Zidane lit a match and went over to a candle. Once he did so, three others entered the room from the side. “Ah, Zidane! Flash! You have arrived!” said the first person, who was an average looking human. Flash figured that this must be Blank. “The meeting will start soon, are you two ready?” the second person asked. His face was partly obscured by a red bandana, but judging from the pointy ears and teeth, Flash figured that this must be Marcus. That left the last person, who must have been Cinna. Before Zidane or Flash could respond, there was a crash behind them. Someone wearing a monster mask burst out from behind them with a “raaaaagh” battle cry.  After defeating the Masked Man, who turned out to be the leader, Baku, he got up while rubbing his head. “Ugh, be more careful guys,” he moaned before leading them all to the side room. Once there, he spoke up. “All right, listen up! We, the traveling thieves, Tantalus will be arriving in Alexandria shortly. There we will put on the play ‘I Want To Be Your Canary’. Marcus will be the main star,”. “Naturally,” said Marcus, “I am an excellent actor. Course, the real kidnappers will be Zidane, Blank and Flash,”. “I’ll distract the audience with these little buggers,” said Blank, holding up a strange little creature. “I can’t stand oglops. But I’ll manage. Flash and Zidane, that will be your cue,”.  “Okay!” Zidane nodded, “that is when I kidnap Garnet, and Flash kidnaps Twilight right?”. “You bet!” said Baku, “you two are gonna kidnap the two princesses,”. “Um, am I going to act in the play?” Flash asked. “Sorry, but you will meet up with Blank and Zidane. Stay in the wing, and meet up with them after  they duel,” Baku responded. Finally the airship arrived at Alexandria. The ship moves into place near Alexandria castle. As citizens begin to gather to see the play, a young boy watches. Meanwhile Queen Brahne is watching with excitement. Not noticing that her daughter is looking solemn. The other girl that was sitting on her other side had a confused look on her face, but kept quiet. As the play begins, Baku walks onto the stage. “Ladies and gentlemen. Tonight’s performance is a story that takes place long, long ago. Our heroine, Princess Cornelia is torn from her lover Marcus. She attempts to flee the castle, only to be captured by her father, King Leo. When our story begins, Marcus, having heard this, crosses swords with the King. And now Your Royal Majesty, Queen Brahne, Your Highnesses, Princess Garnet and Princess Twilight…noble ladies and lords, and our rooftop viewers, Tantalus proudly presents ‘I Want to Be Your Canary’!” Meanwhile, backstage, Cinna, Zidane, and Blank are rehearsing their lines. “Bereft of father! Bereft of mother! Marcus, thou hast lost even thy love!” said Blank “Fortune hath escap’d thee! For what end shalt thou live?” said Cinna. “For the sake of our friend…let us bury our steel in the heart of the wretched King Leo!” said Zidane. “Aye!” said Cinna and Blank. The three of them run forward onto stage, where Marcus is facing King Leo, who is flanked by two soldiers. “We shall protect thee, Kinsman!” said Blank. “Pray, shethe thy swords! This villain is mine alone!” said Marcus. “Nay Kinsman! For I too have lost a brother to this fiend!” said Cinna. “What ho? Out, vermin! Away! Thou darest bare the sword before the King!? All who stand in my way shall be crush’d!” said King Leo. “Treacherous Leo, my Kinsman’s suffering shall not be in vain! For I shall instruct thee in his incomparable pain!” said Zidane. The battle commences as Zidane, Marcus, Cinna, and Blank battle Leo and his two guards. Once his guards are defeated, and he has taken enough damage himself, Leo runs off. “Arr…Grrr…Thou hast not seen the last of me, Marcus!” said Leo.  “Come back!” said Zidane as he tries to follow him, but he is blocked by Blank. “Outta my way Blank!” Zidane says. “Consider this Zidane,” Blank replies, “If Prince Scneider where to marry Princess Cornelia, peace would reign over the kingdoms!”. “Tis foolishness! If all were so easy, why, none would suffer in this world!” Zidane responds.  The two have a short sword fight, exchanging “ahas!” and “mphs!” “En guarde!” says Blank. “Expect no quarter from me!” replies Zidane. The two exchange in the sword fight again. Zidane’s efforts only managed to impress 40 nobles. Queen Brahne was not impressed. “Come back here!” Zidane states as Blank runs away. “We shall finish this later!” said Blank. The two run into Flash, who had managed to sneak into the castle. After knocking out some Pluto Knights, they put on their armor to disguise themselves. “Okay, now all we have to do is sneak this sleeping medicine into Garnet and Twilight’s tea,” said Blank, “I’ll take care of the Queen. I got a little surprise for her heh heh,”.  The group run up the stairs, with Zidane almost running into a figure wearing a white cloak with red stripes, and Flash almost running into a figure wearing a red cloak with white stripes. “Excuse us please,” said the white cloaked figure. Zidane takes a moment to examine her face. “Is there something on my face?” the white figue asked. “I’m just wondering if you are the one,” said Zidane flirtatiously.  Meanwhile, Flash was examining the red-cloaked person. “Hold on,” he said as he got a closer look. He’d recognize those violet eyes anywhere, “T-twilight?!” he said in a shocked tone. “Flash?!” Twilight said in response. “What are you doing here!?” they asked at the same time. “I’m escaping…no, wait, I came here to rescue you!” said Twilight in a whisper. “And I think I am supposed to kidnap you or something,” Flash responded awkwardly. Before Twilight could respond, Garnet rushes past them, grabbing her hand. “Come on Twilight, we have to go!” she says, dragging her away. “Who were those two?” asked Blank. “Those were the princesses!” Zidane responded. As both he and Flash ran after them. Meanwhile, two jesters run up to the Queen. They are blocked by a man clad in armor. “We must see the Queen!” the first jester says. “See the Queen we must!” the other jester says at the same time. “The Queen is busy right now,” Steiner responds, “come back later,”. However, a woman with an eye patch over one of her eyes speaks up. “Is it an emergency?” she asks the two jesters. The two jesters nod. “An emergency it is,” the first one, Thorn, says. “The princesses are missing!” the other one, Zorn, says. “Very well, I’ll see what I can do,” the woman, Beatrix, responds. She goes up to Queen Brahne while Steiner fumes behind them. “Your majesty, it seems that the princesses have gone missing. And Garnet has made off with the Royal Pendant,”. This gets Brahne’s attention. “Why of all the nerve!” she says. “General Beatrix and…” she states, forgetting Steiner’s name. “Captain Steiner of the Pluto Knights, your majesty,” responds Steiner. “Yes, yes. Go find Garnet and Twilight at once!” Brahne orders. “Yes your majesty” Steiner and Beatrix say at the same time. Steiner searches the castle for Garnet and Twilight, finding several of his Pluto Knights goofing off or doing other things other than guarding during the search. It’s very embarrassing that all of his knights are a bunch of idiots, while the main Alexandrian army is an all female battalion. That Beatrix had to one-up him in everything! While searching, he climbs one of the tall towers of the castle, getting pretty winded on the way up. “I-I should work out more,” he grumbles as he makes his way to the top. Once he gets up there, he sees Garnet and Twilight running away from Zidane and Flash. “P-princesses! D-don’t worry! I’ll protect you from those brigands!” Steiner yelled from the tower. Meanwhile, on the tower, both princesses climb up to the ledge. “Uh, are you sure about this?” Twilight asks a bit nervously as Garnet hands her a cord to hold onto, while grabbing one of her own. Both of them swing on the cord to the airship as Flash, Zidane, and Steiner (from his tower) watch on.  “Come on, let’s follow them!” Zidane says as he and Flash each grab a cord and swing down to where Twilight and Garnet landed. Steiner tried the same, but ended up crashing into one of the airship’s pillars. Zidane and Flash land in an area where the band is playing. “Where did they go?” Zidane asked. As if to answer his question, Garnet and Twilight run around knocking over several band members (Twilight apologizing as she does so). Zidane and Flash run after them as the two princesses run into a blue-haired girl, Ruby. “Woah there! Where are you two off ta’?” she asked.  “Pardon us, we are in a hurry,” said Garnet as she drags Twilight off. “Sorry about that!” she called off as she was dragged away. ‘Well, at least she apologized,’ Ruby thought as Zidane and Flash ran into the room. “Hey Ruby, those were the princesses, okay bye!” Zidane yelled as he and Flash ran by her. “Zidane! Didn’t ya see the way th’ white-robbed girl hit me?!” Ruby called out after him. Zidane did not hear her though. Finally, Garnet and Twilight stop in the room that Flash and Zidane were in earlier. Zidane and Flash run inside the room, both looking winded. “Okay…phew…it looks like…you two…have finally…made up your minds,” said Zidane. “Do you two own this ship?” Garnet asked Zidane and Flash. Zidane flustered a bit while thinking ‘aw she figured it out huh?’. “Well, you see, the truth is, I am Princess Garnet, and this is my…sister, Twilight,” ‘Sister!?’ Flash thought, ‘Twilight is not your sister! Though I suppose our presence here is forcing this world to correct things. Maybe that is why Zidane referred to me by my name even though he should not know me,’.  “I am heir to the throne of Alexandria,” Garnet continued as Flash was lost in his thoughts. “And I wish that my sister and I be kidnapped right away!” she says as she grabs Zidane’s hands. “Huh?!” Twilight said, clearly confused about the entire thing. “Flash, do you know what is going on here?!” “Wait, how do you two know each other?” Zidane asked. Before either of them could answer, there was a knock on the nearby door. Someone on the other end shouts “Princess!”.  “Hurry!” Garnet tells Zidane. “They’ve come for me!” “Well, then follow me. I’ll do my best to kidnap you,” Zidane responds. He leads Garnet, Flash, and Twilight out of the room before Steiner crashes through. “Princesses?! Where are you?!! What has happened to the two of you!?” He states as he looks around. Meanwhile, the group runs into Cinna, who shows them an escape hatch. But Steiner and a Pluto Knight catch up with them. “Don’t worry princesses, you two will be safe with us!” the Knight says. “Just relax and we’ll get the two of you out of here!”. “Hold on a minute!” said Stiener, who was beginning to suspect the Knight. “I’m the Princesses’s protector!” “Sorry, but the Princesses…” said Zidane “Are coming,” said Cinna. ‘Well, I guess I’m doing this,’ thought Flash as he and the Knight both say “with us!” A battle commences where Flash, Zidane, Cinna, and the Knight all battle Steiner. Flash was not sure what he could really do, but he tried to help and managed to get a small hit on Steiner. The battle ended when Steiner hit the Knight, revealing him to be Blank. However, the strike also released all of the Oglips that Blank was hiding under the armor. “Gah!! Oglips!!” said Steiner as he flailed around. The Oglips spooked Blank and Cinna too, as they also flailed around. While Steiner was distracted, Zidane, Garnet, Twilight and Flash ran into another room. Meanwhile, the play was still going on. “Tonight, I shall finally see my daughter Cornellia betroth’d to Prince Schnider! And then Prince Schnider and his kingdom shall be mine!” King Leo said as he gave out an evil laugh. Two guards walk onstage with Marcus in hand. “Your majesty!” said one of them.  “We have caught an intruder!” said the other guard. “Why my poor Marcus!” said Leo, “Hark lad. No matter how much thou dost treasure Cornelia…no matter how deeply she might believe she doth love thee…never shall I see her marry a peasant such as thee!”. A bell rings once. “When the bell strikes three, under the axe thou shall be!” The bell strikes a second time.  Meanwhile, Zidane and the others ran into a dead end. “What do we do now?” Garnet asked Zidane, “we can’t go any further from here!” Zidane thought for a minute. Cinna then runs into the room. “Zidane! Get on number 2! Flash, you get on number 3,” he says. Flash and Zidane oblige with the two princesses getting on the same platforms. Before they could say anything else, Steiner runs into the room, yelling “Stop!”. He runs into Cinna, and then stops on another platform. All three platforms begin to rise. Meanwhile on stage the bell rang for a third time and Leo was still talking. “Furthermore!” he began as the three platforms begin to rise. Leo pauses, unsure on what to do. “Guys, just improvise!” whispered Zidane. Steiner was confused about the entire thing. “What’s all this about?” he asks.  Suddenly, Marcus breaks free and runs up to Garnet. “Cornelia!” he proclaims, confusing Garnet. “Um…” she stammers. “Cornelia is Marcus’s lover, just play along!” Zidane whispers to her. Garnet nods. “Oh Marcus! I have missed you so!” she says as she goes up and hugs Marcus. “I wish to never leave thy side. Prithee, lead me from this place!” “Hey, you are pretty good,” whispered Zidane. “Thanks, I’ve studied drama, and this is my favourite play, so I know it by heart!” she whispers back. “Hey, Queen Brahne is still watching, so let’s get on with it,” whispers Baku. “See King Leo? Thou shouldst give them thy blessing,” said Zidane. “Never!” yells King Leo. “Never leave his side, thou sayest? Foolish banter! I’ll not allow it! Cornelia shall marry none other than this man-Prince Schnider!”. Gestures to Flash who has a confused look on his face. ‘Wait what?!’ Flash thinks. He decides to roll with it, as he too had some acting experience. “M-marry the Princess?! M-me?!”. he asks. “Aye! And this traitorous crew, I will put to death!”. Zidane and Marcus attack the two guards who run away screaming. King Leo approaches Garnet. “Pray sweet daughter, come home to the castle with me,”. “Nay father! I shan’t return!” Garnet declares.  “Cornelia, trouble me no more. This wedding is for our own welfare. Be mindful of that,” Leo responds. “Not if I can help it!” yells Marcus as he rushes forward. “Now is my moment of vengeance! For my parents, and for my love Cornelia!” He draws his sword. “I shall cut thee down!”. He goes to stab Leo, but Garnet throws herself in front of the sword, getting stabbed instead. “No…Cornelia!!” he yells out. “Mar…cus, forgive me. I still love my father…” Garnet says weakly. “Cornelia!” states King Leo. “Princess!” states Steiner, thinking that she was really dead. “Prithee, forgive my selfishness, Father, and spare my sweet Marcus,” says Garnet. “What have I done?! Am I never to hear her loving voice again?! Am I cursed to never again feel her soft touch!?” O, cruel fate! Thou hast robbed me of all I treasure!”. He then stabs himself causing Zidane to cry “Marcus!”. Meanwhile, Queen Brahne is watching with great interest. “This is the most amazing play ever ha ha!” she states. ‘Now where did Garnet and Twilight go?’ she wonders to herself.  Meanwhile on stage, Leo is crying over his daughter. “Forgive me!” he stammers, right before he is interrupted by a kid wearing blue robes and a steepled hat running away from two Pluto Knights. “S-stay back!” he stammers. He then casts a fire spell which causes Garnet’s cloak to catch fire.  “Yowch!” she cries as she takes it off, ultimately revealing herself. Realizing that Garnet just revealed herself, Baku quickly took action, “Zidane, it’s time!” he tells Zidane. Zidane nods. “Princess Garnet, let's get out of here!” he tells her. “Now hold on!” Steiner protested. “Princess, I can’t let you or your sister go with these thieves!” “Steiner, your service is no longer required. Don’t follow me anymore,” Garnet replied. Steiner paused. “Princess, I’m afraid I can’t comply,” he says. “Seize them!” he orders the other two knights. After a quick battle where Zidane, Garnet, Flash, and Vivi battle Steiner and the other two knights (who quickly run away when they realize  that they are fighting a losing battle), Baku has Cinna start up the airship so that they could escape. However, Queen Brahne notices the airship leaving and orders harpoons to fire at it. She then orders a cannon that was above her to shoot something at the ship, a bomb! The bomb lands right behind Steiner, who is too busy fighting Zidane, Flash, Vivi, Garnet, and now Twilight to notice. “Steiner! Turn around! There is a bomb behind you!” Garnet calls out to him. “Yeah Rusty! Turn around!” Zidane yells. “Hah! I’m not falling for that trick!” says Steiner. “Turn around you dum dum!” Flash yelled at him. While they were trying to get Steiner to listen to them, the bomb explodes right as Steiner turns around. “Wait what?!” he says. The explosion frees the ship from the chains as it goes off flying in the distance. Brahne shakes her fist in rage. “Blast it!” she cries. “Zorn! Thorn!” she calls out. The two jesters come out from behind. “Is the experiment ready?” she asks. The two nod and say that it is ready. “Good, send it after them!” she orders, “I need the Princesses alive! Garnet especially!”.