//------------------------------// // Seishiro // Story: Cardcaptor Twilight // by Yukito //------------------------------// Princess Celestia awoke to a foreboding feeling passing through the air. Looking outside, she could see that it was still night, and as such, it should fall on her sister to handle any trouble that finds its way to Canterlot. However, as much faith as she had in her sister, this feeling was too strong for Celestia to ignore. Walking through the hallways of Canterlot castle, Celestia followed her instinct, and headed towards the throne room, certain that something bad would happen there soon. Luna was currently meeting with some nobles at the Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns to discuss a budget increase for a new laboratory, so the throne room should have been empty. And indeed it was, when Celestia arrived there. Completely empty, save for the one human standing in the centre, turning towards Celestia as she opened the doors and walked inside. “Hello there,” he said. His tone was friendly enough, but Celestia could sense that there was malicious intent buried within. She already had a good idea as to her new visitor was. “I assume that you are the one in charge here? Going by your attire, and your strong levels of magic, at least.” “You would be correct,” Celestia said, walking inside and closing the doors behind her. “My name is Celestia. May I ask yours, and also, what you are doing in the castle’s throne room?” “My apologies,” the stranger said. “I didn’t realise I would wind up here. That’s the thing about travelling through space. It’s difficult to know exactly where you’ll wind up, especially in unfamiliar territory. My name is Seishiro, and I am merely here to hunt for something. Tell me, do you know of the two named Kamui and Subaru?” Celestia narrowed her eyes, and took a few steps closer. “Kamui? Subaru? I can’t say that I’ve ever heard of them before.” “I see,” Seishiro said, reaching into his jacket and pulling out a pair of glasses. He placed them onto his face, and then drew his sword. “So, you’re intent on hiding them. Is that it?” “… What makes you think that?” “Because, you have a face similar to my former pupil’s, when it comes to protecting those you want to protect.” Seishiro pulled a card out from his jacket pocket, and held it up. “Create.” The card glowed for a second, before morphing into a book in Seishiro’s left hand, and opening up. A quill floated into the air above the book, and stayed there in a black glow. “Now, tell me where Kamui and Subaru are.” “Never,” Celestia said, her horn glowing gold. “I’ve heard about you. You’re the vampire hunter chasing them down, aren’t you? Those two are old friends of mine. I’ll never give them to somebody who means them harm.” “… And, I don’t suppose you’d just step aside, and let me find them on my own.” “That’s right.” Seishiro sighed, and used his magic to lower the quill onto the book, writing something down into it. “Very well then. I’ll just have to wait a little longer, before I reach my prize, it seems.” Twilight, Trixie, Rarity, and Keroberos all departed the train together as soon as it finished pulling into Canterlot station. Trixie narrowed her eyes as she looked into the direction of Canterlot castle, along with Kero, whilst Twilight looked on in worry. “There’s a lot of powerful magic over there,” Kero said, with Trixie nodding in agreement. “There is?” Rarity asked. “I can’t sense anything.” “Well, not everypony is born with such talent,” Trixie retorted, grinning proudly as she flicked her mane. Rarity scowled at her, but she ignored it in favour of the magic she was feeling from the castle. “There are two separate sources of magic there, at the very least.” “One’s the Princess,” Twilight said. “The other… traces of a Clow Card, mixed in with something else.” “That’d be our visitor from another world,” Kero said. “He said his name was Seishiro. I got a bad vibe from him. He’s definitely not someone you wanna underestimate, and with the Create card…” “In any case,” Trixie cut in, “We should hurry up and get there, before her runs away again.” Everyone agreed, and Trixie used the Fly card to grow a pair of wings on the tip of her wand. Rarity and Twilight climbed on, and the three took off into the sky, with Kero flying beside them. Suddenly, a familiar feeling rushed through Kero, Twilight, and Trixie, and they stopped moving to look around for the source of it. “What’s wrong?” Rarity asked. “Don’t tell me… it’s yet another thing that you can sense that I can’t?” “Sorry, Rarity,” Twilight said sheepishly. “This feeling is familiar to me… I think it’s a Clow Card…” “At a time like this?” Trixie asked. “Where is it?” A sudden crashing sound, followed by screaming, drew everyone’s attention. They all looked down to where they could hear the sounds coming from, and saw the ground shaking, and lifting up beneath them, along with many ponies running away from the scene. “There!” Kero shouted, pointing a paw. “Gee, thanks,” Trixie said sarcastically. “What card is that, then?” “That’s the Earthy card,” Kero said. “One of the four Elemental cards. Also one of the most powerful, and most aggressive cards in Clow Reed’s deck. This is bad. To encounter such a card at a time like this…” Trixie stared down at the beast rampaging below her. It appeared to be a giant dragon, made of stone. “How do we capture it,” she asked Kero. “It’s aggressive, but easy to subdue, ‘cause it only uses raw strength to cause havoc. I’d recommend cards that are specialised for holding things down, like Windy or Wood.” “Both of which are cards that Sparkle has,” Trixie muttered. She mulled the situation over in her head, and then looked over her shoulder at Twilight. “… Trixie will leave this to you, Sparkle.” “Eh?” Twilight asked, tilting her head in confusion. “You heard Trixie! Trixie has the Time card, which would present the perfect chance to hold Seishiro down whilst she snatches his card away!” “That’s true,” Kero said. “But you’ll need to catch him off guard, first. It’d be best if you both fought him together, but, I guess we can’t leave Earthy alone, either.” “Exactly. Your cards are more suited to this, Twilight. Trixie will go after Seishiro, and you take care of Earthy.” “But-” “For once, she’s actually right,” Kero said, earning a growl from Trixie. “But, in that case, I think you should lend her the Erase card, Twilight.” “Erase?” Twilight asked, before reaching into her bag and pulling out said card. “Erase is Create’s opposite. It may just present the opening you need to use Time, but be warned: Seishiro strike me as the kind of opponent who would only let his guard down once. Don’t’ expect a second chance if ya screw it up.” Trixie nodded, and stared into Twilight’s eyes. The purple Unicorn seemed uncertain. “Don’t worry,” Trixie said. “The Great and Powerful Trixie will be fine.” Twilight hesitated for a bit, but then nodded, and handed the Erase card to Trixie. “… Please don’t do anything reckless, Trixie.” Trixie only nodded in response. She felt her face heating up, and her heart increasing ‘What’s going on? Is it just the heat of the moment? Y-Yeah… that must be it.’ Trixie descended down to the ground, allowing Twilight Rarity to jump off. As she began to ascend once more, she noticed Kero flying beside her. “What are you doing?” “I wanna make sure you get the Create back. It bothers me, letting that guy have something so powerful.” “… Very well then. The Great and Powerful Trixie will allow you to watch her feats of amazing Clow Card retrieval, since you seem to be such a big fan.” Kero gagged at the suggestion. “Whatever. Just don’t screw this up, kid.” Trixie stuck her tongue out at Kero, before picking up her speed and flying faster towards the castle. Once she arrived, she flew into an open window, and landed in a corridor filled with Royal Guard ponies. None of them looked happy to see her. “Who are you?!” one of them shouted. “Are you with the one attacking the Princess?!” “An intruder! Subdue her!” “What a pain,” Kero said, landing on Trixies’ shoulder. “Explaining things might take a while.” “Are you forgetting?” Trixie asked, pulling a Clow Card out from her bag. She tapped her wand to the card, and called out its name: “Sleep.” The card glowed, and a small fairy popped out from the card. The fairy then flew around the room, sprinkling dust on all of the guards present, putting every single one to sleep in just a few moments. “Right. I forgot you had that.” Kero sighed at the memory of Twilight losing that card to Trixie. Trixie doodled incorrect formulae all over the sleeping Rainbow Dash, prompting Twilight to personally correct each and every one. As she did that, Trixie captured the Sleep card, and then woke Rainbow Dash up with her magic, to the sight of Twilight drawing on her body. The rest was not pretty… Truly a sad day for Cardcaptor Twilight. “Let’s go,” Trixie said, using her hoof to make Kero get off of her. “The Great and Powerful Trixie would prefer you not treat her like your throne or something.” “Whatever,” Kero said, flapping his wings to take flight. “It seems the magical energies are battling it out upstairs.” Trixie looked up at the ceiling, and found that Kero was correct. “… Well then, let’s get rid of that. Erase.” “Wait!” Kero was too late; Trixie had already used the Erase card to create a rather neat hole in the ceiling. “Idiot! What if somepony was standing there?” “Then Trixie would have caught them, obviously!” Trixie responded, though she wouldn’t admit that she hadn’t actually considered that. “Anyway, we can’t afford to waste any time here, right?” Trixie’s horn lit up before Kero could answer, and she teleported herself to the upper floor, through the hole. Kero followed after her. “I’ll give you one final chance.” Trixie and Kero were both startled by the sudden, familiar voice, and turned around to see Seishiro approaching a kneeling Celestia, a sword in his right hand, and a book in his left. “Where are the vampire twins, Kamui and Subaru?” “Seishiro!” A new humanoid figure appeared suddenly in front of Seishiro, and stuck its arms out to its sides. “Stop this, right now!” “Subaru!” A third human appeared behind Seishiro, this one crouched down. It suddenly shout up, and thrust its right arm forward, towards Seishiro, who nimbly jumped back and over the newest arrival to dodge the attack. “What are you doing?!” “I won’t allow Princess Celestia to die for us, Kamui!” Subaru said, kneeling down and holding his hand open above once of Celestia’s injuries. A golden glow surround both his hand, and the injury. “Princess Celestia, there was no need for you to do this for us.” “I won’t allow my friends to be hurt,” Celestia said, raising a hoof and placing it over Subaru’s hand. Kamui grunted, and then turned around to face Seishiro. “… Okay, so you’ve caught us now. It seems we can’t leave this world for some reason.” “That would be my doing,” Seishiro bragged, smiling proudly at his prey. “Then, it seems we’ll have to settle this right here and now, vampire hunter!” Kamui’s eyes changed from purple to gold, and he charged forward towards Seishiro. Meanwhile, Twilight was using the Jump card to avoid the various tremors and other earth-based attacks that Earthy was throwing her way. The streets of Canterlot had been evacuated a while ago, save for the Royal Guard ponies that were trying to subdue the rampaging Earthy. Rarity was watching from a safe distance, silently cheering for Twilight as the purple Unicorn desperately sought a way to defeat Earthy. “Windy!” Twilight used the wind created from Windy to cushion the falls of some guards that were sent flying by Earthy’s attack. Once they were safe, Twilight refocused on Earthy. “I need to distract it somehow… Why is it attacking me? Is it attracted to my magic, or is it something else?” Earthy roared, raised a leg high up into the air, before bringing it down towards Twilight. Twilight used her Jump card to once again dodge the attack. “It’s big, but thankfully it’s slow… Slow?” An idea presented itself to Twilight. “That’s it!” Twilight pulled a card out from her bag, and touched her wand to it upon landing. “Dash!” Earthy once again prepared to flatten Twilight, but this time, she was able to use Dash’s speed boosting power to avoid the leg long before it had a chance to start lowering. Twilight ran circles around Earthy, and watched as the behemoth tried to keep up with her, only to eventually grow dazed and confused, and then fall down onto its behind. “Now’s my chance! Hold him down with your tough roots! Wood!” Twilight smacked her wand against the Wood card, and a bright light, followed by several thick branches, came from the card. The branches wrapped themselves around the downed Earthy, prompting it to flail about as it tried to free itself. “Return to the guise you were meant to be in! Clow Card!” Kamui ducked under Seishiro’s sword, and delivered a roundhouse kick to his foe. Seishiro simply jumped up to avoid the kick, and then thrust his sword forward towards Kamui, who quickly jumped a few feet back to avoid it. Meanwhile, Subaru had snuck up on Seishiro from behind, and attempted to catch him off guard with a punch to the back of his head. Seishiro wrote something down in Create, and moments later, a shield appeared between his head and Subaru’s fist, blocking the attack. “He’s a quick thinker,” Kero observed. “But, I think now’s our best chance. Whilst the other two keep him busy, we should come up with some kind of strategy.” “Trixie already has one,” Trixie said. “But…” “What?” “… As much as it pain the Great and Powerful Trixie to admit this…” Trixie turned her head away, and lowered her hat over her eyes. “She needs you… assistance…” Seishiro turned around and slashed at Subaru, who stumbled back to just narrowly avoid the incoming blade. Rather than following through with his attack, Seishiro quickly spun back around to block an attack from Kamui, and then wrote something else down into his book. A sword manifested on the floor, and then shot up, piercing Kamui’s stomach. Kamui let out a pain yelp, and then fell down to his knees. Celestia and Subaru watched in horror as Seishiro used his own sword to administer the killing blow, driving his blade into Kamui’s chest. “KAMUI!” Subaru cried out, gritting his teeth together and charging in a blind rage towards Seishiro. “You shouldn’t lose your composure during battle,” Seishiro said, dodging Subaru’s attacks, and then countering by swing his sword upwards, slashing Subaru’s chest in the process. “Otherwise, you’ll lose.” Seishiro’s sword vanished, and he used his now-free hand to remove his glasses, and wipe off the blood that had sprayed onto them. As he did so, he turned his attention towards Celestia, who was narrowing her eyes as she stared at him. “Well then, it appears as though my business here is at an end. Naturally, I will be taking these two with me, as my prize.” “Those two?” Celestia asked. “You mean those dolls?” “‘Dolls’?” Seishiro looked down at the corpse of Kamui, and gasped as he saw a simple wooden, pony-shaped doll where the body should have been. “But, how?” “An illusion,” a calm voice said. Seishiro looked back over to Celestia, and saw Kamui and Subaru standing beside her. It was Subaru who had spoken, smiling as he held up a card. “More precisely, the Illusion. It shows somebody what their heart desires.” “You desired our deaths, and so that is what you saw,” Kamui added. “The dolls serve as an extra distraction.” As he said that, the wooden dolls exploded into clouds of smoke, completely obscuring Seishiro’s vision. “You’ve fallen for the Great and Powerful Trixie’s trap!” Trixie shouted as she charged into the smoke, towards where she could sense the Create card being used. “So, this is the move you decided to make,” Seishiro said, using Create to manifest a fan to blow the smoke away. “I was wondering what you would do. A valiant effort, but not enough.” Seishiro wrote some more into Create, and moments later, many spears appeared around Trixie, all aiming at her. They began to move immediately. “TRIXIE!” Kero shouted, worried she might not make it in time. “ERASE!” Trixie shouted, smacking her wand against the Erase card. The spears vanished moments before they could reach her, shocking Seishiro, and giving Trixie the opening that she needed to reach him. “Got you now, Seishiro!” “Wrong.” Seishiro jump back before Trixie could reach him, and drew his sword once more. “You seem to forget, Create isn’t my only power.” Seishiro thrust his sword towards Trixie, who was still charging towards him, too quickly to dodge in time. “Shield!” Kero shouted, holding up the Shield card in his paws. A shield of light manifested in front of Trixie, blocking Seishiro’s attack. Whilst Seishiro was caught off guard by this, Kero quickly flew over and reached for the Create in his hand. Seishiro considered dropping his sword and falling back, but realised that Celestia, Kamui, and Subaru were all waiting for just that to happen. With a grin, he instead dropped the Crete, and jumped a few feet back, pinning himself against a wall, but allowing himself to see everyone in the room at once, and keep his guard up. “Gotcha!” Kero said as he grabbed the Create, which turned back to card form a moment later. “I claim this card in the name of Cardcaptor Twilight! Isn’t that lovely?” Trixie harrumphed. “Even though it was Trixie that got it back.” Kero simply stuck his tongue out at the showmare. “This card is way too dangerous to be entrusted to somepony like you!” “You trying to start something, you little plush toy?!” As the two continued to argue and glare daggers at each other, Celestia slowly approached Seishiro, the vampire twins following her, and ready to back her up. Seishiro sighed, and his sword vanished once more as he removed his glasses. “What a shame. But, it seems that I’ll have to retreat this time. Kamui, Subaru, you two are game. And game only exists for the purpose of being hunted. One day, I shall catch the two of you. Be prepared for that day, vampire twins.” Kamui raised his clawed hand, and started to charge forward, but was stopped by Celestia’s extended wing. “Celestia-” “Kamui, as much as I value our friendship, I must insist against any unnecessary blood being spilled in my presence.” Celestia watched as Seishiro’s eye began to glow, and then, in a flash of light, he was gone. “Now then, as for you two-” Celestia began, but stopped when she saw Trixie and Kero already on their way, jumping down the hole they had used to get there. She sighed, but then smiled. “This is so unfair,” Trixie pouted as she walked down the streets of Canterlot, alongside Twilight and Rarity. “You get both Earthy, and Create.” “I already said you could have Create, if it means that much to you,” Twilight argued. “The Great and Powerful Trixie does not need your charity!” Trixie shouted back, earning a groan from Twilight, and a giggle from Rarity. “Well, it seems that everything ended up quite well, right?” Rarity said, looking up at the flying Keroberos. “And, whatever happened to that dashing young man, Seishiro?” “He ran away,” Kero said. “Must’ve realised he stood no chance once he saw my awesome moves.” “Or maybe your face just made him feel sick,” Trixie suggested. “What was that?!” “You heard me, plush toy!” “You guys!” Twilight pleaded, but it was no use. “Twilight? Rarity?” The group stopped and turned around, finding Fluttershy approaching them, a confused look on her face. Trixie’s anger immediately faded, and her face turned red as Fluttershy drew closer. “And Trixie, too? What are you all doing here?” “We could ask you the same thing,” Rarity said. “Oh. I came here to buy some flowers for Angel’s birthday. He only wants the kind they sell at this florist in Canterlot, so…” “Honestly. That rabbit can be such a hassle,” Rarity said. “Anyway, the three of us are here to… uh… do research?” “Research?” Fluttershy asked. “Yes. Uh, Unicorn, research.” Fluttershy stared blankly at the three Unicorn mares. “Uh, Twilight asked us to come and… be her test subjects. You know, because we’re Unicorns.” Fluttershy nodded. “I see,” she said with a smile. “But still, this is a big city. To run into each other like this is quite a happy coincidence.” “There is no such thing as coincidence,” Trixie said, flipping her hat up coolly and approaching Fluttershy. “There is only inevitability. It was inevitable, that you and I would meet here like this.” “Oh… I, I see…” Rarity tried to hold in her laughter, whilst Twilight simply turned away in embarrassment. Kero gagged as he watched Trixie putting the moves on Fluttershy, and turned away so that he wouldn’t have to watch it. “Well then, Miss Fluttershy…” A cloud of smoke appeared at Trixie’s hooves, obscuring everypony’s vision for a few second, before it vanished. “‘Til we meet again, farewell!” Trixie’s voice echoed. Fluttershy blinked a few times, not quite sure what had just happened. Trixie was now gone, and in her hooves, was a bouquet of beautiful flowers. She looked up at Twilight and Rarity, who both looked just as confused as she did. “Um… D-Did I miss something?” “It seems she’s finally making her move,” Rarity said, grinning slyly at Fluttershy, which only served to confuse her even more.