//------------------------------// // Spell 33 - Needlework // Story: Friendship is SHOWTIME!! // by MangaKamen //------------------------------// Spell 33 Needlework TTT – TTT Within the last few months, Ponyville had seen some very strange things going on in its humble, grassy streets. An ancient evil bent on world conquering, monsters of ancient folklore fighting in the street, odd yet colorful trains passing by, the rumor that there was a disembodied hand floating around stealing bits, whatever chaos was wrought by the newly established Cutie Mark Crusaders, and even the occasional drunk escapades by one Berry Punch were some of the strange occurrences. But today’s strange occurrence… DING! DING! BAM! DING! DING! BAM! BAM! Everypony turned to see the small group of three walking down the street – two dragons and a griffon. The smallest of the group, Spike had a ton of fliers wrapped in his tail while he rang a musical triangle with his claws that he tinged a number of times in rhythm with the light drum beat. Said drum was strapped to the chest of the black and red armored dragon to Spike’s right – Wizard sighed every time he brought the stick down on the drum. And his tail also had many fliers caught in its coil. The last figure who walked on Spike’s left was Beast – a large sign being held up by his armored tail that read ‘Fashion Show This Friday at Nightfall – Carousel Boutique’ in bright bold letters on the sign. Of course, when one would see two colorfully dressed characters walking down the street, it was going to draw some heads towards the trio. Mostly little fillies and colts dragging their parents to see the colorful characters in the middle of the street, but the trio also attracted a number of older ponies. “Come one, come all!” Spike cheered out as he handed out the fliers to everypony who came close. “Come to Carousel Boutique this Friday for the fashion show!” Wizard sighed under his breath, ‘How the Tartarus did I get roped into this?’ TTT – Three Hours Earlier… - TTT “So, wait, Rarity, you’re gonna have to explain this to me again.” It hadn’t been long since Twilight had asked Haru and Spike to go help Rarity with a little issue she was having at Carousel Boutique. The issue in question was a large gaping hole in the ceiling in Rarity’s workshop, with a large amount of debris strew about the classy unicorn’s usually pristine floor. “How’d the roof get busted?” Haru questioned, his claws at his waist as he looked at the gaping hole overhead. “Rainbow Dash,” Rarity replied with her horn aglow, levitating a pencil to a sketchbook. “Ah, I get ya,” Haru stated before he lifted his claws up to his mouth. “What do you think, Mayonnaise? How’s the damage out there?!” A familiar griffon popped his head into view, Kosuke’s brow had narrowed down at the two dragons in view, “Ya know, that’s stopped getting a rise out of me – To answer your question, it’s not too bad out here, should be able to fix this damage soon.” For those wondering, while Spike and Haru were on the way to the boutique, they had come across the griffon’s latest camping ground: underneath one of the bridges of Ponyville. It was odd to see jackets hung up on strings, bottles of mayonnaise lined up on the bridge, and a ton of odd artifacts strewn about the nearby shore. They had to cross the bridge, and, unfortunately, Kosuke started following the two dragons to the boutique and had offered his services as well. And so, the small group was formed. “I greatly appreciate your help,” Rarity replied, not bothering to look up from her sketch book. “I’d do it myself, but I have to get these dresses done before Friday.” “It’s a pleasure!” Spike announced with a salute to the fashion loving mare. “Right, you got a big order or something?” Haru questioned as he leaned over Rarity’s shoulder to look at the sketchbook. “In a sense,” Rarity replied with a smile. “You see, I’m making gowns for not only myself but for Twilight and the others. I hope that they’ll wear them for the Gala, but before that, we’re putting on a fashion show!” “The Gala?” Haru questioned as he rubbed his chin. It then clicked inside his head. “Oh! You’re talking about the Grand Galloping Gala, right?” “Indeed!” Rarity sighed with a sly look in her eyes. “One of the, if not THE, premiere celebration of Canterlot! Oh, Mister Souma, it’ll be a perfect party… Where I’ll meet ‘him’.” “Him?” Haru questioned, picturing a red being with an odd design aesthetic with claws. “Mister Perfect,” Rarity sighed longingly. “So that’s why everything needs to be perfect! Perfect atmosphere, perfect gown and of course…” Haru didn’t really listen to the last of that sentence, he was trying to stifle the snickering he had watching the annoyed look on Spike’s face. “Oh, where are my manners,” Rarity spoke up again. “I’m sorry Mister Souma, I didn’t realize that you…” It was then that Haru pulled out a pair of golden tickets up, “I guess I’m going too.” “Oh, you’ve got tickets too?!” Rarity gasped, Haru couldn’t tell if it was surprise or some other emotion in her voice. Since Rarity was a kind mare, he had to guess it was more surprise than anything. “Hmm, tell me Mister Souma, are you planning on inviting anyone?” “Well, I was just going to give the tickets to somepony,” Haru replied with a shrug. “Parties like that aren’t really my style, but Twilight told me that pretty much my only seven friends in town already have tickets. And after she told me about how insane everyone gets when they learn that someone has a spare ticket…” Rarity chuckled rather sheepishly. With a slight cough, the fashionable mare turned towards the dragon. “Then why not join us for the Gala, Mister Souma? If you have a ticket, then you’d be able to join us, it’d be fun.” “I may not like the setting,” Haru sighed with a smile. “But, it’s not like I’ll have anything to do with everyone else going that evening, so why not, I’ll go. What about my spare ticket though?” “I’ll take it off your claws!” Kosuke announce before he slipped in through the hole in the roof and landed right between Haru and Rarity. With the larger dragon surprised, Kosuke’s tail whipped up and snatched the ticket from the dragon. “Ya know, I can be the perfect date!” “Wait, what?” Haru questioned with a flat look on his face. “Date?!” Spike laughed out loud, holding his sides, “I think you two look like the perfect couple!” Even Rarity had to stifle a small snicker. That just made Haru leer at the odd griffon with a familiar ring slipped over his claws, “… If we weren’t indoors, I’d smash you with my Big Ring.” “Joking! Joking!” Kosuke chuckled nervously with his talons lifted up, the ticket between two of his talons. “But I really do wanna go. The Grand Galloping Gala allows its guests to go through Canterlot Castle’s archives! Do you know how many ancient documents, artefacts, and little hors d’oeurves are going to be there?! It’s an archaeologist’s buffet! A chance of a lifetime for a griffon!” “I can understand your excitement, Mister Nitoh,” Rarity mused. “But aren’t you over exaggerating a bit? From what Twilight tells me, you’re actually a well-respected archeologist, so why would it be a ‘chance of a lifetime’? Couldn’t you get a ticket for the gala whenever you’d like?” Kosuke lowered his shoulders slightly and turned his gaze away from everyone’s, “… Even after all the work I did, all the discoveries of the past, and the danger I put myself in, it means nothing to the highbrow of Canterlot. I’ll still just be a griffon in their eyes…” There was a moment of silence in the boutique, and Haru was about to lift his claw up to his griffon friend… At least until Kosuke snapped his head back with the goofiest grin plastered on his face, “JUST KIDDING! Hehehehehe! I’m usually moving about too much to have a ticket delivered to me!” ‘… For a moment, I thought there was something more to that…’ Haru thought to himself. After a quick sigh, Haru chuckled. “Well, go ahead and take the ticket – Not like I can multiply myself to use it.” “AWESOME!” Kosuke cheered out before he jumped into the air, kissing the ticket he now held onto in his talons. “I promise next time there’s a Phantom attack, you can have first pickings, dragon!” “I don’t eat Phantoms!” Haru spat out with narrowed eyes. “Hmm,” Rarity mused with a sly smile curling on her face. “Tell me, since I know Spike is going to the Gala, and now you two are, what are you three going to wear?” “I got an old suit that Twilight gave me,” Spike answered. “I was just going to use my Dress Up ring,” Haru chimed in. “And I was planning on washing this old thing,” Kosuke commented as he rubbed his hoodie’s sleeve between his talons. Rarity’s jaw had dropped when she heard the answers, but she quickly regained her composure, “No, no, just no. This kind of event requires that you all look your best, and it can’t be some sort of magic trick, Mister Souma. After all, this is the premiere of Canterlot, you all need to look your best! “Therefore, I shall make you three your own outfits as well!” There was a moment of silence in the boutique, both Haru and Kosuke looked to each other, however, Spike spoke up. “I will gladly accept your charity, Rarity! But… Uh, don’t you already have enough work to do already?” “Perish the thought, Spikey-Wikey,” Rarity assured as she patted the small dragon atop his head a few times. “A few all-nighters won’t hurt me at all. Besides, this is an opportunity, I’ve been curious about griffon fashion, and this is a good chance to experiment, I have never designed clothing for anyone but ponies, and occasionally cats, so this’ll be a great experience.” “Still,” Haru muttered out as he rubbed the back of his head. “I don’t feel right about just taking something for free – Just not in my nature.” “Well, you are fixing my roof,” Rarity suggested as she looked up at the gaping hole overhead. “Yeah, but I was going to do that anyway,” Haru pointed out. “Hey! I got an idea!” Spike spoke up with his claw held up into the air. TTT – Back To the Present – TTT ‘Right, I think I need to get my memory fixed sometime,’ Wizard thought as he banged on the drum in front of his chest. His visor covered gaze turned towards Beast. “By the way, isn’t it dangerous for you to be transformed like that? I doubt you’re gonna get any mana from handing out fliers.” “You make it sound like every time I transform, I’m gonna die after I undo the transformation,” Beast chuckled with a wag of his finger. “Not so, definitely not so! So long as I don’t use any of my mantle rings, I’ll be good to go for just a simple transformation.” “Sure, whatever,” Wizard sighed out loud as he watched Spike run up to a few ponies and hand out the fliers. “Still, I’m not sure if I really like doing this – I shouldn’t transform for something like this…” “Oh just enjoy yourself, Dragon,” Beast suggested, waving towards a small filly who had come up to him. “Come to the fashion show, yahoo!” “I get the idea,” Wizard muttered out loud. “But that doesn’t change the fact that these powers shouldn’t be used for something like this…” “Excuse me.” Wizard turned his head to the side to see a trio of stallions standing next to him, the one who had spoken up was a black unicorn stallion with a combed back purple mane with a fancy purple vest around his torso. The other two stallions were a large silver earth pony stallion with a black mane that covered one of his eyes and a small dark blue pegasus with a white cravat around his neck, who was asleep on the earth stallion’s back. The black stallion lifted his hoof up, “May I have one of those fliers?” “Oh, sure,” Wizard replied as he lifted his tail to the stallion. “Thank you,” the stallion replied as he used his magic to levitate one of the fliers away from Wizard’s tail. “By the way, interesting attire, must be a hit with the colts and fillies.” Wizard sighed before he slowly walked away from the group of ponies, Beast following. When the two mages had gone on ahead, the black stallion turned to his compatriots, “It would appear that Madam Medusa was successful in preparing this test.” The silver stallion smirked at the black pony, with the pegasus waving a hoof in front of his mouth as he stirred awake, “Guten Morgan*, Cyclops, Bari. Are we done faulenzen*?” The gray stallion nodded silently. However, the one eyed stallion narrowed his brow at the pegasus on his back, “Cyclopsis.” “Was auch immer*,” the pegasus spat back before he leapt off of his companion. “Herr* Bari, is this truly the time for our prüfung* into greatness?” Bari sighed loudly as he folded the flier and stuffed it into his vest pocket, “If you’re going to refer to me by a false name, Barikon is my proper false name.” “Zu steif, zu steif,” the pegasus huffed as he lifted his head up. “I grow tired of waiting, we should just send our target into despair and get it over with. Barikon sighed once again, “It matters not, our plans won’t fully begin until we meet with Lady Medusa. And that won’t be for a few more days, Beelzebub. Until then, we shall continue our training.” Beelzebub snorted loudly and turned away from Barikon. “Herr Bari, you make it sound as though we are schwach!* Nothing has been able to stop Cyclopsis nor myself alone, and zusammen*, we could defeat anyone!” “Would you rather be defeated by that?” Barikon commented as he gestured towards Wizard, who was now futher down the street talking to a gray pegasus mare with a blond mane and tail. “A number of Phantoms have fallen to that dragon’s claws, do you wish for the same fate as all of them?” A loud sigh escaped from Beelzebub’s mouth, “Fein, fein*! But can we at least get us something to eat? I grow weary of eating grass, berries and the five alarm chili that Cyclopsis keeps making us - Nearly abgebrannt meine* tongue!” “Wimp,” Cyclopsis spoke up for the first time with a shake of his head. TTT – TTT Alchemy. An ancient science that developed thousands of years ago, the precursor to chemistry, where alchemists would explore many possibilities from creating an elixir of life to turn lead into gold. Even by today’s standards, there were still alchemists around, even Twilight herself had dabbled in alchemy when she was in Celestia’s school for gifted unicorns. But there was one form of alchemy that was touched upon, but never really taught in her classes… Transmutation Circles. It was a form of alchemy that allowed one to draw runes onto any surface, and by pouring a little bit of mana into the runes along with the proper items, you could forge anything within the runes as long as you had a plan on what you were making. Ever since Twilight had used Haru’s magic and when she ‘used’ Kosuke’s recently, there was something that bugged her, but throughout her research she just couldn’t find what irked her about Haru’s magic. She never considered that Haru’s magic was related to alchemy… But after she had given the book on Phoenixes to the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Twilight dusted off some of the older books in the library and came across one of her old textbooks that pertained to alchemy. Oddly enough, the runes that were jotted down into the book resembled that to the runes that were on not only Haru’s magic circles but Kosuke’s as well. Twilight looked at her notes – Each with a rather crude drawing of both Wizard and Beast (complete with childish smiles drawn on their masks… What? It wasn’t like Twilight was a master artist) with a surprisingly more detailed sketches of their magical rune circles. Next to her notes was the very same textbook on alchemy that she had from her academy days, opened up to a surprisingly similar transmutation circle. ‘There are some obvious differences,’ Twilight thought as she brought a hoof to the pages. ‘But, it’s generally the same concept. If everything I have is correct, then is it possibly that Haru’s and Nitoh’s magic has a basis in alchemy? What about the Phantoms? Could they be a product of alchemy as well? ‘I should probably ask Princess Celestia about sending me some books on Alchemy, there could possibly be a chance of using this to stop the Phantoms!’ Atop of one of the many shelves of the library, a familiar diamond studded Garuda watched the mare as she looked at her notes, its eyes didn’t move away from Twilight’s studies. The white Garuda tilted its head slightly towards the door when a few knocks drew Twilight’s attention from her books. As Twilight turned to the door, the White Garuda flew off to another shelf to make sure it wouldn’t be seen by the studious mare or her guests which turned out to be a familiar trio of fillies that were in the library just the other day. “Girls?” Twilight questioned as she allowed Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo to enter the library. “It’s a nice surprise to see you three so soon, did you want to borrow another book?” “Actually, Miss Twilight,” Sweetie Belle started off, looking away from the taller unicorn’s gaze. “We wanted to tell you something that we saw the other day.” “Oh? And what was that?” Twilight asked with a curious smile on her face. “You remember that stallion that was in here?” Apple Bloom questioned as she looked around. “The same one that when we got that book on phoenixes?” Twilight knew exactly who she was talking about, Mr. Nix. The red pegasus who seemed to have a penchant for reading and often kept stopping himself from swearing in front of Twilight. The violet unicorn nodded her head, “Mister Nix, yes I remember him. What about him?” “It was so cool!” Scootaloo shouted out as she jumped about. “There was this odd stallion with rain around him and he transformed into this orange, jumpsuit thing and that red pegasus transformed into that large fiery bird-like monster and they fought and then there was this huge, black castle-monster thing that tried to take us down but the bird monster and orange guy managed to…” It was at this point that Scootaloo fell to the ground, trying to catch her breath. Twilight had gotten used to hearing Pinkie’s rants (mostly on random things that she saw like a robotic red tyrannosaurus being played with by a stallion who called himself king), and so she was able to grasp most of what Scootaloo was spouting off. It was a little confusing, but Twilight knew what they were trying to say. Mister Nix had become a monster. Twilight remembered that Phantoms could transform back and forth between their monstrous forms, like with Gnome did and that one called Manticore. Both had the ability to transform, and if Feenie Nix transformed into a monster, could he be a… Twilight shook her head. It didn’t make sense – If Mister Nix was a Phantom, then why didn’t he attack her? She was a target of the Phantoms, and there were a number of times he could’ve… Once again, Twilight shook her head and managed to clear her thoughts. Silently, Twilight lit her horn up, lifted up a small notebook from the number of notes she had on the table and levitated it in front of the Crusaders. “Girls, you said that he looked like a monster, can you tell me if he looked like any of these?” “Sure Miss Twi,” Apple Bloom replied Twilight watched as the three fillies flipped through the pages Phantoms, sometimes stopping to point at one of the pictures… However, when the trio stopped on a certain page, Twilight took notice. The three turned the notebook around and smiled at Twilight before they all spoke out at once, “This is it!” And Twilight’s eyes widened at the sight of the picture and the name that was written on the page… Phoenix. TTT – TTT After a day or two of handing out fliers, measurement taking, one musical number and research, everyone who was the recipient of Rarity’s generosity had gathered in Carousel boutique – Five mares, two dragons and a griffon. “So, what do you think Rarity’s done with our duds?” Applejack asked, to nopony in particular. “Oooh! It’s gotta be spectacular!” Pinkie exclaimed as she bounced around the room. “Rarity’s like the bestest of the best when it comes to clothes!” “Oh?” Kosuke mused with his talons brought up to his chin. “Have any of you gotten clothing from Miss Rarity before?” “Nope!” Pinkie replied rather cheerfully. “Yeah, Neato,” Dash sighed loudly. “I don’t know if you noticed this, but not a lot of ponies go around wearing clothes all the time. I’m surprised that even you or Wizard wear clothes at all.” “Don’t ya know Dashie?” Kosuke chuckled as he grabbed his sleeves. “Clothes are awesome! Having pockets, keeping you warm or cool, and it adds a bit of more color to the wearer. You aren’t going to tell me that Mister Narumi didn’t look awesome in his fly white suite and fedora, are ya?” Dash turned to the side, not wanting to argue. “Yeah, well, that stuff just gets in…” “Besides, don’t the Wonderbolts wear uniforms?” Kosuke continued onwards, not wanting to lose the argument. “You’ll have to wear one when you join their ranks!” Fluttershy smiled at her two friends, it was just like in Cloudsdale many years ago. Dash and Kosuke would get into their little arguments, while she and Shou would be on the sidelines trying to stop them from breaking out into a full-on brawl, with Gilda not really caring either way. But now, there were even more friends around her, and it was lovely. But then Fluttershy’s eyes turned towards Haru, who was cradling his rather bruised up tail, “Oh my, Mister Haru, is your tail alright?” The red dragon sniffled slightly as he turned towards Fluttershy and smiled brightly at her, “Phantoms, monsters from the shadows, and who knows what else I’ve fought against, they all pale in comparison to little colts and fillies… “Why did they feel the need to climb on me!? My poor, poor tail…” “What do you expect?” Spike tried stifling his chuckling. “Your costume looks like something you’d see in a stage show, and since you’re so big, you’re practically asking to be climbed on like a statue.” “That doesn’t explain how Kosuke didn’t have to deal with that,” Haru sighed, his tail slipped from his claws and to the floor. Kosuke turned away from his argument with Dash and smiled, “What can I say? I dunno why they didn’t do it.” “Well, at least it was just a bruised tail,” Fluttershy stated as she brought a hoof up to Haru’s tail. “Shouldn’t be too bad, just give it a day or so.” Twilight remained silent throughout the exchange. Her mind was more focused on other things, she hadn’t told anyone about what she talked about with the Crusaders. Not even Spike or Haru knew, and she even had the Crusaders make sure that they kept the secret until she was completely sure on the matter. That somepony who had visited the library so many could be a Phantom, let alone be Phoenix, one of the worst Phantoms she had ever seen – It was completely illogical! “Hello! Equestria to Twilight!” The violet unicorn shook her head when she realized that pretty much everyone was looking at her, “Um, I’m sorry, what were we talking about?” “Rarity just called us up, Twi,” Applejack explained as she gestured towards the stairs that everyone else was heading up. “Ya’ll okay?” “Y-Yeah, I just have a lot on my mind,” Twilight confessed as she followed Applejack up the stairs. “Still, it’ll be nice to see what Rarity’s made for us.” “Ah hope it’s nuthin’ too fancy,” Applejack replied with a shake of her head. “Ah really can’t stand wearing frilly stuff, a good hat cleanin’ will do it for me most of the time.” “I know where you’re coming from,” Kosuke added in looking back. “I can’t stand not wearing one of my hoodies, I’ll feel naked without one of them on me.” “You would be naked,” Rainbow Dash pointed out bluntly. “Exactly!” Kosuke laughed. “I can’t walk around without my trusty jacket! It’d be obscene!” “So, by yer logic, we’re all being obscene now?” AJ questioned at the griffon. Kosuke winked with a sly smirk following, “Obscene? Perish the thought! Its commonplace for everypony to walk around all free – I just happen to have a personal preference to wearing something, and…” Kosuke had lowered his head, but anyone who looked could easily tell that he had one of the most suspicious smiles on his face and if one listened well enough, they could hear him mutter something about ‘view’ or something like that. WHAM! And unfortunately for Kosuke, Dash had been one of the few who had heard Kosuke’s muttering and promptly slammed her hind hooves right into Kosuke’s chest which sent him tumbling back down the stairs, right past Twilight and AJ. “ARGH!” And Dash just trotted onwards while everyone else watched, “… Neato’ll be fine. He’s taken worse hits.” “MY TAIL!” “Like I said, worse hits,” Dash added. After waiting for Kosuke to get back to the others, the small group now stood in front of Rarity’s room, the door closed. “Rarity! We’re all here!” Spike called out. “Perfect!” the fashionista called back through the door. “Everything is ready! Are all of you ready? “Then come on in!” TBC