Within the interdimensional space between worlds and door jumps, the wall breaker trio hurtled along after another run through. They had just gotten done with a rapid fire portal jumping spree after getting turned around once they found the Fourth Generation 'My Little Pony' portal, though hopefully now they were getting back on track. Still, a disgruntled Pinkie Pie whapped the side of her head to clear out some seawater from her ears as she and her compatriots zoomed along the glowing tunnel to the other door like they were falling sideways.
“Phew, that was close! Hopefully this one leads up back to the Japanese stuff and not Italian animation like the last detour.”
“Hey! It was one wrong turn!”
Sonata, flying alongside Pinkie Pie, shouted while crossing her arms defensively despite the atrocity they’d just witnessed.
“Yeah, and it got us stuck with a rapping dog and a giant octopus on the Titanic! That’s like, the worst kind of party time even for me!”
Megalon came up between them and the formally thirty tall, cyborg death-bug was forced to act as mediator between the technicolor magical singer and fluffy tiny pony. Truly this was a normal day.
“Personally I thought of the iceberg as the hero of the animated ones like how the live action one took out DiCaprio. I’ll be sure to make some Korean barbecue and fried calamari if I find the two again with my real body, cookin’ with napalm and all, but we got a door up ahead! Brace yourselves!”
==============================
Sonata landed on her rump, spurring a groan as she sat herself up and looked around. The last portal jump was a bit of a panic one and they must have flown through several doors in the blitz, so she’d lost track of which world exactly they’d hopped into. Upon hearing a jingling on her belt and pulling the offending item up, she quickly realized which one it was when she saw that she was holding a white ball with a red top half. The siren snickered, despite having fallen into a world where parents apparently thought it safe to send ten year olds into the wilds filled with fire breathing lizards, aircraft destroying birds, giant insects, and mice that could electrocute elephants. Then the pokeball started waggling along with another one on her belt, giving a quick answer to the question of where Pinkie Pie and Megalon were.
“Ah, Pokemon, right.”
She clicked the buttons on the pokeballs, the devices popping open and streams of light shooting out of them. The brightness faded, revealing two pokemon. One, a child sized, bipedal, blue rhinoceros beetle; a Heracross. The other was a filly sized young horse with a tan body and fire in place of its mane and tail, a Ponyta. Otherwise known as Megalon and Pinkie Pie.
“Herac cross heracross!”
Megalon grunted unintelligibly, spurring a giggling but similarly incomprehensible response from Pinkie Pie.
“Ta! Ponynynynynyta!”
Sonata just sat there confused as a bead of sweat ran down her face.
“Ummmm uuuuuh…”
Noticing her confusion, the two new pokemon slowed down their “speech” and waved their limbs in an attempt to pantomime what they were trying to say.
“Her hera hera cross! Cross! Herarc-rac cross!”
“Taaaaaaaaa-aaaaaaaa~! Ponynyta!”
The attempt was not working, though it was cute when Megalon tried to pat Pinkie Pie on the shoulder and comedically, though thankfully harmlessly, set his hand on fire and earned a frantic response from Pinkie. Now the blazing horse was chasing the beetle around trying to make up for it with the fire type-vulnerable bug type steering clear of her by climbing up a tree like a cat chased by a dog. Pinkie Pie, putting her forehooves at the base of the tree, kept trying to jump up at him, which only panicked Megalon more.
“Tatatata! Ponyta! Pon!”
“Heeeeeeerac!RacRacRacRacRac!”
“Well, this ain’t gonna work.”
Sonata grumbled, recognizing a spray-on Full Restore on the ground next to her and picking it up. Reaching up, she spritzed it on Megalon’s hand and helped instantly patch up the minor burns. Putting her hand on Pinkie’s muzzle to settle the ponyta down, the siren-turned-trainer helped get the heracross out of the tree and keep things calm.
“Sorry guys, you’re really adorable right now but I think we best find another portal so you two don’t have to try and sign things out for me… Just gotta figure out where, haven’t seen the show in a long time so my memory is fuzzy. Megalon you mentioned you played the games, did you watch the anime any?“
Megalon tapped his chin with his twin digits, trying to think back to his times on Terra when he’d hacked into the human’s systems. He’d mined a lot of the internet back then and took it with him, including a few emulators of the later games. But, for all the shows, comics, or games he swiped, the anime for the Nintendo series wasn’t one of them.
“Hera cross cross.”
He grunted, shaking his entire upper torso due to lack of a movable neck. Sonata did manage to understand that as a “No” and resorted to plan B. They were in the middle of a forest clearing bordering on a pond and based off the articles on the ground, had warped into a camp site.
-Well, best get our bearings. Maybe something here could offer a clue?-
“Megs, Pinks, help me with this stuff. See if you can find anything to help figure out where exactly we are and who I ended up as.”
Megalon saluted with a chirp as Pinkie reared up while whinnying happily.
“Herac!” “Ta!”
The trio hopped to it and rummaged through the camp. It appeared that it all belonged to just one person, whoever Sonata was doppelganged as, but even that left the siren scratching her head as to how in the world a presumably normal human ten to fifteen something year old was supposed to carry around all this gear in a backpack. Pinkie Pie was looking through some stuff on the side of the tent when she noticed a fishing pole halfway in the water. Raising an eyebrow, she took it in her mouth after fumbling it in her hooves and tried to pull it out. However, after a certain point, it snagged. Curious but thinking it was just snagged on a rock or branch, she fiddled with the rod and tried to pull again. Fortunately, she got it free. Unfortunately doing so was met with an uproar of exploding water. An enormous monster burst out the water roaring. The sea serpent was primarily blue with white accents and a yellow underbelly, and was easily over six meters long despite looking far too large to have even fit in the pond.
“NYTAAAAAAAAAA!”
“CROOOOSSS!”
“WHAT THE F*****!?”
The truly enormous gyarados roared at the trio, who all jumped back with eyes stretched to the size of dinner plates. As the beast slithered its way onto land and leered at them, Sonata remembered what series she was in and decided her best option was to get in character. After all, if 10 year olds could handle these things, how hard could it be? She stomped back forward, caught her breath and pointed at the gyarados.
“Um, ah! Pinkie Pie use Flamethrower! Megalon use Cross-Chop!”
Exchanging a shrug, the former pony and kaiju sprung into action. With her mane flaring, Pinkie Pie took in a breath and spat forth a stream of burning lights that engulfed the sea serpent’s face; Megalon meanwhile spreading his wing covers and flying forward with glowing arms that he slammed into the gyarados’ belly multiple times with “x” shaped crossing motions on each impact. They kept attacking for several moments before they ran out of juice. Megalon’s eyes widened when he tried to hit the gyarados again, only for his arms to stop glowing and he lost power with the swing.
-Ooooh no, outta PP!-
It didn’t help that when the blitz cleared, the barely harmed gyarados tail swiped both of the pokemon and sent them flying back past Sonata. With its face only slightly singed and belly scales just dented in a few spots, Sonata was hit with a dour remembrance about one of the core elements in the franchise’s battles.
“....Oh, right. Type effectiveness.”
The gyarados bellowed at them, its face looking like it couldn’t possibly scowl any harder. Sonata picked up Pinkie Pie and Megalon, helping them get to their feet as she spoke under her breath.
“Kay then, option two… RUN FOR IT!”
Several minutes later and the trio were still running down the forest road with the ticked off gyarados slithering right behind them. With no effective moves to use from the fire and bug/fighting type against the water/flying beast, Sonata resorted to other methods to try and slow it down. Slinging the backpack on her back around, she dug through it and tossed anything she could dig out at the gyarados. At first it was what she expected to fit inside a backpack. Candy bars, some trail mix, first aid kit, and a book. But then she couldn’t fight a raised eyebrow at the other stuff somehow inside the bag. A full sleeping bag, one severely burned wreck she thought might have once been a bicycle, several towels, two fishing poles, a bunch of CD looking things, several swimsuits, goggles, and flippers. There also somehow was an entire picture frame inside there, which Sonata stole a glance at it instead of instantly lobbing the frame at the gyarados. It was of four younger and older teenage females in front of what looked a bit like a marine park, the words “The Sensational Cerulean Sisters!” scrawled on the top of the frame. Three of the four were much larger, obviously older, with long pink, blue, and blonde hair. The fourth was a short haired redhead in the exact same tennis shoes, yellow top with red overalls straps, and short shorts that Sonata was currently in; helping to jog her memory.
-I get it! I musta gotten Misty! Wait a minute, that might mean...-
She dug back through the seemingly infinite pouch while saying a prayer to McCarthy. Sure enough, her wishes were answered when she noticed a familiar glow and felt something in her hand. Cracking a smirk and thinking on her feet, the siren spotted a small cave up ahead.
“Inside there! Quickly!”
She shouted, pointing it out with her free hand to get the panicking heracross’ and pontya’s attention. Diverting off the beaten path, they hopped over a fallen tree the gyarados just smashed through and dove into the cave. Ignoring the shower of startled zubat streaming out of the cave, Sonata got a strong grip on what was inside Misty’s bag and pulled as hard as she could. With some grunting and effort, she pulled free an entire doorway just when the gyarados, too big to fit through the entrance, started smashing its armored head into the cave’s opening to try and widen it. With rubble raining down from the ceiling, Sonata ripped the door open, grabbed her companions, tossed them inside before hopping in herself, and closed the door behind them.
==============================
The world stopped spinning and the trio came to in a thankfully gyarados-free chamber. And as the icing on the cake, they were all back to human so Sonata could understand the tired groans everyone was giving as they got to their feet. Judging from the artstyle, they were definitely still in an anime, but which one wasn’t immediately apparent. It seemed of an older style with the aesthetic and attire everyone ended up in. Pinkie Pie looked like she was ready to try and tackle the Gala again in a rosey red ballgown with a golden trim and tiara. Megalon was also saddled with stuff one would expect for a big occasion, a primarily white dress uniform with blue jumpsuit pants. Sonata was also in formal wear, but in an odd mishmash of attire. Sporting a black colored dress suit one would expect for a young man, it clashed with the fact she seemed to have forgotten her pants and instead had a short skirt on top shorts.
Still, thankful he could speak and be understood by more than one of his compatriots, Megalon thought back to their latest jump.
“So, where are we now and how’d you find the door in the bag?”
“Well judging from the quasi-gothic scenery, I’d say Revolutionary Girl Utena. Rachael Lillis did a lot of anime voices so once I figured out I ended up as Misty I figured a portal had to be close by. Didn’t know where we’d end up, but figured most places were better than where we were.”
“Well best work with what we got. How are we gonna get to the kaiju from here?”
Pinkie Pie interjected as Megalon seemed to be pondering through his thoughts. Muttering a quick gasp and a snap of his fingers, he had his eureka moment.
“Actually this jump by Sonata might just be the ticket! We need to find Sailor Moon.”
“....Eh?”
“How would finding that show get us to Godzilla?”
“That show’s by Toei animation. We get to there, we can find the live action branch of Toei, the tokusatsu stuff. Godzilla practically is the kickstarter and codifier for the style so if we can get to there, we’ll find my series."
"And since Sailor Moon is the codifier for the Magical Girl genre, there should be a portal to it here. That’s what you’re thinking right?”
“That’s the plan, since we're already in the genre here it's easier than scrambling around for another jump.”
"So Sonny, since you know this series better; what's the plot with this shin-dig?"
“Crossdressing tomboy named Utena has to fight duels with the school student council and the Black Rose to protect the Rose Bride, Anthy. Has a lot of sword fights.”
Pinkie Pie snapped up at that information, regarding her surroundings. The darkened chamber with the megalithic structure that surrounded them didn’t look like any education center she’d seen. The surroundings to the chamber were largely blacked out by some sort of shady shroud, with the most prominent landmark being the marble stone structure at the end of the hall they stood upon, resembling a stone eagle with its wings spread to either side of the walls.
“Wait, this is at a school?”
“Uh huh. Though this place is separate, it leads to the arena.”
“And the teachers just do nothing about students waving swords at each other or this apparently homicidal student council?”
“It’s complicated.”
“Why do they want this ‘Rose Bride’ anyways?”
“To bring about the titular revolution.”
“Which is?”
“It’s complicated.”
“Is she magic or something and grants them a wish?”
“It’s complicated.”
“And nopony questions any of this plot too much?”
Sonata, who’d had her back to the other two after taking a step forward to get a look around, turned herself to face them. She held up her palms and shrugged her shoulders while a flattened expression crossed her face.
“.....”
Megalon and Pinkie spoke in unified deadpan.
“It’s complicated.”
Sonata nodded while rolling her eyes.
“Anything else we should know?”
Megalon grumbled.
“Yeah, Pinkie’s wearing the Rose Bride’s outfit.”
Finally taking notice of her beautiful gown, Pinkie gripped the fringes of her dress and gave herself a little twirl while standing up on her left leg’s tip-toes.
“Ooooh! Rarity would love this!”
She giggled, earning a half annoyed groan from Sonata.
“She’s a complete and total doormat who gets passed around like a hoofball and does nothing about it for a majority of the show.”
The siren deadpanned. Pinkie halted her spinning sharp enough one could practically hear the record scratch. She snapped around with an exasperated shout.
“Rarity would hate this!”
Megalon popped up between the two, making a time-out gesture with his arms.
“Female archetypes second, portals first. Sonata you know this place more, so what does this place do?”
“Actually I was just getting to that. Follow me!”
She chirped, skipping past Megalon and Pinkie Pie and heading down the walkway towards the giant stone bird with the other two following suit. They soon reached the end of the platform that hung under the bird’s beak. Directly beneath it was a swirl pattern with an outstretched handle in the center, two effigies of roses bordering the pattern on either side. Amongst the swirl was a current of moving water that somehow followed the carving and didn’t spill out. Eying the ring on her finger bearing a matching signet to the rose symbols, Sonata reached up and placed her hand upon the lever. The moving water halted, a single drop splitting from the body and floating outwards to tap Sonata’s ring.
In an instant two things happened. One, torrents of water shot out of spouts bordering the traversed walkway and coated the path behind them in curtains of water. Secondly, dramatic chorus music started blaring into the hallway from seemingly every angle and caused all three explorers to levitate off the ground like startled cats.
“Zettai! Unmei:!! Mokushiroku!”
The trio had to shout to each other while covering their ears to even be audible over the booming, completely random symphony.
“WHERE IS THIS MUSIC COMING FROM?!
“I DON’T KNOW!”
“Zettai! Unmei:!! Mokushiroku!”
“I THOUGHT YOU WATCHED THE SERIES?!”
“I DID! I JUST THOUGHT IT WAS BACKGROUND MUSIC!”
“Shussei touroku! Senrei meibo! Shiiiibou toooouroku!!!”
“MEGALON WHAT ARE THEY EVEN SAYING?!”
“TRUST ME, IT DOESN’T MAKE MUCH MORE SENSE IN JAPANESE!”
Massive gears beneath the floor roared and grinded, the scenery moving with their motions. The gothic stone bird split open and changed, a gateway to beyond opening up beneath a giant stone flower. Hoping to get free of the blasting music, they stampeded through very unceremoniously. Thankfully, the room beyond was much quieter despite the chorus still being present in the background. The chamber they were now in was much brighter, almost like much of the floor a walls was made of polished crystal. The path lead on straight for a about four meters, flanked by beautifully cut marble masonwork and hanging garden plants, leading to a truly enormous spiralling staircase. Having open sides so every step and level was visible, the white stone staircase was easily some five meters in diameter and seemed to go on for dozens of meters up. The trio stopped at the edge of the stairs and looked straight up as the music finally died down. If the world behind them made little sense, what was above was hardly any better. Hanging above the flat plane the stairs lead to looked like what at first Megalon mistook for an enormous chandelier, but upon second glance it was actually a slowly rotating, dark, cathedral styled castle with glowing roofs floating upside down on whatever roof or sky this loony land had. Megalon blinked his eyes a few times, squinting to make sure his eyes weren't playing tricks on him.
“.... Okay what’s that?”
“It’s- uuurhf...”
Sonata shrugged, placing her palm to her face.
“-soooorry, complicated.”
“Oye.”
“Hey who’s that?”
Pinkie Pie muttered, pointing up the distant top level of the platform. Leaning on the edge was a tall man with dark skin, shoulder length, bright, almost white colored purple hair, and wearing an elaborate dress suit. He seemed to be saying something, but the exact details of what exactly as well as his appearance were obscured due to the altitude until the trio got a convenient split screen.
“Welcome, O’ Utena Tenjou. I trust you have been well? And you have brought the Rose Bride as well, -”
Megalon ignored the man currently chewing the scenery and turned to Sonata while pointing his thumb at the newcomer.
“Okay, really. Who the heck is that and why can I tell what he’s saying from all the way down here?”
“Akio Ohtori, sorta the main baddie.”
“What’s he so interested in?”
“Anything that moves really…”
Pinkie Pie wedged herself between her friends and altered the angle of her point from twelve o’clock to three thirty.
“Well to give a different interest, look to his left!”
Off to the oblivious Akio’s left was the familiar visage of a world portal. However, before any word could be said, Megalon noticed something out of the corner of his eye. Looking to his right and angling his head a bit to look behind and around a stone pillar was an exit of sorts from the chamber, with the sign “Student Council Access” inscribed above it. He presumed that might have been how Akio got into the chamber without them noticing, assuming he hadn’t been waiting up on the platform for them, but that’s not what had his attention. The glowing portal beside it was what did. Megalon hooked an arm around the girls and turned them around to see what he saw.
“Heyo, got another one.”
A brief silence passed over the trio as they looked between the two portals. One was right next to the resident villain and up at least twenty stories worth of stairs. The other was about eight meters to their right.
“....”
“....I vote door B, all in favor?”
“Yep.”
“Yep.”
Completely ignoring Akio’s monologue, they stepped off the beaten path and through door number two.
==============================
The white flare of going through the dimensional door blinded them momentarily before settling back out. When the world came into view, it was clear they’d left the north Atlantic, and the frenzy of jumps afterwards to get back on track, far behind. The darkened outlines on everyone as well as the semi-realistic, semi-abstract art style still looked Asiatic enough.
“Yep, I think we’re still in an anime.”
“Yeah but this looks way too cartoony to be Sailor Moon. We musta made a wrong turn.
“So which one are we in?”
Sonata stood up on her tiptoes and leered at the urbanized mountain they seemed to be settled upon. At the top of the multitiered mountain was what could best be described as a bizarre fusion of a school and a stylized fortress. She’d recognized it from her times on CrunchyRoll.
“Loooks liiiiiike, Kill la Kill!”
“Huh, I feel short again... Hey, why do my clothes feel funny?
Megalon grunted, shifting the wheat steam clenched in his jaws. Clothing in general felt strange, especially the ‘Spider-Wedgie’, but something in this world felt… off. Sonata, the member of the trio most used to attire also picked up on it with her own observation.
“Why do I feel like I’m not wearing any? And where’s Pinkie?”
Noticing a wall mirror, a thankful trait in a lot of Japanese productions being plot convenience playhouse rules, the pair turned to face it. The moment they did the two had completely contrasting reactions. Megalon was, for lack of better terms, “chibi’d”, being a lot younger and shorter than his typical forms came out to be. His outfit was three parts awesome, silly, and cutesy, looking like a school girl’s uniform under a sailor’s cap, wind blown longcoat that was somehow staying on despite his arms not being in the sleeves, and a pair of energized, spiked fists emerging from the coat’s cuffs that were mimicking his actual arm’s movements.
“Awww I look adorable! Oh check me out Sonny, four hands!”
Megalon chirped, waving his arms and watching the uniform’s ‘power fists’ copy him. He was completely oblivious to how beat red in the face the siren was, the only muscle movement on her body being her slack jaw and eyes twitching. She looked like she was stuck in skimpy armor that looked like it was supposed to go over a body glove, but someone forgot the glove and was away from their girlfriend for far too long when at the design office. Aside from the large fins sticking up on either side of her collar, which stuck out beside her head, there was barely a single piece of Sonata’s pink ‘uniform’ that wouldn’t make a stripper blush. While nothing private was showing, she was quick to jump up on one leg and use all of her remaining limbs in a desperate bid to cover herself.
“GAK! ARRG!”
“What’s wrong Sonny?”
“I wanted to be the one to get Mako, not Ryuko!!!! How the **** is this supposed to be a combat suit!? It’s even got a little mini-skirt!”
She roared, still redder than a tomato while pointing at said inexplicable skirt.
“We really need to get out of here, fast… Where’s Pinkie Pie?!”
She grumbled with narrowed eyes, having thought she’d become quickly done with this situation until the third member of their party revealed herself. One of the fins on Sonata’s suit twitched, a band of color moving across it like an opening eye with the new coloration resembling a bright blue iris. One that was the exact same color as Pinkie Pie’s, complete with curly eyelashes.
“Oh hai everypony! Did you know that the life fibers this suit's got taste funny? Kinda like whipped cream. Haheheheh!”
She giggled, vibrating and jiggling Sonata’s now obliviously living clothing and cuing an exasperated scream from the siren that carried on for a good twenty seconds. Megalon, plugging his ears with the suit’s pair of hands, looked up and saw a blinding light at the top of the citadel. While he didn’t hear the accompanying dramatic music over Sonata’s shrieking, he did know his tropes well enough to know what was coming. Still keeping his ears plugged, he grabbed the girl-girl and girl-clothing.
“Oh! Dramatic entrance, that means that’s our main baddy! Time to go!”
Hoisting the two over his head before running away roadrunner style, he fled from the brightness bearing down on them the while racking his mind for something to at least port them somewhere less over the top and stable.
-Let’s see, if the first door with that dolt atop the staircases was the right one, that means we gotta get back into the last world. But there wasn’t a return portal where we started out so we gotta find another route back...-
Looking up at the fortress-school while dodging rapid fire sword swings coming from behind him, the idea dawned upon him like a lightbulb.
-Ahah! Sonata said that Utena show took place at a school! A school with whacko architecture! Since this show’s newer than Utena, it probably got the idea from it and the portal would be up there!-
The booming voice chasing them down was getting close enough to drown out the arguing Sonata and Pinkie Pie.
“DO NOT RUN FROM YOUR FATE, YOU PIGS IN HUMAN CLOTHING!”
Megalon’s eyes widened to dinner plates as he saw what was chasing after them as the brightness faded. Typically he’d be questioning why she had an attire as ridiculous and perverted like, or possibly even more so than, Sonata’s “Pinkie Suit”, but instead he was too focused on the fact that said villain was rushing them with glowing eyes and a sword. He popped up into the air to jump over Satsuki’s swing, and clicked his heels together like Roadrunner before taking off fast enough to leave a dust cloud.
“...MEEP-MEEP!”
Thankfully outrunning the semi-homicidal woman behind them, Megalon managed to sprint up to the school’s steps and dove into the first doorway he could see.
==============================
The world twisted and warped and they were soon back in the same bafflingly constructed courtyard either of them had ever seen. Snapping out of any pre-existing stupor, the trio got back to business and sprinted up the stairwell as all manner of bizarre dramatic stock music began to blare during their ascent. The villain they’d left behind, Akio was still at the peak’s edge when they got to the top of the steps. His arms crossed over his chest and his back to them, he started to say something that Sonata was quick to ignore. She had had enough of this crap. Turning to Pinkie Pie she dipped the former pony over, pulled a glowing sword that appeared out of nowhere out of Pinkie's chest before Pinkie could ask what was going on, and lobbed it at the back of an oblivious Akio’s head.
“You don’t belong here Utena, your claim to the Rose Bride is over-AHP!”
The typically, unrealistically, cool headed academy chairman squawked as he stumbled. Having expected a duel and having been standing on the edge to look dramatic, Akio didn’t see the sword tossing coming and the metallic pommel and guard smacked him in the back of his head hard enough to knock him over the edge. Pinkie Pie however was more focused on the sharp implement having been pulled out of her chest.
“How did?! Where did that sword come from?!”
Pinkie Pie yelped as she pawed at her stomach and collar to try and figure out just what happened.
“Rose Bride can do that.”
Sonata just shrugged as she picked up the fallen rapier and leaned over the edge alongside Megalon to have a look, both soon cringing at the sight.
“Ooooh that’s gonna leave a mark!... Why was he just standing there like that?”
“Anime villains tend to do that, a lot. Stand around and talk in a precarious position.”
“Why don’t they just attack?”
“Hey just be glad we didn’t get a filler arc or we’d run out of time just with this chit chat."
The former siren turned back around and put the sword in a pant loop.
“Speaking of which, let's get going shall we?”
Pinkie Pie waltzed her way over to the doorway and popped it open.
“We shall. This stuff is more Fluttershy’s alley anywho.”
They stepped in and closed the door behind them, the typically collective and master manipulator named Akio’s groans of pain echoing up the stairwell.
==============================
Tumbling out in a comparatively much more normal looking school’s pool room, Sonata and Pinkie Pie picked themselves off the ground and got their bearings. Kill la Kill’s outfits were the product of insanity, Utena’s gear looked fairly reasonable though still bore closer resemblance to ball gown attire than anything from a high school; and the Sailor Scout uniforms the pair were in now seemed like a border in between. And good McCarthy above did they look dainty, knee high boots, short dresses, opera gloves, and tiaras with a blue/pink and white color scheme respectively.
“Yep, I’d recognize this get up from Fluttershy’s collection. We’re definitely in Sailor Moon now.”
Pinkie Pie uttered while giving Sonata a hand to help her get up. Sonata meanwhile was regarding her outfit with a mildly confused expression. It wasn’t necessarily at what the attire itself had as much as what it didn’t have. Aside from Pinkie Pie’s hair being styled into two gigantic pigtails, there wasn’t any change in them at all from their normal human looks.
“Worst. Transformation disguise. Ever. No hair color change, age alteration, no mask; how does everyone not recognize anyone in these shows?”
“Well Tuxedo wears a mask.”
“He’s covering his eyebrows and cheekbones, that hardly counts!”
Megalon opted to join the conversation, whiskers and all.
“Eh, when in doubt with this sewies; blame the Nega’verse.”
Sonata Dusk and Pinkie Pie looked down to see a dark brown domestic short haired cat with a crescent moon shape on his forehead looking up at them. The latter had to quickly restrain herself from squealing as she picked up the kitty and held him out in front of her.
“Awwww! You got turned into Luna! Who's a cutie kitty?”
“Awhp! Stop that meow!”
"Nyo!"
-Great, now I can’t tell if I'd prefer I'd gotten the cat or Tuxedo dolt.-
"And Pinkie?"
“Mhm?~”
The tom cat pointed out with his paw the best he could.
“Munsta’ behind you at 6 o’cwock!”
The girls turned back in time to see an unholy abomination, that could only be reliably compared to if Medusa, a vampire, a member of KISS, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon all decided to have a demon baby; burst out of the pool and started charging them. Megalon hopped out of Pinkie Pie’s hands and spied something else from across the waters, a shimmering doorway on the other side of the pool.
“And powtals at 6:30! You two hold it off, I’ll go see if this is our ticket!”
Megalon darted away as the she-demon took a swing at the remaining two and they had to jump to the sides to dodge it. Sprinting his way around the pool fast as four short legs could take him as the battle began to rage on, he managed to pull the doorway wide enough to try and get a look of what lay beyond. Sonata Dusk and Pinkie Pie weren’t having as easy of a time after the monster clawed her way out of the pool to pursue them.
“How am I supposed to fight this thing?! This convention gear doesn’t have any weapons!”
Pinkie lunged and ducked under a claw swipe to baseball slide across the wet tile and get behind the beast, calling out to the other scout.
“Use the twirly wand thingy! It’s your weapon!”
Sonata pulled the object in question out of her belt and was soon questioning the writer’s sanity to consider this decameter long rod with a heart shape on the top a weapon.
“Ah come on! I went from a sword to this?! I might as well be batting it with a lollipop!- AHI!”
Her rant was cut short by the roaring reptilian lunging at her with a taloned swipe that tore into the tile floor and sent debris flying. Sonata stumbled back and it looked like the monster was going to take a second swing at her when it was forcibly yanked back. Fighting to hold it in place after grabbing onto its tail, Pinkie Pie called out the best she could as the flippers on said tail did the best they could at smacking her in the face.
“Just! Fffppt! Jus-t say the code word and go for the finisher! It’s a kids show, you’ll automatically know how!”
“Umm! Uh!”
Sonata panicked as she held the baton up high, the ‘weapon’ starting to glow brightly. True to Pinkie Pie’s word, somehow the phrase to call out for one of these scenes was automatically coming to mind. Problem was it was a really long phrase and Pinkie Pie was having trouble keeping the beast in one place for more than a few seconds at a time.
“It’s more like code words! I don’t have time to spew out all that with it moving around so much!”
“Then ju-st say it faster! I’m not used to hands fully, losing my grip over here!”
Sonata shrugged, took aim, and struck a pose while sucking in her breath.
“InTheNameOfEquestriaIWillPunishYou!”
She wasn’t quite expecting a several meters wide energy blast to shoot out and got blasted into the back wall from the recoil. She hit the wall hard enough to dent it in and became stuck in it even after the energy blast stopped. Still, hurt the monster more than it did her. After a few moments there was no monster left. Pinkie Pie, who’d wisely dove out of the way and landed in the pool, pulled herself up from the water’s edge and surveyed the aftermath. Sonata was still stuck in the wall with a wavering, dizzied expression and there was a two by two meter burn mark on the wall opposite her and behind where the monster had been.
“Huh, talking fast actually worked!”
Sonata's slow groan echoed out from the back wall.
“Aaagiiiwaaaa…”
“Sonny!”
Pinkie Pie pulled herself out of the water over to her still delirious, but thankfully mostly unharmed friend. As weird as the scout outfits were, it seems like they somehow worked as Pinkie could see first hand after helping pull Sonata free of her human shaped cutout. The recoil-propelled Sonata had been smashed through drywall and dented brickwork when she hit the back wall, and yet she seemed completely fine aside from being knocked dizzy and scuffed up in a few places.
“Sonny? Sonny! How many hooves-er, fingers am I holding up?!”
“Pingie Poie? Have you triebd d’hs thing? Cus it got one hewl of a kick!”
Sonata dizzily giggled, still seeing stars in her spinning eyes. By the time she came to, Megalon-Kitty darted back over to the duo, his facial fur ruffled and singed slightly.
“Girls I found the right portal, and boy is it a fireworks show!... What I miss?”
==============================
Light flashed and time-space twisted, a doorway opening up in a rock quarry and the intrepid trio hopping out it. The detailing and color palette was much more restrained this time and was within the realm of familiarity for Megalon.
“Yep, goodbye Animation, hello Live-Action!”
“So this is Tokusatsu, huh?”
“Yah it’s kinda like a live action equivalent to anime or American comic books in Japan. Toei makes the most prominent series with their Magical Girl shows sorta being like a distaff counterpart.”
“Which one we in exactly?”
“Well-”
Megalon muttered as he looked over the edge of the quarry to the sounds of combat. Down below in the flats of the quarry was a massive battle that had just kicked off. On one side was a horde of vaguely humanoid monsters that resemble everything from the mechanical to the mystical, on the other was a crowd of costumed humans in costumes that ranged from individual suits with distinct body armor to themed groups in brightly colored, if not in some cases gaudy, spandex.
“I see both Kamen Riders and Super Sentai teams down there so I think we landed in the Taisen crossover movie.”
“Why are they fighting in a quarry?”
“Because it’s always in a quarry in these sort of shows.”
“Sentai? You mean those Neighpon comics Fluttershy told me to never read?”
“Eh?....!!! Nononono! That’s spelled with an ‘H’, I dunno what’s in it but my brother told me never to look into it.”
“Why? What’s in ‘em?”
“He just told me, “You don’t wanna know.”. My brother’s smart so I just took his word for it. All you need to know is Sentai is what they made Power Rangers out of.”
"Ooooh I know that series! Gotcha!"
“Well that explains these.”
Sonata quipped as she pulled out what vaguely resembled a golden cellphone at first, but upon her holding it up it automatically folded out in a straight line to approximate a rod or wand with a glowing tip. Pinkie reached for her pocket and found she had one too, identical in form down to the stylized ‘M’ on what the top cover of the phone flipped out from, with the one difference being that the glow given off by her’s was pink instead of blue. Megalon checked his belt and pockets but didn’t find any such device, just a hand sized metal square on his belt that looked like an empty slot. Upon touching it however, a buzzing rang through the air and a blurry object sped towards Megalon. Managing to react in time catch it after it smacked into his face, the former kaiju looked down and saw a red mechanical rhinoceros beetle in his hands; one the proper size to fit onto the belt slot. At first it seem apparent that in this world unlike their previous runs, they hadn’t gotten a costume change into something native to that world; but the trinkets implied otherwise.
“Yep, Kabuto zecter. And you two got Magiranger’s wands. We got morphers.”
“Nifty!”
Pinkie twirled around her wand, giggling at the sparkly bands of light it painted into the air. Sonata gave her’s an impressed nod before turning back to address Megalon.
"So what all can these three gizmos do?"
"Well you guys basically got wands tied to the air and water elemental magic. So you got stuff like flight, spell casts, element manipulation, and so on. The zecter has a powered up kick attack and a time slowing power."
“Cooool! So why bring us to this place again?”
“Because Tokusatsu. While today it’s mostly superhero stuff, its techniques and style have their roots in the kaiju series. And the codifier for all Japanese giant monsters is Godzilla himself!”
Megalon chirped before turning around and using the high ground to peer out into the distance.
“So that means there should be a portal somewhere around here that leads directly into the kaiju series.”
Pinkie Pie bounced up alongside Megalon, putting a flattened hand above her eyes to shade them as she looked about.
“Well shouldn’t be too hard. Given how big this stuff is in Japan, the portal to your show should be close by!”
“Um…”
“What?”
“We never really got one. A TV show.”
“.... Seriously?”
“Uh huh. 60 years old and we never got a live action show. Closest we got was two American shows and a short series with toys.”
Pinkie Pie shared Megalon's frown and gave him a pat on the back.
“Your studio is weird then. Sorry.”
“It’s okay, not the weirdest thing. You should see the continuity problems we had in the 2000s! But, nevertheless, portal to the movies should still be around here.”
Sonata, having joined in on the scouting, quickly had her eyes home in on a distant shimmering on the far side of the quarry near the forest’s edge.
“Ah! I see a portal! Over there by the big oak tree.”
Megalon however had been looking in another direction and spotted another shimmering doorway near the construction equipment.
“There too!”
“Uuuum, guys?”
Pinkie Pie, standing in between the two while having turned to face another direction and at the highest vantage point, looked at the horizon and literally could see over half a dozen portals in addition to the ones Sonata and Megalon had spotted. And none of the widely spread group had anything to distinguish them from the others as to which was the right one. She grabbed Megalon and Sonata by the head and turned them around to face and see what she was looking at.
“Thats.. aaaaa lot of portals!”
“Eh, Toku stuff is influential in Japan. Guess we shoulda expected this with the crossover we landed in.”
Megalon grumbled, only seeing more and more portals come into view.
“How much time we got Sonata?”
The siren pulled out her actual phone and checked the stopwatch countdown she’d set at the start of the journey. Her face instantly cast a frown after seeing how reduced the clock was, speaking in a downtrodden voice.
“Accounting for being a minute or two off from setting this during the tank ride? Seven minutes left until the reset… Hey Megalon, you got Kabuto’s zecter, can’t you use his time stop feature on it? Just clock it in and check each one!”
“Discord said the reset was in the Hall of Media and had weird space-time shenanigans going on. Even if I slowed stuff down here it wouldn’t affect our time limit. We gotta find some way to narrow down the numbers and get the right portal first try.”
Thankfully thinking on her currently nonexistent hooves, Pinkie Pie was hit with a eureka moment.
“Giant Robots!”
She exclaimed, earning a raised eyebrow from her companions.
“Eh?”
Whipping back out her wand morpher, Pinkie whirled around as she recalled the details of the ranger comics the Cutiemark Crusaders read from time to time.
“Almost every episode of these Sentai or Ranger shows ends in a giant monster fight with the big zord robots!”
“Of course! The megazord fights are technically kaiju brawls! If there is one going on nearby, the portal's gonna be close to it.”
“Uuuum, just one problem.”
Sonata mumbled as she got a lay of the land again without any multistory behemoths in sight.
“Giant Monsters aren’t exactly hard to spot and I don’t see any.”
Unfettered, Pinkie Pie twirled her wand and cracked a grin as she pointed it at an isolated region of the quarry. Megalon and Sonata looked in the indicated direction and spotted the weirdest sight they had on this run. A big starfish man with a square mustache, Third Reich hat, and a crop whip. The most infamous enemy of Kamen Rider X, Starfish Hitler!
“...Okay seriously why are all these monsters attacking a quarry? It has rocks in it.”
“Maybe he's attacking the rocks?”
Pinkie Pie gasped as her wand’s glow magnified, the rock farmer glaring at the demon.
“THAT FIEND! ATTACK!”
“So we using martial arts first or-”
“Stamp that! He’s hurting someone’s rock farm! Just morph up and blast ‘em!”
Pinkie rushed out past the siren and kaiju with a battle cry, Sonata and Megalon shrugging and following suit. Thankfully because they were in that kind of show where a majority of people automatically know how to work the transformation trinket of the season, no fumbling on the activation codes were to be had. The girls wands and voices called out in unison upon dialing in the spell cast with the mechanical voice on Megalon’s belt making its own activation cry after his once he put the zecter beetle into place.
“Mahou Henshin! MAGI-MAGI-MAGIIRO!”
"WOAH! Was that Japanese?!"
"Henshin!"
“HENSHIN! CHANGE-BEETLE!”
Starfish Hitler stopped attacking the rocks after hearing the ruckus behind him and started to turn as a second set of calls rang out.
“Nani?”
“Magi-Magi! Mizu Taihō! Kaze Tsunami!”
“CLOCK-UP. 1!-2!-3!"
"Rider Kick!"
"RIDER KICK!”
Before Starfish Hitler could lose his clam schnitzel after turning around to see what that noise was, he got a hit with a high pressure water tendril, a flurry of razor wind, and a high speed, energized divekick to the face. The monster fidgeted and spasmed before violently exploding. Sonata and Pinkie floated back down to the ground about a dozen yards away, now clad in the morphed suits for the blue and pink Magirangers; their primary color across most of their body with white pants, a gold and black band for the trim on the suit and short cape and cowl trailing behind them; and a stylized mermaid tail and sprite wings forming the shape of the black helmet visor. The blur that kicked Starfish Hitler in the face ran up to them and came to a sudden halt. Too blurry to see at first due to the time distortion, the mechanical voice speaking from the belt unit called out-
“CLOCK-OVER!”
-and Megalon returned to normalcy. Or at least as normal as one could be while still in Kamen Rider Kabuto’s outfit, which was primarily a black bodysuit with red and silver body armor on the torso and limbs, and a horned, red helmet and mask with blue compound eyes that made it resemble a rhinoceros beetle. Sonata twirled her main weapon, the transformation having altered her trinket into something of a wand-sword hybrid.
“Ah good to have a weapon that actually looks like a weapon again!”
“Why don’t they just go for the finishing move right from the start more often in these shows? Seems like wailing on the monster for five minutes doesn’t make much difference.”
“Eh, stunt actors gotta be used somehow. Looks cooler but we’re in a rush.”
“So when is this thing supposed to grow-”
On cue, a giant space laser out of nowhere hit any surviving bits of the slain fiend that persisted and in a flash of thunder and light, the trio were now looking at a fifteen story tall asteroidae führer. What got their attention more was the shiny portal coming into view just behind it.
“There’s our exit! Scram everypony!”
The trio flew and sprinted for the portal, dodging stomps and smacks from the now kaiju sized kaijin that kicked up droves of gravel and bedrock all around them. Sonata mid-flight, whipped back out her phone and checked the clock while pulling a barrel roll to dodge a stomp.
“Five minutes left on the clock! Will they be okay with this thing running around?”
Megalon, flightless and sprinting at high speed on the ground, hopping onto and over a tentacled fist and tore the door open for them.
“There’s like twenty Sentai teams and Riders in the next quarry over, they’ll be fine! Let’s go! Let’s go!”
“This is it everypony! Alley-Oop!”
====================
Three minutes later the trio emerged out of the Godzilla realm door and into the Hall of Media with dour expressions. Pinkie Pie wasn’t bouncing anymore, she wasn’t even walking and had to be carried out by a downtrodden Megalon. If the cyborg could frown as he petted the deflated, straight maned mare, he would have been. Sonata Dusk emerged last, closing the door behind her and wiping her eyes. Pinkie Pie pawed at the flats of Megalon’s drill to signal him to put her down and he did so. The pony stood up straight for a moment before rising tears stung her eyes and quickly caused Sonata and Megalon to form a hug around her, patting her and stroking her mane to try and get her to stop crying. With the bizarre continuity present in the series, they’d just rushed through forty one years of film history in a matter of seconds. And what they’d seen had brought the Element of Laughter to tears. Tokyo going up in flames in 1954. A hospitalized girl, no more than eight, having a geiger counter pointed at her as the counter went berserk. A repeat incident thirty years later with multiple cities destroyed by angry titans in the years following. The last sight seen was strong enough to cause even Megalon to recoil in fear, one of a 118 meter tall engine of destruction with a Glasgow grin lined with teeth and a body littered with open wounds.
Sonata wiped her own eyes and sighed, looking up at the slots beside the door. Each element key was within its slot, lighting up the displays next to it with the core elements of the franchise.
-Horror
-Tragedy
-Darkness
-Disaster
“S-So… this is what your world’s like?”
Megalon replied in a saddened tone and quiet voice that was in stark contrast to his norm.
“Sometimes… This is what it’s been like a lot lately…”
“And, this what your fans like?”
“... Most of the time….”
Sonata swallowed with the back of her throat and cast a gloomy expression to the cyborg before looking across and down the hall some to the ‘My Little Pony’ door. Even from here she could recall the core elements upon that door, and their stark contrast to the ones at the Godzilla door.
“I… I don’t think we’ll find much in common. I don’t think this crossover is gonna work…”
“Maybe!-....”
Megalon shot up a bit and held up one of his drills in a brief moment of hope. But one look between the two doors shot down any words in his throat before they could form up.
“... Me neither. Probably for the best. People would think it’s too weird anyways…”
Sighing to herself, Sonata cracked one tiny smile and punched Megalon in the shoulder after she stood up and took a step away from the Godzilla door.
“Hey, it’s nothing against you Megs. I’m sure you’ll find some more friends there. Come on, we only got a few more minutes. Maybe we can fit one more quick game in?”
“Okay… Thanks Sonny.”
Megalon sighed and got up to his feet once Pinkie Pie stopped crying. He paced after the siren, only noticing the pony’s absence after a few long moments. He turned his head and called out over his shoulder.
“Hey, Pinkie! You coming?”
Pinkamena had moved from her seat, but in the opposite direction. She stood transfixed in front of the door, but not at the passing images that flickered across the portal behind the doorway; but instead at the element panels.
“Pinkie?”
She reread the panels one by one, stopping at the bottom. Directly underneath the console was six buttons, three glowing, two blinking, and one muted. Taped to the wall was a little slip of paper. Raising a brow, Pinkamena Diane Pie peeled it off and opened it up. It was fairly blank, just a white slip with a couple sentences of black text in the middle in small print. She squinted to make it out.
-”I produced a lot, not just the dark stuff so I know there’s more than one way to do it right. But, some people forget. You’re Laughter, so maybe you should see how he’s given them laughter?” - T.T. 田中 友幸 -
Looking back to the buttons, she noticed that underneath each was scrawled some short form letters, “ORGN”, “SHWA”, “HESI”, “MILL”, “LGND”, “SHIN”. Of the ones glowing, it was “ORGN”, “SHIN”, and “LGND” shining the brightest, with “HESI” and “MILL” flickering off and on. The one labeled “SHWA” had gone out entirely. Pinkamena nudged the "SHWA" button with her snout and it clicked back on to brightness. The buttons' glow modulated, almost like turning “SHWA” back on rebalanced the system. The door swung back open on command and the portal behind it light up with an image. The visage of the nightmarish future Gojira stopped and warped. The buttons labeled “ORGN”, “LGND”, and “SHIN” stopped shining so much and dulled down, not going out but not outshining the others. The image on the screen shifted to a human woman sitting down beside a young dinosaur, the young Godzilla Junior wagging his tail and holding one of Azusa’s stolen shoes in his mouth.
Pinkamena's frown flattened a bit.
“Heh, kinda cute.”
The image rewired itself again, now showing a friendlier looking Godzilla rushing into a fray to shove Titanosaurus away from from a building and some children. More and more images of the sillier, more light hearted times in the franchise flashed by in place of what had previously been nightmares. Baragon’s puppy dog face and floppy ears, the infamous breath propelled flight, everything that is Jet Jaguar including a notorious drop kick, Minya playing with Godzilla’s tail, Godzilla’s bodyslam on Megaguirus, even the blank eyed titan of 2001 now looked a bit silly once the pony spotted his big potbelly. A neutral expression turned to a smile, a smile turned to a grin, and a grin turned to laughter that got Megalon and Sonata’s attention. The element boards to the side of the door reshuffled, more and more previously invisible elements becoming visible.
-Adventure
-Narm Campy
-Family Friendly Action
-Restrained Violence
And then, shining clear as day was the final element. The view on the door warped, this time to people watching the movies at home or in the theater. Many of them with their series T-shirts on and action figures in hand, were children. The final element, one Pinkie Pie recognized from the ‘My Little Pony’ door, was
-Childhood
Her mane instantly reinflated as she popped the element out of its key slot.
“That’s the ticket! That’s what’s the same!”
Pinkie Pie turned around and held up the element to her cohorts, who’d approached and had been watching the fun along with her.
“Most G-fans became G-fans in childhood because most of this stuff has some inherent silliness to it and it’s safe for fillies to watch! Godzilla is many folk’s childhood and My Little Pony both is as well, and brought many folks back to their childhood! If we keep the sillier side of the kaiju in mind, it’s a fit!”
Megalon was delighted, hopping up into the air and clapping his drills together.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we got our crossover!”
A puff of light and smoke poofed into existence beside the trio. Discord moved a pair of spectacles down his snout to give the group a glance, the chaos entity leaning on a grandfather clock that was ticking down to the last minute. With a raised eyebrow, he waved his lionpaw at them with a circular motion before pointing his thumb at the countdown clock. Even as he tried to appear aloof, there was a tiny smile evident on his muzzle.
Oh, and there was only thirty seconds left.
“Not a moment too soon! Quick!”
Sonata barked and the trio sprung into action. Megalon took a flight assisted jump over to the My Little Pony door and popped the ‘Childhood’ element out of its slot as Pinkie Pie tossed Godzilla’s element to Sonata. Sonata threw the element to Megalon with a basketball shot as the cyborg batted the other element over to her with his drills. Sonata caught it and quickly passed it to Pinkie Pie as Megalon caught the other element. With barely two seconds left, the element of one series was put into the other’s slot. A line in the floor lit up, linking the two doors together as the world around everyone began to white out from the dimensional reset. Pinkie Pie, Sonata Dusk, and Megalon exchanged a smile and salute, knowing they might not remember this, but that they would see each other again. And, with the rebalancing of the Godzilla portal, it would be a happy reunion.
=============
Tarbtano, as he was known on the internet, snapped awake, his head flying off his keyboard and eyes refocusing on the blurry, darkened room around him. He groaned, popping his neck and rolling his shoulders as he read the computer clock.
-Urrrrg, 12:13; fell asleep at the computer again…-
Looking back to what he’d been doing, as the sudden jolt had caused the monitor to flick off sleep mode and turn back on, and he spotted the word document he’d been typing at after finishing his lab report for the dragonfly experiment.
-”Untitled Crossover of ????? and _____”
-P.Ranger and WITCH?
-Digimon and Pokemon?
-Star Wars and Trek?
-Maybe something Hasbro?
-DC/Marvel mash-up?
Getting up from his desk to rub his head and stretch his back, he tried to think of what to do. He must have been sleeping for hours so after getting up his tiredness had left him. Had to kill time somehow now. Heading over to his TV set, he looked it over to try and decide if it was going to be a few rounds on the Gamecube or something from the big VHS rack. His eyes trailed onto a certain section of the rack with taped on labels exposed. A bunch of old Godzilla movies arranged in order, mostly VHSs recorded off Sci-Fi channel in his early childhood. He chuckled and picked up one with a typoed word label whose writing was scrawled in eleven year old marker, “Godzila vrs. Magaleon!!”.
-Heh, hello there old friend.-
He snickered from the nostalgia rush, popping it out of the movie sleeve and setting the VHS player to receive it. He’d begun to turn the TV on, but upon looking onto the flickering screen he spotted something else on top of the television. Cast in soft plastic and illuminated by the TV monitor was about a half dozen Blind-Bag My Little Pony figures. Gifts from his girlfriend through the mail when she got a figure or two that was a repeat, each of them brought their own little smile. Picking up a clear Pinkie Pie figure in his free hand, he didn’t fight the widening smile from the nostalgia rush returning for a second run.
That’s when he froze, looking between the toy in one hand and the VHS in another. Tarb grinned as wide as he could, teeth flashing in the TV light. He popped the VHS in and practically flew back to his desk, putting Pinkie Pie on top of the monitor while pounding away at the keys to make a new list and outline.
-”Godzilla and MLP Crossover!
-Kaiju in Equestria
-Campier, funny balance with the darker stuff. Character building focus.
-Showa styled reconstruction
-Dimension Tide causes it
-Title: The Rift? The Merge? The Link?
-The Bridge!”
He scrawled out more details before clicking up skype and seeing a familiar icon still online. Tarbtano popped open the chatbox, scrolling down from the anime list their conversation previously had been going through.
“Faithy, you awake?”
“....”
“You’re up later than usual. What’s up?”
“....”
“I got an idea to bounce off you and Skylark. My first big fanfic!”
