//------------------------------// // The empire of Crystals, Part nine: A mischievous antic. // Story: A New Tale In Equestria. // by Sylif Daring Doo //------------------------------// _____*the Crystal Empire, the Crystal Fair, 4:16 PM*_____ Roxanne and Skitter walked around the fair, there were stalls and games all around, a few of which Roxanne recognized, like a ball throwing game, another was a ring toss game and there was also a slingshot game where you had to hit as many targets as you could in the allotted time. Roxanne shook off the feeling of nostalgia and walked up to a particular stall with Skitter, which was selling the crystals that Skitter took an interest in, there was a few blue crystals, a couple red ones, some prismatic crystals, and even some reflecting crystals, however there was only one crystal that Skitter seemed interested in, it was a relatively small dark gray crystal with an eerie purple glow, Skitter looked at the merchant. "What's that crystal?" She asked, pointing at the dark crystal. The merchant was a red mare with an orange mane styled into a ponytail, she looked at the crystal and sighed. "That crystal is cursed, it is believed that it will bring its owner extreme torment, no way of destroying it has been found however, so it has swapped owners for generations, understandably, there hasn't been a single buyer for it." She explained. Skitter looked at Roxanne and shrugged. "Why not?" She asked as she looked at the mare. "How much for the crystal?" She asked. The merchant seemed to look Skitter over, apparently attempting to find even the slightest shiver or shake, seeing none, the mare sighed. "As you wish." She muttered. "Twenty bits." She said. Skitter paused and put a hoof to her chin and thought on the offer, soon enough she shrugged. "While I'm positive that the price is slightly higher, I'm curious, you got a deal." She told the mare. Roxanne rolled her eyes and looked around, eventually spotting an interesting gaming stall, she decided to check it out just as Skitter purchased the crystal, Roxxane waited as Skitter put the crystal away and soon started walking to the stall. Skitter followed Roxanne to the gaming stall out of curiosity. 'What's got her attention?' She wondered. Roxanne approached the stall and slightly recognized the game, it was the type of game where you had a limited number of shots to knock over several bottles with a rubber ball, she watched as an earth pony stallion threw the ball and missed the last bottle, he then groaned in frustration. "This game is rigged I swear it!" He shouted. Roxanne waited as the carnie reset the game and got ready for more people. "Anyone else want to test their aim?" He asked. Skitter watched as Roxanne walked up to the carnie. "How much to play?" She asked. The carnie chuckled. "It's three bits to play ma'am, and then you get three chances at the prize." He replied. Roxanne blinked. "What's the prize?" She asked. The carnie pointed to a moderate sack of bits next to him. "Originally it was fifteen bits, but now it's thirty nine bits, knock all of the bottles down and you win." He replied. Roxanne shrugged. "Why not?....might be fun." She then pulled out three bits and received three rubber balls from the carnie. Soon enough, Roxanne got ready to throw the first ball at the bottles, but she quickly looked at the carnie. "How do I know that you didn't glue any of the bottom bottles to the table?...or have some way of keeping at least one up at all times?" She wondered. The carnie smirked and shook his head. "Unless someone came in before me....ain't no possibility of that." He replied calmly. Roxanne rolled her eyes and prepared to throw the first ball. Skitter looked around, seeing no one nearby or staring, she closed her eyes and quickly scanned the bottles and the surrounding area for anything suspicious. 'Might as well do Roxanne a favor.' She thought, she soon found nothing out of the ordinary, thankfully. Roxanne readied her shot and soon threw the ball, aiming at the middle bottle, the ball flew at high speed and soon heavily impacted on the middle bottle, causing it to soon fall down and bring the top row of bottles down along with one other middle row bottle. Roxanne blinked and shrugged it off, she then readied another ball and aimed at the bottom left bottle, she soon threw the ball and it flew at the bottle swiftly, soon impacting on it causing it to drop and the remaining middle and top bottles to collapse downwards eventually leaving only one bottle standing when it settled down. Roxanne rolled her eyes and grabbed the last ball, she gripped it tight and aimed at the final bottle, she quickly threw it at the last bottle, a gust of wind passed by just then however and it soon ended up crashing into the bottle, making it rock heavily, before standing back up perfectly, Roxanne reacted appropriately.....for her. "Fuck you." She gave the bottle the finger and looked at the carnie. "Your hair is on fire." She pointed out before walking off. The carnie chuckled and looked around for more contestants. Skitter sighed and followed her friend, she paused and looked at the carnie and immediately noticed that his head was actually on fire. "You might want to get some water bud." She advised. The carnie blinked and glanced up at his head and noticed the flames.....he immediately passed out after screaming. "FIRE!" Roxanne looked around the nearby stalls and shops, she blinked as she didn't find anything interesting, she then pulled out an old pocket watch and checked the time, seeing that they still had an hour and a half until the tournament, she looked around and soon grinned, she put the watch away and ran off with a mischievous grin. [1] Skitter could only watch as Roxanne vanished into the crowd without waiting, she sighed and facepalmed. "And I'm guessing you expect me to follow her?" She asked no one in particular as she closed her eyes. After a few moments Skitter sighed again and started to search for her friend. "I better get an achievement or some tacos for this bullshit." She muttered. [2] ____*meanwhile*____ Roxanne chuckled and popped out from behind some crates that were half her size, she was somehow concealed from sight. [3] She looked around and soon spotted her targets, Appleack and Fluttershy, she grinned and darted behind her box and soon popped out on top of a nearby roof, she then proceeded to produce a crate out of nowhere, she rubbed her hands together greedily and opened the crate. Roxanne looked around for anyone that could be watching before grabbing the contents of the crate, she then hoisted it over her shoulder and grinned. The object from the crate was long and black, it had two holes in it, one at each end of a tube, there was also a trigger and a small box with yellow warning stripes on it, at the middle of the tube there was a latch that revealed its ammo. "Oh yea......this is gonna be fun." She whispered to someone on her left. Roxanne then aimed at one of roads, she then cackled evilly before shouting. "BAZOOKA!" She shouted before firing. [4] 'I know this is wrong, but it's not like I'm hurting anyone.' She then threw the bazooka away and darted off. _____*meanwhile*_____ Skitter was walking around the fair when she heard a loud bang and a large amount of commotion, she raised an eyebrow at the sight of the large crowd gathering, she walked over and managed to make her way through, seeing Applejack and Fluttershy, but they looked......different. Skitter blinked as she started to approach her friends, she looked at the two of them curiously, examining the changes, Applejack's fur was now a pale green along with her hair, Fluttershy's fur and hair were now a vibrant blue and seemed oddly shiny, the strangest part was the fact that their cutie marks and hair seemed completely randomized, Applejack's Apple cutie mark now seemed to be a piece of bark, Fluttershy's cutie mark was now a rubber ball in place of three butterflies. Applejack's mane and tail now looked like reindeer antlers instead of their classic ponytail fashion, Fluttershy's mane looked like a hedgehog now and her tail now looked like an overlapping array of claws, needless to say they both seemed annoyed, aggravated and embarrassed about the entire change. Skitter could only react to the situation the only way she knew.....she burst out laughing. 'I don't care how rude I'm being right now....this is hilarious!' She screamed in her head. The crowd slowly dispersed after finding that everything mostly fine. _____*meanwhile*_____ Firefly stopped and looked over her shoulder, she had a perplexed look on her face but said nothing, even as Spark stopped and looked at her. "What is it Firefly?" He asked out of concern. Firefly blinked but soon shrugged it off. "It's nothing, just had a weird feeling." She replied truthfully. _____*meanwhile*_____ Roxanne walked into the preparation area for the tournament, she looked around the room and noticed that there was only three others in the room, two stallions that she didn't recognize, and Gwen, who was busy preparing. Roxanne walked over to a stack of crates and sat down, once she made sure nobody was looking, she looked to her right and chuckled. "I know your wondering how I got here so fast.....but it would be more fun to simply swap scenes while I look for the rule book or whatever." She muttered. _____*meanwhile*_____ Skitter walked alongside Applejack and Fluttershy to the tournament grounds, there was only forty minutes until it began, and Applejack wanted to get there with enough time to get ready. Skitter had managed to fix the changes that Fluttershy and Applejack had undergone, so they seemed to have calmed down since then. As they approached the tournament grounds, Fluttershy spoke up. "I'm going to go find a seat, I'll see you two later." She said in her quiet manner before walking off. Skitter nodded and looked at Applejack. "Let's get going, don't have a lot of time." She told her friend. Applejack nodded and looked around for the entrance, seeing the entrance to the preparation area, she started walking toward it with Skitter. ____*one minute later*____ Applejack and Skiiter entered the preparation area and looked around, there was five others in the room, Gwen and Roxanne, two stallions and a mare that neither of them recognized. Applejack then looked at Skitter. "I'm going to get ready, I'll see you later." She said. Skitter nodded and started walking over to Roxanne who was reading the rules of the tournament, when she was close enough she spoke. "How's it looking for you Roxie?" She asked. Roxanne set the rule book aside and grinned. "So far so good, the only thing left to do is get ready." She said. Skitter sighed and looked around for eavesdroppers, seeing none, she looked at Roxanne with curiosity. "Are you sure about this?" She asked. Roxanne nodded. "Come on Skitter, you know me, I'm going to back off." She replied as she ignited her hand. "Besides, someone needs to knock these people down a few pegs." She added as she doused the fire. Skitter rolled her eyes and looked at Gwen and Applejack, who were starting to put armor on. "Regardless, let's just hope that you don't get disqualified." She said before walking off. Roxanne picked the rule book up and continued reading it, she glanced over at the lance she was provided, but she quickly returned her focus on the book. 'Better to know what you can and can't do before competing.' She thought as she read the book. _____*five minutes later, The crystal castle.*_____ Lyaroa opened her eyes, her vision was blurry and she was feeling pain and bitter cold all along her body, she slowly sat up as a sharp pain coursed through her body as her leg bones creaked, she took a deep breath and stood up and more pain shot through her body, she cringed and held her side where the most pain was coming from, she wiped her eyes and cleared her vision, thankfully she had not been moved from the room and Fang's body was still in the chair, she limped over and checked him for a pulse. Lyaroa put her hand over Fang's heart and waited to feel a heartbeat......but none came, she sighed and then channeled some magic into Fang, reactivating his heart. Lyaroa then channeled some healing magic into her own body and immediately felt the pain leave her, she continued to mend herself and soon enough, a thin layer of fur covered her body and her wounds vanished, she stopped channeling and walked over to the door, she dispelled the barrier and opened the door, she then walked over to Fang and picked him up, she slung his left arm over her shoulder and started walking out of the room. 'This should help brighten the day for them.....if it doesn't, I'll give up and destroy the sisters old castle.....seems fair considering all of the bullshit I had to put up with.' She told herself mentally. ____*thirtyfour minutes later.*_____ Roxanne sat on a crate as an announcer declared the start of the tournament and all of the other stuff he had to go over, she then looked around the room, seeing a large number of people ready to joust today, she chuckled and looked at Gwen and Applejack, both now fully garbed in armor, Roxanne resisted the urge to laugh, she then looked at her side and at the lance that she had strapped to it, she rolled her eyes at the insanity that was about to ensue. 'Now that I think about it.....before all of this happened I was about to be scrapped, i never would have imagined all of this....it's also good that I got a better breathing habit then what Gwen showed us, it was good for starters but it was awkward as hell.' She shook her head free of these thoughts and decided to focus on the tournament. The announcer then shouted out the names of the first two combatants. "And now, for the first battle of the day, Helix and Applejack!" He declared. Roxanne mentally sighed in relief, as the names were drawn randomly from a basket, she watched as Applejack and her opponent marched out to the field to begin their round, Roxanne could only sigh and watch as the two combatants got into position. "Game start." She muttered.