Jade and the fillies were huddled up together on the second floor of the antique shop, staring down as they watched Uncle at work dusting. "Alright, the preparations are almost complete," Jade whispered to the others as she hung up the phone. "Jumping Jackal will be in the den in time for Operation Surprise...though I don't know what he got as a present. Everyone else's preparations complete?"
Sweetie Belle nodded eagerly. "The decorations are in place, ready to expand back to normal size for visibility with a single casting. Unc- sorry, 'ancient rabbit'," she corrected herself as Jade glared at her playfully, "won't suspect a thing."
"And I've managed to find a cake recipe that he'll be able to digest without problems that'll taste good to us, too," Apple Bloom spoke up, not quite as eagerly as Jade or Sweetie had been.
"And I've got an accurate weather report for the big day!" Scootaloo added excitedly. "The early morning gentle fog that Uncle loves so much, burning off with the first rays of the sun as the sky lights up, with just enough cloud cover to keep it from being too bright for his eyes or skin so he'll be perfectly comfortable, ending on an orange and violet sunset painting the sky in my colors."
Three sets of eyes spun to stare at Scootaloo. "And how do you know all that much?" Jade asked flatly.
"I...may have bribed a few fairies with a cupcake to get the info," Scootaloo admitted. "Turns out Uncle's got a real big rep with the local Unnoticeds, and they'd been retroactively shaping his birthday to have perfect weather for him...once I told him what would be best. They reached back several weeks to ensure nothing got destabilized by the shaping, and everything would be within the natural error tolerances of the existing weather systems."
"...wow..." Jade murmured softly, shaking her head. "You'd think I'd be used to this sort of thing by now." Clearing her thoughts, she grinned. "So how's everyone doing on presents? I figured a good memory would make a good gift, considering how much Uncle wants to make memories with all of us, so I got a picture of all of us together at dinner when we were dealing with the Rooster Talisman-"
"The 'chew soup' incident?" Sweetie Belle asked teasingly, causing giggles all around.
"Yeah," Jade confirmed, rubbing the back of her head. "Anyway, I've got it in a nice picture frame with 'Happy Family' written at the top in hanzi. What about the rest of you?"
Sweetie Belle grinned widely. "I did something in the same vein. I wasn't able to find a single good image to capture what I was going for, so I made a collage of happy times from Uncle raising the three of us. Not all pictures, though. I had to draw a few things, and also added a few mementos-"
"Broken chopsticks?" Scootaloo offered teasingly, ducking Sweetie Belle's swung hoof.
"So what did you get Uncle, Scoot?" Jade asked intently.
Scootaloo's grin split her face. "I got him his own personal rainbow," she explained eagerly. "Two tiny clouds stuck together with a rainbow between them. He can pull them apart to let the rainbow light shine out, to always put a smile on his face. You know how much Uncle likes rainbows."
Jade's smile began to fade. "Okay, I definitely need to start learning magic at some point. There's no way I can compete with you three, otherwise."
"It's not a competition, Jade," Sweetie Belle chided playfully. "What matters is the effort we put in, not the result. That's what Uncle will value."
"Speaking of effort," Scootaloo added, turning to Apple Bloom, "you haven't shifted from your potion kit since you finished the cake. What have you been trying to make, anyway?"
Apple Bloom lowered her head. "Umm...remember back when Jackie brought home the Sheep Talisman? When I talked about a spell to make Uncle a teenager for a few hours so we could all do stuff together?"
"Vaguely," Jade offered nervously, fearing she was about to be outshone again.
"Well, I thought I'd figured out how to make it a potion, so Uncle could just drink it for a few hours full of youthful energy, and I wanted ta perfect it as a birthday present." Her eyes dimmed. "But ah just can't get it ta work right. All it does is grow nerves back..."
"Grow nerves back?" Scootaloo asked, shocked. "How'd you manage that?"
"Got some ideas from the Horse Talisman," Apple Bloom explained. "Mixed in a few petals from the blossoms on mah tree out back. Gives it a boost. But all it does is restore dead nerve cells all over the body and in the brain, but Uncle don't need that."
"You...made a potion to regenerate brain cells, and you're disappointed?" Jade asked, stunned. Scootaloo also looked a little miffed.
"Well ah can't make enough ta mass produce it," Apple Bloom countered. "Takes too much magic and apple blossom petals from just mah tree, and not any other, ta work. And it's not like Uncle has memory problems or paralysis, so it's useless ta him. Some birthday present..."
"Well, you managed to make and perfect a new magical potion formula," Jade offered comfortingly. "You could offer that as a way of showing how much you value all he taught you. Give him the gift of a skilled student?"
Apple Bloom managed a small smile. "Ah guess...just wish it was what ah actually wanted. Ah'm just...missing something..."
"You'll figure it out," Sweetie Belle offered confidently.
"And if you can't do it alone, we'll help!" Scootaloo added.
"Me too," Jade concluded as the group pulled Apple Bloom into a reassuring hug.
Apple Bloom managed a more genuine smile. "So...what about music for the party?" she asked, turning the discussion towards something happier.
"Maybe some hip hop?" Jade offered hopefully.
"Uh uh," Sweetie Belle instantly shot down the suggestion. "Trust me, Uncle's hip does not hop."
Giggles followed, leading to a more leisurely discussion.
"Oh hey, you just cured Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and paraplegia!"
"Meh."
Calling it now, the nerve healing potion is going to save someone's life later down the road.
Kanji? Since when are they Japanese?
Hacha! If memory serves Echo correctly, Jackie will be returning with the Dog Talisman! And very shortly thereafter will come the Pig Talisman!
And then, Angry Crow shall Take Flight! Audrey III shall have much fun!
Apple Bloom could make a cure for cancer, and she'd still think it's not good enough...
7712568 Not to mention Uncle feeling young again. That was good.
Guess Jade is presented with a quite a difficult task this time.
Weather or not Scootaloo's present is good enough is probably out of the question.
Wow Apple Bloom, the nerve thinking Uncle wouldn't be happy you tried your best.
7712563
Kanji are Chinese characters.
The Japanese specific characters are Hiragana and Katakana.
7712568 Neural Regen combined with Dog Talisman for increased effectiveness? That could work...
I needed something sweet like this today. Thank you.
Let's just hope Jade doesn't mouth off this time around. For the CMC's sake. Since Uncle's like a father to them.
7712587 I read that in Uncle's voice.
Chapter Sixty Two
"Aiyah!"
Chapter Count: 0
Total Count: 34
"One More Thing!"
Chapter Count: 0
Total Count: 63
Oh my god, it's beautiful.
And again you have hit me right in the feels. This was so sweet. I loved how the CMC bribed the supernatural community to make the weather perfect on Uncle's birthday.
7712587 Except the Chinese don't call them kanji, that's what the Japanese call them. In Chinese, they are called hànzì
(I had to look up what the Chinese called them, but I already knew that "kanji" is a Japanese term)
Zecora : I am really impressed with you three.
Applejack : Wow, AB, you just got us a brand new Apple product ...in a brand new market too.
Nurse Redheart : Do you want a job in the pharmacy department, Applebloom?
7712702
...really?
News to me.
...and looking it up, it's even the same word with different pronunciations.
7712715 Admittedly it is a niggle, but I figured that being raised by Uncle they would use the Chinese pronunciation
7712725
...especially since it's Jade who was saying it, and she grew up in Hong Kong...
7712751 ...
This kind of dedication to accuracy in details for a chapter with barely ever more than 1100 words is a great portion of what makes your stories so awesome, even when they tear canonical events into so much confetti and glitter because "screw stupid things."
Aww, that's so sweet. And if this is the Uncle birthday episode, then that means...
i2.wp.com/24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m6tigvZfrr1rt4uygo1_r1_400.gif
SOON.
7712795
Here's a response to that gif:
"HEDGEHOG DEFENDS OLD TREE!!!"
7712559cHEKOV'S GUN SAVES LIVES!
Dude Apple Bloom just needs to sell one of those potions and she would be sitting pretty for the year.
7712938
...you did catch that the only way to make it is using part of a tree from Equestria, that's the only tree of its sort on the planet, right?
7712558 And possibly Parkinson's Disease as well.
7712896 That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever
7713242 Chekov's gun is a trope wherein something or some one is mentioned or shown early in a play/movie/series, only to be used to solve a problem later in the series. Both the recording carrot pen and the blueberries from Zootopia are examples of this.
Link
Wait a minute... I thought there are only the CMCs and Jade in this chapter. Shouldn't it be 'Three sets of eyes' instead?
7713301 1.Applebloom 2. Sweetie Belle 3. Scootaloo 4.Jade
four sets of eyes
Touching chapters like this are a big part of why we love your fics so much Tatsurou. Looking forward to more.
Keep up the great work. Deus tecum.
7712558
Well like she said, its not something that can be mass produced, so not a general cure, and Uncle fortunately isn't afflicted with any of those aliments.
I'm reminded of part of an episode of an old show, Kung Fu the legend continues, which had the main character, a Shaolin Monk, who has just cured a little girls serious medical condition using ancient traditional medicine talking to the girls doctor. The Doctor is investigating what he did to see if the cure could be used to save others with the condition but basically it came down that the 'mystical' cure was tailored very specifically to the one person so it couldn't serve as a widespread cure for the condition.
Similar concept here and with magical cures for mundane aliments in general. The Mystical medicines tend to be incredibly effective but work under very narrow circumstances or have some sort of cost that makes them limited use only. So they can treat things modern medicine can't but can't reliably help as many people over all.
7712974 a couple of leaves is not going to hurt a tree. Considering what surgery costs, the potion could be sold for 100k. Just one would set her up for the year. But AB is just too nice to charge what it could potentially go for. So I still don't see her making many of these.
When is Zecora coming for these 3? Applejack and Rarity must be worried sick by now!
7713395
So Scootaloo's staring at herself? Cause that's who's being stared at with all the eyes.
Just saying.
7713659 sorry my mistake
7713581 Interuniverse time dilation. Time doesn't exist in the Void, ergo years pass in one universe, seconds in another, if that long. Pretty convenient at times, a major pain most of the time.
Hey, with Uncle, ya never know...
7713690 Either way, the time will come, like all your other displaced stories on here, where their friends and family from Equestria will come to bring them home.
7712568 Thank you for sharing angry crow
i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/facebook/000/702/166/6db.jpg
I'm gonna need to raid an Orville Rekenbaucher warehouse
7712568
But will the Emu stand on Mountaintop?
7713706
Actually, several of them have the displaced making their own way home.
7713986 Either way, sooner or later they'll have to go home. Don't want this story to go one for too long!
7714307
I have five seasons to go through.
7714312 That's what I was afraid of.......
7714334 Why afraid? You mentioned too long but I get kinda pissed when I get to the end of these stories. The way Tats writes these tales brings a whole new way to enjoy a lot of the shows and games I grew up playing. Embrace the displaced and enjoy the stories. Ignore the distance from now to the end, and if you don't like a specific story then don't read it.
7713294 ohhh i see
Was rewatching Jackie Chan Adventres. In episode 2, didn't tohru fully intend to cut Jade open with a sword to get the talisman?
7714422 There is also My Little PWNY to look ahead for. It's still vapourfic though.
7714495
Go back to the chapter covering that event, Heart and Soul, and give it a reread. Did an entire dive into Tohru's mind covering that event.