Many dubious, but admittedly harmless, tests later...
"Alright," Twilight said. "It'll take me a while to sort through all this data and come to any conclusions, so why don't you go into Ponyville proper and find something to do in the meantime?"
"Sounds good to me," Rainbow Dash said.
As the group stepped outside, they found that the sun was low in the sky. Since it was Winter, that meant it was probably around late afternoon.
"I didn't realize it was so late," IF said. Suddenly, there was a growling sound.
"Looks like my tummy has a case of the quakes," Neptune said.
"I'm hungry too..." Rom said.
"How about we grab something to eat then?" Rainbow Dash said. "Anybody have anything particular in mind?"
How about sukiyaki? Maiko offered.
"Hmmm, yeah," IF said. "Sukiyaki is a great idea."
"What's..." Rainbow Dash paused, attempting to say the foreign word. "Soo-kee-yah-kee?"
IF frowned. "Sukiyaki is a very popular Hot Pot dish," she explained, her tone suggesting that it should have been obvious.
"Hot Pot... Is that anything like Potluck?" Rainbow Dash asked.
Kind of, maybe? Maiko answered. Except it's traditionally done in the Winter instead of the warm seasons like Potluck.
"So, what do we need for this 'sookeeyackee'?" Rainbow Dash asked next, continuing to butcher the word.
We'll need raw beef, thinly sliced, Maiko started, listing off the common ingredients. Raw vegetables, soy sauce, sugar and mirin. We'll also need a shallow, iron cooking pot.
"We should use shin mirin for Rom's sake," IF added.
"What's... That?" Rainbow Dash inquired, deciding not to even try to say the word this time.
What? Mirin? Maiko asked.
"Yeah. I've never heard of it, so there probably isn't any in Ponyville," she said.
"No need to worry!" Neptune said. "I've gotcha covered!" As she said this, she pulled out a bottle that said '味醂風調味料' on the label.
"I should have the other ingredients at my home," Fluttershy said. "Why don't we eat there?"
"I like that idea..." Rom said. IF shrugged.
"Alright, I guess that's fine," she said.
Inside Fluttershy's cottage...
After they had arrived, Fluttershy had gone and brought the necessary ingredients, as well as a suitable iron pot. IF prepared the stock in the pot right at the table, Maiko helping by offering pointers as she cooked. While those two prepared the stock, Neptune set the table, for some reason having enough dishes and chopsticks for all five of them. By the time the stock was ready, there were five places set, and a small selection of raw vegetables as well as a plate of raw beef slices around the pot that was at the center of the table. As everyone sat down, Rainbow Dash spoke up.
"So, how do we eat it?" she asked.
"Actually, we now have to put the ingredients into the stock and let it simmer, right here at the table," IF answered. She then took her chopsticks and placed a few slices of meat and several vegetables into the pot.
The five sat, waiting for the soup to simmer, Rainbow Dash fidgeting a little. After nearly half an hour, IF finally spoke up.
"Alright, it should be ready to eat now," she said.
The five began to eat, though Rainbow Dash had trouble with the chopsticks for a while at first. "This is actually really good," Rainbow Dash said once she finally managed to eat some. "I wouldn't mind having this again sometime."
After finishing the tasty sukiyaki and cleaning up...
"What should we do now?" IF asked.
"Why don't we go for a nice walk?" Fluttershy offered.
"Yeah, we could show you around," Rainbow Dash added.
"Sounds good to me," IF answered.
"Oh boy, a free guided tour?" Neptune said, excited.
"It sounds like fun..." Rom added.
Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy led the three into town and showed them around. Eventually, as they approached a street corner, someone came bolting around it and rushed past them, bumping into Neptune on the way by.
"'Ey!" Neptune shouted. "I'm walkin' 'ere!"
"Wait, wasn't that Under-?" IF started to ask.
"Thief! Get back- OOF!" IF was cut off by a girl's shout as someone else ran around the corner... straight into Rom. Both Rom and the other person landed on their butts in the snow.
The person was a young girl with shoulder-length blonde hair and yellow eyes. She was wearing a white button-up shirt and a long, blue skirt with straps that went over her shoulders. She had a blue ribbon in her hair, and she had white footwear that resembled socks.
"Ow..." she said, rubbing her head. She looked at Rom, who was also rubbing her head. "Are you ok-" she began to say, before remembering what she was doing. "Wait, I don't have time! I need to get my Grimoire back from that thief!" she said before running off, shouting "get back here!".
"Quick, follow her!" IF said, running after the girl as the others followed.
"Why, what's wrong?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Do you know her?"
"No," IF responded. "But the thief she's chasing? I'm pretty sure it's Underling, and Underling is never up to any good."
The group followed the girl, who eventually ducked into an alley after the thief. When they caught up with the girl, she had the thief - who did turn out to be Underling - cornered at a dead-end.
"There's nowhere left to run," the girl said. "Now give me back my Grimoire!"
"Like hell!" Underling shouted, gripping the book in question.
"Why did you even steal that book in the first place Underling?" IF asked, jumping into the conversation, startling both Underling and the girl.
"It says 'Grimoire' on the cover, doesn't it?" Underling answered, regaining her composure. "Grimoires are supposed to be full of magic, right? Of course I'd steal it!"
"Well, it's mine, not yours!" the girl shot back, turning back to Underling.
Underling laughed. "Like I care," she said. "If I want something that somebody else has, I'm going to steal it!"
"Talking never works with the mooks," Neptune suddenly butted in. "Your supposed to just give 'em a good smack and be done with it!" Neptune then materialized a sword into her hand. She then pointed it at Underling and shouted "I'm gonna beat'cha up!" before rushing forward, slashing Underling, then knocking her up into the air and slashing through her one more time in midair.
"For ffff..." Underling said as she passed out, dropping to the ground. The girl then went and picked up her book, which had dropped to the ground as well. The cover said Grimoire of Alice. The girl then turned to the group.
"Thanks for helping me get my Grimoire back," the girl said. "My name is Alice."
"My name is IF," IF said. "This is Rom, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and-" she continued, gesturing to each one in turn.
"And I'm Neptune, the greatest of all protagonists!" Neptune interrupted.
"Uh, sure," Alice said, giving Neptune a funny look.
And my name is Maiko Hayakawa, Maiko finished. I've somehow been put into Rom's head.
Alice looked like she was going to say something, but IF interrupted her. "We have someone looking into the details," she said. "So don't worry about it for now."
"Okay..." Alice answered slowly. "Anyway, this place doesn't look like it's Makai," she added, looking around.
"It's Ponyville, in Equestria," Rainbow Dash said.
"I've never heard of it," Alice said.
"Hmmm..." IF said. "I've never heard of Makai, but your situation sounds similar to ours. How about you come with us for now? We could go see Princess Twilight and see if she knows where this Makai is and how to get you back there."
"I guess I don't have anything better to do," Alice answered.
Alice has joined!
"I guess it's back to Twi's then," Rainbow Dash said as the six made their way out of the alley.
End of Chapter 4
Alice Margatroid is from Mystic Square I think. I'm bad with PC-98 canon. Or Perfect Cherry Blossom. Also damn, will you keep pulling out unexpected characters? First Seija and now Alice? In like three chapters or so, the group will run into little vampire child in a very dark alley and I won't stop laughing.
8381731
Ha, the trick is, Alice is from both Mystic Square and Perfect Cherry Blossom. She appears in both games. But I want to see if people know which one this Alice is from. Little Scarlet is a bit too OP for them to run into pre-final boss I think, so unfortunately that won't happen, as funny as it would be. I do plan to bring in more characters that weren't in the original, though not exclusively Touhou characters.
8381736
I know she's from both but it kinda depends on if you consider PC-98 canon. I for an example was exposed to Touhou Nekokayou pretty early when getting into Touhou and the comic author had an entire thing on making it canon for the comic. So while I never played PC-98 I know a bit about it (and it's not like I played a lot of Windows era either). Also I'm totally recommending the comic. (Warning! It got discontinued but it's still pretty big.)
8381763
Well, I personally consider PC-98 and Windows as separate canons, because ZUN put a lot of work into making the two canons as difficult to connect as possible by having different backstories for characters that appear in both PC-98 and Windows, the biggest one in fact being Alice, who has a completely different backstory in Windows compared to PC-98. Using the alternate universes theory, I believe that both canons do exist independently though.
8381775
I do love me some alternate universe theories. I for one believe that there is an infinite amount of worlds, we just happen to live in one of the more boring ones. Touhou would be one of the universes I'd like to hop to along with Neptunia and a few others. But oh well.
8381845
Touhou would be a bit dangerous I feel, but Neptunia would almost definitely be fun I think.
8381876
Of course it would be dangerous. That's why it would be interesting. Besides you wouldn't even have to leave the human village for entertainment. Incidents left and right if you wait long enough :P. Neptunia would be actually amazing since all you really need to do to have a time of your life is to train hard and go Planeptune and if you're good enough fate (or Nep's protagonist sense) will pick you up. Alternatively you could become a villain that "has seen the error of their ways" or a someone as magnificent as Anony. (Because everyone loves gay robot the most).
8381954
"gay robot". I can't stop laughing. But yeah. With my low level of physical strength, I would probably train in knife combat, or maybe create my own sword style using a Wakizashi, or possibly study magic if possible in Neptunia. In Touhou, I would definitely try to come to all of Alice's performances in the Human Village, because I think it's implied somewhere that she puts on shows with her dolls in the Human Village. Though I could just be remembering some fan lyrics to her boss theme.
8382076
I'd probably would try to be a mage. If that just didn't work out, then an archer. I really like both of those options. In Touhou... well they do say that everyone has a power, it just doesn't always awaken. It would depend on what it was.
this story is weird I LOVE IT
8390538
The Hyperdimension Neptunia game series is a bit kooky as well, so if this story is a bit kooky, then that's just unintentional accuracy to the source material. XD
8391592
lovely to know nice icon btw
8391601
Thank you. It's Kogasa Tatara from the Touhou Project, except in pony form.
8391608
nice mine just a human drapion (A pokemon)
8391621
Don't worry, I know Drapion. Though I couldn't tell that your pic was a human Drapion until you pointed it out. Now that you have, it seems painfully obvious what it is whenever I look at it. XP
8391638
i wanna do a fan fic about a drapion but the problem is drapion itself drapions are territorial aggressive and hard to take down (unless you have a ground type move)
8391645
Yeah, Drapion aren't very friendly.
(Earthquake is such a good move)8391669
i think if you prove you metal agaisnt one they might see you as a alie might