Life is a Runway - Step into the Limelight
The week had gone by like nothing. The city was peaceful again, no Corrupted dared to rear its ugly head and no reports of Remnants. And Phoenix was glad about it; while fighting as Alchemy was fun; it still meant that something was going very wrong. He was glad about every day that went by without the need to play the hero. Still, didn’t mean he could let his training slip, especially with Thunder as his brother, he pushed him so he would become more familiar with his powers. It was not like he didn’t understand that, he just treasured his free time. And today would be one of the rare occasions where he would get some of it.
Thunder was invited by Rarity, the girl he saved from some Remnants last week, to help him in some last minute preparations for a fashion show at “Carousel Boutique”. And since today was also off-day at the “Magnum Opus” he would have the rest of the day to himself. He had waited for this opportunity. His work as a waiter combined with his duties as Alchemy had left him drained.
Well, all that was still a little bit away since Thunder would only leave around two pm, in the meantime, he would have to bear the excitement of his brother, something he had grown quite skilled at in his youth. Still, it was always a test of patience his brother was determined to make as hard as possible.
Thunder had spent the entire morning walking up and down the apartment and mumbling to himself: “What am I going to wear?”, “Where is my cellphone?” and “Does my hair look good?” were only a few of the countless questions he asked himself out loud.
“Relax, it’s not like you are on a date or something.” Phoenix tried to calm his brother down, for Thunder's sake and for his own.
“Of course not, but still this is a fashion show, you have to look good or I will be the laughingstock of the entire day.” He frantically replied, not bothering to stop and simply continued to pace up and down through their living room.
“You know that only the models need to look good, not the guests?”
“Sure, but still a little class never hurt anyone, now did it. Oh, why am I even asking, you don’t know anything about that anyways.”
“Oh, I can appreciate good clothing, especially a good suit.” Phonix started to grin while Thunder just groaned.
“Anyways, you know what to do while I’m gone? Let no one in, don’t touche any ingredients and most important, and I can’t stress this enough, don’t, under any circumstances are you to touch my recipe collection!” He had turned to Phonix and was eying him carefully.
“As if anyone would steal that, they could just throw some ingredients together and stumble upon one of them.” One look from his brother was enough that he backpedaled immediately. “I mean, sure. I’m not touching anything, just going to sit here and do absolutely nothing. Ok?”
“That is good to hear, so you could help me with some last minute things before I go, only if you want of course.”
“Knowing what your ‘only if you want’ means, sure it’s not like I have much of a choice.” He replied dryly.
“You learn fast I see, at least that.” He chuckled back and both went to do the last things Thunder wanted to be done before he left the house.
>-------<A>-------<
Time flew by like nothing and Thunder and Phoenix stood at the front door of his restaurant.
“So, just be careful. And if there is any problem, just call me. Let’s hope the pizzeria is still standing when I’m back.” He sighed looking at Phoenix.
“Oh, come on, I’m not that bad. You should know that, we lived together for an eternity.” He replied starting to get annoyed.
“Oh yeah, that is why I’m worried. Do you remember what happened to my books?”
“Well, you know, that wasn’t really my…”
Before he could finish however Thunder continued: “And what happened on my seventeenth birthday?”
“That could have happened to anyone.” He was starting to get sweaty, why did he need to do this now?
“And do not forget the noodle incident, or do I have to elaborate?” He asked his brother with a smug smile on his lips.
“Ok, fine maybe I can be pretty destructive, but come on, you trust me, don’t you. I can handle a few monsters, so please I can handle an empty restaurant,” he started to break down, hoping this wouldn’t turn into one of Thunder’s endless tirades.
“Sure, beating up people is a valuable skill in keeping a shop save,” he replied sarcasm oozing from every word he spoke. Phoenix just rubbed his head and stared into another direction. “Oh come on, I trust you. I’m sure nothing too terrible is going to happen. Just be careful.”
“Yeah, sure. I’ll be careful,” he replied, still somewhat embarrassed.
“So see you later.” And with that, he walked away waving his hand towards Phoenix.
After waving back he closed the door and walked back towards the door of the kitchen as he suddenly heard a knocking on the door. Sighing he turned back and opened the door.
“Did you forget anything Thunder, I’m sure… You are not Thunder!” Infront of him stood a woman with light yellow skin and electric blue hair in a blue t-shirt and brown jacket, a motorbike helmet under her arm. “Summer, what are you doing here? You should know that today is your free day.”
“Oh, of course, I know that. It’s just, my friends are all busy and I didn’t want to waste the day. So, I thought, the boss isn’t here and we hadn’t really time to get to know each other that well, why not spend the day with you. Sounds good?” Not even waiting for an answer she continued. “Sounds good!”
“Nice that I have so much control over how I spend my free time again. Like really, did any of you ever hear about the concept of asking someone? I have and would love you two to apply it more often. Starting with, asking me how I want to spend my free time.”
He was about to close the door again but Summer continued: “Oh come on. This will be fun. Trust me, we can have fun without the boss around getting on our nerves.” She stepped a closer and whispered: “And you can show me your suit, I never really seen it anyways.”
She was getting uncomfortably close. Phoenix stepped back, Summer using the opportunity and stepped inside the restaurant, closing the door behind her. “Sure, see yourself in, not like could stop you,” he grumbled. ”By the way no. I will not use the Alchemy Driver in here, or how do you expect me to explain the burn marks on the floor while I transform. And no, I’m also not using Wind Form, that just causes too much work cleaning everything up again. So forget all about Alchemy for the day. I would love to have an off day without turning into Alchemy, thank you very much.”
“Partypuper! Ok fine, no Kamen Rider business, but come on, hanging out would be super fun. A little company wouldn’t kill you, would it now?” She playfully asked.
“Fine, you can stay. Well as long as you follow Thunders rules, that means: Let no one in, well already broke that one. Not even a minute, that is a new record. Don’t touche any ingredients, that means you have to buy your own food and touching his recipe collection is strictly prohibited. Did you get that? Fine, don’t break them or I will suffer.” Admitting defeat, he knew that she would probably annoy him till he obliged or never let this down. He would simply spare himself the suffering and just let her have her will, couldn’t be that bad could it now.
“Yay, I knew that would work. Come, let us seak a nice place to sit and have some fun,” she cheered and walked directly towards the kitchen, opening the door and disappearing behind it.
“I hope you have more fun than me right now Thunder because I think my plans for a nice quiet day just evaporated into thin air.” He sighed and followed Summer.
>-------<A>-------<
Indeed Thunder was having a blast, all the different outfits worn by the guest alone inspired him to so many different new pizzas. What would the actual clothes look like that the contestants designed, he was really getting excited about the actual show?
“Oh, this is so great, I can’t wait for it anymore. A thousand thanks again for inviting me Rarity. You can’t believe how many ideas are forming in my head. I might actually overflow with them,” Thunder basically just blabbered out, so excited was he about the whole thing.
“I know darling, still I would need your help right about now for a while. You don’t mind do you?” Rarity asked him sweetly.
“You don’t have to ask, I have been dying to see the best dresses of the day anyway.”
“Oh, you are flattering me, but we shouldn’t waste any more time now should we.” With that, she gestured him to follow her into a side room of the boutique. Here the contestants could place the finishing touches on their outfits. When they entered they could see Rarity's competitors, in total there were four others with their respective assistants.
From what he could see at a first glance, the competition was quite good, they certainly weren’t amateurs. Good stitching, well-balanced colors, and well-rounded shapes made their outfits quite the fierce competition for Rarity. Not that this would be a problem, since her designs still were probably the best in the rooms, well at least if it was up to him anyway.
In one corner of the room, a girl with yellow complexion and whitish purple hair in a purple dress tended to her creations. Three dresses, the first one being a long flowing yellow dress. The second was a similar cyan dress and last a pink dress in the same style with a stylish feather hat.
The second contestant was a boy in a white designer suit with blue sleeves. His skin was a light brown, but the most distinct thing about him was his hair that was curled up in something he couldn’t quite describe. Maybe a mixture between a pompadour and a spiral. Adding to that his hair was a mixture of bright blue and lighter and darker shades of pink. But he had to admit together it looked quite good.
On his clothes rack also hung three pieces of clothing. First was a neon blue one with light blue trousers and a cape which was magenta on the inside. His second piece was a short white dress with bright blue, light blue and magenta stripes around the skirt. And the last dress was yellow for the most part, but the front was a mixture of different colored squares in white red and green.
The third opponent had set up shop in one of the darker corners of the room, a girl with grey complexion and dark grey hair. She wore a short black dress with spider net-like design worked into it. Her creations reflected that quite well, the first being a long black trenchcoat with an absurd amount of straps on it. The second one was a combo of a leather jacket with spikes around the collar and a dark trouser, both obviously black. And her last piece was a black t-shirt with matching trousers, as well as a hoody with spider-web motive.
Her last opponent was a Crystal Prep student, she had pink skin with bound back purple hair and a light blue scarf. She seemed rather confident, next to her stood her assistant, a pale girl with short light blue hair. Compared to her partner she seemed rather shy and timid. The first outfit she had brought was a blue dress with purple accents that left the back exposed. Her next dress was a practice the opposite, mainly purple with blue accents and last another purple dress with blue straps crossing over the chest and a belt in the same color. All of the outfits had one thing in common, the material that was used for the purposes parts was accented by a complex pattern, drawing the observer in.
Rarity eyed the competition but ultimately moved towards her clothing, Thunder following right behind her. “Here are my beauty, what do you say,” she pointed at the three dresses she had designed. First was a long flowing dress in green and cyan with pink highlights separating the different fabrics. A golden sun emblem was mounted right above the chest and white wings extending towards the shoulders of the wearer. The second dress, like the first on, was long flowing, but this time it was made out of a dark blue fabric that turned brighter the further it went on, ultimately archiving a bright night sky blue. The dress was decorated with small white dots that represented stars and a crescent moon on the chest. At the feet, light blue stones were mounted. The last one was made out of a cyan fabric and decorated with a darker blue and purple layer under it. The entire dress was crisscrossed with thin lines and whenever where the lines meet a gem, or more precise colored glass was placed.
“Wow, I have never seen such beautiful dresses, no beautiful is not enough, breathtaking,” he encountered, stunned by Rarity's creations. “I don’t know how you could improve upon them in any way, shape or form.”
“Oh, my thank you, but there is no such thing as perfect dear,” Rarity wasted no time and walked over to her cloth rag, ready to lay the finishing touches on her creations. “So what do you think, I still need to choose the colors for the last few glass crystals. If you’ll help me I’m sure this will lock glorious!”
“Hhh, I think this one would work perfectly here and that and this one here and there.”
“Oh, this is excellent, it’s like you can read my mind,” Rarity exclaimed
While they were discussing the placement of the last details two other contest tests came closer towards them. The Crystal prep student with her assistant and eyed the new arrivals curiously. The smaller girl fixating on the star-dress in particular and eyed it curiously.
“My, Rarity your designs are gorgeous. You have to show me some of your tricks someday.” She seemed friendly enough but something just was off about her. Maybe it was the way she talked or something different, but Thunder was not comfortable around her. “And who is your little assistant here, or should I say big assistant?” she joked, pointing at him and laughed for a short while “Okay?”
“Oh Suri, that is Thunder Cloud. Thunder this is Suri Polomare, she is a student at Cristal Prep and an old friend from when we were younger, you know even younger. Thunder owns a pizzeria in the city and he volunteered to help me today, darling.” Rarity replied joyfully but was still occupied by stitching on the last details of the dress.
“He owns a pizzeria? That doesn’t sound like the type of person that would know a lot about fashion, no offense.” She chuckled shortly and added: ”Okay?”
“Oh, really? I’m sure Thunder didn’t take it to hard, did you now darling?” she asked looking over at her assistant who in return only shook his head. “And believe me, he is magnificent when it comes to design and similar things.”
“I see, but isn’t it a bit late for improvements for your dresses, the show starts in about one hour. Usually, you finish that beforehand and leave it not until the last minute,” Suri was rather skeptical about the way Rarity was doing things.
“I like to let the location inspire me so it fits in better, you understand dear?”, Rarity asked the girl, still looking only at her work.
“Hmm, oh that makes total sense, I wish I would have come up with that,” she continued smiling.
“Oh, by the way, dear, who is your little friend here? I have never seen her before. Is she also from Crystal Prep, or from somewhere else?” While she talked Rarity smiled at the young girl, she finally looking away from the dress she had been fixated on for the entire conversation. The girl nervously smiled back at her.
“That is my assistant, Coco Pommel. She asked me to teach her in the way of needle and thread. She is doing adequate, however, her speed has to improve or she will never really bring it far.” While Suri spoke Coco looked at her feet, seemingly disappointed by the words of her mentor, apparently contemplating if she wanted to say something.
“But taking your time with something can also be quite effective. What good does it do for you if in the end you just manage to deliver an insufficient piece of work? You have to put your very soul into whatever you're doing, no matter how long it may take,” Thunder had spoken up, feeling like he could bring his opinion to the conversation.
“Sure, that is important, but you have to work with deadlines. You of all people should know that very well or are your customers ok with simply waiting an eternity for their food?” She countered looking at him with a confident look in her eyes.
“Touche. Sure if I take to long my customers won't come back, but if you rush it and deliver a pizza that is not fully finished and soggy they will leave as well. You have to find the right balance or you will not succeed, just like everywhere else,” he had started to philosophize, his eyes staring aimlessly at the ceiling, lost in his thoughts.
“Aha, interesting, I will keep that in mind, but now I have to bid you adieu. I have my own clothes to tend too, I hope you understand.” With that Suri turned around and returned to her own dresses.
Coco meanwhile didn’t move from the spot she stood at and shyly looked at the floor, twiddling her thumbs. “Ahm, miss Rar… miss Rarity, one of your dresses is… there is a…”
Before she could finish what she wanted to say Suri called out to her: “Coco, would you be so kind and come over here I have something I would want to talk with you about.” She immediately turned around and rushed towards her mentor, not without blurting one last: “Sorry!” out.
“Hmm, wonder what she wanted,” Thunder thought out loud.
Rarity immediately returned: “Probably simply liked one of my dresses, don’t you think dear?”
“I have got to be honest, but I’m not entirely positive about that. It seemed she wanted to say something else, but right now we have bigger problems to deal with. Emerald or sapphire, which one do you think would fit here.”
Rarity simply nodded and went back to work: “You know, I think a ruby would work wonders here.”
“Perfect, why didn’t I thought of that. I hope Phoenix is having as much fun as we have here.”
“I’m sure he is,” she replied to her assistant.
>-------<A>-------<
Phoenix wasn’t sure if he was happy right now or seriously annoyed. Summer had invited herself without asking him first or caring what he wanted to do today. No, she simply showed up at the doorstep and basically just walked in. Still, he liked her company, she was funny and working with her was always entertaining, but this, it just didn’t sit right with him.
They had moved up a floor and now sat in the living room just talking to each other what they should watch. “No, no, no. We are not watching the soccer match between the Seaddle Neighers and the Canterlot Wonderbolts. You know I don’t like sports.”
“I only thought you don’t like doing sport. You don’t have to do anything just sit here and watch. Oh come on, I would love to see the game, that one is important. And I want to see the Wonderbolts kick ass. Please. Pretty please?” Summer begged, giving him her best puppy eyes look she could muster.
“No and no. Even watching sport makes me feel physically exhausted and by the virtue that I live here, I decide what we are going to watch. And I have just about the right thing right here,” Phoenix pulled out a set of four blu-rays of the new Power Ponys TV season. The cover showed the six heroes and her sidekick standing in the center of the cover. Looming over their heads were six villainess figures looking down upon the heroes and a city in the background.
“But can you actually watch that, aren’t you physically exhausted when they fight, like with sports?” Summer mockingly asked him.
Phonix grinned smugly and answered: “Oh, no that is only when something actually looks taxing or is boring, like sports. Something that is entertaining like a fun superhero series is not exhausting, it is a delight,” Phonix encountered, stretching himself as he spoke.
“Sure it is fun and that is definitely the only reason you watch it and not because of you playing a superhero in your free time, “Summer jokingly retorted. ”and in the time you should work,” she muttered to herself.
“Oh come on, I’m not that narcissistic. And I have a simple explanation for that: two of them have similar powers like Alchemy in his different forms. First Fili-Second with her super speed is similar to Thunder Form and Zapp has lightning based powers as well. And by watching this show I might pick up some nice ways of using my powers in a creative way.” Phoenix’s grin was as wide as it could be, knowing fully well that he had won this argument.
“Fine, fine, whatever, we watch your stupid show. Happy now?” The annoyance clearly audible in her voice.
“Eeyup, pretty much,” he grinned back at her.
“I just have one question left, why are called Power Ponies. They don’t look like horses to me and as far as I remember their powers are not tied directly to horses either. So why the name?”
“Oh, that is a great question. Allow me to elaborate: Before time, before space and before the universe there was…” he didn’t come any further because Summer already had cut him off.
“If I had known that you would recite the complete history of an entire fictional universe to explain this to me I would have never asked in the first place.”
“Oh come on, it won't take that long, just let me start again and…”
“No! I’m not interested anymore, just going to roll with it. Just put the stupid thing in already so we can start. Maybe this will be at least somewhat entertaining.” She grumbled a little annoyed.
“Fine, if you are not interested in it I can’t help you. But before we start I have one question for you, how did you end up here in the first place. Simple job interview or is there more to it. Knowing my brother it’s probably more,” Phonix joked and looked over to his coworker.
“Well, when Thunder came to Canterlot City I was basically jumping from job to job, never staying long with one, nothing really satisfied me. I initially wanted to become an athlete, my specialty was sprinting, but I just never was good enough and had to accept this. What was even worse is that my father was a professional in this field and he had trained me from small on and to say that he was disappointed was an understatement. He was devastated and I just couldn’t see him like this anymore, so I decided to start working, whatever was available so I could move out from home and not see the look of disappointment on his face,” her usual upbeat attitude had vanished, now acting way more mellow.
“I… I’m sorry that I dug up this uncomfortable memory of yours, I didn’t know. You don’t have to continue if you don’t want to,” Phoenix asked her, taken aback by the story she had told him.
“No, no it’s fine. I’m over it and that basically thanks to Thunder. The day he arrived in the city I had just terminated my last job, I worked retail. That was just one of the many jobs I had and like the rest, I just didn’t feel comfortable with them. So I was there, walking aimlessly through the city as someone called out to me from the entrance of the train station, your brother obviously. He asked me about the way to an address in the city, the one to the ‘Magnum Opus’, well the building before it became the ‘Magnum Opus’ anyway,” Summer seemed to get happier with every word she spoke.
“Let me guess, you helped him?” Her happiness seemed infectious, Phoenix’s mode raising, just like hers.
“Yeah had nothing better to do anyway. So I lead him towards his destination. During our little trip, he kept blabbering on about pizza, the art of cooking and the creations he would be able to bring to his customers. The strangest part, I actually liked it. I listened and replied a few time, to my surprise time was really flowing by and as we arrived at his goal I didn’t want it to end. He offered to continue our conversation inside and I happily obliged.”
“Sounds just like Thunder, he can lull you in and before you know it hours have passed without you even realizing it. He is a master of sweet talking, but you should know that you worked with him for over half a year.”
“Yeah, I learned that this day. He even managed to get me to talk about my father and current situation and I only knew him for about two hours. That is talent if I ever saw it. And of course, after I told him my sob story he offered me a job, at first I didn’t really know how to respond, he was nice, pleasant to be around and I was jobless so this seemed like a perfect opportunity. And ultimately he convinced me and I had this job ever since,” Summer concluded her tail and looked over to Phoenix.
“Yep, that sounds like Thunder. Glad this worked out so good for you in the end. Funny how the life sometimes goes, if you wouldn’t have to meet Thunder that day who knows what you would do now.”
“Yeah, yeah, sure, fascinating. Not to be rude, I didn’t come here to ponder about philosophy. So are we going to watch your stupid superhero show or not?” Well, she was back to usual, not sure if that was something positive or not.
“Sure, sure, let me just put in the disc.” Standing up he took the first case and turned on the TV.
After he was finished inserting the disc into the blu-ray-player he returned back to the couch. “Aren’t you forgetting something?” Summer asked him with one of her eyebrows raised.
“Not that I remember, TV is on, the disc is in and I have the remote. Everything is perfect.”
“Yeah, everything is perfect, expect the light is still on, would you be so kind and turn it off?”
It took a second to realize what she meant, it came crashing down upon him. She was right: “Oh, ups. I just going to turn it off, just one moment.” He stood up, walked over to the switch, turned the light off and returned to the couch.
“Thanks,” she in return thanked him and they started to watch the series, Phoenix way more enthusiastic then Summer.
>-------<A>-------<
Meanwhile, the last hour of preparations had passed and everyone was forced to leave the room the clothes were stored.
“I hope we managed to get everything as perfect as possible,” Rarity worried
“I assure you Rarity, everything is just about as perfect as it can get. I’m sure you will win,” Thunder tried to assure her.
“I know, but this is still so exciting and nerve-wracking!” Rarity basically squealed out, which turned into nervousness as she continued.
His attempted to calm her down was interrupted by someone speaking through the speakers that usually played music. “The show will start in exactly fifteen minutes, all contestants are to gather in the backroom immediately.” The voice sounded rather uptight and not patient, they probably shouldn’t waste any time.
“Oh, miss Hemline calls us, we should probably hurry,” Rarity urged Thunder to move as quickly as possible, but still not in a too ungraceful way.
As they reached the door leading to the room where the outfits were stored someone was already waiting for them, a woman with dark grey complexion and short greyish-pink hair. She wore a dark purple blazer with golden outlines and a white shirt underneath. Completing her outfit were pink trousers. Her name was Prim Hemline Rarity informed him as they came closer.
“Oh, Rarity, I see your time at my boutique has indeed improved your punctuality, sadly your competitors are not here yet, they should really be more on time. Let us wait inside for them, hopefully not for too long,” as she spoke she opened the door. What they could see inside surprised everyone. A monster was currently working on Rarity's dress with the moon on its chest, completely oblivious that someone had opened the door.
“How dare you!? You will leave your filthy hands from my creations, or you will regret the day you were born!” Rarity was furries, how dared this … this thing touch her dresses. Thunder was rather taken aback by Rarity's sudden angry demeanor, well but he could understand her if someone tried to mess with his pizzas he would react similarly.
Now the monster had realized that it had been discovered and stood up, now facing the three. It was clad in a white and black dress that reached up to her knees. It resembled somewhat a maid outfit, strangely enough. Her legs were covered in long frilly black and white socks and she wore black high-heels. The little of skin that could be seen had a pale purple color. The face of the Corrupted was covered by a black veil and her long flowing purple hair blocked out any attempts at seeing it. The most strange thing about her was her hands, or more precisely where her hands should be. Her left forearm was replaced with a giant scissor and her right hand looked more natural, at the first glance. Her fingers were made out of needles, the rest of her forearm was covered with a black glove with a frilly white end.
Her posture seemed rather shocked and scared, probably because she expected that no one would find her. Rarity, on the other hand, had clenched her fists and was staring at the Corrupted with unbridled anger, if looks could kill the monster would have evaporated into thin air. Seconds later something hit the Corrupted, letting it stager a few steps back.
It was Rarity, she was throwing etherial demands at the monster, every single one shattering on impact, apparently not doing much damage, still, it was enough to keep the Corrupt occupied.
“I will call the police, be right back.” Before anyone could reply, Thunder had bolted and reached a somewhat silent corner. On his way there he had seen one of the other contestants, the one with the strange hair, coming his way. The moment he had reached his destination he pulled out his phone and dilled one of his saved numbers.
>-------<A>-------<
After having watched the three of the series Summer was discussing what she had seen with Phoenix. “And I say, it doesn’t make any sense. They have no lead on him and he could probably just lay low and sell the damn diamond. He is supposedly a master thief and he just thinks: ‘Oh no they are on my trail, just steal the next thing.’ How can you be that stupid? Of course, he gets captured. I’m at loss for words.” Summer was raging about what she saw as an idiot villain.
“Do I need to remind you not too long ago we had a girl that broke into three different shops on following days, knowing fully well that I was on her trail and still continued. And all that just to impress a girl into becoming her girlfriend. Quite frankly, I can see this happening in real life as well,” he encountered, all while sporting a smug grin.
“Small difference, lovestruck high school girl against a supposed master thief that should know better. He didn’t want affection or admiration, he wanted money. He had the diamond, he had money, so why continue?”
“For the thrill? I don’t know, haven’t seen enough of the character yet. Not everything is always logical, sometimes a motivation seems completely asinine but makes sense for the person in question.”
“Oh, now you are just trying to cover for a series you like. Don’t try to claim that there is a reason for this, you don’t even know if he comes back,” she retaliated, not to be outtalked by Phoenix.
“Well, it is a comic book adaptation. Chances are he resembles his comic counterpart and they just haven’t given enough screentime to properly develop him,” Phoenix offered.
“Still, failure of the series to not present it. And then there is Maniac. She has basically won if she just kills them, but nope just ravels over her victory, leaving them enough time to escape and beat her. Who is stupid enough for that?” she seemed to get more and more annoyed the more she talked about the stupidity of the villains.
“If I think about it right now, there come two people to mind that would do exactly that, Napalm and Rose. The first talking about ‘how much better he is than anyone else’ and Rose about ‘shaking of the bindings of the guy at the top and growing a new future’.”
Before Summer could counter Phoenix’s phone started ringing. “Sorry, I have to take this. Hey Thunder, did anything happen? Wait, what? What?! Oh dammit, be right there.” Ending the call he looked to Summer and told her: “Corrupted at the fashion show. Of course, because I can’t have one free day. Whatever, lucky you, you might actually get to watch your soccer game, I will be back eventually.”
With that, he stood up and walked towards the stairs, on his way grabbing his jacket and with it his Alchemy Driver and the Magic Discs.
“Wait, I coming to. I’m not letting another opportunity go by where I could see you kicking ass.”
Phonix was stunned for a second, then retorted: “That is stupid! You're stupid! Stop being stupid! You will not come with me. I’m not intentionally endangering you. It will already be annoying with civilians around, I’m not adding another one on top of this.”
“But..”
“No, but, you're staying and that is the end of that. If you excuse me, I’ve got a monster to stop.” She had never seen him so, serious and angry. It was kinda scary. But she really wanted to finally see him in action again, the only time until now was the first fight with Lightning and she remembered what a letdown that was. Screw him, she could do what she wanted and she would finally see him in action, this time hopefully kicking ass and not on the receiving end.
>-------<A>-------<
After transforming in the back-alley he had rushed towards “Carousel Boutique” on his bike, as he arrived it had only been six minutes, hopefully, the Corrupted hadn't already left the boutique. Right now the only thing he could do was to move as fast as possible and hope for the best.
Thunder was already waiting at the entrance for him, the rest of the spectators had already left the boutique, probably less graceful then they expected.
“So, where is it? And is there anything else I should know?”
“In the backroom with all the clothes, thanks to Rarity it’s still there, but I don’t know if she can hold it any longer,” Thunder replied in a hurry, guiding him to the room he had talked about. Rarity was standing with her hands stretched out, like she was pushing something. She was clad in a strange sapphire and light blue outfit, probably just her outfit for the day. Next to her stood an older woman with dark grey skin and greyish pink hair. As he came closer he could see why she was holding her hands in this strange position, she had apparently summoned another one of her diamond barriers and was holding off the Corrupted as best as she could. He could see that the diamond had several cracks, she probably couldn’t hold it up any longer.
“Good job. Without you, the Corrupted probably would have escaped. I’ll take it from here.” Phoenix said to the purple haired girl and readied himself for when she would cancel her barrier.
“Oh, please darling would do it again in a heartbeat. And could you grant me one request: Make her pay for what she did to my babies!” She replied, breathing heavily. Apparently holding up the shield for so long had left her exhausted.
Seconds later the barrier disappeared and the Corrupted stumbled towards Alchemy who had waited for this opportunity. The moment she came into reach he punched her dead center into her face, sending her flying and crashing into the wall at the end of the room.
While she lay there incapacitated he stepped into the room, loosening his hand by moving his fingers. As Phoenix stood over her, he tried something he always did: “Hey Needle, how about that, you surrender, give me the thing that granted you these powers and I will make sure you get off scot-free. And as an added bonus this time, I’ll protect you from Rarity, she seems kinda livid right now.”
“I… I can’t, I still haven’t finished yet! I’m sorry.” With that, she swung once with her scissor-arm, cutting Phoenix at his lower-legs, sweeping him off his feet.
“Ow, that hurt… I assume that was a no. Fine with me, then I just have to teach you how to behave.” He returned, and pulled himself back up, even if his legs still hurt a bit. The Corrupted had already made it halfway through the room and was headed for the exit, Alchemy hot on its trail.
As she had passed the doorframe, the three bystanders had decided to leave thankfully, he had caught up to her and tackled her to the ground, sending both tumbling around. Alchemy was the first to get back up again and used this golden opportunity to deliver a strong kick to her stomach, sending her into the main area of the shop.
Still, that was not enough to knock her out and she came back on her feet in no time. Alchemy rushed towards her and tried punching her in her face. To his annoyance, his attack was blocked, in a reflex reaction, she had stopped his fist with her scissors. She realized this soon enough and scratched him with the needles on her other hand.
By having to take a step back she had forced him on the defenses. She wailed on him with attacks from her left arm and with it the giant scissors. While he evaded most of the attacks and even could get some counterattacks through she had the upper hand and that gave her the chance to deliver a devastating cut to his chest. The force of the attack sent him flying a few meters back, sparks flying and leaving him on his back. But he couldn’t just give up her, pulling himself back up he faced his opponent. She had in the meantime looked around the room, apparently searching for a way to escape.
“Ok, maybe entering a sword, or scissor fight with just my fist wasn’t my smartest idea, but that can be fixed.” While he spoke he removed the Flame Disc form the driver and hold it out in front of him.
\ Flame Disc Attack Mode! /
\ Flame Saber! /
Now holding his weapon in his hands he charged back at the Corrupted. The first clash was in his favor. It was delivered with so much force that her arm was forced to the side and without hesitation, he followed up with another strick, this one hitting her dead center, cutting from her right shoulder down to her left waist, like usually sparks erupted from the cut.
Stumbling back she tried her hardest to block the attacks of Alchemy, but thanks to his fighting experience and the training he had during the downtimes she was simply outmatched. Every time she tried to block or retaliate, he had already seen her movement and countered respectively, ending in a slash across her front. The last strike he landed was so devastating that she was lifted off her feet and slammed into a nearby wall.
“So let’s finish this shall…”
Before he could activate finish his sentence he was interrupted by someone screaming from his left.
“Yay, exactly like that! Give her the rest! Wuhu!”
To his utter shock, it was Summer. What did she do here, didn’t he tell her to stay at the restaurant.
“What on earth are you doing here?! Leave, now!” he shouted at her, it seemed he had something to discuss with her later. But before he could turn back to his opponent he was hit by something and pinned against the wall, funny enough the same he had been pinned at by Rarity last time, he could even see where. He had been pinned to the wall by several needles and string, making it basically impossible to move his arms more than a bit.
“Dammit!” Shouting frustrated he could only watch as the monster ran back towards the back of the boutique and into the woman's toilet. “Of course.” Thankfully he had kept hold of his Flame Saber and his hands were just close enough to the handguard so spinning the Flame Disc was actually possible. After gathering the magical energy into the weapon he managed to spin the disc and with the flames was able to cut the string holding him against the wall.
While running towards the toilet he grunted towards Summer: “We will talk about this later!” As he reached the toilet he didn’t even think about how inappropriate this was thanks to the anger that had suddenly filled him and just rushed inside. Th Corrupted was nowhere to be seen, just two girls one with pink skin and bound back purple hair. Next to her was a younger girl with pale skin and short light blue hair. Bouthe cowered in the corner of the room and looked in shock at the rider.
“Oh, sorry. I didn’t want to scare you. Did you see a monster wearing a maid outfit coming through here?” Phoenix trying his best not to look too intimidating and he was probably failing terribly. A man in armor just rushed into a woman's toilet and asked for a monster, yeah that was totally normal and soothing.
The girl with the scarf was the first to answer: “She… she escaped through the window. She turned her body into a string and just went through the open window. Isn’t that right Coco?” She still seemed somewhat scared but she looks like she had calmed down a bit.
Not the other girl, she still was extremely nervous and threatened. “Ye… Yes. She… she did.”
“Dammit and I thought I could actually finish this in one go. Sorry again that I scared you.” With that, he left the room, only now the weirdness of the situation kicking in and with it the embarrassment.
As he returned to the main room of the boutique a heated argument had erupted between the apparently arrived Ocean and the woman that had waited with Rarity while she held off the monster.
“I can not just cancel the show, that would ruin my reputation and devastate these young ones,” she pointed at Rarity and three other kids, all while sounding somewhat upset.
“I agree, if we let ourselves be affected by these monsters we only will live in fear. If we don’t stand our ground now we can all crawl into a hole and hide forever. And like I always said: ‘The show must go on’!” Thunder encouraged her, very much to Phoenix’s dismay. He should know that this was a stupid idea and would only endanger everyone that would be suicidal enough to go to the show again after what happened today.
“With all due respect, but this is stupid. You are endangering everyone who comes to it again and if anyone gets hurt it is square on you. Please reconsider this again,” apparently Ocean had the same opinion as he had, this entire idea was completely idiotic.
Phoenix wanted to agree with Ocean when the older woman spoke up again: “Duly noted, but the show will go on tomorrow, so we can salvage what was destroyed today.”
Ocean reacted with simply signing in defeat and adding: “Fine if you insist, but under one condition we will personally make sure nothing happens and I will hear nothing regarding our presence.”
“Acceptable, it will help my guest to feel safer. Then we are finished here, I still have some arrangements to make. If you would excuse me.” With that, she turned on the spot and disappeared into the employee area of the boutique.
“And I thought leaving Manehatten would prevent me from running into this type of people again. Guess that was just wishful thinking.”
While she wanted her frustrations Rarity was talking to Thunder. “Oh, that is simply dreadful. You can’t come tomorrow and see how this all ends and that after you helped me so much. I’m sorry darling.”
Thunder just smiled back and returned: “Oh, Rarity, it’s not that bad. Sure it’s sad that I can’t see you win, but I still can send Phoenix with you. Summer can fill in for him, shouldn’t be a problem and he can make some pictures of you winning so I can see it.”
“Oh that is wonderful Thunder,” she happily replied.
Wait, what? Phoenix could see what Thunder was planning, getting him to the show so he could engage the monster as fast as possible, clever idea. Still, he would like to be asked first, in general, which right now he couldn’t because he was playing the part of Alchemy, that was evil Thunder really evil. When he came back home he had a few things to say to Thunder and Summer. While he thought about it, he clenched his fist without even realizing it and only noticed it when someone spoke to him about it.
“Everything ok?” It was Ocean, openly concerned about him.
“Huh? Oh, it’s nothing, just a bit frustrated that the Corrupted escaped. And I thought I could finish it in one go,” he replied, probably not as convincing as he liked it to be.
“Hmm. Ok then, but if anything is bugging you just talk to me about it, even if it’s vague,” Ocean replied, still concerned for her ally.
“If you don’t mind, I’ll leave now. I need some time to think about what just happened. But I assure you if the Corrupted comes back tomorrow I’ll be here.”
“If you say so, ok. I can handle everything here. Hope you are better tomorrow, see ya.”
“See ya,” Phoenix simply replied and turned around to leave the building and walked towards his bike. While he mounted it he was already thinking about what he would tell his coworkers and it wouldn’t be pretty. And with these thoughts in his mind, he drove off towards a good place to turn back.
Stats
Page generated in 0.025 seconds
Total duration
944 users online
1,856,799 hits today, 2,139,894 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Haven't read the chapter yet, but like Phoenix's interaction with Rarity scans as quite creepy.
Also, this is at least a third time you describe the girls' appearances. This is entirely unnecessary.
It may not be a date now, but...
(Trust me, if I could, I'd make Project Runway jokes.)
"Cause every girl's crazy 'bout a sharp dressed man!"
Okay, I'm so very curious as to what happened here...
"Awwww man, I blew everything across the room! ...My sister's going to kill me."
Ugh, I'll let Homer say it.
Okay, honest legit critique here instead of the usual snark. Look, I get this is a fashion show, but do we really need so much time given to the description of what everyone is wearing? I mean, just short simple things would work. This just feels like padding, and to make up an average word count.
Suri... HHHHHHHHAAATTTEEEEEE!
...I can see where this is going.
"Coco Pommel. My name is Hawkmoth. You have been wronged. In exchange for getting revenge on your tormentors, you must bring me Alchemy's Miraculous."
Pretty sure food is different from Fashion...