My Little Fantasy

by GuyWhoWritesThings

Chapter 37: Fashionista, First Class.

Chapter 37: Fashionista, First Class.

Twilight spent the rest of that morning explaining what happened on our trip to Canterlot to her friends, in her obsessively thorough manner. She included everything: the truth behind this planet's Lifestream, the encounter with the Sephiroth duplicate from the Crystal Caves, Trixie using the spell to sort my memory, and finally Jenova itself. I'd avoided any questions regarding my memory, but she also asked me to explain the situation in the Ghastly Gorge, the key part she'd not been present for, and...

"So, let me get this straight," Rainbow Dash looks at me with a raised eyebrow as I finish, her hoof motioning with each point as she talks, "you were going to go all the way from Canterlot to Ghastly Gorge to duel a super powerful dude who could effortlessly kick your flank, alone, only to meet Princess Luna... and have the super powerful dude turn out to be a shape-shifting horror movie monster from outer space."

I nod.

She throws her front hooves out, motioning to me as she looks back to the others. "And you all say I'm the reckless one!"

The others ignore her quip, Rarity gulping to clear her throat. "So, while you and Princess Luna were fighting that... thing, that's when Twilight teleported Trixie and herself there, and..."

I nod again.

Things fall silent for a few short moments, until Rainbow Dash slams a hoof down onto the table, causing Fluttershy to retreat slightly into her mane. "And neither of you thought to try and stop her?"

The question makes Twilight flinch. "Rainbow... the thing, Jenova, it was attacking her specifically. I was doing all I can just to keep it from killing her."

"And what about Cloud, huh?" She whirls around to face me.

"RD, I think yer-" Applejack tries to calm the prism-maned pregasus, but is ignored as Rainbow Dash launches from her seat at the table, hovering directly in my face.

"What is with you, anyway?" She asks, giving me a glower, hoof pressed against my chest. If I didn't have the armor from the Canterlot storage still on, I'm sure she'd be grabbing my shirt instead. "You're supposed to be Trixie's best friend! Except, she maimed herself to save your sorry butt and I can't even tell if you care! All you've done for hours is just sit here and barely say anything unless we drag it out of you!"

"Rainbow Dash, dear, that's quite enough, I think..." Rarity gets up, but her voice trails, instead of it being the firm admonishment she most likely intended.

"You're right." My statement diffuses the fight before it can continue. I keep my eyes firmly locked on the hoof pressed against my chest, not wanting to look higher at the accusing pegasus. "I should have stopped her."

"Cloud..." I hear Twilight say. "You were suffering so much magical exhaustion I'm surprised you've even stayed conscious this whole time. You can't have-"

"Magical exhaustion didn't matter for Trixie, did it?" The reply question shuts down whatever train of thought Twilight was on. "...I should have been able to do something."

The hoof on my chest pulls away slowly. "Hey, uh, I didn't mean it like that..." Rainbow Dash stammers as she moves back slightly through the air.

I ignore her. "I'd given her one of my most powerful Materia when I didn't have my memory to know what it did." I let out a low, drawn-out sigh. "And then, ironically enough, I forgot about it. If I'd thought to ask to look at it after I'd gotten my memory back, I could've taken it with me. If I'd done that, maybe... Princess Luna and I would've beaten Jenova without needing Trixie and Twilight's help at all."

"Now, thinkin' that way don't help nopony, Cloud." The sounds of a chair shifting accompany Applejack's words.

"Then what does help them?" I ask, aggressively, though I can't find the energy to turn it into a yell. "What am I supposed to do now? The damn thing's not even dead..."

"Wait." Rarity's voice cuts in. "I thought the whole point of what Trixie did was to beat that monster?"

"She did." Twilight answers, saving me from needing to talk further. "This creature, the way Cloud explained it... I still don't understand how it can exist. It... sends other parts of its body out, controlling them with some sort of shared consciousness. What Trixie defeated was a very important piece of it, but unless we defeat the piece with the central consciousness, it can just make another one if it's left alone long enough."

"So what're we wasting time here for?" Rainbow Dash asks, punching the air with one hoof. "If this thing is so big and bad, we should be kicking its tail already!"

"Because, Rainbow," Twilight explains, "even if we find the central consciousness - the 'head' - we have no idea how strong it is. The part Trixie defeated - the 'heart' - was strong enough to beat Princess Luna, Cloud, and a dragon familiar Cloud had made with his Materia, and it still took that much to beat after Trixie and I arrived."

"So?" Rainbow Dash asks, flipping herself around in the air in annoyance. "We got this thing in a corner now, though, don't we?"

"Cloud has no weapon, Princess Luna is still too injured to fly, Trixie's, well... we're not doing well either here, Rainbow Dash." Twilight sighs. "All the magical exhaustion I suffered from teleporting Trixie and I to Ghastly Gorge in time has me barely able to use magic at all right now, and I'm probably the best off out of the four of us who were there. If the 'head' is even close to as strong as the 'heart' was..."

"Can't we just like, zap it with the Elements of Harmony then?"

"RD, don'cha listen when ponies tell ya stuff?" Applejack asks in reply, annoyed. "Twilight said she already asked the Princess about that. We ain't got no clue if Harmony will do... well... Harmony things, to a creature from outer space, and if it don't then Trixie'll be a lot better off than we will."

"Right..." Rainbow Dash grumbles. "But we can't just do nothing!" She begins punching at the air as she floats around the room, accentuating each of her declarations with the punch of a hoof. "We beat Nightmare Moon! We beat Discord! We kicked Changeling butt at the wedding! There's gotta be something we can do! We can't just sit on our flanks and let this thing bounce back!"

"It's alright, Rainbow." Twilight tries to assure Rainbow Dash. "Princess Luna is sending some Night Guard to investigate the burrows we think might contain Jenova's 'head'. If we're lucky, it'll be recovering and they can take care of it."

"I still don't like it, Twi." Rainbow Dash flips herself onto her back, flying in that nonsensical way that pegasus can apparently fly in as she cartwheel kicks the air, forehooves crossed against her chest. "We should be the ones taking this thing out after what happened to Trix, not some Night Guard."

"But, Rainbow," Fluttershy starts, face still partially masked by her mane, voice low, "it'll be better for Trixie to have some friends around when she wakes up, won't it?"

I finally decide to look up again as Rainbow Dash turns her head to face Fluttershy. "I guess so..."

Twilight smiles for the first time since we've returned to the Golden Oak, though her head is still held low. "Thanks, everypony."

"...Hey, Pinks, you okay?" Rainbow Dash asks, turning everyone's attention to the uncharacteristically quiet party pony.

Pinkie's standing on her hind legs, leaning slightly forward, both hooves pressing against the table. Her eyes are locked on Trixie's hat, with an intensity and seriousness I didn't think possible of her.

"Pinkie?" Twilight leans in, concern slipping into her voice.

"To never be able to throw another party again..." her front hooves tremble, "or never make ponies smile again..." her eyes steel, filled with a swirl of emotions I just know I never want aimed at me, "that monster, I'll... I'll..." her declaration is interrupted by three strong raps of a hoof against the Golden Oak's front door. Her ears pop upright at the sound, and she blinks, the emotion in her eyes being wiped away and replaced by cheer almost immediately as she jumps up into the air, right hoof raised dramatically. "I'll get it!" The remaining five ponies in the room and myself all look at her, dumbfounded, feeling the whiplash of her emotional flipping as she moves to the door in an impossible flash of hooves and swings it open. "Golden Oak Library! We're open! Temporary library assistant Pinkie Pie at your service!"

"Uhh..." Shining Armor blinks. He's dressed in a full violet set of armor, lugging a familiar crate in his magical grip.

"Hey, Pinkie." Spike replies, slipping off Shining Armor's back and through the front door. He quickly surveys the room, then breaks into a run upon spotting the lavender mare he's looking for. "Hey, Twi! You're okay!" He jumps up, into Twilight's front hooves as they exchange a hug.

"Of course I am, Spike." She assures him before turning to face the front door. "What're you doing here, Shiny?"

Shining Armor steps in, around Pinkie Pie, and shuts the library door with his hind-left leg. "I got permission from the Princesses - all three of them - to see things through with you guys." The emphasis on 'all three of them' is clearly meant to head of Twilight's follow-up question. "Princess Luna might be sending Night Guard ahead, but this stuff needed bringing down here anyway, and they agree we're at a point where it's better to be thinking a few steps ahead. 'Sides, Canterlot will be fine without me for a few days."

Twilight gives him a deadpan look. "You're using up your vacation time on this, aren't you?"

"Hey, I can use my vacation time to check up on my little sis if I want to!"

Twilight lets her expression fall, giving Shining Armor a small smile. "Thanks, B.B.B.F.F."

Shining Armor sets the crate down, pulling the one midnight blue helmet that was left behind out and placing it with the rest of the armor sets before sliding it over to me. "The rest of that stuff in there should be yours, right?"

I give him a nod and pull the box closer with one hand, leaning over to look inside. Fifteen pieces of Materia, gently reflecting the light of the library, a metal shoulder guard that must have finally made its way through lost and found, a... familiar crystal brooch, which Trixie must have left in my room when replacing it with the Contain Materia she used against Jenova, and... I reach in, pulling out the cowboy hat. I hold it in front of me, one side of the hat's brim in each hand as I look down at it, anger welling up again as I grip the sides of the brim tighter in my fingers. Some assistant I've turned out to be.

"Princess Luna told Princess Celestia and I what happened at the Ghastly Gorge," Shining Armor starts explaining to dispel the silence that had descended on the room, "including what happened with Trixie. I explained it to Spike, too, Twilight. I figured by the time I got here you'd have already told your friends and not want to explain it more than once."

"She'll be okay, right, Twilight?" Spike asks from his place in the mare's hooves.

Twilight shuts her eyes for a moment, letting out a sigh before answering. "Yeah, Spike, she'll be okay. She's sleeping right now."

"Oh!" Fluttershy's interjection sounds almost like a squeak. "Why don't I go look after her? I'm used to having to watch my animals recover sometimes so they don't hurt themselves in their sleep, so it won't be a problem for me to watch over her, just in case." With a nod from Twilight, Fluttershy flies up past the stairs up to where I presume Twilight's room to be.

After watching her disappear onto the second floor, I turn back down to the cowboy hat in my hands. I think back to what Gauze Wrap had said about her condition - 'As long as her mind hasn't itself been damaged by the magics'. Can that happen, with how unicorn magic works? Is it possible she'll just wake up some blibbering mess...?

My thoughts are cut short by a pink hoof placing itself on top of the cowboy hat. I look up, my eyes meeting the large, blue ones of the one pony I've always done my best to avoid. She pulls the hat out of my hands, spinning it in her hooves and planting it on my head. "Didn't Trixie teach you that hats go on your head, Cloud?" Pinkie Pie tilts her head slightly and smiles, though it's a small half-smile compared to the ones she normally sports. "Now buck up, buckaroo! We're gonna throw Trixie a 'Congrats-On-Beating-Up-The-Evil-Space-Monster' Party when she wakes up! Her 'Welcome to Ponyville' Party will just have to wait until later!"

"A... what?" Shining Armor turns to her, eyebrow raised.

"Oh, it'll just be a cake and some balloons!" Pinkie replies, bouncing on her hooves like a pogo stick to move back to the others. "But, everypony knows that you need to be positive to recover better when you get hurt. What better way to get somepony to think positive than a surprise cake?"

"There's no arguin' wit yah over this, is there, Pinkie?" Applejack asks in annoyance, face-in-hoof as she shakes her head.

"Eeeeenope!" Pinkie replies, her bouncing now taking her on laps around the table as Shining Armor takes her old seat and starts pulling off some of his armor pieces.

"Is it always this crazy around here, Twily?" Shining Armor asks, his eyes watching the pogo-pony each time she passes back into his vision.

"If you think this is crazy, you're in for a treat if you're sticking around, darling." Rarity replies in Twilight's place with a playful smile, as the other unicorn has placed Spike down on the table for the sake of burying her face in her hooves. "She hasn't said it yet, but now you're on Pinkie's list for a 'Welcome to Ponyville' party, too. Pinkie Pie tends to go a little... all out, for those."

"I... see..." Shining Armor laughs nervously. "Sounds like... fun... yeah."

"Shucks, Rares." Applejack chimes in. "Dun tease 'im like that. We both know it'll be fine."

Pinkie's bouncing continues, her legs making the unsettling sound of a bouncing spring. "Oh, oh, oh, I need to go! I've got a cake to bake! Balloons to inflate! Supplies to get! A party to plan!" She finishes her lap around the table and begins bouncing to the door, opening it, moving to the other side, and poking her head around and waving one hoof. "Catch you later, girls and guy and dragon and Grumpy!" She slams the door shut to a mix of goodbyes from the four girls and one dragon, and a confused wave from Shining Armor.

Rarity clears her throat once Pinkie Pie is gone, addressing everyone else at the table with an apprehensive expression. "Are we sure that Trixie will appreciate Pinkie Pie's... err... Pinkie-ness, in this situation?"

"It'll be fine, Rarity." Twilight assures her. "...I hope." Or not.

I lean back against the bookcase, head tipped to the ceiling and the hat's brim pulled over my eyes. Now that Trixie is stabilized, the events of the day and half-night's sleep are both finally starting to catch up to me. Maybe not sleep, but a little rest sounds good.

At least, it does until a certain small dragon starts talking to me. "Hey, Cloud."

I peek down at Spike out of the corner of my eye. "What is it?" I ask, perhaps a bit too curtly.

"Uh..." He stutters slightly at the abrupt response. "We're just gonna make some lunch. You want any?"

"...I'm fine." I reply after a moment and tip my hat back over my face.

A chair slides out from the table. "Spike, darling, forget mine as well." Rarity says, hoofsteps falling in my direction and causing me to let out a groan. My hat's lifted up in a magic pull as her face pushes its way into my vision. "Come on you, up. Up!"

"Why?" I give her a glare that hopefully sends the clear message of wanting to be left alone.

"Because I need your help on a lovely idea I had for Trixie." She says, giving me a knowing smile. "Now, come on, up! You'll rot a hole in Twilight's floor if you keep sitting there!"

I blink, and for the first time since we brought Trixie back to the Golden Oak, tentatively get to my feet. Getting my body to want to move again is a challenge, but since it's something for Trixie that's not a 'Congrats-On-Beating-Up-The-Evil-Space-Monster' Party...

"Off to the Boutique!" She declares, turning back to the table as we head for the door. "We'll be back before nightfall, girls, Shining Armor!"

I give them a half-hearted wave before shutting the door behind us, following Rarity along the path between the Golden Oak and the Carousel Boutique. Some passer-by ponies gawk a bit, likely not having gotten a good enough look at me without my various full-body disguises the last two times I was in Ponyville, but I just ignore them. "So, do you actually need help on something for Trixie, Rarity, or was this just an excuse to make me leave the library?" I ask her as we walk. With how often I seem to get played by ponies, I'm not interested in this venture lasting longer than it needs to if her premise is just a smokescreen.

"Oh, you know, a little of this, a little of that." She replies, waving a hoof at me.

"If you don't actually need me, I'm leaving, Rarity." I tell her flatly, stuffing my hands into my pockets in annoyance.

"Oh, hush!" She waves me off one final time before resuming walking with all four limbs. "It's no fun if I spoil the surprise, now, is it?"

"Rarity." I make my voice more insistent.

The motion of her head says she's rolling her eyes even if I can't see it. "I just need your input on some clothing concepts for Trixie. I have her measurements and the notes from when I made her and Twilight costumes for the magic show, but you still know her a lot better than any of us do, darling."

"I can't say I'm the best fashion consultant, Rarity." I answer her, truthfully.

"Oh, Cloud, dear, you'd be surprised the kinds of things I can turn into useful fashion advice for my designs." She says, assuringly.

"I guess I'll take your word for it." I acquiesce, knowing there's no point in arguing further as we make the rest of the trek to the Carousel Boutique and slip inside.

"Sweetie Belle should still be in school, so we'll have the Boutique to ourselves for a while, depending how much time she spends playing with her friends afterward." Rarity explains as she heads over toward her fabrics, beginning to sort through them with her magic.

"Sweetie Belle?"

"Ah, you've never met my little sister, have you?" She begins setting aside spools of purple, white, gold, and black as she talks. "She's a bit of a handful, but she's my handful, if you know what I mean."

I lean against one of the desks in the room as Rarity continues sorting through her fabrics. "I can't say I do."

"...No siblings at all?"

"I only really had my mom growing up." I inform her, not entirely sure why she's got me so talkative.

"I see." She pauses for a moment. "Is she doing well? The last time you saw her, I mean."

This time it's my turn to pause, as I pull my eyes away from her and to a conveniently pony-free and ponnequin-free portion of the room. "She died five years ago."

"Ah... I'm sorry." The air fills with an awkward silence after her apology, only interrupted by the rufflings of her going through her various bits of fabric until she seems to finally find what she's looking for. "Alright, come here, Cloud."

I turn back to her and do as she asks, seeing a larger number of spools in what I assume is the 'good' pile - still of the four primary colors of purple, gold, white, and black, though it seems she's dug out quite a few shades of each. Some match the ones used on Trixie's hat and cloak, while others are noticeably darker.

"So, what are we doing, Rarity?" I ask again. She still hasn't given me a better answer than 'clothing concepts'.

"Isn't it obvious, Cloud?" She asks, levitating a pair of orange glasses from a nearby table and setting them on her face. "We're making the dear a new outfit!" When I don't reply, she lets out a small sigh and continues on her own. "I don't know what that hat and cape mean to her, Cloud, but... even if she wants to try, she'll reach the point where she won't be able to bear wearing them anymore. She doesn't seem like the kind of pony that likes not wearing anything, so having something new to wear will help her... you know... even if she doesn't want to wear it at first."

"...Yeah, that makes sense." I nod, despite Rarity's back being to me. "So, what do you need me for?"

"Right!" She replies, her mood brightening as she pulls over a sketchbook, working a quill with a flourish to quickly put designs to paper. "Even in this situation, I bet Trixie is still a showmare at heart, so I'm thinking something based on the vests they wear at casinos down in Las Pegasus. What do you think?"

She slides the sketchbook closer to me with her magic so I can get a better look. Thinking back to the times Trixie's spoken to me without needing to be Great and Powerful... "Yeah, I bet she'd love that, Rarity." She still likes to be a bit of a showoff, after all.

"Excellent!" She pulls the sketchbook back to her, the quill going to work again as it begins customizing and personalizing the design to minute details. "What about colors? Maybe I'm partial, but a lavender like we used for the show in Ponyville, or maybe a royal purple might work. That spectrum of color really does go well with Trixie's coat, but reusing the same colors as her hat and cape might send the... wrong message."

I turn my head to check the lineup of violets and purples Rarity has set up, mulling the options over a bit. "Let's try the royal purple." I suggest after a moment. Lavender may have also worked, but the outfits from our performance in Ponyville are still hanging in the library, so...

"Yeah, I was thinking that, too." Rarity affirms. "Be a dear, Cloud, grab me that along with the white and the shiny gold." I turn to the colors, hesitating a moment. "The shiny one, darling, you'll see it."

It only takes me a moment to grab both the white and the royal purple and bring them over to her as she pulls over a ponnequin with her magic and gets to work. I spend a minute looking over the golds and yellows she had set aside earlier, until I realize she means one that's literally shiny, the light of the room bouncing off it as it glitters. I reach for it with my left hand, and pause halfway through tipping it into my grip, catching a different glint from the corner of my eye.

"Hey, Rarity," I call over, turning away from the spool of fabric to look at her, "think we can incorporate one more thing into this design?"

Comments

[Jarimor]

yay re-using broaches!

[the other sans]

if Harmony will do.. well... Harmony things
hasn't itself been damaged by the magics '.

1. Forgot one more full stop to make an ellipses.
2. Just an extra spacing at the end.

Hmm... Why do I think Cloud wants to dress Trixie up with some colours from our three female protagonists in his world? Call it a hunch.

Oh, and I forgot to ask about one thing concerning the Materia. How did it affect the stats of the ponies? Just out of curiosity.

For those that don't know, here's a brief summary:

The type of Materia you equip changes your stats. HP, MP, Strength, Defense and so on. It can increase one stat while decreasing another. Like the Fire Materia which would lower your Max HP but increase your Max MP and magic attack. Oh and it decreases/increases by percentage from the character's base amount, not flat numbers to boot.

[GuyWhoWritesThings]

6775112
That question about 'affecting pony stats' is beyond meta. So let's answer it anyway!

(Everyone not interested can feel free to skip the below big dumb post about dumb things that aren't entirely relevant to the story.)

I don't see why (if they could equip it in the same manner Cloud does) Materia would affect them differently than it would affect him. The main question would be how high the M.ATK and MP of your average pony are compared to Cloud, to get an idea of how effective a pony equipping Materia really is. (I word it this way because, so far, no pony has truly 'equipped' Materia yet, except for Trixie's small stint.)

Materia in Final Fantasy VII's extended canon (specifically a radio drama starring Yuffie, iirc) is mentioned to work on mental impulse, with overuse resulting in a magical exhaustion not unlike the one also presented in My Little Pony. This means we can safely assume that "MP" works the same for both without any meaningful canonical compromisation, and in turn a character like Twilight Sparkle probably has tons of it compared to every other featured character so far.

The real question becomes M.ATK, which really comes down to how you interpret the lores of both settings. The interpretation I'm using here attempts to combine the key aspects of both settings (Lifestream, Harmony, moving the Sun and Moon, etc.) under a single umbrella which results in all forms of pony magic being a product of their Lifestream - and in turn, comparable in makeup to 'magic' from Materia, if not comparable in application. Due to their function and applications, though, I'd further argue that unicorn magic is what most closely resembles Materia 'magic', placing unicorns in the bracket for highest potential M.ATK over any given sample. We know that both Twilight Sparkle and Rarity are competent magic users, even if only one of them pursues it as a matter of course, and Trixie (in this interpretation of canon at least), failed from, but at least succeeded in entering Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, so even if her technical ability is low (again in this interpretation), we can easily infer her magical potential itself is at least above average due to the fact she got in at all. Shining Armor has also been in the story recently, and he's not exactly a slouch, either.

Since Trixie is the only character to 'equip' (sort of) a Materia so far, we can look at her. Contain Materia is a top-level Materia that gives large stat augmentations, and access to a number of powerful spells. Trixie safely casts six Spells from this Materia before things start going haywire, and their average cost is about 90 or 100 MP. While the spells themselves are far stronger than anything Cloud has used in the story at all aside from maybe Bahamut's Mega Flare, they still require pulling from Trixie's M.ATK to be effective - which they succeed at, so clearly hers is non-negligible, despite probably being the unicorn in the group with the lowest amount.

So I suppose the question then becomes - how would the MP and M.ATK of any of these characters stack up to Cloud? Cloud's been progressively getting better at using a sustained amount of Materia as the story progresses, and got a huge boost from having his memory and proper usage of them again, but Trixie also made an impressive showing despite essentially cheating her way to Materia competence.

[SRXwarrior]

I'm thinking Materia slots for Trixie's outfit, I mean Rarity is a designer, she can probably probe the original with her magic and learn how to make them

[Snyperwulff0]

6775706 This is super super late, but

I believe the M.ATK and MP of Unicorns like Twilight and even Trixie are far higher than Clouds. I hadn't been paying attention to this all to terribly but I believe I've seen Cloud cast haste a max of... 6 times? maybe 7? If we want to put numbers to it, each time it's cast that's 18 MP. so around 126 MP total if we don't account for Fire, Lightning, Ice or any of the other's he has cast. He'll start to get fatigued rather quickly with multiple magic uses. Though I suppose we should consider the fact that this is of course comparing Cloud with a species that uses magic their whole lives. So of course they are going to have a bigger pool to tap into than he would I suppose. I dunno that's just my thoughts.