> My Little Baker > by Lucky Star Kona-chan > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Chapter 1: The Princess and the Fish-Cake Myu > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was a beautiful day outside, birds were singing, flowers were blooming, on days like these, somepony wanted to take a walk on the gardens of Canterlot Castle. But this wasn’t just anypony, this pony was the princess of the sun herself. Princess Celestia was in the mood for some fresh air today, but that wasn’t the only reason for this particular activity of hers. You see, these last few days pastries of all types started appearing in various locations of the Royal Gardens without any logical reason. At first she thought Discord was pulling another stunt on her; but after some letter exchange with her faithful student and fellow princess, Celestia discovered that Discord did not leave Ponyville recently. So she discarded that possibility soon after, but mystery or not she wasn’t going to let those delicious snacks go to waste if she could do something about it. I wonder from where those pastries come from, I know it’s strange and needs to be investigated, but I’m not complaining. After all, those are the best cakes I ever tasted, she thought as she let out a giggle while trotting through the gardens scanning them for any sign of her sweet preys and soon enough she found something. There in front of the garden’s fountain stood a little plate with a napkin over it, hiding something from plain sight. Celestia approached the plate and levitated the napkin with her golden magic, taking it from where it stood covering her sweet prize, but what she found on the plate wasn’t what she expected. Celestia raised an eye-brow at the sight of a fish-shaped form laying on the plate, it wasn’t like any fish she had seen before; and it definitely wasn’t alive if the strong smell of pancakes the fish was emanating gave her any clue. Hmm, this is new-, she thought while levitating the ‘fish-cake’ in front of her, -this certainly is an imaginative way to present a pastry. I never saw something like this before, the baker surely has an open mind to come up with something of this nature, she continued ‘inspecting’ the fish-cake rotating it in different angles to see all of its features. At that moment she heard a noise nearby which snapped her from her staring contest with the odd cake. Celestia's ears stood high in full attention to register any and every sound. Soon enough Celestia heard the little branching noise again, she then turned to see a set of bushes a few feet away from her. Hearing it again and being sure these bushes were the source of the noise, she walked towards them to take a look while still levitating her fish-cake. When she got there, Celestia was confused for what she saw behind the little bushes. Lying on the soft grass was a little creature, a little bigger than a filly sleeping peacefully making soft snoring sounds. Celestia took this opportunity to take a closer look, taking care of not make any loud noise that could possibly wake up the little critter. Celestia quickly noticed this creature was wearing clothes, more specifically a dress. A purple dress covered most of its body with white details on its sleeves and bottom end, with brown boots on its hind legs and a hat as purple as its dress with a white band where little metal triangles hanged out on both sides adorning its blue manned head. At first she thought this may be a minotaur foal, but that thought died fast because this ‘foal’did not had any minotaur traits. It had no horns, no fur as far as Celestia could tell which probably is why it wears clothes;and had a pair of white cat ears and tail which ended up in purple tips. After inspecting the little creature for some time, Celestia returned her attention to her odd ‘fish-cake’ as she was mentally calling it. Seeing as this would be a good moment as any other, she took a curious bite of the fish-shaped pastry. Her eyes widened and let out a moan of delight as she tasted the chocolate filling the fish-cake had inside it. “Mmm, this is delicious!” she quickly put a hoof on her mouth having said that more loudly than she had planned to, Celestia then looked down at her little ‘guest’ to see if her outburst had woken it up. To her surprise it kept sleeping as it had been doing so far. “It sure has some heavy sleeping habits, it reminds me a little of Luna-,” Celestia thought out loud with a chuckle, moments later a loud sneeze could be heard from far away, and that’s how the Royal Canterlot Sneeze was created; “-anyways, what could this creature be, it doesn’t resemble any known species from Equestria or any other country on Equis,” she kept searching in her memories for any clue that could help her identify this strange little creature, and between thoughts she would take a bite of her fish-cake getting in a state of bliss with each bite. When the fish-shaped cake was almost done Celestia said “I can get used to this fish-cake, I wonder how it is made.” “It’s called taiyaki, which means baked sea bream, even if some of them doesn’t look like a bream at all myu;”- Celestia turned her head to look at the ground in front of her -“it’s easy to make, you just need pancake or waffle batter, a fish mold and filler of your liking myu,” said a soft voice from where she was looking. Sitting in front of Celestia was the now awake little creature rubbing its eyes and looking up at her with a tired expression and a gentle smile on its face. Now she could see its big light-brown eyes. Celestia was stunned not so much for the fact that the creature was capable of speak her same language, but more because of how calm it was despite the situation they were in. “Is there any problem miss?” she said with a soft yawn, yes Celestia figured it was a female for its voice so ‘she’ was the correct way to call it until Celestia could learn its name if it has one. Knowing that the staring contest lasted long enough Celestia said with a calm and motherly tone while lying down to be at eye-level with her. “Oh, excuse me for my rudeness; I was a little surprised from your capacity to speak as well as how calm you are in this situation.” “Situation? what situation, myu?” she asked completely missing the point. “Well, you don’t seem to be from this country; and I don’t think I ever saw anypony of your kind on Equestria before, are you lost little one?” asked Celestia worried that this creature was lost and invaded the castle's gardens in search for cover. “Myu?-” she said tilting her head to the side and giving Celestia a confused look, then she looked at their surroundings confirming that she was in fact in an unknown place. She looked up at Celestia “-I think I am myu,” not a single hint of worry or fear was in her soft voice. This surprised Celestia even more, how could she be so calm in an unknown place with unknown inhabitants, thought Celestia for a moment; but thinking too much about it seemed pointless at the time, “well we can figure out the details later, for the moment I think introductions are in order; I’m Princess Celestia, Monarch of the Sun, and co-ruler of this country known as Equestria alongside my younger sister Princess Luna, Monarch of the Moon. We bring the day and night to our land and make a priority of the well being of all of those who call this place home,”- Celestia said with pride, before changing to a more delicate tone, -“now may you introduce yourself, little one?.” At that moment the little girl got up on her hind legs showing that she was almost as tall as a full grown mare on this position, dusted her dress, and what she did next surprised Celestia. She lifted the side-ends of her dress slightly with her hands and tilted her upper body downwards a bit to do courteous bow with her head, “It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance your majesty, I am Takamura Rinna, but just Rinna is fine your highness,” Rinna said in a polite tone while lifting her head to look at Celestia. “Then just Celestia is fine too little Rinna, there is no need for such formalities. Now, will you be willing to come with me to the castle so we can talk in more comfortable conditions, perhaps with some breakfast?” asked Celestia while getting up. “As you wish, Celestia. By the way you can end the taiyaki now before it gets too dirty,”-said Rinna with a smile on her face as she walked to Celestia’s side, -“lead the way, myu.” Celestia nodded with a smile of her own while finishing her taiyaki, and the two walked towards the castle, not knowing that this could be the beginning of a great friendship. But unknown to all was the fact of a new threat making its way to Equestria, in the form of a green-haired cat-girl nyo. > Chapter 2: Questions, Answers and a new Journey Nyo! > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The two made their way through the castle halls in the direction of the Dining Hall, Celestia had to reassure every guard they came across in the way that Rinna was not a threat; but even then the guards still eyed her suspiciously. This did not bother Rinna in the slightest though, even after seeing the guards being hostile towards her; she did not feel any fear or worry for herself at all. Besides, the maids in the halls made up for that, they’re actually very nice to her; some even went out of their way to give her a hug which made Celestia giggle, because apparently she was too cute. “Rinna, I hope this doesn’t sound rude of me; but why are you so calm?” Celestia said still sensing the hostile stares the guards were giving Rinna. “I mean if I wasn’t here with you, the guards would have probably assaulted you by now for intruding on Royal Grounds without permission.” “Oh, it’s not a bother at all Celestia; they are just doing their job myu,” said Rinna reassuringly. “If they weren’t cautious around strangers, they wouldn’t be suitable to be decent guards.” “I must say you impress me Rinna, but that still doesn’t explain how you’re so comfortable around ponies. I thought you were new to our world, but your reactions and behavior shows otherwise,” said Celestia still confused by this fact. “Thank you for the compliment myu, but I am in fact new to your world,” Rinna said and Celestia raised an eye-brow at this. “The reason I’m so comfortable around your subjects, is because I met another pony before you, myu.” At that moment the two reached the doors to the Dining Hall, where a pair of guards opened them for their princess. They heard about the new creature that was with the princess, even if they didn’t show it they were still suspicious about it. “Well I will like for you to tell me about it, but before that let’s take a seat so we can have something for breakfast. I guess you must be hungry for being out there for how long now?” asked Celestia herself unsure how much time Rinna had spent in the gardens. “Five days now, but I didn’t let myself starve; so don’t worry too much myu,” said Rinna with a smile while staring in awe at the scenery in front of her. Sitting in the middle of the room was a huge wooden table covered with a white tablecloth, which had a big sun on the center. The chairs had a crescent moon on the front of the back support and a sun on the back-side. Then the two made their way to their respective chairs in the big wooden table. After sitting down Celestia asked with worry, “five days? What have you been eating in all that time?” “I had some food on plastic containers inside my backpack; I packed some just in case I got hungry on my walk, now I’m glad I did that myu,”said Rinna making herself comfortable in her chair. Celestia then noticed something about what Rinna said. She had no backpack with her and Celestia didn’t saw any on the gardens either. “A backpack you say, I didn’t saw any backpack with you out there; did you lose it?” asked Celestia. “Oh, that’s because I gave it to Pinkie; she said a friend of hers could repair a hole my backpack had after getting stuck on some sharp branches myu,” Rinna said calmly. “Hmm, makes sense-“ Celestia said before a realization struck her like a brick, “-did you just say Pinkie?, like in Pinkie Pie?” Rinna nodded. “But, how?” asked Celestia. “She was the first pony I become acquainted with myu,” Rinna said remembering that moment, “she kind of… appeared out of nowhere when I tried to lure my pet with a cookie, she then will speak at a very abnormal speed about random topics; until I offered her a cookie which calmed her down. “Just then, we were able to have a somewhat normal conversation myu; Pinkie mentioned some things about her home named Ponyville, how she is in her own words a ‘supermegaawesomeadorableandpinkestpartypony’ and that I should go for the party she’s planning for me when I find my pet myu. “After that first encounter, she will appear once a day to help me find my pet; Pinkie gave me the idea of setting plates with pastries on different areas so he could get something to eat and I would be able to find him easier myu,” Celestia froze at the mention of this. So, those pastries I found on the gardens for the last few days; were Rinna’s attempt to find her pet. Oh, goodness I need to apologize, Celestia thought. “Emm, Rinna;”- Celestia shifted uncomfortably in her chair with ears flat on her head, while Rinna looked at her -“I should apologize for eating those pastries you left on the gardens, I thought those were not more than a prank from a now reformed threat,” she said with shame. Unlike any other situation before, this time Rinna reacted with some shock at this. “So, it was you?”- asked Rinna with some surprise in her soft voice, this made Celestia look away ashamed of herself. Rinna let out a sigh before saying calmly ,-“it makes sense I guess, Slify will not eat and go without looking for me myu, were they of your liking at least?” Surprised Celestia looked at her and asked in confusion, “aren’t you mad at me?” “Why would I be mad at you, myu?” replied Rinna. “For ruining a way to find your lost pet,” Celestia said sadly. “I cannot blame you for what happened, Celestia;” Rinna said reassuringly. “Like you said, there was no way for you to differentiate my method of a prank from this past threat myu; and I really want to know if my pastries were good enough for royalty to enjoy them,” she continued. A weight lifted from Celestia’s back, and a smile came back to her face; “thank you for being comprehensive, Rinna;” she said with a little bow of her head. “And to answer your question, yes those were excellent pastries; even when Equestria has almost all of the same pastries you left out there, the taste was very different. Something in your cakes made them even tastier than any other I ever had.” Rinna blushed slightly at the compliment before saying, “I’m glad they were good enough myu. I put a lot of care and love on my baking. “Compliments aside, are you waiting for something? You said you were going to have breakfast but you didn’t order anything yet, myu.” At that moment the doors of the dining hall flied open and Rinna could see a tired looking dark-blue alicorn making her way towards a chair. “Good morning, Luna;” greeted Celestia, “how was your night?” “Good morning, dear sister;” Luna said while looking at her sister tiredly, “and we wish to not talk about last night if possible.” Meanwhile Rinna decided to be polite and not interrupt this little exchange between siblings. “Did something happen?” asked Celestia. “Nothing really noteworthy, sister;”- Luna replied before letting out a tired sigh –“it’s just; it was a very busy night, that’s all.” “I could say that you shouldn’t stress yourself that much, but you wouldn’t listen to me,” Celestia said playfully. “Like you are any better, sister;” Luna shoot back with a smirk, “you only stop working when there’s cake nearby.” At this the two laughed for a bit. Then Luna noticed the new “guest” of the table. “Sister, why do you have a doll sitting on a chair?” she asked while levitating the “doll” close to her, giving it a hug. Celestia’s eyes widened at this action, but a look at Rinna told her that she was merely playing along. To her credit Rinna did not make any sound or sudden movements, and her breathing was almost inaudible. “It’s very soft, and has a very sweet vanilla-like aroma;” said Luna still hugging the “doll”, “but, what is it?” she asked lifting it in front of her. Before Celestia could answer Luna saw the doll staring at her and blinking. The two stared at each other for some moments. That was until Rinna said in a calmed way, “I’m a nekomimi, myu.” “Oh…” was all Luna said before her eyes widened in realization, “WHAAAA!” she screamed and then tossed Rinna away from her. Celestia was about to catch Rinna before she crashed on the floor, but then Rinna spun her body mid-air and landed on a fourth legged way pretty much like a cat. “Forgive me for scaring you, Princess Luna;” Rinna said still in her calm tone. “It wasn’t my intention to do so, myu;” she then did the same bow motion she did with Celestia. “WHAT IS THAT?” Luna shouted in her Canterlot Voice, which pushed Rinna a few feet away before falling down from the sheer power the shout had. The moment Rinna hit the ground the sky flashed black for a second, Celestia noticed this on the corner of her eyes; but she had to stop her younger sister before Rinna gets injured. Luna jumped towards the strange creature,trying to pin it down with her hooves, but before she could make contact, her target banished in a golden glow. “Luna, stop this right now!” shouted Celestia. Luna looked back to see her sister protecting the creature on her back with a frown on her face. “Tia! What are you doing protecting that creature!?” Luna asked angrily. “She’s not a mere creature Luna! She’s sentient, and is lost on our world by unknown circumstances,” said Celestia in a stern tone. Luna was about to reply back in anger but her attention was caught by soft sobs coming from Celestia’s back, the creature was crying. At this the sky flashed black again, but none of them noticed or cared about it right now. “I-I’m s-sorry,” Rinna said between sobs. “Shhhh,” Celestia said softly to the little cat-girl while nuzzling her, “it’s ok Rinna, nopony will hurt you.” “R-really?” Rinna said in a cracked voice while looking at Celestia which in turn nodded. Then Rinna got down from Celestia’s back to the floor, and hugged her still sobbing but these were less frequent than before. This action took the Solar Princess by surprise, but after a moment she returned the hug. All anger Luna had banished at the sight in front of her, it was heartwarming and she suddenly felt the imprudence of her actions. She was about to attack and hurt a harmless being just because she knew nothing about it. The anger from before came back to Luna, but not anger towards the creature.It was anger directed at herself for doing something that was distinct of Nightmare Moon. It was no surprise that she felt terrible about it, “emm…” she said trying to remember the name of this being. “Her name is Rinna,” said Celestia, still holding the little cat-girl that wasn’t sobbing anymore. “Thank you sister,” Luna said before trying a softer tone. “Young Rinna, can you please look at us for a moment?” At first Rinna didn’t want to let go, but she could not feel any bad intentions from Luna’s voice. Then even when she still was a little afraid of Luna,Rinna let go of Celestia and turned around to look at the Lunar Princess. The look of fear Luna saw on Rinna’s face was enough to make her felt even worse than before, so with ears flat on her head she said; “w-we want to apologize for our recent behavior, we know this cannot be enough for you to forgive us. “But at the very least we want to let you know how regretful we are, even if you don’t forgive us; at least acknowledge our plea.” Rinna looked right at Luna’s eyes which showed so much sorrow and regret now; little by little the fear was fading away, and was being replaced with empathy and forgiveness. After taking a deep breath to compose herself, Rinna said; “I forgive you Princess Luna, you probably acted on instinct which I can understand perfectly, myu.” Luna did not expect this, why was Rinna forgiving her so easily? “W-why?” was the only thing Luna could say. “Everyone and everypony deserves a second chance even a third myu, I will not hold this against you; because you acted out of sheer emotion which some of my friends do too,” Rinna said in her recovered usual soft and calm tone. “I must say that is very mature of you young Rinna, and we are very grateful for your forgiveness;” said Luna with relief, “in turn we want to take this moment to properly introduce ourselves. “I am Princess Luna, princess of the night and dreams. But you, young Rinna may refer to us solely as Luna,” Luna ended with a smile. “It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance Luna, I’m Takamura Rinna but you can call me Rinna,” Rinna said in a happy tone. At that moment a low grumble noise could be heard, the noise coming from Rinna and Luna’s bellies; which were protesting for not having a meal in them so early in the morning. With a blush on the faces of these two and a chuckle from Celestia, the three made their way to the table again. “It seems we postponed breakfast too much,” said Celestia while igniting her horn in a golden glow to call for a maid. In cue a maid entered the room, and made her way towards the table at which she stopped some feet away from Celestia and Luna’s side. Then she proceeded to bow at the princesses, “what will you order for today’s breakfast, your highness?” the maid said politely. But Celestia did not recognize this maid in particular, instead Luna did. “It’s good to see you again; young Lucky Star,” Luna said with the same politeness and respect the maid had done. The mention of this name caught Rinna’s attention though; something about the maid was really familiar. She had a tan coat with long and black-colored mane and tail; she was wearing a black maid uniform with a white apron under her and tied on her back forming a ribbon and a white maid headdress on her head, her eyes were a golden shade of color. But what actually made Rinna curious was the ahoge that this maid had, alongside the sleepy eyes and her confident voice; these traits were too familiar to be a coincidence. The maid noticed Rinna’s stare, then made a shush motion and winked at her, telling Rinna that her supposition was correct but she didn’t want to be revealed yet. “Lucky Star?” asked Celestia confused, “are you new to the personnel?” “Indeed, your majesty;” said Lucky Star, “your sister Princess Luna hired me three days ago, I’m still in conditioning time; you haven’t seen me so far because this is the first time I got to take an order directly from your highness. The last two days I was assigned to cleaning labor on the halls which your majesty doesn’t take too often.” “I see, well then Lucky Star, will you bring us a pot of green tea and some toasts?”Celestia said. “As you wish your majesty, but is there any special request from our most recent guest?” Lucky Star asked while looking at Rinna. “No, I’m fine with tea and toasts, myu;” said Rinna. “I’ll take my leave then, now if you’ll excuse me your highness,” Lucky Star said with a bow, then proceeded to leave the room. “By the way, I’m surprised the guards didn’t storm in when you attacked Rinna, Luna,” said Celestia confused. “We dismissed them, sister;” said Luna a little annoyed that her sister reminded her of what happened moments ago, “we don’t like ponies eavesdropping on us in the morning, and we are glad we told them not to; they would have made the situation worse.” “You’re probably correct, Lulu;” Celestia said with a nod. “Tia! Do not call us that in front of friends!” Luna shouted while a blush appeared on her face. Rinna couldn’t help but giggle at this reaction, and then said, “It’s a cute nickname if I must say so.” Luna just pouted at this, but after some moments she just laughs it off. Lucky Star came back with the princesses and company’s breakfast, situating everything in its place and moved back a few feet away from the table in a place in which she would stand still, prepared to take any orders the princesses may have. Then the other three prepared themselves to have breakfast, to recover energy and start the day. Meanwhile in the magical world of Álfheimr, more specifically the kingdom of Ygvarland; inside the Ivory Tower of the Great Sage, a little girl with red eyes, white rabbit ears and tail alongside purplish silver long hair stylized in a pair of twin tails, wearing a red bunny suit her ears nor tail being part of it and a large (larger than herself) dark purple robe over it, was sitting on a desk thinking out loud. “It has been five days.Why can’t I make contact with Rinna?” she said with a bit of anger, “the sprout of Yggdrasil I gave her is not responding, whatever this place where she has been sent is, it must have some kind of magic that is interfering with my own.” She let out a sigh to calm herself, “I have located the world where she is, but it’s not a world any of us has visited before. I just hope she’s alright.” At that moment the door of her tower opened, giving place to a little green-haired and green-eyed girl. This girl was wearing a white and blue navy maid dress with white gloves and boots that resembled cat paws. On her back a cat tail with a blue ribbon on the tip could be seen and on her head were white cat ears, with golden cat bells tied up on her hair. “Hi there Ini-chan!” said the girl energetically to the now named Ini-chan, “the annoying of Gema told me that you wanted to see me, nyo.” “For the thousandth time Dejiko, it's Ingrid Sorveig Sorgrims,” said Ingrid while massaging the bridge of her nose with two fingers, clearly annoyed by the nickname. “But Lotte calls you Ini-chan too, even Rinna and some others calls you that nyo,” said Dejiko while pouting, “why am I the only one that is not permitted to call you that way nyo?” With a sigh Ingrid replied, “Princess Astarotte and the rest are special cases, they have been my friends for a long time. I just let those who are very close to me call me Ini-chan. “But that’s beside the point; I called you because I found the world where Rinna was sent for the anomaly of Yggdrasil’s magic flow, and I want you to go and bring her back.” “Why me? Nyo,” Dejiko said in an uninterested way. “Because you’re friends with Rinna since you two were five years old. You don’t require that much magic to be sent there, so it’s easier to send you instead of Shana or Kotori which powers are much more hard to compress,” Ingrid replied before saying, “besides, Mother wants you to do it and she will reward you accordingly for your success on this quest.” This picked Dejiko’s interest, but on the outside she was just acting tough. Deep down she was worried for Rinna’s safety too, and was more than happy to go to this other world and take her back home. “Alright nyo,” said Dejiko with confidence, “I’ll go to this other world and bring Rinna back home nyo.” “So you are really worried about her, that’s a new one;” said Ingrid in a teasing tone. Dejiko blushed a little at this and pouted before saying, “shut up and give me what I need to go there and blast everything to find Rinna nyo!” “Alright, alright;” Ingrid said chuckling which made Dejiko pout even more, “I have almost everything here; the only thing missing is another sprout of Yggdrasil which I’ve been growing since the anomaly, it will be ready by tomorrow sunset at most.” “I’ll go pack then, nyo;” Dejiko said in a serious tone, before going to a more teasing one, “I’ll see you later Ini-chan!” then she ran off the tower. “For the last time, it’s Ingrid Sorveig Sorgrims!” Ini-chan shouted angrily from her doorway. “I can’t hear you nyo!” shouted Dejiko teasingly. In the way home Dejiko could not help but feel relief at her new quest, she was going to help one of her best friend back home. Just wait a little longer Rinna, I’ll definitely bring you back nyo; and if something or someone is hurting you, I hope they are prepared to be blasted off nyo!, she thought while running in the direction of her home to get prepared. > Chapter 3: Encounter with the Princess of Friendship and the weird Treegate Nyo! > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- After a nice and relaxing breakfast, the Princesses had royal duties to attend to. So they had to decide what Rinna should do in the meantime, even if the guards were informed to not attack Rinna; there is still the probability of some of them not getting the report yet, and therefore attacking Rinna out of sheer ignorance. This meant Rinna had to be with at least one of them for the time being. “What should we do, sister?” Luna asked not sure of what to do, “we could have Rinna with us, but checking wrote complains is not our definition of fun.” “Well, I can’t have her with me Luna,” said Celestia. “I have to attend day court; and we can’t let ponies know about Rinna yet, especially Canterlot ponies.” “Then what do you suggest, Tia?” asked Luna. “Rinna what are your thoughts on this?” Celestia asked Rinna casually, “I can’t leave you alone on the castle for the risk of an uninformed guard attacking you. “But as Luna said, checking complains could be very taxing and boring; and Day Court is not an option because ponies could start a ruckus depending of which citizen comes for an audition.” “Can I go to the kitchen and stay there until you finish your obligations myu?” Rinna asked curiously. “Why do you want to go there Rinna?” said Celestia confused for this request. “Indeed, we can’t have you being alone until we find a way to reassure our subjects that you are not a threat for them,” Luna added. “I can be with her, your highness,” said Lucky Star which was putting the dishes in a cart. “Besides, the voice has been spread between the maids and everypony will be more than willing to help Miss Rinna.” “That’s very thoughtful of you, young Lucky Star, we think that could do for the time being,” Luna said. “But only Rinna can decide if she wants to be with you.” “What do you think, Rinna? Do you want to go along with this plan?” Celestia asked Rinna. After thinking about it for some moments Rinna said, “Yes, I will go with Lucky Star as my escort.” “It is decided then, Lucky Star you will be in charge of Rinna’s safety while I and my sister attend to our Royal Duties,” said Celestia with authority. “Be absolutely sure that she does not go into harm’s way, or you will face our wrath young Lucky Star,” Luna added menacingly. “There is no need to be aggressive myu,” Rinna said in a friendly scolding tone. Before Luna could reply Lucky Star said, “Rest assured your majesties, I will do everything in the range of my abilities to keep Miss Rinna safe from harm’s way. “All the maids are very fond of her already, so nothing will happen to her; I give my word as a Royal Maid of Canterlot Castle,” she ended with a bow. Surprised Celestia said, “Your personality is more adequate for a guard than a maid, Lucky Star.” “We said the same during her interview, sister;” Luna added, “we were confused as well as for why young Lucky Star decided to be a maid instead of a guard. Even her physical exam showed great strength and dexterity, more than enough to be a competent guard.” “I see, but why did you choose this position instead of a more suitable one for you, Lucky Star?” asked Celestia sharing Luna’s confusion. “With all due respect for your guards, majesty. I find being a guard extremely boring and monotonous, even if the pay is higher and I am more than fit enough to be one; I couldn’t bring myself to be a guard. “That doesn’t mean I will not act if the situation requires for my intervention,” Lucky Star said frankly. “I think Rinna is in good hooves then, you can go now; we have held you too long enough,” Celestia said with a calm smile, “when we finish our duties I’ll send a message to Lucky Star, do you understand Rinna?” she asked. Rinna nodded. “Well then Miss Rinna, hop up I’ll carry you to the kitchen;” offered Lucky Star. “Are you sure? I don’t want to be a bother for you myu,” said Rinna. “It’s no problem at all Miss Rinna, I’ll feel better with you on my back;” reassured Lucky Star. “Alright myu,” Rinna said while climbing on Lucky Star’s back. Feeling that Rinna positioned herself in a comfortable way Lucky Star said, “if you excuse us your majesties, we’ll be on our way.” Then Lucky Star with Rinna on her back proceeded to leave the room. “Take care you two,” Celestia said looking them go. The princesses then left the room, to go to their respective place of activity for the day. After getting home, Dejiko started packing some items on a plain green backpack, between the items were hers and Rinna’s cellphone; Rinna forgot hers when she went out in this walk. Some other items were her tool cards. These will come in handy for this quest; I just wish that Ini and Miho will not keep all the monster cards out of our reach nyo, Dejiko thought with some resignation knowing that those cards were not meant to be used freely. Between clothes and other personal care items, some hours passed which Dejiko noticed when she looked at the clock on the wall. “It’s almost three pm, I should go to the grocery store to get some food for the trip nyo,” Dejiko said out loud. With her mind made she took some money from Gema’s room and ran out the house in direction of the grocery store, “She doesn’t use her money so much after all nyo,” she said with no regrets at all. Dejiko then expended all day running from store to store, getting all the groceries she would need for the trip. Getting home at almost eight Dejiko found a familiar yellow floating being waiting for her. “Dejiko, where have you been all day, gema?” asked the round yellow floating ball with face and thin arms. “Doing some shopping, nyo;” Dejiko said nonchalantly. “And I suppose you used your own money for that, gema;” Gema said suspecting something. “No, I used yours nyo,” Dejiko said plainly. If you watched closely, you could see Gema freezing in time while looking white instead of yellow. “WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM? GEMA!” Gema shouted while pushing Dejiko with her body, “YOU HAVE MONEY WHY DON’T YOU USE YOURS, GEMA!” “My money is too important to be used on lowly things like this, nyo;” Dejiko replied while cleaning her ears with a cotton swab, totally ignoring Gema’s rant. “STOP IGNORING ME, GEMA!” Gema was about to continue her rant but a white fist stopped her from doing so. Dejiko connected an uppercut on Gema’s side sending her flying in the air. “Shut up nyo! You’re annoying nyo!” Dejiko shouted. Location: Ygvarland’s Castle In one of the numerous balconies of this castle, a 10 year old little girl was drinking her night milk which helps her in her sleep. This girl was Astarotte Ygvar the succubus princess of Ygvarland, she had long blond hair tied up in pigtails with red ribbons, emerald sage eyes; a pink tail with a heart shaped tip could be seen behind her and now was wearing a sleeveless black night dress. She was just enjoying her drink while admiring the night sky. That was until a golden light caught her attention, and the next moment something crashed against a magic shield that was conjured around Astarotte by a friend of hers. “You made her angry again don’t you, Gema?” Astarotte said with a tired sigh. The object was in fact Gema, just scorched. “This is so unfair, gema…” Gema said while slipping from the magic shield and crashing on the gardens below with a loud thud. “Are you alright, Lotte?” said a young voice from the balcony next to Astarotte’s. Without moving her attention from the night sky Astarotte said, “I’m fine Louise; I knew you will protect me, that’s why I didn’t bother moving.” At that moment the silhouette of a young girl could be seen standing on that balcony. She was once known as Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière but after losing everything she hold dear at the hands of an ancient demon she was adopted by the head of the Takamura family, since then she goes simply by Takamura Louise. She’s a six-teen year’s old magician, with long curly pink hair and eyes; Louise was wearing a long yellow pajama dress and on her right hand rested her magic wand. “You’re getting pretty cocky recently, Lotte;” said Louise with a sigh, “it’s right that as long as big sis and me are near, we will protect you; but don’t forget about your training; as a succubus you have a great potential for magic don’t let that go to waste.” “Well I ‘am sisters in spirit with 3 beings which powers are beyond belief, I think I’m allowed to be a little cocky, don’t you think?” Astarotte said playfully. With a tired sigh Louise turned around to go to bed, but before that she said, “Just don’t make a habit of this.” “I promise nothing,” Astarotte said while giggling. Now we just need Rinna to come back, I’m just hoping you’re doing fine out there Rinna; Astarotte thought before going to bed. The last petitioner walked out of the room, and Celestia let out a sigh of relief; she was used to this routine but she find it pretty tiring and stressful. Between petitions and complains, Celestia managed to send a letter to her faithful student and fellow princess Twilight Sparkle detailing Rinna’s situation and that she required her assistance as soon as possible; but not telling her what Rinna was. The sun was down for the day and the moon was making its way to the sky, moments ago Celestia sent the signal to Lucky Star so she could bring Rinna with her to the Throne Room. Celestia didn’t want to admit it but she was enjoying Rinna’s company; even if the two just meet that morning, there was something about her that made Celestia happy. And she was sure Luna was feeling the same way, even after their peculiar meeting. Some noise snapped Celestia from her thought session, looking forward she saw the one she wanted to see, Rinna and Lucky Star were entering the throne room but a certain smell capted Celestia’s attention. “I thought you probably were a little hungry after work myu, so I baked something for you, Celestia;” Rinna said while carrying tray with slices of various kinds of cakes. Chocolate, banana, coconut, carrot, chestnut cake among other types of cakes were on the tray Rinna was carrying. Celestia would be drooling but she had an image to keep. “Thank you, Rinna you didn’t have to throught the trouble of doing all this, I suppose the maids helped you with the baking?” Celestia asked a little intrigued by this. Rinna shook her head. “Actually your highness, Miss Rinna did all the baking by herself; that was a sight worth watching,” said Lucky Star. Before Celestia could say anything in the surprised state, Rinna got closer and said while lifting the tray as high as she could in front of Celestia, “Take one; eat them while they’re still warm myu.” “Alright,” Celestia said while levitating the slice banana cake closer to her and sniffed it, “it smells divine Rinna, I’m sure it will taste just as good.” “Then take a bite to find out myu,” Rinna said with a giggle. Celestia was about to take a bite, but before she could do it a purple flash blinded her momentarily, interrupting her concentration and making the slice of cake fall. “Princess! I’m sorry for being late I came as fast as I could when Spike gave me the letter and-,” said a purple alicorn but was interrupted mid sentence. “The cake!” Lucky Star who wasn’t blinded by the flash shouted. Looking back the alicorn said confused, “Cake?” Celestia recovered from her brief blindness, but she didn’t reacted fast enough the cake was just inches from the floor. Then something happened, the cake disappear just before touching the floor. “Here,” said Rinna’s voice from Celestia’s right side holding the slice of cake on her hand. Everypony else just blinked dumbly except for Lucky Star while looking at the little catgirl. “Thank you, Rinna…” Celestia said still confused. “You’re welcome myu,” Rinna said with a bright smile. Lucky Star just smiled knowingly at the scene. “Is that… your special guest, Princess?” the purple alicorn asked. “Oh!” Celestia’s attention centered on the other alicorn, “Twilight, is good to see you again; I am glad that you could made it in such short notice; yes this little one is my special guest. “Rinna would you like to present yourself?” she asked calmly. Rinna nodded, and then she walked from Celestia’s side to in front of the purple alicorn. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, I’m Takamura Rinna but you can call me just Rinna if you want myu,” Rinna said with a smile, while extending her free hand for a handshake. After a brief awkward silence of figuring out what the catgirl wanted, Twilight rested one hoof on her hand and gave it a few shakes. Then Twilight said mimicking Rinna’s smile, “it’s a pleasure to meet you too Rinna, I’m Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship and Princess Celestia’s most faithful student.” “Oh, Celestia you didn’t told me you had a student myu;” Rinna said to Celestia but she didn’t got an answer. That was because Celestia’s mind was in cakehala after tasting the cake that was in her magical aura, ignoring her surroundings while munching without opening her eyes. “What’s happening to the Princess?” Twilight asked worried. “I think our majesty is enjoying your cake too much, Miss Rinna,” Lucky Star said casually. “It seems like it myu,” Rinna said while chuckling a little. “What are you two talking about? Enjoying a cake too much? That doesn’t sound plausible,” Twilight said in an incredulous way, “no matter what the substance is, it will always taste the same, unless its taste is modified in some way.” “Me and the rest of the maids were witnesses of the baking of these cakes Princess Sparkle, Miss Rinna baked them in the way they should be; there weren’t any extra ingredients or alterations in them,” assured Lucky Star. “Do you want to try one, Princess Twilight?” asked Rinna cutely while showing Twilight the tray with cakes. “Just Twilight is fine, I’m still not used to be treated like royalty yet,” Twilight said sheepishly, “And, yes thank you.” Twilight then levitated the slice of chocolate cake and took a bite, her eyes snapped wide open while the sensation accentuated on her very being. Her mind was on overdrive, and couldn’t suppress the blissful moan of satisfaction she let out. Blushing for that little show she said with confusion, “how is this cake so delicious? This shouldn’t be possible, are you sure there weren’t any alterations on its baking process?” Twilight asked Lucky Star. Lucky Star nodded before saying, “like I said Princess, all the maids were witnesses of the proceedings for the baking of these cakes, the recipes were followed with exact accuracy.” “Then how is it so different, I can take the risk of saying these are even better than Pinkie’s cakes; I just hope that she wouldn’t get to know I said that,” Twilight said with shame. “I don’t blame you for liking Riny’s cakes silly, because Riny’s baking is super duper yummy!” said the overenthusiastic voice of Pinkie Pie which was currently devouring the rest of the cakes, while Rinna smiled and petted her. “It’s always nice to have around Pinkie,” Rinna said happily. Pinkie gulped the big bulge on her throat before hugtackling Rinna making her sit down, and then said in one breath, “You bet! I was waiting for the cookie signal all day! But it never came so I thought ‘maybe Riny is feeling down, I need to cheer her up’. But then I saw Twilight,” she pointed at Twilight with a hoof, “using her fancy wancy magic to teleport somewhere then I thought ‘perhaps Twilight is going to where Riny is, after all the princess told her about Riny without telling her about Riny so I latched at her tail at the last second and boom everything went purple and stuff, and here I am.” Twilight just stood there staring at the pair with a confused look, Lucky Star was giggling in amusement thought. “Are you alright Miss Rinna?” asked Lucky Star between giggles. “I’m fine, don’t worry myu,” Rinna reassured. At that moment Celestia woke up from cakehala, and acted like nothing weird took place on the room at all. “Twilight,” called Celestia. Twilight brings her attention to Celestia and said a little too eagerly, “Yes Princess!” this made the rest of them laugh and Twilight blush. “Calm down Twilight,” Celestia said calmly, “Like I already informed you on the letter, Rinna is lost here; I couldn’t tell all the details on the letter but now we can check the situation more deeply. “So Rinna if you could tell us all the details, we can try to find a way to get you home,” she continued. “Of course, from where should I begin myu?” Rinna asked. “Well you could tell us from where you are from, and what were you doing before arriving here;” said Twilight. Then Pinkie said, “Well, duh. Riny here is from the world of Álfheimr were lots and lots of cute races coexists in a big big community.” “Alfemir? Alfeimir? I’m sorry it’s difficult to pronounce,” admitted Twilight. “It’s Álfheimr, I reside in the kingdom of Ygvarland myu; before getting here I was taking a walk with my pet Slify in a path that is very close to Yggdrasil myu-“ Rinna was about to continue but Twilight interrupted. “Yggdrasil? Is that the name of a town?” Twilight asked. Shaking her head Rinna said, “Yggdrasil better known as the Tree of the Worlds myu, is a gigantic tree which radiates enormous amounts of magic and can be used as a vessel to cross worlds.” “What!” Celestia and Twilight said at the same time. “A magical tree which posses’ greater magic than the tree of harmony? Even with our understanding of magic crossing worlds is a very difficult thing to do, can you tell me everything about it and your world? In great detail please,” Twilight continued eager to learn new things from another world. “Sparkle please restrain yourself from asking for details before Rinna finishes her story,” Luna’s voice was heard while the Princess of the Moon entered the throne room. “Sorry,” Twilight said while blushing a little. “You may continue now, Rinna;” Luna said with a smile. “Thank you myu,” Rinna gave a grateful nod, “as I was saying myu, me and Slify were on a walk when suddenly a bright light blinded us. I felt like I was being dragged for one moment and the next I found myself alone in a very similar landscape, I thought I were just teleported closer to another city; if it wasn’t for Pinkie I would have believed that myu,” she said. “Why meeting Pinkie will make you think otherwise?” asked Twilight with curiosity. “Because ponies don’t exist on Álfheimr at least not sentient ponies myu, I had this doubt until I meet Celestia this morning who confirmed my suspicions when she mentioned this world was named Equis myu,” Rinna replied. “Oh! Oh! And what kind of pet is Slify?” Pinkie asked. “Why does it matter, Pinkie?” Twilight asked Pinkie no seeing the point of the question. “Because if we know what Slify is, it will be easier for us to find him and then I can throw Riny her ‘congratulations for finding your pet and welcome to Equestria’ party!” Pinkie replied energetically. “That’s a good point Pinkie, but we don’t need to know about it right now,” Twilight said. “Its fine myu, you see Pinkie Slify is a dragon-“ Rinna started but was interrupted again. “What!” this time Luna joined the other two alicorn after hearing that. “You have a dragon as a pet?” asked Twilight incredulously. Rinna nodded. “Are dragons non sentient on your world Rinna?” Celestia asked. “Some of them myu,” Rinna replied. “And what type of dragon is this Slify?” Luna asked. “Slify is a sentient serpentine red dragon with a black underbelly, short arms and legs with three claws on each, big wings and two rows of spikes on his back; on his head are five horns that in certain angles look like a crown and a blue gemlike sphere on the middle, he also has two mouths and golden eyes with no eyelids myu,” Rinna explained. “He sounds dangerous, but how is a sentient dragon a pet?” asked Twilight, “it makes no logical sense.” “Slify was sealed a long time ago by someone with great magical powers myu, mother found him on one of her journeys to another world in the form of a card; then she asked Ini-chan for help and the two managed to release him from his prison. Since then Slify adopted the role of guardian of the Takamura Family,” Rinna said; “actually the title of pet is just a loving title I said sometimes; he didn’t seem to mind it so I got used to it myu.” “A guardian dragon… how big is Slify Rinna?” asked Twilight a little worried of the answer. “We never measured him myu, but I think he is at least four times the size of this castle or even bigger myu;” Rinna replied with a guess. Everypony’s pupils shrunk in shock at the mention of this, except for Lucky Star and Pinkie Pie. “I-is he aggresive?” Twilight asked in fear of what this dragon could do to Equestria. “Don’t worry Twilight, Slify will not attack unless something provokes him or any member of the family is on danger myu,” Rinna reassured, “besides he stays beyond the clouds most of the time myu.” “That doesn’t make me any less worried,” Twilight said. “I know what you are getting to Twilight, but let’s have some trust on Rinna’s word;” Celestia tried to calm Twilight down. “Indeed sister, we believe on Rinna’s word if her world can coexist in peace with such a powerful being, so can our own,” Luna added, “besides, if this Slify wanted to cause us problems he could have done so by now.” “Like I said, Slify will not attack unless something provokes him myu, and for that it has to be a pretty big annoyance; because he has great respect for life myu,” Rinna assured. “Alright Rinna, even if I still have some doubts about Slify; if the princesses have trust on your word then so I have,” said Twilight in a more relaxed tone. “Something I don’t completely comprehend now that you revealed that your pet is a dragon, is why did you try to lure him with pastries Rinna,” Celestia said confused. “It seems confusing I know, especially because Slify told me he doesn’t need to eat to sustain himself myu; but he also told me if I need something when he’s not around I just need to use any kind of food and he will use it to find me if he’s close to the location myu,” Rinna said letting out a soft yawn. “It seems Rinna is tired, we’ll end this here for the day;” Celestia said while levitating the tired catgirl to her back, “Twilight.” “Yes, Princess?” asked Twilight. “Can you take Rinna with you to Ponyville in tomorrow’s morning train?” Celestia asked suddenly. This question put a big smile on Pinkie’s face, but Twilight was confused. “Yes, of course; but why do you want me to take her to Ponyville, Princess?” Twilight asked back. “Ponyville is a very welcoming town, Twilight. Taking Rinna there will let her go out and socialize with ponies without causing a ruckus or in the worst case, a smaller one that would cause here on Canterlot,” Celestia with a disappointed sigh. “I see, in Canterlot she couldn’t get out of the castle; but in Ponyville she would have a better time adjusting to pony society,”- Twilight said while thinking in detail -“Understood Princess, I’ll make sure Rinna is well received in Ponyville Princess; I’m sure my friends will help her too.” “I’m gonna throw the most super duper fun party for her!” said Pinkie in her overenthusiastic tone, “and when we find Slify I’m going to throw him a party too!” “Sister, should we have an early dinner since Rinna is tired?” Luna asked. “It’s probably the best option,” Celestia said, but then she felt something grabbing the back of her neck along with soft snoring noises. Everypony looked at Celestia’s back just to see Rinna sleeping peacefully hugging Celestia’s neck from behind. They just smiled warmly at the sight in front of them. Smiling motherly Celestia asked in a more quiet tone, “Lucky Star, will you be so gentle to take Rinna to one of the guest rooms?” “Of course your highness,” Lucky Star replied in the same quiet tone. With this said Celestia levitated the sleeping form of Rinna from her back to Lucky Star’s back; then the maid walked out of the room. “What is the real reason for you to send her away sister?” Luna asked suddenly, “we thought you enjoyed her company as much as us.” Celestia’s mood fall at that, “You are right Luna I enjoy her company, but Rinna is not safe in Canterlot and if what she said is true; her guardian will most probably attack the city. “And I don’t know how powerful an otherworldly dragon can be, especially one that big,” she ended with a sigh. “Slify sound spooky, but I don’t think he’s a meanie weenie; after all he just wants to protect Riny,” said Pinkie trying to defend Slify. “I know what you mean Pinkie, but we can’t risk an attack on Canterlot; Ponyville is very peaceful so the chances of Rinna being in danger there are dim,” Twilight added before noticing something. “Princess, how will I take Rinna on tomorrow’s train without her being seen by the ponies on the streets?” she asked. “Sparkle is right sister; we should send them in one of the chariots,” Luna said. “Oh! Oh! I know,” Pinkie said, “we can carry Riny and said she is a doll; she is a very convincing doll.” “Pinkie we are being serious here,” Twilight said rolling her eyes. “Actually Pinkie Pie has a point, Twilight,” Celestia said getting a surprised look from Twilight. “Luna took Rinna for a doll the first time she saw her.” Luna blushed a little at this but confirmed it anyways. “I can tell Rinna is a good actress, if she didn’t reveal herself by speaking to Luna; I’m sure she would have believed that Rinna was a doll,” Celestia assured. “Well if you think it will work Princess then I’ll try this out,” Twilight said but not entirely convinced. Then the ponies went to the dining room for dinner and polish some details about the plan, and yes Pinkie ate all the deserts. The next day Ingrid went to Dejiko’s house with good news, the sprout of Yggdrasil was ready much earlier than she thought; this meant Dejiko’s journey would begin that same morning. Very very early in the morning the two were in a path towards Yggdrasil, and Dejiko wasn’t afraid of showing her discomfort. “Why do we have to do this so freaking early nyo!” she shouted. “It’s not that early, so stop com-“ Ingrid started but was interrupted. “It’s five in the morning nyo!” Dejiko replied angrily. Ingrid just ignored Dejiko’s rant and then said, “You were the one who accepted this quest, what happened to the determination you had to get Rinna back home? “Did you forget about her situation Dejiko?” she continued. “Fine I get it nyo, you don’t need to be so mean about it nyo,” Dejiko said with some sadness in her voice. At that moment they arrived at Yggdrasil’s gateway room. “I’m sorry about that Dejiko, but you are the only one we can afford to send there for the moment; and if my suppositions are correct and Slifer is in that same world,” Ingrid paused to let out a sigh. “He will make that world a useless pile of debris isn’t he nyo?” Dejiko said. “Exactly, that’s why we need to find them and bring them back; everyone wants Rinna back, but risking the fate of an entire world just because we took too long to send a certain person is something we can’t tolerate,” Ingrid said with determination. “Good Ini, just don’t forget what would happen if I don’t see any progress on this matter in a few days,” said an angry new female voice. Hearing this voice made Ingrid freeze in place and then she slowly turned to see the source of it. Standing on the entrance of the room with crossed arms and stern glare was a young girl, with jet black hair almost as long as her body with an ahoge on top of her head and dark brown eyes; she was wearing a dark green sailor school uniform with black long stockings and brown shoes. “Shana, I know how you feel I ‘am feeling as bad as you for not having Rinna here; but don’t be reckless please,” Ingrid tried to calm her down. Hearing this Shana approached Ingrid still with crossed arms; Shana stopped in front of Ingrid and looked down at her for a brief moment before walking out of the room. Ingrid just stood there and Dejiko was left confused so she approached her. The look on Ingrid’s face was one of terror; she snapped of it moments later but was shaking in fear. Then she said nervously, “Dejiko you need to find Rinna as soon as possible, I don’t want to think of what Shana would do to that world if we don’t bring her back. “I know Rinna could talk Slifer down if he attempts to go in a rampage, but Shana is a different story; she has became too protective and very distrustful of any unknown being that is too close to Rinna,” she continued. “Alright, nyo,” Dejiko said, “What do I need to do to go to this world nyo?” “Every world has a magic frequency attached to a specific tree with enough magic flow which determines the arrival point; this sprout of Yggdrasil I have been growing has the same frequency of this other world; so it will take you there, it also works as a communication device. Just have it with you at all times while I pour magic into it to make the portal appear,” Ingrid said with more confidence. “I’m ready nyo, let’s do it nyo!” Dejiko said with enthusiasm. With all said Ingrid concentrated her magic which made a purplish-red aura appeared around her making her hair flow like it was in the wind, this resonated with the magic on the sprout of Yggdrasil that Dejiko put in her backpack; moments later a dark blue portal appeared. “Enter while I hold it open Dejiko, I hope for you success on this,” Ingrid said while maintaining her concentration. “Thank you nyo, and don’t worry I’ll do this very fast nyo,” Dejiko said before jumping at the portal which closed itself after that. Ingrid’s aura dissipated and she let out a sigh. “For the future of this new world I wish you’re right Dejiko,” she said while looking at the place where the portal was. Location: Everfree Forest, Cave of the Tree of Harmony. The portal dumped Dejiko face first to the ground, she grunted in little pain while she raised herself into her legs to dust her dress. “This is one dirty place for a gateway nyo,” Dejiko said taking into account her uncomfortable arrival. Looking around she noticed for her surroundings that she was in a cave of some sort; she turned to see the “arrival point” of this world. What she saw confused her; it was a crystal tree with five branches, various symbols were on these branches a red lightning bolt, a violet diamond, an orange apple, a light blue balloon and a pink butterfly. Alongside those a big star shaped symbol was on the middle with a smaller purple star over it and two symbols of a sun and a crescent moon on the trunk. “For some reason this thing annoys me nyo, specially that red lightning bolt nyo,” Dejiko said with annoyance before searching for the exit of the cave. Meanwhile in Ponyville, in the peculiar mansion in the clouds which was the home of a certain cyan rainbow maned Pegasus mare; a sudden chilling sensation snapped her awake. “What the hay was that?” she asked to no one in confusion while looking everywhere frantically. “That’s it, no more cider before sleep; that was totally uncool;” she thought out loud before trying to get some more hours of sleep. At that moment 3 mares and a catgirl were in their private wagon inside the friendship express making their way to Ponyville, unknown to all except for one of them of what just arrived to Equestria. > Chapter 4: An annoying trip for the Everfree and a fainting welcome Myu. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- After ten minutes of walking Dejiko found the exit of the cave, even with the sunrise it was still dark outside, and then she looked at her surroundings. She noticed the rock walls around her making it look like she was in a pit, looking up Dejiko could see some trees. I’m probably in a forest nyo, she thought while searching for a way up. Dejiko didn’t have to look too far though, because she found a set of stairs in one of the rocky walls some meters away. Well, that’s handy nyo. After climbing all the way up she could see that she was in fact in a forest as she first thought. “This is a really weird and dumb place to have a dimensional gateway nyo, this world is making less and less sense by the time. The less time I spend here the better nyo,” she said making it sound like the sense of this world was some kind of illness. Then she began to walk in a random direction, and walked, and walked, and walked. For twenty minutes all Dejiko did was walk as straight as she could in one direction, only making turns when she find herself with a pit or traces of a swamp. Suffice to say, she was getting very annoyed of this situation. “What is wrong with this place nyo!” she shouted in frustration, “everything looks the same and the compass is going nuts nyo!” Dejiko expended the next 5 minutes stomping angrily over the forest’s landscape, heading in random directions out of sheer annoyance. “Dumb world with dumb forest, that makes dumb compass going dumbly nuts nyo,” she continued with her rant. In her stomping fury Dejiko didn’t hear the footsteps of another creature which was following her for a while now. Then a mighty roar could be heard, Dejiko turned her head back to see a lion-like creature with bat wings and a scorpion sting as a tail. It was a manticore, and it expected Dejiko to be trembling in fear or at least startled by its mighty roar. None of them happened, Dejiko just stood there with a look that said ‘really?’. “Do you want anything nyo?” she said in a bored tone. The manticore obviously didn’t understand a single word but was confused by why the little catgirl was acting so indifferent. “This is just great nyo, another thing to add to the dumb list of this world,” Dejiko said sarcastically and turned to continue her search for the way out. The manticore didn’t want any of that though, and lift one paw with claws outstretched to slash the little catgirl. Then it threw its arm horizontally, and… hit nothing. “You’re not very smart aren’t you nyo?” Dejiko said from the same point, in which she was now ducked with her head resting on her hands looking up at the manticore with a bored expression. The manticore tried to slash her again this time from above, this time Dejiko did a cart-wheel to evade the big paw. It tried again, and again with little success while Dejiko sidestepped or jumped to dodge the attacks. “You should stop, this is getting annoyi-“ Dejiko was interrupted by another paw strike which missed when she rotated her body to the side, but ripped one of her backpack straps making it slip off her shoulders to the ground. Dejiko’s left eye twitched and turned very slowly to face the manticore which now sensed something different from this little catgirl. ‘In a swift movement Dejiko disappeared from where she was and connected a roundhouse kick on the manticore’s jaw this made it recoil back a little, then getting a hold of its mane she impulsed herself into the air and stomped on its skull with the strength of the momentum making it lose its balance and fall. With her foe down she jumped down of its head and before leaving she kicked its face one last time.’ That would have been the situation if I decided to go with Dejiko’s attempt of being cool, but what really happened is that Dejiko got angry send the thing flying with her Me Kara Beam and left. “That was annoying nyo, but how can I get out of this forest?” she said while picking her backpack and dusting it. She stood there thinking for a moment when an idea got to her. Then she searched on her pockets for a certain deck of cards, and looked for one on particular. “There you are,” she said with a smile while taking a card named metal claws. Then she closed her eyes in concentration making a green aura appear around her while extending her left arm. After a moment a device appeared on her wrist, it was a metallic gold and black shield like device, with something that looked like a blade on the left side but it wasn’t sharp and had five slots of the same size of a card. “It’s good to know that I still remember how to do this nyo, for once Ini-chan’s boring talks were actually useful nyo,” she said while shivering from the memory of how boring it was for her. After that she put the card on her right hand on one of the slots of her device, a light engulfed her feet and hands for a few seconds, when the light faded shining claws made of metal were in her boots and gloves. “Alright nyo,” she then dissipated the device from her wrist for it to not be a bother before jumping to a tree and climb with her new claws, then began to jump from tree to tree getting a hold on the branches to balance and impulse herself to the next. In a daring move, she spun on a branch some times to generate momentum then she let go to get sent flying high in the air to look at the rest of the landscape. The forest was huge, but at the distance she noticed buildings, kind of ancient in terms of time period but buildings none the less. She descended gracefully, and repeated the jump another few times to be sure of the direction to take; on these other few times she also noticed the ruins of a castle in the opposite direction of the town but decided to not pay it any mind. After descending a fourth time, Dejiko made her mind, ‘I’ll go to the town and look for Rinna nyo, if she isn’t there at least I can ask for directions to get to another town and try again nyo.’ She nodded to herself and started making her way towards the town. Meanwhile on Ponyville’s train station a certain group was making its way out trying to not attract too much attention because even if not many ponies were up this early, there were still a few on the streets preparing their stalls for the day. “Pinkie can you go get the girls? We will need their aid to help Rinna get settled,” Twilight said. “Okie dokie lokie, what are you gonna do meanwhile?” Pinkie asked. “I’ll take Rinna and Lucky Star to the castle to keep Rinna safe,” Twilight replied. “There’s no need Princess Twilight, I know how to get there,” Lucky Star said suddenly before start walking in the direction where the castle was. “Wait, Lucky Star how do you know where my castle is? I don’t remember mention it in the way here,” Twilight asked confused. “I have my way to know things like these, right Miss Rinna?” Lucky Star asked to Rinna in her back, who apparently was still sleeping. “You can stop calling me that way already Kona, you should be yourself from now on, it’s kind of strange to see you acting so formal myu,” Rinna said without opening her eyes and a smile on her face. “Were you awake all this time Rinna? And Kona? What do you mean by that?” Twilight asked even more confused than before. “Not really the whole time Twilight, I woke up after we got out of the train myu, but I’m passing as a doll for now so I couldn’t do anything for the time being myu,” Rinna said without moving from her position on Lucky Star’s back. “And what she meant is that my real name is not Lucky Star, that just the pony name I adopted to not be suspicious in my search for Rinna, my real name is Konata, Takamura Konata,” the now called Konata said. “Hmm… have we met before Kony? Because I think we met before,” Pinkie asked. “I’m not sure myself Pinkie. Maybe we met before maybe not, I can’t say for sure,” Konata said to Pinkie with a knowing smile. Pinkie imitated the same smile and the two did a hoofbump. Pinkie then disappeared leaving a smoke clone in her place. “Wait did you just said Takamura? Are you two-“ Twilight tried to continue but Konata cut her off. “Yes Twilight, we are related but not directly. We’ll explain this after the meeting with your friends is over,” Konata said with a tone of finality. “Alright, but I’m still going with you, I need to tell Spike about the situation too,” Twilight said. “Ok then, let’s go,” Konata said while walking in direction to the castle. “I said be yourself, but please be polite myu,” Rinna scolded from Konata’s back. Chuckling Konata said, “I’ll try, but I promise nothing.” “Hey! Don’t leave me behind,” Twilight said while catching up with Konata and Rinna. When Twilight catch up Rinna said to her, “please forgive her, she can be a little mean with new acquaintances myu, and likes to brag a lot when she does something incredible or out of the ordinary myu. She’s also overconfident, but if you look past all that she can be a real sweetheart myu,” Konata groaned after hearing that last part. “Don’t say unnecessary things Rinna,” Konata said a little annoyed and embarrassed. Twilight and Rinna giggled at this behavior, which made Konata groan again. “I’m glad that tengu is in her own world,” Konata said with a sigh. “Do you mean A-“ Rinna tried to say something but Konata cut her off rather quickly. “No! Don’t say her name; knowing her, she would do an interdimensional jump with her speed just to get a scoop,” Konata said in a hurry. Twilight wanted to ask for details on the topic but doing that could result on Konata getting more annoyed than she already is, so she kept the question for herself. Being this early in the morning made the walk to the castle uneventful, granted it wasn’t as early anymore but most ponies were just waking up. The three got the their destination, and Twilight opened the doors and motioned with her hoof for Konata to follow her, soon after they could heard little footsteps approaching from the corner of the corridor they were at. “Twilight is that you?” a young masculine voice could be heard from behind the corner. “Let me guess, that’s Spike isn’t?” Konata said in a whisper for only Twilight to hear. Twilight nodded and with a warm smile she said, “Yes Spike, it’s me.” The footsteps got louder then coming out from behind the corner was a little purple dragon, with green dark spikes that went from his head and all the way down his back ending in an arrow shaped tail; and a light green underbelly. “Welcome back!” Spike said enthusiastically, “Oh, you bring a guest, hi I’m Spike, are you the pony that the Princess asked Twilight to help?” “Hi there little guy, I’m Lucky Star and no I’m not the pony the Princess asked Twilight here to help, she is on my back,” Konata portraying her pony name said, “it’s ok, you can get down now.” Spike saw in surprise what he thought was some kind of doll move and get down of the mare in front of him. “Emm…” was the only thing he could mutter. “You want to ask what she is but don’t want to sound rude aren’t you?” Lucky Star asked. Surprised Spike asked, “How did you know?” “Taking into account all the reactions she got so far, it was pretty obvious,” Lucky Star said with a sigh, “At least yours was pretty tame compared with the rest. Rinna, would you be so gentle?” Nodding, Rinna got closer to Spike and lifted a hand for a handshake then said, “I’m Takamura Rinna, but just Rinna is fine. If you are still curious I’m a Nekomimi myu, I’m hoping for us to be friends if it’s possible Mister Spike.” Spike accepted the claw/handshake, “Just Spike, being called mister feels kind of weird,” he said while scratching the back of his head with his other claw in embarrassment. “And sure, we can be friends, you seem to be a nice… hmm… how was it again? Neckomi?” he said even more embarrassed and let go of her hand. The girls just giggled at this, and then Rinna said with a warm smile “its Neko-mi-mi myu, but you can consider me a pony if that makes it easier for you Spike.” She’s so nice Spike thought before saying, “Yeah that will make things easier thank you Rinna.” Twilight then asked to Lucky Star in a whisper, “is she always this nice with everypony?” Lucky Star nodded, “She’s the kindest soul I’ve ever met, she doesn’t get angry for anything and always tries to cheer you up when you’re feeling down,” she replied the whisper. “Well, let’s go to the throne room to wait for my friends,” said Twilight. Then a little grumble could be heard, and Rinna’s cheeks got red from embarrassment. “It seems like someone is hungry,” Lucky Star said with a chuckle. “Spike, can you make something for Rinna to eat?” Twilight asked. “Sure thing, what would you like?” Spike asked Rinna but she was quick to refuse. “Its fine myu, I don’t want to impose. I can wait until lunch myu,” she said but the soft grumbling said otherwise. Giggling Twilight said, “You don’t have to be shy Rinna, you are our guest and we can’t have a hungry guest and leave it starving.” “If there’s no other option, I would like to at least help myu,” Rinna said while looking at Spike with the cutest stare any of them had ever seen. Lucky Star was smart and looked away from Rinna, but Twilight and Spike weren’t so lucky. The two had the same thought on their heads She’s so cute! Not being able to refuse to something this cute, Spike said in defeat, “alright, you can help me.” “Thank you myu,” Rinna said before giving Spike a short hug. Spike’s face was red as a tomato, but he managed to say, “You’re w-w-welcome.” Rinna ended the hug and then hooked her arm to Spike’s, surprising everyone present. “W-w-wha-“ was the only thing Spike could muster. Lucky Star looked at them suspiciously but decided to not interfere for now. “This is to make sure I don’t get lost on the castle myu,” Rinna said innocently. “Oh…” Twilight and Spike said at the same time. “It’s a good idea actually,” said Twilight. “Can we go myu?” Rinna asked Spike. “Hmm… s-sure, let’s go,” Spike said while walking along a giggling Rinna. “Spike,” Lucky Star called for him. Spike turned to look at her, and a chill went down his spine from the apparently normal stare Lucky Star was giving him, but he felt very threatened from it. “Take care of her please, and have fun; I’ll go outside to check on something for a moment,” Lucky Star said with the same smile on her face before walking in direction of the exit. Twilight noticed the devious smile Lucky Star had when she turned to leave; she just gave a nod to her, leaving a confused Twilight. “Will you come along Twilight myu?” asked Rinna. “Sure, we still have time; will you make cakes this time too?” Twilight asked back with some drool trying to make its way out of her mouth, but she got a hold of herself. Rinna nodded. Then they made their way towards the kitchen, where Twilight and Spike were left with their mouths hanging open by how quick Rinna was moving around the kitchen, taking care of everything. But if something got stuck on their heads was a certain moment, when Rinna let Spike make some muffins with Twilight reading how to make them, but those didn’t rise for some reason, leaving a very disappointed Spike and a confused Twilight. “I don’t get it,” said Spike. “We followed the recipe, why did they turn out like this? It doesn’t make any sense” Twilight asked still confused of what went wrong. “That’s because the most important thing was missing myu,” Rinna said calmly. Then she started to sing in a lullaby kind of way. In order to make a delicious cake…~ Rinna was mixing and kneading more muffin batter. “You need good ingredients and good tools!” said Twilight. “You also need a good recipe,” Spike added. Those things are very important as well myu~ But, but the most important thing, is the joyous smile on everyone’s faces myu~ She then put the batter in the molds and then the tray in the oven turning it on, all the time radiating a calming and peaceful aura. When I look at everyone’s smiles, everyone’s cakes will raise myu~ As on cue the muffins rose, after some moments Rinna retired the tray from the oven. It’s baking powder of the heart, of the heart~ She proceeded to decorate the now perfect muffins with cream and cherries alongside chocolate sticks and other sweets. “They look delicious,” Twilight said. Spike nodded in approval. They are done myu~ She ended with a big a smile. “That was amazing Rinna, how did you managed to make them so fast?” asked Twilight. “Thank you, if you do something from the heart everything is possible myu,” Rinna said accepting the compliment. “And how is that song called? It was beautiful and you looked… angelical,” Spike said a little embarrassed of his choice of words. “It has no real name myu, but this song is very important to me because I first sang it when I meet with my friends for the first time myu,” Rinna said with a warm smile then looked to the window. “I really miss them myu,” she said in a sadder tone. “Don’t worry Rinna, I’m sure Twilight and the Princesses will find a way to help you,” Spike said in an attempt to cheer her up. “You have my word as a Princess of Equestria, that I will not rest until I find a way to send you back home Rinna,” Twilight said in a confident tone. “Thank you myu…” Rinna said with some tears of happiness on her eyes. “Well, let’s take these cakes to the throne room, I’m sure everypony will enjoy them specially after witnessing the care and love you put on them,” Spike said while lifting one tray. “Right myu,” Rinna said with a big smile while lifting another tray. Twilight levitated the rest with her magic, and the three made their way to the throne room. Meanwhile in Álfheimr, Louise and Shana were having a relaxing time with tea and cookies in the castle’s garden. “These aren’t as good as her’s,” said Shana with a sigh while munching on a cookie. “I know, I know, I miss her too but we need to have faith in Dejiko, she probably is having a lot of trouble in that new world. By the way, did you apologize with Ini for threatening her yesterday?” Louise said with a frown. Shana almost choked at the mention of that and looked to the cup of tea on her hands to avoid Louise’s gaze, “No I didn’t, it wasn’t my intention to scare her like that, but I got impatient and my emotions got the better of me,” she said with shame. She then felt someone hugging her from behind. “I know, I forgive you and I’m sorry for not giving you any results so far,” said the young voice of Ingrid. Louise just smiled warmly at the scene, she planned for this to happen but it still was heartwarming to see. Shana put a hand on Ingrid’s arms, “Ini I-“ but she couldn’t finish the sentence. I really miss them myu. The three of them heard the same sentence on their heads and snapped their eyes wide open. “Was that…” Louise said uncertainty. “I felt Rinna’s magic, but she doesn’t have a conscious grasp of it yet, she probably sent that message unconsciously,” Ingrid said while letting go of Shana. “Ini you still can’t send me there?” Shana asked with some hurry. “Sending you there would take a lot out of me, Shana. You are too powerful, and that would stress my body too much without a vessel to direct my magic flow,” Ingrid said in a serious tone. “Is there any way to set a vessel there?” Louise asked calmly. “When I regain communication with Dejiko I can make her set one on the reception point. That would set a fixed location for my magic to follow and make the journeys to that world easier,” Ingrid explained. “I see,” Shana accepted the explanation then looked at Yggdrasil. Rinna, please be careful, she thought. Some minutes have passed, Twilight and Spike set up everything while Rinna ate some salad she made. Then the throne room door opened and Lucky Star came in while eating a pear. “Hey everyone, did you have fun?” Lucky Star asked. “Yes we did, and you went for some shopping myu?” Rinna asked. “Yup, but the main reason for why I went out was to check the atmosphere of the town and how the residents are, and after this little trip I can say this is a very peaceful place. Sure some of them are kind of weird, but all of them seem harmless enough for you to be out there,” Lucky Star said with a smile. “Does that mean that I don’t need to hide anymore myu?” Rinna asked with expectation. Lucky Star just nodded. “Just be sure to have company with you, just to make sure there are no surprises; I need to go back to Canterlot to report Celestia we finish our meeting with Twilight’s friends.” “Wait you said you were going to tell us about how Rinna and you are related after the meeting?” Twilight asked. “Rinna can tell you the story too, I need to get rid of this task as soon as possible that’s why I changed my mind,” Lucky Star said in an annoyed tone. At that moment they heard the sound of hooves clopping, and the door of the throne room opened once again revealing five mares, the rest of the Element Bearers. “Twilight, you better have a good reason for waking me up this early!” said a cyan rainbow maned pegasus. “How is almost ten o’clock in the morning early? Darling” asked an alabaster with a curly purple mane unicorn. “I’m not work addicted like you and Applejack, Rarity,” said the pegasus with a huff. “Now what is that supposed to mean?” asked an orange blond maned earth pony with a Stetson, clearly annoyed by the implication. “Just what I said, you two are work addicted,” the pegasus said with a mocking smile while staying on air. “I stand corrected I think I’m going to stay a little longer, this is too funny to miss it,” Lucky Star with a chuckle. “Please don’t start a fight myu,” Rinna said to Lucky Star. The three ponies looked in their direction, while a yellow pegasus was hiding behind the corner. Meanwhile Pinkie… “Riny!” shouted Pinkie before hug tackling Rinna. “It’s good to see you so soon Pinkie,” Rinna said while giggling. “What is that?” asked the cyan pegasus. Lucky Star looked at the pegasus with a frown, but before she could say anything Pinkie did. “This one here is Riny!” she said while lifting Rinna by her armpits, “she is a nekomimi, and due to a magic mumbo jumbo, she and her pet dragon got transported here, they got separated and she is looking for him and a way home. “Oh oh Riny,” Pinkie said while hugging Rinna again, “Rarity has repaired your backpack.” “T-that’s nice, but Pinkie can I breathe now myu?” Rinna said while struggling to get air inside the bone crushing hug. “Why didn’t you say it sooner, silly?” Pinkie then let go. “What?” said the pegasus in confusion. “You should clear your ears more often, your hearing is pretty bad it seems,” Lucky Star said non-chalantly. The pegasus quickly closed the gap between them invading Lucky Star’s personal space. “Can you repeat that?” the pegasus asked more like a dare than a question. “Lucky Star, Rainbow please don’t start a fight now,” Twilight tried to calm them down with no success. “Oh goodness is worse than I thought, you have to get your ears checked soon or you’ll be deaf in a whiff,” Lucky Star said in a teasingly polite tone. “Ok, that’s it you’re going down!” Rainbow said angrily. “Bring it on skittles,” Lucky Star replied with a mocking smile. “STOP!” Rinna shouted, getting the attention of the two mares she got closer, “please don’t fight, let’s calm down yes myu?” she said with worry. “Don’t get into this you freak!” Rainbow shouted before pushing Rinna away with her hoof making her fall down. Everypony plus Spike gasped at the action, the next thing Rainbow knew was that she hit the ground and was being pinned down by something. The moment Rinna touched the floor Lucky Star tackled Rainbow to the ground and keep her there. “Hey, what gives?” Rainbow complained, struggling to free herself of Lucky Star’s grip to no avail. “SHUT UP!” Lucky star shouted at the top of her lungs with fury. “Rinna are you ok?” her rage was replaced by worry. “I’m fine, you can let her go myu,” said Rinna while dusting herself. Pinkie and Spike got closer to make sure Rinna was indeed alright. “Ok Rinna, if you say so then so be it,” Lucky Star said before looking back at Rainbow. “But let me make something clear, if you try anything funny like that with her again, I’ll make sure you never are able to fly again.” She then went to Rinna’s side. “Sheesh, what’s her problem?” Rainbow said while getting up. “No! What is ‘your’ problem?” Twilight asked with a scowl, “Rinna just wanted you two to stop fighting why did you push her like that, what if she got an injury?” Twilight eyes shrunk at what she just said. Then teleported next to Rinna and scanned her with her magic. “Are you ok, does it hurt somewhere, anywhere?” Twilight asked in panic, and her mane was all over the place. Seeing her like this made Rinna feel bad, and then she put a hand on Twilight’s head and started petting her. This made Twilight stop in place to look at Rinna’s face; she saw a warm smile on her features while she kept petting her mane. Lucky Star, Pinkie and Spike smiled knowingly but the rest were confused. “I’m fine Twilight, thank you for worrying about me myu. You’re a great friend,” Rinna said still petting her. Twilight on the other hand felt something, it was that same feeling she got from Princess Celestia when she just became her student, that warm motherly feeling and legitimate appreciation. Twilight just closed her eyes and let herself relax at the attention. “What is going on?” Rainbow asked more in exasperation than confusion this time. “I’m not sure, but that catlike fella sure avoided a crazy Twilight moment,” said Applejack. “She seems nice…” said a quiet voice from behind the door frame. “Thank you for the compliment myu,” Rinna said in her sit down position, where she was holding Twilight’s head on her lap, who relaxed too much and seemed to be sleeping. “Eeep!” said the voice again surprised of being heard. “Wait, how did you hear Fluttershy? I barely heard her and I’m way closer than you,” Rainbow asked confused. “I have a very sharp hearing myu,” Rinna replied still smiling and letting Twilight rest peacefully. “Lucky Star, please apologize to her myu.” Lucky Star froze at the implication, “What, why? She assaulted you, how can you ask me to apologize to somepony like that?” she asked in disbelief. “She didn’t hurt me myu, that’s enough for me to forgive her,” Rinna said. The two had a staring contest; after Lucky Star saw the determination on Rinna’s gaze she let out a sigh and said in defeat, “Alright Rinna, you win.” Lucky Star then stepped forward closer to Rainbow, “I’m sorry for tackling you and threatening you,” she said as convincing as she could. Rainbow was about to refuse Lucky Star’s apology, but the stares the others were giving her made her think otherwise, “Ok, I forgive you, it would be uncool of me to not do so, but I still don’t like you,” she said with a huff. “Believe me when I say the feeling is mutual,” Lucky Star replied with a huff of hers. “With that out of the way, I think introductions are in order myu,” Rinna said still holding the sleeping form of Twilight, “Who wants to start?” “It’ll be my pleasure, dear,” said Rarity, “I ‘am Rarity, fashionista extraordinaire, owner of Carrousel Boutique and Element of Generosity,” she did a little bow for more emphasis. “Howdy miss! My name is Applejack, I work with my family in Sweet Apple Acres taking care of the orchard and making all sorts of apple products, I also represent the Element of Honesty. I must say it was awful nice of you to forgive Rainbow, miss,” said Applejack with genuine gratitude. “Now is my turn!” Rainbow said a little too enthusiastic, “The name’s Rainbow Dash, I’m the fastest and most awesome pegasus in all Equestria and Element of Loyalty!” “Cough*Liar*Cough,” said Lucky Star in her hoof. Rainbow shot her a glare, but Lucky Star just stared unimpressed. Then Rainbow got closer to Rinna and landed on the floor, “Also sorry for pushing you, you just wanted to help and I was being mean, I hope we can still be friends” she said while offering a hoof. “Sure Miss Rainbow, we still can myu,” Rinna grabbed her hoof and shake it a few times. “Cool! And just Rainbow, I’m not Rarity to be called miss,” Rainbow said with a smile. Then the group looked at the yellow mare behind the doorframe, and she let out and ‘eeep!’ in surprise. “Please forgive her, darling. She is really timid with new acquaintances,” said Rarity. “Its fine Miss Rarity, she reminds me of one of my friends myu,” then Rinna directed her attention to Spike, “Spike, can you bring me a pillow for Twilight?” “Sure thing ma ‘am,” Spike gave a salute and went to fetch a pillow. “Here you go Spike!” Pinkie said pushing a pillow in Spike’s face before he could leave the room. “Where did you got this pillow from, Pinkie?” Spike asked. “I always have pillows close in case of pillow emergency,” Pinkie said. Spike just shrugged, “thanks, Pinkie,” then he gave the pillow to Rinna. “Thank you Spike, thank you Pinkie myu,” Rinna then put the pillow under Twilight so she could continue resting peacefully. After that she got closer to Fluttershy, stopped in front of her then sat down and looked at her. Fluttershy got the clue behind this behavior. ‘She did this to not look intimidating, she did it for me? Why would she do this for me? Is she thinking I’m afraid of her? Oh goodness I’m being rude, what do I do?’ Fluttershy thoughts were all over the place and she was looking nervously at her surroundings. Sensing the insecurity of the mare Rinna said, “It’s ok, there’s nothing to fear Miss Fluttershy I’m not going to hurt you myu.” “Umm, I’m not afraid of you,” Fluttershy partially hide her face behind her mane. Rinna let out a sigh of relief, “that’s good to know, I thought I was scaring you and that made me feel bad myu.” “Oh, I’m so sorry for upsetting you, it’s just…” Fluttershy said cowering even more. “It’s just that meeting new ponies can be scary, right? Because we don’t know how they will react to us myu,” Rinna gave a sympathetic look. “Exactly, that’s what I always thought, especially if is somepony who looks scary, I just don’t know what to say and always end up escaping,” suddenly Fluttershy’s voice got more confident and rose in volume. Rinna just smiled and Fluttershy blushed after noticing her own change in volume. “Can you tell me anything about you myu?” “Umm, I like animals; I take care of them on my cottage and umm, can understand them,” Fluttershy said while shifting a hoof on the floor casually. Rinna got up and went back to Lucky Star’s side, and then she did a reverence and said, “I’m Takamura Rinna, my friends just call me Rinna so it’s ok if you want to call me that too. It’s a pleasure to meet you all and I hope we can be friends from now on.” “I suppose it’s my turn now,” said Lucky Star, “My name is Lucky Star, I worked as a maid in Canterlot’s Castle and now I’m under orders from Princess Celestia herself to protect Rinna, but even if she didn’t order me that I would have done so anyway. Now I need to personally send a report to her detailing what has happened so far,” she let out a sigh. “Why don’t just use Spike to send your report? He can blow fire *fuosh* to a parchment and it gets sent directly to the Princess”, Pinkie said. “Oh, that’s useful I wonder why he didn’t say anything before,” Lucky Star stared at Spike, “did you planned this for me to go away and do improper things while I was absent?” she said with a frown. Spike stared dumbly, until the information got registered on his brain, “What! No!” he put his claws up defensibly, “I would never do that! I’m an honorable dragon!” “Implying that Spikey Wikey would do such nefarious acts, you are not doing much effort to fit in darling,” Rarity looked at Lucky Star with a frown of her own. “I’m with Rarity; you just got into more trouble than a dog using a shovel to dig a hole,” Applejack added. Lucky Star turned to look at Rinna with a face of ‘what the hay?’ “Please don’t fight anymore; it has been enough of that already myu,” Rinna went to fetch a tray of cupcakes from one of the thrones. The mares wanted to continue the argument but a look at Rinna’s hurt expression made them think otherwise. I can’t argue with that face looking at me the three thought the same thing. “Ahh… I can’t have fun here, Rinna is too nice with strangers, I’ll just go fetch some paper to do my report then,” Lucky Star said without much enthusiasm and left the room, while the other mares stared at her with frowns, except for Fluttershy she was hiding behind Applejack. “Rinna, can I take one of those?” Rainbow pointed at the cupcakes on the tray Rinna has on her hand. “Sure myu,” Rinna lifted the tray full strawberry frosting cupcakes and Rainbow took one. “You’re free to take one if you like myu,” she said to the rest of the presents. And take them they did, when everyone had a cupcake they nodded at once and took curious bites. Everyone froze with wide eyes after tasting the cupcakes’ flavor, it was an otherworldly sensation. … … … Then they fainted. Except for Pinkie of course, “Yuuuuuum! These are even tastier than the last ones Riny!” she said while inhaling more and more of the cupcakes. “But why is everypony sleeping now?” “I’m glad you like them Pinkie, and I don’t know myu” Rinna was confused by that too. Some minutes later Lucky Star came back. She saw everypony on the floor with Rinna and Pinkie putting up more pillows for everypony’s comfort. “They can’t handle passive magic? Well, that’s certainly interesting,” Lucky Star stared at the sleeping forms of everypony. “Passive magic?” Pinkie asked. “Rinna has magic in her, but she can’t make use of it at will, instead it appears subconsciously in what she does when a certain emotion is used,” Lucky Star pointed at the cupcakes, muffins and other pastries on the trays. “In this case, the magic was poured in those cakes, Rinna’s love for seeing others happy most likely triggered her magic to enhance the taste of the cakes,” she explained, “But, I think it was a bit too much for them.” “Oooh, but Twilight didn’t eat any, how is she still sleeping after all the noise we did before?” “She got affected by Rinna’s magic in a different way; appreciation for somepony also triggers her magic. Basically anything that makes Rinna happy will trigger it,” Lucky Star stared at Twilight for a moment, “She didn’t wake up yet because she’s in a deep state of relaxation, she will be up soon though. For the rest I’m not sure, but you can try to wake them up Pinkie.” “Okie dokie lokie, but before that I want to know, why do you went back to use Lucky Star as your name, Kony?” Pinkie asked eager to know. “My name wasn’t meant to be discovered at all, that was Rinna’s fault. It doesn’t really bother me, but I prefer my name to remain a secret for anypony else. I don’t mind you calling me that though; you’re the only pony that I could bring myself to like so far,” Lucky Star said while looking outside from a window. Lucky Star/Konata saw an impossibly big smile on Pinkie’s face and she suddenly, made an explosion of confetti out of nowhere and hugged her. Rinna had decided to remain silent during this exposition just out of politeness, that didn’t stop her from giggling at Pinkie’s antics. With a sigh Lucky Star said, “You’re so random Pinkie.” “You bet I ‘am! We are going to be great friends!” Pinkie said still crush hugging Lucky Star. “S-sure thing, but don’t break my ribs Pinkie,” Lucky Star showed some pain on her expression. “Oopsie,” Pinkie bumped herself on the head lightly with a hoof. “So, what do we do now Kony, Riny?” “Wait for them to wake up I guess, or like I said you can try to wake them up.” “We shouldn’t bother them while they’re asleep, that would be mean myu.” “Rinna… you’re too nice for your own good, did you know that.” “You think so myu?” Kona and Pinkie nodded, “oh goodness.” “Don’t worry Riny you’re fine as you are, not being so nice would mean you not being you and if you aren’t you anymore then who could be Riny, because nopony could do good for replacing Riny, because Riny is not a pony so that’s not possible without doing some mumbo jumbo magic to turn Riny into a pony and…” Pinkie just kept on saying random things. Kona rolled her eyes in amusement, and Rinna just smiled and listened to her hyperactive friend. Meanwhile on the Everfree Forest… “I hate this place nyo!” Dejiko shouted while jumping quickly on tree branches fleeing from a pack of Timberwolves. She did a backflip in midair to look at the wooden wolves and shouted, “Me Kara Beam!” A golden ray was shot from her eyes and connected with the first wolf making it crash against the other and push them some meters away. Dejiko then stopped the ray to accommodate herself to grab the next branch and keep moving. Then the remains of the ray exploded and sent the wolves flying in different directions. Another entity also saw what happened; a shadowy figure with bright green eyes and red irises saw everything and an evil smile appeared on its features. “I finally found it, the weapon to get my revenge,” the being said in a deep almost demonic voice. The entity keep on looking at the retreating form of Dejiko, along with an evil laugh for getting the most important piece of its plan. > Chapter 5: Uninteresting off screen revelation, the magic boost and finally getting out of the forest Nyo! > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dejiko keep jumping between branches, and launching herself up every once in a while to keep track of the direction she needed to go. But another presence was following her, and she noticed this. “You don’t know what subtlety is, don’t you nyo?” Dejiko grabbed the next branch and twirled some before letting go, then landed on the grassy ground of the forest to look at her stalker. “So you noticed my presence, I ‘am glad for not underestimating your abilities little one,” the black smoke cloud said in a deep echoing voice. “Abilities?” Dejiko then put a mocking smile, “I hardly used any ability to detect you nyo, I could hear you, I could see you and due to my bad luck and this world hating me nyo, I could even smell you from far away,” she waved a hand in front of her face to get rid of the smell. “This dumb world really needs some personal hygiene lessons, nyo.” “Such pride and self confidence that goes so far to look down at others… are you royalty by any way, little one?” This surprised Dejiko, but then relaxed at the fact that there was someone on this world who could tell she was important, “I’m surprised you noticed nyo, in fact I ‘am a princess and stop calling me ‘little one’ that’s weird nyo.” The cloud then took the form of a dark gray unicorn with a black spiky mane and tail, his horn was curved, smooth, sharp at the tip and it gradients from dark gray to red. He had sharp teeth with two visible fangs, which surprised Dejiko because she didn’t know equines could have fangs like that, his eyes were bright green with red irises and some kind of purple mist was emanating from them. He was wearing silver armor on his legs and neck, a crown with spikes similar in shape to his horn, and a red cape that covered the entirety of his back and flank. Then he proceeded to bow, “my apologies your highness, but it’s fortunate that a member of royalty of a foreign land is here; could I ask for some of your time Princess?” Dejiko grew a smug smile, “you can, but I have matters to attend to nyo, so be as brief as possible and introduce yourself nyo.” “Of course, I ‘am King Sombra the ex monarch of the Crystal Empire who was banished and cursed by the evil rulers of this land.” Dejiko raised an eye-brow at this statement, but choose to not make a comment about it, “well you introduced yourself so it’s fair that I do that too nyo, I’m Dejiko Princess of Digi-Charat and I’m here looking for a friend nyo.” “I see, will you hear my plea your highness? I will not take too much time out of you, and you are free to refuse to aid me if you see it necessary.” Dejiko was about to refuse but then an idea pooped up on her head, ‘I could help him to get some aid to find Rinna nyo.’ “Alright nyo. Now go on, before I change my mind nyo,” she said in an unusual authoritative tone. “Of course Princess,” Sombra flashed a devious smile for a second but Dejiko didn’t notice. Meanwhile in Álfheimr, Shana went to the training grounds to take her mind off of things; Louise just followed because she was worried about her. In the other hand, Ingrid went home to search for something on her library. “Say, Louise,” Shana called for Louise while slashing some training dummies with her sword. “Yes? Do you need something?” Louise just watched Shana slice things so far, this made her worries fade. “No, is just something that came to my head recently.” “Well, can you tell me what it is about?” “What if, one of our magical artifacts was used to cause this anomaly?” Shana said while doing some swift moves to slice five dummies at once. “It’s a possibility but which one? Most of our artifacts have just fighting properties, and just three of those are out of the magic vault,” Louise pointed out. “Three? Are there another two artifacts outside, besides my Nietono no Shana? Which ones?” Shana said in curiosity. “Kotori’s Camael, and Demon Slayer Est.” “Why is Est out?” Shana asked in confusion. “Ini took a liking for her and since her curse was lifted, she can now have a normal life outside. And Ini was looking for help when she is in one of her research moods,” Louise explained. Shana sliced one more dummy before summoning her Yogasa in trench coat form and banishing her sword inside it, “I see, I thought Kurumi would have something to do with the anomaly, but if Zafkiel is on the vault then I have to discard her from the list.” “I know you still don’t trust her, but she already paid for her actions in the past; when we managed to fulfill her main goal she was prepared to let herself disappear accepting the punishment for all her bad deeds. You have to at least give her that Shana.” “Hmph, you will not change my impression of her so easily Louise,” Shana left the room after that. Louise let out a chuckle at that, ‘I can’t help but find cute how she is when she lies like that.' At that moment on the Tower of the Great Sage, an annoyed looking Ingrid was pouring magic into her sprout of Yggdrasil. Meanwhile in the Everfree forest, Dejiko finally heard the end of Sombra’s story. She was not impressed; instead she was bored out of her mind. “So… that was it nyo?” “Yes it is your highness, will you consider helping me? “Well…” but before she could continue a golden light coming out of her pocket, got her attention, “huh?” She searched her pocket and took out her deck, with surprise she noticed one of the cards letting out an intense glow. After some moment of looking in her deck she found the shinning card, it was… ‘Sprout of Yggdrasil? Why is this card glowing nyo?’ Without hesitation, she summoned her aura to materialize the device in her left arm. Sombra saw this ability before when he was stalking Dejiko, but now he had a first hoof look of it, “Highness, what is that? I never saw something like that before.” “Huh? Hmm, give me a moment to see what is up with this card,” with that said Dejiko put the card on one of the slots, it materialized a pot with a golden plant which looked like three golden clovers. The itself was glowing in an intense golden light, this confused Dejiko until it took the form of a golden tree and a screen made of light appeared on top of it. When the screen got clearer, Dejiko froze with a nervous expression on her face and was sweating a bit. “So, what is your excuse this time, Dejiko?” the voice of Ingrid came out of the screen and it wasn’t very happy sounding. “Emm… I wanted to… get out of the forest first?” Dejiko was so nervous that she wasn’t able to say her characteristic suffix. Ingrid let out a sigh, “look, I forgive you, but can you tell me what is happening over there? We got an indirect message from Rinna’s magic frequency.” “What!” Dejiko shouted in surprise, “Rinna sent a message nyo? What did she send nyo?” “She said she misses us, Dejiko we need to find her fast, that’s why I need you to do something.” “Just say it and I’ll do it nyo,” Dejiko said while putting a hand in her chest with a serious expression. “Alright, what I want you to do is use the magic searcher card and put a leaf of the sprout on it, then use magic vessel and attach it to searcher. Also, were you talking to someone?” Ini asked in confusion. “Huh? Oh that’s right nyo, I meet someone from this world he is right…” Dejiko looked where Sombra was but it wasn’t there anymore, “there?” “Is something wrong?” “Emm… it seems he left nyo. Weird, and he was the one who asked for help nyo,” Dejiko just scratched her head in confusion. “Nevermind then, Dejiko please do what I told you so I can send help.” “Alright nyo, who are you going to send by the way?” Dejiko asked while looking for the cards Ini told her to use. “Shana wants to go,” Ingrid said non-chalantly. “I see nyo,” Dejiko replied not getting the meaning of what Ini said at the moment. … … Then she froze, “Nyo! Why are you sending Shana nyo!” she shouted, “she is going to destroy everything, and also punishing me for not finding Rinna nyo!” “We had a talk not too long ago; after she calmed down she apologized for her behavior,” Ingrid let out a tired sigh, “she is just worried about Rinna, like all of us are. But, I don’t think she going to be on a rampage there for no reason, unless Rinna is being mistreated which is very unlikely considering Rinna’s manners, and the fact that she can socialize with almost everything,” she chuckled a little. But Dejiko didn’t chuckle with Ini, she just stood still looking nervous. “Is something wrong?” Dejiko snapped out of it and said, “Well, the guy who was here before said something about the rulers being evil nyo, also a group of six that were also evil named the Elements of something that I can’t remember because it was too boring nyo.” “Then we don’t have time to waste, Dejiko keep going, Shana will be there by tomorrow morning,” Ingrid said looking serious. Dejiko found the cards and put them on two spaces of the device on her left arm, a silver metal sphere that looked like an eye appeared out of the card ‘magic searcher’, and a vehicle appeared out of ‘magic vessel’. Dejiko then took a leaf from her Sprout of Yggdrasil and put it on the slot that magic searcher had, she linked the two with a chain that vessel had and turned on searcher. With that the eye-like crystal front of searcher light up in a cyan-like color and launched to the sky then started to fly on a certain direction with vessel following by the chain. “Ok, Ini those two are ready nyo, I’ll keep going now nyo.” “Good luck Dejiko, I will call you eventually to check on the situation,” Ingrid said with a smile that turned in a scowl soon after, “and its Ingrid, when are you going to learn?” “See you later Ini-chan nyo,” said Dejiko hearing Ini grunting and turning the sprout back to normal. She then turned the sprout into a card again and put it on her pocket with the rest of her cards, after that she turned around and keep running the way she was going before all of this happened. King Sombra which disappeared on the shadows after the conversation between the Princess and what he supposed was a filly took place, on the other hoof took interest on the metallic objects that the little Princess summoned, and decided to follow them with great interest in seeing if these were some kind of portal creation tools. Meanwhile in Ponyville’s Castle of Friendship. Rinna was humming a song with Pinkie following while eating some of the leftover pastries, everypony else was still out cold and Lucky Star/Kona was getting impatient. So she did the next logical thing to do, she started shaking Spike then said, “wake up already, you lizard!” she shouted, “I don’t want the annoying duo to start pestering me because I didn’t send this thing!” “Oh, who is the annoying duo, Koni?” Pinkie appeared suddenly. Lucky Star facehoofed, “nopony that matters Pinkie, just princess Sunhat and Night Bulb.” “Sunhat and Night Bulb aren’t princesses silly, they are my neighbors,” Pinkie said innocently. “You’re kidding, right?” “Nopie dopie, here this is a picture of them,” Pinkie somehow take out a picture out of her mane and showed it to Lucky Star. The picture showed two smiling mares alongside Pinkie one was an earth pony and had a white coat, light orange eyes and yellow mane and tail, she was wearing a big sun hat with a blue ribbon and her cutie mark was that of a sun hat too. The other mare was a pegasus and had a blue coat, green eyes and a reddish brown mane and tail, her cutie mark was that of a red night light bulb. Lucky Star did a double facehoof and Spike hit the floor again, “I still find hard to understand the logic of this place.” “Don’t worry Koni you will get used to it at some point,” Pinkie gave Lucky Star some pats on the back. “The fact that I have to get used to it is what worries me, Pinkie,” Lucky Star said with a sigh. She then grabbed Spike again and started to shake him more violently to wake him up, “come on wake up, so I can go do something more productive!” Spike on the other claw had a goofy smile on his face. But something else happened, on his sleep for whatever reason he tried to kiss what was in front of him, on this case Lucky Star. Pinkie put a big smile for some reason, and Rinna just could put her hands on front of her face from the embarrassment that seeing this produced to her. Lucky Star was not amused though, her left eye twitched and before Spike could get any closer… Approaching the Castle of Friendship was a mailmare a gray coated with blonde mane and tail and golden crossed eyes, her name? Derpy Hooves. After a surprisingly safe landing in front of the castle’s doors, she took Princess Twilight’s mail from her saddlebags and lifted a hoof to knock at it but before that… “I said wake up already!” Derpy could hear from inside the castle followed by a very loud smacking noise. Derpy stood there for a moment before sliding Twilight’s mail below the door, and then she took to the skies to continue her route without looking back. Lucky Star was still very angry even after that beat down that she gave to Spike, Rinna was trying to calm her down. Pinkie… well, Pinkie was poking a purple censored blob in the ground with a stick she got from… somewhere. Everypony else finally started to wake from their slumber after that. “Ow my head, what just happened?” Rainbow was rubbing the side of her head with a hoof. “I’m not sure, darling. Anypony remembers what was the last thing we were doing?” Rarity asked while bringing a hoof to her aching forehead. “Sorry Rares I don’t, argh harvesting the entire orchard would give me less of a headache than whatever happened here,” Applejack complained. “Umm… we were eating Rinna’s cupcakes,” Fluttershy somehow looked fine. Twilight let out a yawn, while rubbing her eyes a little, “That was a really comforting sleep, well time to…” she stopped mid sentence when she looked her surroundings. “Why was I sleeping in the throne room?” she asked confused. “You passed out like all the others, the only exception being Pinkie,” Lucky Star looked more relaxed. “What? Why would we pass out?” Twilight stood up. “You weren’t able to handle Rinna’s magic, that’s why you passed out, for being magic based beings you have very little resistance to it,” Lucky Star said with a disappointed look. “You talk like you weren’t a pony,” Rainbow pointed out. Rinna was about to say something but Lucky Star beat her on it. “It’s because I’m not.” Twilight got surprised, but noticed the blob on the floor, “What is that?” “Oh, that’s Spike, he tried to do some nasty stuff to me so I beat him up,” Lucky Star said with no shame. “What!” everypony else said at the same time, except for Pinkie who keep poking the blob out of amusement. “Why did you do that?” Twilight shouted. “You shameless brute, how dare you hurt Spikey Wikey like that?” added an angry Rarity. Fluttershy didn’t say anything but went to check out ‘Spike’ almost crying. “I pushed Rinna yes, and I already apologized for that, but at least I didn’t beat her up!. You’re the worst, and here I was thinking you weren’t that bad, I sure as hay was wrong on that one, and this time I’m not going to hold back!” Rainbow was ready to launch herself at Lucky Star. Applejack looked at Rinna, “I’m sorry sugarcube but we have to teach this rascal a lesson.” Rinna just nodded with a smile, “I know, myu.” Meanwhile Pinkie whispered something in Fluttershy’s ear who looked surprised by that and then pointed at the blob on the floor, to which Pinkie nodded repeatedly. Twilight in her anger state ignited her horn which for some reason gave a more intense glow than normal, and a purple aura engulfed Lucky Star, “Like Applejack said Rinna, I’m sorry but this has to…” Twilight paused for a moment and blinked, “wait, what did you just said?” “I know, myu. It’s ok, she likes to overdo things like this very often and I agree, she needs someone who can teach her a lesson, and you’re welcome to try myu. But, I don’t think you have what its needed to do so, also Spike is over there hidden behind a throne myu,” Rinna pointed at Pinkie Pie’s throne. The four mares looked at the throne; a purple arm was waving at them. Then Spike moved from behind the throne, “hi girls, I hope you’re not too mad from…” he got interrupted by Twilight’s hug tackle. “Twi…” he tried to say something. “Never,” Twilight said in a monotone tone. “Huh?” Spike was confused. “Never do this to me again, is that clear?” Spike felt drops falling on his head, Twilight was crying, “crystal clear,” he replied. Rinna offered a handkerchief to Twilight, which she gladly accepted, “Thank you,” she then wiped the tears off her eyes. “You’re welcome, myu.” “What’s going on here? I’m so confused!” shouted Rainbow in frustration. “Calm down Dash, let them explain,” Applejack tried to calm down Rainbow. “Applejack is right, darling. Let’s hear the whole story before we jump to conclusions again, but that doesn’t excuse you from doing such a terrible prank,” Rarity said that last part to Lucky Star who still was under Twilight’s magic aura somehow, she was confused, but Lucky Star didn’t seemed to care about it. “Twilight dear, how are you still using your magic after losing focus?” “Huh?” Twilight sounded confused too, but after looking at Lucky Star she noticed her magic still there and even noticed her horn still ignited. “W-why can’t I stop my magic flow? What is happening!” she was freaking out. Lucky Star let out a sigh, and to everypony’s surprise she walked casually towards Twilight even with the magic surrounding her. “What!” everypony said at the same time, they were about to say something else but Rinna made a signal for them to be quiet for now. Lucky Star was now next to Twilight, “calm down.” Twilight looked at her like she was crazy, “You just received a huge boost in your magic, that’s why you can’t control it like you normally do, just give it some minutes and you’ll be fine.” “What are you talking about? A magic boost? From where?” asked a very confused Twilight. Lucky Star just pointed at Rinna, everypony looked at Rinna then back to Lucky Star in confusion. Lucky Star just facehoofed, “Rinna’s magic gave you a boost, the same with all the others present here, don’t all of you feel lighter or stronger in any way?” “Now that you mention it, I feel kind of lighter and with lots of energy,” said Rainbow while flying in circles to test it, “this is so awesome! I feel way lighter than before and even faster,” she said in excitement. Applejack just stared at her hooves, and then did some practice bucks at the air, little shockwaves came out of every buck, “wow, I feel like I can buck down a house or something.” “Well, you probably can now,” Lucky Star added. If Applejack jaw could go any lower it would hit the floor by the shock that statement produced her. Then Rainbow started to laugh, followed by Applejack soon after. “Nice joke,” Rainbow managed to say in her outburst. “You can believe what you want, that doesn’t change anything. By the way Twilight can you at least try to send your magic to anything else? All this purple is hurting my eyes,” Lucky Star rubbed her eyes a bit with her hooves. “I can try but my control it’s still unstable, something picked up my attention though, why can you still move even with my magic holding you?” Twilight asked while trying to control her magic. Meanwhile Rinna was with Pinkie and Fluttershy, talking about something and giggling. Rinna stopped for a second to say something, “oh, that is because her inner magic is neutralizing yours Twilight, and I’m sorry for this but yours is weaker than hers that is a big factor in this situation myu.” “Thanks Rinna, I couldn’t explain it better,” Lucky Star said calmly. “How can an earth pony have stronger magic than an alicorn, darling? a magical gifted one by that matter,” asked Rarity. Sighting Lucky Star said, “Look, I already said this but apparently you forgot, I’m not really a pony or any other species from this world by that matter, I came from the same world as Rinna. When I got here 4 days ago in my search for Rinna I got turned into a pony somehow, it wasn’t a nice experience at all.” “So you’re the same as Rinna? Like the same species?” Twilight finally managed to turn her magic off. “No I’m not Twilight, Our world homes a great variety of species. Speaking of which, I was kind of surprised that we don’t have any of your species coexisting with the rest, but it should be expected for a world we never visited before,” Lucky Star explained. “You two totally need to take me to your world to start a research, it has to be a gold mine of knowledge and new discoveries for ponykind!” Twilight said a little too excited about the topic, “Please tell you can take me there, please, please, please!” and getting a little childish too. Lucky Star didn’t know what to make of this situation and just smiled nervously; Rinna in the other hand got closer and started petting Twilight this made the excited alicorn to turn her attention to Rinna. “Of course you can myu,” Twilight smiled at that and Rinna heard a squeak for some reason, “Kona, do you know how to get back?” “I literally forced my way to this place, so… nope. I don’t know where the source of magic for the gateway is located, and even if I knew I don’t have the tools to make the portal. I can’t contact Ini-chan either because my phone didn’t survive the trip, so our best bet is to wait for someone to come and get us; and for what I sensed in the train ride here I think someone did come already I’m just not sure who it is,” Lucky Star told to everypony, Twilight’s mood fell a bit at that but she was still excited, “also, Spike can you do me a favor? Please send this to Celestia so she doesn’t start annoying me,” Lucky Star gave a scroll to Spike. “Hmm, sure thing,” Spike gasped and then blew a green flame to the scroll engulfing it and then the magic smoke flew through the closest window. “Well then, with that done, what do we do now?” Lucky Star asked. Pinkie popped up in front of Lucky Star she wasn’t surprised at all, “Oh, oh Koni what if we give you two a tour for Ponyville? Then we can have a big party,” she said excitedly. “Sure, why not, some relaxing will be fine after so many disappointments,” she side looked Rainbow for a second. “For some reason I feel insulted,” Rainbow said suddenly. “Well everypony agrees with the tour idea?” Twilight asked and everypony nodded. “But you better behave like a lady, darling. I do not want to be embarrassed in public by your unrefined behavior,” Rarity spat at Lucky Star. “Don’t worry oh high and well respected lady, I promise I’ll behave correctly and will entertain myself imagining all the possible ways of how you will be the one embarrassing yourself to keep the good mood,” Lucky Star shoot back while doing a fake reverence and Rarity pouted with an annoyed face. “You really want to get your flank kicked don’t you?” Rainbow said while flying in place. “She sure does, Dash,” Applejack added. Twilight face hoofed, “this will be a very long day.” After some preparations, more precisely Rinna making some snacks for everypony to enjoy later with Pinkie and Fluttershy helping her. Then everypony left the castle except for Spike who decided to stay to notify somepony. Meanwhile Celestia was in day court as she usually does and just finished attending one of her subjects, so she was in a little break at the moment, then a scroll appeared in front of her. ‘This must be Lucky Star’s report. Perfect timing I must say, I was about to contact her.’ She used her magic to unroll the scroll and read it. But when she unrolled it something fell off, it was a card. Celestia levitated the card closer to her but paid no mind to it until she was done reading the report. Dear Princess Celestia. Our journey to ponyville has been uneventful; Princess Twilight has introduced us with rest of the Elements of Harmony, there were some minor problems that I don’t see necessary to bring up because those have been taken care off already. From now on I will help to the introduction of Miss Rinna into pony society, if any issue shows up I will report it immediately. That will be it for the report your highness, but I have a little gift for you, the card I sent along with this report will help you in checking Miss Rinna’s condition at any moment, you just need to pour some magic into it and say “I Activate” and the name of the card for it to work. I hope you enjoy my gift and that your highness could honour us with your presence someday I ‘am sure Miss Rinna would enjoy having you close, the same goes for your sister Princess Luna she is invited too if she wants to come and visit us. Yours Faithfully Lucky Star Celestia was glad that nothing serious happened in their way to Ponyville, she was worried when they left in the morning that something will go wrong and Slifer will go amok in Equestria. Now that everything was fine Celestia put her attention in the card that Lucky Star sent to her, she examined it for a moment. ‘Vision of the Beloved, hmm that does sound like an uncommon name,’ Celestia thought for a moment, ‘it doesn’t matter too much, let’s try it.’ She focused her magic into the card, “I activate Vision of the Beloved,” at that moment the card started to shine and then disappeared in a little smoke explosion that made Celestia close her eyes for a moment, when she opened them again she was greeted by a circle shaped device with a red button in her direction and a hole in the middle. She was a little confused but curiosity got the better of her and she pressed the button, doing so made a light came out of the hole and a screen round screen appeared, what she saw in the screen surprised her, it was Rinna, Lucky Star and the Elements coming out of Twilight’s Castle. ‘So this is what she meant by checking her condition, it is an interesting concept indeed, I did not know Equestria had something like this, I have to ask Lucky Star from where she got this from.’ “Guards,” Celestia called for her guards. “Yes? Your highness,” the guards who where there witnessing the whole thing came closer and prostrated. “Day court will be closed for the day, inform the rest of the subjects please,” she ordered. “At once, Princess,” the guards retired to inform the ponies outside the throne room. After that Celestia decided to keep an eye for Rinna for some time, but did not notice Luna watching too from the shadows. Meanwhile Dejiko finally saw a dirt path in the distance and close to it a building which looked like a church/barn combination thingy and a white wooden fence extending from it, she just needed to jump a not too big stream of water to get out of the forest and investigate the place. While she approached the funny looking building, she heard a high pitched scream, then saw in the distance another horse like creature but much smaller being chased by a normal wolf. “Anypony, help!” the pony which was a white coated unicorn with a pink and purple striped mane and tail shouted for help. ‘Is there not a single moment of peace on this dumb place!’ Dejiko thought before chasing the two to help the pony. She noticed various other little ponies in the building which didn’t notice her for now and some were shouting to the one being chased to go faster, Dejiko would’ve facepalmed if not because she wanted to save it before it turns into a red stain in the grass. The pony tripped, taking the chance the wolf did a leap to take his lunch of the day, the pony let out another high pitched scream and covered itself with its hooves losing all hope. But before the wolf could make contact with the pony everyone present heard, “Me Kara Beam!” a golden ray of light struck the side of the wolf and was sent flying into the stream which also dragged it until it could swim out and go into the forest. With the wolf out of the way Dejiko approached to the pony which was still covering and trembling in fear. “Hey, it’s fine now nyo, the bad wolf is gone nyo,” Dejiko said in a friendly tone. “Huh?” the pony moved her hooves out of the way and saw a strange being smiling at her. “Hi there nyo, are you ok?” Dejiko keep her friendly mood. “Hmm, yes I guess, did you just save me?” the pony asked still a little shaked but seemingly calm now. Dejiko nodded, while bending her legs to be almost at the same height, “can you tell me your name nyo?” “Sweetie Belle, thank you for saving me, miss?” Sweetie Belle got up and showed a smile. “I’m Dejiko, and don’t go ‘miss’ on me, I don’t like it too much,” Dejiko looked serious and the two looked at each other for a moment. Then they snickered, and went into full laughs. The rest of the ponies got out of the building and were approaching the laughing pair. At the moment Dejiko didn’t know how close she was to the one she was looking for, but by the moment she was enjoying herself for the first time after coming to Equestria. But she couldn’t guess that their encounter would be sooner than she thought. > Chapter 6: The SchoolHouse, the pebble and Carousel Boutique Myu > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dejiko and Sweetie Belle calmed down after laughing for a bit and saw the rest of the foals approaching. “Your friends nyo?” Dejiko asked while pointing at the incoming group. “Yes, and my best friends are…” Sweetie got interrupted by two other fillies hug tackling her, “ouch…” “Are ya ok Sweetie Belle?” the yellow filly with red mane/tail and a bow on her head said in a southern accent. “Yeah, and how did you end up being chased by a wolf?” The orange pegasus one with purple mane/tail said in a rather tomboyish voice. “Yes, I’m fine girls, I’m sorry for worrying you. And the wolf… well… I kind of mistake it for a dog… he he…” she said sheepishly. Nopony knew how to respond to that and Dejiko just face palmed epically. “Girls come over here right now, that creature could be dangerous!” said a purple mare with a striped mane/tail in two tones of pink with certain alarm in her voice. “You should listen to her; I doubt the wolf would come back after what happened but just to be sure nyo,” Dejiko got up and dusted herself a little. The fillies that were with Sweetie didn’t know how to react, Sweetie noticed that, “Applebloom, Scootaloo, she is Dejiko and she is the one who saved me from that bad wolf.” “Hi nyo,” Dejiko said while waving her hand and smiling. “What are ya miss Dejiko? Ya don’t look like anything ‘ah saw, like ever,” asked Applebloom. “And how did you throw those beams from your eyes? Can you teach me?” Scootaloo asked with excitement. “Not fair Scoots, ‘Ah wanna learn too,” Applebloom complained. “What are you talking about? What beams?” Sweetie was confused. “Girls? Girls! Why they never hear me?” The mare said in defeat. Dejiko let out a sigh, while Applebloom and Scootaloo let Sweetie know what she just missed. Dejiko approached the larger group; the mare was nervous but maintained her posture, the foals behind her rolled their eyes at the same time, this almost made Dejiko laugh but she could hold it back, “I don’t know what this place is supposed to be nyo, but I take you’re the one in charge nyo,” she said to the nervous mare who stared cautiously. “Yes, I’m one of the teachers on this school, my name is Cheerilee,” Cheerilee replied a little more calmed just because the peculiar being which was barely taller than her didn’t show any signs of hostility. “Relax nyo, I have no intention to hurt any of you I have manners, after all I’m a princess nyo,” Dejiko said proudly hitting her chest lightly with a one fist. A collective gasp could be heard, “Dejiko you’re a princess?” asked Sweetie belle. “That’s right nyo, but that’s not important right… now?” Dejiko stopped when she noticed the ponies kneeling in front of her, “Umm… what are you doing nyo?” “Showing respect to royalty of course, I’m sorry for not noticing but I hope you understand we don’t get Princesses from other countries so often and I want to thank you for saving one of my students,” Cheerilee said in the most respectful way she could manage. “Someone was in trouble nyo, I couldn’t just ignore it,” Dejiko was starting to feel comfortable around the ponies even if she just heard about the evil ruler they have somewhere out there, ‘at least this place is not giving any evil atmosphere so far, and it’s a school so it can’t be that bad nyo.’ Sweetie then pulled Dejiko’s skirt slightly, to get her attention. She looked at the little unicorn, “What is it nyo?” “From which place of Equestria do you came from?” asked Sweetie. “Are any more of ya in that place?” asked Applebloom. “Can you teach me how to throw magic beams from my eyes?” asked Scootaloo. “Why do you keep asking that nyo?” “Because it would be awesome to know how to throw them,” the rest of the foals were also excited about that topic in particular so much that they were doing something like a chant. Dejiko let out a sigh, “I’m a little tired nyo. I have been through a lot this morning. Can I at least get a seat to rest for a bit nyo?” The mob was not satisfied with this and continued to assault Dejiko’s sensible ears with their ‘magic beam, magic beam!’ chant. “Enough my little students, you heard her. She is tired from her journey let’s invite her to the classroom so she can rest, if your highness agrees that is,” Cheerilee offered. “Thank you nyo, and sure I accept the offer, besides I want to ask you some things too so this is a win-win situation nyo,” Dejiko stretched a little her tired arms. “Of course your highness,” Cheerilee bowed, “Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo since you’re friends with the Princess already, will you want to guide her inside?” “Sure thing!” the three fillies responded at once. “Just follow us Dejiko,” Applebloom said happily, then the three made their way towards the school with Dejiko following close behind, and behind them the rest of the class alongside Cheerilee. ‘They are kind of noisy nyo, but they aren’t bad intended at least. I hope Rinna got teleported into this town, it seems its citizens are nice enough nyo,’ Dejiko thought with some worry that maybe Rinna was in one of the evil ruler’s cities. Meanwhile Rinna, Lucky Star and the Elements were starting their tour around Ponyville. Rinna wanted to walk by herself, but Lucky Star insisted in carry her to show the rest of ponies that Rinna wasn’t dangerous or anything, and also because she was too bored. Apparently this was way too effective, because for like ten minutes now a magic mint colored unicorn mare with a brilliant cyan mane/tail with a white streak, sunglow eyes and a lyre as her cutie mark was following them and talking with Rinna ignoring the rest of the group. “And that is how I survived my shift there and got a new friend,” the mare who presented herself as Lyra Heartstrings finished the story she was telling (Which if you have watched a certain thing you should know what she actually told here). “That sounded scary myu, but I’m happy to know that you didn’t got injured in there miss Lyra.” “Aww, you’re very sweet Rinna, would you like to hang out with me sometime? It can be fun; of course any friends you want to bring along are invited too.” “That sounds lovely myu, I would like that very much thank you.” “I don’t think we can manage the time for that today Rinna, maybe tomorrow,” Twilight got in the conversation. “Makes sense, there is a lot to do today Rinna,” Lucky Star then looked in Lyra’s direction with an apolegic face, “we are sorry for not being able to take your kind offer right now miss Heartstrings, we will make it up to you, also Rinna seems to be fond with you already, I hope you can take care of her if for some reason I can’t do it myself,” she then did a reverence. Lyra was taken by surprise by this sudden polite treatment, “oh, please stand up, there no reason to apologize really, its fine I understand you have a lot of things to do, especially if you are new in the town. I’ll see you in tonight’s party then?” “Party myu?” Rinna was confused. Everypony else looked at Pinkie. “Good job Pinkie,” Lucky Star then raised a hoof to do a hoof bump which Pinkie bumped. “You’re welcome Koni!” “Can we go now? I have things to do too, you know,” Rainbow complained. “Why are you even here though?” Lucky Star said with calm. “To be with Rinna of course, she is awesome, not as much as me mind you, but pretty close,” Rainbow said with pride. “But you just said you had ‘things’ to do.” “Yes I have things to do, but I can’t let my friends hanging just like that.” “Then why bring up that topic in the first place?” “Well…” Lucky Star facehoofed for like the hundredth time this day, “you are complaining just because you’re impatient aren’t you?” Rainbow started to feel uncomfortable, “em…” “Miss Lyra, can you please leave for now? There’s the possibility of me saying something I would rather regret if this situation continues, at the very least I prefer you to not hear it. We’ll be seeing you in tonight’s party, let’s have a good time ok?” Lucky Star smiled sincerely. Lyra returned the smile, “Sure thing, em… miss…” “Lucky Star, nice to meet you.” “Nice to meet you too, you know my name already but I’ll introduce myself again because is the right thing to do, I’m Lyra Heartstrings and I understand the situation. I think I’ll see you two in the party then,” Lyra did a little bow with her head before going somewhere else. “That’s how you ask somepony to leave without being a prick ‘Raindork’ Dash.” “What did you just call…” but Rainbow got interrupted by Twilight. “Stop that, what happened in the castle wasn’t enough for you two? Now you want to make a scene in public?” Twilight was losing her temper. Lucky Star wanted to reply back, but sensed like somepony was laughing at her, somepony that wasn’t there or in any close location but was watching them. So she decided to not continue the discussion, “all right, I get it no more scenes I promise and before you say anything Pinkie, I’m not going to do that Pinkie Promise motion of yours.” Pinkie used her puppy eyes on Lucky Star, “Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeease!” “You should just do it myu, you very well know how persistent Pinkie is,” Rinna suggested. “Argh! Fine I’ll do it but I want to ask you a favor after Pinkie,” she was annoyed to do this so she took a deep breath and released it, “I Cross My Heart, Hope to Fly, Stick a Cupcake in my eye,” she said while doing the motions, “done, now may I ask you a favor Pinkie?” Lucky Star pick up a pebble from the ground. “Sure! Just ask!” Pinkie replied energetically. “It’s pretty easy actually, just throw this pebble in that direction,” Lucky Star pointed with her hoof to the sky forty five degrees behind her. “Okie Dokie Lokie!” Pinkie took the pebble and threw it in the direction Lucky Star was pointing at. Everypony else was confused while they watched the pebble flying in the sky waiting for the moment of its fall, a faint flash too minuscule for them to notice happened for a fraction of a second, then the pebble was gone. Meanwhile in Canterlot’s Castle. “So that is how Lucky Star normally behaves, she is a little rude but I can sympathize with her,” Celestia was still watching Rinna and company. Then she saw Twilight scolding Rainbow Dash and Lucky Star, this made her giggle in amusement. “Even if I sympathize with her, she was asking for it, good job Twilight,” she said between giggles, she closed her eyes for a moment and missed Lucky Star pointing at her. When she opened her eyes again, she saw the pebble going towards her and then the flash, she barely had time to react so out of instinct she moved her head to the side dodging the pebble by mere inches. She then heard a bump and a groan. “We don’t know how young Lucky Star did that, but it’s intriguing,” said Luna while stepping out of the shadows rubbing her head. “Luna, how long have you been here?” “Since the beginning dear Sister and it seems this device works both ways, because Lucky Star was looking at us.” “Don’t be silly Luna, if that were the case here, Twilight and the Elements would have be able to see us too.” “But Sister, how do you explain her behavior just now? She was clearly watching us, and even pointed at us which was the signal for Laughter to throw that pebble.” “It cannot be magic, she is an Earth Pony. And why would she throw a pebble to us in the first place?” “You were laughing at her, we think she somehow heard you and got annoyed, her interactions with Loyalty are proof enough to say that Lucky Star is not in her better mood right now.” “I was not laughing at her!” “Oh, really? What about just a few seconds ago when Twilight Sparkle scolded her? If that was not laugh then we do not know what it could be.” “It was a mere giggle, don’t exaggerate that much Luna.” While they were too invested in their little argument, the two failed to notice the flash in the crystal device. “Can you two please shut up already? It’s starting to get on my nerves,” a new voice joined them. “Wha…” the two princesses were about to say something at the same time. “Yes, yes, I know the routine; you get surprised by the not so mysterious voice that suddenly appeared. But let’s just skip that overused cliche and get to the point shall we?” It was Lucky Star’s voice; the two princesses looked at the device in the floor, and saw the mare looking right at them in a place that looked pretty much like Carousel Boutique. The six mares were still lightly blinded by the sudden flash that came out of nowhere. Well Pinkie was not blinded she just played along. Why, you may ask? Well, it’s Pinkie. What else do you expect? Twilight was the first to recover, and saw that they were inside Carousel Boutique. She then saw Lucky Star speaking with somepony that she couldn’t see, but looking in more detail she saw a screen floating mid air in front of Lucky Star. Out of curiosity she got closer and heard the voices of the princesses coming out of the screen. The other mares were recovering from the blindness the flash caused to them. “What just happened?” Rainbow was rubbing her eyes with a hoof. “ ‘Am not sure Rainbow, some light flashed really bright and ‘Ah couldn’t see it. Argh! mah eyes are still burning, gosh darn it.” “Now now Applejack, there is no need to appeal to rude wording darling, but I agree with this situation being a little eye hurting.” “He he~ good one Rarity,” Pinkie nudged Rarity. “Is everypony ok myu? Do your eyes hurt too much, Miss Fluttershy?” Rinna was next to Fluttershy checking out that her eyes weren’t too affected. “Oh... no Rinna, I’m fine thanks to you blocking most of the bright light, thank you,” Fluttershy recovered her sight almost instantly. “There’s no need to thank me myu, Lucky Star acted reckless again, I’m sorry I couldn’t protect everypony’s eyes in time myu.” “Do not worry darling, we are fine is just a little eye sore.” “Little in yer case Rarity, the light didn’t hit ya totally because you were behind me. ‘Ah got it full in mah eyes and it still burns.” “You’re just too slow Applejack. I protected my eyes the moment I saw the flash so I’m fine now,” Rainbow recovered and was flying again. “How did we get into Rarity’s house though?” “What? Are we in my Boutique Rainbow?” Rarity was almost recovered but her eyes were still a little sore. “Yes we are, did Twilight teleport us here?” “If she did, she exceeded a little too much with the bright,” Applejack was still trying to open her eyes to no avail. “Um… I think it was Lucky Star who teleported us here.” “Fluttershy dear, Lucky Star is not a unicorn or an alicorn by that matter, she cannot use magic.” “That’s right it doesn’t matter how weird she is, she can’t be able to do magic just like that.” “But remember Rainbow, she said she is not a pony like us, but more like what Rinna is.” “She probably just said that to play it cool, I don’t believe she is from some other fancy dimension or anything like that.” “Oh, but she is, Dashie. Koni used this card thingy to get us here, because she didn’t wanted to go all mystic in the middle of the town,” Pinkie showed the card to everypony. “By the way Rinni here’s your backpack, Rarity fix it for you, don’t worry about the plastic containers I have them in Sugar Cube Corner,” she gave the backpack to Rinna. “Thank you Pinkie, also thank you Miss Rarity for taking time out of your work to fix this for me myu, I’ll make it up to you I promise.” “There is no need for that dear, I did it to help a friend, and now that I have your friendship too I couldn’t possibly ask for anything in exchange darling, your gratitude is enough pay for me,” Rarity was now able to open her eyes normally. “Yeah yeah, that’s nice and all but what is this thing?” Rainbow asked by pointing at the card and the rest focused their attention in it. “Oh, that’s a spell card myu,” Rinna said while taking the card in her hands. “Spell card?” everypony said at once. “Yes it’s a creation of my world; it uses a game from another world as a base for the presentation myu. But it works with magic, and we do not use them only for spells, there are other types like storage cards myu.” “And what does this one do?” “This is mass teleport myu, gives the user the power to teleport themselves and other beings selected by the user to the chosen destination. She used it suddenly so I couldn’t warm you about the bright light myu.” “Ooooooh…” “How do ya use ‘em sugarcube?” “I don’t know their functioning deeply, but for the card to work it just requires you to pour magic into it myu. “But for what I saw so far, apparently only unicorns and alicorns are able to control their magic on this world myu.” “That is because us unicorns and also alicorns have horns to harness magic darling, earth ponies and pegasi does not have a way to do so.” “Well I don’t have control over mine yet, but I can use it and I don’t have a horn myu. The horn seems to be a tool for ponies to control magic to do spells, I suppose the other two pony types have something they can do that unicorns can’t do normally myu.” “We pegasi are capable of controlling weather by manipulating clouds.” “And we earth ponies have higher natural strength and we can grow plants easier.” “That proves that you have magic too, but can only use it passively myu. Oh Pinkie, I had a golden plant in my backpack, do you have it with the rest of my things myu?” “Nope, Rarity only gave me the plastic containers Riny.” “Oh, I remember that gorgeous plant darling, I had to keep it here to not let it get ruined, is that plant of any importance?” “It’s a sprout of Yggdrasil, which is the biggest source of magic of my world myu, it can be used to communicate with others that have sprouts as well, but I couldn’t make it work since I got here myu.” “What?” Twilight popped up suddenly, “you did have a magical source from your world and you didn’t tell me? Where is it? Can I have it? Can…” A hoof blocked Twilight’s muzzle, “Calm down Twilight, this is not the time to go crazy about learning stuff.” Twilight’s ears dropped while she smiled sheepishly, “sorry.” “Did you told them everything myu?” Lucky Star let out a sigh, “yes I did, and it’s better this way to prevent any possible issue in the near future.” “How did they take the news myu?” “Surprisingly well, I suppose this being such a peaceful world helped with that, but they want to send somepony with us to our world to start diplomatic relationships between the two worlds,” Lucky Star took a deep breath, “and guess who they chose to be the ambassador.” “Twilight,” everypony and Rinna said at once in a monotone voice. “Wha… how did you know?” Twilight was rightfully surprised. “Exactly,” they said again in a monotone voice. Twilight just pouted. Meanwhile in Ponyville’s Schoolhouse Dejiko contacted Ingrid again, she was a little upset with that but after being introduced with Dejiko’s new friends, she just spend time talking about their world and answering any questions the foals or Cheerilee had. “Miss Ingrid, Miss Ingrid,” Applebloom raised her hoof to ask a question. “Just Ini is fine Applebloom, anyways what is it, do you have a question?” “Wait, how is that she can call you Ini but you scold me every time I do it nyo?” “For one thing, she is much more polite than you are, like every other pony in the room, and second she is adorable so deal with it.” The foals giggled some. “Now, now my little ponies, is not correct to make fun of somepony’s misfortune.” “Yes Miss Cheerilee,” the foals replied at once. “Now please apologize to princess Dejiko.” “We are sorry Princess Dejiko,” the class said at once in a cute way. Dejiko got a shiver from that response, “alright, alright nyo, I forgive you just don’t give me that look nyo!” Ingrid let out a giggle, “ok, with that out of the way, what was your question Applebloom?” “Ya said that everypony is able to use magic in yer world miss Ini, that means that ‘ah can use it too?” “Of course, it just a matter of training your mind and discover the power that is inside you, I can teach you how after all of this is over. Just make sure to ask for permission if you want to come here, this invitation is for anyone that wants to learn how to use magic. Even you Miss Cheerilee, this could enhance your capabilities as a teacher and prepare foals to confront any dangers they may cross ways with.” “It’s a tempting proposal, Miss Ingrid, but I cannot leave the schoolhouse for a long period of time.” “Well, it’s up to you I won’t insist, but after we put some work in the portal you can just come here with your class to learn, just consider it another lecture, also please don’t be so formal you can call me by name.” “I understand, I’ll take it into account Ingrid, you can put aside formalities with me too, and we are all friends after all.” “Alright, like I said before, one of our friends is lost in your world; can we count with your help to find her, Cheerilee? We are desperate to find her and I’ll be sending more help tomorrow, so please bring us your assistance.” “Of course Ingrid, we will help you find your friends, you said she is only ten years old, I will not be able to rest comfortably knowing that a little filly is by herself out there, right my little students?” “Yes we will help find Rinna! You can count with us Miss Ini!” “Just leave everything to us Ini, ‘ah promise to find yer friend, right girls?” “You bet!” Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo said at once. “Thank you, everyone, you don’t know how much that means to us,” Ingrid cleared some tears she had in her eyes, not out of sadness but out of relieve and happiness, “I have to go and inform the others about this new development, I’ll be seeing you later my friends,” she gave a smiling wave then ended the communication. “Well then, let’s get to it nyo! Maybe Rinna is in Ponyville nyo,” Dejiko got up and made her sprout of Yggdrasil a card again to put it in her pocket with the rest. She left the schoolhouse with everypony else in tow, to start looking for Rinna in Ponyville. Meanwhile Rinna and company resumed their tour around Ponyville, it appears that they will end up meeting soon enough right? Well let’s leave that to the deities. Oh I almost forgot about Sombra, well if you are interested enough on what he has been doing after chasing those little robots to the cave that homes the Tree of Harmony, well… Sombra sat down and waited for the strange beings to finish their work, for some reason his magic wasn’t able to corrupt those beings as if they weren’t alive. He wasn’t amused. “I should have followed that cat princess,” he let out a tired sigh. > Chapter 7: Pointless Explanations, The Strange Cat and the one in Red and Black Nyo! > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- In Álfheimr, more specifically in the special room made for world traveling which was located in a hollow part of Yggdrasil’s roots, was Shana. She just stood there close to the door which soon would have a functional portal to the world where her dear family member was sent, but something was off about her. Just then Ingrid entered the room; she could feel the heavy and hot atmosphere in the room from the entrance, “Shana, please calm down, the portal will be finished tonight, and besides I have good news.” Shana turned her head slightly to side look Ingrid, “Unless it has to do with Rinna’s whereabouts I’m not interested, Ini.” “Well, it’s related to it, I was able to talk to some of the inhabitants of that world. They are a peaceful race and the ones I talked to, agreed to help us find Rinna, I hope this will make your stress go away at least a little,” Ingrid was hoping that this information would actually relieve Shana like she said. What happened after Shana let that sync in was not what you would call a tame reaction. “Why didn’t you told me sooner!? Do they know how Rinna looks!? Are they really trustworthy!?...” Shana was spitting more and more questions at a ridiculous rate. Ingrid did her best to answer what she could understand, but failing miserably, so she opted for, “Shana calm down! You’re getting way too excited. I can’t confirm one-hundred percent that they are totally peaceful, I mean no world is that perfect. But the ones I talked to were honest with me, that much I can tell, so let’s have a little more hope, ok?” When Shana noticed that she was just rambling the whole time she got a bright red blush on her face, and then coughed a little in her fist, “I just wanted to test you a little, it’s not like I was overreacting or anything.” Ingrid giggled at the cute reaction, “Yes yes, I understand. Just be a little more patient, like I said the portal will be ready soon, so you can join Dejiko and the ponies in their search for Rinna.” “Ponies? Is this world by any chance a world dominated by sentient horses?” “Well kind of, they are equine creatures indeed, but they are smaller than horses, they also look a little different than normal equines and they refer to their race as ponies so I think it’s correct to call them that way.” “I see. Well, if Dejiko didn’t zap any of them so far, they have to be peaceful to some degree. Because we know that she uses her Mekara Beam with little to no provocation.” Ingrid nodded in agreement, then something came to her mind, “Shana, by any chance do you know where Konata is? I haven’t seen her for almost a week now.” “Well, I don’t know where she could be either; she stopped coming to our meetings with Lotte a couple of days after Rinna went missing.” “Strange, it’s not normal for her to disappear like that…” then a thought struck them both. “Ini… what if…” “She is in…” “That world too?” they both said at the same time. “Yes she is,” a new voice joined them and let out a sigh, “that girl has some silly ideas sometimes.” Ingrid and Shana turned to see another young looking girl, her appearance was not so much different from Shana, but this girl was a little taller than her. The new girl had long reddish brown hair, yellow eyes, and was wearing a red jacket with a white blouse underneath, and a black skirt. “Mother?” Shana said. “Master?” Ingrid added. “Hi! I’m back!” said the now cheerful girl. “How was the mission? It is done already?” “It was an annoyance, that child wanted to erase random people when I put an end to that dumb survival idea, so I had to punish him too. It was a mess, and these weird guys with spiky hair keep on trying to fight me while I was busy, so I sent them to sleep. Also yes, it is done,” the girl said while massaging the bridge of her nose with two fingers. “Master, is it really true that Konata is in that world too?” “Yes, that’s true Ini, in my way here I noticed traces of her power in the area.” “But how? Why couldn’t I detect her magic being used back then?” “She didn’t use any magic Ini, she probably thought it was magic too, but she actually used Mizuka’s ability to manipulate space.” “Oh, that’s right, I now remember Master saying some time ago that Konata’s special ability is adapt other’s abilities for her own use, but how is something like that not powered by magic?” “For being so smart, you’re quite naive Ini. Mizuka’s power doesn’t work with magic; she uses a different type of energy, called the Void which is pretty dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing, I wouldn’t be surprised if Konata was affected in some way by using this ability.” “What do we do then mother? Do we focus on finding Konata too?” “That wouldn’t be necessary my cute Shana. Konata used manipulation of time and space to go after Rinna. Even if this ability had any side-effect on her, I have no doubt that she would search for Rinna no matter what, she’s almost as stubborn as you.” “Well, like me she’s Rinna’s big sister too, so I can understand her hurry in finding Rinna, also don’t go comparing me, she’s way too inmature.” “Don’t start playing the mature role now Shana, you were very distressed just a few minutes ago,” Ingrid giggled while covering her mouth with one of her oversized sleeves. “Hu hu, how predictable, I would have loved to see that personally,” Shana’s mother copied Ingrid’s posture. “Shut up!” Shana had a bright blush on her face. The duo kept laughing, but suddenly Shana’s mother stopped. “Someone is on the other side of this portal; I can sense corrupted magic trying to influence the tools. Their intentions are pretty clear, it seems Dejiko has crossed paths with some rotten eggs from that world, and they want a taste of the power we have. But it’s pointless; such weak level of magic will not be able to affect the tools at all,” she then got a wicked thought and signaled Shana to get closer. Ingrid saw how those two got closer and her master whispering something into Shana’s ear while smiling evilly, Ingrid suddenly felt a chill on her back, her master was planning something again and that’s a terrible sign. “Mother, are you sure about that? That will not kill it right?” “Eeeeeeh, so now you’re worried about a creature of the world you were about to burn to the crisp?” Shana looked away, “Please don’t go saying such horrible things about me, mother.” “Oh, then if something, anything happens to Rinna over there you…” she got interrupted by Shana. “They will die,” Shana said with the most calm and monotonous tone ever heard, and her face was as calm and relaxed when she said it, making it creepier. “That’s my daughter, there there,” Shana’s mom petted her. Ingrid smiled awkwardly at this strange exchange between mother and daughter, ‘let’s hope this doesn’t end up badly,’ she thought. “Well, I have to go and tell the news to your dear grandma, sweetie.” “Please don’t call me that again; I swear I’ll punch you in the face.”  Shana’s mom wasn’t amused, “Spooky.” Then she left with her smile always present. Ingrid sighed, “Sometimes I wonder how she can be so carefree, master Mihoshi should know better.” “Don’t put too much thought into it Ini, it can give you a headache. I myself gave up in trying to understand her or the reasons that impulse her to do what she do,” after clearing her thoughts Shana looked back at the portal that is being made, “Say Ini.” “Yes? Is something the matter?” “Are we free to communicate with Dejiko?” “Yes we are, after locating her sprout’s signal in our last conversation, we should be able to even call to her cell phone with no issues, why do you ask?” “I have to tell her about Konata, and that she doesn’t try to do something reckless for the time being. I’ll be honest here Ini, something bad is going to happen just because… nevermind, but I really need to contact her.” “Something bad? What were you going to say just now? Is something wrong Shana?” Ini was starting to get worried about the answer to that. “It was just a silly thought, don’t pay it any mind Ini, I’m just worried that’s all,” Shana then took her phone out of her Yogasa. But before calling Dejiko, a thought came to her. “Ini, do you know where…” Meanwhile in the edge of some random Equestrian forest which we will never heard the name of, because random forests don’t deserve names apparently. Anyways, putting aside the overused forest cliche, a pony couple found something peculiar. “Look dear, isn’t it adorable?” said a pegasus mare which we'll not be taking the effort to describe because it’s just a placeholder, so yeah… “More like weird, its body is disproportionate,” said the suddenly unconscious earthpony stallion. If you’re curious about what they were referring to. Well, it was a cat, but not your normal everyday cat. “This is why I hate extras, they’re so stupid,” a cocky voice came from the cat in question; by its tone it was female. Her coat was as white as snow, her ears tips had black patches of fur sticking out of them, same as her stripped tail tip, with her shiny purple eyes she was seeing the unconscious stallion on the ground, in her front paws she was wearing red gloves with dark gray stripes at the sides, she was also able to move in a bipedal way. “Hey you,” she called for the mare who was staring with fear at this cat. “Y-yes?” was the only thing the fearful mare was able to say. “You have a good eye, so I decided to forgive the insolence of this thing in the ground, take it away before I change my mind,” the cat said before vanishing from sight. ‘Thank you…’ thought the mare after seeing this being forgiving them. Some distance away the cat stopped in a tree branch, ‘heh, I wonder if there is more selfish or irritating ones like that stallion, I really need to sharpen my claws some.’ She thought with an evil smile plastered on her face. Suddenly in Canterlot’s Castle, the Princesses felt a chill on their backs. “Sister did you felt that uncomfortable sensation?” Luna asked. “Yes I did, Luna. I also have a feeling that something is going to happen in Ponyville, and I’m not exactly referring to Rinna’s dragon, Slifer.” Celestia replied while facing the now not so mysterious magical artifact that Lucky Star gave them with a serious expression. “Do you think somepony ill intentioned from their world managed to get into Equestria?” “Not exactly somepony bad, but I feel the danger nonetheless. I’m worried about them.” “Should we pay a visit Ponyville? To investigate the situation, and we want to talk with Konata in pony, all of what she revealed to us is quite shocking.” “Indeed Luna, a world with such powerful beings is something hard to believe. Their magic seems to work in a different way than ours too; I want to talk to the one who teach them to use that type of magic. From what Lucky… ahem… Konata told us this Ingrid person is the authority in magic of their world.” Celestia proceeded to stand up and stared at Luna with a determined look. Luna stared too and both nodded. “Guards,” Celestia called. The doors of the Throne room opened and three guards entered the room and kneeled, “Yes, your majesty?” said the one on the front. “Prepare a squadron of twelve guards at once; we have Royal Duties to resolve in Ponyville.” “As you wish your highness,” then the guards left the room. “Should we wait for them outside Sister?” “You can go to Ponyville first Luna; I’ll follow you after the guards are done with their preparations.” “Thank you, Tia.” Luna hugged her sister before flying out the window towards Ponyville. ‘Just be careful Luna, this time it could be a bigger threat than we think it would be’ Celestia thought. Meanwhile, Dejiko and the CMC were asking ponies if they saw Rinna while looking around for any possible clue. They had no luck so far. “This is so frustrating, Nyo!” said an annoyed Dejiko. “I know!” said the CMC at once. “Oh, I didn’t know there was another one! Oh my gosh!” a very excited voice said. The next thing Dejiko knew was that she had a mint colored pony in front of her. “Nyo!” Dejiko loudly screamed. “Oh my Celestia! You really are like her! Hi, my name is Lyra!” “Wait, what? You know someone else that looks like me, Nyo?” Lyra nodded. Then Dejiko tackled Lyra to the ground shocking the fillies. “Where is she!? Is she safe!? Are you holding her hostage!? If you are I swear I’ll zap you, nyo!” Dejiko said rapidly. “Dejiko what are ya doing!?” Applebloom shouted. “Why are you attacking Lyra!?” Scootaloo said while trying to get Dejiko off of Lyra with Applebloom. “Let go! She knows where Rinna is, Nyo!”  “ ‘Ah know ya want to find Rinna very badly, but yer acting crazy!” “Wait, you know Rinna too? She was with Princess Twilight and the rest of the elements, I talked with her and we became friends, we don’t want to hurt her, please don’t hurt me!” Lyra said in her uncomfortable position. Then Sweetiebelle noticed something in the distance. “Girls! Look, over there, it’s Rarity, Twilight and the rest also there is a pony I never seen before and Rinna is on her back, we found her!” The girls looked forwards to see that Sweetiebelle was right. “Mah sister is there too!” Applebloom exclaimed. “And Rainbow Dash… is trying to hit Rinna in the face… hmm, neat?” Said Scootaloo with great confusion. “No, it’s not neat Scoots, that’s terrible!” Applebloom pointed out. “Girls?” Sweetie Belle tried to catch their attention. “Ya have ta stop going all fanfoal about Rainbow, Scoots.” Applebloom ignored her. “I wasn’t going fanfoal for her right now!” Scootaloo ignored her too. “Girls!” Sweetie Belle shouted. “What!” The other two replied back. “Dejiko is doing a mad dash over there!” Sweetie pointed in the direction where the Elements and Rinna were. “Why didn’t ya say something sooner!? Let’s go after her before something goes wrong!” Applebloom chased Dejiko as fast as she could while the other followed. Lyra in the other hand (hoof?), was left in the ground, confused. “What’d just happen?” she said while slowly getting up and going away. “So that means if I eat more of Rinna’s magical food, I can be even faster?” asked an excited Rainbow Dash. “For the tenth time, that’s not how Rinna’s magic work Raindumb Dash,” said an annoyed Konata. “Hey! I’m not dumb you’re just bad at explaining things,” Rainbow replied. “She did give an easy to understand explanation with just enough details though,” Twilight added. “She obviously didn’t, Pinkie back me up here,” Rainbow said to Pinkie. “Sorry Dashie, but even I got what Koni said,” Pinkie replied to Rainbow. Flutteshy got to Konata’s side, “umm… can you please explain it one more time? If you don’t mind that is.” Konata took a look at Rinna for a moment and saw her nodding at her with a smile. With a sigh she decided to explain again, “alright, look this is the last time I’ll explain this, ok?” Everypony nodded. Konata took a deep breath then let it go, “Rinna’s magic doesn’t really work as a booster actually, it gives that impression because most just experiment it once. But what it really does is unlock your maximum potential. Well, whatever potential you could possibly have at the moment, and before Rainbow says ‘I don’t get it again’ I’ll put it simple. “Imagine you work out every day, when you do that you become stronger, but you don’t get the full benefit from it, so you build up potential and that becomes your top shape if you like. What Rinna’s magic do is push that top shape into your body, if you’re not ready for it you’ll probably pass out, but the effect is the same.” “Why did Pinkie not pass out then?” Rainbow asked. “Pinkie is way ahead of you in that aspect, besides I think she already got Rinna’s magic before, so this time it was ineffective,” Konata replied. “Thanks Koni!” Pinkie said while jumping around Konata. “You’re welcome Pinkie,” Konata said sounding strangely kind for once. Twilight noted this, “Konata,” she said getting Konata’s attention. “Why do you seem to be nicer to Pinkie than the rest of us?” “That’s easy, for one Pinkie was the first pony to try to help Rinna without a reason, and two I like her personality, she is legitimate and has no ill intentions,” Konata explained. “You said that as if we have ill intentions,” Twilight felt a bit offended. “Beats me, but Twilight aren’t you getting off topic?” Konata said trying to end the conversation at that. “But hey, then Rinna’s magic it’s perfect for me. I train a lot and my job requires a lot of that too, that means I can raise my potential again pretty fast,” Rainbow added again. Konata groaned in annoyance. “Yer not the only one who can do that Rainbow, ‘Ah think Rinna’s magic would be of better use for mah farm, we could have much more apples harvested by cider season with her help,” Applejack said her part. “Oh shush, you two only want to take advantage of our fine guest with your dirt involving occupations,” Rarity scuffed over. “Says the one pony that makes Spike get her stuff and gives him nothing for his work!” Rainbow shoot. Rarity gasped, and while these three started arguing Konata just shook her head a few times and stared at Twilight unamused. “So, no ill intentions huh? You’re so blind Twilight,” she said while walking away. Twilight looked ashamed, but noticed Rinna trying to get her attention. “Don’t worry Twilight, I’m sure they didn’t mean it myu,” Rinna reassured Twilight. This lifted Twilight’s mood a bit and she showed a smile, “thank you Rinna,” she said. The three with the argument suddenly felt bad for not considering Rinna’s feelings and quickly apologized, Rinna forgave them. Rainbow then keep flying close to Rinna, “What I said was it would be cool to have that, but that’s cheating and Rainbow Dash doesn’t cheat!” she said striking a pose. This made Rinna giggle, “It’s good to know myu.” Somehow making Rinna smile was something Rainbow started to enjoy, this gave her ‘peace’ in a way. It also impulsed her to try and keep doing it, she then began throwing punches to the air but some passed a little close to Rinna almost hitting her. Konata eyed her with caution to avoid Rinna from being hit, then she heard something in the distance. “…et a…y f…om …er Nyo!” could be heard. Konata and Rinna reacted to that last part with surprise. “Is that…” they started to say something but… “MEKARA BEAM!!” the group heard clearly. “Wha…” was the only thing Rainbow said before being hit by a golden beam, she felt like electricity run over her body, then an explosion send her flying towards some bushes at the side of the road in which she crashed. “Ow…” Fortunately the bushes cushioned her crash. “What in the hay was that!?” Applejack shouted. Fluttershy  went to check on Rainbow. The gang looked in shock at the little girl in front of them. “Hand over Rinna right now, Nyo!” she demanded. “Dejiko?” Rinna said. “Rinna please get down for a moment,” Konata told Rinna who did as she was told. “I see you’re smart nyo, now Rinna come with me,” Dejiko said with a smug face. But Rinna did not move from Konata’s side. “Rinna? Why aren’t you coming nyo?” Dejiko asked confused. Twilight then stepped forward followed by Applejack and Pinkie, Dejiko eyed them carefully. “Who are you, and why are you attacking us?” Twilight asked with a serious face. “I have no reason to answer you Nyo! Now release Rinna or things will get bad Nyo!” Dejiko was getting aggressive. Applejack readied herself to fight any moment now, “ ‘Ah don’t trust this one Twi.” “Applejack please wait, don’t lost control now,” Twilight tried to reason with Applejack. “Twilight is right dear, don’t fall at the same level than this brute,” Rarity added. “Who are you calling a brute Nyo! You stinky horse!” Rarity gasped, “How dare you insult a fine lady like me in such a way!” “Yeah why are you such a meanie!?” Pinkie asked suddenly. “Wait!” the group heard three familiar voices, the CMC. “Applebloom? What are ya and those fillies doing here?” Applejack asked. “Applejack wait please, Dejiko is not a bad pony,” Applebloom affirmed. “How can ya say that? She just attacked Rainbow!” “That happened because Rainbow Dash was trying to hit Rinna! She just tried to protect her!” Scootaloo was with Dejiko too. Suddenly a blue blur hit Dejiko, “not so tough now huh?” it was Rainbow Dash and she was pinning Dejiko to the ground. “Get off me Nyo!” Dejiko was struggling to get Rainbow off her. Rainbow Dash was confident that she would be able to pin her down after all, this one was barely bigger than her, but then she felt her hooves being slowly lifted. She noticed that Dejiko was starting to lift her, “Oh no, you won’t!” Rainbow put more pressure. The two were trying to overcome the other. That was until Rinna stepped in, “Please stop this myu…” a soft but sad voice said to them. “Rinna…” Twilight watched Rinna cry again, this hurt her deeply somehow. The rest of the group felt the same way. “B-but…” Rainbow tried to argue, but she couldn’t resist the look of Rinna crying, “Arrg! Alright, I’ll do it…” Rainbow stepped back, but remained close to Rinna. Dejiko got into a sitting position, “what’s happening nyo? I don’t understand.” “Well, let me tell you the story,” Twilight took the job of filling Dejiko on what was going on, and Dejiko did the same afterwards. “I’m sorry nyo, I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions so quickly,” Dejiko apologized. “You have to do better than that if you expect me, to forgive you miss,” Rarity scuffed. “Rarity…” the rest said at once. “Oh, fine. I, Rarity gladly accept your apology, Dejiko.” “I forgive you too, it was my fault for being too excited and almost hit Rinna, all it’s cool now,” Rainbow said with some guilt in her tone. “Thank you nyo,” Dejiko smiled to them for the first time. “By the way Dejiko what was that golden beam? How does it work? It is magic?” Twilight was starting her knowledge hunting. Dejiko was uncomfortable to say the least because this pony was like Ini back home. “That’s the mekara beam,” said Applebloom. “Yeah it’s awesome, Dejiko sent a bad wolf flying with it,” Scootaloo added. “The bad wolf was chasing me, if it wasn’t for Dejiko I would have get caught,” Sweetie Belle told them what happened with the wolf. After that Rarity felt in debt with Dejiko for saving her sister which she was now hug crushing. “Ha, you’re cool for fighting a wild wolf like that Dejiko, not as much as me, but you're at least twenty porcent cooler now,” Rainbow exclaimed, the rest rolled their eyes. “So, what happens now?” Applejack asked. “Well duh, it’s time for some party! We have another guest, so it’s obvious that a bigger party will be hosted, I don’t know how big though but it will be pretty big I tell you, with balloons, streamers, and cupcakes, muffins, and…” Pinkie keep naming things for the party, everpony but Dejiko started laughing a little. Twilight felt a bit frustrated because she probably wouldn’t be able to get any quick information without anypony interrupting her, so she gave up for now. “She is weird nyo, but a party sounds nice, I want to relax a little after this day nyo,” Dejiko stretched her limbs some. “Maybe, but Pinkie is a good friend myu,” Rinna said while petting Pinkie which she gladly received. “Then let’s head to Sugar Cube Corner then! The party awaits us!” Pinkie said suddenly. “What?” Dejiko was confused. “Don’t even try to understand Pinkie, things just happen around her,” Rainbow told her. The group then started heading to the party place, the CMC went to their club house in the opposite direction to look for something before the party. Konata then got the feeling that something was off. At that moment they saw a hurt pony laying on the ground. “Princess Luna!” Twilight shouted, everypony after recognizing the pony rushed to her side to help. Luna was in pain, with scratches and little cuts all over her body, and some patches of her fur were darker than the rest which revealed the spots where she was hit harder. “Who could have done this to the princess?” Twilight asked out loud to nopony in particular. “Hey guys, anopony saw what happened here?” Rainbow asked to some ponies that were in the area. They shook their heads. Then Luna open her eyes slightly, “Twilight… be careful,” she winced in pain. “S-she is too strong… s-she is after little Rinna…” she said struggling to keep consciousness. “Please Luna save your strength. Rarity, Fluttershy can you take Princess Luna to the hospital?” Twilight requested to them. “Consider it done, dear,” Rarity replied, Fluttershy just opted for nodding. The two then took Luna out of there. “What was that about? Who is ‘she’?” Applejack asked. “I don’t know, but somepony dangerous is out there,” Twilight was watching the surroundings carefully. “It wasn’t you, right Dejiko?” Rainbow asked Dejiko. “Of course not Nyo! I expended the whole trip with Applebloom and the foals from the school, it’s the first time I see that dark blue pony,” Dejiko explained. “Ok chill, I was just asking.”  “What do you think Koni, Riny? Any crazy ideas of what could have happened?” Pinkie asked while wearing a detective hat and a bubble pipe. They ignored that. “Probably ‘I’ can answer that, pink menace,” a bratty voice could be heard. Everyone was searching for the origin of the voice. “Over there!” Applejack pointed at the roof of a house, making the rest look in that direction. What they saw was a strange cat, which was looking at them with a innocent smile on its face. Konata, Dejiko and Rinna recognized her though. “Tailmon, what are you doing here?” Konata asked in a more serious way than she has showed so far. “Tailmon?” the ponies were confused. “What? No warm welcome? Oh wait, those pathetic armored horses were my welcome, they weren’t that entertaining though. The two bigger ones were more fun, not much of a difference but more fun indeed,” Tailmon told them. Twilight put one and one together in her mind, “wait, so you attacked Princess Luna!?” “Ding dong! You’re right purple, and not just her but an entire group of armored idiots and a big white one with a crown,” Tailmon sat on the roof with an amused look. The ponies were in shock after hearing the news. “Princess Celestia too…” Twilight stood there for a moment before changing her expression to a one full of anger. She threw a magic blast at Tailmon. Tailmon deflected it effortlessly with the back of her paw; the blast then ended hitting the toy’s shop roof breaking a chunk of it. The other ponies on the place ran away in fear. “What!?” Twilight said with even more shock. “That’s rude purple, and not very smart of your part, oh I almost forgot. Orange, I think I found something yours,” Tailmon said casually. Applejack was on her guard now, “and what could that be?” At that moment Rainbow Dash recklessly launched herself full speed against Tailmon. Tailmon’s ears twitched and she flashed a sinister smile for a moment, “Hey blue! Think fast!” she then threw something big and red that she was hiding behind the roof top angle at Rainbow. It was an unconscious Big Mac. By instinct Rainbow dodged him, but then realized that the fall could hurt him, so she flew to catch him and catch him she did. “Hang in there, big guy,” Rainbow said while struggling a bit because Mac was too big for her to grab comfortably. When she landed Applejack was the first one to get to them. “Big Mac! Big Mac! Please answer me!” Applejack was desperately trying to get any response from her big brother. He grunted a bit, but did not awake. This was enough to relax Applejack some. Konata put a hoof on Applejack’s withers, “he’ll be fine, he’s not as hurt as Luna was, and now take him to the hospital also take Rinna with you. I’ll take care of Tailmon, its better if the rest of you leave too; you guys have no chance against her in a one to one fight.” “Don’t think we’ll just leave you fighting alone! I can help I’m the fastest of all of us,” Rainbow tried to convince Konata that she could help her. “Not to be rude or anything but you’ll just get in the way,” Konata declined her offer. “No! I won’t back out knowing what she did to the Princesses and the guards, please Konata let us help you,” Twilight did not want to leave a friend behind against such a dangerous foe. Applejack then moved to Konata’s side, “Y’all will probably need some strength, Pinkie ‘Ah trust ya to take Big Mac to the hospital and take care of him.” “Sure thing! Teach that meanie weenie a lesson! Come with me Riny,” Pinkie then lifted Mac with her tail somehow. Rinna stared at Konata and saw her nodding once, “Good luck myu,” she said before going after Pinkie. “Are you sure you want to do this?” Konata asked to the ponies without noticing something was missing, or more specifically 'someone'. “You bet! Let’s show that cat who’s boss!” Rainbow said with confidence. “Oh ho ho~, you are all fired up.” Tailmon got on her paws and dusted herself, “je~ this will be interesting, but there’s something you didn’t notice Konata-sama,” she said with a condescending tone. Konata raised an eye-brow at that, “and what can that possibly be?” “My cute pet probably means this, Konata-san,” a polite new voice could be heard. This voice made Konata nervous. The ponies noticed the change in Konata’s behavior. “Konata, is something wrong?” Twilight was starting to worry some. But she got no response. “Oh my, Konata-san is not polite to not answer to your friend like that, ufufu~,” the voice was heard again but this time a girl appeared from a shadow rift in the ground in front of them. The girl was incredibly beautiful; her black hair was tied up in long uneven twin tails. She had a red eye and one golden eye with an inorganic clock face in it. The girl was wearing a dress made out of orange and black frills, making her look like an elegant Gothic Lolita. On her head, she was wearing a big crimson net bow to hold her hair. She was also wearing a red and black collar on her neck. Height wise she was two and a half times taller than the ponies. Even the ponies could see the ‘astonishing beauty’ of the new girl. But something was off about her and her warm and innocent smile. “Now what? A new Rarity? Oh boy, what a gift,” Rainbow said with obvious sarcasm. “Rainbow!” the other two yelled at her. “Ufufu~,” the girl giggled in amusement. “Do not worry little ponies, its fine for her to be like she wants to be, after all…” she left a strange pause that made the ponies look at her. “After all?” Twilight voiced everypony’s thoughts. “Oh my~, before that I need to introduce myself,” the girl lifted the sides of her dress slightly and made a bow similar to the one Rinna did, “My name is Tokisaki Kurumi, it’s a pleasure to meet you all.” She said with clear politeness Tailmon got to the ground and a really evil smile was on her face. “Also to complete my previous sentence, I would love to say… enjoying your last day will be my gift for you,” Kurumi said with a psychotic smile, making Konata’s fears a reality. > Chapter 8: Unfair Battle, a new Element appears and the Crimson Flame Haze Myu. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The ponies were somewhat disturbed by what Kurumi had just said, Konata was just paralyzed. Rainbow was more confused though, typical of her, why would it be different this time? “What’s up with her? I think she’s just as melodramatic as Rarity,” said Rainbow pointing a hoof at Kurumi, (Rude?) “Rainbow, take this with more seriousness, we are in a very bad situation here,” Twilight scolded her. “Well, let’s start shall we?” Kurumi summoned her guns. “Ha! Good luck with that, you can’t keep up with me with those weird sticks.” Rainbow got in her fighting stance. Tailmon just smiled and crossed her arms to enjoy the show. Rainbow started the attack with a frontal assault at max speed. She was easily dodged by a side step and got hit on the back losing her balance and crashing on the ground.  “Wha…” Rainbow said from the ground. Applejack tried to approach and help Rainbow, but Tailmon blocked the way. “I’m bored, let’s play a little Orange; also you won’t be getting in Kurumi-sama’s way,” even if she said that Tailmon did not take a fighting stance. “Then ‘Ah’ll pass over you first,” Applejack prepared herself to fight. Tailmon wasn’t impressed. “You have a good speed, I can give you that,” Kurumi said to Rainbow. “But if you’re so obvious, it just shows how bad you are at using it,” she taunted with a smug smile. Getting on her hooves, Rainbow was annoyed by this girl that just insulted her ability to use her speed, “So, you think I’m bad? I’ll show you who’s bad!” she shouted, and with all her strength she launched herself at Kurumi. Expecting this Kurumi tried to sidestep her again, but Rainbow did a sudden curve, this took Kurumi by surprise. Seeing the confusion Rainbow tried to take advantage of this and went from behind for a tackle. At the last moment without turning, Kurumi blocked it with her musket. “What!” Rainbow said in disbelief before quickly backing up, “How?” “I already told you. You’re too predictable and fooling you is quite easy,” Kurumi’s smug smile was still there. Meanwhile Tailmon was literally toying around with Applejack, throwing punches without the intention of hitting the pony. Applejack blocked or dodged the attacks. “Come on, Orange. I know you can do better, put some effort into it, ha ha!” Tailmon was enjoying herself a little too much. “Yer annoying, can ya chill out a bit!?” Applejack blocked a punch and spun her body to kick Tailmon; the latter reacted to this by jumping away. “Heh,” she said with her eyes closed letting her guard down, “you’re stronger than the rest of the trash I fought today…” she opened her eyes to continue, but before she could finish, Applejack close the distance, and kicked her in the stomach launching her a few feet in the air. Tailmon stabilized herself and fell on her back legs, “not bad…” but again Applejack was already in the chase before she could finish, and tried to kick her again. But this time Tailmon was prepared and caught Applejack’s back hooves. The impact on her paws was stronger than she anticipated, but she got a good grip and then slammed Applejack on the ground a few times before letting go. She saw the country pony fly for a moment before she crashed in front of Twilight and Konata. “Applejack!” Twilight went to aid Applejack. “Move!” They were pushed out of the way by Konata, then Tailmon stomped the place where Applejack crashed making a little crater by the sheer force of the impact. “Are you going to get in my way Konata-sama? You could just wait your turn,” Tailmon said with too much confidence. Konata took a quick glance at the fight between Rainbow and Kurumi and how one-sided it was, but Rainbow wasn’t going to give up. “Well, stop wasting time and let’s do this then,” Konata prepared herself. “Oh no, you won’t,” Tailmon said to her and saw her raising an eyebrow. “Just look over there,” Tailmon pointed at the distance behind her. Konata saw Kurumi with a crazy smile holding an unconscious Dejiko while pointing at her with her flintlock gun, Konata’s eyes got wide open. The ponies saw it too. “Aw, come on!” Rainbow shouted in frustration, “Couldn’t you like, hold on for five minutes!?” “What’s happening? Why are there two of her?” Twilight said in disbelief. Kurumi dodged another of Rainbow’s attempts of attacking her by teleporting to Tailmon’s side with one of her shadow portals. “Grrrr! Stop moving you cheater!” Rainbow was going crazy for not being able to do anything. They ignored her, “Maybe you could explain it for me, Konata-san? Would you be so kind to do me that favor?” Kurumi asked politely. Konata groaned on the inside. “Yeah, what’s going on? What’s up with all those weird powers and stuff?” Rainbow regrouped with her friends.  “Maybe you all are thinking, ‘that one is an illusion or a fake’, but it’s not. Those two are one and the same person,” Konata explained. ‘I have to think of a way to get out of this situation, this break will not last too long’ she started to think of possible solutions, with ones being more unlikely than the others. “What? How can they be the same entity?” Twilight asked curious of the reason of why this was the case. “Kurumi’s powers are related to time travel, the one that is holding Dejiko is a Kurumi from a different time period, and there isn’t only one. There are tons of them,” Konata revealed, shocking Twilight with this information. “Time travel? But that’s too dangerous to even try, how is this possible?” Twilight was on the verge of a mental breakdown, with strays of hair pocking out of her mane. “Oh, great. Now we lost Twilight too, can this get any worse!?” Rainbow said in frustration. “A better question is, what can we do now? We are more hopeless than a dog chasing its tail,” Applejack managed to stand up. Tailmon clapped her paws, “good analogy Orange, who’s a good girl? Who’s a good girl? You are! Yes, you are! Ha ha!” Applejack’s eye twitched involuntarily, as anger took over, she was about to launch herself but Rainbow took a hold of her before that. “Rainbow what are ya doing!? Let me go! ‘Ah’ll kick her flank!” “Calm down AJ! We already have enough problems!” Rainbow tried to reason with her. Tailmon quickly close the distance and connected an uppercut in Applejack’s stomach while they were distracted struggling, this sent them to the air. Tailmon followed them with a jump; she spun her body to connect a somersault kick on Rainbow’s back sending them down where they crashed on the ground and bounced in opposite directions. They remained on the ground wincing in pain. Konata wasn’t able to help them, because her taking place in the battle would result in the Kurumi clone shooting Dejiko. Twilight on the other hoof was just too terrified. Tailmon casually walked to the downed Rainbow Dash, “thanks for holding her, Blue.” Then kicked her in the gut, “heh, idiot.” “W-why are you doing this to us?” Twilight asked out of fear. “We have no interest in this pathetic world, Purple. We came here to get Rinna-sama to join our little group, you just happened to be in the way,” Tailmon answered her. “B-but there had to be a better way to do it. Why would you start attacking us, if you just wanted to talk to Rinna? I don’t understand,” Twilight was pushing deeper with her questions. “I was bored, there’s not much reasoning behind that,” Tailmon said while shrugging. “WHAT!? Just because you were BORED?” Twilight’s mane was a total mess at this point. “Why… are you trying… to reason with them, Twilight? It’s… clear that they are evil, argh my back hurts,” Rainbow very painfully and slowly stood up. “ ‘Ah need some help… can any of ya like help me to get up…?” Applejack asked for help while in the ground. Twilight was still losing her mind, but she snapped out of it to help Applejack with her magic. “How are you two not unconscious or even paralyzed? I hit you guys hard enough to break your normal species’ bones,” Tailmon was genuinely confused. “I noticed that peculiarity as well, their bodies are sturdier than the ones you fought before Tailmon. It seems something made them stronger, instead of them being like that by their own means, it picks my curiosity,” Kurumi was now interested on these ponies at the moment. “Let just say our new friend gave us an awesome gift,” Rainbow replied. Tailmon eyes suddenly went wide with realization, and then twitched slightly as her stare went soulless. Rinna and the rest of the Elements were in the waiting room of Ponyville’s hospital. Some minutes ago some very injured guard entered carrying an unconscious Princess Celestia, the nurses and doctors quickly admitted her and started the treating her. “Rinna dear, you should think this more deeply, why would you go see the one who left the Princesses, the royal guards and Big Machintosh in such conditions?” Rarity questioned Rinna’s motives. “If Tailmon is the one Luna was referring to, then she came because of me myu. It’s my fault that this happened to them, if I go talk to her she will probably stop this myu,” Rinna gave her reasons. “Emm… I don’t think you should blame yourself Rinna, you didn’t know this would happen,” Fluttershy tried to cheer up Rinna. “Fluttershy is right Riny, nopony could know a cute but meanie cat would come searching for you and beat up everypony that stood on her way!” Pinkie tried something, I don’t know what, but she did try something. “Ahem,” Rarity cleared her throat, “What Pinkie here meant, was that none of us could predict such an incident would occur, Rinna dear. For that reason you shouldn’t take the responsibility for what happened. Please don’t be too harsh to yourself, instead let’s think of way to help the girls, they probably are in a big predicament,” Rarity suggested. “You’re right myu, even if Konata is with them. There is something that worries me myu,” Rinna started thinking. “If I had my sprout of Yggdrasil h…” “Here you have Riny!” Pinkie showed Rinna’s sprout in front of her face. Rinna stared at her a little surprised, “how myu?” “I had it close in case of sprout emergency!” Pinkie explained. Rinna didn’t fully understand the limits of Pinkie’s boundary breaking powers yet, but she didn’t mind it either, “thank myu,” she said with the most adorable smile anypony ever saw until that point. Various bodies hitting the ground were heard at that moment. “Oh, come on! Can we never get a break here!?” A nurse shouted. Rinna and the girls got their first authentic laugh in this dire situation with this little moment of silliness. After they calmed down Rarity said, “Well then, that really did a good job lightening the mood. But why did you wanted your gorgeous plant to be here darling? Does it serve a special purpose?” she asked. “Yes, it does myu. But before we do anything I would want to check on Celestia and Luna, they seemed really hurt myu,” Rinna said with some guilt, she still put herself as responsible for everything that has happened. Rarity noticed this and decided to comply Rinna’s wish, “Come dear, let’s check on them alright? I’m worried about the Princesses too,” she said with a smile. Fluttershy and Pinkie smiled too. The group then made their way to the room where the Princesses were, the doctors said that their injuries weren’t as severe as they looked, it confused them greatly. “Stop right there, nopony has permission to enter the Princesses’ room,” the two guards at the door crossed spears to block the entrance; despite their injuries they were doing their job as guards, a red light flashed for fraction of a second over the guards, nopony noticing it of course. “There is no chance for us to enter, sir? We just want to see if the Princesses are ok myu,” Rinna asked. “There is none, now get out of here,” one of the guards said in an insensitive tone. Rinna was tearing up, but made an effort to not cry. This of course was noticed by the girls, and even the guards were questioning themselves if they should have acted in some other way. Fluttershy offered Rinna a hug which she accepted and she broke. Rinna tried so hard to stay strong, but the stress got the best of her. This made Fluttershy tear up too, Pinkie joined the hug to try and comfort them. Rarity wasn’t going to accept any of this, “How could you be so cold with such adorable child! Such brute behavior, how can you call yourselves Royal guards with such lack of discipline?” “Yeah! You two are just being big meanies!” Pinkie added. Fluttershy didn’t say anything but nodded in approval. The guards in other hoof(?) felt insulted, but deep down they agreed to a certain degree with them, “We apologize for that, but we are just following orders.” “That’s no excu…” Rarity was cut mid sentence. “Miss Rarity, please no more myu. They are doing their job and if they say no, then it’s no, myu…” Rinna just gave up. Fluttershy just hold her in a tight hug, with no idea of how to help her little friend. “But, Rinna. You have the right to see your friends, darling.” “I appreciate what you are trying to do miss Rarity, b-but I just can… not,” Rinna was having a hard time trying to speak in her current emotional state, if the lack of her suffix wasn’t proof enough. When Rinna’s tears fell to the floor, another red light flashed pretty quickly over the guards, (this is going to become a thing, isn’t? *sigh*) nopony noticed of course. But it was like whatever thing that was trying to do anything with that light, was stopped in mid action or something. At some point, in some time, on a certain dimension was a very spooky mansion that gave some kind of Dracula’s Castle feeling just by looking at it. Anyways, in this place liv… “AHHHH! Why isn’t my attack reaching them!?” Ok… as I was sayi… “Misstress please calm down, and remember that Magical Vision doesn’t allow for in-between worlds interaction.” This will keep happening rig… “Who came up with that useless rule!?” You know what? I had enough with this, back to the hospital we go! Suddenly the door of the room opened while surrounded by a golden aura. “Guards, let them enter. But keep anypony but the rest of the Elements or doctors from getting in,” Celestia said from inside the room. “Yes, Highness!” the guards retired their spears to let Rinna and the girls inside. Once they got inside and closed the door, Rinna and the girls saw the two bandaged princesses. But they didn’t look as bad as they thought. “Greetings, my little ponies,” Celestia said to the elements. Then she looked at Rinna with sadness, “I’m sorry for worrying you, Rinna. You had to deal with such weight at such young age, forgive me for sending you to such a terrible situation.” Rinna shook her head, “It’s not your fault Celestia, or anypony’s fault myu. If anything I’m grateful that this happened when nopony was around and no causalities were caused. If Tailmon were to show up in Canterlot, that would have been a much bigger disaster myu.” “Also don’t underestimate her; numbers don’t matter to Tailmon if she’s stronger by a large margin myu. It seems like you didn’t take Kona-chan’s explanation seriously, we are from a world that can fall into a war at any point for any reason myu. “We can enjoy peace now, but just because mother and big sis are always taking the weight of the situation by themselves, but this time it’s not about our world, it’s about yours. That’s why I need you to take this seriously myu, especially you Luna, I can hear your breathing, so I know you’re awake myu.” Everypony had no words for what happened. “What is this!? Is this some mumbo jumbo magic!? Riny would never be so serious! Ahhh!” overreacting Pinkie is overreacting. “Eh?” Rinna was confused. “Are you feeling well, darling?” Rarity asked. “You can tell us Rinna, if you want that is,” Fluttershy added shyly. “Eh? Wha…” Then Pinkie started shaking Rinna. “Riny, don’t follow the voice! Come back!” Pinkie shouted. “Pinkie dear, you might want to stop that before you break poor Rinna,” Rarity said. “Oh, oopsies,” Pinkie noticing that, stopped shaking Rinna. “Sorry Riny.” “D-don’t w-worry, m-myu,” Rinna said while still dazed. Luna cleared her throat gaining the attention, “Ahem, such matters aside, we couldn’t help but notice the shiny golden clover in your hands Rinna, is that a gift for us? Also, we are sorry for worrying you, we were reckless in our actions and we paid the price.” Rinna recovered from her dazed state, “Don’t worry, you are okay and that is what matters at the end myu.” She then lifted her sprout some to show it, “and I don’t mind you keeping this sprout for yourselves myu, but first I need to use it to call home. But I need some help with that myu.” Celestia took notice of this new information, “so that sprout as you call it is for communication between worlds?” Rinna nodded, “and what does it need to function?” she asked. “It needs strong enough magic to be poured into it, but this will need more than normal because it lost its power after getting here and needs to be reawakened, sadly I can’t use my magic at will to do so myu,” Rinna said with dropped ears. “Why didn’t you said so sooner dear? I’ am more than glad to lend you a helping hoof.” Said Rarity while putting a hoof on her chest. “Are you sure Miss Rarity? It can drain quite a lot of magic if you’re not used to it myu.” Rinna said with slight worry. “I insist Rinna; I won’t be able to forgive myself if I don’t do anything to help you in this dire situation.” Rinna was still worried but nodded in agreement; she put the sprout of Yggdrasil in table that was in between the Princesses beds. “Please be careful myu.” It was apparent without saying that Rarity herself was a little nervous, but she ignited her horn nonetheless and started pouring magic in the sprout. Soon enough she found out that Rinna was right, the sprout was absorbing her magic at a fast rate and started to struggle to maintain the flow. Noticing this, Celestia and Luna nodded to one another, and started pouring magic into the sprout as well. Rinna wanted to stop them but a reassuring hoof from Fluttershy made her choose not to do so, the two still with worried expressions. The visual spectacle was quite a view, with the sprout emanating a rainbow colored light from its leafs that were forming an arc. The two alicorns and unicorn were sweating from the sheer effort, but luckily the arc of light closed forming a round mirror-like screen over the sprout leaving the ponies breathing heavily. “Are you okay myu?” “Yes dear, j-just a bit winded that’s all,” Rarity reassured while regaining her breath. “It still surprises me how much magic was required to reawake the sprout. Now then, Rinna how do we communicate with it?” Celestia inquired. “It resonates with the one Ini-chan has in her desk, she should be there myu.” As on cue the screen started to show the form of a girl with rabbit ears. “Hello, who is it call-” the voice stopped when the image was clear, “Rinna? Is it really you?” the girl looking with hope. “Yes Ini, it’s me myu.” “But how? You can’t use your magic yet and reviving the sprout requires a little more of effort.” “My friends helped me myu,” Rinna looked at everypony in the room then back at the screen, “Everypony, this is my friend Ini-chan.” She said while gesturing at the screen, “Ini-chan, these are my friends from Equestria myu.” Everyone exchanged greetings, because those are boring and you should be ashamed of putting that kind of stuff so many times, like seriously get on with it! Ahem, sorry got a bit carried away for a moment there. “Aww, don’t be saddy waddy ominous Koni, it’s ok,” Pinkie said to someone who wasn’t there, everyone giving her weird looks but in their minds it was just another ‘Pinkie being Pinkie’ moment and ignored it. Also shut up Pinkie. “Okie dokie lokie!” and with that Pinkie sat on her rump and started paying attention to whatever was happening in the room. “You have my utmost gratitude for taking care of Rinna, it’s good to know that she ended up with such kind beings, thank you,” Ini thanked them in a very polite and honest way. “You are welcome darling.” Fluttershy smiled shyly with a pink tint in her cheeks, Pinkie was humming a song about broccoli for some reason. “It is us who should be grateful Miss Ingrid, in the short time she was with us; Rinna had a very positive influence in all of us, even if her being here was an accident.” Celestia said. “Well, with that out the way, what is the situation Rinna? Also is Konata over there as well?” Ini asked. “Yes, she is Ini. But we are in trouble myu, Tailmon is here as well and she is attacking us, Kona-chan and some friends are fighting her right now myu,” Rinna explained with some fear. “So she really betrayed us,” a heavy sigh left Ini while a white haired girl was running around in the background carrying books, “I should have known this would happen at the first hint. But Konata is more than capable of dealing with her you shouldn’t worry that much.” “I’m still worried myu, I have a bad feeling. Ini can you please send anything that could help us myu?” “The portal isn’t stable enough to send help yet, but it will soon. Anyways something I can send even without the portal is one of our armor cards. You can use it on one of your pony friends to help in the fight if needed, you can’t however use it on yourself because your little body can’t handle it at your current state, I’m sorry.” Ini said in an apolegic way. Rinna looked at her friends for a hint of what to do, when she saw them nodding she decided. “Please send it Ini, and thank you myu.” With that said and a nod, Ini summoned her device on her left arm and covered the card in question with a strange spell that make a pink sphere around the card. Then she put the card in the hole the device had on a side and disappeared and Ini de-summoned the device from her arm. “It’s done Rinna, just summon your Spirit Linker to retrieve it.” Ini said with satisfaction. “But Ini, I need to tap into my magic to summon it, and I don’t have control over it yet myu.” “That’s not really necessary Rinna, just clear your mind and concentrate your thoughts to make it appear, it will take a little of your magic passively but nothing too harsh.” Ini explained. Rinna did as told, and with some failed attempts she finally made the device appear on the sixth one. “I-I did it myu!” Rinna said happily. “Congratulations Rinna.” “Congratulations Riny!” Pinkie hugged Rinna. “Congratulations, darling.” Celestia and Luna opted for no saying anything but had a proud expression on their faces. After that Rinna pressed the flashing button on the rear of device, and the card that Ini sent appeared from the hole on the side. She took the card and was surprised to see what it was. “The digi-egg of courage myu...” “Indeed, I just had that one for research purposes, the others are sealed in the Arcana Vault.” Then Rinna thought of something, “but even with this card, in who should I use it myu?” “I agree, it’s not easy to handle its power and any with a weak will is probably going to collapse under the pressure. Even then the digi-egg will take an incredible amount of energy from the user after it effects ends, so be careful with it.” Ini explained with a darker expression. The ponies expressions reflected their obvious worry about it, but then Pinkie happened. “I’ll do it Riny! Choose me, choose me!” said the hyperactive pony flailing her hoof in the air. “Are you sure Pinkie? It’s dangerous myu.” Rinna said worried about her friend. “Yep yep yep, I’m very very sure Riny, we need to act quickly to help Koni and Dashie and Twily and Applejack!” Ini could be seen talking with someone with her phone when something altered her. “Rinna!” Ini shouted gaining everyone’s attention. “Myu?” “K-Kurumi is on Equestria alongside Tailmon!” Ini said with fear. After hearing that, Rinna was afraid very afraid, she knew what Kurumi was known for. Shaking, her legs failed her and got down to her knees. Everypony who could, got closer to see if she was ok. It was obvious to say that Rinna was terrified, her body shaking uncontrollably. “Riny?” Pinkie said looking at her friend with a slightly less puffy mane. “Rinna dear, what is happening?” “Miss Ini, what is wrong with Rinna, can you tell us please?” Fluttershy asked. “She has a trauma revolving Kurumi, she witnessed how Kurumi killed people some time ago, it was during Kurumi’s reforming time she aid us with some missions, but she was still very violent and showed no mercy for those who dared to step in her way.” Ini said shocking everypony in the room. “But apparently that was a facade too, she is fighting Konata and the rest of your friends.” “Is she more powerful than this Tailmon?” asked Celestia. “Much much more, Konata will not be able to last too long against her, she needs help and fast. Rinna please use the digi-egg on your friend to go help Konata, she needs aid.” Ini said pleadingly. Still shaking and afraid Rinna did not answer, but an image flashed on her mind, showing her new friends, Konata and the peaceful world she was in right now on ruins. ‘I can’t let them suffer that fate myu, I need to be strong for them.’ She clenched her fists and a new determination rose upon her. She slowly stood up, “let’s do this myu!” Everypony was surprised but glad that was able to recover. Dejiko had awakened sometime ago, and was witnessing the beat down of Applejack and Rainbow Dash at the paws of Tailmon. The latter was slamming them into the ground and punching them everywhere. At some point, she threw Rainbow Dash against a group of crates at the side of the way, she crashed into them. Then lifted Applejack, hit her in the gut, then released her and while in the air she threw a barrage of punches on the orange pony keeping her in the air then stopped and connected one strong punch on her muzzle sending her flying towards Twilight and Konata again, Applejack was unconscious at this point. Speaking of these two, Twilight was petrified from the fear she was feeling and tears escaped her eyes while she kept on watching the terrible scene. Konata on the other hoof(?) was cursing herself for not being able to do anything, if she dared to intervene she was risking Dejiko’s life, if she did not she was risking Applejack and Rainbow’s lives. She was stuck on a lose-lose situation and this frustrated her. “They really are sturdier than I thought, I suppose this is the result of Rinna-san’s power in these creatures, it’s wonderful. But this is getting tedious, Tailmon please be a dear and end them!” Kurumi said with a maniatical smile on her face. “As you wish.” Tailmon replied. “You can’t do that! They didn’t do anything to you Nyo!” Dejiko protested. “Oh, but they actually did Dejiko-san, they foolishly challenged me into a battle they couldn’t win, that’s reason enough to eliminate them.” Tailmon was approaching Applejack, when she heard something. “S-Stop r-right there, you small lame-o!” Tailmon stopped on her tracks to turn around and see Rainbow Dash crawling out of the debris of the crates she was thrown before. She was panting heavily, she barely had the energy to crawl let alone stand up, but she managed to do it out of sheer determination.  Tailmon turned completely to face her, a little impressed by the will power of this pony, but she was totally getting on her nerves right now. “Y-you think you’re tough don’t you? So what if you’re stronger, you’re still mad because we’re good friends with Rinna and you’re not, you’re just a jealous loser!” Tailmon’s eye twitched, then in mere seconds she was above Rainbow and kicked her on the back of the head making her fall face first to the ground. “Arrggh…” Rainbow had no strength left, she could hardly maintain consciousness. “Maybe you’re right Blue, maybe I’m a jealous loser, but you know what? At least I won’t be a corpse, but still that would be unsatisfactory after your little scene.” Tailmon said while grabbing one of Rainbow’s wings and stretching it. Dejiko couldn’t look at what was going to happen. Konata lowered her head, her mane casting a shadow over her eyes. “No…” Twilight whispered, eyes fixed in Rainbow and Tailmon. Then Tailmon lifted her other arm, the time seemed to slow down when she moved to hit the wing with a chop. “Nooooo!” Twilight cried. *CRACK* “AHHHHHHHH!!” Rainbow let out a shrieking scream of pain, her right wing broken by the impact; she wasn’t able to breathe by the sheer pain she was enduring. “Twilight…” Twilight looked at Konata who was calling her and saw the angry expression on her face. “I trust you will do the right thing at the right time…” Konata then slowly started to walk towards Rainbow and Tailmon. “Where do you think you’re going Konata-san, you know the deal, stand still and Dejiko-san will be unharmed, ji ji ji.” Kurumi said in an amusing way, she was having so much fun with this. Konata stopped which made Kurumi smile smugly, but then the two looked at each other. “Huh?” Kurumi saw the look of total hatred on Konata’s eyes. “Screw you.” Konata said before making a run towards the other two. Annoyed Kurumi pointed at her with her musket and shoot. Konata did a front flip dodging the bullet. Kurumi then heard her saying something but kept on shooting. While still dodging Konata started a chant “Thunder sprites, / pay heed, and strike / with your electric shock.” Tailmon was confused but still launched herself towards Konata, “I don’t know what are you babbling about now Konata-sama, but you’re not going to interrupt my fun.” When the two were closely enough Konata made a little jump with a hoof pointing at Tailmon (rude? I guess), “Shock Bolt!” Twilight recognized what Konata was saying as a chant but she was still fascinated as how the chant produced a purple lightning that struck Tailmon. “Ah! W-what is this!? I-I can’t move!” Tailmon said while shocked in the purple lightning aura. Konata then punched her in the face and sent her flying against an empty house making a hole on the wall on impact. “Rainbow! Rainbow! Answer me, you dork!” Konata yelled at her. “Y-you’re late, a-also you’re the dork,” she tried to joke, that was a good signal. “Sorry about that, I had to sort out some stuff on my brain.” Konata then managed to get Rainbow on her back. “Fits you,” Rainbow said trying to ignore the pain of her broken wing, tears of pain pouring against her will. “Stay still or I’ll kill Dejiko-san,” Kurumi said while aiming at them with her flintlock gun. Konata snickered some getting on Kurumi’s nerves, “I don’t think so goth-maniac.” Kurumi was really mad at this point but started laughing, “You think I won’t do it, don’t you? Well, let me show you then.” She gestured to her clone to shoot. But just when the clone pulled the trigger Dejiko disappeared in a purple flash of light, dodging the bullet. This left Kurumi shocked, “What!?” then she realized something and faced towards Twilight’s direction. There was Dejiko sitting on the dirt-path, “Thank you Nyo, that was a close one.” “Thank Konata for that one, she gave me the idea. I could have appreciated more details though.” “Well, excuseeeeee me, Princess. But I had to improvise quite a lot, you know.” Konata very carefully set Rainbow on the ground next to Applejack who was still out cold. Rainbow still groaning and crying from the pain. “Sorry for slowing you down, guys.” she said sadly. “You did good Rainbow. I promise you, that if we get out of here in one piece I’ll let you come with us to train.” “I’ll hold you on that one,” Rainbow laughed weakly. “Sure, now Twilight, I suppose you know how to put a barrier, right?” Konata said while looking at Twilight with hope. “Yes I do know, my brother taught me some protection spells, why?” “Put one around all of you, Kurumi’s normal bullets shouldn’t be able to pierce through a magic barrier, and I doubt she’ll use her special bullets to break it.” “But what about you, Konata?” “I’ll gain time, that’s all we need right now, so put up the barrier!” Konata then galloped towards Kurumi. Twilight ignited her horn and formed a spherical purple shield around them. “Argh, I hate being useless.” Rainbow self pitied herself. “I know how are you feeling, Rainbow. I hate it too, but this is not a situation in which any of us would have made a difference.” They could only watch hopefully for her friend to get out of this safely. Kurumi on the other hand was livid at this point, her plan failing wasn’t getting well with her. “You’ll pay for your insolence Konata-san, come to me Zafkiel!” her voice became ominous in that last word, then a giant clock appeared behind her. “Oh, so you realized that playing along is just dumb. Huh, I thought you were smarter than that, you psyco.” Konata just continued her mockery. “Zafkiel,” Kurumi positioned her weapons at 1 o’clock. “Aleph,” then shoot at her clone, this disappearing in the shadows and then shoot herself. Konata got caught by surprise when Kurumi suddenly appeared in front of her, leaving her open for kick in the gut which sent her into the air, Kurumi then teleported next to her and kicked her downwards on the back, making Konata hit the dirt with great force. “Eh… I thought you were more capable than this Konata-san, you have disappointed me.” Kurumi just looked disappointed at the mare in the ground. At the distance Twilight and company had no words for what happened. “What the hay was that? She just teleported all over the place, so she was just playing with me all the time.” Rainbow was angry for more than one reason. “But that teleporting… I can’t sense magic on her, she’s not using magic to teleport it’s more like she’s manipulating time to her benefit… this can’t be! It shouldn’t be possible to move time at will.” “This doesn’t look good Nyo, but I know Konata can handle this, she cannot lose now Nyo.” Kurumi touched Konata’s forehead with her musket, “Any last words before we part ways Konata-san?” “Accel!” with that Konata disappeared. Surprised, Kurumi didn’t saw the pony behind her. Then Konata buck her on the back knocking Kurumi down, but before she could connect another hit, Kurumi teleported away with a shadow portal. “I see that you have acquired more abilities in my absence, Konata-san.” “You always need to stay fresh and new, otherwise we end like you. Sulking and groaning all the time.” Kurumi wanted nothing more than just erase that smug grin on Konata’s face, but then saw Tailmon approaching from behind to do a sneak attack. “Zafkiel,” she called her Angel’s name to distract Konata, and she took the bait she prepared for a frontal attack. Tailmon then made a leap towards Konata; the latter didn’t have time to react. “Blazing Knuckle!” They heard suddenly before Tailmon got struck by fireballs of the size of baseballs. The explosion sent the cat crashing with another house at the side of the road. “Who is it!? Show yourself!” Kurumi demanded. “Weeeeee!” After hearing that, Konata facehoofed. Another pony appeared, a pink one with a darker pink for her poofy mane and tail and balloons as her cutie mark, one difference was the armor she was wearing on her hooves, chest and a mask with a blade on her forehead. The armor was red with different grades of yellow fire patterns. “Who are you!?” Kurumi was now on her guard. The mare got a big smile on her face, “The Element of Courage Pinkie Pie joins the party everypony!” She stated while throwing confetti from somewhere. “What!?” Twilight and company shouted at unison. “I’m glad we made it on time, myu.” A soft voice said at their side. “Rinna!?” they shouted again. Konata let out a sigh, “of all ponies, you were the one for Courage, Pinkie?” she thought for a moment, “Well I think it makes sense, thanks for the help by the way.” “No problem Koni! I’m happy to help a good friend!” Pinkie started bouncing around Konata. Kurumi’s eye twitched involuntarily. At that moment the portal between worlds finished their synchronization, making it possible to cross worlds. Sombra was quite impressed and glad that he could probably jump to another world, if the amount of magic that was radiating from the portal gave him any clue. His happiness was short-lived thought, it ended when a hand suddenly appeared from the portal and grabbed his face. “Explosive Fist!” a female voice said. Then, an explosion sent Sombra crashing against one of the cave’s walls. A sword was pointed at him a second after. He could see his attacker; it was a black haired girl wearing black pants and a black trench coat, and her stare was so intense that it could melt solid crystal if given the chance.  “Leave now or I’ll kill you,” said the girl menacingly. With no options Sombra transformed into smoke and left. “Now then, it’s time to find that idiotic sister of mine, and Rinna.” The girl stated. Shana had arrived to Equestria. > Chapter 9: The Element of Friendship, a sad event and the unmeassured fury Nyo! > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bullets flew all over the battlefield, Konata and Pinkie did their best to dodge the rain of bullets coming from an even more insane Kurumi. “I think we broke her Pinkie,” Konata said while crouching under a dangerously close bullet and moving away. “Don’t be silly Koni, we didn’t hit her yet, how did we break her?” Pinkie said while doing all kind of unorthodox movement to dodge the bullets. “Oh we did hit her Pinkie, right in the ego.” A bullet passed inches away from Konata’s face, “Hey relax a little, you psychopath!” Kurumi stopped shooting, “Very well, I’ll take your advice and take this slowly,” her features softened some but still had that menacing aura around her. Pointing her weapons at seven o’clock Kurumi said ominously, “Zafkiel, Zayin.” Then aimed at Pinkie and shoot a couple of bullets. Pinkie dodged the first one but the second didn’t leave her room to avoid, Kurumi predicted this so she fired the bullets in sequence. But there was another thing she predicted. “Pinkie move!” Konata shouted while tackling Pinkie away from the bullet but it hit her instead, upon impact the bullet transformed into a sphere that made everything in its radius look in negative colors, Konata being inside it was frozen in time. “Ji ji ji, Konata-san you always had a soft spot for weaklings, and that became your downfall. You could have ignore it, but decided to sacrifice yourself and doom them all.” Kurumi said with a toothy smile while six clones spawned around the sphere of the frozen pony. “Leave her alone you meanie!” Pinkie went to try and help but another clone appeared in front of her and attacked her, she had no option but to back away. “You won’t be bothering me anymore, now then let’s give our audience a little show.” Kurumi said while lifting one arm up, the clones surrounding the captive Konata aimed at the pony. In the distance Twilight let Rinna get inside the shield, it was a good idea because some of the previous bullets did actually hit it, just like Konata said regular bullets wouldn’t be able to break the shield, but Twilight wouldn’t be able to do anything else while keeping the shield up and her magic was running low. They also saw what happened with Konata for saving Pinkie. “That was cheap!” Rainbow shouted but twitched a little in pain for her injuries. “We have to do something, Kona is in trouble myu,” Rinna said when Pinkie was blocked by the Kurumi clone. “But what can we do? We are defenseless against somepony like Kurumi,” Twilight said with shame. Rainbow painfully stood up, the pain was unbearable but she did it anyways, “Twi, let me go out I’ll help her.” “Rainbow, are you insane? Of course not, you’re too injured to do anything,” Twilight argued. “I don’t care! She’s risking her life out there and you are just going to leave her die!? Now let me out!” Rainbow replied angrily. Twilight was taken aback by Rainbow’s outburst but still held her decision firmly, “No Rainbow, I won’t let you out to die, and that’s it for this argument.” Gritting her teeth Rainbow started hitting the shield in hopes of breaking it somehow, each hit giving her pulsing pain all over her body, but she didn’t back up, instead she kept on hitting it. Twilight could feel the hits on the shield with her horn, even if those weren’t so noticeable, her low magic reserves made it more sensitive and produced a little tingle feeling that annoyed her. “Rainbow, stop that! If you keep that up I’m going to lose concentration on the spell!” “Exactly the point for what I’m doing it!” Rainbow said. They then heard Rinna’s soft gasp. “Get rid of this thing Nyo!” Dejiko shouted to Twilight. “I can’t! If I do…” Twilight was cut when she heard the sound of gunshots, lots of them. Dejiko turned to look very slowly, Rinna covered her mouth with her hands; Rainbow stopped hitting the shield, all of their eyes shrunk at the view. The six Kurumi clones were shooting Konata mercilessly. In Ponyville’s hospital the Princesses and the rest of the Elements were watching the same shocking scenery through Rinna’s sprout of Yggdrasil. Fluttershy didn’t last long before looking away and cowering in a corner crying, Rarity passed out, and the Princesses just watched in silence with their stoic mask held firm, but deep inside they were blaming themselves for being useless. Meanwhile in a certain area that had no recognizable name in Álfheimr, Mihoshi was talking to a red haired girl tied into a short ponytail and wearing a lab coat, with a long yellow turtleneck sweater under it, black stockings and green slippers sitting on a comfy chair eating a lollipop. “You aren’t planning on intervening on this right?” Miho said. “What gave you that idea, Mitan?” the girl said with cheerful smile. “Your expression, it doesn’t give me a good vibe, but just remember that you intervening is against the rules.” “I would never do something like that,” the girl said while looking to the side. “I don’t trust you, but I can’t stay here and babysit you now,” Mihoshi let out sigh, “just… don’t do anything drastic.” She said but for some reason she sounded a little relaxed before leaving the strange white empty room. The girl giggled giddily and waved bye to Mihoshi, and then fixed her eyes into a certain pained being that caught her interest. “Let’s see how this plays out,” the girl said and snapped her fingers. The Arcana Vault where all the special artifacts they have collected in different worlds were stored suddenly opened. Kurumi gave a signal to stop her clones from shooting; she approached the sphere and kicked Konata in the gut freeing her from said sphere and fell to the ground out of breath. “You didn’t really expect me to kill you without you being conscious don’t you Konata-san? But I have to recognize your durability; none of your friends would have survived that.” Kurumi said while looking smugly at the gravely injured pony at her feet. ‘I’m sorry everyone, I wasn’t able to stop her,’ Konata thought, she wasn’t able to speak and barely able to hear, she couldn’t make sense of what Kurumi was saying. But that was it, she failed and now Kurumi would kill them all. Pinkie was being beaten up by the clone and her normally poofy mane and tail deflated and were straight, her fur turned darker. Digimon Adventure ost Zetsubou. ‘You can’t do this to me; you can’t save me and just die after. You don’t have the right to leave before I pay my debt do you understand!’ Rainbow thought somehow hoping that would reach Konata which obviously didn’t. “She’s too strong, this is impossible.” Twilight said. “No, it will work somehow. It has to, I will not leave her, she was a pain to deal with in this short time we knew each other, but I wasn’t the best either. Even after all that, she saved me, she was worried about me and now I can’t even try to help, I’ll not accept that! She’s my friend, and friends don’t leave when in trouble, I won’t forget it, the feel of believing in friends,” a blue glow was emanating from Rainbow’s body, while Kurumi was about to kill Konata “Friendship!” Suddenly a flash of light blinded the group and distracted Kurumi to look in that direction. A small object appeared in front of Rainbow, it looked like a black butternut pumpkin with carvings that looked like golden fangs and a lightning like blade on one end with a blue symbol behind. Rainbow looked at it for a few moments, its glow revitalized her somehow, and she lifted a hoof to touch it. Digimon Adventure 02 ost Break up. Upon contact another light appeared this time engulfing Rainbow Dash, ‘Please give me power to save my friend’ Rainbow said in her thoughts. ‘If you’re sure you can do it, I’ll lend you this power, do your best~~’ a giddy young female voice replied to Rainbow. The rest weren’t able to see what was happening, until the light went away revealing Rainbow Dash, but she was different. She was now wearing a black full body armor with golden sharp teeth patterns on the sides of her body, her armored hooves ended on white tips, her wings were protected as well alongside three lightning shaped spines that rose from her withers, and a black mask covering the entirety of her face except her jaw with two gold straight lines on the eye area, one lightning shaped gold and silver blade sticking out of her forehead and a gold diamond drawing behind it. “Rainbow?” Twilight asked. Rainbow Dash opened her eyes and felt the power flowing inside her, she didn’t know how to feel about what happened but something was clear for her, “Twilight, I’m going to help, let me out.” She said with seriousness. Twilight did as Rainbow said and let her out of the shield, “What happened?” “The Digi-Egg of Friendship chose her as its bearer, myu.” Rinna said a little more relaxed. “How did that happened Nyo? Was Friendship outside the vault too?” Dejiko asked. “According to Ini, the only Digi-Egg that was outside the Arcana Vault was Courage myu, I have no clue on how this happened.” Rinna said. Kurumi was confused, when the light that caught her attention went off, she saw another pony with armor just like the pink one, ‘Another one? How are these creatures getting this kind of power?’ she saw the pony that was beat up by Tailmon getting out of the purple barrier wearing that black armor and seemed to be healed of any previous injuries. Kurumi had to sidestep when a black blur with rainbow trail passed by her. Looking back she noticed the same pony between her and Konata. Rainbow looked at her friend; it pained her to see somepony so strong on such condition. “What do you plan on doing now, even like that you’re no match for me, little pony,” Kurumi said with confidence. “I don’t plan on wasting my time with you; I have better things to do with it.” Rainbow replied with arrogance (?). Suddenly they heard an explosion and one Kurumi clone crashed behind the real Kurumi. “For me… Koni got hurt, you’re real meanies and I won’t forgive you!” a very angry Pinkie said before jumping into action. In some mysterious universe someone shouted “That’s so cliche!” but no one heard it. Kurumi fired a bullet against Pinkie, since there was almost no room for dodging Pinkie barely blocked the bullet with her armored hoof. “Let’s see how long your little bravado lasts,” Kurumi said before charging herself at Pinkie, the clones surrounding Konata went against Rainbow. The clones stockpiled on Rainbow, “Oh no… what can poor me possibly do now?” she said with sarcasm, “oh I know! Blue Thunder!” an explosion of blue lightning disposed of all the clones, leaving a smug looking Rainbow Dash on its place. Kurumi didn’t stop her attack on Pinkie; she didn’t really cared for the clones in the first place. Pinkie was able to block and dodge some attacks, but Kurumi grew more accurate the longer their fight lasted, meaning that she received quite the beating again, but Pinkie bet everything into a lucky dodge to counter attack. With a little backwards hop Pinkie dodged an overhead attack, immediately after she jumped against Kurumi, “Fire Rocket!” after shouting this Pinkie’s body was surrounded by fire basically transforming into a pony sized fireball. Rainbow took this chance to charge swiftly from behind. Kurumi was caught by surprise but blocked the attack which produced an explosion upon contact Pinkie bounced away, and Kurumi jumped backwards to avoid the shockwave. This was what Rainbow expected, “Lightning Blade!” with this, a blade looking lightning fired from her metallic horn. Kurumi just was able to tilt her body in a way that just her right leg was hit by the attack, surprising the ponies the leg was cut clean from below the knee and flew away. Kurumi did a back flip and pushed herself to the air using her arms where she stayed floating, “Impressive, you have the power to cut through my Astral Dress.” “Just wait for a bit and I’ll cut something else,” Rainbow said threateningly but with a smile. “Oh~ is that a fact?” Kurumi said mockingly. Rainbow was still angry, but now she was also annoyed, “Pinkie, let’s kick her butt, I’m tired of her.” Kurumi smiled once again and pointed her weapons at four o’clock, “Zafkiel Dalet~” she said and shoot herself; the leg that flew away came back to her and reattached itself with her body. “What!? That’s totally cheating!” Rainbow complained. “Aleph!” Kurumi shoot herself again, and instantly moved towards the ponies and struck them with a roundhouse kick. “Ok, that’s it!” Rainbow launched herself against Kurumi. Pointing two o’clock Kurumi said, “Bet!” and shoot the impatient Rainbow, upon contact with the bullet she slowed down to a crawl. Kurumi just casually walked towards her. “Dashie!” Pinkie said and jumped in to help, but got shoot by Kurumi in her chest plate. Meanwhile in the distance and still inside of Twilight’s shield the rest of the group could just watch the massacre. “Isn’t there a way to stop this? Are we really just waiting our turn on this situation?” Twilight asked in frustration. “If I just had my cards with me myu…” Rinna said sadly. “My cards can’t help us here nyo, I didn’t manage to get any good ones from the tests on the academy,” Dejiko added while looking at her cards but then noticed something strange, “this is weird nyo, I didn’t remember having any herbal cards.” Rinna perked up at that, “herbal cards? Maybe… Dejiko can you show me those myu?” “Sure nyo,” Dejiko handed the cards to Rinna. A branch from the tree of life, sap from the tree of ages, one king’s crown mushroom between others alongside some alchemic tools, “these are my cards myu, but how?” “I don’t know nyo, I don’t remember taking them,” Dejiko said while thinking about when she was packing for this trip, she was hasty and just threw some things in her back pack without looking, then she remembered nudging the desktop where her cards were piled knocking them down to the floor and quickly gathering them together without noticing that she also knocked some of Rinna’s cards from the same desktop mixing them up. “But what can we do with these nyo?” “We have the ingredients to heal Kona myu,” Rinna then hugged Dejiko making her blush, “with this we may have a chance, but someone has to get Kona here myu, Twilight can you teleport her here?” “I’m sorry Rinna, but my magic is running low I can’t do any complex spells right now besides just maintaining this barrier.” Twilight said with a tired expression, she really was running low on magic. “I’ll go nyo! I’m sick of sitting here doing nothing! Rinna make the medicine I’ll get Kona nyo!” Dejiko said while hastily going through the shield Twilight caught the hint and let her through but this proved to be too excessive at this point and the shield ran out, leaving an exhausted Twilight regaining her breath. “Are you ok myu?” Rinna asked with worry. “Yes, don’t worry Rinna I just exhausted my magic that’s all, I’ll be fine if I rest a little, do you need any help with the medicine? I can still do basic levitation to help you out.” Even when tired Twilight wanted to help in some way. “I shouldn’t ask you for help in your condition myu, but we have no choice now, please help me myu.” Dejiko meanwhile was running towards the unconscious body of Konata while the battle continued close by, Rainbow and Pinkie were doing her best to beat Kurumi, bullets fire and lightning flew all over the area, it was fortunate that the battle was dragged out of the residential area, and were almost at the edge of the town. Getting to where Konata laid out, Dejiko picked her up with some discomfort, “you really need stop digging into scones nyo,” she joked and started going back to where Rinna was but a bullet was going her way, this was blocked by Rainbow. “Now go, get her with the rest,” Rainbow said before going into attack again, but she looked really beat up. “Thank you Nyo!” Dejiko said and then hurried to get Konata with Rinna. When she was getting close Dejiko heard someone running behind her, she took a look back and saw Tailmon chasing her, “When are you going to give up Nyo!?” “When all of you get out of my way,” Tailmon replied and closed the gap between them; she was really hurt but still had some energy in her. Rinna just needed a little more of time to finish the potion. Dejiko ran as fast as possible but soon enough Tailmon hit her in her left leg making Dejiko trip, before falling she managed to throw Konata some feet closer to Rinna and company, “Pony! Get Konata out of here!” She said while struggling with Tailmon. “Come on Dejiko-sama, move aside and save me the bother,” Tailmon said while overpowering Dejiko. “Mekara-Beam!” Dejiko fired her eye beam forcing Tailmon to get off her, but quickly grabbed her tail and tried to slam her. But Tailmon tilted her body mid air to use her paws to soft the impact but also to use her tail to slam Dejiko instead. While two battles were taking place in the area Rinna was mixing the last ingredients to finish the potion, “Twilight, take this with your levitation and let’s go with Kona.” Twilight nodded and the two of them went to where Konata was thrown by Dejiko, “What does this potion do exactly Rinna?” “You can basically call it an Elixir of Rejuvenation myu, it will heal her but the bad side of it is that it takes a little while for the effect to work myu.” Rinna explained, while positioning Konata in a comfortable way to give her the potion. Then Dejiko crashed close to them and was struggling to get up. “One less annoyance to worry about,” Tailmon said while dusting herself some. “Rinna give Konata the potion I’ll buy you some time,” Twilight said while standing in front of Rinna and magicked her the potion. “Are you ok there Purple? You seem kind of worn out,” Tailmon said to the tired alicorn. “Oh, believe me wh-“ Twilight was cut out by the hard punch in the gut Tailmon gave her. Twilight coughed some blood, her weakened state made her even more susceptible to damage. “Twilight!” Rinna tried to the get closer after giving some of the potion to Konata, but Tailmon stood in front of her. “Rinna-sama please stay away, let me get done with this before we go to our new home,” Tailmon said to her in a sincere tone. “Tailmon… why are you doing this?” Rinna said with sadness. “Everyone is trying to abuse your power, they don’t deserve to be with you, now…” Tailmon looked at Twilight’s horn and grabbed it. “Tailmon stop!” Rinna shouted, this caught Tailmon by surprise when she looked back she saw Rinna crying, “please stop…” “Rinna-sama…” Tailmon didn’t know what to say. “Don’t hurt her please…” “But… she, they…” “They are my friends Tailmon, like you are…” Rinna said and offered a hug to Tailmon. Confused and a little afraid of this change, Tailmon doubted her motivations; she thought Rinna wasn’t thinking about her anymore because she was being manipulated for her power. “Tailmon you don’t have to keep fighting anymore myu, I missed you when you escaped, I thought something terrible happened and when I heard you say that you hurt Celestia, Luna and lots of innocent ponies I was scared. But now I know that you were just confused and you still are my first friend myu,” Rinna was no longer crying but she still had some tears in her eyes. Tailmon took some steps forward to reach for Rinna, with an expression of relief. In the distance Rainbow was thrown against a signal and broke it when she tried to stand up Pinkie crashed on top of her making a cloud of dust. Kurumi wasn’t very happy of whatever happened behind her, and especially she wasn’t happy with Tailmon stopping her attack, and something you don’t do to her is betrayal. When Tailmon was almost touching Rinna, the catgirl sensed something, “watch out!” she shouted and pushed Tailmon away. When Tailmon saw what happened she was in front of a horrifying image, Rinna had been shot, blood extending from her abdomen area staining her dress in a red color. “Rinna-sama!” Tailmon shouted and quickly was at her side, “Rinna-sama! Rinna-sama!” All the still conscious ponies and Dejiko were in total shock of this event. Rinna didn’t respond, tears formed on Tailmon’s eyes, and looked at Kurumi, “why? Why did you hurt Rinna-sama!? You promised me not to hurt her! Why!?” Kurumi just stared at her with a cocky smile, “I don’t remember such a thing being said by me.” Tailmon snapped and attacked Kurumi, but her wounds slowed her down considerably, Kurumi moved aside and connected a downwards kick while they were mid air, slamming Tailmon to the ground. “I’ll kill you!” Tailmon threatened while crying. “I’m surprise of hearing that from you who swore loyalty to me, just to pathetically betray me for a weak girl.” Kurumi said in disappointment. “Why you…” Tailmon was about to say something else but felt something, something terrible has arrived, looking back at Rinna she “her” was there, the one who always overprotected Rinna. Shana had Rinna in her arms tried to wake her up but got no response, hearing closely she still heard her heart beating, taking some spare bandages from her Yogasa and strap it up around Rinna’s abdomen to stop the bleeding. “Oh Shana-san, you arrived at a good time-“ Kurumi got cut out by a ridiculously fast fire blast that she barely dodged. Yugioh Duel Monsters ost: God’s Anger! Putting Rinna resting on Konata, Shana took a card out of her pocket and started a chant while her hair turned crimson red and fiery aura surrounded her, “Oh great creature of the skies, show yourself before us on this battlefield and help us get to victory and obliterate our enemy, appear once you hear your name, Osiris Tenkairyu!” she said with her eyes closed, except for the last part where she lifted the card to the skies. The sky turned black and lightning danced on it like it was thunderstorm, it opened revealing a red dragon looking creature, which was gigantic, it was a terrifying sight for anyone. More so when the dragon let out a mighty roar producing a big shockwave that sent flying anything that couldn’t resist it. “O-Osiris… the sky dragon…” Tailmon muttered under her breath clearly shaking at the sight of the mighty dragon and his summoner. Even Kurumi was shocked at the event. When Osiris looked at the one he should have protected with a blood stained bandage on her body, an azure colored aura appeared on him, and the whole place started to shake. Twilight, recovered enough to witness this with her friends, she was completely terrified by the size of the dragon, “this is Slify…” she whispered to herself. Shana took out her weapon from inside her Yogasa and point it at Kurumi, “You’ll pay for this, Kurumi.” She said calmly but an extreme pressure could be felt behind those words, her menacing crimson eyes getting the message across that play time was over, and leaving Kurumi feeling intimidated for the first time on this battle. > Chapter 10: Tactical retreat, Ending the battle and the unfortunate escape Myu. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kurumi stared at the flaming girl, “I’ll pay for this you say?” then a crazy smile was shown by her, “Do not act like you’re any different Shana-san,” Shana’s eye twitched slightly after hearing that, “we both were, are and will forever be killing machines made for only that one purpose.” Shana did not reply back, she just stared intently at Kurumi. “What’s this? Do you not have any clever remarks Shana-san?” Kurumi asked in a mockingly manner. Shana kept silent. “I thought so, now will y-“ she got cut suddenly by another fire blast that barely missed her, but when she looked at where Shana was, only Osiris occupied the entire view. A slight barely audible sound made her move from where she was, and it was fortunate because Shana flew past that point at an incredulous speed. For a fragment of a second the two crossed stares. Pointing at one o’clock with her guns Kurumi said, “Zafkiel, Aleph!” and shoot herself. With this she was able to block the next attack, after that an extremely fast exchange of hits could be heard. Rainbow and Pinkie stared at the whole new scenery. “Ooooh, so that’s Slify? It really is as big as Riny said it was,” Pinkie said then another thought crossed her mind, “Riny!” then she made a full speed gallop towards the location where Rinna was. “Hey Pinkie, wait! I’m going too!” Rainbow said and flew after her, at the same time she side looked at the barely visible blurs that were fighting in the sky. ‘Who is that? Is she Rinna’s friend? I think she is, she bandaged Rinna and stuff. But why is she so fast?’ Rainbow thought. Twilight slowly crawled over to Rinna, that punch in the gut she received from Tailmon hurt her badly, specially with her magic reserves so low. When she got closer, Twilight saw Rinna, the heavy breathing and that bloody stain on her abdomen. Twilight felt guilty about this, “I should’ve protected you Rinna, I’m sorry…” she said with tears on her eyes. “Rinna!/Riny!” at that moment Rainbow and Pinkie got there. After seeing the same as Twilight, Pinkie got even sadder than she was before, and Rainbow got angrier. But even with that rage in her, Rainbow had to compose herself because she knew that blind rage will not do any good in this situation, “do you need any help there Twi?” she asked at the downedalicorn. “Yes, thank you Rainbow,” she said while Rainbow helped her to stand up. They then heard some groans and grumbles. “Can anypony lend me a hoof here, Ah’ can’t get up mahself,” Applejack recovered consciousness. “Sure thing!” Pinkie appeared in front of her suddenly. “Ahh- Ouch!” the sudden movement made her sore body hurt, “Pinkie? What are ya wearing there?” she said while getting up, and then looked around, “What happened here?” The ponies regrouped around Konata, Rainbow picked up Dejiko and brought her with them. “Twilight, can ya tell me what’s happening?” A.J asked. “Well, a lot has happened in a short time, after you got knocked out by Tailmon, Rainbow fought her but it wasn’t enough and she lost followed by Tailmon breaking one of her wings.” Twilight explained. This confused Applejack, “But Rainbow here has her wings fine.” “Somehow this armor healed my wing, it’s totally awesome.” “Anyways, after that, Konata challenged Tailmon and Kurumi, getting Rainbow out of danger by the moment. Konata did a lot by herself and got Tailmon out of the battle for a time but Kurumi proved to be way stronger. Pinkie got here wearing that armor soon after with Rinna following her, she explained to us that the armor was the manifestation of something similar to the elements of harmony, the same applies to Rainbow’s armor. We got our hopes up, believing we had a chance,” Twilight stopped for a moment. “But Koni lost for saving me,” Pinkie added sadly. “Then that cat thing appeared again, and beat up Dejiko and Twilight, I don’t know well what happened next, because I was fighting that cheater!” Rainbow was still angry. “I don’t know either, I almost passed out when I heard that loud noise, and saw Rinna injured.” Twilight felt bad for saying that. “But Rinna made a potion nyo, what happened with it?” Dejiko joined the conversation. “It broke, when Rinna-sama got shot, the momentum made her let go of the bottle which crashed on the ground…” the ponies turned to see the source of this voice, just to see Tailmon there. Instinctively Rainbow tackled her to the ground, being totally worm out Tailmon didn’t have the strength to oppose her. But… she didn’t want to anyways. “What do you want now!? Rinna is hurt and everything is your fault!” Rainbow just blamed everything on Tailmon even if that wasn’t the case here. “Maybe, but what are you going to do now, Blue?” Tailmon said with no recognizable emotion. This infuriated Rainbow even more, “an eye for an eye.” “Heh, I don’t mind, but you don’t have what it takes to do it, Blue.” Tailmon stared at Rainbow unimpressed. Rainbow gritted her teeth and was about to lose it. “Rainbow calm down. Don’t let her get the best of you, it’s not worth it,” Twilight put a reassuring hoof on her friend’s withers. “You should listen to your friend, Blue. She seems to be the only one with a brain,” Tailmon kept making sarcastic remarks. “Will you ever shut up!?” Rainbow asked angrily. “Would you be any less annoyed if I did that?” Tailmon asked curiously which got a groan and a sense of satisfaction to the digital cat. “You guys are really loud, can you… tune down the volume a bit? Osiris was bad enough.” A voice said from behind them. After turning back to take a look, they saw… “Koni!” Pinkie shouted and hug tackled Konata, who just carefully stood up. “Nice to see you again Pinkie, now-“ Konata took a deep breath “can you stop crushing my ribs please?” “Oopsies, sorry for that Koni. Again” Pinkie said while getting off the tan pony. Shaking her head Konata stood up again, and then got hug tackled again, but this time not by Pinkie but Rainbow Dash. “Ok, it’s hug tackling day or something? Come on now.” “You’re fine…” a very quiet voice said alongside some sniffs. “What?” Konata didn’t know what got into Rainbow so suddenly, but then she paid more attention to the little whimpers, “Rainbow…” Rainbow felt Konata returning the hug. “I’m glad of having somepony that worries about me to the point of tears, even if I don’t deserve it. But we don’t really have the time for that right now. Do we?” “Heh, you’re right. We still need to deal with miss crazy cheater.” Rainbow said while whipping a tear that threatened to leave her eye with a hoof. “Hey, we worry about you too, you know” Twilight said playfully with a fake pout. Everypony let out a light hearted laugh. “Are you totally recovered Konata?” Twilight asked with a better mood. “Not totally, but I’m good enough,” Konata stretched some of the soreness away. “What will happen with Rinna nyo?” Dejiko asked worried about Rinna. “We need to get her out of here, but in that case Twilight, Applejack and Dejiko should get to the hospital too, you guys really got hurt. So I’ll ask you, do you want to leave?” Konata asked with a stony face. “ ‘Ah ain’t going anywhere, ‘Ah want ta see how things end up,” Applejack made her decision. “I know the right choice is to go, but I want to see what happens next too,” Twilight added. “Alright, Dejiko what do you decide? You go or you stay?” Konata put her attention on the cat girl. Dejiko was sitting at Rinna’s side looking very tired, “I… I want to leave nyo… I have been running all day I need a rest nyo…” “Alright then, now-“ Konata said before going where Tailmon laid on the road, “- I’m guessing here but, you changed sides right Tailmon?” “It’s good to see you awake again Konata-sama, and kind of.” “Kona, don’t tell me you want to help this one too?” Rainbow said with some disgust. “Yup,” Konata simply responded. “What!?” everypony else said at once. “You’re pulling my tail now right?” Rainbow wanted to know if this was a joke. “Tailmon,” Konata addressed the cat, gaining her attention, “will you be Rinna’s guardian once more?” “Are you sure about that Konata-sama? I could betray you again for all you know,” Tailmon tested her. “No way, you’re being serious with this,” Rainbow said incredulously. “I won’t accept her, nopony will accept her.” “ ‘Am with Rainbow here, after all ‘tis cat did ‘Ah don’t want her any close to mah friends or family.” “Good points, Osiris what do you think? Do we let her in or do we cast her away to die?” Konata said darkly getting a shiver from the ponies. The giant dragon didn’t turn its head to look at them, “I cannot speak for my master, lady Konata. If lady Rinna is comfortable with her along, then I have no issues with it. But if you do not want to have her around I can erase her right now.” The ponies felt the echoing voice inside their heads instead of hearing it with their ears. Konata looked thoughtful for a moment, “Pinkie?” she said suddenly. “I’m with you Koni! You always choose right,” Pinkie said enthusiastically. “Alright good enough, we are keeping her. Now…” In Ponyville’s hospital, the princesses were glad that Konata recovered. Not only that but also her idea of getting Rinna out of danger’s way and medical attention bring them some relief. “Stop daydreaming you two.” They looked at the screen and saw Konata staring at them. “Oh… excuse us for our lack of focus Lucky S- I mean Konata,” Celestia said. Konata let out a sigh, “It’s ok if you two still want to call me Lucky Star, I don’t mind.” “Thank you for being so understanding Lucky Star, but why is the reason for you to address us?” Luna inquired. “Can you use your magic?” “Yes we can use it; do you need us to cast a particular spell?” Celestia asked. “Indeed, I need you to teleport these three,” Konata then pointed at Dejiko, Rinna and Tailmon. “With you, so they can receive medical treatment as soon as possible, can you do that?” The two of them were shocked at the Tailmon part, they saw Konata was going to help Tailmon but didn’t expect her to ask them to help the one who put them on the hospital in the first place. “Are you completely sure about helping the one called Tailmon? Lucky Star,” Luna asked the question the two sisters had in their mind. “I know you were seeing everything that has happened until now, so you have seen the last discussion. Please save me some time and just do it, I promise nothing bad will happen.” The princesses looked at each other with concern, they weren’t sure about what to do. “Believe in Koni! She would never do anything to harm Riny she’s her big sister!” Pinkie shouted and Konata facehoofed. “Wait, Rinna is your sister?” Rainbow asked from behind. “Did you just seriously pick up on that?” Konata said with slight annoyance. “Ple-“ Celestia tried to say something but got cut off. “Just do it, I’ll explain everything later,” With that said Konata, cut off the communication. Both sisters ignited their horns and teleported the three beings to their room. “Kindness, please call the doctors at once, they need treatment,” Luna said to Fluttershy, which wasn’t really there anymore, Rinna wasn’t either. “Huh? Where…” “She took Rinna and went out already, well I think she was the one you called nyo, she seemed really determined.” Dejiko was sitting on against a wall to rest some. “Yellow seems to be the overly caring type,” Tailmon said with a relaxed tone. “I hate to agree with you, but you’re right nyo.” “Aww, you really hate me, that’s cute.” “Well, trying to kill people gives that response most of the time nyo.” “You seem to be incredibly relaxed considering what you have done little feline,” Luna said with mid closed eyes. “I don’t have any regrets; I was following orders based on an ideology, just like any soldier would have done.” “That is not reasonable; didn’t you have any free will to judge the motives behind their actions?” Celestia asked. “A soldier doesn’t have free will, you only do what you are told to, and that’s it. Going against it just gets you killed, that’s how they operate.” The princesses remained silent after that. Fluttershy was zooming through the hallways searching for a doctor. ‘Just wait Rinna, we’re going to help you soon, so please resist a little longer,’ she thought as she got to the reception. Konata examined the area in detail; she wanted to find the two that were fighting in that place. Rainbow landed at her side, “what are you doing?” she asked while looking at her friend’s quick eye movements. “I want to locate Shana and Kurumi,” Konata kept focusing her sight, “I hear the metallic exchange of hits, but I can’t nail down from where they’re coming from, I probably didn’t recover as much as I thought.” “You can hear it? Where? I can’t hear anything,” Rainbow was with ears high up but didn’t hear anything besides the occasional sounds of the wind. “You know, for being a giant dragon, he doesn’t make much noise.” The ponies looked at the dragon and noticed that it didn’t make any real noise. “Oh, it’s because Osiris doesn’t need to flap his wings to fly.” “Konata, that doesn’t make any sense,” Twilight was confused. “Twi, ‘Ah think common sense doesn’t work with them,” Applejack added her opinion. “Yeah, by now I got used to their weird factor, it’s no big deal after all,” Rainbow gave hers too. “Dashie’s right Twilight, stop questioning every supernatural inexplicable thing that comes from Koni’s world, that’s ruuuuuuude,” Pinkie said into Twilight’s face. “Thanks Pinkie.” “You’re welcome Koni!” Twilight deadpanned. “Don’t take it wrong Twilight; you’ll understand more when you meet with Ini.” “You better not be lying Konata, or else…” “Calm down Twi, Konata here is saying the truth.” “What do we do now then? They’re fighting at such a speed that we can’t see them, and Kona can’t find them ei-“ Rainbow was saying when a loud growl was heard. The group covered their ears at this noise. “What the hay was that!?” Rainbow screamed. Konata slid below Twilight to get her in her back. “What are you doing?” Twilight asked slightly embarrassed. “Pinkie, grab Applejack and follow me, Rainbow fly and watch out for any shadowy holes.” Rainbow did as she was told and flew over them and looked around for any weird shadow. “Hold on there partner, ‘Ah can be hurt but ‘Ah can still move some.” Applejack’s pride didn’t let her accept this particular method of help. “Not the time Applejack,” Konata told her while looking around and carrying Twilight. “What is this all about anyway? Why do I need to look out for shadow holes?” Rainbow was still airborne looking for these holes not knowing why. “I think Kurumi may be trying to use her clones to capture us, having hostages is probably her plan to beat Shana, but if any of you gets captured Shana will probably kill you with the clone, because she doesn’t have reasons to care about your safety. Heck, she barely even cares about my safety and we are siblings, she will be more satisfied beating me up alongside the enemy and drag me half dead to home than deal with an annoying hostage situation and risking losing an important battle.” Konata explained getting some weird stares from her pony friends. Pinkie jumped in front of Konata, “you don’t get along with your sis, Koni?” she asked somewhat sad. “We get along just fine and she is caring but… she takes battles too far sometimes and just focus on getting rid of the opponent, I don’t blame her for that, she has been through a lot. But enough of that, let’s help her by not getting in the way and avoiding the clones, girls.” “All of that it’s fine, but where do we go now Konata?” Twilight asked from Konata’s back. “We have to get on Osiris, before it gets too busy here, and I fear that it started already, let’s go!” Konata started a gallop towards Osiris with the rest following her. “I still don’t get why Pinkie and me have to get there too, we can fight the clones no problem.” Rainbow stated. “You can yes, but you’re getting at your limit as well, you won’t last much longer on an extended fight, and the moment the element leaves you, all the stress your body has suffered while on its effect will kick off, leaving you as an easy target. I can’t have you taking those risks; I don’t want you to get hurt by this situation anymore.” A hint of sadness could be heard on Konata’s voice, as if she had a similar experience before. The others looked at her with worry, but this wasn’t the time to dwell into this, soon after something crashed twenty feet away from them creating a dust cloud. They kept their way towards Osiris, while the cloud cleared, Rainbow took a peek and saw Shana there shaking her head. “Guys I have to help her, I’ll catch up in a sec,” she said before flying away. “Rainbow no!” Konata shouted, and then quickly turned to Pinkie, “Pinkie, take Twilight quick.” “Oki doki loki,” Pinkie close, and Konata passed Twilight over to her before running after Rainbow. “What are you doing!?” Twilight asked. “Quickly, go towards Osiris! Don’t waste time!” The rest stood there looking at what was going to happen. “Uh… we better hurry, ‘Ah can see bad news all over the place…” Applejack said after seeing weird shadows appearing. As on cue the holes got bigger and limbs started to get out of them. “Run!” Applejack shouted and got to run. “Hold tight Twilight, this will get meeeeeessy!” Pinkie said while Twilight got a better hold of her and got to run. “Hey, are you ok?” Rainbow asked Shana after getting where she was. “Mind your own business,” Shana told her and quickly rolled backwards dodging a barrage of bullets, then stood up and looked angrily at the airborne Kurumi. “What’s the matter Shana-san… are you cowering behind a colorful horse now? How fitting,” Kurumi didn’t look too good herself, there were countless scratches and cuts on her skin and dress. “Ha! There’s no way you can win now, you’re done!” Rainbow put up a confident face after that statement. A wild smile appeared on Kurumi’s face, “Ji ji ji, don’t you understand? Beings like you will never be able to defeat me,” she then pointed at four o’clock, “Zafkiel, Dalet!” she shoot herself, by doing so, any damage she had suffered disappeared. “Now then…” she suddenly disappeared in a shadow gap. “Get out of here, you are in the way,” Shana said to Rainbow. “Hey let me help, I can h-“ Rainbow got interrupted by a knee in the stomach. Rainbow’s body went limp and when Shana retired her leg, Rainbow hit the ground. She was conscious but her eyes showed great shock and fear. “I didn’t even hit you at full force and you’re like this, what a waste of an Element.” Shana said before leaving to search for Kurumi. “Rainbow!” Konata looked at her friend, “I told you she won’t let anyone get in her way, why didn’t you listen?” “W-what is she…” Rainbow said between coughs, but when she was about to stand up a white glow surrounded her and when it faded she didn’t had the Elemental armor anymore. She blinked a few times not noticing anything different, “Huh? I thought the stress would kic-“ she spoke too soon, moment after a very sharp pain crossed all over her body, her eyes shrunk to the size of pinpricks and collapsed losing consciousness. ‘She couldn’t handle the shock, but at least she just fainted,’ Konata thought and managed to get Rainbow on her back to get out of that place she also picked up the Element of Friendship which returned to card form, if only escaping were so easy… clones of Kurumi got out of various shadows gaps close to her. “Yup, it was a mistake teaching her how to manage her time better, good job mom,” Konata said sarcastically before running away as fast as she could giving start to the chase. While in the run she looked around to see if the rest made it, but they weren’t anywhere, ‘please be safe girls.’ “Lady Konata, do not be worried for your companions, they all are under my protection by lady Shana’s orders,” Osiris gave Konata the news surprising her, “now, please do take cover.” Looking ahead Konata saw Osiris opening his second mouth, she knew what this meant and took advantage of one of craters that was made during the fight and took cover there, the moment she got into the crater five big purple spheres of lightning flew pass her and disposed of her chasers and creating an explosion. But one more appeared from the smoke to attack Konata, she got caught off guard and she couldn’t move in time for having Rainbow on her back. “Blazing Knuckle!” Konata heard the high pitched voice of Pinkie. A barrage of little fireballs struck the clone from above and send it far away, “Are you ok, Koni?” Pinkie landed next to her. “Yes, thank you Pinkie, where are the others?” “We are behind Slify’s head, it’s very comfy, but when I saw you being attacked I had to jump out and defend you from those meanie pants!” “Ok then,” Konata stood up carefully to not drop Rainbow and looked at the dragon in the sky, “Osiris! Can you descend some!? I can’t jump that high while carrying my friend!” “Why are you shouting at him Koni? He seemed to hear you fine before when you spoke to him normally,” Pinkie pointed out. “Oh right, sometimes I forget about that, I think I’m in worse condition than I thought,” Konata said in response and noted Osiris descending just enough so one of his claws touched the ground. The two ponies made their way there and got onto the claw, “you can go up again Osiris, we’re ready,” Konata said. The dragon ascended again, and positioned his claw next to his body so the ponies could climb up. But in the middle of it Pinkie’s armor went off, the stress on her body kicked off, this made her trip and almost fall off, luckily Konata was quick enough to catch her before that could happen. “Be careful Pinkie,” She said while getting her back up. “Sorry Koni.” Twilight saw her friends finally getting onto Osiris’ back, “Thank Celestia, you made it safe.” “It wasn’t easy to do Twilight, but yes we made it. Pinkie, can you move?” “I can Koni, I wasn’t as hurt as Dashie was.” Pinkie responded but noticed something, “Where’s Applejack?” “Up here!” Applejack popped her head from the edge of Osiris’ head that covered the area where they were. “What are you doing up there?” Konata asked with a raised eye brow. “ ‘Ah can see everything from here.” “I told her that it can be dangerous, but she didn’t listen and got up there anyways,” Twilight said while facehoofing. “ It’s safe here Twilight, Osiris here put up a shield around so it’s safe.” “Well she is right on that, there is a shield around us. I wonder when he put this up,” Konata said after getting up there with AJ. “By the way Osiris, why didn’t attacked the real Kurumi yet?” “Lady Shana wants to battle her by her own means, she woke me up from my slumber on this world to protect you.” “Oh, so you were sealed upon arriving here?” “You could potentially say that, yes. But I was just outside of the boundaries of this world I never arrived here completely, I could only witness the situation while being ethereal.” “I see, that explains those spikes in power I felt during these past few days.” “Spikes in power? What do you mean by that?” Twilight asked from below. “Any of you noticed some weird black flash on the sky, during the past week or so?” “I did!” Pinkie appeared in Konata’s face. “I did too, but thought it was some kind of weather phenomenon, I didn’t know it was related to somepony’s power.” “I can only assume this only stopped when Shana got here with Osiris’ card which made him able to finally bypass the boundary, but also stopped him from seeing any more events until his summon.” “I still don’t understand how that works, pieces of cardboard shouldn’t be able to contain such power,” Twilight said while tapping her chin with a hoof. “Well, I know as much as you on that topic, the way these cards were made is only known by Ini.” “I really need to meet her; I have so many questions for her! So much to learn, so much to experiment with!” Twilight was very excited. “Good to see you’re back to your nerdy egghead self Twilight,” Konata said jokingly. “You expect me to take that as a compliment?” Twilight said in a monotonous tone. “Yup.” Everypony laugh it out and seemingly forgot about their surroundings and what was happening at the moment, except for one. ‘Thank you for saving them Shana, they deserve to live peacefully, but I’m afraid that they will be targeted after this incident is over, they’ll go after them to get to us… well, I’ll think of something after all of this finally ends.’ Konata thought of the scenarios this could lead to. The battle extended for way longer than Kurumi expected. Even if she was able to heal her wounds, she wasted a lot of power in doing it so often, Shana was overpowering her. On the other hand Shana’s aura of fire was even stronger; her eyes had a fiery shine upon them. “Zafkiel, Zayin!” Kurumi said while pointing at seven o’clock and fired towards Shana. The bullets went directly to Shana, she didn’t move to dodge them, instead she slashed the bullets in half and the fragments melted in her aura of fire. “Is this all you have left Kurumi?” Shana asked with no sign of mockery, she was wondering if this was all. “Are you making fun of me!?” Kurumi was losing her composure. “Do you see me laughing at you, you idiot? If this is all you got, then I’ll much better prefer to see you cowering in fear while losing your will to fight. I want to avoid staining my hands with such filth if possible.” Kurumi’s eyes twitched in rage, she got reminded of that time when she got defeated by the violent fire spirit. “I’ll make you regret those words!” Kurumi said in complete rage. “Oh~ is that so?” a bratty and slightly childish voice said. This voice took the attention of everyone present. Date a Live ost: Pride. Kurumi saw her… the first one who defeated her, “You!” “Long time no see crazy psychopath,” said the new girl. This new girl’s appearance was that of cute middle school girl with red eyes and very long, light coral-colored hair tied on both sides with black ribbons in twintail style. She was wearing a white school uniform with a black tie, a teal-colored skirt, and long black stockings that reach up to half her thigh. “Kotori what are you doing here?” Shana asked the new girl. “You were doing something interesting and you didn’t told me, how mean of you. Well, it doesn’t matter even if I got here a bit late I can still have some fun,” the now named Kotori said while lifting and arm to the sky. “Don’t you dare interfere with this battle Kotori,” Shana told Kotori. “Since when do I have to listen to you, Shana?” “Don’t try to get to my bad side Kotori.” “Oh alright, you’re no fun.” “Stop ignoring me! I’ll kill you both in this instant!” Kurumi threatened but soon after got drop kicked to the ground. “Kotori, lend me your angel for a moment,” in her mind she just had enough of Kurumi. “Huh? Are you sure you’re capable of using it? It’s not like your katana you know.” “I’ll invite you the special menu from our newest restaurant if you do.” Kotori eyes shined with excitement, “really?” Shana nodded. “Ok, you have my permission to use it.” “Thank you,” Shana said before putting her sword inside her trench coat, and rising an arm to the sky, “burn, Camael!” upon saying those words flames erupted from her hand these took the form of a big red halberd. Despite the size of the new weapon Shana didn’t have problems with it and was able to freely use it. Kurumi recovered enough to see Shana closing the distance with the new weapon. “Cleave, Camael!” Shana shouted and attacked Kurumi who jumped backwards, the attack hit the ground instead, upon contact an explosion of flames occurred still hitting Kurumi and dealing heavy damage sending her rolling on the ground some distance away. Kurumi was struggling to get up. “It’s time to end this Kurumi,” Shana then launched herself to attack Kurumi. But then a cloaked figure appeared in front of Kurumi. “19th mechanism, Drilling Helix Form:Man-Perforator. Curse Calling!” A big hand drill appeared on this figure’s hand and blocked Shana’s attack and made her back off. “That weapon… are you…” Shana was concerned by this new entity. “8th mechanism, Crushing Cyclic Form: Wheel Punishment of Royaume de France. Curse Calling!” after that the Drill disappeared and got replaced by a big mechanical wheel that started chasing Shana. Shana had to be very careful with this wheel; it was fast and crushed everything in its way a hit from would be very damaging. She managed to change its direction with a strong hit at the side of it but then saw Kurumi and the other one surrounded by red magical aura. “Sorry for interrupting, but we can’t have you catching miss time, bye bye!” a very childish voice said before Kurumi and the cloaked individual disappeared. The wheel disappeared soon after as well. Shana was left confused at what just happened, and returned Camael to Kotori. “Do you think that is who we think it is?” she asked. “Most certainly, she’s the only one with such an immature personality.” Kotori replied. “Do we look for them?” “I don’t think that would be of much help, if that was teleportation they could be anywhere, I’ll go take a look on the surrounding area just to be sure, you go and let Konata know what happened,” Kotori banished within flames after saying that. Konata and the other two ponies that were on Osiris’ head saw everything and she even told Shana to help Kotori look for Kurumi and the other one. She assured that she would explain everything to the rest when they recover. Shana flew away to search for the fugitives. “Is this really over Koni?” Pinkie asked. “For now at least, Kurumi was in very bad shape down there, I think the one who interrupted the fight was sent just to recover Kurumi.” “So we won?” Applejack said with a raised brow. “Technically yes, we won.” Konata let out a very tired sigh but smiled afterwards. “Osiris, can you let us down?” “As you wish,” the dragon descended enough to let the ponies get off him, “I don’t think my presence is required anymore lady Konata, so with your permission I will resume my slumber.” “Ok Osiris, thank you for protecting my friends.” “Yeah, thanks Slify! I’ll throw Riny and you a party so I want to see you there!” “Thank ya sugarcube, we couldn’t have done it without ya.” “As a princess of Equestria I thank you mister Osiris for helping us in our time of need, I don’t know what we could have done if you weren’t here.” “Your gratitude is unnecessary; I only followed orders from my master.” With that said Osiris returned to card form, and Konata caught it and stored it with the rest for safety. Konata with Rainbow on her back again looked at the rest, “well this was one heck of a day that’s for sure, so how does it sound to go and get fixed on the hospital and get a well deserved rest?” “But we have a party in an hour. The moon is up already!” Pinkie pointed out. “When did it got dark here? I didn’t even notice.” “Me neither, I suppose we were just too invested in what was happening to even notice.” Twilight theorized. “Well, ya can’t blame us fer that, it was certainly something that will be buried in our heads fer a long time,” Applejack said before flinching in pain, “ow… we better get going girls, that sprint from earlier did a fine job wearing me out.” The other giggled some. And with that, the mares made their way to the hospital to recover from this hellish battle that somehow didn’t end up destroying Ponyville, well not a lot of it at least. Don’t worry sillies; we will have those houses fixed in no time! Until then, see you later everypony! > Chapter 11: The way, the relief and the forgetfulness Nyo! > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Konata and company were taking a while to reach Ponyville’s hospital; Applejack was too stubborn and wanted to get there by her own hooves. “Seriously Applejack, we should have been there already, why don’t you let-“ Twilight was cut by AJ. “Stop insisting Twilight, Ah’m fine really. Ah may be a little bruised but Ah can still walk by mahself.” Konata approached AJ and poked her on the side, the farm pony froze and almost let out a scream but she held it in, the pained expression on her face was proof enough that she wasn’t “fine.” “Sure you are,” Konata deadpanned. AJ let out the contained scream as a long and loud sigh, and frowned at Konata. “You can look at me all the time you want Applejack, but that wouldn’t change the fact that you are barely functioning right now.” “Koni is right! You got very very hurt back there, why don’t you let her carry you? I can’t because I’m a little hurt, but I can carry Dashie since she’s lighter,” Pinkie said without noticing what she implied. Twilight scrunched her muzzle and looked away, Konata giggled some and Applejack stomped painfully towards Pinkie. “Now, wait a gosh darn second, are ya saying that Ah’m fat?” “Not really, but now that you mention it,” Pinkie eyed AJ critically while lifting a hoof to her chin, the apple mare felt a little uncomfortable with that, “you’re a little chubby, a little less apple pie should fix that, Applejack!” AJ eye twitched and had her mouth hanging; she couldn’t believe what she just heard. But before she could do anything she felt something sliding under her. “Giddy up farm girl,” Konata slid below Applejack and lift her on her back after swiftly passing Rainbow to Pinkie. “Hey! Ah told ya that ah could go by mahself! Let me down now,” Applejack helplessly flailed her legs, until a bad movement sent a shock of pain which made her flinch, “ow…” Konata didn’t move an inch during Applejack’s little tantrum, “Stay still, I don’t want you to slip off and hurt yourself. I know you want to prove you’re still capable and all that, but don’t push it to such extremes, that is just silly and doesn’t prove anything at the end, let your friends help you.” “But…” “You did good Applejack, you can still be proud of that, you fought against the odds and made it out alive, and no matter how little you think you did back there, be sure that it was helpful. Now, please let me help you.” Applejack was silent; she would have covered her face with her hat if she had it, instead she opted by using Konata’s long black mane for that purpose. Pinkie giggled amusingly, “Aww~ Koni made Applejack be all mushy blushy.” AJ let out a muffled groan from her position. “Ok Pinkie, that’s enough teasing,” Twilight said while having an amused grin herself, “anyways, leaving this entire situation behind. Konata, do you mind if I ask you something?” “Not at all Twilight, what do you want to know?” “I wasn’t brave enough to ask this to him, but why does Rinna calls Osiris, Slify? The names don’t seem related at all.” Her response was a snort and a chuckle, “that’s because of a joke. You see, when we introduced Rinna to him she didn’t know Osiris’ name, when she asked we told her a word that sounded strange, in this case we chose slifer, I’m not sure if it means anything, we just kind of put a bunch of letters together, I’ll probably ask Ini when we get back if I remember it that is. Anyways she must have misheard me or something because she said slify instead of slifer, Osiris however didn’t do anything to her. He found it flattering somehow, since then his nickname has been Slify, he doesn’t seem bothered by it.” “So, you risked the safety of your little sister for laughs? Konata, that was reckless!” Twilight obviously didn’t share the thought process. “Well, mom was there with us, so if for any reason he tried anything she would take him down.” Konata said nonchalantly. Twilight stopped to process that, “wait, are you for real?” she asked. Konata just showed her a knowing smile without responding to that question and kept walking with Pinkie by her side. Twilight was confused, “Konata wait! Tell me!” she caught up with them. “Hmm, tell you what now?” Twilight’s curiosity kept growing, “if you were serious just now. Tell me.” Konata faked a thoughtful expression, “I don’t feel like it, why don’t ask Applejack?” AJ who was quite silent for awhile now perked up at that, “don’t ya go involving me into yer antics now.” “But you’re honesty right?” “Yes, Ah’ am, but what has that ta do with anything?” “You can tell her if I was serious or not in my previous statement.” “Why don’t ya do that yerself?” “It’s more fun this way, right Pinkie?” “Yup yup!” Twilight saw this wasn’t getting anywhere and decided to just go ask her friend, “Applejack, please tell me, what she said was truth?” AJ let out a sigh, she sometimes cursed her ability to judge the truthfulness of things, “yes, Kona here was honest with ya Twi.” “What!? That can’t be, how powerful is your mother to be able to take down such tremendous power? I was shaking down to the tip of my hooves when I felt Osiris’ presence, and even when I knew he was an ally I still was nervous around him!” Twilight blurted out. “Well, Shana and Kotori have the raw power to beat Osiris as well, is just more complicated for them to do; I’m still quite far from that level though. I need to improve a lot to catch up with them.” “Oh, don’t worry Koni, I’m sure you will learn more super duper crazy moves in the future.” “Thanks, Pinkie.” “No problem!” Twilight just stopped that particular topic right there and instead went towards another topic that caught her interest, “Konata, what were those sets of armor Rainbow and Pinkie were using? I know Rinna said those were a manifestation of certain object’s power, but she didn’t give any details, do you mind telling me if you have any information regarding them that is,” Twilight as curious as ever asked. “Do I have to?” Konata was saying that in a tone that was quite familiar to them, “Can’t a lady have a little rest before submitting to such interrogations? This amount of stress could possibly ruin my perfect looks with expressions of worry and tiredness, this is the wooooorst!” she said the last sentence in a very dramatic and quite melodious voice while also striking a dramatic pose. “Nice impression Koni!” The other two didn’t really know how to respond to that. “Uhh…” was the only thing Twilight could say while having one leg lifted like she wanted to make a point. Meanwhile the ponies of Ponyville or at least some of them went out of their houses and went pass Konata’s little group, some had some concern about what happened to all of them but with a bit of reassuring they went away to check the area in which the battle took place. “You ponies really are a curious bunch, huh?” Konata pointed out. “That we are!” Pinkie replied. “Ya two seem to be quite close fer knowing each other fer less than a day.” Konata pondered for a moment, “I think we are, I like Pinkie she’s cool.” “Aww… shucks~” Pinkie blushed slightly; her pink fur hid it pretty well. Twilight cleared her throat to catch Konata’s attention which she did, “I don’t know what that was just now, but can we get back to my previous question please? I’m really interested in knowing what those were,” she begged with shimmering eyes and quivering lips, the perfect d’aww… combo, “please…” She only managed to get some pats on the head. “Hmm, hooves are weird for petting.” Twilight puffed her cheeks at Konata for not telling her what she wanted. Meanwhile in the Princesses’ hospital room. There was an awkward silence between the princesses and Tailmon, Dejiko was taken to run some tests on her condition. Tailmon however, refused to accept any help and just lay against the wall like she has been doing since she was teleported there, the guards at the door had tried to pin down Tailmon but they were stopped by Celestia and were sent outside again, they were glaring daggers at the digi-cat all the time, she didn’t care. “You didn’t have to stop them; it would have made this entire situation a little less boring with someone to make fun of besides you two. You know, more variety makes it funnier.” The princesses started to regret helping this one out, even if it was a petition from Lucky Star, it was really starting to annoy them; just how much this cat was disrespecting them. “I thought you may have reconsidered your ways after your brief confession, Tailmon,” Celestia said and boy how wrong she was at assuming that. Tailmon stared at her unimpressed, you can’t blame her thought, it was a very dumb assumption after all. “What confession, Alabaster? That little tidbit of information about me just following orders and being a soldier?” Tailmon asked earning a nod from Celestia, “you’re naïve, all of you are. Then again I can’t expect much from a such a group of useless beings, the only thing I’m glad of is that I’ll leave this rotten place to join with Rinna-sama again.” Luna snorted, “We do believe that you are the naïve one, do you really expect her to look you in the eyes after what you did to her? Even if little Rinna is as kind of heart to possibly forgive your atrocious acts, I can’t say the same for Lucky Star or her sisters.” Tailmon didn’t show any particular emotion before she cracked into laughter. This confused the sisters, but for some reason they felt insulted in a way for this laugh. “Jokes on you Night Blue, Shana-sama couldn’t care less, and Konata-sama promised me the spot to be Rinna-sama’s guard once again.” Celestia took from there, “you may be right, but judging by your attitude towards everypony, I can see Rinna getting further and further away from you, the kindness she has showed so far is obvious proof that she will not tolerate your misbehaving with those who she calls her friends, even Lucky Star has copped well with our subjects at the end to the point of almost sacrificing herself for others. I can say she offered that out of good will and respecting Rinna’s wish to have you around once again, but how long would that last? Just think about it,” Celestia finished while narrowing her eyes for more emphasis. “Nice try Alabaster, but your little act is just that, you have no proof to back up your claims as you don’t know me beyond being the one who kicked your butt,” Tailmon stopped for a moment as she looked at the two of them, “oh, sorry both of your butts, I can’t go and ignore any butt that I kicked out there.” That did it, the princesses were officially annoyed, and they groaned in frustration for not being able to outdo Tailmon on even this. Suddenly the room’s door opened and Konata made her way in. “Nice to see you’re bonding nicely here,” she said with obvious sarcasm. “We apologize for what you possibly heard Lucky Star, but it just that…” Celestia let out a sigh and her expression changed to one of worry, “she’s impossible to treat. Tailmon is just too mean, and she won’t stop! Why did you decide to help her?” “I agree with my sister on this topic Lucky Star, why did you ask us to help such individual; she doesn’t seem to have any grasp in basic manners and it’s infuriating.” Luna added. Konata sat on her haunches and stared at Tailmon, the cat stared back. The two of them blinked a few times. “It’s not my fault that they are such crybabies, they can’t handle the tiniest bit of negativity before complaining about it. It’s like they expect me to do a complete °180 just because reasons.” Konata let out a sigh, boy she was doing that quite often, or was she just really tired? She wasn’t sure herself, “whatever, time for you to get checked out.” “What about no? I don’t want these… things trying anything on me.” Konata went face to face with Tailmon with a not very happy expression, “I wasn’t asking for your permission,” and with that she dragged Tailmon out of the room the latter not being amused by it, if her scowl was any proof. “Huzzah! Serves thee right; vile creature!” Luna cheered suddenly. Tailmon got a last glance at Luna and narrowed her eyes before the door closed behind them. “You’re slipping Luna, please behave,” Celestia scolded, but she was glad that Tailmon didn’t have her way with Lucky Star. Everypony went through the necessary tests to diagnose the correct treatment. Pinkie had some bruises in her body but didn’t have any internal injuries, so the doctors just recommended some rest, but it was in vain, they were asking the pink terror to rest, yeah great move guys. Even if Applejack insisted that she was ok, the doctors find out that her muscles were at the edge of collapsing on her, the damage her muscles were heavily damaged, they told her if she were to strain them anymore she would have been paralyzed. She was shocked after hearing that, ‘did she knew? That was why she picked me up?’ she thought with a weird feeling on her chest. The doctors then said to her that she had to stay in bed for a few days to recover and even after that she will have to take it easy for at least two weeks to go back to optimal condition. In Twilight’s case, she was fortunate that her ribs didn’t broke the x-rays showed slight cracks on them but weren’t totally broken. She was recommended to take it easy as well. Somehow Rainbow didn’t have any serious injuries, her appearance didn’t reflect that at all, but the tests don’t lie, her condition was better than any of the others Elements, she was just exhausted. There was something the doctors didn’t notice even with the tests, these mares were recovering at a strangely fast rate. That was why despite suffering so much damage in the recent battle they weren’t hindered by it as much as they should have. There was something mysterious about it. Well… kind of, not really. Meanwhile in a different check up room. “I can’t believe you just dragged me here Konata-sama,” Tailmon was sitting in check up bed, wiggling her tiny feet from the edge in boredom. “Stop complaining.” “You know as well as me that I don’t need this stupid check up.” Konata felt a headache growing, “just play along and then you can do whatever you want,” she saw Tailmon perking up at this, “deal?” Tailmon shrugged, “alright then, I suppose that ‘whatever you want’ doesn’t let me knock out whoever annoys me right?” “Tailmon, I know you only want to be with Rinna right now. Fluttershy told me she was being treated right now, they’re helping her Tailmon; the least you can do is behave properly. Do it for her.” “Alright, alright; I’ll play along, for now… don’t expect it to last long though,” Tailmon stated while pointing at Konata for emphasis. “Good enough,” Konata turned to leave, “You’re free to enter now doc, don’t worry she won’t bite.” The doctor at the door gave her a thankful nod before closing the door behind her. Konata heard a screeching sound from the room, shaking her head she left to see how Rinna was doing. Fluttershy was sitting on a chair located in the hallway leading to the operation room; she was very distressed and sobbing quietly. She then felt a hoof on her withers. Looking in that direction she saw Konata there with a gentle look. “Are you ok Fluttershy? Has there been any news about Rinna?” she asked with a soft voice. Fluttershy shook her head slowly, “no, still no news about her… she will recover right?” she asked hopefully, but her shivering body showed her fear. “She’ll be fine, Fluttershy. Rinna is not a wimp; she’s plenty strong on her own way, have some faith in her.” “I have… b-but she was bleeding a lot and…” Fluttershy couldn’t finish the sentence and just looked at her hooves that were stained with some of Rinna’s blood from when she was carrying her. Konata noticed the ever increasing shaking in Fluttershy, she was quite sensible right now and Konata knew it, this kind of situation is not something they have to deal with often it seems. She felt bad for Fluttershy, a pure soul like her shouldn’t be experiencing this. Konata then hugged Fluttershy which was immediately returned; it also made her stop holding back and started crying, “I know you’re scared, that’s normal. I’m a little nervous myself, but I believe in Rinna, she wouldn’t want us to lose hope.” At that moment a nurse came out from the door followed by a doctor and both went towards Fluttershy and Konata, “Miss Fluttershy,” the doctor called, getting the attention of the distressed mare. “H-how is she?” Fluttershy asked. “Please relax; it was a challenge because we never treated a being like your friend before, but we stopped the bleeding and closed the wound, she’s getting a blood transfusion right now, but she should be fine in a few hours,” the doctor said with a proud smile which the nurse mirrored. “Told you,” Konata whispered on Fluttershy’s ear. The smile that appeared on Fluttershy’s face was the most purest sight you could ever see, her eyes were glistening with tears of happiness and she kept on repeating, “thank Celestia,” over and over. But then another voice joined them, “well, well, well I didn’t expect this development at all, but then again I should’ve destroyed all of you if something happened to her.” The medical ponies looked around, but Fluttershy and Konata knew who the owner of this voice was. Fluttershy looked nervous after hearing it; you couldn’t blame her though after all this one was a big reason for their suffering. “Tailmon, get off of there and tell me what did you do to Healing Cross?” Konata said while looking slightly upwards. At that moment the tiny white cat jumped from the lights in the ceiling and down to where they were, “as expected from Konata-sama, you noticed my presence instantly.” “You didn’t answer my question,” Konata said without looking at her. “I didn’t do anything to him, I can keep my word too you know,” Tailmon said while resting her paws on her waist. Konata narrowed her eyes at her suspiciously, “for some reason I don’t believe you, but I can see that you didn’t hurt him at least. That’s good enough I suppose.” “Well, I heard what I wanted to hear, I’ll be on the roof until Rinna-sama gets to a room, so if you excuse me,” and with that Tailmon casually walked away. With a sigh Konata said to the rest, “Forgive her, that’s her way of saying ‘thank you.’ “ The doctor shook his head, “I understand, you don’t have to worry about it. But are you alright? Did you go through the tests already?” Konata lifted a brow at that, “yes I did, I’m fine,” she was about to ask why when she took a look at herself, she was quite the mess, “oh… I get it, heh, sorry about that, I didn’t exactly had the time to clean myself, now where should I go…” but saying that would have been a bad idea. A gasp was heard, “oh dear, Konata darling how can you stand going around looking like that?” Rarity asked while coming into view. ‘Oh goddess no,’ Konata thought, “well I don’t stand it Rarity I just didn’t have the time to take bath yet, I was going to do that, I just have to go back to the castle and…” but Rarity cut her off. “Oh no no, that won’t do, you have to look your absolute best for when dear Rinna gets out of there, so a visit to the spa is in order,” Rarity then got closer to her and looked at her mane, her eyes went wide, “this is worse than I thought, your mane is covered in dirt and mud! We have to get there at once.” Rarity hooked one of her legs with Konata and started dragging her along. “Wow Rarity, take it easy you’re getting dirt in yourself too you know, you don’t have to do this,” Konata tried to make an excuse to get away. “Oh think nothing of it, you fought valiantly for our sakes, the least I can do is give you a relaxation treatment at our local spa, now let Rarity handle the situation, darling. You’re invited too Fluttershy, do you want to come?” Konata looked at Fluttershy in a begging way, “please accept, I think I need an adult right now.” But Rarity was the one who spoke first, “oh darling, I’ am an adult,” she batted her eye-lashes for emphasis. Fluttershy giggled some into her hoof, “thank you Rarity, but I think I’ll wait for Rinna to get into a room, I know she’s ok now but I just want to be with her. You two go and have fun.” At that Rarity nodded politely and left with a very nervous looking Konata. In their way out they crossed paths with Shana who returned from searching in the area for Kurumi and company with no success, she looked funnily at her sister being dragged by another pony but didn’t pay it any mind for now, she wanted to check on Rinna. Some hours later some of the group reunited once again, Rainbow had woke up and as soon Rinna was transferred to a room she went there immediately, Applejack unfortunately wasn’t able to leave her own room, by suggestion of the doctors, even if this was out of ignorance because she actually was able to move normally at the very least, Pinkie was hopping around, Twilight had the luck of being given the same room as Rinna, she felt alright but didn’t wanted to risk it and stayed at the hospital for the day and Fluttershy went with Rinna there. Tailmon was sleeping under Rinna’s bed, now that she was once again with her original owner and friend she wasn’t going to be separated from her again (probably). Shana decided to wait outside until things relaxed some, she didn’t mind it, after all Rinna was out of danger and can now focus on recovering. Something she didn’t expect to see though, was what was coming down the hallway, she saw her ponified sister approaching with that same pony that was dragging her before, the difference this time was that the pony came wearing an sparkling gold dress with a hat of the same brightness, her sister wasn’t wearing anything of the sorts but she looked… for the lack of other words, ‘not messy.’ For one, her coat was sparkly clean, her mane was surprisingly smoothly combed and her characteristic ‘antenna hair’ wasn’t visible, how did that pony managed to get it under control was something that surprised her a little. “You look good,” Shana said to her sister when she passed by. “You just had to rub salt in the wound don’t you sis?” Konata replied back drily. “Now, now, please stop sulking darling, you look dashing, I just wished you let me choose a dress for you.” “Yeah, no… even before being a pony I didn’t do dresses outside of very few important occasions and even then I preferred to use anything else if I had the chance,” Konata explained to her fashion obsessed friend. “You’re too picky Kona, a dress isn’t going to kill you,” Shana gave her opinion. “I know! She was so stubborn on not letting me give her a beautiful dress, she would’ve looked marvelous! It’s a shame she didn’t let me do it,” Rarity agreed with her. “Well, if you know how to ask she wouldn’t be able to turn you down,” Shana said with a wink. “Oh~ really now, would you mind telling me the way, dear?” Rarity asked with curiosity. Shana whispered something into Rarity’s ear, “basically that’s it.” “Are you sure that’s it?” Rarity asked getting a nod from Shana. “You can’t pull it off now, but you’ll get it eventually, also I don’t think we’ve been introduced, I’m Takamura Shana, leader of the magical strike force of Álfheimr and adopted big sister of this goof, it’s a pleasure,” Shana said the last part while pointing at Konata. “The pleasure is all mine darling,” Rarity gave her a courteous bow, “I’ am Rarity, I run a boutique and try to make the world more beautiful with my skills, besides that I’m the Element of Generosity.” “I’m no enthusiast in fashion, but seeing what you’re wearing I can see the talent you have for it, do you have a business card or something like it? I’ll probably try your boutique, for the next royal meeting,” Shana said, totally oblivious of Rarity’s inner conflict. Rarity herself didn’t know if squealing like filly getting all the candy for free, or fainting. Here she was, talking with an important being of another world, which apparently has connections with the royalty of said world, and was asking her for her business card? She was excited, very excited actually, but unfortunately she didn’t have her business cards with her at that moment, with that realization she froze in place. Shana was confused, “are you alright?” Rarity snapped out of it, “Oh! Why yes darling, I’m perfectly fine, I j-just need to go back home for something I forgot, excuse me for a minute!” she said in a rush and made a run for it leaving a bewildered Shana. She stared at her little sister, “any idea of what was that about?” Konata shrugged somehow, “Nope, also…” she then shook her head a few times, making her mane go back to its messy glory, she let out a happy sigh, “ah… that’s much better,” she then stared back at her sister, “you still need to apologize with Rainbow, I know you saved her by getting her out of the equation, but it was still wrong.” “I plan on apologizing Konata,” then Shana’s mood went to a serious one, “but understand that I have a grudge on Kurumi, I was enraged for what she did, I barely managed to get a hold of myself during that battle, you know that if I had lost control it would’ve been way worse.” “I know…” Konata then looked at her in the eyes, “but if helps any, I’m glad you didn’t lost yourself back there.” Shana nodded gratefully with a smile. “Well, do you want to enter? The doctor is coming of the room.” “Sure.” Twilight was in her bed reading a book from the “few” that Spike brought to her some minutes ago, she would be part of the little circle that formed around Rinna’s bed, but she knew better than disturb her resting after an operation, fortunately Rainbow was behaving. Then, soon after the doctor went out she saw Konata and her big sister getting in. Almost all the Elements were wary of Shana, especially Rainbow. Pinkie instead bounced in front of their faces. Konata was prepared for this and put a hoof over Pinkie’s mouth to stop her from shouting and disrupt Rinna’s sleep. “You have to speak quietly for now Pinkie, if you understand nod and I’ll let you talk ok?” she asked and received a nod of confirmation from the pink mare. With that Konata retired her hoof, “sorry about that Koni, I forgot about it for a moment, but I was excited of seeing you again even if we just spent a little time away from each other, but hey what are friends if you don’t get excited when you see them every time, and…” Pinkie kept on a muffled streak due to Konata placing a hoof over her mouth again. Shana looked at her sister with some confusion and she looked back. “Don’t worry, Pinkie does that a lot you’ll get used to it, but now…” she took a moment to clear her thoughts, “I think you need to do what’s right,” then she looked at Rainbow, and signaled her to come closer with her once again free hoof. The prismatic mare closed the distance, and then Konata signaled with her head in her sister’s direction. Rainbow stared warily but intently to the one who hit her when she tried to help. Shana kneeled down to be at eye level with the pony and showed a remorseful expression, “I’m sorry for what I did to you, I shouldn’t have done it or the things I said after, even if my intention was to save you my method was wrong, I’m sorry.” This was surprising to Rainbow to say the least, considered how violent this one was on the battlefield, but now was showing a big deal of remorse for what she did, “well, I don’t think I can forgive you just yet, but that’s because I don’t understand why you did it, you just said you did it to save me? Save me from what? And for what you said I don’t care about it, I wasn’t able to beat that cheater even with that new power that your world shared with me, I really was a waste of an Element back there,” Rainbow admitted sadly. Shana rested a hand on Rainbow’s withers, “that’s not true, all of you fought in a battle knowing you were in disadvantage, it requires true courage to do that, I respect that. But after seeing you I noticed you were about to lose the power of the Element, you weren’t going to go away so I had to do something to get you out of there. Probably my sister told you already that I tend to take battles to the extreme and that’s true, especially if my enemy is someone that I resent, I go overboard and even if my intentions are in the right place, my actions aren’t.” Konata raised a hoof between them to stop the conversation, “I think that’s enough, we could be here all day discussing who’s at fault for what, but it will not change the result that we got, sis you’re very overprotective and you do everything to save others, even if it means to hurt them yourself to get them out of there.” Then she looked at Rainbow, “and Rainbow, you’re loyal before anything else, and that is right, but it makes you to take reckless decisions. Regardless, I’m glad of being called your friend.” The others were awestruck, Pinkie hug tackled Konata and Tailmon had her ears glued to her head to avoid listening to more of this, especially if it was praise words for the ponies, she didn’t care about it and didn’t wanted to think about it either. “That was beautiful Konata,” Twilight commented. “Pinkie, please don’t make a habit of tackling me and crushing my ribs.” “But Koni! You’re so soft and pleasant to the touch!” Pinkie rubbed her cheek against Konata’s for emphasis. “Wait, really?” Rainbow asked somewhat confused. “But you hugged her too Dashie! How didn’t you notice?” Pinkie asked. “Maybe because I was worried sick about her, I thought she wouldn’t wake up for a long time, and that it would be my fault, I wasn’t paying attention to anything else at that moment, when she did I was just too relieved to notice, Pinkie,” Rainbow explained. “Oh… well I let you know that she’s very soft and pleasant to the touch then, I can’t describe it she just is, I can’t get enough of it like I can’t get enough cupcakes!” Pinkie continued to rub their cheeks together, Konata was not amused. “Being molested here, can someone tell her to get off because I’m pretty sure she’s not going to listen to me, right Pinkie?” Konata tried. “Yup yup!” Pinkie replied as expected. Shana took this moment get closer to Rinna, she saw her looking better. She wasn’t as pale as before, this was a good sign. The only thing left was to wait for her to recover from the anesthesia, it was a relief for Shana to see that her fears she had before coming to this world were unfounded except for Kurumi’s appearance. The ponies were welcoming and they seemed to be a very peaceful race, at least that’s the general idea she had of them, she knew that there were beings with evil intentions on this world if the one that she attacked when she arrived was any proof of it. She couldn’t help to let out chuckle at the comical scene that involved her sister and the ponies. “Sis… are you really laughing?” Konata asked while being a little surprised even in her uncomfortable position the others stopped their shenanigans too. “Is that strange?” Twilight asked from her bed, she was just watching the whole situation develop. “Well, her smiling is not strange, but she doesn’t laugh openly very often, she must incredibly relaxed for that to happen,” Konata explained. “I’ am relaxed, I think I have the right to be so, Rinna is ok and recovering,” Shana told her. “Oh, thank you for worrying about me sis,” Konata said sarcastically. “You didn’t need any treatment so don’t complain about it.” Then the group started talking about random topics, Rarity at some point stormed in with box of business cards tripping and throwing them all on the floor, they got scolded by the hospital’s staff and expended five minutes collecting every single card from the floor. Tailmon helped too, by ripping apart any card that flew her way. Since it was quite late and only one pony could stay everypony agreed that Shana should stay by Rinna’s side that night. Pinkie dragged Konata to Sugar Cube Corner, Rainbow went with them because she felt weird the wing that Tailmon broke and was later healed by the digi-egg of friendship, so to not risk it she decided not to fly until the next day. Konata then had a thought on her mind, “guys,” she started and her two roommates for the night looked at her, “don’t you have the feeling that we forgot something?” Pinkie and Rainbow thought about it for a moment, “nothing here Koni!” said Pinkie. “What happened with that weird thing that gave me my armor? Did we forget that out there?” Rainbow asked. “No, I have it in card form, Pinkie has hers in her mane,” Konata pointed out. Pinkie took the card from her mane and showed them, “I don’t know how to use this though, Koni can you teach me how to use it? Can you, can you?” “Sure Pinkie, and Rainbow I think you should have this one,” Konata said while giving Rainbow the card with the digi-egg of friendship. “Are you sure I can have this? Do you think I’m the right pony to keep it?” Rainbow asked. Konata nodded with a smile, “I’m sure I’ll get into some problems later, but I’m sure these digi-eggs chose you two for a reason, besides they had no use in the vault after all.” Rainbow took the card and held it against her chest with a soft expression on her face, “thank you, I won’t let you down, promise!” she said with determination. After that little moment Pinkie went and fetched some board games and that’s how they passed time until they got sleepy, without even mentioning what they supposedly forgot before. Meanwhile in another hospital room Dejiko laid on her bed with one arm bandaged and a frown, “they didn’t even bother to check on me, they’re being cruel now nyo!” Sure the others didn’t meant to forget about her, but it was what they did anyways, poor Dejiko she can't get a break. > Chapter 12 part 1: Dreams, Worries and Bad News Myu > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- “Get rid of them, get rid of them, they don’t deserve to share the same space as you,” a gravelly and quite old sounding voice resonated in the dark room where a very young Konata in a black gothic style dress was. Not many details of the room could be seen, and the very little light there was barely showed a dark curtain where an imposing silhouette sat tall in its throne, due to the darkness of the room no features of the silhouette could be seen. “Why are you against me sharing my time with them, Father!?” Konata asked to the figure behind the curtain. “They are a waste of your time; mere mortals should be serving you. That is the only purpose for such beings, my daughter,” Konata’s father said. From the sidelines Luna was watching the whole situation developing. ‘So this is Lucky Star’s Dream Realm, it’s darker than I thought considering her personality,’ the Princess of the Night thought. “That’s not true!” Konata stomped her hoof on the floor, “they are not some servants! They are my friends!” The figure let out a sinister chuckle, “friends you say? What gain could you get from such miserable relationship with inferior beings?” Konata greeted her teeth, “stop insulting them!” “You have the spirit of our race, you don’t need anyone. Those who are inferior have no place among us, this rebellion of yours is your mother’s fault, she’s been too soft but that is going to change,” Konata’s father said threateningly. “Don’t you dare involve mom into this!” Konata snapped at him, for a moment her black irises flashed gold. Luna just now noticed that detail; Konata’s eyes weren’t an amber color like she saw them be, but black like her mane instead, ‘what could be the meaning behind her eye color in this dream, could she be projecting herself wrong in her mind? No, there has to be a deeper meaning to this, I wonder if it would be rude of me to ask her...’ she thought, but her inner monologue was interrupted by another creepy dark chuckle from Konata’s father. “Why are you…” Konata stopped speaking and her eyes shrunk when a creepy hand emerged from the curtain, but the limb wasn’t what left Konata silent, it was what the hand held instead. The dark red leathery limb held an unconscious girl with very wore down clothes from the head; obviously she was one from the poorer areas of the kingdom. Luna felt something change in the dream realm, a heavy atmosphere covered the whole space, even she found difficult to breathe under such pressure, ‘Ugh! What is this!? This is no normal dream.’ “Let her go! She has nothing to do with this!” Konata desperately tried to convince her father to not do whatever he had in his mind at the moment. Nothing was said in response as a dark purple aura emanating from the hand covered the girl. “Stop!” Konata let out a painfully loud scream. After that the whole room went black, not a second after Luna was expelled from Konata’s dream realm but she didn’t notice the subtle change on Konata’s form during that last moment. Konata woke up suddenly, she was breathing heavily while bringing a hand to her face. It took a moment for her to notice she had hands again but that wasn’t her biggest worry at the moment, ‘I let my guard down, that’s why that memory made its way to the surface again,’ she then took a look of her hand, ‘it seems the shock returned me back to normal, still is ironic how I needed to relive that moment for this to happen,’ she let out a sigh, ‘but I don’t think this is a permanent change. I can feel the influx of energy weakening, and that’s good, because I don’t have any clothes with me, going around like this would be a problem and I don’t want a Rarity all over me again anytime soon, thank you very much.’ She was rubbing her eyes a little and let out a yawn when she heard soft snores from her side, when looking that way Konata saw Rainbow calmly sleeping at her side, she also felt something latched at her midsection which she soon found out was Pinkie also cutely snoring while hugging her like a teddy bear. A smile appeared on Konata’s face, her worries dissipating at the moment just by looking at how serene these two looked. “I’m being silly by thinking this aren’t I?” she whispered while petting Rainbow’s mane, ‘I’ll make sure you don’t have to go through that, sure my father is still sealed away, but if there’s something I learned is that peace does not last forever. But I’ll think about it when I get home, so enough of gloomy topics for the time being.’ A light glow covered her body. Rainbow got slightly annoyed by the little light and opened her eyes slowly. “Good morning sleepy head, had a good night?” Konata asked. Rainbow just took a blurry glance a Konata’s normal form, she blinked a few times and rubbed her eyes with a hoof, but by the time her vision was clear all she saw was Konata in her pony form again, “yeah, I suppose…” she let out a yawn, “what was that light just now?” “Magic.” “What?” “It was a magical reaction, no biggie.” “Oh, ok.” “By the way, why are you sandwiching me with Pinkie here? Did I miss something last night or something?” Right then, Rainbow noticed what was happening, a second after she was out of bed and right at the door no daring to face back at her friend. “Did I say something wrong?” Konata asked with confusion. “Not really Koni, Dashie just won’t admit that she wanted contention after a bad dream,” Pinkie said suddenly. “Oh…” Konata got closer to Rainbow and put a hoof on her withers, “do you want to talk about it?” “I… I saw you guys… in my dream; I saw you in this dark place unconscious and… those two.” Konata wondered for a bit to which two, Rainbow could be referring to. But soon it came down to her, “Tailmon and Kurumi,” she said getting a nod from Rainbow, “what else happened?” she asked softly. “They were laughing, and… Kurumi held you while aiming you with that thing she used…” Rainbow was shaking slightly “and…” she stopped there. “And what?” Pinkie asked but got no answer from Rainbow. Konata replied instead, “she fired.” Hearing that made Pinkie’s heart sink a bit, getting that image in her head didn’t make her any favors. Konata felt the ambience getting grim; she had to do something to ease things off, fortunately her deviousness was still intact. Blowing softly into Rainbow’s ear she got an interesting reaction. “Oooh~” Rainbow cooed for a short while before jumping away holding her ear with a hoof and a bright blush on her face, “What was that for!?” she said more confused than angry. Pinkie looked at Konata with a knowing smile, the latter replying, “Oh shush. I had to get you out of the depressive zone and besides you seemed to like it. Now if you excuse me I need to use the little filly’s room,” with that she left the room, Pinkie wasn’t there anymore and Rainbow just tried to process what just happened. She didn’t come up with an answer to that, “why would she do that? If she wanted to get my attention there were other ways… but why did she chose that of all things?” remembering the situation only flustered her more, she let out a groan, “that idiot saying I like it… I didn’t like it… that much…” her voice decreased in volume until it was just a whisper. Then Konata’s yelling was heard, “PINKIE! I SWEAR TO GODDESS IF YOU DO THAT AGAIN, I’LL END YOU!” Then Pinkie was heard, “YOU CAN’T END ME KONI! THAT WOULD RUIN THE STORY!” “WHAT IS THAT EVEN SUPPOSED TO MEAN!?” Rainbow who recovered just enough from her own fantasies decided to fly over there to stop the noise; it was quite early in the morning after all, ‘heh, I’ll get her for that later.’ Meanwhile in the Princesses room. Luna woke up abruptly, confused and worried about what that was just now, ‘Lucky Star… she… her past… there’s so much I need to ask her, but this is not the time for that, besides that pressure was not normal, that nightmare was no act of fate, it was forced on her. I don’t want to think of the possibility of her having something to do with this, but there’s no other explanation, somehow she managed to manifest physically once again.’ Luna thought with a frown. “Is something wrong Luna? You seem to be annoyed,” Celestia said noticing the shift in Luna’s mood. “Sister, when did you wake up?” Luna said with surprise. “I wasn’t able to fall asleep, with everything that happened yesterday I couldn’t stop thinking if I could have done something different to avoid at least some of the hardships we went through, that feeling of guilt kept me awake,” Celestia confessed. “You could have told me, I could have used some of my magic to give you a pleasant sleep sister.” But Celestia shook her head in negation, “You very well know that I would have refused to accept that Luna.” Luna giggled some, “I know, but I would have tried anyways,” she stopped for a moment before continuing in a more serious but relaxed tone, “you don’t have to carry such weight on you Tia; we did what we could, if anything we should be thankful that they were here to help us prevent a major disaster from occurring.” “I can’t thank them enough for saving us and probably all of Equestria as well. I don’t want to imagine what could have happened if an attack of that caliber were to occur without them here to help us.” “I understand what you’re saying Tia, but their objective was little Rinna, this encounter was just a matter of chance.” But Celestia wasn’t convinced, “I’m not too sure about that Luna.” “What do you mean by that?” Luna was confused. “I do not believe Rinna was thrown here by mere coincidence Luna, remember what Lucky Star told us, they didn’t know Equestria even existed before getting here and Ingrid had to research without resting just to make it here as soon as possible,” Celestia explained and stopped briefly to gather her thoughts before continuing, “But don’t you find strange that the ones who attacked us knew exactly where to look for Rinna? They knew Rinna was here in Ponyville, they knew she arrived in Equestria and they knew we were in disadvantage, even with Lucky Star’s and Ingrid’s help the Elements weren’t able to beat Kurumi, they just managed to stall the battle for just enough so Lucky Star’s sister could make it in time.” Luna didn’t think about it too much, so details like that went over her head at the time, “now that you mention it, it is strange for such a chain of events to occur by mere chance, but how did they knew?” “I’m not sure Luna; we can discuss it with everypony later, for now we should wait until all of us recover, that reminds me,” Celestia then used her magic to bring the sun up, while Luna withdrew the moon to start the new day. At that time in Rinna’s and Twilight’s room, Tailmon was sleeping on the bed Rinna is currently at some point during the night she got there. Shana was apparently sleeping in the chair at the side of Rinna’s bed; Fluttershy was also in a chair but on Twilight’s side. However she wasn’t sleep, she could barely do so anyway, every time she managed to get some sleep she woke up soon after because her mind flashed that same image of Rinna bleeding in her hooves. Because of her kind and worrisome nature she would check on Rinna to make sure she was alright, looking at the serene expression on Rinna’s face made her worries fade some. But she would be lying if she said she wasn’t tired, after all constantly waking up after minutes of sleeping would drain anypony’s energy quite fast. Fluttershy wanted to take a closer look at Rinna before going for a glass of water, but at the moment she was at the edge of the bed she found claws in her field of view just mere inches from her eyes. “Tailmon, you know if you were to harm this one in particular you would have a really nasty backlash on your way,” Shana said from her chair while holding Tailmon’s arm from advancing any further. Fluttershy looked terrified and let out a quiet “eek” before falling on her haunches. “Well, I accomplished what I wanted with this so it doesn’t matter,” Tailmon said with no signs of remorse. “Can I go now?” Fluttershy felt a change in the ambience of the room just before Shana let go of Tailmon’s arm, the digi-cat hastily leaving the room soon after. “Are you alright?” Fluttershy heard Shana speaking to her and saw her extending a hand to help her get up. “Y-yes I’m fine… thank you…” Fluttershy said while taking a hold of the hand and getting up. “Don’t mention it, but you really should rest you don’t look good,” Shana advised. “I know I should but… I can’t do it, not after everything… not after seeing Rinna like that…” Fluttershy said weakly. “I figured you would be the most sensitive of the group just by looking at you, I apologize for what we made you go through, but if I have something to say to you it would be, thank you,” Shana said while petting the yellow pegasus. “W-what? W-why are you…” Fluttershy tried to say something but was interrupted. “Thank you for being there with her when I couldn’t, thank you for helping her. I would like to reward you for what you did, just tell me something you would like and I’ll make sure it is done,” Shana offered. But Fluttershy shook her head, “Oh no, I couldn’t ask for something in this situation, I just couldn’t.” “Don’t be shy, you deserve something for what you did,” Shana pushed. “Well… in that case,” Fluttershy then extended a hoof in Shana’s direction, the latter looking at her with confusion, “would you like to be my friend?” Shana was taken aback by such simple yet strange request, “are you sure you don’t want anything else?” she asked. Fluttershy smiled at her, “I’m sure.” Shana took Fluttershy’s hoof in between her hands and smiled back, “very well, your name was Fluttershy right?” “Yes, and yours was Shana right?” Fluttershy asked back. Both just smiled at each other and nodded, and without raising their voices anymore, they said in unison, “nice to meet you.” Tailmon meanwhile went to the rooftop of the hospital, “I probably shouldn’t have antagonized Shana back there,” she remembered the stare Shana gave her, it sent shivers down her spine, “my only consolation is that I’m soon getting out of here, just a little more time.” Some hours later. “Did ya really do that Pinkie?” AJ who was in her early check up asked. Pinkie’s response was to giggle while rubbing the back of her head with a hoof. “Yeah keep laughing it out, see how much good that does to you,” Konata said with some annoyance. “Come on Kona, can’t you take a prank?” Rainbow asked with a hint of laughter. Pinkie came out of Kona’s mane and tried to make her smile with her hooves, “yeah Koni, don’t be grumpy, smile!” she got a rolling of eyes from her friend at least. Shaking her head still with Pinkie on her back, Konata just let out a sigh, “Ok, you win Pinkie but please don’t make a habit of that, or I’ll get mad.” “Okie dokie lokie!” “Anyways, how’s Applejack doing Redheart?” Konata asked to the nurse. “She’s almost perfectly fine, and that’s strange…” Redheart admitted. “What do you mean?” Rainbow asked. “When we checked her yesterday she would barely be able to move for a long time, but now… she recovered almost completely, at least that’s what her physical exam shows,” Redheart explained. “Do you feel that way Applejack?” Pinkie asks from Konata’s back. “Ta be completely honest, yes Ah’ do feel that way, but even Ah’am confused fer that, Ah’ don’t know how it happened,” Applejack wasn’t sure herself if she explained that right. “It is because Rinna’s passive magic was still on effect,” Konata said suddenly. “Huh? Rinna’s magic? How does that work? I thought her magic had the effect of making us release our inner potential or something like that,” Rainbow asked with the same confusion everypony else had at the moment. “Her magic does indeed produce that effect, but by doing so your metabolism increases exponentially, making you more resilient and also heal faster than normal, this last reaction is just temporal though. If the battle from yesterday were to be held some hours after it actually happened none of you would be as healthy as you are now,” Shana said from the door frame surprising everypony in the room, Fluttershy being behind her. “Oh sis, it’s strange to see you here and not in Rinna’s room.” “Well, Fluttershy wanted to see her friend and even if I’m worried for her I know Tailmon will watch Rinna accordingly.” “Ah’ wouldn’t trust that cat ta watch over her, it’s risky,” Applejack said. “I know what you mean Applejack, but even being as mean and annoying as she can be, Tailmon is totally loyal to Rinna,” Konata added. “Umm… we should stop talking about this here, it doesn’t seem right,” Fluttershy spoke up. “Fluttershy is right; we should be relaxing now and not worrying over this, sorry for the scene Redheart,” Konata apologized for the inconvenience. “Don’t worry, I know how tense things can get after a crisis,” Redheart said with a wink and a smile, “regarding Applejack here, she is good to go if she wants to, I’ll go tell the doctor about it.” “Thank ya sugarcube,” Applejack said, she would have tipped her hat gratefully but she didn’t have it right now. “You’re welcome,” Redheart said before going out. “What do we do now?” Rainbow asked. “Oh… I came here to tell you Twilight is free to go too, I wanted to tell you… but I forgot, I’m sorry,” Fluttershy said apologetically. “Did she go out already?” Konata asked out of curiosity. “Oh no, she’s sitting at Rinna’s side now.” “Well, let’s go check on them, there’s not much else we can do anyway,” Konata said forgetting a little detail, but it went over everypony’s head as well so it didn’t matter. “You go ahead I need to check on something,” Shana told them before going out. The group then went to Rinna and Twilight’s room. When they got to the door they could hear some giggling inside. Confused they opened the door to find… “Are you comfortable? Do you need a drink or a snack, even a softer pillow? You name it and I’ll get it for you,” Lyra in a maid outfit… attending Rinna who wasn’t even awake right now, and Twilight sitting away with a nervous smile. The group was shocked as well, except for Konata she just shrugged. “Hi Miss Heartstrings, you look great on that outfit, even better than I do,” she said getting their attention. “Oh! Hi! I mean emm… this is… not what it seems?” Lyra said not so sure herself of what she wanted to say. Pinkie had to say something, and yes she still was in Konata’s back, “That’s not true Koni! You also look pretty good in uniform!” Some awkward seconds passed with everypony in total silence. Rainbow let out a cough, “hmm… what’s happening?” she asked. “Twilight, can ya tell us?” AJ added to the question. Twilight felt extremely uncomfortable about the whole situation but composed enough, “how do I put this… em…” she had some trouble coming with an explanation. “Miss Lyra came to see how I was doing myu, she’s so nice…” Rinna said weakly. “Rinna/Rini/Rinna-sama!?” everypony shouted, even Tailmon joined which was on the window frame. Rinna has awakened, she didn’t look so well. “Rinna, how do you feel?” Konata asked with concern. Rinna blinked a few times, but her expression keep being one of tiredness, “I’m… kind of thirsty myu…” she coughed some. Before anypony could react Lyra already went and got a glass of water in her magic, “here, let me help you drink, just don’t rush it,” she said Rinna nodded. “Thank you myu…” Konata smiled, ‘she’s good, I must admit that.’ “Where did you got that?” Rainbow asked. “I came prepared,” Lyra said proudly. “Ah’m more surprised as to how the cat didn’t jump at ya for being all over Rinna here, Lyra,” AJ pointed out. “Hey Orange,” Tailmon called out getting her attention, “shut up.” But Applejack held her ground, “come and make me.” “Oh! Getting confident all of the sudden aren’t we? Well, let’s-“ she was about to say something, but a glimpse of Rinna’s weak and tired appearance made her think otherwise, she turned around in the window frame, “never-mind,” With that she got out of there. “What was that?” Rainbow asked confused by that strange turn of events. “Ah’ don’t know mahself Rainbow, Ah’ thought she would act in a different way,” Applejack admitted. “She has it rough,” Konata said suddenly the others looked at her. “What do you mean by that?” Twilight inquired a little bit. “Tailmon knows better than to stress Rinna in a moment like this,” Konata told them with a serious tone. Rinna was still too weak, so she couldn’t think of anything to add to the conversation but she felt relief knowing that her friend was still caring like that. Konata then focused on the other topic at hoof, “anyways, it’s not that I don’t appreciate you helping Rinna, miss Heartstrings and I already stated my opinion on the getup, but I have a simple question, why though?” “First of all thank you for the compliment, my roommate thought it was silly but I knew that was just jealously speaking, she’s too chubby to use this maid outfit after all,” Lyra said openly, “second of all, Rinna proved to me that there really are other worlds out there and that I wasn’t just crazy.” “Crazy is an understatement,” Rainbow murmured. “Third, I want to go with her to that world and explore it, so I thought maybe if I’m her maid then I could go when she gets back?” that last part was rather surprising confession even for Konata. It was rather hilarious to her actually, so as the silly pony she now accepted to be, she started snorting and laughing quite audibly with Pinkie following. Rainbow and Applejack joined them short after. Fluttershy couldn’t help but to giggle into a hoof, Twilight tried to stare at them disapprovingly but failed to hide her own amused grin. Even Rinna was tempted at this point. Lyra with a blush on her face stared at the floor to try and hid it. The situation could’ve lasted longer but Konata recovered her breath, “Oh... I apologize Miss Heartstrings it wasn’t my intention to laugh like that but what you said caught me off guard, I’m sorry.” “Don’t be, I have to admit it was a rather dumb thing to say,” Lyra admitted still blushing. “But I have good news for you,” Lyra perked up at that, “You can go with us there if you so desire, there’s no reason for you to become a maid just to do that,” Konata said reassuringly. “Wait… really? Can I really go with you?” Lyra asked getting a nod from Konata. She then hug tackled her to the ground, “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” Konata wasn’t amused though, “What’s with you guys and constantly hug tackling me all the time?” Pinkie who was ejected from Konata’s back now appeared on her face, “it’s because you’re too soft and fluffy and huggable Koni! Your cheeks especially, those are the best to rub on!” A tired sigh escaped Konata. Then they heard the door opening, Shana was there carrying Dejiko. “What are you doing nyo?” Dejiko asked to Konata. “Nothing much, just being molested again,” she replied with sarcasm. Shana approached Rinna to have a closer look at her. “Rinna…” Dejiko said with a hint of sadness, “I should have tried harder nyo…” “It’s not your fault myu…” Shana kneeled so Dejiko could hold Rinna’s hand, “Rinna…” a tear left her eyes, “can I stay here with her?” she asked Shana. “I’m afraid that you can’t do that, Dejiko,” but a not so new voice joined the group. “Ini?” Shana, Konata and Dejiko said at once, the rest just stared at the little bunny girl wearing the oversized robe. “Greetings my friends,” Ini said formally. “Who’s the kid?” Rainbow asked to Konata. “Rainbow!” Twilight called having figured out who the little girl was. But Ini just giggled amusingly in her sleeve. “What?” “She’s the one with the most knowledge in our world, she manages the arcane library, leader of the research team and is the top teacher in the magic academy,” Konata explained for her confused prismatic friend. “That I’am, it’s a pleasure to meet you all, I’m Ingrid Sorveig Sorgrims and before you say something else-“ shelowered her head and tilting her body downwards she did a reverence, “thank you for saving Rinna, we are in your debt.” “Woah, there’s no need fer that miss,” Applejack quickly said. “She’s right, we were the ones who were saved here Miss Ingrid, we are the ones in your debt,” Twilight stated sincerely. Ingrid lifted her head once again, the ponies seeing her happy expression with glints of tears at the edge of her eyes, she would have used her sleeves to wipe those off, but Pinkie happened. “Oh, it’s interesting to see I’m not the only one being molested out of nowhere around here,” the now free Konata commented. “C-could you please take her off me?” Ingrid said calmly but with a hint of annoyance in her uncomfortable position. But seeing as the rest of the room just laughed or giggled without moving a muscle to help her, she sighed tiredly. A red purplish aura surrounded her, Pinkie started levitating and something else happened no-one could move at all Rinna being the only one she didn’t affect with it, Ingrid’s body then stood up without her actually moving, she looked like she was in some sort of invisible breeze, her hair, ears and clothes were flowing in a majestic manner. “What’s happening? I can’t move!” Rainbow said. “Me neither!” some of the others said too. “You let your guard down Shana, you shouldn’t normally be affected by such a low level spell,” Ingrid mentioned. “Excuse me for relaxing from time to time Ini, I thought you of all people would like that for once,” Shana replied. “How is this considered a low level spell!?” Twilight pointed out. Ingrid giggled and soon after the aura banished making the rest recover their ability to move again. The ponies lost their balance and fell down for being given control without prior notice. “Surprisingly it is Twilight, is just that Ini has way too much magic for her own good, or she’s just being a prick like always,” Konata without a hint of sarcasm. Ingrid was not amused. Shana then asked the question most of them had in their minds, “Ini what are you doing here? Did something happen? And what was that about us not being able to stay?” Ingrid got serious as well, “the portal is very unstable thanks to a certain someone who apparently was in a rush and forced herself in this world without any restrain. “If the portal stays like that, there’s the possibility of severing the connection with this world permanently,” she finished telling them the bad news with a sympathetic look. All of them were shocked to hear that, and now only one question arises, what can they possibly do now? > Chapter 12 part 2: This is not good bye, is just farewell Myu... > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- All the presents stood in shocked silence at the news, none of them knew how to react to this. Shana placed Dejiko on the chair that was at the side of Rinna’s bed, “I should have known that something was wrong when I saw Kotori on this side, she was the one who provoked this right?” Ingrid nodded, “yes, she was the cause for the portal to lose stability, I saw her going for the portal and tried to warm her but by that time she already jumped inside,” guilt was noticeable in her eyes. “Then when you go back to your world we will never see you again? That is what this means?” Twilight asked with worry. For some reason Rainbow was the most distressed by this possibility. “But what if they don’t cross over? Would ta chance ta go back be still there?” Applejack asked trying to comprehend the situation. But Konata shook her head in negation, “if we don’t cross over, and the portal continues in that state, then it will close and will leave us trapped on this world basically forever,” she said worrying the ponies even more. “But… you can’t go yet! I didn’t even have the chance to throw you a ‘welcome to ponyville party!’ you can’t go! Please tell me you wouldn’t go away,” Pinkie sadly hugged her new friend while she cried. “Pinkie…” Konata was surprised to see Pinkie in such a state. “T-there has to be a way to fix this right? You have all those crazy powers, it has to be a way,” Rainbow asked with hope. “Ini-chan don’t you have a solution to this nyo?” Dejiko asked as well. Ingrid wanted to correct Dejiko in the way to address her but decided to tolerate it this time, “actually there is, that’s why I need you to go back, so I can fix the problem.” “Wait, really?” now Rainbow was confused. “Yes, I can fix it. But I need as few individuals as possible who are from Álfheimr here to make it more bearable for me, that’s why I need you to go back right now, but for the looks of it, some can’t at this very moment,” she said while looking at Rinna. “We can’t take Rinna through the portal in her state, she needs to recover first.” “How much time do we have until it is absolutely necessary to cross over the portal? Ini,” Konata asked. “A week tops.” “But would Rinna recover by that time? She seems too weakened right now,” Twilight pointed out. “Can’t you give her something to heal her faster nyo?” “I don’t know what method did they use to heal her here, I can’t risk giving her something and provoking a bad reaction that could hurt her more, but-“ Ingrid then went to Rinna’s side and closing her eyes she casted a spell on her, this covered Rinna’s body with a soft bluish aura. The non-magical ponies didn’t know what was she doing, but Twilight had an idea of what it was, almost 20 seconds after the aura faded away, “-she’ll be alright, at the rate at which she’s recovering right now, she’ll be out of bed in approximately 4 days.” “How are ya so sure about it? Miss,” Applejack asked with confusion. “She casted a scanning spell on Rinna, is that correct Miss Ingrid,” Twilight said. “Indeed, you’re a good observant I see,” Ingrid complimented. “So what do we do now?” Konata asked. “Rinna can’t cross over so, Konata stay here with her until she recovers then meet me at the portal, Shana and Dejiko will go back with me,” Ingrid said this because she noticed the ponies fondness with her ponified friend. Dejiko wanted to protest and Shana stopped her from doing so, “it’s ok Dejiko, I think this is the best way to confront the situation now.” “But…” “She’s right Dejiko. Besides, you have a report to write for master Mihoshi that cannot wait any longer,” Ingrid told to the rebellious cat-girl. “But why Konata can stay nyo? Doesn’t she have to write one too?” “I came here by my own choice, even if I had to ask Mizuka to throw me here with space manipulation but still, it was because I wanted to,” Konata replied back. “Oh, I though you copied that ability of hers to come here,” Ingrid admitted. “Why would I do that? I don’t know the ins and outs of manipulating space. I can’t copy something I don’t fully understand, that’s not how my special ability works Ini,” Konata explained. “Well then, I know it’s been a very short visit, but we really need to get going and who knows if everything goes well you will be able to visit our world as well, any friend from my friends is welcome, but it will take a little while just be patient ok?” Ingrid said to the ponies. “You better do that or I’ll kick your flank,” Rainbow playfully threatened with a smirk. “Sound fair, alright it’s time to go. Thank you once again for taking care of Rinna now if you excuse me,” Ingrid said and turned to leave. Shana picked up Dejiko once again on her back and stood up to leave as well, “I wish we could have met under better circumstances, thank you for your help and farewell.” Fluttershy suddenly blocked the path looking quite sad with glints of tears in the corner of her eyes, but smiled regardless. “I don’t think I deserve your tears Fluttershy, and you don’t have to worry, we’ll be seeing each other soon enough,” Shana kneeled once again, Fluttershy who was airborne landed and gave Shana a hug which she returned with only one arm so Dejiko won’t fall. “Have a safe trip,” Fluttershy said after she let go. With a final nod and a smile always present Shana made her way out following Ingrid. Fluttershy waved them goodbye. A somber mood covered the room. “Please cheer up, everything will be fine. You heard Ini, she will fix the portal,” Konata said to the rest in hopes of cheering them up. “But you still have to go away, I don’t want that,” Pinkie said between sobs. “I don’t want it either,” Rainbow said as well, while resting a hoof on Konata’s withers. “Not you too Rainbow,” Twilight approached the rest at last. “Hey, it’s really so bad that I want to be close to my friend?” Rainbow argued but her frown changed to a sad expression, “but I know I can’t keep her away from her home, still I’ll hold her to her promise, if you break it I’ll make you pay.” Konata had a funny expression and then hugged them both, “Aww, you two are really sweet, to be honest I don’t want to leave you either, but I have no option in the matter, regardless I will make it possible to talk between us daily if you want,” Rainbow and Pinkie perked up at that. “You can do that?” Rainbow asked. “Yep,” she said while letting go the others and summoned the same device Rinna used to receive the digi egg of courage, took the deck of cards that was inside of it and looked for a certain card. “Where did I put that thing…” she looked some more, “oh, there we go,” she set aside on card and put the deck on its slot again, then proceeded to dissipate the device. “Twilight,” she called her alicorn friend, “I think you should hold this one, you’re the one with the most magic control of the group,” Konata held the card for Twilight to pick up. Twilight pick it up with her magic and took a look at it, “magical vision? What is this?” “Basically a communicator, I gave an older version of it to Celestia when I send her that report, but it was flawed and is a little dangerous so I’ll ask her to give it back later. This one is the newest and safest version of it, with this we can communicate with each other when I get back home, I’ll 5 more for the group, Celestia and Luna will probably need one as well, but that is a topic for another time,” Konata explained, “just take good care of it, ok?” “I will, don’t worry about it,” Twilight said reassuringly. After that they expended the next half an hour talking about random topics, in between Konata taught Twilight how to use the card she gave her so she wouldn’t have any problems with it. The overall mood improved by this seemingly pointless exchange and they felt like they took a weight off their backs. “Hmm,” Konata was thinking about something. “What are you thinking about Koni?” Pinkie was curious. “I kind of want to go out and help rebuild the houses you know, it was kind of our fault that they got a little destroyed,” Konata felt a little bad for that. “Oh, do you know masonry Konata?” Twilight asked with curiosity. “Of course not, why would I know something like that?” Konata replied. “Oh…” Twilight was disappointed. “What can you do there anyway?” Rainbow asked with an idea of what the answer would be. Konata shrugged, “I don’t know, I’m just kind of bored so I want to do something.” Most ponies facehoofed, “of course.” “I don’t think you should worry much about that Konata,” Fluttershy started, “you did enough already by saving us.” “But I’m booored,” Konata complained in childish manner. Fluttershy gave her some head rubs, “I’m so sorry that you feel that way, but we will figure something out for you to do Konata, how does that sound?” she said softly. The others looked awkwardly at this exchange and Rinna giggled some. The princesses were told that they needed a little more time before getting out of bed. Luna thought for a time if telling Celestia what she saw in Konata’s dream, after some deliberations she did. Celestia was quite surprised to say the least after hearing that fragment of Konata’s past from Luna. It came to show how even a terrible past doesn’t define totally how you act, she knew this by experience. Soon after somepony knocked at the door, “Celestia, Luna is ok to enter?” they heard Konata at the other side. “It’s ok, come on in,” Celestia told her. The door opened and Konata made her way in with Twilight in tow, “how are you two today? Feeling better?” “Not in the best conditions we may admit, but better overall,” Luna said. “I see Twilight has managed to recover, those are great news,” Celestia added. “Well it’s not that surprising; all the Elements involved in the battle have recovered if not fully, almost fully,” Konata explained them casually, for a fraction of a sec she eyed them with narrowed eyes before going back to a happy expression. ‘She knows I was there watching,’ Luna thought to herself having noticed that brief change. “By any chance did Ini pass by? I heard you spoke with her briefly yesterday,” Konata was curious about it. “Yes, she came here for a moment before getting back to your world,” Celestia replied with honesty. “I assume she told you about our current situation, right?” Luna was the one answering this time, “indeed, we are conscious of the delicate situation in which you are in my friend, we know you have one week before Ingrid has to close the portal to fix the problem.” Konata let out a contented sigh, “That’s good; at least I don’t have to explain it myself. Also there’s another thing I need to address, I need you to give me back the device I sent you Celestia, it’s not safe it was a bad idea to give you that thing.” “Why it is not safe, may I ask?” Celestia wondered why that could be. “It’s magical syntax is old to say the least it’s an obsolete model of magical vision, because of the poor coding on it, you can almost cross the space between one side and the other, that’s how Pinkie’s pebble was able to cross to where you were.” Konata stopped for a moment to look at Celestia with a disappointed stare, “by the way Celestia, laughing at me was rude, shame on you.” “Oh, so you noticed…” Celestia said with some guilt behind her words, she got a nod from Konata, “I apologize for my childish behavior back then.” Konata shrugged, “I won’t hold a grudge on you, knowing that you felt bad for it is enough for me. Anyways, where is the device? Is in the castle?” Celestia nodded, “Unfortunately that is correct, I was not sure if it was possible to return that device to its card form, so I just left it in my room before coming to Ponyville.” “Oh right… I forgot to tell you how to get it back to card form,” Konata giggled sheepishly while rubbing the back of her head with a hoof. Twilight rolled her eyes, but an idea came to her, “Konata, can I keep the old model that the Princess has?” This made Konata look at her with a raised eye brow, “well, I don’t mind that, but why do you want it?” Twilight collected her thoughts and explained, “Since it’s an obsolete model or so to speak, I figured it wouldn’t have any use whatsoever. Also there’s the fact that you gave me the newer model and I want to know more about your technology and magical procedures, that’s why I want it, so I can experiment with it and possibly learn something to make our own devices in the future.” “I don’t know how much you could learn from an old piece of technology like that,” she said frankly, “but if it makes you happy then you’re free to keep it, I would have just disposed of it anyways, so I think it serving some purpose is more productive in a way, go ahead.” Twilight smiled happily, “Thank you, but even when I’m just asking for it for experimenting and research, I promise you that I will take good care of it, it’s a gift from you after all.” Konata ruffled her mane playfully, “you’re a good friend Twilight, now can you give a minute with the princesses I have to talk to them of something personal.” “I would ask you about it, but you probably will mislead me to a wrong answer,” Twilight said with a smirk. Konata gave her a knowing smile, “you know me too well, now will you be so gentle,” she signaled for her to go outside, Twilight nodded and walked out closing the door behind her. Konata then focused her attention on the Princesses. “Is something wrong Lucky Star? What do you want to tell us?” Luna asked knowing quite well what Konata was probably going to say. “Look, I know you have an idea of what this is about. So I’m going to say this first,” she looked at them with a serene expression, “I’m not mad at you for looking at my past, so you don’t have to worry about it,” she smiled some but looked a little sad, “I just wasn’t ready to share that with you yet, I was going to at some point, but I think you understand that was a harsh time in my life,” she saw the empathy on both of them, “and for what I see Celestia knows about it as well,” she let out a sad sigh. The Princesses couldn’t help but feel bad for this; they felt like they invaded Lucky Star’s privacy. “We’re sorry for looking into your dreams without telling you Lucky Star, but I must inform you of something.” Luna’s expression turned into a serious one, “that dream… that nightmare, was forced on you.” Konata raised an eye brow, “what do you mean it was forced?” “We suspect that Nightmare Moon is behind your bad experience Lucky Star,” Luna admitted but wasn’t so proud of it since Nightmare Moon was once a part of her. “Wait wasn’t Nightmare Moon and you one and the same?” Konata asked from the limited knowledge she had about the topic. “That is correct my friend, it was like that until the Elements of Harmony banished her, since we thought her couldn’t do any damage anymore, but I felt her magical signature in your dream, Lucky Star. I don’t want to believe it but the evidence shows that Nightmare Moon is somewhere out there once again,” Luna frowned, “we don’t know how she did it, but she escaped her prison, but something strange is why did she targeted you and not anypony else.” Konata put a hoof on her chin and thought about the possibilities, “well, you got a point there, it’s weird that she targeted me, but didn’t anypony else had an induced nightmare these days?” “None, we haven’t found any other magic induced nightmares until yours last night, which could mean she returned very recently or has been hiding until this chance appeared for her, but like we said before it is strange to focus on you specifically, seeing as you two had no interaction to speak of,” Luna was still confused by Nightmare Moon’s motives. Konata sighed tiredly, “There’s never a moment of peace in my life isn’t,” she giggled some, “but I don’t think we should worry about it for now.” “What makes you think that Lucky Star?” Celestia was intrigued by this dismissing of an old foe. “For one, Nightmare Moon was defeated by the Elements of Harmony by what Luna and the windows in the castle shows, Twilight wasn’t even an alicorn back then according to the window itself. That tells me that Nightmare Moon’s power isn’t all that great outside of affecting dreams and turning them into nightmares, and now the Element bearers are at their strongest after their potential got released by Rinna’s magic,” Konata smiled, “there’s also another factor that will be available for you if anything happens,” she said confidently. This caught the princesses interest, “which factor are you speaking of, Lucky Star?” Celestia asked. Konata’s expression changed to a devious one, “well, you see. I have a plan…” she started. Twilight has been waiting patiently outside the room, wondering what Konata and the princesses could be talking about, it seemed important by the nice way Konata asked her to leave. Soon after, she saw Konata walking out of the room smiling and waving good bye before closing the door and facing her. “Did I take too long?” Konata asked innocently. “Not at all, I still can’t know what happened in there right?” Twilight tried to get information knowing what the answer was going to be. “Nope,” Konata said simply. Twilight smiled at her friend, “alright then, but what do you plan on doing from now on?” “I don’t know, would you help figure it out?” “Sure, I’m the only one free right now anyway so you don’t have many more options,” Twilight told her. “Uh? Why is that?” Konata asked. “Applejack went home to inform her family about her recovery, she will come back later to check on Big Mac, Pinkie went back to Sugar Cube Corner, Rainbow went home as well, I’m not sure about Rarity and Fluttershy decided to stay here to look after Rinna when she finishes feeding her animals,” Twilight explained. “And Spike?” “What about him?” “Is he busy too?” “No, he’s just taking care of the castle.” “Oh, ok then, let’s go and see what is there to do,” Konata signaled for Twilight to follow her. Bgm: My Tomorrow The first day of the final week the princesses were able to get out of the hospital they recovered enough to be discharged, everypony was at the entrance to cheer for them, they went back to Canterlot soon after. They promised to come back when Konata and company have to go back to their world, but they would be willing to aid in anything they could until then. On the second day, Konata visited Pinkie. The pink pony made her taste a cake she tried to replicate from Rinna, it was half decent way too sweet for her though, and she wasn’t afraid of telling Pinkie that, they expend the day together. Pinkie tried her best to perfect the recipe, she wanted to give one to Rinna when they go back home and Konata was there and “nicely” offered to be the testing subject for those attempts. On the third day, Rainbow went to Twilight’s castle to ask Konata if she wanted to hang out but she had to wait because they were busy looking for a certain book, being bored out of her mind she help them if just to finish that quickly and going outside to have some fun for the day. On the fourth day, just like Ingrid predicted Rinna recovered enough to be able to move by her own means again, Fluttershy who was there with her every single day kept by her side to aid her in anything she needed and not just her, Lyra who dropped the maid act was also there to help. Rarity didn’t tell anypony but she was working on a replacement for Rinna’s clothes, she asked for the old ones that got ruined by the blood loss she suffered so she could know Rinna’s measurements. She worked non-stop to get them ready for when Rinna was able to get out of the hospital and fortunately she did so her friend wouldn’t have to walk around on an improvised hospital gown. Rinna stayed with Konata in Twilight’s castle, Tailmon didn’t go to the castle but was close by just in case. On the fifth day, the Element bearers planned an outing for Rinna most specifically a picnic they could’ve reunited the day before but since she just got out of the hospital they wanted her to rest in a comfortable place and not push herself too much. Thankfully she was better that day, she even cook some food as well, the ponies were shocked to know that Konata also knew how to cook, it wasn’t gourmet level mind you but it was ok. The sixth day was an uneventful one; everypony did what they should for the day. Konata noticed the damage that Ponyville took was fully repaired that morning, at some point during the afternoon Konata sent a letter to the princesses to reunite with the group, to have some serious talk about the plan she had, she even used the Magical Vision she gave Twilight so they could talk with her mother about it, the meeting prolonged until almost midnight before everypony went home satisfied with the decision. Tailmon could’ve been in there but decided not to because she didn’t wanted to be around the ponies too much, specially the group that she beat up, so she just stayed in the tree she was until the next which would be the final day of her being in that world. Finally the seventh day came; Ingrid came early in the morning to make sure the ones who had to go back really remembered to get back; after all they didn’t have the time anymore. The entire group was present at the portal for this occasion. Pinkie was hugging Rinna tightly with tears on her eyes, “please come back soon Riny, I didn’t even have the chance to throw you a party yet.” “I’ll be back as soon as I can myu,” Rinna returned the hug. “It will feel quite lonely with you two here after all we went through,” Twilight said with a sad smile. “Don’t feel bad Twi, its Ini’s fault for making such weak portals,” Konata said placing a supporting hoof on Twilight’s back after getting closer. Ingrid ignored her and crossed the portal to keep it open from the other side. “You better keep your promise though,” Rainbow said with a smirk to Konata. “I will, don’t worry about that. But I won’t go easy on you either, if you want to get there then you have to be ready,” Konata responded with the same smirk. “Oh, don’t you dare ruining this moment you two,” Rarity warned them. “Sorry mom,” they both said, earning a light hearted laugh from everypony. Rarity didn’t took it the bad way though, “that’s right, listen to mommy and you will be respectable ladies one day, sweeties.” “Wow there Rares, that’s a little too much immersion right there, don’t ya think?” AJ said feeling a little uncomfortable. “Sorry ta bother ya when yer about ta leave sugarcube,” she said this to Rinna. “Don’t worry myu, I wouldn’t want it any other way,” Rinna said sincerely. “I think I’ll be heading in first Rinna, don’t take too much time though because Ini will be getting annoying quite fast otherwise,” Konata shivered at the idea of having to tolerate an annoying Ingrid. Fluttershy stopped her for a moment her tear up eyes giving her a heart breaking expression but she tried to smile, “can you like say hi to Shana for me… if you don’t mind that is.” Konata nodded to her with a smile, “I will.” “Oh before you go Koni,” Pinkie stopped hug crushing Rinna and took out a gift box, “take this with you, I practiced a lot I hope you like them,” she said with a forced happy smile. Konata knew that Pinkie was forcing herself to smile so she gave her a quick hug before carrying the box on her back, “I’ll miss you guys too, see you later I think, I have to go before you made me cry as well and I don’t want an eye sore before getting home,” she joked before going into the portal. The ponies didn’t notice the tears on her eyes. “Well, I think that this is it Rinna,” Celestia started, “again I’m sorry for making you go through all that happened a week ago, it was my bad judgment that provoked that.” “You shouldn’t be so harsh on yourself, dear sister,” Luna added, “besides young Rinna knows there’s nothing to be forgiven about.” “Luna is right, there’s nothing to be sorry about myu, what happened wasn’t anypony’s fault,” Rinna tried to keep a straight face but her eyes were watering beyond helping. Moments after everypony shared a group hug. Finally Rinna faced the portal what will get her back home with tears going down her cheeks; she was going to miss her pony friends as much as they will miss them. “Good bye Rinna/Riny!” the ponies said in unison. Facing them for the last time with the happiest expression she could afford at the moment Rinna said, “This is not good bye my friends, this is just farewell myu,” this was the last thing she said before stepping into the portal. Waiting for her on the other side were all her friends and family from Álfheimr, she rushed to them with the still fresh tears in her eyes. Konata hugged her, and they both saw the portal finally closing, blocking the way to Equestria for now. They wanted all of them to come over and be friends with everyone else too but that would’ve selfish of them, still they didn’t lose hope because they would see them again at some point, so with one last smile they waved at the little residue of magic left and with new found optimism they said, “Thank you!” This adventure had a deep impact in all parties involved, lessons were learned, friends were made as well as foes and overall everyone improved at a personal level. All of them were wishing to be together once again, this time probably on more peaceful terms. But until then the happy memories they shared will keep them company until that faithful day finally comes. The End…