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Post by DM: Dersite Merchant on Oct 10, 2011 23:55:35 GMT -5
Spike watched as Fluttershy prepared and poured out the soup for everyone. Given he'd lived with ponies all his life, her dexterity with her mouth was nothing new to him at all. The baby dragon eagerly licked his lips, taking in a good whiff of their meal. That's when he heard Patchouli calling Rainbow Dash over to her. He had pretty good hearing and, though he wasn't exactly trying to listen in, could make out snippets of they said.
Leaning over to Fluttershy, he asked quietly, "Have you noticed how much that girl--'Patchy'--is similar to Twilight? ...Especially before she came to Ponyville..." Musing on their old life, he recalled, "She was so withdrawn when we lived in Canterlot. Always cooping herself up in the library spending all her free time on studies, brushing off any invites to get-togethers..." With a soft chuckle, he added, "It took nothing short of a direct order from Princess Celestia to get her to actually go out and be social." Even from his earliest years, the purple hatchling felt something wrong about his mentor's reclusiveness.
When it looked like Fluttershy was just about finished pouring bowls, Spike silently offered to help by carrying them over to the table for everybody.
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Post by shiftyPotentate on Oct 11, 2011 16:01:53 GMT -5
"I did notice. Even her hair looks like Twilight's mane a little," she noted, glad for Spike's help. She carefully carried a bowl out with him, letting him get a few of the rest. She went back and grabbed the last few, dutifully serving up for all the guests. When she finished, she sat beside Spike and decided to talk to him a little.
"Twilight never really told us much about Canterlot... could you, um, perhaps tell me a little bit more about it?" she asked.
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Post by ShadesofGrey18 on Oct 11, 2011 19:40:10 GMT -5
Michael, Marisa, and Alice calmed down; Michael had to catch his breath a little. Afterwards, though, he said, "...Yeah. Sorry 'bout that, Patchy. The you back in our Gensokyo is such a stick-in-the-mud and a know-it-all sometimes; we do that to keep her from getting too big a head."
Marisa's eyes widened slightly as she realized something. "...Crud. Alice, that stuff of ours was gonna come in today!"
Alice responded, "Ah! Really?!" Shanghai flew into the room holding two thermoses. "I'm terribly sorry, Miss... Fluttershy, was it? While we'd like to stay and talk, we don't have time. Marisa and I have some materials we've been waiting for; we have to go and get them. We probably won't be back until later, so until then..."
The two of them took the metal containers, filled them, dashed outside, and flew off in a hurry.
Meanwhile, in another part of the forest, another girl stirred. "Haaah... well, better get goin'. They're somewhere around here, I'm sure of it."
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Post by Felix Falora on Oct 12, 2011 20:56:13 GMT -5
Patchouli blinked. "If I, in your universe, am an egotist, then something is clearly wrong. I stay in my library to study because I don't know everything... and that has to be fixed."
"You know... you could learn more if you went outside and actually got to know people a bit," Rainbow offered.
"I am not one of your people. The differences in our worlds are staggering, Rainbow, and I would advise you against comparing Equestria to Gensokyo as, even at the end of the day, when all incidents are resolved, there isn't much similar about them," Patchouli replied.
"Are you certain of that, Patchouli-sama?" Meiling asked hesitantly.
"More sure of it then I am about the properties of your tea." Patchouli only offered a light smile in regards to that comment. "Now let's put all the joking aside and get to work on brainstorming some possible techniques for Rainbow here. She's got a long way to go and we haven't been making much leeway after the discovery of her friends here."
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Post by DM: Dersite Merchant on Oct 12, 2011 21:51:36 GMT -5
Spike set down the first few bowls at the table and shrugged before going for more. "About Canterlot? Eh... Not all that much to say," he remarked. "It's mostly a unicorn society, so everything maintained by magic. Not like Ponyville, where you guys even change the seasons manually. Being the capital, the place can be pretty high-class and aristocratic... kinda stuffy if you ask me; those stuck-up socialites you girls met at the gala actually aren't much worse than a lot of other people around Canterlot."
He smiled a little adding, "Still, there are at least some Canterlotians who are nicer and down-to-earth than the others... Mr. and Mrs. Sparkle, for example, and we always got along great with Pony Joe at the donut shop," he mused.
As he and Fluttershy talked, he couldn't help but keep hearing the over conversation going on. At this point, he could no longer help but cut his conversation with the animal caretaker short and join in on theirs.
"You know..." he began, speaking to Patchouli, "You remind me a lot of my good friend Twilight Sparkle, both in the way you look and act... There was once a time when Twilight dedicated all her time to learning and studying as much as she could about... basically anything, especially magic. Whenever she wasn't out to eat or buy supplies or reporting to her school board or the princess herself, Twilight would always shut herself in her room or the library to read. She was afraid getting too involved with the outside world or anypony else would cause more harm than good and that going out and making friends wouldn't really serve any purpose."
Spike thought back to the day all that changed and the look on Twilight's face when she heard him reading Celestia's letter to her. You know that I value your diligence and that I trust you completely, but you simply must stop reading those dusty old books. "When Princess Celestia sent her to supervise the Summer Sun Celebration in Ponyville and make friends while she was there, she thought all that socializing was just a waste of her time and tried pushing everyone away. But the more she and her new friends worked together," he passed a quick glance at Rainbow and Fluttershy each, two of the five said friends, as he continued, "she realized how much those friendships meant to her. And as she continued to live out in the real world with her new friends, she learned so much more from experience than she would've from books alone. In fact..." He smiled warmly and closed his eyes, thinking of their life in the cheery village. "I don't think I've ever seen her happier than when she became a citizen of Ponyville..."
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Post by shiftyPotentate on Oct 12, 2011 22:37:57 GMT -5
Fluttershy smiled, it made sense. The ponies at the gala, even though she spent most of it outside, had seemed very uptight and refined. She was glad Mr. and Mrs. Sparkle had been less than stuck-up, especially with how they raised Twilight.
She waved lightly to Marisa and Alice as they realized they had to leave. She realized, then, that she still didn't know their names.
As she looked out to the woods, Fluttershy felt a growing sense of anxiety. She had a bad feeling that something was going to happen. It wasn't as potent as Pinkie Pie's sense, but she could still feel it.
She instead tried to distract herself by listening to Spike's conversation with Patchouli, the Twilight look-a-like. She mused that if Patchy were a pony she could very well be Twilight's sister. A long lost sister who was of another species? It was possible...
But she kept these thoughts to herself, she didn't dare raise them in the public discussion.
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Post by ShadesofGrey18 on Oct 12, 2011 22:47:02 GMT -5
Michael sighed at Marisa and Alice's sudden departure. "Haah... Marisa... Alice... you two are always rushing around, aren't you." Michael then grabbed his bowl of soup, saying "I think I'll eat outside; it's nice enough. You want to join me?" Michael then walked outside; while he didn't outwardly show it, he was slightly tensed; after all, one could never be too careful.
In the other part of the forest, the other girl (known to those beyond the fourth wall as Mokou) was walking through the forest, muttering to herself, "I think I've passed that same damn tree three times now! This place is almost as bad as the Bamboo Forest of the Lost! ...I gotta be getting close, I just gotta be."
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Post by Felix Falora on Oct 12, 2011 23:23:30 GMT -5
The darkness of the forest was not lost on him. What was, however, was the last time he actually destroyed something. After that stupid boy tried to enslave me, ME, of all people... I'll show them all! I AM THE GOD here! And everyone on this worthless island is going to die! The jester's eyes stared out from the darkest overgrowth and he grinned with delight as he saw the house. Oh goody! Something for me to tear to shreds! I hope the owners are home! It wouldn't be a party without some bodies to fry!
Patchouli's eyes widened as a sudden surge of magical energy filled her. Rapidly standing, she was definitely out of character when she literally yelled, "Everyone out of the house now!" Meiling was not one to question one higher up then her and decided it would be best to heed her. Grabbing Spike and Fluttershy, because she was stronger physically then in danmaku, she jumped out.
"Hey, what's going..." Rainbow started. A sudden burst of energy crashed through the house, representing a beam of sorts. Rainbow had been knocked away by a wind spell of sorts that Patchouli had cast, but Patchouli herself did not escape the falling debris from the ceiling. "Patch!" Rainbow charged on over and began to move smaller bits of debris with her mouth. "Patch, hang in there!"
"Goody! Only one of you was caught in the blast!" Rainbow's head turned up to face the cackling jester as he floated in the air. "After all... it'd be such a shame if it ended so quickly! We have so much time to kill and plenty of ways to kill you with."
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Post by DM: Dersite Merchant on Oct 12, 2011 23:46:13 GMT -5
An off guard Spike was about to make a surprised quip about how Patchy didn't really need to be that eager to start getting some outside world experience when he was suddenly grabbed and hauled out of the house.
"Huh? What are you...?" the stunned dragon was just starting to ask when a giant magical blast blew up the house!
Spike's heart nearly jumped out of his throat, and Rainbow charged into the wreckage to try saving Patchouli. That's when they heard the sinister being above them. Spike looked up to see a bizarre looking human (at least going by the few he'd seen so far as reference) dressed in an equally bizarre brightly multicolored jester outfit.
"Who's Mr. Tall, Bright, and Creepy?" he asked quietly, having a pretty bad feeling saying something like that loud enough for him to hear would be suicide.
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Post by shiftyPotentate on Oct 12, 2011 23:54:37 GMT -5
The pale yellow pegasus pony yelped as she was pulled out of the house, and saw it get blasted apart right in front of her eyes. If it weren't for Meiling...
But Rainbow Dash and the other one are still inside! she realized. She wiggled free of her rescuer's grip and hurried back inside, helping Rainbow Dash clear away the debris. "Rainbow Dash, are you all right?" she asked, in between mouthfuls of crumbled wall. She didn't know what kind of enemy they were facing but she couldn't leave her best friend behind, and certainly not an innocent person trapped.
She tried not to look at or think about the scary human who'd done this and instead focus on the job at hand.
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Post by ShadesofGrey18 on Oct 13, 2011 0:01:01 GMT -5
As Michael was heading outside, he heard Patchouli shout; as he turned to see what was going on, he was knocked over by Meiling. He started to shout "What the he-" but was quickly silenced by the blast of light that tore through the house. It would repair itself after a while (thanks to Marisa and Alice's enchantments) but Michael wondered for a few brief seconds who could've packed that much power.
When he heard the voice, his eyes widened. He said to himself under his breath, "O-oh. Oh... fuck." Looking up, Michael saw Kefka Palazzo in all his insanity. Standing up, Michael said, "H-how did he get here?!" Smacking some sense back into himself, Michael flew up and said, "What are you doing here, Palazzo?!" Michael prepped his Spellcards, fully expecting a fight. Michael said to himself, "I can't let him hurt my friends, I just can't."
Meanwhile, in the other part of the forest, Mokou noticed the blast of magical energy. "That must be it! ...That didn't sound good at all; I gotta hurry!" Mokou sprinted towards the location of the blast, praying that she wouldn't be too late.
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Post by Felix Falora on Oct 13, 2011 0:09:14 GMT -5
Kefka looked down at the two Pegasi trying to save their beloved friend and grinned widely. At Michael's question, he took on a bit of a normal tone. "Oh, nothing much. Flying around, taking in the sights, and..." His tone upon the last words resumed its insanity. "MAKING SOME NICE, TASTY PEGASICLES!" With a laugh, he cast Blizzaga at Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash.
"Huh?! Ahhh, Fluttershy!" Quickly, Rainbow butted Fluttershy away, but took too much time doing this that the spell hit her. Her whole body was frozen and she looked to be fully conscience while trapped inside. The debris, meanwhile, glowed and shattered as Patchouli began to float into the air.
"Oh goody! It looks like the purple one is still kicking!" The jester's grin widened as he watched Patchouli float up to his level. "What'cha gonna do? Fire those little bullets of yours at me?"
"Kefka Palazzo... you are going to pay." A pentagram formed under Patchouli. "Meiling, release your limitations. Michael, if anyone in your universe could release the Hakurei limitations on their powers in your universe, I suggest you do it now. We're going to use lethal force upon this worthless jester."
"Yes Patchouli-sama!" A pentagram also formed under Meiling. She changed dramatically as her body began to glow, chi radiating all around her.
"Oh no! Three useless mortals are going to try and actually attack me! Oh, I'm so scared, whatever shall I do?!" At this point, Kefka was just mocking them. His ego blinded him to any thoughts that they could ever truely defeat him.
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Post by DM: Dersite Merchant on Oct 13, 2011 0:24:40 GMT -5
"Rainbow Dash!" yelped Spike. He scrambled over to the frozen ice-encrusted pegasus once he saw that Kefka's attention was drawn by Patchouli.
The baby dragon looked the frozen casing over, looking Rainbow in the eye through the ice as he assured her, "Don't worry... I get you outta there..." With that, he took a deep breath, and breathed a small, short stream of fire at the ice. There was some visible shimmering, but it was clear he was barely leaving so much as a dent. He paused for a moment to pant a little and add wearily, "...eventually..."
It was clear from what he has hearing around him that the fan had definitely been struck by bowel movement. This guy was serious business... and in a way, even though he only met him briefly while subbing for the very pegasus he was trying to defrost, kind of reminded him of a certain spirit of chaos. Only possibly more sadistic.
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Post by shiftyPotentate on Oct 13, 2011 0:59:27 GMT -5
Flutterdash yelped as she was shoved out of the way, falling over on the ground. She looked up and saw, with horror, that Rainbow Dash had been frozen solid.
"Rainbow Dash!!" she exclaimed, almost as loud as she'd ever been. She frantically tried to chip away at the ice in a desperate attempt to save her friend. The situation had spiralled out of control incredibly quickly, and Fluttershy had never been so scared in her life. Even the giant dragon had been easier than this.
But she also knew that her friend was in danger. So she could not give up. "Spike, can you keep trying to... thaw her out? I don't think there's much that I can contribute..." At an affirmative from the baby dragon, she turned back to Kefka, her fears pushed aside for the moment.
"I don't know what happened to you to make you behave so rudely," she scolded him, "but this is no way to treat innocent people! Especially not my friends!" She flew up to his level, hovering with her wings in front of him (though still at a slight distance). "Just because you can use magic like that doesn't make it okay to use it in a harmful way, mister!" She gestured down to Rainbow Dash. "I want you to make this right. I can forgive a little temper tantrum as long as you make it right again. Okay?" she offered diplomatically.
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Post by ShadesofGrey18 on Oct 13, 2011 1:06:57 GMT -5
When the spell hit Rainbow, Michael shouted, "Oh no! Rainbow!" Glaring at Kefka, he merely nodded to Patchouli. Flipping a phone out of his pocket, he spoke merely four words into it. "Yukari, break my limits."
With a shattering sound, Michael's power rose exponentially as he started to glow. With a flash, he Synced. As klaxons blared, a song started to play.
As the flash faded, Michael's changed appearance could be seen. He now had a flowing cape behind him and a grey eye on his chest. His right foot was encased in metal and his left foot had atoms spinning around it. To complete the image, Michael's right arm was armed with an octagonal device, orange in color. The major difference between this Sync and the others was this: the borrowed objects were completely solid.
As Fluttershy flew up to Kefka, Michael shouted "No! Fluttershy, get away from him! The Stare won't work on him; he's insane!"
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