Studies Into the Magic of Friendship
Theories
Akuma had been very bored lately. This wasn’t unusual, as most fighters he found to be far beneath him in skill, but at least fighting them was something to do. For the last few months, it seemed that whenever he had traveled to find a specific fighter, they were gone. It seems that the word had gotten out about his quest and the people unfortunate enough to garner his attention. Some opponents lived and some didn’t. It didn’t really matter. If his opponent still had the will to fight, Akuma would not relent.
Through his travels, he had heard of a relatively new dojo in Hong Kong that had only been opened a few years ago. It boasted that it’s master created and taught Saikyo-ryu, the Strongest Style. While he seriously doubted it could live up to it’s reputation, he was in desperate need of a fight, so he boarded a plane in Tokyo and was on his way to test the Saikyo Dojo.
Even with all the friendship reports Twilight sparkle had written to Princess Celestia about the Magic of Friendship, she still felt like she knew next to nothing about it . Lately, she had been thinking back to the night four years ago when she and her new friends had physically manifested the Elements of Harmony using nothing more than the force of will, or so she had believed at the time. That was only a part of it. She had lately began speculating that there was a difference between the magic of friendship that she had been writing to the Princess about and the Magic of Friendship that allowed the impossible. When they summoned and claimed the Elements, not a single one of them did it for themselves. The prime concern among them all was to protect their friends through any mean necessary. It was through this intense feeling of love and desperation that they we able to access the hidden and potent magic of Friendship. If this was true, that would make the Magic of Friendship some sort of love triggered magical adrenaline.
This theory excited Twilight. It would explain so much! The time she managed to lift an Ursa Minor and a water tower at once, the time Fluttershy learned her Stare, the time Rainbow Dash accidentally unleashed a Sonic Rainboom to save Rarity after failing to replicate her childhood stunts dozens of times. Sometimes it was a permanent unlocking of potential, sometimes it was a brief surge of power, and sometimes a mix. Before her alicorn ascension and the dramatic rise in magical ability it bestowed upon her, her magic had been noticeably stronger since the ursa incident. She probably couldn’t have just replicated the feat on a whim, but there was no question that she could cast more spells for longer periods of time. This demanded research! But, who would’ve taken something as the Magic of Friendship serious enough to write a book on it? Perhaps there were books on the subject on hidden potentials that she could reference on the subject.
Finished with her morning theorizing, the alicorn rolled out of bed and walked over to Spike’s basket with a strange amount of pep considering how early it was. “Get up, Spike.” Twilight said “It’s time for research!”
Spike groggily opened his eyes and moaned when he saw the excited look on Twilight’s face. Today was going to be one of those days.
Dan Hibiki was in good spirits today. He was in the open aired training area of his dojo with his favorite (and only) student Sakura Kusagano, and his best friend James Blanka, or as Dan prefered to call him, Jimmy. Even though Jimmy couldn’t participate in the current exercise Dan and Sakura was working on, he was just happy to spend time with his friends, and Dan could tell. He knew it was difficult for Jimmy to make friends with normal adults. After all, you can hardly blame people for being slightly put by the 6’3 green man with bright orange hair and an animalistic appearance. Luckily for Jimmy, children tended to more trusting and most would warm up to him after they got to know him. Since Jimmy spent the majority of his life alone in a Brazilian jungle due to a childhood plane crash, he was very much a child inside a giant beast-man’s body.
Today, Dan and Sakura were scheduled for practice with their energy projectile techniques. “Okay Sakura,” Dan began, “today we are going to begin with a quick review on the concept of using an energy technique. Every human possesses this ability, but few can access it. This is because it takes self control, focus, willpower, and the stamina to make it practical. If anyone of these traits is not your strong suit, you can attempt to make up for it with an excess of another. Now, ARE YOU READY TO SHOW ME WHAT YOU’VE LEARNED?”
“Yes, sir, Dan, sir!” Yelled with an enthusiastic smile on her face.
They began their training totally ignorant of the watchful eyes upon them.
It turns out that there was little to no reliable data on the subject of the Magic of Friendship. Her samples were few and the cause behind them unconfirmed. This not how a scientific mind works. She needed more data, but how? As she was sifting through the piles of books she had pulled from her shelves one caught her eye. Practical and fun Applications for Scrying, by Peeping Tom. That was when it all clicked.
Twilight went to where she kept the Elements of Harmony and donned the terribly tacky tiara she had a hand in creating on the night of the Summer Sun Celebration four years ago. Being literally constructed of a pure and very distinct type of magic, Twilight was able to cast a conditional scrying spell that would be constantly searching for any similar magic and automatically scry that location if it detected any. She could handle the constant slow drain on her stamina, what she wasn’t looking forward to was having to wear the tiara all the time. She hated it when people treated her like a princess.
Akuma was approaching the Saikyo Dojo when he heard voices in the back training yard. Deciding to see just what kind of the training this “Strongest Style” consisted of, he lept to the roof of the building to observe. There was a slightly flabby yet muscular man of average build with a ponytail and a pink gi giving a lecture on energy techniques to a teenage girl in sweats. Then he noticed a green beast-man sitting on the ground with a content smile on his face. What an odd group. As he listened to the man in pink teach his student, it became painfully obvious that he knew the bare minimum when it came to the subject. Perhaps he was starting his student with just the basics so as not overwhelm. “-ARE YOU READY TO SHOW ME WHAT YOU’VE LEARNED?!” the teacher yelled in a poor impersonation of a drill sergeant.
“Sir, yes, Dan, sir!”, the student eagerly replied. She was obviously easily impressed.
What followed next was a pathetic display. The instructor launched his one handed projectile at most eight feet. It seemed to have decent power behind it, but it was pathetic and slow. The student wasn’t much better. She took the traditional pose and used both hands. Her projectile was even more small and pathetic, but at least went about 30 feet before dissipating. The girl at least had a decent excuse for this travesty called an attack. She was young and had time to develop. She reminded him of Ryu, the man he had been teaching his Satsui no Hado to before Gouken, Akuma’s brother and Ryu’s master, locked Ryu’s access to the darkness in his heart. It was infuriating. Akuma was finally going to have a rival worth fighting after training Ryu. Perhaps he could do the same for this girl? With that thought he jumped down into the field with uncharacteristic grin on his face.
As Dan threw yet another Gadoken, he heard something land behind him. It was a man in a black gi with dark skin and red eyes. He looked happy about something. Wait, he might be a new student! “Heya, buddy. My name’s Dan and I run this dojo. You’re here to join rig-”
“SILENCE! I have no interest in pathetic fools!” The newcomer turned and looked at Sakura. “You are coming with me.” He began walking forward.
“Wh- what?” Sakura said as she slowly back peddled. “Why would I do that” She continued walking back until her back hit the wall of the training yard. The man kept coming.
She didn’t know what to do. She wasn’t a coward, but the way this guy felt. It was impossible to describe and it terrified her. She was about to consider climbing the wall when she saw Dan charge the man. Faster than she thought possible, her teacher was elbowed on the forehead, and had his legs swept from under him. What came next was a sickening crunch as the man stomped hard on Dan’s rib cage. Sakura was sure her teacher was knocked out, but as soon as he was stomped he could do nothing but scream and gasp for air.
What came next was an ear piercing and inhuman yell coming from James. Sakura turned to look at him. His face was pure unadulterated hatred. He took off as a green blur of savagery intent on causing the thing that hurt his friend to stop existing. Without looking, the man turned and grabbed Blanka with one arm and spun with his attackers momentum to throw him through the stone wall right next to Sakura. She panicked and ran through the wall to find that not only had Blanka been thrown through the wall, but across the street and throw the window of an antique shop. She ran to see if Blanka was alright. Her eyes shot wide as she saw him lying there glass sticking out him and covered in blood. He wasn’t conscious, but seemed to be breathing. She turned back to the hole in the wall to see the man walking towards her.
Dan’s whole world was pain. The pain of knowing that his student and best friend were in trouble, the pain of not being able to breathe and the pain of having a concussion, a bruised tailbone, and a number of broken and fractured ribs. He managed to move his arms above his head. It helped with the breathing a bit. Barely able to move he was left with his thoughts.
Why is this happening? This is ridiculous! That guy isn’t human! It’s not his strength, it’s his vibe. It just feels… I have no idea what it feels like, but it’s not right. How is he even able to stay sane with something like that? AHH! I don’t have time to think about this. I have to move! He rolled over and used his arms to push himself up to one knee. He wiped the blood out of his eyes from his head wound and coughed up some blood. This hurts too much. It’ll be a miracle if I can even stand. What’s the point? Even at my best, this guy is leagues above anything I’ve seen before. This is even worse than when dad was killed. At least that was over something tangible and real like money. This is pointless! No, I’m not going through that again. The people I love aren’t going to be hurt again.
Through some sort of miracle, Dan managed to get to his feet. His everything hurt and he could barely breathe. Still, something was strange. He felt...good? Confident? It didn’t make any sense. Things were slowing down. He saw the man that would harm his friends through the whole in his wall, walking across the street at a snails pace. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and moved.
Twilight sat in her library doing some light pre-lunch reading on the Second Griffon War, waiting for Spike to finish cooking some hay fri sandwiches when her horn lit up. She felt her magic draining her energy, much more than she expected the scrying spell to consume. It must be pretty far. She sat down as her horn projected the event into the air in front of her.
Dan ran up to the man as fast as he could, his expression blank. He had no focus to waste on facial muscles. He unleashed a flurry of rapid blows. It was so fast that it wasn’t until the fourth blow that man seemed to even comprehend what was happening. After over a dozen of the strikes, Dan bent down and jumped fist first into the now not so scary man’s jaw. It was Dan’s signature uppercut, the Koryuken. The man flew into air and landed back in the dojo’s training yard.
As Akuma was sent flying through the air, he couldn’t help but be just a little happy. A cracked jaw and a few broken ribs was a small price for a worthy opponent. So, this fool hides his true power? Why wait until now to use it? Time to take this seriously.
Just before hitting the ground, Akuma rolled and lessened most of the impact. Stood up and smashed a hole in the wall and walked through. “It seems you may in fact be worth my of time. I am Akuma. You deserve to know the name of the man that is about to defeat you.” Akuma brought both of his hands to his side and gathered every bit of energy he had. “It’s time to show you what true power is.”
Dan positioned himself between Akuma and his friends and it had to stay that way. There’s no reasoning with this lunatic, only surviving. Dan had been wordlessly listening to Akuma knowing that nothing he could say would matter. Akuma was going to to attack Dan and his friends, that’s all he needed to know. When he noticed Akuma building a massive amount of energy, Dan knew he had no choice. His energy techniques may be useless for countering this attack, but maybe he could defend.Wasting no more time he spread his arms and gathered as much energy as he could in each hand
Twilight was having a hard time comprehending what she was seeing. These two creatures fighting looked similar to the humans she had encountered on her mission to retrieve the Element of Magic, but their body proportions were different. It was clear that the pink one was trying to defend the other two. One of them was covered in blood and glass and wasn’t moving, while the other appeared too terrified to move as if she were channeling a certain yellow pegasus. Probably it’s friends. It must be tapping into the Magic of Friendship. She used her magic to grab a quill and paper and began to take notes.
Dan was trying to make the most of his time. The more he had the better this would work. He was going to wait until the last possible second. In his world, there was only his energy and Akuma. He was watching for any muscle twitches that suggested attack. He was searching his entire being to find as much energy to find as much energy as he could. The amount of Dan’s energy had never been small, quite the contrary. He had high reserves of energy from his mixture of good genetics and a life or martial arts. Still, what he found baffled him. There was an extraordinary amount of energy coursing through his body that he didn’t have time question. It was more than enough for what he needed, the only challenge was going to be maintaining control on a modified version of a technique he had yet to perfect. No problem.
Dan saw Akuma give a small smirk and pull his arms even farther back. Here it comes. Dan clapped his hands together with a deafening amount of force and connected the energy together. He slowly as he had time for pulled them apart as he stretched energy out to form his Hoah Gadoken. The next part was the hard part. He maintained it. It was a projectile, not a barrier. It took every ounce of concentration to keep that up. “DIE!” Was all he heard when he felt Akuma’s projectile connect.
Both of their energies were holding, but Dan could feel it tainting his own. It felt of pure hate and rage. He could feel the unnerving blood lust in the attack. The skin of his hands was burning, but he held.
“This is out of control! I have to help!” Twilight was panicking. How? I don’t even know where they are! Okay, okay. There’s always an answer... Summoning! “Spike!” Twilight yelled to the purple dragon cleaning up the kitchen.
“Yeah, Twilight?” Said Spike.
“I want you to grab your letter writing materials, write a letter to Princess Celestia telling her that I am about to summon strange creatures here. They are potentially dangerous and will be in need of medical care. Write the letter and go wait at Rarity’s. Got it?”
“Well not rea-” Spike never got to finish as Twilight grabbed his bag, filled it with his things and threw him out the door.
Dan knew he was out of time. He was no good at energy techniques and was already way past his limit. Energy attacks were not meant to be held onto and it hurt. He could feel his skin searing and it was interrupting his focus. There was only one thing left to do, use the weakness of his own attack to buy himself an extra few seconds in the hope that Akuma’s energy projectile would fizzle out before it hit him or at least stop once it hit him. He let his Hoah Gadoken go and, like usual, the force blew him back. He landed on the glass shards in front of Sakura and Blanka and scrambled to cover them with his body before he blacked out.
Author's Note
This is my first work of fanfiction, so I decided to combine two things I love. MLP and Street Fighter. Please give me any constructive criticism and opinions you have on it. I have a rough outline in my head of where this story is going and I'm going to do my best to make sure it continues.
Edit Notes: Fixed a couple mistakes and slightly changed the story to account for Equestria Girls.
