Straight Shot: Expanding the World!by WozWuzHereChaptersChapter 1- Advent of the PhoenixChapter 2 - Point and ShootChapter 3- Ups and DownsChapter 1- Advent of the PhoenixStraight Shot "Advent of the Phoenix" Reality can be really weird when it wants to be. This morning, I got up, showered, dressed, and went about what I usually do during my day. Which is to say a whole lot of nothing, as today was my day off. I didn't feel like dealing with reality today. "...kinda wish that reality avoidance wasn't so BORING though." I muttered to myself, readjusting my gaze on my laptop. Some would say that I should go find some friends, or even a girlfriend...I do have friends, but they have very heavy work schedules. As for the girlfriend thing...yeah, I'm not opening THAT can of worms right now. At the very least, I wish someone needed me. I wish I could do something to help someone right now. That'd be the best use of this free time, I think. I mean, it would cure my boredom, sure, but I just genuinely enjoy helping others...maybe a bit too much admittedly, my "hero habits" have gotten me injured more than once. Still... *Bibi-beep!* "Hm?" The noise was an indicator that I had received an e-mail...which is probably spam, since no one ever e-mails me. "Well, no harm in looking." The message itself listed as from "Phoenix", at a very strange e-mail domain. "phoenixthermal@reality.grd? The hell?" I contemplated on whether I should click this or not...aw, the hell with it, I can run the anti-virus after. I opened the message...and then started to feel like I'd been hit with an industrial-strength tranquilizer dart. I started to drift off... "...Claus..." I heard an unfamilar voice calling me. Was this a dream...? "Hey, Claus! Rise and shine!" I opened my eyes to find myself drifting in what appeared to be outer space. "What the he-" It was then I realized that I could breathe and talk normally. I may not know THAT much about space, but I do know humans need to breathe air to live- something the vacuum of space normally LACKS. I then looked around...imagine how surprised I was when I found myself floating near a giant flaming eagle. I spent the next minute trying to form whole words. "I...but...what...you...why...?" The hot bird appeared to roll its eyes at me, to which I scowled a bit. "Hey, it's not polite to roll your eyes at someone like that, bird-brain." "Bird-brain, huh? Gee, I don't get called THAT often." The big burning bird snarked back. "So, initial barbs aside, can you maybe explain WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON BEFORE I HAVE AN ANEURYSM TRYING TO FIGURE IT OUT!?" The bird-thing stuck its wing over its face in a manner that looked like the archetypical "facepalm". Well, in this case, "facewing", but that's semantics. "Alright, Claus, just calm down and I'll explain. I called you here." I raised an eyebrow at two noticeable details. First, how did this thing know my name, and why did it "call me"? "Oh I know your name alright." Well that explains- wait a minute, did it just read my mind!? "I have a name you know. I'm the Abstract Spirit of Fire and Heat, Phoenix." "Abstract...what?" Well, Abstract is one way to describe all this, that's for sure... Phoenix cupped his head in his wing again, seemingly flustered at trying to explain this. "Basically, Abstract Spirits are sort of embodiments of various things in the universe. For instance, I embody thermal energy." ...so he's like the patron saint of space heaters? "So are there more Spirits like you?" Phoenix nodded. "Yes there are. In fact, that's part of the reason why I pulled you here. I need your help." I was confused of course. KFC incarnate needed my help? "Well, I'd like to help, but what do you need help with, and why do you need me?" I noticed Phoenix's expression turn grim. "My baby sister and her friends are in danger." Phoenix definitely had my attention now. "Danger how? Is this sister of yours another spirit?" Phoenix nodded. "My sister and her friends are a set of 6 Spirits that go by the group name "The Elements of Harmony"." "That's kind of corny." I quipped. "BE THAT AS IT MAY," Phoenix raised his voice with a noticeable indignation, but I could tell he was chortling a bit. "These Elements are being threatened by something...something extremely sinister and alien." "Right, dark nebulous force threatening the land." This whole situation was starting to read like a checklist of cliches. "...and I need you to help me stop it." And there was the clincher. "Why do you need me? You're a giant flaming bird! Can't you just, burn them to death or gouge their eyes out or leave incendiary bird craps on their car or something?" "If only it were that simple...and I only did the bird crap thing once, thank you!" I relented a bit so Phoenix could explain himself. "Well, you're right that I am powerful, but this...entity seems to be able to block me from getting close to it, or where my sister is. However, if I empower a mortal to use my abilities, such as yourself..." "...I can help your sister in your place, bypassing the issue." Yep, definitely cliche checklist. It didn't take me long to decide on this. Giant flaming bird monster or no, I don't turn my back on people-or in this case, giant birds- who need help. "Well, if you did read my mind, I'm pretty sure you know my answer already." Phoenix smiled at me. Did I mention smiling with a beak looks really, really weird? "I expected as much from you. You're like fire yourself, you know." I was like...fire? Did that mean I was hot? ...was he coming on to me? "Fire is known for two things; heat, and light. You warm the hearts of others, like heat, and you guide and help others, like light." "That's even cornier than the Harmony thing." I retorted again. "But sure, I'll go." "My thanks, Claus...oh, before I forget, the world you're entering is going to be...different than what you're probably used to, but as long as you stay like fire, you'll be fine." "Heat and light, yeah?" "Heat and light. Apologies for the impact." I was confused. "What do you mean impa-" THUD! "Ow ow ow...why do I feel like I got slammed against a brick wall...?" I stood up and observed my surroundings. From what I could tell, I was in some sort of dense forest. "Huh...well, I suppose the best thing I can do now is try to find civilization." I started looking around the area. As I wandered, I started taking stock of my surroundings. While there WERE some staple pieces of flora, trees and such, I also noticed that some of the flowers and plants looked...unusual. "...this really is another world, huh...?" I was trying my best to remain calm, but I figure anyone would react with panic if they woke up in some alien forest. SNAP! I heard a series of what sounded like branches being broken near me. I dug my hands into my pants pockets and kept walking, trying to keep a low profile. "Grrrrrr...." My heart started to beat quickly. I kept walking. I could tell that whatever was growling behind me was still stalking me. I picked up my pace a bit more. Still following me...I started walking even faster. Eventually, I broke out into a full run. Whatever this thing was, it was persistent...and hungry. Unfortunately for me, it was also not alone...I found myself cornered by what appeared to be a wolf made of wood. "Damn it...what now!?" The wooden wolf lunged at me...I thought I was done for, but at that moment, it felt like the world paused. "What...? Everything's moving in slow motion...can I...?" I sidestepped to the left, and the wolf's attack missed, sending it head first into a nearby tree. "That was weird...but I shouldn't look a superpower gift horse in the mouth." The wolf-thing and its buddy started coming at me again, and I was sadly out of options on the ground...but a large branch above me started sticking out in my mind, like I was supposed to try to jump to grab it...so I did. "Whoaaaa! Why can I jump like this?" I started thinking...is this Phoenix's doing? But I elected to save the speculation until I was out of danger. From my vantage point in the tree, I noticed that there was what appeared to be a hut of sorts in the distance. This was all really weird, but I didn't have many options, so I jumped down from the tree and started to sprint in that direction. Sadly, the wood wolves had the same idea, and chased me as well. One of them was able to get in front of me, and I found myself surrounded. At that point, one of them lunged at me again. "That is ENOUGH!" I yelled, hurling a punch at the approaching beast. Truth be told, I didn't expect that punch to do anything, but I managed to knock the thing away. Quite a distance too...probably due to the same thing that made me able to react and jump. I took my chance and bolted as fast as I could. Eventually, I lost the damned things and found myself within proximity of that hut...I decided to play it safe and keep hidden so I could observe what was around. "Hmm...whoever lives at that hut loves animals, it looks like." I noticed someone come out of the hut...and was almost about to scream. This was a pony...person...pony-person...gah, I don't know! The figure in my sight appeared to be a female, with yellow fur and long pink hair...I think they'd call that a mane and tail on a normal horse. She was wearing rather modest clothing as well, and was apparently guiding some birds somewhere. I decided to follow, but was going to stay out of sight until I got a better idea of what was going on. As I stayed in pursuit, I noticed that this whole town seemed to be inhabited by similar pony-people...pony-ple? They all seemed to be getting ready for some event that was to happen at sunrise, which was about 10 minutes from then if I had my estimates right. Keeping myself concealed from view as much as possible, I followed the crowd to the area where the event was to take place, staking it out from a small alley nearby. I couldn't exactly make out what was being said, but I noticed that some of the pony-ple started panicking and running away. As I attempted to draw closer, I saw the source of their fear- a very sinister looking pony-person who was saying some stuff about "eternal night" in old English. And, as luck would have it, hero-instincts kicked in. I drew as close as I could and hurled a small rock at the bitch. It seemed to strike her near the horn on her head, causing her to stagger a bit. "WHO DARES CAST THAT STONE!?" I came out of hiding with another rock in my hand. "I don't know, lady...did it look like THIS!?" I said, pitching another stone. The evil looking pony-person blasted it out of the air with a burst of...something from that horn this time. "YOU INSOLENT WHELP! DO YOU KNOW WHO YOU'RE DEALING WITH!?" "I don't care!" I spat back. "If you're trying to hurt these ponies, you're gonna have to go through ME first!" The audience around me was staring in awe, not really comprehending what was going on. I picked up a nearby barrel and tossed it at my current opponent... Where she broke it into pieces. "Ha ha ha! You can't hit me with mere projectiles like that!" "Don't need to!" I ran up to Tall, Dark and Bitchy while she was gloating and wound up a punch, hitting her in the jaw. She seemed to be unharmed, but was reeling, as if she wasn't used to feeling a strike like that. I chalked that up to the recent mystery power boost I had. "ENOUGH! I have better things to do than entertain a hairless monkey...I will make the night will last forever!" The evil pony person began to vanish before my eyes. "Wait!" I tried to grab on but I was too slow. "Damn it, she got away..." At that point, I noticed everyone had their eyes on me. "..." I didn't say anything, and started walking back in the direction of the forest...or at least I tried, but some sort of ...violet energy field grabbed me. "What the hell?" I looked around and saw another pony-person, a purple one with a horn, and she was projecting this field from said horn... This may have been a bad move... Author's Note The first chapter of Straight Shot! I'm hoping you'll like it, I've got plenty of ideas on how this is going to progress. Chapter 2 - Point and Shoot When we last left off, I was being telekinetically dragged somewhere by a purple pony-girl and her assistant...some sort of bipedal salamander... "Hey, I"m a DRAGON!" "Right...dragon. Sorry about that." The purple one undid her field of dragging when we got inside her destination, a tree that contained a library. She plopped me down on a nearby chair and took her dragon upstairs, then came started pacing around. "...is something wrong?" I asked innocently. "Besides the fact that you're COMPLETELY INSANE, yes!" She barked back. "I get that a lot, to be fair. What's going on exactly? Is it something to do with Miss Tall, Dark and Bitchy from before?" As I said that, I heard a high-pitched giggle from behind me. I turned around to find its source, but nothing was there. As I turned back, there was a pink pony-girl standing in front of me staring into my soul. "WHA!?" I fell backwards out of the chair. "Hi Mr. Alien!" The pink one cheerily greeted me. "...that was a surprise I wasn't expecting today, and considering everything that's saying something..." I muttered, rubbing my head on the spot where it collided with the floor. The purple one, though slightly confused by the pink one's antics, started going through the shelves of the library. "We won't be able to defeat Nightmare Moon without the Elements of Harmony!" Elements of Harmony...? Those were the things Phoenix was talking about! Is this girl connected somehow...? Unfortunately, my musings were cut off when a prismatic streak flew up to me and grabbed me by the shirt collar. Said streak being a blue furred pony girl with a rainbow mane and tail, and a serious tomboy look to her. "And what are these Elements of Harmony huh? And how did YOU know about Nightmare Moon? Are you spies!?" The rainbow one attempted to interrogate both the purple girl and myself. "If I was working for her, WHY would I have attacked her!?" I loudly retorted. The rainbow one pieced together the logic and put me back down. "Okay but that still doesn't explain you!" She pointed to the purple girl, still dismantling the bookshelves. "Simmer down, Rainbow. They ain't spies." Another pony girl, an orange one with a definite cowgirl thing going on, down to the accent, stated to soothe her rainbow-maned friend. "But she sure knows what's going on, don't you, Twilight?" Well, that's one name down...the purple one was Twilight. That still left the pink, rainbow and orange ones though. I started musing to myself as Twilight started talking about the Elements of Harmony, and how they were needed to defeat Nightmare Moon. This all seems like a really weird coincidence... "Hey, are you listening?" Twilight asked me. "...ah sorry, was trying to figure something out. What's up?" Twilight sighed and approached me. "I don't know who you are, or really WHAT you are, or even why you elected to try to jump in like that. But you should know, Nightmare Moon is dangerous." "I already figured that." "Then why did you attack?" She queried. "Because you and everyone else looked like you were in danger. Do I need a reason to help people...er...ponies?" Each of the girls gave me a look that seemed to be a mix of awe and concern. I sighed. "Look, like it or not, I'm already part of this. So I may as well see it through to the end. So, if I gathered everything correctly, we find those Elements and they do...whatever it is they do and Nightmare Moon is done, yeah?" "Yeah, but the elements are within the..." "EVERFREE FOREST!" All of the others yelled loudly. We were standing in front of the forest I had emerged from, the one where those wooden wolf things tried to snack on me. The pink one, who I had learned was named Pinkie Pie, though right now I call her Needs-To-Take-A-Chill-Pill, was jumping up and down eagerly. "Whee! Let's go!" However, Twilight was not very keen on the idea of all of us following her. To be fair, I'd have gone in myself- wood wolves or no. But the orange one, apparently her name was Applejack (I am gonna have fun with that later), still insisted on following us, as did the others. Besides Twilight, Pinkie and Applejack, the rainbow tomboy from earlier, named Rainbow Dash, as well as the yellow pegasus-girl I saw earlier, who was apparently named Fluttershy, and a white unicorn-lady with a blue mane and tail named Rarity, were apparently joining us. I decided to ask, for the sake of it, why this forest was considered so terrifying. "Because nopony who went in, has ever come OUT!" "...besides me you mean?" Everyone raised their eyes at that. "Why were you in the Everfree to begin with, Claus?" I heard asked. "Beats me, I ended up waking up there after I got warped out of my house." I shrugged, not ready to reveal Phoenix's job for me yet. That didn't seem to sit well with the orange one, as she stared at me with a begrudging look. As we were walking in, I did explain how after waking up I suddenly had a lot more physical strength and speed than I did before I left, as well as getting a primer on the different ponies. Apparently there were "earth ponies", like Pinkie and Applejack, who could control land and were stronger physically, as well as pegasi like Rainbow and Fluttershy, who could fly and manipulate weather, and lastly unicorns, who could use magic abilities via their horns. "That explains what happened earlier, I guess." As we walked, I started feeling a sense of malice around us. It felt like something was watching us. At that point, the ground beneath us started to shake, and Twilight fell, with Applejack barely catching her outstretched limb. "Applejack! What do I do!?" Twilight yelled in fear. "Just let go!" Wait... What?! "WHAT!?" That's what I said! Applejack gave a reassuring look to Twilight's worried one. "I promise you'll be safe!" Twilight, frightened, decided to trust the cowgirl, and released her grip, only for Fluttershy to swoop in and grab her. I was relieved to see that they were all okay, but... Was that someone near the bottom of the cliff? "...Hm.... I'm probably just seeing things. " As we traveled the path, strange obstacles kept popping up, with each of the other pony girls stepping in somehow. Fluttershy tended to a wounded manticore that was about to attack us, convincing it to let us pass. Pinkie helped us laugh off some sort of illusion, though I did wonder how they all had such good on the fly dance choreography. Oh well, questions for later. Rarity sacrificed her tail(Not as bad as it sounds, I swear!) to repair a campy dragon's mustache...at least we got a lift out of it. We were drawing closer to the target, the old castle of the two sisters, a collapsing monolith of stones and mason work. At that point, I started seeing the shadow more and more, near every obstacle we encountered... Were we being followed? After patching the bridge to the castle, and Rainbow overcoming a tempting illusion, we were about to enter, but a strange voice called out to us. "I cannot allow you to pass!" A strange black armored figure materialized before us, blocking the path. "Who are you!?" Rainbow yelled, spooked. He chuckled a bit at that. "Heh, the gay pride pony has some bite, I see." Rainbow sputtered in rage for a moment before Rarity barked out, "How dare you!" He gave her what must have been a deadpan from under his helmet. "Oh trust me, calling you out on your sexual orientation is the LEAST of what I'm gonna be doing." He threatened, un-sheathing a very large sword. Crap...this guy means business. Nothing for it, I guess. "You girls go on ahead!" I ordered. "I can take on horror movie here!" "Claus!? Are you nuts!?" Twilight exclaimed in disbelief and concern. "We've been over that, yes, but right now the important thing is you need to grab those elements and put an end to Nightmare Moon's emo trip!" I said, angling towards the dark knight. "You mean ego trip?" "I meant what I said, now go!" After a moment of hesitation, the 6 made their way into the castle while I threw myself in front of the aggressive black figure, blocking him from following. "Well, it seems you are a LOT braver and a LOT dumber than I anticipated. But, sadly, this is where it ends." He drew himself up, looking even more intimidating then before. I wasn't gonna die here... I couldn't let this Round Table reject win! But... I don't exactly have a weapon to fight with... "Don't worry." I heard Phoenix's voice from somewhere. "Phoenix!?" "This is where I come in. You do remember what I said earlier, right Claus? About fire?" "That fire brings heat AND light..." I felt something tickling the inside of my balled fist. When I released my grip, a small flickering flame appeared, flaring and reforming into what looked like a gun of sorts. "That's the Element Gun you are able to use, Phoenix BRS-S. Keep your aim steady!" He said Cheerily. I smiled, knowing I had a fighting chance now. Take that, gun laws! "Aw, that's not supposed to happen!" The black armored fellow whined. "Well, whatever. I'm sure Moonbutt is done dealing with your candy-colored harem by now, anyway." Wait... Did he mean...? Ignoring the insults, I ran back from the figure and into the castle, intent on finding the others. "...This'll be fun." I made it inside, and saw that Twilight was struggling with a group of jewels. "But where's the spark!?" Sparks? Never mind, back to the big bad. On the other side of the room, smug as could possibly be, Nightmare Moon was gloating over the girls' failure. But this time, I was gonna ACTUALLY help them. I drew my Element Gun up and fired a shot at her, which to my surprise, ignited halfway through it's light, turning into a fireball. SO much better than throwing rocks. "Hey, emo trip! Round 2!" I ran at Nightmare, brandishing my shiny new Element Gun for all to see. "Claus!?" "That's my name, don't wear it out!" I focused back on the goth chick. "I'll buy you some time, you figure out how to get those things to work!" "INSOLENT WHELP! TASTE THE POWER OF THE NIGHT!" Nightmare yelled before firing a few beams at me, which I countered with a few fireball shots. This went on, back and forth, for a few minutes before I glanced back at Twilight. "What's the holdup, Twilight!?" "There's no spark!" Spark...? Wait a minute. I started thinking about all the hazards we'd been encountering. They all seemed to correspond to a trait mentioned in that spiel about the Elements, and our friends had embodied those traits. Each of them had that Spark. "I think I get it! They aren't talking about the elements themselves! They're talking about the six of you!" "Huh?" Should I repeat that? "...Wait, that's right!" There we go! So she got it. Applejack was honest, Fluttershy was kind, Pinkie gave laughter, Rarity was generous, and Rainbow was loyal. That connection is what activates the elements. "When you're ready, I'll get Miss Emo Universe into position, and you finish this!" I yelled. I didn't look to see her explain things to the others. Tall, dark and goth was taking up my attention, "YOU...!" Nightmare grew frustrated, eyes burning with rage as she kept missing me. I managed to lure her in a bit with a well placed, "NEENER, NEENER!" and shot her at an angle, launching her up into the air. "NOW TWILIGHT!" I watched an aura of what I could only describe as pure light emanate out of the girls, blanketing the shadowy bitch... And a smaller pony girl emerged out of it. "...Who...?" Uhhh... Does miss bitch wear elevator shoes? This smaller girl seemed to look a lot like a less aggressive Nightmare, thankfully. But, seriously, who was this girl...? I turned to the girls, now un-glowy again, and noticed that they were joined by a larger, white pony lady with wavy hair(Literally, waving) and a very angelic aura. "Who...?" This was becoming a pattern... As the larger lady approached the smaller one, I had overheard the names as they spoke. The larger white one was Celestia, Princess of the Sun, and the one released from Nightmare's body was Luna, her sister and Princess of the Moon. Apparently the Moon Princess had been corrupted and was banished to the moon until recently... For some reason. It seemed like things were picking up. Villain defeated, quest of the day complete... But then I heard slow clapping. Uh-oh... "Aw, what a heartwarming scene this is!" A dark voice cried out mockingly, heralding the armor nut striding onto the scene. "You again!" I barked out. The white princess took a stance in front of her recently released sister. "Who are you!?" "Oh, you wound me, Sunbutt...you don't remember your old friend Nether?" Aaaaand, add that to the edgy names list... The look on her face turned from defensive to shock and fear. "N-Nether!?" "The one and only. I am a bit bummed out that you managed to undo all my hard work making Nightmare Moon happen though." Wait, what? "What? Thoust were the one who caused this!?" The lunar princess exclaimed in 'Ye-olden-day' speech. "Ha, you did all the heavy lifting! You were dripping with envy over your sister, all I did was introduce a little bit of suffering energy and BAM! Instant night demon." We were all glaring at the arrogant figure. He had been behind Nightmare Moon, and now he was monolouging about it. "You know, I don't think she got enough playtime." Nether held up a small blackish crystal. Black smoke started to enter the crystal, drifting from the shadows of the room. "Well, it may not be enough for a full resurrection, but it should be entertaining to watch." Nether threw the crystal up and it exploded into a big ball of darkness, which the figure of Nightmare Moon stepped out from. "Grrrr....Night..." It seemed this Nightmare Moon was much less well spoken than before. "Play nice, kids! Hahaha!" And with that laugh, Nether sped away, Nightmare Moon firmly in-between him and us. "Wait, you!" I was about to run after him, but, unfortunately, everyone else seemed to be in no shape to fight, and the big bad witch lady just came back to life. I had to do something. I raised my Element Gun and started firing, but after the third shot... I ran out of ammo. "Crap... This is NOT good... I need to do something...!" I slowly backed up a little as Moon leveled a glare on me. "Oh don't worry Claus... There's still our ace in the hole!" Phoenix's voice rang out. I noticed another flame flickering on the Element Gun's side that burned bright and fierce as it reformed into a small add on. "This Side Arm Machine should do it. Blast her to bits!" Point and shoot, got it! I gripped the firing lever on the side machine and took aim at the dark princess before me. My voice mixed with Phoenix's for a moment as power flared into the gun. "I'll burn you away, you disgusting phantom!" I pulled the lever and... BANG! Everything went white for a few moments as an explosion lit up the goth chick's body. The remains of Nightmare Moon were engulfed in flames, the demon's dying screams ringing in my ears as she faded to nothing. I lowered my weapon and turned to the others... "I got 'er... You're all okay...? Good..." I muttered as my body fell to the ground. The last thing I saw was the ground as my consciousness faded. "You did good, Claus. Nightmare Moon was born from Princess Luna's jealousy, and Nether was trying to take advantage of that evil. However, Nether is still out there. We've got our work cut out for us. But for now... Rest." I heard a faint beeping as I slowly roused from my sleep. It appeared that after that last shot, I must have passed out from exhaustion. I guess they brought me to a hospital. Man, this bed's comfy... "Ugh..." I felt like I had been thrown through a brick wall and ended up plastered along another wall behind that one. Sitting up, I grabbed my head in my hand, attempting to process what exactly happened to me. I used the Element Gun Phoenix gave me... Wait... The Element Gun! Where'd it go? I frantically looked around the room, not seeing it anywhere. "Where is it?" A nurse walked in as I was starting to panic, so I quickly pressed it down to match her calm smile. i can look for the gun later. "Good, you're awake. You've been out for about a day now..." She said, looking at a clipboard with what I assume was my medical sheet on it. "...What happened?" I queried. "After that fight in the castle, Princess Celestia and her student brought you here. They said you'd done something incredible. It must have been to impress the Princess." Incredible, huh... "Where are they now?" "They're right outside, I'll go get them." That's convenient... Hope they're here for me and not because they actually need the hospital. After a few minutes of waiting, the two Princesses walked in, closely followed by Twilight. "Hey... Are you all okay?" I asked, worried for their safety. (Hero complex, can't help it!) "We should be asking you that!" Twilight yelped. "You hit your head when you fainted and got a concussion! As it is, you're lucky you remember how to speak!" Wait... Concussion? "Don't be too hard on him, my student." Celestia said to her student. I was still wrapping my mind around 'concussion.' "He's perfectly fine, considering he fought Nightmare Moon herself. Even better, considering he helped you rid the world of her." Right... Nightmare Moon. Speaking of which... "I hope I didn't hurt you, Princess Luna..." Luna looked confused by the statement. "If anything, we should be hoping we didn't hurt thine self, Sir Claus." I smiled. "Don't worry about that, I'm made of pretty tough stuff." What concussion? I feel fine! There was an audible silence as they just awkwardly stood there for a moment. "...You want an explanation, don't you?" I asked. "Yeah, that would be nice." Twilight piped out. Just then, the Element Gun appeared on my bedside table. It teleports... Nifty. "Allow me to explain." Phoenix's voice reverberated out from it. (Surround sound too, yay!) "And you are...?" Twilight asked the... Gun. Gonna need to check my sanity later... "Ah, well, I'm Phoenix. I'm the Abstract Spirit of flame, and your Magic element happens to be my younger sister." I winced from the loud, "...What!?" that came out of everyone besides me and Phoenix. Inside voices, please. "I needed to find someone who could channel my powers to fight Nether, since... You see... He's been doing some really horrible things to reality here, and my little sister was in danger. That's why I brought Claus here." Phoenix the gun summed up, gaining confused looks from all the pony-ple in the room. "So that means that you're from another set of Elements, Mr. Phoenix?" The sun princess asked the gun. "...I guess you could say that. Basically though, Nether isn't done- not by a long shot. I'm not letting him lay a finger on my sister..." He said with an underlying anger in his voice. Spoken like a true overprotective big brother, alright... But given how much of an absolute asshat Nether was, I'd say it's warranted. "I understand, Phoenix. If Nether were to do that to Luna again..." Aaaand, overprotective sister, too. "Twilight, as you are the wielder of the Element of Magic, in addition to you staying here in Ponyville, I would request that Claus and Phoenix stay with you to protect it." I saw Twilight's cheeks turn a bright red as she stuttered out, "I-I dunno... This is kinda sudden." ...Oh great, she's crushing on me isn't she? That's gonna get reeeaaally awkward, at minimum. But whatever. I'm staying, cooties or no cooties. "I don't mind, Twilight. And Phoenix wants to protect his little sister, so I figure I'll be around to protect you too." At that point, it seemed like the poor girl's face was as red as Phoenix's. "This is gonna be a LONG adventure, isn't it?" MEANWHILE "Huh...so Phoenix finally found someone to act for him. I knew the bird was tenacious, but really? This guy?" Nether turned the page on the calendar next to him, a picture of Sombra on the top flap. "Right then, let's see... 3 days from now... apple harvesting season... Heh, this'll be fun." Author's Note The second part of the first episode. Do note that thanks to the existence of these other characters, there will be a drift from canon. Chapter 3- Ups and DownsChapter 3- Ups and Downs A couple days passed since the Nightmare Moon incident was sorted. Things have settled down for the most part, and I've been doing my best to integrate myself into the town. I'm living in the Golden Oaks Library these days. It's a nice little thing, at the very least I have a roof over my head. I still feel like I need to start making some money somehow- pretty sure the currency from the human world is no good here... Though I also still wonder a few things about this arrangement. Twilight's been great as a roomie, and while she claims she wants to house me as gratitude for saving them and the princesses from Nether's schemes, I'm starting to think it's less gratitude and more that she keeps me around as her eye candy. I have seen her staring a few times. Admittedly, I'm not opposed to the idea of having a girlfriend from here, but... Well, that's something I don't want to go into right now. Too sad. Anyway, today I've been practicing using the Element Gun. I admit- I kinda got lucky with the last fight, and I need to learn how to use this more effectively, so I've devised a couple training exercises... "Alright Twi, you ready?" I asked her, as she stood by a machine we made. "It's 6 targets right?" She was confirming. "Ready...go!" Twilight flipped the switch on the machine. In a couple seconds, a clay disc shot out of the machine. I took aim at the target and shot...and missed. "Gah. Alright, keep going!" Another clay disc was launched. I was trying my best, but I just couldn't hit the thing. A few rounds later... "Well, you hit one out of six...at least you managed to hit one?" Twilight said, albeit without much confidence. "Eh...I need to get better at using this thing. If something else comes up, especially Nether, I need to be ready." I flopped on the grass, and stared at the sky. One thing that is definitely different about this world is how unpolluted it is. The sky is incredibly clear. Twilight looks down at me with a look of confusion. "You know, you don't have to keep pushing yourself, Claus. Everyone in town pretty much loves you for standing up for them at the Summer Sun Festival." "Still...I can't help but feel antsy about things." I rolled a bit, trying to relax. "Hmm...oh, that reminds me, unless Phoenix mentioned this already..." "Eh? Phoenix hasn't said much to me recently. I figured I'd give him a rest. What's up?" "Well, I guess he had some of his other friends call humans as well, some of them are supposed to be arriving soon." Wait, what?! That's news. "Really? When?" I asked, but was cutoff at what appeared to be another human falling out of the sky into the nearby clothes store Rarity ran. Uh-oh... "...About 4 seconds ago." Twilight pinched her nose bridge. "Come on, let's go grab him and keep him from freaking out." I stood up and started making my way over there. "It's not the new human I'm worried about though..." Unfortunately, the new arrival definitely made an... Impact. The Carousel Boutique was a mess, with clothes strewn hither tither in the display. I knocked on the door... As it fell off its hinges. "Uh...Rarity? You in?" Rarity popped into view at the door, looking flustered and angry. "Ah, there you are Claus! You too Twilight! Help me clean this place up!" The flustered unicorn grabbed us and pulled us both inside. Straight to business then. We started helping her repair and restore the storefront. "So, I take it the new guy landed..." "Right in the middle of the store! And not only that, but the crash ruined a few of my new dresses! When this one wakes up, I am going to have words with him!" Rarity was mad alright. She was a sweet girl, generous to a fault, and loved making clothes, but she definitely had her dramatic moments. This was one of them... A few minutes later, we had cleaned up enough of the store, although many things would have to be repaired and replaced. We went over to the new fellow who crashed his way into our lives...and Rarity's store. "Hey, buddy! Can you hear me? Are you alright?" I waved my hand in front of his face, before slapping it lightly. "Urgh...not the ideal way to wake up in the morning..." The newcomer groaned. Then opened his eyes and noticed both Twilight and Rarity hovering above him. "...Heaven? That's fine too..." His eyes rolled up and he fell back, asleep once more. "...Eh?" We all looked at each other in confusion. After a while, our guest managed to regain consciousness. We started to explain what had happened, and that he was the second human to come here. (I will forever be first!) "...Ah right, I remember now. That fellow from the dream sent me here. I will say, his aim is atrocious though." "...I take it you mean one of the Abstract Spirits." I reminded him. "Yes, yes. I wasn't sure if I wanted to come here, but this world is indeed very beautiful..." He made glances at Twilight and Rarity as he said that. Oh great, a "ladies man". Well, beggars can't really be choosers...but who chose him to begin with? "Hey, listen, I know you just got here and all, but do you remember who sent you?" "Hmm...if I recall, he appeared to be a sort of clockwork man with one eye." Just then, we heard Phoenix's voice echo out from... Somewhere. "A one eyed mechanical man...? Oh right, I know who you mean. That explains the shoddy landing..." Phoenix appeared in front of us... Um... Sort of... " *Snicker* " Oh, this was priceless! "What's so funny?" Phoenix asked... Not realizing what he looked like right now. "Aww, he's an adorable little fellow after all!" The girls started fawning over Phoenix... Who apparently was able to manifest... As a cute little mascot. "A-a-ADORABLE!? I am the PHOENIX! Eternal master of flame! I am magnificent! I-" Apparently Twilight snuggling him made him stop and reconsider his position. "...I can deal with adorable." "So Phoenix, you were saying?" I reminded him of what was going on. "...Oh, right. I think this man was sent by Cyclops." "Cyclops?" We all asked. "He's the Abstract Spirit in charge of gravitational forces... And since he only has one eye, he has HORRIBLE aim." Can't be worse then mine... Can it? "Aaaah... That explains the landing." The newcomer noted. "You know, I don't believe we've been introduced." Rarity said gently, no longer blaming him for the crash. "Ah, where ARE my manners? My name is Isaac. I do apologize, I should know better than to keep a lady waiting for answers." Isaac said, albeit in a way that indicated he was flirting. "Er... Charmed." Rarity replied reluctantly. Twilight and I raised our eyebrows... "Spike is NOT gonna be happy about this..." I muttered. After a while, Twilight and I decided to show Isaac around. However, we noticed that his personality could be rather...grating. Unfortunately, he had the habit of trying to flirt with many of the women... Sorry, "mares", we came across. We were able to get him out of there before he incited an angry mob, but still... "So, Isaac... What have we learned today?" I angrily inquired, covered in things that had been thrown at Isaac and sadly landed on me. "Well, can you really blame me for wanting to pursue beauty?" Isaac nonchalantly replied. "I CAN IF IT MEANS I GET COVERED IN GARBAGE, THANK YOU!" I shouted. I turned to Mini-Phoenix, as we have taken to calling him. "Are you sure Cyclops can't do an exchange or something?" I pleaded. " *sigh* Look, I know he's kind of an ass, but Cyclops chose him for a reason. And he has some of the best judgement out of us Abstracts, so let's see where it goes." "...You owe me for this, BIG TIME." I snapped. "Twilight too. It's gonna take her at least a week to get that smell off her." Phoenix "facewinged" and we proceeded to go find a shower. A while later, we had gone back to the library... Though we were all still pissed at Isaac. I know he just got here, but he could at least keep it in his pants for a bit. "...So what are we gonna do with him?" Twilight asked, breaking the silence. "I'm not sure... He's obviously gotten Cyclops's attention for some reason, but... I don't think it's a good idea for him to stay here." I admitted. Maybe AJ could whip him into shape? "Hmm... I suppose we'll have to think of something." Phoenix joined in, wondering if his old friend had made an error in judgement. Just then, Isaac came up to us, looking rather... Regretful. "...I heard what you were saying. I am terribly sorry, I wasn't aware that those actions would cause such a backlash." Uhhh... "...Really?" We both questioned. "Where I'm from, that sort of thing is just being friendly. I was not intending to cause any discomfort." Isaac admitted. "Where you're from...? Aren't you from Earth like I am?" Phoenix jolted up, realizing the issue. "Ah, I think I get it." He does? "What?" I asked. "I think the problem is that Isaac here probably doesn't come from the same place you do, Claus." "...Eh? Mind explaining?" Even France didn't flirt like he did... What does Phoenix mean? "Well, he's a human from Earth, that's for sure... But it must not be the same Earth you came from. Possibly a parallel world." ...That would explain his behavior... In my world, if you acted like that you'd probably be arrested for sexual harassment. "So what can I do to make this right?" Isaac asked. "Hmm... Now that IS an issue, sadly. Barring repairing Rarity's shop, I don't see any way to..." "Sorry I'm late." A new voiced chimed in. We all looked around, and noticed that a new mascot like figure joined us, that being a troll-looking creature with one eye. "...I take it you're Cyclops then?" Twilight asked. "I am yes. Heard my pick was causing problems. I can help fix them." Cyclops stated bluntly. We headed back to Rarity's shop, Isaac and Cyclops in tow. While she was less than thrilled to see Isaac again, we explained the situation and also asked her to give Isaac a chance to make things right. "So, Cyclops... What did you have in mind?" Isaac asked his Abstract partner. "Use the Element Gun. I added a power that can restore things to an earlier state in the day." Wait... Huh? As that was said, a new Element Gun appeared in Isaac's hands. "That's my Element Gun. Controls gravity. In this case, we're gonna use a modified function." Cyclops grabbed the Element Gun and loaded it with a glowing Soul Bullet. "Take this and shoot the building with it. Time will rewind." Hey! Mine doesn't do that! Rarity looked nervous, and I didn't blame her... If this didn't work Isaac would just be destroying her home AND livelihood further. "Let's at least try to have faith in them, alright?" I asked. "Fingers crossed..." I glanced at Phoenix. 'Well, those with fingers." Isaac took aim and shot the bullet. A strange blue glow surrounded the building and it started rewinding itself... Before long, the Carousel Boutique was back to the way it was before Isaac dropped in. I was impressed. Twilight and Rarity were gawking in awe. Turning to us, Isaac gave a polite bow. "Showoff..." I muttered under my breath. "Thank you for giving me a chance to right this wrong." Isaac politely stated and started to walk away. "Wait! Isaac..." Rarity pleaded. Isaac stopped and turned to face Rarity, his face still looking guilty. "I am very sorry for the trouble I have caused today." Isaac told her outright. "Um... Apology accepted... Though you don't have anywhere to go, do you?" "I needn't trouble you anymore than I already have, milady." We could all tell Isaac still felt bad about the whole situation. "Well... If you can keep from breaking the store again... I can allow you to stay with me, if that is acceptable." ...What? Isaac's expression perked up dramatically. "I am most grateful-" "But, please learn to respect the cultural norms..." Rarity added. "Of course." Isaac agreed. As Isaac and Rarity headed inside, I turned to Twilight. "Well, I guess that worked out... Maybe Cyclops picked a winner after all." "Yeah, maybe he did..." A short silence followed. "We are gonna have to deal with crazy stuff from them now, aren't we?" "Sadly, yes." Sometimes I hate my life... Author's Note First of the "Original" chapters, that take place during a season but don't really adhere to any episode. I'd love to hear your feedback!
Chapter 1- Advent of the PhoenixStraight Shot "Advent of the Phoenix" Reality can be really weird when it wants to be. This morning, I got up, showered, dressed, and went about what I usually do during my day. Which is to say a whole lot of nothing, as today was my day off. I didn't feel like dealing with reality today. "...kinda wish that reality avoidance wasn't so BORING though." I muttered to myself, readjusting my gaze on my laptop. Some would say that I should go find some friends, or even a girlfriend...I do have friends, but they have very heavy work schedules. As for the girlfriend thing...yeah, I'm not opening THAT can of worms right now. At the very least, I wish someone needed me. I wish I could do something to help someone right now. That'd be the best use of this free time, I think. I mean, it would cure my boredom, sure, but I just genuinely enjoy helping others...maybe a bit too much admittedly, my "hero habits" have gotten me injured more than once. Still... *Bibi-beep!* "Hm?" The noise was an indicator that I had received an e-mail...which is probably spam, since no one ever e-mails me. "Well, no harm in looking." The message itself listed as from "Phoenix", at a very strange e-mail domain. "phoenixthermal@reality.grd? The hell?" I contemplated on whether I should click this or not...aw, the hell with it, I can run the anti-virus after. I opened the message...and then started to feel like I'd been hit with an industrial-strength tranquilizer dart. I started to drift off... "...Claus..." I heard an unfamilar voice calling me. Was this a dream...? "Hey, Claus! Rise and shine!" I opened my eyes to find myself drifting in what appeared to be outer space. "What the he-" It was then I realized that I could breathe and talk normally. I may not know THAT much about space, but I do know humans need to breathe air to live- something the vacuum of space normally LACKS. I then looked around...imagine how surprised I was when I found myself floating near a giant flaming eagle. I spent the next minute trying to form whole words. "I...but...what...you...why...?" The hot bird appeared to roll its eyes at me, to which I scowled a bit. "Hey, it's not polite to roll your eyes at someone like that, bird-brain." "Bird-brain, huh? Gee, I don't get called THAT often." The big burning bird snarked back. "So, initial barbs aside, can you maybe explain WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON BEFORE I HAVE AN ANEURYSM TRYING TO FIGURE IT OUT!?" The bird-thing stuck its wing over its face in a manner that looked like the archetypical "facepalm". Well, in this case, "facewing", but that's semantics. "Alright, Claus, just calm down and I'll explain. I called you here." I raised an eyebrow at two noticeable details. First, how did this thing know my name, and why did it "call me"? "Oh I know your name alright." Well that explains- wait a minute, did it just read my mind!? "I have a name you know. I'm the Abstract Spirit of Fire and Heat, Phoenix." "Abstract...what?" Well, Abstract is one way to describe all this, that's for sure... Phoenix cupped his head in his wing again, seemingly flustered at trying to explain this. "Basically, Abstract Spirits are sort of embodiments of various things in the universe. For instance, I embody thermal energy." ...so he's like the patron saint of space heaters? "So are there more Spirits like you?" Phoenix nodded. "Yes there are. In fact, that's part of the reason why I pulled you here. I need your help." I was confused of course. KFC incarnate needed my help? "Well, I'd like to help, but what do you need help with, and why do you need me?" I noticed Phoenix's expression turn grim. "My baby sister and her friends are in danger." Phoenix definitely had my attention now. "Danger how? Is this sister of yours another spirit?" Phoenix nodded. "My sister and her friends are a set of 6 Spirits that go by the group name "The Elements of Harmony"." "That's kind of corny." I quipped. "BE THAT AS IT MAY," Phoenix raised his voice with a noticeable indignation, but I could tell he was chortling a bit. "These Elements are being threatened by something...something extremely sinister and alien." "Right, dark nebulous force threatening the land." This whole situation was starting to read like a checklist of cliches. "...and I need you to help me stop it." And there was the clincher. "Why do you need me? You're a giant flaming bird! Can't you just, burn them to death or gouge their eyes out or leave incendiary bird craps on their car or something?" "If only it were that simple...and I only did the bird crap thing once, thank you!" I relented a bit so Phoenix could explain himself. "Well, you're right that I am powerful, but this...entity seems to be able to block me from getting close to it, or where my sister is. However, if I empower a mortal to use my abilities, such as yourself..." "...I can help your sister in your place, bypassing the issue." Yep, definitely cliche checklist. It didn't take me long to decide on this. Giant flaming bird monster or no, I don't turn my back on people-or in this case, giant birds- who need help. "Well, if you did read my mind, I'm pretty sure you know my answer already." Phoenix smiled at me. Did I mention smiling with a beak looks really, really weird? "I expected as much from you. You're like fire yourself, you know." I was like...fire? Did that mean I was hot? ...was he coming on to me? "Fire is known for two things; heat, and light. You warm the hearts of others, like heat, and you guide and help others, like light." "That's even cornier than the Harmony thing." I retorted again. "But sure, I'll go." "My thanks, Claus...oh, before I forget, the world you're entering is going to be...different than what you're probably used to, but as long as you stay like fire, you'll be fine." "Heat and light, yeah?" "Heat and light. Apologies for the impact." I was confused. "What do you mean impa-" THUD! "Ow ow ow...why do I feel like I got slammed against a brick wall...?" I stood up and observed my surroundings. From what I could tell, I was in some sort of dense forest. "Huh...well, I suppose the best thing I can do now is try to find civilization." I started looking around the area. As I wandered, I started taking stock of my surroundings. While there WERE some staple pieces of flora, trees and such, I also noticed that some of the flowers and plants looked...unusual. "...this really is another world, huh...?" I was trying my best to remain calm, but I figure anyone would react with panic if they woke up in some alien forest. SNAP! I heard a series of what sounded like branches being broken near me. I dug my hands into my pants pockets and kept walking, trying to keep a low profile. "Grrrrrr...." My heart started to beat quickly. I kept walking. I could tell that whatever was growling behind me was still stalking me. I picked up my pace a bit more. Still following me...I started walking even faster. Eventually, I broke out into a full run. Whatever this thing was, it was persistent...and hungry. Unfortunately for me, it was also not alone...I found myself cornered by what appeared to be a wolf made of wood. "Damn it...what now!?" The wooden wolf lunged at me...I thought I was done for, but at that moment, it felt like the world paused. "What...? Everything's moving in slow motion...can I...?" I sidestepped to the left, and the wolf's attack missed, sending it head first into a nearby tree. "That was weird...but I shouldn't look a superpower gift horse in the mouth." The wolf-thing and its buddy started coming at me again, and I was sadly out of options on the ground...but a large branch above me started sticking out in my mind, like I was supposed to try to jump to grab it...so I did. "Whoaaaa! Why can I jump like this?" I started thinking...is this Phoenix's doing? But I elected to save the speculation until I was out of danger. From my vantage point in the tree, I noticed that there was what appeared to be a hut of sorts in the distance. This was all really weird, but I didn't have many options, so I jumped down from the tree and started to sprint in that direction. Sadly, the wood wolves had the same idea, and chased me as well. One of them was able to get in front of me, and I found myself surrounded. At that point, one of them lunged at me again. "That is ENOUGH!" I yelled, hurling a punch at the approaching beast. Truth be told, I didn't expect that punch to do anything, but I managed to knock the thing away. Quite a distance too...probably due to the same thing that made me able to react and jump. I took my chance and bolted as fast as I could. Eventually, I lost the damned things and found myself within proximity of that hut...I decided to play it safe and keep hidden so I could observe what was around. "Hmm...whoever lives at that hut loves animals, it looks like." I noticed someone come out of the hut...and was almost about to scream. This was a pony...person...pony-person...gah, I don't know! The figure in my sight appeared to be a female, with yellow fur and long pink hair...I think they'd call that a mane and tail on a normal horse. She was wearing rather modest clothing as well, and was apparently guiding some birds somewhere. I decided to follow, but was going to stay out of sight until I got a better idea of what was going on. As I stayed in pursuit, I noticed that this whole town seemed to be inhabited by similar pony-people...pony-ple? They all seemed to be getting ready for some event that was to happen at sunrise, which was about 10 minutes from then if I had my estimates right. Keeping myself concealed from view as much as possible, I followed the crowd to the area where the event was to take place, staking it out from a small alley nearby. I couldn't exactly make out what was being said, but I noticed that some of the pony-ple started panicking and running away. As I attempted to draw closer, I saw the source of their fear- a very sinister looking pony-person who was saying some stuff about "eternal night" in old English. And, as luck would have it, hero-instincts kicked in. I drew as close as I could and hurled a small rock at the bitch. It seemed to strike her near the horn on her head, causing her to stagger a bit. "WHO DARES CAST THAT STONE!?" I came out of hiding with another rock in my hand. "I don't know, lady...did it look like THIS!?" I said, pitching another stone. The evil looking pony-person blasted it out of the air with a burst of...something from that horn this time. "YOU INSOLENT WHELP! DO YOU KNOW WHO YOU'RE DEALING WITH!?" "I don't care!" I spat back. "If you're trying to hurt these ponies, you're gonna have to go through ME first!" The audience around me was staring in awe, not really comprehending what was going on. I picked up a nearby barrel and tossed it at my current opponent... Where she broke it into pieces. "Ha ha ha! You can't hit me with mere projectiles like that!" "Don't need to!" I ran up to Tall, Dark and Bitchy while she was gloating and wound up a punch, hitting her in the jaw. She seemed to be unharmed, but was reeling, as if she wasn't used to feeling a strike like that. I chalked that up to the recent mystery power boost I had. "ENOUGH! I have better things to do than entertain a hairless monkey...I will make the night will last forever!" The evil pony person began to vanish before my eyes. "Wait!" I tried to grab on but I was too slow. "Damn it, she got away..." At that point, I noticed everyone had their eyes on me. "..." I didn't say anything, and started walking back in the direction of the forest...or at least I tried, but some sort of ...violet energy field grabbed me. "What the hell?" I looked around and saw another pony-person, a purple one with a horn, and she was projecting this field from said horn... This may have been a bad move... Author's Note The first chapter of Straight Shot! I'm hoping you'll like it, I've got plenty of ideas on how this is going to progress.
Chapter 2 - Point and Shoot When we last left off, I was being telekinetically dragged somewhere by a purple pony-girl and her assistant...some sort of bipedal salamander... "Hey, I"m a DRAGON!" "Right...dragon. Sorry about that." The purple one undid her field of dragging when we got inside her destination, a tree that contained a library. She plopped me down on a nearby chair and took her dragon upstairs, then came started pacing around. "...is something wrong?" I asked innocently. "Besides the fact that you're COMPLETELY INSANE, yes!" She barked back. "I get that a lot, to be fair. What's going on exactly? Is it something to do with Miss Tall, Dark and Bitchy from before?" As I said that, I heard a high-pitched giggle from behind me. I turned around to find its source, but nothing was there. As I turned back, there was a pink pony-girl standing in front of me staring into my soul. "WHA!?" I fell backwards out of the chair. "Hi Mr. Alien!" The pink one cheerily greeted me. "...that was a surprise I wasn't expecting today, and considering everything that's saying something..." I muttered, rubbing my head on the spot where it collided with the floor. The purple one, though slightly confused by the pink one's antics, started going through the shelves of the library. "We won't be able to defeat Nightmare Moon without the Elements of Harmony!" Elements of Harmony...? Those were the things Phoenix was talking about! Is this girl connected somehow...? Unfortunately, my musings were cut off when a prismatic streak flew up to me and grabbed me by the shirt collar. Said streak being a blue furred pony girl with a rainbow mane and tail, and a serious tomboy look to her. "And what are these Elements of Harmony huh? And how did YOU know about Nightmare Moon? Are you spies!?" The rainbow one attempted to interrogate both the purple girl and myself. "If I was working for her, WHY would I have attacked her!?" I loudly retorted. The rainbow one pieced together the logic and put me back down. "Okay but that still doesn't explain you!" She pointed to the purple girl, still dismantling the bookshelves. "Simmer down, Rainbow. They ain't spies." Another pony girl, an orange one with a definite cowgirl thing going on, down to the accent, stated to soothe her rainbow-maned friend. "But she sure knows what's going on, don't you, Twilight?" Well, that's one name down...the purple one was Twilight. That still left the pink, rainbow and orange ones though. I started musing to myself as Twilight started talking about the Elements of Harmony, and how they were needed to defeat Nightmare Moon. This all seems like a really weird coincidence... "Hey, are you listening?" Twilight asked me. "...ah sorry, was trying to figure something out. What's up?" Twilight sighed and approached me. "I don't know who you are, or really WHAT you are, or even why you elected to try to jump in like that. But you should know, Nightmare Moon is dangerous." "I already figured that." "Then why did you attack?" She queried. "Because you and everyone else looked like you were in danger. Do I need a reason to help people...er...ponies?" Each of the girls gave me a look that seemed to be a mix of awe and concern. I sighed. "Look, like it or not, I'm already part of this. So I may as well see it through to the end. So, if I gathered everything correctly, we find those Elements and they do...whatever it is they do and Nightmare Moon is done, yeah?" "Yeah, but the elements are within the..." "EVERFREE FOREST!" All of the others yelled loudly. We were standing in front of the forest I had emerged from, the one where those wooden wolf things tried to snack on me. The pink one, who I had learned was named Pinkie Pie, though right now I call her Needs-To-Take-A-Chill-Pill, was jumping up and down eagerly. "Whee! Let's go!" However, Twilight was not very keen on the idea of all of us following her. To be fair, I'd have gone in myself- wood wolves or no. But the orange one, apparently her name was Applejack (I am gonna have fun with that later), still insisted on following us, as did the others. Besides Twilight, Pinkie and Applejack, the rainbow tomboy from earlier, named Rainbow Dash, as well as the yellow pegasus-girl I saw earlier, who was apparently named Fluttershy, and a white unicorn-lady with a blue mane and tail named Rarity, were apparently joining us. I decided to ask, for the sake of it, why this forest was considered so terrifying. "Because nopony who went in, has ever come OUT!" "...besides me you mean?" Everyone raised their eyes at that. "Why were you in the Everfree to begin with, Claus?" I heard asked. "Beats me, I ended up waking up there after I got warped out of my house." I shrugged, not ready to reveal Phoenix's job for me yet. That didn't seem to sit well with the orange one, as she stared at me with a begrudging look. As we were walking in, I did explain how after waking up I suddenly had a lot more physical strength and speed than I did before I left, as well as getting a primer on the different ponies. Apparently there were "earth ponies", like Pinkie and Applejack, who could control land and were stronger physically, as well as pegasi like Rainbow and Fluttershy, who could fly and manipulate weather, and lastly unicorns, who could use magic abilities via their horns. "That explains what happened earlier, I guess." As we walked, I started feeling a sense of malice around us. It felt like something was watching us. At that point, the ground beneath us started to shake, and Twilight fell, with Applejack barely catching her outstretched limb. "Applejack! What do I do!?" Twilight yelled in fear. "Just let go!" Wait... What?! "WHAT!?" That's what I said! Applejack gave a reassuring look to Twilight's worried one. "I promise you'll be safe!" Twilight, frightened, decided to trust the cowgirl, and released her grip, only for Fluttershy to swoop in and grab her. I was relieved to see that they were all okay, but... Was that someone near the bottom of the cliff? "...Hm.... I'm probably just seeing things. " As we traveled the path, strange obstacles kept popping up, with each of the other pony girls stepping in somehow. Fluttershy tended to a wounded manticore that was about to attack us, convincing it to let us pass. Pinkie helped us laugh off some sort of illusion, though I did wonder how they all had such good on the fly dance choreography. Oh well, questions for later. Rarity sacrificed her tail(Not as bad as it sounds, I swear!) to repair a campy dragon's mustache...at least we got a lift out of it. We were drawing closer to the target, the old castle of the two sisters, a collapsing monolith of stones and mason work. At that point, I started seeing the shadow more and more, near every obstacle we encountered... Were we being followed? After patching the bridge to the castle, and Rainbow overcoming a tempting illusion, we were about to enter, but a strange voice called out to us. "I cannot allow you to pass!" A strange black armored figure materialized before us, blocking the path. "Who are you!?" Rainbow yelled, spooked. He chuckled a bit at that. "Heh, the gay pride pony has some bite, I see." Rainbow sputtered in rage for a moment before Rarity barked out, "How dare you!" He gave her what must have been a deadpan from under his helmet. "Oh trust me, calling you out on your sexual orientation is the LEAST of what I'm gonna be doing." He threatened, un-sheathing a very large sword. Crap...this guy means business. Nothing for it, I guess. "You girls go on ahead!" I ordered. "I can take on horror movie here!" "Claus!? Are you nuts!?" Twilight exclaimed in disbelief and concern. "We've been over that, yes, but right now the important thing is you need to grab those elements and put an end to Nightmare Moon's emo trip!" I said, angling towards the dark knight. "You mean ego trip?" "I meant what I said, now go!" After a moment of hesitation, the 6 made their way into the castle while I threw myself in front of the aggressive black figure, blocking him from following. "Well, it seems you are a LOT braver and a LOT dumber than I anticipated. But, sadly, this is where it ends." He drew himself up, looking even more intimidating then before. I wasn't gonna die here... I couldn't let this Round Table reject win! But... I don't exactly have a weapon to fight with... "Don't worry." I heard Phoenix's voice from somewhere. "Phoenix!?" "This is where I come in. You do remember what I said earlier, right Claus? About fire?" "That fire brings heat AND light..." I felt something tickling the inside of my balled fist. When I released my grip, a small flickering flame appeared, flaring and reforming into what looked like a gun of sorts. "That's the Element Gun you are able to use, Phoenix BRS-S. Keep your aim steady!" He said Cheerily. I smiled, knowing I had a fighting chance now. Take that, gun laws! "Aw, that's not supposed to happen!" The black armored fellow whined. "Well, whatever. I'm sure Moonbutt is done dealing with your candy-colored harem by now, anyway." Wait... Did he mean...? Ignoring the insults, I ran back from the figure and into the castle, intent on finding the others. "...This'll be fun." I made it inside, and saw that Twilight was struggling with a group of jewels. "But where's the spark!?" Sparks? Never mind, back to the big bad. On the other side of the room, smug as could possibly be, Nightmare Moon was gloating over the girls' failure. But this time, I was gonna ACTUALLY help them. I drew my Element Gun up and fired a shot at her, which to my surprise, ignited halfway through it's light, turning into a fireball. SO much better than throwing rocks. "Hey, emo trip! Round 2!" I ran at Nightmare, brandishing my shiny new Element Gun for all to see. "Claus!?" "That's my name, don't wear it out!" I focused back on the goth chick. "I'll buy you some time, you figure out how to get those things to work!" "INSOLENT WHELP! TASTE THE POWER OF THE NIGHT!" Nightmare yelled before firing a few beams at me, which I countered with a few fireball shots. This went on, back and forth, for a few minutes before I glanced back at Twilight. "What's the holdup, Twilight!?" "There's no spark!" Spark...? Wait a minute. I started thinking about all the hazards we'd been encountering. They all seemed to correspond to a trait mentioned in that spiel about the Elements, and our friends had embodied those traits. Each of them had that Spark. "I think I get it! They aren't talking about the elements themselves! They're talking about the six of you!" "Huh?" Should I repeat that? "...Wait, that's right!" There we go! So she got it. Applejack was honest, Fluttershy was kind, Pinkie gave laughter, Rarity was generous, and Rainbow was loyal. That connection is what activates the elements. "When you're ready, I'll get Miss Emo Universe into position, and you finish this!" I yelled. I didn't look to see her explain things to the others. Tall, dark and goth was taking up my attention, "YOU...!" Nightmare grew frustrated, eyes burning with rage as she kept missing me. I managed to lure her in a bit with a well placed, "NEENER, NEENER!" and shot her at an angle, launching her up into the air. "NOW TWILIGHT!" I watched an aura of what I could only describe as pure light emanate out of the girls, blanketing the shadowy bitch... And a smaller pony girl emerged out of it. "...Who...?" Uhhh... Does miss bitch wear elevator shoes? This smaller girl seemed to look a lot like a less aggressive Nightmare, thankfully. But, seriously, who was this girl...? I turned to the girls, now un-glowy again, and noticed that they were joined by a larger, white pony lady with wavy hair(Literally, waving) and a very angelic aura. "Who...?" This was becoming a pattern... As the larger lady approached the smaller one, I had overheard the names as they spoke. The larger white one was Celestia, Princess of the Sun, and the one released from Nightmare's body was Luna, her sister and Princess of the Moon. Apparently the Moon Princess had been corrupted and was banished to the moon until recently... For some reason. It seemed like things were picking up. Villain defeated, quest of the day complete... But then I heard slow clapping. Uh-oh... "Aw, what a heartwarming scene this is!" A dark voice cried out mockingly, heralding the armor nut striding onto the scene. "You again!" I barked out. The white princess took a stance in front of her recently released sister. "Who are you!?" "Oh, you wound me, Sunbutt...you don't remember your old friend Nether?" Aaaaand, add that to the edgy names list... The look on her face turned from defensive to shock and fear. "N-Nether!?" "The one and only. I am a bit bummed out that you managed to undo all my hard work making Nightmare Moon happen though." Wait, what? "What? Thoust were the one who caused this!?" The lunar princess exclaimed in 'Ye-olden-day' speech. "Ha, you did all the heavy lifting! You were dripping with envy over your sister, all I did was introduce a little bit of suffering energy and BAM! Instant night demon." We were all glaring at the arrogant figure. He had been behind Nightmare Moon, and now he was monolouging about it. "You know, I don't think she got enough playtime." Nether held up a small blackish crystal. Black smoke started to enter the crystal, drifting from the shadows of the room. "Well, it may not be enough for a full resurrection, but it should be entertaining to watch." Nether threw the crystal up and it exploded into a big ball of darkness, which the figure of Nightmare Moon stepped out from. "Grrrr....Night..." It seemed this Nightmare Moon was much less well spoken than before. "Play nice, kids! Hahaha!" And with that laugh, Nether sped away, Nightmare Moon firmly in-between him and us. "Wait, you!" I was about to run after him, but, unfortunately, everyone else seemed to be in no shape to fight, and the big bad witch lady just came back to life. I had to do something. I raised my Element Gun and started firing, but after the third shot... I ran out of ammo. "Crap... This is NOT good... I need to do something...!" I slowly backed up a little as Moon leveled a glare on me. "Oh don't worry Claus... There's still our ace in the hole!" Phoenix's voice rang out. I noticed another flame flickering on the Element Gun's side that burned bright and fierce as it reformed into a small add on. "This Side Arm Machine should do it. Blast her to bits!" Point and shoot, got it! I gripped the firing lever on the side machine and took aim at the dark princess before me. My voice mixed with Phoenix's for a moment as power flared into the gun. "I'll burn you away, you disgusting phantom!" I pulled the lever and... BANG! Everything went white for a few moments as an explosion lit up the goth chick's body. The remains of Nightmare Moon were engulfed in flames, the demon's dying screams ringing in my ears as she faded to nothing. I lowered my weapon and turned to the others... "I got 'er... You're all okay...? Good..." I muttered as my body fell to the ground. The last thing I saw was the ground as my consciousness faded. "You did good, Claus. Nightmare Moon was born from Princess Luna's jealousy, and Nether was trying to take advantage of that evil. However, Nether is still out there. We've got our work cut out for us. But for now... Rest." I heard a faint beeping as I slowly roused from my sleep. It appeared that after that last shot, I must have passed out from exhaustion. I guess they brought me to a hospital. Man, this bed's comfy... "Ugh..." I felt like I had been thrown through a brick wall and ended up plastered along another wall behind that one. Sitting up, I grabbed my head in my hand, attempting to process what exactly happened to me. I used the Element Gun Phoenix gave me... Wait... The Element Gun! Where'd it go? I frantically looked around the room, not seeing it anywhere. "Where is it?" A nurse walked in as I was starting to panic, so I quickly pressed it down to match her calm smile. i can look for the gun later. "Good, you're awake. You've been out for about a day now..." She said, looking at a clipboard with what I assume was my medical sheet on it. "...What happened?" I queried. "After that fight in the castle, Princess Celestia and her student brought you here. They said you'd done something incredible. It must have been to impress the Princess." Incredible, huh... "Where are they now?" "They're right outside, I'll go get them." That's convenient... Hope they're here for me and not because they actually need the hospital. After a few minutes of waiting, the two Princesses walked in, closely followed by Twilight. "Hey... Are you all okay?" I asked, worried for their safety. (Hero complex, can't help it!) "We should be asking you that!" Twilight yelped. "You hit your head when you fainted and got a concussion! As it is, you're lucky you remember how to speak!" Wait... Concussion? "Don't be too hard on him, my student." Celestia said to her student. I was still wrapping my mind around 'concussion.' "He's perfectly fine, considering he fought Nightmare Moon herself. Even better, considering he helped you rid the world of her." Right... Nightmare Moon. Speaking of which... "I hope I didn't hurt you, Princess Luna..." Luna looked confused by the statement. "If anything, we should be hoping we didn't hurt thine self, Sir Claus." I smiled. "Don't worry about that, I'm made of pretty tough stuff." What concussion? I feel fine! There was an audible silence as they just awkwardly stood there for a moment. "...You want an explanation, don't you?" I asked. "Yeah, that would be nice." Twilight piped out. Just then, the Element Gun appeared on my bedside table. It teleports... Nifty. "Allow me to explain." Phoenix's voice reverberated out from it. (Surround sound too, yay!) "And you are...?" Twilight asked the... Gun. Gonna need to check my sanity later... "Ah, well, I'm Phoenix. I'm the Abstract Spirit of flame, and your Magic element happens to be my younger sister." I winced from the loud, "...What!?" that came out of everyone besides me and Phoenix. Inside voices, please. "I needed to find someone who could channel my powers to fight Nether, since... You see... He's been doing some really horrible things to reality here, and my little sister was in danger. That's why I brought Claus here." Phoenix the gun summed up, gaining confused looks from all the pony-ple in the room. "So that means that you're from another set of Elements, Mr. Phoenix?" The sun princess asked the gun. "...I guess you could say that. Basically though, Nether isn't done- not by a long shot. I'm not letting him lay a finger on my sister..." He said with an underlying anger in his voice. Spoken like a true overprotective big brother, alright... But given how much of an absolute asshat Nether was, I'd say it's warranted. "I understand, Phoenix. If Nether were to do that to Luna again..." Aaaand, overprotective sister, too. "Twilight, as you are the wielder of the Element of Magic, in addition to you staying here in Ponyville, I would request that Claus and Phoenix stay with you to protect it." I saw Twilight's cheeks turn a bright red as she stuttered out, "I-I dunno... This is kinda sudden." ...Oh great, she's crushing on me isn't she? That's gonna get reeeaaally awkward, at minimum. But whatever. I'm staying, cooties or no cooties. "I don't mind, Twilight. And Phoenix wants to protect his little sister, so I figure I'll be around to protect you too." At that point, it seemed like the poor girl's face was as red as Phoenix's. "This is gonna be a LONG adventure, isn't it?" MEANWHILE "Huh...so Phoenix finally found someone to act for him. I knew the bird was tenacious, but really? This guy?" Nether turned the page on the calendar next to him, a picture of Sombra on the top flap. "Right then, let's see... 3 days from now... apple harvesting season... Heh, this'll be fun." Author's Note The second part of the first episode. Do note that thanks to the existence of these other characters, there will be a drift from canon.
Chapter 3- Ups and DownsChapter 3- Ups and Downs A couple days passed since the Nightmare Moon incident was sorted. Things have settled down for the most part, and I've been doing my best to integrate myself into the town. I'm living in the Golden Oaks Library these days. It's a nice little thing, at the very least I have a roof over my head. I still feel like I need to start making some money somehow- pretty sure the currency from the human world is no good here... Though I also still wonder a few things about this arrangement. Twilight's been great as a roomie, and while she claims she wants to house me as gratitude for saving them and the princesses from Nether's schemes, I'm starting to think it's less gratitude and more that she keeps me around as her eye candy. I have seen her staring a few times. Admittedly, I'm not opposed to the idea of having a girlfriend from here, but... Well, that's something I don't want to go into right now. Too sad. Anyway, today I've been practicing using the Element Gun. I admit- I kinda got lucky with the last fight, and I need to learn how to use this more effectively, so I've devised a couple training exercises... "Alright Twi, you ready?" I asked her, as she stood by a machine we made. "It's 6 targets right?" She was confirming. "Ready...go!" Twilight flipped the switch on the machine. In a couple seconds, a clay disc shot out of the machine. I took aim at the target and shot...and missed. "Gah. Alright, keep going!" Another clay disc was launched. I was trying my best, but I just couldn't hit the thing. A few rounds later... "Well, you hit one out of six...at least you managed to hit one?" Twilight said, albeit without much confidence. "Eh...I need to get better at using this thing. If something else comes up, especially Nether, I need to be ready." I flopped on the grass, and stared at the sky. One thing that is definitely different about this world is how unpolluted it is. The sky is incredibly clear. Twilight looks down at me with a look of confusion. "You know, you don't have to keep pushing yourself, Claus. Everyone in town pretty much loves you for standing up for them at the Summer Sun Festival." "Still...I can't help but feel antsy about things." I rolled a bit, trying to relax. "Hmm...oh, that reminds me, unless Phoenix mentioned this already..." "Eh? Phoenix hasn't said much to me recently. I figured I'd give him a rest. What's up?" "Well, I guess he had some of his other friends call humans as well, some of them are supposed to be arriving soon." Wait, what?! That's news. "Really? When?" I asked, but was cutoff at what appeared to be another human falling out of the sky into the nearby clothes store Rarity ran. Uh-oh... "...About 4 seconds ago." Twilight pinched her nose bridge. "Come on, let's go grab him and keep him from freaking out." I stood up and started making my way over there. "It's not the new human I'm worried about though..." Unfortunately, the new arrival definitely made an... Impact. The Carousel Boutique was a mess, with clothes strewn hither tither in the display. I knocked on the door... As it fell off its hinges. "Uh...Rarity? You in?" Rarity popped into view at the door, looking flustered and angry. "Ah, there you are Claus! You too Twilight! Help me clean this place up!" The flustered unicorn grabbed us and pulled us both inside. Straight to business then. We started helping her repair and restore the storefront. "So, I take it the new guy landed..." "Right in the middle of the store! And not only that, but the crash ruined a few of my new dresses! When this one wakes up, I am going to have words with him!" Rarity was mad alright. She was a sweet girl, generous to a fault, and loved making clothes, but she definitely had her dramatic moments. This was one of them... A few minutes later, we had cleaned up enough of the store, although many things would have to be repaired and replaced. We went over to the new fellow who crashed his way into our lives...and Rarity's store. "Hey, buddy! Can you hear me? Are you alright?" I waved my hand in front of his face, before slapping it lightly. "Urgh...not the ideal way to wake up in the morning..." The newcomer groaned. Then opened his eyes and noticed both Twilight and Rarity hovering above him. "...Heaven? That's fine too..." His eyes rolled up and he fell back, asleep once more. "...Eh?" We all looked at each other in confusion. After a while, our guest managed to regain consciousness. We started to explain what had happened, and that he was the second human to come here. (I will forever be first!) "...Ah right, I remember now. That fellow from the dream sent me here. I will say, his aim is atrocious though." "...I take it you mean one of the Abstract Spirits." I reminded him. "Yes, yes. I wasn't sure if I wanted to come here, but this world is indeed very beautiful..." He made glances at Twilight and Rarity as he said that. Oh great, a "ladies man". Well, beggars can't really be choosers...but who chose him to begin with? "Hey, listen, I know you just got here and all, but do you remember who sent you?" "Hmm...if I recall, he appeared to be a sort of clockwork man with one eye." Just then, we heard Phoenix's voice echo out from... Somewhere. "A one eyed mechanical man...? Oh right, I know who you mean. That explains the shoddy landing..." Phoenix appeared in front of us... Um... Sort of... " *Snicker* " Oh, this was priceless! "What's so funny?" Phoenix asked... Not realizing what he looked like right now. "Aww, he's an adorable little fellow after all!" The girls started fawning over Phoenix... Who apparently was able to manifest... As a cute little mascot. "A-a-ADORABLE!? I am the PHOENIX! Eternal master of flame! I am magnificent! I-" Apparently Twilight snuggling him made him stop and reconsider his position. "...I can deal with adorable." "So Phoenix, you were saying?" I reminded him of what was going on. "...Oh, right. I think this man was sent by Cyclops." "Cyclops?" We all asked. "He's the Abstract Spirit in charge of gravitational forces... And since he only has one eye, he has HORRIBLE aim." Can't be worse then mine... Can it? "Aaaah... That explains the landing." The newcomer noted. "You know, I don't believe we've been introduced." Rarity said gently, no longer blaming him for the crash. "Ah, where ARE my manners? My name is Isaac. I do apologize, I should know better than to keep a lady waiting for answers." Isaac said, albeit in a way that indicated he was flirting. "Er... Charmed." Rarity replied reluctantly. Twilight and I raised our eyebrows... "Spike is NOT gonna be happy about this..." I muttered. After a while, Twilight and I decided to show Isaac around. However, we noticed that his personality could be rather...grating. Unfortunately, he had the habit of trying to flirt with many of the women... Sorry, "mares", we came across. We were able to get him out of there before he incited an angry mob, but still... "So, Isaac... What have we learned today?" I angrily inquired, covered in things that had been thrown at Isaac and sadly landed on me. "Well, can you really blame me for wanting to pursue beauty?" Isaac nonchalantly replied. "I CAN IF IT MEANS I GET COVERED IN GARBAGE, THANK YOU!" I shouted. I turned to Mini-Phoenix, as we have taken to calling him. "Are you sure Cyclops can't do an exchange or something?" I pleaded. " *sigh* Look, I know he's kind of an ass, but Cyclops chose him for a reason. And he has some of the best judgement out of us Abstracts, so let's see where it goes." "...You owe me for this, BIG TIME." I snapped. "Twilight too. It's gonna take her at least a week to get that smell off her." Phoenix "facewinged" and we proceeded to go find a shower. A while later, we had gone back to the library... Though we were all still pissed at Isaac. I know he just got here, but he could at least keep it in his pants for a bit. "...So what are we gonna do with him?" Twilight asked, breaking the silence. "I'm not sure... He's obviously gotten Cyclops's attention for some reason, but... I don't think it's a good idea for him to stay here." I admitted. Maybe AJ could whip him into shape? "Hmm... I suppose we'll have to think of something." Phoenix joined in, wondering if his old friend had made an error in judgement. Just then, Isaac came up to us, looking rather... Regretful. "...I heard what you were saying. I am terribly sorry, I wasn't aware that those actions would cause such a backlash." Uhhh... "...Really?" We both questioned. "Where I'm from, that sort of thing is just being friendly. I was not intending to cause any discomfort." Isaac admitted. "Where you're from...? Aren't you from Earth like I am?" Phoenix jolted up, realizing the issue. "Ah, I think I get it." He does? "What?" I asked. "I think the problem is that Isaac here probably doesn't come from the same place you do, Claus." "...Eh? Mind explaining?" Even France didn't flirt like he did... What does Phoenix mean? "Well, he's a human from Earth, that's for sure... But it must not be the same Earth you came from. Possibly a parallel world." ...That would explain his behavior... In my world, if you acted like that you'd probably be arrested for sexual harassment. "So what can I do to make this right?" Isaac asked. "Hmm... Now that IS an issue, sadly. Barring repairing Rarity's shop, I don't see any way to..." "Sorry I'm late." A new voiced chimed in. We all looked around, and noticed that a new mascot like figure joined us, that being a troll-looking creature with one eye. "...I take it you're Cyclops then?" Twilight asked. "I am yes. Heard my pick was causing problems. I can help fix them." Cyclops stated bluntly. We headed back to Rarity's shop, Isaac and Cyclops in tow. While she was less than thrilled to see Isaac again, we explained the situation and also asked her to give Isaac a chance to make things right. "So, Cyclops... What did you have in mind?" Isaac asked his Abstract partner. "Use the Element Gun. I added a power that can restore things to an earlier state in the day." Wait... Huh? As that was said, a new Element Gun appeared in Isaac's hands. "That's my Element Gun. Controls gravity. In this case, we're gonna use a modified function." Cyclops grabbed the Element Gun and loaded it with a glowing Soul Bullet. "Take this and shoot the building with it. Time will rewind." Hey! Mine doesn't do that! Rarity looked nervous, and I didn't blame her... If this didn't work Isaac would just be destroying her home AND livelihood further. "Let's at least try to have faith in them, alright?" I asked. "Fingers crossed..." I glanced at Phoenix. 'Well, those with fingers." Isaac took aim and shot the bullet. A strange blue glow surrounded the building and it started rewinding itself... Before long, the Carousel Boutique was back to the way it was before Isaac dropped in. I was impressed. Twilight and Rarity were gawking in awe. Turning to us, Isaac gave a polite bow. "Showoff..." I muttered under my breath. "Thank you for giving me a chance to right this wrong." Isaac politely stated and started to walk away. "Wait! Isaac..." Rarity pleaded. Isaac stopped and turned to face Rarity, his face still looking guilty. "I am very sorry for the trouble I have caused today." Isaac told her outright. "Um... Apology accepted... Though you don't have anywhere to go, do you?" "I needn't trouble you anymore than I already have, milady." We could all tell Isaac still felt bad about the whole situation. "Well... If you can keep from breaking the store again... I can allow you to stay with me, if that is acceptable." ...What? Isaac's expression perked up dramatically. "I am most grateful-" "But, please learn to respect the cultural norms..." Rarity added. "Of course." Isaac agreed. As Isaac and Rarity headed inside, I turned to Twilight. "Well, I guess that worked out... Maybe Cyclops picked a winner after all." "Yeah, maybe he did..." A short silence followed. "We are gonna have to deal with crazy stuff from them now, aren't we?" "Sadly, yes." Sometimes I hate my life... Author's Note First of the "Original" chapters, that take place during a season but don't really adhere to any episode. I'd love to hear your feedback!
