Something Different

Chapter 1

WARNING: May contain spoilers for future Joy Stick's Story chapters.

(Remember: Though the Story is in First-Person, Joy Stick is not narrarating.)

     I awoke with a start. I was in a cold-sweat. Another frickin' nightmare. I lifted my upper-body up, with my lower-body still in my sleeping bag, and checked my surroundings. The campfire I started last night was no longer burning. It still seemed pretty dark. How long was I sleeping? I grabbed my pocket watch from my satchel next to me. "Broken. Lovely." I say, pissed that my new watch broke. I look at my surroundings again. I see my all of my friends in their sleeping bags, forming a circle around what was a campfire. Tyran- my best friend since first grade- was snoring obnoxiously and so was his dog, Iron Flame. Xavier- a draconian- was not in a sleeping bag around the campsite. He instead sat next to tree, with his stetson hat over his eyes. Cid was just lying there, aiming one of those new "Automatic Pistols" into the sky, in his sleep. Lets hope it isn't loaded. Link was just sleeping, hugging tightly an Epona plushie. He mumbles in his sleep. "But I wanna ride the pony." I gotta get this photographed! Haha! I look over to 24-89... well he doesn't sleep. He just lies there, in a full steel suit of armor. I have never seen his face... But yeah, he never sleeps.

And then there was Anthia. Oh, God. Anthia.

She's known me since middle school. When we were first introduced she had a look in her eyes. When we first met, I knew... I knew... She had a major crush on me after only knowing me for a few minutes! Am I that sexy?!

Oh, right. The story. *Ahem*

And then there was Anthia. I observed her, like I did everyone else.

"MMmmmm"

OK. She's making random noises in her sleep. Everyone does that.

"Mmm. Elijah."

Wait. WAT

"O, mmmm"

What is this- I don't even-

She continued to speak in a tired, dreamily tone. "Mmmm *Moaning Noises* Mm."

OK. Remind me not to ask her what she was dreaming about!

I scoot away from Anthia's direction. And I look toward Thunder Rush.

Oh, yeah did I mention I own a dragon? No? Oh... Hey! I have a pet dragon!

He begins to stir. He then wakes up, and looks to me.

'Sup, Eli?

"Mornin' , Rush"

Dragons have telepathic abilities in case you didn't know.

He looks around a bit, and sniffs.

What do we got to eat? Do we still have that jerky Cid made the other night?

"Yeah, I'll go grab it."

     I finally get up. For a third time, I look at my surroundings. And this time I notice something of interest. The forest we took camp in... changed, or something over-night. It almost looked... cartoony. I walk over to our food sac and ice box. I pull the jerky out from the food sac and thow it to Thunder Rush. He devoured it in a single bite.

"Yah don't even savor it.", I say to him in a comical voice.

Don't need to. Dragons don't eat for taste. We eat to survive.

I just stare at him, my right eyebrow raised.

Unless its chocolate! he 'says', pointing at me. I just chuckle.

"Alright. Its been a few minutes since I woke up. Time to wake up the rest of the group." I monologue.

I walk over to Cid. He stopped waving his pistol around a few minutes ago. I am about to poke him awake when I remember what happened the last time I tried wake him up.

So I turn to Xavier's direction and walked to his tree. I tapped him lightly on the shoulder. He awakes.

"Huh. What?", he says still very tired.

"Its mor-" I'm cut off when Xavier's 2 inch long claw goes up against my throat, just microns away from cutting open my neck.

He then interrogates me.

"Who are you?! What did you do to my collueges?! What's the square root of infinity?! WHEN DID YOU LAST CHANGE YOUR UNDERWEAR!?!?!?!

I jump back from Xavier's claw and unsheathe my multi-tool knife, in case he jumps at me. Maybe I should've awoken Cid, first...

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!" I blab out rapidly. "Xavier! Its me! Elijah! You know the guy that helped you kill the werewolf that attacked your village!"

Just then, a silver-tipped arrow whooshes past Xavier and I, and hits the tree. Xavier's head was 3 inches away from the projectile.

"For the love of the Gods... SHUT THE FRICK UP!"

     I look behind me and see my good friend, Link, holding a bow in an offensive stance, ready to fire again. I can tell he intended to fire right next to Xavier's head. He's such a show-off. He has large, purple bags under his eyes, and I think he's still asleep...

Xavier looks at me again. He speaks. "Uh... Sorry, mate. You know me in mornings."

"Yeah... No I don't! I know Cid in the morning and he does something much, much, much worse. But that was still pretty bad."

Another arrow whooshes past me. This time it hits Xavier's leather trench coat, bouncing off harmlessly.

"Ugh. Just shut up." Link groaned. "I am trying to get some shut-eye. And you two 'kumkwats-for-balls' are not making it easy!" Link threw his bow on the ground and pulled out 2 bombs, murder in his eyes. He must really want his beauty sleep.

Thunder Rush laughed (in his mind) when I thought that.

      "We'll shut up." Xavier and I say in unison and fear. Even though Xavier was admittedly the definition of bad @$$, you'd never want to get into a fight with Link. He was master swordsman (see what I did there?), master archer, and master spell caster. All at the age of only 17. He. Will. Mess. You. Up.

"Good." Link finished with venom in his voice. He collapsed on his sleeping bag, clutched his plushie, and began to suck his thumb, like a boss.

     Xavier and I looked at each other, and back to Link, both of us snickering at the sight. Obviously, all of the ruckus caused by the past few minutes woke everyone up (except for 24-89. He just sat there the whole time watching, apparently). Tyran got up and exhaled an enormous yawn and asked "What's for breakfast?". Iron Flame barked at his master in approval. Cid woke up next. He got up and greeted everyone, and walked to the ice box and sat on it, began loading both of his guns, followed by sharpening his axe. Anthia came next. She rubbed her eyes. She then turned to me, smiled, and greeted "Good Morning!". She repeated the act to everyone else in the group, but she clearly put more effort into the one meant for me. 24 finally got up. He grabbed a whet stone, drenched it with water, and began sharpening his 6 foot long sword, all without saying anything. A man of few words. Link was still sleeping during the whole morning routine.

"OK. Well, I know everyone is hungry. And all we have is fruits and carrots. So, Link and I will go hunting for breakfast."

Link just snorted in his sleep.

Silence. We all look at each other. Tyran speaks up. "OK. Who's gonna wake him?"

***

After getting 24-89 to wake up Link, and convincing Xavier to let me use his scoped repeater crossbow, Link and I headed off into the forest.

***

20 Minutes of Failure Later...

"Well, crap."

     Yeah. What Link said. Crap. It has been a little over 20 minutes and we have found nothing. No birds. No squirrels. No rabbits. No squabbits. NOTHING. We have barely heard a sound since we've entered the dark parts of the forest. Link mentioned earlier he "Felt" something watching us. Or hunting us. I told him he needed to lay off the Chateau Romani and keep his mind on the task. Now we are just walking. Armed with a Hero's bow and a crossbow. Ready for anything.

The only thing that would startle us would be a whole village of talking, pastel-colored ponies. And chances are we we won't encounter such a thing.

Foreshadowing?!?

***

Link and I eventually found a wild boar. And it kicked our butts. So we quit and decided to pull out the fishing rods.

     After a few minutes of boredom, rage, and shooting fish with arrows, Link and I finally got one fish for each party member. We walked back to the camp site to find 5 very hungry looking people. Well, 3 people, a lizard, and an emotionless steel statue, plus pets.

"Where the heck have you been?!?" Tyran yelled as he jumped up from his spot. "We have been waiting for food for 8 hours!". Oh, silly Tyran.

"We've only been gone 2 hours, T." Link deadpanned. "Anyway, we failed miserably at hunting, so we ended up launching arrows at a bunch of fish."

Anthia joined in the conversation. "Well, thats lazy."

Link countered the insult. "So's an elf who uses magic to cheat."  Quite a successful trolling, Link. Anthia's cheeks flushed and she turned away, remembering the time she used a love potion on me. *Shudders*. What a weird Tuesday...

***

One Breakfast Later...

"Ugh. I'm bored. When can we get back to saving life as we know it?" Link is such a smart @$$.

I forgot to mention the 7 of us were chosen by the Heavens to save Life as we know it, didn't I? It'll take to long to explain, so I won't explain it... yet.

Anyway...

"After you shut up and help us pack!" I yell back, laughing.

"Myaaahh!" What the?... "I don't wanna!" So immature.

"Yeah. And why?"

Link looks to me. He closes his eyes and smiles. "I'm too lazy."

A large smack echoed throught the forest. That was a world record facepalm, enacted by me.

"Ugh." Link sighed. "SOMEONE?! ANYONE?! BE IN DANGER! IS ANYONE IN NEED OF LIFE-SAVING OR MONSTER SLAYING!?!" Link yelled to no one in particular.

I walk up to Link's long, pointy ear. "WHAT ARE WE YELLING ABOUT?!?"

He wasn't phased by the yell at all. But Iron Flame put his snout on the ground and covered his ears. Smart dog...

Link looked at me, as if I never yelled and spoke. " I'm bored. I need to kill something, followed by saving someone's life."

Everyone stared at him. Cid spoke up. "You been drinking milk again haven't you?"

"Why is everyone saying that?! I've been sober for 3 months!"

24-89 Finally spoke his first words the day. "And you do remember what happened 3 months ago after you drank the Chateau Romani, right?"

Link would've kicked him if it wasn't for the fact that 24 was wearing 2 inch thick, steel armor (and 2 inches is pretty thick when it comes to armor), so he settled with "Shut up!".

Just then we all heard a scratchy-voiced, but definitley feminine scream. It was then followed by a a huge, threatening roar.

Link tensed up and pulled the legendary Master Sword and Hylian Shield from his back.

"Well, that works, I guess." I say, unsheathing my sword.

     Link became serious. When not in combat, he's a huge smart @$$. But someone's life is in danger, he becomes a demon of war. "The scream was 1.5 kilometers North East. We need to head in that direction. Thunder Rush, you stay here and guard the belongings from any bandits or hungry animals." Link ordered sternly. Thunder snorted.

He stood up. I don't have to listen to you. Why can't I help?

Link looked at Thunder with daggers in his eyes. Almost as fast as light, Link ran up to the dragon's face. ''Cause I'm the Hero of Time." He said flatly, yet ominously.

Threat acknowledged.

Thunder took a defensive position around the campsite. He began to voluntarily hyperventilate, charging up his fire.

We turned North East. The seven of us ran to where we heard the scream and roar.

***

We've been running for about 3 minutes.

Cid was far behind us. Dwarves weren't exactly built for running. We continued running at a fast pace when Anthia asked "Guys! What if when we reach our destination, its a house and all we heard was... indoor sports like last time?"

     I admit it was a plausible explanation, but we had to check. Someone could be getting mutilated by Shadow Soldiers. No. Shadow Soldiers do more than the Xetronuvian Council thinks. I thought this as I remembered the time our group came across a village burned to the ground. I suspected, probably everyone else too, that the villagers were killed or enslaved.

What we found was far from the truth.

We walked through the ruins to find that each one of the village's inhabitants was... Crucified.

     I think everyone of us cried that day. It was the first and only time I saw 24-89 show strong emotions. But I shed the most tears that day. I saw a little boy, still alive, lashed onto a cross. His eyes were crimson from crying. He said something inaudible to everyone but me. "Help." My heart split in half. A five-year old child, going through the most pain anyone could endure. And there was absolutely no way we could save him. I was behind Cid. I pulled his pistol from it's holster.

Bang.

A single shot into the child's temple. He died instantly, no pain. I entered an emotional rampage immediately after.

I repeated the act on every villager, dead or alive. Xavier and Tyran had to hold me back. I had a nervous breakdown.

24-89 struck me on the back of the had, causing me to pass out for 13 hours.

When I came to, my friends told me what had happened. I didn't sleep for weeks.

But I can't let that happen again! I found myself crying as I ran. I ignored Anthia's question and ran faster.

***

We finally arrived to where we heard the scream.

"What the heck is that?!" Link yelled pointing at a winged lion with a scorpion tail.

Xavier spoke next. "That, mate, is a manticore. Part of the 'Very Pissed' variety I might add."

     I agree. This manticore did not seem happy. Oh. THATS what was hunting us. I look around looking for the source of the screaming. But all I see are 2 pastel-colored pegasi. I assume they are mates. They were both oddly colored. A black stallion with a blue mane, and a cyan mare with a rainbow mane. Besides the stallion's black coat, both the pegasi's colors were extremely unnatural. What was really out of place, though, was the fact that both pegasi had a strange looking tatoo on either side of their flank.

     Anyway, I see the stallion bucking the crap out of the manticore. The stallion has multiple wounds, and is slowly bleeding out. I can tell the pegasus has yet to be stung by the manticore's large scorpion tail, because he doesn't have a giant, green, puss flowing, wound anywhere on his body. And even if he did, he would've passed out in seconds after such. And would've died an hour later.

And what I saw next was really interesting.

The 2 pegasi were using humanoid noises and emotions. The stallion kept grunting every time he took a hit. And everytime he did take a hit, the rainbow mare shed another tear.

Humanoid emotions? Coming from equines? Maybe I should lay off the chateau romani.

But I don't drink that crap. So everything I'm seeing is real, unless I'm dreaming and thats highly unlikely.

I hear a scream.

I snap back to reality. I see the rainbow one scream. I also see the black stallion on the ground with a giant, green, puss flowing wound coming from his side.

D@mn it! I jinxed it!

     A few nanoseconds after I see the stallion go down, I see Link run up to the manticore at the speed of sound and cut it across the back. The slash didn't go very deep, but the manticore didn't exactly like it. It roared in pain, turned around and swiped at Link. After it epically fails, Link sheathes his sword. He throws his shield at the manticore like a boomerang that won't come back. It comically hits the manticore in the face. It bellowed in pain. Link began to taunt at the monster. "Aw, don't cry. Its only a major concussion!" Link jumps 10 feet into the air somehow and brings out his bow. He fires 2 arrows before falling. As he touched the ground, the manticore whacked link in the face with his tail. The stinger didn't get him, though. Despite the situation, it was hilarious. Until it turns to us. With its back turned, I see the rainbow mare fly to the stallion, trying to keep him awake.

The manticore roars at us.

Tyran brings out his two-handed, 30 pound iron hammer.

Link gets back up and unsheathes the Master Sword, using both hands and no shield.

Anthia clenches her fist and lightning begins to form around it.

Cid, feeling pretty bad@$$, equips his axe, instead of his rifle.

Xavier just stands there and does nothing.

24-89 takes his sweet time and pulls out his 6 foot long sword.

I had my basic, 39 inch long, steel sword equiped from the start of the run.

We ran. We ran at the monster. We ran as fast as we could. It does the same. I look behind me and see Xavier standing there, calmly; an icon of tranquility.

     I look back at the manticore. It was running incredibly fast. I look back to Xavier again. He's doing something different. I see him drawing his gun. Now this was no ordinary gun mind you. Oh, no. This was a Blystone Industries, .72 'Dragon Slayer' revolver; On the barrel, engraved in gold was " 'Till Death Do Us Part ".  The weapon was specifically designed for piercing the near indestructable scales of the great, winged, serpents. But when dragon hunting became illegalized, the Dragon Slayer continued production; except it was used for putting very big holes in small to medium sized animals. And thats just what it did.

I hear a crack of thunder. But I knew. I knew it was the giant bullet fired from the mighty Dragon Slayer revolver.

I looked at the manticore again. The head was gone. The frickin' head was GONE! It didn't fly off, no no. The head was completely obliterated!

      The body ran 3 more feet after that before collapsing, motionless. Lifeless. The six of us, the dog, and the rainbow mare all looked at Xavier in all his bad@$$ery. He looks at us, holstering his giant handgun. "What?" We all continue to stare at his awesomeness. That was seriously the single coolest thing I have ever seen any living being do besides watching Link using a bomb mask and surviving. He looks back us. "What have I told you, mates? You don't @#$% with the mail man." Heh. I remember that. His trademark phrase. Xavier was courier way back when until the party and I (then it was just Tyran, Anthia, Link, and I) saved his whole village from a pack of werewolves. He agreed to help us save the world from holocaust. And everyone in our group, even 24-89, a knight of the Xetronuvian empire, a knight of the world's second most powerful nation (first being Anopia), knew... never to get in a fight with a courier, particularly Xavier.

And then what happened next changed my life forever.

"OK, guys. That was probably the most coolest, radicallest, awesomest thing I've ever seen. But can you help me get my coltfriend to the hospital?"

Who the heck said that? I look around. And see the mare looking at me, great concern in her eyes.

Wait. Don't tell me a horse just asked me t-

     "Hello!" the mare yells in my face. "You gotta help save him. I don't know who you are, or where you came from, but you gotta help him! Please." She begins to cry. Being confused out of my mind will have to wait. I nod to the pegasus, and run over to her 'coltfriend'. I sling him over my shoulder and ask the mare "Where's the nearest town?"

"Ponyville. Follow me!" she orders. I do so. I look back at the group and they all stare, dumbfounded. "Come on guys! We can all brain dead later, we got a life to save." They all snap back to reality, nod, and follow.

As we run, I feel the stallion stir. He speaks. "Who are you?" he asks. He opens eyes a bit. "What are you?"

I look to him and smile.

"A Friend in Deed."

END OF CHAPTER 1

Author's Notes

_________________

My second story. Yay.

I know I'm no where near done with Joy Stick's story, but I could't get this out of my head!

Probably none of you besides 'RandomReader" know whats going on. It will be explained in a few chapters.

This is a crossover fic, but it is not crossing over with anything offical. I came up with the idea of an imaginary kingdom with technology similar to 1905 Europe. And I threw Link from LoZ in the mix 'cause he's just that awesome. But he's also a smart @$$. Who else likes that I did that?

Thanks for reading! New chapter coming soon, after chapter 3 of Joy Stick' Story.

Notice Rainbow Dash's line: "You gotta help save him. I don't know who you are, or where you came from, but you gotta help him! Please."    Why doesn't she ask WHAT they are?  *Cough* My Little Dashie reference *Cough*

Important Note:

Xavier: Australian accent

Cid: Russian accent

Thunder Rush: Boston accent