Hello, fellow readers! What's on our menu today?
Maelaeran: Cause that's creepy... and kinda boring. The chase was more fun.
Foxchick1: Right there with ya.
TheBeatles211: Thanks. It's all right, as long as you got to read it.
Melchizedek: I can tell.
Good choices. Please, enjoy!
Chapter 4: A Well-Deserved Party
The van was going down a street at normal speed with Joker casually driving as the girls just finished telling Yu their plan against the Dazzlings.
"Impressive. Glad to hear you guys defused the situation before it got worse." Yu complimented their thinking.
"Yeah. Which reminds me..." Without taking his eyes off the road, Joker took out the gems and handed them to Sunset. "Request successful."
"This is great! Those girls can't use their magic now!" Sunset cheered.
"True, but that's not exactly everything." Twilight sheepishly mentioned.
"Wait, there's more?" Rainbow made sure she didn't hear it wrong.
"Yeah. I read that after StarSwirl sent them here, he had to perform a spell to counter their charm." Twilight recalled.
"A counter spell?" Sunset repeated, "Like, a song to reverse the singing by the Sirens?"
"That's what I thought too." Twilight places her fist on her chin, "However, the spell he wrote wasn't in the book."
"I knew there was a catch." Joker commented as he stopped the van at a red light.
"And I don't know any musical spells." Twilight added, "But, I'm sure I can figure it out."
"That's kind of how she earned her title." Spike mentions.
"I finished a spell that had caused a big problem when I accidentally cast it too early." Twilight corrected, "But, that's not the case here."
"This just came to mind, but do we have to perform it more than once to break the spell on everyone?" Applejack asked.
"That's where the showcase comes in." Yu answered.
"Of course! That's where they'll be anyways." Rainbow added.
"Well, while we're thinking of all this..." Joker then drove straight as the light turns green, "I'm hungry. How about I make dinner for us?"
"Oh, Ren! You're such a gentleman." Rarity complimented.
"And we can use my house!" Pinkie offered, "Slumber party at my place!"
"A-A slumber party?" Morgana's voice surprised the girls a bit.
"Oh yeah, I forgot Morgana was the van." Sunset chuckled a bit.
"But first, where's the grocery store?" Joker asked since he doesn't know the town.
After getting to the grocery store and parked in a place with no one around, Joker reverted back to Ren as they exited the van. Once they did, Morgana transformed back into his cat form and went into his red slingbag that Pinkie revealed that she had their stuff in... her hair?
Either way, once Ren put on the slingbag and Spike went in Twilight's bag, the group entered the store to receive the ingredients. Turns out that Pinkie needed some extra stuff for their party, so the group split up for both objectives. Ren walked in the spices aisle as he walked with Yu, Sunset, and Twilight.
"So, what are you thinking of cooking up?" Yu was curious on what it was.
"Nothing much. Just a recipe I was given from the boss." Ren decides to keep it a secret as he looks through the shelves.
"I'm impressed you're able to cook." Sunset commented.
"You sound like you're surprised." Ren jokes as he takes a couple of spices.
"I'm curious, what do you guys eat for food?" Twilight wonders as she looks at their surroundings.
Ren lead the way to another aisle as Yu answers, "Well, humans are omnivores, which means they eat meat and vegetables. I'm guessing ponies aren't like that?"
"No. We have animals that eat meat, but ponies like me mainly eat plants, vegetables and fruits." Twilight explains.
As they walk down another aisle, they saw one of the students from their school reaching for some apple cider near the top shelf.
It was a girl with two-toned electric blue hair that had a pair of light blue headphones over her ears, wearing a white jacket with blue linings that has a matching skirt with a black music note, purple pants with lighter lavender lightning bolt patterns, and blue sneakers. She had purple-tinted sunglasses over her eyes as she looks around, seeing the group.
"Hi. Do you need help?" Yu offered.
She simply nods in response, which Yu gladly reached up just enough to grab the edges of it and brought it down to her.
"Thanks." The girl simply said as she went off.
"Wait, wasn't she in the cafeteria when the Sirens sung?" Sunset remembered seeing her there.
"Yeah. Yet, she doesn't seem to be acting like the others." Yu supports her claim.
"Must be her headphones." Ren pointed to the pair she had on her head as she turned the corner.
"True, she always listens to her music." Sunset hasn't see her without them ever since she met her.
"Well either way, that's one less to worry about." Yu concludes as they went to the other aisles.
After getting the ingredients, they met up with the others where Pinkie had half of her cart filled with one thing.
"Does one person need this much whip cream?" Sunset asked what the others were thinking.
"Don't worry, this is only my backup cream." Pinkie answered, further confusing them as they look at the others.
"We don't know either..." Applejack spoke for them, leaving them to wonder as Pinkie and Ren went to the cash register.
After buying their stuff and leaving the store to head out with the Monamobile, the group drove to Pinkie's house as the sun was setting. Once they arrived, someone else has already at the door when she notices them.
"Hey, Maud! I brought my friends over for a slumber party!" Pinkie called out to her as they exited the van.
Pinkie was quick to bring Maud over to the others for introductions, "Guys, this is my sister Maud! Maud, these are my friends-" Taking a deep breath, she then list them down.
"Ren, Yu, Twilight, Spike, Sunset, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow-" She then popped up next to the van, "And Morgana!"
The group was silent as Maud looked at the van, "That's a van." She pointed out in a deadpan voice, which they don't blame her on that.
"I'm no normal van, miss." Morgana then transformed back into his cat form and walks up to her, "There's more to me than meets the eye."
The group was expecting some sort of reaction, but Maud didn't even flinch at the change as she looked at the cat. "Cool."
"Wha-!? Her face didn't change at all!" Morgana showed surprise as his mind processed this.
"And it's nice to meet you all." Maud simply said with a rather monotone voice, which the group were kinda taken aback at.
"N-Nice to meet you too." Yu was the first to recover from this to greet her back.
Seeing the sisters next to each other, they can tell the differences between them better.
Maud had turquoise colored eyes with grayish violet eyeshadow that matched her hair color and bluish gray skin while she wore a simple grayish violet dress with a black belt and black boots.
If Pinkie didn't point it out, Ren and Yu would not have figured they were related.
"Ren was planning on cooking for us!" Pinkie told her, which Maud simply looks at him.
"How nice of you. Pinkie usually cooks and she makes interesting dishes." Her voice didn't change a pitch as she spoke.
"What kind of dishes?" Yu was a bit curious at that before a low growl came from his stomach.
"Looks like I'm not the only hungry one. Let's continue inside." Ren lead the way as Pinkie opened the door for them.
Once they entered, the group headed towards the kitchen to prepare food. As Ren cooked, Yu was talking with the girls at the dining table.
"A 'chimicherrychanga'?" Yu only knows of the chimichanga they had in his world.
"It's pretty much a dessert." Maud simply said.
"And it's super good!" Pinkie chimed in.
"I'll admit, it is delicious. Though, it can be a bit messy." Rarity remembers the last time she tried one.
"You even got it on your shirt." Fluttershy recalls her freaking out over it.
"It was a brand new one I bought! I had to wash it before the stains set in!" Rarity sighs after saying that.
"Not as messy as those hot sauce cupcakes she made once at a party." Applejack chuckled a bit at that, "Had students burning their tongues like hot pepper."
"I remember those..." Twilight shuddered a bit at the memory, "Didn't have a cupcake for a long while after that."
Sunset raised an eyebrow at the hot dessert as Rainbow spoke, "Speaking of cupcakes, I liked the ones she made for my birthday last year."
"You mean those with the rainbow-colored frosting?" Sunset saw pictures of them that Rainbow showed on her phone once.
Yu then had a familiar smell hit his nostrils that was coming from the kitchen. It smelled good, but it brought up some memories that sent chills down his spine for a moment.
"Mmm, that smells good." Sunset caught the scent as well as Morgana walked out of the kitchen to the table.
"Ladies and gents, may I present to you... your dinner." Morgana had a dramatic presentation as Ren stepped out of the kitchen with many plates before transforming into his bipedal form to help out.
Yu instantly recognized the dish as curry, which made the bad memories come back full force and froze him where he sat. Once the others got a plate of curry in front of them, Ren and Morgana sat down in their seats.
"This is the curry that the boss usually makes at his cafe when I stayed there. He gave me the recipe for it before I left." Ren spoke fondly of Sojiro, who he sees now as family.
"Curry, huh? Ah never really had this before," Applejack admits.
"There's a first for everything. Go ahead." Morgana encouraged them.
The girls were curious as they each took a bite, with various reactions.
"Sweet."
"Yet, spicy!"
"Tender..."
"And rich..."
"This is amazing!"
Ren smiles at the positive reactions until he looks at Yu, who was glancing at the others before taking a bite himself. Once he did, his face turns from nervousness to happiness as tears started to form in his eyes.
"You all right, man?" Ren was confused at his reaction.
Yu was silent for a moment before closing his eyes and smiled, "...You made me love curry again."
Ren chuckled a bit at that, "You're welcome."
Once they had their fill of curry, which there was some leftovers since Pinkie wanted to bake desserts, Maud told them that she had some homework she still had to do before heading to her room. After Pinkie finished baking many cookies and they ate almost half of them before being full, the group got into their pajamas with Yu and Ren picking out some clothes from the bags.
Ren wore a black long-sleeved shirt with olive sleep pants while Yu wore a aqua v-collar shirt, gray plaid trousers and tan slippers.
As the group lounged around in Pinkie's room, she was typing on her laptop to update her social status while Yu and Ren played a fighting game with Rainbow and Applejack, Rarity taking a selfie with Fluttershy and Sunset as Morgana and Spike popped up from behind to ruin it, and Twilight is sitting on the bed writing the counter-spell in Fluttershy's notebook.
"You almost got him, Applejack!" Rainbow's voice made Twilight look up from her work.
She wasn't sure how video games work, but it sounded like they were playing teams.
"Switch out, Yu!" Ren ordered, which Yu immediately did once his character got his feet on the ground.
Ren's character dashes in as he presses buttons to attack, making Applejack's character go on the defensive.
"Rainbow, I'm switching out!" Applejack gave a heads-up to her partner, which Rainbow held her controller ready.
However, Ren's character did enough damage in his combo to knock out her character, leaving Rainbow on her own.
"Don't worry, I can bring this back!" Rainbow reassures as her character dashes in.
The two characters were having a pretty even match and occasionally clashes their attacks before Rainbow started getting the upper hand. Yu saw Ren's health bar was getting low, "Tag me in!" He ordered.
Ren's character guard pushes Rainbow's away enough to switch out for Yu's character to dash into the fight. Thankfully, he managed to recover some health to last the fight, but Rainbow's experience with the game mechanics kept him on his toes.
After a couple of backs and forwards, Rainbow managed to break Yu's guard and take him out in a combo, leaving Ren left.
"I got this!" Ren pushes up his glasses right before his character dashes in the fight.
Thanks to the recovered health, he and Rainbow were still evenly matched in their battle. Yu and Applejack watched on as the two then perform the character's supers, colliding on impact with the damage to end it.
"Draw!" The game's announcer called the result, leaving the four stunned for a moment.
"All of that... for a draw!?" Rainbow groaned at this as Ren sighs.
"It was a good match." Yu simply said.
"You're telling me. It's been awhile since me and Rainbow had a challenge." Applejack complimented.
"I played some of these with my friends." Ren recalls playing Futaba at the retro games he bought, which one was a fighting game.
"Beginner's luck." Yu admits since he doesn't play games often.
Rainbow then looks behind them to see Twilight, "Hey, Twi. How's the counter-spell coming along?"
"Uh, great!" Twilight was lying as she looks at her writing. Due to her inexperience with hands, the words were nothing but chicken scratch. "I'm getting there..."
She then turns a few pages to see Fluttershy's writing, which was much clearer, that formed a song. "I really like the song you wrote, Fluttershy."
"Thanks." She said before sighing as she squeezed a small alligator plushie, "Hopefully one day, we get to play it."
Rainbow heard this as she looks at the TV screen. Fluttershy mentions her song from time to time, but she always brushed it off to do the ones she wanted to play. Wait, was this what Yu meant earlier at school? Well, it can't really be helped. She always wants to be in the spotlight, it's just a habit. After thinking for a bit, she made her decision.
She then turns her head to look at Fluttershy, "We'll play it in the showcase, then! In fact, since I know we're gonna win, we'll play it for the finale!"
Fluttershy then had a big smile as she dropped the plushie and gave Rainbow a big hug, "Oh, thank you! Thank you, Rainbow!"
Rainbow finds herself having a tough time breathing, "Great, glad to hear it. Can't breathe..."
Fluttershy gasped as she lets her go, allowing Rainbow to catch her breath. "Sorry about that." She giggles a bit as she said that.
Yu looked at the two with a smile, glad that Rainbow is taking a step in the right direction.
And done! Wow, this took longer than I thought! I think it's because of the fact I keep thinking ahead after this. But, I want to go in the order I wrote down and I'm doing that.
So, after their plan was a success, the group celebrated by having delicious curry and cookies. Also, this was one of the interactions I wanted to do is Yu tasting the curry that Ren learned from Sojiro. Just that alone made this entire chapter happen.
Anyways, with the marbles on the Rainbooms' side, can the Dazzlings even the playing field?
Find out next time, see ya later!