A/N: Hello, my readers!
Sixth chapter, yay!
As for business, I've been getting a whole lot of requests, the most popular being Sonic. Well, for you Sonic fans, I know zip about Sonic, but I'm including him in here as a minor character for you Sonic fans.
Okay, as always, thanks to my amazing beta, Link Dargon, without which, this chapter wouldn't have been posted.
And thank you for everyone who reviewed! Please review some more!
*Translation Note: Pocky is a stick of chocolate, if knowledge serves me right. The game you play is essentially a kissing game of Japanese? origin, with each person taking one end of the stick and munching on it until one of them gets cold feet or you're locked in a passionate embrace.
Twilight raced through the halls of the Smash Mansion, on the lookout for two very different people.
An angel and a devil. Heh, that's ironic.
Twilight growled as the floor turned up nothing. Skidding around a corner, she launched up the stairs.
HOW HARD CAN THESE TWO BE TO FIND?! Geez, thanks a lot, Master Hand, for sending ME to go look for Ganondorf! I don't even know what the guy looks like! "You'll know him when you see him." At least Link was somewhat helpful, and if by that, I politely mean not very. And if he wasn't there, he probably doesn't want to brawl, so don't make him! And Pit…what was going on with him?
Twilight pondered the moment when Pit had undergone a terrifying transformation at the end of her first tournament.
It freaked her out. Pit was not a shape-changer, and none of the Smashers had green hair and eyes, let alone could change their shape.
A small flash of green light caught the Equestrian's attention. It came from under a closet door, and she quickly went to open it.
"You read the character profiles, correct?" A very familiar male's voice hissed.
She stopped short. This couldn't be good.
"I couldn't. That brat still has it!"
A smacking sound came from the room. "Be respectful when speaking to your ruler!" The other one whimpered. "But yes, that little horror does still have it! Miserable little cur, had to go and grab it when the moment of triumph is near! And we almost had both of them!"
The voice seemed to have an inner struggle with itself, accompanied with much growling. When it resumed speaking, it held a tone of suppressed rage. "Very well, then. The man you are playing as is a demon king. And until we get that book, you will not speak unless asked a question. Just pretend you are above all of these disgusting people. I will be sure the book gets back in our hands."
"Yes -"
"Good. Do not mess with anybody. Just do what I told you."
Footsteps came closer to the door, and Twilight felt her heart leap out of her chest. Glancing side-to-side, she looked for a hiding spot.
"What the-"
Twilight sighed in relief as somebody bent down to pick up something. "Did you drop this?"
Twilight couldn't exactly see in the darkness, but it looked like a key.
"No, I did not."
"Odd. Well, let's keep it. Never know if luck is on our side." The two walked, chortling, to the stairs.
Twilight poked her head out from behind the potted plant that had provided as cover.
What was that all about?
Walking silently, she inspected the now-open closet. Nothing looked out-of-place.
She turned, wondering if Master Hand should know about this secret closet meeting.
*crunch*
She let out a squeak as she stepped on something. When nothing appeared to attack her, she hesitantly bent down and picked it up.
A white feather?
"I'm not a fan of puppeteers,
But I have a nagging fear,
That someone else is pulling at the strings,
Something terrible is going down,
Through the entire town,
Wreaking anarchy and all that it brings-"
Twilight listened indifferently as Ike and Link had a karaoke battle, munching on a pocky stick, head on the table.
Pit had not turned up at all, but she had later found Ganondorf, who was very rude to her, but also seemed a bit uneasy.
"Did you know that there's a little game you can play with pocky sticks," Marth asked her, sitting down on an unoccupied chair.
"Really," Twilight responded, her mind not really on the conversation.
"Mm-hm. So, it takes two players-"
"OH, NO, YOU DON'T, MR. I-HAVE-A-GIRLFRIEND!" Zelda slid into first, knocking Marth off the chair and face-first onto the floor.
"WHAT? I was just telling her how to play!"
"Who's playing the pocky game?" Sonic's blue head poked itself out of the crowd of Smashers.
"Can I play?" Ness landed on the table, Lucas behind him.
"Who'd want to play with you?" The mini-Link, Toon, turned around in his seat. "Everyone knows that I'm the champ at pocky."
"Can you be a champ at pocky," Lucas asked.
"GET OFF OF THE TABLE," Zelda roared, twisting Marth's arm around in the hold she had on it.
Capitan Falcon appeared from behind. "So, the new girl wants to play pocky? Of course, she'd pick me-"
"WHO'D PICK YOU," Toon roared, getting up in the captain's face. "EVERYONE KNOWS YOU SMELL LIKE OLD SOCKS!"
"GET OFF OF THE TABLE!"
"MAKE ME!"
"GYAAAAAAAAAAH! YOU'RE RIPPING MY ARM OFF!"
"You're too slow!"
"I DON'T SMELL LIKE OLD SOCKS! AND SOME WOMEN LIKE THIS SMELL!"
"THE ONLY ONE WHO'D LIKE THAT IS YOUR MOTHER!"
"I WANNA POCKY STICK!"
Twilight soon left after it escalated into a full-out brawl.
"So much for that karaoke battle," she muttered, heading out the door that lead into the courtyard.
Sitting on that concrete sidewalk that encircled the entire building, she curled up into a ball. It had been nearly a week now, no sign of her crown had turned up, and she was missing her friends.
They might know what to do… If only they were here… Applejack would love all the new food…Pinkie would make everyone friends and throw one hectic party… Rainbow would so love the brawls… Fluttershy would be obsessing over Sonic and Kirby and the other more animal-like brawlers… Rarity would love to ask them about all these new fashions…
"Pika?"
Twilight blinked and looked up from her curled position. An oversized yellow mouse was looking at her in concern, its little paws on her knees.
She rubbed her eyes, getting rid of all the unshed tears she didn't realize she'd been building up.
"Pika-chu?" The mouse said again, sniffing her.
It's…kind of cute.
"Chu." The mouse, deciding that she was okay, leaned back on its haunches. "Pikachu."
"Um…"
"Pikachu!" Someone's voice, which Twilight didn't recognize, rang around the mansion. A boy, clad in a red vest and blue jeans, came around the corner, followed by a few animals she had never seen before.
"Chu," the mouse cried, without moving from its spot.
"Pikachu, you know you're not supposed to run off like that," the boy said, kneeling and petting it.
Then the boy took notice of Twilight. "Oh…hello. Did you find Pikachu?"
Twilight shook her head. "More like he found me."
There was a small silence as they scrutinized each other.
"I don't recall seeing you before, sorry," he said picking up the Pikachu and sitting down on the curb next to her, the other animals crowding around him.
"I'm Twilight Sparkle. I'm new here."
"I'm the pokémon trainer Red. These are my pokémon, Squirtle," he pointed at the blue one that resembled a turtle, "Charzard," he pointed at the orange one that looked a bit like a small dragon, "and Bulbasaur," he pointed at the turquoise one with a giant flower on its back. "This is Pikachu." He held up the mouse. "I'm actually surprised that you haven't met us before. Pikachu likes to run around a lot."
"I may have caught a glimpse of him once or twice."
Crashing sounded from behind them. Twilight jerked up and looked behind her. Red, however, was strangely unfazed.
When she sent a questioning glance his way, he said, "I've gotten used to it. After so many, you eventually get used to it."
Silence reigned between the two of them, oblivious to the large amount of smashing going on behind them.
"So, how've been your first few weeks among the Smashers?"
Twilight frowned. "Odd."
Red laughed. "That certainly explains them. I saw your brawl, by the way. You certainly kicked Pit's butt."
"Do you do much brawling?"
"No. My pokémon do it for me."
"Hmm."
They sat there for a few more minutes, before being approached by someone nobody had expected.
"Whatz ez going on inz there?"
"Crazy Hand," Twilight said, a little astonished.
"Hey," Red said. "Not much. Just a regular brawl."
The ethereal hand seemed to ponder this. "Well, as a Hand, I guess it's my duty to break it up," he replied, overly formal.
Five fire extinguishers appeared out of nowhere, and, grabbing them with each finger, Crazy zoomed over their heads into the mansion.
Twilight was about to say something when mad cackling came from behind, accompanied by a sound similar to spraying whipped cream. Panicked screams rang throughout the courtyard, joined by rumbling and various crashing sounds.
Twilight and Red broke out in a sweat.
"That's new," Red remarked, hugging the Pikachu closer.
"That Crazy Hand is quite a character, huh? You know, he was one of the first people I met in the Smash universe."
Red seemed intrigued. "Oh really?"
"Yeah. He disguised himself as Master Hand and brought me to his office."
"Is that turtle still in there?"
Twilight laughed. "Yeah, that poor thing. But then Master Hand burst in, and screamed 'Stop fooling with the guests! And never duct tape me to another microwave again!'"
They both chuckled. "I was wondering where the microwave went," Red said, while Pikachu munched on an apple it had found.
"Then he and I did some talking, and I got accepted into the Smashers. Y'know, he…" Twilight's face fell. "He said something really weird when I left…"
Red looked at her. "Yeah? What did he say?"
"He told me 'Place your trust in blue'…"
"Ooh! A riddle," Red exclaimed, clapping his hands. "Hm…now what would you place your trust in that's blue?"
Twilight blinked. "Well…I…uh… I would normally place my trust in my friend Rainbow Dash…she's blue…"
Red looked at her. "Well, she's not here, is she? Hm… I don't think he means Sonic. I trust him almost as far as I can throw him." This elicited a laugh from Twilight. "I don't think he means Squirtle either…"
"Maybe it's the feeling?"
"Mm, I don't think so. Do you know a Smasher that's sad?"
"No…"
They sat there in a tense silence, watching the pokémon cavort about the courtyard.
"I think that it's a physical trait," Red said, putting his chin in his hand and leaning forward. "Now, besides skin color, what about a person would be blue?"
"That really doesn't leave much else…"
"Okay then, including skin color. We've eliminated Sonic and Squirtle, so who's left?"
Twilight shrugged. "Maybe it's a specific part of the body…Well then, it really could be any part of your body…like a nose or something…"
Red laughed. "You know of a Smasher that has a blue nose?"
Twilight snorted, trying to hold in her laughter. "No. But that would be quite a sight."
"I'm starting to think it's clothes. Now, who wears blue clothes…? Well, Captain Falcon, but-"
Red began rambling off about the captain, while Twilight leaned back and smiled.
Man, I didn't realize how much I missed having a casual conversation…even laughing. Geez, I haven't laughed in a long time. Sigh…this place is so strange… It's almost…dreary…like…it sucks the joy out of everything…
"Pika?"
Twilight opened her eyes, only to jump in surprise when she saw black ones in her face.
The yellow mouse looked at her, a flower in its mouth.
"Chu." It dropped the flower in her lap, the scampered off and tackled Charzard.
Red giggled as she picked up the flower. "Looks like Pikachu likes you, huh?"
"Yeah, I guess so," Twilight answered.
Twilight's mind was elsewhere, though. The riddle of "blue" was taking up most of her thoughts. She focused on the main lead they had; how the color blue could refer to a specific part of a person's body.
Well, what was a body part that could be normally blue? They had already eliminated skin being blue, since none of the blue-colored Smashers were deemed trustable. It might be something blue that someone wore... like an accessory or something...
Twilight couldn't think of any accessories she had seen on the other Smashers that would relate to being blue. Though something was nagging at her at the back of her mind...
Something had rattled her about Pikachu's eyes, when the little pokémon had given her the flower. Twilight closed her eyes again. What was she thinking... Why would that specific scene be so-
Suddenly, her eyes flew open, and she stood upright abruptly, startling Red. "That's it!" she cried.
Red looked at her. "What?"
"Maybe the riddle WAS talking about a specific body part. And what's the most common body part that can be blue? A person's eyes! I can't believe I didn't think of this before!"
Red blinked, and then he caught on. "So, maybe the riddle was telling you to place your trust in the Smashers that had blue eyes...?"
"Yes!" Twilight hopped around in a circle, ecstatic with her new discovery.
"But…there are like fifteen different Smashers with blue eyes…"
Twilight nearly tripped. She whirled around and stared at Red.
"WHAT."
"Well, there's Mario, Luigi, Peach, Kirby-" Red stuck his tongue out in concentration as he listed the Smashers with blue eyes, counting on his hands.
Twilight plopped gloomily back down on the curb. "So much for that idea."
"It wasn't bad, it just wouldn't work. Have you ever heard the saying 'Two's company, three's a crowd'?"
Twilight shook her head.
"Oh, Twi!"
Twilight and Red started and turned around, and were met by a heaving mass of white foam.
"GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! IT'S THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN!" they both screamed, eyes as large as dinner plates.
The white foam jumped and spun around. "What? Yeta? Is that Yeta?" It then looked down at itself, or Twilight thought it did; it didn't really have a disguisable head.
"Oh, you mean me, right?" It shook its head, foam spraying the doorway. Link's blonde hair and face soon became recognizable, though they were wet and still partially covered with the foam. "You should see Ike. He's in even worse condition than me. Crazy Hand attacked us with some fire extinguishers."
"Yeah, we noticed," Red replied, while Twilight tried to fathom how anyone could possibly be in a worse condition than Link.
"Yeah, it's going to be a pain in the ass to clean up. Master Hand's pretty peeved. Anyway, he told me to call you guys in. It's almost time to lock the doors." He shook his hand, freeing it of some foam, then went to brush his wet bangs out of his eyes.
Y'know, he's got some of the bluest eyes…
Twilight then gasped and leapt up.
"THAT'S IT!"
"What," the two men asked simultaneously.
"Red, the blue eyes thing does work!"
Red frowned a bit. "I thought we just went over that-"
"Yes, we did, and you raised a valid point," Twilight interrupted, while Link looked between the two of them as if they had sprouted wings. "But he didn't mean everybody, he meant my friends!"
Red pouted. "So… what about those of use unlucky enough to not be blue-eyed?"
"Well, I- um…uh…I …" Twilight rubbed the back of her head.
One of her lessons in friendship was that you had to trust in your friends. No matter what, they would back you up, and they couldn't do that if you didn't trust them.
Did Master Hand just tell her to be prejudiced?
