Jealousy And Danger
Twilight: Hey guys! Sorry for the long wait. But we're back and ready to get things started on the last bit of our Camp Everfree saga. There's still one more chapter of it after this, but before we get to that, our authors have a crazy adventure waiting in this chapter. So sit back, relax and get ready for more fun and excitement! Hit the music!
*Smile BOMB*
As the music starts, Ranma and the others can be seen falling from the sky, smiles on their faces as they fall through the clouds. The title of the show appears in stylized letters.
Running in a crowd, in a faceless town
I need to feel the touch of a friend
Ranma can be seen running at top speed as the Mane 7 are seen running behind him one by one. First Sunset, then Twilight, Rainbow, Applejack, Pinkie, Rarity and then Fluttershy.
In the countryside, I wander far and wide
The isolation gets me again
Celestia and Luna are then seen running in a field only to be cut off by a giant shadowy figure appearing out of nowhere to block their path. Cut to a close up of Celestia and Luna panicking.
I don't know where to go
When I feel like crying, oh my
It's time to challenge myself, do something new
I want to stop and grow up a bit
Ranma and the others are then seen running to aid their friends. Ranma fires a Hadoken at the shadow as the Mane 7 and even Flash fought off other shadowy figures with their own abilities. At the last line of lyrics, Ranma does a chop and ends the last figure, as it fell, Ranma and the others all jump to different sides of the screen.
Then suddenly, my power and confidence start swelling up
Magically erupt
And it's all because of the kindness that I feel
From people I don't even know
The scene changes to show Rainbow Dash training in the woods, then Applejack powering up with a green aura around her, then Rarity generating a whip of blue lightning and twirling it around her. Pinkie is then seen firing her bazooka as Fluttershy summons spiritual animal heads and sending them out in an attack. The scene then changes to Twilight remembering Midnight Sparkle and being broken out of her bad memories by a smiling Sunset.
Then suddenly, my intuition and my wisdom grow
And then I know
The scene changes to show a line of shadowed villains, each one glaring red eyes at an unknown target before showing Celestia, Luna, Cadence and Master Asia looking worriedly at Ranma who is then seen struggling to stand, his body beaten and bruised.
That most of all I sense compassion's real
Thanks to strangers wherever I go
Flash and the girls help Ranma to his feet as they stare forward to face whatever was in front of them. As a giant twister came rushing at them, Ranm and the others jumped away.
Thank you for waking me up!
The scene then changes to show Ranma and the others smiling and falling from the sky towards the screen. The final scene shows Ranma standing in the middle of his friends and allies as he winks and makes a gun with his fingers, acting like he was firing at the screen.
Pinkie stepped out onto a tree branch. It was so early in the morning that the sun hadn't even come up yet. She took a deep breath, patted her stomach and...
"COCA DOODLE DOOOOOO!" She cried out as she heard music playing in her head and started to sing.
"Everybody thinks I'm crazy! Loony as a toon, that's me, PINKIE! Everybody thinks I'm screwy, chop a hole in every tree. Knock on wood! Knock on wood! Everybody thinks I'm crazy, so what WHAT can I do? Guess whay, so are you!"
No sooner had she finished this song, a boot flew in and whopped her upside the head. She rolled across the branch and crashed into the trunk of the tree.
"Huh?" She asked as she looked and saw an ANGRY looking Sunset Shimmer glaring at her.
"Pinkie...It's 4:30 in the freaking morning! SHUT THE FUCK UP AND GO BACK TO SLEEP!" She shouted as she slammed the door of her cabin. Pinkie huffed at her friend.
"Not a morning person." She said, pointing in Sunset's direction with her pinkie finger.
As this was going on, the person who actually asked for this wake-up call, Applejack, walked out of her cabin, yawning and stretching. She took a deep breath as she looked up at the still darkened sky.
"YEEEHAAAWWWW! Come on everybody! Wake up those lazy bones, it's time to wake up and...WWWWWWHHHHHOOOOOOOAAAAAAAA!" She screamed as she was yanked up and off her feet by a snare trap. It pulled her up into the sky where she was wrapped up in bubble wrap.
"What the!? UMPH!?" Before she could say anything else, her mouth was covered by a strip of duck tape.
As she struggled to break free, a paper hung in front of her. She looked at it in what little light there was, and saw that it had a chibi drawing of Ranma and Rainbow Dash grinning and giving the peace sign. She was able to read the words, 'Anti Applejack Morning Trap. Patent, Ranma and Rainbow Dash.'
Applejack grew red with rage as she struggled to break free, but it was no use. She ended up hanging there for hours. Around 8 A.M., Ranma, Rainbow, and the rest of the campers came out of their cabins to get ready for their day. Rainbow looked over and saw Applejack hanging like a pinata.
"Bh..bh...BAH! HA HA HA HA HA!" Rainbow burst out laughing at her friends' predicament.
"YAWN! What's so funny Rainbow?" Ranma asked as he looked over to see Applejack. As soon as he saw her, he burst out laughing too.
"AH HA HA HA HAH! Hey! Our trap worked." He said as he and Rainbow looked at the glaring blond cowgirl.
"Hey AJ! Just hanging around?" Pinkie asked with laugh.
Applejack struggled to smack Pinkie and the others in the head. Ranma calmed down and channled ki into his hand.
"Ok ok. Hang on AJ, I'll cut you down." He said and sliced the rope holding his girlfriend.
As she fell, she flipped to land on her feet and popped Ranma, Rainbow and Pinkie on the head and then yanked off the tape over her mouth.
"Why you no good, sidewinding, double crossing...do ya'll have ANY idea how much time I wasted being hogtied up like that!? I've missed four and a half hours of everything I could have been doing!" She raved.
"Applejack, YAWN, you do know you're not on your families farm and you don't have to be up before the crack of dawn to do chores, right?" Sunset said as she rubbed the sand out of her eyes.
"Seriously darling, just take the time to enjoy your time off from farm work and sleep in like a normal person." Rarity added in.
"But seriously, what was the point of that trap guys? Don't you think that was a little overboard?" Twilight asked.
"Do you think anything less would have stopped this 'before the crack of dawn' early morning addict?" Rainbow asked. The other girls all thought for a moment and then chuckled.
"Now that you mention it..." Sunset trailed off.
"No. It wouldn't." Fluttershy finished. They all shared a laugh at that.
Meanwhile, Timber Spruce was just waking up. He sat up in shock as he remembered what he saw Ranma do last night. It wasn't possible! Just how was this guy able to do all the things he did?
"Oh, you're awake." Gloriosa said with a smile. Timber shot up out of bed and growled.
"I don't get it!" He exclaimed. "I don't care what anyone says, there is NO FREAKING WAY somebody can do all the stuff that guy can do with just some dumb Karate training!"
"Timber! Slow down!" Gloriosa said as she tried to hold her brother back.
"No Gloriosa! That guy...I don't know what it is, but he has to be using SOME kind of magic to be able to do what he does. I don't care what anyone says. And I'm going to prove it!"
Back with Ranma and the others, Ranma was just getting in some stretches with the . As they were finishing up...
"RRRRAAAAAAANNNNNNMMMMMAAAAAAA!" Came the loud scream of Principle Celestia.
"Uh oh, here we go." Ranma said, a small smile fighting to spread on his face.
"Ranma," Sunset said. "What did you do?"
The pigtailed boy grinned evilly at the blond streaked red head. Before he could answer her, Celestia stomped over to the young martial artist and the look on her face made the girls and Flash get away as fast as they could.
"You howled?" Ranma said with a cocky smirk. Celestia huffed as she glared daggers at Ranma's smirking face.
"I don't know how ya's done it, BUT I KNOW YA'S DONE IT!" She screamed. Ranma fought to keep himself under control.
"I don't know what you're talking about." He said.
"Oh no?" Celestia said. "Then how you explain THIS!?"
As she said this, she unzipped her jacket to reveal that her camp shirt had been painted so that there were two bull's eyes right on her breasts. Ranma tried to fight back...but he and many others all burst out laughing.
"BAH HA HA HA HA HAH HAH! A little TOO proud of ourselves, aren't we PC? Ha hah! Or should I say, Miss Bull's eye bazangas?" Ranma kept laughing as he rolled on the ground alongside Pinkie.
"BAH HA HAH! Bull's eye bazangas. HA HA! Good one! HA HAH!" Pinkie said as she beat on the ground in a fit of laughter.
"Why you little..." Celestia said, only for her sister to leap and tackle Ranma while he was still laughing on the ground. He rolled with her momentum and ended up pushing her off mid roll.
"Love you too Luny Toony, but what was that for?" He said, with the same snarky smirk on his face.
"Ranma, I get why you pranked Celestia, but why me too!?" Luna said, revealing that Ranma had painted her shirt too.
"Oh, I don't know." He said, suddenly dropping his cocky smirk and taking on an accusing look.
"Maybe it has something to do with the fact that somebody put itching powder in my sleeping bag? Or that someone swapped out my bug spray with sugar water?" He said, glaring at the two sisters.
"Ok the sugar water was Luna not me." Celestia said.
"Hey!" Luna exclaimed. Ranma sighed as he got back up to his feet.
"My point is, what goes around is going to come around and bite you two in the..."
"Ranma..." Fluttershy said with a disapproving look.
"...butt." He finished. Celestia was growling and was about to charge at the pigtailed boy when her sister stopped her.
"Cool it Celestia. Let's just go and get a change of shirts." Luna said as she led Celestia away. Ranma smirked at the two of them as they slinked away.
"Ranma, was that really necessary?" Twilight said. Ranma turned to his bespeckeled girlfriend and nodded.
"Yes. Yes it was. It really was." He said, walking over to her and kissing her.
"I only retaliate, they started it." He said. Twilight huffed at her boyfriend.
"Alright, but still..." She said as Ranma just smiled and went off on his day.
As this was going on, Timber was watching from behind a tree, trying to find ANYTHING that would prove that Ranma wasn't the nice guy everyone seemed to think he was. But for most of the day, Ranma was just hanging with a bunch of people who he was teaching martial arts to. Flash, Rainbow and Applejack seemed to be the ones he trained the most.
All the while, he could see that Ranma almost seemed to be flirting with Rainbow and Applejack. That made Timber suspicious. But his suspicions were put on hold when he saw that Flash and some of the others were practicing moves that looked like they came out of a video game.
Rainbow, Flash and Applejack fired balls of blue energy (green in Applejack's case) across the surface of the lake. Ranma was explaining something about ki or something, but Timber didn't understand a bit of it. Ranma then sparred with Rainbow and Applejack and did a jumping uppercut that took him HIGH into the air and then he fired more of those energy blasts at his sparring partners.
As Ranma ended the spar and went on explaining more stuff the poor boy didn't understand as he watched some of his students practice more techniques. Timber slid down the tree and smacked his palm to his forehead. This just wasn't possible. First Ranma was doing things Timber had only seen possible with magic, seemingly without magic, and now he was watching him apparently teaching those moves to others?
Throughout the day, Timber had yet to see anything that could paint Ranma in a bad light but then he noticed the boy going off somewhere on his own after lunch. He followed Ranma and found him at a deserted part of the lake. He saw Ranma setting up a speaker when Sunset, dressed in a purple tank top with her personal Yin Yang symbol on the front and purple sweat pants along with a pair of sneakers.
"Hey, just in time." Ranma said to the red head. Sunset smiled at her boyfriend.
"Yeah well, I didn't want to be late for our first lesson." She said as she stretched out a little. Ranma nodded and tapped a few things on his phone and some strange music Timber could only describe as Brazilian music started playing.
"Why this type of music?" Sunset asked.
"Because this is the traditional music for Capoeira." He said. As he got into a low stance and motioned for Sunset to do the same.
"This," Ranma said as he started doing a back and sideways step over and over again. "Is called the jinga. It's the basis of all moves in Capoeira.
Sunset nodded as she mimicked Ranma's movements.
"Now we start with basic side crouches and then move on to basic kicks." Ranma said as he lead Sunset through some basic movements of the Brazilian martial art.
Timber sighed. There really was nothing strange going on here. As far as he could see, it was just one friend teaching another friend some kind of dance. Then he saw Ranma showing Sunset how to use what he thought were dance moves to actually attack and defend.
A cartwheel turned into a spinning kick, then a low spinning sweep and then some open handed palm strikes. Ranma and Sunset smiled at each other as they practiced for a while longer before taking a quick break.
"So, why did you want to start learning Capoeira Sunset?" Ranma asked his red headed girlfriend. Sunset took a swig of her water and sighed as she brushed a strand of hair out of her eye.
"Well, for one thing, I really needed to find some form of exercise. I was...starting to gain a bit of weight. For another, it just looked like a lot of fun. And I figured it'd be a good way for us to spend some alone time together." She said with a flirty smirk. Ranma blushed at what she was implying.
"Uh...oh." He said blushing.
Timber overheard what they were saying and was starting to wonder...
He saw them inching closer to each other and they looked like they were about to...
"Hello!"
"ACK!" Timber screamed as Pinkie popped out of nowhere.
"Pinkie! W-what are you doing here!?" He asked in a panic.
"Oh, nothing much. Just looking for Ranma and Sunset to let them know it's almost time for the next group activity. OH! There they are! RANMA! SUNSET! It's time for the canoe race!" She said.
Meanwhile, Ranma and Sunset were making out and enjoying the feeling of one another until the heard Pinkie's voice in the distance. They reluctantly ended their kiss and looked to see Pinkie waving at them with Timber right next to her. Cursing under her breath, Sunset waved back at Pinkie.
"Hey Pinkie! Ok, we're coming! Couldn't wait another 10 minutes." She mutter the last part. Ranma blushed and chuckled.
"Come Sunset, let's go." Ranma said as he helped his girlfriend to her feet and then whispered, "We can pick back up later."
As Ranma and Sunset left with Pinkie, Timber kept a close eye on the pigtailed boy. He didn't catch Ranma and Sunset kissing, but he KNEW that this boy was up to SOMETHING underhanded. And if it killed the green haired boy, he was going to get some kind of dirt on his romantic rival and expose him to Twilight...I mean...expose him to everyone for the dirty creep he was.
But as time went by, poor Timber was having a hard time finding anything that could paint Ranma in a bad light. However, he did see that Ranma seemed very friendly with Twilight's friends. Too friendly. He had an idea what was going on, but he needed proof.
As for Ranma, he was busy stretching by the lake and was teaching Fluttershy, Twilight and Rarity some Tai Chi. Unbeknownst to them, Celestia was readying her revenge prank for Ranma. She was going to enjoy seeing the pigtailed boy set off her homemade glitter bomb and falling right into the lake from the backlash of the blast. She grinned evilly as she readied herself, only for her sister, Luna, to walk up behind her.
"Celestia, what are you doing?" She asked. Celestia turned to look at her sister.
"Getting payback for this morning, duh. And don't you try to stop me Luna." She said.
"Who said anything about stopping you? I want in." She said.
They both shook hands and prepared for their revenge, only to turn around and see that Ranma was gone and the girls were sitting down and talking.
"Hey, where'd he go?" Celestia asked in shock and disappointment.
"Where'd who go?" Said a male voice from behind them.
"That little punk Ranma that's who!" Luna said in anger.
"Oh! Him." Said the owner of the voice. "He's right behind you."
Both women went rigid and turned their heads slowly to look behind them...only to see the face of an oni the size of barn door!
"BLEAAAAAAGGGGHHHH!"
"AAAGGGGHHHH!" Both girls screamed as they fell back and landed on the glitter bomb they had planned for Ranma.
It exploded and the two woman rolled with the blast and fell into the lake. Twilight and Fluttershy both looked over in shock of the disturbance and the oni...vanished to reveal a laughing Ranma, holding his sides and rolling on the ground in a laughing fit like he had been hit with laughing gas.
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH HA HAHA HA HAH HAH AHAH! SUCKERS! HA HAHAHA" Ranma laughed in an uncontrolable fit.
"PHW! RANMA!" Celestia screamed as she poked her head out of the water.
"Why you little piece of...!" Luna started to say only for Rama to cut her off.
"Uh uh uh, Luny Toony. Educators shouldn't use fowl langrage." He said in between laughs.
"What the heck happened?" Twilight asked. Ranma stopped laughing so he could talk.
"Well, I noticed these two setting up a trap for me while I was teaching you girls, so I decided to spring their trap on them first! Ha ha!"
"Ranma, that wasn't very nice." Fluttershy said, only to stifle her own giggle at the wet and glittered looks of the two angry women in the lake.
"But...hm hm hmph...it is kind of funny." She said.
"How did he even DO THAT!?" Luna asked as she and her sister got out of the water.
"He used on old genjutsu trick. He used his battle aura to create an illusion to scare us." Celestia growled as she pulled her hair out of her eyes as she stomped over to Ranma and growled like a wild animal.
"Why you little! I'll...I'LL...!" Celestia said as she made like she was going to strangle the grinning young man only to be stopped by her sister.
"Enough Celestia. Maybe this has gone on long enough. I mean, look at us! What would our parents say if they saw us like this?" Luna asked.
"Why are you two almost middle aged and still not married?" Ranma asked, leaning in and grinning like a Alastor the Radio Demon. That last comment made both girls grow red in the face with anger.
"THAT'S IT!" They both screamed as they tried to tackle Ranma.
Ranma just laughed as he did a back roll and threw both angry women off himself and got up to start running.
"We'll pick up later girls!" Ranma said as he ran from the two angry women.
Timber was trying hard to fight back his own fit of laughter at the scene that just played out in front of him. He wanted to hate Ranma, he really wanted to hate the guy, but that last bit made him bend over laughing. How Ranma got away with this stuff without getting either killed or expelled he'll never know.
Timber was about to give it up. He just couldn't find anything to incriminate Ranma with. Just as he was about to head back to his cabin, he heard a female laugh. He looked to his left and saw Rarity and Ranma walking together. They were, talking, laughing, leaning on each others shoulders, holding hands, looking like any other romantic couple...wait. Leaning on shoulders? Holding hands? Acting like a couple!?
Timber got up and dashed over to the two supposed love birds and watched as they walked along the shoreline of the lake.
"Now aren't you glad we dragged you along with us on this camping trip?" Rarity asked. Ranma blushed and smiled.
"Well, yeah I guess. I mean, I'm having more fun than I thought. And spending time with you guys always makes me feel happy." Ranma said. Rarity smiled as she leaned into her boyfriends' shoulder.
"You know, this is the first time we've been alone since we started dating." She said.
"Since they WHAT!?" Timber exclaimed silently as he pulled out his phone.
"FINALLY I've got dirt on you, you two-timing playboy." He said evilly.
"Yeah, it kind of is." Ranma said, blushing and scratching the back of his head. Rarity grinned seductively as she wrapped her arms around Ranma.
"Soooo..." She trailed off. "What to do, what to do now that we're all alone?"
Ranma was blushing up a storm as Rarity gave him those eyes. Those beautiful, seductive purple eyes that matched her purple hair, and complemented her perfect face. Ranma gulped as he wrapped his arms around her waist. They leaned in close and kissed, losing themselves in the passion of their kiss.
Little did the love birds know, that as they made out, Timber was taking pictures with his phone. He grinned as he ran off to find Twilight. At long last he had what he wanted on Ranma. He was a no good two-timer!
"Twilight!" Timber screamed as he ran up to his ex. Twilight looked over her shoulder and saw Timber running up to her at top speed.
"Hey Timber, what's up?" She asked. Timber stopped as he got up to her and caught his breath.
"Ranma...cheater...proof!" He said in between breaths as he shoved his phone into Twilight's face.
"Huh?" She asked. Timber pulled himself together and unlocked his phone to show Twilight the picture of Ranma kissing Rarity.
"SEE!? That guy Ranma is cheating on you! I saw him earlier with Sunset and NOW I've caught him kissing Rarity behind your back! He's been cheating on you this whole time, see!" Timber said excitedly.
"Oh boy." Twilight said as she decided that NOW was the time to let the other cat out of the bag.
"Look Timber..." She began.
"Ranma's not cheating on anybody." Pinkie said as she popped out of nowhere, scaring the two teens.
"What the heck Pinkie!? Stop doing that! One of these days you're going to scare someone to death." Twilight said.
"And what do you mean he's not cheating on anyone!? I literally caught him making out with another girl right here!" He said, showing Pinkie the picture.
"Oh, we already knew that. All seven of us are dating Ranma silly. We're his harem!" She said with her usual gusto and pride. Timber went limp and dropped his phone.
"...what?" He said.
"It's true Timber." Twilight said. "We all had feelings for Ranma and well..."
"A lot of stuff happened and we decided to share him so that he wouldn't come between our friendship!" Pinkie said, wrapping an arm around Twilight's shoulders.
"...And you guys actually let that guy talk you into this!?" Timber asked in disbelief.
"Oh no." Pinkie said. "WE'RE the ones who convinced HIM!"
It was at this moment, Timer did the only thing that made any sense...he fainted.
"Pinkie, look what you did. I think you killed him." Twilight said.
"Heh heh heh. Oops." Was all Pinkie said.
Timber woke up sometime later in bed with Twilight sitting next to him.
"Before you say anything, no. It wasn't a dream." She said, making Timber sigh and fall back onto his pillow.
"So you're willing sharing a boyfriend? How the Hell does something like that even happen?" He said, sitting back up. Twilight sighed.
"Look, it's complicated. All I know is, is that it happened. And Ranma...well. He's worth it." She said.
"Worth it? Worth it!? Twilight, this guy is bouncing between you and your friends like your toys for him to play with."
Twilight slapped Timber hard after he said that. He winced in pain as his ex glared at him like he had never seen her glare before.
"Listen Timber. Ranma actually wanted to STOP seeing the seven of us because he was so in love with us that he didn't want to be the one to ruin our friendship. He actually said he would never see us again because he thought we'd all hate him for loving all of us at the same time. He is the nicest man I've ever met! And if you really think that little of him and are so petty that you can't even see what a jerk you're being...then...then..."
Twilight just got up and stormed out in tears. Timber looked down in shame as he touched the spot where Twilight slapped him. He didn't want to make her cry like that. He didn't want to make her cry at all. He just wanted her back. And he took it all out on Ranma like a jealous jerk.
The next day, as Timber was heading to breakfast, he felt a STRONG punch to his gut that sent him flying! He skid on the ground and when he stopped and managed to look up, he panicked as he saw the face of a VERY angry Ranma glaring at him with fire in his eyes.
"Uh oh..." Timber whimpered.
"Ok, look buddy." Ranma said as he cracked his knuckles.
"I don't know what you said to Twilight last night, but boy whatever you said made her cry all night. And I. Don't. Like it when I see one of my girlfriends cry. It makes. Me. MAD." He said as he grabbed Timber and hoisted him up.
"Now, I'm going to break your face. Then your ribs, then your spine and THEN I'm going to tear you apart and beat you like a tribal drum." Ranma said through gritted teeth.
"Ranma! STOP!" Came the voice of Twilight as she came running up to Ranma and Timber.
"Why should I!? He hurt you! I'm just giving him what he deserves." Ranma said.
"Look, maybe he deserves it but please. Don't." Twilight said as she pleaded her boyfriend to let her ex boyfriend go. Ranma looked between Twilight and Timber and sighed as he let the boy go.
"Ok." He said. "But only because you say so."
Twilight smiled at Ranma.
"Thanks Ranma." She said before glaring at Timber.
"Just be glad that I stopped him. He would have done everything he said he would." She said. Timber gulped.
"And one last thing." Ranma said as he leaned in close. "If I ever. EVER. Hear you do anything to hurt any of my girlfriends again, they won't be stopping me a second time. Got it, bub?"
"(Gulp) Crystal clear." Timber said, nodding his head quickly in a state of freight. Ranma just glared at the other boy and gave a slow nod.
"Good." He said as he and Twilight walked off.
"Was he always this much of a douche?" Ranma asked.
"No. I think jealousy is what did it to him." Twilight answered.
Timber was shaking in fear, even after the two left. That Ranma guy almost seemed like he could scare a devil to death at that moment. He gulped again as he got back to his feet and tried to walk away. Timber soon found that almost everyone was looking at him with eyes that could kill.
He guessed that they all heard about what happened and decided to give him the cold shoulder treatment. But Pinkie was a different matter.
"Now you listen here, sack of monkey dung!" Pinkie said to Timber as she popped out of nowhere in front of him.
"I heard what happened and I'm VERY disappointed in you! First you insult my boyfriend by thinking he's either using magic on us or cheating on Twilight, but then you go and make her cry like that!?" She growled as she got right in Timber's face.
"If I ever hear of you doing either of those things again...Oh BOY are you in for a Pinkie BEAT DOWN!" She said.
"And a Rainbow Dash ass kicking on the side!" Rainbow said as she cornered Timber.
"And an Apple family tar and feathering for the main course!" Applejack added in.
"And to top it off, I'll cut off your nutsack and nail it to my door! Like one of those lion door knockers rich people have! Only instead of a door knocker, it'll be your BALLS!" Applejack added in.
"Ok, OK! I get it! I'm sorry!" He said as the three girls glared at him with enough malice to burn through concrete.
After satisfying themselves, the girls went off to do their own things while Timber started to lose a few shades of color. Timber sighed, this was not how his summer was supposed to go. He was supposed to get back together with his girlfriend and spend the whole summer convincing her that they could have a future together.
Instead, he finds out that she not only has a new girlfriend but she's sharing him with her six friends! Not only that, but this guy was doing inhuman things that should only have been possible with magic. And he was apparently training others to do the same things he could do. And how did he treat the guy?
He treated him like he was the bad guy. He couldn't figure out what the heck got into him. Was he really that jealous of this Ranma guy? He seemed like a nice guy, he never did anything that bad as far as he could see, and he really seemed to make Twilight happy. THERE it was. That was the big thing, Ranma made Twilight happy.
Timber sighed, he hated this. He acted like a big stupid, jealous jerk and made the girl he loved hate him while insulting Ranma's integrity. What's worse, he did it all so that Twilight would dump the Kung Fu boy and come back to him.
As the day went on, he was hoping to stay away from Ranma and the others so that things could settle down between them. Those hopes were dashed away when he found out that he and Ranma were going to be canoeing together.
"Are you insane!?" Timber asked his sister. "If I go out in that canoe with the very guy who hates me for insulting his honor and hurting Twilight's feelings, I might not come back alive! You know what those Japanese do to people who insult their honor! You've seen Shogun."
"Timber," Gloriosa said with a pitying look and placing her hands on her hips. "That was centuries ago. Plus, if you ever want to make things up with Twilight then you need to try and make peace with that Ranma kid. Come on, I'm sure he won't kill you or drown you or anything."
"SHUSH! Don't give him any ideas!" Timber whispered.
A few minutes later, Ranma and Timber were rowing up the lake. Ranma was glaring at the poor boy the whole time while Timber spent his time switching between either thinking of a way to break the ice or what would be the best way to swim away from Ranma.
"So...uh...what's new?" Timber asked with a nervous smile. Ranma glared at him.
"I'm thinking of the best way to get away with murder by making it look like an accident." He said. Timber gulped.
Ranma continued to row as he thought back to what Twilight and he talked about. She had told him to try not to be TOO angry with Timber. That he really was a nice guy and that all he had said and done was all out of jealousy. Ranma knew she was probably right, she almost always was, but that still didn't excuse how this guy acted.
But, Ranma knew he had to at least try and make peace with this guy. And if not for simply doing it because it was the right thing to do, he'd at least try to do it for Twilight since she still saw Timber as a friend.
'With a friend like this, who needs enemies?' Ranma thought to himself. He sighed.
'Welp, holding it off won't make it any easier.' He thought.
"Look," Ranma began. "I don't get it. I've done nothing but try to be civil with you ever since I got here, and all you've done is try to show me up and make me look bad in front of Twilight. What gives man!? What did I ever do to you?"
"I...I don't know." Timber said.
"Bull crap!" Ranma shouted, catching the other boy off guard.
"People don't do crap like what you've done without a reason, so what is it!? Tell me! Just what did I ever do to you1?"
"You stole my girl!" Timber shouted out.
"Twilight was MY girlfriend! Yeah we broke up, but it was only a relationship bump! I was going to make up with her and get back together with her and prove that I was willing to make it work this time! And what happens? I find out, that she started going out with some Kung Fu pretty boy who SOMEHOW managed to get himself into a harem manga type situation!"
"Hey!" Ranma shouted back at the camp boy. "Look, I didn't even want this to happen! I tried to stop feeling the way I did to keep from getting in trouble with them! I don't know how this whole harem, sharing me, thing happened. Although I'm fairly certain that Pinkie had something to do with it."
"That does sound like her." Timber said.
"Yep." Ranma agreed.
"But anyway, this isn't me just seducing women for the heck of it! I love those girls! I love them so much that I would have been happy being alone and miserable as long as they were with someone that would love them and protect them as much as I would!" Ranma shouted at Timber.
"And furthermore..." Ranma was about to say more but he stopped and looked around at the water around them.
"Yeah? And furthermore what?" Timber asked, crossing his arms.
"Say," Ranma began. "Are these rapids a little strong and fast to you?"
"Huh?" Timber asked. "What rapids? There's..."
Timber cut himself off when he looked over the edge of the boat and saw that Ranma was right. On all sides of the boat, the water looked like it had picked up speed in the current.
"Say, these rapids are rather strong." Timber said as they looked around. "Hey, we've gone farther out than we should have. We might be closer to a larger body of water. But how? There shouldn't be a body of water large enough for rapids like this around here."
Ranma wasn't listening to Timber because he was looking at something bad. He looked wide eyed at what was ahead of them and his mouth hung open.
"Uh...T-Timber..." Ranma said as he patted Timber on the shoulder.
"What?" Timber asked as he looked behind them to see if anything of camp could still be seen.
"WATERFALL!" Ranma screamed.
"Phht. Waterfall?" He said with a shrug. "Ranma, there's no waterfall around here. I've been around this area my whole life and..."
Ranma cut the camp boy off by grabbing his head and turning him to look where Ranma was looking. Sure enough, there in front of them was a raging waterfall.
"Huh. How about that, a waterfall." Timber said. Then what he just said and saw registered.
"WATERFALL!?"
"AAAHHH!" They both screamed as they tried to row and paddle away form the falls.
But the rapids were too strong. They screamed as were pulled along the rapids towards the falls. Ranma had to find some way to save the both of them or else they were as good as dead.
"What'll we do!? WHAT'LL WE DO!?" Timber screamed as they were pulled over the falls.
"AAAAAGGHHHHHH!" He screamed. Ranma panicked but managed to right himself and grabbed Timber.
"Hold onto my back!" Ranma shouted over the roar of the falls. He brought his hands together and channeled a huge amount of ki into his hands.
"Ka...me...ha...me...HAAAAA!" Ranma cried out as he fired a Kamehame wave at the base of the falls, slowing their descent.
As their fall slowed Ranma noticed something behind the falls and, thinking that it was better than landing in the actual falls, Ranma threw the both of them at the curtain of water and sure enough, they landed at the floor of a large cave. Ranma rubbed his head as Timber still kept his death grip on Ranma's back.
"Uh...ok dude. You can let go now. We're alive." Ranma said. Timber cracked open an eye and sighed in relief as he let go of Ranma and started kissing the damp floor of the cave.
"Mmwha! Mmwha! Oh I've never been so happy to be alive!" He said and then rushed to Ranma and hugged him.
"Thank you thank you thank you thank you!" He said.
"Kiss me and it's back into the waterfall you go." Ranma said. Timber let go and shook his head to recompose himself.
"Right. Heh heh. Sorry." He said. Ranma gave a small smile.
"It's cool." He said. Then he and Timber looked around at the cave they found themselves in. Ranma couldn't help but whistle.
"Wow. Check this place out." He said. Timber looked around and couldn't help but agree with the pigtailed boy.
"Yeah, this is incredible." He said, but then he took a closer look at the walls of the cave.
"Say, there's something not right about this cave." He said. Ranma tilted his head.
"What do you mean?" He asked.
"This doesn't look naturally made. In fact, if I didn't know any better, I'd swear that this looks like it was made by...well, by something." He said. Now Ranma was confused, but also interested.
"You mean like, man made or something?" He asked.
"No, I don't think so." He said. "In fact, it almost looks like..." Timber trailed off when he found something shinning in the dark of the cave. He went over to it, and what he found...was a large scale.
"What is that?" Ranma asked as he joined the young camp owner.
"If I didn't know any better, I could almost swear that this was the scale of a very large snake." He answered in disbelief. Ranma was shocked.
"Snake? What kind of snake could leave a scale like that? The Basilisk from Harry Potter?" Ranma said with a laugh. Timber couldn't help but laugh too.
"Yeah, maybe we'll find that beast and the Chamber of Secrets down here! Ha ha ha!" They both burst out laughing at that. That is, until they heard what sounded like a LARGE animal snoring.
"(Gulp) Timber...?" Ranma said.
"Y-Yeah...?" He answered, looking just as spooked as Ranma.
"W-w-what the heck was that?" He asked, trying to get his nerves under control.
"I (Gulp) I don't know. But it almost sounds like snoring." Timber said.
Both boys swallowed their fears as they made the slow and quiet march towards the noise they heard. As the noise got louder, they came to a over pass that gave way to some kind of large chamber type section of the cave that was carved out by something. As they looked over the rocks, Ranma had to slap both his hands over both his and Timbers mouths.
Down below, was what could only be described as a serpentine dragon type monster! There were multiple heads that covered the area, too many for the boys to count. Even if they could count, they were way too scared to even try. Both boys gulped as they shrank back away.
"Is that a-a-a-a a hydra!?" Timber asked in shock.
"Well it ain't a Basilisk, that's for sure." Ranma said. He took another look over to look at the monster, it was both snake and dragon like. And the thing that he was starting to panic about the most was that this thing was starting to remind him of a monster he read about in Japanese mythology.
"You know, that thing almost looks like a Yamata no Orochi." He said. Timber looked at him in confusion.
"A what?" He asked. Ranma sighed.
"The Yamata no Orochi was a powerful demon form ancient times. It was a giant snake with eight heads and eight tails. It ravaged the countryside and ate seven of the eight daughters of a farm couple. Before it ate the eighth, they begged the Shinto God of storms, Susano, to save her by killing the beast." Ranma explained.
"Well, no offense, but it looks like he didn't do a very good job." Timber said. Ranma gave him a side long look.
"Well, he did kill it. But who's to say it was the only one of its kind? Maybe this thing's a similar creature?" Ranma started counting the heads of the monster.
"Hey, I only count six heads. Where are the other two?" Ranma says. Timber looks over Ranma's shoulder and counts, and sure enough, there were two heads missing from the supposedly eight headed beast.
"Well...maybe it only has six?" He suggested. As they puzzled this, a foul sent made them pinch their noses.
"PEEE YUUU! Dude, did you have to let one rip?" Ranma asked.
"Don't look at me! That was you." Timber shot back. Then a light growl caught their attention and made them go rigid.
"Um, Timber...did you just growl?" Ranma asked, fear in his voice.
"No...(Gulp) But HE did!" Timber said, pointing behind Ranma. Ranma looked up and behind his shoulder and let out a silent scream as he saw one of the missing heads of the Orochi.
"YYYEEEEAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!" They both screamed as Ranma grabbed Timber and took off at Mach 2 and dashed off out of the cave. Unfortunately for the two of them, the Orochi and all of its heads went charging right after them.
Ranma and Timber screamed as they took off, but when they looked behind them, they saw all of the heads of the Orochi striking at them with blinding speed. Ranma growled as he bobbed and weaved as he jumped and flipped through the air to avoid as many attacks as he could. But Ranma was quickly finding that while carrying Timber, he was a little slow.
As one head came at him, Ranma kicked off the beast's nose and as two more heads came at him from both sides, he had Timber grab his back as he thrust both his hands at the beasts coming at him. With a roar, Ranma fired two blasts of ki at the dragon snakes' heads and blasted them back. Ranma spun in the air and lashed out with a kick that sent another head flying as he look off for safer ground. Once he touched down, he sat Timber down and tried to catch his breath.
"Ok Timber, listen, I'll hold those bastards off, you go and get back to camp and get the girls. Tell them what's going on." He told the freighted boy.
"Are you insane!?" Timber shouted at Ranma. "That thing's a freaking Kaiju! It'll kill you before I even get back!"
"LOOK!" Ranma shouted back at the other boy. "I know I'm out gunned. That's why I'm telling you to go get help. And yeah, I could get back to camp faster, but then I'd be leading that thing to a whole buffet of kids to eat! I can at least hold that thing off while you go and get me some reinforcements. Now stop yapping and start running cause here it comes again!"
And sure enough, the many heads of the Orochi came rushing at the two boys. Ranma pushed Timber away and fired a Kamehameha at the monster, catching its attention.
"Hey ugly! Here I am! Come and get me!" Ranma said as he leapt into the air and fired a barrage of Zanko Hadokens at the serpentine heads.
Back at the camp, the girls were wondering around looking for Ranma and Timber. Unlike the rest of the campers, the two of them never came back. Twilight was starting to wonder if Ranma may have actually done something to Timber.
'No. Ranma would never actually do something bad to anyone unless they really deserved it. Timber may have acted like a jerk, but he didn't do anything to deserve the Genma treatment.' Twilight thought to herself.
"Any sign of them?" Applejack asked as she and the others all gathered together.
"Not so much as a long hair." Flash said, shaking his head.
"No sign of them anywhere." Rainbow said with a shrug.
"Oh, I'm starting to get worried you guys." Fluttershy said. Sunset crossed her arms as she looked down.
"Man, where are those two? They shouldn't have been gone for this long."
"Man, Ranma-kun, where are you?" Pinkie asked.
"GUYS!"
They all turned around to see Timber Spruce, running like the devil was behind him.
"Timber!" Twilight shouted as she and the others ran towards him.
"Timber, where's Ranma?" Rarity asked. Timber panted as he tried to catch his breath.
"Ranma...huff huff...tr-trouble..." Timber said.
"What do you mean trouble?" Rarity asked. Timber tried to catch his breath and get himself under control. But as he was about to say something, a loud roar cut through the air, silencing everyone with sheer terror.
"W-wh-what was that?" Fluttershy asked. Everyone gulped.
They looked to where the noise seemed to be coming from and to their shock and horror, they saw Ranma leaping away from multiple heads charging after him in the air. They gasped as their brains started to process just what they were seeing. And Fluttershy was the first to become vocal.
"D-dr-dr-DRAGONS!" She screamed as she ran for her life, only to be stopped by Applejack.
"Sugar cube! Cool it!" She said.
"DRAGONS! BIG! SCARY! DRAGONS!" She screamed.
"What on EARTH is that...that...THING!?" Rarity screamed.
"It's a FREAKING DRAGON!" Fluttershy screamed again only for Pinkie to actually slap her to snap her out of it.
"Get a grip Fluttershy! Our boyfriend's in danger!" She screamed at her fellow pinkette. Fluttershy took another look and saw Ranma flipping and spinning in the air as he punched, kicked and even shot ki blasts at the monster. She started to get mad when she saw the man she loved almost get swallowed by the beast that she feared.
"I. Hate. Dragons. But I hate loosing my boyfriend even more!" She said as she and the others started to pony up.
"Guys, just, be careful. Ranma thinks that those things are part of some ancient Japanese snake thing called Yama no Ori...something." Timber tried to explain,
"Wait, do you mean, Yamata no Orochi?" Twilight said.
"Yeah, that's it." Timber answered.
"Wait, wasn't that thing killed by a god?" Sunset asked.
"We don't have time for that! Let's go kick that thing's scaly ass! If it has an ass." Rainbow said as she lead the charge against the beast that Ranma was fighting.
Back with Ranma, he was blasting two more heads away and then flipping backwards and firing another Hadoken from his foot, hitting a third head in the face. Ranma was about to relax when he saw more heads coming at him from behind.
"Oh great!" Ranma said as he prepared to retaliate against the incoming heads.
But before he could, two blurs, one cyan and one green, zoomed in and knocked the two heads away. Ranma went wide eyed and then smiled when he saw that the two blurs were Rainbow and Applejack.
"Guys! Perfect timing!" He said, then he felt a pair of arms wrap around him and pull him away from the other raging heads of the Orochi.
"You ok, Ranma?" Twilight asked as she held onto her boyfriend. Ranma turned to look at her and smiled.
"Yeah, I'm ok. I'm just glad Timber got to you guys in time." Ranma said. He looked down and looked at the slithering heads that looked at him and the others like they were nothing but prey for its next meal.
"Ok, so how do we kill this thing?" Rainbow asked as she carried Applejack in her arms.
"Best idea, smash it's heads in. All eight of them!" Ranma said.
"I'm down for that!" Pinkie said as she pulled out her bazooka and fired a few magic infused shots at the Orochi's heads.
"For once, Pinkie's got the right idea. Everyone, fire your best shots at those things and don't stop until they're dead on the ground!" Sunset ordered as she and the others regrouped on the ground and fired their attacks at the snakes.
"Scatter!" Ranma shouted as the Orochi's heads avoided the girls attacks and charged at them.
Ranma and the others split in different directions as they avoided the heads. Ranma spun in the air and struck with a tornado kick that smacked one head away and into a powerful ki and magic infused punch from Applejack. Another head charged at Fluttershy only to get stopped by a blast of bright red magic from Sunset.
Rainbow unleashed a barrage of kicks on one of the other heads before firing a Hadoken into its eye. Another head charged at Pinkie, but she laced a trap for it, in the form of a trail of leaves and pinecones infused with her magic. As soon as the head came within range, they all exploded, causing the snakish dragon head to collapse from the pain.
Rarity used her diamond shields to stop two heads in their tracks as Twilight used her telekinesis to throw two trees right at the eyes of the two dragon heads. They screamed in pain as they thrashed around, only to be hit with a powerful Kamehameha from Ranma.
"Nice work guys!" Ranma said as he jumped into the next head on his list.
As Ranma helped Rainbow deal with the head she was fighting, Sunset and Fluttershy tried to deal with the head they were fighting, only for another to surprise attack them and knocking Sunset into a tree.
"Sunset!" Fluttershy screamed in a panic.
As she tried to run to her friend, the two heads cornered her. She felt fear as her other friends and her boyfriend all screamed out her name as the two heads closed in on her. Fluttershy felt her fear rise, only to be replaced by rage.
"Why...you...JEEEEEERRRRRRRRKKKKKKSSSSSSSS!" Fluttershy screamed out at the top of her lungs, letting out a sonic screech as loud as a hundred sirens all sounding off at the same time.
Ranma and the others covered their ears as Fluttershy's sonic roar blast the two dragon heads into each other and knocked them out, joining their brothers in blissful unconsciousness. Fluttershy huffed and puffed as she caught her breath from the exertion of what she just did. As she regained her breath, she realized just what she did.
"Did...did I just...do that?" She asked.
"That...was...AWESOME!" Pinkie exclaimed.
"You REALLY showed those monsters what-for! Man Fluttershy, I didn't know you could let loose a sonic roar like that!" Pinkie went on.
"Yeah, me neither! How come you never told us you could do that?" Rainbow Dash asked her pink haired friend. Fluttershy looked away in embarrassment.
"Well...honestly...I..I didn't know I could do that either." She said.
"Wait, you mean, that's something new you just discovered?" Sunset asked as she got back to her feet.
"Hmmmm. Maybe it's like that magic lightning whip I gained during that whole thing at Equestria Land. A new magic that evolves from the magic we already have." Rarity suggested.
"Man, I didn't' know your powers could evolve like that." Ranma said as he swung an arm around Fluttershy's shoulders.
"Well, I'd say it was a good time to bust that new power out." Applejack said with a smile.
"Yeah...I guess." Fluttershy said, blushing and brushing a strand of hair out of her eye.
"Uhhh, Ranma?" Twilight called out.
"What's up Twi?" Ranma asked as he turned to the glasses wearing girl.
"The Yamata no Orochi is supposed to have eight heads, right?" She asked.
"Yeah?" Ranma said, not having a good feeling about whatever she was about to say next.
"Well...this THING only has SEVEN!" She said.
"NANI!?" Ranma said as he ran over to the downed heads and counted. Sure enough, there were only seven heads, not eight.
"Wait a minute, I've seen Orochi's in some of my games and they all had eight heads, where's the eighth head on this thing?" Sunset said.
"I don't know?" Rainbow said, showing a little bit of worry and concern.
"Hey, anyone else notice that all these heads have necks that are stuck in the ground?" Pinkie said, drawing everyone's attention to the necks of the beasts.
"Say, she's right." Rainbow said.
"Hey, you don't think that the last head is waiting underground, do you?" Rarity asked.
"Well, it does sound like something a snake would do." Twilight said, only for the ground to start rumbling and shaking.
As the ground shook, cracks and fissures started to appear as SOMETHING started to break its way to the surface. It was indeed the Orochi's final head...but this head was bigger than the others. MUCH BIGGER! So big, that the head itself was the actual MAIN BODY of the Orochi!
"WHAT THE FREAK!?" Ranma shouted.
"Holy cow! Look at the size of that thing!" Rainbow shouted.
"MAN! That's the biggest whopper of a lizard I've ever seen!" Applejack said.
"BIG DRAGON!" Fluttershy said as fear took over her again.
"Is that head its MAIN BODY!?" Twilight said, her brain not understanding what she was seeing.
"Forget that and RUN!" Sunset screamed as they all ran from the giant head-body as it tried to chomp down on them.
They all ran as fast as they could, only for the seven other heads to wake up and lash out at them like the tentacles of an angry octopus. Ranma jumped and did a spin kick to knock one away while Rainbow and Applejack struck out with Hadokens to two other heads. Sunset and Twilight used their own magic to force two more heads away but were soon forced to run screaming from the main body-head of the Orochi.
Pinkie and Fluttershy found themselves doing their best to avoid being gobbled up before the two heads chasing them were hit with Rarity's diamond shields. Rarity then generated her lightning whip and lashed out at the two heads like a lion tamer.
"Get back! Get back! You, you vile beats! You brutes! You...You...!" Rarity trailed off as she kept striking with her magic forged whip.
"Snake faced BASTARDS!" Pinkie finished as Fluttershy finished loading things into Pinkie's bazooka. Pinkie charged her magic into her bazooka and fired a powerful shot that managed to leave a nasty dent in the head and brain of one of the heads.
"One down, and seven freakish heads to go." Pinkie said as she and the others avoided the vengeful remaining heads.
"This is getting us nowhere." Ranma said as he and the others did their best to try and stop the massive kaiju.
"Um, gusy! This thing's forcing us straight towards camp!" Twilight shouted.
"WHAT!?" They all cried as they looked and saw the frightened campers running for their lives.
"We've got to stop this thing!" Applejack said as she tried to use her strength to hold the monster back.
"Yeah, but how? Nothing we do seems to be affecting this thing!" Rainbow said as she kicked and punched at one of the heads.
Ranma was starting to really panic. This morning the only thing he really had to worry about was Twilight's jealous ex-boyfriend. Now here he was with all seven of his girlfriends, fighting for their lives and the lives of the other campers against a cousin of the legendary Yamata no Orochi!
There had to be some way to kill this monster, but what could he do? He wished Master Asia was here, he would have been able to stop this monster no problem. Maybe he could try that technique that...
'No. Master told me that I'm under NO CIRCUMSTANCES was he to use THAT move unless he was completely out of options.' Ranma thought to himself, only to nearly get eaten by the main body of the Orochi.
'BUT I'M ALMOST THERE!'
Ranma was about to consider using that forbidden move, but before he could, an idea popped into his head. An absolutely dumb and stupid idea, but at the rate things were going, he was running out of options.
"OOHHH! I'm going to hate myself if I live through this." He said as he charged right towards the main body of the Orochi...and let himself be swallowed whole.
"RANMA!" All the girls screamed in shock, fear and despair as they saw their beloved boyfriend be eaten by this monster from Japanese lore.
"No..." Twilight said as she fell to her knees.
"It...no. No, it...it can't be. It just CAN'T be!" Sunset cried hysterically.
Fluttershy went pale as she screamed. Then that fear and despair gave wave to an all-consuming rage that manifested in an aura of sparking pink and yellow. She clenched her fists hard as her anger started to take over as her 'Stare' became one that could SLICE concrete.
"You...You...YOU'LL PAY FOR! I SWEAR TO GOD YOU'LL PAY!" She screamed with tears falling from her eyes.
Her feelings were mirrored by Pinkie, Rainbow and Applejack as their own battle auras started to rage in colors of pink, cyan and green respectively.
"You BASTARD!" Pinkie cried as she led a charge of the angry pony girls towards the raging beast. But as they came in to avenge their lover...the Orochi started to cough and hack...until it started hacking up blood.
"What the!?" Rainbow said as she and the others came to a stop.
They watched as all the heads of the Orochi started to vomit blood and stated convulsing as if they were having a stroke or seizure. The main body-head vomited blood again one last time before its eyes and that of its other heads rolled up and gave one final convulsion before they all collapsed.
"Uh...what the hey just happened?" Applejack said in confusion.
"I...don't...really know." Twilight said as she and the others inched closer to the monster.
Then it started moving. They all jumped back with a scream as they prepared to continue the fight. But just then, a blast of ki tore right through the beast's hide, leaving a great big gaping hole in the side of the main body-head. And out came Ranma, covered in blood and guts with a mad, snarling look on his face as he marched out of the dead carcus.
"Do me a favor. If I ever, EVER! Have a STUPID idea like that again, one of you SHOOT ME! IN THE HEAD!" Ranma shouted as he tried to wipe the crud off his body.
"RANMA!" All the girls shouted in happiness as they ran towards their still alive boyfriend and hugged him.
"YOU JERK!" Fluttershy said as she beat on his chest, joined in by a few others.
"You jerk! You jerk! You jerk! Why did you have to scare us all like that!? We thought you were dead!" Fluttershy screamed with tears in her eyes. Ranma look sad as he sighed and hugged the crying girls.
"I-I'm sorry guys." He started to say but was cut off by Rarity.
"Sorry? SORRY!?" She screamed as she slapped Ranma. "You scared us to death! We thought we lost you, you, you..." She trailed off as she gripped onto him tight, not even caring how filthy he was.
"Ranma...why didn't you just tell us what the hell you were planning?" Sunset asked between tears.
"I really didn't have enough time to. I was running out of ideas and well...I'm sorry guys. Really I am. I didn't mean to make ya worry. I was only trying to end this fight before someone got hurt or worse. I wasn't thinking about how you'd feel. I'm sorry. Please forgive me." He begged as he hugged his seven girlfriends
"Boy, (Sniff) you owe ALL of us a LOT of butt kissing and making up for this. You know that?" Rainbow said. Ranma kissed her head.
"Anything you guys want." He said.
"Well, for starters, you REALLY need a shower." Rarity said, then looked at herself and laughed. "And so do I."
"Actually, I think we all do." Sunset said as she laughed a little, causing all the others to laugh as well. As their laughing calmed down, they all looked at the dead monster that caused them so much trouble.
"Soooo, anybody got any ideas about what to do with all this?" Sunset asked. Pinkie looked at the dead beast and grinned.
"Oh, we grillin' tonight." She said, everyone to look at her weird. Except for Ranma and Applejack who looked at each other and grinned.
"So Sugar Cube, did Master Asia ever teach you how to depoison a snake so you could eat it?" The country girl asked.
"That depends. How good are you at it?"
As the two started planning that nights meal, Celestia ran up to them.
"KIDS! Are you alright!? Is anyone hurt!?" She asked in a panic.
"Just a few bumps, bruises, and we're all in need of a shower. Other than that, we're ok." Ranma asked.
"You won't be, if you ever pull a stunt like that again." Applejack said as she glared at Ranma, who just chuckled sheepishly.
After checking that everyone was ok, and hearing about what they plan to do with the dead monster, Celestia was starting to calm down. But as the teen heroes made their preparations for what they had planned for the Orochi's dead body, Celestia saw something that made all the blood in her body turn into subzero ice.
On the other side of the Orochi's main head, the side that Ranma didn't destroy, she saw a strange shaped scar. The scare was smashed right into the scales of the Orochi, leaving what looked like the imprint of a large fist permanently etched into its flesh. Seeing that fist made Celestia panic. There were only two people she knew of in the whole world that could have left something like that in the scaley hide of this beast. And one of them she knew couldn't have done it because he was still in Canterlot.
Thinking that this beast met the ONE PERSON in the entire world that she NEVER wanted to see agian...
"Celestia?" Said a voice.
"CELESTIA!"
"Huh!?" She said as she snapped out of her daze. She looked to her left and saw that Ranma was the one trying to get her attention.
"You ok? You look like you were lost in thought." He said. Celestia coughed and tried to get herself back under control.
"Oh! Uh...I-it's nothing Ranma. I was...just...wondering how this thing could have gotten here. That's all." She said with a sheepish smile. Ranma wasn't buying it, but he decided that he'd had enough excitement for one day and would just let it slide.
"I guess we'll never know. But still, I hop I NEVER have to fight something like this again." He said.
As Celestia left Ranma and the others to go get some help with the carcass, Ranma looked at the scar that caught Celestia's attention. He narrowed his eyes at the scar and walked over to it. He placed his fist in the center of the scar and saw that whoever's fist made this, it was bigger than his.
'Who could have done this?' He thought to himself.
As for Celestia, she hid behind a tree and started hyperventilating. She panted for breath as fear took hold of her. She slid down the tree and huffed and puffed as she tried to get herself back under control. She blinked rapidly, memories long suppressed fighting their way back to the front of her mind. Memories of someone...something...
"No..No...NO...NO!" She screamed as Luna came running up to her.
"Celestia!" She called as she grabbed her sister.
"Luna! He...HIM...he...It was..." She couldn't even talk her fears were too strong.
"Celestia! Calm down!" Luna said as she hugged her sister close. "He's not here. Remember. He's FAR away form here. He's not here anymore." She said as she tried to clam down her panicking sister.
Later that night, and after a LOT of showers and soap, Ranma and the others were sitting by a campfire with the rest of the campers chowing down on freshly cooked Orochi meat.
"Um...are you sure this is safe to eat?" Trixie asked.
"Relax Trix, me and Ranma made sure to test this meat before feeding it to ya'll. It's safe and depoisoned, so shut you're pie hole and eat." Applejack said as she munched on some of her own Orochi meat.
The only ones not eating were Fluttershy and Celestia.
"What's wrong PC? Dragon snake meat not your thing?" Ranma asked. Celestia sighed and pushed her palte away.
"I'm sorry, I'm just not hungry." She said as she got up and walked away. Ranma looked at her as she walked off, wondering if her mood had anything to do with that fist shaped scar he saw on the Orochi.
"Uh, Twilight? What are you looking at with that microscope?" Sunset asked, catching Ranma's attention.
"This moss," Twilight said. "This strange moss that was on the Orochi."
"What's so special about some moss?" Rainbow asked.
"Well, not only did this moss actually gorw ON the Orochi's body, but it seems they have special properties." She said.
"Like what?" Pinkie asked as she took another bite of her meat.
"Well, it seems like this moss can actually heal whatever it comes into contact with. Watch." Twilight said as she took the moss and rubbed it on a wound on Ranma's arm. And as she did, Ranma and the others watched in ah as the wound healed almost instantly.
"Whoa." Ranma said as he flexed his arm. "It doesn't even hurt."
"Amazing!" Rarity and Pinkie said in unison.
"You know, there just might be a market for stuff like this." Rainbow said.
"Maybe, but if that Orochi was the only one of its kind, this might be the only sample of the moss left." Twilight said.
"Oh, so that's why you had me skin off all that moss from that monster before we started cooking it." Applejack said. Twilight nodded.
"Yeah, it's almost a shame that that thing had to die in all honesty. I'm not sure if this moss grows anywhere except on it's body." She said.
"Well, sorry. Next time I'll try to play nice with the monster that tries to kill us and everyone else in the name of silence." Ranma said in a sarcastic way while smiling at Twilight. Twilight blushed and chuckled nervously.
"Uh heh heh heh. Right. Sorry." She said.
"But either way, with all these samples that I saved thanks to Applejack, me and Micro Chips might be able to turn them into something that can help people. Maybe even, who knows, find a way to replicate it. Just imagine the possibilities."
"That's our Sci Twi, always looking for the scientific payoff." Pinkie said, causing everyone to laugh. Ranma looked over to Timber, sighed and walked over to sit next to the guy.
"Thanks for getting the girls. I don't think I would've lasted much longer without them." Ranma said as he took a sip of his drink. Timber sighed.
"Yeah...say, Ranma? I'm sorry." He said. Ranma pretended to look shocked and held a hand to his ear.
"I'm sorry, what was that?" Ranma asked. Timber chuckled at Ranma's antics.
"I said I'm sorry for acting like a jealous jerk. I don't know what got into me. I guess I just didn't like the fact that the girl I liked had moved on from me and found another nice guy. So, I'm sorry." Timber said. Ranma chuckled.
"Apology accepted. So, we cool?" Ranma asked. Timber smiled and offered his hand for a handshake.
"Sure."
The two shook hands, ending the animosity between them. Flash, seeing that things were going good, decided that it was time to add his own little spice to the festivities.
"Well, since we're all having a good time, I think it's time we kicked things up with a little music. I'll be right back with my guitar." He said. As they waited for the blue haired boy to return, Ranma scooted back over to the girls because he had something important to talk to them about.
"Hey guys, did anyone else notice how Celestia freaked out at seeing that fist shaped scar on the Orochi's body?" Ranma asked.
"Now that you mention it, yeah. She seemed really scared." Fluttershy said as she put what was left of her salad down.
"Yeah, I mean, why freak out at seeing a scar on a dead thing?" Rainbow asked.
"Maybe she was just shocked at seeing that someone hurt that thing more than we did?" Sunset suggested.
"No, she was really scared. She almost looked like she'd seen something like that before." Ranma said as he stroked his chin.
"Still, I wonder just who in the heck could have done that to the Orochi? I mean, that monster was strong and its scales were hard as heck. It took some strong ki blasts from me to even hurt that thing. And if Twilight's right about that moss, how come it didn't heal that scar?" Ranma asked.
"Maybe whatever or whoever hurt it was so strong the moss couldn't heal it all the way." Pinkie suggested.
"That makes some sense. I guess." Applejack said.
"Still, I hope we never have to meet another monster like that Orochi thing again." Rarity said.
"And I'm hoping that we don't meet whoever hurt that thing. I don't think I'd be able to defeat someone that strong." Ranma said, crossing his arms.
"Seriously? That's what you're worried about? Whether or not you could beat someone or not?" Rarity asked.
"Uh heh heh heh heh..." Was all Ranma could say.
"Our fight crazy boyfriend ladies and gentlemen." Twilight said as she and the others laughed at Ranma's blushing face. Ranma was save though, when Flash arrived with his guitar.
"Ok folks, it's time for some music! And in honor of our nearly fearless hero, I know just the song for the occasion." Flash said as he started to strum his guitar.
When a humble bard
Graced a ride along
With Ranma of Rivia
Along came this song
(Sunset: Heh! I taught him this one)
From when the White Wolf fought
A silver-tongued devil
His army of elves
At his hooves did they revel
They came after me
With masterful deceit
Broke down my lute
And they kicked in my teeth
While the devil's horns
Minced our tender meat
And so cried the Witcher
He can't be bleat
Toss a coin to your Witcher
Oh, Valley of Plenty
Oh, Valley of Plenty, oh
Toss a coin to your Witcher
Oh, Valley of Plenty
At the edge of the world
Fight the mighty horde
That bashes and breaks you
And brings you to mourn
He thrust every elf
Far back on the shelf
High up on the mountain
From whence it came
He wiped out your pest
Got kicked in his chest
He's a friend of humanity
So give him the rest
That's my epic tale
Our champion prevailed
Defeated the villain
Now pour him some ale
Toss a coin to your Witcher
Oh, Valley of Plenty
Oh, Valley of Plenty, oh
Toss a coin to your Witcher
A friend of humanity
Toss a coin to your Witcher
Oh, Valley of Plenty
Oh, Valley of Plenty, oh
Toss a coin to your Witcher
A friend of humanity
Toss a coin to your Witcher
Oh, Valley of Plenty
Oh, Valley of Plenty, ah-ah, oh
Toss a coin to your Witcher
A friend of humanity!
Ranma couldn't help but blush and smile as his best friend sung a song that made him seem like a real monster hunting hero. All the others joined in the song as the night dragged on. But as they all were having a fun time, Celestia was trying her hardest to hide. She took a deep breath as she fought back against the demons in her head.
Or rather, the memory of one demon she wished she could forget. Miles away, in a remote part of Japan, a old man was crying his eyes out.
"YOU BASTARD!" He shouted at the shadowy silhouette of a large and powerfully built man.
"Because of you scaring off the Orochi, I can't get the moss of life to save my son! Without it he'll die!" The old man cried as tears ran down his face.
"Heh. If he dies, he dies. And if he dies, then he doesn't deserve to live." Said the shadowy figure with a mane of wild red hair.
"What!?" Said the crying old man.
"The weak die and the strong survive. That's the law of the world. If someone isn't strong enough to survive, then they have no right to live." Said the figure as he started walking away. The old man growled and charged at the tall man.
"YOU BASTARD!" He shouted as he tried to attack, only for the shadowy to lash out with a kick strong enough to send the old man flying.
"You're not worth my time. I was hoping that Orochi beast had come back. I was hoping for a rematch, it was one of the few things left on this Earth that could give me a challenge. Oh well."
And with that, the figure walked off, not even bothering to look back at the fallen father.
Ranma: Hey guys, Ranma here. And on the next episode of Equestria Wild Horse, me and the gang are coming home from Camp Everfree and we've got a lot of things in front of us. But as we jump into some new training, Shampoo comes back to cause trouble and she's not alone! Some old bat who calls herself, Shampoo's great-grandmother is here and she's trying to force me to marry Shampoo! She's got seven women who have something to say about that. So don't miss the next episode of Equestria Wild Horse: Homecomings And Amazons! We'll see ya there!
Ending: Talent For Love (Sung by Fluttershy)
(As the music starts to play, painted pastel styled screen shots of Fluttershy, Ranma and the others slowly pass by on the screen)
Life is so full of hurry and hustle
Sometimes I think it's passing us by
The days are like hours, hours like minutes
I'm caught up in it till I look in your eyes
And to my surprise I find there is a heaven
Timeless and real, making me feel
Free and alive
(Scene changes to a painting of Fluttershy looking over a meadow. It shows a close up of her smiling face as another painting takes it's place, showing Rainbow Dash, playing her guitar on stage. Change to a painting of Applejack wiping the sweat off her forhead as she works on her farm.)
You touch me, you kiss me, and time has no meaning
I'm on a rocket to some other zone
Baby, you thrill me - whatever you're doing
Don't think of stopping until we are light-years away
All alone, cause I want to keep this
Treasure for my very own
Your talent for love
(Change to a painting of Twilight looking up at the stars through her telescope. Change to a painting of Rarity modeling one of her dresses. Next is a painting of Pinkie throwing one of her parties. Then comes a painting of Sunset, painting herself and her friends. The picture slowly fades to reveal a painting of Ranma smiling at the screen.)
Trying to move forward, pushing and shoving
People all get in each other's way
But when two lovers find their own magic
Nothing else matters, cause they know it will stay
And I know somehow our spell will not ever be broken
Timeless and real, making me feel
Free and alive
(Change scene to a painting of Ranma walking aimlessly while looking to his right. Scene changes to a close up of Ranma's face before sliding to a picture of Fluttershy. Then it changes to pictures of each of the girls. Next comes a picture of the seven girls waving to Ranma before it swtiches to another close up to Ranma's face, showing him smiling.)
You touch me, you kiss me, and time has no meaning
I'm on a rocket to some other zone
Baby, you thrill me - whatever you're doing
Don't think of stopping until we are light-years away
All alone, cause I want to keep this
Treasure for my very own
Your talent for love
(Switch to pictures showing Ranma hanging with each of the girls. First, him playing guitar with Rainbow, then helping Applejack with her farm work, then him and Rarity dancing, then a picture of him and Twilight stargazing while sitting and leaning on each other, then a picture showing him and Pinkie laughing while partying, then the scene changes to him playing games with Sunset before changing to a picture of him and Fluttershy holding hands under a tree. The final picture is a group painting of Ranma with all the girls, all huddled together and smiling.)