Tohru was the first to regain consciousness as the storm slowly passed. Opening his eyes, he found himself staring up at a cloudless sky as wind raced over him, water splashing at him from brief waves. He found himself laying on something warm and rubbery, and somewhat slick. "Wha...where...Chan!" He quickly tried to sit up, only to find himself held down. Looking down, he found bands of solid water - not ice, but solid water somehow - holding him down to something that was a pale blue-green and big enough to support himself, Ratso, Finn, Chao, Jade, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo. His eyes widened in worry. "Apple Bloom?"
"Over here," a familiar voice spoke, calling his attention to his left. There, a dark blue dragon sat riding Cumulo, her tail hanging off it and waving in the breeze with her wings tight to her back. "Don't move too much. I'm not that familiar with water magic, and it's hard enough to hold all of you on Jackie's back as is."
Tohru stared in disbelief. "Apple...Bloom?" he managed to gasp out.
The tiny dragon giggled. "Yeah, it's me Tohru. Was trying to turn someone else into a Storm Dragon, but it rebounded on me. Don't know why, but it gave me a chance to turn Jackie into an Elasmosaurus, so the rest of you get a safe ride back."
Tohru turned to stare at the long neck lifted just barely out of the water, the head resting on the surface as the massive reptile sped towards the distant shore. "...it can do that?" he asked worriedly.
"Apparently," Apple Bloom admitted. "Don't know why it didn't do what I wanted it to sooner, though." She paused as she heard the others stirring. "Whew, I was startin' ta get worried."
Jade was the first to wake up. "Ugh...what hit me?"
"Some wood planking, I believe," Tohru offered.
Jade blinked, taking in her surroundings as she shifted under her bindings. She quickly proved just how quick her mind was as her eyes widened. "Holy shitake, Apple Bloom! You're a dragon! That is so cool! And Jackie's a dinosaur!" She let out a happy squee.
"Shitake?" Tohru asked, confused.
Jade chuckled nervously. "I'm not supposed to use swear words. Figured if I made an effort on the little things, Jackie might be more lenient on the big ones."
Tohru rolled his eyes. "Kono gaki," he grumbled under his breath.
"You know it!" Jade proclaimed proudly.
Tohru blinked in surprise. "You speak Japanese?"
"No, I've just been called 'rascal', 'troublemaker', and 'brat' often enough that I know how to say all three in just about any language you're likely to encounter in Hong Kong," Jade explained cheekily. "You start recognizing a few words if you hear them often enough."
Tohru did his best to suppress his giggles, but failed. "So much for ever being intimidating to you lot," he grumbled, laying back. "That's half what I have my job for."
"Just cause yer a teddy bear don't make you any less a bear," Apple Bloom pointed out. "Just cause yer a teddy off duty don't make ya any less a grizzly on duty."
"What makes you think I'm off duty now?" Tohru asked grumpily.
"Do you honestly think you have any chance of getting the Talisman from us at this point?" Apple Bloom asked logically.
Tohru glanced from the Elasmosaurus Jackie presently was to Apple Bloom as a dragon. "No."
"Then this is lunch break," Ratso spoke up, laying back to relax as he stared at the startled seagulls. "So relaxing. Only thing missing-Ah!" With a jerk, he tugged hard with his leg, jerking up the fish that had latched onto his dangling shoestring, catching it with his hands. "Any chance you got fire breath?" he asked Apple Bloom.
"Uh...storm dragon," Apple Bloom explained. "I might have lightning breath..."
"Yeah, better not risk it," Ratso agreed as he twisted the fish's head hard, killing it instantly. "Eh, I like sashimi." He then tore the belly open, dumped the guts into the water, and proceeded to dig in.
Apple Bloom stared at Ratso for a time, but said nothing. For some reason completely beyond her, she found herself picturing him with a snail on his butt(1), and the absence of logic behind this mental image disturbed her. The only saving grace, in her mind, was seeing the same confused/disturbed look on Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo's faces, hoping that meant they were picturing the same thing and it was a pony thing and not a personal revelation.
Once everyone was awake, Jackie turned towards a beach. Seeing what he was doing, Apple Bloom smiled. "Alright boys, this is your stop!" she called out as she dispelled the bonds holding them on.
"Wait, wha-?" Finn wasn't able to get anymore out before Jackie made a sharp turn, sending the four of them flying off his back and onto the beach before making for the pier at the end of the road leading right to Uncle's Rare Finds.
As soon as they came in range of the pier, Apple Bloom used the Talisman to reverse the transformations, landing them all safely on board. As they shook themselves off, Captain Black arrived. "Rough trip?" he asked casually.
"You could say that," Jackie admitted, shaking water out of his hair. "We did get the Talisman, though."
"That's good," Captain Black agreed. "Can you take it back to Section 13 yourself, though? I need to investigate something...classified down here."
Jade looked up at him flat eyed as she wrung out her bangs. "You aren't about to tell us that some sort of prototype camouflage submarine got taken out of dry dock without permission and you're following possible sightings which were reported as 'Loch Ness Monster in San Francisco Bay', are you?"
Captain Black blinked. "...well, I wasn't going to say anything-"
As Jackie's face met his palm, Sweetie Belle expressed their shared sentiment. "Oh, come on!"
(1) Ratso doesn't think about anything. Ever.
Considering Snails's zen buckball skills it does explain a few things about him.
>tfw when pushing sixty chapters.
Gee, wonder how that happened?
Typical Black
Ha-cha! Ponies' memories of Equestria beginning to surface!
One more thing! Tohru clearly feeling down - Echo is cautiously optimistic that he will have good showing in fight against Shendu! Will lift his spirits to successfully fight a demon!
Awesome as always!
and another wild catchphrase appears!
7694138 What do you mean "pushing"? This is number 60
7694138 Oh isn't that just PRECIOUS, you think sixty is a lot.
Go take a look at The Sparkle in His Eye.
7694308 *coughs*
whats this show called, i need something to watch...
7694347
Jackie Chan Adventures.
7694332 Funny, blank page. At least I was pointing to another story from this author.
Chapter Sixty
"Aiyah!"
Chapter Count: 0
Total Count: 34
"One More Thing!"
Chapter Count: 0
Total Count: 63
7694394
He linked to a Mature story with nearly 1000 chapters and over 2 million words.
7694426 I know what he linked to.
I choose to ignore the fact that it exists because the author is making money off of it illegally.
7694394 Mature filter required. Huh. It used to be rated teen.
Water you gonna do Tohru? Apple Bloom has you in a bind now.
Looks like Ratso ain't gonna be a fish out of water when talking with the girls.
7694502 get out...
7694591
I've actively requested he pun any of my stories he reads, ever since he did so on "Moon in the Dark" and became "The Other Sans".
Nitpick: Tohru would be more likely to say "kono gaki" here than "yarou". "Yarou" is a bit stronger than is really warranted, whereas "kono gaki" is exactly the right tone.
7694639
Thanks for that. I'm unfortunately limited to google translate to find the right words.
7694666 Yyyyeah Google Translate is a terrible way to get the right words you need.
7694684
Can you suggest a better one?
A very nice chapter, and now I think Ratso would fare well in Equestria, I can see him being a big brother figure to Snips and Snails
7694694 Well for starters, I suggest a Google search for "Japanese slang" and working from there, repeat as necessary for any language you need.
And frankly, if you need Japanese slang, just PM me instead of wasting your time with Google.
7694753
I'll consider it, but I don't want to end up slowing my writing while I wait on response. I'd lose the thread.
7694832 I completely understand. Still, the option's open.
7694914
Hopefully google translate's okay to use for when I'm creating new chi spells for much later in the story.
7694180 If I deny it long enouugh, it won't be true.
But..
Nope.
BUT!
NOPE! NOPE NOPE!
His entire thought process right there.
7694915 I hope so too, because if it's Chinese, I can't help you.
7694978
Yup, Chinese.
So is the episode over or is there One More Thing left?
That was fun, may I have another? Looking forward to more.
Keep up the great work. Deus tecum.
7694600 welp...fuck
Wow, Spike gonna be soooo jealous!
7695426 It's cool, don't worry too much about it. I've received many similar responses before so it's a natural thing for me.
Was that a Spy Kids reference I saw?
7694433
He's not making money off it illegally, he takes donations to support his writing. If he was saying he wouldn't let you read his stuff without paying, that would be illegal.
7691399 I was thinking more to the interactions with the characters in the story that would arise.
7695526 besides, you're fun 97.65% of the time
I like what you're doing here. The race for the Talismans? It feels more like a sport two schools are competing in, but remaining friendly during off time. Instead of the race to save/end-the-world-as-we-know-it that it actually is.
7694832 I'd recommend using a placeholder to keep moving. In this case, it would look like this while you were waiting on the response:
That way you can keep moving, and you can quickly find it again to replace it with the proper translation by searching the document for the X's with ctrl+f.
7699552
Except then I have to delay publishing.
Would the human version of Buck Ball be Basketball or Drop Kick Ball?
Like Faffy?
Ratso = Snails.
Huh
you reconed my second favorite line from the show.
spoken by Jackie after finding out jade made a monkey out of herself