Author's Notes:

I want to thank MidnightChaos for helping me in Displacing Derrick, by writing in Essence. It may have been short but it helped get the ball rolling.

(18/11/2015) EDIT: I also want to thank The Slending Angel for helping me out with editing this story.

A man named Derrick was at a costume party with his friends near Halloween. But that night, something very strange happened.

This is where our story begins…

“I’m at a costume party that is being held beside a bonfire. Considering one of my favourite characters uses flames, I decided to go as him.” Derrick said, talking to one of his friends at the party. He was wearing a black vest with yellow trimming and nothing on underneath, a scale-patterned scarf was around his neck and on his legs were baggy white pants, tied to the middle of the lower legs. A black cloth made out of the same material as his vest was tied around his waist with a brown belt and a silver buckle tying it in place. He also wore black sandals on his feet.

“So that’s why you’re dressed as Natsu.” His friend said. They clanked their beer bottles together and took a swig. “Do you also have the Fairy Tail tattoo?” He asked, pointing towards Derrick’s right bicep. Derrick nodded and showed him. “That’s cool. Want to go outside? We’ll get warmer that way.” He asked, gesturing to the bonfire.

Derrick shrugged. “Okay, I don’t see why not.” He agreed and followed. Soon as they got near it though, his friend got behind him and suddenly pushed Derrick towards the bonfire. Stumbling towards it, he tripped on a loose pebble and fell in.

Only for a woman to appear in the fire, and stop his fall. “Fire, bend and break. Light, protect and shield,” she said, as the fire bent away from her and Derrick. As his friend watched, the woman stepped from the flame, and saw fire run around her heels playfully. It was in that moment that they realized she had cat ears and a tail.

Derrick fell on his hands and knees, expecting to be burnt. Feeling nothing of the sort, he turned and looked as the various people around the bonfire gasped and stepped back from the woman. His friend though, smiled goofily and wobbled where he stood.

“Hiya toots, why the ears and tail?” Derrick’s friend slurred at the woman, barely even noticing the flames around her feet.

“Hmm?” she asked, tilting her head as the ears flicked and her tail began playing with the fire.

“Max, don’t do this.” Derrick warned, silently thanking the woman for saving him from the fire.

“I’ll do what I want.” Max said and stumbled closer, his beer sloshing out of the bottle somewhat. “I asked why you had ears and a tail. Seems strange for a pretty girl like you.” He repeated as his eyes blearily followed her tail.

“Oh, those? I’ve had them since before this universe even existed,” she said, shrugging.

Derrick’s eyes widened as he heard that but stayed crouched in the flames. ‘How can she be that old?’ He thought as he saw Max continue chatting with her.

“Is that so?” Max asked, leaning back a bit to look at the ears. “You don’t look that old.” He slurred, hiccuping a bit.

“Well of course not. Age is easily defied,” she said.

“Sure, whatever you say.” Max said, blinking with one eye and then the other as he tried to clear his vision.

“Normally, I wouldn’t offer this. But, would you like to leave this world?” The woman turned around and offered a hand to Derrick.

Derrick looked at the hand, then to his drunken friend and then back to the woman. “Sure, why not. My friend seems to be an idiot anyway.” He said shrugging as he stood up, and held his hand in hers.

“Well,” she suddenly kissed his forehead, “enjoy yourself.”

Getting a surprised look on his face, Derrick disappeared and in a blink, reappeared somewhere entirely different. Quickly patting his body to see if everything was in place, he sighed in relief to see that his limbs were all in the right place. Feeling something wet surrounding his feet, he found that he was standing in a small puddle of water amidst a big blanket of snow.

“Why am I not cold?” He asked himself as he stepped out of the puddle. Soon as he did, the water almost immediately got refrozen. “Just how cold is it here? Wherever here is.” Derrick mumbled and putting a hand to his forehead tried to figure out where the closest settlement was. Feeling something tap him on the shoulder, he turned around and found a black smoke creature. Derrick’s mouth fell open, turned and promptly ran in the direction he was about to head in anyway.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!” He screamed, arms flailing above his head as he attempted to outrun the smoke monster. Seeing the snow melt as his sandals came into contact with it made Derrick’s run immensely easier but it didn’t seem like the smoke monster was hindered by the snow either.

Feeling a burst of energy, he instinctively made the energy move to his feet. Looking down at his feet, he was shocked and scared at the fire coming off of his feet. “AH! FIRE! GET IT OFF GET IT OFF GET IT OFF!” Derrick shouted as he failed to put out the flames on his feet. Not realising that his feet and shoes weren’t the slightest bit burnt, he continued patting it out with his bare hand while rapidly hopping away.

“Hands not burning. Great. Feet not burning. Even better.” Derrick reasoned as he realised he wasn’t burning in the slightest but a lot of hops told him otherwise if the vast amount of footprint puddles were anything to go by. “Maybe I should’ve realised this sooner.” He added. Seeing the black smoke monster looming over the horizon, he promptly turned and ran, hoping that there was a city or town in this general direction.

Eventually coming upon tall crystal structures, he laughed to himself and put on a burst of speed. Noticing something pink come down around the crystal, he checked behind him and found the smoke hot on his heels. Panicking, Derrick dived for it and ended up sliding in on a puddle of water just as the pink wall came down and knocked off a piece of something from the smoke monster.

“Who goes there?” A gruff voice asked as it poked Derrick with the tip of a spear.

“Ouch.” Derrick said, wiggling a bit under the poke.

“Get up.” The voice said again, sounding distinctly male as he was picked up by the scarf.

Feeling his windpipe being constricted by the grip, Derrick gagged and tried to claw his way out of it.

“Don’t bother. I have an iron grip.” The voice reacted to Derrick’s clawing. “Come on. The princess will want to see you.” He said and dragged him by the scarf, his feet scuffing along the ground.

After having been dragged all the way to someplace, Derrick’s face was slightly blue due to his brain not receiving any air. Based on what he’s seen, he was most likely dragged to somewhere with crystal. It seemed the whole place has been built with crystal alone.

“Ack! Help!” Derrick choked out as he tried for the umpteenth time to claw at his captor’s hand.

“I found someone at the edge of the city!” The voice said loudly.

“Get off him! He can’t breathe!” A female voice this time commanded. Immediately feeling the grip lessen, Derrick got some breath back and pulled his scarf out of the hand.

“Thanks.” He breathed, going into a sitting position and turning around. Looking up, Derrick swore he felt his neck creak at the sheer angle he had to look. He found a group of about three or four people with only one difference. They had tails, horns and wings. Derrick’s eye twitched and his mouth fell open in an almost perfect ‘o’.

“You are most welcome.” One of them said. The voice was attached to a woman with pink skin and her hair had purple, pink and blonde hues. She was wearing coloured crystal as armor that covered most of her body, only leaving the arms and legs free. As well as room for her wings. Derrick highly doubted the armor was practical but if anything he’s seen so far is anything to go by, then maybe it was.

“Who are you?” Derrick asked bluntly, sitting cross-legged. He got hit on the side of the head by something blunt. “Ow! What was that for?” He groaned, rubbing the sore spot.

“The person you are addressing is called Princess Cadence.” Gruff Voice emphasised the word princess in case the meaning was lost to the human before him. Derrick thought that privately nicknaming him Gruff Voice was a riot.

“Where’s your tail?” Another female voice asked. Derrick looked in her direction and found that she was dressed similarly to the princess, except the crystal was coloured gold and not silver.

“Don’t have one.” Derrick replied. The all gasped at that.

“Why not?” She asked.

“Evolution most likely.” Derrick replied and stood up and dusted himself off, not even noticing little flames appear and disappear as he patted himself. “What are all your names? May as well ask considering I’ll be here a while.” Derrick asked, rubbing his hands together as he looked up.

“You already know Princess Cadence and Gruff Voice. I am-” She was interrupted by laughter.

“HA! Gruff Voice!? That’s his actual name? HAHAHAHA!” Derrick bursted out laughing but was stopped mid laugh by a sudden blow to the head, making him fall into a crouch. “Augh! What is your problem with me?” He asked angrily.

“My mama gave me that name and I wear it proudly to this day.” Gruff sniffed and gave him another whack for good measure.

“Oh come on! I didn’t even do anything that time!” Derrick said, jumping up with flames suddenly appearing on his fists. Gruff was silent but readied his spear all the same. If he was surprised by the flames, then he didn’t show it. Derrick, however, had a different reaction. When he looked down to his fists, his eyes widened and he began running around like a chook with its head cut off. “FIRE! AGAIN! WHY ME!???” Derrick shouted helplessly. Some snow was chucked onto him but all that did was melt away almost instantly, leaving the flames untouched.

“How did that not work?” Dazzle Gleam asked in shock, following his running with her head.

“I have absolutely no clue.” Cadence answered, following him with her head as well. “I would rather you didn’t do that Gruff.” She held a hand out to stop him from whacking the human over his head again.

“I was only going to give him a small tap, Princess.” Gruff replied, giving a frown as he held his spear in place by his side.

“You know,” Derrick placed his hand on his chin, stopping his running suddenly, “if flames come from my hands and feet, then maybe I can also do this.” He said and feeling hot embers in his gut, Derrick tried to bring that feeling up to the surface and out of his mouth but the only result he got was some fire drool. “Well that didn’t work.” He said in confusion and looked at the armored group. They all made weird faces and backed away a bit. “What?”

“Y-you have drool. Fire d-drool coming from your mouth …” Dazzle said hesitantly, pointing to him. Derrick only raised an eyebrow, and then made an attempt to look down. Soon as he did, he freaked out and began running around in circles.

“You may as well knock him out, Gruff. This could take a while.” Cadence suggested and with a salute from the Pegasus, Gruff immediately gave Derrick a hearty thwack on the head, instantly knocking him out. “That may have been a bit hard. Bring him in and take him to a guest room. I’ll speak with him when he wakes up.” Cadence said with a sigh and smile. She walked inside the crystal castle and stopped every so often, making sure that her personal guards were following her. Once they had him safely inside and in a guest room, Cadence turned to the two guards.

“I want you two to guard him until he wakes up.” She said authoritatively.

“What?” “Why?” They both asked at the same time.

“Who knows where he came from? Other people could be looking for him and they may want to attack him so while he rests up from the … beating,” Cadence grimaced at the word as she knew it wasn’t the right one, “I want you two to look after him. No buts.” Cadence said as she saw the both of them try to protest again. With that, the princess walked away to the balcony to tell Shining of what had happened.

“I thought guarding Princess Cadence was boring, this will be even more so since he won’t even be able to talk back.” Dazzle complained; jabbing a thumb in the direction of the closed door.
“We do what Princess Cadence tells us.” Gruff said as he stood at attention.

“I know you follow whatever the princess says to the letter but would it kill you once in a while to loosen up a bit?” Dazzle asked as she looked at him in a mixture of disbelief and pleading.

“I would but it’s not break time yet.” He answered in a monotonous tone. Dazzle just sighed and stood loosely at attention in front of the door.