It was a beautiful morning in the Everfree Forest and despite what ponies thought, this forrest was capable of having such despite there being dangerous animals and the weather controlling itself. Regardless of that, the animals who were native to the area knew that there was something amiss. The night had lasted for an unnaturally long time. They knew that their home was not controlled by ponies, but even the Everfree had normal length days and nights. This strange occurrence was their first clue to something out of the ordinary happening and the first to see such a phenomenon were the various squirrels and other tree dwelling creatures that came out at the sound of a soft hum.

From the canopy, Riku burst in with a pink aura and bounded off a tree to fly for a bit with flowmotion. He kept using the trees to lengthen his flight for a few minutes before finally stopping when he felt that he was a safe distance from the castle. The face that he wore was the same one he had earlier, sadness; a very mournful sadness that didn’t diminish as he sat down near a tree. The animals avoided him, as they could sense the darkness inside this regretful teen.

‘I can’t believe I did that to her. What sort of jerk traumatizes a pony like Fluttershy?’ he thought in despair.

The yellow pegasus’ words then started echoing in his head. ‘You had no right to do what you did to my friends!’

“She’s right. I had none.” he said with hatred towards his hasty actions beginning to take root. ‘I could’ve run and used my darkness to hide here in the forest.’ The silver haired teen then thought of one thing that gave him solace ‘At least I did my best not to give them any serious injuries. That’s no excuse for my actions, but hopefully the fact that I tried not to severely hurt them will make my apology easier to accept. Looks like I have another quest to complete, receiving their forgiveness. Fluttershy’s will probably be the hardest since I hurt her the most emotionally.’ He then thought of something that hadn’t occurred to him until just now. ‘Where the hell am I going to stay?’ It was a fair question. Where would he stay during his time in Equestria? Ponyville was out for obvious reasons, so was Canterlot, and those were the only places of civilization for miles that he knew of. Looking around the clearing he found himself in caused the image of a certain rhyming zebra to pop into his mind.

‘Of course, Zecora! She hasn’t met me yet so I can still earn her trust. I might even be able to gain a new friend.’ Riku thought with a smile. It faded as a look of determination formed. ‘First thing’s first. I need to find her house’ With that, he jumped onto the side of a tree and launched himself up in the general direction of Ponyville, knowing that Zecora was also in that direction.

Canterlot General Hospital

Princesses Celestia and Luna were inside the room in which the mane 6 were resting. After listening to the results of Dr. Lifeline’s examination of the mares, Luna spoke up. “And are you sure there are no grave injuries, physical or magical?” she asked with worry.

When the princesses had first arrived, Lifeline was shocked when the dark blue mare introduced herself as Celestia’s sister. Inquiring where this seemingly long lost sister was all this time caused Celestia to look slightly panicked before awkwardly saying that Luna had wanted to try taking one of those long naps that dragons take and accidentally slept for a thousand years. Lifeline had given a look that showed he didn’t buy it, but shrugged the suspicious feeling off when he noticed the unconscious mares that were held in their magic and had several nurses carry them to the examination room where the princesses told him what happened.

Back in the present, the unicorn doctor was nodding. “Correct, Princess Luna. There were absolutely no extreme injuries. No fractures, no internal bleeding, no lacerations. The worst that any of them received from this ‘Riku’ are some bruising, mild head trauma, and a cut on your student’s cheek.” he said, directing the last part at Celestia. A nurse came by and hoofed him a few papers which he telekinetically put on his clipboard. He then began reading it and soon looked up at the solar diarch with a small smile. “Good news, Princess Celestia. I’ve received the blood and mana core test results and I’m happy to say that no extensive damage was done by this creature’s dark magic. It seems that whatever spell he used directed the energy in such a way as to only cause pain to Miss Sparkle as a result of said energy being channeled directly into her horn, a very sensitive part of unicorn anatomy as I’m sure you’re well aware.” said the doctor as he put the papers on a nearby table. “She and the rest of her friends should wake up any time now feeling fine except for some soreness in the areas where they were hit.”

“Thank you, Dr. Lifeline. You’ve eased our worries with this news.” said Luna.

The doctor nodded to this. “You’re welcome, your majesties. I wish I could spend some more time with you, but I have more patients to take care of.”

“Of course, good day, doctor.” said Celestia.

“Good day.” with that, he turned and left.

After the door to the room closed, Luna turned to her sister. “Alright, Tia, we’ve made sure that they are alright. Now let’s apprehend that bipedal thing and imprison him. I don’t care if he was too weak to severely damage their bodies. No one beats up my saviors and gets away with it!” The blue alicorn turned to run out, but was stopped by her sister grabbing a hold of her tail with magic. Turning her gaze back she fixed Celestia with a harsh glare for once again stopping her.

“Hold on, Luna. Let’s not be too hasty about this.”

Luna turned back around and rolled her eyes. “Oh, for the love of…! What is it now!?” she said in a disbelieving tone.

“Luna, don’t you find it strange that the worst that Riku gave to them are bruises and mild trauma?”

“No. He’s obviously too weak to deliver any lasting damage.” the princess of the night answered with anger.

Celestia gave her unobservant sister a deadpan look. “Luna…he went out of his way to trick Pinkie Pie into letting her guard down just to knock her out with a strike to the head.”

“So!?”

The solar princess continued. “Then he took the brunt of the impact with the ground while holding Rarity and took her out via sleeper hold then released her so she wouldn’t suffocate.”

“I hardly see how…”

Celestia held up a hoof. “After that, Riku recoiled at seeing that he had drawn blood from my student, even though it was a small amount and with Fluttershy, he did his best to calm her down, sounded very much like he felt guilty with what he did to her, and stressed that we tend to her first.”

“Your point!?” Luna, blinded by rage, failed to see what her sister was getting at. Lucky for her, Celestia had a lot of patience for her loved ones.

“My point, dear sister, is that not only did this bipedal creature purposefully inconvenience himself, but he also showed obvious severe aversion to causing anything more than very minor injury. I have a theory for why and Dr. Lifeline’s examination of these brave mares is more proof of it being true.”

Luna straightened up at this and looked at Celestia expectantly. “Well? Out with it.”

“I believe that he was holding back and his abhorrence to inflicting anything severe tells me that he didn’t really want to hurt them. Really, it looked like he was treating the whole thing like a sparring match.” she finished with Luna looking at her with incredulity.

“Tia! You can’t honestly believe…”

“Oh, but I can Luna.” the princess interrupted. “I saw how he was fighting. I’ve watched enough swords ponies to know their movements, but then again, one wouldn’t need to if they paid attention to how he held his sword most of the time.”

“What do you mean?”

“Every time he hit them, this creature made sure to strike with the flat part of his weapon and only used the sharp edge when he knew they could block it, or in the case of my student, had armor that could seemingly offer some resistance. Another area Riku held back in was strength. He barely broke a sweat when he grappled hand to hoof with Applejack and the strength he demonstrated was greater than her. He could’ve easily broken her bones with each punch and kick, but didn’t.”

“So, what does it mean?” Luna asked her.

“It means that this silver haired warrior is not as evil as we thought. Especially seeing as he showed great remorse for how much emotional pain he caused poor Fluttershy. A truly maniacal monster wouldn’t have cared enough to try and ease her pain. In fact, if he was really depraved, he would’ve killed all of them and enjoyed every second of it.” she said bluntly. “I think if we wanted to avoid this we should’ve gotten to know him.”

“Well he at the very least could’ve met us halfway.”

“Did we really give him a choice? I started things off by restraining him, intent on throwing him in one of our dungeons for later questioning. Then Twilight made it seem like there was no room for talking. Really, what else could he have done? They surrounded him after my student just got done essentially saying that force was the only way.” she finished, hoping her sister would see her side of things.”

Luna looked at the ground, frowning for a moment before looking back up. “I guess you’re right, but what do we do now?”

“We keep a look out for Riku and not engage if one of us encounters him. Instead, we talk to him, calmly, and discover why he did the things he did in the past and what exactly his true intentions are.” She said while walking out into the hall, Luna following.

“Alright, sister, I’ll go along with your plan…for now.” she said warningly. ‘This is such a bad idea.’ she thought with exasperation.

Everfree Forrest

After a few hours, Riku had finally found the hut. ‘Damn, I really wish the show gave a clearer way to get to Zecora’s place besides that patch of poison joke for a landmark.’ He thought as he landed in a tree by the black and white equine’s house. Deciding to wing it, Riku dropped down and landed in front of the door just as the said zebra opened it. They stared at each other for a few moments, the teen not expecting this scenario and the zebra staring wide eyed at a strange biped who apparently decided to grace her morning with an abrupt landing. The silver haired teen decided to end the awkward silence and try to salvage the situation as best as he could.

He bowed before giving his greeting, having already dismissed his keyblade in order to seem less threatening. “Why hello, my dear Zecora, and how does this fair morning find you?” he said, trying to sound polite.

The zebra mare lifted an unamused eyebrow at his overly gentlecolt behavior, but answered him anyway when her face turned neutral. “This morning finds me well, though how do you know my name; of where this info did you claim?”

“Ummmm…an acquaintance of yours told me.” he said with an awkward smile. Zecora didn’t believe him for a second as she gave him a piercing stare. However, the biped before her didn’t seem too hostile, so she felt comfortable asking him another question, if only to get more information on this mysterious individual.

“Right. Well, at a disadvantage you have me, tell, what did your parents name thee?” Riku was about to answer, but the zebra put up a hoof before continuing. “Before you say, please do not lie, I’m quite good at knowing when others try.” she said as she looked up at him, her eyes half-lidded and a frown upon her face.

Riku frowned as he was taken aback by this. ‘Crap. She saw right through me. Well, I guess this will be the best way to earn her trust.’ Regaining his composure, he answered. “The name my parents gave me is Phillip and my last name is Smith, however I prefer to be called Riku. Though, since I told you my family name, I guess you would now know me as Riku Smith, but please, call me Riku.” he said as he extended his hand.

Zecora took it and gave him a hoofshake. “Nice to meet you, Riku. What you have told me seems quite queer, but your trust in me is quite clear. Of shunning you for such strangeness in name, you should not fret, for my very appearance causes others to jet.” she said with a smile.

“Thank you. I’m glad that I’m on friendly speaking terms with a resident of this land.” he said as he retracted his hand. “May I please come in?” he asked. Zecora answered with a nod and the silver haired teen then went and sat in a chair while she went to her cauldron and stirred the concoction within.

“Since we are on such terms, may this equine ask another question?” she asked as she added a strange root to the mix. When he nodded, she continued. “This nation is new to you, for it you now roam, but tell me, what place is your real home?"

“Well…” and so, he told her how he got there. He told of the convention, describing it as a place where people gather to indulge in their favorite works of fiction and to buy memorabilia, so she could understand. He then told of how people liked to dress up as their favorite characters and who he dressed up as. The realization that this human had asked her to call him by the name of a fictional character caused her smirk in amusement. Not noticing this, Riku continued to talk about what happened when he and his friend came there in costume and how he came across the shady merchant.

He then told of how said merchant was offering a collection of exquisitely made keychains in a diamond encrusted box for an extremely low price. However, he would only give it if Riku put his own keychain into the only empty slot within the box. Zecora was dumbfounded that the teen didn’t suspect that something was up, but continued to listen. She found it fascinating that he came to Equestria by falling through a hole and battling monsters on the way down. What truly amazed her was that whatever magic this merchant had used to send him there had also turned him into the character he was dressed up as with all of the character’s powers.

“…and that’s basically it.” he finished, leaving out the part where he got on the princesses bad side.

Zecora, now sitting in her own chair, stared at him wide eyed for a moment before answering. “Well, Riku, that was quite the tale, amazing this zebra, you did not fail.” she said with a smile.

Riku returned it with one of his own. “I’m glad you enjoyed it. The whole experience was pretty crazy.”

“Hmmm…” she hummed while rubbing her chin. “Considering that your life was put into such sudden disarray, am I correct to say, that you have nowhere to stay?”

“Yeah…I don’t own a house in this country and I don’t have any money to travel or stay at an inn.” he replied while looking down, silently hoping that she would offer him lodging.

“Well then, if you don’t wish to continue, to walk a lonely road, you may stay in my abode.” she said after pouring them some tea. She then hoofed him a cup before grabbing hers.

“Really?” he said, smiling at not only being offered a drink, but also a place to stay.

Zecora nodded. “Of course, it would be such a cruel deed, to turn away one who is in need.” she replied as she sat back down, offering a smile of her own.

“Thank you very much. You won’t regret it.” Riku said before taking a sip.

‘I certainly hope not.’ the zebra thought, as she took a sip of her own.

…..........

Twilight woke up with a start. The last thing she remembered before losing consciousness was an indescribable amount of pain starting from her horn and spreading to the rest of her body. Realization of where the pain started from caused her fore hooves to fly up to her fore head to check if the one thing that made her a unicorn was still intact. Feeling nothing wrong with it, she sighed in relief before noticing her friends in some nearby beds were also up and talking to each other and gasped when she noticed who else was in the room.

“Princess Celestia, Princess Luna!” she gasped. Pinkie and Applejack stopped their conversation and across from them, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy stopped theirs when they heard the outburst.

“It’s good to see that you are finally awake, Twilight. Thank my mother that Riku didn’t cause you any grievous injury.” Celestia said as she hugged her faithful student with her wings.

Said mare backed up a bit. “I’m sorry, Princess. I failed to apprehend him and I let him knock me out just by grabbing my horn.” Twilight said as she bowed her head in shame.

Celestia, not about to let her student blame herself for this, put a hoof under her chin and tilted her head up. “Twilight, Riku not only grabbed your horn, but also forcibly channeled what was obviously dark magic through it. Even I would be brought to my knees after such an assault to a sensitive area.”

“R-Really?” Twilight asked, not quite believing what she was hearing.

“Yes, my faithful student. Even a powerful alicorn such as myself has the same weakness as my unicorn subjects.” she then let her hoof drop, stood to her full height, and addressed the studious mare and her friends collectively. “I may be an ageless and powerful ruler, but I am certainly not all-powerful.”

Rainbow Dash spoke up and voiced her slight disagreement, despite her respect for Celestia. “Not to be rude or anything, Princess, but compared to the rest of us ponies, you kinda are.”

Celestia turned to Rainbow with a slight frown. “While it may be true that I am indeed overwhelmingly more powerful than the ponies in this room, excluding my sister of course, I will never distance myself from you or the rest of my subjects by claiming to be an omnipotent goddess, of that you can be sure. Besides, I would be a prideful fool to associate myself with such a level of status.” Rainbow Dash, for her part, realized how much the princess didn’t like being labeled as a deity by the stern tone of her voice and looked embarrassed at what she said, looking at the floor to avoid eye contact.

Gazing at everypony else, Celestia continued. “What’s more important than that is your well being, my little ponies, and luckily, you didn’t sustain any serious injury from Riku’s attacks.

“Who, yer majesty?” asked Applejack.

Luna stepped forward to answer. “The silver haired creature that you fought. Despite my feelings on the matter, my sister insists that we not attack him on sight, but rather talk to him and understand what his true intentions are.”

Twilight was incredulous. “Princess Celestia, please tell me I heard wrong! He attacked you and knocked all of us unconscious!”

“You heard right, Twilight. Though he may have attacked, I believe circumstance pushed him slightly to do such. Even so, he showed restraint and didn’t cause nearly the amount of injury that he could have. In fact, he took steps to make sure that he didn’t seriously harm you.” Turning back to the rest of the ponies, she continued. “For this and other reasons, you will be doing exactly as Luna informed you and not attack this creature. Also, try to be friendly. I find it hard to believe that a being who is pure evil would take steps not to seriously harm you and feel bad if he did so.” The element bearers’ jaws dropped at this news. “I understand that you find that hard to believe, but I saw his blanch at the small amount of blood he drew from you, Twilight,” she then turned to Fluttershy, who along with the rest of her friends, got over the news and were paying attention. “…and Fluttershy I heard the sorrow in his voice when he told my sister and I to tend to you first since he felt that he had damaged you the most. If I recall correctly, he said something to you, what was it and what could you tell from his voice?”

“He…he told me that he was sorry a-and he sounded sincere. The way he hugged me felt very comforting and unlike with Pinkie, I don’t think it was a ruse to get me off my guard.”

Celestia nodded at this then motioned for Luna to begin laying out what the plan would be. Luna nodded to her sister and looked to her subjects. “So, as we just discussed, we are not attacking him, but instead, talking to him in order to find out more about him. However, there are some things you must know.” The ponies leaned in to listen. “He can enter anypony’s dreams and do all sorts of things while he’s there.” She intentionally left out exactly what he could do so that they would be more willing to talk amicably with him. “As such, for a precautionary measure, I will be casting a lucid dream spell on everypony in this room. This will allow you enough control of your dreams as to enable you to make anything you want happen. However, only fight him with your new dream control if and only if he attacks.” After she was done explaining, her horn glowed and shot beams at all the ponies in the room except herself. Everypony glowed blue for a few seconds before the auras receded. “There. Now everytime you dream, you will have total control and continue to have such command for as long as I deem fit.”

After the mane 6 gave their thanks, Rarity voiced a question. “So, Princesses, what happens now?”

“Now, you will be examined one last time to make sure that you are in good enough health to leave and then take the next train back to Ponyville, where each of you will remain vigilant for any sightings of this creature.” said Celestia. They accepted their orders and awaited their final check-up before they could leave.

A few days later

The mane six were in their homes and continued to keep watch on the town and on their dreams for the silver haired teen. So far, none of them had spotted any sign of him and it was starting to become unnerving. However, this didn’t stop them from living their normal lives, including Rarity who was trotting to the marketplace to pick up some groceries.

As she went up the street, she saw from a distance a peculiar object laying on the ground. Upon getting closer, she realized what it was to her delight. “Why, what a darling little keychain!” It certainly was. It was made out of smooth, shiny, and elongated seashells bound together in a five pointed star formation. Painted on the top of the shell on which the actual chain hung, was a mischievous face drawn with brown paint. Though it wasn’t the fine art that Rarity was used to, the natural beauty of the shells gave it its own sort of charm. However something struck her that made her smile grow.

“Ideaaaaaa! And a very generous one at that!” she exclaimed excitedly. Trotting along to the market, Rarity bought the groceries she needed then went back to her home to store them. After that, she headed to the local glass art shop, Shards of Beauty; run and owned by Ponyville’s resident glassblower, Blazing Sand. Rarity had been to her shop a few times before in the past to craft various accessories for her dresses. Today, however, there wouldn’t be a request for only herself. As the charitable unicorn strode in, the bell rang, alerting the red haired, brown furred, earth pony mare behind the counter that a customer had come in. Said mare smiled at seeing the familiar fashionista.

“Hi Rarity, what can I do you for?” the mare asked, hoping she had an order for something other than the usual earrings.

Rarity returned the smile before responding. “Good afternoon, Blazing.” She then took out the keychain with her telekinesis and showed it to the store owner. “I would like you to make six more keychains with the same basic shape as this one, but in six different colors; cyan, orange, yellow, purple, pink, red.”

As the keychain floated forward in Rarity's magic, Blazing took it in her hooves and examined it. Though it wasn’t exactly high quality, it did have some charm with how brightly colored the shells were. Interestingly enough, even though the color didn’t appear to be naturally found on seashells, it seemed that these shells in particular had these pinkish and green hues naturally, as there were none of the telltale signs of the colors being painted on. The shape of the shells were also unusual, but again, the shape, along with the colors gave it a charm all its own. Blazing set the keychain down before speaking again.

“It is quite the cute little trinket. Where did you get it? Did Sweetie Belle make it? I can’t imagine where she would’ve gotten the shells since we’re nowhere near a beach.”

Rarity shook her head. “No, actually I found it in the center of the road; and what a find it is. It may not be the finest art, but its simplicity in design and the natural beauty of the shells give it its own appeal.” Taking a quick look at the keychain again to admire its design she got back on the original topic. “Anyway, how long do you think it would take you to make the extra keychains?”

Blazing waved her off. “No time at all. They should be done later today if too many orders don’t come in.”

“Perfect! I’ll be back to pay for and pick them up later.” Rarity said with a smile. She then turned to leave before the shop’s owner stopped her with a question.

“I’m curious though, what sort of project would require six keychains?”

Rarity turned to answer with a smile. “Oh, most of them are not for any sort of project. Five of the charms are going to my new friends that I’ve recently made and the red one will be sold as something extra with a purchase from my new summer line of dresses.”

Blazing nodded and smiled, liking how thoughtful and generous the fashionista was acting towards these friends that she had most likely only met recently. “That’s very nice of you to do this for them.” She then put the charm away under the counter and looked back at her customer still smiling. “Well, have a nice day. I hope your friends like their gifts.”

“Thank you and I’m sure they will.” Turning back to the door, Rarity went outside to continue on with the rest of her day and Blazing turning and walking to the back of her store to get everything prepared. What both mares didn’t realize was that if they had looked to Rarity’s left, they would’ve seen a pair of aquamarine eyes and a mop of silver hair slowly lowering out of sight.

Later that night

At the Carousel Boutique, a veritable paradise for those interested in fashion, laid Rarity in her room on the second floor, sound asleep and dreaming about obvious things, like dress ideas, gems, becoming famous in the fashion industry, etc, and then it changed to more important things like the sort of reactions that she hoped her friends would have towards her gifts. The lucid dream spell that Princess Luna had cast was quite useful.

Unfortunately, that spell didn’t make ponies light sleepers. For if it did, Rarity would’ve woken up at the sound of her window sliding open and letting in the ruffian who knocked her out. Said silver haired barbarian slowly put a foot on the floor so as to be quiet and crouched when he was fully in. Creeping over to the nearby dresser, Riku found the keychain he had seen Rarity with.

‘Ah, Oathkeeper. Finally something to change up the fights I’ll most likely get into. Just the thing I needed so I won’t have to worry as much about dismembering future opponents.’ At that thought, he shuddered. ‘Ugh, still disturbing thinking about that scenario.’ He then looked to his left. ‘Hmm…what’s this?’ he thought as he spied the keychains that the fashionista had commissioned. Despite him being there at the window, Riku hadn’t actually heard what they were saying. Before, he couldn’t care less about what they were talking about since the keychain was the only thing he was focused on. Now that he saw the charms, the teen was a lot more interested.

‘Wow! Wayfinders! So that’s what she was at the glass blowers for. Rarity commissioned one keychain for each member of the mane six besides herself and…well what do ya know.’ he thought as he spied the red wayfinder. Smirking, Riku picked the charm up to examine it. ‘It must be coincidence that she had one made in my favorite color.’ Pocketing Oathkeeper, Riku turned his attention back to the other keychain in his hands.

‘It sure would be great to have this. Good thing I have some bits to compensate her with.’ he thought as he put the red wayfinder into his pocket too. He then took out a small bag of bits and put it in the wayfinder’s original spot. ‘Thank God Zecora paid me.’ While the mane six were keeping a look out for him for the past few days, Riku was busy doing chores for his new landlord. Since he didn’t have a job, Zecora offered to hire him on as an assistant until somepony hired him for a real job. His responsibilities would be gathering ingredients for her potions, helping to keep her shelves tidy, and aiding her in the process of potion making. When asked if this would put a huge dent in her funds, she waved him off. Apparently, despite most of Ponyville reacting negatively towards her, there were still some ponies that were willing to do business with the zebra. This version of Equestria seemed a little less xenophobic than the one in the show.

Nodding with some finality, Riku turned and went back outside. He then used flowmotion to fly through the town and bounce off of buildings to keep his momentum going becoming a bouncing comet with a pinkish aura. Concealed from his senses were the widened eyes of an orange pegasus filly looking out from her bedroom window, having witnessed the strange and amazing sight of a bipedal being soaring through town without the aid of wings.

“I’ve gotta tell Sweetie Belle about this!”

The Next Morning

“WHAT IN CELESTIA’S NAME!?” yelled a very confused and irate Rarity. The furious unicorn had gotten up, taken a shower, etc. However, when she went to pick out something to wear, she discovered that the keychain she found and the red keychain were missing. In place of where she put the red keychain was a small bag of bits that were just a few coins short of fully reimbursing her for the pilfered accessory. While it was good that whoever did this had enough courtesy to try to compensate her, Rarity still felt violated that somepony had broken into her room.

“Celestia help the scoundrel who trespassed upon my home!” she said as she got her things and left. Later at noon, while waiting to order at the local café, Rarity spotted Fluttershy walking by and invited her to sit down and join her in having lunch. After a bit of hesitation, this being one of her first major interactions with ponies, she accepted and sat down. After the timid pegasus told Rarity of her morning, which would’ve sounded lovely to her if she wasn’t so frazzled, Rarity launched into a huge angry rant about somepony breaking into her house and said very eloquently put insults, pausing only so that they could both order their usual meals when the waiter came by. She then went on about how this “delinquent” had some nerve to break into a lady’s home and posited that despite him not hurting her, the “villain” should still be punished for trespassing and stealing.

“And…um…what did he or she steal?” Fluttershy asked with widened eyes after witnessing the sudden explosive rant.

“A keychain I found and one of the six glass replicas that I commissioned Blazing Sand to make. Five of them were meant for you and our new friends. I even had them made to match your coats. The one that was taken was a bright red. I had planned on selling it as something extra with one of my dresses. It looks like that won’t be happening.” She paused before continuing. “The strange thing is the thief left money behind for what I presume is reimbursement for the red keychain as it was only a few bits short and it was left in the exact spot in which I put the decoration.” she said with a combination of anger and confusion.

The waiter came by again with their orders and set it down, Fluttershy being the only one to acknowledge him with a smile. She then turned back to her furious friend to continue the dialogue. “Well, it was certainly nice of him or her to pay for at least one of the items they stole. Though it is strange that only the red keychain was paid for and not the one it was based off of.” said Fluttershy with slight confusion, her nervousness significantly lessened. Despite her shy nature, Fluttershy wasn’t incapable of holding a conversation. Once she started, her comfortableness with the activity of talking to others would steadily grow. It was just very hard if not nearly impossible for her to begin a conversation.

Rarity nodded. “Tell me about it. That was one of the reasons why I’m not angrier than I am now. Whoever infiltrated my home had at least some decency. I can respect that, even just a little.” She then looked down at her meal. “Oh, look at us. We were so wrapped up in this topic that we’ve completely ignored our food.” Rarity said with a regretful smile.

“To be fair, this conversation has been really interesting.” said Fluttershy as they both dug into their respective meals; Rarity having ordered a caesar salad and Fluttershy, a daisy sandwich with lettuce and tomato.

In the middle of eating their lunch, Rarity stopped to continue where she left off. “So anyway, it’s even stranger that those two charms were the only things he took. It’s almost as if the perpetrator was looking for them. But then, how could he/she have known about them when I showed the keychains to nopony else?”

“It’s a mystery.” said Fluttershy before taking another bite of her sandwich. After they finished, they decided to go for a stroll and continue talking. As they walked into the main square, they spotted Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo having a heated debate and decided to approach to see what was up. It wasn’t unusual to see them there as it was Saturday and they therefore didn’t have to be in school. However, what they were debating over was most peculiar.

“I’m telling you, what I saw was real!” said Scootaloo with an angry tone.

“And I’m telling you, your story is complete horse feathers. There’s no way something like what you described exists. Everything needs wings to fly. You’re telling me that a strange creature just levitated off the ground and flew?” Sweetie Belle replied with a roll of her eyes.

“I didn’t say he levitated off the ground. I said that he flew by my house surrounded by a pinkish aura.”

Sweetie belle then perked up as she was reminded of an important fact. “And that’s another thing. This thing apparently has a magical aura. If this creature truly existed, don’t you think everypony would be talking about it since it’s able to do magic without a horn or some kind of magical object?”

“I’m sorry girls, but what in Equestria are you talking about?” Rarity asked when she and Fluttershy got close enough.

When both fillies turned to the two adults, they gave each other a glance before Sweetie Belle answered. “Well, Scootaloo was just telling me about this strange wingless creature that flew by her house last night, but I think the story is malarkey.”

“It’s not…whatever that word is! I saw it with my own eyes!” the orange filly said in a rage.

Fluttershy, not wanting the filly to be upset, walked over and put a hoof on her withers to gain her attention. “Now calm down, Scootaloo, and tell us what you saw.” She then went back to being next to Rarity so as to have the filly face both of them when she told her story.

“Well…it had silver hair, was similar to a minotaur except that it had feet instead of hooves, wore clothes that I had never seen before, and it was covered in a pinkish aura as it flew.” the orange pegasus answered.

By the time the description was given, Rarity’s eyes widened. That sounded like Riku, but what was he doing in Ponyville? The disappearance of her keychains and the sighting of Riku within the town seemed like too much of a coincidence to simply be just that. There was only one thing she needed to ask in order to either confirm or debunk her suspicions.

“And…from what direction did you see this creature coming from?” she asked in irritated suspense, expecting what the answer would be and already feeling angry over it.

Not noticing her friend’s sister’s indignation, Scootaloo answered. “Ummm…I think I saw it coming from yours and Sweetie Belle’s house.” The filly leaned her head back as she finally noticed the mare’s outrage.

“Grrrrrr! Riku!” she said in a murderous tone.

Everfree Forrest: Zecora’s hut

While helping Zecora in making one of her potions, the silver haired teen suddenly straightened up as he felt something in the back of his mind.

“My friend who is still fairly new, what is troubling you?” Zecora said when she noticed Riku’s pause and stared at his frown.

Looking down at the zebra, the key bearer looked left and right before responding. “I don’t know why, but I feel like I’m going to suffer death by diamonds.”

“Strange.” said Zecora with a raised eyebrow.

Ponyville

“I can’t believe that miscreant had the audacity to commit yet another crime against me!” said Rarity to the rest of her friends. After the orange filly had asked what she meant by ‘Riku’, Rarity waved her off, saying it was nothing and giving a fake smile. Buying it, both Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle went off to do something else. Shortly after, Rarity sought out Twilight and told her what happened. Celestia’s star pupil suggested that she gather the rest of the girls to discuss the situation further, which lead to Rarity closing her recount of what happened with a statement of outrage. The time at that moment was early evening.

“It doesn’t sound that bad.” said Rainbow Dash as she hovered with her forelegs crossed.

“Not that bad!? He stole from me!” said Rarity in protest towards the perceived dismissal of the situation.

Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Yeah, but he didn’t steal much. Also, what he did take wasn’t even that expensive.”

Twilight nodded in agreement. “She’s right Rarity. While it is bad that he stole from you, the bright side is that you didn’t lose much money. In fact, of the two things you said he stole, one of them you found on the ground and the other one he left nearly enough bits for, so the amount you lost in money is miniscule.”

While Twilight’s argument was sound, Rarity had a counter already set up. “That may be, but I didn’t sell the glass charm to him willingly and he stole the charm I found! If I ever see him again, I’m going to give him a thorough lesson in manners.” she said with a subtle growl.

Hidden behind the corner at the top of the stairs, Riku slinked away after hearing that, feeling a little down. ‘I stand corrected. It looks like Rarity will be the hardest to win over; and now that she told her friends about what I did, they probably have an even lower opinion of me now. Damn, should’ve seen that coming when going for my keychain.’ he thought as he brought said accessory to eye level to look at it. He then put it away as he strode over to the balcony on which Twilight kept her telescope. As he put a foot on the guardrail, Riku dipped his head in somber thought. ‘I better get back to the Zecora’s before I make things even worse for myself.’ he thought with a deep frown before launching himself in a flowmotion aura. When Riku had first come to the library to see if Twilight had one of his keychains, he felt distressed when he deduced that the feeling he had earlier had to do with the angry fashionista downstairs. Riku truly felt low at this point.

Meanwhile, Fluttershy spoke up when she remembered something important. “Um…Rarity…I think that keychain belonged to him.”

Rarity whipped her head to her right to stare at Fluttershy in confusion. “Fluttershy, darling, what are you talking about?”

Biting her lip in nervousness, she took a deep breath before answering. “Well, I just remember him mentioning something about missing keychains.”

Applejack perked up at this. “Hey, yeah! Didn’ he say that he lost them when he first came to Equestria?”

Twilight nodded as she remembered that moment too. “You’re right, Applejack. Riku did mention losing his collection.” Turning to Rarity, she gave a serious look. “Rarity, I think you might’ve found one of his keychains. While it was rude of him to take it without asking for it, you can’t be too mad at him. It is rightfully his after all.”

Rarity’s muzzle scrunched up a bit before she gave a rebuttal. “And why couldn’t he have asked for it back? Do you have an explanation for that?”

Twilight, undaunted by her friend’s indignation, gave exactly that. “Would you have believed him? I highly doubt it. I’m also skeptical that he would be so stupid as to jump to the conclusion that simply asking for it would yield any positive results, not after our first meeting. If what both Princess Celestia and Fluttershy said is true then he also didn’t want to get into another fight since he already feels bad about the first one and he understandably figured that we were in no mood to talk. Since he obviously doesn’t know that we actually are willing to talk and be civil about it, he likely felt that he had no choice but to take it from you without asking.”

Rarity stared at her for a second, taking it all in, then looked down to the floor to think. When she had fully processed it, she looked back up to her friend with a mostly neutral expression, a faint frown still on her face. “It still felt rude of him to do it, but I see where you’re coming from.” The frown disappeared as she asked a question. “So…what do we do now? How are we going to talk to him when he obviously fears that he will just upset us with his presence?”

Twilight put a hoof to her mouth as she looked away in thought before suddenly looking back and putting it down. “I have an idea!” she said, smiling brightly.

Later, at sunset

Riku Smith, the human who was changed into one of his favorite characters, the human who spent a millennium inside someone’s subconscious and trained with a third of their psyche, was really down in the dumps. “This sucks.” He said as he sat on a bench in Ponyville’s park. He had been sitting there for a couple of hours and it was now getting into the darker hours of the evening as the sun had begun to set. It was lucky for him that none of the citizens were there at this hour or else he surely would’ve been spotted and the mane six would’ve been alerted to his exact location. As an extra perk, the absence of ponies gave him time to think about everything that had happened so far without distractions. Unfortunately, this also meant that he realized one very discouraging fact.

‘Man, I’ve done a crappy job of interacting with everypony.’ Sure, he had made friends with Zecora, but to him, that was just a lucky fluke. Compounded onto that, the fact that he knew that at least a thousand years had passed meant that even if he made it back to earth, everyone he ever knew would most likely be dead. So, if he found a one way exit from Equestria, he would truly be alone.

Taking the red wayfinder out of his pocket, the depressed teen held it to his heart before looking at it. “I wish I had a friend. Someone...that I could talk to and would understand what I’m going through.” he said, finishing his rhetorical request with a distant look at the rest of the park. “Heh, like that’s going to happen.” Before he could put it away and get back to Zecora’s hut, something weird happened.

“What the…!?” he said, looking down at his palm.

The wayfinder suddenly began to shine with an ethereal glow and rose from his hand to float at eye level. Raising an eye brow, Riku made to grab it, but its next action made him retract his hand in surprise.

‘VZZZZ’

A second red wayfinder began to come out of the original, almost as if it was inside and had just phased through a shell. The copy then shot into the sky…

‘SHOOM’

…and disappeared. The glow then ceased and the trinket fell about a foot before Riku caught it. ‘That was weird.’ he thought as he pocketed it. ‘Why did the wayfinder do that? Where did the copy go and who is going to find it?’ A few seconds later, he felt something else sit next to him. Wondering who in Equestria wanted to sit with the weird looking biped, Riku turned his head and saw, sitting in a relaxed manner, a man that made his eyes widen and his mouth drop.

“So, kid, what’s up?” said the man.

Author's Note

This took sooooo Long!!! I'm sorry! once again, school got in the way!

Remember to comment if you give an up or down vote or favorite.