Sure, pony. Not the craziest thing I've ever done. (unedited; looking for editor, because I don't have the time to do it alone)
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...
The Velvet Room. A place Minato Arisato, aka Ramen King, aka death's host, aka Messiah, aka zombie, was all too familiar with. He wasn't surprised to wake up in the elevator like room again after all this time. It was just like he remembered. The gigantic clock on top of the room, the lines of doors on each side, some covered with velvet blue clothes, the velvet blue floor, the chair he was sitting in, the desk with the white cloth on it and the couch behind it. Normally Igor, an old man in a black suit and a really long nose sat there, greeting him with this smile. Only this time Igor wasn't there and neither was Elizabeth, the platinum blonde woman in the blue elevator outfit.
Instead sitting there, legs crossed, was a woman he was not familiar with. Yet at the same time it was like he had seen her somewhere before. She had long black hair, pale skin and wore a simple black dress (thanks wikipedia). Her eyes were midnight blue, a bit darker than his own.
"I guess this is goodbye, though we never really talked much, huh?"
"...?"
"Not much of a talker anyway." She cleared her throat. "In any event, you're probably wondering why you're here and not asleep as the Great Seal. Oh you never truly died. You simply transferred your soul away from your body, effectively killing the body, but not yourself."
Minato nodded, understanding the concept.
"Now the bad news. Your role and my own for that matter is no longer needed. Hmm? Judging by your face, you have no idea who I am. We never really properly introduced ourselves. Nyx, goddess of night. It's nice to make your acquaintance Messiah."
"...!" Minato tensed up a little, but didn't show it. He kept his stoic face, until the meaning of Nyx' words fully struck him. "Our roles...no longer needed? But that means-" he said with wide eyes.
Nyx nodded. "Mankind is gone. For that matter, the entire world is gone. Blow up to pieces, it must have been quite the sight. I'm sorry, terrible jokes come with living forever."
Minato swallowed this whole information, leaning back into his chair and looking at the ceiling. "Wow. I knew there was a chance I would never see anyone again, but this..." he shook his head and faced the goddess. "I should be crying. But I don't even feel any kind of sadness, just...closure."
"It's still a terrible fate." Nyx stated as a matter of fact. "You achieved so much, you're one of the rare people who truly know what mankind was truly capable off and what was their thanks?" Nyx leaned back again, letting out a sigh. "I never truly understood you humans. You have more mood swings than Aphrodite, when she's drunk."
Minato chuckled at that, imagining a drunk love goddess. "So what happens now? Am I going to die?"
"That is up to you." Nyx opened her hand and a familiar blue mist surrounded it. A second later a card appeared flying and spinning above and landed in her hand. She placed the card, which Minato identified as a tarot card, face down on the table.
"One of your friends, Elizabeth I belief was her name, left this. She went on her own journey, resulting in this. I belief she wanted to replace you, but never found the potential you had. Instead she found a chance?"
"A chance?" Minato repeated, picking up the card and turning it around. It was empty.
"A chance of a normal life, a life you deserve for all your actions. What it would do is give you a chance in another world, another universe entirely. Of course there's no telling what you will find, if it will be better or even worse. The other option is to just go." she pointed at the door far behind Minato, where he usually exited the room. He turned around and looked at the door and then he looked back to the card in his hand.
"It would be ungrateful just to throw Liz' hard work away." Then a thought occurred to him. "What about you?" he looked up.
"Me?" Nyx looked a little taken aback, but then chuckled. "Don't worry about me. It's not like I can die. We may even meet again."
"Yeah, please don't try to destroy the world next time."
Nyx simply smirked in reply, vanishing into thin air. Minato, now alone looked down at the card in his hand again. "A chance of a normal life, huh? Thanks Liz'. I just wish I could see you one more time. And the rest of the gang." he sighed.
No use dwelling on the past now. I knew the risk of my choice. I should be glad to be given this chance. A new world, huh? Let's give it a shot.
As if reading his mind, the card lighted up and in a flash he disappeared.
XIII
Minato groaned. He was never one for getting up early or getting up at all for that matter, even though he slept for Nyx knew how long. Actually she probably did know. Nevertheless, he had to get up, after all this was a new world and he better should check it out. That was, when he could get a grasp of his body again. Something felt off about it. His first thoughts were that because he hadn't had a body for quite some time. But then he opened his eyes and the problem became quite apparent. He was lying on the ground with all of his limbs pointed towards the sky. Looking up he saw something interesting. No seriously, he found the fact that he was in a pony body interesting. You expected him to freak out? He died, you needed to be really, REALLY imaginative in order to get him to freak out.
Rolling over, he slowly got up on all fours and looked around first. He was standing in some kind of grass field with a slow river nearby. The weather was good and it was warm, with a few clouds in the sky. And there were even houses in the distance. His first instinct was to walk towards what seemed to be a settlement, but then he remembered the river. It probably would be a good idea to know what he actually looked like now. Surprisingly he could see his reflection very clear. And he found something else out.
He wasn't just a pony, but a unicorn. He had a very dark blue coat, his horn had the same color, his eyes were the same he had as a human, though they seemed to be a little bigger and of course a tail. The color of it was the same as the color of his hair, a slightly lighter blue, but still dark. As for his hair or rather mane style, his right eye was still covered up, giving him a weird look.
Did I land in a cartoon or something? But then again, my last life could be easily considered that of a video game. Damn you Junpei, even now your influence is haunting me. Fuck, I miss the idiot.
His face gave nothing away of his thoughts.
XIII
Walking had been simple try and error until he got the hang of it. By the time he reached the settlement, he was walking at slow but decent pace. The first thing that stood out in the settlement were not the bright colors, but the ponies. He really did land in a world full of talking ponies, candy colored, butt tattooed ponies! Speaking of butt tattoos, seeing them on the other inhabitants, Minato decided to inspect his own rump. Sure enough, on each side was the back of a tarot card, specifically the persona card design with the mask. He could now speculate about the meaning of those tattoos, but there were other matters at hand (hoof?) that needed to be addressed: money, food, a place to stay.
Getting a job would be difficult. He saw other unicorns levitating stuff around with their horns, which he could only conclude they were using magic. He could summon his personas and use their magic, but the horn thing? Maybe he should try learning first to carry things like those normal ponies did with their mouths and hooves. The pegasi at least got their wings, which he would have been grateful. He saw one pegasus mare taking a nap on a cloud and damn that looked comfortable. Sleep was his favorite hobby and right at that moment he had been so jealous, but he still got problems to solve.
A place to stay? Maybe some of the townsfolk would be generous enough to give him a place to stay, else he needed to sleep under the stars the night. Food? Well he was a grass chewer, so...that was covered.
He had been walking around for a while, simply looking around, when something interesting happened. A chariot, which was carried by two white pegasi in golden armor, landed at the center of the town. Exiting it was a lavender pony, with a star mark, purple mane and a pink streak going through it. Also following her was a little lizard thing, walking on two legs, purple scales, green spines going from his head, down his back and ending up in a tail. It had green eyes and was carrying some parchment.
The lavender unicorn said something to the pegasi, to which they looked proud and took off into the air again. Intrigued he decided to talk to the mare and the lizard. Before he arrived, a very pink pony with a poofy mane arrived before him. The lizard was motioning towards her and saying something. Minato was still out of hearing range by that time. By the time he was, he also missed the lavender pony speaking. What he didn't miss was the pink pony gasping in the most dramatic way possible, at the same time jumping into mid-air, turning around mid-air and running (flying?) away. He stood there several seconds dumbstruck, like the other two, until he decided to make himself known.
"Well that was interesting." he stated. He had overheard a few townsponies talking earlier and knew they were all speaking English. Good thing he spent at least a year in the US.
The lizard and the pony turned around towards the colt, who gave them his trademark blank look. "Can I...help you?" the lavender mare asked.
"I doubt it." Minato replied. "I just arrived here today as well. My name is Minato. Minato Arisato. Nice to meet you."
"Eh...hello. I am Twilight Sparkle and I'm here to oversee the preparations of the Summer Sun Celebration."
A celebration? Maybe I can get some free food out of it.
"And I'm Spike." the lizard guy introduced himself.
"Now I'd love to stay and chat," Liar. "but we have to go all over the town today."
"Mind if I tack along?" You totally do. "The more the merrier, they say."
"Sure, why not?" Spike talked before Twilight could say anything, which was a weird name in Minato's opinion. Said mare gave the lizard guy a dirty look.
"Guess it's settled then. Eh, sorry if I'm a little rude, but what are you?"
"I'm a dragon. Obviously."
"Ah." Minato nodded.
...
"That's it?" Spike asked.
"Yeah."
"You're not afraid? Surprised?"
"Ever seen a table that likes to throws knives at you?"
"What?"
"We continue this talk, after you met one."
XIII
How he ended up still walking with those two, Minato wasn't sure. Nevertheless, he did, although Twilight did her best ignore him.
"Summer Sun Celebration, Official Overseer's Checklist." Spike read from his parchment. "Number one: Banquet preparations, Sweet Apple Acres."
The last statement must have been the farm Twilight, Spike and Minato just entered. The former human was looking around for any indication of someone living there, when he heard someone letting out a "heehaw". Turning into the direction of the voice, the trio found an orange pony with a stetson running towards an apple tree at full speed. At the last moment she turned around and gave the tree a hard kick with her hint-legs, causing all the apples to fall off. Minato was impressed to say the least. Of course you couldn't see it on his face.
The mare had three apples as a mark, green eyes, a blond mane and tail, which of both were tied up.
Twilight in the meantime let out a sigh, causing the colt to raise an eyebrow at her. "Let's get this over with." she mumbled, her head low. The mare approached the cowpony (getting her head up again) and greeted her in a formerly matter.
"Good afternoon, my name is Twilight Sparkle." Before she could elaborate on why she was there the cowpony (SOMEHOW) grabbed her hoof and shook it violently.
"Well how ya doin', Miss Twilight. A pleasure makin' your acquaintance. I'm Applejack. We here at Sweet Apple Acres sure like making new friends."
I have the feeling Twilight doesn't like making friends at all. How come she gets along with Spike?
"So, what can ah do for ya?"
Spike, why did you have to stop Twilight's shaking leg?
Twilight cleared her throat before speaking up again. "Well, I am in fact here to supervise preparations of the Summer Sun Celebration. And you're in charge of the food?"
"We sure as sugar are." Applejack replied. "Would you care a sample some?"
"Well as long as it doesn't take too long." Before Twilight even finished the sentence, Applejack was already gone, ringing a triangle. "SOUPS ON EVERYPONY!"
Minato felt his fight or flight instincts tagging in. Countless fights in Tartarus sharpened his senses and right now he got the feeling that an ambush was about to happen. Well, it was close enough. A herd of ponies came running towards the trio and somehow pulled them all to a table. The cowpony appeared next to them and decided to introduce them to the Apple family. He lost track of the names after the 6th one, but didn't miss the food coming at the table.
Applejack's grandma just walked up, as the younger one decided to speak again. "Well ah'll say, she's already part of the family."
Twilight spit out the whatever she had in her mouth and Minato already could see where this was heading. He was reminded of a sitcom, where Twilight would politely decline or at least try, but would be interrupted and ended up spending a fun time with the apples. It wasn't the case. The sheer cuteness (Anyone saw my mancard? I think I just dropped it.) of everypony frowning convinced her otherwise.
As everyone got settled down, Applejack approached the table of the guests and placed herself between Spike and Minato. "Well howdy there, ah belief we haven't been introduced. Name's Applejack."
"Hi Applejack. I'm Spike, Twilight's number one assistant." the young dragon declared proudly.
"I'm Minato. To be honest, I'm not part of those two, I just tag along because I'm new here as well. Thought we could explore the town together."
Seeing as most ponies here didn't use any kind of silverware to eat, Minato imitated them on that matter. It worked with his new facial structure.
"Ya new here, huh? Well ah hope y'all have a nice time in Ponyville."
Seriously? What's up with the names?
"Ah must say, ya got a nice appetite Minato. Kinda strange name. Ya not from around these parts, are ya?"
"I burn a lot of calories, sleeping. And no, I'm not from around.
...
What's with that look?"
XIII
"Oh, I ate too much. How can you walk straight?" Twilight asked Minato after they left the orchard. The messiah shrugged in return. "Eh, that was a light snack in my opinion." I'm gonna miss the taste of meat.
Meanwhile, Spike was reading of the list and next thing was the weather. "Supposedly a pegasus named Rainbow Dash should be clearing the clouds."
And another laws of physics defying info.
The two ponies looked up into the air and saw still a bunch of clouds flying around. "Well, she's not doing a very good job, is she?" Twilight commented.
"TAKE COVER!" Minato's instincts took over and shoved Twilight out of the way, before the cyan blur hit her. Instead it hit him, sending him flying towards a mud puddle.
Ow...
"Ehehehe, excuse me? Hehehe..." A nervous voice got the colt out of his stupor. Looking up, he found a cyan colored pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail hovering above him.
She's lucky I don't have Lucifer's Blade with me right now.
"Let me help you." The mare flew away and seconds later came back with a dark cloud hovering above him. She jumped a few times on it and gave Minato a quick rain-shower, resulting in both of his eyes being covered by his hair or mane he reminded himself.
"Eh oops. Looks like I overdid it. Eh...how about this?" The pegasus approached quickly and flew around Minato a few times, causing the wind to dry him up, but he also got his mane and tail all messed up.
"My own personal rainblow-dry." Oh god that name! Brain don't go there, don't go there!...Too late.
"No, need to thank me."
Keep calm and don't summon Satan. Nope, going to ignore the laughs. Going to ignore the dragon and the annoying pony.
At least Twilight managed to hold back her laughter. "Let me guess" she snickered between the lines "you're Rainbow Dash."
"THE" the pegasus emphasized "one and only. What you heard of me?" She got into the air again, looking a little excited.
"I have, you're supposed to keep the sky clear. I'm Twilight Sparkle and the princess sent me to check on the weather."
Monarchy, huh? And she was sent by the princess. She must be really important.
"Yeah, yeah. That'll be a snap. I'll do it as soon as I'm done practicing." She said that, while lying on a cloud.
Wow, she's lazier than I am. Oh more talking.
"Practicing?" Twilight asked. "For what?"
"The Wonderbolts!" Dash pointed at a poster, showing a few pegasi in a blue uniform. "They're gonna perform at the celebration tomorrow. And I'm gonna show them my stuff."
"Okay, time-out." Minato intervened. "I'm not from around here, but I'm gonna guess the Wonderbolts are kinda like the Blue Angels."
"The what?" Rainbow asked. "Wait, how can you not know the Wonderbolts?!"
"I just said, I'm not from around here." Minato deadpanned. "As in, I'm from another country. The Blue Angels are a stunt flier team and I actually know one of the guys there." Knew is the actual appropriate term. I wonder if Joe managed to become captain. I'm sure he did.
"They need to keep up their discipline there or else you're gonna get thrown up. If the Woderbolts are similar to the Blue Angels, then I'm sure they would never let in a lazy bum like you."
Before he could even say ramen, Rainbow Dash was in front of his face. "What did you just call me?"
"You heard me alright. I mean, just look around." he pointed towards the sky. "They'd pretty much never accepted a lazy bum like you. Just a little task and you screw it up. Well done." I actually have no idea how hard it is to keep the sky clear, but I gotta keep it up.
"Hey, I can clear the sky in ten seconds flat." Rainbow retorted.
Minato smirked at that. "Oh really? Proof it."
"You're still a lazy bum."
"WHAT?!"
"Kidding, kidding."
"Heh, you guys are not half bad. I can't wait to hang out with you guys some more." Rainbow Dash did a looping and took off, all the while Twilight stared after her and Spike wow-ed.
Happy that she was gone, Minato switched his persona back to Messiah.
"Please tell me there's a hairdresser somewhere on the way."
XIII
The next stop turned out to be the local town hall, where the princess, whose name was Celestia, would appear.
"Beautiful." Spike commented.
"Yeah, gotta admit." Minato nodded, looking around the hall. Whoever was responsible for this, did a really good job.
"Indeed." Twilight also agreed. "This should go quick. We'll be at the library in no time."
A bookworm, huh? Now I get what kind of person Twilight is.
"Not the decorations. Her!" Spike pointed towards a marshmallow white unicorn with three gems as a mark and curly purple mane and tail. She was levitating some ribbons into the air, constantly saying. "No, no...no."
"How are spines? Are they straight?"
"How old was he again?" Minato whispered to Twilight, who suppressed a chuckle and walked up to the unicorn.
"Good afternoon.-"
"Just a moment please, I'm "in the zone", as it were."
She finally decided on a red ribbon and put it around a slim golden pillar. "Now um," she turned around "how can I help you-AAHHAAHHAA!" She was staring straight at Minato. "Oh my stars, darling!"
...I'm pretty sure I laid off the pheromone coffee.
"Whatever happened to you?!"
"Uhh...how do I put this? Amateur stunt pegasus, mud puddle, raincloud shower and quick drying via small tornado."
Surprisingly enough, the mare seemed to understand it. "Sorry, Twilight is the one you should be talking to. She's overseeing the Summer Sun Celebration preparations. I'll get this fixed...somehow. With tons of hair-gel." he muttered the last part.
"Oh no. Here let me help you. Oh and while we're at it, why don't you come along." She pushed Minato away, while Twilight was levitated along the way. "Wait, where are we going. Help!" The lavender mare shouted in protest. Minato had enough experience with women to know when not to do anything.
XIII
As it turned out Rarity was a dressmaker and also skilled in mane and ponytail styling. It took some convincing (and some passive persona work), but Minato managed to get Rarity to give him back his regular style. Unfortunately, he had to agree to try out some tuxedo's and somehow Rarity got Twilight to agree on trying out some outfits as well.
They still were separate rooms, although ponies were naked like all the time. When Minato got back, Twilight was bailing for the door with Spike in her magical grasp. Not wanting to be left behind with the slightly..."excited" unicorn, he followed swiftly.
XIII
"Wasn't she wonderful?"
"Focus Casanova." Twilight deadpanned. "What's next on the list?"
"Oh, eh..." the dragon looked at his paper. "Music, it's the last thing on the list."
Just as he said this, music could be heard in the air. Following the sound, the trio found a butter colored pegasus, with three butterflies as her mark and a very long pink mane and tail. In front of her, sitting on a tree was a bird choir!
"Now I have seen it all." Minato stated, quietly.
One of the birds got out of rhythm. The pegasus stopped the choir and flew up to the responsible bird. She obviously spoke to him, but so quietly that none of the three could understand her. The unknown pegasus was about to resume, when Twilight made herself known with a loud "Hello", scaring all the birds away.
"Oh my, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to frighten your birds. I was just here to check up on the music and it sounded beautiful."
The pegasus mare landed on the ground, looking away and swinging her leg nervously. Minato inwardly grinned at seeing Twilight having a hard time with the mare.
"I'm Twilight Sparkle."
The mare looked away.
"What's your name?"
She mumbled something.
"I'm sorry, what was that?"
She mumbled something, crouching down and taking a few steps back.
"Didn't quite catch that."
She meeped and hid behind her mane.
"Well...umm... it looks like your birds are back, so I guess everything's in good order. Keep up the good work."
The mare meeped something again.
"Oookayyy."
Minato and Spike decided at that time to come out of the bushes. And things took a 180.
"A baby dragon!" the butter colored pegasus slammed Twilight and Minato out of the way and spoke excitedly to Spike.
"Urrgh, Twilight?"
"Yes Minato?"
"Is this kind of behavior normal is this country? Generally speaking about everyone today."
"No, no it's not."
"So this town is nuts."
"Pretty much."
The two got up, with Twilight levitating Spike on her bag. Yet, Fluttershy still wanted to talk to Spike, who ended up telling the story of his entire life! Minato did learn some interesting things about Twilight. She was Princess Celestia's personal student for magic, had a brother who was the Captain of the Royal Guard (Note to self: Flirt with Twilight, when he's around) and had yet another princess as a foalsitter!
This is almost too convenient. Why do I get the feeling that there's something going on with Twilight? Something she isn't aware of in the slightest?
Author's Note
And that's it for now folks.
