Equestria's Kishin

After breakfast, Twilight led the seven ponies to Sweet Apple Acres. She knocked on the door to Applejack’s house, and the door was answered. “Howdy, Twi! What brings you here?” She noticed the group of ponies following Twilight. “Why, that’s a mighty large party of ponies you got with ya! I don’t think I ever seen any of them ‘round before!” The seven introduced themselves one by one, and Applejack eagerly shook all of their hooves. “Well now, what can I do for ya today?”

“My friends were wondering if they could use some of your land. They have something they need to practice, you see, but they need a lot of open space to do it. Would you mind letting them use the open space on your farm for a while?”

“Not a problem, Twi! Anythin’ for new friends! I’m so glad I can help y’all.”

“Thank you so much, Applejack.” Twilight smiled.

“Y’all can use that big space right over there!” Applejack pointed to a large clearing with her hoof. The seven ponies thanked Appplejack, then followed Maka over to the space.

“What exactly are we doing, Maka?” Black Star asked with a rather rude tone of voice.

“I want to know if our weapon forms work in this world, as well as our soul resonance forms. I’m worried that us being transformed into ponies somehow messed with our abilities as weapons and meisters.”

The six others exchanged nervous glances. They hadn’t considered that traveling through the portal might have affected their weapon transformations. What if it didn’t work? How would they be able to defeat the Kishin if they couldn’t use weapons?

“Well, here goes,” said Soul. He, Tsubaki, Liz and Patty all prepared for transformation. A few moments passed, and suddenly, a bright flash came from Soul’s direction. Maka sighed in relief to see that her partner had transformed into a scythe, Tsubaki into a chain scythe, and Liz and Patty into pistols. She jumped with joy, but as her friends turned back into ponies, she suddenly stopped and sulked.

“What’s up, Maka? Our transformations still work,” said Soul as he walked towards his partner.

“Well,” she replied, ”if you haven’t noticed, I haven’t exactly got hands anymore. I can’t grip a handle with hooves. Death the Kid frowned, and Black Star moaned with annoyance.

“Ughhh why did we have to become ponies? Out of all the animals we could have been, it had to be an animal not only without apposable thumbs, but NO FINGERS AT ALL.” Black Star sat on his rear and huffed angrily. Twilight soon came galloping up towards them.

“That was amazing! You didn’t even have to use magic!” She smiled with delight, eager to uncover the mysteries of this new phenomenon. “This is so exciting!” Applejack trotted closely behind her.

“Whooowee! That sure was somethin’!”

“One problem,” Maka spoke, “we don’t exactly have hands anymore to work with our weapons.”

“Oh, that’s not a problem at all,” laughed Twilight. “Look at the horn on your head! It’s very common for unicorns to use their magic to handle lots of things that we can’t pick up with our hooves.” Maka and Kid looked at their horns, a bit freaked out.

“What about me!?” shouted Black Star. “I won’t be able to use magic, all I have are these stupid wings!”

“RD wouldn’t be happy to hear you say that,” Applejack smirked as she replied.

“Hey, that’s it!” exclaimed Twilight. “Rainbow Dash could probably help Black Star figure out how to use his weapon! She is a pegasus after all.”

“Well there’s an idea,” Applejack replied. “I’m sure she’ll be able to come up with somethin’.” As the group made their way back towards the entrance to the farm, a yellow pegasus with a pink mane gently flew towards them.

“Howdy, Fluttershy!”

“Oh, hello Applejack. I hate to be a bother, I was just wondering if I could have some apples for my Angel. He’s a very picky eater, and—“ Fluttershy noticed all the ponies that were following Applejack, and her wings snapped to her sides as she suddenly fell from the air, and tilted her head so that her hair covered her face. Twilight, although aware that Fluttershy was very timid when it came to meeting new ponies, figured it would be rude not to introduce them to each other.

“Fluttershy, I’d like you to meet my new friends. They come from another world, and they need our help to defeat some evil creature that escaped here.”

“E-evil c-cr-creature?” Fluttershy whimpered, and it was evident that talk of the Kishin was scaring her more.

“Aaanyway,” Twilight continued so not to frighten her further, “this is Black Star, Tsubaki, Liz, Patty, Death the Kid, Maka, and Soul.”

“Hey,” said Soul, “there’s no need to be afraid of us. We’re cool.” Fluttershy had only left a slip between her thick pink mane to see the figures of the ponies she was being introduced to. The one that had just spoken to her had a low, gentle voice. They looked pretty friendly, and Twilight obviously trusted them, and she trusted Twilight, so she decided that it was okay to trust these new ponies.

“O-o-okay,” she replied timidly as Soul approached her.

“Here, let me help you up,” said Soul. He extended a hoof to the frightened pegasus, who hesitated. After a moment or two, she reached out her hoof in return, and as she looked up at Soul her mane fell out of her face so she could see him clearly. She stumbled once he helped her to stand, then blushed faintly as she regained her balance and hid her face behind her mane again.

“What’s your name again?” Kid asked.

Fluttershy whispered her name so quietly that none of them could hear her.

“I think you should speak up,” urged Twilight.

“My name is- is- F-Fluttershy,” she whispered.

“That’s a cool name,” said Soul.

“Really?” she asked, surprised at this compliment.

“Yeah,” he replied, smiling a bit.

“It’s really not,” muttered Black Star, and Tsubaki shot him a frustrated look. “Just kidding, haha, that’s a… it’s a… great name, uh, Shudderfly.”

“Fluttershy,” Soul corrected.

“Yeah, that,” Black Star grumbled.

Twilight took lead of the conversation again. “Alright guys, I’m guessing that Maka and Kid don’t know how to use magic yet, do you?” The two unicorns shook their heads.”Alright, everyone follow me back to the library. I’m going to give you lessons in magic. Oooh, this is going be so much fun! I can be the teacher and all of you can take organized notes! Yay!” Twilight clapped her front hooves together excitedly. Black Star and Soul rolled their eyes at the idea of taking notes about magic.

The seven said their goodbyes to Fluttershy and Applejack, and followed Twilight to the library again. They received a few strange looks from some of the Ponyville locals, who did not recognize them. Soon enough, however, they made it back to the library. “Spike, can you set up some stools? I’m going to be teaching our new friends about magic!” Spike obliged eagerly, happy to be Twilight’s number one assistant. Twilight rolled out her chalkboard, and used her magic to write with the white chalk.

“First things first, there are three kinds of ponies in Equestria, as you have observed. The three categories are called earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns. Earth ponies usually tend to the land and have special talents that are more natural based, like farming, athleticism, cooking and such. The pegasi are in charge of weather, and they usually have sky-based talents. Finally, there are unicorns, who usually have various talents. My special talent is magic, but most unicorns use their magic to help them with their talent, like a bonus. Now, as you may have noticed, I have wings like a pegasus, and a horn like a unicorn. This is called an alicorn, but only princesses are alicorns. Before I earned my royal title, I was just a—Hey!”

Twilight had noticed that half of her class had fallen asleep. Only Maka, Death the Kid, and Tsubaki were awake. Maka reached for a book on the shelf, and was about to hit Black Star and Soul before Twilight levitated the book away and placed it back on the shelf. “It’s okay, I guess they don’t really need to listen to this part yet. I’ll let you know when they need to wake up.” She sighed, then continued. “ Anyway, before I became and alicorn I was just a unicorn. Now, the important part is coming up, so Maka and Death the Kid, you two should listen carefully.”

Twilight explained to the two unicorns that unicorns have to practice magic, and although it comes naturally, it needs exercise to become more powerful and controlled. Maka and Kid’s hearts sank when they were told that it usually takes years of practice for unicorns to master magic.

“Luckily,” Twilight continued, “I only need to teach you two a basic spell. Levitation. I may need to spend extra time teaching you to control your abilities so you can handle your weapons with precision, but essentially, the spell itself is simple to learn. Concentration is key.”