After getting over the initial shock of finding himself as a pony, Neku Sakuraba took a better look at himself. His jacket and headphones were still there, albeit altered for his new equine body. He also found a mark on his flank of a purple spray can and two 'sprayed on' purple musical notes. He carefully searched his pockets until he found his pins. Something about them felt...off though. Back in Shibuya, after finally winning the Reaper’s Game, he was able to keep the pins he collected during the three week sojourn in the UG. After that, he could still use and feel the power the pins had. For some reason they all seemed dead...except for one.

He held up one of two black pins with a horse skull on it. ‘Hmm, I wonder.’ He placed his hoof over it and his field of vision turned blue. Every pony he looked at, he could “hear” their thoughts.

‘I wonder what Apple Bloom and her friends are up to.’

‘Today’s the day! We’ll get our cutie marks for sure!’

‘I hope Lyra doesn’t try to rope me into another ‘Try to find evidence of humans’ expedition.’

‘Twilight’s been studying an awful lot lately. I wonder what she’s up to.’

‘Cupcakes, cupcakes, what you gonna do? What you gonna do, when Pinkie finds...OHMYGOSH! ANEWPONYINPONYVILLE! What’s he doing with that scary pin? Cleaning it? Checking for scratches? Using it as a way to channel a strange, unheard of magic to allow him to scan ponies’ minds?’

Feeling weirded out at the last mind, Neku took his hoof off of the pin just in time to see something pink with sky blue eyes land in front of him. “GAH!” He shouted out in surprize, looking at the pony that had suddenly appeared before him. She (at least he assumed it was a she) gave him a wide smile and got right in his face.

“HiI’mPinkiePie!YoumustbenewhereinPonyville!Whereyoufrom?Doyoulikecake?Balloons?Streamers?” The pink pony went on and on.

‘Jeeze! Is she on drugs or something?’ He thought as Pinkie Pie rambled and bounced around him.

“Heelllloooo!” Pinkie waved one of her hooves in front of his face. “Anypony in there?”

‘Yep. Definitely drugs.’ He thought and rolled his eyes as she gave him a weird look. “You okay?” She asked, “You seem to be staring at something.”

“GAH! I’m fine!” He suddenly blurted out. Pinkie jumped back from his outburst. Neku quickly apologized. “Sorry, I’ve just been stressed in the past few minutes.” Neku moved past Pinkie to leave. “I need to find my friends and…”

“Oh, Oh! Can I help? Can I help?” She called out, after suddenly appearing in front of him and getting another “GAH!” out of him. “I’m really good at hide-and-seek, so your friends won’t be hiding for very long!”

‘So long as she isn’t stalking my asp,’ Neku contemplated, ‘I’m fine with that.’ “Sure, whatever.” Pinkie then up and hugged him...really hard...bone crushing hard. “I...can’t...breathe,” he struggled. She let him go and bounced off into afternoon crowd. Neku used her absence as an opportunity to regain his lost breath. After a few seconds of labored breathing, he went to enter the crowd as well, but came nose to nose with Pinkie. “GAH!”

“Tee Hee! I’m three for three!” She exclaimed, bouncing excitedly. “By the way, you didn’t tell me who I’m looking for and I didn’t get your name.” With a small squee, she gave him a huge smile.

‘You know what? Forget it!’ Neku exclaimed in his mind, ‘She’s not on drugs. She’s on sugar AND drugs. How she’s even alive, I won’t know.’ “I’m looking for three peo...ponies. One has glasses and a homemade stuffed cat (although it should be considered a stuffed piggy). Another is big and has a face that almost literally says ‘Death,’ and the last one is the big one’s sister and has a small bell pendant. And as for my name…” ‘What should I say? With this mare’s name being Pinkie Pie, I think my name will stand out,’ Neku thought, ‘Wait, Beat and CAT always call me Phones.’ “...Phones. That’s my name.”

“Okie Dokie Phony!” Pinkie exclaimed, “Your friends are as good as found!” She bounced off into the crowd. Neku (now Phones) could only stare in bewilderment at Pinkie’s antics.

‘I hope I don’t have to spend any more time than I should here. That pink menace would kill me.’ He then entered the crowd of ponies and began searching. Shortly after entering the crowd, a strange looking wolf, a Garagewolf, peered out from behind a trash can, eyeing the crowd before morphing into a strange, red symbol and floating away.

[Elsewhere]

In Carousel Boutique, Rarity had just finished up her most recent dress for a client and breathed a sigh of relief. ‘Ahh, finally. I’m done with that order,’ Rarity thought, ‘I’m now free for the rest of this week. I wonder what…’ Her train of thought was interrupted by the shop door opening. ‘I just had to tempt Marephy’s law.’ She went to the door with her traditional smile and closed eyes and said, “Welcome to Carousel Boutique, where everything is chique, unique, and magnifique. My name is Rarity. How may I help you?”

“Wow! Now this is a fashion store!” Said the voice of the visitor. Rarity opened her eyes and saw her. A clover green unicorn with a brown mane and tail, and medium round rim glasses standing in the entrance, with her eyes practically glazed over in awe. She had what looked like a (well made) homemade stuffed cat on her back, and her cutie mark consisted of a needle and a spool of thread.

Rarity was concerned for her guest. “Are you alright, Darling?” She asked, “You seemed a little...distracted.”

“I’m alright,” the unicorn answered, “I’m a little into fashion, so seeing all the new fashion was a bit of a brief shock.” She walked to some of the dresses on the mannequins and carefully examined them. “I can figure out how to make some...pony look good with current fashion, but making new fashion is harder. I take it that...Uhh, I think that stitch is off by a few millimeters.” Rarity was surprised a bit by the sudden non sequitur, but she gathered herself and examined the apple red vest that the unicorn was examining. Sure enough, the orange stitching on the right side of the vest was off a few millimeters.

Rarity was speechless. “How did you know?” She asked, “I always pay attention to detail. How could I have missed that?”

“I’m not exactly sure,” the unicorn admitted, “I was able to see it due to my OCD with clothing.” She took the vest off of the mannequin and held it with a nervous smile. “Am I okay…”

“Quite all right, Darling. I believe you may have a talent for it,” Rarity said, gesturing to the unicorn’s cutie mark. “Go enjoy yourself.”

The unicorn nodded nervously and charged her horn with a pinkish red aura and all of the stitching in the vest vanished. Some orange and yellow thread and a needle were then collected in her aura and within seconds, the vest was restitched. Rarity looked over the garment and saw that she had managed to hide the seams and stitches so well, that an untrained eye would see the vest as one piece of fabric. “Umm, did I do okay?” The unicorn asked. Rarity couldn’t easily put her amazement into words.

“You didn’t do okay,” she said. The unicorn seemed to wilt in shame from those words. Rarity then saved her pride. “You did it spectacularly well!” She lit up when she heard that. Rarity then looked from the vest to the clover unicorn and she had an “IDEA! Try on the vest!” She practically shoved her into the changing room with the red vest. “OH! I just realized I never got your name!”

“Umm...Kitty Stitches,” she said, amidst the sound of her changing clothes...or rather putting clothes on. “Do you have a black cap and do you mind if I see if my pins work well on it?” Rarity wordlessly passed her a cap while wondering, ‘What kind of pins is she talking about?’ Almost in answer, a black pin with a white pony skull painted on the front slid out from under the changing room door.

Rarity picked up the curious pin in her magical aura. ‘This is one intriguing pin,' She thought while examining the pin, ‘As gruesome as it may look, it seems rather elegant. Also, for some reason, I feel as if this has some power to it.’ She lifted the pin closer to her face with a scrutinous look. ‘Hmm, I wonder.’ She placed her hoof on the pin and her field of vision turned blue. ‘HUH!? What?!’ She looked around, but a sound was heard when her eyes went past her sister’s bedroom. She turned her attention to the bedroom and listened intently.

‘I wonder what’s got Rarity all stressed out. She kept snapping at me for most of the past week.’

Rarity was horrified with herself. ‘I’ve done that? I...I...I’m sorry Sweetie Bell. Please forgive me.’

‘!!!!!!’

‘WAIT! I can’t blame her for being stressed! She just had more on her plate than usual! I can forgive her.’

‘What did I just do?’ Rarity asked herself. ‘That was abnormal. Maybe I should show this pin to Twilight. She’ll know something about…’

“Hey, you found my spare pin!” Kitty Stitches exclaimed, “I accidentally dropped it!” Rarity turned to her and saw that, despite her being green (worst color for almost any fashion), the vest, cap, and the (rather tacky) pins actually looked good on her. Rarity was so mesmerized by her looks that she almost didn’t notice the Pony Skull pin on her vest.

“Wait, you already have one,” Rarity pointed out, “Why would you need a second one?” Kitty put a hoof on her chin in thought.

“I’m not really sure. I usually have only one of those, but today I had two.” Kitty then got a twinkle in her eyes. “Why don’t you keep it?”

Rarity then got a little flustered. “I’m not really sure,” she answered. She gestured to the pin and continued, “I don’t really have anything that this will work on.”

“How about a teal neckerchief?” Rarity was about to object, but the suggestion got her mind working. She didn’t say anything, but found teal silk, cut some out in the size of a handkerchief, folded into a neckerchief, and placed it on. She then pinned the pin on. “How do I look?”

“It’s a little tacky,” Kitty said, “but given enough time, it could be the talk of the town.”

“That sounds fabulous. Now, why don’t you join me and Sweetie Belle for lunch?” Rarity offered.

“I don’t want to impose. As a matter of fact, I should return the vest and cap.” Kitty went to take the vest off, but Rarity practically forced the vest and cap back on.

“I must insist that you keep it. Consider it a gift,” Rarity said, “Now then. Sweetie Belle! Let’s go to Sugarcube Corner for a treat. I also have a friend I would like you to meet.” As both Rarity and Kitty looked up the stairs, behind them, hidden by mannequins wearing dresses, was a strange frog, a Dixiefrog. It watched the two adult unicorns and younger unicorn leave the shop, then it morphed into a strange, red symbol and floated off.

[In the clouds above Ponyville]

“Urgh, I hate the kind of sleep I get from the Game. I alway wake up with a killer hangover,” Beat thought out loud. After squirming a bit on the cloud he was on, he continued, “Mr. Hack-er-whatever at least had me wake up on a bed instead of the pavement.” He opened his eyes and saw the sky. “A bed outside under the sky.” He carefully tried to stand up, but he fell on his face in his attempt to stand on his hind legs.

“ARGH! I have a massive hangover, yet I still seem to act like I’m drunker than a…” He began to rant, but noticed two important things. One: he was a freaking PONY! He was midnight black and had blond mane and tail. He had rather skeletal looking, yet strong bat wings (indicating that he was a thestral). He was rather large (although he had no one...nopony to compare to) His flanks had a mark on them, consisting of a white pony skull with white Reaper wings. He still had his clothes and accessories (black wool cap with a pony skull on it, white jersey with his pins on it, iron pony skull pendant, and a metal stud bracer) but they were altered for his new looks. “BWAAAH!!! What the Bell!”

Scratch earlier about two things...make it three. “Wait, did I...RAGH! I’m gonna pound his face in for that when I get back!” Two: his swearing was censored. Three: “Now, what was I...BWAAAH!!! I wasn’t on a bed under the sky! I'M IN THE FREAKING SKY ON A BUCKING CLOUD!” He then latched onto the cloud he was on for all it was worth. ‘Come to think of it...Grrr, Rhyme’s thinking has gotten me thinking...anyway, this cloud is for some reason solid, yet it is floating. How’s that even…’ His thoughts were suddenly interrupted when the cloud suddenly decided to have Beat underneath it rather than it underneath him.

“BWAAAH!!!” He shouted out, closing his eyes, “What the Flip!” He would have gone on on his censored swearing rant, but before he got too far, he was barely able to pick up the sound of someone...somepony struggling to keep from laughing. Opening his eyes, he saw that a cyan pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail was on top of his cloud. She, if the sound of her laugh/struggle was anything to go by, was roughly half his size.

Beat dropped the fear in his face and scowled at her. “YO! What you laughing at!?” He shouted in anger. The pegasus looked confused, yet amused.

“What laughing? I wasn’t laughing,” she denied, “However, if something funny happened, then I would be laughing.” She poked the cloud experimentally, then gave Beat a devilish grin. “Something like this.” She then proceeded to jump on the cloud, causing the cloud to rain...right on top of him, drenching him completely.

[Underneath them]

Roseluck was enjoying her day while tending to her well cared for flowers. Before she could continue such enjoyment, she was suddenly drenched in a sudden downpour. She shook the water off of herself and saw a rainbow blur being chased by a larger, black blur. She rolled her eyes at the scene and went to return to her flower work. She stopped with wide eyes at her precious flowers before promptly fainting.

The petals on all of the flowers were knocked off from the spontaneous downpour.

[Back in the air, a few moments earlier]

Beat spit and sputtered after being soaked. After shaking the water off of his face, he found that he had lost his grip on the cloud, and he was (comically) suspended in air for the brief moment of drying off. Once he reached that realization, gravity decided to catch up with him. He suddenly plummeted, covering his eyes and practically shouting out for his mother as he fell...a short distance.

Beat didn’t realize he stopped until he felt something moving on his back. After opening his eyes, he saw that his fall had stopped and his wings were working without much (if any) thought. His wings froze up when he noticed that he was FREAKING FLYING and his fall resumed. “BWAAAH!!!” He shouted out as he(somehow) was able to get his wing flapping again before he could fall any farther. “Ah, that was too close, yo.”

After he recovered from the shock and adrenaline, he heard the sound of someone laughing. He maneuvered himself around and saw that the same pegasus that soaked him was now laughing her head off. This only served to anger Beat. “RAAGH!!! You have 2 seconds to get the Flip out of my sight before I decide to TAN YOUR FREAKING HIDE AND TURN IT INTO GLUE!!!”

The pegasus stopped laughing when she heard that and saw Beat’s angry face. “I...uh...there’s a bit of a problem with that.” Before he could say anything, she flew off in a rainbow blur. “You’ll have to catch me first!”

Beat took off after her without hesitation. After they both vanished, a strange looking bird, a Decadraven, flew out from behind another cloud and watched the two pegasi fly off. After it lost sight of them, it morphed into a strange, red symbol and floated off.

[At the edge of the Everfree Forest]

Fluttershy closed the door to her cottage. She was rather happy to meet up with her friends despite the sudden disappearances of a few of her animal friends. It was saddening that some of her animals had just suddenly vanished, but she didn’t want to worry her friends too much over the matter.

She had just started on the path to Ponyville when she heard the sound of a filly screaming...and it was coming from the Everfree Forest. ‘Oh, No!’ She thought to herself, ‘I don’t know why those girls keep going in there. They’ll get hurt again.’ Fluttershy took flight into the forest, ignoring her fear with her determination to find the CMC before they got hurt.

She flew for what felt like an eternity, using the screams as directions. As she got closer, she could hear growling and could smell the creature that was growling. ‘Please, oh, please. Don’t let it be…’ She parted some of the leaves and saw roughly three timberwolves surrounding a tree with a small pegasus filly in it, clinging to one of the branches.

The way the filly looked, she almost mistook her for Scootaloo. She was peach with a blond mane and tail. She was wearing a black cap with a small pony skull on it and a necklace with a bell on it. She had no cutie mark and her wings had red tips on the feathers. Fluttershy, while scared, shouted out bravely, “STOP!” The timberwolves and the filly looked in her direction. She wilted under the sudden attention and added timidly, “If you don’t mind, that is.”

The timberwolves turned from the treed filly and began to advance towards her. She didn’t know what to do, as both her wings and herself had frozen up in fear. As Fluttershy turned her head so she wouldn’t have to face death directly, she saw out of the corner of her eyes that the filly wasn’t in the tree anymore. She closed her eyes, expecting the timberwolves to tear her apart.

What she didn’t expect was the sound of whistling, and then the sound of a crash. Fluttershy opened her eyes and saw that the closest timberwolf was crushed by small boulder. The two remaining timberwolves were looking away from her. Another boulder then came flying out of the trees and crushed another. The remaining timberwolf looked at Fluttershy and back at its fallen brethren before running...and it didn’t get far before another boulder crushed it.

Fluttershy shakily got up and approached the fallen timberwolves. While the timberwolves weren’t technically dead, they gave the appearance of such, and she didn’t like death.

“You okay?” The sudden voice scared Fluttershy badly, shrieking briefly. She cowered away from the voice, but found the filly from the tree. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you.” She walked over to her and gave her a hug.

Fluttershy returned the hug. “It's okay,” she cooed, “I’m just glad you’re okay and whatever threw those rocks helped us.” The filly looked at her with a confused look.

“That was me,” she stated. This surprised Fluttershy. The filly continued, “After you caught the wooden wolves’ attention, I slipped away. I was going to try and distract them so you could get away, but I found a random catapult, plus ammunition.” She shrugged. “I guess you can figure out the rest.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Fluttershy agreed, knowing that Pinkie Pie had random stashes of random objects all over Ponyville and even a few spots in the Everfree. “Although, I was wondering why you were in the Everfree Forest...If you don’t mind me asking, that is.”

“I take it that the Everfree Forest isn’t a popular location,” the filly half-asked. Fluttershy nodded. After taking a few seconds contemplation, she said, “To be honest, most of what I remember was going into a small Café with my brother and our friends. Next thing I know, I wake up in this huge forest and then getting chased by those wooden…” The filly suddenly got wide eyes. She pulled her cap off, showing that her ears were tipped with red tufts of hair, much like thestral ears. They twitched a bit before she looked at the remains of the timberwolves...that were starting to reassemble.

“I think we should go,” the filly said, as she placed her hat back on her head. Fluttershy agreed with a nod and led the small filly out of the forest. Once they managed to get out of the forest and caught their breaths, the filly spoke, “Thanks for helping me get out of there, Miss…”

“Fluttershy,” she finished, “Just Fluttershy, if you don’t mind.”

“It sounds beautiful.” Fluttershy blushed and hid behind her mane. “My name’s Rhyme,” she said, “Still, thank you. Now I need to find my brother.”

Fluttershy perked up a bit. “I can help you find him, if that’s okay with you.” Rhyme jumped a bit in surprise. “But I don’t want to hold you back…”

“It’s okay,” Rhyme said, taking Fluttershy by surprise. “You know more about this place than me, so with me paired with you, we can find Beat much faster.” She smiled and said, “That sound good?”

"Yes,” Fluttershy confirmed. Just after she said that, she was enveloped in a pillar of light. She closed her eyes from both fear and the sudden bright light. When she opened them, she found that she was looking directly into Rhyme’s eyes. The light died down and Fluttershy was confused. She could only ask, “What just happened?”

Rhyme looked up to Fluttershy. “I think...we just made a pact.”

[Back in the Everfree]

The timberwolf remains had just finished reforming into an Alpha Timberwolf. Once it had gotten it’s senses, it began to sniff out the scents of the the two pegasi. Before it could go anywhere, a large, ethereal arm grabbed it by the “scruff” of its neck, and threw it against a tree. The Alpha Timberwolf collapsed into pieces, but it quickly reformed to face its challenger...a Mosh Grizzly.

The Alpha charged the Mosh head on, but with with one swipe from ethereal claws, it fell to the unnatural grizzly. The pieces tried to come back together, but the Mosh swiped down every attempt before the pieces stopped moving, then dissolved into static. The Mosh gave a small growl at its Erased opponent before morphing into strange, red symbol and floated off.

[Unknown Location]

“This is an interesting development,” said a white pegasus with black skeletal wings, as he stood, unnoticed, on the very top of Sugarcube Corner. “It’s different from what I was expecting from home to come and get me.” He sighed. “Welp, I guess I won’t be able to get the position of Composer there. I guess the next best thing is to conquer this Ground, and rule with an Iron fist...or hoof...meh, whatever works.” He picked up a scroll and held it in front of himself. “I just simply need to get the trap underway.” The scroll was suddenly engulfed in a spontaneous combustion, sending off smoke towards Canterlot.

Author's Note

This is regular thinking.
This is the thoughts of those being scanned.
This is imprinted thoughts.
This is Pinkie's mind being scanned.