[Ponyville, Equestria]

‘If that mare doesn’t shut the Shell up,' Phones thought, as he and Pinkie were walking to Sugarcube Corner. 'I’m going to strangle her.' Both him and her had search a majority of the town for his friends, but had come up empty hooved. Throughout the entire search, Pinkie Pie was rambling on and on about pickle barrels, kumquats, and chimmy-cherry-changas. Even when he turned his music on, she was able to talk over it.

“Come on! Say it with me!” Pinkie exclaimed, appearing directly in front of him. “Pickle barrel, Kumquat! Pickle barrel, Kumquat! CHIMMY-CHERRY-CHANGA!!!” Phones broke.

“Grr! Will you just SHUT UP FOR 5 MINUTES!!!” He shouted out so loud that Pinkie was flung back a few feet. After she got up from being flung, he continued, a bit more calmly, “Look, I understand that you’re excited to meet my friends, but will you tone your excitement down a few notches. I can only take so much.”

She nodded and replied, “Okie Dokie, Phony!” She then bounced off to Sugarcube Corner. ‘Oh, my Gosh,’ Phones thought, looking at the building, with its appearance of a gingerbread house. ‘That shop looks like a Diabetic’s Nightmare.’ She bounced on inside, but Phones was extremely reluctant to go in. As he was contemplating going in or not, he heard a familiar voice.

“So, you’re actually considering giving me a job at your shop?” He heard Shiki’s voice say.

“Of course,” a posh, sophisticated voice said, “Your ability to work fashion rivals my skills. And not very many ponies can do that.”

“Thanks.” Phones turned to where the voices were coming from and saw a trio of unicorns walking towards Sugarcube corner. He didn’t really pay attention to the two white unicorns, as the green unicorn looked familiar. As soon as he saw Mr. Mew (the stuffed piggy she insisted was a cat), he knew who it was.

“Shiki!” He shouted, and ran to the unicorn. She heard him and saw him running towards her. Her eyes looked at him before recognition dawned on her and she ran to him.

“Neku!” They met and gave each other a hug. “Where were you? Do you know where Beat and Rhyme are?” Shiki asked excitedly. The older of the two white unicorns seemed confused.

“Ms. Stitches, why did this Neku call you Shiki? She asked. Shiki thought back to Mr. Hanekoma in Shibuya.

[Flashback]

“I should warn you,” Mr. H said, almost too casually, “The names of the inhabitants of the AG I’m sending you to are...unique, for lack of a better word. Phones and Kitty, your REAL names stand out too much, so come up with some pseudonym. (Personally, I think the nicknames can work.) As for you, Beat and Rhyme, the names you came up with should work fine. (Not that Beat could come up with a better name, anyway.)”

Beat nodded in agreement, before looking at Mr. H with combined confusion and anger. “WHATCHU SAY?!”

Shiki began to get flustered, but Neku quickly spoke. “They’re pet names we gave each other,” he said. Shiki was confused, but he hugged her again, and whispered in her ear, “I came up with Phones as my pseudonym. What was yours?”

“Kitty Stitches,” she whispered.

Breaking up the hug, Phones walked over to the older of the two unicorns. Giving her a light glare, he asked, “Were you actually offering her a job?” The unicorn nodded nervously. “I heard you offering her and I can say that you won’t regret hiring her,” he said, giving encouragement. “I mean, she can’t come up with a design as well as her stuffed piggy…”

“IT’S A CAT, PHONES!”

“Whatever, anyway, she’s one heck of a seamstress. She even fixed a button on my clothing,” he said. ‘Even though I didn’t care about it,’ he finished in his mind. The unicorn seemed to have sensed his last thought.

“I can at least see that somepony has the sense to at least acknowledge fashion rather than completely disregard it,” she said.

Kitty came up to her, “Rarity, who…” She didn’t finish, as Pinkie Pie suddenly popped up between her and Rarity. Kitty gave a slight shriek at the sudden appearance.

“Rarity, you need to hide! My tail’s a twitch-a-twitchn’!” She rattled off, turning to Phones. “And you know what that means!”

‘That you’re crazy,’ Phones thought before actually saying, “Actually, Pinkie, I don’t.”

“It means that something’s gonna fall!” She cried before diving under a nearby cart. Phones shook his head and turned to Kitty and her friends, but saw that they had taken similar cover under an awning.

“Seriously, Kitty!” He exclaimed, “You actually follow this?”

“You don’t mess with superstition, Phones!” She retorted, “Remember what I said about the Statue of Hachiko?”

“But that's…” he began, but something large and black dropped onto him with a loud “Oof!”

The large familiarly dressed thestral got off of a now dazed Phones. “Alright!” He shouted out, “Where’s that prissy, prismatic punk?! I'm gonna pound her until she's practically purple pulp!”

As the thestral began to rant, Kitty looked at Phones with the ‘I told you so’ look. Phones wasn’t paying attention to her, as the thestral’s ranting sounded familiar. He could only mutter one thing, “Who are you? And what have you done with Beat?”

The thestral stopped ranting for a moment when he heard him. “Wha?” He said as he saw Phones on the ground, “Phones? Why you look as if you was owned by a House Rhino?”

“Perhaps it has to do with the fact that you FELL ON ME!” He shouted out, nearly knocking Beat’s hat off. He got up out of the crater he was in, took a deep breath and continued, “Also, I couldn’t help but notice that you said something somewhat intelligent.” ‘For once.’

“Wha? I don’t remember anything like that, yo,” Beat responded.

“Then what was that alliteration about a ‘prissy, prismatic punk’ and how you were going to ‘pound her until she’s practically purple pulp,’ huh?” A young voice asked from behind him.

“BWAAAH!!!” Beat shouted out, while spinning around seeing a small peach pegasus filly dressed in a familiar fashion standing next to a butter yellow pegasus. Upon seeing the pegasus filly, he calmed down a bit, but still had his loud voice when he said, “Dangit Rhyme! Why’d you just go and…and...”

“And what?” She shot back, “Also, why do you want to pound her. As far as what I could see, the only thing this ‘prissy, prismatic punk’ did was damage your ego.”

“I NEARLY FELL TO MY DEATH!!!”

“Fortunately, your pride did,” Phones commented.

“BWAAAH!!!” Beat jumped a bit. “Who’s side you on?!

“BWA! HA! HA! HA!” The prismatic punk landed on the ground nearby, and fell over laughing.

“Rainbow Dash, what did you do to this gentlecolt that got him enraged so?” Rarity asked in a rebuking manner.

“SHE KNOCKED ME OFF OF A CLOUD!!!” Beat shouted out.

“YOU WERE FINE!!!” Rainbow shouted back.

“Is he usually this angry?” Fluttershy asked Rhyme, as an argument started up.

“When he gets angry at something, it’s hard for him to let it go,” she replied.

Just as the argument was about to turn into an all out brawl between Rainbow Dash and Phones against Beat and Rarity, confetti exploded from a party cannon out of the window of Sugarcube Corner. All hostilities ceased as Pinkie Pie bounced from the entrance to the middle of the group, with a disturbingly disapproving look. Everypony, both Ponyville resident and not, held their breath for a rebuke.

She suddenly broke out a smile and said, “Why are you out here arguing, when you could be in there,” she pointed to Sugarcube Corner, “Enjoying a PARTY!” Everypony sighed in relief. “All of you are roughly 2 minutes, 45 seconds, and 70 or so milliseconds late!”

‘That’s oddly specific,’ Phones thought, as he began to follow the group into Sugarcube Corner.. Just as he was about to enter, a lavender unicorn exited the establishment with her nose in a sketchbook. They both bumped into each other, with him dropping his pin box and she dropped her sketchbook. Phones went to pick up his box, but he glanced briefly at the sketch the book was open to. The sketch depicted…

‘A Taboo Noise Refinery Sigil!’ Phones’ jaw dropped as he openly stared at the picture. The lavender unicorn cleared her throat, getting his attention. His mouth was still hanging open as he regarded her and what was in her sketchbook.

“Um, why are you staring?” She asked, as Phones moved closer to her face, looking deeply into her eyes.

“Why do you have a TNRS in your book?” He asked cautiously.

“What?” The unicorn asked in confusion.

“A Taboo Noise Refinery Sigil.”

“I don’t get it.”

Phones sighed and moved to answer, but Pinkie poked her head out of the window. “Hey! Phony!” She called out, “You’re missing the party!”

“Grr! PINKIE!!!” Phones shouted. Just as he was going to reprimand her, her whole body began to shudder and shake uncontrollably. ‘Definitely a powdered sugar and crack addict.’

The unicorn had other ideas. “Pinkie, what’s wrong!? Where’s the doozy for this full-body twitch!?” She asked frantically.

“Twilight!” Pinkie called out, “The doozy for this...IS GONNA HAPPEN HERE!”

“WILL YOU SHUT UP, YOU OVER-ENTHUSIASTIC DRUG ADDICT!!!” Phones bellowed in near-Royal Canterlot voice volume. As a result, Twilight’s mane and tail looked like what Pinkie’s hair looked like and vice versa. After taking a few minutes to calm down, he continued, but still agitated. “Listen! As I said, I understand you are excited to have met me and my friends, but I have a lot on my plate, and I would appreciate complete cooperation to clear it!”

“Okie Dokie, Phony!” Pinkie exclaimed excitedly, her hair poofing back to it’s bouncy dimensions. “Where is the plate you need clearing?” She asked looking in all directions.

Phones then got a devious grin on his face and thought, ‘Let’s see how gullible she is.’ “It should be inside, right next to the cake,” he said, making up the location. Without ceremony, the Pink Menace ran inside in a blur of pink and a slamming door. Phones snickered a bit, ‘Nailed it!’

Twilight was confused at the exchange. “You didn’t even go inside,” she pointed out, as she smoothed her mane and tail out with her magic, “So why did you say what you said?”

Phones gave her less devious grin. “I had to get rid of her,” he replied, “I’m not sure how long she’ll be fooled, but every second away from her obnoxiousness counts towards my sanity.”

“I’m sorry about her,” Twilight apologized, “She is always like this when new ponies arrive in town.”

“Heh, yeah. I noticed,” he said, “Now, about the Sigil,” He lifted up the sketchbook on the page of the Sigil, “Where did you see this to copy it down?”

Twilight pointed away from Sugarcube Corner, “It was a short distance from the Library. I copied the Sigil down, and came here to ask Lyra Heartstrings if there was anything in her *ahem* human legends about these.”

‘If only you knew.’ “I’ve had a lot of personal experience with these things,” he mentioned.

“What happened?” Twilight interjected, getting into his face. Phones stepped back a bit and continued.

“There was this guy who was so desperate to kill an...acquaintance of mine, that he used a...spell that was so powerful that he ended up killing himself,” he said. Twilight’s jaw dropped in shock. “However, he had a sigil like that so that he would be reborn in a stronger body.”

“So, you’re saying that somepony set that up as a backup in case of death?” Twilight asked out of fear.

“Or, they set it up so that…” Phones began, but Pinkie suddenly hopped out of Sugarcube corner. However, she wasn’t doing out of excitement, she was doing out of pain.

“PINCHY KNEE!!!” She cried out. After that loud declaration, her body began to shudder and shake uncontrollably again. She inhaled loudly and then cried out, “IT’S NOT JUST A DOOZY OR A PINCHY KNEE!!! IT’S A COMBO!!!”

“What does it mean!?”

Phones looked at Twilight skeptically. “You’re actually believing…” Just as he was about to finish that statement, some strange, red symbols suddenly revealed themselves and morphed into a small pack of Garage Wolves. “GAH!!!” He shouted out, getting the mares’ attention. Upon seeing them, Pinkie’s ears suddenly began flapping so fast and furiously, that she actually hovered an inch or two off the ground before returning earth side.

“THOSE ARE THE COMBO MAKERS!!!” She shouted out.

Twilight looked at the approaching Noise with a combination of fascination and fear. “Phones, what are those?” She asked shakily.

Phones managed to pick up his box of pins, but he could still feel their dead feeling through the box. ‘This is totally bucked up!’ He thought, before turning to the mares, “We don’t have time for me to explain now!” One of the Garage Wolves came charging at him, but he dodge rolled out of it’s path. “We’re need to run for it. Pinkie, tell my friends to meet Twilight and I at the library.”

“Roger that! Over and out!” She gave a salute and charged into Sugarcube Corner.

After he dodged another Garage Wolf, he said to Twilight, “Twilight, lead the way.” She began running with Phones, and the Garage Wolf pack close behind. He tripped a bit, accidentally turning on his wireless MP3 player. The song that pulled up, coincidentally, was appropriate for the chase.

So, officially began Neku’s adventures in Equestria.

Author's Note

Sorry for the wait. My brain gets fried when my imagination goes haywire.