Chapters Prologue: WildKat Café Conundrum
[Shibuya, Japan]
Sanae Hanekoma was busy tending to the WildKat Café, the little bistro that helped him keep an eye on Shibuya. Looking like a beatnik in his thirties, few would imagine he was one of the most powerful people on the planet...well maybe people was the wrong word. Regardless, he was well aware of them before they appeared. The lights went out and three shadowy figures came out of the backroom...the room that nobody had been in before. Sanae smiled at their flair for theatrics, saying "Welcome, what do I owe the prescience of three Angels in my little store to? Can I interest you in a free cup of coffee, only two twenty a cup." He smiled even broader. He'd never get tired of that joke.
"You think this is funny? This is no laughing matter. We need the aid of your mortal agents. Now." one of the shadowy figures demanded.
This is interesting. What would they want with those four... "So, what do you need the mortal friends of a 'Fallen Angel' for?" he asked, smiling in a friendly manner.
A hush falls over the room, until one of the shadowy figures clears his throat and reveals what had everyone so nervous. "There are Noise appearing in a Real Ground."
Sanae's face drops all pretense of humor and he lowered his shades. "Excuse me?"
[A few hours later]
Neku walked into the café, uncertain of what was going on. Mr. Hanekoma rarely called any of them in. As winners of the game, they were supposed to be free to do what they want, but the Fallen Angel apparently had other plans. Being mortal, Neku and the others could get away with stuff that the rules prevented the Angels or Reapers from doing; black ops if you will. Naturally, the fact that Neku was almost as powerful as the Composer meant that nobody could force them into a fight they didn't agree to. Sighing, he took a look around. There was Shiki, checking out the stitches on Mr. Mew, her stuffed animal and weapon. At least when he was being animated by her Groove Pawn pin. As Neku turned away, he almost thought he saw the cat's eyes follow him for just a second. The fact that the thing had a 'mind of it's own' in Shiki's own words was a bit creepy.
Looking around a bit more, Neku noticed that some people were missing. Turning to Mr. Hanekoma, he asked "So, CAT, where's Beat and Rhyme?"
Mr. Hanekoma didn't smile, even though he liked his tag name as one of Shibuya's top artists. "They should be here soon." As if on cue, the brother and sister duo come rushing in, Beat carrying his signature skateboard and Rhyme clutching her pendant. Speak of the Reapers..."Good, you're all here, and I see that you three have your psyches. Neku, you got your case?" He almost smiled as Neku grudgingly took out a box filled with pins. Almost. "Good. Listen up people, I've just learned of a very serious problem, one that if we don't act on could result in untold destruction."
[A few hours earlier]
Sanae's face drops all pretense of humor and he lowered his shades. "Excuse me?"
"You heard me, RG Noise." the figure repeated.
"That's impossible, Joshua would never allow that, and I would have noticed." Sanae noted.
The second figure spoke up then. "That's because it's occurring in an Alternate Ground."
Sanae frowned. "Then, why does that matter? Shouldn't their Higher Plane representatives sort out their own problems?"
"The problem is," the third explained, "that their own Producer won’t intervene due to the secrecy of the position, there are no Composers or Conductors, and they have no mortal agents along with that."
"Still, as bad as that is, why use mine? You've got to have better sources of mortal agents than a 'Fallen Angel', so talk."
"The reason is simple; Noise conform to each Ground, and what's more this isn't some freak coincidence. Rather it appears to be a deliberate act from a Reaper that escaped from your Underground. Joshua filed a report two days ago I believe?"
"...I see. So he left the Shibuya UG for an AG to release Shibuya Noise on the RG there? I assume this means he's doing an indiscriminate Erasure."
"That's the thing, he's not. So far only two Noise have been spotted, and neither have Erased anything yet. In addition, both were incredibly weak. We think he’s having trouble making some Noise. However he himself is still Harrier class, and was a candidate for Game Master. He's tough, and we have extremely few agents that are that powerful."
Sanae nodded. " That's true, our Ground does produce higher end Reapers and Players. Most GMs are C Class, where as on this Ground, C is the minimum to be a Support Reaper, let alone a Harrier. So you need my friends to go to the AG because Shade is B Class, and therefore is stronger than anything there except their Producer. Is that about right?"
"Indeed, you must send them at once!"
Sanae shook his head. "Sorry, no can do. It's their world, they chose what to do with it."
[Present]
"And that about sums it up." Mr. Hanekoma finished.
"...so you want us to go to an AG to fight some Noise? I don't know, sounds like a lot of hassle."
Shiki was a bit outraged. "Neku! Innocent people are in serious danger here! Noise are nothing to laugh at. Even weaker ones are invincible if you don't have any psych."
Neku sighed. "Yeah I get that, but doesn't this Ground have any Reapers or the like that can just deal with it?"
"No, they don't." Mr. Hanekoma explained. "They don't have any Reapers, or Players. Hell, there isn't even any Composer or Conductor. This Ground has no Games. Period."
Beat nodded in understanding. "I see, so that means there's nothing to prevent this guy from gaining the ability to make some Noise and go on an Erasing spree. That's just cruel."
"It's worse than that actually." Rhyme noted. "He's doing it to gain power. Reapers feed off of those they or their noise erase. I think he's looking for a major power boost, maybe even enough to unseat Joshua."
This caused an awkward silence to fill the room as everyone digests this info. Finally, Neku spoke up. "They said only two weak noises right? So why did they want all four of us?"
Sanae smiled. "A Dixiefrog and a Garage wolf, strictly E class. The problem is he shouldn't be able to summon Noise at all. As you know, Reapers normally have no powers in the RG, let alone an AG's RG. There's no telling what's up with his powers. That's reason number one they want all four of you. Reason number two is that they only have a vague idea of where this Reaper is hiding, so splitting up to find him faster is a good idea, as we have no idea how his powers could grow. So, you guys interested? Beat, Rhyme, Shiki, Phones?"
Beat smiles. "You have to ask? You know I love sticking it to the Reapers."
Rhyme nods as well. "I'm with my brother all the way. It's the least I can do."
Shiki nods her own consent before looking over at Neku in concern, though she breaks out into a smile once he gives a shrug of 'fine whatever', which for him is a major comment.
"Alright then, I'm going to be sending you over to the AG then. Oh, and as a heads up, your appearance will change a bit so that you don't stick out while trying to blend in with the locals. Language translation is included free of charge as well."
Neku nodded, it sounded reasonable. Anything that wouldn't make them stick out and help them blend in couldn't be all that bad.
[Ponyville, Equestria]
The Ponyville Market, the busiest location in Ponyville. If one was not careful during the morning, afternoon, or evening rushes, a pony could end up getting lost until the end of said rush. It was here, or near there, that a pale orange earth pony with deep orange and spiky mane and tail woke up. After shaking off his drowsiness, he looked around and could only say one thing. “What the Help.” ‘Wait, is my swearing blocked?’ Neku thought. He looked down at himself. ‘And why am I a pony? Ugh! When I get back, I'm making it a point to see if I can Erase an Angel.’
Author's Note
This is a reworking of the prologue of Whiteeyes story. Check it out.
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.
Chapter 2: A Doozy Meeting
[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.