Equestria's Greatest Cartoonist

by Phoenix_Feathers

Rating: teen
Tags: Original Character, Spike, Profanity, Random, Slice of Life, Human, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe
Length: 13588

"I wonder how these ponies would react to Berserk... nah, that'd be too much."

In this HiE story, Kai Everette is a former illustrator who stumbled into Equestria by certain means. Taking in his new life with a rather calm demeanor, Kai has since assimilated himself into pony society. But after a long time of part-times and frequent freelance gigs, Kai wishes to go back to what he loves best; drawing comics and manga. And with the lackluster catalog of comics/manga available in this ponyfied world, he has a feeling he can definitely make a name for himself.

This is a (formerly) one-shot series, mainly for me to practice my writing. Leave a like if you're interested in where this goes!

Tags: Human, Slice of life, Random, Alternative Universe

11/09/24 - Featured?!? Thank you so much for all the likes and support!
01/19/25 - Thanks for the featured! 🙌

Published 2024-11-09 07:50:00 UTC
Last updated 2025-01-19 22:48:19 UTC

Chapter 1: Going Back To The Drawing Board (Literally) | Part 1

Equestria's Greatest Cartoonist

Chapter 1

Kai adjusted his dark-blue tie, making it as straight and comfortable as it can be while impatiently tapping his shoe onto the floorboards of the train. Next to him was a brown suitcase, freshly purchased and something he routinely checked over and over to ensure everything was tidy. A bit overbearing, but considering the craziness that could happen at any point, he had to be cautious.

For the past two hours, he had been sitting inside this small Equestrian train, being unable to withhold the substantial anticipation that’s been bugging him ever since, well, months ago. This is because, in around another hour or so, he’ll be going to an art convention being held in Baltimare, one made specifically for an illustrative creation of his. Or, rather—to stay true to copyright—an adaptation of an illustrative creation from his world.

It crazy, really, just how quickly he shot up in popularity within such a short amount of time, and he was still processing it. But one thing he can definitely say for sure now is that he did not regret that one evening.

Months prior...

It was evening. Wednesday evening. That type of evening during the middle of the week where you simply lounge around cause you got that extra few hours of free time. Kai was using that timeframe of precious free time… rather unproductively.

He was currently in the library of Ponyville, or more like the local public castle of glitter and friendship. Even though he’s become accustomed to how much nicer this place was, it still befuddles him how castles seem to be so public when compared to his homeland... uh, home reality. Like, seriously. Set a foot into Buckingham unauthorized and say hello to eight bayonets plunged into places you didn't even know you had. Maybe it was just his own limited perspective talking there and it really wasn't as bad as it sounds, but his point still stands.

He was currently reading a book that caught his interest. A comic actually, since many of the books here weren’t even that good in his opinion (never tell Rainbow Dash that he dissed out Daring Do). It was a short comic though, with only eighty pages or so, but the writer managed to compact enough dialogue and text to make it a comfortable one-sitting read. Power Ponies it was called; yeah, the puns in this world are not shy.

Right now he is nearing the climax of the fight between the P.Ps and Mane-iac, the most standard city villain he’s ever seen in his life. Seriously, all of her motives ever since he started the comic series are just stupid. Fill the entire city with hair spray that freezes everyone in place? What? That sounds more like some extreme senior prank than an actual villain’s diabolical Armageddon. None of that kickass world domination shit you’d see Master Xandred trying to do.

Kai continued to reluctantly read for a bit, to at least give the book a chance ‘till the breaking point. But it wasn’t a surprise that the climax, which should be the best part of the entire comic, was a huge fucking letdown. No ultimate attack, no final trump card team attack; hell, they weren’t even throwing ha—hooves!

“ You know what, screw it. These equestrian comics are lame,” he grunted out loud, tossing this supposed latest and highly grossing issue behind his back without a margin of fuckery. He’s read toddler comics back home that had more action than this. But, honestly though, what can he expect from this 200% pacifist society?

“ Gah!?” A discomforted grunt echoed from his left side of the room, and the source of the sound then rapidly moved to his back to catch the soaring illustrative disappointment. They managed to do it from what Kai could tell from the extremely relieving sigh that escaped their mouth. He turned back with a slow glance, looking down at a purple dragon child, who was holding the discarded comic in his small arms and cradling it like an infant. Of course, with how he was interreacting with that bundled waste of paper, it was pretty obvious that the small drake was giving Kai the hard glare.

“ Did you really have to go that far to catch that stupid little thing?” Kai asked blandly, digging a pinkie in his ear, “ That stuff ain’t even good as a time passer. It’s shit.”

“ No way, Kai, it’s just you that’s sh—uhh, crap!” Spike took a quick and wary glance towards the door then sighed, patting at the overly colorful cover of the comic to remove any imaginary dust.

Kai sighed, bringing his gaze up towards the kaleidoscope that was the ceiling. " If you're gonna cuss, at least try to act confident."

Spike huffed heavily in response, walking towards one specific shelf near the right side of the main door. There, he carefully returned the comic back into its rightful place at the end of a row of other Power Ponies comics. It was nothing in comparison to the multiple rows of neatly organized mangas Kai used to have in his bedroom.

The purple dragon then turned back to Kai, crossing his arms and giving him an invisible raised brow. “ How could you even say it’s lame anyways? It’s Power Ponies, for Celestia's sake!”

“ My world already has a version of Power Ponies that is astronomically better than this low–budget version,” Kai snorted, shuffling a hand into the black duffle bag next to his seat. And no, it obviously wasn't a duffle bag stuffed with stolen cash. It was the ones you’d see at the gym, and one of the few things he was able to bring along in his multiverse transfer (partly because he was just coming out of the gym that same day). The bag was essentially something he brought everywhere he went, both as emotional support and for convenience... and not because he momentarily experienced homelessness. A digressive story for another day.

He pulled out a disarranged hexagon Rubik's cube, one gifted by the one and only Discord for his last birthday, and began to absentmindedly solve the piece that somehow always seemed to morph into four shades every time he looked away.

“ Oh, really?” Spike responded to Kai's comment with a hint of challenge in his tone. “ What makes Power Humans better than Power Ponies? It doesn’t even sound as cool.”

“ ...Ok, first of all, you got it all wrong. It's Power Rangers, Spike,” Kai corrected, grunting quietly as he pushed against a stiff turn on the cube, “ Secondly, don't say humans like its something shitty. We humans have many things better than what you got here."

" Like?"

" I'm sure you've listened to me and Twilight's conversations."

Spike crossed his arms, undeterred. " So? What's any of that gotta do with comics?"

"..." The drake's response caused Kai grinned widely. This was one of the few things he liked about Spike. He knew when shit was real. " Well, we have cooler, more intensive fights. And we also have explosions.”

Spike snorted out while waving his hand dismissively. “ Please, Zap can make an explosion on the spot. Heck, Radiance made a big one on issue twenty-three. Blew up Crodilac's lab all at once."

“ Deadass?" With a proud nod from Spike, Kai hummed. " Damn, ok. Kinda skipped that issue."

Kai scratched his chin, thinking over his argument. " Alright, sure, Power Ponies have explosions. But are they big explosions?”

“ I just said that Radiance blew up Crodilac's laboratory! Hay, they even blew up entire buildings at one point… but most of them were brainwashed in that issue... a-and it was also fixed pretty quick, so no harm was done!”

" ... Sounds pretty tame to me."

" Huh??? No way, that's totally intense! I doubt your comics can even pull that off!"

...

That was quite the understatement, especially when All-Star Superman issues flashed through Kai's mind.

Kai huffed in exasperation, shaking his head. “ So you think human comics don't pull off feats like that?"

" ... I-I mean, I don't know, but I doubt—"

" Dude, our villains blow up entire cities on an average basis.”

“ ..?!?” the purple dragon did a double take, his eyes widened like saucer plates. But the reaction seemed a bit over exaggerated, especially for a statement like that. With what Kai has read, city-level feats were like child's play. " ...F-For real?"

" Fuck yeah. And guess what?" Kai added, grinning wildly. " It is all live action. Not just in the comics!"

“ L-Live action... like in real life?!” Spike gawked. He was momentarily stunned at Kai's words, but he then forced a snort through his nose, as if he didn’t think it was anything cool. In Kai's view, the drake was lucky nothing flew out from his nose, else it would've become a nasty embarrassment the man would've prodded him 'til for no end. “ Pfft, it’s not that cool. Like I said, Power Ponies can also do explosions.”

“ But are they live actions? Nope,” Kai insisted while absent-mindedly punching in a block that sprung out comically from the Rubik's cube, “ Do they have a kickass giant robot that blows up aliens bigger than skyscrapers? Not even fucking close, my little dragon friend.”

“ W-Wait, you’re joking,” Spike’s composure was easily shattered, and he returned back to gawking at the human, “ you’re telling me that Power Rangers have giant robots that blow up giant aliens... and it’s all acted out?!”

Kai winced a bit at the louder tone from the baby dragon but nodded his head otherwise. “ Yeah, I can get why you can’t really comprehend something like this when the best you guys got here are black and white movies about old peo—pony romance... but it's true.”

Spike shook off his stupor, returning to a more normal expression of shock. He seemed to be thinking up some counter argument to make Equestria not seem less cooler than Kai’s homeworld was. “ ...Well, actually, we’ve faced real villains here in Equestria, so it really isn’t that shocking,” he then crossed his short arms with a little pout, “ …but a giant robot suit would be cool to have...”

Seeing that he was yet again getting nowhere with his little contraption, Kai threw the cube back into his bag with an exasperated sigh. “ Spike, that’s not even scratching the surface of all the badassery humans have made over the years. Like, Powers Rangers alone has ran for, what, thirty years when I was back on earth? And with over twenty-eight variations of the five rangers, each team had a different theme, powers, and everything.”

“... wow, that’s a lot of Power Rangers.”

“ You see what I mean when I said Power Ponies were lame? I’ve seen this shit a plethora of times, dude, and that’s not even including other varieties from other countries.”

Spike rose a brow at the last statement, doubt present on his face. “ Ok Kai, you’re pulling on my leg there now.”

“ ...Spike, did I ever tell you there were a total of about 200 countries back on Earth?” Kai asked, simply and plainly. He leaned back on his chair, crossing his arms over his head as a confident grin took over his face. Who wouldn't? The even more baffling stupor on Spike's face was priceless.

“ N-NO, YOU DIDN’T TELL ME THAT?! 200 COUNTRIES?! THE HAY?!”

The doors to the room suddenly swung open, with a slight ticked off Twilight glaring at the two of them. “ Can you two keep it down! I can’t even hear myself read with this noise!”

“ Not a chance, purps," Kai waved the alicorn off dismissively with a yawn, " we’re having an important bro talk here. Just read on the roof or something."

Twilight's eyes very visibly twitched as she let out a frustrated groan. For a moment, Kai was expecting himself to be teleported into the heavens, but instead the alicorn stormed her way out of the room, slamming the door behind her. A dead silence filled the entire castle, probably the entire world outside too, as Spike and Kai stared at the closed entrance.

Kai blinked before simply shrugging. “ Well, she's kinda bad at keeping her feelings closed, huh?”

“... you instigate it a lot, Kai.”

" Meh, I'll volunteer to help her with her labs later as an apology," Kai hummed, leaning back with both hands behind his head, “ now, back to the country thing. Yes, Earth has 200-some recognized countries across the planet, and in many of the top advanced ones, there’s a wide variety of entertainment to pick from. And because of mainstream, or in other words majority preference, very highly rated entertainment content gets mimicked or flat out copied from industries all over the world, which explains that copies of Power Rangers.”

“ That... makes sense,” Spike nodded slowly, scratching the back of his tilted head, “ but then how would you find the original version from all of those fakes?”

“ Normally all original content is protected by law, so it isn’t easy to just flat out take another’s creation without risking getting fined or even arrested. But some entertainment content, especially comics, cartoons, and anime, are so popular it’s kind of hard not to know what the original is.” Kai explained, seeing that he’s gotten Spike’s full attention. In fact, the little dragon had completely forgotten about the Power Ponies issue he was reading a few minutes ago, laid face-down on its page on the table.

“ Damn,” Spike dared to swear, raising an invisible brow at the black-haired human, “... what’s an anime?”

Kai paused for a second—not even realizing he said that word in his explanation—before giving the biggest grin he could give to the little purple drake. “ Ohohoho, now that’s some of the best entertainment humans have ever made, Spike.”

“ Really?”

“ Hell yeah,” Kai stretched his shoulders as he looked at the time on his clock. 5:30, so he had another two hours before he had to go do his night shifts at Sugarcube (yes, apparently they had a graveyard shift that rarely any of these ponies knew about). “ ...I think I have enough time to explain to you the whole concept behind this awesomeness that is anime. So just sit back and listen, cause it’s going to be a bit long”

“ I’m guessing this is one of your favorite things from back home?” Spike asked, chuckling a bit as he got himself seated comfortably.

Kai didn’t know his grin could ever get this big before. “ You don’t even know, my man.”

Author's Note

Rereading this, I realized I kinda didn't make much progress. That's why this is part one of potentially more to come! If this story gets 10 likes, then I'll post part 2!

Chapter 2: Going Back To The Drawing Board (Literally) | Part 2

Equestria's Greatest Cartoonist

Chapter 2

If there was one thing that Kai didn’t like, it was rushing things. Rushing was something he forced himself to dislike very early on in his life, especially when he first entered college and had to slowly accommodate to the independent and fast-paced environment. Having moments to slow down and take things at bite-sizes became the life support to not only his career, but overall mental state.

Thus said, there was absolutely no way he could rush an explanation on such a big topic like anime. There was quite literally too much for him to go over. And given that he—rather unwisely—decided to start off the explanation on a big-name series, the little conversation between him and Spike had dragged out into hours. By the time he had come to the conclusion of his deep dive, the moon was already high up in the night sky, casting the brilliant pale rays into the room.

Kai exhaled softly, bringing the cup of chamomile tea to his mouth while having a rather pensive expression (in the middle of their conversation, Spike momentarily went out of his way to bring refreshments for the two). He wasn’t ignorant. He knew that this was far from the smartest decision he’s made—and by that, he obviously was referring to the fact that he just skipped work—but he just couldn’t help it. If there were a few things that he was greatly passionate about, one of them was most definitely illustration.

Some would ask if that was really worth the risk of potentially losing his job, and it’s a valid question he didn’t have a proper answer to. His best excuse would be that he could just call in sick… or probably just be straightforward about why he didn’t show up. Nonetheless, the Cakes normally were pretty lenient in these sorts of situations. He only hopes that today’s shift didn't have anything extremely important.

“... wait, so that’s it?” Spike, having been briefly silent after Kai finished his hours-long speech, asked with a displeased tone. “ Ash just lost? Just like that?”

Kai placed his cup down and nodded sagely. Indeed, the specific anime that Kai had chosen to speak about was none other than Pokemon, and he had several reasons for the decision. First, given that it was one of the first anime series that he’s ever seen—and one that he frequently kept up to date with—it was easier for him to lay out the storyline—at least for the Indigo League specifically. Secondly, despite his previous excitement on enlightening Spike about the wonderfulness of anime, he had to be aware of who he was talking to, and thus had to be careful on which series he chose to talk about. Having lived here for a while, Kai was not blind to the… soft environment of Equestria. Topics like Naruto, Bleach, Death Note, or any other mainstream anime series was bound to be too heavy of a topic, even if he was sure Spike could probably handle some of it.

So, yes, Kai really did spend hours talking about Pokemon. Who wouldn’t?

Smiling with content, Kai rested his face on his knuckles. Even if he had to filter himself, Pokemon was not a bad series to start off with. And with how much Spike was leaning forward in his seat, it was pretty clear that he got the little drake hooked. “Take it as you will, Spike, but as you’ve already noticed, Ash usually had trouble handling his Charizard. That’s just what it’s like being a Pokemon trainer, anyways… and that’s also what makes the series so good.”

“But… but that’s just so underwhelming,” Spike frowned with clear disappointment, “ he didn’t even get to fight against Gary… and that guy is sure one hay of a jerk!”

“… oh yeah, Gary. He doesn’t even make it as far as Ash does. They were never going to face each other.”

“Oh… well, it still kinda sucks…”

With that said, their conversation died. Seeing that he had spent more than long enough in the Friendship Castle, Kai stood up and stretched his limbs. “Alright, I’ll be heading out now Spike. I’ve got some things to do early tomorrow morning… and some apologies to start thinking up.”

“Oh, yeah, sure! Sorry for holding up for that long,” Spike said frantically.

“Don’t worry about it,” Kai chuckled, sticking out a fist, “well, cya later.”

“Yeah, you too!” Spike grinned, reciprocating the fist bump. The drake then watched Kai’s departing form for a moment before standing and picking up the cups and leftover snacks. As the moments of their conversation flashed through his mind, Spike couldn’t hold back his grin. Kai had just casually unfolded a whole new world that he could’ve never imagined before. Sure, he was able to notice a few similarities with some comics here in Equestria, but the rest was a complete novelty. And to say it was interesting was a heavy understatement.

A world where humans lived together with different mythical pokemon that have various awesome powers. Although he couldn’t accurately imagine the human part, he definitely could imagine the pokemon part.

The plethora of ideas and questions that flooded his mind entertained Spike as he cleaned. He paused, however, when one particular thought flashed before him. With a start, he quickly put everything down and ran out of the room, managing to see Kai’s form walking down the empty hallway. “Wait, Kai! I just had a great idea!”

“Hm?” Kai turned his head back, seeing the small drake running up to him. He stopped, giving Spike a curled brow. “What’s up?”

“This Pokemon thing is, like, really awesome!” Spike exclaimed in a rather Rainbow Dash manner. It brought a small smirk on Kai, but the man let the drake continue. “And I think everypony should know about it! You should definitely write it out!”

Kai blinked at the suggestion. Write it out? Hm… he didn’t really see himself as a good author of sorts. “Sorry, Spike, but I’m not a good writer. I doubt I could accurately and justly depict Pokemon like that.”

“… then what about a comic?” Spike insisted. “This all started because of comics, right? And you also said something about Pokemon being a mahga, which is a version of comics right?”

“It’s manga, but yes, I said that.”

“Yeah, then why not do that? Comics should definitely be easier than writing a book!”

‘…you don’t say…’ Kai sighed mentally, rubbing a hand on his chin. Spike really did bring up an interesting idea, but it wouldn’t be the first time Kai’s thought about something like that. Given his… history of being an artist, it wasn’t like he couldn’t make a manga. In fact, there was a time where he did actually try to articulate some of his time into drawing… but that was around the same time he was still new to this world and trying to get used to handling more than four part times at once. That sort of workload didn’t give him the proper time to really invest into any real project, and that hasn’t changed much even now. There’s a reason he considered himself a former cartoonist.

“... I’ll give it some thought,” Kai finally responded, pocketing his hands, “ but… food for thought, Spike. Comics are not as easy to make as you think… arguably harder than writing a book. It’s a long process…. and it’s not guaranteed to succeed.”

Despite this, Spike seemed pretty confident, crossing his arms. “I’m willing to bet you’d make something amazing! I’m definitely sure you can do it!”

With a rather exasperated sigh, Kai turned around and continued his walk towards the exit, saluting over his shoulder. “Goodnight, Spike.”

“I—uh, yeah… goodnight…”

His home was pretty modest in appearance, but it was definitely better than having nowhere to sleep. It was a two-story house not far off from town center, and unsurprisingly it had the same schematics as the majority of the surrounding buildings. Kai can count in both his hands the amount of times he got lost in the first few days of living here, and he wasn’t really proud of it.

Entering through the front door, he was greeted by a dark interior. It seemed that his roommate, Comet Trail, had already called for the night. Everyone did, really; Kai had only noticed two ponies on the street during his walk, both of which were wearing questionable ninja attire that he soundly ignored. It was a testament to how much time he had wasted… if he were to think of his conversation with Spike negatively.

With the layout of the house memorized, Kai walked through the dark and reached the kitchen, where—after he lit a candle—he found a plate of cold pasta wrapped with parchment paper. Kai gave a small grin, grabbing a fork before taking a seat. It may have been only a month so far, but Comet Trail has been a really nice host. After a few unforeseeable events, Kai had been under the assumption that he would once again be sleeping out for a while (or, perhaps fortunately, sleeping in one of his friends’ houses if he somehow failed to mask his terrible situation). Fortunately and coincidentally, Comet Trail was around when Kai received the notice of the inn he was staying at being shut down, and so the stallion was kind enough to let the man crash at his place until he got his shit straight.

‘...I really lucked out there,’ Kai gratefully thought to himself after a quick and silent prayer, instantly digging into the pesto pasta. As he ate, his mind flashed through the events that unfolded throughout the day. Though, really, he was just thinking over the conversation with Spike, and especially the proposal the drake gave at the end. The idea replayed over and over, and he frowned.

He had thought that he had already long given up on his artistic path, and that he would no longer feel that creative, ingenuitive spark anymore. Life had already gone out of its way to take that away from him. But… it felt like this evening had done something to him. Almost like kindling to cinders, the more he talked about pokemon, the more he felt… active. And not just because of Pokemon, but because of the fact that he was talking about anime in general that made him feel more proactive than what he normally would be.

Kai stared at the flicker candle thoughtfully. He didn’t like to think of himself as being poetic, but he couldn’t ignore this feeling. However, amidst the surging emotions, he wasn’t sure if it was a good feeling…

Some time ago…

“... what the hell is this, Everett?”

Kai kept his gaze as neutral as he could, though he dared not to look into his boss’s eyes. “... it’s my final draft, sir.”

The man, well over the age of thirty and with a poor case of balding, stared at Kai for a while before giving an empty chuckle. His voice was filled with thick mockery.“Final draft, huh?”

Kai silently watched as Mr. Brooks thoughtlessly tossed the folder onto his desk, some of the papers sliding out haphazardly. The old man then leaned back, both hands on his chair’s worn armrest. There was a disappointed look on his face. “... I think it’s time you go, Everette.”

The words were like icy water on his back. Kai’s nose inhaled sharply as he struggled to not make a scene. “Sir, just tell me what I have—”

“This is the fifth time, Kai,” Mr. Brooks cut off sternly, “this is the fifth project you’ve produced with poor results. Half of the new recruits are making bigger hits than what you’ve done within the past year. I’m sorry, but you're running out of fuel. It’s time you leave the company.”

Kai was completely wordless. What could he even say? His head felt light as the reality settled on him. He was losing his job…

…no, he already lost it from the moment he entered the office.

“I’m giving you two days. Use it to pack your belongings and say your goodbyes,” Mr. Brooks continued, bringing his attention towards the computer on his desk. After a brief moment of silence, his expression turned softer. It felt disgustingly fake. “... don’t get it wrong. You’re a good artist, just not cut for the standards anymore. I’m going to email you a letter of recommendation for your next employer, if you so wish to continue being an artist. I wish the best for you, Everette.”

With that said, Mr. Brooks brought his full attention back to the computer, almost as if Kai no longer physically existed. Seeing that there was nothing more to say, Kai silently stood and made his way out of the office. While walking towards his workstation, he visibly worked his jaw and stuffed his hands into his pants pockets. There were many things running through his mind, but the last thing he needed to do was make his situation worse.

Making the corner, he was greeted by his fellow senior co-worker, Ethan, who was at the water dispenser. The blonde man gave a smile at Kai, which was not reciprocated. “Yo, Kai, what’s…”

Ethan’s voice died as Kai walked past him, almost as if he wasn’t there in the first place. They didn’t even make eye contact. Ethan’s smile fell as he gave an annoyed look at the departing man. “... the hell’s up with him?”

Kai was oblivious to this as he continued his sad parade. He reached his desk, and not long after he reached the exit of the lobby, making his way towards his old silver sedan. Haphazardly tossing his briefcase onto the back seats (which was the only thing he bothered taking), Kai slumped himself in the driver seat and forcefully slammed the door. He didn’t start the engine, much less insert the key. He just sat there, staring up towards the stained ceiling of his vehicle. He couldn’t even find the energy for an outburst.

“... fuck all of this.”

The memories unwillingly flashed in his mind, causing Kai to sigh heavily as he forced himself to resume eating. It was unpleasant to remember these ugly moments of his life, but they were undoubtedly some of the biggest catalysts towards his retirement as an artist. Ignoring them wouldn’t change that. He had failed and no other opportunity arised thereafter.

His dream was already crushed, and trying to start it up again was a failure. What difference would it make doing it again? None.

…

…

‘... or… no... there is a difference.’

The thought made Kai pause. It was true, there actually was a difference. Hell, everything was different… literally and metaphorically. What he struggled with back home was not the same as what he struggled with here, and vice versa. And that… also included the opportunities as an artist.

“...” Silently, Kai let the idea simmer as he finished and cleaned his dinner. Walking up the stairs with the candle in hand, he made a detour towards the restroom for a quick shower and bedtime grooming. By the time he reached his room, it was already past midnight. He still had a few hours worth of sleep… but he didn’t sleep. He couldn’t.

‘... Could I really go back?’ Kai asked himself. Genuinely, despite his suppressive negativities, he thought about it. Ponies weren’t the same as humans, despite the uncanny societal similarities. The pressure wouldn’t be there. The scrutiny wouldn’t be there. The competition… probably still there, but to a lesser extent.

What he failed to achieve back home… he… he could probably achieve it here.

Kai turned to his side in his small bed, staring at the small desk near the window. On top of the wooden desk was a worn out notebook that had joined him along his trip. One that he hasn’t used in a while…

… and maybe he should change that.

Author's Note

Thank you so much for the explosive support! I genuinely was not expecting it, haha. Chapter 3's already drafted out, but I don't want to disappoint you guys so I'll do a bit more editing. Also, trying to fix the quotation problem. It's a habit I've had for years, so... bear with me.

Chapter 3: Straight Into Preparations | Part 1

Equestria's Greatest Cartoonist

Chapter 3

“Excuse me, Mrs. Cake? Do you have a minute?”

Glancing from the baking preparations, Mrs. Cake gave Kai a warm smile. “Why, of course, Kai, is there something you need?”

“Well, more like something I want to say,” Kai nodded slowly, giving a cautious glance towards Pinkie, who was busying herself by disassembling an assault rifle. He tried his best to ignore it. “And it’s some private matter… so could we talk about it in the back or something?”

“Of course, dearie. Follow me,” Mrs. Cake smiled warmly, placing down the utensil she was holding and leading Kai to the back staircase towards the second floor. From there, she opened a small door, revealing a basic layout for an office—one that Kai was genuinely seeing for the first time. Judging by the stacks of papers on the desk, this was likely where the Cakes did all their financing and other business related matters.

Once they entered, Mrs. Cake tilted her head with an intrigued smile. “Now what seems to be the problem?”

“Well, um, I hope it isn't a problem, but…” Kai rolled the words in his head until he found something comfortable to say, “…I just wanted to say that I’ll be leaving the bakery.”

A moment of silence ensued before Mrs. Cake eventually sighed softly. “Oh… I had a feeling something was going on… are you sure everything is alright?”

“Uh, yeah, of course,” Kai sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck, feeling pressure that didn't exist, “if you’re talking about the other day where I didn’t show up, well… ok, it has to do with that, but not in a bad way. I’m just putting some time and effort into this, uh, new project of mine… and I don’t think I can balance it with my work here. So… sorry, I think I should resign for now.”

“... well, it’s good to hear that you’ve dedicated yourself to something important, and we're noponies to stop you from achieving your goals.” Mrs. Cake said with a rather understanding tone—a lot more understanding than what Kai was expecting. She showed no signs of dissatisfaction or anything along the lines. “You’ve been a real good help around here, Kai, and we really appreciate it.”

A spontaneous sense of guilt flooded Kai’s body, and he felt bad. It wasn’t like it was wrong for him to leave, but… given how nicely he has been treated by the Cakes… it almost felt like a sin to back out on them like this.

He pressed his lips with furrowed brows. “Look, if this project doesn’t turn out well, I’ll—”

“Now, there’s no need for that dearie,” Mrs. Cake kindly cut in, giving Kai a reassuring nod, “it’ll be fine. You just go ahead and do what you need to do. I’ll let you off early... I’m sure a busy stallion like you would appreciate the extra time.”

‘... I’m not really that busy, though,’ Kai thought to himself. Nonetheless, he suckered up his sour feelings and gave the most grateful smile he could offer. “ Thank you, Ms. Cakes. I really appreciate this… and, uh, again. Sorry.”

“Save your sorrys, dearie,” Mrs. Cake chuckled, walking out from the office, “ I’ll see you off at the front, okay?”

“Y-Yeah… alright.”

The rest of Kai’s resignations went much smoother than what he had initially anticipated. Of his total of four jobs, two let him off without needing anything from him—specifically the Cakes and a local carpenter shop a few streets down. It was nothing short of a blessing, one that would’ve definitely been impossible to achieve back in his previous cynical reality. That just left him with his clerk job at Quills and Sofa—who needed a two week notice—and his store maintenance job at the local Arts and Paints store, which he decided to keep working at due to the employee benefits and other obvious reasons.

In other words, Kai has managed to free up his calendar by quite a bit. Monday through Thursday have now become his free days, and he intended to make thorough use of this given time. Otherwise, he’d have just made quite the stupid decision.

‘But with twenty-four thousand bits in the bank… I should be good for a while, even if I do end up fully unemployed,’ Kai thought to himself as he walked through the light traffic at town center, ‘the question, then, is what my next move should be.’

Truthfully, since the night he decided that he would be picking up his artistic skills one last time, he hasn’t actually started up any drawings, sketches… or much less anything art-related. His biggest obstacle was initially the lack of time from his already tight schedule. But, with that out of the way, all that was left bugging him now was how to map out the rest of this far-fetched goal.

…

… well… one thing that was pretty obvious to him by now was that his best shot in making a manga was to make an adaptation of a pre-existing one. It was the smartest route to take, really; he doubted he even had the ingenuity or passion to make an entirely novel manga, at least not in his current mindset. That then brought the question of which manga he should even consider adapting. Spike’s suggestion from a while back was the first to come to mind.

‘Pokemon… Pocket Monsters… I mean…they’d probably dig the designs, but…’’ Kai frowned. Not that he was implying that the series was bad, but he needed to be critical for a moment. The version he told Spike wasn’t even the manga version of the Pokemon series. It was the television version, an entirely different canon from the actual manga of Pokemon. While that technically wasn’t even a problem to begin with, it did make him question whether a television version of Pokemon would be the best choice as his first manga in Equestria, or in an even greater sense the first manga ever in Equestria…

…

…

Kai’s eyes widened. ‘...hold on… do they even have manga here?’

He was aware that it was sort of a stupid question. But as embarrassing as it was to admit, besides Power Ponies he really didn’t know much about what type of comics they had in Equestria. He just never got the time to read much, despite how long he's been here for. Judging by Spike’s reaction during their conversation at the time, he had deduced that Pokemon didn’t exist in Equestria, but he couldn’t just completely go by that assumption, much less did it answer whether manga in its entirety existed here or not.

And even then… if Power Rangers had a knock-off in Equestria, then there was the possibility that Pokemon was also somewhere in the back of a comic book store. And he wouldn’t know that until he had a better understanding of Equestrian comics.

‘Great, so that’s what I gotta do first,’ Kai hummed to himself, leisurely taking a muffin sample from a pegasus that blissfully fluttered by. It’s clear now what he needed to do. He needed to familiarize himself with what these ponies had around here for comics. And currently the best way to start that search would be to make a visit at the local friendship castle.

Swinging the crystal doors wide open, Kai soundly entered the empty castle and wandered through the maze of shiny corridors. Eventually, he found Spike, who was on top of a ladder dusting the top of a bookshelf.

“Hey, Spike, got a minute?” Kai said, abruptly announcing his presence.

Spike flinched, quickly looking down from the ladder with a shocked face that he failed to mask. “Oh, uh, sup Kai! What’s up?”

“Where do you guys keep all your comics? And not just Power Ponies. I wanna see what else you guys got around here.”

“Well, if you go out and turn left, past three rooms you’ll see…” Spike almost instantaneously began directing Kai, only for his voice to die out as his face dawned with realization, “waaait, are you actually—”

“Yes, Spike, I’m planning on starting up something,” Kai nodded exasperatedly with a smile, “but try not to make too much of a fuss about it… I don’t want so much attention when I haven’t even done anything yet.”

“Awesome!” Unable to withhold his excitement, Spike immediately slid down the ladder and ran up towards Kai, pulling his arm—albeit forcefully—towards the door. “Then c’mon! I’ll take you to our comic section myself!”

Though mildly surprised by Spike’s sudden outburst, Kai didn’t make a fuss and allowed the drake to lead him towards the location of interest. Once they entered the room, he was greeted with a smaller line of bookshelves compared to the rest of the castle. Neatly organized were small rows of comics, and he could already notice some familiar series from where he stood.

“Twilight isn’t really the comic book type of pony, but some time ago she ordered a lot of comics for some reason,” Spike explained, walking up and pulling out a red and blue colored comic, “this is the last one she ordered, issue 97 of The Amazing Mule. I doubt she reads it, but I think it’s pretty cool.”

“Hm,” Kai hummed, taking the comic in question from Spike and flipping through the pages. He briefly skimmed through a sample text before nodding. “Alright, I think this should be good enough. Thanks, Spike.”

The man returned his attention to the comic, completely zoning out as he read the synopsis on the back cover. There was a moment of silence before Spike spoke hesitantly with a sheepish grin. “...sooo, uhh… c-can I also help…?”

Kai paused and glanced over at the drake, who was giving him the notorious puppy eyes he’s so frequently received from these ponies. Unfortunately, such a trick never worked on him. It only made him feel slightly bad if he said no… again, it never worked on him.

He gave a simple shrug. “I mean, I don’t see why not—”

“Yes!” Spike fist pumped.

“... but don’t you have your chores to do?”

“I—uh, yeah, I was almost finished, so I can do them later,” Spike quickly dismissed, hastily and fluidly piling up a stock of comics onto his claws, “meanwhile, I’ll be helping you make the coolest manga ever created in Equestria by…”

“...what?”

“Uh, why are you reading comics? Shouldn’t you be… drawing or something?”

“...There’s no reason to rush, Spike,” Kai shook his head, taking some comics off of Spike and placing them on a nearby table, “ before any of that, I need to know what other series you guys have here that are copies of the ones back in my home… and I can already see a lot of similarities.”

As he spoke, Kai shuffled through the comics, quickly noticing the obvious name plays. In addition to The Amazing Mule, there was also Aqua Pony, Batpony, Bulk, Captain Equestria, The Invincible Iron Pony, and many many other blatant knock-offs. And, to his shock, he actually stumbled across Heckcolt, which was so much for a surprise to him that he couldn’t help but give it a brief read through. Unsurprisingly, though, it turned out to be a heavily watered down version.

‘At least I know now that they can handle somewhat mature content around here.’

“... so, you’re doing research so that you don’t accidentally make something that we already have here in Equestria?” Spike summarized.

“Mostly, yeah,” Kai nodded, “but I’m also trying to gauge out what’s the norm around here.”

Clearly, just from this bunch alone, he could tell that probably the vast majority of Equestrian comics were western inspired. He didn’t see any manga, at least not in this collection. It made it even more convincing that Equestria had no manga… but that was both a good and bad thing. The good thing was that he potentially wouldn’t have to worry about any competition or risk of plagiarism (as ironic as it sounded). The bad thing was that if there really weren't any mangas in this world, then ponies obviously wouldn’t know what it was, nor would they be familiar with the distinct artstyle.

While that wasn’t something that would and should stop Kai from making manga, he had to take it into account for two reasons. One, there’s the culture shock. Manga, while originally inspired by mid-50s western comics and illustrations, had its plentiful differences. Could ponies get accustomed to the Japanese names and terminology? Would they understand or relate to common anime tropes? Hell, would they even feel obligated to change their entire reading style from left to right into right to left? Those were a few things that he had to consider.

Secondly, he had to approach this as not only an artist, but as well as an entrepreneur. There was a chance that these ponies might not even like manga in the first place. And although it might not seem detrimental at first, there's always the risk that a lacking fanbase could lead to little to no sales in the long run, ultimately making his efforts become nothing but a waste of time, money, and effort.

But, with all that said, he was still much in the dark. This little collection of comics won’t be enough for him to make a confident deduction. He’d need to find a magazine or newspaper highlighting the top 100 comic series in Equestra, or something along those lines.

“...I think you’ll be fine, Kai,” Spike cut off Kai’s mental ramble, taking a seat at the table, “I haven’t heard or read anything like that Pokemon manga you were talking about. The closest thing is probably Purse Puppies, but that's a completely different thing.”

“...Purse what?”

“Purse Puppies. It’s one of those magazines you read at the spa.”

“...” Kai contemplated Spike’s words, although with a bit of embarrassment. Despite the strange correlation, the drake just confirmed that Pokemon didn’t exist in Equestria, and the way he word himself would imply others relating series like Digimon probably didn’t exist either. It made Kai realize that talking to an actual local would be far better than spending hours in the books. He was beginning to reconsider his methods of approaching this situation.

Shaking his head, Kai pressed on. “Ok… then what about Naruto? Ever heard of that?”

Spike tilted his head with a confused look. “What’s that?”

“Eh, I’ll explain later. What about Fullmetal Alchemist?”

“Uh, never heard of it.”

“Bleach?”

“... I mean, we have some in the laundry—”

“C’mon Spike.”

“Alright, no, I don’t know that one either,” Spike snickered lightly, “but who even calls their own series Bleach? Sounds silly.”

“It’s anime, Spike. Don’t think too much about it,” Kai huffed, “but thanks, you’ve cleared up a bunch of things that were bugging me.”

“Uh… no problem!” Spike beamed, despite not knowing exactly what he answered, “so when are you going to start making it, the manga? Are you still doing Pokemon?”

“That’s… that’s what I plan on doing,” Kai nodded albeit awkwardly, “but there's another one I’m thinking of introducing at the same time. It came to mind just now, but… it’s called Astro Boy.”

Like a dog’s ears, Spike’s fins perked up. “Astro Boy? Sounds techno, what’s it about?”

“Uh… to really dumb it down, it's the adventures of a robot boy,” Kai explained, “and you’re right on the techno part. Astro Boy is all about technology, and it’s because of that that I think adding it together with Pokemon would be good in the long run. Anime has this large subcategory on robots and tech that we call mecha anime, but it just won’t make sense to any of you guys without some context beforehand… except for Twilight, I suppose.”

Spike frowned slightly from Kai’s comment. “What? We know what robots are, Kai.”

“Not to the extent that is seen in mecha anime.”

“Psh, try me.”

“...no, not right now,” Kai leaned back with a sign, his eyes glancing down at the cover of Iron Pony on the table. It was specifically because of this Iron Pony comic that mecha anime so suddenly crossed his mind. In the middle of his quick look-overs during their conversation, Kai had noticed that—unlike Iron Man—Iron Pony had almost little to no technological aspects to his character. The character was essentially the tin man from Wizard of Oz, just with a different color schematic.

‘If I really take this whole idea seriously, I wouldn’t mind working on a mecha series or two… but seeing this… I’d need to put the groundwork for that first.’ And the only way he could introduce such a topic like mecha—instead of just shoving it down these ponies’ jugulars—is to gradually introduce it in bite-sizes. And while there’s probably a better way he could do this, Astro Boy was the one series he felt most confident about.

(A/N: historically speaking, Astro Boy is by no means a ‘small’ aspect to mecha anime, but the general storyline within the series is a bit simpler than what most other series like Gundam or Evangelion have. That is what Kai is implying here.)

“So… how are you going to do it anyways? Is making a manga different from a comic?” Spike asked, seeming to be keeping up with the conversation.

Kai smiled, quietly organizing the comics into neat stacks. He didn’t mind explaining. “Manga is an entire subgenre of comics, Spike, so they have similar fundamental processes… with a few minor differences, of course. First is the storyboard, which leads into rough sketches. Once that’s cleared, we get into the inking and shading. Manga differs from being only black and white, so coloring is skipped in that regard. After that, add the dialogues and finishing touches, and you’ve got yourself a manga.”

“Huh… didn’t know it could be as simple as that.”

“... simple is probably not the best word to use, Spike. Everything is easier on paper than in practice.”

“I dunno, from how you just described it, it sounds easy for you.”

Kai scratched his cheek with a discomfortable expression. Maybe he shouldn’t have given such an overly-simplistic explanation. “...far from it, Spike.”

“...Huh?”

“Don’t mind,” Kai huffed dismissively, “with all that said, the question on how I do it isn’t my concern right now. Before I do any of that, I gotta put in the prerequisites. Frequent comic book tropes, pony anatomy, and some basic history on you ponies and your pop culture… I need to know all of that.”

In response, Spike’s face scrunched. “...why would you make comic books turned into some scientific article?”

“Told you there’s more to it than it seems, Spike.”

“...right…”

The hours passed. By the time the two finished their thorough read on Wonder Pony, the skies were orange from the dusk’s light. Under the slightly dimmed environment of the room, Kai wrote down notes on a scroll graciously given by Spike. It was nearly filled—both front and back—and yet there was still quite a bit more that Kai wanted to fill out. His deep dive into pony comics has shown him many things about how they worked around here, and unfortunately many of which could pose a problem to him.

As he’s come to quickly notice, there’s a very obvious trend of censoring throughout these comics. For example, in the Bulk vs Timberine issue, the fight ended up being far more tamer than what it should’ve been. In fact, there were rarely any scenes with blood in the first place. Such level of censorship is going to be a problem when he tries to adapt mature series. Hell, even a somewhat-non-mature series like Naruto could have a problem… much less One Piece.

He had a feeling that One Piece would at least have more of a fair shot compared to the other big hit series, and simply because it wasn’t so overly expressive on explicit violence. But at this rate, he was having doubts that even that series would be properly received.

‘I might have to look at a real document on the industry standards here,’ Kai thought. If Equestria was any more similar to his world than it already was, then there’s a good likelihood that there’s an age restriction system in place. If that’s the case, then he could probably adjust himself to be able to publish as close to an original copy of any anime series as he could without facing too many consequences. It’s quite the thought provoker.

Suddenly, while he closed the Wonder Pony comic and went to finish up the The Defenders series, the door to the room burst open. In came Twilight, who glanced around skeptically until her eyes fell on Spike.

“Spike!” Spike flinched up from the Aqua Pony comic he was reading, his face turning several shades pale. “This is where you’ve been? I thought I asked you to dust the bookshelves!”

“U-Uh, r-right! Sorry Twilight!” Spike awkwardly looked back and forth between Twilight and the comic in his claws before choosing the former and dropping the comic on to the table. Jumping off from his seat, he made a mad dash towards the door, giving a quick wave towards Kai. “I’ll be back, Kai! Just keep reading without me!”

‘Not like I was gonna stop anyways,’ Kai snickered to himself as he watched the drake disappear behind the door frame. He then brought an exasperated look towards the purple alicorn. “Don’t you think that was a bit harsh, purps?”

“It is a bit harsh, I know, but due to a certain someone, Spike’s grown a habit of neglecting his duties a lot more than what he used to,” Twilight retorted.

“Sounds like you’re just pressed, sister.”

Twilight simply huffed and rolled her eyes. “In any case, this is a bit irresponsible of you, Kai. While reading comics is fine, and frankly I’m glad you’re finally making use of this collection, doing it all day isn’t the best choice. You should know better… and you too, Starlight!”

Indeed, sitting on one of the sofas at the corner was none other than Starlight Glimmer. Some time ago, she stumbled upon Spike and Kai’s small comic book montage. After being given a brief overview on what was happening, she decided to give them the courtesy of helping out. In her magical hold was an issue of Super Mare, and she glanced up at Twilight with a polite smile. “Kai has a good reason for this, Twilight.”

Curling an invisible brow, Twilight glanced over to Kai. The man in question gave a casual nod. “I’m doing some research for a project. I just need to know the do’s and don’ts of comics around here before I really lock in.”

Twilight was silent for a moment, and one can visibly see her head working. Not a second later, her face lit up. “Wait, Kai, don’t tell me—”

“Yes, Twilight, I’m gonna try publishing a manga.”

In a rather uncharacteristically giddy manner, Twilight suddenly squealed in elation. The act gave Kai a bit of second-hand embarrassment, but he couldn’t ignore the joy in her tone. “Well, finally! You’re finally taking your talent seriously! I almost thought that you were never going to pick up a pencil again!”

“...It’s not that crazy, purps. You don’t gotta hype it up like that.”

“Of course it isn’t crazy, Kai, it’s amazing! And I’ll hype up anypony who embraces their special talent!”

“I-It’s not even something that big, though,” Kai muttered with an averted gaze, scratching his cheek, “I’m, uh, just testing the waters. I doubt it’ll work, there’s no guarantee.”

“Don’t be like that. The sketches you’ve shown me were nothing short of masterpieces!” Twilight objected passionately. “If you were more susceptible to it, I would’ve already told everypony how good of an artist you are!”

“You know, now you’ve got me interested,” Starlight cued in, giving an intrigued look, “I’d like to see what a human can draw.”

Twilight was more than happy to oblige. “You won’t even begin to imagine just how detailed his art is, Starlight. Let me—”

“Yeeeah, no,” Kai abruptly butted in with a deadpan look, “let’s not get ahead of ourselves, purps… besides, everyone will eventually see what I’ve got planned soon. No need for all this.”

Twilight’s momentum slowed down considerably with a pout. It was brief, though, as she walked up to the table and floated a few comics up from the table. “So, you said manga, right? And these comics for inspiration?”

“Yes and no. I already got an idea of what to work on. But, like I said, I just need to get a good idea on what comics are like around here,” Kai paused before blinking in remembrance, “right, and since you’re here purps, mind helping me learn about pony anatomy?”

Now that got her attention. “Pony anatomy? Why would you need that for… oooh.”

“Mhm. Humans just won’t work out here,” Kai nodded. Probably already a given notice by now, but there was no way he could simply make a manga with human characters. He had to take into consideration his audience, and pretty much all of them would be ponies.

“Personally, I beg to differ… but I see where you’re coming from,” Twilight said, placing her book down and soundly making her way towards the door, “then, I’ll be right back. I know just the right books that’ll help you!”

“Thanks a bunch, purps.”

Author's Note

Thank you for reading!

Sorry for the late publish. Sort of had two research papers due these past few weeks, so I had to focus on that for a while. Also, as you've probably noticed from how theoretical this chapter felt, I had to do a lot of thinking for this series. Namely, I had to figure out how Kai would approach making a manga in Equestria. I might've over thought a few aspects this chapter, and maybe I didn't even think of others. Do let me know.

Proof reading this draft, I also noticed that I may have made Twilight and Spike OOC. A bit too expressive, I know, but I just left it as it is. I'll probably need to binge the series again to get my lore in check, but that's only if I can even find the time lol. For now, and probably the most logical thing to do, I added the AU tag.

If there's anything off about this chapter, please do let me know. Otherwise, have a good day/night!

Chapter 4: Straight Into Preparations | Part 2

Mornings had a pleasant ambience. As the sun rose higher and higher from its bed on the horizon, the morning dew shimmered like thousands of jewels sprinkled on the blades of grass. The air carried an earthy scent, though it was a fragrance welcomed by many. Over time, ponies awoke from their slumber, and shared their breakfasts. Soon, a new day began, with much livelihood to unfold.

At the heart of town center, numerous stands were situated in symmetrical rows, each selling their respective produce. However, the most notable of them was one wooden cart with a green and white striped awning, carrying baskets filled to the brim with glistening red delicious.

“Come get yer Sweet Apple Acres apples! Just one bit for two!” Standing beside her apple stand, Applejack held not a trace of fatigue as she advertised her family business. Though no pony was quick to rush to her cart, it was only natural. Eventually, ponies would gravitate closer, and business will be done smoothly as usual. It was only morning hours, after all.

After some time of idleness, Applejack received her first customer of the day, though it was quite the surprise. With a flamboyant entrance, a rainbow blur crashed landed directly in front of Applejack’s cart, picking up a large cloud of dust. As the dust settled, the source of this surprise entrance was none other than Rainbow Dash herself, who casually made her way towards the cart.

Applejack huffed, though with a small grin on her mouth. “Quite the entrance you made there, Rainbow.”

“I know, right? Awesome as usual,” Rainbow Dash grinned smugly, extending a wing and digging a feather into her blue Wondercolt suit. She eventually pulled out a couple of bits, to which she flicked over to Applejack. “Two apples to go!”

“Make that four apples, sugar,” Applejack corrected, smoothly catching the bits with her stetson hat, “We’ve got a sale today. Harvested plenty of red delicious this time around.”

The news only serves to bolster Rainbow’s good mood. “Aw, sweet, then lemme at them!”

Heeding her pleas, Applejack gave Rainbow Dash four apples, each of which the pegasus was quick to finish. Giving her the fourth one, Applejack smiled. “So, what brings you here all the way from Cloudsdale? We haven’t seen you in a while.”

“Well, just wanted to get some good old homemade food, all while getting in my morning exercise,” Rainbow Dash explained leisurely, “hit two birds with one stone. Pretty smart, right?”

“Aren’t you worried about being late for your training?” Applejack asked.

“Nah, I got time,” Rainbow Dash snorted, seemingly unfazed by the very notion of being late. Who could ever think that Rainbow Dash, of all ponies, could be late to anything?

At the same time, the blue pegasus’s eyes caught hold of a particular individual in the distance, specifically a human. Kai walked out of a store at the corner of a street, carrying with him a group of rolled up poster boards and other art-related items. The sight was enough to pique her interest, as was essentially anything that this alien did.

“Hey… I haven’t seen Kai in a minute,” Rainbow Dash noted, taking a bite from her apple, “what’s he up to?”

“I heard from Twi that he’s been taking on this big project,” Applejack explained, eyeing the human as he walked across the other side of the water fountain, “nopony knows what it is, though. Said he wanted to keep it a secret ‘till he got it all figured out.”

Rainbow Dash hummed as she curled a brow, but all the while grinning. “Seems to me like he’s up to something crazy again. Last time he kept a secret from all of us was when he and Discord threw that one awesome pool party!”

“He said that was mostly Discord’s idea, and I doubt it’s something like that again.”

“Eh, I guess we’ll see then…” Although the conversation was slowly dying, a particular thought flashed through Rainbow Dash’s mind. “Oh, right, has Kai been keeping up with the gym lately?”

Applejack simply chuckled, giving a good-natured shrug. “I wouldn’t know about that, sugar.”

“What? Nah, no way! I can’t let my gym bro fall off like that, even if I'm across the country,” Rainbow Dash exclaimed hotly, tossing the apple pit at the nearby waste bin as she began hovering over the human’s direction, “I’m gonna have a word with him, see just what this secret is that’s causing him to stop hitting his gains!”

“...Remember you’ve got your Wonderbolt training Rainbow.”

“Please, I’ve got enough time, AJ…” Rainbow Dash scoffed. But although she spoke with confidence, Rainbow Dash paused. With a quick glance back, she gave a slightly anxious look towards Applejack. “...uh… what time is it right now, by the way?”

“Should be a quarter to eight now.”

“W-WHAT?!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, a sudden surge of panic flooding her form. Frantically, she looked between Applejack and the departing human with a look of indecisiveness, before eventually deciding on the former. “Oh crap… l-look, tellKaitonotskiphisworkoutsIgottagonowbye!”

And just like that, the blue pegasus was gone within a brilliant flash of rainbow, her sonic form leaving behind an exasperated Applejack, who held her hat against the sudden burst of wind.

“I’ll say… she needs to get herself a watch one of these days.”

Equestria's Greatest Cartoonist

Chapter 4

Comparing this world to my previous one, I have a strong feeling that art supplies here are a lot less expensive for ponies than they are for humans. I mean, three posters for just five bits? Over one hundred pencils for only two? I call that a steal, if anything.

Well, with that aside, I’ve finally begun setting myself up for the actual drawing phase of my project. By now, I’ve collected more than enough data from my research, and it was all due to the help of a rather enthusiastic alicorn. One thing for sure, you could never shit on Twilight when it came to anything educational.

Some would probably point out that there were some things that I overlooked during my research, and I would agree with them. But at the same time, I wouldn’t be able to get much done if I only focus on gathering intel. I’m pretty confident I can fill in the blanks as I go, so whatever I know now should be more than enough.

Now, I found myself in a rather convenient spot. Very convenient, actually. Comet Trail was cool enough to lend me an extra room in his house, specifically the basement. Awesome, right? At first I was really apprehensive when he gave that offer, but after a bit of insistence on his part I heeded to his generosity. So, since then, we've just been clearing and setting up the place. He didn't really have much aside from a few crates, tarps, and for some reason a comically large metronome, so it only took two days and counting.

Hammering in the last nail, I stepped down from the ladder and eyed the giant backboard situated on the wall opposite from the stairs, confirming its near-perfect symmetry. On the side were additional smaller pins boards and a wall clock in the corner. Satisfied, I glanced over at Comet Trail, who was struggling to organize a box of crayons. “I think that's about everything set up now, Comet.”

Snapping out from his hyper fixation, Comet beamed at the news with a look of great relief. “Ah, cool! So are you ready to start your project now?”

“Well, it already started, but yeah,” I glanced over to the single crate in the corner, filled with other posters and utensils I hadn't used, “I like to keep it simple first then add on as I work. I like to use my time and resources efficiently, you feel?”

“Yeah, totally. I hate it when things take longer than I want it to,” Comet Trail hummed in agreement, walking over my main desk situated on the wall east from the blackboard, where I had left my notebook and scrolls of notes, “and for something as big as this? Pfft, I doubt I could even keep things all tidied up myself.”

“Being a mangaka can be a mess, dude,” I chuckled, “some of the greatest ones I know sometimes forget stuff about their own series because of how complex and messy it gets.”

“I feel you… well, let me not bother you any longer, Kai,” Comet Trail smiled, “good luck on this project of yours.”

“You’re not a bother, dude, and thanks for the help again,” I thanked, returning the hoof bump Comet Trail gave me as he went back up stairs. The silence of the basement now my only partner, I sighed, flopping down onto my rather expensive custom office chair with a small hint of giddiness. Rolling towards my desk, I picked up my pencil. And from there, I simply stared at the blank papers before me.

…

… God, I love creative block.

The research was definitely the hardest part about this whole thing. Everything else… It was quickly showing to be a breeze.

My first steps were, of course, to start out with the storyboards of the mangas, which were again both Pokemon and Astro Boy. To keep it simple for myself, I solely focused my energy on Pokemon first, leaving Astro Boy to be dealt with after. This decision was made due to two factors: one, my memory was the best on Pokemon, and two, I just liked Pokemon overall.

With that said, I began my session by briefly doodling different characters, settings, and whatnot. Quickly, however, I came to realize that I would have to put my foot down and make a decision on what version of Pokemon to work on going forward. It was a problem I pointed out before but had put aside for a minute as I prioritized my research. And so, I took a moment to think. My options were either the game version, television version, or the manga version.

On a personal standpoint, I really only knew the games and television series, so it ironically ruled out the Pokemon manga for reference. That left me with either the games or television series… and my final choice unanimously fell towards the games. Not to say that the television series are bad, but… I have too many fond memories of nuzlocke runs to look back to. It'd only make sense to take advantage of that sort of information.

Thus, an hour in and I had the fundamental plot for Red and Green written and sketched out. As I did so, I had to come to terms with the fact that I wasn't going to make a perfect replication of these works… which, technically, I already had come to terms beforehand, but this storyboarding only solidified that idea further. Some plot points, like the ghost tower in Lavender Town, aren't very clear in my head, meaning I'd unfortunately have to either gloss over them or make an entirely different approach to those plot holes.

Which… I dunno, it's not bad I guess, but it could cause some trouble if there's important moments in those said plot holes that I change.

‘Well, in any case, I'm glad this draft turned out good… now I should probably start worrying about the character designs.’

Astro Boy is… more of an amazing decision than I initially deemed it to be.

The series was popular in both manga, anime, and movie formats, but it was the manga that far outshined the other media. It is, after all, considered to be the godfather of manga, and that alone should be enough of an indication of the weight of this creation. Some time ago, I went out of my way to read the Astro Boy manga, and looking back I’ve realized just how conveniently simple the series' storytelling is. Generally speaking, Astro Boy manga has episodic stories that don't always tie together. You can essentially think of it like reading Garfield off a newspaper; you could gather as many newspapers as you can, but the only recurring elements of the comic would be Garfield and his laziness. With that in mind, I wasn’t forced under a strict agenda. I could write one chapter about one story, and then another chapter about a completely different story all together. A simple yet revolutionary work altogether.

The one true thematic element that I would have to keep in mind from Astro Boy is his backstory… which is pretty depressing when I recall it. Died in a car accident? Father then builds a robot resembling late son, but gets mad that the robot doesn't age and thus scraps it away? Yeah… knowing my quadruped neighbors, I have a feeling this could be a real tearjerker if I do it right.

‘It’ll be a great way to demonstrate how manga can have an emotional element,’ I thought to myself, rereading through the rather small storyboard of Astro Boy critically. The element of emotional and short single-sitting stories is a great weapon to have in my arsenal right now, and it’ll probably make my plans have an enduring effect. However… it can also be a drawback in a sense. Depending on how I emphasize the seriousness of this series, Astro Boy could either be viewed as convoluting or too extreme for something that’s meant to be a short read…

…

… I doubt the latter would be the case. I doubt either would be a problem, really, and I might just be overthinking it. But… I had to consider the possibilities.

One thing that I know for sure, though, is that my freedom with Astro Boy isn’t all that great. Sure, I can pretty much make any story I please with Astro and it wouldn't be much of an issue, but the drawback is that I actually have to go out of my way to make the stories from scratch…

…

…yeah, haha, that’s just my own laziness speaking.

In any case, none of that should really be much of a hindrance in the long run. I’m in a good position. Right now, my main focus is on how I will deal with both the technological aspect of Astro Boy and overall character designs. Due to the era when Astro Boy was released, some of the more modern technology like smartphones and compact computers aren’t included into the series, at least in the manga. It’s mainly focused on retro-themed robots, humanoid machines, and pretty much every futuristic idea they had in the 50’s.

This made introducing human technology less abrupt, since I would only really need to be drawing out pony-like robots, dystopian cities, a few cassette tapes here and there, etc etc. The idea of sentient inanimate objects shouldn’t be such a farfetched idea in Equestria, either, as Twilight had informed me on a few artifacts that were sentient in nature, so I think these ponies should be able to digest it well without the cultural shock. And besides, it’s not like these ponies are technologically illiterate; I remember Spike saying they had robots around here somewhere, though I’ve yet to see any in person.

As for the character designs, though… that actually brings up a really distinct obstacle that I stumbled across just recently. I’m surprised I’ve yet to take this into account until now, but I haven’t even considered how magic would come to play in both of these series. Just like how a magic world doesn’t realistically represent humans, a non magic world would similarly be weird to these ponies. And so the question is… should I include magic or not?

…

… Ok, yes, that really shouldn’t be a problem. I am recreating a manga from my world, so it doesn’t have to follow the standards of this world by every detail. But… when you think about it, it really does.

Sketching out the designs for Astro and Red weren’t all that bad, but I came into a roadblock on what type of ponies I would be drawing them out to be. My first idea was to just make both of them normal earth ponies, and rationally that would be the easier road for me to take. However, what about the other characters? Blue, or Dr. Tenma? Would I really make all of them earth ponies and completely exclude pegasi and unicorns?

Hell no, that wouldn’t be right at all. The last thing I need is to be viewed as pretentious, or even outright racist. If I wanted these works to reach a wider audience—which they are meant to reach out to a wider audience—then I would have to add variety. That variety, of course, would include unicorns. And while there is nothing wrong with that, it’s the fact that unicorns have a strong reliance on magic in their day-to-day lives. So… unicorns in a magic-less world just wouldn’t make any sense. I would have to include magic in some way.

But, if I were to include magic, that would only open yet another can of problems that could arise. How would magic alter the reliance of technology in Astro Boy and later works I have in mind? Would Pokemon have latent magic in them, and how would that contradict already established Pokemon lore? Where would alicorns take place in either series, like Celestia and Luna controlling the day? Could I even legally put them into the series?? All of these questions, and all of them I’m starting to struggle with answers.

… I guess the best response right now is to just get these drafts finished.

The days that followed…

“...ow.”

“Not comfortable?”

Comet Trail’s imaginary brows furrowed, a slight frown forming on his strained face. “It’s… it's really uncomfortable, dude. Like, a bunch of needles on my back right now… yeek.”

I nodded slowly, furiously scratching down his comments on my notebook. When done, I gesture towards his front hooves with my pencil. “Alright, then try tossing a few punches in that position.”

A sweat drop ran down Comet Trail’s face. “I dunno Kai, I might break something if I do that…”

“I'll pay for the hospital bills, just do it.”

“...okie dokie,” Comet Trail sighed with a defeated tone, eventually throwing out a few punches with his front hooves. Or rather, it was more like kicks, but nonetheless did they look embarrassingly weak.

“C'mon, Comet, the hell are you doing?” I insisted, attempting to raise some sort of fighting spirit within the stallion. “You plan on defending your partner with those punches?”

“... I don't have one in the first place, Kai…”

“Well, if that possibility ever arrives, you don't want to have that sort of performance,” I huffed, reluctantly sketching out the scene before me. A reference will always be a reference, anyways. “You could barely hurt a fly with those hits.”

For some reason, my last comment seemed to gain a smile from Comet Trail. “I wouldn't mind something like that.”

“...whatever,” I shrugged, flipping over to a new page, “now try doing a Lion barrage.”

“Huh?”

“You heard me, get those hooves moving.”

“I don't even know what move that is…”

Some more days that followed…

So… yeah. Some days have passed since I started drawing the manga, and I'm glad to say everything is going as smoothly as possible. At this rate, the completion of the first volumes should be done in no later than a week. It’s exciting, really.

With that said, a good artist knows when to take their breaks. And thus I've dedicated this Thursday evening to myself, to cool off before having to go to work tomorrow. And what better way to spend that time than to have nice leisurely tea time with the local animal connoisseur.

“It's nice to have you over, Kai,” Fluttershy smiled warmly, one of her hooves absentmindedly caressing her bunny Angel, who was peacefully sleeping beside her.

“Yeah, it's been a minute since we talked, so I just wanted to hang out,” I explained, taking a grateful sip of the citrusy drink, “and wow, this tea is the fucking bomb, Flutters. What’d you put in it?”

“Um, it's just honey citrus,” Fluttershy muttered, “...a-and please refrain from cursing, Kai.”

“Ah, my fault, bad habit.”

“Hm,” taking another sip, Fluttershy seemingly remembered something, “oh, um, how is that manga going Kai?”

“Oh yeah, that project is progressing smoothly so far,” I said proudly, “should be done soon… then I gotta worry about some other stuff as well.”

“Well, that's very nice to hear,” Fluttershy beamed, seemingly happy that I was happy, “um, if it's ok, I'd like to read it when it's done. How much will it cost?”

I snorted to her question. Her politeness was endearing. “Flutters, you and everyone else will get a free copy. Friends got their privileges.”

“Oh… well, that's nice to hear. Thank you.”

“Hold your thanks once I actually have these mangas published,” I hummed, staring off into particularly nowhere, “... on a side note, it's been awfully normal so far.”

Fluttershy tilted her head. “How so?”

“Discord hasn't reinterpreted any dimensional laws yet. Is he sick or something?”

“Um, actually yes. He said he was suffering from Noi Tani Tsar Corp.”

“...?”

Fluttershy merely shrugged.

Author's Note

Hello, and thank you for reading!

I would like to just say that this series isn't dead! I'm really sorry for the lack of chapters in the past, what, two months? Wow, what a length of time, and I again apologize for the wait. I've just had many thing happening in my life, with holidays and then preparations for the next semester. I also got into a little incident that had to take some more time and money off of me, so I wasn't able to get a proper sitting and write out much.

I hope this chapter was interesting enough to compensate for the wait. I tried my very best to think of how all the sorts of issues that Kai would be facing as he introduces manga into Equestria, and there was actually so much to consider it became a bit overwhelming lol. That would explain why most of this chapter was theoretical in nature.

I'm also trying to figure out where this story will progress, specifically what other mangas to introduce. I've read a few suggestions that were pointed out in the comments and I will definitely try them, but I'm continuously looking for good contenders for each genre. Thriller/psychological is definitely going to either Monster or Death Note, action has a lot of options, romance I'm not sure, slice of life I'm not sure, and so on. Feel free to give more suggestions!

I guess that is all I have in mind to say. I cannot promise if next chapter will come soon but I'm going to try my best. Thank you all, happy late new years, and have a good day/night!