Ponies
Neo opened her eyes to the sound of four strangers talking. She peered around the room but only found her eyes and her brain was fuzzy.
"Hey, Twilight, I think she's waking up."
"Good. Then maybe we'll get some answers."
"That is if everypony hasn't destroyed Ponyville by now."
"That would be terrible. I hope everyone will be all right. It'll be a shame if we never get to have another party with our friends."
"They'll be fine, Pinkie."
Neo blinked. Her vision cleared. She found herself looking at a purple creature with green scales running down him back. She gasped and shot to her hooves. "What the heck?" Looking around she found three colorful ponies staring at her. They were in a room made of stone with only one way out of here. Her heart pounded in her chest when she noticed the ponies were blocking her only way out. She would have to fly to get out of here. "Who…where am I?" Feeling her body wasn't quite right, she looked down to find she was no longer herself. "What the heck?! What's going on?! Why am I…why am I a…a horse?"
"Technically, you're an alicorn," the blue coated pony said.
"What?" Neo backed away from them. Her heart hammered again her chest. If she was different then what was their child like? Was he still alive? Her heart relaxed when the baby inside of her moved. She sighed then she noticed another pony laying on the floor. His straw hat was very familiar looking. "Luffy?"
"Huh?" Luffy sat up. "What's going on?" He lifted his hand to his face only to find it missing and a hoof in its place. "Huh? Why do I have a hoof?"
"I don't know. It seems whatever took us has changed us as well," Neo said. She turned and inspected her body as well as she could. With a flick of her light blue tail she turned back to Luffy. "I can't sense Law anywhere."
"I wonder where we are." Luffy looked around until he spotted the others in the room. He tried to put his hat back on but his horn got in the way. "What?! Why do I have a horn?! Hey! Can you tell us what's going on?"
"I was hoping you could tell us that," the purple coated pony said.
"Did you bring us here?" Neo asked.
"I'm not really sure," the purple pony said as she told them what happened. "Maybe I should start at the beginning. My name is Twilight Sparkle. These are my friends Spike, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash. Spike and I were in the library when…and that's what happened."
"Hey, Neo, that sounds a lot like what the darkness crystal did to your people," Luffy said.
"It does sound similar." Neo turned to the book. "And I do sense some darkness coming from this book."
"Do you think you can help our friends?" Spike asked.
"I don't know," Neo said. "The darkness crystal isn't supposed to take animals over. So I have no idea how this is happen or even if it's related to me."
"It has to be related to you!" Rainbow Dash said. "You came out of the book!"
"I'm sorry," Neo said ducking her head down.
"Hold on, Rainbow Dash," Twilight said. "Let's not get off on the wrong hoof here. Why don't you tell us your names and how you know what this darkness stuff is?"
"I'm Monkey D. Luffy! And I'm going to be king of the pirates!" Luffy grinned.
"Pirates?" Pinkie Pie asked. "Why would you want to be a pirate? And a king of one."
"I won't be just king of one pirate," Luffy said. "I'll be king of all the pirates and the New World."
"New World?" Pinkie Pie tilted her head.
"Hey, why am I a horse?" Luffy asked. "Can I still use my devil fruit powers like this?"
"Horse? Devil fruit powers?" Rainbow Dash asked. "What the hay is all that?"
"You don't know? What's wrong with you?" Luffy asked.
"Hold on," Neo said. "You don't know what a devil fruit power is?"
The ponies and dragon shook their heads.
"Luffy, I don't think we're in the New World any more," Neo said.
"What?" Luffy looked at her.
"That thing that brought us here must have taken us to a completely different world or something," Neo said. "A world where the darkness crystal harms animals."
"But it hasn't harmed all the animals," Spike said. "Only a few ponies."
"I see," Neo said. "Well, my name is Neo. I'm an elemental. I have control over all the elements through these crystals." She summoned four crystals, one blue, light blue, red, and green. "I'm actually a part of nature. I also have a solar crystal that can heal a bit and purify the darkness crystal in our world."
"Darkness crystal?" Rainbow Dash laughed. "You can't be serious."
"I am. The darkness crystal only turns my people dark until the royal can heal them with the solar crystal," Neo said. "That's what I did, sort of. It's a really long story."
"So there's more than one of you royals?" Pinkie Pie asked.
"No." Neo shook her head. "A royal is only born when they are needed to purify the darkness crystal."
"There must be another reason for this happening then," Twilight said. "Wait a second. You said you were connected to nature, right?"
"Yes." Neo nodded.
"What are you thinking, Twilight?" Spike asked.
"Think about the ponies that have been turned evil," Twilight said. "They all have one thing in common."
"They're all from Ponyville?" Pinkie Pie asked.
"No, their cutie marks are all related to nature," Twilight said.
"Apple Jack, Rarity, Fluttershy…you're right!" Rainbow Dash said. "How could we have missed that before?!"
"That has to be it," Twilight said. "Neo, do you think you could try and see if you can purify the ponies in Ponyville?"
"I'm not sure. To free my people I had to purify the darkness crystal," Neo said. "And I don't sense one anywhere around here."
"You have to at least try," Twilight said. "Please?"
Neo looked at Luffy. He only shrugged in response. Thinking about it she found she really didn't have a choice. While she wanted to get back to Law, she couldn't just leave these ponies to the darkness like this. "Very well. I'll try. But I'm still not sure that it will do anything."
"Then let's go," Twilight said. The ponies and dragon turned and headed for the stairs.
Luffy took one step, got his legs tangle up, and fell onto the ground with a thud. "Ouch! How are you suppose to walk with four legs?!"
"What's wrong? Don't you know how to walk?" Pinkie Pie asked as she bounced around the room.
"Not with pony legs," Neo said. "We only have two legs in our world."
"We don't have time to wait for them to learn how to walk," Rainbow Dash said.
"We'll just have to carry them. Rainbow, can you fly Luffy?" Twilight asked.
"Sure!" Rainbow Dash flew around to Luffy and picked him up.
"I'll carry Neo with my magic," Twilight said engulfing Neo in her glow. "Let's go."
The ponies ran as Rainbow Dash flew with Luffy. They rushed up the stairs, through the library, down a hall, then out of the castle and finally through the forest.
Neo could feel it. The darkness was coming closer with each step the pony took towards the other side of the forest. Then it became clear. The darkness was hovering over so many ponies. And she could feel each one turning darker with each passing second. They rushed out of the forest. Stopping in the middle of a town, the pirates were sat down on their hooves. She looked around and gasped. "This is…"
"It's bad, isn't it?" Twilight asked.
"Please tell us you can help them," Spike said.
"Well, let's see what happens," Neo said. She summoned her solar crystal.
"Wow!" Pinkie Pie gasped when the yellow crystal appeared.
"Amazing," Twilight said. "It looks just like your cutie mark only its completely yellow."
"Cute mark?" Neo asked.
"It's what we get when we realize our special talent," Twilight said showing off her cutie mark. "All ponies get one eventually."
Neo ran her eyes over the mark on the pony's flank. She then noticed the other ponies had them too, even herself and Luffy despite the fact they weren't ponies. At least they weren't really. She didn't know for sure. She shook her head. There would be time to figure that out later. Right now she had to see if she could get rid of the darkness. Her solar crystal started to glow. The glow washed out over the ponies. Ponies all over the destroyed town slowed to a halt. The darkness the surrounded their bodies started to fade away.
"What happened?"
"My head hurts."
"Why are all my flowers pulled from their pots?"
"Looks like everyone's turning back to normal!" Rainbow Dash said.
"Yippee!" Pinkie Pie bounced up and down. "This is great!"
Neo sighed.
"You okay?" Luffy stepped up beside her.
"I'm fine." Neo leaned against him. "Just a bit tired. That's all."
"We noticed you are pregnant," Twilight said. "If you need anything don't hesitate to asked. We don't want you to hurt yourself or your foal."
"I could go for some meat," Luffy said. "I'm hungry."
"Meat? Uh, yeah, we don't have that around here," Twilight said. "We're ponies."
"What?! No meat?!" Luffy gasped.
"Considering we're ponies now as well I doubt you'll be able to eat meat," Neo said. "Unless our insides are still the same." She looked to Twilight. "What do you think?"
"I'm not sure. I've never done anything like this before," Twilight said.
"What happened?" a pony asked.
"Well, it looks like it's time to do some damage control," Twilight said. She walked away from her friends to start answering questions, or the ones she could answer.
"So it's really gone?" a pony asked.
"Yes, it is," Twilight said.
"No, it's not," Neo said. Heat rushed to her face when everyone turned to her. She swallowed and pawed the ground with her hoof.
"What do you mean?" Pinkie Pie asked.
"Uh, well, if this darkness really is like the one I've faced before it won't be gone until I purify the darkness crystal," Neo said.
"And where would that be?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"I don't know," Neo said. "I don't sense it anywhere."
Everypony started talking at once.
"What do we do?"
"I don't want to be dark again!"
"Princess Twilight! You have to do something!"
"Calm down, everypony. I promise I'll do whatever I can to figure this out," Twilight said. She walked back over to her friends. "Please, just remain calm and go about your business. You're free from the darkness now." She leaned closer to Neo. "Right?"
"I think so," Neo said. "I'm not sensing anymore darkness in them right now."
Twilight sighed. "That's good. We should go check on our friends."
"Let's go then," Pinkie Pie said.
"You two should come with us in case there's more darkness," Twilight said.
Luffy and Neo exchanged looks before they were once again picked up and carted off. Neo curiously inspected the world around her, as did Luffy. The buildings looked so similar to their own yet they were different some how. Though she couldn't exactly put her finger on it, or her hoof technically.
"Rarity!" Spike called out.
Neo turn her attention away from the buildings to find they were landing near a white coated, purple mane and tail pony. Her eyes dropped to the pony's flank. There were three crystals there.
"Are you okay, Rarity?" Spike asked hopping off Twilight's back.
"What happened?" Rarity swayed. "I feel so weird."
"That feeling should go away soon," Neo said.
"Heavens, aren't you two new here?" Rarity looked at Neo and Luffy.
Yup!" Luffy nodded. "I'm Monkey D. Luffy! I'm going to be king of the pirates!"
"Huh?" Rarity blinked.
"There's no time to explain. We have to check on Fluttershy and Apple Jack," Twilight said. "I'll explain everything then."
"Wow! Is that tree an actual house?!" Luffy asked as they came upon Fluttershy's cottage. "I want Franky to put one the ship! Oh, Neo, you can do that for me, can't you?"
"Um, I think so," Neo said. "But I don't think Franky would appreciate it."
"He won't mind. I am the captain after all," Luffy said.
"Fine. We'll see about it when we get back," Neo said.
"Fluttershy?" Twilight asked when they reached the door. She pushed it open and stepped inside. "Are you still here?"
"Yes, I'm here," Fluttershy said picking herself up off the floor. Her animals cowering around the room slowly came of their hiding places. "What happened? I feel so horrible."
"I know. We have to go check on Apple Jack," Twilight said. "I'll explain over on the farm."
"Oh, okay." Fluttershy walked out the door with Twilight. "Oh. New ponies?"
"That's another part I'll have to explain." Twilight picked Neo up on her magic once more before heading off again. This trip was a longer one, but finally after a few minutes the growing group came to the Apple farm.
"Look at all those smashed apple," Luffy said looking at the mess on the ground. "What a waste of good food. I wonder if they'll still taste good."
"Good thing Sanji isn't here. He'd have fits about this," Neo said. "Well, it wasn't their fault."
"Apple Jack!" Twilight called out.
Neo turned her attention forward just as Twilight sat her back down on her hooves. She waited and waited as the same thing as before happened again. The four ponies that were on the farm were asking the same thing everyone else was. Twilight then explained to them what happened.
"So this pony here can control the elements and some solar crystal?" Apple Jack asked.
"That's right," Twilight said.
"That's mighty strange if ya ask me," Apple Jack said.
"Yup." Big Mac nodded.
"I think it sounds cool," Apple Bloom said.
"Well, what in tarnation are we going to do now?" Granny Smith asked.
"I'm not sure," Twilight said. "We need to find this darkness crystal that Neo told us about. If not ponies all over Equestria could be in trouble."
"Maybe we should go speak to Princess Celestia," Fluttershy said.
Spike belched. Green fire flew out of his mouth, as did a scroll. He caught it before it could hit the ground.
"Wow! That was so cool! How did you do that?!" Luffy asked.
"It's a gift." Spike shrugged and unrolled the scroll. "Sweet Celestia! The princess is summoning us all to the castle! It appears the darkness has taken over ponies in Canterlot too!"
"It's happening in Canterlot too? Oh no. Then it must be happening all over Equestria. We have to get to Canterlot fast," Twilight said. "Neo, Luffy, I'm sorry this is happening so fast but we need you to come with us."
"Sure thing," Luffy said. "Right, Neo?"
"It doesn't look like we have much of a choice. But Law's not going to be happy about this," Neo said. "I can't seem to get in contact with him."
"Well, think of something," Luffy said.
"What do you mean get in contact with him?" Rarity said.
"It's a long story," Neo said.
"One in which we don't have time for," Twilight said. "We have to go. Now."