Sickeningly Sweet

By: AtomicKokoro

Storyline

When things go wrong with a magic remote, Mikado and Masaomi are stuck with whole new bodies in the Children's show My Little Pony.

…

Before You Read

Last intro chapter, I promise! Then, we start the adventures!

And sorry for the long wait. I've decided to make this chapter extra long for you guys, cause I feel bad.

On with the story!

…

Chapter 5

Difference

The rest of the day was spent simply with the two colts away from each other; Mikado helped Applejack with Apple Bucking Season, while Rainbow Dash was teaching Masaomi how to fly (they were progressing rather slowly, but progressing nevertheless).

Come evening, Twilight had called the Ponies together to meet at the library. Only five minutes before the meeting, Rainbow Dash and Masaomi and Applejack and Mikado met up on a crossroad just before the Library. "Masaomi!"

"Hey!"

Mikado blinked and hurried over to his friend, who made a sketchy landing as he touched ground. "Wow, you're flying better now."

"Yup," Masaomi chirped, and tossed his head in the direction of Rainbow Dash, who remained flying in the sky. "R.D is teaching me."

"Lucky," Mikado sighed. "I wish I could fly."

"And you," the blond replied, lifting a hoof at the pepper. "get to work on a farm with a lovely mare." With that, Masaomi glanced over Mikado's shoulder and winked at Applejack, who blushed slightly and rubbed a hoof against her elbow.

Mikado rolled his eyes.

At that moment, Twilight Sparkle walked out of the library and saw the four just down the road. "Hey!" she called, earning their attention. "Why are you guys standing out here? Come inside."

The Ponies nodded and walked inside. Rarity and Pinkie Pie were already there with Spike. It appeared Fluttershy was running a bit late, so Twilight trotted off to get some drinks while Pinkie Pie offered them all a cupcake she made that day.

"Good cakes," Masaomi said through a mouthful of batter.

Pinkie Pie giggled. "Those aren't cakes, silly!" she laughed. "Those are cupcakes!"

Masaomi opened his mouth to correct her, when Rarity placed a hoof on his shoulder and shook her head. Masaomi shut his mouth, confused, but followed Rarity's advice. Just as Twilight made her way into the room, the front door opened and Fluttershy hurried in. "I'm so sorry I'm late, guys," she panted, then stopped and rubbed her elbow. "I wasn't interrupting anything, was I?"

"Not at all," Twilight replied, setting down her tray of drinks.

"Oh, well," Fluttershy continued her way to the table and sat down in the empty spot beside Mikado, taking a cupcake Pinkie Pie offered her. "Thank you. I was taking care of some animals, and I guess I got carried away."

"It's alright," Mikado chuckled. "It was nice of you to care for those animals."

Fluttershy blushed and took a bite out of her cupcake. "Well, it's nothing to brag about..."

"Alrighty, Twi," Applejack said when the chatter died down. "What's the meetin' about?"

Twilight sat down at her round table and pressed her hooves together on the table. "Well, I got a letter from Princess Celestia, and she said that she will look into Kida and Ryū's situation. We had a feeling that Ryū and Kida may not be from Equestria, so she said she would look for some place called Ikebukuro outside of the country.

"Until then, she told us to stay here and teach them the way of Ponyville. She also suggested we also have them write to her as well. She said she would love to hear from our new friends if they learn something about friendship!"

"Say what?" Masaomi frowned, not sounding impressed.

"You see," Rainbow Dash began, deciding to explain it all. "every week, we write to the Princess about something we learned about Friendship. Twilight is her very student, and the Princess told her to write her a letter every time she learns about Friendship, but there was this incident Twilight got afraid of being tardy-" Rainbow Dash made a face. "-and started freaking out, but we really didn't care, and so she started trying to start a problem so she could solve it so she would have a letter to write to the Princess-"

"Hold it there, cowgirl," Applejack jumped in before Rainbow Dash could say any more. "Don't you think we should be explaining more about the letter then the why?"

Rainbow Dash chuckled sheepishly. "Oh. Right."

"Well," Fluttershy interjected, trying at her hoof this time. "we all write letters to the Princess whenever we learn something about friendship, like kindness, loyalty, honesty, or anything like that, like a report."

Pinkie Pie jumped out of her seat and started speaking a mile a minute before anyone could prepare. "And it's so much fun learning about all this Friendship and writing to the Princess and having fun and, oh! It's so great! And then, after, we all get to talk about what happened and we eat cupcakes and it's so cool cause we get even closer then we ever did before!"

Twilight chuckled. "Alright, Pinkie Pie. Calm down, now."

Pinkie Pie nodded and sat back in her seat, blowing up her cheeks with the un-vented excitement.

"So, we get to write a letter?" Mikado repeated, trying to sum everything up in enough words for Masaomi.

Rarity rolled her eyes. "You don't just write a letter. You write a letter to the Princess of Equestria. This is a great honor, you know."

Masaomi raised an eyebrow. "We write letters to one of the most important peo-...Ponies of the country just to tell her about an adventure you had with your friends?"

"Yup!" Pinkie Pie chirped.

There was an awkward silence before Masaomi realized he was not getting another answer. "Okay," he said. "I guess I'm fine with that."

"Me, too," Mikado said.

The other Ponies around the table gave a small cheer (which the colts found they did quite a bit of) and Twilight stood. "Well, it's getting dark," she said. "I guess you should start heading home."

Applejack nodded. "Yup, I still got introduce Ryū to the family and get him settled in for the night."

The rest of the table nodded, and they all stood up.

"Goodnight!"

…

Rainbow Dash and Masaomi made it to her home by dark, landing on the cloud softly. Masaomi smiled. It was almost like walking on air. "Good landing," Rainbow Dash complimented, walking across the cloud.

"Thank you," he said, following her. He glanced around and took in the rather nice space for something to be made out of clouds. He looked into through a falling rainbow, like a waterfall or maybe more of a house fountain. "So, if you don't mind me asking-"

"Where are you going to sleep tonight?" Masaomi blushed bashfully. Rainbow Dash puffed her chest in pride. "Don't worry. I got that covered."

"Really?"

"Yup!" she chirped. "Where you're standing is just fine." He blinked and Rainbow Dash laughed. "It's a cloud, idiot. You can sleep anywhere on it, unlike the floor."

"Oh!" Masaomi took that moment to stomp his front hooves and looked around again. "You have a nice place."

"Thank you," she replied, laying down near the center.

Masaomi looked at how far he was from the edge and took a few steps in. He was one for kicking and rolling a lot in his sleep, so he decided a safe distance from the edge would be a good idea. He layed down and rolled on his back. "Beautiful," he said.

"Hm?" Rainbow Dash questioned from her half-daze. "Thank you..."

Masaomi chuckled. "I meant the stars," he whispered. The stars dazzled in the shy, twinkling like little flashlights of the night, watching over them. "That's amazing. Where I come from, you can't see the stars at night."

Confused and suddenly interested, Rainbow Dash rolled around and jolted when she realized how close Masaomi was. She also looked at the sky and tilted her head. "Why not? Do you live in a dome or something?"

Masaomi's ears folded back. "I guess you never heard of pollution, huh?"

"Pollution?" the rainbow Pegasus questioned. "We had that once. It turned out to be a dragon sleeping in a nearby mountain. Maybe that's what's causing it!"

Masaomi shook his head. "No, pollution is caused by something else. The people-...Ponies who create it know what they are doing, but do nothing to stop it because they are afraid to break the cycle and- Well, it's a long story."

Slowly, Rainbow Dash nodded. "So...is this the first time you've ever seen a sky so full of stars?"

"No. I saw a beautiful sky just like this once, back in Saitama. Mikado and I were camping outside my father's barn and we watched the stars all night. We never took our eyes off it, not until we slept. And, after that, we wanted to see the sky again. So, the very next week, we stayed out late and camped again outside and watched the stars. One of my favorite memories."

Rainbow Dash's gaze had been taken from the sky to the amazed wonder on Masaomi's face as he told his story, when it dawned on her. "So, why did you leave...Saitama...to go to this place full of pollution?"

The blond frowned. "My parents needed work, because their was a drought. We moved to Ikebukuro, and as it turned out, they found an amazing job they couldn't leave to go back to Saitama so we stayed there. And, eventually, Mikado came, too. We stayed out once to see the stars, but there were none, so we went back inside and painted my bathroom ceiling. We had to paint over it later, but it was still a lot of fun."

"I see," Rainbow Dash sighed, looking back up at the stars. "I guess we're pretty lucky here, aren't we?"

"Pretty damn lucky..."

…

She kicked the door open and trotted in. "I'm ho-ome!" Applejack sang, Mikado trailing slowly after her. He had to admit; the place was more like a giant barn than a house, but he remembered the one he used to live in when he was little and felt more at home.

He glanced up and saw three other Ponies around a kitchen table, finishing up some apple pie. "Applejack, you're home!" the smallest one cheered, galloping up to her, then glancing back at the new comer. "Who's this?"

"This here is Ryū," Applejack introduced. "Ryū, this is Applebloom, my little sis, Big Macintosh, and Granny Smith."

Mikado gave a small wave when Applebloom chuckled. "Must be pretty embarrassing to be you."

"Applebloom, don't say that!" Applejack scolded, but Mikado's reaction was different.

"What makes you say that?" he asked.

Applebloom chuckled and pointed to his hips. "Look!" she said. "He doesn't have a cutie mark. He's a blank flank!"

Mikado glanced back and tilted an eyebrow, then turned to Applejack to compare himself. She had three apples on her thigh while he had nothing. Even Big Macintosh and Granny Smith had something (although he noticed Applebloom didn't) and tilted his head. "So?"

"My gosh," Applejack gasped. "She's right. You don't have your cutie mark. Boy, are you late!"

"I don't understand," he panicked, walking in circles. "I don't understand, I don't understand. What does this mean? Can I get it fixed? Healed?"

Applejack tilted her head. "Don't tell me you don't know what a cutie mark is."

"Uhh," Mikado began slowly. "I wasn't exactly...told?"

There was a long pause and Applejack rubbed her head. "I'm too tired for this," she muttered. "Let's hit the hay before things get anymore confusing."

Mikado blushed slightly, then trailed after her slowly upstairs. "I'm sorry," he said as Applejack opened the door to her room. He thought it was strange there was a piece cut out of the door in the shape of an apple. It seemed like there would be an invasion of privacy but, then again, it was a Children's show about Ponies. What privacy could possible be needed?

"Nah, don't worry about it," Applejack sighed, taking off her hat and throwing it on her dresser. "I'm just tired is all. Need a little rest so I can figure out what's going on. Hold on a sec, I'll get you a mattress."

But Mikado stopped her. "No, no. Don't worry about it. The floor will be fine for the night." Then he paused. "Are you sure this is alright?"

Applejack blinked sleepily. "Yeah, this is alright. Why wouldn't it be alright?"

"Cause," Mikado replied awkwardly. "I'm a boy and...you're a girl?"

Applejack stared at him for a moment, wondering what he was trying to get at, when realization dawned on her. "Yeah, no, it's fine. We're a little young for that, anyway."

Mikado blinked, then slowly nodded. "Yeah. That's what I was hoping you would say."

The blond poked her head into her closet and pulled out a blanket and a pillow with her teeth. "Will this do?" she asked.

Mikado nodded and took the blanket and pillow, setting them right beside Applejack's bed. "This is perfect," he said. "Thank you."

She nodded and jumped into her bed, crawling under the sheets. "Kay, good. Yer welcome."

The night was warm anyway. Applejack laid for a moment in her bed, tired but unsleeping. Once tired of lack of sleep, she turned to Mikado, who was wide awake, staring at her ceiling. When he noticed her staring at him, he blushed and tried to focus on the ceiling. "What's it like where you're from?" she asked.

Mikado flinched, caught off guard by the question. He relaxed once the question progressed and looked back up at the ceiling. "Big," he said. "Lots of buildings. Ikebukuro almost never sleeps. It's crazy, the city. So much to do, and so much happens, I'm afraid of being left behind, so you always got to keep up, but that's what I love about it."

Applejack frowned. "I tried my hoof at being a city slicker once, but I just couldn't do it. You said you were from the country. How could you handle such a big change?"

"I don't know," Mikado sighed. "Well, I guess the big cities here in Equestria are more...sophisticated than the ones I know. In Ikebukuro, you only have to be one thing to survive there, but other than that, you'll fit right in. It is a big city with many other people, so you'll find someone like you soon enough."

There was a pause, before Applejack asked, "You said you only have to be one thing to survive...'there'. What did you mean?"

Mikado stared at the ceiling, and a dark shadow overcast him. Applejack was worried for a moment that she asked the wrong question. "Strong," he said. "You have to be strong, but," He turned to her and smiled. "I guess the faint-hearted manage to get around, too, so I guess it's just only some parts they gotta stay away from."

Applejack slowly, nodded.

"I like it here in Ponyville," he continued. "We don't really have anything to fear, and we have a lot of friends now, so I guess we're going to be just fine."

"'We'?"

"Yeah. Masaomi and I. This is almost like a vacation from the craziness of Ikebukuro. Masaomi will really love it, and I always liked learning something new, so staying here might be good for us."

Applejack smiled. "I sure hope so," she said. "You fit right in, except for the lack of a cutie mark, but that should be easy considering your age."

Mikado chuckled. "Alright," he said. "You look really tired. We should probably get some sleep."

"Yup," she yawned, rolling over. "Big day tomorrow."

Mikado nodded and rolled over, too, pulling the blanket up to his chin. "Big day for sure."