Welcome back everybody!
Gotta get this outta the way by saying...Wow! The first two chapters have been up for less than a week, and so far the response has been pretty positive! I'm glad you all are enjoying reading it as much as I like writing it!
I did get two reviews from JeaSonDash who had a few questions and concerns about the fic that I'm happy to answer, thanks so much for the review man, it really means a lot!
First off, Confidant Arcana. Why did I choose Pinkie Pie to be the Fool? Well for me at first I was thinking about it all fairly literally, since Pinkie Pie is often the one making a fool of herself for the sake of laughter, but the more I thought about it in terms of the story, it made since due to Pinkie being the first Confidant in the new chapter of the Fool's Journey...hence, the Fool. These confidant links will be a little on the nose.
Second, I fixed Applejack's speech in the 2nd chapter because being the idiot I am, I didn't keep her accent consistent. But it's fixed now.
Lastly, the question about the Mane Six receiving their own Persona's...I realize now this was kind of a stupid idea, and now I have a different direction I'm gonna take.
Other than that, that's all I got. Thanks so much for the positive support, especially the reviews from JeaSonDash and Vilostrike218, and let's hope to keep the momentum rolling.
Before I move on "Sentences that look like this are spoken by shadows" just to give you an idea.
LETS GET ON WITH IT
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or locations from either Persona, or My Little Pony. Rights go to ATLUS and Hasbro respectively. And many of the shadows that will appear in this fic will be references to other movies/games so those are owned by their respective companies as well.
Sunset Shimmer's Castle - November 11th
Joker looked up at the large castle that was standing in front of them, his first thought was not of its size, nor the fact that this was the Palace that would get them home. Joker could only think of one thing.
'What's the deal with high school's being castles…?' The leader of the Phantom Thieves thought with his hand on his chin, thinking back to the first Palace he ever entered being Kamoshida's. He looked over to Mona, who was also staring at the castle with his arms crossed.
"I guess it makes sense that she would think of the school as a castle...She's been crowned 'Princess' for multiple years now…" Mona said with a small frown on his face.
"I guess...It's just weird that it happened twice." Joker then looked back at Sunset's castle again, noticing a banner bearing what looked to be a red and yellow sun running over the front where the stained glass painting of the stallion would have been normally. Joker's eyes then go back to the two beings that had followed them to the Palace. Twilight Sparkle, the other transfer student who was running against Sunset Shimmer for Fall Formal Princess, and next to her was her dog Spike, they both were looking at the castle in front of them with a mixture of awe and fear.
"That banner…" Twilight started to speak, bringing Joker and Mona's attention back to the banner going down the front of the castle. "That's...Sunset Shimmer's Cutie Mark!" Twilight nearly yelled out, Spike seemed to look up at her in surprise while Joker and Mona just looked confused.
"Cutie what-now…?" Joker asked Twilight, but the girl didn't seem to hear him. Twilight then connects the dots as to what had been there before they had entered the Metaverse.
"Is that...the school!?" Twilight yells in questioning.
"Yes...Well, kind of. It's a long story…" Mona answers, this time Twilight hears the reply, just looking back at the two in shock, before looking back at the castle.
"This doesn't make any sense!" Twilight says before running off towards the entrance of the castle, leaving Joker, Mona, and Spike in the dust. "What is going on here!?"
"H-Hey, hold up!" Joker yelled out to the girl running towards the front entrance. Spike then took off after Twilight, which the other two heard something they didn't expect.
"Twilight, wait!" The dog yelled out to Twilight, trying to catch up. Leaving a shocked Joker behind.
"Did that dog just talk…?" Joker asked, Mona just gave his partner a blank stare.
"Really...I've been around you for how long? And you're still surprised by stuff like that? Come on! Before they alert the shadows!" Mona said, making Joker nod as they ran after Spike and Twilight. Joker left a pink splash behind him with every step he took, while Morgana's legs worked so fast it formed a dust cloud.
Sunset Shimmer's Castle - Main Hall
The two Phantom Thieves saw Twilight and Spike enter the castle through the front entrance, making the two speed up after them before they could run into any shadows. Once Joker and Mona reached the front doors, Joker swung one open, allowing him and Mona to enter. When they entered there were two things that stood out to them right away. The color scheme of yellow and red that was on the banner outside stayed the same indoors, as the same banner was hung in multiple places, the second was a grand staircase leading up an upstairs section of the castle. Joker noticed there were two large doors on either side of the room that must have led to different parts of the castle. Joker looked ahead and saw that Twilight and Spike were standing a few yards in front of the thieves, looking around the castle interior. Mona then ran up to the girl and her dog.
"What were you two thinking, running off like that?" Mona questioned the two, causing them both to turn around.
"We just saw the school we've been going to for two days transform into a school, wouldn't that leave you curious too?" The dog, Spike, spoke up. Twilight looked down to Spike in surprise as her dog looked back up to her. "What? He has a talking cat, I'm a talking dog, I don't think they're surprised…" Spike told Twilight, who started to look around the interior again, noticing three large paintings of Sunset Shimmer wearing the normal Fall Formal crown hung up on each side of the room.
"What even is this place? Why is Sunset Shimmer...everywhere!?" Twilight asked the cat, who just gave her a plain stare.
"Well, it is her Palace, so it would make sense that paintings of her and her symbol would be plastered everywhere…" Mona said, causing more confusion to appear on Twilight's face.
"Her...Palace?" The girl asked again, her confusion growing by the second.
"It's a little tough to explain right now…" Mona replied, but Twilight didn't seem to care as she walked over to the right side of the room, looking straight at a bookcase and taking notes of the titles of them, and one book in particular stood out to her. A large, purple covered book with the title of 'Princess Sunset's Conquests'. Twilight grabbed the book and opened it up, Joker, Mona, and Spike all walked over to her.
As Twilight sifted through the pages, she wasn't coming across any pictures of note, until she saw a glimpse of a bright and colorful picture that she passed by. Once she flipped back to it, her face turned to one of pure shock as five figures in the picture stood out to her. As Joker was looking over Twilight's shoulder, he was able to recognize two of the figures in the picture.
Right at the top of the photo were the faces of Applejack, the girl who Akira saved from taking a verbal beating from Sunset Shimmer, and just to the right of Applejack stood Pinkie Pie, the girl in his homeroom class who is the head of the Party Planning Committee. Both girls seemed considerably younger in this photo. Joker took note of the other three girls below. The one of them had yellow-tinted skin with light pink hair, the girl on the right had white-greyish skin and had purple hair with hints of blue, while the girl on the far right was the most intriguing, as she had light blue skin with rainbow colored hair, which just added to the list of things he had never seen before that this dimension has shown him.
Joker's focus then went back to Twilight, who was just staring wide-eyed at the photograph. He could assume that Twilight knew all of them somehow, so he pry for information.
"You know all of them?" Joker asked, Twilight never took her eyes off the picture as she responded.
"They're...They're my friends...but I thought they didn't like each other over here…?" Twilight stutters out. Mona just looked up at Joker.
"Over here?" Mona wondered what Twilight meant by this, Joker simply thought if this could tie back to that place Twilight mentioned during her argument with Sunset, Equestria he remembered her calling it. Joker decided to question her about it later. Twilight was about to read the passage below the picture, when they heard an almost demonic voice call out.
"Who goes there!?" The voice called out, Twilight and Spike turned around in surprise, while Joker and Mona immediately knew what was happening. Joker took the book from Twilight's hands, put it back in the case, and grabbed Twilight's hand before running to the nearest door, opening it, and hiding behind it. Joker held the door open so Spike and Mona could follow suit.
"What's going on-" Twilight tried asking, but was quickly met with Joker's gloved hand covering her mouth as he gave a quiet "shhh" to silence her. Twilight blushed at how close the thief was to her, just now noticing how dark and mysterious his attire made him look. His steel-like eyes silenced her effectively from behind his mask. Joker cracked open the door a tiny bit so he could see what was happening.
Down the large set of stairs ran two large armored figures, complexion completely dark, and eyes glowing red peering from behind a large mask covering their whole face. Joker noticed that these two figures were carrying lances with banners bearing Sunset's symbol hanging off of them. Joker took his hand off of Twilight, causing her, Mona, and Spike to look out of the crack in the door. The two armored figures looked around the area where the group had just been, they looked like soldiers to the group.
"I swear I heard voices down here…" The first figure said, turning its head to search the room, the second figure, who looked identical to the first replied.
"Could there possibly be an intruder here?" The second soldier asked, examining the other side of the room. The first soldier then took a look over by the bookcase Twilight had taken the book out of a minute ago, he noticed that the books on the shelf had been knocked around, which happened as a result of Joker shoving the large purple book back on the shelf.
"Definitely...Go back to the throne room and tell the Princess that we have an intruder!" The first knight yelled out, causing the second one to run back up the stairs in a hurry. The other soldier started to investigate the area. Joker mentally cursed himself for rushing to hide, while Twilight and Spike stared on with a mixture of horror and confusion.
"What is that thing?" Spike asked the feline standing next to him.
"That's a shadow, they're basically the guards of Palaces...and they don't hold back in a fight" Mona told the canine, who just kept looking at the shadow. Twilight just shook her head.
"Wait, what did they mean by 'intruders'?" Twilight wondered, Joker was the one to answer the question this time.
"Judging by the fact that Mona and I changed clothes when we came here, it's likely Sunset Shimmer see's anyone from outside the school as a threat to her…" Joker answered, looking to Mona to see if he was right. Mona just smiled at his partner.
"Hit it right on the head, Joker." Mona replied with a thumbs up, making Twilight and Spike look back towards the two Phantom Thieves.
"Joker? Mona? What's with that?" Twilight inquired about the codenames the two had. They were about to reply, until they heard the shadow's booming voice coming from behind the door.
"There you are!" The shadow yelled as they could hear it's footsteps steadily coming towards the door they were behind. Joker grabbed Twilight's hand again.
"No time to explain, we gotta move!" Joker said, dragging Twilight down the dark hallway as Mona and Spike followed behind. They all heard the door swing open, but refused to look back as they all sprinted down the hallway.
Sunset Shimmer's Castle - 5 Minutes Later
After a few minutes of running, the group of Joker, Mona, and Twilight found themselves in a completely new section of the castle. They then stopped to catch their breath, before looking around at where they were, in the middle of a dark corridor with only one door at the end of the hall in sight.
"I think...we lost him…" Mona said to the rest in between breaths. Joker tried to find any sense of where they were, and they hadn't been paying attention to the turns they took along the way here.
"Well, l didn't think this is how we would explore the Palace…" Joker said with a small grin on his face. Twilight then dusted herself off and looked at Joker.
"I'm glad you seemed to have fun, but I think I've had just about eno-" Twilight stopped and looked at her feet, her eyes going wide at a realization. "Spike? Where did Spike go!?" Twilight nearly screamed out, obviously worried for her dog. The two thieves were surprised they didn't notice it sooner, Spike must have fallen behind. Twilight started to hyperventilate as Joker tried to calm the girl down.
"No need to worry, I'm sure Spike may have just made an early turn, we can go back and look for him." Joker told Twilight, putting a hand on her shoulder, but a deep, distorted voice pulled them out of their thoughts.
"You won't have to look far…" Said the voice from behind them. They turned around to notice the shadow that had been chasing them earlier step out of the shadows, lance in one hand, and the other hand held Spike by the neck, being held close to the soldier's chest. Twilight instinctively shot towards her companion.
"Spike!" Twilight yelled out, before the shadow put the edge of it's lance up to Spike's neck, making Twilight stop dead in her tracks, tears starting to form in her eyes.
"Not another step, intruders…" The shadow commanded. Twilight then tried to plead with the shadow as Joker started reaching into the pockets of his coat, slow enough to not draw attention.
"Let him go right now, please!" Twilight begged, nearly getting onto her knees as the shadow walked forward.
"I cannot do that, Princess Sunset has ordered us to capture any intruders we find." The shadow replied, making Twilight's eyes widen up again at the name.
"P-Princess Sunset?" Twilight asked. Mona looked over to Joker to see him slowly pull something out of his coat, the cat smirked, knowing what it was and ready to follow up on his plan.
"The Princess does not want anyone to pose a threat to her rule over this place, thus all trespassers must be captured." The shadow answered, slowly lowering his lance from Spike's throat. Twilight then got back up and put her hands together.
"Please, leave Spike out of this! Take me instead!" Twilight pleaded with the shadow to switch her and Spike's position. Spike then called out to her.
"T-Twilight! Don't d-do it!" Spike said, breaking the heart of the young girl, but the shadow holding him merely laughed.
"You don't understand...All intruders must be captured and punished. As the sentence for trespassing, is deat-" The knight started to say before a loud *bang* went off in the room, as something hit the shadow straight in the face, causing it's upper body to bend backwards, loosening its grip on Spike and allowing the dog to escape and run into Twilight's arms. Twilight and Spike looked to see where the loud noise had come from.
There, standing before them, was Joker, aiming a pistol right at the shadow, a line of smoke rising out of the gun.
Before Twilight had any time to comprehend what she just saw, Joker and Mona ran forward ahead of the two as Mona called out to them.
"Leave this to us!" Mona told the two, his overly large saber already in hand, making the other two wonder where the cat was hiding such a weapon. Joker then turned around and spoke towards the group, both knife and gun ready in hand.
"Twilight, shadows are our speciality…" Joker said with a different accent then his usual one. Twilight and Spike just looked confused as Mona rolled his eyes at the obscure reference. Neither of them noticed that the contorted figure of the shadow had already lost it's mask, having flown off when Joker's bullet collided with the mask. The shadow twisted itself back in place to have it's beady red eyes to stare at the two Phantom Thieves.
"You insignificant vermin...I'll make you pay for that!" The shadow yelled out as it's form started to sink into a black puddle, shaking around before reappearing in front of their eyes.
Joker hadn't seen a shadow quite like this before, what the group had seen before them was a beast that would normally give someone nightmares. In front of them was a creature that had been standing on its hind legs with two giant arms with claws to accompany it. It's jet black fur seemed to cover the beast in every area, except for the spots that were taken by protruding, white spikes of what seemed to be bone shooting out of the creatures arms, shoulders, and spine. To top it off, the creature had a helmet that looked to be in the shape of a skull with red lines running across it, with glowing red eyes that tried to peek into your soul. The creature then roared at the two thieves standing before them, who looked unafraid, as they had dealt with many creatures like this before.
"Alright Joker, let's do this!" Mona said with a cocky smile, Joker merely flashed his trademark smirk and spun his knife. The creature before them stood ready for anything that would come their way. Twilight and Spike just watched in anticipation of the battle before them.
The shadow made the first move, swinging one of it's claws at Joker, who swiftly jumped out of the way of the attack, letting Mona get in a quick strike with his saber, making the beast flinch in pain and back away from the two. Joker pulled out his pistol again and tried taking shots from afar, but while the bullets seemed to hit, they didn't get much of a reaction out of the creature.
"It seems resistant to gunfire...we should try to figure out it's affinity, Joker!" Mona yelled over to the team leader, who nodded in response. Mona didn't have time to think as the creature shot out a few spikes towards the cat, who recognized the technique of Dream Needle, and was able to mostly jump out of the way, but one spike barely scraped the cat, and they were thankful he was still awake after the fact. Joker then decided it was time to counterattack, and he had a hunch he knew the affinity of the demon-like creature. Joker ripped off his mask and let a blue flame engulf his face.
"Arsène!" Joker called out to his persona, allowing the spirit form of the legendary Phantom Thief to come forth, materializing behind Joker.
Both Twilight and Spike couldn't believe what they were seeing, Spike was the first to break their silence.
"W-What is that thing?" Spike asked fearfully of Twilight, who simply looked at the Joker's Persona.
"I don't know Spike...But it looks powerful…" Twilight replied, wishing she had some paper to write down notes on what she was seeing. The beast in front of them started to back away in fear at the sight of Arsène. Joker slowly walked towards the beast and called upon his spirit of rebellion.
"Ravage them!" Joker called out to his Persona, casting Kougaon, sending a pillar of light to shine down on the beast, hurting the beast a fair bit, causing it to fall to its knees. Joker's assumption was right, it was weak to Bless skills.
"Lookin' cool, Joker!" Mona called out to his partner, who just smirked in return before rushing forward, Mona knew what this meant. "Time for some bloodshed!" Mona called out as both he and Joker jumped up in the air and sped towards the shadow performing their signature All-Out Attack, slashing back and forth with such speed that Twilight had seen few times before.
As Joker and Mona finished their attack, they safely landed, thinking the battle was over. Joker was ready to adjust his gloves and finish the battle, but they heard a roar and Joker was quickly met with a large fist hitting his back, sending him flying a few feet before landing on his feet in front of Twilight and Spike. Twilight ran up to the thief with Spike still in her arms, a worried look on her face.
"You brat! You should learn your place beneath Princess Sunset!" The shadow yelled out to the group, who weren't listening. The shadow was now hunched over and seemed to be breathing heavily.
"Akira! Are you ok?" Twilight asked out of worry, but this was quickly waved off by Joker, who flashed a smirk at Twilight.
"It'll take a lot more than a simple punch to take me down." Joker replied before looking back over to the shadow, who seemed to be struggling to stand up and moving slowly. Joker looked over towards Mona who was staring the creature down. "That shadow's weak, Mona. Finish 'em off!" Joker yelled out to his fellow thief, who smirked in response before summoning his own Persona.
"Zorro, show your might!" Mona called out, summoning a stocky humanoid figure, wearing an entirely black outfit, with a cape blowing behind it and yellow eyes peering out from behind a mask. The Persona, known as Zorro, pointed the rapier that it had been holding in it's right hand at the shadow. Twilight and Spike stared in awe at the legendary swordsman.
"He has one of those things too!?" Twilight yelled out in questioning. Spike looked on in amazement at the cat's abilities.
"That's so awesome!" Spike called out with a huge smile on his face before Mona sent forth a violent blast of wind using Garudyne, colliding with the shadow and making it disappear from the hit, signifying the end of the battle. Mona then walks back over to Joker with a grin on his face.
"A stylish victory, wouldn't you say, Joker?" Mona said confidently to the leader of the team, who just flashed a smile back. Spike quickly jumped out of Twilight's arms and got on Mona's level.
"Thanks for saving me, you guys...but that was incredible! How did you do that? What were those things?" Spike asked question after question.
"Well, those were our Personas." Mona answered plainly, Spike just tilted his head to the side.
"Persona?"
"Long story, we'll explain later…" Mona replied with a sweatdrop running down his face, then Twilight was quick to follow up with a small frown
"You two seem to have a LOT of explaining to do…" Twilight said with her arms crossed, making Joker and Mona give the girl an embarrassed smile.
"I promise we'll tell you everything, but right now we have to get out-" Joker started to say, until they heard a blood-curdling scream of pain coming from the door at the end of the hall. The group of four turned around to face the door. Twilight made a few steps towards the door, Spike following her step for step.
"D-Did anyone else hear that?" Spike asked the group, each one of them nodded. Twilight and Spike were slightly weary, while Joker and Mona remained unfazed, they experienced something like this in Kamoshida's castle. They stood by for a second before they could hear the voice again, but this time it actually spoke instead of screaming, it seemed to be a male voice.
"Please! No more!" The group heard from the other side of the door, causing Twilight to run forward towards the door, Spike following close behind her.
"Someone in there needs help!" Twilight yelled, swinging the door open and running through. Mona tried yelling out to the girl and her dog.
"Hey, come back! Those voices aren't from real people-Ugh, why do I even bother?" Mona asked his partner in crime, who just shrugged before the two ran off after Twilight and Spike.
Sunset Shimmer's Castle - Dungeon
Joker and Mona entered the room to see, once again, a straight narrow hallway. But this time there was something different. Both sides of the room had cell bars, with a medieval style door as the only way in between them, they also noticed that there would be a stretch of bars, and then a stone wall in between the next set of bars. Joker and Mona immediately recognized this look.
"This must be the castle dungeons…" Mona said, looking at the bars. Joker's attention shifted down the hall, where they saw Twilight and Spike, mouths agape as they were looking into one of the cells. Joker and Mona ran up to them and looked in the same direction of the other two, and saw something truly terrible, but to the two Phantom Thieves, it wasn't terribly shocking to see inside a Palace.
Inside the cell, they could see one of the shadow guards towering over a male teen with purple skin, blue hair, a yellow sweater and glasses. The shadow was holding a leather whip in its hand as the teenager was on all-fours, tears running down his face.
"Stop...please stop it!" The teen yelled at the shadow, the only response the teen got was a whip to the back, making him cry out in pain again and sending his glasses off of his face. Joker furrowed his eyebrows at the actions he had seen, but saw much of the same happening in Kamoshida's Palace. Twilight however gasped at the horrific sight.
"I-I've seen him before...He's a student at Canterlot High, he passed me in the hallway today!" Twilight stated with a quivering lip. Mona simply nodded as he knew the reason behind this, it was the same with Kamoshida.
"Since Sunset is the ruler here, this must be what she thinks of the students...Nothing more than slaves." Mona told the girl, who stood in shock as she started to check the other cells. Spike just looked at Mona in shock.
"S-Slaves!?" Spike yelped, but Mona shushed him to try and not alert the shadow in the cell. "Sorry...But why would she trap people here?"
"They aren't actually real people, it's Sunset's perceptions of the students." Joker answered the dog, who just looked confused, the two thieves decided to leave it for now. The three male's were brought out of their thoughts when they heard Twilight gasp again, they all looked over to see her staring in a cell near the end of the hallway. The group then ran to her.
"Twilight, what's wrong?" Spike asked the girl, who slowly lifted a finger and pointed into the cell. The three then turned, and the sight they saw even made Joker's jaw drop. In the back of the cell, two figures were chained to the wall through cuffs, one figure seemed to be a woman with light blue skin and dark blue hair, while the other had a familiar pair of pink skin, and multicolored hair. Joker instantly recognized who this was from earlier in the day.
"Principal Celestia…!" Joker yelled under his breath, his eyes widening at the realization. Spike then recognized the other figure in the room.
"And that's...Vice Principal Luna!" The dog yelped out. Mona and Joker knew they hadn't met the Vice Principal of CHS yet and they tried to commit her face to memory. Twilight moved closer towards the bars as the cognitive version of Celestia lifted her head and saw the group.
"Twilight…" Cognitive Celestia called out, making Twilight immediately listen to her. "Run...escape from this place! Princess Sunset...is too powerful…" Celestia pleaded with the girl, who started to form tears in her eyes. Joker assumed that Celestia and Luna were in this position due to Sunset overthrowing the school, and throwing the Principal's allowed Sunset to make sure they were no longer a threat to her throne. "There isn't much time left, you need to go!" Celestia called out.
"But...I-I can still save you-" Twilight started before Mona cut her off.
"Twilight don't. We can't help them." Mona told the girl, who just looked back in shock at the cat's words. Luna then lifted her head up to speak.
"We'll be ok Twilight...don't worry about us." Vice Principal Luna told them. Twilight hung her head in defeat and put her hands on the cell bars.
"Princess Celestia...Princess Luna...I-"
"I should have known I would find the intruders among the other pieces of trash…" The group heard a distorted female voice call out from down the hall where they had entered the dungeon.
When they turned around they saw two shadow knights walking forward with lances in hand, but what had caught their interest was the girl behind them, Sunset Shimmer. Joker and Mona could tell by the bright yellow eyes peering at them that this was Sunset's shadow.
The shadow of Sunset Shimmer wore a long white, strapless dress with a yellow sun design around her waist, and red flames decorating the end of the dress, making it seem like her dress was currently ablaze. The dress was long in the back, but raised off the ground as it got to the front side, allowing them to see her legs and white heels that finished off her outfit along with a set of white opera gloves, but the part that stood out the most was the crown atop her head.
The golden tiara atop her head shined brightly, showing off a gemstone in the middle that was in the same shape of the symbol that Joker had seen on every banner around the castle. Suddenly the term of Princess Sunset made sense to them all.
Joker and Mona stepped forward and got into a battle ready stance as Sunset's shadow stepped in front of her two guards. Twilight stared on at the Princess in front of her.
"S-Sunset Shimmer? Is that you?" Twilight asked the shadow, who noticed who was talking to her and scowled.
"Twilight Sparkle...Why am I not surprised it's you that I find sneaking around down here, and you've brought friends along with your mutt, how adorable…" Princess Sunset replied, causing Spike to growl at her before Twilight started to yell at her.
"Release the princesses, and give me back my Element!" Twilight shouted. Joker and Mona looked back at the purple-haired girl, having no clue what she was talking about. Sunset started to laugh.
"Oh? And why would I do that?" Sunset asked with a sly smile as she never broke eye contact with Twilight. "I don't have to give anything to you...I rule over this place, I take what I please...and besides, you don't deserve to bear the Element of Magic!" Sunset retorted, making Twilight take a step back at the words, Spike was the one to speak up in her stead.
"And what makes you think you deserve to have it, huh?" Spike asked out of anger, causing Sunset to laugh even more, angering them all even further.
"It's simple...It's because I'm superior to Twilight in every way!" Sunset stated, making Twilight grit her teeth. "Knowledge, Strength, Magic...It's amazing how Princess Celestia could have someone as weak as Twilight replace me when no Pony could ever live up to my standard!" One word in there stood out to the two Phantom Thieves. What did she mean by 'no Pony'? Twilight's eyes dropped as she started to look at the floor in sorrow.
"I-I'm not weak! Celestia chose me because-"
"Why? Because she felt sorry for such a pathetic little filly like you?" Sunset asked before Twilight could finish. "Without the Element of Magic, you, Twilight Sparkle, are nothing!" The shadow yelled out as Twilight shut her eyes in shame. Joker then decided to butt in.
"And treating others like trash makes you better?" Joker asked with a calm tone despite everything. Twilight looked back up at the boy in surprise. "Someone who treats anyone like this and only cares about power is worse than nothing...you're scum!" Joker yelled at a now shocked Sunset. Spike then chipped in.
"No matter what you say, I know that Twilight is a kind, and compassionate mare. Those are two qualities a good Princess should have, and I don't see either one in you!" Spike said with a smirk on his face. Sunset's face turned from one of shock to a smirk that matched Spike.
"How touching...your friends have decided to stand up for you...If only you had the courage to do so yourself!" Princess Sunset said. The others just growled in response as Twilight looked down again. "This is what I mean...You rely on the Elements of Harmony for your strength, when I can crush anyone I wish by myself without any so called "friends"...This isn't Equestria anymore Twilight, I'm the one who rules this world, ME! And the Element of Magic is now mine and mine alone!" Sunset stated before busting out in maniacal laughter. The group didn't know how to proceed in this situation until Twilight spoke up.
"You're right about one thing, Sunset…" Twilight said, eyes still closed as she walked forward. Sunset stopped her evil laugh to listen with a grin. "I do rely on my friends for strength...but I find no shame in that." Twilight stated calmly, causing Sunset to be the one to grit her teeth.
"What are you talking about?" Sunset asked out of anger. Twilight stepped in front of Joker and Mona, and Spike quickly ran up to her side.
"It's through the Magic of Friendship that I've made it this far, the Magic of Friendship helped me become a princess...and the Magic of Friendship will help me prove you wrong, to teach you that I am not weak!" Twilight yelled as she opened her eyes, revealing a bright white light emanating from them. Sunset took a step back at the sudden courage from Twilight, the other three stared at her in awe as Twilight started to be lifted off the ground by some unforeseen force. Spike's entire body was also enveloped in a white light as a transformation began.
As Twilight was lifted into the air, a flash of light was seen by her head, and now there had been two animal-like ears poking out from the sides of her head. A blue wave of energy ran down Twilight's hair, and as soon as it reached the end, the hair started to grow out even more as it ran all the way down her back. One more flash of light appeared on her back, causing the most drastic change of all, as two fairly large purple wings shot out of Twilight's back as she hovered in the air. A pink field of energy then appeared at the top of Twilight's head. Joker watched in surprise, he then looked over to Mona for any clue as to what was happening.
"Is this some kind of Persona?" Joker asked his metaverse expert who was staring at Twilight with wide eyes.
"I don't think so, but I've never seen anything like this before...Wait, look!" Mona pointed over to Spike's form which has slowly been transforming at the same time as Twilight.
Spike's long, floppy dog ears had disappeared, and in their place grew some spikes along the top of his head. The dog's tail then grew out and had a pointed barb at the end of it. The most surprising change came when Spike suddenly got off of all four legs and stood on his hind ones, but then he quickly transformed to have two bipedal legs and two arms. The white light disappeared from him as they saw his new form. Spike was now the same size as Mona, but where Spike used to have fur, it was now replaced by purple and green scales. Spike looked over his new form and smirked before yelling.
"I'm back, baby!" Spike yelled in happiness as he looked up to Twilight who started to descend towards the ground. Sunset took more steps backwards after seeing the full transformations.
"N-No, that's not possible!" Sunset screamed out. Twilight's eyes then went back to normal as she gave Sunset an angry glare.
"You keep talking about how you're superior to me in every way...that I don't deserve to bear the Element of Magic…" Twilight started to say as she held her arm out towards Sunset, the pink energy that was at the top of her head also appeared in the palm of her hand. "I'm going to show you just how worthy I am!" Twilight yelled out towards the shadow princess, who then turned to her two guards.
"I've had enough of this...You two, dispose of these thieves!" Sunset told her guards before running away. The shadow knights looked toward the group of four before displaying their true form.
The first shadow took the form of a floating ball covered in snow, with sharp rocks pointing out of it's head, and blue eyes giving an icy glare towards the group. The second shadow transformed into what looked to be a centaur with a red mane, bright yellow eyes, and it held a sword and a shield in its hands. Joker looked to Twilight and Spike.
"Are you two ready for a fight?" Joker asked as he pulled out his knife and Mona grabbed his saber. Spike gave Joker a thumbs up while Twilight continued to stare at the shadows.
"Of course! I've been aching for some action!" Spike replied with enthusiasm.
"I've never been so ready for anything before, bring it!" Twilight yelled out at the two shadows. Joker gave them a smirk as they got into battle stances.
"You worms will regret defying Princess Sunset!" The first shadow yelled at the team, who stood tall, ready for any attack that would come their way.
The centaur like creature was the first to charge forward, and as the others were ready to dodge the attack, Twilight shot her arm forward, sending out a beam of pink energy that collided with the centaur and sent it flying backwards to the far side of the room. This shocked the two Phantom Thieves as they've never seen an attack like that, or someone force a shadow back like that.
"Holy-...What was that?" Mona asked in surprise, Twilight never kept her eye off the enemy as she responded with one word.
"Magic!" Twilight responded with a bright smile. Joker wanted to smile at the girl's newfound confidence but saw the ice creature cast Bufula to summon balls of ice that started to surround Spike.
Spike didn't notice the ice surrounding him until it was too late, and the ice exploded, sending shards of ice to collide with his body, briefly knocking him over. Twilight saw this and screamed in concern.
"Spike! Are you hurt?" The girl asked her companion, who shook his head and gave Twilight a smile.
"Yeah, that barely hurt! No way a little ice could hurt a dragon like me!" Spike replied with a toothy grin. This got Joker thinking.
'A dragon? Guess that would explain the appearance…' Joker thought as he looked to the ice creature. 'Wait...if he's resistant to ice, that could mean…' He snapped back to reality and looked towards the dragon. "Hey, Spike!" Joker called out, making Spike and Twilight look up at him.
"What's up, Akira?" Spike asked the leader of the team. Joker walked up to the dragon while keeping an eye on the shadows.
"Do you have any sort of fire attacks by any chance?" He questioned the dragon who smiled in response.
"Of course! I'm a dragon, breathing fire is my specialty…" Spike replied with a brag, Joker flashed his smirk again.
"Think you can return the favor to that shadow?" Joker pointed over to the ice monster. Spike got a twinkle of enthusiasm in his eye as the dragon shot to his feet.
Without even saying a word, Spike rushed forward, jumped in the air, and sent a wave of green flames right into the ice creature's face. The barrage of flames overwhelmed the shadow, causing it to fall to the ground with a dazed look on its face. Joker gave a nod towards Mona as the two Phantom Thieves slashed at the shadow with all their might, quickly making it disappear into thin air, signalling it's defeat.
"One down! Great job, Spike!" Mona called out to the dragon with a smile on his face. Spike crossed his arms in triumph.
"That guy was nothing!" Spike said. Twilight kept her eyes down the hallway and noticed the centaur was back on its feet and started to prepare to charge at them.
"Don't get too excited, there's still one more!" Twilight pointed at the creature down the hallway, scraping its hoof along the ground. Joker and Mona took position in front of the group. Joker pulled out his pistol while Morgana grabbed his slingshot.
As the centaur started to charge at them, Joker and Mona took every shot they had in their stockpile they had at the charging creature. Most shots connected but showed very little signs of damage. Joker then put away his gun as the creature got closer before calling out to everyone else.
"Roll!" Joker commanded the others, who nodded and rolled to either side of the hall as the centaur ran past them before stopping and trying to turn around. Joker noticed how tough the shadow seemed to be, but remembered how Twilight had sent it back flying earlier, he then had an idea. "Twilight, got any magic left?" Twilight shot Joker a smile after his question.
"Like you even have to ask…" Twilight replied. Joker nodded in response as his idea went into motion, he quickly recalled which Persona's he had available through his power of the Wildcard, he then remembered the one that could help him out.
"Good...Flauros!" He ripped off his mask and called out to his other Persona that he had fused to help the Velvet Room Wardens, which manifested behind him in the form of a red, cat-like humanoid creature, which caused some surprise to flash upon Spike and Twilight's eyes as Joker cast Tarukaja over Twilight.
As sparkles seemed to rain down on Twilight, which made her feel an increased amount of power flowing through her body, the feeling felt incredible, but she didn't have much time to think about it as the centaur started charging towards them again.
Twilight gathered up her magic energy, which seemed to be even more intense due to the power Joker had provided her. As the centaur was charging, Twilight shot forth both of her hands, which sent a beam of magic that covered most of the room at the centaur. The shadow tried it's best to block the attack, but the magic beam ignored the beast's defenses and ripped through the shadow instantly, turning it into a black pile of dust.
Twilight dropped to one knee in exhaustion once she realized the fight was over. Joker walked over to her, and helped Twilight up to her feet. Joker looked to where the shadow had previously been and noticed nothing but air in its place. He took a sigh of relief.
"Nice work, you two. Handled yourself pretty well right there." Mona told Twilight and Spike. Joker looked into Twilight's eyes and laughed.
"I guess we aren't the only ones with some explaining to do…" Joker told the girl, remembering the namedrops she gave during her debate with Sunset, with words like Equestria, Elements of Harmony, and even Pony being thrown around. Twilight blushed in embarrassment.
"What about Sunset Shimmer?" Spike asked the two thieves.
"She can wait, we've raised the security level here high enough, we need to get outta here!" Mona yelled, pointing in the direction of the door. Joker let go of Twilight and looked at her.
"Can you run?" Joker asked the girl, who nodded in return.
"I'll be fine, that just drained a lot out of me…" Twilight replied as Joker took the lead, the other three right behind him.
"Alright, let's get out of this place!" Joker told the group as they ran out of the dungeons, dodging any possible shadows they could find, and they ran into the main hall and back to the entrance of the castle.
Joker pulled out his phone once they reached the courtyard and typed in the command to head back to reality.
"Now returning to the real world from Sunset Shimmer's Palace, thank you for your hard work."
Canterlot High - Courtyard
After returning from the metaverse and reappearing in front of the statue of the stallion right outside the front of the school, which was no longer a castle. Twilight spoke her relief with her hands on her knees from exhaustion.
"We made it...thank goodness…" Twilight said in between breaths before looking up at where the castle used to be. "And just like that, the school is back to normal…" Twilight then noticed that her hair had gotten shorter, pony-like ears were gone, and her wings had vanished. Spike had also reverted his transformation from a dragon back into a dog.
"Aw, what? I'm stuck with this stupid dog body again? Spike said, obviously disappointed that he couldn't keep his dragon form. Morgana, who had shifted back to his normal cat form sighed at the canine.
"Welcome to my world, Spike…" Mona replied while walking towards Akira, who dusted himself off, back in his blazer and jeans.
"Well, I'd say that was pretty successful, wouldn't you?" Akira asked the cat, who jumped up on his partner's shoulders.
"We were able to find the Palace, so that's a start at least…" Morgana said with a half smile, making Akira chuckle a little bit. They were brought out of their thoughts by the sound of a throat being cleared.
"Ahem…" The two thieves heard, looking over to see Twilight with her arms crossed. "I think we need to have a talk about what just happened…" Akira slightly frowned at her tone.
"It's not like we're the only ones who need to explain things, huh? Like what was that stuff about an Element, or this Equestria place?" Akira stated with a small frown. Morgana and Spike looked at each other, fearful of conflict when Twilight frowned, knowing she had been caught and was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Twilight then looked back into Akira's steel-colored eyes.
"Alright, I'll tell you everything if you will. But not here, we need to go someplace where no one would question us…" Twilight said while looking around, trying to avoid any prying eyes.
"Well I just got here today so I don't know this place at all, so if you know a spot, perfect." Akira told the girl, who then put a hand to her chin.
"I think I know a place…"
Sweet Shoppe - 15 Minutes Later
Akira took a big sip of his coffee that he had ordered, noticing how unusually sweet the flavor was, which made sense due to it coming from a "Sweet Shoppe". Ever since Akira had taken residence in Leblanc's attic, he had become a kind of coffee connoisseur due to his time spent with his guardian Sojiro Sakura. As Akira set the cup down, he tried to process the information Twilight had given to him.
"So let me get this straight...You two come from a world called Equestria that's parallel to this one, where the world is mostly run by ponies. In that world you're a Princess who lives with a baby dragon as their assistant, and has been chosen to represent one of the "Elements of Harmony" that when combined with the others, uses the "Magic of Friendship" to overcome challenges. And the other girls in that one photo were your best friends in your world, and the other Elements...not to mention that our school principals are actually Princesses who control the sun and the moon? Not only that, but a few days ago, Sunset Shimmer stole your Element, brought it to this world, and it's now being used as the Fall Formal crown, and you can't go home without it, and the portal is gonna close the night of the Fall Formal?"
"...That's about the long and short of it." Twilight replied, taking a sip of her hot chocolate. Akira just shook his head while swirling his coffee around in it's mug before setting it down on the counter.
"You know, at this point in my life, I find that very believable…" Akira said to the girl, who turned to face the boy with glasses.
"Alright, I told you my story. Now, it's your turn." Twilight told him with interest in her eyes, Spike then jumped up next to Twilight with a smile.
"Yeah, tell us what those cool spirit-like things that you both had were!" Spike said excitedly, wanting to know everything as well. Akira sighed as he set his mug down and turned towards the girl.
"I guess that's fair considering you told me everything...Well, much like you we came here from a different dimension that's kinda similar to this one, just much less...colorful, or friendly…" Akira started, but was cut off by Twilight.
"What do you mean by that?" She asked, making Akira steel his eyes a bit, he didn't want to give her the information about his criminal record, since no one in this world seemed to know about it.
"Well...In our world, there are so many corrupt people in positions of power that many of us in the younger generation never get a say in anything. That's why when we found out we could go into the minds of these corrupt adults, or their Palace, and make them confess their crimes, my friends and I took that chance." Akira told the girl who seemed even more interested than before.
"You could make them confess to their crimes...how exactly?" Akira was about to answer, but Morgana popped his head through Akira's bag, which had been sitting on the table.
"Each person's Palace has a Treasure, which is the source of their distorted desires, and when you steal that Treasure, you steal their desires with it, making them confess to their awful deeds. This is what we've been doing ever since our first job, and since then we've been known as The Phantom Thieves of Hearts, and Joker right here is our leader. But he wouldn't have gotten too far without my guidance, right?" Morgana jokingly asked, Akira just rolled his eyes and nodded. Twilight's head tilted to the side in questioning.
"Phantom...Thieves?"
"That's right, and we came to this world by accident, but there was a strong enough distortion near the portal that's preventing us from getting back home, and the only way to get rid of it is to change the heart of whoever's distorted desires are strong enough to keep us here, which we now found out is Sunset Shimmer." Akira finished, leaving Twilight sitting in awe.
"So you need to steal the Treasure from Sunset Shimmer's Palace in order to get back home…" Twilight said to herself, thinking over the situation, when Spike suddenly popped back into the conversation.
"What about those spirits? What's the deal with that?" Spike asked, seeming to be the only thing he wanted to know. Morgana gave a small smile towards the purple dog.
"Those are our Personas…" Morgana said, Spike raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"Persona?"
"It's a manifestation of our will of rebellion, they have the power to use certain skills and to resist certain attacks when summoned, we couldn't fight in Palaces without our Personas. And our outfits change to resemble what we view as a rebel." Morgana told the dragon-turned-dog, who then seemed to be surprised.
"Wait, why didn't Twilight or I get a Persona in Sunset's Castle, but we still changed forms?" Spike said, disappointed that he didn't receive a cool Persona, but was still happy he got to return to dragon form.
"A good question, and I have a theory as to why when Twilight told us your story…" Morgana started, which now caught Akira and Spike's attention. "I think this world's Metaverse works differently from ours. Where our world has someone awaken a Persona through our spirit of rebellion, this world may have you awaken to a new form when you accept who you truly are when in this world, which would explain why you transformed into your normal dragon form, and Twilight was able to grow wings and use magic again!" Morgana finished, leaving Akira surprised that his partner could form such a solid theory in a matter of minutes.
"That...actually makes sense Morgana." Akira told his feline companion, who gave the boy a stern look.
"What? You thought it wouldn't make sense?" Morgana nearly yelled, Akira rolled his eyes again and looked at Twilight, who was still thinking.
"It seems Sunset Shimmer has brought both of our destinies here…" Akira told the girl who then looked right back at Akira.
"It seems so...I need to get my crown back and away from Sunset Shimmer, while you need to change her distorted desires to return home." Twilight started as she thought some more. Akira simply downed the rest of his coffee before turning back to her.
"Yup...and it seems that running against her for Fall Formal Princess has painted a large target on your back." Akira told the girl, who then gave a look of conviction towards Akira.
"I know, but that's why I think we can help each other…" Twilight said to the Phantom Thief, causing Akira and Morgana to look at the girl with interest, Spike also looked at Twilight with a quizzical expression.
"What do you mean…?" Akira asked, making Twilight scoot closer to Akira, being mere inches from his face.
"I mean that we both are trying to get back to our homes, and we need to work together if we want to do that...Spike and I will help you change Sunset's heart, if you help me get votes for the Fall Formal, and help me get back my Element before the 21st...Well, what do you say?" Twilight asked, making Akira think over the proposition.
While he wasn't too keen on taking two non-persona users into a Palace, Twilight and Spike proved that they can hold their own in the field, and Akira wouldn't be able to steal the treasure with just him and Morgana, they needed all the help they could get. Akira looked over to Morgana as they both nodded, signalling they were ok with the conditions before the leader turned back to Twilight.
"Alright, we accept, but you have to follow our lead while in the Palace." Akira said with a slight smile as Twilight and Spike's faces lit up with joy.
"Yes! Thank you so much, we won't let you guys down!"
'I've made a deal with Twilight…'
CONFIDANT ACQUIRED - Twilight Sparkle: The Magician, Rank 1
Akira laughed at the miniature celebration that Twilight and Spike were having before speaking up.
"So, what's our first plan of operations?" Akira asked the girl, who smiled in return.
"I've already thought of that, but I'm going to need to do some research tonight on my own before we start...Wait, what time is it right now?" Twilight asked, starting to worry. Akira pulled out his phone and looked at the time.
"It's just about 5 'o'clock…" Akira told the girl, who's eyes widened, grabbing Spike and putting him in her backpack.
"Oh my gosh, I've gotta get back to the school before it closes!" Twilight said, trying to hurry out of the store. Akira raised an eyebrow.
"Why's that?"
"I need to get to the library if I'm gonna do research for the night...it's also where I've been sleeping…" Twilight said in embarrassment, Akira was even more confused by this.
"Didn't Principal Celestia find a place for you to stay while here?" He asked the otherworldly princess, who turned back to him.
"No...I apparently have a counterpart in this word that doesn't go to Canterlot High so they didn't expect me as a transfer, so I fixed up a corner for myself in the library...it's where I feel most at home after all." Twilight told the boy, who looked down, remembering that Twilight told him she lived in a library back in her world. "Anyways, I'll meet up with you tomorrow and tell you the plan, see you tomorrow Akira!" Twilight said while running out, Akira simply waved his hand at the girl to signal goodbye. Akira looked over to the cat in his bag.
"What do you think about all this?" He asked Morgana, who seemed to be thinking the situation over.
"Well, even though neither of those two are persona-users, they proved themselves to be pretty valuable in a fight so I think we'll be fine...and now we have a deadline for our operation, November 21st. We've gotta steal Sunset's treasure before then!" Morgana replied, determination laced in his voice. Akira nodded.
"Yeah, we're gonna need help if we want to get through that Palace, so we didn't have much of a choice." Akira said while picking up his bag, Morgana gave a nod and was about to tuck himself back inside but remembered something.
"We should probably head to that Sweet Apple Acres place that Celestia said we're staying at." Morgana insisted. Akira had nearly forgotten about his new residence for the time being due to all the craziness he experienced today. He pulled out the paper Celestia gave him, which had the address of the orchard, and directions on how to get there from the school.
"Alright, let's head there now, I'm already exhausted from today…" Akira replied while walking towards the door, bag in hand.
"Amen to that…" Morgana said as he tucked his head back in Akira's bag, with that, the duo left and headed towards their new place of residence.
Sweet Apple Acres - 20 Minutes Later
Akira stood outside of the door to his supposed new home for the time being, the bright red colored farmhouse stood to the right of a barn with the same color scheme. Akira looked over the scene, and every way he looked he could see a long line of apple trees.
'I don't know what I expected from a place named Sweet Apple Acres…' Akira thought to himself as he walked up the white set of stairs to reach the front door. Akira took a deep breath and mentally prepared himself. The boy put his hand up to the door, and gave three hard knocks.
Akira stood by waiting for anything to happen, and in the few seconds of silence he first received, he was then met with a female voice from behind the door.
"Be there in a moment, sugarcube!" The voice said, which made Akira think about the words that they had said.
'Sugarcube? Didn't I hear that somewhere today…?' Akira thought, making the connections in his head. After a few seconds, it clicked in his brain. 'Wait a minute…' Before he could finish his thought, the door opened.
Once the door opened, Akira saw a familiar sight of a blonde girl with a white blouse, denim skirt, and cowboy hat. The Phantom Thief then knew that he was going to have to stay with Applejack and her family for the next week and a half.
"Akira…? What're ya doing here, partner?" Applejack asked with a raised brow, remembering the face of the boy who stepped up to Sunset Shimmer for her. Akira pulled out the piece of paper Principal Celestia gave to him and handed it to Applejack.
"Hi Applejack, what a coincidence...Principal Celestia told me that I would be staying here during my time at Canterlot High." Akira said as Applejack took the piece of paper and looked it over, suddenly a smile came to Applejack's face and her eyes widened.
"Oh, that's right! Celestia reached out to us last week and asked if we would take in a transfer student. Ah'm surprised Ah didn't figure it out sooner!" Applejack responded, grabbing Akira by the hand and dragging him inside the farmhouse. "Well, don't be shy, partner. Come on in!"
Once Akira was inside the house, he noticed how homey the inside of the farmhouse was, and the smell of pies was prominent in the air. It was a really pleasant feeling to Akira, before Applejack turned to him again.
"Follow me, Ah should introduce you to the family!" Applejack said while beckoning the boy to follow her into the kitchen. Once they walked to the kitchen, the previous smell of pies that he could smell from the front now was overwhelming his senses, and it smelled delicious.
Akira noticed in the far side of the kitchen stood two figures standing in front of an oven, one seemed to an elderly woman with green skin and white hair wearing a yellow shirt and red skirt with an apron over her, and a very tall male figure with orange hair and the most normal skin tone Akira had seen yet in this world, and he wore a red jacket that had a brown collar, and what looked to be two green apples on both shoulders, long denim jeans also ran down the boy's legs, with a brown belt holding them up. Applejack then stepped forward and spoke to the two.
"Granny, Mac! We got a guest!" Applejack yelled to the two, who turned their heads to look and see both Applejack and Akira standing there. The elderly lady slowly walked over to the two of them, eyes and smile wide as can be.
"Oh, you must be Akira! Principal Celestia told me that you would be coming sometime this week!" The elderly woman, who Applejack referred to as "Granny", said to Akira with a polite smile, which Akira flashed one in return.
"That's right, thank you for letting me stay with you, ma'am." Akira replied, which made Granny start to laugh quite loud, making Akira step back in surprise.
"Ah, there's no need for those fancy terms here...just call me Granny, Granny Smith." Granny said with a wide, polite smile that Akira wasn't used to seeing from anyone back in Tokyo. Applejack then gestured to the tall male next to Granny Smith.
"The tall one right there is mah brother Big McIntosh, but we just call him Big Mac, ain't that right?" She asked her brother, who simply nodded.
"Eeyup." Big Mac replied. Applejack then looked around the room, trying to find something, or someone else.
"Has Applebloom come home yet, Granny?" Applejack asked her grandma, who shook her head.
"Ah haven't seen her yet…" Granny replied before all of them heard the front door open and in ran a young girl with yellow skin, red hair tied into a large pink bow, wearing a green shirt and rolled up jeans.
"Sorry Ah'm late everybody! Haven't missed dinner, have ah?" The young girl asked the others, and once she saw Akira, she stopped dead in her tracks. "Uh...who's this?"
"Speak of the devil...Akira, this is Applebloom, my younger sister. Applebloom, this is Akira, that new transfer student that's gonna be staying with us for a while." Applejack told her sister, who looked up at Akira with bright eyes.
"Oh yeah, Granny did say something about that! It's nice to meet ya, mister!" Applebloom said to the newcomer, who smiled back at the girl.
"It's nice to meet you too, Applebloom." Akira responded, Granny Smith walked back over to the oven and opened it to get a look at what was inside.
"Dinner will be ready in a bit, why don't you all head over to the table and get yourselves set, it's apple pie night!" Granny Smith told the group, Applebloom cheered out in happiness, while Applejack and Big Mac laughed at their younger sibling. Akira then remembered that he should tell the family about one crucial detail.
"I should probably bring this up now, but I didn't exactly come here alone…" Akira said, making the others look at him in confusion.
"Whaddya mean, sugarcube?" Applejack asked. Akira just smiled and rustled his bag, in response, Morgana popped out of the bag with a loud 'meow', the Apple family seemed shocked, except Applebloom, who smiled widely.
"Awww it's so cute!" Applebloom said, trying to jump up to see Morgana's face. After overcoming their original surprise, Applejack gave a chuckle.
"Ah knew Ah heard a cat when I met you, sugarcube!" Applejack told the boy with a smirk and crossing her arms.
"What's its name?" Applebloom asked Akira. Morgana then jumped out of the bag and onto the floor, which allowed Applebloom to start stretching out his cheeks, much like Futaba would do to the poor cat.
"Ow-Hey, cut that out!" Morgana said, which only registered as a meow for the Apple family, Akira laughed before telling them.
"His name is Morgana, I could really only take one thing from home, so I decided to bring him along with me. I hope it's not a bother that he's here…" Akira told Granny, hoping she would allow Morgana to stay. Granny looked at the cat and smiled.
"Of course it's not a bother, as long as ya clean up after him, he's just as welcome as you, Akira. Right, Mac?" Granny told the boy while looking at her grandson.
"Eeyup." Big Mac replied with a smile on his face. Akira breathed a sigh of relief knowing that his teammate was allowed to stay. He looked down to see Applebloom still tugging on Morgana's cheeks, much to the cat's dismay and Akira chuckled. Morgana looked back up at his partner.
"Glad you find this funny!" Morgana yelled out, knowing only Akira could hear him. The boy just rolled his eyes at the cat's anger. Granny Smith then pulled out a fresh baked pie from the oven and held it in her hands.
"Alright, everyone! Dinner time!" Granny called out to the group. Applebloom stopped playing with Morgana's face and happily ran over to the dinner table, Big Mac shook his head with a chuckle and followed his youngest sister. Applejack then started to follow and motioned for Akira to come with them. Akira looked down to Morgana who smiled up at him.
"Real nice family, huh?" Morgana asked with a grin, Akira then picked up the cat and responded.
"You got that right…" He said as they walked over to the dinner table where Granny Smith had already set down a set of five fresh apple pies on the table. Applejack grabbed an extra chair and put it right next to her own, motioning for Akira to sit down, which he gladly did.
Examining the pie in front of him, Akira was stunned by just how good it looked and how appetizing it smelled. Akira before would never have been sure about having Pie for dinner, but now he didn't care, he wanted to dig in, but wanted to be polite and wait for everyone else to start. Granny Smith then came back over to them, carrying a small bowl before setting it on the ground, revealing a large slice of pie in the dish.
"That piece is for the kitty, if he wants it…" Granny Smith said, and before Akira could even reply, Morgana jumped out of the boys arms and ran over to the dish, already starting to chow down. Granny Smith gave a laugh at the cat's antics before sitting at the head of the table. "Ah guess that's the sign, soup's on!"
Once Granny Smith said to go, it didn't take much to get everyone to start eating. Applebloom was already shoveling as much pie into her mouth as she could, while Big Mac and Granny Smith were going at a much slower pace, appreciating every bite they took. In the middle grounds of speed was Applejack, who wasn't stuffing her face, but wasn't going at a snail's pace either. Akira looked back over to Morgana who was a few bits into the pie as he looked back at his leader.
"This is incredible! Akira, you've gotta try it!" Morgana yelled up to the black-haired boy. Akira then took his fork and cut off a piece before putting the piece of pie in his mouth.
An explosion of flavor took off as soon as the pie met Akira's taste buds. A fruity flavor that just seemed to dance all over his tongue, he had never had a pie, or any desert for that matter, that tasted so good before. Akira was sure if Ann was here right now, she would be going crazy over how good this pie was. He quickly grabbed his fork and sliced off another piece, much to Granny Smith's amusement after gauging the reactions of both Morgana and Akira.
"Seems ya both like the pie quite a bit!" Granny said, making Akira look up to the elder Apple with a smile on his face.
"It's...It's fantastic! I've never had anything like this before…!" Akira stated with enthusiasm, Applejack giggled at Akira's reaction to her grandma's pies before diving back into her own. Akira put another slice in his mouth, quickly gobbling it up. "What's in this?" Akira asked, which received a wink from Granny Smith.
"Apple family Secret Recipe…" She said, giving a chuckle. Akira laughed along with her before digging back into his pie, not noticing Applejack looking at him through the corner of her eye with a smile on her face.
Akira knew he wasn't staying in this dimension for long, but if he ate like this every night, he could get used to this.
20 Minutes Later
After finishing their pies and the Apple family discussing their day, even having Applejack mention Akira standing up to Sunset for her, which helped Akira receive some praise within the Apple family, they cleaned up their meals and were getting ready for bed.
Applejack escorted Akira to a guest room upstairs, which was actually right across the hall from her own room, and showed Akira inside.
"Welp, here we are. Ah hope it'll be comfy enough for ya." Applejack told Akira who looked inside the room, already liking the fact that it wasn't an attic, Morgana was also very grateful for this fact.
"It looks great, Applejack. Once again, thank you all for allowing Morgana and I to stay here with you all." Akira told the girl with a smile on his face. Applejack smiled in return.
"No need for that, It's the least we could do, especially after ya stepped in front of Sunset Shimmer for me." Applejack responded, taking off her hat and holding it in front of her. Akira still didn't feel great about intruding on their lives.
"Well, if there's anything I can do to help out around here, please let me know…" Akira said, looking into Applejack's green eyes. Applejack looked straight into his steel colored eyes and smiled.
"That's actually something Ah wanted to talk to ya about…" Applejack told Akira, who looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "Y'see, Granny's getting a little too old to be picking apples out there, and Applebloom can't reach the taller ones yet, that and she's always hanging out with her friends, leaving the work to me and Big Mac…" Applejack said, looking down at the floor, Akira could piece together what she was trying to say.
"So you want me to help you out on the orchard while I'm here?" Akira asked, finishing Applejack's question. The country girl looked up at Akira again and gave a soft smile.
"Yeah...It's ok if ya don't want to though, I'd completely understand-"
"Applejack, I'd be happy to help out here. I need to earn my keep here somehow don't I?" Akira asked with a lighthearted smile, making Applejack blush a little bit, even though she couldn't figure out why she was feeling this way around the boy she just met today. Applejack looked back into Akira's eyes and smiled.
"Thank ya kindly, sugarcube…" Applejack said, putting her hat back on her head. Akira smiled at the girl, seeing her happy.
'I've agreed to help out Applejack…'
CONFIDANT ACQUIRED - Applejack: Strength, Rank 1
After the agreement was made, Applejack turned around to head out of the room and into her own.
"There should be a pair of PJ's in the dresser there for ya. We've got school again tomorrow so don't sleep too late!" Applejack joked with a wide smile, Akira just rolled his eyes.
"I won't, I promise...Thanks a lot, Applejack. Goodnight." Akira told the girl, who smiled as she closed the door.
"Goodnight, Akira. See ya tomorrow!" Applejack responded before shutting the door and going into her own room. Akira then turned around to change into the pajamas that were in the room's dresser. Morgana looked at Akira and shook his head, knowing what was going on with Applejack.
"Please tell me you noticed it…?" Morgana asked his partner, who had just finished changing, the pajama set consisting of a pair of sweatpants and a white t-shirt, and he gave the cat a look of questioning.
"What do you mean?" Akira responded, oblivious to what the cat was talking about. Morgana just shook his head in disappointment.
"You're hopeless…" Morgana said under his breath. Akira laid on the bed, which he had to admit was fairly comfortable, and looked up at the ceiling, Morgana then jumped up onto the bed and laid down next to Akira.
"What a day, huh…?" Akira jokingly asked the cat, who started to frown in response.
"Yeah...Akira?" Morgana got the attention of the Phantom Thief leader, who looked concerned at the cat.
"What's up, Morgana?" Akira questioned, Morgana just looked at the teen and gave off a sigh.
"I just wanted to tell you I'm sorry…" Morgana started, and before Akira could ask why, the cat kept going. "If it wasn't for me we wouldn't be stuck here right now...If I could just control my impulses we would be back in Leblanc right now, sleeping in our own bed, not stranded in some weird world about to fight through another Palace to get home!" Morgana stated, looking down at his paws, sadness creeping up on his face.
The cat was brought out of his stupor when Akira put a hand on the cat's head.
"Hey, don't think like that...Think of this as a new opportunity to help someone, to help out two other worlds in fact! Remember what Twilight told us about how much this could actually mean for this world?" Akira told his friend, who looked at him with surprise. "She said that the destiny of two different worlds hangs in the balance here...even though it was by accident, you've given us the chance to save two different worlds. Chin up, Morgana!" Akira finished his statement, leaving Morgana with wide, teary eyes at his partner's encouragement.
"Akira...Thank you, I'm at least glad if I'm stuck here, it's with you…" Morgana replied, making the boy smile. Morgana then curled up on top of his stomach before laying down. "Come on, let's get to sleep. Twilight will have some information for us tomorrow and we need to be well rested!" Morgana said with his own grin.
"You're absolutely right...Goodnight, Morgana." Akira said, shutting his eyes.
"Goodnight, Akira…" Morgana responded softly, his own eyelids closing.
Akira and Morgana soon fell asleep with little problem, their conversation before sleeping strengthening their bond. The two Phantom Thieves were mentally preparing themselves for the challenge ahead.
After all, the destiny of multiple worlds were now riding on their shoulders…
AND DONE!
Ok, I don't know why but I actually had a lot of fun writing this one, way more than usual. It was probably due to the Metaverse parts, but I hope it pays off.
One question I did wanna ask. As you all probably saw, I made it so Applejack is starting to have a bit of a crush on our hero, Akira. I was thinking of just making it an unrequited crush since Akira won't really end up staying in that world, but I know some people like those kinda ships so I decided I'll leave it up to you all.
As I said at the beginning, thank you to all those who followed this story, favorited, and reviewed, seeing those notifications pop up on me email would always make my day, so seriously, thank you from the bottom of my heart and I hope you all enjoyed this chapter as well.
Before I go I also wanna say this real quick. In the current day when there's so much violence, rioting, hatred, even racism...I think we can all learn something from My Little Pony, and it's that Friendship really is Magic...In this day and age we need to focus on being kind and caring for one another, not hating others because of their job, race, status, anything...So just be kind to one another.
Sorry that got a bit preachy...my bad. But that's really all I got, I hope to see you all again in Chapter 4!