My Little Phantom Thief: Equestria Girls

by WhiteLightningWolf

After Joker and Morgana jump through a mysterious mirror found in Mementos, they find that it was a portal to another dimension, with a new high school. To get back home, Joker and Mona must change the heart of the Palace Ruler that resides there. Watch as Joker makes unlikely allies at Canterlot High, and fights daunting shadows to change the heart of one Sunset Shimmer.

6. Chapter 6

I actually uploaded another chapter within 6 months of the last one? No way!

Recently, I looked back at what I said at the start of the 3rd Chapter where the story had passed 1,000 views…Well now it's passed 12,000 views, 100 followers, and nearly 100 favorites…My first story never got near those numbers at this point in its life. So thank you all so so so much.

To answer one review that I received a while ago talking about how the Mane 6 should know more of the stakes that go with changing hearts (Aka The Aftermath of Okumura's Palace), and gonna be real, I hadn't thought of that, so I made sure to address it in this chapter.

I've also gotten a few questions about a sequel to this story, and I've been thinking about it, and I've got some ideas that I'll put at the end of this chapter and see what you all think about them.

Last question I wanted to clarify was how far Akira would get in his Confidant lines since he doesn't have that long at CHS, and for this story I'm having every Confidant line max out at Rank 5 for now, much like Kasumi in P5R. If there is a sequel to this story, I'll make sure to finish those.

Speaking of which, slight spoiler for a P5R Confidant in this chapter, just so you know.

Well with all that out of the way…

LET'S GET ON WITH IT!

Disclaimer: I don't own any assets from the Persona series, or MLP, they're owned by ATLUS and Hasbro respectively. Also any shadows that are references to other series, I don't own those either.

Velvet Room

As Akira opened his eyes, he expected to be met with the white ceiling of his room at Sweet Apple Acres, but he groaned as he instead saw rows and rows of blue tinted bricks. He rose up out of his prison bed, shaking his head at the prison rags he wore in here. His attention was drawn to the cell door as the metal bars were met with a baton swing from the attendant Caroline.

"On your feet, Inmate!" Caroline yelled, looking Akira in the eye. Her twin, Justine stood next to her, looking over her clipboard. Akira stood up straight and hobbled over to the door as his feet were still bound by cuffs while in the Velvet Room.

Igor sat in the same chair he always had, looking at Akira past his long nose. The same sinister smile plastered his face as he watched Akira's hands wrap around the bars again. The long-nosed man gave a slight chuckle as his deep voice came out.

"It seems you have adapted to your situation well..." Said Igor, who rested his head on one of his skinny arms. "You managed to restore the bond of a group that had seemed completely severed, and managed to form some new ones for yourself in the process. I'm impressed…" After Igor administered his praise to the Wildcard, Justine turned to face the boy.

"Be grateful for our Master's praise, Inmate…"

"But don't let it get to your head, you still have a lot of work to do!" Caroline yelled, slamming her baton against the bars once again. Akira looked back towards the long-nosed man.

"Thank you, so why did you bring me here again?" Akira asked, Igor slightly shifted forward as his fingers started to tap his chin.

"I simply wanted to commend you for your actions. Not only have you gained access to new Personas in this world, but you've learned of a new power that could help in your rehabilitation." Igor replied, making Akira raise an eyebrow.

"What do you mean?"

"The magical power that the young Princess possesses is quite powerful indeed. While it may sound harmless, the Magic of Friendship seems to be a force to be reckoned with…" Igor said with a slight laugh.

"Don't I know it…"

"It also seems that your bonds with the inhabitants of this world are growing as well, they may prove useful both in this world, and in yours. Time will tell…" As Igor said this, Akira put a hand to his chin, something Igor noticed. "Something on your mind?" Akira looked back up at the Master of the Velvet Room, deciding to share his thoughts.

"Something I've been curious about since yesterday…we know that this world and Twilight's worlds are parallel to each other since they have nearly identical versions of the Elements of Harmony here, minus the pony part." Akira said, Igor leaned forward as he was now more interested in where the Wildcard was going with this. "Does that mean our world is also parallel to this one? Principal Celestia said that there is a Shujin Academy here, and there was a student record in my name…" Akira trailed off. Igor put both hands under his chin and rested his head on them.

"That is beyond my knowledge, if there is another version of you in this dimension, he has not yet awakened his power. It may require further investigation in the future…however, your focus should be on stopping the oncoming ruin that will soon embrace your world." Igor said, trying to get the boy's focus back on the mission at hand.

"Right…" Akira replied with his head slightly down, as he couldn't quite chase the thought out of his mind. He was interrupted as a slight ringing could be heard from the back of his cell. Igor closed his eyes.

"It seems it is time for you to return to the real world…" Igor said.

"You had better get going, Inmate! The sooner you get back to your world, the better!" Caroline yelled.

"May luck be on your side." Justine said, bowing her head as Akira turned around and went back to the real world.

Sweet Apple Acres - November 13th: 8 Days Till The Fall Formal

When Akira opened his eyes, he was glad to be met with the sight of white paint on the ceiling. He sat up and looked towards Morgana, who was still curled up next to him. No doubt dreaming of Sushi and their pig-tailed teammate. Just as Akira was about to shake the feline awake. He heard a loud knock on the door, which made Morgana awaken and jump up.

"GAH! Can't a guy sleep in peace!?" Morgana yelled out, making Akira chuckle as the person behind the door spoke up.

"You up yet, Sugarcube?" The voice, which they both recognized as Applejack, called from behind the door. "Breakfast is ready!"

"Be right there!" Akira replied as he got out of bed and quickly went to change into his school clothes. After about a minute, Akira was fully changed and ready to go. Morgana hopped into Akira's bag as the two exited their room.

Walking down the stairs, Akira saw Applebloom run past the staircase and towards the door, while shoving something in her mouth, her breakfast, the two assumed.

"Bye Granny! See ya after school!" Applebloom called out, swinging her backpack over her shoulder and rushing out the door. Akira looked around the corner to see Granny Smith, Big Mac, and Applejack, all sitting at the dinner table. Granny was shaking her head at Applebloom's antics when she noticed Akira.

"Well look who's up and outta bed!" Granny yelled out, drawing Mac and Applejack's attention over to the boy, who they gave a wide smile. Akira rubbed his head in embarrassment.

"Thanks for the wake-up call, Applejack."

"No problem, partner!" Applejack replied, tipping her hat in his direction. Applejack seemed to be in a much better mood than she had been last night. Akira sat down at the table, placing his bag on the chair next to him. Granny Smith walked into the kitchen, and after a few seconds, came out with two fresh plates of pancakes, one of the plates holding a smaller portion for Morgana.

"Eat up, you two!" Granny said, walking back to the kitchen. Akira gladly cut into the cakes, while Morgana was tearing into it with his teeth, loving every bite.

"This is heavenly! Are you sure Granny isn't an angel?" The cat said to Akira, which got a laugh from both him and Applejack, who they forgot could now understand the cat after their first trip in the Metaverse. The teens then heard Granny call from the kitchen.

"Applejack? Could ya help me clean up in here?" Granny called out to the young girl, who got up out of her seat.

"Ah'll be right there!" Applejack replied as she left the room, looking back towards Akira and giving him another smile as she walked into the kitchen, leaving Akira and Big Mac alone at the table. Akira looked down at his food as he was about halfway through eating. Akira was reminded of what he would have to deal with once he got back home.

"Oh, am I mistaken? I thought I heard something about delicious pancakes…" He remembered what Akechi said to him when they had first met in the TV station, when they knew there was more to the detective than what meets the eye.

Initially, Akira started spending time with Akechi to stay one step ahead of him as the Phantom Thieves kept up their crusade against society, while Akechi tried to catch them at every turn. However, after spending many afternoons with the Detective Prince, Akira had started to truly consider Akechi as a true rival, and even a close friend. Akira recalled what Akechi told him after their one-on-one duel in Mementos.

"I'm going to be entirely honest with you: I hate you." Akechi had said with a blank stare on his face. Akira furrowed his brow towards Akechi as he continued to speak. "Your deft handling of your unfortunate circumstances, your uniqueness, your ability to surpass me…All these irritate me. You're the one person I refuse to lose to!" Akechi finished.

From that moment forward, Akira knew that there was no going back for Akechi. They both had made their choices, and neither of them would back down. In the end, one of them would win, one of them would lose, and there isn't anything that can be done to change that.

"You alright there?" Big Mac asked, bringing Akira out of his own thoughts. He looked up to see the farm boy looking at him with a raised brow. Akira was more surprised to hear Mac start out a sentence with something other than nope or yup.

"Y-Yeah, I'm alright." Akira quickly replied as he went back to eating, however, Big Mac wasn't quite done.

"Hey, Akira." Mac said, getting Akira's attention once again. "Ah just wanted to say thank ya." Mac added with a small smile. Akira raised his eyebrow in response.

"Thank me? What for?" He asked, chewing up more of his breakfast.

"For helpin' out with Applejack. She told us this mornin' that she and Rainbow Dash had made up, Ah had a feeling ya may have had a hand in that…" Big Mac answered with a smirk. Akira knew he'd been caught, but he knew he couldn't take all the credit.

"All I did was give them a nudge in the right direction, they came back together on their own." Akira replied, returning his own smile, just happy that everything worked out for them in the end.

"Even if that's all ya did, Ah haven't seen Applejack this happy for a long time. So thank ya." Mac repeated. Akira gave the boy a nod in response as he and Morgana finished up their breakfast. After a few more minutes, Applejack exited the kitchen and put on her backpack.

"All done! Y'all ready to head out?" Applejack asked the two boys, who both got up out of their chairs.

"Eeyup." Mac responded as he put his own backpack on over his shoulders. Akira did the same as he picked up his bag, which Morgana had resituated himself inside.

"Let's do it." Akira said, as he and the two members of the Apple family went to walk towards the door. "Thank you for the food, Granny!" He called out to the matriarch, giving a slight bow.

"Glad you liked it, dear!" Granny replied as she watched her grandchildren, and the "adopted" member of the family walk out of the house.

Akira looked over to Applejack, who shot back a knowing smile. They both knew they had a lot to do today.

The leader of the Phantom Thieves looked back towards the direction of the school with determination, where phase one of their plan would commence.

Canterlot High - Homeroom Period

The day had been going well so far for Akira, science and home-ec went by fairly quickly, and he was holding up pretty well in both classes. But as the bell rang for the students to transition to their homeroom class, Akira quickly started making his way towards the school gym to hold up his deal to Pinkie Pie.

Although, Akira felt something was off as he walked through the hall. He felt as if someone had been watching him, and he knew the feeling well, both when Kamoshida had been finding any excuse to expel him, and when Makoto was strong-armed into investigating him by Principal Kobayakawa.

Akira quickly stopped in the hallway and turned around to see if he could spot anyone. He thought he caught a glimpse of one or two figures quickly turning behind a corner. Akira stood by for a moment to see if anyone would peek around the corner.

"Morgana?" Akira called for the cat inside his bag, who lightly poked his head out.

"Huh? What's up?" The feline questioned in response. Akira kept his eyes on the corner of the hall, hoping to catch anyone.

"I think someone's following me, I'm gonna keep walking, but you let me know if you see anyone." Akira asked his partner, who turned around so he could see outside of his backpack, but just enough so that they couldn't see him.

"Leave it to me!" Morgana said, and with the statement of confirmation, Akira turned back around and started heading down the hall again. After about two seconds of walking, Akira heard footsteps behind him start to move, as Morgana tapped Akira's back to let him know he had a visual.

"What do you see?" Akira whispered as softly as he could, knowing that Morgana could pick it up with his feline hearing.

"There's two guys here…and they're trying waaay too hard to be stealthy." Morgana said, as he watched the two boys, one of them was wearing a shirt that had a pair of scissors on it, while the other, who was a lot taller than the first boy, had a jacket on with a picture of a snail on it.

"Let me know when to turn around." Akira whispered again, which elicited a nod from Morgana. The cat watched as the two boys kept trying, and failing to sneak through the hall. The taller one tried doing an army crawl, Morgana believed they did it because they thought it looked cool. While the other was trying to slide along the lockers, which made more noise than anything.

The shorter boy then moved away from the locker, tiptoeing towards the center of the hall, however he seemed to not notice his still crawling friend as he tripped over the taller one and fell flat on his face. Morgana once again tapped his partners back through his bag, signaling him to confront the two.

Akira wasted no time as he quickly spun on his heel to look at the two. As the taller one tried to pick himself up, he looked to see Akira staring back at him with a menacing glare. Akira took a few steps forward.

"So, why were you two following me?" Akira asked, slipping into his Joker voice. The taller one stood up and started to lightly back away, while the shorter one was still trying to get to his feet. The taller boy then quickly turned heel and went to run.

"Book it, Snips!" The boy yelled out, quickly running around the corner, while his friend still hadn't stood up.

"Snails! Wait for me-" The boy, who Akira could now identify as Snips, yelled after his friend Snails before he was cut off by Akira grabbing onto his shoulder and turning him so they were face to face.

"So, "Snips" was it?" The Phantom Thief questioned Snips, who gave an anxious nod in response. "Well then maybe you can answer me, why were you two following me?" Akira asked again, getting in Snips' face. The stocky boy put a hand to his mouth and mimed zipping it shut.

"I-I'm sworn to secrecy!" Snips yelled out in a defiant response, or maybe he was afraid of what would happen to him if he talked, Akira thought. Akira then gave a crazed smirk and he leaned down towards Snips' level.

"I can be quite convincing…" Akira said menacingly, making Snips' eyes go wide. Akira brought his face near Snips' own, while he was glad the hall was currently empty so no one saw what he was up to. "You know, I have quite the reputation back where I'm from…so I'll only ask once more…" Akira said, his gaze not leaving Snips' eyes for a second. And it seemed that was all it took for the boy to crack.

"Ok, Ok! Sunset Shimmer told us to!" Snips' quickly shouted before he covered his mouth. Akira withdrew from Snips' face after the revelation.

"Sunset Shimmer? Why?" Akira asked Snips again, hoping to get a bit more information.

"She knows that you've been helpin' that Twilight girl try and get votes for Fall Formal Princess!" Snips said, Akira figured that was all the information he was going to get, or it was all that Snips could remember.

Akira then let the boy go, making Snips back away again before he quickly gathered himself and started running for the hills. Morgana popped out of the book bag to talk to Akira about the new information they just learned.

"Looks like Sunset Shimmer's trying to start her own investigation on us…" Morgana said with a furrowed brow. Akira nodded as he tried putting the pieces together.

"Should have known this wouldn't be that easy, she probably has eyes and ears everywhere in this school." Akira replied as he started to turn to continue walking towards the gym.

"We'll need to be careful going forward, if we've got Sunset and her cronies trailing us then it might be tougher to get into the Metaverse undetected." Morgana added on. They knew this wasn't going to be easy, but if Sunset had her eyes on him, Akira had to stay on his toes even more.

Akira knew he'd have to tell the girls about this.

Canterlot High - Gymnasium

When Akira walked into the gym, he had expected to see Pinkie Pie waiting for him with plenty of streamers, balloons, and who knows what else she needed to finish the decorating for the Fall Formal.

Instead, he walked in to see Pinkie Pie holding up a ladder, while Rarity had been hanging up streamers over the windows of the gym.

Akira couldn't help but smile at the two, he knew that this is where they had left their friendship off at, and he was glad that it had picked back up at this point as well. Rarity then looked down to Pinkie Pie as she held up a set of light blue streamers in their position.

"What about right here, darling?" Rarity asked the party expert, who quickly looked at the streamers from different angles before giving a nod.

"Looks perfect, Rarity!" Pinkie confirmed, Rarity smiled as she started to climb down the ladder to get the next set of decorations.

Akira and Morgana looked around surprised to see that about half of the work that Pinkie Pie had planned for them today was just about done. As Rarity and Pinkie Pie were deciding what to put up next, Akira decided to make himself known.

"You two seem to work fast." Akira said, making both Rarity and Pinkie Pie quickly turn his direction. Pinkie lit up as soon as she made eye contact with Akira.

"Aki!" Pinkie yelled, running up and enveloping him in a hug, one Akira returned fairly quickly. "I was meaning to text you earlier!" Akira left the hug giving Pinkie a confused look.

"Why's that?"

"Well I know we were looking to try finishing up as many of the decorations as we could today, but-"

"But then I decided to help out, as a way to make up for my horrific behavior from before…" Rarity added, making Pinkie smile and nod her head vigorously. Akira nodded his head in understanding as he looked around at the decorations once again. Morgana then popped out of the bag to look around as well, smiling at the two girls.

"Seems you both make quite the team." Morgana said, making both girls giggle at the praise.

"Well with my eye for beauty, and Pinkie Pie's talent of decoration, we're quite efficient. Wouldn't you say?" Rarity asked.

"Agreed. What were you saying Pinkie?"

"OH RIGHT! So Rarity decided to help me out, and since we've been working so fast and were almost done for the day already, we thought we might use the time to-"

"To catch up?" Akira stopped her before Pinkie Pie started rambling on. Pinkie nodded her head in confirmation. Her head then slightly dropped in sadness.

"I Pinkie Promise we won't finish it all today so that we'll still have something to do for you!" Pinkie told the boy, reciting her Pinkie Promise yet again, still hoping that they could still keep up on their deal. Akira laughed at Pinkie's antics as he put a hand on her shoulder.

"It's alright, Pinkie. After everything you both have been through, you deserve to have some time to yourselves." Akira said with a smile on his face, Pinkie once again threw her arms around Akira once again.

"ThankyouThankyouThankyou!" Pinkie yelled out, as eventually Akira returned the hug. After letting go, Akira started to head for the door once again.

"You two have fun, see you at lunch."

"Of course, darling."

"See you then, Aki!" Pinkie yelled as Akira exited the gym, standing out in the hallway yet again.

Akira wondered where to go from here, but decided to possibly check out the library, since he hadn't been there yet. He might even see Twilight. So Akira started to walk in the library's direction, checking to make sure no one was following him this time.

After a good minute of walking, Akira passed by what looked to be the woodshop room, and he heard a set of thumping noises as he came near. Morgana looked out of the bag to find the source of the commotion.

"What's going on in there?" Morgana asked as Akira got closer to the door to try and hear anything else.

"I'm not sure. I wouldn't think there would be a class here during homeroom…" Akira responded as he put his hand on the door handle, turning it slowly and peeking into the room, where he saw the last person he'd expected to be in here.

Fluttershy had been sitting towards the back of the room, overlooking something on the table in front of her, while she held a hammer in her hand. She kept cautiously looking back at the hammer, seemingly wondering if she was doing something wrong.

"No, t-that's not right…" Akira heard Fluttershy say to herself as she took the hammer back to whatever she was working on and tried prying something out with the claw of the hammer.

"Looks like she's struggling with something." Morgana said quietly as he looked back towards Akira, who was looking intently at the timid girl. Morgana smiled as he knew what his partner wanted to do. "Wanna go help her out?" The cat asked. Akira looked up at the cat with a light smile, before turning his attention back to Fluttershy.

"Seems like she could use it. Why not?" Akira said as he slowly made his way into the room, shutting the door to keep away prying eyes. Akira walked closer to the animal lover, making sure not to scare her as she discarded what looked to be a bent nail.

After getting right behind Fluttershy, Akira was able to see exactly what she had been working on, as in front of her, she had multiple small pieces of wood, and a step-by-step guide on how to build a birdhouse. However, the product in front of Fluttershy looked nothing like what it was supposed to. Akira smiled at her attempt though before he made himself known.

"How's it going, Fluttershy?" Akira asked, looking over Fluttershy's shoulder. The girl instantly jumped at the sudden voice, the hammer landing on the table next to the pile of wood. Fluttershy turned around to see who her possible attacker was, only to slightly calm down upon seeing who it was.

"A-Akira!? How long have you been s-standing there!?" Fluttershy asked mid-panic, Akira shrugged his shoulders.

"Not too long. I heard something in here, and I wanted to see what you were working on." Akira responded, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment. "Sorry, I probably should have knocked. I was a little curious." Fluttershy sat back down and took a deep breath to recover from the scare.

"O-Oh, it's ok…I was just t-trying to build this b-birdhouse, b-but I don't think I'm any good at it…" Fluttershy admitted while putting her head down, Akira hoped that maybe through their work in the Metaverse, her confidence will be able to grow. However, he was more focused on the present.

"A birdhouse? What for?" Akira questioned, hoping to possibly understand the girl, after all they did meet only yesterday. Fluttershy looked back to her work and sighed.

"There's a b-bird nest in a tree close to the school, but it looks pretty u-unstable, and I d-don't want any students to a-accidentally knock it down…" Fluttershy said as Akira took a seat next to her. "So I wanted to b-build a house for the birds, so they won't be in harm's way…" Akira knew that the girl's element was Kindness, but even he was impressed at her initiative in this case.

"That's incredibly kind of you." Akira replied, making Fluttershy blush at the praise she received.

"Oh it's n-nothing at all…I just wish I c-could actually build it…" Fluttershy said dejectedly. Akira looked at the instructions for the birdhouse, then looked back to the girl and was about to ask her what he was originally going to do when he walked in, but Morgana beat him to the punch as he climbed out of Akira's bag.

"Akira's pretty handy, why don't you let him take a look at it?" Morgana asked the girl, who looked up at Akira with hope.

"R-Really?"

"Yup! He's made quite a lot of tools to help us out when we're in the Metaverse, this would be easy for him. Right, Akira?" Morgana looked towards Akira for his response. He noticed that the instructions didn't seem that hard to follow, and that Fluttershy was giving him such a cute look that he just couldn't say no to even if he wanted.

"Sure, I can take a crack at it if you want?" Akira agreed, making Fluttershy's usual sullen face beam with happiness.

"I-I'd appreciate it v-very much!" Fluttershy said with gratitude as she and Akira switched seats. Morgana had climbed out of the bag and sat next to Fluttershy, who gladly started to pet him. Morgana started to purr in response to the petting. Akira rolled his eyes as he started to get to work.

"Y-Your fur is so soft, Morgana…" Fluttershy said to the cat, who had basically melted into her arms. The feline pridefully looked up at the girl.

"I try to keep it as clean and pristine as possible." Morgana bragged while purring once again.

"I hope you keep it that way once you're human again." Akira joked as he grabbed the hammer while looking at his first steps. Morgana glared at the boy.

"Of course I will, I'm sure I'll have beautiful hair as a human!" The cat turned his nose up, while Fluttershy seemed intrigued.

"O-Oh yes, that's right, you're actually a human!" Fluttershy said, making Morgana turn up to her with a wide smile.

"That's right…well, at least I hope so…" Morgana replied, lowering his head a little bit. Fluttershy tilted her head in confusion.

"You don't know?" Fluttershy asked, which she didn't realize was a sore subject for the Metaverse expert.

"I lost my memories right before Akira and I met, next thing I knew, I was stuck in this form…" Morgana said, sadness lacing his tone, which Fluttershy immediately picked up on.

"I'm s-so sorry I asked, Morgana, I didn't know…" Fluttershy responded with a frown, Morgana looked back up and gave her a smile.

"It's ok, Fluttershy. The Phantom Thieves helped show me where I belong, whether I'm a human or a cat." Morgana gave a big grin towards Fluttershy and Akira, and while Fluttershy seemed to be relieved that Morgana felt better, Akira could tell something was on her mind.

"Where I belong…" Fluttershy muttered to himself, Akira raised an eyebrow as he finished setting up the walls of the birdhouse, making quick progress due to his incredible proficiency.

"What's wrong, Fluttershy?" Akira asked, bringing her attention to him with wide eyes. She tried to dismiss his concern.

"I-It's nothing, Akira…" Fluttershy replied with her head down, her face falling back into her usual frown. Akira sighed as he briefly stopped his work to look at her.

"Fluttershy…Look at me, please?" Akira brought a hand to her chin and slightly tilted her head up so that she was looking at him. "We're friends now, Fluttershy. I won't force you to tell me, but I'm always willing to listen, just so you know." Akira said with a smile on his face, combined with his gentle tone seemed to calm Fluttershy down, but he could tell she still wasn't ready to open herself up to him quite yet.

Akira went back to working on the birdhouse, starting to glue on, and nail the roof of the birdhouse. Fluttershy watched him intently, hoping to learn from the Phantom Thief as he kept building. Akira looked back towards Fluttershy and tried to think of a way to make small talk.

"How did the song-writing with you and Rainbow Dash go?" Akira asked while setting the other pieces into their places. Fluttershy turned her attention back to the boy.

"It went p-pretty well…Rainbow Dash's ideas sounded b-better than mine though." Fluttershy said, self-deprecating herself yet again. Akira shook his head, looking her in the eyes.

"I'm sure you had great ideas, Fluttershy. Can't wait to hear it." He responded, Fluttershy looked towards the ground with embarrassment.

"T-Thank you…I hope you all like it." Fluttershy replied, making Akira tap the walls of the birdhouse with the hammer to make sure that it was sturdy, and after testing all the walls, Akira turned to an amazed Fluttershy.

"All finished." Akira said, showing the completed birdhouse to Fluttershy, who stared at it with glee.

"Wow…you're amazing, A-Akira. Thank you so much!" Fluttershy said, holding the finished birdhouse in her hands. Akira smiled at Fluttershy's joy over the little wooden house.

"It's nothing, Fluttershy. Always happy to help out." Akira responded as Morgana jumped out of Fluttershy's lap and back towards Akira's bookbag. "Anything else I can help you with?" Fluttershy looked around, trying to think.

"N-Not right now, but I was hoping to make some other things for the animal shelter soon…" Fluttershy said the last part to herself, but Akira caught on and had an idea.

'Fluttershy has only known me for one day, I can imagine she wouldn't trust me with her personal problems quite yet. But maybe if I help her out some more, she'll open up to me…' The Wildcard thought. He stood up from his chair and looked Fluttershy in the eyes again.

"Maybe I can help you with those too?" Akira asked, catching Fluttershy off guard as she looked back up to him with surprise.

"O-Oh no! I can't ask you to do a-all the work!" Fluttershy reasoned, but Akira wasn't having any of it.

"Who said I had to do it all? I can teach you some things and give you pointers while you work on whatever you want to make." Akira shook his head, hoping that Fluttershy would consider his offer.

Fluttershy stared at Akira in shock. Here was a boy she barely knew, someone from another world, who wanted to help her out and he didn't even expect anything in return. She blushed a little bit at the thought as she responded.

"Really? You'd do that for m-me?"

"Of course." Akira answered while extending his hand forward. "Do we have a deal?" The boy asked.

Fluttershy looked down at Akira's hand, the back of her mind was telling her to not agree, that she would just be a bother to him on his quest to get back home, that someone like him didn't truly care about a "nobody" like her. But something about Akira's eyes, his smile, his demeanor, all of them felt comforting to Fluttershy. She hadn't felt like this since Rainbow Dash first stood up for her against her bullies.

After comparing the two contrasting thoughts in her head, Fluttershy set the birdhouse to the side, closed her eyes and shot her hand forward, quickly shaking Akira's hand.

"Yes!" Fluttershy exclaimed as assertively as she could. She opened her eyes to see her hand still locked with Akira's as the boy closed his eyes and gave her another comforting smile.

'I've made a deal with Fluttershy…'

CONFIDANT ACQUIRED - Fluttershy: The Priestess, Rank 1

After a few more seconds of shaking hands, Fluttershy lightly withdrew her hand from Akira's, clasping both her hands from behind her back. Akira looked up at the clock, picked up the birdhouse, and handed it to Fluttershy.

"We've got a few minutes before lunch, want to go hang this up?" Akira asked, referring to the tree that Fluttershy had told him about. The animal lover took the birdhouse and gave the boy a rare smile.

She nodded in response, which made Akira sling his bag over his shoulders again, with Morgana inside, as he and Fluttershy headed for the door.

Even as he and Fluttershy were walking, Akira felt the need to look everywhere to make sure nobody was tailing them. In the end, he found nothing and tried to relax as he and Fluttershy went outside.

Canterlot High - Lunchtime

After helping a family of birds move into their new home, the bell rang and Akira and Fluttershy made their way to the cafeteria. Akira made a connection in the lunch line as to why he hadn't seen any meat products since coming to this world.

'I guess if it's just like a world of ponies, they're all herbivores, or maybe vegetarian in this case…but what I wouldn't do for some of Sojiro's curry right now…' Akira thought to himself as he grabbed what looked to be a grilled cheese sandwich and headed over to the table where most of the girls had already sat down.

Rainbow Dash seemed to be telling a story to Applejack while Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy were all digging into their food.

"So I've got the ball, and we're sprinting down the field, right?" Rainbow Dash stopped mid-story to make sure that Applejack was following along. The farm girl responded with a nod. "I'm trying to get to the goal, but their entire team is guarding me! But I see that Soarin' has a wide open, and I mean wide open shot. I pass over to him and he shoots the ball. Right after he kicks it, he turns around to celebrate, but his shot completely missed the goal!"

"You're kiddin' me!" Applejack laughed at the misfortune.

"Dead serious! We ended up winning, but Coach made Soarin' run 20 laps around the field!" Rainbow chuckled at her own story, Applejack lightly slapped Rainbow's arm as she kept on laughing.

Akira sat down next to Pinkie Pie as he noticed that Twilight was still missing from the table. Akira looked back over to the lunchline where he saw the Equestrian Princess going through while trying to use a set of tongs to make a salad. Twilight fumbled with the utensil, while the students behind her saw her struggle and began to laugh.

Rarity had also noticed Twilight's struggle and cringed at what she was watching.

"You know, now that we know she's a pony…It all makes much more sense." Rarity mused, which made Rainbow Dash chuckle again.

"I'll take sentences I'd never thought I'd hear for five hundred!" Rainbow joked, making everyone at the table laugh, including Fluttershy. Pinkie then turned to face Akira.

"Speeeeeaaaaking of which, what's your world like Akira?" Pinkie asked with a wide smile, speaking at a volume only they could hear. Everyone's head turned towards Pinkie, then towards Akira.

"Now that ya mention it, Ah am kinda curious about it…" Applejack thought.

"We know that Twilight is from a world of magic and ponys, but all we know about your world is the whole "Phantom Thief" business." Rarity added onto the thought. Fluttershy then tucked her head towards her chest.

"A-And didn't Pinkie Pie say that you were f-framed for a crime?" Fluttershy brought up, which made Akira's eyes widen as the others looked in his direction.

"That's right! What happened?" Rainbow Dash questioned, hoping to hear another cool story. Akira cringed as the same memory of that night played in his head yet again.

"Damn brat…I'll sue!" the voice of the bald man rang in Akira's head once again as he looked down. Morgana looked out of his bag to make sure that his partner was ok, he knew it was a sore subject. The girls soon picked up on his sorrow.

"Are you alright, Aki?" Pinkie asked with concern, grabbing onto Akira's arm, bringing him out of his thoughts. Applejack could also tell he was troubled.

"If it's too personal, ya don't have to-" Applejack started, but was interrupted by Akira putting his hand up.

"No, it's ok. You all deserve to know." Akira gave the girls a light smile, but Applejack couldn't quite tell if it was fake or not. "I was walking home one night and came across this guy trying to force this woman into his car. The guy was obviously drunk, but I couldn't just stand by and watch it happen, so I tried to help. The guy lunged at me and fell on his face, but when the cops arrived, he claimed I assaulted him…" Akira said with a downtrodden expression, the story made Rarity gasp, while the other girls looked horrified.

"And this woman did nothing to defend you?" Rarity asked.

"That's the kicker, the guy held some kind of power over her. He told her to lie to the cops' faces…didn't help that the police force was practically in his pocket…" Akira added on, shaking his head while the girls listened with their mouths agape. "After I was arrested, the trial was pretty quick. I had a criminal record, and was expelled from my school, and my parents basically disowned me, just like that." Akira lightly laughed at the scenario. Fluttershy couldn't help but start to tear up at the story.

"T-That's…That's a-awful." Fluttershy sobbed, while Rainbow Dash brought both her hands down onto the table, which drew the attention of a few other students.

"That isn't fair! You were just trying to help!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, while Applejack put a hand on her shoulder, trying to calm her down even though she was just as livid.

"She's right, ya didn't do anything wrong, Sugarcube." Applejack told the boy with a light smile, trying her best to cheer him up. She was met with a small smile in response.

"I can't imagine how horrible that must have been for you, darling…" Rarity joined in on the condolences. While Pinkie Pie had a look of anger they had rarely seen from her.

"That guy needs to be served a freezing cold plate of justice!" Pinkie Pie said, pounding her fist into her other hand. Akira started to laugh a little bit at her seriousness, while Morgana popped his head out of the bag to speak.

"We plan on doing just that! First chance we get, we're changing that guy's heart!" Morgana claimed triumphantly. Akira smiled at his partner, and to the others.

"I appreciate it, girls. It definitely hurt, but if that hadn't happened, I wouldn't have met Morgana, the Phantom Thieves wouldn't exist…" Akira looked back out to the Elements. "I wouldn't have met you girls." Akira finished saying, his demeanor completely changing as Pinkie Pie wrapped him up in a hug.

"Awwwwww, that was so sweet, Aki!" Pinkie squeezed Akira tight, making the group laugh yet again, it was Pinkie's specialty after all.

"Well if that's the case, I'd say you won in the end!" Rainbow Dash said, flashing the boy a smirk, one Akira returned in kind.

"We're pretty lucky you're here too, if it weren't for you, we probably wouldn't be sittin' here now." Applejack said, turning over to Rarity. "Right, Rarity? Uh, Rarity?" Applejack asked as she noticed Rarity was looking in a different direction, they turned their heads to see that Twilight had once again crossed paths with Flash Sentry again. The two had bumped into each other and seemed to be having a decent conversation, even if Twilight was a blushing mess.

"I keep telling her that's a bad idea…" Rarity referred to Twilight's little crush on the boy, who had a guitar wrapped around his back.

Akira had to admit that Rarity had a point, the more interest Twilight showed in Sunset's ex, the more likely it is Sunset would do something bad to either Flash or Twilight. It also reminded him that he needed to tell the girls about his run in with Snips and Snails, but that could wait till Twilight made it.

After another minute of watching Twilight and Flash's conversation, they eventually parted ways as Twilight made her way to the lunch table, and sat next to Akira.

"Hey guys, how's it going?" Twilight asked as she noticed Rarity glaring at her with narrowed eyes that made Twilight slightly nervous. "E-Everything ok?" Pinkie Pie waved off her concern.

"Oh don't worry about Rarity, we were just waiting for you so we can talk about the super secret plan!" Pinkie told the Princess.

"Right. Now that we're all here, let's get to work." Akira led, putting his hands together. He turned right to Rainbow Dash for their first order of business. "Let's start with the song, Rainbow Dash, do you have the lyrics?" Rainbow Dash dug into her backpack, and withdrew a sheet of paper.

"Right here!" Rainbow Dash passed the sheet to the center of the table.

Akira and Twilight took the first chance to read them, while Pinkie Pie also read over their shoulders, while Spike had also poked his head out of Twilight's bag to get a view. Rainbow Dash had marked down where everyone would be singing, and who would get certain solo parts, she even had marks for choreography ideas, along with the idea that Akira would film the performance to later be posted.

And while Akira had to admit the lyrics were very on the nose, he thought it would work for what they were trying to do. Twilight and Pinkie Pie were smiling very wide as they read the lyrics.

"Dashie, Fluttershy, this is incredible!" Pinkie yelled to the two. "This'll get Twilight a ton of votes for sure!"

Twilight had been reading over a part of the lyrics, where Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were commending her for bringing them back together, and their hope that she can unify the school under her name, not Sunset Shimmers. She smiled at what she read, a tear nearly coming to her eye.

"W-Wow, thank you, girls…" Twilight said while wiping a tear away, Akira passed the sheet to Applejack and Rarity so those two could get a look at what was on the page. After a few seconds of looking, Rarity made her verdict.

"I must say, I'm impressed. It will definitely give this school its spirit back!" Rarity spoke as Applejack turned to Rainbow Dash.

"You and Fluttershy always did have a knack for that kinda stuff…" Applejack then lightly elbowed Rainbow's side. "Who knows, maybe "The Rainbooms" should make a comeback?" Applejack referred to their old band they tried to make during freshman year.

"Ha! Maybe someday!" Rainbow Dash snorted. Fluttershy sat by, amazed at the praise the song had received.

"You all like it? Like r-really like it?" Fluttershy asked the group. Rarity saw the doubt Fluttershy held and did her best to quell it.

"It's fantastic, Fluttershy." Rarity replied, making Fluttershy start to smile. Akira turned to face her, glad that her confidence was coming forth.

"I knew we could count on you." Akira told the girl, remembering their conversation in the woodshop room. Fluttershy started to twirl one of her fingers in her hair, blushing at the sudden attention.

"T-Thank you!" The group was happy to see Fluttershy believe in her own abilities a bit more, as Akira knew what was next on the agenda.

"Now that we've got that set, let's talk about the Palace." Akira said, motioning for the girls to get into a huddle, just to make sure nobody overheard them. "Alright, the main goal is to find the treasure room and make sure we can steal the treasure when the time comes."

"Well that's easy. We'll run through and beat down any Shadows in our way, easy as pie!" Rainbow Dash replied as she put her legs up on the table. Akira shook his head.

"I wish it was that simple. Fighting Shadows takes a lot of energy, and there's going to be a lot of them. We'll have to try and get as far as we can until we need to head back to the real world." Akira referred to the many times the Phantom Thieves had fought an extremely tough Shadow, and had to spend a night to recover. "Next Friday is the dance, so let's aim to reach the treasure room by Wednesday at the latest."

"Sounds good to me, partner." Applejack replied, eliciting a nod from the other girls, showing they were on board with the schedule.

"Good to hear, last thing I'll say: Watch your backs in school." Akira told the girls, who slightly jumped at the foreboding tone he took with his words.

"W-W-What do you mean?" Fluttershy curled up in her seat. Akira calmly explained what happened earlier in the day.

"Do you girls know two boys named Snips and Snails?" The question threw some of the girls for a loop.

"Of course, darling. Those two are like Sunset Shimmer's little minions, they'll do whatever she tells them to do." Rarity's explanation definitely helped Akira understand.

"That makes sense, I caught them both following me before homeroom. When I caught them, Snips said that Sunset knows I've been helping Twilight." Akira told the group, as he was met with sets of wide eyes.

"Does she know about the Metaverse then!?" Twilight panicked, only stopping once Akira put a hand on her shoulder.

"I don't think so, but we should make sure we're alone before we go into the Palace tonight…" The leader of the Phantom Thieves put a hand to his chin.

"What if we meet at the practice field before going in?" Rainbow Dash suggested. "Football season is over, so not many people are gonna use that field after school, besides me of course!" Akira looked around to see if there were any objections, but wasn't met with any.

"Good idea, Dashie!" Pinkie gave a big smile.

"No matter what, we need to be careful…If Sunset Shimmer has people watching us, that has to mean she's trying to plan something to get in our way of getting Twilight the votes she needs." Akira pointed out to the group, who responded with a nod. "Anyone else have any news?" Rainbow Dash leaned forward to speak at the question.

"Coach told me that on Monday, homeroom is gonna be replaced by a field day." Rainbow spoke, which made Rarity sigh.

"A field day? Now of all times?" Rarity groaned as she facepalmed. Twilight looked confused more than anything.

"What's a field day?"

"I-It's where the whole school goes out and has all the s-students play sports for the whole p-period." Fluttershy answered the Princess' question.

"It's the school's way of gettin' the students to be "active'' so they say." Applejack added on.

"Well if "being active" means getting all my clothes dirty, I'll have to pass…" Rarity said, the thought of dirt on her clothing making her shudder. Pinkie Pie then lunged halfway across the table towards Rainbow Dash.

"Ooh, Ooh! What game are we playing this time!?" Pinkie yelled into Rainbow Dash's face, who recoiled back before giving an answer.

"More than likely, it's gonna be baseball. So we'll all be able to be on the same team!" Rainbow Dash said with a smirk. Morgana then poked his head out as a figurative lightbulb appeared over his head.

"Maybe we can use that to help Twilight get more votes!" Morgana told the group, who looked at the cat with raised eyebrows.

"Whaddya mean, Morgana?" Applejack questioned.

"Think about it, if Twilight's campaign is going to be all about showing school spirit, what better way to show that than giving it your all during the field day?" Morgana stated, which made the group ponder.

"Now that I think about it, I don't believe Sunset Shimmer has ever even participated in a field day…" Rarity thought out loud, which caught the attention of Akira and Twilight.

"She hasn't?"

"Yup, she usually finds some sort of lame excuse to get out of it. From what I've found out, headaches are usually the go-to." Rainbow Dash added on. Morgana saw the opportunity form right in front of them.

"Then there we go, an easy way to show that Twilight has more school spirit!" The cat said with a satisfactory grin. Akira looked around the table to see most of the girls nodding at the idea.

"We'll discuss this more over the weekend…" Akira looked over to see Twilight slightly shaking. "Something wrong, Twilight?" The boy asked the Equestrian, who fell out of her stupor and shook her head at the leader.

"O-Oh! It's nothing, j-just a little nervous…" Twilight stated, Rarity put a hand to her chin and quickly made a connection.

"I suppose with you being a uh…well…a pony, it would be quite the challenge to adapt to the way we play." Rarity pondered as Rainbow Dash pointed to herself.

"Don't worry, Twilight! I'll teach you everything I know!" Rainbow claimed, which brought a smile to the princess' face, but was quickly taken away by the jock's next statement. "But be warned, my training will be pretty intense." And Twilight was immediately reminded of her soccer match with Rainbow Dash, already feeling exhausted just thinking about it.

"It'll all work out, Twilight. I promise you." Akira put a hand on Twilight's shoulder, causing their eyes to meet. Something about Akira's gray eyes was very calming to Twilight, she's always been used to her world full of color and light, yet the color gray, something she's usually described as emotionless and dull, suddenly seemed pure. Twilight nodded in response and gave the boy a smile.

"Thanks, Akira…" Twilight replied, making Akira smile in return.

Across the table, Applejack had felt the same feeling she had felt when seeing how close Akira and Twilight were at the Sweet Shoppe, she also felt a bit of it whenever Pinkie Pie called him Aki, and when he and Rainbow Dash hit it off so fast. But before she could act on the feeling in any way, the school bell rang, signaling the students to start moving to the next period.

"It seems like our meeting is adjourned. Let's all meet up at the practice field after school to get ready for the Palace." Akira stated, to which the temporary Phantom Thieves responded with different affirmations.

As the thieves started to depart for their classes, Applejack sighed as she looked at the leader of the group as he walked into the halls. She then heard someone clear her throat next to her, as she turned around to see Rarity giving her a knowing glare. Applejack could already tell what Rarity had on her mind.

"Don't think I didn't notice how you were looking at them just then, Darling…"

"Rarity, Ah-" Applejack started, but was silenced by Rarity putting a finger to her lips.

"You and I are going to have a little chat real quick…" Rarity said with a sly smile, and Applejack hung her head, worried about the personal conversation they were about to have about the leader of the Phantom Thieves.

Canterlot High - Hallway

After the final bell had rung, Akira made his way to his assigned locker, not to take anything or put anything away, but hopefully to find a peaceful spot to talk to Morgana in the crowded halls of CHS. He stopped in front of the metal doors that were a lot larger than the foot lockers they had at Shujin, he quickly entered the locker combination, and opened the door to set his bag on a hook inside the locker.

Once the bag was set, Morgana's head poked through the bag as he shook out his fur. Akira chuckled at the sight of his partner's messed up fur, and Morgana growled in response.

"I swear, the best part of being human again will be not having to ride around in this thing…" Morgana sighed as he pictured his eventual life as a human, being able to walk on his own and spending time with Lady Ann, but was brought out of his thoughts by Akira's laughter.

"Then my bag won't weigh twice as much as it should." Akira joked, which made Morgana's eyebrow furrow.

"Hey! It's good exercise for you!" Morgana replied, before he brought his thoughts back to the task at hand. "Anyways, we're about to go back into the palace, we're gonna need a plan of attack while we're in there. What's the first order of business…?" The feline asked the leader, who put a hand to his chin as he started to think of a plan.

"We should start by exploring around and seeing if we can find a map of some kind, we don't know that much about the castle so we need to know where we're going. Then from there it's just finding a path to the treasure." Akira stated, which elicited a nod from Morgana.

"Good plan, a map is first priority. We should also see about fighting some weak Shadows in there, it'll help the girls get used to their new powers in the Metaverse." Morgana started as his head began to drop. "We should also probably let them know about the possible outcomes of this…like what happened with Okumura…" Morgana finished as they were both reminded about what happened to Haru's father, they couldn't quite erase the image from their minds, or the guilt they felt from their hearts.

But before Akira could agree, they heard a lot of commotion down at the end of the hall.

Akira and Morgana heard a main set of footsteps heading their direction from the other side of the hall, and from what Akira could guess, was the shuffling of other students to get out of their way. Akira couldn't see who this was from behind the door, but he had a pretty good idea who it was from the noises being made.

"Get down." Akira whispered to Morgana, who nodded and dropped his head back in the bag as Akira took it off the locker hook and put it over his shoulder. Akira then heard the footsteps stop at his locker door as a familiar voice called out to him.

"Hey, Kurusuuu~" He heard the femenine voice call his last name.

Akira closed his eyes and cringed as he knew who was there, he closed his locker to reveal Sunset Shimmer standing behind it, a surprising smile on her face as she held her hands behind her back.

Akira narrowed his eyes at the girl. He wanted to confront her about why Snips and Snails had been following him, but decided against it as that could lead to a bigger target on his back. He decided to play nice for now.

"Do you need something?" Akira asked Sunset, who slowly walked closer to him. Akira thought he noticed her trying to sway her hips, but inferred that he was just imagining it.

"I just wanted to say that I'm sorry that we got off on the wrong foot earlier this week, Akira. Can I call you Akira~?" Sunset asked the boy as she traced a finger down his forearm. Akira couldn't think of a response as the sudden touch made him feel uncomfortable, just what game was she trying to play here?

Akira then noticed as she got closer to him that she had definitely gone all out on her appearance today, as whatever makeup she had on seemed to make her features pop even more. As much as Akira hated to admit it, Sunset Shimmer was fairly attractive, her red and yellow hair, along with her features just screamed "confidence", while her light green eyes seemed to hold an almost alluring brightness behind them that could be mistaken for innocence. But Akira knew her true nature, and that she couldn't be up to anything good by meeting with him.

"Akira? You there?" Sunset Shimmer said with a smirk, waving her hand in front of Akira's eyes, bringing him out of his thoughts.

"S-Sorry, spaced out. But don't treat people like that anymore and we'll get along just fine." Akira decided to play along with whatever Sunset Shimmer was trying to do. He might gain more information on her plan by playing friendly with her.

"Of course, I just want everything to be perfect for the Fall Formal…" Sunset Shimmer replied as her eyes started to wander around Akira's torso as she continued. "You know, I heard you and Twilight Sparkle have been spending time together…" The girl said, making Akira choose his words carefully so he didn't draw any suspicion onto their plan.

"Yeah. We both just transferred here so I thought we would both need a friend in this place, high school, y'know." Akira told Sunset, which made her nod in sympathy.

"High school is tough, especially if you aren't popular. Even then, you never know when people will suddenly leave you…" Sunset said, grabbing her arm and looking down at the floor. "I don't know if you heard, but my ex-boyfriend and I broke up a few weeks back…" Sunset continued, fishing for sympathy as Akira recalled what Rarity said about her and that Flash Sentry guy yesterday. Akira kept playing along.

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"Thank you, it's been tough but I've been feeling better…" Akira knew that was false, he knew that she had more than likely been feeling vengeful. "Although I had been hoping that he'd be my date for the Fall Formal, and if I won as Princess again this year, I'd be able to dance with him as my, well, unofficial Prince…but looks like that isn't happening. But there's someone else I have my eye on…"

As soon as she said those words, Akira had a feeling he knew where this was going. His fears were confirmed a few seconds later Sunset Shimmer looked back into his eyes with a sort of seductive glance and a confident smirk to go along with it.

"Say, Akira…maybe you'd like to be my Prince~?" Sunset said as her eyes fluttered at him. Akira started to internally panic, he had to think of a way to get out of this, his brain was going a mile a minute trying to think of any excuse to leave.

"W-Well, Sunset I'm actually-"

"I know that you've been trying to help Twilight with her campaign, but I'm sorry Akira, I think she's hopeless…" Sunset stated as she moved closer and placed a hand on Akira's chest, which started to make him anxiously sweat. "That girl can barely hold a pencil correctly, standing by her would ruin your reputation, and I don't want that to happen to a handsome guy like you~"

"Sunset, I'm flattered but-" Akira tried to interject, but Sunset didn't stop as she started tracing circles in his chest with her finger.

"Come on, Akira…we'd have a lot of fun togeth-"

"Sunset, no!" Akira shouted as he swiped her hand off of his chest, Sunset took a step back with a look of shock plastered on her face. Akira gathered himself as he gave Sunset Shimmer a determined glare. "I'm flattered that you'd think of me like that, but I'm sorry. I told Twilight I'd be there for her, so even if it is hopeless I can't abandon her." Akira finished his thoughts as a shocked Sunset stood across from him.

Akira awaited a response of sudden anger, a shout in his face, a slap, something to show that she wasn't happy with being rejected. But Akira was surprised as Sunset Shimmer put her head down, and started to let out a low laugh. Akira took a step backwards as Sunset's laughing got louder and more maniacal by the second. She brought her head up to stare right into Akira's soul with wide eyes.

"I get it now…It all makes sense…" Sunset started to say as she stepped closer to Akira, a crazed glare in her eyes that made Akira slightly nervous. "You showing up here two days after Twilight, you two campaigning against me, and you two getting the Elements of Harmony back together…"

Akira nearly cringed as Sunset was able to point out the irregularities going on. He wondered if she knew about the Metaverse as well, but as Sunset Shimmer pointed her finger at him, he knew this could end up ugly.

"Celestia sent you here, didn't she!?"

…

He was not expecting that, but the assumption made sense as Sunset Shimmer didn't even know about his world, and he figured he could try and fake his way out of this situation.

"Principal Celestia? No, my old school Shujin Academy did-"

"Don't play dumb with me! You're from Equestria as well, right!?" Sunset claimed. Akira wasn't sure what to think, seeing as by Sunset's logic, she thought he was a pony just like Twilight and herself. Akira decided to keep feigning ignorance.

"Equestria? What are you talking about?" Akira questioned, which only seemed to raise more anger out of Sunset Shimmer.

"Celestia must have known Twilight Sparkle couldn't get the crown back by herself, so she sent one of her stupid friends here to try and bring the element back!" Sunset yelled in Akira's face, who stood unflinching at her anger. "Well I've got some news for you, you can go tell your little marefriend that her crown now belongs to-" Sunset tried to finish her accusation, but was interrupted by another female voice.

"Akira! There you are, Darling!" They both looked to the right to see Rarity running up to Akira and grabbing him by the arm. "I've been looking for you everywhere. Excuse us, Sunset, I need Akira's help with a project…" Rarity said as she started to drag Akira down the hall, leaving behind a seething Sunset Shimmer.

Sunset's fist started to shake in anger as she retreated into her thoughts.

'Celestia thinks that sending Twilight some backup will stop me!?' Sunset thought as she slowly started to calm down while watching Akira and Rarity turn the corner down another hallway with another smirk reaching her face. 'It doesn't matter, by the time of the Fall Formal, he'll belong to me just like everyone else at this school…'

Canterlot High - Science Classroom

Rarity quickly opened the door so that she and Akira could rush in and catch their breath as they had basically power walked away from Sunset Shimmer. Akira took a quick stretch and looked over to the designer.

"Phew, thanks for the save, Rarity." Akira said as Rarity turned around to face him, a frown ever apparent on her face.

"Your welcome, Darling. You can start to thank me by telling me what on earth that was about!?" Rarity interrogated the boy, causing him to throw up his hands in defense.

"I don't know! At first she started flirting with me to try and have me replace that Flash guy, then after I told her no, she started accusing me of being from Twilight's world! I didn't say that much!" Akira told her in response, as Morgana climbed out of Akira's bag just enough to be seen.

"It was insane! I guess now that Sunset knows that we brought the Elements of Harmony back together, she's starting to get a little desperate…" Morgana added on as Rarity put a hand to her chin to think upon the circumstances.

"Ugh, now that she not only knows you're helping Twilight, but also from a different world, Sunset Shimmer may try to do something extreme to get you two out of the way…this isn't good." Rarity said while pinching the bridge of her nose.

"I know, I'll let the girls know once we get to the practice field. Let's go." Akira replied as he started to make way for the door, but was interrupted by Rarity grabbing his arm yet again.

"Before we do that, I actually did need to borrow you for something, Akira." Rarity said, dragging Akira back into the room as she fished a roll of measuring tape out of her backpack.

"Uh, sure. What do you need?" Akira asked as Rarity took his bag off of his shoulder, allowing Morgana to climb out and situate himself on a nearby desk.

"Just need to take your measurements, nothing much…" Rarity said as she placed Akira's arms out to the side and measured across his body before writing down the number she got.

"What for?" The boy asked as Rarity wrapped the measuring tape around his torso.

"Simple. You may be heading back to your world the night of the Fall Formal, but you'll still need to look your best when you arrive at the dance. So I thought I'd make a suit for you, Darling." Rarity answered as she wrote down the current set of numbers. Akira was surprised by the gesture from Rarity, from his time here, he's only seen her as sort of uptight and nosy, but now he's getting to witness the side of her that makes her the Element of Generosity.

"Wow, thanks Rarity! That's really thoughtful of you."

"Don't mention it. It's the least I could do for what you and Twilight did for us yesterday." Rarity flashed a smile towards the leader of the Phantom Thieves, but as Rarity measured up Akira's inseam, he remembered that he had never really heard Rarity's side of how things went down with the Elements.

"Speaking of that, Rarity, I've been meaning to ask you something." Akira said, making Rarity look up at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Ask away, Darling." Rarity replied as Akira took a deep breath to ask the deeply personal question.

"I know it isn't any fun remembering, but I've heard from most of the other girls what they went through during your falling out…I realized I haven't heard your side of things yet…" Akira questioned as he heard Rarity give a sharp inhale in response as she looked away from Akira's line of sight. "If it's too personal, you don't have-"

"No, no. You shared your story with us, it's time I share mine." Rarity said as she turned back to face him, sorrow ever apparent in her deep azure eyes. "I'm just ashamed of myself for my behavior back then." Rarity kept trying to take different measurements from Akira, but due to her inner thoughts interrupting her, she kept having to retake the measurements. Akira tilted his head to the side in curiosity.

"You mean how you acted with Pinkie Pie?" The question from the boy made Rarity give off a nervous chuckle.

"Not just with Pinkie Pie…with everyone." Rarity went back over to write down the measurements in her notebook as she continued. "I've always been the voice of reason for our group, whenever there was a problem, I could always calm things down. But once Applejack and Rainbow Dash had their fight, they wanted me to take a side…but instead of helping them talk through it, I simply left them alone and tried to make sure Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy were ok…"

Akira could instantly tell the kind of person Rarity was, she was the consultant of the group, she usually had the solution to everyone's problems, but when she didn't have one this time, she shut herself down.

"Then after Pinkie and Fluttershy had their spat, I tried to make up for my earlier mistake by trying to spend time with both of them. However, Fluttershy just wanted to be left alone, and Pinkie Pie…well, you know what happened there." Rarity said, the girl stopped her writing as she started to grasp the pencil with all her strength. "I just wanted to be useful to my friends, but it seemed like nobody wanted my help at all…so I retreated into my work, I decided I could only count on myself. I felt that if they wanted my help, they knew where to find me! But I wasn't going to go out of my way for people who didn't want my help anymore!" Rarity yelled, slamming her fist down on the counter.

Akira could see a single tear drop hit the floor, as Rarity stood up and wiped her eyes with her sleeve. Akira wanted to give Rarity a comforting hug, but was stopped as Rarity turned around and gave another slight chuckle.

"Oh how wrong I was about that…I just hope they've found it in their hearts to forgive me." Rarity said while walking back over to Akira, who said the first thing that came to mind.

"They already have." Akira bluntly stated, making Rarity look up at him with surprised eyes. Her lips started to quiver as she stared back at the calming gray eyes behind a pair of glasses.

"What do you mean?"

"Think about it, Pinkie Pie has already gone out of her way to try and fix your friendship today by making up for lost time. And seeing as you both had one of the big misunderstandings, I can imagine the other three are already willing to forgive you…" Akira told the girl, who looked down at the ground, realizing that Akira was right, her biggest issue was with Pinkie Pie, and that girl has already sought to mend the bridge that had formed between them. "And Rarity, you've been nothing but useful, even since yesterday you've been working hard to help Twilight win the crown. I'm glad we can rely on you."

Akira's words that he finished with a small smirk hit right down to Rarity's core. She unknowingly had taken initiative on finding ways to help Twilight, and planning out the whole thing without her even realizing she had done so. Rarity smiled as she finished taking Akira's measurements, she turned around and flashed the boy a confident grin.

"Of course, Darling." Rarity then grabbed her notebook and flipped through a few pages. "I'll get to work on making your suit right away. However, maybe you can still help me while you're in this world?" Rarity asked, making Akira quizzically raise an eyebrow.

"What do you need me to do?"

"Well I've usually only made dresses and more femenine clothes, but if I want to be a true designer, I need to be able to work with the more masculine styles…" Rarity started to say as Akira put his hand up to interrupt her.

"Basically you want me to be a mannequin for you?" Akira claimed with a slight laugh as Rarity crossed her arms.

"Well, I prefer the term "model", but yes…" Rarity replied dejectedly, her head shooting back up to try and convince Akira. "But it'll be worth it, I don't know if you have any protective gear under your coat in the Palace, but perhaps I could make some alterations to them, free of charge!" Rarity pleaded. Akira looked over at Morgana, who was cleaning himself on the counter, for approval. Morgana simply gave Akira a nod.

"Sounds like a fair trade to me. Besides, maybe you'll get some cool new clothes out of the deal." Morgana said before going back to cleaning his coat. Rarity looked back to Akira with a triumphant smirk.

"Well you heard the cat-"

"NOT A CAT!" Morgana yelled, catching both humans in the room off guard, Rarity sheepishly rubbed her hand behind her head.

"Right, the not-cat…anyways, what do you say?" Rarity said, sticking her hand out in front of Akira, who looked at the girl's hand for a few seconds. He wasn't sure if he was the right person for this kind of thing, if only he could ask Ann for advice here. But in the end, Akira decided to humor the girl and locked hands with her.

"Alright, I'll do it." Akira replied as he shook her hand, signifying their deal. Rarity gave the boy a small, sincere smile as they shook hands.

"Thank you, Akira. Truly, thank you."

'I made a deal with Rarity…'

CONFIDANT ACQUIRED - Rarity: Temperance, Rank 1

Rarity and Akira's handshake was interrupted by a buzzing in both of their pockets, they both grabbed their phones to see a text message from the newly formed CHSPTGC, or Canterlot High Phantom Thieves Group Chat, a name which Pinkie Pie decided on rather quickly. They both saw a message pop up from Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow Dash: Yo! Rarity, Akira, where are you guys? We're all here waiting for ya!

Akira and Rarity looked at each other before laughing, they had completely forgotten how much time had passed by. Akira quickly started to type a response.

Akira: Sorry, we ran into a little trouble. We'll be right there.

The two turned off their phones as Morgana climbed back into Akira's bag before the boy picked it up as he turned back to Rarity.

"I suppose we should head out." Akira said as Rarity giggled into her hand.

"Indeed we should." Rarity replied as the two left the room and headed towards the practice field.

Canterlot High - Soccer Field

After a few minutes of walking, Akira and Rarity made it to the field to see the other Elements of Harmony gathered at the same spot they met yesterday. Twilight, Spike, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy were all having a conversation on the bleachers, while Rainbow Dash and Applejack were near the goals, passing a soccer ball back and forth.

Rainbow Dash noticed the two missing members of the group walking towards them and chose to call out to them.

"There you two are! I was starting to get bored here!" Rainbow Dash yelled as she put her foot on top of the soccer ball to stop it as everyone else turned to look at the two.

"Sorry about that, like I said, we ran into some trouble." Akira said with a slight sigh, which caught Pinkie Pie's attention.

"Trouble? What kinda trouble? Like the "forgot your backpack" kinda trouble or the kind of trouble with a capital T and that rhymes with P and it stands for pool?!" Pinkie yelled out the question, pointing at everyone as she put a straw hat on her head.

Everyone else stared at Pinkie Pie with a look of extreme confusion as to what she just said as Pinkie then took off the hat.

"Guess we're not in River City then…" (A/N: Please tell me if someone gets this reference…).

"Um, no, Pinkie Pie. The Sunset Shimmer kind of trouble." Rarity's statement made the girl's attention immediately shift back to the two. Fluttershy started to curl up at the realization.

"Y-You ran into Sunset S-Shimmer?" Fluttershy quietly asked, Akira sighed as Morgana popped out of his bag to clarify what actually happened.

"She actually ran into Akira, on purpose…" Morgana claimed, which brought everyone's focus onto Akira. Twilight got up off the bleachers and ran in front of the boy.

"She did? What did she want?" Twilight asked, a worried look plastered all over her face. Akira took a deep breath as he went into his story.

"You're not gonna believe this. She tried to flirt with me first, that was her way of trying to get me to stop helping Twilight…" Akira told the group, while many of them were confused by Sunset's alleged approach, Rarity noticed that Applejack's fists started to clench in anger. "Of course I told her no, but then, she got angry and accused me of being from Twilight's world." The end of the story made everyone's eyes go wide, except Rarity as she had seen it all unfold.

"Wait wait wait!" Spike said, climbing down from the bleachers and trotting next to Twilight. "She thinks you're from Equestria as well?"

"Seems to be the case, Spike." Morgana replied, hopping out of the bag and onto a bench. Twilight put her head in her hands as she started to panic.

"Oh no no no! This is bad…" Twilight panicked, trying to steady her breathing while Rainbow Dash put her soccer ball underneath her arm and raised an eyebrow.

"What's so bad about that? Akira isn't from Twilight's world, so ya just gotta convince her of that." Dash said matter-of-factly. Rarity facepalmed before putting a hand on Rainbow Dash's shoulder.

"I don't think Sunset Shimmer is at the point of convincing, she seemed dead set on the concept…" Rarity told the speedster, who still seemed confused as to what the problem was, which Twilight explained in her panic.

"Now Sunset Shimmer's going to have it out for both of us. She's gonna try and go at us twice as hard, and who knows what she'll do to bring us both down!?" Twilight yelled towards everyone present. Applejack stepped forward and gripped both of Twilight's shoulders tightly, stopping her in place.

"Calm down, Twilight. We'll figure it out. And even if she tries anything, we'll have your back, right gang?" Applejack said, turning to the other Elements of Harmony, who all gave different signs of affirmation. Twilight took another deep breath before Applejack let go of her.

"You're right. Thanks girls…" Twilight gratefully said as she picked up Spike, who cuddled right up against the pony princess. Akira sat down on the bench with Morgana as he chipped back in.

"It'll be ok, we just need to change her heart and everything will be ok." Akira said as he felt Morgana's paw pat at his arm, he looked over to the feline who gave him a somber look. Akira then remembered the situation with Okumura that he wanted to tell the girls about, and he looked down towards the ground. Pinkie Pie noticed the mood change right away.

"Everything ok, Aki? Frowns don't fit you…" Pinkie Pie asked, tilting her head to the side. Akira looked up to see the girls all giving him concerned looks, as they had never seen him in a mood like this yet.

"Yeah, there's just something we should tell you before going back into the Palace." Akira started, making some of the girls, mainly Fluttershy, slightly anxious as to what their leader was going to say next. "The last time we changed someone's heart, we had done everything we usually did, defeated the ruler's Shadow, took the treasure, and left…but something else must have happened…" Akira trailed off, which Morgana noticed and picked up where his partner left off.

"When our target went to confess after we changed his heart, right before he was about to reveal who he was working with, he…he suffered a mental shutdown…" Morgana cringed as the image of what happened to Haru's father crawled back into his head, something he wished he could erase from his mind. The girls all looked towards each other, while Fluttershy had a feeling she knew how the story would end.

"A-A mental s-shutdown?" Fluttershy repeated, bringing Morgana's mind back to reality.

"Right. A mental shutdown occurs if someone's Shadow is destroyed in the Metaverse, which we made sure didn't happen in his Palace, so something, or someone else must have gotten to him. But a mental shutdown makes victims stop all mental functions, and if they're lucky, that's it…" Morgana explained while Twilight was trying to make a mental note of all the information, her eyes shot wide open when she had a terrifying thought. She looked towards the leader to confirm her suspicions.

"Akira, what happened when your target had a mental shutdown…?" Twilight questioned.

Akira looked back down at the ground, it almost felt like an interrogation, but he knew if he didn't answer, the girls would only be more concerned. Akira looked back up, as the girls all took a sharp breath, seeing his usually lively gray eyes had turned dull as two earth-shattering words left his mouth.

"He died."

The silence that filled the air after those two words was deafening. A state of shock fell over the girls. Applejack and Rarity looked at each other in complete horror. Fluttershy had covered her mouth from the surprise. Twilight and Spike were in a state of paralysis, death wasn't something they commonly dealt with. Rainbow Dash dropped her soccer ball to the ground while staring at Akira with her mouth agape. And for the first time any one of them had seen, Pinkie Pie went completely still, before she uttered a one word response.

"W-What?"

Akira took a look at everyone's reactions, he wasn't surprised, but more thoughts continued to come to his head as he continued to speak.

"Even though I know we didn't do it, I still feel guilty about it. People blamed the Phantom Thieves as killers, and our reputation was ruined, someone definitely planned to set us up…" Akira said as he noticed everyone's attention had shifted back to him. "I'm sorry girls, I just wanted to let you know what you might be getting into. If any of you wanted to back out now, I'd under-" Akira was cut off as he was quickly enveloped in a tight hug by Pinkie Pie. Akira didn't know what to do as Pinkie held him close.

"It's ok, Aki. No matter what, I'll always believe in you!" Pinkie Pie said, moving out of the hug just enough to look Akira in the eyes. "And I'm not leaving! You helped me smile before, now it's time I make you smile!" Fluttershy then stood up and walked over to Morgana, petting his fur.

"Y-You two would never mean to d-do that to s-someone. I-I said I wouldn't r-run away anymore!" Fluttershy added on as she petted Morgana, who looked up at the animal lover with bright eyes. Applejack then put a hand on Akira's shoulder, giving him her support.

"We know the risks, Sugarcube. Ah trust you, and we're not lettin' ya do this alone!" Applejack proudly stated, Rarity was surprisingly the next to offer her support.

"After everything you did for us yesterday, you won't scare us off that easily, Darling." Rarity claimed while crossing her arms. Rainbow Dash gave Akira a wink and a thumbs up.

"You guys had our backs yesterday, and we've got yours now. We're all in this together, dude!" Rainbow smiled as Pinkie finally let go of Akira, giving Twilight a clear line of sight to the boy.

"Akira, Morgana, we never would have been able to make it this far without you here. We made a deal, and I don't intend on backing out now." Twilight held out her hand, hoping to pull Akira up off the bench. Spike then spoke up while in Twilight's arms.

"We're with you till the end guys! Let's change some hearts!" Spike triumphantly yelled. Akira looked at Twilight's hand for a moment, before a smile crept back up onto his face. He took her hand and lifted himself up while Morgana rubbed his head in Fluttershy's lap.

"Thank you, all of you." He said to everyone, who responded with smiles and nods of affirmation.

'I sense new resolve from the girls…'

CONFIDANT RANK UP - Elements of Harmony: The Star, Rank 2

Akira turned to the group, seeing their determined faces, he pulled out his phone and got ready to open the Metaverse navigator app.

"Alright. Are we ready to head in?" Akira asked the temporary Phantom Thieves, who all flashed looks of confidence on their faces.

"Ready. Let's go to work, partner!" Applejack replied as she put a fist into her palm.

"Then let's do it." Akira said in his Joker voice as the group turned to head towards the entrance of Canterlot High. Once they were next to the statue out front, Akira opened the MetaNav and began the navigation.

Sunset Shimmer's Castle - Front Entrance

As the bright blue sky of reality faded away and was replaced by dark red clouds, Joker noticed his and Mona's change into their Phantom Thief attire. He looked around to see that the girls' forms had changed from their normal human forms to their Element forms (As Morgana liked to call them).

Rainbow Dash stretched her wings by flying up into the air and zooming around the courtyard, while Fluttershy was trying to do the same, but could only manage about 10 feet off the ground.

"Man, this is awesome! Fluttershy, you've got to try this!" Rainbow yelled while zipping around, leaving a trail of rainbows behind her. Fluttershy tried to gain more height with her wings, but got too scared after looking back down at the ground. Rarity decided to test out her magic capabilities by lifting a few rocks up off the ground and circling them around her head.

"I must say, these powers are quite incredible…but why don't we all have them?" Rarity asked, looking over to Twilight. "I'm certain if I had wings they would be the most glorious things around." Twilight sighed as she remembered an incident in Equestria with a certain pair of gossamer wings.

"I imagine it's because you all gained the abilities of the versions of you in my world. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy are pegasi, you're a unicorn, Applejack and Pinkie Pie are earth ponies, and I'm an alicorn, which has the wings of a pegasus, with the magic of a unicorn." Twilight explained, which Rarity found the idea fascinating. Applejack however, didn't seem too thrilled.

"Ah was gonna ask, how come they can fly and use that magic stuff, while Pinkie and Ah can't?" Applejack retorted while crossing her arms. Spike ran up, now in his dragon form, and explained.

"Our Applejack is pretty much the strongest pony we know, and from yesterday, I'd say you got that same strength." Spike claimed. Applejack recalled how she had tossed the giant Shadow like it weighed nothing, she then seemed satisfied with the explanation as Spike looked towards the other earth pony counterpart. "And Pinkie Pie…well…we're not entirely sure about Pinkie." Spike claimed with a shrug.

"Who, me?" Pinkie raised an eyebrow, before a wide smile reached her face as she started to laugh at Spike. "Pffftt, you know!"

"No, Pinkie, we don't…" Spike answered, Pinkie Pie then turned around to look out towards the courtyard.

"Well the readers do!" Pinkie Pie said to no one in particular. "What? No? I was talking to the read-"

SHE SAID TO NO ONE IN PARTICULAR.

"Ugh, fiiiinnneee, I'll play along Wolfey."

Thank you, but please don't let that nickname stick…

Pinkie Pie turned back around to face the group, who shot confused glances in the party girl's way.

"Umm, Pinkie…who were you just talking to?" Mona questioned, with everyone else wondering the same question.

"No one in particular!" Pinkie replied with a wink. (You're on thin ice, Pinkamena…)

"Oook then…" Mona said as the group started to huddle back together. "Anyways, Joker, what's the plan for today?" Joker walked forward, staring at the castle in front of him as he explained his plan to the Elements of Harmony.

"First things first, we need to find a map of the castle, we need to know where the treasure will be before we start securing a route. After that, let's explore as much as we can." Joker said to the group.

"Sounds like a plan, Darling." Rarity smirked as her sign of approval.

"The let's roll." Akira stated as he, Mona, and the newest members of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts sprinted towards the entrance to the Palace.

Sunset Shimmer's Castle - Main Hall

As the new Phantom Thieves made their way through the castle's front doors, Joker examined the options they had in front of them.

He, Mona, Twilight, and Spike had explored most of the path on the right, which led down to the castle dungeons. There was the path to the left which went into the castle library where they had battled yesterday, which Joker recalled had a staircase leading upwards at the end of it. And lastly, the staircase right in front of them that he had seen Shadows come down from before, but none of them had explored yet. Joker decided that if they wanted to cover more ground, they should check upstairs first.

"Alright, everyone keep close and follow my lead." Joker told the group, who all responded with affirmative nods. Joker and the rest of the thieves ran, or in Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Twilight's case, flew up the stairs which led into a wide hallway that had multiple rooms on each side, which Joker assumed resembled many different classrooms.

Joker could sense that there were Shadows lurking about in the rooms, so he told the team to be as quiet as possible to avoid any necessary confrontation.

Sneaking past the rooms with little trouble, they were about to continue on their way until Rarity stopped dead in her tracks, putting her ear up to one of the doors. Mona saw this and brought Joker's attention to it as well.

"Rarity, what are you-" Mona tried to ask, but was cut off by Rarity shushing the cat.

"I think I hear talking, Darling…" Rarity replied, putting her ear back to the door. Joker crouched next to her to listen in on whatever conversation was happening. He could immediately tell from the distorted voices that the conversation was between two Shadows.

"Princess Sunset must be very on edge, she's having us patrol around the entire castle!" One Shadow spoke. Joker looked over at Rarity to make sure that they had been hearing the same thing, which Rarity responded with a nod.

"Well with those thieves around trying to take Princess Sunset's crown, I cannot say that I blame her for it."

"Still, it's a very large castle! I often get lost while switching patrol spots. I wish I had a map." The first Shadow said. Joker had been in these listening situations before, if he listened in for a bit longer, the Shadows would probably reveal the location of a map.

"Indeed. However, to decrease the chances of the thieves breaching further into the castle, the Princess only allows the commanders to hold onto maps of the castle." The second Shadow replied.

'So, it's a high-ranking Shadow that holds onto the map…but where would we find one of them?' Joker thought, not knowing his question would be answered a few seconds later.

"Understandable…I know there's a commander stationed somewhere on the ground floor. I should go see him when it's time to switch patrols." Joker looked over to Rarity, flashing his classic smirk, which she returned one of her own, as they quickly were able to get some good information.

"A fine idea, but speaking of patrols, we should get back to ours." The second Shadow said as a clanking of armor could be heard walking towards them. Joker and Rarity backed away from the door as the leader turned to the other thieves.

"Hide!" Joker quietly yelled as he dashed behind a nearby bookshelf with Morgana and Fluttershy, who was blushing from the close contact, but Joker didn't notice. The other decided to hide behind a display case that was stationed in the hallway, which held multiple fake trophies that were supposedly given to Sunset Shimmer.

The Shadows opened the door and turned right down the way the Phantom Thieves came in. Joker watched them pass by, and once they were out of eyesight, came out of hiding along with the others.

"We have a lead on the map now. Good work, Rarity." Joker said to the unicorn counterpart, who smiled and looked at her nails in response.

"What can I say? I'm an expert when it comes to gossip…"

"Now, the Shadows said that only Commander Shadows have access to maps. Luckily, there should be one nearby on the ground floor here." Joker told the group, while Rainbow Dash was tapping her foot impatiently.

"Well then what are we waiting for? Let's go take it from him!" Rainbow responded, wanting to fly off as fast as she could, but was stopped by Twilight.

"First, we need to figure out where exactly on the ground floor this Shadow is…" Twilight reasoned with the speedster, who snapped her finger in disappointment.

"How'll we even know who this "Commander Shadow" is?" Applejack asked the group, Mona saw the chance to show off his Metaverse expertise and took it.

"More than likely, the Shadow will look different than the rest of the common Shadows. But if they all look the same, Joker has a knack for detecting strong Shadows when he sees them." Mona said, referring to Joker's Third Eye ability. Joker looked towards the opposite direction that the Shadows had gone, and noticed a nearby railing.

"I don't think we'll be looking for long. Let's go!" Joker quietly yelled to the team as they ran off in that direction.

Once the Thieves got to the railing, they looked down to see a large room with many tables and chairs being strewn about, the room was also being patrolled by at least six Shadows. Mona growled at the sight.

"Ugh, there's too many of them down there at once, if we fight, we'd be overrun instantly…" Mona expressed his frustration as Joker looked closer.

"Wait…" Joker said as he activated his Third Eye. "I can see it…" With that, Joker's vision turned blue, except for the Shadows. The weak aura surrounding the Shadows showed that none of the ones in eyesight was the one they were looking for. However, Joker did notice a bright yellow trail of footprints leading towards an area hidden from their current view, leading to the location of their goal.

"What do you see, Aki-I mean Joker!?" Pinkie Pie said, quickly covering her mouth from the slip up, truthfully, none of them were quite used to the codename for him and Mona. Joker turned to the group and told them what he saw.

"None of the Shadows down there are the Commander, but I saw some footprints that'll take us right to it." Joker told the team.

"B-But how will we get p-past those S-Shadows?" Fluttershy asked, knowing that if they had tried to drop from this height, the Shadows would definitely notice them. Luckily, Joker noticed the staircase to supposedly head down to the ground floor. The leader looked over the railing again and crafted a plan after looking at the many obstacles throughout the room.

"Use the stairs, once we get down there, use the tables to your advantage. Once you see a clear path, don't hesitate, move as quickly as you can." Joker said, pointing his red gloved hand over towards the staircase.

Joker and Mona led the way, stopping at the halfway point of the stairs as a Shadow went back and forth in the gap between them and the tables. Joker took notice of the time it took for the guard to make each pass, it was more than enough time for at least a few of them to get past.

"When his back is turned, that's your chance. Mona, Pinkie, and I will make the first run…" Joker looked back to point to the two he just listed off, but one of them was missing. "Hey, where'd Pinkie Pie go?" Joker asked, Applejack pointed across the room to show Pinkie Pie was already near the other side of the room, waving towards the team from under a table.

"What? How did she-" Mona started to ask out of sheer confusion.

"It's best you don't ask, Darling…"

"Anyways, after that, Spike, Applejack, and Fluttershy go. Then Rarity, Twilight, and Rainbow." Joker relayed his orders to the group, who seemed happy to oblige, although Rainbow Dash wasn't too keen on waiting to go last.

Joker and Mona shot their way to Pinkie's position with ease, dashing along the obstacles throughout the room. After meeting up with Pinkie Pie, Joker used his Third Eye again to follow the Commanders trail, shooting over to the outside of a room. The second group started to move, and was nearly caught when Spike tripped over a table leg, but Applejack was able to catch him and easily move to Joker's position. As for the third group, Twilight and Rarity were more meticulous with their approach, while Rainbow Dash zoomed through to their position, surprisingly unseen as the other two were able to reach them.

Joker double checked to make sure that the trail he was following led to this room in front of them, and sure enough the footprints stop at the door. Joker turned back to the team and told them his idea.

"The Shadow we're looking for should be in here. I think this is a good chance for you girls to help get used to your powers here."

"Finally! I've been itching for some more action!" Rainbow Dash softly celebrated, while Fluttershy noticed one hidden meaning in the leader's words.

"Are you n-not coming in with us, J-Joker?" Fluttershy asked as Joker flashed a smile in her direction.

"Mona and I will keep watch to make sure reinforcements don't try to come. You've all got this, but still be careful, high-ranking Shadows can be no joke…" Joker warned the girls…and the dragon.

"You can count on us, Sugarcube!" Applejack responded with a salute, making Joker slightly chuckle.

"If you need us in the fight, just call us in." Mona assured the new members of the group. Twilight seemed to be the one ready to take charge in Joker's stead.

"Alright, ready gang?" Twilight asked the team, who all gave various forms of affirmation. Twilight gave a nod and opened up the door.

When the girls and Spike opened the door to the room, the first thing they noticed was the Shadow at the end of the room.

The Shadow was wearing shiny, golden armor that had Sunset Shimmer's symbol smack dab in front on the chestplate, while a red plume of feathers sported out of the top of the helmet. The Shadow wielded a long halberd in one hand, and a gigantic shield in the other. Fluttershy was instantly intimidated, but it seemed the Shadow hadn't noticed them yet, even though it was facing them. Twilight took a deep breath as the team walked forward. Rainbow Dash immediately started some banter with the Shadow.

"Hey, ugly! Heard you have a map of this place, how bout you hand it over!" Rainbow yelled while pointing at the Shadow, who merely looked down on her and the rest of the Equestrian Girls.

"Hmph, you must be these Thieves that have been troubling the Princess…I'd never give up my map to the likes of you!" The Shadow claimed, pointing his weapon towards Rainbow Dash, who didn't move at all at the sight of danger. Applejack took a fighting stance right next to Rainbow Dash.

"Well ain't that a shame, then we're just gonna have to take it from ya!" Applejack cracked her knuckles as the new Phantom Thieves took their combat positions. The Shadow started to lightly laugh.

"If it is a swift death you all wish for, then I'll gladly grant it for you!" The Shadow yelled, slamming his halberd onto the ground, as the Shadow basically exploded into three separate pieces that landed within a short distance of each other.

The first piece shifted into a familiar Shadow, the same ice monster that they had fought previously called Glalie. The second one was also familiar, as it had been the same lizard Shadow that Rainbow Dash and Applejack had fought yesterday. However, the third Shadow was something completely new and similar to its original form

The Shadow had kept basically the same golden armor it had on before, but the feather on top had changed from a bright red to a solid gold color. Its halberd and shield remained the same, but now appearing under it was a horse covered in golden plating. It almost hurt Twilight to see a creature similar to her being used in such a way, but then she remembered that the sight before her wasn't reality.

"Fluttershy, what can you tell us!?" Twilight asked the navigator of the team, who looked closely at the three Shadows in front of them. Fluttershy pointed to the lizard first.

"I r-remember that one's weak spot is in i-it's mouth." She then looked over to the ice creature. "T-That one's weak to f-fire…" And as Fluttershy tried to get a read on the last Shadow, her hands started to shake. "I-I-I don't see any w-weaknesses yet on t-that one, but it's very strong!" Fluttershy mentally panicked.

"It's ok Fluttershy. Spike, you take the one on the right!" Twilight yelled over to her helper, who gave a salute as he rushed over to take on the ice Shadow. "Pinkie Pie, you go for the left!"

"Okie Dokie Lokie!" Pinkie Pie yelled, bounding off towards the lizard Shadow.

"Everyone else, hit this one with everything you've got!" Twilight pointed towards the horse-riding knight as their first battle as official Phantom Thieves began.

Spike had faced down one of these Shadows before, so he knew all he had to do was get in a good hit with his fire breath, and that would be the end of it. But Spike knew this wasn't going to be as easy right away as the Shadow used its breath to cover the ground around it in ice, making Spike slip around. Spike used his claws to gain a little bit of traction as he made his way towards the Shadow.

Glalie fired multiple ice shards from its mouth, trying to either impale the baby dragon or knock him off course. But Spike used his fire breath to create a protective wall of flames around him, making any ice coming towards him melt before it hit their target. Glalie then landed on the ground and started to roll towards Spike.

Spike saw the attack coming and jumped up, landing on the Shadow and constantly moving his feet to stay on top. Eventually, Spike was able to gain control of the direction the Shadow was going, so he kicked his feet into high gear and ran Glalie right into the wall, jumping off before he suffered any damage.

The baby dragon did a backflip in the air as he let out another breath of fire, hoping to take down the Shadow before it could rise back up again. Sure enough, the already damaged Glalie melted quickly when met with the dragon's fire.

Spike had a brief moment of celebration, but when he realized no one else was watching him, he ran back over to join the main fight.

Pinkie Pie seemed to be having the time of her life. She had been able to dodge every claw swipe, tail swing, and spike that was shot her way, like it was some kind of game.

"One hop this time!" Pinkie yelled as she jumped over yet another swing of the tail from the lizard Shadow in front of her. The Shadow was starting to get annoyed with Pinkie's constant dodging and banter.

"Grrr! Don't mock me and stay still, you brat!" The Shadow yelled out in anger to Pinkie Pie, who laughed it off as she kept up her dodging.

"Pfft, that's now how you play tag, silly!" Pinkie teased, which seemed to be the last straw for the Shadow as it started to charge up a laser attack from its mouth. "Hey! Using lasers is cheating!" Pinkie yelled as she grabbed behind her back to counter the attack. Slamming down her Party Cannon on the ground, Pinkie quickly lit the fuse and ducked for cover.

The cannon fired, shooting a sparkly pink paste all over the Shadow's face, interrupting the attack as it tried to get whatever the substance was off.

"What IS this witchcraft?" The Shadow cried out, its tongue licking up a splash of the substance, receiving a very sweet taste from it. The Shadow didn't hesitate however, flinging its tail overhead and smashing it down to where Pinkie Pie had been standing.

The Shadow started to laugh, believing it finally took down the thief, but it was surprised to hear a voice right next to its ear.

"It's my bubblegum cake batter! You like it?" Pinkie Pie asked the Shadow, who looked over to see Pinkie peeking out over its Shoulder. The Shadow gave out a surprised yelp.

"When did you-" The Shadow tried to say, but was interrupted when Pinkie pulled out a giant frying pan from who knows where, and smacked the Shadow in the jaw with it.

The Shadow fell to the ground, where Pinkie Pie continued her beat down with the frying pan. Eventually, Pinkie Pie grabbed a cupcake, opened up the Shadows mouth, and threw the cupcake inside.

"This one's got some explosive flavor!" Pinkie said, giving the Shadow a not so subtle hint as to what was going to happen next. The Shadow let out a burp as Pinkie Pie backed away. A rumbling could be heard inside the stomach of the Shadow, which didn't have time to even scream as an explosion erupted from its chest, making the Shadow disappear in a puff of smoke.

Pinkie Pie walked back over to where the Shadow once laid, and scooped up a bit of her cake batter that splashed onto the floor, shoveling it into her mouth.

"Mmmm, delicious!" Pinkie said while licking her fingers, she felt like she was forgetting something, but when she heard the banging of metal, she instantly remembered the other fight happening at the center of the room.

Rainbow Dash and Twilight were flying around the Shadow on horseback, firing off kicks and blasts of magic towards it, however this Shadow was quicker than the others and was able to dodge their attacks. Applejack had been trying to find a way to knock the Shadow off of the horse it rode on, but couldn't keep up with it to land a hit of any kind. Rarity had stayed back, healing up the other three whenever they took any damage.

Rainbow Dash went to swoop in for another kick, aiming for the Shadow's helmet. Her foot connected with the Shadow as she flew past it, while Dash prematurely celebrated.

"Hah! Eat that-" Rainbow's celebration was cut short, as the flat side of the Shadow's halberd connected with her with immense force, sending the speedster flying across the room and hitting the back wall with a loud thud. She fell to the ground as Rarity ran up to the girl with worry all over her face.

"Dashie!" Rarity called out, calling upon her healing magic to lightly patch up her flying friend. Rainbow Dash picked herself up off the ground, but stumbled a little bit as Rarity dashed over to catch her. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine…But man, this guy packs a punch!" Rainbow Dash cringed as she held onto her side. They looked back over to the fight to see Twilight shooting more magic beams at the knight, but the blasts were being reflected by the Shadow's shield and were sent back to Twilight, who was barely able to dodge them.

Applejack tried going underneath to hopefully take out the horse, but the horse went up on its hind legs and tried to bring them down upon the country girl. Applejack rolled out of the way just in time to get behind the Shadow, only for her to be hit by the hind legs on the horse and was sent tumbling to the ground.

The Shadow raised up its halberd, ready to swing down and finish off Applejack, but Twilight was able to use her magic to lift Applejack out of the way just in time. Applejack was pulled to her feet next to Twilight, as they both looked at the Shadow.

"Thanks for the save there, Twilight, but we need a plan to take this guy down!" Applejack yelled as they both dodged another swing of the Shadows weapon.

"I know! If we can take away his shield, that'll leave it open to my magic, but how do we get it away from him…?" Twilight said while trying to come up with an idea. As she saw the Shadows horse rise up on its hind legs again, Twilight also noticed Spike had finished up his fight out of the corner of her eye. Suddenly, she had an idea. "Spike, shoot some fire at its hooves!"

"Got it!" Spike gave the princess a thumbs up as he started to run in a circle around the Shadow, shooting fire at the horse's hooves.

The flames scorched the heels of the horse, making it violently jump around, with the knight on top doing his best to keep his balance. Suddenly, Pinkie Pie appeared around the knight's arm, as the Shadow had to do a double take after seeing the Element of Laughter.

"Hiyah, I'm gonna take this now!" Pinkie told the Shadow as she started to pry off the shield from its arm. The shield clattered to the ground as the knight finally shook off Pinkie Pie, but Applejack and Twilight were ready to move.

Applejack ran over to the fallen shield on the ground and had an idea. She picked up the shield with two hands, spun around once, and then threw the shield like a frisbee at the Shadow. The flying shield connected with its armor, and with the horse's instability, knocked the Shadow right off of it, leaving it open to one last attack.

Twilight flew over to where the Shadow had landed and started to charge up her magic, hoping to finish off the Shadow in one strike. The knight looked up at the princess floating before it, and started to laugh.

"Heh, you pathetic thieves…You think a little magic is going to stop Princess Sunset?" The Shadow taunted as Twilight pointed her hand towards the Shadow.

"It's not just a little magic…" Twilight started to say as the rest of the Elements of Harmony gathered behind her, all looking down upon the Shadow. "It's the Magic of Friendship!" Twilight claimed as she obliterated the Shadow in front of her, making it disappear into thin air, and in its place, a piece of paper lay on the ground.

Twilight leaned forward to pick up the paper, and was happy to see the detailed layout of the castle written down. They had acquired the map they were looking for. Twilight turned back towards the team and smiled at the group of friends working together.

"Great job, girls! You too, Spike!" Twilight said, happy to see the power of the Elements still working in this world.

"Oh what can I say, it was nothing for a dragon like me-" Spike started to boast, but was cut off by the sounds of gunfire and clashing metal from outside.

The girls instantly knew that the sound was coming from Joker and Mona outside the room, so they gathered themselves, and opened the door to see Mona being knocked backwards by a Shadow before Joker gunned it down with a few well placed shots. Joker turned to see the team exiting the room and shouted towards them.

"Did you get the map!?" Joker shouted to Twilight, who held up the piece of paper to show they were successful. Joker then saw another group of Shadows heading their way. Mona got back up and pointed down the hallway.

"Great! Now we need to move, the fighting brought in a lot of reinforcements!" Mona yelled, darting down the hall. The Equestrian Girls and their dragon didn't argue as they all followed after the feline. Joker shot at the Shadows a few more times until his clip was emptied, then he turned tail and caught up with the group.

Angry Shadows chased the Thieves down the long hallway, slowly but surely catching up to them as they tried to find any way to avoid a fight where they'd be comically outnumbered. Joker noticed at the end of the hall a doorway that seemed to be waving in and out of the distortion. The leader recognized what that meant instantly and directed them towards it.

"Rainbow, open that door!" Joker called out to the fastest member of the team. Taking on the challenge, Rainbow Dash shot forward with a burst of speed, forming a small mach cone around her as she reached the wavy door, she opened it wide and Joker ordered everyone to get inside.

Once everyone had made it through the door, Rainbow Dash closed it tight and flew towards the back of the room. Joker reloaded his pistol and aimed it at the door, just in case his assumption had been wrong.

The Phantom Thieves heard the clanging of armor approach from outside the door, and Joker had his finger on the trigger, ready to fight in case things got ugly. But then they heard a Shadow speak from the other side of the door.

"Damn! They got away! They couldn't have gone far though, search the area!" The Shadow yelled out to the others, as the sound of metal and footsteps started to fade from their position. The new Phantom Thieves looked pleasantly shocked at the event as Mona hopped up onto a nearby table.

"Nice job spotting a Safe Room, Joker." Mona commended his partner, who holstered his pistol within his coat. Fluttershy was still staring at the door, completely speechless.

"T-They d-didn't follow us!?" Fluttershy whispered in shock. Applejack heard the term Mona used a few seconds ago and decided to ask about it.

"Sorry, Sugarcube. But what makes this a Safe Room?" Applejack asked the cat, who smirked in response.

"See for yourself…" Mona pointed to the walls of the room, which everyone could see shift from the decor of a castle, to the familiar scenery of a CHS classroom. The team was stunned to say the least.

"What the hay?!" Applejack yelled in surprise as the room shifted back to the castle design. Mona decided to quickly explain.

"This is a Safe Room, the distortion here is weak compared to the rest of the Palace, meaning the ruler has no control here, and Shadows can't find us here." Mona quickly gave them the rundown. Rarity seemed relieved as she started to fix her hair.

"Well I for one am glad there's a place here where we can catch our breath…" Rarity said, not noticing the nearby Spike ogling at her beauty as she flipped her hair. Joker walked over to a table in the room and rested against it.

"Twilight, could I see that map?" Joker asked the pony princess, who walked over to his position and set the map down on the table. Joker, Twilight, and Mona all gazed at the map for a minute or two, with Pinkie Pie also stealing glances at it. Mona made note of a few specific locations, mainly the one that states "Throne room".

"If the actual school layout is similar to the castle, then the throne room would be where the gym is in the real world." Mona pointed out, Twilight put a hand to her chin as she started to theorize with them.

"That would make sense…She's been crowned princess in that gym multiple times, so I could see why Sunset Shimmer would think of it as her throne room." Twilight told the group, an explanation that tracked with everything they had seen so far.

"Then that's more than likely where the Treasure will be…" Joker stated, putting a mark near that part of the map for future reference. Pinkie then jumped up onto the table and shouted with glee.

"Then we found the Treasure! C'mon, let's go get it right now!" Pinkie Pie shouted, jumping into the air with her legs spinning in a figure-eight pattern, but before she could run out the door, Joker grabbed onto her.

"Hold on, Pinkie Pie. It's not that simple" The leader said, pointing to a symbol of a keyhole near the throne room door. "I think we're gonna end up needing a key to get in there…" Joker then noticed in another room on the map, a symbol of a key sitting inside a large room, where the cafeteria would be located in the real school.

"Hmm, good catch, Joker. Once everyone's rested up, we should go check it out." Mona suggested, to which Joker and Twilight agreed. Rarity cleared her throat and brought their attention to her.

"Let's just be careful not to overdo it, Darlings…it seems a few of our heavy hitters are starting to tire out." Rarity said, pointing over to Rainbow Dash and Applejack, who were still trying to catch their breath.

"Hey, I'm not tired! It's just the adrenaline wearing off!" Rainbow Dash yelled in between breaths. Applejack did not argue however. Mona looked towards the leader.

"Hate to say it, but she's right…we should probably see about getting this key, and then coming back tomorrow." Mona suggested, which made Joker nod in agreement. They'd go check out this key as soon as everyone caught their breath.

Joker walked over to Applejack and Rainbow Dash, grabbed a coffee pot from out of his coat, and poured cups for the two of them. Joker held out a cup for Applejack as she looked at it strangely.

"Uh, Sugarcube…Ah ain't sure coffee is gonna help much…" Applejack said, Joker gave a light chuckle in response, reverting back to his normal voice.

"Trust me, in the Metaverse, it hits harder." Joker replied as Applejack took the coffee from the boy's hand, and immediately after taking one gulp, Applejack felt a burst of energy surge through her. Her eyes went wide as she drank the rest of the cup and wiped her mouth.

"Hot dang! Ya weren't kiddin', partner!" Applejack's voice boomed with a new energy which instantly caught Rainbow Dash's attention. The rainbow-haired girl quickly downed the cup Joker gave to her, and her wings instantly started to flap about twenty percent faster.

"Holy cow, this stuff is incredible! Did you make this?" Rainbow Dash asked the boy, who simply nodded and rubbed his hand behind his head. "Dude, now I gotta come over more often, AJ!" Rarity also seemed intrigued by the discovery.

"I didn't know you had such hobbies…perhaps I'll have to try some as well soon." Rarity thought to herself, she was more of a tea person, but she might make an exception in this case. Pinkie Pie then tried to get a cup.

"I'm feeling tired too, Joker. Can I have one, pleeeeeaaaasssseee!" Pinkie Pie pleaded with Joker, who simply shook his head.

"Pinkie, I think caffeine is the last thing you need right now…" Joker bluntly stated, which led to a long "awww" from Pinkie Pie. Fluttershy was wondering how his coffee compared to that of The Sweet Shoppe. She didn't have much time to wonder about it, as Joker put the pot back in his coat, and got the team ready to head out.

"Alright team, let's go find a key!" Mona told the group as Joker quickly checked out the door to make sure the Shadows had left, and after seeing none in sight, followed the map through the halls to get to the cafeteria.

5 Minutes Later

After minutes of avoiding or fighting Shadows, along with checking out various rooms to take any loot they could find. The Phantom Thieves kept making their way through the halls of Sunset Shimmer's Palace. Rainbow Dash had been flying ahead and testing out different air tricks due to the lack of Shadows in the current hall they were in. And just when they thought they were approaching the location of the key, Rainbow Dash ended up flying straight into a door and falling to the ground.

"Ouch, why is it always me!?" Rainbow Dash said as she picked herself up and looked at the door she ran into. The first thing she and the other Phantom Thieves noticed about this door was the absolute size of it, it was taking up the entire hallway leading into the cafeteria.

The second thing they noticed was what the door looked like, it was in the design of a school locker, specifically the ones used at Canterlot High, with a ginormous combination lock right in front of it. Joker looked at the map, and figured they were right at the door to the cafeteria, with this door being the only thing in their way.

"Ooookkk, interesting door, but it ain't a problem!" Rainbow Dash said as she grabbed onto the lock and tried to pull the door open, but nothing happened. She tried again, only to be met with no progress. "Ok, what the heck!? Open, dang it!" Dash tried one more time, being met by the same result as the previous two. Applejack stepped forward to try and take a crack at it.

"It's alright, partner. Let me show ya how it's done!" Applejack claimed as she grabbed onto the same lock and pulled as hard as she could, however, the locker door didn't even budge. Applejack rolled up her sleeves and gave it another shot, but when she pulled so hard she threw herself back, the dial on the lock started to spin. Twilight was quickly able to connect the dots on what they needed to do.

"I think we need to find a combination to open this…" Twilight stated, which seemed to make sense, but Pinkie Pie pointed out a problem.

"But where are we gonna find a combo for this? Random guesses? I love guessing games!" Pinkie Pie said, jumping with excitement.

"I'm almost surprised with your talent for guessing, you don't know it by now, Pinkie Pie." Rarity told the party girl in a teasing tone. Pinkie looked back to the locker.

"Oh, I probably could guess it, but I know Wolfey wants to make this interesting!"

I TOLD YOU NOT TO CALL ME THAT, PINKIE!

Phew, ok, almost lost my cool there, now where was I?

After Pinkie Pie couldn't come up with a guess, Fluttershy noticed something up near the top of the door.

"J-Joker! Up there!" Fluttershy pointed to a steel plate near the top that had a set of numbers on it that read '616'. "That m-must be the l-locker number…" Fluttershy pointed out as the leader of the Phantom Thieves smiled at the discovery of a lead.

"Good eye, Fluttershy." Joker accidentally rhymed, which definitely made Pinkie Pie happy. Mona was able to come up with an idea based on previous Palaces they had visited.

"Anyone know who has locker 616 at school?" Mona asked the girls, since they would know more than he did. Rarity's eyes went wide when she made the realization.

"If I'm not mistaken, I believe 616 is Sunset Shimmer's locker!"

"I figured as much…" Mona said before going into another explanation of the Metaverse. "Sometimes, Palaces have restricted areas that are similar to the real world, usually the target has to know that we've been there to progress, but we may just need the combination for it to work here…" Mona pointed out, which seemed to make sense to the newest members of the team.

"So what you're saying is if we want to get further in her palace, we need to learn Sunset Shimmer's locker combo?" Rainbow Dash questioned the feline, who shrugged.

"At least I think so, I'd rather try that than have to trick Sunset into shoving someone into her locker…" Mona said with his arms crossed. Rainbow Dash couldn't argue with that logic.

"Got me there. So, what's the plan now, Joker?" Rainbow and the other members of the Thieves looked towards the leader, who looked at the locker door and made a decision.

"We've done all we can here, today. Let's head back and try to learn that combination so we can keep moving…" Joker told his team, who seemed to be on board, until they heard a few sets of footsteps and distorted voices behind them.

"You thieves aren't going anywhere!" The Phantom Thieves heard, looking back down the hall, they all saw a group of around 7 or 8 Shadow guards, presumably the group that had been chasing them before.

The Thieves all got into a combat position, and normally Joker wouldn't be worried at all since there were 9 of them, but it wasn't the numbers that worried him, it was another simple fact.

They were cornered.

ANNND DONE

Holy crap, that was a lot longer than I thought it would be, so I hope you all enjoyed this one. And can I just say, writing these Metaverse/Palace segments are freakin' HARD! Not to mention Pinkie Pie always keeps me on my toes…

Remember at the beginning when I talked about a possible sequel to this? No? Well anyway, here were the ideas that I had about a sequel.

1). Rainbow Rocks with just Akira and Morgana.

2). Rainbow Rocks with the other members of the Phantom Thieves

3). Mane 6 in the P5R final Palace.

4). Mane 6 in the P5S story.

Those are the ideas I've had so far, let me know what you would like to see if I end up doing a sequel, or if you've got an idea, please let me know!

And one last thing, I've also thought about doing possible bonus Valentines Day chapters with the Mane 6 once the story is complete. Just something fun for the shippers out there.

I will say, this story may not get an update during the summer cause I have a lot of commitments starting in May, but I'm gonna keep on pushing to get these out. Anyways that's all I've got.

See ya next time!