Thousands of years ago, the great demon of Chaos, Discord, was imprisoned in the mountains. However, he has managed to escape, and shortly began acting out his revenge on all of humanity, starting with the city of Tokyo. Unaware of all this, Hikaru Mitsuko, a normal high school student, was suddenly attacked in an alleyway on her way home and unable to defend herself, called for help. Himeko Harukawa, a local weatherwoman famous for her 100% correct forecasts, appeared before Hikaru and saved her from what turned out to be a dangerous monster. Himeko then revealed herself to be Celestia-hime, the shrine priestess who banished Discord into the mountains after a great and ferocious battle.
But her powers have since waned and she is no longer strong enough to defeat Discord on her own. She introduced Hikaru to five other girls endowed with similar powers, including Hikaru's seniors, Ayane Kazumi and Makoto Inoue. And thus her test began to see whether she had inherited an Element, or was simply a hapless victim of one of Discord's minions.
However, before they were able to determine if Hikaru truly was the last holder of an Element of Harmony, another monster appeared to attack them! Can Hikaru learn to believe in herself and save her new found friends before it's too late?
First Lesson
~Fight!! Harmony, Friendship, and Believing Oneself!~
Hikaru stared in dismay as the giant bull crashed through the rusted metal walls of the abandoned factory like it was paper. She trembled at the sight. The sharp horns, the red eyes. “Didn't Harukawa-san already defeat it!?” Hikaru yelled and shook her head as though to deny what was happening before her, causing her long dark locks of hair to sway about.
“It may be the same kind of monster...but it's not the exact one that Celestia-hime confronted when she saved you.”
“Ayane-senpai...” Hikaru breathed out as the older girl strutted confidently and stopped next to her. The ever fashionable and elegant third year Class Representative watched fearlessly as the monster thrashed about just ahead. Even through the terrifying roars, Ayane Kazumi stood unmoved and even slightly bored, with her arms crossed over her chest.
“Maybe y'all should stop gawking and start fighting, Kazumi? Unless that is, yer tryin' not to break a nail.” The blonde girl who wore her hair in a braided ponytail rushed by, with her two revolvers twirling expertly in her hands.
Ayane huffed and flipped her distinctively curled hair. “For the last time, Ringo Naoki, I'd prefer if you called me 'Kazumi-san'!”
“Oh, sorry Aya-I mean Kazumi-senpai!” Hikaru sputtered in surprise when she saw the look of barely contained irritation on the older girl's face. “I didn't realize that...” Mumbling the rest of her words, Hikaru's face was flushed in embarrassment when she realized she had been acting so familiarly with her famous senior.
“Hmmm?” Ayane looked toward Hikaru and smiled in a polite and dainty way. “Oh, please don't be so worried, Hikaru-san. Call me Ayane like you did before.”
“Uh...are you sure?” Hikaru asked, fluttering her eyelids in surprise and brought her hand up to twirl a lock of her dark hair around a finger as a nervous tic. "I don't want to be rude..."
“Nonsense. It just so happens that unlike a certain someone, you truly do appreciate the finer points of manners and tradition. Such as your performance at the tea ceremony club, which I found quite enjoyable. So please, you needn't be so formal, Hikaru-san.”
Hikaru blushed, not realizing that Ayane had even noticed her embarrassing attempts at the tea ceremony at school the other day. She could have sworn that the bungled everything up, from the posture to set the tea cups to the actual pouring. “Um, of course...Ayane-senpai.”
The older girl offered an effortlessly mature smile, making Hikaru feel ever more self-conscious of her own lack in femininity.
“YEE-HAW!” The loud hollers grabbed Hikaru's attention once more and she watched as the girl, Ringo Naoki, unflinchingly unleash a barrage of bullets from her guns, weaving to and fro between the monster's attempts to attack her with its horns. Ringo's style and flair was mesmerizing to watch, as it was both wild yet controlled at the same time. Her bullets only seemed to annoy it, bouncing off the bull's thick hide and from what Hikaru could tell, was not causing any noticeable damage, forcing Ringo to make a hasty retreat when she ran out of bullets.
“Oooh, my turn! My turn!” A pink haired girl deftly jumped in and just as quickly as she appeared, began to dodge the bull's attacks, allowing Ringo to escape. The girl controlled her nimble body and performed amazing feats of acrobatics to taunt and lead the monster around. Jumping and spinning and leaping as both a gymnast and a ballerina would. Growing angrier from its failure to make a successful strike, the bull charged forward but the girl easily bunny-hopped to the side as the beast crashed against the far wall, laughing as though there were never any danger in the first place.
“Comin' through!” The blue-haired foreigner, Hikaru's appointed coach Rose McKenzie, screamed out with great confidence, and jumping from a metal beam two stories off the ground close to the ceiling, she dropped right onto the monster, crashing her boots against the bull's temple with deadly accuracy and caused it to tumble and fall to the ground. She rode the bull like a surfer would an unpredictable wave until it slid to a stop before hopping off with superhuman power to land next to Hikaru.
“That was amazing, Rose!” Hikaru cheered with wide eyes at her coach's astonishing feats of strength.
“Don't be too sure.” The sporty girl let out a soft breath and replied gruffly, and without warning, brought her arms to carry Hikaru princess-style and jumped out of the way of the monster's attempt to slam them down with one of his massive hooves. "Alley-oop!"
“Kyaa!” Hikaru yelped and held down the hem of her skirt with one hand while holding onto Rose as best as she could until they landed safely a few feet away and was let down to stand once more.
“You ruffian! You just dirtied one of my favorite designer dresses!” Hikaru saw how Ayane-senpai, who had remained standing in the same spot despite the bull's attack, lifted her arm into the air and revealed a number of differently colored objects held between her fingers and thumb, four in all. In a dramatic flourish, Ayane flicked her wrist and tossed what Hikaru realized were gems high up into the air. With a snap of her fingers, they all began to shine, turning bright and a set of red, green, blue and yellow lights exploded down and rained upon the monster, shrieking loudly like fireworks. The minotaur let out a pained roar from the onslaught for the first time since it started its attack. The blasts of energy shook the ground and kicked up a massive cloud of dust, covering the monster from view.
“Ayane, look out!” Hikaru's other senior, a quiet pink-haired girl named Makoto Inoue leaped at the purple haired girl, much to her surprise, and tackled her to the ground just as a giant spiked club swung out horizontally from within the dust cloud. The club crashed into a nearby support beam, ripping through and crumpling it easily.
“Huh? I missed!” A voice rumbled from within the cloudy mass.
Hikaru furrowed her eyebrows. “Wait...why can it talk now?”
As the smokey dust faded away, the monster appeared once more. However, no longer was it simply a giant monstrous bull but it had changed into a minotaur wearing armor such as a chest plate, gauntlets and a helmet. “Oh! There you are!” His deep voice boomed out and echoed against the high roof and metal surroundings of the factory.
“Damn it!” Rose yelled out. “The darn thing evolved!”
“Evolved!? What does that mean?” Hikaru gasped in worry and looked at the other girls for an explanation. Her anxiety only grew when she saw how the other girls had tensed up. “Is evolving bad, then?”
“Yup! It's bad news bears!” Hikaru turned toward the source of the bubbly voice that answered her and found herself face to face with the pink-haired girl from before. Her large sky blue eyes noticed the look of fear on Hikaru's face. “Hiya!" The girl suddenly flashed a wide, bright, smile. "Name's Sakura Tomoko! You can call me Sakura! Don't think we were introduced, before!”
“Uh...hey? My name's Hikaru Mitsuko...” Hikaru returned the greeting, unsure how to react to Sakura's happy demeanor at a time like this.
“Silly, my name's Sakura, not 'hey'!” the girl giggled and held onto her sugary smile. She reached out and grabbed Hikaru by the hand and pulled her forward and Hikaru yelped at the sudden gesture as she found herself spinning all of a sudden. In the next moment Sakura raised her arm up and twirled Hikaru like a ballerina. The next thing Hikaru knew, still disoriented, was Sakura's hand being tugged forcefully from her grasp, sending her tumbling to the ground. “Whoopsie! Got myself caught!” Hikaru heard the girl call out in a cheery manner.
Hikaru shook away the dizziness as much as she could and gasped at the sight of more bulls suddenly appearing in the factory. Each standing on its rear hoofed legs, the bulls had the other girls in their grasps, haven somehow grown hands instead of forelegs.
Sakura, Makoto, Ayane, Ringo and Rose had all been captured in a single moment, leaving Hikaru stumbling backwards as the armored minotaur approached her with heavy steps. “What do I do!?” Hikaru screamed out. She scrambled to her feet and ran as quickly as she could behind a nearby stack of fallen metal beams. The thunderous slow steps continued unabated coming closer and closer.
Hikaru trembled as she hid behind the fallen beam and managed to crawl between the gaps to escape from the minotaur's first attempt to grab her. She screamed as he growled and huffed in frustration, then violently tore away a beam in an effort to grab at her again. Hikaru screamed a second time and crawled deeper into the middle of the twisted metal around her, navigating the high and low bends and tripping and falling as the minotaur continued tearing at individual beams.
“Help!” Hikaru screeched in fear as the minotaur's large hand brushed against her leg. “Harukawa-san! Help!” She kicked and flailed at the hand as it came closer again, beating it back for a moment before it pressed forward once more. “Help!”
“Hikaru!” She heard a voice echo in the factory. “Hikaru, you have to perform your Summon!” Hikaru looked up and peered through a sliver of a gap that formed between two bent crossing metal beams and spotted Rose straining against her captor's grip. “Summon your personal item, already!”
“I...I can't!” Hikaru shouted back dejectedly. She had found herself trapped at the farthest edge of the metal beams and was unable to escape anywhere else. Opposite her, the minotaur chuckled menacingly as he tore away the last of two beams that kept it at bay from finally grabbing her. “I tried, remember! I couldn't do it when you showed me...and I tried all of last night like you told me to...but all I got were these stupid pair of glasses!” Reaching into her skirt pocket, Hikaru looked at the small red frames. “I didn't get anything like your boots...or Ringo-san's guns...or Kazumi-senpai's gems!”
“Tsk...you're the idiot, Hikaru!” she heard Rose suddenly call out in an booming, angry voice. “You did your summoning perfectly! Those glasses are your personal item!”
“They are? But...I don't even wear glasses!”
“Argh! How can such an egghead like you be so dense!? Put them on, already, will ya!? And believe in yourself, Hikaru! You'll know exactly how to use them!”
Hikaru nodded and gulped. “I'll...I'll try.” With trembling fingers, she opened up the arms.
With a triumphal roar, the minotaur pulled away the last beam and its prey was now totally exposed.
She brought the glasses closer to her face, setting the arms first onto her ears.
His mouth curled up into a wide grin, the armored monster reached down to grab the small girl.
As his fingers, each the size of an adult male, curled around Hikaru, she had just placed her glasses on the bridge of her nose.
His hand closed tightly and he lifted his fist up for the other girls, struggling against their own captors, to watch with sinking hearts as he clenched his hand more and more.
"Caught you!" The minotaur began to laugh, as had the other bulls. But then, a small glow of light escaped from in-between his fingers, causing them to stop laughing. The light grew brighter and stronger. Even hot, as thin pillars of smoke rose and a burning sensation coursed through the minotaur's clenched palm. The minotaur growled, struggling to keep his fist tight against the force that seemed to extend its affect beyond his shaking arm to the foundation of the building itself. “Not...possible! How can this...!?” His deep voice growled out as each of his fingers flung outwards until a flash of light engulfed everything. “Argh! Discord-sama! I failed y-!!” was all he managed to scream out, followed by the roars of the other bulls as they too faded away.
As the light began to recede, each of the girls dropped to the ground. Rose and Ringo each fell landing on their feet, Ayane managed to catch Makoto, passed out still, in a graceful manner as ever. Sakura tumbled unceremoniously on her butt onto a lifted sheet of metal and slid happily down the makeshift slide the rest of the way.
The girls, sore but intact and for the most part uninjured, all rushed to where Hikaru was.
“Hey, Sugarcube, you alright?” Ringo arrived first with panting breaths, followed quickly by Rose and then the others.
“Uh...yeah...I think so...” Hikaru groaned out. Pain wracked her head as a migraine pounded and gave her the impression of a hangover, even though she had never drunk in her life. She sat up and rubbed her eyes, bearing witness to the wreckage and debris of a battle won. "Are they...are they all gone?"
“Well, I'll be...” Ringo's Osakan drawl did Hikaru no favors with her headache. “they sure are, thanks to you...looks like ya skipped a step, but that ain't necessarily a bad thing.”
“I can't believe it.” Ayane gasped as she approached. Makoto has since woken up and was now leaning on Sakura, who was giggling hysterically, for support.
“You're such a cutie patootie, Hikaru-chan!” Sakura said and flashed a toothy smile.
“Oh my...” Makoto's quiet voice was barely audible over Sakura's laughter.
“Wow. You managed to fully transform on your first try.” Rose nodded, looking impressed. “You're making me pretty proud as your coach, Hikaru!”
“What? 'Transformation'?” Hikaru's throat felt dry and she coughed from the clouds of dust still floating about. “Why's everyone looking at me like that? And when did you all get so big all of a-” Hikaru blinked, realizing that something was incredibly wrong with this scenario.
“Dear, you should really take a look at yourself.” Ayane came closer and squatted down, something that worried Hikaru further, since she couldn't recall there being such a difference between their heights. Ayane opened her rounded compact mirror for Hikaru to look at. Taking a gulp, Hikaru stepped forward, overcoming the feeling of apprehension and looked right into the mirror and... “KYAA!” She shrieked out in surprise. A streak of pink had appeared in her dark silky hair, which was now looking a lighter shade of dark purple.
Hikaru didn't know where her glasses went but she was awed at how a large bejeweled tiara adorned her head. However, these two details were minor compared to her purple skin tone (or was it all hair!?), smaller, stockier body, elongated face, horn sticking out of her head and...hoofed legs. Hikaru gulped and her mouth quivered at the surreal reflection staring back at her. Then she looked at the girls standing about, none of them somehow as terrified or confused by her appearance as she was. “Wha...? Wha-wha-wha-WHY AM I A PONY!?”