Chapter 10: Humans
===[Rainbow’s POV]===
It was a nice day for my usual chillaxing habits. Not a lot was planned for Weather Management, so today was just going to be the usual sunny day with a ten minute drizzle at around three fifteen. There was a strange cold front coming from the edge of the Everfree where Zoro trains, but he told me that it would be a usual occurrence from now on and not to worry too much bout it.
Honestly, he’s a pretty chill dude, but when it came to his privacy, mare did he have a stick shoved right up in there. I’m honestly just surprised that for all the talk of him being some demon straight from the pits of Tartarus he’s as good a guy as they come.
But now is not the time to worry about him, because right now is Rainbow Time. Getting a cloud in a prime spot away from the usual bustle of the town so I relax in peace, I layed down in the soft material.
It was a few minutes before I was interrupted.
“Excuse me, Miss Pegasus,” a female voice called out, directed at my spot. “I was wondering if you could help me out.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I mumbled, turning over to the edge. “What do you waaaa-” My brain stopped and I may or may not have gotten a wing boner at the sight.
Before me was a new human. A female human. A hot female human. Dark wavy mane framing her face with most of it draped over her back. She was wearing a weird white hat that reminded me of a lightbulb, a navy blue dress that showed off her god-like legs, and freaking amazing tits! Her sharp, sapphire eyes were giving off an aura of calm friendliness that just made her seem more divine than she should have been.
“I-I, uh,” I stuttered before accidentally leaning too far forward, falling off my perch. Now, me being me, I used that chance to show off how well my flying skills were in order to wow her. At least that’s what I’d like to say happened, but… I was distracted alright! You try flying with wings this stiff!
“Whooooaaaa!” As I fell, I felt a pressure on my back before whatever it was turned into pink flower petals. Eventually, it slowed my fall to the point where she caught me in her arms. Almost immediately I noticed that she was almost a whole foot taller than me. Well, almost everypony was taller than me, so it wasn’t that big a deal.
“Are you okay, Miss Pegasus?”
“Y-yeah, I’m fine,” I said as I stood on my own. Now I’ve gotta save some face. “Name’s Rainbow Dash. Fastest flyer in Equestria.”
She started giggling at that. “Then why did you end up falling off that cloud,” she asked.
“W-well, I was a bit distracted. Now, what can I do for you?” Redirect conversation redirect conversation redirect conversation!
“Well, you can call me Nico Robin. Me and my dad came here because we heard about another human. Roronoa Zoro.” Okay, so that leaves two, possibly three options. One, she’s a fan of his. Two, she had no idea if there are other humans here and decided to check this lead out. I’m leaving three to Rarity’s and Flutter’s ‘novels.’
“Well, I know where he stays, so I can bring you there. He doesn’t really like po- people around when he trains,” I say, trying to switch to the lingo I always hear him talk with.
“Well than, lead the way,” Nico Robin said cheerfully. After a bit of walking, I realized something.
“Wait, did you just say your dad?”
===[Octavia]===
Today had been nothing but insane. This morning I woke up in my and Vinyl's home/shop and what do I find when I go down stairs? Why my marefriend talking with a giant animated skeleton that looks like it belongs to the flashiest noble in Canterlot. Now, given the kind of things I’ve subjugated myself to since moving from Phillydelphia, one would expect that I was used to this sort of thing but nope! It didn’t help when the two of them started cracking out all the skeleton jokes that Vinyl usually saved for Nightmare Night.
“Why are skeletons so good at cutting down trees? Because they’re LUMBARjacks!”
“Yohohoho! That was a good one, Miss Vinyl! You know, I never expected anyone here to have the STOMACH for skeleton jokes here!”
“HAHAHA!”
“Okay, seriously,” I interjected. “Why are you even here? How are you even here?”
“Ah, yes, well, that is something I’ve been wondering myself,” he, who had previously identified himself as Brook, said. “One minute me and my daughter were watching a show of ours, waiting for a package to arrive and pop! Here we are in your land. Me and her are here to question the other human Zoro to see if he has any bright ideas about why we are here.”
“Fair warning, Brook,” Vinyl said. “I hear he’s quite a numSKULL! HAHAHA!”
“YOHOHOHO!”
“I… I’m just so done with both of you right now…”
“Well, look on the bright side,” Brook said, pulling off a violin from . “Until he’s free to talk, I can regale you with music from my home!” He then began to play a new song that I had never even heard the basic melody to. Hmm, learn new music at the expense of bad puns, or send him away and drink my coffee in relative peace.
“Fine, you can stay, just let me grab my sheets.”
===[Zoro’s POV]===
So, three days and Bella is now getting a good grasp on how to produce and turn into ice. Now the only real problem is the control.
See, the real problem with giving Devil Fruits to beings who have magic, especially unicorns, adds on another level of difficulty. Because they are so used to using magic to do almost everything, they unconsciously mix magic with their Devil Fruit ability. Case in point:
“I’M SO SORRY, MR ZORO,” she wailed while staring at my frozen lower half.
I just stared blankly at it, before bringing out Shusui, slicing the ice to a breakable layer. If I’m being completely honest, I’m very much used to the cold. Can’t really live in Colorado near the Rockies without dealing with cold weather. My only problem with this is that when the ice melts, I will be covered in cold water. And these are the only real set of clothes I own, minus a bathrobe and pair of underwear I stole from Curls’ store. Hey, I don’t get paid jack shit and you know she would have given them to me. I just didn’t want to suffer through all of the posing again.
“It's alright, kid,” I said. “We just need to get you to seperate your magic and abilities. That’s the only real problem I see.”
Now, you may be asking why I didn’t ask our benevolent ruler for an anti-magic ring. Well, to simply put, the kid here would get dependent on it.
Think like this; You are training to be a martial artist, but with a catch, you can’t use your less dominant arm during training. And so you train this way until you’re actually good at fighting. When a tournament comes around, you are then allowed to use your arm. Due to the lack of training, that will become a very obvious flaw that many can exploit and will make it so you lose almost every time.
I am training her in a way to where she can both use her magic and Devil Fruit effectively with no negative repercussions. Another thing you need to keep note of, this is her third day. She is doing amazing if I’m being completely honest.
“Thanks for this, Mr Zoro. I’m sorry that this is taking so long…”
“Meh, not like I really had anything better to do.” Fun fact, my life is actually very boring! Well, until it gets exciting, but it’s that way for everyone, really. “Besides, this lets me do something constructive for once.”
She giggled at that. Geeze, never have I had so much giggling around me before. Well, then again, my group was almost completely a sausage fest, so…
After another hour of me constantly getting cold and wet, we decided to call it a day. For her, at least. Me and Egghead had a bit of a thing to do, so that was happening. If you’re interested, I’m teaching her how to cook. For some reason, the only household chores that she’s good at is reorganizing the furniture. It’s both hilarious and sad.
And just when I decided that it was just a normal day, there be a tad bit of chaos. A scream sounded from the outskirts of the town proper, followed by- IS THAT HAKI!
I put everything into Observation to find the cause of- there!
I rushed forward, pulling out Wado Ichimonji and Shusui. Five seconds, and… NOW!
I slashed down at the source of the Haki, but they moved out of the way. When the dust from my attack cleared, it revealed a very familiar character. Before me was Vinsmoke Sanji, and it looked like he just escaped Tartarus or something. Okay, this was probably a Displaced, and with the way his posture is and he’s not freaking out says that he’s probably been one for a while. Only question is where does he belong. I caught a glimpse of hoofprints, so whoever screamed left.
“Oh, great, it’s this asshole,” he muttered. “Well, you want to go, too?”
I raised my blade towards him. “I might. It all depends on your reasons for being here.”
“Ha! You know what? Gentleman’s bet. You beat me and I’ll tell you my life story! I kick your ass, and you tell me.”
“Fair enough,” I said, playing a decent song that I thought fit the mood.
“That… is fucking amazing and you’re going to tell me how to do that,” he said before rushing me. I raised Wado, it being covered in Haki, and decided to go on the defensive.
His kick was powerful. Like, stupidly powerful, I think some of the ground under me cracked.
Red and black sparks erupted from where his leg and my blade met, signifying that he, too, had Conqueror's Haki.
He followed up his attack with an overhead kick, which I jumped back from. He stood on his hands before flying towards me. I didn’t have enough time to block with Wado, so I covered my torso with Armament in order to take the blow. And then I learned a very good lesson.
His Armament was stronger.
My guts felt like they were being crushed as he shot me towards the nearby orchard.
Now, here’s a little tidbit that I think you should know: I am a speed fighter. That basically means that my style focuses on getting near my opponents quickly, attacking them just as fast, and getting the hell out of there. Dodging is always preferable in my opinion, and that is why my style also relies mostly on Observation. And while I do have the original’s monstrous endurance, I don’t have the defensive capabilities that some others have. A metaphorical glass cannon, if you will. Granted, that class cannon has a layer of titanium surrounding it, but my point still stands.
What that also means is that I’m not very good against defensive fighters, people who put more value in defence and timing powerful blows as opposed to what I do. For all speed can do, it isn’t effective if it can’t break through.
As I was picking myself up, I barely dodged another strike of his. Sanji went crashing through another tree, utterly decimating it.
So, deciding that destroying Apple’s, well, apples wasn’t the best thing I attempted to take this out of the orchards. Well, by using Shusui like a bat. Was it disrespectful, maybe, but I didn’t want to go into debt before I have a chance to make money. Oh, yeah, my meals are being mostly paid for by the Crown, rest I either hunt or steal, mostly out of habit. Nearly took everything that was in Pink’s shop in spite in my first week.
As he sailed past me, I swiped at his chest, but he did the damndest thing. See, I forgot that the original Sanji could fly.
He jumped into the air and kept jumping. He then pulled a Sonic, spinning round and around before shooting down.
It didn’t take a genius to know what he was doing, so I brought up my blades in a block. With the angle I had them in, I should be able to at least shove him a sizable distance away.
Sanji brought his leg down, our Haki clashing, red and black sparks going everywhere. With a great force of effort, I did finally manage to shove him back. By about five feet.
It was going to be that sort of day, wasn’t it.
“You know, you sure are handy with those things,” he said.
“Thanks, Blondie,” I replied. “And you’re not too bad either.”
“Ah, yes, nicknames. We going to play that way, Chia Reject?”
“Oof, that smarts. Mind if we do this away from someone’s livelihood? I know the owners and they’ll probably be pretty nettled about this.”
“Ah, but of course, wouldn’t want to ruin them financially from our squabbles.”
“For a dude who looks like an italian hobo, you sure know a lot of big words.”
I felt heat immediately rise from his direction. Aw, crapbaskets.
Before I could do anything, he sent a devastating kick to my side, sending me flying towards the town. Luckily, I didn’t hit any more trees, so yay?
As I skidded to a halt, Blondie shot out. Man did he look flaming. And I don’t mean in the homosexual kind of flaming, I mean we was literally on fire.
“Hellfire Spectrum: Wrath! Brûlant Shot!”
His red, fiery foot landed near me, because I was smart enough to dodge, burning the ground to blackened soot. Jumping off the ground, I put Wado into my mouth and pulled out Kitetsu.
Area of town; somewhere between residential and market areas. Fifty three people in the vicinity, with only fourteen within the danger zone. If I attempt to get them out of harm's way, he may miss the intent of my actions and put more people in danger. If I attempt to explain or yell out for them to flee, he may use that moment to strike. And if I charge in, it may just end up with more hurt. Damn, what the hell is the best option.
Unfortunately, he pulled me out of my thoughts with another shout, indicating an attack as is anime custom.
“Hellfire Spectrum: Lust! Ouragan Jambe!”
The fire surrounding him changed to a pink color and started to swirl around him like a…
Wait, isn’t ‘ouragan’ french/prench for ‘hurricane?’ Is this attack a pun on ‘Love is a Hurricane?’ Tao f***ing dammit.
All you need to know was that with a kick of his leg, pink flames shot towards me in a spinning fashion, and they grew until I was staring at a fire tornado. For those of you who don’t know, these things can occur in nature and are very dangerous. Unlike normal fires that are stuck to certain surfaces and only die when they suck in all the oxygen in the area, these little bastards continuously move so it doesn’t burn out.
I turned my blades in the correct way that was needed, and jumped in. Did it burn? Hell yeah it did, but I didn’t care, because I needed a feel for the force of the spinning. I also needed to be in the center of it.
“Three Sword Style: Dragon Tornado!”
I spun with equal force of the flames in the opposite direction, stopping their circulation and since they lost their momentum to keep moving, they just kind of died out.
“Hellfire Spectrum: Pride! Diable Jambe!”
And as usual fashion in my life, my opponent capitalized on my moment of pause, hitting me on the left side of my head, where I didn’t have an eye, with a leg covered in black.
I’m pretty sure that I flipped a few times, but that didn’t matter. What did matter was that I’ve got a good idea of his fighting style and figured out his flames.
This black fire had neither the intense power from the red flames, nor did it have a special visual effect of his pink ones, but man did it burn. Wrath, Lust, Pride, these are of the seven deadly sins, so that means he probably has four other colors if he’s got that whole motiff going on. And that means that each of them have different effects depending on the color.
I stood up and took to my pose once again, adjusting it a bit in preparation for his strikes. Ebony flames surrounded him, giving him a dangerous aura that was very well earned. His legs tightened up, ready for the moment to strike. Unfortunately, things did not go in his favor.
A purple beam shot towards the human, coiling around him. He adopted a sickened face before stiffening up, falling to the ground.
“Zoro! We came as soon as we saw the flames!” Oh, it's Egghead, Butters, and Curls.
“I had this, you know,” I stated, shearing my blades.
“Unfortunately, darling, we like this town as is, so we shan’t allow you to continue.”
“Let me out of here, you bastard,” the ensnared human screamed at me. “I swear when I get out of here I’m gonna kick your ass!”
“Sure you are, now mind telling us why you’re even here?”
“I-if you don’t mind, that is,” Butters sputtered.
He seemed to take notice of the girls for the first time and his eyes went wide. His entire demeanor changed, adopting a sort of humble look in his features and tilting his head a bit further down.
“I apologize if I have inconvenienced any of you fair maidens in our fight,” he said calmly. “I was getting a bit energetic towards the end, so that is my bad.”
Wait what? So he shouts and swears at me, but does a full 180 towards women? Is he the legit Sanji or a very similar Displaced in terms of personality? Well, one or two others noted that I was similar to the actual Zoro, so it’s not that weird.
“So, pal,” I started, getting on his level. “Mind telling us why you’re here in the first place?”
“To upgrade to pal or friend, one must like tacos and be willing to eat a gallon of ice cream with me,” he said in a robotic voice, glaring at me.
“Shame. Not a fan of Mexican food.”
“Can you two stop flirting for one moment. Now, darling, would you kindly tell us your name,” Curls said, using her wily female powers on the helpless male. Poor sod doesn't stand a chance.
“My lady, I am Vinsmoke Sanji, previously a Five Star chef at a cultural restaurant in Boston.” Oh, does that mean I can finally get some actual ribs!
“My, that's very impressive, Mister Vinsmoke. Would you also mind telling us why you and Zoro were fighting?”
“You see, I was on my way to the town when I came across a pink earth pony, who screamed, ran away, and then this le salaud attacked.”
All eyes turned to me.
“In my defence, if there’s a human and screaming follows, they usually did something.”
“Isn't that the reason you were targeted at first,” Egghead said. “And I thought you said that you didn't start fights.”
“Humans who have potentially harmed people within my Observational Vicinity are the sole exception to that rule.”
“And Gilgamesh?”
“Oh like we had anything better to do.”
“To be fair,” our captive spoke up, “A lot of humans aren't exactly eager to ask permission to start trouble. We are a very stupid species.”
“True that.”
Before anyone could put in another word, Pinks arrived with a big… something. Then it started playing music, with her singing with it.
“Pinks… the hell is this?”
“This is the Welcome Wagon, silly. I greet everypony with it when they come to Ponyville. Don't you… remember…” She looked as though I had just told her shocking news, and went perfectly still. It was kind of freaky.
She went to open her mouth, likely to replay the song for me, when I used the failsafe.
I rushed forward and placed my index finger between her eyes, causing her hair to become flat and falling to the ground on her knees. “Ssh now, only dreams.”
They all just stared at me in bafflement.
“Wha- How-”
“Don't beat your head over it,” I said. “I just learned about her off switch from some mare who called the bakery while I was there. Think her name was Mud.”
“Can you please make her stop that… it's kind of scary,” Butters asked skittishly.
“Alright, then,” I replied, and booped the pink mare right on the nose, her hair returning to the cotton candy style of before.
She blinked, looking confused. “Whoa, that was crazy. What was I doi-” She saw Sanji and was inhaling when I clamped my hand around her muzzle.
“Already did the song, and I think Egghead needs to send a letter, yeah?”
That lit the fire under their asses, remembering that good ol’ Sunny may want to know about Blondie here.
Flinging him over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes, I followed the girls to their usual meetup sight.
Wonder if we have anymore tea left.
===[3rd POV]===
Everyone was having a very interesting time in the Library. Turns out, Apple had housed him last night and convinced everyone that he wasn't some violent maniac and could be trusted. And to add the icing on the cake, Rainbow had found another Displaced, who was dressed as Nico Robin, and they went off to collect her dad who had also come to Equestria. This has been one weird Monday.
Zoro was sipping some zebafrican red tea, sitting next to the now free Sanji who was enjoying a cup of black coffee.
“Did you know about them,” the swordsman asked the chef.
“No,” he replied. “Only thing I've heard about humans were stories on you.”
“Hm.”
Zoro tuned out the girls asking Sanji inane questions and tried to rationalize what was going on now.
Multiple Displaced in one Equestria, with no Tokens it seems. With the exception of what I heard about Jason, most Displaced that live in the same world are usually related to each other in some way. Robin and her dad are obvious, but what about me and Sanji?
I was an introvert as a kid, and never really made friends as a teen before arriving here. Sanji doesn't seem like anyone I would know, nor did Robin react towards him and differently than me. The worst part of all of this is that after a millennia and a half, my barrier doesn't even work anymore. Do you know how much it costs to have one of those hentai abominations teach you to manipulate the Void?
He signed. “I should probably try to find this Auric guy,” he muttered under his breath.
“Who’s that,” Rainbow asked.
“Just a man I know who can do shit I can't,” he answered.
A knock on the door caught everyone's attention. “I'm back,” Robin said through the door. “I've got Daddy with me.”
“Okay, bring him in,” Twilight said, still unsure how to feel about this.
“Here he is,” Robin said as she entered the room. “His name is Nico Brook!”
“Nice to meet you, everyone! Yohohoho!” All the ponies and dragon stared blankly at the afro wearing skeleton before they decided to freak the hell out!
What followed was an intense session of shutting the fuck up, coaxing Fluttershy out from underneath the table, and stopping Twilight from firing off high level holy magic.
“What a lively bunch you all are,” Brook said, enjoying a cup of tea similar to Zoro's.
“That's one word,” the swordsman muttered. “Okay, so while we wait for her royal Sunniness to get down here, we’ll be having a little chat. Chuckles and Daisy,” he said pointing to Brook and Robin, respectively. “How did you get here and how long ago?”
“Well,” Robin started off. “Daddy and I were sitting in our home when the doorbell rang. We looked out, and found a package on the ground. See, we had ordered costumes for a convention in a few months, and Daddy here wanted everything to be perfect.”
“This is true,” Brook agreed. “I'm a tad neurotic about things like that, but I digress. Along with the costumes, there were two items that we never ordered. Being this cane,” he motioned to the purple cane, which probably had his blade, “and her book.”
Robin held up a book with a very intriguing title. “Devil Fruit Encyclopedia.”
“Devil Fruits,” Rarity asked. “Like that thing that poor Sweetie ate?”
“Sweetie did what?”
“Calm down, Apples. Daisy, I suggest you take that to a person who lives in town. Earth pony, brown fur, British accent. And keep their existence a secret. Public doesn't know about them, and I’d like to keep it that way.”
“What are Devil Fruits,” Rainbow Dash asked. “Seems like something really important.”
“That, is a question for your sun goddess to answer. She’s the one who kept you in the dark, pun intended, so she’ll tell you.
“Now Blondie, your turn.”
“But of course, Varric,” he shot back. Damn, he’s catching on. “Well, it was Costume Week at the restaurant I worked in, dressed up, worked like I usually do, then some little Asian girl gave me this,” he presented the gold lighter from the Whole Cake Arc, “and next thing I know, I'm in pony land with a pocket of never-ending cigarettes and the abili-”
A flash of yellow light and a popping sound caught all of our attention. There were the two alicorns in their full glory, serene smiles adorning their faces until seeing the skeleton in the room.
“Hi, its me, don't shoot him with magic, he isn't one of those Grogar Fanatics’ creation,” Zoro stated, sliding in between them.
Celestia looked at the human, then to the now waving skeleton, and back.
“Then would you kindly explain,” she asked in an almost irritable voice.
“Devil Fruit. Revive Revive Fruit.”
“Of course,” she sighed. “Now who are- YOU!” She rushed over to Sanji and held him up by his collar. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING OUT OF TARTARUS!”
“TARTARUS?!” Everyone asked, minus the two new humans. And they knew the legends surrounding it.
Tartarus, the famous ultimate prison. Only, less of a prison and more of a bullish landscape. Imagine, if you will, the shared child of the Null Void from the Ben 10 franchise and Oblivion from Elder Scrolls. In addition to that, it's said that there are natives that look like they came straight from Berserk. Yeah, it's that bad. The only entrance and exit are two massive gates known as the Gates of Tartarus, because everyone is imaginative about this sort of thing. Anyway, it was guarded by one monster, Cerberus, and that was something even Zoro didn't want to tangle with. Only the Princesses have made it obey orders, and it was throw anyone who tries to leave back in.
“Hold up, why did you even throw him into there in the first place?”
“Have any of you ever heard of the Red Prance Incident?”
No, because last time I went to Prance, it was just a small trading town with bad odors, Zoro wanted to comment, but held his tongue. At least now it has cakes.
“It happened thirty years ago,” Rarity started. “Nopony really knows how it happened, but a flood of blood swept through almost a third of the city.” Everyone just kind of stared at her, surprised. “What?”
“Rarity,” Applejack started. “Ya can't bother to remember when applebuck season starts, but ya can recall something tha’ happened on the other side o’ Equestria when ya were jus’ a filly?”
“Darling, when it comes to Prance and Manehatten, I daresay that I know more than Twilight.”
“In any event, Rarity is correct,” Celestia said. “And this… devil is responsible.”
“Do you mind if I ask where in the city this happened,” Zoro asked, a small smirk forming.
“Hmm, I believe that it happened primarily around the shopping area at the time.”
Robin noticed the growing smirk on Zoro’s face, then realized what he was going at. “Was there anything going on at the time?”
“It was the annual Défilé de Mode, one of the fashion shows that every mare worth her bit would dream of entering.” At this point, Zoro had to cover his mouth to stop from laughing, shoulders shaking violently. Sanji saw this and started glaring. Then, the shit hit the fan. “It was an outrage, you see. It even dyed that year’s line of Celestial Secret Langerie red.”
“HAHAHA! YOU FREAKING PERVERT,” Zoro shouted out, rolling on the floor busting a gut. The chef tried stomping on his head, only for Zoro to roll out of the way. All the ponies in the room were deeply confused until Robin decided to explain the laws of Anime Blood Physics, causing them all to blush heavily at the realization of what it was that he did.
“... In all honesty, I’d probably end up doing that too,” Rainbow said.
“RAINBOW DASH!”
“What, Rares, it’s true. Have you seen how skimpy they dress?”
The princesses gave each other a look before huddling together in a corner, whispering to each other. That rose some eyebrows but everyone's attention was mostly focused on Sanji failing at hitting the still laughing Zoro.
After a few minutes, the sisters turned towards the group. “We have come to a conclusion,” Celestia said. “Now- Colts? Sigh, Luna?”
As soon as the navy blue aura of magic surrounded the two men, bringing them into the air, both of their faces went green, sick to their stomachs. The Princess of the Night let them go, their attention straight on the alicorns in fear of another levitation ride.
“Vinsmoke Sanji,” the Solar Princess stated. “In light of these facts brought before us, you are hereby pardoned of your crime-”
“Whoohoo!”
“And will be put into probation, being monitored by the Apple Family.”
“Dammit!”
“Zoro, for your act of selflessness in providing defence for an Equestrian citizen against a potential threat, you are relieved of your probation and given full Equestrian citizenship.”
“Whoohoo!”
“Nico Brook and Nico Robin, the two of you shall be taken care of for the time being, seeing as you two have no home to go to.”
“If I may, your majesty,” Rarity spoke up. “I have more than enough room to take care of the two of them until they find their own housing.” The princesses turned towards the human and skeleton in question, a look asking for their opinion.
“We’d be happy to take you up on that offer, Miss Rarity,” Brook said.
“Oh, speaking of, Sunny, Moony, mind if I ask you a favor?”
“And what would that be,” Luna asked warily.
“What, don’t trust your newest citizen, Princess?” Just the way he had said her title sent shivers up her spine. He went over to them and whispered his request.
“That.. is an odd thing to request,” Celestia said. “Definitely not undoable, but just… bizarre.”
“Meh,” was his eloquent response. “For now, I’m going to have a word with the humans, you ladies sort yourselves out and Firecracker in bed, he fell asleep mopping upstairs again.”
He pulled the humans into the kitchen, closing the door. Turning to them, he put on a serious expression. “Alright, so I know you have questions, but save them for after my rambling.
“We are Displaced, or Dimensionally Misplaced. Multiverse theory is actually Multiverse Law and there are hundreds, if not thousands of us scattered throughout the Multiverse, all in our own Equestria. Why Equestria specifically? No clue. We can call on and summon other displaced using Tokens, like these,” he took off his earring everytime the Void replaced it, giving the three humans and watching their shock at hearing his voice. “Unlike most, those are communication devices for anyone with a copy. That’s the jist of it, so any questions?”
Robin raised her hand. “Where will we find Tokens?”
Zoro shrugged his shoulders. “No idea, they just... pop up from time to time. Usually causes comedic relief for everyone besides the recipient.”
“Do we have to make our own Token,” Brook asked.
“No, not really. It’s just a sort of ‘call on a favor’ thing. Guy I knew named Ben just sort of called back all his Tokens. No one’s gotten word from him since.”
And then Sanji asked the question on everyone’s mind. “Can we go home? Can we go back to normal?” Silence followed for minutes before Zoro let out a heavy sigh.
“For most… never. There was one exception I know but the details are sketchy. But for the most part, we’re stuck here.” Silence dropped upon them, emotions boiling together at this new information for them. Happiness that they weren’t alone. Sadness that they couldn’t go home. Anger at the bastards that tore them away from their lives.
Zoro clapped his hands together, grabbing their attention. “Well, I've got, like, a thousand splinters in my ass, so I'm going to take a shower date with tweezers. You lot may want to go socialize with the natives.”
The humans then spent the next few minutes talking to the Equestrians before something weird happened.
A rip in the Void opened up above Sanji. Looking up at it, something shot out and nailed him in the face.
“Son of a motherfucking Bitch! The flying fuck was that!”
Robin picked up what appeared to be a necklace with a symbol that almost any anime fan would recognize. “Sharingan,” she muttered before Sanji tore it out of her hands and angrily walked towards the stairs.
“Greeny! Get your ass down here! One of your friends!” They all heard a thump and rapid footsteps.
Zoro ran down the stairs, running into Sanji and making the two of them fall into a portal that opened up underneath them.
Everyone just stared at the spot they were for a few minutes, not sure as to what just happened.
“Wha-”
Another portal opened up, Sanji jumping through. “Well, that was fun.”
“What was that,” Celestia asked him.
“Multiverse theory is actually Multiverse law,” Sanji quoted.
Before they could question it, yet another portal opened, this time with Zoro leaping out with key differences. He was wearing the same clothes as Sasuke Uchiha from after the timeskip, and both his eyes were open.
“Yo,” he said.
“What the hay just happened,” Twilight asked.
“We just traveled dimensions,” Zoro said. “You get used to it after a while.”
Just as the unicorn was about to make a big deal about this, her mentor stopped her, placing a hand in front of her. “Now Twilight, don’t worry about this now. I’m fairly certain that our newest citizen will be willing to give us a written explanation about what we just witnessed later.” Now it was Zoro’s turn to shiver at his new… title? Oh by Tao what have I been roped into?
“Yeah, yeah, I’ll tell you everything later. Now get out of here, you have a city of fully grown brats to bow down to.” Luna stuck her tongue out at him before a flash of light and a popping sound indicated that they were gone.
“Well that was fun,” Sanji commented. “Maybe I’ll tag along next time, eh, Greeny.” With that, he patted Zoro’s back.
And shit hit the fan.
Instantly, Zoro’s hands were around Sanji’s wrist and flipped him onto the table, breaking it under the force. Everyone cried out, startled at this. Then Twilight noticed the expression on his face.
It was a familiar one to her, one that she had seen on Moondancer on more than one occasion. It was a panic attack.
Heavy breathing, terrified look, sweat rolling down his face.
“Don’t ever...EVER… touch my back,” he stated, the force of his words quieting everyone. He walked out the door and went in the direction of the Everfree Forest. Pinkie rushed out after him, hating when someone was feeling not happy. As she tried catching up to him, she stopped.
The glare from those red eyes of his stopped her in her tracks, freezing her in place. With that, he continued onward, wanting to be alone for a good long while.
===[3rd POV; Canterlot Castle]===
Night time for Princess Luna was of mixed feelings.
While she simply loved basking in the beauty of her domain, what with the beautiful stars in the sky and the serene calmness that comes with it, she can’t help but remember that it was also the night that changed her.
Because she had taken too much pride in her night, she rebelled against the natural order that she had previously spent centuries defending. Because of her jealousy that her beautiful domain was ignored in place of the day led to her turning her blade upon her sister. Her loneliness caused her to throw reason and logic out the proverbial window.
She shivered at the recollection of the memories and feelings that led to her paranoia and selfishness, reflexively trying to tie them back down into the deepest part of her psyche. It wasn’t good that she bottled up her emotions and doubts, but centuries of habits are hard to break in mere months.
She had taken a liking to wandering the castle in the beginning of the night, seeing as how her subjects didn’t automatically start dreaming when they went to sleep, like some people thought.
“Huh, now I’m using Zoro’s terminology. I must be getting used to seeing him,” she said to herself.
“No more than your dear sister,” replied a voice that sent shivers up her spines. She turned around and saw a face that she was extremely intimate with. Nightmare Moon, her darker persona, was examining one of the many stained windows that littered the Canterlot Castle. This particular one was of an old battle against Zoro that was early in their campaign against him. “Who would have thought that she would accept enemies into her fold just like that.”
“Get out of here, Monster,” the princess commanded. This had been a common occurrence for her, often seeing an illusion caused by her trauma and made real from her magic. At least, that was the explanation she often gave this.
“Wow, and here I thought Sister was a buzzkill,” she giggled. “Can’t I just talk to my favoritest princess ever?”
“I said begone. You have no place in these halls.”
“Haha! Oh that is rich. After all, we are practically the same pony.”
“We are nothing alike!”
“Yes we are,” she said, dropping the sultry tone. “The moon always has two major phases. You represent the Full Moon, a bright, shining example of all that is beautiful with the night. I am the New Moon, where the only light that shines is the dim stars, millions of lightyears away, where all that is ‘evil’ in the darkness dwells. We are one in the same, little princess.”
“Stop it stop it stop it,” she frantically muttered, grasping her mane tightly. She didn't want to hear more from this demon that had ruined her life.
“You aren't even her equal anymore. Look around, and you can clearly see it. You live in her castle, with her city and her ponies surrounding it. She even trusts the human more than you.”
“Be quiet,” Luna sobbed, fear and anxiety stabbing her heart.
“The moon is waning, little princess. Let us hope that its successful, no?”
That was the final straw, the alicorn crying out in a mix of fear and pain before teleporting away. But the nightmare stayed, smirking in the moonlight.
And the being in the rafters was thankful that his marionette was successful.