//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: Next Target: Pinkamena “Party Maniac” Diane Pie! // Story: Conversion Bureau: The return of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts. // by ClearlyNotTremor230 //------------------------------// Tokyo – SIU Temporary HQ – Human side of the Barrier - The old man at the head of the SIU, and personally directing the ‘Equestria CounterattackOperation’, was silently reading through the thick folder that his assistant had handed to him containing everything the guys and girls interrogating Fluttershy could gather for him. “It doesn’t look like she knows what we need.” the man muttered, and it was hard to tell if it was a question or not. “From what we could gather, exception made for Twilight Sparkle herself being Celestia’s pupil, the other so-called ‘Elements of Harmony’ are pretty much just glorified civilians: barely a step above in importance, but not enough to know military secrets. They are just expected to act in place of their local Military Force whenever some Threat requiring their special Magic pops-up, other than that, they are not requested to do anything special. Their being good ‘Propaganda Material’ was discovered only now that the ponies are at war with us, and even then, they make very little public appearances and just when the Princesses need an extra kick to their approval rating, clearly Celestia must be afraid of Human sympathizers trying something.” the assistant answered all the same. “There are Human sympathizers?” “Yessir. By Fluttershy’s estimates, there are at least two pony groups loudly declaring that what Celestia is doing is immoral; a Griffin group rallying against ‘The mistreatment of another race just because they eat meat like us.’, among other things; and even an entire Zebra Tribe declaring that the spirits of our ancestors won’t like to see the destruction of the human race continue, and that if Celestia doesn’t stop, said spirits will make it their mission to punish Equestria.” the young woman answered. “Glad to see that not all of them hate us. Can we get in touch with the Leaders of these groups?” “I will pass down the word and see if we can contact them, as for now, we only know the name of the Pony Group Leaders: Lyra Heartstrings and Tempest Shadow.” “...Their naming convention is atrocious...” the old man admitted. “I know, sir.” “Any news about the other Elements instead?” “The one named Pinkie still uses Akihabara as her home, and lately she has been amassing candies and party amenities by the hundreds, unfortunately the advancing of the Barrier is making spying on her from distance harder as it increases the distance our men have to keep to not be pulverized. It looks like she is organizing some sort of party though, one agent recognized the LOUD music playing nonstop through the streets as the kind of background music used during parades, and this had been going for at least three days since Fluttershy’s Change of Heart, to our knowledge.” “She is organizing a Parade? For what? Victory against Humanity?” “...That is the strange thing, sir...Besides the few New-Foals she keeps around and has started dressing in full party regalia...She seems to be the only pony invited to such an event. Unless we missed her delivering the invitations, of course.” the woman answered, unsure. “Those ponies are going mad.” the other commented sighing. “If...If I can give my own theory, sir…” “Go on.” the old man prompted her. “Do you remember what happened to Takeshi? After he was told his wife had a spontaneous abortion?” she asked. “Yes. We found him maniacally cleaning and ordering our evidence storage room and revising our entire paperwork backlog...You think she is busying herself nonstop so to not think about something?” he asked. “It’s just my own theory, sir. But I saw the recordings, she had the same eyes of Takeshi during those two weeks. Probably Fluttershy’s Change of Heart has hit her hard.” “And the others?” “AJ, or Applejack as apparently that is just her nick-name, is taking a lot of interest in helping the new arrivals get acquainted with our world, either soldiers or civilians, other than that, she seems to be isolating herself as much as possible.” “Guilt?” “I would love for that to be the case, sir. She is trying to champion this entire Conversion as the right thing to do, almost maniacally so. She has sequestered the Koishikawa Botanical Garden in Bunkyo with the help of some soldiers and other ‘farm ponies’, and is trying to add a small farm to it where to keep growing her family apples.” “Uhm.” “As for Rainbow Dash...She is giving interviews left and right and has become the poster-child of the Army, she seems to be in love with her position as ‘Hero of Ponykind’. Fluttershy has confirmed the rumors of her even helping with few raids of the soldiers, but the exact number of raids she took part to still remains unconfirmed.” “Interesting, so the guilt stops at AJ and Pinkie? Has that Dash mare took over a place too? They are treating our country like their toy!” the old man asked with a growl of annoyance. “It seems like beside Fluttershy, only AJ and Pinkie are showing signs of regret, yes, even if we cannot track Rarity or Twilight’s whereabouts as of yet. As for Dash...Some agents saw her during a Conversion Raid in the Haneda International Airport in Ota, luckily between them and the army the last plane of fugitives managed to depart without the people there being turned into ponies, but that mare looked particularly attracted by the structure, to the point of turning furious if the fight with our forces damaged something.” the assistant answered. “So it’s very likely that once the Barrier covers it, she will take over that place?” the old man asked. “So it seems, sir...But why you are so interested in this?” “Because I fear that they are planning something, and I want to know what structure they will use to try and have their forces sneak-in unseen if that is the case.” “I understand, sir. I will tell everybody to keep the Elements under close watch, them and both Princesses and their close confidants, the Army is also offering their best men and equipment to help us in this endeavor, if the ponies have some secret plan, we will know immediately.” “Good, thank you. You may go.” the old man answered with a pleased nod. “Of course, sir.” she replied, leaving soon after. “...” Once waited several seconds to be sure he was really alone, the old man took out the cellphone he was holding under his desk to talk to the one at the other side. “Did you hear everything?” he asked smirking. “Y-Yeah...How did you get my number? Or discovered I am the one behind the ‘Phan-Site’?” the young man at the other side of the call answered with a weak voice. “It had not been easy, but I still have a trick or two in my sleeves; have no fear, I personally covered the very scarce traces you left behind, Mishima-san. You are good in this, in a couple years, and once resolved this pony mess, think about joining us, internet-related scams are on the rise with the advancement of technology, so there is always a place for bright minds.” “...” “I am not coercing you, I stopped doing that long ago.” “...What do you want me to do?” “Nothing much, but I saw how much your site helped the Phantom Thieves finding small and big targets, and this means that you are either directly in contact with them, or that they listen to you enough for you to help me.” “Help you?” Mishima Yuuki repeated, unsure. “The Phantom Thieves have showed us that they are maybe the only thing besides a full-scale thermonuclear attack that can work on those damn ponies and force them to back-off. Unfortunately our past as ‘enemies’ understandably makes it hard for us to help them, especially so since they actually have very little reasons to trust us; still, we are in a position where we can offer information about possible targets, and since they attacked Fluttershy, it is clear they too understood the importance of removing those ‘Elements of Harmony’ from the picture before moving to bigger targets like Celestia and Luna...And here is where I hope you will enter the fray.” “You want me to use the Phan-Site to anonymously give the Phantom Thieves tips and suggestions about their next Target in your stead?” “Exactly. Very perceptive, Mishima-san.” the old man answered chuckling. “...And if I refuse?” “I will look elsewhere for a solution and will leave you play around with your small site, Humanity has a tight schedule and I cannot waste time in small vendettas, if that is what you fear. I will just forget you exist as soon as you refuse to help me, to put it simply.” “...I am in, but just because I want to help the Phantom Thieves. Can I trust you to not lead them into a trap?” “Put it like this: if forced to choose between Conversion and Death, I will gladly swallow the mouth of my gun and pull the trigger. Is it a good enough answer?” “Yes.” the young boy answered with an unnerved tone. “Perfect! You already have something about both AJ and Pinkie, and to be safe I will send you a message with a short reminder of what we know about them; and as soon as we know more about the other Elements, I will contact you again. Feel free to ask for information about other targets outside our list, as a personal favour for your help.” “I will, thank you...” Mishima answered with a tense tone before closing the call. The next day – Sae’s Apartment – Human side of the Barrier - “Perfect! You already have something about both AJ and Pinkie, and to be safe I will send you a message with a short reminder of what we know about them; and as soon as we know more about the other Elements, I will contact you again. Feel free to ask for information about other targets outside our list, as a personal favour for your help.” “I will, thank you...” “...Interesting.” Yusuke commented as soon as the registration of the entire phone call Mishima sent them finished playing. “What do you think?” Mishima asked from the other side of the heavily-encrypted video-call on Sae’s laptop. “It seems like the old fool is determined on helping the Phantom Thieves, but I cannot tell how much he actually knows about you all.” Sae answered with a thoughtful expression. “Can we trust him?” Sojiro asked. “I have no idea, I can’t tell how far he is ready to go to stop the ponies, nor if once stopped Equestria he won’t just re-start his crusade against the guys for their past crimes.” “Justified Crimes! Yaldabaoth needed to be stopped!” Morgana said, offended. “Morgana said that we technically were justified by the whole Yaldabaoth mess.” Akira translated. “To be fair, that came out later...At the beginning we were just ‘Rebelling’, and got caught in something bigger.” Makoto countered sighing. “Considering the pieces of shit you ‘Attacked’ and forced to confess, I say you did some damn good community service.” Iwai, the gruff owner of the ‘Untouchable’ shop acting as the Phantom Thieves HQ inside the Barrier, answered huffing. “Well-” “Come on, Sae! We are talking about child-molesters, Corrupt Politicians, Mafia Bosses, Frauds and Assassins! They targeted Human Scum!” the man interrupted her with an annoyed grunt. “...And that man was helping them as well, willingly or not, it changes nothing.” Sadayo Kawakami, the group’s former teacher, added with a sigh. “Still, he may offer us some help. But we’ll need to find a way to discover if he is telling us the absolute truth, half of it, or if he is trying to trap us.” Sae admitted in defeat. “Would he really compromise the only thing able to stop Celestia from conquering our world, just to finally arrest us?” Futaba asked in disbelief. “To be honest? I am starting to believe him to be ready to do everything to have things go his way.” the woman answered sighing. “For now let’s try to follow their suggestion, and at the same time, we will keep an eye open for traps, they can’t follow us inside the Barrier, so we have at least somewhere they can’t reach.” Ann suggested. “Good enough for me!” Ryuji seconded her, nodding. “What about your new hiding place?” Akira asked. “Almost ready, if they somehow connect you to the Phantom Thieves, and us to you others, we can move there in a matter of minutes.” Iwai answered proudly. “What now then?” Mishima asked. “For now pretend you never told us what happened and pass along what they send you, in the meantime we will hide behind the Barrier to plan our attack on Pinkie Pie, number 2 on our App List. We will also look for another hiding place in case the first one is compromised.” Haru answered with an encouraging smile. “Roger!” “Did you get everything needed for that, dear?” Akira’s mother asked in concern. “Of course, Miss Kurusu.” she answered. “Feel free to use the Leblanc Cafe if you need, by now the ponies should think nobody is home, so if you need a last-minute hiding spot you can hide there. Just do not leave a mess.” Sojiro said with a small smile as he threw the keys to Akira. “Same for my clinic, our dear Joker by now knows my home-made medicines enough to recognize the ones he usually bought for you all, just give me a call if you need further help.” Tae added, throwing her own keys to Ann. “Good, we will be going then, we’ll call you as soon as we get to the shop.” Ryuji declared with a thumbs-up. “You just be careful, the raids are coming more often now.” Yusuke added sighing. “We will, we will. Now go, and steal that Pink marshmallow’s Heart, ‘kay?” Sojiro answered chuckling and ruffling Futaba’s hair making her mewl in offense. The next day – Pony Side of the Barrier – With Pinkie - “Parties make life worth living~! Joy and balloons and confetti of the heart are the filling~!” Pinkie sang aloud on time with the loud party music she had on an endless ‘shuffle’ loop playing nonstop from the overly-complex system of speakers and sub-woofers she had jury-rigged in three days of hard work. Too much brooding! Too much sadness! Clearly this silly fight with humans was affecting everybody and everypony too hard, even Fluttershy was all sad now! She could honestly not let this sadness go on! A big enough party and she was sure everypony will be friends!...Laughter...There was a real need for laughs here!… Unaware of how sleek her mane was becoming through her days of hard work, Pinkie kept working non-stop to create a Party so MASSIVE and amazing that the whole Conversion War will stop and everybody will become friends; she was so sure of it that she also missed her new, strange obsession for smashing every mirror she found, because for some reason she was finding her reflection unsettling, especially since she felt the urge to cry whenever she crossed a mirror and saw herself. What she didn’t know was that just like what was happening with every other pony, the Mixture of Corruption they brought along from Equestria and the few weak sparks of Ruin they found on Earth at their arrival, was influencing them deeper the more they failed to recognize the signs, but instead of going against their Elements/Talents, their innate inclinations were being exacerbated to worrying levels. And the more time passed, the more evident the results of this Distortion became apparent. “Uhmmm...I need more sparkles.” Pinkie said as she kept covering the streets in thick layers of sparkling dust, to the point her hooves left faint prints at each step. “Oh! Oh! Oh! I almost forgot to add another banner! There must be banners! Otherwise nopony will get the message of this party!” the mare said with an excited smile as she threw away the bucket of sparkles and running away to prepare yet another banner. Meanwhile this was happening, unseen by her, two pairs of human eyes kept spying her from right outside the Barrier. “...You know? Had it not been done by a completely crazy mare, this parade she is organized would look amazing.” one of the agents sitting on the back of an anonymous van admitted impressed. “I know, right? But she is overworking herself, I mean...Is she running on batteries? She has not slept a wink in days!” the woman with him admitted impressed. “And yet she is still going strong, I only fear that once free of ponies, it will take ages to clean-up everything.” the other answered sighing. “HEY! I see some movement!” the woman said abruptly. “Movement?” “A drone is flying around, is it one of ours?” she answered while passing him the binoculars. “Not to my knowledge...You think HQ is trying to see if they can use drones to spy on the ponies? How did they made one pass through the Barrier though?” “Uhm, I think it was already inside.” “How do you know that?” “It has an Hatsune Mikupaint-job, like the ones normally sold there. No military group I know would do that, so I think they managed to take control of one already inside.” “Ooh! Ingenious!” Inside the Barrier – With the Phantom Thieves – Abandoned Maid Cafe - “It’s working, I knew we could take one with us through Mementoes.” Futaba said grinning, she was the one controlling the big drone through her laptop and while wearing a VR visor, the others simply followed the image from the screen. “Do we have to sit on the floor? My ass is falling asleep.” Ryuji said grumbling. “There are New-Foals and Pinkie running about on the street AND several police agents and soldiers patrolling outside the Barrier and spying inside, we can’t be seen yet, they would start asking how we passed the Barrier otherwise.” Yusuke answered sighing. “This is pointless, she doesn’t look like having a base at all!” Makoto said with a grumbling tone of annoyance. “She must have one! There must be a place she sleeps in at least!” Ann answered, groaning. “Considering she looks like only eating candies and other sweets, by now she is running on sugar-high only...” Akira added. “And that means that sooner or later she will collapse and need to sleep.” Haru finished saying. “I am getting dizzy just by looking at her...” Morgana admitted. “...Hey...” Ryuji muttered out of the blue. “Uh-hu?” Futaba answered. “I am pulling this straight out of my ass...” “Spit it out.” Ann replied. “...What if the entire Akihabara is her base, her Palace?” Ryuji asked, unsure. “Too big.” Akira answered. “Not exactly. Palaces in their Real Form reside in the Metaverse, the world of Perceptions, and they reflect the Distortion and Desires of their owner...Being relegated to ‘mundane things’ like Size, Location or even just Laws of Physics is the last of their issues” Mogana answered. “So it’s possible?” Ryuji asked. “Unlikely, but not impossible. Even if I would prefer having a single place.” the cat answered, sighing. “Another problem is that we don’t know what her Palace is about. And without that, we can’t even get inside it.” Yusuke added. “Are we even sure she has one?” Futaba asked. “Her name is in the Metaverse App, she has to.” Ann answered while fiddling with her phone to check that App. “Then we’ll have to keep spying on her, sooner or later we’ll stumble on something.” Makoto said in annoyance. “...I am hungry.” Haru admitted with a low voice. “The stuff in the fridge here should still be good...If you are not too picky.” Ryuji answered. “I can try cook something.” Akira added shrugging. “You better not, they will see us.” Morgana countered while shaking his head. “...Just pass me one of those ration bars then...” Haru answered, sighing. “The ones that taste like cardboard?” Sigh! “Those...” she answered, grimacing. Meanwhile – With Pinkie Pie - “Pinkie? What the hay are you doing?” to the surprise of the humans spying on the party maniac, a rainbow-coloured blur came down from the sky at high speed. The mare in question was Rainbow Dash, and she was covered in faint bruises and yet sporting a satisfied smile. “Organizing The Ultimate Party, what do you think?” Pinkie answered huffing. “Aren’t you overdoing?” “Of course not! On the contrary! I am taking Laughs back! Seriously, you all are fighting between each other when instead everypony could be friends.” the pink mare answered with crossed hooves. “Pinks...” Dash said, slowly. “Hu-uh?” “We are trying to save them from themselves, parties can wait until we are done. You cannot distract everypony from our Mission, we first need to SAVE Humanity.” the other finished saying while shaking her head. “That is why you are wearing a cape like a super hero?” Pinkie asked with a raised eyebrow. “W-W-W-What cape?” the mare replied while hastily throwing away said accessory. “I bet you were playing Super Hero and forgot Twily had asked you something, like to come collecting me, and when you finally remembered it was already late and rushed here without taking away your silly costume.” Pinkie said with narrowed eyes. “...Nnnooo?” Dash tried saying with a weak smile. “Spot on.” every single one of the spying humans unknowingly thought in chorus. “Dashie! I still have to bake fifty thousand cupcakes! I am on a tight schedule.” Pinkie said whining. “I know, I know! It will take a minute, I promise.” “Okay...Can you help me put up another banner?” the mare said, pouting. “Pinkie, there is a banner every two meters. This place is a covered in banners!” Dash answered. “Just another one! Pleaaaaaase! Just another one and I will stop!” Pinkie begged. “Later, let’s just go now, we are already late.” “Okie-Dokie! Let’s go!” the pink mare said running forward and leaving behind a long trail of sparkling dust at each step. “Yeah, yeah.” the other answered, rolling her eyes and stealthily recovering the discarded cape once checked nobody saw her, besides the New-Foals wandering around. With the Phantom Thieves - “Okay, now that both ponies left, I think we can try to see if Pinkie does have a ‘base’ or something similar here.” Futaba declared, momentarily lifting the VR visor from her face to look at the others. “She must be storing all that stuff somewhere, I say we start by first finding that place.” Makoto suggested. “And how are we supposed to do that?” Ryuji asked. “There is a method to all this, she is moving through this street while gradually organizing her parade and who knows what else, I think that we should try go in reverse and find the starting point.” Yusuke answered while dragging a finger on the map of Akihabara he had downloaded on his phone. “Well, we do have to start from somewhere...” the girl answered shrugging and piloting the drone through the street and slowly scanning everywhere. “...Where do you think she took all those streamers, balloons and clown costumes for the New-Foals?” Ann asked, curious. “No idea. Why the broken mirrors though?” Akira asked back. “Dunno.” “She is planning to throw a party, right in the middle of a War. It must be the result of her Distortion. What does the App say about her?” Morgana said. “Let’s see...Pinkamena ‘Diane’ Pie. Element of Harmony: Laughter.” Makoto answered while reading aloud. “...And?” “That’s it, I think we are supposed to discover more by ourselves.” “It doesn’t help at all!” Ryuji roared annoyed. “Laughter...Her power is about bringing laughs and happiness, then?” Yusuke asked. “I guess!” the thug boy answered angrily. “Kind of useless as a superpower, what is she supposed to do? Tell jokes until the enemy is dead of laughter?” Makoto said scoffing. “We are talking about ponies coming from a magical land, maybe for them it works like that.” Akira countered. “I still find it silly. Next to hugging an enemy until they become friends. At least we destroy the Dark Side of our targets, we intervene directly!” “And we look cool while doing that!” Ryuji added, smirking. “Just drop it, look! I think we should go that way!” Morgana cut in, interrupting the discussion. “Were they renovating?” Futaba said in surprise as now they could see several buildings covered by scaffolds, and even the New-Foals under them were wearing hard-hats over their clown costumes. “I don’t think it was the doing of workers, at least not human ones, there are signs and other warnings that have been painted too crudely for that.” Yusuke answered. “That mare did it?!” Ann said, shocked. “This is bigger than a simple parade, maybe we are close to her Base.” Akira muttered. “Those graffiti...Always wear a hat and a smile, for safe working conditions!...She is fixating on smiles.” Haru commented. “Considering she has drawn smiles everywhere, I don’t find it hard to believe.” Makoto answered. “There!” Akira said loudly once the drone’s camera panned in front of a particular sign. “Where?” Futaba asked. “Move back a bit.” “A bit back...Opening soon: ‘ Friendshipolis Pinkie Land: the Land of Smiles and Friendship’. The first name has been erased in a second moment, you can see she used another colour for the new one.” Futaba red aloud the sign that was propped against a wall and pointing at the crude erasing done to change the name with a thick stroke of angry-red paint. “She is planning to turn the entire Akihabara in her own Theme Park.” Yusuke commented with both eyebrows high up to his hairline. “One centered around smiles and friendship, probably.” Haru added. “But why putting her own name in there then?” Ann asked. “The way she wrote the second name is uneven and less ‘Clean’ compared to the rest, just like the way she has been drawing smiles everywhere with.” Morgana added with a thoughtful tone. “Okay, so maybe we have one or two Code Words: ‘Theme Park’ and ‘Parade’.” Akira said. “We still need to see which is the right one and where to use it though.” Yusuke answered. “I spy a spy with my little eye~!” a voice sing-sang from the monitor, making the Phantom Thieves almost jump out of their skin. “SHIT!” Ryuji eloquently summed it up just as Futaba whipped around the drone to see Pinkie and Dash look right at them. “Spies?” Dash asked with narrowed eyes. “Uh-hu! My Pinkie Sense tells me that maybe I am the neeext~!” Pinkie answered greatly amused, making Morgana shiver in dread. “Pinkie Sense?” Ann whispered. “No idea.” Maoto answered, she too whispered, as if all of them were afraid of being heard. “You should not spy! My surprise Super Party is not ready yet! And neither is my next Ultra Huge New Super Secret Project!” Pinkie said while jumping around excited. “It’s one of those flying spy thingies, I’ll go tell Twilight! You find the owner!” Dash yelled, ready to zoom away at her fastest speed. “Find the owner? How, Dashie? They could be anywhere! Like in a gift shop, an arcade or a Maid Cafe!” Pinkie answered whining, and making the teens watching her grow paler. “How would I know? You are Pinkie, come up with something!” the Pegasus mare answered rolling her eyes and then flying away. “Okay! Ready or not, Here I come! Ready to become Friends?” Pinkie said with a happy smile. And as if to answer her, the Drone simply dropped down as the human girl piloting it at the opposite side of the monitor ran away with her friends as they hastily abandoned their hiding spot. “Awww! Don’t run away! I want us to be friends! Everypony is my friend!” Pinkie said with a pout. With the Phantom Thieves - ‘Untouchables’ Shop – one hour later - In the absolutely empty and abandoned shop there was a sealed room in the back acting as its storage room, and connected through a secret tunnel to the city’s sewers that could be used both as an entrance and as an emergency exit. And from the entrance to said tunnel, a small mirror slowly peaked out from a trapdoor to check the room for possible intruders, especially Pink Ones. “...Coast clear, I guess.” Ryuji whispered as he first blindly pointed the (real) gun he had been given by Iwai around the room, and then personally looking inside with his own eyes. “Be careful.” Makoto answered as one at a time, they all entered the storage room while pointing their weapons in random directions. “The barricade on both doors is still up and untouched,” Yusuke declared. “...God, that mare was looking straight at us, I swear she could see us!” Ann said, letting go of the breath she was holding, just like everyone did as they finally relaxed. “It was creepy, yes. But it confirmed us that we were close to her Base, close to that sign there must be the entrance to her Palace.” Morgana declared, sighing. “Yes, but they might also suspect we are coming, she said ‘I guess I am next’, as if she knew the ones spying her were the Phantom Thieves.” Akira said, thoughtful. “And how does she know that?” Makoto asked. “I have no idea, maybe she just guessed it.” “They know that somewhere out there, outside the Barrier, there is a group called Phantom Thieves that forced one of them to confess her crimes, so they know that besides soldiers, now we too can be spying on them at all times.” Haru said. “She didn’t look scared of it.” Ryuji answered, looking almost offended from the lack of worry on Pinkie’s face. “Contrary to Fluttershy, she knows we are coming, or suspects so, and has already alerted both her friends and Celestia; maybe she believes that we won’t be able to reach her.” Yusuke answered. “We still need to pin-point the exact location of the Entrance to her Palace, and we will need to be there in person to try the passwords; and while we have few guesses, we will need time to try all of them.” Morgana said with a defeated tone. “I don’t get it, didn’t she leave? Why were she and Dash back?” Ryuji asked with an utterly confused expression on his face. “I have no idea...” Yusuke answered, sighing. At the same time - With the Elements of Harmony – Akihabara - “Nothing?” Twilight asked while watching several soldiers scout everywhere. “Nothing, no trace whatsoever. As we suspected, it was not done from the inside.” Shining Armour answered with narrowed eyes. “This still can’t rule out either Lyra or Tempest, any news about them?” the neo-Alicorn asked. “Nothing, we just know they are hiding in the human side of the Barrier, other than that, we have no clue...The lack of help from the humans too is not helping us finding them.” her brother answered. “What if the spies were those Phantom whatever?” Dash asked annoyed. “Phantom Thieves, Dash. I admit the name of their group is quite poetic, a pity though that they are still ruffians.” Rarity corrected her while trying to see her reflection in the small mountain of shards of broken mirrors she found in a corner. “So we’ve been spied on, eh? Ah found som’thin strange in mah new barn, you said t’was a recorder?” AJ added huffing. “Yes, and while I wouldn’t rule out the Human Army completely, as for now the Phantom Thieves are the most likely culprits, especially after going for Fluttershy. They might be trying to select a new Target.” Shining answered. “Good thing I came looking for you two because you were late.” Twilight said sighing elated. “Yup! Who knows what would they have done otherwise! My Super Secret Plan must remain a surprise!” Pinkie answered. “I know, I know! We won’t look, promise.” Twilight answered. “Pinkie Promise?” the pink mare countered smirking. “Yeah. Yeah.” the other mares answered rolling their eyes, making Shining chuckle amused. “Any news of Fluttershy?” Rarity asked. “Still with the humans, she is hiding somewhere and I can’t find out where she is.” the stallion answered, grimacing. “We will save her too!” Dash said with fiery eyes. “No. You all will stay inside the Barrier!” Shining said with a stern tone. “We still don’t know who the next victim will be, so anypony high profile enough must remain inside the Barrier, the humans can spy all they want, but they cannot pass through it nor survive once inside. We will minimize as much as we can the chances of success of whoever is attacking us until we have caught them.” he then said. “Any help from the Human groups that are Pro Conversion?” Rarity asked. “They are willing, but even the humans do not know who may be after us, is not like any soldier will openly declare what they are ordered to do! And we do not even know if the Phantom Thieves are humans THIS TIME, for all we know, there may be a ‘new formation’ made up of ponies. That is why I want you to be careful around whoever you think may be involved and to stay the hay away from the Barrier’s border.” Shining answered in concern. “We will be careful, but now, I need a favour from Pinkie,” Twilight answered. “Oh! Oh! Oh! You mean what you were about to ask before we caught somepony spying on me?” Pinkie asked back excited. “Yes, I need to borrow few of your New-Foal friends, I still can’t understand why the humans are reacting like that to Conversion. By my estimates, they should not be reduced like that, nowhere I saw those downsides pop-up, even in my wildest estimates!” she answered. “Oookay! But no mad-scientist experiments!” Pinkie answered nodding. “Why you said that?” “Just because.” “Hey, Pinkie...Can I ask you where did you get all this?” Shining asked curious while pointing at all the stuff the mare was using for her Theme Park and Parade. “Ooh! That’s easy! Princess Celestia herself is helping me! She even promised me she will personally take care of the balloons! When the time comes, I will be able to throw a Legendary Super Parade to celebrate our new New-Foal friends! Everypony will be able to party together!” Pinkie answered with a giant smile. “Your Talent and infinite resources...Good Faust I can’t wait!” Dash answered eager. “Yep! Ah will have enough cider tha fill a river, Ah promise yah!” AJ added proudly. “Let’s wait for after this is over to think about celebrations, okay?” Shining asked, smiling. Meanwhile – right outside the Barrier – nondescript van - “You heard them?” the woman sitting on the back of the anonymous van whispered. “Yep! They are on high alert, and the Phantom Thieves too were apparently spying on the pink mare.” her partner said while both kept pointing their directional microphone towards the Elements of Harmony. “Should we alert the Director?” the woman asked. “Probably, maybe they’ll want us to help those guys...What do you think were they looking for?” “Beats me.” she answered, sighing, not at all thrilled at the idea of helping the Phantom Thieves, especially since she and her partner were part of the old Team that tried to arrest them all not too long ago. “Hey! As long as it works and those ponies stop Converting us, I don’t mind...” the man said, shrugging. With the Phantom Thieves - ‘Untouchables’ - The group of teens were silently watching as a fuming Futaba tried to connect to another drone to keep spying on Pinkie. “I say we continue spying like this, once sure were to go, we will try infiltrate there personally.” Haru suggested. “Without a damn big diversion though, we will have a hard time doing that. They are on the look-out for us.” Makoto answered. “How big should that diversion be?” Akira asked, curious. “...I don’t know...Maybe big enough to draw away all those guards and leave only Pinkie and those New-Foals roaming about, at least like that distracting Pinkie long enough for us to try enter her Palace will be easier.” Makoto answered, unsure. “What about burning down one of those Conversion Bureaus they opened?” Ryuji offered. “You should also need to have a revolt happen at the same time, and that would put a lot of people in danger for the guards retaliation.” Yusuke answered. “A challenge.” Futaba said with narrowed eyes. “Uh?” the group uttered as one. “I say we directly challenge Celestia to capture and Convert us. We will openly declare an attack somewhere and while they look there, we enter Pinkie’s Palace.” “We will be on a very strict time limit if we do that.” Ann said. “When did we ever had not a super-tight time limit before? We always had a deadline hanging over our heads before a job! At least this time we will be the ones deciding it!” the young girl replied. “So: We issue a Challenge, and while the bulk of the guards are there waiting for us, we look for the Entrance of Pinkie’s Palace?” Akira asked. “Yup! We only need to physically be there once to enter the Palace the first time, after that, the App will create a short-cut to the Palace so that we will be able to enter there from any point in the Metaverse whenever we want until we steal the Treasure. We only need them to lower their guard once.” Futaba answered. “Well...I say we try like that.” Ryuji answered, sighing. “We’ll need to plan to perfection both time needed to look for the Entrance and the right area to issue the Challenge, we must have enough time to look for it, but it must not be too far to be obvious we just want Pinkie to be defenceless.” Morgana said. “I’ll try to guess a good starting point, and if I manage to have another drone working, the better. At worst we will drop one there through the Mementoes like we did the first time.” Futaba answered nodding. “Okay, guys! Brainstorming! We have a ruse to plan and not a lot of time to do it!” Ann declared, making the others nod in determination. Extra Scene – Persona Fusion - Velvet Room - “I must compliment you for another job well done, any Heart you manage to steal from a Palace, or purify before they can even form one, brings us a step closer to open a path to our main target: Celestia’s Heart.” Igor said with a calm tone, and yet, the others could feel he was very pleased with them. “It was not easy, those ponies make for way stronger Distortions.” Yusuke admitted. “Yeah, they hit very hard.” Ryuji confirmed, twisting around his right arm with a groan at every popping sound of his bones. “You must persevere, me and Master Igor know you all can do it.” Lavenza answered. “Do you have do hold his hand every time we get here?” Ann asked with narrowed eyes. “My beloved Trickster doesn’t mind.” the tiny girl replied huffing. “I-” “Shh!” Makoto immediately stopped Akira from answering, knowing well that there was not a right answer in that situation. “I got it. Since we are here, I wanted to fuse a new Persona for the next Palace, can I?” the young man asked. “Huhuhu. Of course, let it never be said I am not open to help whoever has a contract with the Velvet Room.” Igor, chilling the blood of the Phantom Thieves with a low grating chuckle, answered simply. “Oooh! I always wanted to see how you do that!” Futaba answered, excited. Snap! CLANG! With a simple snap of Igor’s fingers, the imposing guillotines used for the fusion of Personas appeared slamming down heavily on the floor. “D-D-Dude! Those are...” Ryuji asked, paling. “Guillotines...” Yusuke finished saying. “Ehm, if you feel faint, please do look away.” Morgana advised grimacing. “Everything is ready, have you selected the Persona you need and th ones you need to sacrifice?” Lavenza asked while handing Akira the thick compendium she was holding in her hands. “Uhm...This one please, Lavenza.” the young man answered once pointed at a particular name. “At once,” the tiny girl answered, and swiftly covering both ‘ingredients’ with the blue robe covering their body completely and turning them into shapeless squirming bundles. “...She is not going to...” Haru begged, looking particularly blue on her face. “So it seems.” Makoto answered, scared by Igor’s unmoving smile. “Why there is a picture of my face taped on the head of one of those things?!” Ann asked roaring, only making Lavenza’s smile grow a couple inch in width. Tac! Swoooooooooosh! CLAAAANG! “Kyaaaaah!” Haru jumped in fright as soon as the blade fell down decapitating the two bundles, especially scared by the high pitched girlish scream of fear Ryuji let-out at the same time. “…Sorry.” the blond boy said in embarrassment as soon as everybody in the room looked at him in surprise. “Akira, you are looking bored, how many times did you do this?” Yusuke asked, a bit disturbed by the untroubled expression of their ‘Leader’ that simply thanked Lavenza and fused the new Persona to his Phantom Thief Mask. “A couple dozen times.” Akira answered with a shrug. “The exact amount of Fusions is 1237.” Igor supplied, evidently amused by the horrified expressions he got in answer. “...Sometimes it’s hard to decide what Persona to bring with us in a Palace...Other times is just a matter of ‘Freeing Space’ in my inventory just in case we meet a new Persona.” Akira explained. “THAT. WAS. AWESOOOOME!” Futaba declared amazed. “Want to try making a Fusion yourself?” Lavenza asked. “OOOH! CAN I?! CAN I?!” Futaba asked back, almost salivating. “...Fifty Yen say she will work here as an Intern once we have done with Celestia...” Morgana said sighing. “No bet.” everybody else answered. Chapter finally over! Thank you for reading this one too!