//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: More Than Just A Figure // by Undertotem //------------------------------// Sho opened his eyes and the first thing he saw was blinding white, so as soon as he opened his eyes he immediately closed them and groaned as he put both hands to cover his eyes. Nani that fuck just just happened?? He thought to himself. after slowly opening his eyes and slowly moving his hands away from his face, his eyes adjusted to the blinding white that he is in. Once his eyes fully adjusted in the light, he took his time looking around. He noticed that everywhere he looked, the only thing he could see was white. He still wore the same clothes he had, so that's something. But as a few seconds turn into a few minutes, he started to feel nervous, and was bout to freak out. "Where the hell am I!?!?" He yelled questioningly at nothing. He waited for a response, but got nothing in return. His left eye twitched a little, then he looked down. Soon a faint chuckling could be heard from him, then it turned into a full blown hysterical laughter, then "AAAAUUUUGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!" he screamed as he held his head with both hands. "WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?!?! WHERE THE FUCK AM I!?!?"He yelled as he looked around fanatically, and when he couldn't take it any more, he yelled to the top of his lungs and started to run. That is, until he was hit on the head by a hand and he fell, face first on the "ground". "WOULD YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!!" A voice yelled as Sho was hit on the head by the owner of the hand. *GAH!* "Nande watashi!?! Why the hell did you do that?!?!" Sho yelled as he held the top of his head with both hands. He then looked behind him, only to see a woman with red wavy hair, with laurel around her head, and wore a white toga, as well as looking at him with and annoyed glare. "The hell you say to me kid, wanna' kindly repeat what you said, I didn't hear you." She said as she gripped his head with her right hand and lifted him up eye level. "Aaaaaaaatatatatatatatata!!!! AAAhhhhhh, it hurts, it hurts, I'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorry." Sho said as he felt his head being crushed by the hand of the woman. The woman then unceremoniously dropped Sho, then put her left hand to her face and sighed to herself as she heard Sho whimper in the pain he's feeling. "Okay, look, lets restart things. Things are better to understand when both of us aren't angry, or freaking out, okay?" She asked Sho, and Sho nodded while still holding his head. "I will be direct with you Furoato Sho. As of now you are dead." The woman said to Sho who was sitting with her infront of a table, face to face. "Your cause of death was via explosion, that happened in your apartment, when the fire from the candle you lit, lit up the gas fumes that were in the air." She said with a straight face. Sho on the other hand had wide eyes and was shocked at the direct message sent. "O-oi oi, you must be joking right, please tell me that this is a joke." He said with a small laugh, but then his face turned to horror when he saw the woman shake her head. His mouth then closed and his face turned to "normal", but in his eyes, sadness would be seen. And after a few seconds of contemplating, he then closed his eyes, took a deep breath, then opened them and looked at the woman. "Well, nothing I could do about it, *sigh*, well right now, who are you, are you god, and what's about to happen to me?" Sho asked the woman as he looked into her forest green eyes. "Well as for the first question, my name is Lauren Faust, for the second question, yes I am god, but not the god that you know of back on Earth. He was to busy dealing with other people and souls and I found you first. And for the last question, I plan to reincarnate you." Faust said with a smile, as Sho looked at her with a confused face. "N-nani????" Was all Sho could say as he stared at her. "W-wait, so I get to be reincarnated again, back in my world?" He asked with a small spark of hope. "Nope, sorry, I can't do that, by the law of the created universe, I can't resurrect a soul that I have no domain over. As I said I'm a god, but a god of a different universe, and not your universe. Your soul just happened to pop out uninvited in my domain, so I decided to take you in. I can't reincarnate you in your universe, because I didn't make it, but what I can do is to reincarnate you in my universe, and live a different life than the one you have previously." She said in a matter-of-factly tone of voice. Meanwhile Sho was shocked hearing this, not only that, the small spark of returning home vanished instantly after hearing the news. Sho was about to ask Faust something, but he was then cut off by her speaking once more. "And I have also decided on what to reincarnate you into, and as to what to give you as well." She said. "When I was looking through your memories, I was most intrigued with the concept of warrior that you have created. His name was "Ballista" wasn't it? Another strong character in my world is always fascinating to observe." She said Sho. Sho was surprised at what she said, then his face then turned into skepticism as he thought about what she said, sure being "Balista" was great, since he was inspired to go to the dojos of his home town just to learn martial arts, as well as look for martial arts facilities in the US. But he didn't like the fact that he was going to be turned into a living stick person. "Wait, so you're going to turn me into a living stick man how would that even work? And If you're looking for strong characters, then why not get the other "sticks"? You know like Steel Fist, with his mechanical arms, Jade, Shuiken, Gilded Guy, Yuipa, Jomm with his air compression katana, Yo-Yo with his Yo-Yo, One with his acid katana, Umbrella with his Hi-tech umbrella, there's alot of "sticks" out there, why me, I'm just a regular guy." He explained and asked. still confused as to why she was giving him this chance to be powerful. "Didn't you hear what I said a while ago, I didn't take you from your universe, you appeared in my universe, if I owned your world, it would have been easy to take warriors and put it in another world, but I can't, you are what I would call an irregular, since you just showed up in my universe. And as for the other question, no, of course not, you're not going to be turned into a "living stick man", you would be turned into one of us." She explained and saw that the boy visibly relax in his seat, but then stiffen as he heard her last few words. "W-wait, what do you mean one of us??"He said nervously, as he didn't know what he would turn into. "OH! Well, you would look similar to this!" She said excitedly as her body glowed and Sho had to cover his eyes at the blinding light. Once the light faded, Sho looked at the goddess Faust, only to see a strange mixture of a human and an equine, or more specifically, a horse that stood on two legs like a human would, with hands and arms as well as a horn on her forehead and wings behind her back. Sho was surprised, and as he looked closed he could have sworn he knew that facial structure somewhere, he just couldn't, pinpoint it. "N-nani???" He said as his eye twitched. "NANI THE FUCK ARE YOU?!?!" He yelled as he pointed a finger at the weird concoction of magical horse, human, and bird. He as no clue as to what kind of thing the one infront of him is. "For your information, I am what you would call a pony, an alicorn to be specific. Alicorns are basically the combination of all three pony tribes...." Faust said as she continues to explain what her species is, but Sho was obviously oblivious to the talking, as his mind tried to reboot itself. His thoughts was suddenly cut off when he saw a white hand napping infront of his face, trying to get his attention. "Hey, hey, did you listen to what I said?" Faust asked as she snapped her fingers infront of Sho's face. "H-huh? What?" He said. Faust sighed, and held her forehead with one hand while shaking her head lightly. "Okay, look, I'll just give you all the knowledge that you need and in order to fit in, when I reincarnate you. But, I have a request, when you do arrive in Equis. Could you befriend my daughters, I won't force you to do it, but when you do, please be their friend. I feel like they have gone so long without someone there to talk to them like a regular pony, like a friend. Especially poor Luna." Faust said, although she muttered the last part. She looked into Sho's eyes, looking for confirmation or any acknowledgement, as if pleading for her life. "Wait, wait, wait, knowledge? Daughters? What are you saying???" Sho asked, still confused as to what she was talking about since his mind was still picking itself up together, from when Faust showed him what she looked like. "*Sigh* It seems that I have no more time. I will be sending you know into the new world. I do hope that you enjoy your new home. As for my daughters, just keep in mind that they are both alicorns like me. I will talk to you soon when possible, as for now, good luck with the new life." She said. Then her horn lit up and her eyes glowed as she casts a spell, to transport the foreign soul into the new world. Sho then took a step back as he saw the horse thing float with glowing white eyes. Then for some reason, he felt like there was a force holding him still. Unable to move, he started to panic, as he saw white light that came from the creatures horn start to surround him. Seconds passed and his panic started to fade, replaced by a calm feeling, like somehow, he should just let things happen. His body started to transform and his clothes started to change as magic start to fill his entire body. Sho felt stronger by the second, his mind started to expand, as knowledge and information start to flow in his mind. Not only that, in the briefest moments, Sho could see images of himself, fighting different types of people, with different types of personalities, and different types of weapons and powers. Soon the transformation finished and Faust returned to the ground. But for Sho, he barely had enough time to react, as a bright light consumed him, and he began to enter a portal with a splash of different colors. And soon he found the "exit" of the portal, a white light at the end of a colorful tunnel. As he passed the white "exit" he was then dropped to the floor. "GHAH!!" He grunted as he fell face first to the floor. "Aaahhhhh!!!" "What the-!?!" A pair of voices were heard as a bright light appeared and something fell. Sho groaned as he pushed himself up and puts one hand on the side of his head. As he slowly stood up, he started to inspect the changes of his body. The fist thing he saw was that he was wearing a black "leather" hooded jacket and a dark blue shirt with a thick light blue stripe on the left side, and upon further inspection, there seemed to be fur at the edges of the jacket as well as around the edges of the hood. Underneath the leather sleeves he saw what looked like steel plated gauntlets. He tried to move it around, but he barely noticed weight in them, as if it was as light as a feather. When he tried to make his fists collide with each other, sparks came out from the sudden forceful contact. He then wore baggy denim pants, but as he looked closer, he saw that his feet were no longer feet. Instead they were rounded out, like a hoof. He wasn't shocked by this, since his mind was changed due to the information stuffed in him, to fit the world he was in. But he did feel something hugging his calves, and when he lift up one side of his pants, he saw what looked like black steel plated greaves, just like the gauntlets he was wearing. He then felt something hit his leg, and when he turned around to look at it he saw a cyan blue tail, he already expected this since he was turned into a pony. When he removed his hood, a few locks of hair went infront of his face, it also had the same color of his tail, cyan blue. He didn't have any horn or wings, so he guessed that he was an earth pony. Sho doesn't have a mirror with him, but he was pretty sure he was a tan colored pony now, since he was supposed to be reincarnated as his "stick man", who is also tan. He really wanted to freak out, but due to his mind being changed with various of information, knowledge, and memories, he just thought 'oh well, guess I'm like this now'. He was so focused in inspecting himself that he was completely oblivious to his surroundings. That is until a voice called to him stopping his train of thoughts. "Who are you you foolish COLT!?!? To interrupt me in my conquest to rule over Equestria?!?!" The voice asked yelling. Sho had to cover both his ears due to the sudden raise in volume. "Aahhh~, Chikushō~" Sho said as he rubbed his now new sensitive ears. "Aahh~, yare yare daze, you know, your too loud. Would you kindly just shut your mouth." He said as he raised both arms and shrugged at the black alicorn infront of him. "You dare insult me you FOAL?! I'll teach you a lesson and put your head on a spike when I'm finished with you!!!" The alicon said as she summoned a scythe that looked like a crescent moon. She then rushed forward towards the tan stallion and swung downwards. The impact of the weapon hitting the ground was enough to make a smokescreen made out of dust and debris. As this happened, a scream went out, that came from another pony that was in the room. "*Hump* A colt that's all talk and no action, I could almost pity you, almost." The black alicorn said, but then she was shocked as to see nothing there, not even a dead body, once the smoke cleared. Then a voice called out from behind the dark alicorn, "Force is meaningless without skill. If it's a fight you want, then It's a fight you'll get." The tan stallion said as he punches both his fists together. He then placed his right hand waist level, but slightly further from the waist, and his left fist near his right shoulder, then his body seemed to glow with what looks like white and black energy. "C'mon, Fight Me!!!"