//------------------------------// // Trouble in Tokyo // Story: The Equestrian Hero's Call: Homecoming // by Genis94 //------------------------------// Princess Luna descended from the stairs of the private jet following her sister and the other Equestrians. Celestia looked at her sister with an uncertain expression. "Are you sure Robert is going to enjoy it here?" She asked her younger sibling. Luna chuckled at the question. "Please, dear sister, I'm his girlfriend. Of course I'm certain of it." "He didn't seem to react at all the entire time we traveled from Brazil to here." "I'm sure he was just letting it sink in." Luna assured. "Either way, this is new territory for all of us, so we need to conduct ourselves appropriately." Celestia instructed. That's when I burst from the doorway of the jet with the dumbest looking grin ever. "Konichiwa Japan!" I shouted in unbridled joy, jumping down the stairs and dancing around hugging Luna and the others. Celestia facepalmed and shook her head. "So much for proper conduct..." "He seems happy." Fluttershy admired. Twilight rolled her eyes at her winged friend. "What gave you that impression?" She snarked. Pinkie Pie giggled. "I like him like this! He's so happy and jumpy!" Octavia tugged on my sleeve to get my attention. "I hate to ruin your moment, but I believe we aren't here as tourists." I sighed as I remembered our mission. "Man, I wish we didn't have to deal with this kind of crap." I turned to my lovely girlfriend. "So where is he now?" "Based on the map I looked at on the flight over, I think he's in the Shinjuku district of the city called Tokyo." I rubbed my chin thoughtfully. "Walking to there from here will take too long... Maybe we can take a train there?" I suggested. "Sounds like a plan to me." Applejack responded. "Which way's the station?" I noticed a sign that had a train picture placed on it, so I assumed it was down the street. On the way I stopped as I came to a sudden realization. "What's wrong?" Celestia asked. "I just realized there's a major flaw in this plan." "And that is?" Twilight asked. "I have no idea how to speak or read Japanese." I admitted. A chorus of groans were my response from the group. I lowered my head in shame. "You would think with all of that anime and those Japanese video games you would have picked up on a decent amount of their language." Twilight chided. "Well, excuse me for not being able to learn another language! I only know a few words and phrases, like baka." I directed the last word at her. "And what does that mean?" "Studious one." I lied. Twilight seemed rather proud of the title. "Yes, and this baka has a solution to the problem." "You do?" I asked in disbelief. Her horn began to glow and it's aura began to envelope us all. I could feel a buzzing in the back of my head, but that faded fairly quickly. "What spell did you just cast?" I asked. "A translation spell. It takes anything we hear or see and translates it into a language we're familiar with. It also has the added benefit of allowing us to speak the local language." Twilight smiled and pointed to me. "Try saying that word again." "Idiot." I said. I blinked as I realized what had just happened. "Whoa! It really translated it!" Twilight began fuming at me. "You mean you called me an idiot?!" "Well, you kinda called yourself an idiot too..." I defended. "Only because you tricked me!" "Settle down, Twilight. We have more important things to deal with." Celestia interrupted. "Yeah, let's get on the train and check out this town!" Vinyl cheered. Boy was she in for a surprise. -------- "This city is ginormous!" Pinkie beamed. "Th-there's so many people..." Fluttershy nervously winced. "Is that a cafe?" Octavia asked. She frowned for a moment. "It seems the waitresses are getting a few leers from some of the men." "Forget that boring old place, Octy. Check out that arcade!" Vinyl said. She shivered with delight as she listened closely. "Oh man, I can hear the music from here. So electronic..." That was the reaction from the girls. I on the other hand... "Holycrapthisisawesome!I'minJapanandnowI'minShinjukuTokyo!" Yeah... It was mostly me repeating that and hyperventilating as we walked down the street. Soon enough we stopped in the middle of the street in a busy section of the district, with Luna looking around frantically. "I don't understand... Astral's magic is coming from right here!" "Maybe he moved?" I suggested. Luna shook her head. "Impossible. The concentration of magic here is too dense. He has to be around here somewhere..." *Rmmmble* The ground began to shake slightly, causing Fluttershy to immediately become alarmed. "W-what's going on?!" "It may be an earthquake." I suggested. "They are fairly common in Japan." *Rmmmble!* The shaking returned again, but much more violent. "I don't think that was aftershock..." Celestia nervously said. I began looking around for any sign of a monster similar to the one from Brazil. I began to grow more panicked when I couldn't spot anything. "This is insane! Not even the Tokyo skyscrapers can hide something this big!" *Crunch!* A loud thud reverberated as the truth hit me like a sack of bricks. "It's not above ground!" "Everyone run! Now!" I shouted. A few of the locals took my advice and fled along with the Equestrians, while some too confused to realize what was happening stood by. "Dammit! I said-" *BOOM!* Suddenly a massive eight headed and tailed snake with pure black skin and glowing red markings and eyes burst from the earth, roaring with fury. Anyone who hadn't been convinced to leave before was now sprinting for any immediate escape. I drew my weapons as I realized this battle would be extremely difficult. "It's bad enough that this thing is this massive! How am I supposed to fight when it can attack from eight directions at once?!" I was driven from my thoughts as one of the heads dove straight for me. In a split second decision, I jumped above the head and ran along the neck. Another head barreled straight for me, ready to take a bite. I jumped just high enough to avoid the teeth, but the head itself smashed into me, sending me into a nearby building. I quickly recovered and dove to the side of a third head trying to make a meal of me, slashing it's face along the way. I ran for the window and dove outside, sending a light slash at the form of the beast. The impact managed to make it stumble, but only for a moment. I used the opportunity to transform my sword and shield into Hallowed Light. The beast roared with all eight of it's heads in challenge, and I smirked as I found the confidence to taunt the beast. "You know, for a being with eight heads, you're even dumber than you look! And that breath!" I waved my hand in front of my nose in mock disgust. "Ever hear of breath mints?" I'm guessing the monster understood Japanese considering the fact it looked even more pissed off. However, as it made to attack me again... *Zap! Zap! Zap!* A trio of blue colored energy blasts pelted the monster, causing it to wince in pain. I knew that magic all too well. "Luna?" "It looked like you needed help, so I snuck off from the group." She explained. I could see that it was pointless trying to convince her to stay out of the fight. "Fine, just stay back and keep me covered." I charged forward and used a series of shadow platforms to jump above the nearest head that was charging at me. As I predicted, it was stunned by a blast from Luna, giving me the opportunity to land a downward thrust into it's neck. The giant orochi roared in rage before tossing me off of it, using another head in an attempt to crush me. I was bought an extra second to dodge thanks to another blast from the Princess, scoring a small slash as I dove away. The orochi had finally caught wise to the second threat, and sent a head on a direct course to consume Luna. "No!" I cried. I froze time to give myself an opportunity to move her out of the way, seeing that it would be futile to try and block such a powerful attack. My head began to feel dizzy as I closed the distance, but I kept on moving, my only thought being to save Luna. Just as time began to resume. I pushed Luna out of the path of the monster. "Robert!" I tried to jump out of the way myself, but the monster's teeth caught my coat. It tossed me high into the air, ready to catch me for a snack. I closed my eyes as my options had run out. -------- From Luna's perspective "Robert!" I cried out as I realized I had been pushed out of the path of this monstrosity by the one I loved. He tried to jump towards me to save himself as well, but the coat he wore allowed the beast to catch hold of him. He was tossed high into the air to make him easy prey by the multi-headed monster. I tried to teleport him, tried to levetate him away, but in my dazed state I couldn't focus long enough before... *Chomp!* With a heart tearing sound, the head that had tossed him into the air bit down with a satisfied grin, swallowing him afterwards. I collapsed to my knees, unable to fight the surge of emotions that flooded my mind. "No... Please... Not again!" I sobbed as I mourned the loss of the only one I had ever truly loved. The monster seemed ready to make another addition to his meal, but I was too overcome by grief to care about my own safety. *Splutch!* -------- You know, in my situation, most people would have likely flailed or spread eagled to try and slow the fall into the mouth of a giant monster. I'm not sure if what I did was incredibly brave, or just really stupid, but I actually tucked my limbs in to try and speed past the closing mouth of the monster. On that note, I did avoid having my head chomped off by a few inches, and even spread eagled to stop my decent into the stomach, but now I was stuck. I would either lose my holding and fall into the stomach acids, or the air would grow to thin and I would pass out, following that course a slightly different way. The only illumination I had was held on a small chain around my neck. It was the pendant that Luna gave me for my birthday. "Luna...!" "No... Please... Not again!" A voice cried. I recognized it as the very woman who had given me the pendant, and something snapped in the back of my mind. *Splutch!* I thrust my sword into the throat of the monster, sliding down to create a larger opening. "I..." I cut the passage wider. "Am not..." I thrust forward with a sickening slash. "YOUR FOOD!!!" I shouted at the monster. The head of the monster that had eaten me was now flailing around in agony, it's blood pouring out of the large hole I made in it's throat. And for some reason, I relished at the sight. "What's the matter? Having trouble swallowing?" I taunted. I could see a blood red aura glow around my sword as it transformed into an odd sword that had a teardrop shaped hole near the hilt, which was devoid of a hilt guard. The hole began to fill with the red aura, and I could feel empowered as I felt my sadistic side take over. Another head made a charge straight towards me. I smirked as I tossed my blade into the air, jumping after it. Once I caught this new sword, I cleaved it straight down, cutting the head cleanly off of the monster. "Two down..." I glared at the beast with an unnerving grin. "Six to go!" The beast was now beginning to understand fear, as it tried to overwhelm me with three heads at once. I cleaved down the middle of the head that came from above, cutting it cleanly in half and blocking the other two heads from immediately attacking. I spun in a circle, directing an energy ring around me that cut into the other two heads, destroying the brains. The remaining three heads were truly terrified, now turning to try and flee. Their movements were clumsy with all the dead weight. "Time to end this..." I jumped into the air and used my power to freeze time, slashing away at the giant monster. I have no Idea how many cuts I made before releasing the spell, and frankly I don't care. The end result was what I could only describe as meaty chunks falling to the ground. "Ha ha ha..." "Robert..." "Ha ha ha ha ha!" I laughed. "Robert, please!" Suddenly the other voice registered to me, and I felt my rage disappear. My blade returned to the separate forms of sword and shield, and I looked at what I had accomplished with it. "I... I did this?" I felt a pair of arms wrap around me, and I heard sobbing. "You can stop. It's over now." "Luna..." I hugged Luna closely to me, sorry that she had to see any of this. "Luna! So this is where you were!" Celestia shouted at her sister. "Sister! I..." "I don't want to hear it. You put yourself, and Robert in danger with this stunt. You're lucky that both of you are alive right now!" "Hey, she helped me out Celestia, so just back off!" I shouted. "Excuse me?" I may have been talking to the deity of the sun, but I wasn't going to stand for her yelling at Luna like that. "I was barely holding my own against the monster without her, so she saved my life just now!" "You can tell me all about that once we find accommodations. We'll have to stay the night here so the plane can refuel. And I believe Jack said one of the instruments required maintenance." "Fine. Where did you have in mind?" -------- I'll give Celestia this, she certainly has great taste in hotels. It wasn't one of those hotels in the city, but rather one of those more traditional Japanese inns complete with a hotspring. And if there was one thing we all agreed on, we wanted to try bathing in it. "I see... So in your rage you created some new form for your weapon?" Celestia asked as I finished going over what happened during the fight. "Yeah. I'm not sure how exactly that happened, but it was powerful. Maybe it might even be enough to stop Astral." "No. Absolutely not." Luna interjected. "What?! But the Berserker Blade saved both of us back there! You of all people-" "Should understand the risks of using dark magic. I'm worried that if you use that again, your mind will be consumed by the blood lust. You'll cease to be who you are." I sighed in defeat. Luna was right, the risk was too steep. "Well, I should be joining the girls. I'm curious to see what these hotsprings are like." Celestia said as she went for the nearby sliding door, taking a white bottle with her. "Wait, is that a bottle of sake?" I asked, recognizing the bottle from just about any anime that had an obligatory hotspring episode. "Why yes, it is. It's legal for them to drink at their current age in this country. And we won't have to worry about Spike since he's already gone to bed." "Alright, just take it easy with that stuff. I hear it's pretty strong." I warned. "Are you coming, Luna?" Celestia asked her younger sister. "I believe I will enjoy the spring later. You go on ahead." "I think I'll wait too. I want to go and check out the sushi bar." I added. With that, the three of us went our separate ways. -------- I don't think I've ever mentioned how much I love sushi. Sure, raw fish may not seem appetizing, but it is delicious. After having my fill, I decided to finally head for the hotsprings. It was pretty late by now, so I had the fortune of no one else being on the male side of the springs. "Ahh. Peace and quiet." The springs were the most relaxing experience I had ever had in my life. The soothing waters made me sink in and I did not want to get out. I looked up and saw a beautiful night sky thanks to the fact we were a fair distance from the Tokyo lights. "I wonder how Luna liked the springs." I wondered aloud. "H-huh?!" I turned at the sound of a familiar voice. It wasn't coming from the male side of the spring, so I looked over at where the wall dividing the two halves was, assuming Luna was listening from the other side. "I didn't realize you were still in the spri-" I stopped mid-sentence because I had just made a very important discovery. The wall that was supposed to be there to divide the male and female halves of the spring was gone. What's more, Luna was sitting just a few feet away, with her cheeks as red as hot coals. "EEEEEEEEEEEK!" She screamed at a volume that rivaled the Royal Canterlot Voice. I was temporarily stunned by my eardrums ringing, but once I recovered my immediate concern was leaving. Now! "I'm sorry! I'll just-" As I was making for my escape, Luna trapped me in a levitation aura. "Oh, c'mon! Not fair!" I was now helpless as Luna was ready to either berate me or pummel me for catching her under these kinds of circumstances. All the while I was waiting for Celestia and the others to break through the slide doors in a panic. "W-what are you doing in here?!" She asked as she clutched her towel to her chest. "I was bathing in the springs!" "On the female side?!" "I was on the male side! The wall separating them is gone!" "Did you have anything to do with that?" "Why would I?!" I was now seriously confused. "Where the hell is Celestia? Didn't she hear you scream?" Luna's eyes widened as she took notice to this as well. "That is odd... Wait! Don't try and change the subject!" My eyes darted around for anything that could aid in my escape. I didn't find anything. However, something about the missing wall caught my interest. "Hey, is that a scorch mark on that stone where the wall was?" Luna looked at said stone. "It is. It looks like it was made by..." "Magic." We both deadpanned in unison. Luna released me from my telekinetic prison, as we had both come to the same conclusion. "Drunk Celestia?" I asked. "Drunk Celestia." Luna answered as she facepalmed with the biggest blush on her face. "I-I'm sorry. I-I just assumed..." "It's fine." I assured her. An awkward silence filled the gap between us, and I tried to look for a conversation topic. "So... are you enjoying the springs?" "Yes." Luna quickly answered. More silence. I realized it was probably best for me to leave. "I-I should go." "Wait. There is something I wanted to talk about." Luna said. "Uh, sure. What is it?" I asked. "Well... I've been thinking about... us." Luna began. "A-and?" I nervously asked. "I... I'm not sure what to say. I-I feel like I'm thinking too quickly, that I'm rushing this, but every time I see you fight... I keep thinking about how I could lose you. I want to experience things I've never felt before, things only you can do." Her blush intensified the further she spoke about this. "Luna... Are you asking me to...?" "These battles could be our final moments, but I don't want to spend them surrounded by bloodshed. I want to spend them loving you." Overcome by my love for her, I passionately kissed Luna. "I feel exactly the same way, Luna. No matter what the outcome, I want you to know how much you mean to me before the end of this conflict. I don't want things to go unsaid, actions to be left undone." I began disrobing her. "And if you're my first, then I'd be the happiest man alive." -------- I awoke the next morning on my bed in the Inn with Luna next to me. I turned over to her and smiled. "Good morning, my Princess." Luna pecked me on the cheek. "And good morning to you as well." "So, how was it for you?" I asked. "The best experience of my life." "Sorry if I hurt you, what with it being your first time too..." "I could bear any pain for you." She responded with another peck on the cheek. "Well, we'd better meet the others so that we can all get to the airport." I said as I began dressing myself. Later... "Ow... I'm sorry I ever made a fuss about not being able to drink..." Vinyl whined. "I can't believe Fluttershy drank us all under the table..." Rainbow Dash moaned as she fought back the urge to vomit. Fluttershy surprisingly seemed to be doing just fine. "Um, Celestia? I wanted to ask why you decided to blow up the wall between the two baths and place a sound dampening spell there." Celestia was rubbing her head in pain. "I did that? Why on earth would I think that was a good idea?" "Maybe you were trying to prank Robert and Luna?" Pinkie suggested. "Speaking of which..." Celestia turned to the two of us. "Why do you two look so happy?" We both chuckled before answering in unison. "That's a secret."