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// The Straw Hats Arrive 
// Story: The Lost Swordsman 
// by Star Shadow 
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	“-fy! -uffy! Luffy! WAKE UP YOU IDIOT!” roared a familiar woman’s voice as Luffy was awoken by someone stepping on his head. The rubber captain groaned and opened his eyes to see a clear blue sky and trees above him. That much was normal but when Luffy saw an angry looking tan horse with an orange mane, a log pose strapped to her right fore hoof, and wings on her back glaring at him from above.
“YOSH! MEAT!” yelled Luffy as he sprung up and tried to take a bite out of the animal only for it to bash his head into the ground with its right front hoof.
"Don’t try to eat me you idiot!” yelled the orange maned mare.
“What!” roared a nearby blue stallion who had a familiar blonde mane and backwards curly eyebrow. “You tried to eat Nami-swan you Straw Hat bastard!”
“Fufufufu. Perhaps Luffy-san has suffered brain damage from his impact with that tree” wondered a deep purple coated and black maned mare who had a pair of sunglasses on her forehead that were held in place by a horn.
“Well he shouldn’t have shot himself through the portal so quickly” scolded Nami as she smushed her captain’s head further into the ground under her hoof. Said idiot had come out as a red coated and black maned stallion with his trade mark hat still on his head.
“Isn’t anyone freaked out that we’re all horses now!?” yelled a yellow coated and black maned stallion with their marksman’s hat on, goggles around his neck, and a pair of wings on his back.
“I believe we’re ponies Usopp-san” stated the purple mare.
"How can you be so calm about this Robin?” panicked Usopp.
“How come I didn’t changed?” asked Chopper who’d managed to keep his cute little reindeer appearance.
“Perhaps there aren’t any humans in this world so the portal re shaped our appearances to match this world’s inhabitants” theorized Robin.
“You’re so smart Robin-chwan!” praised the blue pony with hearts in his eyes.
“Shut up Sanji!” yelled Nami before she turned back to her best friend. “So you’re saying that the people who live in this world are all ponies?”
“Perhaps the dominant species yes” answered Robin.
Nami groaned at the news. “Let’s just hurry up and find that green haired idiot so we can head home before this place gives me a head ache.”
“Are you guys sure that the portal won’t close before we find him?” asked Usopp, looking over his shoulder at the black hole that floated next to a nearby pond. 
“I’m sure it’s fine Usopp” said Nami as she began trotting off towards a nearby dirt path with this others following her. “Now come on, he’d only been here for two hours so he couldn’t have gotten too far.”
“Especially with moss head’s sense of direction” stated Sanji.
“MEAT!” shouted Luffy, who’d just awoken from his unconsciousness and sprang towards Usopp.
“Ahhhh!” screamed Usopp as he ran away from his captain towards his friends. “No Luffy, don’t eat me please! I don’t taste good!”
- Meanwhile, at a nearby woodland cottage.
A beautiful melodic humming was heard as a familiar yellow pegasus was watering her flower bed. The pink maned pegasus still couldn’t believe how much had changed and everypony’s lives had improved ever since Twilight, sorry, Princess Twilight Sparkle came to Ponyville ten years ago. She made best friends, discovered how to be brave (well a little more than before at least), and even rediscovered her past fillyhood friendship with, her beloved marefriend of three years and wife of the past year, Rainbow Dash. Speaking of the rainbow maned mare, Fluttershy was currently excitedly awaiting her return from her Wonderbolts track meet in Cloudsdale so they could go to the castle together and join their friends for their monthly dinner party. Of course, it’s not as if she hasn’t seen any of her friends in the past month this was just a little tradition that they came up with so they would never drift apart if they all suddenly became super busy.
A loud crash suddenly sounded right behind Fluttershy, effectively scaring her into hiding in a nearby pond where some of her fish friends were living. She tried to apologize to them but then found that she could breathe so she shot back up to the surface and into a settling dust cloud. The yellow mare sunk into the water as far as she could while still being able to breath in hopes of hiding from whatever caused the crash when she heard a voice. “Yes! I managed to cut a whole two minutes off my traveling time between here and Cloudsdale!” cheered the voice. “Who’s the fastest pony in Equestria? This mare right here is who!”
“Um, Rainbow” whispered Fluttershy between coughs from the still clearing dust.
“Uh huh, that’s right! Who’s the greatest!?” celebrated the rainbow mare, still not noticing her wife’s presence.
“Dashie?” called Fluttershy.
“I wonder where Shy is? She has to see how much cooler her wife has gotten since we saw each other last time. Shy! Where are you!” called Rainbow Dash.
“I’m right here Dashie” answered Fluttershy softly as she place a hoof on her, turned around, special somepony’s shoulder making the other pegasus jump.
“Hey, easy there Shy” said Rainbow Dash turning around and taking off her Wonderbolts issue goggles. “Sneaking up on somepony like that could give them a heart attack you know. I mean not me obviously, but anypony less awesome would’ve probably passed out.”
“I’m sorry” whispered Fluttershy, hiding behind her mane in shame.
“Aww, don’t worry about it Shy” calmed Rainbow as she pressed a kiss to her wife’s forehead. “Like I said it was me this time and I’m too awesome to scare so there’s no reason to apologize.” Seeing the shy pony nod caused Rainbow to chuckle. “Hey, I saw Rarity’s train coming in from Manehattan so why don’t we head over to the station after I change out of my uniform and meet her when she gets off?”
“Ok” agreed Fluttershy as she began coming out from behind her mane.
“Cool” said Rainbow as she gave her wife a quick nuzzle before heading into their cottage. She still missed living in her cloud mansion but was glad that she was able to give it to Scootaloo rather than have to buck it apart. She chuckled at the memory of how ecstatic the little orange filly was when her hero gave her old home to her. ‘She might be as old as Rainbow was ten years ago but she hasn’t changed at all since her fillyhood’ thought the cyan pegasus before she shut the door to the cottage behind her.
Fluttershy sighed happily and smiled at the mare she’d managed to end up with when she heard distant voices behind her and turned towards her backyard’s trail into the nearby forest where they were coming from. “This is so boring Nami!” whined a loud male voice.
“Shut up you idiot! We’ve only been walking for a few minutes so quit whining!” yelled a mare’s voice.
“Fufufu!” Perhaps Luffy-san is simply hungry” suggested a tall purple mare as she stepped out of the forest beside a red stallion with a straw hat on, a tanned mare with an orange mane, a yellow stallion with a sun cap on his head, a light blue stallion with his bang covering up one of his eyes and a backwards curly eyebrow over his revealed eye, and a short, adorable.
“REINDEER!” gasped Fluttershy as she flew herself over to the group and wrapped it up in her hooves. “Oh he’s so adorable! I’ve never seen a reindeer who’s able to walk on their back two legs before and look at that helmet it looks so cute on your tiny head!”
“Fluttershy, what’s going on I heard you scream!?” yelled Rainbow as she shot out of the cottage to see her wife surrounded by some weird looking ponies. “Hey, get away from her!” yelled Rainbow, who then flew down between her yellow mare and the strangers.
“Ahhhh, a wild animal!” screamed the goggle wearing stallion.
“Yosh, finally meat!” cheered the red stallion as he tried to bit Rainbow before he was smacked into the ground by the tanned pegasus beside him.
“You idiot! These guys might know where Zoro is!” scolded the orange maned mare before she turned to Rainbow and Fluttershy, who was still hugging a struggling Chopper. “Have either of you seen a large ma-I mean, stallion with light green hair and a scar across his left eye come through here?”
“He also carries a white sheathed sword and has a large scar across his chest as well as two on his back ankles” continued Robin.
“Plus he’s an irritable idiot with no sense of direction” calmly added Sanji.
Rainbow narrowed her eyes. ‘Why would these six be looking for Tri-blade?’ she wondered before she suddenly remembered something. ‘Wait a second? Are these his crewmates he told us about?’
- Flashback, five years ago.
The Mane Six, Spike, Shining Armor, Cadance, and Luna were all gathered in the throne room of Canterlot Castle awaiting Celestia and Tri-blade who’d called them there for an important meeting. “Aunt Luna, do you have any idea why we’re here?” asked Cadance, a little concerned that the news might be about something dangerous.
“I’m afraid that I’ve been kept in the dark as well” answered Luna.
“Ah’m sure it’s fine” calmed Applejack. “There was nothin’ in their letter sayin’ otherwise.”
“Applejack’s right” agreed Twilight, walking up to the group. “We’ve received plenty of urgent letters from Princess Celestia in the past and this didn’t seem to be like them.”
It was then that the room’s large doors opened and the ponies that they’d been waiting for walked in. “Thank you for coming everypony. It’s wonderful to see you all” said Celestia with a smile.
“So what’s going on Princess? Is Chrysalis back? What about Sombra? Now that Tri-blade’s not away on a negotiation Tirek shouldn’t be a problem if he broke out of Tartarus again” asked Rainbow Dash.
“Calm down Rainbow before you give me a head ache” growled Zoro.
“Well somepony’s grumpy today” stated Rarity.
Celestia giggled and nuzzled the stallion next to her. “I apologize everypony but Tri-blade was kept up late last night by a certain cranky foal.”
“But don’t you two have a foal sitter to watch her at night?” asked Shining Armor.
“We did but unfortunately she only calms down around us and Luna” answered Celestia.
“That’s not why we asked you all to come here though” stated Zoro, getting a little annoyed that they were getting off subject.
“So what is your purpose for this meeting then?” asked Luna.
“I’ve been hiding a secret from all of you ever since we’ve met” Zoro bluntly said.
Pinkie gasped. “A secret! I love secrets! Are we starting a secret club!? Can I go first!? My first name’s actually Pinkamena! I really don’t like lemons. I’m banned in four cities.”
“Pinkie this ain’t a” Applejack started then stopped. “Wait, yer banned in four cities?”
“We can talk about that later darling” said Rarity pointing a hoof at Tri-blade. “It appears as if he’s about to gain that head ache he mentioned earlier.”
“So what’s the secret?” asked Twilight.
Zoro sighed. “I’m not actually from the same world as you all. In fact, I’m not even a pony. My real name is Roronoa Zoro, I’m a swordsman and the first mate of a pirate crew.”
Rainbow laughed. “You’re kidding right?”
“Um, Rainbow, I don’t think he is” whispered Fluttershy.
“I’m not joking” stated Zoro, bracing himself for the long story/migraine inducing story.
- Two hours later
“And when I woke up I was in some forest next to a pond and was a horse instead of a human” finished Zoro. He really didn’t want to tell anypony his past but Celestia was insistent about him at least telling the ponies who were closest to him.
To say everypony was shocked was an understatement and if it hadn’t been for the detail and unwavering in his voice as he spoke they wouldn’t have believed him. Luna was the first to recover and speak. “Well that was certainly a story but not unbelievable. I always thought you were rather odd to be a pony of Equestria considering you don’t have many emotions other than anger. Not to mention that you’re the only pony I’ve ever met who hasn’t sung once” stated the night princess.
“And I’m never going to” growled Zoro. “EVER.”
- Present
Rainbow was brought out of her thoughts by the new group of ponies fighting with and yelling at each other while the dark purple unicorn and Fluttershy watched the small reindeer dance around blushing. ‘They’re defiantly weird enough to be from Zoro’s world. I better take them to Twilight before I say anything though’ concluded Rainbow Dash. She might still be hot blooded and prideful but being a captain of the Wonderbolts certainly helped Rainbow Dash to think clearer when she needed to. “Hey everypony!” she called to the group causing them to quiet down. “I think I have a pretty good idea of who you’re looking for but I’m gonna have to take you to our Princess first.”
“Princess-chwan!” shouted the dark blue stallion with hearts in his eyes and a look on his face that made Rainbow cringe. 
‘Yeah, he’s definitely not from Equestria’ thought Rainbow before she started leading the new obnoxious group of ponies towards Ponyville, or more specifically, her friend’s crystal castle. ‘I just hope Twilight will be able to figure this out.’