//------------------------------// // Chapter 5-Fitting in // Story: Baldy, Girly and Yachiru in Equestria // by Skiddlez //------------------------------// Keigo Asano was enjoying himself for the first time in weeks. Yesterday, Ikkaku and Yumichika had failed to turn up, covered in blood, and demanding he give them his bed and home. His sister had been her normal, grouchy, temperamental self and had yelled at him loudly to get to school. Mizuiro wasn’t ignoring him in lieu of his iPhone, which made Keigo suspicious that this was a dream. But even this small glory hadn’t been as good as his recent victory. When he had gone to school as per mandatory requirements, he had done his standard Ichigo tackle, all the while expecting to be brutally slammed into the ground. But no, Ichigo hadn’t reacted at all. He, Keigo, had tackled Ichigo successfully. He was silent for all of five seconds. ‘ICHIGO! HAH! THE GREAT KEIGO HAS TACKLED YOU, YEAH! THIS IS MY DREAM EVER SINCE I FOUND OUT YOU WERE AN EGGHEAD! WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY FOR YOURSELF, HUH?!” “Oh, hey Keigo, I didn’t see you.” Now that Keigo got a closer look at Ichigo, he looked in really rough shape. His eyes had large black circles underneath them, he was walking a bit more delicately than usual and he seemed slower. Keigo reached the obvious conclusion. “ICHIGO! YOU WERE ABDUCTED BY ALIENS, WEREN’T YOU? OH NO, ICHIGOS’ GOT AN ALIEN PROBE UP HIS ASS!” “SHUT UP, KEIGO! IF YOU MUST KNOW, I WAS UP ALL NIGHT FIGHTING MY IDIOT DAD!” “Oh. You should’ve just said that.” Mizuiro chose to contribute his part to the conversation. “Well, what was it this time?” Ichigo sighed before continuing. “If you really want to know, my idiot dad decided that my new ‘advanced’ training requires me to fight him for a whole night. I haven’t slept all night out of fear of my dad! Happy now?” Mizuiro just turned on his iPhone. “Ichigo, you and your father are one of a kind.” Keigo was watching. ‘If you were up all night, then… I STILL TACKLED YOU!” Mizuiro just glared at him. ‘He was awake all night, and you only care about that?” Just as they were ready to argue loudly at each other, Kenpachi happened. There is no other phrase in the universe to describe Kenpachi’s epic entrance. Keigo looked at this guy, who looked like a shaved bear in terror, while Mizuiro merely uploaded a video of the destruction of the surrounding area onto YouTube. “Hey, you’re Keigo, aren’t you?” Keigo started quivering. IT KNOWS MY NAME! “Oh, god, if this is your divine retribution for my misdemeanours, I apologize profusely!” Kenpachi looked momentarily confused before picking up Keigo and Mizuiro. “OH GOD HE’S GOING TO RAPE US! HELP US, ICHIGO!” Ichigo merely shrugged. “Whatever. Have fun, Keigo.” Keigo could only scream before being dragged off by Kenpachi. Keigo’s sister, Mizuho, was busy studying until a loud scream, which sounded like her idiot brother, filled her ears. Storming over to the window, she was blessed with the strangest sight she had ever seen. Keigo and his friend Mizuiro were flying through the air at high speeds, apparently being dragged by their pants forwards. What the hell? “WHERE ARE WE GOING?” “Alright, where did you last see Ikkaku and Yumichika?” “You’re looking for them? Last I heard of them, they were going through this gate in the sky.” Keigo briefly considered asking to be let down, but decided against it. “Alright, let’s go!” Kenpachi started down the hall, only to lift Keigo up. “Which way do I go?” “You’re kidding… right?” Kenpachi just looked at him, before walking back the way they came. “Hey, turn around! The door went the other way.” “Alright.” Kenpachi twirled around and walked the correct way this time. What did I get myself into this time? Dear diary, I’m in the afterlife. After walking through twenty walls, Mr Giant opened some sort of doorway in the air! THAT IS TOTALLY SWEET! Mizuiro’s just texting everyone he can to see if he’s still got reception They have reception in the afterlife. That. IS. AWESOME. Keigo jolted out of his thoughts when he heard the giant walk through into a creepy lab place. A creepy guy with no fashion sense rushed up and started talking in a wheedling tone. “Ah, Kenpachi, I was expecting you-“ “Cut your crap. Get my men and Yachiru back, or I’ll kill you.” Keigo would’ve objected, but Mr Scientist looked like he’d do the same. ‘I know where they are. They’re in an alternate dimension.” “Did Yachiru break the dimensional fabric again?” “I’m still not completely sure what happened, but let’s try to work to get there, shall we?” Keigo shuddered. As soon as he could, he was running away from Mr Scientist and his lolicon grin. The new ponies and Rainbow Dash made their way to the rest of town; Fluttershy had declined to go because she apparently had a headache. Rainbow Dash could see why. Yachiru was flying around with a lot of enthusiasm, and was busy making ‘whee’ sounds. Rainbow Dash turned her attention to the two colts. “So, are you colt friends?” “NO!” Ikkaku was the hot-blooded type, and Yumichika was the effeminate type, so she’d sort off guessed that they were romantically involved. Says the mare that’s referred to as a ‘filly fooler’. ‘Who looks after Yachiru, then?” Yachiru focused on Rainbow Dash. “Ken-Chan does, Dashy!” “Who’s Ken-Chan?” Ikkaku and Yumichika were now looking at her strangely. “His full name is Kenpachi Zaraki, and he’s the strongest man where we come from. We’re his subordinates.” “So, you’re military. That needs to be at LEAST 20 per cent cooler.” Ikkaku was face hoofing a lot today. “Well, the captain cuts through buildings for fun, so I guess that’s pretty cool.” “And Ken-Chan is SUPER STRONG!” This ‘Kenpachi’ sounded dangerous to her. Fortunately, an ideal location to put them in was just up ahead. Sweet Apple Acres, run by the Apple Family for generations. And the home of the current Element of Honesty, Applejack, who ran the farm efficiently. She always needed some volunteer buckers to help out, so Ikkaku could earn a few bits doing work. Ikkaku seemed to have reached the same conclusion. “Well, howdy Rainbow! You lookin’ to nap in the trees or somethin’?” ‘Maybe later. I’ve got a volunteer for ya!” “Uh, Rainbow? Question? Who are they?” Rainbow Dash face hoofed. “The earth pony’s called Ikkaku, the unicorn is called Yumichika and the filly is Yachiru. You got that?” Applejack appraised Ikkaku, and deigned him fit to buck. “Alright, the trick to buckin’ is ta balance on your front hooves, aim for the tree and let fly!” Ikkaku copied her movements- balance on hooves, square up to the tree, kick. Seemed easy! Letting out a mighty yell, Ikkaku let fly with his full strength. Applejack watched with an open mouth as one earth pony uprooted an apple tree with one buck. Rainbow Dash was similarly agape. “WHAT IN TARNATION!” Ikkaku could only grin with victory. “I got the apples off, didn’t I?” Applejack and Rainbow Dash were watching the challenge of strength before them. One of the largest ponies they had ever seen, Big Mac, was going in a plough race against Ikkaku. “Look at them go.” Rainbow Dash was bored by the slow nature of it. She’d seen ploughing before, and while this was faster than it normally was, it was still. Too. SLOW! “This should be faster! Like, 20 per cent faster!” “Good ploughin’ can’t be rushed. And this’ll put us ahead of schedule. Say, where’d his unicorn friend go?” An unexpected answer was heard. “DIRT! DIRT EVERYWHERE! GO AWAY GO AWAY GOAWAYGOAWAYGOAWAY!” “I think you got your answer.” “I think he’ll need a job to keep himself busy.” Yumichika was just as eager to get to work, on the condition that there was no dirt. “There is so much dirt around here. How do you keep yourselves clean?” He was a bit rude concerning appearances, and was so like Rarity that Rainbow Dash eventually decided to keep them far away- they’d probably have a catfight over who was prettier, or something trivial like that. Instead, she took him to a new part-time job in the one place where dirt and grime wasn’t anywhere- the library. Before Twilight had moved in, the old librarian had taken the bare minimum of care of books. The place had been a dustbowl until Twilight had shown up. Pinkie Pie had swept the place clean for a party, which had only made an even bigger mess to clean up. Twilight and Spike kept the place so clean between them that Yumichika was sure to like it. As they approached the tree, Yumichika was giving his opinions on everypony’s appearances. “… Of all the ponies I’ve met so far, the only one who looks like they take a bit of pride in their appearance is Fluttershy, she just looks incredible!” She just ignored him and knocked on the door. Yumichika was appreciating the effort someone had taken in making a tree into a building like that when the door was opened by something small and purple. It looked like a bipedal lizard. “Come on in, Rainbow Dash! Say, who’s he?” “I am Yumichika Ayasegawa, and you are?” “Oh, my name’s Spike. Nice to meet you!” As the two shook forelegs, Rainbow Dash looked at Twilight Sparkle. Poor mare looked like hell. Dishevelled mane, slightly bulging eyes, coffee mug in magic aura. “Geez, Twilight, what were you doing?” Stifling a yawn, Twilight replied, “I’ve been up all night trying to find three creatures from the Everfree. Apparently, the princess talked to a scientist from another dimension and was told that three powerful beings were running amock through Equestria.” Yumichika chose this moment to study the mess in the room. “Need a hand tidying up?” Twilight looked nervous. “I’m still studying, but maybe later.” “I don’t care, this mess is horrible! How is this studying?” Yumichika started to levitate books back onto their shelves, occasionally glancing towards the diagram of the Dewey Decimal System Twilight had put up. Moving books aside, he discovered something he hated-dust. “When did you last dust here?” Spike looked annoyed. “Not since yesterday. It just accumulates.” Yumichika’s eye twitched a little. “Alright, dust. You have lain here for too long.” He concentrated on the perfect Hado for this- a mid-level Kido that didn’t destroy too much. Twilight watched the unicorn apprehensively. His horn was glowing an azure blue, and eventually he opened his eyes and smiled. ‘Hado number fifty-three, Tenran!” A small-localised tornado erupted from his horn and drove the dust of the place away. Twilight was silently impressed. Weather manipulation by unicorns was an impressive feat- only two unicorns she knew of, Star Swirl the Bearded and Trixie had ever accomplished it. The incantation suggested that he didn’t have complete mastery over the spell, but it was otherwise impressive. “That’s really impressive! Could you teach me to do that?” Yumichika looked pleased. “Well, I have got a small book that explains the subject well-“ Twilight’s eyes shone with enthusiasm. “REALLY?” Only pony left to deal with was Yachiru. The small filly was busy drawing something inexpertly with her mouth. ‘Hey, squirt, whatcha drawing?” The little filly turned around and beamed at her. “It’s Ken-Chan!” Craning her head to look at the drawing, she could see that it was something that had spikes on its head, and what looked like hands, clutching something long and thin. The filly had used up a lot of red crayon on the drawing. “Well, anyways, I think you’ll have to go to school.” Yachiru looked confused. “What’s ‘school’?” “Well, fillies go there so they can learn about how they can do jobs and stuff.” “Oh, ok.” Rainbow Dash felt a little sorry for the filly. She looked so despondent. “You know, school’s also a good place to make friends.” At that, Yachiru cheered right up. Rainbow Dash felt a little happier because of that. At least the Cutie Mark Crusaders would like her. ”Alright, class, I’d like you to meet our new student, Yachiru.” Yachiru beamed happily and bounced to her seat, and focused on the teacher with radiant attention. She seemed so eager. Classroom gossip was quickly spreading about this strange filly, especially about her Cutie Mark. “Man, what a strange cutie mark. It sucks.” Yachiru’s happy smile vanished, and she turned on the filly, Diamond Tiara, who just stuck her tongue out. Yachiru didn’t like her- she reminded her of Byakushi and Freaky put together- the regal air of Byakushi and Freaky’s hatred of everyone who wasn’t Freaky. If there was one thing Yachiru hated, it was bullies. She needed a lesson. Cheerilee felt a little despondent when Yachiru confronted Diamond Tiara with her wings up, a typical sign in pegasi that they were angry. She really wished that fillies, when bullied, wouldn’t turn to violence as the first solution, but rather tell the teacher. What she said next was something that was repeated in tones of awe by the other fillies to their parents: ‘Some of us are trying to learn here, meanie, you GOT IT?” The filly was glowing, and pink energy swirled around her. As it swirled, she seemed to be a lot scarier. Cheerilee could see that it was like an angry cats’ face confronting the filly. The face was also exerting some sort of pressure on the other students- they seemed to be struggling to stay upright in their chairs, but Diamond Tiara was feeling the worst of it- she seemed to be choking. As quickly as it began, it was over. Yachiru turned around and focused on the lesson again, while behind her, Diamond Tiara was coughing loudly, trying to get her breath back. The other ponies in the class were various stages of shocked, awed and terrified. What the buck was that? Shaking the thought from her mind, Cheerilee continues the lesson, though a little more nervously this time around. The Cutie Mark Crusaders were whispering among themselves. The only one who wasn’t whispering or staring was Snails, and he was just focused wholly on the lesson, and had barely noticed the pressure. Thanks for reading! Please leave a comment as to what you think, criticism helps!