Chapter 8: Heartfelt confession, Pinkieland close forever!
Secret Location -
Still looking pristine and proper in her formal tailleur, Sae (Sister of Makoto) was silently cursing-up a storm as she sat on an uncomfortable chair in the middle of the abandoned parking lot she knew Fluttershy was about to be delivered to her for interrogation.
“I hate this plan...I hate it.” she muttered.
“It is necessary, I fear. Our apologies.” Yusuke answered from the hidden microphone inside the woman’s ear.
Iwai was apparently not joking when he offered ‘spy equipment’ to the Phantom Thieves.
“I can see him, how’s the audio quality?” she asked as she saw the nondescript van holding inside Fluttershy making its way towards her.
“Decent, for now it will suffice.” Futaba answered.
“Everything’s ready.”
Skriee! With a subtle scratching of brakes, the van went parked at barely two feet from her, so that she could already see the unnerving smile on her old boss’ face from the driver’s seat.
“Finally meeting again! You are avoiding me like the plague nowadays!” the old man said with a cheerful smile as he got down from the van to greet the woman.
“And of course you answer this by surrounding my apartment in badly-hidden agents and filling it in microphones and cameras.” Sae answered bitterly.
“Not in the bathroom though! Only microphones there.” the man answered with a smug expression.
“It is still a breach of my privacy!” she barked back in answer.
“Not if you are a possible lead to the Phantom Thieves.” he answered simply, chuckling at her fuming expression while unlocking the back of the van.
“Just because they contacted me once?! I was called because I was a link to you! The boss of the guys that have access to Fluttershy! It wasn’t even me to decide we had to meet here!” Sae said with a perfect mixture of anger and scandal.
“Fair enough, but what about dear Kurusu-san?” the man said.
“Akira? For fuck sake! I clearly demonstrated that he had been coerced into acting as decoy! You saw the proofs I offered in court! Not a soul could refute them, the entire SIU had to apologize publicly for the mistake!”
“Proofs?...”
“You actually don’t remember? It was a two-hundred-pages-long stack of proofs, witnesses’ records and...and...It took me WEEKS to prepare it!” Sae asked in disbelief.
“Yes, yes, I do remember reading the reports now, sorry about that...Please do forgive an old man for starting to lose his edge, I am no longer a kid. I am the ‘Wise old Teacher’ now, not hot stuff like you youngsters.” the man replied with a self-deprecating sigh following his words.
“That is why you faked your death? Was it your secret escape plan?” she growled with a low voice.
“I prefer to describe it as ‘Safe Retirement Plan’, dear.” he answered.
“It also helped your crusade against the Phantom Thieves.”
“OUR crusade against the Phantom Thieves.” he countered with a patronizing ‘tut-tut’ added to his words.
“Tch!”
“But we are not here for that...We are here for this!” the man said, making Fluttershy descend from the van closely followed by Lyra and Tempest.
“Two new recruits?” Sae asked with a raised eyebrow.
“No, not yet at least. Those two are at the head of two Pro-Humanity groups, I needed their help to enact Fluttershy’s evasion to cover our moving her to a new location. In exchange of us providing them with a base of operation for their groups.”
“You two know you made a deal with the Devil, right?” Sae said, sighing.
“I am technically still here...” the old man muttered with a low, defeated voice.
“It was necessary, we needed a safe base otherwise Celestia and her attack dogs, first of all Shining Armour, would have been able to round us up whenever they wanted.” Tempest Shadow answered.
“It’s your choice, in the end, it doesn’t matter to me...” Sae answered while walking towards Fluttershy.
“H-H-Hi.” the poor mare whispered weakly.
“It’s okay, differently from that old man, I have nothing against you, I just need you to answer some questions...Can you help me?” she asked.
“Questions?”
“Simple ones, it will take at best five minutes.”
“O-Okay...”
“I won’t hurt you.” she added with a gentle smile while patting the mare’s head.
“Hu-uh.”
“Very well, let’s begin...I want you to answer truthfully, with as much details you can give me. You understand?” Sae asked while returning to sit on her small chair, three feet away from the ponies.
“Y-Yes.” Fluttershy answered with a shaken nod.
“You remember how you were treated in your old cell, yes?” the old man asked, making the mare shiver violently.
“Yes, you do. Consider this: I can either make it so that you are treated like a Princess in the next one...Or make things so much worse you will look back and wish you were never born...It all depends on how much you help us.” he added with a cold chuckle.
“Good job, now she will really help us...” Sae muttered in bitter sarcasm.
“I-I-I will answer...I-I will...” Fluttershy said with a very scared tone.
“Good. Then let’s start: Your friends, Where are they now? How can we track-down the other Elements of Harmony?” the woman asked.
“What kind of question is that?!” the old man hissed, furious.
“I am just following the script those Phantom Thieves gave me, here, read this, I found it pinned on my apartment’s door.” she answered, showing him a simple piece of paper.
“Let me read that!” he answered, snatching the thing away.
“...What!? We already know the answers to these Quest-”
KABOOOOOOOOM!
As soon as the old man started arguing with the woman, several abandoned cars around them exploded, throwing both him and Sae down the ground.
“NOW!” a new voice yelled as cannonballs rained around them, demolishing most of the parking lot and rising an immense cloud of dust.
“IT WORKED, BUT YOU ARE LATE, SUNSET!” Tempest screamed as a humanoid cat jumped down from the equestrian flying ship to free Fluttershy from her bindings.
“The flying ship we needed was better guarded than expected, now let’s go!” Sunset Shimmer answered from the helm of the ship that was already preparing to depart.
“NO!” the old man, only he still awake as Sae lied unconscious next to him, yelled in anger.
“As if we would have accepted your deal! We would have just treated an evil for another, at least like this, we got Fluttershy.” Lyra answered, jumping aboard.
“We are set! Go before they catch us! Go! Go! Go!” Tempest ordered, making the crew of cat people answer with a roar of approval and rapidly pulling the ship away and high in the sky.
“No! No! NO! I need Fluttershy and what she knows!...Sorry, Sae, this is more important!” the old man said as he ran away without sparing even a glance at the unconscious woman.
“Here’s the director! It was a trap of the ponies! The ponies tricked me and Sae into bringing Fluttershy here with a fake letter! It was not the Phantom Thieves! I repeat: it was not the Phantom Thieves! Switch tactic, we have a flying ship to catch! Every man abandon your positions and chase that damn thing! I want my Element of Harmony back this instant!” the old man ordered to his radio, making several hidden cars flare their lights to life and their engines roar awake.
And once one of them collected the old man, the six cars sprinted away to chase the flying ship...And all this mess was the signal for Sae to open her eyes.
“...”
“...Too much noise.” she said with a groan once sure she was alone.
“But unfortunately it was a needed sacrifice for this operation to work flawlessly.” Yusuke answered from the radio.
“Are you okay, nee-san?” Makoto asked in concern.
“Yes, yes, I am. Their aim was damn good, me and that old cretin were just blasted away unharmed while the cannonballs rained around us far away enough to just rise dust...Not even a shrapnel.”
“I was confident my men had the good aim needed to make this possible.” Tempest answered, sounding very proud of her Abyssinian helpers.
“Have you already ditched the ship?” Sae asked.
“Yep! Thorax and the other changelings with him have already left it crash-land far enough from your position, they are just now switching from mimicking us and Sunset to turn into some Equestrian royal guards, it should stop those cops from looking too deep into the thing to give us non-flyers enough time to escape.” Lyra answered.
“Good. And Fluttershy?”
“I-I-I am okay...But why you did all this?” the mare asked.
“As I suspected, my old Boss has not forgotten his past dislike for the Phantom Thieves, so I planned accordingly once discovered he recently rigged my entire apartment to spy on me. He must have thought that their insisting on me to bring you in this specific parking lot was part of a plan to kidnap you...So we just gave him what he wanted, only with ponies being the perpetrators.” Sae explained.
“Those two guards that were guarding your cell were very helpful in organizing this, as we speak, the real Sunset Shimmer is treating their wounds.” Tempest added.
“Thank goodness they are okay! They were so gentle with me, they were forced to be so mean just to make their boss happy...” Fluttershy said in elation.
“I will make sure you will be able to contact them later, for now just move to your new home, the guys are waiting there for you.”
“B-B-But the Barrier will-”
“To put it simple: Lies. There are many things you need to know, and they will tell you everything as soon as you meet them.” Sae answered.
“...I will instead go into hiding with the other Confidants in our new Base as soon as I ditch the agents that old bastard left behind to follow me just in case.” she added with an annoyed tone as soon as she caught a glimpse of a solitary van parked not too far away.
“Oh, have no fear, Iwai-san and Sojiro will take care of that, just tell them where to strike.” Futaba answered.
“Tell them to hurry up, soon I will have to ‘stagger’ my way out of here like a proper dazed victim so to make my alibi believable, and I don’t want to be dragged away just in case they have some questions for me.”
“Do not sweat it, sweetie, we are coming.” Iwai answered chuckling.
With Fluttershy - One hour later – Shujin Academy – Music club classroom -
“Over here.” Tempest said as she and Lyra accompanied Fluttershy inside the abandoned classroom.
“H-Hello?” the poor Pegasus said with a meek voice while entering.
“Hi!” Ryuji answered, grinning.
“Why the masks?” Lyra asked.
“We are finally meeting in person, but anonymity is still necessary.” Yusuke answered with an apologetic tone.
All of them were wearing simple clothes, with the hoods of their hoodies pulled up and a 3D-Printed copy of their Phantom Thieves masks covering their faces, making it impossible to tell what their true faces looked like.
“You are the Phantom Thieves?” Fluttershy asked.
“Yes, sorry about that, but it was needed to save you, many humans are not…‘Friendly’ towards ponies lately, so we preferred to help Lyra and Tempest save you in exchange of their help.” Ann answered.
“That Sae woman helped us escape those cops when they found us the first time, helping her back was the least we could do.” Lyra answered with a small smile.
“I-It’s okay, as long as nopony got hurt.” the shy mare added.
“You said you needed her help to get to Pinkie Pie, what kind of help?” Lyra asked.
“P-Pinkie?!”
“Remember what happened with you? After you received our Calling Card?” Haru asked.
“After t-that?...I...I remember feeling normal...T-Then something inside me...b-broke, and then it was as if my head was being split in two…T-Then the memories of what I did came up but-but-but they felt awful! W-Wrong!”
Meeeow! Morgana offered with a drawn-out meow.
“That was your Change of Heart, it coincided with our stealing your Treasure, triggering your return to normal.” Yusuke explained as he showed her the bunny plushy they got from her Palace.
“Th-That is...B-But I left it in Ponyville! Why you have that? How?”
“This is a copy, so to speak, it represent your true self, call it a manifestation of it.” Makoto answered.
“...It even has the same patch of when my mother fixed its ear for me...” Fluttershy muttered in disbelief once checked the thing herself.
“From what I could understand, you are basically like the Elements of Harmony: you intervene on Corrupted hearts to remove what is corrupting them, isn’t it?” Tempest asked.
“Basically, yes, only we physically enter the Heart of our Target instead of shooting them with a light-show, we actually use the same method to also pass through the Barrier. There are two stages to Distortion,Mementoes: where the victim’s heart is overcome by their darkest desires and delusions, and the Palaces: where the heart is completely swallowed by said Darkness.
In the former case, we just need to help the victim snap out of it and see the error of their ways, in the latter we have to infiltrate the Palace itself to steal their Treasure (that is basically their Heart and the last spark of their True Self), saving their Heart from the clutches of their Distorted Form, which is the embodiment of their inner Darkness.” Yusuke explained.
“Everybody can have a Memento, but if the Memento is not fixed soon, it can become a Palace.” Haru added.
“So the path is: Normal – Memento – Palace. Like a virus getting worse if not treated. That is why a lot of ponies are ditching Celestia’s plans to join our ranks, those were all Palaces!” Tempest asked in surprise.
“Not exactly, those were more likely Mementos, since we did go fixing those in-between trips to Fluttershy and Pinkie’s Palaces, it’s way easier to fix Mementoes than Palaces because there is not a Treasure that needs to be stolen or a Calling Card to be sent.”
“For a Memento you just have to find and beat the crap out of the Target’s Distorted form before that thing can hide inside a Palace, they just return to normal after a good ass-wooping.” Ryuji added with a smirk.
“It’s a bit crude for an explanation, but it is also strangely fitting.” Yusuke admitted unsure.
“But Pinkie is in the Palace stage instead?” Fluttershy asked, worried.
“You all are: the Elements of Harmony, Shining Armour, Cadence, Blueblood, Spitfire, Luna and even Celestia.” Akira answered.
“Then why nopony noticed? Corruption is...is clearly evil!”
“Corruption may be, but Distortion isn’t.” Ryuji answered.
“When it comes to Distortion you can have clean cases like Kamoshida, acting like a bastard with delusions of grandeur.” Ann said with acidic scorn.
“And then you have the ones like Madarame...That from outside appear normal...gentle...Caring...But that are not so, deep inside, where nobody can see.” Yusuke added, with a more sad demeanor.
“Oh.” Fluttershy muttered in answer, clearly saddened by Yusuke depressed voice.
“Have you not noticed anything strange? About the others.” Haru asked.
“We...We have grown distant ever since we came here...Pinkie only thinks about her new super party, Dash spends all her time with the soldiers, AJ has closed herself in her family farm and Twilight never leaves her new Library here behind the Barrier...Rarity is a mystery as nopony of us has seen mane or tail of her ever since we landed here. We rarely meet nowadays.” Fluttershy answered unsure.
Meeeow.
“Correct, that is practically the result of them falling under the power of Distortion, it is clouding their judgment with the weight of their desires, but it is not an out-right ‘Turning Evil’ for everybody to see, but a more sinister corruption of their true self, a sick mockery of it.” Makoto said.
“Did she translate what the cat said?” Lyra muttered.
“I have no idea.” Tempest admitted.
“And since we are the Elements of Harmony, we cannot use them to help ourselves since we cannot tell anything is wrong with us.” Fluttershy said, dejected.
“Yes, that is why we are here, if we can enter Pinkie’s Palace and find what we need to do to reach her Treasure, we can return her to normal. And then do the same with your friends and the others.” Akira explained.
“Y-You won’t hurt them?”
“Nope! We are Heroes-”
Meooow!
“Gallant Heroes...Stupid cat.” Ryuji answered, rolling his eyes at Morgana’s hissed correction.
“...” The mare simply took in a huge breath at that, keeping her eyes tight close in a clear session of solo brain-storming.
“I-I will believe you. What do you need from me?” she finally said, with a more determined expression compared to when she entered.
“Easy. The heart of Pinkie’s Palace is a huge theater where her Distorted Self maniacally relives over and over the tales of her adventures with you others, or so we believe, she is obsessing about playing together with you...Probably forever.” Futaba explained.
“Oh, dear...Pinkie must be suffering so much! She already thought she lost us as friends once and she...she didn’t take it well...What is the problem?”
“It seems like one of the props on the stage contains the Treasure, but there is no lever that lowers it to the point of becoming reachable, we believe that the only story missing from her collection of operas is both the main one AND the correct order of levers to pull to lower the Treasure, problem is, the pages are missing save for these two.” Yusuke answered while showing her the copies of the pages they took from the Palace.
“...It seems to be about when we all discovered our Cutie Marks, we once talked about it. Twilight said that she believes we all happened to discover our Talents at the same time thanks to Rainbow Dash performing her first Sonic Rainboom, she also believes we probably became the chosen Element Bearers that same day as well.” Fluttershy explained.
“Dash, Sonic Rainboom and a Start of their adventures as friends, it fits the two pages!” Futaba said in great excitement.
“Can you tell us more, please?” Akira asked.
“O-Of course! Just please, be careful yourself and do not hurt Pinkie!” the mare answered.
“We will do our best, promise.” Haru answered.
Two days later – Floating Island 2 – Ponyville -
A solitary flying ship, stolen from the fleet of royal ships normally under control of Celestia and carrying under it a giant screen with huge sound amplifiers, was seen slowly and silently move to hover just over the main plaza of the small town, catching the attention of every single pony there.
“Here’s Thorax! We are in position!” the Leader of the ‘Converted’ Changelings said as soon as they stopped moving.
At the same time - Floating Island 1 – Canterlot and Royal Castle -
“Here’s Meowser, we are in position too!” the Abyssinian girl governing the second flying ship said as soon as they too stopped flying to just hover over the giant city.
“Here is Persianeus, we stopped right in front of the windows of the Throne Room, Celestia looks very pissed, Ah!” a second cat-man said in great amusement as the ship he was commanding stopped as well.
Akihabara -
“Tempest Shadow and Lyra, we are in position. Every Monitor ready?” Tempest asked with a pleased tone from the flying ship she herself was commanding.
Shop ‘Untouchable’ -
“AYE!” everybody taking part to the operation answered as one.
“Perfect, turn them on! I’ll start the Live-Streaming myself!” Futaba instructed with a wide, malevolent grin.
“Two days of trial-and-error to find the right combination of levers…We are ready. Can you help us again, Lavenza?” Akira asked.
“Of course.” the small girl answered while adjusting the mike in front of her.
“So this is the human world...” Igor, standing on the door to the Velvet Room, muttered with a curious tone.
“Bitch...” Ann muttered in distaste.
“You lost against her and the Twins, you know what it means...” Makoto answered, rolling her eyes.
“Tch!”
“Be quiet! Pinkie has now noticed the screens! Ready to transmit our Calling Card to both humans and ponies in Three!...Two!...One!...Go, girl!” Futaba ordered.
To Pinkamena Diane Pie, the deranged Jester slave of her bottomless greed, gorging non-stop in endless parties to futilely try to fill an empty stomach and even emptier heart, escaping Reality in favour of the fake friendship created by her Twisted Delusions.
You are the Corrupted Element of Harmony who aides in the destruction of humanity so to appease her sick hunger for friendship.
We have decided to make you confess all your crimes with your own mouth.
We will take your distorted desires without fail.
From,
The Phantom Thieves of Hearts.
Said that, the monitors held by the various ships turned off to show a static image of the Phantom Thieves’ Logo.
“Oh, Crab-baskets! Celestia is furious! Abandon ship!” one of the ships reported with a worried scream.
“Attention to all ships: go through the escape plans we planned, don’t get caught!” Yusuke instructed, getting in answer several frightened ‘Roger!’ by the various ships accompanied by the angry screams of guards and Alicorn Princess assaulting their vessels.
“Don’t worry, we trained as well for this, they won’t get caught.” Tempest promptly reassured them while she too closed the call to make her escape.
“You were perfect, Lavenza.” Akira said with a small smile.
“Uh-hu...” the girl replied while moving her hair aside.
Sigh! “Just get this over with.” Ann uttered, snarling.
Chu! “Thank you.” Lavenza said with a happy smile as soon as Akira gave a peck to her cheek.
“Pinkie is reacting!” Haru said while pointing at the screen.
When everybody looked at Futaba’s laptop, they could see the hyper-ventilating pink pony go wide-eyed in shock…
Immediately followed by everything around the teens going black so that only the Phantom Thieves and the mare’s Distorted Self remained in that bottomless void.
“PHANTOM THIEVES! You won’t take away my friends! They are mine! MINE! MINE!” the jester-dressed mare spat with a deranged light in her eyes.
“I Hate you! Hate you!Hate you!Hate you!Hate you!Hate you!Hate you!Hate you!Hate you!Hate you!Hate you!Hate you!Hate you!Hate you!Hate you!Hate you!Hate you!Hate you!Hate you!Hate you!Hate you!Hate you!Hate you!Hate you!Hate you!Hate you!Hate you!Hate you!Hate you!Hate you!Hate you!Hate you!Hate you!Hate you!Hate you!Hate you!Hate you!Hate you!Hate you!Hate you!Hate you!Hate you!Hate you!Hate you!Hate you!Hate you!Hate you!Hate you!Hate you!Hate you!Hate you!Hate you!Hate you!Hate you!Hate you!”
“Come if you dare! You will become my new friends! MINE FOREVER!” after that madness-filled raving was over, everything returned to normal, just in time to see the now horrified Pinkie run away screaming ‘TWILIIIIIIIIIGHT!’ at the top of her lungs with a high-pitched tone.
“It worked, the Treasure has now took a physical form, is now time for you to steal it. Good Luck. Come, Lavenza.” Igor said before returning inside the Velvet Room.
“At once, Master Igor. Please be careful, My Trickster.” Lavenza answered, giving a last kiss to Akira’s cheek and then returning inside the room herself.
“Phones’ up, guys! We’re going in!” Ryuji said, and moving as one, they all took out their phones…
“MMMMMMMMH!”
“Ann?” Makoto asked, rolling her eyes.
“A minute!”
“Ann, you will be free to mouth-rape and devour Akira’s tonsils all you want after we steal this Treasure.”
“But I am cleaning away that bitch’s Taint!”
“Just get the fucking phone out and open the App.” Ryuji answered, grumbling.
“Hn! Okay, fine!”
Inside Pinkie’s Palace – Theater – Safe room -
“Okay, we arrived. Futaba?” Ann asked.
“I am ready, the Alert Level is all the up to 99.9%, Pinkie is supremely pissed so do NOT get caught!” the hacker girl answered.
“Don’t worry, Navi, we’ll be careful.”
“Remember, guys! As soon as we activate the last prop the Treasure will be lowered down, after that we have to hurry and leave from the window of the women’s bathroom and hijack the flying dance-floor.” Morgana instructed.
“We know, we know.” Ryuji answered, rolling his eyes.
“Get ready, I will alert you as soon as the flying platform departs,” Futaba said.
“And I’ll be on the look-out for Pinkie, we have to go as soon as she locks the main doors.” Haru added as she left the Safe Room to go towards the woman’s bathroom, their exit point.
One hour later -
“...Where is she?” Yusuke finally asked once he too grew too tired to wait.
“I can’t see her.” Futaba answered.
“Me neither.” Haru added once asked by Ann.
“Maybe we should-”
“Pinkie is leaving the Theater! Pinkie is leaving the theater!” Haru called-out urgently.
“Dammit! The platform is already half-way through its tour, you will have to get to the Treasure fast!” Futaba added, cursing vehemently under her breath.
“She must be extremely paranoid now! She won’t go through her normal routine, keep us informed if she returns, Navi!” Morgana ordered while running outside the Safe Room with a mad dash, closely followed by the Phantom Thieves, Haru comprised.
Theater – Stage area -
The place completely empty, not even a Shadow outside or inside, and the complete lack of any noise this time was making the teens feel restless compared to their previous visits.
“There it is, let’s hurry!” Makoto said as soon as they entered.
“We will need to work together, we need to pull sixty levers to lower the sun, with the very last one being the cheering crowd, labeled ‘Lever 89’.” Morgana instructed while flipping through the pages of their notes.
“Okay! Let’s start, lever number 1...the Rock Farm.” Ann said as she pulled the level to make the background pop-up.
“And right after that, number 20: Pinkie Pie.” Akira muttered immediately after.
“...Long time ago, there was a young filly that didn’t know about the joys of parties...” Pinkie’s disembodied voice commenced telling with a gentle tone as soon as the puppet and background appeared on the stage.
“We started the right story! Now! Pull all the levers we need!” Haru ordered, making the others hurry-up to follow her in pulling the levers in the correct order.
Rainbow Dash…
The Power of Friendship…
Rarity…
Friends…
Together…
Cutie Mark…
Pinkie Pie...
The voice recording struggled and jumped with continuous stutters as it could barely keep-up with the lowering and rising of levers and the resulting appearance and disappearance of props, characters and switching of backgrounds.
“Guys! Pinkie is coming back! Hurry up!” Futaba alerted them with a scared voice.
“We have almost done! We only need another minute!” Ann answered.
“You don’t have a minute!”
“DONE! Cut that down, Mona!” Ryuji yelled as the sun was finally lowered enough for the cat to jump on top of hit and rapidly cut the rope holding it up.
“Is that...A rock?” Makoto asked in disbelief as soon as the sun prop came crashing down, shattering into thousands of pieces making the Treasure roll out free.
“Pinkie tricked us!” Ann added in both anger and horror.
“No, it’s the real deal, I can ‘Smell it’, this is Pinkie’s Treasure.” Morgana answered as soon as he took the fist-sized stone to examine it.
“A simple rock?!”
“We will analyze the philosophical meaning and symbolism behind that rock once out of here and in the safety of a Palace-less Pinkie. Now just think about running!” Yusuke rebutted him as the rest of the group hurried out of the room at top speed.
“WAIT FOR MEEEE!” Ryuji yelled as he instantly started running behind his friends.
“Pinkie is opening the theater doors!”
“And we are almost to the bathroom window! Where is that flying platform?!” Ann answered.
“It has now started the landing procedures!”
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”
“SHIT!” Ryuji yelled at hearing Pinkie’s madness filled scream of rage come from downstairs.
“We will board it before it even lands!” Akira said as he jumped through the window without breaking his running stride.
“JUMP!” Ann yelled as she followed her boyfriend down the same window.
“I don’t think-”
“CATCH THEEEEEEM!” Pinkie Pie roarer in fury, cutting-off Haru’s words.
“I AM JUMPING!” the girl switched gear and jumped down herself, prompting Yusuke and the others to hurry-up and follow her.
As the flying platform was about to land, the two Shadows guarding it only felt somebody grab their hind hooves before both Akira and Ryuji pulled them off the platform, all the while the rest of the Phantom Thieves boarded the thing to force the shades on it to jump down as well.
“How do I pilot this?!” Makoto asked.
“Pull the lever upward, there is written ‘Up’ for a reason, Queen!” Futaba answered growling.
“I saw that! I saw that!” the young woman answered annoyed while rapidly forcing the thing to raise upward.
THUNK!
“You are not going anywhere!” Distorted Pinkie growled as she landed heavily on the platform before it could completely take-off.
“SHIT!”
“You won’t steal my Treasure! You’ll have to fight me for-” WHAM!
“...”
“...”
“What?” Ryuji asked.
“Did you really Drop-kick Pinkie off the platform, Skull?” Morgana asked.
“Hey, it worked...” the punk boy answered, unsure, while pointing at the dazed Distorted Pinkie all the way down, the mare looking up at them with crossed eyes and several teeth missing.
“Hold tight, I am pushing this!” Makoto yelled as she finally got the thing to raise high enough to pass above the walls around the fortress.
“We did it! We did it!” Ann said happily.
“We only need to reach the exit gate of the Theme Park and we will successfully steal the Treasure.” Yusuke said, elated.
“And without fighting Pinkie!” Ryuji added, smiling smugly.
Bang!
It was then that a giant clawed hand grabbed the base of the flying platform, stopping it abruptly and almost making the Phantom Thieves fall down with the whiplash of the sudden stop.
“FUUUUUUCK!”
“YOU JINXED IT, SKULL!” Morgana shrieked angrily.
“You really think I will lose my chance at being the Boss Fight?! Valiant Heroes must face the Big Bad Guy before the story reaches its happy ending! HIHIHI-HAHAHA-HEHEHEEEEE!” a deep voice filled to the brim in madness declared as two giant balloons with ‘let’s Party!’ written in melting and very blood-like paint on it slowly rose to the sky to carry upward a giant and overly-ornate cubic wooden box with a half-rusted crank to the side, and from its slightly opened lid that same giant clawed puppet hand came out to hold back the platform once again.
“I will also take this, THANK YOU!” a second hand then came out to snatch the small rock.
“No!” Morgana yelled in answer, sneaking between the giant fingers to save the rock.
“FINE! Then I will just kill you all and recover my rock from the wreckage!” Distorted Pinkie bellowed furious, fully coming-out of the box so to show her true form…
In all its disturbing glory.
It looked like somebody tried to sew human skin to cover a puppet, uncaring that the thing will then rot and decay, and without even the faintest clue about how to sew to begin with, if one saw the sloppy patching holding everything together; Pinkie’s own face was an uneven mixture of rotten flesh, rusted metal and rotten wood haphazardly put together and with one of her eyes being made of glass and heavily cracked, neither of the two eyes were standing still but kept moving nonstop in random directions.
Half steam-punk-like and half rotten corpse, the humanoid pony puppet abomination dripping viscous fluids of different coloursfrom every joint showed a Glasgow smile of sharp yellow fangswhile adjusting the tattered red jester hat on her head; the monstrosity proudly displaying both rotten organs and rusted cogwheels spinning wildly from the holes everywhere on her body as she wobbled back and forth once rose to her full height out the box, all thiswhile laughing maniacally every few seconds.
“The show is about to start!” Pinkie declared with her eyes rolling madly in her sockets in different directions while the crank at the side of her box started spinning without control, mixing the resulting nursery-rhyme music with loud and harsh cracking sounds of unkempt cogs.
“Fight formation, guys! We’ll have to fight to escape with the Treasure!” Morgana ordered while both Pinkie’s hands moved to hang high above the Phantom Thieves.
“I’ll block the controls, so we will hover in place.” Makoto added.
“Our tale of friendship and heroism starts with Equestria’s fastest flier! RAINBOW DASH! HAHAHAHA-HEHEHEHE-HIHIHIIIIII!” the monstrous creature declared with her mad laugh as a puppet copy of Rainbow Dash appeared in her left hand, along hair-thin threads connecting each giant finger of Pinkie to it so to maneuver the puppet.
“BOOOYAH!” the Puppet yelled in Pinkie’s voice as it went into a nose-dive towards Akira.
“Arsene! Cleave!” the young man answered, using his Persona to deflect the thing while also beheading it at the same time.
“Hey! It took me weeks to build that!” Pinkie roared while recalling the thing to make it just fly around above the group, even if without head.
“How do we attack something this big?” Yusuke whispered to Morgana.
“She must have a weak spot, we just have to find it,” the cat answered with narrowed eyes.
“In case like this, when faced with unfunny sticks in the mud like you, enemies of parties, the only solution is using the Power of Friendship!” Pinkie, once fixed the Dash puppet with a new head she took from God know where, said with a proud voice as now the puppets of the other Elements of Harmony appeared on the flying platform, right next to Dash.
“Let’s see how much you like it when you no longer have superiority in numbers!” the monster said with a mocking tone as the puppet version of Pinkie too joined the scene.
“Ready to be destroyed, darling?” Puppet-Rarity asked with a haughty laugh.
“Navi...” Akira muttered.
“Yes, Joker?”
“Do you think you can study Pinkie’s body to look for some weak spot?”
“I can try, but I can’t promise you anything.”
“Still try to, please.”
“Okay.”
“ENOUGH CHIT-CHAT! This is not turn-based combat! This is Real Life! Attack, my friends! let’s show them how strong is our friendship!”
“SPLIT! I will take on AJ!” Yusuke said as he tackled the puppet farm mare to push her away.
“EEEYUP! Yah want a buckin’? Ah will happily give it to ya!” Puppet AJ answered, headbutting the young man in the abdomen as soon as she got back on her hooves.
“Goemon!”
Ann vs Rarity -
“I loove your bodysuit! The whip though is a very bad choice for an accessory!” P-Rarity said as her horn went shot towards the girl like a missile.
“Do shut up! You would not recognize good fashion even if it hits you on the head!” Ann answered while using her whip to grab around the puppet’s throat to slam her on the ground.
“HOW DARE YOU!” the wooden toy replied as a new firework poppet-out of her forehead ready to be shot.
Ryuji vs Pinkie -
“JUST STAND STILL, GODDAMNIT! I JUST WANT TO SHOOT YOU!” the punk boy bellowed furious as he tried to shot Puppet Pinkie to pieces with his shotgun.
“Then shot faster!” the toy replied giggling, merrily jumping around the platform as if on a sugar rush.
“At least I am shooting!”
“I can shoot too! PARTY CANNON!” P-Pinkie answered, uncorking her own head to show the mouth of a cannon hidden inside her belly.
“FUUUCK!” the poor Phantom Thief yelled in answer as he was forced to dodge a barrage of party amenities the thing was using as ammunition.
Makoto vs Dash -
WRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!
“FASTER! FASTER! FASTER!” P-Dash yelled with a deranged smile as she chased Makoto, randomly diving down to try catch the girl off-guard.
“Johanna!” Makoto would then reply by clamping down on the brakes, raise the back of her bike-shaped Persona and use the momentum to spin around to hit the puppet’s side with the Persona’s abilities, knocking the toy back and re-starting the cycle of hit-and-run.
“Not enough! Youìll need to be 20% cooler to defeat me!”
“Once I am done with you, you’ll be 20% more Dead!”
“Bring it!”
Haru vs Fluttershy -
WHAM!
“I-I-I thought you were the classy one!” P-Fluttershy cried in shock at the second close-call between her head and Haru’s giant battle-ax that just managed to cut away a big chunk of the toy’s fake mane.
“I am! But I also like the real Fluttershy, and watching Pinkie make a mockery of such a cute pony makes me MAD!” Haru replied, switching from the ax into her granade-launcher.
“T-Then Bring it! I-I am not afraid of you!” the toy answered with her own version of Fluttershy’s ‘Stare’.
“And that should scare me?! Come here, you cheap toy! You will fear ME!” unfortunately it seemed to only make Haru angrier as she started shooting the puppet with absolutely zero mercy.
Akira and Morgana vs Twilight -
“Stop moving!” Puppet Twilight ordered as she both flew around and attacked the two with long streams of sparks of her horn acting like a flame-thrower.
“Zorro!” Morgana yelled, using his Persona’s attack to intercept the firework horn shot from the toy’s forehead so to make it explode away from them.
“Arsene!” Akira then added, managing to cut away one of P-Twilight wings, unfortunately this didn’t stop Distorted Pinkie from keeping it airborne.
“Of course, it is still a puppet, so it can fly with just one wing.” Joker muttered, grimacing.
“It is not working, those toys are not part of Pinkie, even if we destroy them, she won’t get damaged.” Morgana hissed while shouldering his sword to dodge a new stream of sparks.
“It’s time for the Special Attaaaaack!” Pinkie alerted them with a cruel smile.
“Special attack!?” Ryuji repeated in dread.
“Yep! The Elements of Harmony will attack all together! And I will personally supply the special effects!” the giant monstrosity answered opening her mouth wide, then opening it some more so that the mouth of the biggest cannon the Phantom Thieves had even seen could come out towards them.
“T-That’s a three-meters-wide cannon mouth!” Makoto shrieked with wide eyes.
“Prepare yourself! I am going to shoot you with pure Friendship!...In the form of a nuclear warhead, but it’s the thought that matters.” Pinkie answered colloquially, even with her mouth stretched to its limits around the cannon’s base.
“Can we jump down this thing?” Akira asked with a faint voice as they saw the Puppets being called to safety on Distorted Pinkie’s shoulders while energy started mounting inside the cannon.
“You are too high in the sky! Attack her body! There must be some place she is weaker! She is a toy corpse, for heaven’s sake! BREAK HER BEFORE SHE KILLS YOU!” Futaba cried-out in answer.
“SHOT HER! ATTACK HER! DO SOMETHING!” Makoto yelled as her own Persona started pelting everywhere on Pinkie’s body in attacks with all its power.
“Jack Frost: Mabufu! Arsene: Cleave! Inugami!” Akira at the same time used every Persona he had bought along, while also shooting with his gun at every boil he could see on the monster’s rotten skin and wood parts.
“TOO LATE! FAREWELL, ENEMY OF PARTIES! HAHAHA-HEHEHE-HIHIHIIII!”
“Captain Kidd!” it was when the Cannon was about to shoot that Ryuji’s Persona rammed its entire body against the wooden box that the crank at the side stopped spinning, making Pinkie’s giant body deflate boneless on the platform and turning off the cannon at the same time.
“Good Job, Skull!” Morgana declared happily.
“Attack her now that she is down!” Akira ordered while he himself started wildly slashing at the puppet face with his knife, making the thing jerk slightly from the onslaught and several stitches on its face break apart.
“THAT’S IT! SHE IS A GIANT JACK-IN-THE-BOX! She needs that crank’s spinning to move!” Ann said with wide eyes while her Persona Carmen pelted both monster’s eyes with fire attacks, finally shattering the glass one in a thick explosion of black tar-like ichor.
“Yep! At least now we know how to attack her! GO! ALL-OUT ATTACK!” Futaba answered.
“...Move dammit...” a faint voice reached them from inside the giant monster’s head.
“Uh!?” Ryuji muttered in confusion.
“...Should have gone with the Toy Robot plan instead...” the same faint voice muttered again, all the while subtle hammering noises also came out from the puppet’s box.
“Keep attacking!” Makoto yelled as one of Pinkie’s giant hands finally moved to spin the crank, soon making it return to spin at high speed by itself.
“That’s better!” Pinkie said as her body returned to move and stand upright.
“You got lucky, now the cannon is over-heated and I will have to wait for it to cool-down before using it again!...How convenient...” she said with a vitriolic tone of anger.
“There is something strange about her.” Ryuji said with narrowed eyes.
“I think the same, I believe we should focus our attacks on that lever, her secret must be behind it.” Yusuke answered.
“AS IF I WILL LET YOU! Destroy them, my friends!” the giant Monster replied as the six puppets jumped down to attack them again.
“Fox!” Akira said.
“Yes, Joker?”
“Me, Mona and Lady will take care of those puppets! You others attack the crank! Destroy it, whatever it takes!”
“As you wish! Come, Goemon!” Yusuke answered, personally charging the crank with his Persona, happy to see his friends shot down P-Fluttershy as soon as the toy tried to stop him.
“Wait for me!” Ryuji added, preparing the sledgehammer in his hand for an over-head bash with his full strength.
“Noo!”
“MILADY!” Haru, once seen the scared expression on Pinkie’s face, used her Persona to bombard the Puppet-version of the six Elements of Harmony as soon as they turned around.
“You need both hands to maneuver all those dolls, so choose who to focus on!” Morgana said smirking as his sword went plunged deep inside P-AJ’s back, making the puppet start kicking around to dislodge the cat on its back like in a rodeo.
“They are not dolls! They are puppets, you ignorant cat! And soon I will have the real version here with me, and we will have endless parties together, FOREVEEEER!” Pinkie roared in fury.
“Dolls, Puppets, it’s the same.” the cat answered, smirking.
“IT ISN’T!” the Monster shrieked hysterically.
“IT. IS.”
“GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”
“Mona, do not anger the psycho.” Ann chided him while summoning Carmen.
“Sorry, Lady Panther.”
“I am not a Psycho! I am a Party Maker.”
“Well, unfortunately I am not having fun...” Yusuke muttered.
“W-W-What?!...HOW DARE YOU!”
“FOX!”
“MY APOLOGIES! I WAS NOT THINKING!” the young man replied, ashamed, as both puppets and giant monster now turned rabid and blood-thirsty in their attacks.
“That is my job usually!” Ryuji answered while wildly hammering the wood around the crank, making it crack and splinter heavily at each blow.
“That’s it! I don’t care if it explodes! I am using the cannon again before it cools down!” Pinkie roared as she once again spat out the cannon’s mouth, further loosening the stitches holding her giant face together.
“Get ready! I’ll boost your attack as much as I can!” Futaba alerted the teens as she moved to buff her friends at the best of her abilities.
“Damn it.” Akira growled as he hurried towards the cannon.
“JOKER!” Ann yelled in fear.
“First to die? OKIE-DOKIE-LOKIE!” Pinkie said with a cruel laugh as energy finished mounting inside the cannon.
“ELIGOR! DOUBLE FANG!” Running up the cannon’s length, to Pinkie’s surprise, Akira summoned the horse-riding red soldier to let it charge at top speed towards the Distorted Mare’s sane eye.
“You traitor! YOU BETRAY YOUR BEST FRIEND LIKE THIS!?”
“I serve Justice, so at best I only betrayed a monster! KYY-HIAAAA!” the Eligor answered while plunging its spear deep inside the mare’s eye, making it explode and forcing her to throw her head back to howl in pain…
Just an instant before she could fire her cannon.
BOOOOOOOOM!
The explosion was terrifying, turning the entire sky over the Theme Park in a sea of fire, and from right inside its core, a giant fireball could be seen fall down like a meteor.
“HOLD ON! I CAN’T CONTROL IT!” Makoto, just like the others looking not too worse for wear, yelled while holding on the platform’s half-broken steering wheel for dear life.
“Joker, you okay!?” Ann in the meantime asked worried, both she and her boyfriend helped by Yusuke and Ryuji to hold on on the railings so to not fall down.
“I think I broke an arm.” Akira answered grimacing.
“I have some healing items, what about you, Navi?” Morgana answered while going through their reserves of medicines without reserves.
“I am pumping him with as much Healing Skills I can. Don’t worry, Panther! We’ll fix him in no time!” Futaba answered.
“I just hope we’ll manage to land safely, or even healing him will be pointless.” Yusuke added, looking at the rapidly burning blimps that by now were no longer able to hold them up.
“Then start praying! We are going to crash!” Makoto answered with wide eyes.
The falling platform crashed through a ferris wheel, cut in half the roller coaster course and created a deep groove on the terrain as the thing kept skidding on the ground even after landing, crushing every Shadows and shades unfortunate enough to be on its path until it slammed heavily against the high walls surrounding the Theme Park delimiting the exit point of Pinkie’s Palace.
BOOOOOM!
“...”
“…”
“...I-I-I-Is everybody alright?” Ryuji asked with a shaken voice as he managed with some difficulties to get back to his feet.
“My goodness...We have had a lot of close-calls, but this is going to be worthy of our Top 10...” Yusuke muttered as an answer while helping Haru to descend from the burning wreckage of the platform.
“And we could do this only because of me...” Morgana added, looking especially dizzy as he stumbled around with spinning eyes.
“Your Van Form can bash walls down and doors open, so I hoped it was durable enough to cushion us from the impact.” Makoto admitted while cracking her back with a half-moan of pleasure.
“It doesn’t mean that I don’t feel it...Lady Panther...Can you please hand me one of those empty pop-corn bags?” the cat replied.
“Hu? Okay...But why?” Ann replied while handing him the small thing as asked.
“Just a little...BLUUUUUAAAAAARGH!”
“Eew.” Ryuji muttered with a grimace at seeing their mascot emptying his stomach inside the bag.
“But you all survived, that’s a plus. How’s your arm, Joker?” Futaba asked in concern.
“The arm is good as new, but I still feel like a giant bruise.” the young man answered, groaning.
“We all feel the same, but at least we can say it is a good thing...Feeling pain means we are still alive.” Yusuke said with a small smile.
“If you say so.” Ryuji commented sighing.
“And if the Palace is still standing, it means that Pinkie is alive too, even if she was the source of the explosion.” Haru commented while watching the Theme Park already self-repairing.
“Then I say we take this opportunity to escape the Palace, hopefully the explosion weakened her enough!” Yusuke suggested.
“All okay?” Morgana asked.
“Fuck yeah!” Ryuji answered as he grabbed Makoto’s hand so that both could run towards the far-away gate.
“You...are not going...ANYWHERE!” a furious, and at the same time exhausted, voice roared in defiance as a giant puppet hand slammed down in front of both teens to stop them.
“Damn it!” Makoto hissed in annoyance while she dragged Ryuji away.
“So she fell close to us.” Ann muttered with narrowed eyes.
“But not without taking damage.” Akira added.
Most of Pinkie’s giant Jack-in-the-box body had been burned away, leaving only a mutilated headless torso and a badly-damaged right arm coming out of the heavily-cracked wooden box; from every hole and crack of the puppet now there was an endless stream of black sludge, same going for the box as the same sludge had pooled out enough to form four ‘legs’ to slowly drag box and puppet forward.
“Something tells me the Puppet is not your real form, you Monster! You actually reside inside the box itself, isn’t it?! Show yourself!” Yusuke ordered with a frown.
“Uh?” the other Phantom Thieves asked as one, confused.
“I had my doubts the first time we stopped the crank’s spinning, if it was true that she needed that to move at all, its stopping would have meant our victory, but instead one arm moved by itself to spin it, that was a contradiction in itself, but the biggest clue was that the only time she actually showed any reaction to pain from our attacks was when Joker blew away her real eye, otherwise I never saw her bleed from any wound we opened. And more important, the box itself didn’t sound empty while you were striking it, Skull.” the artist explained.
“...Eh! Now that you mention it, it didn’t.” Ryuji admitted.
“You were controlling the puppet from inside, isn’t it?” Yusuke asked with an accusing tone.
“...You are awfully perceptive, isn’t it?!” Pinkie answered while trying to squash him with her remaining hand.
“Goemon!”
“Johanna!”
“Milady!”
“Zorro!”
“Arsene!”
“Carmen!”
“Captain Kidd!”
The Phantom Thieves answered in chorus as soon as they dodged the enraged puppet’s fist, hitting at the same time the thing’s wrist with their combined abilities and severing the entire hand away at the wrist in a shower of splinters, but no ichor came out from the stump.
“DAMN YOU! WHY YOU WANT MY PARTIES TO END!? WHY DO YOU HATE FRIENDSHIP SO MUCH?!” Pinkie shrieked as the wooden box gave a heavy shudder before a giant geyser of black sludge exploded upwards demolishing the remains of the puppet completely, forming a long tentacle of barely-solid black tar covered in mouths, the biggest of which at the head of the bulbous shapeless mass.
“There she is, the real Pinkie.” Morgana hissed with barred teeth.
“I just want to have fun! FUN!FUN!FUN!FUN!FUN!FUN!FUN!FUN!FUN!FUN!FUN!FUN!FUN!FUN!FUN!FUN!FUN!FUN!FUN!FUN!FUN!FUN!FUN!FUN!FUN!FUN!FUN!FUN!FUN!FUN!FUN!FUN!FUN!FUN!FUN!FUN!FUN!FUN!FUN!FUN!FUN!FUN!FUN!FUN!FUN!FUN!FUN!FUN!FUN!FUN!FUN!FUN!FUN!FUN!FUN!” the thing repeated over and over like a deranged mantra, every one of its hundreds of mouths speaking with a different voice, but all sharing the same madness behind every word.
“Fun? What fun?! This is not having fun! This is creepy possessiveness!” Ann answered.
“You don’t understand! I will have my friends back! THEY ARE MINE! MINE!MINE!MINE!MINE!MINE!MINE!MINE!MINE!MINE!MINE!MINE!MINE!MINE!MINE!MINE!MINE!MINE!MINE!MINE!MINE!MINE!MINE!” As she said this, the tentacle retracted inside the box so that Pinkie’s real body broke free from inside it, showing herself as a shapeless blob of pitch-black sludge covered in mouths, mouths either crying hysterically or laughing without control, while the main one (big enough to swallow an adult human whole) in the middle of the shapeless body kept snapping open and close while drooling uncontrollably.
“She has been weakened a lot from the explosion, and she cannot fight without the protection of her giant puppet, it’s your chance to close the fight and weaken her enough to make her see reason! GO!” Futaba instructed.
“Over here!” Akira yelled while pelting Pinkie in bullets.
“No! Here!” Ann countered, moving in the opposite direction while shooting the various mouths.
“Where are ya looking? I’m right here!” Ryuji said smirking while happily hammering one of Pinkie’s smaller mouths to dust in a shower of teeth fragments.
“ENOUGH!” the monster roared in fury as every mouth snapped forward on top of their own small tentacle to try bite them to pieces.
“Now I get it why you are covered in mouths!” Haru answered, cutting away a mouth with her battle ax.
“Uh? There is a reason?” Ryuji asked while smashing another mouth to pieces.
“Seriously, Skull! Does the concept of ‘Symbolism’ escape you!?” Morgana, using Zorro to cut three mouths at once to ribbons, said rolling his eyes.
“Morgana...” Akira whispered.
“Uh?”
“Come with me...”
“I know what Symbolism is! I just don’t get why everything must have a secret meaning!” Ryuji said, whining.
“Skull, dear...She is Hungry for friendship/company, that is why she is covered in mouths! She can’t think about anything else.” Makoto explained while using Johanna to debuff Pinkie’s extra mouths.
“...It does make sense in hindsight...” he muttered in answer.
“That’s it! I am eating you all!” Pinkie bellowed, recalling every small mouth inside her body so to enlarge her main one to huge proportions while jumping forward like a toad to swallow them.
“Would you look at that! We were waiting for you to do just that!” Ann yelled with a smirk as she dodged the mad charge.
“Eh?”
BEEP! BEEEP!
SLAM!
As soon as Pinkie landed from her jump forward, from her new blind side Joker came crashing against her while driving Morgana’s Van form, launching the giant living mass of sludge on top of the still-burning wreckage of the dance-floor.
“KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” the Distorted Mare bellowed in agony as her entire body got completelyenveloped in flames in an instant.
“Nice move! You could have told us too, though.” Makoto commented, huffing.
“Sorry, me and Joker noticed that she was weak to Fire thanks to Carmen’s attacks and had no time to alert you others too.” Ann admitted, sheepish.
“That is not being weak to fire, she is damn flammable.” Ryuji answered with an impressed whistle.
“Yuck! I am covered in Pinkie slime...” Morgana groaned in disgust while starting his own brushes to clean his windshield.
“I am not...Defeated...Yet...” Pinkie said with a weak voice while she dragged herself away from the fire, although she was rapidly deflating and returning to look like a pony dressed in a tattered jester costume.
“Pinkie, please, that’s enough.” Haru asked with a gentle smile, setting down on her bent knees so to meet the mare’s eyes.
“No...I have...To get my friends back...I-I just need a party big enough!” Pinkie answered stubbornly.
“Is not about the party, Pinkie. And deep inside, you know it.” Ann answered, she too moving closer to take away her jester hat so to caress her head gently.
“We drifted apart! S-Something broke our friendship! But I can fix it!” the mare said as the first tears started falling from her eyes.
“True friendship is unbreakable, not even distance can dent it.” Yusuke answered.
“Sure is sad that we can’t always be together, but that just makes the times we can meet all the sweeter, yeah?” Ryuji added, bumping fist with a smiling Akira and sharing a chuckle together.
“You just worried too much about the party itself, instead of meeting your friends to try mend the bridge, but it is not too late.” Makoto said.
“I-I-It isn’t?” Pinkie asked with a hopeful voice.
“Aren’t you everypony’s friend? You are the expert in Friendship, you should tell us.” Akira answered, showing a small smile.
“Technically Twilight is the ‘Princess of Friendship’...But I recon I am no slouch either.” Pinkie answered, blushing a little in embarrassment.
“Then I guess the party is over, it’s time for you to get back to work and making friends, old and new.” Morgana said, smirking.
“I guess...Can I at least say farewell to Boulder before that?”
“Who?”
“The Treasure! That is my sister Maud’s pet rock, Boulder!” Pinkie answered.
“...A Pet Rock...” Haru muttered, unsure.
“I-I guess!” Yusuke, unnerved a little by the thing, answered while showing her the small rock.
“There he is! Mommy and Daddy weren’t happy with my involvement with this Conversion War, neither my three sisters were...But Maud...She never gave-up on me like them, she said that she knew I would have seen reason and stopped helping Converting the humans soon enough, that is why she gave me Boulder when I came here with the others, to never forget where I come from and who I am...But I guess I still forgot who I was for a little, even if my ‘Pinkie Sense’ tried to warn me whenever I looked at myself in a mirror...” Pinkie said with a small, sad smile while giving a small kiss to the small rock.
“Yeah...Pinkie Sense...” Ryuji muttered, unsure.
“I am glad to see you got better.” Akira answered her.
“I am glad too. Once this is over...Can we be friends? Me and you all?”
“We would be honored.” Haru answered, skillfully ignoring the surprised (and a bit scared) looks the other Phantom Thieves gave her.
“Awesome! See you after my heart-felt confession and ‘Change of Heart’! Bye-Bye!” Pinkie said with a beaming smile before fading away into a swarm of tiny lights.
“...”
“...”
“...Okay, she creeps the shit out of me.” Ryuji admitted, not surprised to see the others give a small shudder he took as their silent confirmation.
“The Palace is crumbling, is time to go home, guys.” Futaba said with a tone sounding a bit saddened as the Palace was slowly rusting and crumbling to pieces all around them.
“Yes, let’s go home.” Akira answered as the group gave a last farewell to the Theme Park before calmly making their way towards the exit gate, this time close enough to not need them to run for their lives.
Just like with Fluttershy’s Palace, none of them saw a mysterious figure of black smoke leave the wreckage of the Palace only to dissipate while screaming in agony for the lost of its Host and cursing the Phantom Thieves in its last throes of misery before dying.
Two days later – Ponyville -
“Another Monitor?” A mare said in surprise as a big monitor was seen in the middle of the biggest park of the small town.
“Hundreds of them, all around Ponyville...” her friend corrected her while pointing with a hoof at the hundreds of monitors littering the entire floating island.
And to their surprise all of them turned-on to show an image of Pinkie Pie, mane completely smooth and the signs of her having spent the last two days crying nonstop clearly visible on her face.
Canterlot – at the same time -
Thousand of monitors, everywhere, in every corner, no matter where one looked, the total number was simply mind-blowing...And all showed Pinkie’s face.
“TURN THEM OFF! TURN THEM OFF NOW!” Shining Armour shrieked in hysterics as he already understood what was about to happen.
“W-W-We have not enough soldiers!” one of the guards said in apprehension at the absurd amount of monitors all around them.
“YOU ARE A UNICORN! START SHOOTING!” the Guard Captain answered, almost foaming at the mouth.
When Pinkie Pie wanted something to happen...That thing would happen, no matter if she had to break the Laws of Physic and Nature for that.
Pie Family’s Rock Farm -
“Daughter?” Igneous Rock said in surprise at the GIANT projection of his daughter Pinkie’s face covering the entire side of his house.
It was then, while Celestia herself was bellowing orders to do EVERYTHING to stop her confession from happening, that the recorded message Pinkie left started playing.
“...H-Hi! I-I will take just a minute of your time...So please, do listen to me...”
“Pinkie!” Twilight gasped in shock, just like the other Elements of Harmony that still had not been visited by the Phantom Thieves did.
I took part to a crime against everything I believe in, against everything EQUESTRIA as a whole is supposed to be build on…
I helped, encouraged...And sometimes even caused...The Conversion of humans into ponies…But...But...
We are not helping them.
We are not saving them.
We are not becoming friends…
We are the Bad Guys, we are killing them in all but name.
Conversion never gets better, the New-Foals just stand there, lifeless, like dolls.
I...I...I…
At this point it was clear the dam broke and Pinkie started crying for real, babbling and hiccuping without control, forcing her to repeat what she was trying to say again and again to be understood.
“I AM SORRY!
I just wanted to have my friends back, to make this War stop and to see everypony be friends!
Instead I simply helped Breaking an entire race and enslave them!
I was unaware of this at first, they talked me into helping heralding the New-Foals in Canterlot so that they could be looked after, never questioning what happened to them,
I never questioned the requests of helping Conversion along, I just went blinded by the idea of having new friends...And after a while I...I...I stopped worrying altogether, swept away by this Madness! I became a Monster myself! But I can no longer ignore the disgust I feel whenever I see myself in the mirror...
Please! If any human is seeing this, please…
I AM SORRY!...I am sorry! I can Change!
I WILL CHANGE! I will pay for my mistakes, for my Sin!
Just give me a chance!
I am sorry!
I am sorry!
I am sorry!
I am sorry!
I am sorry!”
The crying at that point became so intense that her words became incomprehensible, with hiccups and sobs shocking heavily the mare’s body, prompting the message to play again from the beginning, over and over.
“My daughter...My beloved ray of sunshine...Is thy heart finally free of its Madness?” Igneous muttered in disbelief.
“It seems like the miracle we prayed for has finally come, husband.” the stallion’s wife answered in relief.
“Boulder and the Phantom Thieves finally fixed her. Good.” Maud said with a tiny smile of satisfaction.
“It was about time!” Limestone added, huffing, and yet failing miserably in hiding her own relief.
“Phantom Thieves...I am indebted to you, for bringing back my daughter and saving her from her madness, mine gratitude shall never fade.” Igneous muttered while closing his eyes, sending a thankful prayer to the strangers that saved his beloved kid.
Rambunctious she may be, but she was still his beloved daughter, that will never change.
At the same time - Shujin Academy – Music club classroom -
“Over here,” Tempest said with a gentle tone as she opened the classroom door.
“Here?” Pinkie Pie said unsure as she got in.
“PINKIE!”
“F-F-Fluttershy!?” the mare gasped in shock.
“Uh-hu!” the shy Pegasus answered with a gentle, maternal smile while opening her fore hooves wide.
“FLUTTERSHY!” Pinkie howled as she dove for the offered hug, burying her face on the Pegasus mane so to freely cry her eyes out.
“I am sorry!...I am sorry! I am sorry!” she repeated over and over.
“It’s okay, I am sorry too. We got Corrupted and lost control, but we are free now, everything is going to be okay!” Fluttershy answered while caressing Pinkie’s back and rocking her a little.
“A-A-Are we,” Sniffle! “Are we still friends?” Pinkie asked with very red eyes.
“Of course! We are friends, and we will always be. Nothing will ever change that, silly.” Fluttershy answered, giving her forehead a small kiss for extra measure.
“Flu...Flut...Flutt...W-WAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” giving-in to happiness and relief, the party mare finally collapsed in a full nervous breakdown, and yet, still loving the warm hug of her friend, there to finally make all her sorrow melt away.
Two Hours later – Royal Castle -
“We finally managed to remove every single monitor, your Highness, but the damage is done...We fear there is not a single Pony here that has not seen Pinkie’s confession...” Shining Armour said with an utterly ashamed expression.
“And soon everypony still back home too will know about that...And of course every Human too knows of this.” Luna finished saying for him with a growling undertone to her words.
“I am afraid that just like she did with us, Pinkie made sure the Humans too heard her.” the Captain admitted, lowering his head just a little bit more.
“Gh!” in the meantime Celestia was shaking heavily while gritting her teeth as she watched the giant banner that some daring (or suicidal) intruder had the audacity to fix above her very own throne, so that not a single pony could miss it.
Another Element of Harmony lost her Heart to us, with four still to go!
We will steal every Heart of Equestria, big or small! We will force you all to admit your Sins with your own mouth publicly and stop Conversion!
You can’t stop us! You can’t Convert us!
You have been warned,
From
THE PHANTOM THIEVES OF HEARTS.
“AAAAAAAAARGH!” Finally, in a short blast of Magic the giant banner went incinerated, all under the scared eyes of Luna and the others as they saw that blast leave the Sun Alicorn’s horn without mercy.
“I WANT EVERY SINGLE GUARD OUT THERE! GO FIND THE PHANTOM THIEVES! FIND THEEEEEEEEEEEEEM!” Celestia roared furious.
A fury no pony had ever witnessed, hotter than her own sun as her Magic lashed-out without control and created a burning crater on the floor and turned the glass of the near windows into a fine dust.
“Y-Y-YES, YOUR HIGHNESS!” Shining and every single guard present scurried away in fear, ready to do everything in their power to catch the Phantom Thieves so that THEY will be the sole target of Celestia’s wrath.
“We’ll catch them, Sister. Have no fear.” Luna, strangely unaffected by the blood-thirsty fury of the Alicorn, said calmly.
“Yes, we will. And I will personally force-feed them the Conversion Potion, human or Ponies, I will make them chug that down myself...” she answered with a dark tone.
“Your move now, Phantom Thieves! I really want to know who will be your next target, because we will be there waiting to catch you!”
“...Not if I can help them...” Spike, the very author of that banner and secret observer well-hidden in the shadows, muttered with narrowed eyes as he stealthily left the room, unseen by every pony there.
It was clear now that the Phantom Thieves were the only way for this madness to end, and if they needed a spy inside the enemy camp to finally save his friends (Especially his beloved Rarity and Twilight), then he will do the dirty work himself!
“Celestia expects either them to spy on the other Elements themselves or for some pony to do it for them...Nopony will suspect a Dragon!” the young dragon thought in determination.
Now he only had a certain mare to get in contact with if he wanted his plan to start on the right foot…
I suck at fighting scenes...Damnit I wish I had the proper talent to write this story…
Thank you all for reading this chapter as well. Few extras down here, as usual...
Talking Measure:
The Box is 4 meters tall.
The Jack in the box puppet was 10 meters tall.
the Puppet copies of the Elements of Harmony are life sized, exact copies of the originals
Pinkie Pie Real DIstorted Form (just add few hudreds extra mouths)
The giant Puppet Pinkie was controlling from inside (Imagine it as a giant Jack in the Box, connected to a giant overly-ornate wooden box by a spring made of flesh and metal forcefully mixed together.)
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This is pretty good chapter. I love so how many more ponies will be taken down to weaken the main palaces?
Also curious what is making all corrupt?
Whoa...
Okay, you have my attention.
I noticed you have a few grammar mistakes, but the intent was still clear enough.
Have a follow.
9698888
The reason behind corruption is the biggest spoiler I can't give you, I Am sorry😔
The targets are:
The Elements of harmony
Luna
Celestia
Cadence
Blueblood
Shining
Spitfire
9698890
Thank you 🙂
Awesome chapter
Very nice chapter. And good to see we have an scaly confidant inside the realm of Crazy royal of the flaming ball of gas.
.
Keep it up
So who is the next target?
9699358
we can only wait and see
Now I imagine the Phantom Thieves receiving a calling card from Luna, and finding out THEY now have palaces they need to defend from the Knightmare Knights.
Hell yeah, spike is on the move. Nothing can change his pure soul.
I honestly thought the fight scene was pretty good, but I guess what they say is true, the artist (author in this case) is the toughest critic.
9699358
I'm pretty sure the next target is Applejack
9701519
You are correct! XD
AJ is the next Target...and I had some troubles because I decided to deviate from my former plan for her...She is still the 'Wrath' target, but the imaginery I decided to go for her Distorted form and her Palace have changed...kinda...
This is what inspired the "New" Distorted Self of AJ while inside her Palace.
vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/residentevil/images/d/da/Osmund_Saddler_2.png/revision/latest?cb=20180607205111
WITHOUT THE STAFF AND BLINDFOLDED
as for the Palace? that instead is a surprise! XD
9703082
In the japanese version, she is called Navi.
I used It because I find It cute, and reminds me of the fairy from LoZ. XD
https://megamitensei.fandom.com/wiki/Futaba_Sakura
Dude that fight scene was badass epically with the P5 boss music it flowed great.
That fucking calling card was so freaking awesome how the hell did you make it?
9711854
I don't have the faintest clue...
😢😢😢😢
9711899
Well keep it up also HOLY NIGHTMARE FUEL pinkie is horrifying and was that a 4TH wall break about the turn base system nice one.
I can't believe that her pinkie sence warned her about herself but the corruption was holding her down the feels man it hurts.
And last thing to say is MY BOY SPIKE IS ON OUR SIDE YEAH EAT THAT XENOLESTIA HAHAH!!!!!!
9711899
Based on the current setup, and the info given so far, I believe there are four characters I can see getting their own Persona.
Lyra and Tempest, both for obvious reasons; being the heads of two resistance groups.
Spike was slightly less obvious, though this chapter's end pushed it far enough that I'll actually be surprised and disappointed if he doesn't wind up with one.
Finally... from the bit of info you have given us on both her current location/actions, and her current distortion/Palace, I can see Applejack getting one in a similar vein to Futaba's awakening. Both have/had distortions that more affected themselves rather than those around them, and both have shut themselves off from the outside world because of those distortions. Her palace is most likely her own home, so I can see her being dragged into her palace by accident, and I can see her living up to "Honesty" by accepting her own shadow on her own terms. (Alternatively, it's Applebloom that gets taken in, and gets a persona. Either way, I feel that Applejack's palace is the perfect spot for someone to Awaken.)
9737716
Wouldn't that be cliché?
I thought about ONE (and only one) of the Elements getting a Persona, since It would tie well with my plan for the epilogue...
But I am deadly afraid of ruining the story for you others.
What should I do?
9737735
Nah, I don't think it'd be cliche. If you'd given all of them Persona's, then maybe; but I'd almost mark giving just one of them one as an anti-cliche move--especially if you don't go with Twilight as the only one who gets one. I only remarked about Applejack out as the one I think is most likely because based on the scenario painted, it looks like she would be the one in the best position to actually be pulled into her own palace. (Though again, it could also be a set-up for Applebloom, as well.)
I can at the very least tell you that ponies gaining personas, Element bearers or otherwise, would not deter me from the story in the slightest. In fact, seeing what you come up with as far as new personas go would probably increase enjoyment for some people.
9737735
Giving one a persona would work maybe at the end at the final battle for a big kill oh or maybe Joker can get a new Persona from all the Equestrians in one big attack kinda like his ultimate persona
So I was whacking my brain for a Persona, having been "Poisoned" by somebody into actually considering having one of the Elements of Harmony ( AND ONLY ONE) into gaining a Persona
I needed a certain "Symbolism" for it, to remain in line with the overall style of the Persona series AND I needed to create one with the right appearances as well...
Luckily I found a good one while surfing the net in a "drunken-like" state of despair, since I now WANT to do it but I had no idea HOW TO DO IT.
vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/megamitensei/images/1/1d/P5RCendrillon.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/250?cb=20190629065736
Here it is: CENDRILLON.
Persona of the new character Kasumi Yoshizawa that will be playable in "Persona 5 Royal"
The only thing I am certain is that it is based on Cinderella.
At the time I am writing this the real "Symbolism" and "Awakened Form" of this Persona has not be revealed yet (To my knowledge) so I am giving it my own spin on both cases, should something about that be leaked, I will change everything accordingly.
As for you others: feel free to try to guess who is the lucky mare that will join the Phantom Thieves as the ONLY Pony Member.
Tip: it's not Fluttershy, neither is PInkie.
9744365
That was a nice boss fight of Pinkie. But I was kinda expecting the puzzle for getting Pinkie's treasure would be something like the puzzles in the Gloria's Theater stage from Psychonauts and their fight with Pinkie to take place on the theater's stage with Pinkie using the puppets of characters from memory and the plays like Mane Six and villains to fight the Phantom Thieves. And as for who I think that will join the Phantom Thieves I it will be Lyra maybe because sometimes the way she behave and acts similar to a human (like her sometime standing on her hind legs and her sitting in a non-pony manner) allows her to gain a Persona. Or Tempest Shadow because she is a actual fighter and I can see her gaining a badass Persona and Phantom Thieves outfit. I can picture Rainbow Dash's distorted self being a huge robot that looks something like this that have the reasons of cold robotic logic of loyalty while with the mindset of doing things in a awesome way just because it make things looks cool or Rainbow Dash's distorted self can be superhero theme in the style of Wonderbolts.
It looks like Spike is gonna pull a Near move from Death Note.
Fun Fact: The same person who playing the voice of Spike is same person who play the voice of Near from Death Note. I hope that you make that into a joke within your story.
9744365
I'd say either Rarity because of the symbolism of her and Spike, or Applejack due to her being down to earth and not very princessy, but possessed of true inner beauty.
Ryuji answered, rolling her eyes. Don't you mean 'rolling HIS eyes? Ryuji is a guy, not a girl.
10068549
Fixed!
Thank you for telling me 🙂
don't worry about that. just like in persona, the fights themselves are not that important. what mattered were always the characters, stories, dialouge and the world around them.
You wrote Makoto instead of Haru
10173699
Fixed 🙂
Pfffff ha ha ha😂😂😂
No one expects the Dragon inquisition! Go Spike!
YOU KNOW THE DRILL PEOPLE! P5S YOU ARE STRONGER INSTRUMENTAL ON THE CALLING CARD AND P5S OST COUNTER STRIKE FOR BOSS FIGHT!
And don't forget P5 Regret... Right after Pinkie's Shadow gets defeated