If Ace had known of the drastic changes his intervention would have for the world he was sent to, he'd rather have been left at the mercy of the World Government.
Portgas D. Ace son of the late pirate king Gol D. Roger has spent his last couple months looking for Marshall D. Teach for breaking one of the Whitebeard Pirate's core rules. His search had taken him to many places and he had even met some old faces along the way, until one day he had caught up with Teach and the result of their fight would send Ace's life spinning before him and send him on an adventure he never saw coming.
Ace in equestria, might add some tags later depending on where this goes. rated teen for violence and stuff left the other character tag cause from what I have thought up this story doesn't have an end the in foreseeable future, lots of arcs and stuff yo, to much characters Also if you thumbs down I'd appreciate an explanation in the comments
Five men were walking down a road in a town of an island named Banaro. “We’d better cut ‘em off before they leave, or before the navy gets too them first.” said the man leading the group. As they walked down the road they failed to notice another man sitting atop a building watching them go.
“Hey,” said the sitting man, “hold on a second there Teach. We need to talk.”
“Huh?” responded the man referred to as Teach as he turned to face the one who had called him. He wore black boots, black knee-length shorts with an eyelet-studded orange belt, and a blue pouch belted around his left leg. He also wore a short second belt with a large red "A" on the silver buckle over his right hip, but left it unfastened and threaded the free end along the back of his shorts. A dagger in a green sheath hung at his left hip. On his left arm, he wore a Log Pose and a red and white striped bracelet around his wrist, an orange elbow guard, and his "ASCE" tattoo. He wore a red beaded necklace and an orange hat with two bluesmileys, one frowning and one smiling, and a string of red beads sitting above the rim. Two long orange side straps hung down sides of his hat and met at a large medallion of a bull's skull with orange tassels. Upon seeing the man Teach responded, with a hardy grin on his face, “Well, what do you know, Commander Ace.”
The man now known as Ace replied with a frown, “You have no right to call me that anymore. Use that title with respect, or don’t use it at all. I won’t have you mock me.”
“Oh, so this is the famous Fire Fist Ace.” A man with a rifle said as he walked a bit past Teach.
“Yep, that’s me. You guessed it.” Replied Ace. “So this is your crew? It looks like you’ve become a captain now huh? Captain Marshall D. Teach of The Blackbeard Pirates.”
“Zeh hah hah hah hah! Come on Ace, lighten up.” Said Teach with a hardy laugh. “It’s good to see you again. What brings you here, you weren’t looking for me, were ya?”
Ace gave Teach a cold stare and said, “Let’s stop beating around the bush shall we, even if you play dumb I know you’re a crafty bastard. There’s only one reason for me to be here and you know what it is.” Ace’s stare turning into a glare. “So spare me the chit-chat.”
Teach’s smile still had yet to leave his face as he replied, “Fine have it your way, but there’s one question I’d like to ask first. Instead of fighting, why don’t you become a member of my crew?” Ace narrowed his eyes at Teach never looking away from the man. “I have the perfect plan to rise to the top, stick with me and we’ll rule the world! Whitebeard’s days are numbered and you know it! I’m the one who’s gonna be king of the pirates! First I’m headed off to Waters 7 to kill Straw Hat Luffy as a special gift to The World Government!” Ace tensed at this piece of news. “Wouldn’t hurt to have you along for the fun.”
“Luffy huh?” Ace finally deciding to speak up, “You’re out of your mind.”
Teach looked up at Ace with a hint of surprise in his voice, “Oh? You know him?”
“Of course I know him you sack of crap!” Ace growled in response, his head lowered so that the rim of his hat hid his eyes from the pirates in front of him. “I’m not gonna let you kill my little brother!” A simple uhh was all Teach could respond with as his face took on a look of worry and surprise. “And I’m not joining your crew, so you can take your little offer and shove it up your-
Ace was interrupted as one of the lackeys behind Blackbeard turned at the drop of a dime, aimed, and fired his gun at Ace. The bullet found its mark but failed to harm him as it flew through the body of Ace causing flames to erupt from where the bullet exited, lighting the rim of his hat ablaze.
Ace let out a sigh as he said, “Well you get the idea.” The hole left from the bullet slowly closed as in a flash of fire. Ace’s eyes narrowed in determination as he let out a laugh. “Ha! Looks like you need to teach your crew some manners captain.” Ace stood up in an instant and pointed his index and middle fingers at the pirate who shot him.
“HIGAN!”
(FIREGUN)
Ace shouted as bursts of fire exploded from his fingertips flying at the pirate. The pirate with the gun rolled to the right to avoid the fire, shot to his feet and kept running as Ace wasn’t letting up the attack. The creaks and groans of wood caught Ace’s attention, he turned his head to see a brawny pirate hurl a building at him. Ace whipped himself around to face the building flying at him, with a swipe from his arm flames started to circling around him. He squatted down and put his hands to the floor.
“ENKAI: HIBASHIRA!”
(FLAME COMMANDMENT: FIRE PILLAR)
A torrent of flames flew into the sky obliterating the building mid-flight. Blackbeard had to take a couple steps back as debris rained from the sky. “Auger! Burgess! You stay out of this fight! Until you get stronger this guy is out of your league, do you hear me!” Shouted Blackbeard. Burgess replied in apology to his captain but was interrupted by Ace.
“HIKEN!”
(FIREFIST)
Ace launched a giant fireball towards the Blackbeard pirates. Ace heard them all scream as the explosion caught the group. Blackbeard wailed in pain engulfed by the flames. Burgess and Auger ran over to their captain asking if he was okay. All Blackbeard did was wail as the flames continued to burn away him. Ace started walking towards the group as they started trying to put out the flames.
“Get off of me I’m fine!” Blackbeard snarled as he tried to get to his feet and failed, ending with him kneeling on one knee trying to catch his breath as Ace kept getting closer. When Ace had reached a certain distance he stopped walking and now the two just stared at each other. “Heh heh heheheheheh.” Started Blackbeard in a low tone working his way back up to all fours. “Zeh heh heheheheheh.” Blackbeard strained as he stopped leaning on one of his arms and took a kneeling position once more letting out another small laugh. “Heh, all right Ace. I get it. You wanna finish me don’t you? For murder of a fellow crewmate is a serious crime after all, and yes I killed fourth division commander Thatch with my own hands! But there wasn’t any other choice!” Roared Blackbeard. “It wasn’t personal but he had the devil fruit I’d been searching for! You know the rules on Whitebeard’s ship! Whoever finds one of those gets to eat it! I memorized the shapes and colors of all the devil fruits that they’ve discovered, so I knew that was the one I needed! Whether I liked it or not I spent decades biding my time on Whitebeard’s ship because it was the best shot I had at finding that one single fruit! But just when I thought that there was no hope left, there it was, right in the hand of my friend.”
Ace slightly tilted his head before replying, “Then you murdered him in cold blood and stole it. Without a second thought.”
“Bad luck for him.” Replied Blackbeard finally getting to his feet. “There was no other way, this ability has chosen me! Zeh heh heh heheha! And its powers make me the strongest man in the world!” Blackbeard bellowed as he raised his right fist in the air with a manic look in his eyes. “Watch, even among the Logia fruits, there’s nothing quite like it.” As Blackbeard spoke his entire frame started to radiate a shadowy smoke. Not too long after it appeared it shot straight into the air in a pillar of black. Ace’s eyes widened in shock as he watched the pillar shoot from Blackbeard into the sky. “Ace,” Blackbeard called out, “Your body is made of fire, right?” Blackbeard let out a laugh as the smoke started to blot out the sky above them. “My body is darkness.”
Off in the distance townsfolk could see the tower of darkness that Blackbeard had conjured with his devil fruit powers getting them all to look on in fear knowing what was going to happen next as they tried to evacuate.
“Darkness?” asked Ace looking at Blackbeard while black smoke kept fuming off of him.
“You’ll see soon enough Commander Ace,” replied Blackbeard, “And I think you’ll want to reconsider my offer. In the history of all devil fruits this is said to be the most dangerous power of them all. The Logia type Dark-Dark fruit. In other words, I’ve become a darkness man, now I’ll give you a taste of its power. I wouldn’t blink if I were you.” Threatened Blackbeard as he held a hand in front of his face that was overflowing with darkness.
Ace stared at Blackbeard for a few seconds and a smirk slowly started to appear on his face. “Hmph, stop yapping and do it.”
As this was all happening four sole figures ran down the streets of the town. One fell on his face from exhaustion and Burgess started to yell at him, “Hey! Now’s not the time for a nap! Captains on a rampage! If we don’t hightail it out of here he’ll kill us too!” As he finished yelling at the grounded pirate the third started grabbing hold of the fallen ones arm as Burgess took hold of the other and started dragging him across the road. Soon after the fourth fell on his face too, “Not you too damnit!” Burgess yelled.
Darkness wafted off of Blackbeard’s right hand as he raised it higher in a clenched fist. “Zeheheheheh.” With a shout Blackbeard lifted his hand completely outstretching it as all the darkness that he had let flow into the sky came rushing back down onto his form and spread out across the ground from where he stood. The darkness spreading out under all the buildings along the ground as villagers tried to get away. Fleeing to the coast or forest, anywhere as long as the darkness didn’t reach them. “Darkness is gravity, it swallows everything around it, even light itself cannot escape! Its power is infinite!” Howled Blackbeard with the same manic look in his eyes.
Ace stood back as aloof as always eyeing Blackbeard. “That’s real nice but it’s nowhere near me,” stated Ace, standing atop some of the debris that the darkness flowed around, “you sure you got the hang of this?”
“Calm down, I’m not aiming at you yet. You’ll be glad when you see what I do to this town.” Blackbeard threw his arm down with a shout.
“BURAKKU HORU!”
(BLACK HOLE)
As soon as the words left Blackbeard’s mouth the entire town started getting darker by the second. Everything that the darkness was touching began to groan, creak, and break at the immense pressure the darkness put on it. Ace stared at the destruction with a calm look. Whole buildings collapsed, wooden carts left in the streets were shattered and absorbed by the darkness. “Within these shadows lies the limitless power to compress anything and everything! They crush whatever they touch!” said Blackbeard. Slowly the darkness started receding back towards Blackbeard, gathering around his form once again. As the shadows receded all that could be scene of the town left was the giant crater where it once stood. “And that’s just the beginning, now I’ll show you what happened to that town. Or whatever’s left of it I should say.”
“RIBEREISHON!”
(LIBERATION)
As Blackbeard shouted the darkness pooled over his head and expelled everything that it had swallowed up. An entire towns worth of debris spewed from the darkness. Broken beams of wood and mortared bricks began flying in all directions.
“Zehehehehaha! So do you get it now Ace?” Blackbeard started, “This is what I was willing to kill a friend for!” As Blackbeard was talking he noticed several bright green glowing spheres floating towards and around him. “Huh?” was all Blackbeard could let out before Ace interrupted.
With arms extended and glowing hands Ace glared at Teach.
“HOTARUBI HIDARUMA!”
(FIREFLY FIERY DOLL)
In an instant the glowing spheres and Ace’s hands turned a fiery red as all the spheres launched themselves at Blackbeard and ignited into an inferno that engulfed Blackbeard once again. Blackbeard fell to his back wailing about the heat of the inferno once more. Ace kept a narrowed stare on the flailing form of Blackbeard. “The darkness part I get, but this not so much.” Ace said as a smirk grew on his face. “I wonder what’s going on here. If you’re a Logia type that shouldn’t hurt you, or rather it shouldn’t even hit you.” Blackbeard slowly stopped writhing as shadows emerged from his body and extinguished the flames causing Ace to narrow his eyes with a surprised grunt.
Blackbeard breathed heavily as he worked his way to standing up again. He leaned onto his right arm after rolling over, “I already told you. My darkness swallows everything around it whether its punches, blades, bullets, lightning, or fire!” Stated Blackbeard still breathing heavily. “Unlike you I can’t just turn into an element and dodge an attack! The pain I absorb when I get hit is much greater than what a normal human feels.” Ace kept his narrowed stare on Blackbeard as he explained. “But the trade out for that inconvenience is more than worth it.” Said Blackbeard finally back on his feet. “Cause there happens to be one other thing that I can absorb.” Blackbeard extended his left hand.
“KUROUZU!”
(BLACK VORTEX)
Blackbeard’s extended hand turned into a shade of pitch black as black fumes started swirling around his palm. “First I use the gravity of darkness to pull a devil fruit power holder into my grasp.” As he was explaining his powers to Ace black tendrils of smoke got closer and closer until the Ace was pulled towards Blackbeard with a scowl on his face and shock in his eyes. Ace tried to fight against the gravitational force with all his might but failed in the end as he was flung forward, his hat flying from off his head, as Blackbeard grasped at Ace’s right shoulder. Ace grunted trying to free himself from Blackbeard’s grip to no avail. “You’re smart, you figured out the secret yet? Huh?” Blackbeard asked Ace as he let out a small laugh.
Ace snapped his head to look into Blackbeard’s face in shock, “It can’t be!” Ace shouted only for Blackbeard’s smile to grow larger as he threw his arm into Ace’s stomach. The force of Blackbeard’s hit taking Ace along with it as a small amount of blood spewed from Ace’s mouth with a cough. The hit sent Ace hurtling into the debris that still lay around the two.
“Zehahahahah! Hahahahahahahahahahahah!” Laughed Blackbeard as he saw Ace atop the debris with a pained expression on his face. Ace struggled to lift himself out of the hole caused by the impact, as he fell onto the floor he remained standing breathing heavily, Blackbeard started once again, “It’s been so long since you’ve been hit you’ve forgot how much it hurts, Ace. But you understand now, you understood the second I grabbed you.” Ace ran two fingers along the ends of his mouth and was shocked as he pulled them back to see blood on his fingertips. “Not only can my darkness pull you in, it can also absorb your devil fruit power! In other words, as long as they’re in contact with me someone with devil fruit powers is no different than a normal human!” Explained Blackbeard with a menacing look, “Logia, Zoan, Paramecia, all those with devil fruit powers who have become dependent on them are in for a surprise! One little touch will remind them of how weak they really are!”
Ace brought a thumb up to a corner of his mouth to wipe the blood away as he said, “Then all I have to do is avoid you.”
“You think you can escape gravity that easily.” Blackbeard said as more of a statement than a question. “I’d like to see you try!” He shouted as he extended his left arm at Ace once again.
“KUROUZU!”
(BLACK VORTEX)
Ace was pulled off his feet once again as the gravitational power of Blackbeard’s darkness took effect. This time Ace was ready and flung his arms forward,
“SHINKA: SHIRANUI!”
(SAINT ELMO’S FIRE)
Two lances made completely out of fire shot out of Ace’s arms and straight into the chest of Blackbeard, but despite the interruption to Blackbeard’s powers, Ace’s momentum carried him straight into the punch Blackbeard had thrown. Blackbeard roared in agony gripping the flame lances that stuck out of his chest as Ace was sent flying from the punch into more debris. Ace held the back of his neck as he fell to a kneeling position while Blackbeard took hold of the lances and shouted, “Damnit get this off of me!” smoke started swirling around him again to extinguish the flames.
“That bastard almost broke my neck.” Ace said still rubbing his neck getting into a standing position. “His ability is gonna be a bigger pain than I thought.” Ace held his hands up in front of him with both his index fingers crossing each other.
“JUJIKA!”
(CROSS FIRE)
Flame engulfed the front of his index fingers in the form of a cross, light shown through straight at Blackbeard’s chest as fire shot out at the mark. An explosion went off when the fire found its mark and the resulting force caused a giant stone spire to fall over. On a mountain off in the distance stood four pirates watching the intense battle. “This is quite a surprise,” Auger said. “Most devil fruit power holders with one such as his would be rendered ineffective as soon as their trump card was taken away from them. Not so with Ace, his powers are not a crutch but an aid to his own talents. We should expect no less from one of Whitebeard’s commanders. We’re at the crossroads of fate, it’s no coincidence that these men have been brought together.”
Ace was on all fours breathing heavily as he held his eyes shut, not too far across from where Ace was stood Blackbeard with smoke fuming off his body also breathing heavily. “Everything falls before darkness, even you can only struggle for so long.” Blackbeard said, “Still finishing you off here would be a waste of your talent. Don’t fight it Ace! Join me!”
Ace grunted as he struggled to get up, “Heh, if I surrender to you, then I can never call myself a man again.” Ace said as he got to his knees. “I won’t submit and I won’t live with regrets, no matter what! You got that dumbass.”
“Once you die your morals are useless,” said Blackbeard with a growl. “I’m sorry you can’t understand that. Tell me Ace, what do you think will happen to you if I use all of the power at my darkness’ disposal.” Blackbeard said with a menacing laugh.
“I’m guessing we’re about to find out eh Teach.” Ace said as he took a half crouched stance with his arms crossed in front of him.
“DAI ENKAI: ENTEI!”
(GREAT FLAME COMMANDMENT: FLAME EMPEROR)
Flames erupted along the ground around where Ace stood and stretched far wider circling his position. Among the flames Ace stood with his right hand slightly above his head holding an enormous fire ball whose flames roared in fury.
“Zehahahahaha! The sun against darkness huh?! Only one will win! Darkness take you!” shouted Blackbeard at the top of his lungs as darkness flowed from his form.
“I’ll make Whitebeard king of the pirates, or die trying.” With that said both men charged at each other with a roar and let fly their attacks. The fire and darkness collided in the middle of the island, fire fought darkness and darkness fire in a power struggle that wouldn’t seem to end, at the sound of a final explosion an immense blinding light shown at the fight signaling its end. As the light died down there stood only one figure among the newly formed crater while the other was on his back defeated.
“It’s a real shame Ace, it wouldn’t have come to this if you had just joined me.” Darkness began to pool around Ace’s bloody, beaten form as Blackbeard turned and started walking away. “Now feel the full extent of what the yami yami no mi is capable of. Goodbye, Commander Ace.” Ace’s body fell deeper and deeper into the darkness, to the depths of which nothing should have been able to survive. It was at this moment that a voice spoke in his head, a voice that he didn’t hear thanks to his unconscious condition, and a moment later a light aura began to envelope the pirate as he disappeared into the darkness.
It was a cool night in Equestria, a soft wind blew through the trees and surroundings. The wind on his face stirred Ace from his rest, his eyelids fluttered as he stretched where he lay. Being a logia, not feeling pain wasn't to surprising, but what did surprise him was the soft grass underneath. From what he remembered of the fight with Blackbeard he hadn’t expected anything but hard ground and rubble to survive, if it had been lucky. With the fight in mind he finally decided to sit up and give his body a once over for any major injuries. Ace didn’t like how big an advantage Blackbeard had held during their fight, the ability to negate the logia effect of the mera mera no mi had been surprising to say the least. After re-evaluating the fight, he took a second to look at himself. His body held no bruises, scratches, or even dried blood to his slight shock, he figured after such a battle, even as a logia, he’d have some form of marks on his body. With that out of the way Ace stood up and took a look at his surroundings, it was nighttime with the moon standing smack in the middle of the starry night sky. He turned his head to the left and saw an old wooden bridge that lead into an eerie looking forest, between him and the bridge though, Ace spotted something that brought a small smile to his face. As he walked up to the object to make sure he wasn’t mistaken he looked in the other direction and saw the ruins of a building long ago abandoned. As soon as he reached the object he knelt forward and picked it up, his smile turned into a smirk as he confirmed that it was indeed his hat, bluesmileys, beads and all. Without a seconds’ hesitation he put it on and debated where he should head. On one hand he could take the bridge into the forest and follow the path wherever it might take him, a village or town he hoped, or he could sate that adventuring sense of self he’s always had since childhood and explore the ruins. Before deciding where to go though, Ace spared a glance at his Log Pose to find it completely still. But before he could bother asking himself about that his attention was taken away as flash of blue light came from within the ruins. ‘Well, I guess it’s settled then.’ He thought to himself, and with that he began his walk towards the ruins.
It only took him a bit over a minute to clear the gap between him and the ruins, once close enough he spotted a place where the wall had crumbled and decided to just go through there. Once inside he looked around to find dust, darkness, and tattered tapestries. The tapestries divided the room in different colors and design. On his left, all the tapestries followed a blue and silver color scheme, depicted what looked to be a blue horse with wings and a horn, and the moon. While the side on the right held a white and gold color scheme, with depictions of a white horse with the same appendages as the blue horse, and the sun, and at the front of the room two thrones stood in shambles, on the left a midnight blue throne stood with a tattered banner depicting a crescent moon that hung above, while on the right was a radiant golden throne with a slightly less worn banner that depicted the sun. Ace would’ve kept exploring had a voice filled with anger not caught his attention. “Blast! They’re almost upon us and none of our efforts have had the desired effect!” the voice shouted unaware of his presence within the ruins. Ace tried to find the voice but it was made somewhat more difficult by the fact that it was echoing all around the ruins. “If this is truly their destination then we shan’t allow them to arrive. For there is only one thing worth of note left in this despicable castle. If they are after the Elements of Harmony, on the off chance they actually could wield them, we must not allow them to use them against us.” The voice went on talking to themselves, Ace could’ve sworn the last corner he had turned was where the voice had been coming from, but to his displeasure all he found was another empty room. ‘Where is that voice coming from?’ Ace wondered, looking around the room. As he eyed along the wall his gaze fell on a spiral staircase heading upwards. Without a second thought Ace went up the stairs with some caution in his step. He stayed as quiet as possible staring ahead at what stood in the middle of the room. The first thing Ace noticed was the ethereal cloud coming from the helmet that the pitch black horse wore. It wore silver blue armor that covered most of its body, from the helmet also protruded a black horn. If it had blue fur instead of black he would’ve assumed it was the horse from the tapestries, aside from the armor. “We will wait for them to get close to the elements and that’s when we’ll st-“ it stopped mid-sentence and whipped its head towards where Ace still stood processing what he was seeing. It snarled at Ace in fury as its reptilian eyes locked with his. “Who dare sneak up on us!” it shouted.
As Ace finally broke out of his stupor he kept his eyes on the horse in front of him and slowly went up the last of the stairs. Now he could properly get a look at what was before him, it stood as tall as he did and held extreme malice in its face. He kept his guard up just in case but took his normal aloof stance. He didn’t say a word as he sized up the thing in front of him. It snarled a bit more fiercely and Ace could tell it was losing its patience. So finally he decided to speak, “What are you?” he asked in an even tone.
It howled into the night sky with a manic laughter at this, “We are Nightmare Moon and we are here to plunge the world into an eternal darkness where the night will last forever!” she howled. “Now tell us, is thou foolish enough to stand in our way?” she asked with a hint of mirth in her voice.
‘So it’s a fight you’re looking for then’ Ace mulled over in his thoughts, “I’m pretty sure eternal night wouldn’t work out well but aside from that, what if I was? What makes you think you could harm me?” Ace challenged. The anger she held in her face did not go unnoticed by Ace as he prepared himself for what she might be planning.
Nightmare snarled as her face grew into a condescending smirk. “Very well then, it seems tis up to us to give thou a reason to fear us." 'Our full power should not even be necessary to deal with this nuisance.'
'A fight it is then.' Ace told himself, “Just know this all could’ve been avoided.” Ace stated still aloof as ever.
With a yell Nightmare Moon sent a blast of magic towards Ace that he simply stepped to the side to dodge. Within a second of the side step he lunged towards Nightmare and sent a fist flying for her head that she ducked under and proceeded to send a surge of magic forward that forced Ace to slide backwards as she simultaneously leapt away. At the creation of space between the two Nightmare took a second to reevaluate her opponent as he stood to his full height. ‘He’s faster than we thought he’d be. We’ll have to be on guard for when he attempts another attack.’
As Ace worked his way back up to standing at full height he started thinking of ways to neutralize his opponent to hopefully talk some sense into her, but whatever force he just felt was going to make that more difficult. He may not know what it was but he knew for a fact that Nightmare controlled it, her horn started glowing before that first attack and again when he was pushed back. ‘Were those devil fruit powers?’ he thought to himself. ‘Even if they’re not this fight just got more interesting.’ “If that was all you’re capable of then I’m afraid this fight might as well be over with.” Ace said trying to goad Nightmare to see exactly how much power she had. Ace smiled internally as her scowl grew, with a growl she reared her head back and shot a beam of pure magic at Ace but he dodged to the side with a roll. Ace was taken by surprise when he saw Nightmare turn her head towards him and the beam followed, he forced himself to his feet as he ran from the beam that trailed behind him.
Nightmare’s head followed her opponent around the room trying to hit him with her magic but he was proving to be too fast for it. With a particularly violent turn she shut her eyes and sent the beam ahead of Ace hoping to end her opponent or at least inflict some damage when the beam passed him. As her head finished its turn she stopped the flow of magic and surveyed the area, she had completely obliterated a good portion of the wall of the ruins. However, when she didn’t spot her opponent she let out a light chuckle in assumed victory. With that annoyance out of the way she let her mind wander back to the much bigger problem at hoof, she closed her eyes and focused on the ruins and the surrounding area. Her eyes snapped open when she felt five presences outside and a sixth in the chamber that held the elements. Her grin grew into a full blown smile in that instance. If these were truly the bearers of the elements of harmony, then this would be too easy, for the elements of harmony were still unresponsive. As she was preparing her teleportation spell she hadn’t heard the thud that came from the other side of the wall.
Ace grunted with effort as he shot to his feet and started running with the beam trailing right behind him. He chanced a glance back and saw the beam leaving a small trail in the wall and Ace still not risking the chance that his abilities weren’t back up to par didn’t want to risk getting hit by that. His running went on for a few more seconds before he heard Nightmare grunt and shout as the beam seemed to grow and get intense enough to blast through the wall completely. At this revelation Ace slid to a stop, turned around, watched as the beam got closer and jumped over it as it swept by him in a much faster speed than it had been going. The second Ace’s feet touched the floor he looked at Nightmare and saw her facing where her beam had ended with eyes closed. He took this time to jump out of the hole made by the beam and held on to the ledge of the wall. He closed his eyes, slowed his breathing, and listened intently. He heard Nightmare laughing, assuming that she thought she won he'd wager. Ace opened his eyes and pulled himself up enough to get a glance at what Nightmare was doing now. He saw her with her eyes closed, concentrating almost, maybe she was trying to sense if she had truly beaten him. Not long after that thought entered his mind did he have to duck as Nightmare’s eyes snapped open. He waited for a few seconds wondering if she had seen him but when the room started glowing blue again he let himself fall to the ground assuming she was going to attack again. As he hit the ground a bright blue flash went off in the room and all was silent. ‘Huh, guess she didn’t see me. That could’ve gone better, but still it wasn’t worth getting caught off guard in a fight again.’ He said to himself but his thoughts were interrupted when he heard screaming coming from his right.
He rushed along hugging the wall of the castle, ‘I know I heard someone scream, but where did it come from.’ Ace sped up his pace as he came to a different entrance to the castle he hadn’t seen. He got close to the entrance and put his back to the wall as he peaked into the room. At this point he was less surprised than he would’ve been earlier but he still didn’t expect to see another five colorful horses in the room all looking around in a panic. ‘Oh great more of them?’ he silently cursed wondering if these were as hot headed as the other one. He did notice that these were actually smaller than the one from earlier, he also noticed that two of them, the pink and orange horses didn’t have wings or horns. A yellow one with a long pink mane and the blue one who somehow had a rainbow mane had wings, and the last one, was white with a purple mane and had a horn. ‘Two pegasi, a unicorn, and two normal horses. What have you done to me Blackbeard?’ Ace asked himself. As soon as he left his thoughts to get eyes back on the situation before him, all he saw was an empty room. Slowly he crept in just in case they had seen him and were planning an ambush, but when nothing had been sprung by the time he made it to the center of the room he heard gasps coming from a stairwell to his right. He followed the stairs to the second floor once again and his sight was greeted to Nightmare Moon standing tall and laughing like a maniac with a purple unicorn that looked like it had just lost all hope in winning. He shot forward and delivered a swift punch that knocked the wind out of Nightmare, the defeat out of the purple unicorn who lay on the ground, and every other horse there out of their stupor as they rushed forward to the unicorn’s side.
Ace stood there with a smirk and his hand extended in a fist that was pointing towards Nightmare as he watched her pick herself up as soon as she stopped coughing and gasping for air. All it took was one second of a glance at Nightmare’s eyes to see the amount of rage she held in that moment, which seemed to double as she laid eyes on Ace. “You should really pick on someone your own size.” He said with mirth in his voice as he let up on his stance in favor of standing straight up.
“You.” Hissed Nightmare with palpable venom in her voice, “You’re supposed to be dead!” She yelled as she launched herself at him.
Ace launched himself towards Nightmare at the same time, he reared his hand back again going for another punch but this time Nightmare stopped dead in her tracks as his arm burst into flames. He saw the shock register in Nightmare’s face as he let out a shout.
“HIKEN!”
(FIREFIST)
A giant fireball shot out from his fist as he sent it flying towards Nightmare, he only had a split second to see her shock turn into anger before it made contact and exploded. After all the time he’s had the abilities of the mera mera no mi the shockwave let out by the explosion didn’t bother him anymore. His attention was pulled away from the fight a second later as he heard screaming coming from behind him. He turned around to find the six horses all huddled around each other with their hooves over their heads. He let out a smirk as he turned his attention to his front again. As the smoke settled he kept his eyes alert in case Nightmare had somehow managed to avoid his attack. To his surprise not only was Nightmare unharmed she was standing in the exact same place she had been with a smirk on her face. Ace narrowed his eyes but chose to remain silent.
Nightmare started laughing, quietly at first but gradually rising in volume. “Did thou really think such a pathetic attempt would truly harm us?! If thou were capable of such feats, why had thou not used them against us before?! Didst thou believe we were inferior in power?!” Nightmare snarled the last bit. “Thou shalt meet your end today along with these pretend bearers! NOW DIE!” Nightmare reared her head back and unleashed the strongest blast Ace had yet seen.
Ace was about to jump to the side when he glanced behind him and to his displeasure found the ‘pretend bearers’ paralyzed with fear. Fear of him, fear of Nightmare Moon, and the fear that they were all about to die. Ace steeled himself and dug his feet into position, he looked over his shoulder at the six behind him and gave them a smirk. Facing forward again he braced himself for the attack.
Twilight had been in shock since Nightmare Moon had shattered the elements, there she was lying on the ground trying to figure out some way to win. Nightmare Moon stood before her cackling, her friends stood behind her with mixed faces of shock and worry. Right when it all seemed lost she had an epiphany. She looked up at Nightmare Moon with defiance in her eyes that quickly turned into confusion as she stared up at a bipedal creature with a purple skull that had a giant white crescent mustache on top of a cross made of another two purple bones on it's back. The creature stood there with one of its limbs outstretched and Nightmare Moon lay gasping and coughing on the floor a slight distance from where the creature stood. ‘What is this thing?’ A lot of questions raced through Twilight’s mind but this one was the one on the front lines, that is until she heard Nightmare Moon hiss and yell at the creature at the top of her lungs. Twilight hadn’t even noticed her friends at her side until they started shaking her from side to side. But as soon as she had registered the presence of her friends they disappeared just as quickly when she noticed the creatures arm get engulfed by flames. She was about to cry out in warning when the fire flew off his arm and towards Nightmare Moon, not a second later a huge explosion rang out. Twilight and her friends were buffeted by the shockwave and were forced to cover their heads until it passed.
Once it was over Twilight was the first of the group to stir and the first thing that greeted her eyes was the creature looking over its shoulder with a smirk as the area in front of it grew brighter and brighter. She took her eyes off of it to see a huge mass of magical force barreling towards the seven of them. With so little time to act all Twilight could do was bring up the strongest barrier she could muster around her friends before the magic hit the creature and everything went white.
Nightmare cackled into the sky as her magic swirled around her. She had won, the elements lay in shards at her hooves, the bearers all wore looks of worry and fear, and even the unicorn who had found the elements had a faraway look in her eyes. All was going according to plan, she would end the bearers then and there and eternal night would be that much closer as a result. That is, if she weren’t on the floor coughing and gasping for air wondering what had the audacity hit her. She started to glance around the room but her eyes found the culprit almost immediately. “You should really pick on someone your own size.” It said with a growing smirk. Rage and confusion filled her mind when her eyes met the eyes of the creature she had fought earlier. ‘How is it still alive!?’ she roared in her mind. She worked her way back up to her hooves with a scowl on her face and murderous intent in her mind.
“You,” she hissed, “You’re supposed to be dead!” and with a rage filled roar she launched herself at him. The creature launched itself at her simultaneously, with a yell its arm was engulfed by flame. She stopped mid-charge as she was taken by surprise from the sudden appearance of the flames. The creature smirked and let the flames fly with a shout.
“HIKEN!”
(FIREFIST)
Nightmare barely had time to register the creatures shout as a giant fireball was sent hurdling her way. With a scowl she threw up a barrier wall between the fireball and herself, and to her surprise the force of the explosion broke her barrier. She threw up a second barrier around herself to guard against the shockwave that followed. ‘Tis a bigger problem than I gave him credit for. If he’s capable of this much force, we should end him before he becomes a bigger pain in our side.’ As the smoke began to clear she stood tall with a smirk on her face. Once his gaze met hers his eyes narrowed in response and she began to laugh, “Didst thou really think such a pathetic attempt would truly harm us?! If thou were capable of such feats, why had thou not used them against us before?! Didst thou believe we were inferior in power?!” She snarled. “Thou shalt meet your end along with these pretend bearers! NOW DIE!” Nightmare pointed her horn at the creature and channeled as much of her magical power as she could, ‘Either way we will rid ourselves of one of our problems! If he moves our magic will hit the six ponies behind him. If he doesn’t then he forfeits his life!’ She screamed internally. The blast left her horn and even she was forced to steady herself because of the recoil of such an attack. The magic launched towards her opponent and Nightmare could only smile as he took a defensive stance before the magic exploded into a bright light.
Twilight and her friends were forced to cover their eyes as the immense light from the magic blast seemed to get to bright for their eyes. With her head still lowered she swiveled her ears trying to figure out who was left standing. Much to her dismay it was dead quiet, aside from the breathing of her friends and a crackling sound, there were no cheers that came from either side. As much as she hated the idea she slowly opened her eyes and gazed at the two combatants still staring each other down. She turned her gaze towards Nightmare Moon to see a quickly faltering smile on her face. Her eyes shifted to the creature that had stood in the way of the blast and widened in horror as she looked at the flaming hole in the creature’s torso. “W-why didn’t you m-move?” she asked quietly trying to find her voice.
Ace stood stock still staring ahead at Nightmare, “I figured I was more likely to survive that then you and your friends.” They all stared on in shock as the flaming hole closed itself and left no mark to show that it was ever there in the first place. Ace kept his eyes on Nightmare as he stood up straight.
“H-how did you do that?” The purple unicorn asked with disbelief clear in her voice.
“No time to talk about that now, get your head in the game kid you’re still in danger. Take your friends and go back home, I’ll deal with this.” It said with a tone of finality in its voice.
“N-no! We can’t! As the wielders of the elements it’s our responsibility to fight against the evils that threaten the land!” The purple unicorn replied without hesitation. “The elements are the best option against Nightmare Moon!”
“Heh, Twilight dear, maybe it’s best not to argue with a creature that not only survived one encounter with Nightmare but also seemed to shrug off a hole in its chest.” Said the white unicorn with a hint of fear in her voice.
“If you ask me he’s definitely a bigger threat than Nightmare.” The rainbow maned Pegasus whispered a bit to loud while glaring at Ace.
“Well ah think we should only take one problem we can handle at a time. We have our hooves full with Nightmare, we really shouldn’t be picking a fight with somepony that is helping with that problem.” Said the orange pony.
“C’mon guys if we keep talking they’ll never start the fight! I wanna see if he knows how to use haki.” Said the pink one with a bag of popcorn ignoring the looks her friends were giving her.
“Well with the peanut gallery out of the way we can get down to business. Why do you want to plunge the world into an eternal night Nightmare Moon?” Ace asked thinking of how he was going to go about this fight. ‘If that hit was her best then I have nothing to worry about. But the fact that I still felt some of that puts her strength around the level of the mera mera no mi.’
“We don’t have to explain our actions to one such as thee. Our motives are our own, but thou have impressed us. Thine strength is greater than we first assumed, so we have an offer for you.” Ace’s head lowered enough for his hat to hide his eyes, something felt oddly familiar about the situation he found himself in. Nightmare ended with a dangerous smile, “Join us. Thou could lead our armies into battle against our sister. Nothing would stand in our way!”
“Your sister huh?” Ace said in an even tone filled with cold fury. Memories of the battle with Blackbeard still fresh in his mind. “You’re out of your mind.” Nightmare let out a low growl at his response as her smile faltered. “Do you have any idea how important family is?” His thoughts floating to Luffy, and darker thoughts of Sabo.
“Tch, fool. We would have been unstoppable. Nevertheless, if thou doesn’t stand with us, then thou are against us.” With her piece said Ace felt something hit him in the stomach faster than he could register what it could’ve been. The force of the blow sent him hurtling through the castle wall and into the ground outside of the castle.
With a grunt Ace picked himself up from the crater his body had made, stretching his limbs and rolling his shoulders. In a flash of blue Nightmare stood before him with a silver and blue blade levitating in the air beside her. She lunged at him at a speed Ace almost couldn’t register, had he not stepped to the side Nightmare’s sword would’ve cleaved him in two, for whatever danger that meant to a logia. He retaliated with a swipe of his arm as a wave of fire flew out from it. Nightmare took to the skies to dodge the flames and shot more bolts at him. Ace dodged each bolt that she threw at him with ease, he rolled to the side of the last bolt and into a position on one knee with his arms close to his sides. He pointed the index and middle fingers towards Nightmare and said, “My turn.”
“HIGAN!”
(FIREGUN)
With a shout fire erupted from his fingertips in dual bursts. The fire bullets flew at Nightmare and she had to fly her best to dodge them all, he kept up the attack not letting Nightmare take a breather until he caught movement in the corner of his sight and rolled forward snapping his head at what moved. It was a midnight blue sword that shared the visual attributes of Nightmare’s mane. Ace had been about to roll out of the way again as the sword flew towards him but to is confusion he couldn’t move. He looked at himself and noticed he was covered in the same blue aura that the levitating sword Nightmare used earlier had. As the sword flew at him it split into three exact copies and each flew into a different direction, the original flew upwards while the other two flew to the sides. After they had reached a certain distance all three turned simultaneously and sped at Ace easily going twice as fast as the original had the first time around. With her swords closing in on him and her seeing no way for him to escape Nightmare let out a laugh that echoed across the night as the three swords pierced Ace’s body. Ace smirked however when he heard Nightmares laugh die in her throat. Where the swords protruded there was no blood, the only thing at the entrance and exit wounds were flames that licked at the air, and a smirk on Ace’s face when they made eye contact.
She growled and flew down towards him, “Tis our turn to have our question answered, what are you?” She asked in a tone Ace considered soft for her.
“I am the second division commander of the Whitebeard Pirates,” He said with pride in his voice, “Portgas D. Ace.”
“Thou are not a normal being, how can thou have such powers. How have we not harmed thee?!” Nightmare asked with a bit more anger behind her voice. Before Nightmare could get her answer she was forced to leap back as Ace’s entire form erupted into flames. Nightmare took to the skies and eyed Ace from the air.
Ace’s show of force had surprised Nightmare enough for her concentration to be broken. Ace was finally free of Nightmare’s hold. The fire around Ace concentrated on both his arms as he stared up at Nightmare with a smirk on his face. “Here I thought you wanted a serious fight, but all you’re doing is flying away. So how about we take care of that small problem.” Ace pulled both arms back then flung them forward.
“SHINKA: SHIRANUI!”
(SAINT ELMO’S FIRE)
Twin flame lances shot out from Ace’s arms and the shock on Nightmare’s face was all Ace needed to know that she wouldn’t be able to stop them as they pierced both her wings. With a pained shout she spiraled to the ground and hit the ground hard on her side.
Once Nightmare had gotten back to her hooves she flared her wings on instinct and was met with instant pain. She growled and glared at Ace, while her flight might not have been her biggest advantage it certainly had helped out against his faster attacks. Silently cursing herself for that moment where she let her emotions get the best of her, she slowly lowered her wings and rested them by her sides while she tried to heal the damage with what little medical magic she knew. The two glared at each other again before Nightmare decided on what course of action she would take.
Twilight and her friends were forced to cover their faces again as more dust and rubble was kicked up from where the creature was blasted through the walls of the old castle. They all opened their eyes simultaneously and as they did all their gazes met with a smiling Nightmare’s gaze. “As soon as we have dealt with that nuisance we’ll be back for you bearers. Now sit still like good little ponies.” As Nightmare finished she teleported away in a blue flash.
“Are you girls all ok?” Twilight asked her friends.
“We’re fine Twi, but come on we gotta hurry and stop those two before they take the fight to Ponyville!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash.
“No, we’re not fine Rainbow. Poor Fluttershy hasn’t moved since that critter had a hole blasted through it. We are not goin’ head first into a situation too dangerous if it can be avoided.” AJ stated with a bit of heat in her voice.
“Girls please while I’m sure that that… umm… creature is dangerous, he seemed to be on our side. He did fight Nightmare Moon once before evidently and he seems to be holding her at bay even now.” Rarity said as she walked over to the new hole made by the creature’s abrupt exit.
Pinkie had been standing there watching the fight since the hole was made, “You guys we have to help him, if we help him then maybe he’ll see that not all ponies are bad. If his first contact was Nightmare Moon he might get the wrong idea about us. I also wanna make another new friend.” Pinkie said as she finished with a squee.
“As much as I’d like to repay him the favor for saving our lives by fighting alongside him he was right. As we are now we don’t stand a chance against Nightmare Moon.” Twilight stated dejectedly.
“When he first told us to leave you said we couldn’t because we were the bearers of the elements and Nightmare has been calling us the bearers as long as we’ve been in the castle.” Rainbow said, “So if it’s true can we wield the elements and join the fight?”
“I suppose we could but the elements are still in shards and scattered all over the place thanks to the shockwave from his fireball. If we can gather them then I should be able to do what needs to be done to activate them.” With Twilights explanation they began to search for the shards under rubble and everything that looked like it could’ve been upturned in the fight.
While everyone else was searching Pinkie still stood at the wall watching the fight between the creature and Nightmare, Nightmare was flying around and the creature was shooting fire at her. Despite the provided entertainment Pinkie left the wall and turned towards her friends to find them all kicking around rubble and rocks looking for something. All except for one shy yellow Pegasus, now Pinkie knew how easy Fluttershy was to spook and considering what had just gone down in the room not too long ago she knew Shy must’ve been scared something fierce. So naturally uncharacteristic on Pinkie she walked up to the butter yellow Pegasus and talked to her in a quiet tone. “Hey Fluttershy, you’re not hurt are you?” Fluttershy only responded with a shake of her head. “That’s a relief, I dunno what I’d do if my friends got hurt. You must have been real scared when the explosion went off, but it’s ok. He was trying to protect us from Nightmare Moon, he even went as far as taking that direct hit that left a hole in his chest.” Not a second after the words left Pinkie’s mouth was Fluttershy holding on to her crying her eyes out on her friend’s shoulder. “Hey, hey it’s ok Fluttershy. He’s on our side, he’s going to be one of our closest friends, I can guarantee it.”
“I-it was s-s-so scary!” Fluttershy said between sobs, “F-first w-we had to d-deal with Nightmare M-Moon, then he threw that f-fire and the e-explosion was s-so strong.” Pinkie let Fluttershy be as she lightly patted her on the back, being a sympathetic ear for her friend. “Then N-Nightmare shot a h-hole through him.” Fluttershy said almost to quietly for even Pinkie to hear her.
“It’s ok Fluttershy, you know he didn’t mean to scare you, besides if you stayed scared of him you’d miss out on all the crazy adventures we’re going to have.” After a few minutes Fluttershy’s sobs had stopped and her breathing returned to normal, “There you go,” said Pinkie as she let her hooves fall, “Now how about we go help the rest of the girls look for the element shards.” Fluttershy nodded in response as a small smile creased her face.
After a few more minutes of searching Twilight let out a triumphant sigh as she had all the pieces before her. “Ok, now that we have all the pieces all I should have to do is state how we embody the elements. Applejack, you reassured me that I would be fine despite how scared I was when you told me to let go on that cliff, you represent the element of honesty.” With that, AJ started floating a bit off the ground as some of the element shards began to float around her with an orange glow. “Fluttershy, when the manticore attacked us you were the only one able to stop it, you tamed it not with violence but with compassion, you represent the spirit of kindness.” Fluttershy was next to float in place as pink shards surrounded her. “Pinkie Pie, in the forest that had us all scared and running around you were the only one to banish the fear by giggling in the face of danger, you represent the spirit of laughter.” Pinkie started to float as light blue element shards started circling her. “Rarity, you were able to calm down the sea serpent at the cost of your own tail, you represent the spirit of generosity.” Rarity began to float as well surrounded by purple shards. “Rainbow Dash, even with one of your heart’s desires on the line you still chose to stand by your friends, you represent the spirit of loyalty.” Rainbow floated up just like all her other friends surrounded by red shards. “It was thanks to the five of you that we were able to make it this far.”
“But Twilight, what about the sixth element?” Asked Rarity.
“Yeah and what about the spark?” Rainbow continued.
Twilight slowly shook her head at her friends with a smile on her face. “It was a different kind of spark, I felt it the very moment I realized how happy I was to hear you, to see you, how much I cared for you all. The spark ignited inside me when I realized that you are all my friends. You see when the elements are ignited by the spark that resides in all our hearts it creates the sixth element, the element of magic.” Finally, Twilight started to float but instead of shards a blinding light came from beneath her horn. When the light faded all six ponies had all four hooves on the ground and had donned necklaces with shining jewels at the center with the exception of Twilight. Twilight wore a crown with a purple star at the center.
“Is everypony ok?” Applejack asked as soon as she could see again. As everypony began to look themselves over they all began to notice their new necklaces, and Rarity was ecstatic that her tail had regrown.
All the girl’s attentions were taken from them as they saw a giant ball of fire appear in the field where Nightmare had blasted the creature through, in that instant all the girls wore faces of determination that ranged with excitement, fear, joy, and even more determination. With all their minds set they rushed to the field to return the favor to the creature that had helped them.
“Tell us Ace, why must thee fight against us? Tis obvious this isn’t your natural realm? Why fight for it when thou has no stake to claim here?” Nightmare asked biding time for a new plan to come to mind.
Ace narrowed his eyes at Nightmare as he crossed his arms in front of him. “You’re right, this may not be my realm, as you put it, but that won’t stop me from doing what must be done. Right now getting back to my home may be top priority but even I can tell that you’re up to no good. I may be a pirate but I still have morals and I couldn’t just stand by and watch you kill those six ponies.” As Ace finished this bit he lowered his head enough for his hat to cover his eyes before he started again, “And this reason for wanting to defeat your sister, I get the feeling this isn’t some friendly spar.” Ace said quietly despite the rage he felt festering inside. “Now in my opinion family is one of the very few things I’m willing to lay my life down for, yet here you are willing to kill your sister without hesitation.” Ace picked up his head enough to glare into the eyes of Nightmare. “That alone is reason enough for me to intervene.”
Before either could get another word in they were interrupted by six ponies, each one with a new adornment. Nightmare knew she was in trouble, between the Elements and Ace her chances had gotten a lot slimmer. Despite how much she hated the idea a tactical retreat seemed her best option at the moment.
“Nightmare Moon!” Shouted Twilight, “It’s over, we have the elements. Just give up.”
Nightmare let out a cackle as her horn lit up, “Don’t think this is over.” Nightmare told the elements, “Either of you.” She added as she glanced back at Ace. The light from her horn shown brighter and brighter until all the ponies and the one human were forced to shield their eyes, with a cackle and a pop Nightmare was gone. Her laugh still echoed in the night as the moon began its descent far faster than it had any right to.
As the moon set and the sun rose, it shown with an immense light as another pony seemed to come out of the sun. It landed in front of the six ponies and human, but with slight confusion on its face it spoke, “Twilight, I see that you and your friends now bear the Elements of Harmony. While this is marvelous news I have to ask, what happened to Nightmare Moon?”
Twilight and the other ponies had been bowing since the appearance of the other pony. When she was addressed Twilight lifted her head with slight disappointment in her face, “I’m sorry Princess Celestia but Nightmare Moon teleported before we could try to use the elements on her.”
Celestia frowned at the news but it was gone as soon as it appeared, “While that is unfortunate, at least now we have the elements and will be ready when she reappears. Now for my second question, what is this creature that stands behind you and your friends?”
This time Twilight’s face took a look of curiosity as she glanced back at him. “We aren’t sure, but without his help Nightmare would have beaten us before we could have reactivated the elements.”
Celestia turned a thoughtful stare towards him and muttered, “I see.”
Ace stood silent staring at the seven ponies before him, ‘So the purple unicorn is Twilight and this must be the sister of Nightmare Moon.’ Ace mulled over his next action while taking a good look at the group in front of him, the pink one watched him intently with a smile on her face and waved at him when they made eye contact. The orange pony and blue pegasus stood alert and eyed him with suspicion. The white unicorn and yellow pegasus both eyed him with fear, the former less so than the latter as she hid behind the unicorn when his gaze shifted towards them. Twilight and Celestia both seemed lost in thought staring in his general direction, Twilight with an inquizitive look in her eyes while Celestia’s held sadness.
Twilight snapped herself out of her thoughts and steeled her resolve, with as even a face she could hold she walked up to the creature. “I’d like to thank you for your help with Nightmare Moon, and if you don’t mind I have some questions I’d like to ask you.” Foregoing speaking at the moment the creature simply nodded and gestured for her to continue. “Right,” she started with a smile, “First off, what are you exactly?”
Ace stared at Twilight momentarily before dropping his head with a sigh and crossed his arms. “My name is Portgas D. Ace, and I am the second division commander of the Whitebeard Pirates. On the seas however I’m known by a different name, most refer to me as the pirate Fire Fist Ace with a bounty of 550,000,000 Beri.” ‘If Teach really did send me here then he’s got one bad sense of humor. I really hope these ponies know of a way to get me back to the Grand Line, Luffy might be in danger and I still have to catch Blackbeard.’ Twilight and two other pony’s ears fell and eyes widened at the news, while the blue pegasus scowled and took a somewhat defensive stance.
All was quiet and the air tense while the ponies processed what they were told. Ace was about to speak up when he noticed the orange pony walk up next to Twilight, take the hat from her head and hold it to her chest, “Ah’d like tah thank you Ace, for helping us against Nightmare Moon. Ah’m Applejack by the way,” she placed her hat back on her head and continued, “and with that outta the way ah’d like tah know what you plan on doin’ next. While ah am grateful, Rainbow was right, not only did’ja fight off Nightmare on your own, if what she said was right, that wasn’t even the first time that’s happened.”
Ace narrowed his eyes as he looked at all the ponies and wondered if he would get thrown into another fight right away when the pink pony walked up in front of her friends and then turned to face them. “Girls, if Ace wanted to hurt us wouldn’t he have had plenty of chances to already? I mean he didn’t have to step up when Nightmare smashed the elements in the first place, and I highly doubt he’d be wasting his time talking to us if he did have some plan to take over our world.” All the girls shared glances between themselves that shared feelings of worry, distrust, unease, and understanding.
“Just because he’s talking to us now doesn’t mean anything,” the blue pegasus replied, “He still talked to Nightmare and look how that ended.” She was met with confused stares and sighed, “You two may not have noticed but I’m sure Fluttershy did,” hearing her name called made the yellow mare lower her head and try to hide behind her mane. Rainbow turned her glare at Ace with a frown, “I saw how bad a condition Nightmare’s wings were in, now she may not be the fastest flyer in Equestria but managing to do that to a pegasus’ wings would be nearly impossible while they’re flying and Nightmare is an alicorn.”
“Maybe Pinkie’s right girls, Portgas did save us from what would have been an untimely end, even if gathering the elements was delayed slightly.” Celestia’s ears twitched at this revelation, but aside from that her face hadn’t changed. Rarity continued as she walked up and stood beside Pinkie, “Who knows what would’ve happened had he not stepped in.” Rarity turned towards Ace to introduce herself, “I’m afraid we haven’t been properly introduced, I’m Rarity Belle, Ponyville’s resident fashionista, and it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance Portgas.”
Celestia lifted her head and stared at Ace contemplating something, and Ace in turn stared right back. ‘Did he truly help as much as Twilight and her friends believe he did?’ With this and countless more thoughts running through her head it took Celestia a while before she noticed Twilight looking at her expectantly. “Is something the matter my faithful student?” She asked as she put on a smile that wasn’t completely sincere.
Twilight sighed, “I was just wondering what was going to happen to Ace. My friends can’t make up their minds and both sides have excellent points for why they feel how they feel.” Twilight said in a slightly dejected tone.
“Princess Celestia was it?” Ace’s voice carried over the conversation the ponies in front of him were having, all Ace received was a nod in response. “I just wanted one of my questions answered,” Ace said, “Why does your sister want eternal night?” As Ace finished asking his question all the ponies looked at him in confusion while all Celestia did was hang her head.
“That is very perceptive of you Portgas D. Ace, if you don’t mind me asking, how did you piece together that little bit of information?” Celestia asked as she raised her head with a sad smile and ponies gasped in surprise.
“The first room I entered when I reached the ruins was a throne room with one blue throne and one gold throne side by side at the front with themed tapestries dividing the room in different color schemes. That coupled with Nightmare’s familiarity of the castle and disdain she held for her sister when we talked, it was pretty easy to put together.” Celestia’s face fell a bit once Ace had finished. “Your failure to hide your emotions was another reason.”
Celestia went on to share the tale of how Luna’s rage and jealousy transformed her into Nightmare Moon and how she had used the elements to banish her to the moon when her own power wasn’t enough to fight back against Nightmare. “So there she stayed, imprisoned in the moon for one thousand years. I had hoped that Twilight would be able to make friends that embodied the spirits of the elements, and it seems she has,” Celestia looked towards her student and her friends with a small smile, “But alas, Nightmare Moon got away before they could use the elements.”
“Excuse me Princess? But what exactly would’ve happened if we had used the Elements of Harmony on Nightmare Moon?” Twilight asked with peaked curiosity.
“The elements have the power to sense deep within a being’s soul and judge how righteous or evil they are and depending on what they sense they will either cleanse the being or encase them in stone. Considering Nightmare Moon was only born of jealousy and rage I had hoped that the elements would be able to return to me what little family I have left.” Celestia finished her explanation on a blue note.
“Sorry to interrupt Princess but we’re getting off topic.” Ace let out a sigh as he heard the voice of Rainbow. “What are we gonna do about him?” she asked as she pointed a hoof at him. “He’s dangerous, that much I know for a fact. We can’t leave him free to roam, who knows what he’ll do.”
Rainbow let out a grunt of pain as Applejack bopped her on the head with her hoof. “An’ who knows what he might do if you keep runnin’ your mouth like that Rainbow. Princess, if the elements really do work the way you say they do, could we use them on Ace to see if he poses a threat to us?” She turned to the princess as she asked her question. ‘Not really sure that being a statue would help me get back to looking for Teach.’ Ace silently mused.
“If Ace truly doesn’t mean a threat to us then I see no harm in it, but considering he has helped you six I don’t feel it would be right to do this without his say in the matter.” Celestia said.
“Are you crazy Princess?! Why would he willingly let himself be turned into a statue?” Rainbow retorted instantly, “Why should we ask for permission?!”
“Yeah, sure. Go ahead, I have nothing to worry about.” Ace replied after a moment of silence.
“Are you sure Ace?” Twilight asked with a hint of worry in her voice. “What if you get turned into a statue?” All Twilight got in response was a nod. “Well if you’re sure,” Twilight said with worry still in her voice as she eyed the pirate, “Alright girls, form up.” With that the rest of the bearers stood beside Twilight. They all closed their eyes and magic slowly began to envelope them one by one until they all floated in the air. Twilight opened her eyes completely white and filled with magical might as a rainbow shot into the air above them and angled itself to strike Ace.
Ace braced himself as the rainbow beam hit him, to his surprise though it felt like it was rejuvenating him. After a few seconds of this passed Ace felt something within him falter, and with that the beam ended and the bearers fell to the ground. ‘Well I’m not a statue but…’
The bearers of the Elements of Harmony slowly worked their way up to their hooves. Shaking their heads and talking amongst each other before they turned to Ace. Twilight and Applejack both held looks of relief and let out a sigh as they saw Ace seemingly unharmed by the elements. Rainbow’s scowl shrunk and she turned her head away with a ‘tch’. The pink pony and white unicorn both had smiles on their faces, while Fluttershy still only stared at the ground.
“Well that’s that then.” Applejack said, “What say we all head on home? Ah know Ah sure could use some sleep after tonight.” Most of her friends replied in positive tones except for Rainbow and Fluttershy who decided to remain quiet, albeit for very different reasons.
“Before we do, Ace?” Twilight asked, “Do you have anywhere to stay?” When he shook his head he swore he saw Twilight’s eyes light up. “Well if you’d like you can stay with me for the time being. I still have a lot of questions I’d like to ask you.” After a few seconds of thought Ace shrugged his shoulders and let his hands fall to his sides. With that decided the group began their march back to Ponyville until Twilight noticed Princess Celestia had stayed behind, still as a statue lost in thought. “Is something wrong Princess?” Twilight asked.
Celestia broke out of her stupor and turned to Twilight with a small smile on her face. “It’s nothing Twilight, you just head on back home. It’s been a long night; I should return to the castle before my advisors start making a mess of things.” With that said she flared her wings and took to the skies to clear her mind. ‘Just hold on a little longer Luna, I swear I will bring you back.’
As Twilight watched her mentor fly off towards Canterlot all her thoughts rested on the sadness she held in her voice. ‘The princess was really counting on us, and we failed. It’s up to us find Nightmare Moon and get her back to normal. I hope Ace will be willing to help us again.’ Settling on making a plan to find Nightmare, Twilight regrouped with her friends as they continued their trek back to Ponyville. “Ace? I was wondering if you’d be willing to help us track down Nightmare Moon once you’ve gotten settled in Ponyville. I’ve never seen or heard Princess Celestia that sad before, if the elements really can bring back her sister than its up to me and my friends to find and subdue her. You said yourself how important family was. Will you help us reunite the Princess with her sister?” Twilight looked at Ace as she finished her question.
Celestia flew over the land slowly making her way back to the castle as she went over the events that had just taken place. ‘So that’s who that was. I wonder if he knows why he’s here? I can only hope that he decides to help us in the rough times to come. If what I’ve sensed does come to pass, then the bearers will need all the help they can get in defending Equestria. I just wonder how long it’ll be before he asks for help getting back.’ Celestia’s thoughts left Ace and floated towards Nightmare Moon. ‘Where could you have gone sister? Has Nightmare’s hold truly not waned even after all these years?’
The group of seven slowly dwindled once they reached the town of Ponyville, the first to leave was Applejack. “Well, Ah can hoof it back to Sweet Apple Acres from here girls. It was an interestin’ turn of events that caused us to meet Ace, but Ah hope we can all get along. Come by the acre if yah ever find yourself in need of work.” AJ waved at the group with a smile as she turned and walked off on her own. Fluttershy was the next to leave but chose to wave at the group with a smile before she started walking towards a cottage in the distance.
“I should probably get going to.” Pinkie said, “Parties don’t plan themselves yanno.” Pinkie started hopping away from the group humming a cheerful tune as she went.
Rainbow was next to leave, “I’m gonna get going too,” she said as she looked at the two of her friends before adding in a glare at Ace as she said, “But be sure to tell me if he starts wreaking havoc around town. I’d be glad to deal with him.” Rainbow flew off after a few seconds of glaring at Ace.
The group of three walked a little longer until Rarity decided to speak up, “Portgas dear, I mean nothing bad by it when I say this but if you want I could make you a shirt to wear, and I could also use your help to possibly design clothing for minotaurs. While you may not be as… bulky as a minotaur you would still be far easier to work with.” Before Ace could reply Rarity muttered, “Oh, it seems we’ve arrived at your destination.” She said as she laid eyes on Twilight’s library tree house. “Well you be sure to get back to me on that proposal Ace.” When Ace nodded in reply she smiled as she began to walk off. “I must get going now though, I really hope Sweetie Belle didn’t get into too much trouble while we were gone.”
“Here we are Ace. Until we can find someplace better accustomed for you you’ll be staying here with me.” Twilight opened the door with her magic as she walked in followed by Ace. “The first floor is a library, so if you ever feel like reading anything feel free to choose whatever you like. The couch should be big enough for you to lay down on, I’ll go grab some blankets and a pillow for you.” Twilight said as she started to head up the stairs. With a moment to himself Ace decided to retreat into his thoughts once more, ‘I should really bring up finding a way to get back home. I don’t belong here, if the World Government found this place they’d wreak havoc all over this land.’ The sound of hoofsteps coming from the stairs took Ace’s attention as her turned and saw Twilight levitating a pillow and blanket his way.
“Thank you Twilight, but I have to ask, why are you so willing to not only trust a stranger so easily but let them into your house for the night?” Ace asked as he stared off into space.
“Well, it’s a number of reasons really. First, because you helped us fight back against Nightmare Moon and I feel the need to repay you. Second, the Elements of Harmony didn’t turn you to stone, so even they sensed that you weren’t somepony with bad intentions.” Twilight hesitated a bit before her face fell slightly. “I would like an answer to my question though, ever since I asked you for help with Nightmare you’ve seemed more lost in your thoughts.”
“That’s what I’ve been thinking about as a matter of fact. I will help you, but only on the condition that you help me. I’d rather not go into details right now but I’ll need help later on with something that went wrong.” ‘If any of these ponies can help me it’d be the princess’ student, and if not her than I can go straight to the Princess.’
“I see.” Twilight silently mulled it over for a few seconds before she stuck her hoof out towards Ace with a smile. “Portgas D. Ace, you have yourself a deal.” Ace grabbed her hoof and shook it. “Well if you don’t mind, I’d recommend getting some rest. Tomorrow we start thinking of a way to track down Nightmare Moon, and I still have more questions about you I’d like to ask. I’d also expect the town to be in quite a buzz after everything that happened.” Twilight went back towards the stairs and made her way towards her room where she got in bed and fell asleep as soon as her head hit her pillow.
Ace laid on the couch in silence as he stared up at the ceiling, ‘If I ever do make it back to The Grand Line I’ll have one hell of a story to share, and this only feels like the beginning.’ His thoughts slowly shifting towards his family and his crew. Ace closed his eyes as he began to feel the wear of the day catch up to him. One of the final thoughts to flow through his head as he began to fall deeper into his slumber was that he knew someone like him didn’t belong here, someone with the blood of a demon flowing through him. He would try to help the inhabitants of this land to the best of his ability and hope he didn’t just make things worse as a result of his presence. With these thoughts in mind he felt his conscience slip from him as he fell asleep.
Ace’s senses slowly returned to him as he felt himself waking up. First was his sense of smell, he sniffed at the air and was delighted to smell that there was indeed breakfast being made, ‘That doesn’t smell like meat though. Guess I shouldn’t be surprised; I wonder if Twilight would make me some if I asked?’ His second sense to return was touch, he felt the soft blanket that covered him, the even softer pillow that was underneath his head, and the comfortable but not as soft couch he lay on. Birds made themselves known to him as his hearing returned along with humming coming from what he assumed was the kitchen. Ace opened his eyes and regretted how fast he had opened them when light flooded his vision, he muttered curses to himself as he wiped his eyes with his hands and sat up. He stretched his arms and got to his feet to stretch the rest of his limbs sighing in content as his joints popped one by one. Ace looked around the living room slash library and saw a doorway into another, tastier smelling room. He looked beside the couch searching for his hat, he found in on an end table and placed it on his head. As he walked into the kitchen he didn’t expect to see a small green and purple reptile at the stove. ‘Well that’s new.’ Ace thought.
Spike had been hard at work preparing breakfast for him, Twilight, and their new guest. He felt somewhat reserved making food for something he had never seen before. When he woke up to start his daily routine and saw it on the couch he made his way back to Twilight as quickly and quietly as he could to tell her of the intruder. It took him a few minutes to get a response out of her and even then it all sounded like nonsense. The things he did understand all revolved around something about a nightmare and the thing on their couch and before Twilight could lose consciousness once more she told spike to make breakfast for three. So here he was working hard on making breakfast for Twilight, himself, and whatever was sleeping on their couch. He had been so focused he hadn’t heard the steps making their way towards the kitchen. Spike probably would’ve kept on working had he not felt a chill go down his spine, not something that happens to dragons often, Spike knew something was off. He stood stock still and strained his hearing to see if he could tell what was wrong. His skin crawled at the silence he heard, he knew he would regret it but with no choices left he turned around.
A few seconds after Ace had let his sight take in the reptile it went rigid, Ace smirked internally as he saw the chill run through it. A silence filled the surrounding area as he saw the frills on the side of its head tilt to and fro. When the silence was all that greeted its ears its body went rigid once more and turned around in the blink of an eye staring at Ace’s black shorts. Confusion took hold of the reptile and it slowly began to dawn on the creature as he tilted his head upwards slowly until its eyes met his. Ace held a neutral look on his face as the it stared at him in shock, after a few seconds into their staring contest Ace decided to speak up, “So,” he said in a casual manner, “What are you exactly?”
Spike would’ve answered had he not been struck silent by the things height alone, he was snapped from his freight as he heard hoofsteps coming from the stairwell and bolted towards the pony he knew was on her way. He didn’t bother looking back as he heard the thing mutter a simple ‘huh’.
Twilight had just made it down the steps, mane slightly frazzled from having just woken up, when Spike suddenly tackled her legs and hid behind her. He regularly peaked around her legs towards the kitchen as Twilight tried to process what was happening. She rubbed her temple with her hoof lightly as she looked to the empty couch and finally pieced everything together. Twilight let out a light chuckle as she smiled at the small dragon and said, “Spike, Ace is harmless. You don’t need to be afraid of him.” As she finished saying this she picked Spike up with her magic and placed him on her back. “Now how about we go eat some breakfast.”
Ace stood there contemplating what had just happened when he heard hoofsteps making their way towards the kitchen. A second later Twilight walked through the doorway with ‘Spike’. Twilight said her good mornings as she passed him while Spike only watched him with concern evident on his face. “Morning.”
Twilight levitated Spike off her back and sent him back to finishing up breakfast for the three while she began to think about the first question to ask Ace. “So, Ace. If you wouldn’t mind, I have some more questions I’d like answered.” Before Twilight could ask her first question Spike called to the two of them to say that breakfast was done. It was at this moment that Twilight’s stomach decided to make itself heard and cause Twilight to blush as she rubbed the back of her neck rustling her mane even further. “Maybe after we get a quick bite to eat.”
Ace eyed his plate with an unsatisfied stare, to his disappointment and expectations there was no meat on his plate. ‘sigh well, while it’s not surprising it’s still disappointing. Makes me wonder how offensive it might be if I asked for some meat.’ His plate had a sandwich, some eggs, and hash brown. He grimaced when he lifted the bread to find flowers inside, ‘That doesn’t look appetizing in the slightest.’ He mused. “So, Twilight, don’t take this the wrong way but you wouldn’t happen to have any meat by chance would you?” The second his request left his mouth Twilight’s jaw fell and her face blanched.
“Y-you eat m-meat?” she stuttered, worry evident on her face. Spike narrowed his eyes and stared at Ace.
‘Welp, can’t say I didn’t see that coming.’ Ace sighed and rubbed his eyes, “Yes I eat meat but before you get the wrong idea just let me say that pony isn’t on my menu.” Twilight let out a sigh and her form sagged a bit. “Well this is going to make my stay very inconvenient for us both.”
“I-if you want I can see about asking the princess about finding meat for you.” Twilight said as she eyed the table in a quiet tone. “I’m positive that she can find a solution to this problem.” She lifted her face and attempted to smile.
“There’s not much else I can do about it then, clearly this place is different from my home and eating anything sentient sounds like borderline cannibalism and that doesn’t sound to appealing to me.” When he was done talking he opened his sandwich, took the flowers out, and put the egg and hash brown inside. “This’ll do for breakfast, but I dunno how long I’ll be able to go without meat.”
The three of them finished their breakfast in relative silence. When they were done Twilight had asked Spike to send the Princess a letter asking if it was possible to get Ace some meat sometime soon. With his next task Spike marched off into another room and left the two.
“So Ace, there’s a question that’s been on my mind since you said you were a pirate. How did you get to the old castle?” Twilight asked.
“I’m not entirely sure, the last thing I remember before waking up in the forest was fighting Blackbeard.”
“Who’s Blackbeard?”
“Marshall D. Teach, captain of the Blackbeard pirates, was a former subordinate of mine before he broke one of the Whitebeard Pirates rules and fled.” Ace solemnly said with conviction in his voice.
“What did he do?”
“Blackbeard told me that the reason he had been with the Whitebeard Pirates in the first place was because he had a better chance of finding a special fruit known as a devil fruit. He was looking for the yami yami no mi, the dark-dark fruit. It gave him control over the darkness and it’s the ultimate reason I lost to him in our fight.”
“What rule did he break?”
“He killed fourth division commander Thatch and stole the yami yami no mi. When I asked him why he murdered Thatch in cold blood, he said that there was no other choice. When he saw the fruit he had spent his life looking for in his friend’s hand, he rationalized it to being bad luck for Thatch, killed him, took the fruit and ran. I’ve been chasing him since.” Ace finished with renewed vigor as he thought about Blackbeard.
Twilight’s ears fell, eyes widened, jaw dropped, and her face took on a look of horror Ace hadn’t thought possible. “H-he killed his f-friend?” Twilight asked disbelief clear in her voice. “B-But how could he just do that?! Why would he murder his friend in cold blood for a fruit?!” Tears had welled in Twilight’s eyes as she asked with a slight confused fury.
Ace never got the chance to answer as they heard a knock at the door. Twilight rubbed her fetlock across her eyes but kept her head down as she walked out of the kitchen and towards the door. “That must be the girls.” When all she got from Ace was a confused look as a response Twilight sighed and said, “When we were walking back towards Ponyville while you were lost in your thoughts we decided we should start looking for Nightmare Moon as soon as possible.” Twilight opened the door and let her friends in. “This is our first meeting for arranging the plans in finding Nightmare Moon.” Twilight turned to her friends, sighed, and thanked them for coming. “Alright everypony, we have no idea where Nightmare Moon is hiding but it’s up to us to find her. Now we may not have many leads if any right now, but I’m confident that we can do this.”
All of her friends looked between themselves sharing worried glances before Rarity spoke up. “Twilight darling, is something the matter?”
Twilight’s entire demeanor seemed to falter, her ears and face fell and her form seemed to slump a little. “Sorry girls, it’s just that I was asking Ace about how he came to be at the castle earlier. He said something that chilled me to the core.” Her head hung low enough that her bangs hid her eyes as she seemed to shiver slightly.
All eyes were on Ace once it was clear that Twilight was done talking about it. Two of the ponies glared at him while the other three had looks of concern on their faces. “What did you tell her?” Rainbow said as even as she could while she tried to hold back the anger she felt.
“I told her what I remembered before waking up in the forest. I was fighting with a former subordinate of mine who had broken one of the Whitebeard Pirates rules. Marshall D. Teach, now also known as Blackbeard captain of the Blackbeard Pirates, killed his friend fourth division commander Thatch and stole the yami yami no mi, the dark-dark fruit.” All the ponies except for Twilight gasped. “I wanted to wait for you all to give a detailed explanation about Devil Fruits and I guess now is as good a time as any.” While Twilight still stared at the floor, her ears perked up so as not to miss any information.
“First off, Devil Fruits are known as the hidden treasures of the Grand Line, there are three types of Devil Fruits, Paramecia, Logia, and Zoan. Paramecia type Devil Fruits give the users powers that can affect their body, manipulate the environment, or produce substances. Paramecia users are granted powers that can only be described as superhuman powers. My brother, Luffy, is a perfect example of a Paramecia user, he ate the gomu gomu no mi, the gum-gum fruit. It turned his entire body into rubber. Now this may not seem very useful but his body is near immune to all forms of blunt damage and weaponry and is completely immune to electrical damage. Paramecia is the most common type of fruit found.”
“Zoan type Devil Fruits allow the users to turn into another species and inter-species hybrid forms at will. Zoan type fruits primarily improve physical abilities. The first Zoan user off the top of my head is the first division commander of the Whitebeard Pirates, Marco the Phoenix. He ate a Mythical Zoan Fruit that allows him to transform into a blue flame phoenix.”
“Finally, there’s the Logia type fruits, Logia type fruits are characterized by giving their user the ability to turn into a natural element or force of nature. The user can transform partly, or completely. If you hadn’t guessed it yet, I am a Logia. I ate the mera mera no mi, the flame-flame fruit, that’s why I wasn’t harmed by Nightmare Moon’s attacks. I changed my body into flames before I even stepped in and stopped her. With all the power comes a drawback though, naturally with Logia types they also take on any weaknesses their elements might have, and all devil fruit users lose the ability to swim.”
“With that explanation out of the way, I had been chasing Blackbeard since he had killed Thatch and I had finally caught up with him on an island. We fought and I lost.” All present company excluding Twilight gasped again. “The next thing I remember was waking up in the forest.” As Ace looked at all the ponies faces, trying to determine their reactions to his tale he witnessed shock, anger, and worry in varying degrees.
“Now that I’ve finished my piece, I believe you six need to start making plans on finding Nightmare Moon.” Ace walked away from where he had been standing and was now leaning on a wall close to where Twilight stood.
Twilight let out a sigh as she refocused her attention on her friends, “Right, okay girls, like I said right now we don’t have any leads so we’ll probably start by exploring in the Everfree. We may not get anywhere even if we do explore the Everfree but it’s as good a place as any to look.” Twilight finished somewhat despondent.
“Twilight, it’s obvious that the fact that Blackbeard killed his friend is bothering you a lot. Don’t you want to talk it through?” Pinkie asked her friend. “Maybe it’ll make you feel better.”
“I’m sorry, I just don’t understand how someone could kill their friend so simply.” Twilight’s from sagged as she sat on the floor. “I now know the meaning of friendship and I just don’t understand how a fruit, even a devil fruit could be valued over it.”
“Believe me Twilight, I know how you feel.” Rainbow said in a cold voice, “Hearing that made me sick to my stomach. If he were here right now I’d give him the thrashing of his life.”
“I appreciate the sympathy Rainbow Dash but right now we should be coming up with back-up plans in case Nightmare either attacks or if we do end up finding her earlier or somewhere we don’t expect.” The six ponies made fallback plans and went so far as to have a few places they could meet in case they were separated if Nightmare attacked. Ace stood against the wall listening in on the plans, after all he was still helping catch Nightmare Moon.
A few hours later and quite a bit of plans had been made. “Alright girls, we have plans in motion now, I suggest we explore the Everfree starting tomorrow. Now it’s about time Ace got a tour of Ponyville don’t you think?” Twilight asked her friends.
“You know I’d join in but I barely got any sleep at all since you called us over so early. I’m gonna go catch up on my naps, but I’m trusting you all to keep him in check okay.” Rainbow Dash walked out the door and flew off after glaring at Ace.
“Don’t you worry Ace.” Pinkie said as she held a hoof out to him, “Dashie will come around eventually. Now how about we get started on that tour!” Pinkie threw both her front legs up and confetti exploded from behind the couch and from the kitchen doorway startling the ponies.
Twilight was first to act as she dived onto the couch and looked over the back followed by racing into the kitchen at full speed. She came out a few seconds later and eyed pinkie, “When and how did you get cannons into my house Pinkie Pie?” All Pinkie did was let out a giggle and start hopping towards the door.
“It’s better to not ask Twilight.” AJ said. “It’s just Pinkie bein’ Pinkie.”
Twilight gave Applejack a flat stare but after a few seconds her face fell with a sigh. “I’ll just figure it out later. Alright Ace it’s time we started your tour of Ponyville. Spike! The girls and I are going to start our tour of Ponyville would you mind cleaning up this mess? Thanks!” Twilight was out the door before she heard Spike’s response.
Celestia sat on her throne drowning out the rambles of the noble before her. He had come to her complaining of some insignificant thing or another. There were so many more important things she could be doing right now, right off the top of her head she could be helping find Nightmare Moon’s location if not out searching in pony. Instead she was forced to sit and be subject to all the pony’s problems, while there were actually ponies with important problems they were few and far apart. Most were nobles looking to fill there bit pouch just a bit fuller, this was one of those ponies. He had come spewing this and that about demanding reparations for inconveniences placed upon him caused by reconstruction in areas close to his home. “While I am sorry it takes you a few extra minutes to get home I don’t see how it entitles you to any bits whatsoever.” She replied in a monotone, boredom having taken its toll on her these last few hours. “Now if you’ll excuse me I have more important business that needs attending to.” She stood from her throne and made her way to the doors, once outside she addressed the ponies still waiting in line, “I am sorry to inform you all that that was everypony I had time for today, but there is some important business that I must attend to.”
Celestia retired to her quarters and walked onto the balcony, enjoying the light of her sun on her coat. ‘I should not be stuck in court while Luna is out there in the Nightmare’s grasp. I have to help find her.’ Celestia lowered herself and laid on the balcony resting her head in her hooves. ‘I will bring you back Luna, I just hope you are willing to.’
Celestia’s thoughts were interrupted by a voice alongside her on the balcony. “This was all your fault. You realize that yes?”
“Have you only come to taunt me?” Celestia asked not turning to the source.
“Hmph. As much as we’d like to, no. Tis not the reason we are here.” Nightmare Moon said. “Our reason for being in this dreadful place is because of Portgas D. Ace. Thou must know despite his current affiliation alongside your bearers he poses and even greater threat than we do. Don’t take this parlay as anything more than it is, you are still our enemy. We will still destroy you. Thou shall only have to wait longer if we must go through him as well.”
“Even if Ace is a bigger threat than you I feel he’ll do the right thing Nightmare. I have the utmost confidence in Ace.”
“Tch. Then it will be your fault once more when your kingdom and ponies are engulfed not in eternal night but an unforgiving inferno.”
“Even the elements sensed good within him. As you know the elements have always protected this land. If he survived the storm he deserves my trust.”
Once it was clear to Celestia that Nightmare was opting silence as her response she decided to speak up. “Why Nightmare? Why do you hold my sister prisoner?”
“Twas your doing, Celestia. Your neglect and naiveté drove a wedge between us. Now we take what should have been ours all along.” Nightmare replied.
“You realize that now with the elements back it’s only a matter of time before we… before I get Luna back right.” Celestia said as her horn started to glow. “Why drag out the inevitable?”
“Please, as if thou stand any chance against us as you are now. You could not best us in your prime and now you’ve only softened with age.” Nightmare hissed. “When next we meet, it will be your downfall. Goodbye dear sister.” Nightmare ended with venom in her words as a light went off and all was silent.
Celestia sighed and willed her magic away. “Don’t worry Luna,” Celestia said with a small smile, “With Twilight and her friends on our side we’ll free you from the Nightmare before too long.” Celestia closed her eyes and set her head back down on her fetlocks opting to rest for a while longer before her duties tore her away again.
A flash of blue goes off and Nightmare finds herself back in the cave she spent the morning in. She fumed at Celestia’s blind trust in that creature, but honestly the fact that she even still drew breath made her fume, no other actions necessary. For now, she would have to think of how to beat Ace and the bearers of the elements. ‘We should find a way to test the limits of his abilities.’ Nightmare stood in the middle of the cave pondering what she could do. She winced when she opened her wings to give them a stretch, while it felt less extreme, pain still coursed through them. “We will not forgive him for this, and we will return the favor tenfold.” She said with a growl. ‘Tis been to long since we had a worthy adversary. Tis going to be an enjoyable experience.’ Nightmare Moon started to laugh, quietly at first and slowly growing into a full blown cackle that echoed in the cave and rang throughout the forest. ‘But first we must find somewhere more suited for our stay.’ Nightmare turned into a shadowy whisp and took off into the forest sticking to the shadows.
Ace paid no mind to the few gawking residents of Ponyville they passed as he was being led around town by Twilight, Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy. Pinkie had left not to long after the tour began, whispering something to the other mares and hopping off with a giggle. Fluttershy still had yet to try talking with him but he often caught her looking at him out of the corner of his eyes. ‘Guess I must’ve left quite the impression on that one.’ The tour had started once the group had reached the marketplace, Pinkie had gotten distracted the first minute they were there and had left the group the next. The ponies led him deeper into the market passing stalls and shops. Ace took note of the fact that most stalls were in fact empty or help incredibly nervous ponies behind the counters. “Really warm reception, it almost feels to over the top.” Ace said sarcastically.
“Hah! Jus’ wait ‘til yah see what Pinkie’s got cookin’ up for yah.” AJ said with a small chuckle and eye roll. ‘Oh great’ Ace sighed mentally, ‘Even more surprises.’
“So where should we go next girls?” Twilight asked, “After all I’m still pretty new to Ponyville myself.” Twilight said with a light laugh and a small embarrassed smile.
After a moment of silence Rarity decided to speak up. “Well if you wouldn’t mind, I actually need to get back to work on my new line of clothes. We can take Portgas over and show him my boutique. Maybe I can get his measurements in case he takes me up on that offer for a shirt or for helping me.” Rarity began walking down the street and the group followed. “It won’t take too long Portgas dear, I promise.”
The group walked on for a couple more minutes with the three mares making small talk with each other while Ace listened and wondered how long it would take Fluttershy to do anything other than stare. If he tried talking first he was pretty sure it wouldn’t end well for either of them. He heard Applejack mention something about an apple buck season, while Twilight talked about all the things she still wanted to ask about where Ace came from. Considering none of her questions were directed at him, he decided to stay quiet. Rarity kept on about her new clothing line and the possibilities that would open up with Ace’s help. ‘Should ask why she keeps calling me Portgas. I mean it is in my name but I’m not used to that.’
Within a few more minutes their destination was within sight. It was a building that was really easy to spot, mainly because of the fact that it looked like a carousel. “There it is,” Rarity said with delight, she ushered in her friends as she held the door open with her magic. “Welcome to the Carousel Boutique, where everything is chic, unique, and magnifique.” As the group walked in the they saw pony shaped mannequins all over the room, some with full outfits on while others had what looked like works in progress. Ace looked around the room spotting a doorway that lead deeper into the shop, past said doorway he noticed tables filled with sketches and boxes filled to the brim with different types of cloth and materials. “Portgas this is my home and shop, the first floor has all I need to make any clothes anypony could desire, and the second floor serves as my home.”
Ace’s attention was taken from examining the room to listening as he heard hoofsteps making their way down the steps. He peered at the stairwell out of the corner of his eye when he heard the hooffalls stop. He saw white fur, pink and light purple hair, and a pair of green eyes staring at him in curiosity and wonder. The second their eyes met he heard a squeak and whoever had been looking at him ran back up the stairs. Ace smirked as he let out a small chuckle, “Well I guess I’ll let you take those measurements now Rarity.” Ace said in an even tone.
“That’s wonderful!” Rarity beamed, “Have you given any thought to what shirt you would like? Oh, if you like I could try to-” Rarity was stopped from finishing her sentence as she heard a crash come from the second floor. “Oh dear, if you all will excuse me for a second I must go and check to see the extent of a mess Sweetie made this time. I should probably make sure she’s okay too.” With a slight bow Rarity excused herself as she made her way up the stairs.
Rarity walked into her room and saw boxes knocked over on the floor and a slightly worried Sweetie Belle between them. “Oh Sweetie, what’s wrong?”
“What was that thing you brought?” Rarity’s little sister whispered.
“What thing Sweetie?” She asked.
“That thing that was standing in the middle of the shop.” Sweetie didn’t know what exactly put her off about him but she sure didn’t like something about him.
“Are you talking about Portgas?” Rarity let out a small sigh as she looked at her sister and saw the unease she was feeling. “Sweetie you have nothing to be worried about. Portgas is a new friend we made when he helped us fight Nightmare Moon. If it weren’t for him, we might’ve not made it back as well as we did.” When all Sweetie did in response was look down at her hooves Rarity let out a small sigh when an idea came to her. “Why don’t I go introduce you to him, I think once you get to know him you’ll see he has a good heart.” Rarity said with a smile. “Now come along or I’ll drag you down those steps if I have to.”
Sweetie sighed and followed Rarity wishing she hadn’t said anything. As the two made it down the stairs they could hear the group talking in the other room. Ace was finishing up his story when the sisters walked in.
“The last time I wore any upper body clothing was when my search took me to the winter islands. Extreme cold and I don’t really mix well together.”
Rarity cleared her throat to get the attention of the room, when all eyes were on her and her sister hiding behind her legs she spoke, “Portgas I’d like to introduce you to my little sister.” As she said this she took a step to the side to reveal Sweetie Belle who suddenly had an increased interest in the floor. “Sweetie Belle, this is Portgas D. Ace. Portgas, this is my sister Sweetie Belle.”
Neither said a word as Ace looked at Sweetie and Sweetie still stared at the floor. ‘Well this is off to a bad start.’ As Ace became lost in his thoughts he hadn’t noticed Sweetie shift her gaze from the floor to him. Once Ace had wrapped up his thoughts and focused back on the pony in front of him he was somewhat surprised to see her staring right at him.
When his gaze met Sweetie’s she recoiled slightly and looked to the side rubbing the back of her head with a fetlock. “Hi.” She said in a soft voice. She looked at Ace when he opted to stay silent and the second their eyes met he nodded his head. She gave him a confused yet slightly displeased look.
Ace laughed when he saw the look Sweetie was giving him. ‘Guess I should at least return the favor.’ “Hi. You can call me Ace if you like.” Sweetie dropped the slight frown she had. While not exactly a smile her face shifted enough for Ace to know she was thinking something else.
“Well with the introductions out of the way, how about I pick up where I left off. Now as I was saying Portgas, have you given the shirt any thought or would you rather I try and surprise you with a shirt myself?”
“That won’t be necessary Rarity, I’m willing to help you with the new clothing line but I won’t be needing any shirts.”
“Oh,” Rarity’s face slightly fell before taking on a devilish grin, “So is there any reason you prefer to go around without a shirt? Or are you just going around showing off?”
“Hmph,” Ace said with a small laugh, “As a matter of fact that is the reason.” Ace wasn’t looking at Rarity when he answered so he missed the light blush he caused the mare. “Ever since I got Whitebeard’s jolly roger on my back I’ve not worn shirts unless I needed to protect myself from extreme weather conditions. I am proud to be a part of the Whitebeard Pirates and there should be no reason for me to hide it. Thank you for the offer though.”
“Actually, I was wondering about that,” Twilight decided to speak up, “You say that that’s Whitebeard’s jolly roger but it doesn’t have a beard.”
“Well neither does the captain.”
“Then why Whitebeard?”
“I never bothered questioning him.” Twilight pouted as she was yet again left without answers she wanted.
While the two had been talking Rarity had been at work taking Ace’s measurements, when she started she had needed to fight down a blush that had formed. She knew Ace had a toned body that much was obvious, but there was a difference in seeing the muscles and being this close and working with it in a sense. She went on with what she had to do though, measuring his arm span, chest, height, and waist. Once she was done she took yet another deep breath to calm herself and thought of the ways she could modify his measurements to work with minotaurs or any other species that might come along with his same physique.
“And with that I’m done dear, I have all your measurements. While I am sad that you forego letting me make you something I can respect your choice and the reasoning behind it.” Rarity went to the backroom and left all that she had used to take Ace’s measurements there. “I thank you for your help Portgas.” She said with a slight bow of her head.
“Don’t mention it, but we’ve probably already taken up enough of your time.” Ace started making his way towards the door, once his hand had a grip on the doorknob he turned his head, “Good luck with your new designs.” Ace opened the door and walked out into the street. Twilight was the first to say her goodbyes and first out the door to make sure Ace didn’t cause a scene or get lost, followed by AJ and Fluttershy.
AJ and Twilight were leading the group towards Sweet Apple Acres deciding to show Ace the farm. Ace was a small distance behind the two and Fluttershy behind him. Once the group had reached Sweet Apple Acres, AJ had decided to give Ace a small tour of the place. “First off, we should probably introduce yah to mah family so they don’t get to worried if yah do end up workin’ on the farm.” AJ led the group towards the barn. “My older brother Big Macintosh and my little sister Apple Bloom help me around the farm with the chores. Granny Smith normally does her own thing.” From a distance AJ had spotted her granny asleep on her rocking chair in front of the house. AJ let a small laugh out at the site as she started trying to wake her.
“Granny, wake up. There’s somepony Ah’d like yah tah meet.” AJ said as she shook the old mare lightly.
Granny Smith awoke with a sputter looking around wildly, “Hmm, Huh? Wha?” She stopped moving when her eyes fell on Ace. She looked at him and narrowed her eyes, “What’re you?” She asked Ace with narrowed eyes.
“Granny Ah’d like tah introduce yah tah Ace. He helped us against Nightmare Moon in the forest. Ace this is mah Granny Smith.”
“It’s a pleasure ma’am, as for what I am, I’m a pirate.”
“Ah didn’t ask what yah did, Ah asked what yah are.” She said again.
Ace looked at the elderly green mare before speaking again. “I’m a human.”
Before either could say anymore Applejack asked a question she wanted an answer to. “Granny, where are Bloom an’ Big Mac? Ah should introduce ‘em tah Ace too, wouldn’t want them goin’ crazy if he ever stops by tah help with the chores.”
“Last Ah saw yer sister she was headin’ inside, Big Mac’s been in the orchard most of the day.” Once Granny Smith had finished she closed her eyes and relaxed in to her chair again. “Now scoot, tryin’ tah nap.”
AJ thanked her granny and opened the door to enter. As her friends followed her in Ace opted to be the last to enter giving Applejack a chance to explain to anyone that might be in there before entering.
AJ entered her home and was greeted at the door by a yellow foal with a red bow atop her head. “Applejack!” Apple Bloom shouted as she tackled her sister’s legs in a hug. AJ let out a laugh and bent down hugging the foal.
“Howdy Apple Bloom.” Applejack said with a smile as she pulled back from the hug. “You finished up the chores while Ah was gone right?” She said with a raised eyebrow and a smile. Apple Bloom nodded vigorously with a big smile. AJ let out a content sigh, “That’s good to hear,” Applejack started, but when she noticed her sister getting ready to tear off to another part of the house she stopped her. “Now hold on a second Apple Bloom, there’s somepony Ah want yah to meet.” Apple Bloom stopped in her tracks as she stared at her older sister with a tilt of her head. AJ turned her head only to find Twilight and Fluttershy behind her. With a raised eyebrow she looked to the door and spoke, “Why yah standin’ out there Ace? Come on inside. Say hi to mah lil sister.”
Apple Bloom stood still staring at the door as a bipedal creature walked into her home. To say she was stunned would be an understatement. She opted to get out of her thoughts at the moment and keep an eye on the thing that had just walked into her home. Since her older sister apparently trusted it then it must at least be somewhat friendly but she still felt like he needed to be watched.
This time Ace opted to get straight to the point, he’d had enough awkward silences paired with staring contests. “My name is Portgas D. Ace, second division commander of the Whitebeard Pirates.” Apple Bloom’s eyes widened at the news that he was a pirate.
“Maybe starting with the pirate part isn’t such a good idea Ace.” Twilight interjected. Ace looked back at her and shrugged since it was already too late.
“Why’d yah bring a pirate home Applejack.” Questioned the filly.
AJ rolled her eyes with a smile, “He’s not just a pirate Apple Bloom, if it weren’t fer him we would’a been in some real trouble back in the forest. He helped us fight against Nightmare Moon.”
Apple Bloom’s eyes shot wide again, however this time instead of worry awe was the culprit. “You fought off Nightmare Moon? How strong are yah? Can yah do magic? Can yah help me find my cutie mark?”
“Whoa there sugarcube one question at a time.” Ace let out an amused grunt as soon as AJ had interrupted. “Now Ah’m sure you must be excited but you just hold on, we haven’t even finished the tour so Ace can’t go play yet.” AJ turned back to Ace with a sigh, “Well that makes two outta three, let’s go find Big Mac then we can see about teaching yah a bit of applebucking before yah run off to the next place.” As AJ finished she turned back and headed out the door starting her walk towards the orchard.
Apple Bloom had decided to tag along with them into the apple orchards hoping she could at least get an answer to one of her questions, but before she got to ask she was asked a question. “Hey Apple Bloom, do yah know where exactly in the orchard Big Mac is, all granny told us was that he’s been in here most of the day.”
“Ah can take yah tah the last part Ah saw him workin’. Ah dunno if he’s still there though.” With her thoughts interrupted and now preoccupied with leading the group Apple Bloom had forgotten that she wanted to ask Ace questions. As Apple Bloom led the group farther into the orchard Ace couldn’t help but look at the scenery, the apples were absolutely stunning. The red shine in the light of the setting sun certainly made them incredibly appealing.
The group hadn’t walked that much further until they crossed paths with a built red pony leaning against one of the trees with his eyes shut and a stack of empty buckets to his side. “Is everyone sleepin’?” AJ kicked Big Mac in the hoof. “Wake up Big Mac.” She said in an authoritative tone. Big Mac had been startled by the kick and had lost his balance on the tree causing him to fall to his side and make a mess of the buckets. When he heard AJ scolding him he shot to his hooves and set his sight forward, right at Ace’s chest. He took on a confused look before turning his gaze upward and staring into the face of Ace.
Before anyone could do anything Applejack spoke up, “Now that yer awake did yah finish the chores?”
Big Mac spared a glance at Applejack. “Eeyup.”
“Ok then, Big Mac this is Ace. He helped us out when we went up against Nightmare Moon in the forest. Ace this is mah brother Big Macintosh, he’s not really one for words.”
Big Mac nodded at Ace and Ace nodded back with no need to exchange words.
“Now how ‘bout we teach yah a bit about applebucking before yah go.” Ace responded with a shrug. “Ah’ll take that as a yes.” Applejack walked up to a tree and turned to have it at her back while her to siblings set up the buckets under the tree. “Now all yah gotta do is kick the tree after yah set the buckets on the ground to catch the apples.” AJ demonstrated as she sent her hind legs flying into the tree with a thwack. The tree shook as the force of her kick caused a good portion of the apples to fall into the buckets. “Now it’s yer turn, pick a tree, we’ll put some buckets under it this time and kick it fer all yer worth.”
As soon as Ace had picked out a tree he looked back at AJ with a question on his mind. “Are you sure you want me to kick it as hard as I can? I’d really hate to ruin one of your trees.”
Before AJ could reply Apple Bloom tossed her own opinion on the floor. “The Apple Family’s apple trees are the best in all of Equestria. Yer gonna have tah give it yer all if yah don’t wanna hurt yerself.”
Ace looked back at AJ with a hint of uncertainty in his eyes that was wiped as soon as he saw her expression of pride. “If yer worried about hurtin’ yerself Ah’m pretty sure Twilight here could fix yah up nice an easy with her magic, or could it be that yer scared that yah won’t be able tah do it?”
Ace smirked as he realized that she was trying to egg him on. ‘Well if they think their trees can take it who am I to deny them my best.’ With all doubts gone Ace turned to the tree and readied himself. “You all might want to stand back in case this gets a little out of hand.” The groups question of what hands were stopped the second they heard Ace’s kick connect with the tree. The crack and groan the wood let out alerted the group that Ace’s kick had done something none of them expected. His kick had torn through the bark of the tree at the point of contact causing a shower of splinters to rain on the side opposite of his kick. Ace smiled internally as he heard the surprised gasps of the ponies behind him as he braced himself to grab the tree before it fell on anyone.
“I tried warning you about your tree.” Ace said as he stopped it with his right hand completely outstretched upwards, stopping the tree from landing on the group.
Apple Bloom was the first to react, “Whoa.” Was all she could get out and even then it was in a quiet tone.
“Land’s sake Ace, maybe yer best was more than we bargained for.” AJ said with a whistle. Big Mac shook his head as he agreed with AJ.
“So…” Ace started, “What are you gonna do with the tree?”
“Well Ah’m hopin’ Twilight can hopefully put it back together with her magic, short of that Ah dunno. This isn’t exactly a problem Ah deal with every day.” AJ turned to Twilight and stopped before she could ask her question. Twilight stood there with a furrowed brow, eye twitching faster than what anyone would consider normal.
Fluttershy was the first to try and talk to Twilight. “T-Twilight? Are you ok?” She asked in a soft tone flecked with worry.
Twilight took a few calming breaths as some of her mane stood out on end and out of place. She closed her eyes as best she could and focused on her breathing, her eye stopped twitching and her brow unfurrowed but she still held a frown. “I can understand if that was because of your devil fruit powers but seeing as how nothing burst into flames how exactly did you manage to do that.” She half screamed as she pointed her hoof at the stump that used to be connected to the tree in Ace’s hand.
“I’m stronger than I look.” Was all Ace offered in response and in turn caused more of Twilight’s mane to jump out of place.
“Well Ah’m gonna take the same approach as Ah do with Pinkie and not question it. Now come on, can yah or can’t yah fix mah tree Twilight?” AJ asked.
Twilight hung her head with a defeated sigh, “I’m not sure Applejack but I’ll give it a shot.”
As Twilight got to work on trying to deal with Ace’s mess Apple Bloom took it upon herself to start the conversation. “How are yah that strong?”
“Believe it or not I once broke a thicker tree with the same kick when I was smaller.” Ace smiled as Apple Bloom’s eyes went wider than before. Ace looked back and saw that Twilight had indeed been able to put the tree back together.
“Thank yah kindly Twilight, and Ace, if yah do come and help some time maybe dial it down a bit. Ah still dunno how this tree will grow after that much magic was poured into it.” Ace nodded in response. “Well it’s gettin’ pretty late, we better high tail it if we don’t want to be late.”
Ace didn’t know what Applejack had meant when she said that but he opted to stay quiet and follow Twilight as she led them back to Ponyville. ‘Well it’s been an interesting day to say the least. I have to wonder how everyone else is doing though. I really hope Blackbeard hasn’t gotten his hands on Luffy.’ Ace’s thoughts were interrupted as a surprised gasps and shouts came from down the road. When he looked he was met with the sight of an orange pegasus with a purple mane and tail on a scooter. It was zipping all along the road dodging ponies and carts left and right. However, its streak was cut short as it lost focus when Ace entered its line of sight, all it took was that one second for the pegasus to miss a rock in its path that the scooter just so happened to hit. Judging by the pitch of the scream when the Pegasus went flying towards Ace she was a mix of shocked and afraid.
Scootaloo hadn’t known what had happened, one second she was on one of her best rides and then the next she was airborne heading straight towards something she had never seen before. She flapped her wings as hard as she could but it was to no avail. She collided with it a second later but to her surprise she hadn’t fallen or gotten yelled at for her recklessness yet. She slowly opened her eyes and saw she was within the grasp of the creature. She looked up at its face but didn’t see anger. Granted she didn’t see any mirth either she didn’t know how to react. She gulped and in as even a voice as she could accomplish she spoke to it. “U-Um thanks for the save, but y-you can put me down now.” To her surprise a small smile crossed its face and he put her on the ground.
“No problem kid. I’m Ace by the way.” ‘Time to see how this one reacts.’
She looked up at him with slight shock before clearing her throat and looking to the side. “I’m Scootaloo. So what are you exactly?”
“Well my full name is Portgas D. Ace, I’m a human and the second division commander of the Whitebeard Pirates.”
“You’re a pirate?!” The speed of her response had caught Ace slightly off guard, not that his face had betrayed his feelings.
“Yep. On the seas I’m known as Fire-Fist Ace and I have a bounty of 500,000,000 Beri.” The one reaction he hadn’t expected from the ponies after all the ones he had met was the exact one he got next. Scootaloo’s eyes widened in awe, and the only coherent thing he could make out of what she said next was something along the lines of ‘that’s so cool’. “Well I certainly wasn’t expecting that response.”
“Heh figures Scootaloo would take a likin’ to yah. Yah see Scootaloo here is also Rainbow’s number one fan and as yah can see she’s also a bit of a dare devil herself.”
“We should probably hurry over to Sugarcube Corner, I don’t think I want to see Pinkie’s reaction if we show up late.” Twilight said as she started leading the group to their destination.
When the group stood in front of the gingerbread looking building Ace was surprised to find it pitch black inside. He knew that the sun had started setting a while ago but he didn’t think it warranted the building to be that dark even without lights turned on. What shocked him more was the fact that the ponies were just walking in and disappearing into the darkness without a worry or care. All except for Fluttershy who now stood in front of him waiting patiently.
Ace eyed the mare, curious as to what she was up to. She stood there looking at him, not saying anything but looking like she had something she wanted to say. “So what’s on your mind?” Ace was taken by surprise when instead of getting a verbal response Fluttershy had cleared the space between them much faster than he thought she would and wrapped her hooves around his torso. She whispered a ‘thank you’ so quiet that even he would’ve missed it had he not been struck quiet by her actions. She let go not to long after she spoke and gave him a small smile before walking into the dark building.
Ace was the only one left outside the building, even the ponies that had been around the town not too long ago had also seemed to disappear. With his face set in stone he took a few steps into the building trying his hardest to listen only to find complete silence as his reward. He looked around before a flash of light forced him to cover his eyes and his ears were assaulted with a shout.
“SURPRISE!” Ace slowly opened his eyes as he took in the sounds that weren’t there a few seconds before. His eyes widened once he saw the building he was in, it was full of ponies, food, and countless other things strewn about everywhere. Music blared from a booth with a white unicorn and gray pony with a cello. The fact that this many ponies had managed to be completely quiet surprised Ace more than the party did. As he looked around the room he spotted a certain pink pony hopping towards him.
“Hiya Ace!” She said in a really happy tone. “You like your party?” She asked with an expectant smile. When Ace relayed his surprise Pinkie let out a giggle, “That’s a Pinkie Pie guarantee, my surprise parties are very surprising. Anyway this is your Welcome to Equestria party, hosted by yours truly.” Pinkie flourished her hoof at everything and finally at herself. “We got food over there, games over there, dancing over there, and who knows how many more things I fit in in here.”
“Thank you for doing this, it wasn’t necessary though.” Ace said.
“Yes it was silly, I wanted to show you how glad I am that you showed up. We got a new friend and someone to help us go get Nightmare. Now enough of this chatter lets go have fun!” Pinkie took off with Ace in tow dragging him along by the arm. She dragged him to the game’s first where she competed with him in all of them, Ace was surprised when they finished the last game and it ended in a draw. Pinkie let out a sigh and heard her stomach grumble, she brightened as it gave her an idea to settle the draw though. “Ace lets have an eating contest to settle the draw. Whattaya say?”
Ace smirked as he narrowed his eyes at the pink pony, “You’re on.” The crowd that had gathered around them whooped and hollered at the aspect of the next event. It had been a really long time since anyone had been foolish enough to accept or ask Pinkie Pie to an eating contest.
It didn’t take long for the ponies to get everything set up for the two contestants, they each had their own table filled with plates of sweets and there were more ponies who stood to the side of both with even more plates. Considering Ace hadn’t eaten since he had woken up he was ecstatic that this was happening, albeit a little less than he would be had he gotten meat but he was hungry and there was food in front of him. Both of them waited, eyeing each other while the ponies counted down to the start of the competition.
“Five!” The entire crowd chanted along with the countdown.
“Four!” Everypony except for Twilight, Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy who each eyed both of them with worry.
“Three!” The tension in the room kept growing as the count got closer to zero.
“Two!” Ace cleared his mind and took a breath as he opened his eyes determined to win this contest.
“One!” Pinkie was soaking up the cheer from the ponies, she could barely sit still anymore.
“EAT!” With that one word uttered both of them dove into the plates in front of them, Ace and Pinkie were blurs as they cleared plates faster than anyone expected. Whole platters of cupcakes disappeared from both tables at equal speeds. Cakes were there one second and gone the next. Any and all pastries were devoured equally with no hesitation from either side. More ponies had to help clear the tables and set more food for the two as they cleared it faster than it could be set. At this rate it looked like they would run out of food before one of them gave out, until Ace fell face first into a pie, right hand still holding a cupcake that he had been about to eat. There were no cheers, there were no boos, the only thing that met the ears of the shocked ponies was silence until someone had decided to break it. “I-is he dead?” Once that sentence had been uttered all the ponies began whispering and talking amongst themselves. The bearers stared at Ace horror on their faces and sorrow in their hearts. Granted they hadn’t known Ace that long but after all they had been through they all considered him a friends. They each took in the sight differently, Twilight just stood stock still looking at Ace, AJ had taken her hat off as a sign of respect, Fluttershy had grabbed onto Rarity and was silently crying in to her shoulder while Rarity tried her best to comfort her friend, but Pinkie had yet to do anything, she sat there frozen staring at Ace with watery eyes.
She swallowed the food she had been chewing before Ace fell on his face and slowly made her way to him. She got up next to him with a frown on her face and she tried shaking him slightly. “Ace?” She said in a quiet voice that could give Fluttershy a run for her money. “C’mon Ace.” She said once more. When this garnered no response she hung her head and closed her eyes with a sniffle. The entire crowd lowered their heads not knowing what to make of this situation as once again silence took over the party. Yet it was in this silence that another sound was heard, a sound coming from Ace, Pinkie shook Ace a little more and his head fell from resting on his face to resting on the side of his face. The sound was clear to all of them now as it echoed through the quiet building.
"SNRRRKKKKT!"
The entire crowd let out one shout in unison with rage and disbelief.
