//------------------------------// // Catching Up // Story: AtDD II: Cross Dimension Road Trip // by StrawberryGamer //------------------------------// Ceruline and Charcoal Embers sat on the bed as the other Sunshine finished explaining about where she came from. Charcoal’s normally calm look was replaced by excitement. Ceru just wanted to see her Sunny again. More than once Ceru caught Sunshine looking nervously at Princess Luna. She could somewhat understand it. She was looking back at a relic of her past, according to her story. A story mothers told to their foals, of what Equestria was like many years ago. Ceru could imagine her reaction would be the same if she met Starswirl in the flesh. When Sunshine finished, Luna looked at her sympathetically. “That is an interesting tale, and I’m sorry to hear that you too were thrown from your world unwillingly.” She said. Sunshine immediately whipped her head around to stare at Luna. “What? You mean I’m not the first from my world to come here?” Luna shook her head. “Nay, young Sunshine. We met another pony earlier today who appeared to be your doppelganger. I suspect she is from a world different from ours, but not yours either.” “In that case,” Charcoal spoke up, her calm demeanor having returned, “it would not be out of the question to say that you swapped places with our Sunshine. So I think we should pool our efforts into finding a way to send you back home and get our Sunshine back.” She adjusted her glasses as she finished, and looked towards Ceru. Ceru nodded her agreement. “Right, we need to get our Sunny back first, then we can plan on what to do next. Um… Anypony have an idea of how to do that?” An awkward silence filled the room, broken by an exasperated sigh from Charcoal. “Dimensional travel is always so complicated.” Just then, a portal opened in the middle of the room, and from it, the ponies Charcoal recognized as Starry Night and Vinyl Scratch stepped out. “And yet… It seems remarkably convenient.” Sunshine’s reaction was more or less expected. She cowered behind the table. Luna stood straight up, ready to attack. Ceru jumped off the bed and ran to hug the tired-looking Starry. “You made it!” She cried joyfully. Starry idly returned the hug, then noticed Princess Luna and immediately dropped into a bow. “Princess! I apologize for intruding so suddenly.” Luna’s expression softened as she realized the intruders were friendly. “Rise. I take it you two are friends of these two?” She asked, motioning to Ceru and Charcoal. Starry rose from her bow and nodded. “Very well. Then we have some information you might be interested in.” “Oh, and what’s that?” Came Vinyl’s voice from behind Starry. “It appears another wrench has been thrown into our plans.” Charcoal said, gesturing to the table, where Sunshine had her head poking out from behind. “That’s not our Sunshine. Apparently she’s from another universe, a futuristic one apparently. Our Sunshine is stuck in that one, while she’s here.” Vinyl gave an arrogant grin. “Oh, don’t worry about that. We got a spell that’ll get us there. Though Starry just used it, and apparently it’s too dangerous to her health to use again for 24 hours. That means I gotta cast it this time, I guess.” As Vinyl began to prepare to cast the spell, Starry interrupted her. “Hold on. You need to focus on the precise spot you want us to travel to. Otherwise we’ll just end up scattered.” She reminded the unicorn she had come to know as quite absentminded. “Right, right.” She waved Starry off and turned to Sunshine. “So, tell me about your home so I can get a good feel of where I’ll be dropping us off.” Sunshine thought for a moment. “Well, I live in Canterlot. 343 Carousel Road is the address.” She said. Vinyl held up a hoof to stop her. “Waiwaitwait. You live right on Tavi’s old address? Is there a club nearby?” Sunshine nodded. “Dude, that’s awesome. It’s like a parallel universe, only you live in the future. Okay, I think I know where to drop us off.” Vinyl lit up her horn again, preparing the spell. “You sure?” Ceru asked. “Yes, now stop distracting me.” Vinyl confirmed, and everyone shut up. An uncomfortable silence followed, as Vinyl poured all her energy and concentration into the spell. Then, after a moment, she cast the spell. The air in front of her rippled before a portal opened up. Vinyl gaped for a moment, before letting out a victory whoop. “Yes! I did it! Come on, let’s go!” Ceru looked nervous about going through, but watched as Sunshine jumped through first, followed by Starry and Charcoal. She jumped through next, and Vinyl brought up the rear. A bright light overtook Ceru’s vision for a moment, and when it faded, she found herself on a linoleum tiled floor. She stood up and took a look at the room she and the others found themselves in. It was a public restroom. Simple as that. Based on the one occupant that was staring at them, it was a stallion’s restroom. Either that or he was a pervert. The group largely ignored him, though Vinyl gave him a wink through her glasses. He gave a nervous smile back, then dashed out of the room. Probably to alert the authorities, Ceru thought. Vinyl seemed to share a similar thought. “Bah, we should have taken him hostage.” Starry shook her head. “One witness won’t hurt. We want to at least be subtle. Not breaking the law would be a good start to that.” She said. “Yeah, right,” Vinyl scoffed, “because what we’re doing is totally subtle. Nopony is gonna suspect a thing.” She gave the others a grin as they all suddenly became aware of a low rhythmic pounding from outside the restroom. Starry slowly raised a hoof to her forehead. “Vinyl, tell me you didn’t…” “What? I needed to focus on an exit point, and I know this place better than anypony.” Vinyl defended. “I don’t know how you could possibly know about a nightclub in a different universe, not to mention thousands of years in the future.” Sunshine interjected. “And why are we in the stallion’s restroom?” “Through the power of music, my dear.” Vinyl gestured toward the exit. “Well? This is your homeworld, right? Lead the way.” Sunshine looked like she was going to raise a further argument, but remained silent as she led the group out of the restroom. As they left, the pounding of the bass quickly grew to blaring music and a mob of dancing ponies. Sunshine turned to lead them out of the club, but a purple pegasus mare stopped her. “Oh, Viola, good to see you.” The mare smiled at her, but also seemed a bit confused. “Good to see you too, Sunny. Weren’t you at home with Starburst and Sugar? They called in earlier and said you got hurt.” Sunshine shook her head. “It’s a long story, but I need to get home ASAP.” She said. Viola stepped aside to let her by, but caught sight of her envoy. “Who are these three? They don’t register on my ID scanner.” The mare asked. Sunshine bit back a groan. “They’re tourists. We need to get-wait, three? But there were four of them. Where did-?” She noticed Starry pointing towards the DJ booth, where Vinyl was approaching . It just so happened that the current DJ was a robotic lookalike of the alabaster unicorn. “So much for subtlety…” The robot DJ seemed to notice her presence and turned to her. “Sorry babe, fans aren’t allowed up here. You can get an autograph after my shift. Nice cosplay though, you look just like me.” Vinyl rolled her eyes. “Pfft, why would I want my own autograph? I’m here to liven up this bland party.” “What, bland? Just who the hay do you think you are, talking to me like that? This is the greatest nightclub in Equestria, with me as its greatest DJ!” The robot declared, striking a pose for the crowd, who could hear everything and were watching the exchange, as the music had stopped. They gave her a cheer, boosting her ego and proving her point. Vinyl just scoffed, unimpressed. “Yeah, and that was meant to prove something? So tell me, why isn’t this crowd as lively as it should be? Have you lost your touch?” She asked teasingly, poking a hoof at her. Vinyl-bot glared at her. “Not as lively? How dare you suggest such a thing! I have been managing this nightclub since Princess Spectra’s coronation. Well at least the versions of me that have come and go over the years. Something about wear and tear and memory fragmentation.” “I’m going to pretend I had any idea of what you just said, and then I’m going to take over this gig.” Vinyl deadpanned, clearly having run out of bucks to give regarding Vinyl-bot. “Also stop repeating what I say, unless you want me to call you my boring reflection.” The crowd let out a bunch of scattered laughter, causing Vinyl to give her a smug smirk. “Bori-” Vinyl-bot caught herself before she could echo Vinyl’s words again and huffed, ignoring the continued laughter from the crowd. “You wouldn’t be able to handle these turntables anyway. The technology is far too advanced for you. Just go back to your snooty marefriend and leave the partying to me.” Vinyl gasped, hurt by that remark. Or at least she would be if her reaction didn’t include a greatly overreacted death faint. When she picked herself up, she laughed. “Tavi, a fillyfooler? Ha! Couldn’t be farther from the truth. Besides, we’re more like sisters than lovers. Just shows how much an imposter like you knows about me. Now stand aside and let a pro show you how it’s done!” She shoved the android aside and took the mic. “Enough of that poser DJ Pon-bot. It’s time you partied with the original!” She shouted as she took control of the booth. The confused faces of the ponies on the dance floor were quickly wiped away as the music started up again, with a much different beat. From Ceru’s point of view, the party seemed livelier with Vinyl than it did with her robotic counterpart. Ceru looked to the others, and noticed Sunshine and her friend had left, while Starry and Charcoal were going around the dance floor to confront Vinyl. Ceru hurried up to join them. She spotted Vinyl-bot grumbling in the corner, but not making any attempt to regain control of the booth. She couldn’t help but grin when she noticed the bot’s hoof was tapping along with the music. Charcoal tapped Vinyl’s shoulder. “Um, we have a job to do, remember? We shouldn’t be wasting our time here.” She insisted. Vinyl just waved her away. “You go on ahead. I’ll catch up with ya. I already told you I know where the place is, anyway.” “But we don’t,” Charcoal pointed out, “and Sunshine already left.” Vinyl pointed towards the door. “Across the street, three or four buildings down. 343 Carousel Road.” Sighing, Charcoal relented. “Fine, we’ll go on ahead. By the way, how do you know how to work that?” “I don’t, I just let my musical instincts guide me to epicness.” “Right, and Daring Do is secretly a real pony.” Vinyl whipped her head around to stare at Charcoal. “Wait, really?” “No, that’s just a rumor. Seriously, don’t believe everything you read in magazines.” “Aw. Well, I’m not going anywhere, so when you pick up our Sunbutt, just come on back.” With that, Vinyl turned her attention back to the party. Charcoal sighed, turned around, and went back down towards the exit, where Viola and Sunshine were waiting. Starry followed soon after and Ceruline took up the rear. “Alright, let’s go.” “And so I’m here, speaking with an android princess. Now that I think about it, this is probably the third strangest thing that’s happened this week.” Putting on the Element of Loyalty had to be the first, followed by hitting Rainbow Dash in the face with a frying pan. As I was giving my recap - again, I might add - of what I went through, Spectra had moved to a seat opposite me. Starburst had pulled out a tablet and noted down everything I said. It’s almost freaky how similar she is to Twilight. Sugar was just lying on the floor. She fell off the couch laughing around the frying pan part and never bothered to get back up. Spectra cleared her throat. Again, super weird from an android. “Well, that was a really… interesting story. It sure widened my view of other worlds.” She said. “Well, despite the dangers I’ve faced, I have to admit, it’s been pretty fun. You know, in that crazy adrenaline rush sort of way you get at a roller coaster. Then again, I hate roller coasters. I get queasy in cars, not to mention coasters. Wait, I tangented again. Dammit.” I really need to stop doing that out loud. “You do that a lot. I counted at least 32 times you tangented from your story to mention something completely unrelated,” Starburst pointed out, “or maybe about 20 of them were just really random occurrences, like that garishly colored mare on the ferry.” I shrugged. “I dunno. That mare was there. I never talked to her though.” “See? That’s what I mean! Your mind is so unorganized! Are you sure it hasn’t been tampered with?” I shook my head. “It’s not that. I just have a sort of… mental condition. Nothing to worry about. It’s actually more hazardous to my health to try and treat it.” “Well, I’m sure our doctors can do something to-” Spectra spoke up, but I held a hoof to interrupt. “No thank you. I’ve lived with it for 10 years now. I’m fine. There are more important things to worry about.” “That’s a responsible outlook, I guess.” Spectra got up and walked to the door. “I’ll be heading back. We need our own Sunshine back. However, if you have any need of me, my door is always open.” With that, she opened the door and was about to step outside when a beeping was heard. I peeked over to look and saw her looking down at an unusual device on the ground. It had a circular base with a lot of wires and coils sticking up out of it. As it beeped, it released small sparks of electricity. It looked kinda like a landmine, but with electricity. Though, what really stood out was the freaky distortion of the air as it seemed to ripple around the coils. My mind’s usually slow cogs turned much faster when I realized what that was. “EMP!” I dove for Spectra and tried to push her out of the way, but she was just a little to heavy to move effectively. The mine detonated, showering Spectra and I in a cascade of electromagnetic energy. The house took some of the energy too, cutting out the lights. To me, it actually felt pretty tingly. Like a wave of paraesthesia cascading over my whole body. The visor did go blank though. For Spectra, it was a bit worse. Okay, a lot. “Oh no, Princess!” I heard Starburst shout. She teleported over to us, much more concerned about the state of Spectra than myself, and rightly so. The alicorn android was completely rigid, her glowing mane and tail completely dark. Starburst lit up her horn and gave Spectra a quick scan. When she finished, she let out a sigh of relief. “Oh thank the stars, she’s still alive. Her body is fried though, and her harmonic energy is fading. Sugar quick, gather the rest of the Elements. We need to use them to save Spectra. Also we need Frosty to fix her body.” Sugar nodded and ran upstairs. Starburst tried to comfort and keep Spectra stable. Meanwhile, I picked myself up off the floor and took a look outside to see if I could find whoever planted that EMP. Some sinister laughter answered that inquiry pretty quick. “Who knew all it took to assassinate a princess was some copper wire and a bit of ingenuity? Oh well, this isn’t my world.” A yellow orange alicorn mare stepped into the room, immediately glancing in my direction. “Ah, there you are. Remember me? No, I don’t suppose you do.” Her horn lit up, and I felt myself get lifted off the ground and thrown over the couch, where I landed hard on the floor. I got back up, only to get thrown again, this time into a wall. “And stay down, like a good little toy.” My back hurt, my legs hurt, and my head hurt, but I stood back up anyways. “Toy? What the fuck do you mean by toy?” I growled. “Didn’t you hear? The glorious Princess Celestia gifted you to me as a toy to play with as I wish. And as you’ve figured out by now,” she said, lifting me up to her face, “I like to play rough.” This time I was thrown into Starburst, knocking her over. “But really, you aren’t that interesting at all to play with like this. Maybe I’ll make you a servant instead. How do you feel about a maid uniform?” She laughed again, a really disturbing, hollow sort of laugh that makes me feel she really isn’t all there in the head. “Hold still.” Before she could continue, Starburst got up and launched a spell at the alicorn. It knocked her back, but only really served to piss her off. She picked up Starburst and threw her across the room. Then the alicorn picked me up again and threw me out into the street. It didn’t burn as I slid to a halt, not like tarmac. It was a relatively smoother surface like a polished stone. Still hurt like fuck though. As I stood back up on much shakier legs, the alicorn walked back outside. “You know, I’m getting the feeling you don’t appreciate me. And here I was trying to catch up with my ol’ plaything after you so rudely ditched me. You really wound me.” Her horn lit up again, a ball of magical energy forming at the tip. “I’m gonna have to teach you some manners! Maybe if I don’t kill ya, we can try again. If I do, well I have a whole world to play with.” She shot the ball at me. I didn’t have time to dodge, so I just braced myself for the impact. Someone, anyone, help! And then I closed my eyes as everything turned yellow.