//------------------------------// // I Kinda Hope This Doesn't Become a Pattern // Story: Searching for Six Ponies (And Discord if I Feel Like It) // by Coltsguy //------------------------------// Sometimes I've wondered in the past what it would be like if I could go to all those stories I see on the television or in books. I thought it would be cool to see all of the people I admired and watch them in their proudest moments. Things like that only happened in stories, though. My dreams would never be real. Well, tell that to the three guys with the cyberbrains that I'm staring at in an alleyway. Better yet, tell that to the being that is responsible for me being here. That would be Discord, the so called God of Chaos. Oh, and while you're doing that, could you punch him in the face for me? No? Well, I understand if you don't want to. His magic will mess you up. I honestly don't even know how in the hell I'm saying this in my head without these three reacting to me in any way. I think we've been staring at each other for about three minutes now. A dramatic pause maybe? I guess I'd better give them an answer so this can move along. "Um, I'm a naturalist. I don't have a cyberbrain." Score one for situational knowledge! "Oh yeah?" asked the one in the middle. "Well, the three of us hate naturals. You think your so much better than us? You think that just because we decided to enhance our bodies with cybernetics that you have the right to look down on us? That's probably why you're wearing those weird clothes." Damn, the score was brought back on a penalty. Think, brain! Think your way out of this! "Look, others may do that, but I'm not like that!" "Shut up normie!" said the one on the left with a heavy accent. "You ain't talkin' your way outta this!" "I really don't want you to hurt me so can I just leave?" I asked; not wanting any violence. After all, just because they look normal doesn't mean that they aren't full prosthetic. Even if I have enhanced durability and strength now, that doesn't mean that they couldn't put a serious hurt on me. "I think he's a scared of us," said the one on the right with the thickest accent of the three. He followed that up with a smile. "I would be too if I was him." Yeah, that sounded reassuring. I suppose I could use magic on them and get away. I could always turn invisible and run. I know there are devices that can do that here and they could make their own assumptions. How could I get out of this safely? Suddenly, the three of them stopped in their tracks. Their expressions changed dramatically. They weren't angry anymore. Now they looked like they were afraid. It was like they had seen a ghost. "BEWARE!!!" I heard a shout from behind me and while I jumped a little in surprise the three of them took off down the alley the way that I assume they came from. I turned around to see what had chased them away. I think my jaw dropped at what I saw. He was wearing a set of denim coveralls with a greyish shirt underneath. A set of black boots covered his feet and some generic work gloves in a light grey on his hands. On his head, there was a grey stocking cap. Those were the normal things about him. The not-so-normal things about him started with his blue skin. His red pupils were a nice contrast on the white of his eyes. Oh, and he was semi-transparent and floating several feet above the ground as well. Yeah, this was something I knew as well. "I am the BOX GHOST!" The Box Ghost. From Danny Phantom. In Ghost in the Shell. Did I miss something here? "You're the Box Ghost?" "Indeed! Fear my corrugated cardboard vengeance!" As he said that, a few boxes in the alley suddenly floated off of the ground and went to his side. "Before I run away in terror, can I ask you where I am right now?" He looked at me a little confused before answering. "You are in the the city of New Port." "Is that in Japan?" "Of course it is! Where else would it be?" "Well, I know of a Newport, Rhode Island. I could have been there." "That is ridiculous! Why would I want to haunt someplace in Rhode Island?" "I don't know. By the way, what year is it?" "It is 2033 simpleton!" "Of course it is," I said playing along. "I was just making conversation before I had to leave." "You will flee! Flee in terror from the BOX GHOST!" "Yeah, about that..." I quickly brought forth my invisibility spell and backed up from the Box Ghost. "Curses! Another human with the ability to turn themself invisible! That is an insult to ghosts everywhere!" He launched the boxes he had at his sides forward where I was. I then ducked under them to make sure he didn't know where I was. He looked around angrily for any sign of me. Eventually, he gave up. Though, he decided on one more thing to say before I left. "I will have my vengeance! Beware for I am the Box Ghost!" Having said his final threat, he then flew into the air and disappeared. Okay, now that I've let the situation diffuse itself, what the hell is going on? What in the world is the Box Ghost doing in Ghost in the Shell? Don't get me wrong, that does sound like it might work as a fanfic somehow, but it isn't something that I'm aware of. The presence of ghosts in this world could throw off the dynamics of what I know here. For all I know, Danny Fenton could be a cyborg ghost. I paused for a second. A cyborg ghost? That sounded pretty cool actually. No. I had no time for this. Applejack was out there. She had no idea where she was was and I wasn't much better off. At least I could blend in as a human. If anyone out there saw her, who knows what could happen? I walked to the end of the alleyway and turned visible again. There was no one around that I could see. The street was dead quiet, but well lit. I looked up and down the street. Despite the fact that all I saw were some small office buildings, there were no lights on in any of them. The street was lined by a guardrail and the street lights, but nothing else. Well, sidewalks of course, but that should go without saying. I reached into my shirt and pulled out the coin. The coin that started it all. It gave me my magic. It sent me to Equestria, sort of. It protected me from Discord's final act of treachery. And now, it was a beacon to help me find the girls and bring them back to Equestria from wherever they were sent. It had quite the history already in the short time I've had it. I moved the coin around in several directions. When I noticed it glow brighter in the direction of the city lights, I let it drop and headed in that direction. I hoped it wouldn't take long to find Applejack. Just because this was a technologically advanced world, didn't mean that there wouldn't be interest in a talking pony. They could lock her up and study her. Or worse. I kept walking along the road for a few hours. I got the occasional look from a passerby on the sidewalk. There were a few cars that went by as well. Nothing really interesting of note. Of course, one of the people I passed seemed to comment in English instead of Japanese. Something along the lines of why is he wearing that? Their comment on my strange clothes made me think about what I was wearing. I looked around a bit and snapped my fingers. My clothes changed into some khaki pants and a dark brown t-shirt. I still missed my hat, though. I left it back at Twilight's place since I didn't want Discord to mess it up. Wait a second. Until now I was still wearing the same outfit that I had on when I got stabbed by Discord. Did nobody notice the fact that I had blood covering part of my shirt? I guess it was possible that no one in the alleyway saw it, but that might be why I was getting those looks on the sidewalk. Then again, if I was seen covered in blood, why didn't anybody try and help me? Perhaps I didn't look like I needed help? Honestly, it was just too confusing to think about rationally. Speaking of irrational, why did every building look the same? I'm not saying that it had the same architecture or was colored the same. I was saying that every building I've looked at is window for window the exact same as the last. It was like people became lazy and just copied and pasted the buildings over and over again. The color was the same. The width was the same. The only thing breaking up the monotony was a panel next to the entrance on the buildings. I couldn't read Japanese, but I could tell that each one I passed was different from the others. Except for one. After just under three hours, according to my watch, the sky began to get brighter and more people and cars started to appear. That wasn't what I was focused on. What I was focused on was the one building that looked different than the others. The only one that was a brick building and had the only English on any of the buildings. A neon sign hanging from the front that said 'Fenton'. It was still about a few hours walk from the beginning of the city proper as far as I could tell. Even still, I was thinking about taking a detour to check it out. Half of it was to check out the place from t.v. even though it didn't have the weird saucer thing stuck to the top of it like from the show. The other half was to see if I could possibly get some help finding Applejack. If it was the same Fenton's from the series, a talking pony might not even be that big of a deal and they would help out just because of who they were. Of course, this could also be Danny Fenton in the future as well. There was just too many variables in this kind of thing. I needed to acquire more information about this place. The Fenton home may just be the place to do it. It may seem like I should follow the coin and it will take me directly to Applejack. However, there may end up being more playing out in this situation than I think there is and I don't want to walk into a trap for me or someone else. I took a quick look around and activated my invisibility spell. I then crossed the street and and walked up to the Fenton building. I then got close to one of the windows and peered inside. The curtains were drawn so I couldn't see inside. Well, that made sense. Privacy is not some foreign concept to everyone after all. Unfortunately, I didn't have any other way to see inside and I didn't want to teleport into the place considering how I didn't like doing it in the first place and I could very well plant myself inside a wall or worse. Well, this was a problem. I didn't want to just sit around waiting for someone who I might not even be able to talk to. If I couldn't learn anything then staying here was a pointless waste of time. I looked around once again and dropped my invisibility spell. I then took out my coin and checked it once again. The signal was still coming from the same direction as before. A horrible thought then occurred to me. How far exactly was she from me? All the coin told me was a direction to go to. Just because the rift dropped me off here doesn't mean that it didn't drop her off a long distance from here. For all I knew she could be on the other side of the planet and the coin was telling me to go this was because it was the slightly shorter path around the globe. I don't even want to get into the fact that it could have dropped her off in the middle of the ocean far away from any landmass. I needed to get moving. I needed to get there in a hurry. I needed some wheels. Too bad I left my car back on my Earth. You know what? Screw that. I've got magic. I'll magic myself up a car. After walking back to the left side of the street, I concentrated and snapped my fingers. In front of me a vehicle appeared. Unfortunately, it came complete with a two ghosts for riders. Yeah, that's about my luck in a nutshell.