As the realization that I was in a fanfiction universe dawned on me, I think I may have had a tough time adjusting.
Okay, I'm pretty sure I was yelling obscenities at anything I could think of. After that, I walked up to a building and just slumped down against it. I wasn't thinking about finding Pinkie Pie at that moment. I was thinking that basically people could create universes just by imagining it. An entire universe solely based on thought.
It made me think for quite a bit. It was a great concept on the duality of a person. People could be weak and their lives are fragile things. However, people were capable of great things if their very thoughts could give birth to an entire universe. Perception is reality. What we believe can truly be.
"Alright, I think I'll be okay now," I said. "I just needed to think things out. Seeing a reality that is born from the mind of a person just isn't something that's easy to take in."
I then thought of something and facepalmed.
"Those other universes might have been fanfiction universes as well. I could have altered timelines just by being there. I could have done damage without even knowing it. Especially with Vlad Masters. That seemed like a very important plot point that I could have really messed up."
I qualmed about this for another few minutes. In the end, I decided that what was done couldn't be changed. I'd have to live with what I did whether it turned out good or bad. Though, in my case it was hope for the former and bet anything but your soul on the latter.
I shook my head a bit. Now wasn't the time to feel bad. Now was the time to do what I came here to do. Now, however, I had to be more careful about what I did. My invisibility spell was ideal. I had no idea how long I could maintain it, though. My illusion spell could also prove immensely useful in this situation.
I decided to keep my invisibility spell active for the time being. I did not want to screw up things here. Then again, this is Nightmare Moon we're talking about. I knew about this story, but this seemed off. If I remembered correctly, the last chapter I read about a month ago was right after Zero had won and then four months had passed since then. Things weren't going well for Lelouch trying to get things the way he wanted, but still Nightmare Moon wasn't in charge then.
Terrific. This was farther into the fic than I knew about. I'm only semi-knowledgeable about what's going on here. The backstory elements and some situational knowledge would help out, but I was going into this situation not knowing things that I needed to know. I'm just glad that I did know some things about what was going on.
I looked back at the knightmare frame. It was inoperable, that I knew. However, it looked like it would be fine if I could get the power working on it again. None of the knigtmare frames were working since the incident where Nightmare Moon used the sakuradite from within them to transform every person on the planet into a pony. What I wasn't sure about was if they were simply drained of power or if the sakuradite itself disappeared when it was used. From what I could figure out, Nightmare Moon figured out that sakuradite was compatible with magic and used it to boost her own magic to nigh godlike levels. On normal terms, I may have a chance against her. Now, however, I'm willing to bet that she is using sakuradite to bolster her magic constantly. Despite the unpredictability of chaos magic, I highly doubt that I had a chance to go up against her.
If she was using the sakuradite to bolster her magic, then reigniting any sakuradite was not a good idea. Really, what would be the point anyway? It was just me being caught up in something cool. I had to tread lightly.
Although, perhaps getting the Black Knights to help search would be a good idea. No. Not necessarily. I had my coin to guide me. Now that I was in a fanfiction, I had to be more careful with my actions.
That said, I recognized the people in Code Geass easily enough. However, I only remembered what Kallen looked like in pony form off of the top of my head. Well, that and the cutie marks of Lelouch and C.C. I'd have to dig into my memories with the aid of Discord's magic to remember what the others looked like. I don't really need to talk to them anyway. I just have to be careful with what I'm doing.
I reached into my shirt and pulled out my coin. Then, I internally facepalmed. I can't see the coin with my invisibility spell active. It's strange how I can see the face of my watch when I hit the illuminate button, though. I'm going to need to figure this out if I don't want to get picked up by the same group that those other two flyboys belonged to.
I stood back up and thought about my options. I couldn't be invisible if I wanted to see the coin. I had to be visible to see the coin, but that put me at risk to be seen by the ponies. I'd have to either duck into alleys or other places to check the coin, or somehow keep myself invisible to other ponies using my illusion spell.
I briefly considered turning myself into a pony to blend in, but I had no idea if I could then turn myself back. I didn't want to take that chance. With that option squashed, I decided to try out my illusion spell.
The first thing I did was create a pony version of me. It took a few tries, but I got it to work. I ended up with a blue stallion unicorn with a white mane. I made it look a little portly, but not too bad. For the cutie mark, I decided on a white horseshoe that was encased in a golden glow. I needed to be a unicorn so that if I used magic it wouldn't be suspicious.
The next problem I had would be to superimpose the illusion of the stallion onto myself and not have anyone see me there. I wasn't quite sure if I could do that. My illusions themselves were pretty good. I just wasn't sure that I could keep myself hidden with one. I could tell that it would take a great deal of work to keep up the appearance. I also knew that my magic wasn't infinite. It was recharged through acts of chaos. I never thought to check if I had to create those acts or if being around one would suffice.
It didn't matter. I needed to make this work. I would have to get creative. I ended up aligning the image onto a small area around me that had me as an epicenter. I then had to keep myself within this screened area and mirror things off of it in a see through style. I highly doubted it would work, but I didn't have any other options if I wanted to keep on the move.
With that out of the way, I brought up the illusion spell and dropped my invisibility spell. There weren't any ponies around to make sure this was working. Then again, I had been doing this outside and was actually glad that there wasn't any ponies that saw that happen. With a quick look at my coin for reference, I started moving along.
This had really just become a pattern now. Walk aimlessly forward while following the shiny coin. The only good news that I could figure was that the coin at least put me on the same landmass as the pony I was looking for. It also seemed to put me near the source of whatever story was going on. I was placed near a ghost in the first one. I was next to Mojo's volcano in the second one. This one, however, seemed to place me nowhere in particular. Perhaps I was placed within a stone's throw of the pegasi and the knightmare frame for reference? I guess that seemed logical. Wait, why were things logical when chaos was involved?
"Why do I try to explain these things? I can't tell if things are supposed to make sense or not!"
"What things make sense?" I heard someone ask.
I looked down to see a mare looking straight at me. She was an earth pony and had a green coat with a yellow and brown mane. Her cutie mark was a pair of flowers, however, the stems were actually knives for some reason. That was a bit creepy.
"Well, my friend kind of just disappeared and I'm not sure where she went. Hang on a second."
I made the illusion me's horn glow and an image of Pinkie Pie appeared a few feet to my left.
"This is what she looks like. Have you seen her around?"
I suppose I may have overdone it. When she saw the image of Pinkie Pie that I had made, her jaw dropped. I don't think any of them had seen magic like that before. I needed to move along.
"So, you haven't seen her?"
My voice seemed to bring her back to her senses.
"No. No I haven't seen her. That was really impressive. How'd you do that?"
"I'm just good with things like that. I need to find her now. Excuse me."
I continued on my way. I kept my eye on her while moving just to make sure she didn't follow me. I was getting into an area with more ponies in it now. They seemed to be working on rebuilding things. Normally that wouldn't have bothered me, except that they were building in some different form of architecture. The buildings seemed medieval in appearance, but with white stone that looked like marble instead of mere grey stone. Why would they build it like that instead of the way they did before?
Of course. Nightmare Moon. Why do I keep forgetting the obvious? She's an evil bitch. If she's in power now, then everything here makes sense. Her sense of esthetics was pretty abysmal anyway. It would be an easy leap of logic to assume that she would have them make buildings that would be considered a poor choice to live in by today's standards. Well, except the marble part. Then again, I'm not really a fan of marble anyway.
This would have to wait. In fact, I can't get involved in this at all. The biggest problem would be that any spells that were still active when I left would disappear the moment I left. If I transformed ponies back into people, it would wear off the second I left. It would be kind of funny to turn Nightmare Moon into a human for a bit. That would certainly get her riled up. No, I can't think like that. My mere presence here is an abnormality. I absolutely cannot let anyone see a human here or I could do irreparable harm.
Though, after about an hour I could feel the tension in the air. It didn't quite feel like something was going to happen. It felt like a palpable sense of sadness. I'd never felt anything quite like it. You could just feel how they all were unhappy about what was happening to them.
Then, I saw something different.
There was a small group of ponies that were just waiting outside of a completed new-type building. The group drew me in, but what I saw on some of them is what really made me scratch my head.
It was their eyes. They were slit in the same manner as a cat. As I got closer, I noticed one of the pegasus ponies lift what looked like a unicorn into the air. Why the heck would they do that? It didn't make much sense to me. He was already-
CRACK!!!
I didn't even have time to react as the unicorn from before faceplanted into the asphalt of the street. There was no way he survived. I couldn't even feel anything right then. Just watching that happen derailed any thoughts I had.
I continued watching as another pony dumped the contents of a bag onto the street. I couldn't tell what it was from here since I was still about forty yards away. I continued to look on as a unicorn in armor lit the pile on fire. The whole thing caught ablaze rather quickly. As the pile burned, one of the things in the pile was caught by the wind and flew in my direction. Eventually, it got caught on my leg. I slowly reached down to pick it up and took a look at it.
It was just a picture. A picture of a family enjoying a day at the beach.
Was this it? Did they do this for just that reason? Did they just kill a man for wanting to keep some photos?
As I stood up, one thing was predominate in my mind. Anger. Sheer anger at this travesty. I slowly walked over to the burning pile and while most of the ponies had left, two unicorns, the pegasus, and the earth pony were still there. The pegasus would be first.
I reached out with my telekinesis and grabbed the pegasus. I then shot him thirty feet into the air and then threw him back down to the ground. Then, I picked up again and rammed him into the house and then finished by throwing him across the street.
"You there! Halt!" one of the unicorns yelled at me.
I didn't care as the two of them ran towards me. I simply gathered magic into both of my hands and fired at them. They barely saw it coming. It hit them straight on and they both went flying back past the house and several dozen yards beyond.
I then looked at the earth pony and levitated him towards me. I came slightly to my senses and crouched to my illusions eye level. Then, I finished bringing him up to my illusion's face.
"How dare you all do that to him," I said with my voice full of disdain.
"They did that to him. I'm glad you did that in return," the pony said to me.
I was surprised to hear that. I decided to get some answers before I did anything to him.
"Why would you be glad to see them get hurt? Aren't you with them?"
"Not by choice. I'm just a liaison from the Black Knights."
"You were with the Black Knights?" I asked curiously.
"I used to be the Deputy Commander of the Black Knights. My name is Kaname Ohgi."
I dropped him in surprise upon hearing that name. Ohgi, the lovable oaf who was part of Zero's troops and one of the original Black Knights. Upon closer inspection, he did seem to have the same hair as Ohgi.
I used my illusion spell to bring up an image of Pinkie Pie.
"I'm looking for this pony. Have you seen her?"
He looked on awestruck at my illusion of Pinkie Pie.
"Well?"
"I think I've seen her before. Some of Nightmare Moon's ponies took her away to a prison. They haven't informed Nightmare Moon of it yet."
I was about to press further, when I looked up at hearing the sounds of more of them on their way. I looked back down to Ohgi.
"So, Nightmare Moon is in charge then. I'll have to tread more lightly. Tell them that the Colt's Guy denounces her rule. It will keep them from getting suspicious of you, as will this."
I reached back and punched him in the face in view of another soldier that just cam into view. Ohgi then tumbled end over end for a dozen feet and came to a stop.
"You there! Halt in the name of the Empress!"
I decided to hightail it out of there at that. I looked up and teleported up to the roof of one of the buildings. I looked back down and saw that they had lost my trail. For some reason, however, I couldn't stop myself from one last parting shot.
"DOWN WITH THE TYRANNY!!! END THE NIGHTMARE!!!"
I noticed that all the ponies on the street heard my declaration and with one last look around, I then teleported a block away and simultaneously dropped my illusion spell and activated my invisibility spell. It was just in time as a few ponies rounded the corner into view.
Now that I had done that, I started thinking about just what I had done. I had immediately thrown away what I had said I was going to do. I had acted on instinct. I had exposed my illusion in an unfavorable manner. If they made the connection to that other mare from earlier, then Pinkie Pie could very well be in danger. The only good thing was that I had used my internet moniker instead of my real name. I loved how well it fit with ponies.
Oh well, I could flip the colors of my illusion and I could get away with that. I doubt that anyone saw my cutie mark in the midst of that. Ohgi was trustworthy enough that he wouldn't tell on me. At least I hope so. He did say that he was a liaison of the Black Knights. He may have turned on Zero.
Oh forget it. It was fifty-fifty either way. Not to mention both of those ways were not helping me get to Pinkie Pie. The situation had become very bad. If Nightmare Moon finds out who she is then she'll be killed on the spot. Ohgi mentioned a prison that she was being kept in. It was probably the one that Toudoh was being held in before. It doesn't really matter. I need to get her out quickly.
Or else there would be no Pinkie Pie to save.