//------------------------------//
// Getting Serious (I Guess) 
// Story: Searching for Six Ponies (And Discord if I Feel Like It) 
// by Coltsguy 
//------------------------------//

"Alright, this shit just got real," I began with a noticeably more serious tone. "I'm done with paling around with the Titans. If Dash is in trouble, then this just became a rescue mission. Mousse, in the car now."

Mousse proceeded to dive in through the driver's side window and came to rest in the passenger's seat. Instead of rolling the window up, however, I just placed my arm on it and let the wind flow in.

"New plan. Mousse, you saw where Rainbow Dash was, so I need you to navigate us to a good position so that no one will see us coming. Then, I'll hide us with an illusion spell and sneak up to the area to get a good idea of what we're dealing with. I do not want to go in there blind. After that, then we can formulate a rescue plan."

Man, I really sounded like I knew what I was doing.

"Sounds good," replied Mousse.

I waited a few seconds to hear Terra's answer, but it never came. In retrospect, I realized that it was because I never did say that it included her.

"Well? What about the blonde in the backseat? You in?"

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

"Well, you're a good guy, Mousse is a good guy, and despite the fact that I was playing around with the Titans I'm also a good guy. As good guys, we help those who need it when others aren't up to the task. I was the only one of my group with the ability to make it here without dying. That means it's up to me to save all six of them and return them home. This time, though, I have people around that will actually help me do the right thing and it's nice not to have to do everything on my own for once. So, on that notion will you help Mousse and myself rescue my friend?"

There were a few awkward, silent moments.

"Go ahead and help them Terra," I heard Robin declare.

"Are you sure?" asked Terra.

"He sounds pretty sincere. Either way, he's headed there and you can keep an eye on both of them until we arrive. If he is telling the truth, then go ahead and assist him in rescuing his friend."

"Alright Robin. I'll trust your judgement."

"And you better not lay a scratch on my baby!" added an upset Cyborg.

"Trust me. If I get a scratch on it, I'll give you a free shot," I replied.

"Robin out."

"Would you really give Cyborg a free shot if that happened?" asked Mousse.

"Hell no!!! I let him do that and the force would probably kill me. Let's just get on the way there."

The rest of the drive was spent in silence. However, I could see Terra in the back struggling like she wanted to say something. I wasn't sure on this occasion what to say to her. I had already said what I wanted to say to her when I ran into her on the street. It was enough to make her not pursue me and instead walk back to the car. Whether or not it had it's intended effect, it was still enough to make her think about things.

After a quick three minute drive, Mousse pointed out a place to park the T-Car. After leaving the car, I first tried to make the two of them invisible. I had gotten up to the size of a refrigerator to become invisible. The two of them combined to be around that size so I thought to try that first. I almost succeeded as everything but their feet was rendered invisible to my touch.

After deciding that I couldn't make that work, I then got to work on an illusion spell. I ended up working out an illusion that worked just like the one I did when I was in Rebel Against the Night. This time, I worked on a screen instead. I used a reflective surface to capture the surroundings and project them upon the other side of the screen just like I had seen on the James Bond car from Die Another Day. It was the only reference I could think of, but if I made it work then it didn't matter.

The three of us then proceeded to case out the area. The whole area was basically a bunch of warehouse buildings. Other than some different letters and numbers on the sides of the buildings, all of them were nearly identical. Each building was about six hundred by four hundred feet and was about eighty feet tall. I honestly wasn't sure until Mousse himself told me the measurements. Those buildings were huge. The fact that there were thirty of them all grouped together made quite the spectacle as well. They had a few windows along the side and the short ends each had some large, sliding double doors with a small man-sized door in them.

Mousse pointed out a few guards here and there that were guarding a specific building in particular. It was only the second one in from the city it bordered. I had quite underestimated his speed. Well, that or I just wasn't paying enough attention as to how far he had actually gotten.

We had counted up ten guards patrolling the building. Not too bad. They were all wearing full black suits with an earpiece. Mousse had pointed out that each of them were carrying two pistols on each side of their jacket. Not very good. They needed to be taken care of.

I asked Mousse to silently take them down. He complied and took off into the night. I only saw him take out the first one, but he was quick and efficient. A quick blow to the side of the neck and the man crumpled to the ground. The guy was amazing. I've never seen anyone that fast before. I mean seriously, the guy was barely a blur to my eyes. About thirty seconds later, he returned to where we were with a nod of confirmation.

"Good going Mousse. Now, let's take a look inside and see who we're dealing with."

The three of us walked along the side of the building until we reached a window. The window, however, was a good ten feet higher than us. To solve that problem, I snapped my fingers and created a ladder tower. If you've never seen one of those, it's just a mobile platform with a set of stairs on the side to get to it. The three of us climbed up and took a look inside.

The inside was quite a different place. Machine parts were spread out everywhere. Only a few of them seemed to be set up, though. Many of them were still being assembled by groups of people. The whole place was still being put together from what I could gather.

There was one area, however, that was very different. Several armed guards and some people wearing full-length lab coats were gathered near one area that was about the dead center of the place. It was a tilted steel table.

On that table, Rainbow Dash was bolted down around her legs, wings, and neck with a scared, yet defiant look on her face.

And that got me mad.

However, being mad made me get creative. That gave me a plan.

"Mousse, Terra, I want the two of you to head towards the far side of the warehouse. I'm going to create a distraction on the other side of the warehouse and draw in as many of the enemies as I can. Wait about a minute and then come in through the other entrance and take out as many of the enemies as possible."

"Shouldn't we wait for the other Titans to show up?" asked Terra. "We could use the backup."

"They have my friend bolted to a table. I'm too pissed to be told to wait. Just wait for the signal. It'll be loud enough to hear."

With that, I teleported back to the entrance to the warehouse. I concentrated my magic and began to cast a few spells. The first was an illusion to cover the sky in the area with dark storm clouds. Next, I brought up my body shield spell. The third was a powerful magic blast. I used to annihilate the doors with a loud explosion. Then, I fired up another illusion spell to let them know that I meant business. After both stops on the first break, I cast another illusion spell that made it look like lightning was striking right behind me. Then, when the third went up, I cast another spell to look like I was emitting a golden glow all around me. As soon as the music dropped to another low point I started advancing into the warehouse.

"Who are you?" one of the scientists asked at me.

"Seth! You came for me! And you look pretty awesome doing it!"

"One of her friends then. Then you will surrender or she will---urk!"

I cut him off as I picked him up with some levitation and threw him off to the side. He crashed up against one of the other guards before they had a chance to react. The others pointed their weapons at me in response. Unlike the ones outside, several of the guards inside also had fully automatic sub-machine guns.

"You all have one chance to let her go before I turn your world into a kaleidoscope of pain. Choose wisely."

They all started to open fire on me. The illusion of the glow around me worked like I had hoped it would. None of them could see the bullets impacting on my personal shield. All they could see was their bullets disappearing near me. I then cast a quick illusion around the floor so that the bullets couldn't be seen.

Needless to say, some of them started to freak out. Not very many, though, and it was primarily the scientists. As I had hoped, they started running towards the other side of the warehouse. Mousse and Terra would take care of the escapees. I needed to take care of the ones that were sticking it out.

I toned down the power and started firing magic bolts at the attackers. It seemed to work on most of them. They were knocked unconscious and that kept them out of the fight. The others were merely knocked down and started shooting at me from their backs. Only a few that got knocked down decided to run after that. I was surprised at how easily that things were going.

Then again, I had gotten pretty good at wielding these powers. There was also the fact that there weren't any supervillains trying to stop me either. I guess that was the trepidation that I was feeling. There weren't any supervillains there or smart bad guys trying to keep me from succeeding. Everyone there was a guard or a scientist. The problem was that they had to be working for someone. Perhaps the fact that I had caught them off guard has led to this situation. Not to mention that the Teen Titans were probably outside watching what was happening. They probably wouldn't risk getting into a fight with the Titans present.

A guard that flew past me grabbed my attention. It had seemed that Mousse and Terra had gotten close to where I was. I was down to a half dozen guards here as well. A few more magic blasts and then another flying guard that I picked out of the air and threw back in that direction and the fighting had then come to an end. I dropped all my spells and waited for Mousse and Terra to arrive. A few moments later, they showed up with a triumphant look on their faces.

After they arrived, we all went over to free Rainbow Dash.

"That. Was. Awesome!!!"

"I know. We were all here to see it," I replied.

"The way you tossed that one guy was amazing! He was all 'I'm going to hurt her', and you were all 'Not a chance', and then the way you just started blasting them all away was so cool! Not as cool as when you and I fought with Discord, but still pretty cool."

"Yeah, well it would be pretty hard to top that bout," I said fully knowing many things that might just top that bout. "I'd rather ask about you. Are you alright? They didn't hurt you did they?"

"Naw. I'm fine. They didn't do anything really bad to me."

"Nothing a future Wonderbolt couldn't handle I'm guessing," I stated in an amused tone.

"You betcha! Hey, who are the other two?"

"Oh, these two are Mousse and Terra. They are the nice folks who helped me rescue you."

"Really? Thanks a lot."

"It was no problem," said Mousse.

"I was just glad to help," replied Terra.

"Could you help a little more and get me outta this thing?" asked Dash.

I chuckled a little and snapped my fingers.

That was also when the gunshot rang out. It was accompanied by a sharp pain in my chest. I reeled backwards, flipped over, and fell face first to the ground. I heard some screams and some sounds of something happening around me. I wasn't sure what was going on. I just knew that my chest hurt pretty bad. Not as bad as when Discord stabbed me, but it didn't feel too good anyway.

I laid there for a few seconds before trying to get up. It took a little bit of effort, but I managed to get to a kneeling position. I felt a rush of wind go by me as I was still staring at the ground. I shook my head a bit to help me get my bearings.

"It's alright. Your friend is getting back up. See?"

I couldn't tell who said that, but I was able to hear the people around me again. A few seconds later, and I was tackled to the ground again. Even though I was face down on the ground once more, I could easily tell that it was Rainbow Dash. The hooves were a dead giveaway.

"I'm glad your okay," I heard her whisper.

"So am I, Dash. So am I."

I put my hands under my body and pushed myself up to a double kneeling position. Rainbow Dash got off of me and I finished standing up. I looked around to see that all of the Titans were in there now. I then remembered what had just happened.

"Did I just get shot?" I asked incredulously.

"We thought you did," said Robin. "Apparently, we weren't that far off the mark. Neither was the bullet," he said and pointed at my chest.

I looked down at my chest to see what he was talking about. Apparently, I did get shot. However, it didn't quite get me.

The bullet was now lodged inside the translator pin that the TARDIS had given me.

"Damn I love that big blue box," I said; smiling wide.

I then frowned again.

"Aw man. I just got this translator too. It was a personal gift from the TARDIS. I feel kind of bad that it got wrecked."

"Hey, don't feel too bad. It saved your life," said Ryouga. "I'm sure that TARDIS would be glad that a gift they gave you helped save your life."

"Yeah, I know. It was a nice gift though. I feel bad that it got destroyed. Who the heck shot me, anyway?"

"Obviously it was one of the guards," said Beast Boy. "You probably didn't knock them out properly and one of them shot you when you weren't paying attention."

I turned around the way I was facing and looked towards Rainbow Dash.

"Is that what happened?"

"I think so. I looked over to where that sound came from and saw this one guy with one of those things in his hand. I was sure he had done it so I started beating the stuffing out of him until the orange girl stopped me."

I looked over to where Starfire was. She was standing next to one of the guards who was lying on his back. Blood was running down his face and there were a few bruises as well. Wait, I think that was the guard that I threw the scientist into at the beginning. That was quite the ironic coincidence.

"Wow, you really did a number on him, Dash."

I ruffled her mane playfully and she quickly swatted away my hand.

"Yeah, well, you went down like a sack of potatoes and I just kind of reacted." she said while slightly blushing.

"I understand. I'm just glad I found you safe and sound. Now, how about I get you home so I can go and rescue Twilight?"

"Sounds like a plan."

"So you're leaving? Just like that?"

I didn't know who said that. It was from someone behind me, though, so I turned around to answer them.

"Yeah, just like that. My whole purpose here was to rescue Rainbow Dash. Though getting to see all you superheroes was a pretty awesome bonus. I mean so far I've been to a lot of different universes, but this one is by far my favorite. It's too bad I can't stay."

"If it means anything, you'll be welcome back in the Amazon village if you ever come back," said Mousse.

"I wish I could come back. The rift that I used to get here will seal up the moment I get back. Not to mention that if you go through it without touching this coin around my neck it can be fatal. Unless you have a safe way to follow me back, this is probably the last time I'll see any of you."

"Wait a second," interrupted Robin. "There are still a bunch of questions I'd like to ask you."

"Sorry, I can't really answer your questions. My mere presence here may throw off timelines that were supposed to happen. Telling you about things or even giving you answers may mess things up even more."

"You didn't seem to have that problem when you showed up in my hometown," said Rainbow Dash; walking to the front of me.

"That's because the princess made me tell you. Not only that, but I didn't have any more foreknowledge about anything else that was going to happen to you or your friends. I do have a bit of that with them. I can't take that risk."

"So you know about things that are going to happen to us?" asked Beast Boy.

"Somewhat, yes."

"Dude, do you have the lottery numbers for the future?" asked a hopeful Beast Boy.

Cyborg elbowed him in the side. I chuckled a little before answering.

"I don't. Besides, I don't think you're old enough to be playing the lottery anyway."

Rainbow Dash suddenly took to the air and hovered beside me.

"Come on, Seth. We still gotta go rescue Twilight."

"Sure thing."

"You're name is Seth?" asked Raven.

"Yeah. Sorry I didn't tell anyone. I was kind of rushed."

A small smirk appeared on her lips.

"What's with the smirk Raven? My name isn't that interesting."

"It's more interesting than you think," she replied.

"Uh... yay I guess?"

I was very confused. Sure, my name meant something in regards to the Bible, but other than that it didn't really mean anything. Well, I think it was also close to something in Egyptian, but I didn't really know.

She shook her head.

"It's merely a coincidence. Don't worry about it."

"Oh thanks a lot Raven. Now I feel like there's something important about it."

"Then consider this payback for putting me in this dress."

Oh yeah. I noticed that she was still in that dress I put on her. Dayum, she filled it out in all the right places! Though, I felt like I needed to change her back. I sighed and snapped my fingers. Her clothes then returned to normal.

"I think I've overextended my welcome. Let's go Dash."

"Right behind ya."

I grabbed the coin and held it out in front of me. However, I thought of one last thing to say before I left.

"Oh Ryouga. One last thing."

"What's that?" he said while raising an eyebrow.

"If you see Jinx again, tell her that unicorns are real. It should make her day."

"Wait. What?"

I quickly grabbed Dash's hoof and placed it on the coin. Instantly, we were both gone with a flash.