Chapter 28: What now?
Everything seemed blank and there was nothing but a type of white noise that was echo-y and seemed to reminisce of both past and future. Lying there in the empty whiteness, James was lying there with Dark James. There was the sound of footsteps that echoed in the Empty Dimension. The being soon making “Tsk-tsk” noises from his mouth, “You shouldn’t be this way,” he said, looking at James’ sliced body, “Here, let me help.”
There was the snap of a finger, to which suddenly James gasped as life filled his being. Soon, his clothes and body slowly healed from the battle, as he slowly returned back to normal. He noticed how fast his body was healing, then turned towards an odd fella who looked like him, only more cartoonish.
“Wha? What happened?” James said, looking at the smiling character. “Well, for starters, I’m the Character and you’re welcome.” He said, adding a chuckle of humor. James got up and stood there, face to face with The Character. “Am I-?” “No, you’re not dead, nor should you be.” He said, as he walked to Dark James.
James stood there, looking at Dark James, who was like James at one point, dead. The Character snapped his fingers, causing Dark James to change into Nightmare Moon. “That’s Nix, she is Luna’s imaginary friend, brought to life,” he paused looking at an odd squirming worm-like thing. Picking it up, he continued, “And this is the thing that pushed Luna into turning into Nightmare Moon, and almost pushed you into a dictator.”
“This thing is called a Cosmic Parasite. This thing can affect almost any being in any dimensional plane of existence.” The Character said. James looked at Nix, then at The Character. “Well, what do I do now? I’m technically dead, and I can’t return back to Earth.” “Your Earth, you mean. And you can, however you need to figure it out yourself.” The Character said.
James was surprised, “You mean that you can’t send me back to my Earth?” “Oh, I could, but your LifePath™ would be greatly affected by this. If you return back to Equestria, you can actually make thing better and join both versions of Earth in harmony.” The Character said. He pulled out a cigar and lit it up.
James thought over this for a moment, before saying, “Will I get the girl?” Character looked at him, as he smoked, “Well, I guess sure. But I can’t guarantee anything.” He said. He pointed at him with his cigar, “That’s yours.” James nodded, then said, “Alright then, I guess this means-.” “Wait, I have an idea for you to use.” The Character said, before bringing in James close and whispering in his ear for a moment.
He then stood in front of James and hugged him for a moment, before holding out two fingers in front of him. “Clear!” Character exclaimed, touching James’ chest. James suddenly felt a blast of electricity come from The Character’s fingers, “Aaah!” he exclaimed, “What the? That hurts!” “Clear!” Character repeated this, causing James to jolt for a moment, to which James heard echoes of what sounded like paramedics near James. He then had a flash of his memory of Bruce Almighty. “You little stink, you’re using Bruce-.” “Clear!” Suddenly, it felt as though he was pulled back into existence.
There was a sudden jolt to James’ body as they checked his heart. “It’s working boys. He’s back.” “Quick get him to the hospital!” One of the paramedic ponies said, as they packed up equipment. James felt life back in his body and soon nodded back to sleep, as everything faded back to black.
James started to hear the familiar sound of his heart, as he started to see colors and light, before they started to form into coherent creatures. “Guys, is that you?” he said as he sat up. The Mane Six cheered as they were glad that James was still alive. He then wrapped his arms around them and gave them a big hug. “Welcome back to the land of the living.” A soothing voice said. James looked up to see Princess Celestia.
“Well, it seems that our Princess has a sense of humor.” “I’ve always had a sense of humor,” she said, “I just don’t use it much in public.” James nodded, then looked towards his left to see Nix there, asleep on the hospital bed. “Why are we helping Nightmare Moon, when she was trying to take you over?” Rainbow Dash said. James shook his head, then looked at her. “Dudette, that isn’t Nightmare Moon, at least not anymore. That is part of Luna that took a physical form due to a creature called a Dark Cosmic Parasite.” James explained, to which Twilight looked at him as if he was crazy. “Where did you get that?”
James was about to say something, then he thought for a moment, before finally saying, “I really have no idea. I feel as though, someone or something is typing out all my thoughts and allowing me to speak to all of you.”
Meanwhile in another Dimension, the writer sneezed for a brief moment, looked at what the character said, then said, “Yeah, it’s meta, but it works.” He then went back to typing in both The Character and himself.
James shook his head, then said, “I may need more rest than I thought.” They all started laughing at what he said.
Celestia left the room, just as they started to laugh. She closed the door, then looked at Luna. “Well?” “James said that a Dark Cosmic Parasite was the cause of your transformation.” Celestia said. “Well, it’s true!” a voice said from out of nowhere.
Celestia and Luna looked all around for a moment, trying to figure out what was going on. “Discord, is that you?” Luna said. “That doesn’t sound like him.” Celestia said, as she continued to look. “Correct my favorite princesses.” The Character said, causing both princesses to look behind them. “Character!” “In the flesh, so to speak. Also, my apologies Princess Luna, we would’ve gotten to you sooner, but some parts of the cosmos needed to be rectified. Plus, nobody knew that the Cosmic Parasite escaped.”
Luna looked at The Character, in shock. “You mean you knew?” Luna said. The Character was serious now and nodded to what happened, “I couldn’t alter the history though to get it. The Cosmic Council believed that this happened for a reason, I didn’t and had to sit and watch while history continued, at least this version of history.” “I don’t understand.” Celestia said.
The Character shook his head, then said, “Even if I did interfere with history, your history, the outcome would still come out the same.” He paced the floor for a moment, then added, “You got off lucky Princess Luna, for it would’ve been much worse that it would’ve been.” He said.
Both Princesses looked at each other in worry, then looked back at The Character. “Anyways, James did it. He eradicated it from the multiverse and from all of Space-Time… somehow. I think it had something to do with that sword,” he snapped his fingers, causing the sword to appear, “Macguffin Device. Made by TV Tropes Inc.” he said, reading the inscription on the sword. He then looked at them in shock.
“Dangatang! Like seriously guys.” He yelled at the sky, to which there was a sound of inconsistent babble. “What? I cannot believe that you would do this behind my back. You could’ve alerted me.” He started to say as he faded out of their plane of reality.
Celestia and Luna looked at each other, then went to check on James. “Maybe it’s best not to question everything.” “Yes, I agree with you sister.” Luna replied before looking back on James.
And so, everything was going back to normal in Ponyville, at least as normal as it should be.
The End… or is it?