It's very awkward to be a center of a solar system.
Yep, I'm strange, no one should have such thoughts. In my position it makes more sense. You see, I have a certain... impulse when it comes to things falling on my head. I suppose I acquired it in all those small clashes with Royal Guards, when they actually decided to come up with some strategy, like shooting a hail of arrows at us. In such situations I were just freezing everything heading my way with my telekinesis. The problem? All this shit was revolving around me as if I was some fucking star. It was often pretty embarrassing - big or scary objects were just fine, but can you really take seriously someone who has a roll of toilet paper flying around his head?
Now I was walking through woods with a big cloud of various items following me. Once some... things started to fall from the sky, I decided to pick them up with my power - I was too lazy to put them in my invisible pocket. Don't look at me like that! Carrying objects that fall from the sky is a very wise strategy, almost all games agree about that. Anyway, they were mostly coins, strange gems, amulets and various weapons. I was also holding a few ordinary rocks and a timberwolf... no, he didn't fall from the sky, he jumped on me on my way back. I wonder if timberwolves can be tamed... it would be awesome to have a tamed timberwolf. I think I’d call him Eastwood.
It seems I wasn't the only one who experienced some issues with physics - back at the fireplace Blaze was gathering an entire stack of similiar items.
"Okay... do you happen to know what all this shit is?" I asked.
Blaze looked at me with disapproval. I don't get it - she has no problem with swearing herself, but gets all grumpy when I do that. I once questioned her about this and she said it was very out of character for Silver. Go figure.
"Totems or tokens, whatever suits you. I recognize some of them. They are from other Displaced and can be used to communicate with them."
Displaced... it sounded familiar. I think Blaze mentioned it once.
"And by Displaced you mean...?"
"Other people cheated by the Merchant and banished to Equestria in different universes."
"Oh, right. Now I remember. We met that displaced fish woman with a spear, Undinner, I think. I wonder how is she after a thousand years... You mentioned some of those Displaced might help us escape."
"Indeed." Blaze sat down and closed her eyes. "A lot of them are useless pony-loving faggots or they got too much into the role and become evil overlords, but some could be helpful."
"Yeah. It would be unbelievable if we were the only pair of trolls who want to show a middle finger to the Merchant." I picked up some black stone with a strange rune. "So... how does it work?"
Blaze's eyes snapped open.
"Don't you dare to summon anyone without my knowledge... especially him. We have enough trouble with Chaos Emeralds as it is."
I sat down next to her and started to put all the tokens into my pocket, one at time.
"Speaking of Emeralds, any idea how are we going to find them? You can sense Sol Emeralds, but I'm not Knuckles, there’s no chaos shards' detector in my head."
My companion answered instantly.
"We will raid a library in Ponyville. Knowing these ponies, all necessary information is just in some book not read by anyone. Idiots... But there is one thing to do first." Blaze stood up. In her right hand suddenly appeared a power ring. "Let's create our own tokens."
I shrugged. "Fine by me." I pulled my own ring from my pocket. It was different from other rings - I bought it from the Merchant along with the Chaos Emeralds, and unlike others I don't lose that one no matter how much damage I take. Unfortunately it also doesn't protect like other power rings. "How am I supposed to do that?"
"It's very simple. You just take an item and tell a speech of sorts, which explains who you are and what is your goal. Let me show you." Blaze raised the ring to her face.
"I am Blaze, wielder of fire and a tamer of the Flames of Disaster. My wrath is devastating and my speed unmatched. Call upon me, enemies of the Merchant, for I shall do whatever it takes to bring him to justice for what he had done to all of us. This I can promise to you."
And then... nothing happened. Blaze frowned.
"I don't get it. Why doesn't it work? It worked for the others."
"Maybe you were acting too much out of character?" I suggested. "You usually don't use big words to declare what you want."
She gave me an ominous look. "Silver, you are walking on very shaky ground..." Oh come on, why can't she take a joke? "And no, talking like that is normal when it comes to the creation of the token."
"I still think you just need to act more like yourself. Watch and learn." I cleared my throat in order to prepare the world for one of my great ideas.
"My name is Silver, Silver the Hedgehog. I travel across time and space as a Jedi of sorts in search of adventure, swag, shit and giggles. You want to kick some ass, find a magical artifact, or simply hang out with a wonderful, handsome guy? If so, then just summon me! Blaze is sometimes too much even for me and I'd gladly meet someone new. Ciao!"
I wish you guys could see Blaze’s face when my token started glowing. Unfortunately I can't bend the fourth wall that much and I'm afraid the author might be too lazy to draw something, so you just have to settle for my words. Anyway, shortly after that her ring lightened up too. Both items raised into the air and floated towards each other. Somehow they connected like two links of the chain and cloned themselves. Then they did it again. And again. And again...
Okay. I guess I should warn you before all of that - don't expect too much logic from this world.
The two original rings separated and returned to their owners, and the copies disappeared in a black vortex... I guess that was this famous interdimensional Void. A bit disappointing in my opinion. Blaze facepalmed.
"Splendid. Even the Void states we are doomed for each other."
I smiled. "I personally don't mind that my life is linked with yours. Oh, how romantic that sounds!"
Yeah, I didn't manage to avoid her incoming fist.
I angrily munched a sapphire. I was left behind. Again.
The return of Nightmare Moon? He could blame only himself. Discord? Too busy with spitting out all those scrolls. However, his sister insisted on keeping him away from troublemakers in all cases. True, Twilight wanted the best for him, but it didn't mean she should always leave him behind. He was strong. Let's say some fire monster appeared in Ponyville and started to demolish the town hall. With his fireproof scales he surely would be allowed to at least watch, right? Wrong. Do you know why I am sure?
Because this is exactly what happened. After Applejack galloped into the library and informed Twilight about the attack, I was told to stay here and wait for them. I wish that for once I was in the spotlight.
*crash*
"Argh! Who in the right mind places a pile of sharp rocks next to the window?! Someone could get hurt!"
I stiffened and slowly turned around. Right next to me was sitting... a thing. A very big, white thing.
"That would be me." That was the first thing I said.
"Don't you know it's irresponsible to do that? If someone were to enter through the window, they would land right on them! What’s next? Shards of Christmas tree’s decorations?"
I looked at the entrance to the library.
"But... why the window? The door’s better."
The creature shoke his head. "No, no, that's just too normal. Do I look normal to you?"
I paid closer attention to the visitor as he stood up. He had huge hands with the gloves, each one easily as big as my head. He was also wearing a navy-blue boots. His head was covered by quills. I couldn't even tell what he was.
"No, you are a weirdo."
"Indeed, so obviously I couldn't ent... hey, that's not nice! Ugh... Look, could you just point out where are the books about history and magical artifacts?"
Another normal day in Ponyville. It would be funny if it wasn't so true.
Huh... so that's why I was hit by the lightning when I raised that wooden pole back in medieval Equestria. Interesting. But I digress, I should prepare the meal. I closed the book and pulled out the fish.
Blaze was right again, almost everything was simply in the history books. It took some time, but finally I found three helpful volumes. Obviously I couldn't simply borrow them (no library card and no way to obtain one right away), so I just flew out of the tree library treebrary, almost instantly returning to the Everfree. For some reason the little dragon was screaming something about being grounded because of me... meh. Not my problem.
My friend didn't return for another half an hour... Seriously, she really thinks it would take me so much time to steal a book? My pride is hurt. At this point I was already at the fourth fish.
"Do you have it?" was the first thing she asked.
"Mhm. You know, we didn't miss out much during our imprisonment. The last millenium was very calm," I answered, finishing cutting the fish with a telekinesis. I handed it to Blaze.
Blaze removed her right glove and took the fish. Shortly after that she was holding a perfectly cooked piece of meat - her pyrokinesis unlike my power could be very precise. Yes, I count fish as meat. Shut up. My POV, my rules.
"Whatever. Where are the Emeralds?"
"We know only about two of them, others are either missing or their location is classified. Dragon Wasteland and Manehattan. The dragon king isn't exactly subtle, he likes to show off his 'symbol of friendship with Equestria'. The second one is in a museum. I also think the Princesses have at least one Emerald."
"I see. That's troublesome," said Blaze, sticking another fish on the stick and setting it aside to cool down. "We will need an Emerald to get to the Dragon Wasteland."
"So we will hit the museum, since we are sure only about this Emerald," I concluded. "When?"
"Tomorrow." Blaze pulled something out of her interdimensional pocket. "Want some apples? I stole them myself."
"To the fish? I'm not THAT dumb."
"Your highnesses..."
The two royals stopped their chess match and looked towards the general.
"In light of recent events, the council decided it would be wise to speed up the operation. Do we have your approval, your highnesses?"
There was no hesitation.
"Of course, general," said older sister. "It is time."
The next day, at the train station in Ponyville...
Express Delivery yawned loudly. He hated to work in the morning - in his opinion 'carrying packages' and 'the morning' should've never been put in the same sentence. Well, he couldn't exactly do anything about the mystical magic of cutie marks, coudn't he? At least it wasn't a troublesome transport, just some clothes. At least that's what he thought.
His hopes were dashed once he tried to lift the biggest crate.
"Oh my Celestia, my spine! Those are clothes? What are they made of nowadays, wood?" he exclaimed, dropping the crate. He looked at the label. Apparently it was a delivery of suits from 'Lady Rarity' to 'Mister Scooter'. That explained much. The stallion shrugged and decided to call for help.
"Boys, help me with this. It's heavier than my wife."
Thanks to the combined effort of three ponies the box in the end landed in the destined place at the train. After it went other packages and ten minutes later the porters closed the door to the freight car. The silence didn't last long.
"I still think we should enter two different crates. Three cubic yards* are definitely not enough."
"Don't grumble. This one was the biggest I could find. Knowing our luck, with two different crates we would get loaded into two different trains," answered Blaze, but without any enthusiasm.
"Couldn't we just run to Manehattan? It wouldn't take much time."
"But it would gather a lot of attention. We don't want the Princesses to find out what are we going to do."
Silence.
"Blaze."
"What?"
"I didn't go to the toilet this morning."
"...somehow I knew you were going to say that."
* Or over two cubic meters. Suit yourself.