Shisno Chronicles: Friendship is Magic

by nightelf37

BONUS: CO2E Report

BONUS: CO2E Report
Mid-winter in Equestria Prime…

Chronicle was at Hub Equestria, ready to report to his father about yet another cross-world incident he was involved in. Except he wasn't the one who did the world-crossing like before.

Just as he reached the door leading to the interrogation room where his father was waiting, he saw another pony walk over, headed the same way. The one who world-crossed to Equestria Prime.

This other pony wore a white robe concealing their identity. The front half of the robes featured a hood shaped like an eagle's beak in the center; this was connected to the main part of the robes. The rear portion was layered, with the back of the robes extending farther than the front, parted by their tail. Around the barrel was a red sash, with pouches to hold supplies. The pony also wore a balaclava, which along with the low hood helped conceal their identity.

Chronicle knew this pony. An assassin known as the "Angel of Doom". Back when Luna Equestria's Night Court was full of corrupt nobles and their machinations (finally ended thanks to its world's Elements of Harmony), one thing they feared was the Angel of Doom. Before Corona's release, the Angel of Doom would target a Night Court noble and do what they do best, leaving no trace of their identity and seen only as a shadow in the distance. After Corona's release though, they seemingly disappeared, only popping out every now and then in Canterlot, with their swan song during the Grand Galloping Gala, where the Night Court was finally taught their place.

The Angel of Doom also happened to be his youngest brother.

"Blue Diary, there's no need for that garb," the unicorn said with a frown. "I already know who you are when we 'fought' 'for real' in my world."

The assassin pulled back his hood to reveal spiky blue-and-purple hair, blue eyes, and a mare-face just like his. "I know. It's just that I miss wearing these, now that I no longer need them."

The reason why the Angel of Doom's swan song was at the Grand Galloping Gala was because that was when his identity was accidentally revealed. To be precise, while dealing with a criminal they 'recruited' who decided to do things her own way, his hood and mask got torn off. It was revealed afterward that Blue had been doing the assassinations on the behalf of Princess Luna Equestris.

But that was none of Chronicle's concern. Right now, they have to answer to their father for what happened.

C—BD—C—BD—C—BD—C—BD—C—BD—C—BD

In the interrogation room, Chronicle and Blue sat opposite their father, Lord Record Keeper, who was looking really cross. Like last time with the unicorn twins, he was in his earth pony form.

"Okay, Blue Diary," Record began in a stern tone, also like last time. "Explain to me how you and Trixie Lulamoon ended up in Equestria Prime where your brother is assigned in." He pointedly aimed his eyes at Chronicle on finishing this sentence.

The pegasus gave a deep sigh. "Okay, okay, Dad. It's like this. For starters, I did not take us there. Trixie is to blame. No, she did not intend to teleport to where we ended up. In fact, it was a complete accident."

Talk about déjà vu, Chronicle thought to himself. His sister begun with the same general statements.

"First, she tried using the teleportation spell to go from one end of her room to another. Unfortunately, as she was not good at learning spells from books, she ended up pulling herself—and me as I observed her—at some faraway place. During a storm, she tried to teleport again, only for lightning to strike her and me, hurtling us across space and time. It was summer in my world.

"I'm guessing that's what took you there?"

"Well, looks like lightning can do anything. I didn't know at that time, but I had landed unconscious in the park. There, his world's version of Mystic Shield carried me and took me to his home. From what he told me, he did so because he suspected something about my cutie mark, which as you know finally revealed itself upon my and my friends' knighting after the Gala."

Chronicle took over. "Meanwhile, Lulamoon—which I will call his world's Trixie so as to distinguish from mine—was found by Applejack and taken to her home. Twilight and I were notified by Rainbow Dash about that. It was winter again by the way, and Princess Celestia was coming over for a casual visit—and not covert as Sunny Skies—to join Twilight as they examine the Elements of Harmony. When we first saw Lulamoon, we naturally assumed she was my world's Trixie, but…never mind, that comes later.

"I decided to take some time off and conduct class with Mystic Shield, leaving a clone to supervise my charge. Little did I know that my brother was in Mystic's room just behind."

Blue chose the time to join in on the explanation. "During that, I came to, did a once-over of the place, then decided to check out my Surveillance. I had cams not just on my friends, but also BonBon, Dinky Doo, Pokey Pierce, Silver Script, Octavia Philharmonica, and even Duke Greengrass. None of them worked 'cept for Trixie's. And from what I saw, she was awake and I saw Applejack talking with her. I was curious, given what my world's Applejack was, and even as things went a bit out of hoof, I just watched, curious as to why she was saying those things. Of course, at that time, I still didn't realize we had traversed worlds.

"I'll have to admit that sometimes my Surveillance cameras get fooled by Trixie's illusions, but they get back to her eventually. By the time I saw her escaping, with Applejack ready to hogtie her, I knew I had to act."

F—L—A—S—H—B—A—C—K

"All right, everypony. Nice job. Let's take a break."

And then the door to Mystic Shield's room was slammed open, where a certain white pegasus flew out, headed to the door. He put a hoof to something on his chest, the door opened as if by telekinesis, and he got out. As he did that however, Chronicle was shocked beyond words.

"…Brother?!" he cried out. He then promptly glared at Mystic before going after the pegasus.

The purple unicorn followed shortly after. "Wait! I can explain!" he said.

"You better, Mystic! Whether or not that's who I think it is, you have to tell me why there was a white pegasus in your room."

E—N—D—F—L—A—S—H—B—A—C—K

"We went on a merry chase, both parties," Chronicle said. "From what Applejack and Twilight told me, Lulamoon managed to make her way to the library first and she went under a state of panic upon seeing Celestia. She then managed to escape…with the Elements of Harmony. Mystic and I lost Blue however."

"I was just flying blindly in confusion, and didn't even know I was being chased," Blue continued. "I got the attention of his world's Skyla, who decided to chase me for some reason. I wasn't interested, so I tried to lose her. She was impressed with my skills though and kept on me. It was only thanks to my sharp-angle changing that I managed to get her off my tail."

"As soon as I could, I checked Surveillance, and saw that Lulamoon found Raindrops, but not the one I knew apparently. Turns out that Snails was her brother in Equestria Prime too. And their conversation happened to spur the idea of a 'cloud silo', which Ponyville Prime does not have. My world's Raindrops isn't earth pony-strong like his."

"Again, Trixie did that memory spell, the one with the kiss. Since she used it on the wrong Raindrops, it acted like some sort of brainwash, but Trixie assumed that was due to a mass spell from Corona. They then went off to Lyra's, and I decided to do too, taking in my Angel of Doom persona, which had unfortunately been revealed at the Gala no thanks to Zizanie. Unfortunately, I got into trouble with a burly thug. By the time I managed to incapacitate him, she 'got' Lyra too."

"And I had no idea that Mayor Mare's real name is Ivory Scroll, just like in yours," Chronicle interrupted as he faced his brother for a second. "Anyway, back in the library, Celestia had Twilight and Applejack mobilize the rest of my friends, a shield established around the town. As for me and Mystic, we ended up lost in some part of the town we've never been to before. I was still shocked from seeing a pegasus come out from Mystic Shield's room, so I decided to ask my friend what happened."

F—L—A—S—H—B—A—C—K

"Okay, Mystic Shield. Explain why there was a pegasus in your room. I'm sure you're not doing anything inappropriate, right?"

Mystic was offended. "Come on! You know me better than that!"

"Do I?" The mare-faced unicorn asked rhetorically.

"All right, all right," he confessed. "I found him yesterday while I was taking a brisk early morning walk. He was unconscious, and I saw that his cutie mark was similar to yours—although his had additional swords crossing behind it—so I decided to take him home."

"And not the hospital?"

"I thought you'd know him, and I planned on telling you after the class break."

"I see."

E—N—D—F—L—A—S—H—B—A—C—K

"I then remembered by pinpointing spell, so I took out one of Twilight's broken quills I remembered promising to throw away but forgot."

"By that time—we 'compared notes' in the dreamscape—Trixie's got Carrot (who's currently in the herbal business and part of an amateur dramatics society) and Ditzy and they were making their way to the school to 'restore' Cheerilee," said Blue.

"And my friends managed to deduce that too. Meanwhile, Mystic and I encountered Celestia's barrier and I realized that my pinpointing spell was a bit off and was taking me to the bird where the feather came from, which is odd since it shouldn't do that. I decided to try again, and this time used a different tracking spell I learned.

"At that time, Trixie was just about to 'reassemble' her group, but was confronted by his group. And they got into a fight. I finally made it to the school."

"But so did Mystic and I. Since at that time I didn't know of Blue's other job as an assassin, coupled with his swords' censoring effects, I attacked him once Lulamoon greeted him in relief and ordered him to attack. Out of all my world's versions of Lulamoon's Elements of Harmony, Lyra fared the best, having learned from Mystic's class, which I can attest to. Rarity however, whom she was engaging, while not having taken his classes, had picked up a few lessons from him too. She also happens to be a member of the Martial Arts Group."

"He quickly pinned me down, mainly because of my shock that Mystic Shield was there as a humble Ponyvillian. He was torn and confused, not sure of what he should be doing. I was shocked with disbelief that I was facing my brother in person while not in this Equestria. As Trixie reached Cheerilee however, Celestia arrived."

"I was caught off guard by that, and Blue took the chance to escape my grasp and enter a fighting stance. Apart from myself I think, I've never seen anybody try to stand up against her."

"When Celestia began to talk, I took in every word, judging it on a neutral level. Trixie unfortunately was convinced that this was all a complex take-over spell that altered everypony's memories and personalities. I wanted Trixie to calm down, but before I could do so…"

"Twilight's Element of Magic reacted and Lulamoon accessed its power, much to her and our friends' confusion. She managed to unleash that familiar rainbow, but instead of heading for Celestia as she intended, it went straight for her and the 'friends' she brainwashed and knocked them to their senses. Blue was spared as he did not bear an Element. …Now that I think of it, Lulamoon was doing the same thing Twilight did to my friends while Discord was beating the crap out of me after I tried to kill him first."

"As Celestia then tried to convince Trixie to stop, she turned to me, pleading that I do something. But when I assessed the situation, I just couldn't continue this madness and stood down. Understandably, Trixie felt betrayed."

F—L—A—S—H—B—A—C—K

The pony clad in white robes pulled back his hood and balaclava, revealing his face, and showing his friend that he was truly sorry and was thoroughly torn as to what to do.

Chronicle however, interrupted the moment of silence with a gasp of surprise. "Brother?! Is that you?!"

E—N—D—F—L—A—S—H—B—A—C—K

"Before he could answer, it turns out that my world's Trixie decided that this was the perfect time to return to Ponyville, and as a result got herself arrested. A lot of confusion ensued as the royal guard was about to report it only to see us. At around that time however, while Spike was managing the library, his world's Twilight Sparkle entered, and she quickly neutralized him before collecting knowledge. They chatted for a while about alternate worlds. She was about to leave when…" Chronicle put a hoof to his head. "I can't remember right now."

Record put a hoof to his chin as he took all of this in. "Hmm…now that I think about it, I did sense a world-crossing. Ever since your friend's world-hopping incident, Chronicle, I decided to monitor transitions between your Equestria and those of other members in this family. Some time ago, I sensed something cross Blue Diary's world and entered yours. I wasn't able to pick up much from it though, as Mad God Discord from Equestria Hell attempted to attack home base. Again."

Blue decided to continue the report. "Before that, Trixie began to talk with Princess Celestia about being the Element of Magic and about Corona. We reached his Trixie's wagon, and before we knew it, both of them got into a heated argument."

"It was both awkward and hilarious, more so as Celestia decided to take both of them back to the library," Chronicle continued. "There, Spike told us that Blue's Twilight was there a while ago and left. We entered the library, ready to think of what to do next when the moon came, and it wasn't even sunset yet."

"As it was, my world's Princess Luna arrived, alongside the rest of our friends."

"I remember that scene."

F—L—A—S—H—B—A—C—K

As Trixie ran straight for her princess, Blue Diary sped straight for his world's Element of Honesty; Raindrops, the earth pony-tough pegasus.

"Raindrops!" he gasped with happiness as they touched front hooves.

She, however, didn't seem to be too impressed. "Uhh…"

E—N—D—F—L—A—S—H—B—A—C—K

"It was certainly more awkward when my Celestia was pounced by your Luna in a heartwarming and tearjerking hug."

"Unfortunately, thanks to Chronicle, and for Trixie bringing it up, we had to explain to everypony what he and Timerity explained back when they were in Solaris Equestria, including our dreamwalk-link," grunted Blue. "He even brought up that incident. At that point, I had discarded my robes, and my Surveillance was working again on my friends. Also, Chronicle made me Pinkie Promise to explain it to my friends before returning."

"It's fair that they know. Just as I told Spike about that incident, even though he didn't come with us. I didn't even know that you were doing assassin work until one of your friends brought it up by accident." Chronicle was a bit incredulous at the fact that the youngest of their family was doing work that exclusively involved killing.

The pegasus ignored his older brother. "Anyway, what followed next was my Luna explaining that she had entered this Equestria before and had wandered across the cosmos, traveling between worlds."

Record noted this. The Timer family had only started setting up their hub world in what they would eventually call the Equestria Cluster just a few years ago, almost a decade.

"Her encounter with Celestia apparently opened to her the possibility of another world."

"And that her prison for Nightmare Moon had a flaw that would in time grow larger and thus the prophecy that bound me and Twilight with our friends was made," Chronicle finished. "Maybe sometime after, she also acquired that mirror she uses to make contact with Prince Solaris in our sister's world."

"She and Celestia compared what they did during the times they banished their mad sisters, drink for mine, work for his. As it was, when Trixie and I disappeared, Luna thought we were dead. She went to Ponyville and my friends caught up with her in Sweet Apple Acres during the search. She soon realized where we went, and explained to them what had happened. They were supposed to bring my world's Elements of Harmony, but they didn't go for some reason."

"Lulamoon brought news to them that her world's Twilight Sparkle was here, only to find out that they already got her. My Twilight underwent an existential crisis, which Spike snapped her out of. I'm sort of surprised she didn't fall under this one during our trip to Solaris Equestria."

"It could be because Dusk Shine is easily seen as an alternate self due to the opposite gender and all," Record supplied.

"Oh, right."

"Their arguing got worse however, had we known what would've happened, we would've stopped it early," Blue continued "When that sound came, I knew we were screwed."

"The Element of Magic broke in two and its gem bounced once before shattering into pieces. An explosion of light followed, and then a cacophonous boom that threw all of us to the ground. Purple light in the form of a jagged twisting thing shot from the gem into the sky, and after a moment the pieces followed. They finally landed somewhere deep inside the Everfree Forest."

"As a result, both our princesses were cross and as they made us remain silent. They talked for a while before turning to both our Trixies and Twilights. They had shattered the Element of Magic, and thus probably loosed disasters and monsters held at bay. She sent the four of them to get the gemstone back, and intended to have those only when for some reason she then decided that Chronicle and I accompany her."

Their earth pony father gave a small smirk. "That would be my doing."

This surprised both of his sons. "What?!"

"As this was a cross-world crisis, members of the Story Crew are obligated to do whatever they can to stop it." He achieved this not by 'his' alicorn magic, but by the Story Crew's advanced technology.

There was a moment of silence before Chronicle decided to continue the report. "Well, anyway, a band of six unicorns and one pegasus don't make for good company. I still remember the naming conventions we tried to settle with. In the end, the ones from Luna Equestria went by their second names. It didn't help that Mystic Shield decided to tag along."

"I told them that I was called Blue, and would not respond to Diary. They compromised with calling me by my full pony name. I was glad Chronicle packed some antacids. It was extremely confusing to hear them talk."

"Yeah. I was afraid our eyes would end up as wonky as Derpy's. And when Lulamoon found Trixie's secret stash of bourbon, after Twilight stopped her from drinking it, Blue took it, got Trixie's permission, and downed it all. Lulamoon then asked if I drunk, but I said 'only four times in my life'. I ended up elaborating on the causes, just as I once did to Celestia days after Discord's defeat."

"My Trixie then found another bottle of bourbon, but Twilight kept it from her as she checked out a journal my friend shook out of her hat. Twilight then hit on an inspiration; use a tracking spell."

"Which I happily provided, but the theory was over my head, not to mention works differently, and so they had to do it differently. After all, they were looking for the item, and my spell uses an item to find whoever made contact with it. Their spell involved Lulamoon, and a magic circle. Me and Mystic also managed to learn her 'see magic' spell, and her 'call item' spell, the last of which she technically learned from Lyra in Luna Equestria." The unicorn took a deep breath. "Don't know why I didn't teach her my 'magic horn blade', though."

"She'd be able to figure it out just by watching you. Anyway, Twilight managed to perform the needed spell correctly, and before we knew it, we got our heading."

"I think the magic visibility thing crossed over from your Equestria into mine. Damn, cross-world crises are so confusing. I don't think anypony suffered magic sickness."

"It doesn't exist in my Equestria," Blue told his brother before facing their father again. "My Trixie taught him those two spells Chronicle talked about. And both our Twilights began to argue about Clover the Clever. All of a sudden however, we were all sent flying sideways, screaming when something attacked our wagon. It was a unicorn, or it at least assumed the form of one. Even with the two of us, she managed to knock us down fairly quick. Upon seeing our dual friends, she said something along the lines of 'It's like Christmas morning'."

"What she actually said was 'It’s like Hearth’s Warming has come early'," Chronicle corrected. "The pony had deep blue fur like me, wild and unkempt purple hair, and solid purple eyes. Her aura went both deep blue and black. And her cutie mark was an amalga…amal…uhh…" He fumbled for the words.

"Amalgamation," Blue finished.

"Right. Her cutie mark was an amalgamation of Twilight's and Trixie's, but much darker. She seemed to be confused as to what to name herself, and when she attacked, her special talent turns out to be anti-magic, which thankfully didn't penetrate our body-and-mind-altering countermeasures I didn't realize I had until Discord 'tested' it a long time back, but it surrounded it so I was only slightly less helpless. I couldn't even teleport out."

"She said she was made as a result of both Twilights and Trixies shattering the Element of Magic. And she was out to kill us. Well, just the four, but she decided to include the rest of us when it was apparent that we wouldn't let her. She bound us all together and planned to crush us with his Trixie's wagon, then destroy Ponyville and all its residents out of pure spite. She enjoyed being evil."

"Before she could do so however, Lulamoon managed to thwart her with smoke balls. Our foe lost concentration and we attempted to teleport, but she recovered quick enough to try and pull us back, this time penetrating our countermeasures as she somehow hurled us behind her mid-transit. Luckily, as we sailed through, Twilight turned out to have figured out how I teleport while redirecting velocity."

"Thinking with portals…" Record nodded." Remind me to give you an Aperture Science course via dreamscape later."

Chronicle didn't know what to say to that. "…Okay. Anyway, just as we slowed down, I teleported us back on the ground. We assessed our situation, and it apparent that we can't fight her. I still didn't know enough of my 'rage mode' to tap into it. We tried to teleport out, but we found ourselves blocked. We then saw a hurricane, or whirlpool, whatever, over us, which tossed us about whenever we try to teleport. At least the flash-step still works."

"Our Trixies and Twilights began regretting what would happen to them, their princesses punishing them, the other Trixie lamenting about being homeless again, and my Twilight lamenting on her status as a fugitive," Blue continued. "My Trixie managed to comfort her somewhat with her encounter with Night Light back at the Gala. And then we decided to move the old-fashioned way; walking."

"Thankfully, Blue has since been improving in the walking department, though he's still a bit prone to tripping. We had to stop soon enough, and even Blue was feeling a bit cold, and so we decided to start a campfire. And then Sparkle created a wood shelter, Twilight providing pillows. As we talked, the discussion went from Trixie eating pine-cones to the issues of meat. We finally got to sleep though."

"Unfortunately, we were abruptly woken by a deep roar, then some loud stomping. When we turned to see what it was, our Twilights dismissing our shelter, we saw that it was—"

"An Ursa Major, with our foe—who had wings now—atop its head. The very same one I once had to flee from once. I still can't remember how Steven Magnet managed to save me from it."

Blue gave his brother a weird look, but decided not to ask him about it. "Naturally, we fled, but then our enemy picked up his Trixie and placed her on the Ursa Major's skull. During our flight, Twilight decided to give my Trixie the Glimmer Wings."

"I gave myself and Mystic them too, but in spite of my large mana pool, I can only cast it at most twice a day for some reason. I also picked up what seemed to be Sparkle's version of what you called your Soul Nuke, dad."

"Are you sure that was what it was like?" asked the earth pony. "I don't think I've done that in years. My heart's been tainted through experience."

"I helped in the distraction as well, firing bolts of magic from my swords, a technique I rarely use," the white-clad (and coated) pegasus interrupted, getting everypony back on track. "Our foe seemed to be some sort of reality warper rather than a spellcaster like most every magic user we know of. Those fireballs she cast were certainly different from Corona's. Trixie managed to blindside the foe, knocking her off of the Ursa. As she got to the other Trixie however, the foe rose once more, revealing her wings, and taking her down, finally deciding on the name Antithesis."

"Both our worlds' Princesses arrived and Antithesis—surprisingly—engaged them. Even I wouldn't have done that unless I had a death wish, and she certainly didn't. I joined in the battle, only to see her neutralize them all, sending them crashing on the forest floor. Regardless, I fought anyway, only to find out that she can completely shatter my horn blade—my primary 'weapon'—so to speak. Two of the Princesses managed to get up and corner her for a while after she knocked me down a bit."

"Meanwhile, his Princess Luna was trying to get both Trixies off the Ursa Major's head. She succeeded in short order as Mystic Shield and I provided a decent distraction for her. Even after getting them, we still had to find the two Twilights. She found this world's one and deposited them on a cloud, telling them to stay there.

"She was about to have us do the same, but while Mystic complied, I wouldn't have any of that crap. I was forced to tell her of my connection to Chronicle and that I was just as capable a fighter as he. Having no time to argue, she relented."

"Seeing there was nothing much I could do concerning Antithesis, I decided to watch for a while. Despite how many voids of magic she attempted to make, both Princesses seemed to fill them just as quickly. Suddenly, Antithesis went to the sky and conjured a powerful void that took even them down. I had to catch them both, and believe me when I say they were pretty damn heavy.

"We were them bombarded with voids, but Celestia managed to nullify them enough for Blue's Luna to dive out and lash out with lightning at Antithesis. However, Antithesis then did something very powerful; seal Luna into the moon, and Celestia into the sun." The unicorn shook his head. "…What happened after that was a complete blur."

"As that happened, my world's Twiight soon returned, with her an Ursa Minor. Upon seeing it, the Ursa Major calmed down and shrunk, but then Antithesis got this world's Luna and banished her to the moon as well. My mind went completely blank save my combat experience and one purpose; destroy Antithesis."

Record nodded sagely. "I see. One fueled by rage, and the other by fury." Each of his children had similar…power surges. Timerity's was (unfortunately) fueled by hatred and its first use was when she decided to kill the reality warper Eris (like her brother wanted to do with Discord). The one Mystic Wand, the eldest, has is fueled by frustration, but unlike the others he never used it in battle.

As he had seen in his children's Surveillance, Timerity's power surge was similar to her twin brother's, except instead of a bright 'burning' aura, it was as if she accepted dark powers. Her eyes, instead of switching colors in their irises and scleroses, turn lurid green and emit a purple haze. Wand's power surge so far has only gone to the bright 'burning' aura phase, and only for a few seconds. As for Blue's, they don't actually come from him but from his swords Justice and Retribution, which are empowered by his fury.

"We engaged her in earnest, our movements synchronized even though we haven't fought as a team before, especially with Chronicle's 'rage mode', which was a bit of news to me," Blue continued, forcing Record to focus again on what he was here for. "She managed to hurtle us a very great distance though, and by the time we got back, my Twilight managed to grab her, and teleport her slamming to the ground at high velocities, knocking her unconscious. I immediately stopped after that, but Chronicle…"

F—L—A—S—H—B—A—C—K

As Sparkle successfully got her native world's self, Mystic Shield, and both Trixies down from the cloud, they heard a slamming noise. Immediately, they headed to the source to see a still-enraged Chronicle—no longer with his Glimmer Wings—pummeling Antithesis's face to the ground. Each punch was powered with magic, enlarged the crated he was making with each impact.

"YOU! BRING! THEM! BACK! YOU! BITCH!" he cried out with each attack.

Blue Diary was trying to pull his brother back, but wasn't having much success. He knew better than to tell him to calm down; Chronicle was far too angry for it to work.

"I didn't want to do this," the pegasus said to himself as he pulled back and put a hoof on his pearl amulet. A blunt point colored in his swords' aura protruded from his hoof, which he drove down onto his brother's neck, striking a nerve. Chronicle instantly fell unconscious, and his hair turned back to normal. "Sorry, brother." He then pulled him off of Antithesis, who hadn't so much as sustained any damage, and hoisted him onto his back, refusing attempts of aid from the others.

E—N—D—F—L—A—S—H—B—A—C—K

"It turns out that Sparkle had, during the distraction, teleported to where the Ursa Minor was imprisoned. It seemed to recognize her—or at least Twilight—and she set it free, leading to what happened earlier. Hope seemed lost with the Princesses imprisoned, and it turns out that Antithesis can't tell our Trixies and Twilights apart. That's why she tried to kill them all simultaneously, or else the Element inside of her might 'default' to any survivor. We needed to hide and rest, and Sparkle suggested something concerning the Ursas."

"By the time I came to, I found myself cuddling with my brother. Very awkward." Chronicle found himself blushing a bit and quickly shook his head from such thoughts. "I was angry when I found out that he had stopped me from having my way with Antithesis—" He saw Record raise an eyebrow. "No, not like that, Father—but before we could argue, we heard Lulamoon and Sparkle talking, soon joined in by Twilight and Mystic. Antithesis was a bane on existence, and lacked both conscience and the will to develop one. She doesn't actually cast spells, but tears spell-shaped holes open. I know, it makes just as much sense as Discord."

"We had to stop her, and soon, or else either Equestria would be destroyed, or you or someone in the Story Crew might come in to deal with a potential future problem. So the plan boiled down taking the fight to her, challenge her on our terms, surprise her for a change, and fill her void with our magic. We were about to leave out his Trixie, but she put in her two bits, contributing her style and misdirection as a showmare. She shortly told us her plan."

"It's…complicated. You'll have to look into our Surveillance records, and then probably look into the other 'cameras' the Story Crew planted all over the Equestrias." The ones the Surveillance devices have aren't the only ones 'watching' the worlds to 'send' to 'client worlds', but these don't follow 'targets' like the Surveillance ones do.

Record nodded. "I see."

C: "Trixie would lure her to a designated site, then we would harass her for a while. Once Antithesis was where we wanted her, we would blast her with our magic."

"Technically, I would blast her with my swords' magic," Blue added.

"It seemed to work, and the two of us still had enough magic remaining. but then Antithesis got up, screaming. Her body convulsed a bright pink, glowing veins began to trace their way along her form, looking almost like cracks. Blue and I attempted to resume, but she then conjured a massive void, which took in our magic."

"Naturally, thinking they were doomed, our friends began saying their last words. At first, nothing seemed to happen. But as Chronicle and I stopped, finally drained, we noticed that the void was being held back. Then, the ground beneath them began to glow a combination of blue and purple, and an amalgamation of Trixie's and Twilight's cutie marks formed, which was brighter than Antithesis's. Speaking of, the magic we poured into her began to react once more, bringing her down and eventually the Element of Magic left her body."

"At that, as the area around us became an expanse of white light, my honorary Element of Harmony made its way out of my hammerspace and put itself between Blue and me as the Element approached our four companions. Mystic Shield was left out and did not see any of this. Antithesis began to fade away and dissolve back into non-existence. Then my Element split into two copies, one for myself and one for my brother. Also, our Lunas were finally freed."

Blue took out a pendant from his assassin robes and showed it as evidence. It was colored blue, and its shape was akin to the Story Crew insignia, which all of them (the ponies, anyway) bore as their cutie mark. Well, as Princess Celestia found out, they were really flank stickers for reasons Record won't reveal.

He then continued with the report. "Despite that, there was still one problem; the Element of Magic still couldn't tell the four apart, Chronicle and me standing a fair distance from them. His Twilight finally figured out that it was giving them a chance to choose for themselves. Two, one from each Equestria would claim it, and the others would give up their claims."

Chronicle took over. "In the end, Sparkle mentioned having constantly run away, and that she was tired of it, and thus gave it up to Lulamoon. As for Trixie, Twilight was willing to give it up to her, but the showmare decided not to, because she wanted it for the wrong reasons, and knows it's wrong. With that, the two rightful bearers made contact, and the Element finally reformed, but not without absorbing all of our magic to do so."

"I was the first to come to, finding myself and the others at a hospital. I woke up faster due to not having all my magic drained since I wasn't a unicorn. I had a talk with Mystic when he got curious about his world's counterpart. Having been outside the magic that destroyed Antithesis, he didn't fall unconscious like we did.

"The rest save Trixie followed the next day. And I upheld the Pinkie Promise I made with Chronicle. We hoped she'd recover soon lest they get stuck in Equestria Prime forever." The white pegasus left out that fact that he at least can go back to Luna Equestria via the Story Crew's portal mirrors. "During our adventure in the Everfree Forest, it turns out that both our friends had gotten a chance to know each other, and some of mine got to know their Prime counterparts. In particular, I found out that Prime's Ditzy—whose birth name is Derpy—had a somewhat similar history, including the scandalous affair, except her parents made Castor, Dinky's birth father, pay him support. Ditzy also met Time Turner—"

"Another awkward moment when I found out that a local version of Time Turner, a watchmaker, and the Doctor both exist, look almost exactly the same (how they keep their hair the only minor difference), that they're all right with it, and are both surrogate fathers to Dinky." His unicorn brother cut in, earning a frown from him. "Speaking of the Doctor, he wasn't around, probably in another time and place in his TARDIS with another of his companions. By now, I found out he's not THE Doctor. There's also the fact that Dinky's been having Twilight as a private tutor. Why she was taken in before Sweetie Belle is beyond me."

"Probably too caught up in all the 'Cutie Mark Crusading'," guessed Blue. "No such 'secret society' exists in Luna Equestria. Another thing, during the time we were in the hospital, his Mystic involved himself too in the friend-talk, wishing to pick up some more spells.

I returned once more in time to see my Trixie awake. She panicked a bit from the IV unit, such things not existing in our Equestria yet, but was calmed down by my Luna. I was shortly followed by the rest of my friends, and we told each other all that had happened."

The unicorn allowed his brother to take a breather after taking one himself before taking over for him. "Soon, they were out of the hospital, and we were waiting for them. All my friends, my world's Trixie and Luna, his world's Twilight, a fair number of Ponyvillians, and the royal guard. As it was, Celestia deliberately remained in the sun to make sure that my Luna doesn't get blamed for doing what she had done as Nightmare Moon and that her return can be showcased as voluntary."

"Luna began to create a magic circle and once it was completed, she cast it and returned Celestia from the sun. Although it turns out that her sister had used magic dye to render her hair 'normal'."

"Just like with her Sunny Skies persona. She quickly reverted it though. Reunions were made, and then the goodbyes had to come. His Luna gave Sparkle a choice; upon using the planeswalking spell to return them back to their world, they would be sent back to the exact point in space they were in when they left. She could either flee, or turn herself in."

"They asked if they could pass messages to each other through us, but we gave no promises. And unfortunately, Luna doesn't have a mirror like Solaris in our sister's world and Celestia do."

"Eventually, the spell was cast and they were ready to go home. However, Twilight had a plan for her alternate counterpart. I can't remember what it was but Blue's Luna seemed to approve. And then they were finally gone."

"What happened next?" Record then inquired.

"I think Celestia and Twilight decided to resume their initial purpose of their meeting; examine the Elements of Harmony." Chronicle paused for a bit. "And I believe that's all for our report."

"Not quite," said Blue. "Once we returned to Luna Equestria, I verified if it was really the one I left and not some other Luna Equestria. We all came home with a lot of improvement. Ditzy's considering dating again, for one, and need I remind you that two of us never went down that road."

"Yeah. You're going out with Raindrops now. How is it with her?"

"Well, I finally truly confessed to her at the end of her… 'uber-happy phase'—"

"Boys, you can talk about your marefriends later," Record admonished them, eliciting a awkward blush from both of them. I think I'll offer a communications mirror to Luna Equestris, just like the one Celestia Prime and Solaris P-δ. There were a couple of other worlds that had a Solaris, some with the title of Prince, others as Lord. "I'll try to appeal with the higher-ups on your case. Again. No promises on what they'll have to do in response though, especially this is the second time this has happened."

"Yes, Father," both of them replied.

"And Blue, please put those robes away. It's silly when you're wearing clothes and we aren't. Much, anyway." Record still wore his gi, pants, sash, pants, and shoes.

C—BD—RK—C—BD—RK—C—BD—RK—C—T—RK

As the two brothers left the interrogation room, they were greeted by their sister…and one of their many cousins.

This cousin of theirs bore same coat color, hair color, general body shape, and black hooves as the youngest of the core Timer family. The difference was that her muzzle was more curved, her mane was smooth and tied up into a neat bun, and her tail was longer.

"Hey, Time!" Chronicle greeted. "Why're you here with her?" He indicated their cousin, whose name was Azure Agenda. She was assigned to Artemis Equestria, where Prince Artemis was the ruler. Basically the gender-swap version of Luna Equestria. "Unless…"

"Well, believe it or not, I ended up in her world, fought the antithesis of the Element of Magic—"

Blue did a facehoof. "By Corona's mane… I think you underwent the same thing I did."

"By Aureole's mane…" gasped Azure. "Our worlds are connected just like—"

"Mine and by twin brother's," Timerity finished. "I'm guessing our report to Dad will be somewhat identical to ours, won't it?"

"There's only one way to find out. And that's to go in and report." She turned to her cousins. "See ya."

And with that, she and Timerity entered the interrogation room, leaving the two brothers.

"…so, where were we?" Chronicle finally asked.

Blue rubbed the back of his head. "I don't wanna talk about it anymore."

Chronicle was disappointed, but decided not to press him. "Fine. It's best we head back."

"Yeah."

C—T—BD—AA—C—T—BD—AA—C—T—BD—AA

After Record dismissed Timerity and Azure Agenda, he pondered to himself on past events as he made his way back to his 'post'.

Just a few months ago, the Field Operatives of Edeathstria Prime and Equestria-64, which was an alternate of Equestria Prime connected with the former. It involved Twilight Soulshard Prime having Twilight Sparkle-64 be taken to her world while she posed as her, reasons being boredom. It turned into a crazy adventure Death Note (the Field Op of Edeathstria Prime, no relation to the dreaded object) and Orphic Tome (of Equestria-64) wished to put behind them and never speak of again.

And then there was still the issue of that portal the SWORD-K wielder and his group. It's been long since closed off to any Interlopers, but something else had been discovered of it when a scouting party was dispatched. It wasn't just a portal across space and time; it also led to a different universe altogether, which was also covered by the Story Crew.

This 'division' however was more…ridiculous in employing their methods. Barriers, direct mind-wiping to keep with the tale… That would be like if Record deliberately clamped down on his twin children's power before they could kill Discord/Eris because the Story Crew says s/he still has a role to play in his/her world. He would never do such a thing, and understood why Timerity and Chronicle did what they did in the first place, although the Story Crew's higher-ups did say Discord Prime and Eris P-δ still had a role to play in their respective worlds.

Also, the alternate division of the Story Crew was ready to wage war with their rivals the Book Troop. And there was something else; the particular feeling he sensed concerning one of the members in the SWORD-K wielder's group, it turns out that the dragon named (-_-) was the Story Crew's catalyst! It was that detail that cemented the fact that the portal led to an alternate universe; their catalyst in this one is still safe and sound in his Earth client world.

Record shook his head of the thought and also thought of the other issues he's been dealing with. First, there were the Xenocelestias from the Equestri-Earth Convert worlds, Equestrias that invaded Earths and being forced to convert all of humanity into ponies (else they die from the former's inherent magic, which is usually never an issue). When they had somehow discovered Hub Equestria and what its inhabitants really are, they (separately) made attempts to convert his world (and eventually all of Hadithi) into theirs. One of their 'normal' Equestrias (Equestria-25) was also unfortunately embroiled into their machinations.

Second, the Solar Empire has also been attempting to invade Hub Equestria. Thankfully, their efforts are not as frequent thanks to their Field Operative Nicolas "Annals", the second son of Selena "Calyndar" (Field Operative assigned to the Lunar Republic), who is his wife's sister-in-law. Annals served as their mole and saboteur, and has yet to be outed.

Third, there's Corona Blaze from the Equestria they named after her, who is responsible for the death of his brother Othello "Reversi". Her world's already a wasteland, and she also somehow found out how to get to Hub Equestria. Since she has no soldiers of any sort, having burned them all, she doesn't get to keep coming in as often as Tyrant Celestia of the Solar Empire.

Fourth, even though the portal mirrors leading to those worlds (sans the Solar Empire) have long since been closed off after their Field Operatives have been Killed In Action, their ruling Princesses were powerful enough to cross dimensions and enter this. It is suspected that the Book Troop, which is just as powerful as the Story Crew, had a hand in this. They hadn't been able to enter Hub Equestria until after the Great Draconequus Outbreak.

Diplomacy has never been his strong suit, only being the leader because of his combat prowess and compassion for his extended family. Despite this, he'll keep doing his best to maintain Hub Equestria.

He finally reached the place he intended to go. In front of him was a throne room, which looked identical to Princess Celestia Prime's, except its prominent colors were the orange-ish of his own coat. On it was his diadem, which he wore to assume his alicorn form. He approached the throne, put on his diadem, and—in a flash of light—assumed his alicorn form. He then seated himself on his 'throne', after which screens came to life around him, showing him the status of everything going on in Hub Equestria.

"Lord Record Keeper." One of his communication mirrors is already activated, and the 'caller' was (Republican) Princess Luna. "There is something I would like to talk with you about."

Lunar Republic. Record gave a sigh. His job is never done. "Very well. What is it you wish to discuss?"

Author's Note:

Thankfully, you will have footnotes here because the only thing that would be at the top is the disclaimer, which is already applied in almost every chapter anyway.

1. For the record, I devised Blue Diary's "Angel of Doom" persona before I even knew much of the Assassin's Creed series, the third of which I watched via Chris Smoove's Let's Plays. (Splash!) His outfit might've been inspired by theirs, though.

Finally, that BONUS Chapter. It's not supposed to be exciting, unless you found the last one such. Just another advertisement of alternate-Equestria stories. It's also part of a mini-arc I call the Story Crew arc, two of which I will be writing in place of two episodes and thus they will have "(NOT)" on them. After that, I'm getting back to 'proper' episodes.

I apologize if I unintentionally brought up a lot of hype here. It was never my intent, just selfish (admittedly) world-connecting. With what I made the Story Crew to be, I can't help linking them. I also expanded a little more on the Story Crew, or at least the Timer family's part.

As a matter of fact, there was supposed to be a Report that 'covers' the events of the fic titled "The Night Before Nightmare Night", which I have alluded to, but I decided not to. See ya on Third!