The One Who Leads The Way

by TundraStanza

Soul Charge

Author's Note: All colored text in this chapter will represent vocal irregularities. Thank you.

---

"I have something to show you of great importance. So... stand up, my avatar!"

Well, that was oddly phrased. Usually, Céri heard a short snippet request or in Yosuke's case, a basic emotion. It was the middle of the night in Redheart's house, but he didn't really know how to "hang up" inter-dimensional calls. Maybe the woman who said that phrase was just being melodramatic about her key.

"The Vanguard attacks," he said before the spinning circle of light changed his location.

After the light decided it was through blinding him, Céri looked around. Whatever building he was inside this time looked very large and hollow. Come to think of it, the wooden beams everywhere led him to believe that he was inside a barn. He half-expected that he was going to have to flip cards over and fight mutant chickens.

However, there were no animal sounds coming from anywhere nearby. The only sound he could feasibly identify was the rush of wind. He could even see wisps of dust being carried just outside the open upper door. He scratched his head with the Gauntlet Thorns, though it did its usual thing of not hurting him. He even tried putting on Zecora's shades for a second, though the flying grains of sand were apparently real enough to block the sight of anything else that might have been outside.

Normally, the displaced person and/or creature was at least within the general vicinity of where he arrived. But after waiting for what seemed like an extremely long couple of minutes, no one showed up. It was just... empty.

"Hello?" Céri called out. "Anybody home?"

He walked around a bit. Maybe there was some kind of clue as to the other displaced entity's presence inside the barn. Something told him that going out into the strong dust storm wasn't a good idea. A quick glance through the stables didn't turn up anything but a few strands of hay and some water troughs that were long forgotten.

In the last stall, however, there was something out of place. It was a nightstand that had a small red box on it. He hummed in uncertainty. He decided to pull out his cards to be sure. His Shadow Paladin Units were grayed out, except for the Grade zeros... and one other card: Blaster Dark. Maybe there was more to that card than just being able to talk.

"Call! Anakin!"

The dark clad swordsman emerged. His expression was as stoic as ever as he stared at his Vanguard.

"Could you check that box out for any traps?" asked Céri while motioning in the direction of the stall.

Anakin looked between the box in question and the card fighter. "Very well."

The Unit marched over and calmly extended his weapon out. He tapped the box a couple times with his sword. The lid slid to the right and revealed its contents.

"Well, it didn't explode," commented Céri. "That's a good start."

"Hmph." Anakin was not impressed as he raised his weapon and rested the flat side against his shoulder.

Céri walked toward the opened box with a bit more confidence. As he stood right next to the nightstand, he could see some gold color with a spot of orange right in the middle. He reached down and picked up the item as well as a piece of paper that was resting just underneath it. The golden item resembled a necklace and the spot of orange felt like a jewel. The jewel's shape was that of an apple with a stem and leaf.

"What do you suppose this is?" He turned around and showed his Unit.

Anakin shook his head. "I couldn't fathom a guess."

Idly, Céri unfolded the paper. Some inked words were scribbled on it that read, "I think this is yours. ~T.S."

"I don't see a recipient's name," said Céri while glancing over the message again. "What the-?"

The orange-apple necklace shook wildly and floated up on its own accord. In a shimmering rush, it launched itself at the card fighter. Céri yelped and ducked. The magical jewelry was coming around for another rush.

"Blaster Dark!" he shouted and held out his hand.

Anakin hollered and took a swing at the allegedly possessed necklace. Contact with the sword was enough to send the necklace spinning around and slamming against another stall. But after a couple seconds, it pulled itself off the wood, shook itself, and rushed jewel-first at them again. This time, the Shadow Paladin tried a downward strike. The necklace ended up splashing in a water trough. Additionally, one of the wooden beams got sliced diagonally and split off the rest of the stall.

"Whew." Céri sighed. "Thanks for the save, Anakin."

"Don't mention it," said the swordsman. "The last thing I need to hear is Vaha laughing that I struggled to beat a necklace."

"Wait, Vaha?" Céri performed a double-take. "As in Moonlight Witch, Vaha?"

Anakin's eyes briefly went wide before he looked to the side. "I said nothing. I don't know what you mean."

"Wow." Céri smiled wryly. "You really do have a heart... and it beats for Vaha." He started looking over his cards. "I wonder if I have a copy of her."

"No, don't!" Anakin put a hand over the cards, failing horribly to hide the Units' pictures.

Unbeknownst to either of them, a glint of gold and orange slowly raised itself out of the water trough.

"Aw, Annie... are you okay?" Céri gently patted his Unit's hand. "Are you okay, Annie?"

"I demand that you stop, My Vanguard!"

"Alright, alright, I'll look later." Céri straightened his deck out and put it away. "Besides, I'm not judging. I find it to be kind of a cute crush. Good on you."

Blaster Dark sighed and put his hand over his eyes. "Can we please talk about literally anything else?"

Did somebody call for a sudden whistling noise? How about a rushing light that decided to instantly press against Céri's neck? No? Well, he got one anyway. The rush was so sudden that he fell to the floor on his stomach.

"Gah! What the hell?" He reached up and tried to pull off the vengeful necklace. "Get it off!"

Anakin snapped out of his embarrassment and picked up his sword. In a slow motion, he tried to get the curved end of the tip just underneath the necklace. But as he tried to cut the intrusive jewelry, the narrowest point of the sword snapped. It was a small fragment of the dark sword, but it was definitely noticeable when observing the sword as he raised the tip to his eye level.

"My blade..." he whispered. He was speechless. The same could not be said of his Vanguard.

It felt like a bunch of vipers and worms were crawling through Céri's neck. The feeling quickly rushed to the rest of his body. His muscles convulsed, especially in his hands and feet. When he managed to lift up his right hand to eye level, it seemed a lot more... orange... and cylindrical.

"What in tarnation is going on?"

Céri slapped what remained of his hands against his mouth at the sudden tone shift. Very shortly, he could see a sort of round protrusion growing out of his face. His jaws and nose ached the whole time. He tried looking down and around at himself. Too distracted to realize that his neck was turning way further than what should have been possible, he saw that his legs and feet had met a similar fate as his hands.

Some long, blonde hairs were flowing out. One of the invisible vipers had nabbed his spine and pulled it out further. More of the blonde fibers grew out into what could have been a tail. On top of everything else, he realized that his pants and shoes had vanished. The only clothing that remained and was somehow fitting his body's new shape consisted of his jacket and the Gauntlet Thorns on his right wrist.

"What the actual buck?" He grunted. "And why can't I talk without sounding like somebody from East Texas?"

She felt one more tingling feeling down where her hips used to be. Chancing a look at the left, it appeared to be an image of three red apples, flatly integrated on her new hide of orange. She looked up at the dumbstruck Blaster Dark.

"That's... that's... wow..."

It was unsettling to Céri, having never seen Anakin at a complete loss of words. She shivered despite having all of this new hair to cover her... everything. Come to think of it, hadn't she seen something close to this coloration and build before? She fumbled through the jacket pockets with her left hoof, somehow keeping her balance while standing on the other three. Eventually, she pulled out Courtney's statuette 'key'. The pony that was all scrunched up to kick behind her was a dead ringer for Céri's current visage.

"Okay... this is just getting weird."

She shoved the trophy back into her pocket. Her tail involuntarily wrapped around her left hind leg with tension. She felt something flop down atop her head. Were those her ears? All of these new sensations were alien to her.

Out of curiosity, she tried standing up on her hind legs. She kind of held in place, but it felt as unstable as standing on one leg would be normally. Using that short window of time, she reached up her front hooves and tried to pull the necklace off. Strangely enough she could feel something in those limbs grasping. However, the necklace seemed quite content to hold around her neck and refused to budge any more than a millimeter in any given direction.

"Nuts and shoots." She fell back to all fours. "I guess I'm stuck like this for a while." She craned her neck again. "Hey, Anakin, would you mind squatting for a bit?"

"Uh, sure."

Blaster Dark bent his knees, bringing him lower to the ground. Céri still had to look up slightly, but at least she didn't have to stare at the ceiling just to give a simple order. Come to think of it, how would this interfere with summoning her other Units? She shuffled her hoof around her right-hoof side pocket and brought out the cards again.

"Stand up! Frontline Revenger, Claudas!"

Claudas the young lancer appeared in a glow of purple. He looked around and let out a grunt of confusion. Though, he eventually spotted his leader all the way on the floor. Unlike the confused Anakin, Claudas simply stared at Céri with expectation.

She sighed in relief. "At least that still works." She smiled gently at her Shadow Paladin starter Unit. "Alright, get along now."

The Unit nodded once before returning to his card.

"You should probably head back as well, Anakin," Céri insisted. "Unless you have any ideas about getting me back to normal?"

"As you wish, my Vanguard." The purple particles took the Unit back to the special Grade 2 card.

Céri once again found herself alone in the barn. Only this time, she was trapped in the form of a pony... all because of a stubborn necklace that wouldn't come off. She sighed, figuring she might as well wait around for the other displaced person to show up and possibly help her out. She trotted around a bit, quickly growing accustomed to the four-legged motions. She even leaned down and lapped up some of the water in the trough.

A sudden burst of magenta light was coupled with an explosion behind her. The noise alone startled her enough to leap in a one-eighty. She could have sworn that she let out a whinny during the jump. Her ears stood up straight and her eyes went wide.

What she saw was a pony that kind of reminded her of Starlight Glimmer. The newcomer had a horn and it stopped glowing as if finishing its spell. This unicorn was lavender and had a magenta highlight against her otherwise violet mane. Though, it struck Céri as odd that there were stray hairs sticking up from this pony's mane and that the eyes were so bloodshot.

"Uh... are you alri-"

"Applejack!" exclaimed the unicorn, trotting up so that her face was right in front of the earth pony's. "It's good to see you... again."

Céri shook her head. "Who are you?"

The sleep-deprived smile briefly left the unicorn's face. She turned around, revealing the red and white stars on her hips.

"She doesn't 'remember' me," she muttered. "Stupid part of the spell didn't work right."

Céri squinted in suspicion. "I beg your pardon? What spell?" She gasped, glanced at the necklace, and then looked at the unicorn again. "Are you the one that did this to me?"

The forcibly transformed pony soon found that she couldn't feel her own weight. She could barely move anything of her own will as she was lifted inches off the floor. She strained her eyes to see that the unicorn's horn was glowing a vibrant red.

"Oh, don't worry about a thing, AJ," insisted the unicorn. Her mischievous smile returned in full. "Let's just head out for now and we'll see the rest of our friends really soon. Doesn't that sound fun?! Ha ha ha ha!"

Despite the barn's warmth, Céri felt as though her blood went ice cold. She had heard that evil laugh before. It was just before Yoko Kurama had shoved him back into his own version of Equestria. This pony... in that other world, she was...

She whispered, "Midnight Sparkle."

The unicorn looked smiled even wider. "So you do remember me... kind of. That's wonderful! Let's just jog your memory a little more."

"Wait! What's that supposed to mean?" Céri struggled fruitlessly. "Put me down!"

Two simultaneous flashes of light removed them from the barn. The only sign that anyone had been in there was the opened box, the unfolded letter, and the slightly emptier water trough.

---

After a brief moment of seeing nothing but magenta light, Céri opened her eyes to the new surroundings. Dusty, worn bookshelves surrounded her. Up above, the wooden structure looked like it had a really old hole in its roof. The only thing protecting the place from the forces of nature was a magic bubble of similar coloration to the aura that was currently suspending her off the floor.

"Where-" Céri gasped at the sight over toward the middle of the room.

Four other ponies of various colors were strapped to a chair. The bindings were made of some metal and restricted motion of their hind legs, their waists, and the pegasi's wings. Upon a harder look, Céri could see that each of them was wearing a golden necklace similar to the one stuck to her neck.

Only two chairs remained. Against her will, Céri was slowly floating toward the fifth chair with bindings. Meanwhile, the crazy unicorn was humming some nonsensical tune while trotting over to the plain chair. Her grunting and squirming captive didn't deter the tune as the bindings were fully applied to match her other "friends".

"Dag nab it!" Céri exclaimed.

"Hi..." The cyan pegasus with a red lightning bolt necklace said with a shameful look on her face. "Welcome to the losers' circle."

"Oh, you're so silly, Dash." The alleged Midnight Sparkle giggled. "You know jokes are Pinkie Pie's thing."

"I still think it's kind of racist for you to call me that," insisted the pink pony. Her voice sounded way too peppy for such a disgruntled statement.

"Well, you yourself insisted that it was easier than Pinkamena," said Sparkle as her eye twitched.

"Alright, now I know you are making those names up as you go." The bound unicorn crossed her front hooves.

"There is nothing you could possibly gain by chaining us down like this." The other pegasus grunted. "I demand a lawyer!"

"That's nice, Fluttershy," said Sparkle dismissively.

"Quit calling me that!"

"Hold up," interrupted Céri, lifting a front hoof. "Just to make sure I'm up to speed, all of us are not the ponies that this lady thinks we are. Rather, we all got forcibly transformed into their forms by these irremovable necklace do-hickeys. To top it all off, she's trying to insist that all of us are her friends and she keeps calling us by specific names."

"That's about it in a peanut shell." 'Pinkie Pie' nodded.

"Fat lot of good knowing that will do you," remarked 'Dash'.

Sparkle chuckled insanely. "Oh, Applejack... always the level-headed one. That's why you're the only other pony I'd ever trust to lead our special herd."

"But I ain't Applejack," insisted Céri. "I'm-"

All of a sudden, she found herself unable to complete her thought. Sparkle had magically thrown an apple against the transformed mare's mouth. Céri grunted, turned her head, and spat the intrusive fruit to the side.

"Don't bother, darling," said the bound unicorn with a sigh. "She does that every time one of us tries to say our real names."

"But we have to convince her to change us back!" insisted 'Pinkie'. "We have to!"

"Why would I change you again?" Sparkle smiled while rubbing one hoof over the other. "You're already exactly the way you're supposed to be. Hee-hee-hee."

She's not listening to reason, thought Céri. She ain't seeing... the truth... Wait a minute.

Using a free hoof, she shuffled through her jacket pocket. Her ears perked up as she pulled out the pair of shades. She put the lenses over her eyes and tapped the side of the frame.

"What's with the sunglasses?" wondered 'Dash'.

"Come forth, Jiraiya!" Céri's glasses briefly twinkled.

"You rang, partner?"

In just a blink of an eye's time, Shadow Yosuke was standing on top of the center of the table. He pulled down his headphones so that they were around his neck instead of on his ears. He smirked as he crossed his arms. Though, that immediately switched to a befuddled expression as he looked around.

"Wait, I thought for sure I heard his voice. So where...?"

"Down here, Yosuke!"

Upon hearing that exclamation, the Shadow turned his golden gaze toward the orange pony with shades and a jacket.

"Wow, Céri." Yosuke chuckled. "You kind of... let yourself go since I last saw you."

Céri groaned and rolled her eyes. "Yeah, sure. Throw a 'fat' joke in. Why not?"

"Applejack, who is this?" asked Sparkle with a cold, warning tone.

"I take it your new looks weren't by choice," commented the teen.

"You reckoned right," replied Céri. "Somehow she magicked this here necklace along with four others to change these other people and myself into ponies that she claims are her friends."

"Hey, don't ignore me when I'm asking you a question!" demanded Sparkle.

"And you can't get them off by conventional means," finished Yosuke.

"Eeyup."

"Well, then..." The Shadow smirked. "Let me have a few words with the warden." He turned to the only free unicorn in the room. "Twilight Sparkle, I presume?"

"Oh... good... you know me." Sparkle's voice seemed way too calm for her earlier frustrations to match. "But that still doesn't answer my question: Who in Celestia's name are you... and why are you here?"

Shadow Yosuke pulled out something from a pocket on either side of him. Each of these things made a windy noise as it spun through the air. After that, he caught both of the kunai and he spun around. When all that was done, he was standing in a stance ready for a battle.

"Why waste either of our times with boring introductions?" he asked. "Let's get to the good stuff. You let these fine gentlemen and/or ladies free, change them back to themselves, and then we can have a proper chat without anyone getting hurt." He took a step toward the unicorn to which he was talking. "Or do you think you can keep me entertained with a fight before I eventually force you to do that anyway?"

Right as he finished saying that, a light red aura surrounded Yosuke. Sparkle looked a bit disappointed as she magically tossed the intruder against an empty bookcase behind her. The Shadow let out a garbled yelp before sliding to the floor onto his rear. At that point, Sparkle had gotten out of her seat and was staring at the man with her full attention.

"You honestly think you can hurt me?" She scoffed. "I've got the magic of my friends on my side."

"We don't even know you, bikkhe," grumbled 'Fluttershy'.

'Rarity' raised her brow. "What the devil is a 'bikkhe'?"

"Just replace it with another b-word... one that's meant for dogs."

"Oooo. You're good." 'Pinkie' squinted.

During the peanut gallery's quips, Yosuke slowly rose back onto his feet. He shook his head and adjusted his headphones.

"This might be more fun than I expected." He chuckled.

"Fight!" 'Dash' pumped her hoof.

"Time for The Magician to fight the magician." Shadow Yosuke swiped his card. "Persona!"

The ninja of toads rose up and towered over the unicorn. She retorted by firing a few small spell beams. Jiraiya blocked the attacks with his giant shuriken. At the same time, Yosuke ran over and swung one of his kunai down. Sparkle teleported away just in time for the knife to impale nothing but her chair.

Appearing a few feet away, Sparkle attempted to focus her magical aura all around the Persona. Though, she looked like she was straining as Jiraiya barely moved a few inches. Her complete toss of him looked like a slow motion movie. At a similar pace, Yosuke was also forced to float through the air. Both the Shadow and the extension of himself landed on their backs.

Sparkle was sweating bullets and panting like an exhausted dog. Shadow Yosuke grunted as he managed to at least get up to his knees. The unicorn's eyes glowed brightly as she focused a pool of magic into one large beam of magenta. That was when a surge of red crossed Yosuke's face.

"Blow 'er away!"

In a way that shouldn't have been possible, Jiraiya blew a strong, green current from his nonexistent mouth. The air in front of him spun around into a tornado that rose as high as the pseudo-roof's magic bubble. It drew Sparkle's beam in, spun it around, and fired it back at her all within the same second.

She screamed upon getting hit. The force launched her against a bookshelf and broke the old wood into a pile of splinters. Yosuke stood up and wiped his mouth against his sleeve.

"Go, Jiraiya."

The Persona made five big swings with its weapons. The motion was enough to break the bindings off the five captive ponies. All of them stretched to work out the aches.

"It's about darn time." 'Rarity' whipped her hair back.

"That was craze-amazing!" hollered 'Fluttershy'.

Céri sighed and looked at her summoned help. "Thanks, Yosuke."

"Don't mention it, partner." He stowed his knives away and walked over to the collapsed bookshelf. "So... are you going to answer some questions, or should I show you the makings of the rest of your house?"

There was a high-pitched moan as the lavender unicorn lifted her head. Her mane looked a lot messier than when Céri had met her earlier. Though, any injuries weren't what drew the attention of the rest of the room's occupants. What stood out were some fresh tears pooling out of her eyes.

"I just..." Sparkle sniffed. "... wanted... my friends back... Is that... too much... to ask?"

"Well, you kind of kidnapped all of us, held us hostage, and tried to induce brainwashing. Granted, that last one wasn't very successful, but the bad intent was still there."

Everyone looked at 'Pinkie Pie', mostly with degrees of bafflement.

"Ugh." She put a hoof against her face. "I swear that this pony mouth says things faster than I can even comprehend it."

"You do have a point though," said Céri to 'Pinkie' before turning to look at Sparkle. "Why'd you have to grab us and change us? Why couldn't you just go find your real friends?"

Sparkle looked at the floor in defeat. "Because... over five years ago... they died."

The room went silent... for about five seconds.

"How unexpected," commented Yosuke. "And by unexpected, I mean completely expected."

"That still doesn't justify anything you've done!" yelled 'Dash'.

Sparkle averted her eyes. "What else am I supposed to do?"

Céri rubbed the underside of her muzzle in thought. After a bit of that, she unzipped her jacket and took it off, while also stowing her sunglasses away. She held up the jacket to the only humanoid in the room.

"Hold this for a minute, please."

"Uh, sure... wait, why?" Yosuke held the jacket, yet tilted his head in confusion.

But Céri was already trotting over to the crying unicorn. She put a hoof up to Sparkle's side. The soft contact caused the sad little girl to look up in surprise.

"What else can you do? I'll tell you what you gotta do: Move on. I get it. Losing friends can be a sad thing. But you can't dwell on the past and force expectations upon a bunch of new ponies that you haven't even met yet. I'm not saying you should forget your old friends, but you should be willing to look at the new people you meet, get to know them, and befriend them as they are."

Sparkle's eyes shook at this little speech. "A.J. ..."

"Can you do that for me, sugar cube?" The orange and blonde pony smiled gently.

"Good lord, I'm going to throw up." 'Fluttershy' shook her head.

A moment of quiet passed... and another one... and another one... and another one. Finally, a small innocent smile worked its way onto the unicorn's face to reciprocate the image of her friend's.

"Okay," answered Twilight quietly.

She closed her eyes and faintly ignited her horn. Something unlatched, and the necklace with the orange apple fell to the ground. A few more clinks led to a necklace with a red lightning bolt, a blue balloon, a pink butterfly, and a purple diamond to hit the floor as well. Within a few seconds, Céri felt as though the skin vipers that had forced her into this form were retreating to their den.

He walked over and took hold of his jacket. "Thanks."

"Er... yeah." Shadow Yosuke scratched the back of his head. "Huh. Neat. You got your pants back."

"Oh, Ra's sake..." A restored gryphon stretched out his claws. "That was messed up."

"That was rather crazy," said a tall guy in swim trunks. "Let's never do that again."

"Well, it wasn't fun and as far as I care, it wasn't real." A changeling spat to the side.

"Whew, that was exhausting." A small dragoness panted. "I had no idea talking could be so tiresome."

"I'm sorry for holding you down against your will," said Twilight. "Here, I can send you all back to where you came from."

Her horn glowed gently and released another spell. Four consecutive flashes removed the creatures out of this world's existence. However, the card fighter and the Shadow remained.

"Huh?" The unicorn massaged her head with one hoof. "Why didn't it send you back as well?"

"Well, I got called here by Céri," pointed out Yosuke, "so I don't know when I'll actually get back to home base."

"And I still have yet to find the displaced person that called me to this world in the first place," explained Céri.

Twilight blinked. "What do you mean by 'displaced'?"

At that moment, Shadow Yosuke looked like he was melting into a red puddle. Soon after, a bunch of yellow particles rose up in a flurry of lights. Céri fought to contain whatever was still in his stomach from dinner. Whatever was in there, it briefly burned his esophagus until he could take multiple short breaths to calm down.

"Um... alright... that'll keep me awake for the next month," he muttered. "So, uh... A displaced person is what the victims of a con-merchant have taken to calling each other. Long story short, we all ended up in different versions of a world called Equestria and we're trying to find each others' keys to figure out a way to get home."

There was a sound of a fuse shorting out. Twilight's irises shrank to pinpricks as she stared straight ahead. Immediately, she closed her eyes and held both of her front hooves against her head. Her teeth grit as she grunted in all sorts of pain.

"What is... why... so familiar... ah?" Her words were a jumbled mess.

Céri ran over and knelt down. He tried to reach out a hand and calm her. However, a sudden ball of magenta light formed around Twilight's horn. Her eyes opened as solid white. The card fighter panicked and pulled out a defense.

"Grim Revenger! Guard!"

Just as the blinding burst spread out, a Shadow Paladin with purple-feathered wings swooped down. He and his Vanguard held out against an explosion that really shook the force field outside. As the Grade 0 Unit faded back to his card, Céri chanced a look at the epicenter. He gasped when he saw what had become of Twilight.

The unicorn was now adorned with a school uniform of a rustic era. She also wore a pair of glasses that rested just underneath where here eyes were visible. Her hooves were all back on the ground, supporting her. Her expression was... unreadable.

"Data corruption removed," she said monotonously. "Mission details backed up and restored. Welcome, User Céri Dylanson."

Céri stood up and took one step back. "What in the Void just happened?"
---

Author's Note:

Wait...
That wasn't in the script.