Searching for Six Ponies (And Discord if I Feel Like It)

by Coltsguy

Cool Dudes and Creepy Ponies

This was straight up unknown territory for me.

Well, I'm not sure I should go that far, but it's definitely something I had no idea about. There was a human here in Equestria who was being escorted by Twilight Sparkle. As I followed them, they seemed pretty casual as they stopped or slowed down to look at some building or another. I had no idea where I was in relation to fanfiction universes. It was probably a self insert. If so, I didn't blame them. Sometimes it felt as though I was stuck in some sort of self insert type of situation myself. Who knows? Maybe that's what I am. It's all an existential nightmare. Well, it doesn't actually matter. I'm fat which means I'm not a Gary Stu, so as far as I'm concerned I could screw up and die pretty easily if I become an idiot. It's nearly happened several times already.

I shook off that line of thought just in time. Twilight and the mystery man split off from each other and Twilight headed towards a large brick building. From the way it looked, I had no doubt that it was a library.

"That is so Twilight," I whispered to myself.

I took a second to decide if I should follow Twilight and get some help from her, or to follow the mystery man. It was a split second decision.

I followed the mystery man. If this is a self insert then he's probably the only human she's ever seen. Seeing another would mess up the timeline and I didn't want that. Yeah, it seemed stupid, but I'd like to think that I had standards somewhere deep down inside under all the craziness and fat. Hey, did I mention how fat I was? Yes? Just checking.

I kept following the mystery man. He seemed to take his time looking over the various stalls that he walked past with little interest. I noticed one of the things he looked at was some pies that were colored pink. What was up with that? Did they just decide to go overboard with the food coloring?

Whoops. I almost lost him as he seemed to pick up his pace all of a sudden. It was still a brisk walk, but I had to be careful of running into the ponies. I was still invisible after all.

He reached the back of some tent and seemed to stare at it for a few moments. Why though? It didn't seem that special. Maybe he saw something I didn't. He kept walking around the tent and I kept a short distance behind him. As I spotted him again, he was speaking to a blue unicorn in a top hat. I couldn't quite tell what they were saying, but it didn't really seem that interesting. After a short conversation, the two of them headed into the tent.

I was a bit concerned about missing something important, so I decided to follow them into the tent. It was pretty plain in there. Not to mention cramped. Just a cot, a chest, and a desk that I could see and even that stuff took up a great deal of space. I ducked into a corner as the unicorn opened up that chest. The fancy unicorn looked around in the chest for a bit. It seemed longer than it should have for a chest that size. Then again, maybe he had a bunch of similar items and was making sure that he got the correct one.

I was also struck by the clothing that the unicorn wore. I guess that was mainly because I rarely saw ponies wearing clothing. He seemed pretty regal looking with his top hat. He also was wearing a fancy black vest over a deep red undershirt. The rolled up sleeves seemed to change up the look slightly, though.

"Here we are!" exclaimed the unicorn.

I watched as he pulled out a small purple crystal. It looked a bit chipped up like it had been passed around many times before. It did seem to give off a strange faint glow. I guess that was kind of cool. Other than that, it didn't really seem impressive.

"What is it?" the man asked.

"This is Arcadium," said the unicorn, "one of the most powerful, naturally-occurring substances found in Equestria. It holds great power, and can be used to power generators, create chemical substances, and," he paused as he shifted his gaze directly to the man's eyes, "to fuel spells."

The man seemed to grow a little leery of the unicorn at that. I could only figure that the man had to be a mage of some sort to react like that. That's pretty cool. He was just like me. I wonder what kind of magic he used?

"Is something the matter?" asked the unicorn.

I came back to the present and noticed that the look on the man's face had changed to barely contained shock. He then shook his head almost violently.

"No! Uh, no. There's no matter. Hah!" he laughed a little while throwing his arms up defensively. "What are you talking about?"

He then chuckled a little as he moved his hands behind his head. Wow, that was lame. I wonder what that unicorn will ask about first?

"Alright then. So, are you interested in this?" the unicorn said as he held up the glowing crystal.

What? What just happened?

"Um, yeah. Sounds good. How much?" the man asked.

Yeah, this guy must have some mind mojo. That's pretty cool.

"Well . . ." the unicorn brought it to his face for closer inspection. "This one only has a few charges in it, plus a few nicks on the sides. I'll put it at about 10 bits." he said before setting it down on the desk.

That's pretty decent. At least I think so. I forgot how much a bit was worth. I remember an apple was worth two bits and a bunch of celery was worth three bits.

"10 bits. Alright."

The man reached into a small bag and pulled out a handful of bits. He then placed the bits on a desk next to the crystal. The bits were then levitated in a green glow and placed into a small jar nearby.

Wait. A green glow? The unicorn was blue. Shouldn't the aura of his magic be blue? Maybe there was something else going on to make this go so smoothly.

"Thank you, come again!" the unicorn said in a happy tone.

"Thanks," the man said as he grabbed the crystal and put it in his backpack.

Wait. There was no shift in the backpack. Me and my little nitpicks paid off. When he placed the crystal in his bag, it didn't shift at all from it being placed in there. Was that a magic bag of holding? That is so cool.

I watched as he left the tent and waited a few seconds before going after him.

"Perhaps you would like one of those as well?"

I turned and noticed the unicorn had gotten a few inches from me and was staring straight up into my face from where he stood. Needless to say, I was pretty surprised.

"How the hell can you see me?"

"Oh, I have my ways. It is quite the impressive spell, though. I'm not surprised that he didn't sense you at all," the unicorn said rather whimsically.

"Well, I need to keep an eye on him. Perhaps I'll see about getting something later?"

"Perhaps you will. Later it is then," he said with a knowing smile as he strode out of the tent.

I nodded and exited the tent behind him. As I watched him already conversing with a brownish gold colored unicorn, I looked around to see where the man went. I couldn't see him, but the looks on the faces of some of the ponies helped me determine where he went. I then went off in that direction. A minute passed and I spotted him again.

It seemed he was headed back the way he came. He was probably on his way back to meet up with Twilight. That seemed to be a pretty short trip. Maybe he just spent all the money he had. That sounded logical. No more money means no more shopping.

A few minutes later and he was back at the library. Instead of waiting outside, he headed into the library. I decided to wait outside this time. After my last little trip, it was better to stay out of the way.

A few more minutes and the two of them headed out of the library together. By the time they walked past me, all I could hear was the word furniture.

'So, it seems that he's going to be here a while. You don't pick up furniture on a whim after all.'

I was so wrapped up that I accidentally ran into a pony while following them.

"What where you're go...what?"

Odd. It was the same unicorn that was in front of the tent I was at. It seemed she had her bags full of items now. Her cutie mark was a couple of gears interlocked together. With her coat that color, I wouldn't be surprised if her name was something like 'Bronze Gear' or close to it.

"Sorry about that," I said out loud; forgetting for a second that I was still invisible.

She jumped a little and looked around for the source of the voice. I smacked the side of my head when I remembered that I was still invisible. Luckily, nothing had fallen out of her bag and she assumed it was a pony so with my apology, I went back to following my two targets.

I still don't know why, though. It was as though his very presence seemed to make me follow him. Some kind of charisma perhaps? It might explain the cheap price back at that tent.

I found the two of them once again. They hadn't gotten far. They were now inside a store. It was a furniture store, of course, and they were busy talking with a stallion about, what else, furniture.

I couldn't tell what they were saying. That is, until the screaming started. The man slammed his fist down on a desk and I was able to hear from then.

"70 bits for a crappy sofa?! That's outrageous!"

"70 bits is where it's at, 70 bits is where it stays!" the shopkeeper yelled back, slightly leaning toward the man's face.

"It's a rip-off! I demand a lower price!" he yelled back angrily while leaning in towards the shopkeeper.

"Well you're not getting anything lower! Deal with it!" he yelled as he leaned closer as well.

"Maybe I won't!" the man yelled getting closer and closer.

"Then get out of my shop!" screamed the store owner. By now both of their heads were touching and I secretly wondered if this was going to turn a little violent. I hoped not. Equestria and violence just don't go together well.

"Mares, mares, you're both pretty. Can we just get a sofa and go?" Twilight interjected forcefully.

I laughed at that pretty hard. Not loud enough for them to hear me, but loud enough to have some of the ponies stop what they were doing momentarily to see where that was coming from. I calmed myself down and looked back at the two of them.

They were now walking out of the store. It seems that they didn't get anything.

"Wait!" yelled the shopkeeper.

The two of them smiled. It was that knowing smile that said they had just nailed the guy. They then donned their unamused looks, turned back around, and walked back into the shop.

'Nice going you two. There sure is a shark hidden in this Twilight. I am impressed by this guy. He seems pretty awesome. Maybe a gift is in order? No, I can't do that. My spells wear off as soon as I leave this dimension. Not to mention the fact that it could very well mess up the timeline. Then again, this is most likely a self insert. I doubt it will mess things up anyway.'

I then watched as the man levitated a sofa out of the store. Wow, that was a really nice sofa. I'm pretty envious that he could get a sofa like that. Was that crushed velvet? Okay, I'm really jealous...and really confused. You know, it's sometimes better not to think about these things.

Hah! Now he's spinning the thing around. He must be pretty bored. I know I was starting to get that way.

'Perhaps I should think about what I want to give him. Dang it, I can't just give it to him. The ponies will notice that for sure. Besides, there is still the problem of it disappearing when I leave. If he put his own magic into it, I bet it would align itself to here, though. Or I could just be talking out of my ass about stuff I just don't know about.

'Wait a second. That bag of his. His bag holds things in another dimension entirely. If it's separated from this one, then anything I put in it wouldn't disappear when I left. This might actually work!

'Now then, what to get him? A razor maybe? Hah! I'm not one to say anything about that with my unkempt beard.'

I looked closely at him as he went to the rear car of a train they were in. Wait, were they heading back to Ponyville on that train? Crap. I can't just keep following him all the time. I have to find Rarity. About the time that he left the back car, I went to the side of a building where no one could see me and dropped my invisibility spell. I heard a noise and looked over to where he went.

He was looking around a bit suspiciously while between cars. Damn, he can sense my magic! I grabbed the coin and took a look at it. I was immediately not happy with that either.

Somehow, there were two points of light on the coin and they were now on the blank side of the coin. The hell?

I reactivated my invisibility spell as quickly as possible. The man seemed to look confused for a second, then simply shrugged and started back to the front.

That was too close. He can sense my magic. I'm not sure how far that radius extends, but it is at least seventy-five feet since that was how far away he was. That wasn't really the issue, though.

The problem I had right now was that the coin has changed up it's M.O. Before I left, there was only one point of light on the coin. That point was Rarity's cutie mark symbol on the coin. It glowed to signify that she was in this rift. Now, there were two points of light and the were both coming from the other side of the coin.

Then it clicked. There were two Rarity's in this universe now. The coin identifies the real Rarity, but both of them are the real Rarity and it's confusing the coin. Now, it has made two points to compensate for the confusion.

"I guess I'm taking the train with them. I need to make sure that the Rarity in this direction isn't the Rarity I'm looking for."

Author's Note:

A quick note: If anything doesn't gel properly with the original story by Sandcroft, tell me because I'll need to fix it. My story's theme is all about predestination. I can't mess that up.

Comments

[Lucien Chance]

I feel as if I should post some witty comment about how Lucien and Sandcroft are all cool and stuff, but I really just can't stop grinning like an idiot.